Tessa and Co.

Tons to do today, including getting myself ready for a busy day at work, and yet…here I sit on Tumblr.  A-D-D-I-C-T-E-D.

Is it too early to set my 2012 goals?  I’ve got two so far…1)  Run in the Philly Rock-n-Roll Marathon, and 2) Get front porch seats at the next Southern Ground Music and Food Festival.  Maybe I can burn off enough calories in Philly to drink guilt-free Jack & Ginger at Southern Ground. :-)  I should probably have some Mom-related 2012 goals….

In an effort to avoid doing the dishes, I have spent the last 1/2 hour watching youtube videos of Southern Ground Music & Food Festival.  I have got to find a way to be there if they ever do that again.  I would love to connect with some other Zamily…my husband thinks I’m crazy.

Here is comes people…I always say when Halloween hits, it’s balls to the wall for me until January 2nd.  By the time I finish covertly throwing away the 15lbs. of candy that my twins collect on their trick-or-treat rounds, it’s time for their birthday (Nov 19th), followed shortly thereafter by a cousin birthday, Thanksgiving, another cousin birthday, Christmas, and please someone order me a vodka tonic-New Year’s Eve.  Every year I swear that I’m going to be farther ahead in my planning, shopping, shopping, shopping, cleaning, shopping, but it always comes down to this…time to panic.  At some point in here, I’d also like to drop about 15 lbs……what are the chances?

Super busy weekend in Washington DC with the kiddos and hubs. We must have walked 20 miles this weekend, which hopefully will make up for the kinds of food that we ate.  Seriously, it is nearly impossible to eat anything decent while traveling with kiddos and doing the “tourist” thing.  Speaking of what we filled up with, it was funny to see the kiddos literally filling up with all of the information that they took in at the Smithsonian Museums.  First stop was the Museum of Natural History (think Night at the Museum).  By the time that we moved on to the Sculpture Garden (yes, my 7 year olds really wanted to see that…I’m a proud Art History B.A.), they were just about topped off.  The Air & Space Museum was great, but at that point, they really just couldn’t absorb any more info.  We only scratched the surface of what there is to do in DC with our White House Tour, Capital Tour, Smithsonians, and National Zoo.  I feel fortunate that we live so close by to so many amazing day-trip destinations, and plan on taking them back for a long weekend in the Spring.  We were in bed early each night at the hotel, yet I’m still exhausted from it all.  I’m blessed to be able to give the kiddos so many cool experiences, but couldn’t help but be jealous of the folks at Southern Ground Fest.  Maybe next year…front porch seats, on a weekend that we don’t already have plans, and hubby will say yes.

What a crazy day at work! Kiddos have an early dismissal, so I’ll need to leave the office by noon. Hubby offered to put the peeps on the bus so that I can go in early and get a little bit more accomplished. It’s hard to say “nah, that’s ok” when he’s your boss too. Why I am still awake considering that my alarm is going to be going off in a little over 5 hours, I cannot explain. Still going to try to get a little treadmill in at 4:30 am though. Yuck.

Just when I start to hit my treadmill stride…the dreaded shin splints creep back up.  Help me, I just want to run for goodness sakes! 

the 5am workout is never easy, but when ZBB’s new video comes on CMT with 10 min left on the treadmill…it makes it a lot more fun.

What I know for sure…if I do not get out of bed when my alarm goes off, I will not find time later to get my workout in.

Tumblr should come with a warning label…massive distraction at work.  Must…get…something…done.

How does one explain “the finger” to a 7-year-old boy?  So Riley (of course in a large group of children & adults) hoists his middle finger into the air and exclaims…Mom, look how long my finger is, it’s totally my longest finger right?  Eeeek.  The big kids in the crowd giggle, and the other parents just give me that…what are you gonna do with him look.  Riley had NO IDEA that he was giving “the finger” to everyone in eyesight.  Some “Riley, stop it, put your finger down ensued”, with me gingerly trying to explain that it was rude to put that finger up.  He was completely puzzled, but compliant.  I know that finger’s going to make another appearance, but not sure when.

Thursday night was our little anniversary get-away evening…and by little I mean less than 24 hours.  We made the drive to New Hope, stayed at a really great B&B named The Stephan House.  We went to New Hope to hear some great music at The Triumph Brewing Company.  Clay Cook was fantastic and The Wood Brothers were amazing.  What a superb night.  I was sad that Clay’s set wasn’t longer…his voice is hypnotizing, and I really could listen to him all night.  At one point, I just closed my eyes, trying to take in as much of the sound of him singing as I could, stamping it into my audible memory.  The Wood Brothers completely rocked the place.  I was glad that my our tickets were not in the “reserved” section, as those people looked like they were at the opera.  It’s The Woods Brothers people…groove!

Last week was the busiest day at the Lampeter Fair here in beautiful Lancaster, PA.  Thursday afternoon the kiddos bounded off of the school bus with shouts of “Mom, we have to go to the fair tonight!  It’s the greased pig chase!”  Seriously, I know that we live in Amish Country, but do we really need to chase pigs?  After much deliberation, and pleads of “all our friends are going”, I caved, but only after calling in the big guns for extra support-Mom went along.  Never in a million years did I think that Molly would get in that arena, be slathered with Crisco from elbow to finger tip, and chase a pig.  But, along with her cutie-pie friend Tori, Molly got in the ring.  She didn’t catch the pig, as she said that to get to it, she would have had to “but in front of other girls”… Molly is always polite.  Riley was bouncing like crazy till he got to go in after the pig.  He didn’t catch it either, but had this to say afterwords…”Mom, I don’t think that I’ll be doing that again next year…that pig was making all kinds of crazy sounds, and I’m not so sure that chasing it is a good thing.”  Ahhh, the adventures of Lancaster, PA. 

In other news, Riley was SURE that we saw a “rare, rabbit-eared squirrel” on the way to the bus stop.  OK then.