Ready for the weekend!

Oh wait. You mean it is over?


I would like to order another day please.


This is one of those days where if I had loads of vacation time - I would be staying home tomorrow to recover.


It has just been one of those weekends. It started with two minor household chores that each turned major in their own right.

Part of the February-March goal was to get and install a pull out spice rack. After much deliberation and measuring the cabinet - at least four hundred fifteen times - I placed the order. If you ever want to put pull-outs into existing cabinets I have to recommend you look at Rev-A-Shelf. Really nice quality. And you don't have to replace the entire cabinet like Home Depot started out telling me we had to do.

All you need to do is yank the door off, remove the shelves and hardware, attach your door to the front of the unit, then screw it into place in the cabinet!

Sounds easy right?

We had thought about everything - like even that the knob on the adjacent corner cabinet would have to be moved. And that it would be the only cabinet in the kitchen with a funky placed knob - but we could deal with that when we were talking about the bigger picture - a fancy pull out spice cabinet!




A little wood putty will fix that...


Remember when I said we thought about everything?



Yeah, I was wrong.



We did NOT think about the hood.





Ah well. Lessons learned I guess.

That little shelf in there just houses those little used spices (black sesame seeds anyone? fennel seeds?).

We still love the pull out, though a little disappointed at neglecting that one detail. But if we had it to do over I am not sure we would have changed and done anything different.

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

The next task this weekend was to replace the coveted instant hot water tap. I never had one of these before moving into this house, but I have become freakishly dependent on the silly thing.

Perfect French Press Coffee in 4 minutes flat. Top Ramen for the kids in 3 minutes. Starbucks Via in as fast as you can dump the packet in the cup and fill the mug with water. Tea? Your steeping time is all. Instant oatmeal for the kids? Only as long as it takes the oatmeal to cool to edible temp.

Yes. I fell hard.

So when it cracked and emptied itself all over the bottom cabinet a few weeks ago it was a no brainer that as long as it was under $300, it was getting replaced.

I found one for $130 and pounced.

If you don't already have one, it would be a pain to install as you need the hole in your countertop. But replacing one? Also a no brainer.

Ha.

Famous last words.

I took Leif to a birthday party and came back to find the heater sitting still in the middle of the kitchen floor. Turned out that the one I bought was ever so slightly bigger than the one we pulled out. Making installation in the same position impossible thanks to the placement of the garbage disposal.

We went to work debating the next move.

AB's plan was to cut a hole in the cabinet and mount it halfway in the pie shaped empty area between the cabinet and the neighboring drawers.

I cringed at that and pushed for mounting it in a different under the sink spot that would only require a copper tube extension.

Easy peasy, I told AB.

This is my thing, I reminded him. See you just need connector compression fittings and a length of copper tubing.

And I added on that it would take me seconds to do in my lab and I had all the equipment there. Though that was just anecdote to boost my method because no way was I driving all they way out to work to do use the tools in my lab OR to "borrow" the necessary fittings. Dang lab rules.

Instead Skadi and I ran to Ace to grab copper tubing and fittings. And then we bought a tube cutter too... since the Ace dude had NO idea how to cut tubing and I knew the edges would need to be cleaned up before installing ferrules.

$33 later...

Hooked it up and it worked!

Then I walked upstairs all full of myself to change laundry around, pulled open the dryer and saw my wet clothes sitting there.

Wet clothes.

As in not dry.

I pushed the button.

Nope.

Once AB confirmed that I was not being a dork with the dryer and that it was not the breaker, I pulled the clothes out and hung them on the banisters.

Then I pulled the clothes out of the waher and hung those on the banister.

Then I pulled AB's work cell phone out of the bottom of the washer.

Yeah, one of those weekends.

Productive weekend

I can't say that I actually did anything goals related... except for be attracted to random pillowcases. Yes, I have inherited a love for pillowcases and the possibilities that surround them...

But, we got loads done. Loads.

First what we didn't do. We didn't mow, trim, edge or clean the yard. Nope, that was done, but in the interest of not only time, but beauty (because I suck ROYALLY and so does AB at trimming shrubs), we paid someone to come in who knew what they were doing. Someone who knew what could be cut to the ground and what could be trimmed gently and who can actually cut a shrub into a cone. (With like three whips of a fancy chainsaw like trimmer that made AB a touch envious.)

I did go rent a steam cleaner and remove all the toys from the playroom so AB could steam clean the carpet up there. And it looks fabulous! Seriously it was pretty ick when we moved in and one of the goals this year will probably be to rip out that carpet (that attracts our pets - who never ever soiled carpets before) and put in bamboo flooring in there and through the upstairs hallway. But that won't happen for some time and since we would like to actually use the room, we steam cleaned. And then wondered how much a steam cleaner might actually cost? And its usefulness in real life?

The kids have spent most of the later afternoon and evening playing up there. Without the toys put back in. This has additionally prompted me to look at all the toys stacked in the hallway wondering how many should really go back in? If a big OPEN space might be more utilized by the kids?

I packed up Skadi's 2T's. Most of them. Some still fit her. But most of them are in a big plastic bin. Sigh.

I got some groceries and whined a little about our lack of decent markets here. I whined just enough to prompt agreement that we should probably stop at Cost Plus World Market on our way to Silver Mountain next weekend. AB has a love of harissa and we are out.

We had an evening off from cooking as we went to a friends' house for game night. Loads of fun. Made me want to do the same. Soon. I only had to play a few games of Uno, until another little boy showed up with a NEW Uno game that shoots cards. Leif has actually decided he would like to spend his piggy bank money on that game instead of continuing to save for the Harry Potter Wii game. I would think this noble and be proud except that I think he is just angling for us buying it for him for his birthday (in 4 months).

And I actually started giving more serious thought to Skadi's birthday party. We officially nixed the gym party. Skadi then decided that she would opt out of inviting her girl friends if only Coach Brett would come to her party and tell her she is beautiful. Sigh.

Yeah, nixed that. Poor neglected three year old never gets what she wants. It will be a small princess dress up party with her four closest girl friends. I am planning a "tea-style" lunch. A pile of dress up clothes. (Cameras) And decorate your own cupcake bar.

One of the last things I got to thinking about this weekend was courtesy of church. How can I better serve others. It's awfully easy to write a check.

AB wants to go to Honduras next year to work in a village that the church has adopted. He is feeling pretty strongly about this and this makes me proud of him.

I am presently reading Stones Into Schools and for the second time, I am feeling particularly motivated and moved to help in this movement to build schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. No, I don't envision going there. I don't think that I could actually go there for certain reasons. However, I would love to do something to raise money for the cause.

Ideas anyone?

A chilly weekend

It was the perfect weekend to stay in and get stuff done. And that was exactly what we did!

After being gone last week there was a ton of laundry to do, lots of Ikea goodies to assemble and set up somewhere and lots of food to catch up on preparing.

There isn't much need, in this day and age, to "put up food for the winter". But it seems to be a fall ritual that AB and I have fallen into. Every fall we make buckets of spaghetti sauce. The goal is to get about 50 cups prepared and frozen, which gives us about enough for a dinner use every other week. There are a ton of varieties of spaghetti sauce out there, some very inexpensive. So some people probably wonder why we would spend a weekend making spaghetti sauce?

Because it tastes so much better. And I know exactly what I put in it.

Green chili isn't so easy to find. But AB started making green chili every fall long before we even lived together. In fact, I remember his first batch when he lived in Spanish Towers in Boulder with his roommate. It was so freakin' hot.

And I think it gets hotter every year. And every year he swears to control it. And every year I sweat through it. And many unsuspecting green chili tasters have come to despise AB at his annual chili cook off at work.

This weekend was no exception. He swore he was going to make a "medium" and a "hot" version. There was nothing "medium" about the chili that resulted this evening.

I made a big pot of red chili on Saturday night. Mine isn't nearly so involved since this is one staple I make that is based off of cans.

Still on our list for this fall is our second batch of spaghetti sauce, pumpkin breads and chicken pot pies. Nectarine pies have been done, 20 cups of spaghetti sauce complete, a few GALLONS of green chili and a couple dinner servings of red chili.

This weekend has been one of my most productive weekends in a long time. I told AB that I look forward to being moved in and settled so that I don't feel as though I have to work on that every weekend. But he asked me if that would ever happen. Would I ever feel as though my house was decorated and each room complete?

Maybe, but I don't envision it happening terribly soon.

I jumped off course on my monthly tasks to address each room. September was to be the garage. And it has been, and still is. And because the garage isn't terribly fun, I haven't been a rallying force behind AB on this one.

I also had planned to paint Skadi's room. And I really would like to pick out colors in the next week and then maybe tackle that either next weekend or the weekend after that. Skadi is excited for it, she asks for her walls to be painted "pink, pink, pink, pink and blue" (the ceiling is the blue one). The time has just been short though. Still I would like to get to this sooner rather than later as things start amassing in her room.

This morning Leif (since he had lost Wii privileges) spent a good portion of the morning helping me put together our new dining room table. He is getting to that age where he can be a real help. And he even seemes to enjoy it. It took us about an hour and AB's assistance at one point to lift the table tops and flip the table over, but we did it.

The table came from Ikea and addresses me "need" for a table where I can seat more than 4 people. You never know what you are going to get from Ikea. Some stuff is super and some is utter crap. Must to my amazement, the table (despite not being my first choice in stain) is super. AB even likes it and I admitted that ignoring the price, it is probably nearly exactly what I would have aimed to buy had I had 5x this much to spend.

"No tablecloths," AB said. "I like the wood. I want one of those runner things too before you put anything in the middle, I don't want it getting scratched up."

Fully extended it would have to sit diagonal in our dining room. With the leaves it seats "10 people", though I suspect it is more like 12-14. I also bought a bench to go on one side instead of chairs. In fact, I haven't purchased chairs yet because for now I can seat 4 on the bench if need be (ok, four kids or four of my friends with skinny butts), three of anyone else. Then I can walk the four dining room chairs from the other table over. The matching Ikea chairs weren't terribly comfortable and emitted an air of cheapness that the table did not. I hope to buy some chairs that might dress it up a little and blend the style of the table with the rest of the furniture in the front two rooms.

Piles of laundrey done, table put together, a few boxes unpacked, Skadi's room organized and summer clothes put away, food made... it was an eventful weekend!

The past few weeks… ok, months, I have been a touch stressed. I don’t like owning two homes. I want the one that is up for sale to sell. We hardly have time to maintain one house, let alone a second one about a mile away and empty.

I took active mental steps to get us on the road to dealing with the new house. I needed focus and clarity on what exactly needed to happen beyond “empty boxes” since I can easily dump a box out. Where to put the stuff laying on the floor in a pile is a bigger issue.

When I started packing the house up to move I saw it as an opportunity to purge. At least early on I did. Later in the process I just started dumping stuff in boxes. The real opportunity to purge is coming now. Because there were boxes and piles of things that were garage sale or Goodwill… and instead of getting hauled to Goodwill, or actually having a garage sale, instead they were just moved to the new house and are still my problem to deal with. And despite having a larger house, I am still struggling with where to put things.

My answer to a lot of the issues in the new house is to do the one room a month thing. Each month (or other set period of time) I tackle one room. I set out a plan of attack, figure out what would make that room fly, scale back my dreams to somewhat realistic, and then put it into action. I am not always great with the deadline aspect. But sometimes it is just best to move on to the next room without the one room being completely finished. I am nothing if not a good procrastinator. Sometimes best to say, “just not going to get done, maybe next year”.
I actually didn’t do a single thing to the foyer this past weekend.

So I guess this introduction really isn’t that valid here. Since what all I did get accomplished didn’t have much to do with the room (or really area) that I am currently tackling. Except suffice it to say that there are three things that need to happen in the foyer, one of them for AB to do (hang the mirror) and the other is so easy to forget that I need to keep it on my radar by mentioning it (get 'off white' paint to touch up the ceiling where I was unable to keep my brush on the wall - what exactly WAS I doing while painting? Apparently not paying attention...). I also want a bench, but I can’t justify the money for that right now when the other house has not sold.

Since tackling the foyer wasn’t in the cards for the weekend I decided to steer myself towards the room giving me the most angst… the Master bedroom. There were still boxes all over to be unpacked. Boxes that upon examination of the contents were things that for the most part could be ignored for who knows how long. Except that every time I walked into the Master bedroom – which is a lot of times – I cringed at the boxes lining the wall under the windows.

So Saturday while Skadi napped and Leif went semi-neglected in front of the computer – I unpacked them! I did a lot of throwing away… purging, of things that should have been purged before moving and during the packing phase.

Once finished I made AB go in and admire the room more than once. It gave me such a feeling of peace and calm to have those boxes gone.

Truth be told, one box remains. One small, but very full and heavy box. I know what is in it… the many books that were stacked in our bedroom at the other house. Books that need to go in the bookshelf… that AB has to modify to fit into the office. So for now, until I can get that box hauled downstairs, a box of books sits in there. I can deal with a box of books for now.

It was a very uneventful weekend otherwise. We cooked. We went on a few hikes. AB held an open house. We worked on maintenance on the yard at the other house - a sprinkler has broken and left a large patch of brown grass in the backyard... gurrr. We played soccer. We watched the thunderstorms and lightning. We watched movies. We were lazy.

It was a good weekend.

I am ready for another.

Catching up

A few people have recently been harrassing me about not keeping my blog up. Yes, I admit it, I have been unusually quiet here lately. It's a combination of things - my being superbly busy at work - no, I don't blog at work, but when I am sitting there trying to figure out answers to my research problems, managing a team of 20 scientists on a multi-million dollar project, or writing proposals, then my time to think about witty things to say, or to jot down the funny things the kids did recently is limited. My brain hasn't been on my kids so much at work lately.

The second issue would be my ability to keep it positive. Some really crummy things have happened in the past few months. I don't like to read or write whiney blogs, so I haven't delved into that aspect here. I try to keep it positive.

That's not to say that there hasn't been plenty of good stuff to write about! There has been. We moved into a great house and we have our other house for sale by owner. The kids are wonderful, Skadi learns more words daily and Leif continues to crack us up with the things he comes up with.

Then there is my other addition that cuts into my blogging time. Facebook. I am strangely obsessive about keeping up with what everyone everywhere else who I may have known at some point is doing. I can get easily sucked into an evening on Facebook instead of blogging. Must.extricate.myself...

So I am making a Mother's Day Resolution to get back on top of my blogging!

Here's a quick update:

New house:
Bought new house.
Moved into new house.
Finally.
Unpacked about half of stuff in new house.
Boxes still sitting around.
Wondering if boxes will unpack themselves?

Old House:
Worked on old house.
Worked on old house some more.
Worked on old house even some more.
Grew increasingly sick of working on old house.
Bought signs to sell house.
Worked on old house some more.
Gave up and put the sign out.
Open house.
Show house three times.
Open house.

Freya:
Had dog three weeks.
Dog tore the fence board off and ran away.
Found dog.
Enrolled dog in obediance classes.
Discovered dog was trained with hand signs at one point.
Much happier with a few hand signs.
Wonder what else the dog knows.
Dog still missing housetraining gene.
Dog spends lots of time outside.
Thankfully the weather is nice and her counterpart loves being outside.

Speaking of weather:
Rain.
Cloudy.
Two days of decent weather.
More rain.
Grey.
Dreary.
Rain.
Wind storms.
Wind and driving rain.
Two days of sunshine.
(Speak softly out of fear of jinxing it all and returning to grey and dreary.)

Work:
Plodding along.
Got follow on work funded.
Got a new start funded.
Got an early start funded.
Enjoying the project management.
Team fails to meet deliverable.
Not liking the project management so much.
Spending as much time in the lab as possible.

AB:
The best husband ever.
Took the kids (together) to the paint your own pottery place for Mother's Day gift making.
The best husband ever.

Weekend Wrap Up

We spent this past weekend working really hard to convince our children they are not, in fact, neglected. We were very much paying attention to them… out of the corners of our eyes while painting and painting and painting some more at the old house.

On Sunday we resorted to calling in the hired guns, the former neighbor girl, to entertain the neglected children while AB and I tackled the tremendous paint job.

The front two rooms of our old house are actually much like the front two rooms in our current house. Formal dining room on one side and office on the other.

I am not a big fan of formal dining rooms. I would much rather have a single large dining room off the kitchen. I truly don’t need a room that will be used only once in a blue moon when guests are over or for holidays. But so far, both of our houses have had the formal dining rooms. I think it is a room I will enjoy having someday when we can afford to buy a nice table to put in there.

But until then… it remains the room where the extra boxes get stacked.

And the fragile breakables are stored in my hutch that I really love. Someday I will put a big table that can easily seat 8 people. Someday.

But before that day comes we have to sell our old house. Which means painting the two rooms in the house that were never painted and still sport the old crappy construction paint and are scarred with nail holes from what seems like 430 pictures, 218 shelves and one wall mounted light. The walls were in serious bad shape.

So I picked out two colors. AB picked out two colors. Then we met somewhere in the middle at a color that seemed to be tan in the chip, but has later been determined to be pinky-tan. AB and I keep reminding each other that *we* don’t have to live in it.

It actually doesn’t look so bad completely painted. But I won’t be putting Behr’s “Comforting” in my house.

The wall scars are covered and right now that's what counts.

The front rooms don’t *pop* like I wanted them to. Or like I envisioned with a trendy light brown. They kind of just look a different shade from the prior color. But no one should walk in and look at the walls and say, “you are kidding me?”

Instead I hope they walk in and look to the left and right and say, “nice and serene”. (Before they hit my orange kitchen.)

We need to paint the main hallway in the house for the same reasons, paint job just beat to pieces.

This evening while I went and got my hair cut AB took the kids and the dogs to the old house and worked on yardwork (pruning). And I am going to take a halfday this week at some point and do some touch up painting in most of the other rooms. We are getting close to being ready to list the house for sale.

I finally broke down last week and told Leif that IF we sell the old house than we can “probably” get a Wii. This has morphed into the daily inevitable question from him, “can we sell the house today and get a Wii?”

Amazing how the two seem to rank equivalently with him. House can be traded for a gaming console.

AB and I are getting a little weary of our every weekend being either packing or unpacking or painting. It will be well worth it in the near future, we do know this. We just look forward to the day when we are moved in, our house is sold and facing a weekend with nothing on our schedule. Days we can wake up and say, “what do you want to do today?” And the other person says, “I don’t know, what do you want to do today?”

Our daily routine will be dictated by “want” and not “need”.

Weekend recap

This weekend was quiet. No birthday parties, no playdates, no house hunting, just us. Our house is never really quiet it seems, but every once in awhile it is really nice to just have a weekend with little planned, especially after the last few weeks.

I wrote this up and then reread it. Paragraphs of work drama that could be summarized here - 50 pages of text comprising 5 proposals submitted, three to the client I SWORE I would never work for again. That's what happens when you make declarative statements like "I will never..." they come back to bite you in the tush.

I had a photo shoot scheduled today for one of my teams. It went well and there was much whining about "man space". It isn't just men who need space. I was very cognizent of being stuffed in between Miss Pink and the post-Masters student working on my project. I eeked my way towards Miss Pink. Why is it that we Americans (since AB says it is a cultural thing) need so much space, but yet all agree that everyone packed in close together makes for better pictures? After we finished the group shot I was snagged to have my picture taken with the former deputy sector manager. It was a huge honor to stand next to him and smile for the camera. Four weeks until he starts his consulting position with my client and he takes his seat across the table from me. I miss him terribly in his former role.

My blogging mojo has taken a back seat. I am just feeling quiet and reflective. I am enjoying catching up with the people I never thought I would ever see again after high school and college. I have to learn to logoff though and not leave Facebook up. A few weeks ago Leif typed a message to Rockergirrl - thankfully she has kids and so his "e-mail" to her made perfect sense. Yesterday I came back to the computer to see a one sided chat with a long lost friend of mine from high school that I was sorry to have missed - and I still have no freaking idea what he was talking about. (Thankfully Leif didn't respond to that one... time to start thinking about internet safety?)

A lot of what is going on here is centered around houses. Our new house, our current house, what needs to be paid for, financing, how to move, when to move, rent or sell, what we need to buy (fridge and potentially washer and dryer), what we want to buy (new barstools that kids can sit on, a new TV, a set of bunk beds, another couch, hot tub... see the list started practical and very quickly plummeted off the deep end), what we want to paint (formal dining room and office), how to decorate a Star Wars room, where our daughter should sleep post-move, how many gates we need and not to mention packing logistics.

So the rest of the world revolving around us? Invisible.

Dog - poor baby. She has become "the dog". She is very happy though that I just finished reading "Call of the Wild" and have remembered that she has feelings too. (Seriously a most awesome - and short - book.) Her evening walks have become less frequent lately. And my advances to swoon her back to my side by snuggling her on the floor next to me, only to trick her with the Furminator in the other hand have not been well received.

Cat - I thought cats were supposed to be all independent like? I have the most dependent cat ever. And huge. Maybe his dependency wouldn't be such a big deal if he wasn't nearly 20 lbs. The kids aren't thrilled when he sits on their laps and his persistent lying on the keyboard while we are trying to type is just annoying. AB is thrilled though that he does tame my nighttime wiggles since he plants himself on my legs and wills me not to move.

Boy child - He is starting to bend to our will. He has a firm understanding of what exactly "talking back" is and picks the most inopportune times to exercise this new found talent. I look forward to the day when bribery doesn't rule. When we don't have to threaten to take away a privilege to get the most basic tasks accomplished. He is fully immersed in the world of the Transformers and Star Wars The Clone Wars. Despite all his annoying four and a half year old boy antics, he still is a mama's boy at heart and offers unsolicited kisses, wants me beside him for every step and is a sweetheart of a brother (most of the time).

Girl child - She is nearing two and her language explosion is a huge relief to all off us. It was quite convenient last night at dinner when she was able to sob out "tummy hurts" instead of just sobbing and screaming. Miss Skadi is karma biting me back. I remember pre-kids being annoyed with those parents whose kids hit, kicked, scratched (I would add bit in there, but we may have nailed the biting) and pulled hair like wild beasts. Why don't those parents do something? "I AM TRYING!!" I am screaming to my former self. 80% of the time she is a sweet little girl who likes dresses and clothes and snuggling with and being just like her brother. Oh and the whole being carried by whoever will carry her. She is an amazing little fish and loves her swimming lessons.

The rest of it - I am still a Top Chef addict even though this season so far seems more soap opera and less fascinating personalities on it. Back to lovin' Big Love. Then much to our surprise last week Burn Notice made a surprising return. Aside from that? AB and I have let so many tv shows go lately, we watch right at about 3 hours a week amazingly enough.

I need to get back on the treadmill in a bad way if I am going to run Bloomsday. Of course this would be made easier if my husband didn't lose the magnetic lock key. It has to be somewhere, right??

The goal for the rest of the week - more focused blog posts. I do have a couple Leif funnies - one about Broccoli Obama being our new president (did you know he can shoot carrots out of his back? Yeah I didn't either.) And another about the things in his throat that make him sick. I will try to hit those tomorrow.

Wrapping my head around it all

This is going to be one of those random posts. I really intend to get back to posting somthing more than stream of consciousness posts soon here. (I have one in the works about my least favorite Christmas song that will thrill AB because he will no longer be the sole recipient of my heated vent....) But right now stream of consciousness is about where my head is. So bear with me through this post. Or click away because I don't have anything earth shattering or profound to report.

I think I could be emerging from my holiday funk. Something about singing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" every night with Leif in the car has helped. And hearing Skadi squeal "SANTA" repeatedly on the way home helps too! I love that she points to the Christmas tree and proclaims, "pretty".

It has been a weird week and out of the ordinary things continue to pop up. Some good, some not so good.

High:
I have been nearly buried at work since returning on Thursday. Relief came on Monday at noon when my proposal was finally out of my hands. I have had a good start to FY09 with proposal writing. Four major proposals out to two agencies. All made the first cut. Two are pending thumbs up or down for funding and two are pending a second cut for full proposal - the despised format - 20 pages. If they both make it I will be seriously banging my head against the wall. All this aside from my big project that just doubled in size again. Loved hearing my client say, "I went ahead and doubled your project management budget, you are going to need it."

Low:
Skadi has seemed happy to return to school, if not a little "exuberant" about her return. As her teacher put it... "she is in a great mood, but for some reason thinks that everyone needs to be tackled, hit, pinched or bitten". Which sounds freakishly like her cousin who she spent a fair amount of time with in Colorado. I love my nephew... but wow is he rough. It would be terribly boring if everyone was raised the same, my way isn't the only way, but something is so not working there and I fear that the pending divorce isn't going to help the situation out at all. And I will leave that there.

High:
We got our family pictures! My SIL did a really fantastic job on them and I can't wait to get the prints we ordered.

Plain Weird:
I have really enjoyed recently reconnecting with old friends through Facebook and occasionally Classmates. Ever have one of those contacts though that just throws you for a loop? Yeah, I have had a few of those lately. Another statement I will just leave there - at least for right now.

High:
One funny episode today - I had my first "celebrity sighting". Ok, I am boosting myself up by calling it that. But I actually met a guy whose first statement to me while shaking my hand is, "I love your blog, we have a three year old son and..." I think I must have had the most bewildered look on my face when he told me this.

Low:
And some bad news came this evening when we have learned that one of our closest friends in the area has recently been diagnosed with a form of cancer. We are hoping and praying for a complete recovery.

High:
Leif has turned into a really pleasant little boy this December. I am quite sure it is Mina the Elf's oversight in our house and the slight mention of Santa's pending visit. But something has clicked with him and the kids is just tops.

Plain Weird:
That would be my husband's Christmas party Saturday night. The food was abysmally bad and apparently we missed the annual drunken brawl. Darn.

High:
One of my closest girlfriend's is pregnant with her second baby which just thrills me to pieces! New baby smell on its way next summer!

Low:
I had to go to management about one of my friends. Hate that. She was assigned a task by a client. She was reminded of the task by sector management. She was reminded about the task by line management. I pinged her a few weeks ago. Dropped the ball completely. Maybe even dropped off the face of the earth as I have not heard word one from her. I hated to do it, but I presented the issue to management and they are pursuing it. Ugh. I guess it is something I need to get used to as PM. I am not always the nice one.

High:
After Charter Communications completely messed up our phone service (low, btw) we should be up and running with our same home phone in a few days. Thank you Vonage.

I am starting to feel less overwhelmed by the holiday season. Controlling it and organizing it. It is within my grasp.

This week: Secret Santa gifts will go out and I will continue wrapping.
Saturday: Trip to hear the Polar Express read by a friend, pictures with Santa.
Sunday: Christmas cookie decorating. Nanaimo bars. Christmas cards finished.
Next week: Remainder of gifts mailed and cards will go out.

I think I have decided to take the week of Christmas off (unless those two proposals make the cut). My plan is to work on getting stuff done around the house, buy groceries for a Christmas feast, and take one day to devote it to spending with Leif. We are going to go see a movie and hang out together. When Skadi is older I will plan to do this with her too - one day for each kid completely devoted to them on their day. I can't wait!

Just when we *think* we are going to have a relaxing weekend...

Because apparently we can't just have a weekend with little planned.

Yesterday the kids had swimming lessons and for the first time in months I didn't put my swimsuit on. AB got in with Skadi instead and I got to sit on the side and chat with the mom of one of Leif's and Skadi's friends while her husband got in the pool with their son and our older kids enjoyed their lesson. It was a luxury really. I do love getting in the pool with Skadi, but it is really nice to have an occasion to just sit and chat.

Afterwards Leif and I headed out to a special outing. Contrary to his belief, the "special outting" was NOT to Chuckee Cheese's. Instead we headed out to take care of some Christmas presents. Leif never ceases to amaze me really. We headed in and I had a plan in my head. He waylayed it pretty quickly since Leif isn't one to not be "in control". He picked out ALL of the three gifts on Saturday. AB's made sense and IS really awesome though not what I would have picked. Next he picked my mom. I kept chuckling to myself when he insisted on this particular item for her. I tried making other suggestions and then finally just reminded myself that my mom will love it because Leif was SO passionate over the item. Last was a gift for Bompa. Leif beelined to it, picked it up and said, "this is perfect for Bompa's money!" And it is.

On Saturday afternoon we had intentions of climbing a local "mountain" with the kids. Then we got waylayed by "open house" signs. By the time we made our way to the "mountain" it was late and so we did a short hike (vowing to get back Sunday morning) and then played on the playground equipment.

After dinner the kids crashed quickly while AB and I moved back to the realm of "what if" regarding a new house. AB became quite passionate over the thought of getting a new house - again. Don't think that I wasn't right there with him. The houses that have now moved into the "tied for first" list were in a subdivision we had once ruled out as "not interested".

AB and I are walkers/hikers and always have been. We walk with the kids most nights after work and make a point to get out for a longer walk with the dog every weekend. After checking out the park and the short part of the trail up the "mountain" - not to mention the views of the city, we returned to considering that neighborhood and vowed to hike the hill and check out any open houses on Sunday. Having the great park and the trailhead near our future house would be wonderful.

Saturday night the kids both crashed early and we downloaded "Sex and the City" (so cannot believe it has taken me THIS long to see it!). And I am SO not a Miranda like the Facebook test told me...

This morning the kids woke bright and early (both were up before 6am - sometime I would like for them to understand and implement a return to standard time from daylight savings time). I made a big apple pufff pancake and we finally got out to climb our hill.

AB and I thought it was a great idea, wear the kids out and check out the most beautiful views of the entire area. Kids weren't quite so sure of our idea. They are normally good sports when it comes to hiking - but I fear we got a late start and just ended up with crankies instead. A little over halfway up the hill we happened upon Leif's good friend C as well as a set of twins from his preschool and their older brother and father. This completely rejuvenated our kids. Skadi (who had been about to sleep) was revitalized when she saw C and Leif was just thrilled to see all the kids.

I didn't hear another word about "let's turn around now".

It took us (four adults, two dogs and six children) about 2 hours to reach the summit, then turn around and head down. For one of the first times I got a sense of really looking forward to Leif as a "kid". When he was born I cried and cried about him growing up so quickly. And though nearly every stage has been better than the previous one (I keep reminding myself of this now with Skadi in her Tasmanian Devil stage) I always fear a little what is around the next corner.

Leif is now to the age where he can tell us a lot, though carrying on an intelligent conversation isn't on our plate right now. We will have two lines of conversation typically followed by randomness. On the way down I lead the pack and found myself running at times to keep up with Leif and the 8 year old - who I didn't know before, but have discovered is a really awesome kid. We talked quite a bit about Leif at school - what he does at recess, who he plays with and how he plays. We talked about dogs, how to train them and funny things our dogs do. I had a great conversation and hike with him (and Leif) and it really made me look forward to this age with my kids without the sense of dread that time is flying way too fast.

Ok, so that feeling did return quickly, because time IS flying way too fast. But it reminded me I have something neat to look forward to... intelligent conversation with my kids.

It is now Sunday evening and since we couldn't get Skadi down for a nap (the hike took longer than we had anticipated), she has crashed out and is snoring on the couch. Leif is watching the Polar Express and AB has cooked dinner - a new concoction of chili that so far is showing signs of fantastic-ness.

I didn't get to my "goal" of cleaning out the Utility Room. Next weekend will be focused on packing up for our trip to Colorado and hopefully pulling out Christmas decorations so I can get a little done before we leave. Oh and one birthday party in there too. We plan to switch over to some new outdoor lights from our "way too 90's" icicle lights. 10 days and counting till we get on the airplane.

Blips from the day

Leif came inside from playing today with a scratch on his finger.

"Mommy, I was climbing the tree and it scratched me," he moaned.

"Oh I am sorry Leif," I said kissing his owie. "Maybe you shouldn't climb the tree anymore?"

"Mommy, that breaks my heart," he replied.

No honey... you climbing the tree breaks my heart, I thought to myself.

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

While reading the Sharks book:

"There are 400 different types of sharks," I read.

"Wow, that's really impressive!" Leif exclaimed.

No dear boy, you are impressive.

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

AB gave me a big long hug today after dinner and told me how happy he is and how much he loves the life we share.

This meant so much to me. My BIL (his brother) and SIL are divorcing. AB's happiness and love isn't something I want to take for granted, but sometimes I think we do. And you can't help thinking, "if BIL fell out of love and no longer finds his wife attractive, it could happen to us".

That reassurance that it isn't happening to us was valuable to me.

Samblich Pie

"Time for bed honey pie!" I called to Leif.

"Why did you call me that?" he asked.

"I always call you that, I like it," I said.

"Well I think you should call me 'samblich pie' instead, okay!" he tells me.

....

Leif lived in his cape the entire weekend. Seriously I am not sure it was off of him for more than an hour for a bike ride. On Saturday Leif went to answer the door as one of his friends was visiting. We opened the door to see the other little boy standing there... also wearing a cape. The caped crusaders played hard.

It was a busy weekend. Skadi and I went to swimming, then we all hit some Parade Homes. We went home for nap and I cooked dinner in preparation for guests.

Sunday our doorbell rang at 9am while we were finishing up breakfast (pumpkin waffles) and it was our babysitter. Only three hours early for her babysitting stint.

"NOON, not NINE!"

AB pointed her towards home and asked her to be back in a few hours.

AB and I had nine homes to finish up on the Parade of Homes route and we decided to tackle that last day sans children. They would rather stay home and play anyways.

Our sitter came back at noon and we chit chatted while AB finished showering. I asked how her trip to the cabin was and she told me she confused the weekends and she is going next weekend.

"Next weekend?" I asked her.

"Mmm hmmm!" she nodded with a mouthful of macaroni and cheese.

"So you aren't going to be able to housesit for me then?" I asked her.

She had that characterizeable blank look on her face for about 20 seconds. Then the bell dinged and she stammered trying to figure it out.

I made her promise that she get back to me asap. In the meantime AB has put plans in motion to just bring Winny along to the condo, which is probably a better option anyways.

I think she has the ding dong, ditzy teenager thing going on. It has been something with every single of the last three scheduled sitting jobs. Her mom is super and I am trying to be uber understanding. But this flightiness has me concerned and unimpressed.

Not to mention the fact that when we got home four hours later she was on the couch with Leif (while Skadi played on the floor) and he exclaimed, "we watched Tarzan, Mulan 2 [which I had put aside unopened in reserve as a reward] AND the Spiderman movie?"

"Spiderman movie?" I inquired with my eyebrow raised.

"Yeah," he wanted to watch it she said.

"It's rated PG I think," I told her.

She looked at me.

"He's four," I reminded her.

Ok, so I remember a babysitter letting my sister and I watch Friday the 13th all the while we declared, "it won't scare me". (HA HA HA HA HA.)

Yeah... our neighbor girl has been put on hold for babysitting pending a little growing up, or something.

So anyways... Parade of Homes. Mediocre. It's a Parade. I want to be wow'd. I wasn't wow'd very often. Only a few houses wow'd me. One we want to buy. Though there are enough little things I would change that I have trouble pulling the trigger. AB a little less so. I am thinking building the same house with a few modifications is more likely.

There were too many homes that were seriously just "open houses" with no decor. That's just a waste of my time.

So anyways. Weekend was good. Busy, but good. I cleaned out my dresser and threw away clothes, made another stack for keep (but not here) and a bigger stack for Goodwill. It was my effort to at least *try* and get started on my September goal before the end of the month. AB rolled his eyes at me when I mentioned the word "paint" this afternoon.

SO maybe my kitchen will be in November...

Weekend Wrap Up

AB and I enjoyed four full days off. The poor kids only got three days off, but both were ready to get back by last night. I asked Skadi if she wanted to go to school this morning and she nodded her head wildly. Let's just hope her teacher isn't about ready to boot her by the end of the day - she is trying to push through her last two teeth (as opposed to molars - she still has four of those left to go for a full mouthful) and is a little bear. Her nights have been misery and AB and I have resigned ourselves to one of us just jumping in the extra queen sized bed (currently residing in her nursery) with her to get her back to bed. Sucky habit I know, but we all (including Leif) get more sleep that way. Oh and she IS a cuddler.

After four days off, AB and I were both ready to get back to work. AB started a new position within his same company today. He passed his EIT/FE exam awhile back, his manager braggardly opened his mouth to some of the other managers and shortly after AB was invited to float around a few other groups and find a place where he is happy (not that he isn't) and feels like he will fit long, long term. His manager is the meantime left regretting having bragged about him passing his exam.

Me? I am ready to have a day at work where I don't have 24 lbs hanging around my neck that screams wildly when put down. It's no wonder when I jump on my treadmill to run lately I surprise myself how far I can go before panting and dropping to the ground. She really has been giving me a workout.

So the big news of the weekend is finishing my Master Bath off. For the most part at least. Little details remain like recaulking the shower, sticking the trim back on, figuring out how awful my spray paint job on the shelves went and whether or not I am going to put them back on the wall or not (AB votes for not) and buying new rugs. My bathroom rugs are old and I want some pretty ones, but AB suggests that I wait until we are ready to list the house since my son's aim is pitiful.

I am starting to look towards my Master bedroom planning out my attack. Storage, I need lots of it. Ideally I want to sell our two dressers and put the money towards a new bedroom set. Realistically I need to purge the dresser contents, replace the hardware that has fallen off and deal with it until we move. The walls will need to be painted. It shouldn't (in theory) be a big job. Now October when I hit the kitchen? THAT will be a big job. Maybe I should save the money that would go towards a bedroom set for a new kitchen floor instead.

AB and I started our fall ritual of dealing with food. Leif and AB put what seemed like hundreds of tomatoes through our food mill (it was horribly entertaining for a four year old) and then AB cooked down the purree to about 3 gallons. Then froze it so we can tackle spaghetti sauce another weekend.

I cooked down our Merlot grapes to about 2 gallons of ridiculously sweet juice. Cabernet grapes will be in a few weeks - and I am scared. I took a look at the vine last night and I estimate that I have at least two to three times as many Cab grapes than I did Merlot. AB asked me what I am going to do with the juice other than take up valuable freezer space. Jelly maybe? Sorbet? Sherbet? Maybe all three. My MIL, however, was disappointed to hear that I have no plans to make wine. I don't know... maybe I should try? Maybe it would be a good experiment and a quick way to use up all the juice. Though I am with Andy on this one... why should I make wine when I have the stuff the pros make in my backyard?

I made a big double batch of pumpkin, chocolate chip bread. Recipe courtesy of VG... (who I really wish would start blogging again... she cracks me up and I could use the athletic motivation). Anyways, I ended up with two large loaves and four minis. Though it was good I got it into the freezer (yes another thing in the freezer) quickly. Both my kids will devour the stuff. (I am blaming them 100%, they aren't here to defend themselves or point fingers.)

I had every intention of making and freezing a few nectarine pies - but our freezer is full of grape and tomato stuff. And the kids were starting to look a little pale and neglected like they had seen one too many movie. So instead we jumped in the car with the dog and headed to the park for a play and a short hike in the foothills. It was good for us all as opposed to nectarine pie that only tastes really good.

Catching up

Summers in this region really are fabulous. I can say this with enthusiasm right now since the number of 100+ degree days have been few (most so far were while we were in Alaska), making the weather very tolerable and our desire to get outside insatiable.

The entire family wants outside. Skadi is a grump? Take her outside, it cures her.

I was comparing this past weekend to prior colder months regarding progress on my monthly cleaning and organization goals. It has taken me nearly 6 weeks to get my Master bathroom and closet picked up and organized. And it wasn't *that* bad beforehand. Two weeks to do my linen closet? Really... it isn't that bad... it is that we are just never home anymore.

On Friday I picked Leif up from preschool (Skadi already being home sick with AB... I will avoid going into details of that day since in staying home for my four hours in the morning I came far too close to telling off a co-PI who decided to ask me that I "make sure my kids aren't sick on Tuesday". Because she either thought I was lying, would rather be home with a sick kid instead of working with her in the lab, or should find something else to do with my sick kid rather than stay home with her. Anyways...)

We made a quick run by the fire station to check out the details a second time before the birthday party the next morning. Then we grabbed dinner from the Korean place and ran home.

Saturday morning Leif had his birthday party at the fire station. I was quite pleased with how it went and how well we were able to keep things flowing. The kids and parents seemed to enjoy the tour and I, for one, learned a lot. (Did you know that 80% of the calls are medical?) After the tour we had pizza on the back lawn, a pinata and then cake (ice cream was forgotten in the cooler). The kids ran and played. Leif only had a few turkey moments. I will post pictures later.

We went home and put Skadi down for a nap and hoped Leif would nap. It was silly to think that he maybe would I suppose. Not like AB and I weren't near complete exhaustion ourselves.

Once Skadi woke up we headed out to the Art in the Park festival. This is one of my favorites every year. And every year I think about in 2004 how very pregnant I was and how very hot it was. We wandered through the artisans booths. Had dinner with a guy I work with and his "5 3/4 year old" daughter (who took Leif under her wing) and just had a plain good time. AB took Leif to play on the playground equipment while I wandered the last 1/3 of the show with Skadi. We did, however, get stuck at one booth. "Me and Mom's Hats".

After painstacking decisions, Skadi has two hats for this fall and winter. I loved the brown beanie with the big pink flower, but also fell for the bluebell hat as well. Skadi could care less of the bluebell hat, but loves her brown beanie with the floppy pink flower. If I put the bluebell hat on her she rips it off and puts her beanie on. She was a kick at the booth and the artist told me she hadn't had such good advertisement all day, as Skadi tore through her hats, pulling them randomly (and sometimes two at a time) onto her head and oogling, "ooooh!"

We left the park as the show was closing and managed to keep the sleepy kids awake in the car so they would fall asleep in their beds at home.

On Sunday we let Leif open his presents from grandma, Bompa and my sister over the webcam. He was thrilled with the fishing pole. Skadi was thrilled with the tackle box once she got all the tackle out and could replace it with her Little People and AB and I were thrilled with the huge box of Lincoln Logs. I also hope Leif will come to love the Richard Scarry's Greatest Storybook Ever as much as I did - many thanks to my sister.

After the present unwrapping we loaded into the car and headed to the orchard to pick donut peaches. Unfortunately they were still a week or so away from prime picking, but AB (being his normal inquisitive self) did manage to purvey a bunch of cherry and apple wood for his smoker. Since we had packed a lunch we didn't see any reason to head home.

Instead we drove around looking for open houses (not many on this boat race weekend) and houses and lots for sale while stuffing food into the kids in the car.

We found two houses that if we actually got the guts to call an agent we are very interested in seeing. Very interested.

But I am just scared of heading down that path again when we aren't completely ready. I am afraid of falling in love with a house. Our intention is to go out and get ideas for eventually building our own since we had pretty much decided on buying a lot at the end of the year and then building. The one that really has me stopping though is seeing a newly for sale house in the small development containing the lots we like. It is the style we like, 4 bedrooms and TWO pantries. And affordable. Reasonably. At least it is within the range we are eyeing.

AB is waiting for me (I think) to say I want to look at it. I do, I really do. And then I don't out of fear. So I am trying to ignore it exists for now.

Trying.

So we realized that no good could come from house hunting and headed home to put Beaner down for a nap. While she napped it dawned on me how many times I have declared needing an external hard drive to back up my photos. Suddenly while I was printing up pictures for Leif's birthday day at school, I was overwhelmed with a fear that my hard drive was going to crash any second and lose every single photo I had ever taken. As soon as I mentioned wanting a hard drive, AB jumped on the opportunity to go to Costco.

We ended our Sunday outtings with the trip to Costco (also examining the treadmills there) then AB and Leif went to fly a kite at the park since it was awfully cold for swimming, while Skadi and I got groceries.

And after writing this, I think I am dead tired all over again.

Weekend recap

This morning I grabbed my bill for Leif's preschool out of my mail envelope. I glanced at the total a little shocked. They usually don't make mistakes. In fact, I am usually shocked at how precise they get the bills.

Why then was my bill $400 more than I was anticipating?

I sat in the car going over it with a fine toothed comb until I came to the offending charge.

Nevermind I thought.

Skadi, June 16th-30th.

YAY! My daughter is really starting soon! They expect me to pay them!

Not only that but I revelled a little in the 10% sibling discount that each child received.

Last Friday I stopped by the director's office to remind her that we would only be at Skadi's current daycare for another two weeks.

"I know," she sighed, "though I don't think we are going to let this happen. [Her teacher] and I have agreed that we don't think you can take her away from us,"

The director is good at putting on a front. She is a super nice woman, but I am not kidding myself that they aren't counting the days as well. From the number of times I walk into her office complaining about little things, to Skadi screaming at the teachers most days. They aren't going to miss us. I don't expect there to be tears shed over our departure this time around.

Saturday we had the usual morning activities. Swimming and then a trip to Costco. Skadi loves her swimming class, far more than Leif did at this age. I can barely hold on to her when they release the balls all around her and her little body flails to grab balls and she climbs over the other babies to get to the basket to put them in. Her teacher did the ball routine four times as compared to the usual two only because Skadi was such a little riot to watch. She would be pleased to retrieve balls through the whole swim lesson.

We made a trip to Costco afterwards, pre-empting the planned trip to Farmer's Market when our friends told us it was a lot of fun if you want asparagus. We like asparagus... but there is only so much asparagus one family needs. Instead we went and spent way too much money at Costco.

After putting all the food away we decided on a new goal... aside from fresh fruits, veggies and milk, we are not buying anything at the grocery store. Our pantry and freezer have reached frightening stages. That stage where you just aren't even sure what is in there anymore so you just buy new. Yeah, that stage. The goal in the next three weeks is to empty it.

(Just glad I got two bags of my new favorite chips at Costco the other day!)

Saturday afternoon was a lot of playing in the backyard by Leif, a lot of cleaning and organizing the house by me, sleeping by Skadi, and working on stuff by AB. Then AB and Leif installed the new carseat in AB's car. That took a fair amount of time actually. The seat is a one size fits all type of thing that is substantially smaller than his Regent in my car. We bought it for AB's car so he can haul both kids on the rare occasion he does so, but mostly for travel because traveling with the Britax Regent might just be near impossible. We purchased a Graco Nautilus. I had intended to find and buy the seat a few months ago but apparently it is one of the hot new seats that everyone wants (goes from 30-100 lbs), and it was back ordered nearly everywhere.

Of course the installation of this seat prompted some lamenting from my husband that I have been fearing was coming.

"I need a new car, I cannot install these seats properly without LATCH," he said.

And no joke. We both worked on it with our little sidekick barking out commands on the side, "here let me sit in it and see if it works", "let's put a cup in the cup holder and see if it helps!" (You were right Pam, Leif loves the cup holder.)

We keep pushing back the actual purchase of a new car. We know what we want. My car is paid off this month. We can stick to our rule of not buying a new car until the other is paid off. But making that actual step is seeming painful right now.

I fear a minivan (Toyota Sienna) is in my future. I envision a love-hate relationship since I was one of those women who swore I would never own a minivan.

AB is looking over taking the reigns on my 4Runner. But I am not sure I am ready to surrender it. All over the news is talk about people scrambling to get rid of their SUVs thanks to high gas prices. I suppose maybe it's that I don't drive that much (I fill up every other week), or that I am lucky enough that while I don't like gas prices right now I can still afford them, or that I just plain like my 4Runner. More than like... I love my 4Runner.

Ah well... I am sure I will enjoy the amenities of a minivan as well.

Making up for at least three weeks

We finally got a weekend with everyone healthy.

After a trip to Home Depot we went home and started on the back yard. AB rented a rototiller and amended and broke up our soil. Leif and I planted four planters/baskets in the back. And it was HOT.

99F.

Sunday we planted some more ground cover under the fruit trees - something I have been meaning to do for a few years now. I just so happened to find the type I wanted while shopping Saturday.

We planted the garden... three tomato plants, three broccoli plants, six or so peppers of different varieties (something came over AB, peppers suck in our garden, always have) and Leif planted his little packet of carrots by dumping the entire contents of one packet into his little 12" trough.

We will thin.

We also planted six beautiful pumpkin seeds. We will also thin here. Probably down to two plants eventually.

Two more planters out front. Then a foray into the sprinkler with the kids.

And just to drive it home a little harder? I had not a scrap of dirty laundry in my house for a whole two hours.

And now?

Now I am ready to collapse.

Wrapping it up

AB got home from work a little early and so I sent him outside with the kiddos while I "check my work e-mail". Thankfully Leif doesn't know the difference between working and blogging - he won't rat me out. (He is insistent I help him find a working water gun... and I am not moving.)

This past week was one of the roughest weeks I have had in a long time. Without the sickness that invaded our house (again), I knew it was going to be rough. Then little things aside from being in class 40 hours and thus sorely neglecting my projects for the week just in time for mid-year reviews just made it worse than it really needed to be - being in between offices, finally getting my stuff in my office only to find out I had no network access, finding out it wasn't the drop in the new office. I guess good news on that is that my manager has agreed with me that replacing the network card on my 4 year old computer just isn't worth it.

I get a new computer!! Finally!

So that is a bright point on my horizon. And this computer I am going to organize logically from day one!

I have to admit that even though I knew it was going to so suck to miss my last day of class, I mentally needed it. Spending the day at home with the kids (albeit sick and fussy) was seeming a whole lot more like what I needed. Of course I got a flippant attitude from my co-PI in this venture when I told her I wouldn't be there. She knew all week my kids were sick and my husband was also in a course - and had already put in 12 hours earlier in the week caring for Skadi at home instead of in his course. I was quite put off by her response to me last night that "well but we are doing the low flow discussions tomorrow and we need to hear this". I keep reminding myself - she has dogs, not kids, her frame of reference is different. Other options? I don't have any. I couldn't take my daughter to daycare with a fever of 102.5F.

This weekend is the usual stuff. A little holiday hidden in there... AB came in from work and hid something... hmmm... I wonder what it is?

Leif made me soap and a card at school for Mother's Day. Funny, he had been talking about soap for days, asking me if I liked soap, if I needed any soap, etc., but I didn't pick up on it. I just thought he was obsessing with being clean again. (He was going to "clean the house" at one point today - he had a spray bottle and paper towels and thought an area of the floor needed scrubbed.)

My "goals" have been a little on the slacker side. I decided on the Master Suite over about the next two months. I think I should just say "over the summer". I am having a hard time coming inside working when there is still a lot of stuff to be done outside (my garden isn't even in and I don't think this weekend will afford us the time for that either).

AB has signed us up for a four day weekend at the cabin over Memorial Day. It is a beacon shining bright. We need to get out of this house and rejuvenate. Since we are going over Memorial Day weekend it will be very busy with loads of family to visit in the neighboring cabins.

Next week I will recover - mentally and physically. Until then I am letting my brain turn to mush... and going to pour a glass of wine now.

Another week down.

I would rate this past weekend about mid-range on the scale. There was plenty of room for improvement, but it wasn't bad either.

Saturday morning was swimming lessons. It is about all we can do to contain Skadi during Leif's 9:30am swim lessons. At 10am her lesson starts. She is our water baby. She does so much better in the water at this age then Leif did. I don't know if it is spending the last year nearly solid at the pool on Saturday mornings watching the routine, or if it is just in her nature. She loves the pool.

Finally her slot came and she was so excited to be in the pool. Her little body was just so tense from the excitement bubbling up in her.

Of course that also meant that only 20 minutes into her 30 minute lesson she had exhausted herself and was no longer interested in participating.

Leif and I dropped daddy and a sleeping Skadi off at the house and we headed to Costco where we spent way too much money. I loaded up on Carter's outfits for Skadi for the summer (must relish the last few months that I can put her in the uber-cute Carter's baby stuff) as well as pajamas for both kids.

Leif seems to have zoomed straight by 3T. Just a few weeks ago his 3T's were all still baggy and long. But starting last week we noticed they are suddenly appearing short. He was wearing 2T for what seemed like forever. I was starting to wonder if he and Skadi would both be in 2T at the same time despite being 2 years and 8 months apart.

But alas, the growth spurt happened and appears to be done. Leif's diet has returned to "would rather eat next to nothing".

The weekend took a turn for the worse on Sunday when AB and I both woke with headaches. (If I am going to wake with a headache I would have liked to have had fun the night before, thank you very much.) Skadi got up with daddy while I slept a little longer. Lucky daddy was the first to find out that Skadi had apparently picked up a stomach bug.

I woke and kept asking, "are you sure she is vomiting, or just spitting up?" I got my answer about 10 minutes later when she threw up the breast milk she had just consumed.

Leif insisted shortly thereafter that he too, had a stomach ache. Three year olds are tough to figure out. Is it that he wants medicine? Is it that he wants the attention being lavished on his sister? Or is this the reason he hasn't eaten so far today? Does he really have a stomach ache?

We may never know.

I erred on the side of caution and cancelled our playdate.

Skadi was up and down most of the day. Leif and I did get one good stint where Skadi was sleeping and we went into the front yard and cleaned out the front flower beds. I also pruned the juniper bush that had dreams of living on the other side of the sidewalk. I need a few cubic feet of soil for the flower bed since my giant bearded irises are working their way out of the dirt, but aside from that I am well on my way with our April goal. At least MY portion of the April goal.

I had talked up the anticipated "movie night" slated for Saturday night, only to be disappointed when The Bee Movie did not appear in our mailbox Saturday as promised. Star Wars was a worthy substitute.

I know. I can feel you looking at me sideways.

Star Wars? Guns, violence, Star Wars?

Yep, Leif's selections of shows he will watch on TV has expanded from Curious George to Curious George, The Forte Giant Little Einstein's episode OR any one of six Star Wars movies.

Blame AB.

At least the language is clean.

Leif sits and tells us who is the bad guy and who isn't. He squeals "here comes 'Darth Mater'" when Vadar comes on. He thinks the ewoks are cute, Jar Jar Binks is cool (just shoot me now), and Obi Kenobi looks just like daddy (AB beams at knowing his son would easily mistake him for Ewan MacGregor).

I keep telling myself he really isn't *that* young for Star Wars. I saw the first one in the theater when I was 5 years old. Only a year and a half older than Leif.

Today Leif had a dental check-up. I picked him up from school and we headed that way. Leif nearly bouncing out of his seat with excitement for the visit. (Weird child.)

Leif inherited my klutziness. AB has recently said that no matter the place, we are guaranteed that Leif will be the first one to fall and bang himself up or be in tears.

We were called back to the chairs, Leif hops into the big chair. I walk over to put my coat and purse on the bench when I hear the collective parent gasp around me. Reflexes said it was my kid.

Sure enough I whipped around just in time to see my son cartwheeling off the chair. Seems he stood up in the chair, lost his balance, caught his legs on the armrest and flipped over the side. Onto his head.

Yep, that's my kid.

The dentist was over within minutes checking him for breaks and checking his pupils. He gave me all the instructions on what to watch for in the case of a concussion. I have the list memorized at this point, but I just nodded my head and held my screaming preschooler.

The sweet and very concerned 8 year old boy in the chair next to him asked if he was going to be ok? He would be, I told him.

As typical Leif behavior, a few minutes later and he was as good as had it never happened. The assistant was able to get two good x-rays and clean his top teeth well.

When she got finished rinsing the top Leif insisted, "no thank you, you don't need to do more, I don't like it". The bottoms then proved to be a little more difficult.

No cavities (thank goodness).

And even better for me? Finding out we have a zero balance after fighting for 6 months with insurance on covering his work back in September done under general.

Phew.

Weekend wrap up

This weekend flew by. AB poured Pinot Noir on Friday and Saturday and enjoyed that.

I took Leif to swimming and wrestled with Skadi while we watched. Just did not want to sit still. I think we will put her back in swimming starting next session. She loves the water and is just getting to that point where she recognizes the pool and really wants to be in it.

We came home and Leif had quiet time in his tent in the dining room. He has been begging for a week now to "go camping" and talks about building fires, sleeping in the tent with the dog and mommy and daddy, gathering firewood and saving C from any monsters that might invade the campground.

I told Leif he had to be quiet in his tent for quiet time, otherwise it was off to his bed for quiet time. He took me seriously. He was quiet and layed still in there for about 45 minutes, relaxing. No nap, but lately we are at about 50-50 with naps.

We headed out for a playdate with sibling friends where it dawned on Skadi that L was doing something she doesn't do. (L is two months older.)

Walking.

SO since that playdate Skadi has been striving to stand on her own.

Without holding on.

Just the other day I was saying Skadi was a long ways from walking. I am taking that back. I think she will take her first unassisted steps in the next 2-3 weeks.

We all got home and AB and I looked at each other and about the same time asked, "where are we ordering food?" PF Changs it was.

After the kids went to bed, AB and I finished "3:10 to Yuma", which wasn't half bad. AB enjoyed it "allright" for a Western. And since I never care for Westerns I really liked it comparatively. I am sure that had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. Nope, not one bit...

This morning we ate Swedies (crepes). Skadi actually ate more than Leif did... she loves her daddy's crepes. Then we hung around the house doing chores and such for the most part. AB made a quick trip to the grocery store and then to retrieve Sonic limeades, but that was about it - other than our morning walk.

I tackled the scary closet and have hit the motherlode with respect to garage sale fodder. And trash.

I pulled out my wedding dress and AB told me to put it on. I argued, but finally gave in. I couldn't zip it all the way (after 8 years), but I got it on. Leif looked at me and said, "you look like a butterfly! No an angel, you look like and angel mommy." Awww!

I made my way through about 1/3 of the closet while AB hung the Ikea animal hanger and herded the cats. I mean kids.

The closet still needs some serious attention, but it is started. I will admit that a few times I found myself just standing there looking, not sure what to tackle next.

At one point I pulled out a pair of leggings from my high school gymnastics team. AB laughed at them and said, "what did you wear those when you were 8?" He joked they might fit Skadi now.

Nope, I told him, I used to wear these when I was 16. Oh those were the days when I, like every other teenaged girl, complained about being fat at 104 lbs.

I threw the leggings away.

They only served to remind me of "those days". And well, I will never weigh 104 again, nor do I want to. I don't need the momento leggings from team.

Fish tacos and pinot noir for dinner. (Not the best match in the world.)

And that does it for our weekend. How was yours?

Just what you want to see...

when you look out your dining room window into the back yard...

A cop walking around your backyard.

Actually I didn't realize he was a cop at first. I was too busy trying to force the words out of my mouth to AB, "there's a man walking around our backyard".

He jumped into action.

The cop saw me at that point and started walking to our back door.

"I am sorry for scaring you," he tells us, "I was just getting my glasses."

"Ummm," AB said searching for the obvious words to ask why his glasses might have been in our backyard.

Apparently while the dog was barking during the webcam session with my mom and sister and her kids, some perp jumped over our fence, into our backyard, followed by the police.

They caught him.

Frankly, I am glad we were in the other room. I am still freaked by it.

Long weekend wrap up

I walked into work this morning on time. This is a noteworthy achievement. One that may be repeated tomorrow morning and maybe even Wednesday morning. However, by week's end, I fully expect the kids to be settled into the time change and we will resume the 5-30 minutes late "normal" schedule. Time change? Loathe it. My kids are happily ingrained in a schedule and I have yet to see why we must go about fiddling with the time. Pick a time and stick with it already.

Ok, now that I have that off my chest.

We had a lot going on this weekend. A long weekend for us all. My FIL and his girlfriend arrived Thursday night. Leif, despite our insistence that "grandpa from Alaska" was coming to visit us and not Bompa from Colorado, was hugely disappointed when our expected visitors weren't who he was expecting. He took me into the kitchen and asked that I tell them to leave. Now.

That didn't happen obviously. Instead Leif grew to appreciate their presence after realizing that grandpa came with pool access. And Friday morning at the Holiday Inn Express afforded us the luxury of an entire pool and hot tub just for us. We had lunch at a local winery/bistro where Leif was able to eat cracker straws and salami and run around scuffling in the leaves while we enjoyed the fall air and a nice Gewurztraminer.

Dinner also took Leif by surprise. We had talked for days of Miss K coming over on Friday night. Well, then the strep struck her. (Or flakiness struck her, I never know which.) I had to scramble at the last minute. I made a quick call to Skadi's teacher and we had a new sitter. One who Leif didn't know (despite our insistence that she knows him VERY well) and certainly wasn't going to roll around on the floor with him. I have seen Miss K... I know exactly why Leif wants to roll around the floor with her...

He was apparently quite subdued the whole night. But upon Miss R's arrival to the house, Skadi was thrilled. She bounced and giggled when Miss R walked in the door. Bonded. I know this made Miss R's day.

Dinner that night at the other winery was fantastic. There had been discussions of slow service, but everything that night was on cue if not too fast. I was a little worried we would go home and Leif would still be awake. Believe me, if I am paying a sitter, I want a sleeping child when I get home!

I handed Miss R a wad of cash. I did my calculation. According to my coworkers, if your babysitter is a professional, you never pay less than minimum wage. And what is minimum wage? $9/hour or so. Truth be told, I have no idea. I rounded up given that I have two kids. We were gone 2.5 hours. Wa-la... a reasonable payment for a night out and about what I pay Miss K or A. Miss R took the $5, handed me the $20 back. Insisted. Ok, I KNOW babysitters make more than $2 an hour. I protested. Then she insisted I put my $20 away. Just wait until Christmas.

Saturday morning Leif had swimming lessons, which he excelled at. Then AB and I got our suits on. AB went into the pool and played around with Leif while I went and did parent tot lessons with Skadi. I had been worried about timing with nap - though not the stress level that I did at that age with Leif. Skadi loved it.

After swim lessons it dawned on us that we had already had a full weekend it seemed, yet it was only Saturday morning. We headed to Target for a few things and well, also because I like new stores. Nevermind that the "old" Target is very close to the health club. Leif and Skadi each had $20 gift cards from grandma for Halloween. Leif can count to 20 and so I hoped to use this time as a learning experience for him as well. We need to find out how much something costs and if it is lower than 20, then you can get it.

How naive I am.

It turned into a lesson of, "you can't just have everything you can grab". I truly think to this point he was fairly oblivious to the toy aisles. Though we did have a shot at working on one of the more important lessons, "you can have X or Y but not both" where X was a Spiderman and Y was a Buzz Lightyear. That slowed him down.

Buzz was the verdict after much deliberation.

Saturday afternoon AB wanted a trip back to the apple orchard to pick more apples. Because when you don't have massive quantities of fruit to process, cook or preserve, you just apparently become almost bored. (Eye rolling? Naw, not here.) You know you live in a small town when you get to the orchard. They are closed. But you call them and they come right down to help you with all the supplies. We hurried in our apple picking since we didn't want to completely inconvenience the owners. Though I expect it was probably the easiest $20 they made in a long time. 20 lbs of apples later...

Sunday was grocery morning where we spent loads on food. We spent a fair portion on foods aimed at establishing a more "Meditteranean Diet". I am actually doing pretty good at losing the pregnancy weight (thank you breastfeeding). All of my pre-Skadi pants are fitting me. (Pre-Leif pants will take a little more work.) But AB and I are foodies enough to know that we will never be able to go with a Nutrisystem or prepackaged foods diet without approaching depression. We also know that as we approach our late 30's (only approaching here... I have another 2 months at 35) that we need to change our daily diet even more so that we don't continue to gain weight. Incorporating excercise would be ideal, but aside from our evening walks and weekend madness, we just aren't there yet. Though we will get there. But until then, Meditteranean dieting we will do.

Sunday afternoon Leif, Skadi and I were playing in the backyard. I happened to note that the double wagon had seatbelts. Hmmm. Sure enough I could secure Skadi in the wagon and entice Leif to join her. Since AB was plastered to the TV screen watching either the Seahawks and Browns or the Colts and the Pats, we headed out onto the walking path. A half hour later Leif was crying, "I don't want to go back home", but Skadi was looking a touch chilly, and I was huffing and puffing from hauling them down the path and back. AB? Never even noticed we were all absent from the backyard for that 30 minutes. And the double wagon? Amazing! Skadi loved being a big kid, and Leif loved entertaining her. Winny just loved getting out. I did not think I would be out on a walk with both kids and the dog by myself.

Dinner was easy last night as I had put hamhocks and beans on earlier in the day. Comfort food at its best. My grandfather made this and I chowed it from the time I was Leif's age. Leif wasn't so interested though. That's ok. More for me.