Dreary Day

There's not much going on around here today. It's been a dreary, extremely windy day, so no going outside for us today. But I have been in a spring cleaning/organizing mood lately, so it's the perfect day to work on that, since I don't get a lot done when the weather is nice. The other day I got all of Isabella's outdoor toys organized, and found a nice home for them all in one corner of the garage. Also Monte put together a big storage cabinet for our garage, so I'm antsy to get the garage all cleaned out and organized. He also got his workbench/tool area all cleaned out. And lately I've been cleaning out kitchen cupboards, and I have a crazy urge to go through all my recipes and organize them better. I did that when I was on bedrest while pregnant, but it needs to be done again. I'm partway through that, but don't know how much I'll get done, it's quite time consuming. I've also been working on some sewing projects that I'll post about sometime soon. Thankfully Monte's flu was pretty shortlived, he was over it and back at work yesterday afternoon. Isabella and I are so far so good . . . OH MY GOSH, I just looked outside and our whole fence (big, strong, wooden fence) is tipped over and laying flat on the ground! Yes it's THAT windy, gotta go . . .

My Bah Humbug Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful mothers out there! I didn't get to spend time with my own mom (other than a phone call) today, but will get to next weekend. We had a fun day scheduled, I was really looking forward to it. Monte's parents were coming down, and we had plans to meet them for brunch, and a fun day at the zoo, BUT Monte woke up very sick this morning. For once it had nothing to do with his Crohn's, just a stomach flu type thing. A guy he works with had it this past week, and Monte's medication is an immunosuppressant (sp?) thus making him pick things up easily. Hopefully Isabella and I are able to fight it off, we will see though, we made it all through the long winter without anything. I was really sad that of all days, we wouldn't be going to church as a family, and well, I guess I was feeling sorry for myself. Like it was his fault he got sick, come on Angela! Monte's parents had a longer drive than us, and they had already left, so Isabella and I still went to meet them. After forcing myself to make an attitude adjustmest on the way to town, I ended up having a delightful day, even though we all missed Monte. I realized on the scale of things, one day, even if it is Mother's Day, of not having things work out exactly like I'd hoped is really VERY small. And Monte was the one who was worse off, I hope the poor guy gets over it soon! The Willow Tree figurine above was my gift from Isabella, it's so sweet! I'm so thankful to that little girl for making me a mom!

At the zoo.

The kid loves water! I think all the water was her highlight. Although, she tells me the parrots are still her favorite.

I don't even know what this is, but she took a liking to it.

She was so excited, she ran the whole time we there! I had one tired little girl that fell asleep as soon as she got in the car.

Grandma and Grandpa sent her home with a bubble lawn mower, in Grandma's words, "Every kid needs a bubble lawn mower." At least we're not the ones spoiling her, at least I hope not.

Little Golfer

Oddly enough she looks like quite the little pro in this picture, but I assure you she really had no idea what to do!

Is this what I do?

The ball is even pink!

First day at the park

We had our first outdoor playdate of the year at the park this morning. Isabella wasn't all that keen on the three boys we met up with there (they were all older and doing really boyish things). But she did still have a blast! She was into climbing for the first time, although it was VERY delicate climbing, she still thought she was just something! And she thought it was so much fun to climb up and go down the slide all by herself.

We walked to the park, then the grocery store, then a cute little boutique downtown, then the post office, then home. We put the miles on, that's for sure! It's going to be so nice to start walking everywhere again, I'm glad she still loves the stroller. It was a great morning, I never had any idea what time it was, we just strolled around as we pleased, I feel so blessed.

Posing

I wonder if it means you take too many pictures when your two year old randomly asks you to take her picture, hmmm . . . These were all her idea, even the last one, she posed that way without me saying anything, silly girl. (Actually, I think she asks me to take her picture because she likes looking at the picture on the camera afterward.)

Thanks for all the birthday messages, emails, etc! Our mother/daughter banquet went really well, I now know what it's like and will be more prepared for next year, it was a really busy weekend! Today Isabella and I went to where Monte's sister teaches and watched her third grade production of "The Wizard of Oz", it was so good, I can't believe little third graders could do that well! They only live an hour from us, but we never see them, so it was nice to go there. I didn't know what Isabella was going to think of it, but she loved it, she sat still and really paid attention. The only time she said anything was in between scenes, she would loudly exclaim, "Somebody needs to turn the lights on!" And now she's exhausted from only a short nap in the car, so I better get her to bed . . .

29!

I woke up this morning, the day of my 29th birthday, to an empty house! Monte has spent yesterday and today shingling his parents' house. This is the weekend of our church's mother/daughter banquet that I have been planning and preparing for the last year, which meant I had to be at church at 8:30 this morning to start decorating, and the decorating is best done childless. Four hours of decorating down today, five more hours of decorating tomorrow. So Isabella went with Daddy yesterday to go stay at grandma and grandpa's house. In fact, he was leaving for their house right after an appointment he had for work, so as he said, it was also "take your daughter to work day" for him! She was, once again, ridiculously excited to go, she even refused breakfast, saying, "no, I just want to go to Mama's house". She was just there last week for a few days, which although I missed her, it was nice to have some time to myself and get a lot done. But this time, I REALLY missed her, I had all this time to myself yesterday, and I ended up just kind of moping around, wishing she was here. I did make it to First Friday last night at church, though. This evening I will be meeting them on their way home for a birthday meal (can't decide where I want to eat though), and then I'm hoping Monte and I can watch a movie after Isabella goes to bed. Since he's not here for most of today, he wanted to give me my present early. He got me a Dairy Queen ice cream cake, YUM!! I haven't had one in years, since he couldn't have dairy, but now that he can we're all over stuff like that! I ended up losing 12 pounds during lent, but with all this ice cream and cheesy, creamy meals I've been making, it's only a matter of time before I put that back on. Why is it I had an insane amount of willpower during lent, and now, nothing! Anyway, he got me an MP3 / video, etc. player (basically a much more reasonable form of an IPod). It was something I have been wanting, mostly for when I run, but now my age is really showing because the thing is foreign to me! I think after WAY too many hours of trying to figure it out, downloading and transferring music, etc. I finally have it figured out, I hope. Monte said if Isabella was a few years older she would probably be able to teach me all about it!