I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with loved ones. We are in Atlanta spending the holiday with Alex’s family, and I really love having two sets of in-laws. Mainly because I get two awesome and completely different sets of meals during holidays. We always go back home about 5 pounds heavier.

Some more than others.

We started off the day with a huge traditional English brunch with one family, where we chilled out and just sat around the fire and watched football, while Bobby wrestled with his uncles, and I ate a face-full of macaroni and cheese. 

Note the mismatched socks.

Then we got dressed and went over to do dinner with the other family, where we dabbled in the punch and Bobby ran around sans pants. Then we took our Thanksgiving naps and went for round 3: Dessert.

 

All-in-all, it was a great time to catch up with a lot of our loved ones. And now I’m wearing my Thanksgiving pants and sitting around eating a leftover cupcake.

I debated about partaking in the Black Friday shopping extravaganza, as I do love to shop and get a good deal. But I enjoy being lazy even more, so slothfulness wins again. I am making my shopping list and getting prepared for this weekend, and Cyber Monday. Shopping in my underpants is more my style anyway.

Do any of y’all have just THE most difficult time shopping for the men in your lives? I know I do. These are a few ideas. Not sure where you stand on giving your guys Playboys, but I personally enjoy getting them because I like reading the questions and answers portion. And the articles..

Han Solo print  // boxer briefs // docking station catch-all // mini football // Playboy subscription // Clark's Wallabee // magnetic bottle opener // mini JAMBOX speaker // Polo pullover

Now that we have the babies, we usually don’t get each other extravagant gifts. Just a couple of little things. It’s a moot point asking him what he wants for Christmas, because all I hear now is a mumbling of “I’d like somebody to cut down that dead pine tree in our back yard..” But I would like for Alex to have something under the tree besides underpants and socks. So we will see.

 

  Dior Airflash // Deer Head // lipstick holder // bracelet // tea set // book

 

wood blocks // vintage pink kitchen // swing // lacing shoe // wood jet // parking garage // pink canopy // dollhouse // clock // toy cars

ANYHOW.

Hope y’all have a wonderful Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We are looking forward to chilling by the fire today, tailgating with Vince Dooley at the GA v. GA Tech game in Athens tomorrow, and a LONG drive home on Sunday. It is killing me to not be at home putting up my Christmas decorations already!!

 

Keep on keepin’ on!

-Annette

My Favorites List for Running and Life

Happy Thanksgiving, one and all!

Thursdays are usually our fitness days, but I won’t be hypocritical.  I’m currently sitting here with my husband and son, just enjoying the togetherness.  Maybe I’ll go for a run.  Maybe I won’t. 

I will keep it short and sweet… Just a few items that I love for running and life. 

1.   Picky Bars.  These are the most delicious energy bars, and do not include any bad-for-you ingredients.  My favorite flavors are Smooth Caffeinator and Blueberry Boomdizzle.

2.     Erin Condren Weekly Life Planner.  I am old fashioned and like to write down appointments, events, my weekly workout plans, and this planner is the best I have I found for keeping me organized. 

3.     Believe Journal.  I don’t have this just yet… But, it should be arriving in the mail any day soon.  Designed by Lauren Fleshman, who is a fantastic and successful runner, I am very excited to see how this journal can help improve my running as it is complete with tips and quotes from the awesome Lauren. 

4.     Wazzell Wool Baselayer and Moto Lesley Tight from Oiselle.  I do not have these, but I am tempted as I love any piece of clothing from Oiselle, and winter running is here.  From the fit to the style to the performance, you will not find any better running clothes.

5.     Need something to read?  I can’t help but do a little self-promotion here for the novel I wrote In Search of Color.  Read the reviews for yourself and the description, but I think it’s a great accompaniment to a cup of tea and holiday enjoyment. 

6.     Nuun Hydration drink.  My go-to electrolyte tab for training and racing.  My favorite flavor is to mix one of the ginger tangerine tabs with the fruit punch tabs. 

My best to all of you in enjoying the holiday.  I plan to do a lot of this:

Thankful for the short visit and time together as a family!

Time to fly,

Liz

Thankful

I’m guilty of having the prototypical first-child Type A personality, where I have a compulsive need to plan for things and look forward to what is coming for me in the future—What is coming next. What we are having for dinner. Where we are going to put the Christmas tree. When we are going to take that trip to Disney World. When Alex will be going on his next TDY. When my flipping hair is going to start growing back in so I can stop looking like a sad, homeless man.

I have a hard time even enjoying things like a massage or a pedicure (I’ve had neither in about 84,000 years, fyi), because I am counting down the time I have left, and/or thinking about my babies at home, or wondering when I’m going to have time to run to the grocery store, or thinking about how I should have called the doctor’s office to make an appointment for Vivi’s next checkup (but I didn’t, because I really hate going thru the dreaded military health facility’s phone tree. Crap).

This crossed my mind the other day—about how I run and run (unfortunately, not literally), plan and plan, think and think—and I realized that I need to just chill. I need to stop and smell the roses.

My favorite part of the day is when I put Bobby to bed. We have a very specific routine. First we read a book or two, and then we say our prayers. We start off with the Lord’s Prayer, and then we move into a more specific prayer, where we thank God for our day, every member of our family, our friends, the house we live in, the food we eat, and the clothes we wear. Then we ask the Lord to watch over us and heal those who are sick or need extra help. I really enjoy this time, because it is the only time I have all day to just sit, hold my baby, and think about how blessed I am.

There are so many bizarre things going on right now. Isis is scary. Ebola is scary. The baby-killing enterovirus is scary. Rioting is scary. I’ve recently seen friends lose children; I’ve seen children lose their daddy. It’s enough to make a person wind up really tight and get extremely anxious with fear and worry…especially if you are a person who finds it difficult to relinquish control. But I’m starting to realize that I am not in control.

I don’t know for sure if my husband will get out of his jet tomorrow. I don’t know for sure that I won’t get in a car crash tomorrow. It’s beyond my power as a human being to make decisions like that. And I need to just accept life for what it is—fragile—because I have seen too much craziness in the 364 days between last Thanksgiving Day and the Thanksgiving Day that is upon us. I have never been so thankful for the people in my life and my amazing blessings.

I am thankful for my husband. He is a wonderful man to me and an amazing father to our babies. He is helpful and thoughtful, and he always puts our needs before his own. I am thankful that he has a good job that he loves. It isn’t always the easiest job for him or our family, but we make it work, and I am so happy that it makes him happy. Most of all, I am thankful that my husband still makes me feel like I’m the only girl in the room. That’s a secure feeling that every woman should have.

I am thankful for my darling children. I am so blessed to get the experience of a wonderful boy and girl. They are sweet, beautiful, happy, and healthy (despite their current sick-bed statuses), and they have such strong personalities. I am thankful that I have the choice to stay home and raise them during this pivotal stage in their lives. I won’t lie—it is difficult some days. There are times when I envy my friends who have careers and are putting their college degrees to use, or those friends who can easily drop $200 on a new bag without batting an eye, or those friends who are killing it in the business world. But I know that I am doing something important, too. I could be doing those things, but this is what I chose, and this is what I want, and this is important. And I’m thankful that I have the choice, because not every mother has that choice.

I am thankful for my friends. The older I get, the closer I get with a tighter core group of friends. As most other girls do, I went through a phase where I had a lot of male friends at one point. But eventually you reach a stage in life where you need female companionship, and you care less about what men think, aside from your husband and your daddy. Almost all of my friends are women now. One from childhood, several from college, a few from military assignments, and a couple more scattered along the way. These girls get me through life. They know how to make me laugh when I need it, let me cry when I need it, make me feel better when I confess naughty binge eating secrets, and some know just the right advice to give when I’m close to murdering my toddler for pooping on the dining room rug. My friends are as good as gold and as tough as nails, and I am so blessed to have them all in my life.

This year, I am most thankful that I get to spend the holidays with my family. Since I’ve been an adult, the holidays have been incomplete to some degree, because I’ve never been able to spend a season with all of my family. In 10 years, I’ve only spent a couple of Christmases with Alex, due to deployments or him being stationed far away. The years I have gotten to spend the holidays with him, I was in Japan and far away from my family. I’m blessed to have never spent a holiday completely alone, but still, it’s always seemed like someone is missing. We are finally back on home turf this year, so we are spending Thanksgiving in Atlanta with Alex’s family, and we are celebrating Christmas in our own home this year and will be visiting my family. I feel for my friends who have deployed spouses or loved ones who cannot spend the holidays with them. It is hard to be so far away from the one you love at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I think that togetherness is what I am most thankful for this year.

Our lives may not be perfect, but we have so much to be thankful for. 
Like the Gone With the Wind marathon on AMC today :)

I’ll leave you with my Grandmother Broome’s prayer of Thanksgiving:

For family and for friends,

For flowers and for food,

For life and laughter,

And for love,

We give Thee gratitude.

Amen.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Keep on keepin’ on

-Annette

ps- I apologize for being overly sappy today. This is abnormal for me, and it probably will not happen again.

Chicken Tortilla Soup, Delicious Seasonal Beer, and What the Hell, South?

It is the week of Thanksgiving, which, where I come from, means there should be snow, blustery winds and soup days.  I love Chicken Tortilla Soup, and it is a surefire way to ensure my son will eat a lot of a good meal, so I went through with the soup day despite the 94% humidity and sweaty temperature that greeted us today. 

You can Google Chicken Tortilla Soup and read recipes until you’re blue in the face. I’ve never made the same Chicken Tortilla Soup twice.  Mostly, I can’t remember what I did the time before last, and I probably don’t have the same ingredients.  But, that’s the genius of this soup!  You can make it any ol’ way you fancy.

Tonight’s version, which was quite delightful:

A glug or two of olive oil

Two mini orange sweet peppers, finely chopped

One onion, finely chopped

One stalk of celery, finely chopped

Chicken, shredded (I like using a rotisserie chicken for ease)

1 tsp Mexican-spice blend

Cilantro

Two cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Half a jar of tomato-based salsa

One can of black beans, drained and rinsed

Frozen corn to your liking

Chicken broth to your consistency liking

Salt to your liking

On medium heat, pour a glug or two of olive oil into your pot.  Sauté peppers, onion, celery, garlic, and chicken until the veggies are soft.  

Add the spice and salt to the pot and sauté for a minute more.  

Add corn, black beans, salsa and broth.  

Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer for 20-30 minutes. 

Add cilantro (cilantro flower tip below).

Top with shredded cheese, avocado, sour cream and tortilla chips. 

I usually add diced tomatoes.  However, tonight, we were out, and I only had half a jar of salsa in the fridge.  So, I added it to get the tomato part.  Sometimes I dig a tomato-less tortilla soup.  My son prefers it to not have tomatoes, so there you have it!  You can use pinto beans instead.  You can use green peppers, red peppers, add jalapeno, use canned corn, use chili powder, use cumin… 

The possibilities are endless! 

Cilantro flowers: I hate wasting fresh herbs, so when I buy cilantro, since we cannot use the entire bunch before it goes bad, I put it all in a food processor with a bit of water and puree it.  Then, I put the puree into silicon ice cube trays and freeze it.  The next day, I pop them out of the tray into a baggie and keep them in the freezer to use when needed.  Easy peasy.  Works with any herb. 

Getting back to speaking of where I come from, we also like a cool beer with our meal.  Shock Top Seasonal Sampler?  Done and done.  The Twisted Pretzel Wheat was a fabulous accompaniment to my meal, really bringing out the notes of… I can’t even pretend to be fancy here.  You’re lucky I had it in a glass for the picture.  Where I come from, we drink it straight from the bottle, and if a man is wearing a sweater vest, khakis or pink, he’s not looking for a filly.   And yes, the beer was exceptionally tasty.  I’m already counting down to dinnertime tomorrow when I can try the Shockolate Wheat. 

Lastly, what the hell, South?!  I opened the door to my back porch this afternoon (a door that is opened all of the time) to go play ball with the beasties, and this guy was right there, face level.  

For Pete’s sake! 

I consider myself a friend of spiders.  I mean, I have ground rules, like they have to be near a door, showing keen effort in returning to the outdoors from which they came, and I will gladly help the poor little guys back to nature, alive and happy.  Notice how I use “little guys” and not monstrosity like the fellow pictured.  My neighborhood seems deserted, which I thought was due to Thanksgiving.  On second thought, I think this guy ate everyone.  I’m counting my lucky stars that the dogs actually returned from going outside. 

I know what to do if a bear crosses my path, and I’ve stared a rattlesnake in the eye as I’ve slowly backed away, but this… I used my son’s boot to sweep at the web and then I threw my own shoe at it.  The shoe bounced back at me, and this guy merrily hopped down, on his way to planning his next human meal.  I didn’t have the guts to go looking for him.  Also, as the solo-parent, my welfare must be taken into consideration.

And, this is why I ask, what the hell, South?  Why is this spider so huge?  They don’t have spiders in the snow. 

I’m sticking with the 90 lb German Shepherd to protect me… 

Plus, Harlan is older, and I think I can outrun him should the spider make it inside for a snack.

Time to fly,

Liz

Holiday Season Love List + a Trip to the ER

overalls // bib // footed onesie // Santa hat // cable knit onesie // mustache tshirt // Star Wars Christmas pjs // don't stop believing onesie // reindeer wubbanub // bow tie & suspenders set // waffle knit lounge pants // hunters boots 
 

fair isle headband // plaid nightgown // reindeer mask // corduroy party dress with sash // festive cord bow dress // cape // leg lamp onesie // mary janes // reindeer fair isle dress // green glitter bow // pompom beanie // reindeer sweater dress // plaid zip dress

kate spade bow ornament // beryl green earrings // Christmas Vacation sweatshirt // reindeer printable // cake stand // Santa baseball tee // Essie "Really Red" // Essie "Jiggle High, Jiggle Low" // Essie "Going Incognito" // Christmas tree pillow // silicone spoons // vintage colored glass necklaced // Elf tea towel // peppermint stick body wash

You know what sucks more than being awake for nearly 24 hours? Being awake for nearly 24 hours because your child has to go to the Emergency Room. 

We have been spending time with family in Atlanta, and everything has been going really well, aside from Bobby's runny nose, which he's had for a couple of days now. I have to brag that those two babies were perfect angels the entire trip up here. They didn't fuss in the car at all, which is great, because I had my earplugs prepped and ready to at a moment's notice. But they really were excellent during the 5.5 hour drive up.

This helped.

Yesterday was a fun, laid-back afternoon with Alex's family. We watched Elf, ate biscuits and cake, and some people played a card game while others played with the babies. I took tiny nap. It was glorious. Again, Bob seemed mostly fine throughout the entire day. Alex and I were just about to bed down for the night and ease off to sleep, whenever we heard a bizarre sound coming from the monitor. It was a sound I've never heard before. My mother's intuition took charge, and I told Alex to run down and get Bobby right now; I just knew something wasn't right. Alex brought Bobby up the stairs, and the poor guy was wheezing and gasping for breath. His chest was heaving; he couldn't get enough air in. I couldn't tell if it sounded like croup or something worse. It definitely didn't sound like the croup he had last year. My mind automatically went to those recent news reports on the enterovirus that has been going around lately and killing kids in their sleep. I knew some of the symptoms included runny nose, cough, and wheezing, and Bobby was presenting all of these symptoms. Alex and I automatically decided to take him into the Pediatric ER, no questions asked. It was so scary when I was sitting in the back seat with him telling him to breathe; he couldn't catch his breath. It felt like we were moving so slowly, even though Alex had the flashers on, was running through lights, and was probably going about 70. We finally got to the ER after what felt like an eternity, and they rushed him right in. The doctor said it was a severe presentation of croup, and that he was glad we brought him in. They gave the poor guy a steroid shot and then asked us to hold the breathing treatment mask on his face. Haha, yeah right. You've obviously never had a toddler before, guy. It was like fighting a rabid cat into a bathtub. There was screaming, clawing, hitting, wrestling, and more screaming. It was a scene from the Exorcist. People kept tapping on the door and sticking their heads in, probably to make sure we weren't actually murdering our firstborn. It eventually took 3 grown adults to hold our toddler down and hold the breathing mask to his face. We were all sweating at that point. It was literally the longest five minutes of my life.

And then he threw up all over me, so I got to don a lovely and soft hospital gown of my own. 

Once the breathing treatment was over, the doctor said we needed to just lie down and wait to see if the shot and breathing treatment seemed to make a difference. Okay, I thought, I can lie down (considering I'd been up for about 21 hours at this point). It was 1am; surely Bobby had to be tired, right? Wrong. The steroids started to kick in, so not only was he still wheezing and coughing like a seal, but he was also wired and wound up tighter than a pair of Vivi's jeggings. 

After a couple more hours, they released us, but warned us that since croup is very contagious, we need to keep Bobby and Vivi away from each other.

Good luck with that.

And that there's a good chance he's already infected her with the virus. So now we are watching Vivi like shes a ticking time bomb. Ugh. This seems to be a trend with Bobby and Thanksgiving. At this exact same time last year, Bobby was in the hospital in my hometown with a severe virus, rash, dehydration, and croup. We completely missed Thanksgiving Day last year, so I am hoping that we get to eat a little turkey and pecan pie this year. And I am praying that the little missy doesn't get sick next.

She seems okay for now.

Anyhow, on to more exciting things. I am so ready for some good eating on Thursday and then some good shopping on Friday! I've never actually done Black Friday, and I can't decide how badly I want to do it. I may just be lazy and take advantage of Cyber Monday instead of getting slaughtered in the disaster that is Black Friday. Honestly, the best part about Friday is that it is the socially-acceptable day to start decorating for Christmas and dressing your children in Christmas clothes! They have some great holiday clothing and accessories for kids and adults out right now. I am especially loving the Star Wars fair isle Christmas pjs for boys, the reindeer sweater dress for girls (and that adorable buffalo plaid furry cape!), and the Kate Spade bow ornament. Too many cute things for the season!

Please keep my babies in your prayers. I hate when they are sick. I would rather be sick 100 times over than have to see them sick and scared. 

We are hoping for a full recovery, looking forward to a lot of delicious food, and hanging out with friends and family. Hope y'all all have a wonderful Monday! And now I'm going to close my eyes for a few minutes. 

Keep on keepin' on!

-Annette