my new fascination!

Michelle...you may have created a monster! I absolutely love this picnik site! I have been sitting here for hours playing with my pictures and editing them! Here's some of my faves! (And be warned, I'll probably be adding a million within the next few days...)

i'm not lame enough to...

...title this post the same as my facebook album...so i'll switch it up a bit: Cole and Melanie's days of fun!!! (friends anyone?) So this past weekend, Stef and Greg went up to Duluth for their anniversary/birthdays....and yay for me, I got to stay with Cole!! They left at about 10 on Friday morning and came back at about 4 in the afternoon on Saturday so I got some much needed auntie-nephew time with my godson! P.S. When Stef told me they would be home "between 4 and 7 on Saturday" I made a bet with myself that that meant 4 on the dot. I won.




This is Cole's mega excited face...he was super happy all weekend! (Don't worry Stef, I know he missed you!) But I was happy that he was happy...and plus who isn't more fun when they're happy anyways?!

Okay so during lunch on Friday, Cole thought it was really fun to clap. So I started clapping back at him and when I did that, he thought it was hilarious. Unfortunately clapping with a camera is quite difficult so I managed to get no smile out of Cole...just claps...
This is Cole, waiting extremely patiently for his lunch! Auntie doesn't work fast enough apparently...
During bathtime, I gave Cole a bunch of his toys and (before he found the Cascade bottle full of holes that took up 10 minutes of bath time) he had fun playing with his crayons...look what he wrote on the tub wall! And after he finished his name...check out what he wrote next....he loves his auntie!

I decided to give Cole a mohawk while his hair was wet...unfortunately that kid's hair grows so freakishly fast, it would fall over because it was so long!

So this is Cole's fro head after his bath....

And this is the Donald Trump sweepover I gave him!



Peek!!
I decided to take Cole to Como Zoo...I wanted to do something fun instead of just be boring and stay around the house so I thought Como could be a quick trip and we wouldn't mess with Cole's schedule. I promise he had fun even though it doesn't look like it in the following picture! He just wasn't quite sure what to think of the gorilla statue and I don't think he was used to the zoo yet...it was beyond crowded!!!
Then I decided to stand up Cole next to the gorilla---he started making this face that, until Stef and I saw this picture, we weren't sure where it came from. Well....pretty sure it came from this gorilla!!
Caela came with too and that was a lot of fun! Cole loves her (of course) and I absolutely love this picture of them!! See, he did smile!

I think Cole's favorite part was the lions. I think he liked the monkeys too but there were SOOO many people that we couldnt' really get close enough to see...but with the tiger, we got RIGHT up there! And with the lions, he could see them from across the glass...he MAY have banged on the glass a couple times (oops!) but I don't think the lion minded and it made Cole laugh so hey! whatever works...

And....one of my favorite pictures of Cole from the whole day!! This is while we were looking at the lions...I told you he loved them!

Soo...all in all, I had a GREAT time! And I hope Cole did too. I don't want to be a boring auntie so hopefully he has fun when he's with me! I'll probably post some pretty cute videos here soon...but you'll just have to wait on pins and needles for them! They are kind of to die for! Until then, I'm out!

bobby korecky made my night

So...no updates right? Mostly I don't post updates at the moment because it makes me depressed to repeatedly write "No news on the job front yet...." So I just kind of have been avoiding writing it...as soon as I think SOMETHING might work out, it just doesn't so it's easier to not say anything to anyone than to field questions about this and that.


Luckily for me, I'll be living with one of my best friends shortly (come on job!) and we both have such great senses of humor (modest I know) that we can joke about our situations at the moment...this is a convo I had with Gina earlier tonight:

lemonielynn: today, i sat in rugs for 45 minutes and searched the internet on my phone
The0riginal11: hahaha
lemonielynn: seriously
lemonielynn: didn't move a muscle for 45 minutes
lemonielynn: this was right after my half hour break that was really about 45 minutes
The0riginal11: haha...nice work
The0riginal11: i reorganized the cigarettes
lemonielynn: lol
The0riginal11: that's how bored i was
lemonielynn: i reorganized toilet seats the other day....i was THISCLOSE to texting you and saying "look what a (almost) college degree can get you"
The0riginal11: hey, i have my degree...i was playing with cigarettes all day

I hope you're laughing...


And lastly, the tWINs game just got over and they pulled it off! We may have used every single one of our bench players and all but one of our pitchers (who, just so happened, to be in the on deck circle when the game winning hit took place) but we managed a win in the 12th inning! Kudos to Howie Clark (who? you ask....yeah, just called up from the minors for the ridiculously pathetic Punto and also to help out in the ridiculously handsome Tolbert's place while he's out)...anyway, Clark got the game-winning hit so that was awesome. But can you hold it against me if I wish Korecky had scored the game winner? Come on, think about it...an AMERICAN LEAGUE pitcher (who has been in the majors for about a second this season) has to bat in extra innings because we have no other pinch hitters....on the FIRST pitch, he rifles a hit to right field...that screams amazing! Eh, oh well...at least we got the W right?!

Now if we can only get Tolbert back.... ;)

where's waldo?

i'm pretty sure this video speaks for itself...

for your entertainment...

check out how smart Cole is! Not only does he start waving when he hears "bye" and "see ya" but he says "doggy" when he sees Jack!

Cole pointing out where Jack is...

a simply fantastic day...

Have you ever seriously considered what life looks like through the eyes of a one year old? I spend so much time with Cole that I should never be surprised with how much fun we have...but today was just something completely different. I'm not sure I'll even be able to accurately describe it...words may not do justice to how much I treasured today...

Bridget asked Stef if she would mind watching Mady for a few hours while she had a meeting so instead of bringing Cole and having to watch him plus Mady with her cast, Stef asked if I wanted to watch Cole..which, of course, the answer is always yes. So anyways, today Cole and I got basically the whole day together. We went for a walk, we played outside forever...it was simply fantastic and fantastically simple. Maybe that's why today seemed so great to me...there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary going on. It was just a regular day for Cole and luckily for me, I got to experience life through his eyes for 6 hours. How great is that?

Maybe it was finally experiencing the nice weather I'd heard so much about and being able to enjoy it (instead of hearing customers coming into work TELLING me how nice it was)...I mean, I've spent days with Cole before...what makes today so different? Maybe it had to do with the fact that I'm actively pursuing a nanny job...

Today completely reaffirmed my faith that being a nanny is what I want to do. Maybe I won't make "the big bucks". Maybe you don't consider it a real job. But am I going to have fun? Absolutely. Can I live on my own and be a nanny? Definitely. Will I be good at it? Without sounding conceited, I believe I will. The thing is there's always going to be people giving their own opinions. There's always going to be someone that says, "that's not good enough." "That's not a CAREER." "Get a real job." And I finally figured out, I have to do what I want to do...what makes me happy. No more picking a job because that's what I majored in. No more feeling bad because what I want to do doesn't fit with what other people want me to do. It's my life right? No one's got to live it but me...

By now I'm sure you're thinking "Umm....you got all that from spending one day with your nephew?" And the answer is yeah. I mean...maybe you don't understand it but that's ok. Maybe I dont' even understand it. All I know is that today was a day that can only be summed up with the word 'fantastic'.

Anyways, after my rambling, here's pictures and video from my day with Cole...your turn to see through his eyes =)

No commentary this time...just pictures!

Onto the videos...I think they speak for themselves... =)

..and back for more...

Alright...I just couldn't handle leaving the blog on a negative note. Err...post I guess. I'm trying out this whole positive, good-karma thing...and I'm kind of curious to see if it works. I figure it's been, what, almost 5 months since I got home from school and started looking for a job? Ok well I guess I didn't start looking the SECOND I got home from school...I figured I had watching Joey and the christmas season to relax from a stressful semester at school. But I DID start looking mid-January so it's been at least a solid 3 months that I've been actively looking. Or getting interviews at REALLY crappy places! (Let me tell you...please be glad I did not have this blog when I interviewed at Endeaver...that would have been some really nasty karma!)


So anyways...I figure, let's try this whole "good things come to those who wait/good karma pays off" thing...maybe it'll work out! I guess we'll know in a couple weeks if I'm employed or not!

So to make up for my horribly negative/frustrated blog yesterday, I'm going to share some pictures from today. Stef came over with Cole to hang out with Grandma B and me...Cole stayed home with G-ma and Stef and I had some lovely sister time--shopped for Cole's bday party, did some grocery shopping, and who could forget, a trip to the bank (where the I-won't-call-them-gross tellers always seem to hit on me...I'm going to leave out the normal obligatory 'ew' and replace it with a "not my type" comment). After that we went home to have some lunch with mom and luckily (for me!) Cole fell asleep on his grandma so Stef and Cole HAD to stay for the afternoon! Anyways, I got some cute pics of Cole so I'm going to share..that's a nice thing to do right?!




This first pic shows how much food Cole likes to put in his hair during lunch...



Next just so happens to be my favorite picture of the day...Cole looks ridiculously handsome! (even WITH mashed potatoes all in his face!)



I know I know...even more eating pictures! But this one is a close up so you can REALLY see all the food stuck to his face! I just couldn't help but post it...



After lunch, I got all tuckered out and fell asleep on Grandma B!



Alright, I suppose I'm about finished! Hope you all (i.e. Stef) enjoyed the pictures! Here's to a brighter tomorrow! ;)