The Fabulous Life of Stefanie

How are we already at the end of the year? This year has been so good - miles travelled, miles run, kiddos growing, goals met, getting to do it all with the very best husband and friends and dog while working in the best job. Here is a little recap with just a sliver of it all! Geaux Saints! Repping in NOLA over a po' boy. January: Rang in 2019 with champagne, friends and leggings. Watched my favorite dude crush my favorite marathon and then spent an amazing night in my favorite city of New Orleans watching the Saints, then the Pats, and somehow managed to make our 5am flight.  11 years and I could not love him more. February: Celebrated 11 years since the most handsome, wonderful human being in the world asked to buy me a beer over a super fancy dinner. Watched the Pats win yet anooooother Superbowl with my favorite cheer squad. Survived winter in Boston, again.  Parade squad! Mama had car bombs for brekkie! March: Reached my goal of doing a hal...

Ahhh the time of year when I have no idea what day it is, where I am supposed to be or how these cookies got in my mouth. I took down some of our Christmas decor today, but I am still loving quiet, dark mornings with coffee and my beautiful tree, so up it stays. The Christmas season is one of my favorite times of the year thanks mostly to all the fun ways that our little family celebrates. Visits with Santa, Christmas light peeping, meals with friends and all that togetherness that comes with the season. The rest of my love is from the ways in which our community comes together to make the season brighter for everyone else, including our annual road race and the toy drive that is hosted the same day. This year my Mom was with us for a week and we got to include her in what have now become our traditions - Boston Ballet's Nutcracker, dinner at Legal Seafood overlooking the Aquarium, new cookie recipes and watching Home Alone on repeat. Watching Maddie sing "I'm Gettin...

Thankful for healthy, happy kids who are so loved by our village and are growing into kind, opinionated and curious people of their own. Parenting ain't easy, but at least it's never dull. Thankful for a husband who loves me in a way that I never dreamed possible. A husband who makes my happiness a priority and works hard alongside me to make this life possible, to work towards our goals together and provides all the support I need to be the woman I strive to be. Thankful for these legs that keep letting me run and the best group of people to spend those miles with. People who have become best friends, therapists, babysitters, travel buddies and my motivation to keep at it. Thankful for a neighborhood filled with people who treat every kid as their own, support each other through the hard times and cheer each other on in the good times. Thankful for work that is fulfilling, meaningful, challenging and with people who inspire me. Thankful for this little rescue dog who...

Summer 2019, you were so good to us! Two big trips down the Cape, lots of time on various beaches, a big kid who can ride her bike on two wheels like a champ, Annie's first summer camp and so much time outside, with each other and with our favorite people all summer long. Maddie heads back to school tomorrow and then Annie follows her in on Monday for her very first day of school ever. And just like that, we have both kids in school. Sweet, bittersweet and all the underlying anxiety for Mama to absorb the change, but I know it is going to be nothing but great. Annie is totally ready to be there and we still get the best of both worlds by having our glue/aka nanny in the afternoons with them. Life really worked itself out as best as could this season of life, and for that I am so thankful. I cannot wait to watch them grow and live their best little lives this next year. This fall is going to be a whole new world for us with new activities, different schedules and me having such...

Happy middle of the week, in the middle of the summer! I was just looking at a calendar to book some playdates and perhaps a rare just us date with the hubs, and I accidentally scrolled into September because *gasp* it isn't that far away! Oh, the horror! Good thing summer has been really good to us and we are headed to Germany at the end of September or I might cry a little. Thought it would be fun to do a little "currently" update and please, please share all recs for your currently goings-ons, too! Reading My new job means an 8 minute drive instead of a 45-450,000 minute red line commute, which sadly has cut into my reading time (the only sadly of that story). But I am making an effort to grab my book when I am eating lunch at work and pick it up as much as possible when no one is asking me for a snack or where their shoes are at home. Right now I am reading Courtroom 302 and am really enjoying the stories that come out of the busiest courthouse in Chicago (and ...

Ok, so it is overcast for the millionth day so far this year, but Monday was gorgeous and it was also the first day of NO SCHOOL for Maddie! Come August I will be begging for school to start, but right now it feels like a little slice of heaven. No dragging a kid out of bed at 6am. No packing lunches based on an increasingly complex algorithm of what my kid will eat that week. No running out of the house for 7:30 drop off then running back to get ready for work. It is the time for lax bedtimes, late dinners after soaking in all the extra daylight outside, reading together on the porch, beach bound weekend mornings. We have plans for a week down the Cape, a long weekend in New Hampshire and are looking into a long weekend in Acadia. We will be outside as much as possible and taking advantage of movies in the park, a beach we can bike to, the ice cream man and his incessant stalking of children at dinnertime. This is the time of year I LIVE for! In New England, we survive the t...

Watercolor by Maddie Jane, 7. It's springtime in New England, which is really more like a holding pattern that I relate to my days working in the prison; when an inmate had a release day, but it could be held up by paperwork, or could actually happen and they could run out of the prison and dance in the parking lot. Well, that never happened (that I saw), but I would run outside and dance on the street if it happened to hit somewhere in the 50 to 60 degree range upon my waking up in the morning. All I could think about on the walk to drop Maddie off at school today is I just want my toes and/or my fingers to stop being cold. I love living here and would not trade a summer evening or fall day for the world...but I would definitely trade 32 degrees the week before April. While the new year is all about new year-new me and resolutions, I think it takes until spring for people to really start feeling like a new year is here, especially since spring tends to be synonymous with c...

Happy New Year, y'all! People (me) are still saying this in greeting, and will until at least February, so I don't feel too behind in my first post of the year (even if my last post was in October). 2018 wrapped up pretty great - we celebrated Maddie turning 7 with a very epic Harry Potter party (that will get its own belated post because it was just too awesome not to share), a simple and sweet Thanksgiving and ALL THE CHRISTMAS fun that we could fit in throughout the month of December. Christmas Day goes so fast (about 35 minutes by my watch) so we did a bunch of extra special stuff to soak in the magic of the season: The Boston Ballet Nutcracker, lots of walks around the neighborhood to look at lights, near-daily Christmas music dance parties, The Pop's Home Alone show, a trip to Maine and Great Wolf Lodge and spending time hunkered under blankets watching Christmas movies together. All those fun times make it not so sad when I declare Christmas to be over about 12 ...