Holding a baby is like holding a cat, except the baby WANTS to be held. 

We picked up food at PW Pizza to take over to our friend’s house to hang out.  It was BUSY there (there being the same building where we got married!) and we ran into Ann from Moulin Events.  She is awesome!  She said there were four events happening that night.  Anyway, we got two pizzas and a salad and headed over to Jon and Laura’s.  Laura naturally made homemade dessert, not one type of cookies, but two.  The woman is ridiculous.  In a good way.

Benjamin has grown a little.  He’s not quite as scary to hold.

I made Chris take some pictures of me then.  That’s really why we went over—I needed more baby pictures for the blog ;)  Jon and Laura who?  Laura called me the "baby whisperer" because I managed to keep him from fussing for a bit.

Should I get a couple inches cut off my hair?  I can’t decide.

His feet got cold so we wrapped him in a blanket. 

It was a fun night.  Little Ben got a little fussy later and cried for awhile.  We had a wonderful time hanging out with our friends, seeing the baby…and then we got to go home ;) 

Back in the beginning of April my sister Leslie and I performed a concert with the Presbyterian College Chamber Orchestra.  I never really told you guys about it, but I thought today would be a good day for it, because I think I’ve managed to get a bit of the recording online for you to listen to.  I apologize if it is clipped or doesn’t work 🙂

Bach Double 1st Movement

Bach Double 2nd Movement

Bach Double 3rd Movement

Encore: Prokofiev Sonata for Two Violins, 2nd Movement

Playing with orchestra is always a special thing, no matter what orchestra.  You get to stand up front and have all these people behind you backing you up.  It’s pretty awesome.  Also you get to dress up and wear a fancy gown, which is not something that one does ordinarily.

We got to our hometown of Clinton, South Carolina on Sunday afternoon.  We had a rehearsal with the orchestra on Monday afternoon, a masterclass for some of the students on Tuesday morning, another rehearsal on Tuesday afternoon, and the performance on Tuesday night.  Leslie and I hadn’t played together in awhile, but we had been playing the Bach Double together since we were children, and we chose an encore that we had performed in the last decade.  I was most nervous about that, but after we rehearsed together on Sunday night we knew it would be fine.  Sometimes all that practicing pays off!  The orchestra was a group of college students, obviously, and they were well prepared and very nice.  The director, Richard Thomas was easy to work with and had attended the same college I did so we were able to bond over that.  (Little known fact:  most musicians attended the college I went to 😉  )

Backstage for rehearsal!

Leslie, practicing her arm out pose, really in preparation for her wedding photos.

Warming up backstage in our dressing room.  We even had a couch and our own bathroom!  Just the one dressing room though 😉

Backstage after a successful performance—me, Richard Thomas (conductor), and Leslie

After the performance, with our very first violin teacher, Carol Roosevelt.  She was the person who originally taught us both the Bach Double Concerto.

Overall it was a lot of fun!  I hope to play with orchestra again soon.  I wish somebody had taken some pictures of us onstage with the orchestra, but I guess I didn’t ask anyone to do so!

Okay, I know you’ve all been missing my oatmeal reports. (Original posts here and here.)  I’m going to be brutally honest, readers.  While I’ve been eating my oatmeal like a good little girl every morning, I haven’t been photographing it as much.  That should change, as now I’m going to be out of oatmeal pictures and I’ll need more (MORE, MOOOOOORE) for this occasional feature.  I am going to get back into the habit of photographing my oatmeal, for YOU.  That’s how much you all mean to me.  *wipes tear from eyes*

Since I got a new phone (it’s an iPhone, you’re welcome, now I’m cooler than most people), I’ve been using my pink camera less, and I hadn’t actually uploaded pictures from it in a couple weeks.  I’d forgotten how many photos I had on it!  (And I need to use it more, because it’s better than my phone camera, I do believe.)

For instance, this gem of a conversation between my friend Sarah and I.  Since then she’s ALSO gotten an iPhone, and would you believe that means the conversation bubbles are now blue?  These are things that I’ve learned in the last few weeks…I am now part of the cool kids club and I couldn’t be happier about it.  Well, I couldn’t be happier about the fact that my phone actually WORKS properly now and doesn’t freeze up all the time.

But I digress.  So what have I been trying with my morning oatmeal?  Well, nothing new.  Except one day I took oatmeal TO GO because I met a friend for breakfast and didn’t get my oatmeal fix.  Also I needed to pack a lunch and didn’t have much on hand.  It worked.

Oatmeal in the car!  It was an AWESOME lunch.  The blackberries were ripe and plump, the oatmeal so…oaty.  I believe that’s some peanut butter, and I put the whole thing together with some protein powder and water.

You can tell this one is yogurt based.  I love the ones with yogurt best but I try to mix it up.

Yummy to that large amount of peanut butter.  And this is obviously steel ground oats.  They are growing on me.

I am drooling looking at that delicious blackberry juice…yummy!

Last but not least.  Or maybe least.  I hate to judge.

So, any suggestions, readers?  How can I make my oatmeal even better and take it to the next level?  I’ll confess that sometimes I add peanut butter, other times I add a touch of dark chocolate dreams, white chocolate wonderful, or cookie butter, none of which are QUITE as healthy, but I try not to do that every day, and I limit it to a little bit.  The blackberries have been on sale lately but I’d love to start eating more blueberries again…that would be a lovely change.

I’m also going to make a small confession.  The other night I was just too tired to put together my overnight oats.  TOO TIRED.  In fact this has happened more than once.  One time I made regular hot oatmeal (on the stove, I’ve mentioned the whole “no microwave” thing) and the other time I made “30 minutes oats” where I soaked the oats in water for about 30 minutes.  It didn’t taste quite as good as the “overnight” versus (had enough of the “quotations” yet?) but was absolutely edible.

Ugh.  I detest being sick.  It’s just a bad cold, nothing serious (why yes, I am a doctor) but it doesn’t feel good right now.  It’s made worse by the fact that the weather is awesome outside, really nice and warm, even hot.  Also by the fact that Saturday is the recital for my students at the school and I don’t want to cancel them, so I’ve been cancelling everything except the recital students, basically, and trying to soldier through.  Today is going to be very tough, but I think if I can drive there, I can teach.

One of the things I’ve been doing with my sick time, other than lying on the couch watching loads of television, is thinking about what I’m going to do when I get better.  I’m under the assumption that I’ll be better by the weekend so I’ve been making plans with friends to go out to dinner, go to concerts, go to spin classes, that sort of thing.  But then I started dreaming bigger—what about running the Chicago Rock and Roll Half Marathon on July 22?  I could combine it with a visit to Karen, or Chris had mentioned wanting to visit some friends in Chicago as well.  Then again, who runs a race in Chicago in July, it could be awful…but the race starts at 6:30 am so it’ll be cooler…but there’s a 6:30 in the am too??  This is all random thoughts from a woman who hasn’t run in over a week, can’t remember the last time.  But that will change as soon as I’m over this cold.  It would mean I’d have something to train for right away and get me out the door.  What do you think, Chris and Karen (Karen, another person I owe a phone call to…it’s hard to talk on the phone when you can’t breathe)?

Good news:  my shoulder is definitely feeling better.  I think it also helps being sick because I’m using it less AND because I have to sleep on my back for breathing purposes so I’m not sleeping on it as I had been.  It’s not 100 percent, no, but it has improved so much in the past few days.  I’m feeling really good about it.  I’m going to keep resting it and not do any practicing until I have to, and take at least another week off before trying anything, but I’m feeling much more optimistic about it.

We are also moving in July, and possibly visiting Boulder/Aspen, Colorado, so I don’t know how much we can fit in.  It will depend on where we are moving to (in town, not far, just something bigger, and we had a good lead but it might not work out after all so we need to keep looking) and when exactly. 

Yeah, super interesting I know.  Just some random sick day thoughts.  Like I said, I’d rather just stay on the couch all day but I’m heading out to teach a few kids to get them ready for the recital and then cutting out early to hit the couch again.  Not sure about tomorrow yet…I’m tempted to just cancel everything right now but it’s possible I’ll make a turn for the better by evening (please, please, please)…

Oh, and it’s been four months since our wedding.  Happy "four month anniversary" Chris :)  I looked on the internets and we have now beaten Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesnee.

Right after we got married…I just noticed that Chris’s foot is more off the ground while walking than mine are RUNNING in most race photos!

Last month on the second Chris got annoyed when I mentioned it was our three month anniversary so I didn’t mention it in person today 😉

Chris and our cat. 

Oh, and you should watch this video of a panda trying to go up a slide.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/sayomg/baby-panda-slide-fail-tah

It’s so sad.  I guess pandas really do need our help.

Yes, I’m bored.  I’m home sick…I feel pretty lousy, I’m working hard on clearing out the tivo queue…and I’m going in later today to teach some kids who are playing on a recital this weekend.  Hopefully I can manage that :/

Here’s a blog entry from a guy who really over thought his trip to Taco Bell.

Oh, and I had a heated argument last night on twitter with a friend.  Hard boiled egg yolks:  amazing or disgusting?  It got heated and things were said that cannot be unsaid.

My trainer won this race the other weekend.  He asked last week if I blogged about it, and I told him of course not because that would be creepy.  He told me that he never meant that he thought I was creepy.  (Likely story).  Also, because honestly, why bother if he isn’t going to read it?  I told him if he got me pictures I’d be happy to write up a short blurb for him.  But honestly, I was the one who saw the race and told him he should run—it was a run/obstacle course and exactly the sort of thing he seems to live for.

Unfortunately this isn’t a picture of him winning.  I’m still waiting for that.

Oh, and don’t forget it’s May, which means it’s really time to get ready for the 80’s 5k on May 19!

Jen and I will be there—come run with us!

Hmm, what else.  This is a totally random Wednesday blog post. 

So, readers, entertain me!  Let’s see your funny pictures, your funny videos, and just general craziness on the internets that you can share. 

I realized I’d been so caught up in talking about myself and sharing my life and oatmeal with you, I haven’t done one of my favorite blog features in awhile:  Search terms used to find my blog!

funny people in pain  I am quite funny, but my shoulder pain is real.  Glad somebody thought of me.

titanic lolcat I don’t know if they wanted a lolcat with the Titanic, or a really fat lolcat and were using Titanic that way.  We’ll assume they wanted this picture though.

brooks pure cadence w With WHAT?  I’m in suspense…

epic failed In a way, the author of this search term found it already.  It’s epic fail, not failed.

i hate my trainer We’ve been over this before.  Though honestly, I barely see him anymore.  We’re only doing one workout a week, lower body, because of my injury.  I feel my muscles atrophying…

addicted to advil I just might be.

how to own an orchestra audition If I knew this, I’d have an orchestra job.  Sorry.  Probably those people are practicing, not blogging, and definitely also NOT searching the internet for answers.  Go practice.

dome home This delights me.

fitting room baby Is this a baby found in a fitting room?  Or born there?

marathon runner using the bathroom No, I don’t have a picture of that.  And you don’t want that anyway.  Use your words properly people.  I know you want that picture of the lady who pooped herself.  Not somebody using the bathroom, that’s entirely different.

taco bell giant Similar to the Jolly Green Giant, once a nickname in high school, this is my preferred nickname.

google ocarina of time "cheating" Just because you put "cheating" in "quotations" doesn’t mean your little google search isn’t "cheating."

titanic gatos  Love this.

he made me do it Did he say it was because he loves you?  Newsflash:  men lie.  Don’t do it.

people will never be happy Sigh.  SO true.  We just keep trying and failing.  Epic failed.

hannah violin twitter Why not just search twitter directly?  People wonder how I am so good with finding things on the internet.  Only in relationship to everyone else, who is so bad at it.

violin pancakes  I want some of these!  If you found something, let me know.

lululemon capris  I tried some on once.  Jen can attest to the fact that I nearly had a panic attack in lululemon.  I don’t care for koolaid.

hannah and the violin  This will be my band name, well, Hannah and the violins..

cowbell solo orchestra audition I would OWN that audition.

taco bell fitness course Vanessa and I need to return, it’s been months!  I love that other people know the course as such.

harrison ford six pack

Looking good here…and my original point was actually that Indiana didn’t need a six pack to look incredibly awesome.

Anyway, there you have it.  Recycled blog content yes, but I didn’t include any links.  I’m just that lazy ;)