Gretchen Suzane

My little Gretchie bear is getting so big!! She's almost 2 years old and I can't believe it. She's so smart and coordinated and talented and I love my little miracle baby. Here are some of the things she's doing:

She's climbing:
    This little monster is going to be a gymnast, I swear. She can climb, run, jump, do amazing things. On the playground, it's borderline scary. I have to watch this kid so carefully or else she could do something dangerous, or at least more dangerous than the things she already attempts. Like her other favorite new thing, climbing out of her crib. Which she hasn't perfected, so it's a terrifying job of putting her to bed and listening for any thuds. It's just about time for a big girl bed, but man I don't want to start that yet either.

She's talking:
     I swear she talks better than Annabelle. She can say so many things and she gets better everyday. Her newest thing is asking to go to the potty. She likes to try to use the potty 4 times an hour, I promise. I don't like to sit with her and stop whatever we're doing every 15 minutes but I don't want to stifle this new passion for the potty. So we sit. All the time. And it's really hard to resist that sweet little voice saying, "Mama, I wanna use the potty!". She also knows everyone's name in our family. Daddy, Mom, Dom, Sissy and she calls herself baby. Grandpa is Pa-pow and she talks about him ALL THE TIME. So sweet to hear our names nowadays.

She's hilarious:
     She likes to be everyone's center of attention. If I'm holding her and Nick talks to me and I turn to him, she will literally pull my face back until it's facing her. She will repeat your name over and over again until you are facing her again.

She's huge:
     My sister went to give me an old pair of Addie's shoes and they wouldn't fit. When we compared their feet, Gretchen's are actually bigger than Addie's. Not yet 2 and she's wearing a size 7. Big girl. Also wearing all 3T clothes. I'm interested to see her stats when we go to her 2 year appointment...which I guess I should make.

Anyway, she's an adorable, fun, playful, gorgeous little monster and I wouldn't trade her for the world.

Ice Bucket Challenge

This ice bucket challenge is a crazy thing. It's been going around the internet for awhile and raised a TON of money for the ASL foundation. Our family has avoided being called out publicly but we finally got called out, or at least a few of us did. Both Dominick and I got called out to take the ice bucket challenge. Dominick was challenged by his Nani and I was challenged by my good friend Lauren. We both completed the challenge and decided to spread the wealth and donate to another good cause, Friends of Kids with Cancer. Let me tell you, it was FREEZING and Dominick hated it! He immediately started crying and ran inside. Once we got dry though he was pretty proud of himself. :)

Nick stood by and watched us get drenched in ice water and all he said after it was over is, Thank you for not nominating me!

Happy ice bucket challenging!

Back in action

I've been MIA for months. Now I have no excuses. I have a computer at home (thanks Emily!) and my kids are going to school. I can finally get back to recording about our life so we can reread all the important stuff.

Get ready blogger world, because I have some catching up to do!

DISHWASHER!!!!

I have a dishwasher!!!!!!!

It's not new, but it works and I love it. :)

My cousin got a new one and gave me hers and it's been installed for 3 days and that's how many times I've used it. LOVE it.

I'm hoping this is the beginning of me falling in love with our house again. Our house is in an AWESOME neighborhood, we have AWESOME neighbors, we have some really cool things about our house. But lately I've wanted to leave for more bedrooms and more storage and a nicer kitchen. I think this is the beginning of things to come.

Yay for appliances!!!

30x30 a little over a month to go...

Dang. I'm not sure if I did anything since my last post on this! But my sister brought up my 30x30 and I realized that I better get going.

Here we go:

I'm not doing so hot on this 30 x 30 thing! But I have 6 months to finish...

Here's what's left:

1) Run a half marathon - DONE!

 
2) Watch the Star Wars Trilogy - DONE!

3) Learn a foreign language - So I have decided on Spanish. I've bought a few books and just found out last night that my brother in law has Rosetta Stone and said I can borrow it when he's done!! I really need to learn Spanish because in the last few weeks I've had a few Spanish only speaking patients. I know a lot of the basics now with medical words. I've learned pain and eat, drink, etc. but I have a LONG way to go. But I'm working on it. As long as I'm working on it before I'm 30 I'm going to count it.

4) Have 2 of my 4 children - DONE!

5) Take up golf - This is going to be hard now that it's freezing, but we'll continue to work on it.

6) Write a short story - In progress...

7) Complete an indoor triathlon - DONE!

8) Watch Gone with the Wind - DONE! 

9) Watch the Godfather - DONE!

10) Play in a poker tournament at a casino - I talked to my brother in law last night about this one. We might go to a casino soon so hopefully I can knock this off my list. :)

11) Decorate the kids rooms - This will be done around Christmas! We decided to get the kids bunk beds for Christmas so when we pull everything out to do that, I'm going to paint and get some stuff for the walls.

12) Shoot a gun - DONE! I went to a shooting course with my neighbor Jeff. I wasn't any good at it. At all honestly. But I shot a gun and can cross it off my list. And I don't need to do it again. :) 

13) Go back to school - DONE!

14) Learn to drive a stick shift - Must do...

15) Learn to french braid hair - DONE!

16) Get into cooking - We are sticking to our budget and cooking at home so this is happening. Not done yet because we aren't consistent enough but it's beginning to become consistent. We'll call this "in progress".

17) Finish entertainment center - DONE!

18) Register to vote in St. Louis City - DONE!

19) Consistently dedicate one night a month to a date night - Tonight we're going on a double date with my sister...we'll count this for November...

20) Start a savings account - DONE! I've had a savings account with little money in it but now Nick's name is on the account and we're going to start having a portion of Nick's paycheck go to this. So it's starting small, but hey, it's starting. And I'm counting it.

21) Make my own recipe - yeah, I've been slacking on this. Will work on it...

22) Go back to Signature Room in Chicago - Maybe for my 30th??

23) Go on a family vacation with my whole family - This is still the case: We have this one planned!!! Unfortunately it's planned for a few months after I turn 30, but it's before I'm thirty one so I'm counting it.

24) Start college funds for the kids - Ok, yeah must do...

25) Consistently have a clean house -Just got done scrubbing the kitchen and doing all the dishes after breakfast. I'm definitely better at this. Just have to keep it up.

26) Get into exercising 3x a week - Thinking of canceling weight watchers and joining a gym. I'm so used to being up at night now that it's hard for me to ever get out. I don't want to go running at midnight outside and I have Gretchen with me every day at home. If I joined a gym I could use their babysitting or go at night if I join a 24 hour gym. So that's my plan.

27) Reach my goal weight -Weight watchers isn't working for me this time. I'm addicting to food and wasting $42.95 a month. So I'm canceling weight watchers. And like 26 said, I'm thinking of joining a gym. That will help. So will eating at home. So I think this one is doable.

28) Finish my brewery quest - 1/3 of the way there. 5 down, 10 to go. I can do it!!!!

29) Read the Lord of the Rings trilogy - This one might not be done before I turn 30 but if I get one down or at least am getting into it before 30, I'll count it...

30) Become a nurse!! - DONE DONE DONE!!!

13 done, 8 in progress and 9 to get started/done. We're getting closer. :) As always I'll keep you posted. 47 days to go!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I can't believe that it's already almost December!?!?!?

Where the heck has time gone? So not much is going on with us. Literally not much at all. We had a great Thanksgiving with family. We went to my Dad's side in the morning for brunch and to Nick's sister's in the evening. It was great to only have two things to go to. We had time to go home and take a nap in between events. And it really made us enjoy the time that we were there. Less complaining and whining on the kids part. ;)

Of course I didn't get a picture of anything because I'm super slacking in that department. I PROMISE I'll do better at Christmas!!

But something that came up at Thanksgiving (at both events actually) was that fact that I'm almost 30...EEK!

So my sister brought up my 30x30 and I realized how far behind I am and how much I haven't updated. So get ready for another post about my 30x30. Your favorite thing to read about I know!

On another note, I can't believe that Christmas is less than a month away. I think that I'm going to take full advantage of Cyber Monday. I plan on doing most, if not all, of my Christmas shopping in my PJ's in front of the computer.

Happy Thanksgiving and almost Happy December! Yikes!

Brewery #3 - Ferguson Brewing Company

This week I tackled another brewery: Ferguson Brewing Company. I was lucky enough to get a sitter (my parents live near there) so Nick could come too. We got a small group of people to go and had a blast!

I hadn't eaten much that day so I made sure to eat a good meal while we were there too. I highly recommend their beer cheese soup. Their crawfish Po' Boy, not so much. Just being honest.

But the beer was pretty good! I think this whole brewery quest with me grading the breweries etc is a bad idea. I'm not gonna lie, I like beer. So automatically everyone basically gets at least a C+. Give me a decent beer and you're an automatic B. But this is part of a quest, so grade I will.

I did two beer flights while there. The first one had the following beers:

Oatmeal Stout: I'm a fan of stouts. I like coffee stout, oatmeal stout, whatever stout! This was a pretty good one. Not my favorite, but definitely good.

Pale Ale: Like I just said, these can be boring and I had to say it, but this one kind of was. I'd much rather have a Schlafly Pale Ale than this one.

Pecan Brown Ale: I like pecan ales. They are just different enough. Pale ales can be boring, so this adds a little something.

Belgian Wit: This was a good beer. I really liked this one. It had a slightly fruity flavor, like most wheats and I liked it. One of my favorites.

The second flight I did had the following:

Seasonal: Pumpkin Ale: ordinarily I love anything pumpkin. Not kidding. ANYTHING pumpkin. Lattes, candy, and especially beer. But this beer disappointed me. Not a fan of this. :(

Golden Blonde: A VERY light beer. Too light for me. I like a little more flavor to my beer. It was a hit at the table I think but not for me. 

Seasonal: Octoberfest: Now this was a hit. I like Sam Adams Octoberfest and I wasn't sure if this one would hold up but it did for me. I liked it. Another one of my favorites.

Hefeweisen: The last beer and the last of my favorites. I love Hefeweisen beers. From anywhere really and this one also didn't disappoint.

You can see on this one that there are two flights. Jim copied me (or I copied him, I really don't remember who ordered first) but it was completely unintentional. We just happened to order the exact same thing.

Overall I had a great time with the people and the location but it wasn't that fantastic for me. The beers were good but not great and while I loved my soup, the rest of my meal was sub par and took forever to come to the table.

Me and two of my favorite girls being goofy.

I give the Ferguson Brewing Company a B-. I'd go back but I'm not in any hurry.