Friday Favorites v.2

Phew…hello Friday!  Most of the week went pretty smoothly (work wise anyways) but I didn’t think today was ever going to end.  Anyways, onto some of my favorite things from the past week.

I’m a person that loves changing things up.  I don’t like anything staying the same for too long and that includes the paint on the walls and the my bedding.  So, I totally changed it up this week thanks to one of my favorite stores, Target!

Before, minus our down comforter that I had in the washer.

After! New sheets and duvet cover and my new side shelf.

We picked up paint tonight to match the new duvet cover and new shades to replace the mauve ones that have been here since we moved in.

We also FINALLY put in our new toilet that has literally been sitting on our deck for like a year.  Oh and by we, I pretty much mean J.  I helped a bit because it was a complete bitch getting that thing in, but really, it was mostly J.  🙂

We also are finally putting in a new vanity top but that’s also a complete bitch to put in (and again, I mean J’s putting it in).  That will have to be in next Friday’s favorites because he’s still working on getting plumbing to line up.

Last weekend, one of my dreams came true.  I got to watch L have a childhood a bit like mine was.  Saturday was a gorgeous day out and L and the kids in the house 2 down from us (they’ve become good friends of ours) ran back and forth between our houses playing all afternoon.  It so reminded me of my childhood and what I would want my children to have also.  Here they are playing play doh on our deck!

This little guy has stolen my heart and unfortunately, his family will be moving away at the end of the school year (his Mom is L’s teacher).  He was out the first couple days this week with pink eye and then Thursday morning he was super grumpy and had a fever due to shots.  This morning however, he was totally doing that cute sleep with his butt up in the air when I went in to check on him and it just melted my heart all over again.

A couple of my favorite posts from NIAW week:

Elisha at Waitingforbabybird wrote this fantastic post.

Caroline at In Due Time with the help of several other bloggers put together this amazing post.

Every week I could probably have a pic of our pups in my favorites, but seriously, how cute are these 2?!

This Friday, I got a date night with my wonderful husband!  It was spent at Menard’s (a home depot, Lowes type store for those of you not in the midwest) picking out paint, shades and picking up our new front door that we got for super cheap because it was a display door and they had to make way for the new inventory.  Then we headed to Red Pines for some of my favorite pizza around here.

And last, but soooo not least, I have become a presenter with Younique.  If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a makeup/skin care company that doesn’t use chemicals in their make up.  It is the one area that I hadn’t switched to chemical free yet and I’m so glad I found them.  I currently have a party open if you would like to check out their products.  Here is the link:

http://www.youniqueproducts.com/DawnRunning/party/4069544/view

If anyone would like to join my FB group, please send me an email (pdot95@gmail.com) and I will reply with my FB name so we can be FB friends.  Or if you just want to be FB friends and don’t want to be in the group, send me an email for that too and just let me know not to add you to the group.  🙂

So that’s it for this edition of Friday Favorites.  I hope y’all had an amazing week and a great weekend ahead!

Lots of Love~Dawn

Friday Favorites #1 (a day late)

I briefly did a weekly Friday Favorites type post and I’m going to try my best to get back to it because I miss posting every week and interacting with you more often.  So, here we go; my favorite things that happened this week are…..

J and his younger cousin N put the new swing set together!  The kids had a great time playing on it this week.

 

Rocky got to have his first swim of the year last weekend also.  It was gorgeous here, close to 80 and sunny both days!  Seriously, have you seen a happier pup?!

L getting her smile and appetite back!  After a serious chat Monday evening letting her know she wouldn’t be going anywhere any time soon, she had a great day at school on Tuesday (and the rest of the week) and for her reward, dinner at hibachi.  How can you not fall in love with this smile…even when she’s trying to do her fake smile?!

This sweet little pup!  Usually when I put him in his kennel, he just lays on top of that green blanket, but this time, he was either cold or in the mood for hide and seek because he burrowed under it and was so freakin’ cute!

A couple of other favorite things for the week:

White chocolate Raspberry cappuccino from Kwik Trip.  I was so upset when they got rid of my white chocolate caramel flavor but it turns out I like the new one even more, lol.

A compliment from L’s social worker.  After everything that went on this week, in one of her emails to me she said, “Thanks for everything that you do!!  You and Justin have the toughest job out there and you do it very well.”  Personally I think her and the parent aid have jobs way more difficult because they have to see the dysfunction with multiple families, but I so appreciated her acknowledging that we were doing a good job.

A couple things that aren’t necessarily my favorite but did happen this week.  I had 3 moles removed.  I went in on Wednesday to get a couple on my back checked out that J had thought changed a bit.  The Dr. was only concerned about one of them possibly being something more concerning, but he took off two others that were just big and annoying.  One on my back and one on my head.  The worst part was the numbing of the one that he was slightly concerned about and then he seriously had them off in a 5 min. conversation about where I lived in CT.  It was crazy fast!!!   Unfortunately though, they were right in the bra line area so I ended up having to cancel my training appt Thursday night because I couldn’t put a sports bra on.  Anyways, they got sent off to be biopsied, so I should know more within a couple weeks.  I’m also hoping to hear from the Plastic surgeon at the end of next week on whether or not the insurance company approves me for breast reduction surgery.

Have a great weekend, Everyone!

Lots of Love~Dawn

 

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Always Playing Catch Up!

That is how I’m always feeling lately.  Trying to catch up on your posts, trying to catch up with my own post, trying to catch up on my businesses, trying to catch up on house work, trying to catch up with friends and trying to catch up on family.  Time needs to slow down just a bit!

So I last left you with our trip to Las Vegas.  It was a blast but I was happy to be home and sleeping in my own bed again.  In fact, I’ve only had one night of bad sleep since we’ve gotten home which is a huge improvement.  If I feel like I might have one of those nights, I just take a Sleepessence and off I go to dreamland.  It’s fantastic.  🙂

So, a couple of Sundays ago (on the only really beautiful day we’ve had recently), I decided that I needed to get the daycare moved to the basement.  There was just not enough room in the living room anymore and I felt like I was spending more time telling the kids to stop doing something they weren’t supposed to more than anything else.  I as always forgot to take before pictures but let me just say that the cement part of our basement was so chocked full of stuff, you could barely walk through it anymore.  Here are the after pics:

I eventually want to paint and turn that entertainment center to look like a play kitchen.

Our book nook.

Our arts and crafts area.

My only suggestion would be that if you decide you want to do a project of this magnitude, don’t wait until a Sunday to decide that’s it, you want to do it, lol.  I am so glad we did it though.  The kids love having so much room to run and play and I rarely have to tell them to get out of something because almost everything down there is for them.  🙂

On April 5th, there was a follow up hearing on L’s case.  We didn’t have to be there although I kind of wish one of us would’ve gone to represent our side.  Basically, the SW told us that BM didn’t understand why L wasn’t coming home with her that afternoon or why she was even removed in the first place.  It totally scares me that she just doesn’t get it.  She was also told that reunification couldn’t begin until the convicted felon that lives in her basement is no longer there and once that happened they could work towards unsupervised visits.  The problem with this is they didn’t give her a time frame in which to do it and that drives me nuts.  I think part of the behavior issues we have with L stem from not knowing what’s going to happen to her even if she doesn’t actually fully understand that or verbalize it.

Two days after the hearing, Miss L turned 6!  Unfortunately, the day before her birthday was a very bad day at school so it put a damper on things a bit, but we told her we would wait until the day after to talk about consequences so she could just enjoy her birthday.  On Saturday, we had all our family and quite a few friends (neighborhood and school) come over to celebrate.  We were originally going to do it at the village park but it was a chilly day with newborns coming so I’m glad we switched it to our house.  L was well celebrated and had a wonderful time.  That night, her half brothers Mom took her overnight so J and I got to hit the bed early and sleep in a bit.  It felt amazing!

Egg Racing

Piniata Time

The gorgeous cake and just some of the cupcakes that J’s cousin’s beautiful wife made for L.

Present opening.

Let’s see, what else has been going on.  I went for a consultation for a breast reduction surgery.  It’s something I’ve wanted to do for quite sometime and with having the summer off this year and already using up my deductible last September for my laparoscopy, now is the time to do it.  Of course, insurance has approve it first so I’m waiting to hear on that.  Prayers for a yes would be appreciated!

I’ve also started going back to the gym a bit.  I have an appointment with my trainer tonight and Thursday night.  My Mom and I are also going to the “Long Island Medium”, Theresa Caputo tomorrow night.  I am so freaking excited about this.  We have seats pretty close to the stage so I’m really hoping to get a reading and to hear from my Dad, Uncle or Grandma.

In pup news…Bandit’s been getting more aggressive when he’s sleeping.  If you try to move or bug him, he will bite.  Not to the point that it really hurts me, but still.  Now, he ended up getting his paw hurt at his thumb nail and it got infected.  We took him to the vet because he was just being vicious if you tried to get near him.  Like, Justin was putting on gloves to pick him up to put him outside.  He seems to mostly be in the morning and at night and then in the afternoon, he’s not too bad.  Anyways, they had to sedate him to take care of it and he’s on antibiotics for the next 10 days and we have to soak his paw everyday for 5 minutes.  I’m hoping he gets back to my sweet little pup very soon!

Alright, I think that’s everything I wanted to make sure I got you all caught up on.  I’m still working on reading all of yours.  I think I’m about 20 posts away from being caught up, lol.  I hope all is well with you, my friends!

Lots of Love~Dawn

Update:  I caught up on all your blogs before the kids woke up from naps!  Yeah!!!!

Vegas Baby!

First of all…once again, I’ve managed to incredibly behind on keeping up with you all!  I’m sorry…please forgive me!  This week is going to be crazy because it’s L’s birthday on Thursday and we’re having her party on Saturday but after that, I will hopefully have some time to read and catch up.  🙂

So…Vegas.  We left Wednesday the 23rd, right after work and had to drive to Minneapolis about 2 1/2 hours away through a freakin’ blizzard!!!!  Guys…it was awful.  It’s not that there was a ton of snow on the ground but there were white out conditions a lot of the time and sooooo many cars in the ditch.  Thankfully, we made it to the airport in one piece and in just enough time to get through security, get our seat assignments and go potty before we had to board.  We did end up having to park in the terminal parking lot and pay more, but at least we were there, safe; and our flight was on time.

It was a little after 11pm when we arrived in Vegas.  By the time we got luggage, a taxi cab ($30 freakin’ dollars) and made it to the Luxor, it was after midnight.  I was starving but of course all the cheaper (but still way too high by WI standards) places in the hotel were closed already.  J was super tired so we walked through Mandalay Place and ended up getting wings at this Irish pub.  They weren’t great and they were way too expensive but they filled my belly enough for me to sleep.  If I would’ve known that there was a 24 hour fast food place a few blocks down the strip, we may have left the hotel but by then, I was pretty pooped too.

Friday, we got up and down the strip a ways.  We took a few pics:

These were all taken on Friday.  Some of the cuter pics we have are on J’s phone though.  I’ll try to post those at a different time.  🙂  The pic of us with the red statue of Liberty…yeah, it’s made out of twizzlers!  Yummy!!!

Oh, we also got roped into doing one of those timeshare presentations on Friday.  Tip:  If a casino worker approaches you about cheap show tickets, they’re buttering you up for one of these.  Now, it wasn’t a typical timeshare thing and if we had extra money, I totally would have done it.  We ended up getting Zumanity tickets for $20 a piece and we met some really fun people so it was totally worth it.  I’m not saying don’t do it, but I am going to say hold out for tickets and some cash to play in the casinos.  We found out from other people we could’ve gotten more out of the deal, lol.

Saturday, we did the best thing we could’ve done and went back to the airport to rent a car.  $32/day and we could go wherever we wanted.  It was fantastic.  Our first stop, the Mike O’callahan/Pat Tilman bridge.  It’s a fantastic bridge that they put in for people to get from Nevada to Arizona without having to cross the Hoover Dam.  It also has a foot path that you can walk for free and get a great view of the Dam.  🙂  We walked across and enjoyed the breathtaking view.

After we checked out the Dam, we started driving back to Vegas and stopped at this smaller casino in-between Boulder City and Henderson, I think it was.  I played blackjack for the first time and came out a winner!  We also did a little more walking on the Strip and then met up with one of my BF’s from CT.  Mark and I go way back and we haven’t seen each other since the last time I was in Vegas 9 years ago!  It was so nice to see him and meet his wife and for him to meet J.  We went N9NE steakhouse in the Palms Casino.  It was delicious but the most expensive meal we’ve ever paid for and a once every 5 year-10 year kind of treat, lol.  After dinner, Mark and Amy headed home to their kiddos and we made our way down to Fremont St.

We wanted to do the zip line down Fremont but all the slots were filled for the night and by the time we had a chance to get back down there (on Monday) there was too much wind.  Mostly, we just walked around and checked out the lights and people watched.

Sunday, we headed to Mesquite, Nevada to spend Easter with our old roommate, John and his family.  If I haven’t mentioned him before, he was J’s roommate when I moved in.  J says he’s the best thing he’s ever found on Craigslist, lol.  He and his wife had bought their retirement home in Mesquite when he was transferred once again to the La Crosse cheese plant for the company he works for.  They are originally from WI and a lot of their family is still in the Madison/Milwaukee area.  Anyways, his wife refused to move again so he moved here and just flew home frequently to see her.  He did the readings at our wedding and is like a 2nd Dad to us.  We really miss him and it was great spending time with them and their family and friends.  🙂  Oh, we also went to Zumanity when we got back from Mesquite!  Amazing show if you don’t mind a little nudity.  Very funny and the acrobats were astounding and breathtaking!

Monday was supposed to be my low key day to spend a few hours by the pool and just relax and unfortunately, they closed the pool because of 40 mph winds.  Totally sucked!  We ended up going back to the little casino I first played blackjack at along with a couple others and lost all the money we had won, lol.  When we got back to the hotel, J stayed down to play more blackjack and I headed up to rest and pack since we had to be at the airport around 11pm for our flight.

Flight back was uneventful.  We landed about 5:30am after maybe 20 minutes of dozing on the plane for me and made it back to WS about 8:30am.  I think I slept the last 45-60 min of the drive home.  Got in the house and I took daycare over so Mom could head home and J went to bed (Lucky Duck!).

I know there were a lot more things I wanted to tell you guys.  J kept going, you should write this as a tip on your blog for anybody visiting Vegas…I’ll have to ask him if he remembers what they all were, lol.

I hope you all are doing well!

Lots of Love~Dawn