If I had a weekend...

This past weekend we celebrated our fifth anniversary.  We did so in two important ways.  First, we handed our children over to Shawn and Lisa for the entire weekend.  And second, we ate as well as possible.  

If you ever wondered what I would do with an entire weekend if I had one (and I know that has been on all your minds), here it is:

• Run a few errands (so I feel productive)
• Eat a cheesesteak sandwich from Mr. Spots
• Browse my favorite specialty food stores.  
  
• get my hair done
• a little clothes shopping
• Eat at my new favorite special occasion restaurant EVE.  I almost died of happiness Friday night
• Go to bed by 9:30 and sleep until 6:30 with no interruptions.
• Get up and go to Panera for breakfast.  Work (and by work I mean surf the internet) on my computer while Abram reads the paper.  
• take a full hour to work out and watch Oprah
• Take my sweet time getting ready for the day
• go to breakfast again at Zingermans
• take a nap
• read
• work on my food blog
• go to a movie
• Eat chocolate fondue with friends
• sleep in till 8 on Sunday and then do more of the above until picking up my kids for church.

I am a new woman.  

Daddy's Notes

1. Thanks to all the well-wishers who posted nice things about my recent celebration.  It's nice to feel so loved.  And to know that I've still got it. 
2. Max is now old enough to realize that kissing Aviva on the lips is nasty.  And he refuses to do it.  He's single-handedly trying to teach Aviva to kiss on the cheek, and results have been very mixed.  Often, he ends up with a trail of drool starting at his cheek and slowly working its way over to his lips.  That too is nasty.
3. Aviva has developed  excellent non-verbal communication skills.  Her commands are easily given to her underlings (me and Kristin) by (1) a wave of a hand in the direction of the object she wants -- she keeps waving until we've selected the right object; (2) she brings us her shoes whenever she's bored -- it's her "get me out of this house" line; (3) she reaches up and pulls your finger when she wants to go to a different room; and (4) has the meanest look of any girl since KQ was a baby.
4. Max is an excellent craftsman.   Many of you saw Kristin's post on the busybox, well I'll tell you what, Max is now way better at crafts than me.  This morning, we tried to do a valentine for mom, but Max eventually got so frustrated with me he went and asked Kristin to tell me how to do it the right way.  So there's Kristin, telling Max how to make her valentine.
5. I sure do love living by family.  Max and Keely played together at one of those indoor play gyms this morning and nothing makes me happier.  We sure love cousin Keely.

My Valentine

I was hoping Kristin would be my valentine this year, but looks like some little boy took my spot.  Still, I love my Kissy Krissy and I'm willing to share.

Thing One And Thing Two

Shawn and Lisa brought these shirts home from Florida for Max and Aviva.  I believe Lisa's words were: "I wanted to get them for my kids, but they just seemed so much more appropriate for your kids."  

Nice. 

True though. 

"I will pick up the hook.

You will see something new. 

Two things.  And I call them

Thing One and Thing Two.

These Things will not bite you.  

They want to have fun."

Then, out of the box 

Came Thing Two and Thing One!...

Thing Two and Thing One!

They ran up! They ran down!

On the string of one kite 

We saw Mother's new gown!

her gown with the dots 

That are pink, white and red.  

Then we saw one kite bump

On the head of her bed!

Then those Things ran about 

With big bumps, jumps and kicks

And with hops and big thumps 

And all kinds of bad tricks. 

-Dr. Suess

Celebration

Saturday night Abram and I celebrated a very big event in his life.  For six months he has been exercising 6 days a week, only eating one dessert a week, and eating three healthy meals a day.  As a result he has lost 40lbs.  That's right, 40 lbs.  I am so proud. 

A couple shout outs:

• To Gary, for betting large amounts of money against him.  I would have killed Abram if he missed a day and he knew it.  
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• To Shauri for shouting "Go Harder!" as he exercised and she watched TV.

You may notice that I don't get a shout out.  I was impossibly hard to live with and made brownies and ate ice cream without hesitation.  Abram read somewhere that spouses are the biggest saboteurs when it comes to dieting and I can definitely see how.  

Pistons Game

  A couple weekends ago we braved the snowy, icy Michigan freeways and went with Elizabeth and Ryan to a Pistons game.  They won the tickets at some event for married students and their families at U of M.  

You may notice the wall behind us - apparently when it comes to families, Michigan isn't a big spender.  But we didn't care.  It was a great night.  I even got a free Rodney Stuckey bobble head doll that Aviva made out with the whole next day.