Sleeping in the closet

My picture of the day is below, couldn't get it to load with this. It is about Emma and her love/hate relationship with snakes.

Well, I am embarrassed to say that until this past week, Emma has taken a binkie to bed with her (no where else though!). I was going to take it away earlier, but then we moved, excuses, excuses, excuses. Basically, I like to sleep at night and I am lazy. Yes, I know I should know better. Anyway, with the whole tooth incident (see earlier post for details), I thought it would be a great time to get rid of the thing. I keep telling her that she can't have it because of her tooth and that the dentist said so. She has taken this fairly well. The only thing she usually says before she goes to bed is that her tooth is all better. Her sweet little way of asking for her binkie. She has had some trouble calming down at night and I've had to carry her out of Bella's bed every night after she crawls in and starts making trouble. Tonight was a little worse and she would not calm down at all....so I was threatening her with putting her in the other bedroom to sleep, which she didn't want to do. Then she said she wanted to sleep in the bathroom which I vetoed. Then it was the closet....so I said whatever you want. She took her pillow and blankets and the last time I checked she was sleeping soundly in the closet. Whatever works, I guess.

Exercise update. I'm still doing remarkably well averaging 5 times per week. I have lost about 4-5 pounds and am really starting to firm up. Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm going broke.

Here are some pictures of Bella over the past year. You probably can't see it, but there are some highlights of each month written around each circle.

Well I finally got a financial statement from work giving the actual numbers of how things are going. Let's just say it was not pretty. Things will have to change a lot if I'm to break even any time in the near future. Kind of depressing. Maybe I should just leave everything that is still in boxes in the boxes....might save some time next year when I have to sell my house.

I have been watering our yard for the past two days. It is a big muddy mess...looking forward to that grass!

Tomorrow is my half day and as always I am very excited. And even more exciting I don't think I have ANY appointments or obligations. That should be nice.

Well, I better go, as it sounds as if the girls are destroying the bathroom....I hear lots of high pitched screaming, water noises, giggling, and a few songs...."fruit salad, yummy, yummy" and "Hallelujah!". Better go check it out!

I'm back

Well, I was going to post a lovely photo tonight, but it is not working. Maybe tomorrow. This weekend we did some major work in the yard or I should say my Dad and Kent did some work. I lounged a bit, shopped a bit, took care of the kids a bit. Dad brought some equipment over and did some grading of our weed patch (yard). Looks 10 times better now. Spent the evening watering the grass seed we just planted in hopes of having some grass next year. We'll be planting some tress at the end of the week. It's nice to actually make some progress on the yard. The phone line that got cut in the grading process is now back together and so now I have my lovely dial-up service back....too bad they couldn't have hooked me up with something faster when they put it all back together =(. Gotta go. Have a good evening.

Two kids, two teeth

So today I was going to "stop and smell the flowers", but as all of my good plans usually go...it didn't work too well. Emma did not want to go to daycare. I was going to take her for a few hours so that I could have some time to myself. But I can't resist her and was unable to take her in the morning. Instead I called Target and they happened to have an opening this afternoon in their portrait studio and since I needed to get Bella's 7 year picture done, I took it. I worked out in the early afternoon. Did a new arm workout and it about killed my poor puny little arms. They were so rubbery I could barely drive home. Picked up Bella next and then got ready for pictures. Bella, as usual, did a wonderful job posing. Emma also wanted her picture taken, but was in an obnoxious mood. We took a few of her, but she absolutely refused to take any with Bella. Kind of let out that high pitched scream that she does when Bella gets too close. So we had to settle for separate pictures and none together. While we were waiting for the picture lady to do her thing to them so that we could view them, we went looking for some food for supper. I was looking at the cheese, trying to decide what kind would go best on our sandwiches when Emma apparently decided to practice her ballet moves by twirling around (don't know why my children are so fascinated with twirling around in circles). She then somehow launched herself into the air and landed bellyflop style on the hard Target floor. I missed the whole thing. The aftermath of this launching included a very upset child with blood pouring out of her mouth. On closer inspection she had a sizable gash in her lower lip and the tooth that caused it was no longer its previous location....still attached, but moved back a bit. So I called the dentist and she called a peds dentist who would stay for us to run over there. So we really didn't even get to see the pictures, will go back later and order some. Emma did quite well at the dentist...she got xrayed and thankfully she didn't break the root or anything. The dentist pushed the tooth back into the correct location, put her on some antibiotics and told me that she shouldn't bite into anything for 2 weeks...so now we get to cut things up in little pieces for awhile. Her tooth might turn gray, it might get infected, worse case scenario it will need to be pulled. Guess we'll find out. On a happier tooth note, on the way home Bella yelled from the back seat that her tooth was bleeding (same one as Emma's) and by the time we got home it was hanging by a thread. Teeth kind of gross me out....so me being the kind mom that I am, made her pull it out herself. She was quite proud of herself and is expecting a visit from the toothfairy tonight.
The above picture was taken of Emma last month. Talks about her love of the number 2.

Stop and smell the flowers

The scan on this one isn't the greatest. This was Emma about a year ago. Tomorrow I am going to "stop and smell the flowers"....going to take the day off and attempt to do something I want to do. No cleaning, organizing, weed eating, etc. Just going to try to enjoy the day (except when I go see the trainer at the gym in the afternoon). We'll see how that works out as I always seem to think of some chore to do.

I think I'll start my day of enjoyment tonight after I cook dinner. Going to maybe scrapbook a bit, watch Rockstart INXS, maybe scrapbook a bit more....maybe read a magazine. Sounds pretty exciting, huh? Does to me. Have a good evening.

The Birthday Bash

"This party rocks" "Totally" "Everyone is going to think we're rock stars!" These were overheard at Bella's party yesterday at Club Libby Lu. They had a blast! They first got to get their little backpacks and add 5 girly trinkets to them. They next changed into "rock star clothes" and then underwent the makeover. Hair, make-up and then dancing around to loud music. We went for pizza afterwards. Seemed to have been an overwhelming success!


Today we had visitors--Grandma and Grandpa. The girls were very excited to see them! Thanks for coming over guys!

My lovely mother has decided to start an exercise program. Way to go Mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In honor of that decision I wanted to post something I read in the September 2005 issue of The Oprah Magazine, written by the almighty one (hee, hee) herself. Thought it was kind of good stuff.

"Nothing happens until you decide. Years ago on my show, a young mother shared her frustration with getting her son to go to bed. Her son was 3 and ruling the house (I have never seen this in the clinic before....ha, ha {by the way this comment wasn't in the article}). He wanted to sleep in her bed and refused to lie down in his own. The more the mother insisted, the more the child resisted - yelling, screaming, and literally dropping from exhaustion.

We showed a tape of the two of them wrestling it out. When our expert, Dr Stanley Tureki, finished watching, he said something that made the hairs on my arm stand up: "Nothing happens until you decide." The reason her 3-year-old didn't sleep in his own bed was that the mother had not decided it would happen. When she did, the child would go to his bed. He might cry and scream and rant until he fell asleep, but he would eventually realzie that his mother had made up her mind.

Well I knew he was speaking about a 3-year-old, but I also knew for sure that this brilliant piece of advice applied to many other aspects of life: Relationships. Career moves. Weight issues. Everything depends on your decisions.

For years I was stuck in a weight trap, yo-yoing up and down the scale. I made a decision two years ago to stop wishing, praying, and wanting, wanting, wanting to be better. Instead I figured out what it would really take to improve my life. Then I decided to do it.

When you don't know what to do, my best advice is to do nothing until clarity comes. Getting still, being able to hear your own voice and not the voices of the world, quickens clarity. Once you decide what you want, you make a commitment to that decision. One of my favorite quotes is from mountaineer W.H. Murray:

Until one is commited there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creations), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for Goethe's couplets: "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. / Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."

Make a decision and watch your life move forward."

The Big Party

The photo to the left is the story of my little Emma's great love of her "fwip-fwops". They seem to make her very happy.

Well, the big party will begin in about an hour and a half. Bella is taking a shower right now, getting herself all ready to be beautified at Club Libby Lu's. Should be fun.

Bella had a soccer game this morning, she scored three goals. She is getting better at being aggressive, but told me the other night that the reason she doesn't take the ball away from the other team is that it's not nice to do that....so she still has a way to go.

I cleaned the house today......HATE IT!!!! One of the things I hate most is taking one of my days off to clean. It makes me bitter. I think I need a cleaning lady.

Here is another quick, easy, tasty salad from Cooking Light Magazine. We had it today for lunch.

Mediterranean Orzo Salad with Feta Vinaigrette

1 cup uncooked orzo (about 8 oz)
2 cups bagged prewashed baby spinach, chopped
1/2 cup chopped drained oil-packed sun-dried tomato halves (I used sun dried tomato pesto)
3 T chopped red onion
3 T chopped pitted kalamata olives
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1 (6 oz) jar marinated artichoke hearts, undrained
3/4 cup (3 oz) feta cheese, crumbled and divided.

1. Cook the orzo according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain, rinse with cold water. Combine orzo, spinach, and next 5 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl.

2. Drain artichokes, reserving marinade. Coarsely chop artichokes, and add artichokes, reserved marinade, and 1/2 cup feta cheese to orzo mixture, tossing gently to coat. Sprinkle each serving with remaining feta cheese. Yield 4 servings. 338 calories, 11g fat.

Bella turns 7!

I'm having trouble with the picture thing again. See below for a picture of my beautiful child. Can't believe she is SEVEN!!!! We had a good time yesterday. We went to Chuck E. Cheese which I was dreading....but it wasn't very full on a Wednesday night and so we had a pretty good time. The girls had a lot of fun riding on the rides, pushing buttons, getting tickets. We actually collected enough tickets that Bella got a little make-up kit which of course made her extremely happy. Emma got two stampers and a plastic bug, she was pretty excited too. After playing for awhile and eating the very disgusting pizza, we went home to open presents. Emma has had a hard time with this whole present thing, can't understand why it's not her birthday too. So I bought her a little Polly pocket car to open while Bella opened hers. Made her very happy. Bella's "real" party is Saturday. Should be fun.

Bella Turns 7

Day #2 of "Bella Week"

Here are some photos from Bella's birthday last year. Thought I'd better do something with them before her birthday tomorrow. She is very excited for tomorrow. Can't stop talking about it. We made some little treat bags to take to school with some yummy chocolate in them. Since her official party is not until Saturday, we are just doing something as a family tomorrow. She wants to go to Chuckie Cheese (not my favorite place) so we will be going there tomorrow evening. The girls should enjoy that.

Tomorrow is my big day at the gym. After a little over a month of working out, I'm going to get my body fat tested again, etc. Should be interesting. I think I have made some progress.....I have lost around 3 lbs and can now do my weight routine without feeling as if I'm going to die. I can also run a bit further, longer and faster than I could.

Be sure to check the link out to the right if you are interested (my scrapbook gallery). I have posted a few new things.

I have dubbed this week "Bella Week" in honor of her upcoming 7th birthday on Wednesday. Here she is a few weeks ago being her photogenic self.

Well, I have recovered from my beloved Hawkeyes making fools of themselves. Certainly didn't look like the 8th rated team in the country. All I can say is enjoy it HP and you other sorry Cyclone fans, be in awe, as you witnessed a miracle.

Because I seem to have nothing to say today, I will share what we had for supper tonight. The girls and I are huge fans of pesto so I made this for the first time tonight.....pretty tasty (in our eyes). I used fresh basil and parsley from our garden (barely had enough parsley as some lovely catepillars decided to make it their home---of course to the utter delight of my bug loving children!)

Chicken and Farfalle Salad with Walnut Pesto (courtesy of Cooking Light Magazine)

Salad:
2 cups uncooked farfalle (bow tie pasta; about 6 oz)
2 cups cubed cooked skinless, boneless chicken breast
1 cup quartered cherry tomatoes
2 T chopped pitted kalamata olives

Walnut Pesto:
1 cup basil leaves
1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves
3 T coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted
1 1/2 T extravirgin olive oil
1 T white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1 garlic clove
Remaining ingredient:
4 curly leaf lettuce leaves (I didn't use)

1. To prepare salad, cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain, rinse with cold water. Combine pasta, chicken, tomatoes and olives in a large bowl.
2. To prepare wlanut pesto, combine basil and next 6 ingredients (through garlic) in a food processor; pulse 6 times or until finely minced. Add pesto to pasta mixture, tossing gently to coat. Place 1 lettuce leaf on each of 4 salad plates; top each serving with salad mixture.

Yield 4 servings. 374 cal, 12.5 g fat

GO HAWKS!

Tomorrow is the big game....Iowa vs. the lowly Iowa State Cyclones. All I can say is:
GO HAWKS!!!!!!
I sincerely hope we make fools of them.

Anyone else?

Does anyone else ever get tired of being a supermom? I sure am. Sure would be nice if someone just took care of me for awhile. [are you feeling sorry for me yet =) ?]

On a happy note my sister and her lovely children are coming to see me this weekend. Should be fun. I'm going to make her a favorite dish, very yummy quick and easy.

Taco Tortellini Salad
1 9 oz pkg fresh cheese tortellini
1 small tomato chopped
1 small green pepper chopped
1 small can sliced black olives
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

Cook tortellini according to package, mix with rest of ingredients and dressing. Serve with crushed tortilla chips on top.

Dressing:
1/2 cup your favorite salsa
1/3 cup thousand island dressing (I use kraft fat free)
1/2 tsp cumin
Mix all together, then mix well with other ingredients.


Oh, by the way if anyone is interested, I created a new site (see links to the right) which has some of my recent scrapbook photos on it.

The dentist

I am trying to catch up on my pictures....finished 2003 pics awhile back. Now working on 2004 and current ones. This is a picture of the girls November 2004 at daycare having a Thanksgiving feast. Don't know that I am too crazy about it, kind of dull colors....but oh well, it is done.

Emma went to the dentist today. She did so well. Did everything they wanted her to. I thought she would do well, but you never know with 2 year olds. She got a new toothbrush, toothpaste, and a superball so she was VERY happy. No cavities either....so a very happy trip.

An exercise update....I'm sure everyone is very interested (ha!), but if I tell someone the progress I am making it seems to keep me accountable. I am continuing to do surprisingly well. Didn't make it to the gym today, but still worked out when I got home (in the past this never would have happened). I did the treadmill for 30 minutes, intervals run one minute, walk the next, etc. I got up to 7:30 mile times, it felt like I was sprinting. Back in the "olden" days that would have been very slow for a 2 mile cross country race and I would have not been very happy with that pace. Now I run that pace for 1 minute and feel like I'm going to die. That's old age and laziness for you I guess. I thought women peaked athletically around my age, I've got a lot of work to do before I'm breaking any records. Well, at least 12 minute miles don't feel like sprinting anymore....that is progress I guess.

Another photo of Bella's first day of school, Emma thinks she is going too.

So here is Bella's soccer schedule for anyone who might want to watch her in action:
9/10 10:15 in Polk City (no clue where that is at)
9/17 9:00
9/24 1:00 in Pella (not sure why we have to go there either)
10/1 9:00 and 2:00
10/8 9:00
10/15 10:15 in Polk City
10/22 11:30 in Pella

Emma's funny story of the day. So Betty (cat) has been bringing us presents of dead moles and leaving them on the front porch. Usually they are intact. Today however the head was separated from the body and there were some other nice things scattered about. So Emma sees this poor mole and starts her "no, no, no Betty....you broke the mole....fix it Betty". There was some other cute statement that she made but for the life of me I can't remember it at the moment.

I tried to correct Emma's grammar today. She substitutes the word "my" for "I" very frequently. So she was saying her usual "My did it" Me: No, it's I, I did it. Emma: No, My did it. Me: No, say I. Emma: I Me: Say, I did it. Emma: No, My did it. Tried this several more times before I gave up.

I am feeling much better now, so today I tried to do all that I didn't get done this weekend. I used our super powered weed eater and got the majority of the rest of the yard done. Then I cleaned and put away laundry. What a fun way to spend your day off. Back to work tomorrow (but it's my half day...yeah! I didn't volunteer to work the whole day....that would have ruined the whole point of taking a vacation day today) Hope you are all having a wonderful day.

Being sick

I started doing some Bella pages again. Here she is in a photo taken June of this year. She looks so old!

Today has been a little blah. I have some sort of sickness that is mostly a head cold, but a little bit more. Making me feel bad enough that I have accomplished absolutely nothing today. I slept most of the afternoon because I had too....not because I wanted to. I always like that choice thing. Emma is STILL sleeping, she is not feeling the best either. Luckily Bella is at the neighbors so she doesn't have to be around all of us people who aren't any fun.

So needless to say, I don't have anything else to say. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.

My Yard

Just some images of flowers from my walk around the yard (all are wild, we haven't planted anything yet).

My addictions

First of all, here is a picture of Emma taken in June of this year. She is so very cute in my humble opinion. I like her quite a bit. Now it is about time that I start working on Bella's
stuff for awhile.

So as my title so nicely points out, I am going to speak of my addictions tonight. It seems that I have quite a few in fact. All of them I can trace back to my mother. =).

So my mom is a great painter which means I grew up appreciating art supplies. They have always excited me. I remember loving new boxes of crayons (still do), paints, paper, whatever....love it. Now I have translated my love of art supplies into my scrapbook stash. I truly have a problem here. I love it ALL. I'm like a kid in a candy store. I love paper and I have tons of it, more than one could imagine. And I seem to be unable to control myself when I get the opportunity to buy more. Seems like a problem to me.

Problem #2....Magazines. This too is also from my mom who seems to have the same issue, however I seem to be a bit worse. I love all magazines (well maybe not all). Let's see....here is a list of those that I peruse from somewhere on a regular basis (defined as at least once every 2 months). Just to make this clear, I do not subscribe to all of these (so you won't think I'm a total nutball). Creating Keepsakes, Memory Makers, Simple Scrapbooks, Scrapbooks etc., Pediatrics, Contemporary Pediatrics, Consultant for Pediatricians (love all the cool pictures in this one!), Archives of Peds and Adolescent med, Annals of Peds, Sports Medicine, Better Homes and Gardens, Real Simple, Country Living, Country Home, Domino, Martha Stewart Living (yes I admit it Cecil--bring on the crap!), I'm also going to admit to Martha Stewart's Everyday food and Kids magazines, Cooking Light, Vegetarian Times, O (oprah mag--more crap coming I feel?). Women's Health, Fitness, Shape, Self. The occasional people magazine, glamour and sometimes random other fashion magazines. Gee that's embarrassing....no wonder I don't get anything constructive done around the house. That's all I can think of for now, there is probably more. My mom fuels the fire by handing me her old stuff like the woman's mags. Needless to say, I am in heaven in front of the very large magazine section at Barnes and Noble.

Associated with problem #2 and #1 even is my obsession with the mail. Kent always makes fun of me as he has never seen anyone like mail as much as I do. Love all of it (could do without the bills). All those catalogs that come to me are lovely, I like looking at about 90% of them. I like junk mail. I like all the "free" offers....can't tell you how many times I have signed up for the children's book of the month club, cookbook club, highlights for children specials bought my one book after the special, cancelled and then do it all over again (thinking about this....you do this too don't you mom?). When my mailbox is stuffed full, I am happy and when magazines or scrapbook supplies arrive in the mail I flying high! Yeah, I know I'm a bit odd.

It seems that all my problems relate to paper. Hmmmm.....maybe that's why I married a tree guy. Ease my guilt for participating in the murder of so many trees.

Well that is about all of the addictions I can tackle in one night. Those are my most obvious problems....but as I tell Kent, there are worse things I could be doing =).

On another note....I got comments! 4 in fact on yesterdays entry. All be it, only 3 were from actual people, the first one was from some dude wanting to sell me on the virtues of his website....I'm sure he/she loves my blog just as he said. But anyway the other 3 made my day. It's nice to know someone out there is reading. Keep them coming!

Tomorrow is Friday!

I couldn't get the picture to the right to scan in correctly...did it a few times, oh well. It is not so askew in real life. It is Emma last year on Mother's day.

I am so excited that tomorrow is Friday. I need a break since I was on call last weekend. I am such a wimp now that I don't have to work as hard. I am taking an extra long weekend...not working until Wednesday. Don't have any particular plans. This month at work has been good. The busiest on average I have been. Still not anywhere near where I want to be, but getting there slowly.

Believe it or not, I am still exercising. I'm not working out incredibly long but am getting about 3 30-40 minute weight sessions and 3 30 minute cardio sessions in. Much better than I was a few weeks ago. I now can honestly say that I am not in the worst shape of my life (close to, but not as bad as a few weeks ago). I have a follow-up session with a trainer to see if I am making any progress in about 2 weeks. Hopefully I have. Well that is all for tonight. Have a good one.

Oh wait...one more thing....Thank-you HP for commenting I greatly appreciate it =).