Friday Night Flights

We have been Whole Foods junkies lately. Right before the holidays, Warren and I were busy getting ready for our Christmas party, had both worked late, etc. I picked Roman up and decided to get takeout. However, I have giant child that refuses to be held and is a pretty big turd about holding hands when he walks on his own.
Oh and by the way we don't eat fast food. Ever. (Exceptions: Qdoba and Panera, if you consider that fast food.)

I really wanted Qdoba, but I knew little man couldn't (wouldn't) stand in line with me. Aha! Whole Foods! The hot bar! I pulled in, restrained put Roman in a cart, and when I got inside it was even better.
I discovered "Family Night". You get an adult meal for $5.99 and with one adult purchase, a kids meal is free! So this is our new staple. We've had Mexican, Stir Fry, and Pasta so far. It's fab!

After discovering our newfound love, we decided to try Friday Night Flights. $5 for 5 beer and app pairings.

It was a very fun family date night! Going back next week with Team Lant.

Why Running With My Bestie is Awesome

As part of my aforementioned campaign to "tighten", I went running this week with my best friend. If I have never mentioned this on the blog before, Ashley and I have been BFF since the first day of sixth grade. That makes 17 years, if you're counting. At this point in our relationship, we laugh as much as ever, are much crabbier, and are wholly unconditional. We are each other's family.
Which makes us sound orphanish.
Which we're not; we both have lovely families.
Anyways!
I'm just trying to say we're still and always best of friends. Oh and we live on the same street. We are living the bestie dream.

Now, back to running. I used to run. I used to LIKE to run. I ran the mini marathon.
Then I became a pregnant blob.
JK, seriously, I really hurt my knees running in the mini. I quit running for a long time after that, but still exercised. THEN I got pregnant and turned into a blob!
After Roman was born and still now two years later, I am a busybody, thank goodness, but I suck at exercising.

Ashley is training for the marathon. No I did not leave out "mini" on accident. The MARATHON. So she's all like, "Do you want to go running with me?"

So I did.

And here is why Running With My Bestie is Awesome:
1. She has so much faith in me. She was all like, "You'll be fine. You've always been a good runner. You were always better than me." and "I told Jeremiah [her hubster] that you would probably just come sprinting out of the gate." I didn't. But she thought I might've which makes all the difference.
2. She had been well practiced in 17 years in knowing I pay little attention to my surroundings. She gives me lots of instructions like "Car!", "A car is coming!",  "Get over! Car!", "Don't get hit by that car!", and  "CAR!!!" Who knows how many times she has saved my life.
And if you're are wondering, yes, she puts her hand in front of me like a mom with a kid in the front seat.
3. She doesn't care if I don't (can't) talk back.

Happy Belated New Year!

Ok so 12 days in to 2013, I am going to make an attempt to return to the blogging world. I have lots to say and share and I figure I should get with the program. I know at least my dad will be happy, as I think he is the only person who reads this anyways.

Of course I am obliged in my New Years post to discuss my resolutions for the year ahead. Just like everyone else in the country I want to get fit. The only significance this has for me is that I ALWAYS want to lose weight and I am finally beyond that. I currently weigh about seven pounds less than when I got pregnant. If I lost weight, that would be fab, but its not my goal anymore. I need to, as said in Knocked Up, "tighten up". To start this, I am starting small by trying to run 1x per week and do yoga 1x per week. Baby steps.
My next goal for the year is to pass my National Boards. It sucks and is taking over my life, but the money will be worth it.
I also want to take more trips. Like little ones.
And finally the big ugly monster of being more responsible financially. Student loans and childcare definitely throw a wrench into this, but my Target problem doesn't help. "Oh! It's in the dollar bin. I'll take thirty."

Last but not least, a little family update since I quit my blog for-ev-er ago:
DH started of the year with a big disappointment when last week he found out he did not get a new better job (still at Baptist East) that he was up for. Wee are still mourning that one.
Little Man is approaching two, attending Friends School with the most precious preschool teacher ever, Martha, and in general just being wild and crazy and adorbs.
The grandparents are all about the same. My MIL painted the governor this past year and I went to the unveiling and chatted it up with ol' Steve.
My grandmother passed away in August and my nana, who practically raised me, had a bad fall Thanksgiving weekend, spent about a month in the hospital, and is now in a rehab facility.

P.S. Whoops! Didn't mean to end on such a sad note!

Classroom Tour

Paint

Well this is awufl, but these are the last photos I took. The house looks totally different now. The crown is up, the cabinets are in, the bookcases are in, etc. I will try to update my photos this weekend! But this was last weekend...

playroom meeting dining room

living room and kitchen

upstairs hall

Our Childcare Journey

So I hadn't really gotten to share this...


I left off my story at us searching for a nanny. We had over 70 applicants to our posts on care.com and sittercity.com. Most of them worthless. It began with Nanny 1. Nanny 1 had great credentials but signed her emails "Ms. ____" which I already didn't like. I do not want grownups to refer to themselves that way to other grownups. Anyways, I already held my grudge and then Nanny 1 came in a smelled like smoke. She could have just turned around and walked right back out. (and yes, her profile said non smoker)


I loved Nanny 2. Nanny 2 was a few years younger than me, engaged, and had a 15 month old girl. We sat and talked to Nanny 2 for hours. When Nanny 2 left, I realized I wanted to be friends with Nanny 2, not hire her.


In the background of all this, there was Nanny 3. Nanny 3 wrote the most eloquent emails I have ever read. She was educated, retired, and away from her own grandkids. Perfect. I was DYING to meet Nanny 3. When I did, I was disappointed. Nanny 3 was very sweet but quite overweight. She could not get around very easily. Roman is wild now, I can't imagine in a short time when he can walk. My heart was broken that Nanny 3 did not live up to what I anticipated.


We had put a lot of stock in meeting Nanny 3. So we went back to the drawing board and interviewed Nanny 4. Nanny 4 originally wanted to watch kids in her own home, and then had written me back to tell me she had reconsidered. I LOVED Nanny 4. She was the whole package. A teacher, tired of teaching and financially able not to. Perky, warm, smart. Mother of a highschooler and college student. We offered Nanny 4 the job. She took a week to reply, only to say no, that she really just wanted to watch kids in her own home. REALLY?!?!?! Waste of time.


By the way this all took place over a month. Ugh.


So before Nanny 1, before before Nanny 1,my friend Elizabeth had said her friend was a nanny. She, now referred to as Nanny 5, has a son that is four months older than Roman. That made me very nervous and not very interested. Then, I honestly had forgotten about it. So Elizabeth reminded me and since nothing else had worked out, I made plans to interview Nanny 5 after our vacation.


While on vacation, hippie daycare called. They informed me of progress and I began to reconsider them. The money being one big reason. After vacation, we interviewed Nanny 5. I really liked Nanny 5, but I could not get over her son. And I was reconsidering having a nanny at all for financial reasons. I asked Nanny 5 if she would watch Roman until the hippie daycare opened. She had been offered another job and didn't want ours if it had the potential of ending in a matter of weeks. Fair enough.


That week I started working whenever I had someone to watch Roman. I spent Wednesday at home in tears most of the day. I had let myself be convinced that I could live with him going to Baptist East daycare until the hippie daycare opened. I guess I convinced myself. The entire day of crying and depression didn't seem very convincing. The next morning Elizabeth watched Roman. I told her about our decision and she really made me reconsider. She reassured me about her friend (Nanny 5) and her son. She really helped me see things clearly. I talked with friends and family and the load already began to lighten. I called and hired Nanny 5, LINDSEY, that night. That evening was filled with more smiling and laughter than Warren and I had seen out of each other for days.


So Lindsey started last week and things have been great! It is so relieving to have someone I trust and feel comfortable with watching Roman.

Big Scare

I am sure it is obvious by my lack of posting, but I went back to work. School hasn't started, and actually our first day tomorrow has already been cancelled due to power outages, but I have spent the past two weeks working in my room. This was my last weekend of freedom and when it began Friday night with Mad Men and enchiladas, I could never have guessed what was about to happen. We woke up at 3:30 am Friday night/Saturday morning depending on how you look at it. Roman was tossing and turning and being disruptive to our sleep. Warren kind of sat up and said his heart was "doing that thing again". About two years ago, after a (very) fun Halloween night, Warren woke up and his heartbeat was racing and irregular. It went away, no worries. It happened maybe two other times. After a Christmas party and after 4th of July. You can connect the dots here. However, us staying in with our five month old watching Netflix isn't exactly a crazy party. Usually :) This time was different; I could SEE his heart going crazy in his chest. Warren decided to go to the hospital. He does, after all, work in CARDIAC rehab at Baptist East. So we went, I stayed home with Roman.
He called around 6:00 to say he had been admitted. His heart was in A-Fib. Google it, I can't explain it. I got to the hospital around 9:00 and it was pretty uneventful. Finally around 1:30 he went into sinus (?), a.k.a. things went back to normal. They did another EKG and an echocardiogram. Warren, or his coworkers, or my bf's mom, head of cardiovascular services knew his doctor and/or everyone doing the tests. Though Warren couldn't manage to finagle a private room as an employee. Anyways, it was the weekend, and things are slow, so he had to spend the night. Our lovely friends Matt, Elizabeth, and Jeremiah came to visit last night. I left to go home to the baby. Then, the on call cardiologist sent him home this morning. He will see Dr. Mandola (?) a physio-electro (I made that up) specialist. He specializes in the heart's electrical system. Until then he is on heart regulatory meds and blood thinners.
That's the story, morning glory. He's fine now, just tired from sharing a room with an old man that had to be checked on frequently. We'll have to wait to find out the whats and whys.