A walk to remember

Eight years ago today I became a Mrs.

Ecstatically and blissfully, in one unforgettable and FUN day of family and friends, celebrating with us this giant leap into matrimony.  Not every day has been easy along the way but we’ve walked this road together and we will continue to do so – no matter what.

Hey Hubs –

I love the marriage, family and life we’ve created together.

To say that I’m happy doesn’t even scratch the surface of the depth of the feeling of the ring on my finger and of your hand that I held as we walked through our wedding day together.

The hand that I know I will be holding forever.

Love you with all that I am.

Destruction… milestones… and The Best Chocolate Bundt Cake Ever

So the ‘every-so-often’ non-napping day has turned into the ‘rarely do my daughters nap at all’ day.  They’ve taken to some rather interesting antics whilst confined to their room for a couple of hours of “rest”.  I walked in to this one afternoon last week:

Yes, that is the curtain rod and YES two of the anchored brackets have been PULLED OUT OF THE WALL.  Do I have little girls or little monkeys?  M fessed up to pulling, hanging and likely swinging from the curtains.  When asked why she just grinned at me.  This was after having been in “rest time” for a couple of hours, and after my little mama-freaking-out-tirade over the curtains (I know, pointless – they’re only three) both of my munchkins suddenly became all tuckered out and practically passed out in their beds.

The following day, and totally unrelated, I decided to finally nip in the bud the long standing pacifier attachment that I’ve been dragging my feet over for a good couple of months.  The week of their third birthday back in August, we worked on dropping the paci (or as it’s fondly referred to around these parts – the “bahboo”) during nap time.  To say it was difficult is an understatement; potty training was easier than this.  And it honestly felt like infant sleep training all over again, only this time with very strong-willed and opinionated little ones, who were quite frankly pissed off that I was taking away their security.  After that week or so of hell I was in no hurry to finish the job and ditch the bahboos altogether.  I talked to them about it a lot and always with the disclaimer of “maybe tonight will be our last night of bahboos” but never put my money where my mouth was until last week.  I gave them a brief warning the night before and come morning we made a little ceremony out of it immediately after they woke up, complete with homemade pouches to ship their bahboos off to cousin Zalyn – because she’s a baby, and only babies use pacis.

Gotta love the bedhead!

At the post office, ready to mail the bahboos to cousin Zalyn.

And last but most certainly not least, the Hubs celebrated the big 3-7 last week.  We did a family dinner out at a local Italian restaurant, and then back home for birthday cake and candles.  While I try to not eat cake too often, I’m always up for an excuse to bake one and I don’t mess around with some light or low-fat version.  Bring on the butter and sugar.  I decided on this recipe from one of my favorite go-to sites for high-quality baking, Joy the Baker.  She refers to this cake as the Best Chocolate Bundt Cake Ever and by god she’s right.  I think he thought so too.

“It’s glorious!”

We’ve been chipping away at that cake every couple of nights over movies and DVR’ed television shows, and as it will soon be my undoing I plan to promptly slice and freeze the remaining two-thirds of a cake’s worth tomorrow.  Just so I can open the freezer and stare it down every so often.

13.1 miles, and not a coyote in sight

So, remember way back when, when I resolved to do a few things this year?  I checked one off the list yesterday by running the Long Beach Half Marathon… and achieved a new PR for myself too!  Shaved five minutes off of my time from last year’s Rock N Roll Half in STL.

Yippee!!!

(Love the little hands reaching up!)

My father-in-law spent the weekend visiting here, so he joined the Hubs and the girls to cheer me on from a couple of spots along the run.  Overall it was a very flat route and about two-thirds of it was right along the beach too, so very pretty.

And thankfully, no coyote sightings.  Last weekend was the last of my long training runs, which I’ve been doing early Sunday morning along paved trails in a canyon park a couple miles from our house.  The canyon trails are always busy on the weekend mornings with cyclists, runners and walkers, but given that is densely wooded and a wildlife sanctuary you can’t help but notice the various native animal warnings – mountain lions, rattlesnakes and such.  I had just reached my six-mile mark and was turning around to head back for the last three miles when around the bend pretty far ahead of me I noticed a dog – without a collar.  Oh wait –

THAT’S NOT A DOG.

My first thought (keep in mind I’m not much of an outdoorsy type): kind of looks like a fox.  Aw crap, it’s watching me.  I slowed up and stopped to see if it would run off since I was approaching.  Not so.  It paced the path back and forth, keeping an eye on me.  I turned and started jogging back away from it, looking over my shoulder every few seconds, and all the while beginning to panic and muttering, “f—, f—, f—!”  Next thought: “how the hell do I get out of here to a main road and back to my car?!”  A few minutes later a couple approached walking a large boxer, and they were heading back the way I needed to go, so I gave them a heads-up about the fox – which they correctly said was actually a coyote, and mentioned that coyotes are typically afraid of their dog because of its size.  I asked if I could tag along and run with them for a bit to get past where it was hanging out, which we did, and then so help me I practically sprinted the last leg of my training run back to the comfy confines of my minivan.  Up close but thankfully not too personal with nature that morning.  And thankful that I get a break from my canyon running for awhile, at least until I get the itch to tackle another 13.1 miles.

I hope they want to run with Mama someday…