What an awesome vacation! Everything went just great, and we had an awesome time on both legs of our trip. Minneapolis was a ton of fun, even though we didn't get to the Como Park Zoo like we had planned because of a thunderstorm. I think that was the only hitch in plans, and we went to the Children's Museum in St. Paul instead, and the girls enjoyed that pretty well instead. They handled the car trip pretty well on the way up, but on the way back it was a rougher trip because we did 4 hours straight instead of splitting it up with a break at a park like we did going up. I was surprised at how much the girls were NOT into the splash pad in Apple Valley, despite the excitement of putting suits on and heading to a park that sounded like a ton of fun. Emily at least finally went into the water a little bit, but Audrey wanted nothing to do with it, and preferred the traditional playground nearby. They thought the hotel pool was all right on Sunday morning, but they were still leery of all the splashing features in the 16" deep wading pool.
Anyway, the baby shower was awesome, and it was so great to see everybody. I'm all fired up to plan the next rendezvouz with that crew! It was like no time had passed, except that for some reason all of the guys ended up measuring each other one night, as in, head, bicep, and calf circumfurences (and their ratios, of course.) I thought it was akin to a group of dogs all sniffing each other: "I've missed you so much!! How big is your head these days??" Sidenote: Travis and two others tied for largest head at 24" head circumference; Audrey's was 20"! Anyway, I'm hoping to get back up there for yet another baby shower this fall, and then we're going to have to meet this little baby that was the unseen star of the party! Emily really enjoyed shopping for a gift for the baby, and was so excited when they opened it. It's fun to see a child's genuine enjoyment of the act of giving.
Then began the second leg of the trip, which was Ragbrai! Trav and I joined up with the crew in Elk Horn, about 15 miles into the 2nd day. Within 3 miles, I had already found some of Travis's dad's co-workers, and chatted them up about how I know Tim. Seriously, out of 20,000 people, and I found the 3 people that Tim mentioned in passing would be on the route? I mean, they did have the company name on their jerseys, but still, weird!! And at one point, I was leading a paceline that my co-worker was in (she and I are two of four people in our group), so when I dropped back she recognized me and we biked together. Awesome! The second and third days that I biked were flat enough that being in pacelines was totally the way to go, and there's something about the buzz of all the bikes together that I just can't resist, even if it means taking my turn up front. My sister and I said we felt like horses pulling everyone along. Neigh!
Man, I love biking. I mean, the atmosphere on Ragbrai is fun and the people are nice, but really, I just like being on my bike. I like the mental and physical challenge, I like my bike, and when I'm done, it's a satisfying but not overwhelming exhaustion. I also decided that I prefer to party during the day, and actually sleep at night. That's probably a product of motherhood: being denied sleep means I don't take it for granted anymore! I had a great time out on the route, and then just chilled on top of the bus in the evenings for a little while before getting some good sleep in my tent. The rest of the team got blitzed up there frequently, which led to some slow starts in the mornings, which was unfortunate because then we ended up biking the hardest miles in the worst part of the day. But I'm a trooper, I survived. I also made an official suggestion that we try to find hosts that do not live on an address such as HILLCREST drive, since that was the biggest insane hill I've ever had to do to reach a host's house. She was a lovely person and a fantastic hostess, but that hill was awful. We had kickass hosts on the next night, too, who fed us dinner and breakfast in their gorgeous house. Makes me love being an Iowan, meeting other great people like that.
I got Travis involved in a shotgunning contest. I was leaving the bus in the lunchtown one day, since my brother and I were going to hunt down a water station for refills. Half a block away, in an alley, this team of bikers shouts out to me an offer of a free beer. Dan reminded me that team rules are that I have to accept, so I did (it didn't hurt that I was already in for about 3 drinks that morning. Really, I was buzzed at 11 AM on a Wednesday. What a killer vacation!). I asked them what their team name was, as I was slamming this beer, thinking I could catch up with Dan, and they said they were undecided, but they wanted to be Team Awesome or Team Whatever or Team Shotgun. I said, they couldn't be Team Shotgun because they'd have to actually be good at shotgunning beers (like I said, I was feeling sassy), and they roared at how they were really good. I said, no way, I'll go get my husband and he'll smoke all of you. Then I chugged the rest of my beer, threw it on the ground, and biked away, much to their uproar at the challenge. it was so dramatic. :) I went back and got Travis, and he did it - he won! there was probably 10 guys in teh first challenge, and 5 in the second, although the results of the second were more contentious since he finished drinking first but another guy threw his can down harder so it hit the ground first. But it was awesome. Stuff like that happens all the time on Ragbrai! These guys also turned out to be some of the same guys who Trav's little brother Mark beat in a shotgunning contest in a beer garden last year. Sullivans rule!
So, as great as the week was, I was ready to be done biking after 3 days, and I was SO happy to see my girls. They had a fantastic time at Grandma's, but they missed me and Grandma was ready for a break. I've been on my own for the past 3 days, almost, and now I'm ready for a break of my own! They were driving me nuts this morning, absolutely crazy. There've only been a few habits and tendencies that the girls have had to get used to being back home instead of at Grandma's, but I think in the future I won't attempt to tackle that on my own - that is a two person job! It's not like it's any specific thing, either, it's just that as everybody is getting comfortable with being back home, it's hard to do unless everybody is actually home. And Travis won't be home until at least 9:30 tonight. I also had gotten spoiled at being around only adults for a few days, and I realized it was hard to go back to dealing exclusively with people to whom logic and reason play a marginal role in decisionmaking, overshadowed by, "But I WANT to..." I got the feeling that Trav and a few other young dads thought maybe they shouldn't be doing the entire week if the burden of childcare for their offspring is being placed entirely on their wives. I mean, there's one level of maturity to enter (and win) a spontaneous shotgunning contest, and then there's the whole I'm-a-Dad maturity level.
All in all, a good time for the Sullivan family. I think I'll schedule a massage for sometime in the next week. I deserve it. Now, off to hunt down something delicious to snack on, since apparently my stomach hasn't gotten word that I'm no longer burning 3500 extra calories a day on a bike. :)
Oh - and my tan lines are to die for. I've got a wicked sunburn on my right shoulder, the expected drastic lines across the tops of my thighs, and a ridiculous racoon look since my face got it really bad the first day. I was waiting at the pharmacy for my prescription (sunburned lips = cold sore! damn!), and this old guy pointed out how he could tell where my sunglasses had been. I was still super tired from biking the day before, so I just nodded and smiled a little. Then he reassured me that it wasn't really that bad, so I said, politely, "Not so bad that anyone would notice, of course." I'm apparently capable of being sassy when overtired, too.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Planning to plan
I had a good day at work today. I'm learning a new, specific process that we're further defining for our organization, and today I got to actually use it to create a new layout for a project. It was pretty satisfying!
We are really looking forward to this next week. I know they say that you're never supposed to announce that you'll be on vacation, but since this blog is secure and I trust all of you ... well, most of you know we're doing Ragbrai next week. We're also headed to Minneapolis for the weekend right beforehand, to see our friends from when we lived up there. It's been two years since we've seen them and I'm really excited! It's intimidating because we haven't taken a vacation with the girls yet, and I just never like dealing with them when they're tired and off schedule. But it'll be worth it. we're going to have a great time!
This week has been spent getting ready: doing laundry, sorting stuff to pack for the weekend vs. Ragbrai, buying last minute supplies, and making last-minute plans. I have it all planned out to be flawless and smooth, so be sure to check for my next blog posting which will document how that all went wrong. :)
I've also confirmed that the girls will be going to a new daycare starting Aug 16. I'm thinking they'll like it better, but there are pros and cons of course. We'll see how it goes... although, it's kind of unnerving thinking that if it turns out we don't like it, we would have a hard time going back. I always like a safety net, but, oh well.
Audrey is getting more words. Her favorite is "All gone!" but I've heard a lot of others that I'm suspicious of and she won't repeat. And I convinced her to go potty again a couple of times, so that's nice that she's no longer too creeped out to do that.
We are really looking forward to this next week. I know they say that you're never supposed to announce that you'll be on vacation, but since this blog is secure and I trust all of you ... well, most of you know we're doing Ragbrai next week. We're also headed to Minneapolis for the weekend right beforehand, to see our friends from when we lived up there. It's been two years since we've seen them and I'm really excited! It's intimidating because we haven't taken a vacation with the girls yet, and I just never like dealing with them when they're tired and off schedule. But it'll be worth it. we're going to have a great time!
This week has been spent getting ready: doing laundry, sorting stuff to pack for the weekend vs. Ragbrai, buying last minute supplies, and making last-minute plans. I have it all planned out to be flawless and smooth, so be sure to check for my next blog posting which will document how that all went wrong. :)
I've also confirmed that the girls will be going to a new daycare starting Aug 16. I'm thinking they'll like it better, but there are pros and cons of course. We'll see how it goes... although, it's kind of unnerving thinking that if it turns out we don't like it, we would have a hard time going back. I always like a safety net, but, oh well.
Audrey is getting more words. Her favorite is "All gone!" but I've heard a lot of others that I'm suspicious of and she won't repeat. And I convinced her to go potty again a couple of times, so that's nice that she's no longer too creeped out to do that.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Real Life
I've tried to focus this blog on fun things our family does, and the great things my girls do that I like to brag about. I mean, really, if you're reading my blog, you're not the audience to whom I need to be modest about them. My girls are the best, and that's all there is! I do know three pretty nice girls who come quite close, though, in my nieces, and lately I've gotten to spend a lot of time with them. I'm pretty lucky and I've been enjoying it, although it hasn't come about in the nicest of ways. This isn't really my news to share, but things are not going well between my sister and her husband, and lately my house has been a refuge for her and her girls, off and on. Emily has absolutely loved all the "cousin" days, and they've had a great time here together. I just wish it was that way for everyone when they leave, too, since I know things are stressful at home for them. It's such a rude awakening, thinking about Travis's brother still in jail, and my other brother-in-law still being so awful to my sister. When it's just my little family at home, it's as though the world is a perfect place, and it doesn't take much looking around to realize situations that are just unfair and unfixable by any amount of me hoping, or even offering to help.
A funny story along those lines, though. First thing Tuesday morning, I was sitting at my desk trying to get my brain in work gear and out of my worry-about-home gear, and my boss came into my team's area and announced that he was certain that his day was worse than any of ours had been to that point. I realize that I have no poker face, of course, so when I turned around and looked up at him (he's like 6'5", 350 lbs, so yes, looked "up"!), I saw a look flash across his face that was undoubtedly, "Yikes! Perhaps I'm wrong..." He decided to tell us his story anyway, about how the contract employee that had been told by the hiring company that he hadn't gotten the job in our group after all (most likely due to failed drug test, but we can't know for certain) had decided to show up for what was supposed to be his first day of work, and was sitting in the lobby waiting to begin work. Oops! It wasn't my boss's problem, more for HR to deal with, but still, kind of a funny story. Really, in this economy, if you get a job with John Deere, are you stupid enough to fail a drug test?? But, I guess, there's that Real Life butting in on me again, and I know that it probably isn't about stupid. It was hard to hear my other team members talk about what a loser decision he made... and I really had some empathy for him because maybe he isn't stupid, and he's just in over his head with a problem he can't figure out. And I just hope that this will be hitting bottom for him and he can figure things out. Okay, that's a lot of judgement, considering I only met the guy once!!
I've also discovered that when talking about Real Life, people chime in with all kinds of their own things, and they're pretty hefty. I figure 95% of my interactions with other people are purely superficial, and that number would be higher if I weren't talking through heavy things with my sister. But, it doesn't take much allusion to knowing someone with a drug problem before other people chime in with cousins or ex-boyfriends of friends or whatever. It was ironic a couple of months ago when the conversation at work turned to siblings and siblings-in-law, and my boss volunteered a story about how he and his two similarly-sized brothers instructed their sister's abusive boyfriend to not ever contact her again, and how that seemed to do the trick, much to their amusement. I wanted to ask him if he might still be in that business, but didn't feel it was fair to make light of such heavy issues when they're still going on. I guess life just happens, and you laugh and love whenever you can. I'm lucky to be skirting by in my little naive, perfect cocoon.
Oh, and Audrey hasn't gone potty since the poop incident. Guess that scared her off for a while! Funny girl. She went on the floor before bath tonight, and then immediately sat down on the potty, so she knows. What a nice little thing she is! I still wonder when she's going to decide that it's easier to communicate using words instead of all her gesturing and pointing and howling. She has more words in her songs than she does in trying to talk: how-I-wonder, up-above, have-you-any wool, lullabye. In talking, she just says bye, yes, no, and I thought I heard her try "yogurt" the other day. I'm sure there are some other things I haven't picked up on yet... hmm, I suppose I should be helping her with that. :)
I'll also try to post a video of her singing golden slumbers with me. She and Emily sang it together for me the other day when I didn't have a camera, but it wasn't the kind of moment you kill by documenting. Instead, I have this fantastic memory in my head of their blue, blue eyes staring intently at me while singing the most lovely song, together. Ahh, they know just how to make me remember that all the cleaning up pee off the floor (A) and bloody noses in the night (E) and piles of food off the floor (both) is all worth it. All you need is love, love... love is all you need.
A funny story along those lines, though. First thing Tuesday morning, I was sitting at my desk trying to get my brain in work gear and out of my worry-about-home gear, and my boss came into my team's area and announced that he was certain that his day was worse than any of ours had been to that point. I realize that I have no poker face, of course, so when I turned around and looked up at him (he's like 6'5", 350 lbs, so yes, looked "up"!), I saw a look flash across his face that was undoubtedly, "Yikes! Perhaps I'm wrong..." He decided to tell us his story anyway, about how the contract employee that had been told by the hiring company that he hadn't gotten the job in our group after all (most likely due to failed drug test, but we can't know for certain) had decided to show up for what was supposed to be his first day of work, and was sitting in the lobby waiting to begin work. Oops! It wasn't my boss's problem, more for HR to deal with, but still, kind of a funny story. Really, in this economy, if you get a job with John Deere, are you stupid enough to fail a drug test?? But, I guess, there's that Real Life butting in on me again, and I know that it probably isn't about stupid. It was hard to hear my other team members talk about what a loser decision he made... and I really had some empathy for him because maybe he isn't stupid, and he's just in over his head with a problem he can't figure out. And I just hope that this will be hitting bottom for him and he can figure things out. Okay, that's a lot of judgement, considering I only met the guy once!!
I've also discovered that when talking about Real Life, people chime in with all kinds of their own things, and they're pretty hefty. I figure 95% of my interactions with other people are purely superficial, and that number would be higher if I weren't talking through heavy things with my sister. But, it doesn't take much allusion to knowing someone with a drug problem before other people chime in with cousins or ex-boyfriends of friends or whatever. It was ironic a couple of months ago when the conversation at work turned to siblings and siblings-in-law, and my boss volunteered a story about how he and his two similarly-sized brothers instructed their sister's abusive boyfriend to not ever contact her again, and how that seemed to do the trick, much to their amusement. I wanted to ask him if he might still be in that business, but didn't feel it was fair to make light of such heavy issues when they're still going on. I guess life just happens, and you laugh and love whenever you can. I'm lucky to be skirting by in my little naive, perfect cocoon.
Oh, and Audrey hasn't gone potty since the poop incident. Guess that scared her off for a while! Funny girl. She went on the floor before bath tonight, and then immediately sat down on the potty, so she knows. What a nice little thing she is! I still wonder when she's going to decide that it's easier to communicate using words instead of all her gesturing and pointing and howling. She has more words in her songs than she does in trying to talk: how-I-wonder, up-above, have-you-any wool, lullabye. In talking, she just says bye, yes, no, and I thought I heard her try "yogurt" the other day. I'm sure there are some other things I haven't picked up on yet... hmm, I suppose I should be helping her with that. :)
I'll also try to post a video of her singing golden slumbers with me. She and Emily sang it together for me the other day when I didn't have a camera, but it wasn't the kind of moment you kill by documenting. Instead, I have this fantastic memory in my head of their blue, blue eyes staring intently at me while singing the most lovely song, together. Ahh, they know just how to make me remember that all the cleaning up pee off the floor (A) and bloody noses in the night (E) and piles of food off the floor (both) is all worth it. All you need is love, love... love is all you need.
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