10/13/11 - Vacation is Stressful

Who know, getting ready for a trip is way too stressful! Well, of course for me it is. I'm pretty sure everything is too stressful for me!

I was off to work this morning, only in an attempt to tie up as many loose ends as possible and get some high priority stuff done. After a few hours, I called it a day and I was on my way home for the night. Home to clean, pack and get ready to go! I wanted to clean as much as possible in an attempt to come home to fairly clean house on Sunday...so, I spent most of the afternoon/evening doing dishes, vacuuming, putting clothes away, washing a couple loads of laundry, cleaning the litter boxes and picking up the disaster of a basement. As exhausting as it is, there are very few things in this world better than the look and smell of a clean house!

Finally, I was able to start packing and getting ready. Thankfully it's just a couple days, because packing overwhelms me. I'm always afraid that I'm going to forget something life or death important...as if I'd really be taking anything of that magnitude on a trip with me. Again, everything stresses me out.

Once Christian and the girls arrived home, we ate some dinner and I just spent the evening with them. It's only 2.5 days, but the thought of leaving them is just so upsetting. The most I've ever been away from Olivia is just an overnight at Grandma's house. And, I've NEVER been away from Amelia, not even for a night. I am so looking forward to this little vacation...meeting my friends, getting some time away from life and responsibilities. But, it is hard to leave them. And, we've decided that it's best for me to take the truck for the weekend, so I'm even more stressed out! LOL

Here is a cute picture of the girls tonight. Christian was outside doing some stuff, and the girls were just watching him out the window the whole time. It was cute.

10/12/11 - My Project

Today was a pretty boring day. Work was pretty quiet, which gave me the chance to make a good dent in my work load. Always a welcomed change. After work, we all met up at home and just hung out for the night. There really isn't anything to report, it was a pretty sad and pathetic day in our world!

I do have to share this though....we have these 4 big pictures in our living room (decorative pictures, that go with our current "travel" theme), that we've had since our early apartment days, and I've wanted to replace them for quite some time. This week Walmart was offering free 11x14 collage prints, which is exactly what I've been wanting. My plan was to make a collage print of our family pictures for each season, and just replace them as the seasons come and go. That way, we'll always have an up to date collection of our favorite pictures. So, I was finally able to print the 4 pictures, and replace the prints - and all basically for free! I love the way it turned out, and It feels nice to finally complete a project I've been wanting to do for so long.

Here is the finished product....

10/11/11 - Halloween, Check!

I think we are officially ready for Halloween! YAY. I was able to borrow a little witch costume for Olivia from a friend at work, and today Party City had a 25% off coupon, so I picked up a little black cat costume for Amelia. I'm so excited, they are going to be SO cute, and we made out super cheap, which is even better! I have our Halloween events planned out...some crafts, carving pumpkins, a few Halloween parties and, of course, trick or treating. SO FUN! I swear, I could not stand Halloween for so many years, I did not see the point of it for so long. But, when you have little gremlins to celebrate with, it makes the world of difference.

Other than that excitement, today was a pretty normal day. Work, home, dinner, play, bed. Just another day in our exciting house!

Amelia has a new obsession with the little star fountain we have for the bathtub. She just discovered it tonight, and thinks it's hilarious. I didn't have the camera handy when she first noticed it, so I missed the excitement, but I still got a pretty cute picture of her.

10/10/11 - DEFINITE Case of the Monday's!

Today I was feeling Monday, HARD CORE. From start to finish.

I don't know what it was, but it seemed like everything that could go wrong, did. Woke up late, horrible traffic, including every stupid driver on the road surrounding me the whole way to work. Work was just one problem after another. I just cannot stand days like that. It's hard enough keeping up and just getting work done in general, but when everything you touch is a problem, and every 5 minutes you are getting a call or e-mail from somebody with a dumb question (yes, I don't care what anybody says, there is such thing as a dumb question), it's seriously impossible. It just instantly puts me in a bad mood when I feel like I'm not being productive. Which, is just kind of my general feeling these days.

About halfway through the day I realized that today is Columbus Day, and typically that would be a Holiday for us, but we gave that up for the day after Thanksgiving. I determined that that was why I was in such a bad mood...and that it was completely acceptable to be feeling that way...

The day started looking more typical once work ended. Met up at home with the rest of the family. Ate some dinner, watched a little TV, did a little playing. It doesn't matter how bad the day might start...it ends with kisses and hugs from the most beautiful girls in the world, and that can certainly make anything better!

Yesterday my stepmom gave the girls a Halloween sucker, some super cool Halloween suckers. Olivia was obsessed with hers. She finally opened it up tonight and was showing it off like it was the most amazing thing in the world. It was pretty funny.

10/9/11 - "Birthday" and Birthday

Today was a pretty fun day all around.

First up, we were up, eating breakfast and getting ready for the day, bright and early. We were off to church to celebrate Amelia's baptism "birthday". The church she was baptized at does an annual "birthday" party for all of the children baptized the year before. They gave each of the kids a little book, they all got to make a little bag (even the siblings to to make one too, which was nice), they had a special part of the service to honor the baptism babies and some snacks. It was really fun, and it was a nice thing to be a part of. I sure wish that we could get our lives a little less chaotic and a little more in order so that we could start attending church on a regular basis. We really need to make an effort to do that!

After the party, we stopped over to Christian's parents house. Our mom's were chatting one day, his mom mentioned that they were looking to get rid of their kitchen table and chairs, my mom mentioned that she was going to need a new set, so we were commissioned to pick up and drop off the set. So, we did that, then were on our way home for a while.

The girls fell asleep on the way home, took a nice little nap, then woke up just in time to head off to our next event. The girls and I were off to celebrate my Grandma's birthday (while Christian's lazy butt laid around the house). The girls had so much fun running around with all of the other kids...jumping in the leaves, following each other all over the place and just being goofy little kids. It's always nice catching up with the family too.

Finally, the girls were exhausted and ready to head home. We got them in for a quick bath and a little bedtime snack, and everybody was off to bed. Such a busy fun-filled weekend, you just can't ask for much more!

Here are some pics from my Grandma's birthday party.

10/8/11 - Annual Sever's Trip

Today was definitely one of my favorite days of the year.

It didn't really start out that way. Started off kind of crappy actually. The car and the truck each went in for an oil change. Oh, routine car maintenance, how I loathe thee. Luckily we had pretty decent coupons for them, so that was nice. But, while working on my car they said the coolant was low, so there may be a leak of some sort. And, while working on the trick, they noticed one of the tire rods was loose (the last issue we were having with the car). The truck is still under an extended warranty, so he'll just have to pay the deductible, but still. Ick. HOWEVER, it does make me laugh a little. He gave me SUCH a hard time about getting mine replaced, claiming it was because of the way I drive (taking corners too fast/too sharp, etc.). Now what?!? My car is 7 years older than his, yet his needs the same replacement? Jerk.

While he was off taking care of the vehicles, the girls and I ate breakfast, I packed up our bag, they took their bath and I got them ready for the day. Then, Christian and I quickly got ready, and we were off to meet my BFF's family at Sever's Corn Maze for the day. Like I said, one of my favorite days of the year.

I won 4 tickets to Sever's on facebook a few weeks back. The girls get in free, so with our 2 extra tickets, Kari and Jay only had to buy one ticket, for their son. Not too bad! Then, fun and chaos ensued! We ate some lunch, took a trip down the super slide, played in the corn pool for a while, jumped on the jumping pillow for a bit, checked out the petting zoo, went on pony rides (Amelia's first), took another trip down the slide and played in the pumpkin patch for a bit. The weather was ridiculously gorgeous, and it was such a blast, like usual. We were pretty sad to say goodbye for another year, but the girls were beyond exhausted, we were all as dirty as we possibly could be, and it was time to head out.

The girls passed out almost as soon as we left. Once home, they continued to nap. Christian was off to hang out with a friend for the evening. Since I'm off on vacation next weekend, I "let" him have a night out to escape for a bit. The girls were still napping 7:30 and I finally woke them up. They hadn't really eating anything but snacks since breakfast, Olivia hadn't gone potty for a long time and Amelia needed a diaper change. So, I knew I couldn't just leave them down for the night.

We ate some dinner and had many, MANY laughs playing and goofing around. It was nice to spend some quality alone time with the girls. While I'm very excited to get away for some much needed mommy time next weekend, it's going to be hard. I've never been away from Olivia for more than a night, and NEVER been away from Amelia. I know it's going to be difficult to be away, but it is only for 3 days/2 nights. I just need to remind myself of that.

Surprisingly, I did get the girls down to bed at 9:30, so not too bad. Hopefully down for the ENTIRE night. Only time will tell.

Here are some of my favorite snaps from Sever's. Too much fun!

10/7/11 - Surprise Family Fun Night

Today was a pretty great day. I mean, it is Friday, so just has a great sound to it automatically. However, it should be my Friday off, but since my mom was out of town at a conference last week, we switched. It felt very strange to be at work on Pay [Bills] Day. One of my coworkers planned an impromptu lunch outing for the office. It was nice to get away from the desk for a while.

After work, the girls and I got ready because we decided to make a last minute trip out to the Mall of America aquarium tonight. They had half price tickets tonight, and half of each ticket sale was going to the Children's Hospital. Half price, great cause, a must. So, as soon as Christian got home, we were off for some family fun.

The girls had a blast checking out all of the fish again. It's nice, at this age, they don't really remember anything. So, even though we were just there a couple months ago, it was like their first time all over again. So cute. Plus, Amelia is so much more active and interested now...she was very into it.

We grabbed some dinner, and were on our way home, for bed. The girls went down, I caught up on some DVR goodness, and Christian passed out on the couch. Just another Friday night :)

Here are some pictures from the aquarium. I'm still totally in love with the jelly fish.

10/6/11 - Another Day...

Today was a pretty low key day. Everything was kind of annoying me all day though (I know, not TOO hard to do, but, still). I swear, I got behind every horrible driver on the road this morning. At work, my list of annoyances only grew. Some, trivial, some, really tip me over the edge some days.

- People who go in the stall right next to me in the bathroom, when they are ALL open;

- The ongoing debate about the Vikings stadium...all the dumb people who keep saying "they don't win, they don't deserve a stadium". OK dummy, that's great, except that the stadium is not about the team, it's about the state.

- People who call me when I e-mail them. I HATE that. If I wanted to talk to you, I would have called you. That is why I e-mailed you.

- Our checkbooks...as I attempted to balance our budget today.

- The current "ban on gay marriage" debate going on in our state right now. It disgusts me. Bottom line, if you don't agree with same sex marriage, don't marry somebody of the same sex. Outside of that, WHY do you care who somebody else marries? It does not affect you, it has nothing to do with you, so mind your own business. Period.

I posted this list on facebook, and some of my friends added to it (which, I quite enjoyed). Many of them, I could have easily added to my initial list. It was quite entertaining actually.

The work day actually flew by. Like usual, the big plus to being so swamped. I had plans, again, to take advantage of our amazing stretch of weather and take the girls to the park. Unfortunately, again, Olivia had a hard time going down for her nap today. So, she was still asleep when Christian arrived to pick them up. So, no park, again. But, I did get a chance to really clean up the house, do the dishes and finish putting up the Halloween decorations. YAY! Now we just need to finish the outdoor lights and we'll be good. Our first time decorating the house for Halloween. It isn't much, but it's fun.

We spent the night just hanging out, like usual. The girls have continued to get along great, and it feels AMAZING. THIS is what I imagined having two kids so close together. THIS, is perfection!

The only picture I took today was of the trees outside of our house. The leaves will soon be gone as we are supposed to have a crazy windy weekend, so I had to snap this one. Gonna miss these fall colors!

10/5/11 - Where Has My Luck Gone...

Just another typical day for our household. Work was crazy, busy, stressful...still not catching up. Christian continues to work and hour or two of overtime most days. The girls are getting along, for the most part. The animals are a nuisance. Same old, same old.

I'm getting a little frustrated with our lacking ability to sell the USA Baby Gift Card. Amelia has to get out of the infant carrier, like, NOW, so until we come into some money, we're going to have to move the car seat from Christian's truck into my car, and I'm going to have to start driving them everywhere...again. It's so inconvenient. With the stuff we've sold on Craigslist lately, we should have enough for one. But, that doesn't really cut it. I've had two offers on the gift card...it's a $300 card, and so far I've been offered $150 and $200. We just couldn't accept it. I know that I won it, and anything we sell it for is profit, but I can't just hand somebody $100 or $15o. I can't. Especially when we need the money. So, I guess we'll continue to wait....wait....wait.

That was really about it for today. I really wanted to go to the park with the girls after work, but Olivia fought her nap today, and was still sleeping when Christian picked them up. So, it was too late by the time they got home. So, we just ate, played for a bit, did a little Halloween decorating, then were off to bed. Yup, story of our life :)

I did play a little Play-Doh with the girls tonight. They thought it was pretty cool. Olivia was very into the numbers, she was having a blast...

10/4/11 - Appreciation...

Today started off on a pretty great note for me. I've been working on a pretty big, stressful Contract for months now. I finally executed it today, and the project manager surprised me with some flowers. That NEVER happens. It felt amazing to be appreciated. We're usually just getting yelled at and pretty much spend our days trying to get people to realize that we can't just snap our fingers and execute their Contracts. It's amazing what a little bouquet of wild flowers can do for your morale!

The work day was much more bearable after that. Before I knew it, it was quitting time. I did some cleaning up and enjoyed some alone time before the rest of the house got home. I sure love my alone time after work. It's such a nice way to wind down from the day.

We spent the night pretty much like any other night. Family fun around the house. These are the days of our lives...

Here is a crappy cell phone picture of my flowers. Love them!