April Showers Bring…

Posted in Goals, House and Home by teamtradermom

Happy May Day!

The start of a new month means it’s time to look back at the previous one and see how I’ve been doing with my New Year’s Resolutions.

Before we get to the specifics, let’s take a moment to look at how many I’ve crossed off completely – a whopping three (organize the front room, break Isabella of her “oobie” habit, and move Isabella to a toddler bed)! Doesn’t seem like a lot given that my original list had 15+ things on it but most of those items are ongoing, longer term habits, which is different than getting one thing forever done.

In the spirit of honesty and transparency, I have to admit something. I removed 2 of my goals. Both were in the “Spiritual” category. One was to find a church that we would go to regularly and one was to pray every day. These are both very good goals to have and important for sure, but I just cannot seem to make them a priority. Does that make me a heathen of some sort? No, I don’t think so. We do pray and we talk about spiritual things to Isabella, and someday we’ll find a church that is “us” but just not today.

Now, let’s get on to the rest of the list!

Family and Home:

1. Do at least one family outing a month. We did all kinds of things this month! We went to a couple of new playgrounds (one of which Isabella fell off of…scary!),

out to dinner at a new restaurant, and wandered around the Gene Leahy Mall downtown (granted this was for family pictures but it totally counts).

2. Tackle the following home projects this year:

Buy and hang curtains on all the windows. Still waiting for the back-ordered drapes for the MBR to come in. They are due in on 5/3 so hopefully I’ll have a post dedicated to that finished project soon. Also need something for the LR and kitchen.
Unpack the remaining boxes in the basement. Hurray! I’ve actually made progress on this one! I was mad at myself at the end of March for saying 3 months in a row that I didn’t have an update so I got off my lazy butt and started to do something about it. Basically, I told myself that every time I went to the basement to play with Isabella (she has a whole other toy room down there), I would go through at least one box and figure out what to do with the contents. I can happily report that 3 boxes are gone for good (with the stuff either donated or tossed) and several other boxes have been reduced and combined. In fact, it was this exercise that spurred me in to doing the gallery wall.

These 2 home accents also came about as a result of digging through boxes in the basement.

This is an antique end table that was gifted to CJ. I finally brought it up and put some stuff on it.

It’s sitting in the space between the kitchen and living room:

The flower print and wooden gazelle were both Goodwill finds. The rest I found while digging around in boxes.

This tray and these mugs were also dug up from the basement. The tray used to look like this:

I changed it by cutting some scrapbook paper to fit the bottom section and glued it down! An easy change that made a big difference.

I also brought up this plant stand that had been lurking downstairs and put it to good use!

The coffee décor were other basement finds.

I tucked this at the end of our kitchen island. I originally had a plant on the island itself but it was taking up valuable space.

Moving it off to this stand has really opened up the room and made a huge difference!

Create a sitting room within the master bedroom. No progress on this one. I keep looking for just the right chair during my Goodwill and thrift store shopping adventures. Nothing has jumped out at me yet though.
Add built in shelves to the living room by the end of the year. I’m starting to get antsy about getting this one under way. Soon, my precious, soon.

3. Have Isabella potty trained by her 3rd birthday (September 30). No real progress here. I am feeling pressure like we should be doing more. Just not sure what. Ugh.

4. Research pre-schools and enroll Isabella in one to start in the fall of 2012. No progress on this one either. Need to start making appointments to visit them.

Financial and career:

5. Attend one career professional event a month. Done!

6. Spend less money. Doing pretty well at this. Am figuring out more and more ways to save which is satisfying. Also got a good chunk of the credit card paid off but then we had to turn around and charge $1000 for Samson’s surgery. 1 step forward, 1 step back.

Physical and health:

7. Adopt one new healthy habit each month:

March – Do some type of physical activity IN ADDITION to regular workouts
April – Drink at least 64 oz. each day (includes water, tea, or juice. Does NOT include pop or alcohol)
May – Make a daily gratitude list
June – Try to walk 10,000 steps every day
July – limit sweets to once a day

I’ve made a mess of this list. I switched March and April because March was too chilly for outdoor activity. So April was supposed to be about doing more physical activity in addition to daily workouts. It didn’t exactly happen. There were a few days where I went for an extra walk in the afternoon, but those were rare. I really wanted May to be about limiting sweets to once a day (which is supposed to be July’s habit).

I just can’t make up my mind. What it comes down to is this: I really think that if I drink more water and eat fewer sweets, by body will follow with more energy, fewer zits, and fewer pounds. So that’s what I’m doing for May – essentially taking a redo on one habit and adding in the other. It won’t be easy as those are both big weaknesses of mine, but it’s now or never.

Social and cultural:

8. Attend at least 4 cultural events this year (e.g. Broadway shows, concerts, museum exhibitions). I don’t think there were any this month. Though we did buy tickets to see Red Hot Chili Peppers when they come in October!

9. Regularly participate in events put on by the social clubs I belong to (speakers events, parties, happy hours, etc). I participated in a happy hour for work and in another social outing to plant flowers (wherein I bought this guy).

10. Go on a date night with CJ once a month. Ya know, I don’t think we had a date night in April. Epic fail!

All in all, I think I’m doing well. Could be better but could also be worse, so I’ll take it. Still plodding along and getting things done!

If you liked this, you might also like:

March – How’d I do? | February Check In | January Check In

28Apr2012

Naked Legs + Cheesy + Burn

Posted in Isabella/Munchkin, Samson by teamtradermom

I’ve been meaning to sit down and write a post for days now. I even drafted one the other night but never got around to publishing it. I look back at it now and it no longer seems relevant.

Funny how life changes. I used to have time to blog everyday. Now I’m lucky if I get it in twice a week. But I do think about it a lot and some day I’ll figure out how to work it better in to the routine. Until then, you have to suffer through another “random updates” post (I feel like I’m cheating when I write these).

Samson

The big guy is recovering well from his surgery last week. He got the bandage off yesterday which helps him move around a bit more freely.

You can see that his whole back leg is shaved. I feel embarrassed for the guy, having half of his hind quarters exposed for the world to see. I hope it grows back soon.

You can’t see the incision. Heck, I couldn’t even find it! CJ had to point it out to me (it’s on the inside of the leg). The stitches are actually on the inside of the skin so you can’t see them at all. Amazing what they can do these days!

He’s getting around well and can do stairs again. We still have to walk him outside on the leash, even for potty time, just so that he doesn’t try to take off after a rabbit or something.

Isabella was trying to help Samson be extra comfortable so she started putting blankets over him. He just laid there and let her do it.

I think he quite enjoyed it actually.

And then she brought over a pillow for him.

And then CJ joined in and wrapped the blanket up around his shoulders.

Gee, Samson’s not spoiled at all.

Cheesy

Yesterday afternoon some of us gals went out for another team outing. We went to a place where you can either bring your own flower pot or buy one there (which is what I did) and then plant flowers as a group! It was a lot of fun and now I have one pot ready for the backyard (need to get going on the rest of them). I don’t have a pic to show as part of the deal is that you leave your pots there and the owner takes care of them for a couple weeks to make sure they survive the shock of being transplanted. I’ll post one once I pick it up though!

I did however buy this guy from her shop.

He’s a little mosaic turtle with spoons for the head, tail and legs. I thought he was super cute. There’s a little ladybug on the other side too!

I told Isabella she could name him and right away she decided to call him “Cheesy”. I gave her a questioning look when she said that and she immediately responded with, “What? Cheesy’s a good name Mommy…”

And so it is.

For now I have him inside, next to the buffet.

See him at the bottom of the pic, tucked in amongst the “plants”?

He may get moved outside one of these days, I haven’t decided yet. For now, he’s chillin’ inside with us.

Burned

I got my first sunburn of the season on Wednesday. I was literally outside for 1 hour and got this:

Yes, it hurts as bad as it looks.

What can I say, I’m fair-skinned and go from white to red and back to white again. I will never be tan. I’ve finally accepted that over the years but I’ve definitely had my share of bad burn experiences.

The worst one was on a canoeing trip down the Niobrara river. I forgot to reapply and my whole body got scorched but my tummy worst of all. I blistered and literally had to peel off skin from there every night for weeks.

There was also a bad one on our honeymoon. I was good the whole trip, and then let my guard down on the 2nd to last day. Ended up with a bad burn on my thighs. My skin was so hot, that it turned a frozen washcloth from ice cold to warm in less than 5 minutes.

I try to be careful though and I promise I’ll put some sunscreen in my purse to have with me at all times, just in case.

Finally

I leave you with these images of Isabella.

Here she is helping me buy food and treats for Samson.

And sound asleep in the car:

There are angels among us.

If you liked this, you might also like:

Stormy Saturday | From the Mouths of Babes – Bedtime Edition | Bits and Pieces

20Apr2012

The Dude is Back

Posted in Samson by teamtradermom

I mentioned the other day that Samson had sprained his ACL and was supposed to “lay low” for a while.

Guess what – he didn’t.

Typical of a lab, he forgot about his pain, got all excited and tried to run, “tearing the hell out of his ACL” (that is literally what the vet said).

So he had to have surgery yesterday.

They did a procedure called a TTA which basically puts implants in the leg to correct and stabilize. Doc said Samson did great and they found no signs of arthritis in the knee. He does have arthritis in both hips which is what was forcing him to adjust and put more weight on his knees, hence the tear.

I picked him up today and brought him home.

Poor guy.

You can see they shaved his fur off from the hip all the way down the leg and he has a big old bandage on it, which is solid like a cast.

He is starting to put some weight on that leg which is good. Doc said he’s a strong boy and will heal up like a champ.

Getting him home was interesting. He couldn’t figure out how to lay down in the back of the car but yet I didn’t want him standing in case I had to hit the brakes hard or make a sharp turn. With the bum leg he wouldn’t be able to stabilize himself and could fall. I fought with him for 10 minutes to lay down and he wouldn’t. So I buckled him in standing up and just drove like a grandma.

He seems a bit out of it still. Laying down doesn’t seem comfortable yet. I think he really wants to lay on his right side but can’t because of the big bandage. Laying on his left probably hurts the hip. So he’ll wander around for a bit, looking lost, and then finally get tired and plop somewhere. He’ll figure it out eventually and after 4-6 weeks the leg will be good as new again.

Isabella missed him and made him a welcome home gift. Here he is laying with it.

Apparently that’s an airplane.

We moved his kennel down to the first floor so that he wouldn’t have to go up and down the steps every morning and night. We also have to take him outside on a leash every time he goes potty. We don’t want to risk him taking off running and tearing the ACL on the good leg.

It’s so nice to have the big guy back home. Even though he was only gone for 2 days, we missed the heck out of him.

Our checking account is a whole lot lighter but he’s worth every penny.

Welcome home dude!

If you liked this, you might also like:

Samson Stories: Thief | Samson Stories: Walking | S & C

17Apr2012

The Gallery

Posted in House and Home by teamtradermom

Ever since we moved in to our house, I’ve wanted to create a “gallery wall” along the stairs to showcase family photos and fun prints.

(source)

It only took me 7 months to get it done!

Part of the reason it’s taken so long is because I wasn’t sure what images I wanted to use. We have so much more wall space in the new house that I’ve had to slowly get a feel for a room before deciding what to hang in it. What worked on say the living room wall in the old house doesn’t quite fit in the new one.

That and my perfectionism. I mean, what if I hang up a picture and it looks bad? Eeh gads! The world might end!

(source)

At any rate, on Sunday I was playing in the basement with Isabella and started going through boxes to see what was in them. I came across a framed piece of art that we had in the kitchen of the old house, and which I had not been able to find since moving. I immediately knew it would be perfect as part of the gallery wall and suddenly I was inspired.

I started pulling together family photos and other small pieces of art that would work with it.

My 2 rules:

Each piece had to have either a black or white frame. This would keep the wall unified despite the images themselves being different, and
Nothing larger than an 11 x 14” frame because I wanted each piece to be medium to small size so they’d be more of a collection.

I also didn’t want TOO many pics – I didn’t want to cover the wall completely.

OK so that’s 3 rules.

Once I had the pics, I had to determine the best way to lay them all out together. You can’t just randomly start hanging them up; you have to put a little thought in to it first. What I did was trace each picture frame on a piece of white paper and wrote on it what the picture was and what color of frame it had. Then I laid out all the pieces of paper on the floor and moved them around until I had an arrangement I liked. From there, I used a small piece of tape to put them up on the wall to see if the arrangement translated vertically.

I left the paper up on the wall for half the day in order to “live with it” for a bit. Seeing them from different angles and walking by them several times helped cement the arrangement.

I used this “break” to bake up some Peanut Butter Truffle Brownies.

OMG. These are so good. Even CJ, who normally doesn’t like peanut butter in desserts, raved about them.

But I digress.

Also during my “picture hanging marinating period” I had to run to the store and buy a couple replacement frames as some of the ones I had were a little beaten up or not made for hanging on the wall. Turned out Target had all their frames on sale, plus I had a coupon for buy 2 frames get one free (I needed 5 frames) AND I had a gift card. So the frames were practically free! Ok maybe not but still darn cheap none-the-less ($28 for all 5 frames).

Now it was time to hang!

This would normally be the part of a DIY blog where a person talks about some really cool tool they used to mark holes on the walls so that everything was nice and even and aligned. And how they used a level to get it all straight.

That person would not be me.

I pretty much just eye-balled it. If I were doing a gallery wall where all the frames were the same size and I wanted them squared off and even, I would have taken more time. But since I had some variance and the point was to be purposely misaligned, I just went for it.

And it turned out pretty darn good.

I had to get CJ to help me with the picture in the upper left-hand corner because it was too high for me to reach (and needed a screw and a drill), but otherwise it was all me.

The Chrysler Building print was a Goodwill find for $2.99. I like it because it represents my previous life in NYC (I lived there on and off for about a year) and it’s an architectural type drawing (CJ and I are architecture geeks).

The white “You Make Me Smile” print was also a Goodwill find for $2.99. I liked the simplicity of it and the message. I kept it down low so that when Isabella can read, she’ll see it every day and know I was thinking of her when I bought it.

The “Don’t Be Afraid of Tomorrow, God is Already There” piece was the one from our old kitchen that got this whole project kicked off. It was a gift from a friend many moons ago.

And the rest are pics of family. For now I’m happy with these 9 pieces. Obviously there’s room to expand if we decide to add more but I also don’t want to take over the whole wall either.

Not yet anyway.

Oh and Isabella was a big help in taking this project over the finish line…

After doing all this work, CJ and Isabella decided some yoga was in order, to stretch out their muscles.

Plow anyone?

And don’t forget downward dog!

And it all made her so tired, that she slept part of the night half in and half out of her bed.

So there you have it! The start of the gallery wall. I see this as a fluid space that will change and grow over time. For now, it makes me really happy. Every time I walk by the stairs and see it, I smile.

With each project that gets completed, the house feels more and more like ours.

Have a great evening! I’m off to scarf down a PB truffle brownie!

If you liked this, you might also like:

S&C | Projects | 29 Day Organizational Challenge

14Apr2012

Stormy Saturday

Posted in House and Home, Isabella/Munchkin by teamtradermom

Today’s the day a giant catastrophic storm is supposed to roar through our area. Jim Cantore from the Weather Channel is even here.

That’s not good.

However, so far the storms have been fairly mild. Some rain here. A few thunder claps there. Nothing that would suggest the end of the world. But you never know with Nebraska, it could change in an instant.

I used the inside time today to be both productive and relax. Isabella and I ran to the store for supplies (like water) and then we lazed around watching TV. We also took a nice long nap. That felt good. There’s nothing better than napping on a stormy day.

Before the nap I got the hall closet organized.

I forgot to take a before picture (oops!) but imagine it was something like this, only inside the closet:

I culled through our towels and sheets, getting rid of ones that were old or mismatched. I kept enough for each of us to have 3 towels each, and 3 sets of sheets (for me and CJ – Isabella’s bedding is stored in her room). I also went through all the toiletries, medicine, and other paraphernalia and organized it.

Putting frequently used meds on the turntable works great. It’s handy because everything can be “up front” with a quick turn.

I also corralled all the bulk stuff (big bin on the left) so that I know what I have and what I don’t.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve run out and bought deodorant or something only to realize later I had an extra one on the floor of the closet. Hate that!

You can see that all my mani/pedi supplies were consolidated as well. Now I can just grab that whole bin and take it with me when I want to paint my nail, instead of searching for everything I need.

Feels good to check that project off the list.

Changing subjects….

Now to some random odds and ends from the week that I have been meaning to blog about but never got around to.

I love fresh flowers. I used to think they were an occasional treat but now I try and have them around the house all the time. Nothing brightens up a room better.

I bought a bouquet on sale for $5 the other day and split it up. This vase is sitting in our dining room.

And these little beauties went up in to Isabella’s room!

Funny how something so simple can make a big difference.

Remember how I told you about our puzzles at work?

Well we finished another one!

As you can see this was a 3-D one. I found it at a used toy store for $3 and thought, what the heck?

To be honest, I only put like 5 of the pieces together. I was too busy to help much this time around but the other gals did a bang up job!

We’ve already taken this one down and started puzzle #3. It’s a landscape scene with lots of water and sky. We’re about halfway done so far. I’ll share when we finish completely.

And now for a story about the Dog “Whisperer”

Samson was taken to the vet last week to have his leg looked at. He’d been limping around for a month or so. They x-rayed and found a sprained knee and really bad arthritis in both hips. He had never limped or shown any signs of the hip pain before. Doc said it’s because he’s so athletic and strong, that he was able to transfer the weight off his hips to his knees. But unfortunately, that’s how his knee got sprained. Anyway, he’s doing fine, just has to be on pain meds for a while. But we’re also supposed to keep him from running or playing too hard.

You tell me how we’re supposed to keep a lab from running?

Anyway, the other day, Samson started feeling his oats and grabbed one of Isabella’s stuffed toys and ran around the playroom with it. I yelled at him to stop and drop it and he ignored me. I yelled again and he just stood there with it in his mouth.

I was obviously having no effect on him.

Isabella calmly walked over to Samson, stood about a foot in front of his face and screamed, “DROP IT!!!!” at the top of her lungs.

Samson promptly opened his jaws and released his prisoner.

Isabella picked it up and brought it to me saying, “Here you go mommy. I got it back for you.”

Here’s hoping the big storm goes around us! Stay safe!

If you liked this, you might also like:

From the Mouths of Babes – Bedtime Edition | Spring Things | From the Mouths of Babes