Colorado Part Two

Well Little G and I have returned from our Colorado adventure!

We spent the second half of our trip at my parents house. Little G enjoyed some super quality time with G'ma and G'pa B and Aunt Aubry! There were so many kisses and hugs to go around.

One of the highlights for me was taking Little G to go get his one year photos taken with Tanja. What can I say about this woman? Amazing. Shes amazing. Check out her stuff here: Contemporary Expressions. When I get to see the proofs I will see if I can share one or two with yall here. Her photos cover the walls of my home and if I had all the money in the world I would hire her to follow me around and take pictures of my whole life. When we started to take photos Little G took a spill outside on the stairs and never quite recovered to his normal happy go lucky self. I was so worried that the session was going to be a total bust, but Tanja showed me some sneak peak photos and you would never know that the majority of the time was spent crying and wiping snot. Im pretty sure she is a magician. I cant wait for these photos!

I got the opportunity to spend an evening with Aubry. We went to my favorite quilt shop (its too bad that its 3 states away from me) Snappy Quilts! Here's a link to there website: Snappy Quilts I did some serious stash building! I now have some wonderfully cute fabric that is begging to made into something creative. I have some ideas of what I want to do and will post those in the future! After quilt shopping we went out to dinner and then back to her house for some girl talk. I miss her so much. Maybe one day we will live close to each other!

My dads birthday was Friday. We went out to dinner at The Fort. This place yummy and weird all at the same time. We had rabbit and rattlesnake sausage as one of our appetizers and for my main course I had buffalo ribs. These things were HUGE!

After dinner we headed back to the house where mom and I had prepared the most delicious cake ever. Seriously good cake! And we even decorated it all cute and stuff. I might see if I can wrangle the recipe from my mom. This cake was a mystery recipe that was ::ahem:: borrowed? from a neighbor. It is affectionately known as "Sneaker Cake" for the mysterious and sneaky way that the recipe made it's way into our recipe box.

Dad got lots of fun presents and I think he really enjoyed his birthday.

On Saturday Dad flew us back home. Little G and I just love flying with G'pa. Matt was at the airport waiting to pick us up and take us out to lunch. It was so fun to be able to spend time with almost all of our family!

And now I need a vaca from my vaca. I spent the day doing laundry, pulling GIGANTIC weeds out of my yard (hence the plea post), cleaning, and putting everything away. Whew. Im glad to be home!

A plea:

Dear Weed Fairy,

Please Cease and Desist. Your cooperation in this matter is of utmost importance. If you cannot comply with this order I will be forced to turn you over to the Garden Police.

Sincerely,
Kalynda

Colorado Part One

AHHH. What a wonderful week it has been. This past Friday Little G and I caught a flight out to Denver to hang out with both sides of our family. This was the first time that Little G and I have flown commercial.  We have both logged many flight hours together, but they have all been on Grandpa's plane. I was a nervous wreck. I know when you are cruisin through the airport and you see that one mom dragging a huge diaper bag, pushing a toddler in a stroller, all you really think is, "please, please, not my flight!" But God must have heard my prayers. Little G was awesome, he even slept for a good portion of the 2 and 1/2 hour flight. We had a bulkhead seat so there was a little extra room and I didnt have to worry about him pulling on or kicking the seat in front. To make the flight even better, we were seated next to a very kind and generous man. He is Active duty Navy and had a 3 year old daughter and 10 month old twin boys! So he didnt mind when Little G reached for the armrest or let out a little giggle. All and all it was a great flight.

My FIL picked me and Little G up from the airport and drove me down to my parents house where we gathered some baby items to make our stay at G'ma and G'pa K's house easier. Once the car was loaded with a large amount of baby crap we hit the road down to CO Springs. On Saturday G'ma and G'pa K had a big party to celebrate paying off their mortgage! I helped make some food and set up as best I could while chasing a toddler. The party was a hit! My In laws have definitely surrounded themselves with some wonderful friends and very kind neighbors. The favorite part of the night for many was the potato gun. My FIL taped a copy of the mortgage to a target  and placed it out in the open space behind their house. Everyone took a turn firing the potato gun at the mortgage! It was a lot of fun! All I can say is that Rick has one fancy potato gun! That thing was as big as my MIL!

Another fun part of this past weekend was being able to see my nephews and my BIL Mike. Mike just got back from a deployment to Afghanistan and has been enjoying being home and not having to do anything Army related for awhile. Mike has three boys all in that "not a little kid but not quite a pre-teen" age range. Those boys are growing up so fast. Each one has such a different personality! Asking boys for a nice picture is like asking gravity not to exist, it just aint gonna happen!

After a good weekend at G'ma and G'pa K's house, Little G and I are spending sometime up in Denver. My FIL, BIL, and nephews are spending the week up in Grand Lake at the family cabin, and they dropped me off at my parents house on their way up the mountain! The view from the back of my parents house is just amazing!

And thus concludes Colorado Part One. Stay tuned for the second installment!

Social Media Fail

Okay I will admit that I have always been a little resistant when it comes to keeping up with all the new things that are out there to help us all keep connected. I'm not brand new to blogging. My family keeps a private blog where we can keep up with each other and post about all the exciting things that are going on. I love the fact that its private. Its an easy way to get together in one place since we all live in different states. I guess that blog inspired this one. So yes this is a new blog, I still have a lot to learn and love looking at every ones AMAZING stuff. Blogland, I love you and all the wonderful people out there who share so openly.

So yeah, I'm a 20 something year old without a Facebook page (Gasp in horror here). I guess Ive never really had that strong desire to keep up or find friends from my past. Do I really care what my band friends from middle school are doing? No. All the people that really want to be in touch with me know how to find me. Or maybe the its the fact that I know Ill never have 4000 friends and that will make me feel not cool. I have plenty of other things that make me feel not cool. I know that Facebook can be so much more than keeping up with old friends, but I don't have the energy to do it. Now am I saying that Ill never have a Facebook page? No. Maybe one day. Today, I'm fine without one.

Twitter. What do I say about Twitter. I am definitely not cool enough for Twitter. What would I tweet that people would want to read? Yeah, I got nothing. Twitter one day, sure. Today, no.

Onto Pinterest. Ummm yes please. But not today. I can see Pinterest being something that could take over every free moment of my life. I'm smart enough to know that and right now I cant afford to spend every waking moment making boards, pinning crap all over the place, cruising everything and anything. Yes I can see Pinterest in my future, right now Ill have to pass.

Theres so much out there. How do I keep up? I'm still learning how to create my own little corner of the blog world. I cant possibly do it all at once. So maybe after I feel like I'm where I want to be with my blog and can start on something else. There is a Facebook for Dummies, right? Or maybe Ill just have my Grandma set up my Facebook page. Sigh, I know I'm behind the power curve but that's just me. So if you wanna know whats hip and happening with social media, don't ask me, I have no idea.

Living on Lockdown

An observation of life with a one year old.

I just about lost it the other day. Anyone with a toddler living at their house will know exactly how I feel.

There is a baby gate that blocks the hall to the front door and staircase. There is a baby gate that blocks the entrance to the dining room. The laundry room door always has to be closed (the dog food and water are in there along with all the cleaning stuff). The basement door must be closed at all times. The bathroom door must be closed at all times. To travel through my main floor, I must navigate through a series of pods, opening and closing each pod as I go.

Any drawer under 4 feet has a baby lock on it. I love the locks that I have which allow me to lock the door open. That makes putting dishes away much easier but I usually can only do that when Little G is sleeping.

The pantry doors have locks on them. The fireplace doors have locks on it.

Onto electronics. We had to move some stuff around but its still not perfect. Luckily right now he cant reach the giant TV but he can reach the Xbox, DVR, Wii and the volume to the stereo system. Ugh. There is really only one area in the entertainment center that encloses any of the list of devices so we decided to move the volume device in there. Let me tell you, there is nothing quite as terrifying as having the volume suddenly crescendo to 125. It scared all of us and always made Little G cry. So it took priority and earned the coveted "no touching space". Now we only have to deal with him randomly turning the Xbox off (this doesn't bother me at the least, but Matt on the other hand doesn't find this very funny at all), and pausing, rewinding, fast forwarding, etc... the DVR. Now that gets on my nerves a little. I usually don't watch much TV, but if I do sit down to watch a show or something it would be nice to not have to play defense the whole time.

I have a nice enclosed area in my quilting studio for Little G to play in. He has now figured out how to move the (for lack of a better word) cage around. He will move the cage over to my shelves and take ALL the nicely, color organized cones of thread off the shelf. He will move the cage over to the TV stand and press all the buttons on the DVD player that's under the TV. He will move the cage completely off of the nice foamy puzzle mat and now prefers to sit on the concrete. What the heck? Maybe its cooler on the concrete. Who knows.

There seems to be something new everyday and I would like to think that it is going to get better sometime soon, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it will only get worse before it gets better. And then when we finally feel like we can start lifting some of the baby proofing, baby 2 will be on the way or already here. HA. Life is funny that way.

Now that I have ranted a little bit, or provided a chuckle or two for any other moms or dads out there, I would like to say that every single thing that I mentioned above is totally worth it. Little G is the greatest thing ever. I feel so lucky to be his mommy. So for now, I will continue to survive in my somewhat baby proofed, pod-like, dysfunctional electronic house.

EDITTED TO ADD:
Because life is full of irony, while I was typing out this post Little G decided to go "exploring". I apparently forgot to close the bathroom door all the way. The picture says it all . . .

Edited AGAIN to add: Apparently I cant spell Edited - I know, spelling was not my major. Im leaving it there as proof of my goof.

A Good Weekend

What a weekend. It was relaxing and fun. Saturday night we went to Peel for dinner. Woodfired pizza, YUM YUM. The wait was long (super extra long considering we were waiting with a one year old and there really isnt a huge waiting area) but it was worth it!

Yes I drive a giant American made tank. The tank wasnt even on E. I love the burb, but I hate the gas station. OUCH.

I also got started on some new projects! Im trying some new stuff to get me out of my personal quilting funk. I bought fabric that I just love with no project in mind. I usually am working on a project for a class at a local quilt shop or something that has a set of parameters attached to it, but not these projects! I usually dont prewash my fabrics but it the spirit of trying new things, I washed these first. Now the fabrics are soft and they smell oh so nice! I already got started cutting out one of the sets of fabrics and will post some pics as that project progresses!

And whats a post without some cute baby pics?! So heres little G munchin on a PB&J. Eatting is seriously messy business!

The Preamble to the Ramble

There are a lot of things that I want. I know that sounds selfish but its true.

Im here to write about my creative endevors, my life as a mom, my journey to make my house a home, the hazards and heroics of the military wife, Im here for a multitude of things. Maybe someone will find it interesting enough to follow me along this crazy journey, maybe not. Like I said, there are a lot of things that I want and I guess that a fun, inspirational, honest blog to look back on is one of them.

So if youve made it through my first post, congrats! I hope youll be back to learn more about me and my fantastic journey of life and love.