The Fabulous Life of Stefanie

Well, well, well it looks as though we have made it through another year (mostly) intact and with wonderful memories and lessons from the past 365 days. I, for one, am always excited for the New Year and look forward to making new goals and plans to work on as things start to get back to (our version of) normal after the holidays. I had a pretty rockin 2013 and now here is what I am looking forward to in 2014. Running has definitely taken a big spotlight for my goals of 2014; I am already signed up for the Hyannis Half Marathon in February, which is part of my training plan for the Maine Coast Marathon in May. I would like to complete at least one other full marathon in 2014 and am definitely going to try and complete the Cape Cod Half Marathon Trilogy to get one of those sweet jackets they give out. I am also hoping to branch out and register for a sprint triathlon, which brings me to a new goal for 2014: cross training! I love my yoga and spin classes but I really don't get...

You guys, seriously, can you even believe that tomorrow is New Year's Eve? I sure the heck can't!  Someone asked me what the date was today and I said "I think, like, the 27th". What?!  This year has simultaneously flown by but also, wow, so much has happened. I just looked over the past year of blogs and Facebook and iPhone pictures and there was just so much good stuff, and one super older toddler! I love to look back at the fun we had and the adventures that are to come, so I figured I would break it up into two posts with these two days left (!!). I give to you, my year in review, 2013 edition. In February I ran my first half marathon, then followed up two months later with my second half marathon and then just said YOLO and ran my first full marathon in October. I put about 700 miles on my running shoes in 2013 and really, truly feel like a runner. Running is not something that I want to do or have to do, it is something that I do. Period. And until...

I swear she was really excited to see him when we were in line! Ha! Hi everyone! I hope you all had a super, duper, happy Christmastime! We had a whirlwind time with Grandma and Grandpa in town the week before, Christmas Eve dinner at my AIL's with our niece, her parents and Kate and then Christmas Day at home, just the three of us. I love Christmas and experiencing it through Maddie's eyes makes it about a kajllion times better, but I am definitely at that point where I am just looking forward to things getting back to normal, schedules being consistent and a new year to tackle! I was very spoiled this Christmas and am extra thankful for my wonderful husband and his ability to give really good gifts as well as my Mama who  spoils me to pieces when she comes to visit us. It is literally the only time of year that I allow myself to get new things and I sure got some awesome stuff. I finally got a pair of leather boots and have pretty much worn them every second th...

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still here! Life has been a whirlwind lately and it seems like this holiday season has been busier than ever! I thought I'd play a little catch up and let you know what we've been up to around here.  Two Saturdays ago Matty and I attended his company holiday party at the MFA and got to see the Sargent watercolor exhibit that we've been dying to see sans toddler or big crowds. It's an incredible exhibit and I highly recommend seeing it before it leaves. Some of the paintings look more like oil than watcolor and there's some great stories about the artists life and travels. We also had really good food, lots of bubbly and a chance to dress up and enjoy each other.  The next day we decorated our tree, drove around and looked at all the pretty lights in our neighborhood and had a major cuddle fest in anticipation of me leaving on my first business trip away from home since Maddie was born. It actually went a lot smoother tha...

I love Christmas; always have and always will, and having a child has made this season even more magical and exciting because I am living it not just through my own eyes but also through hers. This is Madeleine's third Christmas but this year she is really showing interest and seems to know that there are special things going on around her. I wanted to do something fun to celebrate Advent and countdown to Christmas morning with her, so we hung a little calendar from Target that she can move the candy cane date marker around all by herself. We do this each night and then she unwraps a special book for us to read as her night night story. I checked out a bunch of books from the library about Christmas including ones about Santa, the birth of Christ, the Nutcracker, pirate gingerbread men and everything in between. Then I wrapped each one and put them by her tree for her to unwrap during our bedtime routine.  I must say it is pretty awesome watching her unwrap a little present ...

Aaaaand fini. I'm amazed I was able to take time each day to write a bit (or at least almost every day) but not at all surprised that I found something different to be thankful for all thirty days.  Life is messy and complicated and not the picture perfect Instagram pictures we see every day, but there is beauty to be found in it all. Even on my hardest days, in the thick of exhaustion and anxiety, it takes just a glance at my healthy baby girl or a chat with my wonderful husband, a text from my best friend or an early morning run to know that I have a lot to be thankful for.  Today I am thankful for all that I have but also for what is to come in the next year. Although I can't predict the future, I do plan on meeting some big goals in the months to come and I'm excited to be at a stage in my life where things are consistent and wonderful but there are always chances for improvement. I get to be a part of a huge new chapter in my organization; Maddie is growing and learnin...

We had our Thanksgiving feast today (ok, now yesterday, but it was so good it knocked me off my blogging feet!) and it sure was awesome. Lots of good food and quality time with family, not to mention lots of snuggles with this curly haired sweet thing.  New Christmas pjs and bed head are the BEST. I'm thankful that I have this time off to spend with my little family and that we are really getting to relax and enjoy each other during this long weekend. We are keeping our schedule fairly loose and not setting the alarm clock until Monday. Speaking of, I woke up past seven, which is super late for us and made adorable cookies while Matty went for a run.  These were a lot easier to decorate than they look and just as yummy as you would imagine. We tag teamed out once he got home and I went to my my third yoga class this week! I'm loving getting all this yoga in and it's doing my body and mind good. If I were able to add another few hours to the day I would definit...

Happy Thanksgiving! Today, this day of thanks, I'm thankful for this blog. Life is crazy: raising a toddler, growing in a career, maintaining a social life, working towards new fitness goals, nurturing a marriage and trying to live life as good to people as possible in this city of mine.  This blog, and especially this month of thanks series, reminds me of all the things I have to be thankful for. I can lament over not enough money or hours in the day, or too much anxiety and miles in between us and family, but at the end of the day it's obvious that I have a LOT to be thankful for.  So thank you for reading and I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Here's some scenes from ours! A chilly play ground romp. Bundled up babies are too cute! Maddie on the move! Bedhead and snuggles while we watch the parade on tv.

I had the day off today and the rain storm that we were promised was truly a deluge. I woke up at four o'clock to the sound of rain and wind, put on my running gear and drove to the shelter where I meet my Back on My Feet team. It would have been easy to stay in bed, but I was looking forward to seeing my team and making sure they know I care enough to get up and spend the day before Thanksgiving with them. We decided to go get coffee instead of run, which no one seemed to mind, and we spent the time talking about our upcoming races, Thanksgivings past and the future. What a site we must have been at five o'clock in the morning, head to toe running gear, ages ranging at least thirty years, just having some morning coffee.  I joined Back on my Feet in May, hopeful to get back to volunteering while also sharing my passion of running with others and having some fun. What's happened has been that and so much more. I have made connections with both res and non-res runners, becom...

Today I'm thankful for the soreness in my muscles after two nights of yoga classes. I'm thankful that I got up and went for a run and made up for the disaster of a run Saturday morning. Although my anxiety continues to be nagging and unwelcome this week, I'm pushing through and doing all I can to send it packing. I'm preemptively de stressing before the holidays, although I anticipate more fun than stress with my Mom's arrival just a few short weeks away. I'm exhausted from being exhausted but tonight it feels good and welcome in my muscles, as I lay on the couch with Maddie sound asleep against me.  I had a half day at work today and then took Maddie to the library to read and get some new books. We came home and read, played, danced and then decided to get a pizza and snuggle on the couch, where she quickly fell sound asleep. This is what happens when she doesn't take a nap! But instead of moving her to her bed and having her wake up and scream for an hour...

My anxiety monster has been a little ferocious lately; Saturday I actually cut my run short and called Matty to have him pick me up because I was feeling so out of sorts: sore and anxious and just not good . I got in a little over four miles, but I have never asked him to come get me, even when I was doing double digit runs while marathon training, so we both knew that something had to be up. I can go out on a bad day and pump out 6 or 7 miles, but I really just could not do it that morning. I got home and took a really long, hot shower and felt a little better so we went out and ran some errands and went to the vigil mass to clear up our Sunday morning for other plans. After we had dinner and were relaxing, I realized that I had a lot of factors against me: my run miles were short last week, it was all the sudden super cold, Maddie had not been sleeping well and I had not been to yoga in weeeeks. And there it was, the obvious thing that I needed, yoga! I have been practicing since I...

When Matty and I decided it was the right time to have a baby, second to my fear of not having my Mom close was my fear about not having any close mom friends in Boston. I'm lucky that my three best friends are all a) super experienced with children b) super in love with Maddie and c) super supportive of my breeder status, but I worried about Maddie not having any built in friends by way of me having friends with kids. My Mom and her best friends were all pregnant together like some Lifetime movie about Gloucester and I always thought it was so neat that she could hang out with her friends while allowing me to play with other kids. Easy as pie. Luckily, Matty is friends with a gang of guys who all have really great wives and awesome, close-in-age kids and they've been gracious enough to include me in their circle.  Raising good kids is hard, y'all, and it's nice to have a group of women to share experiences, ideas and laughs with about this whole crazy stage in our ...

Today I'm thankful for the enjoyment I get out of cooking and that I've become pretty good at it, if I do say so myself (and Matty and Maddie will say so too!). Matty is also a really good cook and enjoys it just as much, so we have some pretty awesome meals at our house and generally always make dinner unless we are beyond pooped or in the mood for going out and enjoying a meal made by someone else. Since Madeleine has been a baby we have always eaten dinner together at the table as a family, which is a habit that I plan to continue until we have an empty nest. Even though she is young we try to talk about our day, upcoming fun things, and just connect and unwind after our days. But, back to the food! I love trying new recipes and get a lot of them from blogs and daily emails from some of my favorite recipe web sites. I get a lot of my weeknight and slow cooker recipes from Real Simple , the Food Network site and Food 52 ; and look to Food and Wine and Bon Appetit for r...

Whoo Friday! I have to say I'm definitely thankful for Friday and the fact that we aren't totally booked this weekend so we can get some errands done, take some naps and get ready for Thanksgiving. It's going to be full steam ahead after Thanksgiving and we still haven't gotten our October inspection sticker for the car (whoops!). I'm really trying not to start decorating for Christmas but I've got a bunch of fun ideas and will make sure and do a blog of pictures once I do it up! I love the holiday season: getting gifts that I know people will love, my Mom and Step-Dad coming to Boston, all the dressing up for parties and getting to have a little person to show all the magic of the season to.  Buuuuut we need to take it a day at a time and for now, I'm thankful for a low key weekend! Oh this face! She is all kid somedays!