You Capture: Patriotic

Posted in You Capture by teamtradermom

This assignment should have been easy given that it was the 4th of July weekend. However, our holiday wasn’t as surrounded by patriotism as it usually is. We didn’t attend any parties (usually we’re invited to a handful of them), didn’t light or watch any fireworks and didn’t go to any parades. It was pretty much a quiet weekend given that we were recovering from vacation.

So I had to stretch a bit. You won’t find any pics of flags or soldiers or bright lights in the sky. Instead my pictures are more a celebration of Americana.

One way we celebrated was to attend the College World Series Home Run Derby at the new TD Ameritrade Park. We ate hot dogs and watched baseball. Only way we could have been more American is to throw in some apple pie!

It was a hot evening and so we didn’t stay for the whole thing. But Isabella had a good time while we were there. This pic of her playing with a blue ball, wearing her hat and with the baseball field in the background seemed just perfect for a series on patriotism and America!

Our 4th of July day was spent with family. We went to my parent’s house and played outside before eating. The kids played in the pool while the adults played Frisbee.

However, before the Frisbee game got going, the adults sat around watching the kids. I have a feeling this scene was played out in houses across the country – family sitting around watching kids play and fireworks go off.

The kids loved playing in the pool. Even Isabella! She seems to have inherited my innate fear of water so she was hesitant to get in. I finally got her to stand in it without crying and eventually she started enjoying herself.

I was so proud of her. I know the fear she felt and I have never been able to overcome it. So the fact that she got in there and faced it was super awesome!

I like this one of all the cousins playing. The 4 of them crammed in to the pool and splashing around! They were in there for a good hour too!

I hope everyone else had a great holiday filled with celebrations of America and family! To see more patriotic pics, head on over to I Should Be Folding Laundry!

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6Jul2011

Chances Are

Posted in Family by teamtradermom

I thought I’d take a break from writing about our vacation to talk about chances, fate and destiny.

You know, a light-weight topic.

I was inspired by this post from Caitlin at Healthy Tipping Point. She talks about all the different paths our lives could have taken if only one thing or another had been different. She was inspired by the movie “The Adjustment Bureau“. There was also a movie with Gwyneth Paltrow that touched on this called “Sliding Doors“

To be honest with you, this topic fascinates me and I think about it quite a lot. There are so many things that happen in life of which I had NEVER expected. My college roommate used to say “If you’d asked me to bet that ____ would happen, I’d have lost the best!”

Here’s one small example – 3 years ago I was drafted on a co-ed volleyball team. I knew no one on the team. One of the gals was also named Sara and was new to the city. We got along well on the court but didn’t hang out much otherwise. I was honestly quite jealous of her because she’s a great player and has a magnetic personality that draws people to her. I wanted to BE her! When that session was over we went our separate ways on to different teams. The next summer I ran in to her at a pick up volleyball game and it just so happened I needed a new gal for Team Trader. She joined the team, we started hanging out and now we’re close friends! Had I bet on that 3 years ago, I would have lost money!

I often times think “what if” this or that had been different. What if I had gone out for the high school volleyball team? I wanted to but was chicken and never did. If I had, I might have become a great player and gotten a college scholorship. Maybe I would have gone on to play in the Olympics! But then again I would have had much different friends in school, gone to a different college and my life would be totally different. Would it still have been a good life? Probably. But I wouldn’t have met CJ and I wouldn’t have Isabella.

Or would I? If something is truly “meant to be”, would CJ and I have found each other anyway? I guess we’ll never know!

As it turned out, I met CJ at a social event. He was at the door greeting people and I was there with my current boyfriend. He actually made a comment out how “hot” CJ was and no wonder I wanted to come to the event. My ex and I broke up shortly after that. Then I started attending support groups to help me work through some emotions about it and CJ was there. We became friends. Later, my friend Jason invited me to a pick up volleyball game and CJ showed up. We started hanging out and a year later I asked him out. The rest is history.

What if I hadn’t gone to the support group? What if I had told Jason “no” to the volleyball game? What if I hadn’t had the courage to ask CJ out?

What I do know is that I don’t regret any past decisions in my life. Some were good, some were bad. But all of them led me to the place I’m at today, which is a pretty good one. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, an awesome dog, a successful career, and a loving family. No I’m not a millionaire or an Olympic gold medalist but I don’t need to be. My life is perfect the way it is.

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5Jul2011

Trader Family Road Trip–Day 4: It’s Craaaaazy!

Posted in Travel by teamtradermom

Sunday was jam packed with all kinds of fun activities. There is so much that I’m going to break it in to 2 posts.

FUN! YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE FUN!!

First we all met up for breakfast and then headed to Silver Lake Michigan where the first stop was Craig’s Cruisers.

The first thing we did was head to the race track and go drag racing! Isabella and I sat out to watch and take pics so that CJ and the others could ride.

(Side note: CJ has 2 basic poses for pictures (his “blue steel” if you will). One of them is to have the hand up waving and the other is to look drunk. He doesn’t try to look drunk it just happens as a result of him talking or laughing or blinking or actually trying to do blue steel. So, I had to laugh when I saw this pic with the hand wave even while driving!)

CJ’s 86 year old dad even got out there and raced! I was impressed!

After finishing that race, some of the group decided to try the Crazy Cars ( I think that’s what they’re called anyway ). Basically the cars drive around on a metal surface so they slip and slide all over.

We ate lunch and then some of the group went on the bumper boats! Again, I stayed ashore due to my intense fear of water/drowning.

Then it was off to the Sand Dunes (which I’ll post about later – it needs a whole post of its own!). After that we came back to Craig’s Cruisers and CJ and I played mini golf while Isabella went with her Aunt Shellee and Uncle Chuck to have ice cream.

As we all know, I have a competitive streak. Once when playing mini-golf at the Olympic facility in Sydney, Australia I got so mad at a hole that I whacked my club against a tree and bent it. Oops. This is probably why I don’t play real golf. It would be too expensive for me. So with this game, I kept telling myself that this would just be a friendly game of putt-putt. No big deal. Just have fun. But let’s face it – that’s not my nature. I kept meticulous scores and it was a very close game. The difference between winner and loser was 1 point (yes I had CJ verify the math). I won’t say who won but I will say my club was solidly in tact when we left.

Isabella really enjoyed the time with her aunt and uncle. Chuck showed her the “Crazy Clock” in the arcade which she still talks about! Later she insisted on taking me and CJ back to show us the Crazy Clock!

It’s CRA-AAAZY!! When I asked her what her favorite part of the day was she said “CRAZY CLOCK!!!” and then her second favorite thing was ice cream with Uncle Chuck!

We were all pooped by the end of the day. Isabella slammed in to bed and we weren’t far behind!

Stay tuned for more to come!!

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Trader Family Road Trip – Day 3

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4Jul2011

Trader Road Trip–Day 3: Party!

Posted in Travel by teamtradermom

Saturday was the big day. It was the reason for our whole trip! Our niece was celebrating her graduation from high school!

The party started at 1 p.m. and there were other activities during the morning for those who were interested. We thought it would be best to chill at our hotel room, let Isabella get adjusted to the time change and have a good nap, before we ventured out. CJ and I ended up taking naps too! Once we were up and rested it was time to par-tay!

Unfortunately we misunderstood the location of the party and went to the wrong place. We then spent the next hour driving around trying to find the right one! Oops! But we got there eventually and had a great time.

The party was at a rented beach pavilion so there was lots of food and things to do. There was a playground, the beach itself (on Lake Michigan), a light house to walk to and family games to play.

Isabella LOVED the playground! She went around trying pretty much everything!

From the swings…

…to the merry-go-round

…to the dome.

We literally had to tear her away from there when it was time to go!

We also walked over to a lighthouse nearby.

Isabella wasn’t so interested in the lighthouse as she was in being tossed around by her daddy! He thought it was pretty fun too!

Can you tell it was a windy day? My hair didn’t stand a chance! We do look like quite the red/white/blue family though!

We made sure to take a family group picture too before the day was done! This is CJ’s side of the family.

Everyone departed and went back to their various hotel rooms/homes to clean up and get ready for dinner. Then we all gathered at CJ’s sister’s house for a cookout. It felt good to clean up a bit and change clothes.

We were back at the hotel by 8:30 or so and settled in for bed. We knew Sunday would be a busy day and we would need our rest!!

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Trader Road Trip – Day 2

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Travels

2Jul2011

Trader Family Road Trip–Day 2: Driving and more Driving

Posted in Travel by teamtradermom

Friday is when it felt like the vacation really began for me. CJ was feeling better and Isabella was happier so I could relax a bit.

CJ drove the first leg…

…so I could chill and watch the scenery go by.

One of the interesting things we saw was a truck hauling a windmill arm used in one of the various windmill farms that dot I-80. I tried to get a cool shot of it from various angles. Not sure I succeeded but it was still quite impressive to drive by!

We covered a lot of miles on Friday, driving from Iowa City, IA to Manistee, MI in about 10 hours. We stopped at various places along the way, mostly gas stations and the like. I had plotted out a list of cool and unusual tourist attractions but none of them came at a convenient time to stop. We either got near them when Isabella was sleeping or after having just made a stop, so we really didn’t venture in to too many exciting places. That was ok. Isabella was entertained by the DVDs we brought, her colors, some sing along songs and various other things.

We started her out facing rear, as she has been since she was born. The new guidelines say to keep them that way until they’re 2 years old so we hesitated to turn her just for this trip. But by lunchtime we were ready for anything to make it more enjoyable for her and we switched it around. She loved it!

Here she’s taking a power nap. I love how she has one oobie balance on the harness, helping to hold her head up. That’s “Bullnozer” the Bulldozer in her lap. She was the one who came up with that name too!

After stopping for dinner we changed her into PJs so that she would be ready to sleep around bedtime. She was too stimulated for that so it was Elmo’s World to the rescue!

For some reason she thought she had to hold the case up in the air. When that arm got tired, she switched to the other one.

Silly girl.

One bonus to doing so much driving was CJ and I letting go and enjoying each other again. With the hustle and bustle of “real life” – work, Isabella, volleyball and other activities, Samson – we had stopped appreciating each other. I didn’t laugh as much to his jokes. He wasn’t as enamored with some of my cute tricks. But once we got in the car and got away from Omaha and our normal life, a lot of that melted away. I laughed more on this trip than I have in a long time. I forgot just how funny my hubbie is!

We got in to Manistee around 9:30 and I had to make an emergency drug store run. See, I had gotten my hair chopped Wednesday night and bought some new product to try. I mistakenly packed only the new stuff and not my old stuff as a back up. Well the new stuff wasn’t working well on its own and I desperately needed some mousse. We were lucky enough to find one place still open. Phew! Crisis averted.

After unloading the car (which is no small job when it’s filled to the brim) we all pretty much crashed in bed. It was a long day but a fun one. Now it was time to rest up so we could really enjoy our family time on Saturday!

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Trader Family Road Trip – Day 1

Travel

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