I'm a pirate!

Nola's a pirate, just like her daddy!

Sorry about the sideways video- it was too cute not to share!

Funny Faces

Nola and I love to take pictures with Photo Booth.  When I opened up my computer last night she pointed to the logo and said "picture?"  We spent the next 30 minutes playing with effects and switching backgrounds.

Nola thought it was hilarious.  I did too.  We were laughing the whole time.

She's getting old enough now where I can say, "Make a funny face!" and she will. 

 Pretty cheap entertainment for a two-year-old!  And an almost 30-year-old :)

Good Bye Sochi!!

As I am typing this, the closing ceremonies are finishing up in Sochi.  It will be a few more hours before they air in the US and I'm wishing, like I always do, that I watched more of the games.  Maybe one day I'll just take 2 weeks off and do nothing but cheer from my couch?!?!  

 

My parents were in town last weekend and we had some Olympic events of our own.  Here are Gramcy and Nola preforming in their Olympic Ice Dancing debut.

Nola is also the first athlete in history to compete in both Ice Dancing and Speed Skating events- take that Bode Miller.

That's wax paper on her feet.  It really does feel like you're ice skating!

Nola took a tumble towards the end of the race.  Officials are looking into a possible foul.  They're also checking to see if it's legal to hold a golf club and a wand while competing. 

She ended up with a medal, but refused to wear it.

Some athletes are so stubborn.

I was lucky enough to wear a real Olympic gold medal from the games in Vancouver.  A friend of a friend is a member of the 4 man bobsled team that won gold 4 years ago and bronze earlier today.

How cool is that?  Maybe I'll get to try on the bronze soon!

 

Last living room project

I've wanted to mount our TV for a long time now.  Rob didn't want to because he thought it would be a pain to run cords through the wall.  He finally gave in and got me a TV mount for Christmas!  Mounting the TV was pretty easy.  We ran into a few problems when some of the cords were too short, but other than that it was a smooth sailing.

Before the TV was mounted:

 After the TV was mounted:

Originally, our TV stand was smaller and we had mirrors hanging around the TV.  Then we found an old dresser on Craigslist and turned it into an entertainment stand.  I wanted to hang the mirrors again once the TV was mounted but needed a few more to fill the whole wall.  After I found a few mirrors (on sale!) I traced each of them on poster board to make a template.  Then I hung the templates up for a few days.  

I changed a few of them around and when I was happy with the layout I measured the mirrors so I could make a mark on the template where I was going to put a screw.  Using the templates made this project much easier because I could get the layout I liked before putting the holes in the wall.  And buying the poster board at The Family Dollar only cost me $3!

I'm sooooo happy with the way it turned out.  I know it looks busy, but that's totally my style.  It was defiantly one of the easier projects we've done to the house, and one of the last projects for the living room!  We still have to add baseboard and patch the part of the ceiling that we took out when we turned the closet into the pantry.  

We haven't worked on the house for awhile, and doing this project gave me the bug!  I hear the bathroom calling my name....

My favorite things- Olympic edition

I love the Olympics.  Love, love, love it.  Four years ago I was at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.  As someone who loves and has been to the Olympics, I have some thoughts about Sochi-

1. Winter vs. Summer-  People often compare the Winter and Summer Olympics and I think the Summer Olympics is favored by most.  I love both.  I have many memories of twirling around the house and doing the "Nancy Kerrigan" on my roller blades.  Plus, the wipe-outs are much better in the winter games.  Especially in slow motion.

2.  The drama- I love that every Olympics comes with so much drama!  All of the #SochiFails, stories of the "romantic" Olympic village, and remember the Canadian pairs' team that were cheated out of gold, but then shared it in the end?  And who could forget Tonya Harding?

3.  Bob Costas- Bob and I go way back.  I fell in love with him when he was coving a story during the Olympics about Amanda Beard.  She was talking about doing Playboy and he wasn't having any of it.  He makes me laugh.  Get your eye situation figured out, Bob.  We miss you.

4.  The Emotions-  I'm a little embarrassed to admit that the Olympics makes me tear up... a lot.  If I'm watching the games alone then I'm crying.  Remember when Michelle Kwan was slated to win gold, but won bronze instead?  And then during her free skate the next day she skated to Stings Walk In Fields of Gold?  And she was crying?  Well, I was crying too.  I cry when they win gold, when they don't win gold, when their families react, when Bob tells their stories and most of all during.....

5. The commercials-  The Olympic commercials KILL ME.  Show me a commercial of a little kid and his Mom chasing the Olympic dream and I'll show you an (almost) 30 year-old holding back tears.

I'm trying to get my students involved in the games but they aren't really interested.  I have a medal count on my board and often point to it and yell things like, "If you're not watching, they're not winning!" or "If you don't watch this, they're going to take it away from us!!!"

Some of my classes look inspired but most just look at me like I'm insane again.

SAY IT WITH ME.... U S A, U S A, U S A!!!!

Valentine's Day 2014

Happy Valentine's Day!

I didn't have school, so we spent the day in Lincoln.  We dropped Nola off at daycare and did romantic things like eat lunch, got my oil changed, shopped at Menards and wrote our wills.  Nothing says romance like deciding who's going to pull the plug when the time comes! 

Nola had fun at daycare and came home with lots of goodies.  We asked her who she loved at dinner and she said Nixon, who is one of her daycare friends.  Oh, to be two and in love....

We had a nice dinner and headed home to watch a movie.  Overall, a nice day.

Uncle Kyle

We got to see Uncle Kyle and Allegra last weekend.

Nola sure does love her only Uncle.

Sesame Street Live

Our last two weekends have been busy and fun.  My sister gave us Sesame Street Live tickets for Christmas and Nola was excited about it.  We told her she was going a few days before and when she woke up on Sunday the first thing she said was, "Elmo?"  

We started our day with a doughnut.   Nola wanted one with sprinkles.  

When we got there she wasn't sure what to think.  She was pretty content looking around at all of the people.  I gave her my sunglasses to play with while we waited.

When the show started she was hooked.  She went back and forth between me, Rob and her seat but never looked away from the stage.  She even did a little dancing.  I loved watching her enjoy it... for about 10 minutes.  Then I was ready leave :)

We stayed until the end and tried to get a few pictures.  This is the best one I got of Nola and Robert.  Did I mention she never stopped looking at the stage?

We also got one by the truck.

I caught Nola singing the Sesame Street song the other day.  She must have had a good time!  

Thanks FA!!