Five Question Friday (2.5 hours early!)

1. What giveaway would you like to do on your blog? Maybe something with the good books I've read lately. I wish everyone had the desire to read.

2. If you had to choose between natural artistic ability and natural athletic ability, which would it be? Artistic! I would love to be good at photography, drawing, or just being creative in general!

3. Do you ditch the coat the minute it becomes "spring" or are you a holdout for more cool temps? I'm always cold, so I either wear or at least take a jacket with me everywhere! Even in the summer b/c you never know how cool it will be when that sun goes down.

4. What would you do if you won the mega millions lotto of 1/2 billion dollars? Quit my job, payoff debt for those close to me, give to charity and travel!

5. You are at a hotel by yourself...what do you do? I actually had this experience when I was in Tempe for work. It was weird getting back to a hotel room at 6 at night and having nothing to do, I did a lot of reading and actually worked out quite a bit! Relaxing!

Blah

- We got the preschool confirmation papers in the mail today. Tear.
- We looked at an apartment today. I'm thinking this apartment living might not be too bad.....two bathrooms, washer and dryers in each unit, 2 pools, fitness area, walking trails. To hell with buying a house! LOL!
- We looked at a house tonight, it was ok. Not our favorite...on to the next.
- Trying to find the abstract to our house, not fun.
- In case you were wondering, DirectTV and the DSM Register will put your service on temporary hold, nice huh?
- Karma is a bitch, just saying.

Overly cautious buyer

So Steve doesn't think I should call our buyer the crazy lady, in case she reads my Facebook statuses or my blog. I don't want our neighbors to think she is crazy, I'm sure she is a perfectly nice person and was just being overly cautious when buying a house. It is a nerve racking experience and you want to make sure you are doing the right thing. I can't blame her. So I'm not calling her the crazy lady anymore, she is now the overly cautious buyer. (who drove by our house tonight....stalker)
They are going to do the home inspection in the next week, she gets to be here...we don't. She gets to be in our house for an undetermined amount of time....do you see my problem with this? Can you see her going thru our things to think about other items she all of a sudden wants to include in her purchase price? No, overly cautious buyer you cannot have my highschool yearbooks, my NKOTB tapes or my first born child....I have to draw the line somewhere!

oh man.

So Friday afternoon we got the call that the crazy lady wanted to come look at the house again Saturday morning. We got up cleaned the house before 9:30 then Presley and I headed to Target while Steve had fun for an hour with crazy lady and 6 of her friends/family (after she called and asked us to removed any air fresheners in case someone was allergic!). Presley and I walked up to the park and played since the weather was SO nice and Steve did some fishing with his brother.

I love this picture of her......this look is completely Steve!

She is so happy outside, but it wears her out!

We had lunch on the deck, had a couple hours of 'quiet time' and then went back outside and did some more playing.......buckets filled with water, bubbles, balls.

Samantha and I went to see Hunger Games last night at 9:30, I'm normally comfy and ready for bed by then so this was a little crazy for me! LOL. The movie was good...the book is better! I was home by 12:30 and was able to sleep in until almost 9:30!

We got an offer on our house at 11:00 am this morning.....which was way low, so my nerves had settled but by 2:00 she came up another $7000, but still too low since we had to pay 3.5% commission for her realtor. About 4:30 she finally came back, basically with our asking price but she wanted us to included some items (both TV's, gas grill, outdoor heater, washer and dryer, couch in the basement plus some shelving we had in the basement). We are keeping the couch and our main TV, the other items are old or completely replaceable and not that expensive. So it's SOLD!

We have no where to go and have to be out by April 25th. Looks like we'll be renting an apartment for a while!

We did enjoy this day (besides the sick feeling, pacing and leg shaking all day from this nervous situation), we took a picnic lunch up to Saylorville to enjoy another wonderful 80 degree day. We played a little soccer, see her high kick (maybe a little too high for regulation soccer)? I think we have a little soccer player in our future. She is not afraid of the ball!

We walked around, watched the water at the dam and climbed on rocks.

Look at this face!!! I love it and want to squeeze and kiss it!

We came home and basically spent the afternoon outside again! She played so good and so long by herself. The neighbor Bella and the other neighbor boy Paxton were playing and Presley didn't want anything to do with them, she wouldn't say hi, she didn't want to share her buckets of water with them. Nothing. She didn't care that they were having fun without her at all! We went on a walk and went to the playground again. The girl was worn out! Great but stressful weekend! I really don't want to think about the amount of work we have to do in the next 4 weeks, but I really can't procrastinate either.

I really should be packing or something. Maybe I'll worry about that tomorrow.

Five Question Friday

1. If you were free to just hop in the car and drive, where would you go? Or, if you could hop a plane and go anywhere, where? South, I think you all know I like the sun in 85 degree weather. I'm not complaining about the weather we have been having here, it is awesome!

2. What's your most recently read favorite book? Hunger Games by far, hopefully I can finish the second book in the next week. Strongly recommend them for easy reading, intense, can't-put-the-book down kinda reading!

3. What's your favorite Spring Break memory? I only remember two 'spring breaks' I remember is going to Jamaica my senior year of high school. Why my parents let me go, I'll never understand (oh yes, I do understand....b/c I was a good kid, I swear)! It was fun, but it was a totally different atmosphere than what I was used to. I didn't drink so being around excessive drinking, smoking pot, wet tshirt contests.....was out of my element, but hell it was Jamaica!

Then I went with three girlfriends to Los Angeles in college, that was fun too. We got to see and do a lot of different things. Santa Monica pier (where we got our palms read....she told me I had no real role models in my life (who the hell did she think she was??) and that accounting was not what I should be going to college for....she was right about one of them, I didn't graduate with an accounting degree!), shopping on Rodeo Drive (yes, I actually bought something at the Tommy Hilfiger store and thought it was so cool that my receipt actually said Beverly Hills, CA 90210!), and toured the NBC studios. Very good memories of this trip!

4. What do you put in your child's Easter basket? Or, for those w/o kids, what was put in your childhood basket? Since P is still little and doesn't fully understand the concept, we have just been doing small gifts and candy in her basket, along with finding about 6 plastic eggs around the house. As she gets older hopefully we can make this a bigger production and a little more fun.

Growing up (and even now) we still dye eggs and search for the eggs and our baskets around the house on Easter morning. We've never been the outdoor Easter egg hunting people, normally it's too cold and that doesn't sound like fun. My dad has put together scavenger hunts for us too, hints that lead us from one to the next. He can be very creative!

5. Do you get a summer haircut? Huh? I get my hair cut in the summer all the time! LOL! This would be a negative. I wish I had more courage to change my hair more often but I just don't. I think I would look fine with shorter hair (since both of my sisters do) but what about my ponytail? I have to get my hair out of my face by the end of the day! and I don't think I look good with darker hair b/c I'm so pale, I can't go around looking like I belong in the cast of Twilight.

Wow, I rambled on a lot here...probably b/c I'm at work and not motivated!

Random

- April took the girls to the zoo on Thursday, it was a little rainy but they had a blast! I was a little worried b/c I know Presley doesn't like to walk on her own. I knew she would be good for April and having the other girls around to help is so nice! Presley does have more fun without us! :( (Lydia, Sophia, Georgia and P)

- So I signed Presley up for preschool, only 2 days a week for about 2 hours. It will be so good for her to get away and make some friends and have some structure. It does make me sad though. She isn't used to that environment like other kids her age who have been in daycare centers. I'm not sure who is going to take her that first week, me, Steve and my mom don't want to do it. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I would rather take an 8 week old baby (who doesn't know the difference) to daycare any day than drop off my 3 year old at preschool (who will throw herself on the ground screaming for mommy!).

- Presley has been calling me 'mom'. Really, what happened to mommy?

- Steve got a raise at work! Yeah, at least one of us did! LOL! They are going to give him a midyear review to hopefully make him an official superintendent! Right now they consider him an assistant superintendent, even though he does all the same work. The best part about this job is the truck and gas card they give him for work!

- They moved our desks around at work, I now sit next to a 60 year old lady...who used to be a truck driver, she is very nice, kinda southern/redneckish. She is going to start her own quilting business when she retires and I will get to know so much about quilting during this time I'm sitting next to her (boring). And she loves her dogs, I hear about her dogs every day. I really don't care about your dogs....just like you don't care about my kid. My ipod is going to get a lot of use sitting next to her.

- Crazy lady wants to come look at the house again tomorrow with her brother. The real estate agent said she seems interested in our house but that he put a 30 minute time limit on her b/c she was there too long last time! LOL. And I got an email from a friends' wife who is an agent and she has a customer looking for something exactly like our house and they want to find a time to come look at it too!

St Paddy's Day with pictures galore!

I never used to celebrate St Paddy's Day until I met Steve and then I realized you really don't have to be Irish to enjoy this day!
Some girls and I decided to hit up Chicago this year! We got there Friday night and had a nice dinner and went to bed early to be rested up for the big day!
By 9 am shots were being taken and drinks were being sipped!

We got to see some of the city on our way to see the green river and parade! I have never really been to Chicago, so I loved it all!

We got a lot of comments on our shirts too!

and finally we got to see the river! It was way more green than I imagined it would be! It was awesome, no wonder it draws the HUGE crowd that was there!
Near Millienium Park we saw the Art Institute of Chicago, thank you Ferris Bueller....I would've never taken this picture otherwise!

and we saw the 'bean'. I had seen pictures of this on other peoples blog and thought it was so cool! I was excited to get to take some pictures of it!

We totally missed the parade, which was fine with us, we had lunch at a great pizza place where we had patio side seating, (in which we got to watch a passed out drunk girl get carted off in an ambulance, good entertainment for us but I'm sure scary for her and her friends.) It's so crazy to be sitting on patios in March it's awesome since the weather was so nice! Amazing 80 degrees in March, we are so lucky!

We found a nice Irish bar, OCallaghans where we spent most of the afternoon. We met some new friends (who liked to buy too many shots!)....
.......and missed some old friends. RIP Brendan. We love you and miss you.
and all the pictures after this bar and inappropriate! The shots took their toll, we went to dinner about 7 and headed back to the hotel room about 8:30! It was nice to get to bed early to let any hang overs work their way out of us before the drive home!
Overall, great girls weekend away! and now I want to plan a family trip there....My life list has seeing a Cubs game at Wrigley Field on it, so I might have to work on this trip soon!

Five Question Friday

1. Will you run to the store or to pick up a kid looking a mess? Depends on what you think is a mess. I will not leave the house without makeup and rarely do I leave wearing my glasses.....ponytail and sweats, yes!

2. Do you finish a book if it's boring or you don't like it? I really don't like to stop reading books, but I have stopped in the middle of a book before and not necessarily b/c it was boring but b/c I stopped reading it for so long that I don't remember what happened which means I would have to start it all over again (like the really fat Harry Potter books that I never finished)

3. Beach or mountain vacations? Beach preferably. But I do love the mountains too, I spend more time on beach vacations (which is odd considering my love/hate relationship with the sun). Hoping for another Colorado trip soon (as in the next 5 years).

4. What thing/event says "winter will end and spring is right around the corner" to you? January I begin to think that spring is right around the corner and so far this year, that has come true! I deny winter all winter long. I refuse to think it is ever winter.

5. Would you prefer couples or family vacation? I think as our family grows and gets older, family vacations would be a blast...however, they are more expensive and you have to get away as a couple right? So we won't be giving up our time away either. Maybe we are selfish that way and I'm ok with that. I think too many couples don't enjoy time away or vacations together. Many mom's think they are being bad parents by leaving their kids, I'm not one of those mom's. So I'm off to Chicago for the weekend! Bye Steve and Presley have fun and see you Sunday! XOXO

We'll see!

So Steve called me at work about 1 pm and said that a realtor had called him b/c he had buyer interested in our house and they wanted to come look at it at 5:30! Yikes, we don't get home until almost 5 and NO, we had not kept our house clean from this weekend (I know, it's been 2 days....don't judge). Presley had gymnastics at 5:15 so we all got home and cleaned (it's amazing what Steve can get done in 30 minutes! Now I know what he is capable of and will be expecting record breaking cleaning around here more often!). P and I went to gymnastics, she did good again. Even getting into some trouble with another girl b/c they wouldn't sit still (so proud)!

making sure that I'm watching!

making sure the other girls are watching

We got home about 6:30 and they were still looking at the house! P and I played outside and they finally left about 7! An hour and a half of looking at the house? Are you serious? Does it normally take people that long or do we have a crazy on our hands? Sounds like she could be a little demanding and a pain in the ass. But the realtor said he has other potential buyers and would like to bring them by b/c we have the house priced right. So I guess that is good.....however, we still have no place to go if we did sell it! LOL!

Weekend fun

Friday night we went out to dinner with the family and then we went home and started cleaning. We got a call Friday afternoon that a lady wanted to come look at our house, however she hasn't called back yet....but we have a clean house now!
Saturday was so nice out for Iowa in March, we spent the afternoon outside enjoying the nice weather and even met Jackie and Ava at the park for an hour!
It is so good for her to run off her energy outside!
Today we did our normal shopping and then played inside since it was kind of rainy. Presley loves to wrestle with daddy! She takes it very seriously, but they paused for a quick, cute pic.


We made cookies so she could load them up with sprinkles. She won't eat them b/c they have frosting on them (WEIRD child!), so I guess that leaves more for me! (We won't talk about my sugar addiction right now. It's out of control, like a drug....I want sugar all the time!)
We'll have another busy week, Holly starts her new job downtown! In the same building as me, but a different department. I hope she likes it, I think this company will give her many opportunities to grow, learn and work her way up the corporate ladder! :)
Friday I get to leave for Chicago and have fun with my girls Holly, Nicky and Angie! Can't wait, should be a great time!

Books

Two more books complete! I am on a roll with 6 books so far this year!!
1) Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me? One of the writers of The Office wrote this book. I personally am NOT an Office fan, but this book was funny! Easy to read and good for a quick laugh.
2) Hunger Games. GREAT! If you think the previews to the movie look good, this is way better than I had expected. I thought it was going to be hard to follow or difficult to read, wrong! It was detailed, easy to follow, interesting and intense! I'm going to start the second book tonight b/c I'm hooked!

Five Question Friday

1. Are you looking forward to the time change this weekend? Yes and no. Yes b/c it means the days will be getting longer and summer is almost here! No b/c Presley won't want to go to bed as early.

2. Are you getting the new iPad/would you want a iPad? There is another 'new' one? I mean really, how many versions do we need? How about when you have it perfected and there won't be another 'new' one....then I'll buy one.

3. If money was not a problem, what is the one thing you would splurge on? Probably more traveling. Presley will finally get to go on her first airplane ride this summer to Houston! We have always driven, but figured this one time (with one kid) we can afford to fly. But being able to take long, tropical vacations as a family...a little Disneyworld trip...that's what I want. I'll save my pennies.

4. How did you and the Mr. (or Mrs.) meet? Von Maur. I was the asst mgr of shoes and Steve was one of the lucky sales people in shoes. It was definietly a love/hate relationship while we worked together. I would NEVER recommend that you work with your spouse in a fast-paced commission environment!

5. Summer is right around the corner. Bikini or one-piece? Yikes, with the way my weight is increasing I'm thinking my tankini will be in order this summer. Not that I'm ever in a swim suit that often anyway.....I'm happy in my capris (no shorts) and a tank top all summer long.

This and that

- I'm finally beginning to feel normal after having this cold for a week! Monday I went to work feeling like doo-d00 and then I got the email with my merit increase for this year. 0%. What? Really? Please explain. ** breakdown by me**. I worked my butt off, was the top producer all year, got the highest rating I could for the year....and I get 0%? Exactly how does that work? Finally, after talking with our site manager today it was explained in further detail. The fact that I did get a mid-year raise and a promotion during 2011, was a much larger increase than if I would've only rec'd a year end raise. I guess, whatever. I shouldn't complain, I know that. There are people that haven't rec'd a raise in years. I have a job, I should be thankful.
- Presley went to gymnastics again Tuesday night. Another successful night, she participated the whole time. She gets so proud of herself! I love it!
- Today she had her first dentist appointment! I was very nervous, we never know how she will react to things. She sat in the chair, hesitantly....opened her mouth and let the dentist count her teeth! They said next time they'll do more actual cleaning but the first visit is to see how her teeth are doing and get her used to the tools and stuff. It was short and sweet and she did great!
- Does anyone else find it ironic that for years we wanted to have the smallest cell phones possible? So they would fit in your pocket. And now we all have these big, smart phones that we carry around with us. Heck, people carry their Ipads around with them!....so much for convenience!
- If anyone needs any home improvements done, my brother-in-law is looking for some side jobs to do. Right now he is retiling Holly's kitchen floor! Let me know!
- I love donuts. Just saying.

Another week gone by

So this Tuesday I took P to gymnastics while Steve worked on some house stuff. They did the trampoline first, and normally they do it last...so P was in! Most weeks they have 2 teachers helping with the kids and this week Tawny helped. Presley loved her! Tawny gave P attention and made sure that she participated in everything! I hope Tawny helps more often b/c Presley did the whole hour of gymnastics! Occasionally running over to me saying 'Mama, I did it!', so cute! I hope this continues over the next month, but I won't get my hopes up. (on a side note: 10 girls between the ages of 3-6 are really loud and annoying)
We did put a For Sale sign in our yard this week. The house on the corner near us put a sign in their yard and we thought maybe we could use some of their marketing for our house! LOL! Our house is no where near ready for a showing and we have no idea where we would move...but we'll figure it out when the time comes.

We took our annual Mall Of America trip this weekend! It's a fairly cheap way for us to get away for a short family vacation. We left DSM about 12:30 Friday afternoon, perfect timing for Presley to nap on the drive up! We got there about 4 pm and went to IKEA, they always have pretty cool and cheap stuff there. Then we found our hotel, the Comfort Inn.....this is the third year we have stayed there (out of the 5 years we have gone). It's close to IKEA and the mall, it's dated but it is cheap, has a pool, a good free breakfast and there is an Outback restaurant connected to it so it works perfect for us.
We checked into our hotel, went to dinner at Outback and then Steve and Presley got ready to go swimming. I watched and took a couple pictures.

I've been fighting this cold so I was exhausted by 8:30 and Presley was hyped up and not ready for bed. She watched a movie on the laptop and then cuddled up with me about 9:30. This was the first time she had slept in a bed with nothing preventing her from falling off....so I didn't sleep that good, worrying about her. At one point, I turned over and only saw her legs on the bed! She had fallen off and was trying to hold herself up with her hands on the ground! I'm hoping she had just fallen when I noticed and that she wasn't laying like that for a long time!

We got up, ate a nice breakfast, got to the mall about 9:45 and started our shopping! We never buy THAT much there. We did spend about $200 and at stores that we don't have here in DSM! They have the Nickelodeon area (formally Camp Snoopy), I remember last year we had no idea who any of the characters were.....that has changed! We knew almost all of them this year (Backyardigans, The Wonder Pets, Dora, Fresh Beat Band)! Presley was pretty good all day, we made a good $8 purchase for some Princess figurines at the Disney store and they kept her occupied! Overall it was a great 24 hours away!

Five Question Friday

1. Where is your favorite vacation spot and why? We do love Okoboji, we go there every year for Steve's family vacation. It is relaxing, quiet (if you ignore the 11 kids), there is no schedule.
Of course, if we could afford all-inclusive resorts every year I would travel somewhere tropical in a heart beat.

2. What is your biggest guilty pleasure? I love a nice cold diet mountain dew, york peppermint patties, mint chocolate chip ice cream....this list really could go on and on with food. But I also love reality TV. LOVE IT! Not necessarily the trashy shows (The Bachelor, Jersey Shore, Housewifes of EVERY county). I'm more into American Idol, The Biggest Loser, The Voice, So You Think You Can Dance...those types of non-trashy reality shows! LOL

3. What is your favorite fashion trend right now? Or, in the past? I'm liking the boots over the skinny jeans thing, right now. However, work is going back to business casual and spring is coming....so I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to do this.

4. What are your spring break plans? I don't even know when Spring Break is. For us, we always take a trip to the Mall of America usually every March. Go to IKEA, swim at the hotel pool, do some shopping with our tax refund.

5. What baby names do you hate? Hate is a strong word. There are names I wouldn't use. I'm not big on gender neutral names and it seems more girls are getting boys names these days. And some people think Presley is a boys name but I think Preston is the boy version of this name!
And when people take a name and jack it all up by changing the spelling of it. Like Jessica being Jessyca or Presley being Prezley. It just makes it look like you didn't know how to spell the name, not like you're being creative...in my opinion.
(No Lyndsi, this doesn't apply to you! LOL! ) I don't want to offend anyone, I'm sure there are people out there that don't like Presley as a name, and you are entitled to your opinion...it is wrong, but it is your opinion. :)