An I-phone dump..,
1.) "Hey Mom, Do I look like the Hulk?"
2.) Oma and Opa finally came home from a trip that was much too long. S'mores on the back patio with family Friday night made everything seem right with the world.
3.) Life around here isn't always chaotic. I love these moments.
4.) Self-dressed and so sweet.
5.) Sleeping in Opa's arms.

Brooks can't stand it if I comb his hair into a Mohawk. He is such a "blend in" type kiddo and panics if he stands out in a crowd.

I think his Mohawk is handsome, but what do I know anyway? We quickly got rid of it following this picture.

I saw this "Day in the Life" idea on a blog I follow.  From what I understand, I was supposed to do a "day in my life" and link this post up another blog so that the world could see how awesome our days around here are.  But...let's be real.  Who has time to record every step of every day on a specific day that is dictated by the blogger world?  Not me, that I know for sure.  But, today I decided would be a great day to photograph and give my loyal followers, all 10 of you, a typical Heather day.  All of my days each week are different, but today is a pretty typical Wednesday for me.  Ready?  Here we go.  A day in the life of a working mom.

Alarm goes off at 4:15.  Even though I knew I was going to do this post today, I forgot to take a picture of my clock.  I had to go to the bathroom BAD and had been dripping sweat most of the night.  I think I'm allergic to honey.  Seems like every night following consumption of honey, I'm a sweaty mess most of the night.  Last night, I had granola right before bed and it was full of honey.  You'd think I would learn.  

Anyhow, back to the 4:15 wake-up call. I hop out of bed, use the bathroom, and look in the mirror.  I could scream with happiness because I notice that my acne prone face is actually healing.  After some major to me dietary changes (minimal to no dairy, no soy and no workout supplements) I am finally seeing some results.  Those of you who don't have acne are wondering why I even post about this detail of my day, but those that have acne TOTALLY GET IT!  I'm pumped.  I throw my hair on top of my  head, put on my workout outfit (which was laid out the night before), drink some water and I'm off.  First I stop and take a picture of the alarm clock and succeed in waking Greg up.  Poor guy.  I didn't mean to, but I had to get the picture to prove that I'm insane to be leaving my house before 5:00!  I'm glad he loves me.

Alarm clock.  Proof.

I'm super pumped that this song blasted on my way to the gym.  Recall this:  "Come along and ride on the fantastic...slide, slide..."  Remember?  At 5 am it's all about the small things.

Pull up to the gym.  One car in the lot.  Still dark but the air smells like summer.

Enter gym.  See that the one car in the lot is one of my dear friends Lisa.  Bonus.  Now I get to elliptical with her and the 60 minutes feels like 10.  Major bonus, we solved most of the world issues in that 60 minutes. 

I hop off the elliptical and lift some weights.  Today's focus is biceps and triceps.  You know, the muscles that everyone notices.  :) (**Note:  These are not my arms.  They are the arms of one of my favorite lifting partners.) 

The lift is over and I get in the car.   I laugh to myself and realize that I am living life with some serious assistance of caffeine.  Yikes.  

 The gym is over and I have to run over to Wal-Mart to pick up some supplies for work that needed to be delivered this morning.  I get to Wal-Mart and it's empty.  I love Wal-Mart early in the morning, since I don't love being around people.  I grabbed the cookies and pop that I was in charge of picking up and noticed some yummy looking granola bars that I needed to try.  I was starving.  I couldn't hold off until home.

 I got home and quick put together my shake that I have every morning.  Protein, banana, pudding and water.  I blend that while I start my coffee.  Usually, Greg makes my coffee for me, but he had to bring Brooks to school today and I was running late due to the Wal-Mart stop.  My coffee was fine, however, Greg's is far superior.

Love my Vita-Mix. 

The real way to make Espresso.  In my opinion, the more caffeine the better.

I glance at the paper while standing at the island drinking my shake.  Duluth is pretty lame in terms of exciting news, but that makes it a good place to raise a family.  The newspaper is my connection to the outside world, since we don't watch news of any sort.

 While I'm in the shower, Chloe and Greg get home.  Chloe wants nothing to do with me and hides behind her daddy's leg.  Eventually, as I was flat ironing my hair, she wanted some time with her Mom.  I think it's because she sensed that Susan (our nanny) was going to be at our house any minute.  She loves Susan once Susan arrives, but never wants Susan to arrive.  Girl...make up your mind!  

 Greg talks to Susan and comes into the bathroom to say bye.  I give him a kiss (this is a 50-50...some days I feel like a kiss, some days I don't) and tell him I'll see him at work.  We work at the same place.  Greg rides his bike to work.  I finish in the bathroom and say goodbye to Susan and Chloe by yelling off the back deck to them, since they are in the backyard.

 I do one last check of my outfit before work, thanks to a mirror that was put up in our garage when we used it as workout room during remodeling.  I love this mirror and Greg busts me daily checking myself out in it.  Ha! Whatever.

 I get in the car and start to leave.  Right before the end of the driveway, I notice Chloe running towards me.  She's picked me a flower...root and all.  Sweetie.  As I pull away she's saying, "You got your flower, mama?"  Yes, sweet girl.  I got my flower.  

 I stop and deliver the cookies and pop on my way to work.  When I get to work I pull into the parking lot and spend 30 minutes or so checking my emails and making phone calls. I do this almost every day. It's nice to be all caught up before going into the office.  The red building in front of me is my office.  So close...yet so far away.  

A co-worker pulls into the lot and jumps in my car.  We chat for a second about work and walk into work together.  Deep breath, here we go.

 My work day is normal.  Greg and I steal a few minutes to have a meeting, as we like to call it.  It's time that we sit in an office (mine or his) and catch up. We talk, uninterrupted for about 10 minutes.  It's nice.  We get a lot accomplished.  We should talk more often.  Yeah, right.

 I run to a meeting and right after have physical therapy for my feet.  I go to this place which just happens to be the best PT place in AMERICA.  It's amazing and I'm sold.  After an hour of PT, I get back in my car and have lunch while sitting in the parking lot.  

During lunch, I check email. Living the dream...I know.  My salad was from Monday (yuck) when I didn't get around to eating it.  Greg said he refreshed the greens though.  Did I mention that Greg makes my lunch every day?  If he didn't, I would choose to skip eating or live on pre-packaged snacks.  It's too much effort to actually prepare lunches. That sounds ridiculous coming from a girl who woke up in the 4's to exercise, I know.  But life is all about choices, right?

Salad:  3 days old.  Greens, peppers, steak, onions.  Hope I don't get sick. Not sick yet.  

 I have 40 minutes until I have to pick Brooks up from school.  Not enough time to go back to the office, but too much time to do nothing.  So, I drive up to school and work from the car.  I make a couple of phone calls and answer some emails.  3:00 rolls around and I go get my Buddy, who I haven't seen yet today.  He's big.  Really big and really sweet.  He has 5 days of pre-school left and he will officially be in KINDERGARTEN.  Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!

 Brooks and I have some time before Susan is done for the day.  We run (drive) to McDonald's and he plays while I work.  I also called my sister and caught up with her. Brooks didn't play much today, which isn't his norm. There was a daddy there that didn't fit the "typical" daddy mold (whatever that is).  Brooks thought he "looked like a burglar" and it really scared him.  So funny and so sheltered.  I love it.  At least he whispered when he told me about the "scary guy".

 It's time to go home and relieve Susan.  We get home and I get a quick reca.  It sounds like Chloe was cute (shocker) and napped...WHAT?  She never naps for us.  Lame.  

Shortly after Susan left, I had a great Mom moment when I changed Chloe on the island (yes, where we serve food) while Brooks yelled from the bathroom that he needed to be wiped.  When I asked Brooks to be patient he says, "I wish you were God.  If you were God, you could wipe both of us at the same time!"  I'm not God and he waited and he lived.  So, all is good.

Waiting so patiently and possibly falling asleep.  So tired after a full school day. 

 After a quick bloody nose and Popsicles to make everything better we took a little break and watched some Curious George.  Daddy came home via bike and we had a meeting in the bathroom, where we hoped for some quiet time.  Didn't happen.  Within minutes we had both kids playing in the tub and uninterested in Curious George. 

"Hey Greg!  We'll talk when the kids are 18.  Ok?"

 

 Greg took the kids outside.  I made dinner and pretty much felt like passing out.  I'm so tired.  But, all is well.  Corn out of a can.  Check.  Beans out of a can.  Check.  Store bought salsa.  Check. Chicken pulled off a pre-cooked rotisserie.  Check.  Rice in the rice cooker made yesterday.  Check.  Sa-weet.  And, it was good. Brooks wanted a "bowl" instead of pancakes.  I asked him and showed him the options.  Shocker, when he changed his mind.  What a waste, so I ate both kids meals.  Yup.  Feeling stuffed and tired.  Not a good combo when I still have bath time ahead.  Anyway, kids had waffles.  Frozen, generic WHITE waffles with real syrup.  Real meaning fake.  You know what I mean?

Greg liked his.

Kids liked theirs. 

 The kids started dinner sitting next to each other, but they couldn't figure out how to get along or keep their feet to themselves.  Dinner ended with them separated.  I love Chloe's face.  She can be so sweet to Brooks and so mad at him within seconds.  It's a true love/hate relationship heavy on the love.

 I gave the kids a bath (I do not like bath time, BTW.  The kids fight lots in the tub) and got them settled into a show (part of Spy Kids) before bed.  Chloe didn't like it, so she actually watched Calliou.  Greg got ready for a run, which I strongly encouraged him to do, and there was a tiny window (15 minutes) of silence.  I took full advantage, quickly picked up the toys on the deck and ate half a tub of almond butter (I wasn't even hungry) while reading some blogs.  I love blogs and Greg makes fun of me for following blogs of people I don't know.  I say that there's a lot to learn from other moms, even other moms I don't know.

Then came bedtime.  It actually went well tonight.  Brooks didn't get upset when he had to turn his show off and both kids let me brush their teeth without screaming.  I bribed them though.  I told them I'd give them one of those flossy things if they'd let me brush all the sugar off their teeth.  It worked.  

Chloe obsessed about losing her teeth.  She wants to lose a tooth and when I tell her she will some day, she gets upset and doesn't want to lose a tooth.  This went on about 10 times, until I had to tell her not to talk about losing teeth anymore.  She's two.  Poor thing shouldn't worry about it.

I kissed Brooks, who is simple to put to bed.  Filled up his humidifier, got him some water, turned on his night lights, prayed and put closed his door.  He never gets out of bed and falls asleep fast.  He plays hard and crashes hard, that's for sure.

Then, I headed over to the dreaded Pink Chair.  This is the chair we (mostly Greg) sits in every night until Chloe falls asleep.  It's insane, but in order for her to go to sleep it's a must.  And yes,we are the parents and no Chloe isn't the boss.  As if every parent doesn't give in at some point.  Right?  Chloe's sweet and easy, but isn't the best faller asleeper we've ever meet. 

So now, it's bedtime for the adults.  Greg's back from his run (and actually spent some extended time in the pink chair after Chloe started crying out).  I'm going to change out of my work clothes and get ready for bed.  Ahhh...I say this lots, but this might be one of the best sleeps of my life.  I'm going to try to make it through one Prison Break with Greg (we love it) first, though.  That is, if he doesn't get eaten by the BLACK BEAR that just roamed through our back yard.  The excitement never stops and Greg just had to go out on the deck to check it out.  Yikes.

Goodnight.

I am a blessed Mom.

I've got two beautiful, healthy kids and a husband who supports me in everything I do.

My kids love me. They told me that a lot today.

In fact, here are Brooks' top three things he loves about me as recited from the backseat of the car:

1.)  "I love that my mom is beautiful."

2.) "I love that my mom is pretty."

3.) "I love that my mom has pimples."

See?  He totally loves me, pimples and all.  

I had a sweet day.  Filled with rest, exercise, coffee, kids and family.  

I had a chance to celebrate my mom, too.  

She's an amazing woman.

Motherhood is hard more days than not, but I'm convinced it's totally worth it.

Happy Mother's Day.  For me, it really was.

Our bathtub is black every night after bath. Around here we call it a sign of a good day.

It's not always fun and games around here. 

But when all the stars align and both kids decide to get along for an extended period of time, we quickly forget how tired we are, how challenging these days can be and how we sometimes often reminisce about our "BK" days.

When it all comes down to it, we wouldn't trade these days for anything.  Not even a full night of sleep or a weekend of trail running and bike racing followed by coffee and a nap.

Because really, these two don't get more precious, beautiful, tender and fun.  Who would trade an afternoon out in the yard, playing soccer and decorating the sidewalk with these two Buddies for anything?  

Not us, that's for sure.