12 Years Later...

Scott and I celebrated our 12th anniversary on Saturday. I can't believe how fast the years have gone. As I look back on all of the stuff that we have done and where we've been, it's just amazing. I know I've said it before, but Scott was always a nice guys but he has turned into an amazing man. We laugh constantly, argue enough to make up afterwards ;-) and just overall enjoy each other's company. I'm really hoping that things work out on the baby front, so that we can share this happiness with a child. It's the only thing I would change. I've got it VERY good!!

Ok, enough of the mushy...here's what we actually did for our anniversary.

We started the day out by having a garage sale here from 7-12. We ended up making $190!! After that, we took a nap...correction, I took a nap. We left for CR aroun 2:30 and went shopping for new mattresses. That is our anneversary gift to each other...an upgrade from a queen to king size bed!! We went to Biaggie's for supper...YUMMY! Then did some more shopping. As a finale, we went to Cold Stone Creamery....OMG, I had the Cheesecake fantasy...I don't even want to think about how many calories are in it.

I'll have some birthdays, new babies,graduations, weddings attended and wedding dress shopping (I'm MOH for my friend Danielle's wedding!!) pictures to post by the end of this month. Crazy busy!! Toodles from the Porter house!!

Dana's shower

Last weekend we had my cousin Dana's wedding shower and bachelorette party at Tara's house. We had such a blast!! After the shower, all of the Gutzeit girls and their kids stayed and we sang karaoke, laughed, ate cupcakes and just had such a great time spending the night together! I wish we could do it more often! These are some pictures from that night. I have some of them on my facebook page also. The first pic is all of us cousins singing "Summer Lovin'" off of Grease. 2nd-me, Macy and Melinda. 3rd-all of us Gutzeit girl cousins (man, we are a good looking crew!! ;-) 4th-the Gutzeit grandkids 4th generation, with 2 more to be added by the end of the year by Melinda and Steph

Not much new...

Not a lot going on lately. While the clomid hasn't worked (hopefully, yet)I haven't had any of the scary possible side effects that are listed on it. This month, while making my period 2 days shorter, it also gave me worse cramps. I can deal with that. I have noticed these 1st 2 rounds of meds, that I have acquired double cold sores (one on my top lip and one on my bottom)on the 3rd day of meds. I could do without that.

On other news, I chopped about 5 inches off of my hair a couple of weeks ago. I absolutely love it...Scott is still debating. ;-) I'll post a picture of the new 'do shortly.

While I have majorly slacked off in the working out department, I'm still watching what I eat and haven't gained back any of the 14 pounds that I had lost. Thank goodness! Scott, meanwhile, has now lost more than 30 pounds. He looks fantastic! I'll have to post a new pic of him too.

Hope all is well with everyone! Love Melissa

Long time...

Things, they are a changin'. It's been a crazy insano month! For starters, on the weight loss front. I am now down 14 pounds and am able to jog 2 miles at a time. WOOHOO me!! I'm going to be doing a couple 5k runs this year, so my goal is to do the 5k in less than 30 minutes. Scott has joined me in the weight loss program and has lost an awesome 17 pounds!!! He's looking so great!

We have also decided to give the medicinal route another try on the baby front. I started my first round of clomid this month. My doctor gave me a schedule of when to take the meds and when to...you know. Well, I put the schedule on our calendar and instead of writing SEX in big letters on the days, I put a smiley face on them. Scott seemed to get a kick out of it. ;-) If the clomid doesn't work in the next 3months, we go onto the next round.

I'd been feeling really down in the dumps lately regarding all of the babies being born and people getting pregnant, etc, so that's why we're going this route.

Family news, I'm going to be an aunt for the 9th time!! Melinda is preggers and due in October. Maddie is beyond excited and seems to flop back and forth on if she wants a baby sister or a baby brother. Maddie is officially a jack-o-lantern! After having her top front tooth loose for 3 months, she finally lost her bottom front tooth! hehe Melinda ended up taking her to the dentist to get her top front teeth removed. By the sounds of it, her roots were very long and might not have come out for a long time. Her big teeth were already trying to push their way thru.

Xander is growing like a weed! He's sitting up, rolling over, saying dadada while looking at Macy. I think he's popping teeth as fast as Maddie's losing them! He's got his 2 front bottom teeth and loves to show them to you by biting your fingers!! What a stinker!! I am still watching him 1 day every other weekend for Macy since she's on that rotation at the senior home.

Macy passed her state boards and is now a cna. I couldn't be prouder of her! She's such a great mom and is really taking time to better herself as well. She's awesome!

Mason is still going to Hawkeye Comm. College. Still debatable as to whether or not he likes it. I think he just loves being on his own more than anything. He comes home every couple of weeks to spend time with all of us, which is great! I miss the little turd!

Dad has been having problems with his back again, so Mason has come down the past 2 weekends to help around the farm. Dad's renting some of his lots out for cattle, so he's got cow chores to do now. Scott and I went out and helped last Friday night, and then I went back out Saturday morning to do chores for Dad too. His MRI results come back tomorrow, so hopefully they will be able to tell him exactly what is going on.

Well, that's about all for now. Hope everyone is well!

Newest picture

This is the most recent pic of Maddie and Xander. I can't get over how much they look alike!! What a couple of sweetpeas!!

Updates...

We've had a busy couple of weeks! For starters, our oldest neice, Mackenzie, turned 15!! We had a birthday party at Pizza Ranch for her. I just can't get over how fast she's grown up. She is such a great kid: smart, funny, adorable as heck and just an all around good kid!

Maddie had a dance program, for Just for Kicks, a couple of weeks ago. It was so adorable! The first dance she kind of hid behind some of the other girls, but the second dance was to the Lion King and she did FANTASTIC!!!!! I took some pictures, but they turned out really dark. I'm going to try and get some better ones at her next program.

Xander now has his first official tooth! It popped thru last week and we can see the 2nd one trying to push its way out. Uncle Scott and I had him overnight last Saturday. He stayed up until 8:30, which we thought meant he would sleep in later....no such luck. He was up at 4:45!! The good thing is, he woke up smiling, ate his bottle and went back to sleeo until 8 am. What a good boy!!!

A couple weekends ago, I met up with Jen Hahn and we had a huge gabfest...a 3 hour lunch, seriously?!?! hehe I had such a great time chatting with Jen and then we went back to her house to see Kasia and Kevin. I still can't get over how much Kasia is growing!! She is such a doll!!

Scott and I are busy plotting our next "do it yourself" project. I think we may tackle the bathroom, but wait a couple months to do it. We'll see.

Past week...

This past week was my first full week back to work after the holidays. It was soooo long!! I was more than ready for Friday to roll around that's for sure!

Scott had a lead auditor class all this week from 7am-6pm, so we didn't ride together all week. I really missed talking with him on the way to and from work. Also, he didn't have email access...I'm used to getting 2 or 3 emails from him a day. Next week, back to riding together! Woohoo!

Friday night we had my Grandpa Gutzeit's 76th birthday party! Grandpa is still trying to get back to 100%, but was in good spirits anyway. Most of us girls are on diets, so we had soups and veggies for supper. Grandma makes the best homemade chicken noodle soup; she also made a huge pot of chili. Yummy!! The aunts were getting ready to head to Chicago on Saturday for the Barry Manilow concert. I told them not to take any drugs don't get too rowdy. They were so excited about it, I can't wait to hear if any of them threw panties....hehehehehe, just kidding!!

After Grandpa's party on Saturday, I stayed over night w/ Macy and Xander. Macy had to work Sat. morning, and I didn't want to get up at 4:30am to be up there in time. I can't get over how big Xan is getting. I took some pictures of him in his exersaucer...he really digs that thing. He's been reaching to people lately too. Man, if that doesn't melt your heart! Uncle Scott brought us Subway for lunch and hung out for a bit before going to his mom's. Xander just smiles away at Scott. He even reached for him. So cute!

Today, is going to be a workout morning, and then an organizational afternoon. I'm going to go thru my cedar chest, where I have tons of loose pics, and organize them and put them in photo albums. Fun, fun, but it has to be done.

Just a quick update on the weight loss. I have lost 6 pounds to date! Woohoo me! The first week of our "Biggest Loser" competition, we lost over 45 pounds all together!! We rock!!! I think it really helps to have a weekly weigh in, and be doing it with family members. It's just so inspirational!!! I'll keep you posted...

Biggest Loser

Well, the new year brings in a renewed dedication to weight loss. It seems I do really well until the triathlon gets here in July, and then I go back to the same crap I did before and have to start all over in January. I'm having Scott take a picture of my in a sports bra and shorts, like they do on Biggest Loser, so that I have that as a reminder of what I looked like. There are about 10 of us on the Gutzeit family that have put in $10 a piece that goes to the person who loses the biggest percentage. I'm really looking forward to getting into the swing of things again and look to setting new ways to keep my motivation up. I'll keep you all posted.

Kitchen project

Scott and I started on our kitchen this past weekend. It was previously a butter yellow color with a burgandy stripe around it. Scott HATED the color, and let's be honest, what the hell possessed me to paint a stripe of any color around the room?!?! Scott put about 3 coats of primer on the stripe and then put the first coat of pumpkin pie mouse on the walls. My uncle Johnny and Aunt Kathy had just painted their kitchen the same color and I LOVED it, so... We painted the cabinets an almond paste color, replaced all of the hinges and knobs with satin nickel. Yesterday at 8:30 in the morning, I started laying tile in the kitchen. It was going really well, until I got the the edges and had to do cuts. I am damn proud how it turned out! I did the whole floor by myself...now I know that I can do the bathroom also. We are still looking at new countertops, new sink and faucet, so we're hoping to be totally done with the kitchen in the next couple of months. The one pictures shows the old linoleum tile, with the new tile that I layed down on top of it. I absolutely love it!! I woke up this morning and just stood in the kitchen for a few minutes just to soak it in.

Projects

Well, I made Christmas stockings for all of the nieces and nephews this year. For most of the girls I made ballet slippers, the boys got hockey skates. I made our niece, Kaitlyn, and Grandpa and Grandma cowboy boots for obvious reasons. I thought Mackenzie would be too old for ballet slippers and not quite country enough for the cowboy boots, so I found a foot pattern and made that for her, with a little ankle bracelet. I've got in mind what I'm going to do next year, but I want to keep it under wraps.

Gutzeit Christmas-Tuesday

Christmas day was our final Christmas. We started out at Aunt Julie and Uncle Rick's with most of the family. Tara, Steve and Chloe were still in the hospital following Chlo's surgery. We had a great time! After that we went to Dad's to open presents and hang out. I guess Maddie had everyone fooled as to how good she was this year, because she made out like a bandit!! Scott and I got her a little easel and paints...Maddie said "sweet". hehe That kid cracks me up. I don't have any pics of Dad's house, because I'm a ding dong and put the camera in the bag from Aunt Julie's house and took it in the house before we went to Dad's..not smart. Anyhoo, these pics are from Aunt Julie and Uncle Rick's.

Monday Christmas

Christmas Eve was spent with my mom. We went down to Grandma Hollingshead's shortly after lunchtime and then Mom, Dodd, Macy, Xander and Mason came to our house for supper and presents. Mom and Dodd gave Xander a little leather jacket...cutest thing in the world!! Uncle Mason got Xan a little Iowa football jersey!! We also tricked Mason for Christmas. He really wanted/needed a laptop for college, so Mom got him one. Well, we wrapped a little baby "My first laptop" gift in a laptop bag for him, and then wrapped the actual laptop for Xander. Mason didn't think it was too funny at first, but then got into it.

Sunday Christmas

We had Christmas Sunday night with Scott's dad. Scott and I got Dave, his dad, a siamese kitten for Christmas after his several attempts to kidnap our Siamese cat, Storm, and take him home. He loves him and all of the kids love him too. When I handed the kitty, yet to be named, to Finn, our youngest nephew, I told him to make sure he held under the kitty's butt too. Finn thought that was the funniest thing ever! :-)

Saturday Christmas!

Here are a couple of pictures from our Saturday Christmas with Scott's mom. I had also taken some pictures of the snowball fight Uncle Scott and all of the kids had, but for some reason I can't get them downloaded. More pics to come