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2017 Year in Review

With just a few days left before 2018, I thought it would be fun to take a look back on the past twelve months of shenanigans and share a bit about what I hope the next twelve hold! Travel One of my most favorite things to do and we did A LOT of it. We started off the year with an amazing trip to Puerto Rico, where we climbed in caves, ate all the delicious things and spent every single day in the pool. This was one of Maddie's favorite trips ever and we have spent a lot of time talking and planning on how to give back to the people there in 2018 as they continue to recover. Over the summer we traveled across the country and back and all around the East Coast hitting up three beautiful weddings as well as a long visit down the Cape with family and friends. In October we watched Matt run the Chicago Marathon and took advantage of all the amazing museums and walking around there is to do. I love traveling with the girls and am glad that we decided from the get-go that this would

Currently // Goodbye 2017

Well, this has been a heck of a year, huh? I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I will be glad to put some of the events behind me, but looking forward to keeping the motivation that those shitty things have given me to keep up the good fight in 2018. So here is what I am up to as we tick down to the final hours of the year. Reading My Goodreads app tells me I am 7 books ahead of my 2017 reading challenge with 24 books read so far this year. Considering that I only get to read when I am commuting to/from/during work on the train or sitting on the beach without the kids needing me (so, 5 minutes each summer), I am pretty pleased! I have read some really good books this year, and am currently on my second biography about North Korean defectors, titled A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea . It was one of the monthly free books available from Amazon Prime that I randomly downloaded onto my Kindle (which I rarely use) while I was awaiting my library

Happy Fall!

I'll just come right out and admit that this is probably one of the longest breaks I have taken from writing down our adventures over here and it was completely unintentional! Life got really busy, mornings got earlier and nights got really tired. But, here I am! I even have my first new laptop that is mine all mine since I was in grad school. Mac Books have come a long way in 10 (ohemgee) years. How are you? How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was pretty lovely - family, chosen family, food and more food. We ran our annual Turkey Trot, which was a bit of a disaster for my own running career, but I was back at it again this morning with 5 really good miles, so I will just have to redeem myself next year. I am training for another marathon - number 5 - which will be in Louisiana in January. This has been my best training yet and I chock it up to a lot more miles and a lot of time spent at the gym on my lunch breaks cross training and doing the exercised I learned in PT. I am hoping to

O'Shea Summer Tour: Part Two and a Half

After we were on Vashon we decided to take advantage of being so close to Seattle and see some sights and an old Reno friend! It was lovely weather, though maybe a bit hot, but no rain so we got to do a lot of walking and sightseeing as well as some good solo runs down along the water; here are some of the things we did: Eat/Drink Pike Place Market - We had to get our tourist on and stroll around - the girls were especially excited to see fish being thrown around - so we headed for a visit before dinner one evening. We popped into a cheese place that had a big ol' cheese making vat and picked up some cheese and crackers to snack on as we walked around. Although we did not wait in the loooong line, we saw the original Starbucks and this former barista felt a twinge of pride at that cool old sign. The Market is definitely a busy place, but we went later in the afternoon (4/5pm) and were able to get around and pop in and out of shops easily. Japonessa - We made reservations for t

O'Shea Summer Tour: Part Two

Back to the O'Shea's whirlwind wedding tour of the country; here was our first stop and now onto the second! Vashon Island I have to break this trip into two because it was really like two different places even though they are just a 30 minute ferry ride a part (Seattle is up next!). We were in town for my best friend since 9th grade's wedding and it was super fun to see all my old punk rock friends with all their kiddos, being adults and stuff. Crazy! Vashon was a dream, the wedding was perfect and I cannot wait to go back. I am a city girl through and through but Vashon was my favorite part of this trip. It is just so gorgeous and easy and relaxing; 10/10 will go back! Here are some things we loved on the island: Eat/Drink Gravy - We had an AirBnB and the wedding one evening, so we did not eat out too much on the island, but this was where we had dinner upon arrival and it was really tasty. Lots of local stuff and a salmon dish that made Matt actually like salmon

O'Shea Summer Tour: Part One

7,800 miles - that is the final count from June 2nd to July 3rd for the O'Sheas. Phew! It was fun, a lot of fun really, and the girls continue to be such awesome travelers, which adds to the fun part. I thought it would be fun to do a little round up and suggest some places we went and some tips that have been tried and true for us when traveling with little ones. I feel like we are seasoned pros when it comes to travel with kids, but each trip seems to teach us something new (do not, even, lug a pack and play across the country and expect your kid to sleep in it!). As I got to our second stop I realized I should break this up into digestible posts, so you don't feel like this is your uncle's Grand Canyon slide show :) So, here we go....! First Stop: Geneva, New York We drove from Boston, which was a long haul, unfortunately made longer by us going out of our way to visit Ommegang Brewery, only to be turned away when we got there due to a special event that they did n

Here we go summer, here we go!

Last year I wrote a post about how we were excited for our very first summer vacation, coming down from Maddie's first year in school. Now here we are again, and the excitement is REAL. Not having to get up at the crack of dawn to get in runs, prep for work and get two tiny people fed and dressed is going to be pretty fantastic. We have a solid routine and (somehow) run like a well-oiled machine, but a break from it is super, duper welcome, especially with summer weather actually starting to show its face and the desire to stay up just a little bit later coming on strong. We have three weddings this summer, all in different states, with one down as of last weekend that was in the beautiful finger lakes region of NY. Around that travel we will have Maddie in a couple different camps, time down the Cape and as much beach and outside time as we can get. Add in some Thursday night fun runs with my running club, track nights for Maddie and a few day trips around New England and this

Hello, 35

Something you may not know about me is that I love to take surveys; I take them online for reward points to get magazines and Starbucks cards, but even if someone calls my "unlisted" number for a survey I will sure as shit talk to them. Maybe because it was my first job (telesurveyor - not to be confused with those terrible telemarketers), or maybe it is the sociologist in me who loves to gather data. Anyways, the point is, for most surveys I am now entering another age range to click. That's right, no longer will I be lumped in with people in their twenties, I am now thrown in the back of those in their forties. Yikes! But hey, such is life, that whole getting older thing, and I really. truly believe that a woman in her thirties is a hell of a lot more content than one in her twenties, so I assume it just keeps getting better. I feel so much more confident in my skin, with my voice, in my talents and even in my shortcomings. Although I still feel devastated when people

Just a Few Things

Hello! Hello? Is that an echo I hear? The sound of months gone by neglecting this space of mine? It happens, it does, but it makes me sad every time it does, so let's just cut to the chase and get right to it! Just a few things going on around here: I ran the Boston Marathon, again. I did not PR, again. It was hot, it was sunny, and it just was not meant to be what I wanted it to be, which is a bummer but also, a lesson. I never shed those extra pounds I gained after the last marathon and I never ran in anything that wasn't totally cold, so now I know to fix those things next time. However, I cross trained a lot for the first time in my life, which meant that when I tried to pick it up and fly those last 5 miles, which I have never, ever been able to do, I did. I flew (well, as much as one does after 21 hard as hell miles). Keeping it in the tank was not in my ability range, but I guess it is now, and I am going to keep at that. What did not change was many, many hours a