Election Day

Posted in Holidays and Seasons, Isabella/Munchkin by

I will be so glad when these elections are over and the political ads can stop. I find them so annoying and all they do is make me NOT want to vote. As a result, I really have no idea who is running in Nebraska/Omaha and what they stand for. It’s bad, I know. I should pay better attention and actually CARE, but I don’t. I really just want it to be over.

Why can’t there be a politician who doesn’t slam their opponent and resort to name calling? When will some “average Joe” run on actual values and good ideas? Is it even possible?

Despite my “anti-political” feelings I know that it is important to vote and I encourage everyone to get out there. It’s our duty and our right.

On another note, here are a few pictures of Mummy Munchkin!

Look out! She'll kill you with her cuteness!

 

The mummy walk

 

Our little family

 

Ready to call it a night after some trick-or-treating

Celebrations of Halloweens Passed!

Posted in Holidays and Seasons by

CJ and I didn’t dress up this year. We wanted to and had costumes all planned out (I was going to be Katy Perry and he was going to be Elmo) but time didn’t allow for it. Usually we go all out with our costumes. Here are some of them from the past (some years have more than one because we had several parties and didn’t want to repeat!):

2003: Chicago the Musical - I was Velma Kelly and CJ was Billy Flynn

 

2003: I was an 80's diva and CJ was a nerd

 

2004: CJ was Death on Vacation and I was "The shower scene from Psycho"

 

2004: Death on Vacation, I was a sexy witch and our friend Jason was an ice vampire.

 

2004: Jason was a Lobster, I was Little Red Riding Hood and CJ was a Canadian Mountie

 

2005: Phantom of the Opera! I'm Christine Dye and CJ is the Phantom!

 

2006: CJ was the Green Hornet and I am Batgirl

 

2008: Mavericks! CJ is "Maverick" from Top Gun and I'm Sarah Palin

 

2009: Goth!

 

2009: New Parents!

 
As you can see, we usually go all out and we like to be original. Hopefully next year we’ll have more time and be back in the swing of things!
 
Here is Munchkin from last year:

A kangaroo

 

And a puppy dog!

 
Later today or tomorrow I’ll try to post some pics of her dressed up this year! Happy Halloween!!

Amazing Success!

Posted in Work and Professional Life by

Yesterday was the first annual Heartland IIBA Conference – and it was a HUGE success. I am so happy with how everything turned out. It was a long day, got there at 6:45am and got home at 5:30pm, but so worth it. I am the President of this organization but can not take the credit for the event. We had a separate committee plan it and they did such a good job. It really sets the bar high for next year’s conference!

We had 5 speakers – which I helped to acquire so I will take some credit here 🙂 – and they were all phenomenal. We got so many comments on how great the presentations were. There was a lot of interaction from the audience too which shows how much they were getting in to it. All of the speakers commented that this was one of the best planned and executed conferences they’ve been to! This is saying a lot as most of them do this for a living and have been across the country speaking at these types of events.

There were over 100 attendees and the feedback was very positive. The facilities and food were great. The participation was awesome. The give-aways were a big hit. All in all, it went off without a hitch and was just perfect! Couldn’t have asked for anything better.

Being the Prez, I was the go-to person when there was something to be done that didn’t fit in a particular category. I was the emcee most of the day, directed people and traffic, acted as the “heavy” when speakers started to run over time, worked out some things with the vendors, took pictures, answered questions and more. I felt like a bride at a wedding getting pulled in several directions all at once! LOL I love being active and involved though.

The only down side to the day? I woke up with a cold. I was achy and a bit stuffed up when my alarm went off. Bollocks! But, I’m the president and I had to be there. So I took some Dayquil, a few Ibuprofen, grabbed an OJ and off I went. With all the adrenaline of the day, I felt pretty good for the most part. It wasn’t until late afternoon when things started winding down that it started to hit me again. By the time I got home I was really tired and just wanted to curl up in bed. BUT, instead, I had to play volleyball!

Playing volleyball while sick can go one of 2 ways – I can either play really crappy or I can play amazingly well because I’m extra focused. Last night, it went the way of the latter – I played awesome! Our team had so much fun and won 5 of our 6 games.

Now I’m so glad it’s Friday. Have a relatively low-key day at work and then CJ and I have a date night! We were supposed to go to a Halloween Party but with the craziness of the last few weeks, have had no time to get costumes ready so instead, we’re going to take advantage of having a sitter booked and go out! Munchkin is staying with my parents all night so we can hopefully get some much-needed sleep.

Have a great weekend!!

P.S. I was on the radio yesterday morning! Sort of…One of the stations here has a segment called “Top News” where they read the Facebook statuses that appear in their Top News feed. Apparently mine was yesterday! My status was regarding the conference and having a cold. I didn’t actually hear it but several of my friends did, which is totally cool!

Random Thought Wednesday

Posted in Health and Weightloss, Holidays and Seasons, Work and Professional Life by

I lost 2 pounds this week! The funny thing? I have no idea how. It goes against all laws of nature. I have eaten like nobody’s business this week! I’ve had s’mores every night for dessert. Yesterday I ate my way through a goodie bag of sweets – Kit Kat, Reese’s’ PB Cup, Skittles, and M&Ms. Granted, they were the fun size ones but still, it’s not good to eat 4 of them in a row and then polish off pumpkin seeds. BUT, never-the-less, I lost 2 lbs. and no one can take that away from me!

I have to lead a workshop at work today and I’m really nervous about it. What if the computer doesn’t work? What if the attendees think it’s a waste of time? What if we go way off track and don’t get anything done? These are the thoughts going through my head. When it comes right down to it, I’m sure it will be fine. I also have to remember that not everything rests on my shoulders and in the grand scheme of things, it’s really not that big of a deal.

Tomorrow we are having a big conference for the organization that I am the president of. It’s our first all day event and we have literally been planning for it all year. There are over 100 people registered along with 5 speakers coming from all over the country. It’s pretty big. And I’m the prez. Oddly enough, I’m not nervous about it at all. This is 3 times bigger than my work even today yet I feel good about it. Maybe that’s because I know it’s been well planned whereas the work one was sort of thrown together. At any rate, tomorrow marks a huge milestone for our organization and I’m really excited about it.

I am loving this fall weather! It’s cold and rainy and I love it! Wearing warm wooly sweaters, boots and drinking warm beverages is awesome! I also get to use my seat warmers on the drive in. There’s something special about having heated buns when you arrive in to work.

Several weeks ago I was really excited for Halloween and now that it’s almost here I’m so “not in the mood”. Sorry Halloween, I think I feel a headache coming on. It’s not that I don’t like Halloween, it’s that I’ve had ZERO time to get anything ready. Between getting Munchkin’s costume ready, work, planning for tomorrow’s conference, painting the house and trying to actually sleep and stuff, I’ve had no time to get myself a costume. And as of now, I have no energy to do it in time for a party on Friday. We had some good ideas too. Who knows, maybe I’ll get inspired and throw something together. Or maybe CJ and I will just take advantage of having a sitter and go to a movie instead.

I think that’s all of my random thoughts. Well, at least the ones I’m willing to share! Have a happy hump day!

The Perfect Day

Posted in Family, Isabella/Munchkin, Samson by

Yesterday was (almost) the perfect autumn day for me. There were a few mishaps but overall, it was amazing.

It started out with CJ making breakfast for me. I’m a morning person and CJ is a night person so the weekends usually go that he stays up late while I go to bed by 9:30 p.m. and I get up early (7ish) while he sleeps in. Well yesterday, he got up around 8 and made biscuits and gravy with omelets. It was yummy! I actually don’t like biscuits and gravy but gave his a try and they were delish!

Then we hung around the house, doing laundry and various other things until it was time for Munchkin to take a nap. I put her down and then immediately jumped in the shower (all parents of little ones know how you have to time these things precisely!). After a quick shower and blow dry, I hopped in to bed hoping to God Munchkin would stay asleep long enough for me to get in a few winks. And she did! I was able to sleep for about an hour. It was heavenly.

Once she woke up, we had lunch and then got ready to head to the zoo for their Halloween Spooktacular. I had made Munchkin a mummy costume and was excited to finally try it on her. Well, it didn’t work as I had hoped. What I hadn’t considered when putting strips of fabric on her onesie was that it would take the elasticity out of it. So, I could not stretch it enough to get it over her head! I finally wrestled it over her head but then could not get her arms in. Of course she thought this was akin to torture and screamed the whole time. I finally gave up and took it off. I almost had a meltdown myself and that point and thought about skipping the zoo altogether but then took a few deep breaths and reminded myself that it was not the end of the world. So I put a plain white onesie on her, with her mummy pants and we went from there.

I was so flustered by the costume fiasco that I forgot to take a jacket with me and it was a chilly day. Not to mention that when we got to the zoo, it was so crowded that I had to park across the interstate from it (which is about a 15 min. walk). I almost turned around and went home at that point. But, I remembered that this was Munchkin’s first Halloween that she could actually participate in and kept going. I parked, got Munchkin settled in the stroller with a blanket and made the trek to the zoo.

We arrived just in time for the parade and Munchkin got much delight in seeing the costumes walk by (there were Storm Troopers, clowns, an Iron Man and even War Machine (with moving guns!)). We then walked around, looking at the animals and other kids dressed in costume.

We came to a picnic area where they had a DJ set up playing music. Munchkin immediately started dancing as soon as she heard the tunes. I parked the stroller and let her “chair dance” for a while. Then I took her out to see what she would do. She stood up next to the stroller and started dancing like crazy!

Dancing by the stroller, in her mummy pants

After about an hour of tooling around, we left and came home so Munchkin took take another nap. While she was sleeping, I did some work on the computer and then made dinner. CJ was diligently working on the house, which he’s been painting for a couple of weeks (and it is looking awesome)!
After dinner, we carved Munch’s pumpkin. I got our her shape flashcards and had her pick the shapes that she wanted to be the eyes, nose and mouth. That way, she could design it! She picked a star and octagon for the eyes, circle for the nose and rectangle for the mouth. CJ drew them on and carved away!
Once he was done, we showed Munchkin and she got a real kick out of it!
 

Munchkin seeing her first jack-o-lantern

 
 
Then of course we had CJ and Munchkin pose together!

So proud!

 
And Samson  trying to get at it!
Costumes, zoo trips, pumpkins, yummy comfort food and roasted seeds. Yesterday had all the makings of a perfect fall day! I went to bed a very happy camper.