Archive for the ‘my amazing husband’ tag
Getting back in my groove.
I don’t know why life suddenly seems so much more busy! Events ramped up over the holidays and just haven’t slowed down since.I hate when I fall off my blogging groove – it’s so hard to recoup, you know? And the more time that passes since my last entry, the more overwhelmed I get with the backlog of events I keep meaning to blog about! So, mainly so I can STOP feeling overwhelmed and just get on with it, here’s a bullet point summary of stuff going on lately:
- Christmas was fun, except for the part where I got mastitis.
We celebrated on the Sunday before Christmas, when we had all our family gathered ’round. I was feeling the mastitis coming on that day and I KNEW I should rest, but how could that happen, right? So I didn’t and it kicked my ass. I did bedrest the next day and the recovery started.
- We journeyed to Colorado with 5 of our 6 kids in tow on the 26th. Half the trip we spend at Keystone where Scott’s parents have a condo. The kids LOVED the snow. Scott and I got to have a date at the restaurant of the little ski lodge where we were married 2.5 years ago. Our first solo meal since Jake was born!
- We spent the second half of our trip in Pueblo visiting with family, particularly Scott’s grandparents, who got to meet Jake for the first time.
Scott and I had a blast digging through old photographs and learning more of his family history. We also found this amazing photo of Scott’s dad when he was three months old. Look familiar??
- Jake is five months old now and nearly crawling. Noooooooooo – it’s too soon! He is a happy little man. He knows and loves his siblings. It’s so cute the way his face lights up when they pay any kind of attention to him. He was WONDERFUL on the plane. Our flights were fairly short and he slept most of the time. Getting though security with a baby, a stroller, a carseat plus the diaper bag was no joy, however. Not to mention all the other kids. Oy.
- I am ever more dissatisfied with my shape. I got a Garmin Forerunner in my stocking (I asked for it lol) and augmented that with a jogging stroller this past week. I need to get off my duff. Even if I don’t lose a pound (and I’m not likely to until little one is getting most of his nutrition from solids when he is 12+ months old), exercise will help me feel better about myself. I would be a lot more despairing if I hadn’t been through this before. I had a similar weight gain pattern after Mira was born – and I successfully lost the weight and got fit after her first birthday. I want to start with healthier habits NOW though – at least in the exercise department. I don’t know HOW I can curb these insane carb cravings when I’m nursing.
In fact, I’m going to upload my pictures, post this entry, dress the baby, gather up my gear and GET WALKING. Today. (Edited to update: Or maybe I will AFTER the baby wakes up from his nap. )
“Adorement”
I got myself a small Christmas present this year – a token of my gratitude for my wonderful spouse and children.
It was this ring.
As you can see from the photo, it has a lovely sentiment. The band is sterling silver and is inscribed with “I made a wish” and there is a little golden star impressed. Then the inside of the band is inscribed: “and you came true.”
B was looking at it and said, “I wonder why people even WEAR rings. Why do they want to have rings on their fingers?”
We talked about how some, like engagement rings and wedding bands, are symbols of a couples commitment to each other. In other cases, rings are simply decoration, adornment.
And she, my clever little girl, said, “But this new ring you have must be adore-ment.”
Awww. 
I love my family
The Jake and the Daddy
The Nerd Handbook
This is funny! It fits Scott – and me, to a lesser extent – quite well.
However, MY nerd is way more emotionally evolved than the one/s described below (and more evolved than I am, frankly). As for his current project: he's in the process of building me a new computer. 
He does like his monotype fonts, but he's very good about flagging at least 95% of what I say as relevant…
Hopefully I'll be a Project of his for a long, long time to come.
Happy Halloween!
Jake and his daddy
These, I post for Scott, who is out of town and missing his family, especially this little one…
IKEA flatpack fun!
Here's what we did this weekend (and by we, I mean mostly Scott). New office!! We braved IKEA last weekend – exhausting. And yesterday Scott deconstructed the old office and put together the bright and shiny new office. Hurrah!! I LOVE it. I had next to no desktop surface workspace before, and now I have a vast expanse. <deep sigh of pleasure>. So today I spent some time getting my pace neatly ordered ready for work tomorrow.
There's still some work to do… we need to brave another trip to IKEA to get drawer and filing cabinet units… and whoopee another weekend of furniture building. And all the cords need zip-tied, etc., but as you can see from the BEFORE picture, this is tremendous progress.
THANK YOU to my sweetie pie hubby for all his hard work on this. XOXOXO
(also an IKEA set, but originally purchased to fit a smaller space – Scott's desk before, which you can't see in this photo, was an old dining room table. Functional, but it had its problems)
Weekend trip to Tuscon Zoo
The weather here in AZ was PERFECT this weekend and we decided to load up the girls and take a road trip down to Tucson's Reid Park Zoo. (Phoenix Zoo members get in free
The girls and I had never been to Tuscon, so it was neat to see some of that city. It's much hillier and prettier in that area than I imagined.
Much like Phoenix, it's bordered to the north (and east?) with a large mountain range. A very impressive mountain range, too – the Catalinas – with a peak of over 9,000 feet, that range gets an average 180" snow per year. On our way back home, we drove by the entrance to the Catalina State Park. We're very interested in exploring that ara someday.
What a relaxing day we had. We didn't rush out the door, but took our time. Regardless of weather or size of zoo, we knew that between my third trimester endurance levels and typical kid behavior, we'd have maybe a 2-3 hour window of opportunity at the zoo anyway. So we headed out around 8:30 am, stopped at BK for a fast food breakfast and then hit I-10 for the two hour drive. I-10 sucks.
We loved the zoo! We're regulars at the Phoenix Zoo, so it was a fun and different contrast. Reid Park Zoo is a small, community zoo. It wasn't too crowded – nice to see the exhibits without all the jostling crowds. Also, the habitats were significantly smaller than you see in the larger metro zoos, so that means we were able to FIND the animals in nearly all the exhibits.
Anyway, it was such a small zoo that we saw the whole thing in two hours. Perfect! We were ready to go by then, anyway. We had a late lunch at PF Changs and took the back way (through Florence/Queen Creek) home. In all, a really nice day.
For the I-Can't-Take-Them-Anywhere file
The most intriguing exhibit, as far as the girls were concerned, was that of the polar bears.
On the glass of the enclosure, a small placard explained that you might find the polar bears engaged in mating behavior: nuzzling and nibbling, rubbing against each other, potentially we'd even see some mounting. If the zoo was lucky, they would breed and later there would be a little polar bear cub.
So we approached the exhibit, along with another mom and her preschooler. All my girls had to, of course, carefully read the sign out loud and observe, that yes! The bears were nuzzling and nibbling and rubbing and… "Oh look, he wants to mount! They're going to mount!"
"Okay, girls, let's move on… Yes, now. N O W."
(Anyway, our enjoyable Saturday was followed by an even more relaxing Sunday – including a visit from Andrea and McK for brunch. The girls had a good time playing with their baby cousin. The rest of the day we just hung out at home, needing to go nowhere.) It felt soooo good, that downtime.
Marry a man who…
I found myself telling M (age 18) yesterday that she should make sure the man she marries decides it is important to budget for regular housecleaning service (because he thinks you have better things to do). Yes! My amazing hubby thinks that way!
Then last night, Scott goes and says something like this:
"I like a little fat better than skinny."
And I realized I need to be keeping track of these gems and NEVER take my boy for granted. 
So far the list, then, looks like this:
Make sure you marry a man who…
… decides it is important to budget for regular housecleaning service.
… likes your butt even MORE when it's a size or four larger than it was when he met you.
QotD: I Dunno, Where Do You Want To Go?
When you go out to eat, how do you pick where to go?
Submitted by Kristine.
Scott: "Where do you want to eat tonight?"
Me: "Ahhhh, I dunno. What sounds good to you?"
(Translation: How about you make a bunch of suggestions and I'll shoot them all down?)
It's amazing how land mine-infested this simple decision can be! Especially if we're actually hungry by the time we've arrived at this point. Munching on protein bars while discussing the problem is usually well advised.
It's all much easier when we're taking the kids out to eat. Then it's all about affordability!!
Mom to 4 kids and 2 stepkids, I am a writer writing in the heart of chaos. I am the co-founder and former editor of 
