Livin' Life as Best I Know How

September Post about random things

2011-09-08T12:56:00.006-04:00

1. I feel disappointed that I was surprised when I un-lidded my soup and discovered it's homemade. Am I really that processed!?

2. My youngest brother is getting married Saturday. Doesn't feel real. I know he's an adult and he's been with Jenna for years, but it's still a little surreal. I think part of that weird feeling is that Greg's marriage is kind of the fin

al nail in the coffin that my siblings and i are all grown-ups.

3. I went to Jenna's bachelorette party two weekends ago. I

hadn't been clubbing in over half a decade so I had no idea what to wear. Went with the classic little black dress. Can't fail with a classic. For those of you who are also out of the clubbing scene, let me report this: 1) Cincinnati clubs aren't in Over the Rhine anymore. They're all downtown with lots of well-lit parking and cops. SO much safer than when we went out. 2) heels arent' required anymore. I looked H-O-T (i'm exaggerating) in my 4" black sandals but no one cared and my feet felt like hell the next morning. Girls today wear flats and dance all night. Not as cute as we were but that's a move in the right direction in my opinion.

4. Nicole's manners are frequently SO good she can be slightly annoying. Literally every sentence is "excuse me, mommy", "can i please", "thank you so much", or "i just shared my ___ with Chris". But she's so proud of being polite and it's a characteristic so sorely lacking in today's society how can i do anything but further encourage her?

5. Jim and I filled out these surveys for Redbook magazine. It was about how many "points" you should get or give for certain activities. For example, if he gives me a backrub with no intention of sex how many points does he deserve (6). If i cook him a full meal 50's style how many points do i get? (10) I haven't read all his answers yet but i'll say that what i've read so far was ENLIGHTENING (really).

6. The last two days were co-workers birthdays, both women i really like, and i brought in goodies. I'm thinking though that my birthday might be an overkill for people who return this favor... I'll be super grateful and touched, but i don't want to have a banquet in my honor or anything. I'd feel awkward since some folks get little/nothing on their day.

7. Miss my blogging?

Hello, world!

2011-08-02T06:44:00.003-04:00

It's been months since i've posted. I never thought that would happen. The direct correlation - my new job. I'm busy at work all day - i'm not saying 'super-busy' because one of the great things about my new job is my ability to balance my workload and therefore stress-levels.

So, let me catch you/me up on a few things going on in life:

1) new job is great - love my boss, love the possibilities that I can directly affect that i think will lead to possibilities of great (as in positive) change for the culture and the future. I really feel like i'm a part of something bigger. Perhaps it's the respect i've already earned. perhaps it's the positive feedback from different people at different levels of the organization. maybe i just really found the right place at the right time of my life. Whatever it is, i love it.

2) one of my resolutions has been to enjoy the little things in life. More than ever that's difficult to do. my natural inclination is to plan, check things off the plan, and work to do this as efficiently and quickly as possible. Therefore, i have to make a concerted effort to stop and enjoy the moment when Jim comes behind me for a hug while i'm in the middle of cooking. Or to not tell Chris "go look at that, we haven't seen that yet" when he wanders back to the goats for a third time. I think taking these little moments will make life richer for me but so far i'm still in the phase where i'm consciously doing them. When it's totally natural i think it'll be worth it. Practice makes perfect no matter what the activity, right?

3) I cried when i left my old job and the old people. I knew it wouldn't be the same and it's not. relationships fade, especially when you used to see someone every day and now you don't. Fortunately some really solid ones haven't changed too badly (Tom P, Jason R) and have been replaced by a new friendship (Bryan T) with a co-worker that i really like/respect.

4) kids are growing so big. I'm at a point where i eagerly count the words in the sentences chris's saying (record = 7) because his language is developing so rapidly and he's finally able to express it all. Nicole's beginning to read some flashcards (homemade ones and store bought) but i know we need to do them more/more consistently. This knowledge directly contradicts item #2 above.

5) My little brother is getting married in just over a month. it's certain to be the wedding of the year. Jenna gave us Coach purses as our bridesmaids gifts! My first one ever!

6) We bought a rental house and have been busy fixing it, setting up the business, etc. I'm in charge of all administrative functions. I think we have one more weekend before the first two tenants move in - exciting stuff! We're already looking at the second property in Lima, OH - this one for one of our partners' sisters.

7) Looking forward to our staycation activities over the next month. On the agenda: Coney Island (none of us have ever been!), Indianapolis for the children's museum and indoor water park, Louisville for some horse activities. Perhaps the Erdahls would be interested in joining us?

Yeah, i'm alive

2011-06-01T20:59:00.004-04:00

I never realized how much i blogged at work until i got a job that consistently keeps me busy and guilty about even reading blogs 8-5.

In a three week period we got rid of Chris's crib (he prefers to sleep on the floor, not in the toddler bed though. Jim and I both say 'who cares, as long as he stays in his room all night'), the highchair and whole milk. i officially no longer have a baby.
both kids are moving up in school to the 2 and 4 year old rooms.
My book has been sent to ~20 agents and i've gotten 7 official dings. i'm relatively unphased though because i'm holding self-publishing in my back pocket
the rain has been INSANE but of course as soon as i plant my veggie garden it frickin' stops.
new job is great. boss is great. stress levels are great. working downtown is awesome. all-around good decision to move and i have no regrets.
we are now in business with jim's cousins - bought a rental property in Lima, OH which we spent 2.5 full days rehabbing. made some good progress but still a long way to go. intention is to rent it to college guys. we have some interested parties already.
i'm making 2 cakes a month for work and jim says it's getting out of control time and expense-wise. i agree but find it hard to say no. so far some new things i've tried are mostly flavors - mint icing cupcakes accessorized with andes mints (tasted like thin mint cookies), a peanut-butter icing'ed gecko that tasted JUST LIKE a cake version of a reece cup, sarah's melting icing technique, strawberry cake. So far all successes and i've built quite a reputation.... :)
lots of parties and weddings in June. we're super-busy. can anyone babysit june 11th?

My Running Mother's Day list (for Jim & Kendall)

2011-04-24T12:49:00.003-04:00

Chunky Bracelets
Black capri pants with pockets
Hot and cool glue guns
House slippers
Tulips
Rolling Pin
8" and 6" baking pans (round)

Life Update

2011-04-18T08:22:00.002-04:00

Chris is saying 3-word sentences! Hooray! He knows more words than I can keep up with
I'm paying for my first parenting magazine subscription. My grandmother had given me one for Christmas a few years ago and suddenly two others started showing up. One, Parents, is expiring and I think it's worth the $7.99 for a 2-year subscription. $7.99?!?! Really!?
Thinking of the price of magazines - full color printing on every page periodicals where i get 200 pages X 12 issues X 2 years for $7.99- and wrapping paper where you can get 25 YARDS of four color printing for $.99 at the dollar store... Why the heck does Kinko's charge $.14/page for color copies?!
Nicole is going to be a flower girl in Jenna and Greg's wedding. She's SUPER excited!
We got 4th place in our bowling tournament
I have come up with LOTS of ideas for mother's day this year. I mention them to jim all the time. I don't know if he's paying attention though or if I'll end up with some random gift. Perhaps I should post them here for his future reference? ; )

novel progress

2011-04-03T16:13:00.004-04:00

So, today, while the kids are sleeping, i worked on my novel. I have 16/17 chapters edited (third round) and just that first, annoyingly bad chapter to deal with. UGH. Not sure where to go with it. I did ask four people to be the "fine tooth comb" on the book (2 new readers and two who helped with round 2 editing). I'm aiming to make April a dual-function month- finish round 4 edits and write the query letter.

For those of you not familiar with this, a query letter is what you send to literary agents. the goal is that they read your amazingly well-written letter, are smitten with your style and plot, and then they request to read your manuscript. ultimately it is this agent that will represent me to the big publishing companies - they'll get the book sold, negotiate the $, etc.

In order to prepare for writing the query letter, i had to research the official dictionary of genre types and have determined my book is not a romance or a chick lit (as i orginally thought) but would be considered "women's fiction". Fortunately i have a large audience of potential agents who represent this genre. *wiping brow - whew!*

in the real world, i've learned, authors send these letters out to 100-800 agents in an effort to hook one that wants to represent them. The agent blogs I've read describe their intake of unique query letters to be in the dozens per day- so glad that there's no competition for their attention. :P

All advice-giving articles say that a strong query letter is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing i'll write, in many cases more important than the book itself. If the query letter is terrible than no one will even get to the point of seeing my book.

At least I have a plan B - self publishing.

Feeling some pressure.....

Jamie made a comment to me at the end of one of her editing emails - something about a second book with Megan as the protagonist (she's a side character in this novel) being worth considering. DARN YOU, JAMIE. Now I've got that whole stinkin' plot rolling around in my head.....

Hello World

2011-03-28T08:24:00.003-04:00

I started to wonder if blogging was going out of style because some of my friends who've been on the blogroll for 4+ years are slowing down in their posting frequency. Then again, I am too. Perhaps it's just easier to read and not write? I'm assuming time is the real issue
Chris is speaking in 2-word sentences now which is a wonderful break in his language development. I never thought he was behind but I did suspect that his limited vocabulary was part of his aggressiveness. I still see a mild correlation but not to the extent I wish it was (aka- he's speaking more but not hitting significantly less).
I've tried several new recipes lately because I feel like our home menu is getting kind of stale. I need to find one this week. Any suggestions? KEY: NO WEIRD INGREDIENTS.
My favorite teaching session is coming up on Thursday.
I bought a new purse. It's twice the size of any purse I've ever owned but I concede that larger is the style. I literally have like 10 total things in it (2 lipsticks, 2 pens, keys, sunglasses, phone, money, credit cards)- none of which are big so the purse doesn't have that much form (as you can see in the corner) - there's not enough junk to hold it up! ha!

Dressing Up

2011-03-25T08:41:00.004-04:00

No one in my office has probably noticed or cares, but I haven't repeated an outfit once in my 6 weeks of employment. I've worn the same dress slacks several times, but never the same top with it.

Especially with the change of seasons coming up I'm excited about seeing how long I can go....

I'm a dork.

Ignore my previous post - clearly I do need a life! ha!

Hobbies

2011-03-18T08:36:00.003-04:00

Several years ago, before we had kids, Jim was involved in a lot of things - bowling, softball, martial arts, avidly reading, and getting his first certification. He was really busy but that was okay.

He was, however, critical of me for not having any hobbies.

My life felt pretty full at the time so while I listened I didn't take it as "oh, he thinks I have no interests and am boring". Anyway, I'm self-confident enough to not care even if he did. ;)

Honestly, then my hobbies included two core things: reading and socializing. It was pretty widely known that to get on our calendar was a weeks in advance request and I loved the variety of activities and friends we saw on a regular basis.

Post kids, this has changed pretty drastically. Somehow I'm busier than ever:

Full time job
Adjunct teaching gig
Mom
Writing a book
Bowling league
Avid reader
Have DVR so I watch 5X (literally) more TV than I did four years ago)

Life still feels full but not uncomfortably so. What's changed is the socializing part. We still see friends but the kids take up time that we'd otherwise be spending eating out with another couple on a Friday night. Our afternoons are spent at the park or coloring instead of meeting a girl friend out at the outlet mall.

Jim and I still spend a considerable amount of time on our own activities (he's still in softball, we bowl together, and he's getting another certification) but we balance that with kid time.

I've been told that as the kids get older the parents of their friends will become some of our closest friends just because our "family time" easily overlaps with their family time (ie at soccer games, swim meets, etc.). I can see that. Adding more friends to our mix sounds daunting though - I don't see our current friends enough (as compared to several years ago!).

parenting ramblings

2011-03-08T20:58:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I worry I'm a bad mother. The kids are in daycare and now with my new job they're there an extra 45 minutes beyond what they were before. Also, i can't come see them at lunch several days a week like i did before.

The lunch thing is probably not a big deal. Not one other parent in the entire school ever did this and Chris always took it terribly when i'd leave to go back from work. Nicole just resumed lunch, bossing her friends around, or playing like she was doing before i got there.

My boss said something to me the other day like "my kids always harass me 'oh we were always the last picked up from school, we're emotionally tormented' and I reply, 'yeah, that's why you're on honor roll and your brother got an amazing scholarship to college'." that makes me feel better.

My parenting magazine's answer to 'are daycare kids behind because they're missing 1-on-1 time with a full-time parent'? was a pretty definitive 'no'. they consoled the road warrior mother by saying that if she was happy, successful, and positive about her job the lesson she's teaching her kids is a valuable one not to be missed - hard work is rewarding and worth doing.

are they getting that lesson at 1 and 3?

don't get me wrong, i'm not quitting my job. I don't think i could handle full-time parenting. Nicole is happy, healthy, and very well-adjusted. If Chris were less moody, violent, and clingy i probably wouldn't have any hesitations in the world about my parenting skills. Honestly, i don't think Chris's issues have much to do with my working status. I think he's just in his terrible twos since age 15 months. hoping this is all it is....

News in my world

2011-02-23T08:15:00.003-05:00

The new job is going great. Thanks to all of you who've asked or wondered. My boss is largely uninvolved in my day-to-day activities which I'm taking as a sign of trust that I'm competent to get it all figured out and done. I'm making friends, mostly with the legal assistants who are consistently here and at their desks when I pass by or take a lunch break. I'd like to see the attorneys more but their schedules are in flux and that's more challenging as they often don't eat in. I L-O-V-E the feel of being downtown. The buzz, the activity, the vibrancy of people and things happening all around me. Jim and I are also carpooling several times a week which is nice.
Chris is talking so much more lately. One thing I'd like to note that he does is say the sound of an item versus it's actual name. For example, he can say "truck". He says it when we read his picture books. But if we see one in real life he'll point and say "vrooommm!" instead. Maybe because that's what he hears when we're by it versus the quiet book? He's still rough as ever at school. Need to work on this but not sure how other than being consistent in our discipline and making him apologize for mean actions.
Nicole's big thing right now is coloring, which Jim and I think she does particularly well, and sounding out words. The multiple sounds of letters stumps her at times (why can't C just be soft ("ka") and not hard ("ss"?).
Jim has been reading a lot lately and has plowed through several books. He's on one now that has historical events noted via newspaper headlines. It looks interesting but not something I care to read.
Looking forward to SPRING!

One Moment In Time

2011-02-15T20:35:00.005-05:00

If you said a person's name my mind will instantly go somewhere. Most of the time it's an image of their face that's a still shot that I've just made up (versus a photo I've seen before).

If someone said "tell me about Lisa" my mind will always jump to a story versus a description. And it's always the same story. I have a "defining moment" with about everyone I know. Some are monumental, some are not. All are meaningful to me in some way or another because it was a time I felt that i was seeing the "real" person and in one way or another I really connected to them at that moment.

Just a few that readily come to mind....

Lisa: Her running past my college door in various states of undress

Grandpa W: His getting weepy over a non-fiction story I wrote of him for my Creative Writing class at UD

Sarah F: Sitting on the bridge at lighthouse retreat in one of those deeply honest conversations

Viki: Eating hummus with her and Laura at her bachelorette party

Jim: The exact moment I fell in love with him- watching a movie with his buddy on the couch and he and I cuddling on the love seat.

Sarah W: in Friendly's cleaning up for the night and gushing over $5 tips

Jenny J: catching up at a bar over one of our breaks in college- just her and I living it up and getting tipsy sentimental

Chuck: watching him watch Kristi walk down the aisle

Tom P: dinner at The Back Porch

Mike: eating chinese and learning Lindsay was pregnant

Greg: laying in bed when we were kids singing the "Oh They Built the Ship Titanic" song - we were rehearsing for a recital we put on for my parents later that month

My last day at work

2011-02-11T14:11:00.003-05:00

So, today is my last day of work. My officemate was playing a soundtrack of goodbye songs and one of them was "It's the end of the world as we know it" and to that I reply "and I feel fine".

I do not feel any remorse in my decision to leave at all and I realize what a blessing that is. I'm confident that I'm making the right choice and I'm excited about what lies ahead.

That being said, saying good-bye to people already has been strange. I spent two hours hand-writing individual good-bye notes to every co-worker (including my replacement that I've only met twice!). I hope I don't cry. I hope nobody else does or that goal might be toast.

I've been here for 9.5 years so there are some people I'll miss like crazy. Not miss working with, miss seeing and laughing with. I'm expecting that some relationships stay strong even with the distance- fewer most likely than those who'll fade off and never hear from again. Though Facebook might make "never" more like "seldom".

So, here's to fresh starts, new faces, and the beginning of another adventure.

New Job!

2011-02-01T10:23:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I put in my two week notice at work. I've been at the same company for nine and a half years so my leaving at all is a pretty big deal. The time is right though and I'm excited, not sad, about leaving.

The new role will be a marketing focused one at a law firm downtown. I really liked all of the partners I met and am especially fond of the woman who will be my new manager.

Jim's been super-supportive through the process, which is especially wonderful because he's not happy where he's working so seeing me have an opportunity to move on is probably not very comforting for him right now.

I start on Valentine's Day. Wish me luck!

Book Editing in Progress

2011-01-24T12:29:00.002-05:00

Well, the book went online for editing this weekend. I have a crew of a dozen friends who volunteered which is probably 2X more than what I need. Ah well.

So far the first chapter has been universally panned. My gut reaction was to be let down, as I think most people's would, but I remembered that when I was doing the editing on the first draft even I hated the first chapter. So much so that I brought five romances to bed one night and just read their first chapters to compare quality to mine.

Problem is, while I agree it's not very strong, I'm not sure how to fix it.... UGH.

The other thing that's getting to me is that not everyone who offered to read has. I know i just mentioned that i probably have too many editors and don't need this much feedback but since they volunteered i'm waiting anxiously for their missing reviews.

I know, I know, it's day 3, people do have real jobs, etc....

:)

2011-01-18T08:48:00.001-05:00

I have high hopes about the day.

Sunday Repunzel!

2011-01-06T07:57:00.001-05:00

Had to do this the long way.... geesh!

Pictures

2011-01-05T07:30:00.007-05:00

Some pics from the end of December.

Christmas party treat for Chris's class.

Christmas Eve. One of the three dresses in the princess box has been on practically daily since my aunt and uncle gave it to her.

Christmas Night. yes, she's wearing her new ballet clothes.

My budding artist.

The artist's little brother who insisted on wearing a paint shirt too but doesn't quite understand the best use of crayons....

That &^%! video still won't post.

Here we are- 2011!

2011-01-04T08:37:00.005-05:00

I tried for *&%^ hours to get this adorable movie to post. Our new camera takes them in some non-blogger friendly format though. Any suggestions? LAURA (who always gets them up!?)??

Christmas was a lot of fun like they all are. Presents and presents abounded. It was probably too much but the kids' excitement never makes it feel that way at the time. I don't have any pics with me now to post but i will shortly!

GOOD NEWS: Last night i finished the book. Tonight I'm going to put it all together into one long document so i can evaluate length and then I'm going to start doing the first draft editing. When that's done I'll send the second draft out to my dear friends and family who are willing to edit.

SPECIAL THANKS: To Sarah who's been reading the novel all along and has given me a lot of encouragement to keep up with it. I was always going to finish it but she has been so supportive of the effort that she pushes me to be consistent and creative. THANKS SARAH.

THINGS I"M LOOKING FORWARD TO:

My girls coming for the weekend in 11 days
My little brother's baby shower - I'm making the cake!
The nervous feeling of having my manuscript sent out for critique
Plotting out how I'm going to paint/decorate my master bathroom- the last room in the house to be done (other than the living room that has no furniture but does have a play kitchen and tent). I still need to post before and after pictures of powder room pictures. It's pretty drastic....

Some quick updates on the fam because it's been like three weeks:

Jim: New job is coming along and he's getting into the flow of things. He's still battling the window people (we had to tap into our warranty and they can't seem to send us the right size window to replace the one we have. We now have two half circle windows in the office)

Chris: Says more words than ever and always seems to stress the last letter. I heard "doggggg" for the first time at Lisa's on Saturday (and then heard it over and over and over). Now he's very into "bookkkkk"s. Most helpful: "all done" and "one more". He had chocolate milk for the first time over break. It went up the straw and into his mouth. He promptly spit it out.

Nicole: Got dress-up clothes for Christmas and feels the need to become a princess daily. Is too cute when painting on her new easel. Is driving me nuts by not wanting to go to bed/sleeping in our room.

Life Updates

2010-12-10T08:58:00.004-05:00

Chris

Has gotten the knack of how to use a spoon but not how to scrape edges. So if the food isn't in plentiful quantity he can't get it and then he grunts/whines
He's learned several new words and we're at the point where if i pay close enough attention i understand what he wants. Nicole and I are forever telling him "Chris, say ___". Common ones he says that sound darn good (and are SOOO cute to hear) are purple, yellow, apple, Grandpa (insert HUGE smile before "papa"), daddy ("dada")
For some reason he really likes wearing pajamas and lately throws a fit when i want to get him dressed in "real" clothes
Still clingy as ever...

Nicole

Is into a husband phase. She "has" a husband that doesn't have a name, "it's just husband" she tells me, and changes age and profession daily. Yesterday her husband was 9 and in kindergarten (apparently not the over-achiever i hope she actually marries some day....). His job was to go to the north pole and look at penguins. My favorite was when her reply to my trivia question "Nicole, how do kites stay in the sky?" was "sticky tape. That's my husband's job," gaining enthusiasm, "he uses sticky tape to keep kites in the sky. But sometimes he does a bad job and they fall. It's just an accident though and i still love him."
She wants a tinkerbell house, something we passed as i bustled her through Sears one day, for Christmas.
We're into reading series of stories, specifically Amelia Bedelia and Frog and Toad are Friends.
She has an amazing memory - in one Amelia Bedelia book two brothers, Mike and Harry, help Amelia pitch a tent. Several days later when Amelia was helping with a play at school Nicole asked what Mike and Harry were going to do in the show. These characters had all of four sentences about them and yet she recalls them!

Jim

Started a new assignment on Wednesday of last week and is overwhelmed by the amount of new things to learn
Is studying nightly for his big CFA exam that he'll take in June 2011

Karen

Is headed to NYC Sun-Mon to support Sarah F. at the TODAY show (airing Monday 12/13/10 10-11am EST)!
Is not done Christmas shopping. I'm particularly stuck on Chris
Finished Section 1 of the novel yesterday. Looking forward to good progress in air this weekend

Announcing

2010-12-06T09:04:00.004-05:00

I'm writing a book.

I've told a few people sporadically but hadn't made any kind of formal announcement. I'm about 55% of the way done and I suspect it'll be about 60,000 words when I'm finished. I'm hoping by letting people know it'll keep me honest about finishing it.

My ambition started when I first decided to write a Grammy award-winning song. Sounded good on paper - all I needed was 3 verses and a catchy refrain. I figured I could live off the royalties and a few companies would pick it up for their commercials (ala Hey Soul Sister which is EVERYWHERE). Good plan, eh? :)

I'm not musical enough to do it though.

Several people over the years said that they liked my writing style and I should give authoring a novel a whirl. I've had a fortune, as in one out of a cookie, taped to my moniter at work for five years. It's faded and barely legible. It reads: You are a lover of words. Someday you will write a book. Lucky Numbers 8, 11, 24, 25, 31, 36. (I also have one that says You are going to have a very comfortable old age. Lucky Numbers 7, 18, 94, 25, 36, 11 taped to the monitor too- maybe they coincide!?) After lunch with a friend, who encouraged the same thing so sincerely, I decided to actually go through with it.

It's a romance that's pretty Harlequin-esque. I've been doing lots of research online about the best way to publish and it sounds like going to a literary agent is the way to approach it.

I have one reader now, Sarah F., who's reading as I go. When I'm done with the first draft (goal is by 12/31/10) I'm going to take Jim's suggestion and send it to several friends (any volunteers?) who'll help me edit and revise before i send it to someone professional for review.

I think it's good, not great, but it's also my first try and by far the longest thing I've ever written. Jim says that even if it's not picked up by any publishers we'll still have it bound because finishing a task like this is accomplishment enough.

I love him and his support. :)

Nicole's Writing

2010-11-22T20:55:00.003-05:00

We made turkeys tonight for the teachers at Nicole and Chris's school

but I was most impressed by the letters Nicole wanted to put on the back of her Language Art teacher's card ("because she teaches me letters")

(for reference the second letter from the right bottom corner is a "b". Right below her backwards J is a "g". For some reason she didn't know how to do an "x" so i had to draw it. The "w" is totally unrecognizable (it's situated between all of the "u"'s. Her "F" made me smile because it took six penstrokes to create.)

Life around here

2010-11-22T09:33:00.005-05:00

Jim's family's Thanksgiving was this weekend. I drove the "to" leg and got a speeding ticket on the way. It was really lousy because he pulled me and the guy behind me over (80 in a 65) so the cop got a 2 for 1 deal. Per Jim's suggestion I'm taking it easy on my speeding as a result. On the way to work I only did 4-7 mph over the limit. I drove in the center lane and sneered at the cars who continually passed me on BOTH sides.
Chris frustrates me with his behavior. At school he's rough with the other kids. At home he's whiny and wants me to hold him constantly. At other people's houses he's adorable, playful, and self-entertaining. Maybe if I redecorate our house he'll be confused and act the way he does when he's visiting?
We took advantage of the 66 degree weather yesterday and put up the wreaths on the outside of our house. I have not yet done any internal decorations- those I'll save until this weekend.
After some irritating experiences at 4am on Black Friday a few years ago I vowed to never again wake before dawn to go shopping. While I still get the online BF ads and have scoped out some deals, my full intention is to online shop as much as possible.
There have been several break-ins in our neighborhood lately. I've gotten two suggestions for a dog. We are dog people but we would be very bad dog owners because we aren't home enough. One of our neighbors has a dog and their window got shot with a bb gun (a pattern for the robbers) so my new response will now be- "dogs don't work".

Building Vocabulary

2010-11-17T10:34:00.004-05:00

This morning Chris said two new things that he's never said before:

"Nope" and "Down Low"

"Nope" was an answer to "Chris, do you want some milk?"

"Down low" came out "ow low" but he did it in the right context of me giving him five.

He's coming along!!!

***** UPDATE******
At LaRosa's he was eating apple slices and bit part of one so that the peel had a tag (was hanging off). He tried to pull it but it wouldn't tear. He handed the piece to Jim and said "off".

Now, 3 measly letters might not seem big, but it's 1) a new word he's never said before and 2) a pretty abstract concept for a 16 month old to say.

*hoping i have a baby genius* - ha!

He tried!

2010-11-16T13:06:00.003-05:00

Last night, while getting Chris ready for bed, Chris was standing on his changing pad. I took off his shirt and blew a "raspberry" on his belly. Laughing like crazy he bent over as far as he could and went "pflleeeebbbb" in the air.

As flexible as he is, he couldn't get his lips to his own stomach.

Blah!

2010-11-09T08:29:00.003-05:00

Our household has been SICK lately and it's getting old.

Chris got a cough and then a rash that led to $105 in prescriptions
I picked up a cold that had me taking off work last Wednesday. I'm still not fully over it.
Nicole's nose got stuffy last week but she insisted she was fine and never needed to blow
Jim and Nicole got a pukey virus that had them out of commission on Sunday night. I was up all night with one or both of them and had to take a half day yesterday just to catch up on sleep
Chris now has a new, blotchy red rash on his arms and legs. He'll need to go back to the doctor today
I just got an annoying cold sore on the inside of my top lip. It's all irritated because it rubs against my gum line when I talk.

Enough already!!!

Happy Halloween 2010!

2010-10-31T21:06:00.007-04:00

The only pumpkin we carved this year. It's no Sturgis creation, but not too bad....

On our way to Grandma and Grandpa's for the first Trick-or-Treating stop of the night.

Surprise! Cousin Ryann was there too (as Alice in Wonderland).

At our house eating the fruits of their labor. Actually, it was most definitely MY labor as I pulled them (60lbs. of kids + the weight of the wagon and blankets) up and down the hills of our neighborhood. Fortunately they got too cold to do more than about a dozen houses.

Hanging with Dad!

Ballet Class

2010-10-25T21:38:00.009-04:00

Tonight was the night Jim and I could sit in the classroom and watch Nicole during dance class. She's the shortest in the class (shades of her mother...) so her number (1) was on the far end.

See the dance instructor? She's THE SAME teacher I had from ages 4-12!

A little blurry but she was in motion!

I tried for literally hours to let a video load but it wouldn't! (been trying for days on other videos too with the same result). I'll research and attempt to repost.

Nicole is not the most coordinated kid in the class for sure. She eagerly does the following though:

1) volunteers to answer questions

2) play around with her skirt

3) watch the instructor/helpers and attempt to copy

They showed us her costume for the recital - it looks like a nightgown because the song has something to do with falling asleep while listening to the rain. They'll get teddy bears as props too apparently.

We can't ALL be the best

2010-10-14T14:37:00.008-04:00

When I was in grade school we had a Field Day at the end of every school year. Like many other schools, this day was dedicated to being outside and competing. We had events like:

50 yard dash
bean bag throw (distance)
twirling a marshmallow on a string the fastest
High Jump
Dropping clothespins held at your nose in a jelly jar

The school gave blue, red and white ribbons for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in each event. Kids pinned the ribbons to their shirts as we progressed around the different stations. As you can imagine, the athletic kids had 2, 3, 4+ hanging on their chests.

Not once in 8 years of grade school did I win a blue ribbon. I did get a red once in the marshmallow race. I had a handful whites in a variety of things over my tenure.

Maybe because I won something it never really bothered me that I didn't win lots of ribbons. Maybe because I won something I didn't appreciate how frustrating it is for the kids who never won anything.

Maybe it didn't bother me that I didn't have a full collection because I understood then what kids now don't have to understand- we can't all win.

Around my 7th grade year they did away with individual competitions and moved to a team environment. Here the entire school was randomly divided into three teams. Winning scores in the events gave points to your team, not ribbons to the winner. Everyone got a treat for participating.

***

I was on the swim team from when I was 8 until I was 17. The collection of ribbons down in my basement are mostly orange, yellow and green because I swam exhibition (fun) races and not the real ones that counted towards my team's point-count. I still pushed it as hard and fast as I could. I still counted on the full-out cheers from my friends and family at the end of the lane and eating at the after-meet pizza party. Sure, I loved competing in the "real" races and even won a few. But, if my girl friend Lori could be our spot in the breast stroke relay or me, I'd pick Lori because she'd earn Orchard Hill points. She was faster. That didn't make her a better person than me. It made her a better swimmer.

***

I don't think it's all bad for people (not just kids) to realize that they're not good at some things, whether that's running 50 yards or programming a computer. It *should* lead you to try to find the thing that you *are* really good at- arranging flowers, talking people off ledges, or whatever.

I support swim meets with competitive races and appreciate that they make time for exhibition events too. I support try-out based sports teams and value the community leagues that take everyone else. I support auditions for the lead roles in plays and the opportunities to help build the set for those that still want to be involved. I support teacher-approved Honors classes for the bright kids and lower-intensity classes for the less-gifted students.

I think it's most important for me as a parent to teach my kids that while they might not win everything they try they can not be sore losers. If they really like an activity being involved and having fun where you can is the most important thing. Just because it's not the select team doesn't mean it doesn't have merit and can't be a good time. Further, being in a lower league/class/role is not an excuse for not trying your best.

Parenting Moments

2010-10-12T08:21:00.003-04:00

Conversation at the breakfast table this morning:

"Because I have such a good little girl, who stayed in her own bed all night, we can go to the pumpkin patch tonight."

Glee ensues...

"And Chris can come too because he stayed in his bed?"

"Yes, Chris can come. I'm so lucky to have two good kids."

"No, mom, me and Chris are lucky."

Halloween and Bustin' Some Moves

2010-10-07T07:58:00.004-04:00

For Halloween Nicole is going to be Dorothy and Chris is going to be the Lion. Not one to spend a fortune on costumes, both are being borrowed (Ryann was Dorothy last year and the Lion costume, which sparked the Dorothy one, is a hand-me down from cousin Noah).

I was bad about not putting hats on Chris so as a result he's always pulling off whatever I put on his head now. We're practicing keeping the mane on daily and he's gotten to like it... for a while. Whenever I put it on him he "roars" loudly and I shiver with fear which makes him giggle.

Nicole is really getting into the Dorothy role. I'm surprised and impressed because she's only seen the movie twice - once on the way and once on the way home from vacation in JULY. When I ask if she wants to watch it now she adamantly does NOT because the witch is "so scary". But, she remembers a lot about it and is excited about her ruby slippers from Target and frequently asks if Lindsay got the chocolate off the costume so she can practice. We've been singing it for over a year, but in preparation for her upcoming role, Nicole sings "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" to me each night before bed. I'll work on getting a video.

-------------

A little clip from our night last night. As it has for the last three years, the Michael Jackson craze continues....

Politics

2010-10-05T09:06:00.003-04:00

Well, if the streets you drive are anything like mine they're LITTERED in political signs. On the West Side of Cincinnati it's Chabot for Congress that's got the most up. Even my brother and sister-in-law have a sign in their yard and I didn't realize they were that heavy of supporters!

Though I have very strong political views on a myriad of topics I have yet to take a hard look at any candidates' positions. I'm not even sure when election day is. Have no fear, I will be organized and informed by the time it rolls around.

------

As a side political note, I have some inner jousting about this whole mosque at Ground Zero thing. I assimilate it to the non-smoking ban in Cincinnati. While I don't like the smoke and certainly don't want my kids around it, I feel like it's not my place to tell others they can't make their own choices.

Same gig - I'm not wild about the idea to put a Mosque at Ground Zero but I recognize that it's a small faction of the faith that caused those crimes, not the people who'd be worshipping there. Why should we restrict them from having a nice place of worship (especially when so much money is going to other community things in the same area)?

I think it would be more appropriate to put a completely non-denominational worship hall there that any faith could use on a scheduled basis for their purposes.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2010-10-01T08:38:00.003-04:00

Well, I'm officially 31 years old. That doesn't feel old. In fact, like always, I wonder how I'm 31 and still have so far to go....

What I did on my birthday:

Took the kids to daycare
Went to work
Smiled all day as I was wished Happy Birthday via text, in person, on facebook, and over the phone.
Decided that if I ever own a company I will give everyone their birthday off as a paid holiday
Enjoyed chicken cordon bleu at my parents house - yummy!
Got level 2 cake decorating lessons, a cake decorating box (place to put all my supplies), some jewelry, and a 1/2 day at the spa (1 hr. massage, 1 hour pedicure, manicure, hair cut & style, make-up consultation).
Got excited about my party on Saturday with the rest of my family

What I've enjoyed most about being 30

My roller skating birthday party
Realizing again and again how blessed I am that our family is healthy and happy- taking this realization and gained a deep appreciation
Gotten excited about weddings - 2 co-workers engaged, 1 brother engaged, 1 friend engaged
Enjoyed being married more than ever

What I'm going to do in my 31st year

Introspect more and make changes that are necessary versus taking the easy road
Be a better friend - I think I'm a pretty good friend in general but I let my own life/problems/busyness get in the way of being as good of a friend that I really want to be.
Enjoy the little moments more - I'm very process and productivity-driven and I could be less so at home
Do one really wild thing. Recently I was intregued by trapese lessons; this could be a possibility.... Someone please call me on this a year from now.

Eating Habits

2010-09-29T08:51:00.002-04:00

I've been a bit blah lately when it comes to eating. Normally I'm all about variety - Indian, Chinese, Mexican, good ole' American- whatever! The last week though nothing sounds particularly good.

These blahs are jacking up my creativity for dinner too - I can't think beyond the common (BBQ Chicken again, anyone?). Having such boring meals doesn't really inspire me to eat as much either which is good news for Chris who is happy to eat all of his food and any of my leftovers. In fact, he's eaten as much or more than me for the last several days.

Any suggestions to jump-start my culinary skills?

TV Time

2010-09-22T08:20:00.005-04:00

I wasn't so much into TV before we got DVR. Now, with the ability to watch on my schedule there's no reason to not be entertained. I am kinda goofy about starting new shows in the middle of a season especially, and, to nearly the same extent, if I can't watch them in order from the beginning. As such, though I've gotten lots of "you NEED to watch Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother/Two and a Half Men/etc." I can't do it and give it my "all". I only watch TV when the kids are in bed - either for the night or naps- and it's turned into a bit of a guilty pleasure over the last 9 months.

The shows I'm DVRing right now include:
Parenthood
Glee
The Event
Taboo (fun to watch when nothing else is on)
What Would You Do
(and obviously Dora, Kai Lan, & Go Diego Go for Nicole)

The shows I wish I was DVRing but they're apparently not on actively/anymore:
Cake Boss
Shark Tank
So You Think You Can Dance
Whale Wars
Selling New York
Design Star

The shows I was DVRing but won't in the future:
Color Splash
Bang For Your Buck

I'm baaaaaa-ck

2010-09-16T20:39:00.009-04:00

This is the longest hiatus from blog posting I think I've ever had. Things here have been tumultuous lately. It's made me more than ever thankful for the things and people that keep me sane and supported, most notably Jim, Lisa, and my mom. Fortunately my whole family is in good health and our home life is an sanctuary from the stress for both Jim and I.

Some small things have made me really happy lately:

Having wine and dessert with my high school girls
Making pretty (and tasty) layered jello
Getting great deals at a mother's sale. Best find was a $3 dress that Nicole LOVES and has deemed her princess dress.
Watching Whale Wars with Jim in the evening
Looking forward to the Apple Daze Festival

Chris
Chris is very influenced by Nicole. This might come back to bite both of us in the ass, but he was having fun and it was a funny 10 minutes of dress-up for him (video is only 15 sec clip):

I bet I put those shoes back on him two dozen times after he'd walk out of them.

He cut an incisor since I posted last and his bottom right one is swollen and ready to burst with another (tooth #16).

Chris really enjoys our evening family walks. He sits very upright in the wagon clutching a football as we pull him up and down the neighborhood hills.

He knows so many words and says so few (up, ma, da - did say "daddy" once, mih (milk), uh oh, wow, roar)!! My favorites - he knows what hugs and kisses are and is very eager to give me as many as I ask for.

Nicole

She's gone through a bit of an ornery stage lately. We got two bad reports from school on her this week (hitting friends, talking back, stomping around, etc.) which is VERY weird for her. Hopefully she's in a 1-week funk and things will go back to normal.

Nic started ballet class this Monday. It's weekly at 5 which makes it rather inconvenient to get her to and from on time. She said she liked her first class so we'll see if it continues. She's one of the shortest in her class but I'm unsure if everyone in her group is 3 or if maybe there are some 4-year olds too.

She pronounces "successful" like "success-tible" which cracks me up.

I had a strap break on my sandal at work. I threw the shoes away and proceeded to make dinner (turkey & mashed potatoes) upon arriving home. When Nicole went to throw her fruit snack wrapper away she saw the shoes. When I emerged from the bathroom she handed the pair to me saying "Mommy, these were covered in potatoes but I cleaned them for you". Awwww... Have to sneak them into the trash to avoid my very helpful girl apparently!

She's gotten very aware of gender lately- "no, he can't wear that necklace, only girls wear necklaces" or "Mom, get me out of the car and Daddy get Chris. Girl to girl. Boy to boy".

I'm going to try to be on here more and keep a consistant positive attitude.

Life in Pictures

2010-08-27T07:55:00.009-04:00

Nicole likes to draw and color but I don't need a gazillion pieces of art. I started taking pictures of the notable ones.

Here she's drawing a snail. Not that it really looks like a snail but without being prompted she drew the whole spiral on her own, which I thought was pretty good for a 36 month old.

This is the picture of Ryann that she drew for Ryann. I see the person pretty clearly and though she said that it's a picture of "Ryann in bed" I miss the "bed" portion (red squiggles). I complimented her on the hat (started as just aqua and green part) so she continued to embellish until it got huge.

We are Farm Bureau members and got invited to their night at Stricker's Grove last Thursday. It was actually better than I remembered....

Nicole went to the dentist for the first time Wednesday morning. She did FANTASTIC (no squirming, whining, etc.) as they worked on her teeth. For a reward they gave her TWO prizes out of the toy box. However, the hygienist didn't like what she picked (a rubber frog and a purple ring) so she gave her a bracelet, stickers/pencil set, and extra princess flossers too.

Also on Wednesday we went to the fire station to get Chris's car seat turned around to face forward. While we were there I entertained the kids while Jim chatted with the fireman. Another fireman came out with their search and rescue dog, Aiden, who liked to play frisbee with the kids.

We did a test of Aiden's skills. We hid Nicole under a blanket on the firemen's beds and told her to stay quiet and still. Then we set Aiden off to "search". He sniffed all of us and all around the room. When he got to the lump on the bed he sniffed it and then barked to indicate that he found something. It was very neat!

Spelling Bee

2010-08-24T08:23:00.003-04:00

We've been working with Nicole on spelling a lot lately. Trying to emphasize that we read words, not pictures, and that words are comprised of the letters she already knows.

She can spell her name and knows the sound of each letter so it's not a far jump to quiz her on things like: "Nicole, what planet starts with Ssssssss?"

The other night I told her we were having something great for dinner.
"Hot dogs?" she beamed.
"No, even better," I prompted.
"Chicken Nuggets?"
"Even better. It starts with P."

*thinking*

"Psaghetti!?"

.

Dad's brand of entertainment

2010-08-20T08:56:00.005-04:00

Like all little kids, my brothers and I liked to be entertained. Especially on long car trips. My dad was often in charge of this effort and there were three go-to's that were always big hits.

1) Brandy stories- "Brandy" is the name of my cousin's cousin (no relation to our side of the family) who was older than me and therefor automatically cool. Brandy's best and worst characteristic? Her wooden leg. Teenaged Brandy goes on lots of adventures and finds herself in terrible predicaments all solved by said leg. Once she got stranded on the top of a mountain after a helicopter crash and she had to burn her leg and send smoke signals to get rescued. Another time she was rafting the Amazon when she got stranded and needed to use her leg to fight off hungry crocodiles. Her perseverance never failed and neither did her creativity. Classic.

2) Big Bad John- yes, this is the song that you might hear on Oldies 103.5 from time to time. Dad would sing it in his deepest voice possible and we'd all chime in on the chorus.

3) Twilight Zone- when Brandy was doing normal things like going to school or eating dinner we'd tune in to Dad's renditions of old Twilight Zone episodes. Of course we never saw these in real life (and I'll tell you, after I did I liked Dad's versions better). The amazement after discovering that Mr. Jones's whole life had been lived inside a snow globe for little Suzy's entertainment.... The terror of being abducted by aliens for bodily tests and experiments.... It was all so creative and wonderful, how could any kid not like it?

Still working on what my gift to Nicole and Chris may be...

Exhaling

2010-08-19T08:19:00.004-04:00

Things around our household seem to be settling down. It's somewhat ironic that I say this when last night Jim and I both had obligations (him a softball tournament, me a meeting at XU) that had us coming home from the babysitter at 9:30pm.

But, the landscaper finally gave us a quote and the sprinkler redesign will be moving forward - another step closer to the deck/wall project being completed. While Jim's job continues to be stressful for him he's done a wonderful job of keeping that stress out of our family life (which is making it more stressful for him overall ??) lately and has taken some big steps in getting his resume outward ready. He applied to his first other company this week.

Nicole "got into" ballet lessons and they start September 18th from 5-5:45. Will take some finagling at work but we both think it'll be fun for her. Her best friend left the school yesterday (is going to the same school her older sister will attend for first grade) and Cameron brought her a Friends card with her picture, silly bands and Dora stickers. Cameron's parents wrote their phone number inside if we want to get together. I think we will!

Chris is finally cutting two bottom teeth and I hope this signals the end of the whiny funk he's been in for about the last three weeks. He's fully cot-trained at school now but is taking shorter naps since it is longer for him to fall asleep in the first place. Haven't gone so far as to convert his bed at home. It's kind of nice having him confined while he's unsupervised....

It's a goal of mine to do something with our downstairs bathroom and the new time frame is October 19th. This might sound like a lot of time but I haven't decided what I want to do so official planning (not just me mulling things over while I drive) needs to commence in short order. Even though this will be a new project, it'll be a fun one (and frickin' about time, we've only been in the house 3 years!).

I'm very aware of how long my hair is getting. It's fun!

Design Star

2010-08-16T09:46:00.004-04:00

I really like interior design. I like to read design magazines and I have a folder of clippings of things I've seen that I'd like to incorporate some day.

However, if you've been to my house, you'll quickly see that I don't take a lot of design chances. My furniture and decor is very traditional (tasteful though I think). In general I have a hard time investing my money in trendy stuff. I really appreciate the chances other people take though - Lisa's red living room in her old house; Anjali's green wall in her Cincinnati family room; my aunt's highly patterned, curvy couch, etc.

Watching Design Star is a double edged sword for me. They take lots of chances and I think a lot of them are duds. The judges often think so too. Doing "risky" things for the sake of being risky is a losing proposition.

The other thing that irks me is the furniture/art they pick out. I know this is in NYC but do you really have to spend $4500 on a couch? $1500 on a mirror? What do they do with this stuff after the show airs?

It was only in this last week's episode where the designers had to work with only the objects in the room already (could add paint to the walls though) that I was actually impressed with their creativity. Some of their other projects look okay but there's always an aura of uncohesiveness to it (probably because they encourage the designers to express themselves all while completing the task as a group) and certainly unfinishedness that I wouldn't' want for a space I was living in.

I think if I was to apply to be on the show I'd petition my value on three main fronts:
1) I'd design for the majority of the viewing audience - regular people who like to see new and interesting things with pieces that are actually affordable
2) I'd be a dark horse because I'm not a professional designer (like all the other contestants) so I have no preconceived notions of what's right or not. Just instinct.
3) I think I'm personable enough that I'd make a good host. This is a bit egotistical of me I know, but the classes I teach (both at the university and for my job) are very well-received and are a performance just like this would be.

Life Updates

2010-08-10T08:33:00.011-04:00

Christopher

Says "all done", "What's that?", "where", "ma", "da", and "more".
Has the sign for milk down and sometimes more
Knows where his head and tongue are. This morning we worked on eyes by getting him to blink them.
He's in the process of getting cot-trained at school which I think is very ambitious of his teacher Lysa.

Nicole

Is picking up quite a bit of Spanish from school
Loves to play pretend. We "travel" before bed each night - some times to space, some times to the farm, some times to the beach. Lately she's wanted to pretend that she's going to daycare. She drives and there's always at least one instance of sudden braking and grumbling about "bad drivers".
I mentioned she got a kitchen for her birthday. Jen O. got her this cute cutting set where the pieces Velcro together and you use a wooden knife to split them. Nicole uses the knife to slice and then again when she needs to push the cut piece from the cutting board. Funny the little things she picks up from me that I don't even know she notices.

Jim

Still trying to switch roles at work. So far it's been a tedious, stressful, unsuccessful process.
Is actually reading War and Peace
Moved something like 89 wheelbarrows of top soil (1500 scoops of dirt) to fill in our walled-in flowerbeds over the weekend. He's a beast

Karen

I read the entire Breaking Dawn book (750 pages) over 5 days while on vacation. I'm now trying to get through the stack of parenting magazines that have been piling up over the last four months.
Bought $200 in clothes from JC Penney and for the most part am doing at least a 1:1 replacement for existing stuff (which is all going to Goodwill). This is one of 3 real big shopping trips in the last two years and it was both fun and a bit "maybe I shouldn't be spending so much" at the same time. I think I'm just out of practice shopping.
I'm not teaching this fall due to an admin oversight. I'm looking forward to the break already.
Been watching Glee (Fox is rerunning) and loving it!

Jim and I are planning a trip to Arizona this fall for our anniversary. Doing some visiting with our friends Chuck and Kristi whom we haven't seen in YEARS.

I broke the camera on vacation (sand) and we had to buy a new one last night. Jim did lots of research and it looks like it'll be fantastic - looking forward to playing with it!

Been having ... interesting... dreams lately.

Traverse City, MI

2010-08-06T14:14:00.010-04:00

I've been remiss in reporting about my vacation on here. Work has been insane which makes me want to thoroughly relax after the kids have gone to bed - alas, no effort to write and post pictures.

Here are some clips from our trip!

The drive was about 8.5 hours long including lunch so very tolerable. When we checked in the condo manager told me they were having a "severe heat streak" this week. When I questioned the weather reports I had looked up that said 82 degrees as a high all week he said "Yeah! It'll be hot!". Uhhhh.... It hit over 100 in Cincy while we were gone.

Our favorite ice cream shop was in downtown TC, Annie's. They had $1 soft serve sundaes and cones that we took advantage of 3X in 3 days.

Our condo unit was beach-front but we didn't have a direct lake view. No biggie. We spent several hours enjoying the refreshing lake temperatures. The "waves" were gentle laps that were perfect for Chris. The water was Nicole's waist-height for yards and yards making wading easy and fun for her.

Before we left I had asked my girl friend Sue, whose family owns a summer home in TC, for some highlights on what to do. One of her suggestions was Leelanau County and a trip to the sand dunes. This was a great suggestion and lots of fun!

We took the scenic route and saw some amazing drops into the water. Dad, Nicole, Jim & I walked down about 20% of the way and yes, it was some effort to climb even that. Notice the very small people on the hill to put things in perspective.

When we got to the big dune we all huffed and puffed our way up the ~300 ft. climb to take in some amazing views.

on top of the sand dune:

We also stopped at some wineries on our way up the Mission Peninsula (another Sue recommendation). We toured through some $3M+ houses along the way. Clearly there is big money in cherry growing (this peninsula boasts producing 3/4 of the world's cherries).

We took a 2 hour drive on Thursday of the trip to visit Macinac Island. It's a 15 minute ferry ride from the main land and is a place of no cars - bikes and horses only. It's interesting in it's history but WAY CROWDED with tourists gorging themselves on $12/lb. fudge.

On the way there (and back) we passed through Charlevoix which had streets lined in petunias for 2.5 miles. It was BEAUTIFUL. Wish we had allotted time to stop and shop the boutiques.

Our condo unit was nice - 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath. I'd recommend it!

Had a great time in general and my parents are such a help. The kids were simultaneously (for me at least) the most entertaining and frustrating part of the trip. Both (especially Chris) were somewhat challenging around dinner (40 minute waits are a long time to entertain little kids at a crowded restaurant). We all cracked up at Chris's puckered face after biting into a lemon and impressed with Nicole's evaluation that Grandpa's cinnamon roll was shaped like "a coil".

Debating what to do next year.... I was a big fan of the northern weather for sure. Jim wants to consider a staycation. Fortunately we have lots of time and my mom will be retired by then so we'll have even greater flexibility!

Right where I should be

2010-08-02T15:33:00.004-04:00

I have a hard time believing in the concept of fate. It's my controlling nature to rebel against the thought that someone, anyone, is directing me or taking choices out of my hands. I'm a big Free Will enthusiast.

There are times, however, that I physically feel "just right". When I was about 8 I distinctly remember playing with Barbies near my closet and having this feeling. It was so overwhelming I stopped and just paid attention to it.

When I was a freshman in college Lisa and I got lunch at Rally's and sat on Marycrest Hill soaking up the autumn sunshine. I don't remember if I said anything to her at the time but I knew I was exactly in the right place at the right time. Like I was supposed to be there.

Years later I felt it again with a boyfriend as we laid in bed and listened to the nighttime through an open window in his house.

It happened yesterday with Nicole. We were cuddling on her bed and I had this great feeling of being settled.

(Starting this paragraph for the fourth time...)

If I was forced to put into words the conclusion that stands out most to me I'd say that whatever path I'm on has some places that I need to be at in order to stay on [the right?] path. The four I mentioned above were [apparently?] on that list. Kind of like stops on a subway line- I need to be here at X time in order to keep going.

The level of utter peace I felt at those moments tells me these are positive things- indicators that I've been where I should have been and am headed where I need to head.

The control-freak in me doesn't like that I have a pre-destined path. [I'm picturing my religious readers groaning at me and shaking their heads about now.] The personality traint that's always looking for confirmation rejoices in finding some.

Regardless, I'm always totally happy in that moment so whatever it means I'm glad I'm experiencing them.

Little Life Happenings

2010-07-22T08:34:00.004-04:00

First, I'm SUPER excited that one of my best friends just got engaged. I think it's because when it was my turn to be engaged I was sort of in the middle of my friends (some were married, some were not) and that getting engaged was so much the next logical step for Jim and I that didn't get all the giddiness that I now feel for others. Further, I know how great being married is so I know what they're in for and feel I can be giddy with reason. Congratulations again, Karen!

Watch out everyone else- things like this put me in matchmaking mode.

Chris broke two top teeth yesterday. I'm lucky I noticed- his upper gums didn't look near as swollen or ready to burst as his bottom ones (that have yet to break through).

I straightened Nic's hair for the first time today. I don't think it looks good. It is relatively long (at her shoulder blades) but since it's normally curly it looks like it's chin level most of the time. Her hair is very fine and she doesn't have a lot of strands per square inch (like her cousin) so the curls make for a fuller look and are definitely cuter on her.

A well-deserved vacation is on the way!

I miss Sarah Ford.

I am not a farmer

2010-07-16T10:49:00.001-04:00

So I guess that I can't fully imagine the impact that something like this might have on me, but....

When I'm gone

2010-07-15T08:36:00.005-04:00

I attended my great uncle's funeral yesterday. It was a very nice service that wasn't jam packed full of people and was very personal with a well-written eulogy by his son.

When I go to funerals for "one-off" people like a great uncle (versus my father-in-law 2 months ago) I think about the person who's actually died about 1/2 the time, fret over what the funeral will be like for a close person 1/4 of the time, and wonder about my own funeral about 1/4 of the time.

This time I got stuck on two things:
1) what will the funeral of my atheist friends be like? Will their religious parents still have it in a church? Still have a minister preside over it? Will there still be the "s/he's in a better place now" condolences still be said even though the deceased probably believes that it's all just over and s/he isn't anywhere else?

2) When my maternal grandfather dies I'm going to be a mess. The military salutes are so touching that i teared up in general over Uncle Ed's. When it's actually for my grandfather, a true military hero, I'll be a basketcase.

When I die I intend to donate my body to others who need my organs and then, whatever is left over to science. I personally could care less what happens to my body in general after I'm dead so why not let others use it if they can? Therefore, I think a "Celebration of Life" ceremony like they called the funeral yesterday is most appropriate for me.

Fear not friends, I expect it to be well-catered.

I will want some specific songs sung, just because I like them and this thing will be about MY life afterall. I'd like to think that the event would be well-attended - some sort of outward sign that my life had great impact on others, but if it was small and intimate that would be okay too as it'd probably get more personal.

Really, in general I think these things are for the living, not for the dead. If it makes my loved ones feel better to ____, well, geez, just about anything, go for it. I'm dead afterall! What's it to me?

My 3-year old

2010-07-13T08:32:00.017-04:00

This weekend was all about Nicole and celebrating her third birthday.

We went through a cake book and an online kids cake site and she decided she wanted ladybug cupcakes. Jim harassed her all week that I was going to make spider cupcakes instead. She'd get all riled up about it and confirm with me that indeed we were going to make ladybugs.

On Saturday at 8:30a her Grandma Hook and Aunt Connie came from 2 hours north to have breakfast with us and shower both kids with attention.

The official party started at 5p and was a joint party for Nicole and Lindsay. We had tacos, quessadillas, salad, appetizers galore, and of course ladybug cupcakes (and ice cream cake for Linds).

Nicole got lots of great gifts. Jim and I gave her a kitchen set so we'd organized a few relatives to get her fake food and dishes which worked out very nicely. My dear aunt took it a bit far with a 123 piece set of food. We now have individual french fries, pringles, and hot dogs littering the living room.

Hollywood-bound Nicole is featured wearing Cat in the Hat pajamas, lovely sparkle star plastic heels and sporting a ringing cell phone in fuchsia.

Nicole's favorite gift was an Ariel doll from her cousin Ryann. Ariel has gone to Meijer, Kohl's, the bathtub several times, and to bed.

On her actual birthday we took her to Graeters for ice cream. Of all things she picked LEMON sorbet. That's my girl.

I made a clown cake for her class but they ate it at snack time so I didn't get to see them sing to her. : (

A few notes on Nicole's accomplishments to date:

She weighs 30lbs. 3 oz. and is 3 feet 3/4 inches tall. This makes her in the 50%ile for both height and weight
She's currently really into tracing letters and numbers. She's gotten very good control over a marker so she's quite accurate. The letters and numbers she writes on her own are clear about half the time, guessable 1/4 of the time, and a mess the other 1/4. She can write her own name but the C is always backwards and the E is illegible. Not too shabby though!
She makes up a lot of words and alternate lyrics. Her favorite thing to involve in her craziness is "Silly Sally". This does get kind of annoying at times.
She colors in the lines.
We practice continents, planets, etc. by saying "I love you to Saturn and back" and alternating where we love the other person to. Problem is that she now understands the full concept of superlatives and will trump what you say and cut the game short by saying "I love you to Venus and Jupiter and Neptune and EVERYTHING". If you try to cut back in she'll remind you she said "EVERYTHING".
Getting dressed in the morning is no longer a problem. She gave up and I get to pick all her outfits.
She never gets tired of watching Dora, reading books, cuddling, or eating snacks. If you offer to do any of the above she'll drop whatever she's currently doing to do the other unless you tell her she has to quit one of her favorite things. If you offer to read books while Dora is on she'll explain that she wants to watch Dora first and read books second.
Yesterday in her bath she asked me if Flounder was Ariel's henchman. I had to explain that henchmen were helpers yes, but normally to bad people. Her vocabulary astounds me some times.
She's still all about making deals most often trading her evening song for another book.
Greg and Jenna got her a scooter for her birthday. She's not fully gotten the hang of it yet but it's entertaining to watch.

More about changing

2010-07-07T08:45:00.004-04:00

My last post was about me not liking change. I feel this is sort of a fuddy-duddy statement and I don't want to be thought of as the person who sticks her feet in the sand and won't budge, that really isn't me. I love IMPROVEMENTS and spicing things up - changing art at my house, re-working a process at my job, etc.; but there are some things that are fine the way they are so why adjust a good thing? Like my gradeschool friends - I have three of them and plan on keeping them around for another 24 years.

I think I'm one of the last holdouts on my blog design. Some of my fellow bloggers change several times a year - I always notice and often comment. But I've kept the same layout since this blog's inception in 2005. I did upgrade to the newer format to get the timestamp and have appreciated some of the ease in changes (specifically to my blogroll) by upgrading.

I've debated taking this private for all the reasons that some of the blogs I read are private. However, I'm surprised by who I find out reads this so I wouldn't want to cut someone off if they had to officially "enroll" as a reader. Further, even if I switched employers there's nothing in this blog that a prospective interviewer might cringe at. On the contrary, I think that my blog makes me more "real".

There's a new layout designer that Blogger is offering and I did poke around for a while. Obviously haven't made any changes ... yet.

Change

2010-07-02T08:59:00.004-04:00

Sometimes I have a hard time with change. Things are the way I like them, and often more importantly, the way I remember them and I want it to be that way forever. UD, my alma mater, is one of the biggest things I get antsy about changing. It holds some of my absolute fondest memories and I get nervous at things changing and somehow damaging those memories.

Obviously it, and other things do change without my permission all the time. I'm a reasonable, logical person so I understand that and don't sit and pout [too long].

I was excited though to read an article that UD is expanding its campus to include the former NCR Headquarters. This is the kind of thing that makes me want to donate money (which'll happen next year for the reunion). Putting air condition in the dorms, eh... I didn't have it and they don't need it either. ;)

Life at our house

2010-06-28T15:14:00.006-04:00

Hello, world! Things here are continuing to move and change. Some family updates:

Chris

Chris turned 1 year old on Wednesday of last week. His party (of which I previously posted pictures) was great and served as the real celebration of the milestone. Amazing how the stereotypes are true about second children - for Nic's first birthday I took the day off work, we visited the zoo, and had a special day of it all. Chris went to daycare like normal, had an everyday dinner, and ate the few remaining bites of owl cake before bed. I did buy him a Birthday Boy t-shirt to wear.
Though he hit the walking milestone by his birthday he's yet to consistently say a real word. Lisa got to hear him say "again" and I've heard him make sounds that sort of resemble the word I just said (ie "bug" while at the zoo). Doctor seemed totally unconcerned at his well-baby check-up so I guess I am too.
I do quiz Chris on people's names quite a bit - "where's Daddy?", "where's Nicky?" I'll ask and then wait to see if he hones in on the right person. He normally does which tells me he knows more than he's letting on to verbally.

Nicole

The future her is dying that I'd post this at all but I'll claim it's not so bad because I didn't actually post a video (yet).... When Nicole wants to get out of something, like eating part of her dinner she doesn't like, she'll claim she has to go to the bathroom. Since she's still within 6 mo of being potty-trained I'm always hesitant to deny taking her even if I think she's faking just in case. So, off we go to the bathroom. There she sits on the potty and clenches her eyes, grunts and groans, and shakes her head with "the energy" of pooping. Really she's doing nothing but acting as validated both by the empty potty and the giggles that escape after her performance. Yes, she still has to eat the corn when she gets back to the dinner table.
Nicole LOVES to wear dresses and I love to put her in them. I actually have to make a point of only showing her two shorts options or she'd wear a dress every day.

Jim

Jim's still plowing away at our wall. It looks A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. He's done so so well. I'm not just saying that because he reads this, it really does look fantastic. He's made such good progress that by this coming weekend's end it'll probably be fair to say he's on "the home stretch".
His ball team is doing okay this year. They're in the middle but hopefully will be picking up the pace in the next week.

What the heck is up with this humidity?! It's INSANE. My hair looks crappy on a regular basis.
I need more shoes. Like a nice pair of flip-flops and a new pair of casual heeled black sandals. I've walked off the sole on the heels of my main pair.
I'm going to see Eclipse with my co-workers on Wednesday at midnight! So excited!
NOT a fan of the new Color Splash: Miami format/aura.

Uh Oh

2010-06-22T07:52:00.006-04:00

This happened last night!

I wouldn't say that this was "out of the blue" because he regularly pushes a walking toy around, but he doesn't often just stand and balance on his own. I've never seen him push himself up to standing from the ground on his own. He is also a very fast, and therefore very effecient, crawler so I thought we might have weeks before he hit this milestone.

Jim actually saw the very first steps (he was walking to me as I had my back to him), but we did lots of practicing using the red ball as incentive and Grandma came over later that night to see him. :)

Happy Birthday, Christopher!

2010-06-20T11:14:00.014-04:00

Chris's birthday party was today (his real birthday is on Wednesday). Want to feel like you were here with us? This is the blog for you....

We started with some visiting and lunch,

opened lots of thoughtful presents,

and played the "destiny" game (you put out a Bible, a dollar and a bottle of booze and whichever one the baby goes to shows the path the child will follow in life). The button in the bottom right corner will make the movie larger.

I presented Chris's cake to him and we all sang Happy Birthday.

Of course the cake went over really well. :)

Following dessert we gathered to watch a year-in-review movie I made about my #1 son. If you care to watch all 7 minutes, be my guest! Another reminder that the button in the bottom right corner will make the film bigger for viewing.

Happy Father's Day to all you great DADS out there!

Long Lost Blogger

2010-06-14T09:09:00.005-04:00

Things have been going lately which has kept me from writing. Chris got sick- ANOTHER double ear infection layered with an acute sinus infection. Then I got sick with a sinus infection that actually was so bad I went to bed at 7am last Wed, called in sick to work Friday and went to the doctor.

Some GREAT things have happened since I last posted though:

My Goddaughter, Lauren, was Baptised on 6/6/10. I have pictures at home to load.
The wall has made wonderful progress
The deck furniture is in and that project is 85% complete. We need an umbrella [and a frickin' all-outdoors de-humidifier!] and we'll be suitable for actually using it!
I'm 2 hours into my photo project for Chris's first birthday (6/23/10) and it looks GREAT

Are any other Twilight fans reading Bree Tanner?

Since I've been sick and have had no energy to do anything productive, I've caught up on my DVR a bit. I've been watching:

Morgan Freeman's Through the Wormhole (Thanks to Tom for the suggestion)
Cake Boss
So You Think You Can Dance
Taboo

I've also DVRed America's Got Talent but have yet to watch it....

I'm no Viki, but I'm trying to make a vow to eat salad for lunch 2X/week to prep for swimming on our family vacation in July. My body isn't really back to where I'd like it to be post-Chris and, contrary to his initial requests, Jim says that he'd prefer I not excersise due to the time commitment. *victory*

Declaration of War

2010-06-03T20:56:00.003-04:00

Music Notes

2010-06-02T08:05:00.005-04:00

Many times I've stated my love for the radio. I would very much consider myself a "music appreciator", I think largely because I myself am not musically talented (something I intend to rectify with my kids).

My current favorite song? Breakeven
Songs that I'll always listen to, even if I just heard it- Little Wonders, Fast Car, Sway, Time of My Life, Won't Be Like this For Long, etc.
A song I'm REALLY over is I Need You Now.
If someone tells me that a certain song is meaningful or a favorite of theirs I feel compelled to listen to it. One of Jim's favorite songs is The Freshman. Nicole adores I Love Rock and Roll. My boss told me that the song he thinks of when he thinks of his wife is Then. I'm plagued by hearing them on the radio and being able to bring myself to changing the station. I feel the same way about the song Jim and I danced to at our wedding
My co-worker's favorite band is Slipknot. This is NOT my kind of music mostly because it (brace yourself, I'm about to sound old) sounds like noise to me. We listened to several songs yesterday and I think I physically understand only about 1/12th of what they're actually saying.
Thanks to some kudos from Tom's Blog I started paying more attention to Lady Gaga and now I'm all wound around her finger. I really do like her voice and find her songs catchy in general. I'm not really sure why People doesn't feature her more than they do- if nothing else she's weird which often translates to interesting. ** Update** apparently Larry King thinks she's intersesting - she was on last night! Here is the show! **
In case you're interested, this is my Pandora station that I listen to at work.

Last weekend in May

2010-06-01T10:28:00.004-04:00

Thank God for national holidays. We all appreciated the vacation day on Monday for Memorial Day.

Chris broke 2 teeth in one day and when I felt for them I noticed that his gums on either side of the new teeth were swollen too. You can imagine how happy a baby we have on our hands right now.
Greg's graduation party was on Sunday- Jenna did a really nice job putting everything together. Congrats to the newest MBA in the family! I thought this was really sweet - my dad offered to let my mom go back to school to get her Masters Degree so she wouldn't be the "only one in the family without one" (Mike's in progress for his MBA now). She appreciated the gesture but declined stating she was "too old" (I disagree she's too old for anything but understand why she doesn't want to go back less than one year from retirement).
I bought patio furniture at Lowes this weekend and it looks LOVELY! We set the firepit out too. The chairs for the dining table are in and we need to schedule delivery from Menards. Add some plants and some pretty lighting and we're in business!
I headed up to the Outlet Mall (Monroe, OH) with the girls on Saturday. Spent about $100 on lots of fun things and had a great time in general!
I should have mentioned it in the Nicole blog from last week but Nicole has lots of grandmothers and we normally refer to them by their last name- Grandma Hook (Jim's mom), Grandma Templin (my grandmother), etc. However, my mother, who she sees 1+/week is just "Grandma". As a result when Nicole needs clarification she refers to her as "Normal Grandma". This is especially funny when we have several Grandmas together (at the Graduation Party for example) and I tell her to say good-bye to Grandma. "Normal Grandma or Grandma Wolf?" she'll ask in front of both of them.

Nicole's Art

2010-05-25T18:03:00.002-04:00

This was the peacock she made with a handstamp (birthday card for Aunt Jenna)

This is the drawing she drew all by herself of "Dora's Mommy" for Lisa, Kendall & Max (which we forgot to take to Dayton with us on Saturday). The green is "bushes" and the blue is "clouds".

Nicole

2010-05-25T08:20:00.011-04:00

One of Nicole's favorite crafty things to do is make hand prints. She's all about painting her hand and putting it to paper. So, her mother has to get creative when it comes to turning all these hand prints into something interesting. So far we've made turkeys (fingers are tail feathers) to tell her teachers she's thankful for them and flower pots (her hand is the pot and fingers are the flower stems; fingerprints make the center of the flowers) amongst others. Last night we finished up a peacock where I let her glue on googly eyes and sequins to make it beautiful.
5 is her favorite number. Everything in her mind should come in fives - five books before bedtime, five minutes of cuddling, five blackberries for breakfast, etc.

She astounds me with the volume of song lyrics she knows. She gets a smattering of nursery rhymes (Row Row Row your Boat) and Mom-made-up songs (Your Mommy Loves You) at home, songs off the radio/cd player (I Love Rock n' Roll), songs from her dance parties at school (Hey Mickey), and songs from music class at school (Miss Lucy). She'll randomly break into song and it could be from any of these "genres". The song she sings a lot recently about a turtle in a bathtub was really really cute though.

She moves up to the 3-4 year old room next Monday at school. There are a mix of kids from her current class who are also getting moved and some that are 3 1/2 so they're already in this room. We'll see how it goes - I'm optimistic!
Her coloring/art is also showing progress. She gets now that you don't just scribble all over the page (though she often does that too) that objects have color and you need to color it accordingly. For example, Pooh's tummy is yellow but his shirt is red. She's also drawing more independant objects like "Dora's Mommy" that she made for the Erdahls. It does somewhat resemble a person (has hair, eyes, a mouth, and is long with limb-like looking things).

Mark took some pictures of the kids on Saturday which was really nice of him. It's a further developing hobby of his from what I'm gathering. Both kids were constantly in motion so not all of the pictures are great (an issue with the models, not the photographer) but a lot of them are really fantastic! Since then she's all about posing for pictures....

And in case you were concerned that my kids are perfect (ha ha):

Pictures from New York

2010-05-21T07:53:00.012-04:00

At Grimaldi's Pizza (as referenced in 1000 Things to see in the US before you die book)

Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge

Hanging out in Times Square

The whole gang at the Irish Famine Memorial

Looking at their apartment from the garden rooftop of a sister building

So in love!

Swinging at Central Park

$2 carousel at Central Park

Shopping in New York

Parking in New York

New York & Wapakoneta

2010-05-20T08:18:00.006-04:00

Things in the last several days have been highs and lows of stress and relaxation.

We went to NYC to stay with friends of ours this past weekend - a trip we've had planned for several weeks. The morning that we were to leave, Thursday, we got a call that Jim's stepfather had been taken into emergency surgery and the outlook wasn't good. Our trip hung in the balance for several hours until he was successfully out of surgery and we decided to go out of town as planned.

We called Jim's mom while we were taxing in NYC and learned that Doug had passed away a half hour before. Ugh.

We ended up staying in NYC, a fact that had me teetering on guilt several times but I'm glad we did, and coming home on Sunday on our original flight. What did we do in NY?

Nicole rode in a shuttle, airplane, taxi, subway, & town car all for the first time
Hung out at the really great park by John & Ruth's apartment
Ate lunch at Grimaldi's pizza
Walked across the Brooklyn Bridge
Went to Macy's
Had a lousy experience in Chinatown - bathroom incident with Nicole & it was SOOOO crowded!
Sipped Starbucks frappacinos on Time's Square
Played Central Park and rode the carousel
Went out for a nice adults only dinner (if you're wondering, a babysitter for 4 kids for four hours is $100), split a $4 cupcake, and played chess on Union Square

All in all a WONDERFUL weekend away. Pictures to follow....

All of our down time was spent talking about what to do about Jim's mom so there was a necessary serious undertone to the quiet times of the trip.

When we got home and picked up Chris I got to witness some new things he'd learned - how to pull himself up well (he was casual about using this skill before) and how to climb up steps (greeeeaaaattttt). He's since climbed the entire staircase at our house (with me right behind him just in case!) so he's got it down pretty good. While we were gone he attended a Reds game, graduation party, and generally seemed to enjoy being doted on.

On Monday we took the kids to daycare and drove north for the funeral. It was strange because Jim and I both went into auto-pilot the whole weekend but when we were there, amongst the pictures, the tears, and the memories, things got emotional real fast. The service was very nice in general and I was glad to see that Vickie decided to put Doug in the clothes he would have normally worn, not some stuffy suit "because she should". He looked very Doug.

The conversations with Jim's mom went well. She has some options which is good. She also has a lot of legitimate concerns. We offered to let her move to Cincinnati but she wasn't at all interested in that which made me sigh with selfish relief. She's playing things by ear right now until she gets a death certificate and can start actually making some legal changes.

Here it is Thursday and we're all back in our normal routines. Jim and I both went back to work on Tuesday, he played softball yesterday, Nicole and I planted some seeds in a cup and are going to watch them grow (hopefully).

Put this kid in the circus- she's a FREAK!

2010-05-12T08:42:00.003-04:00

Nicole has this amazing ability to go to bed at 8:45, keep her panties dry all night, wake up at 7:00am and go to the bathroom around 7:30.

How does she do that?!

When I wake up, as soon as I'm vertical I'm headed to the bathroom. This kid eats a full meal, gets dressed, plays, and pees like it's an afterthought.

Hello, world

2010-05-11T08:28:00.005-04:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESSICA!!
I've lately gotten into wearing long necklaces. I think they're very flattering. I hope I don't get into a rut....
The school year is over and I have half of my grades already submitted! HOORAY! With about another hour's worth of effort I'll be totally done. If I could only get the ideas for another new class out of my head I could take a scholastic break!
Chris has a new tooth- top left.
Mother's Day was very nice - Mom stole Nicole away and made a darling flower pot project for me. Jim made me breakfast, bought me roses, and we all took a trip to the zoo. Dinner at my mom's finished out a wonderful holiday.
My niece Ryann has gotten modest about her bathroom activities and told Nicole to "get out of here" when she wanted to go in. Nicole got her feelings hurt by it and after several minutes of sobbing pronounced "Ryann broke my heart". Mom and I tried desperately to not laugh because she was so serious and pathetic. Later on when she was getting buckled into the car Ry asked Mom "what's wrong with Nicole's heart?" and Mom explained that her feelings were hurt. With a dramatic sigh Ryann decided she'd go back in for a hug- an action that made Nicole very happy and Ryann get an appreciative hug from me too. Little kids crack me up.
Since Martha's wedding I've been reconnecting via email with an old gradeschool friend, Katie (B) J. It's amazing - she's literally THE SAME PERSON and we've been able to pick back up pretty easily. Her email buddy is Martha and mine is Karen C. We both laughed because when we first started emailing frequently we felt like we were cheating on our electronic significant other.

It's Wednesday

2010-05-05T08:31:00.003-04:00

Nicole and I are working on new colors - fuchsia, silver (shiny grey), gold (shiny yellow), pearl (shiny white), and turquoise. We do "color hunts" around the house looking for new colors- our kitchen is painted turquoise, the cabinet pulls are silver and the door handles are gold. She doesn't seem to realize we look at the same objects each hunt (or she's pretending not to). Today she correctly and unprompted (!) told me that her cup was fuchsia- hooray! It's sinking in!

Jim expressed to me last night all of his frustrations about work. After he's been so supportive of me on this front I want to fully return the favor to the level he did. I'm trying and hope he knows how encouraging I am/want to be.

I'm sharing my office now at work with my boss. It was my offer to let him move in and functionally/physically it only made logical sense. This is the first time in my entire professional career that I don't have my own office. Know what? For the same reasons that I wanted a roommate in college I really like having a roommate at work. It's working out great.

Chris's biting is getting significantly better- it's so nice to be able to fully enjoy his slobbery kisses without being on-guard for the potential chomp.

Going out on a limb

2010-05-04T08:26:00.008-04:00

I watched a Biography channel special on Cher

the other night (don't ask how I got all wrapped up into that)

and something struck me as they flashed the images of her through the years...

She reminded me of someone....

Life in these parts....

2010-05-02T21:04:00.013-04:00

Things have been very very busy professionally lately so I'm behind in posting some stuff....

Here's the recent kitchen investment we made- granite countertops.

BEFORE

AFTER

yeah, that was like 3 weeks ago now....

We also started the process of building a wall. I decided I wanted to go with natural stone in lieu of concrete blocks which made this project 1) more expensive and 2) more time consuming as each rock needs to be individually placed and leveled. However, Jim (with Jason's initial guidance and sweat) has done a BEAUTIFUL job. He's done with the whole front yard and will be starting on the backyard as early as this weekend perhaps.

You're looking at 8 tons of natural stone!

Work in progress... he's done now but we haven't gotten a picture due to the rain this weekend.

Finally, we had an uninterrupted FAMILY weekend. No plans, no parties, no nothing but us four hanging out. Chris had a cough that left him gagging/gasping for air that had us a bit worried so we took him to the doctor on Saturday. Jim thinks that Chris has been sick his entire life and I understand why he thinks so. Kid's had pink eye, croup, ear infections galore, acute sinus infections, and now, according to the pediatrician, acid reflux. Not sure I totally agree with this diagnosis but don't feel medically intelligent enough to argue. So, he's back on some amoxicillin derivative and now Xantax.

Nicole has been in an especially imaginative mood lately. Dress-up was part of our Saturday night. She told me I was the prince and we danced and twirled in her bedroom. After I'd had my turn being the prince, it was Daddy's turn. The "poofing" part caught me off-guard at first....

Looking forward to a slower-paced week all the way around. My class ends on Thursday, our bowling league is only 1 more session and we had out to NYC mid-month for a much-needed mini-vacation.

Chris - 10 month update

2010-04-28T08:29:00.005-04:00

Chris turned 10 months old last week. I'd say he's not in the happiest part of his life for a few reasons -

1) he's teething which means he's biting on EVERYTHING and when he bites on people he gets a stern "Chris, no biting" that makes him frown or outright cry. It's really painful though and a habit I can't let him continue. He has gotten to the point that after he kisses me (dozens of times a day) whether he bites my cheek or not he immediately shakes his head 'no' after.

2) He wants everything Nicole has and I'm sure you can guess how well that goes over. He hears lots of "No, Chris!"'s with her running away from him.

3) He can't make up his mind if he wants to be held and cuddled or down and crawling. So we're in a constant flux of him moving and then pulling on me and whining to get picked up. 30 seconds later he changes his mind again.

His daycare was excited to tell me how smart he is though. "He's figured out how to get the toys he wants! He crawls over to the kid who has a toy, pulls their hair until they cry and then when they let go he takes the toy out of their lap." Great.... so glad he's clever like that. :P

He is totally on solid food now and, like his sister, he's not a picky eater. He eats whatever we eat for dinner - nothing special and no babyfood except for cereal or organic yogurt for breakfast. We've also exposed him to all the major allergens - egg, shrimp, crab, wheat, and milk (via yogurt)-with no issues.

He continues to battle ear infections even with the tubes. He was tugging again last night and we're watching him to see if he needs to go back to the doctor again to have it checked out.

We love him a lot and hope that he moves from being happy 80% of the time back to 99% of the time once these teeth come in and ears settle down.

Cleaning House

2010-04-26T08:18:00.003-04:00

Cleaning House - well, there are several former bloggers who aren't very diligent about maintaining their sites so this morning I cleaned up my blogroll (list of blogs I read to the left). I don't feel guilty yet (until someone complains/gets their feelings hurt- if you do just tell me so I can put it back up!). I did stumble on someone's blog I used to follow but even she hasn't posted in a while so I didn't "re-instate" her.

My Bad Habits

2010-04-21T08:26:00.009-04:00

1. Accomplishing something: I have a somewhat overwhelming urge to be productive. My most recent near-obsession is checking my email at red lights. I can't stand to just sit there. Even when I'm watching DVR I get satisfaction of knocking a show off the list.

2. Biting my chapped lips: I can't not do it. I am probably making the situation worse, I know. I bit my cheek last night and I can't stop messing with that either....

3. Calling people right away with news: Jim obviously gets the brunt of this. Here's an example - I got Chris's ear drop prescription at the pharmacy. There was no generic so OUR cost was like $33. It literally took me zipping my purse so I didn't call to tell him. "You'll be home in 6 minutes and can tell him then! It's not important anyway!" I had to keep reminding myself or I would have been on the phone right away.

4. Feeling like I DESERVE sweets: I rationalize in my head that I do good things like be productive at work, pack my lunch, not eat any at work so I deserve a big scoop of cookie dough at home.... [Un]fortunately this happens every day.

5. Checking people's blogs who are private/remote: It's because they don't update in my blogroll! I have to remember to read Tom's, Martha's, Lisa's, etc. and it drives me crazy because I just plain forget it won't update on the side so when I look I'm always like "eh, nothing new with Tom" when there was! ACK!

6. Making sexual innuendos at work: Somehow this happens all the time. I think it's because I work with all men but the subject comes up constantly it seems. Not about what any of us do, per se, but just the concept. Like if I take a late lunch with the kids one of the guys will tease "you're in a good mood, did you have a quickie over lunch?" and I'll be inclined to answer something like "Yeah, in the park near his work. It was awesome."

For Carole

2010-04-19T21:26:00.007-04:00

Tonight was in the mid-sixties so we spent some time playing with chalk outside. Nicole is learning to draw actual pictures. Here's a rainbow:

I won't post the picture of Chris trying to eat the chalk because that might imply some bad parenting (or at least slow reflexes) on my part. ha ha.

Last night my aunt and uncle's dog died. I took the opportunity to explain to Nicole why she won't see Jasper anymore and that Jasper is in Heaven playing with Jesus but that makes Aunt Mary feel sad because she misses him. That drew out an explanation of the fact that Heaven is above us and God watches us.

Here's Nic taking said lessons and applying them to her favorite thing to draw - smile faces.

We made Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom a "feel better" card too. I think it'll make Aunt Mary cry though. :(

Tonight's art lesson was trees- "one big stick and swirlies at the top". I think that even without knowing in advance what it was you could guess "tree". 2-year old level tree of course, but still, not too bad.

Yes, I'm still alive...

2010-04-13T22:02:00.005-04:00

Been so busy with work (ugh) that I have had no time to blog or read other's blogs. I'm beat by the time I get home so I'm way behind.

Chris

Crawling as of last Monday- he's gotten pretty fast
Wants whatever Nicole has, regardless of what it is
Got ANOTHER ear infection last Thursday- sees the surgeon for a follow-up appointment on Friday

Nicole

wraps a blanket around her and over her head an announces "I'm Jesus". Where does she get this stuff?
is in a huge running phase. She wants to run EVERYWHERE we go and never seems to tire
Is big into her "marker book" - a book that has an associated dry-erase pen she uses to trace letters, match pictures, etc. She's got the numbers 1, 9 and 10 down pretty well as far as writing (notice a theme in the shapes she can draw?). She's also very big into drawing "smile faces" - either two dots or two lines for eyes and a U for a smile. Strangely all things that require multiple parts (like the number ten or the smile) start from the right and go left. I mean that she'll make the 0 first and then the 1 when she writes 10.

The Adults

Bought 8 tons of rock to make a natural stone retaining wall around the deck (project starts Sunday)
Bought the first 3 cubic tons of mulch to spread - ahhhh work
Jim's first softball game of the season is Wednesday
Karen is VERY eager to have this semester of school over and done with
work for both of us is crazy busy
patio furniture decisions will be made by Sunday of this week. THANK GOD. a 15 month process finally finished!
We grilled at our new house for the first time this weekend! wahoo for spring and the new grill!
Karen THOROUGHLY enjoyed Martha's wedding on Saturday for a MULTITUDE of reasons. Mart- you looked beautiful! hope Hawaii is fabulous!

Political Views

2010-04-06T09:24:00.003-04:00

I took a 10-question political test and here are the results:

LIBERTARIANS support maximum liberty in both personal and economic matters. They advocate a much smaller government; one that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence. Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend our civil liberties.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Big Weekend!

2010-04-05T07:11:00.010-04:00

This weekend was full of excitement! Jim was off all day and I had a half day on Friday so we ran errands, looked for patio furniture, and got a Costco membership ($209 was our first trip- yikes!). We spent time cleaning up in preparation for our big weekend of hosting.

First, on Saturday, the Bostons from NC came for dinner and chatting. It is amazing how big their son Alex has gotten since the last time we saw them.

Sunday morning we got up, ate French toast and looked around for what The Bunny brought. Nicole, with a little suggestion finally found both her and Chris's baskets hiding in the tent.

Nicole got new sunglasses, nail polish, candy, stickers & princess socks.

Chris got some eggs with Cheerios in them, a pirate book, some NumNum crackers & a toy

We kept checking in with my parents and brother on Lindsay's progress. Her water broke the night before and she was in labor all night. We ultimately decided to go to Church and visit her at the hospital after (she hadn't had the baby by the time we left). Here we are on our way:

When we got to the hospital Lauren Elizabeth was getting a bath so we had to wait a little bit to meet her. She was worth the wait though. :)

When we got home we ate lunch and the kids went down for a nap so we could clean up for Easter (we were hosting dinner). Here are the kiddos in their Easter outfits:

Chris is so close to crawling. He technically did move in crawling fashion last night at the party but didn't go very far. I'm sure today he'll have lots of practice at the open play area at daycare. :)

Weekend of 3/26/10

2010-03-29T10:16:00.005-04:00

This weekend we took it easy with the kids as a precaution with their tubes. We didn't travel to Troy (as I really wanted to) or go to Spencerville for Jim's family Easter (first holiday we've ever missed). We didn't do an Easter Egg Hunt for the first time - too cold and wet and didn't want to take ill kids out in it.

We did do some things though:

1) tried the Hot and Ready $5 large pizza from our local Little Ceaser's. It was "okay". Certainly a good value at $5 but we'd pay more for better quality pizza if we had the time to wait for it.

2) I stopped nursing Chris for a variety of reasons: a) he's an avid biter. So bad, in fact, that when Nicole was playing pretend with her dolls she scolded her angel for biting; b) he was taking an 8oz bottle consistently and in March moved to drinking anywhere between 1-8oz per meal. While this change probably marked an end to a growth spurt this fluctuation was physically a difficult for my production to keep up with; c) he gets very distracted now. Even if I take him to a quiet place that's just us he would break away every few seconds to look around. Oftentimes teeth were involved in breaking off.

I feel guilty though.... Nicole got another month (10 months) compared to him.... part of me thinks I should tough it out with the biting.... Chris hasn't tried to nurse since we stopped on Friday so I'm taking it that he's fine with it. I'm only in a little discomfort as my body's adjusting. I'm reminding myself I achieved my 6 month goal and then some. Jim's supportive either way and listened patiently while I lamented a bit last night.

3) I attended a bridal shower for my second cousin and a baby shower for my neighbor. I determined that fondant icing is not good to eat but is pretty to look at.

4) patio furniture shopping is in full swing. So far I've ruled out Furniture Fair, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and Sam's. Costco hasn't gotten their full inventory in yet so I'll need to go back. Target, Lowes, Watson's, Menards, Garden Ridge, and the Frontgate outlet are next on the "to shop" list. If I can find the time I'd like to go to Pottery Barn and Patio & Hearth too.

5) we bought the honey-glazed ham for Easter!

Friday Friday

2010-03-26T08:58:00.003-04:00

Tubes went well yesterday. We had to be at the hospital at 6:15am but Children's is like the pinnacle of efficiency so we never had any down-time to read the books or watch videos on the laptop we lugged there and back. Both kids woke up grumpy from anesthesia, slept for 2+ hours once they got home, but were back to their normal selves by the afternoon. They both DETEST the ear drops we have to put in 3X/day (doctor told us they would sting). This means that we're dispensing doses of medicine 14 times a day to one kid or another for one ailment or another.

Jim and I are watching LIFE on Discovery - fantastic!

I watched Hoarding: Buried Alive on TLC and one part of it almost made me gag. I'm not sure why watching other people's mental ailments intrigues me so..... I get wrapped up in Intervention too.

Jazzercise is sometimes killing me - I try to really push it and not slack so I'm a sweaty mess at the end of it. There are these ab things we have to do with leg bounces and then bicycles. OMG. I'll be sad when my Groupon ends mid-April but it's too expensive to keep up for just 1/week.

Nicole's big thing when she's upset is to tell me "that doesn't make me happy". It's funny to hear because she sounds all pathetic when she says it so I try really hard to not smile while she's clearly "traumatized" over my clothing suggestion, ear drop requirement, or turning off of Dora.

Chris - 9 month update

2010-03-24T09:30:00.003-04:00

It's a month later already! WOW!

Most of Chris's developments have been physical in the last month. Here's some things he can do:

1) bop his mouth like an Indian
2) shake his head 'no'
3) give 5 and double 5
4) accurately use his pincer grasp
5) wave "bye"

Of course he does these things when he wants to, not when I ask him to show off to friends/family.

He's very nosey now that he fully grasps object permanence. He's constantly leaning out of my arms to grab at something.

He's so close (1 week away?) to crawling - he can get up on all fours and rock; he can push himself backwards or in a circle; but not actually move forward. It's a double-edged sword of wanting him to accomplish the milestone and dreading the added responsibility of a mobile child.

Nicole continues to love and dote on him. She fed him a sour cream and onion chip yesterday and proudly announced "Mommy, I shared with Chris!". Great....

Most fun purchase at the mother's sale

2010-03-22T20:55:00.003-04:00

A new, in-box tent for $5.

The whole family (at times all four of us!) has been in this thing every day since I bought it Saturday morning.

4 Days since my last post- eh....

2010-03-19T09:00:00.007-04:00

How Nicole switches on a dime from full-blown tantrum to totally calm and pleasant is beyond me.
I went to Jazzercise and really worked it. I was sweaty, drank a full bottle of water, and actually *gasp* felt refreshed at the end. What's happening with this working out thing is that I now feel guilty just doing it one day a week. I don't feel guilty while I'm sitting on the couch watching Cake Boss, I feel guilty when I'm at work thinking back about how I should be working out more.
Both kids are cleared for tubes in their ears. Surgery is next Thursday.
There's a mother's sale tomorrow at Lakota. It's at 7:30am. Are the deals worth getting on the road at 6:30am? hmmmmmmmmm
A few nights ago I pulled out new clothes for Chris. My not-yet-9-month-old is comfortably wearing 18 month clothing now. *sigh*
My neighbor is home from the hospital and I feel bad that I never went to see her while she was actually admitted.
We bought granite for the kitchen! Next project: landscaping
Chris is eating pureed spinach and it looks GROSS. He's gotten very good at dried puffs and Cheerios but still spits out any other solid food like scrambled eggs, pancake, etc.
Today's Jim's last day of traing for his new job. LONG hours, lots more work than the last job, but so far so good.

Weekend of 3/12/10

2010-03-15T09:57:00.005-04:00

DVRed and watched "Parenthood" - good show. Good acting. Will be watching in the future. It makes me want to have four kids so they can grow up and be friends like the characters are....
Went to the aquarium yesterday with the kids and mom - fun times! Nicole slept for 4.5 hours straight upon returning home; Chris slept 4.
We upped Chris to the full-size car seat yesterday because he'd outgrown the pumpkin seat. He looks so cute in his new seat. I'm not even sad that he's outgrown the baby seat. :) Points for the mom with emotions in check!
Met Karen C.'s new beau on Friday. REALLY liked him. Even more, I liked how much he obviously likes her.
Greg and Jenna told us about the very conservative priest they met with at the church they wanted to be married at. I'm STILL shaking my head at the interaction and I didn't even experience it first-hand. I FULLY understand and respect why the church is clinging tight to the morals they value. I DO NOT understand why ANYONE needs to be rude in expressing their opinion.
Nicole and I taught Chris to shake his head "no" while Jim was judging the science fair on Saturday morning. He's so funny when he does it and I think he makes himself a bit dizzy because he shakes so quickly. This means in the last three weeks he's learned to wave, give 5 and shake his head. No crawling yet though...
I was in baby food making mode this weekend too - carrots, sweet potatoes, mango, tomato, banana, avocado, black beans, peas and a new one for me - spinach. Pureed spinach looks DISGUSTING- it's green/almost black in color which is just totally weird to see as baby food. It's so healthy though.... Anyway, I tried it out on him yesterday for dinner and ... HE LIKES IT!
Nicole is wearing overalls today. I just love overalls on kids.

Geez, people

2010-03-11T16:10:00.002-05:00

I got up at 11pm last night to throw up. It was pretty random, painfully acidic, and after another half hour of generic nauseousness, totally over. In fact, if my throat wasn't' burning this morning as a result I'd wonder if I dreamed the whole thing.

EVERY man I've mentioned this to has the same conclusion: "maybe you're pregnant". The women don't say this. They ask if I feel okay today. All the guys though say that and then just stare at me with this coy smile.

For the record, I'm not pregnant.

Happenings

2010-03-09T08:43:00.010-05:00

Watching

Jim and I watched LOST yesterday on DVR. I have no idea where that show is going....
I still have the Olympics on DVR but with each passing day I consider more strongly just deleting it.
My co-worker offered to lend me The Exorcism of Emily Rose which Jim has watched and claimed was one of the scariest movies he's ever seen. As I have 0 desire to watch a movie that's scary in the least (my mind is creative enough on it's own in a house that's still settling and full of noises), this will never enter my "to watch" list.

Nicole-isms

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to"
Negotiating. Especially when it comes to how many books to read at night. We're all about making deals too - she gets one last drink before bed, I close the bedroom door before she goes to sleep is a common one.
Saying numbers and showing me how many fingers that constitutes
Dancing crazy and announcing (correctly) "I'm making Chris smile!"
Saying things with a southern accent - where is this coming from!?
Coming to our room to sleep at 1am

My World

I have my midterm this week at school - class is more than half over already! wow!
That Matt Nathanson song "Come On Get Higher" is stuck in my head all the time
So many of my good friends are suddenly in relationships it's making ME feel "butterfly-y" for them
We went to the home and garden show downtown this weekend - projects we're considering include landscape lighting all around the house, large-scale landscaping & granite countertops. I guess this is why we work....

Wednesday morning

2010-03-03T10:58:00.003-05:00

Went to the ENT specialist today. Both kids are getting tubes in their ears. Though it's classified as "surgery" and both will be knocked out, I'm not really concerned. Whole thing is about 2 minutes per ear so not that involved obviously.

Jim's new job has led to some interesting conversations that when I retold them they had my coworker laughing so hard he was crying this morning. :)

We are officially locked and loaded for vacation this year. This is where we're staying. My boss told me though that with tubes in their ears neither kid can go swimming.... uh....

Is anyone else's week going slow?

Last Night's Antics

2010-03-02T07:29:00.005-05:00

Nicole, as I've mentioned before, changes classrooms 5 times to get different subjects. Sometimes she gets on kicks from one of the teachers and (this makes me happy) they're often from previous months of lessons versus what she's immediately learning now.

Lately Nicole's kick is continents (which she can point to on a map):

(In February they learned about the body (muscles, bones, brain), the letters L-O-V-E, fractions, animals from around the world, and art projects using hearts.)

Chris LOVES bath time because of all the splashing.

Not sure how it happened but this morning when I came to wake him up he'd somehow worked one of his arms out of his PJs.... yes, they were still zipped all the way up with the snap zipper flap still fastened....

Last Weekend of February

2010-02-28T21:02:00.003-05:00

I accomplished about nil point five this weekend. On Friday night Jim and I didn't have plans so we took it easy with the kids and watched Night at the Museum 2 (C+) after then went to bed.

I don't think I've mentioned it but Nicole has come in our room around 1:00 every night for about the last three weeks. I thought it was having to go to the bathroom that woke her up but she's often dry in the morning so that killed that theory. She's a relatively good sleeping addition - I don't get woken up too much and she likes to cuddle. Consensus of parents I've talked to is that it's okay for now....

On Saturday I met Jenna at Jazzercise. We both really like it but it's kinda pricey if we buy in and still only go 1/week after our Groupon sessions are over. 8 more to go before we have to decide....

Saturday night we didn't have plans either so we milled around, ran errands, ate dinner at Meijer of all places (their Bistro was our 4th place choice after our first three tries bombed but the whole family ate for less than $8 so not so hateful) before we went grocery shopping.

This morning we skipped Church, had a great breakfast and lunch. I went to Kohl's to go shopping and got about $85 worth of stuff. I've been goodwilling a lot of my things away lately so my wardrobe is taking a noticeable hit in the variety department....

TMI Alert!
OH, to make you groan, I got my 9th period since September of 2006 (that's 9 periods total in 39 months). I've been on the lookout for it for several months though so I was a bit excited when it came this morning. Then I realized that I'll pretty much have no reprieve of it for the next 20-25 years and I groaned.

Jim starts his NEW JOB tomorrow which means he'll be picking up and dropping off the kids from now on.

I'm sad that the Olympics are coming to an end. They always make me emotional and all hopeful for world peace and such.... I really enjoyed watching the Aerials this year. All the things I'll never experience but look SO cool. My DVR will most likely go from hitting 99% full at one point back to the normal 13% or so starting tomorrow.

Yeah, I really did just blog about poop

2010-02-26T09:23:00.002-05:00

Nicole is OFFICIALLY potty-trained (#1 & #2!). Today marks day 5 that she's been in panties only (except when sleeping but even then she's only wet about 50% of the time when she wakes up). HOORAY! Now comes my "terror" that we'll be in the far corner of Target when she announces she has to go, forcing me to tear ass across the store in mad panic to get her there on time....

On Tuesday Jim predicted that Nicole was constipated as she said her stomach hurt and she hadn't gone in a few days. Wednesday night she told me she had to poop and it clearly took a lot of effort. When I asked her if she was doing okay she told me it was "stuck". Eventually all worked itself out and I thought the problem was solved.

When she was concluding her bath though she said she had to go again. Out of the tub and onto her potty she went. After several minutes she announced she was done and needed toilet paper. When I went to empty her potty I got the shock of my life - the whole thing was about filled with poop. It was like 2X what an adult should poop and it just came out of my 2.5 year old. Where did she store all that poop!? It was so amazing I actually called Jim upstairs to see it.

Yeah, being so awed by a bowel movement that you call someone else to look at it and then that person willingly comes to see... now that's what you call a "parenting moment". No one else in their right mind would do this....

Chris - 8 months old!

2010-02-24T10:18:00.006-05:00

Yesterday Chris officially turned 8 months old. AWWWW!

He continues to be an amazingly happy baby. Each time he sees me his whole body wiggles with excitement and makes me all smiley. He's even gotten so excited and wiggled so much he's fallen over. awwww!

Some things he's up to:

He clearly knows his own name and responds by looking or talking back to you if you say it

Separation anxiety has set in over the last two weeks specifically (this is the reverse of all the wiggling I previously mentioned).

He's starting in on the Gerber pick-up stars (the kind that melt in your mouth) but isn't so sure about the whole solid food thing yet.

He likes to sing along with Nicole in the car

Some general things about him:

He's a belly sleeper

When he wakes up and can get in "walrus" position to look at me he smiles so big. This is promptly and always followed by lifting his arms and legs off the ground and balancing on his big pot belly while he wiggles in excitement and squeals

He's nursing 3X, getting formula 2X and eating food 2X/day. I'll be upping him to 3 meals a day this weekend. His favorite foods are black beans, pineapple and yellow squash with rice cereal.

He likes books but I think he's a little confused by the 2D nature of the pictures because he tries to grab the objects

Poor thing's on his way to tubes in his ears. We'll know 3/3/10.

Bathtime = splash time = big fun

He LOVES to be tickled and cuddled

Every night before bed (8-8:30ish) he gets rocked and has 3 versus of Amazing Grace sung to him (and one verse of humming for good measure). He holds his "sleepy bear" while we rock and sucks his thumb.

Life Update (LONG)

2010-02-21T21:30:00.005-05:00

Things here have been busy. I feel like I open up every blog that's a "general life update" that way. hmmmm.... The following are totally random and a bit out of order but should sum it all up nicely.

I had big plans for Nicole's Valentine cake for her class. She still gave out regular Valentines to her friends but they were having a party so I wanted to make something special with my newfound skills. I went in on the 11th for lunch as usual but brought my camera to take the kids pictures (which they LOVED- what cheeses!). That night I made the cake and the morning of the 12th I got up early to decorate it. I think it turned out pretty good. I don't want to post other people's kids' pictures on the internet but if I did I think you could tell who's icing face belongs to who's real face. Can you tell which one is Nicole?

The other night Nicole and I had it out. She didn't want to brush her teeth. She wouldn't put on her pajamas. Nothing about the end of the evening was going well. I told her that if I counted to 3 and she didn't put her pj's on we weren't reading books. Fast forward... she's finally in bed and wants to read. I clearly and calmly explained the phrase "Good choices, good things happen. Bad choices, bad things happen" and reminded her that because she didn't put on her pajamas she wasn't getting any books. HOLY COW did that sink in. I've been hearing all about the good choices she makes several times a day since; especially at night while she's picking what books to read.

Chris and Nicole went to the doctor last weekend and got diagnosed with ear infections (double for him, single for her). Another round of antibiotics for both of them. Chris goes to an ENT on 3/3/10 and if the infection is still lingering he's getting tubes.

Jim's final interview for a new role (still at P&G) took place this week. Four candidates applied and he's been unofficially told he's a finalist. Should know this week. Good news - [the new worksite will have a gym (that insert is for Jim, I could care less about the gym part) and] it's only 3 minutes from daycare! He'd be in global finance for fem care which constitutes a lateral move.

Jenna and I started Jazzercise yesterday. I was blissfully rewarded for my efforts upon returning home. :) I liked it (Jazzercising I mean). She and I could laugh about being new and the ensuing learning curve but I felt good at the end - I was sweaty but not gross and I wasn't sore the next day. I'll work harder next Saturday. I think though that this is something I could maintain in my life. For the record there were about 30 people there, we were on the young 25% (average age was about 43 I'd guess), and there was only one leotard in sight (worn by a 65+ no less!).

OH, and I finished the Kabballah book a week and a half ago. Biggest surprise was that Jewish people believe in reincarnation! Few interesting tidbits:

The soul enters the body 40 days after conception which means that Jewish people are fundamentally okay with abortion until that time and not after.
We are all a part of one single soul - each of us is a small part and has to complete our "mission" on Earth by returning as many times as it takes to do so until with time the soul is whole again and we can all live eternally with God
Jewish people have a prayer for everything. I'd be a bad Jew as I could never remember 1) all the prayers or 2) to say them at every appropriate occasion
Hebrew is an amazing language for so many reasons - even the shapes of the letters and numerical value of each has a meaning that gives the Torah several levels to understand. My Hebrew = not so good.

Lastly, a funny thing when the girls came last weekend. She's a good sport so I hope she doesn't mind my sharing this.... Viki let Nicole dress her up as a mermaid by wrapping a green afghan around her waist. Nicole was all about dolling her up with a crown and calling her "my mermaid". At one point she stood back and looked at her mermaid and declared that Viki needed to "take your shirt off". Because mermaids don't wear shirts of course. She had us both dying with laughter.

On a daily basis I

2010-02-19T11:04:00.003-05:00

brush the bottom row of teeth first
wear a bracelet
tell Jim I love him at the conclusion of every phone call
eat sweets of some kind
remember something I should have done but didn't
check my email
shower in the morning even if I took a bath the night before
put on mascara at a bare minimum
ride in/drive a car
reminisce

I'm not going crazy, I KNOW I saw...

2010-02-17T08:43:00.006-05:00

Several years ago I watched an MTV "documentry" on "Fuzzies" - people who like to dress up in mascot costumes for sexual purposes. Somehow I appear to be the only person on the planet watching MTV that day and it's such a weird subject that when I attempt to explain it to people I'm the one who gets weird looks. Update- it is "Furries" and I'm glad I'm not alone!
My second cousins and I watched the movie "Fortress" about a farmtown school that got kidnapped and was held in a cave for ransom. I found the link to it on Yahoo! movies (see above for more info) and was pleased to see it got an A- even though no one I've ever talked to has heard of it!!
At our old house I was constantly seeing things, shadows, movement, something out of the corner of my eye. I was so convinced of this and the possibility that there was some kind of ghost in the house that I went to a "seer" that my co-worker hired because he was seeing/hearing things in our office [of all places]. Sure enough, the seer said that at least two of us were brining spirits to the office with us daily. Not sure I totally buy it, but...

Sport Physics

2010-02-12T14:37:00.002-05:00

LOVE LOVE LOVE the Olympics. I've been watching videos on the "behind the scenes" of the sports for a while. Here's the one I watched today on the science of bobsledding. Way cool! (no pun intended)

Top 10: MOVIES

2010-02-10T08:57:00.003-05:00

I've been thinking about movies lately and if I could pinpoint my TOP 10. Here's a stab that I came up with on the drive into work. These are in no particular order

Gone in 60 Seconds
Oceans 11
Traffic
The Wizard of Oz
The Proposal
The Notebook
Overboard
Sweet Home Alabama
Forrest Gump
10 Things I Hate About You

Thinking about this more today (Thursday) I think I'd replace Traffic with Dirty Dancing.

Happening around here...

2010-02-08T08:35:00.005-05:00

1) I got my Ruminations email this morning and cocked an eyebrow at one comment:
There seems to be a lot of confusion about proper post-first-date protocol. To me, it's very simple. Ladies, if a guy takes you out, common courtesy calls for you to email, text, or Facebook message within 48 hours to say thank you. You can't believe the amount of courage it took me to ask you out. So even if there is no connection and you never want to see me again, at least thank me for trying. It's like the participation trophy of dating.
Clearly I've been married too long. I had no idea....

2) Nicole is fully into playing pretend. She started a few weeks ago when she shared her Sleepy Bear with Jenna and now can go full-out pretending she's a princess, Dora, or an animal.

3) Nicole is also pretty big into emulating people. The two 'people' she wants to be most like are Ryann and Dora. Nearly every time we go to the bathroom and she needs to get changed I hear "I wear panties like Ry Ry." Fortunately these role models are more than acceptable to me.

4) Speaking of Ry Ry, I saw a super cute thing that I'd like to get her for her birthday (she'll be 3 on March 18). I know she'd really like it but the $20 price tag is, in my opinion, too much for what the item actually is. We spend more than $20 on her present so I'm half tempted to say "screw it" and get it anyway but the cost-conscious buyer in me still doesn't like to overpay...

5) We were the ONLY team in our bowling league to actually show up for our 5:30 league time. Since I could really care less about the Super Bowl that was just fine with me. I had to look on Yahoo! to see who won this morning and even then I only saw by reading the article they had with the best commercial clips.

6) Lastly, since I have more free time on my hands lately while the kids sleep I've been watching some new shows. So far I haven't been overly impressed but I have been moderately entertained. Things I've seen for the first time just in the last week: The Ultimate Cake-Off, Rich Bride Poor Bride, Toddlers & Tiaras, & Project Runway. I did DVR ANTM per Jen Johnson's enthusiasm. I'll keep you posted if there are any diamonds in the rough....

Cake Decorating

2010-02-06T14:17:00.009-05:00

I asked for cake decorating lessons for Christmas and my mom got them for Dad and I. We took a 4-week course at Michael's Craft Store. Here's our progress!

Week 2, our first cake! Mostly star techniques used.

Here I am making a house warming present for Karen C. Don't I look official?

Dad's Results

My results. Clearly my wording needs lots of work....

I forgot my camera the third week. We did lettering, swirl flowers, star flowers, vines, leaves, shells, hearts and clowns. I got the shells down pretty well but my hearts still need some work. Dad was a big fan of the clowns. He used one on his final project in week four.

Dad's icing strategy is clearly "More is More". His writing isn't too bad. His spelling and humor on the other hand....

The fourth week we worked with all stiff icing to make roses. I was encouraged by Martha's comment that they are a skill quickly developed with good results. Our icing was not the right consistency though so my ramp-up was slower than I'd like. When we finally got the right stuff in the bag things went better.

Mom and Mike's birthday was the night of our final class so I made a HB cake. Clearly my writing skills still aren't' there...

There's another class, Course 2, that starts next Saturday and covers basket weaving, royal icing (like for gingerbread houses), and a plethora of other flowers. I have friends coming in that weekend (YAHOO!) and Jenna and I are starting Jazzercise (a Groupon buy) that morning so my cake decorating pursuit is on hold for at least 3 more months....

I do have what I hope is a great idea in mind for Nicole's Valentine's Day party though!

Giving Back

2010-02-05T08:48:00.003-05:00

I use the Internet for a lot, like most people my age.

I blog
I Facebook
I read the news at Yahoo! and CNN
We watch YouTube with Nicole
I place orders online after researching deals at a variety of sites
I get recipes at Meals.com
I read parenting articles at BabyCenter.com
etc. etc. etc.

Jim and I both feel like we take a lot from the Internet but don't really contribute back very much. Obviously no one probably cares about my specific input but I often don't feel like I'm doing my part in helping others electronically.

Jim started writing on Yahoo! answers - a forum where everyday people ask questions and everyday people who know the answers respond. Yahoo! in fact "rewards" the person with the best answer (which Jim has had) to help encourage you to keep responding.

I'm trying to write more online reviews of the products I buy. I read others reviews and take their feedback into consideration as I investigate products/services. I assume others do and I should help them if I have something useful to say.

Maybe some would politely argue that my blog serves as entertainment for others and that's a type of community contribution. Honestly though, this is more for my needs than yours (sorry) so I don't really count it as "service" to the greater online world.... Strangely I feel like others' blogs are a positive contribution as I do enjoy reading them, I'm glad that someone took the time to write, so I DO count their blogs as positive contribution.

Life around here

2010-02-02T08:34:00.005-05:00

1) Nicole's had some weird symptoms in the last three weeks. She pukes 1-2 times in a fifteen minute period, most often the morning, and then has two days of diarrhea. Five days later the cycle repeats. Strange thing is that she's full of energy and other than not eating much she's her normal self. Kendall gave us some suggestions and we have one other lead on the issue. If she pukes again we'll be taking her back to the doctor. It was strange last night to be cheering for solid poop.

2) Chris's 4th tooth came in yesterday.

3) School is good for me - I have a core group of about 8 students (out of 27) who have an opinion on every single thing I throw out for discussion. There's another 8 who give thoughtful responses to several, but not all, questions and the rest sit and listen. I need to learn names quickly so I can call on the other 11. I have a great classroom though.

4) We've decided on our vacations for this year - we'll be headed to NYC in May, Michigan in July, and Arizona in October. NYC and AZ will be long weekend trips (one with kid(s), one without) to visit friends. Traverse City, MI will be the family vacation. I'd like to squeeze in another long weekend in there too but we'll have to see how the year plays out with vacation time. Nicole is very excited to go to NYC because she'll take her first airplane ride. I asked her how people get on the airplane and her deliberated response was "a big ladder". too cute!

5) I finished my cake decorating class this weekend. My roses were 80% successful. I need more practice but that's kind of the way it goes with perfecting any new skill. I think I'm going to hold off on course 2 for a little while....

6) I think we're back in 1st place in our bowling league! We have to bowl on Super Bowl Sunday though- bleh.

Coming of Age

2010-01-29T14:59:00.005-05:00

My co-worker just came in. He is letting his hair start to grey naturally (something he'd previously taken effort to cover up in the past) and for the first time his temples are all salt and pepper. I told him I liked his hair. Then I really looked at him.

I was caught off gaurd by a sudden, "wow, ___'s kind of attractive."

Promptly followed by "Did I just think ___'s attractive?"

I'm offically stating that physically "my type" is a middle-aged guy (30+). This is something some of my other girl friends might already have recognized in themselves but I'm typing this still in sort of a self-wonderment haze. What's kind of funny is that ___ noticed that I was in the middle of some sort of revelation and asked "Are you checking me out? You've got some devlish little smile on your face." Geesh.

Now, I know that a few months ago I blogged about super-hot Taylor Lautner but the more thought I give to the subject I'd rather spend a candlelit dinner with a half-naked 30-40 something. ;)

I don't even feel "old" admitting this. I do recognize this as some kind of weird official acceptance that I'm middle aged too above and beyond just the number of years I've lived.

Chris - 7 month update

2010-01-24T21:33:00.004-05:00

Chris turned 7 months on Saturday and continues to be a happy, healthy baby. Some things he can do:

1) in the last week he's started clicking his tongue which is funny to watch since he over-exaggerates the motion and smiles right after

2) he gives kisses - he's done this for about 2 months but in this last month he's gotten the suction down so he leaves your cheek extra slobbery. He seems to only kiss women though....

3) he's out of the baby tub and takes "regular" baths with Nicole. He especially likes splashing.

4) He claps

5) While on his stomach he'll push himself up on his arms like a walrus - good first control towards crawling, but he hasn't gotten the knack of getting his knees under him except while sleeping

He's a real momma's boy and I L-O-V-E it. When I come home from teaching and he first sees me his whole body wiggles with excitement and he beams as he reaches for me. Melts my heart.

He wears all 9 and 12-month clothes now. He's tried several solid foods (more new ones to come in the next 2 weeks include nectarine, lima beans, peaches, & pears) and by far his favorite is black beans and oatmeal; he leans in so fast and furious for the next bite that sometimes the spoon goes too far in and he gags!

He's getting his two front top teeth now and has been waking up mid-night in pain lately. Update: His third one came in this morning - top left center!

2009 Recap

2010-01-20T08:33:00.005-05:00

Year 5 of recapping the previous year....

Age: 30
Weight: 147 - this means i have 8 lbs. to get back to my pre-Chris weight
Height: still 5-6
Hair: Blonde and getting LONGER

NYE Activities: absolutely nothing. I think we ticked people off in past years with declining NYE invitations and therefore didn't get invited anywhere by anyone. That was a bit of an ego bruise but overall staying at home with Jim was not a dissapointment.

Best Of...
Movie: New Moon was probably my favorite for the hype and my low expectations based on Twilight the movie

Song: I'm in a Sideways kick by Dierks Bently. Oddly, when I YouTubed it to watch the video I discovered i apparently like a lot of his music per the suggestions YouTube sent at the end of the song.

Friend of the year: I know it's probably cheesy but Jim gets the title this year. Having a second kid, parenting the first in a way that makes me proud, being patient with my career changes, the expert managment of our household finances even in bad economic times, keeping me abreast of news when I don't make time to stay current, and having random philisophical conversations that keep my mind working put him over the top this year. Oh, he's got nice arms too.

Most fun thing of 2009: Having Chris

Most disappointing thing of 2009: Honestly, probably the same thing as 2008- the paycut that I took and the nagging feeling that I could be making more someplace else and *probably* be as happy...

Most impressive: beyond the daily wonders that are my kids, I'd say how much I like my new job. I'm really glad I moved over to the new department, I like my co-workers, and I like my daily responsibilities.

Looking to 2010...
Most Anticipated Thing: All the milestones Chris will be hitting in rapid-fire. Nicole getting potty-trained.

Most nervous About: losing touch with my friends, especially my kid-less friends, as family becomes more and more important and time-consuming in my own life.

Goals: to become a very good cake decorator. To make our house landscaping something envy-worthy. To get back to my pre-baby weight and just maybe put effort (working out) into doing it.

Resolution: To take all of my vacation days and put them to good use. Good use = taking the kids/family to places they haven't been to do things they haven't done (craft class for Nicole, music/play class for Chris, Michigan for the family, etc.)

The Institution of Marriage

2010-01-19T08:21:00.008-05:00

Here is an excerpt from a recent Cincinnati Enquirer article about marriage license trends:

Last year, 4,537 couples applied for a marriage license in Southwest Ohio's most populous county. That's the fewest since 1957, when 4,467 couples sought to tie the knot, according to figures provided by Probate Court.

The trend is also evident in other southwestern Ohio counties.

In Butler County, the 2,041 marriage license applications in 2009 were the fewest since 1970. Clermont County processed 1,115 marriage applications last year, the fewest in 21 years, and likely longer. (The county's Probate Court could provide numbers only back to 1988.)

In Warren County, 1,140 couples applied for a marriage license last year, the highest numbers since at least 1993. (The county's Probate Court could not provide earlier figures.) That does not necessarily mean Warren is bucking the marriage trend. Indeed, the county's population has almost doubled since 1990, but marriage applications have remained relatively flat.

...

Reasons for the decline, the report said, include people delaying their first marriage until they are older; the growth of unmarried cohabitation; a small decrease in the tendency of divorced people to remarry; and an increase in lifelong singes, although the actual won't be known until the lives of young and middle-aged adults run their course.

Since 1960, the number of cohabiting couples has increased more than 15-fold from 439,000 to 6.8 million the report said.

As a person who previously co-habitated I can attest to the fact that living together is barely different than being married. Co-habiting is also so prevalent with the famous and economically smart (shared expenses = cheaper than single living) that I'm not surprised to see the "15-fold" jump.

A point the article didn't make that I think also contributes to the low marriage application rate is the fact that for some it's not financially advantageous to get married. Unfortunately (I say "unfortunately" because people taking advantage of the system unnecessarily frustrates me; for the record I am supportive of people getting help to make themselves better, I have very little support for people who could afford to be self-sufficient and aren't) we know several people who are using government assistance for food stamps, tuition, etc. that they would otherwise lose if they got married, hence why they specifically don't tie the knot. In fact, we had friends who wanted to get re-married but "couldn't afford to" because the government paid her so much on a monthly basis for her "single mother" status so they just lived together [again] all the while wearing their old wedding rings & acting like like they did before when they were married.

While these numbers don't surprise me and the reasons hypothesized seem reasonable, I have to admit it makes me sad. It's the old-fashioned person in me who values the institution of marriage and thinks that the legal commitment, at least for me, made things more "official", even though, as I said, emotionally, financially, and physically there was no difference versus living together.

Getting Dressed

2010-01-15T08:22:00.007-05:00

This past season I spent a lot of time purging my closet. I got rid of "clubbing" tops - the sexy ones I haven't worn in years, pants that were too big and too small, shoes that never fit quite right to be considered comfortable but looked perfect with 1-2 outfits.

I don't miss any of it.

This morning an article on Yahoo! News caught my eye about the new things for 2010 that I "should" have in my closet. Here's one trend that I stopped at:

I get it. the socks (especially the pink ones) are kinda cute and certainly trendy. SJP wore things like this on SATC all the time. I don't think that I could ever pull this off though.

First off, where would I wear an outfit like this to? Second my heels aren't meant to be worn with foot-covernings as thick as socks and therefore I think they'd fit pretty tight. Third, I live in Ohio and think 90% of the population would look at me like I got dressed in the dark.

I won't even bother commenting on the whole "someone my age shouldn't wear...". I will say that while I'm always a fan of shorts, especially the frequently trendy tailored ones, my legs do not look like the models' above so the style on me wouldn't have quite the same effect as it does for 6 foot beanpole them.

Sticking to a closet full of staples is boring but reliable....