tidbits

OK, so recently somebody mentioned that I don't say much about myself on the blog AND I know I'm way behind in newsy updated in general in addition to being WAY behind on personal emails and phone calls -- SO I decided to start a file this morning of little tidbits of newsy info and added to it throughout the morning as I thought of things I would like to share here. And here it is:


It’s opening night tonight! Epic Proportions opens tonight at the La Crosse Community theatre. It will run the next two weekends as well (http://www.lacrossecommunitytheatre.org/our_season.htm). If you come you can see Shawn in a number of interesting costumes and have a fun night with lots of laughter.

After Sunday Shawn will have THREE nights home in a row!!! (We’re a tad excited)

Shawn has been wonderful about coming home at lunch or doing what he can to spend extra time with Nessa in the morning (Nessa also was accommodating this morning by waking up early to have extra play time). Nessa loves seeing more of Daddy at these times, but does miss hearing him sing her lullaby each night.

Nessa is talking – well, okay that might be an exaggeration – but she’s coming up with new words nearly every day. One of the most fun new words that she says now is “Megan.” You can imagine that makes her big sister very happy! Nessa also still manages to make “no” sound cute as it comes out in kind of a sweet little girl “nah.” We love hearing her talk, but unfortunately she seems to think that words are for fun rather than for requesting things.

Nessa is amazing at putting together her puzzles (no we are not biased). And as Nessa loves to play with her puzzles I have become a little obsessed with getting more puzzles for her to work on (and so mom doesn’t get bored, lol) and I’m even hoping to make some out of foam this weekend and may have to put some of my scrap booking supplies to work to do so (those nifty shape cutters).

Tami has been miserable with “allergy eyes” every since the weather cooled off a bit (no A/C running) but apparently is in survival mode until her regularly scheduled Dr. appointment in a few weeks rather than finding a way to see clearly consistently before then. Nessa now knows that mom wears glasses sometimes too. Megan also had itchy allergy eyes for awhile but doesn’t seem to anymore.

Nessa now has her own kitchen! Well, okay, it was Megan’s kitchen play set but when Nessa started showing an interest in playing with kitchens at the church nursery I decided it was time to dig ours out of the storage area as well – Nessa was delighted!

Nessa also LOVES to go and play outside. She will get her shoes and stand by the front door. Many tears have been shed when she was not able to go out and play, OR we went out and went in the car or stroller instead of playing.

Megan’s 3rd grade year is off to a good start and Megan seems to be excited by reading a chapter book each week for school which makes mom excited! :-)

Megan is at her first trapping convention with her dad this weekend so when you see her you can ask her how it was. She was hoping she would meet another girl her age there to hang out with.

Nessa has been working on all of her molars. That seems to make mom and dad very tired some days/weeks.

Tami has been trying to s-l-o-w-l-y get back her once healthy eating habits (for those that don’t know, I used to eat very low-fat vegan … I felt great and looked a little, um, better). I have pretty much eliminated meat (except some fish) from my diet and now really need to eliminate dairy as well, but I’m struggling with that this time (I don’t miss the meat at all). And then while I’ve cut back I have a LONG ways to go in the sweets and fats areas! But it’s a start.

Next week Tami starts working 5 days a week but only until 11:30 each day. We’ll see how that goes … the next transition will hopefully be to doing more at home. This schedule should give me a longer/better time to work out most days AND work a bit better with Nessa’s schedule (I hope!).

As implied earlier our schedule has been a bit crazy with Shawn being gone so much, but for the most part – or at least before this week – we have been good about not eating out or resorting to fast or packaged convenience foods. We’ve been able to do this in part because of a visit to Simply Entrée in Holmen a few weeks ago (http://www.simplyentree.com/). We made up six wonderful meals while we were there in addition to purchasing a few side dishes and so far the ones we’ve had have been YUMMY and much more nutritious than the meals we likely would have had on those busy nights otherwise. Shawn keeps asking when we should reserve our next time slot there so I’m thinking this will be a near monthly event for us – at least until our girls start cooking. (Any of you great cooks out there up to volunteering to give them a few lessons?)

Megan is doing AWESOME with her “Healthy Steps” program and often has way over 10,000 steps on her pedometer!!!! She is also learning even more about eating her vegetables! :-)

I think everyone in the house in enjoying my new venture with Discovery Toys (http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/esuite/home/Groth). Megan and Nessa love testing all of the new toys and I’m having a blast both playing with the girls and talking to others about the great toys when I get a chance. The when I get a chance part has been a little tricky lately but I am about to gear up to introduce our great new fall toys as well as get ready for the holiday shopping season. I’m having an open house on Friday September 29th from 3 to 7, Sunday October 1st from noon to 5, or any time that weekend by appointment. For those of you out of town but in the region that is Oktoberfest so you can come for the open house and stay for the fest (or the other way around if you insist). I’m hoping to have all of the toys (that I currently have) thoroughly tested by then so if anyone in the area would like to help with that, let me know. :-)

Nessa is having fun learning to feed herself, but she’s much happier doing it with the same silverware that the rest of us use so I guess we’re a little overstocked on baby/toddler plastic forks and spoons. Nessa also thinks it’s VERY cool to get water directly out of the fridge (she can’t reach it but goes and stands by it and reaches up). Nessa also thinks it’s very, very cool to get the Dixie cups out of the bathroom as she CAN reach them. I’m waiting for the day she stops crushing the Dixie cups and instead takes one over to the fridge for a drink of water.

Tami is also busy as a co-leader of the ICAN of La Crosse and Winona chapter and attempting to create a website for the next National ICAN conference coming this next April in Syracuse, NY. It feels good to be giving something back to the community that has helped me so much on my own journey!

We got up early and went to a bunch of rummage sales last Saturday. I think we all enjoyed it. Megan found lots of new chapter books to read and mom found some clothes and toys for Nessa. Our biggest find was a nice wagon. Nessa also got a new doll that she enjoys playing with now. She likes watching the doll’s eyes open and close. She also likes to put diapers on her doll and I she’s now starting to put those diapers on her baby doll’s bottom rather than on her head!

Speaking of putting things on her head – Nessa loves to pick up clothes and put them either on her head or around her shoulders. Of course she does this with blankets and things, but clean clothes being folded and her diaper basket (gotta love cloth!) are also fair game. Nessa looks very cute with diaper covers on her head and her pink shorts look pretty cute too, but I laughed the hardest when she grabbed Shawn’s shorts out of the basket and put them “on” her head and they went right over her head and around her middle and we had quite the giggles.

Nessa is learning to SMACK when she kisses! :-)

I have lots of photos to post as soon as I can so stay tuned for that if you don’t see them here yet – silly photos of Nessa, first day of school photos of Megan, and pictures from our nice relaxing Labor Day weekend! :-)