24 things update

24 things to do before I turn 25
Completed are bold. Updated with commentary :)

1. Paint a wall a color I really love

2. Get my hair cut

3. Eat a Voodoo Doughnut

We went on my birthday, and it was really busy since they were having a wedding. A wedding! At a donut shop! They didn't have the ones Jon and I really wanted, so we will be going back to get them.

4. Buy something from Etsy

My picture I love, and I got it in a frame too!

5. Read 5 non-fiction books

Potty Train your kid in one day, A room of one's own, Apartment Therapy,

6. Read a book each day to Katie

This is an average one. I think there were a few days I didn't read her one, but I usually do at least 2, so it all evens out.

7. Find a new band I love

Sam Philips. She is awesome. Look her up.

8. Do a photo shoot with someone other than a relative or friend

9. Do the Apartment Therapy 8 step home cure

I read the book, but it was a very involved process I just don't have time (or money) for now.

10. Make a piece of art to hang on our walls

11. Frame a picture Katie painted

12. Print off pictures of the girls

13. Send Christmas cards out before Christmas

14. Take the girls for a walk once a week

15. Recover dining chairs

16. Get out the advent calendar before December 1^st

17. Take the girls to the coast

I'm so sad, I ALMOST did this. It was nice at the coast too.

18. Go downtown and look at the lights

19. Make a pillow cover (knit or crochet)

20. Send thank you notes for all gifts received

I did do some, which is an improvement. I am grateful, it's just so hard to buy stamps. I'm not kidding.

21. Go to a concert

22. Make bread once a month

So glad I put this on here, since it made me get out my bread machine. I haven't put it away since, and I've been making almost all my bread now. It's not as good as my mom's or Jon's mom's, but I like that I know exactly what's in it, and it's usually 1/2 wheat. And it's pretty good.

23. Learn how to make my favorite Thai food

Coconut Lime soup, check. Yellow curry, not so much. I bought yellow curry paste, and it was so gross. So I think I need to make a trip to the Asian market and get some good stuff. I guess Winco isn't good for everything.

24. Start the couch to 5k

I always try to do this, and it never happens. I just don't have that much time to myself while it's still light outside.


Well I did half, I guess that's not bad since I only had about 4 months. I'm working on this years list now!

I did it!

Thanks for all your support and encouragement, I did it! And I ate donuts, cake, and ice cream today, and probably undid all my hard work :) But what can I say, it's my birthday.

I didn't get all my stuff done on my list, but I'm glad I did at least some of them. I'll update and tell you which ones I did, and make a new list too! Soon.

But not now because I'm tired. And a cold caught me.

Thanks everyone! Goodnight!

Some days are hard

There was nothing terrible about today, it was just a hard one. Here are some contributing factors:

• Aimee was fussy. She's been having a lot of cranky days recently, and crying gets old really fast.
• The kids keep waking up earlier. I stayed up late last night and folded like 10 loads of laundry. I am so tired.
  
• Katie drew on every dress in my closet with chalk.
• I made coconut lime soup, and the coconut milk had a weird texture.
• Katie is getting a cold, which means Aimee is getting a cold too.
  
• This has been the hardest day to not eat sugar yet.

See, nothing bad, but together it makes for a long day.

The good that made it okay:

• Aimee makes the cutest faces. And she's starting to talk.
  
• Katie likes to "help" It's sometimes less than helpful, but its cute.
• I've lost a couple pounds the last few weeks.
• Canned fruit.
• The thought that on Saturday I'm going to eat a huge piece of texas sheet cake.

So that, in a nutshell, was my day. Minus the diaper changes, but you REALLY don't want to know about those.

Oh ice cream sandwiches, how I miss you.

Every evening, after being so good the whole day, I nearly die of ice cream sandwich cravings. I didn't even know I liked them that much. I thought I would miss nerds and e.l.fudge. But no, it's those skinny cow ice cream sandwiches. Which is even worse, because they're not that bad for you! But every time I open the freezer the practically jump out at me. Like this.
But I can't get rid of them. I can't throw them away, and I can't make Jon eat them, because I WANT TO EAT THEM!!!

It's going pretty well I think.

So in honor of my birthday coming up (the one where I turn a quarter of a century old) I decided to give myself a gift. And I decided that it should start the first of February, and conclude on my birthday. Then I tried to figure out what I wanted to do. I had lots of ideas, and it was hard to decide, but I finally picked:
21 days with no sugary treats.
Now you may think, oh that's easy. Well maybe for you. This, to me, is like saying, go without air for 21 days. I kind of thought it was impossible. But I went all day yesterday and today, so I'm feeling hopeful. I'm kind of wondering why I chose something to make my life harder as my present to myself, but I think I need it. I would consume about 5 people's daily allotment of treats in a couple hours, on a daily basis.
I also had a hard time deciding what counts and what doesn't. Yogurt, muffins and popsicles were debated (with the ever supportive and patient Jon) and we decided yogurt- yes, other two- no. Unless I make my own popsicles with fruit juice. Because juice is allowed.
So wish me luck, and hopefully I will survive. I am planning on having the world's largest piece of cake on my birthday to celebrate! Then I hope to go back to eating like a normal person.

Hat

The kiddos are sick. Still. They have huge fevers that won't go away and weird green stuff coming out of their eyes. Aimee has been sick for a week. I was sick before that. So I am lacking in social situations. I'm not super social, but I discovered I am not anti-social. I really don't want anyone to get either my or my girls' awful sicknesses, but I am bored. And Netflix is sending us boy movies. Except The Duchess, which made me cry for an hour afterward, and I am hereby striking from my memory. Done. Still bored.

Anyway, there was a baby shower today that I was going to go to, but couldn't because I am a non germ-spreader. But the day before I still had hopes of going, so I set about thinking of a gift. And I decided a knitted hat was in the realm of possibilities. So I started, and I had to alter the pattern a bit to make it smaller. Well, I started in, and I keep thinking, this looks a little big. But being the lazy knitter I am, I kept going. Because if I had to redo, I wouldn't do it. But I still had hopes it would fit a baby. In the early stages it looked like it wouldn't fit on Aimee's head. In the later stages, it turned into this:
That's right, Katie is now the proud owner of a new hat. I was trying to make a NEWBORN hat! I am knitting-retarded. It's the same as baking- I think hey, I'll just do this instead, and this too! But not that, that's too much work. And I end up with something completely different. In cooking, this works for me. In baking and knitting- (and probably life) not so much. So I thought of a Ratatouille quote, "No! It was his job to be unexpected! It is your job to follow the recipe!"
Then I spent a while thinking of which life would turn out better, being unexpected, or always following the recipe. I decided my way is more fun. I kind of like it when I open cupboard and things fall out. And I will have disasters, but I will also have moments that are unanticipated and amazing. And cute. Look at that hat.

Happy Inauguration Day!

Today was a good day.

I didn't get a chance to watch the Inauguration until this evening, but it was awesome. President Obama is such an excellent speaker, and I felt so hopeful after hearing him, I listened to it again. People in the crowd cheered and waved flags, and it was a great moment in our history. I felt like we were unified again, and what a better purpose; Hope and change instead of fear. This was my favorite line:
"But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions – that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America."
I am excited for our future.

In less globally exciting news, I had the flu, and I felt better today. But then I got hives. My ears were burning like crazy, so I went in the bathroom to look at them, and my eyes were already Quasimodo-like. The last time I got hives was in high school! Luckily Benadryl clears them right up. But now I am left with the sad news that I may be allergic to Honey Bunches of Oats. Tragic :)

On the way to work this morning, Aimee sneezed, and Katie started laughing. I asked her what was so funny, and she said, "Aimee sneezed her paci out!" It literally made my morning.

We spent about 20 minutes today tossing a roll of tape down the hall, and down the two stairs. For some reason this was highly entertaining to the kids. Jon came up with that one. He somehow comes up with the most random things to do that the girls just love. I love him so much, and I love my two cute and wonderful girls.

Oh, I almost forgot! On one of the days I was feeling really sick, Jon got the mail, and came back with a package for me. In it was this:


My first Etsy purchase! (and #4 on the list) It is a print from The Black Apple, by the lovely Emily Martin. I love love love the print, (red piano!) but I was almost as excited by the bookmark. I've been using receipts as bookmarks, and that is way nicer.

I hope you are having a happy day too.

A day in the life...

When I was in high school I was on the yearbook staff, and we wrote eloquent and life-altering copy, like A day in the life of ____. You know, you follow someone around and photograph them doing their daily routine. I took the pictures for some of these, and my dad had to drive me to one guy's house for some reason, and I was so embarrassed. (do you remember those Molly or Em?) Anyway, boring high school story aside, those are not much more interesting now. I may just do one so you can see exactly how boring they are. Then came January 7th. Nothing tragic happened, unless you count the loss of 6 poppy seed muffins as tragic.

Exhibit A.

I somehow got Aimee out of her crib, and went back to bed. Normally she goes back to sleep for a little bit, then wakes me up when she wakes up. Not that morning. This is what I think when down: She got up, and Katie woke up at some point, and Mommy and Daddy slept. Perfect opportunity. Katie decided they were hungry. A quick foray into the kitchen revealed a new package of poppy seed muffins. Katie pulled them down from the counter, but there was plastic on it. No problem, she went and got a knife, and cut them open. And they literally ate until they were sick. At least Aimee did. In the process they covered every surface less than 2 feet from the ground in crumbled muffin.

Exhibit B

Now in the interest of honesty, the pictures were taken that night. When messes like this happen, I am usually so stressed that there are no pictures, and I clean up the mess asap to try and forget it ever happened. That day was different. I slept in so late that when I woke up it was nearly time to go to work. I ran into Katie's room to get her some clothes, and saw the mess. I think I said "oh my gosh" 64,000 times, then shut the door. I didn't have the time or energy to clean it up. I kept thinking about it all day, partly because Aimee kept spitting up. But then Jon called, and I asked him if he had seen Katie's room. He had, and said something about how they must have had fun. Then this image of the girls crumbling up and eating muffins together, laughing together came to my mind. The mess instead of being a nightmare I had to deal with became a memory that I wasn't part of, but can imagine, of my two girls having fun together. I would given a lot to have had a hidden camera that morning. Instead I took pictures of the mess.
It still took forever to clean up, and I still am finding pieces of muffin a week later, but I'm strangely glad it happened, because I am enjoying the messes a bit more. Life is messy, especially when you have a 3 and 1 year old.

Another December update...

I found a bunch of pictures I meant to post, so here goes the update again.

My mom helped me recover my dining chairs, and they look so much better. We covered the fabric in vinyl, so when Katie spills I wipe it right off. Not the prettiest, but very practical. (#15 on the list)
And I did manage to get the advent calendar out before December 1st. (#16 on the list)
Aimee loved her pumpkin cupcakes on her birthday.
And she got the cutest sweater from Aunt Kelsey that matches the yellow pants! I bought those pants for Katie, and nothing matched them until now! Thanks Kelsey!
The girls played in the snow one night. Katie liked it, I swear, but she's not a fan of posing for pictures.
Aimee was just cold I think. It took about 20 minutes to get us all ready to go outside, and I think we lasted about 7 minutes out there :)
Just a cute Katie.I am obsessed with the icicles. But the are SO COOL! So you'll just have to deal with my nerdiness.


We played in the snow again, and Jon took Katie sledding in the back yard. They are so cute.

Katie just wanted to eat snow most of the time.
And last but not least, four cute cousins!

December catch up and New Years!

So with the "arctic blast" (worst storm name ever) I saw the most snow ever, plus some real life icicles, and they were big ones! They are awesome. And deadly (have you seen ice age lately?) Also, please pretend there aren't still pumpkins outside in December. And we didn't leave the house for a week, and I loved it.

We also went sledding in the back yard, and that was fun. Katie really liked it. But what she liked the best was jumping on the trampoline. Then Uncle Eric had the idea of having Katie punch the ice to break it, and then that was her favorite. She did it until we ran out of ice.

Christmas was fun, we did the traditional Christmas Eve with Jon's family, which is a lot different for me since growing up we opened our presents on Christmas Eve. But it was really fun, and we did get to open one present- a baby monitor, which has come in handy so many times since.

On Christmas Katie got a dollhouse from "Santa" (gramma!) and Jon got Kota, the robotic dinosaur. That thing is awesome and creepy. If you growl at it, it growls back. Katie loves both, and all the other presents too. I'm not putting any more Christmas pictures because they are all the back of Katie's head. Oh, also that is cousin Lucy in the picture, not Aimee. She didn't grow a head of hair overnight. Unfortunately.

We braved our snowy street and went down to Eugene and saw all of my family the day after Christmas. That was fun, and we got to see the California family that we haven't seen for a while. Danny and Kim's kids especially have gotten so big!

Then it was Grampa's birthday, and Jon's brothers did the price is right, it was fun!

Then we had Jon's extended family and it was Christmas all over again! Grammie always paints the most beautiful things, and she's given us about half our Christmas decorations! And we got an amaryllis from Aunt Gail, which I really hope I don't kill.

Then we had New years, and it was fun having a party and seeing family and friends. Katie managed to stay up past midnight, and was horribly overtired, but it was still fun.

And now its the new year, and I'm excited. Last year had massive ups and downs- really great moments right next to really depressing ones. So here's to hoping 2009 is a bit less extreme. Knowing me that's not likely, but a girl can dream!