Pool

I have a feeling this is going to be the best $7 we've spent in a long time.

16 Year Old Shoes

Well my oldest wearable item has bit the dust. O wait I just realized I have a pair of Big Kahuna boxer shorts from the Wisconsin Dells that are 17 years old. Anyway my Adidas sandals that I originally wore before and after soccer games and have turned into garage/yard shoes fell apart today. The funny thing is I really thought they were still in great condition and upon further inspection I am amazed they didn't break sooner. Adidas sandals I will miss you. I wonder if I should buy a new pair.

13 Months Old

Today Grace hit 13 months old. I think this month got away from me because I just realized yesterday that she was almost 13 months. This has been a fun month. It has been cool to watch Grace emerge from babyhood and begin her entrance to toddlerhood. As I've posted before she is completely done nursing and she walks all the time. These 2 things are enough to make me realize she's a little girl now and not a little baby.

Grace has really shown us her personality more this month than ever. She is really quite the socialite. She goes to everybody and wants everyone to pick her up and often times read to her. This afternoon we went to visit my parents and she was being a ham the whole time. She would do things just to get a laugh or a reaction. I'm pretty sure she got that one honestly:)

She is also surprising us daily with how much she knows. For example at church they sing a song to celebrate the kids who are in the nursery each week that includes clapping and lifting their hands up to shout horray. I started singing the song to Grace this week and she clapped and lifted her arms up to shout horray without my prompting. Amazing and cute all at once. I could go on and on with all the other smart things she does but I don't want to bore you.

Grace also loves to "talk". She walks around babbling and carrying on conversations with us, her toys, and her books. I have actually started a list of her words so I can keep track. They are just a Google document that I published and I put the link on the side of our blog so feel free to check it out. This month she got really good at uh-oh, hi, daddy (not dada anymore) and up (although its really more like pu). I think she is working on dog, go, and maybe thank you. So I haven't officially added those to the list yet. I have pretty high standards before I add words to her list. I realize at some point she will start learning multiple words a day so who knows how long I'll keep this list up. But for now it works.

For Sale

Our house is for sale! There is a sign in our yard. It is weird. I'm not going to post where we live since some of you readers could be stalkers but if you know of anyone interested in a 2 bedroom house let me know and I'll get you the info. We have decided it is time to put our house on the market and hope to move into something a little bit bigger. And in case you were wondering we are NOT expecting another child. But someday we hope to have more than 1 and for the time being it would be nice to live in a bigger house even with only 1 child. Plus houses seem to take a while to sell because the market is pretty saturated. At this point I'm hoping it takes less than a year. I'm setting my expectations very low. My goal is to live in a new house by May 18th, 2011.

Avocado Chicken Casserole

I just made this yummy recipe from Taste of Home. If you want the original recipe go here or use mine with some slight modifications. I downsized from the original recipe a little bit and had enough for 2 adults and 2 toddlers with leftovers for dinner tonight. Now the question is will Matt eat it? I also used lasagna noodles instead of egg noodles. I thought this was delicious so enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter
  
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon each garlic powder, onion powder, dried basil, and thyme
• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 1 cup half-and-half cream
• 2 layers of lasagna noodles for whatever pan you use, cooked and drained
• 2 medium ripe avocados, cubed
  
• 1/2 lb cooked chicken
• 1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

• In a saucepan, melt butter; stir in flour and seasonings until smooth. Gradually add milk and cream. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.
  
• In a greased 9-in. x 9-in. baking dish, layer half of the noodles, avocados, chicken, white sauce and cheese. Repeat layers.
  
• Cover and bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes. Uncover; bake 5 minutes longer or until bubbly.
  

My Mother's Day

I had a good Mother's Day today. It started out a little rough with Grace screaming in her crib at 6 am for a good 15 minutes before I gave in and got her. For Grace this is unusual because she is fairly content until we get her around 7 every morning. So we did something we've never done before and brought her into bed with us. She actually did really well and fell back asleep for a little bit. Then Matt got up with Grace and I slept until after 9!!! I cannot remember the last time I slept that late. It was glorious. And for my Mother's Day present Matt took Grace to church and I stayed home. I enjoy going to church but it was nice to have a couple hours to myself in our house. This is only the 3rd time that has happened and it was the longest amount of time so it was kind of weird. By the time Matt and Grace got home I was definitely missing them. Then we ate leftovers for lunch and went to do yardwork (meanwhile Grace took a 3 hour nap). Since it was Mother's Day I helped a little with the work but mostly sat in a chair and watched Matt or laid on the front lawn in the sunshine. So relaxing. And finally Matt went and got Chili's to-go for our dinner. All-in-all a great and relaxing day.

1 Year Pictures

My sister and brother-in-law were able to make it down to visit last weekend and take some 1 year pictures of Grace. They turned out great but were actually a lot harder to get good ones than the 6 month pictures she took. Laura is heading off to Montana for an intensive photography school this summer. I can't wait to see how Grace's 18 month pictures turn out after all of that training. I hope she doesn't start charging us! Anyway, enjoy....

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my mom who has always worked hard to take care of me, teach me, encourage me, love me and is a great friend.

And Happy Mother's Day to my mother-in-law who has made life with in-laws easy, has become my friend, and raised a wonderful son (well actually 2 sons and a daughter).

Without the example of these 2 women I don't think I would have any hope of being a decent mom myself.

Best Sandals Ever

I think that I recently bought the best pair of sandals I will ever own. I'm a huge fan of wearing sandals during the summer months (who isn't) but have bad feet. Most flip flops are fine for short amounts of walking but my arches kill after wearing them for a while.

Pictured Below: These Old Navy flips are the worst but everyone owns at least one pair. These are $2 a pair so they are definitely affordable and that is the only reason why I own some.



Pictured Below: J. Crew Elastic Wedge flips have become a favorite of mine over the last few years. The elastic strap helps ward off those awful flip-flop blisters and the thicker soles helps my feet feel a little more supported. These are $12 a pair. Not too bad but the first time I bought some I felt like I was going way overboard because I was used to the Old Navy $2.


Pictured Below: These fashionable sandals would look cute with a dressy outfit. But they would not be practical for me. I love them though. While I may wear a casual skirt or dress I will not be dressing up more than twice this summer so I'll stick with the dressy sandals I have and not buy another pair. Did I mention these are $485 so way out of my budget anyway:)


Pictured Below: These casual sandals would look good with a more casual outfit and while I would love to wear them I can't. Again, my feet stink and I need arch support. I bet they'd give me blisters too and I'd probably trip a lot. They are so cute! O yeah and these are $220 so still pretty far out of my budget.

Pictured Below: But these, oh these wonderful sandals have made my life amazing. I bought these Merrell sandals about a month ago and do not regret it. Is it crazy to want a black pair too? Yesterday I walked at least 3 miles in these sandals and not one bit of my feet complained even once. WOW! I would wear these to an amusement park for the whole day (and that is the standard I hold my shoes to). They cost me $70. I was worried I was spending too much but I can tell you already it was worth it.

C25K: Week 2

I wanted to give and update on my C25K progress. I completed week 2 of the Couch to 5K plan on Friday and started week 3 today. It took me 2 weeks to complete week 2 because I only ran twice the 1st try (you are supossed to run 3 times a week) and decided I would like to prolong my journey to harder weeks so I repeated week 2. I thought my plan was pretty smart. I pretended like I cared that I didn't get it right and ran a little less than I would have if I would have moved on:) Also, just to clarify I am not training for a specific 5K. Maybe if I complete this I will find one to run. I just needed a plan to motivate me.

On another running note, we were able to witness a marathon yesterday. It was pretty cool to watch 14,000 runners and cheer them on. We had several friends running half of the marathon so we were able to see them too. It was a pretty cool experience. Below is one of my favorite pictures. Look down the road and see how many people are running and that was just a handful of them. We watched people go by for over and hour.

The Cross

Recently I had the opportunity to give a couple messages at Quest about the cross. It was very fruitful for me personally in preparing for these messages to reflect on the cross and what it means to live in the truth of the cross. Here are the message titles:

1) The Day Jesus Chose The Nails
2) The Cross-Centered Life

If you have an hour to spare and like listening to my voice, you can listen to the message through Quest's audio player: http://www.questwired.com -> Media -> Messages -> Launch Sermon Player.

All Done

I can't believe it but Grace is officially all done nursing. She doesn't need me anymore. Or at least in the eating from me sense. But she does need my hugs, smiles, support, encouragement, and love. And that is why I was surprisingly totally fine with it when she had a cup of milk for breakfast this morning instead of nursing. She sat on my lap and drank the milk. One time she pulled on my shirt but she didn't even fuss and she seemed to forget about what she was looking for quickly. Then we moved on and ate breakfast. No complaints.

Happiness Is...

....making your bed every morning. I recently saw a news story that reported people who make their bed every morning are happier than they would be if they didn't. I love to make our bed and when I don't (which is only like 5 times a year) my day feels a whole lot worse. Maybe more people should try it. Maybe we'd have less road rage, fewer angry customers, fewer angry sales associates and overall more world peace. And don't give the excuse it takes a lot of time. It will take less than a minute. Happy bed making:)