Oklahoma, here we come...

Just a quick post tonight.

Today Jack said, "Mom, I was just kidding." And then when it was bedtime and was talking to him, he said, "What-Ever."

Really!?! Where do they learn this stuff.

Of course, one of my favorite things is that recently Anna said, "Jeepers, Creepers," which is a total Steve phrase.

Kids really do say the darndest things.

Can't wait for the Sex in the City movie. I've been watching all my old episodes in preparation.

Memorial Weekend

Memorial weekend was great. Sunday was rainy, but other than that, we had really nice weather. We were "Up North" at Steve's parents' cabin in northern Wisconsin. There was some boat riding, shopping and of course, fishing. I'm not a big fisherperson, as I don't like pinching the worms or taking the fish off the hook. But Steve is a great dad and he was up for the challenge. They didn't actually catch any fish, but Jack had a great time all the same.

Jack had so much fun Up North that he was sobbing when we left. "But Jack," I said. "Dixie missed you (his cat). Don't you want to see her?"

"Nooooo!" Jack said. "I didn't miss her! I want to stay at Grandma's house!"

It was a good weekend, though. I love short work weeks. I think all weekends should be three days! Now we have to quick do laundry and gear up for an Oklahoma trip coming up soon. Here are some pictures from fishing. The one of Anna cracks me up. She's holding the worm container, and it looks like she's saying, "ewwwww."

Horsey Day

Yesterday we went to Robin's house, who I work with, to ride his pony. His wife, Kathy, is amazing with the kids. We were there with another co-worker of mine and his two girls. It was a lot of fun. Anna does have a problem staying still. I swear, I must have turned around 20 times to ask, "Where did Anna go?" She likes to be on the move at all times. At one point, she disappeared again. We looked out across the field and saw her standing in the middle of the other group of horses that we weren't riding. That girl has no fear. Thank goodness they are tame, well-behaved horses. Here are some pictures from our adventure...

Jillian kicked my butt!

I'm on this 30 day workout challenge that I put myself on. I just finished Day 20, only 10 more to go. I've been doing pretty good overall. Good cardio on the elliptical and whatnot.

But then last week I was starting to get bored, so I ordered the Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred DVD. For anyone who doesn't know who she is, she's one of the trainers on The Biggest Loser. She's awesome...very tough but nice at the same time.

Her 30-Day Shred has three levels, and it's only a 20-minute workout. I figured it would be no problem. Yeah right. 20 minutes means she squeezes everything out of you that she can because you're not doing a longer workout. It's almost like punishment.

I made it about 16 minutes before I quit. It was pretty hard. I thought I would be fine because I had been doing my cardio, but I totally crumbled. Jillian has this 3-2-1 method. Three minutes of strength, two minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs. She explains how this is the optimal was to actually lose.

Well, I believe it. It's also the torturous way to lose. In all honesty, it's kind of fun that it kicked my butt because now it gives me something to work toward. Now I just want to make it through a whole workout. It might be weeks before I move to the next level!

Good Mom Day

I had a great Mom Day. It started off by sleeping until almost 8, which is a big deal for me. Then I came out to the dining room where Jack was soooo excited to give me my present. I got a bright red fire truck from the kids. Jack picked it out last week with Steve. In fact, they came home from picking it up on Thursday, and Jack swore he wasn't going to tell me what they got me. "It's a secret!" Jack said. But about an hour later, he broke down and said, "Mommy. We got you a fire truck, but you can't see it because it's in Daddy's trunk."

Steve got me a season's pass to the Broadway Across America series that comes to town. I'm excited for that.

My good friend from college, Jessica, was in town today, and I got to hang out with her. Then after she left, we went bowling as a family. Now that was entertaining. And I was kind of impressed with how good Jack and Anna did. They didn't so much roll the ball, but they did a great job of chunking it down the lane.

So a great Mom Day for me. I feel very blessed to have such a wonderful family. Steve is a great dad, and the kids make me smile about 50 times a day. Every day, I look forward to Anna waking up and coming into the room with her blanket over her head. (She thinks this make her invisible, and she loves to sneak up on us.) Also, Jack always gives me kisses before I leave to go to work. Many mornings, he even gives me 4 kisses, which he slowly counts one at a time.

Finally, I may be a working mom (which can be hard at times), but then again, I have something to look forward to every single day. When 4 o'clock rolls around, I'm always eager to leave work because I get warm, running hugs and excited grins. And you can't beat that. I love being a mom.

Lag in Postings

I blame Amber for my lag in postings. She's my favorite blogger that I read regularly, and when she has fewer posts, it directly affects mine. I only have a few loyal followers, though, so I guess it's okay.

Tonight we had a little incident with Jack. Anna and I were playing out in the toy room before Steve was home. Then I heard the door shut in the back bedrooms, but I didn't think much of it. (Okay, I really should have, but I didn't.) I thought Jack was just in his bedroom. Pretty soon, a door opens and the smell of nail polish comes wafting through the house. That's when my heart sank. (As a side note, I painted Anna's finger and toenails this morning. She loves, loves, loves her fingers painted. It brings such joy to her little life.)

Well, Jack doesn't get his fingers painted, and this makes him mad, mad, mad. We've tried to nicely explain that boys don't really get their fingers painted, and he's not buying it. He thinks that it's all okay as long as boys use blue polish.

So by now, I'm sure you've figured out that Jack was painting his fingernails behind closed doors. He was in the bathroom, and the ENTIRE tips of all his fingers were covered in polish. And, the bathroom floor also had a fair amount of mango polish on it as well. Jack knew he was in trouble because right away he kept saying, "I'm sorry Mommy. I'm sorry Mommy."

It took a fair amount of scrubbing to get the polish off him and the floor. Here are a couple of photos of my painted kids. Anna is proudly displaying her nails, but she closed her eyes right when I took the photo. And then Jack couldn't help but display his nails where the polish used to be.

Some days are such adventures...

Hair, Butterflies and More

So my hair experience (from a week ago) was great. It was this very cool, urban salon, but they weren't all stuck up and fancy. They put in very mild blonde and brown highlights. I can tell a difference; they just give more dimension to my hair. But if you didn't know I had them done, you wouldn't really notice so much. I don't think they have my review up, but when they do, I'll pass it along.

In other adventures, we went to the Milwaukee Public Museum on Sunday to see the butterflies at the butterfly house. The kids LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the experience. However, we did have a small problem. Jack loved the butterflies so much that he had that "love-ya-wanna-squeeze-ya" problem. Actually, squeeze isn't quite the right word. If the butterflies wouldn't crawl on his hand by their own free will rather quickly, then Jack would just pick them up by their wings. It was an ongoing battle, trying to teach him about being gentle.

Finally, I tell Jack we're going to have to leave because he's not being very nice. This makes him very upset. "But I love the butterflies, Mommy! They are my friends. I want them to go home with me."

To avoid being known as the butterfly-killing family, we went ahead and left. Though I did catch Jack just in time as he was "gently" placing a butterfly in his pocket. Whew! Rough times.

Steve comes home tonight from being in Vegas. We're pretty excited. Then in a month, we'll be driving to Oklahoma. We're looking forward to a fun May and then a trip to Grandma's. Fun times ahead!