One New Thing Every Day

From the day I turned 29, I tried to do one new thing a day... it took a few extra months, but I did it! Now I'll post new things randomly as I try them.

Friday, August 21, 2009

#388 - Darn Fox Tails


We recently had to take our black dog, Ellie, to the emergency vet after hours. (The photo, left, is from the day we adopted Penny over a year ago, but it's a great shot of Ellie too.)
It was about dinner time when she started having weird sneezing attacks... and it got more bizarre when she started sneezing blood all over the kitchen. She continued to have fits as the evening wore on, and by the time my wonderful hubby got home from his evening activity, I was more than concerned. She wouldn't let us get near her, and it seemed to be getting worse. The final straw for me was when she started making a mess on the carpet outside The Little Guy's room as I was trying to get him to go to bed.
Finally about 9:15pm, we called All Creatures Veterinary Hospital, which had a vet on-call until 10:00pm. My wonderful hubby loaded up our poor pup and ran to the other side of town, where the vet had to put her under anesthesia and plucked a giant fox tail out of her nostril. Thank goodness for the doggie ER!
Our little Ellie has fully recovered and we have been keeping the pooches out of the dog run, where the fox tails grow. I do hope we don't have to experience this one again any time soon.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

#387 - (Really Old New Thing) 50's Party



Waaaaaaaaay back in May, my sister hosted a costume party with a 50's theme, which we happily dressed up to attend. It was an awesome party, and each of my family members showed up dressed to the nines. Even my then-5-month-old niece had a poodle skirt! It was really fun to dress up outside of Halloween, and we had everything from Elvis to a beatnik to a high school coach (see left).

Rather than go back and re-number all my new things, I decided to just add this now, with this totally adorable photo of our family.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

#386 - Local Water Fun

Today, I took TLG to the local waterpark for our first visit. While we did visit the waterpark in Branson last summer, neither of us had ever been to the Wild Island park here. Going on a Wednesday was a great idea: we had no trouble finding chairs to stash our towels, but I could easily see how a weekend would be really crowded. Not to mention, it was the hottest day of the year so far! Also, children 3-and-under are free every day, so that helped my pocketbook a bit! We arrived shortly after opening, got a locker and got right in the water. The splash area was not TLG's favorite, so we only went there for a few minutes. But the kids' slide area, the river, and the wave pool were each big hits and we visited each twice! TLG loves to be in the water so much... we may have the next Michael Phelps on our hands. I went down some of the kids' slides with TLG the first time or two, but after that I got "Mommy, you stay at the bottom and catch me. I can do it by myself." What a big boy! And all day, I got lots of: "Mommy, I love you." It was a great afternoon.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

#385 - Surprise!


This weekend, I threw a surprise birthday party for my wonderful husband. I had lots of help from my hubby's parents, who assisted with everything from planning to getting him out of the house... it turned out to be about 30 people over for dinner and cake, ping pong and good times. All of my family from California drove in, which helped add to the surprise (they had all called to say "happy birthday!" throughout the day). I know it wasn't a complete surprise for him (he told me I asked him some weird question about surprise parties months ago, so he suspected something was going on). But all the logistics were a surprise - where, when, who. It was especially hard for me not to mention it in front of TLG, who is really good at surprising me with what he'll remember and bring up later! And since I'm a terrible liar, that part was difficult too. But what a special birthday party! Thanks, everyone, for your part in the surprise.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

#382 - #384 - Convention New Things

After my wonderful hubby and TLG went home, I stayed on in Chicago another week to attend a national board meeting and five-day convention. While I was there, I...

#382 - Shared a Hotel Room with My Fantastic Mother-In-Law
One thing you should know: I have the world's best mother-in-law. She and I have a lot in common, and I am extremely lucky that we get along so well. I had convinced her to attend the convention with me, and we agreed that staying together would be best for all of our wallets. I really enjoyed sharing the convention highlights with her, attending concerts and workshops, and reviewing all the day's activities. I am so happy I got to share this with her!

#383 - Watched "Flight of the Conchords" Season 1
If you like quirky, musically-related television shows, and if you've never seen this one, please add it to your Netflix queue. Brit and Jermaine are two New Zealanders living in New York City, trying to make it as musicians. They are hilarious, and each of the songs they perform plays out like a music video in the episode... and each song is a different style, from pop-techno, to love ballad, to disco, to French rock. Hi-lar-i-ous, and kept me in stitches while I was waiting between board meeting and convention activities. Season 2 is also out on DVD but I haven't seen it yet.

#384 - Limo Ride to O'Hare
Yes, instead of a shuttle ride or a private car to O'Hare airport, I got to ride in a limo. (No, I didn't ask for a limo, and no, I'm not anybody important. They just had over 800 people all going to O'Hare at the same time from the same hotel. They brought out the big guns.) The last time I rode in a limo was at my wedding over five years ago! It was really classy and made for a great last impression of my time in Chicago. No frills in the car, I will report, but it was fun to pull up at the airport and feel like a million dollars.

#380 - #381 - Chicago (Day Three)

The next day in Chicago, we had a blast...

#380 - Taking TLG to a Children's Museum
We visited the DuPage Children's Museum in Naperville, IL. We were only there about 45 minutes before they closed, but it was AWESOME. I don't know if TLG liked the wind toys, the hands-on construction area, the water toys, or the giant mazes best. Part of that was my wonderful hubby and I were like kids in a candy store - "Hey, look at this!" (Then from the other side of the room: "Wow - check this out!") TLG didn't stand a chance with the two of us crazies. If you are ever nearby with a little one, I urge you to go and see this place.

#381 - Family Visits
We also spent a good portion of a day driving around Chicago and visiting various members of my extended family. We had lunch with my great-aunt who turned 91, and one of my uncles. It was such fun to hear stories of my Dad and his brothers when they were children! And we had dinner with two sets of uncles and aunts, plus one cousin and her twins. TLG was happy to have kids to play with, and I had a great time visiting with my family (who I don't see nearly often enough).

#376 - #379 - Chicago Firsts (Days One-Two)

Hi everyone! Sorry I've been away so long. It has been a crazy couple of months here. I'll try to post more regularly as I notice new things in our lives! In the meantime, I just got home from 10 days in Chicago and have a handful of new things to share:

#376 - Waterfall Swimming
The first hotel we stayed at had an indoor pool with a giant (fake rock) waterfall. It was beautiful to look at but GOOD GRIEF the water was cold! We swam anyways, since TLG loves to be in the water... he thought it was the greatest fun to swim back behind the waterfall. Of course we couldn't stay in there long because our lips were turning blue.

But I would be remiss in talking about Chicago if I forgot to mention the

#377 - Rental Car Upgrades!
Leftover from my previous job, I have a membership as a Hertz Gold Club member. Somehow we got upgraded from a mid-size SUV to a new Cadillac Escalade... which was awesome! Leather seats with warmers, tons of room to spread out, a smooth ride, a satellite radio, and best of all, a GPS. OK, we knew we were getting the GPS because we paid extra for that - but thank goodness we had "her" with us. We were only 90 minutes late to the...

#378 - Major Family Reunion
One of the reasons we took this trip was to attend a major family reunion in Auburn, IN. There were about 35 members of my husband's extended family in attendance, including a bunch of kids. We were late NOT because of the GPS but because we failed to double-check the driving time in advance. Oh well, we still got to visit with everyone and eat a good meal. While we were there, one of my hubby's cousins gave TLG a...

#379 - Fishing Lesson
I'll admit I've never been fishing. I'm not even sure if my hubby has, either? Outdoorsmen, we are not. The park where the reunion was held had a small fishing pond, and the cousin's children clearly had plenty of experience. While we didn't let TLG actually fish any, the two of us stood there for quite some time watching. I asked our cousin to explain what he was doing (since I obviously was at a loss for words), and he did a great job telling TLG all the steps to catching a fish. I don't think they caught anything, but that wasn't really the point.