A busy weekend

Andrew took Anika skiing on Friday. My mom was at the mountain too so that is why she is in the pictures. Andrew actually skied with Anika a lot this weekend but he is not in ANY photos.

The big pink helmet kills me. its funny.

She LOVES the magic carpet- how she gets up the little bunny hill.

 Saturday, I had a race at Wild Cat up North. My dad actually went with me. We left at 6  AM.

We got some of the FIRST tracks of the day! It was awesome!

Mt Washington (Tuckermans) behind me in the pics.

Beautiful view.

HAHA. This makes me laugh.

The race started at 10 and I was one of the early racers.  At 9:50 I decided we could take one more run.

And, the lift BROKE!!

We were stuck on the lift for 20 minutes. I could hear the race starting. 

They finally got it moving, but VERY Slow. I got to the top of the course pretty much with a minute to spare... but still had my dad take a picture :) 

Most racers take their snow pants off, but my snow pants are so tight right now, I figure they are find to keep on :) My baggy jacket would slow me down, but I'm sure my pants are fine. haha

 It was a longer course than the other races this season, and it was the championship. I won.

#1.

THEN, we left RIGHT after my run. We made the 1 hour 45 minute ride back to our area, dropped my dad off, and then I headed a little over an hour south  to a town on the border of Massachusetts to attend a midwife convention I was invited to. I REALLY wanted to do both, so I'm happy I was able to. Anika was with Andrew. With him gone all week, he loved all the alone time with her.

I really enjoyed the little bit of the convention I attended. As you know, natural birth is a passion of mine.  I know I don't work in the birth field, but I still find all of it fascinating.  I also learned that the hospital I had Anika at was  the forerunner for bringing the natural birthing practices back into hospitals in the 80's. One doctor in particular was responsible for the changes, and I met his wife (a midwife)...again and I really enjoyed listening to her speak and seeing her photos.

 

On the way home, I stopped to look for a dress, but I just took photos and was NOT in the mood. We live far from real malls, so I figured while I was down south, it would be good to stop in, but I had been up since 5 AM and I felt gross.

 

Sunday, Anika and I made a delicious breakfast. I used nutritional yeast instead of cheese. Does anyone else use nutritional yeast? I have used it on kale chips too. It is still new to me, but I am trying to eat eggs without cheese, which is hard for me.  I made the salsa too. Anika ate a raw clove of garlic while helping me! ha She said it was spicy. Ya, I bet!

We had a slow morning and then headed over to our local ski mountain. 

I get really tired if I hang around my house all day, but if we are out and about I have tons of energy. Plus, I wanted to ski with Anika since everyone else had been.

My iphone was taking blurry pics

And, two videos I think are funny. The one on the bottom you have to have the volume up to hear, but I laugh, but then again, its my family :)

Anika skied about 20 feet all on her own. She thought I was right there and when she realized I wasn't, she didn't like that. She is actually very good with her balance and has the concept down, but she needs a little more confidence I think. She has plenty of confidence in other areas of her life :)

 

We only stayed at the mountain for a few hours, so we had some time at home in the early evening.

 

We have so much fun with our little love.  She continues to be a chatter box and loves to tell us stories. Some are true. haha

Trapper's Dinner

Saturday night, Andrew and I went to the NH trapper's dinner.
Every year, the association gives a fur coat to M.iss NH.
She helped with the raffle and stuff.

 

 

I also got to meet a famous Midwife, Carol.  I read her book a while ago and LOVED it.  I am actually going to watch her speak this Saturday at the Midwife convention! I have a ski race that mourning way up north, and then ill drive way down south, but I REALLY want to attend both things. She was in the photo above, but I cut her out of this pic, but she had a skunk hat on, and I had my fox.

 

My dad in his beaver coat. My mom had Anika and my niece at my niece's ski team party, so my dad brought a date. HAHA. She was in this photo, but I cut her out too. She was very pretty and is the wife of my dad's friend who couldn't make it.

 

Me and Mi.ss NH.

Fun Randoms

I had another race on Saturday. I won again. Best female time by A LOT. And, I actually got 3rd overall. Only 2 men beat me. I beat the guy on my team I like to beat by quite a bit. He beat me last race though.   This league doesn't have the biggest competition, but it is fun, its affordable, and it boosts my ego :)

I had on a jacket I haven't worn in a while I guess!! Its actually my spring skiing jacket, and it really wasn't that warm, so I don't know what I was thinking wearing it. I was on the lift, and noticed I had a ticket from 2005 on the jacket!!! HA. the ONLY time I skied out West. This ticket was from Heavenly. I went out with my guy friend, T, and his friend.  It was so much fun and I was working really crazy hours at the time at my first firm, on a 3 month trial, so it was a short little break for a delayed birthday trip. I want to get back out there one day.

 

On Sunday morning, Anika dressed up in her hula gear my mom brought her back from Hawaii, and she did some hula dancing.

 

 

This was from last week. Anika got to have dinner with daddy twice while he was away via Facetime/Skype! She was trying to feed him some dinner! ha. She really doesn't get to use our iphones or ipad, etc, but I am SO happy the technology exists for times like this when Daddy is away. 

 

I have been coloring my hair blond since I was 15.
I'm thinking of letting it go darker/natural. Maybe.
Just to see.

The photo above was me in NZ in Dec. 2005.  I had been in NZ since July and had no hair color in those 6 months.  The roots are natural.  I wonder if that is what it would still look like.

 I have a hair apt. this coming Saturday so I think I am going to do low lights to start the transition.
HAHA- Actually, as I type this I forgot that my stylist reads sometimes! haha I haven't told her my plan yet. I actually had a nightmare about it last night.

This is my hair in late 2006. I LOVED It then.  The color, the feel, the length, etc.

 

-

Hmm, what else.

Andrew helped me fix up an old cast iron pan.

We no longer have any non stick in the house, except the bread maker.

We use cast iron and steel to cook on.  I even got a new rice cooker with a stainless steel bowl. Pretty reasonable on amazon. Our old one was non stick and the non stick coating was chipped- it gave me anxiety. ha

 

I had to cook some fatty stuff this week to season the pan up.

 

Anika came home with a new hat.

 

One of A's valentines. She also got one with a friendship bracelet in it and she has been wearing it ever since. I liked the idea of the bracelet instead of candy. I posted A's valentines last week.

 

On Sunday, we went to brunch.  I know its winter here, but Anika is ready for spring, obviously. ha My gram gave her a bunch of jewelry, like these yellow beads and she loves playing with them.

 

 

 

 

Monday, I worked for 2 hour in the morning after the gym. Then, met my mom and Anika for lunch.

Then, Anika and I headed south to do some errands.  One store included the NH food Coop.
All local and natural foods, but it was PRICEY!  Might have spent my week food budget on TWO bags of things. whoops.

We also went to Target.

That was fun. It really was, until the end.  Anika ran out of the store without me. I caught her and then it was so windy, my poster board in my hand blew away! I chased after it with A in one arm, my purse, my bags, etc but I finally gave up.

I put Anika in the car seat and drove around the parking lot looking for my poster board...

IT took a few hits. haha

While we were in Target, I would pick up things and say "Should we get this?" and Anika would say "No mummy. back"
Sounds like Daddy has been training her! haha

 

It was a REALLY fun day, even though we had a lot of excitement!

 

Anika's sitter gave her a gift card to the local bookstore for Christmas, so ANika went and picked out some books!

 

 

She also got some bath crayons!  Above is her drawing a rainbow.
Also, we had our FIRST tub poo. YUP, first one. She got so distracted by the crayons I guess. haha
She had brought her baby in the tub with her.  And after I saw the poo in the tub, Anika's reaction was "OHHHHH MY GOODNESS!!  GROSS. BABY, Gross!"

yup, she blamed her baby doll. 

Anika usually goes poo on the potty and has been wearing undies at the sitter, but personally, I think she has a long way to go with the pee. 

We shall see.

 

I love straws. I have some new stainless steel ones, and I love them. Anika likes them too.

 

Really loving Baby!

 

Brushing our teeth Tuesday morning before work.

 

 

 I tried these black bean spag noodles. Andrew wasn't a fan, but I liked them.
I also made some mashed cauliflower as a side. YUMMY!  The stuff on top of the noodles is leftover crock pot soup I made. I make a crock pot soup with veggies once a week in the winter- like this:

 

 

A few little projects

And, I mean little.

Our house came with this ugly tile. Just one strip above the kitchen sink.

It is UNDER the window trim, so cant remove it without taking off trim.

After a while, I just forgot about it...as I do with many home renovation ideas.

But, this past weekend after A FULL day home because of the blizzard, I decided it was time.

 

Andrew sanded it a bit, put some primer on (the kind meant for shiny surfaces) and Then, he put white paint on.

But, we thought the white was boring and just blended in with the rest.
He took a look in the basement and we had some light green from our living room, so he painted it light green.
We kind of want to make it a bit brighter. Any suggestions??

It was quick to paint so we can paint it again very easily.

Before and After:

Andrew has this big chunk of Amber. Might see if I can get something made out of it, like jewelry :)

 

My niece turned TEN yesterday! I cant believe it. It seems like she was just Anika's age.

I have always wanted to make these Vday cards!

I saw them somewhere even pre pinterest days.

Anika can give them to the kids at her sitter.  They are all older than her and can have lollipops.

 

I saw this on FB and thought it was interesting. I eat all of this stuff regularly, so I should be super skinny, right? ha.

 

 

Guess what was going on a year ago this week??

MY husband was in the hospital with his mystery illness. The only thing I wanted last year for Valentines Day was a healthy husband and for him to be home....

This year, I am back to normal and want flowers or a gift! haha.

In all honesty, I am SOOO grateful for his health and that entire episode made me appreciate so many of the small things in life and about him.  He is one helluva a guy and I really don't take that for granted like I used to. At least, I try not to :)

Another Friday Here

Knock, Knock!
I was looking at my old blog yesterday for some things.

Wow, I used to write a lot. And, people used to comment! HA.

I guess that's what happens when I fall off the  face of the blogging earth.

That's ok. I do record a lot of things on a calendar I keep near Anika's rocker, so at least I have a lot of my memories about Anika stored away there.
My memory is SO, SO bad, so its imperative I write all the little things down. Even the things I don't think I could Possibly forget.

I have become a master at Legos...well, the toddler version.
I put this together by looking at a photo that came with them.
And, it was pretty sad that I was really really proud of myself and then looked at the box and saw they are for children, age 3.  So, I guess I shouldn't be so proud.

 

 

Yesterday before we went to Miss W's and work, I took a this picture of A.
I got that Alpaca sweater in NZ at a market for $10 NZ dollars, so that's like $8 US. Its so cute. The rest of the outfit is hand me downs, as many of her clothes are. Or gifts- she still wears a lot of gifts!
 

 

It is snowing here...you might have heard about the blizzard on the news, but I still went to spin this morning and captured this beauty of myself. Its not too bad here yet, but I guess it will be coming down for a while.

 

I was supposed to have a ski race tomorrow, but it got cancelled because of the snow! In my 20+ years of racing, that has NEVER happened.  OH MY GOSH- I had a race two weeks ago, and I WON. BEST Female time of the day.  I forgot to tell you all that.

Anika has gotten in a few ski days too. I need to post pics.

 

Last wekend, I spent a fabulous weekend in Boston with my friends- my INTERNET FRIENDS turned real life friends!!!
YES!!  Except one Internet friend is actually friends of friends with someone I know in real life, so that was cool. Two friends came from California and one from Ohio for the weekend.

One of the girls has a son that was due the EXACT SAME day as Anika, but he was born  a week early (Homebirth) and Anika was 2 weeks late so they are 3 weeks apart.   SO Cute together.

 

I hope you don't get hit with snow too bad where you are.
I wish I could just give someone my photos and speak my stories and have someone write them all here for me :)

 

Freakin FRiDAY!

I already cried this morning. Anika hasn't seen my mum in 10 days because my mom and Gram went to Hawaii for my Gram's 80th Birthday! When we pulled into the gym this morning, Anika saw my mum's truck and she got excited "Nona's truck! Nona's Truck" And when we walked in she was looking and calling for her, and then she spotted her across the way and just smiled huge and ran and ran into Nona's arms and gave her the biggest hug and my mom was exploding with happiness.  I stood there with my arms full of gym bag, diaper bag, lunch bag, her jacket etc and fought back tears (I had the about to cry feeling in my nose- does anyone else get that?)  THAT moment just reminds me no matter how much we want to move, we can't ever take Anika away from my parents. Everyone at the gym looked on in Aww. They all know us- its a small gym and we are friendly with the other members and employees. Anika knows most of the people who work there by name. 

 I recovered and got myself to spin and every time I pictured their reunion, my eyes started flowing again, along with my sweat...all down my face. My heart ached and stomach felt it- i could literally feel their love for each other. I'm crying again now thinking of it.
Anika is just so, so lucky to have them, and so am I. I am also very close with my Gram (My mom's mom) so its a wonderful feeling.

 

Now, instead of crying, I am just SOOO excited for Tonight. Anika and I are driving down to Boston to meet some friends and staying at a fancy hotel!  Something is VERY speical about these friends!!

Happy Friday!