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Happy Birthday Matty!

mattandkidsMy 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:

  1. He is always thinking of cool things to show the kids and wants them to learn and experience.
  2. He can seriously rock a woodshop.
  3. He likes good TV.
  4. He is an excellent date.
  5. He is a super hard worker.
  6. He cleaned up two episodes of puke in the middle of the night and didn’t wake me up.
  7. He can knock out an IKEA build in record time.
  8. When I leave him with the kids, I have no doubts that they will be well taken care of and happy.
  9. He does laundry.
  10. He gets along well with my family.
  11. He is responsible with money.
  12. He is tall dark and handsome.
  13. He is an excellent friend and I love spending time with him.
  14. He always goes the extra mile.
  15. He loves Colorado.
  16. He is a grill master.
  17. He is very social and loves to have people over.
  18. He never begrudges me a girls night out.
  19. He researches every purchase to the nth degree.
  20. He loves to travel.
  21. He takes and picks up the drycleaning … there are donuts involved, but he still does it.
  22. We have a great time talking together.
  23. He is an excellent teammate and partner.
  24. He has loads of enthusiasm.
  25. He is very generous.
  26. He loves a good road trip.
  27. Ben and Tabby adore him.
  28. He has the dubious task of taking the kids to school every morning.
  29. Even without training, he can usually beat me out in a race.
  30. He is always keen to try something new.
  31. He is always keen to learn something new.
  32. He places no restrictions on Tabby because she’s a girl or Ben because he’s a boy.
  33. 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.

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Anniversary Trip

Matt and I have a fabulous history of doing very little for our anniversaries. Gifts according to the fun materials schedule? Nope. Dinners out? Err … maybe once? But this was #10 so we were determined to do something! We had to reschedule … twice … but we did finally make it on our weekend. And it was wonderful!

We headed out for Vail after dropping the kids off on Friday AM. We had lunch (sushi!) and hit the grocery store for some provisions. Then we had a lovely nap, walked around the town and did a little shopping. Then we went back to the condo and made a simple dinner and chilled out with some Netflix.

The next morning we set out for our hike! It is so rare we get to do a “real” hike these days (we’re usually greatly limited by length and terrain) and we were really excited to get out and go. We picked Nolan Lake, a reasonable hike, 6 mi round trip and punctuated by a ghost town and a couple of waterfalls.

Continue reading “Anniversary Trip”

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Happy B’day Matty

Today my is my Matty’s birthday. I try my hardest to let him know each and everyday how awesome he is and how much he means to me, but today I will stop, make a special effort and write it down.

I had no idea how lucky I was when I met him 14 years ago at the cafeteria in Rand Hall at Vanderbilt. He is my very best friend in the world and the person I share virtually everything with. We make an awesome team and compliment each others’ strengths very well. He is an amazing husband and father and we are so so lucky to have him.

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Accentuate the Positive

I don’t know if it’s hyper-sensitivity, but it seems like everywhere I look these days, I’m seeing comments about how people, specifically mommy bloggers are skewing their lives purposefully to make it look as though everything is perfect – that their kids never have tantrums and eat only organic locally sourced food and their houses are always spotless and their Christmas gifts nothing but homemade. I know these comments aren’t directed at me – I fly so far under the blogging radar with popularity they can’t be (and don’t get me wrong – I LIKE THIS) but these comments rub me the wrong way. Because, duh, if you look around my archives you will rarely find me saying a negative word about much of anything. My complaints are mainly about being busy/tired are about as deep as it gets. But there are some very good reasons why:

  1. I TRULY believe in the power of positive thinking, being, existing. I find that when I focus on the negative by writing about it, talking about it, dwelling on it, I get immersed in the negative and then it’s a positive feedback loop where I stay there. That doesn’t mean I gloss over or hide the bad stuff, but I deal with it and move on. This is the same reason why I don’t watch the news. It depresses me and I can’t really do much about it, so I focus on what I can control and do good in my own life.
  2. Complaining about the bad stuff just seems … petty. I have a damn good life. I am incredibly lucky and I know it. I have an wonderful circle of family and friends, a roof over my head, food to eat and even a job I like! Complaining about the small “first world problems” I have just seems petty. I’d rather celebrate the good stuff and be grateful for it instead of whining about the bad.
  3. This blog is not anonymous. I know probably 60% of my readers in real life, from family to friends to coworkers to clients to online friends who have become real-life friends. It’s great, but that being said, it doesn’t give you a ton of freedom to vent. And I’m not talking about inter-personal problems, necessarily. My kids and husband deserve some privacy and when everyone knows you and your family personally I’m not about to share private details of our lives that they’d rather I keep to myself. It’s not fair.

But just to make you feel better, some (negative) truths:

  1. I have been fighting to lose the same 10 lbs for what seems like years now. Really it’s months. Up 5 lbs, down 7 lbs, up 4 lbs, down 2 lbs. Over and over. It’s maddening and I am the only person to blame for it as I really like food way too much.
  2. My house is never clean. Ever. It is not filthy – we have someone come clean it every other week and I clean our kitchen every night, but I wage a constant battle on most other fronts. There is always too much clutter. The laundry is never done and I don’t just mean in the way that we’re wearing clothes that are currently getting dirty. I mean I usually have a load in the dryer that needs folded and a couple hanging around that are folded but haven’t been put away and frankly may never be put away. I don’t iron ANYTHING. My windows have been washed only once in the almost 8 years we’ve lived in the house and it was only the first floor ones when we painted and I didn’t even do it, my dad did.
  3. I yell at my kids. I try not to, but sometimes I do. I get impatient with them when they take too long to do things sometimes. I know it isn’t fair and I try hard to curb my reactions, but I do not always succeed. I am also LOUSY at playing make believe with them. Games? Cooking? Crafting? Yes. Playing pretend? Absolute crap. Bores me to tears. I also hate singing the same song 50 thousand times in a row. I will also occasionally put them to bed early because I am tired myself and/or I have something to do that they cannot interrupt.
  4. Loki is neglected. He gets fed, he has a small yard to play in, but he rarely goes on walks and the only time he gets bathed is when he goes to the vet to be boarded when we’re out of town. I try to make up for it with  snuggles and hiking and camping trips, but honestly, he is farther down on my priority list than I want him to be.
  5. My personal grooming is limited to clean clothes, neat hair, tinted moisturizer and lip gloss. That is all. Sometimes I feel like I should change this, but once again with the priority list.
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2012 Resolutions

Isn’t this poster cute? I saw it on Pinterest and I may just have to buy it. It made me think about New Years’ Resolutions. I like them and almost always make them, even if I usually forget about them and don’t really make a very big deal about them. They flip a switch in my mind …. something to work towards and I find them useful.

My resolutions for 2011 were:

 

  • work on our grocery budget, specifically by using what we ALREADY HAVE – I will give myself a C on this … I improved in some ways, but not nearly as much as I would have liked.
  • running goals: a 5K under 28, a 10K under an hour and a half marathon under 2:15, 800 miles overall – did great with this, meeting all my race/time goals, though my mileage was quite a bit less, I feel like I worked hard at it
  • improve my general strength and specifically core strength – goal accomplished, thanks to Boot Camp!
  • read 60+ books again, mix in more non-fiction – I kind of forgot about the non-fiction part, but I hit my 60 book goal easily and read some really great stuff

So for 2012 my resolutions are:

  • running: sub 2 hr half marathon, 800 miles for the year – many people run much more than this, but this seems reasonable given my schedule
  • organization: whip my forever-messy “office” into usable shape
  • stick to our enlarged grocery budget and be in the black on our overall budget – I added some more $$ into the grocery budget because we couldn’t seem to get close to sticking to it last year; I want to try harder to see if we can this go-around
  • complete my cookbook challenge – details to come tomorrow
  • have a REAL date with Matt once a month – we do great at getting out on our own, but too often we’re working on a project; I want to be able to relax and watch a movie and have a nice meal here and there
  • have more fun family outings on the weekends – more play, less work … with the kids too; even if it’s just going to the pool or the zoo

2011 was good to us – we are truly blessed and grateful. I look forward to the promise of 2012 and intend to work hard to make it another wonderful year.

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To The One I Love …

Nine years ago today, I walked on the arm of my handsome father down an aisle to be formally bonded to the man of my dreams.

He is not perfect, but he is perfect for me. An awesome husband. A wonderful dad. An amazing friend.

Wow. I am so lucky.

Nine years of fun and laughter and the occasional tear and squabble. Nine years of projects and recipes. Nine years of trips and lazy weekends. Nine years of holding hands.

Grow old with me … the best is yet to be. Cheers to 9 years … and many many more.

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Pop-Up Camping

My husband, in certain lights, greatly resembles a pit bull. No, not in looks, but in tenacity. I guess it’s the hunter in him – the single minded must get the mammoth sort of roots. It is a fine quality in many regards. I’m sure it serves him well at work and in hobbies. But there is one arena in which it is kind of irritating to deal with.

Large purchases. When Matt is desirous of something (and he always is, serially), he researches it within an inch of its life. He weighs pros and cons. He gets opinions from all who have opinions to offer and he discusses it with me ad nauseum.

Obviously this has its benefits. He makes good decisions. But the interim can be a bit hard to live with. I will frequently make moratoriums when I can’t stand it anymore and he won’t be allowed to talk to me about it for a day or face my wrath. I have also cut deals with the devil and acquiesced to a purchase with the understanding that I don’t have to hear about tools or cars or whatever for a certain period of time (and he is also not allowed to purchase them).

Right now he is latched on to pop-up trailers. It’s a subject we go back and forth on. I love the look and function of tear-drop trailers and would love in many ways to have one, but storage space and cost prevent me. We both like the idea of being able to more easily camp with the family; having a setup that would hold all our gear and bedding so we just have to add food and clothes for a weekend away is super appealing. But tear-drops are very expensive. You can build your own, but it’s a big process that might be fun if we had a bit more time, but we don’t. And it’s still expensive. They also generally only sleep two, though you can find some that sleep four. Once again, expensive.

Pop-up campers are a natural because they do this but at a more reasonable price and in addition they also sleep more people than a tear-drop or small travel trailer. Some will even fit in our garage. So we’ve looked at new ones. Matt has been scouring Craigslist. And we’ve been talking about it for a few weeks. Spending a big chunk of change always puts me on edge, but part of me is tempted because we would like to camp more and this is a good way to do it and it would also put this whole thing to rest. Only slightly kidding.

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A Long Strange Trip

So a funny thing happened on the way to the airport. Well I guess technically it was the days leading up to our flight. Matt’s stepmom mentioned something about our flight being at 10AM. I knew it was a morning flight and this seemed about right to me, though I thought it was a smidge earlier. But when we checked in online and printed our boarding passes the night before both Matt and I looked at our flight times and sure enough … right there it said 10:49am.

Upon arriving at the airport, we tried to log in and check our bags and got errors. The clerk informed us after some back-and-forth that our flight was actually at 9 AM and we had just missed (by minutes, I swear!!) our cutoff for putting our luggage on the flight, and ourselves as well it seems. No amount of cajoling, crying, etc. mattered. We could NOT get on that flight. Since we’d already checked in and it was just a matter of our bags, it was pretty irritating, especially since, as I noted later, they’re happy for your bags to be on a different flight if it suits them, but if you make the mistake, you are screwed.

Quadrupling our mistake was the fact that we were 1) a family of four 2) flying on a holiday weekend. Standby was not much of an option since they predicted they could get us on basically one at a time, maybe two. And the idea of hanging out in the airport all weekend to see who stupidly missed their flight (like us) with two little kids already at the end of their vacation rope was not much appealing. We could also pay fare-difference and fly as a family on Monday for around $600, but as we were already packed up and ready to go, heading back to Matt’s parents’ house, unpacking, etc. etc. was pretty depressing, especially since we’d miss the whole weekend and all the time we needed to get ready to go back to work.

We checked out other airlines which were either entirely unavailable or ridiculous (thousands for us to fly on such short notice, one-way). So we hit on a slightly crazy idea … rent a car and drive back. For around $400 (though I think once all fees, etc. were paid, it was closer to $500) we could rent a car, drive back and be home the next day. It wasn’t a cheaper option, but it was in many ways a more palatable option. We’ve done the trip many times before and it’s all easy-interstate. Everything was packed and we could just go from the airport and head out.

So … we did. We did a long stop-over in Paducah, KY for lunch at a Chick-fil-A with a play center and a stop at Walmart for various other provisions. $90 netted us a portable DVD player with two screens and that plus the $10 copy of Scooby Doo, Where are You?? we picked up, plus some various other bribes, kept the kids happy for MANY hours. We grabbed some road-trip food and an insulated bag so we had snacks. We made stops here and there for traffic and gas and … POTTY/diaper breaks.

We made our best time after rush hour and when the kids were sleeping, so we pushed through to Hays, KS and stayed at the dubious Days Inn, home of the worst shower I’ve ever had. The next day after our continental breakfast and another 5 hours in the car, we finally made it to the Denver International Airport and returned our car.

Matt and I are both still FLOORED at how amazing the kids were. Of course possibly watching mommy lose her sh*t in the Nashville Airport impressed upon them the gravity of the situation. Or maybe they were so engrossed in Scooby Doo they just didn’t care. But they were amazingly good. The road trip overall was kind of fun in a weird way. It felt sort of like we were back in college again and someone had dropped two unsuspecting children into our back seat.

Of course it’s much easier to be Zen about all this now, but we definitely made some lemonade and dealt with the situation pretty well. As we kept saying, it could have been much worse. We decided there were four people on standby who needed to get to Denver for whatever reason much more urgently than us. And we’ve got 4 flight credits on Frontier for our next trip. That said, not something I’m keen to do again in a big hurry.

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A Day in the Life

Fridays are my “day off” … day off from office work that is. I had an extremely busy yet pretty typical day on Friday and I wanted to write it down for posterity’s sake something, perhaps, to show the kids when they are parents of young children.

6 AM – Wake up and hop right on the treadmill. Hopping “right on” actually involves about 15-20 minutes of eye-rubbing, yawning, stretching, dressing and setup (fans, TV). Make it a paltry 5 of the 12K I have on the schedule.

6:45 AM – Hop off the treadmill and drag Matt out of bed, dress the kids, hand them some toast and hit the road. While on the road, I make a doctor’s appt for Ben since he STILL has the darn cough. That pretty much eliminates all possibility of going to the gym with Matt as planned.

7:30 AM – Drop Matt’s car off at the dealership for floor-mat recall and oil change.

8:10 AM – Check in at the clinic for Ben’s appointment. Children persist in touching everything in site and I imagine germs crawling all over them.

8:20 AM – Appointment begins with weigh-in. He has finally gained a teeny bit of weight (1 lb). Kids drive us nuts in the exam room. They have chosen to store the IV poles in the corner (who thought THAT was a good idea?).

8:30 AM NP arrives. I’m pretty sure she thinks our kids are out of control. Tabby won’t stop talking and Ben won’t stop climbing. After all the cursory exams, we leave about 20 min later with a script for amoxycillin and a diagnosis of sinusitis.

8:50 AM I send Ben and Matt to the car to wait while Tabby and I wait on Ben’s script at the clinic pharmacy. We pass the time by playing word and math games. “What letter does Amoxycillin start with? Which is a better deal – 100 claratin for $15 or 50 Claratin for $10?”

9:00 AM We exit the clinic with Ben’s bottle o’ pink in hand.

9:10 AM Arrive at the nearby Target and QUICKLY execute my shopping list for our weekend away.

9:50 AM Arrive home and see that Loki has dispatched the remainder of our almost new loaf of bread. Curse under my breath and then hop on the treadmill again while the kids destroy the playroom. I execute another 5K, bringing my total for the day to 10/12K. Good enough!

Continue reading “A Day in the Life”

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Happy Birthday to My Hubby!!

It is so hard to believe that when I met my husband he was a mere 18 years old. Wow. Is that possible? Let me do the math real quick … YES. He was 18 years old and it was our first semester of college. Today he turns 31.

Everything I loved about him from the beginning: his incredible energy and enthusiasm for life, his keen intellect, and his oh-so-caring nature is all still there. And 12 years has brought even more to love. He gets major props for being a great husband and father. He is my true partner, involved in almost every aspect of our life together from housework to home improvement to projects to leisure activities. And you’d be hard-pressed to find a more involved father; he truly knows our kids and loves to be with them.

Happy birthday, Matty! Thanks so much for all you are and all you do.