Five on Friday

{1} This is technically my last working Friday until August! Excited for no Fridays, not so excited for the 7 to 6 hours. Anyhow, we do have a golf tournament on a Friday in June so I'll be working that, and since I'm professional staff, I'm technically always on call, so it's rare that I actually get the full day off, but at least I don't feel obligated to drop everything to do something ASAP since I'm not in the office.
And thankfully, this week has gone by quickly as well. You never know about those four-day holiday weeks :)

{2} I've spoken about it before, but we have work that we need done on our patio/basement drainage. The builder is my dad's cousin and has been putting us off, but it looks like he will be coming out next week! We are so excited because it will triple our back patio area (not to mention take away the worry of water getting in our basement) and I can't wait to spend lots of nights out there this summer!

{3} Hubby has been working on baling hay this week, and the weather has given him a run for his money. Thankfully he got it done last night. He always does some areas around our house (including by the ditch) first just to make sure everything is working right. Well, we took Cooper out the other day and I pointed out the ditch. Let's just say we need to work on the d sound, because it currently sounds more like a b. So cute though.

{4} My sweet friend Bel (the newlywed) is in town this week, but not under the best circumstances. Her dad had a heart attack last week and ended up having triple bypass on Tuesday. So if you are adding anyone to your prayer list right now, I know they would appreciate it!

{5} I got my hair cut today! It was mostly just a trim/thinning that was desperately needed. I've already made an appt. to go back and get some color in a few weeks too and am sooooooo excited.

Have a good weekend!



Pin It

 

 

A night on the playground {photo dump}

Last Thursday, our niece graduated high school! Getting a 2.5 year old to sit for more than five minutes proved to be a problem, and when we tried to let him loose (it was at the football stadium) he kept going into places he wasn't allowed (including under the bleachers, where I'm pretty convinced he was looking up dresses :/)

Anyhow, we were at our wits end when I noticed the playground at the 5th & 6th grade center across the street. I asked a school employee if we could spend some time over there to let Cooper run off energy, and he said sure!

The great thing was that we were close enough to still hear and had a program with all of the graduates names. So about 30 names before Taylor, we headed back, and got there four people before her name was called. Perfect timing.

This little boy continues to amaze me with his energy and strength. Monkey man more or less climbed up those walls himself. Crazy!

I should also mention, on the way home hubs stopped at McD's for a sweet tea and Cooper demanded chicken (nuggets) and fries. And ate all but two nuggets. I'm already dreading the grocery bill when he is a teenager :)

Pin It

Memorial Day weekend!

We had a GREAT Memorial Day weekend!

I was so hopeful we would close early on Friday after a long weekend prior with graduation and because we often do close early prior to a holiday, but nada. BOOO! So by the time I got home, did my double workout and had supper, I just did a couple loads of laundry and we were out!

On Saturday morning, hubby got to work cutting the hay in the areas around our house while I did more cleaning and laundry. That afternoon, we had a graduation party to attend!

We'd had plans for a bonfire on Friday with some friends but it got canceled. We really wanted to meet up with a couple of friends that we NEVER get to see due to work schedules though, so we decided Saturday morning to hit the winery after our niece's party. Thankfully we were able to drop Cooper off with my parents and enjoy a few hours of food, wine, and great company.

I had the bacon, lettuce and fried green tomato burger and it was delish!

Sunday morning hubby had work to do outside, and thankfully took Cooper with him so I could focus on folding laundry and cleaning our master. I always forget how big our master is until I've cleaned it, lol! Later in the morning, I insisted it was time for a run. It was HOT but I was pleased with my time and distance seeing as it was my first run after the 10K two weeks ago.

Someone decided to nap. Love how he pulls the hat down to get the sun out of his eyes!

That afternoon, once we got cleaned up, we went to town to get groceries for the week/buy ahead for some freezer cooking I wanted to get done to prep for summer hours beginning next week. When we got home, I got to work putting things away and prepping food for us to grill that evening! We did steak, cheesy potatoes, shishkabobs with turkey sausage, potatoes and pineapple, venison burgers and chicken. Yummy! I had some bananas on the bar to make banana bread the next day, but Cooper played with them so I went ahead and whipped that up as well.



After dinner, we chilled outside and played washers.

On Monday, we slept in as long as Mister would let us. I kept working on cleaning up around the house (it was SUCH a mess) and also went downstairs to help the hubs clean some down there. We blew up Coop's inflatable pool and promised him that he could swim after his nap. (And he yelled NO NAP! lol). After lunch, we made him nap and I got started on some freezer meals. Post on that to come, I promise!

Once C woke up, we took him to play in the pool, but it was shaded and COLD! We didn't last too long and he fought us, but we made him come inside since he was shivering!

We then went to our neighbor's barn where we store hay and brought back 2 truckloads to put in our shed. Once we got home, I took a quick bath to get the dust off of me, and then did my workout for the day!

Afterwards, I did my 12th load of dishes for the day, and then whipped up supper (the leftover burgers, with fries for the boys and sweet potato fries for me!) Once I cleaned up, showered and we watched a couple TV shows, it was time for bed.

How was your weekend?


Pin It

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two and a half

Someone is celebrating his half birthday today!

I realized earlier this month that I haven't updated on Mr. Cooper in awhile, but thought I would just push the post off until today, his half birthday! My biggest hope is that as we get closer to 3 we will leave the sassiness and inability to reason that is the Terrible Twos far, far behind. Ain't nobody got time for that.

I really don't remember the last time I updated, and I count on this blog for our family yearbook that I put together in December (great Christmas presents for the grandparents!) so I'm just going to try and update everything since his birthday!

• You now sleep in the toddler bed, because you were a monkey climbing out of the crib and it just wasn't safe. However, 80 percent of the time, you want to sleep on the end that doesn't have the little half rail, and end up falling out of bed. Whoops. Silly boy.
• Since you have all this unrestricted movement, you aren't near as good of a sleeper as you used to be. Most nights, you won't go to bed until around 10 p.m. You typically get up between 6:30 and 7 during the week, but sometimes we get lucky and you'll go until 8 on the weekends.
• Naps are a struggle. You are just so busy and hate to think you may be missing out on something (But you do just fine at daycare.)

• You have a mind of your own and once you make it up, there's no changing it. Cooper's way or the highway! If you don't like the shirt I've picked for you or something, all is wrong in your world! Just last week, one of your chairs blew into the pasture, and you would.not.sit.down.to.eat until your daddy went and retrieved it.
• Your eating is different every day. It's hilarious though, most of the time if you see a McDonalds or Burger King, you start yelling. FRIES! CHICKEN! Haha.
• Most mornings, you have your milk and yogurt (AKA sauce) before going to daycare. Sometimes you steal some of daddy's sandwich. Then you also eat at Mrs. Robin's!
• In addition to pizza, spaghetti and noodles, you really love Mexican. Since they are pretty easy going restaurants and have chips, that's where we go 80 percent of the time that we go out to eat as a family, because you can be an embarrassing little man. You also love to eat the salsa with a spoon.

• You LOVE chocolate milk, but only demand it at our house. You have a little system: You have to get the spoon. Mommy pours the milk. You "do it" by getting the Nesquik and putting in the cup. You need AT LEAST two dips, sometimes three. Then we stir. Then you lick the spoon. Then you MUST take a drink before we put the lid on. Whew. Lemme tell you, sometimes its like watching paint dry.
• I'd say you are about 70 percent potty trained. We need to be better about having you wear the big boy underwear at home.
• Your Grandma and Paw Paw got you a pedal tractor for Christmas but you have had trouble peddling. Well, you still aren't a pro, but are catching on!

• You are a total daddy's boy. Sometimes I'll say "I love Cooper!" and you reply "I love Daddy!" Ugh. I'm pretty sure you do it just to annoy me, so I'm trying not to let it bother me.

• You repeat TV/commercials at time and it's so cute. At the end of Eggland's Best commercials, you always say "It's EB!" We watch Wheel of Fortune every night, and you always tell Vanna "Bye Bye" at the end. We may rewind a few times to keep hearing you say it.
• You are OBSESSED with your scabs, bruises, etc. You skinned your knee earlier this week and kept saying "Ouchie. Boo Boo" until we kissed it and got a band aid. Which you ripped off within 30 minutes. Yikes.
• Whenever you see my workout mat or weights you say "Mommy. Work out?" It's cute. You are my little trainer.

 

• You love the water. I have to be careful about saying that I'm about to take a bath or shower, or you run in and hijack it. Not only are you starting to get too old for this, you ALWAYS pee the minute you get in, and that's just gross.

• You are now obsessed with tractors and automobiles. While driving you'll be like "Car. Truck. Truck. Car. Big Truck!"
• In April, you stayed with your grandparents for a week while mommy & daddy went to Auntie Bella's wedding in California. You did great!
• You absolutely love Mickey Mouse and usually watch at least one episode a day. You also like Ice Age movies, Curious George and Cars.
• You absolutely love to be outside. You get mad when we make you come in. You like blowing bubbles, playing in the water, swinging, playing with your big toys and all of it.
• You really, really lover your Coco dog! You like to take her "toast" (really just bread) as a treat.

 

• You have figured out how to open the door. Which is scary. One day we had a family nap and woke up to you ringing the doorbell. We are installing a hotel-type lock ASAP.
• You are my little monkey man and will climb ANYTHING. I see several trips to the ER in our future :/

• You are OBSESSED with pow-pows (guns) as well. Most kids hate loud noises but you absolutely love it.
• You call yourself "Pooper." It's adorable. I know you can say your "C's" because you enunciate very well when you say Coco. The other day I was calling you Coopy and you said "No, my name is Pooper." Ha!

• Before bed pretty much every night, I sing "spider song" (The Itsy Bitsy Spider) and "Twinkle Star."
• Remember how I said you are mean to me? I try to kiss you at night and you put up your hand and say "no tisses." If I do sneak one, you usually wipe it away. But when I leave you at daycare in the morning, we blow kisses, then rub our bellies and say "Yummy Tummy."
• When it comes to food, etc. you hate messes. But it's so funny. If one of us makes a mess, you'll say "Mommy messy," like we are in trouble. But if you do, you'll say "Pooper messy" like it's the neatest thing ever.
• You like helping me rinse the dishes. You still aren't the greatest and often have trouble stacking, but it makes you feel so important.
• Like most boys, you like playing with balls. Kicking, throwing, etc. You call most of them basketballs though.

 

• One of our biggest complaints is your thumb sucking. You do it mostly in the car or if you are bored/mad. As if that wasn't bad enough, you have now begun sucking your thumb and sticking your pointer finger up your nose. GROSS! Miss Robin has you wear a sock over your hand at nap and says you ask for it, but you moan and wail if we try to put it on you!
• You like to have suckers. You also like jello, pudding and oatmeal cream pies. You have a sweet tooth, just like your momma, but are still a little shrimp (I think you've only gained 2 lbs. in the past six months) because you are so active.

• You are starting to get a memory and it blows.my.mind.

I'm sure I'm missing a lot (so there may be updates) but I could probably go on & on & on. Just know that this is a very frustrating age, especially because I don't have a lot of patience. But it's so fun, because we really are beginning to see your little personality develop and it's so sweet.

Love you to the moon & back sweet boy!

XOXO,
mama

Pin It

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

throwback thursday

Throwback Thursday is so easy for me today - my niece, Taylor, is graduating from high school tonight! It's so hard to believe I met her and her little sister, Hannah, 10 years ago. I've seen them both grow from little girls to young women.

NYE 2004

SO PROUD of this sweet girl and the women she has become. She will go so far in life!

Fall 2010

Pin It

What weekend?

As I alluded in Friday's post, this was a very hectic weekend! I'm so exhausted and ready for it to be Saturday evening already!

Friday, we got off work at 1, as it was our employee gala/awards banquet.  It was a good event with great food, but a late night. We didn't leave until 10, and had an hour drive home. Ugh.

My parents kept C for us that night, so Saturday morning, we went to pick him up, after a stop at the local nursery/orchard for some apples and flowers. Hubby had let a coworker, who is moving, borrow some post hole diggers, so we swung by their house to pick them up and it was after noon by the time we made it home.

That evening, we were scheduled to be in a group of coworkers having dinner with Kevin Madden, our graduation speaker. My in-laws agreed to keep C that night, and we decided to take him to their house - 1.5 hours from our home, and just under an hour from where we had dinner. We got on the road at 4 p.m. for a 6:30 dinner. Stuffed our faces. Took some pictures. Picked up the kiddo and finally pulled into the house at midnight. Yowzers.

Sunday we sorta slept in. As in, occupied our child with a movie while we rested. After breakfast, we had a little time to play outside/work around the house, then I popped in the T25 stretch DVD to do that real quick, before getting ready for graduation. I was actually to attend our speaker's luncheon as well, so had to be on the road by 11:45. We had a great lunch, then I headed to the event venue.

I had planned to run to the grocery store to get what we needed on the way home, but hubby's phone was on silent and he couldn't find it, so I went home to help him search. We found it outside, by the swingset :) So, I made him go grocery shopping with me, and we just grabbed some Ruby Tuesday's for supper. Came home, watched The Amazing Race (Seriously, lamest finale ever, IMO) then passed out.

How was your weekend?

Oh, and guess what? I surpassed 1800 minutes of working out from April and May so far as part of the #1800minutechallenge over the weekend. Wahoo!

Pin It

 

 

Randoms!

• I'm kinda refusing to refer to today as Friday, because it's in name only. I have an employee awards gala tonight, work-related dinner tomorrow, then luncheon with our graduation speaker, followed by graduation on Sunday. #whatweekend
• Next week won't be much better, our niece graduates Thursday night, we have a bonfire on Friday, and her graduation party on Saturday.
• This week I began Focus T25. It's so expensive and I was on the fence for that reason, but took the plunge for a few reasons. 1 - the results I've seen are amazing! Some of them from blog friends like Tami so I know it's real. 2 - I need structure. 3 - the obvious, it's only 25 minutes. As we head into summer hours in a couple weeks, that's definitely all I will be able to give. But right now, I can throw in some abs, arms, or even a run if I have the time and need a little more burn. So far, I am really enjoying it! The main plus is that it's different every day - I love Jilly but doing the same workout for 7-10 days straight is not for me. I'll be sure to check in with my progress!

• So far I've lost about 20 lbs since January! The biggest problem? I need new pants! Anyone have suggestions for cute but affordable work pants? I'm trying to keep an eye on the sales at Express, they tend to be my favorite. (Penneys sometimes work too and they have good sales, but a lot of their pants flatten my butt!0
• After chopping about 4 inches off my hair in August and maintaining it, I'm ready to grow my hair out again. But I'm at that crazy "in between" stage right now and really fighting the urge to chop it again. Maybe just a trim and some layers will help?

• Hubby and I finally caved and flipped the air on last Sunday, after it had been 80+ in our house for about a week and we just felt miserable at that point. Well wouldn't you know, we've had a bit of a cold front come through and it barely hit 70 in the house yesterday. Considering flipping the A/C off again until we hit another heat wave. {We are cheapskates and keep our heat/air off as long as possible to save $ to put towards paying off our mortgage early, etc.}
• I'm doing a great job on my May goals but really need to start running again to hit the 30 mile mark!
• Oh and I have to say, I think I'm rocking a return to blogging! I was so sad I didn't have a lot documented when I went to put together our family yearbook in December, so I'm trying to do a better job. I've blogged more this month than I have in awhile and I'm enjoying it! It's therapeutic...

Happy weekend to those of you who get it :)

Pin It

Baby No. 2 Bucket List

I feel like ever since C has been born, we've been asked when we are having another kiddo. Which is kinda crazy to me. My family has a 3.5 year difference between my older brother and I and almost 5 years between myself and my younger sister. Cooper is just now 2.5.

Anyhow, in addition to wanting  3-4 year age gap, I've had a bit of a Baby No. 2 Bucket List in mind. Since we are coming up to the time that we do need to decide if we do want another and such, I thought it would be fun to take a look at the list (especially since I think I'm running out of excuses!)

• Have my car paid off before we have another daycare bill. (It's set to be paid off in either October or November, depending on how much extra I can funnel toward the payment each month.)
• Potty train Cooper, I only want one in diapers. (We're working on this. Hopefully will be done in a few months?)
• Run a 10K. (Done last weekend!)
• Be in better shape before another pregnancy. (I'm about 12 lbs. under my starting weight with Cooper's pregnancy. I'd love to shed another 5-10. But since I've been working out regularly, I see no problems continuing this through another pregnancy.)
• Have the basement finished so it can be used as a guest room. (Working on this. Still waiting on the builder to come do the patio.)
• Go on a fabulous vacation with the hubby. (California - done!)
• Take a family vacation with Cooper. (We've done some weekend trips, and I'd love to do a long weekend this summer. Still waiting to hear when the babysitter is planning to take time off to decide for sure.)

EEK! It looks like we are on track to have another!

So moms of two, what do I need to add to this list?



Pin It