Tuesday, December 30, 2008

home, sweet home

it's been quite awhile since i've written.
we had a busy couple of weeks.
we spent the week before our trip getting things ready, having a holiday party, finishing up with work obligations and just generally trying to prepare for christmas.
we left monday the 22nd for wisconsin. we spent monday evening with grandma lawrence and matt, wendy, alex, andrew and addi. it was great seeing them and griffin loved spending time with his cousins.

tuesday was supposed to have been a trip to see dan's dad...but weather didn't agree with that plan. wisconsin has really gotten pummeled with snow. they have SO much more than we do.
we made our way to my parents and hunkered down for a lovely christmas. gregg, dawn, jake and sam arrived as well and we had a super time. again - griffin loved hanging with the teeter cousins.


santa was way too generous with everyone...these stockings are just a taste of it.


griffin really enjoyed everything about christmas. you could really feel the magic.

we were able to celebrate my mom's birthday with her, spend time playing piano,

playing with all the new toys, making gingerbread houses (mostly griffin ate the candy and frosting right off the house),

after a bit too much frosting...he was pretty happy.

playing a lot of hide-and-seek (griffins new favorite game) and just having a nice relaxing time.
my mom and i were able to get away and see a movie...the curious case of benjamin button. it was really good. (although it was about 3 hours long!)

we attemped to leave saturday to go see dan's dad...but again..our plan was foiled. our car wouldn't start. we had it towed and they couldn't fix it until monday...so we ended up spending a few more days with my parents. we got to see a few friends here and there, see dan's mom a few more times and extend our vacation a bit. as much as we needed to get home (jobs/house/responsibilities) it was nice to have some extra time.

we were bummed to have missed dan's dad, as well as dave, cindy and the girls. the holidays didn't seem complete without seeing all of the family. hopefully in the coming months we can see everyone we didn't get a chance to see.

on a sad note, a friend of mine passed away from complications from cancer. emilie passed away tuesday night, dec. 23. please keep her family in your thoughts...her sons ben (9 months) and daniel (2.5) will surely miss their beautiful mother. she was one of those people that was just a truly good soul. upon meetiing her, you were drawn in. she was creative, smart, witty and even in the ugly face of cancer, she found good in things. definitely a person to look up to and she has affected my life in so many positive ways by having known her. i feel lucky to have had the opportunity.

i was pretty bummed to have missed her funeral yesterday...since we were stuck in wi.

as i have mentioned before - this whole cancer bullshit is out of control. i have known too many people that have died from this.
2009 has got to a better year...there were numerous people i have known that have died this year.

On a happier positive note...it's good to be home.

here are a few more pictures from christmas
griffin really liked playing with grandma lawrence's dogs!

he LOVED his new conductor outfit from mwaaa:

and, his new big wheel from grandma and grandpa - he went around and around the house on this...

Monday, December 15, 2008

santa sucks

saturday we decided to take g downtown to macy's to see the 8th floor display (a day in the life of an elf) and then meet the big man in red. he's been talking about santa quite a bit, since his 20-day marathon of the polar express.
so...we take the light rail. griffin was excited to get on the train. here he is posing at the station.


"where is that train?", he wonders.


things were still going great as we headed downtown.


we get there and had a bit of a wait for that elf display. it was cute enough and griffin was tolerable of the wait.
after we made our way through that, we jump in line to see santa. i had high hopes for this...i had already seen photos from someone at work with the santa from macy's...and he was a good one. the real white hair and beard, big and fat, rosy cheeks and a jolly fella.
so, we proceed to wait about 40 minutes through a horrible line that doesn't really go anywhere.
what i didn't like was that you don't get to see what your in for. you have to wait and wait and finally after all that waiting, they let a few people behind the doors and you wait some more for your turn. the first time you get to see s-man is when you walk around the corner into this lame photo studio they have setup (clearly they want to make this all about having to purchase photos).

anyway, g starts losing patience about 5 minutes before we are up. he's crying and wants to go home. ummm...no. we are this close. so, we round the bend and take a look at santa and griffin loses it.

i would too. this santa SUCKED. he weighed about the same as griffin...not the fat man you would expect. he had fake hair and beard, and he didn't say one word. just sat there and stared at us. he didn't try to talk to griffin or get him to feel more comfortable. he sits there looking all meek and fake.

so...here is our coveted santa shot we were so excited to get this year.


not unlike last year...

first attempt he was crying his eyes out.

then i had to get myself into the shot for him to even tolerate. never thought i'd have my photo with santa so many times!


next year i think i'll come prepared and actually take a shower before we head out. chances are good i'll be getting my picture taken.

Friday, December 12, 2008

faith in humanity..

i think everyone in the world reads this blog. If you don't - you should.
his latest post is absolutely amazing. it renews my faith in good people. an anonymous person donated $25,000 to a wonderful charity in matt, liz and madelines name.
matt chose to share his horrible loss with the world through his blog and we were all riveted and brought into his world through his brutal honesty through writing and photography. instead of curling up in a ball and sinking into misery (which i imagine would be very easy to do)...he has brought good to others through getting people to open their eyes to other people in need. because of him sharing his story and publicly endorsing this charity...some good soul has donated enough money to brighten many childrens lives.

anyway...some days you wonder if there are any decent folks left. and then you hear of stories like this.

it's easy to be fearful that our kids will grow up in a totally f'd up world. so many bad things going on, an economy that is going down the toilet, a war that is taking so many lives, unspeakable crimes going on every day. but things like this make you stop and think that there is hope.

anyway - i'm feeling good...went to see a holiday show last night with work friends, tomorrow night we have dan's swanky holiday party and tonight i'll spoil my baby.

griffin apparently has impressed mizz y. with his smarts. he knew all of his letters by sight except for 3. he even helped a girl that is 6 months older than him and showed her where "n" was. show off. ha.

he told me this morning to stop pushing him (i was trying to get him to stop jumping on his bed so that i could put his socks on..i slightly nudged him onto his pillow so he would sit for a minute). he said clear as day..."mommy, don't push me anymore, i not like it". i responded back, "ok...but then you need to listen to me then, deal?" he then says, "deal" and puts out his hand to shake on it. funny.
so now...whenever i want him to do something...i'll have him shake my hand to seal the deal.

oh, and in exciting news - we have finally broke him of his 20-day stretch of watching polar express every.single.night. ahhh. i was getting mighty sick of tom hanks and that whiny fricken kid.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

feelin good

griffin is pretty much back to normal. the weekend was more of him waking up early and having that croup cough, but by monday things were back to normal. thank goodness.
the past weekend was pretty low-key...just hanging around the house getting our man back to full health. sunday i had a cookie exchange which was good fun.

this week has been fairly uneventful. we got some snow monday, so that ended up cancelling my plans to head to wisconsin for a press check. instead we've had a nice few evenings at home.

my friends and i started a weekly work out night at my house. we have such a big upstairs, so once a week we are getting together and doing a workout dvd together after g goes to bed. last night we did "jillians 30 day shred". it was a good one. i'm sore today.

tonight griffin had a little outing to choo choo bobs. it was a nice change of pace for him to get out of the house and he loved it. he loves all of those electric trains going around.
we are realizing that we need to find different things to keep griffin occupied. when we are at home he wants to watch movies (video clips from our digital camera, which are downloaded to our computers) all. the. time. so yeah...good to get out.

a few pictures from recently:

griffins new haircut. he looks like such a big boy!!! where did the time go?


sledding:

Friday, December 5, 2008

croupy crap

so, i stayed home from work with griffin today....he woke up with the croup cough. he was having a tough time catching an inward breath and had that barky cough.
we had him in the steam and also outside and it seemed to help. by the time dan left for work griffin was doing pretty well...but anytime he gets upset...the cough comes back. so....we do everything we can not to upset him (doctors orders).

sometimes i think he takes advantage of that. he knows on days like this we'll do what he wants to not get him riled up.
he demanded to watch the video clips on my computer about 10 times, and had me play exactly the way he wanted me to all day.

when he took a nap, i attempted to make a bunch of cookies. i have a couple of cookie exchanges coming up. i decided to try some new kinds...i don't think they turned out that awesome. the first one i made...i got distracted by something and i'm fairly certain i dumped in an extra cup of flour by accident. the second one took longer than i thought and i don't think it was worth the effort. griffin helped once he woke up and dumped sprinkles all over everything...so that adds a special touch...
oh, and he snuck dough when i wasn't looking. at least he seems to like the cookies.

so, tonight dan and i have the monitor cranked up to 11. i'm sure we'll be sleeping pretty light tonight. let's hope it was just a day of this and all will be better tomorrrow!! we are obviously a bit paranoid after march.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

photo update from thanksgiving weekend...


griffin wearing my slippers...


my attempt at a self portrait. (sorry about that, little man)


griffin and dad at the christmas tree barn


griffin and grandma l. looking up a silo


g in his christmas (cosby) sweater


griffin and his matching sweater monkey


griffin and the polar express elf (the big smile indicates that he likes her...)


griffin and santa on the polar express (doesn't have as big of a smile as above photo...)


griffin giving his full approval of tooty fruitys cereal at my work


hollidazzle parade downtown


fireplace and christmas tree

Monday, December 1, 2008

51 facts

so, i meant to post 50 random facts about myself in honor of my 50th post on this blog. but...i just ruined that by posting about my thanksgiving update...so this post has now been changed to "51 random facts about me...)

this blog was originally started to journal about my little man, but it's evolved into more than that...so rather than gush about 50 things i love about griffin (which i'm sure i could come up with way more than that..), i'm just going to post 50 random things about myself.

maybe someday griffin will look back and understand where some of his crazy traits came from (let's just hope he doesn't follow in my footsteps on #3, 4, 5, 10 & 11....

51 random facts about me...


1. i am left-handed

2. i hate coffee

3. i used to charge the neighbor kids $1 each to look at playboy centerfolds

4. i charged the same kids .25 cents each to have a piece of my "candy" that i made. (it was really flavored chapstick that I cut into chunks and wrapped in saran wrap. i had chocolate, grape, root beer, strawberry and the kids thought it was candy, so i thought I should make some money.

5. when my parents and brother were gone one afternoon, i gathered up all of my brothers smurf collection and sold them to neighborhood kids. once they found out i had to go back and retrieve all of them and give them their money back.

6. clearly, my parents always told me i should be a sales person...i could talk people into doing anything.

7. i never could be a sales person because i'm scared of rejection.

8. i had a neurofibroma tumor wrapped around my spinal cord in high school.

9. i have no feeling in my neck, ears and head as a result. (i can still feel pressure, so dan doesn't get out of giving massages!)

10. i smoked my first cigarette in 6th grade

11. i drank alcohol for the first time in 7th grade

12. i would die if i found out griffin was drinking or smoking in the 6th or 7th grade!

13. i have lived in 5 states (indiana, virginia, illinois, wisconsin, minnesota)

14. i regret never getting a 4-year degree. i only have a 2-year associate degree. (i don't think i regret it enough to go back to school though...)

15. i love being griffins mom. it's the most rewarding feeling i've ever had.

16. i talk to myself in the car when i'm alone.

17. i also sing loudly in the car when i'm alone. but pretend i'm not singing when i pull up at a stop light next to someone.

18. i lose things easily (jewelry, sunglasses especially).

19. I NEVER take my wedding rings off, due to the above problem i have. the only time it's ever come off my finger is when it's being cleaned or when i was 8 months pregnant and it didn't fit.

20. i cry pretty easily, but don't admit it or i try and hide it.

21. i don't wash my face. never really have. but have only had the occasional zit in high school...otherwise my skin is clear and healthy!

22. i have spent thousands of dollars on products for my face...and always act like i want to try and do some great skin care regimen...but in reality...it's a waste of money, since i am fine with good old soap and water.

23. i only wear eyeliner and chapstick.

24. i hate knick-knacks. i even hate how it's spelled...

25. i love listening to the kqrs morning show.

26. i like to make up songs and sing them to griffin or dan.

27. i am a very organized person at work, but not at all at home.

28. my favorite band growing up was depeche mode. i still love them!

29. i love hollywood gossip.

30. i dream of being in a band...but have no musical talent, so that won't ever happen!

31. i want to protect my baby from mean people. i am so sad to think of how cruel kids (or people) can be to one another.

32. i know all of the lyrics to "it's the end of the world as we know it"...and whenever the band i used to be a groupie of would sing it (road trip), i would act all smug and excited and sing every lyric hoping people would notice how cool i was...

33. i hate my feet. and they kinda stink too.

34. i like my eyes (trying to spin a positive for each negative....)

35. i am quite sure that i would have a unibrow if i didn't pluck my eyebrows.

36. i tend to over-commit myself. i don't like to say no...so i pretty much tell everyone yes and end up stressing myself out at times!

37. i drink everything FAST. from water, to soda to beer...i drink very quickly. Good when it comes to water...bad when it comes to everything else.

38. cooking meat grosses me out. i do it occasionally, but i still think it's nasty.

39. carbs are my weakness. pasta, potatoes, rice, bread...i could live on that alone.

40. i get sentimental quite often.

41. i am a blog lurker. I regularly check about 15 blogs...but have never once posted a comment or made my presence known.

42. i am a planner. i try to act like i'm laid-back and fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants-like...but in reality, i like to plan, like things to work out how i envision them and enjoy all that goes into executing the perfect plan. (whether it's a party, wedding, weekend, trip, exercise, etc)

43. i don't really like being alone. i know quite a few people need "me-time" or time alone...but i tend to get bored, anxious or stressed when i'm alone. i would rather be around family or friends.

44. in jr. high and high school, i racked up hundreds of dollars a month by calling my bff long-distance. my parents had to take the phones out of the house when they left (i solved that by buying a phone and plugging it in when they were gone), they had to put a long-distance block on the phone only allowing calls to be made if you knew the secret code (i spent an entire day working to crack the code and finally succeeded)

45. i love to travel.

46. i was once on a horseshoe league. (and pool too).

47. i learned to drive stick-shift before even having my license.

48. i can do the splits...but only with my right leg forward...not with the left leg forward. apparently when at parties, i like showing this party-trick. i've tamed that down in recent years though.

49. i used to be on a jump-rope team that traveled all over the country. i was really good and really enjoyed it...that is, until our coach was found guilty of child molestation...and the whole squad folded shortly thereafter.

50. i spent some time in belize for a "save the rainforest" project. and i let a tarantula crawl all over me! what was i thinking?????

51. when i was looking over this post, i probably should give my parents an apology for having to deal with me growing up...i was a big pain in the ass.

back to reality

so, after a nice long 4 day weekend, it's back to reality.
it's always so nice to be able to laze around in the mornings and not have to rush right out the door, so today was tough to switch into that mode of work and daycare.

our weekend was great though.
dan's mom came to visit and we had a great time.
thursday i ran the turkey trot 5k downtown with my friend, jessica. we did well and had a good time. and it made me feel like i deserved to eat a pound of potatoes and 1/2 of a pan of dessert later that day.
griffin didn't really participate in the eating of the thanksgiving meal itself, but the rest of us enjoyed a good meal.
we spent the rest of the day hanging out, lighting a fire and being thankful.

friday we got our christmas tree. it is nice to sit there with the lights and just stare at it. very peaceful.

that evening we went to this polar express train ride. from a childs point of view..it was probably pretty cool. santa, elves, cookies, bells, hot chocolate, being in their pjs, and a train.
from a paying adults point of view, it was a total rip off. $25 per person got you a tiny yellow ticket stub, a train that once inside you really couldn't tell you were even in a train or moving, elves that were 14 year old girls trying a bit too hard to get the group singing carols and playing games, and hot chocolate that wasn't hot.
oh well...seeing griffin excited was worth it.

over the course of the weekend we also managed to go to the hollidazzle parade, go sledding, go for some walks, go to the vikings-bears football game, have many fires in our fireplace, run about 50 loads in the dishwasher, eat an entire 9 x 13 pan of this oreo dessert and watch polar express probably 15 times. a really nice weekend overall.

griffin certainly enjoyed all the time he got to spend with his grandma. she is very sweet to him and gets down and plays with him...so he loves that.

his new trick for the weekend was having us all sit in tiny chairs in the basement and pretending he was the conductor and we were his passengers on the train. he would get out a flashlight and put on this cute striped hat (his engineer hat, he said), and then blow this train whistle and make us sit there until we arrived at the north pole. he would then make us all get out, only to have us get back in seconds later. this went on for quite awhile. of course dan and i kinda quit obeying his rules after a few rounds of this ("no, we are going to sit in this luxurious sleeping car here - a.k.a - the couch - we can't get on your chair train") but grandma probably went to the north pole 100 times this weekend via the little chair train.