Things on Monday

Things I'm Loving:

• The most amazing combination ever: popcorn with sliced jalapenos. Our awesome friends told us to try it and it is incredible and addicting! 
• The p'zookies that I have eaten for the last four nights in a row. 
• Maybelline Eyestudio eyeliner. I am no expert on makeup but my mom gave me this to try last March and I am just barely running out of it! It smears less than any eyeliner I have ever tried. 

• My new job!!! (Childcare at a SUPER SWEET fitness center)

The thing I'm impartial to:

• Castor oil and olive oil in replace of face soap. Don't judge me like Spencer does when I smear oil all over my face every night on purpose! My friend has been doing this for over a year and swears by it. I have been doing this for about a month and haven't noticed much of a change for better or for worse. 

The thing I'm missing:

• Nursing. I miss the extra calories (hello p'zookies and popcorn w/ jalapenos), the cup size (tmi?), the excuse to read during feedings, and especially snuggling Jack. That boy is seriously not physically capable of holding still for more that 30 seconds which means no rocking before bed, no snuggling when he's sad or hurt or sick or tired, and no second book with him because I'm lucky if we get through just one book together these days. It makes me so sad. He miraculously snuggled up with Spencer for a good 3 minutes the other day watching the stupidest show on earth to me and the most thrilling show on earth to Spencer, the Deadliest Catch. (A whole tv series about crab fishing?! Seriously, Jack!?)

Happy Chinese New Year!

Last weekend, I really wanted to celebrate my heritage so I convinced my friend to throw me a late Chinese New Year Party! That's not entirely how it went down and I'm not exactly Asian, but we still had an awesome time eating Asian potluck on the floor while listening to Chinese music and wearing our Chinese attire. (Except somehow, nobody got the memo to dress or look Asian except for me) Spencer was dying to watch Ping Pong Playa that night but he couldn't convince anybody to waste 96 minutes of their life, so he ended up watching it last night by himself instead.

Thanks, Kana, for going all out on my special day ;)

P.S. I totally know karate.

Things I'm loving on VALENTINE'S DAY!

• Valentine's packages from our moms!

• These Valentines cards that never get old:

• Our annual Valentine's Day argument (it went down last night since Spencer has class tonight) in which all I want for Valentine's Day is to decorate heart shaped sugar cookies and deliver them to people and all Spencer wants to do is anything but that. I tell him that he tricked me into thinking that he liked this activity when we were dating by happily and creatively decorating cookies that year and then he says we're even since I tricked him while we were dating into thinking that I actually enjoyed watching movies. (Movies are so long and cheesy or confusing, okay?!) This year we compromised and instead of delivering cookies to friends, he did what elementary kids do and took them to school for his classmates. Here is Spencer pretending to have fun:

 

• Jack's Valentines gift from my mom. He can now sit still for approximately six minutes.

• And the box it came in:

• Prints that I finally made to put in our empty frames to fill our bare walls (remember that one hour I spent on pinterest?):

• My favorite Valentine's Day facebook status, which surprisingly enough is not a picture of the breakfast you made for your significant other or the picture of the flowers that your significant other gave to you. It is this one:

"There are 2 ways to look at the game tonight between the Heat and Thunder as I see it. It would be a thoughtful gift from a wife to her husband to allow him to watch it. Or I would watch it regardless and ruin Valentines day. Ball is your court Summer.... Oh and Happy V Day I Love you!"

(Sorry JakeandSummer Fullmer for being such a stalker)

• The picture of what I made Spencer for breakfast, since this is the thing to post today:

(In case you were wondering, those are heart shaped pancakes, thank you very much!)

• And the picture of what I gave Spencer for Vday:

 

• And the picture of what Spencer gave me for Vday: 

_________________________________________________ ( <-------- this is the space in this post where I'm supposed to talk about how much I love Spencer and how awesome he is but since he never reads this blog I will leave it blank)

And I am truly sorry if nobody has ever given you a 5 pound bag of protein powder and Reeses peanut butter eggs for Valentine's Day. It's the best! 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!! XOXO

Confessions on a Monday

• I would comment on blogs way more if it were as easy as commenting on facebook. I have about a thirty percent success rate in proving that I'm not a robot. 

• On the days I don't wear sweats or workout clothes all day long, I almost always take an afternoon pajama break. 
• I sleep smack dab in the middle of our queen size bed every single night. I feel bad for Spencer, but not bad enough to stop doing it.
• I have three recurring dreams: teeth falling out dreams, tsunami dreams, and I-have-to-go-to-the-bathroom-but-the-toilet-is-in-the-middle-of-a-crowded-room dreams.
• My high school guy friends are frequently in my dreams. (Not romantically, fyi. I don't know if that makes it sound any less creepy?) I have decided that this must be how I subconsciously deal with the fact that half of my very best friends are no longer in my life like they used to be. 
• I am overly excited about the fact that Alabama is alphabetically the first state to select online when I am asked what state I live in. I went from selecting the 3rd state down, to the 44th state down (so annoying), and now I've made it all the way up to number one!!!
• It is nearly impossible for me to not eat something sweet after dinner. 
• I spent a whole hour yesterday on that cyber place I hate called pinterest. 

Things I'm loving about running lately

• Parenthood on netflix while running on the treadmill. I just barely made the amazing discovery that my cheap gym has free wifi so running on the treadmill just got fun. And since HungryRunnerGirl watches Parenthood on the treadmill and since I want to be like her, Parenthood it is. I'm a few episodes in though, and I'm not hooked. Should I keep watching it? Is it good?
• Team 413's "Get There And Share" half marathon that I signed up for to race in April. Here is part of the race description: 

Founded in 2003, TEAM 413 has become the largest ministry for endurance athletes in the world. Run, walk, fellowship and worship with runners from all over the country. All dollars will help us continue our efforts to "GET THERE AND SHARE" Christ with whosoever along our journey. Initial plans are to have a "night before" share time with music and speakers, a pre-race devotion and prayer time, and a post-race celebration with a contemporary Christian band. This will be an event that you will never forget! 

              I love living in the South! 

• My faster running pace. But then when I was in Utah this Christmas and tried running and ended up trotting/walking, I realized that I'm probably only faster because of the low altitude here.
• The Swedish Fish I'm going to buy at the store today for fuel for long runs because it's cheaper than  GU and because HungryRunnerGirl uses swedish fish for fuel and also did I tell you I want to be like HungryRunnerGirl?
• The Backyardigans on Netflix. This has nothing to do with running but why didn't anybody tell me about this darling show and how it is a trillion times better and cuter and not-as-annoying as Barney and Yo Gabba Gabba?!

Ping pong, super bowl, new furniture, etc...

Since living in Birmingham, most of our weekends seem to be slow and simple. It is such a contrast to the many hectic and lonely weekends Spencer and I spent apart our first year of our marriage when Spencer was traveling for track meets. I am truly enjoying it because I know that one day when our weekends are filled with soccer games, yard work, extra church meetings and play dates, I will look back and miss this less-chaotic stage in life.

This weekend, a couple of Spencer's classmates offered to babysit Jack while we went on a date. We went to UAB's rec center to play ping pong (this is what normal people do for dates, right?) and then went out for delicious Thai food. We also set up our new desk and hutch for our living room (not a plastic one this time because it was on crazy clearance!), we caught up on our TV shows (Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, and the Biggest Loser), we went to a super bowl party, and may have visited Sam's Club on both Friday and Saturday for super bowl samples.

Spencer is trying to show Jack that using tools is a lot manlier than putting on makeup:


Jack's new favorite spot: (I don't know if it is possible to hide all of our cords)

I like to photo bomb almost as much as my sister does:

More breakfast procrastination:

Text messaging and post-pregnancy brain (is that even a thing?)

Every day when I get home from the gym, I hop in the shower and wash myself as fast as I possibly can while Jack hurries as fast as he possibly can to put everything we own into the shower (medicine, dirty diapers, deodorant, my straightener, my running shoes, my workout clothes, toilet paper...) After I take a shower, I get dressed, then put Jack on the counter while I get ready for the day. Jack has been imitating everything I do lately, down to trying to brush his hair and attempting to put on blush and mascara. Spencer hates it. I think it is adorable. 

Today after I got out of the shower, Jack was particularly anxious to get along with our routine so I hurried out of the shower and put him straight on the counter as I dried myself off. He quickly grabbed the brush and brushed his hair while talking to himself in the mirror with his little high pitched voice. So cute. I grabbed my phone, stepped to the side, and took a picture of my adorable baby's reflection in the mirror. I admired the picture of my cute baby boy and quickly sent the picture to Spencer and my mom. Since the picture was so dang cute, I went back on my phone to get another look at my adorable baby brushing his hair and that's when my heart stopped... my completely naked body was in the picture to the side of my totally adorable son!!!!!

Has everybody experienced the stomach sinking, "come-back-text-message!!!" feeling at one point in their life? I quickly called my mom in a panic shouting, "DO NOT OPEN THAT PICTURE MESSAGE!!! It is a picture of me naked!!!!!" 

Just guess if she then decided to open it or not... 

(totally opened it)

After our conversation that both had us laughing to tears, I sent a few more texts to her:

Me: Now I feel bad for that Congressman Weiner guy. How do we know he didn't just totally accidentally take a picture of his **whaaaaat?!** and accidentally send it to some random phone number?!

Me: Actually, the perfect placing of my elbow and that pink hair gel on the countertop barely covers me up and is quite teasing.

Me: The people interviewing me for a job today can't look at my picture messaging records can they?

Me: This goes to show I have complete googly mother eyes if I can't even notice my own naked body in the picture too! It doesn't help that my brick phone screen is so small.

Me: Saying a prayer of gratitude that I didn't send the picture to my mother-in-law like I normally do.

And to Spencer: You're welcome.