St. Louis

So we have been here about a month and a half now. So far, here are my impressions of St. Louis:

-Imo's is gross. 

My kids (who live on pizza) did not enjoy it either. Sydney now specifically says on pizza night that she doesn't want "st. louis pizza. JUST regular pizza." Lol! Kirk does not agree with the kids and I, but maybe he's more of a St. Louisian than we are?

-It feels like a small town, even though it's not.

I like this a lot. Houston always felt like a city that just oozed out because people didn't know how to contain it. (Don't get me wrong, I love Houston. But seriously, city planners? What were you thinking?)

-There is tons of small town pride.

Out in St. Louis County, there are lots of different little towns that kind of bleed into each other. We live in Manchester, which has a population of about 20,000, but we are super close to Ballwin, Ellisville, etc. In fact, half the time I'm not really sure what town I'm in. Yet despite these overlapping towns, each town has it's own pride. No joke, on my first day here I told my mom  in the Walmart parking lot about how Ballwin Days was the following weekend and a young chap about my age was passing by and turned to me to say, "Ballwin Days are this weekend?? I love Ballwin Days!" Adorable.

-Toasted ravioli is the bomb.

It's fried ravioli, and it was invented here. Ummm...yeah. Enough said.

-Summer ain't too bad.

Ok, so people have told me this summer has been pretty mild. It's supposed to be similar to Houston heat-wise. But so far it's only gone up to 95 degrees. It's not uncommon to go into the 100's in Houston. Now maybe I'm wrong and it's going to get way hotter here, but thus far it's bearable. Hot, but bearable.

-There are bunnies in my neighborhood. 

And chipmunks. Adorbs.

-People don't do the smile and wave thing here.

Once you talk to locals here, they are super friendly. But it's different from Texan friendliness. In Texas, you'll have just met someone and they will give you a big bear hug, chronicle their family lineage, and vent to you about the drama in their lives, all in about 10 minutes. People here will talk to you, but there's still a wall there. A low wall that you can peek over though. Oh and randomly waving at people while driving your car? Hmmm...they look at me like I'm a little cray-cray.

-It has "varied topography."

This is quoting my dad. I liked he way he put it, despite me making fun of him. Houston is flat. It makes training for a half marathon so much easier, but it's not very varied. :) As we drive around St. Louis, the girls and I love to squeal "whee!!!" as we go down a hill.

-The Cardinals are gods. 

People wear Cardinals gear all.the.time. Not just on game days. I mean, they can't be playing games every day of the week, right?? Fans here are the real deal.


I think the list is long enough. All in all, I'm enjoying exploring this new part of the U.S. But I'll always be a Texan!

St. Patrick's Day Fun

I never ever ever celebrate this holiday. But, this year I decided that one of the fun things about being a mom is getting to celebrate random holidays and seeing your kids' delight at those random celebrations. :) Now that Sydney is older, it's totally worth it.

She kept talking about the green pancakes all day, so that means one point for mama!

I love that in the picture with the balloons, it totally looks like we have four good light bulbs in the ceiling fan. Not so, my friends! We're so lazy we only have 2 right now. Lol!

Sydney-isms

* S: "Aye-aye, captain!" (When I ask her to do something; often accompanied with a salute)

* S: "Jesus said not to lock the door!"

   M: "No, Jesus said to listen to your mommy!"

(After I put the child lock on her bedroom door because she kept coming out during nap time)

* Computer = "Punkin-puter"

Spring Break Fun!

No, my kids are not officially in school yet. But Sydney's Mother's Day Out has the same schedule as the school district, so my mom and I thought...let's party anyway!

For me the festivities started on Wednesday. A friend of mine from Pearland Community Band invited me to play with the Gulf Coast band at the Battleship Texas's Centennial Celebration.   It was so much fun! I definitely loved being a part of something that honored our veterans.

Da flutes! I'll be honest, these flute players are amazing!! I definitely had to practice for this gig, and I sight read a good portion as well. I did pretty well (especially for sight reading) but these ladies inspire me. Their fingers can go super duper fast. That's important for playing marches!

Battleship Texas

Our set-up to keep the wind from blowing away our music. It was sooo windy. 

Then my mom, the kids and I headed down to Surfside Beach, where my mom rented a beach house for a few days. It was so nice to not have to worry about housework (not my house!) or worry about having something structured for the kids to do (it's vacation!). The Hudson family (from my parents' ward) were able to come hang with us for a night too. They were super helpful with the kids, and my girls just adored them.

Here are some pics of my lovely chiclets and our beachy ways. (I didn't get any pics of me and my mom!! I swear we were there...)

Look at the kite!! (Ps our beach house is on the far right). 

Love that sandy face! 

Oh my goodness...she's a little girl now! 

Claire Hudson and my girls. Claire is 12 and was so sweet to them. She's the youngest in her family, so I'm sure that has something to do with it. She's not annoyed by younger siblings all the time! :D

Sabrina seriously doesn't like pictures if she's being held by someone else. I swear she loved Claire!

Random pic of the day. (No, I didn't take it).

I really really like erasers. Am I strange?? :p

Random Zoo Trip!

So we don't make it to the zoo often. It's only like 15 minutes away from us, but it's just a big hassle making sure I have a lunch packed (because the food is so expensive) and making sure the stroller is full of the necessities, etc. Thankfully, Kirk was able to go with us yesterday! He is taking his big Step 2 CK exam today (he's been studying for a month) but we both decided that it would be good for him to take a break and get out of the house. It's not a test you can cram for anyway. 

So here are some pictures! 

Love Sabrina's "Cheese!!"

This baby giraffe was way too cute!

I told the girls they could run around the reptile house if they held hands. It was partly for safety...partly because I thought it'd be cute to take pics of them. :) 

Start off the New Year with...

...running 13.1 miles!

So I have been wanting to run a half since I was 20 years old. I have started "training" over and over again, only to injure my back (while I was in London, wearing super old shoes...not a good idea) or do something like getting pregnant (hello Sabrina!). It was definitely a relief to finally get this done!

I started training for this particular half marathon in September. My sis-in-law Kim and I originally planned on running this race in Corpus Christi in December, and the date of the race was changed to January 4th. I'm actually glad it got moved because it gave me some wiggle room with training. Some weeks I couldn't train because I was traveling with Kirk, and others I just got sick and didn't want to push myself.

This past week I wanted to make sure to take it easy. I only ran on Tuesday and Thursday, for 30 minutes each day. I had made it to 10 miles a few weeks before and my brother-in-law (who has done other long races) suggested not doing a long run a week before the race, because you didn't want to risk getting injured.

I also made sure to carbo load this past week. That was the fun part. :) It helped that I'd had a nasty virus the week before and a little of this week so I was definitely craving some yummy processed goodness. 

For fueling before the race, Kim and I decided to wake up at 3 am to fuel up on rolled oats, Greek yogurt, chia seeds, milk and fruit. The race was at 7 am and she had found in her research that you should eat a good meal 4 hours before. I had a hard time getting back to sleep but eventually I did. I was just so excited/nervous!

Right before the race I popped about half of a pack of these bad boys:

Excuse to eat some candy? Don't mind if I do! I was incredulous about these actually working, but I popped some during the race too and I definitely noticed a little boost of energy. I mean, they are basically a bunch of sugar and electrolytes. Not needed for every day eating, but great for when you're pushing your body. 

Most of the race I felt like time passed by pretty fast. Kim and I chatted sometimes, and I'd done up to 10 miles before so I knew what to expect up until then. But oh.my.goodness. That last 3 miles was killer!

A little after we hit mile 10 I turned to Kim and said "We must have done another mile by now!" She looked at her phone (that was tracking our mileage on mapmyrun) and said "Nope! We are now at 10.3 miles"

What!!??

Yeah. Last few miles were killer and my knees hurt and my back hurt and my feet were burning. But I'd remembered hearing that if you picture pain in your body as a color, it helps you compartmentalize it better. I kept picturing my feet as bright hot red, and kind of made a game of it...the ground was burning them so I just had to keep moving. Sounds silly, I know, but it really helped that last bit.

It also helped to have a little cheering squad. Our hubbies and our kids would drive up to a spot in the race and yell "Go Hill Mama's!!" Super cute and super motivational. 

We did it!! 

So much fun. Ready to start training for a marathon. :D