jesser – Page 20

May 8, 2013May 8, 2013

Geeking Out

I like this quote. I like that we are in the age of the geek. I like that it is cool to be excited about things again. I like that my kids are growing up seeing people getting into things … and I don’t mean TV and popstars. I mean cooking great food, making amazing and beautiful creations, reading wonderful books, learning to play the hell out of the bassoon. And there’s nothing wrong with getting into TV and popstars. I’m just glad that it’s (mainstream) cool to be into OTHER things too now.

This has changed since I was a kid, I think. It’s a good change. I would be happy with some more changes. Strong and fit can replace skinny. Tolerant can replace narrow minded. Home cooked food can replace fast food and junk food. Recycling and conservation can replace mindless consumerism.

It could be awesome, right?

May 5, 2013May 6, 2013

A Good Weekend

Friday was a bit of a bummer. Poor Ben was down for the count. He’s had a cough but Thursday night he threw up three times over night and was feeling terrible. Matt took the kids for their yearly checkups in the AM and then Tabby went onto school, but Been laid in his bed practically all day and slept and watched movies on the Kindle.

We cancelled dinner with friends and on Ben’s insistence tried to go to dinner, but he just laid in my lap and wouldn’t eat a bite. We went straight home.

Saturday I took off bright and early to do a race with a couple of girlfriends – Shape’s Diva Dash. It’s a pretty darn tame obstacle course, but lots of fun. Just three miles and 8 obstacles … running through hanging balloon/ball things, over a pile of tires, over a canal, under a net, up a rope wall, over a wall, through some spider-web kinda bungees, monkey bars, and a teeter totter. We made good clock time and had a great time.

Meanwhile back at home, Matt asked my sister to watch T and he and a much-improved Ben took off for a b’day party at a roller rink. For 4 year olds. A bit weird, but they had a good time.

I picked up T at my sister’s and then met up with Matt and Ben. We had lunch and Ben went down for a nap and Tabby and Matt went off to soccer.

After soccer, we packed everyone up and the kids went to stay with my parents. Matt and I went on a date … a quintuple date …? Us and 4 other couples, well actually 3.5 other couples – one hubby ended up staying home. Drinks, dinner, trivia and more drinks. We got home at a very respectable hour and watched a movie and crashed. This AM we grabbed some breakfast and headed to my office so I could get a few things done. We weren’t there long but it was quality time. Then we ran errands and cleaned up the house. I thought we’d see the kids around lunch time, but they ended up staying with my parents until dinner time! They do love their grandparents.

We had Sunday dinner and a little homework and again … weekend is done.

May 3, 2013May 9, 2013

Friday Favorites May 3, 2013

Favorite Printable: Tabby has been really into wanting to learn to sew – think she might get into these cute sewing practice cards!

Favorite Savory Delight: We are having quite a few people over on Tuesday and I think some pulled pork in the crockpot is the perfect dinner solution!

Favorite Funny: I do love Grumpy Cat and I saw this great painting on Etsy … I’m very tempted. It makes me laugh.

Favorite Daydream: This is actually a bit more in reality than the normal – we’re hoping to head to Utah next summer for a family road trip and this looks like a great book of hikes to do with the kids!

Favorite Sweet Treat: Look at these nutella popicles – just three ingredients. YUM.

Favorite Photo Fun: Owling? Planking? Move over – Vadering! Think I could get the kids to do this.

Favorite Workout: Moves for below the bellybutton … surely I don’t need this? Nah.

Favorite Purchase: I bought this guy a couple of months ago, but it wasn’t really smoothie season then. Now it is (sorta) and I’ve been using it every day to make awesome spinach smoothies. Very happy with it. Favorite App: The latest installment of Cut the Rope is great! It’s one of those apps that everyone in the family loves – cute graphics and fun problem solving.

May 2, 2013May 1, 2013

April in Instagrams

Another month has come and gone!! It was a great one, a crazy one. One filled with much fun and loads of changes, big and small. I instagrammed them all! Except the third. Don’t know where the third went. 😉

Favorite Ben Photo: love him hanging with his chalk b’day art (21)
Favorite Tabby Photo: Tabby playing chopsticks (20)

Favorite Other Photo: I love the photo of Hedgie because that is precisely her cute look (and she’s hard to photoraph!).

A key for posterity’s sake – Continue reading “April in Instagrams”

May 1, 2013

A Midweek Update

Found this lovely bouquet in my bathroom when I got home today. Made me smile.
Checked out a cool music class with Tabby this evening. I think we’ll sign her up and maybe Ben too.
Matt is doing a science experiment for Tabby’s class pretty soon. It involves liquid nitrogen and making ice cream in the classroom. And molecules and stuff too.
The new job is going pretty well. I’m not up to speed, but I think I’m competent. Just a lot of new stuff to remember.
I did bootcamp after being gone (mostly) for 2 or 3 weeks. It hurts. Bad.
Have two races in the next two weeks (~3mi and ~6mi) and I think I will be ready (I have been running).
Matt is being a champ at picking up the slack while I’m busy learning my new job. I think I’ll keep him. Or maybe worship him.
Ben has had a little cold and he’s been kind of out of sorts. He woke up in the middle of the night last night and neither of us heard him (Matt was in the basement) and I was passed out cold from exhaustion. We both felt terrible and he needed lots of snuggles.
He has not been so out of sorts, however, that he cannot get into mischief with his best friend at school. They are the class clowns, I’m told.
It is snowing. Again. Why yes today IS the first day of May.

April 28, 2013April 29, 2013

The Typical Weekend

It’s been nice having some more typical weekends … weekends where you work and play and even spend quite a bit of time at home. Yes, quite nice indeed. Friday the kids had their last swim lesson, an hour-long makeup. After that, we went to dinner and then spent a quite night at home.

Saturday was soccer, followed by grocery shopping and some blissful naps. Then the family came over for some grilled out dinner – the weather has been awesome!

Today was ZOO day. The kids were invited to a b’day party for some family friends. The trick was getting there. Unbeknownst to us (and our hosts!) the zoo had scheduled Dia de los Ninos and there were about a million Ninos and their families at the zoo. Parking was impossible – we parked about 6 blocks away and walked – and the lines were NUTS. Fortunately since we were with the bday party, we didn’t have to endure the lines at least. But about 4 families gave up altogether and it was a bummer.

But for our troubles, we got a behind the scenes look at some cool animals that the zoo exhibits on visits to schools and other field trips. Salamanders, parrots, a giant rabbit, cockroaches (seen with the kids above) and a hedgehog. He was huge and made us feel much better about Hedgie’s size.

The zoo put on a nice do and I’d definitely think about having a bday party there ourselves – but not on Dia de los Ninos. After the bday party stuff, we rode the carousel and checked out some elephants and by that time it was after 4 and we headed out to get some dinner with friends.

I’m always astonished at how quickly the weekends go by.

April 26, 2013

Friday Faves April 26, 2013

Man, I barely thought about the blog this week. The new job is kicking my bum just a bit. Very very busy. But good. And I feel like I’m getting it and it will be easier soonish. I hope. Anyhow, I did see a few new cool things this week:

Favorite Sweet Thang: Look at these mini monkey bread cinnamon breads … easy and YUM!

Favorite Purchase: I actually bought this a couple of weeks ago, and am finally going to play it tonight (hopefully, if I don’t pass out too soon) … the latest expansion pack in The Sims lineup: University. I hardly ever get to veg and play a good game, so I’m looking forward to it!

Favorite Savory Delight: Beef and Sweet Potato Curry with Kale looks delish … I love sweet potato in just about anything and add curry and kale and it sound awesome!

Favorite Craftiness: this looks like a great board (similar to pinterest, but not) full of DIY furniture projects. I especially like the sawhorse tables and the coffee tables (we need a new one).

Favorite Freebie: I’ve been using the blue watercolor desktop from Design Love Fest for a couple of weeks. It’s so simple and pretty.

Favorite App: Just downloaded this Endless Alphabet App for the kiddos. It’s a really pretty alphabet “game” with spelling lessons and vocab. It’s free too!

Favorite Wise Words: this pretty much says it all … maybe I need it for my new office.

Favorite Funny: saw this on Pinterest with the note “my mom asked me for a ‘formal’ photo of my 1 month old baby so I sent her this” LOL!

And with that, I am off for a typical fun-filled, soccer-filled, birthday-party-filled weekend. Cheers!

April 24, 2013

Ben is 4!!!

Four years ago today I was lucky enough to be prepped for surgery ahead of a wave of other ladies having babies and so they had to let me go ahead and have my c-section. Twenty minutes later, this little lad was born and our lives have been faster, crazier and more amazing ever since.

There is not much baby left in him, though he does still drag around his blanky and love some snuggles. Most of the time he is fast and furious, playing with Skylanders and Legos and skiing like crazy.

It has been a big year for Ben, chock full of change, which we’ve come to realize, he’s not a huge fan of. He started at a new school, went through a bunch of new teachers, and adjusted to a much more rigorous schedule. It hasn’t always been easy coping with everything, but I’ve been amazed at how well he’s done with the coaching we’ve given him on getting himself under control when the crazies try to take over.

He is happiest when he’s hanging with is people, getting doted upon and played with and read to. He is a real charmer and has the most mischievous smile I’ve ever seen. He also has a great sense of humor and I see a future class clown in him or really, a future anything he wants to be. He is a good friend and a good brother. He adores Tabby and they play really well together these days.

I’m super proud of the amazing little guy he’s becoming. He makes me smile every single day. Happy b’day to my awesome little man!

April 21, 2013

All About Ben All Day Long

Ben doesn’t officially turn 4 until Wednesday, but this weekend he got to celebrate his birthday with Nashville family and bunch of his school friends. Ben spends a lot of time being the little brother lagging behind Tabby – just the way it is when they’re two years apart – and it was awesome to make so much time and effort all about him.

He chose Chuck E Cheese for his b’day. He was adamant. And it was a great choice in many ways. I didn’t have to do a lot and he LOVED it. We had fun with rides and games, pizza and cake.

He loved all the clapping and singing and being the undisputed center of attention.

His cute cake came from Costco and they didn’t disappoint. It was tasty too.

He got to go into the ticket blaster WITH DADDY. Where Daddy successfully caught the 1000 ticket voucher and stuffed it into Ben’s crown.

There was a gift-free-for-all that I didn’t capture. Ben got many nice gifts from his friends. Then there was more time in kiddie-vegas and eventually back home for dinner and a couple more presents with the whole family.

…. including a new bike from Mommy and Daddy since he outrgrew his old one. He was pretty darn excited.

I’m sure if you asked him, he’d probably say the best part of his day was Chuck E Cheese. But I know what he really loved was hanging out with all the people he loves best.

And us with him.

April 19, 2013April 18, 2013

Friday Favorites 4/19/13

What a Friday! I’ve got a company-wide staff breakfast, a jobsite visit, a few other meetings, two overnight guests arriving around 5 and our Nashville family arriving around 6. So we better get down to it with another edition of my Friday Favorites.

Favorite Craftiness: I very much like the look of this Perpetual Chalkboard Calendar. Except mine would have to be dry erase … maybe fronted with plexi glass?

Favorite Daydream: I wish I’d known about this gorgeous Japanese Garden in Portland when I was there a couple of years ago. Of course I had no car and it rained the whole time I was there, so …

Favorite Sweet Thang: I’m pretty sure this Caramel Popcorn is a horribly-carborific bad idea, but I want to try to make it anyhow!!

Favorite Wise Words: Dr. Suess was a smart man. I like his take on Nonsense.

Favorite Breakfast Noms: I think this Blueberry Cream Cheese French Toast will be a huge hit with the family.

Favorite Workout: Run, Burpee, Run … am I sick to think this looks like fun? I think I’ll try it tonight!

Favorite Funny: this amuses me far more than it should

Favorite Purchase: I finally broke down and bought a griddle. I hate to add things to the kitchen, but it is awesome cooking pancakes on these and you can fit soooo many!!

Favorite App: So if you’re a Google Reader afficianado, you know it is dunzo here pretty soon. I’ve tried out a few options and Feedly is my favorite. It’s got great apps for ALL platforms and a pretty good extension for the browsers. It imports seamlessly from Google as well and switch-over is (supposedly) seamless when Google turns off the lights.

Favorite Savory Delight: Another recipe from Iowa Girl(originator of the Friday Faves concept, I might add) I cannot wait to try: Smothered Sweet Potato Fries!!

Hope you all have a looovely weekend!