Funky New Year

Happy New Year! Another year over and a new one's just begun. I seem to be getting my songs mixed up... Maybe that's because I just had the longest trip of my life.

Let's rewind back to Christmas. It was fantastic. Our first Christmas in California was everything it should have been. We had Christmas Eve dinner with friends and Christmas morning we spent opening presents. I made pancakes and we had our breakfast outside (along with some pretty yummy mimosas!). Keller spent the day playing with all that Santa brought him and the girls spent the day playing with their new...well, we were glad all their new toys came with wrapping paper and boxes or they would have had nothing to play with. It was a wonderful day.

The day after Christmas we flew to New York to my parents' house. The trip went very well and was nicely uneventful. We had an early flight out of San Diego. When we made the reservations, the thought was that we leave on the earliest flight out so we get to NY with time to hang out. Well, somehow our connecting flight in Baltimore of all places was changed and we ended up having a 3-hour layover and didn't get into NY until 7:30 or so at night. If I wanted to get in that late, I would have chosen that flight instead of getting up at the crack of dawn. But, I digress.

Our time spent in NY was great. We saw lots of friends and family and had the girls' christening. That was wonderful! My brother is the girls' Godfather (he is also Keller's Godfather) and my wonderful friend Lynne is the girls' Godmother. It was so good to see them and have them be a part of the ceremony. The Deacon really delivered a wonderful service, made it super personal, included all the grandparents, and just was great. Really, we didn't do much other than spend time with everyone. There was the christening and party afterward, then the rest of the time was visiting with friends and family. We went to a holiday lights show which was fine, I guess.

New Year's Eve was quiet. My parents went to their annual party and we stayed in with the kids. When I was a kid, that's essentially how NYE would go: parents would go out and the kids would stay home. Then when the parents got back we would all have ice cream sundaes and watch the ball drop. So we started the tradition with Keller. We made ice cream sundaes and watched a movie. We tried to stay up to ring in the new year but it didn't happen. What do you expect? We have 9-month old twins and a 6-year old. Regardless, it was a fun night! And now it's 2012!

Out of all of us, I would say Lola had the best vacation, though. She stayed with friends of ours who happen to have a pool. And Lola has never been able to pass up a pool in her life. Plus they have 2 dogs of their own, so she was in heaven playing with her friends. Needless to say, she hasn't moved much since we've been home.

The trip home from NY was not as uneventful as the trip to NY. We flew out of Long Island and had a connection in Chicago. I was worried because the layover was short and it was going to be tight getting the connection to San Diego. But we got into Chicago early and there was really no worry about getting that flight to San Diego. But...San Diego was having some fog and visibility issues and closed the airport. So we were diverted to Las Vegas. This would have been fine if we didn't have 3 kids with us. It was a mess. I'm too tired to go into every last detail but we got into LV around 9:30. We decided to rent a car and drive to San Diego instead of trying to get on another flight (we overheard that there weren't any flights until Wednesday....I didn't want to stay in LV for 2 days). We rented a car from Dollar and I'm only mentioning it because they have hideous customer service. Unfortunately, they were the only ones that had a van and that we could rent car seats from, so we were stuck. But going to pick up the car was a pain. They have a huge lot and basically said, "Go pick up your van yourself." They weren't rude but just indifferent. Then they left us to our own devices to install the carseats ourselves. After about 30 minutes of us struggling and the babies literally screaming their heads off, someone came over to see what was going on. She was extremely unhelpful. But despite her, we got the seats in and took off. And arrived in our home at about 4:15am this morning. Ugh.

The kids really handled the whole situation well. They are good travelers. It wasn't until we were sitting in the parking lot for almost an hour that the wheels started falling off the operation. Once we were moving and everyone could fall asleep, it was all right. We still have to go to the airport here in SD to get our luggage, return the van and pick up our own car. Well, as I've come to say: we may not always have peace but there will always be joy! We made it home safely and slept in our own beds and that's the most important thing.

Happy New Year!

Viva Las Vegas

I am now home after a great weekend in Las Vegas with friends. I am happy, sad and exhausted.

I drove to Las Vegas Friday afternoon. I have to say, it was a nice drive through the California and Nevada desert and mountains. It was nice to have the quiet time and be able to sing loudly without anyone telling me to be quiet. I must say that, based on the billboards along the way, the majority of people who drive along I-15 from San Diego to Las Vegas must be obese. I say this because the number of billboards advertising lap band surgery was pretty astounding. I was beginning to get a complex.

It was so so so good to see my friends. I met up with Steve and Tish and Kanayo from Maryland. They are dear friends and it was wonderful to see them, catch up and spend 3 days with them. Friday night we just got dinner, played some slots and talked.

We went to Dick's Last Resort for dinner. This place is hysterical. All the servers are rude and basically curse you out. This would be poor customer service if it weren't for the fact that we as customers can curse back without getting thrown out of the place. What everyone hopes for is that their server will place a paper hat on their head. These hats usually have something rude (albeit false and in jest) about the wearer written by the server. We all got hats except poor Steve. Apparently he wasn't hat-worthy.

Saturday we went to the race expo. The expo was pretty enormous. It's one of the largest race expos in the country. When we got there, it wasn't open yet, so people were lining up to get in. The line had to be at least half a mile long. We were thinking the whole process of getting our packet would take all day. But once they opened the doors to the expo, everything went very smoothly. We all had our packets within 10 minutes. The best part? Seeing the running Elvii. They were very cool. And I did see a few of them running the marathon Sunday night.

After the expo, we walked through the Venetian and had lunch. We had to go to the Mirage to pick up the tickets for the Beatles Cirque de Soliel show we were going to that night. The line for that was a mile long and not moving, so we all took turns going into the gift shop and walking around. The area where the show was so so cool! It was hard for me to not buy everything in the gift shop but I didn't leave empty-handed. Once we had the tickets and were done playing around in the shop, we headed back to our hotel. We stayed at the Luxor which was really such a let down compared to the other hotels. It's old and tired. The other hotels, while they may be the same age or only slightly newer, seem so much more alive and happening. While we stayed at the Luxor primarily out of convenience and proximity to the race start/finish, I would not stay there again.

Anyway, for dinner Saturday night, we went to B.B. King's restaurant, which was kind of lackluster. The food was fine, but nothing that really knocked my socks off.

After dinner we went to the Revolution Bar which is a bar in the Mirage that is essentially a Beatles bar. They only play Beatles music, which is definitely my kinda place! The place is very mod and psychedelic, all very cool. We had a great time there.

After drinks, we saw Beatles Cirque de Soliel, which was absolutely amazing. Whether you love the Beatles or not, this show is just too good to miss. But as a Beatles fan, I was just in absolute heaven. The show itself really touched on all senses. It was really a good show.

Sunday we really didn't do anything. We just hung out, ate and got ready for the race. The race itself was fun. I won't go into tremendous detail as I've written a race recap over at my running blog, so if you're interested you can read that post. But as this was my first race after the babies were born, I didn't really have any expectations. It went better than I thought it would and it feels good to be back among my people!

After the race, we were all pretty tired. We had grand plans of partying and shots and getting crazy. But when the time came, we just wanted to eat and then go to sleep, which is what we did. Everyone had early flights out this morning, so we had to say our goodbyes last night. It was sad for me because I don't know when I'll see them again. These people have been such good friends to me. They've been there for me when others haven't and have been an important part of my life. I miss them and I'm sad that I won't see them for some time. We're hoping to do something like this every year so hopefully I'll see them next year!

As I said in the beginning, I'm pretty exhausted, so I'm sure I'm leaving things out. If I think of anything, I'll be sure to edit this post. So check back in a few days!

A Little Less Conversation

As you can tell from my silence, things have been busy here. We've been settling in nicely in our new home and getting more familiar with our new neighborhood. 

Keller is now fully immersed in school. He loves his class and his new friends. If you even mention Maryland, he will tell you how he is never going back there. He is 100% California boy now. As I type this, he's at the beach with John. We finally found a martial arts school that suits his needs. He's been going for about 2 weeks and he loves it. He's eligible to test for his next belt this coming weekend, so we'll see if he does in fact test. We're just excited to see him practice karate again. He really loves it. 

The girls are doing so well. I can't believe their over 8 months old now. They're such little characters. Ellen is always ready to smile and laugh, she's always happy. Brenna is also quick with the smile. They just warm our hearts! Brenna started crawling. She's not completely adept at crawling yet, but she's figured out how to do it and can go from one place to the other. Ellen isn't quite there but she's trying so very hard. She gets frustrated easily and I think that's what's keeping her from putting it all together. 

John is also doing well. He is loving his new job. He gets to do actual science and feels excited to go to work in the morning. It's nice to see him excited about work again. He's been biking to work as well. Hopefully as the kids get a little older and less high maintenance, we'll both be able to get back to the level of training we once had.

And I'm holding down the fort :) I launched my new business: Sole Health and Wellness. While I've always had my personal coaching business, I've brought it to California and I'm expanding to include group training programs and corporate wellness programs. I'll be offering group programs, beginning with one in my neighborhood, in the new year. But, in the meantime, you can checkout the website, get the latest health info and company updates by becoming a fan of the Facebook page and following us on Twitter. I continue to coach individuals privately, both in person and from afar, so if you know anyone that would be interested in learning how to run the right way or needs help bringing their running to the next level, tell them to get in touch with me at jenn@solehealthandwellness.com. 

I'm still trying hard to get my running up to where I'd like it to be. Though, it's still not there. My sleep issues continue to thwart my efforts, though I am working on them. I am getting more sleep than I was, but I have a lot of making up to do. The lack of sleep is definitely affecting my running, so I'm just trying to get through as best I can. I have my first race since having the girls this coming weekend: the Las Vegas Half Marathon. I'm excited. But I'm also meeting some friends from back east there, so I'm probably more excited about seeing them. But the race will be good too!

And celebrating our first Thanksgiving here was such fun. We had two families here, so there was a total of 12 people. We had a great time. Lots of good food, lots of great wine (did I mention lots of wine?) and tons of fun. It was the beginning of a wonderful new tradition. 

I'll try not to let another 2 months go by without posting! Oh and "like" Sole Health and Wellness on Facebook!

Homecoming

I cannot believe we've been here a month now. And, on top of that, my girls are 6 months old today. I can't believe how much our lives have changed in the past 6 months. Really, we've had two of the biggest life changes one could have, at the same time. It's no wonder I can't sleep!

All in all, things are going well. We've pretty much settled into the house and it's definitely feeling like home. I think our routine is pretty well established. Keller is doing MUCH better in school. He's made some friends and seems really happy and excited about being there. That has been a relief.

The girls are doing so well. They're babbling, rolling around, almost sitting up without support and desperately trying to crawl. They want to move so badly. Honestly, I'm really not ready for them to crawl! If I could have things stay the same for just a week or two without anymore change, I will be very happy. But that's not going to happen!

My parents are coming this week for Keller's birthday. It will be so nice to have them here. Even though we just saw them a few weeks ago, it feels like it's been forever. I just feel so far away from everyone. The time difference is really hard to get used to as well. I always forget that we're 3 hours behind and then can't call anyone because it's too late on the east coast. Sigh.

Let's just hope we continue to find our way here!

Roller Coaster

This week definitely had its ups and downs. On the up side, Keller is doing MUCH better in school. He's made new friends and is feeling a lot more comfortable. I spoke with his teacher and he's initiating things during lunch and recess and is doing extremely well. He seems much happier when I pick him up and really has his confidence back. He starts flag football after school on Monday, and I know that will help. I think life in California is suiting Keller extremely well.

I, on the other hand, am having a hard time. I don't know why, exactly. I just can't get my groove. I haven't been sleeping and that's really taken a toll on me. I was dealing with a cold or allergies or something, and then some fun stomach issues, this week and that didn't make things any better. But now that Keller is settling in a little better, I'm hoping that reduced stress will help me too.

I have been doing a lot of reflection and thinking about my life situation and why I'm having a hard time here. Aside from my day-to-day life being so different here, I'm still adjusting to being a mom of 3. I have to keep reminding myself of that. We have infants now, not just one but two, and that changes everything. All the time. I can't just go for a run, and I can't just go meet friends for lunch. I have to plan things out pretty strategically to get things done. John and I were talking about that just last night. With twins, you have a lot of advanced planning before you can really do anything. For now, there's not a lot of spontaneity in life. I'm not complaining, it's just a shift from how things were before the babies arrived. And that makes it hard to really get out and meet new people. So I'm just trying to remind myself that I need to give myself a break. I had a really great network back in Maryland. Between my professional and personal lives, I was part of a great community. Now I have to build that community again. That is what is hard. I am working on building the professional community in between naps, school pick up, unpacking, etc., and it's tough. And I'm trying to build my personal community in between all of that! Needless to say, it hasn't been easy. But I need to remember that, though it will take time and it will be a while before we feel really connected to things here, it will happen. We have a great family and we're living in a great area, and we'll find our place here before long.

I am trying as best I can right now. There's a fun run at a local store here that I've joined. It's the flagship store for Running Skirts, and the girls there are a lot of fun. I've only been able to make 1 run so far since I've been here, but another time I was at the store, someone was getting ready to run so I tagged along with her. That was fun too. With 3 kids and only 1 car, getting there has proven difficult. But the important thing is that I'm trying :)

I also joined the moms of multiples group here. I'm hosting my first playgroup on Monday. I think that will definitely help. Not to knock moms of singletons, as I am one myself, but moms with only one baby at a time just don't get how different having twins is and all that's involved. It's not just about doing everything times 2, there's more to it than that and it gets very overwhelming. So getting to know some other moms with twins will be really great.

And in a couple of weeks my parents come for Keller's birthday! It will be great to see them and I think that will definitely help lift my spirits. No matter how old I am, I will always need my mom and dad!!