A day with the girls

On Saturday, Mom, Willa and I spent the better part of the day in Omaha.  Mom and I had talked about a day of antique store shopping for quite some time and we finally got around to doing it!  We checked out some really fun stores in and around the Old Market area.  Then, we made a stop for lunch at Roja.  It seems that when the 3 of us are out and about together, we always end up at a place with a very Spanish sounding name.  And margaritas.  

And yes, this is a picture of my lunch.  Veggie tacos.  They were so good that I was hoping if I took a picture of them I could recreate them at home.  Except for the whole homemade tortilla thing, which is sad because that is the best part.

My favorite picture from the day:)

I love the progression of these pictures of Willa.  This was at the end of the day, after we had been in probably 10 different stores.  She was pooped!  We're talkin' nearly asleep on the table.  But as soon as the waiter brought us our "snack" (of a giant piece of chocolate cake:) she perked right up!  And ate nearly all of the frosting.  And the cherry.

I wish I would have taken a few more pictures of some of the fun things we found but I guess I was too distracted by the other fun things we were finding.  I really liked the shape of this chair.  And even his orange color, even though my first inclination with older chairs is to recover the fabric.

Willa found a drum set that was just her size.  And don't we all want our kids to have their own drum sets?  They produce such a soothing sound.

This is the only guy I brought home with me.  He may not be much to look at right now, but he is oh so comfortable, and in my head he looks fabulous in a new outfit.  I found him in a really fun store called 

Back in the Day for dirt cheap.  Like, under $20 cheap.  

Upon returning to Lincoln, we joined a fun group of folks for a game of pitch, some wine and appetizers, and great conversation.  Many thanks to the Christensen sisters for their hospitality!  If you are curious where Brad was all day, I will just say that he attended a bachelor party.  And resurfaced at 5:30am.  That is all:)

Its like crack

Gosh, I enjoy my time perusing Pinterest.  So much so, that I think I might share a weekly favorite.  Until I get bored with doing something weekly which will probably happen in about 2 weeks.  This weeks favorite is this room.  And its dog.  I would name him Peter Nickels Eater if he were mine.  The dog, not the room.  I would name the room Sexy Thang.

And because I got such positive feedback about my first Pinterest Picture Share, I chose another one.  I have been crazy, madly, deeply involved with quinoa the past few weeks.  And avocados and cilantro and little tiny tomatoes.  You might be wondering how I got all the positive feedback, since the first picture is just right above this one.  Yes, sometimes I have delusions wherein people say amazing things about me when really I am all by myself at work.  I don't medicate this issue, as it keeps my self esteem really high.

Bitten by the bug...only about a month too late

I'm not really sure why I ever go through these periods of NOT running.  I think it usually just naturally coincides with my hatred of winter and my desire to hibernate for months.  This year, my running strike continued right on through the few weeks that registration for the Lincoln Marathon was open.  I had a whole conversation with myself (hopefully in my head, but I guess if it happened out loud I'm sure I was having it at work while all the kids were asleep.) about how I hadn't run in forever, didn't really feel like running anytime soon, my preference for curling up with a blanket and Dexter on DVD...the list could go on and on.  Needless to say, I didn't register.  And now, I'm kicking myself for it.  I did the same thing two years ago and instantly regretted it.  Could someone please remind me in like November of this year to just pay the stupid $40 because I will be glad that I did come February?!?  So, I've been running.  Just on the treadmill for now.  And I found a race that looks really fun to keep me truckin'-Run for the Bridges at Wilderness Park.  Since its really creeping up quickly, I only registered for the 6 mile race.  That should keep me satisfied for awhile.  Plus, I've never done a trail run, so there is the added fun of trying something new!  Aaaaand, here's the REAL kicker.  Brad wants to do it with me!  I'm going to have him look over a 10k training schedule before I pay the registration fee, but I'm super excited that he's even considering it!  What is the world coming to?  Last year, I got him to go hiking and now this year, running?!?  I've heard talk of the world coming to an end this year.  If I happen to get Brad to eat vegetables, I will let you all know so you can start making plans for your last few days on Earth...

Stolen

I stole these pictures (not the cute kid) from one of my most favorite blogs.  brooke always gets good pictures of Willa, and I believe these pictures involved a new lens.  Or film.  Or camera strap.  God, am I seriously worse with camera terms than I am with computer or football ones???  I didn't think it was possible.  The shots were snapped at brooke's shower a few weekends ago.  If you're a germ-o-phobe, don't worry about that last shot.  She was eating out of the berry bowl with the serving spoon AFTER all the guests had left.  And none of us stragglers were worried about catching her cooties.  I vote that brooke should pop our her baby, quit her job, and become a part-time photographer.

Monday Nights

Can I please tell you all about my new thing that I do on Monday nights???  Its so nerdy.  And I love it.  I have decided that since I don't seem to be getting any younger, maybe I need to spend some time taking care of myself.  So Monday nights from now on are going to entail facial masks, hair masks, yoga DVDs, candlelit baths, pedicures, good books/magazines, and wine.  That's right.  I said it.  Girly, pampering, relaxing goodness.  Once a week.  And Monday nights are perfect, as my schedule makes my Monday night the same as most people's Sunday night, so it starts my week off on a VERY good foot.  A very relaxed, polished, good-smelling foot.  Go ahead and make fun of me...Its ok.  I won't even be mad because its Tuesday night and I still feel relaxed.  Couple this with Wine Wednesday and I'm pretty sure you may never run into a crabby or stressed Allison ever again.  Unless the well breaks again.  I think I may need to take another bubble bath...

If you are curious, here is the recipe for the mask I have done the past 2 weeks.  It makes your skin so smooth and glowy.   I crushed 4 or 5 non-coated aspirins and then squeezed a little fresh lemon juice on them.  Let the aspirin dissolve into a gritty paste.  Rub it onto your face in a circular motion.  Let it dry (about 10 minutes).  Dip a cotton ball in water and then baking soda.  Rub that around in a circular motion.  Rinse.  Ahhhhhh.  I'll let ya'll know if a find any other good ones.  I've been pinning a few to try in the future. 

By the transitive property, I think this baby is also my best friend

Brunch and tulips

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Mama Karen and Mama Cindy

What a perfect cause for celebration!  This past Saturday was the day to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Baby Petermann, or as Willa has been frequently calling him, Baby P.  Oh my goodness, we cannot WAIT for Baby P to be born!  Willa was under the impression that when we went to the party on Saturday, that we would see Baby P being born.  Hmmm.  That would be quite the party.  Our dearest friend brooke is an adorable mama-to-be!  We had so much fun "showering" her.  The menu for the brunch party consisted of veggie frittatas, cheesy hash browns, berries and granola, chocolate dipped clementines, Jamicakes cupcakes, and onesie sugar cookies (that my mom made and that were amazing!)  We created an alphabet book for Baby P, each guest chose a letter and illustrated it with something personal.  We also took pictures with moustaches.  In theory this was because the baby will be a boy, but I must admit that I just thought it would be fun to make everyone wear a moustache.  brooke plans to cloth diaper (YAY!), so the gifts were pretty cloth-diaper-focused.  We had a tour of the nursery.  So cute, with lots of handmade touches.  I may have to do a whole post just to do a photo tour of Baby P's nursery.  Maybe after he is born, so he can be in a few:)  Or a jillion.  What a great day, with great friends, some of which traveled quite a distance!  Thanks to everyone for attending, and to my mom for all her help.  (And to Amber and Karen, who used their scissor skills just for me:)  We hope that the rest of brooke's pregnancy goes as smoothly as it has, and the labor is as easy as it can be.  And then, Auntie Allison gets to babysit...and then, Auntie Allison gets to take brooke out for a vodka tonic.  First things, first...

When it rains, it pours.

These pictures are not fun.  There are no cute animals, or babies, or friends or light fixtures or anything.  What there is, is holes where appliances used to be.  Remember that time, the other day, when I said we were going to try to pay off some debt?  And do a really good job with our money?  Ugh.  Life got in the way already!  If we could travel back in time about a month or so, I will tell you all the things that have malfunctioned/stopped working/broke. 
-our well stopped producing water one day
-the ice maker in the fridge stopped creating ice
-the front of the oven fell off
-the microwave stopped making things hot
-the dishwasher leaked all kinds of water into the basement ceiling
-the "check engine" light came on in my car

I'm sure I am forgetting something, but these are the things that are sticking out in my mind right now.  And causing, what is for me, a significant amount of stress.  We had to have someone come out and fix our well.  Big bucks.  We are ignoring the ice maker.  He's just being rude.  Brad put the oven back together.  A friend gave us a microwave, after his parents got all new appliances.  And another friend gave us a loaner until we could get the new one put in.  What would we do without our friends?!?  The dishwasher is awaiting parts.  He is just sitting in the dining room, not functioning. Also being rude. The basement ceiling, also being ignored.  For now.  My car?!?  Oddly enough, the check engine light turned itself off after I backed into my mom's car the other night.  Sober, I swear. 
WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?!?!?!?

Hello, there 2012. Nice to meet you.



Willa's Aunt Joy picks out some pretty amazing gifts.  Table tennis is a blast and with a glass table, even Stickers is entertained!

The New Year is upon us!  For some reason, I always get excited about New Years Eve.  Not necessarily about the parties (I worked this year, 3 nights in a row.  So I was no party animal.)  Mostly I enjoy the feelings I get of gratefulness for the previous year, I like to take some time to think over the things that have transpired.  2011 was a pretty big year for the Van Boening's!  We sold our first home, after making some renovations.  We moved to the country.  We grew a garden.  Our baby turned into a toddler (who thinks she is in high school.  She told me that today.)  We lost Luther.  We gained Stickers.  We took our first family vacation.  We (Brad) built a dirt bike track.  We (I) grew my cleaning business.  I ran the half marathon.  We did lots of fun stuff with friends.  We celebrated Brad's 30th birthday with a surprise party and a trip to St. Louis to see Travis Barker and Supercross.  All in all, it was a pretty great year.  Except for losing Lu.  I don't think I will ever get over that.
The other great part of the New Year is thinking about all the things I am looking forward to and all the things I want to work on in the coming 365 days.  I thought I might share a few things I'm thinking about.  Not because they are interesting or anyone will even care, but this way I can go back next year and see if I blogged about accomplishing any of the things I set out to accomplish.  Maybe I will set a goal to be more interesting so next year people will want to read my blog:)

I think the biggest area that I need to improve upon are our finances.  I won't go into any specifics of dollar amounts or anything weird like that, but I do have certain dates laid out that I would like to have certain debts payed off.  And dates by which I would like to have certain amounts in various savings accounts.  There are also several home improvement projects that I would like to fund this year, including (but not limited to) building a play structure, finishing off the fire pit, making over the flower beds to give them a more modern feel, replacing the mail box and landscaping that area, completely redoing the spare bedroom, and maybe replacing the flooring in Willa's room. 

In the area of health, I need to change my thought process on exercise.  See, a lot of the time I skip working out because I feel like I don't have a big enough chunk of time to devote to it.  Then it just doesn't happen at all.  I have started to do little mini-workouts (from Bodyrock.tv) and if I only get one in a day, that's fine.  I don't beat myself up over it.  If I have time later in the day, then I get some cardio in.  I think that will work out a lot better than trying to find an hour or more per day to work out.  That NEVER happens.  Ever.  The other big thing is making sure to have groceries on hand to pack a lunch on cleaning days.  That gets tricky because it has to be something that can be eaten easily, quickly, and without any warming or preparing.  And sandwiches, especially as a vegetarian, get old fast.

A few other things on the list...find an activity for Willa (swimming?  gymnastics?) to introduce her to the social world.  Not having ever gone to day care, I don't want to completely shock her when it gets to be preschool time!  Take another little family vacation.  Maybe even to Colorado again.  Go on a trip that requires a passport.  I have one in mind, but we'll have to see how that plays out:)  Hire more Purely Maid employees.  Which means we need to increase our client load by a few, also.  That never seems to be hard.  Find a new office space downtown.  Find something to do, within the year, to use one of my creative skills to make money.  How vague is that?  Gonna need to do some thinking on it.  Read more.  I think I say that every year.  Spend lots and lots of time with Baby P, starting by throwing him a rad baby shower.  More on that later this week!  Do a better job with my garden, composting and recycling.  There are more, but if you can believe it, most of them are even more boring than those were.  If I weren't at work right now, I would toast my goals with a little glass of wine or something.  Oh yeah, that was another one.  Drink more wine.  And champagne.  And whiskey.  From pretty glasses. 

January 7th...time for Christmas pictures?!?

Willa was falling-down-excited about her new turtle from Uncle Chris.  She got some great animal gifts.  Wish I had a pic of her inflatable giraffe from Brant and Joy.

Even Grandma's dogs get Christmas Eve hugs.

Santa left a few little things in the stocking

A lego zoo!  Its almost like Grandma and Santa communicate, as Grandma bought the lego grocery store!

Elefun is a challenge, unless you are nine feet tall like Uncle Chris

This gift has already provided me with many hours of fun.  And inspiration.  You just wait.

Helping to prepare brunch

Only Willa looks this good straight out of bed.

Christmas was weeks ago.  I feel like the holidays, starting with Thanksgiving, just FLEW by!  Why is that?!?  I'm blaming it on the amazingly un-winter-like weather and my semi-busy schedule.  I feel like I kind of slacked this year on Christmas preparations.  Didn't put up very many decorations, and those that I did, Stickers attacked.  Did some pretty frantic, last minute shopping.  Maybe next year I will be a little more prepared and have a more well behaved cat.  Christmas weekend was still enjoyable, with or without shiny glass ornaments.  Church and Christmas Eve dinner at my parent's was perfect.  Fun gifts were opened.  Willa understood about Santa this year.  Santa didn't leave Willa coal.  We hosted a little brunch for my parents and brother.  We made it to Grand Island, with potatoes.  We spent the entire next 2 days rearranging our home to make room for the great stuff that Christmas brought and taking down the (sad looking) tree.