7QT: 7 Scenes from Summer

I've been meaning to post this for awhile, but I'm running out of time before summer officially ends!  So bear with me for a little flashback trip over some highlights from our summer:

1.  Our grand road trip/move from beautiful Idaho to Minnesota (also lovely - but completely different!)

There is nothing like Montana.

2.  We bought a house!  Yikes/yay.  This is our porch.  Not our furnishings.  I need some serious interior design help!

We have a picket fence!  Does it get more suburban/quaint than that?!

3.

Beach week.  Heavenly!

4.

One month of city life in Minneapolis.  We walked everywhere and it was a great [loud] adventure!

5.

A trip to the Sculpture Garden!

6.

Lots and lots of lake time.

7.

Another glorious trip to Florida!  We are already making the most of the direct flights. =)

Bonus pick: back to running/jogging/walking together in our new double Bob.  I love my sweet running buddies!

On we go to Fall and all things apple/pumpkin whatever.  The lake cabin is all closed up so we're looking forward to doing some more exploring around our local area.  Have a wonderful week, y'all!

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#7QT: Moving!

1.  We're moving to Minnesota!

2.  In one week!  Anyone want to help me pack?

3.  Why we are moving:  D received a great job offer with a great company, better benefits, etc etc.  Onward and upward!

4.  We will miss Idaho and the wonderful friendships we've made here, so much.  This is such a beautiful place to live and we found our sweet boys here!  God truly meant for us to be here at this time in our lives.  We hope to make many trips back.  I love new challenges and adventures, so I guess this will just be another chapter in our lives.  I never imagined I'd live in Idaho, and I never imagined I'd live in Minnesota either.  I hope my winter coat is warm enough!

5.  We are taking an epic road trip from here to there: hoping to stop at the Museum of the Rockies, home to the largest T Rex fossil collection in the USA, Yellowstone, and a couple of other national parks along the way. 

6.  I probably won't be blogging much along the way since we are really trying minimize everything that we are bringing with us in the car, but I'd love to share my adventure with you via Instagram.  I'm American_Annie, feel free to follow me there!

7.  Where are we going?  Not quite sure yet - our road trip will be capped off with some house hunting adventures, and probably some hotel living for (hopefully) only a few weeks until we can close on a place.

Hope you'll follow us on our next adventure across America!  

For more quick takes, check out: Kelly at This Ain't the Lyceum!

#7QT: Adoration with a Toddler, Winter Running and Other Bits from our Week

Seven bits of randomness from our week....

1.  We stopped to drop off some winter coats at our Church, and ended up bringing home some giant chunks of harvest squash!  This nice lady was giving it away and said it would make the house smell lovely while roasting.  We'll be roasting it this weekend!

2.  For the last month, I've been taking M to Adoration once a week.  We have stayed for about 8 minutes max - this week I wanted to try to stay for 10 minutes, but he was not sitting still, so we left.  He did a good job staying quiet, but he was walking around the room, moving the kneelers up and down, etc.  I forgot to bring his Mass books in with me for him to look at, but I had told him if he was quiet and sat still, he could have a fruit snack pack afterwards.  (Yes, bribery!)  Any tips for 2 year olds in Adoration?  Or is it just a bad idea?

3.  Winter running season is here.  We don't stroller run when the temp is below 30.  And even below 40 I try not to go longer than 30 minutes because I just don't want M to get cold!  He is bundled up pretty well and we use the windshield so I think that helps too, but I know he is colder than me because he's just hanging out in there!

Snuggles on our chilly Wednesday!

4.  So, we're moving outside runs to the afternoon during the warmest part of the day.  What is your cutoff temp for a winter stroller run?

5.  I'm also using the indoor track at our community center.  It is a nice break from the treadmill, even those new fancy treadmills!

New to me shoes, ordered last season's Wave Riders from The Clymb

6.  M is in that adorable stage where he wants to bring along random objects with us wherever we go - this week it is a little mini whisk and a tiny plastic cup (like the kind that comes with Robitussin).  And, while we were playing ("working") at his tool bench, he said I should put on my "ear muffins" because he was banging his hammer really loud.  Love him!

Batman's mechanic

7.  An interesting adoption-related post I came across: http://thosesweetbarefeet.wordpress.com/2014/11/03/i-hate-adoption/.  Thoughts?

Have a great weekend, and check out more Quick Takes here! 

Quick Takes: Scenes from Our Week

It's Friday, friends, hurray!  And a long weekend!  And D is FINALLY home from a (too) long business trip, woot woot!  Oh, we are ready for some family time this weekend.  Meanwhile, here are some scenes from our week.  God bless you this weekend, and especially all of the families (military and otherwise!) who have to endure long periods of separation! 

--- 1 ---

   
We had the beach all to ourselves on Tuesday!  And I survived our 10 mile bike trip there and back.

--- 2 ---

 

Peter Rabbit strikes again.  While I was picking out cucumbers at the grocery store, I look over and M had reached over and helped himself to this little radish.  Judging by his reaction, I think he wished he had chosen something else! 

--- 3 ---

On Thursday we met friends at McEuen Park downtown.  We explored the North end of the park (that is the CDA Resort in the pic) first.  It was a windy day (look at the flags!)

--- 4 ---

 

Cool little designs on the railing by the resort docks.

--- 5 ---

He was quite ready to jump in the water!

--- 6 ---

Hello there, Mudgy the Moose.

--- 7 ---

 

He really, really wanted to hike Tubbs Hill.  Hopefully we'll get there this weekend - can't believe we haven't been there all summer!  It is so great to have this nice hiking spot right in the middle of town.  We ultimately went back to the playground and splash pad, where M played with his friends while I did a 25 minute tempo run.  

Have a great weekend!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary

7 Quick Takes - Toddler Talk Edition

Happy Friday!  I hope you enjoy these seven snippets from my sweet boy.  I bet you can guess which statement made me smile the most!

1.

I'm a working man

overheard while he was playing with his toys

2.

I'm so dapper

to me, as I was helping him put shoes on

3.

I'm so strong

to me, after trying (but not quite succeeding) to pick up a large rock

4.

Look at this awesome, awesome truck!
 to Daddy while playing after dinner


5. I did it!  I really did it!
after climbing up the ladder at the playground

6.

Glory to God....in the hotdog

singing the Gloria at breakfast while eating little smokies (aka "hotdogs")

7.

Mommy, we're best friends, like Gossie and Gertie

at the dinner table - it was so sweet, I almost forgot about the ten times that he pooped on the floor that day! =)

God Bless Our Toddlers!  For more Quick Takes, visit www.conversiondiary.com, a blog I love to read!

Quick Takes: In which I blab on and on and on about PT....

  Happy Friday, Y'all!  Wondering what PT is?  Read on at your own risk......

--- 1 ---

Potty training - that's what has been going on around here this week.  Yuck.  It is no fun, but from talking to more experienced moms, they assure me that he is actually doing pretty well.  The author of the bootcamp method should have really, really emphasized that it makes you feel like a terrible mother, though!  She says it once, but really, she should have said it more, ha!

And the other thing that I didn't realize before we started, is that while we are focusing on this, I have to let some other things slide.  Especially on the first day.  I am learning that this is not the week to force him to clean his plate, pick up every last single toy or go to timeout, i.e., enforce all other discipline strictly.  Potty training is stressful for little ones and on day 1, it was hard enough for me to force him through the drills, let alone send him to timeout afterwards!

My only recommendation that my book did not cover is that you definitely need a BIG box of cookies in the house - not as a reward for your toddler but for YOU for staying the course!

--- 2 ---

 
We are LOVING this book/CD that we randomly found at the library.  M loves music and he loves listening to this CD.  The text is too advanced for him, although he has started to distinguish the Vivaldi songs from "Peter and the Wolf" by ear and I enjoy reading it.  I wish the songs were longer, because the whole CD is only about 20 minutes.  I might end up buying this one because we are playing it constantly!  Because it's so short, it might be best for short car rides.

Playing the flute!

--- 3 ---

Adoption update:  we were not chosen by another birthmom recently.  I didn't get any information as to why she didn't choose us, and of course, I was sad at first, but it is just not all in our control, is it?  We are working with a web design firm to develop a personal website/online portfolio, which our local attorney seems to think is really going to help get our name out there.  We'll see.  I spoke with the local agency too that has our portfolio, and she doesn't have any birth mothers to present us to right now.  So we continue to wait and pray, and enjoy the summer (and potty training, of course) with our wonderful "big man" M (as he calls himself).

--- 4 ---

I read this article recently, and it has me seriously thinking (again) about deleting my Facebook account.  I often feel that way more than I have positive thoughts about Facebook.  But it is the main means of communication for a couple mom groups that I'm involved with, and I love seeing everyone's photos.  So I am still going back and forth. What do you think?

--- 5 ---

I saw one of my friends Thursday and she is planning to run the Scenic Half Marathon too!  Woohoo!  She is super fast, we did the trail run together and she zoomed by me uphill after this photo was taken.  After the race, my husband was like "wow, she smoked you!"  Haha!  #keepsmehumble

Anyway, it has been harder to stick to the schedule this week due to the potty training.  Wednesday called for another tempo workout, but since we basically didn't leave the house, I just did a short series of sprints in the backyard when M said he wanted "run around".  Although I have discovered that while he sits on the potty, that is the perfect time for abwork!  Is this too much potty talk or what?  Is anybody still reading this??

--- 6 ---

This was the cover of my alumni magazine from Washington & Lee University.  Isn't it striking?  I just thought it was such a beautiful picture that I had to share it.  I graduated from W&L Law.  I did not apply for its undergraduate program, but I really loved my time there and would love to be able to consider it for M - but thankfully that decision is a long, long way off!

--- 7 ---

Please continue to pray for the persecuted in Iraq!

That's it for me for the week.  Have a wonderful weekend!  Conversion Diary!

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Quick Takes: Welcome to August!

 

1

 

After an easy stroller run, this big boy took me for a walk in the woods.  He loves looking for big sticks, pine cones, rocks and mud puddles.  

--- 2 ---

No shade for my tempo run this week!  After my warm up, I did 4 sets of 5:00 "comfortable hard" with a 2:00 recovery jog (which became a recovery walk for the last two sets).  I was hot, hot, hot by the end, but glad that I finished all of the hard parts completely.

--- 3 ---

Hot summer days call for some splash pad time!
 
--- 4 ---

Minnesota's saddest moose.  I found this poor guy in my backpack this week.  I'd forgotten that we bought him in the MSP airport on our trip home from the lake.  M had pulled off his ear before he made it all the way home.

--- 5 ---

I pulled M in the bike trailer to our library - a 13 mile bike ride round trip.  Next time I am using my tri bike.  We got to stop and cool off in the lake on our ride back home.

--- 6 ---

I finished reading 1-2-3 Magic this week.  Lots of great tips in there, I'm sure I'll come back to it over the years.  Next up: The Assassins by Joyce Carol Oates.  I randomly grabbed it in the library this week because I feel like I need a break from non-fiction.  Have you read any of her works?  This will be my first.

--- 7 ---
M and I have been enjoying some extra reading time in the morning after breakfast.  We are working our way through "The Big Picture Bible."  I love that he loves reading, and I am always wanting to buy more books for him!
 
Have a great weekend!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!