Just Some Stuff

I am staying up until 11 just so I can watch Britney Spears make an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel tonight. It's spring break which means no homework which means I am going to stay up late just because I can. I've got an hour to go until it airs, so I figured in the meantime I would blog about our week. 

This last Saturday we were able to attend a luncheon for my Great Great Grandma Dee's 90th birthday! There was a lot of family celebrating her birthday and we were able to visit with some, but our time at the luncheon was brief since a cranky 'someone' needed a nap big time. (And no, I'm not talking about me.) I tried to borrow some of the photos from it off my Grandpa's Facebook, but to no avail. Did they make it harder to take pictures off of someone else's Facebook account? Not, that I used to do that before or anything. Which by the way my Facebook hiatus lasted all of two days. *Sigh* I felt too disconnected from what all my friends and family were doing! 

Yesterday we bought  $60 dollars worth of gift certificates to KID2KID for only $30! It's a kids consignment store in the area where we had found some nice winter clothing for Sawyer when we first moved here. We figured we could buy him a ton of summer clothing with those. I went to the store this morning and used one of the $20 vouchers. We left with two jackets, three pairs of shorts, 1 pair of pants, 1 pair of overalls, a book, and a little pull-back train. What Sawyer really wanted and had eyed the moment we walked in was the Thomas the Train carrying case that sat high up on a shelf and was filled with metal trains. After Matt and I thought about it the rest of the day, we ended up going back with another voucher to get it. Technically because we only paid half of what the vouchers were worth, we really only ended up paying $8 for the whole case. When we got home Matt looked it up online and for what we got, there were people on Ebay trying to sell the exact same carrying case for $40 and that's without the trains inside it! 

We figured his train obsession seems like it is here to last and the fact that he played with those things for three hours straight when we got home justified us spending the voucher on toys instead of summer clothes! Besides, summer is all about letting your kids run around naked anyway, right?

Then tonight we had our favorite dinner. It's a tradition Matt's family introduced to me to when I first moved to California and I'm so glad they did: Chili Spaghetti!!

 Spaghetti + a can of Hormel Chili (preferably the one with no beans) + some Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top = one tasty dinner that is perfect on a 

cold day, which today most definitely was.

 Bath time!! 

I tried to be somewhat modest and blur out Sawyer's nether regions. I can't help it if I think a baby bum is one of the cutest things in the world! I mean really, its the only bottom that dimples look good on! 

And that concludes the Koprowski week wrap up. 

Raise Your Hand

Sawyer is beyond obsessed with chocolate milk. 

I can't really say I'm surprised. Ever since I've known Matt, he has made a glass of chocolate milk in the evenings. And me? Well, chocolate and I have always had a tight knit bond, but I never thought I actually liked chocolate milk, that is, until we started buying whole milk for Sawyer and I tried some with that. 

W-o-W. 

I highly recommend ditching the skim! 

Usually in the mornings we'll fill Sawyer's sippy cup up with his first glass of milk for the day and add some Nesquik powder. Then we try to save the second until after dinner and make him drink water throughout the rest of the day. But be careful, because in the meantime if you let the words "Chocolate" or "Milk" come out of your mouth you better believe he will drop everything and run at the speed of lightening over to the fridge, raise his cup or hand in the air and do his little chocolate dance which looks like a highly caffeinated pony prancing in place. Whimpering may or may not be part of the antics. 

The other day we were in the living room and I saw the mailman go by outside so I asked S. if he wanted to go with me to "Check the mail." Next thing I know he drops his trains and bolts over to the fridge and you know what else ensued. Apparently "check the mail" said rather fast sounds a lot like "chocolate milk". Duly noted.

Little This, Little That

Sawyer found a teddy bear on one of my parent's bookshelves. I hope they don't want it back, since he has laid claim to it.  Right after he'd found it,  Matt saw him standing at the top of the stairs hugging the bear tight with the its head nuzzled into his neck. Where's the camera when you need it?! This photo was taken not long after. 

My sister Megan and her husband Kevin came into town to spend their spring break here in Boise. Kevin is in the Air Force so one day we all went out to the base in Mountain Home for fun. On the way home Sawyer was getting antsy sitting in his carseat, so we handed him a tissue box so he could play 

"Pull Every Last Tissue Out".
He was VERY good at that game. 

 His glee at having tissues floating all around him was so worth the $1.50 that the box cost. Plus we just stuffed them all back in it when he was done. They're still clean, right?!

That same night Matt and I had planned a date night, a long overdue overnight date!! Our first since Sawyer was born 18 months ago. I'm still not sure why we waited so long to get away for a night. We had booked a stay at the Oxford Suites in Boise. They have a Romance Package there that is a such a good deal! If you live in the area and want to check it out, you can find it here.  With it we got a gift card to go to Goodwood for dinner and a gift certificate to Panache Spa. I tried a few weeks prior to book a couple's massage for us to have before dinner, but they didn't have any available for that day. They would even have sent a limo to the hotel to pick us up in! I think I was more excited about the limo ride than the massage itself. I was bummed we would have to save the certificate for a later date, but I'm pretty sure Matt was relieved since he was more than a little squeemish about the idea of having some random masseuse rub him with scented oil. Guess I'll be using the full certificate for myself! No complaints there ;)

After dinner we went and saw the movie Limitless. It was really good, well if you like twisted movies that play games with your head. We do. 

The next morning we got to sleep in until 9! What extravagance! No seriously, I can't remember the last time that happened. Aaaah. Relaxation. After a nice breakfast we were refreshed and reenergized enough to go back home and play with this Thomas the train obsessed little man. 

Kevin and Megan bought him a remote control Thomas that he takes everywhere with him! In the car, in his crib, in the stroller. One day when Sawyer would NOT take a nap because he was too busy "driving" Thomas all over the sides and rails of his crib I finally had to go in and take the train away. I told him Thomas needed to take a nap too. So Thomas napped in the toybox and Sawyer finally napped in his crib. 

And F.Y.I. for anyone who cares. I have "unplugged" myself from Facebook until the end of the semester. Once finals are over, maybe I'll decide to reactivate my Facebook account.  I haven't decided yet. But for anyone who wants to get a hold of me in the meantime, you probably have my cell # and if not you can get a hold of me through my email which is kkprow@gmail.com. 

Bottoms Up!

I would say we were just drinking these lovely green concoctions in honor of St. Patrick's day, but really they have been an addition to our diet lately. What are they? Green smoothies!! 

Yum-o.

No, seriously, they really are good. 

Sawyer seems to have an aversion to any green vegetables I put on his plate. Maybe he doesn't like the texture of green beans or asparagus? I'm really not sure, but the only other thing I could think of was a salad and I highly doubt a toddler is going to eat a plate of lettuce. I had visions of lettuce leaves being thrown in the air like confetti if I put a plate of those in front of him. 

Instead we've been making green smoothies to get a good dose of veggies and fruit in. He's just abut to start guzzling in this photo. He's drank every one I've made and seems to enjoy them, but I'm sure it doesn't hurt that he sees Mom drinking it too. Pretty much anything Matt or I eat, he thinks he needs to be eating too. It could be worms out of a can for all he cares, it must be good if we have it! This particular smoothie that we were drinking was:

1 banana

2 cups spinach

1 cup frozen strawberries

1 cup peaches

1/2 cucumber

1/4 cup water

I have a feeling drinking one of these a day ensures a lot more vitamins for us than those Toy Story shaped gummy vitamins I bought whose first ingredient is sugar!

Camel's Back Park

Yesterday we ventured out to play at the park since it was warm outside. Well, the upper 50's anyway which is warm by Idahoan standards. Camel's Back Park was my all time favorite park as a kid. There's this massive hill with tons of trails to hike up and over to the other side where there's a few ponds down below. They used to have this AMAZING playground there with long metal slides going down half of the hillside, but those were torn down years ago for a 'safer' playground made out of plastic. Dang lawsuits. Don't bring your kid to the park if you never want them to get hurt and are going to sue when they do! Maybe you should  watch them more carefully. Sheesh. Alright, while I am super dissappointed that all the 'cool' toys from my generation have been replaced with lame plastic ones, I guess ranting doesn't change anything! And it's not like Sawyer knows what he's missing out on anyway :) 

He did really enjoy this dinosaur bouncing toy, as evidenced from his toothy grin below.

We swung on the swings for awhile while Matt took some photos. 

And then he captured this one, which I absolutely

L-O-V-E. 

After playing on the toys we attempted to walk up one of the trails to get to the top of the hill and take some photos, but it was much too difficult due to the combination of our recent lack of exercise and pushing the stroller up an incline. Instead we opted to go AROUND the hill instead of over it. There were tons of people out walking and running with their dogs. One of those dog walkers stopped to take this photo of us. I did myself and all of you a favor by ever so slightly cropping my bum out of it. Diminishing it's rotund size is a current work in progress. 

While on our walk we encountered the very first caterpillar of spring! I have always loved cute fuzzy little caterpillars and wanted to pass that on to Sawyer so I let him touch it in my hands. The result? A very squished and very dead little bug that will never get the chance to become a butterfly. Apparently Sawyer's touch was more of a death squeeze. I should have known since he'd already been dubbed the caterpillar killer at 5 months in this photo you can see here

And this photo is for Matt's mom Carol. Look familiar? :) She took a photo of Matt (when he was about Sawyer's age) of he and his dad walking hand and hand. It is priceless.

 You can see it here. 

I love Saturdays like this one.

 Outdoors, enjoying God's creation and the company of my two favorite men. 

Training Begins

There's been a lot if 'training' going on around here lately. I'd post a few more photos for proof, but Blogger is refusing to upload them at the moment. To give you an idea, we've got trains going up and down the stairs, beneath the barstools, around the kitchen island, and sometimes the conductor even takes them for a dip in the dogs water dish and back out again. 

Unfortunately, either the caboose or the engine get detached from the rest of the train cars quite often. As in every 3-4 minutes. Then I see this sad face running to me asking (or more like implying since he doesn't really use words yet) to put them back together.  After about the twentieth time of the train falling apart, this little conductor starts to fall apart too out of sheer frustration. That's when we know it's time for the trains to retire for the day and instead we go watch a train called Thomas on t.v. instead. 

Schooled

This cartoon pretty much sums up my past study habits; however, this past week I was schooled hardcore because of how awesome I am at procrastination. I knew two weeks ago that I had a 5-6 page paper for my online English class due Friday at midnight.  Had the subject of the paper been on something interesting I would have started writing it the day it had been assigned. I actually enjoy writing and even researching (although correct grammar, punctuation and MLA format are not nearly as fun).

 Unfortunately for me, this paper had to be an argument on a political social issue. *Yawn*  Not that some political issues don't interest me, in fact there are a few key ones that tend to get me all fired up which is precisely the problem!  In the case of writing an argument it's best not to write on a topic you feel so passionately about or you'll have a difficult time presenting both sides of the argument fairly.  Finally, after much deliberation (catchy line from Tyra on American's Next Top Model) I decided the issue of outsourcing American jobs to other countries was something I could get enough words in on to fill the minimum 5 page requirement. The only problem was I didn't actually start typing out a sentence until Friday night around 7 pm! Not a very smart move on my part. 

Thankfully I have a very smart husband and father who are both "in the know" when it comes to politics. They each gave me some useful information on the topic so I somehow ended up sounding like I knew what I was talking about amongst quotes and research findings. Finally at 11:30 pm on Friday I submitted my 5 pages.

 What a relief! 

I can honestly say I learned my lesson. No more procrastinating! 

To ensure I do just that I had Matt take the Facebook app off my Blackberry. That cursed little red blinking light, informing me I had a new Facebook message on my phone, has been the downfall of every study session. Not only that, but I also felt like my life was being defined by what my next status update was going to be or I was checking on what other people were doing in their life instead of living and enjoying my own. Apparently I didn't have enough self control to monitor my Facebook usage,  which is why I resorted to just removing it. Since Matt took it off my phone a few days ago I can't even explain what a refreshing feeling it's been! And the funny thing is, I don't even miss it. 

I also found out my Chemistry test just got moved up a week, is going to be this coming Saturday, and will be covering 4 chapters instead of 3. Instead of freaking out, not studying at all, and just hoping on sheer luck that I pass the test (which has worked before, but is not a very reliable method!) I actually called my Aunt who is going to watch Sawyer for me tomorrow so I can study.

 Look at me, I'm being a responsible student! 

Middle of the Week Vacay Day

What better day to take off than right smack in the middle of the week?  We needed to head up to McCall and do some maintenance at my parents cabin anyway so we decided to make it into a mini vacation day. 

First order of business: sleeping in.

Even Sawyer slept in later than usual so he must have known today was not a typical Wednesday. The drive to McCall was so pretty and the only music that seemed appropriate to listen to was some good ol' John Denver! Too bad we couldn't find any of his songs on the XM radio. Instead we laughed, listening to "The Emperor's New Groove" that Sawyer was watching in the back. I have yet to actually see that movie, but from hearing it play in the car I think I could quote every line now. Luckily the lines are so hysterical that it hasn't gotten old yet. 

Once we hit Donnely, it started snowing, but the flakes coming down were so light and fluffy they just danced around on the air. It looked like we were in the middle of a snow globe that has just been shaken up! We got to the cabin at about 11 and from the moment we walked in, to the moment we left, Sawyer was zipping around the whole place. The cabin is roughly 3200 square feet (is that right, dad?) and sleeps about 22 people and since they rent it out it has minimal furniture which  =  lots of wide open space for him to run around and dispel some energy.

We finished at the cabin around 12:30 and had some burgers at My Fathers Place. They were unbelievably delicious, like usual. Before we left town to go to Gold Fork Hot Springs we stopped at the McCall Drug store which I absolutely love because they have the most random, cute toys and gifts there. Since Sawyer had been so good on the drive up and while we were at lunch, we bought him this stick horse there.

It was love at first gallop.   

And lastly, we floated, splashed, swam and soaked in the hot springs for almost two hours. I wish I had brought my camera so I could have taken some photos while we were there.

 It was the perfect way to end the day. 

After we left, S. konked out in the car for pretty much the whole way home. I did too, but I'm a narcopletic when it comes to being a passenger on car rides. 

Seriously. 

Now we are home, Sawyer is in bed, but I refuse to do an ounce of homework this evening because it's technically still vacation day! 

And lastly, below is a video that has nothing to do with today, but I've been meaning to post it.