The Fabulous Life of Stefanie

I am literally, figuratively and completely exhausted. The kind of tired where your eyes feel thick and heavy; where you're starving but have no appetite at the same time. The kind of tired where you want to cry but it just seems like it would take too much energy. I feel like there is so much weight on my shoulders. There are so many things that must get done and I don't know where to start because I don't want to do any of it. I just want to lay down and pretend that everything is done and perfect, but it's not. I want to get into the holiday spirit; get a tree and play my favorite Louis Armstrong Christmas song with eggnog and bourbon and my little family dancing around while we decorate. I want to think about the surprises I will create for Madeleine this Christmas and in the years to come. I want to create gifts for the people in my life who I love so much. I need to figure out how to print the adorable thank you cards I had made for Maddie's first birthday...

11 months of cuteness! In just eight days my sweet baby girl is turning ONE. Say what ?!? I cannot believe it has been a year since our family was completed by her birth and yet it feels as though she has always been a part of us. The joy and love that little person bring into my heart is at times just too much to handle; I can literally feel my heart stretch with more and more love for her each and every day. Being her mama is the best gift I have been given; she has taught me and her dada so much about love, the world and ourselves and it every day just brings more fun. Happy almost birthday my baby girl! On Saturday we will celebrate amongst our Boston friends and family with a Sophie the Giraffe themed party (of course); it has been so much fun to prepare for the day and I can't wait to have everyone over to eat, sing and celebrate this awesome year. It really, truly takes a village to raise a child, and the party will be a reflection of all of the people that have helped...

October is Bullying Prevention Awareness Month so I have been seeing and reading a lot about this topic and thinking about my own role as both a mother and someone who was severely bullied as a child. First, my own story. In middle school I was bussed from my low to low-middle income community and into a much wealthier school in another part of Reno. The benefit was that it was much closer to my Mom's work and they had good honors classes that I could enroll in immediately due to my having been enrolled in honors classes at my previous schools. The bad news was that I was going to school with only a quarter of the people I had gone to elementary school with (but really, I had only been going to that school for a year and a half, so I guess in hindsight it wasn't that bad); but the really bad news was that I was around a bunch of kids who had already made up their minds about what kind of people came from where I came from. See, I was born in beautiful San Diego, Californ...

Yet again, the weekend went by much too fast; boo! We were in Brooklyn Saturday to Sunday so that I could throw my sis-in-law and her due-date buddy a baby shower, then all of the sudden it was Monday again. How does that keep happening? We had a lot of fun in NY, as we always do when we are there. I really love Brooklyn and walking around, finding places to eat and shop just seem to come so incredibly easy when we are there. The neighborhoods are so kiddo friendly and I never feel like a jerk for wearing my baby into the hip spots, even the bars. The Brooklyn sunset, captured by Matty on our walk around Carroll Gardens trying to get Maddie to nap. We stayed the night at the Fairfield Inn in Brooklyn and it was really, really swanky. It was done up very boutique hotel style, had incredibly comfortable beds (to me and Maddie, at least) and there is a roof deck with views of Brooklyn and Manhattan. I had thought about the prospect of trying to go out with my hubs since we had fa...

Welcome to Hell (Night)!!!  Wednesday night Matty, Kendra, V and another couple friend attended Hell Night at East Coast Grill. I am still sweating. Like, in between my toes. If you aren't privy to the Hell Night situation, it goes a little something like this: East Coast Grill (one of my favorite places to eat in the area) takes a couple of nights with a special menu containing the hottest food one could possible imagine putting near their face. Naturally, we have been dying to go forever but it just never seemed to materialize. Then V, being the total badass foodie friend that he is, got reservations for all of us. And then, we got a sitter. No, for reals, and it wasn't Kendra, because she was with us! Two wonderful, newlywed friends were so wonderful and came over to hang out while Maddie slept snug in our bed so Mama and Dada could shovel hot fire into our faces! First of all, it was so fun to be out with K and V, just like old times drinking beers and being inappropr...

Instead of trying to read through my entire blog list before I write my own post, I thought I would just get down the business. I tried to do it the latter way on Friday and ended up reading blogs until it was time to step away from the computer. Not cool, Stefanie! Philadelphia! I wanted to write a post about all of the things that we did in Philadelphia, but that seems so long ago now, so I will make it short and sweet... She's the Eye of the Tiger. The three of us went to Philly to celebrate two years of marriage and ten months of an awesome baby. We had such a blast! The city is so walkable that after we parked our car in the hotel lot we never used it again; we never even needed a cab or public transit, we just hoofed it everywhere. We had recently purchased a Maclaren for Maddie, so this was the maiden voyage for lots of use and I must say that it handles great and is SO easy to fold up and throw over the shoulder when not in use. We saw some awesome history and vis...

Oh my gosh, today was SO much fun. I did the Shape Diva Dash, which I had been defining as a "really easy, girly version of the Tough Mudder" and kind of selling myself short on how tough it was going to be. It was definitely, absolutely in no way as crazy as the Mudder, Spartan or Warrior, but it was a challenge and was super, super fun. I did two things I had never done today: trail running and obstacles, and it turns out I really enjoy them. I feel like trail running might end in a broken ankle for me based on the ease of tripping over nature when doing so, but I still want to try and do it once in a while. This is a pretty big deal considering I am not a huge fan of nature and am pretty much the most clumsy 5'10" lady ever. But considering that a couple of years ago I would have laughed at anyone who suggested doing what I did today, or even me being a runner. I feel like all bets are off. I mean, I am pretty much watching football while Matty sleeps on the flo...