Trip o' Blunders (part 1)

This was by FAR the trip with the most problems/blunders I think I've ever had.  It started out normal enough.  We flew out of LAX on Wednesday evening at 5:30pm.  We were supposed to arrive in Chicago O'Hare at 11:30, but arrived at 10:30pm instead.  Yay!  We even had a smaller plane, so it was quick to load and  unload.  But, because of construction zones all the way home, we didn't actually get home until after 1am.  Apparently (according to Nick), there are 2 "seasons" in the midwest - Winter, and "Construction".  So yea.  fun times.

Thursday was the day to visit Nick (Rocky) in Madison.  We were going to rent a car, but Mike's mom insisted we use her car, so off we went.  But, because of the late night before I had a hard time getting Mike up, so we left an hour late.  Then, what should have been just over a 2 hour drive became a 3 hour drive because a big rig had flipped across the highway just outside of Janesville, WI which caused traffic to back up for over an hour.  *sigh*  BUT, we had a GREAT time!

Here's Mike sitting in traffic, "I can't smile, I'm trying to drive".

And Amanda happily playing with her phone in the back seat.  We relied HEAVILY on the pacifier this trip.  I'm hoping we can phase out it's use in the next month or two.

We arrived finally about 1pm and got a tour of Nick's home (very nice).  Then headed off on a walking tour of Madison.  First stop: the State Capitol Building.

Next stop: State Street.  Notice the construction (must be that "construction" season!)

We stopped for lunch at State Street Brats, but first Nick had to get some cash from the "fee free ATM"

It had this sign above it, which perplexed us all.

Mike walked up and said "Forgive me ATM for I have sinned, it has been 5 days since my last withdrawal"  Hee hee.

Amanda in the booth we ate in.

Then it was off to see the University of Wisconsin, Madison: Nick's alma mater.  On our way in, we saw the "International Friendship Center" and stopped to take a pic.

And then Amanda had to play in the fountain.

Which had some disgusting things floating in it.

Next we headed down to the lakeshore.  I think Lake Mendota?  Anyway, we saw some ducks there which Amanda was fascinated by.

Then we headed along the 2-mile trail that leads to Picnic Pointe.  We did about a mile, then headed back through the campus so Nick could show us the buildings he attended and worked in.  Beautiful history there.

After a quick snack with Ashley, it was time to head out.  Now's the time to mention that Amanda had pooped about 5 times during the course of the day.  I was on my last diaper and completely out of wipes, but figured we could make the 2 hour trip home, right?  WRONG.  We hit Rockford, IL and guess who decided to poop AGAIN?!?!  Arg!  So we had to make a quick stop at Target to pick up more diapers and wipes (THANK GOD for GPS that has "points of interest").  Finally made it home at about 9:45pm and quickly put Amanda to bed.

I'll continue with the rest of the trip later.  Too tired to continue now...

"MINE!"

Amanda has apparently learned a new word at daycare: "MINE!"  I spent the weekend with her grabbing everything in sight, yelling "MINE!"  At first it was cute, now it's getting annoying...

She has also learned "All done!" and will let you know when she's done with whatever she's doing.  This is the first actual 2-word phrase she's put together.  I'm not sure if she actually thinks this is one word or not, but I find it makes things a lot easier sometimes!

This past weekend was HOT.  Saturday Mike went waterskiing so Amanda and I headed to Target to get a little wading pool to cool off in.  I (of course) forgot the camera, so I didn't get any pictures of  her playing in it   But, after we came inside and I was rinsing Amanda off, I snapped some pictures of her playing in the sink.





And afterwards drinking from her sippy cup (I just thought this picture is cute)


Also, Sunday I openned the spoons I bought at Target that are designed to help kids learn to eat with utensils and let Amanda go to town.  Here's her digging into her applesauce.  She did awesome for her first try with her own utensil!

Hoarding?

I swear I think my kid is going to be a hoarder.  The other night, she again was trying to bring ALL her toys into her little play tent.  Including her CHAIR!




The funny thing is, she eventually GOT IT!





Maybe I should be rewarding her persistance instead...

Lots o' pictures

Ok, first here's from the sprinkler system re-do. There's Mike re-burying the new system, and a couple pictures of the open half vs. the buried half. If anyone needs help putting a new system in, we're experts at this point. We've done the back AND the front now!








Here's from my company picnic. First, us on the ferris wheel. Amanda did NOT like it one bit!



Playing with a soccer ball:


Riding the merry-go-round



Playing with "moo" the cow:


These next few are from the other night. I usually wrap Amanda up in her towel and then carry her back to her room to get ready for bed, but she took off laughing so I had to take a few pics!

And as the towel started to fall off...


Yes, I got some pictures of her running around naked too, but I'm saving those for blackmail after she's old enough to start dating!!

These are from this morning... She climbed into her tunnel (the ocean wonders playmat that converts to a tunnel) and started bringing ALL her toys and blankets in with her! I was laughing so hard at her!

For the world to see...

This was actually a fairly hard decision for me to put these up or not, since I make my page public for everyone to see, but I decided wtf, you only live once, right?  So here goes.  My loooooooooooong weightloss journey.  

The "before" pics were taken in April 2006 when I started weight watchers (www.weightwatchers.com).  I was almost 195 pounds.  In the next 4 weeks I lost almost 10 pounds, but then found out I was pregnant with Amanda, so I had to quit the program.  I lost another 10 pounds in my first trimester due to nausea and morning sickness and then gained it back during the remainder of the pregnancy.  I was about 198 pounds when I gave birth.  During the next 6 months I went down to about 175 from breastfeeding alone, and then gained about 7 pounds of that back in the next 8 months.

At the end of February 2008 there was a heart fair (sponsored by the American Heart Association) taking place in the park across the street from my work.  I wasn't going to go, but my best friend (who works down the street from me) asked me to go with her, so I obliged.  They measure your BMI , waistline and do a pinprick of your blood to get your cholesterol levels.

Normal BMI level for an adult 25-40 is 20-25.  25-29.9 is considered "overweight" and 30+ is considered "obese".  I was 29.8.  My waistline was well above what it should be, and my cholesterol while within healthy range, was at the top of that range.  All of which would be massively helped if I just lost some weight.

My friend and I made a pact to motivate eachother and thus began my second try at losing weight.  I used all the weight watchers info I had, and began the program on my own this time (instead of going to weekly meetings).  And so far, it's worked!  As of yesterday, I was 157 pounds!  So here you go, here are the before & after:
BEFORE:


AFTER (these were taken today with my self timer, so they're not as good as above.  Sorry!):


All that said, I'm not done yet.  My current goal is 145 and if I can, I'll go down to 140.  Healthy range for me is 130-148, so I'm almost there.  Just 10 more pounds to go!

What do you think?

Amanda's daycare providers claim Amanda looks just like Shiloh Jolie-Pitt. What do you think?

Busy busy

I do have some new pictures, but I haven't had a chance to download them from the camera. Seriously, when did life get so busy!?

This last weekend was my company's family picnic. It was at Calamigos Ranch in Malibu and was a TON of fun! I do have one picture from a coworker taken that day:


Amanda was eating a banana and was totally stuffing her mouth!

Afterwards, we headed to my grandparent's house in Camarillo for dinner with the fam to celebrate my mom's birthday.

Memorial Day weekend we lifted the old sprinkler system out of the front yard and put in a new one. What a job! I was *so* tired by the end. I forgot to take pictures at the beginning, so I only have a few shots near the end as Mike was burying the new system. I'll get those up later.

Amanda has officially graduated to the next level at daycare. She is (as of Monday) in "Infant III". They take one nap per day, sleep on mats on the floor (instead of cribs), and get to go outside a lot more. They also eat from a table instead of high chairs. I'm so proud of her!

Weightloss is going well for me. I'm down 25 pounds and finally in one size smaller. I need to go shopping this weekend for some new clothes that fit. I'll post before and after pics at some point too.

Mike's going to Vegas this weekend with his guy friends. They leave Saturday morning and are staying through Tuesday. So Amanda & I have the weekend to ourselves :) Which means I should have time to post pictures!!

Day-by-day

Here's our trip described by day for those interested (if not, the pictures are in the previous post!)

Thursday: We flew out of LAX at 10:30am. After taking a taxi to the airport and checking our ONE allowed bag each (I'm a little bitter about how the airlines are CHARGING you for everything now!), we headed through the looooooong security lines and onto the plane. I had upgraded us to "Economy plus" so we'd have more leg room - TOTALLY worth it with a child in your lap! Amanda did pretty good. We had one small meltdown when the stewardess came by and Amanda wanted to go with her, and she said she couldn't take her. But otherwise, she played, ate and even took a quick nap. Although United does NOT provide changing tables in their bathrooms! So I had to change Amanda on the floor of the galley! UGH! We arrived to O'Hare on-time at 4:30 and picked up our rental car from Hertz. Had a MAJOR meltdown on the shuttle bus over there though. Amanda wanted to run around after being cooped up on the plan for 4 hours and I couldn't let her run around the bus! We couldn't get her to stop crying for the entire busride!
Arrived at Mike's sister's house and had a nice dinner with the family, then tucked Amanda in to bed. She slept really well all nights we were there, only woke up once on Saturday night but went right back to sleep.

Friday: We got up around 7:30am and had breakfast. Then let the kids run around outside. It was a beautiful day, though it looked kind of cold from inside. Within a few minutes of being outside though, we were stripping off the sweaters. Around 1pm Mike's mom came to pick me up so we could go get our nails done. By that time both Amanda and Zach were down for naps, so Mike watched the monitors while Kathy, Rosalie and I all went out. Mike got very lucky, as both kids slept the entire time we were gone!
Friday night us girls headed out to a mini-bachelorette party for Rosalie. We went to dinner at this little local place that serves only "tapas" or "small portions". It was definitely interesting. Each portion is seriously tiny (like exactly 5 shrimp), and we had to share it between 4 of us. But it was definitely a party for the tastebuds!

Saturday: The day of the wedding. We got up around 7:30 again and slowly got ready. I had brought 2 dresses. One I knew fit, and the other that when I tried it on a week before didn't quite fit. I put that one on Saturday morning, and wallah, it fit! So Amanda and I were both in pink :) Headed to the church to be there by 11am. Took some pictures with Rosalie and Mark, and then headed inside for the ceremony at 11:30. Amanda was being a bear as she hadn't had a morning nap, so I spent the ceremony trying to keep her from crying (thus, I have no pics from the ceremony). Afterwards, we had about an hour before the reception so we drove around, letting the kids sleep in their carseats.
The reception was beautiful, we had this huge room with a very nice balcony overlooking a golf course. The food was FABULOUS. It was over about 5pm, so we headed home. Let the kids play outside a bit longer, then put them to bed. Mike and I went out that night to meet his friend John and his fiance for coffee & ice cream.

Sunday: Mother's Day. Mike was supposed to take John out for his "bachelor" party at Great America this day, but we woke up to pouring rain and freezing cold wind. So they were supposed to do something else, but as the day wore on, it kept getting postponed. The kids were antsy from being cooped up inside all day, so we decided to go to dinner as the weather had cleared up by the afternoon. After about an HOUR of going back and forth, we finally decided on Chili's. By that time the kids were tired, hungry and not in very good moods. So it was... an interesting dinner to say the least. We had all four kids (Ali-3, Zach-2, Amanda-1, and Natalie-11 months) and 6 adults. But we made it through and headed home for bedtime.

Monday: Our flight left at 6:30pm on Monday, so we had all morning. We ended up at the Children's Museum in downtown Naperville which was SO much fun (as you can see from the pictures below). Amanda LOVED it. Had a quick lunch afterwards and visited with Rosalie & Mark while the kids napped, then we headed for the airport. Amanda would *not* sleep on the plane, so we had a long flight, though she at least wasn't screaming crying for the entire time. Arrived safely in LA about 9:30 and headed home.

Now I have to book our flights out there again in June for John's wedding...

Quick picture post

Just got back from a trip to Illinois for Mike's mom's wedding. Here's some pics, then I'll post about the trip later.
First, some pictures from Wed. night before we left.  Amanda has decided she likes to help me clean!






Then from Friday.  The kids decided they wanted to get in Kathy's car, so here's a few of them playing like they are "driving"




From the wedding.  Amanda & I and then her cousin Ali giving her a hug. Amanda loved it!





And from the Children's museum on Monday:





This was her FAVORITE thing to play with.  Sorry they're all so blurry, but it was hard to keep the camera still enough to take the pictures.  You can see the intense concentration on her face as she put the pegs in the holes.





Looking at the fish:


And finally this was Tuesday night as I was trying to unpack: