How Not to Play Hide N Seek & The Best Compliment

Trey was the one seeking, he was 10 feet away counting down and Chey picked this place to hide.

This weekend is Jubilee of Tables and this is the first time I've volunteered to decorate a table. I'm working with a group of ladies from my Sunday school class. Here are some of the items I bought to decorate and to use as favors. Can you guess what our theme is?
We are in the process of looking for fabric to use as a tablecloth...I don't think Chey liked this print.

The girl is always in pose ready mode

By now, the theme should be pretty obvious. It's a school theme.
I'm curious to see how this will come together. It's nice to have crafty people on my side. It's not a competition, but that doesn't mean we don't want it to look amazing.

Scrambling to Make Childcare Arrangements
Please keep Tonya, my friend who watches the girls, in your prayers. She has pneumonia. I can't imagine being that sick. She described her symptoms and it sounds like hell. She sent her kids off to their grandparents for the week and I've made other arrangements for my girls. I'm thankful for my church family. I know it was last minute, but my friends were quick to respond and willing to help. I'm feeling blessed.

Krista watched the girls for me today and I have to say, this is one of the best compliments ever --- I mean, I know she's good, but it's nice to know she is the same way with others.

Sweet Sisters

Rolling Frustrations

Someone is trying to roll over.

She gets all worked up, when she doesn't get what she wants. She freaks out for about 5 seconds and then gets over it. I do that too! She is my daughter!
 
When I wasn't looking Trey tried to act like she rolled, not funny! I told Tonya (my friend who watches the girls), that if Dakota does any firsts under her supervision, she's not suppose to tell me. I want to live in a world where Dakota is saving all the firsts, for me. A working mommy can dream.

P.S. Yesterday was my 2,000th blog post! Thanks for reading! (mom) haha! Seriously, thanks to our friends, family and blog world buddies!

Guns N Stuff

This morning I watched William, my neighbor's son.

His momma had to work and his daddy was shooting guns with Trey at the gun range. The picture below is of Trey's co-worker, Chris. I'm glad Trey had some male bonding time. Guns 'n stuff. Now, it's my turn. I see a Ladies Night in my future. That would be nice. Who wants in?

My Week in Photos

This is the light edition of my week in photos. I didn't take as many photographs as I normally do. You are shocked, right?

If you ever want to thank me, this is how you do it... 
A few weeks ago, I helped a faculty with a project and to thank me she bought me wine. This is the second time she's done this, so anytime I know she needs help, I'm more than happy to assist. Yes, my work can be bought with wine and don't forget food! P.S. how do you like my office decor? That's one of my favorite pictures of Trey and my mom. Some of my co-workers have told me, that's a lovely picture of you... (the picture to the right). I have to tell, them: no, that's my mom and my ginger husband. I like to drop the ginger reference whenever possible. Red hair don't care :)

Another Work Related Picture
Someone I work with put this in my office box. I want to know who they are, so I can thank them. Cheyenne is going to love these, magnets.

Do you have any plans for the weekend?
I didn't have anything planned and then about an hour ago I got this email -- Now, I know exactly what I'll be doing. I'm obsessed with 90210 and the fifth season starts on the CW next month!!!!

My Half Marathon Training Program & How to Accidentally Run 10 miles

Here is my half marathon training program for the MetroPCS Dallas Marathon.
My first training day starts on Sunday, so my long runs will fall on Saturday (minor detail).

I. Dominique. Commit.
For the first time ever, I'm committing to a program 100% (I'm hopeful). I've used all kinds of training tools before, but I would tweak them to no end. Long runs are a staple, so I would always stick with them, no matter what. However, weekday runs were free game and cross training was hit or miss, depending on the week. This time around, I'm going to stick with the plan.

Terrible at Math
I decided to go with the Hal Higdon Intermediate Program because it includes speedwork.

Am I doing this right? <-----see picture below. Since I'm terrible at math, I feel like I'm going to mess this up. Instead of running a total of 1.25 miles (in speedwork), I might accidentally run 10 miles. I'm sure I'd die before reaching 10 miles, but you get the point. This workout is scheduled for Tuesday morning. Now, I can dwell on it from now until then, yay!

The Workout: 5x400 at 5k Pace
The post-it says 5x100, see I'm already messing up and I haven't even started. Dang it!

Breakdown for people who don't really "get" speedwork (ME!): 
Warm up 2 miles 
.25 run at 5k pace
Recover (jog) for about .11
Repeat run/recover 4 times
complete at 4 miles

Being a Mommy. Being a Runner.

I feel the same way. And in related news, I want to be Kara Goucher, when I grow-up. :)


How has motherhood changed you as a runner?  (30 second clip)

How We Work-Out

The girls and I did a 15 minute ab workout. Aren't' they adorable? Even Dakota was getting into it.

I hope when they get older they enjoy running. I'd LOVE to have mommy-daughter running dates with them! If they hate running, I'll try to forgive them.

Half Marathon Training Starts Next Week! 
Speaking of running, my treadmill has been getting a lot of attention, lately -- particularly in the mornings. I feel like, I'm back in my running routine and it feels GOOD. Oh and my Dallas Half Marathon Training starts next week. I'm so excited! From now until December, that's all you will hear me blog and talk about.

If you are running the same race, let me know - maybe we can run a few long runs together.

Poke, Jab, LAUGH

Today, Dakota laughed AND my heart melted. I tried to recreate the moment, but for some reason Dakota was not responding to my poking and jabbing. Strange, I know. I managed to record her doing a little chuckle, but that's all.

I apologize for the annoyingly high pitch baby voice, some lady is doing. Watch it and dismiss me-I mean HER, because Dakota's too cute not to watch this...
Wow, that lady was really jabbing her, no wonder she didn't laugh.

Today, we got great news, Chey's doctor said her collarbone is healing fine and she doesn't have to wear the sling anymore. That's great, especially since I had her moving a lot today. We are in the process of decluttering our home and I asked Chey to look at all her toys and books and decide what she wanted to donate and what she wanted to keep. It went better than I thought. We had a system: our words were Keep? or Give?

"Chey, what about this book? Keep or Give?" And then she'd tell me.
She wanted to give away a lot. I had to tell her no, on more than one item. She wanted to give away the book Goodnight Moon. I don't think so!

In my declutter mood, I decided to sell our old coffee table. We bought it from Ashley's Furniture about 7 years ago. Trey wanted to donate it to Goodwill and I said, no I want to see if I can sell it. So, I posted it on FaceBook for 20 bucks. A STEAL, if you ask me. I think we spent at least 300 on it. I didn't care to make my money back, I just wanted haircut money. Within 3 minutes of posting the picture online, my old friend D'Ann snatched it up. She came over to my house and we chatted for a while. Old friend. Old memories.

After she left, I got the "get rid of junk bug" (even more)  and decided to give this away --- NOT THE BABY, BTW that's Cheyenne (april 2010). I wasn't going to try to make a profit on the baby glider/rocking chair, since it was given to me, as a hand me down.

Have you ever sold anything on FaceBook? I got a good response and it makes me want to do it again. Hmmm, (looking around the room) What else can I get rid of?????

No Sleep Afternoon

Dakota spent most of the day awake. I think she was excited to see her grandparents and didn't want to waste her time sleeping. We spent all day visiting and now, it's time to change into PJ's and call it a night.

I hope you got more accomplished than me this weekend. I only did half of the things on my to-do list. Something tells me, tomorrow is going to be a busy Monday.

My Week in Photos

This morning I was greeted with a wonderful cold front. It was cool, but not cold. However, it took everything in me, to not break out my boots, hats, scarves, and jackets. It would've been great to go running with the cooler temps, but I was still feeling cruddy, as of this morning. At the moment, I feel much better.

Early this week, we enjoyed some snuggle, girly time on the sofa.

My weekend chores, look something like this...

My Saturday morning breakfast looked something like this...

Hey look, my herb garden is thriving.

Dakota is 12 Weeks Old

Workout for the day, leg-lifts! Get it, girl!

       

Dakota is....
- Smiling often. Her grin, makes me so giddy!
- She is eating for longer periods. Long gone are the days of 10 minute eating sessions.
- When I get her, after work, she does cluster feedings. On a typical weeknight, she will eat at 6:30, 7:30 and sometimes 9 pm. I've noticed, as the day progresses, I produce less milk. The only reason I know this is because I'm pumping, when I'm at work.
- Some of her hair has fallen out, but she's totally rocking the ring of baldness in the back of her head. Watch out, she might be starting a baby hair trend.
- When I wake her up, she arches her back, like a gymnasts.
- If I coo, she coo's and then I melt.
- Her nails grow so fast. It's like having little knives on her fingertips. I'm surprised her face isn't all scratched up. Trey trimmed them, after I took this picture.

This morning, I thought about taking a sick day.
I'm feeling crummy. It feels like a sinus infection, so I shouldn't be contagious. I want strong drugs, but there is limited medication I can take, while lactating. At the moment, I'm taking Zyrtec, which is considered safe. I took half a dose of Mucinex D, since it's on the list of: this might temporarily decrease your milk supply. If that's the case, I'll call for back-up, thank you frozen milk in the freezer.

What are your plans for the weekend? I'm not planning anything, especially since I'm feeling all stuffed up. This might be a kick back, type of weekend.

P.S.
How 'bout them Cowboys??!!!!

Our Idea of a Good Time

One of our favorite family pastimes is putting puzzles together. I feel so smart because I can put a 24 piece kiddie puzzle together, like nobody's business!

Collarbone Update: 
For the most part, Cheyenne can still do a lot of the same things she did before she broke her collarbone, she just has to modify. She still moves her lower arm around, more than I'd like her to ---  although, I have not seen her swing her arm away from her body (that tells me, she is still in pain. She also tells me too). Next week, we'll see her pediatrician, so I'll have more information on how it's healing.

Dakota, was all impressed by our puzzle skills. I know, we're good.

And then she just watched us and ate her hands.
Devouring her hands, now that's her favorite pastime.

Our Labor Day Looked Like This

I guess you could say, this weekend was about trying new restaurants and here's another one we tried, Grumps.

Did you know, Cheyenne is now an expert at opening peanuts with one hand? And Dakota is the sleeping expert in our family.

How do you like your adult beverages? Strong or weak? 
Trey and I shared this massive margarita. I'm a lightweight when it comes to strong alcoholic beverages and the fish bowl was just too much for me. I like my drinks strong enough, just to taste the flavor, but when the room starts moving -- it's time to through in the towel.

Dakota Was Mistaken For a Boy. It Happens.

My cousin Jeremy and his wife Jerrica, recently bought a house, in the DFW area. Their new house has a pool, so yesterday, we were all over that...

Jerrica and Dakota.

My uncle and aunt were also in town, they live in Port Lavaca. I love family time. I just wish more of my family lived in the area. Jeremy and Jerrica live semi-close, but they are still about a 45 minute drive from where we live.

Awwww, look at their amazing pool. I want one!

We watched the boys play an aggressive game of volleyball.

Dakota and I relaxed by the pool. She was perfectly content eating her hands and watching the boys. She was wearing a Cowboys onesie. Guess who dressed her? Jerrica's sister told me, "What a cute boy!" I was like no, he's a she.

Cheyenne didn't let her broken collar-bone stop her from getting wet. She just wasn't as active as she normally is. We took her sling off and she played on the ledge.

What are your plans for today????
I'm not sure what we are going to do. So, far we are relaxing at home.

Family Date Night: Fancy Pants Edition

This evening our little family went out to eat at the keg steakhouse and bar. It's a fancy steak restaurant, I was really impressed. Trey doesn't take me out much. I'm kidding, but really, I'm more of a Chili's, Logan's or Pizza Inn --- kind of girl.

The lighting at the restaurant was pretty dim, Trey had to use his flashlight on his phone to read the menu.

We had a wonderful experience at the Keg and the food was heavenly. I highly recommend it for a date night or family date night too (why not?). We took the kids.

I'm not sure if they always do this, but our waiter brought out a kid appetizer for Cheyenne.

What's your favorite cocktail? I usually stick with a margarita. Have you ever had a bellini? I tried one for the first time, tonight. It's a sparkling wine and peach purée cocktail. It's an A+ drink, in my book.

Herb Garlic Shrimp appetizer -- this was all mine. For the main course I tried the filet mignon wrapped in applewood smoked bacon. Mmmmm, b-a-c-o-n. The only thing I didn't care too much for was the dessert. It's probably because I overloaded my taste buds and by the time dessert rolled around, my taste buds were like, noooooo -- we can't take anymore, too much stimulation! Ha, maybe.

I'm stuffed with food! Now, I must run 100 miles, this week. I'm kidding! But really, I ate enough food to sustain me, for at least a week and a half. All I want to do is this....Dakota knows, what's up.