mama's back!

i'm back! whooo! i'm back! not that i'm back to blogging, nope, i'm back to bike riding!

i haven't been on my bike for ehh, i'm going to say at least 2 years and 9 months... and well, i got pregnant for max in december so i'm going out on a limb here and say that it was at least 3 years ago since i was on my bike. well, i've finally brought water to that drought.

over the weekend chris got my bike back into working condition. put air in the tires, checked the gears cleaned it up a bit and shortly after, i took my first spin around the block, twice. after that trek back up the hill i had rubber band legs... seriously they weren't working correctly. i stretched, i felt fine and didn't even feel the slightest twinge the following day. which is when i started to scour craigslist.com for a kid trailer to pull behind the bike. i found one. it was a bit more than i wanted to spend but hell, i really wanted to get back out there on my bike in a regular fashion. last night chris made the quick drive to clinton, pa to pick it up. it's in perfect condition. a few spots that need a needle and thread on the netting but nothing i can't fix easily.

then tonight i whipped up a quick dinner and then we packed up the kids and the bikes and the new bike trailer and drove about 4 minutes to the head of the montour trail which sits just at the edge of our town. first we hooked the trailer to chris's bike. he towed it for the first half of the ride. then we swapped and i took it back. it's EASY! the kids LOVE it! max got to see a ton of doggies who we walking on the trail with their owners. we rode two miles, swapped the trailer and rode two miles back, it took about 40 minutes. and the complete outing took exactly an hour. it was soooo refreshing! it was invigorating! i was riding my bike with my kids :) max stayed awake the whole time. andy fell asleep at some point on the way back. he seemed to enjoy it though :) max babbled the entire way and kept saying "bye" to everyone that we passed.

i can't wait to do this again. now i just have to figure out how i can do it by myself.... our bike rack is on the roof of our car. and well i'm slightly vertically challenged... i wonder if i can fit it into the back of the car... we'll have to try it out...

anyways, i'm just so happy to be able to do fun active stuff again with my husband and family. for so long it was chris who was going out and doing all the fun outdoors stuff. i did some hiking while pregnant with max and we did a bit last spring/summer (2007) with him in the back back but i spent most of last summer pregnant again and frankly had no energy to do much outside of what i had to do... now it's back, i feel normal again and i LOVE it! yay!

sorry about not having any photos... i somehow managed to forget my camera on this trip. i'm sure there will be more just like it so look for some on my flickr in the near future.

my week in review - a bit of a hodgepodge

eta: as michelle kindly pointed out in the comments, yes in addition to everything below andy managed to sit up yesterday completely on his own, he went from being on his back to his side to supporting himself with one arm but sorta still on his side to sitting! it was really funny to watch :) i had never seen him do that before and was quite thrilled to witness it! and so was michelle!


this past week, (definition of "past week" last wednesday july 30 - today august 5th) has been a long 7 days.... chris was (and is still) out of the country for work and is returning tomorrow, aug 6th. i was home alone with the kids. the beginning of the week was the roughest. max was not very cooperating and andy was giving me fits. i was nervous and cranky about having to put two kids to bed at the same time without any help, not happy about having to deal with mealtimes alone and jealous that i had to be a single parent while chris was out traveling the world, without me.

i had a TON of help from MY family, however we're 7 days in and still no phone calls what-so-ever from the ils.... not even to see if i've heard from chris... so strange...

anyways, my brother and his wife came over one night with pasta and homemade sauce! that rocked! my parents had us over a few times. i managed to cook a few times too, very proud of that, and ordered pizza only once! i also tried to plan as many things to do outside of the house as possible. we went to target twice... we went on a playdate with blogless lauren and her little guy leo, we went to the zoo with our cousin elizabeth and her twin boys, and today we had an impromptu play date with michelle and amelia which was very nice! max showed a very sensitive and gentlemanly side to him that i've never seen in my life! it was so darling! he was sharing everything he owned, held her hand and gave everyone kisses before they left :)

i have also managed to keep the house in relatively neat order. i have some cleaning to do upstairs tomorrow but i've kept up with the housework more this week than i normally do when chris is out of town for short trips. about mid-way through the week i got the hang of everything. meals were fairly smooth and bedtime was a breeze. i love, i mean LOVE, dvr. really i'm not sure how i would have done it without this new gadget. bedtimes consisted of cleaning up the toys while andy rolled around on the floor and cried and max sorta helped me. then i got him some milk and a snack and put him in his folding nemo chair and put on a curious george episode. i took andy upstairs got him ready for bed, fed him and put him down (awake i might add!!!) and then went back down to watch the rest of george with max and maybe even another episode if it was still early. then off to bed with him too. it was beautiful!

after the kids were both in bed, i then watched a few movies on ondemand this week. a quick review:
1. The Ex with Zach Braff and Amanda Peet. cute movie, a few funny scenes and a few new parent jokes. i enjoyed the baby/parenting dialog the most. wasn't a waste of time.
2. Moving McAlister with Mila Kunis from that 70's show and a guy that i've never seen or heard of before and that guy from napoleon dynamite. eh, so so but sorta cute. i watched the whole thing, enjoyed parts of it but it wasn't the most entertaining movie. cute story line though and the ending was nice. wasn't a complete waste of time but sorta almost was...
3. Definitely, Maybe with Ryan Reynalds and that girl from wedding crashers who was the younger sister who was maddly in love with vince vaugh and a few other female actresses. anyways. this was by far the best of the bunch! very entertaining love story that is creatively told to his young daughter. there are some sad parts about divorce but they are overshadowed by the happy parts. definitely NOT a waste of time and i'm glad i watched it even though the title alone annoyed me and i didn't think i would like it one bit.

knitting, i've done nothing.

sewing, i finished everlasting and started a few others...
i sewed a handle onto my everlasting bag, i'm quite happy with how it turned out:

another photo here.

i started my grocery bag beautification project, inspired by this blog, i pinned this fabric onto one side of this bag from giant eagle MONTHS ago... so long ago that i've never been able to use this bag at the store for actual grocery toting... i have only covered one side. the other side also has a logo on it so it's getting pinned and sewn up tonight. i have at least one other bag to pin and sew as well. i thought we bought three of these things but apparently we either lost one or only bought two... i'm not certain.... anyways, here's the outcome, i'm pleased with this as well.

the fabric i used on this one is one of two vintage napkins that were my parents. my mom gave them to me and i wanted to find a good use for the fabric as i have no use for two fabric napkins.... i absolutely LOVE this fabric and wish i had a big piece of it because i could totally wear a skirt with this print.

i'm really looking forward to heading to the airport tomorrow night. i miss chris a TON and i know he misses us. i've been talking up his return to max so he's getting excited too. overall, this week hasn't been too horrible. i've managed to at least shower a few times, we had some fun outside of the house and now we're looking forward to chris's return home :) and i'm looking forward to a visit to the salon all by myself on thursday! ha!