.real.people.

it has happened.  lisa and paThug have finally got rid of AJH and I.  we both graduated on Saturday from our respective universities.  if you are looking for pictures, google graduation.  i have none.

what you are shocked?, well for one i did not even attend my own graduation.  as you can see from all the times i talked so LOVINGLY about my time in grad school i was tres upset.

little AJH was also upset to leave her home of 4 years.  while she did not cry i know she was crying on the inside.  esp since she was held captive by our family, INC re and yo, while severely hung over.

i chose not to really drink bc SHOCKER i was not feeling well.  i think my problem is car trips with my family really upset my stomach.  i tried to webMD this disease but it did not come up.

in other news b.c i am now morbidly obese AGAIN (aka i don’t work out and eat shit b.c the doctor said i could) i am BUYING tracy anderson.  i feel like she will change my life.  mostly because MFAMB does it.  and well i would post pictures like this but then you would PUKE and that would be sad for your computer and your life.

also i am going to go on a run today.  i mean i feel like my hip should be fully healed by now, right??

in other news i need something to do with all my time until i get a big kid teaching job.  suggestions welcome!

.Shakespeare.

The anniversaries of good ole willy’s death was a few days ago. Some say it was also his birthday. Regardless in his honor I will now discuss the tragedy that is my life.

Perhaps willy would write it as a comedy. The ending is still up in the air I guess. For a few years now little AJH and I have joked about our family becoming a movie/TV show. I think there is a lot of money to be made if anyone would like to buy the rights.

On this topic I was pondering who I would have play me in the true and unabridged version of this path I call life.
this led to a great twitter convo between lil’ AJH and i

http://twitter.com/#!/abbyjeann/status/62343356084256768

While I do see Blake lively, I am quite unsure about miley or maggie.

I posed this question to the people that held me captive in a vehicle close to 8 hours on Easter.

K$ chose the kid from parenthood who has aspergers, Max Burkholder, He has recently become very obsessed with having Austisim and aspergers and loves this kid.

Lisa chose sally field. I veto this and will not discuss it further. For her I pick Claire from modern family. I could also see heather mcdonald playing my mother. One has to get her sense of humor. I don’t think sally could take “give me that candy BITCH” with a laugh the way lisa can.

Pathug was very upset when I chose bruce jenner foe him. ajh chose Dennis Quaid and I agree. He wanted to know which Dennis Quaid.
Obviously the one from parent trap
He then chose tom hanks, and Tim Robbins.

what a collection of individuals we would be!

.on.the.hunt.

Sunday (our last day in Houston) we YES WE ALL 5 OF US went house hunting.

I have only been house hunting one other time in my life. When Mr.match took me to see the house he was going to buy in Norfolk before he had to move. I was not well behaved that time and have decided to keep my opinions to myself this time. Because let’s face it no one cares.

This is very hard. VERY HARD.

Aparently as in most things my parents and I have VERY DIFFERENT opinions of acceptable houses. Good thing I will not be living with them… The past 25 years and this vacation have been plenty!

Lisa has decided she wants a small old home. I.e. a mini version of our home in Charlotte. Or perhaps just transplant the home from ft.lauderdale.

When I hear old small home I think of a home from the early century (1900 not 2000) Reminiscent of my college home or the homes of my relatives in the Chicago suburbs.

Not a late 1990 prefab home that’s only difference from the others in the neighborhood is the facade. Like seriously who thought this was a good idea?

But again I’m not gonna live here and aparently they are only living here for 3 years. I remember the last time I heard that. 1996. We move to Charlotte. Believe it was 13 before we moved

But I digress.

Lisa and pat want a home in a ‘hood. K$ wants his own bathroom and ajh wants to move in. I want to get my nails done. Out real estate agent wants to find her brain. So as you can see at least we all have a common goal…

Lord help me for when I have to find a house because from what I see they don’t build houses like I would want.

Now do not get me wrong. Any of the living spaces would be fine if they were gutted.  ALL the houses come with really nice things like this texas star glass door:

And really nice pink tile. I have an extreme hatred as in I DETEST tile. This pink tile made my skin crawl.

Also interesting about homes in Texas: they all have fireplaces. Seriously isn’t the all time low here like 60? and again with the pink tile and carpet.  WHY??

About this house:
We walked in and out. Ajh’s comments “no. Fuck no. I’m not going in. You will not live here”. “there are snowmen on the WINDOWS”.

Conclusion: I don’t care because I’m not moving in.

I really just want my nails done.

And a pack or two of emergen-c.

And a xanax.

.jet.plane.

we left.

on a jet plane.

be back on monday.

 

so not really like the song but i tried.

it was k$’s first time on a airplane and i am pretty sure that it was lisa m. hughes first time too.  she had us arrive at the worlds smallest airport 2 hours early because well shes neurotic.

this was wonderful because i was able to change my seat from sitting with lisa and k$ to sitting in the exit row with this individual:unfortunately i could not get a better picture but as you can see he was in a 3 piece jean suit and pimp hat.  he kept his hat (with feather) on the WHOLE flight.  he was also on our second flight to Houston but i did not get to sit by him.

we had a layover in Atlanta.  JOY.  it actually was not that bad and we got k$ a milk shake.  there was a moe’s across from the gate so i went there to get some chips for the next leg.  While i was in line they started boring the plane.  PANIC ENSUED.  both kevin and lisa freaked out as if i was going to be be left behind.  finally after waiting in line for 15 minutes we boarded.

i was being a nice sister and letting k$ take my exit row seat for this leg.  lisa and i settled in and all was well.

UNTIL

the flight attended came up and wispered “is that your son in the exit row?” we said yes and she replied HE CANNOT SIT THERE.  GREAT!  so i got all my stuff moved to the back and sat down.  halfway though resettling the lovely fight attented was back at my side.  “sorry miss there was a miss understanding you can go back to your seat”.

WHAT?!  so now i have to move again.  (NOW I HATE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS almost as much as real estate agents so i was already pissed.  further more i DETEST airtran flight attendants the MOST.  we were flying airtran) apparently the flight attendant assumed k$ was under 15 (actually she said 12) and without asking anyone made us all move.  once lisa told her he was 17 she made us move back.  SERIOUSLY????

so i sink back to my seat.  get settled and there is my LOVELY little firend again.  this time she wants to sit in the middle seat and have a chat with lisa.  WTF.  apparently during the exit row speech k$ said he knew what to do b.c last time he was in the exit row (NEVER B/C THIS WAS HIS SECOND FLIGHT EVER!!) he rammed the beverage cart into the door to get it opened.  so now he was a security hazard and had to sit with us.  GREAT.  now i have lost my exit row and have to sit crammed with k$ and lisa for 2 hours.

(not on the airplane)

oh and did i mention he listened to black eyed pea’s MY HUMPS the whole ride and sang OUT LOUD.  no fear i pretended not to know them for the majority of the flight and read my book.

 

FINALLY WE LANDED IN HOUSTON: as you can tell i took this as we were zooming though the city (thug drives like a bat out of hell).

poor k$ was so tired from his big adventure: so after our dinner at mission burritto we put him and bed and ventured to a new airport to pick up AJH!

she was so happy to see us:

i just LOVE family TIME!!!  tune in to twitter to see the latest!

.chicago.recap.pt.1.

as you know, because you are an avid reader of my blog and well are basically obsessed with me, i spent the holidays in chicago. for your viewing pleasure i will give you 2 posts to cover this event.

today’s talks about everything but the wedding (you will have to wait for the good stuff!)

i was most looking forward to christmas eve! and well i was not disappointed. the food was amazing but i expect nothing less from aunt TT, the drinks were flowing! and the grab bag was chaos.

MW even got me 2 mini grey goose bottles and lime juice. someone took the goose but i indulged in my fair share of gimlets draining the bottle of absolute. (more on mw and gimlets in the wedding post! -tease,tease,tease-)

while my grab bag gift was picked last and did not cause a stir MW’s was the hottest item of the night.  from groupon she got a beer making kit (we suspect she went over the $35 limit but she swears, thanks to groupon, she did not.

the second hottest night of the evening was a vodka cocktail set (set of stemless martini glasses, bottle of goose, holidays on ice by David Sedaris .  i had this for a while and traded back and forth with kw but the bride to be ended up with it.

I went home with AJH’s gift, baileys, alcoholic whip cream, 1/2 lb of Christmas blend and a coffee mug.  we spent the alcoholic whip cream that night on our white russians and whip-its.  a classy group we are!

For my little cousin’s mjfh birthday we all went skating at millennium park and to lunch at Ed Debevic’s.

since i am unable to ice skate i took pictures
and made a sweet video:

personally i think the video is GREAT!

hope you had as great of a break as i did.

.happy.thanksgiving.

happy thanksgiving dear reader.  in the sprit of thanksgiving i will share what i am thankful for five (if you missed this joke see this post).

1. my family
2. my friends
3. my heath and gluten free foods!
4. this blog and all my trusty readers
5.  beleveder vodka gimlets
6. my daddy who is always as saturated with beverage as i am

k$ says he is thankful for:

1. lisa’s new car
2.  my dogs
3. my new bike
4. grandparents
5. my uncles, aunts and cousins
6. and scott (my cousins new husband)
7. junk food such as ho-hos and chocolate chip muffins.
8.  that is all i know!

also i am thankful that k$ is apart of my family and we get to celebrate his 9th aniversary with my family on sunday!

also since i did go to school in ohio, and my little sister ajh did jump in mirror lake, i will give a big O-H

the coupon code will go up after we eat our big turkey dinner!  happy thanksgiving again!

.who.ate.the.hoho?.

this morning at 6:30 am i was awaken.  not because my alarm went off, not because i was just ready to get up; no, i was awoken to LISA yelling at K$ for eating all of the hostess “goodies”.

K$ has been off of school for the past two days and home alone as i sub at local private schools and he goes to public school.

so lets go back to see how we got to this amazing match up of lisa v. k$ over the missing hohos.

lisa got 5 hostess goodies from the hostess man when he came to her office (i am still unsure why he visits her office as she works for a sports medicine doctor).  she got 3 of the bags of muffins and 2 packages of hohos.  this morning all were gone!

thus ensue lisa v. kevin.  we all know k$ ate them because well no one else would.  (yes we can all flash back to when i was in middle school and would take extra hohos to school and abby would steal chewy bars, and yes lisa breads fat people, but now i would not touch the stuff).

so at 6:30 am i was awoken to:
LISA: “DID YOU EAT THE HOHO?”
K$: “NOOOOOOOOOO”
LISA: “K$ i know you are lying, no one else eats them!  where did they go??? they did not disapear”
K$: I DO NOT KNOW LISA.  I DID NO EAT THEM. I AM NOT A LIAR MOOOOM!”
LISA: “THUUUUG, DID YOU EAT THE HOHOs?!?!”
THUG: “no i did not eat them, K$ just tell the truth that you ate them.  we will find the wrappers in your hiding space by the couch”
K$: in angry monster voice “I DID NOT EAT THEM”
LISA: WHO DID
THUG: DID DUSTY?  DOGS DON’T EAT HOHOs
LISA: STOP LYING
K$: I AM NOT

enter me.  as you know i HATE lying, liars, and people who cheat and deceive.  tell the truth.  it hurts but its better then the web of lies you are about to create.

but back to who ate the F*CKING hoho’s.  well the wrappers were not in his food hiding space (other wrappers found there: a whole 3 lb bag of chocolate chips, bag of cookies, bags of chips, misc. food wrappers)  still on the hunt for the wrappers lisa went to the trash.  IT HAD BEEN TAKEN OUT!  k$ is getting smarter and for that i give him a high-5.

so now almost an hour after i was awoken to case of the mising hoho’s we still have no answer.  other then we know k$ ate them and is holding out on us…

 

UPDATE:

k$ has left his lunch.  lisa’s comment: oh i hope all those hostess hoho’s keep him full!

 

.chicago.weekend.

since my last post was just about 6.5 hours of my week in chicago i thought i would share what i did the rest of the time!

thursday: after arriving late at night my uncle partymarty picked us up at the airport and took us to my aunt tt’s.  this was rather uneventful except for the fact that just like thug all the men in his family drive as if they are the only car on the road.  he thinks it is soooo funny because they are all so much “worse” then him.

friday: after getting a good nights sleep i awoke and visited with my aunt and cousin.  i got to watch some tv and then walked over to the blue line and meet JS for lunch!  we went to feast.  i had the stake tortilla salad and it was amazing.  the aparently have amazing breakfast and i think i might have to go back when i am back in chicago over christmas/new years.  we then went for a walk around her neighborhood and i was aw struck that i lived in chicago for a whole year and had never made it out to bucktown.  we past some amazing shopping and i wished i had money and time to go in to all the stores.  we ended our visit by stopping by lululemon.  after chatting with the sales ladies for a few minutes it came up that i was running my first marathon and that’s why i was back in town.  the sales lady said she had a gift for me and i assumed it would be a 40% off coupon.  it was a FREE SHIRT!  its not on the website but it is so cute!  i also tried on the run reflection skirt that i thought would be perfect for tennis but it was a bit to small and i knew i was not going to buy it, i came in for some workout undies.  picked those up and my free shirt and i was off to meet thug and abby at nike town.

at this point i was cursing myself for wearing my tory burch flats and had massive blisters on my feet.  i looked for some sandles at niketown but there were none so we hoped on the bus and headed out to the expo!  the expo was great and we met up with my cousin mw and her friend m.  (m is one one the main reasons i decided to go back to school.  we ran a 10 mile race and after mw introduced us and i talked her her about how she is a teacher and her thoughts!)

as you can see in the picture i am barefooted.  i took off my shooes and walked the expo barefoot.  i attempted to get shooes at target but that was also a flop.  next we headed to dinner at mart anthony.  it was very good but i was tired and ready to go to bed.

saturday: i had coffee in the am with shimmel and then headed back to the expo to get my hip flexor taped up.  it was really botheing me at his point and in the back of my head i was sure i would not be able to run.  this basically took all day as i drove up to the north side to see shimmel and then back down to the city to the expo then back out to the western suburbs to see my god mother and her family and my best little nugget friend cbh.  she is now 3 and i LOVE her.  i picture her to be what chelsea handler must have been like at 3.  amazing.  saturday night we had a carb fest and almost all my extened family came to wish the 7 of us running good luck.  i was wonderful and was great to see how many people supported me on this challenge.  it was also nice to get so much good food.  my aunt tt made grandmas spaghetti sauce which is always such a treat!

sunday: was the marathon.  after we went back to mws apartment and had a little post race celebration!  she was the best host and had champagne and beer and even a bit of vodka for me!!!

it was so nice to visit with everyone and thank them for coming out to support us!

monday: was a big challenge.  my right leg was so sore that i had to crawl up and down the stairs until i put the kt tape back on.  i also had to cancle my apres work drink with JM (who by the way has a new blog: urban explorer, a must read for anyone traveling to or living in the windy city!) and my lunch with KL.  instead put my feet up at my god mothers house, iced my hip and watched clifford with CBH.  that night my family came together to celebrate zaz and i’s birthdays.  his is today and mine is on SATURDAY!  it was a perfect ending to a great weekend!

.marathoner!.

i did it!  i am a marathoner!

the race did not turn out they way i had hoped/envisioned but i finished and accomplished a goal!  as many of you know from reading about my final training run i hurt my hip flexor.  i was doing alright until i walked all over chicago in my tory burch flats and some how further aggravated it.  on saturday i went back to the expo and got some kt tape and taped my hip up in the hopes of being able to make it though the marathon.  i was actually prepared to DNF and just go as far as i could on sunday.  i was devastated and just could not resign to the fact that after all this work i was not going to finish.

on sunday morning my hip was very tight but i hoped that once i started running it would loosen up and i would be fine!  as we waited at the starting line i was determined to finish.  i cannot describe how it felt to stand among so many other people about to set out on such a enormous task.  all 45,000 people there had a story.  one story that really touched me was the story of EJ Scott.  He is in iO with my cousin and suffers from choroideremia and will eventually be completely blind.  he ran blind folded.

thug and i were very close to him at the start and thug actually ran in the same pace group as him for most of the marathon.  if there was every anyone who had a reason to not run it was EJ and his story is truly inspirational.

before i go in to my marathon ordeal i have to say that there is nothing in my life that compares to what i expirenced on sunday.  not only was running for 26.2 miles physically exhausting but the day with emotionally exhausting.  runners are a unique group of people, it may come from the shared knowledge that a running is just as challenging for the road warrior and 5 time boston qualifier as it is for the the individual running for a charity that has personally affected their life and started running just to be able to finish the marathon and raise money for their cause.  finishing is an accomplishment but one such a hot day, attempting made each person who showed up at the starting line a winner.

so back to my race…

my hip hurt.  i am not doing to deny it.  but my ego would have hurt much more if i did not finish.  thug and i ran about the first half mile together but i knew i was going way slower then our practiced pace and i told him to go ahead.  it was about 5 minutes later that my second issue of the marathon started.  i needed a port a potty and i needed one fast!  thankfully there was an aid station come up so i moved over to the right side of the course (i like running on the left for some reason) and stopped.  it was my first of roughly 14 potty breaks and basically confirmed all the fears i had develop the week before on my trail run.

so i spent alot of time doing this:

and this:

and alot more time then i wanted to doing this:

but i did it!

i would like to thank my father, thug, first and foremost for being my running partner and total inspiration.  secondly i would like to thank little AJH.  when i finally saw her and SG for the first time i really thought that i was not going to be able to go any father.  she ran with me (i think she actually walked) and gave me words of encouragement.  and a drink of ice cold water!  my Godmother, and my two aunts!  when i saw them at mile 25 it was everything i needed to make it to the end! shimmel whom i could not stop and say hi to put loved seeing up in lake view.  my god father and his family who meet me out in china town!  it was so great to see them and they came all the way in from the far ‘burbs!  and lastly my fellow runners, mo, julie, megan, lindsay and dan.  without you being so supportive of me doing my first marathon i do think i would have had the courage to attempt!

oh and one more.  thank you city of chicago.  i will always love you you are so pretty in all seasons and i cannot wait to hang out in the winter time!

also i am not ashamed of my time i worked out for 6 hours 15 minutes.  and as one of my favorite signs of the day said i did not poop my pants! another favorite was at mile 24 and it simply read “wow you are really good at exercising”

.leaving.on.a.jet.plane.

today is the day folks!

thug and i are are flying to chicago today for the MARATHON!!!

i am so pumped to be back in my favorite city and see some of my bestest friends!  also to run the marathon.  and especially to go to the expo and get all my “free” stuff!!!!!!

this is also the first time in my available memory that i am flying on an airplane with my father.  one time when i was in third grade lisa and i flew to a wedding in chicago for my god mother, thug and AJH went on a different flight b.c AJH was only in kindergarten and could miss more school.

i am very excited to spend all afternoon with my daddy.

in other news i am starting to pound water… thank you tervis tumbler.  it is very important to stay hydrated a. when you fly and b. running a marathon requires alot of water.

i will try and keep you posted but you might not see another post until i am a MARATHON FINISHER!