Race for the Cure and Birthday Preparations

Gabbie and I had a 'girls day' last Saturday and participated in the Komen Race for the Cure in Des Moines, followed by lunch and some shopping! Here are some pictures from the Race:

She was having difficulty understanding why the heck I pinned a piece of paper to her shirt!

Off we go! She did get last in her age group. I couldn't hear the instructions over the crowd, so I didn't get her to the start with the other kiddos, which would not have mattered anyway since 5 feet from the end of the race she stopped and started crying when she lost sight of me. We still got 3 free Happy Meal tickets for finishing!

I admire this huge crowd every year!

  

Random picture. Last week Gabbie and I helped a few afternoons with the piggies. Here is one roaming free...I told Brice that Gabbie let it out, ha ha.

My 'practice cake' for Gabbie's birthday...I was so proud of this and hope it turns out well this weekend for her actual birthday!

Gabbie and I always enjoy the leftover frosting :-) Yes, this was right before supper, but sometimes you just have to have dessert first!

The latest fun-a baby kitten. (sorry I can not figure out how to turn this picture the right direction). Gabbie hears the kitten in the garage and goes out to get it-she can open all the doors to the outside now-and brings it in the house. One night she was feeding it her supper with her fork, after she tried to strap it in her booster at the table! Poor kitten...however, it tolerates the playtime well and is extremely friendly!

 I've also been enjoying "a look back" as I've been searching for some pictures to use for Gabbie's birthday. It still amazes me how 2 years have flown by, but at the same time it feels like she has always been a part of us. Here's a few pictures I found:

9-10 weeks...I remember this day was the first I was able to catch her smile on camera!

6 months. She always loved chewing on that leaf!

9 months. Enjoying some summer fun!

1 year, after trick-or-treating

18 months-eating off other's plates as if we don't feed her!

Coming soon...2 years! We have survived each other so far. Today we are celebrating Brice's "half-birthday"! He thinks its silly, but I think its fun that in 6 months he will be 30! Which means I'll be 30 in 10 months! The extent of the celebration is his favorite muffins in the oven and a new package of socks. I'm sure he will be super excited :-)

Des Moines Half-Marathon and other October fun

We continue to enjoy the perfect fall weather that seems never-ending! Hopefully it continues all the way until December :-) Gabbie and I have been busy with yardwork, and even managed to clean out the garden shed yesterday. She's a fun helper! Especially lately as she has started saying more words- I need to keep reminding myself that she is repeating lots of what we say...

The only downers lately are Gabbie having a bad cough and runny nose and my having the flu. Gabbie's cough wakes her up often at night, and us as well. She seems to do better if I sleep in the recliner with her, which is fun for me to feel like I did when I used to rock her to sleep. As for myself, having the flu is an irritating inconvenience. I try hard to remember its temporary, and lots of sick people in this world would love to suffer just a couple days of the flu instead of a long term illness. But it just drives me crazy to lay on the couch on a beautiful day and feel worthless. Luckily I have an empathetic daughter who seemed to know that sitting with me on the couch at night was a better idea than the usual jumping and running around, and that going to bed without fuss was also a good idea. The only downside to our sweetie pie is she kept trying to give me kisses, which I obviously didn't want to share with anyone at the time! When I was feeling good enough to start tackling house chores I thanked Brice for his picking up my slack while I was sick. He said "I didn't do anything", I said "I know, typically dishes don't take me 45 minutes", to which he replied "maybe you should get sick when I'm not so busy". He's right; I think the whole time I was laying around I only saw him a handful of times. I think he's secretly jealous that I got a couple days to lay around and he did not....yeah, right.

Today we took a short family trip to Des Moines so I could participate in the Des Moines half marathon. I had been 'training' for this since August. I was proud during that time I have kept up with my early morning runs and early last week felt prepared to tackle the 13.1 miles. But the flu bug was a pretty big set-back, and even yesterday could not get too far from the bathroom. I had decided I was not going to go, but then Brice said he would come with me and if I did not make it he would give me a ride. He was great at encouraging me to at least go try since I had been so excited for it. I'll admit it was not the fun that it usually is. I spent the first 9 miles seeking out port-a-pots and feeling sick to my stomach. My mental state was "wow, the older I get the more the flu kicks my butt". I started feeling better and had a more comfortable last 4 miles. Usually I enjoy a "post run binge" of McDonalds and Dairy Queen, but instead we spent the drive home making pit stops at convenience store bathrooms. I hope my appetite returns soon and I'll enjoy some junk food later!

This coming Saturday Gabbie will participate in her first Kiddie Fun Run in Des Moines at Race for the Cure. I'm looking forward to this, and to walking in Race for the Cure myself with a couple of friends. Its always an amazing day to see all the participants and breast cancer survivors! Afterwards we have a little shopping to do for an upcoming birthday girl ;-) Until then, have a great week!

Harvest helper :-)

Jumping in leaves!

The roses still look good

Loving the watermelon that keeps coming in the garden!

Home with my girls after the half marathon! (Gypsy in the background)

October so far...

What a beautiful October! I don't think we could ask for better weather. All of the fall colors are perfect right now, harvest seems to be moving quickly, and we still have the windows open all day. As I continue to work on the photo albums, I came across pictures from October 2009. On this day last year I was outside cutting the roses back and I have Gabbie bundled up in a snowsuit, hat, and a blanket over top of her. Today we have been outside moving pigs, and Gabbie's cheeks are red enough that she'll need sunscreen on for us to continue working outdoors in the afternoon.

Still working in the garden! Gabbie with a bucket of tomatoes.

Best buddies...

On October 2nd Brice and I participated in Brandon and Amy's big day! It was the most beautiful wedding...good company, all of the colors and decorations were perfect, and the sun was shining all day.

Brice, Brandon, and Jon

I found the nicest looking best man to take to the wedding :-)

The beautiful bride and groom :-)

Best man and maid of honor

Time for vows...no turning back now...

Having fun at the dance!

Gabbie was quite the trooper at the dance...not sure she sat down through an entire song! So the next morning she was hungry. Hungry enough to eat her own plate clean, then go finish 2 other peoples plates for them.

We are having a couple of 'issues' with Gabbie lately...

1. The van we bought in July came with a DVD player. Not something we were looking for, although several people told us it would eventually come in handy (even though we don't even have a DVD player in our house). Anyway, it came in handy. During harvest it has been easy to have her watch DVD's while I am helping outside, as obviously we do not want her running around with tractors driving around. So now when we get in the car she points to the DVD player. I am searching for a way to tell her "no, that's only for when we are being neglectful and/or lazy parents".  I think she's starting to figure out the difference between a short trip to daycare and a long bout sitting in the car. I hope so anyway, or I'm really going to regret that I ever used it.

2. She's inherited my poor bowel function. I think she went almost 4 days at one point with no dirty diaper. We so far have stocked up on prunes, raisins, and MiraLax. So far so good...we think. It certainly put a damper on potty training.

If those are the biggest issues we have, then we definetly have no reason to complain. We are getting ready for her 2nd birthday with no ER trips so far. Hopefully we will start celebrating a little early with a trip to the pumpkin patch this weekend.

My evenings of working on the remodeling project upstairs are done; now its up to other people (electrician, plumber, etc). Its been nice to not have that to do when I get home and we can enjoy the outdoors more before Winter comes!

Finally, here is a video of our professional dancer. I love that kids can dance so carefree, no worries about what they look like!

Making progress...

We are making lots of progress with our upstairs remodeling project! Brice and I have put lots of hours in lately taking walls down (well, I did walls, he did the ceiling to accomodate each others height or lack of height) and now we are just doing final clean up (taking out nails, vacuuming). I am sure I could not do construction for a living, just judging by my physical soreness the past few weeks. On the other hand, it is so exciting to see a project progress. Here are some randomly selected pictures from the past few weeks...

Canning done for the year! Here is some of my work. I did several tomatoe sauce combinations, salsa, okra, pickles, apple butter, rhubarb sauce, beets, etc. The garden is still producing, just at a much slower rate and I know there won't be enough for any more preserving.

Gabbie and I were both pretty sure that the calf wasn't supposed to be at the end of the lane like that!

Taking a nap with her best bud :) And an apple in hand...

Such a good helper! Due to the dust we have not had Gabbie be our helper upstairs, however my phone was ringing downstairs and she thought she should bring it to me!

As long as I was on the phone, she may as well take over :)

She has started climbing her crib. I know its time to convert to a big girl bed...we'll work on that this week!

Headed up the stairs...

No more walls!

Makes quite a mess outside though...

The worst part of the whole project so far: I lost an earring Brice had given me for Christmas last year. Likely from either putting my mask on or taking it off. We both knew it was long gone :-( Oh well...guess he'll know what to get me this year, and he'd only have to buy one this time!

Hard to believe October starts this week! Looks to be a busy one...weddings, half-marathon, Race for the Cure possibly, craft shows, Halloween, and Gabbie's second birthday!!! Time to start practicing decorating a cake! Or better yet, call to have one made. This year she will be a spider for Halloween. It won simply because it was $1 at a garage sale this summer...I figure she'll be cute whatever she's wearing! Probably would be good if we fit harvest in there somewhere too :-) Happy (and safe) Fall to all!

August Update

I decided to take a few minutes to update the blog. Originally I had full intentions of not being home today and spending the day out on the bike trail. However the wind is keeping us home. The cart is just a little too much against the wind, plus I wanted to take advantage of a windy day to wash clothes and hang them out for that good fresh aire smell :-) Plus it isn't like there is a huge pile of stuff on my desk that I've been avoiding...so I'll keep this abbreviated and start tackling what I probably should be doing!
August is just a crazy busy month for everyone on Earth I'm sure! We all should just be able to take the month off our jobs I do believe. Brice is busy working on bailing hay, fixing up a building, hauling pigs, and daily chores. We have been having supper at 9:30 p.m. instead of after 10 p.m., so that must mean the days are getting slightly shorter!
I have been working on canning, planting the fall garden, home improvement projects (with some much appreciated help from Shelley!), and training for a half-marathon. I am enjoying my switch to not going into work until 9 a.m. It allows me to either run, see a home health client, throw laundry in, or prepare supper before I head to work, and it lets Gabbie wake up on her own time instead of mine. Sometimes Brice will come back in the house and enjoy a cup of coffee with me before we both leave for the day :-)
A few funny stories about Gabbie. 1. So this whole digital converter box business is a load of crap, and on a humid day the TV cuts in and out. One day Gabbie was watching TV while I was making supper, I believe it was Sesame Street, and she would say "Peek a Boo" when the TV would cut out! She'd hide her face in her hands, then when it came back on she'd take her hands away and say "Peek a Boo" again! 2. She has been helping me with the garden and the other day got tangled in the watermelon vines. She stood up and pointed at the vines and started really yelling at it "No No No!" Her vocabulary continues to expand greatly (some recent additions: Hot, Tractor, Shirt, Short, Cup, Thanks....that's all I can think of for now). She still calls Brice by his first name, and although we do admit its funny we are trying to get her to say "dad". She's so darn helpful outside with picking up apples, putting her toys away, and petting Gypsy. Her personality is really starting to develop. So far we think she's generous (enjoys sharing), fun loving, mostly happy, but don't make her mad. (gee, that last one doesn't sound like her Mom at all...)
This past month we have been to the State Fair, Iowa City, Farm Fest including the Kiddie Parade, and the 1st Annual Sauk Rail Trail Ride, and I've enjoyed some time off to get caught up here at home. I've been proud that this year I canned pickles, apple butter, salsa, seasoned tomatoes, pickled beets, pickled okra, and some other items to enjoy during the winter. It feels good to have some 'all natural/home grown' food put away.
I had one of the best birthdays I've ever had this past week thanks to some great people in my life! Some close patients send me balloons at work, cake and balloons from a co-worker, fun times out to eat, I just felt spoiled all around! Birthdays are great :-)
Here are some pictures, hope you enjoy! Happy Fall! And....go Cyclones-thats for you Sarah ;-)
Melanie

The 'spread' at Amy's bridal shower, looks yummy!

One of the many coolers full of garden produce...the rain has been good for some things!

Playing with our friend, Irma :-)

The flooding on our way to Iowa City...so many prayers for those people as they clean up

Enjoying a lift from Aunt Mindy in Downtown Ia City

A wet family at the State Fair! The 'ribbon' next to me kept bumping me with her giant head...

How tall this year?! 33 inches and 29 pounds :-)

At the Kiddie Parade, she won first in her division! (Also the only entry!)

Glad George was willing to do this ride with Gabbie. Brice and I were both still sick from the previous ride!

Part of the birthday celebration crew!

More birthday fun!

Scenery on the Sauk Trail Ride.

Enjoying a stop along the trail for some Root Beer!