Goal in the Works - Trick or Treat Smell My Feet

The Pinterest craft I did for October is Vivian's footprints turned into witches. I got inspiration from a few different ideas. 

Here's wishing everyone a safe and fun Halloween! 

Goal in the Works - Act of Kindness #6

Today we had to stop by Apple to see what is screwy with my phone. That store is always a mad house! While I was waiting to be helped I saw a young boy, probably 9 years old, walk by crying and looking around. He walked to the front of the store. I could see other people watching him but no one was doing anything. All I could think of is how I would feel if I were a kid and couldn't find my parents. I think I would have a panic attack. So I approached the boy to find out that his dad left him in the store while he took the sister to the bathroom. I guess they had been gone longer than what the boy expected. He was very scared. I asked him if he knew his parents phone number and he didn't. I reassured him that his dad would come back and that he needs to stay in the store. Then an employee came over to see what was happening and he went to get a manager to take over. The manager sat him down at an iPad and got a game for him to play. I kept my eyes on him to make sure he was ok. His dad finally came back after about 20 minutes. I felt like I was on the show "What Would You Do" but the host, John, didn't come out to thank me.

A couple of things from this experience stuck with me. First, the look on the boys face. I wanted to cry with him. He was so scared. Second, he didn't know his phone number. I feel like he was old enough to know it. Maybe he did know it but was too distracted with panic to recall it. So here's a solution, a phone number ID bracelet. Make your own from beads at a craft store or order one.

My Ears Froze But I Did it Anyway

Our first real cold front came today. The high was 65 with frigid gusts of wind. We mostly stayed inside except to walk Dyno. I love the smell of fall and winter and even the refreshing air but the cold part I can do with out. In my opinion, it shouldn't get any colder than it was today. Unfortunately that's not how the seasons work. At least it will be better here than it was in Portland. Boy, I do not miss running in Portland fall and winters. Freezing + Rain = Miserable Nicole! My least favorite part is when my ears get cold. Even when we used to go up to Timberline on Mount Hood my ears would freeze like popsicles. It hurts, I feel like they're on the verge of frostbite. Yes, I wear a hat. What can I say, I just have sensitive ears.
Anyhow, I did another 3 miles this evening. It was 53 degrees with a 15 mph head wind. Brrrrr. I still walked for about a minute and a half about half way through. I managed to complete my run in 30 minutes 12 seconds! I was so happy to get inside when I was done that I kept running to get home faster.

Super Run!!!!!

Yeah baby! I haven't run 3 miles in 2 weeks when I did the run with my mom. Don't get me wrong, I have been training but haven't done 3 miles until today. And I did it in 29 minutes 28 seconds!!!! I only stopped once about half way through! I am so pumped! I think I was a little discouraged after the 5k we did so have been a little timid about doing it again. The run was tough but I've got my mojo back now!

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Vivian has mastered another sign this week. BANANA! One of her favorite foods! What a smarty pants!

A True Saints Fan

We saw this yesterday on our drive (before the toe incident).

A true Saints fan, through and through!

Narly Toe - Warning: Gross Picture to Follow

Since Vivian fell asleep in the car after breakfast, Derrick and I decided to drive through some of the pretty neighborhoods in our area. We admire and dream. If there's a house for sale we check the stats. And so we did. We came across a house for sale and it had some flyers out front. We stopped and I ran out to grab one. On my way back to the car I stubbed my toe. Well more like ripped the tip of my big toe. I'm pretty sure it hurt worse than when I broke my arm. We were still a little ways from home and we needed to stop by Walgreens to get some gauze and bigger band aids. My toe hurt awful and looked disgusting. I started to get light-headed, I turned pale and got nauseous. Finally, about a half hour later we made it home. Derrick had to carry me up the stairs while helping Vivian climb them. I was crying and grunting. Derrick said I was a big baby. What does he know, he's never ripped the tip of his toe nearly off. So Derrick patched me up and now, I don't think I'll be running for a few days.

Warning: Gross pictures of my now ugly toe! 

  After we cleaned it up.         A couple of days later.

     Turns out I did more than stub it. It was pretty jammed. I could barely bend it and the top of my toe below the nail got all bruised. Next time I'll put my shoes on before getting out of the car. Although I wonder, if I had put my shoes on would it have been worse? Like a twisted ankle?

Still waking up!

Oh my! It was an early morning today, I'm still trying to wake up. Usually after a trip it takes a few days for Vivian to get her sleep back on track. Unfortunately she still hasn't figured out that before 7am just is not acceptable anymore. This morning she was up a 4:30. After a few attempts to get her back to sleep and it not working, we decided to try a car ride. That didn't work either. So off to breakfast we went. Luckily we know of a 24/7 breakfast diner.

Here is Derrick and Vivian chillin' at breakfast. She cracks me up!

Breakfast was good and Vivian fell asleep on the way home! Finally!

Zoo Trip

Derrick had the day off today so we took a trip to the Zoo. We love the Zoo!  It was perfect weather, not too hot so all the animals were out and it seemed like we were the only ones there. Vivian ran all around from exhibit to exhibit. The Zoo is very big so we can't do the whole thing in one day with Vivian. We decided to do everyone's favorites with a couple bonus exhibits like the seals and the reptile house.

Vivian's favorite is the elephants.

Derrick's favorite is the monkeys.

My favorite is the pink flamingos.


 

Goal in the Works - Act of Kindness #4 and 5

Vivian and I made some pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies yesterday. The texture of these cookies are amazing; soft, light, fluffy, and perfect. The taste however I wasn't as impressed with. Don't get me wrong, they taste delicious but I was expecting more of a pumpkin flavor, after all, it is a pumpkin cookie. Nonetheless, they were good enough to give to others so we did.

Yesterday, while the cookies were still warm, Vivian and I took a stroll to the front office and delivered a dozen to the property manager. Boy was she excited.

 

Then this morning we took a very early drive to Derrick's work and delivered a dozen to the pilots and their customers. They were very grateful! One pilot asked what they were for and I happily replied that it was just a selfless act of kindness, just enjoy.

Pumpkin Painting

Yesterday Vivian got her first pumpkin from a pumpkin patch. Today she painted it! It was such a beautiful day, we had to be outside so we took everything out to the gazebo. I was clever and used a 6-muffin muffin tin to hold the paint. I also laid out the giant thick sheets of paper from our last move that our large pictures and mirrors were wrapped in. Derrick of course thought I was crazy but I can see into the future and I knew exactly what they would come in handy for - messy play. It made for easy clean up, just fold it back up and stick it under the bed. We were all set and ready to watch Vivian go to town on her pumpkin.

First Vivian checked out the brushes while we got the paint ready. We had about 8 different brushes and sponges. Some skinny, some fat, some with handles and some without.

When the paint was ready we showed Vivian how to put the brush into the paint and then on to the pumpkin. It wasn't that hard for her. She has been working on mastering using a fork when she eats and scooping corn in her sensory bin so it wasn't a totally new concept.

So from paint to pumpkin, switching out brushes, she went. We did have to do some damage control because she kept wanting to eat the paint. We just kept repeating put the paint on the pumpkin. In fact we said it enough for her to learn how to say pumpkin (her version is 'pump').

Vivian's Pumpkin!

It now sits outside our door. Every time we leave or come home she sees her beautiful masterpiece, stops to look at it and says 'pump'. That's right Love Bug, that's your pumpkin. great job!

Pumpkin Patch

Today we went to Mrs. Heather's Pumpkin Patch in Hammond. It's about an hour drive so it was a perfect opportunity for Vivian to get her morning nap. We pulled in and as I saw all the cars in the field, I told Derrick that it was like Disney. It was packed! There were lots of fun activities including face painting, see-saws, a petting zoo, wagons, pumpkin toss, giant hay bails to walk across, zip line, upside down trampolines and of course the pumpkin patch. It was quite a good deal, we only had to pay for Vivian and the $7 entry included a pumpkin. However, there was no where to purchase anything to eat or drink. We stayed only about an hour, Vivian is still a bit young yet to enjoy everything. Next year she should be more aware of everything and we will definitely bring a picnic lunch.

 What a work-out! This may be the perfect pumpkin but boy it's heavy. Errrr.

 Goin' on a Wagon Ride with Daddy.

 See-Sawing with Mommy

 Derrick on the inverted trampoline.

He looks like he's trying to be Chris Angel by levitating.

 

 Like a kid in a candy shop, Derrick was so happy on the giant trampoline. 

And he looked like a giant jumping on it next to the little kids.

Me on the inverted trampoline.

Happy Fall Everyone! 

Love, The Family

Tomorrow we will spend the day decorating Vivian's pumpkin and watching football. Perfect Sunday!

Chillin at the Park

♥ There are no words! ♥

Reading at Her Desk

Vivian LOVES her desk. She has mastered getting on and off the chair, although sometimes she does topple over but she catches herself before hurting herself. Today she grabbed a book and headed over to her desk to read. She is such a little lady!

I got a bonus smile while she was getting down. Don't you just love how she smiles with her whole face! And check out those psychedelic leg warmers.

 

Other Florida Adventures

Here's what the rest of our busy road trip looked like.

Vivian got some lovin' from her Great-Grandma Dot.

And Grandma got lovin' from Vivian.

Dyno investigated a dragon-lizard thing in a tank and was confused as to why he couldn't get to it. He just wanted to say Hi, not eat it. 

Vivian enjoyed the freedom of Grandma Nat's backyard while chasing Dyno with his ball. 

Where is Dyno?

 

Sunday, after the run, we went to Church and then back to the beach. 

 Vivian found a ball!

Vivian found a bucket!

She put sand in.....

 

and took sand out.

Vivian found friends.

 

As much as I can't stand the sand and sticky salty water stuck on me for very long, I have missed the smell, sound and joyfulness of the beach. It was nice to be back.

After the beach and a very busy weekend, we drove the 9 hours back home. I think I'm going to sleep all day today. I need to recover!

Goal in the Works - 5k

While we are here in Florida, I went ahead and signed up for a 5k. My first competitive run on my way to accomplish 30 competitive miles by the time I'm 30 as well as preparation for the half marathon in February. My mom has also started running so we signed up to do the run together. The run was part of a surfing competition going on at Jacksonville Beach so it was appropriately named the Surf and Sun Run. What a gorgeous morning for a run!

So overall I did decent although I wasn't very happy with my performance. Derrick keeps telling me not to be so hard on myself. I hadn't run in a week and it was a very busy weekend with a bit of wine. But I have to be hard on myself to keep myself in check.
I have never run on a beach before. I enjoyed the fresh salty air however, the beach is at a slight angle so going the first half I had a lot of pressure on my left leg and coming back it was on my right leg. Something I had not considered. I managed to run the first 12 minutes and then took a minute walking break. Then ran another 12 minutes and took a 30 second walking break. Ran 8 minutes and another 30 second walking break. Then ran the rest of the way in. My final time was 39 minutes 23 seconds. Like I said, decent. That's about a 13 minute mile.

 

When I finished I continued running. I circled around and went back to Mom to run the rest of what she had left with her. After all, we were doing the run together. :-)

An Evening on the Pink Carpet

The whole point of our road trip to Florida was to support a Breast Cancer Awareness fashion show starring breast cancer survivors, including my mom. Here's she is strutting her stuff in this gorgeous day dress with peep-toe heels. Along with Derrick and I, my grandmother, 2 aunts, my best friend, mom's boyfriend and another friend of the family came out. We had quite the little cheering section. We did lots of hooting and hollering!

  

Here's Mom in a gorgeous black and white day dress with black peep-toe shoes. Strut it Mom!

After intermission, Mom came out in a glamorous low cut evening dress. Kudos to her for being confident enough to show her new cleavage!

 

Applause to all the ladies who participated and have found a new sense of confidence and purpose. They were all beautiful with amazing stories of survival!

 

Oh, and I ran up on stage during the finale and gave mom a bouquet of 16 sunflowers, one for every year she has had to endure this disease. And now it is finally, finally over! Cheers to a brighter future.

Here she is the star of her own show, my mom, Natalie Atwood!

Me and Mom

 

Mom and Grandma

Mom and Don

Me and my date, my husband, Derrick

Me and the special lady of the night, Mom

Look at her gettin' sassy!

I am so proud of your courage to put yourself out there. What a great way to send a farewell to everything you've been through. Way to go Mom. I love you!