east coast adventures

A few weeks ago we took a family vacation out to Providence to see Justin and his family. We had promised Ethan that we would take him on a "big airplane" for his birthday, and that we did. Ethan was amazing on the way out there, read his books and watched a movie, we were thankful for small miracles.

After arriving we toured the new house, and then had a picnic of sandwiches from my favorite place in Providence, the Sandwich Hut. Later on we went out to dinner and then there were some birthday presents exchanges and some cupcakes were had. Then bedtime for the kids and wine time for the adults, a common theme to our vacations.

The next day we hung out with the kids all day and after naptime, we headed out to Conneticut to see my friend Julie and her husband Julius and their five kids. That's right, five kids. Just to backtrack slightly, I haven't seen my friend in nearly 10 years, we lived together back in Lansing and shared many great times together. And it was one of those things that as soon as we saw each other and started talking, it had been like no time had passed. It was a wonderful night, there was lots of wine, and cheese and delicious foods and an eventual midnight dinner. Everyone got along well, and Ethan had a ball with all of the other kids. We both agreed, that they somehow managed to make having such a large family seem like a great idea.

The next day we drove back to Providence for Emerson's cowgirl 4th birthday party. There is something about kids dressed up as cowboys that will never not be adorbale. The party consisted of an obstacle course, pin the tail on the horse, some presents, some cake and only one meltdown (I am happy to report was not my child). The party wound down and so did we. The next day was our last and we toured around Providence and hung out. The time to leave came far too soon, we had a great time visiting with everyone and only wish that we could make it out more often.

back pains

For the past three weeks, I have been suffering from back pains, which has been why I haven't been blogging much. The level of pain has varied from mildly annoying to shooting back spasms. I have had acupuncture twice, went to the chiropractor twice and went to one yoga class. All seemed to help my back but it has stayed around much longer then anticipated. Much to the chagrin of B who is probably sick of the bed smelling of Ben Gay and tired of hearing me complain and gimp around.

While at the chiropractor, I had an xray done and found out some rather unsettling news. One of my legs is shorter then the other which has caused me to overcompensate in my teen years and result in a crooked spine! He did nothing to assuage my quiet panic that I was deformed. I was so freaked out that I was scared to tell B, but he just laughed and told me it was really common.

Thankfully I think that I am finally on the mend, today was the first day that I have felt back to normal. This injury has forced me to take a respite from my morning runs and gym workouts, which oddly enough, I thought I would miss more then I do. So, I guess I should enjoy these last few days of recovery.

for all you motha's

Yesterday we celebrated Mother's Day. I remembered to call my mom and had pleasantries with her. I also remembered to pick up my son after which we headed out to celebrate with B's family. My men treated me very well, Ethan made me a purple-flowered mother's day card, which he signed three times along with a bracelet that he tooled together for me at school. B bought me a bike the other week, which we got a good deal on through a friend. With his new love for biking, he thought that it would be nice to have me around while he did it. And then on Friday, he im-d me to to check my email, where seconds later, a gift certificate for a massage at my favorite spa place popped up. It was a wonderful surprise, I am very lucky.

The better half of the weekend was spent traveling to and from B's sisters college graduation. The graduation itself pulled no surprises, but afterwords we celebrated with some champagne and dinner. Congratulations to Liss, we are so happy for you and hope that student teaching goes well for you.

So back to Mother's Day. We headed out to the suburbs to B's aunt and uncles house. Upon arrival, there was disproportionate amount of meat being grilled and suspiciously large wine bottles. Usually in this sort of situation, I would make efforts to not over serve myself, which was not accomplished. I would argue that I was well within the predicated numbers of drinks rule of thumb. I would estimate that fun usually occurs somewhere between drink number three and drink number five. Anything after that usually turns into trouble. When assessing my situation, I only had two glasses of wine and thought a third was totally acceptable. I may have failed to include top offs and the giant wine glass into my calculations. And somewhere between dinner and Ethan riding a horse, I got pretty blasted. I really did not mean to and thank my finance for swiftly removing me from the situation and driving us safely home.

Perhaps not my greatest performance as a mother. But most of the time, I try to be a good mom. I think the biggest shift this year has been that Ethan is truly a little man now. He is so talkative and imaginative and is such a little charmer; it's pretty ridiculous when you love someone so much and you can't wait to see their faces and hear their voices and feel them put their hand into yours. It's pretty amazing being a mom.