Spoiled

This morning started off with an early morning wake up by the girls.  

We were downstairs watching TV when Hannah heard some noise coming from upstairs.  She jumped off the couch, instructed me to stay here and she was off.

A little while later her and Brian came down with a 'breakfast tray'.

Hannah has been begging to pull out her Easy Bake oven. Usually it sits in her closet and she doesn't even know that it's there but she got it in her head that she wanted to bake cookies and hasn't stopped talking about it since (really just since this morning but this girl is tenacious!).

We didn't have any pre-made packages so we had to look online for a recipe and it's times like these that I LOVE the internet.  Tons of recipes and ideas.

We settled on a chocolate chip cookie recipe and decided it would be a good idea to make 'real' ones too.  Hailey would help with those while Hannah did hers 'on her own'.

She did great.  Measured out the ingredients, greased the pans, etc,

She had SO much fun and was actually very patient while she waited the 7 minutes between bakes.

While I was finishing up the dishes I heard Hannah rummaging around in the tupperware cupboard.

 Thanks buddy- this was fun.  Great idea!

Let the Birthday weekend begin!

I took today off.  It's been unsettling being gone for so many days the past month and I just wanted a day to take care of some errands.  I started by getting my license renewed and then I made my daily trip to Target.  Next stop was to the mall to drop off my ring for it's 6 month cleaning/inspection.

While I was there I decided to ask the lady about how long it would take to send it in for a 'good scrubbing' as childhood-Kimmy would have said.  My ring is 10 years old and has been looking a little dull lately so I decided to leave it with the ladies today and be 'naked' for the next few days.

I got to choose our dinner location for tonight and it was an easy decision!  PF CHangs!

Dinner was delicious and the girls did great.

Inside the bag that the little mouse left for me yesterday was this beautiful cookie- turned Birthday cake.  Thanks Loriann!

So this is what it's like to be an adult

Today is my Birthday.

I woke up alone in a hotel room BUT I was woken to a text from Brian and a video from Hannah- that's a great way to start the day.  The Facebook Birthday greetings had started.

We are leaving today so this morning when we left our room we wouldn't be back so it took a little extra time packing up this morning.

It was time to go so I sent my usual morning text to Loriann "You ready?  I am leaving in 3"

I opened the door to see that a little mouse had been by spreading some Birthday cheer- how sweet!

The rest of my Birthday was spent in training.

We were able to leave around 4:00ish which meant that we were ahead of schedule but also meant that for sure I wouldn't be seeing my girls tonight. It made me really sad- more than usual.

Luckily it was Friday tomorrow which meant we would have the whole weekend together!

Epic Tour Part 2

One thing that it nice about having the buildings all themed is that it helps you keep track of where you are.  You will remember if you passed through here before.

Everyone talks about the banana.

It's been a huge hit with the staff from HealthEast and many people have gotten their picture sitting on it.  From far away it looks cool enough but then when you get closer and see what it is made of it gives a whole new meaning to 'cool'.

Can you imagine how long it must have taken someone to cover this banana?!

Each building has it's own theme.  Every detail is perfect, down to the carpet in the staff areas.

Here is the tree house.  It is equipped with white boards and staff can reserve this space.

It's a way for them to get away from everyone else, their cell phones, their computers, etc.

 

The employees are encouraged to live healthy lifestyles.  There is no smoking on the campus and their employee cafeteria is color coded.  The green areas are the most healthy foods all the way to red (which would contain the french fries and burgers).  

We spotted this sign while walking through- Soda is $0.75 but the refill is $1.50

There was an area called Grand Central Station.  Here there was a General Store that staff could buy snacks or other types of things from,  a dry cleaner, a flower shoppe, and an Epic merchandise store.

Didn't see anyone working in these areas so not sure how the flower shoppe and dry cleaner works but the General Store and Epic store do not have employees that work there.

When staff are ready to 'check out' they approach the computer and then scan and log their purchases.  No cash transactions are done- all payroll deduction.

There is also an Ice Cream/Soda fountain and deli that work this same way.  However the Soda Fountain has employees there to make malts and scoop ice cream but it is all volunteer.  Staff sign up to take an hour of their day to work there to serve their employees.

One of the walkways is set up to look like a subway- they even have a homeless lady, Opal.

She never leaves the Subway but the employees do have fun with her.  Sometimes she is sitting, sometimes she is laying on the seats, sometimes she's under the seats- guess it just depends how rough her night was.

You can see why most of the employees here are under 30 and why Epic continuously is recognized as being one of the best companies to work for.

Where are we?

 So, the trip started with no heat in our bus. Today when we arrived at the Epic campus we approached the screens to find out which classroom we were in.  There was a group of people there and one at a time as they found their name and classroom, they backed up and went on their way.  I watched the screen change through the list a few times and didn't see my name.  I figured that I must have overlooked or missed it.  Then I saw the 'Amy' section (it's alphabetical by first name)- I was not listed.  Then I turn to my right and see that Loriann, Lori, and Molly are still standing there and look just as confused as I am.  None of us were listed.  We made our way to the front desk and joined the line of others that apparently were missed to be displayed on the board.  

When it was our turn, we gave her our names and instead of saying "Oh here you are, room x." she said "Hmmmm, we don't have you listed."  We had all received training confirmations- weird.

Lucky for us they had room in one of the classrooms so she quickly got us registered and we were on on our way.  

Our classroom for the week was the 'Dr. Know' room- this whole section of the hallway was James Bond movie style so I am guessing this was a Bond movie.

Our class was suppose to go until 5:00 pm today.

Around 3:00 we were given an exercise to do.  As usual the exercise would only take a few minutes but we would be given 15 minutes to work on it.

Around 3:15 the class started again and our instructor said "You all have been working pretty hard, let's take a break (ugh...again?!) and then class will resume at 8:30 tomorrow morning (YIPPEE)."

Then he informed us that he is willing to take people on a tour of the campus at 3:30.

This was something that we wanted to do so we knew for sure that we were interested!

This campus is huge!  It looks just like a college campus and all of this time here we have only been in one building- Voyager Hall.

Took this picture from the internet.

Voyager Hall- this picture (with the snow) I took from one of the other buildings.

All of the buildings are connected by either underground tunnel or skyway.

Here is an example of one of the tunnels.

In one of the buildings we turned the corner and saw this slide. 

Yes- people actually use it.

We were also given the explanation behind all of the artwork and decorations.

Apparently the CEO of Epic gets all of the artwork from the Madison Art Festival.

She will send an email at midnight the night before she goes and the first so many people to respond to her get to join her. 

On the road again

Here we go again.

From what we know this is our last trip to Epic for a while.  We leave today and return Thursday night (my birthday- lucky me).

We should have driven ourselves.  We get done with class on Thursday at noon and the rest of our group isn't done until 5 pm so the bus is scheduled to leave around 5:30 pm.

I won't be making it home by dinner time and won't be seeing my family on my Birthday.

If we drove, we would be home right around dinner time.

But....we decided to take the bus.  That way nobody has to put the miles on their vehicle and of the group, I am the only one that actually LIKES to drive so there wasn't anyone else jumping at the chance to get behind the wheel.  Loriann offered to let us take her vehicle but because she can't make a decision and just tell us that that was our plan we didn't drive.  It didn't feel right making the decision for her and then having someone else (more than likely me) be behind the wheel of her vehicle for 9 hours- she should have demanded :-)  

Right before we boarded the bus Loriann handed me an adorable little box with a message "Here, now I don't have to be responsible for how this travels."

Opened the box to find this adorable little guy looking up at me....begging to be eaten.

As we claimed our seats on the bus and took a final roll call we were also informed that we needed to stop in Northfield to get a new bus.  Apparently this one didn't have any heat so we could either wait for a bus to come and rescue us from Midway or we could start on our journey and just take a detour to reboard.  The weather has been horrible- snow, ice and wind- so we opted to get on the road and at least start moving.

We arrived around dinner time so a group of us headed out to Gray's Tide House for dinner.

We had heard about their chocolate covered cheese curds and decided that it was a must try item.

Hmmm...interesting.

The batter is almost like a brownie batter.

The cheese is a very light flavored white cheese of some sort.

They were drizzled in chocolate sauce and served with a heaping pile of whipping cream for dipping.

They weren't really good but they were by no means horrible.  Just sort of weird.

These would be a HIT at the State Fair....hard to believe someone hasn't thought of it yet.

My home for the next few days.....

 

Me hate Dan

Judy made an appt to take the kids in for some Spring pictures.

When I got the invite and after the plans were made I started to get nervous.  I hoped that her expectations weren't set too high because I wasn't quite sure how Hailey would do.

She actually made it in the picture at Christmas time so I was hoping that this time would be a little easier.  I told the girls Grandma had gotten them new dresses and we were going to go and get our pictures taken and they BOTH were excited and ready.

We talked about it for days.

When we got there and checked in we were greeted by Dan, our photographer.

Oh shoot- I know what this means.... 

Glanced over at Hailey and she was still ok - ok, ok, maybe we can do this afterall.

We picked out our backgrounds and then made our way to the waiting area.  When it was finally our turn we made our way to the studio.  Right outside the door Hailey stopped dead in her tracks, turned around and reached up for me.  I picked her up thinking she just needed a little push and immediately her face was buried and her legs were wrapped around me.  She was NOT getting down.

We got the older four lined up and then they all started reaching and calling for her.

She started swatting at anyone that got near her so we agreed that we would take pics of Courtney, Justin and Adam first while I would buy some time finding a way to talk her into this.

I walked her through the clothes section and we looked at the 'fancy' dresses.  I told her that if she took her pictures good we could come back and get her an Easter dress from here.  She got super excited, jumped out of my arms and started heading to the studio.

She was doing ok until she saw him (Dan) again.

She stood at my feet and jumped up and down trying to get me to pick her up- it was almost as though the ground below her was on fire.  Grandma came to the rescue and they talked about how maybe Hailey could hold gum for all of the kids in the picture and then after the pictures are taken she could pass it out.  Not a chance.

We tried to get her to sit on Hannah's lap.  Not happening.

Tried to get her to hold Courtney and Hannah's hands.  Nope.

Asked if she wanted to sit on something.  Nothin' but dirty looks.

So, we did what we always do- took pictures without her and she stood outside of the room against the wall swinging away at anyone that came near her.

Senior pictures are going to be a blast......

Punzel

Hailey: "Mom, when me get big like Punzel (Rapunzel) I can't go potty anymore 

or my hair will get in the toilet."

Who is the knucklehead?

So, who is the knucklehead?

The kid who thought she needed to buckle in the Peeps or the mom who giggled and then left them there for the whole ride home?

Keep your eyes on the road

Brian got a new radio for his truck.

Tonight on the way home from dinner he showed us just how cool this new radio is and played a movie.

Even though it's not very practical, it's awesome!

Are they quiet yet?

Wow- these things are annoying.

I don't really mind when the girls are actually playing with them.  If they are carrying them around or talking to them it doesn't bother me to hear them ramble on.

It is pretty annoying though when they are all alone talking to themselves or each other.

They will become quiet after a few minutes (which feels like an hour sometimes) under a towel or a blanket but the second that they sense movement or see light they are back at it.  

Probably wasn't the best idea to put them under there together today but then again, getting them to sleep is the easy part. The relocation is the real challenge.

Volume 3 has arrived

After a quick trip to Florida, my books are finally here!

I received a few calls from an out of state number and after a voicemail was finally left I was notified that my books had been delivered to the wrong address.  A company in Florida had gotten them by mistake and they were wondering if I received their shipment.  At the time I hadn't but it would only be a few more days before a huge box of books would be delivered.  They were kind enough to ship my books to me- even though Sharebook also agreed to reproduce and reship.  Now I guess my good idea of ordering two books this time around was rewarded with an extra set of two books so now I have four!

This makes Volume 3. Three full years of stories, three full years of pictures, three full years of our lives documented.  

These books are so awesome!  I am so proud of them and I can only hope that my girls love reading and re-reading them when they get older.  I can only hope that my grandchildren want to sit down and read these stories someday. 

The girls were really excited to sit down with the book this week and read stories with me.  

It was fun to look back and see what we were doing a year ago.  To see how short Hannah's hair still was and remember that she was learning to tie her shoes, to see that Hailey was still working on the potty training, to see how much her vocabulary has grown over the past 14 months.   I think it was extra fun this time around since they actually remembered a lot of the events/stories from this past year. 

Here's to the start of another year!

Hailey was here

I love to watch Hailey take off her boots and shoes.  

Hannah used to do this too, it is obviously something they learned at Jackie's.  

I don't think that I could set them up that perfectly if I tried.

Another good day for a Birthday party

The girls were invited to Maddie's 'friend' party today at Minnesota Aerials.

This is where Maddie has gymnastics and also had her party here last year.

The only adults 'allowed' in the gym area were Stacey and Shane and to be honest, it made me a little nervous.  I was not sure how Hailey would do.

The kids lined up to get the party started and as soon as the bouncy house blew up Hailey was off!

She joined the other kids and ran around bouncing and climbing on anything she could.

Tyler and Carter are pretty fond of her so right away they started paying attention to her and making sure that she had what she needed.

The party was a little more organized then the party last year.  They had activities planned and  had the kids run through obstacle courses and challenge each other to a relay race.

At one point they lined the kids up to bounce down the long trampoline where they would land in the foam pit at the end.  When it came to Hailey's turn she looked at the guy, turned around and left the line.  She started making her way to me and then just stopped and started rubbing her eyes.

I couldn't tell if she was mad, sad, shy....to tell you the truth it was breaking my heart but I knew that I couldn't go and rescue her.  I needed to give her a chance to figure it out.

Shane made his way over to her.  

As long as he remained within an arms reach she was fine.  

I can totally relate to her fear of strangers.  She's actually doing really well considering how she used to be.  I guess the other day when she proclaimed  "Me not scared of people anymore" she didn't remember just how scary they can be sometimes.

See Hannah airborne in the background there on her way to the pit?!

 

A good day for a Birthday party

Hailey, Hannah, Maddie, Kiley

Tonight we went to the Busta's to celebrate Maddie's 7th Birthday.

Hard to believe that she is 7 already.

The girls had fun playing together- it's been since New Years that we have seen them....way to long.

How did they all grow up so fast?!

Boys by Hannah and Hailey

As Jennie would say "We are toast!"

Brian was sitting at home with the girls tonight watching the high school hockey tournament.

Before each game the players are announced.  As they are announced they skate to the camera.

As each boy would appear the girls were deep in conversation, oblivious to the fact that Brian was taping them....

Hannah:  "I love that guy"

Hailey: "Me love that guy!"

Hannah:  "That guy next to my guy?"

Hailey:  "Yeah, he cute."

Hannah:  "Yeah, he's really cute.  Oh you should love him (pointing to a new guy)!" 

Hailey: "No, that guy"

Hannah:  "Oh he's cute Hailey!'

Hailey:  "Yeah. You can have him."

Hannah:  "No, I like the other guy."

HA HA!  You can have him?!

Where in the world do they come up with this stuff?!

Off to CRUG

I left Madison today around 12:30.  ETA for Des Moines is 5:11 pm.

Although I am excited to see my CRUG friends and attend the Spring Forum for potentially the last time (for sure the last time as a board member) I am a little sad that my friends get to go home today.

I started off being a little nervous about the drive.  I was worried I would be too tired or get too bored but it took all of about 30 minutes before it was just me and the radio and by the time I had pulled in I was wishing for just 30 more minutes with my music.

A chilly pick me up

For not getting any sleep last night we did pretty well today!

Things got a little sleepy and rough in the late afternoon.

The classes move way too slow for my taste so I already have issues staying focused, not getting any sleep didn't help.

During our afternoon break I decided to walk out on the deck.  The picture below was our 'breakroom' this week and off the back there is a deck that lucky for me was covered in snow.

I started making a little snowman and within a few minutes, Loriann, Molly and Debs had joined me.

It was just the pick-me-up that I needed!

Worth every mile!

So....last night Loriann and I got into Verona, WI around 12:30 am.

We decided to drive about a month ago when we found out what days we were scheduled for training.

It started because of the Maroon 5 concert and later ended up being because of the CRUG conference that I was asked to attend at the end of this week...in Des Moines.

We had purchased tickets a few months ago, before we knew that we would be expected to go to training.  When we figured out our schedule and confirmed that we were expected to be at training when the concert was happening we were heartbroken.  We attempted to change our class date but were not able to make any progress with that idea.

I considered giving the tickets away or selling them to someone for about 3 minutes.  

I was not missing this concert. 

So, we made the decision, we would plan to drive.

We will get there on Sunday, couldn't leave on the bus anyways because of Hannah's dance recital, and then Monday after class, we would drive back to St Paul.  With our 4 hour drive and class getting out around 5, we should get there around 9 and hopefully with the two opening acts, Maroon 5 wouldn't be on yet.  Leading up to this weekend the big talk was about the HUGE snow storm that was coming.  If you watched the radar you could see that the storm started downtown St Paul and the line of snow was thick- all the way through Wisconsin, stopping in Madison, WI.  We were expecting 6-12 inches.  Oh, is that all??!!

I decided to be an adult and leave the tickets at my moms house.  Just in case Mother Nature hated me and wanted to bring the snow that everyone was talking about.

We talked with our teacher right away in the morning and explained our situation.  We asked if we could work through lunch and breaks and then sneak out of class a little early today to get on the road- as long as the snow wasn't falling.

We watched the radars all day and it appeared as though we would be pretty safe taking a chance so 3:00 came and we were off!

We met Jennie near the Xcel Center and made it into our seats before the 2nd act started.

We missed Owl City which none of us cared about anyways.

Neon Trees were the 2nd act and they were good!  Much better than I had expected and it proved once again that you can not care for a song too much until you see it sung live....then everything changes.  That CD will be the next purchase on my list.

Then, the lights went low, the stage lit up and the sound of a phone ringing filled the Xcel.

EXCITING!

As soon as I saw Adam I reached over and pinched Loriann- oopie- sorry!

 

 The show was awesome!

Hit after hit after hit.

Each song was better than the one before.

They put on a great show- the stage was awesome, the screens were awesome- the stage was in the shape of an 'M'.

My pictures didn't turn out the best but the few that I posted here are a few of my favorite moments.

He sang "Wipe Your Eyes and Love Somebody" which are my FAVORITE songs right now!

The concert was done around 11:15.  We were back to the car around 11:30 and out of the ramp around midnight.  After we dropped off Jennie, Loriann and I hopped back on 94 for our 4+ hour long drive back to Verona.

It had started to snow so the roads were sloppy.  Thankfully there were a few tracks on the freeway that we could follow that would lead us all the way to Eau Claire as we watched the radar every 15 minutes to see what we were heading into.  About 10-15 miles past Eau Claire the snow let up and the roads became more clear....just like the radar said it would.

We could finally go faster than 40 MPH!

The next few hours were pretty rough.  We were tired and the 'Adam high' was starting to wear off.

We opened the windows and turned on the air to keep us awake.  It worked although I am not positive that Loriann's legs made it out of the car without frostbite!  Poor thing was pretty cold.  Awake!  But cold.    Around 4:00 am we both started to get our second winds and Loriann pointed out that the sun was starting to rise.

I pulled up to my hotel around 5:00 am and decided to lay down for an hour before I would need to get up so I could be sure to catch the shuttle to class.

It was a long night but it was worth every mile!

Dance Mom = Fail

Hannah had her first stage recital today.

I have been looking forward to this all month but also dreaded this day as it got closer.

After her recital tonight I have to leave again to drive to Verona, WI to attend the second set of classes for my Epic EHR Training. 

Friday night we noticed a hole in her pink tights so yesterday and this morning we were out trying to find a pair of pink tights that would match good enough for her to wear today.  It was annoying and I was stressed about it worrying that she would stick out and it would be obvious that she wasn't perfectly matched to the others but I kept telling myself "it could be worse - nobody will really notice the tights are a different color pink".

Well....it got worse.

We were suppose to drop her off back stage around 4:00 pm and her 'showtime' was set for around 4:25.  We planned to leave around 3:30 to assure that we would have enough time to get there (Fridley High School), park and find seats.

3:30 came and after a few minutes of reminding the girls to get their coats and boots on we were finally out of the house and on our way.  The GPS estimated our time of arrival to be around 4:03 pm.  Perfect.  We would probably shave those few minutes off while driving and would be there right on time.  About 10 minutes into our drive I started to get a nervous feeling.  It felt all too familiar.  I had this feeling before EVERY dance performance growing up....Will I remember the dance?  Will I remember where I am suppose to stand?  Will I remember to smile?  Is my hair done ok?  Is my makeup dark enough?  Did I remember my costume?  Did I remember my shoes?  

OH MY GOD I FORGOT HANNAH'S SHOES AND HER SKIRT!

I broke the news to Brian and after we just got done talking about how we were cutting it close we had to turn around and go back home to get the bag that I had forgotten.  The bag that was set next to the door so that we would remember.  SHOOT!

The whole way back we questioned if it was even worth it.

How could I have let this happen?!

I was sick.  Just sick.

We pulled up to the house and I ran in to grab the bag.  When I got back into the car, the GPS now told us that we would arrive around 4:18.  We are NEVER going to make it.

It was close to 4:00- all I could think about was that the rest of Hannah's class was already getting dropped off and we weren't even on our way yet.  I wanted to throw up.

I called her teacher, explained what happened and told her that we would be there as soon as we could.  Within minutes the text messages started....'Where are you guys sitting?  Should we save you a seat?  Looks like Hannah is on in 3 numbers!  Can't wait!'

OMG!  We were still in the car.

I looked back in the backseat to see how disappointed she was going to be when we didn't make it but she obviously wasn't concerned about the tension in the truck and had fallen asleep.

4:13 and we could see our destination flag on the GPS blowing in the distance- we had to be close. But I was afraid that we had already missed it.

What happens if we get there and they are already backstage?  I can't just throw her back there!

What if her group is on stage when we walk in the door?!  Oh man!  This SUCKS!

We pulled up around 4:15, Brian dropped us off near the front and we ran inside- seriously, ran.

My heart was pounding out of my chest and luckily we could see the other dancers when we walked in.  Someone from her group was walking around so either we missed it or they were still waiting for their turn.  When we met up with the rest of the group I was thrilled to see that they were still waiting for their turn.  I got her dressed, gave her a huge hug and kiss, apologized for rushing her (which she just responded with a very calm "It's Ok, mom") and then made my way to the front door to pick up Brian and Hailey (hoping that they would make it in after trying to find a place to park, etc). 

We were able to sit in the balcony and saw my family up there when we walked in the door.

We made it- Whew!

3 or 4 numbers later Hannah and her group were led out onto the stage.  The curtains opened and the music started.  The four original members of her group did great (this wasn't their first rodeo), the other four were a little hesitant but overall the group did great.

At intermission we were asked to pick up our dancer and then either make our way to our seats or we were free to go.  Since I was leaving tonight for Madison we decided to leave- we ended up having dinner with my family first.

We were able to meet up with Kiley and family during the intermission and Kiley gave Hannah one of her flowers (how sweet!).

Me:  "Buddy- you did so good today!  Were you nervous on that stage?"

Hannah:  "No.  Not at all.  There were like a million people there.  I counted them in my head while I was dancing.  I counted you guys last."

Great job today buddy!  I am SO sorry that we had such a hard time getting there today but I am SO proud of how good you did today!

RAW

Brian turned on wrestling the other night and told the girls to come and watch.

They started off horrified!

Once they saw that daddy was into it and was encouraging the behavior, they warmed up to it and joined in the cheering and chanting.

At one point Hannah was on the edge of her seat yelling "Pull his head off! Yes!  Get 'em!!"

Tonight he was playing a little of it back.  The girls decided that they wanted the guy in the shorts to win and after dad told them his name they sat on the floor cheering him on "Cena! Cena! Cena!"

Half Time Show

Tonight Hannah and her dance class performed at the Champlin Park Boy's Basketball Game during half time.  We had to get there a little early so they could stretch and warm up.

I volunteered to be the stage mom for the day so when it was time for their grand entrance I got to help them walk out and then sit with them on the floor of the gym until it was their turn.

As soon as we found our waiting spot Hannah turned around to find Daddy and Hailey.  She was SO excited that they were there to see her.  I am glad Brian didn't let me talk him into staying home, she really enjoyed having them there.

The crowd loved them and the girls behind me could not stopping talking about how cute all of those little girls were.  I took some pictures during the show but they didn't turn out the greatest but in the background of the picture you can see the people behind them with the biggest grins on their faces!

Nice job buddy!