TIGF

Nope, I didn't type that wrong, I changed TGIF to TIGF...Things I'm Grateful For...and yup, I know you're not supposed to end a sentence with "for" but it's really not a full sentence so I'm gonna let it slide;)

I have 2 major things that I'm thankful for this week and a few little ones.

Start with the little things. Riley slept through the night! It's NCAA March Madness. I won the lottery this week. AHS donations.

Now the two big TIGF: Extended Family and Old Friends

It's Easter week and my cousin Dan and his wife Sharis are in town with their little guy Ryan. We're getting together with my family at the Cooley's house for Pizza and play date. I think my grandparents will be there too. Unfortunately my cousins Tim and Bear have to work and so do Josh, Darin and probably Chris, but I'm looking forward to it anyway. Some of them might try to make it for a little while anyway. I miss my cousins! We used to spend a lot of time when we were kids, but now we're all grown up so it's harder! I'm also grateful that Riley has 2 great grandmothers (one on my side and Josh's grandma Mary) and one great grandpa! And fantastic Aunts and Uncles (including the greats there too) and Grandparents!

Second thing is Old Friends. Now this includes my TG girls that I do dinner with and my Grade School girls too, and all my friends from college and old jobs. But what brings me to this one is my old neighborhood. My friend Missy and I are hosting the Second Annual Adult Edgemont Easter Egg Hunt this weekend and I am so excited to see my old friends. This egg hunt is reviving an old tradition in our neighborhood. There are still some of the original owners there and some of the kids have bought their parents' houses so it's like going home! Thanks Jeff for letting us use your house! Thanks parents for starting this tradition YEARS ago! And for creating a great neighborhood to grow up in. I miss the 4th of July parade and party and I'm glad the Egg Hunt is back:)

Ok, this is a long post and no pictures so I'll end here!

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Gee, would you guess, my TIGF this week...It's Halloween weekend! I love Halloween! I love handing out candy, I love costumes (mine is admittedly lame this year, but what can ya do?) I love watching Josh take Riley out and watching how excited she gets to be Tinkerbell sans wings most of the time. I love pumpkin seeds and parties and jack-o-lanterns and did I mention candy??? One of my cravings with this kiddo is Baby Ruth bars...hopefully Riley gets lots of them tonight;)

Update before the flood! TIGF

Well, here's my last update from Mom and Dad's place. Tomorrow we move home to our place in Champlin. It will still be on the market until November, but Riley starts school on the 13th so we decided to move back and get settled in again before we start her new adventure. On that note, my TIGF is a HUGE thank you to my parents for letting us crash their place and mess with their routine, sleep, and TV viewing on the big screen! We appreciate the opportunity to have a summer of showings without the stress of cleaning up after a toddler and I know it will be a challenge when we get back home, but I know people do it every day. We are gonna miss the pancakes, caramel rolls and nights on the deck with the landlords, but the new iMac Josh bought this week will be waiting for us at home and I will be back to posting blogs with non-pirated photos as soon as I upload the 1200+ pictures we have taken while here! Look out y'all. Here comes a LOT of photo posts! Thanks Meg, for keeping my blog looking presentable in the meantime...and it might take us a week or two to sort through stuff and figure out the new system...but here goes nothin!

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Darn thankful that Frankie is hanging in there...please pray for him today as he is scheduled to have yet another surgery in his short two months on earth. This family needs a miracle!

Note: Frankie did not go for his surgery today. The need to balance out his blood-clotting meds before the can do more.

AMMENDMENT: I'm also very happy for a new baby girl in the family. I wrote my TIGF last night before Kiley was born!

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I've been slacking on the TIGF posts the past few weeks I think. This week I'm in my happy place, thankful for Bobbers in the Sky, Bass the size of Watermelon, and "Pretty Good Shopping"!!!

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I may be short on photo posts in a bit. I hope to post pics of the Animal Walk tomorrow, but after that it might be hit or miss. I'll still try to post though. On to our TIGF of the day. I'm thankful for the good neighbors we do have that make moving hard, but make the neighborhood memorable and happy for my kiddo and for us. We aren't close to a lot of our neighbors, but we have one family next door that we really like and their kids are great to Roo. Thanks guys!

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I was going to say that this TIGF was the Canterbury Craft sale and the fact that I might go TWICE this fall...but last night I had another one of my wonderful reactions to some mystery something, so today I'm thankful that I made it through another episode and I'm thankful that through ALL of these episodes Josh has been there for me (and a few other people have been there a lot of them too...thanks Mom and Dad!) I don't know what I would do if I were home alone with the kids. I'm supposed to go to urgent care within one hour when I have one of these, but they never happen at a time when it would be acceptable for me to call a neighbor to come over...last night was after midnight. I know how to work through them, and I have an epi-pen now just in case, but it's also not like I can just jump in the car and go in the middle of one of these...the symptoms require me to be close to a bathroom...not in a car. I won't go into it more than that...but anyway...I am so thankful that it always happens when I'm not alone and sooooooo thankful to Josh for getting me through! Ugh! I was hoping to be done with this!

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I know this is going to sound like a silly TIGF, but I'm thankful that I get to babysit my nieces and nephew every week during the summer. It is sometimes a challenge (Adrienne wants to be with Mommy if she can see her, Riley and Zack are practicing sharing, etc.), but I enjoy seeing my child grow up with her cousins and it reminds me how much I enjoyed spending time with my cousins growing up...even the cousins who lived in AZ and I only saw a few times a year, if that.

I'm glad Riley is lucky enough to have that relationship too! Tuesdays are golf day, I already mentioned that one, but I don't think that I mentioned that Thursday nights Meg plays softball and if she has early games that Chris can't get home for, I sometimes go to the game and watch Adee while Meg plays. This week we went to the park across the parking lot for a little bit and then cheered for Auntie Meg! (And if Auntie Meg didn't wave, Riley would say. "I have to yell harder! HI, AUNTIE MEEEEGGGGG!!!") It was a perfect night for a game!

NOTE: This post is about all my sisters' kiddos, but since Zack's b-day is this weekend, I promise a whole bunch of the Bartsch kiddos after Zacky's party! We didn't have our golf play date this week, so I don't have anything new of them:)

Happy Birthday Auntie Katie - TIGF

On Tuesday, it was too hot for Mom and Katie to Golf...

So we celebrated Auntie Katie's Birthday instead....

It reached 102 degrees on Tuesday...

Today my MUCH OLDER sister turns 36:) Happy Birthday Auntie Katie!! We love you and hope you have a very special birthday today! And as my TIGF...I have awesome sisters!

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Today is a silly day for Things I'm Grateful For (TIGF). I'm thankful for Girl Scouts...or more specifically, Samoas/Carmel Delights, Thin Mints and Whatever used to be called Ho-downs...The peanut butter cookies dipped in chocolate. I'm also happy that today, just two weeks after Rowan was born, I fit back into my "fat" jeans. I'm almost back to normal clothes. Ahhhh, how I miss normal clothes!

TIGF - Summer Wind-up

My TIGF today, we are winding down with all the summer activities and have some free time next month to actually fit some stuff in. Today was the last swimming lesson for a while, T-ball ends next week (although we are signed up for Fall T-ball, but that is one night a week instead of two) and Josh ends his softball league next week too. Whew! Just in time to get away for a while.

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TIGF
In honor of Father’s Day, and not to be outdone by Mom’s Day, I’m thankful for my dad: my coach and my friend:)

I’m very lucky to have the family that I have...I wouldn’t be who I am today without all of you. Dad...Coach...Thanks!!! I love you:)

PS ~ Happy Friday the 13th!

TIGF - Earth Week

I know Earth Week is next week, but so is Easter, so this week's TIGF. I am thankful that Champlin has upgraded to a better, more effective recycling program that started this month. I already love it! Now if we move, I hope we find some place that has the same great commitment to helping the planet!


Earth Month Green Living Tips - Water 
These tips will help you to identify things that you can do right now to help reduce water use in your home and to keep our waters clean and safe.

Take short showers (10-15 gallons of water used) instead of baths (30 or more gallons used) for one person.

Turn off the water while brushing your teeth and save up to 240 gallons a month or while shaving and save up to 300 gallons a month.

Replace your showerhead with a water-efficient model and save up to 750 gallons a month.

Repair leaky faucets and toilets. A single dripping faucet can waste up to 200 gallons per month.

Don't rinse your dishes (just scrape off food) before placing them in the dishwasher. This saves 6,500 gallons of water per year.

Choose a low water use plants (such as native plants) and save up to 550 gallons each year.

Water your garden in the morning or evening when temperatures are cooler to minimize evaporation.

Set a timer when watering your garden to remind you to shut off the water. A running hose can discharge up to 10 gallons a minute.



"Do It Green - Minnesota" newsletter

TIGF - Special Mother's Day Edition

I scheduled my normal TIGF a while back, but because this one falls so close to Mom's Day I would be a horrible daughter if I forgot to wish my mom a very special Mother's Day this Sunday and tell the everyone on the planet (or lat least my 12 readers) that I have the best mom in the whole world! She's my friend, an amazing grandma, and my favorite shopping buddy (sorry sibs, but she is!)

And not to be forgotten, I am also very thankful for my grandma, whom I love and enjoy seeing her get to be a great-grandma, I'm thankful for my Godmother, Annie, who rocks as an Aunt and Godmom! And I'm thankful that Josh is blessed with a Mom, Grandma and Godmom (I think Aunt Pammy?) who are all very much a part of creating the hubby I love!

I would also like to thank Riley's Godmom's Meg and Jessie! I know, weird, she has two Godmom's right? Well I just don't do normal! Riley is lucky to have 3 fantastic aunties! And I am lucky to have an amazing daughter for whom I am soooo happy to be Mom!

Happy Mother's Day a bit early!

TIGF

Today I am extremely grateful for my healthy little girl. I had some scary issues when I was pregnant with Riley and I think I was worried the whole time that something would go wrong, but I find out more and more each day how much of a miracle every healthy new baby is. A friend of mine's sister miscarried at 16 weeks yesterday, please pray for them as they were very excited about this new baby, and it's not supposed to happen after your first trimester. It was shock and a very sad day for everyone. I have had a few friends lose children either to unusual miscarriages like this one or in Tori's case, she was sick from a very young age. I know this is kinda a downer TIGF, but really, be thankful for the little ones in your life! And pray for those who have lost them!

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I have been slacking on the TIGF section of my blog lately, but this weekI am VERY thankful to be at the end of another contract with our house on the market. I think we were really getting closer this time on price and we had a steady flow of showings, but no offers. I am sick to death of keeping my house spotless every time we leave. I am hoping that I will be a little more organized after three years of practice and I am hopeful that I will be better able to keep my house looking nice, but THANKFUL that I don't HAVE TO do it every time we leave. Whew! Maybe next year???

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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!

TIGF - More from the Angie Koos Photography Shoot

 Irish eyes...

 Mommy's kisses...

 My fave!

 My boys...

 Daddy's buddies...

 Walkin...

 Diva...

Stinker:)

Today I am thankful that we met Nurse Angie years ago and that we asked her to take our family photos this year. She is awesome! (Personally and professionally!) Thank you Angie!

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I'm thankful that I didn't get scheduled to work Black Friday. THANK YOU BRE!

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I am thankful I survived 9 hours at work on Black Friday.