Great times with great friends

What a great day it has been.  Evan and I relaxed this morning and met two great law school friends for lunch, Kendra and Christin.  Christin and her husband, Blake, are relocating to Houston from San Antonio and Kendra recently opened her own practice in Oklahoma City.  I am so excited for the great things happening and my friends lives and it was so great to see these two.  And, lunch at Iron Star BBQ is always a plus.

Speaking of great things, my friend Candice is coming to visit this weekend.  Candice is pregnant and her little girl, Mia, will be here this summer.  I like to refer to Mia as Evan's future girlfriend.  Evan is so excited about little Mia that he even bought her a little present but I cannot post a pic until Candice gets here tomorrow.  He is so excited to give it to her.  I'm not sure what we will do this weekend, but I am sure it will involve lots of talk about babies, babies and more babies.  This little guy will probably also provide loads of entertainment:

I know, hanging out with mom all day is hard work.    On a side note, look at those thigh rolls! I could just squeeze him.

Full Cup

Isn't it amazing what a cup of coffee can do.  I love finding new locally owned coffee shops.  Don't get me wrong, I can enjoy a good Starbucks with the rest of the world, but there is just something about going into a local coffee shop that makes you want to sit and stay a while.  Once you enter, clocks stop, the to-do list goes out the window and for at least ten minutes you can sit, enjoy a perfect cup and all is right with the world.

Lately, I have been going to Full Cup Bakery and Cafe in Edmond at 2nd and Fretz.   Here is the Facebook page.  So far I have only had the coffee, but the donuts and pastries look delicious. See:

Hungry yet?  I am and I'm hoping I will be able to go by on Saturday morning for a big delicious cinnamon roll.

Well that was an expensive day!

Yesterday turned out to be a rather expensive day.  I spent the morning shopping for work clothes because nothing I have fits and I start back to work on Monday.  Shopping was, in one word, a nightmare, especially for pants.  My waist and legs are literally two completely different sizes.  Despite trying on no less than 20 pairs of pants, I could not find one pair that looked right.  Either they fit in the legs and could not be buttoned, or fit in the waist and looked baggy and ridiculous in the legs.  So, work friends, if you see me wearing the same dresses week after week, just go with it. :)

After Bill got off work, we had to shop for a new computer.  I know some people could survive without a home computer for a little while, but I am not one of those people.  Bill diligently worked on the other computer, but in the end, the coffee prevailed.  That was one expensive cup of coffee!  Bill has now made a rule that I cannot have food or drink by the computer.  My thoughts:  Well, that settles it. I am excited to be going back to work. How am I suppose to sit at the computer without a cup of coffee?  Impossible.

Anyway, after spending way too much money yesterday, Evan and I are taking it easy today.  Originally I planned to send him to daycare so that I could finish any last minute shopping and errands before work starts on Monday, but it is going to rain all day, and besides, my bank account cannot handle any more shopping!  So, my sweet little man and I are going to relax at home.  My favorite kind of day.

Coffee + computer = no bueno

Sorry for not posting yesterday. Turns out that you should not spill a whole cup of coffee on your computer. Just take my word for it, it's not good. Hopefully Bill can fix it and until then I am forced to blog from my phone. Not fun!

Today is Evan's first full day of daycare. For some reason it is especially hard today. I really need to buy more work clothes because it doesn't look like I will be losing any more weight while breastfeeding and I hope to breastfeed until Evan turns one, so I need clothes! But I keep thinking I have dropped Evan off just to go shopping which makes me feel so bad. I would much rather hang out with him or have him with me, but I know it will be easier to try things on without him. I just miss my little man today!!

Daycare

One day down, approximately 4600 more to go. (Yes I multiplied 52 weeks by  18 years by 5 days, and subtracted some for good measure).  Evan's school career has begun.

The first day went really well.  He was only there for 2 1/2 hours, but still, he and I both did good.  I think I built this day up in my mind so  much that it wasn't all that bad once the time came to actually drop him off.   He was sleeping, so that helped I'm sure.

After I dropped him off, I went by Starbucks for a vanilla latte and headed straight for the nail salon.  I figured I needed some serious pampering to make the first day go by quickly.  It worked.  I didn't really even notice the time until I was not so patiently waiting for the polish to dry.  I kept thinking, hurry up, I am ready to go pick up Evan!!  I am usually always impatient sitting under the fans waiting for the polish to dry, so it should have been no surprise that I was especially impatient today.

When I arrived to pick him up, this is what I found:

His swing was parked directly in front of the teacher's rocker.  Such a cutie pie!

Speaking of cutie pies, when Bill was getting Evan dressed for his first day of daycare, I overheard him asking Evan what outfit he wanted to wear and if he needed cologne because there will probably be "chicks" at daycare. I think I have a long 18 years of school ahead of me with these two!!

Weekend Ramblings

We had a great weekend.  My friend Linsey came down from Tulsa to see Evan and hang out on Saturday.  We went to the outlet mall and had a great time.  I also took Linsey to Uptown Grocery and we picked up the ingredients for Taco Pizza, found here:

We made it Sunday night and it was so delicious! In fact, I think I am going to have left overs for lunch.

Sunday morning, Bill, Evan and I slept in.  Evan started daycare today (more on that here), so I wanted to take advantage of this last opportunity.  Once awake, I ran my weekly long run, six miles! That is the farthest I have ran since before Evan was born and it felt really good.  I think I can finally say that I am ready for the Capitol 10K in Austin at the end of this month.  I am also feeling more confident about the OKC half-marathon at the end of April.

The rest of our Sunday was pretty relaxing.  We did go to Lowe's for ferns and flowers to plant in the front flower beds.  Now if only I could find the time to plant them.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Will it still be good enough?

Evan starts daycare on Monday and all I can think is, will it still be good enough?  Will I still be good enough? It's funny.  While pregnant, I thought about this day and mostly thought, am I going to miss him when I go back or will I be thankful for the break and adult interaction?  Selfish as it may seem, I honestly thought my feelings would either be that I would miss him and want to be around him, and therefore, wish I didn't have to go back to work, or that I would be lonely and bored, and therefore thankful I have a job.  How naive I was. While I have felt both of these emotions, sometimes simultaneously, it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of how I feel.  Now, all my emotions are centered around, is this best for Evan?

Will I be available when he needs me?  All Evan knows is that when he's crying mommy will sooth him, when he's sleepy mommy will rock him, and when he's hungry mommy will feed him.  That is now about to change.  Will someone else be able to comfort him? Will he be lonely? Will he be happy and make friends?  Will he drive the daycare workers crazy on his fussy days where it seems that all he does is cry?  Will the daycare workers be ready for me to come get him or will they enjoy him like I do?  Will eight hours seem like an eternity to him?  Above all else, I cannot shake the feeling of will I be available for him when he needs me?  Will I know when he needs me?  How can I make myself available when he needs me?  His happiness is my number one priority right now and I am just so anxious about relinquishing control of that happiness to someone else for eight hours every day.

How fast will the time go?  Prior to having Evan, I thought life went by pretty fast.  I know time will only move faster from here on out and I am not sure I like it.  In fact, I am sure I do not like it.  I have enjoyed the time that Evan and I have had together the past 11 weeks.  I have loved the slow days where we do not make it out of our PJs and I have loved the fast days where it seems as if we are going non-stop from sun up to sun down. But mostly, I have enjoyed setting our own pace.  I have enjoyed being able to capture every single moment and remember every single smile, cry, and coo.  How will I remember all of these things with time moving by so quickly?  How will I be able to capture his milestones? How will I take enough pictures and videos for him to look back on when he gets older? How do I prevent him growing up so fast that I do not realize it?  Is that even possible, or should I just make peace with the fact that I will blink my eyes and he will be 18?   I just need to know that time will move slowly, or at least slow enough that I can keep up.

Will I still be available when Evan needs me?  Will the time at least move slow enough that I can capture his memories in my mental treasure chest for years to come?  Will it still be good enough?  God, I hope so.

Uptown Experience

I absolutely love walking into a new store and instantly feeling as if I am on vacation.  You know that feeling, where you get lost for an hour or two and forget that you are actually minutes from home.  A mini-staycation if you will.  This happens to me often at bookstores, movie theaters, and while browsing shops in downtown Edmond and Oklahoma City.  Today it happened the moment I walked into Uptown Grocery.

Uptown Grocery is a new store that opened in Edmond this week.  It is a division of Buy-for-Le$$ offering both upscale and everyday grocery items, including items that you do not find at run-of-the mill grocery stores.  To me, Uptown Grocery is a cross between Whole Foods and HEB, with prices cheaper than Whole Foods.  Architecturally, Uptown Grocery is designed after New York's warehouse district, which I love!  Evan and I had a great time exploring and taking photos of this new grocery store.

In the center of the produce/food to-go section is a sushi bar, YUM!  There is also a station for sandwiches, soups, salads and cooked entrees.

I didn't look long at the prepared to-go section, but they did have a seven layer dip that looked so delicious.

There is a great little seating area where you can eat lunch while watching chef demonstrations.  You can even sample food cooked during the demo.  I had garlic potatoes.

And my delicious lunch, chicken salad sandwich and tomato basil soup. I accidentally cut the orchid out of the picture.  Yes, I know I need to continue working on my photography.

I took this picture because I knew Bill would love this section.  Tons of nuts and chocolate covered goodness.

I wanted to try one of everything in this case.  I did get a caramel brownie and it was to-die-for good.

 Last, but definitely not least, fresh bread made daily.  I picked up some rosemary garlic bread to have with spaghetti tonight.  We dipped it in an oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar mixture and it was really good.

Thank you Uptown Grocery for allowing me a big city adventure in small town Oklahoma.