9/24/12

Today was a pretty typical Monday.

We live in a suburb about 20 minutes outside of St. Paul (where we both work). The city we live in has one main road to get in and out of (the side roads take forever). They’ve been doing construction on the main road for the last 2 summers, and this year has been really bad. The lane changes/closures are constant, and you never know what it’s going to be from day to day. Right now, our route out in the morning is down to one lane (stop and go for miles) and on top of that, they have our exit home closed (but, don’t tell us for how long), so we have to find alternative ways in and out of the city. Needless to say, we’ll both be late for work pretty much every day until this is done. I work in the construction world, so I do understand it, but this project was so poorly planned, from start to finish, it’s ridiculous. They were supposed to finish up the project by the end of this fall, and there is NO way that is going to happen. So, looks like we’ll be in for summer #3 of chaos next year.

I left work a little early today. I had an annoying headache all day, and it just kept getting worse. I stopped home, took some medicine, rested for a few minutes, and then went to Target for our weekly shopping. By the time I got home from shopping, I was feeling much better. I made dinner, the rest of the family arrived home, we ate and then Christian was off to watch Monday Night Football with a friend. The girls and I played for a bit, until it was time for Amelia to go down. Olivia and I made our way downstairs so I could do my work out, and then we were both off to bed ourselves. I watched a little TV to wind down, and came up with my latest plan…

My goal for October is to have something different for dinner every night. I’m so sick of eating the same things over and over again, and I’m in the mood to start REALLY cooking again. It's hard to do when you work all day, and then get home so late...make REAL, good meals. So, I’ll be spending this week collecting recipes and coming up with my plans. I think it will also help me to stay on track with my diet if I can really plan around our dinners. We’ll see how this goes, I’m excited though!

Here is a shot of Olivia, sneaking in her bedtime video tonight. She's so cute.

9/23/12

I woke up today still pretty upset about our no-Anniversary-celebrating. I actually didn’t really talk to Christian much today at all because I was so hurt still. Olivia slept with me last night because the girls were up laughing and goofing around last night, and I was too tired to move her back to her room after they finally fell asleep. It worked out well though, because Amelia was up at her usual 7:00AM time, but Olivia and I slept until 8:30. Nice!

I got right to my chores when we woke up…dishes, sweeping/mopping the floors, and general picking up around the house. I got most of my laundry done, just need to do the bedding this week. Christian got the girls breakfast, vacuumed and attempted to keep them under control. I could see he was quickly losing patience with them today though, so I tried to take over and distract them for a while. While they napped, we watched the Vikings game (YAY, they WON!) and I folded laundry.

Once the girls were up, we were on our way. Today we were off to the Arneson’s house. They have a spare bed they want to get rid of, and my sister-in-law is in need of one, so we’re taking it off their hands for them. They live about 45 minutes away from us, so we had to get going right away before it got too late. The kids all played together for a while…Annabelle was pretty excited to show the girls around her house, and Finley took Olivia for a spin around the yard in his car – she thought that was pretty exciting. We had dinner and chatted for a while, then were on our way. Next up, St. Paul to drop the bed off to his sister. We got it unloaded and set up while the girls played for a while. Aliana and Mia weren’t home, so Olivia was pretty disappointed, but they were able to show Camila how crazy they are. LOL.

Finally, we made our way home. The girls went right to bed. I watched a couple of shows and finished folding laundry, then we called it a night. Not looking forward to starting another week, but I think I will be leaving early tomorrow to do some grocery shopping, so I do have that to look forward to…

Here is a shot of Finley taking Olivia for a spin...

9/22/12

Well, today is our 5 year wedding anniversary. I can’t believe it’s been 5 years since we got married. I know everybody says it, but it feels like just yesterday I was planning away, anxiously awaiting that big day. Seems like we were just celebrating our newlywedness and living life “to the fullest”. So much changes in such a short amount of time. 5 years later and we have two crazy toddlers running around. Our wild nights now consist of making it through a whole movie after the girls to go bed. We’ve said goodbye to some “friends”, and we’ve welcomed some amazing new friends into our lives with open arms. We’ve grown and learned so much about each other, and ourselves, in the process. We’ve fought, we’ve argued, we’ve laughed, and laughed, and laughed some more. It seems like every day brings new challenges, new joys and new experiences, all in one. What an incredible mystery it is to wonder what the next 5 years will bring us!

“I cannot promise you it will be easy, but I can promise you it will be worth it.”

This morning Olivia and I were off and running right away. We met our friends Kelly and Annabelle at the Mall of America for a screening of “Hotel Transylvania”. I got there just in time and got a spot pretty close to the front of the line. LUCKILY, because there were actually quite a few people turned away from this one, which makes me kind of sad. I wasn’t sure how Olivia would do with this one…it looked cute and funny (which it was), but it also looked a tad scary. She was pretty uneasy at the beginning of it, but we had a little conversation and I explained that it’s all just pretend, and it’s really funny….no need to be scared at all! After that, she was perfectly fine. Laughing and very into it. It was in 3D, which I was a little disappointed in…I’m not a big fan of 3D, but this one was MUCH better quality than any other that I’ve seen, so that was a plus. Olivia did well with that part too, left her glasses on the whole time. She loved the whole experience. After the movie, we took the girls on a few rides in Nickelodeon Universe with some leftover points I had from a past trip. They took off, and Olivia and I grabbed some lunch, bought a card for Christian and stopped into the Dollar Tree so she could pick out a toy for herself, and one for Amelia.

When we were heading to the car to go home, she kept going on about how much fun she had, and how much she loved me and how happy she was. It melted my heart; she’s FINALLY learning to be appreciative and gracious. I love it! She insisted she was not tired, and did not need a nap. Even though she was KNOCKED out before we even hit the highway! Silly girl. Amelia was already down for her nap when we got home, so I put Olivia down, and it was break time!

Christian had run out to get me a card and some daisies (apparently, the “5 year anniversary flower”). After I arrived home, he ran to Menards. He wants to convert our front storm door into a screen door (so we can get some air flow from that area of the house). They didn’t have the right size frame though, so that will just have to wait. Once the girls were up from their naps, we were off to Target. The storage ottoman we wanted, to complete the basement makeover, was on sale this week. We grabbed that and a couple of necessities, grabbed some dinner and made our way home. Unfortunately, the ottoman looks way too small for where we need it, so that’s not going to work. We aren’t going to spend the money on one that would be big enough, so I think we’re just going to keep the coffee table we had there. Since we’re keeping that, we’ll need somewhere to store our movies, so we’re going to keep one of the media storage shelves we had, and make some space for it in the living room.

After we ate, we played for a bit, and then were both pretty exhausted. Well, that’s not exactly true. Christian was exhausted; I was pretty upset and hurt by our lack of anniversary celebrating. See, I’m not a super girly, girl, and I’m not huge into “date nights” or any of that, even when it comes to our anniversary. We’ve never done anything big on our anniversary, or exchanged gifts or anything like that. But, this was our FIVE year, a milestone, and it was actually on a Saturday. I REALLY wanted to go out and do something, just the two of us. Now, I know, some might be saying “well, he’s a guy, and they’re clueless”. Well, I am OK with that excuse in some situations; this is not one of them. He KNEW it was our anniversary; we’ve talked about a few times and off over the last couple of weeks. In the 11 years we’ve been together, he’s planned ONE night out for us, ONE…the night he proposed to me. Other than that, if I don’t plan it, set up a babysitter and get everything in order, we don’t do anything. I’ve told him several times that it really hurts my feelings, and he needs to step up in that area…that it makes me feel like I’m just not worth the effort. In fact, we had the conversation just a few months ago when he didn’t plan anything for my birthday, which also fell on the weekend. Yet, here we are…he was passed out on the couch at 9:00PM, and I was curled up in bed, watching my DVR doing some pinning. On our anniversary…on a Saturday night. LAME. Lack of a babysitter is not an excuse…we have parents, close by, more than willing to watch the girls anytime – free of charge. It’s just a matter of him, thinking about me for a change, and actually making an effort. I thought I would be really angry and just pissed off – I kind of figured this would happen, and have been preparing for it since he hadn’t said anything about going out or any possible plans…I was just hoping out hope for a surprise I guess. Instead of being angry, I’m really just disappointed, and hurt.

But, we'll move on, and I'll get over it. Right now, he's getting the cold shoulder though. FOR SURE!

Here are some shots from our morning out. Annabelle and Olivia ended up wearing the same exact shirts today. I couldn't believe it, I mean seriously, how does that even happpen?!? They thought it was pretty funny, but really, what are the chances?! I'm sure everybody at the mall thought we were super lame. Or, that they were the strangest looking twins EVER.

9/21/12

I was out of sorts all day today. It was really strange having Christian home with us all day. I definitely wasn’t as productive as I normally would be on my day off, and all day long I thought it was Saturday. We spent the morning just kind of hanging out, not really doing much. Had some breakfast, watched a little TV, played for a while. Pretty low key.

My weigh in today wasn't great, I gained again. Two weeks in a row! Ugh. I know that when I start a workout I seem to gain at first while my body adjusts, so hopefully that's the issue. Still frustrating though. I'm still down over 34lbs total, so not too shabby. Just need to kick it into gear!

We put the girls down for a pretty early nap in preparation for our afternoon plans. When they woke up, I took them to one of those indoor “bounce house” playgrounds in Shakopee. I bought a “Groupon” for this place months ago, and it was expiring soon. It was good for three jumps/three kids, so we invited Olivia’s BFF, Bella, to join us. We met Bella and her mom, Sara, there around 3:00 and they ran, jumped and wore themselves out for a while. Sara and I chatted and chased them around. It’s fun watching the girls all play together and see how they interact with each other. Reminds me of how much they are growing up, that’s for sure.

Once they were good and tired, we made our way home. Traffic was horrible, so it took forever, and the girls were getting really antsy for some reason. They’ve both always done really well in the car…they never really whine or anything like that (besides fight and bug each other, of course). This has happened a couple times recently, so I’m hopefully it’s not a new trend with them. I do need to work on stocking the car with some toys and books though. We’re pretty anti-TV/DVD in the car, so I’m hoping we don’t have to resort to that down the road.

We ended up just picking up Christian and going to Applebee’s for dinner. I’m so behind on grocery shopping, and we were just in the mood for a dinner out. The girls took their bath and went to bed shortly after we got home from dinner. Christian and I finally had our movie night. BUT, he wasn’t happy with my movie selection of “The Hunger Games”, and I wouldn’t budge on it, so he ended up falling asleep pretty much right away in protest. Oh well, his loss, because of course it was pretty good. I’m excited to see where the series goes.

Here are a few shots of the girls playing today. Of course the lighting was horrible, so they aren’t good quality by any means, but they are still pretty cute.

9/20/12

Today was Friday at work for both Christian and I. Tomorrow is my usual flex day, and Christian took a few random days off because he has to use up some leave time, tomorrow being one of them. So, we were both pretty busy ending our work week. I picked up the girls from school and they had another great week. Amelia officially has a folder in the “older toddler” room, so she’s been spending time there. They’ve been working on matching, “writing”, counting and all of that. She LOVES to match, mostly colors, she thinks is SUPER cool when she finds objects that match the color clothes she’s wearing. She can count to eight, and is pretty dang proud of it! Olivia’s class has been doing an “all about me” curriculum, I think because of the new school year, so they are just learning about each other and their similarities and differences. They've started a "Letter of the Week" program too, so she's been practicing a new letter and learning what that letter is associated with. This week was "F". Maybe now she'll learn to like something other than "O"! Another successful week :)

I was all set for a relaxing evening at home. Maybe a movie or two after the girls went to bed, to kick off our long weekend together. Unfortunately, Christian came up with different plans when a friend called and invited him over for Thursday night football. So, I just caught up on some shows and spent some more time on Pinterest when the girls went to bed. Disappointed, but I’m also a big fan of a little alone time whenever I can get it, so not the end of the world. We do have a fairly busy weekend ahead of us, so I do have that to look forward to.

The fall colors are starting to come in...I'm going to have to make a trip around the neighborhood to take some more pics soon...

9/19/12

Today ended up being quite hectic. It was one of those days at work where EVERYTHING seems to be out of control. It was one fire, one issue, one headache after another. The day did go fast though, so that’s good.

As I previously mentioned, I’m back on my Craigslist kick. I posted our spare room bed for sale last Friday and the response was HUGE. I really didn’t except to get so many inquiries about it. I talked to a few people over the weekend, and finally had somebody on board to buy it this upcoming weekend, at asking price. Really, he was going to come LOOK at it, no guarantee he was going to buy it. Well, today one of the people I talked over the weekend, that didn’t want to pay full price, contacted me again and REALLY wanted it. When I told him we already had somebody coming this weekend, he offered over asking price for it, TONIGHT. In the end, I couldn’t pass that up. I felt like the worst person in the world backing out on the sale like that…that’s just not me, AT ALL, but I had to go with the sure bet, and couldn’t risk losing that. I feel like Karma is going to bite me on that, but I’m still hoping I made the right choice.

After work, I rushed to get the girls and meet Christian and his friend, Lorenzo, at home. We cleared out the other “storage” stuff in the room, and waited for the buyers. They showed up, loaded the bed up and it was done. So happy to have that gone! Next up, coffee table and media storage! YAY, addiction in full force!

Christian and Lorenzo went to have dinner and a beer while the girls and I hung out. We had dinner, played for a while, and I put Amelia down. Olivia watched some videos on the iPad while I did my workout. Tonight was even harder…40 minutes! But, it did go pretty fast, and I wore my pulse watch and it said I burned 634 calories! WOW, that’s a lot. It is ALL cardio though, so that’s kind of the point. Hopefully I see some awesome results!

After my workout, I put Olivia to bed, spent some time watching TV, surfing Pinterest and winding down for the night. It felt like a LONG, busy day from start to finish.

I got our Wittlebee box today. The stuff is SUPER cute, and seems to be great quality. BUT, they didn’t really follow my instructions. When you set up your account, you create a “style profile”…the size you need, what types of clothing you need, what colors/patters/style you like, etc. I signed up ONLY for long sleeved shirts for Olivia. We don’t need short sleeves or dresses right now, and we don’t need pants – but if we did, she would need 5T, and you can’t mix sizes. Well….the box had ONE long sleeved shirt, THREE short sleeved shirts and TWO pairs of pants. Ummmm, not even close. I was really hoping their customer service would be just as great as everything else, but unfortunately, I was disappointed. They refused to replace any pieces, simply because I received that month's box as a discounted rate. I thought that was ridiculous. I can understand not sticking EXACTLY to the patterns/colors/styles listed in a profile, but if ALL I sign up for is long sleeved shirts, that's all I should get. Period. I ended up canceling my membership right there on the spot, because I was so upset and disappointed. Here I am, left with two pairs of too-small pants that won't be worn, and three shirts that likely won't wither. Sign.

Here are some photos of the box though, at least the stuff is cute, maybe I just saved myself a ton of money in the end! LOL

9/18/12

Well, back to work today. At least, thanks to my impromptu day off yesterday, and flex day on Friday, it’s a 3-day week for me!

This morning started off my more successfully. I was up bright and early, ready to get back on the exercise train. My plan is to do a quick 20-30 minute workout before work – something to hit a specific area of the body (with extra ab days to finish getting rid of that c-section pouch), do my 2 mile walk at work and do my new Rockin’ Body workout in the evening. Well, my morning workout wasn’t super successful. I thought I’d be able to get away with doing it upstairs…not the case. It was too noisy and I didn’t want to wake the girls up. So, I decided to stop ¼ of the way through, and try again tomorrow…downstairs in my usual exercise area. Although, I do need to figure out how to get my energy level up, because I was just dragging, and that isn’t going to make for a very successful workout either. I did get my walk in, nothing out of the ordinary there. And, the evening workout KICKED MY BUTT. This video is basically a “dancing”, hardcore cardio workout. I have very little coordination, so it was really tough for me. But, it went by fast, and it was actually pretty fun. Hopefully I’ll get the hang of it! So, now I have my new plan in place, and I can finally start chipping away at the other half of my weight loss!

I need to find some things to aid in getting back on track, and staying on track. I’m thinking I need to turn my nightstand into a little weight loss “motivational” corner. I’ve been searching Pinterest for some ideas and have a few. Just need to get going on executing them…

As for the actual day, it went well. Work went by fast, I was able to catch up on everything from being gone yesterday. I stopped into Target quick after work…school needed supplies for Amelia and I was too lazy to do get that done this weekend. Then, I picked up the girls, did the dinner/clean-up/baths/bed routine. Finally, got my workout in, watched a couple shows to unwind, and called it a night.

Here is a shot of Olivia tonight...seriously, where did this grown child come from?!?

9/17/12

Today did not pan out as expected. Apparently I did not set the alarm clock last night (maybe as revenge for my Saturday morning, unnecessary wake-up call, when I forgot to turn it off?), and woke up at 6:45….AKA, extremely late. I quick woke Christian up (also late) and he was on his way. I decided to let the girls sleep since they weren’t up already (like usual). I knew they’d be pretty tired after our busy, late night weekend. As I tried to go back to bed, I just kept thinking – man, I really want to take the day off. My head hurt a little, I was tired and have just been craving a ME day for a long time. So, I went for it. I called in, and officially took the day off. The girls woke up around 8:00…I packed them up, loaded them in the car and dropped them off at my in-laws. Then, home I went. I spent a large majority of the day in bed. Caught up on my DVR (literally, it was empty by the end of the afternoon – until prime time hit, but whatever), did some chatting on facebook, edited some pictures and started my new obsession…Pinterest. I know, I know…Pinterest is nothing new. But, I’ve been avoiding it like the plague. I had it in my head that it was simply a crafty, Suzie Homemaker thing…but, it’s so much more. I love it, and I am beyond hooked already. I have so many things I want to do, just from one day. I think we’re in trouble.

It started getting late, and I didn’t want to make it too obvious that I had spent the day doing absolutely nothing, so I quick picked up the bedrooms, bathroom, living room and kitchen (which, was already pretty clean from Saturday, thankfully) and started dinner before the family got home. Thanks to Christian and his habit of surprising me with visitors, I’ve mastered the art of the “quick clean the house in 10-minutes because company is coming). I have it down to an art, it’s scary really.
We had dinner and played with the girls for a while. I shared my awesome Pinterest finds with Christian – he was surprisingly intrigued, but I don’t think he realizes how much work my addiction will end up being for him yet. The girls went to bed, and I wasn’t far behind. With that, my “me day” came to an end, and I really don’t want to return to reality tomorrow. Whoa is me.

I didn’t really take any pictures today (clearly, I was busy)….but, it is our anniversary week, and I made a little collage for my facebook cover photo…might as well share that! Crazy, I can’t believe Saturday is our 5th anniversary. Time flies!

9/16/12

Today was a pretty fun day for us! The morning started off pretty standard. Olivia slept with me last night…I wanted to make sure neither of them would wake the other after our late night last night, and that’s the way we do it in our house. She’s never actually asked to sleep in our bed/sleep with us, so we’re not too worried about any repercussions from it.

We had some breakfast and then started getting ready for the day. Once showered, bathed and ready to go, we were off to the Renaissance Festival for the day. Such a BEAUTIFUL day for it too, we really lucked out. The girls are still both free, and I scored us some cheap Buy One Get One, at a discounted rate, tickets a few weeks ago, so it was a pretty cheap day out for us in the end. The girls shared a lunch, we each just had a burger, we got them each a little balloon animal, watched some shows, visited the mermaids, made some magic wands, hung out in the petting zoo, rode the butterflies and went on an Elephant ride. The girls were EXHAUSTED, but had a blast. It was such a great day to be outside, and it’s always so fun taking in the festival. Great day!

The girls immediately fell asleep in the car, and went right down for a VERY late nap when we got home. I had recorded today’s football game, so Christian and I had a drink and watched the game (unfortunately, the Vikings lost…boo). The girls were STILL asleep, at 6:30, so we woke them up, had a delicious taco dinner and hung out for a while. I finally put Amelia down to bed around 8:30. Olivia and I had our Sunday sundae and we watched some TV for a while. Amelia was still awake when we went to put Olivia to bed, so she went in our bed to fall asleep. Tricky girl!

Another great weekend comes to an end. Not ready to start the week at all! Here are some pictures from our visit to the Renaissance Festival…

9/15/12

Today was quite a busy day. And, a very late one at that!

Christian actually got up with the girls this morning (why do I feel like he’s fishing for something?!?), started breakfast and got everything going. They played out on the swing set for a while and I did my usual weekend cleaning...dishes, cleaned the counters, swept the floors, cleaned the entry way and picked up around the living room. We ate some breakfast and started the day.

Christian started doing some work in the garage and in the yard. The girls and I eventually got dressed and joined him for a while. The weather was amazing, so it was nice to take advantage of it. We pulled out all of the plants for the year, and packed away the lawn decorations. We already have big plans for next year…we need to do some work on the grass (the weeds are getting out of control – thanks to our neighbors next to and behind us that do NOTHING with their yards, and destroy ours), and we’ll be doing a lot of planting – flowers, fruits and veggies. We’re going to start our planning over the winter so we can get started on it right away in the spring…when it’s actually supposed to be done. I’m motivated!!!

The girls ate some lunch, then went down for naps. Christian ran to a Mexican market to get some lunch for us (YUM, REAL food!), then he and his dad got to work on the car…again. After replacing the caliper again last time, the brake pads are still burning. So, today they bled the brake lines to see if that would help. Fingers crossed!

When he finished, the girls were just getting up. We had some dinner, got ready and were on our way. Our new friends, Sara and Mariano (Bella’s parents), invited us over to watch the Boxing match tonight. The girls had a blast running around and playing all night. Christian and Mariano talked and chatted like they’d known each other for years. Mariano is also from Mexico City, so they already have a ton to connect on right there. They seem to have similar personalities too, and get along really well. Sara and I are very different, but actually have a similar sense of humor and interests. We laughed a lot and got to know each other. I’m excited to have some new friends, that live close, that we have a lot in common with. YAY!

We didn’t get home until SUPER late. Christian fell asleep pretty much right away. I watched a little TV to relax, then called it a night. Not sure how the girls are going to feel tomorrow!

Here are some pictures from today. A few of our play time outside, and one of the girls playing tonight.