IT'S THE WEEKEND.......

Graham and I have always enjoyed our weekends. We loved to go see a show at First Avenue or have a nice dinner date night downtown or uptown Minneapolis. Ugh I miss Solera, Roat Osha, Nico's Tacos, and Pat's Tap just to name a few. Now that we live in suburban Atalanta without grandparents to help watch little miss Elodie things have been a bit different. If we go out we do late afternoon lunch/dinner with the babe. We have been so wrapped up in getting "house" things done we haven't done anything just the two of us lately! Last weekend we decided to have game night! Yes we are officially old and having game night! Just the two of us! We don't have any friends here yet! So after we put the baby to bed we poured some vino and broke out the good old Yahtzee game. Yahtzee is a staple game in the Vollmer household.  We play every Christmas eve.  It gets intense! Our Friday night game started with a bang! I got three Yahtzee's in a row. I texted my sister, mom and dad. I told my dad "This will never happen again"!  He replied, "You are exactly right"!!!!! Only the hubs and I were witness to my amazing skills! We ended up having an epic evening. The next night we broke out Scattergories and Jenga. Big weekend at the McFall mansion! I guess it says a lot that we can have fun together like this just the two of us. I tried to get him to admit that I am his best friend. He would not oblige. He said he would never admit that. I told him I have a long list of best friends anyway. It is an ongoing affair that I attempt to have him say that I am his best friend. He doesn't think that married couples should be best friends. I just think its funny to bug him about it!  Just keeping the flame going down here in Georgia! What do you do with your spouses to keep things exciting when you can't go out on the town? 

Night out in Minneapolis at Solera!  

Game night in Woodstock at the McFall Mansion!

Recycle toilet paper cardboard tubes????

Totally random......Do you recycle your empty toilet paper cardboard tubes?  I thought I was pretty recycle savvy. I grew up in a Recycle Reduce Reuse household.  I feel actual guilt when I am somewhere that I cannot recycle something simple like a can, bottle, plastic.  My most recent job only recycled cardboard!  It was an everyday guilt trip to throw away bottles, cans and plastic.  I saw a commercial the other day about tube free toilet paper rolls.  This is GENIUS!  Scott toilet paper makes them.  I have been recycling mine since.  I can't believe this is such a simple task that I have overlooked all of these years.  MIND BLOWN!  It's the little things these days people!

Over 17 billion toilet paper tubes are thrown away each year. That’s enough to fill the Empire State Building. Twice. By pledging to #TossTheTube for good, you can do your part to reduce the tube waste without sacrificing quality.
http://www.scottbrand.com/products/toilet-paper/tubefree

Stroller Hoarder?

I think I have discovered I have a slight obsession with strollers.  I remember before Elodie was born I looked for the best stroller that could do all the things that we wanted.  Graham wanted to be able to jog with her.  I wanted to be able to walk with her and have storage for a coffee, water, cell phone, place to hook my diaper bag.  We decided on the Graco FastAction jogger stroller combo. It was a good deal and the infant seat just clicked into place.  After Elodie was born we quickly learned that this stroller was hard to get into our vehicle and all around bulky.  Bringing it out in public was a bit tricky.  When we went to a restaurant we would ask them if they had somewhere we could park our Cadillac.  It was a bit wobbly when walking with it also.  All the accessories were nice but I found myself wanting more.

I began researching other strollers.  It seemed like such an investment to get another one.  I longed for a more compact stroller.  We definitely got a lot of wear out of this one.  But it was hard to get our big black lab Jemma and the stroller in the trunk if we wanted to take a walk around the lake.  My bestie Kristina got the Britax B-agile stroller.  The first time I saw it I had "stroller envy".  In the last year I acquired (convinced myself I NEEDED) four more strollers.  Yesterday I finally bought a used City Mini stroller.  It is similar to the Britax B-agile stroller.  We love it.  Its compact, light weight, and has all the accessories (drink holder, cooler, snack tray)!  Score!  Now we have five strollers.  We have the Graco jogging stroller, an umbrella stroller, a Chicco key fit caddy (this one is perfect when they are in the infant car seat), a sit-n-stand stroller (nope I'm not pregnant again), and the City Mini.  We also have a red wagon.  Not sure why I'm so obsessed.  I'm Valerie and I'm a stroller hoarder. Oh did I mention the previous owners of the house also painted the garage pink?

Halloween!

Halloween used to be one of my favorite holidays.  I used to love planning my epic costume!  Now it's all about the baby!  Last year I made her a chicken costume.  This year we got a hand me down ladybug costume from Tia Anna that I decided to use because I didn't have time to plan.  Elodie wore last years costume for about 15 minutes.  Lots of pictures and plenty of tears.  This year we got hours out of this one.  I think it was because of its comfort.  Next year I will take that in to consideration when making her an "epic" costume!  Not mom of the year this holiday but she was definitely happy.  This was also the first time I lived somewhere that we had trick-or-treaters.  The thought of random people ringing the door bell and asking for candy gave me slight anxiety.  Not sure why little rug rats in costume made me uncomfortable.  But I can't be the only one that feels this way?  Right?  Welcome to the suburbs! Graham and I didn't dress up either.  I guess we need to get on our game face next year.  Abel is Elodie's future husband.  He lives in Chicago.  Last year we spent Halloween together and planned to spend it together this year also but it didn't work out!

                                                                       LAST YEAR!

THIS YEAR!

PRE-BABY