Pizza party!

I had Monday off for MLK Day and Jackson only worked in the morning. I love days like that. Not that I saw Jackson until the evening, but I liked knowing he was "free" just like me. My day was nothing short of crazy. I like to schedule myself thin on my weekdays off because I never get them. (My general policy is not to "waste" vacation days doing things around home. I've modified that this year because of Jackson starting a new job and not having as much vacation time available. It won't last. I'm already itching to get out of the area for a bit.) Anyway, I scheduled MacKenzie for a haircut and she had to be there between 7 and 8. No problem. Unless you wake up without power. You guys, we are dependent on electricity. WE DEPEND ON IT SO MUCH THAT WE DON'T EVEN REALIZE IT. It was still dark at the time of day and trying to get myself and a puppy around was like a preview of what life would be like with children. (Insert sympathy for parents here. Also, sorry Mom, for never wanting to put my shoes on. That must have been SO annoying!) I get MacK to the groomer about 5 minutes late and she pees all over the guy. YEP! I realized that she felt my stress and couldn't deal with it. Oops. :( She regained her composure and I headed to the gym.
Whew. Everything is going to be OK now. MacK is taken care of and I have personal training at 8:30. What can go wrong? I head up to a treadmill with about 10 minutes before my training appointment to do a little jogging warmup. A lady RUDELY tells me that she wants to walk next to her friend on the treadmill and that I "need" to move. I just stared at her. She eventually moved her rude self down the way. Who did she think she was? And did she know that I'd just woken up without power on my day off? Honestly. The nerve. Then my trainer didn't show up because he had a "flat tire" which was either really convenient on an early Monday morning and really unfortunate. I still haven't decided which one I think it is. I ended up running the entire time that I would have been training and then coming home to the power being back on. Hooray. We just don't know how spoiled we are in this country with clean water and electricity. I swear.
I got cleaned up and headed out to meet my dear friend Amber for a spa day to celebrate her birthday. Not so fast my friends, it was snowing. A lot. ARE YOU KIDDING ME, MONDAY?! UGHHH. I eventually met her (15 minutes late) and we headed downtown to the Conrad's spa. That place is lovely and was a welcomed change from how my day had been going. Amber and I had hour long massages and also got to sit in the sauna (130 degrees never felt so good!), hot tub and swim. It was so fun. Then we went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. I didn't even have dessert and it was still a great lunch. My day had turned around by then. Massage and Cheesecake Factory? Yes, please. I also went down to MAC and bought myself some new makeup. What bad morning?! ;)
We had dinner with the Portefield family that evening. My favorite! Jackson made an orange/almond salad that I'm obsessed with (recipe below- try it! amazing!) and we picked up Papa John's. No, I wasn't really hungry so I just munched on salad and one slice of pizza. I was really proud of my diet control that day until Heidi broke out dessert: chocolate chip cookie dough bowls. I'm not lying when I say that they were the best thing ever. They rivaled her chocolate cake. Jackson hurried me through mine so he could eat my leftovers. They were SO good. That Heidi is something else when it comes to baking.

The Recipe

Jax ate all of his pizza and applesauce. What a big boy! :)

I'd normally say that Joss has gotten SO BIG but I think since Jax keeps growing she still looks small to me. I love it! She has quite the way of getting what she wants. I like that in a girl. ;)

Jax loves to play with our shoes and even tried them on.

"I don't think these fit!"

"Wait! Let me smile!" HA! I love this kid.

Then he tried on my TOMS for good measure. What a goof!

I love that Jax looks back to make sure I see him flipping off my shoes, that Joss cries in protest (atta girl!) and that she is eating a dog toy the entire time. These kids crack me up! :)