2012- Week 39 & 40

(Yes, I forgot I had a blog)

 1. Agnes had homecoming and as a cheerleader she was busy all week, building floats, leading pep assemblies, going to the dance, etc.

2. I ordered shirts I designed from Rusty Phillips and have been pretty happy with them.

3. Sadie had a women's circle at her house.  It was great.  Very positive and nice to be with her again.

4. I had several big events at the store including Red Hat Day and Witches Night Out.  The latter went better than the former.  Agnes and Laura made cupcakes for the Witches Night Out.

5. I got an iPad from Bryce for our anniversary.  I got him tickets to Morrissey at the Surf Ballroom.

6. I've been working a lot with Kathleen with Farm to School Planning.  She is awesome to work with.

7. I went to a meeting for the Mud Run follow up and as fund raiser for the skate park we are almost to the goal. 

8. I went to a meeting for after-school programming that I used to head and it looks like it is going to go well even without me, but with a little of my help.  So that makes me feel like I did my job well.

9.  I fell asleep at the library when Link had story hour, I'm so tired from #10.  Also love the book "Not a Box" and I am putting it on Link's Christmas List.

 10.  SOOO much play practice.

2012- Week 38

1. Gabe Martin-Hiner's Birthday Party was on Sunday.  The theme was "Knights."  This kids designed their own shields and Jason (Gabe's Dad) made some great games like lancing and archery.  They even dressed the part.

2. Agnes had a sleep over on Saturday night.  Laura (the German exchange student) came over.  The girls had fun making chocolate covered strawberries and hanging out in their room.  We had a great breakfast conversation over French Toast and Coconut Syrup.

3. Bryce, Link, and I went to see a Simon and Garfunkel show at the Opera House.  It was a very nice show and it made me appreciate the duo even more than I already did, which was a lot.  Link was good through the show and ended up falling asleep in the second half.

4.  Friday I had a great meeting with Kathleen, Jane, Amy and Tarasa in Prairie.  It was about the future collaboration of grants and what not for Farm.  I loved it, but I couldn't tell if I was shaking from excitement or caffeine.

5.  Link started gymnastics and tap dance.  He really enjoys both.  Somersaults are still a little scary for him.  But he loves jumping and doing heel/toe.

6. I was at Whimsy Market a lot this week.  We had an After 5 on Wednesday night which went well. I rearranged and got in new inventory from Reality Check that I am excited about.  Cassey, my new renter, is proving to be a valuable resource for display and all sorts of ideas.

7. First Day of Fall was this week.  The low temps are scaring everyone for this winter.

8. Guttenberg Garage Sales were on Saturday.  I got a few items, my favorite being a nicely painted table I got for $15 that fit perfectly at the store.

9.  The Mud Run happened while I was gone.  The event tripled in attendance this year.  I feel it was largely due to my marketing campaign, which makes me proud.  (And if it would have not tripled I would have also blamed my marketing campaign, so I don't feel bad taking credit for it when it is positive as well.)

10. Got a lot of compliments on photos I took of Amber's wedding.

3-year-old Link

1. Every morning we hear this "A! I think the sun is out.  Time to wake up and get up."

2. Every meal time when asked something like this "Do you want some dinner?"  or "Do you want a hot dog?" etc, this is the answer.  "Nah, I just want something to eat and something to drink."

3. When he is doesn't like what you have to say you immediately hear this "Pssssssssssss.   You're stuck in a web" as he makes a spider man hand at you.  He thinks Spiderman is a bad guy.

4. "Aaaa!  I'm growing."  (usually followed with something like, "and my hair is too" or "just like SuperDad" or "and it hurts".)

5. One day Link said to me "Do you know (the word) attitude?"  I can definitely say "Yes."

2012- Week 37

1. The day after the wedding we went to San Francisco.  It was Link's first flight.  He did great.  He was amazed when looking out the window and kept saying things that made people laugh, like "We are soo far away!"

2. The hotel we stayed in was AWESOME.  The W, a starwood hotel.  We would have never been able to afford it had it not been paid for by Bryce's company.  It wasn't the luxurious rich type hotel, it was the totally rocking super star type hotel.



3. Bryce spent Monday-Wednesday at TechCrunch events hob-nobbing with celebrities like Jessica Alba, Mark Zuckerburg, and Cory Booker. Actually it was more like gawking at them, but it was pretty cool that his small-ish company made such headlines this week.  Heard it on NPR and saw it all over the papers.

4. Day 1- The kids and I spent our first day at Pier 39.  We ate a great breakfast at the Eagle Cafe (I had crab cake benedict and Agnes had strawberry french toast) and then we walked around the pier and watched the Sea Lions.  We rode the carousel, shopped the farmer's market (bought leches, champaign grapes, and dried kiwi), and then took the cable car all the way to Market Street.  We walked back to the hotel for some relax time with Link and then headed out again.  The hotel has a free car ride in an Acura so we took it to Chinatown and walked back.

 

 5. Day 2- We walked by the unveiling of the iphone 5 going on outside next door to our hotel and then we went to Market Square and Agnes bought her homecoming dress.  We stopped into other shops along the way too like Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, etc, and ended up eating at Boudin's Bakery (famous for sourdough bread).  We took the F line cable cars (cool vintage cars brought from all over the US) and went to Ghiradelli Square for an ice cream sundae dinner.  Agnes also got some cupcakes there.

6. Day 3- We got picked up in the morning for a trip to Muir woods.  We didn't get a lot of time at the woods but it was still great to see the redwoods again.  Our tour guide was eccentric to say the least.  He recited us poems that he had written or memorized to go with our tour.  I did enjoy the short jaunt through Green Gulch.  The Zen Center Garden's look amazing and something I may want to return to.  We ended up in Sausalito where we could roam around and take the ferry back, but by that time Link was zonked out so we just took the bus back.  We went to Hard Rock Cafe on Agnes' suggestion and walked the cold harbor at night, eating crepes for dessert and looking through tourist shops. Then ended up in a really weird situation where a somewhat scam artist tour bus picked up a bunch of us at the F line.  We had been on so many shuttle buses at this time that we thought nothing of it, until we went to leave and the guy followed us because we didn't pay, although we already had F line tickets.  Had we known we needed to pay in getting off we would have saved the cash we threw into street musicians buckets, but we were plum out.  It was embarrassing.

 

7. Day 4- After a morning Starbucks run and some play time on the free Pac Man game at the hotel we checked out the hotel and used Yelp to visit the Tech Crunch office.  Christine gave us a great little tour.  Then we went to Hertz for a car and drove 3 hours to Oakhurst near Yosemite National Park.  We ended the night with some bad Chinese and a very tired boy.

8. Day 5- We traveled to Yosemite today.  Stopping first at Mariposa Woods for some more time with red woods and then off to Glacier point for some amazing views.  We ended our time photographing deer in the valley that came right up to us and having some great BBQ at Todd's.

9.Day 6- We went back to San Francisco for our last day and played at the beach.  Lorri recommended Baker Beach and it was perfect.  Link loved getting his toes tickled by the water and watching drawings get washed away.  Following the beach we had dinner at Musical Offerings in Berkley.  An friend of ours from Elkader passed away last month who used to live in Berkley.  His memorial was on Saturday and since we were near his old stomping grounds we asked what we could do to celebrate his life, his daughter recommended visiting this place.  The nice meal and the classical music reminded us so much of him.  After dinner we went to a nearby playground to visit Erch, a friend of Bryce's from Cranbrook.  His wife and two daughters were there too.  I loved getting to know his wife, MB, who had so much in common with us.  She even lived in Manchester, IA for 4 years when she was young.

10.  We had to wake at 4 am to catch a 6 am flight back home.  Still were not into the house until 6 pm.  Blah, traveling back in time is always so draining.

2012- Week 36

1. On Tuesday I went to Madison for AmeriCorps training.  It was great.   I met lots of great people and am really excited to do the work this year.  I was sad to hear, however, that because I was already an AmeriCorps member I can only do 2 more years, not 4 like I we had all thought.  One of my favorite things was visiting Troy Gardens and eating at an Indian restaurant.

2. Friday was Amber's rehearsal and dinner.  Father Peters was a complete dick during the rehearsal, even being mean to the 3-year-olds.  We had a great dinner at my parents afterwords.  We did paper lanterns and fire works.  Bryce's parents came from Ohio to go to the wedding so they joined us here too.

3. Amber and Paul got married on Sunday.  It was a beautiful day.  The wedding was beautiful and Father Peter's service was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.  It was great

4. Amber and Paul had a party bus between the wedding and the reception.  It was really fun.  There was lots of dancing and rum chata shots on the bus.  We also stoped by a firetruck for some photos.

5. The reception was very nice too.  They had a good dj and food.  Everything went so fast that we didn't even do speeches, which is ok because I didn't even get mine written.  I was kind of wanting to do a flash mob and talked to my cousin Tyler about doing it, but it was too late to really put anything together and I got promoted to photographer during the reception so it was nice to not have another thing to do.  Agnes and Monet really got along during the wedding.

2012- Week 35

1. This week I spent a lot of time meeting with school lunch ladies.  Man, do they have a lot on their plate.  The guidelines change a lot and they have to keep careful track of everything and put up with people complaining non-stop.  This year no only do they have a minimum number of fruits and veggies, etc, they also have a max of proteins and carbs.  So they can't have peanut butter sandwiches as an alternative if they are already serving chicken sandwiches and a bean salad, for example.  Our Farm 2 School positions are in place to help them out with what they do.

2.  We introduced the rock jar to Link. We give him a rock for doing something nice and take one away for throwing a fit.  He filled it up during the week so we went to the Burger Barn. 

3. I went to yoga at the fitness center.  Talia is the instructor and she is really cool.  Friday they kayaked to Motor Mill to do yoga in the Blue Moon.  I didn't go but that makes me think of the class as 100x cooler.  I forgot Yoga worked so many muscles.

4. Cassey K decided to join Whimsy Market.  I am really excited.  She is really excited.  I hope it will be a great match.

5. Link and I had hair appointments on Wednesday.  He got his cut, I got mine dyed.  It is funny how much hair color can bring out hair cuts.  Tons of people at play practice asked me if I had just gotten an undercut.  I told them it had been since February and they were shocked.

6. We took Agnes to the Mall of America.  She was in heaven.  In fact she kept singing "Heaven is a place on earth."

7. We went to IKEA and got some shelving for our kitchen.  Almost there.

8.  About 2 days before we went to the MOA, April A from Monona e-mailed me, not even knowing that we were going to the Mall saying that at Link's b-day party Autumn caught a package of tickets at the parade that had full price tickets to the MOA's mini golf, aquarium, amusement park and more and she wanted to split them with us since it was Link's party she got them at.  She happened to be at the MOA the same time we were so we met up with them and got the tickets.  So we did all those things.

9.  We stayed with Debbie.  I love that girl so much. 

10.  I made some great purchases at the mall.  Agnes did too.  Link and Bryce spent most their times on the rides.  I was surprised with how fearless Link was. 

2012- Week 34

1. Monday was my first "at home" day so I decided it might be time to start working on some schooling with Link.  We read a kid's book on gardening and then picked green beans.  Some of the highlights were watching Sesame Street's " Pinball 12" and working on a clock to figure out "O'clock." 

Link is going through a phase where he says he never has fun when you ask him.  So Cheri titled this one "Link and Taryn Not Having Fun."

2. Choreography for the musical all week.  Fun.  I love dancing.  My friend, Cheri, is the choreographer.  Link went to their house on Tuesday to play.

3. Agnes tried out for cheerleading.  I can tell she is getting a little comfortable with us because she practiced her cheers in front of me. 

Look how nice our new roof is!

4. I complained about the sloppiness of our basement and some other little things done in our house, so JP our contractor came to "talk with us."  He basically told us to go to hell in a very nice way.  Oh well, there is a lot of great work he did too.

Agnes will totally realize I read her blog when she sees this photo, but I just love it.

5. Agnes had her first sleep over on Friday.  They went to the host family of Laura, the German Exchange student.  Robin is the same age and a host sister from the area.  Camilla is an exchange student from Denmark.  I think they had a great time. 

Bryce got a iphone for work, so hello well documented life.  S'mores in the rain.

6. We went to a bonfire at Leslie and Adam's house with lots of other friends.  Even though I love that family I am not sure how well our family fits in there, still.  I think Agnes felt the awkwardness.  She is a lot like us and didn't feel like she really fit in with the teens either.  Plus it rained, so we had s'mores under umbrellas.

Sitting on the dock of the bay.

7. On Sunday was a foreign exchange family picnic at Backbone.  It was nice.  We made kumla, which is one of Aggie's favorite dish, a potato dumpling.  I don't think I got it quite right, but she still liked them.

8. We skyped with Agnes' parent on Sunday.  They were very nice.  I think they were sad that she is not homesick at all.  Maybe she will be later.  Although we are trying, we are not providing the structure older parents often do and she might miss that sometime down the road.  We have helped her study some.  Helping a non-native English speaker with vocabulary words is very difficult.   Like I referenced the indomitable snowman for the word indomitable and she said in Norwegian they just call him the terrible snowman.

9. I worked a bit in Prairie this week.  Finishing up my VISTA position and starting my Farm 2 School position.  I had to go get fingerprinted on Tuesday, which meant Monday night was hours of looking through boxes for my ss card.  Bryce was the winner in finding it.

I met Tracy (middle) at the Gay's Mills Fair.  She and her family are from Dubuque.

10. We have a new renter at Whimsy Market.  A Girl's Bling moved in and they look great.  I hope the store proves to go well for them.