I did not take 3 naps this weekend with out any guilt.

I did not leave the children in my husband's hands while I layed my arse on the couch and slept.

I wouldn't dream of leaving Mikabella in a very wet diaper because I was too lazy to change it, at least until she sat that wet diaper on my face.

Mikabella's First Twins Game

Our Family

Amma and Mikabella

Mommy and Kermit

Todd and Mikabella

My mom's cousin was in town over Mother's day weekend. He was on his way to a meeting in Kansas City, but planned his trip so he could spend a few days with us in Minnesota. The last time he was in MN was 29 years ago. We were really glad to have him and it was great to see him. The last time I had see him was 19 years ago when his brother got married in Washington. We went out there for the wedding.

So he was here from Thursday to Monday morning. Saturday we had a big get together at our house. We had everyone over. I cooked a giant ham and made way too much food. On top of that everyone brought food. I had too much to begin with, then we added more, then everyone died of over indulgence. The End. I had a table of hor'dourves, ham, mashed potatos, hot dishes, desserts, bread, etc. We all hung out and caught up with Uncle Danny. It was such a nice afternoon. Then later before everyone went home, Amma set up the old slide projector in our office. Doesn't sound like a bad plan, however, once everyone got in there the room was packed. We had 13 or 14 people in our office. That's a lot of peole to fit comfortably. But it was cozy, and we had a great time. We were laughing so hard at some of the old slides. There were pictures of Grandma and Grandpa's old 'davenport' and a cow in Sweden, that for some reason Auntie and I were crying laughing at the 'Swedish Cow'. You know because Swedish Cows are really different from other cows. You could tell it was Swedish by the say it said Tack så mycket, and the way he liked his nude beaches.

We went through slide after slide after slide. Some had old pictures old pictures of Amma, and her sisters. Some were of their Christmas' as a family. Some were just very random. But there were ALL very funny and of course each had a story. We sat crammed into that room for hours and hours laughing as a family. It was funny to see baby pictures of Amma. Mikabella looks exactly like her, and so do I from my baby pictures. It was uncanny.

Amma, Wendolyn, Uncle Danny and Auntie and Chris all spent the night Saturday night. Sunday Auntie and Chris had to leave to go and spend the day with his family. Uncle Danny and I ran to Coborn's for some breakfast stuff and I gave him a little tour of our town. We made a big breakfast and got ready to go to the Twins game. It just so happened that the Twins were playing the Mariners, Uncle Danny's team. Wanette came down and went with us. We had such a great time, even though the Twins lost. Mikabella was feeling a bit under the weather since she was teething. It actually worked in to our favor. She sat really good the whole game, even took a little nap. It was long day being there but totally worth dragging both the kids to it.

A Very BIG* Weekend Planned

So this weekend we have BIG* plans! They include (in no particular order):

Husking, Cutting and Freezing many, many, many ears of sweet corn.

Possibly looking at a rental home (you know, for if the fate God's allow our house to sell. I feel like we are tempting fate in to kicking us in the gut, by even looking, but Todd wants to go. So I've emailed the guy, and we wait.)

Possibly going to the lake with my mom. Todd does not want to go. I could go either way (that is go or stay home). Mom wants to go, kids... they will do whatever we say. :o)

Laundry

Dishes

I will most definitely think about packing (NOTE: I will not actually pack anything. I will wonder around the house and think to myself "How are we ever going to move out of this house? There is SO MUCH STUFF! Packing it all will take forever and I......")

There is a slight possibility of going north to watch our friend race his cars, but that is really slim. It's just, well, that would take some planning and I have a feeling we won't get there from here, but we just might. You never know.

There will most definitely be eating and sleeping and putting the kids back into their cages at night. They sleep better in there.

So really all in all, we probably won't get much done this weekend. But it's gonna be hot and well, I don't really want to do much of anything.

*And by BIG I mean really normal everyday unimportant things to be done.

Getting Closer

We are finally getting closer to an answer on our house. We finally know that there may be an end to the madness soon. But I'm still not putting all my eggs in that basket. I'm trying to actually ignore it all. Otherwise I spend way to much time "What If-ing".

I also don't spend anytime thinking about moving (UGH!) or where we will live next, or how long we will live there, or about the next house we want to build. I'm trying to do this one step at a time, or it's too overwhelming. It comes up in passing between Todd and I, but we don't really look at anything because if we did and we found something that was perfect and we loved it, by the time we know when we will move, it will be gone and we will be sad.

So for now, we have beers on the deck and talk about it in the abstract. Like it's happening to someone else or on TV. I can't wait to move on and move out, but I also still really love our house. I just wish it was on more land and MUCH cheaper. Lesson learned, risk taken, money spent, good times had, time to move on.

We are constantly putting more irons in to our fire. Like we don't have enough to do. We both work full time, try to raise 2 kids, try to sell our house, we have a new venture we started that is sometimes part time, sometimes full time, Todd is also going to take a few classes on line and add to our already busy schedule. He's going to go in to business for him self again (see above where he works full time, that full time is also Self Employed.) We're just adding a 2nd business to our resume, or adding to the amount of things his Self Employedness is already doing. We'll probably opt for "another business". But we'll see. Either way, it's just more to do and keep track of on a daily, weekly, monthly scale.

I love being busy and having lots to do, but it gets very overwhelming when there is SO.MUCH.OF.IT. So that's why I talk about things more in the abstract. I step back and look at it from the outside. It's happening over there, and we're watching it. We really are taking it day by day. We don't plan to far ahead and we don't look back.

Sometimes I'm amazed how well Todd and I are getting along. We have a TON of stress right now, but neither one of us is freaking out on the other. We are rolling with the punches, know that this is just one chapter of our lives and we'll soon put it to a close and start again. We have been through tough times before and last time, we did not handle it as well. When the going got tough, I went to my dads. I would run away, so we didn't fight, but it was always waiting for me when I got home (unresolved conflict.) We fought, we yelled, we threw things, we did not do well. This time, SO.MUCH.BETTER! I'm glad to see that after 6 years, 2 kids, 2 houses, 5 jobs, and countless vehicles, we have learned how to be adults and rely on each other for the hard parts.

So here's to you honey. Thanks for always having my back, and being the other half of me so I don't have to do all of this alone. I love you!

Not Me Monday

I did not pawn my kids off on my father-in-law so I could have a few more beers with my husband at the fair.

I wouldn't dream of laughing at my son when they had to stop the roller coaster because he was crying and afraid.

I didn't threaten KM with bodily harm if he did not lay down and take a nap.

I did not pretend to be asleep at 2.30 am when my husband and a friend got home from the bar because I didn't want to talk to him. I also did not purposely leave them sleep in when I knew they should be up so they could go lay stone.

I wouldn't think of feeding QM a Carmel roll for breakfast because I didn't want to do any dishes.

(My first Not Me Monday and I think I'm getting the hang of it. I'll try a little harder for next Monday)

{Inspired by My Charming Kids. Go check out her site, she is an awesome photographer.}

Mighty Life -- Inspired by Mighty Girl

1. Grand Gestures -- 40 gifts for 40th birthday
2. make a 1000 lovely things
3. write a book
4. fit back in to my wedding dress and go out on the town.
5. visit Italy and drink cafe at a cafe
6. finish KM and QM scrap books thru year 5
7. Visit Alaska and see the Glaciers
8. Go to NY city at Christmas, see Rockefeller Plaza
9. Set foot on all 50 states -- have a few down -- many to go.
10. Take a family road trip across the USA.
11. Visit Norway and Sweden where my ancestors were from.
12. Buy a Norwegian sweater from Norway
13. See the Great Wall of China -- walk on it.
14. Make a scrap book of all the invitations/cards we've sent out as a family.
15. Build a new house, design and decorate every detail.
16. Make a quilt out of the kids' clothes -- one for each.
17. Cook/Bake a 1000 new recipes
18. Take my mom on a trip - probably to Norway/Sweden
19. Visit Ireland -- have a drink
20. visit the church made of bones -- Prague
21. Ride a trolley in San Fransisco
22. See a space shuttle launch
23. Go on a second honeymoon to Tahiti -- or where ever 7 days and 7 nights was filmed. (need to look it up)
24. go dog sledding
25. paint something to hang in our house.
26. Visit Boston -- while Alyssa lives there
27. Visit Washington DC -- do ALL of the tourist things.
28. Write a blog post everyday for 1 year
29. Watch the Twins play at Yankee stadium
30. Figure out how to put Life List on the side of my blog.
31. Have a campfire/bonfire on a beach (preferably in Massachusetts, they seem so much cooler there...)
32. Re-design website and re-build it myself.
33. Go Paint Balling (added 10/29/09)

This is a start to my list. I will add it on the side as soon as I figure out how to.

I'm totally inspired by Maggie Mason from Mighty Girl. I love that she is not afraid to dream big and put it out there for the world to see. I love that she wants to hold herself accountable for the things she dreams big to accomplish. And for that I am inspired to do the same.

Party like it's 2009

I'm planning a super fun birthday party for the Queen Monkey. I'm getting a Moonwalk. I'm not telling the kids until they see it. QM won't really know, but KM will. It's a little more for him then her. His birthday is in February and he'll never get to have one at his birthday. Just ordered the invatations. They turned out pretty cute. Man alive do I love Shutterfly!



I love planning parties. I love having everyone over at our house. I love planning the menu. How much beer do we need? What kind of cake should we get? Decorations? Who to invite? Should we have a theme?