As of today, I am back at pre-crazy work levels, and only 20 hours per week. Phew! What a long haul that was! I sure got a lot of actual work done for my job, though, and I've received a lot of nice praise from my boss for it, both during my mid-year review and at other times when he just drops by to tell me how great I'm doing. He says he continues to be impressed with both quality and quantity of my work, and that I showed "exceptional leadership" for our group during my coworker's maternity leave, which I thought was odd coming from the person who was supposed to be the leader of our group, but it's still pretty great, right?? I'm not really sure what to do with that much positive feedback! Travis tells me I should pick one of those opportunities to turn it around and ask when I'll be getting promoted, then, but of course I'm going to play that more carefully. My boss did tell me that if I wanted to work full-time, he would be very adamant that they place me in a senior engineer position. I'm pretty sure he'd say the same thing for the other part-time person in our department, so, if she and I are essentially splitting one job, and we're both doing senior-level work, then why are they not paying us that way?? I floated that idea past her yesterday (her first day back from maternity leave), and I'm guessing it won't be long before we're conniving to make this a reality. Because, really! My life these days, working part-time and having great at-home days with my kids, is definitely something to savor!
I absolutely love summer. Emily wore a swimsuit most of today, and Audrey had on a blue dress with fishies on it (they say "*smack*, *smack*"), and they looked so comfortable and beautiful. Sandals are so easy to get on, and no coats, and it just makes everything so much easier when trying to leave the house. They run around the backyard in our little utopia out there (the sandbox is done! yay!), and it's fenced-in and super safe, and just awesome. Ashby Park opens next week, and then I'm sure we'll be spending quite a bit of time there, too.
My parents celebrated their 40th anniversary last weekend by coming to Des Moines to hang out with their kids' families. It was such an awesome weekend! We went to the science center, the farmer's market, the sculpture garden and the pedestrian bridges. We spent downtime at my house and Dan's house, just hanging out and enjoying each other, and enjoyed a dinner out downtown with more family and friends. Emily's 3 older cousins slept with her in her room, so she had her sleepover night that she was so excited about, and they had a fantastic time together. It was a great reason to celebrate, and a great way to do it. And because of the holiday, we actually had a day off after the weekend to recover - perfect!
Audrey is finally through her two week tummy illness. This morning, there was finally something flushable in her diaper, and I just about jumped for joy (yes, I was that excited about poop). She had been having 3-4 horrendous, soupy disasters daily that would get on her crib sheets, blankets, clothes, EVERYWHERE, and the amount of laundry I did was just phenomenal. finally, we resolved to take her to the doctor on Monday morning, and she actually woke up clean that day. Emily was suffering from it a little bit, too, so I hope that we made the right call in letting them work through things without a doctor's help. It seems that doctors are quite unsympathetic to the plight of a parent who is concerned about the consistency of her kid's poo. If she had acted sick at all we would've taken her in, but she was totally happy and normal - just very, very stinky.
The more expressive Audrey gets, though, the more she cracks me up. She's SO funny! Tonight I laid her in her crib with one of her (five) blankets, and kissed her forehead and said goodnight, and she gestured and cooed over towards her changing table, where a bunch of laundry was piled up. I asked her if she wanted another blanket, since she prefers to have two or three, and she smiled and nodded. So I went downstairs and found another of her favorites, and when I gave it to her, she giggled and snuggled it and rolled over, went to sleep. She's just so tickled that she can communicate now! I suppose I should've done more signing with her, because it is so satisfying for her, but she'll get the verbal stuff down soon enough. She tells me when she wants to get dressed (or doesn't!!) and when she wants a turn sitting on the potty (all show, no go - no biggie!). And she knows that a good loud squeal will tell me that she's trying to fend off an older sister who is either being inconsiderate or overly helpful. I wish those two scenarios weren't so similar - Emily really genuinely wants to help sometimes, and really sometimes just wants what she wants at other times. If I could reward the former and redirect the latter, it'd be great, but it's hard to keep it all "fair" based on the squalling that alerts me of the situation.
Anyway, that's what's been up here lately. My girls sing, play, and look beautiful, and I love it. :) Oh yeah - Travis finally turned 30, which is the end of the two most awkward weeks of the year where I'm two years older than him. It's hard on my fragile ego ;)
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Another great weekend
Yesterday was about as nice a birthday as one could ask for. I woke up to the sound of Audrey singing pleasantly in her crib, and then the frantic pitterpatter of Emily sprinting into my room, shouting "Mom! It's your birthday!!!" We ate scrambed eggs and toast for breakfast, then I went for a 2-mile run, and showered. By the time I was through with that, Travis had cleaned up all of the kitchen and most of the toys. Emily helped me make an angel food cake in the afternoon, which turned out super tasty! This was my first try doing one from scratch, and my stand mixer made it SO easy. It was the first time I had ever had it cranked up to full speed, and man can that thing go! Emily didn't like how noisy it was, of course, but she sure liked licking the batter off of everything. I don't have any qualms letting her do that, since she only consumes about half of it and the rest goes on her face and hands and clothes. Anyway, I made a delicious supper and we ate the cake, and then put the kids in bed. Emily told me, as I was tucking her in, that we should've had people come over to celebrate my birthday, "like Jenny, and ... LOTSA people." I told her I spent the day with my favorite people, and that's all I needed to be really happy. "maybe another time..." isn't she sweet? Then Travis opened up a bottle of wine and I ate the sour patch kids he bought for me, and we watched some "Sunny in Philadelphia" episodes on DVD, and laughed ourselves silly. See? wasn't that a great day??
This afternoon, I'll be going to see the Des Moines Symphony, because I got a sweet deal on Groupon and the music looks like it'll be awesome - Shoshtakovich and Rachmaninoff. Yay! And tomorrow, Travis is taking the day off to attend a 15-minute hearing about the assessed value of our house for property taxes. Then we'll take the kids to the zoo, and hopefully get a few things planted in our garden in teh afternoon.
Audrey continues to crack me up with her expressive faces and babble. Still no definite words that I can decipher, but I sure understand what she's telling me. The other day, I was doing something silly in the kitchen while she and Emily were having their snack. I looked over at Audrey, and she said (my interpretation) "Mom, you're weird, don't do that anymore" while shaking her head, very seriously. Travis likes to ask her conflicting questions and laugh when she nods "yes" to everything he says.
And one of the great things about yesterday was seeing how many caring things Emily did throughout the day. It's fun to be able to recognize those things for her, and point out that she probably feels good because she did such a nice thing. Then, today I asked her how she felt when she look at Audrey crying after pushing her out of her way, and she said "not good." I am hoping that long-term this will do better for us than time-outs, although that option is still on the table for now. It's really remarkable how much there is to learn when growing up. It's nice for me to remember that it's a HUGE undertaking for little tiny people to tackle!
Speaking of that, Trav brought home a book from the library titled, "Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me)." It was definitely out of character, I thought, but then he explained that he wanted to understand the topic in order to be an advantage at work (recovering from a failed project, dealing with people you disagree with, etc.) And then it made total sense, of course. It was good for me to read, too, to get a better understanding of some of the crazy stuff that's been going on in my extended family lately. I've been mulling over and over the way that Trav summed it up: "If you're going to do something because you're angry and you feel justified, then you're about to make a mistake." There was also a section about how different cultures approach learning differently, from an emphasis on getting everything right with no mistakes instead of allowing children to make as many mistakes as it takes for them to understand the right way. I might research that particular topic more, since I think my personality (or my upbringing?) tends towards the first, with getting it all right, no mistakes, and my kids might benefit from some of the other approach. It's interesting, anyway.
This afternoon, I'll be going to see the Des Moines Symphony, because I got a sweet deal on Groupon and the music looks like it'll be awesome - Shoshtakovich and Rachmaninoff. Yay! And tomorrow, Travis is taking the day off to attend a 15-minute hearing about the assessed value of our house for property taxes. Then we'll take the kids to the zoo, and hopefully get a few things planted in our garden in teh afternoon.
Audrey continues to crack me up with her expressive faces and babble. Still no definite words that I can decipher, but I sure understand what she's telling me. The other day, I was doing something silly in the kitchen while she and Emily were having their snack. I looked over at Audrey, and she said (my interpretation) "Mom, you're weird, don't do that anymore" while shaking her head, very seriously. Travis likes to ask her conflicting questions and laugh when she nods "yes" to everything he says.
And one of the great things about yesterday was seeing how many caring things Emily did throughout the day. It's fun to be able to recognize those things for her, and point out that she probably feels good because she did such a nice thing. Then, today I asked her how she felt when she look at Audrey crying after pushing her out of her way, and she said "not good." I am hoping that long-term this will do better for us than time-outs, although that option is still on the table for now. It's really remarkable how much there is to learn when growing up. It's nice for me to remember that it's a HUGE undertaking for little tiny people to tackle!
Speaking of that, Trav brought home a book from the library titled, "Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me)." It was definitely out of character, I thought, but then he explained that he wanted to understand the topic in order to be an advantage at work (recovering from a failed project, dealing with people you disagree with, etc.) And then it made total sense, of course. It was good for me to read, too, to get a better understanding of some of the crazy stuff that's been going on in my extended family lately. I've been mulling over and over the way that Trav summed it up: "If you're going to do something because you're angry and you feel justified, then you're about to make a mistake." There was also a section about how different cultures approach learning differently, from an emphasis on getting everything right with no mistakes instead of allowing children to make as many mistakes as it takes for them to understand the right way. I might research that particular topic more, since I think my personality (or my upbringing?) tends towards the first, with getting it all right, no mistakes, and my kids might benefit from some of the other approach. It's interesting, anyway.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
A fantastic day
Today was Poppo's 90th birthday. It was absolutely a great day. I went for a run this morning, and managed to keep the sideaches mostly at bay. I made muffins and scrambled eggs for breakfast, and my girls ate it up while singing together. It was awesome. We got ready and headed up to Ames, where we had lunch at my sister's house and Audrey had a brief nap. The girls were dressed in beautiful dresses, as were Jenny's girls, and we were in such great spirits.
The party was great. There was some angst amongst my mom and her sister trying to get things planned, but everything went great and I don't know when I've seen Mommo and Poppo happier. There were more than 100 people who came, maybe 150. The venue was the annex at the church, which is a funny building across the parking lot, a stage across the end of a big open room. That was all the girls needed to entertain themselves for at least half of the party. Sarah orchestrated the most hilarious play, where she was Cinderella and Emily was the prince. They danced, and then Sarah ran offstage, leaving Emily standing there looking after her, waiting for the next instruction. Then, a shoe is launched from offstage, since Cinderella forgets her glass slipper, but this was a white sandal, chucked from a distance, landing with a heavy thunk. Funniest thing I've seen on stage in a long, long time! Emily went to bed happily talking about how she was a prince who married Cinderella. :)
The girls slept all the way home, and after a lousy, simple supper, they played outside until collapsing happily in their beds. It was a really, really great day. Tomorrow is Mother's Day, but it'll be hard to top today.
The party was great. There was some angst amongst my mom and her sister trying to get things planned, but everything went great and I don't know when I've seen Mommo and Poppo happier. There were more than 100 people who came, maybe 150. The venue was the annex at the church, which is a funny building across the parking lot, a stage across the end of a big open room. That was all the girls needed to entertain themselves for at least half of the party. Sarah orchestrated the most hilarious play, where she was Cinderella and Emily was the prince. They danced, and then Sarah ran offstage, leaving Emily standing there looking after her, waiting for the next instruction. Then, a shoe is launched from offstage, since Cinderella forgets her glass slipper, but this was a white sandal, chucked from a distance, landing with a heavy thunk. Funniest thing I've seen on stage in a long, long time! Emily went to bed happily talking about how she was a prince who married Cinderella. :)
The girls slept all the way home, and after a lousy, simple supper, they played outside until collapsing happily in their beds. It was a really, really great day. Tomorrow is Mother's Day, but it'll be hard to top today.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Spring spring spring!
What a beautiful weekend. Both days were fabulous outside, and it just makes me feel good to finally have the dreary, rainy, cold April overwith. Bring on MAY!! but not necessarily the 31st birthday. I'm okay without that...
Emily konked out pretty easily for bed tonight - we've had a crazy week, and weekend!! Wednesday, I took her (and Audrey) to Cici's pizza because her class was having a field trip there and she was sooooo excited about it. Thursday, the Iowa Cubs mascot showed up to her preschool, and although Emily is generally pretty scared of giant mascots, it turns out that "after all, I like Cubbie Bear!!" Friday was a picnic lunch for the preschoolers, but we had our picnic lunch with Megan instead. We went up to Ames in the morning to pick her up, and ate at a park in Ankeny on the way back to Des Moines for Emily's first ever SLEEPOVER. Can she really be old enough for that?? The great thing about a sleepover with girls this young is that they were so excited that they completely wore themselves out and were asleep by 8:30, without any reminders to quit giggling in their beds. Amazing. However, at 5:50 AM, the lights were flipped on in her room by little girls looking for a misplaced stuffed cat, and I highly doubt they went back to sleep after that. It was a really great weekend, and Emily is ready to have Megan stay over again tomorrow night. :)
It was pretty fun to see how Emily interacts with her class. Her teachers have to overemphasize some things to get all the kids to pay attention, and it's a little bit paralyzing for Emily. You would be hard pressed to pick her out as the youngest of the bunch, though, which was reassuring for me to see. I also liked seeing how much her teachers really like her, and like Audrey, who was confused to see them there but enjoyed being passed around to different people.
I suppose I'm going to sound like That Mom again, but I would swear that I've heard Audrey singing, really singing. Yesterday I thought I heard her matching pitch with one of her toys singing Old McDonald, but wrote it off as coincidence. Tonight, though, I was holding her while I was one-handedly perparing supper, and I distinctly heard her sing the first two lines of twinkle, twinkle. I swear I did. When I looked at her and asked her if she was singing, she did her little nod. Now, the nodding is adorable and generally I think she really is answering what i've asked her, but her answer is yes to probably 90% of the time, so there's that disclaimer. Anyway, she refused to do it again when i asked her to sing more, but i heard more of it later when she thought I wasn't listening. What a stinker! :) And I think I heard her chiming in with Megan and Emily yesterday, when I asked them to sing two songs while they were waiting for me to get ready to go ride bikes with them. They were so sweet, just looking at each other and singing together - it was beautiful. Even poetry, or lines from books that Audrey knows, will cause her to pause and calm down. If she's freaking out, I just calmly start in, "In the great green room, there was a telephone..." and by the time I get to three little bears sitting on chairs, I've got her rapt attention. Pretty handy! what an expressive, beautiful little thing she is!
And, oh yes, the bike!! Emily now has a Bike With Pedals! Travis found it on Craigslist for $10, and went all the way to Waukee one night after the girls were asleep to get it. It's perfect - it's hot pink and has training wheels, streamers on the handlebars and decals of ponies all over it. He hid it in the basement because the next morning he flew to North Carolina for work. He was back the next day, but she managed to find it while we were down there doing laundry. I felt SO bad, because Travis wanted to surprise her with it, but she was certainly surprised anyway. I got such a kick out of her telling Travis on the phone about what she had found, and that it was pink with pedals and "There are flowers on the... on the... where you put your bottom!" and the whole time while she was thinking of the words, she was patting her little backside. So cute!! Anyway, I think when she finally got to take it out to ride on Friday afternoon, she was a bit disillusioned that it was so much harder to pedal than she was anticipating. But she's a trooper - she was determined to figure it out! We took her and Megan (on Emily's balance bike) and Audrey (in the wagon) down to the church parking lot so she could have some room to not worry about traffic or falling off the sidewalk or rolling down a hill too quickly. It was one of those moments for me where I just couldn't believe how fast this little family is growing up. Pictures on picasa, of course.
Emily had Travis and me in stitches tonight. Trav has told the story about the guy who we hired to fix our basement, that was probably 80 years old and scolded us for not having a handrail. He told us (twice) a horrible story about a woman who fell down the stairs on christmas eve and died, so he makes sure everybody has a handrail now, in his deep voice saying, "Gotta have a handrail!" So tonight, when Emily saw Travis coming up the basement stairs, was going on in her little voice, yak yak yak yak, "I told you," then as low as she could, "You gotta have a handrail!" Writing it down makes it sound kind of lame but it was absolutely side-splitting to hear.
I wish, wish that I could think of everything I want to record when I sit down to blog. These girls do adorable things all the time, and sometimes I manage to get a FB post about it but mostly I just laugh and try to enjoy the moments as best I can. I gave the girls a little dish of ice cream after supper tonight, and later, I looked up to find them both holding their dishes up, drinking the last few drops. One pink bowl, one purple. I wish I could upload that mental picture!!
Emily konked out pretty easily for bed tonight - we've had a crazy week, and weekend!! Wednesday, I took her (and Audrey) to Cici's pizza because her class was having a field trip there and she was sooooo excited about it. Thursday, the Iowa Cubs mascot showed up to her preschool, and although Emily is generally pretty scared of giant mascots, it turns out that "after all, I like Cubbie Bear!!" Friday was a picnic lunch for the preschoolers, but we had our picnic lunch with Megan instead. We went up to Ames in the morning to pick her up, and ate at a park in Ankeny on the way back to Des Moines for Emily's first ever SLEEPOVER. Can she really be old enough for that?? The great thing about a sleepover with girls this young is that they were so excited that they completely wore themselves out and were asleep by 8:30, without any reminders to quit giggling in their beds. Amazing. However, at 5:50 AM, the lights were flipped on in her room by little girls looking for a misplaced stuffed cat, and I highly doubt they went back to sleep after that. It was a really great weekend, and Emily is ready to have Megan stay over again tomorrow night. :)
It was pretty fun to see how Emily interacts with her class. Her teachers have to overemphasize some things to get all the kids to pay attention, and it's a little bit paralyzing for Emily. You would be hard pressed to pick her out as the youngest of the bunch, though, which was reassuring for me to see. I also liked seeing how much her teachers really like her, and like Audrey, who was confused to see them there but enjoyed being passed around to different people.
I suppose I'm going to sound like That Mom again, but I would swear that I've heard Audrey singing, really singing. Yesterday I thought I heard her matching pitch with one of her toys singing Old McDonald, but wrote it off as coincidence. Tonight, though, I was holding her while I was one-handedly perparing supper, and I distinctly heard her sing the first two lines of twinkle, twinkle. I swear I did. When I looked at her and asked her if she was singing, she did her little nod. Now, the nodding is adorable and generally I think she really is answering what i've asked her, but her answer is yes to probably 90% of the time, so there's that disclaimer. Anyway, she refused to do it again when i asked her to sing more, but i heard more of it later when she thought I wasn't listening. What a stinker! :) And I think I heard her chiming in with Megan and Emily yesterday, when I asked them to sing two songs while they were waiting for me to get ready to go ride bikes with them. They were so sweet, just looking at each other and singing together - it was beautiful. Even poetry, or lines from books that Audrey knows, will cause her to pause and calm down. If she's freaking out, I just calmly start in, "In the great green room, there was a telephone..." and by the time I get to three little bears sitting on chairs, I've got her rapt attention. Pretty handy! what an expressive, beautiful little thing she is!
And, oh yes, the bike!! Emily now has a Bike With Pedals! Travis found it on Craigslist for $10, and went all the way to Waukee one night after the girls were asleep to get it. It's perfect - it's hot pink and has training wheels, streamers on the handlebars and decals of ponies all over it. He hid it in the basement because the next morning he flew to North Carolina for work. He was back the next day, but she managed to find it while we were down there doing laundry. I felt SO bad, because Travis wanted to surprise her with it, but she was certainly surprised anyway. I got such a kick out of her telling Travis on the phone about what she had found, and that it was pink with pedals and "There are flowers on the... on the... where you put your bottom!" and the whole time while she was thinking of the words, she was patting her little backside. So cute!! Anyway, I think when she finally got to take it out to ride on Friday afternoon, she was a bit disillusioned that it was so much harder to pedal than she was anticipating. But she's a trooper - she was determined to figure it out! We took her and Megan (on Emily's balance bike) and Audrey (in the wagon) down to the church parking lot so she could have some room to not worry about traffic or falling off the sidewalk or rolling down a hill too quickly. It was one of those moments for me where I just couldn't believe how fast this little family is growing up. Pictures on picasa, of course.
Emily had Travis and me in stitches tonight. Trav has told the story about the guy who we hired to fix our basement, that was probably 80 years old and scolded us for not having a handrail. He told us (twice) a horrible story about a woman who fell down the stairs on christmas eve and died, so he makes sure everybody has a handrail now, in his deep voice saying, "Gotta have a handrail!" So tonight, when Emily saw Travis coming up the basement stairs, was going on in her little voice, yak yak yak yak, "I told you," then as low as she could, "You gotta have a handrail!" Writing it down makes it sound kind of lame but it was absolutely side-splitting to hear.
I wish, wish that I could think of everything I want to record when I sit down to blog. These girls do adorable things all the time, and sometimes I manage to get a FB post about it but mostly I just laugh and try to enjoy the moments as best I can. I gave the girls a little dish of ice cream after supper tonight, and later, I looked up to find them both holding their dishes up, drinking the last few drops. One pink bowl, one purple. I wish I could upload that mental picture!!
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Doing drugs as a family
All four of us are on amoxicillin for the next week or so. When Travis got so sick last week with apparently the same thing I had, he went to the doctor and got a strep diagnosis. So I went, thinking maybe I was still carrying it, and I was positive too! We got the girls checked, and while they never actually got sick (Emily had no fever, but her glands were swollen to the point that the doctor was impressed that she wasn't complaining about them) they were both carriers, too. SO! A round of meds for all, and new toothbrushes, too. Why not? This was a particularly nasty germ - my mom had it, my brother, and my sister and her girls all had it. I guess that means I must hang out with my family of origin quite a bit!
We were going to go up to the VEISHEA parade today, but we thought that taking the girls out in 40-degree weather with a 25 mph wind might not be the guarantee of a good time. So, another quiet weekend at home for us!
I am most excited about the video I took of Emily singing along with the piano the other night.
Immediately after we recorded it, she turned to me and said, "I don't want to do that again." :) I guess that was my cue to tone down the stagemom-like pride that welled up in me upon hearing her sing! The craziest thing about this is that Audrey is matching pitch, too! Although her regular babble is pretty lyrical, there's definitely a difference between that and her singing, and if I sing while I'm holding her, she can match pitch -- IF I'm not paying attention. She's such a stinker. :) If you try to interactively do it with her, she just looks at you with her big blue eyes, waiting for you to go back to something else so she can practice without an audience.
Another nice surprise yesterday - Emily called to me from the other room, exclaiming that she had just written her name! Neither Trav nor I have been working with her on writing letters, except that I knew she could do an "E" and copy letters for Mom and Dad pretty nicely. So I was quite surprised to see her whole name spelled out on the magnadoodle! When Trav got home from work, she wrote it out again for him, except she started with the Y and worked backwards. :) So she's not totally there yet, but boy is she proud of herself.
I sure like bragging about my kids. Nice that I have a truly appreciative audience for this blog!
We were going to go up to the VEISHEA parade today, but we thought that taking the girls out in 40-degree weather with a 25 mph wind might not be the guarantee of a good time. So, another quiet weekend at home for us!
I am most excited about the video I took of Emily singing along with the piano the other night.
Immediately after we recorded it, she turned to me and said, "I don't want to do that again." :) I guess that was my cue to tone down the stagemom-like pride that welled up in me upon hearing her sing! The craziest thing about this is that Audrey is matching pitch, too! Although her regular babble is pretty lyrical, there's definitely a difference between that and her singing, and if I sing while I'm holding her, she can match pitch -- IF I'm not paying attention. She's such a stinker. :) If you try to interactively do it with her, she just looks at you with her big blue eyes, waiting for you to go back to something else so she can practice without an audience.
Another nice surprise yesterday - Emily called to me from the other room, exclaiming that she had just written her name! Neither Trav nor I have been working with her on writing letters, except that I knew she could do an "E" and copy letters for Mom and Dad pretty nicely. So I was quite surprised to see her whole name spelled out on the magnadoodle! When Trav got home from work, she wrote it out again for him, except she started with the Y and worked backwards. :) So she's not totally there yet, but boy is she proud of herself.
I sure like bragging about my kids. Nice that I have a truly appreciative audience for this blog!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Spring spring spring!
Ahhhh how glad I am that it's finally, really, truly spring!! Green grass under my toes, warm breeze on my face, and as Emily says, "No coats!!" The girls were outside all morning today, playing on swings and slides and the sandbox and looking at flowers... it's great!
The downer of the weekend: Travis got sick today. He's going to go to the doctor tomorrow, rather than suffer for several days like I did, to see if it's strep, since that's what my sister and her girls had. And if it's positive, I might get the rest of our family checked anyway to see if me or one of the girls is a carrier. I feel bad for Trav, because if he's got what I had, it's really awful! And he's got allergies besides, which makes it hard for him to sleep. And just when it's finally blooming and wonderful outside, and it seems like we can actually go out and do stuff, he's set back.
We had a really nice weekend up until he hit his wall, though. Relaxing, not much going on. The house is a disaster but i just can't bring myself to change it because it'll just be a disaster again as soon as I turn around. I did a bit of spring cleaning upstairs today, which seems better because it isn't being actively "undone" as soon as I turn around. Which reminds me of something funny: Audrey likes to get ahold of Trav's car keys that he keeps in his top nightstand drawer. The girls and I were upstairs one day, and Trav was downstairs when he heard the car out in the garage start up -- since it has remote start!! Funny girl!
The supper that I made tonight was really awesome. I haven't googled yet to see if it was truly an original recipe, but it was fantastic. Sausage, apples, onions, peppers, corn, and fried potatoes. Simple, but so good. I think that I could write recipes the way I could write music: somewhat basic themes, actually quite lovely sounding/tasting, somewhat original but mostly just a pleasant variation on something that someone else has done before. And, I enjoy it but I'm noncomittal enough about it that I really don't care to share the results with anyone outside my immediate circle of trusted parties.
I think I'm out of my post-vacation funk, finally. The girls seem to be doing better too. Emily napped on Friday, which was great because we ended up staying out late (8:45! ha!) with friends and although Audrey was on my lap with a blanket when she got tired, Emily just kept going full steam. But, they're both really back in the normal routine, which makes everyday stuff better. I'm solidly back on Iowa time, and so far I've successfully fought back my gloomy funk from earlier in the week. Today, I made a list of stuff to do next week, which means I'm really back and ready to dig in!!
The downer of the weekend: Travis got sick today. He's going to go to the doctor tomorrow, rather than suffer for several days like I did, to see if it's strep, since that's what my sister and her girls had. And if it's positive, I might get the rest of our family checked anyway to see if me or one of the girls is a carrier. I feel bad for Trav, because if he's got what I had, it's really awful! And he's got allergies besides, which makes it hard for him to sleep. And just when it's finally blooming and wonderful outside, and it seems like we can actually go out and do stuff, he's set back.
We had a really nice weekend up until he hit his wall, though. Relaxing, not much going on. The house is a disaster but i just can't bring myself to change it because it'll just be a disaster again as soon as I turn around. I did a bit of spring cleaning upstairs today, which seems better because it isn't being actively "undone" as soon as I turn around. Which reminds me of something funny: Audrey likes to get ahold of Trav's car keys that he keeps in his top nightstand drawer. The girls and I were upstairs one day, and Trav was downstairs when he heard the car out in the garage start up -- since it has remote start!! Funny girl!
The supper that I made tonight was really awesome. I haven't googled yet to see if it was truly an original recipe, but it was fantastic. Sausage, apples, onions, peppers, corn, and fried potatoes. Simple, but so good. I think that I could write recipes the way I could write music: somewhat basic themes, actually quite lovely sounding/tasting, somewhat original but mostly just a pleasant variation on something that someone else has done before. And, I enjoy it but I'm noncomittal enough about it that I really don't care to share the results with anyone outside my immediate circle of trusted parties.
I think I'm out of my post-vacation funk, finally. The girls seem to be doing better too. Emily napped on Friday, which was great because we ended up staying out late (8:45! ha!) with friends and although Audrey was on my lap with a blanket when she got tired, Emily just kept going full steam. But, they're both really back in the normal routine, which makes everyday stuff better. I'm solidly back on Iowa time, and so far I've successfully fought back my gloomy funk from earlier in the week. Today, I made a list of stuff to do next week, which means I'm really back and ready to dig in!!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
San Francisco
I did it. I went on vacation without my children!!!
Trav and I left Friday morning for San Francisco, and left Emily and Audrey with his mom for the weekend. They went up to my sister's house in Ames on Saturday for Julie's birthday party, had a great time, then spent the rest of the weekend in Barnum. All parties, though exhausted, agreed it was a lot of fun and are willing to go for repeat circumstances on a future weekend.
Emily and I are outside as I write this, while Audrey naps. Emily is on her newly constructed swingset, learning how to pump her legs to make herself go. It's a beautiful day, and I just killed a wasp out on my porch, so I'm feeling pretty pumped up myself. It's been hard getting back in the routine of things, though. I remember wondering why my sister, after 4 days of Ragbrai, was so sluggish to get back into Mom-mode, and now I am living it. It's hard! I feel bad that the girls are having a bit of a tough time too, remembering what the rules of the house used to be and are again. Emily sat in the corner 3 times yesterday and once today. But, I've forgotten just how frequently they need to eat, so now that we've gotten a good lunch in her tummy, things are better. And I'll be more consistent with things, once I remember how. It obviously was a good vacation!!
We stayed with my college roommate Rachel for Friday night and Saturday night, eating fabulous food at local restaurants and drinking good wine, laughing about ridiculous stuff and feeling young again. I like knowing that the interesting people that I knew when I was young are still interesting, and therefore I must have been interesting at one point, too. On Sunday, we met up with Travis's cousin Kari and her daughter Allison, and they took us to Muir Park and over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was really, really fun. Allison is 2, and by that point, I was missing my girls so much that it was hard to not just "mother" her in spite of myself. I kept it together, except for one very snuggley hug that got a little out of hand. :) I took Tuesday off from work, even though we were back on Monday night, and I'm glad I did because the girls and I needed to ease back into our routine a bit.
I'm so glad it's finally spring. The porch is easily warm enough every day that it's sunny, and the girls are loving to be outside. The basement is done now, too, so we've got loads of room for these two little girls. If we just keep things picked up a bit, it'll continue to feel spacious. But again, I'm still not quite back up to full steam after vacation, so I just try not to step on things and break them. :)
Trav and I left Friday morning for San Francisco, and left Emily and Audrey with his mom for the weekend. They went up to my sister's house in Ames on Saturday for Julie's birthday party, had a great time, then spent the rest of the weekend in Barnum. All parties, though exhausted, agreed it was a lot of fun and are willing to go for repeat circumstances on a future weekend.
Emily and I are outside as I write this, while Audrey naps. Emily is on her newly constructed swingset, learning how to pump her legs to make herself go. It's a beautiful day, and I just killed a wasp out on my porch, so I'm feeling pretty pumped up myself. It's been hard getting back in the routine of things, though. I remember wondering why my sister, after 4 days of Ragbrai, was so sluggish to get back into Mom-mode, and now I am living it. It's hard! I feel bad that the girls are having a bit of a tough time too, remembering what the rules of the house used to be and are again. Emily sat in the corner 3 times yesterday and once today. But, I've forgotten just how frequently they need to eat, so now that we've gotten a good lunch in her tummy, things are better. And I'll be more consistent with things, once I remember how. It obviously was a good vacation!!
We stayed with my college roommate Rachel for Friday night and Saturday night, eating fabulous food at local restaurants and drinking good wine, laughing about ridiculous stuff and feeling young again. I like knowing that the interesting people that I knew when I was young are still interesting, and therefore I must have been interesting at one point, too. On Sunday, we met up with Travis's cousin Kari and her daughter Allison, and they took us to Muir Park and over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was really, really fun. Allison is 2, and by that point, I was missing my girls so much that it was hard to not just "mother" her in spite of myself. I kept it together, except for one very snuggley hug that got a little out of hand. :) I took Tuesday off from work, even though we were back on Monday night, and I'm glad I did because the girls and I needed to ease back into our routine a bit.
I'm so glad it's finally spring. The porch is easily warm enough every day that it's sunny, and the girls are loving to be outside. The basement is done now, too, so we've got loads of room for these two little girls. If we just keep things picked up a bit, it'll continue to feel spacious. But again, I'm still not quite back up to full steam after vacation, so I just try not to step on things and break them. :)
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