Naturally Optimistic

My darling husband turned 40 on Halloween! How exciting. He's entered the exclusive club. Last year I told him we will have to start celebrating his birthday on a day OTHER than Halloween because with two little kids it is just too much. WAY too much. So this year we did a simple dinner & cake on Halloween but then we had a party last night. Man, it was fun. We haven't had a party (really) since we moved into our house just over 5 years ago! Lame! So, I sent out invitations, we decorated the house for Halloween/old age - ha...and we had a party. Michelle was actually drinking Pepsi out of her whiskey bottle. Keepin' it classy! :) It was "costumes or not" which was fine with everyone. We got a few costumes, but not many....no big deal. There was artichoke dip & taco dip & salsa & smoked salmon (which we forgot to set out - ah well). Steve's brother made homemade mozzarella & we had popcorn. Simple. Tasty. Fun. The weather...

Taking a cue from Play at Home Mom , we did an art project in October. It was a gift for Steve for his birthday. Dahlia loved it! I guided her (trying to let her run the show when it's appropriate more lately). I showed her how to dump out the glue & spread it around. She was in charge of picking the gems & adding them...in whatever fashion she liked. For the 2nd one we did, I brought out some beads that I had stashed away. She LOVED those. "Her" creation (not the one she's giving away) consists mostly of beads. It actually looks pretty cool. I did have to prompt her a bit with the glue - the 2nd one we tried to do just sections of glue at a time so that it would dry before it was 'be-gemmed.' August wasn't really into it, although he did add a couple all on his own. He did, however, absolutely LOVE playing with the glass beads. I was right there to make sure he didn't eat any of them. I think he loved the smooth texture & I gav...

Here Dahlia, just play with the mustard.

We took Dahlia on her very first camping trip this weekend. Our goal was to be out of the house by 11:30 on Friday morning (we had a showing of our house then)...but we weren't even CLOSE to ready. We (ahem) are slow packers. Instead I ran the errands (liquor store, groceries) and Steve went to fuel up and get an oil change for the truck....5 hours or so later we were on the road! We made reservations at Sawbill Lake Campground in the Superior National Forest, at the end of The Sawbill Trail. It was a lovely campground. We were in the site next to some friends - close enough to hang out, far enough to be alone. Friday night we got everything set up and had a very late dinner. Dahlia was intrigued by the tent and fell asleep almost immediately. That was awesome. Steve & I enjoyed our hot dogs over the fire and a couple beers and the gazillions of stars. Ah heaven. Saturday we were going to take Miss Dahlia canoeing but it was so damn windy. The lake was CHOPPY and that scared ...

So this weekend has come and gone - too fast, yet again and it was "long." Ah well, so it goes. Friday night Erin came over for dinner. I made basil ravioli & asparagus. It was yummy. We were going to watch MOULIN ROUGE but it got too late and I was too tired. Saturday Steve hemmed & hawed and finally decided to go camping with a couple of friends. After he left Dahlia & I took our first bike ride together to the bike shop. The trailer we bought didn't have the reflectors installed as it should have. It was great - it works fabulously and although I'm a huge wimp, it wasn't too bad. After that we ran errands - I bought marigolds, petunias, tomatoes & another flower I forget what it's called. But it got rainy so I didn't get to plant them. Saturday night I didn't do much...putzed around, read my book, worked on my sewing project and went to bed. Yesterday Dahlia & I hung out. I planted the marigolds right before the rain and we spen...

Daddy & Dahlia Carrie, Dahlia, Laurie & Kate Dads & Daughters Sleeping in My Sweet Little Angel

Everything is okay with Steve's Dad. He had a seizure last night due to being off his anti-seizure meds for a week (mixup between the doc & the pharm or some such nonsense). I was so relieved when Steve came through the door last night with that news.

Just got a call from Steve's Dad's GF - he was having an "episode..." slumped over in his chair, breathing, ambulance called. We were at our neighbors. Steve came home, I shortly followed with the wee one. Steve was already getting ready to get out the door and head to the hospital. I don't know anything. Waiting. Hating that. His Mom called me (they're not together) wondering what is happening. I hate this waiting. I feel useless and helpless. Ugh. Hopefully it is nothing but I worry worry worry.

And no, I'm not completely crazy...yet. I have a beautiful baby daughter who is incredibly precious to me. I have a husband who is kind and loving and man do I love weekends when he's home. I am grateful for many things...I'm just a bit stressed out right now.

I've decided to see how many days in a row I can wear the same thing without anyone noticing. Or rather, without anyone commenting. Since I mostly just see Steve, Jason & sometimes a couple of other friends/film people, I think I could potentially go on for a long time. I'm not generally a slob, I'm just running out of options and when I'm home I'd rather be wearing Steve's "comfy pants" (which I have co-opted for the time being). So far - no one's said a word - ha! Actually, I did laundry last night so I might be changing it up tomorrow. We'll see. In other news, doctor's appointment today - scheduled induction DECEMBER 26TH at 6am! Well, 6am is when I go in. Ay yi yi. I'm sure our Christmas Day (night) celebrations will NOT be preoccupied at all. No - why would they be? Eeek. The baby was TOTALLY sleeping during it's biophysical profile today -after being up ALL NIGHT I might add. We had to literally wake the little one up so ...

I've been sitting on this for a while, until it became OFFICIALLY official and now it has so here it goes... Steve got a new job - whohooo!!! (probably more exciting to me than anyone else, but still!) He has been trying to get a forestry job here in Duluth/NE MN for the whole time I have known him. It is not easy to break into this industry as once you're in (esp if you're working for the County or US Gov) you stay in until you retire. We could've moved to bumf**k no where - but we wanted to stay in Duluth, on the North Shore where we love it so much and VOILA! After about 4 years he's in!! The process was long - it involved testing (he had to test every year to stay on the hiring roster), a pre-interview assignment (about a timber sale or something...), a 6-panel member interview, a field assignment during said interview, a physical endurance test & a drug test. At long last all the hurdles have been jumped! He will be a forestry technician trainee and he will...

Steve's birthday was on Wednesday - Halloween Baby. :) He had his interview that day, he visited his great-aunt (those events were up on "the Range"); he had to do some work and he took a hike when he returned home. I picked him up and shuttled him back to his car after his hike...we got pizza from Papa Murphy's, handed out some candy to trick-or-treaters (where Steve re-learned the "don't-let-them-grab-candy-themselves" rule), we had a Chocoholic Bundt Cake, he opened presents & we watched a creepy show on the Travel Channel. By time we had eaten & he had opened his gifts we were sort of pooped. He had a long day and I'm generally a dud these days. So we didn't go out for that b-day drink - the thought of hanging out with drunk, dressed up people just wasn't that appealing after a long day. I don't think he had that GREAT of a birthday but I tried to do what I could. Hopefully next year we'll do something more spectacular for...

Please send Steve your good vibes....he's in an interview right now for a job that would KICK ASS for him. It's a long process with many steps and he's in the middle of it (it involved testing, an assignment, an interview, field work, etc). He's very nervous and although he prepped a lot and he knows his stuff, I just hope he's doing okay! AND it's his birthday! Wouldn't that be a good birthday present? Being able to kiss his current job goodbye? Heck ya!

My honey has requested this for his b-day cake this year....anyone got any recipe ideas? This is the kind of bundt cake with the pudding tunnel inside.... Hmmmm.....

Steve bought me a new water bottle yesterday (early b-day present) as he doesn't want me drinking out of plastic so much while I'm pregnant (usually I use a Nalgene). This SIGG water bottle was so cute, I couldn't resist! And a perfect start to Kelli's "Green Week" . Have any Green habits you'd like to share?

Steve has been busy creating this tree garden in our yard this spring. He's been transplanting hybrid poplars & white pines and even a maple from other areas of our yard to this place where he's digging up the turf (very tough, btw). He's also planting some new cedar & spruces which he just bought this year (and then exclaimed "I have to stop buying trees!"). He also has been doing an experiment where he takes cuttings from the hybrids and places those either in dirt or water to see if root development will start and to see if THEY will turn into trees. These photos are from a few weeks ago - there is more "garden" now and more trees in said garden....hopefully by the end of the summer things will really have taken root (including the ornamental grasses & wildflowers that I'm planning on adding to the mix.

Last night Steve decided he wanted to bake chocolate chip cookies. I knew he had been craving them for a while but I hadn't had time to bake any yet. He took matters into his own hands. He exclaimed "I can't wait to use my new mixer!" Cheeky bastard.... :) I was putzing around the kitchen, measuring dry ingredients for him, cleaning up after he'd finished and doing some laundry & cleaning in the basement. When I came upstairs I said "Did you add the secret ingredient yet?" He said "yes, yes, I did." I then asked him if he knew what the secret ingredient was. He looked at me and said matter of factly "Love." He is right. That is exactly what I was going to say. I love this man. The cookies were excellent.

3 years ago today I met Steve for the first time. We "met" online through Yahoo or Match or a combination of the two. We emailed for a couple of weeks. We talked on the phone once. He asked me out. We met at a little cafe/bar for drinks. The place was "Nutty Megs" and was only in existence for about 6 months or so. Too bad too because it was cute, cozy, served sandwiches & soups in the day and beer and wine at night - usually with some local art on the walls and an acoustic music group playing in the corner. I got there first and was waiting in the lobby of the office building where Nutty Megs was located. Every time the door opened I would look to see who it was. If it was this "Steve" that I was meeting who I only knew through his profile pictures. I was anxious and excited although not overly optimistic. I had done this before and my "date" had seemed more like a job interview than a romantic interlude. And then he walked in. I knew instan...

Said by my darling husband the other night while we were trying to replace the toilet, which we had removed to lay the new vinyl tile in our bathroom.... "the thing which is for our butts, is becoming a pain in my butt..." I thought, DANG why aren't we on our own home improvement show??