Author: jesser

Saturday night, as I mentioned, I met up with my moms group. Most of the moms in the group are stay-at-home moms and the subset that I met up with that night, with the exception of one (who works about 10 hours/wk), were all SAHMs. We had a decent amount of time to chat before the show and it was weird, but most of the moms seemed to think that being a working mom (especially one with varied interests and a balanced-ish life) was impossible (or the next-door neighbor to it). And while I agree that it ain't easy, it's certainly not impossible. So I've been reflecting since then … how do I get things done? Here's what I've come up with:

• firstly, I have an amazing “support system” – a term which seems inadequate to describe Matt and our family and friends. Matt is a completely hands-on dad who pulls his weight with Tabby and household chores and is incredibly supportive and respectful of my need for time to get a few things accomplished. My parents and sister and extended family are thrilled to babysit while Matt and I have a date or just come over and watch Tabby so Matt and I can garden. And, for example, when our babysitter was off for a week, everyone from our friends to Matt's brother (who's still in college) pitched in to watch her for us so we could work.
• the kind of job I have – I have a great job and a great boss where I am free (within reason) to create my own hours … I need to be there most of the work week during most of the day, and sometimes if a big project hits, I'll be at work late for a few days, but I can also take work home sometimes and pick and choose my hours somewhat (as long as I meet my 40 hours for the week) to cater to the other arenas of my life and beyond that, I am able to get a few personal things done at work … I'm not talking egregious expenditures of company time for my personal crap, but I can get a few moments to make a phone call, send an email, update a list, take a deep breath, etc. without a cute little girl climbing on my lap Continue reading “How DO I do it??”

• that's where we hiked on Sunday … worth every step, I think
• miss Tabby woke up before I left this morning and I got loads of baby kisses and some snuggles … makes your day
• finished Eat, Pray, Love … great book, very enjoyable and interesting
• my swim suits from Athleta showed up … and I actually like one of them! and it's not even the one I thought I'd end up liking
• we watched The Other Boleyn Girl last night and enjoyed it very much
• the Sims 2 has a new expansion pack coming out in late August … apartments! nevermind I haven't even touched the game in over a month … I must have it
• Tabby is talking up a storm! mimicking things we say and coming out of left field with this and that and cracking us up … she learned to say “papa” just in time for father's day
• I'm loving Cozi, a family calendar and list site … incorporates mobile text alerts and email reminders … pretty cool
• did y'all hear there's going to be another Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie??
• Super Smash Brothers is pretty fun
• tomorrow the garbage men are going to take away a ton of crap that we hauled to the curb tonight

Bah. Somehow half of my photos didn't upload to flickr yesterday and I do not have the energy to do anything about it right now.

All the hiking really caught up to me today. I could hardly drag myself out of bed and I was practically nodding off at my desk. I came home and took an hour-long nap (probably could have done longer) before I went to pick up Tabby from her sitter's. The hike must have gotten to her too since she took a 2-hour nap (practically unheard of for her).

We took the way easy way out with dinner tonight and made pigs in a blanket … using vegetarian hot dogs. I still have no idea what's in them but I'm not so worried about the answer … hehe. Fortunately, we have a pretty laid back week without many demands on our time. I'm anxious to get some time to relax and get a few things done around here. Laundry for example.

It's just been crazy busy around here. It feels like we go almost non-stop these days. Here's a sampling:

• I'm in the middle of reading Eat, Pray, Love. I've got another book to read for work, but I refuse to put down (turn off) Eat Pray Love until I'm done. Awesome book.
• Our CSA shares are finally supposed to start this week. Hope we get something good after this wait!
• Tabby is such a little person these days. She talks non-stop and we're getting more and more discernable words and phrases every day. “There it is!” is her newest. Cracks me up!
• I finally joined a nice mom's group. It's still hard for me to make events, but the organizer is letting me be a co-organizer and put some things together for weekends and evenings! We're going to the comedy club this Sat.
• The garden is doing … OK. It's sort of rallied since the hail and we even have quite a few teeny tomatoes on the vines. But my butternut squash (2 plants) are dead. It's one of my favorite veggies, so we plan to get more. My dill and chives are taking off like crazy! (more details here)
• Father's Day is this Sunday already!! I'm doing pretty well though and have gifts purchased (mostly). Just need to send off my FIL's gift. It wil probably be late because I doubt it's making it out today. I also have the meal all planed, thanks to Everyday food: Father's Day Feast AND two types of bar cookies (rocky road brownies and creamy lemon squares).
• Just ordered swimming suits from Athleta. I looked high and low but couldn't find one I liked in any store in town … that I could, y'know … TRY ON (granted, I'm probably being a bit overly picky, but my boobs have specific requirements!). So catalog it was. I hope I like one of them!!
• Tabby and I have been dancing to the goofy French Playground CD every night before bed. She loves it.
• Watched the most AWFUL (and therefore fascinating) episode of Supernanny last night!! These parents had their 14 and 17 year olds raising their little brothers (4-yo twins and a 3-yo), homeschooling themselves AND doing all of the housework. They weren't allowed to go out at night unless all their chores were done and their parents constantly criticized them. Wanted to reach through the screen several times and throttle these “adults.”

That's it for me! Happy hump-day, y'all.

Ahhh… another weekend gone. At least it was a good one. Friday I got off work a bit early and headed off to FINALLY get my hair cut. Yay. There's a salon very near my house so I just had them get me an appointment with someone there. Luckily, I really liked her and think she did a great job. It's sort of a bob, but a bit longer. Probably doing a bad job of describing it. They also did a parafin dip on my hands while I was getting my cut. That was cool too. Then I went to pick up Tabby and we got to spend the whole afternoon together. We went to lunch at Panera (I had a salad, she had a PBJ) and then we went to pick up food for dinner. As an extra fun thing, we stopped at a really neat toy shop and played with lots of cool toys and I bought her a neat CD of French music.

Then we went home and got Tabby ready for her evening out. I took her over to my parents' house where she spent the night. They went out to our favorite Italian restaurant from when I was little and played and had pancakes in the morning. I hear it was fabulous.

Meanwhile, Matt arrived home from his business trip and we had a very nice date night in. We had salmon dip with pita chips to start and grilled steaks and vegetables and roasted potatoes for dinner. For dessert we roasted marshmallows on our fire pit and made s'mores. We hung out around the fire pit for a long long time, talking and drinking wine. It was a great evening. One I'd be happy to repeat any time.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name? Jess
2. What is your favorite food? strawberries (today anyhow)
3. What high school did you go to?
Wheat Ridge High (the corresponding photo is of the Wheat Ridge Grange)
4. What is your favorite color? green! (the apple was the prettiest shade of green supplied)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Richard Blais (one of the guys on Top Chef)
6. Favorite drink? Sidecar (a drink made with lemon juice, brandy and contreau)
7. Dream vacation? Japan (though I only typed in Japan, when the image of the vending machines came up, I had to use it … because that is a big part of what I want to do if I were to go there … photograph vending machines)
8. Favorite dessert? chocolate peanut butter
9. What you want to be when you grow up? teacher (this is what I wanted to be when I was little)
10. What do you love most in life?
family (I loved the family of ugly dolls!)
11. One Word to describe you – silly (a silly cow? don't ask me )
12. Your Flickr name. Jesser (the photo was a trip to NYC with someone named Jesser) Continue reading “Flickr Mosaic Meme”

Ok, so apparently while I was at work today, minding my own business, mother nature decided to hurl ice cubes at my garden. And I'm rather ticked off at her. I don't know how extensive the damage is yet, but I am hoping not too bad … oy. I am home now and it is thundering ominously.

What else is going on? Just been your average busy week. Tabby has been hilariously tired when she gets home from daycare in the evenings. She went to bed at 6 PM one night this week (though we probably could have put her in bed around 5) and today she fell asleep in my car on the way home and I brought her in and put her on a blanket on the floor of our family room and she has proceeded to nap for about 30 min now. She gets so worn out playing outside and refusing take naps and all.

Oh … CSA update. The hippies called to say that the problem is that we're not on their email list. Our blasted cool weather this year has caused them to postpone first pickup two weeks (until June 12th). I'm not THRILLED about the lack of communication, but at least there was a halfway decent reason. Oh … the reason that we're not on their email list? That would be because I could never get their crappy website to create me an account and they never answered my voicemail on the subject. Patience. Ohm.

Oh yea … and Continue reading “Hail and Oher Miscellany”