ok ok ok!

So, I was going to try to wait until I could post some pics, but I suppose that will have to wait.
Unfortunately there isn't a whole lot that is new. I started the weekend plan and I'm loving it. Getting time to catch up with family and old friends----it's been great!

Al and I had a short visit to the Fort last week and when we came home she walked into her bedroom and said, "get this crib out of my room!...it's for baby!" Tim and I almost cried. She is a full adult now, in our minds...she needs us even less. She now sleeps in her 'big girl' bed full time. I'm proud (i must be doing something right) but the ol' heart breaks when I think about it. She'll never be a baby AGAIN!

Also, I've discovered she loves country! A friend made a county cd for me and she is hooked! She seems to like the 'twangiest' songs on it. There is one that she literally acts out the words--having to do with putting suntan lotion on and this and that (you know how country music is a 'bit' cheesey) and she will say, "this is my favorite song in the whole wide world, mama!" [side note: i seem to have, uh, somewhere along the way acquired a taste for CERTAIN country songs...who knew such a thing would ever happen?]....

---also, it should be noted that last night as I was reading a book [The hidden diary of Marie Antoinette---really good] I really came to realize how much I abuse comma usage. I apologize---it's just that I really love commas.

Tim and I went mountain biking yesterday for our 'date night' and then to buffalo wild wings. Great date night! except my butt feels so bruised (from mountain biking---NOT dinner just to clarify) I can barely sit down! I only almost wiped out a bazillion times! ha! We went on some new trails that Tim heard about that biker enthusiasts built not too long ago (they are friends of one of his coworker's). While on it we met the actual trail creators! They were SUPER hard core bikers but super nice. Everyone we met on the trails was so nice it was crazy! It was like we left the real world and entered some really friendly fictitious world in the woods. Bizarre.

We are watching Lars and The Real Girl for the second time tonight. Such a cute, strange, funny, touching movie.

Well, that's all I have for now. I will post pics soon.
HOping for pool weather tomorrow! Fingers crossed!....and toes!

Stay tuned....

I promise a blog is in the works....I have not forgot you loyal readers!

Counting down, a new 'pool', pretending, and a challenge to myself

Alex has begun pretending a lot more lately. She creates these games for herself which usually incorporate some sort of backyardigans theme or dora (i am not a dora fan, but, unfortunately she is). Anyway, a couple days ago we were sitting outside with the girl while she played in her baby pool and she began asking, "where's my crown?". She then would slide down her slide into the pool and ask, "oh no! where's my crown!?" to which we were to answer, "here it is! (while pretending to find it outside the pool hand it to her)" in which she then would pretend to place it on her head and say, "there it is! here's my crown, thanks, mama! (and then ramble something about a mermaid kingdom)" Then the actions were repeated again and again. I was sort of needing something to mix it up a bit so I scrounged through some of my old headbands and found one that looked sparkly and told her I had found her a real crown. It was a hit!

ANother thing she loves to do these days is to sing and dance and act out cartoons (ones she's seen enough to remember the story and actions). She will go to quite elaborate extremes to act out the scenes. For example, in one backyardigans episode they are pirates and fall off a rock in one scene. Leading up to this part she will prepare by setting pillows around the couch and then, when the time is right, tumble onto the pillows (falling off the couch) and recite the lines that are said on the show. She also has very particular dance moves that she does during the singing parts to match the moves of the characters and sometimes T and I are required to do them with her which is always fun to watch! Sometimes I can not believe how old she is and how 'grown up' she seems lately. She is quite her own person and so much fun to be around. I love watching her imagination no matter what she is doing, especially when she has tv time and gets very dramatic and very in character! I will have to make a video of it and post it! If i ever figure out how to post the darn things!

SHe has just a little over week left in school (daycare). I'm counting down the days because it means that I will be part time at work AND getting to do more with the girl and spending more quality time with T during the week. I am going to try to work mostly days as I have discovered I am not a fan of night shifting. I feel like I'm not a very good nurse as I make dumb mistakes not to mention I'm totally wiped out for the next couple days. I suppose you'd get use to it if it were all you worked, and you liked staying up late, but I am not a night owl anymore and I don't think it's good for my health. I always seem to get sick after a string of night shifts. Owell. I will survive!

In the pictures above you see the baby pool we had last summer. Yesterday,I upgraded our pool to a bigger one. Our neighbor's have one and so I wanted one! Now I could actually get in it if I wanted! I hope to have some little guests this summer (neice and nephews, and Mac?) so the bigger size will be more fun for all. I also bought a trampoline (mini one) yesterday with the recommendation from Brooke. I played on it for a little today and it WAS fun!I know Al will like it, too.

As for my new personal challenge, it is to push myself to make more friends (who have children) in our neighborhood. Alex is going to need to socialize with little buddies so I'm just going to have to go out there and do it! I've been known to be shy with this type of thing but with T and my mom encouraging me I can do it! I have met some of the neighbors before, it's just such an effort I suppose, especially when those people you do meet don't seem to interested to 'be friends'. Arg! I sound like a child, but it's true. It is harder when you're older. Anyway, I shall keep you posted of my 'friend quest'.

I suppose I am going to go take a nap before I pick up the girl from school. I hope everyone is well and enjoying the summer so far!

One more thing, Tim's been traveling this week so I've got in a few movies and the like so I'd like to recommend them:

Lars and the Real Girl (super super touching and funny)

The Kite Runner (I also read the book and it is pretty spot on with it...also very touching!)

Weeds (season three...just released last week. If you haven't watched this show, you should! Except, you, mom--I don't think you'd like it :)... it's about a upper class single mom who starts selling pot when her husband dies in order to keep up her lifestyle. It 's a pretty unique story line and well, just watch it and decide for yourself.)

Night shift blahs...and I ramble on...

As I've said before, every day/night before a shift at work I say a prayer mostly for a peaceful and thorough mind (the days/nights can be crazy insane) and to do God's work. But I also, sometimes, sneak in a little request for a quiet day or night if I'm feeling a little low on energy. Sometimes those prayers go unanswered but fortunately not tonight. Tonight I am almost too bored. I actually have a break for like two hours with no meds, no nothing!(plenty of time to blog and watch a show online) and I'm hiding out at a computer at the end of the hall to avoid being roped in to doing something else. I know that is a bad teamwork attitude, but sometimes you just gotta do it. Tonight I have about as much energy as one might after running a marathon and I'm feeling crappy. Alex has been sick and puked twice when I was trying to put her down for a nap, so needless to say, I am without a nappy today as well. Did I mention cleaning up puke is not a fun job (as you may know from your own experiences). Ok, enough about throw up. Gross.
I don't really have much to blog about, just the usual rambling. So hang in there it might get boring or incoherent since I'm very sleepy :) The pic above was a pic I found when I googled "night shift" images. Hmmmm....I don't get it, but it's still cute.

I get to start the weekend plan at work in two weeks! I'm stoked! This plan allows me to go to part-time and still make more than full-time money. Some people might think it's insane to work only weekends, but it works great for the fam and I. We get to spend all week nights together, I get to explore my cooking creativity, I have more time with the girl (she will be out of daycare), I get to be non-stressed more days of the week, Tim and I can still have dates--they just have to be during the week instead of weekend, Al and I can visit fam and have fam visit us during the week (as I will have 5 days off a week!), weekends are usually a bit more calm than week days on my unit and a whole bunch of other reasons. I can not wait! Three cheers!
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On a completely different note I am trying out a vegetarian diet. So far I'm loving it. Of course it's only been about a week but I do not miss meat at all, and I thought I would be craving it like crazy. In fact, after reading and hearing some disgusting stories it is losing it's appeal for me all together. I have not sworn off fish or eggs---yet. Haven't heard enough gross stuff about them---yet. Well, eggs go with chicken, but I still feel ok about eating them every now and then and if they are in things (like bready things, well, lets just say I'll never be vegan). I do love an egg mcmuffin and I'm hoping they will be just as delicious without the ham. Tim, at first, thought I was just buying into the trend, and I guess in a way I did. But with all the info out there about meat and the processes that happen to get that meat on our plates, you can't help but think the trend might not be such a bad idea, much like trying to be more green. I'm not saying I won't eat a filet mingnon (that my pops grills up--thought honestly it doesn't even sound appealing anymore) but I am saying, I am giving it up 99.9% of the time and hopefully 100% eventually--and if I do eat it I will want to know where it came from and what it's injected with. Anyone interested, I have found (thanks to ideas from pals Em and JIll) that MOrning Star has some amazing products that are soy/veggie based that I could swear are still meat and are actually WAy better. Alex doesn't even know the difference in her chick'n nuggets, and infact eats more of the non-chicken nuggets (and believe it or not, they are not that expensive!). I am, of course, not making her a vegetarian but I am being more aware of the meats she does eat, how it's raised, and where it comes from. I didn't realize how easy it actually is to stop eating meat. While the natural meats I buy the girl are more expensive I am able to cut costs elsewhere in my grocery shopping to make up for it. I also discovered I like beans. I thought I hated them, assumed, rather...but I don't. I enjoy them. Still a little weary with first bite, but then they are not so bad...
Another plus is that cutting out meat has made giving up fast food so much easier. Its just not even a want anymore! Amazing! Now, if only I could find something inhame and disgusting about the way sugar was raised...

The strange pic is a recurring type of photo I found when I googled "vegetarian" images. Yuck! I get that we are all culturally unique, but this, my friends, is a little---a LOT---over the top and just plain unnecessary and I'm not sure how it's "vegetarian".

Well, I think I've bored you all enough. Maybe I'll think of something really exciting to post in a few minutes from now. I wouldn't hold your breathe, though. However, I suppose by the time you read this I'll be in bed...unless of course you wild party animals come home and run to my blog after a wild night out at the bars...looking for some good night wisdom...well then, I guess I won't be sleeping in that case...but you are sure to be disappointed to find it's mere ramble ramble blahs.
Good night---here's to hoping for more inspirational or at least more funny blogs in the future.

Finally....at least some of the pictures

Last night, the tantrum that was my daughter had me wondering if we should ever have another child. I've never seen the Bean with quite the tantrum in her two year old life. It was intense. But after a quiet "resty" on mom's lap all was well and she had come back to us. The tantrum was quickly gotten over and now, I am read for another babe...one day.

Here are some pics of the girl when we were practicing our "emotion faces". There is a sad face and of course, the happy face. Her scared face is the best but on this morning I could not get her to do it.

Some vegas pics. I won't bore you with too many. Most are of Tim and I. I was on a mission to get at least one decent picture of the two of us since in ALL our pictures Tim is making a non-serious face, such as the one next to this sentance. Mike got to spend a couple nights with us while we were in vegas and I'm sure he had fun takin pictures of Tim and I all the time! HA! I did get an eye infection (that spread to both eyes) and a sinus infection while we were there (possibly causing the eye issues) but other than that is was a good time!

Again, see the love here? Never a serious moment, I swear!

Here we are trying to be, well, I'm not sure what we were going for here? I just know I really liked Zoltar in the movie Big and thought it was cool they were all over the place so it was only natural to take a picture with Tim infront of it, looking at each other and not the camera...

On a different note entirely, I bought a food processor the other day and am fully in love with it. Not sure why we never had one before. I have made hummus (delicious) and today I made a peanut butter/banana/honey spread that is definately yummy calor-ific treat. I plan on getting most creative soon with fruits for alex as she is my fruit junkie. I am currently trying to get a video to upload on this thing. The whole process has made me feel very computer illiterate and I'm close to giving up.

Okay, that's it. I am quitting. I will have the husband put it on here for me. It is the cutest video ever, at least I think so....

chicago fun times

So, i have a lot of posts that i'd like to post that include many cute pics of the bean (as mentioned in previous post) but i am still having issues getting them on here...problem with the file or something.

Tim and I enjoyed a weekend in chicago for a wedding of our good friends. It was a beautiful wedding and unlike one I've ever been to. Very intimate, very touching, and very unique.

We got to stay with our friends Teague and Jill and had a blast. I was sold quickly about moving to the burbs of chicago. They live in the cutest neighborhood, but I have to remind myself that God wants us here, in G-ford, right now and we are doing good things here. I guess I'm just lonely here and missing my girlfriends. I MUSt make a more serious effort to make friends. I have work friends but they all live too far away to hang out with other than at work, and well, not much hanging out gets to be done at work. Owell. Such is life right now.

Teague and Jill were great host and hostess! they went out and bought us breakfast in the morning and drove us around the whole weekend to wherever we needed to be.
Thanks, guys! It was so so good to get to see them and where they live and to know what their lives are like there. I am vowing to visit more often.

I'm just waiting patiently for Tim and Al to get home from work/school. I made pita pizzas and am waiting to put them in the oven. I hope they are yummy. I know the ingredients were as I tasted each one before i put it on the pizzas.

that's all for now. Sleepy day today. Had class at work and then drove home in tremendous storms, took a quick nappy and now here I sit.
Hope you all had a lovely day! I promise to get those pics up soon!