...so this is christmas

christmas is over, here at least.
gavin has been attacking the christmas tree since it's been put up and i was more than overly excited to put all the bulbs and lights away :)
when dan gets home we'll take it out. it's SO pretty, but i'm just SO over the mess!
since i had all the rubbermaid tubs out to put the tree decorations i decided to take all the christmas decorations away as well. and the christmas tree(s), except for the green one in gavins room cause it makes a good night light. so, christmas is over- around here. except for the three presents we still need to give away. maybe it's not over yet then huh?
and i'm more than ready for things to slow down again. we made it to some of the christmas's we were invited to but not all. after new years (still not sure of the plans) i am ready for some r&r. a weekend with NOTHING to do sounds great to me, although it never seems to happen. maybe since we'll be getting another blizzard i can lock myself in my house, watch movies and make good food.

christmas was such a fabulous time with all of our families. i got an amazing gift, laughter. my dad has been asking me for the whole month of december what i want for christmas.. i said, a trip to florida. he said, yea yea yea, sure. so at my grandmas we open up each present one at a time starting with the youngest working to the oldest and then repeating. well i think it was round three that i opened my dad's gift.... a check for $5,000.00!!!! WOO HOO. i screamed, smiled, had a state of shock on my face and then looked around to see every single person looking at me. my dad had the biggest smile on his face. it was a joke. it had "santa claus" on the signature line and "chris kringle" in the upper left corner. haha, jokes on me dad. it was fabulous, and although the money underneath it wasn't 5 grand, it was a great sum and i will get to go to florida now. thank you dad!
& gavin got SO many toys, so many monster trucks and tow tucks and dump trucks and fire engines. geesh. yesterday we moved half of his toys and his basketball hoop and his tunnel and tent to the basement, where we will be spending a lot more time! i'm sanding the walls tomorrow and painting this weekend, finally. there's just a lot more room for gavin down there.
& dan, well he got giftcards which will be used very wisely, ;) to buy himself goggles since he "lost" them in darwin when he was barhopping on snowmobiles. and he also got a leaf sucker which he's wanted for awhile. the only thing he really wanted and didn't get??? "a bose speaker system for his garage".......... eh. dream big dan!
so that was christmas. we went over a couple rivers and through a bunch of woods to a couple grandmother's houses, and it was grand.

it's almost 2011~ and i have a feeling it's going to be a great year!

my..

hotties list of 2010. since the year is coming to an end i have to post.........

my hotties list... :)

DAVE FRANCO

AUSTIN NICHOLS

CAM GIGANDET

HEATH LEDGER

TAYLOR LAUTNER

when he was young: STEVEN STRAITRUPERT FRIENDteen moms RYAN EDWARDS

and i could never forget about my girl crushes..... ;)

KRISTIN STEWERT

TESS TAYLORI.... love her

so little time...

but so much to say..


lucky you.

we have a LOT of christmas shopping to be done on wednesday. big shocker? no. last year dan, jeremy, gavin and i went on the night before christmas eve and it was chaos. and the roads were bad and dan put us in the ditch...

binsfeld graduation party was a definate good time. like a party at the binsfeld house wouldn't be??

i need a new book to read. the last one "the room" was so good!

there have been people at our house EVERYsingleDAY the last three days. it's totally fine but they are usually all boys and come at the most inopportune times. like saturday morning when i was doing the dishes in a tshirt(without a bra) and sweatpants. great. and they were all so nice to point out that i wasn't wearing a bra, thanks again. or today when i was taking a nap on the couch with gavin and i wake up to see four trucks parked idiotically in our driveway and street. awww :)

it's christmas week!!!! christmas shopping, making christmas cookies ALL. WEEK. LONG. and celebrating christmas eve & day with family, yes yes yes!

my hotties of the year blog is coming up soon :)

i really want to go to cricket meadow tomorrow morning to eat some french toast, but i really don't want to go by myself.

i've been loving getting christmas cards, makes my afternoon to see mr. postman delivering the mail.

i'm totally bummed that i haven't been to one ugly christmas sweater party this year. if we had a larger house i would totally plan one. i found a really ugly one this summer and really wanted to wear it. i'm on the look out for a sequence top for new years though. i kinda want to go all out, even if i'm just going to kimball!

i can't decide what to do with my background for this blog. i want to do all black and white with lime green or purple. guess i'll just have to look some more tomorrow.

this sickness...

during thanksgiving i think i blogged about how gavin didn't feel good (teeth) and was up all night long some nights. well.........
it might of been his ears :( as well as his teeth.

sunday morning gavin and i both woke up feeling miserable! i ate nothing all day, besides white rice at 9 pm, and gavin was gagging all day long... i was waiting for him to start vomiting (super sad and hard to watch)...
monday morning i felt a little better and gavin seemed to be just fine, besides a little bit of eye buggers -allergies i thought- but nothing big, right? nope, was i wrong! tuesday it was a little worse and today his eyes were glued shut with some nasty buggery/hard substance.
i called the clinic and got the first available appointment.
gavin has an eye and ear infection! i just about busted into tears as his doctor checked his ears and said "ohhh buddy"....... not a good sign. gavin hasn't had many ear infections lately, but up until month 9 in gavins life he had many.
the doctor said.... "it's time to talk about tubes" :(
i'm totally upset.
she also said that ear infections are genetic (g.r.e.a.t.).... dan's parents have said numerous times that when dan was little he had ear infections, one after another. i'm not sure why he never had tubes, but i know that whatever medication they put him on took almost all the enamel off of dan's teeth-- thus his bad teeth. gavin's on two medications, one for ears, one for eyes and i'm hoping that it will get cleared up, asap. please Lord!
so since i've been home i've been googling and doing some research on these "tubes".. i know it's not the worst thing, but as a mommy i'm really nervous about it. i called dan and he's freaking out- which NEVER happens. plus, gavin is such a water baby that having to be extra careful and put in ear plugs would kill him, cause i know he wouldn't EVER keep them in!

now.. me.
i already said that i didn't feel very good on sunday. but last thursday i was noticing that after i ate i didn't feel good. odd. well this is really in affect right now! i just ate some grapes and a morning star veggie patty (delish) and sipped on a diet coke (a rare occurrence these days) i am sitting crossed legged with my computer on my lap and am getting dizzy/lightheaded and completely nauseated. i've had to stop twice while writing this to get up and walk around.
i think it's time to for me to go to the doctor now :(

hair

i'm super bored with it..
and that's not a good thing.
every time i get bored i always do something i later regret.

example A: short asymmetrical bob. it was cute at the time but the grow out was NOT.

example B: platinum blonde hair? who thought this would be a good idea? not only did it completely destroy my hair, it was UGLY. there is only one picture that i like of me as a blonde.

i've been red, blonde, brunette, almost black, black and i've even thrown in a few foils at one point. i've had really long hair, short hair, medium hair and once, just once, a perm- ew!

i'm really contemplating doing this...

i know it wouldn't look exactly the same as i have a lot darker hair than miss bush... but i like it. it's just a little bit lighter on the ends than the roots, which in the juut word is called balayage. it's kind of like foiling except the colorist just "paints" on the bleach instead of putting in a specific section and wrapping it in foil.

it would be nice to do something a little different but not super drastic...

plus, look at her hot boyfriend, austin nichols. YUMMY!

a sneaky peek.

so.. i got an email today saying that our family pictures are done, already!!
i met heather at cricket meadow, grabbed a coffee to go and raced home to check them out.

they are great!

here's a little sneak peek of two of my favorites. gavin was so interested in the leaves. it was cute!

to check off my list: christmas cards .. they are made and ordered!

when summer comes around i plan on going back to this location to take full advantage of all that was there!

sorry for all the blog posts. i guess i have a lot to say/share this week!

i'm not sure if i've already put this picture on my blog, but i love it.

this upcoming weekend is looking great. spending the day with my family on saturday and sunday getting a christmas tree and going to see SANTA!!!!!! i think gavin's excited? every time i say "santa" i say it really excitedly and with a GREAT/hilarious face! i think he's trying to say santa?? it sounds more like, saannn, but i'll take it! this year is going to be so much fun with gavin. he's ALL OVER THE PLACE so he's going to have a blast with our familys and the gifts. we're going to wrap a few more boxes this year and put them under the tree so gavin can unwrap them. i wish he would stay this way forever... like unwrapping rather than whats in the box??

i simply cannot wait to decorate the tree(s) this year. we have a christmas tree in EVERY room, including the garage, and basement.. but minus the bathroom- it's too small! the garage you say? yes! i keep all the beer cans/bottles the boys drink and put them on ribbon and hang them from the tree. last year i did find some empty cigarette cartons and put them on there as well. it's totally for fun, and usually the guys think it's pretty funny as well and add something to it every time they come over. we ended up with a few receipts and a condom on the tree last year!

i just got some new tires on my car, well maybe it was like august, but they still seem new to me, and i am so happy! they are fabulous! i can totally tell the difference in the snow and ice. i'm not so nervous when the roads are bad and i'm driving around with gavin anymore. thanks dan. dan also is getting new tires on his lovely work car tonight. thankfully he doesn't have to pay as near as much for these tires as he did for mine.. and he and the boys will put them on themselves i'm sure. oh, dan finally finished maddys kennel/doggy door tonight. it's so great now that it's winter to have her in the warmth instead of the freezing, frigid temperatures. next up, the bathroom!

AND we're starting potty training next week!!!!!! not sure what to expect.

i can't believe that it's almost december, and soon there will be a new year! so much has happened this year and it has gone by so fast!

i really need to finish updating my blog. i started one night and then never finished. i want to wait until we get our family pictures back (crossing my fingers) to add some new ones to the page.

giving thanks.

so thankful.

i am so thankful for so much in my life.

gavin
dan
our families
maddy, bella, lilly
our home
freedom
safety
dan's wonderful job
love
our faith
kisses
the joy that gavin brings to our hearts
the snow :)
delicious food
pandora
good movies
friends
dan, mine and gavin's health
our heated garage ;)
the holidays
jimmy johns
gossip girl, haha
wine


to go along with how thankful i am is how nervous i am for our family pictures. we tried someone different this time and i'm NERVOUS! gavin wasn't the happiest camper and it was cold outside (40, but with wind).. so we'll see. if not i will just self time our camera and do it ourselves. --also, i found this amazing editing program! i played around with it all day today (after installing it for what seemed to be an hour) and found some really great lighting's, tools, ect.
and with the nerves here comes the amazement. our friends are so great. i am B-L-E-S-S-E-D to have each and every single one of them in my life. through the good, bad and everything in between they are there for myself and dan, no questions asked. and.. justine surprised everyone the night before thanksgiving, it was fabulous seeing her face.
and even though the amazement is great, love from my little boy is even better. my poor gavin is having troubles with his sleep. we think he's having night terrors (which start around 18 months if it is so) and wakes up SCREAMING. i've spent a good 10 hours thursday and friday night combined awake, laying in the spare bedroom with gavin playing with my hair, snuggling with his "muuuma." thankfully he seems to be okay if we leave the door open, a night light on and the hallway light on as well. it might send our electricity bill up, but it's worth those couple hours of sleep. secretly, i kind of miss the cuddles.
from love to relief. although gavin brings so much joy&love to my heart i am not ready to have another darling child. i thought i was, but was mistaken. my baby fever is over... for now. so many people around me are getting pregnant and/or having babies, now i'm just excited for them, not jealous! feels good. i'm sure dan has mixed emotions about this.. he can never keep up with my mixed emotions on this subject.

life is... good.

i'm disgusted.

today i just so happened to turn on the tv at 3:02pm. (i try to keep the tv off in the afternoons and with all this christmas music i've found i usually can do it)... the first thing i hear is this child screaming and his mom saying something along the line of "you don't lie to me"... OKAY, you have my complete attention.

it was dr. phil.

today on his show there was this "mother" who had 6 children (woah), some of which were adopted is what i gathered, anyways... this little 7 year old boy, kristoff, got in some sort of trouble at school and received "three pages??" at school- which is a bad thing from what i got. so the kid came home with these warnings from teachers about how he behaved badly in school and the "mother" FLIPPED. she screamed in his face telling him he was a bad kid, a liar, ect ect. THEN she sat him on the counter in the bathroom and filled his mouth with HOT SAUCE!!!!!????!!?!?!?!? WHHHHHHAT the F! she continued to yell at him while he had the hot sauce in his mouth.

-i've had hot sauce in my mouth once at courntie braatz's house when i was in 7th grade, we thought it was fun??, and i've never done a "dare" again like that.

okay, so after this hot sauce she continued to put this kid in a cold shower? WTF? this kid cried and cried and said sorry upon sorry and the "mother" just kept yelling at him. PLUS this was all videotaped by her 10 year old daughter? why would you let your daughter see this? how traumatic for her and this poor kristoff. so she sent this video into dr phil and asked him for help.

everyone in the dr phil audience was disgusted by this woman and had numerous things to say. i didn't end up watching the entire episode but from what i saw this "mother" needs some serious help.

so okay, i watched this and sat and held gavin and tight as i could for as long as he would let me hold on to him, and bawled! it was so sad! here this kid got adopted by this "mother" hoping for a better life than what he had in russia and this is how she treats him. urgh! totally made me mad!

i thought a lot about how upset i sometimes get with gavin and how i get frustrated, and i'm sure i'll get even more upset/frustrated as he gets older, but i could NEVER, i repeat, NEVER traumatize/hit/hurt my child the way she has done to hers. when i was little i got a "whoopin" aka a smack on the ass and an occasional mouth full of soap, when i called my mom the "b word", but that was it. and i still don't think i could do that to gavin. gavin is going through this stage where he's biting (only me), hitting (only me and the poor dog) and throwing things (at me)... but it's not even when he's upset, it's just like something he's doing. he gets to sit in the time out chair for 1.5 minutes, if i can keep him in it for that long, but that's it. i've read enough books/magazines, heard enough that if you hit your child they are more likely to grow up with a troubled life and will be more likely to hit/hurt others, and that is not what i want for my son. seeing gav upset by getting his finger caught in a cupboard is hard enough, let alone knowing you caused your own child pain, i don't know how she can look at herself in the mirror.

this also makes me think of this video about this little boy that died from his mother and her boyfriend abusing him. WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO. how disgusting.

honestly my stomach is turning. here God grants you with this amazing gift of a baby, (wither it's yours or not) and these horrible people hurt and kill their children? uuuuuuuuurgh.

i know he's not yours, or 7, but how could you hurt someone like this? every baby/young child is happy like this at some point.

people are digusting

5.28.2011

it's love..

my dear friend, ashley noble is getting married to the love of her life, joel gaullrap. aren't they just adorable together?

i am well aware that she is marrying her best friend and is going to live... happily.ever.after. i am so happy for her and joel and cannot wait to help them celebrate 5.28.2011. they are so beautiful together!

i have NEVER been so jealous of someone in my entire life. in a good, loving, friendly way. she has the most ROCKIN bod i've ever seen, the most beautiful hair, face, lips, eyes- everything, she's petite with some enormous and gorgeous boobs (i'm not a lesbian, i'm just jealous) and an amazing set of legs... URGH I JUST LOVE HER TO DEATH.

she just posted these engagement pictures online and i honestly just fell in love with joel and ash ALL. OVER. AGAIN. THEY ARE TO DIE, I DIE I DIE I DIE!

by the way thomas byers, from minneapolis/st. paul area took these amazing photos. there were 93 of them but these were some of my favorites.

just wait till the wedding... you know i'll be posting TONS of photos! her dress is exquisite! i'm simply obsessed! ashley, if you're reading this i love you and am SO happy for you!

oh no! it's frankenstein!

happy halloween!

from my little frankenstein!

(look at all that drool and if you look close you and see an orange tootsie roll that his godmama kept feeding him)

you are..

the best thing that's ever been mine

natures beauty

i love fall...

and the country side beauty.

and the barn..

and this magnificent lovely lilly



some action shots as lilly was running towards me.

i have been riding since i was three years old. my mom fastened me onto a horse, gave me a pair of cowboy boots and a cowboy hat and sent me on my way. i've never been thrown (knockonwood) and i've never ridden a horse i couldn't handle. lilly is our sixth horse and probably the best one yet.

ronnie, our first horse was a WILD, dapple, fiery arab who was not the ideal first horse for a child, but we made it work.

butch, the second was even worse. he was a HUGE 16 hand, dark bay, american quarter horse who was $3,000. we traveled to indiana to go get him. when i was little andrea ratike and i were riding him and he decided to roll. we had honestly just jumped off in time to avoid the horrible injuries he would of inflected with his 1000lbs+ body.

quincy, the thrid was another expensive bay, american quarter horse who was LARGE and naughty. he used to brake the horse trailer and back out of it with his extra large ass. he broke many lead ropes and crushed my toes plenty of times.

catch was my first horse. he was very old and actually had cancer. he was the perfect horse for me, fast when needed, but slow and steady. he was so trusting and so patient with me. we ended up giving him away to a farm with young kids where he could live out the rest of his years. PS- my mom gave him away without telling me... i'll never forgive her for that... annnnd i let her know all the time.

tyrnnery-lilly's mama was my favorite. she looked so similar to lilly.. and as crazy as lilly is too. she was the fastest horse but so mild. she did everything i asked her to, climbed up sleep rocks, swam in many lakes and rivers and bore to little fillies. sadly, tyrnnery was infected with west nile and had to be put down. watching her be hauled off into that trailer was one of the hardest things i've ever done.

and that brings us to lilly. my mom and i have raised her since she was born, doing her imprinting, working with the lead and now we're working her to be better than the best. she is now six years old, a dapple quarter horse-arab who is as spunky as the day is long. she can move as fast as lightning and can throw her hind end up in the air higher than i've ever seen. she is amazing. she's been trained with the amish down south to ride and pull and will continue her training this spring in howard lake. i look forward to hopping on her two times a week this spring and making her all she can be. i looove her!

i shouldn't be telling you this...

so i win the "failure of a mom" award for this week...
sunday: gavin got bit in the right pointer finger by a mule... dumb juiet. his finger is fine, but obviously it hurt.

monday: gavin fell down the stairs (he was about half way up) while "helping" me bring up the laundry. he cried for just about three minutes and then was totally fine. we called the ER and talked about the signs/symptoms of a concussion- he didn't have any of the signs but STILL it was the scariest thing i've ever witnessed and i hope/pray/wish it will never happen again.

tuesday: while spending my day with blaise we ventured out to the swing set, which is somewhat close to the lake.. mistake NUMBER 1 for the day. blaise wanted to go on the dock and i was trying to get him off of the dock when i turned around to not see gavin. ummmmmmmm PANIC mode, 100%. so i turn the other way only to find my dearest love walking into the lake. thankfully it was VERY shallow and he just got his jeans a little wet. mistake NUMBER 2 for the day. petey (their dog) ran away while jeff was trying to "shoot down the damn tree" and when i left at 4:30 they still hadn't found him. they did find him at 7. do you think i'll ever babysit again? urgh!
after talking with katy and hearing some stories of what blaiser has done in his younger years and this year i am okay with knowing that i have much more in store for me... and we (katy and i) are hoping that gavin's getting all of these horror events out of his system this week. tomorrow we are not doing anything crazy and are going to hide all of the power cords/anything dangerous.

my day did get wonderful.... eventually.
i went for an amazing jog, not sure about the mileage as i could never track it :) through the woods tonight. i brought with three dogs on this occasion... two good, one okay. maddy, our dog, was one of the good ones! on my jog i ran into, four HUGE deer. now i've never been scared of these beautiful and tasty creatures but seeing how HUGE they are up close, personal and alive was hugely intimidating! the dogs didn't scare them away, at first. eventually the deer pranced off, but i stood there for just about another minute in complete shock as to how close i was to these deer... two with huge antlers... ehhhhh. i actually picked up a stick (come on sam!) and ran with it the rest of the way. now i ask myself "what would this stick do for you???" as i continued my run through these deep woods i came upon more and more wildlife and the only thing that the dogs would scare was me. all of the sudden they would just STOP... directly in front of me and NOOOOOOOOOT move as i continue running towards them. this is where i gripped onto my stick just a little bit tighter. if the hunters who own this land have trail cams they will be interested to see me, in bright yellow, jogging along with three dogs and a stick... i came upon about four deer stands, two duck boats and one not so happy to see me duck hunter and his dog. he was walking back to his truck but was very interested how i was able to run on this property, being as it wasn't mine.. but wasn't his either. i did have to explain myself as best as i could and i think he was okay with it- maybe? he did give me a smile and say that the dogs were well behaved. hopefully i'm still allowed to run this course cause there aren't too many other good running areas in this town. and i don't want to drive to paynesville every time i want to run!

go to bed.

gavin is still awake. ummm, gavin do you know it's 10:30? i don't really care, but i'm running out of energy. the only plus side to this late night party gavin seems to be having is that i'm HOPING he'll sleep in a little longer tomorrow?? ummmmmmmmmidoubtit. but maybe?

maybe he's waiting for daddy to get home after his long late night trip to Montevideo with andy? ummmmmmmmmidoubtit.

i have officially bought my first vikings apparel. too little too late? i should have bought it last year! i am hoping that I'M going to attend a vikings game :) since my husband is not a football fan i think i'll go tag-a-long with the boys. lord save me. i'm sure they'd make me be their sober cab or something.

halloween costumes are coming along just swell. dan's actually excited for this years events.

THE past WEEKEND: gav and i spent all day saturday in paynesville with my grandma and dad. my dad honestly lit up with joy when he saw gavin walk and to hear gavin gabber almost brought tears to his eyes. but when gavin let grandpa carry him into great grandmas house, i bet it was the highlight of my dads week.he was beaming and it was precious. the remainder of the night we spent with the schroeder family eating amazing food and laughing our butts off at amara and gavin sitting & playing next to each other around the campfire. it was adorable!

THIS coming WEEKEND: we have another long family day on saturday. it's dan's cousins bridal shower (they're having a destination wedding, lucky) in new ulm & then heading to "the farm" afterwards to give gavin his first horse ride! he loves lilly and walks around holding onto lilly's lead every time we're there. this time i have to bring my camera so it can be a kodak moment. grandma volunteered (honestly, she did) to have gav spend the night out at "the farm" so i can actually sleep in, finally! although dan really would love to enjoy another long night out, i'm not sure if i'm up for it. justine's going away party was a great time, but definitely a hard early morning ;) i guess we'll see what the day/night brings. sunday we have amara's second birthday party!! woo hoo! i love that little girl more and more every time i see her and i think she just might love me too. i can't wait for another fun filled family weekend!

summer 2010

I've made a deal....
I'm going to stay off bread/doughnuts (usually don't eat them)/pasta and everything else yummy and filling for awhile... now, i am not on a no carb diet- i want to enjoy carbs, just in moderation. this goes along with gavin being such a major stud and giving up the bottle, we're on day 7 now people :) as for me i'm on day 4. if i wouldn't of eaten those delicious ham sandys at the binsfeld/fynbo wedding at 2 am i would of been GOLDEN! this is what i've been really into lately: cabbage wraps, lots of fruit, veggies and lots and lots of water, oh and frozen fruit smoothies- delish!

we are officially at the end of summer.

my end of summer was fabulous! i'm really looking forward to this weekend and the fact that i get to stay home with my one and only little wonderful all weekend long... and by myself might i add. although i usually attend the beloved muddy's, i'm just not feeling up to it this time. my previous weekend could of honestly put me right into detox, drinking two nights/days in a row can do a serous number on my body... and to think that i used to be able to do it every single weekend is insane!

my top ten summer days/nights:
10. endless nights around the fire with neighbors and friends was such a great way to pass the time :)
9. getting maddy. i know sometimes i wish we would of never gotten her, i am in love with her. she's such a good little doggie.
8. we did end up with a large amount of rain this year, but i loved all the storms!
7. binsfeld/fynbo wedding day&night. hair went great... the wedding was beautiful and i had a blast at the reception.
6. easy stay at home nights, going to bed before 10:30 and watching movies...
5. taking gavin to the zoo, underwater world, the farmyard and all the other places we went this summer- can't wait till next year.
4. TONKAPALOOZA... downy made an appearance for the third year in a row.
3. long days at the lake with gavin. he loves water, and loves to play in the sand.
2. the boyle/kammermeier wedding. although the day was very long, the night made up for it. meeting all the great boys and dancing the night away with friends was grrreat.
1. our completely random night at sobs. i've never had so much fun in a short period of time..
and above all these 10-1 answers is watching gavin take his first steps, wonderful.
i'm excited for fall... fall fashion, boots, cool weather, changing of the leaves, halloween, sweatshirts
I CANNOT wait till next summer.
no pit or peak this time.... next time around it will be there.

thrills and downfalls

what a week..
some downfalls
(not that i'm complaining, it's just funny to write it all down sometimes)
-my phone took a nice big poopy on tuesday :( and since then i've been using dan's super old Motorola (boo)... needless to say that i haven't been texting or going on the internet as much as i usually would be.
-gavin is TEETHING. he has been teething for what seems to be 4+ months, but the last two days have been horrible. we went to the fair, he fell asleep. we went to the grocery store, he fell asleep. we get home and get ready to go to bed... wide awake. he did fall asleep at a decent hour but he was very agitated. he was super HOT, which is totally abnormal for him. took his temp- woooooahh- 100.4. gavin's never ran a temperature before so it was crazy for it to be so high. he went to sleep and woke up this morning and was fine, thank goodness.
-i went to take lilly out today, and juliet (the mule) got out as well. after running after her, her running after me and two hours of trying to catch her i finally decided to get some sweet feed (duh sam!) and coax her back into the pasture. i was not thrilled, plus very very sweaty (she was too) and totally over being out at the farm. i'm ecstatic that duke (the workhorse) didn't get out cause i just would of called the cops... he's huge!!! i did some work with lilly in the round pen and called it a day. ohh the dogs also rolled in a lot of horse shit so i had to hose them off before putting them back in their so called, half the size of my living room, huuuuge "kennel"
-daisy is still here. enough said. and my mom called to tell me she and her cousin are having so much fun they might stay till thursday. please no!
-my friend kathryn was supposed to do hair for kristins wedding, but we (kristin&i) decided it would be more economical if i just did it.. including my own :s... but i did a "trial" run tonight and it should be just fine. i guess that's not really a downfall but it was for a day.


the thrills- woooo hooo
-it was dan's birthday on friday. dan's not much of a celebrater so i just made dinner and he waxed his truck, which for him is a great day! happy 24th birthday baby!
-there will be a tattoo on my arm by the end of this week.. i've been putting it off for more than four months but am READY now. traveling down to mankato this week to get it done :D
-gavin's walking more and more independently now. he's SO close to walking all the time, but get's a little scared when we're not around. he's also keeping his shoes on, which has been a huge struggle since he was little, so it's a huge milestone for gav!!! yay baby!
-shawn and sarah bought a house this past week!!! GOOD FOR YOU GUYS! sadly, with all of our busy weekends we can't help move. or is that a good thing? i hate moving!
-maddy and bella went to the vet for their shots and check ups. no heart worm for bells, but she is a tad overweight- and she has been for maybe two years now.. she's 11.2lbs, which she's been in the 10-11lb range since we were in montana. maddy is great as well weighing in at 22lbs, 2lbs more than gavin, haha, but growing like a weed!
-my plans for this weekend fell through, but that's okay for me, i want to stay close to my teething little baby tonight.

so there's my updates. like them or hate them, there they are.
it's august, goodness summer is fllllllying by.

holy humidity

i think it's a understatement to say that it is hot, no, HUMID outside! and the sad thing is, it's been humid for way too many days in a row now. i think i just might be ready for fall :( it's so hard to spend a long time outside when you and your baby are sweating and sticky, YUCK! the dogs don't even enjoy being outside, and maddy has been in and out of house as well. it's too hard for me to see her panting all the time. she thoroughly enjoys laying around in the kiddie pool that gavin hasn't used in over two weeks. the lake is a better fix for us these last couple humid weeks.

in addition to this heat i now have to take care of three dogs.... two of my own and then... daisy. my moms on vacay with her cousin and aunt in michigan and is going to be gone for another full week. daisy is so naughty and listens just about as well as a cat would. she and maddy play outside and that's great, but as soon as she enters the house she's absolutely crazy! it's more than obvious that i'm ready for my mom to come home to take dasiy off of my hands so my life can go back to normal, or well as close that it can get.... and it more than likely won't because: it's humid and yucky... every weekend this month we have a full weekend, every day after work has has miscellaneous projects to work on, and also i have to go out to sue's once a day to take care of the horses, dogs & chickens. ahhhhh. the only upside to this is i get to see lilly. i went for a hot and nasty/humid day ride on some back gravel roads, and all of our saddles were at my moms house (totally forgot about that one, oops) so it was bareback i went. lilly is still young and inexperienced so i was a little bit nervous riding bareback, but it was amazing. putting her back was a different story. she did NOT want to go. she and sue's possy horse are bitter rivals, but only in the pasture. when lilly was at her previous boarding barn she was the alpha horse... horses have a huge pecking order in the pasture and as soon as you look out to a pasture you can tell almost immediately who it is, and indy is the alpha horse at sues.... so indy and lilly can't be in the same pasture- well, i left the gate open for two seconds to put juilet back in with lilly and woahhh in flew indy. thankfully duke, the draft horse, cornered indy so i could grab her and bring her out.
another thing that is crazy this week... gavin has a black eye. he fell the other day and braced his fall with his head, or well eye i guess. it's not puffy anymore but it is back and blue, poor baby!
it's dan's birthday on friday! he's turning 24! WOO HOO! i really wanted to through him and jeremy a big birthday celebration but we have no free weekends to do it :( oh well, next year it's a must!

5:56

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, to the BEST little man around....(in my book)
my dear,
my love,
Gavin Scott Schroeder



So technically at 5:56pm Gavin will be a year old, which gets me all teary eyed thinking about it.
It was been a wild year, with lots of things going on in our lives, but for the most part it has been wonderful. My dearest, sweet child has grown into "a little man" as I've always called him, and continues to touch our hearts everyday. I cannot believe that it's been a year, sometimes I think that it was a month or two ago.. because my memory is SO clear about that day. And the weather today, humid and cloudy, is exactly the same! Gavin really doesn't understand that it's his birthday today, but he is a happy boy!
We, I really mean he, woke up today at 6??? WHAT? and was so happy! GREAT way to start this blessed day! He ate a good breakfast and then there was a knock at the door. A delivery just for him! Grandma B sent over some balloons! He was pretty excited about them and hit them the whole time he ate his lunch.
He's now taking a nap and I will admit that I've gone in twice to look at my peaceful baby sleeping, just like when he was born. In the meantime I've been chopping up onions (crying from the onions), green & red peppers and chicken & steak for his birthday party we're having tomorrow.. which I'm pretty sure the weather might put a damper on! It will be full of great food: Kabobs, Great gran's amazing potato salad, Great gran's asian/onion salad, fruit, veggies, dirt cake, some jello salad,my mom enjoys making, puppy chow, tuna sald (YUM), Shari's amazing sugar cookies and to top it all off DQ cake... After the party we plan on celebrating during the night while Gavin goes to spend his first overnight away from his crib at Grandmas (this I must mention, is HER idea!).. I've very excited for tomorrow and I hope Gavin is too.
ahhhh he's getting so big, i just love him SO much and want to kiss his beautiful lips all the time!

i'm not sure what to title this

These last few weekends have been completely full AND fun! With the mudruns, birthday parties, showers, nights out drinking... now I'm ready for a calm weekend, well sort of. As soon as I think we have a free weekend I take a look at my phone and calendar on the fridge and am quickly reminded of something we have planned. At least all of the things we have planned this weekend are just during the day so I plan on getting a good nights rest :)

Our landscaping is going SO well! the backyard is looking great! We did so much work on Sunday and tonight, and it's looking better than we expected! Now we just need to work on the front of the house. To the right of our front steps there are 15, and I'm not exaggerating, hostas. Now, I think they are beautiful plants but they are all cluttered into a small section.. so Thursday night we are digging them up ANNND replanting them along the sidewalk. To go along with the landscaping my garden is blooming and I pulled out a radish that was delicious! And with Gavin's birthday party coming up I am more than excited that these projects are getting done.

Random: I need to do something with my hair. It is just blllllah. I'm loving the length, but it needs SOMETHING. And this color, it's nasty! It's never been this light since I was platinum blonde in 2006, which is my profile picture on facebook because it makes me laugh every time I see it. And some people have commented on it being "cute" but I ask myself if their comment is sincere since I myself don't think it looks that great. That's it! I'm going back to dark!

a day in the life

I would of never guessed the summer of 2010 would be so wonderful so fast. I cannot believe how busy it already has been, but how fabulous it is to spend the summer at home with my little man. We just got Gavin a little kiddy pool which I will admit, I do hang out in sometimes ;) He is all about being in the pool and soaking up the sun. He also REALLY enjoys digging in the garden and getting really messy! WHAT A DOLL!