12/9/12

Today was a pretty busy, hectic day. But, it was a good one.

The snow continued all throughout the day. It ended around 7:00 or 8:00, and then started getting really cold and the temperature started to drop – it’s supposed to be really cold now for a few days. I think by the end of the storm, we got around 10” of snow in our neighborhood. Not bad for the first REAL snow of the season. That’s probably as much snow as we got the whole winter last year! LOL. I’m guessing we’ll definitely be having a white Christmas this year! YES!!

So, we started off the morning with a little play time and some breakfast. I had Amelia sleep in our bed last night, hoping maybe that would be the trick to getting them to sleep a little later (since we were up so late last night). No luck though. I started some laundry, we all got dressed and bundled up, and then the girls discovered that Buddy had shown up…hanging outside on the deck enjoying the winter wonderland! He had dug out one of our snowman kits, so we took his hint and made our way out to the backyard for some snowman building fun. The girls played on their swing set for a while – let me tell you, those snow pants really get them going down the slide, that’s for sure! After some playtime, we built our awesome snowman and did a little playing. We were all SOAKING wet by the time we got inside, but it was a lot of fun.

I hopped in the shower, got myself ready, then got Olivia all pricessified for our next event. Disney on Ice! She was so excited and couldn’t wait to see the princesses. I was nervous about the drive, but we just left extra early and it went OK. Amelia still did not join us…she’s still so ADD and has no interest in “watching stuff”, so it’s just best not to put her through it. Next year she may be more into it. We got some gas, picked up my mom, and made it to the show just as it was about to start. Perfect timing! We met the Arneson’s there and our little princesses loved the show. This show was “Celebrating 100 Years of Disney”, so there were a TON of characters in it with just small snipits of a few shows. I love how each show is so different. They are always so fun! Olivia just loved it. She picked out a little plastic Bullseye toy, so we got Amelia the Jessie doll to go with it (from Toy Story). Good times!

On our way home, I stopped along the way to take some winter wonderland shots - SO PRETTY!

While we were gone, Christian did his first round of snowblowing and Amelia took a nice LONG nap (another reason she wouldn’t do well – that girl LOVES her naps). She woke up just as we got home, and they played with their new toys for a while. I did some catching up on my photos/editing and relaxed for a while and Christian did one last round of snow clearing for the night. I was really craving some Chinese food tonight, but didn’t want to pay delivery (or, wait for it), so I ordered some food and was off to pick it up. We ate some dinner, I did a little more laundry and we watched a couple Christmas movies on TV. Before we knew it, it was bedtime. Another busy weekend has come to an end, and it should be an interesting few days of commuting. Time to get used to winter driving again!

Here are the before and after pictures for Buddy Day 9: Frosty the Snowman:

12/8/12

Well, we kicked off another busy weekend today. With a lot of random stuff thrown in!

Christian and his dad got right to working on my car this morning. Hopefully the final time for the year! Today they replaced a hose and got her up and running again. They’re getting pretty quick at fixing up the car!

While they did that, the girls quickly discovered Buddy perched upon the dining room table with a little craft project all set up for us. Today, we were making some homemade Christmas ornaments. We’ve never done it before, but I think it’s going to be a new tradition for us. I…err Buddy found the tutorial on Pinterest (of course)…they are fantastically glittery without the mess, and turned out great! YAY!

The girls and I had some breakfast when we finished up and hung out for a while. As the morning went on, they started fighting more and more and just driving each other crazy. In turn, pushing me over the edge. By the time Christian finished with the car and was all cleaned up and done, I had pretty much had it. It must have been terribly obvious because he made them lunch, put them down for their naps AND did the mound of dishes that I’d been letting pile up all week (he NEVER does dishes – that was a big deal!). I just kicked back and watching some movies on TV. I seriously needed that R&R.

Once the girls were up from their naps, we all got ready, had a quick dinner and then were off. Tonight, we were meeting friends in Minneapolis for the Holidazzle Parade and a walk through Macy’s 8^th Floor Auditorium. The weather was actually really nice tonight – the snow had taken a break throughout most of the day, it was fairly warm…so, of course the parade was PACKED! We found a decent spot just before it started, and got the girls settled in. My BFF and her family met us, but their son’s little friend wasn’t feeling well, so almost immediately turned around and headed back home. Boo! Olivia’s BFF and her family met us as well, so we spent the evening with them. The parade was great, as always. We made our way to Macy’s as soon as Santa’s sleigh went by. Last year there weren’t a lot of people at Macy’s – I thought it was because they don’t change the display anymore (they used to have a new fairytale theme every year with it was Dayton’s, and even Marshall Fields – but Macy’s didn’t want to do to display, so their compromise was to set one up, “A Day in the Life of an Elf”, and that is now the permanent display), but maybe it was just too cold last year because there were a TON of people this year. The line moved pretty fast, the girls had fun playing and goofing around and the adults had time to chat and catch up, so it wasn’t bad at all. The girls loved all of the lights and fun scenes – so, even though the display is the same, it’s still so fun and new for them, we don’t mind. We stopped the visit Santa on our way out, and the girls LOVED that. They just adore Santa and couldn’t wait to chat with him. It was cute. Finally, we stopped into Mrs. Claus’ bakery to grab some goodies, and called it a night. The girls were exhausted, and quickly passed out in the car once we got going. What a fun night!

Once home, Christian went out with a friend for a little bit to watch a boxing match, and I settled in to watch some shows for a while. I didn’t last long, I was exhausted! What a busy, but [for the most part] great day!

Here are the before and after pictures of Buddy Day 8: Glitterific:

12/7/12

FINALLY FRIDAY!!!! After weeks of having one or two days off every week, it was tough to work a full week! I know; woe is me.

The day actually went pretty fast. Since my car is out of commission right now, we rode into St. Paul together this morning. We dropped the girls off at my mom’s, I dropped Christian off at work and then took the truck with me. Like usual, work has still been crazy for both of us. Christian didn’t even get off work until 6:30 today, which hasn’t been unusual. He is supposed to work tomorrow, but will be working on the car instead. Busy guy! The girls have been doing great at school. They’re very winter focused right now and having a lot of fun with that. In Olivia’s class, their “Letter of the Week” this week is “O”. Of course, she’s in HEAVEN because “O” is HER letter. Ha. They’ve been making all kinds of fun and super cute crafts lately, and Olivia, with her perfectionist mentality, always has the best stuff for me. I love it!

The girls and I ate dinner and hung out, but they were pretty unnerving tonight. I was very happy to see Christian walk in the door and take over for a while, that’s for sure. We got them off to bed and watched a couple episodes of Dexter before heading off to bed…started Season 3 now! Plugging right along!

Before bed, we’d discovered that Buddy must have spent the entire day collecting all of the mega blocks and building himself an awesome fort to protect against the evil piggy banks. Here is Buddy Day 7: Fort Fun:

I also took a shot of our house, all lit up with a coating of snow. LOVE IT!!!

And, poor Chuy - clearly not a fan. Really, he actually doesn't mind the snow. But the cold and wind sure gets to him! Gonna have to dig out his sweater and try it on again :)

12/6/12

Well, today wasn’t the best day ever. First, my weekly weigh in. Not good – similar to the past few weeks. Up again this week. I’m not super concerned about LOSING weight right now, I just want to be able to maintain – and I haven’t been too successful lately. My “back on track” work out didn’t last long and I just can’t seem to keep myself in line. I need to figure out how to get that motivation back…

Work went OK. The day went pretty fast, but I just couldn’t stay focused on work. I have so many things I want to get done around the house, and some shopping that I want to do, and it’s just too distracting! I did take my lunch break to officially book Olivia’s birthday party, make the invitations and get them addressed and ready to go! Only a few weeks away, it’s hard to believe my baby will be 4 in just a couple of weeks!

After work, traffic was horrible and I was about 30 minutes late picking up the girls (thankfully, still “on time” though). I picked up the girls and we made our way home. Olivia seemed to be feeling much better and didn’t have any issues today, thank goodness. We got home and they headed right down to play in their toy room. I did some cleaning up in the kitchen and started dinner. The girls eventually came back upstairs and discovered Buddy, on a romantic syrup date with Rapunzel under the Christmas tree. Aww, how sweet. They were really happy for him, but jealous of his syrup…

When Christian got home, he immediately asked me if the car has been acting funny. I said not that I noticed…and he said “well, there’s a big puddle of fluid underneath it”. That didn’t sound good. He checked it out for a while and thinks that one of the belts is going – not sure how that makes it leak, but whatever. What’s new. We ate dinner, gave the girls their bath and sent them off to bed, and he spent the night searching online to see what the problem could be, and how to fix it. In the meantime, it looks like we’ll be carpooling it! Yippie! Seriously, I hate my car with every part of my being.

So, that was our day. Good times.

Here is a picture of Buddy Day 6: Date Night:

And, somebody was clearly upset they were imposing on his territory - because Rico kept photo bombing their shot...

12/5/12

The girls were up bright and early this morning – I kind of like when they wake up without me having to get them up – they seem much more chipper that way. Olivia was complaining that her tummy hurt this morning, but she’s was being ultra-dramatic about it…we thought she was just making it up, so we went about our day. I dropped them off, headed to work, and around 9:30 I got a call from the school that she had thrown up. I was mortified – first, those poor teachers having to clean up after it, second, poor Olivia must have been so embarrassed, and third, not knowing what the problem was, I felt horrible for sending her to school when she actually didn’t feel well. Ugh, guilt all around! They said if she did it again we’d have to pick her up, but I didn’t want to leave her there feeling icky all day. So, I gathered up some work and made my way home. I picked her up and we cuddled in bed for a while. She watched cartoons while I did some work and it was a pretty nice way to spend the day!

After some chicken noodle soup for lunch, I sent her off for her nap and did some more work. She took a nice long nap, and seemed to be doing much better when she woke up. She wasn't complaining about her tummy anymore and was a little more talkative as the evening went on. By the time Christian and Amelia were home, she was pretty alert and ready to play. My final determination was that she’s just had too many holiday treats the past few days, and her tummy was not taking it well – especially that popcorn bark last night (SUPER sweet). So, we’ll just take a little break from that and get her back on track. Poor thing.

The girls found out that Buddy had been quite mischievous today. He found one of our family pictures, and drew funny faces all over it! I knew Amelia wouldn’t really “get it”, but I was curious to see what Olivia would do…if she would really realize that it was funny or not. And, she did. She thought it was HILARIOUS! When she found it, I heard her yell “Oh my gosh, look at this funny picture!”, and she grabbed it and came running to show me. So cute.

They had some more soup for dinner while Christian and I had some random leftovers. I did some picking up around the house while they girls ran around and Christian hung some more plastic on the windows. Not the best day, but at least productive!

Here are some pictures of Buddy Day 5: Picture That:

12/4/12

Well, just a pretty standard day for us. Work was work. BUT, one of the committee’s I’m on right now – to plan a big transportation conference we hold every spring – met this afternoon. My friend Brad runs the committee and asked me to run the smart board for him (it’s like a dry erase board, only you type like it’s a computer screen). We were planning the agenda and speakers for the meeting so I was in charge of getting everything set up and put into tables and all that. Everybody in the meeting was so impressed with my Word skills – and I never honestly realized they were so impressive. I know that I type well/fast, but I didn’t realize I was so proficient in tables and graphs and all that. The guy sitting next to me is a Big Wig, District Engineer at our Metro District and jokingly asked if I’d ever thought of going out to Metro to work. Funny enough, I have been offered a job out there before! LOL. Dawn, my supervisor, did not think that conversation was very funny and nixed that right away. Anyway, just a little boost of confidence that made me feel kind of good today. It’s funny how little comments and reactions  can make you brighten your day, even if they seem kind of trivial.

After work, I quickly picked up the girls and we stopped into Walmart. Buddy needed some supplies for his visit tonight. I grabbed his stuff and we headed home. I started making dinner, AND Buddy’s treat. Tonight, he thought it would be a good idea to make some Peppermint Almond Popcorn Bark and Red Nosed Punch to have while we watch “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” tonight. FUN!

We ate dinner, watched our movie, had our snacks, and off to bed we went. Busy day, but it turned out pretty good!

Here are some pictures of Buddy Day 4: Ready for Rudolph!

12/3/12

It’s Monday – and that could really just about sum it up.

I contemplated all evening yesterday, and this morning, calling in and taking the day off. Just a day for myself, to relax and get some stuff done. But, I decided against it, got up, and started the week. I spent the morning catching up on some e-mails and my in-box from Friday. I spent my lunch break addressing and stamping our Christmas cards and dropped them in the mail (YAY, no on to Birthday invitations!), and ended up leaving a couple hours early (better than a whole day off, I suppose). I stopped into Hallmark to get Olivia’s final birthday present, her “4” Precious Moments figurine, and then made my way to Target. I grabbed a couple of greeting cards and some random small gifts that I needed, and did our grocery shopping for the week. So, at least my time off was productive!

I got all of the groceries and goodies put away, cleaned up around the house a little bit, put some laundry away and even got in little bit of relaxation before the rest of the crew got home. It didn’t take long for the girls to find Buddy perched upon their dresser…today be brought their Christmas tree back from the North Pole, so they got right to decorating. Christian ran to Menard’s to get some really exciting stuff…plastic for the windows, new filters for the humidifier and some salt for the water softener. Ahhh, the stuff I really love spending money on! We ate some diner, watched a Christmas movie and relaxed for a while before sending them off to bed.

I spent a little time updating the blog and watching some shows while Christian cleaned the humidifier and got that going. It was a party all around tonight!

Here are some pictures of Buddy Day 3: Oh, Christmas Tree:

12/2/12

Today was an early and busy day! First up, a portable medic stopped by the house to do my medical screening for my new insurance policy. I’m sure I’ll be denied, but I guess it’s worth a shot. She took my blood and urine samples for screening, and went over all of the usual medical questions. Of course, Question #1 “Do you have any congenital birth defects or disorders”. Ugh. However, I did have the letter from my cardiologist basically clearing me a few years ago, and stating that I no longer required monitoring or cardiologist visits. She took a lot of notes, so FINGERS CROSSED that helps. She also seemed really shocked by my weight loss this year, which made me happy, especially in my current frame of mind!

Next up, we immediately got to showers and getting ready. We had to leave the house at 8:30AM, so there was no dilly dalliying allowed! I got ready, we got the girls ready, Christian got ready…I packed them some granola bars and cereal and we were off. First up, my step-mom forgot her purse at our house last night, so we made a quick stop at their house. Then, off to Chuck E Cheese, bright and early, for a birthday party! The party started at 9:30, which pretty much sounds like death when you first think about it. But, really, it’s perfect! I mean, we’re up anyway, it’s not like the girls are sleeping until noon or anything. There was only one other party going on, and barely anybody else in the place, so it was low-key, fairly mellow and no chaos whatsoever. The girls played tons of games, we ate some lunch and had lots of fun! YAY, I love birthday parties!

We stayed a bit after the party to use up our tokens and pick out some prizes. We left around 12:30, and Amelia pretty much passed out immediately. Olivia swore she wasn’t going to fall asleep and was NOT tired, but it didn’t take her long to pass out either. They proceeded to nap for a bit once we got home, while Christian and I watched a heartbreaking Vikings (vs. Packers) game – they lost, but had SO MANY chances to win, it was very sad, and I ran quick to Walmart to pick up a few items for tonight.

Once up, the girls discovered Buddy in the kitchen with lots of treat and baking supplies gathered up! Tonight, he decided we needed to make some “Grinch Cookies” and “Grinch Punch” to snack on while we watch “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” tonight (the Jim Carey version). Sure, why not! So, we got right to baking – and YUM, the cookies were delicious! We had some dinner and hung out for a bit while we waited for the movie to start. Then, I finished up some laundry while we had our snacks and watched the movies. It was a hit, great idea, Buddy!

Finally, the girls were off to bed. I packed their bag for my in-laws house tomorrow and relaxed for a while. With that, another weekend comes to an end. BOO!

Here are some pictures of Buddy Day 2: It’s a Very Grinchy Christmas...