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And on a running note: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 I found this blog this week, and I totally have a girl-crush on her. Having caught the running bug, myself, I absolutely admire her goals, and even caught myself saying to Andrew this morning "Do you think I could run a marathon in all 50 states (well, 51, since my sole marathon completed was in DC) before I turned 50?" He blew me off, but how cool would that be? What is not cool, is planning things that involve me talking about being 50. Can you tell that 30 is sneaking up quickly on me? ~Courtney posted at 8:59:55 PM The birds ate my pumpkin seeds. Wednesday, April 29, 2009 If you've talked to Benjamin in the last 2 days, you'll likely already know this story, but birds ate our pumpkin sprouts. I checked them on Monday night, and was SO excited that they were already coming up. When Benjamin and I went to find them on Tuesday afternoon, all we found were a few little stubs. They were totally swiped! So, poor Benjamin has been a tad obsessed. Interactions today, went like this: Somebody: Hi, Benjamin! B, sadly: Hi, the birdies ate my pumpkin seeds. That birdie, up in the sky. He ate my pumpkin seeds, and now we go back to Home Depot to get more pumpkin seeds. So, alas. We're going to also get some mesh to cover them until they are a bit stronger. Those who have known me for a long time (thinking dad, mom and Emily, primarily) know that my thumbs are FAR from green, so it really was a bummer to have something that we worked on together, and even saw thriving, taken like that. On a plus note, tomatoes, peppers, basil and cilantro are all doing great! ~Courtney posted at 8:34:29 PM And on an ironic note... Monday, April 27, 2009 I ONLY bought that drugstore/aerosol sunscreen because I was feeling guilty about my Nordstrom/Kiehl's counter spending, and thought I'd try something cheaper. I could have bought a few bottles of Kiehl's natural stuff (read, no trip to the ER, and I probably would have laughed at him if he got that in his eyes, since it's super-natural) with my ER co-pay. ~Courtney posted at 10:02:06 PM All time low today... Monday, April 27, 2009 Ugh. The day started out great...Benjamin and I went for a long walk, finished up with grocery shopping and a quick walk home to get our purchases into the fridge. It wasn't too hot yet, so it was a great workout, and not overwhelming. When I got home, the keyboard on my blackberry/phone stopped working. It was acting totally wonky, so I told Benjamin we needed to go to the cell phone store. He was not pleased to ditch his toys, but I let him bring a can of tennis balls, and all was well. While stuck at a stoplight to turn left at a busy intersection, Benjamin screamed at the TOP of his lungs. I've never heard anything like it. What happened? He sprayed sunscreen (the aerosol kind) in his eye. I have NO clue how he a) got it off the counter, and b) got it into his car seat without me noticing, but alas, he did. He was just screaming "I can't see! My eye! Sunscreen in my eye! I can't see!" I freaked out. I read the back of the sunscreen, and realized that I needed to pull the car over and go back there with him, trying to get him to cry (why on earth wasn't he crying!?!); I go to call poison control. OH WAIT. I don't have a working phone. Normally, I would have called Andrew first, in a panic, and he would have talked me down, or told me what he thought I should do. If he didn't answer, I'd call my mom. I was all proud of myself for realizing I could just call poison control (our first call to them, too), and then, I couldn't! I didn't have water to flush it out. So, I did what any other out-of-her-mind-irrational mom would do...took him to the ER. I know, I know. TOTALLY overreacting, but he kept saying "I just can't see you mommy. I have sunscreen in my eye," and it freaked me out and we were 2 blocks from the hospital. So, they probaby thought I was crazy, but they flushed him out and did some litmus tests, as well as a U/V light test of his eyeball for scratches. He was a trooper and didn't cry once (again, who is this kid?). He got a Thomas sticker, we left, and went to the cell phone store. Of course, there was nothing they could do about it there, and sent me off to this place about 20 miles away. I can't wait for them to ship me a new phone (clearly, I am too dependent), so we planned to truck ourselves over there, and then I realized that the GPS was in Andrew's car. And that my cell phone's GPS was clearly not going to function. And then, ding ding ding ding ding, I realized the piece of paper with the address actually had directions. And I found the place. Without help. The morning ended well, because the cell phone place was close to Andrew's office, and we were able to (call him! and) convince him to come out to lunch with us. I was so exhausted by the time we got home that I spent the entirety of B's nap relaxing in the sun, on my new patio lounge chair...that was great. And now I need to go and set up my new blackberry so I have my google maps again. ~Courtney posted at 8:12:05 PM Hot diggity dog! Monday, April 27, 2009 We're firmly in the middle of our stretch of insanely busy weekends, but this one was truly a blast, and I remain a bit in shock at how quickly it all went by. Kathryn drove up from NC on Friday, and rolled into town at some point during Benjamin's nap. We went to this fantastic Mexican restaurant near our house. While waiting in line for a table, I realized that we were behind a bunch of people from Andrew's job in Colorado, including a family who we spent a fair amount of time with. One couple lives in the same town we do, and has been here since last August, the other (who have a son Benjamin's age) just closed on their new house, about 15 minutes away. It's slightly less random than it seems, because they are all still in the Air Force doing specialized things, so they'll bounce between 3-4 places as long as they stay in. Saturday started WAY too early, with a 5:45 alarm clock. Andrew ran in the Run Amuck 5K . He did great, and finished sub-28 minutes, even with hay barrels, lakes, and no shortage of mud along the course. We stayed and hung out for a few hours, and then headed back home in time for Benjamin's nap. We were shuttled there from a Metro parking garage, and Benjamin was REALLY excited about getting to ride on a school bus. It was quite cute. Saturday night, Kathryn babysat for Benjamin so we could go out with some friends. I haven't laughed as hard as I did at dinner in a really, really long time. My car spent the night in the parking garage, and we ended up in a cab that dropped us off sometime after 1 am. Benjamin's 6 am wakeup hit us like a ton of bricks. Kathryn rolled out mid-morning, and we just ran some errands, and did some work on the lawn all afternoon. I got a fantastic reclining chair for the patio, so I put on some SPF 30, and spent some quality time in the sun during naptime. Record highs are expected today, so we need to get moving on the list of things we NEED to get done before it gets too hot. I wish the pool was open already! I finally got Vicky, Christina Barcelona from Netflix, and really, really liked it. I think it inspired a Woody Allen phase, though. It's been awhile since I've watched some of my favorites of his. I have a bunch of pictures from this weekend, but I need to re-size them, so they'll come later. Happy Monday! ~Courtney posted at 8:22:09 AM Must.Get.Sleep Thursday, April 23, 2009 I haven't been sleeping very well lately, waking up multiple times per night, and then, Benjamin hasn't helped with his 5-5:30 am wakeups... Anyhow, the show must go on, so we've been plugging through our routine, and I've been taking a lot of naps (okay, I've taken one every day for 11 consecutive days). So today, we were out and about running some errands, and usually, I can rely on my sense of direction to help me get where I need to go. I turned left onto Fairfax County Parkway, and even though I didn't recognize ANY of the things I was seeing, I drove for 6 miles before I realized I was likely going in the wrong direction. You'd think the "7100 South" sign might have been an indicator, right? So, luckily, we made it home. And now we're going upstairs to nap. I am such a dip. ~Courtney posted at 1:28:01 PM Busy, busy, busy! Tuesday, April 21, 2009 Andrew and I sat down last night (actually, that's not true...it was discussed on a multi-tasking walk to get Benjamin dinner, get some fresh air, and burn some calories) to figure out our schedule for the next couple of months. So yeah, we've got SOMETHING on the agenda every weekend into July. How is that even possible? Not everything is major, so we do get to spend some weekends at home, but we've got 2 months of insanity ahead of us. This weekend marked the first, true weekend of Spring for us, weather-wise. It was in the 70s on both Saturday and Sunday, and the rain held off until Sunday evening. On Friday night, I went out to a tapas dinner with some of my new mom-friends. I slept horribly on Friday night, and was so tired when I woke up on Saturday morning, but the sunshine made it easy to get motivated. Benjamin and I went to pick up some papers from a friend, and ended up staying and playing for awhile. After that, we spent about an hour selecting appropriate plants in Home Depot, and then came home to work on planting our sunflowers, tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins and herbs. Andrew grilled up some food for lunch and dinner that day. Yum! We took Benjamin to Clemyjontri playground for a couple of hours that evening, and he ran around like a crazy man; it was fantastic!   On Sunday, I ran in a boring, grueling half-marathon. My pace was slower than my full marathon pace last month, but this was full of beastly hills, and it was 75 degrees with about 99.9% humidity. I was pooped by the end.  The rest of Saturday was pretty lame, but very relaxing. We have a full agenda of fun for this coming weekend, so I am wishing this week away so we can start the festivities! ~Courtney posted at 3:13:46 PM Spring Haiku Saturday, April 18, 2009 Heat, Home Depot, dirt Worms, seeds, tomatoes to grow Benjamin's garden. ~Courtney posted at 4:30:17 PM Funk Friday, April 17, 2009 And not the good kind. For some reason, that I truly can't describe, I've been in a bit of a funk the past couple of weeks. I think, it's recently hit me like a ton of bricks, that I stopped my career momentum when Benjamin was born, and oh-so-needy, and now I miss it. He's so independent and is so excited about starting pre-school (which, if I went back to work would be a totally different, yet-to-be-found full day school), and I am craving full time work again, so it's time to brush up my skills, clean up my resume, and see what I can find. But then I start thinking and thinking and wonder if I should just go back to school to learn how to do what I REALLY want to do when I grow up. I have NO clue what that is, so that doesn't really seem like the best idea. I was seriously thinking that maybe I'd go back to school to be a nurse, or a PA, and then realized that I can't even give my own blood without passing out, and determined that not to be an option for me. So, alas, that's where I'm at. Or, as I might say to Emily, "I am in my head." I am hopeful that the sunshine today and forecasted for tomorrow help me sort this all out, and figure out the next steps. Or, like every other time I've decided to go back to work full-time, it'll pass in a week or two, and I'll be back to being content with where I am at. Oh, and I totally realize that this is a ridiculous time to try to be finding a job; particularly in marketing, or in medicine if you barely passed high school biology for opting out of frog dissection due to queasiness. ~Courtney posted at 4:20:22 PM Easter 2009...the final chaper Sunday, April 12, 2009 Here is me, yummy wine, and the "circle, not poop" cake, which turned out to be fantastic...  Benjamin loves Easter egg hunts! And Margot and Ellie.  ~Courtney posted at 10:54:28 PM "Try to make circles. Not poops." Sunday, April 12, 2009 These exact words came out of my mouth this morning, while Benjamin was helping me decorate the carrot cake we're taking to our Easter dinner this evening. The initial plan was to make little "eggs" on the cake, but Benjamin got REALLY into the squeezing part, and any chance of the plops looking like eggs was shot. So, of course, he walked around all morning saying "I'm making circles. Not poops." That would be my fault. 
~Courtney posted at 3:43:59 PM The bunny stopped by... Sunday, April 12, 2009 ...and we now own Thomas' friend Emily, her tender, and Salty! Benjamin is in LOVE. He's been asking for Emily for weeks! I was worried he meant his aunt, and he does often ask for relatives, but he really did mean the train this time!     It didn't fit in the basket, but the EB also brought Benjamin a "city" rug to drive some of his trucks, trains and cars on. Or, maybe, it was actually for me to cover some of the hardwoods where he plays a lot up, since he's far from gentle with them (or anything, for that matter!).  Happy Easter. I think it's time to cook up some eggs for the fam! ~Courtney posted at 7:51:09 AM Rain Rain, go away... Saturday, April 11, 2009 Or, more appropriately, April showers bring May flowers. And, so far, April has had a LOT of showers. Benjamin has had ample opportunity to break in his Thomas the Tank rain boots this week. This morning, despite wanting to stay curled up on the couch in pjs, we got up and braved the crowds at Costco and the grocery store. After the work was done, we played in the puddles and mud for awhile.  Here's a good shot of the boots...  We're hoping that the sun that is desperately trying to come out now, will be back again tomorrow, as we're having Easter dinner with some new friends, and the kiddos are looking forward to the egg hunt! ~Courtney posted at 5:25:19 PM Friday, April 10, 2009  ~Courtney posted at 9:37:31 PM Virginia is for Lovers! Tuesday, April 07, 2009 Despite my new favorite running shirt that claims Virginia is for Runners, it remains a well-known fact that Virginia is actually, for lovers. So, it brought me lots of joy to trip over this contest being offered by the state of Virginia. If you're lucky, you might win. And if you win, we hope you'll stop by for a visit with us. ~Courtney posted at 6:09:26 AM Invisible Sunday, April 05, 2009 Do you ever feel like you are entirely invisible? I've had two days, very recently, where people have run into me, rammed their strollers into my ankles, and just not even acknowledged that I was there. Like, personal space didn't exist, even when there was plenty of room for it. ~Courtney posted at 8:19:28 PM Would you like some milkshake to wash down that lollipop? Wednesday, April 01, 2009 Or, also appropriately titled: Benjamin and Court take a road trip. Or: Survival of the fittest. Anyhow, we're home from a fun trip to celebrate my grandmother's birthday. My mom and Ron drove down yesterday, and Benjamin was spoiled with attention, despite it being Gigi's birthday. For the good majority of the ride home, Benjamin was yelling "Move it people! Get outta my way! I want to get home!" I suspect that came out of my mouth first, but can't seem to recall when. On a plus note, being April Fools Day and all, at least this guy didn't show up in my car, or house, or anywhere, like he normally does on Emily's favorite holiday (dad was the 2009 victim, and I am shocked that his neighbor didn't call the police on Em this morning):  Although, I haven't been upstairs to see if all my bras have been hooked together and strung around my bedroom...so I am not in the clear, yet. In other news, I signed up for my 2nd marathon today! The Marine Corps Marathon. I am super-excited; especially since Em and some friends are all doing it, too! Off to get the lollipop encrusted sugar tart into the bathtub... ~Courtney posted at 7:58:36 PM |
