Teaholic not quite anonymous

This weekend Matt took the kid down to see his family in Chesapeake. I was going to go along, but I had some other things already planned and Matt decided I could use the downtime by myself. (Isn't he wonderful?) Although I did feel slightly guilty, I know grammy and papa are there and it's the car rides alone with both kids that would worry me the most. But the drive down went fine, we'll see about the drive back! I understand that Adrian misses me and won't let grammy out of his sight.

So I decided to make the most of the weekend and made some additional plans to see friends. I thought I'd quick write it all down before I forget everything wonderful that I did!

Friday I spent the day doing nothing much. It was heavenly. It was a rainy, dreary day and I bummed around the house cleaning up, doing some laundry, reading, etc. I took a nap and ordered in some dinner! I had plans to meet up with Sarah and Tina at Dogfish Head Ale House for drinks and that's what I did that night. It was so weird to be going out (as compared to coming home) after dark. It was fun! I came home, read a bit and watched some TV.

Saturday morning I slept in, took a LONG hot shower and went out shopping. It's been a while since I was shopping by myself so I enjoyed every second of it. I was shopping for some new sheets and food/drinks for that night. After shopping, I came home, got another nap and cleaned for a while. Jess, Clair and Heather came over that night. We had some drinks, snacked, played some games and I crashed about 1:30. They all stayed the night and we were up and out the door by 9:15.

Sunday I had brunch with Rosanna at 10. We went to Arties and they really are fabulous. After brunch I came home, hung around for a while and then had book club at 2. I love book club. It's a fabulous group of women. I ran a couple errands and then met up with Karen for dinner. After I came home, I took a nice hot bubble bath and started a new book. I stayed up to finish it!

This morning I've done some laundry and now I'm going to make dinner for tomorrow night right away. Matt's going to want to make his Thai Basil chicken for tonight.

Anyway, that was my weekend. It was FABULOUS. I can't wait to see my kids and Matt though. Good news is that tomorrow I have Corrine here to help with mother's helper stuff. So I'll still have a helping hand.

This summer is hot, hot, HOT! Its been hard because it's so hard to take the kids outside to play. The majority of the day is off limits! However, since Matt and I put in the patio last weekend we've been able to put the small plastic pool under the deck which allows the kids a bit more shade to play in the pool. Maddy also loves the sprinkler and even Adrian doesn't mind it as long as it doesn't hit him in the face.

The patio is awesome though! The pavers are pressed rubber so it reminds me of playground pavers at the playground. The kids have fallen, etc and haven't had any scrapes or bruises. They weren't inexpensive but they are perfect for what we need right now.

Maddy's swim lessons are over for the summer. Her swim teacher moved back to college last week. She's bummed about it. But now instead she keeps telling me that she should be going to school since swimming is over. She's so excited for school to start back up.

We've been enjoying family bike rides in the morning this summer. We bought one of those bike trailers for the kids to ride in and also bought a bike for me. I was a bit nervous getting one, honestly. I haven't been on a bike since I was 16 or even younger! But it's true what they say.... it was no problem at all. The kids enjoy the ride, we enjoy the fresh morning air and the workout! It's been REALLY nice and I'm really enjoying it!

My herb garden is going crazy! My Thai Basil, Mint, Oregano and Thyme are all so huge! Even my Rosemary is starting to really take up a lot of space. My lavender smells beautiful!

This weekend we have two birthday parties to go to. One is for a neighbor at Chuck-e-cheese (Maddy is thrilled). The other is for a student I used to teacher many years ago. I am SO EXCITED for this. She was near and dear to my heart for a long time and I've missed her. So it will be great to see her.

The kids are good. Maddy is so creative and has such an imagination. Adrian wants to do everything his big sister does. He's such a climber! And he can eat with a fork now! He tries to eat with a spoon but tips it. He's so independent.

Well, that's about it on this end! Just thought I'd quick pop in.

Summer time! What have you been up to? Here's a little rundown of our summer time fun.

--Drop off playdates for Maddy and friends. It's so much fun now that they are a bit older that I can drop her off at a friends to play for a while and then have them over to return the favor. It helps that we've known this group of kids since Maddy was 18 months old. :)

--Swim lessons! A local girl is teaching Maddy to swim once a week at our local pool.

--The kid pool! Of course, I've dragged out our kid pool, too. Maddy's really enjoyed going in it and is having a blast.

--Running! Yep, Adrian is running now. He's a fast little guy and it's hard to keep up with him!

--Wild life! We've had quite the experiences with animals this year. We have chipmunks, skinks, mockingbird nests but our all time favorite is the robins! We have a robin nest under our deck and we have a wonderful view from our downstairs window. So we bought worms for them and it was great watching them hatch, grow up and then leave the nest. I think mama is thinking about starting another brood!

--herbs! Yep, we have an herb garden this year. Well, we have planters on our deck handrails that I've filled with herbs. Cilantro, Thyme, Thai Basil, Rosemary, Lavender, Oregano and mint! Cucumber, too!

Well, just a quickie today. Off to get some stuff done.

So about May 24th Adrian started taking a couple steps here and there. He'd hold on as long as possible to whatever he was balancing against and then take a couple steps and reach for whatever he was going to balance on the other side. This happened now and again for quite a while. Then about three days ago he started taking four or five steps to get where he was trying to go. And finally, yesterday, he started walking! Now he's very bold and just walks. He doesn't really fall. He'll go down to his hands but then he pushes himself back up and keeps right on treckin'. It's so cute! Of course I have some video of it but I need some more. Hopefully I'll get a nice long one tomorrow.

We have so much wildlife around here for where we live. Now, we can be a little bit country, but overall we're just the burbs with 'burbs all around us give or take a few old farms, etc. But just recently I've seen at least four broadhead skinks in our front yard. (They love our brick to sun on.) We have a robin's nest under our deck, I don't love this, but I'm not about to tear it down! We may put some screening on the openings in fall. Lots of rabbits lately. I see deer all the time. We've even had some sightings of black bears near us (not right here, but close, they could definitely wander over this way). I fact, I saw one driving home the back roads one night! Of course we have A TON of turtles and frogs/toads. I have fortunately not seen too many snakes but I'm sure they're out there somewhere *shudder*. I am not a snake or a big spider fan.

So Maddy's last day of preschool was Friday! They actually met at a park near our house and played. Matt was home so he was able to put Adrian down for his morning nap. Maddy and I stayed at the park. It was fun to watch Maddy play with all her little friends. We didn't stay for the whole time, but we stayed for a while. Of course, there were Popsicles for a snack! Too fun!

Maddy is really going to miss school. She is such a social butterfly. I haven't signed her up for any classes or camps this summer so I'll need to make sure I plan early to have playgroups and other fun things we can do. However, it'll need to work around Adrian's morning nap.

For Memorial Day Weekend Matt, Maddy, Adrian and I went to Arlington National Cemetery. We took some flowers with. Of course, we had to explain the whole idea of a Cemetery to a Maddy and then the whole Veteran thing to Maddy. But she understood pretty well. It was HOT and pushing strollers up and down those hills was a great workout! Maddy and Matt saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. Matt thought it was REALLY cool. Maddy thought it was just hot. :)

We saw the Rolling Thunder roll through on 66 (we were actually behind them) and saw them all through DC. It was awesome to see. Maddy loved it.

Then we went to Gravelly Point park for a picnic. We found a great spot under the tree and Adrian really appreciated being able to get out of the stroller and crawl around for a while. We ate a nice picnic lunch and then played ball and bubbles for a while.

We hopped back in the van and by the time we were 10 minutes down the road Adrian was out cold. Maddy and I took a hot shower when we got home and took a nice nap together.

Of course, we had cheeseburgers, hot dogs, mac and cheese, and corn on the cob for dinner. Tomorrow is rotisserie chicken on the grill! YUM!

I can't believe it's already the last week of preschool. When did THAT happen? I admit that I am not ready for that and I'm sure Maddy will be a bit bummed that it's over. She so loves seeing her little friends. I haven't planned out any classes for her for the summer. So we'll need to make sure we get together with her playgroup friends as much as possible!

Maddy's really loved preschool though. She had such a blast!

On Sunday we hosted a gathering to watch the series finale of Lost. That was so much fun. I printed out labels for our beer and water bottles. Matt made up a tropical drink called 'The Three Hour Tour'. Very delish! I made brownies and then cut them with airplane cookie cutters. I also made a carrot cake sheet cake with cream cheese frosting. I tinted part of the frosting blue and made waves in it for the ocean and the other part I left plain but sprinkled crushed cinnamon graham crackers on it for the beach. Then I took a toy matchbox airplane and crashed it in the beach (nose down). I also used some of Maddy's plastic toy trees and put them on the far edge of the beach to simulate a forest. Really turned out cute! We had some nice food, etc. It was a great time!

Ok, off to get the kiddos down to nap.

So this year I planted some flowers in my teacup planters--some white impatiens and red daisy-ish things. Anyway, I originally had them underneath our Japanese Maple out front, but they were getting a bit too much sun and the impatiens were burning out, so I put them on the front porch on either side of our cute little kids' bench. It's really cute on the front porch now. :) Matt is giving me a helping hand with watering them since he hooked up a watering pick to them from our sprinkler system so it gets watered all by itself every day! Very nice.

I also just planted some planters with some herbs--thai basil, thyme, oregano, mint, lavender, etc. They will hang on our deck rails once Matt puts them up. They will also get watered by themselves every day with our sprinkler system which will be good.

I've been trimming our hedges out front and also our other bushes. They are looking great. I'm still loving our new fountain. It's so cute and I'm so glad to have it. Fun! Our grass is looking good. Matt's been seeding regularly and watering so it's fabulous. I'm so glad it's back up to par after the whole sprinkler system thing. The kids can really play in it now!

Ok, that is all on my green thumb--let's hope it doesn't turn brown!

The weekend started off HARD, HARD, HARD. Adrian was NOT feeling well at all from Thursday to Friday because of the antibiotics he was on. He had horrible stomach stuff and diarrhea. Anyway, we were up a ton on Thursday night with him because of it and the cold he caught. Then Friday he was still having some hard times. Well, I went out for lunch with Matt because Matt's parents came into town on Thursday night (so nice to have a date!) and found out we'd need to take Adrian to the doctor since things had gotten worse. When we got to the doctor he was not actually all that concerned and recommended the course of action we were already taking.

Well, Friday night was hard, but the stomach stuff was already clearing up. Matt's parents let us sleep in on Saturday and that was SO nice. With the hard nights it was great to be able to catch up on some sleep. Saturday afternoon was tough again cause Adrian did NOT WANT to nap. Well, he did but the poor kiddo was SO overtired that he didn't know what to do with himself. As soon as Matt got home with Maddy we packed it back up and took a drive out 66 and Adrian fell right to sleep! He slept for 2 full hours while we drove around. He was in much better spirits after that.

Saturday night Matt and I went out for a date! We went out to Arties for dinner. Dinner was fabulous! We had the best crab dip and some spicy shrimp for an appetizer, I had a chicken and havarti sandwich and Matt had the crab cake and steak. We skipped dessert, but did have a couple nice drinks. Then we went over to see The Liar which was hilarious. I'm really enjoying seeing live theater and living near a place that has it. A lot of fun! After that we called home and Adrian went to sleep without issue and stayed asleep. So we decided to go out for cheap drinks and dessert at Applebees before going home. We got home and basically collapsed into bed.

Adrian only got up once that night! So nice!

Sunday Matt's mom and I went out and did some shopping. We also stopped at Red Lobster for lunch which was pretty delicious. Their shrimp meals are amazing and really overall it was nice! Matt's parents left after we got home and Maddy took it a bit hard--until she went outside to help daddy mow the lawn. :) She enjoyed that a ton.

Well, that was about it for our weekend! It was hard at times but a lot of fun at others. Thanks again to Grammy and Papa for all the help this weekend!

Adrian was up a lot last night. He started to really rub his nose yesterday night right before bed and I thought, "Uh oh." Well, by the time he got up at 11 pm he was full on running and pretty miserable. He proceeded to get up quite a bit after that as well. Matt did let me sleep in even though Maddy woke up Adrian at 6 coming out of her room. I needed it. I rocked him a lot of the night. He is also getting more teeth and is still on the antibiotics for his ear infections. I'm surprised he's not more crabby. Matt did stay home today. He's not feeling all that well himself and we were both up so much last night. We did run out fast to get a few things done. Adrian was tired of being in the house and needed a change of scenery so he went for a ride in the van while Matt and I traded off going into stores we needed to go into.

One of the stops was to the shoe store. Maddy needed new play shoes really badly. So we bought her some new light up princess shoes. Oh the girl is in heaven! LOL! She loves them. I thought she was going to wear them to nap! :-)

I am excited for the weekend! Matt's parents are coming and it's been quite a while since we've seen them. I haven't told Maddy at all so she'll be surprised when they show up. Given Adrian is ok, Matt and I have a date night planned this weekend including a play, out to dinner and over night. I am VERY excited.

I have been in the shopping mood lately. I don't know why that is! After all, I just had a huge charity pick up yesterday. I sorted through so much stuff over the last couple weeks and had a ton of stuff to get rid of. It felt good to see it all go. Now why would I want to go buy something new? But I do. I really would like to replace plates/bowls/cups. I'm really tired of what we have now. I've had most of it since college so that would be 10-14 years. There's nothing really wrong with it and it's Corelle, which I really love for every day use, and I have so many of the matching accessories. But EH. I'm bored with it.

Ok, well, I'm off to get a few things done before everyone is up! All three are napping right now!

I'm up with insomnia so I thought I'd make good use of the time, so here I am!

My Mother's Day weekend started on Friday. :) Maddy had a very sweet gift for me that she made when she came out of preschool. She was so proud of it and she made me open it when we got into the van. Also, on the way out of preschool there were volunteers there with roses and each mom got a rose. it was very sweet! I was on fire on Friday. I really did a lot of running around and got a LOT of chores done. I even managed to buy a power washer and ten bags of mulch with two little kids with me. I was pretty impressed. Now, I need to thank Maddy for the help though--she pushed Adrian in the stroller while I hauled the big flat bed cart. She's SUCH a wonderful helper and good big sister. I'm so proud of her.

Saturday morning Matt and I went into the garage and cleaned it out. This is no small task. It's about the worst we've had it since moving in here. It's so easy to just grab stuff out of bins and not put them back and then things pile up. Out of sight, out of mind. I was glad to get in there. Even better? I have a scheduled Lupus Donation pickup for this week so while I organized I also sorted. I was glad to be able to get rid of stuff as I went. Now we have a big pile for charity as well.

After the garage was done, I went back out and mulched the front bed that I had pruned the day before. I pruned up our bushes and then raked out all the dead leaves from underneath. Man, there was a LOT of dead stuff. So in the process most of the old much also got thrown out. We needed a lot of new. After the front bed was mulched Matt went out and washed our van. It needed it and then some! It looks pretty good now! He also power washed our front stairs and sidewalk and I can't believe how much better that looks now. We ordered a pizza for dinner and that was about it for our Saturday. It felt really good getting some stuff done! Oh, I did squeeze in an episode of Clean House during 2nd nap time and Matt and I watched a Myth Busters before bed that we hadn't seen before. So that was nice, too.

Sunday was great! I had some sweet cards to open from the kiddos and from Matt. I slept in until 9! That's really late for me! Matt made eggs, bacon and hashbrowns for breakfast so that was a really great special treat. Then I got dressed went back out to the van and wiped down the interior and vacuumed it all out. It took FOREVER. There are so many nooks and crannies. It really needs to be carpet cleaned with our cleaner, but that will need to wait for another time. Maddy and I enjoyed playing a bit in-between cleaning. She came out with me to play while I cleaned. She really enjoyed getting into her outdoor toy bin and finding stuff to play with she hasn't seen in a few months. I came in got cleaned up and Matt called his mom and I called my mom to wish them a happy Mother's Day. I ate a quick lunch and went out by myself to Target for a couple things and then over to one of our local coffee shops and had a bowl of tomato bisque and then a black forest coffee (coffee was free with a purchase of food for Mother's day). I brought along my book and sat and read for a while. It was REALLY nice to sit and enjoy some downtime. Of course I had my iphone so I had some good tunes to go with. What a nice time. I'm wondering if the coffee is the reason for my insomnia.

I came back home and played with Adrian for a bit while Matt and Maddy ran to Home Depot to pick up some longer shelving for the garage. I took Adrian outside since the wind finally died down (it was VERY windy all weekend and with his ear infection I didn't want him out so Matt and I traded duty inside with him while one of us worked outside. Maddy had some great outside time though this weekend.) and I dug up and then mulched our Japanese Maple. I still have two flower pots I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with.

While Matt finished up installing the shelving I fed the kiddos. Matt and I got them off to bed and we ordered in Thai for dinner. That was delicious and we hadn't had Thai in quite a while. After dinner I took a nice hot candlelight bubble bath with some great wine and good music and read a bit more of my book. Matt and I snuggled, watched a bit of TV and off to bed!

I am so blessed to have such a great family. We are all healthy and happy. I learned recently how much I need to be thankful for that. A week ago a friend of mine took her teenage daughter into the doctor for flu and after she just couldn't really keep food down they did a scan to see what else could be up. They found a tumor in her brain and within one day she was in surgery for cancer. She will need a second operation to get the rest of it. But within one week the flu turned into cancer. So scary. Please keep them in your prayers. But it's such a reminder that one never knows what may happen next. We can't just live our days idly going through them, going through the motions. Make sure the ones you love know it. Spend quality time with them. Do the things you WANT to do, not just need to do. Take care of yourself--mentally and physically.

On that note, on this Mother's Day I am vowing to myself to take better care of myself physically. Since being pregnant with Adrian I've packed on a some pounds and have not been eating right or exercising. I need to do get active and be healthy again. Not to mention, I really do want to start fitting into more of my old clothes!

On that note, I better get back to bed. Physically, I need my sleep! Happy Mother's Day, all! I hope you had a great one!