1,000 Blog Posts

I have now published 1,000 blog posts in 9 years. It's definitely been a creative outlet for me to organize stories and photos and track the kid's growth, while keeping a record of these crazy, busy, and magical years of parenthood and childhood. Clark is getting sillier, sweeter, and more nostalgic as he gets older. His favorite thing to say is "When I was a baby..." and the next thing out of his mouth is often bizarre and usually untrue. Aurora rolled her eyes at me the other day and has been needing quiet time in her room more and more often. Chuck and I are enjoying success in our careers and hobbies, and as much as we love our kiddos, we look forward to the day when we can talk, vacation, and enjoy quiet time together again. After 1,000 posts, I would think our weekends may be getting too routine to be interesting anymore, but it seems there's always something new on the horizon! This week I bought a new bike. It's the first bike I've owned since I was a teenager! I took the family out to the ballgame, we had a sleepover, and we headed to my parent's condo pool, which was just about the perfect way to spend a hot weekend afternoon.

Swim lessons have been going well and both kids are getting more confident in the water. Once I have a bike rack on my car I'll start riding with the kids too. I'm hoping to get Aurora to give up her training wheels soon. For now, I'm taking short training rides from the office and spin classes at the gym on weekends. I recently registered for my first 20-mile LIVESTRONG Challenge and I have a ton of running events on the calendar - but I certainly don't predict any triathlons in my future. I do predict many more years of blogging, even as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are clearly overtaking the personal blog. I hope you'll continue along for the ride!  

Anniversaries

This week I found and posted these photos and on Facebook and got hundreds of likes and comments in celebration of our 19th wedding anniversary and my 10-year anniversary at the Foundation. The truth is, the reaction on Facebook was probably the best part of either celebration. Especially considering that the #1 comment was that I still look exactly the same (which is incorrect but hey, I'll take it!).

19 years of marriage. We were so young!

Filling out new hire paperwork in 2006.

We are definitely at a stage where taking time off, going on vacations, and scheduling date nights feels like more work than it's worth. So, this was just a normal workweek. We did go out to dinner on Tuesday night and took the kids with us.

Family Date Night.

It was lovely! Chuck's had a fun week for totally different reasons. He downloaded the Pokemon app that's sweeping the nation and both kids are totally into it. But the most exciting part of his week was finishing out his computer re-build and setting up his new virtual reality headset, the Oculus Rift. He's been working for months to order parts and get this up and running and I have to say, it's pretty cool (and it's funny watching other people use it).

There's a Pokemon in our yard! Catch it! 

Immersed in a VR world.

I've come to realize that if we're going to do anything to celebrate my 40th Birthday or our 20th Anniversary, it's going to have to come from me. Maybe by then I'll have the energy to plan something, but two kids really do require 4X more energy than one. And while Chuck's been putting his extra time and energy into video games, I've been putting my extra time and energy into my fitness plan. I just joined the Austin Runners Club and this year I'll be doing the Distance Challenge. In fact, the ARC just featured me on their blog! I haven't been running as much during the summer, but I'm doing yoga and Pilates, taking cycling classes, and I've been putting together my training schedule for the year. I've also been coordinating a bunch of home repair projects and just registered for an intensive HR Certification class this fall. As busy as life feels today, this fall will be even busier! So, this weekend with the Wadeys has been pretty low key, and I think we're all grateful for the downtime.

Melody

This week we wore my parents out big time, but thank goodness they were here to watch the kids during a week without summer camp! We also had an ice cream social, a sleepover, and started swim lessons - all of which involved my friend Anne and her daughter (one of Aurora's BFFs) Melody.

Aurora and my parents would all agree that while she got a lot of time with Melody, she probably had a little too much time with her brother. Today she needed some mommy-daughter time, so I took her out for high tea and some shopping. 

Not a bad end to another fun weekend with the Wadeys. Tomorrow summer camp is back in session and I would say there's nothing much happening in July - except my 10 year anniversary with LIVESTRONG, Bernice's birthday, our 19 year wedding anniversary, and Grandma Nancy's birthday! I'm hoping we'll be able to go out for a date night soon, but I hear my folks may need some time to recover first...

Summer Fun

I am a big fan of 3-day 4th of July weekends, and this one did not disappoint. Saturday we went to the lake and Aurora got to play with a bunch of her old school friends before we headed to a BBQ with some of my old work friends. Sunday she had her first playdate with our new neighbors; two girls who are 6 and 9 years old, and this morning we went to the Lakeway 4th of July parade, then had a big neighborhood playdate across the street. 

This afternoon we went out to the movies and had planned to stay out to watch fireworks, but we were all just a little too tired. My folks came over and we watched some pretty impressive fireworks from our balcony before both kids conked out. I told Aurora that I wished tomorrow could be a holiday, too, but she disagreed because then she'd only get three days with Grandma & Grandpa instead of four! I'm sure they will have a great week. I don't love it when our temps get up into the 90's and 100's, but I am a big fan of summer fun and we have certainly been having our share.