Winery. Brewery.

Hermann Update

1. Carter would love this place because a train goes by about every 5 minutes.

2. I forgot my swimsuit so we went to Alco (think mini Wal-mart) but they didn't have any so I bought some pajama boy shorts and a tank top so we could hang out in the hot tub.

3. Our toilet has no privacy in our room. Think studio apartment with no doors. Luckily we've been married almost 8 years.

4. Instead of 65 degrees and rainy it's now 30 degrees and cloudy. Brrrr. Sam forgot his coat.

5. Last night we ate dinner at a restaurant that looked like it should be on Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares. It was for sale. We were the only customers for awhile after a very elderly couple left.

But don't get me wrong - we're having a great time!

Hello from Hermann

We're in Hermann MO with our best friends for a long weekend. The kids are having a vacation with grandma and grandpa. Pictures to come if the rain lets up. We have a great view but it's a little dreary right now.

Anna Art

This picture is drawn in marker on the back of some old printer paper - remember those dot matrix printers - you can see the ink showing through the paper with the frayed edges from where the perforated holes have been torn off. I don't know where they find this scrap paper at daycare or how long someone has been holding onto this stuff but this is what her precious works of art come home on :)

Anyway - here is Anna's description of the picture.

Bottom left: (in pink I might add) That's mommy drinking her coffee
Above that: Anna
Top left: That's daddy cleaning Anna's room because she forgot to clean it (not sure where this dream came from, hee hee) She also pointed out the round window she made in that room.

Top right: (with the triangle) This is the secret room. (Her friend Bella has a "secret" playroom in her house that is part of the attic and you get to it through a small door in her closet. I think this is where that idea came from.)

Bottom right: That's Carter in his crib.

Love the attention to detail. The only things that're missing are the dogs. This one's a keeper!

Ice cream or lima beans?

Candi had better questions so this is Take 2.

Since U Been Gone

Some of you already saw this since it's linked after watching yesterday's video post. I've been meaning to get this on video for quite awhile. Might be a sign of just how much Kelly Clarkson I listened to when I was pregnant with Carter.

Do you want A or B?

If you ask Carter if he wants two things he picks the last one, 99% of the time. Anna discovered this. I've since been using it to my advantage to get him to pick what I want.

I Hate You

Today was the first time my sweet little 4 year old girl said this to me. I'm sure it's the first of many times.

All because I wouldn't make her an omelet. I calmly told her to go to her room.

Things are looking up

So I was actually able to get those dresses zipped so no need to go shopping. As long as I don't eat much.

I'm off for a manicure and spray tan instead.

I took my inbox from 180 to 52

I am really bad about leaving items in my inbox if I intend to follow up on it later. Something that's reallly not that important but not unimportant enough to just delete. Fast forward two years and I decided I'm probably never going to read that unread message from 2007. When in fact last night I actually did open these. I had many. There were all from a coworker who likes to send me various webinar invites or sales lead emails. Turns out I feel I could have deleted without opening. Most are not relevant to me. No offense, coworker, but I have enough emails in my inbox.

I recently have been given some direction at work. This gave me the opportunity to open these emails, recognize they are not a priority, and delete or file them.

So I went from 180 to 52. This feels really good. I'm determined to completely eliminate everything under the heading of "Older" in my Outlook inbox.

I am boring.

Seriously, what did I used to blog about? Apparently I have zero excitement in my life in the winter. I worked over 40 hours last week so I've just been consumed with this and then not wanting to be on the computer much I guess.

Tomorrow is Red Ball. I think I need something to wear. I'm getting ready to head into the closet and try on all these dresses I'm pretty sure won't fit and then go shopping and look at myself in those horrible mirrors and then decide to go on a diet and start exercising. Yup, I'm pretty sure that's how it going to go.

When I was single and needed motiviation I would tear out pictures of models in magazines and tape them on my kitchen cabinets and my bathroom mirror. But now that I have Anna I feel this sends the wrong message. Maybe I could tape pictures of myself when I was skinny to the bathroom mirror. That doesn't seem so bad. Or hang that bikini up to stare at every day. Honestly though, it works better when they're on the kitchen cabinets.

Ho Hum. Is anyone even still reading this? Is this thing on? Hello? Buehler?

Today was a good day

I had a nice Valentine's day yesterday, getting chocolate covered strawberries and a pajama-gram.

Today was a good day. Carter and Anna were exceptionally well behaved. Better than usual. I took them to lunch at Jason's Deli by myself. How do other people handle this? I got them settled at the table and then went to get my drink and salad bar by myself. I could still see them the whole time but I feel like I shouldn't be that far away from them. But it's almost worse when they are supposed to be standing by me because they walk around and stray and it was super busy and I was afraid 1) they'd get knocked over and 2) they walk away. At least if they are sitting they are not moving. And they did awesome sitting and eating quietly.

Next we met some friends at Paradise Park. I ended up buying a season pass. If we go about 5 times in a year it pays for itself and I think we go that much anyway. And we'd probably go more if it was "free." The kids adore that place and it's a great way for them to burn energy, especially when it's too cold to go outside, or raining. I like that place because everyone gets a wristband and they don't let the kids out unless their bands match the adult's. So I feel safe that even if I lost one in there they would still be in the building. This is unlike Tunnel Town where you can easily lose a child in the tunnels and they could just walk out the front door, or someone could take them. Tunnel Town is fine when you have a 1-1 ratio of adults to kids. But try watching two kids go two different ways in those tunnels that are not see-through and you can quickly lose both. Anyway, it was great to see Kim and her kids. Although the two of us were so tired we hardly spoke :) We should have hit Starbucks before we showed up there.

After 2.5 hours at Paradise Park we braved a trip to Old Navy because Carter needed socks. They have an extra 50% off all clearance items. I got some PJs for Anna for $3. Insane! The line was super long to checkout. The kids were pretty tired by this point but they sat so quietly in the cart. I ended up buying Carter the toy football he'd been playing with from there while we shopped just because he was so good waiting so long to checkout.

But I've screwed up Carter's schedule now. He fell asleep on the way home from Old Navy and slept while Anna and I grocery shopped. I woke him for dinner. Baths. Put him back to bed but now he's crying... MOOOMMMMM-EEEEEEEE. MOOOOMMMMMM-EEEEEEEE. Waaaaaaahhhhhh.

So I guess I better go rock my baby.

Crazy V-Day Party

Here's the crazy Valentine's Day Party I attended for Anna and Carter. Anna was super excited about this so I wasn't about to miss it. Plus I had already worked over 40 hours this week.

She wanted to sign up to take bologna. I don't think I've ever bought bologna. And why is it pronounced buh-lo-nee when there is no e? Anyways. The first thing out of her mouth on Friday morning was "do we get to take the bologna today!?" what a weird thing to be excited about.

We danced the cha cha slide, hokey poke and lime in the coconut. Good times.

Homeruns + Public Speaking

Last night Carter was holding a small toy baseball bat and pretending to hit a baseball by swinging in the air and saying "I HIT IT!" and then looking up into the air.

Me: "Did you hit a homerun?"

Carter: Swinging at the imaginary ball again. "I HIT HOMERUN!"

***************

Today my CEO and I did a presentation on "3 Keys to Effective Email Marketing" at the Business Communicators Summit in KC. I was a little apprehensive about it but it went well I think, based on the feedback from the audience afterwards. And while I feel more confident after speaking in front of 75 people, I'm glad it's over.

At this conference I also learned that apparently it drives people crazy when bloggers don't use appropriate punctuation, spelling and grammer. which i love to do in my blogs. is this driving you crazy? i luv it. i have to be very precise in my writing at work so this is my opportunity to be casual.

At this conference I was also convinced to finally join twitter.
https://twitter.com/EmailGirl

My Girl and Second Parents

These pages mostly use the new Urban Prairie line from Bazzill. I am not a paper pack person but I did buy this paper pack and am thinking of getting another one.





And not to leave out "my boy" here's a quote from Carter this weekend in the car, to Anna.

"Yes I do. I see airplane in the sky." and yes he did.

Kevin and I looked at each other in amazement. There is something I cannot describe about hearing your children speak in long full sentences in their tiny little voices.

Scrap Mania

On Friday night my BFF and I went to Scrap Mania! Basically you just go to the scrapbook store and scrap it up in the back with a group. They provide dinner. Is it wrong that we packed our flasks with rum and spiked our diet cokes? I felt weird having a flask in my purse at the office during the day, but whatev.

This caused us to get quite the giggles while we were scrapping and I pulled out a picture of Carter sitting by the couch and noticed that Kevin was next to him and you could practically see all the way up his shorts. (don't worry i cropped it out of the blue eyes layout below). I will also add that it is dangerous to scrap at the store where they let you run a tab to shop while you scrap and just pay at the end of the night.

Kevin reminded me that the last time we went to an organized scrapping event we were the youngest people there by at least 15 years and the skinniest, by at least 50 pounds. We went to a scrapbook convention by the airport several year ago. Everyone was so freakin fat. This is when we realized our hobby is very sedentary.

On Friday morning Kevin asked me if I had my puff paint and bedazzled sweatshirt ready for my scrap party.

Well I think we were still the youngest there but at least not everyone was obese. There were only 5 others and I won a Martha Stewart bunny punch.

We had a good time and the boys clubbed baby seals (aka played Xbox live shooting games) while we had girl time.

I completed 3 layouts in 5 hours. I was a little slow.