Naturally Optimistic

I slept in. I could end the post there. But I won't. Steve & I went for a hike. The two of us. At a brisk pace. Neither one of us whined, cried or threw a fit. It was quite wonderful. We glittered up leaves that we collected & pressed the week before. I love doing such messy crafts with the kiddos outside. Our garbage can is full of lots of sparkles this week!  And we took in the view from Hawk Ridge (see new banner pic). The sun was starting it's dip into evening so the colors under the canopy were not as bright as they would've been earlier in the day, but that's okay. It was still lovely.

 To begin the day - some whole wheat (I totally cheated on the gluten-free thing) Mickey Mouse waffles with the best maple syrup every. My co-worker's father-in-law makes it. Yum. (the kids, ridiculously, prefer "Log Cabin." gah) Then Dahlia starts "organizing." I nearly had a heart attack when I saw her "progress." We were able to recycle quite a few things though, thankfully. There was some screen time - GoNoodle. It's an interactive "brain break" website that the kids use at school. Dahlia loves it & it gets them both up & dancing. Pretty cute.  Later (after the whining, lordy!) we went outside & jumped in leaves. Ahhhhh, fall.... I may or may not have had a glass of wine & continued reading my book while the leaf-jumping was happening.... August moved into his Booster seat. He was pretty proud. I believe his words were, "I'm special." Indeed you are, kiddo. Th...

Ahhhhh.... Saturday! I have been looking forward to you since Monday. This week I really REALLY REALLY felt the need for you. Bad. Thank God you happened. The breakfast thing worked out okay - the kids actually slept til about 7:15 which is about an hour 15 longer than I thought they would. I hooked them up with a DVD & their breakfast boxes & went back to bed. IT WAS AMAZING. I was sort of in that hazy in between sleep & awakeness for about another hour which was fantastic. Loved it. August relaxing in the "Pillow Pit" from the night before. Love his repose.  We had some "hometime" which consisted of dragging most toys out of their homes & spreading them throughout the house. It also included multiple snacks & requests to play PBS kids on the computer & watch more movie (I said no...such a terrible Mom....) A little jammie-painting time before moving on to anything else.  By lunchtime I wanted to get out for a bit. I bought a SU...

Just back from a weekend up the shore with my friend Elizabeth. *sigh* ahhhh - two nights of sleeping in a bed all by myself, a whole 24 hours without washing dishes, 4 Christmas presents made, one pair of jeans hemmed (we know how to party), glasses of wine on the deck, endless gazes at the big lake & the wonderfulness of being soothed by the sounds of the waves. The only problem was, the weekend was too short!

My sister, my cousin & I all have August birthdays & it's been a tradition since childhood to sort of celebrate them together. When we were little this meant going to Como Park with the fam for a picnic, or having a birthday 'party' while all camping together - but as we've gotten older it means Girls' Weekend. Leaving the 6 kids between us (all 4 or under) behind, meeting up somewhere fun, playing games, doing puzzles, drinking wine, eating good food, and most importantly, sleeping. My Mom & Aunt are always ridiculous spot-on with gifts & it's just an awesome time. I leave you with a few photos of our weekend. As you can see we're party animals. My cousin & aunt did go kayaking on Saturday afternoon. I was tempted to join them, but decided the peace & quiet of the cabin, my book, knitting & puzzle-doing with my sister was too much to pass up. It was very relaxing. The weekend went FAR too fast.

Guess the update on Madeline Island will have to wait as today I'm off to Hayward with my Mom, Sister, Aunt & Cousin. Our annual birthday-girls' weekend-get together! I'm looking forward to two nights of SLEEP. I'm such a party animal.

1 - Box of Cheerios dumped all over the floor 3 - Number of nieces/nephews turning 4 this weekend 300+ - miles driven to attend the fabulous Triplets' Birthday Party (& back) 1 - radio interview given 32 - Impatiens planted 2 - margaritas consumed 7 - skinned knees, toes, bumped heads 20,385 - steps taken (post about my awesome new pedometer coming soon!) 1 - very fun weekend

Dahlia & I had a great time this weekend. It was our Girls Adventure, so to speak. We went to visit Grandma & Grandpa (Papa) Rossow in Austin. We originally picked this weekend because Steve was supposed to be skiing in Montana...but his trip didn't end up happening. Ours did because it was already planned! Friday we met Kathy & the Triplets at the MN Zoo. It was a nice break for us & we got in for free on her membership. Dahlia hadn't been there before & enjoyed running around. We walked the Tropical Trail & the Minnesota Trail - so we saw lemurs, birds, turtles, fish, a big snake, wolves, lynx, puma, mountain goat, deer....& I forget what else. We also took a gander at the snow monkeys. We had lunch with them there & then got back in the car to continue our journey. Dahlia slept from Apple Valley to Austin - which rocked. The weekend consisted of playing, lounging, eating, hanging out...it was great. Dahlia loved playing with Papa & Gramma ...

Whew - busy weekend.... Saturday I drove down to St. Croix State Park. I was meeting my Mom, my sister Kathy, my aunt Ronnelle & my cousin Lindsay for a "Girls' Night" in Hinckley so I decided to go down a little early so I could go for a walk at St. Croix. The park is really nice - it's huge. I think it would be really good for taking Dahlia too - there were a lot of good activities...playgrounds, the Munger Trail goes through the park, canoe shuttle, etc. It was packed, but I still think it looked like it would be fun. I enjoyed my picnic lunch & my walk. Then I met my family at the hotel in Hinckley. Kathy, Lindsay & I all have August birthdays so traditionally (growing up) we would celebrate all together...so that's what this was! Our birthday celebration! After meeting up with them we settled into our suite, then walked around to check out the casino. None of us are big gamblers but it was kind of fun. We ended up having Happy Hour in our room and...

So another weekend has come and gone. And BOY was it a great one. (I am being sarcastic). It wasn't necessarily "bad" it was just...."meh." Friday night: Um....I got home late from grocery shopping so therefore we ate late and had a very hungry & crabby baby. Fun! I then made 2 pans of lemon cheese bars for Steve's Uncle's memorial service on Saturday. Saturday: Rush rush rush! Try to get all three of us clothed, bathed, fed, bars cut, FIL picked up, etc for said memorial service. Spent most of the day there and you know what? There are no ramps from the parking lot to the entrance at Marshall School (the memorial was in the chapel there). There is handicapped parking on top, but if you're like me and just have a stroller, you're f'd. And there's lots of snow & ice in the parking lot and if you're also like me - you're carrying 2 pans of bars, a platter on which to put them, a baby, diaper bag & purse. Your husband is...

Today was great. We had a leisurely morning with our house guests Freya & Mark...we played with the baby, we ate oatmeal & pumpkin bread, we talked, Mark played the guitar, we went for a lovely hike in Chester. It was really nice to not "do" anything. It was great to catch up with them as well. After they left, Steve, Dahlia & I headed out on another walk...we checked out the Farmer's Market for their Season of Wreaths event or whatever it's called. I picked up a gift for a friend and one of the vendors gave me a wheat harvest wreath thing that I complimented. Cool! We stopped by the Shanty on the way back and I discovered they have Strongbow (cider) in cans! I haven't had Strongbow since I went to England! so I got some and am going to enjoy some tonight. After we got back we started painting. I finished priming everything in the room but the ceiling (which Steve is finishing now) and I started on the trim. I just HAD to switch to a color other than W...

Ugh, We're still moving stuff out of the old house. My god. I'm so sick of it. Today we were going to get an early start - but didn't. No big surprise there. We got over there and Dahlia who previously was good as gold, was whiny & clingy and wouldn't let us work! I managed to get some of the upstairs vacuumed and the bathroom cleaned but that was about it. We moved a ton of crap out of the basement (a mini-pickup truck's worth) but there's still more. Tomorrow Grandma B is watching Dahlia so we should be able to just get it done quickly. Oh and a FUN note! It was really cold in the house. The thermostat was set at 60 but it was only 59 (felt much colder). So we tried to turn it on...nothing. Steve hit the "reset" button on the furnace...it would run for about 30 seconds and shut off...we tried this a few times, him at the furnace, me at the thermostat...one time he comes flying up the basement stairs and runs out into the yard...apparently the ven...

Wow - what a weekend. Busy busy busy...but quite good. Thursday (not technically the weekend, but whatever) - Steve & I went to the Duluth premiere of FRESH DULUTH which is a documentary about how awesome Duluth is. My friends at Pro Video produced this film and I was excited to see it. It was really good - made me so proud to live here. It was a fun night with a great turn out. I'm really happy for them! Afterwards we went to the Red Star for martinis...well, I had martinis, because we had a BABYSITTER ON A WEEKNIGHT. It was awesome. Friday night my friend Sarah came in from Minneapolis - SPECIFICALLY so we could go see SEX AND THE CITY together, on opening night. I so rarely get to the theater these days to see a film, I was thrilled that this happened! We were going to go to the 7pm showig but it was sold-out so we opted for the 9:50 (way past my bedtime) showing instead. Beforehand were were back at the Red Star for more martinis. It's only fitting. I have never seen so...

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...