Archive for ◊ 2011 ◊

16 Oct 2011 fargo fun: a top 10 list.
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Abby’s top 10 favorite things we did last weekend in Fargo [in no particular order, and with pictures that may or may not correspond].

10.  Playdate with Mommy’s high school friend Crissy and her 1-year old daughter Caydence.

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9.  Laughing at Mommy being a pirate at the eye doctor.

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8.  Looking adorable for the boys at church on Sunday & eating lots of puffs during the sermon.

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7.  Eating pizza at Duane’s [except I didn’t get any, just puffs.]

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6.  Visiting Grandma at work and learning 8th grade math.

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5.  Playing with Grandma’s friend Mary Ann [and eating the cake that she brought for dessert!]

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4.  Eating pumpkin/vanilla twist ice cream at Snap Dragon.

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3.  Going to bed on time, but waking up in the middle of the night [or 9pm] to play with Grandma & Grandpa when we got to Fargo & eat applesauce on Sunday night.

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2.  Playing with Grandma & Grandpa & my uncles & Melissa!

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1.  Making Mommy feed me bottles and puffs in the car on the way home, and then making her stop at St. Cloud for snuggles!

21 Sep 2011 abby: 8 months.
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This little girl is eight months old.

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She doesn’t have a doctor’s appointment until 9 months, so we don’t have real stats for her.
She is about 14 lbs., by our best estimation.
Abby is is wearing 6 month clothes primarily, sometimes some 3 month.  The waistbands on 3 months fit her fine, she’s just outgrown the length.  Her pants are more capri length, which still works okay for leggings.
We’ve graduated to size 2 diapers for their absorbency.  Yay for no more waking up in the middle of the night because the diaper, sleeper, and sheet are all soaked through!

This month Abby has experienced some exciting new things:

over Labor Day weekend, my family came to visit and we went to the MN State Fair, where Abby got to meet goats…

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pet sheep…

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{silly sheep!}

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and try to steal Mommy’s food!
{mmm, pork chops}

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Abby has decided that everything is delicious, especially the food from her picnic set.  She’s very good at eating pretend food…

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and plastic rings…

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and she’s working on mastering puffs.

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{She has also tried guacamole at Chipotle and stole a fry off my plate at Red Robin and proceeding to eat it.  Right after she inhaled a tub of apple-banana oatmeal.  Hungry baby!}

We’ve also been practicing our big girl skills, like sitting…
{as long as she doesn’t decide to reach for a toy or have a meltdown, she’s great at it!}

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and crawling…
{she’s started being able to get up on her hands and knees.  She can spin herself 360 degrees in one minute or less and ‘swims’ to get to her toys.}

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and playing with her favorite puppy sister…
{we try to limit their kisses, as that is equal parts adorable and disgusting.}

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and talking.
{Abby likes to say “dadadada” and “didididi.”}

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Moral of the Story:

Abby needs to grow some teeth so she can eat big people food.

What’s Up Next:

Abby + Mommy will be headed to Fargo for a long weekend in October, as will ‘Auntie’ Melissa, so I’ll probably have to write about that.

12 Sep 2011 book review: Waiting for Morning
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Hannah Ryan is waiting for her family to come home from their annual end-of-summer camping trip.

Brian Wesley has been sober for three weeks when he is laid off.  Unable to face his wife, he makes a pit stop at a bar on the way home.

Jenny Ryan sees the other car coming towards them, but not soon enough to warn her father and sister.

Having the perfect Christian family, Hannah never thought anything bad could happen to them.  She grew up with Tom Ryan and had known they’d get married when she was just eight.  When her family is shattered due to a drunk-driving accident, Hannah doesn’t know where to turn…God could not possibly have let her husband and older daughter Alicia be killed.  Abandoning her faith, she lives the next year in hatred of the man who caused the accident, focusing all her attention on making him pay for what he did, at the expense of her relationship with her younger daughter who survived the accident.

Attorney Matt Bronzan has also felt the effects of drunk driving, having lost two close friends in college to a drunk driver and the aftereffects of that accident.  He wants to set a precedent:  drunk driving is murder.  Hannah hopes that a conviction and sentence will give her the peace she has not felt since before that fateful day.

How do you handle such a drastic loss?  Do you run from your faith or embrace it more fully?  Hannah and Jenny Ryan are very real characters who deal with their grief in different ways; Hannah focuses on bitterness and revenge, while Jenny draws into herself and wants things to be how they used to be: with her Daddy and Alicia.  Despite the heartache, Hannah and Jenny are able to find God’s peace through forgiveness, although it does not come easily or quickly for either of them.

Karen Kingsbury has woven a heartbreaking tale, which while I have read it before, strikes me much deeper now that I have a child.  This is the first in her Forever Faithful series, which all have characters who rely on the words of the song Great is Thy Faithfulness.  There are very few of her books I dislike, but this one is probably in my top ten favorites.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book (as an e-book) through WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group. The review and opinions expressed are my own. FTC 16 CFR, Pt. 255.

11 Sep 2011 ten years ago…
Author:  |  Category: America  | Tags: , ,  | Comments off

…I was a freshman at Northwestern College, getting ready for chapel, when I heard from some hallmates about the plane hitting the first tower.  My roommates were at their freshman orientation classes (mine was on Thursday mornings, not Tuesday).  We watched some of the footage at lunch, and I spent the afternoon with a friend from home who attended the University of Minnesota, along with talking with friends and family and being in complete shock that something like that could happen here, in the U.S.

What I think of most, when thinking back to 9/11, is how my generation is the one that was, I think, most impacted…just getting started or about to start out on our own, when suddenly our country wasn’t as indestructible as we thought it was.  Maybe we were all just naïve before that, thinking we were always ‘safe,’ but that Tuesday morning really showed us that the world is not necessarily a safe place.

Another thing I find incredible is how, to anyone younger than high school age currently, 9/11 is ‘history.’  Even if they were born then, they have no recollection of it.  There has always been a war on terrorism…that’s just how things are. [[Kind of like how apparently there was a wall separating East and West Germany.  I was in first grade when it came down, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s never been.]]

Where were you 10 years ago?

06 Sep 2011 book review: The Corruptible
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Ex-cop-turned-PI Ray Quinn finds himself in need of money.
Former colleague and dirty ex-cop Logan Ramsey is missing, along with confidential client information.

Ray is hired by a rich Orlando businessman to track Ramsey down, and most importantly, get the information back.  When Ramsey is found dead in a sleazy hotel, Ray has another problem to deal with.  A House-like character, Ray Quinn suffers from a disabling wound from his homicide days and a penchant for Jim Beam and sarcasm.  He is aided by his sidekick, Crevis, who is an all brawn, no brain type.  His former client, Pam, helps out with record-keeping and provides a Christian influence.

The second book in the Ray Quinn series, The Corruptible is written by an author with extensive experience in law enforcement.  This is evident throughout the book, making it much more believable in a technical aspect, which was a nice change from most crime and/or mystery novels I read that involve the protagonist finding herself trapped in a burning building/buried alive/about to be murdered until her love interest miraculously saves her moments from death.

I have not read the first book in this series, The Night Watchman, which may have made it a little easier to get started with the book; however, enough allusions were made to it that I was able to pick up on whatever I may have missed.

As the series goes on, we may see more of the fruits of Pam’s witnessing.  Ray is not too interested in Christianity, and thankfully, Mynheir has chosen to build up the relationships rather than go the traditional (not-so-believable) route of most Christian novels where the main character is saved in 300 pages or less.

Overall, The Corruptible is not the kind of book I usually find myself reading and enjoying, but I may have to track down the first one and keep my eye out for the next!

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group. The review and opinions expressed are my own. FTC 16 CFR, Pt. 255.

30 Aug 2011 because I obviously have a lot of free time.
Author:  |  Category: Arts + Crafts  | Tags:  | 2 Comments

I decided while on vacation that I am going to take up quilting.

Because I obviously have a lot of free time.

Since I a. work full time and b. have a 7 month old.

I have given myself a goal of completing a quilt for Abby by the time she gets a sibling.  So I have some time (at least 9 months!  haha).

[I’m getting pretty far…I have purchased fabric.  And potentially have a pattern picked out.]

In the meantime, to get myself prepared to sew a quilt (and to kill time before I , um, get a functional sewing machine), I am starting to make Abby some headbands!

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This was my first attempt at making rosettes, which I crafted from some of the leftover fabric from the sewing projects I did in Abby’s room.  I discovered there are several colors of flowers and bows Abby does not own, so I decided that I should make them for her.  There are a lot of fun tutorials online, so I have obviously been spending excessive amounts of time on Pinterest doing domestic, motherly things like dishes and laundry.

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In upcoming pictures of Abby, watch for flowers featuring these fun fabrics!

Then I realized that I needed somewhere to put her flowers…so I scavenged for some materials throughout the house:  picture frame with broken glass (thanks to our move to Woodbury and attempt to hang it using magnets), more leftover fabric, and some ribbon I had sitting in a box.

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I assembled the pieces together and now have fun & functional wall art for her room!  I also made a ribbon hanger that I can attach other clips to (inspired by ribbon mobiles, using a wire hanger so I can hang it on the wall instead of over her crib/changing table).

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Moral of the Story:

Pinterest, as expected, is very dangerous if you hope to actually be productive.

Stay tuned for…

Book review!!

20 Aug 2011 abby: 7 months.
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First of all, I lied.  I said I was going to do a book review or a post on my new hobby hobbies next.

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I still haven’t finished the book.

fail #2
I have only completed one item and have only taken one picture of my new hobbies.

I will remedy both of these as soon as Abby starts school I have time.

Today Abby is seven months old.  In 18 minutes from the moment I am writing this sentence, actually.

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Since Abby’s six-month appointment was just 2.5 weeks ago, not much has changed in regard to what she is doing overall.  She continues to be silly and giggly, but very interested in seeing what is going on around her when she’s in new places.  Crinkly noises are getting to be pretty exciting, as is her pull giraffe that sings the Toyland song.

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She tries to crawl and sit on her own.  She can manage a few seconds sitting, but then she usually notices something fun and reaches for it, resulting in baby tipping over.  She doesn’t quite get her tummy off the ground when she’s trying to crawl, but she pushes herself forward.  She also spins herself around and rolls onto her side or tummy while she’s in bed.

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I’m still putting her in both 3 & 6 month clothes, depending on what’s clean and the weather!  We may need to graduate her to size 2 diapers soon, as she seems to be outgrowing the size 1 absorbency.

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In addition to fingers and the letter ‘v,’ Abby eats all the Gerber 1st foods (except peas.  Ew.  I dislike them, so I didn’t feel like giving them to her.)  We’re now trying out the 2nd foods (fruit & cereal blends, mixed fruits & veggies).  She has had peas in the Garden Vegetables…peas, carrots, & spinach.  She really enjoys the Vanilla Custard with Bananas.  This week I gave her baby yogurt and some shredded cheese, which she ate happily.  She had a sippy cup with water in it last weekend, and she was able to bring it to her mouth and get some water from it!

More seven month photos + some from earlier this month coming soon to a facebook album near you.

Moral of the Story

Baby Girl’s growing up.

Stay Tuned For…

Hobbies.  For reals this time.

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