30 Years 30 Goals-May Update

I decided to do this a little differently this month.  I thought I would list out the goals and then either cross them out if the are finished, Blue if there are updates or are working on them, and red if I didn't even think about it.  So here is how May went and of course now that I am publishing this almost 3 weeks late things have already changed :).

GOALS COMPLETED:  11/30

1. Run 5-5ks (2/5)

1.  Rosy Cheeks Run-February

2.  SCAVMA Scamper-April

2.  Complete Outlander Series by Diana Galbadon.

3.  Get into a consistent routine of exercising at least three times a week.

4.  Take Elsie to a Children's Museum

We went to the Omaha Children's Museum in Febraury

5.  Spend a weekend in the Amana Colonies with John

6.  Visit three new wineries in Iowa

7.  Lose at least 15 pounds

11/15

8.  Send out 10 "Just Because Notes to Family and Friends

9.  Attend a MN Twins game this season

10.  Plan and Carry Out a date night with John once a month

Dec: 

Jan: 

Feb:

March: San Juan

April:  The Cafe

May:  Well I wasn't the one in charge of this months date night and not to point fingers but we didn't get out :)

June:  

11. Enroll in a fitness class

12.  Become familiar with photoshop so that I want to use it to edit my photos.

13.  Set a budget and stick to it

14.  Update window treatments in dining room, living room, and kitchen

15.  Be up to date on photo books
I have started this years books for both Elsie and the family book, have started my pregnancy book with Elsie, and am just about done with our vacation to Michigan in 2011.  Oh and I started our Family 2012 book too.  I just need to get some of these finished. But we are making progress.  

16.  Read 4 non-fiction books

1.  168 Hours:  You have more time than you think

2.  Healthy Tipping Point

3.  How to Talk so your kids will listen and Listen so Your Kids Will Talk 

4.  The Happiness Project

17.  Have an Elsie outing once a month
Well this comes so easy for us...this month we went to the zoo, the science center, the library, the park.  I feel like this is a silly goal since we do so many things with her :).  

18.  Take the camper out 5 times this summer
We better get out one of these days.  Summer is flying by!

19.  Finally get rid of all the stuff in boxes that I want to donate.

20.  Attend Church at least one a month (or 12 times throughout the year).

21.  Plan and carry out a stay cation.
Staycation 2013-Day One

Staycation 2013: Day 2

22.  Host a game night at our house.

23.  Work related-Visit a farm site to get a better understanding of the  equipment we sell.

24.  Make the switch to natural cleaning/non-toxic products.
I actually started doing this last month but forgot.  I made up a solution for basic cleaning in the kitchen.  It has borax, vinegar, baking soda, and a tidge of dawn dish soap.  I think it works pretty good.  Also for the floors we swtiched from a swiffer wet-mop (I didn't feel it worked that great anyways) to a steam mop which just uses water.  So happy with the change.  We are slowly phasing out harsh chemicals little by little.  Maybe down the road I will write a whole post on this.  

25.  find a cause I want to support and start a volunteer relationship.

26.  Find and purchase a little black dress that I Love!

27.  Do Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred.

28.  Make 5:30 my standard wake up time and 10:00 my standard bedtime.

29.  Update birthday information for all family and friends.

30.  Twice a month call a family member or friend to chat.

Elsie's 18 Month Dr. Appointment

This morning we had Elsie's 18 month check up. This time was one of the first I didn't come armed with questions (well I had a few :).  Everything went super well and she is as healthy as she can be.  The big thing I was waiting for was for him to check her ears.  Every time we have been in since her first ear infection in February she has had either fluid in her ears or an infection.  He said that if she still had fluid at her 18 month appointment she would be referred to an ENT.  Well yay!  No Fluid!! I was so excited.

Another big highlight was that besides her vaccination there were no tears, no clinging to me, no protests!  It was awesome.  So speaking of vaccinations at her 15 month appointment our doctor and I chatted a little about our plan for vaccinations.  Normally at an 18 month check they do dTap and Hepatitis A.  Well at her 12 month we skipped MMR because I felt that there were so many at one time with plans to have her get it another time.  He recommended thay if there is one that we skip it should be Hep A this time around.  So this time we caught up on the MMR and are waiting on dTap until sometime this fall.

Here were her stats:
Height- 33.25" (87%)
Weight- 22.5 lbs (49%)

QUESTIONS:
Q.  My parents have well water and a water softener, when is it okay for Elsie to drink that water?
A.  Now that she is a little older she can drink the well water-not okay for babies.

Q.  I had him look at our suncreen ha!  It is has zinc and titanium oxide and creates a barrier on the skin vs gets absorbs like most suncreens.  I wanted to make sure it was okay to use and as effective as the other stuff.
A.  Yes it is safe to use-the key is just to make sure it gets re-applied every 90-120 minutes.

Q.  I had a friend who just found out after over a year that her daughter has a "Lip tie" so I had him check it out.
A.  Nope her lips are perfectly normal-so grateful he humors my crazy requests.

Q.  Elsie has been hitting a lot lately...is this normal and what should we do?
A.  Totally normal for this age...it might be time to start time-outs and he printed me off some literature on timeouts and how to make them effective.

Q.  Is Elsie's yeast rash going away?  It seems like it keeps going away and coming back.
A.  Yes all cleared up and we can stop with the lotion-YAY!  I can't wait to get her back into cloth diapers.

Okay so maybe I had more questions than I thought :)

It was a pretty good check up.

Week in Review-6.7.13

Well we are all back to feeling 100% and are ready for some summer fun!  I got to spend three whole days this week with Elsie because JoJo was off Wed-Fri!  I love every minute with her (I guess I could do without the little tantrums),

1.  Wonderful, Wonderful weekend!  Great dinner with friends on Friday night and then the Dam to Dam  event on Saturday morning.  I had so much fun with Elsie and her first little "race" complete with t-shirt and bib.  After the race we checked out a new camper...not what we wanted and then headed home to shower and change and head our for our monthly "date night".  This time it was during the day...more on this to come in a later post.  Wonderful day and a wonderful night out to dinner with friends.

2.  Sunday we headed out to Lowes to pick up some supplies for a few projects-the biggest being as sandbox John is making for Elsie.  It took up most of the day and is not quite done but it is turning out so nice!  I can't wait to show off his finished project :)

3.  I have been obsessed with a new salad these past few weeks and I thought I would share.  I follow the blog Iowa Girl Eats.  I enjoy reading her blog because it isn't all about food but she always includes a recipe.  And the ones I have tried are so yummy.  The salad is Triple Berry Summer Salad.  I have altered it a little by removing the avocado and basil and use a raspberry vinaigarette for the dressing.  YUM!  I eat it at least 3 times each week for the past two weeks.  Perfect for lunch.  I have also added roasted chicken to it also.  The other recipe I love is the Springtime Pasta Primavera.  I made it for dinner one night this week and Elsie ate every last thing.  I could have done without the tomatoes and I didn't add any asparagus because I didn't have any but added extra brocolli.  I even used our own basil we have growing out on our patio.  It was delicious! I definitely recommend both these recipes.  Easy and delcious!

4.  I have been eyeing this toy for the past few months and when I saw it on amazon.com for a five dollars off ($14.97) I had to finally buy it for Elsie and she LOVES it!  The good old Fisher Price Bubble Mower.  Everytime we walk outside she says "mow" and points to the garage where her mower is.

5.  We are so so so lucky that we have other girls in our family that are willing to pass their clothes down to Elsie.  On Wednesday I picked up pizza for dinner and headed over to Brandi and Todds to sort through some bins of clothes.  I ended up going home with 5 tubs of clothes and am only sending back 1.5 tubs-mainly because the girls are twins and there were quite a few duplicates.  Thank You Thank You Thank You!

6.  In addition to clothes, Elsie gets some toys from the girls too.  This time she got this really cute little camper and car.  She spent so much time on Thursday driving the little car around the house-the whole time going "vroom vroom".

7.  So the other morning Elsie and I were eating our cheerios and when she finished I looked over and she was drinking her milk our of her bowl...Silly girl!

I say this every week but it was another wonderful week! 

Week in Review - 5.31.13

Oh what a week this was.  Last week we dealt with Elsie being sick...this week both John and I came down with the virus-the achy, flu, fever, sore throat virus.  Yuk.  Luckily, I had it on Memorial Day so John could care for Elsie and John got it the next day when I was feeling better and could care for Elsie since JoJo was off on Tuesday.  It all ended up working out.  After we got over our sicknesses it was a nice, quiet week.  

1.  We had our staycation at home over the weekend.  Check out the posts for more info but the highlights were SCI and the zoo.  I think Elsie had a good (exhausting) time.  

2.  The weather has been so crappy...lots of rain and flooding.  Yuk!  We are ready for some sunshine!

3.  We gave Elsie her first little cup without a sippy cup valve.  It still has a lid but nothing to slow things down.  She loved it and did so good with it!  

4.  We finally got outside for a nice day towards the end of the week.  Nice enough for shorts, tank, barefeet and snacktime on the steps.

5.  Finally after almost 18 months I can get Elsie's hair in pigtails.  She sat pretty good for me while I did it.  She was so proud and couldn't wait to show Daddy when he got home.  

6.  The second picture above shows another real challenge we have been facing lately.  Elsie getting into the snack cabinet.  She is constantly looking for snack-crackers, goldfish, applesauce, cereal bars, anything.  Of course when we take them away from her a mini fit ensues but she will eventually get used to us saying "no" right?  

Staycation Day Two: Blank Park Zoo

Day two of our staycation was supposed to be better in the weather department so we decided to head out to the Blank Park Zoo.  The zoo opens at 9:00 which is awesome because we are early risers so we were there a little after 9:00.  It was surprisingly busier than I thought (but not nearly as busy as it could have been) because although it wasn't raining, it wasn't a beautiful day.  Elsie had a great time (even though I think she was still feeling not 100%).  She loved pointing at the animals and she would repeat a lot of the names as we would say them.  

The first stop was the Australian exhibit.  For this one you enter in through the gates and are among the animals.  Elsie loved spotting the Wallabies all around us.   

After that we were walking around and spotted an elephant.  Right now Elsie is obsessed with elephants and gets so excited when we come across one in the books we have been reading.  Well this elephant was just a statue so we thought we would go take our picture by it.  Boy, were we surprised when we got close and it sprayed water at us.  Haha

Moving on to the cats.  Everything was a Lion (she has now become obsessed with lions after our visit to the zoo).  She also roars like them.  

I actually think one of Elsie's favorite things at the zoo was this jeep.  She threw a mini fit when it was time to move one.  

After the cats we checked out the Seals and Sea Lions. 

Not too sure about this rhino statue

Of course we had to try to take her on the carousel.  The last time we went on one was when we went to Omaha.  It didn't go over too well.  This time she LOVED it and didn't want to get off when the time was over.  Yay! 

We made a short stop at the Koi Pond to feed the fish. 

Stopped to watch the sea lion show

Went for a ride on the train

And ended with the aquariums.  

It was a great time and like I said, I think she really did enjoy it.  

After the zoo, Elsie fell asleep the minute she was strapped into her carseat.  So we grabbed a quick lunch at the drive thru and drove around exploring again.  We ended up at Chichaqua Bottoms Greenbelt.  As we drove in we notice a Rendezvous was going on.  It was open to the public but since Elsie was sleeping we chose not to get out ;).  There were tons of tents and tipis set up and people dressed from attire in that era.  It reminded me of a coworker from camp who I believe would go to this particular one to get some program supplies.  The park was an interesting find.  Neither of us knew it was back there.  There is a campground you can stay at and you can rent kayaks and canoes.  The campground was pretty flooded and despite it being Memorial Day weekend was almost vacated.  It would be a nice afternoon to head back out there and take one of the wetland trails once things dry up a little bit and not everything is so flooded.  It was neat to discover a new outdoor place so close to home.  

We finally made our way back home and stopped in at John's parents where his sister and the girls were at.  Elsie had fun playing around for a little bit before we headed home to play more outside and get dinner going.  It was about this time things turned south for me.  I started to get achy and the chills.  Unfortunately, by the time I went to bed that night I was in full sick mode with a fever, sore throat, and achy all over.  Not a great way to end such a wonderful day.  Well onto day three of Staycation 2013.  

Staycation 2013-Day One: Science Center of Iowa

This Memorial Day Weekend we originally had reservations at a State Park near St. Louis.  We had all these plans to go camping, see the arch, go to the St. Louis Zoo, go biking, and visit Grants Farm.  Well as the week went by we watched the weather and the forecast was a lot of rain and storms.  Well St. Louis is about 6.5 hours drive and we figured it was a long way to sit in the camper and deal with rain.  So we decided to cancel our reservations and reschedule for another weekend.  We did that on Wednesday and by Wednesday afternoon we had Elsie in to see the doctor for an ear infection.    I am so happy that we ended up canceling because it only got worse from there.  We had her back in on Thursday and Friday and by Friday night she was fever free and starting to feel better.  I am so glad we cancelled our vacation.

So I decided that even if we can't go on vacation we can have a "Staycation".  I was hoping to avoid housework, meal prep, etc. but that didn't happen but we did have a great weekend...until I got sick.  So here we go!  Day One: 

We woke up, got ready, and headed out to the Science Center of Iowa.  I knew that Elsie wouldn't totally be into it but I knew there were areas that she would enjoy.  Plus, I had purchased a groupon and we got in 1/2 price.  We were also hoping to get to the Downtown Farmers Market but it was just pouring so we passed on that.  

The very first exhibit we went to was in the Star Theater.  They had a Sesame Street program with Big Bird about the stars.  Elsie was enthralled!  She just kept looking all around her.  It was fun to see her so interested.  After the program we went to the room with the animals.  

Then we went to "When Things Get Moving" where we spent most of our time at the ball wall.  It's nothing like the room of balls at the Omaha Children's Museum but she still had fun.  

After spending quite a bit of time at the ball wall we headed down to "Small Discoveries", a room designed for children Elsie's age so it was perfect! 

Elsie walked all the way up the steps the "normal" way.  

I was so proud of her and she was so proud of herself!

Elsie has been obsessed with bubbles at home so it was fun to blow big bubbles with her. 

She made a little friend at this exhibit.  He was showing her how it all worked.  

After we left SCI, we walked to one of my favorite restaurants downtown-Hessen Haus.  It is a yummy german place with the best Beer Cheese Soup!  It has little bits of bratwurst in it and is so good! 

Then we headed back in the car-Elsie was asleep in minutes so we decided to drive around.  We ended up at the Saylorville Dam, someplace I had never been to.  When John and I go on vacations we like to drive around and take in the sights so it felt just right to do the same in the Des Moines area.  It was a pretty drive.   

We came home, played for a while and grilled out for dinner.  After Elsie went to bed we took it easy and relaxed a little and hit the hay early.  

Week in Review-5.24.13

This week was a fantastic week if you don't count all the stupid sever weather we had and the fact the Elsie was sick!

1.  The weekend was super fun!  We had our first campfire and had John's family over.  See Post:  Saturday Evening BBQ and celebrated a birthday of a special little boy.  See Post:  Tailgating in Des Moines.  That evening we had our first batch of severe weather, complete with Tornado warnings and watches.  Book club was cancelled and postponed to Monday night.  Before the weather came in though we took Elsie out in the Burley for the first time and she loved it!!!

2.  Another round of severe weather came our way Monday night so we swept Elsie up out of her crib and headed back to Dale and Bev's.  After the storm passed we went home and say this beautiful complete double rainbow.  I then headed over to Amber's for a very small book club group.  There was just three of us.  This months book is our choice:  Whatever we want to read and then we will share what we read over the month.  

3.  I can't believe it but my niece Allie graduated from pre-school and will be a big kindergartner next year.  I can't believe how fast she is growing up! 

                                        

4.  Well we dealt with some sickness again in our house this past week. Elsie was diagnosed with an ear infection on Wednesday but no fever so the doctor recommended waiting on antibitoics to see if it would clear up on its own.  Well it didn't and by Thursday we were back in with a fever and she was put on antibiotics.  Well on Friday we were back in again because she was in so much pain, was so upset she was inconsolable when the ibuprofen was wearing off.  It just broke my heart.  She stopped eating and drinking and I was kind of concerned because it seemed like she was getting worse, not better.  So we called and they thought we should bring her in.  Well the doctor thought it was just her ears...I thought there was something else going on and later in the weekend I would end up finding out first hand how crappy she actually felt. 

Even when she is sick she can still be naughty :)

Of course, the minute we got home from the doctor she was feeling miraculously better and wanted to play outside-she looks happy to me. 

5.  One day I told Elsie to go get her hat so we could go play outside...well this is the hat she came back with and wanted to wear it outside.