SoS Headlines

Now Known Where Mercedes Bonz Car Lives
On Grand Ave not far from the Breadsmith. (Mom, we have to go meet the driver or at least pose for pics in front of it! )

Feeling Sorry For Crack Addicts
I gave up coffee for one week. It was miserable. Then I caved, had some and the most glorious, energized, happy feeling of my life came over me. I am back on it. Forever.

Eating Healthy!
Our family has made a very concerted effort to buy only, er, mainly whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables. We are eating lots more raw veggies, beans and grain and green salads than ever and loving it! Learning new recipes and shopping strategies.

Check-Up With World's Oldest Doctor Who Could Not Operate Computer
Regular ped is on maternity leave. At Nori's 18 month visit, Weight 23lbs (30%), Height 32 in (57%) and head 47 cm (62%). Thumb looks better, hand check-up on Friday. Professional doctor appointment attender.

Feeling Sad...
for Iowa BFF Jana who just recently cancelled her September wedding. It's complicated.

Jake Enduring "Busiest Week of My Life"
as he writes reports on 10 companies in three days. Wants to quit to pursue real passion. Realized he does not have one. May open tennis bubble.

Free Yoga At Work!
Colleague training to become a certified instructor teaching free classes over the lunch hour. Stretching and bending with boss now okay.

Raising Verbal Toddler Extremely Rewarding & Joyful
yet totally exhausting! Never have a free moment to myself. Desperately need a maid.

Excited For Amazing Trip To Peru
lots of details still need to be figured out. Craving additional trip to Mexican beach, not sure I can wait for either trip...may die of exhaustion first.

Nori To Be A Bear...Grrr!
Ringer Bearer that is, in Tasha's (her birthmother) wedding next August 2010. Tasha met cool guy named LeRoy in January and they are planning to get hitched!

Click on image to follow baby Stellan

Spun

Nori's lazy weekend

Rockin' 4 pigtails

Creating masterpieces at her art desk. Also, eating crayons when hungry.

Learning about the potty chair from Prudence

Nude cobbler

For me?

doing what I want to do

I know what you are thinking...you too are excited that today is my Friday! I kinda love Thursdays! I plan to start the weekend off with a sweaty workout to ease my guilt when I follow it with a margarita pizza on the couch watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Early tomorrow Norelle & I will go for a walk, meet Angela B-S for tea over at Polly's, per chance make our newly patented mother/daughter "Yummus Hummus" for lunch, nap, then drive out to Papa & Nana's to visit their pool. And that's just day one of the weekend...

thumbs down?

Nori's poor thumb is infected again so they drained it and put her back on an antibiotic. We have spent more time at doctors' offices than swimming this summer!

green

In honor of Mr. A-Z and due to a strong desire to eat more green nutritious food without actually having to eat it, Jake & I just ordered a big bottle of Vitamineral Green to add to our diet. I guess there are some good smoothies recipes for this funky green stuff...we'll let you know how it, uh, goes.

Raindrops

Nori was so cute this morning as I dressed her in red raincoat and rushed us out to the car under the umbrella. She thought the sound of the rain on the umbrella was so cool. She heard the drops and then just looked at me smiling saying, "oooooh!". We visited her hand doctor who declared her infection-free and on the mend! Thumbs up!

18 months!

Happy half-birthday to my baby, the fruit of my loins, Norelle!

Rock Lake

Rock Lake 2009

I live in MN so even a rainy week of 50 degree temps is better than most of the year weather-wise; I am happy despite our lackluster meteorological conditions. My master plan to exercise every day, swim, and eat healthy got a bit sidetracked by my not exercising, swimming, or eating healthy.

Sadly, my Uncle Rick passed away last Sunday so of course we came back for the wake on Tuesday and the funeral service on Wednesday. It is a terrible loss, he was a vibrant man who was taken very quickly by pancreatic cancer. He is greatly missed. My dad is especially devastated and it's just impossible to imagine family gatherings without him. It's a reminder that life is meant to be lived - travel, laugh, be silly and be with the ones you love. So we try to continue doing that as it's all we can do.

In case you are interested, here are some photos from our week. Had we not been forced to wear our only pairs of jeans and socks everyday in a row, we might all look cuter in these snapshots.

Feeding the fish with Grandma Liz & Grandpa Steve and Nori
(this caption is from Dorothy's POV)

The main characters in my forthcoming tell-all memoir tentatively titled:
" The Taco John's Years"

This is why we usually leave her at home

"In 1972, a murderer killed everyone on this lake", Jake Seltz

Practically the only quality role-models my daughter has...

This is the part where Casey tells a story about Screech's sex tape to my in-laws

Rev your engines! And pass the artichoke dip!

Jake, Nori & Doro leaving mom in the dust on a hike.
I use that word "hike" loosely. There was a small incline.

After a 4 year self-imposed hiatus, Dorothy returns the to the water!!!

Nori & I
(please note: I am wearing my *favorite* green tank oft featured on this blog)

Charlie reads the classics

Winter winds set in causing Ellen to suddenly have
matted hair, a hook nose and old man feet!

Nori catches her first sunfish using breakfast sausage
sold by Grandma Sylvia at Midtown!

See?

RIP Uncle Knob

My Uncle Rick has passed away...

Vacay

Packing up our pandemic viruses and superbugs ...heading out to Rock Lake!

Got my mini-pharmacy well stocked with band-aids, antibiotic spray and ointment, ace wraps, thermometer, bug spray, kids' Benadryl, Tylenol, & Motrin, the new antibiotic to beat down the MRSA! Oh, and my da Vinci robotic assisted surgery arm for any minimally invasive procedures. Directions and phone numbers to local urgent care and ER in hand. Having Hol along guarantees at least one medical mishap so let's just hope it's minor like her patented face-plant or the old blistering sunburn she has graced us with on other trips.

Here's praying for a healthy, SAFE and fun vacation with husbo, Nori and her grandparents, aunts & uncles and several dogs!

methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

UPDATE: Nori is happy as ever and on new antibiotic which will hopefully work!

The ped called to say Nori's culture of her thumb infection came back as positive for MRSA. Trying not to freak out, off to get new antibiotic.

Mom! Look!

I see this car at least once a week. It is covered in bones and says The Mercedes Bonz on the back with the license plate reading Art Car. It has become a game, every time I see the bone car I have to call my mom and tell her! It made me realize that not only do I live near the bones' owner but maybe I see the same people in the same cars all the time but I don't even realize it because they just blend in? Deep.

I finally got around to doing some detective work and I was able to find some info about The Mercedes Bonz car and it's driver B.J. Zander, former owner of the Mercedes Beanz, a bean covered car. Yes, these are my people.

Happy Birthday Liz!

this week...

Jake is 32 now so we celebrated old people style with an early dinner at Boca Chica and ice cream cones at Izzy's! They have a new flavor called Chimpy Chimp which is banana ice cream with chocolate covered potato chips in it. As Nori would say, "NASTY!" (I taught her this word, Daddy does not approve). Our wild child loves to go out so she was giddy at our celebration. She now knows our real names, yelling " Megan!" or "where's Jake?". The first words out of her mouth this morning were "want play toys!" and "shoes on... go outside?". At 6:02 a.m.

We are planning for our week long trip to Rock Lake! We have never stayed that long before so it requires some forethought in terms of menu, grocery shopping and packing. I will try to keep it simple but with a one-year-old there is just so much to bring along: clothes, food, books, sippy cups, crib, toys, bibs, stroller, life vest, beach toys, blanket, etc.

Imagine my surprise when my brother called to ask what to bring and told me he was going to bring the weed! I was kinda caught off guard...but it's Casey, so I said, "Okay...just don't tell Mom". But, as it turns out, he really said he was going to bring the Wii. As in Nintendo Wii, the video game system.

Anyhoo, Steve, Liz, Ellen & Charlie will be staying in Grandma & Grandpa's log cabin and Jake, Nori, myself and my mom & Casey will be staying the neighboring green cabin, formerly called Eunice's Cabin. My mom & bro are only staying 3 nights so we have a lot fun to cram into a short time.

I vow to jump into the lake every single day, go for many bikes rides and hikes, read at least one whole book, win a game of cribbage, cook and eat lots of yummy food, and enjoy a laid back summer week with the people I love most (minus Britney Spears, she is in Paris on tour).

Happy Birthday Jake!

We love you!

The kid's thumb...

is not healing. It was heading in the right direction, what, with the scabby nail growing back in and all, but in the past few days the skin has been peeling and getting more and more RED. Last night she told us, "owie hurt...want medicine". Then today some tiny yellow/green blisters formed and we knew that was not good. Nori and her old man just left the pediatrician's office again. The doctor lanced the blisters, tried to remove some of the so-called dissolvable stitches, accidentally cut her thumb more and then gave her a new antibiotic Rx. Let's just pray the culture does not comes back as positive for one of those icky antibiotic-resistant bugs...

A Pool Story

Take 1: Saturday

Nori waits patiently to go to her first waterpark ever, Cascade Bay!

Amazed and thrilled with the huge pool and waterfalls...

Oh crap! After only minutes in the pool, they turn on the monsoon feature!

Waiting out the storm in the ladies locker room with Liam. And waiting. And finally giving up to go eat yummy bruchetta, grilled chicken, beans & rice and of course dessert, strangely called Better Than Robert Redford. Did you know that peppers have peepers?

Take 2: Sunday

Highland Park Pool to the rescue!

Wake up Momma and wipe my nose!

All done! Time to go home and nap...

Welcome baby Anna!

Anna Elizabeth Harrington and parents

Born June 29, 2009 at 7:26am
7 pounds 14 oz
20 inches long

Freedom!

We are back out in the world, were we belong! Did you miss us stores, parks, and fellow human beings?

It was a long week at home so our afternoon shopping trip and dinner out were swell. Nori walked the mall yelling "I'm walkin', I'M WALKIN'" so obvi I was not the only one with Laurel Avenue fever. At the park she even walked up to a strange kid and said "I Nori". That's how desperate she was to see a face other than Mom or Dad!

Not that we haven't enjoyed this intense one-on-one family quarantine time. For example, I am very flattered that she has recently taken great notice of my boobs, naming them every chance she gets or even poking them with her foot when I change her diaper. I'm like, "Oh, go on!". Tonight in the tub I asked her where her boobs are and she looked at her chest then said "I don't know". Silly girl.

But really, boob recognition aside, with too much time off I have been feeling too lazy and sluggish. It's a good reminder for me that perhaps my 9-5 is a good thing as I am a person who NEEDS structure... if let to my own devices I will not shower. Or move. Unless it is to get snacks...

I am indubitably excited for tomorrow... the 4th July, day of patriots and flag cakes! I just found out we are going to a place called Cascade Bay which sounds like a totally awesome community pool/water park, complete with a kiddie splash area, water slides, and a lazy river! Nori and her boy toy Liam will drag their parents along for a wet and wild play date. Back in my day, we had to go all the way to Noah's Ark to find a lazy river...

Uncle Knob

My dad just called me from Chicago to tell me that Uncle Knob had a check-up today and learned that his pancreatic cancer is spreading, the chemo is not helping and he probably only has about 8 more weeks before it overtakes his body. Please keep my family in your prayers (especially Rick & Dana, my dad Bill, and my Grandma Sylvia) as we struggle with this terrible news.

Newbies

New bloggers to introduce!

• My friend Angela BS about life on the Eastside at BlueCollar Daughter
• My friend Missy at I Ain't Your Ho ( um, she doesn't actually know that "she" started this blog yet so make sure to leave her comments about how excited you are for Mo' Ho)

On an unrelated note, I will not be answering my phone today...

Jake's legs...

after being attacked by GNATS at tennis!