weekend plans

My first girls trip!

| cheriarmour

Hi!  Hey!  What’s up?  Do you miss me?  Are you wondering if I quit blogging?  What am I doing?  Maybe not?

So hey, I’m still here.  I just have a (not so) newborn, and I’ve been crushing it at work, but not crushing it as much in blogland.  Which I absolutely hate, so here we are!

I somehow by the grace of the good lord above ::skin-tone appropriate praise hands:: have survived a few whirlwind weekends of work, travel, and packing the baby and husband into my little compact, and making it back in one piece for work on Mondays.  It’s nuts.  It’s crazy.  It’s fun.

So let’s take it back to a few weekends ago, when I survived my first girls trip!

So a few months ago, a friend who was turning 30 said he wanted to plan something, and he sent out an invite, a date, and a gorgeous photo of a cabin in the Shenendoah State Park area of Virginia.  I’d just had Liam, but I was really determined to do something that would require me to leave him at home with dad for a weekend or so, and I figured that early spring would be a good chance to try it.  So I talked it over with Austin, confirmed, and since time is accelerating (I swear it is), found myself up early on a Friday morning, packing stuff for me, getting the baby’s stuff together for daycare that day, thawing milk, and finally, heading out of town on a rainy Friday, with my podcasts (S-Town), my audiobooks (Andy Cohen’s Superficial), and my breast pump stuff for the morning and into the afternoon.

My first stop was in Richmond, about 3 hours away from where I am in Raleigh, to have lunch with someone I used to work for.  She’d just accepted a position in Richmond, and I stopped just off of 95 with her to have some lunch and to take a pump break before I finished the last two hours or so.

I arrived at the cabin just after dinner (I had to stop at the super Target in Short Pump to pick up some cleaning stuff for my bottles), and was one of the first ones there, along with the birthday boy, and some friends.  I ran to my hidey hole upstairs for one more pump break (that was kind of the theme of some of the weekend because OMG) and we started the weekend.  We drank, got in the hot tub, I called the hubby and the baby, who were both doing amazing, and we finished off the night by watching RuPaul’s Drag Race (now at a bizarre time on Vh1, which is a discussion for another day), and I fell asleep after promising I wouldn’t, long before everyone else did.  Seriously, there is a photo of me dead asleep with my phone still up to my ear (I may have been talking to Austin?!) completely passed our for the night.  I was told that someone came in and flipped lights on and off, strobe light style, and I didn’t budge.

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The cabin! 

The next day, we all woke up, and one of us cooked breakfast.  I pumped, ran down our corner of the mountain and back up, and by the time I got back, we were getting ready to do a gorgeous hike in the park.  It was rough, and about halfway through, we split off, and half the group headed back, and the rest of us continued to the peak.  I was reminded that I don’t entirely do heights (at all), and as we came back down the mountain, it was starting to get a tad darker and a tad chillier.  That evening, we cooked dinner, baked a birthday cake for the birthday boy, listened to ALL the music, practiced old tap routines with one of the theater nerds there, some of us got back in the hot tub, and just enjoyed one another’s company.  I managed to pump some more and build up a little stash, and major shout out to my friends, who don’t have kids for the most part, but who were ridiculously understanding and curious about what breastfeeding entailed.  They are the best.

Sunday was good

Valentine’s Day Plans!

| cheriarmour

First up, I know I’ve talked about this place, Happy & Hale here before on the blog, but I have to sing its praises once again.

Lots of changes going round in the Samples household, and as a result, I’ve had to work really really hard to stay on track with a decent diet and stuff.  More on that later.

But I was really in a rush on Tuesday to get a good lunch in that didn’t involve anything gross, anything friend, and was quick, and the first thought was Happy & Hale.

I did my usual, a quinoa bowl (without the onions) and here was the finished product.

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I’ve seen Katherine, the nutritionist here, a few times, and she is highly encouraging of incorporating lots and lots of color in each meal. This meal TOTALLY has it. I mean, it’s gorgeous to look at.  Unfortunately for me, this was a lot of fiber, so I had to watch the fiber at dinner and do something that was a little less psyllium-y.  TMI.

Valentine’s Day Plans. 

I think this is the first V-Day that we don’t have something special planned, but I really think I’m okay with that.

In years past, we’ve always done dinner around Valentine’s, and given little gifts, but nothing super major.  This year, despite my efforts to get to bed much, much earlier than I have, I still am battling some fatigue as I adjust to earlier start times, and we’re looking forward to dinner in and making our way around Lake Johnson that day.  It’s boring, but it works for us.

One thing I will ask my hubby really really nicely for is a mani/pedi.  That’s still one of my favorite treats in the world.  I’ll happily oblige with his favorite treats (probably a trip to Harbor Freight to buy more things to put in the shed).

What are your plans for Valentine’s Day?

Stevie Wonder part trois!

| cheriarmour

This weekend, I celebrated my 28th birthday.

The weekend was absolutely bananas though, and it’s not entirely my fault.

So months ago, I got an email from Loretta Bates’ assistant to see if we’d be willing to schedule a training on the weekend of November 14th.  Of course, right?  We have a great relationship, and I’d love to have Loretta at our facility for the Zumba B1 Training.

So then, I’d scheduled my Body Pump training for the weekend FOLLOWING.  (I did it again because I really haven’t used the skills from my first training).

Also, I got word that Stevie Wonder was going to be in Charlotte on the 14th. No worries, I can make this all work.

Well, long long story short, the Body Pump training was inexplicably moved back to the weekend of the 14th.  So on Saturday morning, I woke up early, set our folks up for the Zumba training, ran OVER to State to take the Body Pump training, got OUT of the training, and drove down to Charlotte to see Stevie wonder with my dad.

I was exhausted, but the concert was so worth it.  It started off a little – and I don’t want to say annoying because that’s not the right word – but it was a little nerve-wracking.  Because of the horrible tragedies in Paris on Friday night, security was really nuts, and we ended up standing in a HUGE crowd for a while before the concert started.  I actually tweeted the venue, and begged them not to start the show, and they didn’t.  I think that’s more on Stevie though.  [Before you start to think I’m really narcissistic, the reason why the security was nerve-wracking was because we were standing in a really antsy, quasi-angry crowd, and I was SO afraid of either being trampled, or something else horrible happening.  But perhaps that’s just my anxious mind speaking.]

But the show did not at all disappoint.  I think my favorite part was when…well dang.  I don’t think I can pick a favorite.  But I loved the feeling that I was completely lost in the music.  I could have stayed there all night, and not noticed.  But instead, I had to wake up around 4am, and head back to Raleigh to finish my Pump Cert.

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I think it was the love of Jesus that got me through Sunday. I rocked my tracks, passed the cert, and got one of the best compliments I’ve ever gotten in life.

I was told that I had a magnetic personality. Ugh. That makes me freaking tear up. I don’t know why. But it’s nice to hear nice things about yourself.

After I got home (and this is the actual day of my birthday), I poured a glass of wine, noshed on some chips and salsa, and laid down on the couch. Austin came in, sweetie pie that he is, and dropped off some more wine, some kombucha, and a really sweet card for me. But the sweet thing was that he let me SLEEP off the weekend, and sort of tiptoed around the house.

Later, he and my brother took me out to froyo, and later, dinner at a Coquette, a french place here.

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I’m not huge on birthdays, but it was so good, and it felt good, throughout the weekend, to be acknowledged. I think it’s really easy to sort of get down on yourself. My house is messy, I can’t get everything I want to get done done in a day, my clothes are rumpled – but it’s so so nice to remember that you’re enough.

You might not have seen Stevie Wonder for the 3rd or 4th time, but what did you do this weekend?

Weekend Review

| cheriarmour

So my weekend started long, long before Friday at 5pm.

Tuesday evening, I stayed up until 2 am, getting my ducks in a row for work because Wednesday morning, bright and early, we were headed out for our Annual Director’s Retreat at work.  The day kicked off with a scavenger hunt downtown, and then we boarded an activity bus for Lake Gaston in North Carolina.

The home we stayed in was beautiful, and the first thing I did when we got there was hop on a paddleboard, and paddle around the lake, despite the fact that I haven’t really done it before.  But I’ve seen it done a ton in the tabloids, so I picked it up pretty quickly.

Lake Gaston

Because I’m still fairly new in this position (I’m only about a year old), I often feel guilty about taking time away from my computer and my email, but it was so nice to spend time sleeping, running, and paddling around the lake, without my phone going off, or without someone walking into my office with a problem that needed to be fixed then and there.

While I was there, relaxing, I continued to worry about my knee and hip.  I was resting (somewhat), taking a ton of Aleve, and hydrating, but some residual knee pain from this bad boy…

Rugby Injury

…which resulted in a fracture, some crutches, and some physical therapy, started to creep back. After I talked to my friend Google, and then the Physical Therapist, she told me it was most likely that I had a small tear in my right meniscus, and that I needed about two weeks of swimming, cycling, foam rolling, Aleve, and that the tear should take car of itself.

And there went my plans for a marathon.

I was a little disappointed, but relieved that I wasn’t making the pain up in my head.

Knee Brace

I was able to pull out some of the braces that Dr. Miller gave me when I was on crutches, healing that fracture, and make use of them for the first time in years. But I made the decision then that I would meet a friend who was running her first full on Sunday, and pace her for a few miles, and that was that!

Pho Pho Pho

After working the expo for a few hours on Friday and Saturday, I convinced my hubby to take me to this new place in Raleigh, Pho Pho Pho, since I’d been looking for pho nonstop since I had it from Whole Foods a few years ago, and hadn’t had a great bowl since.  It was AWESOME, and I was served enough to save some for lunch on Sunday after the race!

Race Day

The night before the race, I was able to sign up for text tracking for my friend Liz, who was running her first full in Raleigh.  When I got the text that she had passed the 13.1 mile marker, I started getting myself together, and walked down the street from my house, which was right between miles 16 and 17.  I spotted her, and we headed out.  My hip felt okay, and knee felt good, so my plan to just run a few miles turned into 5, which turned into 10ish.  Oops!  But I got to see my friend through her first finish line, and she finished her first marathon with an impressive 4:45 time, which was her goal!  And I got to test out my legs before going into a two-week break, which is supposed to fix me up.  Cross your fingers for me!

I had a nutty weekend.  What did you do this weekend!

Weekend Buzz

| cheriarmour

The weekend was absolutely, without-a-doubt, one of the busiest weekends I’ve had in forevs.  I say that all the time, but I totally mean it this time.

Anyhoo, so Friday night, I taught a Zumba ® Fitness party with two other fancy ladies, and we had an absolute blast.  I mean, I completely overdid it in the cardio department, but it was so nice to catch up with the other teachers.  The last time I saw them was at my wedding in August, so SO worth it.

After that, I headed home, and Austin and I decided to call it a night by watching a Disney movie, so we caught The Hunchback of Notre Dame on NetFlix.

Can we talk for a second about how screwed-up that movie is?

To be fair to Victor Hugo, the book ain’t no binder full of knock-knock jokes, but that is one screwed tale, and I’m not sure how or why my parents allowed me to watch it as a child.  A few highlights?

  • Referring to someone as a hunchback in general is not really encouraged.
  • When Frollo murks Quasimodo’s mother and then tries to throw Quasimodo in the well.
  • When the crowd tortures Quasimodo.
  • When Frollo is racist the entire movie.
  • When Frollo gets creepily obsessed with Esmerelda and sings an entire song about simultaneously wanting to have sex with her but feeling conflicted since he’s so racist against her people.

Those are just a few highlights.  But seriously, go back and watch it.  It’s SO creepy.

The craziest, then funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life…

So Saturday night, I was able to convince my sweet husband to take me out to sushi, and then we met some friends for drinks.  Driving around downtown, we saw this Santa bar crawl – so a TON of folks dressed up as Santa, drinking and roaming the streets.  In this one particular group, there was a young woman in a wheelchair also participating in the crawl.  Her friends were like, drunkly pushing her around, and they’d almost made it completely across when they hit the curb and she went flying out of the chair.  I made sure she was okay first (she was) before I lost it.  I have never, in my 27 years of life, seen something like that, nor have I ever laughed so hard.  To be clear, I am NOT a bad person, and I was not at all amused UNTIL I knew that the drunky monkey in the wheelchair was fine.

Following that, I went for a trail run in which I was still intoxicated from a holiday party the night before. Because the trail was actually pretty challenging, I fell (which means it was a real good time), but managed to not break my nose.  Which wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, because if I were to break my nose, I could get a free nose job and get a nose more like my sister’s.

Now, how was your weekend?

Wedding Weekend!

| cheriarmour

Not mine of course. I tied the knot with my honey-bear in July.  But Deb, who sort of eloped in June of this year, celebrated her wedding with a reception in Charlotte.

A few things about it.

I made it through the weekend.  If you’ll remember from my ranty post last week, I was completely overwhelmed, and not 100% sure that I was going to be able to successfully make it through the weekend.

I made it, and we all survived.  As far as my brother’s hair, I borrowed some clippers from a friend and managed to cut his and Austin’s hair before the wedding popped off.  This really provides me little to no insight as to why the girl from the barber shop could not figure out how to cut black hair, because with relatively little experience, I was able to give him a decent  haircut.  It really wasn’t so challenging.  I learned my lesson, and will never, ever, EVER take my brother to a place that can’t handle black hair because everyone is making fun of me for screwing my brother’s hair up.

But moving right along, Deb held her wedding at the Levine Museum of the New South on Saturday.  Instead of doing some sort of ceremony or something, we started the reception out with a short cocktail hour, and then Deb and Luigi came down the staircase for an entrance.  They danced their first dance to Luther Vandross’ cover of Knocks Me Off My Feet, which was really cute and fun because Stevie Wonder was a focal point for the music at my wedding as well, so my father trained us well.

Debbie and Luigi Wedding 2 Debbie and Luigi Wedding

We ate, danced, and after the wedding is when the real fun began.  The wedding itself was awesomely fun, by the way 🙂  We headed to Ri Ra, an Irish pub downtown, where my cousin forced, yes forced me to drink shots against my will.  Absolutely needless to say, I will be taking a little breaky from the drank this week as I let my liver heal.

So one really cool thing?

I didn’t have a dress, and I’ve been on a budget.  So for Deb’s wedding, I tried out Rent the Runway, something I’d heard of, but never had the guts to try.  So essentially, I rented a $700 Badgley Mischka and earring for $70.  Dress turned out to be a hit, so I may do the same for a few holiday parties.

Rent the RunwayIt’s kinda cool just shipping it back, and not having to worry about getting stuck with a dress that I won’t be wearing again.

Anyhoo, what did you do this weekend?  

 

Weekend Update

| cheriarmour

I hope you guys had a good weekend.

I’m officially swimming through all of my workouts.  The heat and humidity in North Carolina is absolutely unbearable – both classes I taught last week were nuts, and then on my run on Sunday evening, sweat was literally dripping down my nose,and into my eyes.  I’m desperately continuing to run, and hoping that my heat training will turn into something good by the end of the summer.

So on Sunday morning, I woke up early, and we had some friends over for brunch.

I got the idea a couple of months back in DC.  In DC, a lot of my friends, both married and single, live in these group house type situations, and last time I was there, I went to a brunch at one of the group houses.  It was cool, it was kinda like being at Bob Evans, without having to go to Bob Evans.  Plus here in the Bible Belt, they can’t serve alcohol out until 12pm, so if you try and go to brunch much earlier you’re all…

FridayRookie mistake. 😦 😦

Then you have to drag out brunch for a very long time while people glare at you for not giving up your table.

So we decided to do brunch at our place.  Wanna see why the South has such a problem with weight?

DSC_0728That would be a biscuit, eggs, some really really good hash brown casserole, some fruit for good measure, scones, and some mimosa.  All of which I ate.  I ran after cause I felt really bad!

Your favorite breakfast food??

How was your weekend?

How was your weekend?

| cheriarmour

So for your personal enjoyment, I will share with you a few of the pics me and Kimmy went through after my brother’s graduation on Thursday night.

photo 2We were very active kids.  Animals in fact.  There were like two other pictures of us doing things on the swingset that are not OSHA approved.

photo 3That’s me in the mask,  I had a sore throat when my brother was born, so I had to wear this so I wouldn’t get the baby sick.

photo 4

Preciouso.

photo 5And lastly, my brother as a sheriff.  How cute right?

Anyhoo, so this weekend was really good.  I was not as productive as I would have liked to have been, but I got a ton of rest, and woke up Sunday morning almost at 10.  I have not done that literally in forevs.

Saturday, I went and checked out a performance of Marcus Anderson, a pretty sweet saxophonist (did I spell that correctly?!) The really cool bit about him is that I’ve been watching him for like 4 years when he came down to regularly perform where I worked in graduate school.  I have semi-fangirled him over the past few years, and now he’s playing with Prince.

tumblr_mi2qao3J2M1rdnvweo1_400Prince guys.

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I need to get my life together.

From there, we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings in Cary where the female server treated us like garbage. But the dranks was poppin!

And from there, I had a semi-lazy Sunday.

We started the day off by binge-watching 3 episodes off Orange is the New Black, and then I cleaned, and topped off the day with some time in the woods on an almost 4-mile trail run.

photo 1And since you asked so nicely, here’s a pic of my poodle.  We were in full-cuddle mode, which includes me talking in strange voices.

How was your weekend?

 

 

Where is the time going?

| cheriarmour

I’m sitting in my apartment after a full day, and I’m seriously wondering (as I gear up to spectate the Raleigh Half-Ironman tomorrow) where the hell the time is going.

After work yesterday, me and Matthew made a much, much-needed to Coquette, a local french spot where I killed two glasses of wine, and truffle fries.  An amazing way to end the week.

photoAfter that, we headed to Total Wine (cause the two glasses just wasn’t enough), sampled some full-bodied Spanish wines, and I took  a nice bottle home to enjoy by my lonesome while I waited on the man-friend to get done doing boy stuff.

This morning, I headed to teach a Zumba class, met up at Starbucks with some folks for a meeting, and finally, drove down to Durham with my man to pick up some more goodies for the wedding off Craigslist!

By the time all was said and done, it was 8pm, and I’m really wondering how I can squeeze a few more hours of the day.

Today, as you read, I join some friends with a few cowbells to spectate the Half Ironman in Raleigh, and I couldn’t be more pumped!

What did you do this weekend?