totally random post: fascinators, two races, dinner group, thomas jefferson plants & so much more

carrie is getting married in a short while and one night i had the pleasure of meeting her out with some friends to go wedding dress shopping. she was such a good sport and tried on about 50 dresses. it was way fun. the best part was trying on the fascinators. i am ALL about these and so is carrie. we heart them.

side note to carrie: send me some photos of the other night or i can steal them from your blog). k? thanks.

the bride to be, being fascinating in a fascinator

(please note, this is NOT her wedding dress) 

it took me about 30 seconds to have one
of these on, wore it the whole time

i ran in the run for the school at the zoo with a ton of my friends. it was FUN. matt met me there with the kids and we did the zoo afterwards. it was a good day.

this is my 12th race so far

check out my friends! (the smiths, a blum, a hussar,
a davis, the overstreets, the palmers and me) 

kristina ran the show, and did a photo essay of the day 

the hussar twins ran the kid race - they took OFF 

miss mady ran it as well - she must get her talent from her parents 

then it was zoo time. lottie sue and rowdy had a great time.

we have the davis kiddos, the hussar kiddos
and the mowrer kiddos in the jeep 

uh, way to ham it up, lottie sue - not

lottie and matt ride a camel (this was the highlight of her day) 

megan with a cup of joe and watching the exciting camel ride

rowdy was chasing after dad and lottie 

rowdy chats up a camel 

megan and i cannot resist a photo booth

(kissy, happy, scared then pretty) 

the next day lottie sue went to vivaan's birthday party at bounce usa - she had a GREAT time and i took two shots with my phone.

they are blurry because she was never still

and now to the random photo section of the post. here is a photo of something lottie did...looks like snow white was going under the knife.

bb stopped by one evening and brought food for an impromptu picnic.

eating al fresco

THEN a dream came true! i have always wanted to be a runner, and a step up from that i want my family to be an active family. running together is a dream of mine. even though matt has completed a marathon, he hasn't completed a 5K. so on may 7th we ran a 5K as a family - i was so happy!

my race bib (#13)

i pushed the kids for mile 1 and 2 and then matt
came back after finishing to do the last mile

(matt, moi, mackenzie, amy and kelly - with
rowdy and lottie sue in the jogger) 

that night it was the langley's run to host dinner group - thai food was on the menu and is was AWESOME. it was tasty and pretty to look at, way to go! rick also built this crazy awesome deck. i wish i had taken a photo because nothing i write will do it justice. i will bug kate for one (kate, send me a photo!).

good food, good friends 

us cutie pie girls

(kate, moi, amy and jojo) 

and now i have more random photos for you. lottie sue is learning to count, here is she practicing while wearing fairy wings, glitter headband, beaded necklace while carrying a handbag.

the more you know the further you'll go 

our church's parent's day out program had an end-of-the-year festival. and of course we forgot to bring the camera so i shot two with my phone. lottie sue cried (big time) when it was time to go.

happy on the merry go round 

pink face after eating cotton candy 

and check out mr. knox! here he is at his 9-month appointment. check out those legs!!!

could he BE any cuter? nope. 

and now some other photos from my phone.

lottie sue golfed after running through the sprinklers last sunday 

rowdy at the park the other day, he
wanted to go down into that water 

here is lottie sue sulking after i told her it was time to go home

and now, i leave you with items of interest...

• the office a la georges seruat's 'sunday afternoon'
• matt and i love kristen schaal ever since the flight of the concords
• i am excited about the hunger games movies, i like jennifer lawrence but thought she was too old to play the part - but that is overshadowed by woody harrelson as haymitch (i lurve him)
• this is the most expensive photograph ever purchased: $3.89M
• you have probably been living under a rock if you haven't seen this video. i think it's fine but other people are gaga over it.

please say yes

• roseanne barr writes for new york magazine
• i loved melissa mccarthy when she was sookie on the gilmore girls (still love her and now she's in bridesmaids!!!)
• here's a list of the 50 most important women in food (i will NEVER be on that list)
• death cab for cutie is streaming their new album on NPR
• marc maron interviews garry shandling
• i just started watching web therapy, and it is ker-ackin me UP

i will leave with this...dear, sweet kitty kat send us a tomato and strawberry plant. i would take a photo but it is currently storming) all the way from monticello - how COOL and AWESOME is that? well, that's basically kat in a nutshell - cool and awesome. 

THEN she proceeded to write up these descriptions for us. i'm going to have them framed. she is thoughtful AND very pregnant. my brain was NOT capable of doing stuff like this when i had a bun in the the oven. bravo, kitty kat - and thank you again! 

stay tuned for photos of tomatoes and strawberries

alrighty, i have another post that i have to write for you soon. it's from easter and mother's day. stay tuned!

why i DO declare! eating our way through charleston & running at the zoo

matt and i spent a fabulous long weekend in charleston last week. we try to take one trip alone together each year and we look forward to it very much.

we had a GREAT time.

here we are in front of our inn, it was so cute and quaint.

here we are outside before we went to the
courtyard for wine and cheese (nom nom nom)

over the weekend we ate at fig, blossom and s.n.o.b. (slightly north of broad) for our evening meals and had southern fare at jestine's and another local cafe (the name escapes me at the moment) - we seriously ate our way through charleston. it. was. awesome.

we stayed at the fulton lane inn, a very small and charming inn right in the heart of of it all. the location was perfect, just perfect (right on king street)! here's a link to their site, if you are going to charleston it's a neat place to stay. very private and very accommodating.

matt had a meeting on friday so i went out on a run down through the battery - it was an awesome run, for real - one of my best. i am sure it had something to do with it being so flat there. you know i love me some flat terrain. i took a few photos of my morning...

down by the water

i usually don't run on brick roads, but did here

friday afternoon we went down to the water to watch the practice for the air show. those dudes are CRAZY. i loved it. we once went to the show in chicago but i think it was super sunny and we had to leave before the blue angels came out due to an impending sunburn. so this was my first time seeing them and they really bah-lew my mind. i took one photo, they are super tiny though.

these guys have a license to fly like
bats out of H-E-double hockey sticks

we were walking back to prepare ourselves for dinner and went by the mill house hotel. this is where matt was staying the night we had the house fire. ah, memories.

mill house hotel

here i am at our hotel's wine and cheese hour. matt and i went there every night - good wine and yummy cheese. we are wine and cheese connoisseurs if you didn't know...

to me!

the cute hubby

can i say that we looked in about 10 different stores for a cool shirt for lottie sue. none of them were anywhere near cool but we finally found one that would work.

not this one

but oh yeah, i did find giant flip flops to fit my giant feet - finally!

just like cinderella

we also went on a carriage ride, the kind that gives you the history of the city. i know i may look like a dork in there but i go on them wherever i go - you learn so much and get to see all of the big stuff. so next time you travel somewhere just go on it, you'll be glad you did.

here we are waiting on our buggy to go out, i'm chatting with lottie sue

this was our GIANT horse, larry
(ashton kutcher told us he could pull 9 carriages
and not blink, he's that strong of a horse)

this is our guide, ashton kutcher - i mean COME ON, he's a dead ringer

here are a few shots i took on the way...

that afternoon we walked over to the aiken-rhett house for a tour. it's a preserved home in charleston, not restored - so everything there was old old old. it was cool - and this really tells you how much matt loves me...ha. i don't have many photos, they don't allow photography. poo.

a photo from the internet

here matt is outside wearing his headphones for the walking tour.

nerd alert

this is what he was looking at...

the back of the home

so after the tour that day we went back and got ready for dinner. here i am outside our hotel.

happy for happy hour

ooh, and here i am with wine and cheese - i'm about to gobble it all up. yummers!

pre-dinner fun

this photo is of the wall in the courtyard

now we move on to our dinner at s.n.o.b. - my favorite of the trip. and here is a photo of the best martini i've ever had - so smooth. i ordered it upon the recommendation of maureen - so thank you, maureen!

seriously, so smooth and delicious

we ate at s.n.o.b. years ago with the linkers - LOOK! we are babies here! i think matt and i were recently married.

i really like my hair here

here are a few other photos of the time we went to charleston with the linkers - good times!

jamie and john on the battery

a squinting me and mowmow

here we are playing games
(matt's thumb is bandaged up, he sliced it cooking a few days
prior at home in chicago and we had to run through a rain
storm to get to the hospital - he was pretty much blue when
we got there and i almost passed out when they stitched him up)

another cute photo of us, i know - it's too much

we really missed the kids but enjoyed out time together. bb and granddaddy sent a few photos of lottie sue (gramma and papaw had little rowdyman - said he was the perfect gentleman)...

she loves to mess around in the water, very
helpful with your gardening as well

now on to another topic, my running - whee! so far i have completed two races, the first almost killed me but the second one was way better. i am getting better as i go along and while i'm slow (like a turtle, not kidding) i will get faster as i drop weight and get in shape. i am quite proud of myself. i pretty much rock. i have a 5K this saturday and then a 4-miler next saturday (somewhat nervous about this one but it's supposed to be flat flat flat so i think i can do it).

oh yeah, and i know i posted about meeting the pink mom from biggest loser - the other day i saw that the pink daughter works out at my gym. i am two for two! i spoke to her for a minute and she was super nice, she said she has a few more weeks until they go back and she was working out like crazy (spinning is her fave). go pink daughter, hope ya win! ok, back to the zoo...

me, hilary, amy and megan before the run at the zoo
(we also saw lindsay but didn't get her photo, boo)

matt came down with the kiddos and got this great action shot of me

after the race we stayed and did the zoo with the kids. it was our family and the hussar clan. lottie sue was in a funk that morning and wanted to hog emery's car the whole time. to amy and chris, our apologies. but here are some photos!

amy and emery pick out the perfect animal for the carousel

this was the only shot i got of matt and lottie sue, that thing goes fast

lottie sue surveys the goats, who needs
a brushing the most she wonders

tail action

this is what rowdy thought of it all

more proof that lottie sue will talk to a wall or any person
(i rescued the college student, she told me lottie
was asking her questions about mopping (???))

and here i am with amy, my running buddy - whee!

oh yeah, look at me - i followed through with my monthly chair-photo-taking promise. i will NOT let you down!

early april 2010

early march 2010

i leave you with a few random photos of baby boy, he is 7 months old - GASP. for real, you say? real, i say.

what a big boy

alrighty, gotta go - i hear a lottie sue calling me. i leave you with this quote. i read it and liked it so i thought i would share...

"this is the true joy in life...the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap..."

-george bernard shaw

until next time!