week of thanks

before i talk about the coming week...i will recap the weekend:

we spent a nice relaxiing night at home on friday..just chillin out. saturday we ran a bunch of errands...met our friends beau and amy and their daughter vinetta for lunch. v turned 1 on friday..time flies.
that night we babysit for our friends beth and jason. they went to dinner and we watched george, jimmy and g. they were all well behaved and fun to hang with. griffin and jimmy were playing together and it was super cute to see.
they got home and we stayed and had a few drinks with them before heading home.
sunday i went for a run, then we spent the day hanging out.

griffin's new excitement for the weekend was watching the polar express movie. he LOVES it! trains, christmas, santa...what else in life is there??

so, this week is the week of thanksgiving. i used to write letters to people telling them why i was thankful for them...i need to get back into that.
i am thankful for many, many things. our health, wonderful friends and family, jobs that are stable and we enjoy that help us afford our great house and many of the things we want or need. it's this time of year that i try to not take things and people for granted. i need to do that all year around! we have so many luxuries in life and it's easy to lose sight of how lucky we are.

the other thing i'm thankful for is having known a wonderful woman. my grandma died 6 years ago. i miss her and think about her often. i wish griffin had the chance to meet her. we were lucky and got to see her about a month before she passed away. this photo was from then.

we are so thankful that we are all healthy. not everyone is that lucky. my friend is still battling more crap from complications with her cancer. and our neighbor was just diagnosed last week as well..in his colon and spread to his liver. one of my best friends from childhood just lost a baby, some other good friends lost their twins at 18 weeks, and a co-worker lost her father-in-law to a brain hemmerage. ugh. you feel so helpless when these things happen all around you.

onto HAPPIER news...we have a short week of work, and dan's mom is coming for a visit. we are looking forward to having a low-key weekend and being thankful!
here is a photo of griffin's first thanksgiving - nov. 06. we spent it in denver with our favorite peeps...melissa, martin, chloe, laura and lee. (nickels and baby mal weren't here quite yet at that time!) we rented a cabin in the mountains and enjoyed friends. (and laura - we totally have to have a redo of that trip so you can thoroughly enjoy it this time....)


i've been working on a photo organization project this past week and found some photos that made me smile, so thought i'd post them here. man - our little bird has grown so much. i am definitely thankful for my boys.

wicked

i went to see wicked last night. it was great! i loved wizard of oz as a kid and this was a fantastic untold story of the witches. the singing and the sets were great!
my department at work went as a holiday gathering. we had dinner beforehand, then went to the show. it was a late evening, but fun. i'm not feeling that great today though. my cold has kicked in a bit more, along with an upset stomach that i've had since dinner last night.

in other news, an amazing woman that I know has wound up in the hospital with complications from cancer. as i've said before on this blog...it's just so heartbreaking the number of people i know who have been affected by this disease! she's had fluid build up in her lungs and a blood clot as well. my most sincere thoughts are with her and her family and hope that she'll feel better soon and be able to get home to be with her family.
my grandma is also in the hospital...also due to fluid being built up and causing major swelling. i spoke with her on the phone the other night and she sounded to be feeling better, but they are still keeping her in the ICU to keep an eye on her.

griffin continues to amaze us with his vocabulary. he is a little sponge and seems to remember the things he learns and uses it correctly. they are working on body parts, shapes and writing their names at school. he's also getting better with coloring time. he used to only draw 1 line on the paper and then wouldn't want to do it anymore...and wanted mizz y. or the other kids to draw for him. now, he's participating more, and this morning when i dropped him off, he showed me a picture he colored yesterday. very sweet.

the hold steady/DBTs

this weekend was great. friday we just hung out at home.
saturday we ran some errands, then worked outside to clean up the leaves.
that night we went with some friends to see the hold steady and the drive by truckers at first ave. it was AWESOME. we got there early enough to get right out on the floor and be super close for the hold steady. the show was amazing.
half way through the truckers i had to go to the loo and didnt want to fight the crowd to get back to the floor, so i just hung out upstairs and watched from above. i wasn't feeling that hot either...my cold was getting the best of me.
after taking about 45 minutes to get out of the damn parking garage, we swung by phil and jes' house for a beer and taco bell and then i wanted to get going to try and sleep off my cold.
griffin had a swell night with laura. he really enjoyed playing with her. he was going to have a sleep-over at their house, but baby mal wasn't feeling good and we all decided it may be best if g was just at his own house and laura came over. they had a good time and he was a great boy. he's quite comfortable with her, so we knew all would be super.

sunday we pretty much hung around the house all day. griffin got some new fake food for his kitchen...so he liked making us cake, ice cream and pasta. it's funny how he totally avoided all the plastic vegetables...just like he avoids the real-live ones.
I went for a run around the lake, then hit the grocery store...but otherwise it was a nice lazy day at home.

random updates

well, my back is back to normal. just a day of stiffness and now i'm back in business.

so, i realized last night that i've signed up for the turkey trot 5k on thanksgiving morning. ummm. right. i haven't done a lick of running since the iron girl in september. this will be fun.
i guess in my goals to get in shape i've committed to these things and i need to stick with it. but, it would be great to have to head out of town at the last minute, so i can get out of it..


this week has gone by quickly. probably not for dan, who has worked till about 1-2 a.m. each night for a project due today. i'm sure he's looking forward to the weekend off!

griffin has been really getting into pretending he's a lion lately. every morning he wants to go under the covers in our bed and call it the cave. then he'll call out to dan and say "lion! come here lion!" then dan will growl and find him in the cave and then griffin will do it and pretend he's the baby lion. it's cute. he will mostly say he's a nice lion..but occasionally he'll say, i'm mean...i bite you!"

he also has been getting into dancing around in a mosh pit lately. "mama mosh with me?" and he'll run around and bump into various things like he's moshing. i haven't actually BEEN in a mosh pit to verify these things happen, but dan's probably been in plenty....so he can teach griffin the technical ins and outs of moshing properly.

anyway, griffin will ASK dan to put in "cookie monster", so he can mosh.

i think it all started when dan would listen to some of his metal music upstairs in our room while working or cleaning. griffin kinda seemed to like it. so, dan told him the guy sounded like cookie monster, and ever since griffin wants to hear cookie sing.

we'll have some nice wholesome music playing and griffin will demand cookie monster...so in goes the death metal. i think griffins current favorite is "neckrofagious" or something like that. i'm sure dan will correct me on the spelling of that one.

clearly as he gets older we'll be more particular with the lyrics...but with this death metal...you can't even understand the lyrics anyway...so if griffin thinks its cookie monster singing...then hey, that's cool.

hide & seek and down for the count

so, i already didn't feel like going to yoga tonight. none of my friends were going to be there and i was just feeling lazy. add to that the fact that dan's been working a lot of OT this week for a project due friday, and he needed to be at work tonight, thus needing the car.

after dinner we decide to play a little hide & seek. griffin is funny with that...he will hide and we'll be saying "is griffin under the couch..no, is griffin behind the door...no"..and he'll be screaming "here's griffin, i'm here! right here!" i don't think he gets the whole keeping quiet aspect of it. he also hides in the exact spots that he has just found dan or i in.
anyway, it's my turn to hide...so i decide to hide on the stairway landing. i am running over to the stairs before g counts to 10. i turn around to see if he's peeking (which he is notorious for doing), and i proceed to fall down the stairs. shit. that hurt. i fell down about 4 stairs and landed right smack on my shoulder/back with a big, fat thud. damn slippery dress socks. so, yeah..i guess my going to yoga decision was kinda made for me. serves me right for being wishy washy about it in the first place.

it didn't hurt too bad after i finally peeled myself off the floor, but now it's starting to hurt a bit.
the bright side is that griffin came running over asking if i was ok. he sat down next to me and kept saying, "it's ok mama, it's ok. my turn to hide now?"

the ironic thing was dan and i just talked 5 minutes earlier about how we need to pull ourselves together and get in shape. i say this like every. single. day. but dammit, i'm serious. so i had just talked about how i was going to spend the evening doing the exercise ball and treadmill. and now i have a frozen bag of edamame on my back, while watching some E story about a woman that is about 600 lbs. and can't get out of her bed. a real feel-good story...er, yeah.

lets go to chrismas

it's interesting to try and teach a child about time. they can't really grasp the concept of time and it's hard to explain to them that this WEEKEND we will go to the mall, or the park or whatever it is.

when my parents were visiting he was waving at them as they were leaving and he said, "see grandma and grandpa again?" i told him that we would see them again at christmas and we would be going to their house to stay with them then.
i then proceeded to explain what christmas was to him. i tried hard not to tell him he'll get all kinds of presents...i don't want him to ever expect that. anyway, he seemed satisfied with my christmas explaination and he proceeded to run and get his coat and said, "lets go to christmas now?"
so, i had to explain that it wasn't quite christmas yet. we had to get past thanksgiving first..where he would get to see grandma lawrence (grandma precious as he calls her), and then we had to wait a bit longer..maybe have some snow first, and then it would be christmas. (so then we went through the same bit with him wanting to go to thanksgiving now).

anyway, it snowed this past friday. when we looked out the window in the morning he said, "go to christmas now?".

i think we'll get him one of those advent calendars or whatever they are called where there is a piece of chocolate every day. then when all the chocolate is gone...it'll be christmas!!! now that is probably something he'll be able to understand.

in other news, griffin is learning to write letters at school. he apparently doesn't want to do it, and would rather other people write for him. he does that at home too...he wants dan or i to color a picture of something, or write his name, or whatever it is...but when you ask him to do it, he'll say, "i don't want to...momma do it".
we are trying to get better with having him do things on his own. taking his clothes on and off, putting shoes on and off, pulling pants on/off for the bathroom, etc.
maybe we coddle him...we're trying to get better with it all.

apparently at school his little girlfriend kendall does everything for him. according to mizz y, she even wipes his bootie and pulls his pants up for him. so, he always turns to her to have things done for him.
i guess mizz y has banned kendall from going to the can with g because she wants him to start doing it on his own.
see - she thinks he's being lazy...we think he's being a total genius! why do something if someone is going to do it for you??? :)

weekend

friday we had a pretty low-key evening. after g went to bed, dan and i lit our first ever fire in our fireplace. a success.

saturday dan worked around the house getting some things winterized, while g and i met friends laura, mallory and her nephew jamie for the choo-choo bobs/riverview theater train movies. griffin enjoyed eating a bucket of popcorn and watching a bunch of cute train clips. some of them went on just a little too long, but overall it was a good time.

saturday evening dan went out with some friends to go to an art showing at our friends studio. while they were out, a couple friends came over for dinner, wine and a spa night! very relaxing and great convo. my bunioned feet are still feeling nice and soft from the magarita foot scrub.

today has been a lazy sunday. none of us got out of our pjs for the entire day. we played around, i prepared a bunch of meals for the week, and we watched football.

our fridge and freezer is stocked with lots of healthy food food, including a bunch of soups from my soup exchange the other night. it was fun and there were some great soups. dan did some kind of magicians act to our house and it was amazingly clean. i've never seen our bedroom looking so clean. if you open the closet or storage areas...i'm guessing things will come tumbling out...but it's all about the surface, baby.

today a co-worker came by to pickup a bunch of donations for a family in need that she knows. an unbelievably abusive relationship led a woman and her 2 kids to being homeless with nothing but their clothing on their back. we were able to donate quite a bit, and i'm grateful that our things will go to someone truly in need. my co-workers determination to help this family is very inspiring.

well, this sweet little bird is wanting me to get off the computer now so he can cuddle a bit. he still says, "hold you" when he wants to be cuddled. tonight he said to dan and i "both hold you together?" cuz he wanted us both to cuddle with him.

photo update

here are some picts i've been meaning to upload.

our ohio trip and halloween/parents visit:

halloween weekend update

i will post photos soon...i keep forgetting to download them! we have 500+ picts on the camera and i just need to find time to get them organized.

anyway, after the work festivities, we got griffin from mizz y's. they had gone to the mall of america that day to play around. once he got home, we got him suited up in his thomas the train costume and our neighbors had a bonfire and hayride for the kids...it was fun. we hung out outside and then went trick-or-treating with the neighbors. griffin was super cute...he would be all shy and say "trick or treat" all quiet at the door. after a few houses, he seemed to get the hang of it.
once he wanted us to start carrying his bucket for him, we figured it was about time to stop...if he can't even carry his own candy...he doesn't need anymore.

griffin asks me every day on our way to school what the signs in peoples yards say. clearly there are quite a few obama signs in our neighborhood, so he's learned to say obama.
anyway, one of the houses we trick-or-treated at had an obama sign in the yard. when we got to the front door where the man was going to hand over a piece of candy, i say to griffin, "what do you say"? (as in...trick or treat). he smiles and exclaims loudly..."OBAMA!". the guy high-fived him and dumped about 1/2 of his candy into g's bucket. score!

my parents showed up shortly afterwards and we hung out with them for awhile until g went to bed. then dan and i got into our costumes and headed over to a friends party. had a good time and saw some great costumes. we ended up leaving fairly early, just because we knew we'd have a big day on saturday.

saturday we headed to stillwater with my parents and spent the afternoon there walking around shops, by the water and having lunch. it was a perfect day to be outside. great weather!

that evening, my brother and jake came over to our house. samantha has bronchitis, so she and dawn stayed at home. we ordered pizza and g and jake played around outside with other neighbor kids.

i had wanted to meet up with a friend in town visiting from wi, but with my parents there and being pretty wiped out from the day...we just rented a movie and hung around the house.

sunday was a big day....griffin moved out of his crib and into a bed! he LOVES it. we went shopping so he could pick out his new sheets (not much of a selection for a double-sized bed, so we went with diego).

we spent the day jumping on his bed, playing around the house and enjoying the great day.

a few updates from this week:
• i went to the doctor on monday and found out i have to have surgery on my foot. i have to have a screw put into my toe to straighten it out...the bone is growing at an angle and it's quite painful when i exercise or wear most shoes.
ok...let's just throw it out there...i have a really bad bunion. a BUNION? what, am i 70 years old? it sounds like something your grandma has.
anyway, i'm trying to decide if/when to have this surgery. apparently i'll be on crutches for a couple weeks, and have one of those glamorous boots on for awhile.
this means no exercise for awhile...it will be 8 weeks until the screw would be removed...which is why i'm trying to figure out when to have this. 08 was supposed to be the year i got in shape (clearly, i'm behind since i have less than 2 months to go).

• i'm finally having a "soup exchange" tomorrow night at my house! i've been wanting to do this for quite awhile and my neighbors were interested. we will all bring soup to exchange and also bring one to sample. should be fun to get a bunch of different types of soups. but, i'm also feeling this huge pressure to clean my house and have it looking good. these people have not been in our house since we've owned it...and i'm feeling this pressure to make it look good. i know i shouldn't care...it probably looks way better than what it did when the past owner had it.

• wow about last nights results! landslide anyone??? amazing. and such a historic election that we were part of. i only had to wait in line about 45 minutes, so not too bad!

ok, pictures will be coming in the next couple of days for sure.