The Fabulous Life of Stefanie

...sun kissed cheeks staying up just a little later so we can have one more trip down the slide every other night tubbies setting the alarm on weekends to beat the Cape traffic  picking up things to throw on the grill instead of takeout two weekend days for two different beaches sand at the bottom of our all our bags frozen yogurt before dinner soaking it all up because she will only be two and a half one summer....

My arms are sore, the good sore, but the kind that makes washing ones hair a little painful. I smell like chlorine even though I ran and then took a shower after the pool. I get small whiffs of it when my hands are near my face. Strangely, I like it. It reminds me of summers when I was young and spent my whole time off school at my grandparent's house in San Diego. Most of my waking hours were in the pool; even lunch was eaten poolside, peanut butter falling on my tanned legs as I stared at the pool, waiting to get back in (but always having to wait a half an hour because my grandma wrote all the old wives tales). No one could drag me out of that pool, unless my grandma said we were taking a grocery trip to the Navy base. The grocery store on the base had a hot dog cart and ice cream and it was so much cooler than going to the grocery store at home, plus grandma let me have anything I wanted. She is a tough lady, but I was (am) her Achilles, especially when it came to ice c...

After what seems to me like the most stressful few weeks EVER, we finally got word today that our mortgage is approved and our July fifteenth closing date is on, which is awesome considering I had just emailed our landlord to let him know that we were moving out. Of course, anything can happen, but at this point it seems safer than it has been to accept that we did it! We are going to be homeowners! It is so super exciting and I cannot stop putting things on Pinterest and looking at the Container Store website because I want to do ALL THE THINGS to our new home! But first, we really need to get a jump on that packing thing, which is a lot harder when there is a toddler around who wants to take everything out of the boxes and run away with the packing tape every time you need it. Obviously there will be lots to come about our new home and all the things we do to it, but here are some pics off the real estate site that I wanted to share of OUR NEW HOME! Kitchen with a DISHWASHER...

My favorite recovery method: sand, my family and a chair. My body is so tired today. But I did it. Today I dragged myself out of bed, grabbed the gear that I had (cleverly) laid out for myself in the short time we were home between a race, the beach and a cook out and headed to the Y. I got into the pool, looked at the clock (thanks to my lane neighbor for recognizing the clueless looking around I was doing and pointing it out) and I swam, officially kicking off my triathlon training. One week late, but it is happening. When my fifteen minutes were up, I walked my dripping body into the locker room, changed clothes, and managed the thirty minutes in my training plan on the dreadmill. I ran the BAA 10k yesterday and really, really pushed myself to reach a good time; unfortunately it was a crowded course and it took me .6 miles just to get through the thick of people who don't seem to understand pacing corrals, or were not honest with themselves when lining up. I h...

I am so excited that it is Friday, especially considering I spent much of yesterday mistakenly thinking that it was in fact already here. After a night out for a work event Wednesday, family dinner Thursday, two mornings running at 5:15 with my Back on My Feet team and endless hours stressing about the new house, I am MORE than ready for this weekend. Tonight we are meeting up with our HONO family for a much needed dinner. I cannot wait to catch up with everyone and see what kid of amazing things we have all been up to. This is such a dynamic group of people who are constantly doing amazing things with their lives; every time I get to see them I feel so energized and inspired...and full. We know how to eat good food, and tonight we are trying somewhere Matty and I haven't been. Tomorrow I am going to get myself up early to run with the Dorchester Running Club and then take Maddie to her gymnastics class before meeting a friend and her husband for brunch. They are thinking ab...

It's time again for my favorite little round-up of things (which I somehow have not done since February - what?!)! Reading: I am totally into the second book in the Chaos Walking series, titled The Ask and Answer (by Patrick Ness). The first book was awesome and this book is just as, if not even more, great. I have skimmed through some of the articles about adults who read YA and my question is this: who gives a shit as long as we are reading?! In an age where people are glued to iPhones and screens all day we should all be happy to see people of any age diving into books, regardless of who the target audience is. That being sad, I tend to really love YA books, especially these post-apocalyptic and Utopian type novels. Are they a little light/easy to read? Sure they are, but that is the point! I am looking for a good read to take me out of my own world and when I want to have my literary socks blown off I know I can pick up something else. Leave my YA lovers alone, interwe...

Since yesterday was Father's Day and we had a whole lot of awesome family fun to partake in, I didn't get a chance to come here and wish my favorite dude a very, very happy day. But let it be known that Madeleine and I think we have the very best guy in the world for this whole fathering job and I thank God every day that I get to be on this crazy journey with such an amazing man. My Dad passed away unexpectedly when I was five and despite having tried, I don't have any sort of relationship with any of the men who have been in the step-father role for me. It definitely makes me sad, and for some reason this Father's Day it made me a little more sad than usual. I tend to miss my Dad the most during the big events - graduations, weddings, babies being born - but lately I have felt his absence in the smaller things. Wanting to call him and ask about painting things in our new home or wondering what kind of neat things he would want to teach Madeleine about the wor...

So, I have to admit, I have no idea how I used to live with a constant state of stress like I did in my early twenties, but MAN am I remembering how bad that sucked. No wonder I was so unhappy/kind of a hot mess! I am used to my life being extremely busy because, well, it is. I do a lot, Matty does a lot, and we like to do a lot with Maddie, so our days are pretty packed but when you add the base level of constant stress that comes with buying a house, it makes it so nutty . It is so hard doing everything that we do and then having this constant buzz of stress underlying everything and taking a lot of our thoughts...but hey, we are in the process of BUYING A HOUSE and if that is not worth some weeks of stress, then I don't know what is. In lieu of a rambling post, here is a little snippet about what has been going on around these parts: House: We handed over the biggest check that has ever been written out of our checking account and signed the purchase and sale, so now we jus...

It's been a hard couple of weeks and my lovely anxiety disorder has not let me forget it.  I've spent a good portion of my life being stressed out but it's been a while since I've had something tangible to stress about and DANG has it done a number on me. I'm tired. My stomach hurts. My shoulders hurt. I'm one bad thought from a panic attack.  Yesterday I decided to try and do something to feel better as we await a response from our realtor about our inspection punch list, so I went over to the Greenway to eat my lunch and soak in some sunshine on a rare 80 degre day.  It was SPLENDID.  I sat in the grass, sunshine on my face, toes in the open air. I put my phone face down, ate slowly and absorbed the moment. It was exactly what I needed to calm down and appreciate everything that has brought me to this point. I was able to be thankful that I'm even in a situation to be stressed out about buying a house. That I'm able to leave work and go sit in a beauti...

Well, it appears that all of the excitement (stress) of the past couple of weeks in the adventures in home buying has caught up with me because I feel very much like I was hit by some sort of truck. Specifically a really large one that likes to back up and re-run over people.  I am not sick, really, but my stomach is not being my friend and I would really just love to lay in the sun and take a looooong nap; well, more so than I usually feel the need to. There were some serious days of stress eating last week, especially when we thought we were not going to be able to go through with buying the house we wanted, and we ended up getting take-out twice in one week, which is a super rare occurrence in our house with two people that love to cook. So, with things (kind of) less hectic we are back on track and last night I made a really yummy dinner AND homemade "ice cream" which I will get to in a minute. If I could eat one food every single day it would probably be avoca...

Don't pop the bubbly just yet, but the O'Sheas are this close to owning the condo that we have our heart set on, and although the road to home ownership is less yellow brick and more Lombard Street, we may be closing in just six weeks (!!!). We are stressed, exhausted, nervous, excited and anxious as hell, but if it all goes well and we make this house our home it will be ALL worth it.  Aside from the house itself, I am really excited for the neighborhood, which is known as Pope's Hill in Dorchester . The Dot and I have had some trials and tribulations over the last six months or so, but I am glad that we have decided to stay and have the opportunity to move into an area that is just nic er enough to make the bad feelings I had go away, but still connected. I am still fully committed to making all of Dorchester as awesome as it deserves to be, but I no longer feel like I am martyring myself or my family by living in the thick of a lot of the not-s...