Weekend fun

It's still on my to-do list to put Thanksgiving pictures (from my camera) up on the blog. Instead, I've been busy doing things like this:

Yep, that's half a batch of freezer crockpot meals. Basically, the premise is that you spent a crap-ton of money on groceries, spend even longer chopping all the ingredients and portioning them into ten bags, and then you don't need to cook again for the next year. (That was all hyperbole, I hope you know. All that work for "only" ten dinners! At least the dinners seem pretty big, so hopefully we'll have leftovers.) Unfortunately I accidentally mis-counted on the chicken front (22 pounds?!?) so tonight we're having Balsamic Chicken with Fig and Herbs with 1.5 times the chicken and twice as much of everything else.  In other words, our ten dinners turned out to be only nine - argh. At least there are eight other nights in the future that I don't have to worry about cooking!

In other news, we also had a fun weekend wrapping presents...

(Mike is a master gift wrapper!)

...eating jucy lucys...

The Nook is my new favorite!!!!

...devouring ice cream...

Rose wanted the green tea ice cream.   <= not my kid!

...and going on a family walk!


Her first time walking on an icy lake!

As I said to Mike this weekend, we have a good life. :)

closet update

(Note: This post could also be titled "Who's a big nerd? This girl!")

Remember a few months ago when I organized my closet? I got rid of all the stuff I didn't feel comfortable in (either because it fit funny or because I didn't love the color), regardless of whether I had bought the item because it was a great deal or because I thought I should hang on to it "just in case."  In these past few months I've noticed that I tend to grab all the color-coordinated things in my closet first, and the few remaining "off" pieces languish in the back until they're the last of my clean clothes - but I'm holding off on getting rid of those pieces until next summer because they are all spring colors and I want to make sure I don't miss them next year. Anyway, I noticed that I'm getting the urge to shop a lot less because I have a better sense of what I own and I have a lot more ways to coordinate the pieces that I do have. But the other night I thought it might be helpful to have a visual reminder of what "my" colors are, so whenever I get an urge to shop I can remind myself of what "fits" from a color perspective. Here's my "color cheat sheet" that I now keep in my purse:

core basics:
     black
     dark grey
     white

central colors:
     dark purple / purple sapphire / plum
     burgundy / merlot / eggplant
     deep teal / turquoise
     forest green / moss

occasional highlights:
     royal blue / dark blue sapphire
     lime green
     light teal

In other words: nothing from the brown family, no blue pants, nothing cream, and mostly fall colors or jewel tonees.


The closet organizing project has also given me a better sense of my style preferences. I LOVE cardigans over t-shirts (long or short-sleeve) - preferably white t-shirts under dark sweater cardigans in the winter, and colored t-shirts with lighter fabric white cardigans in the summer. I'll do blazers sometimes too, to mix it up. And I LOVE scarves (three seasons!), and comfy shoes (think: Danskos).

I hate belts and highheels. I don't like asymmetry. I love sparkles on accent pieces, but definitely not on "core" pieces. I prefer khakis and dress pants for work, jeans and capris on the weekends.  Fleece shirts and yoga pants for sleeping. And exercise tank tops for sleeping, so I have no excuse for not getting on the treadmill in the morning!

And my button-down blouses are usually some of the last to get worn - as much as I want that to be my style, I never find myself reaching for them!  I've come to accept that I'm more of a Eddie Bauer / LLBean / Lands End kind of gal, not an Ann Taylor / Limited / Talbots person. As much as I love the look of those latter stores, when I buy that stuff, I just don't reach for it first - it's a good thing my work allows me to be a little more business casual and a little less business professional. :)

With every word I type, I realize what a nerdy post this is. But I never knew that organizing my closet could be so transformative. It was such a great experience, and I'm totally embracing my nerdiness in saying that :)

(This post was prompted by me getting a HUGE discount offer from Eddie Bauer, and me leaving with only two items - despite the many things that I would have bought in the past because I knew they were a great deal. Success!)

New haircut!

Rose asked for short hair and bangs :)

Thanksgiving

We had a quick trip to Appleton to celebrate Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday of the year. :)

I tried to get Rose excited about it by creating this count-down calendar for her the week before:

I'm not sure she really understood the concept, but she did enjoy drawing smiley faces (aka "happy babies") at the bottom of it!


On Thanksgiving morning (since both Mike and I had to work on Wednesday), we woke up bright and early to hit the road. Rose got bundled up to get in the car, since the "high" for the day was only supposed to be 9 degrees. Blech.

For the big dinner that my parents hosted, I took pictures on my camera - and haven't transferred any of them to my computer yet. But I did take a couple of new baby cousin Aiden:

I also took a couple terrible cell-phone selfies of the three of us:

 

I think Rose's favorite parts of the weekened were:

watching Mickey Mouse videos...

...dancing and drumming with Ninja...

...and playing with Pop Pop.

On the ride home we made our traditional stop at Culver's for some cheesecurds and ice cream.

I'll post some more pictures (likely to be much better ones!) after I get my camera hooked up to my computer again...

three updates

1. Rose's new favorite activity is looking through the photo albums I've created on snapfish over the years. She particularly likes the ones from her first and second years of life, and pointing out all the family members she knows. The hilarious thing is what she does with this picture: 

Every other picture she sees of Anne, she immediately labels (accurately) as her "Trula." But this one she INSISTS is "not Trula. Someone one else. Looks like Trula. Someone in blue shirt." When she didn't believe me, she brought it to Mike. And then last night she brought it to Grammy. She is absolutely adamant, and it cracks me up every time.


2. Last weekend Rose was SO excited to help Mike shovel. I helped by staying inside and taking some pictures through the window. :)

3. Finally, almost a week ago we made the switch to "daytime undies" over night (rather than "nighttime undies," which were pull-up diapers). With one exception, she has woken up dry every morning!!!!  We now call them "big girl undies." I'm so proud of her! (And praying that I don't jinx it by posting this!)

Halloween

(Sorry for the belated post!)

We did a LOT of practicing for Halloween, all in preparation for the two houses we've gone to each year: the one neighbors we know (Brian and Sue) and my friend Marcy's family (about a half-mile away). Rose loved the practicing that we did, as this means that she got candy (a rarity in our house) in the week leading up to Halloween!  So this year, each house went something like this:

Knock knock. Door opens. Silence ensues.
Me/Mike: What do you say, Rose?
Rose: Thank you.
Me/Mike: Yes, what do you say first on Halloween?
Rose (whispering): Trick or treat.
Me/Mike: Can you say it louder so [person who lives here] can hear you?
Rose (yelling): AHHHH!!!!!!

Then we gave up. At least she got the "thank you" part, even if it was out of order. :) And she was THRILLED to get a bunch of candy - thank you to our great neighbor friends! She had a great day.

Halloween storytime at the local library

Rose herself decided to add on her rabbit as part of the costume!

As an aside, the weather has clearly changed a bit since Halloween, as we've had two snowfalls already (last Monday and last Saturday) and we're hitting 20+ degrees below average temperatures. Yuck!



At least it's fun to look back on how cute Rose was for Halloween just a few weeks ago.

Have a great week, everyone!

camera pictures (part two)

A few more photos from the summer/early fall...


Rose still LOVES to take baths:

I have no idea what we were doing here, but I liked the photo:

Mike had several bonfires as he trimmed back all the buckthorn in our backyard:

Rose has started to prefer running as her primary mode of transportation. (Whose kid is this?!?)

Next up...HALLOWEEN!