Hello World

• 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

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

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

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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"?).
4. 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.
5. Looking forward to SPRING!

One Moment In Time

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

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!

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

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....

:)

I have high hopes about the day.

Sunday Repunzel!

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

Pictures

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.

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

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My budding artist.

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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!

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:

1. My girls coming for the weekend in 11 days
2. My little brother's baby shower - I'm making the cake!
3. The nervous feeling of having my manuscript sent out for critique
4. 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

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

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

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

• 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

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!

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!

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!!!