Nap Routine

A series of shots about naptime with Abby's "little fellas" (her phrase, not mine), where I've played around with the color a bit.  

She inherited the tongue-sticking-out-when-concentrating from me.

Making sure everyone is tucked it just right.

Almost there...

Ah, I think I'm done!

I love my bed!

Dilly Bars

To celebrate Matt's last class tonight, we had Dilly Bars. I love the mint ones, but our Dairy Queen doesn't make their own. It is important to know that my first job was at a classic Dairy Queen. I worked there for over a year when I was in high school. I remember coming home with splatters of ice cream, fudge, and strawberries all over me. The ice cream on my clothes had a weird smell that you wouldn't be able to identify unless you had worked in it, it didn't smell like you would think. I remember working in the winter, making Blizzards, and my hands would be absolutely frozen.

So, back to Dilly Bars. My DQ made everything themselves: Dilly Bars and Buster Bars. You had to be one of the chosen few to earn the chance to make dilly bars, I didn't work there long enough to make it that far. I did, however, make Buster Bars. We made them in little cups (peanuts, fudge, ice cream), froze them, and then dipped them in chocolate cone dip. Our DQ had this crazy Dilly Dipper machine (for Busters too). It had the rim to a bicycle wheel, turned sideways over a moat of cone dip with clothes pins attached to it. You would dip either the Dilly or Buster, and hang in on a pin to dry over the moat. Crazy, huh? But, the Dillys from our current DQ are mass produced, they don't even have the curl, which by the way, is the best part because there is more chocolate on the curl. I tried researching the history of the Dilly Bar, with no luck. DQ History Link  There isn't much available on it. I wonder how many DQs make their own these days. I wonder if the DQ I worked at still makes theirs? Hmmm.

Oh, the one talent I could do while I worked at Dairy Queen (other than make Buster Bars)??? I could make two cones at a time, in one hand, with curls!

Weekend Cool Down

We are officially in the middle of our Weekend Cool Down at our house. We had a very busy weekend with Grandma and Papaw. We went to a baseball game, did a little geocaching, and lots of hanging out. Tonight, we are laying low, relaxing, and gearing up for the week.

Tomorrow morning I have my 12 week doctor's appointment, which I am anxious for. I just want it to go well. I will meet my new doctor officially (my last appt. was with the nurse practioner) and hopefully hear a heartbeat. Because this is my first pregnancy after a miscarriage we had an ultrasound at 8 weeks, so we have seen a heartbeat already. BUT, also because this is my first pregnancy after a miscarriage, I am still really nervous about hearing it again.

That said, I found this random, neat quote and liked it so much that I put it in my "signature" for my work e-mail. I shared it with Matt and he said, "but sometimes it feels like a storm!" We decided that changing the perspective really makes a difference. Here it is...

"Life isn't about surviving the storm, it's about dancing in the rain."

Sweet Summer Strawberries

Start with ripe, red strawberries...



Dine outside on a beautiful day...



No match.

A Morning in the Park

Enjoy!

It was only a matter of time

It finally happened.

Surely, it was only a matter of time.

Abby locked herself in her bedroom this morning.

I had sent her to get something out of her room, and the next thing I heard was her calling me. I went and she told me she couldn't get the door open. I quickly figured out that it was locked. I tried talking her through turning it (just as she apparently had done) to get it unlocked, but she couldn't get it. The whole time, she was not panicked at all. I eventually had to go downstairs and get a screwdriver to take the whole doorknob off, because I didn't know how to unlock it. We eventually got it off and she is a free bird again. I am tempted to go to Home Depot and just get a new knob with no lock. She doesn't need a lock anyway.

Another day in the adventures of Carrie and Abby.

Pilates

I have been taking weekly Pilates classes at a new studio near my home for a few months. I first tried Pilates in 2004, I think, at our YMCA. I had been taking Yoga classes and was curious about Pilates. The first thing I learned is that it is a lot harder than it looks. In some ways, it is very technical, because you have to be aware of exactly what you are doing with different parts of your body: Shoulders down, abs tight, don't move your hips. -and you have to be aware of all of that at the same time. It toned my body better than anything else I had tried, and I was decent at it.

So, after years of taking some time off, a new studio opened, I found out about it and started classes. I had class tonight. It is a 60 minute class and I have already had to start modifying because I can't lay on my stomach to do the back exercises. That said, I have decided that I am going to really miss it when I am too pregnant to do it. I always leave in a good mood, even if I wake up sore the next day. It has been a weekly time that is just mine, and I don't have to think about anything else.

By the way, the picture at the top is the movement, Open Leg Rocker. While holding that position, you roll back to your shoulders, and then back to that starting position (balancing on your sit bones). I can do it, but my flexibility isn't as good as the picture, so I my hands are usually around my knees. Some of the rolling movements are kind of fun (there are several different ones).

The Gardens

We made a visit to our local botanical garden this weekend. We went first thing in the morning, before it got hot, so it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. We kind of let Abby choose which "path" to go down, which she loves and takes very seriously.





She also loved getting her hands wet. -but then wanted somewhere to dry them. No luck on that one. Here is a picture of my 2 favorite people (with the bright sun in their eyes).

Make it work!

Tonight is the season 5 premiere of Project Runway. It is one of my favorite shows. I have watched all the seasons. I can't wait. Matt has a program tonight for work, so I told him he has to tell them that he needs to be home by 9:00 to watch Project Runway with his wife. Here is a picture of the new cast, which of course I don't know who anyone is, but I will after the show tonight!

Painting Pottery

One of our family's newest favorite TV shows is (I should admit it is a guilty pleasure)... Jon and Kate Plus 8. Matt and I ended up turning it on one night and watching it for almost 2 hours. It just kind of sucked us in. In a recent episode, Kate took the five girls of the family for a "Girl's Day Out" to a pottery painting store. She was surprised how much fun they had, how relaxed and quiet the girls were while they were working, and how much the girls were into it. After watching, it seemed like a fun idea to try with Abby.

I chose a day that Matt was gone all day due to work and class. We went after nap, and Abby had no idea where we were going. I just told her it was a surprise. She was quietly excited when we got there. She got to choose what ever she wanted to paint, and chose a car bank. -though she chose it because it was a car, not a bank. I let her choose 4 colors, which later became 5 when she wanted one of my colors. She was very focused while she worked. It was so cute. She wouldn't even look up when I took her picture, because she was "too busy painting."





While we were painting, I explained that they had to put it into a machine that would make it all shiny and beautiful, so she understood that we didn't get to take it home same-day. She kept telling me how beautiful it would be after they fired it. Here is her finished painting project:

Pretending

Abby has been in a pretending stage for a bit now, that isn't new. However, it has picked up some steam in the last couple days since Matt got back from his trip. Today, while I was puttering around the house, she played in the playroom by herself with her "children". She made sure they took their naps...



What a good caretaker she is. She even made sure they had blankets. My personal favorites are the improvised blankets, such as the hot pad, and dry erase mat.

Here, she got them all sitting in chairs with a blanket on their lap. She then began to panic after I took the picture because she didn't have a blanket on HER lap. I told her it would be okay. (oh, and shhhh, but Cinderella is sitting on an upside down bucket)





What a vivid and organized imagination!

My New Hobby: Geocaching

I wanted to share a little about a new hobby of mine: Geocaching. What is geocaching, you ask? Interesting question. The way that Matt and I explained it to Abby is treasure hunting. The basic idea of it is that people hide "caches" all over the place, put the coordinates on the Geocaching website, and then they can be found by anyone with a GPS. I had read about it and asked for a GPS for Christmas, which I got, and Matt and I have finally tried it and found some! The first one we found was in an old cemetary. The GPS gets you within a few feet and then you are on your own for finding it. We found the first one in a hole in an old tree. It was covered by some pieces of wood. It was a microcache, when means it was so small, the only thing in it was a log to sign that you found it. Here is a picture of it, so you can really see what I'm talking about.



Here is the second one we found. It was found at a large doctor's office. I noticed that there was some landscaping area that looked pretty trampled close to where the GPS got us. Matt walked back through it (some prickly weeds too) and found it hanging in a tree/shrub. Kinda cool. This one also had a log and some stash (when you can take one if you leave one-we didn't).



Before we started our caching day, I was so nervous that we wouldn't find them. However, now that we have, it is a little addictive. Abby was a little disappointed that they weren't big treasures (like she sees in cartoons), but Matt and I are anxious to find an afternoon to do it again.

If you are interested in learning more about Geocaching, check out this FAQ site: http://www.geocaching.com/faq/

A hot summer day...

It is hot and sticky out. Abby and I got up and went to the zoo first thing this morning. We arrived there only about 15 minutes after they opened, and left by 10:40, and we were still sweaty, thirsty, and worn out. Abby was on a mission at the zoo. She likes to move rapidly through the animals and she knows what she wants to see next. We got to see the new koalas. They are only here for a few months. Abby claims they were her favorites, but really all they did was sleep in a tree while we were there.



After we finished walking through the Plains area, she decided she wanted to see the "kitty cats". I can tell you that our zoo does not have house cats, what she meant was "Meerkats". She remembered the "cat" part. It also grosses me out because she always wants to see all the snakes. Yuck. The Meerkats are much cuter than this picture, but it was the one they had on the zoo's website.



Also, today Matt is coming home! He has been gone all week for a work trip. He is ready to come home, and I am ready for him to be home. I don't have anything planned for the evening. I thought we could maybe grab a bite to eat, but he may be maxed out on out-to-eat after his trip. We'll see.