Elli elli elli elli

Here's a couple of pictures of Elli. She fell asleep inbetween bits of her dinner the other night at mom's house. Funny!! She must have been really tired! And she woke up this morning and we were playing and she stuck my finger in her mouth - I felt a tooth coming through! She has been a little cranky lately, but nothing that would make me think "hmm...I wonder if she's got teeth coming in." Poor thing. She seems fine though! It's a little sad...her big toothless grin is going away. *sigh* She's getting big - 8 months today!

Dogs, babies, and what's that???

So, I am not sure what I was thinking this morning when I decided to walk Cali and Elli (yes, my dog and my daughter'snames rhyme...I didn't think about it, it just happened) down to the pet spa place to get Cali's nails cut. MAYBE if I walked my dog more often, I wouldn't find myself in situations like this. Cali isn't a small dog, but she isn't big either...she is strong and crazy. So we start up the hill and Cali is already pulling me one way, while I am trying to stabalize the stroller the other direction. "This is going to be great." I yank on Cali a little bit and decided that I would be worn out doing this the whole way...mind you, I am still not to the top of my street...there is still plenty of time to turn around. I wrap her leash around my wrist so that there is no where for her to be except right beside me. That may not be nice, but Elli is my first priority...right?! Anyways, Cali kept looking at me sideways, and started walking better - so since I was losing circulation in my fingers I let up on her leash and we kept going. The sidewalks are rediculous in Vienna. They aren't level and there are no handicap (or stroller) friendly street accesses. So THAT was interesting because I had to slow down or stop to maneuver the stroller and when Cali didn't realize we stopped, she would yank my arm. Argh....and it's hot....and sunny. We get the hang of it all, even with people along the way, and when I am almost there, there is something big in the middle of the sidewalk. It is the size of a beaver or a groundhog. GREAT! Just when things are going a little smoother. We get closer and I realize what it is. "Oh my....seriously?....a haogie?" Yes, there in the path of the stroller and hungry dog is a big meaty hoagie sub. Lucky I managed to keep Cali out of it...there must have been a reason it was flung out of a window if my dog didn't even want it. We got her nails clipped, she didn't get her treat at the place, because of puppy traffic, and then she had to be hog-tied all the way home. Probably not the most fun trip for Cali. But at least she got out, I got out, and Elli had a good time.

Oopsy....

Okay. :) A wonder teacher, friend, aunt of mine left me a comment about my hair comment that I have on my haircutting blog... I said "...it kindof looked like a female bowl-cut that your elementary school teacher would have. " Sorry!! :) I didn't at all mean any reference to any of my family or friends who are teachers! :) You all look AWESOME. Not "teacher-ish" at all! I meant that it looked like the haircut a teacher who wears denim jumpers with apple-red turtleneck sweaters and big necklaces made from hankercheifs and big wooden beads that look like rulers, and apples, and chalk. That isn't you guys at all! :) You are WAY too cool for that. And if you do happen to own an outfit like that in your wardrobe, then you deserve to be offended. :)

We added a whole new room!

So a few months ago I got this great idea. I was sitting outside in the heat of day, trying to stay under my little umbrella on my nice patio thinking how nice it would be to have some shade. So I thought "Hey. I have this decent deck and I want to be able to use it!" So I came up with this idea to build a canopy. So we bought some pvc piping, canvas, waterproofing stuff, rope, hooks, and got my dad to craft us up some support system from his nifty machine shop. Three months later I have this awesome new addition to my house! I just go outside to look at it! Now Elli and I can be outside (which she loves) and not have to lather up with sunscreen or scorch ourselves in the heat of the sun. I love it! I just look outside at it now and think "Wow...this is so cool. Maybe I can have people over now." I kindof feel like now I actually have a dining room since there is a table out there and a rug. It is awesome - because I don't actually have anywhere to eat in my house except the coffee table. I'm not sure yet how we will put it down for the winter...and it hasn't actually rained on it yet to see how it does then with wind and all. We are pretty sure it will be fine. It is pretty secure. Mike and dad did a fine job figuring out the logistics of it all...I just come up with the plan and have someone else do it....but they have to do it my way.... go figure. That's a whole other blog...

Anyhow. Here are some pictures!

I hate spam!

I am not sure what is more annoying that spam....not the lunch'meat'....but the email kind. I get all excited when I see I have 6 unread emails! Awesome! I wonder who they're from! Only to be disappointed because Yvonne Richmand sent me an email about pornography...and Everette Simpson thinks I want to see a raunchy video...and so on and so on..... My spamgaurd on my email apparently doesn't work very well. I guess it could be working - I mean, I am not getting hundreds of these things. I could change my email, but that isn't worth it. I hate that someone somewhere along the line sold my email address to some bulk thing and now I get all of this crap. Argh! It is SO annoying! Somebody make it stop! And now that anyone can post comments on my blog, people are leaving advertizements on my blog comments that I don't know and I can't delete. So much for being able to manage my blog...I'd think I should be able to delete these things. Oh well. I guess that if this is the least of my worries, I am doing okay.

Game night

Here's a goofy picture I just found on my camera from my trip up north. It must have been on it's internal memory or something. I can't remember what they were playing...that game where you guess how many "tricks" you are going to win and if you get that many - it's positive points, if you don't, it's negative points. Anyways, I think this was the final hand - so they decided to play with their foreheads. The men must have bee sweaty because their cards are sticking to their foreheads. Silly :)

I got my hair cut - again!

Well, I got my hair cut today! I actually got it cut yesterday, but it was a little too "shelfy", too mommy looking, a little too normal...it kindof looked like a female bowl-cut that your elementary school teacher would have. It wasn't BAD, just not what I wanted...ya know? So I got my hairdresser to stack the back a little more and make it a little more trendy. I like it MUCH better. :) Now, I just need a dye-job and I will be set for a while. Here's how I looked today!

Family reunions!

So today I had a family reunion! Woohoo! It was our yearly "Nicholas Reunion". We go the third Sunday in July every year to North Bend state park and eat and greet and chit chat. Sometimes if your lucky, you only 3 bug bites and a little dirt on your plate. It is probably 45 minutes from home, and it is always a mystery where the family is. There is never a scheduled picnic shelter...you just have to drive and hope that you land in the right parking lot with cars that you know. Today we did. This was my first year with a baby. THAT was interesting! It really wasn't all that bad...there were plenty of people to hold her...but would she go to anyone?? NNOOOooooOOOOoo. It's good to be loved. It was hard on her when I had to go to the bathroom...which is a whole other subject on state parks bathrooms - hense the reason I did not take her with me. It was just hard with her today because all she wants to do is crawl and explore... and stick everything in her mouth. She wouldn't stay on the blanket when there was perfectly good dirt and sticks just right there!!! SO she was held all day. My back is tired. But all in all, I really have no stories to tell. I have a pretty normal family with the exception of a few country boys and girls. Weather was good, food was good, company was good....glad it rained when it did, though...I was ready to come home.

I did get a good picture or two out of it all!

What a big girl!

Here is what I get to wake up to in the mornings now! Isn't it great!?! Well, usually...okay...most of the time I get to wake up to this....





And poor Cali...she isn't safe anymore....

Jackie is going to love me

No, she hasn't been attacked my my crazy dog... she is going back to her roots. Finally! The Jackie we all know and love is going RED again! :) Nice picture Jack....you can thank me later. :)

Watch this!

Britians Got Talent
This girl is so sweet!

randomness and then some

Geez...I didn't realize how busy I would be getting back from vacation! I have been (trying) to baby-proof, but it is prooving to be more difficult than I thought. She is on the move now and into everything! She followed me around the house today - which was pretty cute - but in the kitchen, boy did she have fun! I now have to find somewhere to put all of my ceramic cook-ware that were out on my low open shelving. I don't care if she plays with it, I just don't want her pulling up on it and it falling on her cute little toes. This all sounds pretty easy, but if you have seen my kitchen, you know that it is tricky...my kitchen in puney with virtually no cabinets. Retarded, I know. That's my project tomorrow. I REALLY need a trip to IKEA in the very near future.
Being back to work is as fun as it can be. I like my job, but I really like being home. I guess that is more than normal. It is just hard getting back into the swing of things there. I feel like such a moron for the first few days because I just can't remember anything - which isn't completely my fault - things are constantly changing at the Pier.
I have an abundance of fruits and vegetables in my home right now and I am trying to cook and freeze it all. I picked gallons of blueberries on Monday, my tomatoes are ripening (my watermelon seems to be shrivelling and dying...what's up with that?), broccoli is growing, my neighbor gave be cucumbers, Lois gave me squash and zuccinni (I really have no idea how to spell that), and I want to get some blackberries from my mom. Today I made Zucchini (ah ha!) bread and muffins, sliced up cukes and tomatoes for sandwiches, and tomorrow I hope to fry squash and make a blueberry pie. Suggestions on anything else?
I'll get pics up soon.

Honey - I'm Hoooome!

We made it! We're home! Oh wonderful bed! Oh comfy couch! I am so glad I can change my clothes with the door open, take my time getting dressed after a shower, lay stuff wherever I want, nurse Elli anywhere I please, and act like a big slob and lay around on my couch (not like that would happen, but I could if I really wanted to)! It is nice to be home. And what a clean home it is! I am so glad that I stressed myself out before hand and cleaned, vaccumed, and made the beds. It is so much more relaxing and easy going to come home to a clean house like that! I knew it would be.... And my flowers look so big! And how cool that Dad got my poles for my canopy up and waiting for me! AWESOME!

The plane rides home was not as obnoxious as the ones to the 'north woods', thankfully. Elli was a real trooper and did SO WELL the entire day. She only got fussy the last 20 minutes of the drive home. That I can handle. She is such a good traveler. I am so lucky.

We will miss the atmosphere of Eagle River, the family, the meals, and just being out of town. We had a great time and were lucky to be able to have as much time with Mike's family as we did. Becky was such a hostess and treated us well. Thanks. :)

Back to the grindstone! I have to get busy baby-proofing!

So Annoyed...

Okay....I am so annoyed that I can't get my pictures in the previous blog level. So sorry to everyone who that will annoy as much as it is me....don't judge me....

Oh! And on another subject, I found the GREAT new magazine completely devoted to organizing. AWESOME! I noticed it while Mike and I were out. It is the first issue and it is great. I will definitely be subscribing to this one! It is called (get this) ORGANIZE. You should check it out.

Last day

Well today was the last day. It was a pretty nice day. Mike and I had lunch and walked around town. I had an awesome grilled cheese sandwich...really, it was great for a grilled cheese - or I was just starving. The sun was shining and it was warm, so we set up a baby pool for Elli out on the dock and we played a while. We came in, had a nice dinner, and played around outside until the fire pit was ready for Smores...yummy! I figured out that skipping the grahams and sticking a piece of Hersheys chocolate right into the middle of a toasty warm marshmallow is INCREDIBLE chocolately ooey-gooey goodness. Mmmm...... Now, we are chillin' before the storm in the morning that will happen when we all get ready to leave. It has been really nice up here, but it is time to go home.

Here are pics!

Not so red

I woke up this morning very itchy...but not sunburned. So I guess I just got really dried out and not nearly as burned as I looked like last night. Good thing!
Today is a slow day so far. Mike and I are going to lunch, but we aren't sure where yet. Should be good. It will be our first and only time out together this vacation. Isn't that sad? We never get time to ourselves at home, and now that we had time away from the regulars of life in P-burg - we got zero time together. Something's gotta give!

I don't even like lobster...

Today was a pretty fun day. I honestly don't even remember what happened this morning...oh yeah, I slept until 10:30 with Elli...AWESOME! We had lunch and then decided that we wanted to go tubing! Not the kind that you are being pulled behind a boat, but the lazy-river kind.

Once we got to the rental place, it started raining. Ofcourse it did! Then it let up a little. But when we piled into the van with 7 other people we didn't know, it started just pouring the rain down. Ha! What a great day to decide to inner-tube! So while we were sitting there in this van full of strangers, staring at the downpour, silent, I said "So, does anyone know any good songs?" and we all busted out in a round of 'walking on sunshine' and the sun came out, the bird were singing, the air was warm...and then Joy elbowed me and brought me back to reality.

The rain did eventually stop and the sun did come out, but it was 10 degrees cooler and the water was so cold! The water in the Wisconsin river was really low, so there was virtually no current, and on top of the wind blowing us in the wrong direction - it took Dave, Joy, Josh, Amanda, Mike, and myself 3 hours and 14 minutes to go 2 miles. It was beautiful and I saw several eagles, Mike caught a little fish in his hands (what a man), and I would probably do it again....but it was a LONG and slow afternoon. I don't even like lobster and here I am almost as red as one because it took so much longer than anticipated....I don't think I stopped paddling with my arms more than 5 minutes the whole time - unless ofcourse, Mike was pulling me as he was walking down stream.

It was a nice change of pace. The only disappointing thing about the day was that none of us did any of the "dares" we tried to get eachother to do...high-fiving the people running the tubing place, float past the exit spot while the people are standing there taking rafts, and other silly things. Mike did do a nice flop into the water off of a rock...that was pretty funny....

One day left in the North Woods!

Independence Day

Well, yesterday was okay. I was stuck inside pretty much most of the day - which is a bummer because it was beautiful outside. Elli and I decided to skip the parade because when our scouts went to hold our seats, they called back and said that there was no shade. We need shade. So we stayed home, I watched Mythbusters and she slept...which she needed from the horrible night before. Then we all had lunch and it rained a little and then cleared up into a perfect afternoon to be on the water. But! I had to be a mom and skip out on it. I was really irritated about it all because I so desperately wanted to go outside and play. Elli was SO whiney and there is nowhere for us to play in the yard right now...there are sprinklers going and grass being planted everywhere. So we watched from the window and when the shade finally covered part of the dock, we found our way out there and watched boats. We grilled on the barbeque and hung out in the evening. Mike and I stole a chance to take a long walk after I laid Elli down for the night. It was nice. When everyone went to fireworks on the pontoon - Becky, Mike, and I stayed home. We did see several light shows from across the lake, so it wasn't like we missed out on 4th fireworks. I guess that my lesson learned this Independence Day is that as a mother, independence is a fleeting thought. Now that I have a little girl who is dependent on me, there are is rarely a moment where I just get time for me, to be with myself, independent. It's okay I suppose. There will be a day when I long for these moments again where she needs me, when she cries when I leave a room, or when I have the power to make her world the best most wonderful place ever. Why can't I have these reasonable thoughts in the moment?
Here are a couple of pics from yesterday. A family photo, and the cutest baby in the world.

A good day

Today was a great day.

This morning Joy and I went out to breakfast. By ourselves. Without kids or husbands. It was nice! I ate WAY too much, but it was worth every bite. I had french toast and sausage links and some hot chocolate. Mmmm..... The french toast was home-made too....yummy. Then we went and walked up and down main street in and out of the shops and just hung out.

Then we came home and it was so beautiful outside! I got Mike to sit inside with Elli so I could sit on the dock and boat watch, read, and sunbathe. It was so nice and so warm! It was great. Then after a while he brought her out and she and I sat on the dock and played for a little bit.

Then Becky and Emily were painting and I couldn't know that they were painting and not join them, so I painted a quick little picture. Here's the finished product...it was a quicky - done in 45 minutes or something, so it is not great...don't judge me! :)

Now Elli is happily playing on the floor, big and balanced, and just an amazing little girl. I can't believe how big she is.

Tomorrow is the 4th! Should be fun!

Things are going to start getting difficult!

So this week Elli has eaten more food - rice cereal, grean beans, peas, and I've let her suck on some cantaloupe and taste my apricot. She's drinking out of a sippy cup and she is also crawling a little more everyday. She crawled from my bedroom into the door, then around the door and into the bathroom across the hall where I was cleaning up a mess made from her obvious new food experiences. She is getting more mobile, which is making me start thinking about everything that I have to do when I get home. I need to get gates for my steps and CLEAN everything in reach of little baby fingers, gosh...and so much more. Today she has pulled herself up onto this footstool. She is getting bigger and braver every minute! My life is going to get more difficult! No more leaving her just laying in the floor while I go to the bathroom or get a drink! No more letting her just sit there on my bed while I get dressed in the morning! Now I am really going to have to start watching her and watching what she is doing - where she is going - what she has found to put in her mouth....oh geez.... how much dog food is she going to eat...gross.....

Super Sunday

So there hasn't been a whole lot going on around here. It has been too chilly for me to think about getting into the lake. But, it HAS been warm enough to enjoy sitting on the dock and finishing my book, soaking up rays, watching eagles, and laughing at the kids in the water. Elli is super attached to me. She is fine if she gets destracted and I can sneak out behind her and enjoy a few minutes alone. She loves her Aunt Joy...it seems she is the only other one who can just pick her up and calm her down. I have been sneaking around her all the time because if I don't and she gets sight or smell of me - my time is over...she shakes and cries and instantly NEEDS me RIGHT NOW!!!!!! I kindof feel bad...but not bad enough to quit doing it. :) I love my baby. She's 7 months old! (Where has time gone?) We have stolen our moments away and giggled and laughed. There's a mirror at the end of the guest bed that she loves to crawl up over my hip and talk to herself in. She thinks it is great. She's so funny. :) Tomorrow there's a chance of rain, so I am not sure what we'll be getting into. I may start another book. I'll probably watch for pirates...there seems to be some, as you can see in the picture.

For Lois

Hey :)
Thought you might get some ideas from these. I think the outlet covers and light-switch plates are cool. I love the trees on her wall (made from tree bark - if you can tell). And the towl rods are pretty neat too. I thought that these would be pretty simple to make and cool additions to your log house. I can't wait to get home and see how it looks and pick out paints and all that fun stuff!

P.S....how's my dog?