Maniak Madness » Amy

Work in Progress — In more ways than one

Amy — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:23:53 +0000

We're finally feeling like home is HOME now. Our patio is in, the grass and landscaping are all in and we are now "allowed" to walk and play on it. I don't think I've ever spent more time outside this time of year than I have this year!

We got some "grown up" pots from Gerten's finally (not the cheapy plastic ones that we've always had) and I'm really loving how the front of the house is coming along! And it's all painted too, I love the color.

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I've also decided since every person in our neighborhood seems to be a size 2, that it's time for me to crack down and lose this darn baby weight that's been hanging around. It's embarassing once you have a one year old and still look like you just gave birth a few weeks ago.

I've attempted many different approaches to doing this, but I know that I like food to much to really do some crazy sort of diet. So, I'm attempting a combination of excercise and just making better choices when I eat. This means less buying breakfast and lunches at work and more of brining leftovers and other things to eat for lunch.

Like many other busy moms, I have NO time to get to the gym during the week. A friend of mine from ScrapGirls has been doing some of the BeachBody workouts for the last few months and she looks AMAZING!!! So, I decided to give one of their programs a shot. She recommended the ChaLEAN Extreme to start out with. I'm only on Day 5, but I LOVE it so far and it's the longest I've ever stuck with a "workout program". It's definitely more strength training focused than just doing a 40 min DVD of pure cardio, which really doesn't do much for me these days.

The awesome thing about ChaLEAN is that it comes with all the DVD's that you need for the entire program, as well as the resistance band and the leg band, a nutirtion book and a complete guide and journal to track your progress. But, I really wanted to get a set of adjustable weights to use to maximize my workout, so I'm going to give these a try. I'll let you know how I like them.

They also want you to take before pics, so I need to get around to doing that one of these days...I promise I won't share them here.

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Mother’s Day

Amy — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:54:07 +0000

I had an awesome Mother’s Day this year, definitely one of the best yet! I also love how the preschool teachers do little things for Mother’s Day as well for the kids to bring home. The funniest thing was this little “About my Mom” thing they filled out. The first question was “My mom always says” and Ty’s response was”

“TO-NY”, when she’s mad

I just about DIED laughing. We’re always joking about how I say Tony’s name when I’m yelling for him and he thinks it’s hilarious when Ty mocks me when I do it. So, the fact that he told that to his teachers as the one thing I always say…well, I’m sure they were rolling!

I guess I also like to wear pink shirts and that my favorite thing to do with Ty is play Wii Fit.

I also got my first breakfast and bed on Mother’s Day, which consisted of a very tasty granola bar (again from the preschool teachers!) and lots of snuggles with the kiddos.

I then got to go shoot a gorgeous little newborn girl, which was such a pleasure.

We then headed over to my sister’s house to celebrate with my mom and family. My sister made some super yummy kabobs on the grill and the asparagus was delicious as well.

One of my fave new recipes are these super EASY and delicious potatoes:

Range Roasted Potatoes

Preheat oven to 425.

Take 3 lbs of your favorite potatoes, skin on and cut them up into chunks, not too big though.

1/2 cup of Olive Oil (I like to use EVOO)

1 package of Onion Soup Mix

Throw it all in a big Ziploc bag and shake it up (this is SO much easier than mixing it in the bowl, IMO)

Once mixed, put into a 9x13” glass baking pan and bake for 30–40 mins or until potatoes are nice and tender. Stir occasionally while baking. You’ll know they’re done when they’re a nice, rich golden brown color.

I think Sweet Potatoes would be really tasty too this way!

Here’s a few photos of my sweet monkeys from our day

It’s scary how much they look alike!

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Busy-ness

Amy — Mon, 17 May 2010 21:28:08 +0000

To say we’ve been a bit busy these last couple of weeks would be a crazy understatement! But, it’s all been good. I’m also giving the blog a mini-makeover, so please excuse the dust while I get it updated.

Today, Tony officially started his new job as a Trainer at Lifetime Fitness. If you know of anyone that’s looking for an awesome trainer, who takes his job VERY seriously, my man, is your man. We’re SO proud of him! I can’t wait to see him do well, which I’m confident he will.

We also went out of town to Dubuque, Iowa this past weekend for my cousin’s wedding. It was GORGEOUS and such a blast. I was honored enough to be asked to sing a few of the songs during the mass as well!

While we were in Dyersville, Iowa for the ceremony, we visited the Field of Dreams Movie Site! Surprisingly, I left my camera home for the weekend, so all I had was my camera phone. So, here are a few weak shots from that. You get the “picture” though. It was really neat to see it in person! And for just $5.4 million it could be yours! LOL

Yes, Kevin Costner’s tushie sat on this bench.

“If you build it…they will come”

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8 wheels

Amy — Sat, 08 May 2010 03:09:15 +0000

It’s probably been at least 10 years since I have gone rollerblading. Tyson got his first pair of rollerblades for his birthday (and some awesome pads and wrist guards too, thank goodness!). It did NOT go well when he first put them on him. He was scared out of his mind and held onto us for dear life. But, we tried again a few days later and I had remembered what they had taught them to do in his ice skating lessons, about standing with their hands on their knees and bent down. And sure, enough, it worked! He felt more and more secure, and before we knew it, he was cruising (slowly) down the sidewalk!

Little by little he’s getting better at it and he LOVES it. Brings back so many memories! So many in fact, that I dusted off my old rollerblades and took to the streets. I’ll spare you the details on how that went, but let’s just say my life did flash before my eyes just before I hit the pavement.

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Inspiring Office

Amy — Wed, 05 May 2010 21:03:29 +0000

Tyson's big birthday post is coming, I just need to finish uploading the photos (bad, mommy!!). In the meantime though, one of my projects was to finish my new office space in our house. I had a vision in my head and it was so awesome to see it come to life!

I must give my mom a MAJOR thanks for helping me get this desk. It is a DREAM and makes me feel so productive when I'm packaing up client orders and having all of my biz stuff in one place! Thanks mom!

The damask decals are from Uppercase Living. I'm an UL freak! I think I am going to add some more though as I want it to be a bit busier on that wall. I also need to get some more photos and what not hung in there and swap out the red boxes for white ones from Ikea. But all in all, I'm in LOVE with it!!

This is my little packaging station where I work on my clients' orders and make them all pretty!

This is the corner part of the desk, I love the little drawers for my various piles and such. On top are frame samples.

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Slacking 101

Amy — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 21:32:25 +0000

Yeah, that's me. I'm a total slacker. I've been INSANELY busy, but still, not really a good excuse. Nonetheless, I'm going to try to post some recent pics at least!

Here's Easter 2010! The Easter bunny was very good to our house.

We headed up to Scott & Amy's to see their new house in St. Cloud. It's SO nice to have them only about 90 mins away now. I can't wait to get up there more often to hang out with them and to go golfing with them.

The weather was SO gorgeous and for once, we dind't have to cover up our nice Easter clothes with parkas!

Here's B and Grandma

I LOVE this photo, these 2 little dogs are part of the brood of creatures from the Lee household. Aren't they cute? Bailey didn't seem to think so. She is DEATHLY afraid of small dogs, which is hilarious considering she lived with a Doberman the first year of her life!

Brotherly love. He's the *best* big bro in the world. Seriously.

Love this smile. Not lovin the hair...

We got a good family pic courtesy of Tony's cousin!

With the grandparents...so much for the well behaved boy!

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Showing off her birthday chair

Amy — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:25:25 +0000

Here's the birthday girl showing off her birthday dress and new chair from mom & dad. I just LOVE this little chair, it's so cute and I think I'll get lots of use out of it as a prop too!

We're getting better at standin now! yay!

I love this one <3

Big hazel eyes I think she's looking a lot like Tyson in this one.

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Project 52: Week 10

Amy — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:58:56 +0000

Ok, so did you figure out what last week's photo was of? I'll tell you. I was filling a bean bag with bean bag beads and it was a MESS!!!! So, there you have it!

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A Party fit for a Princess

Amy — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:02:02 +0000

We had Miss B's first birthday party at our house on Sunday. Just as we did for Ty's first birthday, we invited all of our extended families over to celebrate this day with us. It was so nice to see everyone and to have them all over to the new house.

Here's the birthday girl having her morning breakfast. Ty said "I wonder if she'll look older now that she's one" before she woke up in the morning. I think he was a bit disappointed when we went in her room to see that she still looked the same! LOL

As soon as b'fast was over, it was time to get the giant cupcake cake decorated for the party! We had a cupcake themed party.

We also had a whole slew of smaller cupcakes for everyone. I loved this Cupcake Stand, it was so cute to display them all! To feed my Esty addiction, I got these adorable cupcake wrappers and personalized cupcake toppers. I just loved how they all came together for the display! And Tyson was such a good little helper and put all of the giant sprinkles on the little cupcakes.

It's Party time!! Here with Grandpa Al & Grandma Arlene. Adorable birthday dress from here and bow from here.

The dainty pinky in the air. Don't we all eat our crackers like this? LOL

Who are all of these people and why are they here?

Time to sing!

Good thing we have our helpful big brother around to blow out the candles for us!

Time to enjoy a cupcake

SO big!

Time to open some present!

She LOVES her new tea party set!

Me and my girl

Tea anyone?

I'm still hoping to get a Bailey's first year post up later this week, so stay tuned for that!

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Project 52: Week 9

Amy — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:27:27 +0000

Ok, I'm going to let you guys have a little fun here and see if you can guess what I was doing that caused this havoc! Let's just say my vaccum did not like me very much after this.

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