A lovely anniversary and lovely daughter

This is our sweet princess. She had a delightful evening at our friend Justin's house playing with baby Anabel while Ron and I heading out for dinner at Koreana.
It's been a long, long time since I have had Sushi! I am a bit of a Sushi snob after so many years living in Seattle and having super good super fresh access to fabulous culinary delights.



Here is our yummy appetizer: Crabby Spring Rolls. They were divine.




And super good Miso soup. It was perfect.





Ron had Tempura and he really enjoyed it.
I opted for Sushi and Sashimi combo platter that was very good, but not as perfect as everything else. But very good. And very pretty. Of course I could not eat the whole thing, but I gave it a good try. I know, some may think that eating that much raw fish is not for them, but it was my anniversary and I loved it!


I am looking forward to another fantastic year with my wonderful husband and daughter. Did I ever tell you how much I love them? And how fortunate I feel to have them both? I must be the most lucky woman in the world!

Happy Anniversary!

I love you Ron.

Does every post have to have a title? I can't think of one for today.
My big push at losing the rest of my weigh before my shopping trip is NOT GOING WELL. I have lost all ambition and hope. I think I am stalled out on WW and need some crazy new plan. It's been so hot that I have not wanted to exercise or be anywhere near the outdoors. I have been biking or walking to work, but the constant threat of thunderstorms has had me riding home in the car with Ron and Ella instead of risking getting her soaked or hailed on. Part of my failure has to do with my albatross, whom I have named "Really Good Beer", and the other is the loss of my constant partner in this mission, Liz. When I started on the WW plan last October I was all gung-ho and had the General & Liz by my side. So I need a new strategy and a new support group. And less beer. I gained five pounds over the fourth of July holiday and have not been able to lose it. I am thinking of joining an on-line group that costs $4 a week. Or maybe going back to WW meetings. Things are going to be more difficult this next month when Ella has no day care and therefore my days are less routine. See, routine is good for me. I wonder how the general manages it running that daycare out of her home.
On the positive side of things: today's high is supposed to be mid-eighties and no thunderstorms! I have to walk into work because I left my bike there on Tuesday (rain and hail in the afternoon) but Ella and I should have a nice ride home. If the weather is good on Friday I'll pack a picnic and we can ride to the park to play and have lunch.
I need to get the treadmill set back up. I stored it away when we started working on that guest room thinking it would be finished in July. I should just put it in the empty, half finished room, and use it for 30 minutes each morning before work. I used to do an hour, but my work schedule has changed and now I open then center every day, so 30 minutes is all I can squeeze in. But I could do the other 30 in the evenings... I'll have to ask the family what they think of that idea. What would be super great is if I had a walking partner. A pal who is willing to go for a walk with me every evening around 6:30. Then if E wants to come along she can ride in the stroller or something. And I would not be tempted to have those evening beers. Hey, maybe Ron would be my walking buddy?
Instead of walking I blogged this morning. Blogged about how I should be walking. Man, I gotta prioritize! I'm off to get ready for work.

August 1

It's hot, it's humid, and we are supposed to have a bog ol' storm tonight. I am looking forward to it, except for the leaky roof. "What? Leaky roof?" You say... "I thought you fixed your leaky roof!" Yes, yes, yes so did we. But, alas, it is not fixed at all. We have a new set of twins! Matching leaks in our bedroom and Ella's. I think we need to just hire someone to come and tear off the whole roof and start over. Perhaps a reputable contractor? With actual skills? Our roof was slapped on by some roving crew a few years back after a series of hail storms damaged many roofs in town. They did an extremely poor job.

I have some great news: Ella and I have a week off! Who wants us to come visit? We are available from Thursday, August 17th at 4PM through Friday, August 25. I think Jenny and the gang are coming through Oshkosh the 19th so we will want to be home for that... But if someone wants to feed us and play with us any other times during the week we would be happy to oblige! I am thinking of looking into a train ride or something. I think Ella might like to travel by train.

Ella's day care is closed from August 7 throught Septmeber 6. I hope I can set up enough fun things for her to do at work with me. It could suck really bad if I am not prepared. Anyone have any ideas? Fun but not too messy arts and crafts?

The last day of July

Hard to believe August is on the doorstep.
We had a busy weekend of not doing much bet doing a lot all at the same time. I did some pretty major cleaning in my kitchen and living room. Ron was home to keep the wee one busy while I busted a power move on the floors. They were getting really bad. This summer it has seemed impossible to keep up with the up keep. Ron is trying to get some organizing done in the computer room today and then I should be able to finish the house work tonight. It's gonna feel good to have a sparkly clean abode. I always feel more peaceful in a clean house.
Ella and I took a trip to the paint store and I think I have found my color for the guest room. I need to paint all the trim still, and may wait to take my paint samples to the fabric store before my final color decision. I want to see if there is some really great curtain fabric first. I may find something so awesome that I chose a wall color to match the fabric. It's kind of fun to do a room however I want. I wish I had an IKEA so that I could find a groovy comforter cover and matching curtains. I'll just have to make do with what Oshkosh has to offer. Unless we plan a trip to Minne sometime soon..... Hmmmmmm. That's something to think about. We are supposed to head that way sometime in the next month or so. And it will probably take me that long to sand and paint the baseboards and install the quarter round trim. Oh, and I have to paint the doors upstairs, too.
Bah, I keep going around in circles in my head. I am getting dizzy.
It's really hot outside. My cats are shedding too much.

Report to the General

Uh, General? Are you out there anywhere? I think you abandoned your troops in the field... Oh well, I'll continue reporting because it's helpful to me.
Today I weighed exactly the same as Monday. How can this be? Dunno. I was very extra special disciplined for 5 days. BUT the good news is that I am NOT going to get discouraged because I've all ready told myself that I must "stay the course" (I feel like such a republican when I say things like that, yeesh). Just because the scale did not show me results today it does not mean my plan is failing... Tomorrow could show me great results! So onward I go. 15 pounds and 9 weeks to go.

Long Emergency

It's a good thing there is no such thing as Global Warming or a fear of running out of fossil fuels. Otherwise I might be a little concerned about the 90 degree temps way up here in Wisconsin and the rolling blackouts affecting many regions in the U.S. If anyone wants a good read about these issues I recommend The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler.
I struggled through another day of discipline and good choices. 4 days till August. I know I will not make my goal for the month, but I am feeling much more in control this week. I've got to keep going, one day at a time, and I'll get there. I need to start using my muscles more and get a little bit of strength somewhere in this floppy noodle body. Chugga-chugga...

A Note to Blogger

I am feeling a little dissapointed with the template options. I want something more me... Perhaps I'll attempt to create my own.

Mid-Week Madness

There is no madness, really, I just could not think of anything else to call this post. As I was looking through some pictures to send to my cousin this morning, I realized that I completely forgot to post these pictures from Clio's birthday party two and a half weeks ago. Ella just had to wear her crown to the party...
This is Ella between her favorite Oshkosh Kids, Madison and Clio.
And this beautiful shot is from our ride on the carousel. I was standing between Ella and Clio and was lucky to capture some super happy beautiful girls.

Okay, on to other things. Yesterday afternoon Clio's mommy called and asked if Ella could play and join them for dinner. I said "Absolutely!" Clio has been on vacation for a week and Ella has been missing her best buddy. So Ron was gone all night at a politics gathering and I had the chance to finally get some work done in the Neptune Suite. I got ALL the trim pulled up that had been glued down with huge oozing glops of silicone and could not be painted AND I used a gallon of primer and completed one coat on the walls. Next up is to finish removing the silicone from the baseboards and floor (it was really gooped in there. They must have used a whole tube for every strip) and do some sanding, caulk around the window, and paint some more. It sounds like more labor than is... It is just really hard to find the time. Ella is scheduled to go to Clio's for about three hours on Friday so I hope Ron doesn't get roped into any meetings and can help. Six hours worth of effort would get a lot done.

OH, I almost forgot to mention that I had another very disciplined day yesterday. That's three in a row. Chugga-chugga-chugga. I feel like the little engine that could trying to scale a mountain. But I'm not delivering a car full of toys. Just a gift for myself.

Tuesday

Okay, yesterday I was very disciplined. Very. I feel good about that.
Unfortunately I did not get much sleep due to troubled dreams, my daughters nightmares and my husbands snoring. I moved Ella in to the guest room with me around 1 and tossed and turned till 5 or so before having a fitful sleep till 7. Big Sigh. Ella continued to have bad dreams. What was going on last night? Ron said he slept terrible, too. Maybe it was the thunderstorms or humidity? Thankfully E is perky today.
I am interviewing a student for a job opening we have Fall semester and I hope it goes well. And that I am alert and focused.

Monday means a fresh start

Yes, it is time for new beginnings. My personal goal deadline is fast approaching and I have a LOT of work to do. LA, do you have any tummy strengthening exercises you like best? Or a whole body workout that does not require weights? I just don't have any small ones and no money to buy them. Only 10 weeks left.

What am I thinking?

Ron says I have the word "sucker" written across my forehead, but it's in special ink and only shows up under a black light. He may be correct.
Jasmyn was here until 11:30pm last night. I know there was a pretty good reason for her mom to be almost 5 hours late in picking her up, but I am not sure how soon I'll be repeating that favor. Ella and I had a fun day, though. We made decopage drums out of old coffee cans, wrote a book and colored the pictures, played with Janetta, went to visit dad at the library, read books and snuggled. This morning we worked a bit more on her book, but I am a little sleepy. Ron's off to his student groups weekend-long meeting. I hope they get done early today.

Report to the General

General Ma'am: +3 and deeply saddened. Also menstrual and cranky. I think it's all related.

This is a picture of Jasmyn. She is three months old and our very special guest for the day. Her mommy had to go to Chicago this morning and wont be back until about 7 or so tonight. So Ella gets to play big sister all day long. I am sure I'll take more pics later today, but Little J is asleep right now.Oh, I have a guest blogger now. Ella is going to help me write the rest of this post. We are babysitting. I really love baby sitting today.

I took this picture of my mommy. I think it is cute.

This is me and Captain Jack. I am making pirate faces. Arrrrrhg. Swap the deck, matey. Hoist the sail. Shimbery Timbers. Land HO!

Okay, guest blogger is gone. She likes to talk pirate and we encourage her. It's really good to learn a second language when you're young.

I hope ya'll have a great weekend!

One Hot Weekend

It was super hot this weekend. That does not happen very often in this part of the world and I must say I prefer cooler temperatures. I think it has a lot to do with: a) over a decade of living in Seattle; b) I aint as young as I used to be; and c) I am fat.
Ella and I were solo this weekend (Ron had a whole weekend of business to attend to in Richland Center) and so found ourselves out back in the "splashy" pool quite a bit. I was taking pictures of my wee lass and then decided to join her for some wet fun. Well, Ella wanted to take my picture, too. I am not quite sure what I am thinking to post it, but here it is. A beached Mommy Whale in the kid pool. I am hoping that by next summer I am not so whale-ish.
Ella and I also made muffins for daddy and got a little party ready to celebrate his return home. All but one muffin was gone by the time he got home. Perhaps this is why I am so fat? Just kidding! Ella ate them all. We played "birthday Party" and she kept making wishes and blowing out the candles.
Although we missed Ron terribly, I must say that E and I had a great time this weekend.

Report to the General

A day late, but worth the wait! General Ma'am: I have made a full recovery from my holiday extravaganza. I may even drop another 1 or 2 this month for a new all time low! Keep your fingers crossed. I really like that new salad dressing I told you about, and it's a good thing because I have a romain and tomato salad EVERY SINGLE DAY for lunch. The dressing helps jazz things up a bit. I have branched out and purchased the Italian version, too. It's not quite at good as the balsamic, but variety is the spice of life, right?

Travel dreams on a limited budget

Now I can officially blab to the world that the Levelwinds are going to have another baby. So World, that's the news. It is awesome!
I want to drive there this weekend, but don't have the money or a husband to make the trip. I may pass on it and just see them when they roll through town in August. From here they are heading to Seattle and I wonder if Ella and I can tag along. I miss Seattle more than mere words can express... But how would I manage those finances? They have a mini van so if they don't take the dog we may just fit. How would I get the time off work? Maybe I could flex the time, as they call it. Who am I kidding... I can't go to Seattle. But I would love to. And it would be a fun trip with Henry and Carl. But Jenny and I go a little wild out there... Oh, wait, she's knocked up so wont be too wild. And we do have kids these days. So it would just be fun.
We have come up with the plan of trying our damnedest to make this house real purty and then just putting it on the market to see what happens. We don't have to move or anything, but we know this house is not our dream home and we want to be on a quieter street and maybe have a garage. And if we don't sell it wouldn't hurt us. We would just have a purtier home to live in!

Plans, plans, plans. I keep trying to get $50k but so far no one has written me that magical check.

Reproduction Dreams

In an effort to keep up with a friend, I am going to try my damnedest to get knocked up. I just hate being lapped on the race track of life.

Report to the General

General Ma'am: I really don't want to report in today. The news is very bad indeed, but I promised myself I would repot every week. I have to keep myself on track. So I am up a significant amount and I am not too pleased. I wonder if I can get back down to my low before the end of July? 10 pounds in three weeks. Wish me luck!

Inspired

I am thinking of taking a class or something. Our friends, Clio's parents, are taking a Waltz class and I am a bit envious. I know I could never ever get Ron to partake in such an activity and I have the grace of a one-legged bullfrog, but I want to take SOME kind of a personal enrichment class. Maybe a cooking class? Or an art class? I wonder if the community college here does that sort of thing. Back in Seattle there was always an evening class of some kind available for like $50 for 12 classes. I am going to look into it. I don't think hanging out on the front porch drinking cold beer is the best summer hobby for me...

Parade

Yesterday we all took part in the Fourth of July parade. Our friend Jenny did an absolutely fabulous job of decorating the trailer. Ella rode in the wagon for the first part of the parade and really enjoyed throwing out candy to the masses. Then she walked along the street waving to all the people. She is a natural at public appearances and I think she has a future as a public personality. In other words... she's destined to become famous. some shots of the trailer...
Ella and Carlos get the pillows in the wagon. Had to make sure our little pumpkin was comfortable!

Holiday weekends are not always relaxing...

Eli was scheduled to come visit with his fabulous new wife Leah but he ended up with a case of the hives or something. Bummer. So, Ron decided to throw a party for Senate Candidate Rae Vogler at our house. Lat minute preperations are not my favorite thing. We did manage to put together a nice spread of food and have the house (mostly) clean it time. And I enjoyed the evening.

Ella is ready to party! Rae's son Carlos took this shot. Those two ran around with the camera for an hour or so and took some pretty funny pictures.

The usual suspects... and Rae.

Ella's picture of Tray, who was a big hit at the party!

Amy and Rae talking about houses or something. Rae has a victorian, too, and has been going through the same repair and renovating issues as the Hardy Family.

Baby Jed (Jedidiah) received the Cute Baby of the Night award.

Report to the General A Day Late

General Ma'am: I'm up. I guess I will not meet my goal for this month. I don't really know what happened... I had a good week and everything, but I am up. Hmmmm. It's July, so I'll have this month to analyze and stratagize, and write down all the things that may be sabotaging my efforts. Wish me luck.

Sleepless Nights

I just could not stay asleep! I woke up around 3am and layed there listening to the world for about 2 hours before throwing in the towel and getting up to make some coffee. Damn. It's going to be a long day.

Mousetrap

Ella plays with this game for HOURS! She loves contraptions of all kinds. I am thinking of getting her an erector set or something similar. We had a big day at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association fair. Ella and I spent most of our time in the "Rainbow's End" Kid activity tent while Ron roamed about and saw a speaker. This is a picture of Ella "weaving" a basket out of yard and cardboard. She seemed to have a nice time, but I was pretty ready to get out of there at 2pm. And Ella had spilled a strawberry banana smoothie on my head around 1pm. I am glad we went, though. There were lots of vendors and displays of windmills, earth builders, bale houses, solar panels. and I think Ron and I could totally manage to live off of the grid. If only we had that magical gift of 30K to get out of debt... Please, money fairies, help us out! I promise will never go into debt again! Ever!
Hmmmm.
I don't feel like cooking dinner tonight.
I am bummed out that my boss' last day is Thursday.
I got to go play with my baby, she usually cheers me up.

The Thursday "YES! It's Summer!" Post

There's just something super yummy about summer food. All the super fresh produce is fantastic. And it makes eating healthy a whole lot more fun. Ella and I have been having a great time making dinners together. She really enjoys helping prepare the fruits and veggies. Her favorite "recipe" is making fruit kabobs: We cut all the fruit into chunks and then she skewers them on to the sticks.
Ron and I have been thinking about taking Ella camping but we just can't figure out when. It seems that every other weekend there is some event we have to attend so that the weekends we are home there are projects that need attention. Like finishing sanding the trim and baseboards in the former Neptune Suite then priming and painting. This Saturday we are taking a family trip to the MREA, then on Sunday Ron will go there solo for a conference thing while Ella and I have play dates with two friends. Janeta is coming over for a while in the afternoon and then Clio is coming after supper for a little slumber party. I really don't think I'll be getting ANY work done on that room.
Last night we went to watch the Wisconsin Beauty Queen Parade (Or maybe it's called the Miss Wisconsin Parade). It was so lame. Ella enjoyed the pretty ladies in their fancy dresses and waved to every single one of them, but it was soooooo boring. Who organizes these things anyway? There was a marching band, but they didn't even play music. It was a parade of the silent. The only noise was from the shriners and their motorcycle antics, which Ella was NOT impressed by. The only thing I found remotely entertaining was when the blood drive bus went past and they had some one in a costume as a DROP OF BLOOD walking down the street handing out flyers about the blood drive date. We didn't get a picture but, believe me, it was funny.
On to my Report To The General: This is a PMS week. I only have 1 more pound to lose this month (7 more days!) to reach my goal. I have a new plan of trying to lose 3-4 pounds a month. Those first three or so months on WW seemed like the pounds were just flying away, but everything has slowed down that I can't expect to lose 2-3 pounds a week anymore. I figure a slow and steady decline is a good way to approach it. I know I am making progress and I don't have to criticize myself for "only" losing .5 pounds some weeks. It's all moving in the right direction, right? I have been getting exercise, too. It feels good to be out doing fun things with Ella. We ride the bike to work everyday. We went flying kites and I was running to get that damn thing in the air... I have not actually run anywhere for any reason in five years! I even went roller skating on my old roller blades from my street hockey league days. I was wobbly, but it was fun and funny! Once I almost wiped out and went "Wooahaooahaa!" with my arms flailing in the air and Ella laughed SOOOOO HARD. She was all "Momma that was funny" and just giggling away. Very worth it.

Almost Summer

I woke up in a grand mood this morning. Not sure why... Could be that we had a very pleasant weekend, or that there was nothing pressing on my to do list. I rode Ella into day care on the bike and she was pleased as punch. She picked out a pretty sun dress this morning and I put a flower "hair pretty" in her hair, so she was raring to go. It's been nice and sunny and warm.
This week is a little odd at work. My boss is out for the week and so my main goal is to finish the library directory. It's tedious and a little boring, but whenever I look at the clock it's like an hour has gone by! So the morning in moving along. I am a little concerned about something... We are going to have a new director and I have no idea who it will be. We had five candidates here last week for interviews and Open Forums. How are they going to get someone hired by June 30? They wont. And my boss will be gone. I'll be Directorless! So until I get a new boss I am going to keep whittling away at all the little projects that have been needing attention for the last two years here. Boring, but educational for me. I am going to miss Liz a whole Big Bunch. She's a great boss and a super Director.
Break Time is over... Back to data entry. *sigh*
(Good thing I am still in such a lovely mood)

Report to the General

General de Cline: Ma'am, I am holding steady at my low point. I consider this a great achievement due to all of our extracurricular activities these past three weeks. Eli's wedding had such delicious food, we had lots of yummy beer, last weekend we had fajitas and pizza and grilled out and had more beer... It's a good thing I am still down there. I kind of thought I would see a couple of pounds creeping back! But Wednesday and yesterday I was very good. So. No losses, but a big sigh of relief! How are you? How about Chris?

What We Did This Weekend

My parents, brother, and nephew came up on Thursday night and we proceeded to spend the next 5 days making the biggest mess EVER in my house!
The back stair way had some wall repairs that needed finishing so that got drywall patched and sanded. The stair treads were sanded to get all the old paint drips from previous sloppy painters.
That horrible blue "Neptune suite" was a huge mess! First all the wall paper was stripped (Thanks to Karl Loewnstien's steamer!) There was a supper sagging lathe and plaster wall that was cut out and replaced with drywall. Then everything was patched, sanded, patched, sanded, and well, sanded again!

I still need to clean it all up, put up some corner trim, and prime the shit out of it. Then I am going to see where all the little spots show up that still need a tad more fixin' and sandin', then prime it all again before painting it and calling the room DONE! I may just decided to hang some textured paintable wall paper. I hate to put up more paper in this house... I may go with some of that textured paint to hide the little (and big) flaws in the walls.

Check out the new shed!

After building it in the yard for two days we moved it to the side of the house. It took some fence moving and maneuvering, but we got it in there nice and snug. It is so very nice to NOT carry the lawn mower up and down to the basement! And we can put our gardening tools in there, the bikes, the wagon! I wish we had a garage, but this solves a lot of yard storage issues. And it was only about $220 instead of thousands. Here are all the builders from left to right, top to bottom: My mom, me, Ron, Ella, Ben.

Oh, and my mother spent a ton of time and energy weeding the back yard and working in the garden. She split some hastas, moved some flowers and strawberries, weeded the play area... and weeding between the paving stones on the patio. Phew!

The other thing we did this weekend was eat a lot of food. I guess I just did not realize how much is consumed over five days by four grown men, two women and a wee little angel. I think all my emergency supplies are gone. Those guys, Brother and Nephew, were like mice rummaging through the pantry! But these mice new how to use a can opener! I think my replacement grocery costs will be MUCH LESS than hiring a contractor, so I wont bitch too terribly much about that. And we probably needed to use it and re-stock soon anyway.

Oh, the other super great thing about this weekend is that my sister sent up a bed frame and two dressers! And they all match! Seems she just did not want them any more. They are only 8(?) years old and in pretty good shape. And I had two dressers on my wish list! Ella's is falling apart and mine is on it's last leg... That saves me a trip to the goodwill! Ron's little buddy Justin said he will give us a mattress, too! I love free furniture. I love free labor. I love my family and friends for all their hard work and generosity. Thanks to everyone!

What a fun week...

Ella's day care is closed this week so she has been with me at work. It's been fun. A little exhausting at times, but fun. Today we got home and went roller skating around the block, then had popsicles, then played in the hose in the back yard. Ella wanted to post some pictures on her blog, so here's a link. http://sparklepockets.blogspot.com/ She has not posted for a long time! Hopefully she'll start doing it more often.

more pic from the wedding

Ella and Greta, E in purple and Greta is John's niece, having some fun. They had fun all weekend together. Ella had her first sleep-over party in the RV with Greta! And, when Mom and Dad went down to George's, Ella fell asleep for the first time at someone else's house! Greta's Grandparent's! Jim and Sandy Bucher are so awesome!. (We picked her up and took he home, of course, because I'm not as ready for sleep-overs as Ella).

Ella just being her beautiful self. Sorry my hair got in the way...

Ron and Eli

John and Judy