Don't Even Know Where to Start

Life has been so incredibly busy for the last 5 weeks and I don't even know where to start.  I wrote about my sister's family's visit in my last post but I skipped over our trip to the Quad Cities area over the  first weekend of March.  One of Rob's best friends is a musician and recently started touring with Luke Bryan.  Swoon.

When Rob told me that, I said, "Well anytime you want to go see Jason and go to a Luke Bryan concert, you just let me know and we will be there!"  The closest they got to our house was the Quad Cities area so arrangements for tickets and hanging out were made.  One issue- our children.  There is no one to babysit that far away from home and so I ended up staying at the hotel with the boys while Rob met Luke Bryan.  Argh- my plan totally backfired!  Oh, and he also met everyone from Thompson Square and Florida Georgia Line and ate and drank for free all night.  The boys and I ate Taco Bell and watched Cars on our little tiny dvd player we brought with us.  Yeah.  Exciting trip- for Rob.  I got to see the Mississippi River for the first time so that was good, I guess?  I did have a good time getting out of town, it just wasn't quite as fun as I was hoping for.  Oh well.

After that was my sister and family's visit then Rob went to race in California and was gone 5 days.  We all missed him a lot and was so glad when he got back.  We both have iPhones now though so being able to do Facetime and talk and see each other helps a bunch.  Two days after Rob returned, my parents arrived for a week-long visit.  We honestly didn't do too much while they were here.  The weather was really cold and crappy.  Over the weekend though we did go to Des Moines to visit the West End Architectural Salvage store- if you are an HGTV fan, you may have seen their show before.  I have been wanting to go to their store for years but it took my mom seeing the show and suggesting it to finally get me there.  I knew it wouldn't be something the boys would like or a good place to take them (lots of breakables!) so I just never made it there because the boys are always with us when we go there.  This time though, Rob stayed home with them while my parents and I took a little trip.  I even got this badboy.

I have been wanting a library card catalog like that forever- probably since I first saw it in Sheldon and Leonard's apartment.  Can you see it way in the back there, near the "window"?

Well, I've never seen one anywhere to buy and when I found this little 10-drawer part of one, I took it.  Actually it ended up being a birthday present from my parents (thank you mom and dad so, so much!).  I have plans to put some legs on it and find a new top and use it for a side table in my living room.  So that trip was kind of my highlight of their visit.  Not just because of what I got, but because I got to spend the day out with them and have my full attention just be on them and not trying to be a mom first and then give them whatever I have left after that.  It seemed like their visit went really fast and I was very sad to see them go.  The boys keep asking about them, and Uncle Jim, Aunt Megan and Olivia so I think they miss all our visitors a lot.  Me too, boys.  Me too.

So that brings us to the past weekend which I knew would be a busy one with Saturday being my birthday and then Easter on Sunday.  The birthday started off great- I actually got to go to Des Moines by myself in the morning to pick up the card catalog and do a little shopping.  After being gone about 3 hours though, I was notified that the fridge at home was having some difficulties.  I ended up skipping the last few places I wanted to go so I could come home and see what was happening there.  We got some over-the-phone advice so Rob could try to figure out what the problem was and see if he could fix it since guess what? No one wants to come out and fix your fridge the Saturday afternoon before Easter.  Rob worked on it a lot over the next day and a half but we still ended up needing a repairman to take a look at it.  He came on Tuesday and will get the part he needed today and be back tomorrow to install it.  Crossing our fingers that solves the problem.  My birthday did have some bright spots though-

 They are both going through a no-shirt phase so I'm just thankful one of them at least had their shirt on for the picture.  In more good news, we decided to save a bunch of money on cable by getting rid of it. And for some crazy reason, when I called to cancel that but told them I wanted to keep internet service with them, they gave me a big price break on that by agreeing to a 2-year commitment.  Uh, okay!  It's not like we could give that up and there is no other decent provider around so that was a no-brainer.  We bought an Apple TV box and got Hulu Plus and are trying out Netflix right now but I think we'll probably keep both.  Since they are each only $7.99 a month, we are still way ahead financially on that.   No HGTV or ESPN but for the amount of money we are saving, it's okay.  I was a little skeptical on how well it would work and if it would stop and start a lot but once we moved the router to the middle of the house, it works like a charm.  I also had a tech guy come out yesterday to verify we got it all set up right and he took care of a few other things I couldn't figure out computer-wise.  Definitely worth paying him for 30 minutes of his time to get all my tech questions answered.

I think there was more I was going to share but my brain is all tired now from trying to remember everything about the last month.  And it is just about time to go pick up Rex from preschool so I better end this here.

Family Vacation

No, we didn't go on vacation but we did have family come here to visit us recently.  My sister, brother-in-law and niece took a vacation and all came out to stay a week with us.  Thankfully they love the snow since it snowed a bunch just before they came- and, unfortunately while they were traveling too.  So they got here about 12 hours later than anticipated and were pretty wiped out from their extended travel schedule.  But once they got all rested up, it was time to have some fun.

First up was sledding- except we don't own one and try finding one in March at a store.  Good luck.  With some helpful employees at the farm store (yes, the farm store- it's awesome there), we picked out some automotive and tractor tire inner tubes to use instead.  Little kid butts = car tire and adult size butts = tractor tire.  If you thought sledding on tire inner tubes was strange, just wait until you hear this.  The best and closest place for sledding is the hill behind the cemetery.  Yikes.  It is actually part of city-owned land that is where the parks maintenance facility is but it is right next to the cemetery.

So the first time Aunt Megan and Uncle Jim took Rex and Olivia and then we got some more snow so my sister and I took the kids while Uncle Jim looked after Wyatt at the house.  They were pretty good buddies.



We also went to the Science Center of Iowa and saw a little of downtown Des Moines over the weekend that they were here.  I thought Wyatt would sleep in the car on the way down there but he didn't and then he was super crabby before falling asleep on the way from lunch to the Science Center. So he slept through most of it and unfortunately, his mood wasn't a whole lot better until we got him back home again.



But Rex and Olivia got to see a giant T-Rex skeleton.  Olivia likes dinosaurs a LOT so I think she really liked this part of the center.



There was a section on weather, complete with making your own tornado, learning about floods and doing a weather report on the television- except they were too short and all the big kids (and one idiot parent- I mean seriously, it is for the kids, not you, you big camera/attention hog!!) were blocking them.



There was another section about space and stars and they even have a planetarium but my family had to get going before that started and let's just say my niece is no fan of movie theaters, or as it turns out, planetariums.  So none of us saw that part.  There was one more section that was very interactive for the kids to build rockets and do a lot of fun things.  Had there not been a thousand kids in that room, we probably could have stayed there a long time.  But Groupon had a deal (how we bought our tickets) and the place was crazy-packed with people on that rainy Saturday afternoon.  My sister and her family spent a little time after seeing downtown Des Moines- we would have loved to do that too but Wyatt was completely out of patience and we had to get him home.

I drove them around on a little tour of our town one day and we ate out a few times too.  Here are Rex and Olivia at dinner one night.



Besides that we just spent time at the house with each other- having dance parties, playing, cooking and having a good time.







I'm so glad they spent their vacation time with us- we miss you guys and hope you come to see us again soon!

Snow Update

I think the snow has stopped.  The National Weather Service says we will get another 2-4 inches tonight and Rob says it is done- and at this point I trust my husband over those clowns at the National Weather Service.  We'll see.  Rob is out there right now, snowblowing his little heart out in the dark.



If I was to guess how much we got so far, I would say about 6 inches.  Not all that much, just so much more than I was expecting or anyone was predicting.  It is really wet and heavy snow.  Bad news for Rob and the snowblower, but good news for the snowman-making team (me and Rex).



My assistant spent more time running around, being crazy than he did helping me.  I think his sole contribution was running through the house, wet boots and gear dripping all the way, to get a carrot for the nose.  He was more than happy to show off for the camera though.



Who taught him to make that face? I don't know where he comes up with this stuff!  He also sampled the snow.



I passed.  It was freshly fallen snow and probably was okay but it still just kind of gives me the willies.  So, to recap- We got a lot of snow today.  It has caused quite a few headaches for Rob and me, but we are trying to make the best of it.

You Can't Trust Anybody

The National Weather Service totally lied to me.  They said less than an inch of snow, starting sometime after noon.  So why does it look like this at 11:30am?

Thanks a lot.  I really needed to go to the grocery store this morning and thought I had plenty of time.  I dropped off Rex at school and Rob at work and before we could get home, it was starting to snow pretty good.  I kept thinking it would stop but it didn't.  I consulted with Rob and decided to pick Rex up about 45 minutes early from school because it just kept getting worse and worse.  I see now that the afternoon preschool class was canceled. Smart move, preschool. The roads were pretty bad when I went to get him but it wasn't unmanageable.  The worst part was coming up our fairly steep driveway- I had to put it in 4 wheel drive low which I have never used before (I use 4 wheel drive high frequently but never have had the need for the low setting).  It worked like a charm though and I managed to get the car in the garage without taking anything out or crashing into something.  We will be okay on groceries, just wish we had some milk because we are totally out.  Dang it.

I decided to take this video because although it was unexpected and I am not prepared at all, it is so beautiful.  It was such a big change moving to somewhere that had snow but I love it.  The snow falling on all the trees and houses is just so lovely to watch and it feels so peaceful.  Once, not long after we moved here, it was snowing at night and we looked out at our street and saw 3 deer, just walking down the street like the street was there just for them and that is what they always did.  It was amazing and one of my favorite snow memories.  AND taking the video gave me an excuse to play around with my new iPhone to shoot the video and iMovie to make my little news report.  I had too much fun doing that so be looking for more fun-with-iMovie-videos here on 2054 Miles.  That's Shelby [redacted], live from central Iowa with today's snow report.  Back to you in the studio, Bob.

Nothing. Well, Maybe Something.

Nothing.  That's what it feels like we have been up to lately.  January is now officially now as "Flu Month" and it went by so slowly.  And now February is almost gone too but this time, I don't know where the time went.  One thing I have been doing lately is getting ready for lots of house projects when the weather gets warmer.  I want to do the boys' rooms so I've bought them new bedding and I'm picking out paint colors. Here's the bedding I picked.

For Rex-

Source: landofnod.com via Shelby on Pinterest

For Wyatt-

Source: potterybarnkids.com via Shelby on Pinterest

I love them both so much.  I got Wyatt's bedding with his name on the sham (like they did in the photo) and picked up the "R" pillow to go with Rex's bedding. We were at Lowe's last weekend and I found two gallons in the same gray color (a color I really liked) so I picked those up for Wyatt's room.  $28 for two gallons of the Valspar super-duper primer + paint was a great deal and I couldn't pass it up.  I may mix it up a little with something else to try and get it darker or I may use it as is- I haven't decided yet.  I'm still trying to pick out a color for Rex's room.  He tells me wants green but all the ones he picks out are of the neon/super-bright/burn-your-retinas variety.  I'm fine with green but I think mommy will make the final selection.  I came across this today and am going to pick up a paint chip for Benjamin Moore's Spanish Olive because that looks like what I am imagining.

Also in painting news, I hope to finally get the living room painted.  If you recall, I bought the paint last spring and the walls somehow never got painted.  The hubs promises that it will get done this year though.  I also need to try and figure out how to get him to build this for me in our living and dining areas because it would be perfect there.

Source: thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com via Shelby on Pinterest

The bottom cabinets are the unfinished ones that are ready to go at Lowes so that saves a lot of work. I badly need the closed storage area they provide to store serving pieces and seldom used kitchen appliances. Finally I have one more request, I think, for Rob.  Right now we have one bedroom set that is kind of split up between both boys' rooms and I would like to use it all in Wyatt's room. Wyatt will be turning 3 soon and it is time to move him into a big boy bed and out of the crib.  So that means Rex needs a new bed and I have this in mind.

Source: ana-white.com via Shelby on Pinterest

If I come across something else cheap in the meantime, Rob is off the hook.  But I have a hard time finding boys' beds that I like even a little bit and I like this bed a lot. And if Rob could make it, it sure would save us a lot of money.  I guess that is all for my redecorating ideas at this time- I will be sure to share as we get into the painting/constructing/decorating phase and out of the dreaming-about-it phase.

As slow as the last 2 months have been, March is shaping up to be totally crazy and busy.  I think we're going on a weekend trip out of town so Rob can see a friend of his.  About 2 days later my sister, brother-in-law and niece arrive for a weeklong visit- so, so, so excited about that!!!!  The day after they go to the airport to go back to California, we will be dropping Rob off at the very same airport, headed to California as well, for a long weekend trip to go racing.  Two days after he returns, my mom and dad will be here visiting for a week- also very excited and looking forward to their visit!  Then in the last few days left in March we have my birthday and Easter. Whew.  That's a lot.  I guess I ended up having more to talk about than I thought I did- I suppose that could happen when you only blog once in the last 6 or 7 weeks!

Flu Shot Believer

I don't have any pictures for this post and believe me you wouldnt want to see them if I did. We are a sad and sickly bunch around here. We always get our flu shots and generally stay pretty healthy each winter. I don't know what the deal is this year but apparently the shot isn't covering all flu strains and Rex, Wyatt and I got it.  It has been over 3 weeks now since I (aka Patient Zero) first got it and that we have been dealing with it. Although it's been bad, I hear it is much worse if you don't have your flu shot.  I can't even imagine how bad some people have it. I will absolutely get us all our flu shots every year from now on.  I probably would have anyhow, but definitely now after all we've been through. Rob and I were supposed to have a date night this weekend but I had to cancel since Rex is still not 100 percent yet. Our anniversary is next weekend though so we will still get a date night then.  I hope.  I don't know how Rob has managed to not get it but I am so glad he hasn't. My husband is a wonderful man but he is a terrible patient. Here is hoping we all feel totally back to normal soon!

'Twas 6 Days After Christmas...

And I finally got to my Christmas recap.  It was a really busy, and sickly (for me), Christmas season around here.  I started off the month with a trip to Portland to visit Nanette and less than two weeks after I got back, we threw a Christmas party at our house.  It was pretty much all Rob's friends from work that we invited and a lot of them showed up.  It was open house style with lots of food and drinks and I was so busy, that I didn't even get a picture of the house during the party.  You would just see wall-to-wall people though if I had gotten the chance.  It was a good time and I'd like to do it again next year but Rob was so worn out, he said we could do it in about 3 years.  We'll see.  I did a lot of decorating around the house and I have two favorite projects.  The first one I didn't get a picture of either.  I am bad about that.  I got the inspiration from Pinterest to do an advent calendar out of a over-the-door shoe organizer.

Source: modernparentsmessykids.com via Shelby on Pinterest

This one is a lot cuter than mine.  I will have to see if I can spruce mine up for next year and make it look like this one.  The other thing I did that I loved so much came from another pin.  I got so many compliments at the party on it too, which was great.  On our gallery wall, I swapped out the photos I could change with all our different Christmas card photos we've taken over the years (that part was my idea) and then the ones that I couldn't change, I just wrapped them up to look like giant Christmas gifts.

It was kind of a lot of work and definitely took a lot of wrapping paper and ribbon, but the result was totally worth it.  The whole house was totally decked out because I love to decorate and with the party I had a good excuse to go nuts but these were my two favorite things.  And we took everything down this weekend so that is all the photos I have of that.

We had a lot of fun on Christmas morning.  Santa brought Rex a "space station" that he was asking for (actually it is a space shuttle and launch tower) and Wyatt got a V-Reader so he will stop stealing his brother's all the time.  At least that is what I was hoping for and now we have two so there are a lot less fights over that toy.  They got all kinds of things from us and family and friends- pretend camping gear, Mobigo games, boats and trucks of all kinds, books, clothes, puzzles, play food and cooking stuff and more that I can't remember right now.  Because it was a LOT.  Here are some photos from that morning.









I have to point out the matching Christmas elf pajamas.  This is the one time of the whole year when I insist on dressing them the same and I will keep doing it as long as I can get away with it- they are so adorable!!

Cooking With What You Have

Rob and I were pretty proud of ourselves tonight when it came to making dinner.  We made dinner using only what we could find around the house.  The menu planning was all Rob- he is really good at figuring out what to make with what we already have.  I have a sinus infection and I wasn't planning on assisting with any of it.  So Rob decided to make cornbread muffins, glazed carrots, mashed potatoes and sort of a chicken a la king dish that he was going to use up a bunch of our turkey lunchmeat with instead of chicken.  When he called me out to help, he already had the cornbread made, the carrots were boiling and so were the potatoes.  I am the mashed potato queen though so he asked me if I could check if they were done and finish them up.  He also had the cream cheese and butter sitting out so that I could make them Pioneer Woman fatty-fat-fat style.  Don't get me wrong- they are the most delicious mashed potatoes I have ever had.  I just usually only make them that way for Thanksgiving.  As I was taking care of the potatoes, I watched Rob starting to make the gravy for the turkey a la king.  And I got concerned.  Making a roux or gravy is about one of the hardest things to make in the kitchen and he was going about it all wrong.  I am no expert but I have had some success with making a roux before (thanks mom and dad for the lesson!) so I jumped in and took over.  I also told him he did not have "gravy clearance" which we both laughed really hard about.  He was just dumping the flour right into the melted butter and onions and was about to add the broth before I stopped him.  The flour and butter have to be stirred constantly and cooked together for quite a while to make sure you get the gritty, raw flour taste out of there.  Anyhow, it turned out really good and I think we will have to add that recipe into the mix for future meals.  Like Rob said, "It's like really, really good cafeteria food."  I got a picture of what was left of it.



Not that I am enjoying the sinus infection at all, but it is kind of nice to have Rob take over the menu planning for a while- he does such a great job!

A White Christmas for 2012

Last year, we didn't get hardly any snow and this year has been off to a pretty slow start too.  Until last night that is.  I'm not sure how much we did get- I usually measure by the amount I see piled up on things like fences and outdoor toys so let's say we got about this much.



If I had to guess, I'd say we got around 8 inches of snow last night.  That's a pretty significant amount of snow for us.  The boys were so anxious to go out and play in it this morning; it was all they talked about from the moment they got up.  I was dreading it because I knew what would happen- so here it is.

Mommy opens the door and they rush out-



Wyatt's boots get "dirty" from the snow and he wants right back in-



Wyatt decides to watch us play from inside the house where he can stay clean and dry-



Rex plays in the snow with me and tries to throw snowballs at me-



Then he makes a snow angel-



Then I make one-



And then I decided we were both too wet and cold and needed to go inside.  I chased Rex around for a while and finally got him back in the house where we got into some warm and dry clothes.  It was a lot of fun though while we were out there.  Rex was asking all day to go back out but I had enough for one day.  I took a few pictures of our street from the front porch- I was all warm and dry again and didn't want to venture too far out so this was the best I could do.





It looks so beautiful but it is a little scary out there still so we didn't go out anywhere today.  Rex's school was canceled so that was good.  Rob took the bus to work so he didn't have to worry about driving.  Rex's last day of school before Christmas break is tomorrow and they are having a party so we'll have to go out for that but it should be a lot better by then.  I'm so happy to have all the snow in time for Christmas!

Lowering the Weirdness Level in Portland

I said goodbye to my husband and babies last Thursday morning to catch a taxi, shuttle and two airplanes to go visit Nanette and her family in Portland, Oregon.  It was the first time I had been away from the boys for more than just a couple of hours so it was a big deal.  I cried a little here and there throughout the day I left but was also looking forward to some me-time.  Something I have only had very small doses of for the last 4.5 years.  So it was a fun, but kind of difficult, time for me all wrapped into one.  Anyhow, moving on...

I noticed even at the airport gate in Chicago that if you are a guy from Portland, you probably are sporting one of these things- a beard or skinny cords.  If you don't have either, you better at least have a cardigan sweater on to make up for it.  I hate going places and being obvious that I am a tourist.  I have very few pictures of my trip, in fact, just because of that reason.  I think though that there was no way to hide it in Portland.  The motto is "Keep Portland Weird"- don't believe me?



It is painted on the building right there by Voodoo Donuts.  I think I'm pretty normal and not-weird so I'm sure the weirdness level dipped a bit over the weekend.  Sorry Portland.  Speaking of Voodoo Donuts, it is a must in Portland so we went there for breakfast Friday morning.  I love donuts so it wasn't hard to convince me.  I decided to step out a little and try something different.  Now they have a lot of crazy donuts so maybe it wasn't so different but I got the "fritter of the day" which turned out to be strawberry-pineapple-banana with sprinkles on top.



It was good but a little too much sugar for my breakfast.  I ate half and threw the rest away before I gave myself a stomachache.  From there, we cruised over to Powell's City of Books where I loaded up with books for the boys for Christmas presents.  We shopped around downtown a little more and then headed over to the Clackamas Town Center.  I had requested a visit to one of the H&M stores and the mall provided that along with lunch and a showing of Silver Linings Playbook.  The movie was great and I was just happy to see any movie in a theater because that rarely happens these days. I picked up some Molasses Chips for Rob at See's Candy, bought the boys some more clothes at a super-duper sale at Gymboree and then we headed back to Nanette's place.   Brent picked up dinner for us at Killer Burger which was fantastic.  Such a good burger.  Thursday night's dinner was also a big winner- we went to Hopworks and the soft pretzel sticks were amazing.  I felt like I didn't really get the whole Portland experience since it is beer-heaven and I don't like beer.  In fact, no one ordered beer at Hopworks.  Lucky they didn't kick us out.

On Saturday we went to the Little T Bakery for some breakfast.  Like everywhere else they took me, this place had fantastic food.  We did a little shopping in the Sellwood area and then were headed to the Japanese Garden when we got distracted by the a food cart pod downtown.  It was lunchtime, after all.  I got distracted by this one, in particular.



Mmm, Cuban food.  I ordered the pork box and it was great.  The pork, the maduros, the black beans and rice- all of it was delicious.  As we were all getting our food from the various carts, it started to rain.  No one brought an umbrella (I was advised not to use one as to avoid looking like a tourist and being snickered at) so we decided to head back to their house where we all took naps.  We hung out there for a while before heading over to Dove Vivi for pizza.  Once again, delicious food.  We all spent some more time at home hanging out before I headed to bed fairly early since I had an early flight the next morning.

Now, about my flights home.  What I had booked was terrible.  I was using a mileage award for the ticket and my choices were poor.  I was supposed to fly Portland-Seattle-Chicago-Des Moines with about 4 hour layovers.  Yikes.  I tried on the phone to get the direct Portland-Chicago flight so I could completely skip Seattle but had no luck.  When I got to the ticket counter, "Sure!  There's room on that flight."  So I got to Chicago way ahead of schedule.  It looked like I would spend 9 hours there before my flight to Des Moines took off.  I figured I would spend $30-40 for a rental car and just drive home from O'Hare.  This was where my plan started to unravel.  I never checked the cost of the rental car until I got to Chicago and then realized it was going to be $140 for a car.  Uh oh.  As I'm talking to Rob on the phone about this, I realize there are 3 flights bound for Des Moines, all leaving at 2:00.  It was 1:40.  I hang up with Rob and run from the L gates all the way over to the G gates to see if I can get on one of the planes.  As it turned out, Des Moines was foggy all morning and no flights had been able to get in there yet.  Bad for everyone else, fantastic for me.  I had to pay a small fee but I was able to get on a flight that left at 2:20.  Woohoo!!  Rob and the boys picked me up at the airport and I made it to my house about 9 hours before I thought I would.  My advice is that if you want to change a flight, keep asking because someone just might tell you yes.  And even more miraculously, my bag made it to Des Moines ahead of me and was waiting at the baggage claim counter.  I wasn't due in until 11:35 that night so I have no idea why that bag was there- it shouldn't have been, but it was.  Everything just turned out perfect.

My boys didn't get more than about 4 feet away from me once we were home, which I loved.  It was a great trip but I was thankful to be home again and see my husband and my boys.