New Screen Porch

So our screen porch has actually been done for almost 2 weeks now, but before I could take pictures to post we had some slight "incidents," such as Graham punching holes through both screen doors etc.  Now the doors are fixed and the builders came to finish up the final few things last night.  So here she is...

[caption id="attachment_383" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Our whole backyard."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_382" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The screened in porch and outdoor deck to the side."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_381" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Outdoor deck."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_388" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Looking out from inside our house."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_387" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Towards the outdoor deck."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_386" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Towards the patio below."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_385" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="And last, but not least, the ceiling fan!"][/caption]

Needing a Little Girl Time

In the past month something in Graham has snapped.  The kid has been out of control naughty!  Not just not listening, but doing actual naughty things like breaking stuff, talking back, screaming NO, and pushing, fighting, hitting... You name it, he's tried in the last 4 weeks.  I was about at my wits end with the kid. 

I had stopped taking him to playdates for fear that he'd just bully the other kids and spend the majority of the date in timeout.  We haven't brought him to church because I'm afraid to leave him in the nursery and let's be honest he's not going to behave sitting in church.  So does this mean that Graham and I are going to be completely homebound this summer until he straightens up?  I think I might need to start looking for a job outside the home  :)

Anyway, I wanted to give it one last shot before I packed 'us' in for the summer.  I had been talking with Leah and Sarah for sometime about doing a playdate, and since I figured this would be our last hoorah, it would be nice to catch up with the gals.  I had expectations of the usual: kids come over, Graham is super excited to see them, we go down stairs to start playing with toys and... the meltdowns begin.  The other kids aren't allowed to touch any of Graham's toys, he screams and takes away anything they touch, then the tears, I could go on, but I'm sure you're envisioning the awesomeness already.  But today was surprisingly different. 

Graham was by no means and angel, he's still 2 and is very strong willed, but he managed to get through nearly 2 hours of playing without having to be in timeout once and with only having to have a couple sharp reminders about being nice and sharing.  It may not seem like a victory to the average Joe, as this is what most playdates should look like, but I was astounded.  I kept telling Leah and Sarah over and over again about how I can't believe there hadn't been any fighting.  I'm sure the majority had to do with the fact the both Leah and Sarah's kids are very well-behaved and have very good, I'd go as far as saying advanced manners for their age.  But someone also mentioned maybe it's the pretty even ratio of boys to girls and that got me thinking.

Leah brought Belle and Johny and Sarah brought Julia and Hannah, 2 boys and 3 girls.  Was that really the difference?  After everyone left I sat down and starting thinking and I honestly can't put a date to the last time we had a playdate with girls, especially more girls than boys.  Every playdate we've been on in the last 6 months has had almost all little boys ages 3 to 1 and honestly the outright naughtiness of the little boys is enough to drive  any mom to the loony bin.  But today, the kids played quieter and more nicely/ gently.  There wasn't has much rough-housing, and therefore less bumps and bruises to cry over.  Ah, it was just so nice  :)   

My thought process before was always 'well Graham is a little boy and we have boy toys, so I'm sure he'd love another little boy to play with.'  But maybe the macho, competitive, beat 'em up, typical guy stigma really starts at birth and putting too many little bottles of testosterone in the same confined space is just asking for aggressive behavior.  So no offense to my mom friends with boys, we will still make dates and let the boys 'duke it out,' but I am somewhat excited to test my theory... do little boys sometimes just need some girl time?

In Honor

In honor of my brother graduating from undergrad at Iowa and Tim's good buddy Trent graduating from the MBA program, we celebrated in classic fashion in downtown Iowa City last Friday night.  You know the night is off to an amazing start when your trip downtown begins with a ride of the Cambus.  We all tried to keep up with my brother and his friends... yes even 'old people' can attempt to live it up like rock stars  :)  Not a whole lot more needs to be said about the evening, as the pictures pretty much speak for themselves, but a ton of fun, drinks and laughs were had!

[caption id="attachment_367" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Girls"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_368" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Trent and Tim"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_370" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Jess and Kate with the Graduate aka my brother"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_369" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="A nice self taken close-up!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_371" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="As all good nights should end, with a fab-tastic picture!"][/caption]

On a side note, we did happen to meet a girl my brother is apparently dating... this being news to all of us, as we had no idea she existed.  Grant and Christina have been "talking" for a couple of months now, so he thought it was safe to introduce us.  Oh to be young and "talking" again  :)

Just a Quick Trip to Chicago

Tim and I decided, sort of last-minute, it might be fun to take Graham to a Cubs game this summer.  We figured he was probably old enough to sit through at least most of the game and since he recognises the Cubs on TV and knows they are playing baseball, eh, he might somewhat understand what was going on.  So we started looking for afternoon, 1:00, games during the week, as to avoid some of the chaos of a weekend game.  We found we had like 5 dates to choose from.  We opted for last Wednesday thinking it may not be quite as busy before school gets out etc.  What we didn't factor in was the chance that it could still be 40 below in May, which it was, nice!      

Oh well, even with the cold temps and drizzle, Graham absolutely loved going to the game.  As soon as he woke up he started jumping around singing "we are going to see the Cubbies, we are going to see the Cubbies!'  We got an official 'First time to a Cubs Game' certificate and ballpark hotdogs and the whole nine yards.  Graham sat pretty still throughout the whole game and with the exception of him asking "what is happening now, mommy?" about 300 times, he was a really good boy!  Tim, of course had to get an official score book and keep track of all the pitches and batters etc.  Ah, boys and their baseball.  All and all it was a great time... could have used a little more sun and a warm breeze, but a good time  :)   

[caption id="attachment_346" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Daddy and Graham all bundled up and ready for the first pitch."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_347" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Go Cubbies!"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_348" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Down by the Field after the Game."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_349" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Cubs Win, Cubs Win!"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_350" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Can You Say Cheese?"][/caption]

 

 We spent the night in Chicago and had dinner and dessert with college friends.  The next morning daddy showed Graham how to ready all about the Cubs game in the newspaper.  What nerds my boys can be!   

[caption id="attachment_351" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="See, those are the Cubbies..."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_352" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Graham, of course, wanted to read about his own Cubbies :)"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_353" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Nerds!"][/caption]

 Then we went to breakfast at Eggcellence, the best breakfast place I have ever been to, YUM, YUM!  

[caption id="attachment_354" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Daddy and Graham after some yummy pancakes."][/caption]

 

   

[caption id="attachment_356" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mommy and Graham filled to the brim."][/caption]

It as raining on Thursday morning, so instead of the trip to the Zoo, we went to Navy Pier for some Children's Museum action.  What a cool museum!  We could have spent 3 days playing, but Graham was all tuckered out after a few hours of fierce playing, so it was time to head home.  What a great little get away to forget about all the stress home life sometimes entails and just relax and have fun for a while.  Can't wait to do it again soon!

  

[caption id="attachment_357" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="Graham and Mommy building a 'deck' or a house!"][/caption]

 

   

[caption id="attachment_359" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Playin with the boats"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_361" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Daddy was trying to help, but Graham insisted he knew better... surprising!"][/caption]

  

Favorite Parts

I have lived in Iowa for 13 years now, pretty incredible given I normal move across the country every 3-5 years on average.  In my time in Iowa I have grown to love many things... Iowa Football/ tailgating, tulips in the spring, leaves changing colors in the fall, but there are a few 'other' things that really top my list of reasons to never leave.  Feet and feet of snow every winter is up there, horrendously high pollen counts which make my eyes want to jump out of my body, eh close to the tops,or maybe it's the ever-present smell of cow manure that wafts in from some farm who knows how far away. 

Even with all those glorious things to choose from, I'd have to say that above all else, WIND is my absolute favorite part of Iowa.  Now we are not talking a nice cool breeze on a summer night, we are talking about the 95 mile per hours blasts of air that dang near rip your car door off, yes, those are my favorite.  And how lucky am I that we get to experience these lovely winds about 360 out of 365 days a year  :)  When I first moved to Iowa I often thought, man, Iowans must just not care what they look like when they go out in public because everyone's hair was a mess and they looked like they had just blown in on some tumble weed.  Little did I know, that it truly wasn't their fault for looking so forlorn, it was just a state of being here in Iowa.  Why bother doing your hair when the second you walk outside it's going to blow over your face in a giant whirl of knots and tangles?

Last night was just another classic example of why I love Iowa's wind.  The wind must have blown a powerline over, because we lost electricity and Tim and I spend the majority of the night swearing at our damn sump pump alarm, which God love it, beeps every 3 seconds when it doesn't have electricity.  I get that if it were flooding we'd need to be notified if the dang thing wasn't going to work, but really, every 3 seconds.  Then there was the lovely sound of our deck furniture and of course Graham's Little Tikes toys flying around the backyard and beating our fence... ahh, a such a peaceful nights rest.  The kicker was to wake up this morning and find that the wind had blown our grill cover off the grill.  The cover, that was velcroed to the bottom of the grill, was laying in the far back corner of our yard.  Really?  What kind of wind can honestly take off a grill cover?  So yes, above all else, WIND is for sure my favorite part of Iowa  :)

Moley, Moley, Moley!

I come from a family of people with moles... sounds bad, but it's just a fact.  People in my family tend to have lots of moles, no problems with them, just lots.  I used to have my moles checked regularly when I was in high school simply because I was already seeing a dermatologist for my acne, why not have her check them while I was there.  Nothing was ever found and as my acne got better with age, I never really thought much about getting my moles checked.  Until last week...

I hadn't taken a bodypump class in a while, and I was clearly struggling, when this young girl tapped me on the shoulder.  Of course I assumed she was just checking on me to make sure I wasn't going to keel over, but she said she was a nurse at the dermatology office and, while she wasn't a Dr, she had seen enough moles to be concerned about the one on the back of my left calf.  I didn't even know I had one there... how long was it there?... was it that weird that it was jumping out at people?  Yikes!  So I made an appointment for yesterday afternoon. 

I walked into the clinic having a 30 min window before I had to leave to go pick up Graham from preschool, it was the earliest Thursday appointment they make.  I thought for sure they would give me the once over, write some notes down and if anything looked fishy they'd have me return for biopsies.  Not this clinic, man, they are all the freakin' ball!  The Dr, sweetest woman ever by the way, looked at all my moles and decided two, the one on my calf (thank you nice girl at the gym) and one on my back had to come off.  So she gets the nurse, they stick a bunch of novocaine in me and bam, I walk out with two button sized holes sown up with six stitches.  All in a matter of 25 mins.  I think I was still in shock when I got in the car.  Here I have 2 wounds big enough to need 3 stitches each and I am back in my car in like 20 mins, what just happened?

So my moles are being shipped off for testing, (should know in about a week, so let's hope for NO news being good news) and I now have 2 less moles to worry about.  Don't you wish all Drs were that decisive and action oriented!

Back on the BodyBandwagon

Since November I have been taking several Body___  classes: bodystep, bodyattack, bodypump, bodycombat.  I decided to take the last month off from class and do some working out on my own... not a good idea.  Even though I still went to the gym 5-6 days a week, my lack of self-motivation gained be a whopping 5 unneeded pounds, and right at the start of summer, lovely.  So now I am back on the butt kicking bodybandwagon.  I took 2 classes this week, with the hopes of a fourth on Saturday morning, and man am I sore.  My arms, my calves and my back are screaming with every move I make, but I'm sure it's worth it.

I would have to say though, the best part of going to body classes has to be Graham's reaction when I go to pick him up from the daycare.... "Mom, you are so sweaty... Mom, did you 'stomp the feets' in class?.... Mom, you are so sweaty!"  Over and over again.  Gotta love kids!

Stay the Course

Saw my Dr. today and the word on the baby making is... "stay the course and sooner, hopefully than later, you should get pregnant."  Can't say I'm overly pumped with the current status, but at least we are supposedly in baby making territory now, which has to be better than where we were before, which was, umm limbo?  Now we just need a baby and we'd be set. 

Off to have some maybe lots of margaritas in honor of Cinco de Mayo, with secondary hopes the celebration will spark some sort of interest in wanting to make a baby... because let's face it, at this point in the game, no one is excited about this process  :)  Trying to a least keep some humor in it... here's to trying!

Oh I would be so Broke...

If you know me, you know that I want need to have a little girl at some point in my life  :)  I am not super girly, but I loved all the little girl things when I was younger.... playing house, dollies, dress up, going to ballet, cheerleading, the whole bit.  And some day I would love to share in all those activities with a daughter of my own.  God, however, must know me only too well and has thankfully made my first child a darling little boy.  I say thankfully because yesterday I got the privilege of shopping for my very first little girl baby gift...  I am in big trouble if we ever have a girl!  

I will have to go back to work immediately upon finding out we are having a girl just to be able to afford my shopping habits.  In one outing, for one little girl I managed to come home with close to $200 worth of stuff... I know, I admit I went a little crazy, but I just couldn't decide because it was all so cute and girly!  I laid all the outfits out last night and after much, much, too much as Tim would say, debate I finally picked 2 outfits and I will take back the rest.  

[caption id="attachment_328" align="alignright" width="220" caption="I mean how can you resist this little dress? Who cares if she only wears it once, it's worth it!"][/caption]

(I really wanted to keep all of it just in the hopes that one day I would have a baby girl to put it on, but I kinda figured that would be bad juju and would probably jinx the whole situation)  So the rest will go back... at some point, but I might have to admire how adorable the little frilly socks and matching headbands are for at least a couple more days  :) 

 

Snap Out of It

Have you ever been in one of those places in your life where being in a bad mood just becomes your state of being?  I feel like that is where my life is right now and I just can't seem to snap out of it.  A bunch of things... potty training, pregnancy woes, my diet and all the little stuff just came to a head last week and no matter what I do, I can't get past the "bad mood" feeling. 

The beautiful weather and spending some time in the fresh air this weekend did help, but now it's Monday and I'm back to feeling blue.  Generally speaking, I'd say I'm a rather 'unemotional' person... or at least Tim thinks so.  I'm near last to cry at a sad movie or gush over happy/ sad news.  I rarely breakdown after a bad day or a bad fight and even when I do, I seem to be super quick to snap back.  I don't seem to hold grudges and can't find it in me to stay mad for very long, so why am I so 'stuck' in this bad mood and how do I get past it?

So far the failed plans have been:

• cry it out- no luck


• take out my frustration at the gym- apparently I'm not in good enough shape for this one


• talk to Tim- eh, he tried to understand, but he just wanted to enjoy his time away from work, don't blame him


• sleep- usually a good nap/ sleeping in brings me around, but I tried both and no dice


• watching the beautiful, half-naked men build my deck- OK helped a little  :)

Apparently I am just going to have to wait it out, unless someone has a sure-fire cure to SNAP OUT OF IT.