just us.

a few good recipes...

2012-01-25T21:45:00.000-06:00

since pinterest is cooperating, i'm gonna share some yummies.
and then i'll share some not so yummies. because, hey, you gotta take the good with the aad, right?

the good:
parm garlic linguine - try this now. it's delicious and simple. add more or less garlic and cheese to your taste liking. i doubled the recipe. seriously. make this. ;)
italian sausage stew - yum. definitely a keeper. served it with some crusty butter bread.
chicken enchillada pasta - pasta and mexican. can't go wrong, right?!
frito pie - hello. the title includes fritos. total win.
pepperoni roll ups - not exactly my style. but nick and ben ate it. was a quick and easy recipe with ingredients we almost always have on hand. good in a pinch for sure.
lunch lady sloppy joes - nick loves manwich. seriously, when i tell him i'm making sloppy joes he is disappointed if i'm trying something new. but i told him we were trying this one. the sauce was easy. i played around with a few of the ingredients. but the string cheese was so fun! loved that it got all gooey. and it was different than just added american cheese which i had never thought of before pw's sloppy joes! potato chips yes. cheese no. and now that i just watched rachael vs guy, i'm adding dill pickles next time and maybe some bourbon!
unstuffed peppers - tasted like a stuffed pepper! might add a bit more peppers next time though.
penne and smoked sausage - can't go wrong with smoked sausage.

the not so good:
sweet and sour chicken - no flavor. so disappointing.
slow cooker cheesy chieken and rice - again kinda bland. we are big flavor people in this house.
cheesy chicken pot pie cups - the ratio was off. too much biscuit. i think i bought the wrong size. i think nick tried to make it work and the overall taste was okay. maybe spice up the mixture a bit.
pierogi casserole - didn't really taste like pierogies. wasn't awful. just wasn't what we were hoping for.

phew. i think that's most of em. i'm sure i'm forgetting a few. gonna have to dig through our recipe binder and share more favorites. and you can always search by label and find some older recipe posts if you really want to!

k. time to find a snack. all this food talk is making me hungry! :D

ten on tuesday. 1.24.12

2012-01-24T20:20:00.004-06:00

- is it sad that i go to starbucks for their iced tea lemonades and not their coffee?

- last week nick was so sleepy, he was fully dressed and sat down on the bed and tried to put boxers on over his scrubs! i mean, i have forgotten if i used shampoo or conditioner but never tried to dress myself twice.

- there is nothing better than a fountain coke. okay, maybe a fountain cherry coke. ;)

- i hate when commercials are aired and the thing they are advertising is expired. i heard something today on the radio for something january 14. um, hello. it's ten days later.

- scramble with friends might be my new iphone addiction. it's like boggle with friends. i love word games!

- finished my first 'real' book. onto the next one! and i've gone back to reading two different books. one for elliptical-ing and one for regular reading.

- cannot get over how damn adorable it is when ben reads a story. he melts me. so cute.

- dislikes that both of the boys have a terrible cough. thankfully, ben is on the mend.

- loved when ben sang happy birthday to nick. 'happy birthday to my dadda'....

- i think i've decided that as much as i enjoy looking back on this blog, that i'm not going to kill myself trying to post. which is why i think that i'm going to continue with my wip posts. sure, they aren't up to date, but at least they give me a glimmer into what we did at said point in time. and if i miss a few little things in our daily life, that's okay. at least i have something documented on a regular basis. {however late it may be!} and it encourages me to pick up and use my camera which has totally fallen by the wayside since i stopped doing my daily picture... and these ten on tuesdays seem to do a pretty good job of reminding me of some day to day randomness. so they are definitely staying!

pinterest party!

2012-01-18T23:46:00.002-06:00

my friend jamie came up with the fabulous idea to have a monthly pinterest party. that way we actually do something with all of those pins. this month was a sweater purse. {we added some lining... thanks val!}and i am proud to say that for our first attempt at a major sewing project was a success! mostly... ;)

here's the before. i only took one of the sweater that i picked up from goodwill...

and our three finished purses. a little less than four hours later. which is so impressive since val had to deal with us novices and that there were 3 machines for the four of us. {monica's purse didn't get finished. the mama too be needed some sleep!}

cannot wait for next month's get together! now i just have to decide what we are gonna tackle next!

ten on tuesday 1.17.12

2012-01-17T20:25:00.000-06:00

- trying to figure out how to blog this year. pretty sure that i'm going to keep the wip. they make me smile. but i'm not going to focus on taking pictures of everything. it's too much. so the posts may be smaller, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. and i've decided that the picture a day is a no go for 2012. pretty sure i'm keeping these posts too. it's a fun way to get a glimpse of our day to day interactions... and they're becoming easier since i'm making notes in my phone through out the week.

- it's funny that having a little boy who is in love with trains makes getting stopped at a railroad crossing fun and that sometimes i'm secretly hoping to get stopped by a train on our way to or from where ever we are going. ;)

- think that i'm done with resolutions. i always forget what they are or lose sight of them at some point through out the year. i'm thinking that monthly goals/projects will be more realistic.

- am only at 10 miles on the elliptical this month. i blame going backwards and doing interval training a few times. maybe i should hurry up and finish this post, so i can get upstairs and work on that! :)

- brought ben home white castle for dinner one day last week. i gave him the bag that had the burgers and chicken rings inside and told him he could open it when we got inside {we were walking into the house} and told him it was because he was such a good boy and tried everything momma and dada made for dinner that week. he was so excited. we got inside and got all settled in and i told him he could now open the bag. he did. and pulled out the napkins that were on top and said, 'thank you for the napkins momma' so damn enthusiastically i couldn't even stand it. he's so cute. but then i told him the napkins weren't the present. that there was more and he squealed in delight when he figured out what his pressie really was. xo.

- have managed to keep our schedule relatively light. it's kind of strange. i feel like we are forgetting to do something!

- saw the girl with the dragon tattoo. good movie. doesn't seem as long as it is. however, i am questioning something in the movie and how it was presented in the book. if you read this and saw the movie, we might need to talk!

- guess i jinxed us with my post on the weather. we finally got snow {a little more than 5"} and the weather is getting chilly. good news is that my new coat is amazingly warm.

- showed nick some of my 'pins' today. more specially the home organizing and let's make it pretty categories. and he's totally agreeable to most of the projects. we're gonna divide them up and have some his and hers. honestly, i'm hoping for more hims. ;) so excited. can't wait to actually decide on our first project!

- came across this website while looking into one of our projects. {totally safe for work.} and i'm totally color coding the bookshelf project {or at least some variation of it} that will hopefully end up in our room sooner rather than later!

i love reading.

2012-01-16T21:30:00.000-06:00

seriously. it's one of my all time favorite things to do. a perfect vacation, to me, would be a beach {or a warm locale with a pool!} and a pile of books. oh and an endless supply of cocktails. ;)

and i even have an entire board dedicated to books on pinterest. yup. i'm a proud bookworm!

i really like good reads. it's an easy way to keep track of what you have read and what you would like to read. as well as what your friends are reading. i did their reading challenge last year. met my goal. i believe it was in the same range as this year's goal... yup, just checked. i read 38 books and my goal was 35. which is not too shabby considering i didn't pick up a book for the entire month of november or december.

this year's goal is 30 books. {i'm setting the bar low so i don't fail miserably. no one said i had to stop at 30, right?}

2012 Reading Challenge

Shannon has read 2 books toward her goal of 30 books.

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2 of 30 (6%)

view books

but this year, i'm going to put a modifier on the challenge. i want to read at least six 'real' books. it's so easy to just read all kindle freebies. so by real i guess i mean, not from amazon's freebies for kindle or $.99 for that matter. and not a quick, easy, chick lit read {which are my favorite!} but something with sustenance. does that even make sense? whatever. it does to me!

started the night circus last week. it's my first 'real' book of the year. and a few others on the list: heaven is for real, the immortal life of henreitta lacks, the time traveler's wife {which has been on my night stand forever!}, the descendants {just because i watched the golden globes last night}, the alchemist {thrift shop find that's been on my night stand since this summer...}and maybe a classic or two. or maybe even something to cross off of this list.

on my way home from work today, i stopped at a goodwill store for a sweater for this awesome pinterest party i'm going to on wednesday... i decided to check out their books. came home with four more 'real' books: memoirs of a geisha, into the wild, life of pi, and middlesex. all for only four dollars! score! and my girlfriend just posted about this book. well, i think it's this book, so that will probably be next on the list since she's letting me borrow it. crazy that i'm in a book mood and she posted about one. yay for good timing. ;D {maybe if i would have written the majority of this post today instead of yesterday {darn me for planning ahead.} i would have changed my goal!

wip 12.24.11

2012-01-11T23:13:00.000-06:00

christmas edition!

friday:
nick had to work even though the doctor's office that he is affiliated with was closed, so it was just me and beans. i spent the day cooking and prepping for christmas eve festivities.
and for some reason, i had the urge to clean our pantry. it's so nice and organized again. crazy how that can get away from you...

i made ben a 'tent' before i dove into the pantry project. he loved it. so much so, that he wouldn't let me take it down when i was done! and that meant i didn't get to clean as i had hoped, but that's okay because he was enjoying himself and that's all that mattered.

chilling on the rocking chair with all of his animals. and his phone.

since he was so good and let me clean the pantry, i told him he could open his gift from jade and annabelle.

he was pretty stoked!

my lil bro stopped by unexpectedly and hung out with ben for a bit. both were very interested in nick's new video game.

then nick and i left and headed to house of kobe for michael's birthday. nice, low key dinner. kinda nice to not have a giant group of us. made it so much easier to chat and catch up.

saturday:
christmas eve!
morning was pretty relaxed. didn't have much to get ready. was nice to have spent friday getting everything ready. and that momma meyer helped and brought over some food too!

did snap many random pictures. they were all of the main event. presents!

yup, he remembered what to do with his bows! :)

showing us his present. {gotta work on that one!}

trying on his new mcqueen slippers.

and the hit present courtesy of grandma. iplay build a road.

nick loved it too!

love that our family photo includes the train! ha.

it wouldn't be a holiday/birthday without grandma and her bottle of liquor.

playing with my fish eye setting...

our delicious, home made apple pie shots.{the yellow bottle is already gone!}

wait?! am i supposed to have three gloves?

nope! auntie only has one! so funny.

kevin loved his cheesy poofs. so glad i hoarded them since like august!

and the pillow pet that he was hoping for. now he and ben match!

britt and k.

everyone left relatively early. except the two pictured above. we just visited for a bit. and they helped play santa.

and we are ready for christmas morning!

sunday:
christmas!

wasn't too early of a morning. and when we did make it downstairs ben didn't want to stop playing with his new cars and road! took us a few minutes to convince him to go into the family room! silly boy.

dumping his stocking out.

not sure... i think he wanted to not open presents and go play with the road!

cars puzzle!

a giant book of cars.

then it was time for christmas breakfast with nick's dad and fam.

dueling video cameras.

miss bri and her justin beiber nail polish.

who knew santa made stops christmas morning?!

whoa. why is santa in my house?

trying to convince the kids to hang with santa. gabby wasn't so sure. brianna tried to convince her!

ben wasn't having it either...

trying to convince ben santa isn't so scary.

we bribed him with candy. whatever. it worked. judge if you want!
{our family photo. i went for the matching two piece jammie set this year.}

not exactly pc but funny. and this is our life and santa had a beer. it happens.

diggin the noise putty that was in his baggie from santa.

then it was nap time. well, for me and ben. nick played video games.
and time for christmas at his sister's.

playing with the settings on the camera. i forget what this one was called...

and the color select option. i guess you can pick what color to highlight. pretty nifty.

rudolph noses were a hit.

after presents, we did our crackers.

ben modeling his cool crown.

three little reindeer.
sorry about the red eye. i'm lazy since it's nearing the end of this post.

my fanfreakingtastic grab bag gift. my brother is 100% jealous. i'm hoarding all of it. ;)

then a few quick games of 'jingo' and it was time to head home. gabby and noah weren't feeling to well and we didn't want beaner to get sick, so we called it a night early.

nick and i cleaned up after ben was asleep. made some popcorn and just watched a movie. was a nice end to a long day.

monday:
nick had to work. so ben and i went with him. then we went to lunch at bw's. yum.
when we got home it was nap time. yup. for me and ben while nick played video games. then just a lazy afternoon and evening playing with new toys and eating tasty left overs...

both iphone photos.

yum. garbage and cheesy potatoes. so not healthy. so glad it's only once a year!

then unfortunately back to work. but it was so nice having a long four day weekend.

ten on tuesday 1.10.12

2012-01-10T20:23:00.002-06:00

- did anyone else see the ring around the moon saturday night? it was pretty cool.

- i hate when people use their cell phones while on speaker phone in public. really?

- my coworker told a story about wearing her underwear backwards the other day. i could not get the image out of my mind. and couldn't stop thinking that there is no way she could have done that. then she couldn't understand why we were all confused and laughing... then she admitted they were inside out. huge difference!

- thinking i'm going to give myself a goal of at least 30 miles on the elliptical this month. i think i can. i think i can...

- finally in the mood to read again! yay. however, it's totally effing with my sleep habits. must find a happy medium. or a not so interesting book!

- have a date night this weekend. so excited. xo!

- found another movie that ben likes... how to train your dragon.

- had this for dinner tonight. yummy. would definitely make it again. {side note: i used 3# of sausage. they had a family pack at stracks... was easier and cheaper than buying multiple packages. and it worked just fine.}

- really enjoying kashi's new banana bars. i would give you a linkie but they aren't up on their website yet. ;(

- trying to figure out why i bought myself a new down coat and all this snow garb for ben. not to mention a new snow blower... this 50 degree weather is amazing. so not looking forward to when winter really decides to visit.

choose.

2012-01-09T21:35:00.000-06:00

finally decided on my word.

here is last year's post which includes a linky to my previous words as well. and lemme just say, last year's word was a complete fail! somewhere in the middle of the year, i lost focus. i think that was my first time really not following it through...

back to this year, i was going back and forth between a few. more or less were the two front runners. less just seemed too negative of a word. i added more to the mix for more of a positive spin. but then i didn't think i needed two words, so it was time to think some more. positive was another one that i was debating on, but again, it just didn't feel right.

i saw this on pinterest and it just hit me.

choose.
that's it. it's not about more or less of something but choosing what is right for me. for my family. or about positivity. i would have to choose to be positive over being negative. choose it is. apparently, the original pin from this came from here. and her word is also choose. i really like her take on the word.

then i decided to do a search for 'choose' on pinterest. found another two sayings that i really liked. {i have no clue where they are from, they were uploaded by user...}

so i choose choose because i want to remember that i always have a choice. no matter what.

*and after typing and italicizing all those chooses... it's such a funny looking word. ;P

twelve on thursday 1.5.12

2012-01-05T21:12:00.000-06:00

- was watching the price is right the other day. {it's celebrity week... snoop was on!} they had a trip to napa valley that featured a stay at the river terrace inn. that's where we stayed when we went. so cool! {picture can be seen here. don't have the digital images anymore. stupid external hard drive and i'm too lazy to scan. so this is what you get.}

- went to house of kobe right before christmas and i'm not a fan of the food. well, i am. but i don't feel the greatest after eating it. this time even though i do not like seafood, i decided to order sushi instead of a meal. holy craziness... i liked it. and even more scary... my favorite was the eel. not the tuna or the crab but the eel?!

- why can't all web pages have a scroll to the top button in the bottom right hand corner? oh pinterest, how you spoil me!

- nick wanted to get the connect for xbox, so we did. and we are totally enjoying the heck out of just dance 3 and fruit ninja. couldn't believe how tiring it was!

- got new towels yesterday. the first ones since our wedding shower. total splurge. can't wait to use em. nothing like a big, soft, fluffy towel to keep you warm on a cold morning! and so funny how we were willing to spend our 'spending' money on so many other things and not the necessities.

-our january calendar is way less hectic than our previous ones. however, it is only the 5 {3rd when i'm writing this} and things are bound to fill in quickly. especially since it's a birthday month.

- nick got a new computer game right before christmas. star wars something or something. he confessed that he got a little teary eyed during the intro. dork!

- trying to decide if i'm going to keep up with the picture a day thing. and for the record, i did complete 2011. yay me. i didn't upload them all to shuttercal just yet. bad me.

- today {tuesday} wasn't as crazy as it should have been at work. thankfully, the busier of the two doctors wasn't feeling well, so we were able to reschedule a few patients. i know. totally not nice to be excited that someone was not feeling good. but seriously, it would have been hectic otherwise. and i'm pretty sure tomorrow {wednesday} is gonna be pretty freaking exhausting so i'm preblogging!

- ben has quite a collection of stuffed animals that he insists on taking to bed. they are all little which makes it easier but when we are hauling puppy, penguin, polar bear, kangaroo, monkey, and now elephant as well as the turtle mini pillow pet up and down the stairs it is getting a bit ridiculous. he's cute, so i guess i'll let him keep them. for now.

- nick ordered some items from snorg tees. he got 2/4 wrong. wait. positivity might be my word for the year. so let me rephrase that... he got 2/4 right! clearly, he cannot be trusted to purchase anything online!

- picked ben up from daycare the other day and the one teacher commented on how polite he is. yay! so proud. ;D

wordless wednesday. brothers.

2012-01-04T21:16:00.000-06:00

nick and kevin. 12.21.11

because i don't do wordless well...
sorry for the bad angle. but it's funny and i had to be quick!
the last halfway decent picture taken with my old camera. looking at the photos from this day makes me so happy that we changed cameras. all of the pictures sucked! and no it wasn't the photographer. nick's usually pretty good! ;P

wip 12.17.11

2012-01-03T20:48:00.000-06:00

friday:
did my errands in the morning. had to run and get ben from daycare early so we could go to my work christmas party which lasted way longer than i anticipated so i was a wee bit late getting to my mother in law's for girl's night out. oh well. i made it and that's all that matters!

no pictures. only took my iphone out and they aren't the greatest. however, that shouldn't be a problem anymore since my hubby fixed my phone. {he surprised me and fixed the camera that had been hit or miss since we got it. double yay!}

saturday:
pressner boys christmas festivities in indy.
got up early and had our annual breakfast at round the clock then we began our trip down south. of course, since we were going to indy, the weather had to suck. for the first time this season, we had measurable snowfall. 65 was a nightmare. lots of accidents. they even had part of the northbound section rerouted due to an accident.

didn't take too many photos. nick wanted to use the video camera, so we did. ;) here are a few i did manage to catch.

a nice one of bri and nick.

the brothers pressner.

and ben with savannah. he loved her. loved. he kept call her 'vanna'. totally adorable. and no, we aren't getting a dog.

oh and i almost forgot... i did snap one of nick's wonderful grab bag gift. hubcaps!

his family tries to do a true 'white elephant' however, some people don't always follow the rules. but in this case, his cousin, had some old hubcaps laying around that he thought would be perfect for someone else! ;)

sunday:
lazy day.
we read the newspaper...

and baked some christmas snackies.

be back tomorrow.

2012-01-02T20:24:00.000-06:00

with a better, hopefully totally inspired, post.

no promises. work might kick my ass and i might decide to curl up on the couch with a bottle of wine!

today my love for my husband outweighed my dislike for tom cruise and we saw the new mission impossible. i was a fan. totally want to watch all of the other ones now.

now off to enjoy the last of our vacation. boy, i sure could get used to four day weekends, especially when nick is off too! ;)

new year. new mantra.

2011-12-31T21:16:00.000-06:00

{source}

okay, i think i'm still gonna have a word. i just don't know what it is yet. i've been tossing a few around for the past week or so. decisions, decisions.

wip 12.10.11

2011-12-30T21:04:00.000-06:00

friday:
my errand filled day. per usual.
also had ben's christmas program for school. the kids are always so cute. ben did great. he was a little dancing machine up on the stage and he rocked out to all the other classes performances. yay!

group photo before it started. we were there super early. had lots of time and got a few family shots.

didn't get to take it with the others that came because ben was back stage when they arrived. and would NOT cooperate afterwards.

saturday:
went and had breakfast with santa. was put on by the town. not bad for less than $20 for all three of us. and ben got a stocking!

he did it! finally sat on his lap!

checking out all the loot in the stocking.

i think ben might have taken this one. i love a little jacob peeking out from behind the chocolate milk!

um, i think ben took a picture of mommy napping on the couch... {his finger gives it away!}

mr. cheesy face.

then we headed to raquel and ernesto's for their annual christmas party.

a shot of the girls. well, i don't know where alyson is...

hmm. maybe she only is around when there is liquor involved!

so glad i napped earlier. jamie and i are so very sleepy and trying to stay awake. maybe we shouldn't have hogged the couch!

i have no clue what is going on here. but val's face kills me!

headed home around 230am. oy. long day. but totally worth it. i haven't laughed that hard in ages.

sunday:
i have no clue what ben was up to. he was insistent on hiding in the bathroom and then behind the tree. strange boy.

i decided to clean out my sock drawer while nick was giving ben a bath. random, i know. but whatever. i've been really into doing mini projects as of late. {my bathroom closet is next!}

ben wouldn't let me get rid of the socks. and by get rid of, i mean, put in the basement in our goodwill pile. he wanted to play with them. {and zomg, did i have a lot of socks!}

wip 12.3.11

2011-12-29T20:39:00.000-06:00

friday:
i was a busy bee. i tackled the spare bedroom closet, {see post here} cleaned, went grocery shopping. also received a lot of our christmas shopping. i love the internet.

saturday:
we were supposed to run the santa hustle. but when our alarm went off it was raining and cold. i can handle snow and cold. but rain and cold, not so much. so since it was just us we decided to not go. gave my mom an early morning phone call to cancel her babysitting but then we decided she would just come later in the day so nick and i could go christmas shopping. it was so nice! we knocked the majority of our list out in about three hours.

since we didn't go for the run, we were able to meet up with john and bill and the girls at the mall. got our super cute santa picture.

and a lazy evening of movies and string cheese. ;)

sunday:
elfred made an appearance. brought ben a new book since he was such a good boy and took a picture with santa the day before.

then it was time to play in the laundry basket...

he even wanted to be changed on the basket. silly.

and he tried to tell us that was where he was going to take his nap. not his crib.

a pretty low key weekend. ;-)

i suck at titles.

2011-12-28T20:21:00.001-06:00

i think that's why i'm a fan of the 'wip' and 'ten on tuesdays' posts. then i have a generic title and my brain hurts a little less. ;)

not sure i can come up with ten and there's no number that starts with 'w' so i'm just gonna start listing em off.

- yesterday i saw someone who was balding rock a mullet. how is that even possible?! why hasn't a friend or family member told him this is not okay?! totally reminded me of this power point presentation that went around in college.

- had to ask a patient for a urine specimen at work yesterday. {apparently it was crazy people tuesday} he was sitting in one of our exam rooms when i asked. when i handed him the cup, he asked if it was okay to go right where he was sitting. um, NO! wtf? he was kind of upset with me when i directed him to the bathroom. ew. ew. ew.

- my husband is bad ass. seriously. so damn handy. my iphone hasn't worked since friday. i could only use it if it was on speaker phone. i'm pretty sure that mike and my mom heard quite a few profanities before i figured it out. actually, i know my mom did because one time she called and when i put it on speaker phone right away she was miffed. said she was looking forward to hearing me cuss! anywho. nick read up on it and was able to take my phone apart and put it back together and voila... i can hear again!

- i'm itching to take down all the christmas decorations. my bad ass husband thinks that is very grinch-y of me. so i'm being super nice {and grateful for his rock star phone fixing skills} and leaving it up for now. but monday, maybe sunday, it's gone.

- finally got to watch friends with benefits. totally awesome movie. sooo much better than friends with benefits and not just because i love justin. and mila kunis was so cute. had to go out and buy it with some of my christmas gift cards!

- um, what is up with cars 2? why on earth did they go in such a different direction? so violent for a kids movie. ugh. i had a lot of friends tell me it wasn't so great. unfortunately, they were right. pretty sure that it will continue to be watched in this household though.

- i love that i'm still getting christmas cards. and if you read this and sent me a card and i didn't send you one, i apologize. i'll post it here someday.

- am completely in love with my new camera. {and holy heck do amazon prices flip. we got a heck of a deal as of today's listed price.} yes, i have a problem. yes, i just got one in may. but we just weren't sure about it. finally we had enough and went back to a canon. so i now will be selling two cameras. i think that's why i never got rid of my original camera. i just wasn't sold with the sony and now i only have one cord for all three cameras. woot!

- quite possibly ben's favorite christmas gift. if you need to shop for young boys, i would 100% suggest it. i think my 'big boy' might enjoy it just as much as ben!

happy christmas!

2011-12-24T12:56:00.000-06:00

had a much better santa experience this year. {we saw him a total of four times!}

this was our second time seeing santa. our first try didn't go so well. ben wanted mama and dada in the picture. but that wasn't the greatest picture. and we hung around a bit after because our friends were having a hard time with one of their children cooperating. we convinced ben to try again. and nick convinced the staff to retake the picture even though we had already paid and received the first ones. ben said he would do it by himself as long as he didn't have to sit on santa's lap. we were fine with that. and this is what we got!

no tears! unlike last year's...

hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and that santa is very good to you and yours! ;)

what the... friday

2011-12-23T21:44:00.000-06:00

just some random 'wtf' thoughts from the past week.

- why can't the newspaper report that this lawsuit has been dropped? finally had a chance to chat with someone that teaches at lake central and got to hear what really happened. makes me sad that the newspaper so quickly reported this and then didn't follow up when it was dismissed. how awful for those individuals to have their reputations tarnished, not to mention the bad publicity for the school. there is always two sides to every story. i wish more people would have waited to hear all of the facts rather than jump to conclusions and bad mouth those involved. {and if my information is wrong, sorry. i'm gonna kick my informant's ass! :P}

- what the heck is up with me going to the grocery store with my list and then not being able to understand my abbreviations. seriously?! i know that i regularly leave items off my list, or forget to get something on the list. but this is the first time that i couldn't understand my list!

- effing spam. i hate it. i have two email accounts, and one is overloaded with spam. it's horrendous. i finally decided to unsubscribe to all the emails individually. holy pain in the ass. and still i had over 75 unwanted emails in my inbox. today, finally, it's a manageable 25. ;)

- and why did i think i lost a toe nail the other day??

{sorry for the crappy picture. i was laughing hysterically and then chewy wanted in on the action.} apparently, my nail polish just peeled off. the whole freaking thing. strange. so i painted it again. and the next morning i wake up, and i'm missing it from two other nails. seriously?! what is that about? and no, i didn't accidentally buy the peel off kind. however, i did enjoy that when i was younger. and that was how i removed the nail polish from the eight remaining toes that were painted.

wip 11.26.11

2011-12-22T20:26:00.000-06:00

thursday:
thanksgiving.
first stop was glenwood oaks with my side of the family.
managed to get a group photo. how my dad, the tallest of the bunch, ended up in the front row i have no idea!

then we headed to nick's mom's house.
tried to get a family photo. we waited to long into the evening. ben wasn't feeling it.

friday:
just hung around the house. was not going out on black friday. those days are long gone!
met up with an old high school friend and her husband in the evening. she now lives in denver and was in for a few days. always good to catch up. it was now our second annual get together. maybe next year we can go to colorado! after dinner at asparagus we met up with another friend from high school and hung out at her house until an ungodly hour. time flies when you are having fun i guess. poor mary and jon, they didn't even go to bed that night. they left julie's house and went back to her mom's to pack and then headed to the airport!

julie shared with me her tosh memorabilia. they briefly dated!

saturday:

thought it would be safe to venture out. costco wasn't too awful.

did a few other things when we were out, can't for the life of me remember what they were though.

went out for a late dinner with friends to lighthouse. {i swear i gained five pounds in three days.}

when we got home, we decided to put out elfred.

{note the little reindeer donuts}

apparently, ben wasn't too impressed. but he's been nice to have. {he's popped in on occasion when ben hasn't been behaving very well. i'll have a while before i have to get really creative with him!}

sunday:

ben enjoying {maybe} his reindeer donuts. nick said he asked for cereal shortly after!

decided to clean out our front closet. ben decided to try on all of mama's shoes.

i have no clue when this was taken. but it made me smile to see his little head pop up in the second one.

then we put up all the christmas decorations. ben got to put on the first ornament. ;)

he loves the tree. has been really good with not touching what he shouldn't be touching and is so excited to turn the lights on and off!

11.19.11

2011-12-21T22:14:00.000-06:00

friday:
i'm sure the day was full of errands and cleaning. i've developed a nice little schedule.

that evening we headed to girl's night. well, nick crashed this month's outing. we were seeing breaking dawn. cindy needed to charge her phone. and nick broke his! {why we bought him a case i'll never know...}

movie was okay. the wolves talking to one another was a bit cheesy for my liking. but it wasn't terrible. i still prefer the books.

made a quick run into walmart. had heard one of the christmas gifts i was looking for might be there. so we thought it would be okay to brave it at nearly midnight on a friday night. um, no. that place is scary no matter what time of day. totally reminded me why i hate that store and why we never go there. oh how i wish i had my walmart bingo sheet when we were there. i wonder if random carts all in a row in the parking lot would have won the game for me.... there was no workers any where in site. seriously.

saturday:
nick had to work.
ben and i enjoyed music hour. he would play music and i would dance around like a fool. it was great because when nick did get home, ben asked him to dance and then told him he was doing it wrong because it wasn't silly enough!

that evening we headed downtown to howl at the moon. met up with some friends. the place was soooo crowded. it was a bit disappointing. had a blast with the company though! was an early night. some of our friends took a limo up there and were drinking the whole way there and were kinda drunk by the time we arrived! one individual even got kicked out for being a not nice person. silly boy.

jen, shan, and john chilling outside.

bill drove home in nick's car. i was hot. he wasn't a fan of my feet being up on the console!

sunday:
totally lazy day. i try so hard to make most of our sundays lazy. it's so nice to have some down time before starting the new week.
nick did work on the outside christmas lights, so he was a bit more productive than i was!

chewy is a fan of baths and showers. he likes to sit between the liners when we're in the shower. i'm pretty sure one day he's gonna end up in there with us. i hope it's nick and not me!

ten on tuesday 12.20.11

2011-12-20T21:29:00.000-06:00

- my new favorite blog. seriously, she's hysterical.
- finished my cookies for the cookie exchange yesterday. no bake! {minus the nuts, you never know who can't have em} also made some rollo pretzel combos, yum. now if only i craved sweets. i wish we did a potato chip exchange. ;P
- ben is consistently asking to go potty and hasn't had a false alarm yet. diaper isn't always dry in between potties and he doesn't ask to poop on the potty. baby steps.
- really dislike when people cannot take responsibility for their own actions. stop blaming others. you're a big boy/girl, man up! sheesh.
- i'm starting to get excited for christmas!
- pop up video is the best thing ever to watch while elliptical-ing. haven't exercised in ages. finally had a chance tonight and it was great!
- had someone from a company that i deal with regularly at work bring me a christmas present today. {not completely uncommon} and he made a big deal about how his wife picked it out, blah, blah, blah. so i'm super stoked. it's a bunch of bliss products. bring it home, open up the little package and read the bottle... 'not for resale. packaged for w hotels' {or something. the bottles are upstairs and i'm lazy. but you get the point} he gave me hotel shampoos! wtf?! now i don't feel bad for not spending time with him since we were so busy.
- finally started reading a book. hoping i can finish it by the new year!
- i still have my decorated pumpkin. i just can't throw it out. i love how i painted it and it's still in great shape.
- am still on track for my daily photos. just need to find time to upload them all!

wip 11.12.11

2011-12-19T21:59:00.000-06:00

friday:
during the day i ran some errands and cleaned. nothing too exciting.
that evening was family night with nick's dad's side of the family.

we bought ben a sled. he has a ton of fun when nick spins him on it. it's kind of nauseating. i have video... maybe someday i'll share.

gabby and ben having a dance off with the monkey.

nick making his dessert fancier! ;)

saturday:
woke up and went to breakfast with john and bill and gabby and drea. was much too long since we had a chance to hang out. good times!

then we came home and nick went to play frisbee golf with his dad and uncle.

uh oh!

ben and i headed outside to play since it was so nice. windy. but nice.
the boys ended up coming home a few minutes after we headed out. perfect timing!

he can't wait to go play with the big boys.

love.

have a similar picture from when ben was younger. ;)

ben's new favorite place to blow bubbles.

chewy enjoys bubbles.

and for some reason, ben require sunglasses to continue blowing bubbles in his jams.

sunday:
perfect way to watch toy story, right?

that evening i headed off to the operation christmas child packing party. aka occ.
here was some of the goodies that i had collected over the past year. was so easy to do with samples and some killer walgreens deals.

and for the actual party...
i have some very incriminating pictures of some people, so i'll behave and not share them! {well, sorry val. the group photo pic of you isn't the greatest... but majority rules!}

i think we packed over 330 boxes. yay us.

wordless wednesday. the cutest little santa.

2011-12-14T20:03:00.000-06:00

{trying on our santa hustle loot.}

ten on tuesday 12.13.11

2011-12-13T19:53:00.001-06:00

- today's date is totally messing with my dyslexic self.
- only need one gift card and i'm done christmas shopping. and it's an amazon one, so that's easy! {feels so nice to be done and not be stressed!}
- the presents are even wrapped. go me! {nick did help a bit.}
- and all of the presents are under the tree. nick thinks it is more festive that way. and ben has been wonderful with leaving them alone even though he can see all of his pressies from mama and dada.
- finally caved and let my girlfriend cut my hair. she already does ben's and nick's. it was great! she came to us and it was only $20. awesome! next time we're coloring too. i'm excited.
- polar express is still in heavy rotation. i love that he now sometimes dances to the songs and maybe even sings along. so cute.
- found a new way to display our christmas cards. thank you pinterest. i did the ribbon down the cabinet idea. love that we can see everyone's pictures and they aren't tucked away in a basket or holder.
- experienced this delicious beverage over the weekend. it you like horchata i would definitely recommend it. so tasty.
- my christmas cards should arrive tomorrow. i can't believe they took so long to ship. apparently, everyone was ordering their cards last weekend. and the post office ran out of holiday stamps! oh well...
- not sure i should admit it, but ben is surprisingly good at mario kart. :)

project spare closet.

2011-12-12T20:42:00.000-06:00

four hours. to clean out the closet in our spare bedroom.
that closet has accumulated stuff since we moved in. so a little more than 8 years.
it's sooo nice now. i'm so glad i posted on here that i was gonna do it. and that i actually did!

i took before and after pictures.
i'm kind of embarrassed at how amazingly awful it was. and if you look at the before and think that it's not too bad, then the picture isn't doing it justice! :)

before.

after.

the amount of crap in there was insane. i was able to set aside some paper and craft supplies for ben, for a coworker's daughter, and for ben's daycare. nuts. i also had at least two giant garbage bags full of stuff. maybe i should have taken a picture of all of that stuff. that would have been the real eye opener!

i couldn't bring myself to get rid of everything, event hough it hadn't been used in at least 4 years. baby steps! hoping to tackle the study sometime early next year and then i'm sure i'll get rid of the stuff i just couldn't part with just yet.

ten on thursday. 12.8.11

2011-12-08T23:00:00.000-06:00

because it's been that kind of week....

- ben is enamored with the polar express. found out by complete accident tuesday evening. had to run out to target yesterday because he wouldn't stop asking for it!
- christmas shopping is 95% done. will be 100% done tomorrow. woot woot! {i think this is the earliest i have been done. ever!}
- the reason we are almost completely done with shopping, is because we didn't participate in the santa hustle this weekend. the weather was rainy and i am not getting sick before the holiday. we decided to sleep in and my mom came over later so nick and i could run out and do our shopping. so it totally worked out! :)
- it doesn't feel like christmas. i blame the lack of snow. it's just weird that it hasn't snowed yet. {i think we're close to setting a record for latest snowfall!}
- i love flannel sheets.
- i think my husband is pretty amazing. love that he let me sleep the past few days. i think it was partly because after ben went to bed, he could play video games for hours uninterrupted by his wife!
- ben loves all the christmas decorations, especially lights outside. i think we're gonna have to drive around one evening. {i'm thinking the crown point show isn't gonna jive with our schedule.}
- why when i finally catch up on grey's and something totally not cool happens must they take a hiatus. seriously?
- love that ben now uses seriously in context when talking with nick or i. it's hysterical. 'serwiouswy dada'
- didn't get to watch top chef last night. for some reason our dvr decided not to record it. thankfully, we caught it and were able to record the repeat. hoping to watch it tonight! but maybe it was meant to happen. i had seven blissful hours of straight sleep last night. feeling much better!

the one with crazy sleeps.

2011-12-07T20:40:00.001-06:00

i was doing so well with posting and then this week happened.

this was how i started off monday morning.
in the work microwave...

and it just didn't seem to get back on track.

i usually set up all of my blog posts for the week on monday. that just didn't happen this week. i have been exhausted. fell asleep around 630 pm monday evening. that never happens. woke up around 11 pm and then couldn't go back to sleep. i finally did around 130 am which made my 545 am alarm pretty painful. and then i just repeated the cycle yesterday. was asleep around 7 pm. up at 10 pm. back to bed around 12 am. my goal this evening was to not lie down. i figured if i didn't lay down and get all warm and toasty under a blanket, maybe i could make it! and so far, i have. now my goal is to watch top chef and then fall asleep!

and for those of you thinking my fatigue might be caused by some medical condition, nope. ;) just tried another birth control experiment and clearly they are not for me any more. i quit them a while back and was a much happier, less sleepy being. decided to try another kind a few months ago and i just get crabbier and more exhausted and forgetful {which could be from the fatigue} and some killer headaches {and i never get headaches} with each passing month. might be too much information... if so, sorry! but i want to put it out there, so if i get an itch to try yet another kind in a few months, i have a written reminder of just how bad they make me feel. even the doctors thought it wasn't the birth control, but i have no other explanation. blood work was okay and i felt human when i stopped them, so it must be them... right? well, that's the theory in the pressner household. i guess we'll find out in a few months!

wip 11.5.11

2011-12-01T21:29:00.000-06:00

friday:
nick and i dropped ben off at daycare and went to go pick up everyone's packets in chicago for the hot chocolate.
stopped at the scrambled diner for breakfast. yum.

one of us didn't have breakfast for breakfast...

somebody with all ten baggies!

then we stopped at cooper's hawk. had been way too long. since april actually. we had a ton of wine to pick up! so we made a point to go there for lunch.

started with our free tasting.

somebody is silly.

yes, that's two cases of wine in my trunk. plus two additional bottles. and then the ten baggies for the hot chocolate!

had a great lunch. love spending time with nick. so many times we go out and it's with others. nice to know that i do really like him. :P

that evening we headed to nick's mom's house. had a just because dinner.

the cousins. i swear, ben is in there... {we weren't quick enough to get the picture of them all sitting nicely.}

and ben loves aunt michelle. but he really loves her when it's time for whip creme!

and i kinda, sorta taught ben to stick his stickers on his face... was trying to be entertaining and it's now stuck. {ha! i just meant, he likes to do it regularly!}

saturday:
up and at em bright and early.
the morning was a bit hectic. the boys actually had to drop us girls off and they went and parked the car.

group photo before we all split up.

a few shots during the race courtesy of miss megan.

us with the chocolate guy at the end!

meg and nick.

me and nick with dave giving us stinky eye.

somebody is tired.

and someone else.

and her too.

all of us crammed in the car.

and our super delicious lunch.

came home and was exhausted. somehow we ended up making it to the grocery store since it had been about two weeks. i was so tired that i didn't notice my brother stalking us in the store. he finally had to come up to us and ask why we were so brain dead!!

those early mornings wear me out.

sunday:
a day of football with my boys. great way to end the weekend.

wip 10.29.11

2011-11-30T20:55:00.000-06:00

friday:
field trip day.
took ben to my work, nick's work, and my grandma's to visit. everyone was asking about ben's costume and my mom happened to be off for fall break, so we planned a lunch with my grandma. the others kinda just fell into place after that.

{pardon the photos. all were taken on my iphone...}

somebody found a flag in his toy box and insisted on running down the sidewalk with it before we left.

he is obsessed with the water dispenser at nick's work.

eating his favorite hamburgers.

trying on mommies new shoes.

saturday:
oy.
lots going on. lots of decisions.
were able to make it out to see nick's nana at hospice. {we had tried to go as frequently as possibly. it's so hard with work and that it wasn't exactly close to us.} stayed for a few hours and headed home.

had a murder mystery party at the cooper's that evening. nick wasn't sure what he wanted to do. but in the end, decided we should go to take our mind off of everything that had been going on. about an hour or so before we were leaving, we got the phone call that his nana had passed away. i'm so glad that we made it out there and had just spent time with her a few hours previous. and nick still wanted to go to the party.

it was unlike any murder mystery party we had attended. was my favorite by far. jay and christy {or should i say christy} did an amazing job. the house was decorated. the food was great. and although nick was a camera touting tourist, he didn't take many pictures!

i have this one before we got started. and i won't embarrass the others by sharing theirs. ;)

sunday:
a day to breathe. sort of. we did a boatload around the house since we hadn't been home much.

ben even helped.

then the boys had a house call for their haircuts. thank you val. you make my life easier! :) she even took nick's pants home to hem. love her.

totally needed that lazy day to catch up. was nice to have a clean house and some non shaggy boys!

ten on tuesday. 11.29.11

2011-11-29T19:49:00.001-06:00

- had a patient tell me they tore their rotisserie cuff the other day. and she corrected me when i called it a rotator cuff. really?
- told ben i had to go to the bathroom. he said, 'ok momma' left and came back into the room with a wipe. so funny.
- christmas decorations are up! minus the outside lights. but the 40 mph wind gusts haven't been very conducive to outdoor projects.
- love shopping for christmas. online. got a bunch of boxes the past two days. so close to done!
- now just to get them wrapped...
- have an itch to go to hallmark. i think putting all the ornaments up made me wanna check out the new ones this year. might have to stop tomorrow on my way home...
- am giving myself a project for this friday: upstairs closet. so needs to be done. thinking i might hold myself accountable if i put it here.
- pinterest is being uncooperative again. thus, no linkies today. ;(
- really wishing i had the desire to read a book. so am not in the mood as of late.
- nick picked up our race packets for this weekend. it's just the two of us. i'm kinda excited for a date run with my hubs! and the goody bags are awesome!

wip 10.22.11

2011-11-24T09:00:00.000-06:00

friday:
nothing too exciting.
hair appointment and came home to this on my doorstep. ;)

i love zappos. however, i had to send these back. weren't exactly what i was looking for... but a few days later, another pair wound up on my doorstep and stayed. love them. now if only i can convince nick that i need a pair in black too...

saturday:
up and at em early.
nick and dave were running in the monster dash. so steph and i tagged along with the kiddos.

nick and ben all dressed up.

little miss sage all bundled up.

mario and waldo. if nick would have known, he would have gone as luigi. but that would have required dave to buy his outfit some time other than 24 hours prior to the start of the race!

a family photo op after. not the greatest.

everyone crammed onto the tram. poor little sagers.

the kids were crabby, so instead of hanging around for the awards, we went home. it would have meant waiting like four hours and we just weren't up for that. found out the next day, that had we stayed, nick would have gotten a trophy. he finished something crazy like 5th overall. {2nd in his age class.}

that evening we went out to 'the carrot' for dinner with friends.

hugging the birthday boy.

cheers. me, john, and steph. with a few stragglers in the background.

was an early evening. we had a long day!

sunday:
went to potawatomi zoo for their halloween festivities. nick's sister invited us. thought ben would totally enjoy it. and he did!

the dragon checking out the tiger. ;)

a quick shot of the kids. we're missing one... i believe he was in a stroller.

then we split up because it was just too crazy.

ben not sure what he thinks of this mummy.

the coolest pumpkins. totally perfect for the petting zoo!

ben checking out some goats. there was one just a few feet away. he's lucky he didn't get a kiss.

cheese.

love bug.

waiting patiently to ride the train.

all aboard.

the shadows made me smile.

check out those teeth! i've never seen one smiling before.

a little birdie wanted some nerds.

smile. mommy and ben. <3

when we were done we tried to get in touch with nick's sister, but they had left.
so we had nothing but time. they have this huge area full of leaves right outside of the zoo. it's amazing. this tree lover was in heaven. and even more so, when ben was agreeable and played in the leaves. not the easiest target out in the elements. but oh well. i'll take em.

trying to convince ben that it's more fun to throw leaves than the football he got at the zoo!

love autumn.

there was a pretty big pile in the middle of the field.

yay. another mommy and ben photo. i love that nick will take pictures too!

all done. we're tired and hungry.
decided to go to between the buns. got a coupon trick or treating at the zoo. thought why not? something new.

i spy purdue pete on a notre dame menu. {and ben totally, spontaneously did boiler up while we were at the restaurant. i was a little nervous until i saw some boilers a few booths down. they were laughing. phew!}

this bloody mary was HUGE!

food was good. i'm glad we tried it. it was also a way to pass some time. they were moving nick's nana to hospice and by stopping here, we bought some time and were able to stop by on our way home.

and i'm tired. another long weekend!

wordless wednesday: attack of the sticker monster.

2011-11-23T21:46:00.000-06:00

twelve on tuesday. 11.22.11

2011-11-22T21:24:00.000-06:00

an all ben edition.
because i was planning this on his 32 month birthday... but that's turkey day, so i changed my mind!

- went downstairs with nick and came upstairs with a 'new toy' from the basement {we recycle toys regularly}. i asked him what he had and he replied, 'a basketball hoot.'
- knows how to work the playstation to play his movies {turning it on, putting in disc, and what buttons to push on the controller to get it started.} i think we're in trouble!
- you know you're a parent of a little boy when you find a rock in your bed.
- ben has finally agreed to watch something other than the cars movie, wipeout, or dinosaur train. he watched thomas like 7 times over the weekend. {note to self: record chuggington. and auntie, whenever i think of thomas, i think of matthew's homemade halloween costume!}
- we are officially binky free! was a rough few days. thank you to wonderful grandmas who had to babysit when we decided to kick the habit.
- walked around saying he was a 'big boy' during this process. only to say, 'i'm a baby' when it was time for bed. so sweet.
- talks to the kitties in a totally hilarious, high pitched voice. makes me laugh every time. maybe one day i'll think to record him when he feeds them.
- i thought ben was gonna freak out in the car on the way home today. we saw 'frank'. one of the corn fields was being plowed on the way home. it was great! he was mesmerized. sat there completely wide eyed. told nick about it immediately when we got home.
- he's started making this completely ridiculous surprised face. so funny. and i love that he holds this pose for added drama.
- refuses booster seats or high chairs when we are out at restaurants. {refer to big boy comment above!}
- loves wearing hats. we have a visor and an old baseball hat in his toy area. he insists on wearing at least one of them while playing baseball or football. and if you leave a random hat out, he'll have it on his head almost instantly.
- is totally diggin yankee doodle dandy {there are a boat load of lyrics for that one!} and the days of the week song.

dear christmas.

2011-11-21T21:15:00.001-06:00

i saw this {on pinterest... surprise, surprise} and couldn't agree more.

source.

so weird to see my neighbors have pumpkins and christmas trees outside.
i can't imagine eating thanksgiving dinner with a christmas tree up! i know there are exceptions with family coming in and not being able to celebrate at certain times. but in general, i just don't get it. put the tree up the day after thanksgiving and you still have a month to enjoy all your pretty decorations.. or more if you're the crazies that keep the tree up until mid january! {and if a certain someone is reading this.. yes, you! ;P}

wordless wednesday. somebody got mail!

2011-11-16T20:21:00.001-06:00

{thank you sooo much carrie! we still have the first one too!}

ten on tuesday 11.15.11

2011-11-15T19:25:00.001-06:00

- one of the routes that i take to works leads me down a residential street. they have piles upon piles of leaves on both sides of the road. i have an overwhelming urge to drive through them! {so far, i've resisted...}
- had the occ packing party sunday. it was a success. over 370 boxes packed. i'm starting to save stuff for next year already!
- was going to link some recent recipes but pinterest hates me. {and i'm beyond annoyed with all their 'hiccups'}
- bought part of my outfit for the santa hustle. sooo excited. hope it fits!
- went to a norwex party last night. totally strange to this medical professional that i can kill salmonella with just water and this towel. her demonstration was pretty convincing. so i did buy a few things. we'll see how sparkly clean i can get this house with their stuff. and the rep ended up being the mom of someone i went to high school with!
- excited for howl at the moon this weekend.
- am liking twilight less and less. {i blame pinterest.} bella is a pretty lame heroine. my life sucks. two guys love me. hermione. she kicks ass. not afraid to be smart. i hate that i'm comparing wizards and vampires. hoping that the movie doesn't disappoint this weekend.
- who knew an app about frogs could be so damn addicting. and there's a cheat website for it. really?!
- cannot get enough mumford and sons right now.
- just tried pinterest again. still hates me. and that's like 45 minutes later since i'm the worst at coming up with these lists. and i'm easily distracted. so phone calls and texting tend to interrupt!

wip 10.15.11

2011-11-14T21:32:00.001-06:00

friday:
the start of our insane 24 hours!

drove to st. charles for robin and ryan's wedding.
it was uber windy outside. and a bit chilly.

two super cute flower girls with their grammy. :)

loved all the different colored dresses. so fun for fall!

aw!

waiting for dinner.

yay! her shower gift at the seating table. makes my heart happy!

the mini coopers in a mini cooper. ;)

gotta love ry's smile.

you knew there would be a selfy.

this one gives me flashbacks. totally reminds me of tom and jen's wedding.

then we left st charles and drove to chicago. got there around 1215 am. just to have dave fall asleep after we called and asked him to let us in their building. finally made it to their condo at like 1230. then we chatted. then we played with baby sage. then we slept.

saturday:
early wake up call. like 545 early. oof!
then it was off to the urbanathalon. such a cool experience. would totally do it again. not sure i would do the entire thing. i'm a big fan of our relay team... go hot mommies {thanks for the killer name steph!}.

i did the first leg of our relay. i had to run a little more than three miles and do some crazy obstacles. {like scale a giant tractor tire! was the first thing i saw and was immediately cursing! then i had to hop police barriers and do a tire run. the next set was a different police barrier and a cargo crawl.} was able to make it to the finish line to see nick cross!

here's a shot of the last obstacle. well, before the giant wall they had to scale.

there's a nicholas in this picture....

just after he crossed the finish line.

with his medal.

dave looks extremely happy to be finished.

;)

so proud of the boys. they hung together until the soldier field obstacle {a bazillion stairs}.

our team.

you could climb around on the last obstacle. we took quite a few pictures. this one totally makes me smile.

love the city in the background.

and just some of the mud the boys endured.

then we came home. i took like a 30 minute power nap and we headed right back out.
stopped by my parent's to help them with a few things since they were able to move all their stuff back in.

ben entertaining me with a mini laundry basket. i love that kid.

and the boys hard at work.

then we headed to see nick's nana at her new place {assisted living} and celebrate nick's mom's birthday. phew!

nick's family had spent all day moving nana in. we made it in time for dinner and cake.

and a family photo op with nana.

nick and i were exhausted. but we made ourselves go. it's so easy to say that we're tired or there will be another day but we sucked it up and went. and i'm so glad we did. {these are the last pictures we have of nana. this was her last day of being truly with us. she was taken to the hospital the very next day and passed two weeks later.}

sunday:
we didn't leave the house.
all of the following photos were taken on my phone. so pardon the blurriness.

ben enjoying his colored rice.

then we built a fort.

and ben thought his frisbee was a hat.

and lost his pants. and decided that jumping off the couch could only be done with a hat and no pants.

the end.
;)

halloween 2011

2011-11-09T21:28:00.000-06:00

love halloween.
so fun to see all the wee ones dressed up. and i think it's fun to dress up too!

very thankful that my job lets us dress up for work.

here are the four 'cool' people who dressed up!

i got a ton of compliments on my costume. it was cheap and comfy. i loved it!

ben had a halloween party at school. i didn't attend this year. but he said he had a good time and he came home with some pretty full goodie bags!
he was so excited to go trick or treating. we practiced what we say the entire car ride home. he was ready! however, when it came time to go outside, he wanted to ride his bike instead!

family photo op!

told ben it was time to go trick or treating and he said, 'ok' and proceeded to dig candy out of our bag. he would not agree to put it back in the bag, so he walked around with a sucker.

first house.

i believe this was the third house. he told me, 'i do it myself' and then told me where to wait for him. mr. independent.

made it back home. he did the majority of our block. {couldn't believe that one of the houses had their sidewalk barricaded off. they used their garbage cans and you couldn't get past their driveway. lame.}

getting ready to check out his loot.

saying cheese with gigi.

our pumpkin collection. ben's is inside... oops!

ben is a choco-holic. loved that he got some hershey kisses. and a certain grandparent, ahem gigi, let him eat all five! oh well, it's only halloween once a year. ;)

ben was very helpful in handing out candy. he said trick or trick and you're welcome to all of the kids. and he was very generous. we had one child ask if it was okay to keep everything that ben put in his pillowcase. {that parent should be proud!}

with grandma and grandpa.

the clown and waldo.

silly nick. i mean, waldo.

had the cutest monkey and ariel come visit. they had scored popcorn from a neighbor. apparently, he pulls out an old fashion machine and hands it out every year. we must venture a bit further next year! also, heard that one of the neighbors was handing out ramen. had a few kids ask us if we knew where to go to get it!

and miss maddi all dressed up too! and i guess robin could be considered in costume. kind of a bonus when your uniform could double as a costume, right?

such a fun evening. so great to spend time with loved ones. so thankful the weather was cooperative and it didn't rain or snow and was relatively warm! so happy that ben had a great time. looking forward to next year already! ;)

ten on tuesday. 11.8.11

2011-11-08T20:47:00.000-06:00

- the hot chocolate this weekend was crowded. like almost too crowded to run. but the chocolate was yummy. and i did it. ran the entire way. well, except when some family member lovingly pulled my pony to get my attention... then we chatted and i walked for a few moments. then i was off. i think it was just over a 13 minute mile. so a little over 40 minutes for the total. and i'm beyond happy with that. ;)
- i love fleet feet. they totally let me return my shoes that i bought three weeks ago. never wore them running. just to work and on the elliptical and trick or treating... ended up with red marks on my pinky toes after the race. got me some shiny new kicks for an even exchange. awesome!
- signed up for another run. this one is in december! can't decide if i want it to snow or not! i think this one might just be the two of us. we'll see.
- ben will actually watch another cartoon. cars has been his go to favorite. we were able to convince him to watch toy story for a bit tonight instead and i think he liked it. we tried ice age and he hated it. got scared when the baby was all alone. and he tolerated madagascar.
- i miss sunshine. i know we're back on 'regular' time. but i so don't like going to work when it's dark. or coming home when it's dark.
- am in the mood to read, but i cannot decide on what to read. sucks.
- 'people generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.' - said by judge taylor in to kill a mockingbird. one of my favorite books. and so totally true. {note to self: please stop doing that!}
- and speaking of favorites, one of my all time favorite movies was on pw's website. check it out.
- i feel like this post is way link heavy.
- love that my hubby is a geek. totally figured out what was wrong with my itunes and apps after upgrading to the new operating system. love him. i so do not have the patience for that sort of stuff.

wip 10.8.11

2011-11-07T20:25:00.000-06:00

friday:
worked. and girl's night out for nick's mom's birthday.

i cleaned out one of my drawers in the bathroom. got rid of a ton of old rubber bands. ben is a garbage picker. he totally dug them all out and proceeded to wear them! what can i say? the boy loves his bracelets! ;)

had dinner at hamada. and saw the ides of march.
gave gigi her new kitchen aid mixer. happy birthday. merry christmas. happy mother's day to her from all of her children and her sister.

saturday:
it was sooo nice outside.
we took a family bike ride. love all the trails by our house. stopped at a playground along the way so ben could stretch his legs.

they had the coolest swings. i just couldn't help myself.

then we headed to dairy queen. love that there is a food stop along the way.

yes, he is putting a goldfish cracker on my spoon. {we enjoyed creeping daddy out with our strange food combination.}

good to the last drop. i think his cereal eating skills came into play here...

then we turned and headed back.
was a long 8 miles back...
wee man fell asleep. in the beginning he kept letting his head fall backwards and kept hitting my chest. then he finally slouched over onto my arm. lemme tell ya, that was comfortable... not.

and a close up of sweet mr. ben.

headed to my parents to grab some peppers and pumpkins.

their house was currently under construction from the damage they had back from that storm when they were repairing their roof.

yay pumpkins from the meyer pumpkin patch!

ben loves helping grandpa pick the peppers and tomatoes.

silly boy wouldn't listen to us and ate a jalapeno.

he told us, 'it's not spicy' after he took a bite. nick begged to differ!

then we came home and passed out. was a long day in the sun. i was ready for my comfy bed.

sunday:

somebody has a sticker obsession.

then we headed outside. nick wanted to finish up some stuff with the shed.
ben loves it. his favorite part is jumping off of it!

but he thought his tri-cycle was more fun today. i have no idea where he learned to do a wheelie.

i'm pretty sure he learned to work on 'cars' from uncle kevin. ;D

then it was back to the shed. and a super fun game of throwing a ball through the windows. seriously, was probably a good 30 minutes of entertainment. it's the little things!

then it was a nice relaxing evening inside with the boys.

made a nice dinner: brussel sprouts {can't find the recipe now} and super, yummy chicken. thumbs up from all three of us. love when that happens!

and getting used to a new kitty. meet chewbacca. {not the prettiest picture. but he is handsome.}

ten on thursday 11.3.11

2011-11-03T11:37:00.000-05:00

because life just got a wee bit crazy around here.

- ben loved halloween. he loved trick or treating. and was mr. independent and wanted to 'do it by myself mama.' and he did. he also gave out handfuls of candy to our trick or treaters. was so sweet. one boy was like, 'can i really keep all of it!?'
- my kid is a rockstar. seriously, he did so awesome at nick's nana's memorial service yesterday. so proud.
- i love my husband. i love that he's my best friend. that we're partners. that we can anticipate what each other needs without words. we just know. like that dirty martini yesterday evening at the memorial dinner. perfect. ;)
- top chef texas. oh yeah!
- had high hopes for running {not run/walking} this hot chocolate. however, the fact that i haven't ran in two weeks has totally changed my goals. i just wanna finish! {maybe in 40 minutes. we'll see if i change that before saturday.}
- i found this. and am obsessed. some of them are beyond spot on. like the high expectations. so me. i go in spurts with astrology. not sure i believe in horoscopes and all that... but these were fun to read.
- i just finished watching kim's fairytale wedding. yup. finished the day after the big d announcement. i love khloe.
-my boyfriend was on jimmy fallon last night. you know what that means?! history of rap. part 3.
- ben has gone back to calling me 'mama'. it totally melts me. nick is still daddy. or nick!
- even though i love halloween, i couldn't stand the decorations any more. nick yelled at me when i tried to take everything down on monday. told me it was too soon! it's on the top of my to do list for this evening. ;P

wordless wednesday. leaves!

2011-10-26T23:39:00.000-05:00

south bend, indiana. 10.23.11

ten on tuesday 10.25.11

2011-10-25T21:55:00.001-05:00

- a coworker/girlfriend invited a new word for my shabster dictionary. hilestical. a combo of hysterical and hilarious. was so funny when it happened!
- i believe in manners. whistling is not a proper way to get a human being's attention. so when i hear whistling at work, i don't usually investigate. i guess last week i should have, because that is how one of my patients was trying to get me to come back to her recliner. i did inform her that there were many other more effective ways in calling me over to her. that any of the following would have sufficed: nurse, excuse miss, miss, mam, pardon me.
- i had my first starbucks spiced pumpkin latte ever. eh. i'm just not a fan of pumpkin.
- last night ben found something in his nightstand that resembled nick's contact case. {it might actually be a case for the case with a mirror.} he proceeded to open the case, pretend to take something out of it, and then poked his eye. he looked at me and said he was using 'eye tacts' like daddy.
- today when i woke ben up, he told me it wasn't time yet. that there was no sun. yes, beans winter stinks.
- i love thunder. really gonna miss it the next few months.
- was looking for something different for dinner. really there's only so many variations on mexican and italian. found this recipe. we don't have many 'southern' recipes. totally a keeper. was a bit spicy. ben ate it but drank a bunch of milk. so if you don't like spicy be warned.
- finally got nick to watch bridesmaids. so happy he enjoyed it. and melissa mccarthy makes that movie.
- tomorrow is not gonna be fun at work. i'm hoping i can be my pessimistic self and believe that it's going to be worse than it actually will be just so i can be pleasantly surprised when it doesn't completely kick my ass!
- thinks it's funny how things work out. like when you're not sure you want to do something and yet you do and then it kinda snow balls and in the end it turns out that that's what you were supposed to do in the first place because you're able to end up at the right place at the right time. feel like i had a bit of kismet happening this weekend...

wip 10.1.11

2011-10-24T22:02:00.001-05:00

friday:
i cannot for the life of me remember what i did during the day. seriously, i need to get back on track with these! or put better notes in my phone!
in the evening, we walked to jay and christy's for wynn's birthday festivities. or wynnie as ben calls her. ;)
my pictures aren't the greatest. ben was obsessed with this gun that aunt gerri got her. too bad she bought in on some crazy road trip to somewhere in illinois. and by crazy i mean like, champaign!

and of course there are some pictures of jason and nick playing. i swear, sometimes they enjoy these get togethers a little too much! ;)

saturday:
decided to head to the apple orchard. love that it's one of our traditions. i believe nick and i have gone 7/8 years that we've been married. and we are 3/3 with ben!

it was a brisk day. but we toughed it out. so glad we did!

i tried to snuggle up with beaner on the tractor ride.

somebody was excited to be let loose!

with jer bear and gibi.

nick and ben.

yay the pressners!

mr. noah enjoying his apple.

the cousins.

baseball tradition. we are such rule breakers!

hanging out under some trees.

walking with gibi.

noah and gibi. such a cute picture.

i love him.

i think someone was in awe of all the pumpkins.

not a fan of the sunflower!

and he wanted to ride the train all by himself. sigh. such a big boy now.

once we got home, nick and his dad started working on the shed. so lucky to have someone who wants to help nick with projects. :)

sunday:
we had to be up and at em bright and early.
we ran the bucktown 5k. {maybe i should use the term loosely. i wogged. aka walk jogged.}

the girls. {pre}

the boys. {pre}

us {post}

and every one. {post}

was totally fun. and exhausting. enjoyed a late breakfast at i can't remember where... ah, thank you facebook. at the southern. was interesting. had a buffet. think they were prepared for all of us crazy runners.

then we came home and nick decided to work on the shed again. yup, his dad came to help.

bean and i did some yard work.
he enjoyed using the branches i trimmed, to hit other branches. we had leaves everywhere. but that's okay. he had a blast.

his new favorite past time has been jumping. from the bottom stair. from his step stool. from the curb. so he was thrilled when he figured out he could jump from the beginnings of the shed.

helping clean.

and the boys deep in thought.

totally long weekend. totally exhausting. i think we were in bed before 9 which is completely unheard of for us!

woohoo wednesday: potty time!

2011-10-19T23:53:00.000-05:00

so might be a complete fluke. not sure i'm counting on him to do it again... but somebody went poop on the potty tonight! ;)

took some convincing and some tears and some bribing of candy corn pumpkins during bath time but he did it!{and nick was so patient and good with him. he should get all of the credit.}

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

ten on tuesday 10.18.11

2011-10-18T23:28:00.000-05:00

- i had to buy new running shoes. {it's only been 2 /2 years.} not that i've ran that entire time. but i'm told shoes are like a bag of marshmallows, they get harder with time! hoping they make my runs easier.
- nick and i were so exhausted after our uber crazy friday and saturday that we were both in bed by 830 saturday evening. party animals, right?
- just found out about these litter boxes. we are now the proud owner of two. hope the cats can figure it out. i'm gonna love not having litter every where!
- everyone thinks my 'work' pumpkin is a zebra. do zebras have circles? no, it's a tree! i guess that's what i get for doing it in black and white!
- am not ready for winter. i hate this darkness. i need sunlight!
- totally rooting for viktor on project runway. {i so don't want josh to win.}
- i enjoy long car rides with my hubs. so great to just sit and chat with no interruptions. {not counting gps!}
- today nick picked ben up from school, of course they stopped and saw ben's favorite tractors, but then ben started telling nick where to drive. and he took him on this route that we never go. nick asked him why they were going that way and he said, 'to look at the pretty trees.' i love that kid.
- ben has also been on a cereal kick. he had about four bowls for breakfast one morning. he then asked for cereal for lunch and ate an additional four bowls.
- am so ready for halloween. it's my favorite!

june and july 2011 shuttercal

2011-10-17T21:13:00.000-05:00

i'm still going... a bit behind in sharing, but have the photos!

june and july.

wip 9.24.11

2011-10-13T22:27:00.000-05:00

friday:
i worked. which turned out to make my day quite stressful. i thought i could squeeze in grocery shopping after work and before ben's pediatrician appointment. can you say rushed?! oh well, it's done. i survived. and we made it to the appointment.

the only picture i have is of me stopping at the town hall for our building permit. totally would have forgot that i had stopped there if it wasn't for this iphone photo. maybe i should take more pictures, so i can really remember what i do!

so work. grocery shopping. building permit. pediatrician appointment. phew. and nick was stuck at work until about 530 that night. needless to say, we did nothing that evening.

saturday:
work on the shed begins!

the new front door. {yay fresh coats of paint. removing the grid from the screen. new rectangles on the bottom}

k. back to the shed. ben helping daddy measure.

ben and i left daddy to do the hard work and we headed to grandma and grandpa's.
ben planted some pumpkins with grandpa in like july {it's in a weekend post, i swear it is...} and now it's time to pick em!

ben enjoyed helping with the tomatoes and peppers. he didn't understand putting the tomatoes gently into the bucket. we had a few causalities.

saturday evening was robin and ryan's bachelorette/bachelor party. notice the bizarre colored shot in front of me? it's gross. if anyone ever offers you a seven layer shot, say no. just saying. ;)

i kicked some serious bootay at trivia. yay tickets. {which were all donated to the soon to be bride and groom!}

i love the intense concentration. we are a competitive bunch!

cheese!

ryan actually stepped away from the shuffle board and played some dance dance revolution. who knew?!

sunday:
oof. early morning after a later than anticipated evening. we were both pretty freaking tired. nick and the boys went frisbee golfing again.

ben and i played and played and then napped! :)

i'm pretty sure that card dominos was the highlight. yes, i make up games! keeps everyone entertained and that's all that matters. oh and nick sucks at card dominos. :P

wordless wednesday: 2 pumpkins

2011-10-12T22:30:00.000-05:00

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

ten on tuesday 10.11.11

2011-10-11T20:54:00.000-05:00

- ben is too sweet. the other day at dinner ben wanted a potato chip. i told him he could only have one if he ate a piece of his chicken. he said, 'two of em'. i told him if he ate two piece of chicken, i would give him two potato chips. his response, 'ok!' so he ate two pieces of chicken and i gave him two potato chips. he immediately turned to nick and said, 'here daddy, i share.' aw. bless his lil heart!
- found out i can't have music this weekend at the urbanathalon. i might die. my girlfriend told me she sings the abc's. i'm totally doing it.{oh and i'm so not ready!}
- nick had to get new running shoes. i went with and couldn't help but buy the cutest jacket. now, i have to run to get my money's worth, right?
- we inherited a new kitty friday. his name is chewbacca. and no, nick didn't name him. he came with it. {totally perfect for a nick pet!} chewy and orbit are learning to tolerate each other. i gave them both catnip monday night. i think it's totally helping. :)
- looking forward to doing the cha cha slide at a wedding friday. they better play it!
- cannot believe how crazy our weekend is going to be. well, at least friday and saturday. {weddings, and slumber parties, and running with obstacles. oh my!} i'm hoping we have recouperation time sunday.
- saw the ides of march friday. eh. i want to see 50/50 but i'm not sure i can do it in public. might be a 'in the privacy of my own home' kinda movie. afraid it's gonna hit too close to home.
- can make some recipe suggestions. {i love pinterest!} cheddar cracker chicken. i'm drooling just thinking about it. i had more chicken than the recipe called for, so i used a whole sleeve of crackers, a bag of cheese, four scallions, and three cloves of garlic. yum! stuffed meatballs. make these are serve on spaghetti or a nice sub. cheesy bacon biscuits. a nice something different for breakfast. totally easy too!
- watched the chicago marathon on tv sunday. nick laughed at me. asked, really? then five minutes later he got up and went out to run. seriously, so inspiring. i cannot fathom running 26+ miles. they are all amazing. ;)
- trying to update this blog and nick is making me play quarrel with him. i might have to download it too...

wip 9.17.11

2011-10-10T22:01:00.000-05:00

friday:
up early after a late night with the girl's. my chiro appointment was not fun. i decided that there was no way i was going to survive grocery shopping and all the other errands i had to complete, without starbucks! ;)

when i got home, i dyed ben's new favorite toy. the colored rice!

the colors were so amazingly vibrant. the storage situation has changed. i just didn't have a big enough container for it. now i do! ;) just don't have a picture of it...

one of my stops was target. bought ben a smaller pillow pet. he had been on a pillow kick and his regular pillow pet is just too big. this was perfect! i guess he thought so too. he decided to try it out immediately. laid down right in the kitchen. silly boy!

watched the next three days with jer bear and gibi. love impromptu get togethers.

saturday:
crazy morning. my mom came over to babysit so nick and i could paint the door. here's the before. you'll see the after in the next wip post! gross, right? ;)

then my dad rode his bike over. and then the comcast guy was over to install everything. {we're trying comcast for a month, we'll save quite a few dollars in doing so.}

in the afternoon we ran some errands. so funny because i only have one picture on my cameras from this day.

the campfire smores frozen custard from culver's! {maybe i realized i hadn't taken any yet and snapped this one. i think i've only missed one day so far this year for my photo calendar.}

sunday:
lazy day home for ben and i. the boys {nick, jason, john, and jerry} went to play frisbee golf.
again, i only have like one picture on all the cameras. apparently, i wasn't in a picture mood or something!

ben has so much fun with these frogs my mom gave him when we were in vegas. i moved the ottoman up against the wall, and he immediately learned he could climb on it to reach all of the froggies that normally he had to ask us to get! seriously, we played for at least an hour with these things!

wordless wednesday. bucktown 5k.

2011-10-05T19:23:00.001-05:00

first two pics courtesy of jamie's phone. third pic via my iphone. and last pic stolen from stephanie. so it might not be the greatest... ;)

ten on tuesday 10.4.11

2011-10-04T19:57:00.000-05:00

- at work i was recently asked by a patient's family member, 'who is servicing my mother?' um, as far as i know, no one. we are not an oil express or a hooker. really? who uses that terminology?
- completed my first 5k. and at my goal pace of under 40 minutes {13 min/mile} despite my iphone being on shake to shuffle, so everytime i moved my song changed. and i couldn't, for the life of me, figure out how to change it! i pretty much had my own techno beat for the entire time. way annoying! and the good news, my ankles are starting to hurt less today. only took two dang days. here's hoping the next two races are easier!
- nick finished his first 5k in 23 minutes. he's amazing.
- we have a shed! it's really pretty. so thankful that i have a handy hubby. <3
- ben can now tell us what he's eaten at daycare. so cute to see him remember. like today... he recalled casserole. yay!
- halloween costumes for all three of us are ordered. let's hope they all fit.
- haven't started watching this season of grey's yet.
- up all night is hysterical. i swear nick thinks he is will arnett's character. me, i would just like christina applegate's hair. ;)
- i think i have a new celebrity crush. okay, it's growing. i've had this crush for quite some time. was so disappointed when you couldn't see his face in gi joe....
- and one last work related one... no, i do not know if someone is in the bathroom. i do not stand outside and guard the door all day. would it kill you to knock and find out? seriously. last week i was asked this like 10 times in one day. maybe i suggest a little label like port a potties have so the patients will stop asking all of us!

wip 9.10.11

2011-09-29T22:28:00.000-05:00

friday:
the last weekday of our staycation.
we did nothing. ;)
okay, i'm sure we did something. i just didn't take pictures.
the only pics on my camera are of food. imagine that!

we made buffalo chicken grilled cheese. {loosely based on this recipe that i pinned.}
so good. so rich. couldn't eat too much of it. but it was 100x better with ranch dressing! ;) and they weren't bad as leftovers either. double bonus.

saturday:
our friends hosted their annual cook out.
had a fun pinata for the kids.

distracted by some ice cream.

and another flavor since he didn't like the first one.

candy!

headed to the playground while the boys, ahem men, went to play softball.

then we headed over to the baseball diamond and the kids ran the bases. ben had a great time.

somebody found a ball... imagine that!

dandelion love.

came back and ben wanted to play some tennis. nick hit him in the head with both throws! ben decided he didn't want to play that game anymore!

kids found a puddle. i'm not sure what they were making. rock soup?

and somebody sat down! :-)

sunday:
we tried to do as little as possible. wanted to make the most of our down time.
ben was on a ball kick...

gotta love that kid.
and that concludes our wonderful week off. ;(

fort wayne zoo.

2011-09-28T21:37:00.000-05:00

i love this place. wish it were just a wee bit closer!

didn't have a lot planned for our staycation. but the weather wasn't looking favorable for us to go any day but tuesday. i still wasn't feeling good, but we decided to go anyway. so glad we did. ben LOVED it. gotta figure out if we can work boo at the zoo into our hectic schedule.

the weather would have been absolutely perfect, if it were a bit less windy!

there were hardly any people there. i love going when the kids are back in school. ;)

nick driving a jeep after we rode the sky way. {if you go, don't bother. you just go over trees. not too exciting.}

ben liked telling us where we should go!

some pretty purple flowers.

mr. {or mrs.} pelican. ben did not want to leave!

trying to find the lion. the window was so clean, ben walked right into it! was kinda funny!

i forget what these were but ben enjoyed them.

some pretty leaves. couldn't believe they were changing so early.

giraffes. i love them. couldn't feed them this year though. they were too far away!

this ostrich was so close!

ben taking a quick nap.

a cool tree stump.

ben loved drumming. he even stopped to tell nick he was doing it wrong. said, 'no, daddy, wike dat.'

pretty sure he got to ride the same pony as last year. ;) {see last year's zoo post here.}

loved the round and round too.

had the cutest little tree house for kids. ben would have spent all afternoon playing there if we would have let him!

total fan of the otter.

and the fishes.

on the boat ride. <3

silly sun decided to come out right then. must edit this picture!

seriously, i might have to say this is my favorite part of the zoo. gasp, i'm ranking them above my beloved giraffes! it's just so damn cool to walk amongst them.

rode the train. ben loved it.
and those eyes kill me.

tried to get ben to feed the ducks, geese, and peacocks. he was happy letting 'mommy do it.'

he finally just decided to throw the feed! smart boy.

totally exhausting day. but so worth it.

wip 9.3.11

2011-09-27T20:55:00.000-05:00

friday:
i was coming down with something. totally sucks.
had an appt with the chiro.
think i should share my freakish feet now. apparently, i took some pics when i got back from the apointment that day...

dr. nick felt i needed some tape. apparently, it helps with pain. {keri walsh wears it on her shoulder during her volleyball matches}

and then here are my strange toes. they don't curl. i can't abduct my toes either {spread them apart}. i'm working on it. and there has been some improvement since these pictures were taken. originally, i tried to blame my ankle surgery, then we realized that the other foot also wouldn't work, so there went my theory!

finally, made it to see harry potter! LOVED it.
seriously. i'm sad. i love those books. those movies. sigh.

went to quaker state afterwards. nick insisted on eating some super hot wings. silly boy. i don't think he'll ever learn. ;)

saturday:
lazy day. nick had to go to work. so we went and ran some errands along the way. stopped at dickies. {gotta use our groupons.} ben decided to dip his fries in the ice cream. nick was beyond grossed out!

of course, ben couldn't live the store without a new ball...

the tractors that ben is obsessed with. seriously, we have to drive by them daily.

i worked on a craft project. well, bathroom project.
made this. turned out cute! i'll take a picture of it eventually!

sunday:

i have no clue what we did. i'm pretty sure i was a zombie and slept most of the day...

did make some cupcakes and brownies for the labor day festivities. ben helped by sprinkling the cupcakes. those suckers were super sprinkly!

monday: {i'm counting it since it was a holiday weekend!}

our first experience with a huge parade in our area. seriously, the parade was over 3 hours long. over 100 floats. ben was in heaven!

the weather was questionable. but i'm glad we decided to go. ended up being a good time!

nick was dan's personal umbrella holder {puh} for a bit. ;)

then ben wanted to play with the umbrella.

cheese.

somebody couldn't wait for the parade to start. kept asking where the firetrucks were!

tried to get him to salute. gotta work on that... he did great clapping for everyone.

family photo. ;)

the firetrucks and sirens were a bit loud.

and he was beyond tired but was amazing.

was a pretty good candy picker upper too!

but was more excited when someone handed out a football!

totally didn't mind ronald from a distance.

we got these frisbees at the fourth of july parade we went to. we've played with them on our heads quite a bit... so when i offered him a juice box, he decided against giving it to me to hold. instead, he plopped it on his head. silly bean.

i don't remember what excited him! {but look, he nabbed another ball!}

he crashed immediately in the car. was so funny when nick went to take him out of the car and put him in the crib, ben was startled out of his sleep and immediately said, 'frow candy pwease!'

then we all napped. way nice since nick and i were both feeling under the weather.

2.5

2011-09-26T21:04:00.000-05:00

a little wee man turned two and a half over the weekend.
thought i should give him his own post. not that he isn't all over the blog, but i kind of miss the monthly updates.

so at 30 months...

- is in the 7th percentile for height {34 inches} and the 30th for weight {28 pounds}
- is still such a good eater. the kid actually asks to have corn and/or peas!
- will drink milk all day long.
- loves tractors, the movie cars, the book little blue truck.
- will tell you that his name is ben pressner when asked. {there's another ben in his class and apparently they use their full names when differentiating between the two.}
- loves picking up rocks where ever we may be: daycare, a random walk, the parking lot and the grocery store!
- i think his favorite song is twinkle twinkle little star. whenever you ask him what he wants to sing, his response is 'twinkle'.
- learned the boiler up chant. and will holler go bears at the tv with his daddy. he also knows touchdown and the arm/hand signal that goes with it. {can you tell it is football season?!}
- says that 'spiders are scary'. but otherwise, he's a fan of all animals. he loves this book that we got at the fort wayne zoo.
- sleeps with his binky, blanket, monkey, puppy, and kangaroo!
- doesn't get pronouns. if he's mad at you, he'll say, 'i don't like it'. or if he shares something with you, he'll ask, 'i like it?' when he means 'you like it?'
- when he dances it's pretty much him running in a circle.
- he likes to skip and sing skip to my lou.
- wants to play baseball all the time.
- he also loves marching. he loves using his toy drum when doing so.
- asks 'why?' after everything.
- goes to bed around 730 and wakes up at 630 {on daycare days}. otherwise, it's usually a solid 12 hours a night.
- still naps for about 2 hours a day.
- is still in his crib. hasn't tried to climb out. ever. hope i didn't just jinx us!
- not really interested in potty training. we tried. daycare tried. just not ready and that's okay!
- has a sweet demeanor.
- makes me/us laugh constantly.

and some pictures from his 'birthday'... all taken 9.24.11

wordless wednesday. girlfriends & goodtimes.

2011-09-21T19:49:00.000-05:00

{taken september 15/16 at finnegan's wake.}

ten on tuesday 9.20.11

2011-09-20T19:46:00.001-05:00

- it's freaking the end of september. really? time needs to slow down a bit.
- love listening to baby boy giggles. he gets extra giggly around bedtime. ;)
- was doing so well on the running, then yesterday... sore ankle. out of the blue. hadn't run in a few days. now i'm on orders to rest... grrr.
- put my first halloween decoration up this weekend. now to drag out the rest. and to order costumes for all of us. can't decide on individual costumes or a group theme... thoughts?
- ben loves sand. and ben loves his plain boring pasta that he's played with for about a year... found this on pinterest and finally got around to making it. he loves it. totally success! yay.plan on dyeing him some new pasta soon too.
- made some yummy food. these knock off bean burritos were close. missing some onion... nick said this was sweet. not my cup of tea. but worth a shot. the man is hard to please with breakfast foods.
- how amazing is this place? we need one in the states. because i'm not sure that i'll ever make it to sweden!
- we've offically started christmas shopping.
- just introduced to hanging with friends. blast you people!
- emailed my scrap boss to verify my deadline. totally thought it was october 10. nope it was september 10. dude, i suck. thank goodness she's so nice!!

wip 8.27.11

2011-09-19T16:04:00.000-05:00

friday:
completely crazy morning.
when nick woke ben up to take him to school, he thought he felt hot. sure enough 103. totally out of no where. poor bean.
so he stayed home. but i had an appointment. luckily my mom was able to watch him for an hour so i could run out.
came home and he still wasn't feeling good.
we laid on the couch all day. and on mommy and daddy's bed.

he had no decrease with the tylenol. poor guy made it up to 105. i called the pedi. just wanted to make sure i wasn't missing anything. nope. just wait and see. sure enough. the fever broke that evening and he was back to his normal self. ;)

saturday:
had bonfire plans with some friends.

the boys hard at work...

the end result... butter beer! i'm told it wasn't as good as the one at hogwarts. but oh well. it was fun!

the food spread for meyer's specials. seriously. any locals... let us know when you wanna join us for a bonfire and some delicious food. i'm always up for a good campfire!

chilling with my wee man.

cheese!

yum. food!

ben enjoying the giant marshmallow!

sunday:
busy day.
started with robin's bridal shower.

a quickie from my phone.

the soon to be newlyweds {and braiden} with part of their gift from us.

that evening we headed to nick's sister's for noah's fourth birthday party. we weren't sure if we would be able to make it. but ben was temp free for 24 hours so we went! the camera didn't make get too much use. that's okay though!

noah and ben and their balloons. thanks aunt michelle!

playing with cousin megan.

we got home and ben had another fever. total chaos trying to figure out what to do about work. my boss was off, so i should be boss and i have to order supplies on monday. ah! totally worked out. totally ran. and totally felt better afterwards. thinking as much as i dislike it, that it's really good for me to run. :-) and one day i'll give running it's own post. trying to catch up on these weekend posts first!

wip 8.20.11

2011-09-15T21:52:00.000-05:00

friday:
met with the chiro. not sure what i was expecting. was a bit nervous. had to go back a week later for results/recommendations.
stopped at the grocery store right by his office. holy heck that place is frigid. like i was frozen by the time i left!

chilled at home that evening.

saturday:

ben got a haircut courtesy of my girlfriend. again, i love that she comes to you and is cheap! yay friends. ;)

went to my god parent's that afternoon. my sweet boy carrying his backpack. aw...

chilling with mommy.

nick had his fantasy draft that evening. we came home early so he could attend. it was like five hours long! so crazy.

sunday:
like father like son? ben found nick's nintendo ds.

we went to see ovo downtown.
holy amazingness. the show was by far our favorite cirque experience yet. yes, we liked this show more than the vegas ones. so, so good!

crummy iphone photo...

could have been a cute selphie. i blame the wind for ruining it! ;)

ended up getting stuck in some insane chicago traffic. like hours to get home. not hour. sucked. but at least the scenery is pretty.

another sucky iphoto!

took this on my run that evening. doesn't it look like some scary face. was pretty cool!

wordless wednesday. sprinkler shennanigans

2011-09-14T20:24:00.000-05:00

because i cannot follow directions. ;)
nick came up with the title.
photos taken monday.
{maybe the last sprinkler worthy day of the year...}
sorry for the photo overload. i can't pick favorites. it's so hard!

ten on tuesday. 9.13.11

2011-09-13T20:02:00.000-05:00

- where have i been? tori amos has a new album coming out and i had no clue. none.
- ran last night for the first time in almost 10 days. {i hate being sick} was nervous that i was going to suck... but i didn't. and my foot cooperated. and i could breathe! yay. yay. yay. i can't believe i have only a few weeks before my first 5k! oh and i inhaled my first bug. totally saw it coming. totally unavoidable. totally sucked!
- ben picked out red shoes when we got him a new pair of trainers {i'm trying on some british terminology}. red. not my first choice. but if it makes him happy. ;)
- staycation was a success. well, minus my cold and crashing early every night. the main highlight was the fort wayne zoo. will get it's own post someday.
- i blogged three wip posts last night! i'm catching up... again.
- saw lots of movies. no strings attached. cute. kick ass. liked the beginning. fell asleep. but i'm still counting it! the help. fabulous. seriously. might be a new favorite. see it. read the book. do it! hot tub time machine. funny. needed some laughter and it totally gave us that. i feel like i'm forgetting one or two...
- redoing the front door this weekend. have some peeling paint/wood. convinced nick it needs a makeover. he agreed since it's only going to cost one can of paint. hope it looks as cute finished as it does in my head.
- thinking of doing some hand made christmas gifts this year. hope that the recipients don't mind hand made....
- this was so good. yes, not healthy. but good. try it if you're up for a splurge.
- lit a candle the other day {had been to hot and fall makes me think of candles} ben immediately started singing happy birthday. so cute!

wip 8.13.11

2011-09-12T21:35:00.000-05:00

i'm starting with thursday, so i can include our visit to the local county fair. ;)

thursday:
lake county fair. yay! ben loves fairs. well, i think he loves the horses most. was excited that we were able to fit it in our crazy august schedule. went a little later than i would have liked due to an impromptu doctor's appointment. what can i say? i work in an office, i understand a phone call asking you to change your appointment, so i did it. and i hope karma pays me back someday....

okay. back to the fair.
ben wanted to see {and touch} all of the animals.

mister hates his stroller. prefers to walk with daddy.

has been obsessed with tractors lately. i think it started when my mom watched him while we were in vegas. she took a diferent route home, where there is new construction, and there happened to be like 5 tractors in one area. i didn't go home that way the first day i picked him up after our vacation, and he about had a fit. we've gone that way every day since. :-D

his favorite.

trying some cotton candy for the first time.

he liked it. gave it a thumbs up!

sweet, silly boy.

petting the bunny.

found this cool splat balls. of course ben wanted one. and of course we obliged.

let him play a quick kids game. lil guy is lucky. got a star {a prize} on his first pick.

he picked a crazy, huge bat.

nick was taken by some infomercial. we are now the owners of a new mop. {i really like it. seems to work better than the swiffer and no pads to replace so more eco friendly!}

beans and his loot.

long night. ben was a trooper. didn't whine or complain that he was up past his bedtime. such a love.

friday.
kept ben home from daycare. thought it was only fair since he was out a bit later than usual at the fair. thought he should sleep in!

we ran some errands in the morning. {read grocery shopping!}

ben's new splat ball met an untimely demise...

nope. not pee. non toxic filling in the splat ball....

i think he was mad/sad that it no longer worked!

kinda chilled at home.
then we had to go pick nick up at work.

why?
because ben got to go to his first sox game! nick totally wanted ben to rock one of these fingers. ben not so much. what do you think he picked from the shop? yup. a ball. mr. original. ;)

family photo.

ben checking out his surroundings.

hi aj!

our tickets were courtesy of nick's mom's friend, joe. thanks joe! ;)

group shot. so thankful for our cool chair mates. the poor guy had to take our pictures and play catch with ben!

took a zillion pictures of the wee man from this perspective. he wasn't being very photogenic. until...

he started flirting with the lady sitting behind me!

he loved the peanuts. i think his favorite part was stomping on the shells. and as for the binky, we are thinking the binky fairy is coming soon. was just are being big chickens. and thought that since it was way past someone's bedtime that we weren't going to push it.

his new favorite ball and some snackies.

they lost.
but there were still fireworks!

and a dark stadium.

ben was a champ. again, he was up way past his bedtime. again, he was amazing. love that he's so flexible!

saturday:
a lazy morning. we all needed some beauty sleep!

love these random shots i find on my camera. i totally don't remember taking them. but i love that i think to take pictures of our every day moments. the frogs are from his 'vacation' with my mom when we went to vegas. she gave him a little present every day. so sweet. he loves the frogs and so does everyone else who has been to our house that has played with them!

laying on floor with daddy.

tried to go on a run. shannon storm misjudged the storm clouds. we all got wet! and apparently ben found a binky in the old jogging stroller. nick hadn't a clue that he had it until i asked him when we met back up at the driveway!

headed downtown for dinner with friends. no people pictures. only food and drinks. and menus...
went to zapatistas. wasn't as good as i was hoping. i love mexican. might be my favorite cuisine. and no, it's not because of the margaritas and tequilla. ;P did have a really awesome soup though!

were able to go for a cocktail after dinner. was pretty neat because there was a preseason bears game at the same time. there were people every where in bears gear. so fun!

and i enjoyed, yes enjoyed, a mighty tasty banana beer!

sunday:
{apparently it's a foodie day. not many pics on the camera. and 99% involved food!}

made breakfast. courtesy of pinterest.
something a little different. special. ben enjoyed making them. and they weren't too sweet. {maybe that was because we used semi sweet chips?!}

and dinner. courtesy of pinterest.
would definitely make these again!

phew. that was a lot of pictures.
you made it. i'm proud!

ten on tuesday. 9.6.11

2011-09-06T21:09:00.003-05:00

- i'm tired of getting sick right before we have a vacation. seriously. i don't get it.
- the pressner family is enjoying another staycation. totally love the no pressure just enjoy my family time. :)
- loves that ben will walk into a room and say 'hew-wo mommy/daddy' not sure where the l's went. he used to pronounce them...
- we totally reinforced ben's theory that all fire trucks do is 'throw candy'. went to a local labor day parade and he loved it.
- am not sure i'm going to update this week. i hope to, but am making no promises.
- we are the proud new owners of a treadmill. yay for generous family. {if you're reading this... thank you auntie!} now this inclement weather shouldn't interfere with my training. if only this cold would go away....
- my words with friends addiction is growing. thank you all for coming and playing with me!
- an update from last week: i did complete a scrap project. hope to get a few more done this week!
- finally saw the last harry potter. LOVED it. totally made me love the books/series/movies even more. i want to find time to reread all the books and rewatch all the movies. seriously. i might have a problem.
- pinned this recipe. made it. was completely disappointed. ;( really. don't waste your time.

wip 8.6.11

2011-09-01T21:34:00.000-05:00

friday:
i have no clue what happened. i know i went to target. i have a new door mat to prove it and the pictures i sent to nick asking him to pick one... but other than that, i'm drawing a blank.
i know our goal was to have a lazy day. to just chill with the beaner. ;)

saturday:
stopped to check out the crown point farmer's market. was the first time we had been there. bought a bunch of books from a church resale shop! we just cannot help ourselves when it comes to books!!

our favorite, and ben's too, cheese vendor was there. they have the best cheese. i'm going to be so sad when the farmer's markets are over for the season. ;( i wonder if they take orders. or have another place they sell during the winter. must remember to ask them next time we go!

after ben's nap. we headed to my mom and dad's to hit up the pool. ben had asked to go swimming, so we went.

somebody was very, very prune-y.

then we ran a few more errands. had a groupon for dickies. so we stopped. ben enjoyed it. but he complained that the free ice cream after dinner was 'too cold!'

when we got home, nick installed the new towel rack for ben's bathroom. i'm not sure how i have lived without one in there for so long! for some reason, i paid attention to my parent's when we were there earlier in the day and was totally set on finding it and putting up!

ben found my old, old cell phone. like before i phones. i have no idea where it was. but he loves it. he tends to open it up, tell you to say cheese, then pretend that he's looking at your picture, and says 'it's cute.' he's cute! ;)

hard at work. i don't have any after pictures. but it's awesome. trust me!

sunday:
run dirty for nick and dave. {a 5 or 10k at lemon lake through the trails and mud}. they did the 10k. they are crazy.
was a bit of mix up between the boys. or lack of communication. whatever. it turned out. nick told me steph and sage weren't going. so not to worry about getting up. then that morning, he wakes me up just before he's leaving and told me steph and sage were there. holy hurry up and get ready. and get ben fed and ready. pfwhoa. i did it. and got applauded for how fast i was able to get there! thank goodness, i'm not high maintenance!

you can see both of them. look very carefully.

first time around. ben was yelling to everyone, 'good job daddy. go faster.' hilarious.

crossing the finish line.

dirty daddy.

after a family nap, we headed back to my parent's house to celebrate some august birthdays.

ben got the camera. this one makes me laugh.

i know this might be tmi... but i wanna remember. ben cannot go in the pool without pooping. it's ridiculous.

here's a not happy campy because of above...

rocking the goggles.

just like daddy.

birthday peeps!

someone taught ben how to steal icing from the cake. {i guess uncle bob lives on} and i'm not sure who told him to use a cracker... my family makes me laugh. so silly.

mr. bow head was entertained by miss brittany while uncle kevin opened presents. i have video of him running back and forth through the bubbles. goof ball.

group hug with uncle kevin and brittany.

wordless wednesday - playing with paper... again.

2011-08-31T20:12:00.002-05:00

ten on tuesday. 8.30.11

2011-08-30T20:01:00.000-05:00

- i totally forgot yesterday was monday. well, until i remembered and then i was just too lazy to try to figure out what i should blog. ;)
- so excited for this new necklace to come in the mail. i love trees!{they even have their own category on pinterest!}
- i love my son. he makes me laugh. every day.
- started week four of my couch to 5k. 1/2 mile intervals are not fun.
- as soon as i'm done blogging, i'm going to try to scrap. i hope i remember how... i have deadlines!
- was told this weekend, by a good friend, that her mom used to cook hot dogs over the gas flame on the stove. um, why haven't i thought of that?! i knew you could do marshmallows... but hot dogs? i might have to try it.
- had a home made butter beer this weekend. it was tasty. i'm told it wasn't as good as the real thing though.
- vacation next week! only have a few outings planned. looking forward to playing it by ear.
- why do i hate blogging so much? i mean, i love going back and rereading all we've done. i just hate finding time to do it.
- is it wrong that i want to start christmas shopping?

five on friday

2011-08-26T21:09:00.002-05:00

- had a sick wee man today. ;(
woke up with a fever of 103. after two tylenol does it was 105! finally got it down to 100 after three tylenol doses, one motrin dose, and a cool bath. phew. hoping it's gone!
- i impressed my chiropractor. apparently, my foot doesn't do something that it is supposed to and he's never seen that before... great. thinking i might need a whole post on my gd feet and/or running.
- looking forward to smores and meyer's specials tomorrow with friends. fingers crossed we don't have to cancel. {see first bullet.}
- i hate that it's dark outside at 8. i thought it was like 1030 and it was barely 830. it's gonna be a long winter.
- who knew i could make it a whole week posting?! ;)