I love having a little girl.

Not to rub it in for those of you who have boys. I love my son. But I am lovin' my little girl right now.

Look at how coy she can be...

Then the grin breaks through...

She is perfecting her "what me?" look here.

But it's that grin... that little girl grin.

And she loves her puppy dog too.

Grapes, grapes and more grapes

We started harvesting our Merlot grapes this evening. Started... it is only one vine, but we have been inundated! No plums, not many cherries, but we got the grapes!

Skadi... not so sure about these things...

Oooh! Sweeeet!

I had to bribe him for this picture. He didn't want to hold THESE grapes. Not the ones *I* picked.

Nope, he wanted to hold THESE grapes. The ones HE picked.

Finally we reached a compromise:

Now... what to do with all these grapes. They will become juice tomorrow. I know, those clusters don't look like that much. I am talking about the bucket off to the side that I (foolishly) didn't take a picture of and the remaining bunches left on the vines ready to come off when I am feeling like it this weekend.

A day

AB convinced me to take the day off. Take the day off and drop the kids at daycare/preschool.

He did great at convincing me, I cleared my schedule. Then *I* dictated the task list.

Paint. We painted and painted.

AB went and picked up paint this morning after dropping the kids (while I ran on the treadmill - love that thing - and then started taping off the bathroom). After the drop off he went to Home Depot and came home with paint AND a power roller. Figuring that at minimum we have the Master Bath to paint, our hallway to the garage and *maybe* (if you talk to AB) but *certainly* (if you talk to me) the Master Bedroom, and more likely we will be painting the interior of a new home eventually.

We worked our tail off in the bathroom and got a good amount done, probably 2/3's done?

Leif thinks we just started destroying the room for some reason and hopes we might plan to put it back together someday so he can take a "Big Bath".

After we were completely sick of painting we cleaned up and AB kept his promise to take me out to lunch.

Lunch ended up being about 3:30pm and we were a touch crunched for time to get the kids. Tagaris has a freaky limited menu between lunch and dinner and so we ventured to Bookwalter and drank wine and ordered plates after plates of tapa style and antipasto plates.

We were starved.

And we never go out just the two of us anymore. We had to live it up.

And their wines were quite tastey.

It was a good day off, well worth my 8 hour expenditure.

Daddy's girl

Skadi has a voice that carries. She isn't a soft, meek child. She belts out exactly what she wants.

And most of the time, exactly what she wants is "DADA!"

A few recent evenings when I have been putting her to sleep she pops up and asks for daddy. She is quite insistant that he come in and put her to bed.

The other day when we met some of AB's work friends at the river he took off on a jetski with Leif. She sat on deck of the boat yelling for "DADA" much of the time he was gone.

This morning she brought me the telephone, handed it to me and said, "dada". (She didn't scream it thankfully.)

I called AB and then made a fatal flaw... I didn't immediately hand the phone back to her, I talked to AB. She let out a wail then and AB was certain I was phoning to tell him what a horrible morning I was having. Actually I wasn't. It was a good morning, until I didn't surrender the phone immediately.

She told him what a cow says, what a pig says, babbled a little and then said, "dada" a few times.

I think AB's heart has been stolen.

Shopping bug

I have had a little shopping thing going on the past few weeks. It all started with my girls trip to Colorado. I successfully reigned myself in there knowing that whatever I bought had to be carried back in my one bag or in a carry on.



I suppose I have recently felt the need to make up for my lack of clothes shopping there. Or maybe it is just the fall bug that hits me screaming "buy new clothes!" Is it a leftover issue I carry with my from childhood? It's time to start school again, so we buy new clothes! Or is it just my lack of desire to wear the clothes I wore last year?



And for the first time in my life I am having closet storage issues. I suppose I should purge my clothes before buying new.



My favorite online store ever, Sundance, is having a clearance sale. The clothes arrived Saturday, so now I can officially rave, now that I know I don't need to go back and buy more. Pants that were made for me. Seriously. Or at least they feel that way.



Then my partner in shopping enabling sent me a link to some cute shirts at Sierra.



And I finally got the swimsuit from Athleta that I ordered at the end of July, enabling courtesy of V there. Not Athleta's fault the original suit never arrived, apparently the suit just had grander plans of wandering around West Richland instead of actually landing at my house.



I am trying to resist a pair of Merrell Plaza Bandeau's that I swear are phoning me as I type.



The temperature here has dropped recently and so all those cute strappy sundresses and sleeveless tops I bought for my daughter have a finite lifetime. My shopping bug did not stop with me. Gymboree's Circle of Friends sale saved me from having to pay full price for fall clothes for her and also filled my Gymbucks bank up again.



And apprently she is also going to need new shoes soon. We will have to see if I can pry the Keen's from her feet. There might be tears involved.



Leif is fully stocked on fall clothes since his growth is ridiculously predictable and I stocked up on clearance stuff for him last spring. He did however, score new shoes a week or so ago as well as browsed the PBKids catalog last night and put in requests for Star Wars sheets and the butterfly Halloween costume. (Over the shark... seriously.)



My husband? Shopping for him? He looks at me a little blankly when I asked him if he needed anything while I just so happened to be placing an order at Sierra. His response? I need new insoles for my shoes. I suppose it's good he balances me out a little.

It's on!

Sunday, August 31, 2008


Colorado St. vs Colorado

Sun 08/31, 4:30pm PDT

GO CU!

My real issue with the dentist

You know by now that I have a long history with dentists. Extractions, a head gear, a bionator, braces, retainers, and two sets of bridges later... well you can understand my loathing of the dentist. Today I had an old amalgam filling replaced that had seen better days.

Amalgam... must have been REALLY old since amalgam is one of my husband's annoyances. Before we were even married he insisted we pay extra for the composite fillings. Now they are just standard thankfully, but he mentions pretty regularly (like tonight) our need to get all our amalgam fillings replaced with composite. But I digress.

I am used to the routine. I am used to the smells, the grinding, the shots in the roof of my mouth, the gagging x-rays... You get the idea. I am used to it.

I actually don't have poor quality teeth as far as decay (thankfully). My issues go to placement of teeth and lack of teeth in the right places.

I don't particularly like any of the above listed things, but I am used to them.

What really bugs me about the dentist?

Having that dang plastic backed napkin thing against my neck.

My hygienist at least folds it so the raw edge isn't against my neck, tickling and annoying the crap out of me. But the folded edge isn't that much better.

As the dentist works I have learned to hold the napkin down so it doesn't rub against my apparently ultra-sensitive neck. I am sure the think me a little nuts when they have to yank it out of my hands to wipe some random tool on it.

There, now that that is off my chest (pun intended) I can go to bed.

The monthly goals

So back at the first of the year I decided that my "resolutions" would be monthly goals instead. I would tackle one room a month working my way around the house to get the house ready to sell, collect items for garage sale and also an attempt at organization.

Summers are horribly busy for us and so starting in May I decided I would have a summer goal to tackle my Master Suite.

Summer is all but over and weather is even starting to cool significantly here, but last weekend I spent a good portion of the day working in the Master bathroom.

AB has a substantial portion of this task as well as he has to replace some trim, do a little plaster work where we had a bit of water damage from a leaky shower and then the joint task is to paint.

When I told AB I wanted to get moving on my bathroom goal this last weekend I never expected him to actually start and that he would be the one prompting me to get out and buy paint on Sunday (while I was hoping for a day of quiet mulling around the house). He had afterall cut the trim for install on Friday and was chomping at the bit to get that in apparently.

We decided on colors in record time. A cocoa brown with an antique white. We went and bought quarts. Then I diverted us over to Target to pick up a few more organizational items for the bathroom.

Sunday afternoon AB suggested we "slap" some paint on the wall to confirm we like the colors. (Our routine after a near miss with orange in the kitchen that turned out to be carnation pink in the sunlight.) Leif got to help... which means I followed with a wet washcloth since we hadn't actually put down drop cloths yet. An hour later and the ceiling of the toilet/shower area as well as one wall was painted.

I am loving the colors. It matches our tile and ugly needs-to-be-replaced linoleum.

I even think AB has convinced me to take Friday off from work so that we can tackle the room together and finish it completely that day sans kiddos and get it done - still leaving us our 3-day Labor Day weekend. My caveat to taking that day is that he has to take me out to lunch somewhere fabulous.

In the meantime I am left wondering what has come over my husband.

Once the painting is done I need to spray paint a few shelves that are now cedar colored, white that I will return to the wall, return items to their places and my Master bathroom, closet and linen closet (that I finished on Sunday) will be complete! Pictures after next weekend

Master bedroom will be September... it's still warm in September... I am not that far behind schedule.

Putting the pieces together

The past few months Leif's new teachers have been working hard at assessing him. He is a young second year preschooler and an older first year preschooler. Given these constraints they have worked hard to figure out exactly where he falls, where he might be having problems and to get to the roots of some of the issues we have been seeing.

I admit that I feel like I am wandering around in the dark right now. I have never had a little boy, never been a little boy, never even grown up around little boys. AB and I kept saying, "he's just a typical four year old boy".

However, Leif's teachers interact with a lot more four year old little boys than me (thankfully) and they didn't seem quite so convinced.

His teacher recently noted a few things in her testing of him. When looking at things, Leif needs to touch them. He is a very "sensoral" child. Leif also recently started refusing to do particular work like finger tracing and counting small items. I have had a number of recent conversations with his teachers in an effort to try and figure out if this is just immaturity or some sort of attention deficit (to which I cringed). As a first path forward, she suggested an eye exam.

To this point Leif has not had an eye exam as we never really saw the need. He has eagle eyes and can spot things far away quite well. I scheduled the exam so I could knock off one check mark.

This morning at 9:30am we went into the eye doctor. I never quite understand what optometrists are doing as they flip the lenses around and look. He could identify the top level of characters, but was hit or miss with the second level. I thought it was just obstinance, honestly.

They ended up going back and dilating his eyes, which maybe should have been my tipoff.

It wasn't.

At the end of the exam when the optometrist announced that he was quite farsighted, a touch nearsighted and had a stigmatism I think my jaw was on the floor. I remember saying, "seriously?"

She went on to explain that he falls into a very stereotypical category for this age group and that his teacher was spot on for sending him for an eye exam for his apparent lack of attention. She said it was textbook symptoms, a lack of interest in anything involving small work, writing and drawing. (Remember all those times I whined about my son refusing to color??)

Suddenly it all clarified.

Well not "all" but we are on track.

She handed me a lens to look through that would simulate one aspect of how Leif is seeing. Basically that things float in and out of focus very easily and it is really hard work for him to keep things in focus.

I took him out to the very limited section of little kid glasses. I was given a choice of one pair... a butt fugly plastic pair with big 270 degree circle bows so they stay on. Maybe I should have accepted that pair... but the plastic was a turn off - yes I like my plastic frames, but Leif needs durability.

When I turned my nose up the tech said that I could opt for another pair with a seperately purchased band that would keep them on his face. I picked a small pair of titanium flex metal frames and a pair of black sunglasses (sunglass frames were free, pay for the lenses deal) so he can be just like mommy.

I am still shocked my little boy was having that much trouble seeing all this time!

Recent pictures...

My boys.

My boy.

Singing "Row Row Row Your Boat" (got me...)

"You weren't by chance playing in the fire pit were you?"

Playing dress up.

Steamboat Springs

This trip for me was a blast from the past in many ways.


Steamboat Springs, Colorado is one of the places where my husband and I spent a lot of our free time in college and just before leaving Colorado. It holds a special fondness in my heart. I remember long rambling hikes with my then boyfriend (now husband). I remember Strawberry Park Hot Springs at night with him - someday I would like to see it during the day. Fish Creek Falls hikes. The quintessential mountain town.


I remember when AB thought seriously about taking a job as a chemistry tech there right out of college. I feared losing him to some snow bunny. The lure of a mountain ski town was strong for AB, but he couldn't get his head around the low ball offer the company made him... an offer that he could have easily surmounted by washing dishes in any restaurant up there.


I also remember visiting before we left Colorado 12 years ago and seriously considering buying a plot of land for $40,000 with the intention of it being an investment. Maybe someday we would build a cabin on the land, we dreamed (not having even talked about marriage). But it seemed like so much money at the time. We killed the idea skeptical we would have the opportunity to return to the area.


Wow I wish we would have jumped on that back then.


Steamboat is growing up quickly as a competitor to the big I-70 ski areas. "The Mountain" was full of construction of new condos and hotels. However, Steamboat is also still struggling to maintain its "low-key" mountain town feel as big money moves in.


I flew into the little town of Hayden, Colorado. I was the second off the small plane and my bag rolled off second in baggage claim and within minutes VargasGirl and I were out of there in her green VW bug.


The next 48 hours were a mix of shopping, laughing, wine drinking, eating, talking, soaking in hot water and shopping.


Twelve years has changed me as well.


I shopped for my kids. (Leif got an AquaZooka, a t-shirt and a pocket kite. Skadi got a purse with a horse in it that she sings "row row row your boat" to as she rocks the purse back and forth - just like she does as she rides her rocking horse. She also got a pair of ladybug earrings - just like the ones I had that were my first earrings - that I have put away for when she has pierced ears many years from now.)


I turned away seeing random nakedness at Strawberry Park and had absolutely no intention of doffing my swimsuit. (12 years ago I thought it odd someone would leave their suits on.)


I had money to spend. (A statement of 12 years ago here can just be assumed. I remember scraping together money to pay for a cheap hotel room with my boyfriend.)


I didn't walk by stores laughing about who might possibly shop in a store like *that*. Instead I saw possibilities... VargasGirl wanted cowgirl boots? Then you go to the boot store! (She didn't buy any... she instead succumbed to my ravings about Danskos.)


We sat in restaurants sipping wine (amazingly mostly Washington wines).

We went to bed by 11pm. Or at least I did the second night. We were up by 7am. Talk wasn't about music or clubs or college classes. It was about my kids, dogs and our relationships.

Time has mellowed us, but truth be told I didn't miss what I was. In a way I missed what Steamboat was, aside from the fact that most of the fantastic restaurants weren't there 12 years ago. I relished in what we have become, the wisdom we have gained, the loves we have gained, the experiences that have opened our eyes to the beauty around us. I relished in the love of having women near me who bring richness to my life.

A new aspect of project management

Today my client e-mailed me about her upcoming trip to our site. She told me that she has hit a minor bump in that school doesn't start for another two weeks, her husband has to work and wondered if it was possible for her to bring her 8 year old daughter to our site for her meetings.


Immediately my admin and I started scrambling to find a solution. We are still working the situation whether it be moving the meeting offsite, moving the meeting to a public room if one is available, getting her a babysitter or her using our onsite daycare, which I found out is $8 an hour and they would be thrilled to have her even though school will have already started here... she could "help" in the preschooler room during the school hours until the school age children return.


To me it was a no brainer, let's figure out how to make this work for her.


Later I thought about what it took for her to bring this up.


For me, this would have been something I would have stressed about and then worried about bringing up to the people I was visiting. I mentioned to my coworker that I was happy the client felt she could bring this up to me.


I hope that the solutions I presented to her are well thought through from another mom's point of view. I fully understand that she may have to cancel based off this situation. In which case, we will go about business as usual on those days and will reschedule when convenient to her family schedule.


My coworker said "it is amazing what we will do for a few million".


Nope, it's what I would do for another mom.

Trying not to rub it in...

This weekend I get to...

-get on an airplane with only my purse and a book.
-check only one bag on the airplane.
-read an entire book or two (hey, I have to find something good about the 3.5 hours layover).
-go to a restaurant.
-not worry about whether the restaurant is kid friendly.
-order whatever I want at a restaurant and not something a child *might* be willing to eat.
-drink more than half a glass of wine at a restaurant.
-shop.
-shop with one of my three favorite shopping partners.
-sleep a whole night through without wandering through the house and convincing a small child to go back to sleep.
-sleep in.
-swim without someone clinging to me.
-stay up late chatting and giggling.
-stay up late without counting the number of hours till the first child will wake.

Seriously though... I look at that list and remind myself how worth it every single one of those sacrafices is in my life. I wouldn't change a thing. And while I am doing every single one of those things I will be thanking my wonderful husband, hoping the kids aren't giving him TOO bad of a time, trying not to call every hour to check on them, and thinking about them the entire time.

Oh and just something that cracked me up... I was checking in for my flight online and wondered what a "special item" was when asked if I would be checking a special item.

Special items include:
Overweight bags: Bags over 50 lbs
Oversize bags: Bags over 62 inches (when you total the length + width + height)
Baby items: Stroller, child restraint seats
Assistive devices: Wheelchair
Sporting equipment: Bicycle, ski equipment, parachute, surfboard, windsurf board, scuba tank
Fragile/bulky items: Saddle, antlers, Hawaiian pineapples, military duffle bags

Those just cracked me up. No, not checking a parachute, a saddle, antlers or Hawaiian pineapples... sorry VargasGirl... I know you were hoping to be able to haul a pair of antlers in your car... you know... just to say you have done it and all...

Located the lost Croc

Before we went to Alaska, one of Leif's blue Crocs went missing.

He was horribly disappointed not to have it for Alaska. I searched the house all over. I searched under every bed, went through every box of toys, lifted up the couch and the cushioins. It was gone. No idea where it was.

I had been debating buying him another pair of Crocs or just continuing to say "well we need to find yours" whenever he lamented about all his friends having Crocs except him through the rest of the summer. (Seriously now... since when did boys become that concerned with their shoes? And it isn't just Leif!)

It had to be somewhere... right?

Well of course it could have gotten left or dropped out of any number of bags... which was why I had nearly given up hope.

Then this morning I happened to glance up on top of the wooden shelves attached to his wall. The ones I can't see on top of.

A peek of blue...

Now I know *I* wouldn't have put a single Croc up there, neither would AB.

That means that it HAD to have been launched by one person in this house.

Wouldn't it have just been a lot easier to just TELL me, "mommy I threw my Croc and it landed on the shelf and didn't come down" then to whine about the missing Croc for MONTHS?

One little whine...

Software updates. Hate them.

So MS Office 2007 has just been approved for use where I work. For some reason I hesitated in downloading the upgrade when it was approved.

And now I am quite glad I did!

I used MS Project to edit a file for my client. Finished it, closed it, sent it back. Turns out the copy of MS Project I had available to me was 2007. Her copy is 2003. No biggie, I tell her, download the patch. (Seriously now, who makes updated software that doesn't recognize former or future file types without a patch? Shouldn't this just be automatically incorporated that your file will be recognized by prior versions?)

Unfortunately her organization will not allow downloads of any patches. So she was unable to read my edits. Enter her actually having to go purchase a copy of MS Project 07 to put on her personal computer at home (since it is not accepted by her organization yet) to read my edits.

And because of all this, I cannot upgrade to MS Office 2007 until my client does because she will not be able to read any of my reports or files I send her.

Annoying.

(But I do think I have located an old copy of MS Project I can use though... )

(Oh and I fear the quandry I am going to be in early September. I just agreed to set aside the week to work on a few publications for a coworker... who I am guessing HAS upgraded to 2007 and will want his "publication ready" articles in the same format he already has. Ugh.)

AB's Secret

Leif informed me this evening that when daddy isn't busy, that he goes to China to dive. And that he is much better than the divers on TV.

Leif has a favorite Olympic event... diving. Though he is usually disappointed when the splash is little.

Leif wants to be a diver now.

(I wanted to be a ski jumper for the longest time.)

List #1

I am weird about keeping lists in my head. Here is one that has surfaced as I, on Friday, look to add to the list.

Airports I have flown in or out of:

Honolulu
Anchorage
King Salmon
Seattle
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Reno
Las Vegas
Pasco
Salt Lake City
Phoenix
Houston
Dallas/Fort Worth
Casper
Denver
Hayden
Colorado Springs
Fargo
Omaha
Cancun
Cozumel
San Jose, Costa Rica
Panama City, Panama
Indianapolis
Miami
Cincinnati
Newark
Boston
Dulles
Baltimore
Hayden
Reagan

As of 6-2010
Albuquerque
Philadelphia
Minneapolis

As of 4-19-12
Ontario CA
Knoxville
Atlanta
Orlando

As of 6/19/20
Santa Barbara
Huntsville
Memphis
Chicago

The cherry on top

In between the annoying things, there are moments that top it all off.

We were getting in the car yesterday and Leif said to me, "mommy your hair is beautiful like that".

Awww.

The other exchange came today:

Leif: "Mommy what is that?"

NM: "It's my sewing machine."

Leif: "What's it do?"

NM: "I can make things. Like your favorite blanket. I made that with my sewing machine."

Leif: "Why are you putting it away mommy?"

NM: "I don't have time to sew lately anymore, so I am putting it up out of the way."

Leif: "But I love my blanket."

NM: "I know and I am so glad honey, but I am only putting the machine up."

Leif: "But I want another favorite blanket mommy, will you make me another blanket?"

NM: (I am SUCH a puchover.) "Of course sweety, we can go to the fabric store and you can pick out the fabric you want for a new blanket if you would like."

Leif: "Yay! Don't put away your machine mommy, I love my blankets."

Aww!

Skadi has a few new words. She signs a fair amount. (Must look on the board at school tomorrow and figure out the sign for "all done".) But she has three favorite words she uses all the time.

First one... "DADDY!" or "DADA!" Preferably screamed at the top of her little lungs. Last night she was in the backyard trying to hit the baseball off the tee and needed his help. He was inside and so she sat out there screaming, "DADDY! DADDY!"

She IS a daddy's girl.

Second one is "outside". Or as she says it "soutside". Skadi, like the rest of the family, loves to spend time soutside. She is getting the reputation at daycare as being an outside girl. She sees the bigger kids out and immediately will go to the window and start yelling "soutside!" Going outside will change her mood immediately from grumpy, to ecstatic. And she is so the second child, we don't follow her around the yard like we did Leif at this age. She goes out on her own, wanders around and usually brings in presents for me.

I hold out my hand when she requests and 90% of the time she deposits a bug in my hand.

Ick.

Third favorite word is "shoes". She pronounces it more like "shoos". She will fetch her shoes and sit herself down to put them on. She has her favorite shoes too. Out of all 14 or so pairs she has she will only wear one pair. Her blue Keens. The Primigi white sandals will suffice in a pinch, but forget her blue Crocs, or the birdy Robeez Treadz, or any of the other four pairs of soft soled Robeez.

So while she has her mommy's love for shoes, she doesn't covet the variety. She seems to be more like her daddy in the whole "give me one good, very comfortable pair of shoes that goes with everything and I am fine" philosophy.

Leif, otoh, likes choices and after finding no acceptable shoes at Famous Footwear. (I know, who am I kidding... it was convenient, I thought there might be something... I was wrong.) Leif came home and picked four pairs out online and they were narrowed down by daddy when mommy messed up and left the prices visible.

Annoying things my kids do

Leif:

The fruit snacks. Oh my goodness the fruit snacks.

"Who is this, eh?"

"Mommy who is this one?"

I always mix up the fruit snacks and buy different ones. We have Batman, Curious George and Scooby Doo right now. But the incessant requests before every single bite asking who is on one fruit snack is making me nuts.

I have tried all tactics.

Ignore = The requests get louder and whinier.

Reasoning = "Leif you have had three blue ones and they were all Batman, you know that the blue one is Batman, ok?" Doesn't work

Return question = "Well who do YOU think that might be?" Doesn't work.

Annoyance = "Leif, you ask me every single time what that is, you are a smart boy, you figure it out." Crying.

I finally got smart today... no fruit snacks in the car anymore.

--------------------

Skadi:

The pinching. Stop with the pinching already!!

Nobody likes it!

If she walks up and pinches me one more time...

---------------------

I had this huge list of annoying things and then I went in to tuck them in this evening and half the list... ok 3/4 of the list evaporated. Only the really annoying things were left.

Sanity anyone?

I am all for preparing in advance for Christmas. I make my lists early, I start shopping fairly early. By December I am usually done and can enjoy the parties.

Remember that house down the street that AB coveted? Well it sold and a nice family about our age moved in there.

And they put up their Christmas lights last weekend.

Icicle lights all over the house.

What is up with that?

I love my treadmill!

Best big chunk of money I have spent in a LONG time.

AB finished setting it up tonight and then took the kids outside. I hopped on and ran a half mile with the internal fan blowing cool air in my face, in full view of my computer monitor (that has a TV tuner) and with my iPod blasting out tunes.

And seriously one of the best things about it was slipping on my shoes, a pair of shorts, my sports bra and jumping on at a moments notice. I can wear whatever I want to work out.

AB came in to check on me and was impressed with how quiet it was - I am certain I can run after he goes to bed and I will disturb him less than with the TV watching Big Brother.

The downside though is that stupid bite on my leg. I jumped off and immediately AB ordered me onto the couch with my leg up. The red area is about baseball sized now, itchy as hell with spikes of pain to different parts of my leg and toes. It has a few tiny blisters that are starting to crust over.

By my calculation of when I think I was bitten, it has been 48 hours and so I am expecting that the icky internet pictures are not going to be my fate. It will crust over I expect and look like a big rug burn most likely and will probably take a few weeks for the hard golf ball like patch to dissipate. But all in all, I think things will be on an upswing here shortly.

And that I will be able to jump on the treadmill and run to my hearts content!

Once biten?

Right now the thought is that one of these buddies decided to munch on me:


The area - correction... the very sore, itchy area that is burning something fierce is surrounded by a red area about the size of a silver dollar. It was cultured and I am on a steroid ointment and trying to tell myself the mild headache I have is from lack of caffeine and NOT associated with the bite. Time will tell...

Tick tock...

Yes, I am a touch freaked out.

The internet right now is NOT my friend.

Must stop googling.

Bloomsday 2009 here I come!

I no longer have any excuses!

Well I will no longer have any excuses after another day or two... AB has to finish putting my new treadmill together still. But once he is done, no more excuses! I can run whenever!

I know I can do this. I trained for Bay to Breakers on a treadmill my first time around and then ran it. And actually, that was my best ever race. I can get up before the kids get up and run. I can run after AB and the kids go to bed!

So Bloomsday 2009... who's in? (Oh and for the record... I am a slow as molasses runner. Come join me and you could probably walk next to me as I run. Yes, flies collect around me when I run.)

Finding our place

I am stop and go, start and end, confused all around, regarding a house. I want one, but I don't know what I want. AB wants one and doesn't know what he wants. We can't agree, then we can agree, then we aren't sure.

After spending a good part of today wandering open houses we walked away settled.

We walked through a model house (littered with Parade Home awards) and loved the style. We got to talking to the agent, told him what we were looking for and he sent us to a seemingly obscure address.

"What? I housing development there? I didn't know there was one there, that's only like a half mile from our house. Are you sure that's the cross street?!"

He assured us he had a house we would love and if it wasn't perfect (based on his 15 minute discussion with us) he would make it perfect. We would love it.

We raced across town - he phoned his partner to have her wait there for us.

We stood in the driveway admitting that there was really no reason for us to walk in. We loved it already. And loved the location with a park just down the block. We could tell it was exactly what we wanted and in a fantastic location. One of my qualms about moving to this point has been that I do love being blocks to the grocery store, a half mile to Costco, etc. If it weren't for the apartments, we might have considered adding on.

Something beckoned us and we walked through the double doors. Leif carried his new plastic, highly obnoxious sounding nail gun in. I apologized to the agent, explaining what a long afternoon it had been for him. She shrugged and smiled - thinking I am sure, about her potential commission.

Yep, we loved it still.

Four bedrooms, wonderful hardwood floors, a huge Master Suite, a huge gourmet kitchen with a pantry as big as our second full bathroom now. An oversize three car garage you could play basketball in, a shop, a bonus room with a full bathroom and closet, a covered patio with outside ceiling fan on a half acre lot. Everything. It had everything.

AB commented if we were house hunting in earnest he would have wanted to make an offer right there. But we aren't house hunting in earnest.

The development is in phase one of four - and not filling overly fast.

We have time.

We now have two house designs (this one and the other where we met the agent at) we like from the same builder and two neighborhoods we could build either house in. (I like the new neighborhood - AB favors the other.)

And for the first time I am not feeling rushed or freaked out. I feel as though we have made our decision and we just need time to save the money to build our dream house.

We have agreed that we are done driving around. Our lazy afternoons from here on out are going to be spent getting the house ready to sell. Painting the exterior trim... fixing the baseboard and plaster in the bathroom... getting the ducts blown out... getting pictures of the house with our backyard looking lush... putting in blinds... painting... epoxying the concrete patio...

The list goes on and on...

Leif's Stats

39 lbs (with shoes) 75th percentile
40.75" (no shoes) 61st percentile

Leif was so excited to go to see the doctor and was hoping he would get to go to the hospital soon as well. Umm no, thankfully.

He was great for the nurse, but would hardly come out from hiding (behind the exam table, from under the chair, from behind my legs...) for the doctor. I had to threaten a time out! I couldn't get him to talk to her, still she said there was no harm in getting a speech assessment. I am convinced he says his "r's" like "w's". AB doesn't hear it, but after years, and years of speech therapy I hear it. I want the assessment so that if there is an issue we can start therapy quickly, I don't want him to have to repeat my experience.

For days Leif had been looking forward to his exam and asking if he could get a shot. Given that he will be due for five shots next year, we decided to go ahead and do the Hep A one now given his willingness and in the interest of reducing the number of shots next year.

The nurse came in and all was well until Leif was "poked". Then there was much wailing and screaming and crying. In the midst of it all he managed to say, "I just wanted the band-aid, not the pokey!"

Funny thing about it is that Leif has always to this point tolerated shots very well. Even as an infant. This was the first time a negative result has happened!

Next year there will be a huge reward.