resolution, part 2

click picture to enlarge

alright, finishing up the resolution for august. so technically some of these pictures were taken on the same day, but i figured you wouldnt want to see 15 pictures of claire sleeping in her bassinet thingy. right? right

we have a lot of different activities going on here. surfin the internet with daddy. her first pair of (borrowed) sunglasses. push-ups with daddy in the baby bjorn. hanging out in a hammock, not paying attention to a jack in the box, meeting her second cousin landon, her great aunt loie and great grandma rose, her first nap in her room to be watched anxiously by her mom via the baby monitor. and then, of course, some sleeping ones. (which lately hasnt been happening very often)

resolution, part 1

(click on the picture to enlarge)

15 days worth of pictures. relaxing in her rock n play. not enjoying her swing. her first pair of shoes. sporting knee high socks. her first relay for life walk. modeling cute new outfits.  hanging out with mom and day. tummy time. you know, just a day in the life. 

birthday onesie

heres the birthday onesie i made. ie printed and ironed it on. of course im not creative enough to think of this myself, but found the inspiration off of pinterest of course. 

we are hanging in there. we had a little bump in the road called jaundice but that is resolving and im trying my best to stay sane in the unpredictable/unplanned world of claire. the hubs is headed back to work tomorrow so that will be interesting. most likely he will leave us watching the olympics and will come home to the same thing. best timing of maternity leave ever. ive never been so into the olympics before. and in other news, claire is training us in well...today she reminded me to always quickly change diapers so as to not get pooped on. even with that, shes still pretty cute. but i guess im a bit biased.

end of the 9 month argument...

its a GIRL!
this little peanut FINALLY listened to mom and decided to come a little over a week early. (thanks to some help from the night shift at work...)

little miss claire was born on july 20th, weighing in at 7 pounds 2 oz, 20 inches long. 
we couldn't be more excited! 

and even though its been almost a week...its still really surreal that shes ours. and very odd to think this little one was the one inside me moving around, giving me heartburn, and so on. and heres to knowing we will probably be going broke with all the cute outfits out there :) 
 

pinterest resolution

resolution for june: complete five pinterest projects. 

up first: a diy memory game for my favorite (and only) nephew. (shannon--act surprised) i started with taking pictures of everyone and making them into a collage to get them to the right size. then i got a memory game from goodwill and thought id "be creative" and paint one side orange. which was a good idea. key word: idea. turns out i got it all over the opposite side of the pieces.

so i decided to just keep it simple and not paint them. using some modge podge i glued & sealed the pictures onto the pieces. done and done.

project 2: finish that silly mobile. the first one was a bit too chaotic. so i bought a hoop thingy, had the hubs paint it and used fishing line to hand half of the pinwheels. 

project 3: a birthday onesie. so this one isnt really completed but everything is in place to quickly complete it once little ivan or dot makes his or her arrival. simply finding a calendar for the correct month, flipping it to the mirror image and printing it onto some transfer paper to be ironed onto the onesie. since theres a chance that this little one wont arrive until august...i did twice the work. and then all ill have to do is iron the correct one on and use a sharpie or paint or something to circle his or her birthday. and take pictures of course.

 

project 4: laundry bag for the nursery. this one was an easy project too. the actual plan says to use a pillow case but i had some extra fabric so i just made a little pillow case type thing. add in an embroidery hoop some string and a hook = done. hopefully it holds up!

project 5: no clue. i wanted to make a little fabric puff to put on the nursery door so that the door wont make any sound when opening it. however i have not started this. oh well.

80% is good enough right? riiiiight.

a tweak to mays resolution

resolution for may: drive in.
ha.
WHAT was i thinking?

SIDENOTE: HOW is it the end of May ALREADY? SERIOUSLY! it FLEW by.

lets just go over some facts:
the movies dont start until at least 9.
thats typically my bedtime these days.

watching two movies in car.
ha. i cant stay in one position comfortably for more than a half hour.

bathroom breaks.
these days i need a lot of those.
and having to get out of the car countless times to walk in the dark to a bathroom.
ummmm  no.

so i wised up. (is that a word, wised?meh oh well)
and tweaked mays resolution.

turns out we went to the thorpe drive in.
it was very comfortable & spacious & wasnt in the dark.
and the movies, well they started whenever we wanted.
typically after we all had enough of the american pickers or hardcore pawn marathons.
we were able to watch harry potter 2 & 3 (dad wants to watch em all) and the blind side.

so i guess we didnt technically go to a drive in.
but we DID have to drive in to the driveway at the thorpe drive in.
does that count? i think so.
and i get my way cuz im preggers right?

ha, if that were true id have nabisco sending me a new pack of birthday cake oreos to my door step every week. (dont even get me started that i cant find them anymore....ugh)

babymoon to duluth

last weekend the hubs and i traveled to duluth for a little babymoon. its one of the free remaining weekends before the baby comes. so off we went. 

saturday morning we started the day early. someone wouldnt let me sleep in; despite the reminders of all the advice i'd been hearing "sleep now while you can, you wont get much in the third trimester" or "sleep now because you wont get much when the baby is here" --- but in his defense he did let me "sleep in" (until like 8:30) because he was up at 6:30 taking full advantage of the continental breakfast and a foggy walk by the lake. but still. 8:30 isnt really considered sleeping in in my book at least.

we first checked out the great lakes aquarium. there was a "how well do you know lake superior" game with a bunch of facts, so i tested the hubs. turns out he got like 7 of 8 questions right. i was pretty surprised. until he told me later on that day that he had read most of the facts on the little signs posted along the lake where he took his early morning stroll. 


i think our favorite part was watching some divers feed the fish. who knew a sturgeons mouth was on the underside and looks like a little pucker thing? not i. but now we have proof. 

and we couldnt pass up this photo op. funny story, clearly the hubs took these pictures. and it took him a week (when he was uploading these pictures) to realize what was really happening in the next picture. he thought i was standing up. but CLEARLY baby didnt want to be left out.

we ate at a little mexican place for lunch and had some of the best salsa i have ever had. baby and i definitely filled up on chips and salsa. best 99 cents ive spent in a long time. we spent the rest of the afternoon walking and checking out some shops and just relaxing. turns out it was a bit chillier than we had anticipated up there and only brought one coat so we were pretty cold. we did manage to stay outside long enough to watch a ship come too. but it was freezing!

saturday night we went to a play. and it was interesting. when i hear play i immediately think big production, lots of cast etc. well this was more community theater, small cast (8 i think) and could seat about 100-150 people maybe? but it was a good play, with good acting and we enjoyed it. 


sunday morning we took a walk by the lake as well and did some driving around duluth and even ventured into superior wi. just to say we did. lol. and then headed back home. it was definitely a weekend that flew by, but it was relaxing. it was nice not to check email or facebook or feel like "i should be cleaning this...or doing this..." like we so often do at home. good quality time together before baby. and we can't complain about that.

pinterest meal

so march's resolution was to make a meal from pinterest pins ive been collecting. appetizer, main course & dessert. well that sorta happened. :)

so of course i procrastinate on this as much as possible. why wouldnt i? and then to top it off i had a cold the day i decided to do this. great.

originally i was going to make beer can chicken cuz i thought we had a small whole chicken in the freezer. well turns out we had half a chicken and didnt have any beer cans, even though that wouldnt have worked anyways. so i scoured the internet and made a mish-mosh dry rub (i dont even really remember what spices i put in) heres before cooking:

and then i was going to make this delicious looking pull apart cheesy herb bread for an appetizer. http://www.roxanashomebaking.com/pull-apart-cheesy-herb-bread/

yah well that didnt turn out. and i dont really know why. but heres the meal (minus the delicious & super easy green bean casserole we also had)

so that was supper. minus the dessert. cuz really i had nothing left in me to make a dessert. however, the night before i DID make a cinnamon roll cake for the hubs to bring to work. so that counts right? right. and i had even pinned it previously. so that helps out.

so theres march's resolution. with a twist or two. but hey, thats life. right? (at least thats what i keep telling myself)

but in other news, aprils resolution will NOT be at the last minute. so thats exciting. heres to hoping im feeling better by this weekend...

"new" cook book

so its a bit late, but february's resolution is complete. i blame it on the fact february had only 29 days. or the fact that i completely spaced and remembered on february 26th. whoops. guess thats what happens when you are having so much working, eating, sleeping, watching tv and surfin the internet for project ideas.

nothing too exciting here folks. a new cover, new binder and new tabs. woot woot. but the best part is that all the recipes now follow the same format. the same font. the same size. ie everything looks the same. we also added recipes that we had in a recipe box that we would always forget about so hopefully we will even be trying some new things in the next few weeks. and thats that. februarys resolution completed in march.

now to get searching for new recipes for marchs resolution...

date night

date night last friday night. finally! :) now dont get me wrong, im not trying to blame the hubs in taking a 14 week hiatus from dates---im equally if not more to blame. well the exhaustion is to blame but still. we had a lot of fun. and it was even the hubs' ideal date = cheap! 

we started out ice skating. which was free. cant beat that. now let me just say the last time i went ice skating was like one time in college and before that was who knows when. aka a long time. the first few minutes were kinda sketchy trying to get my balance/get used to being on ice skates. but it was a lot of fun. 

 
thankfully i didnt fall! and neither did the hubs. even though i thought that would be hilarious. cuz im nice like that. after ice skating i was going to surprise the hubs with supper at a place that was on diners drive ins and dives. for a really good jucy lucy. however, the wait at that place and their sister restaurant was an hour to an hour and a half wait. um no. this girl and this baby cannot wait that long just to get seated. so we ended up at a little sports place near our house. it was alright. nothing to write home about. 


so all in all it was a fun night to get out of the house and have some fun. hopefully we can try that jucy lucy place sometime during the week when the wait wont be so long.

2012 Resolutions - updated

well...now that we have spilled the beans about the baby i guess i can clue you in onto the remaining 6 months worth of resolutions...

January --- ice skate
February ---redo cookbook (ie have all the recipes have the same font; cuz im cool like that)
March ---make a meal from pinterest pins (appetizer; main course & dessert)
April --- take a trip. where? TBD
May --- drive-in movie
June --- complete 4 pinterest projects

July --- end a 9 month argument: boy or girl.
August --- take one picture every day
September- December --- adjust to life with a baby

resolutions?!

holy buckets. how is it already 2012??? seriously, where did the time go?! it seems  like just yesterday it was the beginning of december. so between the holidays, family time, working and sleeping i havent quite got all the resolutions yet. for some reason it seems like this year is harder to come up with things to do. who knew. not i. so i guess you are stuck with the first half of the resolutions. at least until i get my act together and clean up the christmas decorations and think of some other things. (your suggestions are always welcome too!)


January --- ice skate
February ---redo cookbook (ie have all the recipes have the same font; cuz im cool like that)
March ---make a meal from pinterest pins (appetizer; main course & dessert)
April --- take a trip. where? TBD
May --- drive-in movie
June --- complete 4 pinterest projects

homemade pasta

never again. ha.

so decembers resolution is to make homemade pasta. fettuccine alfredo to be exact. why does the recipe always make it look so incredibly easy? why?! ugh. so...homemade pasta. flour and eggs. easy enough.

yah, no. i dont know if i didnt knead the dough long enough or did it too much but turns out when cooked, these noodles were chewy. um no thank you. the hubs said he didnt mind it. i think he was lying. just sayin my opinion.

but again. never again. dah. and i was looking forward to this so much. oh well. guess ill just have to stick to baking. christmas baking :)

volunteer...

err actually more like donate this year. so novembers resolution was to volunteer. and well i looked but with an unpredictable work schedule in addition to the holiday season starting there werent a ton of options. (hindsight maybe shoulda had "volunteer" for a different month, oh well) so instead i decided to donate. its along the same lines right? right.

i found a cool opportunity here in the metro area called CHEERFUL GIVERS. What does that mean? well their website says it best, "We provide toy-filled birthday gift bags to food shelves and shelters so that parents living in poverty can give their child a birthday gift."

this year the floor i work on is collecting items for families in need...getting basic things like shampoo, shaving cream and some fun things like toys so the families can have a great christmas.

and last but not least...this summer our city held a celebration day. they had music, great food, games for kids and a bunch of different vendor booths. one booth that i was interested in was the yellow ribbon one. our city is becoming a yellow ribbon community and i became a volunteer. its basically a group of volunteers willing to help military families in different ways. check out their site here. they've only contacted me once so far, to help babysit kids while their parents were at a party...but i was out of state so couldnt help. but someday it will work out. someday.

and theres the november resolution. only one more month to go. any ideas on some resolutions i/we should try for next year???

corn maze

last weekend the hubs and i accomplished octobers resolution of going to my first ever (that i remember at least) corn maze. we went to severs corn maze and this years maze theme was out of this world. literally. check it out:

thankfully we didnt get lost. they made it pretty easy actually, they gave everyone an option of carrying along the map and had check points along the way to look at where you were at. it was ok to go through the maze, i just think it would have been a bit more fun to race other people through the maze maybe next year. but the activities didnt just stop there. we also got to see an exotic petting zoo. honestly i think this was more fun the maze.

the hubs pretty much immediately found the goats. not surprised one bit there. and we even saw a ze-donk. a what? a cross between a zebra and a donkey. who knew. you can also have a zeony (zebra & pony) and zorse (zebra and horse)

there were also ostriches, camels, water buffalo, and so much more. BUT let me tell you about the freakiest thing there. a bird area. something like a 10x10 caged area in which you can go in and put your arm out and these cute little birds will come land on your arm. yea. except for the fact that there are about 80 birds in this area and they all are fast. very fast. so in a matter of seconds i had about 8 fly towards me from every which way. FREAKY. unfortunately for you readers the hubs was in control of the camera so the pictures arent exactly shall we say perfect.

so we had the corn maze, the petting zoo and some pig races. yup pig races. nothing too exciting there. besides the fact they called it the pigtucky derby. no joke. we had some fun with some of the picture prop areas too.

all in all we had fun at this corn maze. it was a bit odd, id say about 98% of the other people there were couples with small children. i dont really know what i expected but it wasnt that. oh well. you live you learn. 

hope you have a great weekend. we will be busy... welcoming and visiting with some guests!

farmers market

so septembers resolution: farmers market & make a meal. check.

so heres the scoop. we hit up the st paul farmers market in august. and bought eggplant. because some coworkers of mine were talking about it and i had never cooked with it. so we bought some eggplant and made eggplant parmesan. except i forgot to take pictures. whoops! it wasnt too bad. not sure if id go out of my way to go buy some & make it again but who knows. did you know that eggplant seeds can be bitter because they contain nicotinoid alkaloids, which is a relative of tobacco? yah, me neither. until i looked it up on wikipedia. 

so in order to make up for forgetting to take pictures, we hit up our local farmers market instead this weekend. its a lot smaller but a lot closer than the st paul one. so we picked up some zucchini & green beans.

i wanted to make chocolate zucchini bread and the hubs wanted to try baked zucchini. and well we have no creative ideas or recipes for the green beans. so i wont talk about them.

i havent made too many different breads before. so i was a bit nervous. but id vote this one a success. it smelled sooooo good baking in the oven. and tasted pretty good too.

did you know that according to wikipedia, zucchini has folate, potassium, vitamin A & maganese? but more interesting is the fact that "its an immature fruit, being the swollen ovary of the female zucchini flower"? yah me neither. arent you glad this blog is now also educational?!?! <side note: so i was pretty impressed with that fact & went to tell the hubs you know...to impress him. he said thats pretty common and the same is true for apples and oranges. dang. looks like i should paid a bit more attention in some science class...whoops!>

so the hubs decided to make some baked zucchini fries. they werent too shabby.

we also couldnt leave the farmers market without some fresh flowers. fingers crossed my allergies dont get worse.

twins game...

august resolution: complete. the hubs and i went to our first twins game of the season last night. the weather was nice --- so "nice" in fact i ended up wearing jeans and a sweatshirt.



 the only downside to this game (besides losing) was my allergies. apparently they decided it was perfect timing to strike back up, possibly for my annual fall allergy stretch. (and people wonder why i dont like the outdoors) anyways...we had a fun little date night down at target field.

valleyfair

last thursday i accomplished my resolution for july. and i even had some great help/company from the hubs and our good friends joej & pappy. thursday was the first day in almost a week where the humidity wasnt horrible and the heat indexes werent above 100 so we were lucky!

we started the day on one of the best rides there: steel venom. and a few rides later they somehow convinced me to try a ride i hadnt been on before, the rip tide.

(image from valleyfair.com)

lets just say theres a lot of spinning. like 720 degrees of spinning. plus water. so before the ride, these "trustworthy" friends of mine say "you'll just get a little bit wet". liars i tell you. LIARS!!! i got soaked.  and there ended my trust in them. (just kidding)

at this point i was feeling a little woozy/nauseated. but nothing crazy. so next up: extreme swing. again, i had never been on this and wasnt really watching how "extreme" this swing really was. those trustworthy friends of mine described it as a giant swing. mmm hmmm. suuuuuuuuuuuure. :)

(image from valleyfair.com)

yah. turns out its really extreme. this one made my sick to my stomach. i honestly kept my eyes closed the whole time and probably left some fingernail marks in the hubs' hand. after this we went on the wild thing. and that was my last ride for a long time. i think ive officially become too old to go on these rides. cuz boy oh boy was i nauseous.

so a lunch break was ordered. after lunch we watched a show about music through the ages. it was pretty decent. until they started doing a risky chair "dance" with moves very similar to those learned at a certain bachelorette party last summer... just saying. there were kids in that audience. oh well.

i didnt really feel like a lot more rides so i became a photographer/people watcher. so here goes:

this is the ship. or something like that. the hubs was the only one of us to venture onto this ride. apparently its a "once in a lifetime" ride. im ok with never having that once in lifetime event. 

above is a little stuffed something the hubs won. and yes, there is a diaper on the head. who even knows. below is a picture of us both with snoopy. except it turns out snoopy looks really creepy considering you cant see his eyes.

this is pappy and joej. you know, those "trustworthy" friends of ours...

funny side story: at the beginning of our day at valleyfair we saw this girl who won a GIGANTIC stuff bear/gorilla thing. we chuckled seeing as this animal was about double her size and she was "lucky" enough to be able to carry it around all day. we saw her a few more times throughout the day walking with it on her shoulders and then having to take a break or having to have someone else hold the back of it while she walked.

all in all we had a lot of fun and (like always) it was good to see & hang out with joej & pappy. even if it sounds like they arent trustworthy...they are. just givin them a hard time! the day went by really quickly. all in all, a pretty good day. another resolution checked off the list.