growing up to fast

Ellie: "mommy, why don't I wear a bra yet?"

God help me.

a day of blessings...

This afternoon while cleaning out my car our wonderfully sweet elderly neighbor was chatting up Ellie. She was telling him all about our new stroller and how she can do ballet. After a bit he disappeared and returned with this beautiful bouquet of flowers for her. How sweet! We are so going to miss them when we move :(.


Then he brought over this big bucket to me and let me pick out all this wonderful fresh produce from his garden that he so dutifully watches over every day.


And there's even more!

When Greg came home we had dinner, got the kids to bed, went outside to volley a few balls back and forth (tennis) and then he told me to go look in the visor in his car. He surprised me with the new Stephanie Meyer book "the short second life of bree tanner." I can't wait to read it!

What a great productive day it was. I worked, had an oil changed, walked in this painful humidity on the bike trail with the kids and my sister, went to Target and didn't actually spend to much for once, got the car vacuumed out, made a yummy Mexican chicken crock pot dinner and am having a really nice evening with my hubby.

Hoping tomorrow is more of the same!

wanna win some bling?

Kristin is doing her first giveaway on her blog! Go check it out...

gonna pat myself on the back if you don't mind

I have to share an email I received from one of my staff the other day. She had given me her 2 week notice in early June and I was sad to see her go. She was a great employee. On this day she was asking me for her job back.

Hey Kris, it's [enter staff members name] again.
The job search isn't working so well; so I was wondering if there was any chance I could get back in the loop and start working again.
Thank you so much for everything; you've got to be the nicest boss ever.
Thanks!
[staff members name]

"You've been the nicest boss ever."

That makes my heart burst with joy. If you've read my blog for the long haul you know that I have had my share of experiences with bad bosses. I vowed from day one that I would never treat my staff the way I was treated.

I was thrilled to get this email. I'm going to keep up the good work! ;)

For Sale $100/obo

Little Tikes Swing Along Castle

Sells for $150 new. Ours has been outside but has no sun fading. It is in excellent condition. Asking $100/obo.

our ex-house

Today we finally heard from the attorney processing our foreclosure. If there is any good news during a foreclosure it is this; they sold our house for more than what was owed on the loan. Like almost 10 grand more. Un-flippin-believable. I'm dumbfounded. I can't believe it. So therefore we owe nothing, since there is no difference. Had it undersold we likely would have had to file for bankruptcy and that would have majorly sucked. Not that foreclosure alone doesn't suck, but both together really would have sucked.

After the phone call was over I cried. I cried because I feel like that was closure. Like this house is no longer ours. They told us there is nothing more for us to do. We are to lock the house up and be gone by the time or redemption period is over.

I both love and hate this house. Love the memories. We came home from our honeymoon to this house. Brought our babies home to this house. Had many fun bonfires and bbq's at this house. But I hate the flooded basement we get when it rains. The small old fashioned bathroom. The ugly kitchen. But it was the kitchen I've fed my babies in. It was the bathroom I bathed them in. Ugh. This sucks.

Stevie Joy

This past week while reading our local Minneapolis news website I stumbled upon a link to Kristin and her blog. Her blog is written in the form of letters to her daughter Stevie Joy. Stevie Joy died on May 8th when Kristin was 26 weeks pregnant due to a blood clot in her umbilical cord.

No other blog has ever captivated me the way Kristin's has. It has opened up my eyes to this world we live in. How harsh it can be. How short it can be. How we MUST live today like there is no tomorrow. How we must show kindness to others because you just never know what they went through yesterday. How I must appreciate my children even in their worst moments of crabbiness and temper tantrums. How I must love my husband and put his needs before mine as he has so unselfishly done for me, for years.

Stevie Joy has taught me how I must live. And that's just what I'm doing.

is there some magic potion?

I am so tired of my kids getting up so early. It is 6:35 right now and I've been up for over an hour. Breakfast is done and cleaned up. Coop has pooped twice. Ellie has got herself dressed for the day. Me? I'm head bobbing at the computer and want to go back to bed. Ugh. I need some magic potion to get them to sleep until at least 7!

new templates rock!

I'm totally digging Bloggers new templates. They are so fun to play around with... I've wasted the last 30 minutes creating a new blog. I think I'm gonna do a new one every day for a while! They are so fun!

Click to enlarge.

up north

Ahhhh, back to reality after a beautiful week of vacation. This year I have to say, was the most relaxing year ever. The weather was nice, the mood was relaxing, for the most part everyone was in a good mood, the kids behaved and got lots of attention and Greg and I got plenty of mommy and daddy time since we brought a sitter with.

We visit a resort in Northern WI every summer called Garmisch. It is quaint, quiet, relaxing and beautiful. We spend one week in a cabin with my parents, my sister and her husband and this year, our sitter.

Glad to be home, but not glad to be home, ya know what I mean? I slept so good in my own bed but miss the fun of being away.



We saw all sorts of animals...

ducks.


bears.


chipmunks.


worms.


drunk 1 and drunk 2. :)
We found these shirts at a t-shirt store in Hayward, WI. What originally caught my eye was a couple shirts that said, "thing 1" and "thing 2"... from The Cat in the Hat. I had to buy those for Ellie and Cooper because I thought they were hilarious. Then Greg stumbled upon drunk 1 and drunk 2 and had to have them. As soon as I get some more camera batteries I will post a pic of the kid's shirts.

Happy 4th of July!


Ellie loved to fish. She caught a few on her fancy shmancy barbie pole.


We played lots of cards.


We ate lots of food.


We drank lots of wine and other spirits.


And ate more food. Hey, at least I ate a salad.

Josie and Ellie

A day on the lake.







Coop hated his life jacket and was totally cranky.

But I love him anyways...



At the playground...





Hiking at Cooper Falls.

Josie, Ellie and Steven. Isn't she such the poser!

Cooper got the easy way out! =)
Can't wait 'til next year!!!

** For my own journaling purposes... while on vacation Cooper learned how to sit up from a lying down position, started to pull himself up to his feet and learned to say "ball" and "star." It was a week of much learning! I suppose it helped that our sitter was an elementary school teacher!