Blog Challenge Day 2

Woooo! Here we go!

1. I was born in Southern California and lived there till I was 12.

2. I lived in Arizona, Vancouver Canada, California (again), Arizona (again), New York and North Carolina.

3. My parents are from Croatia and all my relatives still live there. I understand the language, I can speak some of it and I've been there quite a few times. That also makes me first generation American.

4. I am a HUGE geek. I love sci-fi movies and books, I read comics, I play video games, I watch anime, I can do some web coding and love computers...Apple.

5. I can draw really well! In fact up until recently, I always wanted to be an illustrator. Here's some old stuff.

4. I have a dinosaur tattoo. (oh one more thing to add to my geekiness)

5. I'm pretty crafty too. I can crochet, sew, embroider and other fun stuff.

6. I love beer! I love drinking craft and local beer. I've been to a few beer festivals and we've spent over $200 on a couple rare brews.

7. My favorite movies are The Fifth Element and Hook.

8. I love Japan and its culture. We went to Tokyo a few years ago.

9. I have an older brother (13 years older) and an older sister (10 years older)

(this is a lot tougher than i thought!)

10. I went to college for graphic illustration and digital imaging.

11. I love Photoshop and have been using it since I was around 12. (back around when the internet first came around)

12. I've kept up a website or blogs for the last 12 years.

13. I used to role play in an X-Men chat room. I even had my own character Shade, who I drew ALL the time. (am I nerdy enough yet??)

14. My sign is Cancer (cardinal even) and it fits me perfectly.

15. I was a loner most of my teen years and I'm pretty socially awkward. It's hard for me to make friends.

16. I write with my left hand.

17. Robbie Williams is one of my favorite musicians.

18. I love doing yoga.

19. Rob and I met through online dating. We've been together since our first date 10 years ago.

20. I used to weigh around 200 lbs and I lost around 90 lbs. Mostly through eating healthy and exercising.

Sam & Suzy This Week

spying on sam after his nap

How was everyone's Halloween?
Ours was great! We originally didn't want to take him trick or treating because any candy is for us and I've been trying not to eat too much processed stuff, but once he had his costume on I couldn't help it! We went to a few neighbor's houses who I thought would love to see Sam in his costume. It was so sweet and right there I realized how long we've been waiting to do these sorts of things with a kid. It was SUCH a great feeling.

Afterwards, we sat on the driveway a bit and gave out candy. Oh, and I totally ate any candy that Sam got. Soooo bad, but sooo good! No will power when it comes to sweets I tell ya!

Sam:
He's been so great! He's just talking up a storm this week. Always making us laugh. Oh and I can totally make him laugh just by giving him kisses on his belly. Love it!

He's been sleeping in his nursery with no problems. I'm so proud. He still wakes up around 5 - 5:30am, which makes the weekends hard. I bring him back to bed with me and we can sometimes get another hour of sleep. But with my breast milk supply dwindling, I hope I can still get him back to sleep on those mornings.

Naps on the other hand is something we struggle with. At day care he takes about three 20 - 40 minute naps. On the weekends, sometimes I can get a good hour long nap and sometimes a 20 minute one. A lot of times I hold him while he naps, for fear of waking him...and also because I just want to be close to him.


Suzy:
Look at me all training for a half marathon! My first run was so great! And then my body remembered it doesn't do this much and I've been so so sore! This weekend I have to run 4 miles, which I have bring Sam with me in the stroller. I have a pretty flat area to run it and I will take it easy, not forcing myself to run all of it. But I may surprise myself.

One thing that I struggle with, I'm actually pretty scared about running! I get nervous and anxious about it. I'm going to start running big miles here and that scares me. I know I can do it, I've had plenty of people tell me I'm a good runner...but I never ran more than 4 miles. I have to beat this fear! I was scared of child birth and I did it. I did it all natural because I trusted my body. Now I just have to trust my body again.

Blog Challenge! with Day 1's Challenge, Your Blog's Name!

Dena over at LiveLoveSimple.com has posted a blog challenge and I'm needing a little blogging boost!

Day 1: Your Blog's Name

Hello Sprout.

I had another blog for a while called Hello Suzy, it was another personal blog that I shared my life and my artwork. When I got pregnant I want to start a new blog that just focused on being pregnant and then our kid. So, since I was Hello Suzy before and I was pregnant with my little sprout, I called this blog Hello Sprout.

Maybe one day I'll migrate back over to Hello Suzy since I still have the domain, if I start to focus on art again, but for now I enjoy writing about my life with Sam: )

Happy Halloween!

My little dragon

I traced Sam's hands for the pumpkin eyes! Saw the idea here!

Don't think, just run!

This week marks a huge week for us!

After one failed year, months of training, too many early mornings, Rob is finally getting to run the New York City Marathon! Rob was supposed to run it last year, but well...y'all know what happened. I'm so excited for him, it's a dream come true for Rob to run in his home state and run one of the most popular races in one of the biggest cities.

me and my first 5k in 2010

And for me!! This week I start training for the Charleston, SC half marathon that's on Jan. 18th, 2014!!

Saturday, I was putting Sam down for a nap and Rob runs into the room. "I know we decided that I would take a break from running marathons, but what if YOU ran the Charleston half marathon??" Apparently our friends were asking Rob about Charleston because before Rob said he'd run it and we could all rent a beach house. He first said no because he promised me a break from races and that's when he had the brilliant idea of getting me to run. So when he asked me, I was caught off guard and half awake (hello nap time) and I was like, "Uh uh uh.....yes?"

And there we go. I agreed to run a half marathon! I'm super excited and super nervous. It was always a goal to run a half marathon and well, why makes excuses and just do it? It'll be tough, there will be tears, but Rob will be there the whole way encouraging me. We've got our friends too, who are all great inspirations!

The timing is perfect too. The race is 12 weeks away and the Hal Higdon Novice 1 training program is 12 weeks. Basically the training is short runs 3 days a week and a long run on the weekend. There's a day for stretching/resting and a cross training day which will probably be my post natal bootcamp DVD. I'm also canceling my gym membership, it just wasn't working out and it proved more difficult to go to classes in the evening and taking care of Sam for bedtime. With running, I don't have a set time, which is good. And this will totally help get me in shape because running burns so many calories and all this training is during the holiday time, so I will be less likely to overindulge.

What we've been up to...

It's been a crazy couple of weeks here at our house! My parents and my brother and his family came to visit us last weekend for Sam's baptism. So we've been getting the house ready, then they were here, then they left and we've been recooping.

But it was very nice seeing my family! I wish they could've been here longer and I wish I could've shown them more of North Carolina. Do you know we actually took them to a mexican restaurant? Mexican! They are from Arizona!! What were we thinking? I mean it's in a cool area of Charlotte and we walked around and looked and art and shops, but still....mexican, tsk tsk.

Sam also got baptized this past Sunday. It was a lovely little ceremony that brought tears to my eyes. Nothing like seeing the beauty of life and God in your child.

my brother and sister-in-law are Sam's godparents.

We had fun times with my niece Lily. We went to the pumpkin patch together.

And since last Friday, Sam has been sleeping in his own room! That's so huge! It was the perfect time to move him into his room because while my family was here, Rob and I slept in Sam room. Then on Monday, he was all by himself. I think I had a harder time adjusting. Our room seems so big now. But Sam sleeps great it his room.

To My Husband:

Happy Anniversary Rob.

we get to celebrate as a family!

I knew I married an awesome person, but I didn't realize how truly amazing Rob is until we had Sam. He helps me so much and works so hard and never really asks for much(other than a jeep and training for marathons..and beer). And no matter what's going on, we still make each other laugh. And, well shucks, I just love him!