Lacking Motivation

Disclaimer: There will be a lack of photos in this post!

We are experiencing an early spring/summer here. The weather had been in the 80's over the weekend! 80's in March! According to the news we are shattering records! hooray! :) Not about the record...I could care less about that. But the weather! The beautiful wonderful, lets-spend-loads-of-time-outside weather! I can't get enough of it! Skid can't either! She is loving it. The park, the walks, the trampoline (until it broke on Saturday!) So what, you may ask, am I lacking motivation in? Homework....housework....yard work....and work work! (notice the trend?) All I want to do it enjoy the weather. To sit outside and soak it all up with toy cars and chalk and bubbles! Skidamirink makes me feel 5 again :)

I have a ton of homework to do. That's a main starting point. I'm staying mostly on top of house work, but I know there is some more spring cleaning that could be getting done. On the plus side, I'm only about 3 days behind on my Bible reading! Hooray progress! Of for those of you who don't know; I joined Toastmasters International. Toastmasters? What the heck is that?! Well I'll tell you. It's basically a club that helps you develop and work on your public speaking and leadership skills. I'm actually pretty excited about this. I didn't count it as a "new" thing for blogging purposes, as I can't really document it via photos, but nevertheless, I've joined the club and I'm going to be giving my first speech in a few weeks! ahh! The first one is just an ice breaker speech, basically letting the people in the club get to know you a bit. We'll see how it goes. It's only 4-6 minutes long, but we all know that can seem like an eternity when up in front of people!

This past weekend was amazing. St. Patricks Day was a success! I had a Sr. High Youth Group party complete with clothing exchange and the breaking of my trampoline. Good thing Skid is so cute, because by the next day she had already convinced Grandpa to buy her a new one! Yay Grandpa! (softy! haha) The girls had fun and so did I. It's nice to be able to get to know them outside of the church.

I made them a dessert off of Pinterest :) It was delicious. It's called Pattys Pudding and you can get the recipe by clicking on the link. It's fast and simple and very yummy. I did use the mint green Oreos instead of the regular ones though, just for fun and added taste.

Later that night JD's brother and family came over for a BBQ. We made Hawaiian Chicken sandwiches which were great. Add a spinach and strawberry salad with raisins and a Very Berry Vinaigrette, a Suddenly Salad, some chocolate mint dip-n-dots and we had a great time! We even had a bonfire  and stayed up "late" playing tag and flashlight hide-and-go-seek with the kiddos! Skid loved it! She doesn't get to play games like that a lot considering she's an only child of a single mom!  Overall the weekend was a huge success! Which brings me back to the point that I am seriously lacking motivation in getting "work" done!

That being said JD and I have signed up to do a Warrior Dash! We are headed to out of state for it, as the one here conflicted for us. We are attempting to become St. Jude Warriors too, so if you want to help by donating, follow the link! Your support is much appreciated, that children and I thank you. :) Anything you can donate will help, and it all goes to St. Jude Children Research Hospital. Basically (check out the link above) we are going to be running a 5k from hell. Running through fire, over cargo net walls, crawling through the mud under barbed wire....good stuff. BUT for a good cause. And as we've learned, I'm a sucker for a good cause ;) So we are getting ready for that. I've upped my daily walking to start, started doing yoga and plan to re-integrate pilates into my routine for strength training as well. I know that eventually I will have to start actually dying RUNNING, and any advice would be much appreciated. I HATE  (we don't say hate, Mom!) DISTAIN running! I tried the couch potato to 5k and didn't care for it, so any other suggestions would be most welcomed! How did you start running? What works, what doesn't? How do you deal with shin splints (cuz I always get them then I decide to start running, it's a major contributing factor in me stopping every time I start)? I have 4ish months to get ready for this thing. My goal, to be honest, is to finish and finish strong (and not in last place). I don't want to win I just want to rock it! So I know I need to start something. . . Thanks for your input!

LETS DO THIS!

3 Down 9 to Go!

What a busy March!!! And it's only the 13th! My goodness time is flying by and to top it all off it was over 60 degrees today and only supposed to get warmer all week! Bring on the sunshine! So to start off with, reading the Bible has been going pretty well. Jim and I are both a little behind, but we're working on it :) I'm still enjoying the Old Testament, even though it is a little dry in places, but it's interesting to finally be reading for myself some of the stories and learning how things tie together. Dinner making has been pretty good too, tonight was spaghetti and homemade garlic and mozzarella cheese bread :) so delicious! We kept it simple so we could get outside to enjoy the sunshine! We even had time to make it to the park and play!

So my "new" thing for March came about through a work friend. She approached me one day and asked if I would like to join her team....her Polar Plunge Team. Now my first reaction was something along the the lines of "are you crazy in the head!? Jump into freezing water in the beginning of March, in Minnesota?!" No thank you, I choose life! But then she asked me the question....."have you ever done it before?" *sigh* No, no I had not and as fast and I had said "no" I switched my answer to a "yes". After all, I needed to try one new thing a month, and not only would it be a neat experience, I would be helping raise money for the Special Olympics of Minnesota at the same time. I'm a sucker for a good cause. :) So I signed up and started raising money! At one point I got an email that they were adding a Pee Wee Plunge for children under 12. Say no more, I signed skidamirink up! She raised over $250 (and got a shirt and a hat both of which she was stoked about) and she got to jump into a pool of cold water (about waist deep). She loved it. The work people and I decided to let our department choose our costumes via a fundraiser and we ended up dressing up like super heros! Hooray!

So the week of the plunge, we are all excited. The weather had been great, it had been an incredible mild winter and the weekend forecast was looking good. A little chilly but not too bad.Well we woke up Saturday morning to snow and wind! Not the combination we were looking for while standing on a frozen lake in relatively little clothing! (at least Skidamirink got to jump into the water in a heated tent!) So we got there and were waiting our turn, getting dressed and what not. Skidamirink wanted to pose as a super hero and everyone there was loving the smallest member of the Westside Wipe Outs!

So here we are fully decked out as super heros. We made our capes the night before. I bought cheap white curtains and colored Ducttape and we went to town! Skidamirink had an "A" on her's and I had a "P" on mine. Skidamirink wanted stripes and poke-a-dots on hers so I made that happen too.  She wore her sparkle shoes too, because what good super hero doesn't have awesome shoes? :) So JD came along and was an absolute saint. He took care of Skid, and watched all of our stuff (of which there was a lot) and he took the photos for me, and he was just amazing and so helpful. (thanks again JD!) So we got the whole group together for photos before we had to plunge. 

The Westside Wipeouts!

So that is the team. I have to apologize for the photos of us jumping as I forgot to bring my telephoto lens  so JD was forced to deal with the other one, and therefore could not properly zoom in on us.

Plunging!

Making the exit for the hot tubs

Skidamirink also Jumped and I'll share my favorite from that:

My brave girl

This is the exact moment she noticed how cold the water was. She was in for about 2 seconds and she ended up crying. :( However, when she was done she was so proud of herself and so excited! She was even asking when she would be able to do it again! Hooray!  The whole day was a giant success. From frozen water, to hot dogs, free coffee to face painting we had an amazing time. I will definitely be participating again. The plunge was not as bad as I was anticipating and was actually over pretty quickly.  The hot tubes do a great job of warming you up almost instantaneously.

March has brought with it another first! For both skidamirink and me. Skidamirink got her first ride on a 4 wheeler and I learned how to drive one! 

Learning to drive

Skidamirink riding: Notice the ecstatic screaming

Skidamirink had a blast, she did not want to stop riding. I on the other hand was nervous. I enjoyed riding more than driving, but I can see where the excitement lies. I was nervous about damaging the 4 wheeler or making some mistake on it and injuring someone! Luckily my fears proved to be nothing and nothing bad happened to anyone.

The first 13 days of March have been amazing. From house hunting, to celebrating my wonderful sisters 28th birthday at a dueling piano bar, to sledding, plunging in a frozen lake, grilling out and riding on 4 wheelers. We have some fun things planed the rest of the month as well. We are hoping to participate in a parenting class, we are hoping to go shoot archery (but I think that will have to wait until April) and I am having a party for St. Patricks day with the 12:2 girls. I'm looking forward to all of it!

LETS DO THIS! 

2 Down 10 to Go!

Greetings! So this past Sunday I did it! I finally tried Sushi. Not going to lie, I still do not know how I feel about it. Parts were good, others were not. JD became a fan though! Skidamirink tried some cooked and then deep fried shrimp tempura and even liked it! I too was a big fan of that one, I could have eaten those all day! We went to a little restaurant in Stillwater that JD's mother likes, called the shanghai bistro. The place was lovely, great environment and very friendly staff. The staff was also very helpful in helping the newbees order some sushi.

This was our Poo Poo Platter App

Spider Rolls

JD working the chop sticks

California Rolls

My First Taste

Jims First Taste

Pondering...but he loved it

Trying a Shrimp Tempura roll

Pondering...but it was really good

This one? This is that nasty Spider Roll

Basically what I concluded was that, California rolls are mediocre at best. I did not like how sticky they were. Deep friend shrimp tempura is amazing, Shrimp Tempura rolls are tasty, but I'm not sure I could eat more than 3. Spider Rolls are the gross and I never want to eat one again. Overall I had fun and learned some new things. I also tried their egg drop soup because I love egg drop soup but theirs was not so tasty. It has mushrooms and red peppers and tasted weird, so that was a bummer. I'm not crazy about eating the whole shushi roll at once either. I would prefer to cut it in half which I did for some, but then it was a little messy. Surprisingly the seaweed did not bother me at all. It was actually pretty good. JD really liked it, and I think he'll be trying more. As for me? We'll see. I'm not sure I would actively seek it out again, but if it was around I may eat it. 

That being said, today is the 1st of March! AHHHHHH!!! Where in the world did February go?! With March comes preparation for new thing number 3! What is that new thing? Well my friends, it is the Polar Bear Plunge on Lake Calhoun on Saturday March 3rd! I am plunging with a group from my work: The West Side Wipeouts and skidamirink will be participating in the PeeWee plunge! She is super excited to jump in a big pool with ice cubes. We held a fundraiser at work, so know that we will be in costumes, but you will just have to wait for my next post to find out what we will look like! 

Other than than life is amazing. I'm still behind on my reading,but catching up a little more (almost) every day. Today is a "sick day" not for me but for my baby who was up throwing up most of the night. She's passed out on the couch currently giving me time to update! Not a lot is on the adgenda. I have every intention of getting homework done, we'll see how far I get though. I'm feeling a little over whelmed in that area, BUT God is in control and He will get me through all of it! 

We're ready for March over here! Ready for the Polar Plunge, ready to work on my thesis, ready to live life! 

LETS DO THIS!

On a side note, I did add a "follow by email" options for those of you who didn't want to sign up on the site, and I added a "share" tab at the bottom, in case I ever say anything so profound you feel like sharing it with others! Thanks!

Green is a Lovely Color!

Greetings! Sorry I have not written in a while, school over-worked my brain. However, now that I have an approved thesis topic that I am excited about, I can think and breath a little easier!

I have fallen way behind on my reading the Bible in a year! ahh! Good thing I have about 10 months to catch up! I have to read all of Leviticus and stay on top of everything else. It's definitely do-able but I don't want to rush through it either.

Sushi has a tentative date of next Saturday, so here's hoping that happens! It's a little dependent on JD an if he is back from his retreat in time. I did not do a lot of cooking this last week. Like I said, life was overly crazy for some reason. Skid-a-mirink and I have taken to having weekly "picnics" at church as I just can't seem to get dinner together on Wednesdays. I'm trying a slow cooker thing this week though, and I'm hoping that proves much more successful.

So JD is amazing and a saint :) I've been hating my bathroom for about 3 years now. More if you count the time that I was growing up in this house. My parents apparently have never been too into painting, as most of the bedrooms and bathrooms are stark white. I did paint my (now) room Tomato Bisque and A's room is Wild Wisteria, both of which are lovely and very calming. I have left the bathroom alone, because...well....honestly it seemed like too much work! I was talking to JD about it and how I hated it and the whiteness of it washed me out, and gave me a headache, and God love him, he offered to help me fix it! So I asked Daddy if he cared that I messed with his house some more and he basically said go for it. So with the go a head from Dad, JD and I headed off to Lowes.
I already knew that I wanted to paint it some shade of darkerish green. So we headed to the paint, to the Valspar  and settled on a lovely shade of green that is escaping me right now. And of course I do not know where the color thing is at this point in time. (I'm also sick here, so I'm not really sure where anything is as I am in a bit of a fog). So to start with, I emptied out the bathroom.

See, Ugly white. No personality!

Don't mind the tools!

Yep, it's been like this since 1991....

So I was ready to start painting, when JD informed me that I should take the mirror off. I'm no painting/fix-it/remodel expert or even anything to close to it, so to be honest, I was amazed that the mirror just came right off! Of course JD did it for me, it's heavy ya know!

As you can see, we're all taped off as well. So ready, steady paint! We got the first coat on and from the moment the first pit of paint hit the wall, I was sold. I loved it. 

Luckily we did not have to prime it, since it was white, we just washed down the walls with a little water and got to work! We got the first coat done while A was napping so that was nice. We had fun. JD is a great person to work with. Turns out he's great at edging (whereas I am an expert at painting the ceiling and baseboards! yes even with tape) and I'm pretty good at the overall coverage, so together we got it done pretty quick. I boo'd when we read the paining instructions though, as we had to wait 2 hours to put on another coat! So A got up, JD ran to the store (for dinner ingredients) I made dinner, the cheesy taco cornchip thing I made a few posts back, and sopipilla cheesecake. That was more for my buddy Jack's birthday, but it got made nevertheless. 

While I made dinner, JD did the second coat I then put together a new picture frame for the bathroom and reorganized all the stuff. JD was a warrior while we painted, entering to say the least: 

And the finished product!?

And all the people said: Amen! How much better is this?! OK please ignore the blue shade here. This also has been here since 1991 and to be honest I didn't even think of it as I picked the paint color. But IN a few weeks I hope to have that gone and something else in it's place! I love the green, especially with the orange accents.  I added the picture frame, with some flower shots that I have taken, and I think it really adds some life to the room.

I also kept the original artwork that I had in here before. I got the painting in the Ukraine when I was there in 2007. It's a painting of the Opera house and I love it. 

Needless to say, I'm happy. A walked in before we had it all back together and said "oh no Mom! The mirror!" I asked "what about it?" and her response was, " you painted over it!" hahahaha Oh little ones. when she saw it again after the mirror was back, she asked JD how we cleaned it off. haha 

So all that said and done, I have tomorrow off work and I am so excited, especially since I'm sick. A and I will spend some time together then I'm dropping her off at daycare and spending a little time with 2 very lovely girls from 12:2. I'm excited for our thrift store shopping trip! I also need to get started on my research and get some cleaning done. Now that the bathroom is 90% done (JD is going to fix the door so it closes properly, I need a shelf in there and a new shade) I want to start working on something else! But what?? If only it were my own house....If my parents only knew the grand plans I dream up for their house. :)

2012 is shaping up to be an amazing year! I am loving all that has happened for far and cannot wait to see what else it brings! 

LETS DO THIS! 

February is so short it's exciting!

Hello Blogging world! I feel like life is never going to slow down and so I just needed to open up the lappy and start writing before it gets even crazier! I'm going to start on a mini (very mini rant) I HATE HATE Kay Jeweler commercials! Seriously who is that cheesy?! bleh
OK thats over. I've been baking a lot lately. Sopipilla cheesecake, raspberry lemonade bars, flan, and sweet cheese bakklava. All four new to me and 3 of them were delicious. NOT a fan of bakklava. ew. I wont be making that again (and it was hard haha) My favorite was the Flan.

Caramelizing the sugar

Who knew that the above photo could lead to this:

Pretty cool! 

before baking

Ta-da!!

The finished product was AMAZING! OH my, sooooo good and tasty. Jim even liked it. ;) I brought it to an international dessert day at work and everyone loved it. I am so glad that I ventured out and made that one!

And if you're wondering why I hated the Baaklava let me show you:

Do you see you paper thin that crap is?! Who wants to work with that? Not this girl, no thank you. 

Unfortunately I do not have photos of the cheesecake sopipilla but trust me it was amazing. I will be making that again and soon. On the side of projects, Jim helped me with the latest one. I had this terrible blank space on my wall and too many scarves lying around so I decided to put the unused coat rack to use! 

So this is the nasty blank space. Nothing there. At all. So...Jim to the rescue! 

making sure it will hold anything

the finished product

and the handyman

So with Jim's help and my scarves, the wall is no longer bare! So I'm a fan. Of both :) 

I'm still reading the Bible, although I did fall behind a bit so I'm playing some catch up, but I'll get it done. The 12:2 kids have officially kicked off their fundraising for their trip their summer. Superbowl subs and a bake sale (hence all the baking). The kids brought in all kinds of yummy desserts. I am looking forward to working with these kids, they might just keep the fun in my life that I will require to get through this masters program! 

Well to be honest, I'm sleepy and don't want to start babbling. Not sure what the upcoming plans are, but February should prove exciting! 

LETS DO THIS!

One Down, Eleven to Go!

Hello Blogging world! Sorry I'm a bit overdue (but so are my Library books, so I think it's a trend this week). That being said, here we go. This has been a busy week. I had my crazy big group paper and presentation due this past Monday and I am so incredibly thankful that it is over with! I stressed myself into a migraine over the whole thing, so I'm very happy that's we are done. Work was fine, but my wrist has been hurting from typing so much lately so that is a little on the stinky side.

Dinners were a little off this week. I think I only got 2 meals made. Athia and I were busier than originally planned so some last minute changes happened. However, I am making a taco pizza with cornbread crust tomorrow and I'm pretty excited about it. Thursday and Friday were amazing days and 2 firsts for me (so January is done which is good cuz it doesn't look like I'm going to be getting out for sushi this month!) Thursday night the quiz-team and I went to Feed My Starving Children. AMAZING time! We had a blast, we feed 74 kids for an entire year! (well us and the other helpers) Our team alone filled 20 boxes of food for Tanzania! This was our last big event with the wonderful Sophie as she is going with her family to Africa for 2 year for missions work. She will be missed and prayed for daily. If you want to follow the family on their adventures, Mom (Leah) has a blog that she keeps (although it wont be updated for a bit while they are in transit to Africa) but go ahead and click Leah's Beautiful Feet.

Before Packing

Headed back

After we prayed over the food

We had so much blast and I am so glad that we were able to do it together and bond as a team. I was impressed with their teamwork and their overall attitude, their servants hearts to help and think about someone other than themselves.


Friday night then our church held their 1st ever Father/Daughter banquet. I was not in attendance as a daughter but as the photographer. I had do much fun seeing all the girls dressed up and with their daddy's. The entertainment was priceless and the fellowship was amazing. An incredible team of ladies organized, prepared the food, decorated the church and served those in attendance. It truly was something these girls are going to remember for many years to come.

The Food

The Entertainment

The Flowers

It was touching to see these girls, young, teenaged, and grown celebrating in fellowship with their fathers.

Other than that it has been pretty same old around here. Saturday has been a busy and productive day. House cleaning and all that good stuff. We are going to Jim's grandma and grandpa's for dinner tonight, so Athia is taking a "rest" as she thinks she is too old for naps. ;) Jim and I are still reading through the Bible, although at this exact moment I am a day behind, so I'll need to catch up on that as well. I am loving reading through the Bible. And no that's not just because I'm supposed to say that. I am finding that there are so many stories that I "know" but that I have never actually read for myself. And it is great to read through them and to be able to interpret them for myself and not have someone telling me what I should be thinking about a certain passage or what I "should be" getting out of it. I am loving the time that I get to hang out in God's word, even if it is only 30-45 min a day. I am learning that my spiritual health is worth it.

So two new things this month, taking my quizzing team to Feed my Starving Children, and attending a Father/Daughter banquet, even if it was only as the photographer. Maybe Sushi can be a February thing.

If you want to learn more about FMSC then click on it. There are location around MN that you an go and fill Mana packs and help those in need.



LETS DO THIS!

I am not a Hoarder!

So two posts in two days, crazy I know. Jim just commented on that, called me an over-achiever. haha Any way, a lot happened today, so I thought I would post it. Skid-a-mir-ink was up all night (uuugghhhhhh) crying about an earache that the doctor says is not an infections (?!?!) and then an hour after Mom dropped her off at daycare, they called me because she had thrown up. (ew) So I left worked, picked up a sick kid and started churning out the Disney movies, because really, that's what sick days are all about. I however would have passed out cold if I had watched with her, so I started cleaning the rents kitchen.

Oh, the kitchen. Where to even start...the back story on all of it is too incredibly lengthy, so the shortest version I can think of is that when I moved home, my parents house was on it's way to being a hoarders house. I HATE clutter and when I can't get to things. So me and the house were not getting along for a long time. Fast forward almost three years (wow three years...I need to get out of here! I'm going to overstay my welcome!) and I have cleaned out the 3 bedrooms upstairs, the ENTIRE basement (I know most of you don't understand what that means, but trust me, it was epic). I also tackled the rents bathroom and walk-in closet, the kitchen, the entry way, the mud room, the other 2 bathrooms, and the garage. So almost the entire house. HOWEVER, I have never been happy with the kitchen.

Now as you probably already know, I love Love LOVE to cook! Cook, bake, eat, whatever, I love to do it! So an organized and accessible kitchen are important to me and when I grow up (haha ie have my own place) the Kitchen WILL be amazing :) So what else would I do today (since I'm waiting for my research paper to be edited so I can make changes as necessary) but clean the kitchen (again). So here it goes. . . over all it took about 3 hours I'd say, on and off with skid-a-mir-ink being sick and a 30min nap for me :)

I started with the island cubbard. It looked like this:

and with all of it pulled out of there it looked like this:

Bah! So I got to work and it ended up like this:

AAHHHHHH (that's an angel singing) How much better is that!?!!? Monkey has her own little section there on the bottom right where she can reach all of her bowls and cups and plates and her juice boxes, the coffee tumbles and water bottles are all in one spot, all the pitchers are together...ahhhhh harmony! AND the BEST part about it?! You can actually see everything that is in there! No digging and pulling out 15 things hoping what you're looking for is behind something else! Oh so zen. So with that done, I couldn't let it be, I had to keep going.

The Bakers Rack was next....amazing device if you use it right. My parents? ummm....it was a massive collection heap for them. (I know the photo is a titch dark, sorry, bear with me, I'm tired):

So basically, everything everywhere. I have been known on occasion to start throwing things from there and yelling and crying about how unorganized and annoying it is. So I fixed it. Everything that is rarely used, is in the basement kitchen and my life is better. The after shot:

Did you just breathe better? Because I sure did. Everything is organized and stacked, logical (as in all the pots and pans are together, the bakeware is together the vases are together etc.) They still had things in boxes on there! So gone are the boxes, and with it all their space hogging. There is even room for more stuff on there, if the need arises! They got a KURIG for Christmas, so on top of this thing was a giant box of coffees and then on the counter by the KURIG was a bung of coffees so that you wouldn't have to lug the box down everyday. Problem solved!!!

Since Mom has a thousand old vases, I simply filled one up and put it on the shelf by the coffee maker! No more bulky box, and no more wasted counter space. LOVE IT!!!

Next came the OTHER cabinent. Sigh....I was on such a roll I forgot the before shot (which was impressively crammed) but here is most of the stuff that came out, and most of which I threw out too.

AND

(keep in mind here I stacked and combined it all and this was ONLY the tupperware, there was so much crap there)  So I got to work on that and decided it would best be used as baking storage. So I got all the baking stuff together and ended up with this:

 Yay!!!

So now I don't have to run from cupboard to cupboard looking for baking ingredients! Here they ALL are! The old baking shelf was small and cramped and nothing fit, you literally ha to take EVERYTHING out find anything. So that shelf old shelf became the snack shelf which opened up a lot of pantry space (no pics of that sorry).

All that being said and done, I am soooooo happy and I got some of that done and off the list. My parents like it, they can see everything and it just is more aesthetically pleasing. I know there is more that can and should be done, and maybe some day, but for today, on this sick day, I am reinforcing the fact that I am not a hoarder! The kitchen cupboards prove it.

LETS DO THIS!