The Nelson Narrative

The girls' new bedding arrived this week. I love it, but I'm still a little torn.  I had my heart set on painting their room a purple along the lines of this: from Google Images But I had a hard time finding bedding I liked that would go.  In hindsight, I probably should have checked out Etsy (a website where people sell their own home made stuff, i.e. jewelry, kids' clothes, hair bows, dog sweaters, purses, you get the idea).  I probably could have had something made in a fabric of my choice.  But who knows how long that would have taken, and it probably would have cost more.  These were only $30 for the 4-piece set.  Anyway, I really like this bedding but it's a bit more pink and less lilac than I thought (so hard to tell on a computer screen).  And even if it were more lilac like I thought, it still wouldn't go with that shade of purple. There was another bedding set that I almost ordered instead that, turns out after seeing ...

The girls went to their first Halloween Party yesterday (I'm finally starting to do things with the moms' group I joined a year or so ago).   They trick-or-treated for non-candy goodies like stickers, playing cards, drinking straws, etc.  It was fun and all the kids were so cute in their costumes.  Excuse the butt, but when you have a dozen or so moms all trying to get their toddlers to sit for a picture a butt or two is inevitable... Today we are going to make frosted sugar cookies (pumpkins, bats, etc.), tomorrow we will carve pumpkins and then they are very excited to go trick-or-treating on Sunday.  We have a third costume, a cat, that was a hand-me-down along with the chicken so not sure who will wear what between the three costumes.

I used to brag about what great sleepers the girls were.  They started sleeping through the night at 2 1/2 (Olivia) and 3 (Kayley) months.  Olivia always went down for naps easily and Kayley mostly did, and was great for the last several months leading up to the abrupt nap-drop that occured the day after Labor Day.  But now I whine and complain and sometime almost cry.  Every day is a battle. When they first dropped their nap a few months ago, I was frustrated and very much in mourning for the loss of my daily 2-3 hour break.  Oh, how I cherished that time.  I could read, blog, scrapbook, nap, play computer games...it was so relaxing and rejuvinating.   All of a sudden it was gone and I was so stressed by dinnertime, because I just happen to be the type of person who really needs some downtime regularly.  But, I started to get used to it and as long as I knew ahead of time that I wasn't going to get it, I somehow accepted it better and...

First of all, I did the 20-minute run at the end of week 5 without too much trouble!  Yay!  The worst part was that my iPod's headphones crapped out on me so I had to do the last half or so with no motivating music.  Then it finally happened.  I choked in week 6.  Every single workout since I started (except maybe the first week) I was worried that I wouldn't make it through but I always did.  Then Wednesday, day 2 of week 6, I broke.  I was supposed to run 10, walk 3, run 10.  I got through the first 10 but was really struggling.  I was very worried about the next 10 and sure enough, I fell apart after about 3 mintues.  I just couldn't go on.  BUT, I really think it was just that I was running too soon after eating dinner (chicken stir-fy with lots of veggies, including gas-inducing broccoli (a-ha!) and felt really bloated and blah--I'm almost certain that was my problem and I would have been fine if I waited longer to work ou...

Too bad this didn't come a bit later, as we are currently in the process of transitioning the girls' room into a "big girl" room.  We changed out their cribs to toddler beds a few weeks ago and I just ordered their new bedding.  We still need to remove the wallpaper border, re-paint and hang curtains and new wall art (or stencil or something).  So for now, here's what it looked like in the beginning and now during transition: Changing table/dresser and Olivia's crib Now just a dresser Olivia's bed, with the addition of wall art These pictures were a gift from my mom that she got at an arts and crafts festival Kayley's crib and glider Kayley's bed-still with the same crib bedding.  The rocking horse was a Safety prize from work years ago.  I kept it forever hoping to one day have a baby's room to put it in. Bookshelf The glider is no longer used and the kitchen is outgrown, to be replaced by Santa this Christmas! Here is the b...

On Sunday we took the girls to Jubilee Farms.  It was a goregous fall day and they had such fun running through the fields in search of the perfect pumpkin, which was kind of hard to find as many were still green from the colder than normal spring and summer we had.  We took a hay ride to the pumpkin fields and back, then saw some farm animals and went through a hay bale maze.  All that was missing was a pumpkin latte, although they do serve hot apple cider (I'm not a big fan). Hay ride to the pumpkin fields Lots of green pumpkins due to colder than normal spring and summer Posing with their pumpkins Nice pony Some people got to take a horse drawn wagon ride to pumpkin fields (not us)

I'm still going strong in week 5 of C25K.  It definitely has gotten harder, but I continue to amaze myself with every workout.  Wednesday I had to run for 8 minutes, walk for 5, then run for 8 more.  I was really worried about that last 8, but I did it!  Today I have to run for 20 whole minutes without stopping.  Yikes.  I haven't done that in about 8 years and I've only ever done it once (I once ran 2 whole miles and I think it took 26 minutes--very slow)!  So, we'll see!  If I absolutely can't do it, I'll just keep working up to it and once I can I'll pick up the program from there. I STILL haven't got back on track diet-wise.  It's frustrating, because I was totally geared up to be good this week, but social plans had us eating out a lot, plus I "had" to finish off the salt water taffy that a friend gave me from a trip to Atlantic City, plus my mom brought a chocolate cake to us when she visited...Sigh.  I'll try again N...

We've had a fun and busy week.  On Tuesday, the girls and I met one of my oldest dearest friends at the Alderwood Mall, about 45 minutes away.  She hadn't seen the girls in about a year, so obviously they are very different and way more grown up then when she saw them last.  And I only see her maybe 2 or 3 times a year, if that, so it was a special treat. Wednesday we went to storytime at the library and then my mom came for a visit and took as to lunch at Panera Bread.  I ordered mac & cheese for the girls and of course they wouldn't touch it because, heaven forbid, it's not Kraft.  Sigh.  So I ended up eating most of it (and it was so yummy!  If only they would have just tried it) and they ate some of my half of sandwich of some of mom's sandwich. Yesterday I took them to my former work place to visit with my ex co-workers.  They were a bit overwhelmed and shy with all the people we saw and talked to, but it was really fun for ...

The Friday home tours continue at Kelly's Korner , and this week is kitchens.  Our kitchen is fine for us but nothing special.  It's not that big and doesn't have an island, but I do love the breakfast bar.  We bought brand new so we were able to pick out our cabinets, countertops, flooring, etc., which was really fun and I love how it all came together, probably the most out of any other room in the house. I love this poster.  I think I got it at Michael's. Love these barstools

Yesterday we finally transitioned the girls to their toddler beds.  They were so excited.  I thought they might even take a nap, but I guess they weren't that excited.  Darn.  Anyway, they did very well!  Olivia got up and came into our room around 1:15 AM but Paul just took her back to her bed and she didn't fight or fuss and went right back to sleep.  Still holding out hope that the intrigue will lure them in for a nap today , but I'm probably going to be disappointed again. We still need to get big girl bedding, remove the wallpapaer border, repaint and hang curtains, but at the rate we're going we should accomplish that approximately one week before they leave for college.

I skipped last week's weigh-in (the 24th) because I had eaten entirely too much Halloween candy that week.  I did keep up with my workouts, however, and completed week 2 of C25K.  As of yesterday, I'm still hovering right around the -2 mark.  If I could just get back on track eating-wise, I could start losing some more.  The Halloween candy is gone and I've vowed not to buy anymore until the week before Halloween so hopefully I'll start making some progress.  At least this C25K thing is keeping me in the gym, whereas normally if I'm eating like crap I have no motivation to work out because, what's the point?  If I'm not eating well I won't lose, no matter how much I exercise.  Obviously, exercise is still good for you regardless, plus it helps to keep from gaining, or gaining as much, but I still can't motivate myself if I'm not eating good as well.  But since I'm doing C25K and I have to stick to a schedule, it's helping me stay on track...

It's time for this week's Show Us Your Life, brought to you by Kelly's Korner , and this week it's dining rooms. We have a very open floorplan, so when you walk in our front door the dining room is to the right and the living room to the left, with the fireplace straight ahead.  It's basically all one big room.     I bought the table and sideboard at Dania when I bought my first condo back in 2002.  It looked great in that condo, but for this house I wish I had black dining room furniture.  The table and sideboard are the same color as the trim, and then with the white walls (although we finally got one wall painted) it's just so blah.  And like most other rooms in the house, we have yet to hang curtains (not that we're going to hang them in every room, but we have yet to hang any). Looking in from the kitchen.  Need curtains! Looking in from the living room.  Notice the plastic protector underneath, for when the kids throw their sp...