Playing Catch Up

Wow! It seems like it's been over a month since my last update! We have not fallen off the face of the earth, we've just been really really busy! Let me fill you in on all of our "goings on"(Ok, this is about 4 posts worth of blogging all rolled into one Mega-Post! I'm way too tired to organize my thoughts at the moment. Bear with me):

Last week:

My grandparents came to visit us for about 5 days (and yes, they totally road tripped out here). It was a really great visit. We visited the National Mustard Museum, went out to breakfast at our favorite diner, enjoyed a tasty steak dinner, visited the arboretum, and enjoyed each other's company! It's always nice having visitors...but I'm always super exhausted afterwards! Today is the first day in about 4 days that I've actually been motivated to get things done around the house. They are now back in NY, safe and sound (and covered in snow).

Josie and I attended the "Baby's First Halloween" at the Madison Children's Museum with our friends. It was a fun time but WAY too crowded for our liking. We only stayed about an hour. I have to upload photos of Josie in her Monarch Butterfly Costume. She was super cute (as always)!

Last Tuesday night, I helped my friend Riley host a "Clothing Swap Party" with out HMN gal-pals. We all cleaned out our closets and brought items that we never wear anymore. We drank wine, ate tasty treats and "shopped" for new clothing and accessories from the selection of items we all brought. All leftover items were donated to GoodWill. I was too busy chatting with everyone to "shop" at all; but that's fine by me since I already have so many clothes (even after I cleaned out my closet!). I'm pretty sure I ate my weight in taco dip that night too...and have no regrets about it.

Last Wednesday, Tim and I went on our first official date in over a year! Our good friends watched Josie for us while we enjoyed a super nice dinner at one of the local japanese restaurants. I forgot how much I love sushi! To be perfectly honest, I missed having our little JBird with us. She's just so good to take in public, it's hard to ever feel like "Oh Em Gee...I need a kid-free night!" I am definitely looking forward to other date nights in the future.

I was asked to become a co-leader for my local chapter of Holistic Moms Network. I'm pretty excited about it! I just sent in my official application today. I have to go through an interview and training process, but hopefully I'll be up and running in that position for our December meeting. I'm trying to get some quality "volunteer" positions under my belt; So if I ever go back to work, I'll have something of substance to put on a resume (instead of 5-10 years of zero work experience). Plus, I LOVE LOVE LOVE this organization! Seriously, love them.

I finished reading the book Simplicity Parenting for my book club (complete with 12 pages of notes!). I totally read it in about 3 days (b/c I promised another member she could borrow my copy...and I procrastinated reading it). I found it comical that I was powering through a book designed to help teach us to slow down and not rush things. Haha...oops.

 This book is a definite must read for anyone with children (or anyone who feels their lives are too rushed). It's all about not over scheduling your kids (or yourself) and focusing more on enjoying childhood, together. I am really excited to start implementing some of what I learned from it into our everyday lives. We already limit TV exposure (since we don't have TV service; just a PC hooked up to the TV) but I would love to only turn on the TV on Friday nights (that way we would have a whole weeks worth of shows to catch up on. It'll feel like more of an event, something fun. Not just something to do b/c there's nothing else to do).

(and that, in a nutshell, was my week)

This Week:


Now that colder temperatures are upon us, I'm looking forward to only doing one "event" a week with Josie (ie: a playdate, story time at the library, trip to the zoo, etc). I felt like we were going-going-going all summer. Now, I'd like to take a step back and slow things down a bit. By doing so, I'm hoping this will get us into a better Monday-Friday routine (and will hopefully result in a child that is on a better sleep schedule again).

Tim is out of town from Tuesday-Friday. I am so looking forward to spending my nights cleaning the house and re-organizing various cupboards, drawers, shelves and closets. I hate wasting my time on these types of projects when he's home because I'd much rather spend my time with him. Since he'll be gone for about 4 days, that'll give me plenty of time to accomplish all my tasks I've been putting off for months (AND keep me busy).

Alright, I think I've sufficiently caught everyone up with some of the major things that we've been doing.  Phew! I can finally get rid of some of this "blogging guilt" I've been lugging around.

The Feel Good Foodie...dot com

Hi Everyone!

I'm sure you know already but as of last friday I officially have my own domain! It's pretty exciting (for me any way)!

Check it out: www.thefeelgoodfoodie.com

Now, if you were a subscriber to the thefeelgoodfoodie.wordpress.com you were not transferred over when I made the switch. All you have to do is go to: www.thefeelgoodfoodie.com, go to the sidebar on the left hand side of the screen, type in your email address and hit "subscribe". That way you'll stay in the "know" with everything that goes on with the site.

As always, comments are greatly appreciated (and I thank those of you who comment regularly).

I'm hoping to do some fun things in the near future...maybe a fun giveaway (?); but not until we get more site"traffic".  So, tell your friends about the site! The more, the merrier!

As always, I greatly appreciate the love and support from my "fan base".

Thank you!

Our trip to the pumpkin farm!

Last Saturday, we met up with some friends at Schuster's Playtime Farm in Deerfield, WI. As far as pumpkin farms go, this place was EPIC! They have not 1, but 2 corn mazes, a haunted forest, pumpkin cannon, large children's play area with gigantic wooden play structures, a big petting zoo,  a HUGE pumpkin patch, AND some pretty amazing apple cider donuts. 

 We spent about 4 hours there and still didn't see or do everything. However, after 4 hours of festive fall themed activities we were all worn out and ready to head home.

 *here is one of the last photos of Josie from the day. She's nearly falling asleep on top of this pile of pumpkins! What a trooper!*

 The petting zoo was really fantastic. We saw (and petted) pot belly pigs (my favorite)...

soft bunnies...

goats...

more goats...

 and more goats!!

mommy and Josie

 daddy and Josie

daddy and Josie, waiting for The Great Pumpkin

 hooray for pumpkin farms!

Happy First Birthday Josie!

On Thursday, we celebrated Josie's first birthday! It's hard to believe it's been a whole year already; yet, it seems like she's always been here!

We spent the day with our friends, ate lots of yummy food (including Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches; in lieu of a cake) and opened some presents! It was an absolutely wonderful, stress free day.

This year, Tim made her a sensory table and bookcases for the playroom. The table turned out awesome! We're hoping to have at least one bookcase put together by tomorrow night.  I'll post some pictures of the playroom once we get everything set up. We also got her a wooden art easel (and cow jammies...of course).

Our wonderful family and friends sent Little Miss Josie boxes filled with all sorts of goodies, sweet cards, emails, telephone calls, and text messages. Thank you to everyone who thought of our baby girl on her special day! We appreciate it! She is definitely one loved little girl!

So, now that Josie is 1 whole year, here are some fun factoids:

Weight: 17.6 pounds
Height: 27 inches (give or take)
Eye Color: Brown (technically, grayish brown)
Hair Color: light brown

Favorite Food: Turkey, Arroz con Pollo, spiced oatmeal, scrambled eggs (with cumin, pepper and parmesan...she's a foodie) and Annie's Cheddar Bunnies
Least Favorite Food: yellow squash, bananas and cold applesauce

Words she can speak:
Hi
Mama
Dada (and Daddy)
Night Night
Oh Wow!
Bye
(however, she refuses to say anything on command)

As of 10-6-10:
Proficient in speed crawling
Can stand unassisted for 30 seconds
Knows how to push open doors, cupboards, gates, etc
Can walk around the coffee table while holding onto the sides

Favorite Music:
Children's Folk and Lady Gaga

Favorite Toys:
Carl Board Books, stuffed bunnies, wooden spoons, refrigerator magnets

Likes:
cold weather
The Great Outdoors
camping
being worn in a carrier, sling or wrap
making messes
making loud noises
being naked
yelling at the baby in the mirror
unfolding laundry
All animals (dogs, cats, pigs, horses, goats, etc)
brushing her teeth
waving at strangers
bath time

Dislikes:
when someone plays the Xylophone
being fed cold food
Hot Weather
having snot sucked from her nose
wearing clothes/diapers
sleeping for extended periods of time
photo shoots
hats (and headbands)

Known Aliases:
JBird
Buggle
JoZ
Lovie
Jose
Bugaboo
J-Love
The Bird

This has truly been the best year ever. I can't wait to see what this upcoming year has in store for us and our JBird.

Happy Birthday My Love!