Life – Page 6

August 20, 2013

The Haps

So … a mea culpa on continuing to suck at blogging. I’m trying hard not to give up. But a LOT is going on!! Tons!

We went to family reunion. Where we did things like … hike to a waterfall.

And take family photos… most of which my kids managed to screw up by being goofy.

We celebrated other stuff too. Like Matt’s and my 11th anniversary. We mainly goofed around and played video games and stuff like that. Simple.

We celebrated my dad’s b’day! Tabby made him a chocolate cake.

Then the kids started school yesterday!! Technically nothing changed for Ben. He moved to the next class at the beginning of the summer, but we made a big deal like he was just starting too. The super good news is that his best buddy has now moved back into his class. Yay!

Tabby started first grade! She’s in official specials classes (art, music, PE) and having a lot of fun.

Her first day was made that much more special because she lost her very first tooth!! During story time. She wants to keep it forever and has refused to surrender it to the tooth fairy in return for the cash reward. Ah well.

So that’s the haps!

July 9, 2013

Down but Not Out

I’ve had nice little emails and texts from people who have been missing the blog – family from far away who only get to see us regularly through this medium and friends from afar who enjoy catching up on my life as I do theirs (even though I haven’t had time lately). I’ve been missing it too, along with other things. But work is the time bandit right now, stealing what precious time I used to use for blogging. It hasn’t been unusual lately for me to work 11 or 12 hours in a single day without a break. I know it won’t always be like this, but it is going to be different. Anyhow, let’s play catchup:

The Kids

The kids are having a great summer. Tabby is at school with Ben and both of them LOVE IT. She also has a couple of friends from school and other venues (a family friend, soccer) in her class and that makes her very happy. Ben was moved up to the next level at the beginning of the summer. This was bittersweet because he and his best friend, Cruz, were separated. However, it was in some ways for the best as they are a wild comedy duo and his behavior is improved.

We have been going swimming at least once weekly and traveling tons which the kids LOVE. They are both looking forward to our cruise immensely and Ben keeps asking to “see the Disney Cruise stuff!” whenever he sees Matt or I at the computer. Tabby is reading everything she comes across and has really stepped up her game big time. There’s not much now she can’t read, at least with a little help.

Matt and I

With me working so much, it’s been hard not being able to spend as much time with Matt. He’s also been picking up some major slack that I’ve dropped lately and doing it with grace and generally good humor. Since the weeks have been so crazy, we’ve been trying to get out for date nights whenever we can. We’ve tried out some new restaurants, gone to see some movies and been pretty lazy. It’s nice.

Training

Another thing we’ve been doing together is training! I am signed up for my first triathlon near the end of August and so I’ve been training with one of my friends and then sometime with Matt. It’s been some early morning swims in the pool and some weekend bike rides. A few weeks ago my friend and I did an open water swim. The best thing I can say about it was that I didn’t drown. Still, by the end of it, I had new confidence in my abilities and I feel like when I attempt it again later this week, I will do much better.

Aside from tri-training, the rest of my working out hasn’t been awesome. I was going to bootcamp only once or twice a week and since I’m going to miss the last two weeks of July anyway (since we’re traveling), I took the month of July off. The lack of fees alone paid for me wetsuit. Yay.

Travel

What’s probably compounded this whole work situation immeasurably is all the travel we’ve been doing on the weekends. A couple of weekends ago, we had our third camping trip of the season, to Cow Creek (above). It was wonderful, but it’s also been exhausting. In addition to camping, we went to Vail for the holiday weekend (and got back around 11:30 on Sunday night). We’re heading off for our big summer trip with Matt’s family in less than 2 weeks.

Still, we’ve had a wonderful time, and I want to share some of our adventures.

Work!

Despite the fact that I’m working hard, overall, I am really enjoying my new role. It is definitely not all rainbows and sunshine, but we’ve won a few projects since I’ve started and that is a really really awesome feeling. I get to do a lot of stuff I’m good at and enjoy, like laying out pretty marketing materials, managing databases and organizing things. It’s also an excellent challenge, which I really thrive on.

But my vacation in 2 weeks is going to be very very well deserved.

So that, in a nutshell, is life right now. I hope to make at least one more post this week and slowly get back to doing 3-5/week and also reading some of my other favorite blogs. Life is good. It’s just very very busy.

May 9, 2013

Happy Birthday Matty!

My main squeeeeeze and numero uno Dad of the Year is turning 33 today. I truly appreciate him EVERY DAY, even when I’m giving him crap about not rinsing off his plate of mustard (don’t ask), but especially on this day, I want to reflect on his awesomeness.

We have had a crazy month or four. Big decisions. Extra work. Crazy schedule. He has been there right by my side, my equal in every way (probably my superior, honestly), supporting, picking up slack, working hard and doing it with his cute Matty grin (most of the time anyhow). Just for fun, I’m going to list 33 things that are awesome about Matt:

He is always thinking of cool things to show the kids and wants them to learn and experience.
He can seriously rock a woodshop.
He likes good TV.
He is an excellent date.
He is a super hard worker.
He cleaned up two episodes of puke in the middle of the night and didn’t wake me up.
He can knock out an IKEA build in record time.
When I leave him with the kids, I have no doubts that they will be well taken care of and happy.
He does laundry.
He gets along well with my family.
He is responsible with money.
He is tall dark and handsome.
He is an excellent friend and I love spending time with him.
He always goes the extra mile.
He loves Colorado.
He is a grill master.
He is very social and loves to have people over.
He never begrudges me a girls night out.
He researches every purchase to the nth degree.
He loves to travel.
He takes and picks up the drycleaning … there are donuts involved, but he still does it.
We have a great time talking together.
He is an excellent teammate and partner.
He has loads of enthusiasm.
He is very generous.
He loves a good road trip.
Ben and Tabby adore him.
He has the dubious task of taking the kids to school every morning.
Even without training, he can usually beat me out in a race.
He is always keen to try something new.
He is always keen to learn something new.
He places no restrictions on Tabby because she’s a girl or Ben because he’s a boy.
Life with him is never dull or ordinary.

We don’t tend to do major gifts for each other and since he recently got his mountain bike fixed and bought a new mobile phone – both of which were big ticket items – I’m doing something smaller.

After school and work today, Ben and I will be making him a lovely Victoria Sponge cake, filled with lemon curd along with a nice dinner. There may also be one or two other little surprises in there.

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 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 15, 2013April 15, 2013

Onward Upward

A few weeks ago, my company’s Marketing Manager announced she was going to retire. I had been asked to think about the possibility of moving into this position a few months back when we thought retirement would be in 2014, but due to some good luck in the stock market, her retirement got moved up an entire year to the end of April. Our MM is a dear lady and we all could not be more excited for her to be able to exit the rat race a little earlier than anticipated.

But of course, it meant some decisions had to be made. I had to think about things carefully. The job is more hours than I do now, no question. It is also different work than I do currently. I have a wonderful working relationship with the people around me and the idea of giving that up was a hard one to swallow. But the Marketing Manager job takes a lot of things I’m good at and enjoy and rolls them into one crazy wild ride.

So Matt and I talked a lot about the job and what it entails. We talked about what it would mean for our family – the good and the bad. And we were good with it. So I submitted an application for the position and I was officially hired and promoted a last week, though notification only went out today. It is a great move career-wise but more importantly, I think I can really bring some good new ideas to the position and do some wonderful things to serve my organization. It’s really exciting and a bit overwhelming.

I’m currently learning my new job and training some other people on my job and trying to keep a lot of balls in the air but it’s very exciting and I’m really looking forward to the new challenge.

April 14, 2013April 15, 2013

Soccer Weekend

This was our third weekend home in a row and it has been SO nice! We were busy of course, but it is lovely to be in our own beds with everything at our finger tips.

Friday was swim lesson makeups, an hour in all! Matt took off early to make it there with the kids and I met them for dinner at the kids’ favorite restaurant, Sweet Tomatoes (meh). Then we ran errands, getting ready for Ben’s party (next weekend) and came home to some cleanup and baths

Saturday got off to a bang with SOCCER! The kids had overlapping games, so I hung out with Ben while Matt and Tabby went off to their games. Ben so far is a less than enthusiastic player. He is good at practice, but he doesn’t like the game when everyone “takes” the ball from him. He ends up wandering around on the field and breaking down in tears a lot. It didn’t help that while Ben’s team had 5 kids hanging around (4 play at a time) the other team had 7 to swap out and one was HUGE and was in nearly the whole time, scoring goal after goal. Kinda demoralizing, but oh well, that’s life.

Tabby and Matt meanwhile were on the other side of the greens playing their game. They were the stronger team in this situation and had a somewhat better time of it with 9 kids to swap in and out. Matt just tried to keep it fair and make sure everyone had a good time playing.

He is a good coach. 🙂

We then beat it back to the house for a quick lunch and Tabby and I took off for a birthday party. It was a great climbing party and she had a wonderful time scampering up and down the wall. She played some hoops with her friends too and at the end, they had brought in a guy from Coldstone to make the kids custom ice cream – a really fun idea!

Matt and Ben left just after us, bound for their own b’day party. He got to hang out in a bouncy castle with all of his buddies and celebrate a classmate’s b’day. Both kids were exhausted by the time we handed them over to my parents.

We had a nice date night with dinner and a little shopping but we were both tired and passed out early.

Today was some much-needed kid free time. They stayed all day with my mom while we got stuff done. I cleaned my desk. We ran errands. I went for a run. Matt went mountainbiking. I got some work done.

Mom and the kids came back in time for dinner. We had homemade pizza and salad. Then it was homework time, bedtime and finally a little work before the morn.

April 8, 2013April 8, 2013

Bittersweet

In many ways it was your typically busy weekend. We had soccer, a birthday party, loads of laundry, grocery shopping, etc. But in the middle of all this normal stuff, we worked on getting my grandma’s house ready to sell as well. It’s something I haven’t discussed here, but recently my darling grandma moved into an assisted living facility. It is not an easy transition no matter when or how it happens, of course, and somehow working on the house brought it really close to home. I spent most of the day trying not to think about the bigger picture and overall, I fancy I did a pretty good job of just getting it done.

I worked on many parts of the house: the laundry room, the toy closet, my grandpa’s study, my grandparents’ bedroom. Obvious trash was thrown away but everything else was saved. An estate sale is going to happen after the house sells and mainly we had to get the personal stuff out of there. 90 years of personal stuff. I’m sure you can imagine the breadth of a long life full of “personal stuff.”

It was a bittersweet kind of day. I tried to focus on the sweet. We did find some great old photo that I hadn’t seen before. One is my grandpa, looking totally Mad Men, hanging out at his desk with a set of plans. I’m keen to use it on our company’s new website. There were also some cool fedoras, custom from the era, with my grandpa’s initials stamped inside them. Perhaps he was wearing one of them in the Mad Men photo.

I found a couple of souvenirs too. My grandma’s sewing area had about a million old spools of thread, wooden ones. I had to have just a couple. There was also this hilariously cute “Happy Home” needle book.

There were also about 10 copies of this church cookbook. Judging by the clues that I can interpret, I’m guessing it was published in the early to mid 1960s. It’s filled with typical church cookbook type recipes, but my favorite part of it is the bit on the front, where it has the following quote:

Wives who cook and
Wash the dishes
Should be granted
These Three Wishes
A grateful mate,
a well-kissed cheek
And a restaurant dinner
once a week!

Ahh the charming sexual politics of the 1960s.

Knowing what I know now, it would have been cool to bring the big camera and really document some of this stuff. But I have some snapshots and of course my memories.

March 31, 2013

Happy Easter!

For the second year in a row, the kids spent the night before Easter at my parents’ house and the Easter bunny visited them there. He left them a couple eggs filled with candy and some new soccer clothes. Matt and I slept in a bit and then kicked butt getting ready for the day. I was asked to bring my Sweet Potato Spoon Bread and so I worked on making that and then put it in the oven while I had a quick run and a shower. It was in the middle of my shower when I realized I’d forgotten the eggs. It had already cooked 40 of 60 minutes and I wasn’t sure if I could save it, but I asked Matt to whip up the three required eggs and then I tempered them and mixed them in and let it cook another 30 minutes. We were late, but the dish was saved!

We had a lovely time with our extended family. Great eats, a cute new puppy, a fun egg hunt and good company.

We were all a bit tired after the day and went home for naps and dinner and housework.

March 26, 2013

Spring Breakin’

I always have such good intentions to post stuff while I’m on vacation and it so rarely works out. We’re busy of course, but there’s also the logistics aspects … like internet connection speed. It can be enough to make you scream. Home sweet home as far as that goes. Anyhow, we’ve been gone … this week is T’s spring break so we did a long weekend in the mountains to eek out some more ski season.

This time we invited another family to join us. They are good friends, some of our camping buddies, and it’s just nice and easy to be with them. Their kids play well with ours. Conversation flows and I’m wasn’t (too) embarrassed when Ben had a meltdown in the middle of Starbucks.

We skied as a family on Friday while we waited for our friends to join us. My sister actually joined us as well which is always fun. She and the dads skied on Saturday while the moms hung with the kids. We had a great time including the Starbucks trip. In the evening, we rode the gondolas to the top of the mountain and had a lovely dinner.

The next day our friends hung around through the afternoon and then moved on to another ski resort. We stayed the rest of the day and Kelly and I skied from early afternoon to close despite the fact that it was FREEZING.

Monday we met our friends at the other ski area. Ben went to lessons and we spent the day with the older kids doing “bumps and jumps.” The photo above is the kiddos shouting “moguls!!!” after their first big mogul run (the lift riders above cheered right with them).

Anyhow, since we were with our friends, most of the photos I took this weekend (and they were a good crop) involve our friends and their kids, which of course I don’t post publicly (the above is an exception since it’s super far away and tiny and the kiddo is wearing goggles and a helmet – i.e. it could be anyone, maybe even Justin Beiber), but there were a couple of goodies sans friends.

Tabby catching snowflakes on her tongue.

Ben immediately following his Starbucks meltdown. I was so proud of him – he got himself under control in record time. He is making awesome progress.

The kids and our skis in the wagon headed back to the car after a looooong and awesome day and Matt pulling them in his scary black stormtrooper costume.

It was fun! And now back to the grind!