a funny thing happened on the way to summer.

once upon a time my little family of three was chugging merrily along through april looking forward to celebrating bubs' fourth birthday and eight glorious weeks of summer break. and then i got an email that flipped our world upside down. 

okay, a few background facts about our life:

a) we share a one bedroom apartment with a feral four year old

b) we like trees 

c) we need a change

back to that email. it was an invitation to interview for an art teacher position with an elementary school.

in colorado.

the end of an era.

for years, the mister and i have been dreaming of moving west but our focus has always been california. since that locale is completely out of our reach, we never pondered an actual move. enter keri, who should earn a commission for her relentless marketing of the glories of colorado. she planted the seed, even assisted in the job hunt, and suddenly moving across the country seemed like an option.

and then i landed that art teaching gig and the decision was made.

sayonara miami.

with that decision, our entire world was drop kicked into total chaos, since the timeline has been nothing short of nutty. the job offer arrived on may 29th and the bubs and i left for an already planned visit to california on june 9th. in between i finished the school year in miami, threw a 4th birthday party for the bubs, and packed up our entire house.

while i was in cali, the mister drove to colorado and found a house for us to rent, while i hired movers and rearranged travel plans. and then i left bubs in california with my parents. his first time being away from both of us. ouch. i headed to colorado for a week to join the mister working on the details of moving in and then off i went to miami for ten days to do all the moving out. alone. just me and the movers. 

the movers used 13 rolls of tape to wrap our furniture with blankies.

fingers crossed that the contents find their way to denver.

my mom's 1970s luggage wheels still going strong.

and now the mister and i are in colorado stuck in that special hell known only to those in the midst of long-distance moves -- all of your possessions are on a truck somewhere between your old city and your new one and you are living in a state of suspense in a mostly unfurnished house trying to subsist on frozen lasagna from costco. don't get me wrong, that lasagna is good stuff, but well, you know.

our new home.

meet pearl. my new ride.

needless to say, the last eight weeks have been overwhelming, but we are excited for this new beginning for our little family. bubs is still in california missing us like crazy, but soon he will be with us. we cannot wait to explore our new city with him and to see him frolicking in his very own backyard. this has been a big step for us, but we think it will be a good one.

missing my bubs.

muscle mama.

i am trying to get back in shape since pringle was born. although "back" in shape is maybe not accurate, since i do not think i could argue that i was in shape before i got pregnant. details. anyhow, i am tackling this "get fit" in multiple ways. 

pickel on the left doing abs, while pringle sleeps in the stroller second from left. photo courtesy om yoga miami.

first, stroller boot camp. sounds cute, right? ummm...there is nothing cute about this class....except of course the darling babies riding in their strollers. we speed-walk up and down the sidewalk and stop to do lunges, squats, abs, and pushups. ouch.

pickel and pringle in our yoga pose. photo courtesy om yoga miami.

second, baby & momma yoga. okay, this one is pretty cute. and since we are not gasping for breath, the mommas can chat. when the babies cooperate, we help them stretch. then while they rest or sleep, the mommas do yoga. it is relaxing and lovely, but our instructor makes sure the poses we do work as many muscles as possible. more ouch.

third, i have headed back to the gym. i get on the treadmill and walk two miles with as much speed and % grade (you know...uphill) as i can handle. and then for a few minutes i lift the ten pound weights and hope that i will have michelle obama's arms the next time i gaze in the mirror.

fourth, i started a one hundred pushups challenge. supposedly, if i follow the routine, in six weeks, i will be able to do 100 pushups. i will believe it when it happens. although, if you add together all the pushups included in yesterday's workout, i did eighty-eight, so maybe there is something to this!!

fifth, just for good measure (as if all of that wasn't enough), i somehow convinced two people to do the pushups challenge with me, but they in turn suckered me into doing the two hundred situps and two hundred squats challenges. yikes. 

i am hoping to maintain my motivation, because although i am not always a fan of exercising, i LOATHE dieting. i will do anything to ensure that ice cream and cookies do not have to be eliminated from the pickel food pyramid.

nice to meet you murphy.

"if anything can go wrong, it will." ~murphy's law.

who, ME?!?

in my pre-baby life i had some run-ins with murphy. now that baby is here, murphy visits every 5-7 minutes. awesome? well, no. not exactly. but it does keep you on your toes and teach you how to see the humor in life. these are the top 10 new rules in our life.

1. if it is inconvenient or impossible to take the baby out of his car seat, he screams. conversely, if it is convenient or possible to take him out of his car seat, he is sound asleep.

2. the baby will scream hysterically during a car ride, only bothering to fall asleep when we arrive at home.

3. the baby will happily hold the paci in his mouth when you sit with him. he will drop it the moment you walk away.

4. when you are prepared with a rag to catch spit-up, the baby will just burp. when you are entirely unprepared, the baby will barf all over you.

5. the baby will make hundreds of cute faces when the camera is in the other room. retrieve the camera and the baby just stares at you.

6. if you need the baby to sleep "just five more minutes,"so you can finish something, he will wake up. if you want the baby to wake up so you can do the 2am feeding before you drift off, he will stay asleep. 

7. when you put the baby in a cute onesie you would like to look at all day, he will happily soil it within the hour.

8. when lying on top of you (aka you cannot get anything done), the baby will sleep soundly for hours and hours. if you try to put him in his bed, he will be awake within 60 seconds.

9. the more tired the baby is, the harder it is to put him to sleep.

10. if you are early you will breeze right out the door. if you are on time or running late, the baby will gleefully provide you with a diaper explosion that will require you to change his diaper and outfit, and possibly even your outfit. the severity of the explosion is directly proportional to your tardiness.