The Trunk's Junk

Will's Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:02:00 +0000

Last weekend we celebrated Will's first birthday. I have had the pleasure of seeing this little treasure grow up, so I was so happy to get to take photos of his birthday party :)

Izzy and I went up the night before to hang out with Emily and Will. Joacim was out for a "guys night" so we thought we could go up and help out. I don't really think we did much helping though :) The only thing I did was bring some lasagna, which you see all smashed up in front of Will.

He looks so BIG here!!

And Snow White was dancing around as well :)

Look how cute Lucy looks. She was snuggling with Will's elephant

Will LOVES his Grandma

And his Grandpa (and I'm pretty sure it's universal)

Here was a present Will got from Grandma and Grandpa. He loved sitting in it

And Emily made the most amazing pork ragout...soooooo good!

Lucy was in position early

I love how surrounded Will is with Love....he's a happy baby with a GREAT family!

And Emily ALSO made this pretty Neopolitan cake for his first cake. Yummy!

And it all started out good enough

But quickly deteriorated when he started shoving huge pieces into his mouth (and it gets better...see below)

It was also Jen and Karyl's birthday as well, so they got to blow out their candles too.

It's hard to resist this smile, isn't it (even when it's covered in red-velvet cake)

Oh yes...Will REALLY got into the spirit of things...and the cake too!

I think Izzy has somewhat adopted Emily and her family and it seems mutual. Even Em's sister, Leslie, had fun with her.

And then Emily let will REALLY get into his cake

And Lucy was never very far away...lucky for her that Will wanted to share

And poor Lucy had no idea what Will would do next.

He seemed to REALLY enjoy smearing icing all over Lucy

But I don't think she cared since she was able to eat the leftovers

I'm not sure if you can see in this photo, but Will's hands were covered in hair and icing. Yum.

Thank you Emily and family for letting me crash Will's party :)

Framing is done!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 01:53:00 +0000

Joacim arrived in Minnesota this morning, and it seemed to take forever, but he FINALLY sent me some photos of the house. Holy crap! Isn't it incredible how FAST it's going up???

View from the living room

Laundry room and beyond that is the loft

I think this is the laundry room and then our room

And I think this is either Izzy's room or the spare bedroom

downstairs view of stairs and office from the kitchen

And the back of the house

I'm really glad Joacim was able to go up there and do a walkthrough with the builder. He uncovered a couple of issues that we completely missed, and hopefully he's able to address a couple of things we forgot (like heat in the garage AND an electrical outlet in the master bathroom for a towel warmer. I've wanted one soooo bad at our current home but there's no way to power one, and I'm GOING to have one in our new house. SOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!

We've got walls!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:30:00 +0000

Here's what our new house in Minnesota looked like last Tuesday:

And here's what it looked like last Friday morning!!! We have walls! I was shocked when I drove up to the site on Friday...totally didn't expect to see anything, but I was PLEASANTLY surprised. The guys were kind enough to let me take some photos...

looking into the kitchen

half-wall separating living room and dining room

living room

stairway to basement

living room windows and the view

dining room bump-out and view

front of house (garage will be on the right)

view from the road

I can't tell you how excited we are! Now that we see walls, it feels like it'll be done in no-time. We have a tentative close date of March 27th. Joacim's heading up there next week to do a framing inspection. Wish us luck that all goes well!

The beauty of a sunset never ceases to captivate me

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:41:00 +0000

And today was no exception. I was on my way back to Waconia to get something to eat, and I could hardly take my eyes off of the sky while I was driving. Finally, I took a right turn, followed this curvy road, and found THE PERFECT vantage point to take some pictures. How I WISH I would've had my DSLR with me, but I am thankful that I at least had my iPhone with me.

Look how BEAUTIFUL it is!!! And these photos aren't enhanced.this truly was the color palette. The sky....it just seems so big here sometimes. I'm looking forward to seeing more of these.....

First day of my new life

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 04:28:00 +0000

Today started early for me...a 9:30am flight meant that I had to get up at 6:00am...can't remember the last time I had to do that! Yeah yeah...I know....I REALLY should've learned to get to work earlier, but I never did, and it got so much worse after Izzy. But I think that's going to be changing when we move up here. Speaking of up here...I'm in Minnesota right now. I flew up here this morning to start my new job. Before I went there, I stopped by the site of our new home that we're building. I was ELATED to see some progress...we have a basement! And we seem to have a fairly set close date (March 27th, keep your fingers crossed for me, will ya?)!

I took a few photos of the build....this is our walkout basement

I took this shot to get an idea of the size of our yard. It goes back to that fence you see on the left, which isn't too bad (we're used to MUCH smaller)

I took this photo on what will be the 1st floor. It's not a bad view...of course I wish it was lined with trees, but that's an expensive view up here! This really isn't too bad...a nice little pond down there, and I'm not looking directly into someone's house, so I'm happy.

And so far, this part is completely empty, with no plans for it. Of course, that could all change someday, but it looks like I'll be able to enjoy this big sky for awhile. I'm thinking that I need a telescope now!!!

So that part was very exciting. I then went to my new job. I was happy that they had all of my stuff already (laptop, monitor, cell phone, SecureID), so that was great. I've gotten everything connected (even using it right now to blog this) so the usual headaches seem to have passed. There were a few things today that worried me, but I'm not going to focus on them. I'm going to keep my mind completely open and see what tomorrow brings.

A trip to Emily's

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 01:20:00 +0000

We decided to head up to Emily's house for a couple of days. We hadn't seen her and Will for awhile, and we wanted to get away a bit before New Year's. It's always so relaxing there, and this time proved to be more of the same.

We headed up there Thursday night. Izzy and I had spent the day at my Grandma's going through old family photos (which was AWESOME, btw....). Joacim stayed at home to get his hair cut and take Lemmy to the vet, but we all ended up meeting at Emily's in the evening. The first night we got pizzy, drank beer/wine and hung out by the fire. Awesome. Oh, and put on some false eyelashes...you know, just for shits and grins :O Whatta ya think? I don't have the pic of Emily's, but hers looked MUCH better than mine.

That was pretty much it. We all had a rough night of sleeping (or lack thereof). Poor Will was NOT a happy camper, and poor Emily suffered the brunt of it. Joacim slept on a crappy sinking air mattress and I slept with Izzy who did alligator rolls all night long with sharp toenails in my back. Awesome.

Will WAS in a pretty decent mood the next morning though.

Here's the crappy air mattress in the morning, completely caved in. THIS one is going back....(an yes, apparently when the Trunks come over, your place will be trashed)

Emily had a couple of large boxes that she had wrapped for Will to play in, but I think Izzy might have liked it more.

The only thing that Emily wanted to do that day was ride her horse, so while she got ready, Joacim took Izzy and Will outside to swing.

OMG...those TEETH and that GRIN!!!

Then we went to the where the horses are boarded. Here's Emily feeding a piece of candy to Cole (gross...yes, but kinda cute too)

This is Cole and Coach. Cole is "underneath" Coach. These two TOTALLY remind me of Rosie and Murphy. Murphy and Cole are similar in that they're bigger and seem to rule the roost, while Rose and Coach are both little mischievous instigators. Coach kept biting Cole's neck while Emily was grooming them.

There's this amazing lion-like cat at the barn. Look at how beautiful he is!!!

And then Emily had the wise idea of having ME ride Coach. There's NO WAY I would've ridden Cole...that's just too much horse for me, but Coach was manageable. Don't get me wrong...I wasn't all that sure about it at first but Emily's a GREAT teacher.

I look enthused, don't I? Actually, this is the look of scared shitless. It actually went VERY well. Joacim took a few videos, and I'd post them but it's embarassing how slow I was actually going when it felt a lot faster. Thankfully, Coach was kind to me and smarter than me at riding :)

Aren't they stunning?

It was so chilly by the time we were finished that Emily and I hit the grocery story to get some stuff for chili. Joacim was already back at Emily's house with Izzy since she wasn't enjoying the barn all that much. He DID have a nice fire going (thank you!!!) Then it was bath time for everyone!!!

And THIS is one of my favorites. Izzy ke;pt saying how she didn't want to go to sleep, she wasn't tired. She was wrong. THIS is how she fell asleep. In the middle of the floor, sucking her thumb. So. Cute.

We had a GREAT time! Thank you Emily and Will for letting us hang out at your house!!!

Sick days

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:25:00 +0000

This time, for me. I'm not sure what happened, but the first day off of work I was sick, and it never really let up until now. That Friday I didn't get out of bed until noon, and was back in bed by 5. The next day, I moved to the sofa in the spare bedroom and watched a bunch of old Cary Grant movies. It would've been heavenly had I not been so ridiculously nauseous.

Izzy spent most of the day in there with me as well, watching movies. It was nice and snuggly, for the most part. Joacim was kind enough to take her out of the house for awhile and visit Shelby Street Diner (without me, sadly).

I even got a little snuggle in with Rosie.

But the beautiful thing about all of this resting was NO SWELLING. And for anyone that's reading my other blog, you'll know how truly awesome this is to me. :)

I experienced it all, but today, for the first time, I'm feeling human again. I can eat, breathe, and I'm not required to sit down every 5 minutes. That's progress, I'd say.

Christmas 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 03:34:00 +0000

Izzy is so kind to us sometimes. She TOTALLY slept in on Christmas morning...I'm sure it won't last forever, but WOOOHOOOO!!!

Here's a short video of Izzy seeing her presents for the first time.

And the presents......

And the funny faces...

And the dogs (I feel bad that I didn't get them anything this year, but they can't really have any treats, and they've already got a gazillion half-destroyed toys...so I opted out this year. I still think they had fun being in the middle of everything)

And the doll that she asked Santa for

Even Lemmy hung around

This is a Smurf book she got that's in Swedish

And she loves helping others

A book from farfar...

SHOES!!!!!

And my big surprise gift for Joacim...3 laps around the track in an Indy Car!!!! I think he was surprised :)

Here's Snow White (she dressed herself, mind you) eating her fair maiden breakfast on Christmas morning.

After breakfast, we headed up to Lafayette for Christmas with my family. I was so excited to give my Grandma her gift...a Kindle!!!! She was surprised and happy. All in all, I think I did pretty damn good this year ;)

And Izzy made out like a bandit in the gift department. I really didn't think I did that bad shopping for her...I thought I kept everything in check, but when I looked at the pile, I realized that I was completely delusional and shopped too much. And then it got worse with my parents :) ALL of the presents you see in this picture are for her (except the toaster oven behind her :) It was obscene, but Izzy had a fantastic time and loved it all!!!

And, for your viewing pleasure...a few videos of our dear little one dancing. The The second video is AFTER her wardrobe change :) Enjoy and I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!!!

Pre-Christmas 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 03:29:00 +0000

(Since it's New Year's Eve, I figure I better catch up while it's still 2011!)

We had a few things left to finish up the week before Christmas. I was smart this year in getting a bit of a head start, and really focusing on the whole gift-giving. It made it MUCH easier. One of the most important things Izzy had to finish was her Pappa's gift! While he was away in Sweden, she made him a cast of her hand print, and she had to finish painting it.

I don't even remember when I took this photo, but it's probably going to be one of my favorites. These two were SO tired. Joacim worked most of the week before Christmas, and when he finally rested, he REALLY rested. And my little princess fell asleep with her crown and family jewels on :)

A little time was spent combing Barbie's hair. I got this for her at the Children's Museum the day we went there because she had so much fun playing with Barbie's hair there. I had one of these when I was a kid, so it only made sense that she should too, right?

And THIS is what we had for Christmas Eve dinner. I usually make it in the shape of a wreath, but since it was just the 3 of us (and Izzy hardly counts when it comes to eating) I made it this shape instead. I'd link the recipe, but I CAN NOT find it online, so eventually I'll get around to digitizing it. Needless to say, it's got chicken, mayo, dijon mustard, and cranberries (and some other mixers) and it's baked in this croissant shell. So. Good.

And, we mustn't forget all of the Christmas Carols that Izzy learned this year. There's no real video to go along with these since I took them in the car at night, but just listen. ADORABLE I tell ya!

Last day of gymnastics

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 02:45:00 +0000

I'm so glad we signed Izzy up for gymnastics. She LOVED it, and she looks forward to it every week. Here's a video of her on the uneven bars on the last day of this past session. We'll definitely be doing this one more time before we move!

Visit to the Children's Museum

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:48:00 +0000

Ok...12 days since my last post....12 days since my last day of work....CONNECTION? Maybe. Let's just say that I've been enjoying being disconnected for awhile, but as my Grandma noted the other day, I NEED to update this, so here goes. I had taken Izzy to the Children's Museum when Joacim was in Sweden. I REALLY wanted to get a picture with Santa this year, and I figured this was the best bet for us BOTH getting what we wanted.

I took her on a Friday, and it was remarkably calm for the time of the year. I took a day off of work to go because I hate going there on a weekend...it's impossible to do anything due to the lines, but on a Friday it was easy-peasy. I started off at the carousel on the 4th floor. Who doesn't LOVE a carousel??? And then we went to a kid-sized little village, complete with a tree house, house and ice cream shoppe. Here she is making me a sundae.

Here's the center atrium at the museum, for those of you that haven't ever had a chance to go. It really is an incredible children's museum!

And then it was off to the Barbie exhibit. I was a bit gun-shy here, because I didn't know if I wanted her to know what a Barbie was! But she seemed to learn pretty quick.

Her favorite part was playing with and styling the Barbie's hair.

And of course a little dressing-up (not easy to find a dress that would go over here already poofy skirt!

And a mouth full of grapes at lunch.

Then it was up to the winter wonderland exhibit.

And Izzy's MOST FAVORITE activity of the day....the "ice skating" area....

This would've been on the front of our Christmas card had I time to make them this year....

And (drumroll please).......photo with Santa!!!!!!!!

And, awesomely enough, she wanted to go back again the next day to talk to him, so I'm thinking that the Santa-fear is now history!!! Whoooop whooop!

Last Day at Lilly

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:10:00 +0000

Wow. Today was an emotionally tough day for me. It was my last day working at Lilly, and I was a weepy, blubbering mess. I purposely didn't wear makeup today because I KNEW it would be pointless, and I was right. Hell, I didn't even leave the house this morning without my first cry of the day. Can't WAIT to see how puffy my eyes are tomorrow morning.

I'm sure I shocked some people by my uncontrollable emotions, but there wasn't anything I could do. It came in waves and it was unstoppable.

I had written an email to everyone to say goodbye and thank them, and the overwhelming response I got from it FLOORED ME. Emails, phone calls, notes to say thanks...it was just so unbelievably kind. It makes me feel like I impacted people, and in a good way...can't tell you what that means to me to know that.

The work environment at Lilly is like no other place I've ever been, and maybe that's why it was so hard to leave...because that environment is so special to me. I grew up at Lilly in regards to my career....I found my place....I know what I excel at.

And now I have to start over.

Last week

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:08:00 +0000

Tomorrow is the first day of y last week of work at Lilly. I'm excited to start a new chapter, but also so sad that this one is coming to an end. I've grown up a lot, career-wise, at Lilly.

When I moved here I didn't know anyone, but right away, people invited me into their lives, Liza invited me to a party at her house, and normally I wouldn't have gone because I was too shy, but I did go, and we've been friends ever since.

There are so many people I've met, some that have become what I hope are lifelong friends. That's always been hard in the past, but with Facebook and chat and everything else, I'm hoping that won't be the case this time.

So much to do this week at work. I haven't even started cleaning out my cubicle...I have a lunch every day this week. I'm glad it's like this though...hopefully it won't make it as hard to walk out those doors for the last time on Friday.

Makin' food

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 15:30:00 +0000

And as if we didn't do enough on Saturday, we TOTALLY maxed it out on Sunday. I don't know where the motivation OR the energy came from; it's like I was trying to get 2 weeks worth of work done in 2 days.

After we woke up, had breakfast and walked Rosie, we got to work. We started out by de-seeding more pomegranates. After that endless and messy task was done, we started getting ready to make vegetable stock. I had been saving the veggie extras in a bag in the refrigerator, and I figured I better do something with it before it all went bad. I'd never made stock before, but it didn't look too hard. While I was getting that ready, I let Izzy try to peel some carrots to make a carrot salad. Look at her sticking her tongue out.....THIS is something she gets from Joacim ;)

And yes, you must check out the outfit. I think this was outfit #2 of that day. I had taken her shirt of during the poms because it's so damn messy, and she just neer put it back on.

Here's our carrot salad. Joacim's mom made this when they visited in 2008, and I've made it ever since. You shred about 5-6 carrots, peel a couple of clementines, mix in a little sugar and lemon juice and voila! I added pom seeds too because they're just so damn good! Easy, light and healthy.

Then we made some cheddar broccoli soup using this recipe. I LOVE the soup from Panera, and this is pretty close. Making it at home allows me to control the salt content better, because the Panera recipe has a ridiculous amount of sodium in it. I used low-sodium broth, and held back on the cheddar cheese a bit. It's probably not a huge difference, but it's an attempt.

And THEN I made some baked potato soup using this recipe. I did make a few modifications though. But I DID cook real bacon...for this sometimes there's just no substitute.

I went ahead and cooked all of the bacon and drained all but a tablespoon of the fat, and then pretty much followed the recipe. I DID use the vegetable stock that I had made earlier, and it was a nice addition...it made the soup MUCH lower sodium than it normally would have been because I didn't add salt to the stock.

After the potatoes were cooked, I pureed the mixture in a blender. I think Oprah's recipe was for a smoother soup, but I wanted something a bit chunkier, so I boiled some Yukon gold potatoes in another pot (diced into ~1 inch cubes) and added those to the soup when they were cooked. The gold potatoes are nice because they've got a firm texture that holds up well to re-heating the soup. Here's the final product...soup garnished with the bacon pieces, some cheddar cheese and fresh chives that I'm growing. Oh. So. Yummy.

And it made a HELL of a lot of soup.

Here's our bounty from the day....a total of 14 cups of veggie stock, 6 bags of potato soup at 1 1/2 cup each and 5 bags of broccoli cheddar soup. I froze everything. This makes for a quick, easy go-to meal, especially for lunch.

And along with all of that soup was EXTREMELY CHAPPED HANDS.

And swollen ankles from all of the standing. Santa, will you bring me one of those rubber mat thingies for my kitchen for Christmas?

Leaves and lights

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Joacim is in Sweden for the next couple of week, so Izzy and I are flyin' solo. It was a pretty warm day last Sunday, so I decided to start working on the Christmas decorations. I figured that it was something that Izzy would be able to help me with, and if not, then at least she'd be able to be outside and playing. After we got up some of the Christmas lights, I decided we needed more, so we headed out to the grocery store to get a few things and pick up more lights. When we got back, it looked like it was going to storm, so Izzy and I hurried up and raked the leaves in the front yard. Thankfully, the weather held off so she could play in them for awhile.

And in video....

And then after all of THAT, we headed inside to decorate the inside.

And here are a couple of the outside decorations. Nothing too fancy, but just enough :)

I can't believe how much we got done that day. We were EXHAUSTED, but I am so glad that it's all done.

Izzy's playdate with "Cinci-Mady"

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:50:00 +0000

Last weekend, Izzy and I headed over to Sarah and Mady's house for a playdate. They just built a new house and I was excited to see it (it's beautiful, by the way). The whole "Cinci-Mady" thing came about the last time we went for a clinical trial visit. If you recall, they're in Cincinatti, and on the way there, Izzy kept asking where we were going so I told her. Well, somehow in her 3-year old brain, she thought we were going to Mady's house, and she kept saying Cincimady...and that's how Mady got her nickname from Izzy.

Anyway, Sarah had the brilliant idea to try to make snowglobes with the girsl (using this tutorial), and it WAS fun, but the girls quickly tired of it and decided to head upstairs and play. It was probably for the best anyway, because Sarah and I didn't have a clue as to what we were doing, and that kind of disarray is never good for 3-year olds :)

In the end, they turned out pretty cool. Here's my 2nd attempt (don't ask about the first ;). I think the next ones we make will be MUCH better. It's not really practical to try to do this all in one day..you NEED to allow a couple of days for the glue to dry.

And then Jake (Mady's older brother) came home from a birthday party, and they all played (don't mind Cooper down there :)

There were a couple of disagreements, but I'm chalking that up to 2 girls that had about 5 minutes worth of naptime that day.

A good time again! I'm going to miss these guys and these playdates!!!

Little shitball

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 02:31:00 +0000

Ok, remember the other day when I posted something about Rosie being destructive? Yeah, well, she keeps finding ways to outdo herself. This is what we saw when we got home tonight.

Don't know what that is? We didn't either, until we saw this

A whole FRICKIN box of instant oatmeal packets. Gone. Devoured. Destroyed. This was a whole box...I just opened it this morning and ate one packet. There was not a scrap to be found (except the box, of course....she left that little diddy for us :)

I think we've found our new babysitters in Minnesota!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 02:08:00 +0000

We had dinner last night with Daniel and Caroline. Sadly, she's going back to Sweden this weekend because it's been fun getting to know her a little. She's super nice, and I'm excited about us all being in Minnesota. And based off of the smile on SOMEONE'S face, I'm not the only one. ;) They were making paper flowers in this photo below.

Izzy gets a LOT of attention when these two are around. Daniel reads, Caroline teaches Izzy Swedish....it's just awesome.

I'm not sure how they got on this topic, but I walk around the corner and Daniel's pulling back on Joacim's bow.

Thanks you two for a fun night!

Mommy's Little Helper

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:00:00 +0000

We're starting to get into a stage that I love, and that's Izzy being my little helper. This is so much better than her wrapping herself around my legs screaming "UP..UUUUUUUUUP!". Last weekend she helped me make pumpkin bread.

And clean the dog nose smudges off of the windows. Lemme tell ya....this girl is a CHAMPION window cleaner.

And this past weekend I had to de-seed a bunch of pomegranates, which is a task that I hate. And it was a PERFECT task for Izzy. Her favorite part was rubbing the seeds together to loosen up the extra flesh so it'll rinse off (until I had her taste the seeds, and then her favorite part was eating them :)

I can't wait till she can work a vacuum cleaner......

Recipe of the Day : Kabuto "fake"

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

This isn't so much a "recipe" per say, but rather a meal idea. One of my favorite places to eat is a local Japanese steakhouse called Kabuto. Sometimes I'm CRAVING it, but Izzy gets a bit freaked out there (lots of fire :) so we don't go very often. This is my complete knock-off of my favorite meal (minus the salad and miso soup).

I take steak tips that I got from Fresh Market (excellent, btw) and cook them in a little olive oil and butter in an iron skillet. I think the iron skillet is KEY here, as it allows the meat to brown nicely. I finish the tips off with a bit of Worcestershire and soy sauce.

This is exactly what it looks like, sauteed veggies. I saute some onions, broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash and mushrooms in a ~~heck of a lot of~~ little butter.

And this is my fried rice. I used Jasmine rice that was freshly made, but I'm thinking that day-old rice might be better. Anyway, I take some butter and fry an egg in it, making sure to chop up the egg in to teeny tiny pieces. Once the egg is cooked, I add the rice and some cooked corn. Toss well and add soy sauce to flavor.

And that's it. Nothing tricky, nothing fancy, but hella yummy!

The little destroyer

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 02:34:00 +0000

Yes, I'm talking about this one. She's been VERY destructive lately. I have stopped taking photos of everything she's chewed on. Needless to say, they could fill their own book, but here's a few from the last couple of weeks.

3 hats (from today today)
the antenna on Izzy's play cell phone
the wrist strap on Izzy's play cell phone
4 of Izzy's flip flops....all from separate pairs
a beautiful afghan (not ruined, but definitely chewed on)
Joacim's hat
Joacim's leather glove..yes, just one

Every day I dread walking through the door because I'm afraid of what's she's gotten in to. And I'm afraid that if she doesn't find something, then she'll start chewing on the furniture. Her cuteness always saves her, but her dog butt is going back in the crate tomorrow.

Sadness

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 15:34:00 +0000

Marvin passed away last night, after a long battle with various health issues. I know he's in a better place...no longer suffering. Yet I am so worried for my Grandma.

I remember when my Grandpa passed away all those years ago. I was with him, holding his hand. I loved my Grandpa and my Grandma dearly, and I wanted to make sure I did everything I possible could to support her then. And to have to do it again. Well, it's just unfair.

I got the call last night that Marvin probably wouldn't make it through the night, but I made the choice to stay at home. Not because I didn't care...far from it, but because I didn't want to be in the way. I wanted to give Marvin's kids their chance to say goodbye. I kinda of expected the call this morning, but it's never one you're really prepared for.

How is my Grandma holding it all together? Granted, they've known that this day was coming for quite some time, but still, how does it feel? How does it feel to lose 2 loves in one lifetime, under similar circumstances? How do I help her? How do I make sure she'll be OK? This terrifies me now that I'm moving away....you want more than anything for those you love to be safe, to be OK, and yet there's nothing that I can really do to make a difference except for be there for her.

My Grandma is a very strong woman...I was thinking this morning about that as I was walking the dogs. I think she's where I get my "spirit" from too, and that makes me happy. She's able to carry on amidst pain and adversity, and she will again, this I know. But still, it's just so damn unfair...

Izzy's first tumbling class!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 01:48:00 +0000

I signed Izzy up for a tumbling class at the YMCA, and yesterday was the first one. I thought that this was something she'd really love because they have this program at her daycare called "Jump Bunch"...kinda like P.E. for daycare. Anyway, she always seems to love it so I thought this would be perfect. And I SWEAR that she's built to be a gymnast :)

Unfortunately, it didn't start off as well as I had hoped. She had a HUGE fear episode during their little warm-up. She just froze, turned around to look at me and told me she wanted to go home. As a mom, I have a hard time with this...I want so much for her to grow up strong and confident and assertive...probably not realistic for a 3-year old :)

I sat with her during the warm-up, and at some points I was actually moving her arms for her. Then she had to go potty. So I took her. And ended up bribing her with a cake pop from Starbucks if she'd go back and try.

And it worked.

And she's happy. And do you know what the very first thing she asked me when she came over to me after she was done? "Mommy, can we get that cake pop now?"

And so I obliged...

And then we went to go get a haircut.

Halloween 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 02:26:00 +0000

It was finally time for Joacim to carve a pumpkin. He's always helped, but more often than not I've done most of the carving, so it was nice this year to have some help. I'll admit that I drew the pattern (at Izzy's request of a Happy Face) but that was about the extent of my grunt work.

While he was busy carving, Izzy poked holes in the lid with a sharp object (bad parenting moment #4465) and I cleaned off the seeds to roast later (which totally reminds me that I forgot that tonight :( )

And here's the finished product....pretty good for a foreigner, wouldn't you say? :)

Sadly this year, Joacim wasn't able to enjoy seeing Izzy really get in to the spirit of the holiday for the first time since he flew out to Minnesota this morning for work. I talked with him on the phone, and I told him that he's going to have a BIG helper handing out candy next year...Izzy's a pro now.

Here's a video of Izzy at her 2nd house (I didn't have the phone ready for the 1st...damn technology)

This is Daniel. Daniel is a kiwi from New Zealand, who moved to Sweden and works for Tetra Pak, and is now living here temporarily before moving to Minnesota this winter as well. He's a great guy, and Izzy adores him. I don't think I've seen her run up to anyone and give a hug to like she does with him!

And this is Daniel's girlfriend, Caroline. She just arrived from Sweden on Friday for a short visit. This is the first time we've met her, and she's absolutely lovely. And the great thing is that Izzy seems to love her too! She ran right up to her and gave her a hug as well, and I don't think she's ever done that with a girl (she seems to be partial to men....little early for that, but what can I do? :).

When we got home, Izzy ran to the door every time someone knocked or rang , just to make sure that SHE could be the one to give them the candy. She wasn't very pleased when people didn't say "Thank You", as I'd been telling her that she needed to say it after every house :)

Do you see Izzy looking at Caroline in the photo below? That's known as adoration...a pretty Swedish girl reading Izzy her Swedish books, and she brings her other favorite person, Daniel? Izzy was in HEAVEN.....

And here's a video of Izzy playing with Daniel and Caroline. I think she's going to LOVE hanging out with these two :)

Zoo Boo!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Trunk) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 02:54:00 +0000

We had another showing on the house this morning, which meant we had to get up early and clean up the rest of the house. While we were out of the house during the showing time, we ran a bunch of errands and got Izzy a pumpkin. I feel like a bit of a bad parent because we didn't get to do the whole pumpkin patch thing, but I'm sure she didn't mind :)

And because we got everything done this morning, we felt like we had enough time to go to the Zoo Boo at the Indianapolis Zoo, but we had to go home and get Izzy to take a nap first. I GLADLY volunteered to lay with her to try to get her to sleep, and oops...I feel asleep too. It wasn't until 3:00pm before we woke up, which meant we got a much later start than I hoped, especially when we saw the line just to get into the zoo parking lot. It went surprisingly fast, though, and we had plenty of time to do everything we wanted to do.