The Adventures of Knittie Kitty

New Family Blog

2009-07-15T04:54:00.001-07:00

I did switch to a new blog for the family. Hopefully we'll get Eric on board with posting as well.

http://purposefulchaos.wordpress.com/

Chatting with Strangers on Planes

2009-07-14T05:18:00.000-07:00

So usually I don't like to chat with people on the plane. However, yesterday I sat next to a girl who was pregnant and I was missing my baby. So I thought I will be brave and strike up conversation such as oh when is your baby due? How exciting! Boy or girl? Not because I actually wanted to discuss her baby. No sir I'm way too selfish for that. I clearly dropped the hint that oh I have a sweet little boy at home, he's only 4 month, I clearly would like to discuss my baby. My sly hint dropping did not work and I did not get to brag about what a fantastic baby I have and how sweet he is. Sad. No more chatting with strangers on the plane for me. I'll stick to reading books and working.

In other news, thinking about starting with a new blog for the family. Will let you my one reader (hey mom!) know where it is if I change. :)

Don't Let Perfection Get in the Way of Good Enough

2009-05-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

So, this is something that a friend of mine always tells me at work because I'm a psychotic perfectionist and usually things don't have to be perfect, they just need to be good enough. I've decided to apply this concept to the house. Now it's important to note that my house is usually quite messy. :) However, when I go to clean the house, I make a huge production of it and it takes forever. I had visions that I was going to have the baby and have the house perfect and everything in its place, etc. Except that I didn't even do that prior to having a baby so what makes me think that now with having to take care of a baby as well, I was going to make that happen. So I decided that the house doesn't have to be perfect and clean and 100% organized, it just has to be good enough to keep us from going crazy with how messy it is. That being said, I cleaned up the house in about an hour and a half today. It's no longer driving me crazy and I didn't have to dedicate a whole day to it. I made little notes of what I could do in each room to help keep it looking organized and easier to clean for the next round. We'll see if it helps. The idea is that if we can keep the house a basic level of clean during the week, then the weekend we don't have to do anything or we can pick one specific project to work on like organize the hall closet.

With the extra time I had, I put in a super mini garden. So last year I put in a huge garden and it failed miserably. Not because anything died or didn't grow, but because I was too good at growing stuff. The joke became that I was working on a prairie restoration project. So this year I wasn't going to do anything, but I decided to put in 5 plants. 1 tomato, 1 green bell pepper, 1 red bell pepper, 1 jalapeno and 1 habenero. We'll see how it goes. :)

Now I'm off to organize the week so that hopefully my first week back to work won't be too traumatic.

Goals, Goals and More Goals

2009-05-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post about some of my goals as I lay here unable to sleep because Eric is out of town. I ultimately decided that having a noisy baby in the room was better than sleeping with the bedroom door unlocked. :) It's amazing that I can sleep alone just fine in hotels throughout the country, but leave me alone at my own house without Eric and I am terrified. And now we have a line of thunderstorms coming through. Perfect!

SI have a lot of goals that I would like to accomplish, like work really hard to be supermodel thin :) However, I don't think it makes sense to tackle all goals at once since it can get overwhelming and ultimately leads to burn out and not accomplishing goals. So I'm picking a top five to work on for this year. If I accomplish some of these prior to the end of the year, I will go ahead and get a headstart on the next round of goals, but I want to give myself a realistic amount of time to accomplish these things. I plan to give a goals update at the end of each month to keep myself in check.

1. Eating more nutritiously. This is a tough one as I really love sweets, but I don't necessarily want to diet, I just want to eat better and get rid of the junk food. I think ultimately, it's the best thing for me and a good example for Indie as he gets older. It's going to take me a while to break my habits, so I might as well start now.
2. Be more active. I really love spending an entire day in front of the TV watching movies or marathoning seasons of TV shows. This is already something that Indie has forced us to break a habit of doing and I think it's a good thing. Once again it's a want to set a good example thing. I also purchased some workout dvds that include babies so I can workout with Indie. I try to take him on walks when it's nice out and want to continue that habit.
3. Doing something outside on nice weekends. I haven't been very good at taking advantage of the nice weather in WI. So I'd like to try to something that is outside once a weekend when it's nice for the summer/fall. This might be just a trip to the farmers market, or a trip to the zoo (which is free in Madison woot woot!) and I'd like to take advantage of our many parks in WI and go on some hikes. We found an awesome backpack for carrying Indie so I'm going to use that as inspiration.
4. Be more organized around the house. I'm really good at organizing my time, but not my space. This one actually has multiple layers because part of this is getting rid of stuff that is clutter and we don't need. I've started with my sewing room. It's truly terrifying in there. The other part is to not bring as much junk into the house. I want everything that I purchase to have a specific plan and place. I definitely don't need 80 t-shirts. Just a few will do. :) I also don't need anymore random sewing/craft supplies.
5. Use up my sewing/craft/knitting supplies before buying more. I imagine I will have some exceptions to this, but I'd really like to always check what I have first before going shopping. A big part of this will be not doing an leisure shopping at Joann's on the weekends. This should be easier to not do with having the baby and wanting to spend time with him.

Spring Cleaning Fun!

2009-04-24T14:34:00.001-07:00

So today is absolutely gorgeous here in Belleville. It's actually more summer weather than spring weather for us. As I type this it is 82 degrees out and sunny. Beautiful! I have been using my clothes line today (which is about to fall over, yikes!) and I every neighbor that I can see from my house is also using their clothes line!

Today has inspired me to really get moving on some projects that we have been meaning to work on. Eric and I made a list of projects to work on so that whenever we're just sitting around trying to figure out something to do, we'll already have a plan.

You may remember the picnic table from last year (there's a post with a picture if you don't). Well I just had to have the wooden picnic table, even though Eric wanted the metal/plastic one. His reason was, we won't have to stain it. I can now admit that I really wish I would have listened to him, but my pregnant self was insistant that I had to have the wooden one. We left the picnic table out all winter uncovered and had never stained it or put anything protective on it. This was a mistake and the picnic table was quite ugly after the winter. So, one of my first projects was to stain the picnic table and it is officially done! Yay! I'll get a picture and post it after I turn the table back over, right now the bottom side is drying.

For the next couple days it's supposed to rain, so I am going to work on some inside projects. Mainly I'm going to focus on organizing my sewing room and the workout room. We made some progress on the workout room the other day. You can actually see most of the floor and there is a path through the room. You can also use the treadmill now because we cleaned all the boxes off of it. :)

I'm off to tackle picking up the house since we are having guests over tomorrow!

Indie's First Road Trip and Other Updates

2009-04-21T03:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some pix from our trip to TN and some other updates.

Yesterday we had our first ever cry/scream free bath. Indie just hung out in his tubby and relaxed during his bath. He still peed in the water eventually, but that's okay. He's getting much more interactive and spent most of the day yesterday fascinated with hanging out with Eric. He definitely likes to be on the move most of the time.

Indie is turning into a very good sleeper at night. He sleeps in his own room in his crib. After a bottle he goes right to sleep without crying or fussing and he sleeps about 7 hours most nights. It's really great. However, he's not taking big naps during the day like he used to. This presents a challenge in trying to get anything done since he likes to be moving constantly.

Here is Indie hanging out with his Dad yesterday. I thought this was cute. Now for pix from the tn trip.
Indie and all his traveling buddies.

Cousins! Indie and Lena.
Nana, Pops, Lena and Indie outside the aquarium.
Indie and his pirate turtle that pops bought him.
Nana, Pops and Lena checking out the sting rays.
eric and giant shark jaws.
Nana, Pops and their grand babies.
Cutest easter bunny ever.

Auntie Shanny and Indie
Learning to lift up his head
showing off his ducky outfit for easter
bath time with nana
indie and his 2nd cousin john

First Tubby Bath

2009-04-07T19:14:00.001-07:00

Today was Indie's first bath in a tubby rather than sponge bath. He was not really a fan. I think we're going to get him a different tub since he had a little too much freedom to scooch around in the tub we have.

Here he is getting ready for the bath. Look how cute his belly button is!Tubby time! That's a well placed foot!

sewing, sewing, sewing

2009-04-06T15:25:00.000-07:00

I finally have struck a balance with all the baby stuff and am managing to get some sewing done. Of course it is sewing for Indie. He needed some plaid pants and a black hoodie to go with his checkered vans. Since he has giant feet and will likely be outgrowing those shoes soon, I thought I should get working. I'm hoping to have them finished before we leave for TN on Wednesday. Indie is being a good baby today and is not being super fussy so far so I have hope that I can do that. Right now he is sleeping. I bought him a little soothie seahorse that plays music and lights up that is supposed to be very helpful in helping babies go to sleep. I've heard good things about it. I hope it works for us. He did just go down for his nap relatively painlessly with the seahorse playing lullabies. The true test will be night time as he is an excellent napper, but hates to go to sleep at night.

In other Indie news, today we're going to try to give him an actual tubby bath instead of a sponge bath. Wish us luck! We'll get pictures.

New Indie Pix

2009-04-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

Indie has decided that now he loves his swing that Aunti Shannon got for him. He took his afternoon nap in the swing today and is now working on falling asleep for the evening in his swing.

Here's some pix of Eric feeding Indie for the first time. so cute!

More Indie Updates

2009-03-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

Indie is officially a week old as of yesterday. We have learned alot in a week. For example, Indie is not a fan of the dark and is happiest when there is at least a dim light on. He also loves loves loves the vibrating chair. This has brought alot more free time to our hands since he constantly wants to be moving.

We had a tough time getting him to sleep last night, but once we did he let us sleep for 5 hours and then after a quick feeding, went back to sleep for another 3.5. So despite the initial frustration, we're feeling good today.

Here are some more pictures!

Sleeping in his fave chair

another sleepy babyfirst stroller ride. at first not so much a fanby the end of the walk, he was very happy and completely crashed.
alert baby

Indigo Harrison

2009-03-23T15:03:00.000-07:00

Haven't updated in a while, but Indigo Harrison was born on March 17th at 2:10pm. He was 8 lbs 8 oz and 19 inches long. So far we are all doing fantastic and learning to rearrange our very habitual schedules for Indie. :) The dogs are adjusting quite nicely as well. They are sad that they cannot sleep upstairs anymore, but have been so good with the baby and we're all able to hang out on the couch and watch movies together. Mr. Big even stopped whining on his own last night without us having to reprimand him.

Couple of days old, chillin in his swing.

Pops and IndieCute little Indie

Indie and Dad
Nana and Indie
Indie and Dad sleeping Tomorrow Indie will be one week old and we're going to the doctor for our first visit.

cleaning, cleaning, cleaning

2009-03-01T12:20:00.001-08:00

I'm hoping that the fact that all I want to do today is clean to make sure the house is ready is a good sign that Indie will be here soon. I told eric yesterday that I feel like this week is the week. Let's hope!

I haven't posted in forever

2009-02-25T04:23:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted in forever! Needless to say, I am still gigantically pregnant. I'm probably not the most fun to be around right now. Poor Eric! I've been so grumpy for the past week. I'm doing everything possible to try to convince Indie that he wants to be born sooner rather than later. Although my official due date is in one week, March 4.

Hopefully soon I'll be posting baby pictures!

OOPS!

2008-12-27T06:31:00.000-08:00

Somehow I managed to post my christmas eve post on Mom's blog. Due to the fact that it took me about 2 days to finally get pictures uploaded, I may leave it there unless mom wants me to move it. :) So if you would like to see our christmas day photos, go to mom's blog.

Christmas Eve Snow

2008-12-26T06:15:00.001-08:00

Here are some pix of the snow on Christmas Eve. Eric running the new snow thrower! OOOHHHH! It was a very exciting day for us.

Eric and the snow thrower again.

Here's the snow in the AM. This helps you see just how much snow we have compared to Eric and the mailbox.

Pretty tree in the snow in our front yard.

Here's the front of the house with snow. Not sure if I've ever posted a picture of the house on the blog.

Lots and Lots of Snow

2008-12-19T06:22:00.000-08:00

Picture of the back deck. Please note it's still snowing and will continue to snow until noon. I took this picture at 7. We were plowed in for about an hour or so this morning and thank goodness for 4 wheel drive and being with a boy who grew up in WI and knows how to drive in the snow!

11 weeks left

2008-12-16T16:19:00.000-08:00

It's true, only 11 weeks left until my due date. I haven't even cleaned the baby's room yet! yikes! Luckily I have the whole week off next week and I intend to do a ton of stuff then!

Snow and travel

2008-12-11T07:42:00.000-08:00

So for those of you who do not know, I have just returned from my very last trip! Yay! I will not be traveling again until sometime next summer.

I know my title sounds like I had snow issues while traveling, but I actually missed all of the snow in WI. I returned to 6 more inches of snow. Lovely! I hope we don't get tons of snow like we did last year. However, if there's a big snow storm in late Feb/early March I'm willing to bet that that's when I'll go into labor!

28 Weeks

2008-12-05T05:01:00.000-08:00

Here's the 28 week baby belly. Due to crappy picture quality (thank you camera phone) I edited it a bit. :)

Hello Third Trimester

2008-12-03T17:58:00.000-08:00

That's right, I'm in the third trimester now! woohoo! Even better, my hip pain went away so I have been able to resume house cleaning with full fury. No more only cleaning one thing a day. Watch out carpet the steam cleaner is coming for you! Tonight I did the hallway and the stairs. So glorious!

Pictures from last weekend

2008-12-03T04:10:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've been lazy and it's taken me a while to post these pictures from last weekend.

Here is our glorious christmas tree not yet fully decorated. However, we only have the blue and silver christmas balls on it anyways. It's very sparse on purpose.Here I am with the Christmas tree with terrible hair. We also deteremined that horizontal stripes are not nice to pregnant ladies. Live and learn. However, that's one of my favourite preggers shirts so I do intend to wear it again regardless of the unflatteringness of the stripes. :)Here's Eric's thanksgiving turkey. It's so very delicious!

I also went day after thanksgiving shopping. It was a good time. My favourite purchase was the steam cleaner for the carpets. So far I have steam cleaned the basement (it was so gross and dirty) and the dining room. Next is the hallway and the stairs up to the first floor. Crazy pregnant ladies should not be allowed to have steam cleaners particularly when they're insistant that the whole house should be clean and spotless.

So I am in STL starting Thursday evening and get back home next Wednesday. It's really not fun to travel at this point in the Christmas season because I have so much to do. However, I do not travel anymore after this so I should be able to get all Christmas items complete the following week and start really focusing on baby stuff. The baby room has not been cleaned out, painted or steam cleaned yet. I'm trying to get most of it done before January so everyone can see it when they're here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T07:28:00.000-08:00

Eric is busy preparing Thanksgiving turkey. yum yum! Those of you who have not experienced Eric's delicious Thanksgiving turkey are really missing out. He also makes amazing wild rice stuffing and muscat and dried fruit gravy. This year I am in charge of green bean casserole, sweet potatoe casserole and pumpkin pie.

I have mapped out my shopping strategy for tomorrow. Top things to get are christmas presents (I don't want to ruin any surprises so no hints as to what those things are), a steam cleaner, possibly a gliding rocking chair and of course a stop at Joann's. Should be fun! Usually I just go to the store and shop for hours, but due to being pregnant/hip hurting I had to figure out a strategy this year.

The other plan for the day is to drag out all the christmas stuff and figure out what I need to pick up tomorrow morning so we can decorate the house tomorrow. We're changing our Christmas theme this year since we bought a real sized tree last year. However, it's not a usual green christmas tree, it's silver. I'll post pictures tomorrow when we're done decorating.

In other news, we had our first snow fall the other day. Just two inches and the majority of it is gone now, but wanted to post a picture of the backyard. That's our sweet swing set. :)

Baby Registry

2008-11-18T05:09:00.000-08:00

Also forgot to mention that we did finally create a baby registry at Target. If you want to take a peak you can search for Lindsay Hoyt or Eric Vinson.

New Belly Pic

2008-11-18T03:54:00.000-08:00

Here's the belly at 25 weeks. It's getting kinda of giant. :)

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

Picture from our party last night. Yep I went as a zombie and dressed Indi up as a baby unborn/undead zombie. I actually won the costume contest this year. Mainly because the judges all knew that I'm preggers and thought this was the most hillarious thing ever. I did get some mixed results from random folks on the street who obviously don't know me and Eric and our crazy sense of humour. Thos are my other friends in picture as Amy Winehouse, Joe Six Pack, and a Sexy Pirate. Good times!

Weekend Fun & Snow

2008-10-27T19:40:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went over to Ken and Shannon's for brunch and to pick up some baby stuff. We now have tons of baby clothes and some other good basics like a bouncy chair, baby bjorn, another baby sling and changing pad. Yay! I also picked up an amazing ghetto fabulous Baby Phat diaper bag. It's so amazing!

We spent the rest of the weekend chilling. We finished season 2 of Dexter. Love that show! Also, I started crafting some Christmas presents in attempt to get them done on time!

We had a little bit of snow today. Not much and it didn't stick, but still seriously? snow in October? Oh well! Should be a fun winter.

It's a Boy!

2008-10-22T06:52:00.001-07:00

We found out last Friday that we are having a boy. Not too surprising because everyone just kind of thought it would be a boy. So I've been having fun doing some shopping and am very happy to be in town this week to work on stuff. I think I have the nesting bug since last night I was like hey instead of watching a movie do you want to organize the kitchen? Which Eric was not so into so I organized a little and then we watched a movie.

Here are some little tiny baby pants I bought this week. Shannon you will be proud because the middle pair are baby Timberland pants. Nothing like baby ghetto clothes.

And here's a belly picture for 21 weeks. Sorry it's a little blurry. I didn't focus it well enough when I took it. Oops!

20 Weeks

2008-10-14T06:21:00.001-07:00

Here's the 20 week baby belly. We find out Friday if it's a boy or a girl.

The baby is very hyper and has been kicking me for about a week straight. It's cool/creepy. I'll be sure to post on Friday with news.

I'm in four states this week it's quite exciting. Seattle Sun-Wed; STL on Thurs; WI on Friday; and in Minneapolis over the weekend. We're going to the zombie pub crawl this weekend. Should be fun!

18 Weeks Baby Bump

2008-10-01T05:00:00.001-07:00

Here's the belly at 18 weeks. Sorry for the crappy picture quality, I had to take it with my phone since I'm in STL.

Also when I get back to Madison, I'll take a picture of the perfect pumpkin.

Cravings

2008-09-29T07:42:00.000-07:00

First of all, I will post new belly pics on Wednesday because I will officially be 18 weeks at that point.

So, this week I have had huge cravings for salty and sour, mainly vinegar. This has resulted in eating alot of salt and vinegar chips and spinach with vinegar on it. Can't get enough spinach right now. It's pretty entertaining.

Later on this afternoon I will post a picture of my one pumpkin from my garden. I may have only gotten one, but it is perfect!

15 Weeks Baby Belly

2008-09-12T04:17:00.001-07:00

Here's the belly at 15 weeks

Wedding Pics

2008-09-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought I would post some pictures from Eric and I's elopement over the labor day weekend. I should have some additinoal ones coming from Ken and Shannon as well.

These first two pics are from today, not over the weekend. The fabulous cake that mom, dad, brad, shannon and Lena sent to us. It was delicious!!!
We did a cake smashing picture for you folks.

Here we are walking down the aisle of the amazingly cheesy dells bells chapel. Notice my dress. I like to call it my angelina dress. It's so comfy I might wear it every day.
oh the happy couple. Look at how giant my boobs are. amazing!
All of us together. Shannon and I did not even plan and our outfits matched.
Here we are again.
Last but not least to get married for the day.

Belly Picture for you

2008-08-29T03:50:00.000-07:00

for future frame of reference (when I'm getting much fatter) here's my belly at 13 weeks.

Random Updates

2008-08-27T03:53:00.000-07:00

Okay so I will be better at posting more regularly.

This week I think I will start with the belly pics so in a few months I can look back and say hey I wasn't that fat after all. We can also compare how giant or messed up my stomach tattoo gets... so sad. Oh and I'm assuming that everyone (Shannon, mom and Amber) that read my blog and comment already know I'm pregnant. :) If you're a stalker and read my blog but don't comment because you're interested in knowing what goes on in my life because your life must just be that boring/disappointing, I'm pregnant! (and if you are that stalker person, don't comment moving forward, ignorance is bliss).

We have started cleaning out the "guest room" aka extra storage room as it will become the baby's room. Next step is to pick out colours to paint the room and figure out which corner the little foresty tree will go in. Very exciting. Eric has also requested that ninjas be in our little zen forest room, which I think is hillarious/amazing. So we'll have to figure out where to put the ninjas.

We also have to start thinking about car seats and such. And since we never do anything without a lot of research, I thought I'd check with you all to see if there's a particular place you recommend for this research, website? etc.

Well I must get to work for the day.

Pictures!

2008-08-18T19:11:00.000-07:00

Okay so here are some pictures as I have found the usb cord for the camera.

Mr. Big sitting on the bass amp in the back of the element. I do believe we're at the McDonald's drive through.

The Cheat trying to bust through the pillow barrier between the front and the back of the car.

Both pups sitting on the bass cabinet in the back of the element.

Nobody puts baby in the corner!

Here's Mocha at the park when we were setting up for Lena's B'day party.

Lena beans playing in the water.

More Lena beans playing in the water.

Home from Vacay

2008-08-17T19:00:00.000-07:00

Well we made it home today. Wasn't too bad, we left at 6:30 AM (central time) and arrived home at about 6:30 PM (central time). We found the secret to getting the pups to travel calmly. Apparently we just need a giant bass cabinet for them to sit on top of in the back of the element. They can survey the land and feel secure. The pups are super happy to be back to their house. I have some funny pix of them on the bass cabinet, but can't find my usb cord for the camera.

We had a great time on our vacation. As per usual I was not great at taking pictures of our vacation, but I will post the few I took when I find the usb cord. We had a fantastic time and although we are happy to be back at our house, we are sad to leave the family in tennessee.

Updates

2008-08-04T03:35:00.000-07:00

Okay so I haven't been too busy to post, I've been too lazy. My life has finally slowed down a bit. I'm only working with one customer for traveling at the moment. It's quite nice.

So over the weekend we went to the Renaissance Festival. We had a pretty good time. At leeast it was fun to question some of the outfit choices of the others in attendance. We went with Eric's brother and sister in law and their baby Iain (well he's not quite a baby anymore). Iain went for his first pony ride which he loved and it was hillarious! I also saw a miniature pony that was glittery that made me realize that's what I'm missing from life, a tiny sparkly horse.

Yesterday we went shopping to get Eric some running shoes and "activity shorts." I always assumed that "activity shorts" would be special workout shorts that were made for working out. But apparently "activity shorts" are just shorts that Eric picks out and decides he could do activities in. Big difference.

Anyways, I'm in town this week so perhaps I will post more, if not I will see you all on Saturday as I will be in TN.

Weekend Updates

2008-07-07T03:04:00.001-07:00

So I had four days off over the weekend and it was fabulous!

We spent the fourth at Eric's brother's house. It was quite fun. We cooked out lamb on the grill and it was super delicious. We did some fireworks during the day with Iain which kind of enjoyed and kind of ignored. Later when it was dark we did some fireworks, but we made sure that they weren't the noisy kind.

Saturday and Sunday were full of house projects. We put in a round old fashioned clothes line. We're still waiting for the base to completely settle before putting it in. Then I worked alot on the garden.

Eric built me a picnic table. Pictures are below. I am very excited. It was not an easy project. :)

Here is some spinach from my garden.

Sorry for the bad pictures, but it you look closely you can see my little green tomatoes! So exciting! And I planted everything in the garden from seeds, which makes it even more exciting. I do however have a continuous battle with grass in the garden. I have to spend some more time on it next weekend to get it under control again.

Wedding Blog

2008-06-29T18:47:00.000-07:00

Okay so we finally as of this weekend have set a wedding date. hurray! I started a wedding blog so you can check it out here: http://ericlindsayswedding.blogspot.com/

so very very sleepy

2008-06-27T06:25:00.000-07:00

so my week of night shifts is over, finally! The only think that sucks is that because I'm oh so very busy and important I don't get to go home and sleep when I get back to Madison at noon. I have to go into work until 6PM. woot woot! I love staying awake for more than 24 hours straight. Well I am going to take a nap on the airplane just because I'm pretty sure I won't be able to stay awake.

However, I do have the whole weekend off before I leave for TX again very early on Monday morning. I know my garden definitely needs some attention this weekend. I also think I'll try to sew and organize the house a bit. In other words, I don't think I'll be leaving the house this weekend, except maybe to go to the Paoli farmers market, but that's only 5 minutes away.

Have yourself a happy Friday!

Updates!

2008-06-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm in Dallas for the week working very weird hours 6pm-6am. So we'll see how this goes. The good news is that I finally found a grocery store around so I can get fruits and veggies. And even better it's a whole foods so that's super fresh and yummy fruits and veggies. Even if I can't eat totally raw meals, at least all my snacks can be raw. And it's important to know that I snack significantly more than I eat regular meals. Snacking really accounts for 75% of my food intake for the day. I love snacks.
I also have a very nice workout facility here so I'm going to try to fit some working out in as well. wish me luck!

Otherwise things are going well. My garden is looking fabulous. Still having some way too much grass issues, but my plants are winning. I will be spending several hours in the garden this weekend. The big problem right now is that the mosquitoes are terrible! I need some bug spray for sure. Also thinking of planting some marigolds in the garden since they supposedly keep mosquitoes away.

I'm also anxiously awaiting next week. I have Thursday and Friday off. I can hardly imagine a 4 day weekend! Crazy!

Hope you all have a fabulous week!

Random Updates

2008-06-15T20:03:00.001-07:00

alright some random updates.

decided to jump on the raw food bandwagon. So far so good. Today was the first day that I actually made something other than salad (only did that for a few days). I think the most fun thing is how creative the food is. Made some delicious spinach sauce stuff (made with spinach from my garden) and put it over zucchini with fresh tomatoes. Also made some delicious lemon coconut bars. so amazing!!! we'll have to see how this goes with traveling so much. Hopefully I can keep it to 75% of my diet.

also, need to get back on the working out bandwagon. so i plan to attempt to fit that back into my life this week.

I will be in STL this week. exciting! I am longing for a week at home.... so sad.

garden is going pretty good. We had put up one fence, but it wasn't that awesome. and it was kind of sad to look at. it was black plastic. so we went to look for new stakes, but then decided to just use the stakes we have and redo the garden with wire chicken fencing. it's much more beautiful now. Although there was an incident of a bunny getting into the garden tonight. My spinach is ready for harvesting so that's exciting. Green beans and tomatoes are growing quite well. All very exciting.

have a great week!

Busy Little Bee

2008-06-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry for my lack of posting. I worked over 90 hours last week, but my customer is up and running! Which means this week will be better. I have today off as a recovery day. I have another customer going live today that I'm supporting remotely, but hey at least I get to do that in my pajamas. This week will be back to normal except that I'm working 3-11 pm. So it's a little confusing/nice to have the whole day at home and then go into work.

So some general updates
-for those of you who are curious, wedding planning is starting to move forward. I will fill in more details as I get them. Actually I'm going to post a separate blog of wedding planning.
-puppies are fantastic as usual
-the garden is coming along. We had a ton of rain this past week and I haven't been able to work on it too much so the grass is taking over. This week I plan to defeat the grass once and for all

Nano, gardening, organizing, 99 degrees and exercising fun

2008-05-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

Random updates for you all!

so to inspire myself to workout more and because I really love tiny things, I bought a pink iPod nano. I am in heart with it! it's so tiny and fantastic. Oh apple why are you so genius.

Well, the garden is starting to look like a garden. I have 4 rows of plants in and more to be put in this weekend. We even put up a fence to keep the bunnies out. Now I love the bunnies and maybe I will plant them their own plants, but I don't appreciate them snacking on my pea plants.

I also spent a good portion of the weekend organizing the guest bedroom. Still have a long ways to go, but it's getting better. Soon, very soon. Don't worry I took before pictures so you can see before and after. :)

I am in Dallas this week. It was a record high today of 99. booo!!! And it's going to be in the 90s for the rest of the week. Oh how I already miss Wisconsin!

And finally the exercise plan for the week. so I decided since I don't have a ton of time to exercise, I needed to do a more efficient exercise than walk. so today I started with the running. I'm assuming it will be hellish for a few weeks, but I will be motivated by how much more effective it is.

Mon: Cardio 30 min, abs 15 min
Tues: Cardio 30 min, upper body 15 min
Wed: cardio 30 min, lower body 15 min
Thurs: cardio 30 min, abs 15 min
Fri: cardio 30 min, upper body 15 min
Sat: cardio 30 min
Sun: none

Exercise Workplan for the Week

2008-05-12T02:51:00.000-07:00

Hello All. I managed to somewhat keep with my plan for last week with exercising. I only missed one day, which is really good considering I also managed to work 65 hours this past week and was traveling. :)

So the plan for this week:

Mon: Eric and I are playing tennis (we're not very good, but we have fun)
Tues: Cardio 30 min, abs 15 min
Wed: Cardio 30 min, upper body 20 min
Thurs: Cardio 30 min, lower body 20 min
Fri: cardio 30 min, abs 15 min
Sat: Cardio 30 min
Sun: off

Weekly Exercise Workplan

2008-05-05T02:38:00.000-07:00

Last week's exercising and watching what I eat seems to have paid off, I lost three pounds. Hurray! I'm traveling this week so the challenge is not putting all that back on plus more due to the fact that I can't make food at home. However, my plan is to find a grocery store and not rely on eating at restaurants. My room has a fridge and a microwave that's all I really need to make healthier food.

Here's the exercise plan for the week:
Mon: cardio 30 min, abs 15 min
Tues: cardio 20 min, upper body 20 min
Wed: cardio 20 min, lower body 20 min
Thurs: cardio 30 min, abs 15 min
Fri: cardio 30 min
Sat: cardio 30 min
Sun: off

Weekly Exercise Plan

2008-04-28T02:54:00.001-07:00

Okay so I found another six week program that I like so I'm going to start putting up the weekly exercise plans again. Work is going to be extremely busy until the middle of June so hopefully I can keep up with posting and exercising.

Mon: 20 min cardio; 20 min upper body
Tues: 20 min cardio; 15 min abs
Wed: 40 min cardio
Thurs: 20 min cardio; 15 min abs; 20 min lower body
Fri: 40 min cardio; 15 min abs

Gardening Fun

2008-04-24T03:55:00.000-07:00

Well, for the past couple of weeks I have been obsessed with planting seeds and getting my garden started indoors since we can't quite move it outdoors yet (supposed to get rain/snow mixture next week). I do believe right now we're living with over 144 seedlings in the house. :)
So, we attempted to dig up the garden earlier this week with a shovel. We got about one row in and I gave up. Our garden plot is way too big for that. We would have had to spend 4-5 hours digging it up and with how busy I am, I don't really have time to get that done in a timely fashion. So jokingly yesterday morning I said to Eric that he should go rent a tiller and I expected that garden to be tilled by the time I got home. I stated that this was a joke and we laughed. Well, by the time I got home yesterday the garden was completely tilled. :) Now if it would just stop snowing I could actually plant something outside!

Viva Las Vegas!

2008-04-09T03:12:00.000-07:00

To start with, Eric and I did not get married in Vegas, so don't even ask.

I'm not as picture crazy as the rest of the family, but I did actually remember to take some pictures on the vaca. Unfortunately, I don't post multiple pictures very often, so this is kind of out of order.

Enjoy!

Here I am being a degenerate gambler. I'm a super high roller and only played penny slots.

This is the view from our hotel room. We got a free upgrade to the tower and had a gorgeous view of the mountains.

Here we are with our giant sunglasses on the strip.

Here we are at the airport on the way to Vegas. Yay Minneapolis airport.

Here's the Vegas strip.

In this one you can see the Luxor, where we stayed. It's the pyramid on the right side of the picture.

Here I am with the Crazy Girls statue. It's hot right? I just wanted to beat mom at having the most scandalous picture of the week. Eric has a more scandalous picture, but it wasn't appropriate to post.

This is after we left the fancy casinos of the Luxor and MGM because we didn't feel at home and went to the north end of the strip to the ghetto casinos. This is us after a few $1 beers at the Circus Circus, good times.
This is the $.99 hotdog we got at the circus circus and it's next to a terrifying dirty rag on top of a trash can. Apparrently we really enjoyed our beer because we thought this was hillarious.
Here I am being a degenerate gambler again. This time I have my cigarette prop. You can see I won an amazing .62 cents at the penny slots. (I started with $1).

All in all we had a pretty fun time. We walked way too much and almost lost the use of our legs after the first day.

Also would like to give you some of my favourite Vegas quotes:

"It's Lady Liberty!" -small child exclaimed at 1:30 AM on our way from the airport to our hotel in the shuttle when he saw the Statue of Liberty at the New York New York. Probably the funniest thing that happened the entire time we were in Vegas.

"All the happy people are wearing comfortable shoes." -me after realizing that all the shoes I brought were a mistake.

Spring & Vegas

2008-04-05T11:01:00.001-07:00

Sorry for my lack of posting. I worked about 85 hours this past week. Fun times.

Spring is finally here in Madison. It's about 60 today, it's fabulous. Next weekend I plan to start my gardening. I would this weekend, but Eric and I are going to Vegas for vaca. I will post pictures once we return!

It always snows when...well, it just always snows

2008-03-23T19:00:00.000-07:00

So, on the first day of spring we got 8-10 inches of snow. :( Sad times!

Can't wait until actual spring so I can go for walks and ride my bike.

So, the workout plan for the week:

Mon: strength 15 min
Tues: Zumba
Wed: strength 15 min
Thurs: hip hop aerobics
Fri: 30 min cardio
Sat: walk 20 min
Sun: walk 20 min

Exercise Plan

2008-03-17T03:09:00.000-07:00

Here's this week's exercise plan

Mon: Cardio 30 min.
Tues: Cardio 30 min; Strength 15 min.
Wed: Cardio 30 min
Thurs: None
Fri: Strength 15 min; Cardio 30 min.
Sat: Cardio 30 min
Sun: None

Exercise Update

2008-03-12T03:51:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I've been kind of bad about posting about this. I'll keep this more up to date.

So I've been meeting all my self challenge goels for working out: 3 days cardio, 2 days strength. I"m also trying to throw in a little extra credit exercise when possible.

I've been pretty good with eating better lately as well.

So here's this week's schedule:

mon: none

Tues: Zumba

Wed: strength

Thurs: hip hop aerobics

Fri: strength

Sat: walk/run

Sun: none

What is Zumba?

2008-03-07T04:13:00.000-08:00

Zumba is latin dance inspired aerobics and alot of fun! if a gym near you has a zumba class, I'd recommend taking it. Zumba is also available on DVD so maybe the library has it.

Sorry for my lack of posting my weekly plan this past week. I went to Dallas on Sunday instead of Monday and have been confused ever since. However, I have kept up with all my exercising this week. I'm going to do some extra credit exercising tomorrow. Also have been good with at least journaling what I've eaten. Hard to eat really healthy when the majority of your meals for the week have to be from restaurants. :( Boo!!! I just have to work harder to figure out healthy choices. Of course, the giant piece of cheesecake I had at the airport Chili's on Wednesday probably didn't help!!

I'll remember to post a weekly plan this weekend.

More snow

2008-02-26T04:21:00.001-08:00

We got more snow last night! Will it ever be spring????

Self Challenge Kick Off

2008-02-26T04:18:00.000-08:00

Okay, so the Self Challenge started yesterday. I hope you're all excited. The workouts don't seem bad at all, just 3 days of 25 min of cardio and 2 days of 10 min of strength training. Since I accomplished my goal of getting into an exercise habit with our last 8 weeks of working out, this time I plan to focus on my eating habits. I think that's what's holding me back.

Here's my workout plan for the week:
Sun: none
Mon: none
Tues: Zumba
Wed: 10 min strength
Thurs: walk/jog 25 min
Fri: walk/jog 25 min; 10 min strength
Sat: none

Week 8 - The last week

2008-02-16T13:54:00.000-08:00

Alright, this is the last week of our first workout challenge. Starting next week on the 25th we will be doing the three month self challenge. Exciting! I'll post a share your progress and your plan if you wish on Sundays. Also, I'll post this Saturday so we can review our goals and what we accomplished.

Day Plan
Sun Day off
Mon Interval walk 20 min; strength 30 min
Tues Cardio 40 min
Wed 2 miles in 30 min; strength 30 min
Thurs Cardio 40 min
Fri Walk 3 miles in 1 hr.
Sat Day Off

Plans for the Next Fitness Round

2008-02-14T16:56:00.001-08:00

So, Self.com is starting it's self challenge on Feb. 25th. This is a three month challenge. I thought it might be fun if we all did that and then we can post our results and progress weekly. What do you all think? Go to www.self.com to sign up. My sign in is KungfuKitten in case you're looking for me.

If you're not into the three month committment, I can do something else instead.

Will it ever stop snowing?

2008-02-11T05:21:00.000-08:00

We're getting another 4-6 inches of snow tonight. So, as of tonight we're officially breaking the record for the most snowfall. Oh and we're only technically half way through the winter season.

Week 7 - a day early

2008-02-07T04:41:00.000-08:00

Since Shanny and Beans (that's my new Lena nickname) are coming into town tomorrow, I thought I'd go ahead and post workout times for next week today.

Day Plan
Sun Day Off
Mon Cardio 40 min
Tues Interval Walk 20 min
Strength 30 min
Wed Cardio 35 min
Yoga 15 min
Thurs 2 miles in 30 min
Strength 30 min
Fri 3 miles in 1 hr 5 min
Yoga 15 min
Sat Day Off

Week 6 Exercise Workplan

2008-02-01T05:54:00.000-08:00

Yay! We're on week 6! Only two more to go after this, then you can look forward to a new and exciting workout program.

Day Plan
Sun Day Off
Mon Cardio 40 min
Strength 30 min
Tues Interval walk 20 min.
Wed Cardio 35 min
Yoga 15 min.
Thurs 2 miles in 30 min
Yoga 15 min
Fri 3 miles in 1 hr. 5 min.
Sat. Day Off

Week 5 Exercise Workplan

2008-01-26T11:12:00.000-08:00

We're now to week 5! Last week was pretty good for me. I missed 2 workouts because of the crazy weather travel week. But I exercised almost every day. I also am adding Hip Hop Abs to my workout routine. It's probably the most ridiculous workout video ever.

Also, I'm going to start planning and designing another workout plan to start after the eigth week of this plan. Throw me some ideas for what you would like to focus on. The idea for this one was to get everyone in the habit of working out by starting off slow with walking. So some ideas I was tossing around were focusing a month on abs, 5K training with the couch to 5K program, focus on pilates, etc. So, let me know what you guys would like.

Day Plan
Sun. Day Off
Mon. Cardio 30 min.
Tues. Interval walk 20 min.
Wed. Cardio 30 min.
Strength 30 min.
Thurs. 2 miles in 30 min.
Yoga 30 min.
Fri. 3 miles in 1 hr.
Sat. Day Off

Exercise Workplan for the Week

2008-01-18T06:08:00.000-08:00

Week 4 - We're halfway there!

Day Plan
Sun 40 min. of cardio
Mon 2 miles in 40 min.
Tues Cardio 35 min.
Strength 30 min.
Wed 2.5 miles in 40 min.
Yoga 20 min.
Thurs Day off
Fri 3 miles in 1 hr. 5 min.
Sat Day off

Workplan for This Week

2008-01-12T05:59:00.000-08:00

All right, here it is for this week. This is week 3, great work so far.

This week we'll have an internal walk. Remember that's 2 minutes at a brisk pace and 2 minutes slower.

Day Plan
Sun 35 Min. Cardio
30 min. strength
Mon. 30 min. interval walk
Tues. 35 min. cardio
30 min. strength
Wed. 2 miles in 30 min.
30 min. yoga
Thurs.Day Off
Fri. Day Off
Sat. 3 miles in 1 hr.

Post Your Results Here

2008-01-12T05:57:00.000-08:00

Post last week's results here!

I managed to actually to reach my goal and get all my workouts in this week. I'm pretty amazed since I was traveling this week.

Yay!

Busy Sunday

2008-01-06T17:08:00.000-08:00

So, I'm feeling a bit pressured to make the most out of my weekends since I'm going to be done so much. So, this weekend I took down the christmas stuff, finally up up the napoleon dynamite poster, and cleaned my sewing room.

Here are some pics of my progress.

No more Hip Hop Santa and Barbie, but we do have Napoleon and Tina. I know it's technically just sitting on the mantel and not hung up, but it's been in the closet for 2 years so this is an improvement.

Clean sewing room! And yes my dress form is also holding a gas mask. Also, if you click on this picture and look out the window you can see how insanely foggy it was today. That's not because there's plastic on the window. Also, it's about 4 in the afternoon. It just kept getting foggier today.

Okay still a little messy but not as bad as it was.

When all else fails, shove everything in the closet.

Exercise Plan for 1/6-1/12

2008-01-04T08:38:00.000-08:00

Same idea as last week. The miles refer to walking. For the cardio pieces, pick your cardio. Try something fun like dancing around like crazy for 35 min. or the mini trampoline.

Day Plan

Sun Cardio 35 min.

Mon. Off

Tues. 2 miles. in 40 min.; 20 min. strength training

Wed. Cardio 35 min.

Thurs. 2 miles in 30 min.

Fri. Off

Sat. 3 miles in 1 hr.; 30 min. strength

Happy Exercising!!!

Post Your Weekly Results Here

2008-01-04T08:36:00.000-08:00

Post the results for your workout week in a comment.

I had an excellent workout week. I completed all my workouts that I had scheduled. Well, I know I still have tomorrow to finish, but since it's Saturday it will be happening. No work to make life too busy for exercising. I did end up switching around some of my workout days due to oversleeping and having a dermatologist appt. until 6:30 pm in the same day. But overall things went well.

Join me in some exercising fun

2007-12-28T06:10:00.001-08:00

So, I just put together an 8 week exercise plan (based on a weight watchers workout) and I thought I'd share with everyone so you can join in if you'd like. Let's all be virtual workout buddies. So, the plan is that on Friday of every week, I'll post the upcoming schedule for the week. The workout week starts on Sunday. Let's post the week's progress on the original workout schedule post for that week. So, on Saturday or throughout the week, go back to the workout schedule posted for that week and give an update.

So, with this you will work out 5 days of the week and have 2 off. You don't have to follow my off days, you can choose which days will work best for you. Most of the workouts are walking. You choose how fast and what terrain. Interval walking is 2 min. fast 2 min. slow. There are some items that say cardio. You can choose what you would like to do for those. For the strength pieces you can choose your favourite strength building activity. For example, I'll probably choose a mixture of pilates and free weights.

I'm also going to have an overall goal for the 8 weeks. My goal is to make every walking piece of the workout and 80% of the additional workouts that are listed. I also think that posting all this will keep me dedicated to the plan.

So, let's get started.

Week 1:
Day Date Plan
1 12/30 Cardio: 35 min.

2 12/31 Interval walking 20 min.

3 1/1 Cardio 35 min.

4 1/2 Day off

5 1/3 2 miles in 30 min. (walk)

6 1/4 3 miles in 1 hr. (walk)

7 1/5 Day off

Happy Exercising!

Happy Christmas!

2007-12-26T04:35:00.000-08:00

We had a fantastic christmas up in the cold white north. And it was a white christmas. Yay!! Eric got Rock Band for me/us and basically we played rock band all day. I'm now up to playing medium on the drums. Hope everyone else had a fantastic christmas. Here are some pics, with most of them being of the dogs.

Mr. Big and the Cheat either look really excited or really terrified that it's christmas!

Up close of the excitement.

Here they are with their new octopuss for the year.

The Cheat being cute in his pajamalamas.

Eric and the boys in their christmas pjs.

Oh this one is getting put on the christmas card next year.

Holiday Cocktail Party

2007-12-16T05:28:00.001-08:00

So last night was the holiday cocktail party. I'm going to type in red and green to provide some extra holiday cheer to this post.

Here is the glorious food table. For some reason everything was brown or off white or white this year. Strange. Regardless, this is the table before I finished cooking. I get way too excited about the food.

I finally finished all my Christmas decorating for the party. Here is our tree. We're still using the apartment sized tree in our big house. This year I'm going after christmas shopping to get a big tree. I might still put this one up as well because I love it so much! It's a $10 tree from Walgreens, but it has treated me well.

Here's the mantel with Hip Hop Santa and Holiday Barbie. The joke it that Barbie is his ho.

And finally, the horrible banisters needed some cheesetastic decorations. So I came up with this idea to make little peppermints and to hang them there. I attached them to a strand of lights that's wrapped in tinsel. Pretty fabulous.

The party went well. Unfortunately we got a couple of inches of snow so only brave came out. But we had a great time and played alot of guitar hero!

More Snow!

2007-12-12T03:41:00.000-08:00

Oh we have even more snow! I'll get a new picture of our driveway. The snow piles on the side are now taller than me! It's definitely going to be a white christmas here.

Last night when I got home, I couldn't pull into the driveway because there was too much snow. While I was inside getting dressed to shovel snow, my neighbor came over and used his snowblower to clear out the drive way for me. Now I know some people don't like small towns because you're neighbors are always watching you, but if they're going to clear out my driveway because they're nice, I'm all about that.

Snow! (Shoveling)

2007-12-03T04:10:00.000-08:00

This is after we shoveled.

So we had about 4 inches of snow. Good times. Then it rained and now there's a beautiful layer of ice on top of everything. Luckily we have the element so we were able to initially get out of our driveway without have to shovel it. We had to do this because we only had 1 really crappy snow shovel and we needed to get a better one. So here are some pics for you of snow and shoveling.

Lindsay and her first time shoveling snow. Lindsay is no longer a snow shoveling virgin.

Eric shoveling snow. Oh sexy!

Yay Wireless!

2007-12-01T14:38:00.000-08:00

I finally got wireless at the house again. You can anticipate more posts.

Right now I'm taking a break from knitting christmas presents. I'm watching christmas movies and it's snowing outside. :) OH christmas spirit! Both of the pups are snuggled up in front of the little heater. It's soooo adorable!

Halloween!!

2007-10-29T03:04:00.000-07:00

Here are the pups dressed as Chewie and Han Solo. Basically, we just put Mr. Big in his costume and laugh hysterically. He seems to like wearing it quite a bit. The Cheat is not such a fan of wearing costumes, but it keeps him still and quiet for a while.

M.I.A.

2007-07-23T18:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry for my lack of posting lately.

Here are some updates:
-We finally moved into the new house!! We are definitely not anywhere near unpacked yet. However, we have put up a gazebo, put together a grill, and put together the treadmill. Clearly these are all way more important than unpacking clothes. I did manage to get the whole kitchen together though. It's so nice having cabinet space.
-Eric managed to complete one of my items on my list. He cleaned out the Element really well. It looks fabulous. So I marked it off the list.
-Current projects include decorating the sewing room, continuing with 5 day a week workout goal, lose 15lbs, and I'm working on training for a 5k. I plan to run the Henry Vilas Zoo Run in September. Should be fun. Once I get the sewing room back together I shall continue with finishing up the knitting stash and fabric stash. I think those two items will take me the longest. Of course if people I know keep having babies and I keep using up my fabric I already have, I may be in luck.
-We had a birthday party for The Cheat!!! Pictures will be posted as soon as I find the USB cord for the camera.
-We also went to Devil's Lake for my company picnic and took an intense hike. I have pictures of that and it's fabulous as well. Once again, pictures will be posted as soon as I find the USB cord for the camera.

Well... that's all the updates for now! Sorry it's not too exciting, I'm really tired and have a summer time cold. Who gets a cold in the summer???

2007-07-07T19:29:00.000-07:00

So my entire life lately has revolved around three items: packing, cleaning, and exercising.

We close on the house this Wednesday!! I'm so excited. We're going to get at least the kitchen set up on Wednesday and bring over the futon mattress to sleep there for the first night. I'm so excited!!!

Fun Times in Traveling

2007-06-24T18:21:00.000-07:00

Oh there is nothing I love more to do on a Sunday evening then to be stuck in the Detroit airport. The best news in the world is to hear that your flight is delayed and you will be leaving at the time that you should be landing. So what's a girl to do? Well, I have been through the Detroit airport quite a few times and have learned to anticipate it's unpredictable nature. Therefore, I have a computer, phone, 2 books, a knitting project, and updated podcasts. Hopefully I'll make it through..........

Baby Number One

2007-06-23T06:25:00.000-07:00

Ken and Shannon had their baby last night. It's a boy and he's super cute. Not as scary as other freshly born babies i have seen. No squishy head because she had to have a c-section. Eric pointed out that I should never seen he doesn't take me anywhere on Friday nights. :)

We went out to eat in Belleville last night to explore our new town a bit. It's such a kitchy quaint little town. It reminds me of Stars Hollow. :) July 11th better hurry up!!!!

I want to move!!!

2007-06-20T16:35:00.000-07:00

Will July 11 ever get here??????????????

Life of Knittie Kitty Updates

2007-06-18T03:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I couldn't think of a good title for this particular entry so you got Life of Knittie Kitty Updates. We'll start with updates to the list of 104 things to do:

1. Completed #52: Go through clothes. I went through my clothes yesterday afternoon. It was a good time. However, I realized that although I have way too many clothes, I generally wear a good portion of them.

2. I am working on # 60: Throw The Cheat a birthday party. We will be having his party on July 15. I have invites and everything.

3. I am also working on #38: Do some kind of volunteer work. I'm making alot of blankets for Project Linus. This also helps me use up my sewing stash. It's a win/win.

4. And also working on #12: Work out 1/2 hour 5 days a week. I've actually accomplished this for the last few weeks. I'm not sure how I will determine that I've met this goal, but I guess I'll put some sort of timeline on it.

In other updates, we started packing yesterday for the big move. We got a ton of stuff done. So hopefully there will be no rushing at the end to pack items up. We planned out a schedule and so far we are ahead.

we got a house!!!

2007-06-06T15:44:00.001-07:00

Well, we finally got a house! And after lots of war over offers, we won!!! YES!!!

Check out the house here:
http://www.wisconsinhomes.com/search/search.php?step=quicksearch&search=1&where=listnum&listnum=1480112

Numbers 51 & 65

2007-05-31T06:42:00.000-07:00

I finished two more items on my list.

51 Buy new mattress: I completed this one the other day. It is fabulous. However, it has created a new item of find new bedding.

65 Start an herb garden: Now although I can't start a true in the ground herb garden I started a patio herb garden. I planted some basil and mint yesterday. We may decide to add more herbs, but ideally we will eventually find a house soon and we don't want to move too many plants.

I want to ride my bicycle!

2007-05-29T19:27:00.001-07:00

Well, #25 is finished! I bought a bicycle today! It's sooooooooo cute. I'll post a picture of it soon! And don't worry Mom, I also bought a helmet.

Vacation is all I ever wanted!

2007-05-29T04:16:00.000-07:00

It's vacation week!!! We're not really going anywhere, but it will be fabulous just to sit around. But I must repeat the following phrase: "I will not check my email."

Sculpture Park

2007-05-23T17:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some pix of a fun sculpture park I visited in St. Louis. I thought my pictures were a bit Shanny of me. I tried to be artsy.

Number 47 - Shanny's Baby Shower

2007-05-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I completed number 47 - Plan & Host Shanny's Baby Shower. We had a good time. I hope Shannon felt preggers and fabulous. We had a Japanese/Cherry Blossom theme.

Here's a picture of Shannon with Lena's country music star accessories - pinl cowboy boots and rhinestone pacifiers.

104 Things to do in 104 Weeks

2007-05-15T17:49:00.000-07:00

Well, this was sposed to be 100 things to do in 100 weeks, but I like an even 2 years instead of trying to figure out almost 2 years. :) So this should be a fun list, I'll keep it updated. It's not completed yet.

1. Start blog of 104 things to do in 104 weeks - done!!
2. Buy house - done!!!
3. Plant garden
4. Plan Wedding
5. Get Married
6. Use up my knitting stash - getting pretty far on this one
7. Use up my fabric stash - this would be a miracle if I finish this one
8. Reorganize filing system
9. Post random stuff on ebay
10. Get & finish table for my office
11. Organize sewing room
12. Exercise 1/2 hr. 5 days a week habit
13. Loose 15 lbs.
14. Use the car less and bike more
15. Get the car tuned up
16. Get the windshield fixed on the car
17. Start etsy shop
18. Complete a 5K
19. Make kilts for Eric
20. Go see Rocky Horror at the Oriental
21. Take an actual vacation
22. Get rid of dressers - done!
23. Get new dressers
24. Try reupholstering a chair for sewing room
25. Buy Bike - done
26. Learn how to ice skate
27. Take ballroom dancing classes
28. Go see house on the rock
29. Get the bumper fixed on the Honda Element
30. Take up French
31. Visit the Milwaukee art museum
32. Read 10 books (1 - Choke, 2 - The Devil in the White City, 3 - Death's Dark Abyss, 4 - We Thought You'd be Prettier, 5 - Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, 6 - Naked)
33. Start a collection of my stories
34. Go to Dr. Sketchy's art class
35. Make first pair of knitted socks
36. Learn how to spin using a drop spindel
37. Pay off JCP credit card
38. Do some kind of volunteer work
39. Watch all the movies in the movie collection
40. Make puppy calendar
41. Get a new computer
42. Paint andy warhol inspired puppy picture
43. learn how to silkscreen
44. Go to an art opening
45. Go to a play
46. Plan knitting brunch
47. Plan & host Shanny's baby shower -done
48. Clean out Civic really well
49. Clean out Element really well - done (thanks to Eric!!)
50. Finish this list
51. Buy new mattress - done
52. Go through clothes - done
53. Figure out photoshop basics
54. Visit where Mary Tyler Moore threw her hat
55. Get a PDA
56. Stop biting fingernails
57. Keep a journal
58. Learn to design my own knitting patterns
59. Finish college scrapbook
60. Throw The Cheat a b'day party - done
61. Throw Mr. Big a b'day party
62. Use my YMCA membership consistently
63. Take a drawing class
64. Organize kitchen - done (it's amazing how more space can lead to more organization)
65. Start an herb garden - done
66. Only work 8-5 unless absolutely necessary - done
67. Finish packing townhouse - done
68. Clean out townhouse really well - done
69. Paint and decorate sewing room at new house
70-104. TBD

House Buying Blues

2007-05-14T03:39:00.000-07:00

It turns out that the house we put in an offer on yesterday had already accepted an offer on Saturday. How trashy is it to not call other showing to cancel when you've already accepted an offer? So, I was really excited to be over the whole go see this house and try to decide phase, but it turns out that we have to keep going with that. Soooo frustrating!

2007-05-08T04:26:00.000-07:00

It's really frustrating that I spend enormous amounts of energy trying to keep work life and personal life separate to have my work life not respect that arrangement. So, I can't buy the cat pee house due to work saying no no an hour is too far; however, if it was only 45 minutes away that would be fine. This is unfortunate, but has helped me discover my purpose in life of being a catalyst for change. I feel like I'm always in this position. My main problem is that this wasn't told to anyone at work and I had to find out from my buyer's agent since she heard it as a rumor from somewhere. That's what I'm actually upset about. So, I have requested and made a fuss that policy changes be handled differently and it looks like it might happen. In the meantime I have about a week and a half to find a house to buy.

I Work Too Much!!!

2007-05-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

So, I'm working all weekend in Chicago. Boo!!!

On an exciting note, I just purchased my first Shannon Kelley original photograph. I'm totally putting it in my office. I'm super excited!!

Aloha!

2007-04-26T18:07:00.001-07:00

More puppy outfit fun for you!

First Sunburn of the Season

2007-04-21T16:08:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a beautiful day and we spent it outside with the puppies. I am completely and totally sunburnt. That's what I get for not listening to Eric.

Happy Friday!

2007-04-20T04:20:00.000-07:00

The Cheat is ready for the weekend, are you?

April snow showers bring May flowers?

2007-04-11T16:24:00.000-07:00

We officially have a few inches of snow. It's very sad! I'll post pictures tomorrow since I left my camera USB cord at work and have no intentions of driving back to get it tonight. Let's just say boo on snow in April!!!

Adventures in House Shopping

2007-04-11T04:09:00.000-07:00

So, we have finally found a farmette that is actually really a possibility. You can see pictures of it here: http://www.wisconsinhomes.com/search/search.php?step=quicksearch&search=1&listnum=1461478
It needs some work, but nothing beyond some aesthetic help....
We're going to see it again this weekend. We'll keep you posted!

Adventures in Blogging

2007-04-09T04:47:00.000-07:00

Since modern technology is so fabulous and allows us to be in such total communication with everyone around us, I thought I should take advantage. Now I did blog elsewhere previously, but some individuals can't handle the responsibility of the internet and use it to be passive aggressive. Which is just sad. So, here we are. Be prepared to read about knitting, how big of a dork I am, puppies, and my fiance. Not to mention how much agnst searching for the perfect farmette is causing me.