run now. brag later. (feets don't fail us now!), a friend/kid gathering, a nyc dinner & analogies

this weekend i have a lot of friends doing a pretty cool thing: running! a very long distance!

the adorable megan smith will be doing her 4th (i think, but it could very well be her 10th) marathon. that girl is an animal!

and my other adorable friend, amy d., is doing her first half marathon along with amy m. and kelly j. (this is my fleet feet gang - they know how to repreZENT). i am super excited for them! their first big race, 13.1 miles is far far far.

it is quite the accomplishment, just think about it...megan will be running 26.2 miles on sunday and the amys and kelly will be pulling in 13.1 - it takes a lot of dedication and lot of hard work to get to a place where you can put out that distance.

oh yeah - i cannot blah blah blah on this without giving a big shout out to amy h. (i know a lot of amys) - she completed the nyc half-marathon a few weeks ago.

she is AWESOME and rocks so very much. whee! i entered the lottery for that race but didn't get in, but i am so happy amy did - she did so well!

here she is before the race, happy

and here she is after the race, even happier i am sure

i signed up to get texts from amy's run, we were in community group at church and i kept checking my phone. i hope they don't think i was being rude but i was so excited for her. forgive me.

amy h., lisa and i are running the 5K on sunday - it makes it one year for me and my running. the covenant 5K was the first race i did in my recent running gig - it was a terrible race for me but i am sure sunday will be way better!

oh yeah, i also signed up to run the chicago half-marathon in september. i'll be doing it with mike and i figure i have enough time to get my rear in order for that. yikes, though.

here's a random photo of lottie sue, she had a booboo on her eye and loved it that she got to wear a band-aid there.

disclaimer: she didn't even need one but she is obsessed with band-aids. she will put them on any booboo, be it me grazing her leg as i walk by - oh no! she needs a band-aid. right away! i oftentimes walk past her bathroom and find a band-aid wrappings littering the floor. now i know what we are getting her birthday...

the bandaid is 100s times bigger than the booboo

matt said she looked like nelly.

he's right

so a few weekends ago we had kitty kat (and jasper) and the gilmores (and cj) in town at the same time. since it's hard to coordinate seeing everyone we threw a lunch party so everyone could come over to one gathering and catch up. kitty kat has a baby girl in utero, so everyone had to see her and her cute belly.

matt and i moved furniture and brought any toy we thought the kids might like. we thought they all had a great time. brad even made a video of the event - it's great. check it out!

they DID wreck the place, but they are cute it's no problem

there was the video and here are some photos i pulled off the camera...

rowdy puckering up to give me a smooch

(that boy is still loving his mommy strong)

an overall shot of some of the party

(please note carrie and scott in the background, they both

had on navy and white striped shirts. dorks in love)

cj eats goldfish and cassady pushes the popper around

lottie sue and jasper play in the tent

(lottie sue called jasper "my prince" all afternoon - it was cute)

this is all you saw of lottie crawling through the tent's tunnel

cj taking a cautious look at the grandfather clock

jasper on the trampoline

kids on the roller coaster

it was such a fun time, if we would have gotten together three years ago there would not be any kids and here we are - they almost outnumber us! we like it!

we kept the tent up for a few days since the kids liked it, i usually just bring it out on rainy days (which we have been having a lot of those lately).

matt and kids stuffed in the tent

on to another subject...the smiths and masons went down to new orleans for mardi gras and came back with a LOAD of beads/cups/frisbies/and the like.

can you find me?

next up lottie sue, she thought it was soooo funny

(although rowdy did NOT like it when i was covered
with the beads - see, loving his mommy)

but he was fine chewing on the viking horns

lottie sue took these from the stash and i found
them like this in the dining room later

katie came over with hudson since they were in town (yay!). lottie sue loved to play with hudson and she was so proud of herself for picking him up.

don't worry, she had a spotter

wonder woman

she then tried to pick up rowdy but couldn't, this is

as far as she got - that boy is a load (built solid)

the hussars hosted our last dinner group. they based it on one of their favorite restaurants in nyc, i will have to check but its name is the red cat - anywho...it was fab.

the gracious hosts

sidenote: the hussars used blackboard paint to make the board, it's in the butler's pantry and is so great. the twins can color on it and it just honestly looks cool. PLUS, amy found these awesome chalk markers. they are what restaurants use and are so neat. everyone commented on the board. amy got them at michael's but i found them on amazon if you are so inclined.

i am trying to figure out what wall we can paint so i can buy these

i only have one group shot of the night, must have been too busy eating...

jo, always camera-ready

lemoncello straight from italy

and i should really thank carrie, she is feeding my nutella obsession. she sent me a recipe for nutella cheesecake brownies - i am totally making these. i don't have much of a sweet tooth but i do have a nutella mouth.

click here for the recipe

she also sent a link for nutella cupcakes...

and then click here for this gluten-free recipe

if you are on facebook then i am sure you have seen this. it's pretty cute.

i have no idea what they are saying, but it's super cute

ok. and last but not least - a few items of interest...

• 10 must read books for girls and boys, by boys and girls
• the washington post held a contest in which high school teachers sent in the "worst" analogies they'd encountered grading papers. you can see the full list here but i am listing a few of my faves...

Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center.

From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

The lamp just sat there, like an inanimate object.

They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.

• david foster wallace, in his own words
• we have to wait until 2012 to see the new season of mad men :(
• sarah silverman is going to guest star on the the good wife (i LOVE that show)

ok, enjoy your thursday - tomorrow is TGIF. word!

break out the kleenex, doodle this & fun times with friends

i HAVE to open with this photo, taken with the hipstamatic on my iphone while at shon's last week.

yes, i know - break out the kleenex, my two sweet kids

(this is not a posed photo, they did this all by themselves)

this is going to be one of those photo dump posts. lots of photos from lots of things. we have been social butterflies the past two months, usually february and march are bleh but it's been hopping. i won't put them all in this post so i have more, don't you worry your pretty little head(s). but FIRST i have have to share the coolest thing i have seen in a while. i SO WISH i would have know about this when i was in high school.

snakes on a plane

i know this girl talks so so so fast but it's worth watching a few times. she has several other videos that i will share with you but let's get this one down first. i will scan in my sketch page, some of them are funny - looks like lottie sue did them. anywho, i hope you like it as much as i do - i think it is awesome! i'm going to make some keeerazy doodles. just you watch. 

and now on to the photo dump.

here is lottie sue after bathtime, she loves these goggles (a gift from uncle johnny & aunt judy, birthday #3) and wears them in the bathtub quite often. i say, whatever floats your boat.

 

 crabby glasses

this is a photo of harlan and lottie when the apples were down in february

(sad, but this is the only photo i have - it gets
busy with four little kids in the house)

 lottie drive rowdy around the yard

oh, here's a segment. we are in a dinner club with some super cool friends. jo and blake hosted the kick-off dinner. they totally set the bar high. very high.

the pretty table

jo presenting the first course

sweet potato bruschetta dish - it was DELICIOUS

(jo, send me the recipe pretty please)

a ut bball game was on, you can tell from the body language we lost

i don't have any photos of the main course,
must have too busy scarfing it down

(but here is the souffle - yes, it was as good as it looks)

see? matt loved it

and you KNOW we brought over our little baby dragon. the langleys and hussars had not had the pleasure.

everyone got it (and even jo liked it)

then of course we have to dance. that is how we do. i think jo loves the game as much as i do, she's always game for it.

amy and i go tete e tete

 

 whee!

this right here is the best photo of the night. kate is whipping that hair! woo hoo!

whip it - whip it good

not to be outshown, rick pulls out a snazzy move

amy and jo have a go

matt and chris pull up the kris kross duet. it was awesome. they really sold it, they were breaking it down.

this is kris kross, i think i was in middle school when they hit it big. they were REALLY crazy and liked to wear their clothes on backwards. it's really funny and now that i think about it, i remember LOTS of guys doing this in the seventh grade. you know who you are...

yeah...

yeah...
(i guess i should have taken this photo from the back, eh?)

 

jo and blake make sweet sweet music together

jo and i take a break

then you can tell this photo is from later in the night. everyone was working up a sweat.

hair flying all over the place

and i leave you with my favorite photo of the night. i swear i did NOT photo doctor this.

some people just feel the music.

matt makes sweet sweet music by himself

(hahahahahahahaha - this photo makes me laugh long time)

alrighty, now i have another set of photos from wine night (at the cases). it was in honor of the rumpsa's, but a bad case of the icky ick kept them in michigan (but don't worry, we have rescheduled).

andywho, jo set up one of those wine tasting game thingies. i love stuff like that. everyone had to bring a wine and a cheese, then we voted.

yummy wine and cheese

the hussars came in with the most votes and won first prize. the blue ribbon went to them. congrats, guys!

disclaimer: amy does not drink wine directly from the bottle

(at least i don't think so), this was purely for giggles

then you KNOW we had to play just dance! this time, shon was there and got down with it.

break it DOWN

here i am giving shonnie bear kisses cause i love her so

break it, don't shake it, took your mama nine months to make it

and now i end the post with randoms. here is a texted photo of my two wonderful nephews. harlan and knox, kisses!

could they BE any cuter? no.

rowdy on the couch one saturday morning

my nutellamid

(jealous much?)

sand art by lottie sue

rowdy at a wendy's in winston-salem

(we went up there to invade the gilmores over spring break)

this is lottie sue's bestie, vincent - lottie spent
the afternoon at his house last week

(she never wants to leave, it takes me 20 minutes to get

her out of lisa's house and then she pouts for an hour)

another texted photo of little knox, check out the hair!

rowdy, lottie sue and myself went to visit granbunny yesterday (she recently had back surgery but is doing very very well). this is a photo of their barn. i used to spend many an hour playing in this barn. granray would come home from work and becce and i would get to go down and feed the horses with him. i loved it. i used to also go up in the top and climb over the bales of hay. good times.

 

they are horse people and live around lots of other horse people. as were leaving this fellow walked up to the car. lottie sue and rowdy were so excited. it was cute.

 mr. ed

OK, i hope you enjoyed this post. i leave you now with my world-famous items of interest:

• here is a cool blog to check out: celebrigum -  every afternoon this guy "stands by a second-floor window in the ed sullivan theater and takes mediocre photos of guests leaving the late show with david letterman".
• david lynch and duran duran? sign me UP.
• radiohead thank drew barrymore on the king of limbs' sleeve.
• i love frittatas! if you like eggs and are bored with sunny-side-up/scrambled and the like then check these frittata recipes from the times out. 
• looks like we may have to wait until the fall (not summer) to see the new season of mad men. poo.
• two teens, two videos - a story from the times that i guess is popular but it was news to me, two kids that made music videos that went viral - but not with the desired effect. 
• here is a neat ditty on how manhattan's grid grew.
• last week there was a debate that shut down dc comics commenting on its blog. the topic: who runs faster, superman or the flash?
• ricky gervais and will arnett will appear in the the office's season finale.
• five earphone designs that stay put when running (i need some of these for realz).

alright, my pets. stay classy, post to ya later.