30 Years 30 Goals-June and July Update

Whew!  Summer has been busy for us so I am just catching up on some of these blog posts.  I decided to combine June and July :)  I didn't complete any more goals these past two months but made some progress of a few such as goal #1, 6, 10, 12, 13, 18

GOALS COMPLETED (BLACK):  11/30
PROGRESS (BLUE):  8/30
DIDN'T EVEN THINK ABOUT (RED):  11/30

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

1.  Rosy Cheeks Run-February

2.  SCAVMA Scamper-April
3.  Dam to Dam 5k-June
I also registered for a race on September-the Flapjack 10k and have two more races on the books-one for Oct and one for November

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
1.  Madison County Winery-June

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: Dance Club

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:  Madison County Winery, The Big Steer, and Prairie Meadows
July:  We ended up going out to dinner again at The Cafe and then came home, snuggled with Cinder, and played a new card game "Yhatzee Hands Down".  

11. Enroll in a fitness class

12.  Become familiar with photoshop so that I want to use it to edit my photos.
I haven't even opened it up yet but I did buy a book about using photoshop...that's a little progress right? 

13.  Set a budget and stick to it
I set up a budget but things got off track a little in July so we definitely didn't stick to it like I hoped.  

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
1.  St. Croix State Park-July
2.  Lake Rathbun-July

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.

Week in Review 7.12.13

This week we tried to get things back to normal after being gone so much over the past few weeks.  We got back Sunday evening from our trip up to MN.  The week was relatively uneventful which was nice.  This is mainly an Elsie update with pictures. 

Elsie really wanted to help carry my lunch out to the car.  She though she could even handle both of my bags but she didn't make it far.  

We introduced corn on the cob to Elsie.  SHe loved it.  We did cut some off of the cob to begin with to make sure she actually got to eat some but she just loved eating it! She also ate some spinach that I sauteed which shocked me.  I think she actually enjoyed it :)

Elsie has shown a huge interest in drinking out of a cup vs. a sippy cup.  In fact, most days she would prefer to drink this way-me not so much :)

Thursday after taking Cinder to the vet (where we got the bad news about her arthritis) we went to a Mexican Restaraunt.  Elsie LOVED dipping the chips in the Salsa.  Last week I would have told you we had a picky eater...this week I would say she eats just about anything. 

Including her new favorite-mini bell peppers and cherry/grape tomatoes like she is eating here for snack. 

John, Elsie and I also went to the local pool on Wednesday evening.  Elsie LOVES the water and is a crazy girl!  She loves to try to sit down and doesn't care if that means she gets water on her face or she goes under.  Fearless I tell ya... 

Independence Day Holiday Weekend-Part II

After spending the day (July 3rd) at Elm Creek Park Reserve with some good friends  (see: Part I) we headed up to Hinkley to St. Croix State Park.  I made the reservations back in February and had been looking forward to this trip for so long!  Of course things didn't go as planned haha! 

1.  My mom and dad were supposed to come and spend a few days with us up there.  They rented a hotel room at the nearby casino to stay at and then would come spend the days and evenings with us.  Well, my brother has some trouble getting his dogs over to England so they were dog sitting for awhile and so my dad had to stay home with them so my mom still came because my sister's family was going to come for a day or two also.   

2.  We definitely didn't plan for Elsie to get sick.  Wednesday night, Elsie came down with a pretty high fever (104.3).  You could tell too.  She was tired and not in the mood to each much.  This meant a late evening trip to the closest store to sell motrin at 9:00 at night which was a Walmart about 35 minutes away.  She didn't sleep real well that night and I was worried about the fever since we were supposed to take her in if it got to 105 or above and it was getting pretty close.  She woke up Thursday morning without a fever but she was definitely not feeling 100%. Her fever ended up coming back again later Thursday night.  :(  Thankfully, by Friday morning it was gone for good! 

3.  Because Elsie had a fever my sister's family decided not to come and hang out with us-which I don't blame them.  My poor mom was stuck with just us and we weren't too much fun with a sick kiddo...

4.  Boy the bugs were terrible!  We were constantly covering ourselves in spray, couldn't have a fire because we were getting eaten alive, and while at the campsite we had to stay in our screen tent or camper to avoid the mosquitoes. 

5.  We had some camper issues-our water line got all screwy and John had to rig up some contraption to keep the water from spraying out from the fresh water intake line and our electric water heater kept shorting out and blowing the breaker at the electrical box.  Which meant the air wouldn't work which is fine if we didn't have Cinder who had to stay in the camper while we would go out on hikes since she couldn't walk with us.  

6.  Although this wasn't a bad thing we ended up leaving early because we had Allie's birthday party so we paid for two nights of camping that we didn't end up using... (all worth it though) :)

Well I think those are all the things that went wrong or not as planned.  It may seem like it was a disastrous weekend but there were definitely some high moments too.  

When we arrived at the park we got to see a little bear cub dash across the road.  

Thursday morning we got up and drove around the park.  It is a pretty big park covering quite a few acres.  To get from one end to the other it took a good 30 minutes.  It is such a beautiful park. 

A couple of views of the Kettle River which flows into the St. Croix River. 

This area was called "Head of the Rapids"...hmmm looks pretty calm to me.

My mom met us for lunch and we hung out around the campsite for awhile.  We walked up to the nature center and to the store where we all got yummy ice cream treats. We played some Yahtzee in the camper and then after Elsie went to bed we hung out in the screen tent some more.  After my mom left, John and I played a round or two of Skip-Bo and of course I won :)

Unfortunately this is the only pic of Elsie is her "4th of July Dress"

Friday was a much better day and I would say the best day of them all!  Elsie woke up happy and fever free.  We went out for a bike ride on the paved trail.  We made it about 2.5 miles in before Elsie became VERY unhappy.  Although paved, it was still pretty bumpy and she didn't enjoy it in the trailer so much.  

After we got back from the bike ride we had a little snack and got to see a turtle up close as it made its way through the campground.  Elsie thought that was pretty neat! 

Elsie absolutely loves holding Cinder's leash and "walking her".

When we got back from the bike ride, John helped the neighboring family find thier little boy who had gone off with another boy to his campsite-the mom was so worried because she had no idea where he was.  Which I would be too! John found him and told him he better get back to his site-he was in big trouble haha.

We took a late morning walk down to the canoe launch.  It was just a beautiful day, not too hot, with a nice breeze blowing.  Elsie must have enjoyed it because she actually fell asleep in the stroller-something she hasn't done in forever!

After lunch we walked up to the store once again for some more ice cream treats and a cute little "St. Croix State Park" t-shirt for Elsie.  She loved being able to walk the whole way with her Daddy!

While leaving the store we actually ran into some old family friends of John family.  They all used to show longhorn cattle together and were actually coming down to his parents place the following weekend.  What are the odds...small world. 

After our treats we packed up the camped and headed back to my parents so we could be close by for Allie's party on Saturday.  We got there in time to take a little swim in the pool :)

A couple of other notes:  I absolutely LOVED the park despite the skeeters :).  Our site was huge and bigger than many of the others and there was a lot of space for Elsie to play which was nice but...all the space was to the opposite side of the camper.  So to get to everything we had to walk all the way around our camper vs. walking out the door of the camper and having the fire ring, screen tent, etc right there. Not a huge deal but a little inconvenient.   It was also pretty nice because it was extremely private.  From the fire ring and picnic table you couldn't see any other campsite which was great!  Also, for reference we stayed in the Paint Rocks Spring Campground at site #114E.  

Allie's 5th Birthday-Pool Party Fun!

Back on July 6th, we were in Minnesota celebrating my niece Allie's 5th birthday.  It was at my sister's house and the theme was Pool Party!  Right up Elsie's alley because she LOVES water right now!  The water in the little pools were freezing!  Like right out of the hose and it wasn't terribly warm out and a bit overcast but that didn't stop this girl from getting in :).  

There were lots of people and Allie had quite a few friends there to celebrate with her.  She received some pretty neat gifts include a new bike and a set of rollerblades!  What a lucky girl!  We gave her some new jammies (that match some of Elsie's of course :), the first book in the Little House on the Prairie series, and some fun new outfits for kindergarten that including a matching bracelet that she put on right away and wore the rest of the afternoon (see second picture below).  

The food as always was delicious with shredded beef sandwiches and Derick's yummy homemade beans.  

Happy 5th Birthday Allie!  

All Dogs Go To Heaven...

This past week has been hard, really hard.  In fact I would say I have been in a mild state of depression.  Last week we got the official news from the vet...Cinder has osteoarthritis-bad.  She also had some hip displasia.  I knew when I called the vet to see if we could get some pain meds for her arthritis where it would lead to.  She hasn't been doing well.  Stairs were impossible without assistance, we had to help her up from laying down about 85% of the time and going out to the bathroom...lets just say it was a struggle.  As we left the vet gave a weeks worth of pain pills and told us to talk about quality of life vs. quantity.

We knew what we needed to do  but it took us the whole week to do.  I kept trying to convince myself that maybe she would do well with the pain pills and we would get our old Cinder back but I was only fooling myself.  Oh and the decisions we had to make...it was tough.  I kind of checked out for the past week.  I cancelled plans with friends because I was in no mood for visiting, didn't do much except lay around with Cinder...I wanted to spend all the time with her I could.

So yesterday we finally made the decision and I called the vet.  Not two minutes later I browsed Instagram and saw this posted by my cousin Nicolle, who had no idea what we were going through.  It meant a lot to me to see this.

Today is hard, real hard.  But being reminded of where Cinder is right now helps a little.  Knowing she is running again, swimming in the creek, chasing rabits (I'm sure not catching them though, since all things live in peace in Heaven), and playing with her friends is helping just a little tonight.  

Week in Review - 6.28.13

A good part of this week was spent gone, out of town.  John and I were off to a fun weekend with friends in Clear Lake and Elsie spent the weekend with Dale and Bev.  They brought her up to Clear Lake Sunday morning to meet us because we were taking off to MN.  My little brother was in town, finally and we were going up for a visit.  He was moving from Idaho to England.  We haven't seen him since Christmas so it was great to spend some time with him.  I have a whole post coming on this time together so I will save that for another day.  Here are some highlights from the week...

1.  Elsie adores Ole and Lena, my brothers dogs.  They actually chase the balls she throws haha.  Poor Cinder just doesn't have the energy anymore.  She shrills with delight as they chase around the yard.  It is so fun to watch her interact with them.  It is also adorable how she says their names so plainly.

2.  Elsie and her cousins with their Uncle Tony.

3.  I made a round of yummy mojitos.  They are definitely my new favorite drink! 

3.  Elsie just loves getting stuff in her hair and all over her face.  This particular morning we were eating breakfast before heading over to see Mel's new house and decided it was time to make a mess.  I guess she wanted a bath because that is what we had to do to get all the jelly out of her hair-which of course made us late :)

4.  We were all going out to eat for dinner with a big group of family and Allie wanted to ride with Elsie and me.  So...it wasn't too long after we got going and I looked back and she was looking pretty tired.  I asked her if she was tired, she shook her head no, and then maybe a minute later she was out.  (Don't worry I took this photo at a stop light :).  Elsie kept yelling "Allie" in her cute little voice trying to wake her up.  I even had a hard time getting her into the restaurant without carrying her.  

5.  Cousin Time!  These two play so well together.  Elsie idolizes Allie!  In the bath we have a heck of time getting Elsie's hair wet with the cup.  She doesn't really like it too much.  Well after watching Allie do it Elsie has no problem doing it.  In fact, she thinks its fun and does it in the pool with freezing cold water too.  

6.  Oh the Laundry Chute!  As kids we loved putting our clothes down the laundry chute.  It looks like the kiddos still enjoy it.  When I see this picture I see my sister and I when we were little doing the same thing.  

7.  I have to say that by the time we were ready to leave on Wednesday I was ready to get Elsie home, back to her routine and her normal bed. (That was the only reason I wanted to leave)  Putting her down was the most difficult it has ever been in regards to fit throwing.  Monday night was the worst and it took us over an hour to get her to sleep, with the help of family and Tuesday Grandpa was the one that eventually got her to calm down enough and fall asleep.  Poor girl just didn't want to miss out on the fun! 

Independence Day Holiday Weekend-Part I

Finally, we got our camper out for the first time this summer!  Since February we have planned to spend our 4th of July Holiday weekend at St. Croix State Park in Minnesota.  I had been there once sometime after high school with some friends but haven't been there since.  I was so looking forward to a nice, relaxing weekend away.  

We drove up to my parents Tuesday night (the 2nd).  We got there pretty late and Elsie laid  back down pretty good.  The next morning before heading north we met up with some friends at Elm Creek Park.  When I moved to Iowa, Marc and Amber introduced us to another couple Adam and Ruth (who were also from Minnesota).  We grew close with them and the six of us had "Grey's night" every Thursday.  We would alternate who's house it was at they would make dinner and we would all watch Grey's Anatomy.  Well then we moved out to camp and when we were moving back, they moved away to the Netherlands.   We have seen them once since moving away and that when Elsie was just two weeks old.  Well, they happen to be in town so we arranged to meet up and hang out for awhile.  It was soooo good to see them and miss being able to hang out with them all the time! 

 

Elm Creek has such a neat beach area.  It is a man made lake.  Best of both worlds, filetered and chlorinated with a sandy bottom/beach.  I would love to come here to swim some time.  

The guys and the kids...

Elsie loved having her Daddy take her on the playground. 

Amber showing the kids how its done :)

Look at the two cute kiddos...just missing Aubrey.  

Adam and Ruth...the Happy Travelers

Sorry John, had to cropped you and your closed eyes our of this one.  

Love to Cinder

Thank you Adam and Ruth for taking time out of your busy travel schedule to meet up with us!  We miss you so much and can't wait for the next time we can all be together.  Love you!