Paige's Meet

Paige had an in house meet tonight. In house meets are fairly informal, but great practice for beginning competitors like Paige. She competes in 4 events: Beam, Floor, Vault, and Bars. There was a meet going on at the high school so we didn't have enough judges for all of the events. Because of this, only beam and floor routines were judged tonight. She got a 7.40 on floor. She was ahead of the music by several steps. She messed up on a backwards rollover and I think it rattled her a bit. That is still a decent score though!

On the beam, she received a score of 8.40. It's her highest score yet. The video for that is below. Overall, she placed 1st all around for Level 1 out of a total of 4 girls.

http://youtu.be/1dRYcEbaU3Y

What a week!

We didn't have school Monday...which was AWESOME! We so rarely have time to just hang out at home together. So, that's how Monday was spent. One last relaxing day before the week started and before starting my new job. 

I am loving my new job, by the way! I work with a lot of great people. There are about a million and one different things that I am responsible for so I'm always on my toes and I have a lot more to learn. The girl that I'm taking over for leaves on Feb 20th, so I have some time yet to learn before I'm thrown in head first. The hours are really flexible which is a huge blessing when you have a kid. I can see being there for quite some time. 

Paige had gymnastics on Tuesday night. I love watching her practice! She thoroughly enjoys it. 

She had dance tonight but I don't have any pictures of it. While Abe stayed at the studio with her, I decided to run to Target and get a few things we needed. I will probably have a ton of pictures from this coming weekend - we have a very, very busy one! 

Cookie Gala 2015

We are starting to gear up for Girl Scout cookie sales this year. I am our troop's cookie coordinator this year. This means that I am in charge of and responsible for all 14 girls and the cookies they sell. Yikes! I have a wonderful helper though so I have a feeling it will go pretty smoothly. Sales start February 13th so keep us in mind for all of your Girl Scout cookies needs! :) As family knows - we will ship them to you! That is about the only good thing about having the sale in the winter. Otherwise - it's terrible! There is no walking door to door with your girl scout in February in Wisconsin. In early March, it isn't so cold, but it's mud season. Lose lose! 

Anyway - today we attended our council's annual Cookie Gala. It is a fun event for our entire area. There were about 200 girls in attendance, plus their leaders and some parents. It was crazy in there! The Badgerland Council does a great job of setting things up though. It went pretty smoothly. Here are a few pictures from today! 

Not impressed with all of my photo taking.

Art Station

Paige and her best friend, Melanie

She's writing her "dream". Her dream is to be veterinarian! 

Playing animal charades.

Skee-ball - or in Girl Scout land, "Road Trip". Each slot had a different location and little tidbits about it. 

New Beginnings...Kind of!

I have been a stay at home mom since December of 2011. I did in home daycare up until October of this past year. With Abe's position being cut (company wide) in the end of June, I started thinking about going back to work. I have been ready for awhile, but at the same time, staying home with Paige was also more important to me. We did the daycare route when she was much younger and that is not something I ever want to do again. Too many bad experiences, frankly. That is why I became a stay at home mom in the first place...bad, bad daycare situation. 

Well, the time has come. I started looking for work in December. I was really nervous about how it was going to go. Taking a few years off of working is not looked kindly upon, regardless of WHY I was not working. Employers don't seem to care too much and I learned that lesson a few times. I got a call back early on in the new year from Fastenal. They are an industrial company. They have retail stores that sell all kinds of different parts, etc. Anyway - I was offered an administrative position in their transportation department and I accepted it. I start on Tuesday at 9 am! 

My job will be to ensure that all 62 of their semi drivers in the 5 states that the Winona complex handles are all in line with DOT rules and regulations, among other things. It is a lot of paperwork, but I can handle that. The hours are great. I will be able to drop Paige off and pick her up from school like I currently do. This means only part time, but I am happy with that. I will have to opportunity for full time in the future. I am secretary of the PTO at her school as well as one of the main volunteers for her girl scout troop. Add that in with her dance and gymnastics schedules and we are one busy family. I don't want to miss any of it, if I can avoid it. This job will allow me to continue doing those things. 

I am really excited to get back out into the workforce. I wear many hats, and am excited to add this one to the stack :) 

#4!

I am finding that this is a good way to keep myself accountable :) 

I finished my book this evening. It is the 4th book in the "Life as We Know It" series by Susan Beth Pffefer. It is called The Shade of the Moon. I didn't like this one as much as the other 3. I am hoping the author is working on another as this one left me disappointed. Abe laughed when he heard me mutter "What kind of an ending was that?!?!"  

So that makes 4 done in 2015. My goal is 50! From the reading challenge I posted HERE, I can mark off "A book with bad reviews." Ha! 

Busy Busy

This past week was crazy busy. Early in the week, Abe and I had several interviews. Keeping our fingers crossed that we get good news on Monday! 

We had gymnastics on Tuesday. Abe ended up taking her while I went to a Girl Scout Leaders' meeting. Cookie sales start up in our area on Feb 13th and I am our troops Cookie Coordinator aka "cookie mom". I think I have officially gone insane. This is a huge job but I have some great help so hopefully it will run smoothly. 

Thursday was another busy day. Dance & a girl scout meeting. While the girls were in their meeting, I held a parent meeting to provide info for the cookie sales. We have 14 girls, so there was a lot of paperwork to keep track of. 

In Girl Scouts, Paige's Daisy troop is working on earning their first Journey Award. I don't know all of the specifics but it involves learning about animals and how we can care for and protect them. They worked on a patch called the Birdbath award - they learned that they can care for themselves just as they do their animals. 

Last night (Friday) was PTO Movie Night. The rest of the PTO and I have been working on this since early December. The kids voted between 3 movies...Mr. Peabody and Sherman, The Lego Movie, and How to Train Your Dragons 2. The Lego Movie ended up winning. Figures - that is the only movie out of the 3 that we have seen...haha! Paige was happy though as that is what she voted for. We asked that families bring in donations for our local food pantry and we provided bottled water and chips for snacks. It was a success! We had approximately 120 people there. We went to the food pantry this morning and dropped off the donations. We had 118 items plus $12 in donations. We also had 4 trash bags full of clothing donations for our local Kloset - they provide clothing items for low income families in our area. 

We have NOTHING going on this weekend and it is so awesome! That rarely happens. I think Paige was even ready for some quiet days at home because she chose not to go to Open Gym at her gymnastics club this morning. We don't have another Saturday off for another month. I'm exhausted thinking about it. 

Hope all is well with everyone! 

My "Resolution" for 2015

I don't make New Year's Resolutions. I never have. Nothing has really changed this year except that I do want to challenge myself, in a way. I love reading. It is one of the first things that gets shoved off though when my schedule starts to fill up. So, I am challenging myself to READ! I have signed up to read a minimum of 50 books on GoodReads. I think I can do it! Even 20 minutes a day is enough to finish a book in a decent amount of time. 

While browsing Pinterest this evening, I found this challenge on PopSugar and I really like it! It adds in another dimension. We'll see if I can get it done. I :) 

• A book with more than 500 pages 
• A classic romance
• A book that became a movie
• A book published this year 
• A book with a number in the title
• A book written by someone under 30 
• A book with nonhuman characters
• A funny book
• A book by a female author    The Dead and Gone
• A mystery or thriller
• A book with a one-word title
• A book of short stories
• A book set in another country
• A non-fiction book
• A popular author's very first book
• A book from an author you love that you haven't read yet
• A book a friend recommended  Life As We Knew It
• A Pulitzer Prize winning book
• A book based on a true story
• A book at the bottom of your to-read list
• A book your mom loves
• A book that scares you This World We Live In
• A book more than 100 years old
• A book based entirely on its cover
• A book you were supposed read in school but didn't 
• A memoir
• A book you can finish in a day
• A book with antonyms in the title
• A book set somewhere you have always wanted to visit 
• A book that came out the year you were born 
• A book with bad reviews Shadow of the Moon
• A trilogy
• A book from your childhood
• A book with a love triangle
• A book set in the future
• A book set in high school 
• A book with a color in the title 
• A book that made you cry 
• A book with magic
• A graphic novel
• A book by an author you've never read before
• A book you own but have never read 
• A book that takes place in your hometown
• A book that was originally written in another language 
• A book set during Christmas
• A book written by an author with your same initials
• A play
• A banned book
• A book based on or turned into a tv series
• A book you started but never finished

So far, I have read Life as We Knew it and The Dead and Gone. Those are first two books in a series by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I am currently reading the 3rd installment of this series titled This World We Live In. This is a great series! I suppose I can go ahead and knock some of these off my list! 

Baton Twirling w/ the UWL Warriors

This past weekend, Paige had the opportunity to take Baton lessons with other area Girl Scouts from the UWL Baton team, aka the Warriors. This is a great group of women and they are seen at every single parade in the area. It was a neat opportunity. Paige came away from it very happy and of course, now she wants to take baton lessons. There is just not enough time for that though. 

Our Little Ham

Paige routinely asks us to take pictures of her. Since she got her AG doll in September, Sadie is now a regular in these little photo sessions. 

December 2014

I'll forewarn you - this post is very picture heavy! The month started out with Paige's first gymnastics competition. She did so well! She came home with 6 awards total, 3 of them were medals! She loved standing high up on the podium. Unfortunately, the pictures are not that great because we didn't have a very good vantage point at all. Gymnastics competitions really draw large crowds! It was pretty much standing room only. 

The Christmas season started with the return of our elf, Skittles. This is purely something fun for Paige. She is well behaved so we don't use it for those purposes. She loves waking up in the morning and looking to see what kind of shenanigans Skittles has pulled overnight. These were a couple of her favorites. She left her beads out one night and he decided he was going to make one of his own. Then, another night he thought that swinging from the ceiling fan would be super fun! 

Here are some pictures from Christmas. It is always so nice being able to hang out with family. 

Christmas morning at our house was awesome. Paige woke up around 7:30 and was set to go! Santa had come the night before and put up a super fun basketball game in Paige's room. It was a complete surprise! The rest of the morning was spent opening presents and playing a little before we went to my parents' house. 

We finished up the year like we normally do - I went bowling with my dad at Pla-Mor lanes at a charity tournament. Abe and Paige stayed home and rung in the New Year with video games and sparkling cider. 

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season and I also hope that 2015 is kind to you! 

November 2014

November was also busy and fun! Paige is in her school's garden club. The school has tennis courts and they are not used for that purpose. So, it was turned into a school garden. It is amazing! Dirt and mulch were piled on top of the court and voila! a garden was born. The kids learn all about the process from planting seeds to cooking with the times harvested in the fall. Paige has learned so much, and so have I! In November, the meeting times consisted of harvesting whatever the cold snap didn't kill. Turns out..Brussell Sprouts are pretty hardy veggies! 

Paige mastered the splits in November! She is still working on the sideways splits. She is very close! 

I remember taking this picture and being SO excited that I had paid so little for gas. Today? I filled up at $1.99/gallon. Crazy! 

Paige had a fun Girl Scout event at the Children's Museum this year. The girls got to walk the Red Carpet and put on a little skit. 

November 11th marked our first snowfall for year. 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

October 2014

Our first frost came on October 9th. I don't think anyone was expecting that. It got very cold very quickly! 

Paige continued to improve with gymnastics. We go weekly for an hour and a half. 

October was a pretty busy month for me. I am the PTO secretary for Paige's elementary school and I headed up the fall fundraiser for the school. It turned out to be a much larger success than anyone anticipated which is great! Paige really enjoyed the prizes that she earned from the sale....haha! 

Abe's birthday came and went. He turned 33 this year. At his request, we didn't do anything. He wanted to stay home this year, so that's what we did. Birthday boy got his wish! 

Paige continued to improve at dance as well. We had to get a few more things for her to wear because it is like a freezer in the studio! So cold! She picked out the skirt to match a cardigan we already had. 

Paige is in Girl Scouts again this year. She is a 2nd year Daisy scout. October was the month for the annual Nuts & Magazines sale. The mascot for this year's sale was the Sea Otter! 

Then, of course, was Halloween. Paige decided very early on that she HAD to be Elsa. I think every other 6 year old girl chose to be Elsa as well because it was hard finding a costume. There was a short time where I thought I would have to make her costume myself. We got lucky on a random trip to Target though. We went trick or treating in downtown La Crosse the weekend before Halloween. 

Then again at home with a bunch of friends Halloween Night. 

As you can see, October was a very busy, fun filled month! 

September 2014

Paige started 1st grade this past September. She loves school and was so incredibly excited for it to start back up again. 

September also came with new activities...dance and  gymnastics! We are very lucky to have several great dance studios to choose from. She attends Misty's Dance Unlimited every week for ballet & jazz. She is loving every minute of it. 

Her most favorite activity is definitely gymnastics. She is a member of Blue Angels Gymnastics Club. It's an amazing club loaded with wonderful coaches. She worked hard and caught on very quickly. Her coach heavily encouraged her to compete, so she decided she wanted to do it. At this point, she has been in two competitions and did very well. More on those later! 

Back At It

I miss blogging about our life. I haven't done it in awhile. Instead, I post things on Facebook. It is mostly pictures, which is great...but it's missing the story behind it quite often. So, starting tonight, I am going to catch everyone up on what's been happening around here since school began. We love you all!