Blowin' the dust off this blog..

Woo hoo! It's 2015 and I am finally blowing the dust off of the blog and ready to post again. It isn't called "girl on the go" for nothing! It's been go go go for the past few years; so much so that I have not had a whole lot of creativity to spare. Sooo much has happened since my last post. The good, the bad and everything in between. I'll catch you up and please know, some of this is heavy stuff but I need to get it out there so that I can pick up from here, February 2015, and you know where I've been and where I'm at now. Here's a quick recap of the last few years..

Where to begin..after several years of trying, we were overjoyed to find out that we were pregnant in June of 2013. Being ultra cautious after past experiences, we did not share this news with too many people until I was about half way through the pregnancy. Around 16 weeks (September), we visited Baby Bumps in Saratoga Springs for an elective ultrasound. This was probably the best $100 that I have ever spent as we found out that the little, miraculous bundle that I was carrying was a baby girl. All day long, my dad (also my best friend) was blowing up my phone. He just had a feeling that he was going to have a granddaughter. Well I barely got my key in the ignition in the parking lot at Baby Bumps before he called and I told him the exciting news. We didn't talk for too long but he was so excited that his father's intuition had been correct and I was indeed expecting his first granddaughter.

Flash forward a week..Life was going about as usual. On September 26th, I had plans to go out with the girls from work for a little post work gab session but I was feeling under the weather and unable to take anything. I'll never forget the way that the events of that evening unfolded. I put Denver to bed in the guest bedroom (a recent phase he was going through where he only wanted to sleep across the hall from us AND in a queen size bed). I made myself a snack of apples and caramel dipping sauce and sat down to watch E! News. My phone rang and at first I thought what a happy surprise to hear from my little sister Somer on a random Thursday night. Well, the happiness of hearing from her quickly faded when I heard the tone of her voice and the reason for her call. The Rochester, NY sheriff's department had just called her since she was the last phone call in my dads phone. He had been in an accident on his bike and had no ID on him and so they called the most recent contact in his phone. Stay calm I instructed Somer. He has had heart issues in the past and we probably don't need to panic. I called the sheriff myself and didn't get much more information than she had. Our dad was in an ambulance on his way to the hospital and they were currently administering CPR. I was not given many more details than that no matter how hard I begged for more information. They said they would contact relatives who lived within close proximity to the hospital and when they got there, our relatives could relay specific details to us. I had an overwhelming sense of dread and panic and couldn't stop pacing and continued to call the sheriff, even though he made it fairly clear he could not update me via phone. I called my siblings and let them know what was going on, fairly hopeful that this wouldn't be different than the minor heart episodes that he had previously experienced. That feeling faded as the night went on and I spoke to the sheriff again and then my aunt. I can still hear her telling me that they were in the waiting room waiting for the doctor and the social worker to come in to talk. My heart sunk and at that point, I just knew the situation was not what I had hoped and prayed for and that things would never be the same. It wasn't long after that, that she called me back and let me know that dad didn't make it and he had a heart attack. I'll tell you, you never expect to hear those words and there is no manual or anything that can guide you through what to do next. Stunned, speechless and 17 weeks pregnant, I did the only thing that I could think of and I called each and every one of my 7 siblings, in birth order, to give them the devastating and life altering update. Several hours later..we decided to get right in the car and drive back to our hometown so that we could wake up at my dads house and go from there. Faced with the decision on whether to bring our young son with us or not, we decided that yes, he was coming with us and was going to be with us and my family through this. I don't feel the need to share the way that everything unfolded over the next few weeks but not one moment of it was easy and quite frankly, I haven't felt up to writing about this or anything else for that matter until now, over a year later.

So here I am. Almost 34, married, two kids, my youngest approaching her first birthday. No dad here on this earth with me but I know he's here with me in spirit every day. I'm navigating this crazy world without my best friend and biggest supporter but I'm so blessed to have the seven siblings that I do and a wonderful husband, children and friends.

Alright, so I needed to get this update out there and now I can pick up from February 2015. I'm excited to write again and I'm excited for what the future and this blog may bring. I'm absolutely LOVING being a mom of two littles. I know with absolute certainty that my daughter was put in my life at exactly the right time for exactly the right reason. I know it's cliche but everything happens for a reason and Arden Thomas came along at exactly the right moment that she was supposed to. Watching my older son Denver Walker be a big brother to our little girl literally makes my heart want to explode! They are two peas in a pod and I could not have asked for two more loving, sweet children.

I know that this post was a heavy one but I can't wait to post again regularly and share our life with y'all. I am in full-on 1st birthday party planning mode madness and I can't wait to share it with everyone! It's going to be good!

Please feel free to comment and I'll see y'all again soon! xoxo

Brooke

A day in the life...Me & Martha

With March right around the corner, so is one of my favorite times of the year...Spring (and my birthday month!) The days are getting longer, the sun seems to be shining a little brighter and the temps have been getting up to and over the 40 degree mark. I've been playing nurse to my little patient who got his tonsils out last week, and with all the extra time at home and warm weather on the brain, I was able to rid our house of all the Winter decor and Spring has officially sprung in our house! Now all we need to do is dye Easter eggs...Speaking of good things...




 

 In between running in to help Denver when he rang his little bell and Spring cleaning/decorating, I managed to squeeze in a little light reading to help inspire me. Don't get me wrong, I love Martha Stewart Living but reading Martha's monthly calendar gives me major anxiety...She has trainer on there 4 times a week. Personal trainer? Horse trainer? It doesn't say. I was so proud of myself that I made it to spin class two weeks ago and then got myself to boot camp at 5:15 this morning. On March 2nd, she's going to quickly open the beehives & check their supply/health, March 7th, cut quince & apple branches, March 14th is my personal fave: Remove storm windows, wash and store & switch to screens (by herself?!). In between touching up the paint on the house trim on March 22nd and baking babka on March 30th, Martha will be gold-leafing eggs for Easter. A day in the life. Seriously Martha? You're not fooling me. I'm on to you. Although you sure do have a way of making an over-committed overachiever feel like a slacker. And another thing, I know you purposely add too much of or leave out an ingredient so that none of your recipes ever come out as perfect as they do in the magazine or on TV. But I still love you.

I won't give you my whole monthly calendar (it wouldn't be nearly as ambitious as Martha's) but here are some snippets from a (few) day(s) in my life from this past week/Staycation:

2/20 School Break-Family Trip to Stratton, 35 mph winds but we drove an hour so no chance of leaving. Milestone of the day~Denver's 1st black diamond

2/21 Office with Denver to drop off contracts, library, Chipotle, cut off all food/water after midnight (cue Denver "I'm thirsty, I'm hungry, I'm hungry, hungry, hungry...")

2/22 Report to Hospital at 10am (Denver is starving at this point-poor guy), Adenoid Surgery scheduled for noon (surprise! they decide to take the tonsils too, which means an extra week of recovery), head home & administer pain medication every 4-6 hours (I wish Martha had a pull-out chart to keep track of this. This would be a good thing)

2/23 Spend day with little buddy (see above about cleaning/decorating), all the popsicles you can eat. Friends stop by to visit with gogurt, Uno, legos, gatorade and hard cider (yeah!) After Denver goes to bed, I pop by the SPAC Dallas Winter Ball briefly Yeehaw!

2/24 Almost the same as 2/23 except evening activites include: making soup for the week, making pasta for dinner, watching the Oscars, drinking Oscar inspired cocktails, tweeting like I think I'm on E's Fashion Police

2/25 My mom stayed with Denver from 9-12:30. In this time: commuted 30 min to office, worked, dealt with the work craziness that only a full moon can bring on, stopped by to pick up Denver's school work, grocery store for dinner supplies, drove 30 minutes home. More hanging out at home, working from home, made chicken curry which was wayyyy too spicy (shoot!)

2/26 5:15am Bootcamp, all emails answered by 7:15am,  worked on event that I am co-chairing for duration of the morning, changed channel for Denver 40 times while alternating popsicles, gogurt & applesauce. Looked at the mess that has accumulated in less than 24 hours (ugh how?), heated up leftover soup and made basil oil out of the basil that had about a day left before expiring (see below)

On the agenda for the rest of the week? Work, WCR lunch event, Saratoga Paint & Sip, Denver's School Art Show, finalize event invites & mail them, guest spot on the radio on Saturday, open house on Sunday...

No trainer, no trimming, no bees, no gold leaf, no windows, but after writing it all down, I'm exhausted (maybe that's the boot camp exhaustion kicking in). No wonder I haven't had time for any new posts lately ;) Until next time...



My Martha moment of the day
 


 

 
 

Welcome to your 30's

Sunday morning I woke up extra early (for a Sunday) to get ready to head out to a conference, followed by work, followed by an early evening meeting. Long day to say the least. Not exactly feeling 100% myself due to what my dad likes to call the “phenomenon of hormones,” I attempted to find something chic and professional to wear (and something I might add that would cover my crazy bloat going on that day). After I raged through my closet for a good 10 minutes (which went something like this: Tim!!! Where are my black big corduroy’s?!?! Why are they not in this closet?!?! Why doesn’t anything fit?! Where are my tights? I have no dress shoes from this season!! Ugh, I got this dress after I had Denver! It’s SO old! I can’t wear those; my butt won’t fit into them! And so on…) I settled on an old dress that I got about 5 years ago. Not feeling all that chic, and now running 10 minutes behind schedule, my mood was a bit cloudy as I threw my ingredients into the smoothie maker, kissed my little guy and flew out the door.

I took a deep cleansing breath as I pulled out of the driveway. You can do this! Face the day! Your dress isn’t too tight, you have time to stop for a Starbucks after all and the sun is shining! Shining so bright that it illuminated something that would have been better left in the dark. As I checked my makeup in the rearview mirror to make sure everything went on correctly in my crazy state of mind earlier, I noticed a little something gleaming in the harsh early morning winter sunlight. A long, thin, blond hair on the bottom of my chin, like one of Rapunzel's long strands of hair. Was this a cruel joke? I have never even had to wax above my lip yet and now I have Rapunzel’s braid swinging off my chin? Am I going to turn into one of those women that you see with a long hair growing off their face and you wonder do they know about it? And if so, why don't they yank it out? At the next red light, I immediately texted three friends (the ones I knew would be up before 8am on a Sunday) about this new revelation. Instantly, one of my girlfriends texted back welcome to your 30’s, I have a big black one that grows every month and I have to pluck it out each and every month. Talk about a morning going from bad to worse…And to think that before this, the only bad hair I had to worry about was on my head. Without any tweezers on hand in the car, I did what anyone would do and seized that nasty little thing with my fingernails and yanked. Out it came in one piece! I’m really hoping that it doesn’t decide to make a visit next month too…
 

Speaking of the 30’s, that is not the only difference that I have noticed since I turned 30 almost two years ago. I have to admit, I’m not feeling like I look like my old (young!) youthful self. More like a tired, old sea hag on some days. The perma bags never seem to completely disappear anymore and it takes quite a bit of Laura Mercier concealer to look somewhat rested in the morning. There is a line on my forehead that appears even deeper the day after indulging in too much wine. And speaking of wine, you just don’t bounce back the next day the way you used to after indulging a little. Weight loss in your 30’s no longer involves just skipping a meal or two and losing 5 lbs. Now I can sweat at the gym 5 days a week, count my points all day long and maybe shed a pound and a half. Meanwhile, my husband is eating rib eyes and hot fudge sundaes and staying the same all the time. It's midnight as I write this and he's actually eating right now. I think he’s been the same weight since high school. Ugh.

 

So for all of you lucky ladies who are approaching your 30’s, beware of what’s in store. And for my girls living in the thick of it with me, high fives all around.

Just so you don’t think that this post is too much of a downer, I’ll give you a couple good things about the 30’s too.

·         I am finally old enough that people take me seriously at work. No longer am I “that young girl”

·         I'm married with a kindergartner and we own our house

·         I’m old enough that I’ve had a career (with the same company) for 10 years

·         A sense of confidence that you don’t have in your 20’s

How about you? What’s your favorite and least favorite part about getting older? Be honest. No judgment here.

 

 

A few of my favorite things this week

Here are the things, events & people that are topping my favorite's list this week!

         I saw a story about the “Hug Lady” this morning on the Today show and it warmed my heart. This sweet 81 year old woman attends every single deployment and homecoming with one purpose: to hug every soldier going to or returning from war. Elizabeth Laird, known as "The Hug Lady," by the soldiers at Fort Hood, has been greeting soldiers flying through Fort Hood’s Robert Grey Airfield since 2003. What a sweet story about an amazing woman who is a shining example of how a seemingly small act of kindness can spread and influence so many.


 

      Mom’s Day Off at Bromley Mountain in Vermont is Friday February 8^th and I am SO looking forward to hitting the slopes! A $15 donation to the SouthwesternVermont Regional Cancer Center gets you an all day lift ticket. Do good & have fun! Just show a picture of your child when purchasing your ticket. Or, in my case, show your actual child! My son and I will both be playing hooky tomorrow and skiing for the day. We’ve got a big storm brewing and it should make for some great conditions!

12-14 inches is coming!

 

Love!

Mint is perfect for Spring!

      I absolutely love the new Kendra Scott Tropic Chic Collection. I have a major Kendra Scott jewelry obsession and I love the new funky earring shapes and the new warm weather colors. Loving the turquoise, coral, mint and especially cobalt blue. I’m pinning tons of Cobalt blue lately. My new favorite color for Spring/Summer 2013! If you order online, Kendra Scott is offering FREE shipping before Valentine's Day!

 



 

      I picked up a sample of the Boscia Luminizing BlackMask about a month ago from Sephora. I’ve been using it once a week for 4 weeks now and this is such a cool product! The mask offers detoxifying, purifying, and brightening results. You slather on a thick layer and let it dry and then carefully peel it off.  The mask strips away dead skin, impurities and excess oil and you can see it all on the dried mask after you peel it off! I especially love that this product is formulated without Parabens, Phthalates, GMO’s or Synthetic dyes & fragrances.  

 

 

That's all for today but I'll be back with more of my favorites next week!

Subscribe to my blog today so that you don't miss a post! And please, by all means, leave a comment and let me know what you think!

 

We were painting and sipping...

Out of the 8 girls who were planning on going to the Saratoga Paint & Sip party this past Friday, at least 3 asked if it was going to be paint by numbers. None of us are skilled artists by any means (even though I WAS an art history major in college) and we weren’t sure what to expect. I don't think I've ever actually painted on a canvas before. We got a little held up next door at the Henry Street Tap Room beforehand, as their smoked cheddar, bacon Wagyu burger and whisky cocktails got us a little distracted on the time. When we made it over to the studio (a few minutes late), we were greeted by the owner, a transplant to Saratoga by way of New Orleans and her artist of the evening. We grabbed our aprons, our paint and our wine and took a seat. The painting of the night entitled “pink heels” was a pair of cowboy boots & a hat sitting on a chair. One of my most festive girlfriends brought favors for the evening including pink bandannas and pink cowboy boot cookies. So adorable and totally got us into the spirit of the evening!

Here is the piece that the artist painted that we were basing our paintings on. Image c/o Saratoga Paint & Sip.

The artist (wearing an awesome pair of funky cowboy boots!) stepped up on the platform and told us that we could use whatever colors that we wanted and she would walk us through step by step on what to do. Well let me tell you, step by step was easier for some than for others. She recommended that we use a light color to first outline our boots, the chair and the hat. Then we could go back over the colors with the actual colors that we wanted our boots, etc to be. Thank goodness the artist was so helpful and nice as she walked around to answer questions and offer help when needed. This girl had the patience of a saint! Some of us had giant boots and no room for the hat, some of us had skinny boots on a massive chair. She taught us that we could make new lines and didn’t have to commit to the first lines that we drew. Same with the colors. She taught us that we could add colors to blend or bring in more lightness or darkness. It’s a good thing too! My first attempt looked more like Priscilla Queen of the Desert than Rodeo Queen.



My first attempt looked like something these girls would wear

 

Time flew by and the two hours felt like two minutes. The artist kept us on task so that we would actually walk out with a finished painting. All the while, the girl talk and laughter was at an all time high as we chatted about husbands, boyfriends, kids, life. The owner walked around and offered us more wine and chatted with us about how she ended up in Saratoga and came to open this awesome little studio.

 

When the clock struck 9pm, we signed our paintings, signed the wall and cashed out our drink tabs. Everything about that night made me excited to come back and experience it again! I've actually already signed up for another evening at the end of the month and I’m debating hosting my own birthday soiree there! Definitely one of my new favorite places and I’m raving about it to all of my friends and family.

Our masterpieces!

 

My finished painting!

Denver's version

 

Hugs are better than drugs and when treats learn to fly…Or just another day with a 5 year old...

So I’m sure you’re thinking, that’s a whole lot of randomness for one day. Well that about sums up my last 24 hours or so. I’ll start at the beginning. Last night around 7ish, thinking I was in the clear and my 5 year old, Denver, was snoozing, I snuck off to wash my face and tweeze my eyebrows. I came out of my bedroom about 20 minutes later and was surprised to see my stealthy little guy kicked back on the couch in front of the Millionaire Matchmaker. “Mom, I need to talk to you. Come really close. I had a really bad dream and it was about a girl at school who took drugs.” Ok, umm, you’re 5 and a half, how do you know about drugs? So I asked him what the drugs looked like and who took them. “Oh I don’t know mom, it wasn’t my school and there was just this boy who saw this other girl take them out of her backpack. But anyway, can I pleeease start out in your bed?” (This starting out in our bed seems to be the new phase every night.) Well the drug talk was not one that I was super prepared to have with my kindergartener so I gave him the basics; Drugs are very bad for you, it is like drinking poison from under the sink, they will make you very sick and they will make you crazy. Just say no to drugs, never ever take drugs and tell me or dad if anybody talks to you about drugs. Then for good measure I threw in the phrase that still haunts me from my childhood “hugs are better than drugs.” I can still hear my dad saying it to me every day before school, every night before bed and then as a teenager, every time I was heading to a party, work or a friend’s house. It obviously worked though because all these years later, it is still reverberating in my head. I’ll be sure to remind Denver of this on a daily basis now that “drugs” is a word that he knows. Please, please, please don’t let him come home tomorrow and ask me what sex is. That is a talk that I am most definitely not ready to have.

So sweet when they're sleeping

 

Moving on to this afternoon…I navigated the craziness that is the school car line (more about that later) and picked up my little guy from school. Everything was going fine. In fact, it was going great! I got a lollipop for Denver as a treat after school and after finishing more than half of it, he decided he was going to “save” it. The he pulled out his lunch box and brought out the cookies that he never ate at lunch. “Denver, you’re not having cookies and a lollipop before dinner” (too much sugar and he turns into Philip, the kid that Mike Myers played on SNL who is tied to the jungle gym and tempted with candy by Nicole Kidman).

My mother doesn't let me have sugar

 

Well hello Mr. Hyde! He refused to hand me the lollipop or the cookies. Now remember, I’m driving as this craziness ensues.

Me: Give me the Oreo’s Denver…

D: No! I want them!

Me: You better give them to me right now or else...

D: No way! I want them!

Me: You already had a lolly and you’re not having any other sweets before dinner.

D: Fine! (and then he threw them at me)

Well, here’s another little childhood flashback (throwback Thursday anyone?) that came full circle today…I took the Oreos and calmly threw them out the window. My most shining parenting moment? I think not. Well things really hit the fan after that. Some of the craziness that came out of his mouth after that included “I don’t like you...You’re a meanie...I don’t like you anymore” and so on. It's a good thing I have thick skin. Then he proceeded to throw his lunchbox and mittens at me (still driving!) Well, the mature parent that I am, I calmly replied with “I’ll show you how mean I can be” and I threw the lolly out the window too. Now I’m working with two counts of littering so I almost hate to admit these things online but cookies and candy are biodegradable…right?

So that was my day. How was yours?

What I'm loving this week

Here are my favorites for this week. Things and products I love, cool things to do, places to visit, etc. Let me know what you think!

·         Superbowl Sunday is only a few days away. I’m not a football fan in the least but I’m always SUPER excited for the Superbowl food! My two MUST HAVE dips for Superbowl Sunday are Buffalo Chicken dip served with tortilla chips, celery & carrots and the Chipped Beef Dill dip served in a rye bread bowl. Always big crowd pleasers and easy to make. My favorite Buffalo dip can be found at Skinny Taste. I love Gina’s recipes and don’t let the low cal tagline fool you. These recipes are all amazing and even my whole milk drinking, full fat mayo & fatty rib eye eating husband enjoys every recipe that I find on Gina’s website. She actually has an entire section of football recipes if you’re looking for ideas for Sunday. The dill dip can be found at All Recipes. Not a low cal recipe but you can use low fat mayo and sour cream if you want to. I’ll be bringing these two dips to the party we’re attending and I can’t wait to see what else people bring!

·         My favorite splurge for this week is the Country Mega Ticket that SPAC is offering for this summer! There are two price points, one for inside and one for lawn. The Mega Ticket will get you in to 4 different Country shows this summer at SPAC (my fave summer entertainment venue!) including Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Jason Aldean & Luke Bryan. I’m excited that SPAC & Live Nation will be offering this awesome package and I think I know what I’ll be surprising my husband with for Valentine’s Day!

·         I’m looking forward to Friday night at the local “Paint & Sip”. A bunch of girlfriends are going for a Birthday party for a few of my friends and I’m really looking forward to a girl’s night out! An artist will instruct us step-by-step on how to paint the piece “Pink Heels”, a painting of pink cowboy boots! Wine & Beer are available for purchase and I know I’ll be ready for a couple glasses of wine tomorrow night after coming off of the crazy full moon week we just had.

·         Saturday is my favorite winter event in the area where I live~ Chowderfest! Local restaurants & caterers offer different chowder samplings, which are voted on. This turns into a really fun day out which includes stopping for a hot toddy, ducking into local boutiques and filling up on different types of chowder. Usually we do this sans child but this year we’ll be bringing the little guy with us now that he's a little older and the temps aren't supposed to be sub-zero. One of my favorite local mom bloggers (mamatoga) has put together a family guide to Chowderfest, which will be super helpful in navigating this normally crowded event.

·         This weather has been CRAZY lately. Below zero temps, then 50 degrees and raining and now back down in the 20’s. All this crazy weather does a number on my dry skin. My absolute MUST-HAVE products which are fantastic for dry skin include Josie Maran Argan cleansing oil & Argan oil moisturizer. And for my body I’m loving the Barlean’s organic coconut oil (I originally bought to put in my smoothies and cook with!), which I’m slathering all over my dry skin (and so are my husband and son!) 

 

·         My favorite new product that I’ve recently tried is the Dr. Jart Water Fuse Smart Gel BB Cream. I had been dying to try a bb cream after hearing so much hype about the product. But first of all, I needed to find out what the heck a bb cream was?! I stopped off to Sephora (to replenish my Josie Maran supply) and asked for some help in understanding this mysterious product that has been all over the place lately. According to allure.com, bb creams are “like tinted moisturizers on steroids. In addition to hydrating and evening out skin tones, BB creams also treat the skin with antioxidants or other anti-aging ingredients, plus offer broad-spectrum SPF “. In a nutshell, I love this product! I normally have dry skin and use Argan oil with a tinted moisturizer on top for light coverage. The Dr. Jart is like a one stop shop. I use it over my Argan oil (after the oil has been absorbed) and it makes my skin hydrated and luminous. I don’t like the look of heavy foundations but this just evens things out slightly more than a tinted moisturizer. It seems to fill in wrinkles and the best part is that it contains a broad spectrum SPF 30. One of my friends even asked me what I was doing differently and said I looked younger! Bonus!              

That’s all for this week’s favorite things but I’ll be posting more each week. Make a new bloggers day and leave a comment. I would love to know what you think.