Uh-oh! Sketti-Os!

Riley's first experience with Spaghetti-O's this weekend...gotta love it!

Some New Riley-isms

If you have checked Meg's blog lately, she likes to include some of Riley's new phrases after our Tuesday Golf Day, but I have been slacking for those of you who only read this blog. Here's just a couple of her new funny phrases:

Twinkle little star, like a dino-saur in the sky (long pause between dino and saur)
High-side down means upside down
I eat in special chair? (her new high chair)
She can sing her ABC's except for LMNO, she tries to sing the "Shunshine song" which is "You Are My Sunshine" and she does Bitsy Spider and LOVES "Bus Song" which she requests in the car on CD...that is "The Wheels on the Bus"...she even says it's her favorite!

Update on Grandpa

So here's the story with my grandpa for those you you checking in. They have determined that he probably has an ulcer, and they are running more tests today to confirm and further look at the area causing the bleeding. I don't know what that means for treatment, but I know it's better news than the alternative. They didn't find anything in the colon (particularly no colon cancer!) so that's good! They are messing with his meds and keeping him for observation while they do this in hopes that his ulcer will heal in the meantime...

My mom calls Grandpa a cat with 9 lives because there's always something going on, but he seems to come through it despite odds...like his aneurysm that ruptured a few years back, which could have killed him if he wasn't already on the operating table...so lets just hope he's using up one more of his 9 lives and he's on the mend. I hate hospitals! Keep up the prayers for healing...

Here We Go Again....

More prayer requests please. My grandpa is back in the hospital, I won't go into detail as the details aren't pretty exactly, but he is going to have some tests done tomorrow to hopefully pinpoint and fix whatever is causing the problems. This is frustrating because he was very close to getting to go home from the nursing home and this is a setback that is making him pretty sad.

Big Day! (Must appreciate toddler poop!)

Ok, I know this is a disgusting subject, but it's a huge day in the life of my little girl:) I know she won't remember it, but who cares, it's exciting anyway! My daughter ASKED to go poopy on the potty chair today...and then....SHE DID IT!!!!! I'm so proud:) We had kinda stalled out on the potty training routine lately, but I guess we're still making slow progress!!! Heck, she's not even two yet so I think we're ahead of the game really! Go Roo!!!

Schuster Reunion

We spend a large part of Saturday at the Schuster family reunion this weekend (hosted this year by Josh's Uncle Steve on the far left of the first picture and his Aunt Roberta with the long dark hair next to Mark). It was a little overcast, but that kept the temps pretty nice and Riley went on her first boat ride with Grandma Linda and Auntie Jessie...a paddle boat. Grandma can't say no to that little girl!

Hi, How Are You?

I know we've posted Riley and the ducks before, but I thought this was cute. "Hi Ducks, How are you?"

REcycling Info

I've been slacking on my green posts a bit. Here's a site that I like that has some interesting facts about recycling in Minnesota. Also, if anyone wants to start using reuseable tote bags when they go to the store, I'm starting to have an abundance of them from "freebies" and deals that I've picked up along the way. Let me know and I can bring you one or two next time I see you! I have started keeping them in my car so I don't forget them, and it's amazing how much I love not having a million plastic bags around (which can be recycled at Cub or Byerly's if you do have them laying around) and I'm actually using up the brown bags that I did have!

Noah the Ladies Man

Today was another busy play date kinda day. We had lunch with Auntie Meg, Adrienne and my college roomie Jess and her son Noah who is Riley's first boyfriend;)

We ate lunch in Edina and went for a walk around Lake Harriet...I like that kind of play date! I don't get to go to the city Lakes much and it's fun to people and puppy watch there! Also...it's fun to look at the houses...this is the house we parked next to on Penn...cool, huh?

The Week of Concerts in the Park

I have decided that I love the concept of concerts in the park. They are free, you can come early or come late and leave whenever you want, they are kid friendly and FREE! Oh wait, I said that already. So this week, in order to fool you all into thinking we actually have an interesting life outside of parenting, we have gone to TWO concerts in the park...yup TWO! First was the already mentioend Teddy Bear Band. On Thursday my friends Breann, Shannon, Josh, Riley and I went to dinner and then to the Dazy Head Mazy concert at Maple Grove's Arbor Lakes.

Not only was I glad I got to hang with Bre and Shan, but we also ran into some friends from high school, Matt and Jill and they have a daughter, Jordan, who is something like a week younger than Riley. We see them sometimes at church, but we haven't seen them in a while so it was fun to catch up! (Bre and Shan, I'm sorry I kinda bailed on you a bit there for this purpose! And thanks for keeping Roo busy for a while!) Riley didn't enjoy this one as much as the Teddy Bear Band, but she liked it for a while...there just wasn't a good place for her to go dance and I think she was bummed!

More Teddy Bear Band

Here's some pics from the Teddy Bear Band Tuesday night. I didn't get pics of Pam and Pat because I was in a terrible spot with the sun behind us, but here's some pics of the grandparents...

Free Energy Efficient Light Bulb

Go here to get a free light bulb.

Teddy Bear Band

Riley has been on one outdoor concert before, but it was last year and she wasn't really old enough to appreciate it. Last night we took her to see the Teddy Bear Band in Osseo and it took her some time to warm up to it, but she had lots of fun with both sets of grandparents and great aunt Pam and Pat.

Peez-Ok

This is one I've been trying to get on camera for some time. It's the patented Riley "Please". She ALWAYS sticks one finger in the air and says "Peez- Ok"...as if she's answering for you so you can't say no:) She has mellowed out a bit on the finger these days, but we got a pretty good one at the nursing home while we waited for Bingo to get over this week. I think she was begging for chocolate covered sunflower seeds that Auntie Meg had with her.

Zack and Roo Grovin'

Ok, Meg said on her blog that I would post this video so I guess I better post it:) We do a little dancing on Tuesdays. My parents have a digital cable channel that has Party Music!

Behind on Some Posts

I haven't been keeping up on all my posts because I've been waiting to download some pics. Last Thursday my college roomie Gretchen, or "Gilligan" as most of you know her, came over for a play date with us. She has two kids now, Marina or "Rina" who's about 6 months older than Riley, and Eddie who is just about 6 months...I think "Rina" actually goes by Mari, but Riley kept calling her Rina over and over...They had fun playing outside for a little bit between storms...We don't get to see them enough so we had a great time just catching up!

Note: Here would also be a good time to mention that Riley has her own term for what the kids are eating here: Po-piss-cles!

Prayers for Baby Frankie

Hey y'all. It looks like Baby Frankie will have his surgery today after some delay. If you want to keep checking his progress, his mom, Meg or "Fred" as I know her, is updating a caringbridge site.

Extra prayers please for a successful surgery and fast recovery so they can go home to their new house soon! Take care and hug your kids please!

Duck Soup Softball!

As many of you know, I'm the volunteer co-coordinator for the Duck Soup Softball Fiasco along with my friend Mandy. We are in recruiting mode for the tournament in August. If any of you have some time the weekend of the 23-24 we would love help with selling T-Shirts, concessions, face painting and burger running. Have you been to Duck Soup before? You really should! It's a crazy softball tourney where we play in costume and trophies are awarded for things like "First Bee Sting of the Tourney" or "Cutest Pet"...rules are wacky, people watching is AWESOME and we'd love to have you there to be part of the fun. Volunteers get discounts and free food!!! It's a great family-friendly event and proceeds go towards college scholarships for local high school kids and we do a Toys for Tots drive too!

Note: Here's what you might see at the soup! don't know what happened to that last picture. Sorry, Allison is a Full boxed present and Stina is a Pumpkin. That was from our "holiday" year. We have great things in mind for this year!

TIGF

With temps forecasted in the mid 90's and heat index temps in the 100+ range, I'm so glad our AC is working today! We were having some issues with it earlier in the week, but Josh seems to have fixed it! Yeah Handy Man Hubby!

Misc. Stuff

I wanted to post this picture yesterday, but I didn't get any good one's so I had to wait till my family sent out their pics from yesterday. This is the new moms and their kids. We should have had Annie with Dan on her lap and Mom with all three of us, but the couch isn't big enough;)

Also, here's a pic of my parents new deck. I know it's not that exciting for most of you, but I love how it turned out and they even had a baby gate put on it so the kids can play out there without worrying about them going down the stairs! You should see it with all my mom's flowers, it's a "happy place" for her and it looks awesome in the summer! and it's one of my favorite "bird nerd" hang-outs;)

Yeah for Cousins!

My cousin Dan and his wife Sharis were in town again with their little guy, Ryan and we had a little pizza party so the kids could play together yesterday. Tim and Kerry and the boys had to work, but we had fun with Great Grandma, Uncle "Duck" and Auntie Annie at my parents house along with my sisters and their kiddos. I grew up spending a lot of time with my cousins and I miss that now that Dan is in Chicago, but maybe soon everyone will be back here and we can have more playdates with everyone! I love our get-togethers!

Dark Video

Ok, there is no visual on this video, but it's priceless anyway so I had to post it. This is Riley watching fireworks in our bedroom on the 4th. Our neighborhood is filled with big booms all summer, but it was a 2 hour, non-stop show on Friday.

What a Weekend!

This is going to be a long post with LOTs of pictures. I'm not sure I'll get the order right, but lets try this...

We started with a trip to the Zoo on Friday with Daddy. We LOVED the butterfly exhibit at Como and Riley always loves the monkeys:)

We got to see "Crazy Uncle Jimmy" a couple of times this weekend and his fiance Erica and their little girl Ashley who's one of Riley's favorite buddies.

We forgot the camera for Grandma Linda's birthday, but we had a good time on Saturday playing with Grandma and Grandpa, Great-Grandma and Auntie Jessie and Uncle Cory. Great-Grandma even brought a super fun water toy for Riley and they got Daddy ALL WET!

And then the grand finale! Riley went to her first Twins game this weekend!!! I was one of those moms who wasn't too excited about bringing her to the Dome because of the noise and I didn't want her to get hit by a foul ball. I know, what are the odds? But really, it was mostly because of the noise. But Josh's work presented an opportunity we couldn't pass up. We had tickets in the Suite! Less noise, no foul balls, room to play if Riley got bored watching the game and free food...FANTASTIC! Riley even had some little friends to play with. And we made it through the WHOLE game!

Happy Birthday Linda!

I'm a little delayed, I should have posted this in the morning, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY Linda! I won't tell y'all how old she is...not yet...wait until it's a big one;)

TIGF- Fourth of July Edition

Happy 4th Everyone! I have lots to be grateful for today, of course, starting with living in a country where I don't have to worry about what I blog, who I vote for and strongly disliking the current President:) Thank God for Freedom! And thanks to those who fought the wars that earned us that freedom.

I'm happy that Josh has the day off of work and we're going to the Zoo today. I'm excited to see Jimmy and his crew at some point this weekend. We're going to be celebrating Linda's b-day this weekend and watching the Twins crush the Indians too...Good weekend!

I'm very thankful that my Grandpa's kidneys seem to be functioning back to where they were before he was admitted. Still not "normal" by any means, but better! And he's even at the nursing home I visit every week so I will see him every Monday until his rehab stuff is done!

We wish everyone a happy and safe 4th of July weekend!

Welcome Not-Westphals!

I want to welcome some friends to the bloggosphere. Michelle and Doug...friends of Katie and Darin's and through them, friends of mine, have joined the wonderful world of blogging. I've added them to the list to the right.

Why does it say the "Not-Westphals" you ask? Well...longs story short, I knew Michelle first and she was a Westphal, I couldn't remember how to spell her new last name (still can't without checking) so she has forever been Michelle Not-Westphal. Thus poor Doug has also been rendered Mr. Not-Westphal:) Check out their little guy, Collin. I think he is between Riley and Zack in age...not sure, Riley might actually be older, but who cares, he's cute anyway!

Wine, Women and Baseball

Huge thanks to my dad for watching the kids last night while us girls went to the Wine, Women and Baseball event at the Twins game. I guess he had his hands full since Riley and Adrienne decided to have melt-downs at the same time and Roo requested to "go night-night" at 7:30 which is really early for her! Sorry Dad!!!

But while Dad had his hands full, we had a good time at the game last night. Twins won, we played Twingo (bingo with baseball plays), which I've never played before. I highly recommend it! None of us won that, but Mom did win a gift card at the WWB event. It was fun to hang out with my mom and sisters...we don't do too many girls nights, so YEAH GIRLS NITE! Go Twins! I think we owe Dad a night out with HIS girls too;)

P.S. Don't worry, Katie didn't drink any wine at the WWB, but she did try the drink that's in front of her in the pic, and it's pretty darn good stuff!

Nice Weekend for the Park

We went for a walk this weekend...I think it was this weekend, my days are all mixed up right now...anyway we stopped at the park and Josh and Riley played while mommy mostly played photographer. Riley loves to go "swmming" which is swinging...and she likes the "boingy-boingy" which is kinda like a teeter totter on a spring so it bounces. And she loves the sand... "I all dirty"!
We met a random kid who kinda liked Josh so I took a picture of him too...don't know his name though...

Update on Grandpa and Frankie

Grandpa was discharged to St. Therese yesterday afternoon for 3 weeks of rehab/therapy before he will go home if all goes as planned. His kidneys seem to be doing a little better, but it's tiny improvements if any...mostly he's stable at this point which is good for now.

Baby Frankie is going to have surgery sometime this weekend and will have to have surgery again in 2-4 months depending on how much his heart can heal itself through the normal growing/baby development process. Keep praying for the docs in charge here and for the family! They have been through so much and continue to have a pretty possitive outlook through it all, but I know all the prayers help them a lot!