I'm no artist

I got sidewalk chalk for Sam to try today. She likes to hold as many of them as she can and then watch them roll down the slight incline of one section of our driveway! Not so much into the actual drawing yet, but really the lack of interest/ability to draw comes naturally to her. I am so much not an artist that today I had to steal idea of what to draw off of the box that the chalk came out of! HA! Of course the little kids on the box drew the sun, flower and stars way better than I did!

Good Morning Monday.

Please be kind to us today.

Last week we got some pretty bad news. Chris failed actuarial exam number seven. It is bad news whenever he fails one of these crazy hard exams but this one was especially bad. It was his third attempt at seven and at the company where he works three strikes and you are out. Out as in fired. The company has not yet received the official notice that he failed yet, so we do not know his future; our future. But this whole thing is very scary. Not knowing our future, where he will work, where we will live and how soon these changes will happen is terrifying.
I only work part time and what I make does not even come close to covering the bills. I would love to be working full time, helping out financially more, but there just aren't jobs in my field open up here. So, if Chris doesn't have a job we could be okay with savings for only a short time, a very short time.

We wait. Once the company gets that notice we will know more about our future in Stevens Point, WI. Until then we are trying to plan quickly. Plan for the worst, plan for the best and plan for change. Change is not necessarily bad. We have been wanting to move closer to family but in the past have been scared to make that leap or too picky about what we wanted. Maybe this is the push that we needed to start a new life, a new adventure some place else. I just hope that some place else is actually closer to family.

If you know of any actuarial jobs let me know!

So, Monday I am not hoping for much but even a non-crabby Sam would be really nice!

recent adventures

Sam's first "hike" where she was allowed to walk on her own (not in a stroller, sling or backpack). She stopped frequently to pick things up or wander but all-in-all the 20 minute walk around Schmeeckle was really fun. She even got to wade in Lake Jonas.



Sam's first boat ride! We got invited out on Lake Dubay with some friends and had a fabulous time. Sam loved being on the boat and getting to walk around and visit with everyone.
This is Sam with her best friend Nick!!

we survived

Four rounds of golf, five days apart and a HUGE energy fair have come and gone. We have almost caught up on all the stories, all the laundry and all the unpacking. Almost. Chris is tanner than I have seen him in a long time. Sam seems to have acquired more new words, it amazes me how quickly she is picking them up now. And I am just tired. Being pregnant with a toddler is just exhausting (how my sister did this twice, with kids younger than Sam, I have NO IDEA! Or anyone for that matter!). But overall it was a great break from being mom for me, good bonding time for Chris and Sam. A great visit for Sam with Grandpa, Nana, Great-Grandpa and Grandma Hill and Aunt Tracey and Uncle Steve. Here are a few of the pictures from the weekend (I never remembered to bring a camera to the fair so no pictures of my weekend; RATS!). I promise there were other people around Sam, somehow they just always escaped the camera! Chris is just not great at being a photographer and actually capturing Sam with our family.

The future golfer with her first set of golf clubs!

Practicing with dada. Nana got this great, old rocking horse for Sam and she loved it.


Some reading time. I love her little body in that huge chair!
Here are all the Knox boys (not all of them, just Chris's group) that golfed at the Knosher Golf Outing.

humane society stikes back

So I have been working my little butt off this week children's workshop tent at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association Annual Energy Fair. This is an AMAZING event in Custer, WI that before this year I knew nothing about. Now I am pissed that I have lived here for five years and have never been. There is something for everyone and so much more! They are expecting 30,000+ people from all over the country over the three days of the fair. There is just no better place to go to learn everything there is to know about "being green", get some great art/pottery/books/toys/ and amazing organic food. Beer too (no, I did not par-take, but I was wishing that I could!)
While working this fair I have seen some pretty crazy things; great parenting, horrible parenting, two years dropping the pants and peeing literally where ever they feel like, and tons of gray haired pony tailed men. But today I heard about the craziest thing at a large public event.
Dogs are not allowed at the Energy Fair. They advertise this well in advance and spread the word very well so that everyone coming knows; and yet people still bring their dogs. Since they can't bring them on to the fair grounds they leave them in the car. It was 85 degrees today when I was coming home at 6:30pm so at noon today it was very hot. Not sure if it is actually illegal or if the human society just has the authority to remove animals in danger but they were patrolling the parking lots looking for dogs left in vehicles. If they found one we would hear an announcement over the PA system saying the type of animal, the vehicle they were in and that the owners had 10 minutes to get to the front gate or the humane society would use force to remove the animals. This meant that they were breaking windows of the car to get the animal out and then the people would have to pay a fine to get the animal back from the humane society. Several people today missed the deadline and we were none too pleased with the result. Way to go humane society! I say it serves those people right; they shouldn't be allowed to own animals in the first place if they are going to lock them in a car that probably got up in the 100s.
All the drama of people hearing the announcements and then later hearing about the mad people that had their cars destroyed made the day interesting and go faster.
I am excited that tomorrow is the last day of the fair. I am so tired, achy and at the end of my patience rope with parents that don't control their children. It has been a great experience but I am ready to be done.

Kidless for four full days

So Chris and Sam headed down to Bloomington today until Sunday. Chris has a golf event at Knox (our college) and so Sam is going to stay with Grandpa and Nana. I was suppose to be going with them but didn't realize until recently that I had double booked myself for this week/weekend and so I am home, working. I am running a children's workshop tent at the biggest energy fair in the midwest. It is going to be four very long, hard, exhausting days.
While I am kind of excited to have four days of only having myself to worry about I am also already missing my daughter and it has only been five hours. I know that late each night for the next four nights I am going to miss her a lot. And it has been crazy how the last couple of days I have been obsessing about Sam's life and making sure that Chris knows everything that there is to know, EVERYTHING! Like it would be that big of a deal if she drank pure apple juice instead of a half and half mixture of juice and water. Or that her milk in the evening she prefers to be warm, does it really matter? NO! I'm just being an over obsessed mom! I know she will be fine and will have a great time. Hopefully I can get past missing her, dig into my work and enjoy the time away at least a little bit. I'll keep you posted...

Good luck Grandpa and Nana, have fun with my little trouble maker!!

Welcome to the NEW blog!

The first new post on the Enlund Family Blog. Boring title but I don't have it on the banner yet so if anyone has a better suggestion I am all ears.

Today was my first doctors appointment. All the typical tests, exams and background questions. I am for sure nine weeks along. Which puts the due date at January 15th. The heart beat was small, obviously, but strong and healthy. I love that little sound. I asked my nervous mom kind of questions and got the answers that I already knew were coming. The bad news that I got is that traveling at Christmas is not really recommended. We haven't ruled it out, I think I could handle it, but we will have to wait and see. It could be a last minute kind of decision.

So, so far things are going well with Enlund baby #2 or as my niece Bailey calls him/her "Tootie Mashooti"; don't ask. I am feeling good and the baby sounds beautiful!! I am going to try and enjoy every moment of this pregnancy because I know that it will be over before I know it.

Thanks for making the move to the new blog with us!

rain rain go away!

Thank you all so much for the comments and emails of congratulations and support. We are so excited about this and it is great to finally share the excitement with blogland. Since I started this blog after Sam was born I am also kind of excited to be able to vent, get advice, get support and ask questions about this pregnancy to all of you! So, you have that to look forward to!

Today - I am really mad at mother nature right now. It is currently 50 degrees and cloudy/rainy which it has been for several days. We actually have temperatures in the 30s listed for night time temps and even some day time lows! This is ridiculous. It is JUNE!
I want to be playing outside, going for long walks, bike rides and call me crazy but maybe even going to the pool!

Lastly, blog people, seriously what do I do about this blog? Do I 1) start over with a new blog, 2) change the title at the top of the blog to something else other than "All About Sam" (anyone have any ideas?) but keep the address the same, or 3) is there a way to copy the content from this blog to a new one with a new name?
What do you all think?

Sam has exciting news!

Yup, that's right Sam is going to be a big sister sometime in January. The Enlund family is growing once more! We could not feel more blessed and excited to meet this little person. No real details yet because it is still very early in the pregnancy but of course I will keep you all posted as we know more.
By the way...anyone in blog land know how to take the content from this blog and put it on a new blog? Not very fair to the new addition to our family to have the blog address still be "All About Sam"! Clearly I was not thinking ahead when I planned the blog name!! HA!

errands, errands, errands

I was a good American this morning and helped to stimulate the economy! HA! That is the way I have decided to make myself feel better about the ridiculous amount of money that I spent this morning while running six different errands with Sam. Lowes, Petco, Target, Duralum (the carpet store, this was the REALLY big expense!), Kohl's and the grocery store. Sam and I had a great time though, she survived the morning with no nap and is sleeping great now. So all in all even though my credit card took a pretty big hit it was a good morning.
I am excited for tonight because we have an evening boating trip planned with some good friends. And Sam was invited too! It should be really fun and a great way to spend a beautiful Friday evening.
Hope you all are having a happy Friday!

the faces of Sam

So apparently my sister is very good at capturing many of the crazy faces of my daughter. The other thing that she amazing captured was evidence that the skill to make these faces was not taught to her or inherited from me...it is all Chris's fault!!

rough day

It has been a rough day.
Chris has been gone a lot lately (volleyball Thursday night, volleyball all day/night Saturday, golf tonight, golf tomorrow night, volleyball again on Thursday). It is one of those things where we talked about each one of these events and thought they were a good idea, signed him up and then realized that they were all back to back. It is good for him to get out, be active, have hobbies and be social but it is hard for me to be home with none of that for myself. I don't think this all would have been such a big deal if at the same time I wasn't trying to catch up on laudry, yard work, cleaning and grocery shopping (not to mention my jobs!) since we were gone for five days. Plus, Sam is going through a tough time of teething and growing out of two naps.
We are struggling right now.

But two funny things happened today that made me smile.

I saw a pig statue today at a mechanic shop that had a sign on it that said "I am swine flu free!" I thought that was pretty funny. I like a mechanic with a good sense of humor!

The neighbors across the channel must be working on putting in a new dock or something because there were two men examining the shoreline across from our backyard. One of the guys walked back up the hill and one stayed behind. The one that stayed behind stopped for a moment right on the shore, looked around (apparently NOT seeing me in my yard right across the water) and then proceeded to open his fly and PEE!! Oh yes he did!! HE PEED. I laughed and looked away quickly. Not sure how he didn't see me.

So that was pretty much my day. I am now sitting here watching the WORST "game show" I have ever seen...not even sure of the name but Spencer and Heidi from the Hills are on it; YUCK. Nothing else on tv and because I am a tv addict I just can't turn it off.

How was your day?