Bath Time Friend

Vivian has made a new friend....herself. She found her reflection in the tub overflow drain. She went on and on like this for about 15 minutes. They were having a serious conversation so I'm only sharing a little of it with you. I can't give away all of her secrets....☺

Go Navy! Beat Army!

We've got spirit yes we do! We've got spirit how 'bout you?

Navy has now won the last 11 matches against Army.

Detour Before Going Home

Vivian and I took a detour before going back home to Louisiana. We met Derrick in Siesta Key (apparently the #1 beach in America) to cheer him on at his first Tough Mudder. My grandparents volunteered to drive us over. I think they wanted a mini vacay.

 
I have always loved Florida's Gulf Coast. It's so beautiful -- white sandy beaches, crystal blue water, crisp air. I especially like it because the water isn't too salty. As I've mentioned before, that is the one thing I dislike about the beach, getting out of the water and feeling sticky. Of course there is also the sand dollars and starfish found buried just under the sand. Everything about that area I have always found to be very relaxing and beautiful.
Well we all arrived Saturday around lunch. Derrick drove down from Louisiana and we drove over from Miami. It was a nice reunion since we hadn't seen him in a week.

 


Our bugalow was right in the heart of Siesta Key so we were actually able to walk to lots of dining, shops and of course the beach. We walked to the beach with Vivian a few times while we were there. She actually went in the water, all the way! This was a first for her. It was very exciting and she loved it. She kept running in and out.




     

 

Yesterday was the Tough Mudder, a 12 mile obstacle course in the mud of course. Unfortunately we were unable to watch but I got a picture of Derrick before and after. We also found a couple pictures online. Derrick said he enjoyed himself and had fun. He had huge gnarly bruises and a mark from where he was shocked by the hanging electrified wires. Hey, whatever gets you goin' dear.

Before

clean shirt, numbers on his forehead, acting tough

A Death Waiver? Really?

During

getting muddy

After

lost shirt, sweatband on head, numbers?, Tough Mudder

 
It was a quick stay in Siesta Key but very relaxing and enjoyable. And we are finally on our way home with a 14 hour drive and a 16 month old. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for driving us and staying with us!

Goal in the Works - Ruffle Tree Skirt

My Pinterest craft for Novemeber is a no-sew ruffle tree skirt. It took lots of hot glue, a few hours and 2.5 yards of fabric. It was very tedious and I burnt my self numerous times. It came out better than I was expecting. It cost about $20 so if it lasts only a few Holidays I will be satisfied. Maybe if I get good at using the sewing machine I'll make another one the 'right' way. I had to wait to get home to get it under the tree for a proper picture.

BEAUTIFUL!

Vivian and Dyno like looking out the window so they made viewing windows in the spray snow on the window.

Goal in the Works - Act of Kindness #8

On one of our visits to Grandma Elaine's she had mentioned that every year she gets poinsettias for her front lawn. She used to get them for $3 each at KMart but the KMart had recently closed and the cheapest she could find them was $6 each, double. It would be one thing if she only got a couple each year but she doesn't. She gets around 14. She seemed really disappointed so I decided that on our last visit before we left Miami, we would surprise Grandma with a few poinsettias. Vivian helped me pick them out at the tree lot and then we made our delivery. Grandma loved them!

Goal Accomplished - Learn to Crochet

Derrick left Miami to go back to work on Sunday and Vivian and I stuck around for another few days. I took this opportunity to accomplish one of my goals, learn to knit and/or crochet. I had my Grandma Dot teach me this morning. She chose to teach me how to crochet as it is a building block for knitting.

You can tell how I was doing by the look on my face here. I found the way you're supposed to hold the yarn in your hand very awkward. And Grandma seems to have lost her patience but she didn't.

 

After several attempts and just continuing to do it, I finally got it. This is what I made...not much I know but it's the beginning of something bigger.

I now know the basic stitch and should be able to make a blanket. Right?

Pinterest Confession

*This is not intended to be a bashing on any specific person. For my standards, I got carried away with Pinterest and this is how it effected me and how I plan to handle it.*

Dear Pinterest,

Our relationship started out so innocently. I joined Pinterest to get some ideas on home crafts, recipes and activities to do with Vivian. I got some wonderful ideas and have even tried a few. I got most of Vivian's 1st birthday party ideas from Pinterest. Even one of my goals before I turn 30 is to do one Pinterest craft a month. It is definitely a great resource. Everything was going along fine until I started following all these wonderful yet over-achieving mamas and crafters. I must confess that I can be an over-achiever as well, however these ladies take it to a whole new level. You see, I go into an activity with gusto and put toward 110% committing more time than I have but I do it one activity at a time. These mamas seemed to be doing it with every activity, from brushing their teeth to teaching their baby colors to getting the car's oil changed, every part of the day. And on top of that, they had the time to blog about it and then Pin it. I thank those ladies for having so much energy because I have repinned many of their ideas in hopes that one day I too can be as organized and productive as they are and be the best mom and wife I can be. But recently I realized that I was trying to be the best mom and wife they could be. For some reason it made me want to compare myself to all the super mamas and super crafters but I know that I should only compete against my own expectations of myself not others. At my peak, I was checking Pinterest 3 times a day (morning, during nap, while Derrick was giving Vivian a bath). Maybe not so bad, I know many people follow it on their phones but I was clearly not making the most of my time. How was I supposed to organize my pantry, prepare the next activity that is going to make Vivian the smartest baby ever and cook dinner if I was busy checking in on everybody else's brilliant accomplishment of the day? I was getting worked up with anxiety and felt I had to do a hundred things a hundred miles a minute in order to keep up. But since I've been on vacation and have been more focused on the things that matter more to me than the best way to clean a fish bowl, I haven't checked Pinterest once. And I feel great. I think I will use Pinterest as more of a search engine from now on. I can't bring myself to unfollow all these wonderful ladies. In the back of my head I still think, "What if they Pin the very one thing I have been looking for this whole time?" Yet not knowing what that one thing is. If I am interested in activities to teach Vivian about farm animals or if I'm looking for a new recipe then I'll check to see what Pinterest has to offer. I know I can count on finding several great ideas from all the brilliant minds that share their goodies with everyone. So thank you Pinterest for your wonderful concept but I won't be checking in as regularly. Although, it is the holidays and I am looking for the best way to make rack of lamb.

Sincerely,
Nicole

Road Trip to the Keys

Surprise trip to Holiday Isle in Islamorada in the Florida Keys. Derrick hadn't been yet and although it is quite different from Key West, he can now say he's been to the Keys. We had loads of fun!

We found this great swing just outside the hotel. It was so colorful, we all gave it a try.

♥ My little family ♥

Even my Grandma Elaine got in the fun chair.

Derrick found this random wicker basket hanging from a tree. I think he actually walked into it and then decided to pretend he was in a bird cage. Vivian found it confusing but amusing.

Mom and Don

Vivian actually let her feet get wet!

Bar-fly sporting Mommy's glasses.

Vivian and her Great-Grandma having a casual conversation in the Adirondack chairs.

Goal in the Works - Turkey Trot 5k

As I mentioned earlier, I made an attempt at my first run since hurting my leg and it did not go so well, but I finished. 24 miles to go before I complete my 30 miles before I'm 30.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent Thanksgiving with my Dad this year. Vivian and I flew in yesterday on a quick 2 hour flight. Boy that was nice. I'm so used to flying across the country with her and it taking nearly all day. And of course she would never sleep once she started walking; there was so much to see and she would want to go running down the aisle. So thank goodness for shorter flights! And surprisingly, the flight was only half full. I found that kind of strange for the day before Thanksgiving but I'll take it.

Anyhow, this morning I tried my first 5k since my little injury, the Miami Turkey Trot. I actually signed up to do the 10k but since it was my first time running in a month I thought I would take it easy to not hurt myself again. My mom has been training as well so we did it together with her boyfriend. I started off at my mom's pace, run 30 seconds walk 30 seconds. I was doing pretty good until we approached the 1st mile mark when my leg started to act up. Vivian, Don and I walked to the end while mom continued on the 10k route. We had to wait about a half hour so we made ourselves busy by eating the post-run snacks that were out. We decided that there had to be at least 20,000 bananas that were being passed out. There were 5,000 registered runners, fan clubs of the runners and children being pushed in strollers. The staff was handing out 2 bananas per person. So with my simple calculation, that is 20,000 bananas. Sorry about the off topic tangent about bananas. I was proud of my mom for completing her first 10k but bummed I couldn't even do the 5k. I got kinda sad watching everyone run. I guess I have more healing time in my future.

We got to the race very early. I woke Vivian up at 5am. She was a trooper though!

 Waiting in the sea of 5,000+ participants. We were toward the back.

Inching closer to the start line. Still hundreds in front of us.

 

 Mom and Don running it in.

Vivian and I met Derrick, who flew in this morning, back at Dad's to get ready for some turkey love. And so commenced a very large Gili Thanksgiving.

  

The evening was great, full of food and laughs.

We're missing a few people but here we are.

Thank you for continuing to be patient!

We've been very busy packing and moving and now we're off on a whirlwind 2 week adventure. Please continue to be patient and there will be lots of updating when we get back! Thank you!!!
Nicole

Goal in the Works - Act of Kindness #7

We moved...again. So the story goes like this:

One of Derrick's co-worker's contract was terminated, which meant he would have to move to take over another contract in Houma, LA (about an hour west of NOLA). Derrick told me the story over the phone on his way home. I felt bad, the co-worker and his family had just moved into a new place and their son just started school. They have been in NOLA for a few years so they were well established and comfortable. I kept thinking to myself, maybe Derrick can volunteer to take his place. But I wasn't sure if Derrick would go for that because I wasn't really sure how it would effect his job and our lifestyle (not that it's lavish or anything but I do love the ability to stay home with Vivian).
After dinner Derrick asked me what I thought about moving...again. I was game, there was really no question. Although there is a great deal of things to do in NOLA, we had no ties to the city. The only issue was logistics. Would the company even let us? When? How? Where?
Well the company saw no problem with the switch so we began planning and negotiating terms. And here we are, in Houma, LA, a small town supported by the oil industry. I wonder what we've gotten ourselves into?

P.S. Houma is home of Swamp People. Apparently a popular show on cable.

Tough Princess Ain't So Tough

Bad news....I sprained or pulled a groin muscle. I haven't ran in nearly 3 weeks. I went to the doctor to make sure there wasn't a blood clot or hernia. I won't try running again until next week. I hope I am healed up by then. Wish me luck!

15 Months

Vivian is now 15 months! She is full of milestones. Here's the breakdown...

~ We've been practicing throwing. We use playtime with Dyno to help us. I showed Vivian how to count to three and then throw Dyno's ball. She caught on rather quickly. Although she is not correctly saying 'one, two, three, throw', you can tell that's what she is trying to say by the rhythm and the inflection of the vowel sounds.

~ We live on the second floor of an apartment and we also have a couple of steps inside so Vivian gets lots of practice going up and down. She recently got brave enough to go down the couple inside with no hands. I, on the other hand, am not comfortable with her doing it on the big flight outside.

~ With her new found lack of fear of heights she has also figured out how to climb onto the desk when I am working at it. She just can't stay away.

~ We got Vivian a bunch of chunky puzzles for her birthday and she loves them. She is really quite good at matching the shapes and animals to their correct spot.

~ Without a doubt we have a reader on our hands. She loves to read and to be read to.It's the one activity she can focus on for long periods of time (15 minutes).

~ With all the puzzle practice and books we read she has learned a new array of words. She is able to recognize animals, shapes, colors and every day items. Every once in a while she take a shot at trying to say one or make the sound of an animal. She likes to pretend to be an elephant.

~ Derrick and Vivian have discovered Sesame Street songs on YouTube. The ones that feature real musicians and the characters. This is one of their favorites.
 

~ This is probably the cutest milestone. Vivian has learned how to blow her nose. It took a lot of modeling of fake blowing my nose and a lot of wasted tissues.

~ Words of the month are cheese, leaves, please, up, help and eggs. She actually says 'up please' but it sounds like 'pu pee'. Once she got the hang of the long e sound she quickly began to mimic other long e words like, cheese, leaves, trees. 'Help' usually sounds like 'up' and 'eggs' sounds like 'kgs'. No obvious words yet. If you just walked in on a conversation you would probably not know what she was saying. But nonetheless, she is practicing very hard.

~ Thanks to bath time she now knows where her belly is. Thanks to her poking at our face she knows where all of her facial features are. Thanks to putting her shoes and socks on to go outside she knows where her feet are.

~ Big milestone alert. Vivian has mastered, though not always very gracefully, feeding herself with a fork.

So like I said, she has been a busy girl learning how the World works around her and how she fits into the World. I am so thankful I get to be home with her to have these experiences with her.

Happy Halloween!

We knew we were going to dress up as a family this year. We were contimplating a few themes but finally decided on Red Riding Hood. My MIL was kind enough to make Vivian's Little Red Riding Hood costume. I spent 3 bucks on fur to cover some cat ears I had. Derrick hit up the Salvation Army and scored his nighty half off for 2 bucks. I say we looked pretty darn good for a budget Halloween. It took a minute for Vivian to recognize me with my heavy eye makeup and fluffy ears but she was completely put off by Derrick's costume. She didn't recognize him at all and wouldn't let him old her. Thankfully she wasn't scared, just cautious.

A couple of weeks ago we drove around to find a good area to trick-or-treat in but then it was suggested to us by a neighbor that we go to the Imperial Woods neighborhood. WOW! They do Halloween like most neighborhoods do Christmas. The decorations were top notch complete with scary sounds being pumped into the street. The roads were blocked and there were about 10 cops on foot, bike and golf cart on each street.

Vivian's bedtime is 7:00 and we wanted to beat the high school crowd rowdiness so we arrived about 5:45. When we parked we didn't see any other families but as we were getting Vivian in her costume a couple came out with their little ones. Every house had a table set out in front with candy and and the families were dressed to match a theme. Amongst the amazingness was a Star Wars house that had life-sized characters, an Incredibles house that had the movie playing on their garage door, and an authentic NOLA house that was serving jambalaya. Giant spiders on the sides of houses, fog, shrilling voices, skeletons dangling from trees. It was right out of a movie.

We walked about two blocks. Vivian walked the whole way holding my hand tight and on high alert. She was very serious, looking at everything and everyone. At each house she took the candy and then dropped it into her candy bag that I was holding. She didn't take her eyes off the person giving her the candy to put in the bag. I'm pretty sure she was confused as to why nobody looked like a person anymore. They looked like witches and fairies and superheroes; Mommy and Daddy didn't even look normal. Although she was suspicious of everyone, they all thought she was the cutest thing. She is pretty adorable even when she's serious.

It was a fun evening and I look forward to going back next year!

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!