11/18/11 - "My Schedule"

Today, my "30 Days of Thankful" item is, my current/upcoming work schedule. Today is my usual Friday off (and, between Holiday's and my flex Friday's, I actually don't work a single Friday in November!). Next week, my mother in law has to work her regular job on Monday and Wednesday, we're off Thursday and Friday, so I figured it was pointless to only have her watch them for one day. Figured, she might as well just take the whole week "off", which actually works better for us anyway so we can put that money towards Thanksgiving food. But, I do have some work I NEED to get done next week, so my mom is going to watch the girls on Wednesday so I can do that. So, I only work one day next week. Pretty sure I can handle that! I love the flexibility at my work. It makes life SO much easier!

I'm not going to lie, today was a pretty rough day. I am FAAAAAR too old for such late nights. The girls were up at 7:00AM, bright and early of course. I was so exhausted, all day. I felt bad not giving them as much attention as I should have, but on top of being so tired, my head was pounding. I actually took a little nap when they were napping. It didn't help much though. By the time Christian got home from work, I thought my head was going to explode. We all ate some dinner, and then I took to the couch, and basically called it a night. I went to bed as soon as the girls did, and that was it. I was out cold. Next time I get the bright idea to go to a midnight showing of a movie...please remind me that I have two very young children at home, that have no interest in letting me sleep in.

Here is a picture of Amelia's new favorite place to hang out...on top of the table. Awesome.

11/17/11 - "My Home"

Today, my "30 days of Thankful" item is, my home. Well, OUR home, of course. I was pretty annoyed when I arrived home, to find our 2012 tax assessment in our mailbox. Seeing how much your house drops in value every year is one of the most depressing things ever. Our house is so far under not only what we paid for it, but what we owe on it, that it's just sad. Don't get me wrong, I know this is a VERY common issue in the world right now, I in no way thing we are the only ones in this boat, but it's SO frustrating. BUT, once my anger and resentment passed, I had to take a deep breath, look around me, and tell myself "so what?". This is our forever home. We don't plan on moving, or selling ever, let alone any time soon, so why should we care? Obviously I would LOVE to refinance now that we have a few years of home ownership under our belts, but that's it. That would be the only reason it should really upset me. Otherwise, I need to just be grateful. We have a beautiful house, that keeps us safe and warm. It provides us comfort, joy and pride. It may not be providing us with a ton of comfort financially, but it brings us happiness in so many other ways, and we are so lucky to even have a home to call ours. For that, I am extremely thankful.

Today was a very good, very long, very exhausting day. Work was great. Busy and flew by, just like the rest of the week. I'm off for a few days, so I packed up a laptop and some work on my way out the door in hopes of getting some stuff done while I'm home. We'll see. I did leave work a tad early to watch the last of my Twilight Marathon Movies, Eclipse, before the big premiere tonight. I hadn't seen any of this 3rd movie, so it was all new and exciting for me. FUN!

Once the rest of the house as home, we ate some dinner, hung out and played for a bit and the girls went off to bed. Then, I was off. I picked up Kari, and we were off to the "Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part 1" movie premiere. I wasn't sure what to expect. I have never been to an "opening night" of a movie before, not to mention a Twilight premiere nonetheless. We got there rather early, so we had plenty of time to sit around and catch up, which was nice. Finally, it was midnight, and the movie started up. It was actually REALLY good too. And, ended at a perfect place. I cannot wait to see Part 2!

By the time I dropped Kari off and got home, it was about 2:30AM. SERIOUSLY past my bedtime! As soon as I crawled into bed, Olivia woke up crying. Christian came in and said she had been up a few times....which had not happened in a LONG time. She was crying and crying, like she was in pain. I kept asking her what was wrong, and she finally said that her legs hurt. We gave her some Tylenol since it was the 3rd time she's woken up not feeling well, and she slept the rest of the night. I'm guessing she must be entering a growth spurt, and her pains are growing pains. I talked to my mom (the next day) and she said the last time Olivia spent the night there she complained that her legs hurt then too, so hopefully she's just a growing girl, and it isn't anything more than that.

In any event, I was anticipating being very, VERY tired on Friday. I was 100% sure I would barely survive. I'm old.

Here is today's picture - reading time with daddy.

11/16/11 - "My Ex-Smokerness"

Today, my "30 Days of Thankful" item is, being a successful ex-smoker. It was a long, hard road. For my age, I started smoking at a fairly young age, and never really looked back. I was basically surrounded by smokers my entire life, so it was pretty much inevitable that I would follow that path. I tried to quit smoking when I found out I was pregnant with Olivia. My body pretty much went into shock. I would shake all day long. I would burst into uncontrollable tears. I made it two weeks, and I just kept getting worse. It wasn't good for my body...as horrible as smoking was, the pain and stress I was putting myself through, was no better. As embarrassed as I am to admit it, I was unable to stay smoke free. I had one cigarette, every night. It got me through the pregnancy. Thankfully, there were no ill effects to Olivia because of it. I was finally able to really put forth an effort, with no worry about the quitting effect, in October 2009. Olivia was 9 months old, and I just knew it was time. I didn't want her to grow up with that "in her house" (even though I never actually smoked around her). I ended up being great timing, because 2 weeks after I quit, I found out I was pregnant with Amelia. I had gotten over the "terrible 2 week" quitting slump, and the new pregnancy gave me even more motivation to stay smoke free. So, a little over over 2 years later, I am officially an ex-smoker, and it feels amazing. I do think about it all the time, and I get that urge to smoke, especially on those extra stressful days. But, no matter how strong the urge, I have so many reasons to stay a quitter. Whenever I smell somebody who has been smoking, it's so overwhelming, and actually downright embarrassing to know that's what I smelled like all those years. The cost...we'd SERIOUSLY be in the poor house if I was still a smoker! I don't want our girls to see either of us doing that...setting a good example and all. And, of course, knowing that by quitting, I have added so many years onto my life, with my girls, for my girls. Nothing could beat that. So, today, I am thankful that I was give the strength to quit, and stay a quitter, even on the darkest of days.

Today was a pretty low key day. After days of completely ignoring my e-mail, my phone and my inbox at work, I finally finished a huge task that I've been putting off for so long. It feels SOOOOOOO good to actually accomplish something, and finally be able to move on. Unfortunately, for quite some time now it seems like if you don't work in the accounting section of our office, your hard work and accomplishments go virtually unnoticed, but at least I know, and I am more than happy to be proud of myself!

After work, it was just the usual. Home, dinner, play and bed. Nothing too exciting going on there! Which, is never a bad thing really. Here are he girls...found them in the back of the house, coloring away. Cuties.

11/15/11 - "My Crazy Luck"

Today, my "30 Days of Thankful" item is, my crazy luck. This year has bee AMAZING in terms of luck. On one side, I discovered a whole bunch of facebook pages that post links to freebies, free samples and giveaways. I have a basket full of shampoo, lotion and beauty samples. I've gotten pens, journals, reusable bags, tide stain release tablets, coupons for free shampoo, styling products, hair dye, chips, frozen dinners. Seriously, anything you can think of. I always say, I may suck at couponing, but I rock at free. On the other side, my winning streak this year has bee amazing, and I could not be more grateful and thankful for it. The Taylor Swift concert, the Andy Grammar/Colbie Caillat concert, Sever's Corn Maze tickets, movie screenings...an array of amazing events. Things we would never have the chance to do, if it weren't for a little luck. Today, that continued. I received notice this morning that I had won passes to the midnight opening of "Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part 1" on Thursday. I immediately sent a note to Kari, my BFF and twilight fanatic, and asked her to be my date. Following that, I made date night plans with Christian for Saturday. We have to use a free game of mini-golf voucher he won last time we went out, then we're going to dinner, using a gift card I won a couple months ago, and, of course, my mom is watching the girls for us. Yes, I am one lucky girl. I SO many ways.

So, of course with all of that excitement and plan making, it was a pretty great day. Work has been flying by as I play catch up on some not-so-fun tasks I've been putting off. I realized this morning that Thanksgiving is next week. NEXT week! Can you believe it? It is truly amazing how fast time goes. I swear, I was just making grocery lists and mapping out my cooking plan. I am very happy that Thanksgiving doesn't require a lot of thought, because I would probably go crazy. I'm having a hard enough time planning Christmas gifts and Olivia's birthday! Such madness!

So, outside of the catching up, the luck and the planning, we didn't do a ton. Just another rather typical evening in our house. Here are the girls - popsicles make everybody chill out!

11/14/11 - "My Friends"

Today, my "30 Days of Thankful" item is, my friends. As a follow up to the last 2 days, today I am thankful for my friends, in general. Some have come, and gone over the years. While at the time, it's sad, and difficult to digest, you eventually come to realize, it is always for the best. The bad "friends", the selfish "friends" always seem to ware out their welcome with time. True colors always show, and there comes a time where you need to just put your foot down and put an end to one-way friendships. On the other hand, sad as it may be, sometimes you just simply grow apart. Your lives travel different paths, your interests take new form. While it may be hard to lose friends, in the end, when the smoke clears, you are left with the people that really deserve to be called friend. The people that care about you, the people that actually want to be a part of your life. I am blessed to have a great circle of real friends. Friends that I can lean on, count on, cry with, vent to an more often than not, laugh the night away with. It's an amazing feeling to finally feel like I am surrounded by real friends.

"Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave and impossible to forget". Very true words.

Today was a pretty standard Monday. Catching up after the holiday, getting back into the swing of things. Just another day in the neighborhood really. Although, it is getting to be the time of year where all you hear, ALL day long is people hacking up lungs, sniffling non-stop and spreading their illness all over the office. Usually because they like to waste their leave time away all year long, leaving them with none when they actually need it. Sometimes just because they are just plain rude. Oh, the joys of office life :)

Like usual, it was pretty low key after work. Same old, same old! Here is a picture of my sweet baby. The girls love to stand on the couch and sing to themselves in the mirror. Apparently, it's hilarious. Whatever keeps them happy, I guess.

11/13/11 - "My Online Mama's"

Today, my "30 Days of Thankful" item is, my online mom's groups. I first joined the Babycenter community boards when I was pregnant with Olivia. I was a lurker for a while, just reading the various questions and responses. Eventually I became more and more active, the more comfortable I got. Over the years I have 3 main groups I devoted most of my time to...my January '09 spin-off group, the "Snowbabies", which was specifically for people due the same week Olivia was due. My January '09 Working Mom's group, which I enjoyed because a large majority of the online community world is stay at home mother's...while there is nothing wrong with that, it's no big surprise that the two worlds have pretty significant differences - it's nice to connect with people that are truly in the same boat as you. Finally, my July '10 spin-off board, the "Little Rubies". This is the group I definitely connected with the most. It is a very small group, and we all just had an amazing connection and great level of comfort right from the start. In the end, these women help me in so many ways. They cheer me up when I need it, they don't judge me for my choices, they let me be me - no questions asked. They have such an amazing level of tolerance and open-mindedness. There is no question that I would have gone CRAZY, long ago, without them.

Today was a pretty good Sunday. It started off fairly lazy...at least on Christian's part. Of course he ended up staying out way too late last night, so had no interest in getting up this morning. The girls and I ate some breakfast and goofed around for a while, and I managed to get some laundry done. While the girls napped, I started tearing apart the office....going through paperwork, cleaning out the closet and all that fun stuff. Now that we don't have our desktop computer, we're clearing out the room, and turning it into a playroom. We're going to get the carpet cleaned, do some painting and decorating and move all of their toys into the room. It's our next project, and I'm pretty excited about it. It will take us a while to actually get it done...we can't even get the carpet cleaners in until January, but I'm happy to have started anyway!

After naps, Christian started putting plastic on the widows. While he did that, the girls and I watched some old Disney movies...I found my box of old VHS's...seriously, how did we survive through "rewind" and 20 minutes of forced previews?!? LOL.

Finally, it was time for baths and bed. The weekend came to an end, as quickly as it usually does. At least it was another fun filled, weekend, and we got quite a bit done. Always a plus!

Here is another cute sister lovin' picture to share!

11/12/11 - "My Best Friend"

Today, my "30 Days of Thankful" item is, my best friend. I talk about her so often, but I don't think I could ever really explain how much she means to me. She's been by my side for so many years, ups and downs, good times and bad. We had our share of "fights" back in the day, but nothing more than your typical high school drama. Our friendship works so well, because we've always balanced each other out. I don't know where I would be without her, and I sure hope that I NEVER had to find out!

Today was a great Saturday. We got so much stuff done around the house, it felt great. I got some dishes and cleaning done around the house. The weather was actually beautiful today - and is supposed to take a turn for the worse next week, so we all spent some time outside. We put up the last of the Christmas lights. Put away the last of the yard decorations. Cleaned up the garage one last time. With that, we are officially ready for snow and winter (well, as ready as you can be I guess).

While the girls napped, Christian and I just relaxed and watched some TV together. Once the girls were up, and fed, Christian was off to hang out with a friend for the night. They were off to watch the big boxing match, while the girls and I hung out at home. Luckily they weren't too crazy. I did discover that Amelia can now climb up onto our bar-height dining room table now. That is NOT a very fun skill...

All in all, it was a great day, filled with a lot of randomness. Just the way I like it! Here are a couple pics of the girls enjoying our time outside. Terrorizing the neighbors tree, and "helping" hang the lights. LOL

11/11/11 - "My Mom"

Today, my "30 Days of Thankful" item is, my mom! Of course, for many countless reasons, I am very thankful for my mom. She is always there for us, and I know that she would do anything she could to help us out. We have had many rough patches over the years, and we don't always see eye to eye, but in the end none of that matters. We all grow, and we learn from our mistakes. And, our past doesn't have to rule our present. I'm grateful that we have been able to develop a closer relationship, specifically since I became a mother myself. I don't know what we would do without her, and all of her help.

Today was a pretty low key day. I had the day of for Veteran's Day. The girls were up bright and early. We played for a bit, ate some breakfast and I got them dressed....my mom is also off today, and agreed to take the girls for a while so I could get some stuff done around the house. She took them to the mall for a while, and back to her place, so I was able to get some cleaning done around the house. A little peace and quiet sure goes a long way!

She ended up bringing the girls back right around the time Christian got home from work. We had a pretty low key night (as if we party down most other nights...), and basically went to bed right after the girls. We have a busy weekend of chores coming up, so I'm sure the weekend is going to fly right by.

Here is my all time favorite picture of my mom and me. I have this one hanging up at my work, and everyone that sees it thinks that it is me and Olivia. :)

11/10/11 - "Service Men & Women"

Today, my "30 Days of Thankful" item is, our Service Men and Women. In preparation for Veteran's Day tomorrow, I thought it was only fitting to get into the spirit. So, today I am thankful for the men and women, past, present and future, who risk their lives to make a better life for the rest of us. They are brave, they are strong, they are courageous, they are truly amazing for the sacrifice. So many pay the ultimate price, all to make a better world for the rest of that. They deserve our eternal gratitude, and thank you does not even begin to provide the reward they deserve.

Today was actually a pretty great day. First, we had our first (very minor) snowfall of the year! I was really excited to look out the window and see HUGE, fluffy snowflakes falling from the sky. I thought for sure we'd be pulling out the snow gear for some fun this weekend...but, alas, it stopped snowing soon after, and that was that. Boo. Things were D-E-A-D at work, and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it that way. By lunch time, there were only 4 of us left in the office, and it was great. It was quiet and automatically less stressful just by the lack of persons. Seriously, it would be perfect if work was just like today, every day!

After work, I picked up the girls while Christian helped a friend check out some possible re-wiring work he's going to need in the house he's buying. Of course, the girls decided to take a REALLY late nap today, so they were still passed out when I got there. So, I chatted with my mother in law about Christmas and Olivia's birthday for a bit. I need to get on gift lists...time is going too fast!

Finally, we all met up back home, ate some dinner, tore about the hard and acted like a pack of crazies. Just another night in the Duran household! Of course, as a government employee, I have tomorrow off, and I've very much looking forward to it. My mom is taking the girls for a bit so I can get some stuff done around the house...exciting stuff!

Here is a picture of Olivia that I just LOVE! I could get lost in those big browns!

11/9/11 - "Seasons"

Today, my "30 Days of Thankful" item is, Seasons. And, I mean REAL, Minnesota style seasons.

• A Winter, filled with cold, crisp, breath-stealing air and glittery, snow-covered surroundings. Comfort food, hot chocolate, Christmas joy. Twinkling lights and snowmen. Such wonder, in every unique little snowflake that falls.
• A Spring, that swoops in to clean the Earth as only Mother Nature could. Fresh, clean air. Fresh, growing flowers and trees full of budding leaves. You look around, and it's as if the world is being reborn, right in front of you.
• A Summer, full of sunny, family-fun-filled days. Trips to the zoo, the parks, the lake. Days spent "poolside", no matter how kiddie that pool may be. Thunderstorms and a never ending list of things to do.
• A Fall, filled with amazing, vibrant colors and comforting scents. Trips to apple orchards, corn mazes and pumpkin patches. Halloween and Thanksgiving amazingness.

We are blessed with so many amazing things, on a daily basis, just by taking a minute to step outside, and look around.

Today was a pretty decent day. I've been enjoying myself much more at work lately, now that I finally have a normal work load going on, and consistently at that. I finally have the chance to step out of my cubicle and even chat with co-workers every once in a while...I've been so secluded for so long, unable to escape my piles, upon piles, upon piles. I can just feel the stress leaving my body. Now, the trick is to actually stay on top of things for a change!

I did leave work a tad early. I had to pick up Olivia and bring her in for her flu vaccination. She got the flu mist for the first time this year. I was a little nervous about it...to be honest, I could never bring myself to spray something up my nose. I debated doing it for Olivia. She actually does great with shots...she never cries, she watches the whole thing from start to finish. But, the thing I like about the mist is that it's active immediately, which is nice. I feel more secure knowing that she's instantly protected, versus waiting 2 weeks. She did better with it than expected. She wouldn't "sniff" for the nurse, but once we were heading to the car, on our own, I got her to do it. Then, all was done.

We picked up Amelia, and were on our way home. I whipped up a quick dinner, and then got back into my wall art projects. We borrowed a blow dryer from my mother in law...one that actually works...and I was finally able to get the vinyl from Monday to stick. And, I got the remaining two up as well. YAY! Now, I just have to finish the picture displays that go along with them, and I can finally check another "design" task off my list! Next up, the playroom!

Here are some pictures of our new wall art.