A walk with Grandpa Garr

Sweet corn!!

Easter prep

D getting ready to dye eggs for the first time with his cousins and making a cake with Grandma Lori.

Weight loss

In late October I had an annual thyroid  appointment and general checkup. It's a new doctor for me since our old family doctor retired.

Since it was my first official phyical with him and I was turning 40, he did full blood work.

Turns out my cholesterol is high so I needed to exercise and eat better/differently. Of course everything I like to eat is on the 'bad' list so I've been working to eat more 'good' things and on portion control.

Chris had the doctor tell him the same thing when he went in for his checkup, so we're both trying to eat better and add more exercise so that we don't have to take cholesterol lowering drugs.

We had been exercising regularly before we had a certain little boy come into our lives 😍 and before we moved to our acreage.

When we lived in town, we used to live not to far from rec trails and it was really convenient to use our bikes. We live on a paved county road, but when you're out of shape, riding a bike with a carrier attached, going up and down hills isn't that fun when you're out of shape.

I've lost a little over 15 pounds since the end of October, and have a bunch more to go. I got sick a few weeks ago and didn't exercise or eat the greatest, so I'm a little behind where I could have been.

I do weigh myself often out of curiosity; I know way more than you're supposed to when trying to lose weight.

Point being, if I hadn't been weighing myself, I wouldn't know I've lost weight. I don't know where it's come from, as I personally don't see any results yet!

I still have another 38 pounds to lose to get to my target weight, which my food/fitness tracker says I'll reach my goal in October.

It's weird to think I graduated high school 100 pounds less than I weighed when I started this journey. 😮

I'm hoping that when it gets warmer I'll take D on some bike rides and lose more by doing stuff outside and on our elliptical.

However, I could just have bad genes and have to take cholesterol lowering drugs anyway, even though I've lost the initial 10-20 pounds the doc recommended.

I'll know in about a month if my exercise is working for my cholesterol and health, or just health. Either way, I'm going to try to stick with exercising so that I can be in better shape and be around for as long as I can!

I'm sure anyone who reads this blog was really anxious to hear all this about my health. 😉 I wanted to document my stuff so I could track my journey.

I'm sure a more exciting post will be on its way soon.

Working hard

Daddy was working hard while holding nephew C and D.

This is the life...cartoons and pajamas at 11:41 a.m.

D and cousin R relaxing watching Richard Scarrys Busy Town.

Fun days!

D had fun in the museum yesterday with some binoculars.

Today he had a really fun afternoon playing at the beach at Lake Namekagon, mainly splashing everyone and destroying whatever anyone was building with sand. So much so that he fell asleep on the way back to the condo!

Working at Uncle Brian & Aunt Cara's

Confirmation

D had quite the look going on the drive to cousin J's confirmation. We had fun visiting with family today.

Couldn't wait...

We celebrated Uncle Brian's birthday and D couldn't wait for his own piece.

The boys watching Peppa Pig

Fun in the park (April 26, 2014)

Happy Birthday to me. :)

Happy Birthday to me! :) We went out to the Texas Roadhouse for supper and D joined me on the birthday saddle.

Growing boy and new house

Written August 17th... I write today's post feeling completely physically (and somewhat mentally) exhausted... I am most definitely NOT a morning person, but I woke up at 6:30 a.m. and was unable to go back to sleep, so I thought well, I'll just get up and get some things done while waiting for Chris and D to wake up.

We have been extremely busy the last month and a half. We closed on our new acreage last night (8/16) and have been frantically trying to get it cleaned up, painted and ready for us to move in. (Thanks to all the family that's come to our aid!!) We've wanted to live on an acreage for a while, so hopefully it lives up to our expectations! ;)

The property has two acres, with .66 acres being a field that had been plowed. The mowing got too much for the previous owners, so they let the neighboring farmer plow it and plant crops. We'll eventually get that flattened and reseeded to grass, but that will probably be next years project.

There are 3 outbuildings, two that we'd probably actually use... the house is a four level split with 3 big bedrooms with large closets, 1 full bath and 1/2 bath with laundry. It's bigger than our current house, and Chris and I will actually be able to have all of our clothes together in our bedroom for the first time in 10 years. :)

We first looked at this house in April and finally at the beginning of July we had ok'd the repairs that needed to be done before we'd take possession. Most of the repairs are done, but the window repairs aren't quite done; at least we don't have to use painters tape around 6 windows, so that makes it easier... Unfortunately, some of the repairs will probably be bandaids for now as we've had a better chance to look at the house without everything in it and get a better feel for what we need to possibly fix in the future.

There was a hair salon in the room we are making our home office, and unfortunately after we tore out the cupboards, there wasn't flooring and the plumbing wasn't cut off where we'd have liked, so we have a little bit of thinking to do to figure out what we'd like to do with that room.

However, to add to the chaos, we were on vacation for the first two weeks of July - first to Dallas for a national volleyball tournament that Chris coached at, and then to Cable, Wisconsin for a family vacation, so we've not really had a chance to slow down yet!

D turned 11 months and 1 year old in the mean time, and has 3 of his 4 first molars come in. We knew he had teeth coming and had assumed that it was the canines... well, it wasn't! So, that definitely better explained him not sleeping very well the two weeks we were gone on vacation!

By the time he turned one, he had 3 out of his 4 molars in for a total of 11 teeth. This past week, the other molar pushed through. He really likes to take bites and eat what we're eating, and lets us know by 'pounding' on the table or screeching at us if we haven't given or shared enough with him. He also has been done with pureed food for a little while, and definitely wants to feed himself, given the option - he really likes the Gerber Graduates Pasta Pickups.

He is turning into such a character, that sometimes we just look at each other and laugh. I'll give a few stats though... When he turned 11 months, he was about 30 lbs. 3 oz. and 31" tall. For his 1 year checkup, he was 30 lbs. 12 oz. and 32" tall.

He made the nurse and I laugh in the doctor's office when he got his 1 year shots. He is strong, so the nurse pulled him down to the end of the table to hold his legs, and I held his arms. I had forgotten to give him some tylenol before he got his shots, so I was hoping he'd do OK. He got the first shot, and just at the end started spitting. He didn't cry out at all, and I started to smile.

We've discovered that when D spits, he's letting us know that he doesn't like something. Well, the second shot was a little more painful and he did let out a little cry with that one (no tears) and there was significantly more spitting, so by then I was laughing at him (yes, I know those shots do hurt). But as soon as the nurse had the needle out, he quit spitting and shortly after that gave her a smile, so all was forgiven. :) So he did really well at this 1 year checkup. The doctor said that he was a little heavy for a one-year-old, but that it was okay cause when they get sick they lose weight, so he didn't mind that D was a little heavy.

Trying to think about packing and getting supplies for the new house have been definitely interesting with D because I'd say that shortly after we got back from vacation he figured out that he can push and/or climb over the boxes we were using as a corral for him. He's not quite ready to walk yet, but he has definitely been doing really well walking along by using only the help of one person's hand, instead of both hands, so I would guess he's not too far off for the walking part. Not much stops him while he's in is walker either.

He just wants to go-go-go and is curious about everything. He is standing on his head with his butt in the air and it's cute watching him lay his head down on the floor to look at something. He is talking more (nothing that we understand yet), although I'd say his first word is probably bye-bye, that he says with a wave.

Last week he was sitting in the dining room and had a toy in his hand and was waving it in the air and chattering. Well, I thought that he was talking to me, so I said something like, "oh yeah, I didn't know that, thanks for sharing." Evidently he wasn't talking to me though, because I'd startled him and then in a completely different tone did respond back to me, so his imagination is definitely working. :)

We had a birthday party for D last Saturday with family and a few close friends. He made it through the meal, two birthday angel food cupcakes and present opening before taking a nap. He dropped his morning naps a while ago, and takes one nap a day, usually around 12:30/1:00 for about 2-2.5 hours.

So, it's definitely been crazy at our house with a busy boy climbing on anything he can and two cats also wanting attention, not to mention all the little things like the lawn mower is leaking gas, the snow blower pull is broken, my car needs something fixed on it, etc... just all the regular stuff a person has to take care of...

We bought D a bike trailer for his birthday... well, we evidently don't have the right parts to mount the trailer to my bike, so not only can we not go for a bike ride cause we can't get the trailer hooked up to either of our bikes, we also can't get my bike back together, so that needs to go to the shop too... so many things to take care of!!

Well, I think this is all for now -- I'll leave you all with some pictures.

11 Months Old

These are as good as it gets for an active boy!

Father's Day

Grandpa George and grandkids

Fathers' Day 2013

Three generations

On Lake Namakagon in Wisconsin.

Digging in Chris' bag on vacation in Dallas.

Dallas vacation

This was D's first park to be able to play in. Downtown Dallas has a park called Klyde Warren Park, and it has areas for different aged kids to play in, is pet friendly and has entertainment, reading materials and games. We went there on the 4th of July to do something special. We all enjoyed it and would go back again. 

Catching up

It's been a while since I've updated the blog with actual writing, so I thought I'd take the time to do that today, and also add a bunch of long overdue photos.

I can definitely see now why they make cameras with WiFi connections on them, because almost all of the quick updates I do are from my phone, and it takes longer for me to get photos downloaded to our computer and then uploaded to the blog.

We've been busy with many things over the past month or so since I've actually written a post. 

I fell behind blogging in March getting ready for D's adoption day and other things we had going on. We had icky weather the day before the court hearing so we weren't even sure what would happen if they cancelled court that day. 

However, the weather cleared and the we had the hearing; D officially and legally became a part of our family on March 11th. Almost all of our immediate family were able to join, us, and all made it home fine after driving on some not so nice roads.

D was awake and happy before the proceedings and serious
during the proceedings. He doesn't usually wake up that
early in the morning, so he did really well for having been
woken up our of a sound sleep to make it to our court hearing.

We celebrated with handing out chocolate cupcakes with white frosting with sprinkles and going out to eat at IHOP afterwards.

We took a belated 10th wedding anniversary trip to Paris - it was nice to get away and have a special vacation. We didn't go to place we'd been to before, but picked some new places to visit. We were in town for the V-E Day celebration; evidently the Polish president was in town too. We really enjoyed the military museum and barely scratched the surface there.

There are still plenty of places to see there and other day trips to do also. We probably won't be back there any time soon as we have other countries we'd like to visit. For our next big trip, we plan to go to Scandinavia -- maybe with D coming with! That will definitely be an adventure!!

Fontainebleau Palace

Tuileries Garden

We celebrated our first Mother's and Father's days as parents this year. We were home for Mother's Day and visited Chris' dad and step-mom for Father's Day. It's been hard to believe how quickly time flies when you have a little one around. We were thinking about D's birth parents on those days and hoping that they were doing OK.

We've snuck in two trips to North Dakota - once for a cousin's confirmation and for another cousin's high school graduation. It was fun to hang out with everyone, just too bad the trips had to be so short!

D was 10 months old in June and he was 29 lbs, 9 oz and 30.5 inches tall.

Chris has had his usual work traveling and volleyball tournaments to go to for the past few months. D and I went with to a volleyball tournament a few weekends ago. Evidently D and I were talking to Hugh McCutcheon and we didn't even realize who we were talking to, which Chris and the other coach thought funny. :)

10 months

We also had our annual trip to see the Saint Louis Cardinals play the Texas Rangers with my family. It was D's first time at a ball game. We had an hour rain delay and the Cardinals lost, but D did really well and it was mostly a nice weekend getaway. It was also Grandma Nea's birthday, so D got his first taste of angel food cake - he seemed to like that a lot better than the chocolate cake he's had before, so maybe I know what his 1st birthday cake will be. :)

Through all of the usual daily stuff, we've been in the process of buying an acreage. It's actually one I mentioned back in April... yes, April. We first saw it on April 7th, and put our first bid in on April 13th. We wrote an offer that was accepted on June 4th. We listed our house on the market June 12th and have had a few people look at it.

10 months

We thought stuff was going well with purchasing the new house, but the home inspection had a few issues come up that we weren't anticipating, so we're still not sure if we're able to come to an agreement on purchasing it. We'd hoped to have all of this figured out by now. :(  Thankfully our house hasn't sold yet, so we're not homeless! There are still not a lot out there for houses we're interested in, so who knows what will happen.

Mother's Day

Father's Day

I can definitely say it's a little harder to baby-proof a house when I want to have stuff looking nice for showing it to potential buyers. I will be glad when this process is over and we've found our new home and sold our old one (even if we don't get the house we're currently in negotiations on).

I've enjoyed living close to family and having good neighbors, so leaving to go to a new house further away (20 minutes, so not really that far away), is something I'm not looking forward to adjusting to, but we are ready to be done with the ups and downs of looking at, buying and selling houses!

D has been really busy and a few pictures below show that. He's investigating things and it's fun to see his looks when he's trying to figure something out or has discovered something new...

Eating is such hard work.

Photoshop fun...

Helping me with laundry... it would have been nice to unload
the folded laundry basket upstairs in our bedrooms instead
of in the basement. ;)

He's supposed to be on the other side of the
Exersaucer -- he crawled through -- little stinker!

Window washer -- the window was so wet from spit,
it was running down the front door

Window washer -- notice the wet shirt from drooling/spitting

Fun with Aunt Cara at the Cardinals game