Mar 30, 2015

Another Weekend...

Another busy weekend has come and gone.  Lots of fun stuff went on though!  Starting with Alayna's choir concert on Thursday, how frickin cute is this mouse??  The concert's theme was "Peace" and they actually sang a song about bullies.  Not gonna lie, it was odd.  But despite some odd songs, it was cute!


Friday night both Rachel and Emma had their school dances.  Aww, look at them so sweet!  I think they were actually pinching each others backs...


My sweet and sassy mini me!


This weekend was the Granite City tournament.  Saturday we worked concessions for a few hours and then Sunday they played.  They ended up placing 2nd overall!  So, so proud of how hard they worked!  (and really glad Gramma Donna wasn't there, she would have collapsed from exhaustion, hehe...)


Sunday night we were all exhausted, except for the mouse.  She was plum full of energy from sitting all day.  At my age sitting all day makes you tired.  Not at her age.  


One of my favorite things from the weekend was this canvas Emma and I did.  She did all the painting and the cursive, and I did the other letters.  Turned out SO cute!  Now I just need to get her gallery wall finished...

Mar 26, 2015

Nuts About Nuts!

Today I have a different type of blog post to share with you...Today it's all about almonds!  When I heard that Nuts.com was looking to share information on the health benefits of almonds, I was ready to jump on board!
This is the third time I've been contacted to write a specific post, and this is the first one I've done.  I will only write posts that I can personally agree with/relate too.

Now, onto almonds!  I love, love, love almonds.  I eat them every single day and cannot imagine life without them, haha!  In all seriousness though, I keep them with me at all times.  I have a can of them at work, a baggie of them in my purse, and more at home.  


For me this is the easiest, healthiest snack that will keep me satisfied the longest.  The older I get, the more I find myself grabbing things that are not only healthy, but foods that will give me energy.

 

Having a child with a severe peanut allergy has made us look at all packaging and change some things we  used to eat.  Instead of peanut butter, we eat sunbutter or almond butter.  Thankfully my girls love almonds too and you will often find Alayna digging into a can of almonds!

I love this almonds infographic Nuts.com shared... So many great reasons to eat almonds!  My top two reasons for eating them would be: 

1.  Protein:  I am always looking for ways to add more protein, and almonds give me that, just a small handful is all I need!  Protein gives you energy and keeps the cravings away!

2. They help control blood sugar.  I have hypoglycemia, which means I deal with low blood sugars.  It took me a long time to figure out what foods don't make my blood sugar crash by 9 am.  This is the exact reason why I keep almonds with me at all times.


 I haven't tried baking with almond flour yet, but it is one thing I would love to delve into.  You really need to check out their website nuts.com, I couldn't believe all the goodies they have!  Everything from gummy bears to dark chocolate to chia seeds (and of course all the nuts!).  They also have a great blog with tons of info and yummy recipes.

blueberry-chia-bars-recipe-featured

 These Blueberry Chia Jam Bars are on my list to make soon, how good does that look?

Go check em out!  The only thing you won't find is the kitchen sink...










Mar 20, 2015

Friday Favorites!



http://tabanderika.blogspot.com/
It's that time again, Friday Favorites!  Linking up here.

1.  My sweet gramps...he's back in the nursing home again, and everyone was SO happy to see him back, it was adorable!  He's doing ok, very tired.  I am still so happy I was able to have another great visit with hm.


2.  We did our basketball brackets Wednesday night.  Let's just say that my teams have NOT cooperated, ugh...Emma is in first so far.


3.  The girls had dodgeball tournaments at school yesterday, and it was so fun to watch!  Emma's team got beat out in the first round (they played an 8th grade team) and Rachel's team ended up being champions!  Rachel's team was the "Liquid Gold Diggers".


It made me a little sad to think that this year is Rachel's last year at Kennedy, kinda scary to think of her moving on to high school next year, ugh..


Emma's team was "The Pineapples" and her friends mom made the shirts, SO cool!  Those four are just too damn cute...


4.  Alayna's note to the tooth (or toot, as she wrote) fairy was the bomb.  Seriously so freaken funny!

5.  Rachel is having her bday party this weekend, except at 14 you don't call it a "party", it's just a cool get together I guess....anyway, I am taking them to the outlet mall, Lord help me...All silliness aside, it will be fun, I love her group of girls!

Happy Friday everyone!












Mar 18, 2015

Wednesday Ramblings

It seems like most of my posts are a hodge podge of our weekly happenings, and that's ok I guess.  I like to look back on what we did, and since my scrapbooking has come to a halt, this is going to have to suffice dear children!

Friday night Emma, Alayna and myself went shopping.  Emma had a gift card that was burning a hole in her purse.  This was by far the highlight of her week!  it's so damn cute to see how excited she gets about buying books...she is truly my daughter!  She bought 4 books and Alayna got one and mom got none.  Totally not fair.


Saturday and Sunday Miss Emma was in the one act school play.  The play was HILARIOUS!  I bawled my eyes out several times from laughing so hard!  Emma played a school teacher who was suppose to teach the royal children.  She was AMAZING!  She is a natural and looks so comfortable on stage, she definitely does not take after her mother on that.




Emma and her BFF's, she has such a great group of girlfriends!


Sunday afternoon after the girls' volleyball tournament we went over to Roy and Jeanie's to eat supper and have a couple cocktails.  I don't even remember what we were laughing about, but these two fellas were DYING!


Roy was showing mouse how to shoot a basket...


And then watching these four stooges trying out a new app was hysterical...


Monday night after work I headed down to Blue Earth to stay with my aunt and uncle.  I got there around 7:30, we ordered pizza and were in bed by 9!  Tuesday morning I drove to Mankato to see my Grandpa who was in the hospital.  My mom had been staying with him, and they were going to be discharging him around noon.  He slept most of the time I was there, but really perked up when we got back to the nursing home!  Lori went back to work and I told mom to go back to Jim and Lori's and get a nap.  I sat with Grandpa and he turned into quite the chatter box...I fed him some ice cream and cookies and then he was ready for a nap!


It was another wonderful visit with him and I'm SO glad I have these memories of Grandpa and I!

Mar 16, 2015

Rachel's Birthday Weekend

So this beauty turned 14 on Saturday, *sigh*...She's growing up way too fast, and I really wish I could stop time and enjoy this age for a couple years.
Rachel is a girl wise beyond her years.  She's smart, outgoing, VERY opinionated (NO clue where that comes from...), loving and just an all around fun gal to be around!


I like to think that right now we have a really good relationship.  She talks to me about school, issues, and stuff, and I love every.single.second of it.  Like last night I went in to say goodnight and ended up chatting with her for half an hour about everything from volleyball to babies, haha!!  I love this girl with every fiber of my being.


Saturday morning I got up early and made her request, monkey bread.  We gave her cash this year, so I wrapped up each bill so she had something to open.  My dad and his wife came down and we all went to Red Lobster for lunch.  After lunch we came home and it was about 65 degrees in our backyard, so we enjoyed the patio to its fullest!  Emma and Rachel were in a school play that evening which was HILARIOUS and then we came home and I think we were all in bed by 9 as Rachel had a volleyball tournament on Sunday.


Friday night Rachel and her friends got together as they were making t-shirts for a dodge ball tournament they are in this week.  They are the "Liquid Gold Diggers" and each of them has a cheese name, hilarious!


Rachel has such a great group of friends, we are so lucky to have these girls (Taylor wasn't in this picture) in our lives, and thankfully they all have awesome parents that we love to hang with.  Our #1 decision of where to send Rachel to high school is because of these girls. 


They are all so fun and outgoing, the thought of sending her somewhere new makes me sick to my stomach...


Sunday they had a tournament in St. Joe (thankfully because Emma had her play at 2:00 and I was able to go watch her again), and ended up placing 2nd in the gold division!  After the tournament we went over to one of the players houses and had pizza and drinks.  We laughed so much that my stomach hurt!  Such a fun and BUSY weekend!

Mar 13, 2015

Friday Favorites

It's another edition of Friday Favorites with these ladies!

http://www.tabanderika.blogspot.com/

1.  This guy right here.  He fell on Wednesday and broke his hip (he broke his other hip in September), they also found out that he has a large blood clot in his leg.  It doesn't look good.  At all.  I am SO, SO thankful that Brad and I made the visit down last Saturday to see him.  He was feeling good, no confusion, just a really great visit.  I got to tell him I love him, and told him to stay out of trouble.  Clearly he didn't hear the last part...


2.  This week has been a bit crazy, and I feel a bit crazy.  I am loving this weather immensely, but yesterday was one of those days I wanted to crawl back in bed and hide for the day.  After supper I mixed a cocktail, and hopped in the tub.  It's amazing what a hot bath can do!


3.  I have been feeling down and out about my running.  I am still having pain in my leg, and the most I can run is 4 miles.  Now, I am SUPER happy that I can still run, but with the Fargo Marathon coming up and knowing I can't run it is making me feel less than stellar.  Every.single.time I get my Runners World magazine, it has an article that pertains to my struggles.  It totally lifted me up, and I feel like I've got a game plan now to tackle that pesky muscle!!


4.  This beauty turns 14 tomorrow.  Heavens where does the time go?  I love her spunky, outgoing, stubborn and hilarious personality!  I pray for the man that steals her heart, because I don't think she will be one to take much from him, haha!


5.  The weekend.  I'm exhausted just thinking about it.  Rachel's birthday is tomorrow, Emma is in a school play Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, and Rachel has a tournament all day Sunday.  Thankfully the play and tournament are in our hometown, not sure how we managed that one!!



















 

Mar 11, 2015

Spring Cleaning



 I have every Tuesday off and yesterday was the first day in months that I actually had NOTHING planned.  No meetings, no appointments (well actually I did have a massage planned but she had to reschedule), just an entire day to get some spring cleaning done.  And clean I did!
Here's a low down of what I accomplished by 3:30:

*Did all the laundry including sheets, rugs, curtains and throw blankets.
*Vacuumed upstairs and downstairs.
*Thoroughly cleaned all three bathrooms including scrubbing bathtubs, washed walls and vents.
*Thoroughly cleaned our bedroom, moved furniture to vacuum, dusted every nook and cranny.
*Dusted above all cabinets in the kitchen and entryway.
*Scrubbed kitchen cupboards and orange cleaned them.
*Scrubbed floors
*Cleaned out the pantry and fridge
*Made supper (I had spaghetti sauce in the freezer already!)
*Worked out 
*Made my lunches for the week.

Shew, I was exhausted by last night!  It felt SO good to get all my cleaning done!  The weather is absolutely gorgeous right now, yesterday was 56, AH-MAZING.  Although looking outside, this is what you mostly see...Ugh, it's everywhere.



I cannot wait to see how my lilac bushes do this year, they've been slow going so far...

purple flower 05 hq pictures

This was my afternoon break, my fave sparkling water and some pizza pita chips that were so-so.  However, I did make Mix and Match Mama's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Nieman Marcus Bars.  Umm ya, they freaking heaven...


And my obsession, "The First 48".  Like I've said before, I'd be a damn good homicide detective, just sayin...

Mar 9, 2015

Visit with Grandpa

This past weekend was a busy one!  My Grandpa who has been in a nursing home for about 6 months took a turn for the worse on Thursday, so Brad and I decided to head down Saturday morning to see him and head back the same day.  It's a bit of a drive, about 3 hours, but well worth it!
As you can see, he was doing MUCH better!  On Thursday he was unresponsive, and they really thought he wouldn't make it through the night.
I love this pic because he said something smart alicky and took us off guard (if only I could remember what it was...) 


Love this man.  Grandpa isn't much of a lovey dovey kind of fella, but he always made time for us taking us fishing or just putzing around outside.  I have so many great memories of staying with him and Grandma, and the love he had for Grandma was SO obvious.  I believe his top three list would be God, family and fishing, haha!!

Mar 5, 2015

Volleyball Photo Dump

This past weekend was another great weekend of volleyball!  And fortunately for us, no travel!  They played at Rocori which is 10 minutes from our house.


Since Rocori was so close, we had lots of family come to watch Rachel play which made her day!  
Rachel and her cousin Madalyn.


Rachel and her BFF Taylor, LOVE these two!


Grandma and Grandpa Seitz.  I think the stress wore all the Grandparents out, haha!!


Grandma and Grandpa Zimmer


Rachel's aunt and godmother Barb.  Barb is in heaven as she has 2 nieces that play volleyball!


First place in Gold Division for our girls, woot woot!!
 

 One of the girls from their team last year came to watch them play, so sweet!


 Sunday we watched friends of ours daughter play volleyball in St. Cloud, so it was a fun filled volleyball weekend!!  I will be SO sad when this season is over with...