Father's Day weekend 2014

*** Please note: I started writing this post last weekend before I knew what kind of shitstorm was brewing and headed our way, but more on that later***

We have been housebound this weekend. After months of avoiding the inevitable, we have devoted this weekend to potty training our dear son. Things have been going fairly well...except for the fact that we are squarely in a standoff on the concept of #2. So now begins Poop Watch 2014.

I realized that I didn't post anything from Father's Day weekend so thought I would take a break from the vigilant potty reminding and false excitement about toddler underwear to share a few photos.

Saturday we went to the Iowa Craft Beer Festival and sampled beers for an hour or so. It was a fun outing but not sure it was worth the $30 a ticket. You got a souvenir glass and all the free samples you'd like which was fine. Weird part was that they charged $5 a ticket for designated drivers but then didn't even have water on site. Very puzzling.

Just two dads talking about dad things.

Sunday we gifted Joshie with this manly display of photos for his desk at work. In the afternoon, we headed to my dad's to grill out. Josh and Dexter made homemade ice cream for everyone. He's a worker, this one.

Hope all you dads had a good one!

Father's Day Weekend

Hello, friends! Thought I should pop in with a little Fathers Day weekend action before it gets too far away from me. Joshie and I had the chance to go on a date on Friday night. A real live date! We haven't been on one of those since February, people. Very exciting stuff.  So off we went to happy hour at The Continental where we enjoyed a tasty fried cheese plate. The gruyere puffs were my favorite. After that it was off to Zombie Burger. I swear I could eat my weight (and yours) in fries. Skinny fries preferably.

I tried out a zumba class with a friend at Gray's Lake and then we hit up the Farmers Market on Saturday. Dexter tried to wear this white hat with pink flowers that he found at Lolo's house to the market. And Josh in his infinite father wisdom, told Dexter that "we don't wear hats to farmers markets". Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies. And shocker, he actually listened and left it behind in the car! Mini donuts all around! Victory!

Then the skies turned a little gray so we headed home. We binge-watched the third season of Game of Thrones since it was HBO free weekend. The Red Wedding was particularly stabby. And when we had our fill of wildlings and Unsullied, we went to Target because we hadn't been in at least five days. We got the itch. We picked up a few necessities and a boatload of luxuries including this hat which is much better than that doll hat he tried to rock earlier if you ask me.

And then it was Father's Day and we decided that brunch was a lovely idea. As I write this, I'm thinking good heavens, all you do is eat! Days are distinguished by meals. Indeed, this is how we seem to operate around these parts. So brunch! Brunch is a great idea for toddlers because you don't have to order and wait for your food. But hold up, what about the wait to get seated, you say. Sunday brunch on Father's Day, there surely has to be a wait, you say. Ah, yes, there is a wait, friends. And my advice is as follows: if the wait is less than 30 minutes, if the sun is smiling upon you, if there is a sidewalk to explore, if your child has had a small Baggie of Cheerios on the way there, then brunch shall be yours. The outdoor waiting area is your new promised land.

Once our bellies were full, we stopped by Lowe's because that's what you do when you're getting ready to sell your house.

We spent the afternoon at Lolo's house to cap off the day. He treats Dexter like a little prince, which I suppose is what Lolos are for.

Dear, Dexter, you have some good men in your life. We are so very lucky to have this Grandpa (who was sunning himself in Florida on Father's Day, lucky duck!), this Lolo and this Dada.

All by ourselves with Dexter

When Josh was away last weekend, Dexter and I did this...

played with streamers,

went to the park,

 and fingerpainted.

When I was away at dinner with friends, Josh and Dexter did this...

Random questions we ask each other

Josh: If you had to get a tattoo of any one animal...?

Me: A phoenix...

Josh: She says without hesitation.

Me: Rising from the ashes. What would you get?

Josh: A wolf. A direwolf.* But I'd have to show that it wasn't just a regular wolf. So I'd have to have it next to a man to show size. Jon Snow.**

And then later on that evening while watching the UFC fight. Well, while he was watching and I was playing Diamond Dash. That game is kind of addictive, isn't it? That little panda and his push notifications full of extra lives. Downright devilish, he is. Anyway the fighters are making their way into the arena with their song playing in the background and I say...

Me: What song would you walk in to?

Josh: This one (plays it on his phone)


Me: He says without hesitation. I would pick the Let me Clear my Throat song. (plays it on his phone)

Josh: It would take you forever to walk into the arena.

Me: Yeah, either that or my humps.


*Note: We're truly this nerdy.
**Note: Yes, truly.

To our favorite

You are an idea man. You are a social butterfly. You are a chef. You are the best at rough housing. You are funny (and kind of a smart ass). You are the quintessential cool kid. You are well dressed. You are in favor of just one more. You are a hard worker. You are a very good friend. You are my kind of weird. You are his kind of crazy.

You are our favorite. Happy birthday, Joshie!

Pillow talk

Last night Josh and I pulled back the covers on our bed, snuggled in and talked about Mortal Kombat I and II and Streetfighter characters. So hot, I know.

Josh and I agreed that the girls in both games were weak sauce and that Raiden definitely conjured up images of Big Trouble in Little China. I told him that of course I tried to show solidarity with the Asian females so on occasion I would pick Chun Li, Kitana and the fan girl but my go to guy was Liu Kang (fireball? Bicycle kick? That's what I'm sayin'). Josh favored Scorpion. At one point in the conversation, I imitated E Honda's thousand hand slap. That impersonation was quite similar to my impersonation of Baraka's scissor thing. And then we drifted off to sleep peacefully.

Could we be more nerdy?

Thank heavens for a gamer brother and cousin who asked me to play with them so they could perfect their babalities, fatalities and finishing moves so that 20 years later I could have this conversation with my husband.

Who did you pick?

PS Um, I just realized that Kim Cattrall was in that movie!! What the what, Samantha?

That was fun

On our way home from the wedding we had this weekend, I told Josh that the amount I drink is directly proportional to the amount of space I require to dance. So by the end of the night, I was occupying a good  four or five foot perimeter. It was so fun and I sure do miss some of those peeps from college. It's hard not to get whisked away into our old College Hill days and whoop it up like it's 2003 when we're all together sans kids.

PS I about died and went to heaven when they played this song. The catchiest song ever, right?

To Dad, from Dexter

Dexter presented the following gifts to his father on June 17 in the year of 2012.

A six pack of Five Hour Energy, Josh's cure all after a night of beers. He swears by the stuff.

A shirt he'd been eyeing for an upcoming wedding.

And the piece de resistance-when Dexter was doing the nursing thing, Josh would give him a bath before bed, change him into PJs and then hand him over to me. It's a ritual that stuck so these two guys are bathtime buddies. Josh had the idea to do a black and white collage of all the different bath time hairstyles he gave Dexter before his first big boy haircut in February so we took the pictures but never got it done...until now.

 And for a closer look...

And finally this very appropriate card.

Hope the rest of you baby daddy's had a nice day too!

Father's Day weekend

What's on your schedule this weekend? I asked Josh if his ideal Father's Day involved Dexter or if he would be more into a day off from Dexter. He responded, "I don't know, both?" So as of now, I think we'll try to hit up Farmers Market as a family and then who knows? We have plans to grill bulgogi with my brother and sister-in-law at my dad's on Sunday and Josh also wants to try this sweet corn with miso butter recipe. Yummer. Did I mention how blessed I am to have a foodie husband? There are no words.

I intend to try my hand at this raspberry ice cream dessert for the big occasion.  I've never made much of anything an ice cream dessert so I'll let you know how that goes. And of course, the big Father's Day gift unveiling of 2012 is on the agenda as well. I don't think we'll ever be able to top the 2011 bike present but we'll sure as hell try, won't we, Dexter?

Summer O'Fun take two

I had no idea how much we had going on this summer until I looked at the calendar a few weeks ago. We had a summer/fall that was this crazy packed a couple of years ago and we dubbed it the Summer/Fall O' Fun. It was right before we started seriously thinking about growing our family. I should say that just because we have a crazy upcoming Summer O'Fun part deux doesn't mean that it's an indication of our intentions to add to this family right thissecond so don't hop on that crazy train, people.

In addition to the usual items on our summer agenda, weddings, 80/35, Bix and the State Fair; we also are taking our first family vacation with Josh's family, doing a picnic at Saylorville with my family (which we haven't done in years, like maybe I was in junior high years?!) and a trip to the Omaha Zoo with friends. These are the things of mom dreams.

We had the notion two years ago that we should get all the fun out of our system because after kids, it would be all over. Ex-nay on the un-fay. Thus the summer/fall o' fun was born. Now though, looking back from the other side, (and I think Josh would agree with him despite his half-bellyaches sometimes about not being able to get his drink on whenever he pleases or getting home before SNL even starts because the wild-eyed, shovel-carrying, human garbage disposal that is our son needs to go to bed, stat), there is still fun to be had! We'll make memories for Dexter. The fun we have now is a milk and cookies kind of fun instead of Jager and pizza rolls fun.

Okay, and once in awhile it's a beer and pizza kind of fun. Because moms dream of that too.

     

   

The day after Valentine's Day

From here

February 15 is the day after the roses are sent, the cards signed, the chocolate eaten. It's the hangover of Valentine's Day.


On February 15, I went to a party at 1927 College Street (one of many) and hung out with my future husband. Ten years later, after a dog, wedding, house and baby, here we are. One helluva hangover. Who knew Jungle Juice could lead to so many right decisions? 

He said "Dada" first

And that's okay.

Josh and Lora Day

...I hope we feel like this forever, forever, forever, ever, forever, ever...

To the man that makes me the coffee Oreo malts, takes me to music festivals, shares my affinity for doing voiceovers for the Suds Suds and the Dex baby, and is first and foremost my friend--happy anniversary!

Carb-e, diem

Josh and I celebrated my birthday this weekend by going on a grown-up date to one of the newest hot spots around Des Moines, Americana. We dined on deviled eggs, cream of garlic soup, ravioli and pork loin. Garlic soup was pretty good, we stuck to the whole garlic rule-if one orders garlic, the other should follow suit. I think if we go with a group, we'll forgo the deviled eggs and soup and try our hand at the scallop lollipops. We saw a plate go by and while we think they would be delicious, I think a whole plate full would be too rich for just the two of us.

And this next part of my birthday dinner rundown is going to sound really lame, but the all-star of my plate of ravioli was the bread that came with it. It was AMAZING. Super fresh and had that melt in your mouth kind of thing going. I made Josh try it and he totally agreed. I was ready to throw in the towel and get a box for my leftover pasta and bread but realized that the bread probably wouldn't be as good the next day...so I shoveled the rest of it down my gullet. Yeah, it was that good.

Afterward, we took a little stroll through the sculpture park and met up with this creepy fellow. Very Beetlejuice.



P.S. Before our carriage turned back into a pumpkin on our grown-up dinner date, we hit up Smokey Row for a malt. More on that when I do my Raise My Glass post for the week!

Down at Fraggle Rock

Josh and I spotted this toy at the mall the other day and I almost bought it for the baby. Josh went as Boober for Halloween a few years ago and only a tiny handful of people knew what he was. Now he's so famous that he's a puppet! I wish I would've taken pictures that year, the resemblance is uncanny.

Pick 'ems

Always looking to keep things fresh in our marriage, our newest bonding activity is entering Josh's office's football pool each week. He's responsible for the college picks and I handle the NFL. The prize? About 120+ bucks and pride. We have yet to win but it's been fun tracking scores and checking in on games together. I'm sure that's the real reason why Josh invited me to take part in the first place. This way I would have to stop nagging him about watching football all weekend because now it's a "we" thing, not a "he" thing. Well played.

I have no method to my madness which of course means that for the past two weeks, I have been picking more winners than Josh. My picks are solely based on personal feelings and irrational logic. Recently, I (along with the rest of the free world), decided that I really don't like Brett Favre, therefore, I will probably never pick the Vikings. I don't care for this team's fans, I don't like that team's uniforms, their mascot seems cooler than the other team's, etc. and so forth. That's how I pick 'em.

Pic from here

Passion

One thing Josh isn't lacking is passion. I'm not referring to the passion in our relationship, sicko. I'm referring to the passion that flares up every fall with the NFL and college football seasons. He was watching the Bears game this weekend and his passion was overflowing.

"F*CK!!"
"What the f*ck? Take the old man out, he can't play!!"
"F*CK!!"

Sudsy's sensitive ears can't handle this kind of passion so he takes cover upstairs and as for the BIB (baby in belly), I just mutter to myself, "Earmuffs, little one, earmuffs."

Josh and Lora day

"It's not the chase

that I love,

it's me following you."

To the best hubby ever--happy anniversary, Joshie!

Well fed

There are many reasons why I love Joshie. Besides all the mushy and gushy reasons that I won't get into here, he is one amazing cook. As many of you know, the kitchen is a foreign land to me. I just recently got over my phobia of the large knives. When I do cook/bake, I will only prepare things that have a recipe that I can directly refer to right then and there and I do...frequently. So often that it probably takes me twice as long to make the dish as the suggested preparation time.

I count my lucky stars that Josh likes to cook, is confident enough to try a dish sans recipe and more often than not churns out meals that are uber-delicious. Without him, I'd probably be wasting away...or really fat from consuming Hamburger Helper and Velveeta Shells and Cheese nonstop.

The meal we had this weekend is one of my favorites-Josh's nachos. And he kicked it up a notch by including the leftover homemade chips from Annie and Andrew's annual Dam to Dam party.



What else did we do?

• Hit up Home Depot (pictures of our home progress coming soon)

Pssst, check it out

Josh has his own page. Our little bloggy originally started with the intent that we both contribute several posts so that you see what we're up to, into and over from both of our perspectives. However, it became somewhat evident that for me this is a hobby and for Josh it's more of a hobby-ette. So now he has his very own corner of the blog to update whenever he pleases and to rant and rave about sports, music and whatever else tickles his fancy.




UPDATE: Josh didn't update so that page disappeared. Perhaps one day it will be plucked out of obscurity for your reading enjoyment.