For the love of ZUMBA....

During long weeks (like this one felt like!) Thursday nights seem to take forever to get here... Thursday nights are Zumba nights - along with Saturday mornings and they are to be treasured! My sister-in-law Jen and I are faithful Dassel~Cokato Zumba participants and we like to think we work our asses off (literally!) for 90 minutes during each class session. Sadly, I am probably the only person in class whose belly is GROWING, not shrinking, but what can you do?? It still feels amazing to be able to get out of the house, get a great (and fun) workout in, and feel good about doing something good for myself! I will be truly bummed when the day comes that this preggo body of mine (or my doctor!) no longer allow me to participate in Zumba, so I enjoy it while I still can! If you have not ever given a real Zumba class a try-- I highly suggest you do so...

Okay, so other than shaking it at Zumba, we have been BUSY. And it's only going to get busier... Our basement is still sucking up the majority of my husband's time -but I think he secretly loves it. I have never considered Max to be a 'handy man' by any means but in the last year and half that we've been married, he has truly amazed me by his abilities, or more so, his willingness to learn since many of his friends are handy... All of this week he has been staining, painting, and tiling the entryway, bathroom, and shower. Early next week, the carpet gets installed and then our plumber will come finish up the last minute installations in the bathroom. After that, the basement will be pretty much DONE. We are excited/nervous to move Ryder into his new 'big boy room' downstairs to see how he does so we can start working on creating a nursery :) This was an exciting week for us because we ordered both the baby's crib bedding as well as Ryder's new bedding and they both arrived in the mail. We are so happy with both sets, which is a relief... Other than the basement, we are looking forward to spending Easter with our families this weekend and celebrating Ryder's 4th birthday next week! The week after that is Mother's day so you could say we have a busy few weekends ahead of us!! Thank goodness some of my energy is back :)

This article should be added to the constitution/bible/any other great work of literature...

MEGYN KELLY: The Top 5 Things You Should Never Say to a Pregnant Woman

By Megyn Kelly
Published April 07, 2011
FoxNews.com

Here is my list of five things you should not say to a pregnant woman in ascending order:
Number 5: Don't tell us how fat or out of shape you feel. We're packing at least 25 extra pounds as we deal with nausea, back pain, swelling, and a host of other unmentionables … and frankly, we just don't want to hear it.

Number 4: Don't tell us "it looks like we're having a girl." We all know what that means -- they say "girls steal your beauty." Well, they don't steal your hearing!


Number 3: Don't "kid" us about our condition. "Wide load coming thru!" is not funny. "Waddle on out of here" does not amuse. Ellen DeGeneres has a good rule on kidding. If we're not both laughing, you're doing it wrong.
P.S. And please don't joke that the pregnant meteorologist is blocking the weather map. Turns out, that's insulting.


Number 2: And I cannot stress this enough. … don't guess the due date. “Is that a Christmas baby?” Ummm, no -- April. “You sure? It looks like New Year's at the latest.” Please stop talking.
You see, pregnant women -- especially the second time around -- get bigger faster and we don't want to play the guessing game.
If you ask me when I'm due and I'm vague, just be quiet. We both know you're wondering how I got so big so fast. You see, I would be smaller, but I have another human being developing inside of me.


And the number one rule in dealing with a pregnant woman…
Don't comment on our bodies. Ever. Really. But especially when we're pregnant. What is it about a baby bump that makes people feel it's okay to say things like "God! You are big!!!"???
And don't say we look small either. That just makes us worry that something's wrong with our baby.
Whatever our bodies look like, it's our business. As for your thoughts? Keep them to yourself.Consider this age-old chestnut instead: "you look great."


-----Seriously friends, read this article, memorize this article, and if you are preggo like me, LOVE this article.  :) Goodnight! 

Finally Friday!

On this beeeaauuuttiful Friday morning I find myself in the lovely Cricket Meadow, sipping on an iced chai, and drowning myself in pictures... It has been my number one goal lately to ORGANIZE and EDIT all of Ryder's pictures from the last, ohhhhh about 3 years. Ugh. The thing is, I love photography, and I love photoediting (especially with my new photoshop elements software!) but I SUCK at actually printing pictures/scrapbooking because I just don't make the time. So today, while the monster is at preschool I have locked myself away to just upload pictures to Shutterfly and create some photobooks to get all of Ryder's up to date before the new baby comes. So far, it is not going as planned. Shutterfly takes forever to upload my pictures (and I have a lot of them!) so I sit and I wait... Good thing I am SO patient ;) (not)
Which reminds me that I need to get started on Ryder's 4 year pictures. I have some cute ideas so far and I *hope* to have them done, edited, and printed by the time of his birthday party to hand out to family and friends... Um, we'll see about that but it's a nice thought :)
We have a busy weekend ahead of us and I'm so looking forward to it! It is supposed to be beautiful today and tomorrow. After preschool today I think Ryder and I are going to trek up to St.Cloud to get a few things, and a haircut for Ryder, as it is definitely needed! If you haven't been to Kids Hair in St.Cloud, I highly recommend it. Ryder loves it there and they do SUCH a good job everytime, I have never been dissapointed.... After that we will head home, hopefully find time to walk the lake with my long lost workout partner, Becky and find time to play outside... Tomorrow we have a wedding reception in the evening which I am looking forward to because we haven't been "out" in quite a while! And Sunday, I think I heard rain is forecasted which means house cleaning and finishing up projects! I am so excited to post pictures of the basement when I get some new ones, it is all painted and the trim will be all up by tomorrow!! I absolutely love the way it is coming together and can't wait to move Ryder into his "big boy room" (he wants motocross theme--who could have guessed?? haha) so I can start working on the baby's nursery!! Speaking of baby-- I am a much happier preggo lady lately. Alot of my symptoms/misery from before is slowly starting to fade away and I finally am feeling energetic and more 'normal' lately! No, my jeans are not buttoned as we speak (the ponytail trick works wonders;)) but we wont' go there! Now that I feel better, I am SO SO SO excited for baby, baby things, and our ultrasound which will hopefully creep up somewhat fast --about 7 weeks left! We go back and forth about whether or not we are going to find out the sex of the baby or wait and be surprised...There are definitely perks of both ways. In all honesty, it will probably just depend on the mood I am in the day of the ultrasound and how much self control I have that day! Either way we will be ecstatic, just as long as it is healthy... Okay, back to pictures-- hope you all have a fabulous weekend like we hope to have!

Hey crazy lady....STEP AWAY FROM THE ANIMAL CRACKERS!!

I have lots to catch up on (as per usual), but I will first start with something on my mind... A problem, really. More like an obsession, actually. Upon arriving home from Montana, we discovered we had NO food, I mean zero, zilch, nada, nothing. So, grocery shopping we went. On this particular occassion, my husband picked up the huge bag of animal crackers (for like, a dollar something, because he's cheap like that) and put them in the cart, thinking they would make good snacks for Ryder. I didn't pay much attention because in my mind, animal crackers do not have a) chocolate associated with them b) are a cracker, not a cookie, and c) they look to be quite bland to be honest... However, since they have taken up residence in my home - I CAN NOT STOP EATING THEM. It is rare to catch me in my house without a 'few' in my hand... They are so addicting and delicious. I justify this obsession since you can eat like 20 of them and there is very little fat AND sugar content, so that makes me one happy mama. Did I really just type an entire paragraph on animal crackers....Gosh, how lucky are you folks to be reading this?? :)

Okay, back track a little... On Wednesday Max and I took off (nevermind the disgusting snow storm outside) and headed out West! We went to visit Joe and Kate in Bozeman, Montana. The drive sucked (as always) but we made it and arrived safe and sound.... We spent our trip sleeping in (I think we made it to 8am one morning--woah!) shopping around downtown and hitting up some of my favorite little shops and coffee shops, enjoying the mountain views and fresh bozeman air, getting pedicures, dining out, hiking (in the snow covered mountains!), and just relaxing in general... Bozeman is so beautiful, there really is no other place like it, if you ask me... It was also a great time just hanging out with Joe and Kate, we miss those goofballs while they are gone and can't wait for them to move back home in a couple months!

While vacation is always great...It was nice to get home! What is even nicer about coming home from this particular vacation is that I still have this entire week off for Spring Break! We have been busy just catching up on laundry/cleaning/unpacking, getting outside and enjoying these (somewhat) nice days whenever possible (makes for a very muddy little boy and A LOT of laundry for his mommy), and also taking care of our new baby chicks! 16 of the little fellows made their way onto the farm yesterday and Ryder just loves going and checking in on them... Today I spoiled myself to a 90 minute prenatal massage in Hutch and it was fabulous! For now... back to cooking dinner (panko crusted chicken breasts over rice pilaf with mushrooms and alfredo sauce....yum!!)

The thing about pregnancy....

is that it never ends. Ever. At least it feels that way! I am ten weeks along this week and though I am thankful that I'm finally in the double digits -- I still have 30 weeks left of this craziness! And by craziness I mean.....
- doing everything in my personal power to NOT bake homemade brownies last night
- complaining to my husband about clothes already NOT fitting me -- (honestly, is this some type of joke that they play on 2nd time around moms??) I haven't actually gained any weight yet, but I literally already have pants that will not button. FRICKEN SWEET.
- constant exhaustion. I am so tired of being SO tired all the time!
- craving anything and everything all the time. A list of my current favorites: dq blizzard, ice cream in general, chocolate chip cookies, homemade brownies, honey nut cheerios, and chex mix (the cheesy kind). YUM.
- wanting to go shopping every hour of every day and spend tons of money (that I don't have!) on the little peanut -- and when that is not feasible to do (thank you, ridiculous gas prices) then I resort to spending my free time scouring the internet looking and picking out cute baby things: crib bedding, stroller, crib, etc etc etc!
- never feeling normal. I have been extremely lucky since I haven't been too sick with this pregnancy, but I still never quite feel normal. There is always something weird going on that just freaks me out or makes me feel crummy in one way or another.

- prenatal yoga class. I thought this would be super relaxing and good for my back during pregnancy, and I'm sure eventually it will, but it is so awful. The moves are so challenging and when you add in already feeling like crap to the list, not to mention having to look down at your ever growing stomach (when it looks like a fat tire around your waistline) just makes it almost unbearable. The best part about the class is that at the end they shut the lights off, light candles and put on soothing music for 'relaxation and reflection' --I secretly fall asleep every time ;)

Okay,  I will stop complaining for the day. The good news is that it is NICE outside, Spring Break is next week and I will be BOZEMAN BOUND!, and when I get back I am going to have an hour long prenatal massage and also maybe even squeeze in a much needed haircut!

Coming Soon: October 2011 :)

We are expecting!!! Okay, so I act like this is new news to me, but it’s not… Max and I have known (and for the most part have kept it a secret!) for the last 5 WEEKS. Talk about going crazy – I’m not good at keeping secrets anyway, so for something like this to be on my mind and not be able to share it with the world has been making me clinically insane. Maybe not quite, but close… Anyway, now for a lengthy recap!

In January of last year, Max and I decided we would ‘work on having a baby’. Honestly, how hard could it be? I mean, for goodness sakes I got pregnant even when I WASN’T trying, so now that I was making a point to get pregnant, it should happen right away, right? WRONG. I will be completely blunt (as usual) and tell you that the past year has been extremely hard on Max and I, mainly because of this reason. Trying to conceive is not the magical/special/giddy time that I envisioned it being. It was for about the first 3 months, after that it got a little frustrating, but I would say months 9-12 of trying were the absolute worst. It made us angry, frustrated, upset, and constantly worried. In January of this year, we decided that we just couldn’t do this anymore and were considering going back on birth control (my doctor’s advice) for a few months to take a well deserved break from baby making stress. However, my laziness came in handy and I just never quite made it in to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription.

On February 4^th (a Friday night) Max, Ryder, and I were about to have a late supper and pop in a movie. I hadn’t been feeling the greatest all day and when I did everything in my power not to throw up all over the plate of rotisserie chicken sitting in front of me, I started to think something was up… As always, I began to get excited as I realized I was technically a little late. Max told me that I was “jinxing” us and that it was probably just the flu. So, I figured it was too but couldn’t quite get the idea out of my head… The next day, Max had to work in the morning and Ryder and I were left alone to the pounding sounds of putting up sheetrock in our basement. I was annoyed and needed to get out of the house so Ryder and I headed off to where else, Target! I was just about to check out and STILL wasn’t feeling well, so I decided to buy a pregnancy test. I knew Max wouldn’t approve of me taking it (but what does he know, honestly??) so I took it right then and there. And what do you know, it was POSITIVE! There was the freakin’ positive test I had been waiting for for the last year in a Target bathroom stall. J I can’t even begin to describe the feeling of seeing a positive pregnancy test and being HAPPY about it! (Unfortunately, my only other experience with a positive pregnancy test was very unplanned, very unexpected, and not exactly a joyous occasion at the time –although I wouldn’t change a thing about it now! –love you Ryder!) Needless to say, I cried the whole way home and Ryder kept asking why and I had to explain “happy tears” to him. When I got home, I got to share the news with Max and since then we have been thrilled…

We are now 9 weeks along and have told all of our family this past weekend but wanted to wait until yesterday for the news to become ‘public’ as we had our first ultrasound! We both felt a huge sense of relief to see our little baby and it’s heartbeat going crazy! I’m not going to lie, he/she still kind of resembled a tadpole, and really only had a head, butt, and body, but still cute in our eyes! It was also VERY active and anytime the ultrasound tech would put the monitor directly over him/her, it would start wiggling around! As for this mom, I have been feeling okay… I feel pretty fortunate because so far in both of my pregnancies, I have never done the whole ‘puke my brains out’ version of morning sickness. In fact, I never really feel sick in the morning at all. For the first few weeks after we found out, I used to get real queasy around supper time. Food just didn’t sound good to me, but as long as I stayed away from it, I was fine. Certain smells bother me, I have had some mild cramping (which is gone now), and A LOT of fatigue, but other than that – I have been feeling pretty good! I have still been able to workout just about everyday which is good, because I AM STARVING ALL THE TIME NOW!!

So for now, life is good! Keep us (and baby) in your prayers for a healthy baby boy or girl… (Although I will say that I think it’s a girl-- Wishful thinking…probably!)

A few changes here and there...

So to be quite blunt, I don't really give a shit what the thermometer says the temperature is outside. I also don't care that when I look outside my big living room windows I see HUGE piles of snow that look as though they are never going to go away. Nope, I just don't care about any of that. In my mind, I have simply decided that IT. IS. SPRING. DAMNIT!!! :) That being said, I am ready for SPRING STUFF, such as
1. Spring Cleaning (Okay, I'm actually not quite that excited about this one, but I know it needs to be done)
2. Planting my garden-- I will be starting this tonight after I'm finished with this blog post, more on that later ;)
3. HOME IMPROVEMENTS!! I love this time of year when I just point to things that I want changed and magically they just get done (yeah....riiiiiigggghhhtttt)
4. Ryder's birthday-- the big #4!
5. Shopping -- my list wouldn't be complete without it, I am over bulky winter clothes and always have so much fun shopping for the new seasons for Ryder each spring, summer, fall, winter...
6. Running/Walking outside again -- what a difference this makes!
7. Being able to spend some time outside again with my horse -- and testing out my new saddle!
8. MONTANA trip the last week in March --so excited for this!! Can't wait to see Joe and Kate and just to be in Bozeman again.

Okay, there are probably tons more but I'll stop. One thing on this list which we have been able to get started on is the home improvements. Of course, the basement project is well underway, this coming week/weekend we will be picking out paint and getting started. After that (so I'm told) will be painting all the walls, staining/putting up the trim, then flooring/carpeting. It is finally all coming together! BUT..... We've also been busy making our upstairs the way we want it as well. Since our house was finished a couple years ago (has it really been that long already??) we have HATED our paint situation in the kitchen. Since our living room is called "RED DRAMA" --(love it) we wanted something a little brighter for the kitchen to lighten up the space so we went with a yellow... However, it was the wrong yellow, definitely wrong and we have pretty much hated it ever since. Finally, we have started painting it over and wouldn't ya know it, we decided to continute with the "RED DRAMA" that is in our living room. It makes the whole room flow so much better and yes, it will be a little darker in the end, but we like dramatic and we like bold, so why not?? So far, we love it. Although as I speak Max just started another section of the kitchen so at the moment, half my kitchen is pepto bismal pink (puke!) because of the primer. We are also planning on putting a backsplash up eventually also which will add alot as well... We also made some changes in garage (and by we, I obviously mean Max). He built me a new cedar step/deck thing in the garage so that we can now keep all of our shoes and stuff out there, and not in the mudroom/entry way which so far has kept my house a lot cleaner! After all this is done, we want to do some more painting touch ups in our master bathroom, and also the laundry room but all of that is pretty minor...
So, most of those home improvements and the beginning of spring cleaning is what we spent most of our weekend doing! In addition to that, we were able to hang out with family for my nephew's 2nd birthday party on Saturday, went grocery shopping in Hutchinson (because I am SO FED UP with shitty fruit/produce from Walmart), and Max and I also got to go see a movie together-- No Strings Attached (very cute movie!) Today was more cleaning (blah) and building things (max) and now time to get ready for the week!