This is packing and moving week.  I may not blog as much this week because I’m not entirely sure what the internet situation will be.  As in, there MAY be a day or half a day without internet!  (cue scary, dramatic music, aka the "suspense" ring on my phone.)  I’m currently supposed to be doing some packing while waiting for my parents to arrive.  Tuesday is the official moving day—we have rented a truck and hired some movers to do the heavy lifting (I could TOTALLY do it all on my own, but you know.)

Last night we had a couple friends over for burgers.  I felt like a true underachiever as I served store-bought coleslaw and potato salad, but it just wasn’t practical to make a side on my own.  I also didn’t make anything for dessert which is really rare for me.  I felt bad, but I hope my friends didn’t mind.  They brought homemade sides and desserts that were delicious.

And this guy fell asleep on our table, in his car seat carrier.  I told Chris if he was like that all the time we’d need to see about getting one of our own, but it turns out that’s not all they do, so we are reconsidering. 

He was pretty cute the night before too.  Though I think he makes my arms look fat, so I might need to start holding larger babies for a better contrast.

Probably best to avoid him for a few weeks.  Or remember how shortly after this picture was taken things took a bad turn with some diaper issues.  It’s not all fun and games.

Meanwhile the boys were doing this…

Oh, and the big news I got last night is that my friend Vanessa got engaged!  Congratulations to her and Russell!!  It’s a love weekend—my friends Adrianne (of Chamber Project St Louis) and Derek got engaged a couple of days ago (to each other, to clarify.)

Vanessa: Since she’s not a string player she can wear her ring on the left hand.  And eat ice cream.

Sorry for the totally random blog post, but that’s how it’s going right now.  It’s hard to be focused when your entire life is currently packed up in boxes!  Plus, who am I kidding, I’m always random!

Today is my brother’s birthday—Happy Birthday Jesse!  He is currently in China for the summer. 

Monday night I was under the impression it was July 10th, and I thought China was 12 hours ahead, so I dashed off a quick HB email to him.  A little bit later I realized it was actually July 9th and I was early, so I sent a quick "oh, hai, I messed up but HB anyway" email.  Oh well, better early than late, right?  Anyway, Jesse responded and mentioned that he reads my blog there too, but can only see the text, not the pictures.  I suppose he doesn’t mind—he’s really only missing out on a bunch of cat pictures and the occasional bloodied or bruised leg or foot. 

I don’t see Jesse very often, but of course he was at my wedding.  However, I barely got a chance to talk to him—I thought I would have more time the next day but I didn’t realize he was leaving early.  Oops.  Hopefully at Leslie’s wedding I’ll have more time. 

Now I’ll post some pictures of Jesse, and he won’t be able to see them.  *evil laugh*

Mom and Jesse

 

Jesse, Mom, Dad, me, Chris, Leslie, Carrie. 

Carrie, Jesse at our rehearsal dinner the night before…

Oh, and here we were.  I’m guessing Christmas 1980, since it seems to be pre-Leslie.  We used to be natural blondes.

How was your weekend?  Mine was wonderful.  I was hard at work packing up my house, oh, and I spent Saturday at the pool.  Friday was a fun night as well, had some fun with the girls and hit up every restaurant and bar on Maryland Plaza in the Central West End.  (This is only a slight exaggeration.  I think we went to five different places before I really had to get home.)

But Saturday was for lounging by the pool.  Don’t judge.  You know I usually work hard.  (Okay, you don’t know that, but I swear I do.  Usually.  On occasion?  At least between birth and oh, 23 or so.)

Firstly, I had to take this picture or you wouldn’t know that I was at a pool.  Those are my legs.  And my feet.  If you look closely you can see the blister on my right foot from the day before.  Note to self:  don’t wear new shoes for hours when you plan to walk or stand a lot.

Oh, and before I really talk about the pool, let’s talk about various self-inflicted wounds that I have happening. Friday night I bumped into a glass table and cut my knee.

Do you see?  I was wearing shorts, I promise.  (It was over 105 degrees, shorts are perfectly acceptable going out clothing.)  This really stung, especially in the chlorine.  I like to think that the pool water helped clean it out.

This one is a little harder to see, but those are bruises on my knees from burpees.

Is that any better?  Yes, I know they aren’t dark bruises, but STILL they exist, and they hurt.

One last thing is that there is a lovely bruise next to my pinky toe on my right foot (same right foot with blister) from dropping a jar of peanut butter on it earlier in the week.  To sum it up:  I’m a disaster area.  It’s a miracle I’m still alive.

Okay, I promised to talk about the pool.  I went with my friend Jen to the Cheshire Inn.  They have a pool you can use if you spend $20 on food and drinks.  If you plan on lunch and a couple of drinks this is not a problem.  (Honestly, I feel uncomfortable telling you all that, because I don’t want it to get overcrowded.  So don’t tell everybody you know, okay?)

 

I made Jen take this picture for the blog.  I am not sure why I was making a maniacal face.  Perhaps to distract you from my stomach?

The Cheshire Inn is near the really large Amoco sign.  This is an actual thing.  If you say that in St Louis, people really know what you are talking about.

Self Portrait. 

You have to get there early to claim the good chairs.   We had planned to arrive by 10:30 am.  I was exhausted when I woke up Saturday morning, and I was worried it would be too hot to go to the pool.  As in, I texted Jen whining that I thought I might be too tired and too hot to…lie around by a pool. Yeah.  These are not actual problems.  We decided to man up and go, since we’d been planning it for weeks (I am not usually that free on Saturdays.)

Lunch!  Chicken salad and fruit.  I’m not a huge fan of the green melon (honeydew, I believe it is called), but the berries and pineapple warmed my heart.

All in all it was a wonderful day. 

Saturday night I met some friends at Pi, my favorite pizza place in all of the world.  I made them order a deep dish because I am obsessed with it.  Then I was asleep by 11:30 I think. 

Sunday morning Jen and I "ran" Forest Park.  Even though it was approximately 20 degrees cooler than it has been…it was STILL too hot to really run.  The last couple miles were primarily walking as I thought I was going to pass out.  Lesson learned:  90 degrees is still hot, and I am stupid for not carrying water.

Sunday afternoon I packed a bunch of boxes, and then Sunday night I finally finished watching True Blood season two and started on season three.

I’m not sure why I felt like sharing all of this with you all, but hey, super exciting stuff, right?

And now it’s Monday.  Busy week ahead of packing and getting ready to move, as well as my last week of teaching until mid-August.  What are you up to?  HOW IS YOUR DAY SO FAR?

We bought this onesie for Benjamin in Miami Beach.  Looks good on him!

I think that’s how the song goes?

Honestly though, I wouldn’t.  But my dad did, in the past 12 months.

Here he is, returned from his 10,000th mile for the year.

Last fall he biked from my hometown (and his home) in Clinton, South Carolina to Phoenix, Arizona, with a side trip to St Louis, Missouri.  Since then he’s been continuing to bike, day trips, weekend trips and longer.  Once he realized he could hit 10,000 miles for the year he made that a goal.  I asked if he would be trying for another 10,000 this year and he said no.

That’s my dad.  I don’t think he’s trying to be an inspiration to anyone, but look.  He’s 65 years old.  What’s your excuse?  I’m going to go for a run now.

I never told you guys about the photo shoot I did the other week for Chamber Project St Louis.  I needed to get a good headshot that will be going on their website for the upcoming season.  Brandon Krepel was the photographer and he was a lot of fun to work with, plus the photos look great. 

The founding members had done their photo shoots a few summers ago, and we wanted ours (my friend and colleague Valentina was there also) to be in a similar style and background.  The previous ones had been in front of a brick wall, so we met in the Demun neighborhood where there was a lovely brick wall on the side of a building.  So there we are, out on the street on a Sunday afternoon with violins and cellos, and a photographer and his wife holding the white light thingy they always hold up—people walking by must have thought we were either famous or crazy!

Looking fierce, right?

 

Photo shoots are funny.  Or at least Brandon was.  Or I just never take anything seriously.

This was both Chris and Brandon’s favorite.

This is my favorite, and the one I chose for the website.  Brandon is going to fix it up a bit and make me look younger (or something.)  Anyway, all photos in this post are from Brandon Krepel Photography in case you didn’t figure that out already.

Famous, right?