Busy with the Usual Stuff

Well it seems to be the theme that I feel worn out and busy but don't really have anything to tell from it.  I took Lauren to ballet this morning and then we took a quick trip to the PX and then watered the garden.  We got home and straightened up a little bit and then Stephanie came for Natalie's home therapy appointment.  Since it was sunny today and over 70 we sat outside for therapy.  Since then I've done some laundry and made lunch and just have been kept busy with the girls.  I'm very hungry but in the mood for Chipotle and just looked it up to find it will take at least 30 minutes to drive there.  With evening traffic, over an hour?  I don't want it that badly.  Cooking for myself and the girls is tricky since Lauren doesn't eat that much and Natalie doesn't, either.  Cooking even a small portion of a main dish and two sides would mean leftovers, and those usually just end up being thrown out.  Anyway, we'll come up with something.

I'm about to start reading "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson because some friends on Facebook recommended it so highly.  It's supposed to be really well written and very suspenseful and one friend said she was over 200 pages into it in the first sitting.  Sounds good to me, so I checked the wait list at the library and it was about 70 people long - I just bought it instead.  I'm being a bit impatient and really wanted to get a new book to read.  I have not been keeping up with reading as much lately and need to get back on track with that.  I also really want to get out and take more pictures with the girls now that it's sunnier and warmer.  I miss taking pictures.  I do take TONS on my iPhone, but they're only 2 MP and I can't control the focus, exposure, etc, and of course, they're just BETTER with the SLR.

I bought some cute office storage boxes at WalMart this week in green and yellow so that I could get my desk under control.  First step was just getting everything out and throwing out the trash and next I'll organize what I decided to keep and pare down more.  It'll take time, but eventually it'll get clean, right?  I need to become a better tosser, I keep too much stuff and we just don't have the room.  I need an attic like Candy Spelling has.  Man, that would be awesome.

Anyway... back to real life for now.  Tomorrow I'm getting up to make pigs in a blanket for our potluck dish for an FRG get together and next week I'm driving up to Everett to visit my friend Andrea from elementary school.  I think it's been about 13 years since the last time I saw her.  Natalie is also having a feeding evaluation this week and Lauren has her ballet recital.  I need to dust off the video camera for that one, I'm really looking forward to it.

Five Question Friday, take one

Blogghopping one day I came across Five Crooked Halos and started following her site.  She's been participating in Five Question Fridays for as long as I've been reading her site, and I always intended to do this at some point, but never got around to it.  Until tonight!  So here I go:

1. Take your pick...date night, girls night out, or night out alone?

Probably a girls night out,  but I haven't had one of those in a long time.  I really enjoy getting out with friends.

2. Can you touch your nose with your tongue?

Only if I push the tip of my nose down with my finger.  :)

3. What is your favorite flower and why?

Probably a Gerbera Daisy or a tulip, but I can't really say why.  They just both seem so friendly and sunny to me.

4. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself?

If I could go back I'd tell myself to quit worrying so much about what other people thought about me and about trying to fit in, and to cultivate my own interests more.

5. If you won the lottery, what is the very first thing you would do?

I'd call my dad.




Today I took Natalie in for her last follow up from eye surgery.  She'll go back in the fall for another of her annual eye exams.  I ordered her new glasses today and we should get them in  a week or two.  Lauren got to go to daycare today and was just thrilled about it.


Our garden is growing beautifully, the peas are taking off the most so far, the corn and spinach look good and the peppers and broccoli are right behind.  We've been busy with just the usual stuff around here - ballet and physical therapy and the usual stuff.

Just Eight More Days

Eight days left until I'm 30.  We already did my big birthday present, our trip to Hawaii.  It was part birthday present to me, Anniversary present to ourselves, and just long overdue family vacation somewhere really fun.  We had a blast!

We flew in on Thursday the 15th.  We didn't get to our hotel until sometime after 10pm, Lauren fell asleep in the shuttle van on the way to the hotel.  Friday was chilly and overcast, but we walked just under 2 miles each way to go pick up groceries at WalMart- peanut butter and jelly and bread and crackers- so that we'd have some good food in the room so we didn't have to go out to eat for every meal.  We stayed at the Sheraton Waikiki and it was pretty awesome.  We were able to walk right out from the elevators to get to the pool, down the stairs from the pool to get to the beach, or out the front of the hotel to the main streets for shopping.  Lauren picked out this Keiki Friends Dress-Up Dolls from the ABC store to play with in the room.  We found two more similar sets for the plane ride home, too.  Saturday morning we met up with Ben's cousin (who he hadn't seen in 15 years or so) who happened to be in Hawaii also.  He and his fiancee were leaving that day, but we had a good breakfast at Cheeseburger Waikiki and it was fun.  On our way back to the hotel, the sun came out and it was good weather for the rest of the trip.

We spent lots of time at the pool, lots of time on the beach and in the water, and lots of time walking around.  I can't believe we almost didn't bring the stroller!  We used it every. single. day.  The hotel had a koi pond and they let kids feed the fish twice a day.  Lauren really liked that.  We went to Margaritaville for dinner.  They have a hula show that is pretty fun.  Lauren got up on stage and did the hula during the show.  Then after the show was over and while we were eating, Lauren decided she needed to dance again, so she went and got on stage and performed for everyone.  It was great.  Ben got a short video of it, and believe me, this isn't the highlight.  There was so much more to it, and it was a lot of fun.

We shopped lots at the ABC stores, ate breakfast at Cheeseburger on the Beachwalk most days (they had great pancakes, and we were able to get a plate of fruit for the girls to share. Ben liked their omelets.) It was a great trip. On the last day, we checked out at 11 and had the hotel store our bags. We went for a loooooong lunch, laid by the pool, walked around and picked up souvenirs, and finally got picked up to head to the airport around 7:30. Our flight left at 10, and Lauren fell asleep at the gate and Natalie fell asleep while we were taxiing to the runway. They both slept the whole flight home. We got into SeaTac before 7, shuttled to our car, drove home and took a nap. It was a great trip!

Today we are going to go to a baseball game and then I'll have to start a new book. I finished reading The Devil in the Junior League and in the few days we've been home, I finished Chasing Harry Winston. Next up I have Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously unless the library emails that they have the latest of the True Blood series waiting for me.

Her Last Day Being Three

Lauren turns four years old tomorrow.  We're taking her to IHOP for breakfast since Ben has to work tomorrow night.  I think I'm looking forward to that as much as she is, if not more.  It's a pretty fun weekend for her with Easter today and her birthday tomorrow, lots of presents and treats and fun.  We're going to have her birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese next weekend.  Lauren is all done with soccer now, she did such a great job this year.  She was by far the smallest kid on her team, but loved playing goalie. Somehow her team only ended up with five kids on it while the other teams in the league all had 10, and even with that huge disadvantage, they won a few of their games.  She got a medal and a certificate at the end of the season and they had a pizza party at the bowling alley after their last game.

Natalie has an evaluation for Occupational Therapy tomorrow.  We'll see if she starts doing regular work with them.  That is for more fine motor skills than the Physical Therapy she does already.  They changed the setting on her shunt when she visited her neurosurgeon a few weeks ago.  They upped the setting to a slightly higher pressure.  She's been doing pretty well with the change, which is good, and in June she'll go back and have another MRI to see how it's going in her head.

I have to get a crown put on my tooth in 10 days.  The dentist thinks I cracked it.  I was in such pain and thankfully they got me in the same day.  I've been doing ok with tylenol and learning to avoid the tooth, I hope the crown does the trick and helps me out.  I always get so nervous about the dentist and every time I go it's awful, then I avoid going and the next time it's bad again.  It's an awful cycle.  I do really need to get better about going regularly.  I just hate it so much and avoiding it only makes it harder on me later.

Ben's been making some really great food lately.  Tonight he made pulled pork and last night chicken caesar salad and bread.  We had strawberry shortcake for dessert both nights.  I made the Pioneer Woman's Hot Cross Buns on Friday and they were really good.  They make a great breakfast.  I didn't realize Hot Cross Buns were an Easter food, but now that I know, I think I'll have to make them every year.

Fifty Five Days Left

I have 55 days left in my twenties.  Nicole at Making It Lovely made a list of 30 things to do before she turns 30.  She has a little bit longer to accomplish them than I do, but I don't think I'll use her list, anyway.  I have started thinking a bit about my birthday though.  I think my 30s are going to be awesome.  I'm really looking forward to them.  But I realized that once I'm there, I'll never be 20 again, so I should celebrate these last few weeks of my 20s before they're gone forever.  I made an impulsive decision today and cut my hair again, this time a bit shorter all around than the last time.  I still may go even shorter.  Or, I'll let it grow a little bit and just do the back shorter and really embrace the inverted bob.  I figure making crazy decisions about my hair is very 20s and I'm allowed.  And I'd like to figure out what I really like with my hair so my 30s is a better hair decade.  I didn't start my 20s off with great hair, so it should be easy to start off better this decade.

I've also been on the search for a lip color that I really love.  I'm having to buy lots of new makeup since I dyed my hair and it has a bit more red in it.  Changed all my colors on me.  I feel like the lip color that I'm drawn to looks almost cartoonish with a bit brighter hair.  But I need that color on my lips so I don't look washed out.  I was pale living in the desert, I'm going to be translucent living up here in the PNW.  I've embraced blush, but I'm not going to ignore my lips.


Thirtieth birthdays should be a big deal, right?  I really would love to have a big party with my family and friends, but it looks like that isn't going to happen this year.  I can't lie, I'm a bit disappointed about that.  But I understand.  And we're the ones who moved far away from everyone else.  I'm not going to dwell on that, like I said, I'm only a little disappointed about it.  


I have been making my birthday list for this year.  I added a few photography books to my Amazon wishlist.  I also want pretty OPI nail polishes.  There are lots of pretty pinks and purples I've seen.  I still have some thinking to do about this.  Ben's going to upgrade the seats in my Jetta to leather seats this week, which I'm excited about.  I thought about it for a long time and was hesitant at first but I think it will be great to have seats that wipe clean, especially living somewhere that gets wet and having an almost four year old who doesn't know how to keep her feet off the seats.  Really, I think it's more likely that she'd stain cloth seats than puncture leather ones.  Plus, they'll be heated, which will be really nice.  


Any ideas on things to do before I turn 30?

Time Marches On

Has it really been over 10 days since I posted something?  Sheesh.  Time has been flying by around here.  Natalie had her feeding evaluation.  I have to thicken everything she drinks for a while.  I have lots of questions about this, and I'll ask them at her checkup on Wednesday.  She's also been experiencing separation anxiety any time I walk away from her.  She cries and gets really upset, even if I just walk to the trash can to throw a diaper away.  Kind of frustrating, but age appropriate.  She's also getting four more teeth, which will bring her up to twenty!

Lauren's been having lots of fun with soccer.  She likes practice more than the games because they are shorter.  She says her big games are too long, and she gets distracted once she starts getting tired.  She does well playing goalie, though.  She blocked two goals this Saturday.  Her ballet seems to be getting better, too.  I just went this morning and signed her up for her April class.  She sometimes gets a little bit too chatty in class, but last Friday was observation day and it looked like she was paying attention and didn't get the giggles too much.

Ben's night schedule is finally done.  It was more exhausting for me than I thought it would be.  He's off today and has been working on my car, something about a steering column bearing, I think.  I'm not trying to learn about it, I trust him to do it.  Besides, I'm much too busy staying warm in the house to go hang out in the garage.

I'm thinking I'm going to host a brunch for some new friends.  I'm not really sure what to make, though.  I've been browsing through the Martha Stewart website and Tasty Kitchen for recipes.  Any suggestions?  Hopefully I'll get to host it as a kid-free event and get some mommy alone time.

The daffodils in the front yard have bloomed!  I think spring is coming, and I'm very happy about it!

Soccer and New Foods and Springtime Gardening

Lauren started soccer two weeks ago.  It's so adorable.  The kids are all so motivated and active and have no idea whatsoever about what they're supposed to be doing.  I love it.  It's fun to watch and she gets to run around like crazy and wear herself out, and that's the whole point of it really.  She has two practices a week and her first game was last Saturday.  Her team is the Hurricanes and they won!

Natalie is crawling around EVERYWHERE now, pulling herself up to stand, and is starting to cruise the furniture with a purpose.  I asked her home therapist to start helping us work on baby sign language with her since she still only says "mama".  Her eating is great, though, she's been eating pretty much everything I've given her.  Bell peppers, beans, avocado, cantaloupe, even lasagna last night for dinner.  By the time she has her feeding evaluation on the 24th, she won't need it anymore.

I planted strawberry seeds and some flower seeds in little pots and put them in the kitchen window.  The strawberries sprouted, but now they aren't doing anything.  I'm not sure what went wrong there.  The flowers are doing well, though.  I wish I could remember which kind I planted.  Hahaha.  It feels nice to have a seed I planted actually grow into something.  My hydrangeas outside are starting to get new green life, and the daffodil and tulip bulbs I had Ben plant are all up and I think I see the start of a few blooms thinking about growing.

I haven't done much lately craft or sewing-wise, which is a shame.  It feels like we've suddenly become very busy with soccer, story time, ballet, and physical therapy.  Story time is taking a three week break, though so that's one more day a week we have off.  We are also getting over having mild colds and Natalie had a bad diaper rash/yeast infection that's finally clearing up thanks to a trip to urgent care and a prescription for some cream.  Ben's current schedule is throwing things off a bit, too, but we only have another ten days of that and then we can get back to normal.  And last night I ordered myself Cath Kidston's "Make" (that I mentioned in my last post) so I'm excited to get that and get inspired again.