Vote on how to decorate our stairs

I would love to hear input. I have big plans for our stairs that involve Modge Podge and awesome pictures put onto the kickplate of each stair. Trouble is, I am having a hard time deciding on a theme of awesomeness. What would you do? We are a fun, laid back kind of family. We take nothing seriously. With that in mind, here are some of the ideas:

1. awesome mullets
2. great facial hair of our time
3. comics- Archie and Jughead
4. cocktails
5. pictures of ridiculous foods
6. crazy birth art
7. pictures the kids make
8. sexy men who look like dirty hippies (yeah, that is a selfish one)
9. retro advertisements
10. pin-up girls
11. clowns (haha! Just kidding)
12. other?

Starting the next to-do list for the house

We have been on a major pause when it comes to the big work for our house. We are waiting for warmer weather for most of it. I am pretending that spring is just around the corner and working on the to-do list.

1. replace front door and frame it properly
2. build steps to the front door
3. create a walk way that extends from the door down to the street
4. new mailbox
5. take out the extra door in my office and put in a wall there instead, paint/side/all that good stuff
6. replace the kitchen counter
7. do a kitchen backsplash
8. Possibly a new kitchen sink?
9. change the kitchen drop tiles with fresh/clean ones
10. get the basement foundation evaluated to see where the leak is coming from and how sturdy the whole thing is or is not
11. insulate the area under the house where our bathroom pipes run and freeze
12. get crazy with some modge podge and our stairs
13. finish getting paint drips off the floor
14. finish touching up paint in a few places (girls' room, by the kitchen stairs)
15. paint my office a slightly darker color (this one is going to surprise Joe, but there you have it)
16. finish painting the trim/doors upstairs
17. get a full length door for the girls (they still have the duct tape Dutch door)
18. sew curtains for Owen's room, upstairs hallway, and kitchen windows
19. find a dresser to repurpose into an entertainment center so I can get rid of the horrendous one my husband picked out a few years ago (black glass.... seriously? Could anything be harder to clean?)
20. start laying out the big projects and look at financing for: windows, siding (insulation), and an addition.

We also need to do some serious work in the garden and yard. Lots of areas need to be leveled out and we need to be sure that the weeds don't take over this year. We want to get fruit trees put in, a garden started, and a few flowers placed. Not too many cause flowers aren't my thing. We also need to work on our garage. We need a new walk-through door on it. I would love to put a new garage door and paint it, but we might want to wait for new siding on the house to be sure we are all matchy-matchy first. 

Now here is the part of the post that will excite many of my friends with green thumbs! This is the plant portion. Here are my plans so far for trees and bushes (keep in mind we have 1/2 an acre):

1. 2 chestnut trees
2. 2 hazelnut trees
3. 1 North Star cherry tree
4. 3 apple trees- honey crisp, nova spy, and mcintosh
5. a bunch of Hansen Bush Cherries along the front of the property line
6. 2 plum trees- superior and an alderman
7. 1 peach tree- a reliance dwarf
8. 20 raspberry plants as a minimum
9. a strawberry bed
10. asparagus
11. a grape arbor 
12. secret honey bees
13. and of course, a regular garden with cucumbers, green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, basil, and some beets or something. We will start a bit small on this and extend it yearly. I don't have the best green thumb, so I really prefer trees to garden.

I love planning and thinking about these things. Then, of course, it is also fun to complete these projects and cross them off the list :)

Trying to get back on track, nutritionally speaking.

I seem to have fallen WAY off track with eating well. It was easy to do. In the early days of having Fritz I was burning tons of calories nursing him and then this summer I was usually walking to do all my errands, so I would walk 4 miles a day plus get in regular workouts too. It is winter now and cold out so I am not walking anywhere. Fritz still nurses a lot, but it seems that my body has figured this out and isn't burning quite as many calories doing it. Plus, the past 2 weeks he has really suddenly taken a liking to eating solids. I have gone from 123 in November to now about 131. Yep, 8lbs in a pretty short amount of time. It probably also has to do with being off call and perfecting my Bloody Mary recipe. All 8lbs is in my gut, a nice little beer belly... my own version of the Freshmen 15. So, I decided to do a post for complete and total accountability with what I am eating. I LOVE reading other people's posts with their diet diary for the day. I guess I am obsessed with food in that way. Sometimes, through logging, I am able to see exactly where I am doing well and where I need work.

Breakfast:
I drank a ton of coffee. My first cup of coffee for the day my lovely husband made for me and it tasted REALLY good, so I am assuming there was probably 2 oz of half and half instead of 1 oz. So, 3oz of half and half for the day.

Then I made a breakfast sandwich with a Flatout flatbread, egg beaters, piece of American cheese (ok, it is "cheese food" not real cheese, but it is delicious), and Canadian bacon. I ate 80% of it and was stuffed. Must be all the fiber in the flatbread.

Lunch #1: (did I mention that I eat a bazillion times a day?)

I got these yummy mini peppers and little fancy cucumbers. I am pairing them with a bit of reduced fat ranch dressing (making my own with greek yogurt would be even better, nutritionally) and an oz of turkey.

Lunch #2:

A client gave me fresh bread and strawberry jam. I had no choice but to eat a slice :)

Afternoon snack:

Venti skinny mocha (thank you, awesome husband, for bringing me happiness)

Dinner:

I made a turkey and cheese sandwich and grabbed a few chips, but I ended up not being all that hungry and eating only 1/3 of the sandwich and about 4 potato chips. Edie finished the rest quite happily.

Evening snack #1:

Protein shake made with 1% milk, Max protein powder, and a few cherries

Evening snack #2:

Apple and laughing cow cheese.

Between all this eating I got in two of these bad boys with herbal tea:

So, my nutritional stats for the day are: 1323 calories, 41 grams of fat, 87 grams protein, 23 grams of fiber

Not too shabby. I am still trying to find the right balance for my body.


I also managed to get in a run and another workout today. I REALLY wanted to eat food from Patrick's. Like a patty melt, beer battered cheese nuggets, and beer. I can often mentally justify these things to myself by telling myself that it is just a little treat and in moderation, but I have been indulging FAR too often and it is time to rein it in. I just wish raw veggies tasted as good as fried junkfood. And don't tell me that they do, I will just call you a big fibber.

My ode to fat-free strawberry cream cheese

Cream cheese, you are not.
You melt even when not hot.
You are runny and weird,
creating on my chin a little pink beard.

I thought you would be yummy,
Put on a bagel and sent to my expanding, soft tummy.
Without the delightful fat you are just kinda sad.
To be honest, you taste really, pretty bad.

If I hadn't gained 8 pounds this season,
I wouldn't have purchased you as I would have no reason.
I think I like my food either plain of full of yummy fat.
I can just burn off the extra calories on a yoga mat.

Sore toes

I haven't been running or really doing much of anything physical the last 2 weeks other than going snow shoeing 1 time. The reason for this is that my toes are far too sore in this cold weather!!! So, besides being all arthritic and old feeling at the ripe age of 32, I also have developed Raynaud's Phenomenon (or Disease or Disorder).

Last year when Fritz was born, it was in my nipples. Holy hell, breastfeeding hurt like crazy. It got better once the weather warmed up and I didn't notice it again until it got cold this winter. This winter I have the joy of having it in my toes. Better than the nipples, but still not very comfortable. Raynaud's is a vasoconstriction issue, so when my toes get cold the blood stops pumping to them. Since it is Minnesota and winter, my feet are cold All. The. Time.

When the blood resumes pumping to my toes, they become swollen. So, they hurt when the blood stops pumping and they hurt when the blood overcompensates. Because of this issues, my toes are actually becoming covered in blisters and the starts of blisters because it doesn't take much to damage tissue when that tissue isn't getting enough blood. My toes hurt if they touch one another. It hurts to wear shoes. Socks that are too tight and shove my toes together are excruciating, but not wearing socks and my feet getting all cold is not acceptable either.

Here is what they look like when the blood starts pumping to them again after a cold attack. You can see my toes are swollen and they are actually more red than what shows up in this photo. (My foot looks all weird because of the angle and the way I was picking it up)

So, there you have it. My reason number 127 that my husband should move with me to New Mexico. I cannot wait for spring!!!

Ok, that was my whine for the day. Now you know why I don't run outside and haven't been very active at all with the cold snap that came through last week.

Is my life really a giant joke?

I get quite a few messages and/or comments about the way that I write about life and how funny these things are. I am glad for that. That is my honest goal. I enjoy working on my story-telling abilities as much as I enjoy reading other people's stories.

The reason why my life usually sounds like one joke after another is that I have found when I get frustrated, scared, irritated, angry, or sad it is therapeutic for me to spend my time thinking of the funniest way to relay the story to others. It helps me wrap my mind around what happened, I process it, and then I am already looking to put a positive spin on things.

My husband and I were just visiting tonight about how I try very hard to not be "poor me" because we don't have real problems. A car breaking down, a kid throwing up, pipes freezing taking away my ability to flush my toilet.... these things are obnoxious, but are not real problems. Real problems are sick kids (like, REALLY sick, like cancer-sick, not just a cold-sick), being homeless, losing someone you love, having no access to medical care, being tortured, being extremely sick with a serious illness yourself, etc. I never want to lose sight of how freaking lucky we are as a family to not have real problems. I never want to fall into a pit of negativity so that I cannot recognize the good times when we are having them. Into every life a little rain must fall, so I know that we will not always be so lucky. There will be a day coming when our problems are real problems and will be something too painful to joke away or laugh about.

It isn't that I am not able to be serious when it is needed; I am able to be very serious when it is the right emotion for the time and place. I just prefer for most of my thoughts to remain rather light hearted. Actually, I would invite any friends who are finding themselves getting overwhelmed with life to do this little exercise: next time something gets a strong emotion out of you..... let's say your child has PISSED you off by.... oh, I don't know.... dumping a gallon of real maple syrup into your carpet, before you start yelling and getting angry and thinking about how you are going to punish that child to the end of the Earth and back, spend some time thinking of the funniest way you can share this quirky story with a friend. By the time you get the wording just right, most of your anger will be gone and you will be able to cope with life once again.