Hi friends. Happy Friday. I got home from Florida, wrote my recap post, blinked and somehow it’s 11 days later. Life has been full in both wonderful and stressful ways. I’m writing this post from the air – I’m en route to a weekend skiing adventure in Utah. After a three-hour delay in Charlotte for various maintenance issues (that involved me deplaning to pee and praying I could get back on the plane – I absolutely could NOT hold it and was okay with possibly not skiing if it meant I could pee haha), we are just an hour out from Salt Lake City. I haven’t hated being stuck on this plane. I’ve gotten more work done in these seven hours than I have in weeks. It’s making me think I need to get out of my house and carve out some weekly coffee shop sessions or something where I can be in “work mode” with less distractions.

I have a big catch up post for you on all sorts of topics – dogs, kids, work, fitness, cake (!!!) so let’s go.

ZOEY UPDATE

Let’s start with Zoey girl.

Can you believe this sweet nugget is 10.5 years old? So many of you have been here with me since I welcomed her to the fam back in 2014. This week has been full of sleepless nights – both because she had an episode where she was having a sudden urgent need to urinate with lots of accidents in the house (which hasn’t happened since she was a puppy!) and because I got some news at the vet that I didn’t want to hear. I took her in for the urinating issue (which we never figured out but spontaneously resolved – I have some theories) and while we were there I asked the vet to check a lump. I was hoping it was a fatty lipoma but it turns out that it’s a cancerous tumor and not the good kind. We will surgically remove it but it’s not promising that they’ll be able to get it all because it’s likely attached at the muscle level. They’ll consider that curative but it could grow right back or spread.

I dread cancer with senior goldens. We’ve lost all of our family goldens and I lost Sullie to cancer. It’s so hard. Praying that we remove this tumor and get more good years with Zoey. She is still spunky, mischievous and a happy girl. Finn absolutely adores her and I don’t know if Benji can live without her.

I’ll let y’all know how the surgery goes.

ALL THE SPORTS 

Finn has become a big fan of our MLS team the Charlotte FC so we couldn’t miss the home opening match! Bonus…it was on a Saturday afternoon, the weather was gorgeous and we won. If you live in the Charlotte-area, I can’t recommend the games enough. They’re such a fun time and a great family-friendly activity. It’s so cool to see how our city has rallied around the team and major league soccer!

My little soccer loving dude is starting rec soccer next week!

We also went to a Hornets game on Wednesday night. It was Finn’s first NBA game and we had a blast! Sadly, they lost but we were totally prepared for that as the Hornets are not known for their stellar record. 😉

RUNNING + SPRING MARATHON POSTPONED 

I crushed it with running last week – 12 miler and three five milers but this week I could only fit in two three mile runs with everything going on with Zoey and work. I have decided to forgo a spring marathon – between the flu, our vacation and some big job/work changes – it’s just not in the cards for me right now. I don’t want to show up undertrained and risk injury or having a bad race experience so I’m refocusing to run some halfs this spring. That said, hang on to your hats because I have some really fun races coming late summer and next fall!!!!!!

Lastly, every time I think I’m retired from stroller running….I do it again. It had been months since I pushed the stroller but I couldn’t resist getting a run in on a pretty weekend day that I had Finn. I actually gave him the option between a driveway workout or a run and he picked the run. He truly likes to ride with me. I told him it would be hard and I didn’t know if I could do it and he said, “mom, you workout all the time – you’ve got this.” lol

I did drive to the greenway so that I could push him on a flat, even, paved path and that helped tremendously. Hills are a no go at this point.

MY FIRST PILATES REFORMER CLASS

I took my first pilates reformer class last week. The new gym that I am working for offers reformer classes so I attended a new instructor audition class. I was low-key terrified. I had a good experience but definitely need to take a few more classes before I feel confident with the equipment and technique and can get a really solid workout. I could see myself doing this once every week or two for the core work specifically.

A FUN(FETTI) CAKE

I made a homemade funfetti cake with strawberry filling between the inside layers. It’s been a minute since I baked a three layer cake and I really enjoyed the process.

My icing skills will always leave something to be desired but I think it turned out so well! I baked this for a friend’s birthday.

I used this recipe for the cake and this recipe for the strawberry filling.

I think I’ll end of that sweet note! We are going to start our descent soon and want to make sure I actually get this post published.

Have a great weekend and I’ll write a recap post on the flight home!

QUESTIONS 

Do you enjoy skiing? Did you go on a ski trip this year? Where? 

Have you tried pilates reformer classes? 

What’s your favorite pro sport and team?