Breezy Point; Day 1

I didn't have to work Wednesday or Thursday and it was Mom and Dad's week at Breezy Point (20 miles north of Brainerd) so I drove the girls up for two nights of vacationing fun with Gram and Gramps.

After we unpacked the guys were still out golfing so us gals hit the park. They have an awesome city park nearby that we go to every year. We had wonderful weather and the girls took right to the jungle gyms.

This young boy in the picture was so happy to see us stroll up. He's about as shy as my two.

I really like these next two pictures because I have ones just like them of Maren doing the same thing and the same park from 2 years ago:

Maren would swing all day almost. She just loves underdog pushes and she's learning to pump her legs.

 Lilly's love affair with swinging is short lived. 

This is the biggest steepest slid around and Maren braved it! No surprise there I guess.

Lilly loves to climb and she'll tell you, "climb, climb climb." She also really likes those bridges that are hinged so they move when you walk across them but she's a bit small for them so she needs help and says. "hold on" which means, hold my hands and walk me across this thing.

The girls then got into hunting for acorns with Gramma and Great Aunt Debbie. They made quite the collection. Maren is into collecting.

 Gramma saved one of my favorite books from my childhood "Little Miss Suzy" who is a squirrel who has acorn cups. I read it to Maren and she wanted to make acorn tea cups which somehow turned into acorn juice. Gramma made her some juice the next day with the collection of acorns and we called it acorn juice (it was just green tea).

Then back to jungle gyming it. Distractions only keep kids occupied for so long.

The park was followed by dinner at the Commander, a pizza restaurant nearby with Great Uncle Dave and Papa. When I walked in I thought it was way to quiet to be the right place because I had run to the cabin to get milk and a bib for Lilly and when I arrived it was silent. No place where my kids are is silent. Sure enough, they were in the corner amazed by the race car video game.

After Lilly went to bed Gramma, Maren and I took a walk down by the lake. We were stopped by a nice woman who didn't want popsicles to go to waste by melting on her drive home the next morning so she gave them to Maren.

Luckily she's good at sharing. Plus we found some other kids to give the other ones too and made some fast friends.

Maren's latest works

When Lillian naps and Maren doesn't I try to let Maren do things that we just plain can't do with Lillian around. Painting is one of those things. Maren is happy to go down in the basement and paint while we listen for Lilly on the monitor and her attention span for it is quite short so clean up time comes quickly and calmly.

When Lillian is awake there is no painting, at least not with acrylic paint. We have to find other things to do. Maren is now trying photography. Here is one of her latest:

And then it's markers. I don't like these out while Lillian is awake because she really likes to color but Maren managed to draw a quick picture while Lillian was drawing with an ink pen on her shirt.

Here is Baby Olivia (my friends Dan and Erin had a baby on 8-8) getting her diaper changed. Note the belly button, ears and hair! Wow! I think Baby Olivia is from the line of Mr Potato heads but she's cute none the less.

That SFG

I have three six by 2 foot boxes with enough space in between for the lawn mower to pass. It's a small amount of work for a large amount of harvest.




It's a bit out of control. Mostly the tomato plant. Yes, plant. Singular. We only put in one tomato plant since I am pretty much the only one in the house who will eat tomato (besides the dog) but it is out of control.

 

I really enjoy putting the fruits and veggies to good use so today the girls had home grown watermelon for a snack. Previously I made a sauce I always liked for pasta from my days at Ciatti's.

Matt has made three more batches of pickles, all jalapeno garlic dills. He tries a little something different each time. This time, soaking the cukes in ice cold water then adding alum to the brine. We'll see.

My Life is Changing

Big Time.

At the very end of 2007 I put in a proposal with my current employer to work part-time from home after my first baby was born, due 3-16-2008. I was granted the position at over $22/hr for 25 hrs/wk and I was eligible for full benefits. What a deal! It went great! Life was going well. Summer of 2009 we decided to try for number 2. With quick success I didn't even know until the day after I was laid off. The recession had hit my employer hard. It still is. It was hard to be excited about my new pregnancy w/ the job loss. My husband enjoys his job and it pays pretty well but does not offer the affordable benefits my job did. Luckily Obama had helped out w/ my cobra payments for the first 14 months of my unemployment. Since then things have been going downhill (in our savings account for sure). Unemployment was enough to make ends meet, well almost. Now, unemployment no longer exists for me. My income, $0.

It's pretty scary. I am not comfortable with where my savings account currently is and now we have doctor's bills and need a new water heater (or at least that would dry out our basement and allow the kids to play down there again).

The solution, since 22 months of searching for a graphic design position has turned up nothing, go back to waiting tables. I did it during high school and during college and didn't Jesse Ventura say that's what all art majors do?

Luckily I was able to find a great restaurant that was hiring and have now been an employee of Cravings Wine Bar and Grille for the last week. Now I make minimum wage and will never know how much I'll bring home in a week. I now work double shifts all the time. Not that I didn't before but now my second shift is much more demanding than cooking, dishes, and bath time.

So far I love it! I love the people and I love having something to do that I'm good at because I currently suck at being a mom. I love having time away from my kids for the first time in years. It gives me more patience when I am with my kids to have time away from them. I have a new reason to do my hair and put on makeup. I love that my uniform is all black, nothing more than that, all black. I love that I can wear my nose stud. I love that there is potential to make a lot of money in a short amount of time.

It's a big change. I'm excited but boy am I exhausted. I am not 21 anymore. My body is use to eating dinner at 6:30 every night and carrying kids, not drinks. My feet are use to wearing crocs and pushing a stroller. My body is not use to running around a restaurant like it use to be when I was young. I hope that this change is mostly for the better that mostly it's listed in the plus column. The minus: flexibility. I loose the opportunity to run to Iowa or the lake for a long weekend or even for Christmas. I loose the flexibility to go the beach on a nice day, scrapbook with my friends on a Friday night,  or go to Breezy Point when my parents have their timeshare week. That's a big change. I use to take my work with me and go wherever whenever. Not anymore. And something has to give. So far it's been the blog - as you can see. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to keep up so bare with me through the transition.

Wish me luck. This is a big change.

Muddy Buddies

A day with these two is never boring. Today proves to be no different. Arriving home at 5:45pm from a visit to Gramma and Grampa's house I told the girls to play outside (it was such a nice day!). Maren announced she was going to dig for worms. I immediately said, "no, that's not a good idea." Upon further thought I decided if that's what she wanted to do I wasn't going to stop her. Lillian went directly to the empty pool. It was empty but still had a bit of water in it. Enough to get her wet and happy. Maren went to check on her while I was running in and out unpacking the car and starting dinner. I came out and Maren announced that Lilly pooped and it was all over. Really? That's my girl. Sure enough. Lilly has poop coming up her back. I decided to change her right outside and not to really change her at all but to just clean her up and send her on her way. Maren went back to digging for worms. Lillian followed. Have I mentioned she wants to do WHATEVER her sister does. Dad came home. The dog went out. I went out and Maren announced that the dog peed and Lilly was playing in it. Yep, the dog peed right where the kids were playing in the dirt and Lilly was busily making it into mud. I jumped for the hose so it would be watered down pee which just made more mud. I NEVER thought I'd just let my kids play in the mud. I took the remaining clothes off Lilly and ended up stripping Maren down too to save the clothes. Since I don't plan on ever letting this happen again I took photos to document the occasion. Enjoy!

I tried to wash the mud off a bit in the pool. Mostly it just made more mud. They ended up straight into the bath before dinner.

 Once you let go of how muddy they're getting it's easy to sit back and enjoy making the memories. What fun!

What Lilly Says

Wanna see how quickly Lilly is growing up? Check these clips!

Clip 1: Of course our kids are into Darth Vader. 

Clip 2: Yo Gabba Gabba is a total fav around here. It comes across odd but it's really great if you watch it.

Clip 3: Lilly loves bubbles. This was while Dad was fishing in Canada. I was running out of ways to get things done. This worked for me to get dinner made.