TIGF

I think I did this one last year too, but it is worth repeating. I'm thankful for a neighborhood growing up that was fun, kid friendly and developed lots of friendships I still have today. We have re-started an old tradition doing the Easter Egg Hunt for us now as adults and we just sent out the invite today, that's why I'm thinking about it:)

Pretty Girls All in a Row

Left to Right: Riley (mine), Kiley (Katie's - 5 months), Adrienne (Meg's - 14 months) Zacky was sleeping. But the girls sat still for two seconds!

Accepting Defeat!

As mentioned earlier, I was racing a friend in our Animal Humane Society fundraising - The first to $500. Well, I'm both happy and sad to announce that she beat the pants off of me! I'll be honest, I never thought for one minute that she would beat me. She only raised $200 last year so this was a huge increase for her and in a bad economy. But to her credit, she not only beat me in just 5 days, she has now raised her goal to $750 and has agreed to double her original goal next year to $1000!!! So while I lost the race, I am happy that the animals benefit in a big way for her efforts. Thanks Sarah, that was fun!

My goal is still $1250 and I hope, like Sarah, that I can increase that number in the coming weeks. You have lots of time to donate. I don't need to collect until the Wed. before the walk, so around April 29th I think. If you want to donate online and save some paperwork for the Humane Society (and environmentally friendly!) click the link below.

http://events.animalhumanesociety.org/site/TR?fr_id=1080&pg=entry

Look for me under "Find a Participant"

If you prefer to write a check, make it out to Animal Humane Society, and send to my home address. If you need that address, please e-mail me...I don't like to publish it online.

Thank you so much to the people who already donated, we are at about $400 so far! A long way from our goal, but I think we can do it!

Crazy kids!

On Sunday afternoon, we finally celebrated Chrsitmas with my friend Katherine and her family, including Jason, he husband, my Goddaughter Abby, big sister Kenzie and their cousin Aiden (I hope I spelled that right!) as well as Nana Debbie (I was corrected for calling her Grandma!) Auntie Kristin and her hubby Brandon. We spent about an hour at the Elk River Ice Arena and then went to Debbie and Don's for dinner. Thanks for hosting, we had a GREAT time and Riley loved playing with the big kids! Here's some pics of the action:

Aiden didn't like to stay on his skates, preferring to fall on purpose.
Kenzie was great on skates, but really didn't want to wear her snowpants:) She did have some luck at the claw machine later thoughT
Abby liked to try and help Riley and Josh broke his back holding Riley up:)
Debbie walked around the indoor track to try and stay warm:)

National Pancake Day

(I got this in my e-mail. Thought I'd share it with y'all)

Join IHOP to celebrate National Pancake Day tomorrow, Tuesday, February 24, 2009.

From 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., participating IHOP locations will give you one FREE short stack of their famous buttermilk pancakes. All they ask is that you consider making a donation to support Gillette through Children's Miracle Network. You can help us make this event even greater by telling alll your friends and family about this opportunity too! Participating IHOP locations are: Apple Valley, Bloomington, Brooklyn Center, Burnsville, Coon Rapids, Maplewood, Oakdale and Waite Park.

Remember, any donation you make while at IHOP will come directly to Gillette to help provide care for children who have complex disabilities or traumatic injuries.

What better reason do you need to go grab a FREE short stack!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

Today is my mom's birthday...HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

These are pics of Riley wearing a vest that my mom kept from when we were little. I think this one is actually Auntie Katie's because A-dee has one too and I think it's smaller, so that would be either Meg's or mine. Anyway, thought it was a cute one for Grandma today:)

Random Weird Face

Josh told Riley to make a weird face. This is what she came up with.

Bring on the Pictures!

Ok, a friend of mine and the kid she nanny's for met us at Ridgedale on Friday for some fun at the playground and a quick trip to Build-A-Bear for Penguin to get a tune-up.

Some Updates on the Riley-isms

Riley is a chatterbox, to say the least. Some of my favorite things lately.

Everything is "perfectly" as in "It fits perfectly" or "that's just perfecly"...She also loves to say quick-e-ly (did you know quickly was a 3 syllable word)..."Mommy come quick-e-ly!" "Mommy, can you get my muskick box quick-e-ly?" (Music is still muskick) She also says..."hmmm, kinda" if you ask her if she wants to do something.

And one of my favorites...last night she woke up at 1 a.m. She wasn't screaming or scared, she just yelled "Mommy, I miss you so much!" She adds "so much" to a lot of things:) But I miss you and I love you "so much" are the best!

What I don't love is: "No, I'm fine!" Imagine it sarcastically, with attitude and usually a somewhat wrinkled nose. She does think she's 2 going on 13! In fact, she just told us on Thursday that she was going to be 13 on her next birthday! YIKES!

I promise the next posts will have photos. We're back in the living world and going places, taking pics, I just haven't gotten them downloaded yet!

Oh, the shame!

Help, I'm already losing in the race to $500 for the Animal Walk. She is at $370 and I'm only at $170. On the right hand side of the page is a long to Animal Humane Society Donations For Walk, click there and it will bring you to my donations page. If you plan to send a check, please let me know the amount so I can include it in the race and put it on my pledge form. I assume this race will be over by Monday so we will be back to our regularly scheduled begging:)

TIGF

We are excited to go to Ridgedale's playground twice this week. And we're going ice skating on Sunday...so this week we are happy for things to get us out of the house when Cabin Fever is setting in big time! I know I've been short on photos lately, but with everyone being sick, we haven't left the house much. I promise more photos to come soon!

Let the Games Begin!

Ok, today I officially begin my fundraising for the Animal Humane Society Walk. Click the link (there is a link, apparently it doesn't appear visible - Animal Humane Society Walk is clickable, I will also add to the right had list below on my page.)and when you get to the Walk page, click on "Find a Participant" and look for Molly Schuster. I am racing a friend this year to see who can get to $500 the fastest. This is an increase in her goal so I actually hope she does really well, but I need a little friendly competition to get her there;) If you guys plan to donate anyway and don't want to be included in any future incentive stuff, please donate early to help me get to $500 fast!

Also, this year, understanding that the economy is a mess, I am reducing my goal to $1250, but I hope that I can shatter that goal. We'll have to see. If you have lost your job or might sometime soon, please don't feel like I'm trying to push you into donating! If you wanted to pass along the information to other people I would really appreciate it! I'm not taking people off the list this year because I don't want to forget anyone next year, but I know it's not going to be possible for some of my "regulars" to contribute this year, so I'm hoping to find some new "regulars" who can help! Here's a list of what your money can do:

$10,000 Funds an extraordinary rescue such as AHS’s efforts with Hurricane Ike and the Iowa floods in 2008.
$5,000 Helps fund a cruelty investigation and animal seizure.
$2,500 Allows us to purchase medical supplies and medications for 83 surgeries.
$1,000 Provides resources for AHS mobile services unit to provide needed surgeries at other rescue organizations in Minnesota.
$500 Helps 3 dogs through the Adoption Preparation program which readies shy or fearful dogs for adoption.
$300 Supports an AHS educational program in a Twin Cities school.
$250 Provides x-rays for two injured animals.
$100 Pays for a puppy or kitten to be spayed or neutered.
$50 Pays for full vaccinations for two homeless cat.

If we make our goal, we can help them accomplish a lot! Thank you so much for your help and as always I apologize in advance the the mass quantity of requests. I love animals, what can I say??

Oh Bother....

Ok, so this place has been "sick central" for the last week. It started with me having a sore throat on Tuesday and having to call in sick on Wednesday (the one time I actually got scheduled twice in a week and I had to bail on my second shift!) because not only was my sore throat worse and combined with a cough, but Riley had developed a temp that spiked as high as 102.3 and she had some tummy pain that worried me so I had to bring her into the clinic. Riley was better after two days (fever was gone and wanted to play just like normal), but now it seems that was just the beginning. Now she has what I had, no fever but a dry cough that wakes her up and her nose is runny and I think her throat probably hurts since that's what I had. I hate being sick, but it is sooooo much worse to watch your sick kiddo go through it. You can't medicate a 2-year-old like you can medicate an adult. And they just look so pitiful and get so snuggly/clingy when they get sick:( Humidfiers are fine, but they don't do much to help. I give her honey for the throat, and maybe a few popsicles, but that doesn't last long either. Any other thoughts?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wishing you all a day of Snuggles and Kisses!

TIGF

I'm thankful for a kiddo who doesn't have a fever anymore and wants to play with Mommy. I'm even grateful for a 7 a.m. tea party!

Nothing Exciting

Ok, so today I'm losing my voice, so I'm not sure how the day is going to go. I'm supposed to work tonight, but I'm kinda squeaky so we'll see if that happens. I thought I'd mention that tomorrow through the 14th is the KS95 Radio-Thon for Children's Cancer Research - KS95 For Kids. I know I mention this every year, but here I go again. I was a supporter of this one long before Tori and Frankie got sick, but now that I know people who have been through this nightmare, I am far more hopeful for a cure! I normally wait to make my donation for when they have a corporate sponsor who will match donations, but if you're listening anytime tomorrow through Valentine's Day, give them a call. It you can do it online too. The link is on the right side of my page.

On a lighter note. Duke plays North Carolina tonight at 7 p.m. if anyone wants to call me at work with the scores!

Drum Roll Please....

Ok, so here are the actual glasses and the actual model. I just picked them up this morning. What do ya think...for real...

Baptism Party Pics

Today, as I mentioned, was Kiley's baptism. Here's pics of mostly the kiddos. Kiley Marie, proud brother Zacky, a picture of all the "Bartsch Cousin's" and Katie's and Darin's godson Collin. All were there with their parents, of course, and with grandparents, great grandparents, and aunts and uncles the party was something like 20 adults and 6 kids. Fun!!

Big Day!

Today is a big day for two reasons. First, today my niece, Kiley, is baptized! We will have a party for her after church today and everyone will be there including Darin's parents, sister and brother-in-law and their kids, so it should be fun...and noisy with all the kiddos there!

The other reason today is a big day is that Riley slept the whole night without her pluggy!!!! We are "practicing" for when the pluggy fairy comes to bring her pluggies to smaller girls and boys who need them. She's working really hard on being a big girl:) Yikes! My baby is all grown up!!!

Friday Free-Skate

Today was Riley's first skating lesson! Santa brought her skates for Christmas, but we haven't had a chance to take out out skating and Daddy wanted her to learn OUTSIDE first:) So tonight we got the skates sharpened and went up to the park by our house. Here's Riley's first attempt at hockey greatness.

Fun Friday

Riley and I had a fun Friday today. We had a play date with my friend Missy and her dog Lucy and my sister Meg and Adrienne. I told Riley Missy and Lucy were coming over when I was changing her diaper in the morning and I said "Isn't that exciting?" and Riley responded "It's AMAZING!" (Sorry, Auntie Meg, but this was all about Lucy and Miss today)

Roo was so excited that she didn't want to take a nap until 3:30 but Missy tried to help her sleep by reading the story she bought for us when Riley was born, "Goodnight Moon" one of Missy's faves when she was a little girl and I was babysitting her. Riley wanted Lu to sleep with her, but Lu wasn't too good at the "stay" part. Plus, Adee kept wanting to go visit Riley in bed, so no wonder she wasn't gonna take a nap:) She's sleeping now and we had a great day!

TIGF

I'm thankful for my health. I found out this week that a girl who was a big part of our Duck Soup tournament and who is MUCH younger than I am had a stroke last week! ARGH! I didn't even know that was possible, but as it turns out her YOUNGER sister had the same thing happen two years ago! Please pray for Allison and her family as she recovers from this scary experience. I think that health might be a frequent TIGF, but every time something like this happens it just reminds me how lucky I really am!

Warning - AHS posts to start very soon!

I'm kinda holding out until the AHS web site for donations is up and running, but just a word of warning for budgeting purposes, I will be starting the barrage of e-mails regarding the AHS walk very soon. The Animal Walk is May 2 this year (I think?! I'll confirm before I send out official begging) And yes, I am aware that people are financially strapped this year and will adjust my goal accordingly. I don't want anyone to feel obligated to do this given the economy, but it is still something I feel passionate about and I'm sure the AHS is hurting in tough economic times too so I hope to do what I can. Thanks for the next few months of putting up with me!

These Are My New Glasses!

Ok, too funky? I am a bit nervous about them. They look good on, but I'm not used to sassy, artsy frames...What do y'all think?

Click on it to see larger image.

More from Super Bowl

Here are just a few more random Super Bowl shots and one random shot from today.

Darn Groundhog!

Ok, so darn P- Phil saw his shadow and now we have 6 more weeks of winter. YUCK! Here are some pictures from the Super Bowl Party yesterday to bring a little excitement to a bummer Groundhog's Day. What a game! I was hoping the Cards would pull it off, but I was ok with a Steeler win as both teams had MN ties.

Thanks Shan for making chili and chicken noodle soup! And for everyone else who brought stuff! Breann is in the dark reddish shirt, Shannon is on the black vest, Tom and Bean are on the couch and Meg, Will and Kayli are playing with Riley on the floor. We had a great time! Thanks, everyone, for coming!