Now This Is Cold

Riding the bus Friday morning, it was 5˚ outside. Anything fashionable was out the door. Function over form. Two pairs of socks, heavy wool sweater, massive scarf and even a hat! If you know me, you know I never wore hats due to my short ‘do - prissy, I know. Now that the hair is long, I’ve evolved. 

Anyway, waiting on the bus wasn’t too terrible since I was SO bundled up. However, our bus was not warm. Maybe 55˚ - dude. It’s common with this particular bus driver so I have vowed next time he’s driving us, I’m walking up and asking him if the heat is broken. My toes never warmed up until I was in the office, after my coffee around 9:30am. 

I had a run this morning with 3 other girlfriends at 11am thankfully - and the temps were around 30˚ then - woohoo! I fared well, my toes had it the worst, but after our 3 miles, they’d come back around. Not to mention the 4 of us had Bloody Marys afterwards - holler! 

Nora was able to get out of the house for a Target run with Daddy, but we’ve been trying to find fun activities indoors for a while now!

We pulled out the old Boppy and Nora pretended to be a baby.

Rocketship with friends!

She’s in a house. She’s not homeless, I swear.

Holiday Fun

The Saturday after Christmas, Amy hosted the annual extended Schdmidtfest party [Dottie & her siblings, cousins, grandkids, etc.]. It’s always fantastic seeing everyone in one place, in from out of town and all the grandkids/cousins playing. The only thing missing were Jonathan & Molly! Tim and I said we’d Photoshop them in : )

Nora’s done!

The following day for dinner the Kron family went to the National Exemplar in Mariemont - it’s inside the Mariemont Inn which was built in the 1920s - a very lovely building, had very nice meals and time with family to celebrate Mike & Dottie’s retirements this year! 

Izzie sharing bracelets with Nora

Monday, Tim took off which was great [he had to work Thursday & Friday after Christmas] so we had a super lazy day which was needed to recharge! 

Nakey baby applesauce on the floor

Nora rides Snuffleupagus [Mommy]

New Year’s Eve after Tim & I both squeezed in a run while Nora napped, we then headed to the Kieffers for a New Years Eve party; which really means until 7pm since we’re hauling around a toddler. Once I woke Nora up at 3:45, she was very cranky until I told her we were going to a party at Aunt Amy’s - she sprung up and said “I can’t wait!” Awesome.

We had a very fun time, Nora played hard and it was a super nice visit. 

Happy New Year!

Uncle Chris’ old firefighting hat!

Christmas 2013

Man, 2 years ago we were hauling a 3-week around to family gatherings. Much more fun now! 

Our traditional Batty family gathered on Christmas Eve - very nice, especially since Mom & Dad are in their new home - wooo! Awesome and cozy. Mom has kept a lot of our old toys [good thing I had a kid, huh?] and Nora loves playing with them all - plus it’s a stroll down memory lane!

Christmas morning we told Nora that Santa brought her a gift - a tricycle! She knows who Santa is, not sure she totally understands he brings a gift. She’s quite pleased with the trike!

Later that day we had the Kron Christmas. We’d taken Nora before lunch in hopes that she would nap - HAHA! Nap fail. I’d slipped away for about 2 hours to see extended family in Mt. Healthy which was nice. 

Around 3:30 Santa showed up to the Krons! Nora was surprisingly chatty & amiable with Santa, yet kept her distance! She did not want to sit on his lap, but was very intrigued. He brought her a lovely pop up Christmas book. When it was time for Santa to leave, Nora literally showed him the door. 

Crayons from the Iglas

Sweet new shirt from the Iglas!

Fun book from the Iglas

Cautious

There's the door, Santa!

No nap caused a lap-passout. That's a first! I liked it : )

December Play

The weather has been bonkers this month. Winter came early with loads of snow, then a week of warm weather and rain. This resulted in a sliver of a day where we all took a family walk with Nora’s new wagon. 

Some of this bonkers weather caused Nora to put a felt bowl on her head and water plants with my copper décor. 

We also had a visit with some current & past Landor friends at the Fearings’ house - Nora just wanted to play with baby Adrien’s toys. 

Cool, man.

Ponytail!

2 Years

Nora loves my ponytail. She plays with it, sticks toys in it. It’s a plaything.

I cut Nora’s bangs a few weeks back because she refuses to wear any accessory in her hair to hold her bangs back. Now I wish I’d started sooner to put said accessories in her hair so she’d become used to them. 

I’ve started to attempt ponytails on Nora. It’s slightly working. She’s so intrigued she can’t stop touching it. She made it work for one night out, so I will try to continue so she gets used to it. 

And - it’s crazy cute.

Touch touch!

Wow - who is that KID??

34? Not Too Shabby.

December 10th, 2013: I turned 34 years old. Wowie. I think that was an age I remember my Mom being when I was little!

The day started out… bad? Snow on my birthday is always awesome. Two hours to get to work in the snow traffic? Not so great. 

Our office was in the middle of a ping pong match and I was in the finals of the “average” bracket [there was a “pretty good” bracket as well]. The final game was against my work friend [and Creative Director] Dale. He likes to talk smack. Getting into the game, we were fairly even. I lost 18-21. The second game went bad; I basically defeated myself by hitting the ball beyond the table too much. Lost 10-21. Oh well! I was pretty proud of myself for getting so far! Childhood tennis paid off! 

I had a meeting that day at 1pm in Mason. Which means an awkward ending time; 2pm - do I drive all the way back downtown to work 2hrs or somehow get away with going home? I mentioned this to my Director [who is a totally awesome Mom to twin 2 1/2 year-olds] who said “Go home after your meeting!” The most valuable gift to a Mom: TIME.

I stopped by Kroger and got home close to 4pm. It was in the mid-20s and sunny so what did I do? Run. In the daylight. Only 4.5 miles, but it was delightful! 

Cleaned up and picked up Nora - who sang the entire Happy Birthday song to me! Awww!

Tim [and Nora] bought me a bag of items that included a reflective running vest [yes!], iTunes gift card, fancy coffee and chocolate-covered potato chips! I love a goody bag!

The night ended with dinner with Tim and a bottle of champagne - perfect.

Can’t quite tell, but some ORANGE lipstick I  bought for my birthday!

Here’s to 34!

Oil Pulling & Oral Health

So as you know me, you know I prefer all-natural products and methods. I don’t want to absorb or ingest toxins, nor do I want them in my family members. 

Back in May, I was fed up with my “adult acne” that pops up randomly. I still border on cutting out [or back] dairy and sugar, but instead I went to an oil-cleansing method for my face. I have been cleansing with a mixture of castor and safflower oil at nights and it’s worked fairly well. It removes my makeup and moisturizes too.

Early this week I found out about oil pulling from this blog post:
http://trinaholden.com/healing-cavities-a-true-weve-done-it-story/

I’ve read some testimonials and talked to a few people who’ve actually done it - all positive outcomes and some people experience repaired dental problems and disappeared cavities - !! My coworker just had a bad dentist appointment this week complete with an x-ray, so she’s going to start as well - she has documentation [x-rays] from her Tuesday appointment that we’re all curious to see if oil pulling benefits [or repairs!] her. 

Did I mention I work on P&G oral care brands? Ha! 

I had some coconut oil in the cupboard since the uses for it are endless [skincare, cooking, baking, etc.]. I started on Wednesday morning and it was strange. Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, so at first it felt like Crisco in my mouth. But it has a very low melting point, so within a minute I was swishing it around. 

I thought 20 minutes of swishing seemed ridiculous, but I did it before I got in the shower and continued as I did my hair and - bam! 20 minutes passed. I spit it in the trash [it will solidify in your pipes] and done! 

I told my team I would report back any findings come the new year. So will my coworker - she could have evidence of repair I hope! 

Swish on!

Nora “Calls” Grandpa