College Friends

Chris is vastly superior to me in a very important way...keeping in touch with people.  I am admittedly quite poor at picking up a phone or writing an email.  I guess I always assume people are too busy or don't care to hear from me, so I go with passive means like blog posts to feel like I still have contact.  And just assume that any of you that care read.  I know, this isn't a particularly effective route to maintaining friendships.

But back to Chris.  This weekend was the Philly Marathon.  Chris's best man, Matt, decided that he was going to run the 1/2 for the first time ever.  He only recently got more serious about running, and took it as a challenge.  He encouraged us to sign up with him back when I was still pregnant, but I didn't think I would be ready.  It turns out that I probably could have jumped on board.  Matt didn't exactly take his training as seriously as he would have liked, and a lot of walking ended up being involved.  If I had signed up, I think I could have trained up to a level to join in.  Ah, well.  Too late now.

At the time, the only person who took him up on the offer was Chris and Matt's 3rd amigo from college, Annette.  She flew into town from Columbus, though she lives in New Orleans.  Long story.  Regardless, she decided to hang out with us on Saturday.  

They all enjoyed getting to spend the day together, and to be stuffed full of all the food I obviously felt the need to prepare.  I felt such pressure with them running the next day that I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the perfect pre-race meal.  And then just kind of winged it.  I had cold cuts/sandwiches, pasta salad, and chips for lunch, and made meatballs, pasta, salad, and baked bread for dinner.  They seemed to think I chose well.

Funny story.  The first year we were dating, we met up with Annette and her husband, Dan at a tailgate at Penn State.  Annette had wandered off somewhere, but Chris introduced me to Dan AS Annette.  To this day, I enjoy making my husband feel awkward about this.  ;)

Great to see everyone, and congrats to the runners!

Playing with the Big Kids

This weekend we finally had a gathering of friends over.  It wasn't anything extravagant by any means, but we finally got over the intimidation-factor and, also, lowered our standards a smidge.  Not much.  We still were cleaning like mad men, but the stove wasn't cleaned.  And I still cooked 3 dishes, but one tasted awful (Thanks for pretending it didn't everyone.  I really need to find a new recipe for that dip.) and 3 is definitely on the skimping end for me.  Regardless, it was nice to get back in the game.

Robby was into getting to play with the "big kids", though wasn't the most gracious host.  As you can see above.  Where he is trying to pull Hailey over.  Fortunately Hailey's 10 months old and much more stable than my little man.  Dean is 8 months.  And...Robby's big enough to look like he fits in.  Ridiculous.  He actually outweighs Hailey.

Please try to ignore that every time Chris takes pictures you get excessive cleavage.  It's either that or no pictures.  Sigh.  Someone tell me next time, please.  Robby just likes to hang on shirts.

Hailey also made use of some of the hand-me-down toys that are still too advanced for the Lion.  Well, Dean, too, and once again, Robby got upset because they were crawling all around, playing with the cool stuff, and he was stuck.  I think it's going to motivate him pretty soon.

Until then, he'll just sucker nice people (who bring brownies, too!) into being his support system.  Thanks everyone!  Had a great time!  So obviously today I'm grateful for wonderful friends.