The gym

This morning I was thinking

"should I cancel my gym membership?"

I went to the gym and saw it was closed. But not just closed...CLOSED...it went bankrupt!

as I was driving off I thought

"question answered"

Birthday coupons

I love signing up for all of those "birthday club" programs at restaurants. I think I'm signed up on like 8-10 different clubs. This morning, when I opened my email I saw I had four free coupons for a "birthday dinner" or "treat" at TGIF, Ruby Tuesdays, Red Robin and a free ice-cream from cold Stone. All these choices and I'm sure more on the way. Which one should I chose? Or...should I use them all!! muahahawhawhahaha!

A few more pictures from the visit

My mom sent me a few more pictures, so I thought I'd add some of them. Below is at Sand in the City, can you see the sand sculpture in the background?
This is my favorite picture that Mom took of Jade. She is trying to blow bubbles with a mega sized bubble wand
Jade showing grandpa the snow bear that Vicka brought as a present for Jade.
Being silly on the couch:)
Grandpa helping Jade to reach the ceiling, I think he did this a dozen times
Jade has a new favorite in the family, and this one buys her super cool balloons

Family visits

Being the silly that I am the whole time my family was here visiting I didn't take ONE picture! I kept thinking everyone else was taking lots of pictures so I didn't have to. I stole the below pictures off my Mom's blog.

Anyway, last Wednesday my brother, GJ and his wife, Vicka and baby Sasha came to visit. A few hours after they arrived my Dad, Mom and sis Jo joined us. My parents came to visit, meet baby Sasha and drive Jo to College in Spokane. My brother and his wife came to visit and get paperwork taken care of at the Russian Consolute in Seattle.

While they were here we did lots of shopping, talking, laughing, eating, hanging out and sleeping. lol. On Saturday, the 22nd, we spent the day down in Olympia for "Sand in the City". My MOPS group was holding a "baby changing station" booth for moms who attended and I was in charge of putting it together. The below picture is of Grandma and Jade walking around while I was at the booth.
Jade may not look chummy with grandpa in this picture, but it didn't take her long to warm up to him. Especially when he brought her princess cookies cutters with a princess cook book that she really loved! Grandma also got her a "princess" bible. Jade sure loves her princess stuff.
Gj and Vicka had taken a red eye and hadn't slept ina very long time, I had to wake up at 5:30 to pick them up at the airport so we were all pretty sleepy. Still, I think we look pretty good;)
Here is my sister-in-law and me being silly for Mom's camera.
Wish I had more pictures from the trip, because it was a good time all around!

Blow drying hair

Every time Jade takes a bath, after she always asks "blow dry my hair!" then she goes out to the rotating fan and says that she is "blow drying" her hair. Cracks me up every time
she is going "mmm, nice" here.
And here she is posing for me...in her little ballerina skirt and leotard.

Comet, I've missed you

I grew up cleaning bathroom, tubs, toilets, floors and sinks with Comet. I use to hate the powdery stuff because if you weren't careful you could make a HUGE mess. Eventually I found other cleaners that I thought worked much better. Scrubbing bubbles turned into my favorite for a very long time.
Then, since being married, I've switched to more natural or organic brands that I see or have heard of. Trying to use good and "safe" chemicals for cleaning my home. However, my bathroom never seems to look, feel or smell CLEAN! Maybe it's just been me, not enough elbow grease or something.

This morning after seeing my shower (which I clean nearly every week and use that stupid shower spray every day) I decided something had to be done. Off to Wal-mart I went, picked up some fruit and some Comet.

I put Jade in front of "Aristocats" and armed in my adorable cleaning gloves (they are red with pink cherries on the top) I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed my shower. Then I did the toilet, sinks, mirrors and lastly the floor. Let me tell you. It all looks AMAZING!! The chrome in my shower is actually SPARKLING...sparkling I tell you! My floor is perfect, no caked on hairspray. I'm so happy!! Granted, I do need to invest in one of those breathing masks...but it was all worth it. Comet, my old friend, I have missed you and your amazing ability to clean some of the toughest messes.

Seahawks Practice

Thursday our little family headed to Seattle to go watch the Seattle Seahawks practice. It was a perfect sunny day, enough clouds to keep it cool but enough sun to keep it nice.
Jade really enjoyed watching them play "foofall"
JB and Jade spent almost the whole time going up and down the hill, to the fence and back to where we sat.
Here are some players getting ready to warm up
I'm pretty sure this is Tatupu, at least, that's what the back of his jersey said ;)
The guy in all black is the new coach, so I thought I'd take a picture of him doing his job.
I think Jade is trying to escape, to go join the guys in playing "foofall"
But, Daddy wouldn't let her. Spoil sport.
This is Jade doing the army crawl up the hill. She'd scoot down the hill on her bottom and then army crawl back up. So funny!
She thought she was pretty stylin'
Oh, one to many army crawls up the hill, I think our little pumpkin is tired.
It was fun watching the Seahawks practice and even more fun getting a week day afternoon together as a family, just having some good times!

Sick

So I caught a cold the other day. It started out as a sore throat, then a head cold, then a fever (which only seemed to last about three hours) and now, this morning I just have a nasty runny nose. *sigh* Why do we have to get colds? Some times I wish we'd either always be healthy or be really sick. Like the kind of sick you have to stay in bed all day and you think you might die. Colds, they are so pathetic. They knock you out, make you feel like crap, but technically you are still completely function able. So trying to sleep the day away is near to impossible...because it's just a cold. Ya know?

Still, I spent most of yesterday laying around watching movies, taking naps and doing pretty much nothing. I think I laid on the floor of Jade's room for an hour or so while she played "princess castle" around me, but that was about as much playing with my child as I did.

Today it's not so bad. I've just used about a million tissues in the last hour, but my sore throat is gone. Praise God! Maybe those zinc lozenges my Mom told me to take really do make a difference:)

I'm looking forward to today, sneezing and all. JB, Jade and I are going to watch the Seahawks football team practice. I'm sure a lot of it will be really boring, but some of it will be really cool. I think it will be the perfect thing to get me motivated to work on my fantasy football team, so when we have our draft in a few weeks I'll be all set.

Anyway, hopefully my cold will dissapear soon so I can be 100% by the weekend. I have big plans afterall;)

Morning at the Fair

We took Jade to the county fair this morning. She really loved getting to see and touch all the many, many animals.
I love it when she squats down to look at things

her favorites were the baby pigs

After looking at all the animals and walking around the whole park, we thought we'd let her go on the Ferris Wheel with Daddy.

It was a big wheel!

After fun rides we went over to the magic show area where a man was do balloon animals to give away free to the kiddies. Jade's fish is suppose to be "Dora" the man was going to do Nemo but thought Dora would match Jade's dress better. Jade LOVED it.
But the highlight of the whole event was getting to ride on a school bus (it acted as a shuttle from the free parking lot area)
Jade loves school buses and is constantly asking me if we can ride on one. Today she got her wish granted and I'm pretty sure it was every bit as excited as she hoped.

A funny little thing

Jade woke up from her nap this afternoon and the first thing she said was:

J:"I need a bible momma"

M:"You want a bible?"

J:"yes, I need a bible momma, I want to read a story"

Cute, huh?

The past few days

So, the past few days I have spent a lot of time inside. I have been so surprised with the heat wave we have been experiencing. I'm so very, very thankful for our little window A/C unit that my very smart husband bought for us as soon as we moved into this house two years ago. Thank you honey!

I've gotten to have a few people over this week to get out of the heat and into some fairly cool air. That has been fun, if I can have people over or see people every day I'm a happy camper:)

Today hasn't been so bad, in fact, in the shade it's even been kind of nice. I was finally willing to go outside and do a bit of weeding and watering of the few plants I have in the front yard. Poor things all look dead, guess I waited to long.

A memory maker that happened on Wednesday night (our hottest day) was I got to have my baby girl sleep in bed with us. She has never spent the night in our bed, not even when she was a tiny infant. But her room (upstairs doesn't have the a/c reach it) was so hot I felt awful having her sleep in it. She was so cute, kept trying to sleep sideways, her little head resting on my belly and her legs jabbing JB in the ribs. hee, hee. He didn't care to much for Jade's sideways sleeping but I'm glad I got to have a night with my little girl before she grows up and gets to big on me.

Each day I feel like Jade is becoming a little lady, she's getting taller and talking better and before I know it she'll be borrowing my high heels *sigh* Well, I guess she already does that...for dress up, but you know what I mean. Any way, needless to say last night Jade was very upset to find out she didn't get another night sleeping with "Daddy and Mommy's bed?" but after a few minutes of tears she was perfectly fine.

I'm looking forward to a game night tonight at a friends house. I made a strawberry/raspberry cream ice-cream pie...with a home made oreo crust. It was suppose to be all strawberries, but the strawberries at the store didn't look so good, so I bought raspberries instead, but then I mixed in some strawberry ice-cream topper along with the fresh strawberries so...yeah.

Not to many plans for this weekend yet, hoping it gets cooler maybe we can do the fair on Saturday!

Spending a day cleaning

The past couple weeks I haven't put my usual effort in cleaning the house. It's summer after all and who wants to spend all day cleaning? lol

Today I decided that since it was going to be pretty hot all week that I better clean the house today, while I had the motivation, and get it done before the cool morning air drifted away.

The sad part about spending your whole morning cleaning your house is you miss your usual time at the gym. But, I'll try to go tonight or tomorrow. So no big deal.

Jade followed me around kept asking me "what's that momma?" or "I help too!" While I do want Jade to help me clean the house I finally broke down and put on "Winnie the pooh" for her to watch while I got everything done.

Now my house is nice and clean and dusted and vacuumed. Pretty much all of the laundry is done too! I love that feeling. Accomplishment, that's what it is:)

After cleaning up we went to visit our friend Tasneem. She had made an amazing lasagna for her friends who, in the end, didn't eat it. Since it's just her she begged me to come by and take the huge pan of lasagna off her hands. It didn't take much for her to twist my arm. Not only did I get my house cleaned today, but now I don't have to make dinner! Hurray for me! Thanks Taz!

Flaxseed, it seems to be working wonders

While I was in Hawaii last month I met this really neat gal who was currently battle cancer (or so I was told, she never actually mentioned it, aside from a story about being completely bald at one point)
She was very health food savvy and kept giving us all advice on what to eat and where to find the best food options. We got into a conversation about this, since I consider myself pretty healthy with the food choices I make. She said "honey, if I were your age the one thing I would change is I'd start adding flaxseed to my diet. If you change nothing else, that's what I would recommend you change".

I went home and looked up flaxseed, its benefits and uses. Then two days after getting back from Hawaii I started taking it. I bought a coffee grinder so that every morning (or every few days depending on how much I'd grind) I'd have a special grinder just for the flaxseed. From what I read the best way to take flaxseed was freshly ground.

I put it in morning shakes, or I sprinkle it over my cereal in the morning. If I'm making pizza dough or stir fry or anything where the flaxseed will go unnoticed (yes, even cookies) I add it. Now, I don't know if flaxseed really is the mircale worker in my life, but it seemed within a week everything about myself was feeling better.

So now, I'm pretty much sold on the super tiny seed. The best part is when you grind it and mix it in food it's pretty much tasteless, so it doesn't effect anything you are making.

If you aren't currently taking flaxseed and wish to add a healthy new option to your current diet, I would definetly recommend added flaxseed...freshly ground...to your diet. I believe it really will make a big difference. A big difference with very little effort on my part.

Now, with that in mind I'm going to finish writing up my grocery shopping list so I can make peanut butter pie on Sunday for some guests;)

Nap times, I really should be very grateful for

My daughter has become a napping maniac it seems, ever since we got back from Hawaii. While I know I should be forever grateful to her three...sometimes four hour naps that she takes in the afternoon. I find myself feeling antsy and frustrated that I'm stuck at home in the afternoons on fabulous sunny days...or just days. Wanting badly to just go some where.

Today it's not really a big deal though. It's not a sunny day, and the plans I had got canceled, and the plans I tried to make also got canceled. So it's all good.

I'm slowly trying to get Jade to take a nap earlier in the day so she wakes up before it's time for me to make dinner, leaving plenty of time to run errands or go do something before my day is over.

It is pretty awesome though that I do get at least three hours a day that are all mine. So far I've been able to accomplish some ironing, some emailing, obviously some posting, dishes, dusting, and even a bubble bath. I guess I do live a charmed life huh? How many mothers get to take bubble baths in the day time? lol

Earlier today, I attempted to go out to run some errands and do shopping. I stopped by my hubby's work to give him the lunch he packed and left on the counter at home, then got some gas in the car. I was planning on heading to some home decorating stores when my daughter decided she was very, very hungry.

Jade: I hungry momma *said kind of weepy as though I haven't fed her in months*

Mom: We'll get food, your okay

Jade: I hungry momma, I want peanut butter and jelly!

Mom: No, we are going shopping baby, how about I get you some chicken nuggets

Jade: PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY, NOW, pwease!

Mom: Jade, calm down, we'll eat soon

Jade: Pwease, peanut butter and jelly *dissolving into a flood of fake, tired, sounding tears*

Mom: Okay, you want to go home and get a sandwich?

Jade: Ah huh *still weepy*

Mom: Okay.

*we arrive home I set her down for her sandwich, half a peanut butter and jelly

Jade: I done momma, more pwease *clapping her sticky, pudgy, hands together with excitement*

Mom: okay *hand her the second half of her sandwich, she eats slower and slower then looks at me and says

Jade: I done now, nap time!

With that I carted her upstairs and put her down for a nap. That was at about 11:30am...it's now nearly 3:30pm. Like I said, charmed life.

Trader Joe's in Olympia

While I don't feel the need to shop at Trader Joe's that often, I am REALLY excited about the fact that the Olympia Trader Joe's will be opening on August 21st!

I will most likely start shopping there a LOT more, now that it will be so close to me.

It looks like rain

It looks like rain out. I think that is a good thing. I think the earth could use a good soaking. Who'd have thought I'd ever hear myself say that. After all, one of my favorite things about living in Washington is the fact that our summers are almost exclusively rain-less.
We've had a really great stretch of sunshine though. Bring on the rain.

So far I have nothing planned or scheduled for my day. I thought about maybe taking Jade to the free movie at the theater but I don't really feel much like popcorn or watching a cartoon. So I think we will pass.

As soon as Jade is up and fed we'll head over to the gym. Where my big plan is to "work out" on the stationary bike while finishing the last few chapters of "Julie&Julia". Then I'll do some strength training in the back dungeon area of the gym that contains no fans so tends to feel like 110 degress. But, I workout there because there is lots of space and most of my workout requires lots of space. I'm starting to wonder if a gym membership really is the way to go.
Now that we own a good weight set and I've been taught how to do a large amount of workouts that don't require equipment...well, I could do all of this at home. However, the nice thing about the gym is the treadmill, stationary bikes and elliptical for when I want to do cardio and I don't feel like pushing a jogging stroller with a nearly 30 pound baby in it. :) I guess I should keep the gym membership, at least for a little while.

I'm getting excited about August. Aside from the fact it's one month closer to my birthday, I also get to see my sis Jo, and Dad and Mom! They are all coming out because Jo is going to school in Spokane and they thought it would be much more fun to fly to Seattle, hang out with me and then drive up to Spokane. Hurray for me!

Also, I get to help out at Sand in the City on August 21st. My MOPS group and church are sponsoring a booth. We will have a "Baby changing/nursing station" booth. Where mothers (and fathers) can stop and have a place to set their child to change diapers that is clean and nice, or a place to sit (can anyone say rocking chairs?) and relax and feed a hungry kid. If they so wish. We'll have water bottles and "park emergency kits" which are super cool. The park emergency kits have things like bandaids and hand sanitizer and handi wipes and neosporin, etc. At any rate, it's a way for us to help the communitee while also letting women know about our MOPS group, in case they are looking for a moms group to be apart of. So, I'm excited about that.

Also, in August, we are all going to go watch the Seahawks practice! We get to go the super cool stadium for a few hours and watch them workout and practice...and...I don't know...eat hot dogs while we watch or something. I'm not a huge football fan, but I"m one of those fans who if given the right mood and right ambieance I can really become a die hard. I've been apart of a fantasy football league for now three years and so I need to start getting my "football" on so I can get a good enough team together to kick the other teams butts. Going to the Seahawks practice should get me motivated and worked up to do just that.

Let's see, what else is in August? Well, those are the main events I guess. I'm off to get my daughter now...the gym is calling.

just talking

I'm mapping out a bike trail/ride this morning. It's so nice out and who knows how long our summer will last. I figure I should spend more time outdoors working out then indoors at the gym working out.

Life is going well for use for the most part. I've been feeling a lot better the past couple weeks. For those of you who don't know for a quite a few months there I was struggling with depression and other hormonal issues. It's been nice feeling like a human again:)

Not much is on the "to do" list of July. It has left me plenty of time to do whatever it is Jade and I feel up to doing each day.

This week will be my week of sewing. I'm meeting with a friend tomorrow to learn how to sew a skirt for me and then another friend on Thursday to learn how to sew a dress for Jade.
I love learning new things.

I'm reading the book "Julie&Julia" I decided to read it after seeing the movie trailers for the movie version of it. While I can't really recommend that book to others to read on language and moral content, it is inspiring me to want to try to cook foods I'd other wise never even consider attempting to make. We'll see if I actually try.

I do like to cook, sometimes I really wish I had gone to culinary school and become a chef. Unfortunately, my likes and dislikes change so rapidly I'm sure I'd have never made it through culinary school if I had gone.

Well, there is laundry to do, a child to feed and myself to get dressed. Have a lovely Monday everyone!

Book sling project done!

I finished the book sling yesterday and then last night Jonathan hung it up for me!
I'm so excited, and I'm hoping this will help limit the number books I find surrounding Jade in bed each morning.
Since it's still brand new, she is liking it a lot. Methodically picking out one book at a time, reading it and putting it back to grab a new one.
Hurray for creative people who share their creative-ness with the rest of us!

"so tight"

Often when I am on the computer, my little Jadey girl crawls under the desk with her blanket and bear and plays quietly until I finish.

While I was typing away on the computer I hear Jade saying "it's so tight" I looked down and she was trying to lay down flat in the tiny space provided. Her poor little head was trying to lay back while her legs were trying to keep from bending. I thought it was so funny I grabbed my camera to take a picture. By the time I took the picture she had already straightened up. oh well. Still cute.

Update

So, Jade is doing much better. Just as happy and active as ever. Her rash is slowly disappearing and thankfully is no longer contagious so we can get out and be around people.

The weather hasn't been all that great, though the rain has been needed. We've had cool weather and warm weather and rainy weather and even stormy weather (which is very rare). I feel like I don't know how to dress my daughter any more. I should just always carry a sweater and a pair of shorts around for her and dress her only in jeans. lol Oh well

I'm working on making a book sling for Jade's bedroom. I have it made I just need to get it hung up. As soon as I do I'll take a picture of it. To see what it's going to look like, check out this link!

Tomorrow is park day, if any one wants to join us it will be at Tumwater Historical!