Girls Weekend

You know those friends who know your life story? The ones who know that you get impatient when you're hungry, and that you take long showers, and that you are an early bird no matter how late you stay up, and that you prefer beer to wine? Yeah. Those friends. I love those friends.

A couple weeks ago, I got together with two of em in Des Moines, after our rescheduled Girls Trip was forced out of Omaha by Warren Buffett and the Berkies. (No, we will not pay $400 for a hotel, Mr. Buffett, even if you did send me a personalized note once.)

I've been best friends with these girls since we were 10. Through high school:

2000

Through college:

2007

And into adult/mommyhood:

2014

 

 

 

 

These girls are still the girls I turn to about big life decisions, small ones, when I need a laugh, when I need to cry, when I need to call someone on the way home from work so I don't lose my sanity listening to the Frozen soundtrack for the 472nd  time.

I won't go into detail about everything we did. (Those bills from the Gap and Limited will do that for me in a couple weeks.) I will hit ya with the highlights though. Here are the things I'll remember most:

-spending the two hour drive to Des Moines talking about the eating habits of our children
(not sure if that's impressive or sad)
-being greeted by these plants, chocolates and champagne on ice waiting at Cari's aunts place where we stayed on Friday
(Cari's aunts are the BEST, no offense to mine ;)

-staying up super late reading all the notes we sent each other in high school
(yes, I inherited my mom's hoarding tendencies and kept all my notes from high school)

It was hilarious to read what our 17-year-old brains were thinking about. And a little lame. But Ericka's poetry had me laughing so hard I could not speak. "Why does life have to suck?"

-getting ready with NO INTERRUPTIONS by little people
-eating breakfast WHILE IT WAS STILL HOT
-buying clothes FOR OURSELVES

If I'm making it sound life we weren't missing our children, sorry I'm not sorry. While we talked about our kids a LOT, we also had a blast.

-eating a late lunch at Coach's Pizza in Des Moines (yummm)
-Cari taking this pic and then proceeding to spill Ericka's and my beer all over herself and the ground when she bumped the table 

-mani/pedis or the lack thereof
-drunk shopping and dancing in the dressing room (I will not reveal who this was.)
-gorging on dinner at Court Avenue Brewing Co.

-not having a White Russian, not at all

-feeling OLD at Beer Can Alley
-not caring
-wishing girls had more clothes on and worrying about the ones who looked too hammered to stand
-realizing we are in our 30s!
-taking a cab home even though we didn't need it
-sleeping/snoring
-breakfast with my other BFF and her daughter

-wishing we had more time
-driving home to see and squeeze our babies

No matter how many years or miles pass by, these girls have been, are, and will continue to be my best friends. Can't wait to take another pic in 7 years!

Ouch! the Sequel

Some of you may remember the video we took of Faith laughing at her dad saying "ouch" when she was 8 months old. If not, let's go jogging with your memory:

Adorable, right?

Some of you may also remember when a similarly aged baby totally copied off Faith and laughed hysterically at her dad, but as he ripped up paper. That baby went viral, racking up more than 68 million hits on YouTube, becoming instantly internet famous and making appearances on national TV. 

Faith's "ouch video" has 431 hits. I'm not bitter or anything, but c'mon!

Even though we never got to meet Robin Roberts, the video was well worth it and Faith has loved watching it ever since. So imagine our pure delight when lil sis thought the same thing was hilarious. It's possible my kids are sadistic or maybe their mom and dad need new material, but either way, we'll take it. 

Baby giggles are the absolute best. They're also exclusive. If an adult tries to slap me on the nose and laugh his or her heart out when I say ouch: not so endearing. And I definitely wouldn't post it on YouTube for the world to see. Now cross your fingers that this video goes viral and pays for the Lindquist ladies' post-secondary education. And Robin Roberts, if you're reading this, my -- I mean Gabby's calendar is wide open.

What Happens When You Give Up Target For Lent

Target is my happy place. So when I failed to give up any of my favorite foods, Facebook or fun in general for Lent, I decided to give up the Bullseye for 40 days. 40 looong days.

Rob joined me in this venture, except the day he cheated on me with another woman.

I'd know that nail polish anywhere.

I had to, he said. I couldn't get this anywhere else, he said. #weak

But for 39 days, we made it work and here's how:

-by using deodorant that burned Rob's armpits because the grocery store doesn't sell his brand
-by utilizing all of our travel toothpaste
-by having grandma give Gabby diapers for Easter
-by handing Gabby pacifiers designed for newborns after Howie ate all our MAMs
-by not combing Faith's hair on a daily basis because we didn't have her detangler
-by allowing Faith to wear shoes that were probably too small for a few weeks
-by buying Cascade at Menards
-by continuing to procrastinate on printing pictures
-by regifting giving creative gifts
-by stuffing Easter eggs with Valentine's day candy

Hey, it wasn't easy for any of us. But it was all worth it for this:

I sent this picture to Rob the other day with the caption: How You Like Me Now?

As an Easter present to ourselves, we planned to make a Target run on Sunday, but not before we ate our weight in cheesy potatoes. Word to the wise: Target is not open on Easter Sunday. Good for them. Sad for us. Not only could we not get the necessities we so desperately needed, we also couldn't walk off our carbs. We settled for Starbucks (Rob's happy place) and a cookie for our little peep who woke up puking BEFORE she even ate any candy. #kidfail

Faithy feeling better after she puke-ded -- her new word.

People continue to ask us  if we take advantage of our new roommates as built-in, free babysitters. Them offering to babysit on Easter Monday actually cost us money. $228 to be exact. We're never doing date night at Target again.