Pleasantly Surprised... at least so far

Much to my pleasure, Obama has been doing and saying things that I agree with. While Pelosi doesn’t care for his extension of tax cuts for the rich (ironically something he said was going to happen right away and will now likely be pushed off until 2010), it doesn’t bother me one bit. I haven’t heard anyone, myself included, complain about the pay freezes he put on Washington and I think doing so sent out the right message to the country.

Yesterday, Yahoo! News published the following article: Obama calls $18B in Wall St. bonuses 'shameful'. Mr. President, I couldn't agree more.

Busy Bee

I'm at home from work today because the streets are WAY too bad to drive on. Hooray!

So, I took some time to try to get Nicole to do some counting on video for posterity. We mostly count in two places - on the steps as we go up or down or in the car while driving. So, this video is a little choppy as I'm filming while helping her down stairs, but, well, you get the picture.

What else is she up to? Learning to cook, hide in cabinets, and make lots and lots of noise....

Quick Call

My speeddials on my old, non-data phone went 1: voicemail, 2: home (my parents), 3: Jim cell, 4: Jim work, 5: dad cell, 8: mom cell. I don’t know what happened to 6, 7 or 9.

Now that I have a data phone I can have one speeddial per letter. With this in mind I initially assigned sd’s by the person’s first name. Jim took J, my mom took L (for Linda), the babysitter, Marsha, took M. Somehow Lindsay got put on Q which I discovered last week by accident but have used 2X since so I guess it works out!

Ode to a Friday

Today is Friday. Work is lighter with the promise of the weekend freedom ahead, moods are lifted, it’s generally a good day.

I was thinking about Fridays this morning while I was straightening my hair. My Friday night antics now in adulthood are much different than they were as a kid, as a teenager, or as a newly graduated student. Here’s a quick anecdote about a Friday night when I was 16….

I was 16 so out doing what many 16 year olds are doing – I was on a date. The boy and I had been dating for a while and were comfortable enough to set out for the night with no plans initially in mind. Of course now, 13 years later, I don’t remember exactly what we did the first part of the night because the end of the evening overshadows my memory of the entire date, but I remember the casual mood.

Back then my curfew would have been around midnight or so, so after doing whatever it is we did, we took the opportunity to find a dark parking lot to fool around in. <insert: I almost used the word “neck” here but while it was the first verb in my head for our activities, it 1) shows my age and 2) doesn’t hit the level of “necking” we were doing> We weren’t there more than 20 minutes but activities like that don’t take long to steam up windows. Even through the haze there’s no mistaking when really bright lights fill up your once dark car.

If you’ve ever been doing something you shouldn’t in a place you shouldn’t and the cops pull up, you know the exact feeling that races through your head and heart. Fortunately making out didn’t have the two of us fully unclothed. Unfortunately we were unprepared and couldn’t find all of said clothing in the urgency of putting it back on. When the tap at the window came and we got out of the backseat I only had one sock on and no shoes whatsoever; and wow was that gravel rough on my feet as I fidgeted.

The two policemen asked us all the normal questions – what are our names, can they have our drivers licenses, do we realize this is private property, yada yada. Things got a little stickier when our licenses revealed that he was 18 and I was underage. The questions then turned to are you here on your own free will, is he hurting you in any way, etc.

They stalled for time and let us sweat it out a bit in the front seat while they “processed” things. In hindsight I'm sure they were sitting in their patrol car laughing at our nervousness and the crazy things kids do. Maybe reflecting on the crazy things they did. I like to think that it was because of this last thought we were told to behave, not come back again, and drive safely home. Drive home we did, laughing at ourselves and praying that our parents weren’t called in that few minutes of “processing”.

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What am I doing tonight? Having stir-fry with my husband and daughter and entertaining a grade school friend and her family for board games.

Man, am I glad I was 16 once.

What Nicole's Been Up To

Some new things Nicole’s into lately:

• Using silverware. This makes me torn – obviously it’s a great step towards her being a fully self-sufficient eater but man, it takes SO much longer than me feeding her or her using her fingers. She’s gotten insistent however on using a “moon” (spoon) for everything.
• Becoming a picky eater. This is very frustrating as Nicole has always been a diverse eater. Suddenly she snubs some foods she used to really like such as blueberries, shrimp, & broccoli. Why she’s suddenly smitten with blackberries is beyond me too. The babysitter said this normally happens around 2½ and is a phase that lasts about 4 months and is suddenly past. I don’t want to make her a separate dinner than us as I want her in the habit of eating what we’re eating, but some nights I fear she hasn’t eaten enough because she promptly announces she’s “all done” after only the chicken is gone. I refuse to make her mashed potatos every night as her veggie. The child needs some green.
• Cartoon names. It’s because we let Nicole watch less than ½ hour of TV a week at our house that I'm surprised she knows a bunch of cartoon character names. The TV is on all day at daycare (there are kids of all ages who watch various shows and it’s on for background noise) so apparently Nicole has picked a lot of it up. Though I’ve never seen an entire episode of any of these shows she will say the following by name when she sees them: Spongebob, Dora, & Pooh. I'm sure knows more but I haven’t been there when they’re on to hear her to wildly cheer when the theme song plays.
• Animals. Mackenzie gave Nic a zoo book for Christmas and we read it several times a day every day. It has flaps that show different animals doing different things so we open each of them as we go page by page. She’s learned penguin, walrus, and flamingo as new animals from the book so far.
• Lining up toys. Another new activity that makes me groan because she does it in the bathtub with all of her wet toys that inevitably put lots of water OUTSIDE of the tub and onto me/the floor. I name each as she puts them up and knocks them down but I'm never overly excited when this new routine begins starts over for the night.

When Viki comes in this weekend we’re making a trip to IKEA to look at bedroom furniture for Nicole. She’ll be moving down the hall this spring and the furniture in that room won’t cut it for forever use. Still working on a new theme for the room but it might be dependant on what gender the new baby is – if it’s a boy the nursery might go “jungle” at which point Nicole’s room won’t be “zoo”.

Did you notice?

I had to change my blog layout. I was tired of clicking on everyone’s links just to find they STILL hadn’t posted anything new, but to get the new timed blogs that you see on the left I had to do the update. I don’t like it. I lost a few fonts and a few layout elements I had before that I don’t think look as good as what I previously had. It’s probably just me being picky and resisting change (I am one of the few people I know who hasn’t updated her background the whole time I’ve been blogging). There must be more updates I haven’t done as I don’t even see the templates that some of you are using (lisa, sarah w, etc.).

Send me your link in a comment so I can add it – when I did the conversion I somehow reverted to my first year of links so I had people who don’t even have blogs anymore listed and lots of people I’ve added over the years missing.

Outside Living

Part of Jim’s day off was spent beginning to read a book about deck building that he got last Christmas. The deck is shaping up to be the major house project of 2009 and I was surprised to hear he wanted to start it as soon as April/May.

We’re in agreement on several design elements – we want it to provide

• an open view of the back yard,
• be lush with landscaping,
• have multiple levels and
• include several functional areas.

So far we have a basic sketch of what we want and it incorporates three main areas: a place for grilling and eating, a hot tub, and a reading nook (think swing and wicker furniture for lounging). While our perfect house would have allowed for things like a covered area with ceiling fan or potentially even a screened in section, the way that the windows are placed in the back of our house makes it (completely impossible?)… difficult to do this. Goals for the retirement house 30 years from now….

While this is certain to be a five digit project (largely driven due to our decision to use synthetic wood and get a hot tub), we estimate that even with this addition and the eventual finishing of our basement (YEARS down the road) our house still won’t be the most expensive in the neighborhood though it will have the most custom add-ons. We’re [too?] mindful to keep our house reasonable with our neighbors’ prices even though with the recent purchase of the back lot we’re in the top 20% of expensiveness. Like I mentioned, we expect to be here for decades so cost-basis isn’t an immediate concern.

Conversation

Because of my job and personality in general, I often lead conversation. By this I mean that I kick-off meetings, make it a point to remember names/dates/events so that I can use them in future conversation, ask a lot of questions, etc. This flows from my work life and into my social life. It doesn’t bother me much though – people like to talk about themselves and I enjoy learning about people.

As a result, I'm always very aware when someone else is doing this to me and I'm talking a lot. First, I notice because I'm not thinking as much during the conversation. My mind isn’t jumping to the next thing we have in common or general thing (ie movies, news, weather) that is going on in the world around us. I don’t need to think when talking about myself – I just simply answer. It’s very relaxing to be on the giving side of the conversation.

The second thing I feel is guilty that I'm not “doing my part” to carry the conversation. I look for a break that I can turn it back to them.

This weekend Jenna did this to me in the car. Jim’s aunt and cousin did it to me when we went to Spencerville for Christmas. Granted there are a pretty decent amount of things a person could ask me about – my new job, teaching, pregnancy, Nicole, house projects, etc. – but I'm starting to feel like I'm a bad friend for not reciprocating but man is it nice to be “lazy” in a conversation once in a while.

Who We Are

Jim was talking with his ex-fiancé the other day and the subject turned to her 4 kids. She commented that she’s a mom and that’s basically it (followed by her wishing she was "more"). This comment brought Jim and I to talk about what title we most identify with. We both agreed that husband/wife was the first one that came to mind and that we felt strongest about... but we had different reasons.

Jim: Husband is a title that started 4 years ago and will most likely (other than son) be the one that he keeps the longest, fingers crossed.

Karen: I love Jim. That’s why I married him. I love him more than any of my friends or any of my family. There is no one else I’d rather be with than him so I relate most to being his wife than anything else.

Father/Mother came in second, as you can imagine, and we agreed “friend” came in third. Though I'm extremely close with my parents I tend to think of them as friends versus a parent (authority figure) now that I'm an adult.

It was no surprise that our job titles weren’t on the top of the list. They’d actually come behind “athlete”, “reader”, & “teacher” for us.

I was really pleased that unprompted our lists matched – shows that our priorities in life are lined up. I believe, and frequently hear from “experts”, that the key to happy parenting is to maintain a happy marriage. Since that’s clearly our main concern I think we’ll do all right in life.

Proper Order

My friends who are couples are often referred to in the same order each time.

Lisa & Kendall
Tom & Meghan
Sarah & Danny
Joe & Carol
Mark & Caitlin

I'm pretty sure we’re “Jim & Karen” (as opposed to Karen & Jim). Even my parents say it that way and I'm their kid so you think I’d be first.

I’d be interested to see if “my” way to order these couple’s names is what everyone else says too. I know Dale says “Tom & Meghan” but Tom is his better friend of the two so I previously rationalized it that way.

What these orders do have in common, to over-analyze the situation, is that the man is ahead of the woman unless the woman has a two syllable name. Or, put another way, the one-syllable name is first unless both names are two-syllables at which point the woman tends to go first.

OK, I'm thinking about this too hard…..

Pregnancy Update

I’m now 16 weeks pregnant and this is the first picture of me. This second kid is getting ignored already (I had weekly pictures from weeks 6-41 with Nicole). According to my email updates, the baby is roughly the size of an avocado, 4 ½ inches long. S/he’s busy growing toenails, stretching its arms, and doing backflips.

I can’t feel anything yet and I suspect I have another 2-4 weeks before that will happen. We go for the ultrasound which technically is used to verify that growth is going well, no apparent symptoms of birth defects exist and to clarify the due date. We’ll also be looking to determine the gender at that point. Perhaps I'll take Lisa's cue and wait to be showered with presents before I reveal if it's a boy or a girl? ha!

Thanks to Sarah I have a new injection of maternity clothes into my wardrobe. She has TONS more than last time which is good because my other clothes donator from my previous pregnancy is pregnant now so I didn’t have any of her stuff to wear. The pants are getting to be a must but many of my sweaters are baggy and still okay though not overly fashionable.

I’m feeling great physically and hope it continues!

Random Fact About Me

I really like to eat stuffed foods. Combos, mushroom caps, boston crème donuts, fortune cookies, chicken cordon bleu, calzones… I don’t know what it is about them, but I have a hard time resisting.

Movie Reviews

We’ve watched several movies lately. One I can’t even remember and these two:

Pineapple Express (D)- this was rated as a top 10 movie of 2008 by People magazine for its witty humor. It’s about two guys on weed trying to escape the danger they brought upon themselves by being witnessed witnessing a murder (catch that?). Pregnancy or not, it deserved me falling asleep in the middle of it. I didn’t even care how it ended once I woke up.

The Happening (C)- normally a fan of M. Night Shyamalan and his creative twists, I didn’t know anything about this movie when Jim borrowed it from my brother. The plot is that strange things are happening in the Northeast that cause people to go crazy and kill themselves. Mark Walberg and crew work diligently to run away from the completely unexplained phenomenon and save their own lives. Though I felt like it wasn’t headed anywhere during the show I kept waiting with anticipation for the clarification on what the hell was going on to cause this… that never happened so at the end I felt like “that had no point”. Fortunately it was only 80 minutes.


We're making steady progress on Heroes Season 1 and I'm totally hooked! I've predicted several things that are going to happen but it just makes me happy I know the show so well.

Back in action... sort of

So we got our computer back yesterday, after 3 visits to the computer “doctor” and an eventual complete reimaging of the machine. We had saved most of our stuff to our external hard drive before we initially took it in but when we got it back the second time I downloaded a month’s worth of pictures that didn’t get saved externally. Of course they ignored my call about getting that one file saved and then reloaded so I lost all of Nicole’s pictures for the month of December. UGH.

Should we buy a new computer and just be done with it? Maybe… Jim got a new game for Christmas and our processer isn’t up to running it so he’s SOL. But this was a virus and I'm not sure it could be helped by a new computer. Further, what we use it for is pretty basic – spreadsheets, email, blogging, downloading hardcore porn (just kidding! ha!), etc. We shouldn’t need a new computer but it has been 6 years and those Macs do look pretty cool…..

I suspect we’ll stay where we’re at for a while and see how it goes.

Nicole Update - 18 months

Nicole went for her 18 month check-up yesterday. Here’s a quick report!

1. She apparently remembered that the doctor’s office is the place for shots (she got 6 on her last trip) and squirmed like crazy any time a nurse or doctor got near her. Though this made measuring her hard, she hit the roughly 50% mark for head and height and hovered the 75% for weight at 26lbs.

2. She got her first hair cut last night – a bang trim in the kitchen. Though she sat pretty still with Dad, Mom is a novice and cut them a bit too short. :( The locks went into the baby book though regardless.

3. Current favorites: reading the shape book (it’s pop-up), riding in her new wagon, saying hi to Bubble (her new goldfish), doing everything herself first and asking for help second, saying “thank you” for every individual item you hand her

4. She’s at the early stages of potty-training. She understands the concept but typically will tell you in hindsight that she went “poo poo”. She sits on her chair and is praised regardless. She really seems to like washing her hands after but I suspect that’s just to get to the drying part where a teddy bear towel waits for her use.

5. The doctor said she was ahead of schedule on her speech (for reference, 18 month olds should know 4-6 words and to be “ahead” you need to be able to say 2-word sentences like “more please”) as she can actually say around 50 words on her own (not just repeating what we say) and uses 3-word sentences on a daily basis. There are a great many times though that she knows what she’s saying and Jim and I have no clue. She’ll repeat herself and repeat herself and sometimes get frustrated that we aren’t responding “correctly”. From what I hear, this miscommunication will last about the next 16 years.

year in review

Following tradition from the past 4 years, here’s this past year’s recap.

Age: 29 (I am ALREADY planning my 30th birthday party)
Weight: 151 (ok, for the record I get a bye because that was my weight at the doctor, fully dressed and 15 weeks pregnant. BEFORE I got knocked up I was 139)
Height: 5’6”
Hair: Blonde

NYE Activities: We babysat Ryann and watched the girls play until 9:15. Then we watched two episodes of Heroes on DVD, Dick Clark for 3 minutes, kissed, and talked in bed until Mike/Lindsay came. Didn’t miss the festivities of going out at all which probably makes Mike’s statement of “you’re more like Grandma and Grandpa all the time” true.

Best Of…
Movie: I really enjoyed Meet the Robisons and was pleasantly surprised by Hancock
Song: Little Wonders by Rob Thomas
Friend of the year: Jenna. She arrived on the scene in the first part of the year and I really enjoyed getting to know her better throughout. From the sound of it she’ll be around for quite a while (she’s living with my brother Greg).

Most fun thing of 2008: Finding out we were pregnant again. Our free vacation in the Caribbean. Watching Nicole learn.
Most disappointing thing of 2008: the paycut I took for the new job. An ego bruise by choice is still painful but I’m hoping it proves worth it through this year.
Most Impressive: Nicole’s progress in every possible area.

Looking to 2009…
Most Anticipated Thing: losing my sanity while raising two kids… it’s time for man-on-man defense as they say
Most Nervous About: being one of those people who becomes kid-crazy and loses their own individuality
Goal: plans for our next big house project complete (deck? Back lot? Basement? Porch?). Even if it doesn’t get done this year I want to know what the plan is.
Resolution: Same as last year: To continue to put Nicole and Jim first. Nicole: Leaving work on time, to continue to help her learn and develop. Jim: to go on dates, remind him how much I love him on a daily basis, not nag