favorite project EVER

I've done a lot of little "creative" projects that I love. But this one is my favorite. I don't know how black lines can look JUST like my children. I feel like I somehow captured them, frozen in time. But not like a picture. It's like something better than a picture. is there such thing? before today I'm not sure I thought so.

but after this...




How can I possibly see this child's INNER beauty just by looking at her silhouette? You can SEE her sweetness. I can anyway. Maybe it's because I'm her mom. but still... I can see it.



And look at this little man. Doesn't he have awesome hair for a silhouette? I feel like he's just going to come to life and smile that brown tooth/chipped tooth smile. and run to my ear and whisper "I love you" because that's what he does. and I can see that in his silhouette. It's just crazy.



and you might hate the big bow on Brielle, but I love it. it's her. it's what she looks like every day. and with that new big girl hair cut that you can see by her chin? gosh, she looks so big. but somehow I captured this BABY girl perfectly by cutting black paper. and the fact that she's not smiling is perfect. it's Brielle. :)



so anyway, I probably see things you DON'T see, but I had to share anyway. and if you want to make them of your kids (it only cost me 18 bucks total) you can follow this tutorial like I did.

now that I'm a "regular"

When I first joined the gym, I didn't feel like I belonged there. I felt really self conscious the whole time. I noticed what everyone around me looked like and wore.

Now, I could *almost* care less, but there are a few things that I seem to still take note of, every time.

1. the naked ladies in the locker room after the swimming group class. just can't quite get used to it.
2. the girl who wears the "kiss this" tank top almost every time she works out. so glad my daughter already knows what's "not appropriate."
3. the former Omaha police chief works out there every sunday afternoon. i still think it's cool every time I see him in real life instead of on the news.
4. girls who run with no shirts on. and now I'd like to make a few very immature comments:
a) put a FREAKING SHIRT ON.
b) you probably think you're so "hot" you don't have to wear a shirt, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that you still have jiggly parts in your back when you run, but you probably don't think they're there. that does NOT, however, mean that I want to see them.
c) put a FREAKING SHIRT ON.


and now a quick update on my health since I started working out:

I have weigh ins every month. the first month I lost ZERO pounds and went UP in body fat percentage. sa-weet. the funniest part is that right after Christmas I lost like 5 pounds, really fast. and then apparently I gained them back really fast too. but anyway, losing weight isn't my main goal (even though she put a big -15 POUNDS on the top of my charts). I said I want to feel better, stronger, more in control of my life. and I do. and if I use my imagination, I think I just might look a bit better too. :)

the second month, when my kids were sick a lot and I went in much less frequently, I lost a couple pounds, and lost inches (ok, not WHOLE inches, but still...) in every area that's measured. not sure how I pulled that off by working out less.

my trainer is trying to get me to sign up for more sessions, since I'm about to move from once a week to every other week. My income has dropped significantly in the last couple months (one less daycare family) so it's really easy to say no. but man...they sure try to get ya!

and as far as eating goes, I have been trying overall to just make healthier choices. because I have a bit of cooking anxiety, however, this is a HUGE challenge for me. new things take me FOREVER to make, and nothing really comes naturally for me.

PLUS, I've just never been the kind of girl who is willing to sacrifice a whole lot when it comes to good food. for example, a couple weeks ago, I forget what was going on, but we were out and running errands and I didn't have a plan for supper and it was already late. So, I got the kids burgers from Burger King on the way home. I had to convince and re-convince myself over and over again to not order one for myself. and I won! I drove away without a burger for me. only here's the thing: I was PISSED. really. I guess I really really wanted a burger that night, and I convinced myself that I shouldn't get one. Most often I would say WELL DONE ANDREA, but instead i was like, "this is NOT who I am! I am NOT the girl who is so concerned with my looks (because in that moment it was not about "health" it was about "fat") that I don't let myself get a burger the few times I actually really want one. all in moderation is my motto and I wanted a freaking burger!" So guess what I did? I called my sweet husband who was on his way home from work and told him to get me a burger. and guess what that sweet husband did? held his ground. he was proud of me. punk. so he didnt' get me a burger. he came home and ate something else with me. I don't even remember what it was because all I could think about was that I wasn't eating a burger.

So anyway, I know I've got a long way to go.

I'm signing up for the 5K at Tulip Festival this year. I figure maybe that will help me make sure I don't skip my running after doing my workouts. I ran it a couple years ago with almost not training, so hopefully I'll be okay.

alright. there's my update. aren't you so glad you know all that?

it's like crack.

I'm addicted to sewing skirts for my girls.

here are the latest: (pardon the background and the bad lighting (SUN!) but we were outside! yay!)




there are a few things I wish I did differently, but I'll do that for Hazel's. :)


you can't really tell, but there's an underskirt under there with the tulle attached. the fact that it's two layers makes me love it more for some reason. oh, and the waistband is a knit foldover one, so it's so comfy too. I'm half tempted to make one for myself. but I have another one I'm going to try for me. stay tuned.

Josiah 150:3 Praise Him with the recorder

The kids recently rediscovered the recorders they got for Christmas a couple years ago. You know, recorders. The musical instruments.

So Josiah's blowing away on his this morning and I very calmly (not matching my feelings at all) asked him if he could be done blowing that thing now.

and he looked at me with his big sad eyes and said, "but I'm playing a song for GOD! and he LIKES this song!"

---------

Advil really isn't so bad, is it. :)

the boiler room

On Sunday my good friend offered to watch the kids on Monday so that Steve and I could go on a date. It's weird because we've probably actually gone on more dates in the last few months than we ever have in a "few months" timespan before. But when you need to schedule something in order to get your time together, dates seem to be a good way to make sure he gets his buns home. :)

on Saturday (a few days before) Steve parents took us out to Spaghetti Works. Of course we had to walk a few blocks to get there, but we happened to walk past a restaurant that looked really cool inside called The Boiler Room. I even pointed out the beautiful huge flower painting on the wall to Brielle. We decided that some day we were going on a date there. We just didn't know that it would be a couple days later.

SO, Steve put in a reservation earlier in the day, and let me know that it was a "smart casual" dress code. whatevertheheck that means. so I wore my goodwill outfit (that's SMART and CASUAL, right?).

When we got there they took our coats to hang on the little coat rack. spiffy. and then they sat us as a nice little table, and the waiter was REALLY good. a young, twenty-something, well groomed, very polite young man.

He handed us our menus.

I broke a sweat.

Here's the deal: remember THIS post I wrote way back when? I have a "sensitive" pallet and I'm not used to weird foods. (for the record, I DO get a little grossed out about that blog post since I try to eat a bit better these days. but in my heart of hearts, I do still love a corndog and mac and cheese.)

Ok, and it also happened to be a Monday. I've been wanting to start "meatless Mondays" thanks to some good friends who have been living or trying the vegetarian lifestyle. So my lunch was meatless, and my supper was going to be meatless too. til I saw the menu.

For a few minutes I had a master plan in my head. it went something like this: okay...he hasn't even poured our water yet, so if we get up and leave, it won't be THAT bad. oh, but crap, they have our coats. so we'd have to stop there and get our coats and explain that we didn't check out the menu before we arrived, and we were going to applebees or the cheesecake factory or somewhere plain-old-boring-and-not-rich people eat instead. and yes, it would be REALLY embarrassing, but we'd never see these people again, EVER, so who cares.

But then he came and poured our water. so we were stuck.

so instead I make my husband feel TERRIBLE by repeating over and over, "honey, I just don't know what I'm going to order. What am I going to eat? I don't even know what this stuff is, and I don't know what I"m going to order." I had about 5 options for a main dish. a few fish options (no thanks. i don't even like tuna.), PORK chops (no thanks. I don't do pig very well. not even bacon. especially when right next to the beautiful flower painting I saw through the window is a HHHHHHHUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEE painting of a PIG, eyes gouged out, all roasted and ready to eat or something. huge. like, I'm thinking six feet by six feet at least.), or steak. OH, or lamb. And I did actually really like the lamb tapas we got at Espana for my birthday, but i don't know...it seemed to risky. So I settled on steak. I don't think I'd had a steak since our honeymoon when I ordered steak at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory. (see? no fish for me.) So I thought, well, even though it's far from meatless, at least I know I'll like the cauliflower and mushrooms that come with it. And at least I know what cauliflower and mushrooms ARE, unlike the rest of the stuff that came with the other food.

and steve decides on the steak too.

so we order, and the guy tells us we should order two different things since it's our first time. So steve actually considers it! I was like, NOPE, I'm not going to share anything with you. I'm eating my steak. And Steve bought in and order PIG. I mean pork chops. He must have turned his head away from the roasted pig mural with every bite or something. I tried ONE bite and, well, I'm not going to talk about that bite. And then I tried another bite that Steve prepared just for me, with not as much pigness, but it still just wasn't good.

but my STEAK, on the other hand, was GREAT. I had a slight panic attack when I was eating the olives (our appetizer that we got to pretend we were back in Spain, which didn't work, by the way) and I realized that I never told the guy I wanted my steak WELL DONE. So Steve says, "well, if it's too red, ask them to put it back on for you." and when it came, it was red. bleeding. mooing. but I decided to be a big girl and eat it anyway. I didn't want to eat THAT much meat on my meatless monday anyway, so I gave steve the middle two slices, and I ate the outer two slices, which were at least brown on the outsides and the bottom, so that was better. And it was actually really really really good. I just had to eat it red side down. but it was REALLY good.

But man, when you pay that much for a plate of food, plus a glass of wine and a cup of coffee for my hubby (because my "12-year-old-pallet" doesn't like alcohol OR coffee either) it really adds up. we NEVER spend that much on a meal. except once, for my birthday, at Espana, which was TOTALLY WORTH EVERY SINGLE PENNY. so anyway, I was kinda freaking out about how much we just paid, even though I knew we'd still be okay for groceries and bills and all that. so we passed on dessert. (ooh, but now that I think about it, we should have just looked at the menu to see what the heck kind of stuff they offered.)

and instead, we came home to our modest little home with our non-sleeping children in their beds, just in time to eat a bowl of cereal for dessert and watch a Castle re-run. because THAT'S how we roll.

**I married a wonderfully sensitive man, so Steve, if you're reading this, please know that I had a wonderful time out with you. I even liked the food. I don't want this post to make you feel guilty for taking me out to a restaurant with really weird food. it was good for me to be a grown up. but next time, I pick Chipotle. :)

sunday school stories

I got this email from Josiah's sunday school teacher the other day. She's SO GOOD at really paying attention to the everything these kids say just as passing thoughts. As a mom, I don't pay as much attention to that stuff I guess, which makes me really sad, and really thankful for people like Mrs. Temple who listen and share. :)

Hey Andrea,
Theresa Temple here. I forgot to tell you a little funny I heard from a small curly haired boy in Sunday School yesterday. The kids were eating their snack and he said, ever so innocently, "Did you know that if you eat avocado you will grow lots of hair in your armpits?"

I wish I could remember it exactly as he said it because it was so cute. I look forward to Sunday School-those little people make me laugh!

anyway, just a little thing, but I about died laughing when I read that. :)