Meet Evie

As if things weren't crazy enough around here, we have added a new member to the family.

Meet Evie - she's a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

We got her at only six weeks old.

Now eight weeks, she's a biting and pooping machine, but when she sleeps, I can hear my heart of ice crackling from the thaw.

She is very smart and learns quickly, so I'm hoping that potty training gets better...soon. :)

Work

It's hard to believe I've been out of work for two months already. I've been working harder than I have in YEARS. Actual, physical WORK. Hammers and saws and lifting heavy things and being so absolutely filthy that all you can think about the whole way home is collapsing in the shower WORK. Frozen snot, double-layered gloves, wearing men's long underwear LAYERED and crappy winter boots being thankful when the God-forsaken wind STOPS for a minute WORK.

Not that I didn't feel my old job was work - people don't believe how exhausting it is to HAVE to sit all day or to have to stare into the glow of a computer screen until your eyes involuntarily close or spasm. While that work left me so mentally drained that even emotional interaction became yet another thing to do, physical work left my body aching and tired, but my mind and soul energized.

When classes started, it got a little more complicated. See, the plan my mom and I formulated was this: I helped her work on the house she is remodeling, she paid for the classes I needed in order to obtain my real estate license. So I crammed 106 hours of class into a month, while helping my mom with her house and my brother with his business on my off days. Not to mention still being mom and wife at home.

Suddenly, I was getting the worst of both working worlds - I was physically aching and mentally drained. Since I finished up my classes the week before Christmas, I took time off the laboring work as well so I had time to bake like mad for our "homemade" Christmas.

We had our Christmas fun, but I can't help but feel like I cheated myself from enjoying the season, and subsequently feel guilty for feeling that, knowing that I was doing what needs to be done. And that given the times and our circumstances, we were lucky we had the time, gifts and food that we did.

Now that the holidays are over, I have this weekend to relax and get my house back in order before I have to push full-force into this new career. It seems almost cheesy starting down a whole new path in life at the beginning of the year. Like a really bad book plot. But at least it will make doing my taxes easier.

So, that's where I am with life right now. Taking every day for what it is and pushing past the tight cocoon of limitations I had set for myself, hoping that this leap of faith lands my family on their feet.

And one of the family

Props to my photographer allowing us to use some of our engagement pictures as family pictures. And props to my brother for keeping the kids [mostly] clean while they waited to jump in.

Mr. T

My new nephew - Born June 27th

Family Vacation

We took the kids to the Wisconsin Dells last week. It was my first time there (even though I grew up in Wisconsin) and now I'm really grateful I went when I did! I know a lot of us have had a lot of rain lately -Lake Delton flooded and reconstructed (and emptied) itself.

Anyway - on to the pictures!

We took the long way there and stopped for a tour at Niagara Cave before visiting with the grandparents for a night.

Once in the Dells, we rode horses at Canyon Creek Stables.

The stables had a cool petting zoo with a llama/alpaca (I can never tell the difference) who hissed a lot.

And a baby goat that loved Alyssa almost as much as she loved it.

We took a ride on the Original Wisconsin Ducks.

And played some mini-golf at Pirate's Cove.

We had a yummy lumberjack breakfast at Paul Bunyan's Cook Shanty.

And toured the Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum.

Our KidCabin Suite at the Great Wolf Lodge was totally worth the money.

Their waterpark was fun, too! The family (mostly Mike) ran to get dumped on by The Giant Bucket every five minutes.

By our second night, the rain had started in so the camera started getting left in the car. Our Lower Dells tour excursion into Witches Gulch was the last time it made it out for a while.

I'm Coming Out.

My secret identity has been compromised.

I leaked sensitive information about my family two posts ago.

Sure, Worker Mommy pointed it out and I got it fixed up. But I have no way of knowing who saw the information before that.

I had to make a choice. I could track the IP addresses of anyone who visited my blog from the first publishing time to the second and blackmail them to keep quiet (or, you know, just kill them). OR! I could just not do anything. Or I could come clean.

I have decided...The jig is up.

To tell you the truth, I was getting a little sick of the Blog Names, anyway. I had reasons for each one of them - the main being to protect my family from any weirdos that might want to come steal my babies in the middle of the night. But the more I think about it, the more I convince myself - they're never going to find them solely because they know our names. Because, really, we all have extremely common names. Not like my mom or sister - whose names will never be mentioned on here.

Without further ado, I give you the Butrfly Family Breakdown:

The Man = Mike
Sunshine = Alyssa
Ninja Boy = Nicholas
Butrfly = Amy (Me) (Oh, wait, you knew that one.)*

From here on out, we give up our Uber-Secret Identities and will stick with not letting our last names out.


So. There you go. Merry Late Christmas. I got you Information! Hope it fits.


*(Or did you? How would you feel if I told you that was NOT my real name??)

My Day as a SAHM

Things I wish I’d done differently this morning:

*Woke the children earlier
*Brushed my teeth and put deodorant on before we left to drop Ninja Boy at school
*Worn a bra instead of shelved tank
*NOT worn a hooded sweatshirt
*NOT let Sunshine wear her Christmas skirt, red horse t-shirt and American flag flip-flops
*NOT left my purse in the backseat of the car at Target
*Or…realized that I had before I shut the locked door

:)

I’m smiling, I really am.

An impromtu stop at Target after dropping NB off led to a very, very, stupid mistake. After the nice customer service lady let me use her phone and phone book to call The Man (who didn’t hear his phone - he was working) and the police (who would only help if I’d locked a child in the car), I tried one more time to get in through my trunk (haha, yes, my TRUNK was open…yippee!). When that didn’t work, I cried a little bit and decided to walk home.

I miraculously found my extra key right away. So I changed my clothes and we headed back. Sunshine rode her bike this time, which made it SO much faster. (OMG!). When we got there, I decided we’d been through a lot and could use some retail therapy. We both picked out a bunch of stuff to try on. I even bought a dress*.

In the end, it wasn’t a bad day. I think the Universe picked up that I wasn’t going to get in my exercise and forced it upon me.

So, anyway! That took a lot of time out of my day and I didn’t get all my writing I wanted done. Boo.

I had to thank you for all the birthday wishes, though!

My grandparents were in town for the weekend, so Saturday, we went to my mom’s for lunch.

She insisted that I leave the kids for the night and go out. “Get dressed up and go out!” She said. “Put on some nice clothes and have a good time!”

* “These are my nice clothes!” I said…which is why I bought the dress.

We did end up going out. To TGI Fridays as predicted. Really late, too. But we had fun.

I scored some Twins tickets from a guy at work Thursday. So after brunch with the family on Sunday, we headed down to the Metrodome to watch our Piranhas take on the Red Sox. We lose by a run…but we were really close to Tori Hunter AND the bullpen. I don’t get to do stuff like this very often so I was really excited to be so close.

I’m sure I’m missing stuff, but I’m tired and I need a shower like you wouldn’t believe (you so think I’m sexy now, huh?).

I’ll see you all tomorrow with part 3 or 4 or whatever it is.

WalkAmerica 2007

There won’t be a Green Challenge today. I was already buried at work when I had to pick Sunshine up early yesterday so my DCP could go see a dying relative. I owe Bossman some 'quality time.'

But I absolutely had to update you on:

WalkAmerica 2007!!

What a success it was this year!!

Minneapolis Team Bella raised $760 and Hunstville Team Bella raised $620. That’s $1380, which is over double what we raised last year ($685)!

We had gorgeous weather – it was 78 degrees and partly cloudy with a sweet, cool breeze.

The kids did really well. Ninja Boy was “siiick” when we got there…I think it may have been all the JUNK FOOD and LACK OF SLEEP from staying at BM’s the night before. After the first mile, he really got into it and even STOPPED COMPLAINING! It was amazing. Somewhere along the way I said, “I think you deserve some ice cream!” I still owe him and he won’t let me forget.

He also got to see TC again:

And my Sunshine, my dear sweet “I’m gonna exercise so I can be healthy” little Sunshine???? Well…

She didn’t get much exercise.

I will give her that my nephew, MX, demanded that she ride to begin with. (He’s rather persuasive.)

My mom and step-dad helped out with the kids.

My brother spent most of the walk sharing my sister’s Shuffle, singing Panic! At the Disco with his hat cocked, but managed to calm down long enough to take a picture. (Can you tell Kristina is of Scandinavian descent?)

My younger brother and sister made me so proud when they joined the team.

The Drama King:
Mrs. Urie (and me):

Just another of MX because he rocks:

Team Isabella wants to send our deepest thanks to everyone for all the support. We really couldn’t do it without you! I am once again amazed by the generosity of my friends and family. I am once again amazed at what good has been done in Isabella’s name.

And to my team members, you'll never know how much your dedication and support mean to us.

Thank You.