Happy Halloween

Here are a couple more pictures from this month and our trip to the Pumpkin Patch. Katelynn dressed up this year as a 101 Dalmation, she was too cute (pictures will follow later). We took her out to a couple of houses, but she liked it more being at home and watching the kids come to our door. We did let her have a sucker tonight and part of a tootsie roll. Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!

Pumpkin Patch

Here is a pictures from a couple of weekends ago. We took Katlelynn to the Pumpkin Patch by our house. She loved it. The ground was really bumpy and she kept falling in all the holes, but she didn't care, she just ran and ran and was trying to follow any empty wagon that went by.

Learning New Words

Katelynn is certainly trying hard to communicate with Dan & I, but half the time we just don't know what she is saying. Pointing has not been her strong point yet either, she just kinda points into the air and we have no idea what she is pointing at. Last night we took out a new toy that she got for her birthday, it's a toy bus with The Little People, she loves it. So I was saying bus and telling her what it was and Dan is sitting back watching and she starts to say what she thinks I am saying, which was "BUTT". It was so funny and it was driving Dan crazy. All night I would say BUS and she would look at the bus and say"BUTT", "BUTT". I laughed all night!

Today we have our playgroup in Ft. Collins and tomorrow we are just taking it easy (no football for the Vikes tomorrow, we play Monday night!)

The Importance of Baby Gates

Last Friday I picked up Katelynn from daycare and we met Dan at home. We were all hanging out in the Kitchen/Living Room area and just chatting away. Katelynn usually wanders around and gets some toys upon arriving home. Friday she was in a really good mood (she must have known it was the start of the weekend too!) and she was chasing the cats and playing. Dan and I were just chatting away about our day in the kitchen and all was good. All of the sudden I remember when I walked in the door that day that the gate to the downstairs had been open, not unusual one of us usually closes it when we get home, but fear struck my eyes when I went "Where is Katelynn" and saw the gate was still open. We both whipped around and there is our little darling on her belly ready to make a slide down the steps. Needless to say we did not make it to her rescue as she was reaching for a toy that she had thrown down a couple of steps and there she went head over heels down the stairs, bad mommy & daddy. Surprisingly she was fine, of course it scared the crap out of her and there were tears shed, but for once no bruises! We spent the rest of the night catering to her every whim feeling a tad guilty.

Now we know the importance of the baby gates. Lesson Learned.

Banana Salsa Bread

I have had a couple of requests for this recipe so I figured I would just post it here for any and all that want to try it. My husband does not care for this bread, he likes regular banana bread, which I haven't made in quite awhile, I figure if I'm going to bake something I want to try something new (I know - for those of you who know me that's a scary thought, but it is just banana bread). With Katelynn here now we always make sure that there are bananas in the house (the quick and easy snack). For whoever wants to try this here it is:

Banana Salsa Bread:

vegetable cooking spray
1/2 cup butter
1 cup of sugar
3 medium ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup Pace Chuncky salsa (it gets spicy if you use a whole cup of salsa)
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking sode

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Spray 9x5x3 loaf pan with vegetable cooking spray
Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, using electric mixer at medium speed. Add bananas, salsa, and eggs and mix well. Add flour and baking soda and mix well. Pour mixture into prepared loaf pan.
Bake 1 hr. or until done. Cool in pan on wire rack for 15 min. Remove from pan and cool completely on rack.

Enjoy!

Birthday Girl!

My Birthday girl and a very proud mommy & daddy. Sept. 15th, 2006.

The Proper Care & Feeding of Husbands

So Katelynn is a little over a year old and I figured it was probably time to put my marriage up top on the priority list again. After having a baby their needs come first and foremost and they trump everybody (including yourself - this has been another hard lesson to learn, but that's for another post). I was browsing through some books at Walmart and came across this book "The Proper Care and Fedding of Husbands" by Dr. Laura Schlessinger - in brief it talked about how all woman want to be in love, get married, and lived happily ever after - I thought, wow, I really agree with that, maybe this will give me what I've been looking for and can make my life wonderful, so I spent the $11.84 (the walmart discount price!) and bought the book and took it home with me. For those who don't know Dr. Laura is a writer and also has a radio show that people can call into and she gives advice.
So interesting as this book has been (I haven't finished it all yet) I thought I would post a chapter a week on a brief summary of what Dr. Laura feels us women should be doing in our relationships/marriages and would love if people left comments on their thoughts. I have to say that while a lot of this makes sense there is still something that pulls me in a different thought pattern than she wants or says that we need to be as women. I hope that anyone reading these will have fun with it as well and view it at least as something interesting to think about.
Chapter 1 - The Improper Care and Feeding of Husbands

Edgar wrote to Dr. Laura:
"I laughed when I heard the title of your new book. I thought, It won't happen. What woman would buy it? Who cares about us men? There are a few good things that men want so badly they would do anything for it. I think a good number of men want respect more than love. They like to feel they have some power. I nearly cry when you tell a woman caller to respect her husband. There is so much selfishness in the world. Prosperity has allowed women to be so independent, and thus so selfish. I always feel as though I come last - my feelings come last, my needs come last."

Basically in the beginning of this chapter Dr. Laura is talking about woman and the double-standards that they give to men -

Example: When women expect their men to "understand" when they're not interested in sex, but when the men don't or can't perform - watch out!.

She states that this double-standard mentality is caused by self-centeredness. She believes this is a result of the "women's movement". She states that men are simple creatures and if you change certain aspects of your interactions, like magic you will see them change too. (Assume with the women's movement that there is a lot more man bashing and women clompaining about men together). She asks that woman behave "as if" things were lovely in the relationship: a call of affection during the day, a kiss at the door, a nice outfit when at home, a request for his opinion about something to do with the family, a comment of appreciation for something well done, a good meal, some alone time after work, and a cuddle (or more) at bedtime.
(Okay upon reading this list I know I was thinking "what the hell happened to my day, my alone time and my hug and why the heck do I have to make the meal and dang that's a hell of a list along with taking care of the children).

So one guy wrote in and said "whatever happened to my sweetness? If you act like a Bitch you will be treated like a bitch. He asked his wife once if she wanted something, as she was being unusually nice. She angrily said to him "I would never be nice to anyone to get them to do something for me" So, what was the alternative? Treat them like Shit? A man takes care of his woman and a woman should take care of her man, what a concept.

(Okay, so I have to say that I see where this guy in particular is coming from, and it makes sense).
She feels that the woman's movement has tought us woman: that society and men will oppress; they are the enemy; do not submit; terminate or dominate. She states again that men are simple creatures who come from a woman, are nurtured and brought up by a woman, and yearn for the continued love, admiration, and approval from a woman, it makes them vulnerable to their woman's moods, desires, tantrums, criticisms, dissappointments, dissatisfactions, angers, and rejections.
So that is the jist of chapter one: Men are simple creatures and if woman take care of their man they will be happier and have a better marriage.
Please feel free to leave comments on your thoughts or trials of this.

So, I thought after reading this chapter, okay, I think I could probably take on a couple of things on the list to start off with and see what happens.

So there is chapter one of "The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands". Chapter 2 next week!

Congratulations Katie & Eric

Congratulations Katie & Eric. Married on Saturday, October 14th, 2006. We are all so happy for you both !

Too Sleepy to eat

Here's a picture from a couple months ago when Katlelynn fell asleep in her high chair, poor thing, too tired to even eat her supper. From what I have heard almost every parent has a picture of their kiddos like this and I thought I would share mine with you.

Graduation from Baptismal Class

So last Thursday we again hurried home from work, fed Katelynn supper, stuffed a diaper full of stuff and made the hour drive to Louisville for our final Baptismal class. Katelynn was not having a terrific time at Paula and Joe's this go round, I attempted to go to the bathroom before we left for the church and the meltdown began, she thought, I recognize this place and these people and you are going to leave me. We said a quick good-bye and out the door we went (she cried for about a minute according to Paula and Joe, not to bad). We arrived at the church and sat at our table and waited, they had said the week before that we were welcome to bring our kids with us if we would like, but Dan & I figured Katelynn would never make it through this and we wouldn't be able to pay attention and Dan did not want to miss another opportunity to be correct on questions. A majority of the couples did bring their kids with and with babies crying and toddlers attempting to talk and play it was a tad hard to concentrate on what they were talking about, but oh well, life goes on. After going over symbols we proceeded to the church where we met the Deacon and he went over the happenings during the baptism and the water and oil they use to baptize, pretty interesting. One thing that we need to do it find a white baptismal gown for Katelynn, the rule is "they must be in white", great - now where do I find a 24 mo - 2T baptismal gown? That will be my job for the week, scouring the internet looking for one, maybe this procrastination isn't the way to go for me. As you can see I am not paying close attention to what is happening in the church because I am wrapped in my own thoughts (and watching this 2 year old trying to play in the water and his mom chasing him all over the place).
So the Deacon says there are 3 questions that we must answer as parents during the baptism:
1. Are you here to have your child baptized?
2. Do you believe in the Catholic church?
3. Do you agree to raise your child catholic and keep their faith alive?
So the Deacon proceeds to go over each question and the 2nd question "Do you believe in the Catholic Church" he says the "C" on Catholic is a big "C" and we are all proud to be catholic and should rejoice with this answer - I just put my head down and knew what was coming, Dan whips his head and eyes towards me (he does not follow the Catholic church, nor does he want to be a Catholic) and gives me the look, "I am not going to do that". He whispers to me, I am not going to lie in the church and say "yes" to that question, what am I supposed to do? Me, I don't know, we'll have to ask what you are supposed to say. Dan wants to ask in front of the entire crowd of Catholics and I said, obsolutely not, you wait until the class is over and we will ask him in private. So we did and the Deacon said that Dan will need to put it in his own context and that his "c" can be a little "c", but his answer will still be "yes". Whew, drama over, thank you lord.
Class is dismissed and we all get the A-okay to have our children baptized in the church, now we just have to set a date.
Back to Paula and Joe's to pick up Katelynn and how does any Minnesotan celebrate, with a beer of course! So we had a beer with Paula and Joe and visited for awhile, Katelynn was still awake, way past her scheduled bedtime, but I guess for one day it won't do any harm. All in all it was a good, fun (and entertaining) experience.

Catholic vs. Lutheran

So I have been a procrastinator in this area a little bit, but I figure as long as I get it done before my kid turns four then I still have one up on my brother, sorry Jeff.
I am talking about getting Katelynn baptized. As most know in the Catholic church you have to attend classes before the church will let you baptize your little babe, so a year after she is born and a little prodding from family members, here we are going to our second and final class tomorrow night. Last week was interesting enough, only about half of the couple that signed up for the class actually showed and there seemed to be 2 couples that were woman couples , so after seeing this Dan and I thought we were doing pretty darn good
* Married (man and woman)
*Child after marriage
*Showed up for the class -
Later we thought not so much - we looked at our sheet to be sure everything was correct and the first line -
*Member of the parish - No.
*Parents Catholic - one yes, one No.
*Married in the Catholic church - No
(and then in scribble, needed annullment next to Dan's name) - man - 3 strikes your out, I'm shocked they let us in, but we have a trump card we threw in - Paula and Joe are going to be her godparents and they do go to the church and everyone at the church knows them- we're in. So the husband and wife teaching the class procede and start asking questions and telling us about baptism and what it means - this and that (and we later discover - you have to take these classes again - for each kid - jeez)
First question - we are talking about born again Christians and if someone knocked on your door and asked us if we were a born-again Christian what we the answer be? Me - I have no idea. Dan starts thinking and reasoning and brings up the New Testament and Joviah's witness and decides the answer is 'Yes' and our table goes with him - he is correct. Blow me out of the water my husband knew the answer and of course goes on and on about how he knew (the Lutheran) and I did not (the Catholic).
Second question - The Original Sin. Who ate the fruit first - was it Adam or was it Eve? The guy teaching the class stated that it was Adam, but Dan disagreed and the next night proceeded to call everyone and ask them - Joe (my uncle not his brother) called us back and said that it was in fact Eve that took the first bite of the forbidden fruit - the apple. Amazing - now of course the big thing in the house is Dan (the Lutheran) knows more than Taryn (the Catholic) and of course categorizes all of us Catholics together, sorry guys!
So tomorrow night should be intersting and I have not had a chance to study up on anything over the past week, but maybe it will be my night to shine.

Work Venting

Okay - it's only 9:45am this morning and I am already mad. I am up to my eyeballs in projects and I have just recently taken over half of the job duties of someone else (which for the record they are very pissed about) so I get 5 minutes of training from her from each thing that I am supposed to do, obviously you can't cover much in 5 min. So this morning I am calling the state helpdesk and they are rude as hell to me because I don't have all the information and haven't completed a form that I need for them to fix our problem - didn't know there was a form, didn't know there was a website to find these forms - nice huh ! This has been an ongoing problem since I took over these duties - either she didn't train me at all or left out a big chunck of information -sorry, but what a bitch! So now that I've bitched and moaned - it's off to make my popcorn for a morning snack and keep plugging away at the Excel Spreadsheet and the new database that I learned this morning - who invented Excel - love em and hate em - my eyes burn after looking at little numbers and letters all day on the screen, but oh well it keeps the paychecks rolling in - back to the grindstone.

Day One

Welcome to the world of DSL. Thank you lord, my husband has finally let me purchase a new computer for our business and upgrade to DSL. I can now stop using work time to look-up crap on the internet! I am supposed to be doing bookwork right now, but instead I am having fun playing on the new toy in the house. I just put Katelynn to bed and did the dishes and now I am going to have a beer, do some bookwork and watch the end of the Broncos game. It's raining here today and later tonight we are going to get the first snow of the season - we can't wait (I'm sure next week it will be a different story, but then again this is Colorado, it could be 80's next week - that's why we will probably never move back to Minnesota, you can't beat this weather. Dan is busy working everyday and picking up more and more work, which is good for us!
Well, back to the bookwork - I am trying to do an hour a night to keep a happy home.