Where I Am

The Pool At Last

2011-06-07T13:20:00.000-04:00

Our amazing Colorado summer weather has finally arrived. You took your sweet time this year, warm weather, but we are so happy to see you! Woo hoo!

Baby/Marriage Weight Loss Plan - Week 1

2011-06-03T13:41:00.000-04:00

With my last baby born and almost eight years of marriage under my belt (um, literally?), I'd say it's time to drop some major L-Bs. And I got cleared to resume exercise yesterday. Sooo... today officially commences Project Get My Butt Back In Shape. I sort of started the food portion on Wednesday, just to get used to it. I'll be checking in each Friday with my weight (hopefully loss) for the week. My goal is lofty, but I'm breaking it down into mini-goals so as to not get overwhelmed by the magnitude of such a ginormous number. I'm nursing (which really hasn't helped me in the past), will be tracking what I eat and incorporating as many workouts as I can each week. As we start getting Landon sleeping a little more regularly, I'm hoping to start working out first thing in the morning again. It's really the only time that works for me. But I also know that for me, what I eat is about 90% of what helps me lose weight.

Without further ado, weight loss for Week 1 = -1.6 lbs

And I have to give a shout out to my loving husband who called on his way home from a meeting this morning to suggest that we all go out for breakfast. That would be such a good start to my eating well, dontcha think? He totally helps me stay focused and on-track! Ha!

May 2011

2011-05-30T19:52:00.001-04:00

I'm back :) I was looking back through some of my old posts and loved remembering what was going on in our lives then. So I'm going to try to keep at it..

Mike:

Still full of awesome. Is now the campus pastor at Journey Church and is about to commence training for his second marathon with high hopes of chopping an hour and fifteen minutes off his previous time. Concurrently reading seventeen books that are left in various locales around the house. Published his first book, Sunsets and Shattered Glass, to critical acclaim (at least from his wife). Is excited to be driving a car with windows that actually go up and down. Our kids are obsessed with him. I might be too.

Lilly:

Is five. I'm not sure how that happened. She graduated from preschool and is off to kindergarten in the fall. She's an awesome big sister and an incredible helper. She played her first season of soccer and loved it. She can read pretty much anything you put in front of her. Has a strange obsession with IHOP and loves to be bossy. Is so sweet, but routinely refers to Cooper as "that chubby little guy." She and Mike have the exact same personality. She talks all the time. All the time. Really, all the time.

Cooper:

Is almost two and makes us laugh or cry - no in-between. He has cankles that just won't quit and mimics every single move that Lilly makes. He's suddenly talking up a storm and current favorite words are yocum (thank you), Yandon (Landon), and yook (look). Unfortunately, all of his favorite words seem to start with that pesky 'L.' We're pretty sure he has a patent pending on "The Most Annoying Noise in The World" which he likes to make over and over when he is tired and unable to sleep. His eyelashes are still about a foot long. He's incredibly funny and really rocks the hot dog dance at the end of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Landon:

Arrived on April 24th, Easter, at 2:23 pm, weighing in at 9 lbs, 5 oz. He's awesome. Last piece of the puzzle. Suffers from reflux and doesn't enjoy naps in his crib. Gets very angry if his 7 pm bedtime isn't respected. Is adored by his brother and sister. Rarely cries. Currently has blue eyes, but his mama knows better than to hope they'll stick around. So loved.

Sarah:

Is slowly adjusting to being a mom of three - much more complicated than anticipated! Loves getting to be at home with her kids. But still misses a job that doesn't involve laundry. Loves peonies, 74 degrees and being outside. Is dying to drop the accumulated weight that accompanied her three babies. Gets tired of trying to figure out what other people want to eat. Loves her life.

Two Little Monkeys

2010-02-23T12:00:00.000-05:00

Real Food

2010-01-10T22:50:00.002-05:00

This is how Cooper feels about eating "solid" food.

We'll Pretend That I Haven't NOT Blogged For Six Months...

2009-12-17T10:04:00.003-05:00

Once again, it's been awhile :) We've had a few things going on in the interim, including:

Finally selling our house in Connecticut the night before I went into labor

Having a baby - Cooper Jackson - born June 24th!

Our last time at Amma's house in Maine

Driving across the country with a three year old and a three week old

Car breaking down 2 hours from final destination on said cross-country drive

Living with Mike's parents while we house-hunted

Mike starting a new and awesome job

Lilly starting preschool

Buying and moving into our new house

Missing our friends in Connecticut, but LOVING being back in Colorado!

Now that we're all caught up... I'm going to try to be a guilt-free, reformed-perfectionist blogger from now on. We'll see what that means!

Waiting...

2009-06-20T13:59:00.003-04:00

No updates in a while, life has been crazy! We put our house on the market the first week in May, preparing for our move back to Colorado. Within two days we had three interested buyers and two really solid offers. We negotiated on the first offer following the inspection and couldn't agree on the amount to be credited back at closing, so the buyers walked away. The second offer was great! We had the second inspection and the buyers found that our house had old lead paint. They freaked out. Mind you, our house is 100 years old and we could have about guaranteed that there would be lead paint. Most houses in town have some old lead paint on them somewhere. Ours is under at least two other coats of non-lead paint. But they rescinded their offer. So, after a month of negotiations we were back on the market. Things seem bleak at this point - we are planning to hit the road for Colorado a month from today. But we are just trying to be patient and faithful and trusting that things will work out the way they need to. Not necessarily the way we think would have been best, but the way they need to. There's great beauty in looking back and seeing how our plans usually aren't the best, but God's always are :)

Our hope was that our house would be sold well before our baby got here, but that hasn't proven to be the case. But, since our baby seems to be taking his sweet time, there's still hope! My due date was yesterday, the 19th. So, we're dying with excitement waiting to meet our new baby, and also so desperately hoping to sell our house.

That's it for now. Hopefully my next post will be with pictures of our sweet little boy!

Catching up (again)...

2009-05-16T15:24:00.000-04:00

I've clearly gotten a bit behind on pictures and I will add them eventually, but I thought I'd just jump ahead to the present, in the interest of saving my sanity. We have just a few things going on right now (more on that later), so rather than waiting forever, here's the latest!

Saturdays.

2009-05-16T14:58:00.008-04:00

Our little family of three will soon be a family of four, and I find myself really treasuring these moments before everything changes. Saturday mornings (when we don't have all kinds of plans) are the best. This morning was beautiful - warmer, breezy and sunny. We headed into town for a little breakfast at Starbucks, got some books at the library, then went to Elizabeth Park to just soak up some of the amazingly lush things that suddenly emerge here after a long, cold winter.

Our breakfast at Starbucks.

Miss Lilly trying to get every last crumb of her blueberry muffin.

My favorites.

Scattering seeds at the Park, an acceptable activity somewhere other than our yard :)

Though I look like I'm due any day now, we've got five-ish weeks to go! Can't wait to meet this little guy!

Me and Mikey.

Mike found a really cool old door. I think Lilly was contemplating munching on some lead paint.

Our little entertainer.

My little buddy.

The top of a beautiful gazebo.

A view of the rose gardens.

There was a wedding going on and I was trying to explain who everyone was to Lilly. She told me she didn't want to be a groom someday and I said good. How about you be the bride? :)

Circus

2009-05-10T14:41:00.000-04:00

We found a great deal on some last-minute tickets to the Ringling Brothers circus and decided Lilly might like it. So, after she didn't sleep at all during her nap (a very rare occurrence), we headed off to the XL Center.

I've never encountered a sweet-tooth like Lilly's. We rarely indulge it, but we thought it might be fun for her to finally try some cotton candy. We quickly discovered that the cotton candy cost $12 a bag. Instead we settled for some ice cream. They suck you in with the cheap tickets, then try to rob you blind with the cotton candy :)

Before the show, checking out the tigers with Dad.

Not exactly a fan of the "animal" smell.

Watching the elephant paint a picture.

I think she's got a future.

Due to the aforementioned lack of sleep, Lilly wasn't exactly a happy camper at the circus. We left at intermission, meaning that I missed my favorite - the elephants. We did at least get to check one out up-close!

Happy 3rd Birthday Lilly!

2009-04-04T20:11:00.003-04:00

We had a great day today, celebrating all that is Lilly :) We have tons of pictures and some video and I'll try to get them posted soon.

I can't believe that we've had three years together - what a gift, what a challenge. We've loved every minute of life with our little fireball.

Happy Birthday Lil!

So Proud.

2009-04-03T14:57:00.004-04:00

After all the turmoil of the last few years (job changes, moves, questions, cancelled moves) Mike has finally landed in the place he is supposed to be - in full-time ministry. We thought it was going to happen last year. We thought we were going to be heading down to Austin. We had our house in CT on the market and were getting all geared up to become Texans. And then things started to unravel. And at the same time things opened up at our church here.

And now, finally, after six long years of trying to figure it all out, Mike gets to be in full-time ministry. On January 25th our pastor announced that Mike would be joining the staff at Calvary Fellowship. I was so overwhelmed and happy that I cried while Mike was up on stage. Only he and I (and God) know what it has taken to get to this point. And we are so grateful for it. So I cried tears of joy and gratitude.

The announcement itself wasn't that big a deal, but it meant so much to us. Of course, Lilly threw up right before church that morning, but we wouldn't be swayed. She and I hung out in the back of the church so we could be there to celebrate that moment as a family. The two pictures I took are both fuzzy but I knew that Mike would die of embarrassment if he saw me taking pictures, so I had to be quick and stealth :)

So, Mike left his amazing job at Travelers and headed into the great unknown. And I have never seen him so happy and so perfectly suited for something. And I am so thrilled that God loves us so much.

Boy or Girl?

2009-04-02T12:13:00.002-04:00

At the doctor's office, waiting to go back for our ultrasound to see our baby and find out if it's a boy or a girl! We didn't find out with Lilly, so this was a whole new thing for us.

After Lilly wriggled all around the room and spilled her whole bag of Goldfish on the floor, we found out that our baby is a boy! Mike and Lilly checking out his pictures!

Our celebratory dinner at Ichiro afterwards

Then on to Babies R Us to check out some boy things. Lilly and I decided to test the gliders. Heavenly!

Discussing the various chair features. We finally agreed we liked the one Lilly was in the best :)

Swimming Lessons

2009-04-02T12:04:00.003-04:00

We enrolled Lilly in swim lessons on Saturday mornings for eight weeks. I can't say that she quite aced the butterfly, but she did at least consent to enter the pool - progress, progress. We got her to go underwater a few times but she really isn't a fan of water in her eyes or face. She was the only girl in the class and seemed sort of horrified that the boys would just jump in and go under. I think she really needs a brother :)

Trying to convince her to go underwater

Posing for Dad

Lilly goes to the Dentist

2009-04-02T11:49:00.002-04:00

Lilly had her first trip to the dentist, which went quite well! I wasn't sure how she'd do, but she was a champ. Teeth looked good and we don't have to start flossing yet due to the spacing of her teeth. Thank goodness, I'm just not sure that flossing and a two year old would have been a winning combination!

She practiced her brushing on the dinosaur and collected several stickers upon departure, which made it all worth it!

Trip to the NYC

2009-04-02T11:27:00.003-04:00

After Christmas we all headed down to New York for the day.

The huge tree at Rockefeller Plaza

Something about the city and missing her nap just wipe Lilly out :)

We went to Brooklyn for some amazing pizza at Grimaldi's. Yummmmmm.

And then we walked back to Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a really misty night and a beautiful walk.

Bellies full of pizza!

A bit behind

2009-04-02T10:41:00.005-04:00

These are out of order (why am I so picture-posting challenged?) but they're also three months late, so I guess better than not here at all :)

A Christmas family picture

We're starting a family band (on the Wii)!

The lovely ladies (me, Lilly, Tory, Kammy - Uncle Bill's girlfriend, we love her!, my mom)

Here's what I think of my dad's bizarre desire to have everyone dress in the some color and take close-ups

And here's what Tory thinks

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

I love Christmas Eve!

Lilly checking out her new Rose Petal Cottage

Honestly, how many presents does one two year old need?

Breakfast by the fire

Baby Boy Pictures

2009-02-03T15:38:00.002-05:00

At long last, pictures from our ultrasound! Our scanner isn't working for some reason, so I had to take pictures of the pictures, so they're not very clear, but hopefully you can see a little bit of him!

This is a 3D (4D?) picture with a pretty clear shot of his face! The thing on the right side is the placenta (he was using it like a pillow, so we couldn't see his whole face) and on the left is his arm. His eyes are closed and his mouth is open. I think he's a good sleeper like his sister :)

This is a more standard ultrasound picture, but really hard to see. It's a profile of his face. You can see his nose and mouth sticking up at the top and the umbilical cord in the background (it kind of looks like it's coming out of his mouth).

We were the last appointment on a Friday, so she was sort of rushing and we didn't get the most clear pictures we've ever seen, but I thought I'd post a couple. We also have a VERY clear shot of some boy bits, but I didn't think my son would want that aired, so just trust us, it's definitely a boy :)

This is a test, this is only a test.

2009-02-03T15:01:00.002-05:00

I have more blogging to get caught up on, but just thought I'd see if I could finally post some video. We'll see if this works. The following is just a random video of Lilly at the beach last June. It's not the most exciting footage you've ever seen, but if I can get this to work we'll move on to something a little more interesting for next time!

The time has come

2009-01-28T09:54:00.003-05:00

I'm finally (starting) to get caught up on blogging today. I'll back-date some entries (cheater!). The earliest one should be Mike's birthday - November 17th. I guess it's kind of been a while since I posted pictures!

It's a...

2009-01-24T11:42:00.002-05:00

BOY!!!

We honestly would have been thrilled either way - it would have been nice for Lilly to have a sister close in age and we've so loved having a girl - but it's really exciting that we'll get to experience at least one of each! And he looked great and healthy and weighs about 11 ounces.

The more Mike thinks about it, the more and more excited he gets. And he'll finally have someone to pass all those baseball cards on to :)

We brought Lilly with us, thinking that she might like to be there and see the ultrasound. But she hadn't slept during nap time and she really couldn't have been less interested. All she wanted to do was ask questions about random things in a really loud voice and spill her bag of Goldfish all over the floor of the ultrasound room. And she doesn't quite seem to get that we now know that it's a boy. She keeps telling people that she's having a baby sister OR brother.

We didn't find out what Lilly was and I think that I will miss that element of surprise. But it's really fun to start thinking more specifically about life with our baby boy. And to think about decorating the room! I have (unfortunately) formed quite an obsession with Restoration Hardware's baby decor. Uh oh.

P.S. My mom seems to have located my camera cord - we think Lilly might have "helped" my mom pack after Christmas. I'll try to scan some baby pictures later today, but if I can't they'll be posted as soon as the cord gets here (hopefully Monday)!

Where are you?

2009-01-22T22:06:00.004-05:00

I know it's been FOREVER since I blogged, but life has been like that lately. I finally tried to get caught up the other day, only to discover that I can't find the (very unique) cord I need to upload pictures from our camera to the computer. I have searched high and low and can't find it anywhere. I hate losing things! I looked for a replacement for it at a couple of stores and it's not there either. It's backordered on the Sony website until March 8th. I'm really hoping it will turn up soon.

So I promise to get caught up on everything soon. Lots of good things, lots of sad things - life. The great news is that tomorrow at 4 pm we go to the doctor to find out the gender of this new little Tolerico and we can't wait! It's a high point among some lows. Will post an update then.

Lots of love to you.

Amma

2009-01-03T18:43:00.004-05:00

I have a lot of blogging to get caught up on, and I will, but if you're reading this it would mean so much to me if you could say a prayer for Amma, my grandmother. Mike and Lilly and I had a great visit with her less than a month ago, but she's really not doing well now. She has congestive heart failure and is in hospice with probably only a few days left. She has been the center of my mom's family for so long, the real heart and soul of the big, crazy bunch of us. She is so loved.

I've been having a hard time with this. She and I have always been so close. I got to spend six summers with her in Maine in high school and college. The summer before my junior year in college was the best. I was going to spend a semester in London, but didn't leave until the middle of September, so it was just she and I, enjoying summer turning to fall. Every night she would watch Larry King Live and I would read and we would chat about people, our favorite topic. We also ate a lot of "toasted cheese" sandwiches.

She has been such a constant in my life. She calls me her clone. Her love has meant so much to me. But I know that I will see her again and there is so much peace for me in that. I am sad. Very, very sad. But I am so grateful for her love and that I have gotten to love her. I pray for peace and joy and love for Amma. May she feel the love of her family and her God forever.

Christmas in Connecticut

2008-12-24T11:38:00.001-05:00

My mom and dad and Tory came to our house for Christmas! It was such a treat to get to wake up in our beds on Christmas morning. We had a great, great time and they put up with all the snow and cold weather.

Nannie came with edible craft projects. Lilly loved it! She got to put the sprinkles on the chocolate-covered oreos and she really went to town :)

Pre-sugar overload meltdown

Tracking Santa's progress on Christmas Eve

We put together a plate of snacks for Santa and his reindeer. Lilly insisted on tasting the milk before we put it out.

Settling in to read The Night Before Christmas and the true account of Jesus' birth

Sledding

2008-12-19T11:16:00.000-05:00

Lilly went sledding for the first time! We've had a lot of snow this winter and Mike got out of work early, so we headed to a small hill at the school next door. It was COLD so we were bundled up like snowmen. She liked it, but we probably took five runs (of 20 feet each) before she had had enough and we headed home for some hot chocolate.

Christmas Tree Shopping

2008-12-13T11:08:00.000-05:00

Since were were going to be home for Christmas this year, we decided to cut down our own tree. We went to a farm in Glastonbury on a sunny but bitterly cold day. Mike and Lilly kindly let me look at just about every tree before finding the right one. And they only complained a little bit :)

I think at this point they were discussing how it drives them crazy that I have to see ALL the options before making my decision.

Here it is! Our tree!

Then I made everyone pose with it...

And by now Mike was frozen and just wanted to cut it down.

Done!

Visit to Hazleton

2008-12-07T10:50:00.000-05:00

After our visit with Amma we headed to Hazleton to visit Mike's grandmother Clemmie. She is so sweet and we love that we're close enough that we've gotten to see her several times since we moved to CT. She showers us all with food and love and Lilly with lots of Tastykakes!

Lilly got to try out Clemmie's new massage chair and loved it. Lilly's life is so rough that it took a while to work the knots out :)

Lilly had a REALLY strange love for Clemmie's magnifying glass. She actually just thought it was cool to see her breath on it.

Reading together

Clemmie just treasures Lilly. She's a lucky girl to be so loved.

We stayed in a hotel and when we walked into the room Lilly stopped in her tracks and asked "Whose house is this?" It occurred to me that she hasn't stayed in a hotel, at least since she could remember it. The weather was snowy and the roads were icy, so we stayed in and had a picnic dinner. She was in heaven with her own little bed right next to mom and dad.

The last time

2008-12-05T10:38:00.000-05:00

The week after Thanksgiving we headed out to Pennsylvania to visit my grandmother Amma and Mike's grandmother Clemmie (see the next post). We had a great visit. We got to spend a lot of time with Amma. She watched Lilly play and they played together. We caught up on everything going on with the family and talked about our little baby. It was a beautiful time with her. She told us that she was having a hard time breathing at night, but we thought it was just something that could be pretty easily cleared up. She was in wonderful spirits. I will treasure that visit forever.

Three generations of nosy women :)

She often called me her clone. She called me that a lot that weekend.

Being silly with Lilly

Playing doctor. Lilly pronounced her blood pressure good.

I am so thankful for that time and for my wonderful Amma.

A Little Home Improvement

2008-11-29T10:21:00.000-05:00

We have an old, strange, but loveable house. We've done a lot to it already, but there are probably still hundreds of projects remaining. When we moved in we had these two "built-in" bookshelves in our living room. They wasted a lot of space in the room and looked pretty messy when we had them full of books. We also have quite a shortage of seating, so we decided to take them out!

Mike and Lilly inspecting the "backing" of the bookshelves, which was actually just ancient contact paper. They also had fish-eye hooks holding up the shelves. They were a lot less charming than they appear in the picture :)

Shelves are gone!

Walls painted, floor stained, Christmas decorations ready to come out

Our new seating area, courtesy of Ikea and some awesome Christmas presents! (Our tree was here during Christmas, so we didn't get the new chairs until after the tree was down)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T10:08:00.000-05:00

We stayed at home this year, just the three (five) of us. We missed being with family, but we had a really nice day and had some friends over for dessert that night. I decided to cook everything we usually have, so we had leftovers for days! It was fun to get to celebrate in our house!

We got to use our beautiful French tablecloth from Aunt Janis

Our spread. It was a ridiculous amount of food for three people :)

Lilly checking things out

My little goofball. Do I look tired? I was, early pregnancy was wiping me out.

Our little family - I couldn't be more thankful

Happy Birthday Mike!

2008-11-17T09:56:00.000-05:00

I like to tell Mike that he's now in his mid-thirties because I still have another few months until I join him at 31. Some pictures from our celebration:

Breakfast in bed! Lilly wasn't in a particularly celebratory mood.

We couldn't find a babysitter so we brought Mike's favorite dinner home, complete with oysters.

Mike's birthday dessert pizza! Lilly "helped" put the fruit on it :)

#2!!!

2008-11-14T14:50:00.003-05:00

We haven't had a chance to tell everyone yet, but we're so excited that we wanted to share our news here... we're having another baby! Rough due date is June 20th and we got to see the baby (finally) today. It looks wonderful and was wiggling it's little arm and leg buds around - it was so cute! Everything looks great and we are so thrilled. We'd had a little trouble this time and I was days away from having to start taking Clomid, so we were just overwhelmed to find out that this one was on its way.

It's sweet little face is looking straight out, with it's head down to the right.

Lilly and Addie and their "Big Sister" t-shirts. Doesn't Addie just look beyond excited? :)

I'm feeling pretty good so far, other than this horrible cold/sinus infection I've had for the last week and a half. Some nausea, but not nearly as bad as it was with Lilly, so I'm grateful for that. We'll keep you posted!

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T18:44:00.007-04:00

Happy Halloween! There's been great excitement all week in our house - Lilly's been asking since Monday if she could "go to" Halloween. We took her out trick or treating on the early shift in our neighborhood and now we're handing out candy at our house!

Some friends of ours had a family-friendly Halloween rager last weekend. Mike and I were Brad and Angelina with all six of our children attached to us. Isn't the resemblance shocking??? :)

The Today Show

2008-10-24T09:56:00.004-04:00

Tory's friend Jess came to visit her and they headed up to The Today Show this morning. Tory has on a white coat and Jess has on a black coat. I'm sure they impressed all of America with their strange dance moves. If you're further west, she's on the segment from 9:15 to 9:20.

There they are, off to the right

And a close up

Catching up...

2008-10-23T21:32:00.000-04:00

Sorry I've been gone so long, it's been a crazy month! Please see all of our (backdated) activities below!

NYC!

2008-10-23T21:31:00.007-04:00

Tory has moved to NYC! We shipped her off on the train last Friday morning, then headed down to join her and bring some more of her stuff on Saturday. Her apartment is great, we LOVE New York and everyone had a great time. We're hoping to spend a lot more time there. Some highlights...

A grouchy girl and a giant pretzel!

Sunday morning. After church. Central Park. Live jazz. Hot dogs and pretzels. Awesome!

Tory's apartment is what you might euphemistically call "cozy." She hadn't finished unpacking, so we basically filled every square inch of the 375 square feet.

Lilly's "quarters" in the entryway. I tried to ignore my overly-claustrophobic fear of a fire and the need for escape in the middle of the night.

Tor's INCREDIBLE view

Tory and Lil, taking in the city. Actually I think they're looking at Hoboken, but close enough.

Action Jackson loved all the excitement

Finally getting to see my college suitemate Anne (Pants). Ignore the fact that I look just a bit odd and focus on Anne and the Statue of Liberty! Please!

Mike and Lilly and the Statue of Liberty

Saturday brunch at "Mad Dog and Beans." Funny name, fantastic Mexican food!

For those of you who have known me for a long time - our old house in Bronxville (we lived there when I was four and five). It looks quite a bit fancier than it used to, but it was so much fun to get to see it again.

Tory getting on the train to NYC in New Haven. She always seems so thrilled that I'm taking her picture!

Big Girl Bed!

2008-10-14T21:04:00.002-04:00

Given that I didn't want to throw too many things at Lilly at once (I thought we would have moved by now), we've held off moving her out of her crib. But it just got silly. She looked like a giant antelope sleeping in the crib and it was killing me to lift her in and out. So we finally got her a toddler bed. I had no idea how excited she would be about it! She couldn't contain her glee as Tory and I put it together. The first few nights were rough, but she's been great since then. We have implemented a hard and fast "do-not-get-out-of-your-bed-unless-mom-or-dad-is-here" rule and it seems to be working pretty well. So well that she woke up from her nap yesterday and, rather than getting out of bed, she tried to stretch to reach a book on the floor and fell out of bed. She's so dramatic that she happily re-created it for me :)

The last night in her crib. I'm so overly nostalgic that I was sad. But doesn't she look huge? (And, yes, I also realize that we still had her baby mobile in there, but she liked it!)

Like a caged animal...

Even the box is exciting!

Testing it out

The finished product (though we ended up moving it perpendicular to the wall)

More Miscellaneous pictures

2008-10-01T20:42:00.000-04:00

Doing some light reading :)

Sweet Addie, snoozing in the sun in the kitchen

We went to a little local parade, which Lilly loved. She associates parades with flags and candy and there's nothing better than flags and candy.

Waiting for the action

So pleased with her loot. The lollipops were intriguing her to the point of distraction, so we had to just let her hold one at a time. She had to hem and haw over which ones to give up :)

One crazy Cubs fan! (before they lost - boo!)

Go Cubbies!

Nannie and Dodo came for a quick visit and Lilly, of course, roped them into a lot of book-reading

Miscellaneous pictures

2008-10-01T19:47:00.001-04:00

To skip over the really gory parts, let's just say that Lilly got sick, very sick, one afternoon during nap time. I mean, she got sick all over herself and all over her crib and all over everything. And we had a showing scheduled for that afternoon. And I hadn't cleaned the house yet. And our realtor arrived just as Lilly was getting sick again. And then they called to see if they could move the showing up by an hour (which meant they'd arrive in 30 minutes). Then Lilly threw up again. It was a crazy afternoon. Thank goodness Tory was here to help me. When I finally got Lilly in the tub and cleaned up and dressed, she was crying again, so I told her that I'd make a little bed for her on the couch and that she could watch TV. I took her downstairs and she laid down on the rug in the center of our living room and immediately fell asleep. I've never seen anything like it. I tried to move her to the couch and she ran back to the rug and fell asleep again. We had to take her out to the car when it was time for our showing and she laid down in the grass next to the car :( So sad. She was still sleeping on the rug the next day so I took her to the doctor, where she promptly fell asleep on the exam table. Turns out she had strep and it can cause vomiting in children. I did not know that. She was so sick, but it was so good to see her get better (and to be in awe at the power of penicillin).

Slowly recovering the next day

All better and ready for some Cubs baseball! Go Cubbies! We had a baseball-themed dinner with sausage and peppers, peanuts, chips and guac and root beer floats for dessert.

A few days later Lilly and I went to check out a new park. We were the only ones at the park and she loved that the two of us could do whatever we wanted (including driving the "cars" for a long time). It was fun.

What a kook!

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon we went to pick apples and pumpkins in Glastonbury with our friends the Layows. I think Lilly was shocked that fruit actually grows on trees. She kept picking up the rotting apples from the ground (we didn't take those home with us).

Mike, Lilly, Ethan, Melissa, Isaac and Luke on the hayride to the orchards

Tory and Lil and me

She truly did have bushels of fun

Telling Dada something incredibly important

Look what I found in the pumpkin patch :)

It was "SO heavy"

A pretty day for pumpkins (or as Mike, a grown, 30 year old man calls them, "punkins")

Searching for just the right ones

Yet another rotting apple from the ground, given to us in love

Tory and I headed down to NYC on a Saturday to look at lots of apartments. We walked around the city with different brokers for about five hours. Never again will I choose my "cute" shoes over my nerdy sneakers. I am still dealing with the blisters weeks later. But we had a really fun and busy day. We were so busy that I didn't get to take any pictures until we were driving home at about midnight. Tory was so happy that I was capturing the occasion!

Stakeout

2008-09-20T19:31:00.000-04:00

Our house is still on the market, hasn't sold yet (as of October 23rd). We've had two different sets of lookers who were deciding between our house and another one and apparently they chose the other one :) We've dropped the price twice and now we'll just wait for the right buyer. Go horrible economy!

Sometimes when we have showings they're right before Lilly's nap or I need to do something and can't just leave for two hours, so we do a stakeout at the school across the street from our house. Then we can go back home as soon as the lookers leave. It caused a little confusion for Lilly in the beginning ("Why can't we just go home?"), but she's gotten used to it by now. Some people find it to be stalker-ish but it's actually fascinating :) You can learn all sorts of interesting things about the lookers!

Here's a picture from one of our showings. Lilly in her seat in the car, snack in hand, Addie anxiously panting in the"way back" (as we used to call the back of my mom's maroon-interior station wagon), and in the distance, our house.

If you think that staking out your own house when people are looking to buy it is really wierd, then you just don't know how curious (nosy) I am :)

Fall

2008-09-19T07:46:00.003-04:00

Two nights ago we were still sleeping with the summer blanket on our bed and the air conditioner on all night. Last night I slept in my warmest pajamas and I am finally pulling my Uggs back out of the closet this morning. The low on Saturday night is 35. Brrr! We are determined to sell our house before the heat needs to be turned on after reminiscing over our $880 gas bill from one month last winter. Seriously. That is a mortgage payment, not a gas bill. So, should you find yourself coming to visit us (and we do love visitors) - bundle up!

I realize that I've been remiss in updating my blog with some of our biggest goings on. So here they are...

1) Tory is here with us now! She's been living in Seattle for the past couple of years and decided that she's always wanted to live in NYC and now is the time to do it. She was slightly sidetracked by a bad ankle break and the ensuing surgery, but she's here now and on Saturday she and I head for the city to try to find an apartment for her. Job still to be determined. In Tory fashion, I'm sure she'll find something fabulous. Lilly is obsessed with "Touw" and likes to follow her around. It totally works for me, though, I got to go for a run by myself in the middle of the afternoon. The middle of the afternoon! Those two are are a couple of peas in a pod. It's so much fun to have her here - we're secretly hoping she won't find an apartment too quickly...

2) Potty-training - Lilly has been doing an awesome job on the potty. She's only had one peeing accident, but who could blame her, she was playing with her five year old friend whom she just adores. I decided not to be quite such a hard-core and she wears "naptime/nighttime undies" (aka Pull-ups) when sleeping, which has been working out a lot better for all involved parties.

3) We thought we were going to get an offer on our house last week, but it hasn't materialized. We have another showing today that we're hopeful about. Last weekend we had an open house (in addition to the two realtor open houses that we've had) and all the neighbors got to have a good stare :) Mike's getting a little stressed out that it hasn't sold yet, but it's only been on the market for two weeks today and I know that God is working on things that we can't even imagine. Things are still slowly coming together in Austin and I have a feeling that everything is going to happen all at once. If you want to check out our listing, you can see it here. Click on the picture of our house to see more pictures of the inside.

4) For anyone who has seen my hair lately, it had gotten a *little* light. And when I say "a little light," I mean like a teenaged Jersey girl, dark roots and all. Since Tory is here I got to go have it fixed a bit yesterday. After three hours with my new friend Giovanni, I'm in much better shape. I have plans to head to the dentist next week too...

Lilly is lying in bed singing "Wheels on the Bus." I think it's time to go get her! Have a great day!

We're moving (again)!

2008-09-09T20:52:00.003-04:00

For those of you that haven't heard, we're moving to Austin, TX! We've really had an incredible time in Connecticut, made amazing friends, and Mike has so enjoyed working here, doing what he does, with the people he works with, but God has been calling us for some time to something else and we just couldn't ignore that anymore.

He's got a great opportunity (that's still coming together) to work at/for a new church in Austin (Austin New Church) and then to eventually start another church in Austin connected with ANC. I've never seen him so excited about something. God has been preparing both of us for this for a long time. We've seen a lot going on in the church lately and ANC has an amazing vision for really, actively living out our faith in other people's lives. We're so excited to get to be a part of it.

So, we are moving across the country for the second time in less than a year. That prospect is a bit daunting, but we'll go wherever God calls us and do whatever he asks of us. We've quickly finished up a lot of the house projects that we had put off for a while and put our house on the market on Friday. This clearly isn't the best market to try to sell a house in, but we know that God's got great things in store and we're just trusting in what he's doing and so thrilled at getting to really live our lives with him.

Hook 'em horns! (And Go Buffs!)

Pictures of Lilly's summer adventures

2008-09-09T19:56:00.007-04:00

Lilly spent her summer...

Having special breakfasts with Dada

Searching for shells with "Uncle Tuck" and Nannie

Hanging out in the ocean

Swimming at the pool

Eating waffles

Going for walks

Making sand castles

Visiting friends

Loving on Dada

Playing at the Spray Pad

Learning how to give a thumbs up

Collecting things in her "puwse"

Kissing on Mama

"Growing" a lobster

Eating at The Wayfarer

Having picnic dinners on the porch

Wearing her last ever diaper

Wearing big girl undies

Watching videos

Celebrating Addie's birthday

"Making" brownies at Grandma and Grandpa T's

Kickin' it at the beach

Rockin' the GRB 4th of July parade

Hangin' with the whole fam

and last but certainly not least -

Cruising for ice cream in the convertible with Mr. Beebens

Happy 4th Birthday Addie!

2008-08-03T21:33:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday to the world's best dog, our first daughter, the illustrious Addison Jane ("Sophia") Tolerico. May the next year be filled with long walks, lots of treats, many sticks and lots of good naps.

Then:

And now:

Happy Birthday Addie!

Happy Anniversary!

2008-08-02T12:40:00.004-04:00

I can't believe it, but Mike and I got married in Vail five years ago. We've been through a lot, but I wouldn't trade a minute of it. I love getting to share this big adventure with my best friend. Mike keeps me laughing, thinking and cleaning and I love him more than I ever thought I could. We are more different than I knew and more alike than we like to admit. He is more than I ever dared to hope for and for that, I am grateful.

We used to celebrate our anniversary by going back to the Ritz in Beaver Creek (woo-hoo for off season specials!), but since times and locations have changed, we settled for a babysitter and dinner out. We had a great, long, fancy dinner together and got to talk for hours like we used to. Then, to cap the night off, I fell down the stairs right in the center of town, in front of about 30 people, on a busy Saturday night. Perfect!

Some pictures from then and now:

I love you, Mikey...

Austin

2008-07-31T21:05:00.005-04:00

Mike and I got to take a little trip down to Austin to meet with some friends and explore the city. Lilly got to stay in Maine with my parents and we got to have a few uninterrupted conversations! We had some awesome Mexican food (oh, how we've missed it!), some awesome barbecue (Stubb's, The Salt Lick), some awesome margaritas and an overall great time.

Some pictures...

Lilly and I (post-trip) in our UT shirts. Mike just couldn't get one, too traitorous to CU...

Beautiful early morning view of Town Lake from Mt. Bonnell

Mt. Bonnell self-portrait

Austin!

A beautiful morning, good chai tea and my husband = happy Sarah

Beautiful!

Inside the Capitol

The Texas Capitol

Diving into some awesome barbecue

This is seriously the first rental car they gave us, the only bright yellow one on the lot. We were able to switch to something slightly more muted :)

Arriving in Austin!

The first of many picture updates

2008-07-30T10:33:00.006-04:00

Here are the first of many overdue pictures. These are from our trip to Europe with my family in the beginning of June. Sorry that they're totally out of order, but at least they're here :) On our trip we flew to Barcelona, then went on a Royal Caribbean cruise that stopped in Marseilles, Sardinia, Sicily and then back to Barcelona. After that we hopped in a van and drove up to Cannes to stay with Mike's Aunt Janis and Uncle Jacques for a few days. It was an amazing trip!

On the deck of the Navigator of the Seas, preparing for an intense shuffleboard battle. We must have been the only shuffleboard enthusiasts onboard (or perhaps the only people under the age of 90 wanting to play?) because there was never a wait :)

All of us in the dining room at dinner, before stuffing ourselves silly yet again - my mom, dad, Aunt Janet, Tory, me, Mike

On the red carpet in Cannes

Mike with his Uncle Jacques and Aunt Janis in Cannes

Tory and me wearing our sunglasses in a picture just to drive my dad crazy :)

Tory at the most incredible (and cheap!) tapas restaurant in Barcelona on our last night. Note the Sangria-induced excitement on her face...

Barcelona at night

There is little that I dislike more than people singing "Happy Birthday" to me in public, but it was very sweet of them to do (notice the pained expression on my face and Tory laughing at me)

Mike and me on my birthday (the lioness hair is due to general frizz and humidity, but also a strong wind)

Our 9 passenger van at Janis and Jacques' beautiful house outside of Cannes

The adorable little guest house that Mike and I got to stay in

Me and Mike in France!

Our first cruise stop in Marseilles

A couple of dorks and the view over Sardinia

Mikey about to enjoy an awesome Italian cappucino

A pretty produce stand in Sicily

At my birthday lunch in Sicily

Potty Training (or, How To Do 50 Loads of Laundry a Day)

2008-07-29T08:33:00.002-04:00

We are back home, again, and settling in for a little while now. I've been home for less than 10 days in the last two months and I think it's started to catch up with me! I have lots of pictures to post and I promise I'll work on it! Summer has been flying by...

Now that we're home we decided that it was time to get serious about potty training. Several people have recommended a program developed by "The Queen of Potty Training" that basically involves three intensive days of non-stop focus on all things potty. We packed up all of her diapers yesterday and said goodbye to them. We have to just stay home (close to the potty) for three days. We're just now starting day 2 and I think we're both tired of being inside so much.

Yesterday we went through 17 pairs of underwear (I'm not exaggerating). I finally caught on to the fact that Lilly was so enamored of the Elmo and Princesses underwear I'd gotten for her that she was intentionally having accidents so that she could wear all the different pairs. (Such a little fashionista!) I outsmarted her by switching to the plain white ones. This plan also involves full potty training, including nighttime and naps. When I put Lilly down for her nap yesterday I told her to tell me if she had to go potty and we practiced and I was pretty sure she had it down. I didn't hear from her while she napped and went to get her up as soon as I heard her stirring. She saw me come in and proudly said, "Look, wet undies!" as she lay there in a pool of pee. Oh well. Last night wasn't too much better as I had to change her and all her bedding three times. But she's had some great successes and I think it's starting to click. It's adorable how proud of herself she is when she gets it. Okay, enough talk of the potty!

Summer

2008-07-10T07:16:00.003-04:00

Sorry it's been so long - we've been having a great summer!

One of the best things about living in Connecticut is that we're so close to Maine - my favorite place in the world. My family has moved a bit (I'm currently living in the 16th building I've called home), but my grandmother's house in Maine has always been the one constant in my life. Whenever people tell me to think of a "happy place," for me it's always Maine. So, needless to say, I've been spending a lot of time there. The novelty of being able to just get in my car and drive there has still not worn off...

Most of my mom's family got together there for our annual 4th of July clambake, some intense beach volleyball, lots of great desserts and some good wine. Lilly, Addie and I were there for 9 days and Mike came up for four of them - someone in this family has to work :) Lilly loved playing on the beach (though her opinion of sand is minute to minute), and Addie loved swimming in the ocean. I loved getting to spend time with my family and lots of time with my mom, being out of the Connecticut humidity and soaking in the beauty of the ocean and the air and checking out of our everyday life for a little while.

Part of the quaint 4th of July activities in Maine include a 5K race and a children's bike parade. I ran in the race again this year and thought Mike would be running with me, but he backed out. I'm pretty sure it was because he thought I would beat him :) Or maybe it was just that he had a huge sausage and egg sandwich for breakfast. Whatever the reason, my cousin Derek and I were the lone runners. I had my best time yet - 25:21, an 8:16 average pace. My "official" time is a little higher, due to the massive backlog at the start of the race. I got to give Lilly a high five when I ran by, and the family cheering section was out in force.

My cousins convinced me that it's not wierd for a 30 year old with a toddler to join Facebook, so I did and I can't believe how many people I've gotten back in touch with! It's amazing. I still feel sort of sheepish when I log on and keep looking over my shoulder to make sure that there are no 18 year olds (or my husband) laughing at me, but it's so much fun to find out what a lot my high school and college friends are up to.

Now we are home in CT for a little while. Lilly will head back up to Maine to spend some time with my parents for a few days next weekend (wish them luck), while Mike and I get to head out for a fun weekend trip. We finally caved and bought air conditioners which has restored life in our house. Being hot makes me cranky and when the indoor humidity is hovering over 80% it makes me very cranky. Woo hoo air conditioning!

There is sometimes a little gap in my posts, usually because I would love to post pictures and I can't hunt down the cord to upload them, or I don't have time to go through and pick out the good ones. So, once again, I promise to post some pictures soon.

In lieu of a picture of Lilly, I will share a little anecdote. Lilly has entered that phase of her life where she is constantly asking questions. Her recent interest is in music. She always asks "Who's that?" and "What they singin' bout?" When we were driving up to Maine last week a John Mayer song came on the radio. She asked the usual questions and I told her who was singing and that the name of the song was "Say What You Need to Say." She looked at me for a minute and then said "Say what need say... Need say please." I guess constantly drilling it into her is starting to sink in...

I'm back! (and have been for a while...)

2008-06-27T17:37:00.002-04:00

Sorry it's taken me so long to post! We had an incredible time on our trip to Europe, I am now 30, Lilly and I have been to Maine, and we've now settled into the oppressive humidity in Connecticut. I'll post again soon with more about our trip, some pictures and some Lilly updates.

Bon Voyage

2008-06-06T06:53:00.002-04:00

Just a quick update post...

We had a really fun visit with Jen and Lauren last weekend. Jen was so great to come all the way out here by herself and we loved every minute of it. We got some great pictures, but I only have time to post one. I'll put more up when we're back from our trip.

Speaking of which, we leave for Spain today! On Wednesday morning Lilly and I headed out to Denver. I left her there with Mike's parents and flew back here on the red eye. She is happily ensconced there, we talked to her last night and she was watching The Little Mermaid and eating a chip, so I'd say things are going well for her :) My Uncle Bill came and picked Addie up - they were heading up to Maine for the weekend and then she'll go back home with him. Bill told us that she's already been to the beach twice and is a happy girl.

Now that everyone is settled, we head out today! We leave from Boston, and then take the red eye to Barcelona from New York. Our cruise leaves from Barcelona tomorrow, with stops in France and Italy. Then we're back in Barcelona on the 12th and we'll drive up to see Mike's aunt Janis and uncle Jacques in Nice. And then we come back here on the 15th. Well, I do. Mike flies on to Denver to visit with his parents and bring Lilly home.

By the time I'm back I'll be 30! I used to think 30 was just ancient, but I've definitely been rethinking that lately :)

We'll post lots of pictures when we're back!

More pictures

2008-05-28T15:50:00.007-04:00

What we've been up to...

Nannie and Lilly on Mother's Day at the Providence airport

On our way home from Providence we stopped at Mystic Seaport

Nothing says Happy Mother's Day like a giant anchor!

On our way to Denver - Lilly wanted to put on her "pack-pack"
The portable DVD player - the greatest invention ever, an antsy toddler's best friend.

With Grandma and Grandpa T!

Making monkey faces with Grandpa T

Lilly and her friend Allie - kind of playing together, kind of ignoring each other

Lilly and her great-grandpa. Always on the move!

Great-grandma Ella, Mike and his silly picture face, Uncle Mike

Lilly, Great-grandpa and Aunt Chris

The weather in Denver was beautiful! Lilly at the park

A cute little smile on the swings

Lilly and Dada - ready for naptime!

Reading books with Grandpa T

Lilly and her doppelgangers!

Trying out the smile recognition feature on our new camera (I dropped our old one in NYC)

Lilly and Mike playing, I just missed a shot of her throwing up! (just kidding)

Poor Addie's bite (they kindly agreed to pay our vet bill!)

Lilly and Mike at the West Hartford Memorial Day parade (don't worry, she was slathered in sunblock!)

"Are we finally going to get a band or is it another Girl Scout troop?"

I'm still here!

2008-05-24T21:58:00.002-04:00

Hello to my three faithful readers :) Sorry it's been so long - life has been good and rough and busy. We got some tough news about Mike's dad's health, so we got to go out to Colorado to visit last week, which was so good for us. It's hard to be so far away when you just want to be there. If you're a pray-er we would love prayers for healing and peace for Michael and all of us.

I know that I can be quite verbose at times, so I will try to give some brief updates and thoughts:

The week before last my mom was here. She was so determined to see Lilly - and Mike and me, of course :) - that she got out of bed and flew out here, still recovering from pneumonia and all.

This morning I ran the farthest that I ever have - 4.57 miles. It felt good! I didn't die! I didn't even feel like I was going to die! Good progress.

Mike gets to give his first sermon at our church here tomorrow. I love hearing him speak, but don't think I'll get to tomorrow - for my last (or second to last) week as the interim head of the children's ministry I will probably be filling in in one of the classrooms again. Bless all the volunteers, but my goodness they're flaky when it comes to actually being there! So I'm disappointed that I won't get to hear him in person, but I've gotten to be there for all the drafts. There's so much that goes into preparing Mike's sermons, it's amazing to see what God does in the process.

We bought The Little Mermaid for Lilly for our trip to Colorado. She and I sat down to cozy and watch a few minutes of it before she went to bed tonight. Tory used to watch that movie incessantly, but I still couldn't believe that I knew so many of the songs. Lilly finally told me in a loud voice, "Mama no sing, just Aribow." (Aribow = Ariel)

We had to board Addie while we were in Colorado, which is very traumatic for our poor, sensitive dog. Even worse, she was bitten by another dog while she was there. They just casually mentioned it to me when I picked her up, but when I looked at it at home it was an incredibly deep and angry-looking bite, so off to the vet we went. Poor sweet puppy, she wouldn't hurt a fly and the vet said that she was probably trying to get away when she got bitten. It had been too long to give her stitches, so she's now on antibiotics and pain medication and I have to squirt some ointment into it three times a day. It makes me weak when I think about it too much. But lucky girl gets to go stay with my uncle Bill when we go on our next trip and I'm genuinely concerned that she's going to love it so much with him that she won't want to come home.

Jen and Lauren are coming for a quick visit this weekend! We are SO excited to get to see them, and it's so awesome of Jen to make the trip. We'll get lots of pictures of Lilly and Lauren together.

The countdown to 30 is T minus 17 days. Au revoir my twenties...

Tomorrow afternoon we go to a cookout at Amy and Thad's. I love a festive holiday weekend cookout! And Thad makes a mean pomegranate cosmopolitan - yummy! On Monday we head to the Strawberry Festival and then the West Hartford Memorial Day parade. The weather was beautiful today - after my run at the reservoir this morning we all walked into town for coffee and muffins. The bushes and trees and flowers are blooming. I'm dying to plant some flowers, but we'll have to wait a few weeks because...

We get to go on our amazing trip to Europe with my family in a little less than two weeks! With all that's going on, we thought we might not go, but instead we are taking Lilly out to Colorado to stay with Mike's parents. She will also have such a good time that we're afraid she won't want to come home. I've only been away from Lilly for five nights of her life, and I will be away from her for twelve nights and when I think about it too much my heart hurts. But I know it will be good for her and I know it will be good for me. She and I fly to Colorado on Wednesday morning and then I take the red-eye back to CT that night. Then I take another red-eye to Spain on Friday night. That also makes my heart hurt when I think about it too much :)

There are a lot of really amazing things going on in our lives, transposed with some really tough things. At times like this we just have to praise God that we aren't in control of it all and that He is. No matter what, even when I don't understand, that makes my heart happy.

Finally, some pictures.

2008-05-09T13:44:00.007-04:00

Okay, these pictures are completely out of order, but I give up. It takes me way too long to post pictures. Can someone give me a lesson?

This was just a few days ago, but it's for the Leesons - Lilly right after her first Fluffernutter!
Lilly and her BFF Uncle Joey.

Wondering what the dude in the red suit is doing...
Joey had just gotten there and she'd already roped him in to some Monkey George watching.
The first bite of Fluffernutter. I think she thought it was going to be liver or something. She's very untrusting of anything new I give her.
So proud that we had just arrived in NYC, just gotten to Central Park and she had already gotten her tights so dirty that we had to take them off!

Just.too.much.excitement!
Refreshed, posing in Bryant Park, dreaming of the day she'll walk the runway there (for all you Project Runway fans).
Thinking deep thoughts at the fountain across from The Plaza.
With Dada and Aunt Lishy in Rockefeller Plaza.
Still snoozing.
Listening intently to Uncle Corey read in his Smurf voice.
We finally got Corey to play some Guitar Hero - it's addictive!
Corey and Lishy got to watch Monkey George too.

The amazing dinner that Corey made for us.
Enjoying our picnic in Central Park.
Elmo! (Mike swears that the people who dress up as Elmo for tips are probably some sort of pervert, but Lilly seemed to enjoy it nonetheless :)

Everybody gone. Sad.

2008-05-02T15:14:00.002-04:00

To quote Lilly, "Everybody gone. Saaaad." We had a great visit with my dad and Lilly thinks that he's still riding around on a train somewhere, after we got to wave goodbye to his train as he pulled out of Hartford, heading for Washington D.C. Then we had a great time with Alisha, Corey and Joey. We all got to head to NYC, which was a first for everyone but me, but I hadn't been there in years. We heeded no one's advice and decided to drive rather than taking the train, which actually worked out really well. We parked right in Manhattan and hit the Trump Tower for a bathroom break. I was hoping that there would be gold toilets, but instead they were a decidedly 80s pink. From there we set out for the Carnegie Deli. Upon arrival we saw that the line went half way down the block and opted instead for the seemingly charming Benash Deli across the street. The food looked good and we were all excited for some authentic deli food. We took our lunch and had a picnic in Central Park. The park was fantastic, the food was not. When you pay $25 (!) for a Reuben you sort of expect that it will be a good Reuben. Actually, nothing was good, not the Reubens, not the latkes, not the matzo ball soup. Oh well, everyone needs to get ripped off in New York once.

We walked around the park and then headed down Madison Avenue towards Rockefeller Plaza. On the way we had our one celebrity siting of the day - we saw Darlene's boyfriend from the show "Roseanne." He was standing on the sidewalk in front of his hotel, smoking. Not quite what I had hoped for, but at least it was someone :)

Rockefeller Plaza was fun - I liked seeing where the Today Show is filmed. Joey and Corey headed up to the observation deck at the top of the building and said that the views were amazing. The rest of us didn't feel like ponying up the $20 admission fee. Then we headed on to the seriously over-stimulating Times Square. Lilly was so awed by it that she finally fell asleep in her stroller. Then we went on to my favorite spot, Bryant Park. It's such a pretty place right in the middle of it all.

Then we headed back up Fifth Avenue and poked around in a few stores. We checked out The Plaza Hotel (beautiful!) before taking Lilly to FAO Schwartz. She was really amazed by it. Mike and I wanted to get her a little souvenir, but there wasn't anything that she wanted (who is this child?), so we continued on.

Corey was dying to at least have a drink at Daniel Boulud's restaurant, and we knew Lilly couldn't handle that, so Corey, Alisha and Joey headed there and Mike, Lilly and I got to make a pilgrimage to Chipotle! Oh, how we've missed it! It was fantastic and worth the 13 block walk in the cool, windy weather. Then we headed back to West Hartford, which seems like a bucolic farm community compared with the excitement of NYC.

The next night Corey cooked us the most amazing dinner of crab-stuffed mushrooms and sea bass with fennel, apples and oranges. It was AMAZING. Corey is an owner and the chef at John's in Boulder and makes amazing food. As someone who loves food, I so appreciate everything he makes.

Otherwise, we hung out in West Hartford, ate some more and Lilly was completely doted on by her aunt and uncles. We really had such a good time with them and were so sad to see them go. They are such great people and such great friends. Lilly especially loves Joey and just wanted to watch him a lot. She also loves Corey's Smurf-like reading voice and wanted to be with Lishy all the time. I really love it when our house is full of people, so head for Connecticut for a visit soon!

In other news, I am writing this blog on our new Mac laptop. I know, we are total Mac, yuppy nerds, but we are trying to do our part to stimulate the economy by spending our newly deposited check from the government on something really worthwhile :) Actually, Mike and I have kind of been fighting over who got to be on the computer lately and we decided that we really need to be more portable. It is fantastic to browse the internet from anywhere in the house!

My mom was in the ER the other night and finally went home with a diagnosis of pneumonia. Get well soon, Mom!

Tonight we're having some friends over and tomorrow we're hoping to tackle some painting in the house. We've painted almost everything downstairs, but the upstairs is all still stark white, so we've got lots of work to do. Where is Tory the expert edger when we need her? I had a meeting here the other night for the teacher's in our church's children's ministry and people really seemed to like our house, which was so nice to hear. I guess the work we've done has paid off, as our house was for sale for a year and a half with no takers. It's still kind of an odd place, but it's really come a long way. Next weekend my mom is coming to visit and we're going up to Boston for my cousin's daughter's 2nd birthday party. The next weekend we are heading out to Denver for a quick visit with Mike's parents and then Mike gets his first chance to preach at our new church on Memorial Day weekend.

In weight loss news, I am .1 pounds away from hitting a big milestone for myself, so I'm hoping that by next week I'll be in a new weight bracket. I'm hoping to drop another ten pounds before our trip next month, which would at least put me in the same stratosphere as my pre-pregnancy and pre-hypothyroid weight range. I might have to start pulling some two-a-days. My trainer suggested sweating it out by overdressing in a hoodie at the gym, but I'm not sure that's a good look for me :)

Okay, enough is enough. I'm just so comfortable lounging as I type this that I could go on forever... I'll post some pictures soon from last week. Have a great weekend!

Mike's blog

2008-04-23T21:40:00.004-04:00

Since my husband thinks I'm supercool and copies everything I do, he too has started a blog :) His promises to be much more insightful and thought-provoking than mine. If you are interested in the other half of us, you can go to www.miketolerico.typepad.com. He's an awesome writer and always makes me think (and sometimes disagree!) and I love him, so you should check it out :)

Pictures from the road (and more)

2008-04-23T13:37:00.005-04:00

Lilly and her great grandmother Clemmie

Lilly and Amma

Mike, Nate and their girls

Me, Lilly (with the "pretty smile" that Mike taught her) and Mandy

Lilly and "Rosie" reading books

Lilly and Dodo reading books this morning - can you tell how much she loves a good book? :)

Lilly and her dandelion - she thinks they're beautiful flowers!

Lilly and Dodo watching Monkey George - Dodo was so enthralled by it! :)

Road Trip

2008-04-23T13:20:00.005-04:00

We're back! Lilly and I had a great time in Pennsylvania. We got to have a quick visit with Mike's grandmother and a few visits with Amma. Lilly, as it turns out, is a great road-tripper (particularly after I rigged up our portable DVD player so that she could watch Finding Nemo) and our drives were long, but not too bad. It was so good to get to see Mike's grandmother Clemmie - she fed us all sorts of delicious treats and read books to Lilly. Then we headed on to my aunt Wendy and uncle Nick's house in Millersville. It was great to get to spend some time with them. We also got to see my cousin Allison and Addie's cousin Olivia, and got to eat at Allison and Eric's restaurant Effie Ophelia in Lancaster. Eric makes really incredible food and I am still dreaming of his sweet potato gnocchi. It was so good to get to see Amma - she is at a great assisted living place with a beautiful view of the surrounding farmland.

Then we headed up to Boston on Saturday to see Mike's good friend Nate and his wife Jenn and their 8 month old daughter Kaitlyn. It was great to catch up with them and finally get to meet Kaitlyn, who is such a sweet and beautiful girl. We had a great lunch at the Union Oyster House and then walked around Quincy Market. After that, we headed out to Belmont to see one of my dearest (and definitely my oldest) friend Mandy and her husband Brodie. We went for a walk (Lilly insisted on "running" most of the way) and then had a great dinner and learned their secret to the most deliciously soft chocolate chip cookies. Lilly really loved Mandy and Brodie, who she called "Rosie." We're not sure why, but it seemed to stick. It was such a fun day and great to get to catch up with good friends.

Dodo (my dad) arrived last night and got to go to MyGym with us this morning. Tomorrow Uncle Joey, Aunt Lishy and Uncle Corey come to Hartford! Seeing family makes us so happy and it's always so much fun to have a house full of people. If only we had more bathroom space...

Lilly is going through a "shy" phase where it takes her eons to warm up to people (all of whom she knows and remembers). Once she is comfortable you can't get her to stop talking, but I'm hoping this is a temporary thing for her. Then again, I've been going through my "shy" phase for almost 30 years, so why do I think she'll be any different? :)

That's it for now. I'll post some pictures above. For those that are interested, yes, the weather has greatly improved and everything is really looking pretty, but, no, I don't think we'll be life-long Connecticut residents :)

Love it!

2008-04-14T08:09:00.002-04:00

My new obsession is with Mrs. Meyer's Lemon Verbena cleaning products. They're natural and safe and they smell amazing. It's actually a treat to clean when I use them. So I had to mention them in case anyone is interested in something to make cleaning just a little bit more exciting :)

Weekend recap

2008-04-14T07:35:00.002-04:00

Busy weekend, beautiful weather! We didn't do anything too exciting, but did do lots of little things. I got my hair cut on Saturday and I haven't been this blonde since birth! I'm not yet sure how I feel about it. I had a terrible haircut right before we left Denver in October. The poor girl seemed to be quite new and cut these horribly short layers on the sides of my head. I'm still trying to grow them out, so this time the girl I go to here cut my hair quite a bit shorter so that the really short parts don't stand out so much. She was able to make it all sleek and smooth when she dried it, but I'm not sure I'll have the same success.

Yesterday we had our usual busy morning at church. I'm temporarily heading up the children's ministry and it's been a bit more involved than I thought it would be. The hardest part is that volunteers are constantly canceling and we have to desperately search for people who can fill in, which usually means me (and sometimes Mike)! I haven't been to an actual service at church in weeks, but it's fun to get to spend time with all the kids. Mike was a greeter and did the announcements again. Lilly played with stickers and ate (a lot of) Cheerios :)

Other exciting activities: seeding and (organically) fertilizing the lawn, running, taking Lilly to Build-a-Bear, having a delicious dinner at Sander and Susie's house and taking some family walks. Can you stand the excitement? :)

This week Lilly and I are heading out for our first solo road trip (please keep me in your prayers!) We're going to Pennsylvania to visit Mike's grandmother in Hazleton and my grandmother and aunt and uncle in Lancaster. We'll have a four hour drive, then a two hour drive, then a five hour drive back. We get back here on Friday, then on Saturday head up to Boston to visit with one of Mike's oldest friends and his wife and their baby, and then to see my good friend Mandy and her husband Brodie. Then next week Dodo comes for a visit, then Alisha, Corey and Joey are coming. Lots of fun stuff coming up!

The nicer weather here has certainly cheered us up a bit. It is so nice to be able to spend some time outside (I've been able to run outside in the mornings and Mike has been riding his bike to work). Lilly and Addie and I play outside every afternoon and I have to drag them both in when it's time to make dinner.

Have a great week! Leave a comment! Does anyone read this thing?

I am mortified!

2008-04-10T19:43:00.002-04:00

We've had a lot going on this week and I just didn't feel like cooking tonight, so we headed for the Center and went to the new Au Bon Pain that just opened. Lilly was starting to get tired and cranky, but we had a nice dinner. When it was time to go Mike cleared our dishes and I was packing up our things at the table with Lilly. A nice 80ish year old woman sat down at the table across the aisle and looked over at Lilly and smiled.

What did Lilly do back? Did she smile or wave or say hi? Oh no. She looked at this sweet woman and in a very loud and clear voice said "No, lady, no." Then she changed it to "No, grandma, no." (As an aside, she's been watching The Berenstain Bears on PBS and they keep talking about their grandma - this woman in no way resembled Grandma T!) I instantly started shushing her and trying to just smile back at the nice woman, but she repeated herself again and the woman finally just looked away.

Though I'm sure Lilly didn't really know what she was saying, I have never been so embarrassed as a parent. Mike didn't hear it all, he just thought she was saying that the woman was a grandma, but I rushed them both right out of there. She at least mustered a wave on the way out. We have since had several stern chats with Lilly about needing to call people "sir" and "ma'am" and not shouting "no" at anyone.

The poor woman...

Birthday Pictures

2008-04-09T21:17:00.006-04:00

"I cannot believe that I forgot it's my birthday!"

Eating strawberry pancakes...

No child needs this many presents! (Thank you!)

She LOVES her "new bicycle"

Checking out her kitchen (and still loving her new helmet)

So old and so smart (she's always stealing my glasses!)

This is the best day ever!

Lilly's cake (a little more green than I had intended - that food coloring comes out fast!)

She also LOVED the buttercream frosting

A post-birthday ride into town with Dad on her "new bicycle"

Birthday Recap

2008-04-09T21:07:00.002-04:00

Lilly's birthday was a fun whirlwind! We went in to get her out of her crib and she remembered that it was her birthday and that she had on her "Birthday Girl" t-shirt and was so excited. It was another rainy, cool day, so we went downstairs and had strawberry pancakes and then opened presents. She was incredibly overwhelmed by all the really neat things that everyone sent for her and went from thing to thing (and still is). Thank you all so much for being so kind and generous.

Then we were off to her doctor's appointment. As the kind, older Italian nurse kept saying, "God bless her, she's a big girl." She is 35 1/2 inches tall (90th percentile) and 32 lbs, 12 oz (100th percentile). She HATED being checked out and cried the whole time. Much of the time she was so upset that her face was purple and there was no sound coming out. Everyone there was so nice to her, but she just wasn't having it. Then, of course, the minute the doctor left the room and we started getting her dressed, she smiled at us and said "Not so bad." Mike and I laughed so hard.

After her nap we headed off to the paint-your-own-pottery place and she painted a plate that we also put her hand print on. We get to pick it up on the 15th. We decided to go to a Japanese restaurant right in West Hartford Center, thinking that she would love to sit at a hibachi table. She loved it at first, right up until the huge flames about a foot away from her. Mike and I enjoyed it though :)

We had her cake after lunch, so that night we watched a little of Finding Nemo, one of her presents that she just loves. And then we were so wiped out that we all headed off to bed. Since there wasn't really anyone else here for us to celebrate with, the three of us had a great time. It was a fun family day. See the pictures above!

Two years ago...

2008-04-04T07:23:00.002-04:00

Happy Birthday Lilly!

2008-04-04T07:14:00.003-04:00

Happy birthday to my little pumpkin! I can't believe that you're two! These have been the best two years of our life. You bring us sunshine and laughter every day.

Two years ago today I was induced and gave birth to a baby who was stubborn even then. I couldn't believe that she was a girl, and now I can't imagine life without my little buddy.

Mike is taking the day off today and we have lots of fun things planned. We have Lilly's presents out and the "new bicycle" that she's been asking for has a red bow on it. Mike stayed up late putting together her play kitchen and I stayed up late making my little chocaholic a chocolate cake - a Martha Stewart recipe that I made organic and with whole grain flour :). We're having strawberry pancakes for breakfast on this cool and rainy day and then we'll head off for her two year old doctor's appointment.

This little girl is so loved - thank you for all the cards and presents and well wishes - she's going to have a great birthday!

An exciting Saturday night

2008-03-29T21:46:00.004-04:00

Sorry, it's been a few days and I don't really have any pictures to post tonight, but I should in the next few days. This week we got our new windows! We weren't sure how much of a difference they would make, but the difference is actually amazing! It is SO much quieter now. I used to be able to identify every type of vehicle that drove by, and I don't even hear most of them now. It's a lot less drafty too. And we have screens on all the windows now! We just need some nice warm weather so that we can finally open the windows.

I guess Mike and I are still kind of surprised that it's still so cold in March! In Denver there was always the occasional fluke snowstorm, but there were also quite a few warm, beautiful days. We really haven't had those here. Today it was finally sunny, but the high was only about 40. We're so used to doing a lot outside that it's hard to be stuck inside so much. Everyone keeps promising that the summers are beautiful, so we're really hoping it will hurry up and get here soon.

My workouts with Greg have been going really well. I work out with him at 6 am on Tuesdays and Fridays, and I've gotten a lot stronger already. He was surprised at how much weight I could lift the other day. This morning I went to the gym and did an hour of cardio, which is definitely the most I've done consecutively since high school soccer, but I felt great afterwards. I did 20 minutes each on the treadmill, the elliptical and the tread climber. I had seen the tread climber at the gym before and thought that it was sort of akin to the "Gazelle" on those infomercials, but it's actually a really good workout. It sort of feels like you're hiking. Breaking it up on different machines is a great solution for me because I usually get so bored that I feel like I'm going crazy.

Mike's Aunt Chris just got a Mac and we got to ichat with her tonight, which was so much fun! Lilly always goes mute whenever we're hoping she'll talk (and vice versa), but we got to talk to Chris and this weekend she'll bring her computer to Mike's parents house and we'll get to see them too. It's so nice to actually see people in person, they don't feel quite so far away.

Lilly is now able to sing the entire ABC song (though she calls it the ABCD song), and she can also count from 1 to 10. She and Mike watched some snowboarding videos on YouTube and then she started "snowboarding" on our bed by jumping into the pillows. I was counting to three for her to start when she informed me that "Lilly do it self" and she counted as follows: "1, 2, 3, 14, 5, 6, 12 - Go!" But she really can count to ten :)

That's it for now - I'll post more pictures soon - maybe some of our house? I know a lot of people haven't seen very much of it. Have a great weekend!

Sugar hangover...

2008-03-24T14:00:00.002-04:00

I still haven't figured out how to post pictures (see below) and text in the same post without it looking crazy, but I'll get there someday! Happy belated Easter! Mike and I both helped out at both services at our church yesterday, so we were there from 7:30 until 12:30. It was a long morning, but really neat to meet some new people and to see our friends Amy and Thad and Allison Doyle there. Mike got up on stage to do the "hello" and "goodbye" parts, and the best part of that was that he got to wear a flesh-colored, boy band style microphone. You know the kind that hooks over your ear and then has an arm that extends toward your mouth? It was a good look for him. Hee, hee. He did a great job though, and I think things went pretty well with the children's ministry too.

We went to the Doyle's house for dinner last night and it was so nice. It's hard to be away from family on holidays, and we weren't able to go to Pennsylvania to see our grandmothers, or to Massachusetts to see the Leesons, so we were happy to have plans. The Doyles are just wonderful hosts - they had a fire in the fireplace, delicious food and yummy drinks. Lilly LOVES to play with Allison, so they had a great time and we got to just sit on their comfortable couch and chat, and then stuff ourselves with a fantastic Easter dinner. And then the lovely night was capped off with Lilly having a big explosion. She really knows how to time those things :)

It's so nice to go somewhere and just feel like people have thought of every little thing to try to make it nice for you. I've always really admired people who are so thoughtful in that way. Roxy Leeson and Mike's Aunt Chris are both like that too - they just make you feel so comfortable. It's a treat. I aspire to be as hospitable as they are.

Lilly loved everything about Easter yesterday. She loved to wear a pretty dress, and play with the other kids at church, and she really, really loved the candy. She only gets the occasional dessert and has probably only had candy a few times before, so we just let her have at it. Tonight I am boxing up all the rest of the candy to send to work with Mike. Not having had sugar myself in a few weeks, I also kind of went crazy yesterday, but I still feel terrible! I think I function much better without it. I just have to remember that!

Lilly has been loving the Easter books that Grandma and Grandpa T sent her. I went in to get her out of her crib one morning last week and she told me that she was still reading books and that I should go take a shower. So I did! It was great!

We get our new windows on Wednesday, and we're so excited about it. Mike and I were really feeling old the other night when we were getting excited about the features of the new windows (screens! double-paned!) and talking about the cost of utilities. We're still trying to deal with the fact that we are paying a small fortune for the privilege of being so cold in our house. We just got our gas bill and it was $220 less than last month. Progress, progress. Hopefully the 26 new windows will be less drafty and we won't hear as much noise from outside. I long for the days when we talked about books and bands instead of low-e glass and furnaces.

I have to run off to take advantage of nap time and get some cleaning done. Have a great week!

Easter pictures

2008-03-24T13:52:00.005-04:00

A Tolerico family Easter self-portrait

Lilly checking out her haul. She tasted jelly beans for the first time and LOVED them. She doesn't get too much sugar usually, so she really loved them :)

Lilly in her new shirt, which reads, "I want a cat please." Mike wasn't amused.

2008-03-19T15:03:00.002-04:00

Eating her Valentine's Day ice cream from Grandma and Grandpa T at Ben & Jerry's

"Working Out"

At the Hartford St. Patrick's Day parade last Saturday

Dancing in the outfit she picked out all by herself (head to toe stripes)

Watching her favorite movie of all time, Monkey George ("Curious George" to the rest of us)

I'm out of blog title ideas already

2008-03-19T14:50:00.002-04:00

I think some people have read this - how fun! As I suspected you seem to be most interested in pictures of Lilly, so I will post some more today.

Another cold, rainy, gray day in Connecticut today. Yesterday morning Lilly and I spent 2+ hours at the DMV so that I could spend $125 to get a Connecticut license. We still hadn't changed our licenses or car registrations, so I thought it was about time to get going on that. Spending over two hours with a very antsy toddler at a hot, dirty place full of angry people is not my idea of a good time, so Lilly and I were both glad to put that behind us. But they took my Colorado license and kept it, so that was sort of sad. Am I just a little sentimental about things? We get to do it all again when we go to register our cars.

This morning we had our weekly trip to My Gym, which is Lilly's favorite activity of the week. They get to play on all kinds of equipment and dance and sing songs. She gets pretty crazy about My Gym, it's really fun.

We have realized that Lilly is a great encourager. She loves to encourage us (like when I put something in our cart at the grocery store today and she told me "good job, Mama"), and she also loves to encourage herself ("good job, Lilly" when she puts her toys away or uses her fork or does just about anything). Lately she has been all about telling people that they are funny. She'll even bait me sometimes by saying a crazy word and waiting for me to repeat it. When I do she says "You're funny!" I love it, it really makes me laugh.

Happy Wednesday, I'll post some pictures now. I'm not sure what they'll be of, but we have thousands (literally) of Lilly, so I should be able to come up with a few :)

2008-03-17T15:08:00.003-04:00

Mike and Lilly at Horton Hears a Who

Lilly in our new kitchen (note that she put her shoes on herself and they are on the wrong feet)

I love talking about weather

2008-03-17T14:42:00.007-04:00

Today we have a sunny day in Connecticut! It's not exactly warm out yet, but the sun is an incredible encouragement that Spring really is coming. I'd forgotten how long a New England winter feels. I went running outside this morning, thinking it might warmish, and my hands nearly froze off, but I could hear the birds chirping! We're getting there...

It's been a fun adventure for us to come here. It's been a tumultuous few months - selling our house in CO, moving in with Mike's parents, moving to CT, living in a hotel for about a month, buying our house here, renovating the entire kitchen, etc., but things are finally starting to slow down a little bit and that's a great thing. I think we'll really feel a lot better when we can do more outside and we see some more sun.

On Saturday we went and wandered around in the center of town and ended up eating at Whole Foods. We started talking with the people next to us and they moved here from Denver two years ago, and the guy actually worked at Travelers, in the same building as Mike and me. It's such a small world. Unlike us though, they HATE it here. We did get to rant for a little while about how incredibly rude the drivers are here, and how very much we miss Chipotle and the mountains :(

Lilly is doing well with potty-training. I won't go into too many details, but she had another big success this morning :) We took her to her first movie yesterday, Horton Hears a Who. It was so much fun to get to watch her watching the movie. She was pretty good - Mike just had to take her to the back of the theater for the last 15 minutes or so. There were a lot of kids there, all talking throughout the movie, so she did really well for a not quite two year old.

I'm going to try to post a picture of Lilly and Mike at the movie, and maybe a couple others. If this goes well I'll try to post more soon!

Lilly is funny!

2008-03-09T20:00:00.003-04:00

I know that really people are much more interested in Lilly than they are in me, so here are some of her most recent sayings, activities and general hijinks:

1. We started potty-training in earnest about two weeks ago. She has been doing a great job and is SO proud of herself when she goes on the potty, but also has no qualms about going in her diaper. I think it will be a long process, but there is nothing funnier than seeing her sit on her potty, reading a book.

2. Tonight I was making dinner and Mike was in the kitchen talking with me. Lilly started talking from the living room, so I went to see what she was saying. She was lying down on the floor in her red silk gingham dress, white sweater and tights, and she would lift her legs in the air and then put them back on the floor. She told me she was "working out." Where does she learn these things???

3. She has started singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and knows the whole song. It's really so cute to see her sing it because she holds her arm up in the air and looks up at the sky the whole time.

4. The other day she and I were out shopping at Tuesday Morning. Anyone who knows Tuesday Morning knows that they have a strange assortment of things. She suddenly turned around in the cart and pretty much shouted, with total awe and amazement, "God!" I turned and saw that she was looking at a Santa Claus figurine. (Oops, where did we go wrong with that one at Christmas?)

5. Anytime she has to say goodbye to Addie (when we're going out, or when she's going to take a nap or to bed), she gives her a big hug. And then she insists on kissing Addie right on the mouth. Thank goodness we have such a sweet dog :)

That's all I can think of for now, but I'll get some pictures up here soon!

South Beach

2008-03-09T19:46:00.005-04:00

I gave birth to the amazing Miss Lilly almost two years ago. I had a very rough pregnancy and gained lots of weight. Then I had a thyroid problem that went undiagnosed for a year. So, to make a long story short - I still have not lost all of my pregnancy weight. And that has been really bugging me.

When I was single and didn't have a little person to look after every day, it was a lot easier to have a great schedule and stick to it. But since life has changed a little, I've gotten myself a trainer to show me how to best utilize my time at the gym and not keep going to the same machines I've been using since college. I've now had my first three sessions and been INCREDIBLY sore following all of them, which is a great thing!

Part two of my plan is to start eating really healthy foods, and to not eat so much. I think it is a family trait, but I love to eat and would very happily eat all day long if I could. I decided to try the old South Beach Diet, because I think I have sort of a "mild" carbohydrate addiction :) I started it on Tuesday and haven't needed to douse my sorrows in a bowl of mashed potatoes yet, so I'd say it's going well. I've actually been feeling really good and I've been so enthusiastic about it that Mike's decided to do it with me. He has *never* dieted (is that possible? I think so, knowing his metabolism), and really doesn't need to lose any weight, but I am not one to rebuff some company.

This long-winded explanation is my way of saying that I am turning 30 in June and going on an amazing trip to Europe and I'd really just like to be in great shape again.

Update: Mike couldn't even handle it for 36 hours. He thought he was dying. I even drove to his office to deliver some food because he was "so hungry." He was such a grouch that I was begging him to stuff some bread in his mouth 10 minutes after he got home from work :)

My first post...

2008-03-04T14:09:00.001-05:00

I'm not the best writer and I definitely don't have the deepest thoughts (mine are more aligned with those of the literary genius Jack Handey), but here I go. If you've come to this blog for consistency or thought-provoking discussion, keep going. But if you're more interested in seeing pictures of what Lilly and I are up to, or what we're doing in Connecticut, you've come to the right place!

I'll give a quick shout out to my lone reader, Mike. Thank you for always being interested in my deep thoughts :)