We booked most of our California vacation in September!  We will write more about this when all of the details have been worked out, but we will be in the LA area for about a week.  I think that I want to plan a photo scavenger hunt/contest too.  If you are in the CU area and want to participate write a comment and I will keep that in mind.  I am thinking I will give everyone 3 “Topics” to illustrate and only 3 hours to do it.  We will vote on the best… maybe have judges and/or prizes (maybe the first one will be for fun).

My friend Sarah picked me up at 6:15am and we headed over to Theresa’s house. Both teams gathered there, put on our numbers and headed for the start. Sarah and Greg strapped on the time chips on their ankles and a little after 7:30am they were off. They had a 6.7 mile leg of the race. The rest of us loaded into the cars and headed for the first exchange zone which was near the Meijer in Urbana. After about an hour and half of running, we saw Sarah and Greg! They did awesome!!! The running chips then were switched to Franni and Nicole and they were off. We again got into the car and headed for exchange zone B which was near the Tumble inn in Champaign. Again, Franni and Nicole did awesome!!! Next up to run was Anne and her Dad. Once they headed out we were on our way to exchange zone c – this is where I would start! After breaking some speed records, Anne and her Dad were there and Jen and I were ready to start our run!

I put the chip around my ankle and I was off! Since I had been waiting for 4 hours to run, I really hadn’t eaten or had anything to drink… which is what I blame the cramp on. At the second water station I slowed down and that helped with the cramp issue.  I ran the first mile in under 9 minutes which is way to fast for me so I definitely needed to slow down. After making lots of turns and having no idea where I was in Champaign, I finally crossed over Neil St. There was no one in front of me and no one behind me and the police stopped 4 lanes of traffic to let me through. You better believe I was running then. It was downhill from there, literally. One more turn and I headed for Memorial Stadium. I saw the rest of my team waiting for me and while we were running in I swore to them that I will NEVER do this again! We crossed the finish line, received our medals and took some pictures.

Overall, it was really fun and I’m glad I did and can say that I have checked that off my list of things to do in life. Next year, I’ll either do the 5k or I’ll volunteer. I would love to sit in a lawn chair in the yellow vest and block off a street while I cheer on the runners. I”M SO GLAD ITS OVER!!! Check out the pictures here.

In other news, Josh recently returned from a “conference” in Las Vegas. He was gone for a week and said it was a pretty good time. He came back with a suitcase full of swag. Lily loves the bouncy ball that lights up, she did not appreciate the monkey that screams when you throw it.

I’ll be on my way to the National Association of Perinatal Social Workers conference soon! I’m so excited! Its very rare for social workers to have a conference dedicated to exactly what we do. Since social workers often do SO many things and work with every population its really hard to have such a specific conference. However, with my position at the hospital, I’m dedicated to the NICU and this conference is all about exactly what I do. I can’t wait to hear how others do it and learn new things to incorporate into our NICU.

Lily is doing great! She is talking up a storm. She has likes and dislikes and wants and things she doesn’t want and she can tell us all about it! She loves to play outside on her sand and water table and slide! We are sort of working on potty training. The kid really likes toilet paper so we have to keep an eye on that. And she discovered she can open doors using the handle… that’s a bummer for us.

Because we have finally got to a point where we are happy with the website I hope that we spend more effort keeping you up to date on what is going on.  Please give us feedback on our posts; below each post you will see a “comment” link, click that and keep in touch with us.  We will get back to you with a real update, but for now just enjoy the new layout.

Wish me luck!

Well Lily is doing just great! She took her first airplane trip in January for Matt and Jenna’s wedding and she had a blast! She was SO good on the plane, it was amazing. She colored and played with toys and read books and even took a nap! She’s perfect! While we were in Arizona we had a great time! We visited with a lot of family and relaxed. Lily had a blast at Oma’s house. The night before we came back she started her signature cough and breathing fast. We had a couple of vials of medicine but definitely not as many as we should have had… now we know! Since she was working so hard to breathe, it pretty much wore her out and she slept almost the whole flight home and car ride. The next day we took her into the Dr and it was pretty yucky. I was almost positive we were going to make another trip to the hospital. Luckily the Dr gave her some medicine and put her on a strict schedule of medicine. Since flu and RSV season have been exceptionally bad this year, he wanted to keep her free of any breathing issues. We were told to start breathing treatments at the first sign of a cough and she also gets two scheduled breathing treatments twice a day and singular with dinner. Knock on wood, it is working! She has had a couple of coughing issues but I’m sure it would have been MUCH worse with out the pre-treatments! So it looks like she will continue with this plan until Spring time, then we will get rid of one and then hopefully by summer we can be medicine free until flu season comes around again.

Lily is such a trooper though. She will adjust the mask when it gets crooked or comes off of her face! Hilarious!

We are still going to physical therapy for her torticollis however it is getting much better and I think we are getting close to being done! The therapist said that she has the rotation and strength to keep her head straight, her problem now are the giant knots that are in the muscles. The therapists thinks that if we can work out those knots and continue with her progress we should be done soon! I really like the therapist but it would be great if we didn’t have to go every other week. Thank goodness for insurance!!!

Lily is walking and practically running these days. She holds our hand and will walk to the car from daycare. She is such a big girl! We are working on forward rolls and she loves them! Future gymnast

She is talking up a storm still. We can understand more and more words so that is nice but she still talks a lot and we have no idea what she is saying. She can say: mommy, dada, papa, eye, nose, no, more, hi, bye bye, help, nice, thank you, done, up, eat, ball, and probably more that I can’t remember. She is really good at parroting what we say, so be careful what you say around her!

Lily’s favorite things to do include coloring and playing with her baby. She feeds her baby and lays the baby down and puts the blanket on the baby. And that blanket has to be perfect. She will stand there for several minutes to make sure that the blanket is straight and flat – no wrinkles – I have NO idea where she gets this! She also loves to read. She grabs a book from her basket, walks over and says “up.” So we pick her up, open the book and about two words in she closes the book and says “done.” She’ll get down and get another one and start the process over. We go through about 10 books before bed time, and we will read about one all the way through.

Daycare is going really well too. Lily moved up to the Toddler room! It was pretty sad to leave Infant 2 but she was ready. In the Toddler room they sit in real chairs, no high chairs, no bibs, and they sleep on little cots, no cribs. Its amazing! Now that the weather is getting better they get to go outside and play which is great!

As for future plans, Lily is going to be a Flower Girl in my cousin’s wedding in September and then in our friend’s wedding next April! She is a busy girl!

She is also talking up a storm. Not that we have any idea what she is saying, but she tells us all about her day and how it went on the way home from daycare – SO CUTE!!! Her signing is going really well. She consistently signs “eat,” “more,” “sleep,” and “please.” She has learned that if she tries to do something but for some reason can’t do it or can’t reach it she will look at us and do the sign for please. It just melts your heart and you can’t say no!

Her torticollis is ok. We are still going to therapy every other week. She is wearing the collar and it is definitely helping. I think the stronger she gets she might just grow out of it. All I have to say is thank goodness for insurance because we have been doing physical therapy for a year now!

I know for not doing an update in 3 months, I don’t have a lot to say. I will put pictures up though – definitely check those out!!!

The day of the race Sarah, Emily, Amy, Franni and I decided to meet and pick up our packets, etc. We put on our numbers and warmed up with the very energetic lady from the fitness center. I was pretty sure that I wasn’t going to be able to finish after spending so much energy on the warm up. We got in place and had a little pep talk. We all got our head phones in and music on (and I had my run keeper on so I knew how fast I was going and how much I had left). About a minute before the start all I could think was how bad of an idea this way and that I can’t believe I signed up for this – I actually volunteered, no one is forcing me to run for the next 3 miles!

Then we started. I felt like I started at a pretty good pace but I was keeping up with Franni and I knew that she had been training faster than me. We passed a sign with a big 1 on it and I was shocked to figure out that we had already gone a mile! We had to run the loop two times so when we came by the first time the clock read 17 + minutes. So in my mind, I’m thinking I’m right on pace because 17 +17 =38. About a half a mile later I realized that 17 + 17 does not equal 38 it equals 34! I checked the run keeper program and sure enough I was definitely going faster than usual. I should mention as I went by the clock the first time, my mom, sean, josh and Lily were all there holding up signs and cheering me on! Even Lily had a sign that read “my mom is running her first 5k!” It was great!

So as we passed the 2 mile mark, Franni and I looked at each other and said “one more mile!” Coming around the last turn and knowing that the finish line was so close was so exciting! Both of us picked up our pace and crossed the finish line. Franni came in about 4 seconds before me. I was so excited and couldn’t believe that it was 35 minutes!

Emily, Amy, Sarah, Franni and I took some pictures for the organizers website because they liked our shirts and that we were running our first 5k at their event. We are hoping to be on their website but honestly I haven’t looked. I should check that out!

Moral of the story – c25k works! You can ask Josh, I was not a runner – I hated it. But I was committed to this program and within 12 weeks I ran my first 5k in under 40minutes (that was my personal goal).

My baby is a year old! We cannot believe how fast this first year has gone. Lily is doing great! She had her one year appointment today and the Dr is thrilled with her progress considering all she has been through in the past 12 months. Josh and I were thinking back about all of the sicknesses she has faught this past year and came up with: RSV, pneumonia, 2 viruses that caused fevers, roseola, 3 ear infections, and random colds that causes her to wheeze. But she is a trooper and just rollin with the punches!

Her torticollis is definitely getting better too. We are still going to physical therapy twice a month but Lily is getting so strong.

On a more exciting note: LILY HAS BEEN WALKING!!! On her birthday she decided she could walk. She took a couple of steps at daycare and then at home she took 8 steps all by herself! It was great. She still crawls because its faster but when she is standing she will just let go and head in the direction she wants to go. Its really cute!

Her signing is going really well too. She knows signs for sleepy, milk, more and apparently she learned please at daycare so that’s pretty awesome! I’m pretty sure she is brilliant!

Lily’s favorite words right now are “uh uh” for uh oh and “ow wow” for oh wow and of course dadadada.

So on her birthday we had a mini celebration with josh and I, my mom and sean and josh’s parents. Lily ate her first cupcake – check out the pictures! It was really cute. It almost seemed like she was waiting for us to say “no mouth” but we didn’t. She pretty much only ate icing (my kinda girl) but she seemed to like it!

On Sunday we will be having Lily’s big family party. We are praying that it will not rain because there are way too many people coming and they will not all fit in our house! We are going to be having some sandwhiches, Silly Goose Soup Chili and of course some dips and home made (by Emily) cupcakes. Its going to be great! I’m sure we will have a ton of pictures to post from that as well. Lily has been doing really well at gatherings lately – she is quite the entertainer (must be from her dad).

I just can’t get over that my little (granted 8 pound) baby is now 21 pounds of walking/talking fun… where did the time go?

Here are the email updates (I’ve separated them in colors so it is a little easier to follow):

Family and Friends,
As if we weren’t busy enough these days Cheryl and I have created a mother/daughter Soup and Dip business. We would like to introduce you to our new company Silly Goose Soups and Dips. Our company creates and sells pre-packaged soup and dip mixes. We are working with a licensed kitchen that packages our product and we intend on selling at craft fairs, festivals and on line.
Our initial offering on line showcases our favorites to start which we intend on expanding as we grow. Featuring 4 Soup Mixes, 6 Dip mixes and 1 Chili we hope you will find a favorite and enjoy with your friends.
Please stop by our newly built and still under construction web site (sillygoosesoup.com) to see what we have to offer. Don’t forget to check out the About Us tab, we think you will get a kick out of it!.

Please share our site with your friends and family.

We gladly accept Visa and Mastercard.

Enjoy,
Cindi and Cheryl

Friends and Family,
This weekend Cheryl and I will set up our booth for the very first time at the Bloomingdale Septemberfest (Bloomingdale Rd/Lake Street) on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.  If  you are in the area and want to stop by we are in booth #21. We shouldn’t be too hard to find as it is a small festival. There will be lots of live entertainment thruout the day.
If you have friends or family members that live in or around Bloomingdale, please share this email and ask them to stop by and say Hi.
We have also already expanded our line to add additional soups and new dips, check it out if you get a moment.
www.Sillygoosesoup.com
Wish us luck that it doesn’t rain and have a great weekend everyone!
Thanks everyone for your support.
Cindi & Cheryl

Hi Everyone,
Cheryl and I set up our first and second Silly Goose Soups and Dips booths over the past few weeks, first in Bloomindale then the following weekend in Dwight.

I’ve been so busy lately I neglected to follow up with you to share how we did. Thanks to all who sent emails and texts inquiring.

Bloomingdale was a kick. Thanks to Aunt Kathy, Mia and Dylan for stopping by and checking out more of our products. We set up early and stayed til 10 p.m. We sold almost all of the dips we brought and some soups and were high fiving each other all the way home we were so excited. Everyone was great to work with and loved our product. The live entertainment that was set up directly behind us kept us going during the few slow spells that we had.

Dwight Illinois this past weekend was even better. We were located in the Flea Market area instead of crafts or commercial ( the coordinator of the festival messed up) so we didn’t have any electric to sample our soups. No worries. We tripled sales at this show even being rained out the second half of the second day. During one of the slow periods Cheryl headed outside the booth with a sample tray and brought customers up, I got so busy she had to stop and help me check people out. We sold out of 3 dips and two soups, we better double up inventory next time. Speaking of next time, our next festival is October 9-11 in St. Charles Illinois. This will hopefully top the other two….wish us luck.

Thanks again everyone for your support.

Cindi & Cheryl
sillygoosesoup.com

So that is a little bit about what is going on with us. This weekend is the big weekend for the 5k. I am excited and nervous. I know I can do it because I have been training and now I just wish it was over! I’ll keep you posted on how I did and hopefully someone will take some pictures to prove that I really did do it!

Immediately following the 5k we will be celebrating Josh’s grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary. Then Sunday we will be driving up north for Maison’s baptism – it’s going to be a busy busy weekend but it will be great to see friends and family!!!

In other news, I have taken a new position at Carle Hospital. I was previously working as the Pediatric and Surgical social worker. I was assigned two floors and had anywhere from 40-60 patients per day between both floors. I am now the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit social worker and discharge planner. This is a full time position which has been quite a change for me as I was previously working part time (3 days a week). My new schedule is really nice though because I work 4 ten hour days and the way the schedule works is that I get a 4 day weekend every other weekend, so its really great! I started two weeks ago and am still learning and adjusting to this new unit. I now have about 20-25 babies/families that I’m assigned to, some stay for a couple of days and others have been there for 3-4 months. The baby that is discharging tomorrow will be 101 days old. I am considered “dedicated” to that floor which is a very unique position to have in the model of our hospital. I’m really excited about the new experiences and learning new things. I’m even going to have my own space to work on the floor! On most floors, the social workers just have to find a computer that is open and hope that a doc or nurse won’t need it while you are working. So its really awesome that they are making room for me on this floor! The staff seems to be accepting me pretty well (their previous social worker was awesome, so I heard “you have big shoes to fill” for about 3 days straight!).

Other than that, Josh and I are off to St Louis to see friends from college tomorrow! I am so excited and I’m sure we’ll have some fun pictures to post!