Perspective!

It's amazing what a dinner on the beach, an 8 mile run and a morning spent at the pool with your family can do to your mood. Feeling like my old self today and am just not going to worry about things until I KNOW that there is something to worry about. Thanks everyone for the upbeat posts...you all helped as well. I know that Brady will be OK. He is my most social child-talking, smiling and babbling all the time! He is really a sweet little boy...

A full plate...

Just not feeling inspired lately. We have a lot going on right now and I will post about it later. It has a lot to do with one of the twins, Brady. There's just not much to say yet, as we don't really know what is wrong. There's something that just happens to a mother when she thinks there is the possibility that "something may be wrong" with her child. Like I said, we are just starting the investigative process and he has been referred to be seen by a physical therapist. The bottom line is that he is 15 months old and not walking yet. He crawls extremely well and he pulls up and cruises...he's just on his tip-toes most of the time. I have already done the "internet research" which can be a terrible, terrible thing sometimes...and the fact that I am a special education teacher doesn't make it any better either. So if you do pray, please say a prayer that he's going to be fine....I'll keep posting because it makes me feel better to get my thoughts in print.

The greatest compliment...

Last night I received one of the nicest compliments from a friend of mine...she told me that I was an inspriring person. Seriously, it was one of the nicest things someone could say to me. It has made my week. Thank you! Girlfriends are seriously the best.

Official start to summer...

We had a great 4 day weekend. It was four days because Dan took Friday off to finish some painting. The downstairs is officially painted, thanks to him. It was quite nerve-racking watching him paint the 2 story foyer from a 2o ft extension ladder.

Anyway, we had 3 cook-outs in 3 days and it was a lot of fun. Saturday night a neighbor had us and some other neighbors over for chicken and steak fajitas with all of the fixin's-YUM! I LOVE anything Mexican, so this hit the spot.

We had a neighborhood block party on Sunday and that was fun too. Everyone brought a dish and a couple of neighbors pulled out their grills and we all hungout in the horseshoe area of our street. The kids had a great time on their bikes, scooters, big wheels, etc. Monday morning we packed the family and headed to the beach, along with everyone else-it was pretty crowded. I guess when you live in a tourist town, this is the beginning of 'high season'. The weather was great though and the kids were WORN out when we got home. They all slept for 3 hours! Last night we headed over to Dan's sisters for a cook out and that was fun too. It was a great Memorial Day and I enjoyed hanging out with friends and family. I hope everyone had a great one too! I did manage to squeeze in 3 runs on those 4 days-I did 5 miles on Friday, 8 on Saturday, 5 on Monday and 5 today...so I definitely made up for all that eating I did over the weekend-and believe me, it was ALOT!

Tried and true pasta...

Just wanted to post a quick recipe that is a Magnolia family tried and true dish. It was inspired by a dish at a restaurant in Old Town Alexandria that Dan and I ate at a couple of times when we lived up there. The restaurant is not there anymore, but the dish still lives on in our house. I take Barilla Plus Multigrain penne, toasted pine nuts, raisins, chicken sausage (I use the Al Fresco sundried tomato and basil), steamed broccoli, olive oil, salt and pepper and grated parmesan and toss it all together-and voila'-dinner is on the table. Simple as that!

"Bum" genius of an idea!

It's been almost 3 weeks since the twins started wearing cloth diapers and I have to tell you, it's not bad at all. Cloth diapers have come a long way. There are no pins, no leaks, and best of all no scraping. I use flushable rice paper liners with them, so all I have to do is flush the waste away. Simple as that! I wish I would have used them with Harrison. Think of the money and the environment we would have saved! I use the Bum-genius all in one brand and they are excellent! The boys look oh so cute in them too. I can honestly say that only one leak has occurred and I think something definitely went wrong there. So there you have it-I'm sold on cloth diapers and feel better that I can help the environment one diaper at a time.

The Perfect Summer Cocktail...

I love a good cocktail! I've created a new one that just screams summer to me-it's not even that hard to make. I take a peach-flavored Izze (I LOVE these drinks!) and mix it with Grey Goose Vodka (or any other vodka you have, this one is my favorite!) and pour over crushed ice, add a lime wedge and cherry-and voila-the perfect summer cocktail!

We had a great weekend-the beach, the pool, barbque, need I say more? Unfortunately, Brady is under the weather now, so it has been a long day today. It just breaks my heart to see one of my boys sick...he looks pretty pitiful. He was up pretty early this morning too-so that means no run this morning. I was able to squeeze in a 30 minute strength training workout. This week I'll have to do 3 runs back to back (Tues, Wed, Thurs, Friday-strength training and Saturday 8 miles-UGH).

So, here's to a GREAT week, I'll think I'll go make one of those cocktails! YUM!