5 Question Friday -2/25/11

1. Can you drive a stick shift?

Not very well.... I wouldn't choose it as a getaway card, we'll just put it that way!

2. What are two foods you just can't eat?

Hmmmmmmmmm, I can't eat anything out of water (with one small exception to very limited amounts of tuna).

3. Do you buy Girl Scout Cookies? What is your favorite kind?

I do buy them some years. Tag-a-longs and Thin Mints are my top 2!

*side note, did you know that one of the top seller prizes are Ipads?! How crazy is that? When I was a Girl Scout I was a top seller and all I got was $ towards camp... yippee! :)  this could be different in other areas, I don't know for sure but I know this through a collegue that works for the Girl Scouts.

4. How do you pamper yourself?

I regularly get my hair cut and colored. No matter how hard up we may be, I will always make sure my hair gets done. I just feel like a million bucks after I have a "hair lift"!

5. What is your nickname and how did you get it?

I don't really have any, anymore... I guess the obvious one would be Mandy because my given name is actually Amanda. Another is a just silly one that my sisters call me: Manna.

Surgery Update

My grandma made it through surgery this morning. Everything went as planned. The next hurdle is coming down off the sedation medication. Sounds like the Dr's are pretty optimistic which is GREAT news. So, we wait to see how she feels when she wakes up. Thanks for all of your prayers!

Surgery

My grandma will be going in for bypass surgery bright and early Thursday morning.... The Dr's say she should come through surgery "just fine" but the hard part will surely be the healing time. Please send your prayers her way as we hope for the best. It will surely be a tense day for my family.

Sunday, Funday

Today Maddox and I enjoyed some movie time but that didn't last long.... Apparently he was a tired boy because he slept the majority of the afternoon. I am not complaining though, he needed to get caught up!

He loves his Spaghetti-O's

Speaking of the little man, he has had a few milestones in the past few weeks but I haven't been too great at updating that. He now will repeat some words including: ball, book, bear, papa, and other random words. He finally will blow kisses which of course is adorable. He also now knows where ALL of the places are that he is NOT supposed to be so of course, this is where he insists on hanging out. AHHHHHHHHHH toddlers.... :) Oh well, I guess no one can say life is boring!

Shopping and..................more snow!

This weekend turned into something a little different than originally planned. It's JR's weekend to work so that leaves Madman and me a little free time to hang out. 


Our plan was to do a little shopping at the Outlet Mall where we would take advantage of the President's Day Sales. Because of the impending weather I decided Saturday would be the day for sure. I would say we had some great success and Madman has some sleepers and tops that he will be able to sport next fall! (Couldn't pass up the $1.99- $4.99 deals!!) It was a great bonding event- as long as there were enough Teddy Grahams!

Since my grandma is in the hospital we did take a bit of a detour down to Iowa where we got to visit with her for a little while. She she just loves Maddox and can't get over how "busy" he is. (little does she know he isn't in full gear when we are around her!) On a side note, I love that Maddox has gotten to meet so many Great Grandparents... I wasn't so lucky.

 

 a nice view of the not-so-heavy snowfall

As I mentioned before, the weather got crazy. All week they were talking about a "potentially" heavy snow fall over the weekend but they couldn't pin point the location. Apparently we were meant to get even MORE snow that we really didn't need. There was grass popping up in several areas around the back yard but as you can see, we have added quite a bit more snow. (8+ inches for sure- and it is still snowing... WHY do these storms hit when JR is working?)

Grandma

During the week, unfortunately, my grandma has had a health scare... she was feeling strange on Monday and called to get an appt. to have her pacemaker checked. On Wednesday she was able to see a Dr where her concerns were validated. During (or after I am not sure) the examination she was informed she would be staying in the hospital because things were not going the way the should be.

It seems she essentially has 2 options. She can undergo bypass surgery or could endure several procedures to have 7-8 stints put into her heart but this is not recommended way to go. (They would have to do several because they are worried about the damage the dye would have on her kidneys.) She will hopefully be making her decision tomorrow or the next day.... I will keep everyone posted but our family would appreciate your thoughts/prayers.

Turtle..... Monster?!

Daddy has been home with Madman this week and it seems they may have been getting in to a bit of trouble.................... Apparently he is not to be trusted when there are "treats" around.

I once had a full box of turtles but ..............

I guess I can share

If all kids look this stinkin cute after they help themselves!

Valentine's Day

I am not typically the sappy type when it comes to Valentine's Day. I am just not a huge fan for whatever reason, but I try to go with the flow.

However, THIS YEAR my husband completely outdid himself!

This week happens to be his week off so I got a little more special treatment than usual.

He and Maddox showed up to my office on Monday morning with 2 boxes of chocolate (one from each of them) and a dozen roses. Oh, and cookies for all the girls at the office. He definitely made my day because I LOVE getting flowers. Seriously, that is the best part of holidays for me. Don't get me wrong, I love a good gift too but flowers just make me smile and I love having them in my office/house/wherever.

When I went home for lunch I was pleasantly surprised by the delicious aroma of a grill. Yep he had grilled ribs, stuffed peppers, and twice baked potatoes. BEST. VALENTINE'S. DAY. EVER!

Love you hun!

King of the Mountain

With this weekend's awesome weather we had to take full advantage. Maddox LOVES being outside however as you all know, it hasn't exactly been kid friendly lately. Since Papa Jay told us that he only moved all our snow to make a sledding hill for Madman, we had to make use of it while we could....

Sitting on top of his mountain

It has already melted SO much which is very surprising. Here is the before shot

waiting at the bottom of the hill for Mommy to take him up again.

Then we found puddles... and LOTS of 'em. And what comes with puddles?

MUD

So we called it a day and headed inside.

Where we continued to eat snow collected in our sand bucket.... I would say that could be called a successful day outside. :)

Polar Plunge 2011

Yesterday JR, Maddox, and I headed to St. Peter to cheer on a few friends in the Special Olympics Polar Plunge. If you aren't familiar with this fundraiser it basically means people raise money to jump in  freezing cold water (29 degrees to be exact!) for a great cause. There were A LOT of jumpers and the tally for money raised was $70,000! ROCK STARS!!!

Thankfully the weather was beautiful and we could all enjoy the fresh air

For those of you that may remember, this is Justin's favorite weatherman

Ian Leonard. More on that love affair here.

First round of friends jumping. JB and Lindsey getting ready to brave the water. There was a

"plank" of sorts that the jumpers had to walk down in order to get to the launching pad. Sometimes that was the most fun part to watch. These two however, rocked it! Lindsey did a sweet jump and Justin.........

impressed us all! Lindsey even back stroked in order to make good on our bet.

We now owe her a case of beer. :)

Near the end the LEEP Superheros took their turn. They did great!

And they are off!

When they got outta the water everyone headed to hot tubs. That's where we caught up with them for some more photos. It looked fun BUT I am still glad I didn't join in the fun. If you ask me they are all crazy, even if it is a great cause!

My staff, you ladies rock!

Friday 5's- 2/11/11

1. Would you rather be on ABC's Extreme Home MakeOver or TLC's What not to Wear?
I would say "What Not to Wear" because I need a wardrobe overhall BIG time!

2. Do you have any tattoos?
Yes, I have 2. A butterfly that matches both my sisters on my back and a Hawkeye on my left foot. I will be getting more at least one more when I am done having kids....

3. Do you tell your kids about things you did growing up?
Not yet but athat is only because he wouldn't know what I am saying anyway! I am sure things will get out
as he gets older but for now they are safe...... at least until my dad gets a hold of him....

4. If the traffic signal turns yellow, do you stop or speed up?
It really depends but typically I speed up.

5. What's your preference: chocolate or chips?
Definately chips. I have never been a real chocolate lover.

We are the Champions!

My favorite picture of the celebration

As you can all imagine this weekend was FANTASTIC here in Huneckeville. (yes, Justin was even happy!) We had a small get together with some family and friends which was nice. Like most Super Bowl parties there was an over abundance of great snack food but I suppose that goes with the territory. What a great feeling to watch your team win the biggest game of the season!

To those of you that are less than happy about the win, I will not rub it in.......... too much! :)

Maddox's game day apparel, he was pumped!

Our weekend was pretty busy all around. Saturday Justin and I got our taxes done (yippee!) and then went mattress shopping. Our mattress is terrible!! We were stalling until our snow removal savior made his appearance. My dad brought up his skid loader to do a major overhaul of snow removal in our driveway/yard. Our street has been so narrow you can't park on the street and if you do, people can't get out around you. There was a good 3-4 feet of snow 4 feet high out by the curb. STUPIDLY I did not take many before pictures but here is what it kind of looked like:

Could barely open both sides of the car.... Not fun!

 

Skid loader fun!

 

Maddox's "sledding hill" as Grandpa put it.

As I was uploading I realized I didn't get a full driveway photo but you can imagine that a huge part of that hill is from our driveway so it gives you a bit of an idea. We appreciate it more than you can imagine!

BIG weekend!

I for one, CANNOT wait for Sunday's big game! I am so pumped for a weekend of celebration and lots of green and gold wearing. I can say that it has been lots of fun to live in MN as a Packer fan this year. (last year was a different story!)

Now I am just wondering when we (meaning Maddox and I) will be able to bring JR over to the darkside.... I am feeling change on the horizon. Ha!

Go Pack Go!

Big Boy Bed- Part Deux

For those of you who may be wondering it's so far, so good on the big boy bed! Madman has done surprising well with the transition and I am very happy to report that! He hasn't gone right to bed his entire life so it wasn't a shocker that this could/would become an issue as we moved out of the 4 walled bed.

He has cried some, thrown a few fits involving hitting the door, and even pulled all of his blankets out of the bed to the floor BUT he has put himself back in bed each-and-every-time he does this. I check on him after he has been "on the loose" in his room and he is curled up, sleeping like a little angel.

I guess it is true, he is growing up!