Random blah blah

- I bought a Himalayan salt lamp. I read about the benefits of having one of these and I had to give it a try! Couldn't hurt right? Here are some of the benefits if you are interested..... http://www.naturallivingideas.com/himalayan-pink-salt-lamp-benefits/


 - We might be crazy! No, no, we ARE crazy! We decided to take a family trip to Cancun in January! What are we thinking??? We've talked about it for months, looked up trips for weeks and finally, I just decided that life is too short. We might as well do it while we can! We have the savings, we only have one kid that we have to take out of school. Let's do it and hope for the best!

- I have 2 months to get into swimsuit shape...hence the working out I have been doing. I had gained 10 pounds from April until we got back from our vacations in July (2 weeks of eating and drinking will do that to a person!). I have been pretty good about watching what I'm eating 75% of the time but I cannot and will not be that person who gives up everything I love to eat (Hello, once a week I'm at El Mariachi....and if I'm being good, I get beer instead of margaritas! See, I'm trying!). I've lost about 5 pounds and would still like to lose another 5 but I might have to step up my exercising to get there.  I've been walking once if not twice a day at work for 10-15 minutes each and then I've been walking on the treadmill at home for 20-35 minutes 4 times a week (depending on the day and what I can fit in!). I have found that if I can read while I walk, it takes my focus off the actual chore of being on the treadmill! (and then I get extra reading time in each day too and that is a plus for me!)

- I'm ready for the election to be over. I don't vote. I've never voted. I don't plan on it any time soon. 'If you don't vote, you can't complain!' Um...ok! 'It's my right to vote' Yep, I have the right to bear arms too, but that doesn't mean I do! I'm over it.

November

I cannot believe it is November and my kids are playing outside after work/school with no coat on! It's awesome! Friday night they did just that, we figured they needed to get out and enjoy the weather, sunlight and friends since this week it will be dark when we get home.

Saturday we didn't do much. Steve took a trip to the mall with Piper to get a few things. He did some stuff outside, I worked out and then we did a late lunch at Chili's. We went to Menards and got new Christmas lights! I wanted blue porch lights to support our police officers so Steve decided we just needed to go full on BLUE! :)
Once we got home we headed back outside to enjoy more of the nice weather. The girls played with the neighbors, Steve put up the lights and I sat by the shed and read my book in the awesome sunshine and then took Presley to swim lessons.

That night the Hawkeyes played (well I can't say they actually PLAYED, they were there and on the field) so we got in one more night at the shed watching football! It was the perfect fall night out!

Daylight Savings Time. You never know how the kids are going to respond to this change. Piper was incredibly tired all of Saturday and got in trouble and spanked and sent to her room multiple times! So when she was still sleeping at 8:30 (really 9:30) Sunday morning, I wasn't too surprised (but I did go make sure that she was still breathing!)
Presley and I were up early, unfortunately. She played on the Ipad and I read my book until the other two got up. We have so many busy weekends that it was so nice to have one weekend where we didn't really plan anything so we could just do what we wanted! So we decided to headed out for breakfast. I had a gift card to the Iowa Machine Shed that I've had for over a year so we figured we better use it! OH MY. I'm glad that is not something we do often! So much food, so good! And then I went home and worked out!

We hung out and cleaned and did laundry and then headed to my parents house for a little Packer Sunday before swim lessons. She is enjoying it! and I love watching her get comfortable in thwe water and learning how to swim! She'll remain in this class level again until she can swim a little farther than she is currently. (hopefully I can get her signed up for another session!)

 That smile! :)

Of course, when we left lessons it was 5:30 and dark outside. So we got home, ate dinner, did baths and got quiet-time and bed time in early! Piper was ready for bed at 7, she didn't want to read books and she fell asleep within minutes of me laying with her! Presley was in bed at 7:45 and was asleep by 8:15, it was so nice! They needed it and so did we!

Roller Coaster

It has been a roller coaster of emotions and high and lows this week, unlike I've experienced in such a long time. I've had so many things on my mind of stuff I need to do, get done and remember that I've got a list going, my mind goes a million miles a minute. I was up until 11:30 on Monday and 10:30 on Tuesday trying to get stuff done so I could stop thinking about it and cross some stuff off!

But I get stressed about that little stuff and my friend Janelle lost her mom last week to Alzheimer's, which both of my grandparents suffered from for years. My stresses seem so petty. She is struggling emotionally, as to be expected. I ache for her, I cannot imagine what she is going thru and wish there was something, anything I could do to help. My guess is that time will heal the pain she is going thru. Thinking of you friend! Hugs!

Then Wednesday we woke up to the news that two area police officers were gunned down and murdered in their squad cars. This hit WAY too close to home for me. I was in and out of tears all day and still can't believe this happened in our city! This doesn't happen here. Both were blocks from where our old house was, just a couple miles from where my parents live. Who does this? What is wrong with people? It breaks my heart.

Then Wednesday night Game 7 of the World Series. Now I don't watch baseball, I like the Cubs and would go to a game but it's not something that I normally follow. But I know SO many people who were so excited and invested in the Cubs that I found myself caring! :) Once the game was tied 6-6, I had to stop watching, it was too nerve-racking for me so I stopped watching. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking that I really needed to check FB to see if the Cubs won, as I laid there, I knew.....I just knew they did, so I went back to sleep. I'm so happy for all of Chicago and their fans, hearing the stories is crazy and just seeing people really truly happy is definitely what we need more of these days! Enjoy your time Cubs fans! Embrace the happiness!

Last night we went to my parents for dinner b/c my uncle was in town. So much laughter. So many times I'm wiping tears from my eyes b/c of the funniness! :) I love it!

Every morning when I drop off Piper she waves and says "Bye, have fun at work with the grown-ups!" and I say "Bye, have fun at school with the kids!". She just makes me smile, it is the perfect way to start my mornings.
The other morning she got up and came into the bathroom and hugged my leg and said 'Mommy!!! I missed you!' Oh sweet child of mine!

Sunday Funday!

Sunday morning I woke up at 6:30....WTH? Finally when I was able to almost fall asleep, I heard the little footsteps of Miss Piper at about 7:45. She laid with me for about 45 minutes and I might have snoozed but I'm sure she didn't. Then Presley Pie woke up, they started fighting almost immediately, fun times. Steve got home from Earlham at about 10 and was TIRED and maybe slightly hungover so he went to lay down and us girls just hung out. They played, colored, took baths and chilled. Then we got ready to head out to Boston's last soccer game!

And guess who was on the field kicking the ball around with Boston before the game???

 

 Oh yes, you see that correctly! BOTH of my girls were on the field kicking the ball....You know, the girls who WON'T play soccer.

 Boston had his own little cheering section at this game with both our family and Scott's family! He did pretty good and scored 2 goals!!!! Everyone was so happy and you could tell he was proud of himself!

After the game, we got home, the girls ate something real quick and then we got ready for Sarah's Halloween party before trick or treating!

Our cute black cat and Super Girl!!!

 

 Sarah's house was fun, as always. So many kids and so much food! We love it!

This kid was Happy Potter last year.....I guess he isn't so sweet this year!

 Most of the kids with some hiding or missing.....

 our kids were watching the group picture.

 Bobbing for apples, which was VERY hard this year! No stems on the apples! :)

 Then we all headed out trick or treating! This picture was about the last time the group was together, the older kids were running head and Miss Piper and I lagged behind but she was a trooper!

 Look at my sweet girl, all by herself.

A lot of the houses in our neighborhood leave candy out in a bowl and it seems most kids do a pretty good job at only taking one or two! Piper lasted about an hour and then we headed back to Sarah's house to dig into the candy and hang out for a while before it was time to head home and turn in for the night! The kids have a new found liking for alot of the candy they have rec'd which is unusal for our fruit loving kids! I'm glad they are eating so that it will just be out of the house!

Brewery Tour

So back on Tuesday I called the radio station to win 2 tickets on a luxury motorcoach brewery tour for Saturday and I won! SO then my goal was to either find a babysitter so Steve could go with me or find a friend on short notice who could go with me! I was able to talk my sister Samantha into coming over with Boston for the afternoon.

On a side note....look at this proud soccer player! She almost looks like she enjoyed it, huh?

So Sam came over about 11:45 Saturday morning/afternoon and we headed over there, they had a bunch of people NOT able to make it so we scrambled to find other people to join us but really we had 30 minutes and obviously we don't know anyone who can drop everything that quickly for an afternoon! But oh well, we trucked on and met people on the bus who were really cool and ended up having

The first stop was Firetrucker in Ankeny, this is a cool place and our friend Baird plays here sometimes so another reason for you to check it out sometime! http://www.firetrucker.com/

 

Then we headed to Reclaimed Rails in Bondurant. Such a cool atmosphere and some of the wood is from the old Log Ride at Adventureland! The beer was good, they have TV's, a patio and stage for music. I would definitely go back! http://www.reclaimedrailsbrewing.com/#building

I could've taken pictures of the actual bar/brewery....but no, I took pictures of the pumpkins...tis the season!

 

Third stop was Confluence, which we have been to a couple times. Very laid back, good patio and beer, lots of cyclists, dogs, families. http://www.confluencebrewing.com/

 

Then we headed over to Exile, which always has good beer and food! http://exilebrewing.com/

 

Steve with our new friend Danny.

We got along so well with him and his wife Missy. We seemed to have a lot in common and hope that we can hang out with them again soon!

Some of the people that we met.

Me and Danny.

The last stop was Fox Brewery near Valley Junction www.foxbrewco.com/ and then we headed back to the radio station!

We got home about 6:30, fed the girls some dinner. Steve got his Slash Halloween costume ready for his nephews party that night in Earlham. So the girls wanted to wear it around a while!

She does make the perfect Slash!

Piper, not so much.

Rock on!

Presley was mad that Steve ate a whole row of Oreos, so they posed pouting. So funny! and then went we sent the picture to Steve.

Thank you to Samantha for watching the girls. Thank you to Boston for coming over and playing and wearing them out. Thank you to Steve for being my date. Thank you to Lyndsi for being my back-up date. Thank you to 92.5 for the tickets. And thank you to Presley and Piper for being good that night and going to be easy for me!

Friday Fun!

Friday night we carved our pumpkins! The girls were SO excited about it and both of participated by digging their hands inside and digging out the seeds!