Not Your Average Mama - Project365

Day #301

2010-01-20T01:33:00.000-08:00

I know this is long overdue! Life has been busy. Today is Anna's third birthday and my first day back to class! This is me heading home on the Light Rail after a full day of classes. I will hopefully be resuming regular posting now :)

2009-12-11T04:05:00.000-08:00

I swear I'll be putting new photos up soon. The USB ports on the computer at my work are not reading my card reader for some reason, and getting free time to sit and fiddle with photos at home is like asking for world peace! New photos coming very soon!

Day #254

2009-12-04T15:39:00.000-08:00

Day #253

2009-12-03T04:18:00.000-08:00

We went to a Christmas party at Sergej's work today. Santa came and brought gifts for all the children. That's Anna on the lower left...the one with the disco balls on her feet!

Here she is getting her gift from Santa:

She got a ballerina bear, which she danced through the halls of Sergej's work with :)

Day #252

2009-12-02T04:20:00.000-08:00

Anna wanted to make me some "lunch" today with play food, so I asked for some soup. She made me a taco-steak-hot dog-asparagus-tomato soup with a slice of bread in it to soak up the non-existent broth. Tasty!

Day #251

2009-12-01T15:38:00.000-08:00

Day #250

2009-11-30T11:19:00.000-08:00

Anna and I took a cooking class today. We made organic spiced pear butter. And we felt fancy.

Day #249

2009-11-29T11:52:00.000-08:00

Setting up one of our Christmas trees.

Day #248

2009-11-28T11:18:00.000-08:00

Day #247

2009-11-27T01:16:00.000-08:00

The International Space Station passing over our house. The bright light at the bottom is the moon. The line is a little squiggly because I wasn't ready to take the photo and the space station came into view before I had my tripod completely stable! It was a pretty cool sight to see.

Day #246

2009-11-26T01:18:00.000-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving at Village Inn this year. That's a veggie skillet and pumpkin pancakes. I followed up with a brownie a la mode. Did I feel guilty after? Absolutely not.

Day #244

2009-11-24T01:20:00.000-08:00

There are a few berries still holding on!

Day #243

2009-11-23T21:24:00.000-08:00

One of the photos I attempted to take of my daughter and niece today. We;re going to try again tomorrow because they were too crazy for me to get anything good out of the 10 minutes they sat somewhat in one spot.

Day #242

2009-11-22T21:26:00.000-08:00

Went to the zoo today and got a good laugh from this elephant. She was having a gloriously fun time play with piles of leaves. She was just blowing them around with her trunk. It was pretty cute, actually!

Day #241

2009-11-21T21:29:00.000-08:00

Day #240

2009-11-20T21:31:00.000-08:00

Heading into one of our favorite places in the world: the mall.

Day #237

2009-11-17T22:39:00.000-08:00

Cats have such difficult lives. This is what T.J. did ALL day, except for bathroom and food breaks.

Day #236

2009-11-16T23:48:00.000-08:00

We have two cats, a dog and a child. I don't think it was a very good idea for Sergej's coworker to get him a Nerf gun for his birthday.

Day #235

2009-11-15T23:45:00.000-08:00

Sergej's birthday!

Day #234

2009-11-14T23:45:00.000-08:00

Day #233

2009-11-13T23:32:00.000-08:00

At the children's museum, dressed as a pig, fishing. It's just that kind of place.

Day #235

2009-11-12T02:27:00.000-08:00

It's kind of hard to tell since he's looking the other direction, but Anna is actually laying on our cat, T.J., in this photo.

Day #234

2009-11-11T02:25:00.000-08:00

Lunch at Johnny Rockets with my favorite person in the world.

Day #233

2009-11-10T02:23:00.000-08:00

This was taken with my phone around 1am at a club in Denver called Beta. That is DJ Tiesto, someone Sergej has a man crush on. I have to admit, his music was really great and he's a good looking fellow!

Day #232

2009-11-09T02:22:00.000-08:00

Since I did my hair AND makeup AND wore something nice for a night with Sergej I thought it best to take a picture to remember the occasion since this doesn't happen often.

Day #231

2009-11-08T02:32:00.000-08:00

I don't think she'll be a cup stacking champion any time soon.

Day #230

2009-11-07T02:28:00.000-08:00

I know this makes us seem like horrible parents, but I swear this is better than it could have been. Every day Anna has decided she has to act like a different animal, and who am I to discourage brilliant imgination? On this particular day she was a puppy. And since our pets all share the same water dish, she wanted in on the action. However, the thought of her using the same water dish quite frankly makes me want to vomit, so I compromised with her and gave her a cereal bowl. She really enjoys role playing.

Day #229

2009-11-06T02:31:00.000-08:00

We are frequent visitors of our malls' play areas.

2009-11-05T02:29:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I've finally gotten pretty much all the missing photos up (which span two pages of this blog!) Apparently I had posted incorrect dates on them so they weren't showing up on the blog, so I've gone back and corrected that. As you can see from these, I've only had time to hang out with Anna or do housework...and since nobody wants to see photos of me doing housework they are all of Anna :)

Day #228

2009-11-05T02:26:00.000-08:00

Practicing for spring break 2025

Day #227

2009-11-04T02:28:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while I need to nap with Anna in bed with me so I can drift off to the sound of her soft little breaths.

Day #226

2009-11-03T02:27:00.000-08:00

Story time at the museum.

Day #225

2009-11-02T02:26:00.000-08:00

Day #224

2009-11-01T02:16:00.000-08:00

Casa Bonita! It's a restaurant that has a special place in the hearts of all Coloradans. It's where we go to pay extra money for crappier Mexican food than most other Mexican restaurants, but the atmosphere is top notch!

Day #223

2009-10-31T02:15:00.001-07:00

We took Pirate Anna to my work to trick-or-treat with the old folks today.

Day #221

2009-10-29T22:28:00.000-07:00

Day #219

2009-10-27T02:19:00.000-07:00

Playing on giant breakfast food at the mall.

Day #218

2009-10-26T12:29:00.001-07:00

Day #217

2009-10-25T15:50:00.000-07:00

We went to a Halloween party as a pirate family today. Anna and I both refused to wear hats.

Day #214

2009-10-22T21:13:00.000-07:00

Snowy and foggy morning.

Day #213

2009-10-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

Anna got some shots today, so I took her to Jamba Juice to make up for it.

Day #212

2009-10-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

Day #211

2009-10-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

We went to the zoo with our neighbors today, Gage and his mother Kasey.

Day #210

2009-10-18T12:48:00.000-07:00

Sunset at the park.

Day #209

2009-10-17T12:47:00.000-07:00

We seem to have a lot of birds that have flown off course to Colorado lately.

Day #208

2009-10-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

Luckily I'm not superstitious.

Day #207

2009-10-15T12:03:00.001-07:00

Playing in the fall leaves.

Day #206

2009-10-14T12:02:00.000-07:00

Anna's first carved pumpkin! (All carving done by me, of course.)

Day #204

2009-10-12T12:01:00.000-07:00

I made a sock puppet for Anna and she put on a puppet show for me all about her new dragon named Pink.

Day #203

2009-10-11T17:54:00.000-07:00

Anna's first milkshake at a 50's diner in Aspen, Co. I'll write all about our hectic but wonderful weekend tomorrow on the main blog.

Day #202

2009-10-10T17:49:00.000-07:00

After a very long drive that took twice as long as necessary and breaking my cell phone, we opted for doing nothing once we got to our hotel room. Nothing involved macaroni-n-cheese and cartoons while I slept (I had been up since Friday night.)

Day #201

2009-10-09T22:07:00.001-07:00

I decided to make my errand run a little more enjoyable today by bringing Anna and Sergej along and riding the light rail downtown.

Day #199

2009-10-06T18:35:00.000-07:00

I did my first baby portraits today for Anna's former nanny. This is her 3-month old daughter, Hayla. Isn't she just adorable!?

Day #198

2009-10-05T05:51:00.000-07:00

TJ doing a poor job of guarding the fridge, as evidenced by all the fingerprints on it.

Day #197

2009-10-04T19:53:00.000-07:00

Yep, I'm a brunette again. More on that fiasco later.

Day #196

2009-10-03T05:55:00.000-07:00

Rintu! It's a character from a show called Ni Hao Kai Lan. It's also a cheap way to keep Anna entertained.

2009-10-02T22:01:00.001-07:00

The last two days I have been sick and miserable, but I'm feeling better. More photos to come!

Day #192

2009-09-29T21:18:00.000-07:00

It was 84 degrees today. In Colorado. On almost the last day of September. Even the animals at the zoo were like, "I'm not using up my energy in this heat! Excuse me while I continue to be lazy for the remainder of the afternoon."

Day #191

2009-09-28T21:18:00.000-07:00

Day #190

2009-09-27T19:54:00.000-07:00

Originally we planned on camping out in the back yard tonight just for fun. I chickened out because it was too cold this morning and I imagine iw will be cold tomorrow morning, too. But I didn't want to deny Anna the joy of roasting her first marshmallow, so roast we did! On our gas grill, of course. They tasted just as good.

Day #189

2009-09-26T20:00:00.000-07:00

Anna coloring with her new cupcake crayons.

Day #188

2009-09-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

Two days ago it snowed in Denver and today was the perfect day for the park. Gotta love Colorado's schizophrenic weather.

Day #186

2009-09-24T22:19:00.001-07:00

For today's photo you'll just have to mosey on over to my other blog :)

Day #185

2009-09-23T17:33:00.000-07:00

I admit that allowing a toddler to help paint a room isn't the brightest idea anyone has ever had, but it was fun. And the beauty of painting the walls white is I didn't have to worry about her ruining the trim!

Day #184

2009-09-22T19:14:00.000-07:00

Another day at the museum. It was cold and rainy, so we had to stay indoors.

Day #183

2009-09-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

Anna insists on helping cook dinner these days. And by help, I mean watch while she stirs her imaginary soup.

Day #182

2009-09-20T20:18:00.000-07:00

We had my niece, Keera, over for a couple hours tonight. Needless to say, Anna was inconsolable when she had to go home.

Day #180

2009-09-18T20:04:00.000-07:00

Today, Anna and I went to the zoo and ate lunch by the duck pond......we watched the swans make themselves even more beautiful......got harassed by some very hungry (or just nosy) geese...

...and played hide-and-seek.

It was a fun day. Sorry for the bad quality photos. I took them with my phone!

Day #179

2009-09-17T21:00:00.000-07:00

Anna got a bloody nose today after attempting to climb down the big kid ladder at the park. She tried to find the bottom rung with her feet and couldn't so she decided just to let go and allow gravity to help her down. Well, she found the bottom rung. With her face. She's okay, though. She wasn't crying anymore when I took this picture....what kind of horrible mother would I be!? She actually wanted to see a picture of her bloody nose. When there's not a mirror around she asks me to take a picture and then show her.

Day #177

2009-09-15T16:07:00.000-07:00

"You must stay at least that far away from MY ice cream!"

Day #176

2009-09-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

There is no such thing as clean laundry when you live with a husband, a toddler, a dog and two cats.

Day #175

2009-09-13T18:37:00.000-07:00

I found this jacket and hat at a consignment shop today while I was making an appointment to bring some of Anna's old things in...and to my surprise I still had a credit in-house! How could I pass these up? So, after Anna's nap we went to one of the parks near our house for an impromptu photo shoot.

2009-09-13T02:39:00.001-07:00

My little accident last Monday left me without my very handy, very portable point-and-shoot camera. It was that accident where I sat on a rock after over six hourse of hiking uphill and my camera happened to be in my back pocket. Yeah. So, I am going to get back into the habit of bringing my DSLR everywhere with me. The daily photos should commence very shortly.

Day #172

2009-09-10T22:48:00.000-07:00

On our way home from the zoo...again.

Day #169

2009-09-07T18:56:00.001-07:00

Day #168

2009-09-06T18:54:00.001-07:00

We decided to take the Light Rail downtown today to see Taste of Colorado. Anna got to ride a "train" and we got to not deal with parking or figuring out who had to drink soda instead of beer or wine. It was a good decision.

Day #167

2009-09-05T20:08:00.000-07:00

We made a bug jar tonight...and then caught three pill bugs. We'll keep them for a few days before releasing them so I don't have a jar full of dead bugs in my house :)

Day #166

2009-09-04T20:06:00.000-07:00

The free door I scored from CraigsList....I am beginning the repurpose of it. It will eventually be an executive sized desk.

Day #165

2009-09-03T17:16:00.000-07:00

This is the first time Anna agreed to ride one of the animals on the carousel instead of sitting in the safety of one of the chariots. Granted, she would only ride one of the stationary animals and only if I rode with her, but this is progress!

Day #164

2009-09-02T17:02:00.000-07:00

T.J. is not amused by Anna's block stacking skills.

Day #163

2009-09-01T17:01:00.000-07:00

Day #161

2009-08-30T14:37:00.000-07:00

Holy sunflowers, Batman! We didn't have these in our yard last year. That, or they just all died before we saw them. But this year a patch of sunflowers has sprouted in our backyard and they are so pretty to look at.

Day #160

2009-08-29T14:36:00.000-07:00

A nap for two in my big comfy bed.

Day #159

2009-08-28T10:45:00.000-07:00

I never posted pics of the new paint job in the dining room (well, it was new in February!) Since I just cleaned it along with the kitchen and breakfast area, I thought I'd share.

Day #158

2009-08-27T10:44:00.000-07:00

My life is going to involve a lot of this over the next couple of weeks.

Day #157

2009-08-26T19:57:00.001-07:00

I've shown you Anna eating sushi. Now I give you Anna eating caviar.

Day #156

2009-08-25T20:32:00.000-07:00

Being totally out of it with the cold from hell, I let Anna eat mostly sorbet for dinner.

Day #155

2009-08-24T18:21:00.000-07:00

I made two loaves of French bread today. Sometimes I even surprise myself.

Day #154

2009-08-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

The plan was to hike up Mt. Bierstadt (one of the easier 14ers in Colorado) but Guanella Pass was closed so we just hiked around Herman's Gulch for a couple hours. We'll try Mt. Bierstadt again before the cold sets in.

Day #152

2009-08-21T16:33:00.000-07:00

Today's project: finding and then putting together Anna's new bed.

Day #151

2009-08-20T02:16:00.000-07:00

This is how Anna protests walking further.

Day #150

2009-08-19T02:16:00.000-07:00

Funny face time :)

Day #149

2009-08-18T02:15:00.000-07:00

Painting a rice crispie treat at Joe's Crab Shack. Yum!

Day #148

2009-08-17T16:45:00.000-07:00

Rosie the tarantula at the Butterfly Pavillions. Anna isn't afraid of bugs and I think that's mostly because we don't kill bugs at our house. We just catch them and put them outside. Having a basement, this means we catch and release a lot of spiders.

Day #147

2009-08-16T16:50:00.000-07:00

Today was my little cousin's birthday party. Bree is four years old and she and Anna adore each other.

Day #145

2009-08-14T20:42:00.000-07:00

Reading to her new friend at the museum.

Day #143

2009-08-12T20:09:00.000-07:00

I couldn't decide which photo to use for today. We visited Civic Center Park so Nina could see the capitol building and the sprinklers came on as we were walking back to the car. So, I had to let Anna run through them. How could I not let her enjoy herself this much!? It would be cruel to force her to stay dry :)

Day #142

2009-08-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

At Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

Day #141

2009-08-10T22:35:00.001-07:00

The lake at the base of St. Mary's Glacier...what's left of the glacier anyway.

Day #140

2009-08-09T19:26:00.001-07:00

A completely pointless trip to Outdoor World. This is the best I can do today since I slept my way through the majority of it :)