She Likes Purple

BBL Week #4 Update

The overall leaders for this week:

Jen B. (@jenbernardi)
Beth Fish  
Amie M. (@Amie31)
Whitney A.   
Elizabeth F.  
Maggie B.  
Jennie (me!)  
Annie T.   
Mia B.
Kate B. (@kbaxterk)

Whoo!

***

We're getting to the point in the competition when discouragement sets in. Someone's lost 8 pounds but they're not cracking the leader list and they feel badly about that. I wish I could show up at everyone's door and say, "No no no, you're fabulous. Top ten or not."

(So, everyone, imagine me doing and saying just that!)

But I understand, too.

I said in our support email chain just recently that if someone had knocked on each of our doors right before Christmas and asked, "would you like to be thinner, healthier, and happier at the end of March?" would any of us had said, "not unless I get $1500 for it." So, you have to look at your progress with a lot of pride, no matter where you rank.

It's still anyone's game, too!

This is also the point in the weight-loss game where the scale starts sloooooowing down because it's over the initial shock of sliding down the calorie scale from TOO MUCH ABORT ABORT to REASONABLE DIET.

Do you know how frustrating it can be to run and work-out and eat healthy and step on the scale only to see IT NOT MOVE? A helluva lot! And while rationally I think we all know this is a marathon not a sprint, this is a lifestyle change not an overnight (or overmonth) fix, it can still get hard in the day-to-day of it all.

One of the BBL participants (@HBapothecary) said something so smart recently in one of our emails: "Every day is one day further down a better road." I love this because it reminds me it's not about an end goal, really, it's about being healthier today, and if you make those healthy choices today eventually you'll just be healthy, you know?

(Although, crap, I could use a glass of champagne right about now.)

Me, Elsewhere

Hey, check out my Valentine's gift guide for the ladies at Style Lush (it took a loooooong time so, Mike, how about you buy me one of everything).

Also, the best Brussels sprouts recipe I've ever made/tasted/drooled over is up at Food Lush.

I got cowboy boots! Now, I just need Tim Riggins.

Keeping Up

Our floors never stay clean and just as soon as I put the last dish up, there's a pile in the sink again. The laundry is never-ending and even though I just worked out last night, I have to do it again tonight because I carry this waistline around with me everywhere I go, so I should really like it, don't you think? My car's inspection expired three weeks ago and we're out of eggs and is it almost February, really? Did someone remember to pay the water bill?

(No.)

I look at the calendar and a friend's birthday snuck up on me and I need to send her a card, email her for dinner, pick her up something thoughtful.

I ping-pong between crafting well thought-out, impressive to-do lists with a rigid schedule and losing said to-do lists in my full-of-trash purse and, wait, we forgot to take the recycling out AGAIN?

I cannot serve my child frozen pancakes for dinner two nights in a row, so I push myself off the couch and into the kitchen and think the same thing I think every night: "didn't you just eat yesterday? do you really have to eat again?"

(Turns out he does. As does the dog.)

I have a conference call I can't stop thinking about at home and at work I can't stop thinking "oh MAN what about potty-training."

We need a date night too.

A box of baby clothes to friends sits by the front door and our bed is never -- no really, never -- made. I have five posts to edit and another one to write and it's already midnight and, oh well, I'll just roll out of bed exhausted the next morning like usual.

I owe ten different people ten different emails and the days are both never long enough and endless.

***

Mike gets home, at 9 p.m., like he does every night and he has to eat the dinner I made an hour ago, sneak in to check on the boy I put down two hours ago, before he's in the garage tinkering with his bike, upstairs tinkering with a new piece of furniture or trying to figure out if we have mice in the attic and sometimes I miss him when he's just in the next room.

***

A friend emails to say something randomly and unexpectedly nice right after I get a blog comment that's particularly wonderful. Then Mike sits down on the couch, puts his arms around me, and says, "hi, you." My mom wants to babysit so we can go out with friends and my sister always checks in with me. It's an unusual 70 degrees late-January, even if only for just a day, and after I run three miles straight, I feel like I can do anything, and I feel like I should. I talk to Elizabeth about a May brunch in California and Kyle squeals "Mommmmmmmy!" when I pick him up from school (even if he melts down over leaving school five seconds later). I have fancy new cowboy boots and sparkling water stocked in the fridge and there's always Gossip Girl to save a shitty Monday.

**

Good and bad. Back and forth. Stress and sweetness. Fights and make-ups. Tantrums and squealy sunshiney little boyness. Oh, life, you fickle thing you.

***

I could stop juggling a hundred different balls if I really needed, wanted, had to, and at various times each day, I do. I forget, I screw up, I yell, I leave dirty clothes on the bathroom floor and send out thank-you notes two years too late. I make healthy dinners but I also nuke frozen pancakes and I throw parties just as often as I let important dates pass by unacknowledged. I'm both a good wife and a bad one, sometimes in the same day.

***

This is me, but it's you too, I'd bet so you should know: you're doing great.

We both are.

Things Toddlers Throw Tantrums Over

1. Having to wear socks.

2. Having to take off socks to get in the bath.

3. Having to wear shoes.

4. Not getting to wear shoes to bed.

5. Only getting three cookies vs 3,000.

6. Being picked up.

7. Being put down.

8. Not being picked up/put down fast enough.

9. The family dog looking in their direction.

10. Having to wear a jacket when it's 23 degrees outside.

11. Not getting to watch Cars a tenth time in three days.

12. When mom sings the ABCs instead of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

13. When mom sings Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star instead of the ABCs.

14. When blueberries are served intead of strawberries.

15. Being forced to go to school.

16. Being forced to leave school.

17. When the car keys are taken away because someone has to start the car.

18. When mommy doesn't make the traffic light turn green/red/yellow on demand.

19. When daddy doesn't materialize in the living room when he's requested even though daddy is at work and is not a wizard.

20. When juice is not handed over immediately even after sternly saying "NO JUICE" ten seconds prior.

21. When knifes are taken out of reach.

22. When the wrong Cars book is handed over even though all that was requested was "Cars book" and there are 25 to choose from.

23. When there are only three pacifiers in the crib instead of four or more.

24. When the blue blanket can't be found.

25. Being hugged/kissed/loved upon.

26. EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING.

Not Staged But Almost Two

Kyle insisted on helping Mike push the car out of Wal-Mart* today, and as he did, he stuck his hand in his back pocket, all by himself, OH SHIT COULD YOU JUST DIE?

He's two in less than two weeks and while my chest starts tightening if I think about it too much, I'm actually surprisingly not super emotional about it except for this one emotion: fucking happy. It's not lost on me how genuinely lucky we are to have this guy and to have him relatively healthy and happy. It's not lost on me how sweet and perfect and lovely my little family is.

The time flies by -- we all know that -- and sometimes it flies at such a rate that we're literally stunned by it. But, having an almost two-year-old really doesn't remind me how cruel time can be but, actually, how kind it is. Time gives us babies who become little boys (or girls) and at the end of the day, as I tuck this growing kid into his crib and start to think about transitioning him to a bed so his poor feet quit getting stuck in the slats I'm more stunned by how awesome he is today than how quickly that awesome came to be.

(Also, randomly, he had a virus late last week and over the weekend and at one point, he leaned against me, looked up at me and said, "hug me, mommy." I'm sorry but newborns never do that shit.)

***

*We usually grocery shop for the bulk of our items at Wal-Mart because it makes Mike happy to save money even if it SUCKS OUT HIS WIFE'S SOUL.

BBL Week #3 Update

So, once a week, around Friday night or so, I'm going to post a Biggest Blogging Loser update here, and I'll share the overall leaders, my own thoughts, and open the comments to all participants who want to do the same. There's been some interest in hearing more about the competition, so I think this might be a good way to share and build up a sense of community in our weight-loss goals, for those participating and even those not.

(Also, I'm numbering these based on the number of weigh-ins we've had -- to keep it semi-easy.)

First up: leaders!

Overall Leaders  
Beth F.
Kelly C.
Whitney A.
Elizabeth F.
Jen B. (@jenbernardi)
Maggie B.
Mia B.
Caitlin H.
Angela F. (@Aferg22)
Annie T.

Next up, what's working for me:

Since I'm not eating sweets, meat, or drinking alcohol, and I'm also not eating frozen lunches this year, my diet's rather limited, but that's good -- at least for now -- as it takes the guess work out of things. I know I can't eat something, so I don't even bother considering it, you know?

Also, it's really helped me to keep tons of veggies and fruits in the fridge -- for snacks, easy salads, desserts (well, a nice compromise for dessert). I cut everything up on Sunday and it makes it easy for snacking. For dips: fat-free sour cream and hummus.

I've also been drinking a lot of sparkling water with lime. It's like my go-to craving buster because it tastes better than water but it's still, you know, water.

When it comes to exercise: I'm running and doing the 30-Day Shred. I'm tackling four miles this weekend! That exclamation point is a lie. I'm not nearly as excited as I am terrified. I haven't run that distance in a while.

Cravings and eating out have both been tough.

So, contestants or otherwise, what's working/not working for you this week?

My Child

Sometimes (often times) I feel I should want a second baby because so many other people want a second baby and so many other people must be onto something. Sometimes (often times) I think of Kyle's first two colicky months -- how I wished them away, how I looked forward to any moment but those moments -- and I think I want a second baby to do those two months over again, less frantically, less eyes-on-the-horizony.

But, you know, copy-catting and do-overs aren't genuine reasons to expand a family.

Adoption isn't off the table. Not at all. Adoption would be fantastic, but I hear it's not-so easy, and not-so cheap and while it's not a road we won't consider walking down, it does feel obstacle-heavy.

Mostly, these should-we-have-a-second-child? thoughts are about our timeline and how it doesn't look like any other timeline that's ever existed. How the little milestone check-marks that dot it are not like yours or yours or yours and that doesn't make them right or wrong or better or worse. It just makes them ours.

It seems a bit unique and there are often times I feel apologetic or weird or embarassed by that when instead I should be celebrating. Because it doesn't matter how many kids you have or how many kids I have or what the hell we do with our lives.

What matters is that we're happy.

***

I wrote the above months ago before Mike and I had the "are we officially done?" talk and we've since had that talk. I asked him, point blank, "do you want another baby?" and as he started to say that he didn't -- and as I heard the words coming out of his mouth -- I told myself, "this is going to hurt; be prepared" but the hurt never came.

I waited for it. I thought up fancy, impressive arguments in my head about having another but I never got the urge to verbalize them.

I waited to grieve and mourn and shout and yell and bargain and convince and.....those feelings never came either.

Instead -- strangely/weirdly/surpisingly -- a peace washed over me.

Kyle is it.

(And shit is he It, with a capital I, you know?)

***

I struggle with anxiety and I obessively compare my ass or my kitchen or my nose or my marriage or my family size to the ass or kitchen or nose or marriage or family size of someone else. It's human nature, to a point, I think. Am I better? Am I happier? Am I right? Am I wrong?

I think the only thing I really know about life is this: I have to stop doing that.

***

When Kyle was born, it was as if a question was answered, a question that had been looming over my head for ages. I looked at him. I exhaled. I fell in love.

I gratefully feel like I've gotten a beautiful, blond-headed, stubborn answer to my one question.

That's not to say we can't change our minds down the road and decide, hey, nevermind, give us five more kids please! It's not to say that this is Final, The End, but we're at a really good place with this decision, and when you're at a really good place with something, you should talk about it.

(Eh, you know me by know, most likely. I tend to think you should talk no matter what.)

***

There's also this huge, throbbing part of me that thinks there are kids out there who need us whether through adoption or fostering or education sponsorship or just a donation of our time or money one day.

All those thoughts are probably better for another day, but I do know that having kids and helping kids do not always go hand in hand. We can give of ourselves in a lot of ways that don't include any more pregnancies.

***

I don't know who said this or when or why but one of the smartest things I've ever heard is: if someone else is at peace with their choices, they'll never be offended if you choose differently. That's some good shit right there, isn't it?

And that's exactly it. My one kid does not mean I don't squeal with joy when a blogger announces her fourth pregnancy or that I don't want to rush out and buy cute bibs and onesies for my friends who are having their second or third baby. I love your big (or just bigger) families and I love mine and I think that sentiment gets lost in this discussion. The heartfelt, genuine sentiment that there's room enough to celebrate all our many choices, and just because I'm choosing differently doesn't mean I think you're choosing wrong.

Small families. Big families. Our family. Your family.

They're all just perfect, aren't they?

Some of my favorite Lushy posts of the week

I don't do this often (and probably won't do this often) but the last two weeks at Food Lush and Style Lush have produced some really great content.

On Food Lush:

- Natalie's meal planning post is top-notch. Why meal plan? How to meal plan? How to make meal planning (if you already do it) that much easier?

- I'm making these chocolate crinkles this weekend! I can't eat them but if you live nearby, maybe you can.

- I'm going to buy bananas for the sole purpose of letting them over-ripen so I can make banana bread mini-muffins. Yum.

- Katie's applesauce cake with caramel glaze looks incredible!

- Nicole's guide to homemade pizza makes me convinced even I can throw out my pizza delivery standby numbers.

- Slynnro's perfect baked potato. (Turns out, I was making mine all wrong.)

On Style Lush:

- Splendid Littles at Target. So adorable I bought two girlie onesies even though I don't have a baby girl. Or baby at all! I guess someone is getting a gift soon.

- Man, I wish I could wear embellished headbands more often.

- I NEED this cupcake stand.

- Placemat to pillow.

Hey, if you have any links you want to share, go for it. I can never have enough web pages bookmarked.

Delurking Day

I hear it's Delurking Day or something! I could be wrong about that, totally possible, but let's pretend it is. I'd love for you to delurk today. To show yourself. To let me know you read, however occasionally. It's been a rough, busy, crazy week and I could use the extra boost in my little online community feedback.

To make it that much easier, a question and all you have to do is answer.

(Fine, two questions.)

1. Best book you read in 2010

2. Best movie you saw in 2010

(Regardless, thanks for reading. I'm the luckiest.)

BBL Week One

After the first week of the Biggest Blogging Loser weigh-in, the final amount of weight lost by the 100+ participants was......(insert here the deet-do-deet-do of numbers flickering around on the scale a la the real Biggest Loser).....394.6 pounds. One week ago, a group of people was carrying around nearly 400 pounds of weight that's now gone. I get goosebumps just typing that.

For my part, I've given up meat, alcohol, and sweets for the duration of the challenge. I think I've mentioned that before but it's worth repeating because, wow, right? Just reading that makes me want a tequila shot and a cupcake.

So far, not so bad, but it's only been a little over a week. I'll update you mid-February when I'm dreaming of doing bad things to a steak.

You know, one of my least favorite phrases in the English language is: "Oh, I could never do that." It doesn't matter what the blank is filled with because the truth is, yes, you could. You could do it. If you had to. If you wanted to. If you put your mind to it.

(Okay, so some things some people couldn't do. I probably couldn't play in the NFL or turn Tim Riggins' head, but you know what I mean.)

It's totally and completely fine to not want to do certain things, to have no interest whatsoever in running a mile or ridding your life of hamburgers or budgeting better or scaling a mountain, but you certainly could do any of those things if you wanted.

It's so much more empowering and healthy and inspiring to say, "I have no interest in that" or "I'd rather do something else" than "I could never do that." Give yourself some credit. Please.

I didn't realize this when I started the Biggest Blogging Loser -- I'm realizing it more and more as I watch Twitter for updates and see the weigh-ins trickle in -- but I think my ultimate goal with this whole thing is to rid an entire group of the phrase: "Oh, I could never do that."

400 pounds!

We did that.

From March 29, 2009

From an email I sent Kyle on 3/29/09:

"You're spending the afternoon with your dad and I'm listening to him talk to you from the other room. He's having a conversation with you and you're not even two months old. Sometimes I think he's been waiting his whole life to talk to you.

You've also puked on him four times today."

Birthday Dilemma

We threw Kyle a big, huge first birthday party last year and even though our small(ish) house was bursting at the seams and all the kids in attendance went stir-crazy five minutes after arriving, I'm glad we did. I have some incredible memories and photos and I got to live out my dream of purchasing an expensive, can-only-be-worn-once shirt on Etsy for the occasion.

We have a great house for parties as long as those parties fall in warm-weather months, and February is most definitely not a warm-weather month (even in Texas). And, with Kyle being in a class full of cute kids and more cousins being added to the mix since last year, our invite list has actually expanded. Our house just can't accommodate all those people.

There are so many other places we could have it, true, but it might stun you to hear some of the prices for our local rec center, the Little Gym, the Children's Museum. To be honest, I'd rather spend money on invitations and food and games than the building all those things are going to happen in.

So, we decided to have a family pizza party on his birthday and throw a big, outdoor park party in May or June.

I know all too well how this goes -- I have a cold-weather birthday myself -- and while I hate that we have to do this -- at least for now, in our current house -- I do think it's a nice compromise, made nicer by the fact that: HE WILL NOT REMEMBER A MOMENT OF IT.

Have any of you dealt with something similar?

Seven

The longer we've been together, the more foolish I feel about trying to write sappily about us because, come on, we're married, we liked each other enough to have ourselves the cutest little kid there ever was, and we have signed our names to many, many documents that will make it a bitch to ever part one day. Clearly we get along. What's there to say about my marriage that's new or original or not barf-inducing, you know?

Except, well, we have this marriage because we started dating seven years ago today.

(I'm not taller than him. I just found a rock to stand on!)

And even this day feels a little foolish to celebrate becaue it's not our wedding anniversary but it's the day that changed it all, all the same.

If you had told me all those years ago, right after that first night, that in seven years we'd be married and happy and would have a sleeping Kyle down the hall, I would have called you crazy, rolled my eyes, and then turned around to hide the smile. Because, man, that would have been good news to hear.

I Should Probably Play the Lottery

Why, you ask? Well, just a couple days after coming home to this beautiful creation I won two tickets to the Cotton Bowl.

Now, how much could tickets to the Cotton Bowl really be, you might also be asking? A FUCKING LOT, turns out. $125 a piece, in fact. So, winning two tickets (plus a parking pass! plus tickets to a pre-game party!) was a very nice surprise indeed.

Made even better by my school playing in the game.

(Texas A&M, not LSU, which is only too bad if you like winning since we did not.)

Mike, super unfortunately, couldn't come to the game because he threw out his back last week (it's getting better!) so I called up my next in line (Natalie) and took her. Which is what led me to send this picture to Mike with the caption "miss you!" mid-game.

And he so sweetly texted back, "Send a pic of the field."

Which I did.

That's about the only eventful thing that happened this weekend other than a lot of laundry and a lot of dishes and a lot of sweeping and a lot of grocery shopping. .

Oh, it also snowed. I guess that's something.

(I know, not much snow but snow!)

Although I bet it's WAY MORE EXCITING to those of you who can't possibly believe it snows in Texas! The Land of Heat and Cows and Big Hair! But, it does. It gets cold and sometimes it snows but not often enough for people to act like normal human beings on the road.

Anyway, that sums up my (semi-lame, semi-awesome, nice-all-around) weekend. What about yours?

Biggest Blogging Loser Sidebar Badge

The FANTASTIC McFantPants created a sidebar badge for all participants. You can see it in my sidebar (top right!) and here's the code:

<a href="http://www.shelikespurple.com/shelikespurple/2011/01/biggest-blogging-loser-roster.html"><img src="http://www.shelikespurple.com/biggest-blogging-loser-150x150.png"></a>

The image will link back to the roster page, so everyone can see who's kicking (and losing) so much ass.

Biggest Blogging Loser Roster!

The idea to organize a Biggest Loser-type competition with some friends came to me in my sleep. I woke up, turned to Mike, and said, "I should organize a weight-loss thing, but it should include an entry fee, so someone can make like $100 for losing a little weight."

The final jackpot is $2180.

I didn't expect this idea to gain so much support after I announced it, but let me tell you one reason I'm glad it did: I encouraged all the participants to use the hashtag #biggestbloggingloser on Twitter, for support and community and to get to know each other, too, and now whenever I crave something sweet or something bubbly or something greasy and fatty, I click on that hashtag and am instantly inspired. Instantly re-motivated.

Strength in numbers. Oh yes.

It's not really about the money (okay, sure, it's a little bit about the money) but as my wise sister said: if you stop drinking a bottle of wine a week, if you stop eating out so often, if you stop mindlessly snacking on food you aren't hungry for, at the end of 12 weeks, you very well could save the amount of the jackpot.

I am proud to be a part of this group, and this group includes:

Caitlin (@HBapothecary)
Tammi (@tammimarie)
Kendall (@kngibbard03)
Alison (@rambocandy)
Kristie (@kristie999)
Lori (@Lori_V_F)
Kerri Anne (@kerrianne)
Anne (@annabellespeaks)
Katie (@kbaxterk)
Kate (@kategiovinco)
Heather (@heather_24)
Alicia (@JustVos)
Jenny (@JennyCook)
Moira (@themoira)
Maggie (@andtheducksaid)
Heather
Kristen
Ginger (@rambleginger)
Jen (@onenjen)
Zach
Kimberly (@kimberly_bilder)
Laurie
Tara (@taralynn404)
Emily (@EmilysHollow)
Amy (@justatitch)
Tara (@MrsDangelo)
Theresa (@bubbletearesa)
Nanette (@Nanette)
Nora (@hopeitkeepsup)
Danielle (@ant_danielle)
Jennifer (@jayesel)
Ashley (@akaleiart)
Carla (@CharlieSue)
April
Jennifer  (@jigglefreejenn)
Dianna (@adoseoffabulous)
Whitney (@barbetti)
Karen (@karensugarpants)
Amy
Ali (@alimartell)
Gav (@gavmartell)
Jen (@jenbernardi)
Ashley (@ashleyb1182)
Katherine
Jessica (@jayjaysaidso)
Alexa (@alexaflotsam)
Laurie (@lauriewrites)
Kristin (@kristabella)
Carrisa (@andsosheblogs)
Jerilyn (@Serendipity75)
Erica (@alldressedup)
Melissa (@misplacedtexan)
Nicole (@notperfect)
Beth
Annie (@anneoftroy)
Amie (@Amie31)
Keri
Mia
Linda (@Sundry)
Crash Test Mommy (@crashtestmommy)
April (@jadetomato)
Michelle (@michelle12344)
Casey
Erin
Nichole
Victoria (@dinsdaleatlarge)
Elsha
Kristin (@OTOP)
Brandi (@brandi_b)
Caitlin
Michael (@phenom1984)
Parking at Home (@parkingathome)
Mona (@kirida)
Stephanie (@stefcia)
Lara (@purplelara)
Ann (@glamgranola)
TJ (@tjlafave)
Rachel
Saly (@saly)
Mary (@mimiallme)
Monkey 
Kim
Cindy (@CASundberg)
Lisa (@heylardass)
Elizabeth
Diane (@gingermaxim)
Eilis (@TheWeazie)
Bob
Shari
Kelly (@kellylou)
Angela (@Aferg22)
Elizabeth
Wendy (@wAthleticMonkey)
Kate (@KateThorne)
Kelly (@craftyb)
Holly (@hollyburns)
Alice
Andrea (@alphamommy)
McFatPants (@mcfatpants)
AndreAnna (@modernmatriarch)
Jen
Micah (@micahkemp)
Megan (@mamabub)
Elizabeth (@ebj123)
Florencia
Heather (@sggonechubby)
Manda (@insidedog)

(Phew, that was a task!)

You know, donuts are delicious and the couch is way more comfortable than the treadmill, and it really should be commended when 100+ people band together and decide to do away with the tasty and the comfy and decide to change their lives and their waistlines instead.

Happy losing everyone!

@purplelara

I Promise I'm Not Bragging. Oh, Fine, I Am.

I came home on Tuesday, with Kyle in one arm and a bag of groceries in the other, and I dropped both in the dark kitchen, ran to the bathroom and then went in to visit Mike who is laid up in bed with a thrown-out back.

Kyle wanted juice five seconds later, so I walked into the kitchen, finally flipped on the light and screamed. (And scared my son, who started crying. Oops!)

But it was a good scream! A THERE'S A KITCHENAID ON MY COUNTER scream. Funny, screams don't scare your kid any less when they're brought on by a thing of sheer beauty.

Mike went in on this gift for me with a handful of other people, and they all deserve baskets of baked goods from me (and they shall get them!) but he picked out and hunted down the color himself and put it on the counter alone (with a thrown-out back and everything!) and he went from making my birthday fabulous to OMG BEST EVER.

I did give up sweets for the next 12 weeks, so the timing is a little funny, but did you know in addition to baking up a storm with your KitchenAid, you can also make out with it?

Learn something new every day!

Who wants to come to my baking party in 12(ish) weeks?

Perfect 29

Hey, it's my birthday for another 34 more minutes!

(Actually, no, it's no longer my birthday because I got distracted after writing that one sentence and it's now 30 minutes past midnight, but yesterday was totally my birthday, friends!)

And I took the day off.

I'm sure there are roughly a million people out there who wished their birthday was January 3rd right around 10 p.m. on January 2nd, so they could have a reason to take off work the First Monday of the year. And it was probably the first time those same million people wished for such a horribly timed birthday, but I embraced the timing of my day this year and embraced the fact that Mike always has Mondays off, and I spent the day lounging on my couch, being doted on, hanging with my boys, and it was just so nice.

January is going to be batshit crazy for me, and when I get uber-stressed over a very long to-do list or uber-annoyed that I gave up alcohol and meat and sweets all at the same time that I decided to hit the gym hard, I'll look back on my birthday and exhale.

Because it was lovely. Lovely lovely lovely.

In addition to a day off, I celebrated my day in various different ways over the weekend, one of those ways being a fancy, girl's night out dinner.

It's been a dream of mine for years to go to a nice dinner, wearing a nice dress, with all my nice friends and just eat and drink and laugh and then maybe blow out a candle.

I got to do all these things at Brownstone (Top Chef restaurant, holla!) last night, and it was even better than I thought it would be.

Mike doesn't really like birthdays, which may surprise a few of you who watch me throw him elaborate parties every year, but he knows I love birthdays -- like probably more than anyone else you've ever known -- and even though I suspect he'd drop to his knees in gratitude if I woke up one day and said, "eh, birthdays don't really do it for me any longer," he still makes homemade frosting for my birthday cupcakes, lets me sleep in for days before and after it, makes me dinner, takes me wherever I want to go, and takes Kyle outside to play in the freezing cold so mama could have some alone time with her cooking magazines and her monthly menu.

To him and to all my friends who helped me celebrate and to my mom especially for various birthday-related items including THE GIFT OF LIFE, thank you for a perfect 29.

It's hard to hate aging when you get to celebrate it so well.

Wall Map Project

Forever ago I posted on Style Lush about wanting to hang a wall map in 2010, and, phew, we hung that sucker on December 30th.

I got the antique wall map from Maps.com and Mike gave me map pins for Christmas. Mike's dad mounted the map onto corkboard and framed it for me.

Mike hung it for me while I sat on the couch. 

I like him.

We have the thing color coded: red pins for where we've been together, black pins for the places I've been, and white for the places Mike has been.

The map matching our wall was just a nice coincidence.