Miss July

Meet Miss Harper Monroe~!!! :) <3 Wow what a beauty.  I love it when people I love are introduced to the love of parenthood!!!  I booked our tickets to DC just today~ we are so excited to meet this little nugget.

i love summer

It's a gorgeous Sunday in Iowa :) Our friends Matt and Anita stopped by on their way back to Colorado- gosh I hope to live there someday! In the mean time we're hoping to visit. We will find out this week when.... Dustin starts his new job!.... and we learn more about his vacation schedule. I'm SO SO excited he's finally found something to be excited about. It isn't perfect as he will have a 65 mile commute... but the pay is good and the job sounds promising.

This means Jonah will start daycare- at a facility- for the first time ever. I see tears in my near future...! After the adjustment phase I know it will benefit him. I am so thankful to have had 1:1 care for him for an entire year! I miss you Felicia!!! Our little man is toddling all over the place now. He prefers to walk over crawl, unless he's really in a hurry ;) He's been a little crabbier than usual and at the same time we're trying to nix the bottle- which isn't fun. I think he may be teething and upon receiving great motherly advice from a friend we picked up some teething tablets this morning. Just in time- as he's either cutting teeth or getting sick today :-/  Even the pool couldn't cheer him up today.  A dose of Tylenol, teething tablets, an attempt at a popsicle and a nap with water we caved and gave him a bottle of milk.  And he's finally sleeping peacefully in what appears to be a fever-free state so I'm happy we did. Meanwhile I am enjoying some great sunshine and blogging with you all while he naps.

I finished Ferrell's a few weeks ago and lost 4 lbs and 3" from my waist- not to mention the faster mile and improvements in all other categories. Yay me!  I think my metabolism is revved up so I'm trying to keep it up.... a 5k this month (eek!) with "team grabe" girls I haven't brought myself to get the before and after pics just yet, but I am ready for what's next. I signed up to run a 5k in July (the color run!) and am super pumped for that- especially after an amazing run with Dustin's stepmom today.  4 fricking miles!  Can I get a hell ya? :)

oops- the baby's up I gotta run! xx

i hate you Mother Nature

And that is all for now.

Jonah's first birthday :)

back in the game

Okay I think I'm done being so dramatic for the time being ;) Even though it rained for THREE SOLID DAYS over the holiday weekend it ended up being a great time after all. Moments after I published my last little sob story I got Facebook notifications from those friends I had been so busy pouting over. We had a lovely evening with one of the couples we're closest to, dinner with another and I got SO MUCH stuff done for Jonah's party.

Most importantly this weekend Jonah took his first few steps! What a magical moment that was- first he took just one step towards me from Daddy; then about three!!! I'm so thankful for that memory.

I'm actually looking forward to my boss riding with me this week and think I have some solid meetings set up for us. It's one of those things I dread up until the time comes and then it ends up being a good thing.

AND I'm planning to get my LLC filed with the state this week so I can unveil the little fitness business I've been working on. Remember me desiring that healthy obsession with food/fitness just a few months ago? Thanks to the kickboxing routine I've got a handle on my diet for probably the first time in my life, and now I'm obsessing over this group fitness idea- I am literally bursting at the seams with excitement. Here's hoping someone comes through with some space for me to use so this thing can actually get off the ground! xx

Left out

Man- I hate to be the Debbie Downer but this holiday weekend is not exactly what I had anticipated. I'm sitting at home on a Saturday night par-oozing the internet and feeling sorry for myself~ just what you want to hear about, right?

Did I make the right decision in moving us here...?! I'm so haunted by this thought.

The fact that my boss is riding with me next week (spending 3 days doing everything that I do, with me) is lingering over me like a black cloud. He's a great guy; it's a great company. I just know there's something about this sales gig that is NOT me. I've started to refer to it as the golden handcuffs.

I wonder if this is something I'll just always feel...? Am I just someone who can't be happy...?! If you look at my resume I've switched jobs about every 3 years. When I was in nursing that was something that was frowned upon, but even in my first interview with Johnson & Johnson they took one look at that and laughed, saying it looked like the resume of a sales rep. I thought for sure I had found my niche. The fact that it was a pay increase (nurses are SEVERELY underpaid in Iowa) and included benefits such as a pension, paid cell phone plan and company car seemed like a dream come true.

That job is what moved Dustin and I out of Cedar Rapids to begin with back in 2009. That in and of itself was a huge undertaking- being married to someone who is nearly deathly allergic to change. We never did sell the home we moved out of and it's been a rental property ever since. Now it's my job (or my decision to take a new job) that moved us back here, which is once again a huge upset to our little fruit basket. As it stands today we now have a house in MN to sell and Dustin still looking for a job. What the eff ewe see kay am I doing...?!? Who let this girl be in charge? Is there any way I can pass the baton?

I know this roller coaster is on its way back up. My beautiful baby boy is about to have a birthday party- that I will pull together if it kills me. My ride along with my boss will go just fine. We'll sell our house in MN and Dustin will be working soon. Hopefully my feelings of suffocation regarding my job will pass with the rest of the stress and the icing on the cake would be a new little munchkin on the way :) 

As turned off as I've been by religion lately I think it's time to get back in touch with my spiritual side. xx

*almost* one~!

I haven't blogged for a while again and to be honest I'm not in the best of blogging mindsets at the moment. I think the toll of all the stresses of our move came crashing down on me today. I *literally* went home mid morning absolutely sobbing- I put Jonah down for a nap and then took one myself. Kickboxing helped my mood a little but I am still in the dumps. I can't bring myself to clean, work on Jonah's birthday party planning or my little workout deal I mentioned in my last post. The thought of my boss riding with me next week and everything I need to do to get ready for that is beyond overwhelming. Blogging it is.

So this past weekend we drove to NW Iowa to have a little party with my dad, my Aunt and brother's family! It was a quick trip but super fun. We had a pizza party and the staff members even sang happy birthday to Jonah... to which he cried :) Then Dustin, Jonah and I headed to Lake Okoboji for some family fun- we strolled around the lake and took it all in. I just love summer in Iowa. After that my cousin Jenni and her husband Kyle met up with us to do Jonah's cake smash photo shoot...!  I'm dying to see those photos- she does such an amazing job and he's such an amazing subject. Then we headed back to my brother's for some good food and a movie.

Jonah is ready to walk any day- he can stand unassisted for quite some time and is walking along furniture like a pro. We're never quite sure when he's breaking teeth- the kid is a drooling monster...! He did finally get his top two in and looks so grown up with his toothy smile. He hasn't really picked up any more words, but his little language is amazing to listen to nonetheless. He does this thing when he's tired- it sounds something like: "gong gong gong" but it's really long and drawn out and he says it so loud!

Here are some photos from the weekend- minus the cake smash of course. We will have to be patient for that one ;)

I'm going to have a beer and force myself to look at my work computer for a while. Let's hope for a better day tomorrow. xx

man I wish I would've seen the smudge before I took the picture!