another one

yet another busy weekend for the books!!

Friday night was the normal groceries & bumming around.

Saturday I met my coffee girl friends at the Des Moines Downtown Farmer's Market YAY! we also met another friend w/her fiance while shopping so it was a major catch up session all the way around! so fun!!  I did some of my normal shopping (lettuce mix, radishes, chevre, & garden plants) in addition to our coffee stop @ Java Joe's as well as making more contacts for the rehearsal dinner I am helping to host in June.  (I am doing the food & keeping it as close to local as possible, Mom is doing the photo display & I am going to ask Grandma if she would do fresh flower arrangements for the tables from her garden) Then I took a nap in prep for the itty bitty visitor we were expecting overnight.  My brother & his fiance were both in a wedding that evening & their day sitter couldn't watch him past 9 so we met her & got the lil man for the evening.  So easy going & fun for 4 months old! We took him with us to some friends' house where we sat on the deck chatting until late into the night (where he slept most of the time) so then when we got home, he was awake & hungry.  after a couple of trial runs in the play pen, he & I decided to snuggle on the couch to catch some zzzz's for the both of us.  3.5 hours was welcome!

After returning him to his parents on Sunday& loading the pickup box 1/2 full of campfire wood, I needed a nap! Then I planted the 4 plants I bought at the farmer's market, sorted thru the camping kitchen tote, unloaded the weight room (where we store everything) & by the time I was done, it appeared that the camping department store had thrown up in the house! a cooler was moved to the deck to air out, the picnic baskets to the dining room to start packing, the kitchen tote & boat bag to the living room where there was more room to check its inventory, the bedding in the hallway, our bags in the bedroom floor & the tent & tarp in the doorway of the weight room. *whew* I very quickly did some serious organizational damage to the house. but every situation gets worse before it gets better, right? After wreaking havoc on the house, I decided I needed a break so I plopped on the couch & started reading the 5 Love Languages & am hooked! He had me nodding along at just the preface! I think this will help any relationship. Later in the evening while I watched Jesse Stone I packed my bag of clothes for the camping weekend & sorted thru the boat bag to be sure it was fully equipped with the towels, sunscreen & water socks we would need on the boat.  I was definitely ready for bed when it rolled around!

What a great weekend! pretty well balanced with naps & activities.  Really looking forward to our long weekend at the lake!

Another Summer List

:) You all know by now how much I love a good list ... the feeling of accomplishment when I check things off *contented sigh* So when I read Rachel's fun list this morning over @ Smile and Wave I just couldn't resist making one of my own.

1. make seedless raspberry jam-berries are picked-1/2 way there :)
2. can veggies from our garden -if it ever stops raining so they can grow
3. take the kids on an outing every Friday
4. take some time @ the water's edge to chill -hoping this will be a beach @ the lake but since they are all underwater I'll take a quiet boat ramp, I try not to be picky
5. hit up a zoo- Rachel reminded me that we haven't been in SO LONG & we used to love a good zoo
6. keep taking pictures-I have unintentionally stopped or at least slowed to a crawl since I haven't been scrapping
7. have coffee on the deck-this would mean getting up before Tim is rearing to hit the road on whatever our plans are on a home weekend
8. get better about getting the paper recycling out- the plastic & tin I rock every other week on curb pick up, the paper: not so much (the glass and cardboard go to the recycling dumpster)
9. read on the deck @dusk-meaning quit running around before 9pm
10. enjoy the camping weekends away -use them to recharge for the next week
11. host my family 4th of July dinner after the parade -even if it is on the 5th :)

WOW oddly I had to struggle to get 11 fun things & not ones that would look like chores. (& some are questionable but at least they are easy)  hmmmm time to think about fun instead of all work :) 

what are your fun goals for the summer??

Only Thursday?

this has been ONE exhausting week!!! I try not to be a whiner or a debbie downer on here but looking back thru my recent posts that's exactly all I have posted. MY APOLOGIES!! not fun to read! :( so to change it up a bit I am going to post a list of goals-good happy smilie goals :)

• get back on the treadmill
• get ready -mentally- to shred again w/the Sisterhood
• get crafty in my room, St. Patty's day is coming whether I am adequately decorated or not & I prefer to be!!
• get New Moon finished
• Relax
• get started on my monster & ever growing to-do list about repurposing items around the house & child care
• get back to monitoring what I eat

okie dokie... off to work on my DO list :) Have a GREAT SUNSHINEY THURSDAY

WOW!

Good bye 2009. Hello 2010!

I don't have anything excited to report of the past 12 months that hasn't already been posted-so no year-end review from me. I am not good @ resolutions so I am not sure I'll go there. I guess I'll just post about my One Little Word. 2008 my OLW was FOCUS. FOCUS on the here & now. FOCUS on the end result. FOCUS on me. FOCUS the camera. then 2009 I used APPRECIATE. & often listed 3 things/people that I APPRECIATE in blog postings. I APPRECIATE the sunshine. I APPRECIATE the changing seasons. I APPRECIATE my Husband. I APPRECIATE my job. I APPRECIATE my blog readers. I haven't given 2010 OLW much formal thought. I have had fleeting thoughts of 'what should I use?' "what is ME?" "does XXXX word work?" I usually start w/a small list of options then pick one from there. I haven't done that yet. WOW maybe I am a bit behind my own schedule!! thinking.. thinking.. thinking.. I'll have to get back to you on that.

Twilight. I am blaming Twilight the book on being so far behind around here! I have done NOTHING besides, eat, sleep, work & read Twilight since Christmas Eve when I opened it. I had no idea what I was getting into! I have heard & read all the hype but I am not a sci-fi girl. If it can't happen, hasn't happened or I haven't heard of its real possibility that it COULD happen, I don't 'get it'. Twilight sucked me in & I am hooked!! So now that I have completed Twilight (in under a week) I am making myself complete my December Daily book & shampoo some carpets around this place before I venture to the local library to check out New Moon. (thinking if I take it easy tonight, I should be able to tackle both tomorrow & hit the library Saturday morning haha)

Goals:

Ok so I said I wouldn't do resolutions, I call them goals. same thing? probably. but here we got anyway!

*I will get my foot fixed so I can run again

*I will get on a daily schedule of running

*I will shrink my size to need new clothes

*I will continue to appreciate my child care families for their independence, individuality & not just their check book as I felt was implied today

*I will get more structured in my child care home

*I will get my completed scrap pages organized into albums so I know what I need to do next

*I will continue to appreciate my husband for all he does & is learning to do

*I will continue to love my child care children as I do & remember I am in this occupation for them

*I will get back to eating better & taking better general care of myself

*I will end this list before it becomes a post of its own!

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!!! 2nd year in a row we've not had big plans. *sigh* not that we NEED big plans but OH THOSE WERE SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!! fancy hotel, 'free' food, rocking hairband, 'free' champagne toast @ midnight, 'free' party favors, great fun, great friends, gret memories *sigh* I miss those parties! as of now, & it possible to change in the next 5 minutes or hours, we are planning to hit a party @ a friends' house tonight. Some friends we don't see often enough but thoroughly enjoy their company when we do see them. Great time no doubt!

I hope the next time I post I will be able to say that the Christmas goods are all packed up & the house is back to 'normal' w/the addition of clean carpets! Have a Great night everyone & I hope twenty ten finds you happy, safe & healthy!

AND just to not end the post w/o a photo:I am so ready for the appropriate IOWA weather to enjoy these babies again!!! mmmmmmmmm but for now they are in my cocoa :))

surprising obsession :)

I so totally never expected to be THIS obsessed w/this series!! its REALLY fun to read!! I resisted thru alot of online friends going AWOL from the net while they were sucked in. Then when the latest movie was released a few local friends & child care parents raved the series so I added the books to my Christmas wish list & Tim pulled thru :) he even thought so far ahead to couple the book w/an amazing bath pillow! *sigh* he's good!!! So I am 1/2 way thru the first one & LOVING IT!!!!!! Please excuse any absence in the next few weeks as I might be wildly on the hunt for the rest :)