Restoring My Factory Settings

 
Let’s say you and I go to the Apple store (mine is at the Mall of America) and we each purchase a new iPod. You get a green one, I (naturally) get a pink one. Same size, same price, same model. You take yours home and read the instruction manual, load it up with stimulating podcasts, literary-club audio-books, and classical music. You buy a protective case for yours, clean off the fingerprints after each use, and fully charge it every night.

I, on the other hand, open my iPod box in the car on the way home, throw out the directions, proceed to load it with sugary sweet summer chic-lit novels, episodes of Real Housewives of New Jersey, podcasts about how to take shortcuts in life, and really loud, crappy music. I don’t buy a case for it, leave it in the hot, smelly gym bag, and barely remember to charge it.

Do you get where I am going with this?

I am the pink iPod. I am not a very good owner, you might say. I thought about this analogy as I was finally getting around to charging my trusty pink 2^nd generation iPod. I barely remember to charge it, leave it in my purse most of the time, and the screen is cracked right down the middle. I’d like to buy a new one but really, I’d like to buy an iPhone next year so I want to keep this one going for as long as I can. So, in an effort to try and fix some of the issues I have with it, I restore it—back to its factory settings.

Don’t you wish you had a way to restore your body back to its factory settings? You know, hit the Reset button and Poof! Good as new! All of the damage you’ve done over the years to your body magically disappears, as do the 40 odd pounds you were carrying and that awful Diet Coke habit you were feeding. Ah, that would be the life! Screw the gym! Screw eating healthy! Just send me back to the factory for a restore. Nice.

Alas, I wake up from this magical dream—fully aware that I am unable to hit the Restore button anytime soon (hey, Steve Jobs, get working on that will ya!?). I have to be the one who resets my body the old fashioned way—pound by pound and inch by inch.

Summer Projects…and a great find (3 years late)

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a list of projects brewing for this summer. I want to finally frame some pictures of the girls to hang in our house. We have some already, but our walls for the most part are bare. :( We built this house in 2006 and I swore I would have tons of photographs framed and on our walls by now. Geesh. So, that’s project #1. I also want to redo the girls’ bathroom. It’s currently this weird shade of blue. I can’t quite figure out what shade of blue it is, but it is a thick, dense blue. Not dark, but thick. Anyway, I was never happy with it. So, now I am going to paint it a nice super light turquoise. I mean, super light. Like this:


Maybe the middle one or the one on the right? Hmmm…

I also need to look for some new bath decor for their room, too. However, I HATE matchy matchy. I like simple and clean. The room is so dark, there are no windows, so it needs some bright colors. I dunno.

The other project is to work on the girls bedrooms. Chloe’s room is painted Tinkerbell green. Seriously, that’s the name of the paint. I think it looks like a piece of key lime pie. White furniture, light wood trim and light green walls. It’s key lime pie! YUM.

So, I have been looking for some of those wall decals that you can remove without damaging the walls. Here’s what I found:


Aren’t they cute? I found them here at All Modern Baby, a modern children's furniture site that carries top manufacturers such as Maclaren and Bugaboo strollers, and the uber-cool Stokke Tripp Trapp highchair. It’s a fantastic site with amazing modern baby furniture, strollers, and just about everything else. I wish I found this site 3 years ago when Chloe was born. I would have loved some of this stuff. I love the Bugaboo strollers and believe you me-I would have had one. The Stokke one is just too cool for school too:


Anyway, check out the site if you are looking for some modern, hip, and useful baby gear. If I find a site or store or product I like, I pass it on. :P

So, here are a few of my summer projects around the house. What are your summer projects? What are some new web sites or stores that you found that you just love?! Share them!

Girls of Summer

Summer in Minnesota is extra magical. The weather here can turn on a dime so you need to take advantage of the warm weather when it’s here. Yes, we have a summer here. It gets hot. That’s the point. It’s HOT. And it can get HUMID. Those magical days of low humidity and 80 degree weather or few and far between the ultra humid, 90 degree days and the low 50 degrees and cloudy days—which seem to occur evenly from June through September. So, when we get a good weekend full of sun, and warmth (not hot!) and breezes, we take it and worship it. :)

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:
Exhibit C:

We headed over to the Minnesota Zoo Sunday morning for a quick visit. We live about 10 minutes away and are members so its super convenient to pop by and chat with the Grizzly bear or hang out with the monkeys. Recently they added an awesome splash pad with sprinklers and water sprayers. It’s great and exactly what that zoo needed. It gets so hot and the exhibits are far apart so it’s a nice break.

We also are spending more and more time on our deck and in our backyard. The back of our house and deck faces east so we get plenty of shade in the late afternoon which is so nice because we can sit out on our deck and just relax without the heat and sun.

Exhibit D:

Jason is practicing his Frisbee skillz… :)

Exhibit E:

Chloe hanging out on the deck for lunch. :)

So, our summer is starting off on a good note. Hopefully we will have more mild sunny days than ultra hot steamers.

30 Day Shred…or 30 Day Torture Routine. We’ll See.

I’ve been reading a lot of blog posts, articles, Tweets, etc on Jillian Michaels’ DVD: 30 Day Shred. Frankly, she scares the living sh*t out of me. I love her on The Biggest Loser, but I love her only because she is in my TV and not in my living room or gym or wherever this nightmare may be. She’s rough, caustic, takes no prisoners, and is just plain GRRRR. That’s why she is so effective. That’s why she resonates with so many people. That’s what we need. Someone to kick our ass and who won’t tolerate any of our bullsh*t. I need Jillian in my life. STAT

Short of winning the lottery and paying her to leave The Biggest Loser and come move in with me, her DVD will have to suffice. I bought my hand weights and will begin tonight. I plan on posting about it after each day in the 30 day shred. Even Jillian suggests that you only do this 4-5 days a week, not 30 consecutive days. She’s not a complete monster. :)

Stop by for Day 1, Level 1’s post. If I survive…

My Chloebelle turns 3 today

Today is Chloe’s birthday. She is 3. Three perfect years. She is the brightest ray of sunshine in our lives and quite possibly the cutest 3 year old on the planet. (ok, I may be biased.)

My Chloe is sweet, generous, and loving. She thinks her Dad is a super hero (he is) and she thinks her sister is the coolest girl around. I am pretty sure she likes me, too. ;) Her signature trait is her wild blonde curls. They appeared out of nowhere when she was about a year old and they have been growing wilder every day. Her favorite movies are Annie and Wall-E. She loves to ride her bike and play at the park. And, she’s a fish. A total fish.


She is smart as a whip and knows just what to say or just how to show you her puppy dog eyes to get what she wants—usually chocolate. (She’s sooo my kid). She and Kaitlyn play like best buds and snuggle up together at night to watch a movie. They also fight like crazy over who goes first for anything. They are great partners in crime and Jason and I are in a heap of trouble in about 10 years.


When we first found out I was pregnant again, I knew it was a girl. I just knew. I was meant to have two girls. I was meant to be drowning in Disney princesses, My Little Ponies, and hair bows. I was meant to spend ridiculous amounts of money on their clothes and spoil them to the brink of obscenity. I was meant, more than anything else, to be their mother.

I wake up every morning and smile because I get to be their mom again today. Tomorrow. Forever.



Happy Birthday to my beautiful Chloebelle.

love, mama
.