Mother's Day 2010

Amelia and I spent the day together while Jason worked. I stayed in bed until around 10 because I didn't get home from work until 3 a.m. and my shoulder was throbbing*. Once we were out of bed we got right to the playing and waiting for daddy to come home from work.

*For the past week I have had severe pain in my right shoulder/neck and it really is becoming quite the burden.

Once Jason was home, we got ready and went to drop his car off at a shop so it can be looked at this week. After that we went to the Olive Garden (somewhere I like, Jason tolerates and we rarely go). Well, there was quite the wait (1 hour) but we waited, knowing anywhere else we went would be crazy too. It was nice enough out that we were able to wait outside and feed Amelia her veggies we brought with.


Dinner was good. I tried something new tonight which is rare. I am a creature of habit and tend to order the same thing whenever I return to a restaurant which Jason doesn't understand!

We had a little diaper incident while we were out so Amelia needed a bath once we got home! After that I gave her her bedtime bottle and Jason put her to bed.


He and I are just relaxing, on our computers, for now and will crawl into bed any minute. We are wiped out!

A Normal Day

This afternoon we went to Burlington Coat Factory to find me a belt and Amelia left with some new sandals and these new sunglasses:


We got her to keep them on a minute or two so we figured she needed them. We'll see how she does with them this summer!

Other than our errands this morning, we have spent the day playing. You know, the usual:





We do have one thing to celebrate today, this guy turned 4!


Happy 4th Birthday, Ludo!

Farewells and Birds

Today, Amelia and I met up with our friend Sarah (Amelia's birthday buddy) and went walking by the lake. It was such a gorgeous day to be on the lakefront. Eventually we met up with another friend, Chelsea, and had slushies at Bella's.


Chelsea is leaving for CO to work at a summer camp in a few weeks and Sarah is doing some traveling before she moves to Mankato in July, so today was likely the last time we will all be together for awhile.

On that note, I am sure most everyone has heard but just in case...we are moving back to MN soon. We don't have a timeline but we do know it will be this summer and likely towards the beginning vs the end. There is so much going on right now, so much for us to think about and so much for us to do! Be patient with us, we will have details when we have them. No sooner.

We went on another walk this evening as a family and found something very cool! We walked down to the ferry building and looked out at the lake and towards the city. Jason noticed some killdeer birds and their behavior and realized we were close to their nest. He found it and we were able to see two unhatched eggs and two new baby birds. It was pretty cool!



It was really cool to observe their behavior when we were near their nest. They act injured and try and lure you away from their eggs/babies. Here are some pictures of this behavior that we got:



I thought it was pretty cool. You can go here and read about the killdeer!

Financial Peace University Update

We are still in our Financial Peace class and are nearing the end! The past few weeks have been about some things that are a little beyond us, right now, but still very informative!

We missed the lesson on mutual funds and Jason is looking forward to the night we sit down and listen to that one. He was pretty bummed when he realized that was the class that we missed! Last week he learned all about saving for retirement and college. We have a lot of work to do but we are hoping that we can fund Amelia's college for her by making some key decisions/choices now.

Tonight was a very good lesson for me to be attending. It was about jobs and working your strengths. It was a really big encouragment to me, especially since I just discussed with my friends jobs vs careers! Perfect timing! I am still dreading the move home and searching for a new job but after tonight I think I will have a better plan of attack.

Jason and I have fully funded our emergency fund, which is baby step one in the program and are working on baby step two...eliminating debt. We have paid off one of our credit cards as of last week and it is such a great feeling! I plan on cancelling it this week and shredding it. That will be a great feeling! I think we can also get one of Jason's cards paid of and cancelled this month which will feel even better!

I am so excited that this class is almost over! Don't get me wrong, we are learning a lot but the weather is just getting so nice and I would rather be grilling and taking walks by the water instead of sitting in the church cafe!

Flowers and Pizza

Last night, on our walk, Amelia got her first flower from her daddy. It was a lilac and she held onto it for a long time!



On our way home from our walk we constantly said, "Bella's sounds good for dinner. Let's just do that" or "Palomino smells good and it is so nice out. We should just eat on their patio since it such a nice evening" and then we would say "No. We should go home" and go home is what we did. We made homemade pizza and it was delicious!


I think next time we will do two smaller pizzas so we can each have it our own way. Jason likes a lot of pepperonis, almost too many for my taste! We had garlic breadsticks and our pizza and estimated that we spent about six or seven dollars. Much cheaper than delivery and even, when you account for the breadsticks and larger size pizza, cheaper than frozen pizza and so much tastier!

Knock, Knock...Who's There?

One of Amelia's newest games!

Family Walk

Tonight we took advantage of the wonderful weather and went on a walk by the lake. We were gone for 2 hours! Amelia had some fun at the playground even! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...












It was bath night tonight...


...clearly :)

Walking with Daddy

Yesterday, while I was at work all day, Amelia and her dad took a nice, long walk.


Looks like they had some Gatorade too.

Up-sizing

Today, I got this urge to switch out Amelia's 12-month clothing for her 18-month clothing. Her 18-month stuff includes summer clothes and I think I am anxious for her to be able to wear cute little sundresses and stuff! I made quite a mess in her room:


Someone sure seemed happy to be getting a wardrobe face-lift!


I did leave out some of her 12-month stuff to wear while the weather is still chilly, though:


I am thinking that some of it will actually fit all summer which will be nice. She will have some warmer clothes for evening activities!

I let her wear a pair of 18-months jammies to bed, just to see how they fit her:


Not too bad! They are a little big but they work!

Hopefully everyone has some nice, fun weekend plans to enjoy! Me? I am working, as usual. However, we will have a somewhat unusual weekend at the Oriental. We are screening Ed Gein: The Musical at midnight Friday and Saturday. Yeah. You read that right. Watch the trailer HERE.

Baby Steps

Amelia is getting so close to walking!



You can see, from her smiles, that she thought it was picture time!