A-Z Challenge: H is for...

The youth organization 4-H.  Here is the 4-H pledge that sums up the purpose and values:

I pledge my HEAD to clearer thinking,
My HEART to greater loyalty,
My HANDS to larger service,
and my HEALTH to better living,
for my club, my community, my country, and my world.

I joined a 4-H club when I was older, about 16, and I regret that I wasn't a part of it sooner.  It's a great club for kids to learn leadership and practical life skills.  The basic idea is that you sign up for projects and you work on the required project components throughout the year and present your efforts at the county fair.  Being the craftaholic that I am I had numerous projects and included crochet, needlework, photography, gardening, art, and I even tried to raise sheep one year.  In addition to projects you can be in a club where you can work on leadership skills and speaking, and I was also active in the County Council too. 

The summer between my junior and senior year I was selected to represent my county on a Citizenship Washington Focus trip.  I got an all expense paid trip to Washington D.C. with about 40 other youth from Colorado to go and learn about our governement and our country.  We went to most of the major memorials and monuments and got to meet with our Senators and Congressmen.  It was a phenomenal trip that I will always remember and cherish.

The 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, a longitudinal study conducted by the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts University, shows youth engaged with 4-H are:

• Nearly two times more likely to get better grades in school;
• Nearly two times more likely to plan to go to college;
• 41 percent less likely to engage in risky behaviors; and
• 25 percent more likely to positively contribute to their families and communities.

To learn more about 4-H go to their website: http://www.4-h.org/

Easter egg hunts

We dyed Easter eggs yesterday afternoon, and had a back yard egg hunt.  This morning we went to an egg hunt in our little town. Other than being windy and cold it was a great egg hunt and they went all out for it.

A-Z Challenge: G is for...

I was going to do GARDEN for G since I love to garden, but I have been so busy the last several weeks that I haven't been in my garden yet this spring so not much to talk about.  I did buy some cool weather seeds this morning so hopefully this weekend I will get it cleaned up, tilled, and plant my spinach, peas, radishes, carrots, and mesclun.

My other choice for G is GIRL.  The ultrasound technician said she was 112% sure that my baby is a girl and got multiple looks down there to confirm it.  Everyone keeps asking if we have a name, but we don't yet.  We have a list of ideas going, but nothing we love yet.

We like more traditional names, but nothing too popular at the moment.  We also avoid gender neutral names.
We don't want to go with a J name since all five of my nephews have J names.  We are avoiding A names because of Austin's name, and B's because our last name starts with a B.  We would go with an A or B name if we really loved it though.

We are leaning towards Grace for the middle name because that is Dustin's maternal grandmothers name.  Along those lines we are kind of looking at first names that somehow incorporate Ann because that is my middle name, my Mom's middle name and my sister's middle name is Joanne.  We don't want to go with Ann outright because that is my nieces name.

Some of the Ann names we are considering:

• Andrea
• Melanie
• Hannah
• Morgan

Some of the other names we have been talking about:

• Shelby
• Katy
• Melissa
• Chelsea

A-Z Challenge: F is for...

FUN!  Some activities that I find to be fun:

• Playing at the park with my son.

• Going for a hike in a beautiful location.

• Going on dates with my husband.

• Playing silly games on Facebook, currently I play Bingo Island, Words With Friends, and Angry Birds.
• Cooking, I love to try a new recipe especially if it turns out well.
• Gardening- I grow a veggie garden every summer and was able to make most of Austin's pureed baby food straight from my garden.

• Sewing and crafting, I am working on the design for my daughters quilt.

Austin's quilt

• Spending time with my family.

• Visiting Colorado.

• Hanging out at the beach.

• Blogging.
• Traveling- I have been to 35 states, Canada, Mexico and the Carribean.

I hope everyone has a FUN weekend!

5QF

TGIF, really I am SOOOO ready for the weekend!

  1. Would you prefer having people over for dinner or going to their house?

I like both and don't really have a preference. 

2. Favorite Bible verse and why?

I don't really focus on verses, so I will go with my favorite story in the Bible.  I really like the book of Ruth and think her story is so inspirational.  She is such a loving and compasionate person that even though she lost everything and could have been selfish and run away to start over she stayed to care for her mother-in-law and humbled herself to do servant work to support them.  In the end she was recognized for her vertue and ended up in an awesome place.

3. What was the first concert you ever attended, and the most recent one?

My first concert was the New Kids on the Block when I was 11.  I was in a terrible car accident and broke my right femur.  My sister recognized that I needed an incentive to stick with my physical therapy so she stood in line at 4:00am in the freezing cold to get us tickets and said we could go so long as I could walk there myself.  It was a great motivator and I would listen to their music on my walkman while I did my physical therapy workouts. 

My most recent concert was last summer, my husband wanted to go and see Soundgarden and they played at Red Rocks Amphitheater in the Colorado foothills.  My Mom watched Austin for us and we went to dinner in Blackhawk then to the concert and it was so awesome!
4. The year is 2025. What are you doing, and what have you done?
Lets see, that is 13 years from now, Austin will be 16 (oh crap!!!) and baby girl will be 12.  I think I will be busy running around with my kids and trying to keep up with their super busy schedules.  What have I done?  Hopefully by then I will be living somewhere else and will have gotten my teaching certificate and will be teaching high school science. 
5. What's your favorite Easter treat?
Reece's peanut butter eggs, yum!  I am so excited that one of the blogs I visited today for the A-Z Challenge had a recipe for homemade peanut butter eggs, yes I will be making some this weekend and can't wait!!!

Another E

I'm on a roll of coming up with secondary letters.  Here are some photos from Austin's EASTER party at school today.

A-Z Challenge: E is for...

I was having a hard time coming up with an "E" so my friend Brandi at Life of a New Mommy of Two (she is doing the challenge too, so stop by and check out her answers) gave me this list for inspiration-ENERGY, EXERCISE, EGGS, ELEPHANT, EAR, EAT.  So for my post I will just give my first thoughts about each word.

Energy- I have very little these days from being pregnant and having a 3 year old.  Caffeine is my friend, only I know I should limit it for the sake of the baby.  But for some reason I can't sleep when it's time to go to bed which is a problem too.

Exercise- I walk occasionally.  I was doing TRX before I got pregnant, but I had a knee injury a couple of months before I got pregnant so took a break from TRX, then when that healed I was pregnant and decided that since I took a break I should not start it up again. 

Eggs- They are delicious!  I'm ready for some boiled Easter eggs this weekend!

Elephant- I like them, they are interestingly enormous.  I always feel bad for the ones in zoos though because they can't run around like their relatives in Africa.  It would be something to see a wild elephant running free in Africa, if only I had any desire to ever visit Africa, which I do not!

Ear- Yes I have two of them, I have one piercing on each in the traditional location at the bottom of my lobe.  Not much else about that, LOL!

Eat- One of my favorite activities, especially as of recently since I am eating for two.  My favorite food is by far steaming hot crab legs dipped in melted butter, oh my mouth is watering at the thought.

A-Z Challenge: D is for...

DUSTIN, my husband, my best friend.  We started our relationship on February 15, 2003 and were married on October 1, 2005. 

This was taken the night of our first date.

Dustin went to college at University of Wyoming and I went to Colorado State University, which are arch rival schools that are about and hours drive from each other.  We were both in agricultural themed Greek organizations and one of the girls in my sorority's real life brother was in his fraternity.  Since there was not a whole lot going on in Laramie, WY, the boys would come down to Fort Collins, CO to go out to dinner and party with our group of friends.

This is Dustin's Great-Uncle's cabin in Colorado where we got engaged.

Here we are near the cabin

Here are a few things about Dustin:

• He is from a small town in south-central Iowa and grew up on his parents farm where they raised black angus cattle.
• He loves cars and subscribes to Motor Trend and Automobile magazines.
• He is an awesome breakfast cook and makes fabulous omelets and eggs Benedict.
• He loves the outdoors and hiking, camping, fishing and hunting.
• He is a Rangeland Conservationist with the Forest Service.
• One of his hobbies is woodworking which he takes after his maternal grandfather.  His projects for me include a nightstand, wine table, jewelry armoire, and an island for our kitchen.
• He is a wonderful husband and father!

We moved to Arizona 8 years ago and live near the Grand Canyon, but are hoping to move back to Colorado or Wyoming soon.

A-Z Challenge: C is for...

This one is easy- COLORADO!  My home, the place I was born and grew up, where my heart will always be!  Oh how I long to live back in Colorado. 

I was born in Denver on a Sunday morning when the Broncos were playing the San Diego Chargers.  My Mom procrastinated on getting to the hospital and I was born 10 minutes after she arrived there.  The doctor jokingly told her that she was just in a hurry to deliver me so she could still watch the game that afternoon.  Am I still a Broncos fan...YES I AM!

It's hard to pick a favorite location there, because there are so many great places to visit.  I love, love, loved living in Fort Collins while I attended Colorado State University and that would be the place I would live if I could choose to live anywhere.  Well, maybe not right in the city, but one of the smaller rural communities surronding Fort Collins.

The other B

Okay, so originally I had another idea for B for the A-Z Challenge.  I was going to do BUMP and show you my 21 week progress photo:

I didn't want people to think I'm only going to write about Mommy topics though, and I felt like my face was looking so broken out and splotchy yesterday so I skipped a picture and I switched it to BEER.

A-Z Challenge: B is for...

BEER!  I had something else in mind for B, but decided to switch it up.  Even though I can't drink beer for 4.5 more months I love thinking about it.  I went to school at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado which happens to have several incredible breweries including Budweiser, New Belgium, and Odells.  Oh how spoiled I was to have all that brewed fresh beer at my fingertips back then.

My all time favorite is:

It's hard to beat an ice cold Fatty on a hot summer day!  Other favs are Budweiser, Easy Street Wheat (Odells), and Apricot Ale (C.B.& Potts).

A-Z Challenge: A is for...

There is no doubt if I asked my three year old son what "A" is for he would shout "AUSTIN!"  Yes, I am a Mommy blogger, I have Austin who just turned three in January and a baby girl on the way due in August.  My blog used to be called "Austin's Mommy" but I changed it to be more reflective of myself and open to the other themes that I talk about in my blog. 

Austin is very energetic and it has been so fun to watch him grow.  He loves the outdoors and would rather go for a hike or play in the sand then be inside.  He does love to play games and loves Wii boxing and Mario Kart.  We actually had to take a break from boxing though as he loves to "boom, boom" us too much.  He is also very good at playing games on the computer.  He loves to ride on his tricycle in the house and drive his power wheels around the yard.  He loves to read books, build with blocks and put puzzles together.

He makes me smile every single day and melts my heart.