June Bug

Posted in Family, Goals by teamtradermom

The year is half over. We’re in to July and that means summer will be done before we know it. Excuse me for a moment…

*SOB*

Ok, I feel better now.

This also means that I should be halfway done with my goals right? Mmm, maybe. Many of them are ongoing but I do feel pressure to be making more progress on other ones. Let’s take a look-see.

Family and Home:

1. Do at least one family outing a month. We were VERY busy this month.

We went to Sand in the City

(shout out to my friend Jay who designed this one and won an award for it!)

And Taste of Omaha.

We spent a rainy afternoon playing at the indoor kids area in the mall.

And we checked out the Architects of Air Luminaria exhibit.

We also stopped to see the big swimmer dude coming up out of the ground, in honor of the Olympics Swim Trials.

Which leads us to our next family event – last but not least – the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials

Isabella thought it was too noisy…

I’d say we did pretty darn good!!

2. Tackle the following home projects this year:

Buy and hang curtains on all the windows. Nope, didn’t do anything. The only room we have left to do is the living room and I’m not in a huge hurry.

Unpack the remaining boxes in the basement. I actually got rid of 2 more boxes! I found great ways to use a lot of the stuff I found too.

Create a sitting room within the master bedroom. I’ve been on the lookout for stuff but haven’t found exactly what I’m looking for yet.

Add built in shelves to the living room by the end of the year. This will be a big project and we haven’t had the time or money to tackle it yet. Sometime before the end of the year though for sure!

3. Have Isabella potty trained by her 3rd birthday (September 30). We started and she is clearly not ready. She has no interest in sitting on the potty nor does she seem to mind wearing a dirty diaper. We’ll give her some more time, then try again.

4. Research pre-schools and enroll Isabella in one to start in the fall of 2012. I’m thinking more and more that she won’t be ready for pre-school in the fall. Mentally I think she could handle it but in terms of potty training, no (as mentioned above).

Financial and career:

5. Attend one career professional event a month. Yep, I attended one even this month.

6. Spend less money. Well we try. It’s a daily/weekly battle. Some weeks are better than others, depending on what comes up. But overall I think we’re doing quite well.

Physical and health:

7. Adopt one new healthy habit each month. I’ve given up on this one. I don’t seem to have enough discipline to do anything healthy except for exercise. I’ll keep fighting the good fight but I’m going to stop with the monthly habits. I’m tired of disappointing myself.

Social and cultural:

8. Attend at least 4 cultural events this year (e.g. Broadway shows, concerts, museum exhibitions). As you can see from the list above, we did many things, including the Luminaria exhibit and the Fremont Dinner Train.

9. Regularly participate in events put on by the social clubs I belong to (speakers events, parties, happy hours, etc). Again, very busy month. I attended several FACs (Friday Afternoon Club) get togethers through work, a baseball game, Luminaria, the Fremont Dinner Train, and a spontaneous neighborhood beer night

10. Go on a date night with CJ once a month. The Fremont Dinner Train was one of our date nights. The Warrior Dash was another. Ok maybe that doesn’t count? But this does – we went to a wedding, sans the Munchkin. I know this will sound awful and crazy to some people but I prefer to attend weddings without children. They take over the dance floor and many parents use the wedding as their personal baby-sitter. Not cool. So we almost always leave the little one at home when we go to weddings and instead use the time for us!

There you have it, another month in the books. While all the things we did in June were fun, I’m hoping that July is a little more calm. Although it’s not starting off that way. Already this week we’ve gone to 2 movies, a baseball game/fireworks show and a neighborhood block party. What can I say – you gotta grab life by the horns because it’s just too darn short to sit around and let it pass you by!

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26Jun2012

It’s a Mystery

Posted in CJ by teamtradermom

Have you ever played the game Clue? We played it all the time as a family growing up and I loved it!

Colonel Mustard, in the Ballroom with the lead pipe!

I’ve always had a fascination with mysteries – books, movies, TV shows, games, you name it. As a kid I read all the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books. As an adult I’ve loved anything by John Grisham, Alex Kava, James Patterson, and the like. CJ and I spend many nights watching Bones, Castle and Rizzoli and Isles too.

At one point I even wanted to be a detective when I grew up. Not sure when or why that changed. Heck, part of me STILL to be one.

So it should come as no surprise that when an opportunity to partake in the Fremont Dinner Train Murder Mystery with a group of co-workers came up, I was all over it.

In a nutshell, the Murder Mystery dinner train is a dining experience that gets the audience involved in solving a murder that took place on the train. Actors in full costume walk amongst you and provide clues while you enjoy a 5 course meal.

We boarded the train at 7:15pm on Saturday night.

We ate crudités and crackers while waiting for all to board and the train to start up. Once we got going, a funny little old man gave us a history of the train, along with rules (no smoking) and details about the evening’s agenda.

As the train moved along, we were treated to beautiful scenery.

I was glad we were able to do an evening in the summer, when it’s light out later in the day, so that we could see the landscape outside our windows. Had it been in the winter we would have missed it all.

The actors were walking around, in character, engaging in conversation with the tables. One of the gals started referring to CJ as “Dairy Queen”* because she said his hair looked like the swoosh on top of the cones.

What do you think?

Then this actress asked the 2 ladies sitting at the table with us if they would like to be part of the show! They would be playing the part of sisters who were models. One of the ‘sisters’ jumped right in (*cough* Kelly *cough*) while the other grudgingly agreed.

Don’t they look smashing?

Pretty soon the first course came out, which was a beef and barley soup.

I am a picky eater and was immediately suspicious of the soup – I mean beef and BARLEY?!? Really??? Plus, it looks kinda gross….but I gave it a go – and surprisingly liked it! I inhaled it as a matter of fact!

As we were eating, the actors got up and started the show. They had each table of 4 appoint a secretary (me, naturally) who would take notes and write down clues. Then they introduced the characters and started in on the story (which I won’t give the details of so as not to spoil it for anyone). Our job was to figure out who the killer was, how they did it and their motive.

We chomped on some salad (very good but I forgot to get a picture of it) while putting our heads together to decipher all the clues we got.

We continued our detective work over the main course.

I had the Pasta Primavera, which came with peas and fruit. CJ and the rest of our table ordered the Prime Rib. My pasta was decent and the peas and fruit were good. CJ said the Prime Rib was good too, though not anything to write home about.

At one point it was starting to get overwhelming with all the information from the actors. We had a lot of clues but none of them seemed to help narrow down the list of suspects.

Finally they served dessert, which was carrot cake.

As we pulled back in to the station, we were asked to write down our guess for the murderer, their means and motive and turn it in. Our table was split 50/50 as to who we thought it was. One of the actors came over and gave us a final clue, which was the last piece of the puzzle we needed. We turned in our answers and crossed our fingers.

They then announced that of all the tables (maybe 30 in total), only 5 got it right. And guess who was one of the 5?

That’s right – us!

And we got certificates to prove it!

All in all it was a really fun experience. It’s kind of pricey ($86 per person) but worth it for a date night splurge. We got dinner and a unique entertainment experience all in one! I would definitely recommend trying it at least once. They also do other kinds of shows besides mysteries, so those would be neat to check out too.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I feel like having some ice cream.

*Update: in no way am I trying to endorse or malign a certain ice cream restaurant chain’s image.

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23Jun2012

Damage

Posted in Family by teamtradermom

We had a storm in Omaha last night. A pretty big one. At least you’d think so by looking at our backyard.

Let’s rewind a bit.

We went to bed last night without a care in the world and no clue a storm was coming (at least I didn’t know). I woke up at 4:30 to winds pounding the house and rain pelting down on the windows. Shortly after I awoke, Isabella did too. She started crying and was scared. I got her and we looked out the front windows. The trees were taking a beating. I seriously thought I was going to see one snap in half before my eyes.

I put her back to bed but she didn’t want to be alone so I let her come in and sleep with us.

I use the term “sleep” very loosely.

She and CJ slept (because he moved to the guest room). I however dozed in and out. It’s hard to get good sleep with a 2 year old nearly on top of you who won’t allow any covers.

We all eventually got up at 7:15 and this is what we found.

A backyard ravaged.

It appears that the our backyard took the brunt of the storm for the neighborhood because looking around it appeared that no one else had any damage. Even our front yard looked totally fine.

You wouldn’t even know it rained in the front had the driveway not been wet.

But I guess because we’re on a corner and at the bottom of a hill, our backyard becomes a wind tunnel during storms.

Here’s what we found upon closer look at the back.

All of Isabella’s outdoor toys were knocked over and thrown.

Her big playhouse, which had been anchored in to the ground, was blown apart and wrapped around the trees in the birch grove.

(That big brown patch is where the house had been rooted.)

Isabella’s swimming pool was tossed to the back corner of the yard, along with some chairs and her sand table.

The patio chairs were whipped around and my pot that I made on an outing with co-workers was broken.

There was also another plant casualty as the one basket on my shepherd’s hook was carried across the patio…

…and my grandma’s birdbath was knocked over (but thank goodness not broken).

All in all, it was quite a mess.

However, I feel very lucky that it wasn’t worse. We could have had roof damage, windows broken, siding ripped off, or any number of other casualties to the house. The fact that it was limited to “stuff” in the backyard was a blessing – and all of it was repairable except the broken pot and a few ground lights.

So, once the rain cleared and the sun came out, we headed outside to clean up!

I was a bit worried about how Isabella would react to her playhouse being thrown asunder, but she handled it very well.

Here she’s inspecting things and trying to figure it all out.

She actually ended up liking it broken and started crying when CJ pulled it out of the trees.

He had to fully pull it apart so that the various pieces could dry out (they were all water logged).

Isabella helped with the clean up too.

She lifted her Cozy Coupe upright.

And pulled the sand table out of the birch grove.

She also made sure to go around and close the shutters on the windows of her playhouse, you know, to keep any more rain out.

I can’t say that Samson helped all that much.

He was more interested in sunning himself.

I was able to save the Begonias and Bat-faced Cupea that I had planted in my white strawberry pot (the one that was broken). I replanted them all in a hanging basket and hung them up in the newly open crook.

We pretty much have everything cleaned up now. We (ok CJ) still has to put Isabella’s playhouse back together but that shouldn’t take too long. Otherwise things are as good as new.

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19Jun2012

From the Mouths of Babes: Rhyme Time

Posted in From the Mouths of Babes by teamtradermom

Isabella and I have been practicing rhyming lately. You know, for when we start our own hip hop group, “Izzie and Momzy.”

I was telling Grandma how well Isabella is doing and wanted to demonstrate so I said, “Munchkin, what rhymes with ‘sit’?”

She looked at me and replied, “SHIT!”

I immediately flashed back to when I was 10 and called my sister a bitch. I had soap in my mouth so fast, even Superman couldn’t save me. In horror, I turned to see what my parents reaction would be.

They both burst out laughing.

I then started to wonder where in the world Isabella got that word from since we’re careful not to swear around her (sure, we slip up now and again but overall we’re pretty darn good about it). My question was answered when she went on to say, “And cake rhymes with SHAKE! And dirt rhymes with SHIRT! And park rhymes with SHARK!”

She was simply rhyming everything with ‘sh-‘ words.

Phew!

Just in case, I’ll steer clear of asking her to rhyme words with ‘duck’ or ‘witch’ or ‘class’.