Advent Calendar

Ian's Ma made him an Advent Calendar:

He loves to do move the little santa multiple times a day, that could be out of excitement for Christmas or that there are mini hershey bars.  I'm going with the latter, the calendar is generally something Marcus and Ian do together as when Marcus was a little person he loved count down.

DST

Also known as daylight savings time. A time that the majority of the population in the great state of Indiana DISLIKE! I am one of them, I didn't like it before children and I dislike it even more now. As it is my child did not go to bed until around 9:30 and now this morning I'm going to have to go in and wake him and cause confusion to his little body. I will have to drive to work in darkness as just last week it was daylight on my drive in.  I will lose track of time and just like last night we will be eating dinner at 8 but really it's only 7 so that's ok right?

Now, I'm going to try to look for the good in all this time changing nonsense. Which is hard to do for a morning person. Holy cow I just called myself a morning person and I'm sure my parents just had a great chuckle too.  Hey, remember swim team days when you would be constantly calling my name telling me to get up??  Yeah, I don't miss jumping into a cold pool at 5:15 either or smelling like someone who bathed in cholorine although technically I spent more time in the pool than I did in the shower 2x a day for approx 2hrs each practice for about 3 months.  Yeah 2 showers a day in a locker can't cut through that smell at all.

And back on track...I might actually be able to start and finish my morning workout without any interruptions as Ian's lil body is all confused. The possibility of running as a family in the evening is more likely to happen. The time change means spring is coming, the trees are budding, and I see little green sprouts coming up from the flower things we planted last year at some point.  I should add I really know nothing or care to know anything about plant care inside or outside.  I want it to look nice without anything required of me.  I'm looking forward to warmer runs with Ian that can happen earlier in the day.  I currently have no races on the calendar as they aren't fitting into our schedules or budgets.  I may though train for a half just for the heck of it and run one on my own. Anyone wanna join me, we can even make it a stroller friendly run, and make our own t-shirts?!?!  I know all very enticing  reasons to join me!

Well I should probably end the rambling that this post has turned into right here and get back to the proposal on the Bachelor!

Blizzard 2011

We survived Blizzard 2011, it was really windy the snowfall amount was not bad but the wind was AWFUL!  I'm lucky enough to make the decision as to if work is opened or closed.  I decided to close around 9p which resulted in sending out emails to over 100 people, update facebook status, making the note on our website and changing the voicemail recordings x2.  Luckily when we closed early Tuesday night I had already drafted emails for Wednesday. Wednesday our county was under a state of emergency and only emergency personal were to be on the roads.  And for once my hubby's work showed that they do have a heart and didn't open any of their branches.  Although Marcus' friend who works at the downtown offices of the bank and is the property manager had to go in and see to it that all the parking lots were taken care of and no damage to any the branches occured.

So we both had snow days, I however did work from home.  Now, I know most people who work from home look forward to being able to do so in their yoga pants and a sweatshirt but seeing as to that is what I wear to work. I look forward to working in our chair and half, my yoga pants, comfy sweatshirt. and in my socks.  Aside from working, I took a nap which I never do and of course worked out and while I was working on my 100 squats Ian wanted me to hold him so I squatted holding Ian for about 90 of the squats. My legs are pretty sore today. Marcus snow blowed and also napped and we both hung out with Ian and practiced his walking skills.  We had a good snow day and what is a snow day without homemade choco chip cookies?

taken Tuesday night 2/1 when it started snowing around 5p

what we woke up Wednesday 2/2, this is after Marcus snow blowed

2010

To say 2010 was good to us is a complete understatement.  Ian Matthew entered our lives Dec 31 2009 I can't think of a better way to bring in the new year than with new life.  We had a couple tearful days of unknowns but everything happens for a reason and all is well.  I enjoyed my maternity leave even though I was still on call and did work from home, went into work and even had work calling me with a question while in labor (seriously how do I not get paid salary??).  I trained and ran a 1/2 marathon (hope to do it again this year).  I nursed away the 29lbs I gained during pregnancy and another 15 (depending on the day..today is not that day) along with the  same exercise routine I followed before pregnancy. I fell in love all over again with my husband, there is something about watching a guy care for his child that is so beautiful. 

Ian learned lots of new things this past year and is simply amazing.  He was my #1 1/2 marathon training partner and even got to participate in a race where he got 1st in the stroller division and in his age group!!  He went on his first airplane ride, got to go to Disneyland, the beach, the San Diego Zoo and much more. Completed carnial remolding in 7wks 6 days and to this day has a more perfectly shaped head than most.
Marcus started the fire academy and is enjoying it (the next 5mos though are going to become very busy for him).  He did engine work on his jeep (at this point I don't recall if he rebuilt the engine or put a new one in, either way it runs better...or so I'm told).

Goals for 2011: Marcus graduate from fire academy and either got on full time or part time, attack our debt and save for next house, survive the next 5mos, go on a vacay in which we have no schedule (we may never return), run another 1/2 marathon, make the Jeep the daily driver and sell Marcus' car, be better at house cleaning, menu planning, grocery shopping, and as always eat better and continue to workout.

We hope 2010 was good to you and your family and we wish you a Happy 2011!!!

A Few Thoughts

We'll wrap up the week with a few random thoughts.

1.Time change, we fell back an hour this past weekend and I must say I prefer this time than the spring forward time. Yes, I know it takes a while to get use to it being dark by 6p. I much perfer driving to work in the daylight rather than darkness it makes having to go much more doable.

2. I have come up with some great ideas to get for others for Christmas but as usual I think of them in the car, shower, while working out, etc and therefore not around anywhere to write them down.

3. Tuesday morning Ian wanted to start his day early so we were up at 5 something and I had yet to put my contacts in and just had my glasses and he attacked me and bent the frame. Marcus was able to fix them luckily.

4. ADD kicks in when I try to pick out pictures and arrangements.

5. I can dress Ian for about 5wks without doing any of his laundry aside from bath towels, pj's, and bibs. Yes he has a tons of clothes.

6. I made the 1st batch of sugar cut out cookies today. This is the 1st double batch of many to come. I will frost/decorate them later for now they will go in the freezer.

I think that's about all I'm sure as soon as I post this I will come up with something else to add...oh well. Hope everyone had a great week.

oops I forgot

I had more items to add to what I like about winter who knew that was possible?!?!

*Hot Chocolate, winter is the only time of year that our coffee cups get any use. I will need to look at getting a new tea kettle though.

*Christmas movies, now I have guidelines we can't start watching before Thanksgiving. So usually as soon as we are home for the evening on Thanksgiving day you can find us curled up watching Elf and then every weekend after that we watch every Christmas movie we own!! Our faves include: Elf, Christmas Vacation, Home Alone 1&2, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Santa Clause 1,2,&3 (I must admit by movie 3 they ruined it but still gotta watch it), Deck the Halls, Four Christmas', The Holiday (one of my faves, not Marcus'), Christmas with the Kranks, and Prancer (random knowledge: part of it was filmed in New Carlisle, IN about 20 min from where we live)

*Marcus loves Christmas and I made the mistake of notifying him that there is a radio station already playing Christmas music (they started Oct 1). He knows my feelings on no Christmas (aside from shopping) till after Thanksgiving so he changed all the presets in my car to this particular station, how nice of him.

*My sister comes home and I've already arranged for her to watch Ian one day while I go to work so I can the eve's of the holiday's off. Also while she's in town she will be offering some inductory swim lessons. These aren't your ordinary swim lessons either a post all about that a little later.

*Christmas cookies, you see every year since I've been married I get together with my mother in-law and we make in total about 25 different types of cookies. We do some together and some on our own. I think I will start baking my sugar cookies in the coming weeks and freeze them until it's time to decorate. One can only accomplish so much during nap time.



What things do you look forward too as winter approaches??

winter

Kinda threw up in my mouth when I just typed the title of this here blog. We woke up yesterday morning to snow on the ground and on our cars it's here folks it's here. If you recall I did a whole post on what I love about fall and I could do a whole post about what I love about spring and summer too. But for some reason I can't do the same for winter. I can come up with a few good things like:


1) Ian's 1st Christmas
2) Ian's 1st Birthday (NOOOOO.....He can't be turning 1 yet)
3) Looking out the window and seeing the beautifulness that God has created covered in SNOW making it look even more beautiful.
4) our 1st family Christmas card...good golly help me though because Marcus has quite the production going on in his head of what it needs to be.
5) you don't have to shave everyday
6) bring on the comfy clothes and warm socks
7) baking and making dinner in the crock pot or a big pot of soup
8) yeah, got nothing

Now I'll mention a few things I dislike about winter.

1)wish I had remote start
2)my hands become constantly dry and cracked
3)I have a condition called raynaud's disease which is no fun. I have in my hands and feet. Last winter was not as bad because I had my internal heater on 24/7.
4)I'm constantly cold while a work and feel someone needs to design a little heater to go over the mouse for the computer (remember the above condition)
5) members at work complain that it's too warm in the club to workout and I then whip out my cold, white numb hand and say really?!?! SUCK IT AND SWEAT WOMAN. Okay not really that's just what I think and say when I walk away.

There they are what I'm looking forward too and what I'm looking forward too. Now, you can't say move south if you don't like it or want to get away from the coldness because my sister has the same condition and lives in FL and still suffers from it. Remember to drive safe and watch out for your fellow drivers who might not have gotten the memo that snow changes the way one needs to drive. Gotta wrap this up so I can sit indian style and then sit on my hands!!

Stay warm!!

Halloween 2010

Ian celebrated his 1st Halloween we did not go door to door as there is no point. So instead he made appearances at my parents, Marcus' parents and Uncle, and my Grandparent's in which my aunt stopped by and my uncle walked over (he lives right next door kinda like on Everybody Loves Raymond but not like that at all)

Ian receivced: puffs, skidders (slippers with grippers), raisins, cheerios, a lil stuffed pumpkin, animal crackers, frosted animal crackers, and some money. I'd say for not going door to door he made out and was super cute!!!

Here's some pics of our lil guy thanks to my dad.

close to my heart

I remember when Marcus and I were walking the halls at the hospital as we attempted to speed things along our walking route contained the NICU hallway. And during our 1st round of walks as we walked by the NICU I told Marcus our goal is to not end up in there. As my family has quite the NICU track record, my uncle, sister (Jamie Elaine 12/24/78-4/1979), my cousin and I really didn't want to add to our record. They do however have a great NICU as Memorial's NICU is the regional referral center for north central Indiana and a portion of southwestern Michigan. I at the time had no idea how highly they were rated when it comes to NICU's. Anyways if you recall Ian did end up having to camp out in the NICU as he had a few things to figure out and needed close monitoring as he got the hang of things. You can read about his stay here.

During our 2nd visit with Ian we were given a blanket that we still have and is part of Ian's history. We don't know who made this blanket: and they don't know who received it All I know is someone took the time to make a beautiful blanket and my baby was lucky enough to receive it. It occupied him in his car seat as he needed extra support around his lil noggin. We were actually given 2 blankets one for around his noggin and another to cover him while in the car seat during transporting him from the hospital to the car and then from the car to the house. We gave the 2nd blanket back to the NICU for another family to have.

Now, I don't knit or sew but I do crochet and I know the time it takes to make blanket let alone a blanket that is even on all sides and has the right gauge in each stitch and it's not easy. Not only did someone donate their time to make a blanket but they also donated the materials and good yarn/fabric can be pricey especially when you are talking about blankets for babies who have sensitive skin.

According to Memorial's website they have over 400 newborns admitted to their NICU each year. That means over 400 blankets are given to families each year. Blankets that have been made especially for the NICU babies, to offer comfort and warmth to the families as they receive the care necessary in order to get their babies home.

Did you know there is a way you can help? You yourself can donate blankets to the NICU. No time or not crafty enough? Then Courtney from Courtney Bock Designs can help you, help the NICU. She has started Operation Warm Christmas which is an amazing project that the NICU will benefit from greatly. Click HERE to read more about it. You have that hard to person to buy for or trying to figure out what to get for the person that has everything? Then help the NICU and donate a blanket in their name. You can contact Courtney here

Want to share Courtney's project with others? Go for it, she's ready to be locked in her sewing room for days upon days with her dog Lola.

16 reasons

Summer is winding down, the temps are decreasing,the leaves are changing colors and that means one thing. Fall is practically knocking on the door and because I like lists so much I'm gonna list a few of the things I'm looking forward.


1. lighting candles, I know you can light candles year round but I really feel funny about doing so in the summer, I know it's weird. Anyways I set out on Tuesday to bath and bodyworks with giftcard in hand in search of fall candles. I got 2 3-wick candles and a room spray all for 26.75 with tax. The candles were on sale 2 for 20, I got one for fall and one for winter, the room spray is neutral.

2. homemade applesauce made with apples picked by ME!

3. Change in wardrobe. I don't know what it is but after months of wearing shorts, skirts, capris, and tank tops I'm ready to put on jeans and longsleeve shirts.

4.homemade apple pie again made with apples picked by ME!

5.football, although I do like football it's also a great naptime without feeling guilty that I'm not doing anything productive. Now, if game time would just match up with Ian's naptime I'll be all set.

6.tailgating, this is season #2 of not being able to enjoy a few adult beverages while catching up with friends in a parking lot. But that is ok, my time will come.

7. open windows, the hum or in our case the rattle of the air conditioner going is no longer heard.

8. leaves are changing colors and falling to the ground, I know my dad does not like that part of it, as his leaf picking up crew is down to a 1 man operation (sorry dad)

9. pumpkins and pumpkin patches

10. hot chocolate and hot cider (not for me but for the hubs)

11. enjoying an afternoon run without having the feeling that I'm going to die because it's 90 degrees outside.

12. comfort foods. need I say more?

13. new seasons of my favorite TV shows come back.

14. Chelssie introduced me to a fun fall trail mix of: candy corn, peanuts, rasins, and m&m's. Oh so yummy and easy, I am going to toss in some crasins as well.

15. soup, we are big soup people however because we are both super picky our soup choices are limited to: chicken noodle, potato, and broccoli. I know very boring, Marcus does have a larger soup liking than I do those are just the ones we are agree on. He likes chicken corn chowder and chili, and well I won't touch either one of those with a 9ft pole. So if he wants it he's gotta get it or make it himself.

16. Oatmeal, yes I like oatmeal and come fall/winter that is all I eat for breakfast. In the spring/summer I eat cold cereal usually Kashi.

See living in the midwest isn't all that bad. What are some of the things you look forward to with the change in seasons?

Mrs Green Thumb?

This weekend I went out to survey our landscaping or lack there of, take dead stuff off the plants and remove the dead plants.

When we bought our house almost 4yrs ago the city had a program that if you sent in a pic of the front of your home and a plan of what you would do if the city gave you $$ to make your yard "beautiful" they would either approve or deny the grant money to you. The list of eligible items was quite large ranging from flowers to weed killer (I just finished using the last bottle of weed killer this weekend). Well we apparently made our plan money worthy and for some reason they approved us (2yrs in a row) to have some $$ we purchased 8 plants, grass seed and weed killer. Once you are approved and make your purchases and "improvements" you send a after picture in. Well I hope they don't ask for a 4yrs later picture (I cannot find any of the pics as of right now) as only 2 of the 8 plants are still alive (I got a little over excited with the weed killer well just leave it at that) what does grace our flower beds are from my parents house (we did some splitting and transplanting of some hostas) and some peonies (which did not come from my parents but was rather an undercover transplanting job involving dark time a hooded sweatshirt, bucket and one of those little shovel things.)

I do want our landscaping to look nice hello curb appeal is necessary to sell a house (no, we are no where near ready to sell the house I can only wish) it's just going to require a lot of motivation, work, time and money. And the day those 4 things all line up will be a miracle. Until then we will work with what we have I mean the hostas have been there for about 3yrs and I've yet to kill them so that's a good sign I feel. I may be calling on a friend who works for a local event planning company as a florist and has and eye for this kind of stuff. It's simple, I need easy to care plants(meaning they require nothing of me).

There are certain things Marcus simply won't let me do, do to previous experiences gone wrong.
Example: there was a tree behind our house and it needed to be trimmed Marcus felt this was a task I could handle and so I was super excited to be handed a rather large pair of scissors things and trimmed the tree in only the areas I could reach meaning I left it looking very top heavy and uneven. So I forgot to step back and take a look at my work as I trimmed minor detail. Well, not so minor when Marcus then had to dig the tree up and toss it do to it's awful appearance.
Example #2 we had a row of about 4 lilac bushes and b/c of a tree in our yard they were not growing evenly and after the tree was removed by the power line trimming guys (they did such a horrible job of trimming the tree around the lines that they had to remove it at their expense before it fell on our garage) I felt it was time to give the lilac bushes a trim well fast forward to today we only have 1 small lilac bush remaining (it's still recovering from the trim that I did).

Who wants to hire me to trim some bushes?? This could be why I was always my dad's assistant (I picked up the trimmings) when it came to trimming the bushes or the fact that he used a chain saw thingy and there are very few power tools that I get along when turned on. Ask me to bring you a power tool no problem ask me to use it and that's where things get a little iffy.

this is all you get

Points, because I can't wrap my mind around any one thing at the moment.

*We swaddle Ian but in the middle of the night he'll wake up and I'll check on him and his head and face are cold. Poor baby, we are going to have crank the heat up for him.

*It's suppose to get into the high 60's this week and that excites me. We need some warmer temps although this means some people are going to breaking out the sandals without getting a pedi first.

*Ian gets to celebrate his 1st Easter and we're getting him a basket of breast milk actually scratch the basket he has a whole deep freezer full of milk just for him.

*Speaking of milk only 37 wks left of pumping which also excites but also saddens me because that means our lil guy will be 1. GAAH...I can't think like that so I won't.

*Aunt CiCi's coming to visit in June which means we will start swim lessons, so she'll only be here for a few days it will get us started and she can teach me what i need to do with him. I have given swim lessons to older kiddies but not ones who can't sit on there own yet or talk back,mmmm...I think I could like this.

*Only 10wks left till the 1/2 marathon that I have yet to register for.

*This week we have to tackle our childcare issue. Today Ian is spending the day with my grandma as my grandpa had to go work the corn fields. Although he did invite Ian to ride some piece of farm equipment and Ian's response was filling up a diaper for him:)

*I also have to go bra shopping once again, it seems I have leveled out. Dreading this again. Although I did try on all my swimsuits and we are good in that department.

There you go, a little glimpse into what is happening in my mind today. Which, ever since giving birth my mind is all over the place and you can completely toss the idea of having a memory or time mangement abilities out the window cause well I'm pretty sure I delivered that as well.