Miche!

2009-09-15T21:22:00.001-05:00

Just found out today and picked out the first outfit ... Baby Boy Baril will be here in Feb ...

did I mention?

2009-09-04T09:27:00.003-05:00

I LOVE LOVE LOVE that Jack uses his manners now (mostly when he wants food) but is it possible that I love the actual words more than the actual manners?

"Mice" means please (don't ask me what happened to the "pl-ah" sound or the "ee" sound)

"Dee Dee" means thank you (sometimes pronounce "day day")

i've heard little girls his age pronouce these words perfectly, but it's so much cuter when he uses his own interpretation of the word...

A Morning at the Baril House

2009-09-04T08:01:00.006-05:00

I love my mornings now that I don't work day hours at the restaurant.

I have FINALLY started getting up early to be able to get a chapter or two in of reading before anyone else is awake... (it's hard to start school again with good habits when my previous studying habits were crappy!)

After a little bit of reading, I usually get a head start on breakfast before Jackson wakes up. Usually it's just Jack and I in the morning, eating Special K (his favorite cereal, don't ask...) or waffles or yogurt and fruits, but Tues and Fri we have our peanut (Lauren) to prepare for as well. She's a first grader now so she needs to a good breakfast to stay focused (she has picked up on the family's ADD problem!)...

Today, I only got in 1/2 of a chapter before I heard Jack stirring. We had 3 different alarms going off, one for Miche, one for Weston, one for Lauren, so it is no surprise that he woke up early. I barely had finished my cup of decaf (I miss caffeine) before he starting getting edgy... I decided to make some deliciously sweet vanilla toffee waffles with peach yogurt as an extra sweet sidedish. Lauren ate quickly and then she and Weston headed off to school/work. Jack finished his in record time (must've had a crappy dinner the night before!) and sat peacefully at the "breakfast nook" as I call it until I finished my breakfast.

After we stuff our faces, I like to check my email and look at my lesson plan for the day/week/month. Today, I was following up on an email when I noticed Jackson sitting peaceful in the corner even though there was nothing to do. I took some pictures in the hopes that I will capture his innocence before it is gone forever... he's growing up too fast!

He doesn't use a highchair much anymore; he'd rather sit on his knees on a chair and eat at the island in the kitchen. I made a special place for him on the counter next to his high chair (mainly b/c there is nothing "cool" to play with, throw on the floor, get food on, etc.) - it's his own special place to sit as a big boy. Although I had to get the giant Webster dictionary out for him to sit on, it works out pretty well for him.

(Why are my photos so grainy when I post them on the blog?!?!)

I hate that I'm ranting and raving about how old he's getting... He's still so young and this is by far my favorite age for him to be, but I can't help but think how "old" he is going to be when the new baby comes. Will I still have time to notice the games he plays when no one is watching or the new words he suddenly starts to say? (Yesterday we drove by Granite City and he pointed and said, "Papa!" ... what a smart boy!)

I guess that's the life of a mom... worrying about her child growing too old too fast. Hopefully tomorrow I will just sit back and enjoy the morning without all the worrying!

Until later...

My Buddy...

2009-08-28T08:12:00.006-05:00

now that i am back in school for the fall semester (finally!), i was reflecting on my summer and found some cute pictures of jackson that i thought i should post.

my little man is getting so old! he picked the shells out of jars at the lake and was telling us a story about them... cute! he also loves to swing his head back and forth while "singing". sometimes he does it until he is dizzy and falls over, which is funny, but it's his way of getting attention.

it's these things that he does that make me feel like he is getting too old too fast. when i mentioned this to weston, he said "you'll get another one soon enough". but i don't feel like it'll be soon - i have to wait until feb, and jack will be 2 then!

i'm going to cry the day that happens...

the hidden golf ball...

2009-08-23T08:36:00.004-05:00

as i sat on the hospital bed at innovis, weston asked me, "i think i lost my golf ball. is that it under your eye?"

we made a quick trip (is 1.5 hours quick?!) to the innovis ER after i woke up at 3:00am with a few problems. after a horrible stomach ache that left me feeling like i wanted to die, i started sneezing over and over. i quickly realized that all the pressure from my sneezes wasn't leaving my face (quite an awful feeling if you ask me), and when i looked in the mirror i discovered where it was building up!

i'm not sure if it was the trial contact lenses i had put in earlier that day or a new food allergy i will need to discover; all i know is that weston is the best person to have around in an emergency... he somehow arrived home within minutes of me alerting him (that was the good part) and then proceeded to make fun of me and play games on his phone in the ER (this is the best part). at least i got a safe ride there, right? (i have to give him credit: he did stay up unti 5:30am after a being at work for 12 hours on a grueling Friday night.)

needless to say, the staff at the hospital had no answers as to why this happened. after finding baby's heartbeat and discovering that he/she was okay, they sent us on our way and told us to come back if it happened again (duh?!)

ah, the joys of my mysterious allergies...

a new post... finally!

2009-07-27T13:55:00.002-05:00

wow, last post on Mar 2nd... that made me feel awful! I feel like I haven't had a chance to breathe in the past few months.

after the flood "scare", we spent a lot of time cleaning and rearranging the house (everything had been on our second floor for a month!)... our computer never made it back to it's original home, so i stopped spending as much time on it. needless to say the blogging went out the window.

well, i'm here with good news, double good news. first, I hope to be back in business with the blogging (for anyone who has missed the pictures of jacks)... and second, i will have another little person to blog about (pictures will start sometime in jan!) yay!

weston and i started trying for another little peanut to join our family, and 6 weeks after we discussed it, we found out she was on the way (did I mention I'm 89% positive it's a girl?)... so here's to another 9 months of healthy eating, vitamins, sore feet/back/legs/ribs, and LOTS OF SLEEP; only 6 months to go!

coming soon... summertime pictures of jacks - he's SO OLD NOW! hopefully some of my followers check back so the posts aren't all for nothing :)

family sioux game

2009-03-02T08:47:00.003-06:00

"How do you know the Sioux won?" Weston asked Lauren after the game.

"Because they had 4 points and the Tigers only had 3" she said.

I was surprised that she could track the points and remember the score two hours after the game had ended!

Weston and I brought Jackson (13mo) and Lauren (5 1/2) to the Sunday game as the Sioux attempted to beat the CC Tigers after Saturday's tie game. We decided we might need a helping hand to keep the kids entertained and under control, so our friend Kayla decided to join us. I realized at the end of the game that bringing the family was more about letting them experience the game and less about getting to actually watch the game with them!

Jackson tagged along with me last November to a game with my cousins Tangy and Ronnie, and I think Jackson, although sleep deprived and in a sleepy haze, enjoyed the game more than the two of them combined (Bison fans just giving a hockey game a chance... need I say more?). I was a little uneasy about how Jackson would handle yesterday's game, considering that we've all been sick for 3 weeks and that he would be needing his second nap right around when the game was starting... He did wonderful, even without a second nap for the day, and spent a lot of time babbling, waving his arms around, and checking out the crowd.

Sunday's game was the first UND hockey game for Lauren and she loved every minute of it. She enjoyed jumping around and cheering "Go Sioux" and enjoyed all of the junk food just as much! We reminded Lauren several times to be wacky and crazy if she wanted to get up on the big screen... and OF COURSE she made that happen! Right before OT began, it was time to "Twist and Shout" with the fans. Lauren danced around like a crazy woman and helped Jacks stand up and 'twist' on my lap. When I looked up at the screens, they flashed to us for the remainder of the song before OT began. WOW! My mom had always told me that the camera's couldn't film our seats due to the fact that they've never seen anyone in our section up on the big screen. Nothing like bringing the kids along to put section 111 on the map!!

Thankfully it was a 3:37pm game as it ended up being a late night for the kids - they crashed on the way home. Weston was equally tired due to the fact that Lauren favored his lap to her chair and Jackson tended to join them every ten minutes; even with all the distractions, Weston still managed to watch more of the game than I did...

All in all it was a great night for everybody. Can't wait to do it again soon...

i love love LOVE iGoogle...

2009-02-25T07:59:00.003-06:00

knock knock
who's there?
interupting cow
interupting cow wh...MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

hahaha, i love it!
does anyone else love love love iGoogle? weeks ago, when i logged into my google account, it offered to let me customize it to my own liking... one thing i opted for was 'joke of the day', hence the knock-knock joke.

google, you give me something to wake up early for!

on another note...

i see my little munchkin learned how to open the pocket door to our 1/2 bath. when he sees me go in there, i usually hear a scramble and 2 hands and feet scurrying across the main floor to get to me ... today i heard all of that and suddenly the door open and a smiley little face with a runny nose was peering in!

i had a good laugh about that and thought it was blog-worthy. i have always wondered when i would have to start using the lock on that door!

and why can't they just learn to blow their noses, or at least learn to keep it from running down their face? how can you keep up with the runny nose of a 1-year-old?!? i know people say "nothing is impossible" but i think they may have been overlooked this (whoever 'they' are)...

Diving for Dale...

2009-02-23T13:18:00.004-06:00

Click here to see WDAY coverage of an event titled "Dive for Dale"
The Dive took place in Hitterdal MN where my uncle Dale and his wife Linda raised their children. Dale was involved in a fatal car accident exactly one month before the plunge on Feb 21st.

I have 'taken the plung' before at MapleLag Resort on Little Sugarbush Lake and found it to be a cheap thrill, so I'm sad I wasn't able to make it out Lake Flora in Hitterdal. But it's nice to see so many of Dale's friends made it in the water to honor him.

Love you Uncle Snake! We miss you every day...

"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal." ~From a headstone in Ireland

My Uncle Dale (far right) with 2 of his 3 brothers, my father Mac (far left) and Steve (middle)

jackson turns 1 ... and eats his first cupcake!

2009-02-22T08:32:00.007-06:00

jan 29, 2009... jackson turns 1 today!

i can't even to begin to explain the horrible day he had ... i think i can safely say it was the worst day of the little man's life :( on the monday the 19, i decided to get rid of both a bottle AND formula. it was that same week that we had a death in the family, so with the stress surrounding him and no bottle/formula to comfort him, naps were nonexistent! he spent the week entertaining close family and friends and was so stressed out, he had to change clothes 3 times a day (if you know what a mean...messy pants magoo!)

by the time his birthday rolled around on the 29th, he was sleep deprived, over stimulated, and trying hard to fight the squirts off! my mom and dave stopped by that evening to drop off some birthday cupcakes and watch him make a mess of them, but i wanted to get him to bed early so we had to put them off until the next night. after 2 hours of screaming and squirming, i finally got him to sleep. when it was all over, i realized that i had never had to try so hard to get him to sleep... except for one night when he was four weeks old, he's always been the easiest baby to take care of. needless to say, i hope he doesn't remember his first bday!

the next day we celebrated his birthday with a few gifts and the long-awaited cupcake feast :) i was lucky enough to catch a few videos of him early on the bday evening (which i posted and PS: sorry you have to listen to me talk/sing), but the pictures of the cupcake feast were actually taken the day afterwards.

happy bday my little man. thanks for the greatest year of my life :)

jackson's 2nd superbowl party/1st bday party...

2009-02-22T06:52:00.008-06:00

the tradition begins!

weston and i wish we could have a bigger house because we LOVE to have people over and spoil them with delicious 'weston' food. other than hosting thanksgiving for our families, we've decided that each year jackson will celebrate his bday on the superbowl. here are highlights from superbowl XLIII...

jackson received his first jersey for superbowl in 2009 (if we had thought of it in 2008, it could've been his second jersey ... but with jacks at five days old, we had a thousand other things to worry about). this year he donned a Steelers jersey, Polamalu 43. i know, i know, cheer for the underdog, right? if we had thought about this soon enough, we could've gone online and dug up a cardinals jersey for infants. but there was no time for shipping, so go Steelers! (I later thanked Sport City for only having Steelers jerseys in stock - the other tradition we'd like to start is picking the winning team for Jacks to wear)

jackson woke up early on the 1st to get cleaned up and ready for visitors! (i had to explain that so i would have a reason to insert the cute bath video. sorry you have to listen to me talk on it!) we celebrated the bday party 1st by inviting family and friends early in the day to watch jacks open presents. Weston disappeared at 10am to go to Granite City to make the delicious feast, so i was stuck trying to entertain 20+ family and friends with growling stomachs! we opened presents to distract the crowd - i was surprised by jackson's ability to concentrate on opening about 5 gifts in a row (opening means tearing the paper a little while i finish unwrapping and give "ooo's and aaah's".

when the gifts were opened, we had lunch with friends and family. lunch included a lot of great superbowl eats: buffalo wings with ranch, bleu, and celery (of course), pulled pork with homemade mole, guac, corn and black bean salsa, etc to load your tortilla with, meatballs with cheese and marinara for meatball subs (although the jimmy johns bread didn't arrive until superbowl time), chips, salsa and white sauce from the red pepper in GF (YUM!), and lots of candy and treats for dessert.

oh yeah, and cupcakes! i'm not a fan of cake, so i decided to make red velvet cupcakes with vanilla frosting and vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting... turns out i made one horrible cupcake! next year i'll remember to put more frosting on so they aren't so dry :) overall, the bday party was a success. jackson was in a great mood and was a great entertainer for the crowd. he took a LONG afternoon nap and rested himself for the next part of the day: SUPERBOWL XLIII.

we had a completely different crowd for superbowl this year; friends from Doolittles and Granite City decided to skip the bday party and instead come over when the beer was chilled :) typical restaurant workers! a few of our friends brought their little ones to help occupy Lauren and Jacks during the game, although 1 year olds don't really play with each other, do they? more like: sit next to one another and steal toys! Lauren waited patiently for her friend to come over and had a blast all night. i guess there isn't much else to report on... everyone knows what happens at a superbowl party, right? superbowl XLIII offered some 3D commercials right before the halftime show, so a friend of mine brought the 3D glasses from the grocery store.

other than the LAME 3D show, it was your typical superbowl party with too much food and too many bottles of beer left for weston and i to drink later...

IMG00374.jpg

2009-01-07T21:35:00.000-06:00

Jacks is concentrating on learning to use his medical kit so he can fix up his Godmother Joanna so she feels much much better :)
the stethoscope is actually more fun to eat than to hear heart beats with, but soon he'll figure it out!

oh no, should i start saving for medical school already??

IMG00356.jpg

2009-01-07T21:26:00.000-06:00

I know this is mean to post for the world to see, but look at this little boy coughing - it looks like he's auditioning for the monster role ... RAH!

IMG00290.jpg

2009-01-03T00:24:00.001-06:00

Okay last post of the night ...

When I said I found the cutest PJammers for Jacks, I LIED. I had not yet discovered how cute these button down sets are!

Thanks Papa Weston for finding the cutest pjs on earth! You can see them well in these pics ... See what I mean?

IMG00289.jpg

2009-01-03T00:14:00.000-06:00

I just tried my first blog post from my Blackberry ... And it finally worked! I'm definately going to get hooked on posting on my blog during slow afternoons at work. It's so much easier to find time to pick up your phone than to sit down at the computer. Plus, I have a tendency to immediately find something to buy online (what's my problem anyway? Weston says I have a shopping problem, but I'm still in denial) ...

Here's to many new blog posts in 2009. Good luck to me!

Photo Caption: "It's not my fault you forgot to lock this cupboard." Cute little Jacks!

IMG00301.jpg

2009-01-02T23:05:00.000-06:00

This is the ultimate Jacks pic ... The infamous Listerine incident. I didn't understand why it suddenly smelled so minty until I stumbled upon this wonderful sight.
PS: he's crying b/c he felt bad for spilling, not because his throat burned from chugging mouthwash.
The caption should read: 'But I had stinky breath!'

BLOG MUCH?!

2008-12-29T12:22:00.003-06:00

(my favorite picture ... ever! this even beats the 6 mo old naked baby pics!)

blog? what blog? i have a blog?! oh yeah!!
i'm so embarrassed by how long it took us to load our camera software on our computer!!
we've had a busy fall/winter so far - ever since Halloween i've been too busy to get anything done (or maybe my ability to procrastinate is stronger than ever!)...

we're finally done celebrating christmas with the kids. after joining our families on the 23rd, 25th, 26th, and 28th, we have finally settled in today to go through the millions of boxes and bags that we brought home ... time to open toys, build kitchens and walkers, etc. it makes me wonder if i had this many gifts when i was 11mo and 5 years old?! (i'm sure i did)

the only picture i've uploaded so far is Jacks with his first xmas present ever! we got a brief preview of what it means to have noisy toys (who puts chicken sounds on a toy?! damn it's annoying)

there is definately more to come, especially when weston finishes assembling the new kitchen for his mini-me chef, Lauren :)

keep visiting! one of my resolutions for the new year will be to get back on google and start blogging again!

too lazy to report...

2008-11-02T22:19:00.004-06:00

i'm trying to find the time/energy to post the highlights from Weston's birthday weekend. for now, i decided to just post something fun that i just did while i was dinkin' around on the computer... stay tuned!

i saw meg b's results and had to try this test out for myself. it's pretty amazing how accurate the results were.

weird...

Your result for The Quick & Painless ENNEAGRAM Test...

8 - the Asserter

Thanks for taking the test !

you chose AY - your Enneagram type is EIGHT (aka "The Challenger").

"I must be strong"

Asserters are direct, self-reliant, self-confident, and protective.

How to Get Along with Me

Stand up for yourself... and me.

Be confident, strong, and direct.

Don't gossip about me or betray my trust.

Be vulnerable and share your feelings. See and acknowledge my tender,vulnerable side.

Give me space to be alone.

Acknowledge the contributions I make, but don't flatter me.

I often speak in an assertive way. Don't automatically assume it'sa personal attack.

When I scream, curse, and stomp around, try to remember that's justthe way I am.

What I Like About Being a EIGHT

being independent and self-reliant

being able to take charge and meet challenges head on

being courageous, straightforward, and honest

getting all the enjoyment I can out of life

supporting, empowering, and protecting those close to me

upholding just causes

What's Hard About Being a EIGHT

overwhelming people with my bluntness; scaring them away when I don't intend to

being restless and impatient with others' incompetence

sticking my neck out for people and receiving no appreciation for it

never forgetting injuries or injustices

putting too much pressure on myself

getting high blood pressure when people don't obey the rules or whenthings don't go right

EIGHTs as Children Often

are independent; have an inner strength and a fighting spirit

are sometimes loners

seize control so they won't be controlled

fugure out others' weaknesses

attack verbally or physically when provoked

take charge in the family because they perceive themselves as the strongest, or grow up in difficult or abusive surroundings

EIGHTs as Parents

are often loyal, caring, involved, and devoted

are sometimes overprotective

can be demanding, controlling, and rigid

sleepy jacks

2008-10-26T21:29:00.003-05:00

peek a boo! i'm so cute!

not much happened this weekend at the baril house. peanut (lauren) was with us for most of saturday and all of sunday, so it was busy but event-less. peanut and i took jackson to target and to the mall so weston could sleep and recharge for saturday night. we found some trick-or-treat bags for all of our candy (YUM! i'm so excited for halloween) and bought some new hat and mittens sets for all three of us (sorry weston- you haven't worn the ones from last year anyway!). it's a good thing we bought them because when we left for brunch on sunday, it was cold and SNOWY! YUCK! already?

we were supposed to go out to jeremy and donna's for the annual pumpkin-carving day, but we decided to stay home and nap/clean/dink around. maybe we'll have to go to grandma becky's this week to carve a pumpkin or two :)

is it sunday already? back to work tomorrow i guess... hopefully it's busy yet stress-less (you all know what i mean, right?)

oh yeah - i made weston take a picture of jacks and i while we rested on the floor. my little man finally wanted to snuggle with his momma! he never does that! he must have been pretty tired... it's tough being a preppy boy! (i had found a cute sweater vest that he had not yet worn and decided it was time to put it on before it didn't fit anymore)

i had to post the pics in case he never wants to snuggle again...

jacks in the morning

2008-10-20T11:07:00.009-05:00

i promised myself this blog would be a place for everyone to see pictures of jackson and watch him grow. after my last post, i realized that so far i have only posted two pictures of jacks. TWO! the other posts were a rambling intro for those visiting my blog-o-sphere and some more rambling about the und hockey game. LAME. here are LESS ramblings and MORE pictures...

here the pictures i took today of jackson in his new pjs (not many of the jumpers/sleepers/what-ever-you-call-ems-with-built-in-footies are very cute, but the pair i just found are the cutest i've seen. well, maybe they aren't so much the cutest as the THE SOFTEST! i wish i had a pair!). as i wrote the previous blog, i stopped every few minutes to take a picture of what he was doing so you can see what his morning routine consists of.

first is breakfast. bottle first (otherwise the hungry boy has a lot of tears). then we spoon in some real food, usually fruit, and he feeds himself a few puffs, all the while watching Baby Einstein...

...after breakfast is done, he roams around the house finding things to destroy. he usually goes straight for the cable box to play and then gets distracted by the view of Baby Einstein from 30 inches...

...then on to the media shelves to throw a bunch of stuff on the floor (notice all the candles and plants are removed!)...

...today he discovered the scale i was using to weigh a bunch of crap i decided to put on Ebay. i think he was actually trying to weigh himself!...

...then he usually comes over to the computer desk and quickly finds a way to get in trouble. i'm sure he thinks "why don't you just finish the basement and move your desk to the office so i can't get in trouble anymore". (or maybe that's just what I'M thinking.)...

...next is a quick break with a magazine. not to read of course, just to rip the pages out of...

...sometimes a miracle happens and he'll just sit and play with his toys for awhile. this rarely happens and yet, i keep buying more toys! oh yeah, i forgot that he doesn't just PLAY with toys, he attempts to eat them too...

...and that's it. next up: naptime!

"a day in the life of jackson mac"

and there's more to come! i've set up my coffee maker to brew every morning from now so i can find time to do a few things on the computer before i go to work (an early new years resolution! i'm calling it my halloween resolution!). if all goes well, i'll be able to post a few pictures every couple of days - wish me luck!

witnessing another 'first' of Jackson's

2008-10-20T08:38:00.006-05:00

it's not very often that you will witness a 'first' with your child.

for one reason, unless you're a stay-at-home mom, you won't be with them enough to be there for everything. in my case, i work during the day, which means i miss out on the 'firsts' that happen during the day (sadly, they usually happen before 3pm).

for another reason, there just aren't enough 'firsts' in the world of infants. here are the firsts listed in jack's 1st year book. some of them i believe to be important and others - not so much (i kindly left my opinion of these). the big ones will never be forgotten anyway (mainly because you'll have 116 pictures from the moment in time trying to capture it on film. the first smile, for instance, lasts about as long as it takes to focus your camera!) and the not-so-important ones are listed there, i think, to fill space on the page. here they are:

first bath (dumb because they bathe baby at the hospital!)
first outing (also dumb, in my opinion, because nobody stays cooped up at home anymore for weeks at a time - they go out and show off their new baby!)
first baby-sitter and overnight visit
first smile
first laugh (you'll 'think' you hear a laugh and write it down, then later realize it was really just a lot of noise right after a smile)
first illness (i'm sure if it were bad enough you wouldn't need to put it in the book!)
first time rolling over
first time i slept through the night (it comes and then goes; you should track 'first 7 consecutive days i got to sleep in'!)
first haircut
first words
first "mama" and "dada"
first tooth (not surprising, considering you feel it almost coming in for a week or two)
first boo-boo
first real foods (i forgot to write this down right away

[what about listing the 'firsts' you actually remember?:

first time you cried for being a terrible mother. examples: the two hours after the circumcision - bonking their head on the wall - they stood up in the bathtub and fell
first time you tried to multitask while feeding him and failed miserably (i spilled a big jug of red Powerade on him)
first time you realized diapers + boy baby = changing clothes after every wet diaper
first time you wished you could produce your own pacifier because you just lost the last of your 6 nuks and he won't stop crying!
first time you realized you really did spend way too much money on clothes
first time you realized that you also spent too much money on crib bedding
first time they rode home in poopy pants because you forgot to pack an extra outfit (back to the terrible mother thing...)

anyway, back to my point... ]

up until now, i had only witnessed one 'first' that would really be remembered(not that i won't remember a lot of them, but this is the kind that you call the other parent about because it is so exciting): first smile . weston had gotten all the others, including first roll from tummy to back AND from back to tummy a few weeks later, first time pulling himself up to stand, etc.

my big moment as a witness came again last night: 'first wave'. we've been working on this one for quite awhile. and when i say "working on it", i mean we've been waving each time we leave and the other parent will help jacks wave back. it happened as i was checking on my blondies (ps: YUM).

i was helping jackson eat some puffs and when i walked to the oven, he put up his arm and started wiggling his hand! by the time i could get my phone to take a picture, he had started playing with his hair.

i was pretty upset that i missed it with the camera but then he put up his other arm and tried again! i was able to catch this one on film, but since it only lasted a couple of seconds, i could only snap one rushed, blurry picture...

even as a blurry picture it's pretty cute, don't you think? (i'm such a mom it makes me sick!!)

Our 1st Hockey Game of the Season

2008-10-13T09:48:00.005-05:00

only one week late...

sunday, october 5th

Weston and i attended our first und hockey game. yes, i've been to a hockey game before... but this is the first year we've bought our own share of my family's season tickets... one of our 'bonus' games was the exhibition against Manitoba.

we left home a little later than expected (thanks to me, of course) and had to pick up our friends Tanner and Kristen on the way. thinking the game would be pretty empty anyway, we made a another quick stop before leaving fargo that put us about 20 min behind schedule.

when we got to the ralph, there were more fans than we expected to see. turns out it was the best showing for an exhibition for und (over 11,500). we arrived a little late for the game and immediately went to pick out some new sioux apparel for this season (why did i think a long-sleeved tee would cut it?) for me, weston, and jackson - lauren will get hers next time. while we were waiting to pay, we missed the first goal of the game. deciding it was time to have a seat and watch (after making a pit stop at the leinie lodge, of course), we headed to our seats.

we watched the end of the first period and most of the second period (2 more sioux goals and 1 manitoba goal) before heading out to the restrooms (why do i always pick the big beer) and to explore the ralph. during the second break, we decided to grab some grub and headed up to the bar for a real drink or two before the 3rd period; after all, how much beer can you drink before you run out of room? the bar was pretty empty so it was fairly easy to get up to the bar for a drink. while in the bar, Tanner and Weston started talking about the possibility of ever getting Club Lounge seating in our lifetime. overhearing the conversation, a club member offered to let us all join the 'member's side' to watch the 3rd period. i don't think we really knew what we were getting into until we were seated on the opposite side of the rail... no wonder the premium tickets are impossible to get. we sat up at a single rail with full view of the rink and as a bonus, had a cocktail waitress to serve us drinks and clean up after us :) no way this would've happened had it not been an exhibition game. needless to say, we enjoyed the 3rd period the most...

this was definitely a different experience than i am used to... watching from the club lounge was pretty amazing. there were also some aspects of this game that made it unique as well. all three goalies made it on the ice for the game; Harrington made it on the ice with 6 min remaining and had 2 saves before the game ended. Weston said he enjoyed watching the Lamoureux brothers play against each other; not something you see at every game.

before leaving GF, we stopped at the original Red Pepper, or the "Pecker" as Weston demanded we call it, for another 'must-have': grinders! nothing like filling your stomach full of taco meat and chips before the ride home. after arriving in fargo, we hit bwws and jt's before calling it a night (what's a night away from home without a few dozen shots?)...

overall, it was a great night for us. a night away from home to enjoy ourselves is just what we needed. hopefully we'll get lucky at our next game nov. 1st and score some better seating again: box seats, here we come!

here we go...

2008-09-28T01:00:00.006-05:00

so this is it. my big beginning. i have spent the last few days going back and forth between opening a blog or staying as far away from the computer as i possibly can (considering the amount of free time i have lately, i have considered that creating a blog could be an awful waste of time if in two months i give up!)

i guess we all know my decision... fire it up! follow me now through my reasons as to why i would even need a blog...

my thoughts on starting my own blog were this: i am enjoying life 100 times more than i ever have in the past, yet i feel as though my social life was fitted for a toe tag some time ago. i have always been a firm believer of the idea that our ability to enjoy life comes not only from within ourselves, but mostly from the people we choose to surround ourselves with. each person we interact with allows us to become more capable of enjoying life (this has to be true for everyone, to some extent). i have always thought that i rely on the company of others more than the rest of the world. to paint a picture, imagine that each person in my life is linked directly to activity my dopamine receptors; the more i enjoy interacting with them and vice versa, the more dopamine they emit (i hope you paid attention in your psychology class). so if interaction is my food source, how am i still living?

the answer is simple (and the next time you become a mom you will understand): i've been hanging out at home with my new family, watching a little man grow up. and if i hadn't suddenly realized how much time has passed since i last looked at the calendar, i'd probably still be sitting at home doing the same thing i have been doing (in case you haven't met the little man, i'll let you know that he certainly is fun to be around). don't get me wrong, i love my life. i just happened to start thinking lately about all the things going on outside of estate drive that i'm missing out on. and all the people who might be missing out on me (taking a leap here). hence the need for a blog.

so here it is (and here i am). my plan is this: i have no plan! i only have a goal, which is to find a way to share my happy family life with others, even if i do not have the luxury of time to get out and meet up with friends and family each day. yes i know- this is not the treatment for reviving a social life. you'll be happy to know i plan on making an effort to meet up with friends once a week as well. but wouldn't it be wonderful to help those who have been missing out on miche by giving them an opportunity to see what i'm doing while i'm absent from the party? again, i'm taking a leap by assuming that there is at least one person out there who is curious about what's going on and all the while missing me. (and if not, this is always a good way to keep track of the next 20 years of my life so i myself do not forget) :)

enjoy visiting my blog, mich(e)uphoria: my own state of well-being