Surprise!

Posted in CJ, Family by teamtradermom

My dear ~~old~~ husband had a birthday last week. He turned 50. Normally he wouldn’t be keen on me sharing his age with the world but the half century mark is one that he’s proud of.

I couldn’t let this birthday go by without doing something special. I’ve know since the summer that I wanted to plan a surprise party for him but it took me a while to figure out just how I would do it. It all came together though and the big night fell last Saturday, the 10th (his actual birthday is the 15th).

The “rouse” was that we were going out to dinner with my family, which we do on a regular basis anyway so it would be nothing suspicious. The guests would arrive around 5:30 and we would get there at 6 for the surprise! Believe it or not, we were able to keep it a surprise too. There were a couple close calls in the weeks leading up to the big day but all were covered up so that he didn’t suspect a thing.

The day of the party was the most stressful for me and CJ did not help matters. I had created a video slideshow of old and embarrassing pictures that would run during the party. It took me until the night before to get it finished so I needed a way to get it to the restaurant on Saturday. We had plans to meet up with some friends Saturday morning for brunch so I suggested that CJ just go alone while I stay home with Isabella (and therefore use that time to drop off the DVD). He said no and insisted we all go. I tried again to convince him he should just go and enjoy some time away. He kept insisting so I finally relented.

I texted my brother-in-law and he said he would come to the house, pick up the DVD and drop it off for me. I told him I’d leave it between the glass front door and the storm door.

About an hour later, while we were at brunch, he texted and said the front door was locked. I had forgotten to unlatch it for him. Damn.

Plan B. When we got home and after I put Isabella down for a nap, I casually mentioned having to run to Target for milk and bread. He said he’d do it because he needed to pick up a prescription anyway. NO! I’LL GO! I insisted and he relented. *sigh*

Finally it was time to head to the party. We got there and he saw my family at a table (which was the plan) and headed toward them, into the room reserved for us. Suddenly he saw 40 or so people waiting for him and he was indeed surprised!

Isabella was too!

I was so happy to see so many people able to come out and help us celebrate. I know he was tickled too!

His sister and brother-in-law even made it all the way from Michigan! A delightful second surprise!

After some socializing and laughs over the slideshow, it was time to sing and have cake!

I hope someone was ready with the fire extinguisher…

Isabella had fun running around with some other kids but then started getting tired and cranky.

So my parents took her home so that we could stay and party! The last guest left around 10:30 p.m. and then we headed over to Two Fine Irishmen for some live music and dancing.

All in all it was a super fun night that I know CJ will remember.

I’m just glad it’s all over. All the sneaking around and withholding of information was starting to get to me!

We spent the next day with CJ’s sister and BIL, showing them around town.

We went to the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge and walked all the way across and back (even though it was a cool rainy day).

Then we went to The Upstream Brewery to dry off and warm up with a few beers.

And monster poopy diapers. Isabella had 2 big ones during our visit and wouldn’t you know, we only had 1 diaper. CJ had to run down the street to the gas station and get another package. I was the good wife and changed both diapers, being judicious with the wipes as we were low on those too.

It all worked out and we had a really nice day.

Here is the video slideshow from the party. Enjoy and thanks to all who came out to help us celebrate!

Tee hee…

**Most of the party shots courtesy of H&J Creative Studios!

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9Mar2012

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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5Feb2012

What’s This White Stuff?

Posted in Family, Holidays and Seasons by teamtradermom

No sooner did Puxatoney Phil see his shadow, did we finally get a winter snow storm here in Nebraska. In a normal year, we would have had several of these storms by now. But this year has been anything but normal. Early last week I was walking around outside in a long sleeved shirt and NO JACKET!

Let that sink in for a moment.

January 31st – in the dead of winter – and it was warm enough to not even have outerwear on.

I could get used to this.

But it looks like I won’t have to. Snow was unleashed on us overnight Friday and we woke up to this.

Everything blanketed in white. Samson loved it. He ran around out there like a crazy dog.

Jumping and digging and leaping through the wet stuff.

When you live in the Midwest, you have to own a snow blower because you know weather like this will happen. We, however, do not own one. We never have. Somehow we’ve managed to get by for 6 years owning a home without a snow blower. We either shovel or rely on the kindness of our neighbors. At our old house, we had great neighbors. They would always take pity on us and do at least our sidewalk for us, and sometimes the driveway too. However, we live in a new neighborhood and figured those good old ~~lazy~~ days were over.

We were going to wait for the afternoon, when most of the snow had stopped, to go out and start shoveling. But around lunch we heard a motor moving down our sidewalk and looked out to see our neighbor across the street clearing our sidewalks for us – and we live on a corner so that’s a lot of ground to cover.

We were really thankful to him for doing that. Then I looked out as he turned into the driveway and started clearing it! Seriously! He did our sidewalk and driveway, along with the neighbor’s driveway too! We were even MORE thankful and I vow, as God is my witness, to bake him cookies or something very soon!

Since we didn’t have to shovel, we had time to play! We bundled up and headed out to the backyard.

I look like I’m in pain there. I’m not. I was just being silly.

Isabella and I played while CJ cleared off the patio. Then we all worked together to build a little micro snowman on the steps.

CJ added some stick arms while I finished it off with raisin eyes and a carrot nose.

Do you see a murderer in that picture? Look toward the bottom corner. Literally 2.5 seconds after I took this photo, Samson ate the eyes and nose and knocked the head off the snowman. Isabella said, “Samson wrecked it! He ate it!”

And so was her first lesson in the cruel humanity of this world.

We had lots of fun and now I’m ready for it all to melt so that I can put my jacket away again.

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27Dec2011

Accomplished

Posted in Family, Holidays and Seasons, House and Home by teamtradermom

I love me a good to do list. This is for 2 reasons.

It outlines my tasks and helps clear my head
It feels so amazing to cross things off and see what you’re getting done

Yesterday was one of those days.

First of all, let me just say how nice it was to have the day AFTER Christmas off. That extra day really helped get things reset and back to normal before starting work again.

Boy did we take advantage! Originally we considered using the day to catch a movie or something but that would involve a baby-sitter (we feel Isabella is too young yet for movies, even the kids ones). Plus, that would take valuables hours away from the many tasks that have been piling up. Owning a house – and particularly having just moved – means no end to chores, fixes, repairs, remodels, etc. So we opted to stay home and get stuff done.

I didn’t actually write out a list, which is unusual for me, but I was checking one off in my head. Here’s everything I got done:

2 loads of laundry folded and put away
First floor vacuumed
Dishes washed and put away (by hand and dishwasher)
Pictures hung in the master bedroom
2 pictures hung in the living room
After Christmas shopping done at Lowe’s
Isabella’s kitchen set put together*
Christmas presents put away
Goodwill items donated*
Basement cleaned up and some organization started**

CJ got a whole bunch of other stuff done too, from his own list.

Boy did it feel good! I went to bed last night exhausted yet satisfied.

Switching gears a bit. I’m not going to write a whole Christmas re-cap post this year because frankly, I’m ready to move on. I love the holidays and we had an awesome weekend, but I’d rather leave it be and quietly go forth with my week. It’s one of those things that you build up for a whole month and then when it’s over, it’s time to just let it go and stop retelling it.

One thing I will share is that this year we got Isabella involved in culling through her toys. Before we even brought one gift from Grandma’s into the house or opened many of her Santa gifts, we had her sit with us in the play room and decide which toys she would keep, which ones would be put away for a while (i.e. take out of the rotation and bring back in 6 months from now when we needed something “new”) and which would be given away to “other kids and babies and ladies and guys” (as she says it).

I thought it would be hard for her to understand and that we’d have to grab toys out of her clutched little hands but it didn’t go that way at all. She was cool with giving some of them away. She even went with us to Goodwill yesterday and watched daddy take the bags of stuff in. She asked where daddy was taking her toys and I reminded her about other kids who needed them. She said, “And babies and ladies and guys.” Yes, them too.

With a herd of toys either gone or relegated to the basement, her playroom had much more room for her new toys, like the kitchen set. It looked so nice and neat and open last night I almost wept. I know it won’t last – especially with my tornado Father-in-law coming over today – but it sure looked good for a day!

Another project that was started today was the basement. That one wasn’t even on my to do list – it was a total accident. See, last week I started working out again. Some of my gear is still packed away, and we don’t have the TV set up in the basement yet, so I’ve been forced to do either the elliptical while reading a magazine or free weight moves (using fitness cards from magazines). Well I finished my magazine this morning before my time was up on the elliptical and I CANNOT use a machine without either reading material or TV to watch. So I had to find other cardio. I looked around the basement – which has basically been the dumping grounds for everything else in the house that we don’t know what to do with – and decided I might as well work on organizing it.

So I moved furniture (including the elliptical which before was tucked back in a dark corner and now is near another wall, under some light), went through boxes, picked up toys, and basically started figuring out where things should go and how to keep it somewhat tidy while still being in limbo.

I got so much done and was moving and using muscles the whole time. Not too exciting but I felt great about it! Plan to do that again tomorrow and every day thereafter until we have a gym membership (which could be sooner rather than later)!

I have a whole slew of other projects to get done but those will have to wait for another day and another post.

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Christmas Eve

Posted in Family, Holidays and Seasons by teamtradermom

It’s here. The day before Christmas. I actually woke up feeling stressed. Can you believe that? I was thinking about all that I had left to do and wondering how I would get it all done. But you know what, I did.

We started out with a usual morning routine. Breakfast, playtime, some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Then we got ready to go out and brave the world of Target.

It actually wasn’t too bad. Not nearly the nightmare I was expecting. We got a good parking spot and were able to find all the items we needed. Easy peasy. Then we headed home and Isabella napped while I wrapped presents and watched a movie with Ceige.

When Isabella got up, we decided it was too nice out to stay inside so we donned our jackets and headed to the backyard.

We played soccer.

Isabella has always been good with her feet. She was kicking like crazy in the womb and as a baby would use her feet for all kinds of things. She was a monkey girl!

Then we got out the basketball.

Cj was teaching her how to dribble and bounce. She did great for her first go at it!

We also played catch with the football but her interest in that was short-lived so CJ and I played while Isabella drew with sidewalk chalk.

I didn’t feel like cooking so we ordered a pizza and went the easy route. Mmmm…I sense a new tradition forming…

After dinner we did our usual ritual of taking a picture with Santa hats on. We literally had to take 8 pictures before we could get one to turn out.

It was either blurry.

Or CJ looked drunk.

Or Isabella was looking away/blinking/messing with her hat/messing with her face.

Notice that I look pretty much the same in each one – abominable arm and all.

Finally we got one where we were all looking at the camera with our eyes open.

OK so Isabella looks pissed off and tired. Can you blame her since it was taking so long? Even Samson – who I wasn’t going to even try to work in – was sighing and groaning at the length of this operation.

Once we were done we each got to open one present – an ornament. We drew names this year because otherwise we’d end up with like 12 new ornaments just amongst the 4 of us. Oddly enough, CJ and Isabella drew each other’s names and Samson and I drew each other’s names.

Isabella opening her Elmo ornament.

CJ excited about his new Thor ornament.

And I got a little Christmas cupcake ornament. I think Samson thought it was real. He was really eyeing it…

After that and a quick bath for Munchkin, we all piled in the car and drove around to look at Christmas lights. Isabella was singing like crazy and I was able to capture some of it on video, including this rendition of “Happy Birthday” to Samson.

Isabella sings Dr. Knickerbocker and Happy Birthday

Once we got home, it was time to top the night off with everyone singing to Samson over a cupcake.

Yes, that’s a Hostess cupcake. I was ill prepared this year so on the way home from looking at lights, we swung by a gas station to buy Bailey’s Irish Cream and a package of Hostess cupcakes. At 8:00 pm on Christmas Eve. We’re so cool.

Speaking of Bailey’s, it’s time to head downstairs to enjoy said liquor mixed with the hazelnut vodka gifted to me this week, while watching A Christmas Carol.

Merry Christmas everyone!

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