Father / Son

I know this wasn't part of the photo challenge, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to post a cute picture. Baby I and Daddy were on a mission to find a ball that rolled under the end table :-)



In the Mirror

 

I am so excited about this picture, because I didn't even prompt Baby W for it!  I was cleaning up around the bedrooms when I heard him giggling in one of the rooms.  I found him blabbling to himself in the mirror, giggling and giving high fives.  It was so cute!

What you do for fun...

I decided to use my half marathon medals to show what I do for fun.  Depending when you ask me, I might not say I run for fun, as much as it's something healthy I feel like I should do!  Either way, at the end of any half, I feel pretty accomplished and happy with myself.  It's also something fun mrdub, Baby W and I can do together... if this winter ever turns into spring!  I'm signed up to run the Chicago Spring Half Marathon this May and I'm hoping to run a few shorter races to keep in shape this summer.

In your drawer

 

What's in my kitchen drawer?  As you can see, I'm a sucker for small kitchen gadgets.  Actually, I'm a sucker for any kitchen gadget.  I've mentioned before I love to cook, and I love the tools needed to cook!  Some of my favorites in this drawer are... apple corer, lemon zester, crocodile grater and cookie scoop!

Clean...

For my post for CLEAN I am sharing pictures from work :-) I am a surgical Assistant at Wi Surgery Center. The first pic is where we clean our instruments after a surgical case. The second picture is a power washer for instruments. The third picture is where we sterilize the instruments. The temp in the autoclave a gets up just past 274 degrees!!!

What you do for FUN!

 

I have a few hobbies that I still find time for, allbeit not as often as I'd like to... scrapbooking, running, sewing, decorating.  I have one hobby though, that I still get to enjoy nearly every day... cooking!  I much prefer a homemade meal over something frozen, bought or on-the-go (don't get me wrong, that still happens!) and this is something fun that mrdub and I both enjoy.  We have different tastes in recipes-- he likes quick and simple, I don't mind long ingredient lists, he likes seitan, spice and anything peanutty, I like veggies, coconut and curry.  Our differences usually work out well, because it provides a variety of meals and we never get bored with our food!  So... What do I do for fun?  I cook... I bake... and I eat :) 

About You

Or more appropriately, about ME!  I've always hated socks.  My mom still tells me it was impossible to keep socks on me when I was little.  As long as I can remember, I've been happier barefoot, even in winter!  I still would rather be sockless, but I do have a fun collection of socks and my favorite are seasonal socks!  I figure if I have to wear them, they might as well be fun.  Here's a selection of my sock collection...

 

Clean

 

I used to love buying cleaning products.  I had a big box full.  Now, I try to be more efficient and also more environmentally-friendly.  Most of our cleaning products are Seventh Generation or Method, but I also love cleaning with simple baking soda and vinegar (my recent favorite combo for cleaning the glass top stove).  There's nothing better than a sparkling clean house!

Sign

 

This sign hangs in our kitchen, so it's visible nearly as soon as you step in our back door.  It was a gift last year for (my 1st!) Mother's Day from mrdub.  I love that all the rules are simple things we can do to make each day a little easier and more fun!

Working

 

Like Jen, I have two desks (well, technically three, but I share the third).  I travel between three schools each day and visit 21 classrooms each week-- you can see my pretty color-coded schedule to the right of my monitor!  Today I was working on a few things during my prep... organizing my lesson plans, making a few SMARTboard activities, reviewing student surveys and sorting out paperwork and copies.

I'm too lazy to figure out how to rotate this picture, but here's my cart.  Can't miss me in the halls!  The awesome custodian at one of the schools painted the awesome German eagle on it for me.  I love it!

 

Hard at Work!!!

Working...

I took some pictures of my desk. I have one job, but two desks at two different offices.  This is my favorite desk/office to work at (and where I happen to be today).  I am a sprawler at work... I like to think its indicative of the amount of interruptions I get...

Here's my workstation:

Here's what has my attention today.. The lovely training powerpoint I'm working on (and my 3 March Madness Brackets!!!):
 

Shoes

When we started the photo challenge, I thought I would try hard not to make every picture about Baby W.  Easier said than done... especially when his shoes are way cuter than mine!  As I mentioned in the "Explore" post, Baby W isn't walking yet and somehow he already has five pairs of size 5 shoes.  Part of me hopes he walks sooner than later so he can get some wear out of all of these shoes! 

Green

 

Back in December, my sister and I decided to sign up for the Lucky Leprachaun 7K.  Being that it was the weekend of Saint Patrick's Day, we figured it would be a sunny day and a fun run.  We convinced my brother and his wife to visit and run with us and mrdub agreed to join in.  Last year we celebrated Saint Patrick's Day with 70 degree temps and sun... this year, not so much.  My picture for today shows our green attire for the run, which is a stark contrast to the white ground!  Temps at the start of the race were in the 20s, it was windy and the roads were slushy.  Not what we had expected, but the race still proved to be a good time... and green beer awaited us a the finish!

9 o'clock

 

9:00 is generally a quiet time in our house.  9:00 AM... Baby W is usually napping.  9:00 PM... Baby W is down for the night, the house is picked up and mrdub and I are relaxing in the living room. 

Explore

Baby W isn't walking yet, but someday he will use these feet to explore the world!

9 O'Clock

What happens when you let your kiddo stay up past his bedtime......

Tasty

Tasty

One of my favorite restaurants is Comet Cafe.  I love their food and it's one of the few places I always manage to save room for one of their giant cupcakes, my favorite of which so far is Banana Split.  We were over in Bay View to run a few errands last weekend and passed Honeypie on the way home (how convenient!), who happens to serve cupcakes from the same baker.  The selection of cupcakes on Sunday was something like Mexican Chocolate, Red Velvet, Double Chocolate.  Since I gave up chocolate for Lent, I decided rather than go sans cupcake, I would try the Chai cupcake.  I love Chai tea, Chai lattes, I love the spice and flavor of Chai.  I love cupcakes.  So, needless to say, the Chai Cupcake was pleasantly tasty!

Tasty

This was a new recipe that I got from Pinterest. It was chicken chow mein. I am very pick when it comes to this dish so when I found the recipe I was a little nervous it wouldn't taste just the way I wanted it to. When John an I sat down to eat, the recipe turned out just the way I wanted it to. I think this was the best recipe I found so far off of Pinterest.

Sound

A baby sleeping is such a peaceful sound

Sound

Today's picture had me stumped.  A few easy things came to mind... Baby W's laugh, my iPod, toys, but I wanted to be more creative.  So I cheated.  I looked through my last few weeks of pictures trying to find something that looked like "sound" to me. 

And I found this.  Our street covered with snow.  Snow still floating in the air.  I love the sounds of a snowy day.  The freshly fallen snow seems to mask so much and it's almost quiet as the busy city is forced to slow down.  Once the snow stops, there's the hum of snow blowers, the scrape of shovels, the slow traffic packing down the snow, the crunch of foot steps.  As much as I'm ready for spring, I love the sounds of a snowy day!

Important

The happiness, safety, and well-being of this little guy is paramount!

In the distance

This picture was totally on mistake, but I thought it fit the prompt well.  We've had a relatively mild winter without much snow, so I wanted to take a picture of all the snow that piled up in the last week.  Schatzi recently figured out that she could keep watch out the front window if she peeks over the couch, so... my picture of the snow shows a curious Schatzi in the distance...

 

 

Important

 

Reading is important to our family.  I love reading magazines, cookbooks, fluffy novels, young adult fiction.  mrdub loves reading the newspaper (especially the sports section), sports biographies, historical novels.  We've been reading to Baby W since the day he was born-- we brought "The Night You Were Born" to the hospital for his first book, and before that we often read books to my belly.  We can only hope that Baby W has a love for reading and finds books as important as we do!

In the Distance

Is Important

Family is important. Enough said :-)

I Want....

these toes to be somewhere warm, in the sand :-)

I Want....

I Want..... Spring!!! This tree is pretty ugly without its leaves! 

Faceless Self Portrait

My 2010 Kentucky Derby Hat

My Aunt and Uncle along with my two Cousins live in Louisville, Kentucky. A few years ago I got the chance to go to the Kentucky Derby. I was so hooked that I went back the next two years. I made it a plan to go back every year after, but as it turns out, my wedding day happened to be on the Derby Day. The following year, John and I had a 4 month old Ivan. We weren't sure about traveling 6+ hours with a new baby. This year, I will be 9 months pregnant and I do not want to travel either. Next year...... WE ARE GOING!!! :-D

Favorite

I will be posting two pictures on the word Favorite

This is my Favorite child hood friend Fuzzy. She is a bit worn, but is full of love :-)

I was pretty happy that Ivan took to a comfort toy at around 6 months. I didn't take it too seriously since he was only 6 months. At 14 months now, he is still very happy with his "Monkey" as we call him. Monkey is starting to loose some of his hair as Ivan likes to hold onto the hair and suck on the hair also. We just ordered a back up "Monkey" just in case we have to do a switch a roo in the future :-)

I Want...

I checked out "The Vegan Slow Cooker" from the library... and I want it!  We've only made two recipes so far, Cranberry Vanilla Quinoa and Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal, but there are so many good recipes to try.  This week, we have Hungarian Mushroom Soup and Sweet Potato and White Bean soup on the menu.  I need to renew the book (it's due today!), but I'm guessing it won't be long before I have a copy of my very own!

Favorite

mrdub- You would!

me- What?

mrdub- That knife is all you ever talk about.

I have lots of favorites, but as I was chopping olives and peppers for dinner I decided today's (or yesterday's, oops!) picture would be my favorite knife! When I refer to "my knife," mrdub knows exactly what I'm talking about-- the 9-1/4" French Chef. Honestly, I get excited about chopping vegetables, garlic, onions, anything with this knife!

 

 

Faceless Portrait

Not much to say about this one, so here I am hiding behind my beloved Nikon D3000!  Jennie, Jen and I are signed up to take a camera class later this month, and I can't wait to learn more about it!

Favourite

My *small* obsession with my cookbook collection is one of my favorite things!

Fear

One of my fears is people looking through the windows... it's rare to find blinds open at my house!

Fear

Fear...... Even though I am almost 31, I still have a fear of the dark :-(

Fear

I had to think surprisingly long about today's photo.  I try hard to be a positive person and not have many fears.  Sure, I have my own fears, but I try not to dwell on them. 

My dog, on the other hand, has lately become a bundle of nerves!  When we got her as a puppy, I was so glad that thunder, fireworks, the vacuum and many other things didn't bother her at all.  She had no fear!  For whatever reason, in the last year or so (maybe Baby W is to blame?!), she has a long list of fears... thunder, rain, the furnace, Baby W's cry, anything that beeps, and I could go on and on.  I caught her snuggled safely in the sheets of our bed, hiding from whatever her most recent fear might be...

Baby W came in to check on Schatzi and make sure she was okay!



Why are you hiding in here?

Chair

Like Jennie & Kayla, this was an easy post...

I've spent a lot of time in this chair in our living room this past year.  Not only do I use it for nursing, but it's the chair I like to curl up in with a book, or my work laptop!

Under

Under was a difficult prompt for me. I finally decided to take a look around from my toddler's viewpoint... one thing he is VERY interested in is the dishwasher... why, I'm still not sure...

Chair

It was easy for this chair to be my favorite chair in the house. I spent HOURS in this chair over the last 14 months. Ever since we brought Baby I home from the hospital, we spent a lot of time in this rocking chair. It originally it was my Grandmother's chair. I found it in her attic about 1 month before we had Baby I. I have been treasuring it ever since.

Chair



 

I knew for months before his birthday that I wanted to buy Baby W a table and chair set for his first birthday.  It didn't take me long to find a cute set from IKEA and I was so excited we bought it even before most of his Christmas gifts.  He's not a big fan of the chairs yet, but I hope it's something he grows into... and I can already picture him sitting at the table having a snack, drawing pictures, reading books and being crafty!

 

 

I took a picture of Baby W with a big, plush carrot each month his first year.  It got harder and harder as the months went on for him to keep still enough to get that picture, so I've decided for his second year I'm going to take his picture sitting in the chair.  Maybe by his 2nd birthday I'll even get him smiling in it?!



13 months

12 months