The Fabulous Life of Stefanie

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...

It's been almost two months since I have had the time to come here and put words down, though I have done it in my head a million times, and I don't even really have the time today (I just really have a case of the Mondays). Life is BUSY, but that is stating the obvious if you didn't just randomly stumble across this blog. A newborn, a toddler, a career, a marriage, friends, running, neighborhood involvement...it doesn't end and I love it, really, every single day I feel so lucky to have it all, even when I can barely spell my name or apply lipstick with a straight hand (hello, today). Let's just use this blog as a little (big) catch up and then get back to regularly scheduled programming, shall we? Annabel is a joy. She is so sweet and snuggly and smiley and I really just cannot get enough of her. She also does one thing that Maddie didn't do, which is sleep! Like, at night , when I want to sleep. We are cosleeping with her, as we did with Maddie, so s...

You may not have noticed, but I am not a professional blogger. No one is paying me or giving me things, and the only people that read this consistently are probably a handful of friends and my husband, but I still feel this huge obligation to post and get weird guilt when a  lot of time passes between posts. I guess it is because I so love to come back to this spot and look back on this life of mine and I feel like I am going to forget something if I don't write about it, much like my beloved Dear Diary of my teen years and my absurdly melodramatic travel journal from Europe. Also, I just like to write; I like to come here and put words to my feelings and experiences and put up sweet pictures of my little one for the few people that read this to look at.  This paragraph has nothing to do with anything I am going to write about, but is also kind of an apology for not taking time to write, to my future self reading over these posts and my friends who always read and make me fee...

Sometimes I photobomb the kid while she brushes her teeth. Before this whirlwind weekend takes off, I wanted to stop in and wish everyone a happy Friday, and an extra happy Good Friday and Easter to those of you who celebrate. I have a short day at work today, which is an awesome way to round out a really productive week in the office. I got a huge burst of motivation and energy seeing my vacation days on the calendar and it pushed me to get a lot of things done that I have been wanting to tackle.  Once I get out of the office I am forcing Matt to also take a half day with me so we can all go to church, where I am scheduled to read, and then I have to be a total last minute mama and go get everything for Maddie's Easter basket and egg hunt. Whoops! To say I have been swamped lately would be the understatement of the year, and at least it isn't the day before! Tomorrow I am running the BAA 5k, which will be a fun way to kick off the weekend and get pumped for wa...

Saturday I had a bit of a nervous breakdown. In the middle of doing a huge pile of dishes I felt myself losing my last thread of sanity for that morning and went ahead and had an ugly cry. Then, I did whatever I do when I am feeling overwhelmed, and cleaned the hell out of the whole house, rearranged some furniture, made a new recipe and asked Madeleine to accompany me in a brass band dance party in the kitchen. I may have also sent a mean text to my husband and taken a xanax. Coping methods, people! They are so varied among us, no? The most ironic thing about all of this is I knew exactly what was wrong before that ugly cry came out. I was feeling overwhelmed and out of control about one aspect of life (our financial situation) so I projected it onto something that I had more control over (the cleanliness of my house). I do this ALL THE TIME. When I am stressed out about the miles ahead of me on a long run, I switch my brain over to my to-do list at work and start meticulousl...

Since having the baby Matty and I have been lucky to make it out for a date night once a month, though it took us until the third time out to really let loose and not inhale our food and rush back as soon as possible. I have to admit, it was pretty awesome just to relax and enjoy each other, to talk about work and dreams and gossip (my favorite topics, especially the latter two) and to allow Maddie to have her fun time away from us too (ie. getting spoiled with love by her Grand Aunt). We decided to get dinner at the Island Creek Oyster Bar in Kenmore Square as we had been meaning to go there since they opened, but someone was pregnant for 9 months and couldn't have raw oysters, which is the whole point of going there, if you ask me. The spot itself is really well thought out and resembles being down the Cape in an artsy, modernist sort of way. There is a huge mural of the shore on one wall and oysters in cages line another wall while dozens of cans of Narraganset line the bar wa...