Raspberries, Swimming and Haircut adventures

I really wanted to go strawberry picking this year, but it just never worked out and the season passed. So instead, we headed out for raspberries. To be honest I grew up with raspberry plants and have a love/hate relationship with them. For years, I wanted nothing to do with them since I associated them with standing in our garden getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, and poked by the plants while birds fought me for the goods. In the height of the raspberry picking season I was expected to get a gallon ice cream bucket full each day and if I didn't I was likely sent back out because I obviously didn't do my job. 

As time went on (read: years after I moved out and didn't have to pick berries anymore) I learned to appreciate this fine fruit. I could do without the seeds and sometimes find them a little bitter, but my favorite jam is raspberry and I even have a few plants of my own now. 

On Saturday, we decided to check out a raspberry picking farm.It seemed little silly going to a farm to pay for raspberries since I can still go to my dad's to get eaten alive pick them there, but this was more about the experience.

I searched for raspberry farms here and found one I wanted to go to. They had pick your own raspberries, but other fun things like goats, chickens, eggs, mushrooms, and motocross. Yup, motocross. Anyhoo, I'm glad I called before we left because they had to unexpectedly close that day so we went to Berry Hill Farm instead. Berry Hill was actually a little closer, but it didn't have any of the extra fun things that the other place did (apparently Berry Hill has pony rides and the such around pumpkin picking time, though). It was incredibly peaceful here and would be the perfect place for a wedding. It was very calming and I didn't get attacked by bugs or birds. If there was one thing I would change it would be to make sure the porta potty was on leveled ground - let's just say it's a struggle to go to the bathroom at that angle. TMI? Perhaps.

On Sunday, we planned on two things to accomplish: go swimming with Riley and get her haircut. We belong to a gym that has a pool so it seemed to make sense to take advantage of that. We called our local gym, but their hours were limited. So we called another location not to far away and found out they opened at 10 am. They have an indoor and outdoor pool with zero entry and it's just better all around. 

Our kid hasn't been very confident around water and is more likely to freak out than enjoy it. A couple weeks prior, my husband took her to the pool and after about 20 minutes of hanging out he was able to get her in the water and "swimming" around while he held her. She loved it. He had some challenges with finding the pool hours at both of the above gyms online and when he called they told him one thing only to show up and find he wasn't given the correct times (after already changing into bathing suits).

So again this time we called, got the hours, and headed out to the gym... only to find out they gave me the wrong time. Grrr. Nothing like having to really work your kid up to be ready for something to have to turn around and say it wasn't going to happen. We weren't ready to totally give up so we ran some errands and got Riley's hair cut before heading back to the pool.

I was going to cut Riley's hair myself this time, but we have family pictures next week and I didn't want to be responsible for screwing up her hair (although, now that I paid a stupid amount to get her hair cut I am sure it is crooked - whatever). I have too many horror stories of when my dad cut my hair as a kid. You'll probably never see me with bangs since I had to live few years with severely crooked bangs as a child and am scarred by it. Thanks dad.

This was Riley's third haircut and the only one she seemed a little nervous about. I had to hold her hand pretty much the entire time. She didn't cry, but certainly seemed to need some assurance.

You can't see it here, but along with the braid she got glitter in her hair. She looooved that. I was a little scared to chop off her hair so short, but I love it even though it makes her look so much older. Seriously, when did she stop being my baby?

We went back to the pool (where I didn't get any pictures because I was in the water, you know) and hung out for awhile. About 10 minutes after we got there the life guards took a break. There were about six 16 year old life guards hanging out playing jump rope while we sat on the sidelines trying to explain why we had to stay out of the water to Riley. I understand they get breaks, but since there were only two posts and 6 lifeguards you think they could rotate. I don't know. Perhaps someone can explain it to me. I found it strange.

And I thought the jump roping seemed unprofessional. Or maybe I've just become an old curmudgeon. Yeah, that's probably it, isn't it?

All in all, another great summer weekend. If only summer could last forever...

July 2013 | Photo a Day | Week 3

Week three and going strong with the Photo a Day pictures...

7.15.13

Outside the window

The sore throat that came on Friday night was still sticking around so I felt I had to go get something cool and soothing to make it feel better. At lunch I headed out to get some frozen yogurt and then found an unused space at work with a good view to pig out on it. I filled my cup a little fuller than usual (it was for health reasons!), but was a little stunned when I spent over 7 bucks on this serving. Yikes! When I told my healthy eating husband how much I spent I thought he would be horrified. Instead, he was jealous that I went to Yogurt Lab without him. Go figure. (Oh, and I still have the ever so slightly better sore throat over a week later. You can bet there was another frozen yogurt run later in the week - this time with my husband).

7.16.13

Bottle

Really excited to try this organic wine I recently picked up, but that persistent sore throat is putting that plan on hold. Note to self: feed the cat immediately when you get home before you attempt to do anything or she will be all up in your stuff.

7.17.13

Inspirational

Oy. This one had so much potential and in the end I feel like I cheated. I posted old pictures and a quote by Mary Anne Radmacher. In my defense, I did take pictures of Jesse and Riley together, but Jesse just looked mad. Not every day is a winner, but in the end this still had the same message, My dad, Jesse, and Riley are some of the biggest inspirations in my life.

7.18.13

Number

This was simply a random number I wrote on a chalkboard in our basement and then added a fancy filter. I was going to pick a number with significance... 27 - the day of our first date, 9 - the day she was born, 21 - the day we were married, 11 - his lucky number, 72 - the year of my birth... but there were so many to choose from that a random number seemed most appropriate.

7.19.13

Building

Luckily, I had an early lunch this day so I could sneak outside without the lunch crowd milling about and wondering why I was holding my iPad up to the air (to take this picture of my work building, of course). Since I was outside I grabbed lunch at one of the many food trucks downtown. To be honest, I've been turned off from food trucks lately after a couple cases of gut rot, but the fish tacos at Velle Deli were awesome (with no side effects). Plus, it was beautiful outside. Earlier in the week it was soooo humid and hot, but this day I could actually breathe comfortably outside.

7.20.13

Hot 

Yeah, so it was even cooler today than the previous day - it was still warm, but not nearly as hot as the beginning of the week was. I stepped out on to our deck which does get quite hot and was surprised to find the cat still out there cause I wouldn't be if I was covered in black fur and all. And then I was not surprised to find him inside the house about 2 seconds later. He's no dummy.

7.21.13

Fav Food 

When I mentioned the prompt for this day to my husband he immediately suggested we get food from Christos Greek restaurant. So I totally thought that was going to be the shot of the day. We did get our Greek food (after a little friendly reminder to the hubby), but in the end I picked this shot because not only do I like raspberries, but I just like fresh food. And perhaps this is a reminder to myself to eat a little healthier because I almost always feel better when I do. 

Parade

From age 9 until 18 I grew up in a small-like town about 30 minutes west of the Twin Cities. My dad still lives there so we obviously get out there on a regular basis, but I haven't really partaken in many of the activities they have in town in a long, long time. This is mostly because they often happen during Riley's nap time or after bedtime and we typically don't mess with sleep. But since her sleep habits have been crap lately we thought... what the heck.

This past weekend was the big Hamel Rodeo and one day I hope to bring Riley there, but we decided to take her to the parade instead. If we were going to skip a nap I wanted an easy out if things went south (which you'll see I ignored anyway).

The parade starts on a side road and then heads down main street which is where most of the folks congregate to watch. We decided to walk through my dad's back yard and into the neighbor's yard to sit under her shady tree on the side road.

In the end, Riley exclaimed that the "parade was FUN!" which was hard to believe since she cried during at least half of it. There were a lot of loud vehicles: police cars, antique cars, motorcycles, tractors, and at least six freaking firetrucks with incredibly LOUD sirens. We actually heard the first siren before we saw the parade start and at that time I heard the first of 392 "I want to go home" comments. I'm fairly certain if Jesse was there he would have said "ok, let's go home" after about the 5th time, but I wanted to fight this demon head on.

That, or I'm a bad mom.

Anyhoo, one siren in particular was super loud. It scared the crap out of me. I held Riley tight and put my hands over her ears trying to ignore her pleas to leave. After that incident it seemed that many of the firetrucks would stop the siren once they looked over and saw me cupping my hands over the ears of my terrified kid. You'll notice that there are no pictures here of the firetrucks because my hands were busy being noise mufflers. In fact, I didn't capture much of the parade and many of the pictures I did were blurry as my kid immediately grabbed my hand when it was away from her ears and told me to "put that (camera) down". Ha.

But then there were horses and a couple different groups of them. Some of them trotted, but some did a little dance and this was apparently enough to make this parade a success in my child's eyes.

Oh, and there was candy. Copious amounts of candy. Most people were sitting up next to the road, but we were a ways back taking advantage of the shade. I mean, I was with my elderly father, and my daughter who might just be the whitest child on the earth so the shade was the best place to be. And not that Riley would have let us get any closer to the (loud) action.

Pretty much all the trucks that were in the parade were throwing candy out to the townsfolk, but since we were so far back and no one else was really sitting by us, most of these fine people brought the candy to us. What they didn't, the neighbor lady picked up for us (I was too busy holding my kid's ears). We left most of the candy behind, but I let Riley pick out some to bring home - which we've hidden and she's completely forgotten, but not before a complete meltdown when we got home. FYI: a child demanding "I want candy" in between breath gasping, blubbery cries sounds a lot like "I want daddy". Don't mix up the two.

Wait, I thought I was at the Hamel Parade. Filler float?

This was also a highlight for our kid. Did I mention it was over 90 degrees this day?

Riley even got a Hamel baseball t-shirt. It's a little big, but incredibly exciting for me since softball/baseball was such a big part of my life when I was growing up here. Go Hamel Hawks!

As mentioned, after the parade was done Riley couldn't stop talking about how "fun" the parade was. I'm hoping this is a sign that my kid is a 'glass half full' type of person and not that she has some short term memory issues. Now, I'm off to buy some headphones so I'm more prepared the next time I torture my child with a parade.

July 2013 | Photo a Day | Week 2

Week two of Photo a Day has continued to challenge me - mostly because I am taking all these pictures with the iPad. Doing so limits when I can take pictures and makes me feel silly when I do pull the iPad out in an attempt to catch a moment. At any rate, I still ended up getting a picture every day so there is that. 

7.8.13

Path

Recently, I looked back at some of the pictures I took last year for this challenge and I came across some of the same prompts. Turns out we were camping last year when this one came up and there were plenty of paths near us. I suppose I could have gotten really creative with this one, but all I could think of in terms of a 'path' was a hallway at work or a sidewalk. This seemed way more interesting than the drab hallways at work and I worked in a way to show off my polka dotted dress. 

7.9.13

Three things

I'm used to working a later shift one day a week, but recently work has change that shift by a half hour. As in, I start and end a half hour later. You wouldn't think that would be a big deal, but its amazing what a half hour will do for you. What does this have to do with wine? Not much, but it sure makes that late night a little easier to swallow.

7.10.13

Smooth

This is one of those prompts I struggled with. I had a hard time figuring out what picture I wanted to capture and in the end it was right in front of me as I sat outside with my kid as she played. I've been loving these summer nights where we can hang outside for a bit without the bugs bothering us too much. Riley has even asked to eat dinner outside multiple times. Fine by me. 

7.11.13

I wore this!

I'm not sure why this prompt has an exclamation mark. I mean, I took pictures of what I wore, but feel like I let this prompt down because my outfit wasn't necessarily exclamation worthy. And most of the day I just had that red blanket (lower left picture) draped over me as I attempted to stay warm at work.

7.12.13

A bad habit

Not to sound all perfect or anything, but this was a hard one to identify. I eat generally well (perhaps some more veggies and fruit could make it into my diet), I exercise, I have a drink here and there, but not that often... so this is the best I could come up with. I spend way too much time in front of a computer. Granted this is my job, but I could at least leave it over lunch. And I actually did this day after eating. Just taking this picture has made me more mindful this week about sitting here for too long. 

7.13.13

4 o'clock

This has been a less than favorite week when it came to body pain. Lots of aches and pains and low level migraines, but this day the headache was worse and it was apparent I might have a virus coming on as indicated by the itchy sore throat I had. Jesse and Riley were napping upstairs and I decided to do a round of yoga nidra and of course fell asleep too. I woke up moments before taking this picture and was in total nap fog.

7.14.13

Edible

My new favorite meal (see 7.12.13 for additional proof). English muffin, hummus, feta, avocado, and tomato. Also suggested: fresh basil. Delish.

Family Fun and the Fourth

A couple weekends ago I was determined to check out a farmer's market, but didn't want to deal with the crowds of the big one in Minneapolis. I did a little Googling and found another one close by that seemed to have food, wares, and even music. Sounded good to me so we headed off to Golden Valley's farmer market.

It's a little early for certain food items, but we still found some goodies to buy such as radishes (a Jesse fav), small potatoes, and fresh bread. We picked up these fantastic pretzel rolls and even went back for more.

Num, num. Pretzel bread.

Once we made our purchases we sat down to listen to some music. At some point Riley started singing along  (in her own words, of course) to the joy of everyone around us. She's always loved music, but she's been embracing singing lately. She might find a familiar tune and then makes up her own words to the song. She's totally her father's daughter in this regard. I don't know how many songs Jesse had made up and sang to me so I love that she does this too.

Also, had a caprese kabob from that food truck to the right which was delish

We tried to leave, but Riley wanted to go back and listen to the music. Ok, fine by us. We found a grassy spot and laid down while she sang, jumped all over us, took pictures on her own, and just hung out. It was rather nice.

Photo by Riley

I'm learning all sort of things you can do with thin, fine hair that I could never do with my thick hair.

Reluctantly leaving the farmer's market

Want to find a local Minnesota farmer's market? This site is the place to go. 

A few days later we tried another neighborhood treasure hunt, but brought daddy along this time. It started out well enough until there was a pretty traumatic 'knee to concrete' incident. But even after that happened (and the blood was still flowing) Riley wanted to make sure she got in a swing ride before going home. Go figure.

Stick!

Rock!

Bloody knee! *not on the treasure hunt list

And then there was the 4th of July - Independence Day. It was a day I used to love, and hope to again, but now it's just nice to have a day off of work before I start cursing the neighbors for setting off fireworks that freak the F out of my kid. Plus, (on a sad note) the 4th of July brings back so many memories of my brother, Scott, who passed away 5 years ago. He loved the 4th and wanted to make it an incredibly fun event especially for the kids. Gosh, I miss that guy.

At any rate, we tried to get outside a bit with Riley and headed over to a local park to kick a ball around.

Riley actually stayed up until almost 10 PM this night, but not like most kids who were trying to stay awake for the fireworks. She was just freaking out like she has been all week on the sleep front (thank you for being consistent on that kid #dripping in sarcasm). Luckily, she fell asleep with Jesse sleeping by her side just before the bangs and booms started. It was a fairly uneventful day, but was really nice to get a break in the work week and hang with the family on a nice day. That alone made it worth it.

One day this kid will love fireworks, right?

July 2013 | Photo a Day | Week 1

In March of 2012 I started participating in Fat Mum Slim's Photo a Day Project. Essentially, she comes up with a word prompt every day and you take a picture that represents that prompt. I loved this project as it made me look at my surroundings in a whole new way. Plus, it was a fun way to document what was happening in my life. 

But when October rolled around I realized it was about to get harder and harder to take pictures that I liked.  During most of the winter months it's dark when I go to work and dark when I come home so I decided to take a break and hoped to pick this project back up in the spring. But spring came around and the thought of this seemed like another chore to add to the list. Eventually, though, a friend posted a few photo a day pictures on Instagram and it sparked my interest to pick it up again.

Here's the thing, I probably could do this project without having to commit to every single day, but I'm not like that. If I commit, I want to commit fully. Yes, it killed me a little that I didn't participate in this from October through June, but it would have killed me more if I participated just some of the time. So taking that time off kept me saner than not giving it my full.

Of course, taking and posting a photo a day would be easier if I had a smartphone. You see, in the past I would just take my pictures with one of my cameras and then posted them weekly on this blog, but most people post them daily on Instagram. I have to admit, I kinda wanted to be part of that gang. There was something about us all being in this together - all across the world. I figure it's pretty silly to just buy a smart phone for this project and Instagram so instead I decided I would try to take all my pictures with my iPad. I know, dumb - but I like a challenge so here we go. Although, part of the challenge of this is not only taking pictures as prompted, but learning to take better pictures so we'll see how long the iPad thing lasts.

The iPad, of course, takes fairly crappy pictures (as my Instagram followers are quite aware), but it's my main way to use Instagram and I enjoy Instagram so I'll stick with it for now. At any rate, I still wanted to compile all the pictures here... maybe even give the story behind them as I still think they are a good way to document my weeks.

Without further ado...

7/1/13

Happiness is...

I finally got around to making Iowa Girl Eats' Greek Dip and it was Fantastic (I subbed basil for parsley). I even used non-fat yogurt and it was super flavorful and fresh tasting. This moment captured several things that made me happy: my kid, being outside, being done with work for the day, and eating this delicious dip (I even made a second batch today). 

7/2/13

Shoes

My friend supplies Riley with many of her clothes since she has three girls of her own. These shoes used to belong to my friend's youngest daughter, Libby, but since she outgrew them they are now Riley's. Almost every time Riley wears them she asks about the girl who gave them to her.

7/3/13

Cold

I would classify this past week as a good one, but when I look back at all that went wrong it seems that I should be much more unhappy than I am. Glad that I am not. Let see... I got a slight case of heatstroke from walking too fast over lunch out in the hot sun without water. Our water heater broke (now fixed). The car broke down while I was going down a ramp and then at the ramp exit and then at the light, but I finally got it started and drove right to the mechanic who I was going to see the next day anyway. At least I got a nice walk in after dropping it off. We chased down a mouse in our house (released alive - hope he doesn't come back). Our nice car got rear ended - it was more of a hard tap and I don't think any damage was done. Honorable mentions: one of the cats puked all over the house, and I found animal guts on my back step one morning. Yeah, I think that's enough for one week.

7/4/13

Red, white or blue

Again, thanks to my friend, Riley is set with her choice of 4th of July attire (credit to grandma for these shorts, though). Independence day is pretty much like any other day for us except we don't have to work. We don't even attempt to try to keep Riley up for fireworks especially since she doesn't like loud noises. Although, if you read my last post about her sleeping issues you'd know that she was likely up late anyway. She fell asleep shortly before the fireworks went off, thankfully.

7/5/13

Love

So many pictures I could have taken - actually there were a lot of other pictures I did take and decided not to submit for this prompt (not every picture needs to be of Riley, I suppose). I took this while waiting for my bus for work. It was super peaceful and the temperature was perfect. And, it turns out, I got to hang out at the bus stop for 20 minutes or so. Apparently, since it was the day after a holiday my bus was on a limited run schedule. I may have been a little late to work, but I got a few more moments to enjoy the outdoors. 

7/6/13

Fave smell

Not much to say here. I've mentioned before that I am super sensitive to smells since I get migraines. I've come to hate smells like perfume and bonfires as they can also make me feel nauseous. There are a few scents I can tolerate, but clean, fresh air is the best. 

7/7/13

Where you are

After a week of crappy kid sleep (which means crappy adult sleep) and feeling body achy I was proud that I got up and went to the gym. Then I even decided to pick some weeds in my yard. It was actually a highlight of my day to be able to get a few minutes all by myself outside. PS. That brown thing is a cool turtle a friend gave us when we moved here. We love it.

Previous Photo a Day Posts

Sleep is a wonderful thing

Last weekend we brought a new bed home for Riley. We had purchased a convertible crib before she was born thinking we would use it for years to come, but then realized how much room a full sized bed would take up in her very small room. She was clearly outgrowing her toddler bed and we thought her sudden 'up in the middle of the night' behavior might be caused by her too small bed. I finally agreed that we would sell the convertible crib and bring home my old bed from my dad's spare room.

When I was in my teens my parents bought me a bedroom set. I was never very enthused by it (especially since I had a full size bed before and was getting downsized to a twin), but I didn't really care at the time. It was a bed - it served it's purpose. The nice thing about it was that it had drawers under the bed and since I had a small room every bit of space was valuable.

The more I thought about it for Riley I realized I liked the under the bed storage it would provide along with the overall space she would have in her bedroom. We also got rid of her dresser as we had another dresser that matched the new bed better.

Plus, we got rid of her rocking chair. This was huge because she had fallen into a new routine for the last 3 - 6 months of wanting a little 'lap' time before going to bed. A typical night would include reading a couple books while sitting on the rocking chair and then turning out the light and just rocking with her. But then, when she started having these random wake ups, she would insist on 'lap' time. We just wanted the chair to go - hoping that her request for rocking would disappear with it. I silently grieved that we'd no longer be rocking in that chair as there were so many cuddly moments there, but the reality was that she was just too big - especially in how she wanted to lay down on my lap. It just wasn't working anymore.

For some silly reason we actually thought she would just go with the flow if we removed that darn chair.

The first night was awesome. Riley was excited about her bed and slept great. She didn't make a peep all night long... the first time in a long time. I had also introduced the 'Rock Jar' before bedtime so that might have had something to do with it. I promised her she could put two rocks into the jar every time her dad and I caught her being good. Once she fills up the jar she gets to do something special (right now she's chosen to go to the zoo). I specifically told her that if she slept through the night she would be able to get some rocks in the morning... and it worked.

New bed - now I just need to replace those gold handles

But the next night was a different story. I put her down to bed and even laid with her for a few minutes. When I left she screamed and screamed. Bloody murder scream. For the next couple hours Jesse and I tried to soothe her and get her to sleep. We couldn't quite figure out the deal. What was she so freaked out about? And then it happened almost every night this week. Joy.

Also need to find a blanket/comforter that I like.

Come to think about it she hadn't been sleeping great for some time, but since we had that big storm a couple weeks ago we've had extra trouble with her sleeping. And perhaps, getting the new bed and getting rid of the rocking chair just sent her over the edge. Each night she cried that she didn't like her new bed. A couple times she ended up sleeping on the floor and each night she insisted on keeping the light on.

There was one night this week that she miraculously feel asleep in my arms as I was reading her a book. I guess getting a couple less hours a sleep for several days in a row (along with no nap that day) did her in. But the night after (and the night after that) it was the same thing - hysterical crying. We'd try and let her cry, but Jesse can't hold out as long as I can. He ends up going up there and crashing in bed with her. I don't blame him, but I think we need to let her cry it out at this point (other suggestions welcome).

Riley is somewhat of a rule follower so early on when she transitioned from crib to toddler bed we set the expectation that she stay in her bed (after a couple nights were she proceeded to 'read' every book on her shelf instead of sleep). This has caused her to cry in the morning instead of getting out of bed and coming into our room. We recently explained that she can get out of bed in the morning and now she feels free to get out of bed when she wants. This means that if we don't go up to her when she's crying she gets out of bed and heads towards the top of the stairs screaming. Sigh.

The dresser has been in our family a long, long time - it's at least 75 years old.

Last night, she actually turned the light off herself. I laid down with her intending it just to be a minute or two, but ended up zonking out myself. An hour and a half later she was still awake. I left, denying her request for the light to be turned back on, but agreeing to keep the door open. And for the most part I didn't heard a peep after I left.

I hope this passes soon as I can't imagine doing this every single night for the unforeseeable future. I mean, she won't still be doing this when she's 15 right? Anyone, have some special tactics that work? Anyone want to do kid duty for a couple hours each night at my house?