Baby Can’t Read Yet May 7, 2008

Yeah, I know that’s shocking. At 8 months, she still can’t read.

Anyway, I asked you all for book advice back in February, and you happily gave it. While I wanted to buy ALL the books you suggested, we don’t have that kind of a budget, so we narrowed it down to a few.

Husband LOVES Jan Brett (as do I), so we bought The Mitten. Two I remembered from my childhood were Harry the Dog and Blueberries for Sal. Since none of these were really appropriate for where she is right now, I grabbed the Baby Colors book by DK. Even with those literary classics in the mix, the BABY chose the baby book. She loves the colors and will sit patiently while I read every object on the page. As a result, we went back and bought a couple more DK books the other day–an alphabet one and a body parts one. We also picked up a copy of Rosen’s/Oxbury’s We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, which she also enjoys a great deal. Over time, we’ll be able to build our library even more (even though we have many bookshelves that area already full of grown-up books). We hope Anja will love to read as much as her parents do!

Did I Tell You About My Weekend? April 29, 2008

It included a DATE!

Two, in fact.  With my husband, of course.  My in-laws came and watched Anja on Friday night and part of Saturday so that Husband and I could get out and remember what it is like to hold hands (when one pair isn’t always pushing a stroller).  It was fantastic!

We went to America’s largest indoor water park on Friday night, where I laid waste to this thing that shoots water up (it’s supposed to resemble surfing).  All the little 10-year-olds in front of me made it look hard, but if you’ve ever been tubing (pulled behind a speedboat on an innertube across a lake), this was a cakewalk.  A cakewalk on water.

Saturday we had a nice brunch with the relatives, and then I took Husband on a date of surprises.  First surprise - a stop at the Mall of America where robots (which people built) were fighting.  We only got to see two fights before one robot exploded into flames and they had to take a break to clean up.  Sad.

Then I took him to three places for lunch.  Yes, three.  Place number one was the wrong place; they directed us to place #2, which was too expensive, so we went to P.F. Chang’s.  Husband had never been there before anyway, and he loved it.  We shared Mu Shu Pork and some kind of lamb–yummy!

Lastly, I took him to the iMax theater at the Minnesota Zoo and we saw a 3-D movie about the Okavango Delta (in the Kalahari desert).  My goodness has 3-D technology improved since I last saw one (circa 1995)!  I could almost feel the weeds brushing across my face and reach out and touch the cracks in the elephant’s tusk.  It was 45 minutes of African fantasy!  And I had coupons for everything but lunch.

Husband liked it all, so: SUCCESS!  And I had a good time, too.  We decided we need to “date” more often.

———–

How about you people?  What do you do for fun (cheap) dates?

Q & A, Part III April 27, 2008

Happy Sabbath, everyone! Some more questions answered below…

Lulu (who should get a blog, right everyone?) asked, “In the spirit of Earth Day, what are your favorite ways to be green in your everyday life?”

I actually didn’t celebrate Earth Day in any special way, but I’ve been an avid reducer/reuser/recycler since I was little.

“What are your tips for a fit and healthy pregnancy? Mr. Right and I have what we call a ‘five year plan’ for wedding, house buying, and first baby, but I say it’s never too early to start getting pointers!”

It’s never too early to start building for a healthy pregnancy. The healthier you are when you get pregnant, the healthier you’ll be when you are pregnant. As a general rule, I tried to eat at least 5-6 servings of fruits and veggies a day in addition to taking my Juice Plus+. I worked out at the gym 3 nights a week and walked or ran outside 20-30 minutes on the off days. Even in the winter, Husband and I would suit up and go out for a walk. I continued this patter when I was pregnant, and worked out (lifting weights and everything) up until the day before I went into labor. You might get detractors (“Don’t you think you’re hurting the baby?”), but as long as you keep your heart rate at a safe level and don’t exercise to the point of exhaustion, you’re probably doing your body a favor. Another helpful thing to me was joining an online forum. The one I used was called “Babyfit” and it was helpful to have other experienced and first-time mothers to answer my questions.

“What’s your typical Starbucks order?”

You know, I’m not much of a coffee drinker (water, now that’s my bag), but when I do order something, it’s usually whatever the current seasonal beverage is.

Jamie asked, “What is your favorite book?”

When I was a child, it was probably a toss-up between Matilda by Roald Dahl or The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. Now? I’ve been reading nothing but non-fiction for so long…it’s hard to say. I read the Bible most regularly, so I’ll go with that.

“How did you and your husband meet?”

This is a rather odd and long story. To make it short, he was coming to the same college as me, and my aunt said, “There’s this boy from my church coming to your college. I want him to get in with ‘good people’ so you should invite him to Campus Crusade.” I did just that at the beginning of the year, and dusted off my hands, duty done. I didn’t speak to him again until Christmas break, when we were assigned to the same discussion group at CC’s Christmas Conference. Our group really hit it off and hung out a lot back at school, and we became good friends. Then during May (finals week) he asked me out.

“What do you like most/least about being a mom?”

Most: I can be having the worst day ever, and just a smile from my baby girl brightens it incredibly. She really is a delight.

Least: I don’t deal well with lack of sleep, and her schedule and mine…they don’t always run parallel tracks.

“How many pairs of shoes do you own?”

This is going to sound terrible, but keep in mind that I have shoes that date back to my high school years and probably 10 pair are $1.99 flip-flops from Wal-Mart…I have 40 pairs.

Jenni asked, “Bein’ as how you’re from Minnesota, do you have any Scandinavian blood coursing through your veins? You look blond and blue-eyed, but that could be German as well…”

You’re correct. I’m mostly Swedish, but I also have bits and pieces of these:

English
Irish
Scottish
Norwegian
French-Canadian-Indian
German
Ukrainian

How’s that for a mutt?

Thanks everyone, this was fun, and not as intimidating as I thought. Once again, if you asked a question, consider yourself “tagged” to do the same thing on your own blog, if you so choose.

Weekend Update April 15, 2008

On Tuesday evening, no less!

We had a fabulous time visiting family and friends, meeting new babies and babies-to-be, eating yummy (but not so nutritious) food prepared by my mother, and…going through old junk of mine.

See, my mom’s remodeling and she has this crazy idea in her head that she doesn’t want to store my belongings from high school for eternity. What’s her problem, I say. Just kidding. If I were her, all that stuff would have been kicked to the curb with my daughter when she turned eighteen. I’m not really that harsh. Just playin’.

Wow, it’s late. The reason I haven’t posted is I’ve been desperately trying to catch up on emails and YOUR blogs. That’s no small task when you subscribe to six billion blogs, let me tell you.

Oh, and I finally watched a movie. The Bourne Ultimatum. Anyone seen it? I loved the first two, and Husband rented this one a week and a half ago, and we finally made time to watch it tonight. Even though I’m not a conspiracy theorist (another fine movie), I love movies like this that make me think and that make me wary of Big Brother. Because Big Brother doesn’t always have our best interest at heart. And if our government could pull it together as well as they seem to in movies like the Bourne trilogy, I’d probably be kicking back and sending them my hard-earned money. They wouldn’t even have to steal it.

The Unimportance of Me April 5, 2008

Antique Mommy tagged me for a Six Unimportant Things About Me meme yesterday.

But there’s a twist (AM did this, so I’m going to do the same)…one of them is not true. If you can guess which one, you win a prize*. If multiple people guess the same one, I’ll do a drawing to determine the winner. You have until midnight on Tuesday, April 8 to leave a guess in the comments.

1. My hair is naturally blonde.

2. I learned to ride bike when I was seven.

3. My favorite drink is an Asian Pear Mojito at P.F. Chang’s.

4. I know how to dance the rhumba and the tango.

5. I sell a whole food supplement called Juice Plus+.

6. I type 95 wpm.

Now the hard part. To tag six people. This is always weird because I feel bad for tagging people and bad for not tagging people. I know not everyone has time allotted for memes, so I won’t be offended if you don’t complete it. And if I didn’t list you and you’d like to play, do so by all means!

Carrie at Newlywed Nurse-to-Be

Jamie at Class Notes

Happy Mommy

Erica at Haphazard Happenstances

Donna at Quiet Life

Beck at Frog and Toad Are Still Friends

*Prize is $10.00 gift card to Bath & Body Works. I realize that doesn’t even buy one of their delicious lotions these days, but maybe you could get a cool lip gloss or a fuzzy wuzzy pair of socks.

Dancing With The Stars - The Gutt Goes Home April 1, 2008

Spoiler Warning: Uh, it was in the post title. Sorry ’bout that.

I watched both Monday’s episode online and tonight’s live after work today. I don’t have much of a post, but here were some highlights for me:

• The weird chick making nicey-nice at the camera in the background every time Tom and Samantha were stage right (our left). She icked me out.
• Adam Corolla makes me laugh a LOT. He probably rubs most people the wrong way, but he is all sorts of funny. Penn Gilette was a bit too in-your-face for me, but Adam…he can stick around for awhile. His comment yesterday about Julianne’s outfit was hilarious!
• Steve Guttenberg has an amazing attitude. You could tell the whole cast really has a respect (but also a little bit of “wow–is this guy for real”-ness) for him. I was laughing my hinder off when he and Jonathan performed their “Mango” together. Watching them try to keep their composure = priceless.
• Was Karina really crying when she and Mario were in the bottom two? I think she actually hid behind him for awhile until she could better compose herself. Heck, I know I’d be crying, but you would think a performer would be used to competition.
• Mark’s faces were completely over the top. If he was in some sort of martial arts, I’d say he was using his kiup during every move he made. Some of the other guys did the same thing, but not to the degree he did.
• Who but Jason Taylor could make painting little ships look hot instead of geeky?
• My favorite part of the entire night was when Derek and Shannon Elizabeth were sharing extra stuff backstage and she said she got so nervous she threw up in her mouth a little and he just gapes at her and goes, “That’s gross.” HAHA!

———

Fun little add:  I was making Husband watch Adam Corolla’s performance and comments with me moments ago, and we had a little conversation.

Me: Why are you all wet here (motioning to his face around his mouth)?

Husband: I think it’s moisture.  I was in the shower…it was very wet in there.

Me (laughing): Really?

He’s an astute guy, that man I married.

And Searching Some More… March 24, 2008

Back by popular demand (does my own thrill at what people type in to find my blog count as “demand”?), answers to those of you who found my blog by searching for the following:

winter nipples

actually,I thnk you’re looking for Scarlett’s blog…

naked climbing

man, Scarlett, are you sending your folks over here?

minnesota mom blogs

You, my friend, have come to the right place.

grace bakes a cakes for his mom games

Grace is a boy? Husband likes a cakes.

flat stanley’s mom

He has a mom? Invite her over, too! She can eat cakes.

i’m beautiful

Man, I must be conceited.

values and policies of smacking

Values: a tasty lunch
Policies: only when substance is sticky

is donna fargo a tomboy or a girly girl?

That’s a toss-up. With a name like Donna, I’d guess girly, but with a last name like Fargo, I’d go for tomboy…

photos of me

Yes, there are some on my blog

sugar pink cupcakes

WANT!

things in minnesota that start with y

Yarn
Yams
Yankton Lake

what is there to do in winona Minnesota

I have only been there once that I can remember, and the three things I recollect are these:
1. We drove to the top of a tall rock that had a look-out point.
2. We ate at KFC (yuck).
3. My friend’s sister had some sort of honors orchestra thing there.

does anyone know how to gleak

Heck yes I do!

to grandmother’s house we go leisure art

Say what?

Bad Poetry Monday - 12 (a.k.a. The Moment You’ve All Been Waiting For…) March 24, 2008

I found it.  The creme de la creme of my poetry.  As bad as it is, it sparks such fond memories that I can’t help but LOVE it.  I will dissect it post-poem.  So here it is…

Pop Tarts: The Food of the New Generation*

Pop Tarts.

They live in my tummy.
Why?
Because I ate them.
They tasted good.
Yummy, yummy, yummy.
I have Pop Tarts in my tummy.
Strawberry is the flavor.
The flavor that tops them all!  Non-frosted please.

Made of cells.
Cells are good.
Yummy Pop Tart cells.

Eat them!
Love them!
Give some to me cuz…
I love them too!

———–

Tell me, where can you find better poetry than that?  So honest.  So raw.  So cutting edge.

In high school I ran with a very…creative crowd.  My friend Jana and I would spend almost every day at each other’s houses.  While some of our friends held down summer jobs, we made creativity our job.  We would bake cakes and color the batter four different colors, then swirl them together.   We built villages out of legos.  We golfed almost daily.  We made many, many collages.  We drew cartoons (man, if I could find those, that would be another awesome post).  We made apple pies in creative forms and ate it for breakfast.  We watched her sister practice riding her unicycle from our perch on the roof.  We went ice-blocking.  We played tennis*.  And we wrote bad poetry about rubber chickens and beatniks and food we liked (case in point) and obviously, about whatever we were learning in science (hence the mention of cells).  Jana probably grew up and continued being artsy and cool.  Me, I’m average.  But I revel in memories of when I was artsy and cool…

*While the content of this poem reflected my opinion at the time written, keep in mind that this was before I knew a single thing about nutrition.  All I knew was activity burns calories.  And I was active.  The end.

**The fact that we played golf and tennis makes us sound like we were preppies at a country club, which is not true.  We played golf for free (well, on our parents’ membership, which cost only like $250 for the whole family for the entire season), and we played tennis at the public courts near my house where you had to insert quarters to buy time on the lights at night.

p.s. I now prefer my Strawberry Pop Tarts frosted on the rare occasion that I eat them.

What color would you be? March 4, 2008

I took this quiz over at Gretchen’s blog and thought some of you might enjoy it, too. It’s harder than you think!

When you’re done, come back and tell me your score and what color you would be (if your personality were a color). Blast, it didn’t show up. I hate WordPress’s dumb coding issues.  You’ll have to click on the tiny “48″ below.

48

A little dose of reality… February 18, 2008

After watching the finale of Dance War(t) (because truly, people, this whole season has just been a wart on the face of television history…welcome back, WRITERS), I was inspired to post about reality TV. I have not experienced much of it. But here’s my take on what I have seen:

Best Reality TV:

What Not to Wear – Clinton and Stacy have the best comebacks. I heart their SASS!

Dancing with the Stars – Tom Bergeron could possibly be the best reality host ever. He is a hoot. And I always love watching and pretending I could ever be that graceful.

Survivor – Isn’t this one of the first reality shows ever? I didn’t start watching until Season 8 (All Stars), but have watched every season since. Who’s your favorite? I have to go with Tom Weston and Ozzy.

Jon & Kate + Eight – Just found this one recently, but I love the give-and-take between Jon and Kate (though she can be a bit witchy at times).

 

Worst Reality TV (feel free to debate me on this):

Trading Spaces – Were those designers for real? I remember one episode where Doug turned someone’s bedroom into a “Prison of Love” with fake bars on the windows and faux painted concrete block walls. I wouldn’t even do that to a child’s room, much less an adult bedroom.

Big Brother – To be fair, I have only seen this show close-captioned while running on a treadmill at the gym, but it always seems like a bunch of whiners doing stupid stuff in a cartoon-y house.

The Bachelor, Age of Love, Flava of Love, any other show that attempts to find someone a mate by going on a bunch of short, shallow dates – Synopsis of all these shows = “Hey, you’re hot. Let’s go bungee jumping. I think I love you. And I love her..and her…and her…and her…and her…”

 

Take all my reviews with a grain of salt. I haven’t REALLY watched television since 1997, when I was addicted to Nick at Nite. The only TV I watch now is full episodes that can be viewed on the internet while I nurse or pump.

 

What are your favorites/not-so-favorites?