And the moldy food. . .

Last night, I decided to make grilled ham and swiss sandwiches and homemade cream of tomato soup for supper. I started the soup and opened the fridge to grab the cream. . . I could smell it before I even took it out. Sour. Very sour. So Kaleif ran to the store to get some cream and I started the sandwiches. I opened the ham. It was pale, almost skin colored (gross, I know). So I changed my plan: turkey and swiss. And I opened the turkey. Slimy. Ok. . . how about grilled cheese? I made a couple sandwiches and stuck them on the sandwich maker. And then I grabbed the bread for the third sandwich and discovered the mold. All over the bottom of the loaf. Hmmmm. . . . I threw the ones that were already done and thought for a minute. . . maybe I should just give up. This cooking thing isn't really working tonight. But I powered through. And we ended up with cream of tomato soup and cheese quesadillas instead :) Now you're probably wondering how a responsible twenty-six year old mother ends up with a fridge FULL of rotten food. . . I can explain. We've spent the last GLORIOUS week at my parents house enjoying some good family time. And even though we only live five blocks away, it was hard to even leave for an hour.

The girls looked for Santa. . .

and opened presents!

Sadie took her first step!

We got snowed in (almost two feet of snow!). . .

and then had a blast playing in it!

We spent some time warming up in the pool.

And we played!

This last picture is my niece Reese MacKenzie. Isn't she just gorgeous?!?!?!?

So that's it. The reason I had so much moldy food in my fridge and the reason my ham and swiss sandwich and tomato soup meal failed miserably. But it was so worth it. We had a blast! I already miss you, sisters!!

Nine Months!

Here are some of my favortie pictures from our (multiple) nine month photo shoots!

FINALLY!

So we FINALLY have a room completely finished!!! Ok, so its actually not completely done, but it's close enough to show you. We started this project the day we moved in our house about six weeks ago. I guess I was excited for Sadie to have her own room (a little late, I know) so I wanted to finish her's first.

Here are a few BEFORE pictures:

Looks pretty icky, doesn't it? It was. Sadie was even ready to get rid of that stinky carpet :)


So after some hard work and many weeks, Sadie's room is finally (almost) finished!

Drum roll please. . . .

Are you ready???





Here it is!

So I just need to put the curtains up (I seriously can't find them anywhere! Packed somewhere. . . ) and find knobs for the dresser.

I have to let you all know. . . we were very thrifty in finishing Sadie's room. I pride myself in saving a few bucks (or deal-slashing as Bethany and I call it!)

1. We cleaned the walls, woodwork, and floors and gave them a new coat of paint! My handy husband installed the wainscotting.

2. I purchased all of the cream colored frames at an auction (two dollars for the four hanging in Sadie's room, plus extras I haven't used yet!), pulled the 1970s floral prints out, spray painted the frames, and cut the mats for my own pictures. It's so so so easy to use a mat cutting kit and it saves TONS of money! The green floral pictures are from IKEA-- very cheap :)

3. The dresser was free (thanks mom!) and just needed a new coat of paint. The little rocking chair was Kaleif's when he was little.

4. And for my favorites. . . the rocker/recliner was fifty cents. . . seriously, fifty cents at an estate auction. And that very cute baby buggy-- fifty cents as well! I love the buggy and it works great as a toy box :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sadie really loved her first Thanksgiving! She had a great week in Montana visiting Nanna, playing with her friends and cousins, and most importantly, eating. If you know Sadie, you likely know how much she loves food. And when she's crying, it's almost always about food. She just takes eating very seriously. . . she always has.


So I didn't doubt she would love her Thanksgiving dinner. And she definitely did :)

P.S. I've been meaning to post pictures of our remodeling projects for weeks. Don't worry, they're coming. . .

Happy happy birthday!

Happy birthday mom!

P.S. Thanks for letting us live in your house for the last five months. Love you!

Home!

I'm sitting on Sadie's crib mattress and drinking water out of a grape pop can at 4:30 in the morning. It's our first night in our new house and I thought I would sleep so soundly and feel so settled. Instead, I spent six hours laying in bed listening to Kaleif snore next to me. And listening to Sadie snore in her playpen. And thinking about paint colors, trim, refrigerators, living room art, and closets. I finally decided to give up. And what better to do at 4:30 than sit on a crib mattress, which is apparently made by Sealy (seems pretty fancy for a baby) and blog. Good thing the mattress is water resistant-- I just spilled pickle juice on it.

We've really been in transition for five months. Looking at houses. Waiting for other houses to go up for sale. Looking at the same houses. Trying to move a century old farmhouse (if we could've just found somewhere to put it). Looking at the same houses (for the third time). And finally. . . we decided to go with one of the first houses we looked at. In May. That's ok. I guess the journey was. . . interesting. And I sit here now in the living room, drinking water out of a grape pop can (the glasses are still packed) and thanking God my husband is a carpenter because I think this house really really needs him. So its not our dream house. But its ours. Our home.

Missing. . .

My uncle Jon passed away almost a month ago. He was a great man with a wonderful sense of humor who loved his family more than anything. Someone who I, and many others, will miss so much.

Please keep praying for his family.

Believe in Miracles!

I'm posting to ask you to please pray for my Uncle Jon. He is fifty-three years old, married to my mom's sister Deb, and father to some of the best cousins around (Katie, Em, and Nick). He's been sick this summer and was referred to Mayo Clinic about two weeks ago for some further testing. On Monday, September 14, he had a liver biopsy. During the biopsy, the doctors cut his hepatic artery and he bled for about twelve hours before they could find the source of the bleeding and stop it. Because of the massive amount of blood loss, he went into cardiac arrest. He's been in a coma since (but is starting to wake up!) and was just activated on the liver transplant list. During his hospitalization, he's survived some major surgeries and proven over and over again that he's a fighter! He has a long, hard road ahead of him, but we believe in miracles! Please pray for continued healing for Jon and strength and peace for Debbie and the kids. Thank you!

If you would like to follow his progress, check out https://www.carepages.com/carepages/jonlenzen. You have to become a member to view the page, but its free!

The Daycare Diet and Workout Plan

Ok, I'll explain. Daycare is hard work. When I started three weeks ago, my mom told me doing daycare would be the hardest work I ever did. I only half believed her. Now I fully understand.

Here's the plan:

1. Pushing a four-child stroller with four children in it. Double workout points for pushing it up hills or through gravel. Holy cow.

2. Jumping over baby gate hurdles while carrying babies.

3. Someone needs something every time I try to take a bite of food. I'm lucky to get in five bites a day.

4. Sprinting at lightning speeds up the stairs every time you even think you hear a baby crying. Quiet them before anyone else wakes up!

5. Sprinting back down the stairs, hoping nobody has been seriously injured in the last thirty seconds.

6. Other running. Pretty much all day long.

I swear I'll be in supermodel shape in no time.

Jellies!

I love jellies. No, I'm not in seventh grade, but there's just something about that plastic smell and the way they stick to your feet. I bought these jellies last summer, ignoring loud protests from my sister Bethany. She does not like jellies and really doesn't think adults should buy them. Sadie was so excited to try her jellies for the first time that she was crying with excitement and trying to pull them off to get a better look! Ok, so maybe she doesn't love jellies yet. . . just give her a couple years.

Six months old!

Come on, just fix it!

I took my car in to get the brakes checked before my 50,000 mile warranty ran out. I was at 49, 920 miles. Yes, I'm really good at procrastinating. So a few hours after I dropped it off, I listened to my messages and heard, "Yeah Sarah, we didn't find anything wrong with your brakes, but we had a little mishap in the shop. Now its not too bad and of course we'll get it fixed for you, but you better come down and check it out." Fun. It really wasn't too bad. They just run into poles every once and awhile when they're backing out. Just a little dent.

So I brought my car back a few days later to get the dent fixed. I was actually kind of excited to drop off my boring Hyundai Elantra and drive something else for a few days. Maybe they'd give me something fancy or bigger. Something different at least. So I was a little surprised when they walked me out to a shiny, new, red. . . Hyundai Elantra. Really? And even better than mine, it smelled like cigarettes. Great. So I drove around the next two days (even in the rain) with all of the windows down, and was very excited to get rid of that rental. And get my shiny, white, DENTLESS Hyundai Elantra back.

Playground Blues. . .

It has been a really really long time since I've posted anything on here. I've been very busy. . . I guess.
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Last week, I started working for my mom's daycare. I'm still working at the hospital a few Saturdays a month, but I spend my weekdays with twelve tykes under the age of four. Its actually been a lot of fun so far. We have already been to every park in town. . . just this week! Today was extra special. We walked to a park that has those gross wood chips on the ground. I guess they don't get stuck in your knees or hands like the little rocks and they're not as messy as sand, but I don't like them. They remind me of fourth grade. We had those wood chips on our playground at school. One day, one of my friends didn't feel very well, but she still thought it was a good idea to swing upside down on the parallel bars after lunch. And she wanted me to watch. I'm pretty sure I tried to talk her out of it, I must have, but she didn't listen. She grabbed on, jumped, and hooked her knees over the bar. And then she started swinging. And swinging. And turning pale. And swinging. Then green. And still swinging. And I watched. I probably told her to get down, I'm sure I did. Then, as I stood beneath her, watching and just hoping she wouldn't. . . she puked. It landed right next to me. I jumped back. Gross. She finally stopped swinging, got down, and quickly buried the puke under a pile of wood chips. "Sarah, please please please do not tell the teacher! Please don't tell! I really don't want to go home! Please, Sarah!!!!" We were playing Bingo Bango Bongo that afternoon. . . obviously too important to miss. So I didn't tell. I wonder how many kids stepped in that pile that afternoon. I know I didn't-- I didn't go near those bars for a long, long time after that.
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So I just don't trust those wood chips. You never know what's hiding underneath. . .

It's GRAY!

I started a new job at Innovis Health today. Its just a per diem position (so I work when they need me) and I'm very excited about being back at work. Well, kind of excited. I really miss my baby when I'm away, but it will usually be only a few hours a day, so I can handle it. Plus, she's in great hands with her grandma.
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So I had to go to the speech therapy offices last week to fill out some paperwork. I showed up a little early, so I sat out in the car for awhile, listening to some music, checking myself in the mirror for food in my teeth or messy makeup and admiring my beauty and youth. Ok, not really the last part, but you get the idea. Then I saw it. Staring me right in the face. Not staring I guess, but it was there. A GRAY hair. Wait, not even gray-- a WHITE hair. Growing out of my so young scalp. What?!?! So I pulled at it. And pulled. And pulled some more. Let me tell you, gray hair is stubborn. Finally, it cooperated and I pulled it out and examined it. Yep, it was a gray hair. Root to tip. I looked at the clock and realized I lost track of time while obsessing about the youth slipping through my fingers. So I ran up to my meeting on the GRAY side of the building, of course. I have to admit, I was a little distracted while signing my papers. . . wondering if this was normal, if I would wake up the next morning with pearly white hair, and just thinking about that shiny strand of hair. So I was very careful to keep track of it as I drove home. I just had to show someone, and for some reason, my new employer didn't really seem like the right person. My mom was standing in the kitchen when I got home. "Mom! Look what I pulled out of my head!!! Do you see this? It came out of my head!!! Seriously. . . Look!"
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Her response: "What? Did you think you were going to keep that brown hair forever?" I guess not. Thanks for keeping me grounded mom!

Perfect Friday!

Tonight would be a perfect night for a run. Its cool and quiet here with just a slight breeze.
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Instead, I'm enjoying a cold beer, some hot pizza, a sleeping baby, and the Twins game on tv.
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Don't worry, I'm still on track for my September 12th half-marathon. But not tonight. I'm taking tonight off!

Three months old!

My baby is already three months old! We took some pictures a few days ago. Here are some of my favorites:
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And that was enough!