2013 - Week 16

Onto another week! This was another pretty low-key week for us. It brought us some more winter weather, a fun date night, and the return of my rings!

Monday was a pretty standard day. The girls were off to my in-laws for the day, and it was a pretty manic Monday at work. Christian wasn't feeling well, so he slept in for a while, and went into work late. He caught some stomach bug yesterday, and just couldn't shake it. I know how that feels! I stopped into Target after work to do our weekly shopping, rushed home to get everything put away and get my workout in. It was a fend for yourself kind of night for dinner since Christian wasn't up to eating, so I got to take one thing off my list for the day!

There was sunshine today. WHAT?!?

Of course, I cannot post without mentioning the Boston Marathon bombing that happened today. As I started seeing posts about it on Facebook, and reading up on it online, I was just in shock. There's no other words to describe it really - complete, and utter shock. All of the senseless violence that goes on, WAY too often now, is just heartbreaking. All I could do is give my babies an extra big hug tonight, and hope with all my might they find the person(s) who did it. So horrible.

Tuesday I felt like I was losing my mind all day. I completely forgot the school had some special stuff going on this week for "The Week of the Young Child" (who knew?!?). Over the weekend, I was supposed to get together a picture of each girl, and a note about what makes them special, and they were supposed to color in a gingerbread man cutout to represent themselves. Oops - none of that got done. I remembered at the last minute that it's spirit week though, and today was "Wear your favorite character" day, so at least I succeeded at one thing! Then, I got to work and realized their snowpants and boots were in my backseat still. UGH - I just hate mornings like that! But, things turned around. The day went well, and quickly. I printed off pictures and wrote up their notes at work, so I was able to drop them, and their snow gear off, when I picked the girls up. I had the girls color in their gingerbread men right away when we got home, while I made dinner, which they had a blast doing. The continued to color a bunch of pictures (and make a huge mess), but they were well distracted for quite a while. I snuck in my workout quick while Christian and the girls ate, then FINALLY sat down, around 7:30, to eat and watch a little TV. The girls' new swimsuits came today (OMG - I LOVE them!), so of course we had to throw them on and take them for a test drive in the bath tub right away! Hopefully we'll actually get to use them outdoors at some point!

Working on their project for school.

Trying out their new swimsuits... 

Wednesday was a pretty quiet day. The calm before the storm (really). Work was work - until our main system went down shortly after lunch. It took several hours for them to get it up and running again, and, once they did, for some reason I was locked out of my account. What a pain! Gotta love the age of technology! Today was "Wacky Hair Day" at school. Amelia's teacher asked if she could do her hair, so I just had to get Olivia ready. Of course, Olivia threw a fit because ever since getting her hair cut, she insists on wearing it down, ALL the time. What a pain! So, I just got one funny pony tail in and left it. Miss Eva did quite a number on Amelia though, little Cindy Lou Who! It was cute. The evening was pretty standard...dinner, workout and relaxing.

Little Miss Cindy Lou Who!

Even the Tulips I bought this weekend have lost their will in this weather... 

Thursday was a pretty crazy day. It rained all night last night, so things were pretty slick. Then, this morning, it turned to snow. And snowed ALL DAY LONG. Seriously, It's April 18th, this is CRAZY! They keep saying "this is not unheard of for April". To that, I say WHATEVER! I'm born and bred Minnesotan, and I played softball my entire life. For school, our games always started the first or second week of April. I never once, in all my years, had a game canceled for snow or "winter weather". A couple rain outs over the years, but that's it. It's almost May, and the high schools haven't played a single game, our Major League Baseball team has had to cancel games, it's crazy. So, it was my Friday at work, and the day flew by. I ended up leaving an hour early, because it was literally a white out with the snow and wind, and I didn't want to risk being late to pick up the girls. So, I made my way out to the car. I was pretty much the WORST Minnesotan ever today...I had no winter boots, no gloves, no scarf, no hat, and the teeniest, tiniest brush to clean the car off with. It took me forever to clean the car off, I was soaking wet by the end and exhausted. Then, I made the long trek home. The highway was like a parking lot, I didn't get over 10MPH nearly the whole way home. It was definitely a good thing I left early. I picked the girls up, we made our way home, and I started dinner. We watched some TV and hung out together for a while. After putting Amelia to bed, Christian went out to do a little shoveling. We decided to turn the Christmas lights on and embrace our Christmas in April weather. We threw snowballs with Olivia for a while and actually had a ton of fun. Who knew, Sprinter is definitely here to stay for a while! Christian did surprise me tonight...apparently the jeweler finished my ring, and must have called him. He never said a word about hit...he just picked it up, and surprised me with it tonight! AWESOME, I feel whole again, and they're so shiny and new, I love it!

Sports Team Wear day!

Thumbs Down for snow, no boots, no gloves, etc...

Not Happy! And Very Wet!

The Parking Lot, Highway Style

My Speed, Pretty Much the entire 23 mile Drive Home. This is NOT April Driving...

YAY, I'm Whole Again!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Playing in the snow...

Friday was a pretty good day home. The girls spent the morning playing in their room, while I did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen and living room. Gotta love my day off and actually being able to get some stuff done around the house! We had some breakfast, watched a movie and then got all bundled up for some more fun in the snow. It snowed all through the night, and it came down on and off all morning - and it was REALLY windy, but the girls really wanted to get outside. So, we were on our way to the park. The girls had a blast playing and running around. It's just become the norm this year, LOL. Olivia started to get cold and wanted to go home. Amelia, was not happy about that. She threw the biggest fit, ALL the way home. Ugh. I made lunch, and Amelia continued to throw fits about everything, and wouldn't listen to word I said. So, she ended up going down for her nap. Olivia ate and went down for her nap, and I enjoyed some down time. Played on the computer for a while, caught up on some Hulu and relaxed. Much needed down time! We spent the evening just hanging out around the house. I got my workout in, we played some games and spent some family time together. Once the girls were in bed, Christian went out for a bit with a friend. I spent some time with Dexter and enjoyed having the house to myself for a bit. Sweet silence....

Like most of the country, I spent the day watching the Boston Marathon suspect capture unfold. I woke up to news that 1 of the suspects was killed in a shootout during the night, and they were in the middle of a manhunt for the 2nd. I watched everything play out on and off throughout the day, finally watching them capture the 2nd suspect around 8:00PM. THANK GOD, what great news! Hopefully they can get some answers out of him. The military and law enforcement personnel seriously amaze me. How they can go from absolutely no answered, no clues, no information - to reviewing some ungodly amount of camera phone/video recorder/news reel/surveillance video footage - to narrowing it down to these two guys - and actually FINDING them, just amazes me.

Girl Fun!

Heading to the Park...

Winter Wonderland!

Saturday was a pretty great day. Christian got called into work early in the morning, so it was just the girls and me for most of the day. He said they've pretty much opened up Saturday indefinitely, so he'll probably be working most Saturdays from this point on. It can get overwhelming sometimes, but it will be GREAT for him to bring in that extra money. With my car running on it's last leg for so long already, it's only a matter of time before it bites the dust. It will be nice to get an extra bump in our mini-van savings. I spent the morning doing a little more cleaning up around the house, relaxed for a bit and got my workout in while the girls played downstairs. I showered and got ready, got the girls dressed and we were off to Olivia's swim class. She seems completely back to normal with swim class now...she listens and does what they ask, no problem. Thankfully! After class, we had some lunch, and the girls went down for their naps. I caught up on some shows, Christian arrived home from work, and we got ready for the next event of the day...DATE NIGHT! We dropped the girls off at my mom's for the night (ALL night, overnight - WHAT!), then made our way to the Mall of America for the night. We had dinner and a drink...tried out Cadillac Ranch for the first time, YUM!. We used some free mini-golf passes and played a round (I let him win this time...and, like usual, he won a free game on the last hole - nice!). We stopped into Freeziac for my favorite frozen yogurt. After almost 12 years together, I FINALLY got him to go on a roller coaster with me...we used some ride tickets left over from our last visit with the girls, and it was a blast. We only went on the ONE ride, and (for me), it's a pretty boring coaster, but it was a step in the right direction! Finally, we made our way to the movie Theater for a late movie...we saw Olympus Has Fallen, and it was actually really good. Very suspenseful! We both really liked it...the restaurant we had dinner at offers discount tickets for the theater, so we saved a little money there too! You know me, can't go out without saving some money, LOL! We finally made our way home, around 12:00 - pretty late for me! Ha. We watched some Saturday Night Live on Hulu and passed out. What a night!

Picture with Mema before shipping her off to Grandma's...

Picture with my mini-me before shipping her off to Grandma's...practicing our angry faces!

They insisted we roll the windows down on our drive...it was freezing....they are crazy!

DATE NIGHT!!! Us, dinner and drinks, mini-golf, frozen yogurt, a ride on the roller coaster and a movie! PERFECTION!

Sunday was great. With the girls at my mom's, I actually slept in. I usually can't, whether the girls are home or not, but I slept until 9:30! I had mixed feelings of feeling well-rested, and feeling like I had slept away half the morning. LOL. I finally hopped out of bed and started the day. I spent the day doing laundry, sweeping, cleaning up the entry and the usual household chores. My mom dropped the girls off at lunchtime and brought us some taco bell. After a short visit, she headed home and the girls went down for their nap. I got workout #1 in, and watched a little TV. Christian was off to his parents' house to help his dad work on their car for a while. We spent the night playing games, watching some shows an hanging out. Once the girls were in bed, I got workout #2 in, and officially finished week 2 of my workout plan. YES, go me!

By boy, basking in the sun, on the "bed" the girls made for him. He's so beautiful!

Chuy curled up with him...but it didn't last long.

Her love for the animals just warms my heart. Makes me so proud, even though she probably drives them crazy!

With that, another week came to an end. Everybody remains happy and healthy, we got lots and LOTS of snow, I got my ring back and we went on a date! April is just flying by, it's pretty crazy!

2013 - Week 15

This week brought us lots, and lots, and LOTS of Sprinter! Lame.

Well, everybody was back to reality today. Work for the grown-ups, my in-laws for the kids. We have a pretty low-key week/end coming up, and I'm really looking forward to it. Everything has been pretty chaotic these past few weeks, so it will be nice to just have NOTHING going on for a while. The only downside is going to be the loooooong 5-day work week I have head of me after the long weekend. Never easy. Today did fly by though...spent pretty much the entire day going through and respondign to e-mails and voicemails, and going through everything that came back while I was out. Always such a task when you're gone for a couple of days. As I was balancing our checkbook this morning, we realized that Christian had received his "annual when the boss feels like it" raise this check, and I had received both my step increase, AND my cost of living raise. Awesome! I work for the state, so raises are pretty few and far between in recent years, so this was pretty exciting! I stopped in to do a little grocery shopping after work, and restarted my diet/exercise program. This time, is for good! I'm really excited, and super motivated.

Tuesday was a pretty low-key day, not much to report. It started pouring rain just before bed, which was set to turn into SNOW overnight. As of this evening, we were under a WINTER weather alert for the next few days. Unbelievable! No, snow is not completely unheard of in April...even a dash in May has happened from time to time. But significant snow, is not common. I played softball my entire life - our games for school always started up within the first two weeks of April, and I never once had a game canceled for snow. By the sounds of it, there isn't going to be much outdoor sporting in the coming week(s). It's crazy!

Wednesday morning, sure enough, we woke up to a decent coating of snow, which continued to come down throughout most of the day. The snow was completely gone from our yard - everything was brownish/green and ready to spring into action. Not anymore! The girls were pretty upset when I opened the garage door this morning - both exclaiming that winter was NEVER going to end, and they want summer! Oh man do I feel them! Today the swimsuits that I LOVE were featured on kidsteals, so I combated the winter blues by buying the girls their new swimsuits! YES :) But, Spring 2013 officially sucks. And it's making me REALLY wonder what kind of summer we're in for...is it going to be cold and crappy because of this crazy weather, or is it going to be even more hot and humid than these last couple summers? What a mystery we're in for...

This is what we woke up to today. Goodbye green grass, hello SPRINTER!

The girls were not happy about it! LOL

Thursday brought us even more snow, and some crazy traffic. I guess it's either winter traffic, or construction traffic at this point. And, another lovely tidbit - I'm supposed to go in this weekend to get re-sized for my rings, but I still have a HUGE indent in my finger. I sure hope they'll do it...I guess that's what 4+ years of a ring being stuck on your finger will do though. Ouch! And, a funny for the day. The girls have become obsessed with gum lately - I don't know why, Christian is the only one who chews it on occasional, and against my wishes, he gives it to them once in a while. Well, they have discovered where their stash is, and think they're pretty sneaky. When we arrived home tonight, I got right to making dinner. As I was walking into the living room, Olivia came running down the hall, un-provokingly exclaiming "we aren't doing anything, we didn't do anything in mommy and daddy's room!" Umm, that's not suspicious at all. Next thing I know, Amelia's running down the hall, pointing to her back pocket, singing a little tune, "I got gum, we got gum, ha ha ha ha ha". Wow - what a pair! At that point, all I could do is laugh, shake my head, and walk away. They are going to be nothing but trouble, but at least Amelia has a habit of ratting them out. LOL

Friday, you guessed it, the snow continued off an on. We are officially above average for snow, and there is still plenty of it in our forecast. Not cool. But, the fact that it was FINALLY Friday made everything seem a little better. Though, I will say the week flew by. As we get close to the State's end of year (June 30th), things really pick up for us (even more than usual) with everybody trying to use up the last of the money and get their projects done. Christian has been crazy busy with their building addition and they've scored some new, HUGE accounts, so business is really booming for them. The girls were still passed out when I got to my mom's to pick them up tonight, sleeping until we finally woke them up around 5:00 - lazy bums! We made our way home and settled in for the night. It was a leftovers for dinner kind of night, and I took the day off from my workout plan. I was BEAT, and decided to make it up on Sunday when all I have to do is yoga. Christian and I settled in with a couple drinks, some popcorn and some movies once the girls went to bed - we watched Flight, which we both really liked, and House at the End of the Street, which was actually better than I expected. Great way to end the workweek!

We tried a different approach and attitude towards the weather tonight. Then it started snowing like crazy. I blame them.

Olivia has become obsessed with the animals lately, particularly Rico (probably because for some odd reason, he puts up with it). Every day when we get home, she seeks him out and won't leave him alone...she carries him around, puts him on the table to trace his paws with crayon, tries to feed him. It's pretty hilarious. I don't think he'd agree though.

Saturday was a fairly busy day, but much less chaotic than usual. Christian had to work, so it was just the girls and me for the morning. We had some breakfast, and they played downstairs while I did the dishes, did some dusting and picked up around the house. Then, we were off to Olivia's swim class. Class went MUCH better this week. She participated like nothing had every happened and did really great. I could tell the teachers could notice she had a little experience (she's in the same level as her last class, so she has at least tried most of the stuff they're working on before), so hopefully now she'll start growing and getting better and better. After class, we made our way home for lunch and naps. I got my workout in as soon as they went down, and Christian was home from work not much after that. We relaxed and watched some TV while the girls napped. Once they woke up, we went out to play in the snow for a while. We planned on building a snowman....but ended up building a whole family! The girls had a blast making the snowmen and playing on the swing set. Once we were all night and cold, we headed back inside for dinner and had a pretty low-key night.

Pics from our Sprinter fun!

Sunday was another busy day. The weather is still horrible - it was freezing today (literally, it was 29 degrees, but felt like 21 - gross!), and it rained, hailed, sleeted and snowed on and off throughout the day. I did a little picking up and got my first workout of the day in (making up for Friday). We all showered, got ready and were off. We stopped into Perkins for breakfast, YUM! Then, we were off to the jeweler so I could get sized, FINALLY! It's pretty crazy...my rings were a 5.5 when I got them. I currently weight about what I did when I got pregnant with Olivia, and at that time, I could get them on and off no problem. About mid-pregnancy, I noticed they were stuck, and they never loosened up. My new size....7.25 - WHAT??! Yeah, I don't think those bad boys were coming on their own any time soon. That's crazy. We made our way back home so the girls could go down for their naps. Olivia came out of the room about an hour later - clearly he hadn't taken a nap. Just after that, Christian was off to get his haircut, and bring Chuy to the groomer for a bath and nail clipping, so Olivia and I snuggled up on the couch together. Amelia ended up taking about a 4 hour nap again today - man that girl loves to sleep! I spent the day doing laundry and some light cleaning, but skipped most of my chores for the day. Christian started feeling pretty crappy, thinking it was from his breakfast, so we just had a pretty quiet night. The girls played some games together (once Amelia finally decided to wake up - Olivia was getting very impatient with her, ha) and we watched some movies. Christian was off to bed just after the girls went down. I got in my yoga for the night, watched a little TV to wind down, and called it a night.

Somehow, she got a hold of Chloe today. I have no idea why, but I know Chloe was probably on the verge of a heart attack the entire time.

So, there goes another week. Nothing too exciting, but nothing horrible either. I made it through the first week of my current program, and feel pretty great. I've decided to pack the scale away for a while, because when I don't see the results i think I should, it throws me into a downward spiral. So, for now, I'm going by how I feel, and how my clothes fit. I'll probably weight in every month or so though, just so I can see where I'm at in that regard. But, I'm feeling really good after this week.