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Where were we?

We had a nice weekend. It felt longer than normal somehow and the office feels somewhat foreign to me like I haven’t been here in a while although it’s only been three days, like usual.

Friday the kids and I had a quiet day. We pulled out the water colors. We did laundry. We watched TV. We chilled. I handled some of the little things that I’ve been too busy for the past few weeks, including ordering Ben a nap-mat from Etsy that he will be using for the next two years at preschool.

Our friends needed us to watch their boys Friday night so they came over after dinner and stayed with us all night. Everyone did pretty well except for a smallish incident Saturday morning when Tabby’s decorative “special things” shelf got pulled down (now that she has bunkbeds, it is way too easily accessible) and her piggybank was broken.

We ended up taking them to see Madagascar 3. The kids had waaay too much popcorn and lemonade, but a really good time. They behaved really well. To my surprise, Matt and I enjoyed the movie too – the penguins were hilarious and so was the cross-dressing lemur.

After we dropped the boys off, we headed to my mom’s house where we played in the backyard and had dinner. The kids stayed with her Saturday night so Matt and I could accomplish a few things. We purged the kids rooms of excess junk (I contend there is still more that should go!) and rearranged Tabby’s room. Her shelf still needs to be fixed, but the room is flowing much better now and looks really cute. We also did some rearranging in Ben’s room and made some decisions about where his two decorative shelves will go. I think it’s finally starting to look truly put together.

Sunday we slept in and then we went to the kids’ consignment shop to pick up a check for the kids’ old dresser and see if they want to sell Tabby’s toddler bed (they did) and picked up some new jeans for Tabby. Then we met Mom and the kids for lunch and kiddo exchange and went home (via Target) to have naps and a quiet finish to our weekend.

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My Baby

This morning as I was leaving for work (a little bit late … ahem). I heard a little voice calling out to me. He wandered down the stairs in his jim-jams, an adorably mismatched combo of old PJ bottoms that are too small for him and a Toy Story t’shirt still much too big for him, hair sweetly rumpled, dragging his blanky Linus-style.

It was a rare moment when he still looked a bit like the baby I brought home from the hospital over three years ago. The moments are rarer and rarer.

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Phone Babble

So in the midst of all the craziness at work, I up and got a new phone. My old EVO was actually still working great, but Matt’s isn’t and since I had upgrade credits and he didn’t, we upgraded my phone and he will take my old one. The new phone I chose is the EVO LTE 4G. The funny part is that the network protocol it functions optimally on (4G LTE) isn’t even available in Denver until (maybe) late this year. But no matter, the phone itself is such a huge upgrade that I was able to see after a week of use that speeds I got on it were about the same (possibly a little better) than my old EVO 4G.

A couple more weeks in now and I am a huge fan – it’s a big upgrade in every way. The OS is now Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and the processor is a super-fast dual core. The Android 4.0 OS is very slick and allows you to shove away apps and emails and notifications that you’re done with and sharing is pretty darn simple.

But my favorite feature is a pretty basic but crucial one – the camera. It is quick to load, quick to shoot and takes awesome photos. It is the first phone camera that I truly feel is a replacement for a point-and-shoot. It can’t hold a candle to my DSLR but for the little moments when the DSLR isn’t at hand, it works wonders. My favorite feature in the camera is the multi-shot mode. You just hold down the shutter button (on the side of the camera) and it clicks away. It isn’t precise like a DSLR (exactly 3 frames/sec) or anything, but you get a fair few shots and then you can select the “best shot” from the bunch and delete the rest – or keep them all. It makes shooting cute photos of the kids much easier. My Instagram account runneth over.

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50 Years

Back in 1962, my grandparents held a family meeting to discuss the start of a construction company, what would become Pinkard Construction. 50 years later, the business is now owned by my mom, her brother and a few others who bought out my grandpa in the 1980s. It is where I have worked since moving back to CO in 2004. Continue reading “50 Years”

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Weekend oh Weekend

I still need to post about our amazing parties from last week, but I spent my weekend just having fun and relaxing. So maybe I’ll get to that tomorrow. I was so exhausted after the parties that I really took it easy on Friday … I hardly did anything. I folded some laundry, had lunch with my family and had one helluva nap. Mmmmm …. nap. That evening our friends and their three kids came over and we lounged at the pool and ate pizza and watched the kids play in the water. It was pretty darn nice. Continue reading “Weekend oh Weekend”

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Big Week

While I’ve been off working on the parties for our company’s 50th Anniversary (a big deal unto itself – more details tomorrow, hopefully), my kids have been having a banner week. Monday Ben started preschool at the same charming little school Tabby’s been attending for two and a half years.

It is only a 6 wk summer camp and he starts “real” preschool in the fall, but he is having a great time. He brought back glowing reports of his big day and the crafts he did and his one disappointment (he didn’t get to have a pony ride during recess because he didn’t know to get in line in time). He and Tabby are in the same class and she is loving showing him the ropes.

Tabby herself is having quite a big week. After making amazing progress last weekend while camping with her bike sensei, Uncle Mikey, she has been eager to ride again. They rode bikes on Tuesday night and she was doing well, but last night while they were at Uncle Mikey’s house while we were at the party, she went from 2 week balance bike to fully riding a “two wheeler WITH pedals” as she’ll proudly tell you.

This amazing transformation is wholly on Uncle Mikey helping her out and her absolutely amazing determination. I’m proud to say Matt and I had nothing to do with it! It is really cool to watch your kids just take flight on something completely separate from you.

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Camping in RMNP

We spent last weekend in Rocky Mountain National Park, home of breathtaking views of the Rockies and some truly amazing trails and wildlife.

And for a few days … our campers. We stayed at Aspen Glen Campground. I swear to you, Matt has some sort of genius for picking great campgrounds. This one compared to some of the others wasn’t quite AS amazing, but in RMNP, the pickings are slim because it’s so popular. Continue reading “Camping in RMNP”

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What I’m Behind On …

Two days of parties starts tomorrow. I’m busy like no other. 1000 things are running around in my head making it impossible for me to sleep. Just a list of things to catch up on/resume when I finally surface … I mean besides the blog. Hopefully setting it all down in black and white will clear my mind so I can sleep.

  1. spending time with my kids and husband and friends
  2. the rest of my normal work
  3. eating proper food … the kind that comes from my own kitchen and has vegetables in it
  4. running and attending bootcamp
  5. housework
  6. paying bills and dealing with paperwork type things
  7. random errands like Goodwill
  8. photography and random projects I’ve been considering
  9. reading other blogs (I will likely give up and mark most as “read”)
  10. sleep

Looking forward to all of this being done done done. Cheers!

 

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My Poor Neglected Blog


We just got back from our camping trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. I have to say this was about the hardest camping trip I’ve ever been on, not that it wasn’t great fun – it was – but we were all sick. Sleep wasn’t great. Heads were stuffed. Ben kept waking up with a bloody nose. We got back later than I wanted and we’re exhausted. EXHAUSTED.

Still no rest for the wicked. Back to work tomorrow. Evening out tomorrow night. Tons to do before the parties on Weds & Thurs. I don’t even want to think about it. Full weekend update hopefully tomorrow. Kids had a great time even if they were sick. Cheers!

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On the Tube

I have been bringing home my laptop a lot lately. Like A LOT. Like it practically never leaves my side. So when I’m at home and I need to pull it out to do some work, I like to turn on the TV for a little mindless entertainment and reward. Between the laptop and the treadmill, I have been logging more TV time than in a looong while. Here’s what I’m digging:

18 to Life is a cute sitcom about a couple of crazy kids, nextdoor neighbors, who fall in love and up and get married at age 18. They come from different (liberal vs. conservative) backgrounds and wind up living in the attic of the boy’s parent’s house. Hilarity ensues as they figure out how to be married and the in-laws clash. It’s pretty funny and not cliched. You can find it on Netflix streaming.

 Easy A was recommended to me by a friend. It’s a “teen comedy” about a girl who lies about having sex with a boy to help out his reputation … then she becomes the fake school slut and gets paid (in random gift cards) to not have sex with a bunch of other guys. Sounds pretty typical, but the humor is smart and clever and even thought-provoking. Her parents, played by Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, are wicked funny and steal every scene they’re in. Matt, though skeptical at first, ended up really enjoying this too.

 I have been running (literally and figuratively) through Grey’s Anatomy – I gave it up when I was pregnant with Tabby because terrible things kept happening to moms and unborn babies – and have now finishd off season 7. Next I have decided to go back and watch Felicity from beginning to end. I think I missed a season or 2 in there somewhere. After that I was thinking about checking out Dawson’s Creek because a friend has been watching them and her recaps and takes on them are hilarious.

Matt and I have almost finished up Star Trek: Enterprise which I find just this side of tolerable, though Matt likes it a little more. We hardly ever get time to watch TV together, so it goes slowly. Next up we are working our way through Castle which we both love a lot. Dr. Who may be on the horizon as well since it scores so huge on the geek-o-meter.

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Lastly, since ABC family thoughtlessly cancelled Make it Or Break It, I am bereft of good clean silly teen fun … tonight I plan to check out Bunheads, the new ballet driven teen drama from the same network. It looks to have good potential. What can I say? I’m 13 at heart.