the bowl of all bowls

It has continued to be project city in our house. And may just be the warmer weather (the 30's for the week), but Summer can't come soon enough. I think the biggest thing that is eating at us is that we didn't get much time outside last fall once we moved in, so we are looking forward to the warm weather to spend tons of time in the back yard. Nonetheless, we press on with scrap booking, sewing, reading, geniologizing (haha), and minor house projects. It sure is tough to not be able to tackle all the upgrades we want to do to this house right away!

Ella has been having some pretty uncongealed bm's recently (some daycare talk for ya). We can't put our finger on it, but we think its either more teeth (impossible, right? She already has so many!) or another ear infection. Either way, is has been a long run (no pun intended). Hopefully things clear up soon.

A colleague of mine is leaving for another position in Wisconsin, so I spent happy hour with him and a few others in St. Paul on Wednesday. Speaking of new gigs, brother Hugh Jr. started a new position for a consulting company. He has spent the last few weeks in New York working with his client. Hopefully we will have good news to report on Grandpa Hugh's job situation soon.

song: DJ Earwarm - 2009 State of Pop

memory: This fantastic memory has come full circle for me. Back in the day, Wednesday that is, in our Richfield house, we had kitchen bowl that did anything and everything. It worked great for mixing cookie dough, sorting out lego pieces, holding big portions of Lucky Charms, and puking into. The last purpose is what coined it its name, the puke bowl. No lie in saying that this thing did everything! Whenever you found yourself nauseated on the couch, that bowl accompanied your side.
Since moving out and moving up in the world, I have been tempted to steal that infamous bowl from my parents house. I found it hard to think that Ella would grow up without such a fantastic tool to help her grow. Well, those tendencies were put to rest today when we visited our local Dollar Store! We found a flippin' puke bowl! And its not just a puke bowl, but it even has a skid resistant bottom. So there you go, a puke bowl of our own.

five rings

Blue, yellow, black, green and red. Those colors and the infamous dah, dah....da dah dah, dah dah. You get the point. The Winter Olympics are here and it is sure empowering to see these incredible athletes.

It seems that snow has been falling every day here. Which means more shoveling, more ice-thawing and cold walks with Gage. We did end up breaking down and buying a snow rake on Saturday. It took a long trip to Forest Lake to get it from Northern Tool, but well worth it. We also lucked out at Northern Tool's sample sale on Thursday night. Some great outdoor summer equipment which will come in handy during yard work in a few months.

Friday we went old school and celebrated Valentine's Day at Perkins. It was a happy medium between a fancy restaurant for us and a fast food place for Ella. As always, for a cheap price, it was delicious. Uncle Hugh also stopped by on Friday night after a business trip to NYC for his new job.

Saturday after a bit of shopping, we hit up Gma and Gpa Springer's for a dinner of ribs with Chas, Rose and Bev. As always, it was fantastic, and Ella was a ham-bone. More reading and scrapbooking was done on Saturday by Dawn and I. Here is a quick sneak peek of her scrapbooked pages - she only has three projects going at once! (Note from Dawn!: I started with Ella's First Year book, then moved on to Our Wedding Memories, then came the Honeymoon book. Between scrapbooking and some pending sewing projects, I'm very busy once Ella goes to bed! More to come on this later. Stay tuned to see how they turn out!)

Ella has turned a new leaf in our house. She is bigger, badder, and more daring. Its funny, when we woke up on Sunday morning, we both said that she looked like such a big girl now. And it was more evident when Theresa at daycare said the same thing on Monday morning. I know, I know, I already visited the dealership and her car will be delivered on time for her 16th. Its just around the corner. Seriously though, she is telling us more stories, heading to her bedroom when its time for bed and rocking her dolls to sleep. So precious!

Song: Damien Rice - The Blower's Daughter

Laters

long delay

Woof, it has been a while. Life has been moving along quite swimmingly. We are watching Super Bowl 44 right now, and no, the Vikes didn't make it. Hopefully Favre returns, and that is all I will say about that.

Ella's sickness did turn into something somewhat severe. She was diagnosed with RSV on Monday the 25th. Amoxicillin has helped with that and her ear infections. I would say she is almost 100% now.

Since the last post, the biggest adventure we have gone on is visiting Under Water Adventures at the Mall of America. I haven't been there since shortly after they opened. And I tell you what, it seemed a lot shorter this time! Ella did enjoy it though. Lots of dancing and smiling was had by beaner (crappy picture here from my phone). My guess is we will be purchasing a family pass when she gets older (and her brothers and sisters come to be).

Dave and Granny came back from their annual visit to PV on Friday the 29th. They stayed at Hugh and Joni's before driving back to DL on Saturday. We spent a few hours visiting with everyone and reminiscing about heaven on earth. The last time we flew was to PV, and this picture from John of the farm in New Town, brought me back to my flying days. Sure hope to get back to PV before too long!

Just yesterday we did out our own little weekend warrior project. Since we moved in (and, more than likely, some time before that), the cold water had been dripping out of the bath tub spout. We guessed it was close to 2 gallons a day of wasted water. After a few trips to Menards & Home Depot, a hall closet and basement full of water, and blood, sweat and tears, we got her fixed. But once that was done, the work was not. Caulking was needed and a closet drawer reconstruction was needed. Slowly but surely, we are fixing all the previously ignored issues that this house has.

After church today we had brunch with Grandpa Hugh, Grandma Joni and Auntie Bev. Ella showed off her standing and brief walking skills. Also, she has a weird knack of organizing things and putting away her toys (she gets that from her mother). That was also a showcase this morning.

It seems that Dawn and I are taking to side projects at night. Dawn has her sewing and scrapbooking projects and I am hoping to read more work-related books. More on that in later posts.

Song: The Who - Teenage Wasteland

Not gonna lie, I am hung up between the game and the commercials. Can't get my head around a memory right now. It'll be a good one next time. Hope to post again soon.