4/4/12

Today I don't have a ton to report on. Life has been pretty standard lately. Christian's work still hasn't held the interviews for that job he's been preparing for. He said it's supposed to happen at some point this week. He's really excited about it, but he doesn't sound very optimistic. I guess he found out there are interviewing a few guys from outside of the company, in addition to him and one of the guys from the night crew. He things one of them is going to end up getting it. I guess there are also rumor that the "higher up" guy that will be conducting the interviews and making the final decision is pretty racist, and never chooses a minority over a "white guy". From the things they've done over the years, and the stories Christian has told me, this wouldn't surprise me. It's sad though, and I feel so bad for him. He takes so much pride in his job, and is probably the most accountable guy there...it's sad that he doesn't get what he deserves from all of his efforts and hard work.

I ended up picking up the girls today because he had to work late. When I pulled up, Olivia's class was outside playing. She was standing in the middle of the park, all my herself, looking kind of sad and lonely. As I looked around, most of the kids there were older, I'm guessing most of her class, and her friends, were already gone for the day. When she spotted me, she came running over to the fence so excited to see me. Love that girl!

I went into the center to get them and all of their stuff. The director stopped me and we chatted for a few minutes. She said Olivia is doing so great, and she and a few of the other girls are inseparable. I told her she always talks about a few girls, Jayla, Bella and Caroline. She say "yup, that's them. They're always together". She has her own little clique at school....and so it begins! LOL. Today they all planted a little plant to bring home. We'll be adding that to the little flower pot they colored the other day, which just started sprouting some leaves. It's so fun to see all of the goodies she brings home from school :)

When we went back to get Amelia, she and another little boy were standing there having a very serious "conversation". I don't know why, but it just cracked me up.

Christian met us as soon as we got home. He made some dinner and fed the girls while I got my workout in. We ended up having a quick little fire with the girls. Olivia is suddenly obsessed with bonfires and won't stop talking about them, so we figured, why not?!? Here are a couple pics...

4/3/12

Today was an OK day. We had our first biggest loser weigh-in at work. I was a little disappointed in my 2 week progress, I think it was 2.4lbs down. I'm going to guess that a 2.4lb loss is not going to have me in the winner's ring for this weeks incentive! Hopefully I can pick things up a little bit. I've been managing to keep on top of my work lately, which is a nice change of pace. Let's see how long it lasts!

After dinner I was off to meet the BFF for dinner. Of course, at Khan's. Where else?!? The food was delicious, as usual. It definitely didn't sit too well though. It's overall not THAT bad for you, but of course the cooking oil doesn't do it any favors. My body definitely doesn't enjoy that kind of food like it used to, that's for sure! While I was off catching up with the BFF, Christian and the girls had dinner at his mom's. Of course - that really shouldn't surprise anyone!

We spent a little time hanging out together before baths and bed. I found a pair of Princess boots for Olivia on super clearance a few weeks ago. They are big on her now, but I couldn't pass up the sale. The girls got into them tonight, and Amelia thought it was HILARIOUS wearing them around the house. They were cracking me up...

4/2/12

Today was pretty much your run of the mill Monday. Work was pretty busy. I spent the day catching up on all of the tasks and paperwork I put off for as long as possible. So, obviously a pretty exciting day. LOL.

My workout tonight was a pretty long one, so Christian hung out at his mom's when he went to pick them up so I could get that done and start dinner. By the time we ate dinner and cleaned up, we didn't have much time left to play. Just enough for the girls to play princes for a while...as you can see, Amelia attempted to dress herself, resulting in a backwards dress, missing an arm, but heck, she can pull it off.

4/1/12

Another fantastic day for us!!

The girls slept until a more "normal" time, which was nice. Olivia seems to finally be better, and back to normal, which is great. Back to actually sleeping - nothing like a GOOD, full night of sleep!

Christian handled breakfast and all of that fun stuff, while I started on my chores for the day. The usual...dishes, sweeping, cleaning the kitchen, laundry. You know, the fun stuff!

While the girls napped, I exercised, we showered and got ready for the rest of the day. We had to wake them up to get them ready, and were off to the girls' very first Circus! Christian had never been to a circus here, and I haven't been in a LONG, LONG time, so we were pretty excited about it. We ate some hotdogs and popcorn, bought some goodies and wandered the arena before the show. Then met up with my friend Kelly from work, and her family, for the show. During intermission we got Olivia's face painted, and ran into my cousin Chad and his family. The second half of the show was pretty short, and we were on our way home right away when it ended. Olivia did really well - she sat well during the show and watched intently. Amelia was a bit of a wiggle worm the whole time, but she did surprisingly well.

They were both exhausted and passed out right away when we got home. Another weekend has come to an end. Sad, and hard to believe. Here are some pictures from the Circus :)

3/31/12

Today was a very busy, very Easter filled family day. The girls were up VERY bright and early. After taking some time to relax and actually wake up, we had ourselves a big breakfast, got ready, and were off on our first adventure. Mall of America, to meet the Easter Bunny! The girls have always done well with Santa and the Easter Bunny, so I was interested to see how it would go this year. Olivia was very into it. She ran right up to him to give him a big hug. Amelia was more nervous, she gave in and sat next to him, but did not offer up any smiles. LOL. We still got a couple shots though.

After wandering the mall for a while, we headed home for some lunch and naps. While the girls napped, I ran to pick up some final egg dying and cooking making supplies, then quickly got my workout in before starting up our evening activities.

I boiled our eggs and gathered all of our supplies. The girls woke up from their nap, ate some dinner and we got to work. We dyed our eggs in a variety of fun ways...your standard "dip in the cup" colors, the egg spinner, tye-dyed with a paper towel, and my newest experiment, silk-dyed. It was fun, the girls had a blast! It gets better every year when the girls actually get into it and can do things. Next up, we baked our Easter cookies. I wanted to do lots of fun shapes, but it just wasn't working out, and it was getting late, so we just went with regular old round cookies. Still delicious, obviously :)

It was already past bedtime when we finally finished up our Easter fun, so the girls took a quick bath, and off they went. Christian's friend from work stopped over, needing his help with some car stuff again, so I cuddled up with the DVR while he did that. Nice relaxing night after a hectic, fun filled day :)

Here are some pictures from our day!

3/30/12

Friday, sweet Friday. If only it were my Friday off, the day would be complete :)

I posted about my "friend" issues on facebook last night, and throughout the day I was reminded of how many amazing friends I really do have. All of the nice comments, the kind posts and the uplifting words just made my day. I have so many REAL, great friends, I truly am blessed. Definitely need to remember that when I'm feeling down!

I weighed in this morning, and lost another pound!!! YAY, that brings me to 16.4 today. Feeling good, and hoping it continues! Tonight my workout was a kickboxing workout, and HOLY MOLY it seriously kicked my butt! I love it though, I'd say that and the Ballet video are my favorites. They are such different workouts, but they leave me feeling like it was worth my time.

I left work a little early today so that I could get the workout and a shower in, because we actually had plans to go out!! YES!! Much needed adult time, and catch up time with our friends Nate and Gini. We met them at Buffalo Wild Wings for some yummy dinner, a beer or two and lots of laughs. It was great catching up with them...hopefully it can be a more regular thing!

After some adult time, we picked up the girls from my mom's, headed home, and relaxed for the rest of the night. I caught up on a few shows before passing out.

Tonights picture is Olivia, coloring away. Coloring seems to be her new thing suddenly. The best part is that she actually colors, like tries to stay inside the lines and everything. It's cute!

3/29/12

Today is my stepmom's birthday, so a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her :)

It was a pretty low key day today. Ended on a bit of a frustrating note though. It amazes me the way people act sometimes. You think adults can be adults, let bygones be bygones, and just move on from differences, arguments, etc. It's really annoying when you learn that just isn't always the case.

What's more than that...I hate to be left if decisions you've made in your fact, were the right ones. The people you choose to have in your wedding, the people you assign important "titles" to, the amount of trust and faith you place in people. When those people let you down, or show their true colors and make you start questioning those decisions, that trust, that faith, it just makes everything that much more frustrating. I hate feeling like we've made "mistakes", regretting important decisions. But, what do you do. There's no going back, there's no changing the past or redo's in life. So, moving on is the only real choice that we have.

So, other than that, it was a pretty standard day. Work was work. We continued the suppositories on Olivia, and they seem to be helping. After a workout, dinner, a little playtime and some baths, we were all in bed for the night. Another day down :)

Here is a picture of my cutie, trying on Daddy's hat....

3/28/12

Well, Olivia was up all night last night, screaming and crying. Poor thing. She finally slept out on the couch with Christian, and that seemed to help her actually sleep a little bit. I decided this morning it would be best to take her in and get her checked out. I figured if nothing else, they can give us some good advice of what to do for her. So, I headed into work, took care of some priority stuff, and picked her up from school at 12:30 for her appointment.

When I got to school, I spied on her for a few minutes. She was just beaming, she looked so incredibly happy! She was running around with some of the other little girls, playing and laughing. Just having the time of her life. They had just finished lunch, and were getting ready to settle in for a story before naps (waiting for everyone to finish washing hands and cleaning up). Olivia finally spotted me and came running over. She took me on a little tour of their classroom and all of their new stuff. They are growing a little garden, and raising some butterflies. She thought it was all SUPER cool. They made bird seed shakers today which she was really excited about as well. It’s so fun to see her so excited about everything. Just justifies our decision to put them in even more!

We were finally off to her appointment. Everything checked out well…the doctor wasn’t worried about a blockage or anything, so that was good. She had us start Olivia on some suppositories, and said to just keep doing what we’ve been doing. Hopefully in another couple of days she’ll be back to normal. So, I took her home and she took a nice long nap. I ate some lunch, relaxed for a while and got my workout in. Once Christian was home, I was off on tonight’s adventure. A screening of “Mirror Mirror” with my friend Gini. We grabbed some dinner and chatted for a while. I haven’t seen her in FOREVER, so it was great catching up. Lots of venting, lots of laughs. The movie was actually really good too. I didn’t really know what to expect, or how adult entertaining it would be, but it was actually really funny, very cute and great for every age. It was a nice stress reliever from everything! By the time I got home from the movie, the girls were in bed, and I tucked myself in for the night. All in all, it was actually a pretty good day!

In other news…Amelia turned 20 months on Monday. We finally got her 20 month picture today. She seems to be growing and learning like CRAZY these days. Her talking, especially since being in school, is pretty amazing. She can clearly repeat just about everything you say to her, and she has a lot of new phrases. “I need help”, “I want more”, “Milk please”, “I want Daddy” (this one, I’m not such a fan of, LOL – but she almost instantly reaches back for me anyway when he takes her. Ha.) are what we usually hear. She can say her own name, thank you, excuse me, let’s go, puppy, juice and all of her other usuals. It seems like she has a few new words every day. She has picked up the “Twinkle Twinkle” tune and “sings” that a lot. She’s been doing a lot of coloring and arts and crafts in school. She comes home very dirty every day. LOL. I’m just so proud of her, she’s growing up so much! She is still in 12-18 month clothes. Most fit her just fine, some are getting small, but only because of her belly. According to the tags of most brands, she’s still not even in the weight range for 12-18 month clothes. LOL. As I collect summer clothes for them, I am getting her 18-24 month stuff though, so hopefully they’ll actually fit! She’s been sleeping really well, no issues for a long time now. She really just tunes Olivia out now and sleeps right through when she wakes up. At the park the last few weeks she’s shown that she can climb the rock wall and all of the different stairs, she goes down the slides and everything on her own. Her new favorite thing is to do summersaults, which is very cute. She’s still our little cuddle bug, but she has a very mischievous side as well. She definitely eggs Olivia on in a lot of their “rumbles” and gets herself into a lot of trouble. She’s just so dang cute though! My baby, getting so big!