Gonna Party Like it's Your Birthday...

Happy Birthday To ME!!

This past Thursday was my (gasp) THIRTIETH birthday, and I've been celebrating all weekend. I had asked for Thursday off from work, and since Levi was also off due to an injury (more on that later - can't believe I forgot to blog about it!), he took me out to breakfast at Perkins after the kids were all delivered to their respective destinations. Granny's Country Omelet (no celery), hash browns and two slices of french toast, plus a free birthday muffin (to go, of course). Talk about deeeeee-lish. Then Levi laid down for a post-breakfast nap and I headed out on my "secret mission." I had decided a few weeks back that I wanted to do something totally unexpected to commemorate the big 3-0, but I had told Levi only that I was taking part of my birthday day ALL to myself. Anyway, after a stop at my favorite salon to have my bangs trimmed and my eyebrows waxed - boy, they were due! - I drove downtown and...

...got my nose pierced! Thank you, Nick at Saint Sabrina's, for a great and (almost) painless experience. You can't see in this picture because of the flash, but the stone is actually purple, in honor of my amethyst birthstone.

(Good God, that's an awful picture. Note to self: put on some makeup and retake at next possible opportunity.)

I got back from my piercing adventure just as Levi was getting up, and his reaction was priceless.

Him: Hey, did you have a nice time?
Me: Yup. (diabolical smirk)
Him: So what did you do?
Me: (mocking eyebrow raise)
Him: (eyes bug out of head)
Me: (laughing maniacally)

So far, all the reactions I've gotten have been positive - not that I care if you think it's stupid, because *I* think it's awesome, so there - but the most entertaining thing is that my own mom either hasn't noticed or is studiously pretending she doesn't (I'm leaning more toward the first, since I didn't catch even the slightest reaction when I saw her the next day, and after all, one dainty little nose stud is small potatoes compared to my sister's pierced tongue and lower back tattoo).

ANYWAY...after the kids got home, we all went out for haircuts and birthday dinner at TGI Fridays. Friday was boring, then Saturday we went to lunch at Levi's mom's house and then...THEN...leaving the kids behind at MIL's house, Levi and I scooted off on a long-awaited overnight getaway at a local hotel!

We checked in, then went out on the town, ate, drank, made merry, stayed up late, slept in... (ahem) "snuggled"...then after checking out, we had breakfast at Perkins (yes, again - full plate of french toast this time), wandered around Mall of America for a couple hours since we haven't been in AGES, discovered THE coolest new store/experience called MagiQuest - yup, I'm a geek, and gee I wish I had discovered this earlier so I could have drug all our friends there for my b'day! - and then caught Avatar in 3D before heading back home to rescue MIL from the kids.

All in all, a most satisfactory way to celebrate turning (gasp!) thirty!

Bits & pieces

...Twinks and I worked on ground poles this afternoon. (That's not me or him, but I figured at least some of you might be wondering what the heck "working on ground poles" means.) This is a big deal, because my big baby thinks anything left on the ground is probably going to jump up and bite him if he goes near it. It took us a couple minutes to get over the first one, then once we had walked and trotted over it both directions (because clearly, it's a completely different object from the other side, and this one might be a biter...), we had Britt throw down a second and then a third, which, amazingly, he took totally in stride (ha ha). This is excellent news, because trotting ground poles is an excellent strength builder, and also, it's embarrassing to have a horse that's scared of them.

...A couple weekends ago, our friends Ben and Mel invited us to see Romeo & Juliet at the Guthrie theater (that's it, over there). Never having been, we said "sure!" The Guthrie itself was kinda cool, and I'm going to try and remember to blog more about our visit another time. The performance itself, on the other hand, was only so-so, with the second half being better than the first. But for reasons I can't explain, instead of the traditional 16th (17th?)-century setting, or even a modern-day take a la Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (love that movie, BTW), this enactment was..wait for it...Shakespeare-meets-Charles Dickens. Maybe if we had stuck around for the post-play discussion group(?), they would've elaborated on this decision, but since we didn't, I get to assume that they simply hadn't gotten around to putting away the A Christmas Carol costumes yet.

...The great soap experiment continues. I've been using my Citrus Chunk on my bod exclusively for about three weeks with excellent results. My skin remains soft, smooth and relatively non-scaly. Some days I slap on some lotion after, but most of the time I don't. I've even been using it on my face, probably 90% of the time (the other 10% being when I forget until I'm out of the shower because I'm still used to washing my face over the sink). I definitely do still need a moisturizer for my face, though. I've even tried it on my hair a couple times, and I love the texture and body I get when it works, but it seems kind of hit-or-miss (I suspect the "miss"es are that I'm just not getting enough lather). I hear Jill is working on a new shampoo bar, which I'm thinking about trying. Or maybe I'll just stick with my tried-and-true, if overpriced, Aveda. ;o)

...Now, I really must sign off and go do some laundry. And run the dishwasher. And take a shower.

Thirty

My birthday is next week...I'm turning 30! Still not quite sure how this happened, since most days I feel about 24. Anyway, the big day is almost here, and I can comfortably say I'm looking forward to it. In fact, I kind of feel like I want to commemorate it in some way...doing something that is just for me. I've considered...

• getting a tattoo...I plan to do it eventually, and I love something like this:

(only not quite so minimalist, and with a little color)...

• getting something pierced - my nose, eyebrow, ear cartilage - NOT anything kinky, so don't go there...

• something with my hair...but except for dying my whole head a crayola color or shaving myself bald, I've done most everything else you can do. I've been short, long, red and blonde highlights, purple highlights...

(boo, I don't have a digital pic of my really long hair! Maybe I'll have time to scan it in today.)

I do have this box of pink dye that I've thought of using on my whole head, over my natural color (instead of bleaching first as recommended) just to see what would happen. Hmmmm...

These are ridiculously good!

We are heading over to my grandparents' house to watch the Super Bowl in a few minutes (well...as soon as Josh gets up from his really late nap!) and this is what I'm bringing:


I don't know what you'd call 'em...Crazy Delicious Strange Recipe Meatballs?

2 lbs frozen meatballs
14 oz. can sauerkraut, drained well
12 oz. bottle chili sauce
14 oz. can whole berry cranberry sauce
12 oz. water

You can either heat everything but the meatballs over medium heat until the cranberry sauce is liquified, then add the meatballs and heat through, if you're going to be serving them immediately...or you can dump everything in a crock pot on high for about 90 minutes, stirring occasionally.

So. Ridiculously. Good. I probly should've doubled the recipe, cause I could eat this entire batch myself.

Blogger's Block

Hey, sorry I haven't updated in a while! I've been stuck with a raging case of writer's block...either I can't think of anything worth blogging about or everything I put down on paper SUCKS. Oh, plus Levi hurt his back a couple weeks ago, so I've been called upon to cover some of his work on the days when he really felt like crap, as well as my regular duties, so there's been a couple 10-hour days in there, too. Hey, there's a blog topic for a future date--the perks and pitfalls of you and your husband working for the same small company, which is also the family business.

lets..doooo..the time warp...agaaaaaain!!

Thanks to my friend Paige, one of my favorite new(ish) workout ideas is...

hula hooping.

Yes, really! After listening to Paige rave - and seeing the videos she posted on Facebook - for an entire summer, I broke down and bought a hoop of my own last October. Now, it's important to note that this isn't a $5 kid's hoop from Toys R Us - this is a handmade, oversized and weighted hoop designed especially for use as a workout tool. (It's also pretty! She uses shiny "mirror" tape in addition to grippy tape to make it fun as well as functional.)

It took me about a week of daily practice before I mastered just spinning the hoop around my waist for more than a couple revolutions. I had the most amazing sets of bruises...all around my knees and calves from dropping the hoop. Once I got that down, though, I pretty quickly mastered "stalling" the hoop - stopping it in mid-spin with my hands - and sending it back the other direction. Wheeeee!

Hoop practice kind of took a backseat over the holidays, but earlier this week I picked it back up again - thankfully I turned out to be not too rusty! I also figured out another trick - how to lift the hoop in mid-spin from around my waist to over my head!! It took me several more tries to figure out how to keep the hoop spinning around my hand, up in the air - the first several attempts I either hooked the hoop with my thumb (nearly dislocating it in the process) or sent the hoop flying through the air across the room (OOPS!). Thank goodness for youtube - there are dozens of hooping tutorials (my favorite are Caroleeena's) and I was able to figure out what I was doing wrong without seriously injuring myself...or my house.

Anyway. I'll leave you with a few of my favorite hooping videos. The first you may have seen before - it was making the rounds in mid-2008 or so, and I love the energy (and the song!). The second is the video that inspired my friend Paige to start hooping - this girl makes it look so easy. I'd love to be that effortless someday! (It also has a kick-ass soundtrack.) Last but not least is a video from a Cirque de Soleil performance that simply blows. me. away. Obviously I never will be that girl, but I can watch this video over and over again.







If you're wondering when you'll see a video of ME demonstrating my mad hoop skillz...you might be in for a long wait. Maybe if I ever learn how to move my feet and spin the hoop at the same time...

Addendum: Paige dropped off a new hoop for me to try this afternoon (it's hot pink and black and silver!!). The diameter is maybe 3 inches smaller than my old hoop, but holy hell - it's like starting over from scratch. So far I can't keep it up more than 4-5 revolutions. It's okay - I'm up for the challenge!

Calm vs. chaos

Although you wouldn't guess it by looking around my house, I consider myself to have an organized soul. I crave order and organization. I'm anal about details like all my clothes facing the same way in the closet or how my dirty dishes are stacked on the counter. Typos or grammatical errors in books jump right off the page and smack me between the eyes. I thrive on structure - once I find a system that works, I stick to it like glue. I load the dishwasher in the same order all the time, I follow specific steps when I pay a bill, I even write out my checks in the same way every time. I think I mentioned the other day that haphazard messes totally stress me out - I would rather fold laundry for an hour (every towel the exact same way, of course) than spend 10 minutes picking up the living room. Let's not even get into how many times I edit my blog posts or how I obsess over my color scheme.

I'm not sure why this is, except that I know my mind is always going a hundred miles an hour - my brain is multitasking even when my hands aren't. Systems help me make sure nothing important gets missed.

Of course, there are areas of my life that don't have really good systems yet, and as you might imagine they drive me more than a little crazy. Example: the other day I posted a picture of my shiny clean kitchen, which I was super proud of. What I didn't show you was this....


(Seriously, I cringe just looking at this picture. I must do an amazing job of mentally blocking it out day after day. ) This space is basically a catch-all for stuff that belongs in the kitchen (and quite a bit of stuff that doesn't) but doesn't have a proper "home." Tupperware strewn everywhere, eight bazillion paper grocery bags (we use them for recycling, but have way too many), a jug of bubbles, a horse show award from 2007, and God knows what else. As you can see, even the window ledge is cluttered with "stuff." This space drives me crazy. If we were in a position to do any home improvements, one of my top priorities would be ripping out this counter and filling that space with floor-to-ceiling cabinets. That's not gonna happen any time soon, so instead I restack the tupperware more or less weekly, rearrange the pen cups (how hard is it to remember that whiteboard markers go in this cup and regular pens in that cup?!), and throw stuff away when no one is looking (those bubbles are next!).

One of the reasons I like going to work everyday (well, most days) is that my office is 180 degrees from that counter space:


(Ahhhhh. Pretty, isn't it? I can literally feel my blood pressure going back down. ) Everything has a specific home, right down to the white-out tape and the separate containers for big and little paperclips. Even though 90% of the time I'm in the office alone, my workday has a pretty consistent routine as well. My boss and I share a page-a-day calendar, and everything I need to get done on a given day, the boss writes on the calendar, and I check them off as I do them so she knows they got done. Mostly this is stuff like which bill(s) to pay on a given day, but it's also reminders to send e-mails or pick up the timesheets or call in payroll. If there's stuff that I need her to do before I get in the next morning, I write it on the calendar. I would love to have that level of organization in every part of my life.

...

Okay, that was an interesting tangent....back to home. Just recently Levi has offered to take over 100% of the money management in our house, and although giving up control is kind of hard for me, it's also a huge weight off my shoulders. We both knew I wasn't very good at it (more on that another time - maybe), and it was creating undue stress for both of us. One of the reasons I became in charge of dishes-and-laundry was because those were the tasks I agreed to take on in exchange for letting (making?) Levi take over the bookkeeping. And I'm pleased to realize that those responsibilities are becoming a more natural part of my routine, as well.

Uh....this post is getting stupid long, and I don't really know how to wrap it up. So tell me: do you need structure and organization in your life, or do you thrive on chaos? How do you deal?