Ree's Book Signing - MOA, MN

Wow! What a day! I didn't know what to expect....

The Pioneer Woman - Ree Drummond - was at Mall of America (MOA) in MN on Saturday November 21, 2009 as part of her book tour promoting her new cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Love her blog and love to try new recipies. When her book was available for preorder, I jumped on the bandwagon and ordered two - one for me and one as a Christmas gift for my good friend. Once I found out one of the stops for her book tour was Mall of America in Minnesota, I had that day marked on my calendar over a month in advance.

Thanksgiving....

With Thanksgiving coming up in, oh wait, it's NEXT WEEK! Where does the time go? Hubby is trying to get things ironed out for determining who will be at our house. Hard to do since my side of the family doesn't do well with giving much notice. Hopefully I will know by or during this weekend. Should be pretty drama free though, the way I like it.

Not ME Monday!

Welcome to Not ME Monday. This fun filled way of admitting our imperfections and living to tell about them was born from MckMama of My Charming Kids. Check out the standards we try to live up to!



Alas another week has come and gone. I most certainly did NOT allow my little girl to stay up all day long on Saturday with no nap to speak of. I absolutely did NOT try for two hours to get her to lay down only to have the afternoon waste away. We did however have a good cuddle time, but alas no nap. Surprisingly she wasn't that cranky in the evening. I still am not ready for her to be done with naps entirely.

New things...!

On Veteran's Day, My friend M came down to visit for the afternoon. We were planning on going to Applebee's for their veterans meal special, but alas there was a line out the door when we got there. That's what you get when you have a VA Hospital in town. Hubby thinks they were probably bussing veterans over there during the day. E decided to fall asleep before we got there. So after deciding to go elsewhere, she suggested a small adventure. Thought what the heck. Asked her what she had in mind.

Trick or Treat!

Pebbles - Cave Girl

Well we survived Halloween. J hung out with her friend A all day. They did come with us to the mall, but had to leave right away because A had to be home. Weird. J ended up spending the night at A's house (without parents mind you, big trust factor there).

I had a haircut that afternoon. E was dressed up in her costume, because we planned for her to trick or treat around the mall. Never did that before, but turned out really well for us. It was indoors, it wasn't raining, it wasn't cold. Fairly comfortable.

Time away from the blog...

Don't have too much to say at the moment. I do plan on getting back on here and reconfiguring the site. As I don't know squat about HTML it takes a lot of research and trial and error.

I also have become addicted to the games on Facebook, but am slowly working through that. Always the first week or two of something new is when I have a hard time breaking away to do other things. Can't help it, I love farming!

Anyway, I will be back on eventually. I really want to get this up and running and get more info on this site. I just need to make the time to do it.

Thanks for hanging in here with me.

Nothing New...

Well nothing major to report. The last couple weeks have been fairly uneventful. Last Sunday E woke up with a fever but was still in a great mood all day. She wasn't coughing or stuffy nosed hardly at all. Other than the fever she was great. Called the clinic Monday morning, took 10 minutes to get through to the switchboard without a busy signal. Than another 30 minutes on hold. The earliest appointment we got was 3:15 in the afternoon. Again she was feeling pretty good and still acting relatively normal. Got to the clinic and of course the first thing you do is santize your hands and put on a face mask if you have a fever. Cute little mask for E but of course she wanted nothing to do with it. Mr. Bear wore it more than she did. The lab came to our exam room and did the strep test right there. We didn't have to leave the room at all. Note to self, next time bring books and toys to clinic as the room was stripped bare (to make it easy to sanitize). But 30 minutes of waiting with a toddler and the only things she can reach are the swivel chair and the computer keyboard. Long 30 minutes...Doctor came back and was surprised when she told us E was postive for Strep. I was of course thrilled. Rather have a bacterial infection we can treat with antibiotics than a virus we just have to let run its course. Either way I wasn't too concerned as she was still acting like a Bookie. Completely normal. Very little coughing. Hardly acting like a sick kid at all.

So anyway, here we are a week later and she is a toddler through and through. She and I walked to our little park yesterday after we got home from shopping at the mall. She played peek-a-boo with me and then went down the slide a few times. We then walked on the trail looking for birds/ducks. She needs a reason to walk on our trail and we have to look for something for her to willingly walk there. Crazy kid... She carried a dead dandilion flower with her the whole way. Dropped the first one and had to go back to the park to find a second one to take back to Daddy. She is just too cute sometimes.

She finally has her normal appetite back. She is eating like a typical toddler this weekend. I am so thankful that she likes most anything we offer her. The only thing we have a hard time with is meat, like normal meat off a bone or hamburger. She did however eat some taco meat the other day for the first time. She is also so impressionable right now when it comes to food and table dining. Today (late lunch) Daddy pushed away his plate and declared he was done and E proceeded to do the same. As soon as Daddy pulled his plate back adn took another bite, so did she. She wants us to join her in so many things. She wants us to color with her and eat with her. Of course usually for breakfast if we just ignore her while she is eating she will eat so well. Crazy how that works.

Speaking of crazy right now she has her head inside a shoe box making noises. The things she does to entertain herself are just out of this world sometimes.She loves to dance around also to vairious types of music.Which is why I had to get her this shirt when I saw it. When she rides with Daddy, they jam out to Poison and other rock music. So she can be a rock and roll princess anytime. She has such a good time with Daddy, too bad it gets to be such a chore for him to take care of her once in a while. He watched her this last Friday cause she got sick Thursday night after I put her to bed. While she had no fever and it could have been any one hundred and one things that could have caused her to vomit, we decided that she should stay home from daycare that day. They had a good time that day and she had a nice long nap so Daddy had plenty of time to himself.

Not Me! Monday...

Welcome to my first Not Me! Monday post... Not Me! Mondays was started by MckMama of My Charming Kids blog. She is one of my favorite blog authors. Straight forward, tell it like it is. That is MckMama. So in an effort to try to live up to her standards, here is my Not Me! Monday posting.

Potty Training...

I am just going with the flow (no pun intended!). I don't want to rush E into potty training. At daycare she sees other kids use the potty so she got very interested in it. Since then she has requested to sit on the potty. We got her a little Baby Bjorn potty seat that she uses sometimes. Lately she has been requesting to use our big potty. She manages to balance up there very well. She can even hold a book while sitting there all by herself. Will have to get a pic at some point just for memories sake. Last night she did poop in the big potty. So proud of her.

She's getting so big!

We are doing some cosmetic work on the van so we had to install E's carseat in Daddy's truck. Daddy took us to work and daycare this morning, so I snapped this pic with his cell phone camera on our way. E is just too cute. It was pretty cold this morning so she had her little winter hat on and her warm fleece jacket. We always have Mr. Bear and "kie kie" (Blankie) with at all times. She was in the center of the back of Dad's truck and was resting her foot on the back of the passenger seat.Glad this isn't a permanant setup. It's really hard to get her into the back of the truck and then get her strapped in. She is currently 22 months old! Almost 2!

Weekend...

How was your weekend? Mine was pretty uneventful. Went uptown on Saturday and did a little winter clothes shopping for E. I managed to find two very nice winter jackets for her at a local thrift store. One even has an inner liner that will be a great fall jacket. Trying to find hats, gloves, and boots was a bit tougher. Went to the mall for that. I kinda have a mismatched assortment of clothing but at least she will be warm.

Frustrations...

Why are women/mothers expected to be Super Woman and never allowed to get sick? Why when we do get sick we are still expected/required to take care of the household as well as any children? Why if we are sick it is the end of the world and nobody can function without us? Thank God I am not currently sick. Tired yes, but sick no.

All About Firsts... (part I)

Firsts - There are many firsts in our lives. The first day of life, first day of school, first kiss, for some the first marriage, the list of firsts goes on and on. For me, life is not easy and certainly not simple.

I married my husband 5 years ago, and with him came a step daughter, J. That stepdaughter is now 13 years old (almost 14) and in the 8th grade. So not only are there firsts in my life, but I need to learn abouts/deal with the firsts in her life.

First Day of School...

This has been one long day...

What a start we had today. Getting ready for work as usual,then making sure J is awake and getting ready on her first day of school. Everything is fine and dandy until I tell her she needs to come up and get something to eat. She then proceeds to tell me that she is getting a ride to school with the neighbor boy and his mother. She never asked me. She never mentioned it to me. Apparently she mentioned it to Dad a few minutes earlier, but he didn't approve either.

21 months...

Where does the time go...?

It has been 21 months since my little girl joined our family... 27 1/2 hours of labor, c-section, 5 days in the hospital. E was 6# 12oz, 19.5 inches long. She is my little angel. It amazes me how fast they grow up. She is walking, running, talking (trying to), enjoys certain cartoons, specifically her current favorite is Blues Clues, then Dora, Tigger and Pooh, and Little Einsteins. She like reading books (being read to) and jamming to music. Since watching Blues Clues the last week or so, she has started talking more and actually interacting with the TV a bit more, pointing things out that she sees.

J's Cross Country Meet

First Cross Country Meet...

Well I made it to J's first country meet with little time to spare. Had no idea what to expect. I did get a chance to wish her luck just before they took off. The Jr High Girls ran 1 1/2 miles. They also ran with 9th graders and some of them were big girls, not fat, tall, mature, developed. They looked at least 15 years old. J made it through with a time of 8:08 for 1 mile and 12:28 for final time; 62 out of 82 girls. Her friend Ella, who ran cross country last year, came in ahead of her with times of 7:27 and 11:06; about 42 place. Overall I think the girls team took 6th place. There were about 10 different schools there and some of them had huge teams for the various ages. There was a group of 30-40 jr high boys for one school. Our school only has about 6 girls and 6 boys for the jr high team.

I Told You So...?

I wasn't wrong, but I wasn't right either....

I find it hard to not say I told you so a lot, because even though you don't like what I have to say, I am not always wrong and actually things might be easier if you listen to me once in a while. I do have life experiences that help me to know better how to handle things and what needs to get done.

Puppies...

E loves puppies...and kitties... and...

E got to pet some "puppies" last night. One of our neighbors has miniature pinschers (their own and ones they foster for a rescue group). Every night they go out for a walk and sometimes we are outside to see them and other times not. Well yesterday evening J, E, and I were outside playing and talking and the "Pins" went for a walk down to another development, and we happeend to still be out there when they came back.

Summertime Fun...

Splash pad...

E, J, J's friend A, and I spent a little time at the splash pad yesterday. As soon as we turned the corner and E could see the water on the splash pad, she got so excited and started saying "Water, water, water, water" over and over again. She was so happy to get out of her carseat so she could go check out the water.

Military Service...

I miss everyone (well almost everyone) from our deployment…
In my attempt to fall asleep last night, I was doing Google searches of people I know. Of course I searched our own names, because I know there was stuff out there. I just wanted to see if there was anything new. In searching our names, I ran across newspaper articles from when Hubby and I were deployed to Iraq. I was able to find some links to pictures that were taken by the embedded reporters that were with our unit from New Jersey. I found a few pictures, which I did not know about, of other people in our unit. Makes me miss everyone all over again.

Attitude...

I hate attitude…!

I know, I know, I am one of the worst ones for giving attitude, but that doesn’t mean I don’t hate it all the same. And why is it when kids/teens give you attitude all you want to do is wring their necks? Or when they don’t think you know what you are talking about and say “Well, how would you know?” I hate it. HATE IT! For once can’t they just listen, accept it as the truth (which it is), and just do what they are told? Why is that so hard? I don’t recall back talking like that to my parents when they told me something (like this). I know I did in other situations, but there are times when I knew my parents knew what they were talking about.

Going Back To School...

And so a new schedule starts...

Since cross country practice starts next week, J needs to start getting to bed at a decent hour and waking up early. For the first week, practices are at 8am then in the afternoons after that. For the girl that hasn't gone to bed earlier than midnight to 3am all summer, waking up at 7am is going to be tough. But she has to get used to it. I just hope she is still as interested in cross country now as she was when she first mentioned it. We don't think she realizes that it will be a lot of work. Too bad she will already have started before she decides what she wants to do - costing us money in the long run.

Hubby says the only way she can quit is if her grades slip, which is more than likely going to happen. I shouldn't be so negative, but this girl is more interested in boys and friends than she is about buckling down and focusing on what she really needs to do. This girl has proven to us time and time again that she is capable of getting good grades (A's & B's). Too bad we had to take away her phone, her iPod, her computer time, her friends, everything in order for her to do that. Why do we have to basically jail her in order for her to study? It is the one thing that her mother always did, and the one thing she absolutely hated, therefore we don't want to have to do that, but what if we have no choice? Sadly since hubby is gone Sundays through Thursdays, I get to be the bad guy, the one that has to follow up on everything that she is supposed to be doing.

I just don't understand why it has to be this hard. Wait, its hard because its parenting. The one job we never get instruction manuals with. Oh well, this is our crash course so we have some idea what to do with E when she becomes a teen. Scary thoughts!

Our Heathen Felines (aka Our Pets)

Our Pets?
We have 4 cats. All of them are rescues of some sort. Three (Maybe, Simon, Lily) were obtained from the Humane Society and one (Pitter) was rescued from my porch in the dead of winter when I was in college.

Pitter belonged to the neighbors in the basement of the house I lived in while I was in college. She was allowed to stay outside overnight with no shelter. After almost a month of me feeding her and providing her with warm water and shelter on my porch, she decided she was going to come inside and has never left. I had her for over a month before they even noticed that she was gone. They saw her one day in the window and were a little upset, but I told them that if they weren't going to take care of her in the dead of winter, then they didn't deserve her. It takes her a long time to warm up to strangers. It took her almost a year before she decided that life doesn't start at 10:00 at night. Now she come out often during the day and early evening hours. She is great around other animals as well as my little girl.

Maybe is the talker in the group. She is very much a people cat. She is always around even when there are strangers in the house. My mother found her for me when I was in college. She asked me if I wanted a talkative kitten. Little did I know how talkative she was. After a month of having her, I had to get another kitten (Placebo) for her to interact with. When she was left alone, every time I left the house or came back, I would get the 20 question drill as to where I was and why I wasn't home with her. It was much better when she had another kitten to interact with.

Simon and Lily were adopted together after my other cat, Placebo, had to be put to sleep. We went there looking for just one, namely Lily, but Simon was such a cuddle bug (Big Faker) that we adopted both of them. They were almost full grown. Lily is the reincarnation of Placebo (the one I lost), same coloring and later on the same weird personality. Simon has turned out the be the big pain in the butt for the other cats. He likes to try to bully them around, mainly because he is a really big cat.

They are all pretty good around other people and around other pets, mainly dogs. They all also tolerate E so well, especially when she tries to lay on them and just hold them down. We have taught her how to be gentle with them, but there are times when she just wants to lay on them until I make her get off. Crazy kid...

Intro to me and my life...Thanks for joining me here!

Why?
Why am I starting a blog? No idea.
Do I think people will read it? Probably not. Maybe. Who knows.
Am I funny and interesting? Not really. Sometimes I can be, depends on the situation.

I follow a few other blogs where I would love to meet the women who created them. I think I am creating this blog as an outlet for all the things that happen to me in my life. I do not have a lot of close friends so sometimes the anonymity of the Internet is where I feel the most comfortable venting/expressing my opinions/emotions. I think I have created this blog just so I can have a voice and a forum to express my opinions about my life. Not all will be pleasant, but hopefully some can be entertaining. I thank you for joining me on this ride. I know there will be ups and downs, and probably some loopy loops. Before I get started with more posts, I want to give you a little insight into me and my family.

Who I am?
I am a first time mom who works full time in county government as a records technician. I grew up in a small town in northwestern Minnesota and attending college in North Dakota. I graduated college in 2003 and got married in May 2004. I moved to central Minnesota in 2003 and have been here every since. I am very opinionated, but I try to keep an open mind about many things. I am learning as I go in this thing called life and motherhood.

My Family?
My husband of 5 years is a over the road truck driver. He is gone 5 days a week and home on the weekends. It is hard to have him gone so much, but I am thankful that he is able to be home as much as he is. I am also thankful that his daughter is old enough to help out around the house as well when he is gone. My husband is pretty good overall, but we could use some lessons in communication. We are both very stubborn, hard headed, and impatient. Makes for some very petty arguments.

My stepdaughter J is 13yo and going into 8th grade this coming school year. She is the typical teenager where she thinks the parents don't have a clue about life and what she is going through. While we try to protect her from a lot of hurts in life, we also have to let her have some freedom in order to experience that life is not all roses and honey. She is in a love/hate relationship with her"boyfriend" next door. That in itself makes it very scary for us during the summer months as she is home alone during the day. I am sure I will post more about her later.

My daughter E is 20mo and changing everyday. When I met my husband, one of the first things I told him was that if we were going to be together he had to be open to having another child, because I definitely wanted a child of my own at some point. It took us a few years, many things got in the way, but when I found out I was pregnant, it was one of the happiest days in my life. This little girl is what keeps me going and what I live for each day. I never thought I would love anyone/anything this much.

Anyway, thanks for reading this far. Where this blog will go, I have no idea. I cannot guarantee that you will agree with all my thoughts and opinions. I will try to stay away from the more controversial topics, mainly because I hate debates. I also hate politics, so unless I really understand something, I pretty much will not comment on it. That's just the way I am. I know I have some thoughts right now that I would like to get down "on paper" per se, but those will be another time... See you then.