Monday May 24th 2010, for lack of a more original title.

My sister told me today that I needed to update my blog. So, here you go. It's been nice out, I've been busy....

Firstly, I just took a shower and have to say that Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap is the best. Especially the Peppermint flavor. We just ran out of the Lavender flavor and Tyler made it very clear that he preferred the Peppermint. The thing is, one bottle lasts for months and months. The Peppermint leaves your skin feeling cool and deliciously minty. Also, Dr Bronner's can be used for pretty much anything. Toothpaste, shampoo, floor cleaner ect...

We had a visit today with Abby, Sammy and Grandma Mike. We walked up to the Nokomis Beach Cafe and had lunch, then played in the pool in the backyard.

We recently found on of these Little Tyke cubes with a slide for her to play on. $10 on Craigslist. Plus they threw in a bike with training wheels and a trike. She totally loves it. Even after falling down the slide.

Last weekend I attended a Doula Training Seminar. It was pretty sweet. I met some pretty great people, and it really fired me up. Oh, I don't know if I've mentioned on here before, but I am working to become a certified birth doula. Having a baby? I'll do it for free.

Not too much else has been happening. Walks, zoo visits, park dates, grocery shopping, work ect... I cleaned the house like a crazy person. Took my first bath in a year. It was glorious.

Our TV is broken. It's been broken for a few weeks now. It's not that bad. I get outside more, sit around less. I just want to be able to play some Wii.

OOOohhhh, we got our wedding photos back. Here are some.





That's all for tonight. I'm going to go watch the Fantastic Mr. Fox.

She loves the snow.

Here is Krista on her wedding day. This is right before the ceremony. Isn't she pretty! I made her and Jason their present. It was fun to make and more fun to give it to them. It's made of maps, colored paper and paint. It's way cooler in person.

Here are some other things we have done:

Amelie and I have been going on a lot of cool weather walks lately. She even got to wear the great pink fleece snowsuit her aunt Sharon got her. It was perfect for walking with her in the Baby Bjorn.
We walked in the snow the other day and found a fabulous red tree in the white snow.

Had our first fire. Yes, it is a Duraflame log, but we needed to make sure that there weren't going to be any major malfunctions.
We took Amelie to Fuddruckers with Dan, Nicole, and Evelyn to watch the twins game. She sat in her first restaurant high chair.
She was just being really cute yesterday. Love the hat!
Grandma D came to visit on Saturday and we got some things around done around the house. I got to clean the bathroom and the living room. I felt pretty good about that. She made us pulled pork, did the dishes, and watched Amelie so we could get all that stuff done. It was great!

Amelie is crawling. It is insane. I have to put some thick lotion on her knees because she is so active. She is trying to pull herself up on everything. She has successfully done it once.

She is also eating solids. It took a while and she didn't enjoy it at first but she loves it now. She is actually pretty aggressive about it. She attacks the spoon. She ate 4.5 ounces of solids today. Carrots, sweet peas, and apples. I'll make parsnips soon. I learned what they were this weekend when I went grocery shopping. I am following some recipies for dinner again and tonight I made steak and parsnip and potato mash with chives. It was great.

Last of all, she rode in the cart at Target today. Then I found a headband and tried it out on her. We did not purchase it.

Rambles.

I really wish there was better TV on Friday nights. I haven't been working Fridays, but Tyler works one occasionally. I do love my alone time after Ami has gone to sleep, but then I get bored. The only shows on TV Friday nights are either true murder mystery news shows, wrestling, or CSI Miami...all of which I hate.

So instead of TV watching, I have been looking for inspiration online for remodeling kitchens and bathrooms. How do I pick wall colors and cabinet colors? There are so many options. I would like to step outside my box and do something colorful and bold. Maybe on the vintage side. I loathe rooms that are over coordinated. Our style is a little more eclectic and mismatchy (just made that word up). Kinda like that photo, but I want a little more color

Today I planned on sleeping in, that didn't work out. My landlord called me at 8am. Thanks for that. Then the people who tend to our lawn got here around 8:15 and I swear they stood outside the 2 windows in my room with 2 different but equally loud machines on purpose. It's like they knew I had to work until 2 am and were trying to wake me and Amelie up. They would be right outside the window, then walk away, then come back, then walk away....it was a never-ending cycle. I actually considered going outside and taking his weed whacker away from him. That always happens when I need a few extra hours of sleep. The lawn machines arrive, the phone calls begin and then I just can't get back to sleep.

Instead, I woke up and took Amelie to my aunt and uncle's house. They are having a garage sale fundraiser for the Susan G Komen 3 Day Walk. My aunt Kelly and cousin Josey are doing the walk. If you would like to donate to them, check out their team page, Just the Two of Us. My mom (a breast cancer survivor) and her sisters and my cousin all did the walk last year. That's my mom from the 3 Day walk in 2007. She did it twice.

It was fun, I haven't been over there for years and their house is so damn cute. We got a lot of really cute clothes for Ami and a pair of little baby Ugg boots. She was pretty good. She cried a couple of times, once because she was hungry and once because she was tired. By cry, I mean screamed with tears rolling down her face for 10 minutes. After I fed her she barfed all over my shoulder and on the floor. I smelled like baby puke the rest of the day until I showered at 7:30pm after our family walk (where we got caught in the pouring rain). I had just put her in a fresh outfit, which I immediately had to change. She went through 3 outfits and 4 burp cloths while we were there. Only 2 diapers though. Pretty standard. She slept almost the whole ride home, then slept more in her swing, until after Tyler got home from work.

Grandma's Marathon in Duluth is this weekend. We ran the half marathon last year. I was actually pregnant and didn't know it. Not super pregnant though, maybe like 2 or 3 weeks. I was pretty proud of us, we ran the whole way. It was one of the toughest things I have ever done. I felt great afterwards though. I decided I wanted to run the full marathon this year (which would be tomorrow), then I found out I was pregnant ( on July 13th, 2008). Our daughter was born March 23rd and I had to wait 6 weeks before I was able to resume working out...so that didn't leave me much time to train. Maybe next year.I miss my cats today. Chip and Frank. I adopted Chip about 6 years ago and Frank about 2 years ago. We had to give them to a better home after we had Amelie. Don't judge, I never though I would part with my little buddies, but when they started peeing on Ami's things I changed my mind. Not only that, but there was always so much hair on EVERYTHING and Tyler always had a stuffed nose and bad allergies (which have since disappeared). We did a lot of soul searching and weighed our options and decided in the end that we couldn't give them as much time and love as they needed anymore. I still love them though, a lot. Shout out to Brittany for adopting Chip.