Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The Balanced Mom

So as of last night I only have one more class left for my Accounting 1 class! Woho! On Thursday I have my chapter 8 & 9 test and then the final. I'm feeling fairly confident that I will finish the class with an A. I think I would have to seriously screw up on one of those tests to not get an A, and honestly I don't see that happening. But only time will tell!

So recently I finished reading The Balanced Mom by Bria Simpson. The concept of the book is good and some of the ideas in the book are really good but for me it seemed the first half of the book repeated it self almost every chapter just with a few different words added or subtracted. Also a lot of her suggestions cost money, which really isn't an option for some people. I guess I didn't really know what to expect from the book but it did not meet my expectations. It was quick read so if you pick it up it wont be a complete waste of your time but I wouldn't actively seek to read this book.

Friday, July 27, 2012

One Breath Away

So the Festival is this weekend (St. Dennis Festival), should be a lot of fun! I think this is the first !year where Connor really remembers what it's all about, so he's super excited. I made some chocolate chip zucchini muffins for the sweet tooth booth and we're going to try and find some stuff for the treasure chest (but since we waited until the last minute, I'm not sure if we will have time). Also can't wait until Sunday to pay my $5 to get a whole bag of books!

So recently I finished reading One Breath Away by Heather Gudenkauf. This is the third book she's written, and I've read all of her books now. This particular one just came out at the end of June and as soon as I could I put myself on the waiting list at the library. I was excited to read her new book and I was not disappointed. Her writing always draws me in and I always finish her books very quickly. With having children, this book definitely brings to mind my worst nightmare of sending my children to school. Thankfully all turns well with very little injury to anyone in the story. I can honestly say, for once, I did not guess who the villain was and was surprised at the end of the story. If you've read her other books and enjoyed them, definitely pick up her newest one! Now is the wait until she writes another one! I'm sure I'll read that one right away too!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Beyond The Sling

Last night I got some cleaning done. If you know me & Scott we're not much into deep cleaning. Mostly we do enough to get by without looking like complete pigs all the time. However, I would really like to try and keep my house cleaner than its current level but it's difficult to do because of the kids, school, and work. Last night I spent around 1.5 hours cleaning. I cleaned out the fridge completely and I started on our bathroom. I literally took everything out of the bathroom (drawers, shelves, etc) and working on cleaning it and organizing and throwing stuff out. Couldn't finish it all last night but I should be able to tonight.

So about a week and a half ago I finished reading Beyond The Sling by Mayim Bialik. I've been meaning to read this book for awhile and had actually gotten it once before from the Library but at that time I just didn't have enough time to actually sit down and read it. I'm glad I finally got to read it. It reads very easily (read it in only a few days) and briefly touches on all aspects of Attachment Parenting. I follow some of the "rules" of attachment parenting but there are areas I do not. Even if you think attachment parenting is "crazy" I recommend you reading this book to get a good idea on what it's all about. It's really not all that "crazy" it's more about listening to yourself and trusting your instincts that you know how to parent your children. I'm really glad she has a reference section in the back of the book so I can get some more books on a couple of the subjects since within the length of the book she truly could not go into a huge amount of detail.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Donovan Turns 5

So I took Test #4 last night for my Accounting class. I'm not nearly as confident with this test as the last 3. I know I still passed, and to other people's standards I probably still did good, but I'm not sure I'll get to say for the 4th time that I received over 100% on it. Why the need for such high grades? Because, I've figured out if I receive all A's in my final classes at MATC I will graduate with honors, with over a 3.75 in the classes that count towards my degree. And I really want to graduate with honors!

So a little over a week ago now, while we were camping, we had to take a time out and drive back into Madison for Donovan's 5th Birthday party. Unfortunately we weren't able to stay for very long but I'm still glad we showed up for a little while at least. For his birthday we gave him a new sweatshirt that he should be able to wear for school this coming year and also one of those big Car's color, construct things that get super big. I hope he has a lot of fun putting that all together. I hope his birthday was fabulous and he received everything his five year old heart desired.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Camping in Lodi

So this weekend is almost at an end. In same ways I'm so glad that it's finally over (sickness is never fun). In other ways I wish it wasn't almost done (test tomorrow night, yuck!). Scott & the kids are about to watch a movie in the living room and we're waiting for our dinner to arrive (Glass Nickel - yumm!). It's been quit the exhausting weekend and neither of us wanted to attempt to make dinner.

So last weekend with John & Carol we headed up north to Lodi to go camping at Smokey Hollow campground. OMG - it was a blast! They had a man made pond that was so much fun to play in. They had multiple different inflatable things to play on - several slides, a trampoline, etc. Connor kept track and he went swimming 6 times (Friday, 4x Saturday, and Sunday). Their little store had some yummy ice cream, slushies and some iced coffee and the campgrounds overall were pretty nice. So between swimming, and playing at the playground (right outside our camper - well Aunt Lori & Kari's camper that they let us borrow) we kept very busy. This is a place I would definitely consider going to again.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Fifty Shades - Series

Back from a day full of "camping" at the Moore's house. Had a lot of fun today, and after being so sick last night, I felt so much better! Also, my ear is doing a lot better too. I've only had to take Tylenol once today, where as the last couple of days I couldn't go more than about 5 hours without taking more, so that's a good sign!

So recently I finished reading the whole series of Fifty Shades by EL James. I read all 3 of the books in a little over a week, so I obviously enjoyed reading them. I really enjoyed the characters and I'm glad the entire book didn't 100% focus on the "adult scenes". From the way people were talking about it I thought it would be too over whelming and I wouldn't enjoy them, but I did. It's definitely not a type of book I would normally read but the characters kept my interest enough to finish out the entire series. Have any of you read the series? What did you think?

Friday, July 20, 2012

Connor's B-Day Party

So I went to the Dr. and it was exactly what I thought it was (swimmers ear). I wish they would have just given me the prescription instead of making me pay the $25 co-pay and them telling me exactly what I knew it was already. Oh well I guess, not much you can do about that. I just hope these drops work quickly and I wont have to wake up tonight in pain again.

Almost 2 weeks ago now we had Connor's 5th birthday party. We had it out at Grandma & Grandpa's house in Waunakee and it was a blast. They got Connor a bouncy house (so fun!) and we filled up a bunch of balloons, had a sprinkler and squirt guns. The theme for his party was WWE (of course) and a bunch of family showed up to celebrate. He got some star wars movies, a bunch of wrestling stuff, some spider man Lego's, a cars toy and a bunch of other stuff. Man, his he spoiled! Can't believe my baby is 5 years old!!

Thursday, July 19, 2012

4th of July

I now officially only have 25% left of my Accounting 1 class left! Woho! The end is near! Can't wait for it to be done with! I then will get a couple of week break and then my Accounting 2 and Corporate Finance classes start at the end of the month. Less than 10 months now until I graduate with my AAS in Business Management.

For the fourth of July we usually go to DeForest and watch the parade and sometimes go and walk around the park afterwards, not this year. It was so hot (100+ degrees) we decided to go up north to Devil's Lake for a day of swimming. The lake felt amazing and it was nice to get some sun. We went up with John & Carol and then Kari, Lori, Helen, Hanna and her friend joined us later.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Water for Elephants - Movie

So I need to officially get into lose weight mode for Meagan's wedding, which is only around 70 days away (I counted the actual number of days yesterday but I don't remember, lol). I worked out last night using the 28 Day Boot camp Spark People DVD (picked it up from the library). It has a total of 84 minutes on it but it's broken into different categories, so I just did one of the 20 minutes last night since its been about 5 weeks since I've worked out. After weighing myself this morning I would LOVE to lose 13.6 pounds before Meagan's wedding. Not sure if that's possible or not, but I'll give it a go!

So for book club this past month we read Water for Elephants. Scott "read" it along with me and afterwards we decided to pick up the movie from the library and watch it. Okay. Initially after watching the movie I did not like. I thought about it later and realized it wasn't as bad as I originally thought. The movie was good but there were so many big changes from the book that it initially through me off and I was a little pissed off about it. They combine characters and completely leave some out all together. So my advice: either watch it way after you finish the book or before you even read it. If you watch it right after you read it like I did your initial reaction might be you don't like it.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Lily is 3

Just re-financed the house this morning! Saves us about $115 a month! Yes, we should be down to 25 years on our mortgage by now but honestly I'll take the additional 5 years because it means the payments are much more manageable than before. I wish our appraisal would have been better, then we could have saved even more (stupid PMI) but oh well I guess. You get what you can take!

So at the beginning of the month my cousin Katie's little girl, Lily, turned 3 years old. I can't believe how big she's getting. She's so funny! She had a Dora party and had lots of family there to celebrate with her. I wish we could have stayed longer but it was on Connor's birthday and we had already made plans for dinner. We gave her some clothes and a cute Tinkerbell tent - which she didn't want to get out of! So I'm guessing she liked it, lol. I hope the rest of her party was just as fabulous as her and her actual birthday was a lot of fun also!

Monday, July 16, 2012

Connor's 5

So another weekend has come and gone. Can you believe summer is 1/2 over now? It is just going by way to quickly! It's going to be really hot again today and tomorrow, just about 100 degrees both days. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the hottest summer in Wisconsin history. I don't even remember the last day that the high was below 80 degrees.

So just over 2 weeks ago my baby turned 5 years old. I just can't believe how quickly the time has gone by! For his birthday we went to Portrait Innovations to get his pictures taken, then we headed to the zoo (every year at the zoo he gets to pick one present from the gift shop - this year he opted for a Prairie Dog) and for dinner he decided he wanted to go to Home Town Buffet so he could have unlimited slushies! Afterwards we headed back to the house for cake & presents. He received some awesome wrestling clothes, wrestling toys, a light saber & Darth Vader mask and some other really great things. Now my "big boy" is 5 and is already on his way to 6. Can time just stop for a little while?

Friday, July 13, 2012

Her Last Death

Going camping this weekend. At least this will take my mind off of my test #3 that I took last night. I think I did well but I always question it until I see that score posted - which wont happen until Sunday night or Monday morning probably. I know that it wont be posted until then but that doesn't mean I still haven't checked several times today to see if it's been posted, lol.

On my birthday I finished reading Her Last Death by Susanna Sonnenberg. I enjoyed the story and thought it funny and outrageous at times but I really have a hard time believing that that stuff really happened to her growing up. It's just so ridiculous and horrible at times that it almost feels made up. As long as I pictured it as not-real I enjoyed the story and it was pretty quick read. Since then I've read several other books that I will post about, but currently I am finally reading "Beyond The Sling."

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

My Birthday

I've been really slacking in the month of July at posting. Between work, school, reading a couple of books and taking care of the kids I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and write up a post. I can't promise to find more time to write. This summer still have lots of events left and I have a stack of books I want to read, and I'm only just over 50% done with my Accounting 1 class.

So about 2 weeks ago was my birthday. I can't believe how the years are just flying by. Aren't they suppose to be slow until you're older? Have I already reached the age where some of the years blur together and I'm not sure if it was this year or the previous when such and such happened? Ugh. I don't want to think about that right now. My birthday was pretty nice. We went to Lake Mills to go swimming, picked up some Subway on the way. Then went home and took a nap (I love naps if you didn't know that already). For dinner we went to the Great Dane and afterwards came back to the house for cake & presents. I received a Kindle Fire (which I love but still haven't actually read a book on it), some clothes, floor mats for my car (still have to clean it out so I can put them in), a new blender (really needed that) and a gift card to Boston Store (where I get my makeup). All in all I can't complain it was a nice birthday and I'm still glad I continue to take the day off of work each year.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Couple's Retreat

Back to another Monday. I am officially 1/2 way done with my Accounting 1 class this summer, and I've still got over a 100%. Not sure how long that is going to last, I have another test coming up this Thursday that I'm not nearly as confident as the last two. At least I have some time to try and figure a couple of the things out.

A couple of week's ago Scott & I sat down and watched Couple's Retreat. It's a few years old but we never had a chance to watch it until now. Not that I was missing anything without watching it. The movie was okay and there were parts that I laughed at but it's nothing that I would have to sit down and watch again. If it's on TV sometime and there is nothing else to watch I'd probably watch it but it is not a movie I will go out of my way to watch again.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Devil's Lake

Got the grade back from my second Accounting 1 test - 105%! Man, maybe I should have stuck with Accounting as my degree, lol, oh well, to close to graduating to change now! Not sure I'll continue to get over 100% on the tests, because the stuff he introduced last night was a little confusing.............

So almost 2 weeks ago we headed up north to Devil's Lake with the Moore's, Scott's parent's & Betty. It was a lot of fun but it was actually a little chilly out (which is funny to say considering it wasn't even 2 weeks ago, and we're on day #3 of 100 degree weather). It was a lot of fun though, Scott & I swam with all four kids and then we had a super yummy lunch! It's always nice going there, for $7 you can't really beat that!

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Water For Elephants

Lazy Sunday around here. Read a book, slept in late had a nap, great day in my mind. However, I didn't go to the grocery store, so we'll be scrapping by the next couple of days until I can get there on Tuesday or Wednesday. Oh well, it was worth it. Today was the only day in the month of July that I didn't have anything written on the calender!

So for this month's book club we decided to read Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen (we'll be meeting to discuss next Friday). It was a very quick read and I really enjoyed reading it. While reading it I could totally picture the movie, and I hope when I see it I wont be disappointed by it. The only part of the book that I did not like was the part with Walter & Camel. I really wish that would have turned out a little differently. Scott actually was "reading" (he gets the CD's and listens to it on the way to and from work - he's not much of a reader) it at the same time, so it was kind of fun to discuss and give eachother little hints about what was going to happen next.