Behind the scenes of our new "couples" tattoos

After we ran our first RunDisney races last year, Ryan and I decided to start thinking about a "couples" tattoo. It may seem cheesy to some, but training for races together has done great things for our marriage. Running is something we have strongly bonded over, and it means a lot to us to know that "RunDisney" has basically pushed our marriage into its best state ever.

We like to train together (when Ryan isn't working), and we like to challenge, motivate, and push each other to be the best runner we can be, and more importantly, to have fun!

Last year in our search for the perfect Couples tattoo, we came across a photo of this man who has won the WDW Marathon  something like 7 or 8 times now. 

Each year he's won, he got a mickey head tattoo. Basically a tally mark of his wins.

We thought the idea was perfect, we would get one mickey "tally" for each run disney race we've done (cause you know we aren't planning on ever winning any!!!!).

Then we decided to make our mickeys the running mickey from rundisney. One running mickey for each race.

Upon examining the detail in the running mickey, I knew I wouldn't be able to get them small enough to put on my foot. So the day we decided to go get them done, the plan slightly changed.

We were supposed to get matching tattoos. However, now they'll just be complementing each other instead of matching, each of us putting our own spin on them.

Ryan opted for a large outlined running mickey on his calf, which he plans on surrounding with a tally mark for each race. Each rundisney race will have it's race logo placed around the large mickey as the tally (can't wait to see that princess crown make it's appearance after he finishes the princess half next month, and the tinker bell half logo once we do that in May too, haha).

The run disney race logos are these:

I went with mickey head outlines for now; one for Mickey's Jingle Jungle 5k, and one for the Wine & Dine Half Marathon (however, I forgot about the Castaway Cay 5k I ran during my Disney Cruise so I'll need to add that too). As I add them, I plan on making them different colors, sizes, and even filling some of them in.

So there you have it. The story behind the disney tatts. 

Christmas Photo Challenge - 2014

I stumbled across this photo challenge on Pinterest, and decided to go for it. 

I once tried to do a 365-day photo challenge, and only made it about 6 weeks.

I swore I would finish this photo challenge, unlike its predecesors.

And finish I did! Here is the final product, which I'm pretty proud of :)

Day 1 - Oh Christmas Tree

Day 2- Glitter

                        

Day 3 - something red

Day 4 - something cold

Day 5 - something you made  

 Day 6- ornaments

Day 7 - something furry

Day 8 - baking

Day 9 - shopping

Day 10 - santa

Day 11 - elves

Day 12 - cozy

day 13- something hot

day 14 - black and white

day 15 - tradition

Day 16 - lights (bokeh)

Day 17 - something green

Day 18 - outside

Day 19 - fun

Day 20 - self portrait

Day 21- naughty or nice?

Day 22- reflection

Day 23- family

Day 24- stockings

Day 25 - messy

Annual WKTV Christmas Card

Each year since the beginning of time (well as long as 

I can remember in my 32 years anyway....), the local news station at home, WKTV has created video christmas cards of the employees and their families. Each year it's the same exact song.

 I haven't lived in Utica, NY in about 9 years, but I still know all the words.

My brother in law (Ryan's brother's husband) Don, is one of the News Anchors (just call him Don Burgundy) on WKTV, so each year he and Adam are featured in the card.

I love to show the boys each year once Adam shares it for all of us. The boys think it's great. This year Mason started waving back at Adam and Don when we got to their part, and I thought it was adorable.

So we watched it again, and this time he pretty much waved at everyone once Don and Adam were off screen. As the other families were shown, Aidan got annoyed that Mason was waving and promptly informed him:

"Mason, we don't even know them."

So... I got him to watch it a third time so that I could get a video of him waving like a fool.

Enjoy.

(You'll notice he started to think about who he was waving to after being scolded by Aidan)

And you're welcome now, for having the sidewalk santa song stuck in your head!

Epic Elf Fail

Our elf does not do fun Pinterest worthy things all that often. In fact, this is only the 2nd time this month he has. We're lucky if we have enough brain power left at the end of the day just to remember to move the effing thing.

But I got a text from my cousin the other night with this photo:

I start dying. It's hilarious, and it's Star Wars. I must do it.

Ryan and I set out to re-create this for the boys for the morning. I run up to the playroom to grab our giant Darth Vader and Ryan starts taping the elf to the wall. He made sure no tape was visible because Aidan would totally call us out on it.

We giggled like little kids at the end result, and I have to thank you, Dave for sending me that idea.

We thought the boys would be totally amazed by this, so we went to bed all smiley.

Next morning, Mason tried waking me up way before the sun, which I am not cool with. He then asks me why his Darth Vader is in the kitchen. (Where it was positioned, he could see it from the staircase as he came down, but he couldn't see the elf.) I grumbled that I didn't know why Darth was in the kitchen and told him to go play or something. Just let me be until 7. That's all I ask.

So 7:00 rolls around and I get out of bed, and hear the boys playing upstairs in the playroom, and they're humming the song from Star Wars, and it dawns on me:

"I bet that little shit is playing with the giant Darth figure, and that's why he's humming star wars music!"

Yup. He had him up there all right.

So I yell up and ask why the elf is stuck to the wall, and they come running down to inspect. Well now our perfectly executed, well laid-out scene makes no sense: Darth is no longer with elf, choking him with the force.

Think quick, Mom.

So I say, "oh so that's what Darth was doing in here Mason, I forgot I came up to check on you  guys in the middle of the night and I saw Darth out here using the Force on your elf."

I tell them to bring Darth back down so I can re-create what I "saw" in the middle of the night.....

However, Aidan is pissed, because Mason moved Darth, and Mason is practically in tears saying he doesn't want Darth Vader to kill the elf.

What an epic failure. Drama all over the place.

I figure at least the adults got a kick out of it when I sent the pic to my friends and my cousin, so I guess it wasn't a total waste.....

Cookies!

Back when Ryan was a resident in general surgery at Lehigh Valley Hospital, I fell into a circle of "wives" that all got together and had playdates, etc etc. Those girls introduced me to the concept of a Christmas Cookie Exchange and it was glorious.

If you are unfamiliar, basically everyone brings a different type of cookie, and then each person goes home with some of each kind of cookie. It's amazing. Ryan was always particularly fond of Rachel Bechtel's Gingerbread. Rachel, if you're reading this, I make mine from scratch each year and always hear: "they're good, but not Rachel good."

Sigh.

Anyway my last Xmas in PA (sheesh we're talking like 2012), my friend from work Caitlin and I decided to jointly host one at my house (which also involves the story of how I iced the sugar cookies and put them on the back deck to let the icing dry/harden...Mason snuck out behind me and I didn't notice. It was 30 degrees, and I was searching the house frantically for him, until I heard a quiet knocking on the patio door (the blinds were closed), and found Mason outside in his footie jammies eating all my effing cookies!!! Funny now, but wasn't when I couldn't find him.)

Not a photo from the actual incident, but he still swiped this cookie off the table while I was setting up for that party.

Anyway the following year was the year I had gone home to NY because my dad was sick, so our first Xmas in TX I didn't get to do it. 

However, I did get to make gingerbread men with Char and the boys for Xmas eve while we were home!

So this year I made sure I hosted one!

Sarah suggested we have a cocktail exchange, but since I had planned it for 2pm I had to stick with cookies ;)

I opted to make my "HNL baking contest" award-winning snickerdoodle bars.

Partly because I'm lazy and unoriginal, and partly because they're always a hit.

We had our friends over, got to have a great visit with everyone, and I set up a cookie decorating station for the kids. There were yummy mimosas, and all the cookies were divine.

These photos were all taken before the massive amount of cookies arrived and were completely covering the table!

There was no room on the table once the goodies started pouring in!

Thank you ladies, for drinking mimosas with me and eating enough cookies to put ourselves into sugar comas.

XOXO

Tis the holiday season

With the spike in my photography business (finally, TX, what took you so long?!?!), lots of fun to be had with friends, and all our crazy schedules/parties/events I have been a blog slacker.

Plus, I've kinda been dreading December and knew if I blogged in Dec, I would have to talk about it; it is my therapy after all.

One year ago this past week my mom, the boys and I headed off on a Disney Christmas cruise out of Galveston. 

We left on a Saturday evening out of Port Galveston, and were at sea until Monday morning when we made port in Key West, FL.

That was when I started getting all the messages that changed my life. Adam says "your brother is desperately looking for you, please call him!" I call him only to have him tell me my Dad has had a heart attack.

OK, I need to sit down, or throw up, or pass out, or something. So I ask him, I'm in Florida....do I need to get off this boat right now? If I don't, I'm out to sea, out of range, and won't be reachable until the next Saturday. He says no, they're going to do a triple bypass, and since Dad will be recovering there's nothing I can do anyway, and he's heading back to NY from D.C. that night). SO I give him the number to our room (I had already given them our cruise info, but never told them which ship I guess, so he wasn't able to get a hold of us by the ship's phone system).

Mom and the boys and I get off the boat and spend some time in Key West then spend the rest of the evening on the boat. We left port in Key West probably somewhere around dinner, and when we came back from dinner I had a message from larry saying I had to call him. ($8/min too...awesome right?).

They did Dad's pre-surgery chest X-ray and found cancer. 

Lung cancer.

Lots of it, most likely stage 4.

No heart surgery will be performed due to this discovery.

Without the heart surgery he probably doesn't have long.

Not even sure if he'll survive the next few days.

Please someone tell me to breathe, help me get the air I'm gasping for. 

Tell me it's all a bad dream, tell me I'm not trapped on this f*cking cruise ship while my Dad is dying.

I will say the ppl on this Disney cruise were amazing. My phone bill was wiped clean. I was allowed to use the front desk phone to call and check on things at home free of charge whenever I wanted. The poor girls at the front desk must have felt so bad for us. Constantly going to the front desk making sobbing phone calls.

They even got me and Mason (due to his food allergies I was not leaving him behind) emergency passports to fly out of the Bahamas when we made port there...but I just couldn't leave Mom and Aidan.

It was the worst week and cruise of my life. Food galore, but who could eat when you're that anxious?

Activities galore, but who wants to have fun when in you're in that mental state?

I never would have thought in my wildest dreams that I would want so badly to get off a Disney cruise.

But I did. 

We got back in TX the next Saturday and Ryan already had mine and the boys winter things packed and flight booked to NY for us, for an indefinite stay.

I won't bore you with any more details, but the boys, my brother and I spent the rest of December home in NY, and we got to spend our last Xmas with my Dad. I am grateful for that. (By February 4, he would be gone).

It was a miserable time being away from Ryan during the Holidays, and especially for that reason I knew I wanted to make this December an amazing Christmas season. We have a new home, awesome new friends, and a happy, healthy family. We have lots to celebrate this year. We've decorated, baked cookies, and had LOTS of fun! However it has not been easy, and I'll always associate December with the worst week of my life, but I'm sure it will get easier as time goes on. XOXO