Monday, March 26, 2012

2012- Week 12

1. Wow that was one stressful week.  I ended up snipping at actors, snipping at family members, snipping at kids I work with after school, snip snip snip.


2. Lots of set building. Next week is show time. Wizard of Oz.  March 30-31, 7:30 pm.  You're all invited.  My parents and sister even came to help.

3. Cheri Moser is the bomb.  Seriously.  She watched Link for a day, and of course I was worried about him since it was his first time at her house, wihtout me.  He had a blast playing with her kids.  She sent a photo text to ease my troubled mind and concluded the day with an synopsis of what they did and ate and funny things he said, with even more photos.  You can even check out his day on her blog: mcgregormosers.blogspot.com

4. Link has peed and pooped his pants every day this week.  He won't go when he is showing signs even when we put him on the toilet.  I have tried ignoring it, discipline, having him clean it up. I'm tempted to put him back in diapers but I don't want to reverse this.  He doesn't even remember that he used to wear diapers.


5. Oscar Veg Outs.  To keep my sanity on all these nights I can not sleep due to worry, I have been renting movies.   All with a nomination at the Academy Awards.  Here are my ratings (out of 10) My week with Marilyn:9, Hugo:7, The Descendants:5, The Ides of March:8

6. Project Discovery Day at 4-H in Gays Mills.  Kids get to sample different projects.  I taught two sessions on candle making.  We did roll candles, which is like beeswax candles only with regular wax half way cooled.  Then I helped do an electrical session and a water rockets session (which was REALLY fun).  I didn't help with cookie decorating, but I did make all the cookies for it the day before.

7. Mom took Lincoln from Friday night to Sunday morning, which helped me get lots of things done, including a nap.

8. Bryce had me come to a little get together after his play practice which was really nice.   I met three more people, two I had seen on stage, but never met personally.  We had a night full of laughs talking about everything from high school musicals to tragic moments in history.  And there was wine, so I probably talked a lot more than I should have.

9. It has been nice weather all week and the flowers are starting to bloom.

10. Tax appointment wasn't as painful as I thought it would be.


Monday, March 19, 2012

2012- Week 11

1. Tuesday we had mom's group.  Annette had sheep, chickens, bunnies, playground equipment and more.  Link was having a challenging morning.  His reaction to the sheep baas "I don't love that sound."
Photo courtesy of Cheri Moser.


2. St. Pat's day in Elkader means fun at the library and a parade, but we started with shamrock pancakes.  Later we hooked up with more mom's groupies for the festivities.


3. The musical is almost here.   (I had a few actors walk in the parade since it was so fitting.)


4. The circus came to town.  Literally next door.  Here is Link watching clowns talking outside our window.  We put on his nose to.  When they noticed him, they all had a chuckle.  The circus was good.  I had low expectations, but I was impressed with the Russian acrobatics and quick change couple.  (Of course no photos allowed).


5. Got a tetnus shot after slightly stepping on a nail at Whimsy Market.

6. Reading "The Help."  I saw the movie when it came out.  I liked the movie and thought the book would be even better and it is.


7. Spring has sprung.  Whenever I see crocuses open I start singing "The Secret Garden."  Slept with the windows open.

8. Got some good deals in Prairie du Chien.  Grassroots and another store I can't remember the name of.  I got a round clothing rack for only $15. 

9. Got our van back.  Woohoo.

10. Beautiful moon.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

2012- Week 10


1. Diana turned 3.  They had a party in Independence at the Pizza Ranch.  It was princess themed.  Diana loved her gifts, cake, and batting balloons with Link.


2. I helped lead a robotics rally in Prairie du Chien.  We had about 50 kids who learned about the Lego mindstorm program, built a robot, and programmed it.  It was a lot of fun.


3. Bryce and Link decided they are going to make homemade pizza once a night each week.  They have been doing it for about three weeks now.


4. We signed our contract and inspection has begun for the housing grant.  It is so exciting it is making me nervous.  Please, oh, please let our taxes turn out like last years, so that we are not disqualified.  The grant is for $24,999.


5. We took a family trip to the Dubuque Museum of Art.


 6. And we decided to wear clown noses at the same time (Bryce and Link also have them on in the photo above).

7. We tried out Jumpin' Jane's, which is a party place where kids can go to jump on large inflatables and play on padded playground equipment.  (It is like $4 total.)  Link has a blast and worked past some fears.  The first 10 minutes we had to be by his side as he said over and over reassuring himself "This won't pop."  I think he thought we were playing on balloons.


 8. We tried out a new restaurant.  L. May.  It was gorgeous and sold amazing food, lots of it local.  We had a dessert of orange bread pudding made out of orange bread the restaurant gets from Sinsanwa.  It is in between Congressman Bruce Braley's office and a great book store called River's Lights 2nd Edition. 


9. We also went out for fish at Jodi's on Friday.  (OK, I think we have had enough restaurant food for the month.)


10. More stuff with Bryce's job.  He is starting to see our friend Richard, who does life coaching, so that he can stay on top of everything without using me.  I like it better and I think he does too. 

Sunday, March 4, 2012

2012- Week 9

1.  Monday- Flat tire in the morning. Shattered a glass blender at work.  Collapsed a bookshelf in my bosses office.  Yeah, wasn't my day.

2. Went to Cheri's for mom's group.  I usually miss it due to work, but they were kind enough to have it on one Tuesday for me.  I love talking to the girls and probably could all day long.  Link played really well too and didn't even come to me asking for me to play with him.  I think most of the time he played by himself.  Once I saw him baking up a storm on the kitchen set, another time I couldn't find him and he was in a special room under the stair well.  He was outnumbered 8:1 for girl to boy ratio (minus a sleeping little one) but when I asked him if he was playing with girls or boys today he wasn't sure.  I like that.

3.  I got my hair cut.  Inspired by Anya on Project runway.  Cut by Caitlin Moorman, my neighbor and former art student.  Loved by me.

4.  Signed up Link for Montessori Preschool next year.  Ahhh.  It makes me so nervous to send him out into the world.

5.  And then the day after Bryce gets news which may or may not indicate the same schedule for him this coming year, so we will see if this works out.

6.  Leslie dropped a bunch of books for Link on our doorstop.  He loved them.
 

7.  Ladies Night Out on Saturday.  Bobbi, April and I went to Prairie.  I ate as Eddies for the first time.  We went to see the Vow.  It was a well done chick flick.  I felt like just the right amount of drama, and yet I cried a number of times.

8.  Inventory of Whimsy Market so that I can get ready for taxes.

9.  Cleaned the house like a mad women this week to prepare for our house interview.

10. Funny play practices with the kids.  They always do really silly things, off script but in character.  Like this funny impromptu: The witches broom is falling apart so scarecrow picks up a piece of it during the scene where they are looking for Dorothy, sniffs it like a cigar, and then says "Wicked Witch, precisely 1/2 hour old, we are hot on her trail, boys."  They also love to break out in dance after the Lion's line "to the window."  And then the other three yell (off script) "to the walls."