Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!  It's funny because our celebration of this momentous holiday has drastically changed since we've had Aubrey.  Rather than drinking all day at a bar in downtown Indy, our St. Patrick's Day is spent eating Irish food at home with a can of Guinness.  For now, at least.  Once Aubrey is a little older we'll be able to take her to the parade downtown and be around all the festivities and what not.  But for now, I'm living vicariously through my kid-free friends on Facebook. But all the while, I think of this:

Oh, Ireland...oh how I miss you.  (Dreaming of Dublin)  So I'll be toasting with a Guinness tonight and dreaming of Ireland.  
Now we did have fun celebrating this weekend.  Yours truly knocked out a race with an all-time best at the Shamrock 4 mile run finishing in 46:29 (11:37 per mile baby!) and then listened to Irish music at a local winery.  We feasted on Shepherds Pie and well....yeah, that's about as celebratory as we get :-)  So I'll just be dreaming of Ireland...
Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

In my arms

Ever since the shootings at Sandy Hook in 2012, I've found myself drawn to learning more about it, the lives of the victims, the awful events that led up to this horrific tragedy.  I don't know, I just find myself unusually sucked in.  And not in a good way because the events that occurred that day just kill me inside.  Those poor families.  How needless it all was.  But one of the things that really just sickens me is the innocence that was lost that day.

All of the children that survived - how do they comprehend such evil?  Children are resilient, yes, but only to an extent.  How, as a parent, would you explain what happened?  That day, lives were needlessly taken and innocence stolen from all of those children who survived.  And in such an evil way.

All children come to that realization, right?  At some point, children realize that not everything, not everyone is, in fact, good.  I remember when it happened for me.  In fifth grade, one of my classmates was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered.  I could not imagine my mother and how she gathered the courage to tell me what happened and answer that question that was sure to follow - why?  Why would someone do that?

For many kids it was the attacks on September 11th.  At that point, I was an adult and well-aware that evil existed.  I do remember my nephew and how he drew a picture of two tall towers and a plane, not even aware why at the age of five he was drawing that.  It was his comprehension of the evil he saw on TV.

I wish I could keep that innocence for Aubrey forever, though I know it's not possible.  It's not reality.  I don't want to ever have to answer that question of "why?" and not have a really good response for that.  There is no good reason.  I can't tell you why other than the fact that not everyone is inherently good.  How do you explain that to someone so little?

So I heard this song that same day while driving home, and it is ironic in how it portrays so much of what I feel.  My little girl has innocence in her eyes and her heart.  That day when I went to pick her up from daycare, she was beaming from ear to ear at the sight of her Mommy coming to get her.  I was lucky that day because I got to get my child from school.  I held her extra tight and did so this afternoon after I heard this song.  I may not be able to protect her from everything, but I like to think that no matter what and no matter how old she is, she is always safe in my arms.

Still alive!

Yes, I am still alive, I promise!  Just very little time to blog, but that is not to say I have not had a chance to document what has been going on at the Nain, T and Aubrey household.  We've been busy!   Exploring the park when the weather got better....

Preparing for St. Patrick's Day (or recovering from Mardis Gras....)

Playing dress-up.  Daddy got his mower serviced by John Deere so we got our very own hat..

And bought new kicks!  (Trust me, the ones she had were completely icky).  She totally geeked out with the new shoes.

I do promise to try to blog just a little more.  I'm ashamed to say it's been a week since I've blogged.  But at least I'm updating you all with adorable Aubrey pictures!  Have a great weekend everyone!

My book worm

You guys are so lucky - two Aubrey picture posts in a row!  This past weekend with the winter apocalypse that didn't happen but we all stayed inside because the weathermen told us to do so - we stayed inside and were fairly lazy, which is good because I do love getting some quality time with Aubrey.  And quality time with Aubrey usually entails one thing - reading.

Aubrey is a little bookworm, and Mommy hit the jack pot for her birthday with finding the Alpha Tales series that they read at school.  She is obsessed with these books.  They have 26 books, one for each letter, and she knows them all.  And I'm pretty sure we read them all.  Several times.

At one point I got in the fetal position saying "no more, no more!  Can't we read a different book?"  To which Aubrey leans down in my face with one of the Alpha Tales in her hand going "Mommy up!  Mommy up!  Affa tales?  Affa tales? Pwease?"  It's hard to say no to that, but it's also hard to stop laughing when that little face is in yours shoving a book in your face.  
She does like her Berenstein Bears, as well, but she calls them "Da Bears," so I'm wondering if she's a native Chicagoan or just a really big Bears fan.
I love that she loves to read.  I was a huge book worm (and yeah, one might call me a nerd) back in the day, and I would love to see her love books as much as I did.  I think she may already be there.
And it's March, folks!  So it's almost time for St. Patrick's Day!  And yes, Aubrey is wearing necklaces that say Jameson on them.  Don't judge.  

She's my little Irish rose, what can I say?

Goofing off with technology

Goofing off with my girl....Someone finally joined the rest of pretty much everyone else and got an iPhone.  It was time to upgrade and get rid of my Blackberry...and I was totally okay with that because the phone was janky from the beginning.  Free upgrade, and I got an iPhone 4.  However, I have no clue what to do with it, but I'm slowly learning.  I, of course, made T program it.  I mean, why else do I have an engineer around the house if not to handle all of the technological projects in the house?  So on Saturday Aubrey and I experimented with taking pictures without having to awkwardly hold the phone out and hope you're aiming it in the correct direction:

 We were supposed to be doing silly faces in this one but someone didn't cooperate, leaving Mommy with crazy eyes.  But I do like her face in this picture.

We also played around with FaceTime, calling Grandma (Ma-Maw) and her cousin Riley.  I love this feature because this will give her the chance to see her grandparents more often.  Visiting has not been in the cards this winter with bad weather pretty much every flipping weekend.  (I say this as I stare out the window with snow and freezing rain - yay, winter?)  
I think I'm mastering the iPhone.  I am the nerd, however, downloading the Customs code, SCOTUS and White House blogs, and a quick reference U.S. Constitution.  I mean you never know when you need to look up something in the Constitution, right?  
I'm moving up with the technology, but I'll be damned if I get sucked into the whole Words with Friends and Candy Crush thing.  No way.  
For now, I'll play with my little girl and goof off on this snowy Sunday.

Winter

I think I can get all of us to agree on one thing.  Winter has worn out its welcome.  To put it in other words....winter can suck it.  I'm over it.  
Last weekend we had almost 60 degree temperatures, and we got to take Aubrey out for a walk and to the playground but no, that was one gigantic tease.  Because now we're back in the single digit temperatures, and what is this I hear of snow and ice this weekend?  Seriously?  
Long gone are the days of calling work off.  I don't get to call snow days because, well, I don't run this office.  So when the boss says come in, I do have to come in.  In the icky weather.  Yuck.  But this is adulthood.  I miss snow days and being a kid, getting all excited about the weather being crappy and not having to go to school.  Now I see it is going to sleet and I think "great, now we have to deal with stupid drivers on the road and it'll take me two hours to get to work."  Winter.  Please stop it.  
I am taking suggestions on warm places to relocate.  I'm thinking Arizona, but I'm open to suggestions.  Regardless, I'm itching to get out of the house, get this stir crazy little kid out of the four walls and get some fresh air.  Because I may just lose my freaking mind.  Or have I already?
It is Friday tomorrow, and I'm totally pumped for that, but....I'm totally not cool with what we have ahead of us.  At least being snowed in will give me plenty of time to write, right?  
Speaking of writing....if you're looking for some good reads, here are some of my latest articles:
Taco Bell for Breakfast?  
Florida Lawmakers Renew Stand your Ground Law
Indiana Rape Law Denies Victim Chance to Press Charges

Getting back to it

I have let myself slip.  The holidays and availability of snacks at the new job have caused me to slip.  Darn it, Nain.  I've found myself creeping up on the scale and it's time to lay the smack down on my diet.  
My new job has many perks one of them being a kitchen full of snacks.  Free snacks, and working at a desk for eight hours, I have kind of let myself go.  I mean, yeah, don't get me wrong, I didn't gain all 30 pounds back but seven pounds?  Not okay with Nain.  So that means the food logs are back out, and the food logs? Well, they kind of suck.  However, it is a necessary evil.  And they keep me accountable.
It has been hard finding time to exercise in that this new position requires me to be at work just a little earlier than my previous job.  That and hitting the snooze button when the alarm goes off at 5:20 a.m. is just too tempting.  One good thing is a perk of my new job is having a free membership to the gym located at the basement level of the building.  So I have managed to pull off some lunch-time workouts, but those can be difficult when it comes to someone who sweats like a whore in church when running.  Nobody wants to see that.  It is why I run in solitude in my basement.  It just is not pretty.
However, I do have a race coming up.  I'll be running in a 4 mile St. Patrick's Day race in just a few weeks, and I better get my out of shape, seven additional pounds butt in gear.  
Yes, it is just seven pounds, but it is so easy to say "oh, it's just an extra pound or two" and before you know it, it's ten or more.  
This could not come at a worse time for me either.  We are approaching Easter candy season, the best candy of the year.  But I must remain strong.  Stay strong, Nain.  I may need to get myself back into Motivation Mondays but for now, I'll just call it internal motivation.  
Stay strong, Nain.  Stay strong.