Videos

Check below for some recent updates, here are some videos!

This first one is Carson after a bath, he calls his wrinkles his 'bubble bath'


The next one is Carson stalling his bedtime by being as silly as possible


The last one is a few minutes after the previous, Dave is trying to read Carson a book and he can't shake the sillies! (Sorry for the poor quality with the low light but you get the point!)

Catching Up

Hi Everyone! I figured I'd come and catch up a bit. As most of you know we will be stationed in Hawaii at the end of the year. We are so very excited about this! What an adventure. And, as all of you know, everyone is welcome to visit. We don't really have any detail besides we know that is where we'll end up. As soon as we get more details we'll let you all know. We don't have exact dates or anything and won't for a few months.

As far as the job hunt goes, well...not so much luck and that's OK. I've decided to stick with Pampered Chef for now which is actually going really well now that I've put some solid effort into it. It will be so nice to be able to enjoy the summer with Carson. We've already been able to get out to both the Minnesota Zoo and Como Zoo recently (Como twice) and to the park and just generally getting out and enjoying things. It's such a change from working 40 hours a week and having to try an cram in quality time.

I have my Turbo Kick certification on 5/16. I have already taken and passed two YMCA certification classes and the Red Cross CPR so I'm well on my way. It's very exciting. I'm thinking teaching exercise will be the greatest job in Hawaii. Seeing as how I won't have to work full time and it will be a great way to keep in shape while still being able to get out once in a while.

Carson is getting so big. It's amazing how his vocabulary is just growing and growing. He's getting excellent at stalling and manipulating but what 2 year old isn't an expert at those things? And on Monday he had his first complete embarrassing meltdown/temper tantrum at the mall. Complete with him laying face down on the floor and crying. It was a first and I'm sure not a last! At this point he's still easily distracted from the temper tantrum. If you ask him to help you with something generally he will get excited about that and switch focus from whatever he was crying about to helping you with something. It can be as simple as "Hey Carson, can you help me find X at the store?" and he'll perk right up and say "Yeah, Sure!" it's pretty cute.

My favorite "Carson-isms" right now:

If you ask him to do something he will say "Yeah, Sure!"

If he asks a question and you give him an answer he'll go "Oh, Right."

If he asks to do something and you say, "No, we're not going to do that right now" he'll go "Awwwwww" in the most cliche whiney voice and inflection possible. It's perfect and I have no idea where he picked it up.

He says "Hello" and talks to EVERYONE in stores, walking by on the sidewalk, at restaurants, everywhere. And usually he won't stop talking to them until they respond. It's funny

I'll leave you guys with a few recent pictures and videos and I'll be back soon!

Riding his bike in the driveway, I can't believe how much better he is this year compared to last year!

Not sure you need any caption for this one :)

Playing Soccer in the yard, makes me appreciate how much it's greened up since this picture!

From our last trip to Como, he was crabby and this was literally the only picture he would even look at me for. Ugh, I was hoping to get a picture of us in this spot. The cat building has the BEST lighting ever! I love it! Ah well, I'm sure there will be more zoo trips this summer!

Zoo Fun

Since it was such a nice day out today we decided to venture out to the Como Zoo. It was Kate, Lydia, Dave, Carson and me. It was way busier there than I thought it would be. I originally was going to bring Carson on a week day but Kate and Dave wanted to go too. I think it will be better when you don't have to go into buildings for everything. The only animals that were really outside were the big gorillas and a couple large cats and reindeer. Otherwise everything was inside and the polar bear exhibit was under construction. That was one of my favorites as a kid!Carson was really excited about seeing animals but only if you were holding him. He was terrified in the primate exhibit when the monkeys would walk past the glass. It was pretty cute to watch him try and figure out what the heck was going on. 

We're on our 3rd night of no pacifier. I think it was harder for me to give it up than it was for him. We just cut the tip and told him it was broken and that was that. It has taken him a little longer each night to fall asleep but other than that not a big deal at all. Again, I think it was a bigger deal for me. My baby is all grown up now. But I am glad that we can be rid of that.  I worry that it will be bad on his teeth. 

I'm considering becoming a certified instructor in Turbo Kick. I spoke with an instructor at the YMCA last week and she wants me to come to an early class on Tuesday morning and meet with the Area Promotions Director for Turbo Kick and is also in charge of Group Fitness Product Development for the Greater Twin Cities YMCA. I'm a little nervous to meet him but am excited about the thought of teaching the class in the future. It's one of my favorites! The certification is in May so that will give me some time to ask questions and get a feel for if this will be something I can do. 

Carson slept for about 20 minutes in the car today and that was all the nap he had. As soon as we got home he was up and at it and ready to play again. Dave and I were exhausted! YMCA and then straight to the zoo was exhausting!! Here are a few pictures from the zoo today!

Compare and Contrast

So as I mentioned before, I LOVE my new birthday gift. So now you all will be flooded with videos of Carson, I'm sure you're all extremely disappointed. Haha! :) Not too much new has been going on at our house. Still nothing on the job search. I can't believe how bad it is. It's just frustrating. I didn't go to any college which, until this point, has never been an issue. Now I'm finding I can't even submit an application for a job without a 2yr degree. UGH!

So for now I have been focusing on organizing Pampered Chef and seeing how I can make that successful for me. I have 2 shows in March which I'm looking forward to, my goal is to have 5 shows in March. We'll see if I can get there! I've temporarily made my kitchen table into a desk but the clutter/mess is starting to drive me nuts so it needs to be able to be put away daily. I think I almost have everything organized enough to make that happen!

My old company started the move into the new building today. I think that's the one thing I'm most upset about, I did a lot of work prepping to move and worked for 2 years in a really crappy building just waiting for the move. And I don't get to work in the new building. But I keep reminding myself that this is not my loss and that the company seriously does not care about it's employees. I am sure of this seeing as how the week after the layoffs in January the executives received some really nice bonuses. Some to the tune of $50,000.00!!!! If the cared at all, they would've taken pay cuts, cut bonuses etc. But no, they do not care and I do not want to work for a company like that.

Carson and I have been getting along great. The only time he wants nothing to do with me is bedtime. Usually Dave is home and Carson will fight me but allow Dave to do bedtime stuff (brush teeth, change clothes). If it's just me and him there is no fighting. Only if Dave is home. It makes me laugh.

We had a 24 flu bug come through the house Sunday/Monday/Tuesday. Dave had it Sunday/Monday I had it Monday/Tuesday. Either Carson brought it home (he threw up once on Friday but that was it) or he hasn't been affected by it. It was completely miserable and I'm so glad that if Carson did have it on Friday it wasn't to the extent that Dave and I had it. I didn't sleep at all on Monday night and Tuesday could hardly leave the couch with body aches and fatigue. I'm for sure glad to be done with that noise!!

Well I'll leave you with a few pictures of my new Flip! This will give you a good idea of exactly how small it is!! Also, I'll leave you with a great video of Carson doing animal sounds and being a bit silly!

Thank You!

Thank you to Dave and Jess for my WONDERFUL birthday present The Flip! I am so excited! Now I have no reason not to take video ALL THE TIME and post it here! It's so easy and portable! So THANK YOU!!!

Sweet Tooth

This is what happens when I'm not around...I sure as heck didn't teach Carson to eat whipped cream off of a spoon. LOL!

Dave opened the fridge to put something away and immediately Carson was saying 'I want, I want' he's really good at expressing when he wants something, we're just working on expressing WHAT he wants. So Dave picked him up and asked him to point to what he wanted. Immediately he pointed to the can of whipped cream. Dave indulged his sweet tooth! :) Pretty cute actually.

How is everyone enjoying the snow? Ugh, I'm so done with winter. I was very glad that Carson and I could just stay inside today. I was not about to drive anywhere. Luckily we have a snow-blow

er now and Dave didn't have to spend hours shoveling the driveway!

I received my new spring product samples from Pampered Chef, I must say my favorite new product has to be the pineapple wedger. Think of an apple correr/slicer but on a much larger scale. It cores and slices the pineapple and it works so fantastic! I think pineapple is yummy anyway and fresh pineapple is even better! I've gone through 2 pineapples this week. Right now my plan is to try and get my Pampered Chef business going strong since the job market does not seem to be going my way at the moment. I am planning to put in 2-3 hours a day on Pampered Chef and hopefully putting the time in will pay off!

Hope everyone has a safe (if slow) commute in the morning!

No News is Good News? Not if Your Job Hunting!

So, I have not heard anything from UHG yet...I called and left a message but no return phone call yet. They were supposed to be making calls last week. I feel that this is not a positive thing. Ugh. I'm beginning to get frustrated. Meanwhile I have applied to about 7 million other jobs in hopes of at least getting a phone call. No such luck.

See some of you at the candle party tomorrow night!

Making Childhood Dreams Come True $25 At a Time

We had a busy day today, busy day but a good day. We started out with lunch with Nan and Chris to celebrate Chris' birthday. We hung there for a few hours and Carson was charming and cute and 2. It was nice to be able to spend some quality time with them.

After lunch we headed to Austin's birthday party. They had the party at the Kelly Inn in Golden Valley. They got a poolside room which was great! I hadn't planned on swimming but  Carson LOVES swimming and I ended up having to go in. The water was SO cold. Carson was shivering and his lips were blue, yet he refused to get out. We were going down the water slide together. Once we finally pulled him out of the water, we had to stay in the hotel room to avoid a further meltdown.

We picked up a 'tent' type thing from Target for Carson. It was $25.00 and Carson just loves it! He can stand up inside it and there is a hole in the top to throw a ball into. I'm curious how going to bed will be tonight. We can't even pull him out of it!

I'm still waiting to hear back from that last interview that I had last week. I'm hoping that they'll call tomorrow or Tuesday. I'm getting anxious. I'll leave you with some pictures of Carson's new tent.

Mamas

Carson has for some reason started adding 's' on the end of weird words. He now calls me Mamas, he says 'uckies' and 'kitties'. He doesn't add a 's' to the end of daddy though, that stays the same. He just started it in the last few days or so. Super goofy but kind of cute also.

I had 2 promising interviews recently with a company that has decided to postpone hiring the position due to the economy. Such a bummer, in the email they sent they said I was a perfect fit which I think sucks even more. I had an interview at United Health Group on Tuesday which also went really well. I should find out about that by the beginning of next week. It's possible that the hours may pose a small problem but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Carson and I have been enjoying our time together at home, trying to keep myself busy in other ways so that I'm not finding myself sitting around too much. My days would get too boring if I let myself do that. We try to run at least one errand a day even if it's small and quick and then I'm continuing to work out 5-6 days a week which also helps get me out of the house, plus I feel WAY less lazy that way.

The cute little place I work out in Albertville is going on a cruise in May. The instructors will be teaching on the ship and all clients get great discounted rates on airfare and the actual cruise. I WISH that I could splurge to go. But without the safety net of a job, I really can't give up that kind of money even if it is a really great deal.

I love 2 years old

I'm not going to apologize for being away...I do that a lot and it doesn't seem to help. Haha, but I have been away for a while again. Sometimes after sitting in front of a computer all day long makes you not want to sit in front of it when you get home. But, luckily? for you guys...un-luckily for me I no longer sit in front of a computer all day long. As most of you know I was laid off from my job a few weeks ago so I should have plenty of time not only to take pictures of Carson but to share them with you all...Although, my updates might be slightly boring now that I have nothing to do with my days! :)

Carson told me to 'shut up' last night. He hears us tell the dogs to shut up so I'm sure he's heard it and also knows what it means. It was so hard not to crack up. Not sure how to handle that one yet. Since I wrote last we've been through both strep throat and pink eye. Good times, fun stuff. Strep was way worse I think because he had the fever and the feeling icky. Pink eye was just nasty eyes and no fun drops.

We also have started swimming lessons at the YMCA near us. Carson loves being in the water but I'm not sure how I feel about the lessons yet. They are really a just get your child comfortable in the water type thing. Carson loves the water and doesn't seem to be afraid at all. But, he does not have the tolerance for the instruction. He just wants to play and blow bubbles. I think we might hold off on the next round until he's a bit older and just take him to play in the water instead of actual lessons.

Back at Christmas time, my friend and I went shopping at the Mall of America, because of the amount of money we spent then (too much) we got a certificate for 2 unlimited ride wristbands at the new Nickelodeon Universe (my head still thinks Camp Snoopy by the way) anyway they expire in March so we took the kids there today to ride on the rides and hang out. Carson had a BLAST. There were a few rides that I looked at that I said 50/50 shot of him crying, he didn't even come close once. Every ride he said 'wheeeeeeee' and once it stopped, he said 'AGAIN!'. I'm glad he enjoyed it. But, because he is still too short, every ride required a chaperone and after about 5 rides I had enough of the going in circles. We took a lunch break and went to Build-a-Bear after. We had a great day and despite the fact that Carson is cutting his molars he was in a great mood and behaved the whole day!

Dave is out of town for work until Wednesday night so now I am home all day, home all night by myself. I think these days will probably drag by without a job to keep me occupied. Love you all and talk to you soon! I'll leave you with a few pictures of today's adventures!