InstaFriday: Again!

I'm writing this from a cute little B&B in Hays, KS.

The kind of place that has little leaf stickers on the toilet paper to keep the end from hanging down and fabric on the walls and rooms called Rose, Homestead, and Peacock.

It's the first time I've spent a night by myself since Ruby was born, 14 months ago.

It couldn't have come at a more perfect time.

I'm here for the annual NATS auditions and as a NATS member with students competing, I'm obligated to attend.

Even though I'll be working, I'm enjoying my time alone.

Earlier this week Maia and I had a date at the zoo. The leaves in Wichita have finally turned and it's been gorgeous.

Aleks told me that I had an emoji keyboard on my phone.

It makes those cute pictures next to our text messages.

Also, Aleks went eyeglass shopping.

Thankfully he did not get this pair.

I finally bit the bullet and got my hair cut.

It turned out ok, but I miss Chelsea.

And our playdates...

On Halloween I had my first gig in Wichita.

It was a memorial service for an older gentleman.

No offense to my Catholic friends, but it was the typical thrown together mass that causes lots of stress beforehand, but always turns out ok.

Do we sing the Lord's Prayer? What mass parts are we doing? Which responsorial and Alleluia will be sung? You know, the usual.

Halloween was pretty much a non-event in our house.

Maia didn't want to wear her costume.

Ruby had a melt down and was in bed by 5:30.

Aleks and I planned to watch this DVD while answering the door for trick or treaters.

When we opened the case, which was loaned to us by one of Aleks' colleagues, it was empty.

Fail.

We watched SNL on Hulu instead.

With regards to the stuttering, it's gotten markedly better.

I don't know if it's directly related, but Maia has suddenly mastered her pronouns.

"Mommy, you and me and Daddy and Ruby will go to the library."

Ruby went down for an early nap this morning and when I went to wake her up, I found this. 

She was O.U.T.

Drool out the side of her mouth and everything.

(She gets that from her dad.)

I've been crafting!

Felt is amazing.

Easy to work with, cute, clean.

A good way to be crafty if you're a bit nervous about crafting.

And I didn't instgram this, but Aleks texted it to me after I left for my trip this weekend.

Send good thoughts and wishes to Aleks this weekend. He's by himself with the girls until Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, I'm going to enjoy my solitude and read a mindless novel.

Linking up with Jeannett:

InstaFriday: These pictures are really small because I forgot to bring the correct cord to work edition.

Last Saturday was a big day for me.

(Did you know if the text is blue you can click on it and it will link you to something?

In this case, it will link you to my post about the 5k.)

Now that Ruby and I are done with these there's a lot more room in my pantry!

We still love the zoo.

And we still love the chimpanzees.

This little guy is about as old as Ruby.

There are certain things that happen, which remind me we are settling into life here in Wichita.

One of those is getting to know our library.

We even started attending story time this week.

Maia accidentally hit Aleks in a sensitive spot this week.

It was really funny to me.

Not so funny to my hubby.

And Maia's obsession with all things dance continues.

I got her this adorable leotard at Target of all places.

We're going to try the next level dance class in November, which means she goes in without me.

We'll see how long that lasts.

 Maia's a funny kid.

She licked the inside of a cabinet door then said, "It's a penguin."

Last night I came home from the gym after running 4 miles (!) and got to eat this for dinner.

It's chicken noodle soup from a recipe that a friend and former parent of a voice student gave me.

It's amazingly good.

Thanks Angie!

Linking up with Jeannett:

What a day

Today, from 1:30-4:30 my house was filled with screaming/crying.

Maia started it all because she wanted to wear her green dress and I said no. I said no because it's too big, she constantly takes it on and off, and it was hot.

And I'm the mom. I get to say no if I want.

Also, Maia's been getting up at 5:00am, not taking a nap, and fighting a cold.

I don't know what Ruby's deal is. Mostly she's really opinionated, but can't talk. So most of her communicating is the "more" sign and then pointing to what she wants. It could be that she wants to get up on the couch, or have the monitor turned on so she can pretend it's a phone, or sit in a chair, or have pieces of popsicle broken off and fed to her, but definitely not having the popsicle put in her mouth to suck on.

Definitely not that.

Really nothing to do with "more."

Anyway, my darling husband came home, saw how frustrated I was and immediately sent me to the gym offering to put the girls down for bed.

How'd I get so lucky?

As I was heading out the door. Maia came to give me a hug and said "thank you for crying."

I asked her what she meant. She said "When I and Ruby were crying. Thank you for crying." I asked her if she was saying thank you for taking care of her when she and Ruby were upset. She nodded and gave me a hug.

Instantly the 3 hours I had just spent figuring out how much money I could get for each one of the girls were completely forgotten. 

Oh parenthood. It's not for sissies.

Aleks made a video this weekend from clips we had on our phones.

Maia has been featured in lots of movies, but I think this might be Ruby's first.

Enjoy!

5k

Some people would say they are most afraid of dying.

Or snakes.

Or public speaking.

For me it was running.

It's been an anxiety-inducing activity ever since middle school.

Yesterday I ran my first 5k race.

I've been training for about 3 months and when I first started, I could only run .25 miles.

In my recent training I'd been running a 12 min/mile pace.

My goal was to finish the 5k in 36 minutes.

Saturday morning came and my nerves were out of control.

The race started at 9:00 and when we left the house at 8 it was 45 degrees outside.

This race was a WSU sponsored event called the Pumpkin Run. Last year there were 600+ people. Participants are encouraged to wear costumes. My favorites were a father and son dressed up as a Curious George and The Man with the Yellow Hat.

There were also two girls dressed as jack-in-the-boxes and the back of their boxes said "Catch me if you can."

Aleks said I should pace with them and then right before the finish line, pass, push them over, and say "I caught you, now what?!"

He also encouraged me by saying, "There is no way you will be the 600th person to cross the finish line."

So at 9:00 we were off! There's something panic inducing about a mass of people running after a shot is fired from a starting pistol.

As a result I began faster than I had intended and the first mile was brutal. When I hit the mile marker an official said the time was 10:30 and I started to feel better. My suffering was not in vain!

Aleks and the girls met me along the way to cheer.

My plan was to run comfortably for the first two miles and really push through the end of the race.

And there at the finish line was my sweet husband, teary eyed, his pride so evident.

And my sweet girls, always happy to see me.

I'm so glad that they were able to watch me do this. Maybe one day we'll run a 5k together.

While there were no medals involved, I did get an awesome t-shirt!

The best part?

It glows in the dark.

Yup, you read that right.

Jealous?

You should be.

So, I've conquered a fear and it feels pretty great.

Aleks and I are going to run a 5k together on Thanksgiving day.

This time, I'm going to look forward to participating.

And warm up.

InstaFriday: A Full Week

It was fall break this week which meant that Aleks was home Monday and Tuesday.

It wasn't super restful, but we got a lot done!

Ruby fell down the stairs last weekend.

She's gotten really good at climbing up the stairs.

But to get down, she likes to sit on a step and lean forward.

It works if she's only 1 step up, but any high than that, and this happens.

One of my students gave her senior recital on Sunday.

She did really well and I was proud of her.

I've only taught her for about 2 months and the recital was already programmed and learned when we started. It was hard for me to claim any credit, since I mostly polished a few things.

For those of you who are non-musicians/singers, it's kind of like another football coach trained the team and developed all the plays. Then I come in during the Superbowl and say "maybe we should run 3 feet to the left on that play instead of 4" and get all the credit when they win.

Anyway, here she is at the dress rehearsal.

The girls have been playing together more and more.

Ruby is a super sleeper. We're talking 12-13 hours at night and a 2 1/2 hour nap.

This isn't a rash, it's an imprint from her blanket.

She slept hard.

Maia's been taking a dance class at the Y.

She loves Wednesdays which are "dance class days."

I don't really want to talk about it.

All I will say is it's gotten really bad this week.

I'm hoping it's a phase.

And finally,

Maia got a haircut!

I get a little sentimental when I see that first picture, but the bob is going to be soooo easy.

She also got her first lollipop.

So, that was our week.

Tomorrow, my first 5k.

Why did I sign up?!

 I'll let you know how it goes.

Linking up with Jeannett:

Pumpkin Patch Take 2

Wichita has redeemed itself.

On Monday we visited the Applejack Pumpkin Patch.

There were so many things to love about this place.

1. They grow their own pumpkins.

2. There is a gorgeous corn maze.

3. They have a pond with beautiful ducks.

4. One word. Playground.

5. Animals!

Now, it certainly wasn't up to zoo standards, or even petting zoo standard, but Maia was satisfied, so it must have been ok.

6. They also have the customary cutouts that are required for proper pumpkin patch photos.

7. The best thing, however, was the big bouncy thing.

They have a tarp that they place over a fan in the ground and it creates a gigantic trampoline.

This is a horrible pictures, but we could have easily spent all day there if it hadn't been so cold.

Maia kept saying she wanted to bounce on the rainbow.

We went at 9:30 am and it was cold.

Like really really cold.

I think when we got in the car to go home, it was 45 degrees.

 Hooray for fall and pumpkin patches!

Pretzel Rolls!

I made these delicious treats on Saturday.

I got the recipe here.

I'm not gonna lie, they took a little bit of effort to make.

But, they were so good.

And they taste just like pretzels!

Here they are before going into their water bath.

And after the water bath.

Fresh out of the oven!