Bits and Pieces

Posted in CJ, Family, Isabella/Munchkin, Miscellaneous by teamtradermom

I know I haven’t posted in a while. Life’s been busy. Guess it’s time to play “catch up”!

1. I took a blow to the face in volleyball last week. Got hit right on my left cheek.

This picture was taken after about 5 days after it happened and it’s a nice greenish yellow color. Still a tad bit tender but nothing show stopping.

2. CJ and I went out on a date last weekend! Woot! We tried a new restaurant and it was fabulous!

OK so CJ looks annoyed in this pic but he wasn’t. I think I caught him right before/after the smile. Anywho, the place was Mark’s Bistro and it’s located above some shops in the Dundee neighborhood of Omaha. We had a great view from our table.

More importantly, the food was great! I had their famous macaroni and cheese. I mean, how could I not order that?

It didn’t disappoint! CJ got a salmon sandwich of some sort that was also very good.

After dinner we went to see “The Fantastik’s” at the local community theatre. It was in their small “in the round” theatre and we had front row seats. At one point one of the characters handed me his prop – pruning shears – and asked me to hold them. Turns out that actor was CJ’s high school theatre teacher! We went backstage afterwards and saw him. He said, “Hey, you were the one holding my shears!” It was a really fun evening and nice to get out for a bit!

3. Isabella helped me make Thin Mint Brownie’s on Sunday.

Samson was very interested in helping too…

There ended up being more licking than actual helping, but that’s ok!

4. I had to take Samson in to the vet today. He’s been limping around off and on for a few weeks. They think he has a sprained ACL. Doc gave him a steroid shot and some pain meds. Said if he didn’t stop limping after a few days on the meds, then they’d have to put him under and do X-Rays and other tests to see if there is a tear or something. Here’s hoping the meds and some rest do the trick!

5. Today I got to tour the construction site of the new office tower my company is building. It was super cool to see it all up close and personal!

Safety first!

This is one of the main hubs where all the electrical, HVAC, etc. run through.

Careful not to get to close to this guy!

Anyone have marshmallows?

Interior of the windows which are made of special glass. Don’t ask me to explain what’s special about it…I wasn’t listening that close. It’s environmental stuff.

Then we got to ride in this “Man Lift” all the way to the top. Our guide kept saying, “Man life…er, Woman lift…er,…Person lift.” Dude, just call it an elevator.

Now for the view from the top (11 stories up)!

Hiya!

I tell ya, I do not know how construction workers get those hard hats to stay on. I must not have a head shaped well for those. Mine kept slipping no matter how I tightened it. As you can see the vest didn’t fit real well either. But hey, it wasn’t about looking good, it was about safety!

6. As I was tucking Isabella in to bed tonight, she held on during our usual nightly hug for an extra long time. She rested her head on my shoulder and closed her eyes while I rocked her. I could have stood like that forever. After a few minutes, she pulled back, looked me in the eye, and then gave me a kiss and a smile.

There ain’t nothing better than that.

Nighty night!

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23Jan2012

I Had a Dream

Posted in CJ, Miscellaneous by teamtradermom

Have you ever had a dream that was so nice you didn’t want to wake up from it? And when you did wake up, you willed yourself to go back to sleep in hopes that you could pick up right where you left off?

That happened to me the other night. It was a very real dream and it actually made sense (kind of). Nothing like cars flying in the air or serial killers in my house or talking dogs.

Digression: I think it would be so fun if dogs could talk. CJ and I do this thing where we pretend we’re in Samson’s head and we narrate his thoughts. Like the other day Samson was staring at the buffet in our dining room and we went off on a whole tangent of how he was thinking. “Um, guys. Hello. My toys are in there. Maybe you don’t know that but I have toys in there. You should get them and play with me. Or give me food. Hey, do you see me? How about if I stare at you unblinkingly? Would that get you to play with me? Or give me food? Never mind that little hairless one you’re reading to. Play with me. Or give me food.”

Samson’s thoughts probably aren’t near as exciting or funny as we think they would be.

Back to my dream…

The setting: I was at a cabin in the woods with a friend, her crush, his friend and another couple. The crush’s friend was Gerard Butler (you know, the “We are SPARTA!!!!” guy in 300.

(source)

Though I personally enjoyed him in Phantom of the Opera as well).

(source)

The scenario was that my friend wanted to spend the weekend with her crush and his friends and asked me to tag along. This sounds like the beginning of a bad horror movie but it’s not. It gets good.

Late in the night, after everyone had gone to bed, I awoke and couldn’t fall back to sleep. So I wandered out to watch some TV and Gerard was out there already watching ESPN. He couldn’t sleep either. We had a healthy debate about football (turns out he was a Ravens fan which makes him my sworn enemy) and then started watching a movie.

I got cold at one point and he wrapped a blanket around me. I leaned against him and he put his arm around me.

Did I mention he had his shirt off so that I could see every bulging bicep and rock hard ab?

This dream didn’t suck.

Anyway, the movie started getting romantic and we were just about to kiss when all of a sudden…

Isabella woke me up with her crying. She wanted juice.

I calmed her down and then frantically tried to go back to sleep.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

But alas, I couldn’t recapture the magic.

Dammit.

Guess I’ll have to settle for my own hunky hubbie, who doesn’t take me to cabins in the woods but does get out and fill my car up with gas on really cold days.

And has bulging biceps.

And is not a Ravens fan.

I’ll take that over the Law Abiding Citizen any day.

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20Nov2011

Twihard with a Vengeance

Posted in CJ, Friends and Fun by teamtradermom

Hi. My name is Sarah and I’m a Twihard.

I loved the Twilight books and I love the movies. Some may say the movies are cheesy/poorly done/poorly acted. To those people I say “phooey”. They may not win Academy Awards but they’re fun and a good escape for 2 hours.

Why do I like them so much? They have everything! In the words of grandpa from The Princess Bride (another fav movie), “Are you kidding? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles!” Not to mention vampires, werewolves, and high school angst – oh my!

I know these books were written for teens but let’s face it, there’s still a teenage girl alive and rampant inside every grown woman. That’s the side of us that gossips, feels insecure and gets nervous around cute boys. I read through all 4 books over a 4 week period during my pregnancy with Isabella. Basically my butt didn’t leave the couch for that month except to go to work. And I read them over lunch breaks at work too. They sucked me in big time and I love every minute of it.

Now to another important point. I’m on Team Jacob. Even before seeing Taylor Lautner I liked Jacob more the Edward (and Taylor only confirms my allegiance – have ya seen him without his shirt? HELLO!!). Jacob is kind and loyal and warm . Edward is bossy and moody and cold. Classic werewolf vs. vampire I suppose. Plus I’m a dog person so when it comes right down to it, I’ll pick the werewolf every time.

Last night CJ and I went to see Breaking Dawn part 1. I was so excited all day for it! Breaking Dawn was my least favorite book of the series but I had heard the movie was the best so far. I was ready to find out!

Movie time was 7:30 and we had no idea what kind of crowds there might be so we grabbed a quick dinner and headed over there around 6:30. I had purchased our tickets online so that we could walk right up to the ticket taker and not wait in line at the front. The guy told me the theatre wasn’t open yet and that we’d have to get in line. He pointed to a roped off area behind me and guess what – we were the first ones there!

But it didn’t take long for the line to form behind us. We had to wait about 30 minutes before they opened the doors. We passed the time talking to the people around us. Turns out they are from Tekamah, NE which is where CJ lived for about 7 years as a kid. They knew a lot of the same people and it was fun to catch up on how old friends are doing. Finally they let us in and we ran to get our prime viewing spot – middle of the very back row! Perfect!

(By the way, did you notice that only one side of my glasses has a slight glare on it? That’s because there is no lens on the right side. It fell out weeks ago due to a crack in the frame and I haven’t gone in to get new ones yet. Yes, I’m cheap. And a procrastinator. So I just wear them with only one lens. Is that redneck?)

(Oh and that “beauty mark” next to my right lip is not a mole – it’s my Cindy Crawford zit. *sigh*)

The movie was awesome. The special effects were better in this one than the others. They’ve gotten much improved at the werewolf transformation and fight scenes. There were several parts that gave me goose bumps (CJ too!) and they ended it just the right way. I had heard some people weren’t happy with the ending but I thought it was perfect.

Now I have to wait a year before the next one! Torture!

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Posted in CJ by teamtradermom

4Nov2011

Catch Up

Posted in CJ, Family, Holidays and Seasons, Isabella/Munchkin by teamtradermom

I still don’t have my bearings yet. I still feel like I’m always running around crazy with a million things yet to do. Some of it’s the new house. Some of it’s work. And really just life.

We had our first Halloween at the new house. It was great. We carved 2 pumpkins this year. I thought Munch would have fun scooping the seeds out but she didn’t really want any part of it.

Samson helped though.

She finally stuck her hand in the bowl of seeds, albeit very briefly.

We let her decide what should be carved on them. I did the ghost one and CJ did the face:

Isabella came to visit me at work and she loaded up on candy there. Her costume was a lady bug this year and we ran in to a little baby also dressed as a lady bug. We had to get the 2 in a pic together!

I can’t believe how grown up Isabella looks next to the little baby. *choke*

We had our families over for dinner on Halloween night (I ordered pizza but also made Jell-o with eyes in it, “mummy dogs” and pumpkin bread) and then took all the kids out trick-or-treating. CJ, my dad and Samson stayed home to hand out the candy and my mom, sister, brother-in-law and I went with the kids.

CJ caught this picture when Isabella was literally in the middle of saying “cheese!”

This was her first year doing “real” trick or treating. Last year we took her to visit a couple neighbors but that was it. This year we hit up several streets. She did not want to walk though so I ended up carrying her most of the way, with my sister and mom taking a turn too. My arms were so tired when we got home. But it was a good chance to meet the neighbors we hadn’t been introduced to yet and score some free goodies!

By the way, CJ and I dressed as “Lady and the Tramp” for Halloween this year. It was a last minute, throw together costume.

That’s my “OMG he is so disgusting” look. And then I fall madly in love with the bum.

For the most part, no one really “got it”. They knew what CJ was but didn’t have a cool how I fit in to the picture. Oh well, maybe we’ll spend more time on it next year.

—

November is my favorite month of the year for several reasons – 1) Our wedding anniversary, 2) my birthday, 3) Thanksgiving 4) Black Friday and 5) the start of the holiday season. Roll all of those up in a ball and you’ve got one frickin’ awesome month!

Today is CJ and my 5 year wedding anniversary. Last year on our 4th, I posted pics of our engagement, wedding and honeymoon. This year I thought I’d post some of us from previous anniversaries.

1 year

So young and really wanting to do it up right. We ate at Mahogany Prime, which was very good, but also very expensive. We spent over $200 on that dinner. That’s ok. We had an amazing night and one we’ll never forget!! Plus I had lobster for the first time!

2 years

Money was tight that year so we made gifts for each other. The traditional gift for the 2nd year is cotton so I made him an origami heart card out of a red bandana and he made me a card out of a pillow case, along with some cotton roses. It was cheesy and corny but so fun!

(Apparently we didn’t take any pics on our 3 year, or at least I can’t find them…)

4 years

I think we look older and wiser here. Note I didn’t say OLD, just oldER. We look like 2 people very happy with their life and how it’s going. I hope we always stay that way.

Happy Anniversary Ceige! Here’s to 5 wonderful years together and many more to come!

Next stop, my 35th birthday!!

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