Colorado Bound

Tomorrow we are heading off on our first family vacation since the addition of Laura. We're taking off by 7 in the morning, and plan on driving all day with hopes of making it across the state of Nebraska. If everything goes accordingly, then we'll only have a few hours of driving come Thursday and will arrive to my sisters in the early afternoon. I'm sure many of you are laughing at the thought of a 9 month old and 3 year old getting packed in a car for 14-16 hour trip, but I'm sure they will be just fine; actually I just keep my eye on the prize of getting to see my sister and her family for a long weekend, and it's all worth it in the end.

Some of you know that my mom and I made this trip w/ the kids last summer, and they did pretty well. I'm hoping Alex's newfound love of watching movies will be to our advantage this trip, and Laura will be the only one we really need to entertain. Once we get to Wyoming, Alex will get to see trains going back and forth on the track next to the interstate-so it makes those last couple hours go a little faster. I'm just looking forward to getting a driving break this time around. . .

It's a work/vacation trip, as Jason is going to be doing a little work for them; but hopefully everything is wrapped up for the weekend so that we can finally enjoy some r&r. We don't have any specific goals in mind, except I'd like to get up to Estes Park and Jason would probably like to get some fly fishing in. Laura was still too little to go up into higher altitudes last summer, so it will be nice to get back to RMNP for a short hike. Otherwise just enjoying the fact that we are away, and spending time with family we don't get to see as much will be relaxation enough.

So you won't hear from me for a week or so, and the next post will probably be a long one filled with lots of photos. Take care everyone!

I'm 3 years old, I'm 3 years old

That is the verse we couldn't quite get Alex to sing for his birthday party yesterday, but that's o.k. He's a very remarkable little boy, but usually takes a bit to warm up-and there are certain things that make him shy or quiet (something he probably inherited from me) and singing in front of a group of people happens to be one of those things.

His actual birthday is tomorrow; but weekends work out better for a celebration and we are leaving for Colorado on Wednesday. It was our first real party at the "new" farmhouse, and it felt good to have a big group of family and friends. It was even nicer to have the room to accommodate everyone inside and out. The weather was gorgeous, so luckily most of the festivities were outside. Jason and I were up until 1:30 the night before in preparation; he worked on the deck, and I worked on cleaning the hardwoods and boiling brats. I had spent a good majority of the day cleaning, so on Sunday we could just get the food ready, put a few decorations up and be done w/ it.

We had Sunday School and church in the morning, and then came home to more running to get balloons, finish cleaning odd and ends, and just getting ready overall. Luckily I had two eagar babysitters in my nieces who came over both days this weekend just to play with the kids.

Finally it was party time, and we actually had a lot more little kids than I anticipated. It was fun to see all those little feet running around the house, and hard to believe that these were all the children mostly of high school friends. When you're playing the part of a parent-it's still hard to believe that we were all "kids" at one point and now our own kids are playing together.

Alex enjoyed his cake, and his pinata, and all the wonderful gifts he received from others. Last night before saying goodnight we had our usual little chat about the day, and when I asked if he had fun at the party-his eyes were barely open, but he got this huge grin on his face and whispered "yes". That made all the preparation worth every minute.

And She's Off . . . .

Crawling that is, as of last week Laura is officially a crawler. Some days she's a little more ambitious than other's, especially at night time when you place her bottle at the foot of the stairs-she's generally a girl on a mission, and by the time she gets to the bottle she's all sweated up and out of breath. Almost every time she gets about half way, breaks down w/ a big pouty lip and possible tears, but we cheer her on and she finds the stamina she needs to make it there. I'm sure soon enough we'll be trying to slow her down, so I'll enjoy this time while I can.

Weekends are time for relaxation, running errands, cleaning, and doing the things we can't find time for during the week. The size of our house jumped considerably when we moved into the farm, so I devised a plan that I would try to clean it by sections (for instance bathrooms one day, bedrooms another, stairs on another, and lastly the downstairs) then it wouldn't seem like such a feat the day before say, a birthday party. I also try to throw a few loads of laundry in at night after work, cause that in itself could take an entire day. Bottom line is that I don't want to spend my weekends cleaning my house, Saturday the kids and I spend the day together and then Sunday is Church and Alex's proclaimed "play outside w/ dad" day.

Yesterday while Alex was helping dad build the front deck, Laura and I took the opportunity to visit my grandma. Granny Ruth lives in an assisted living facility in Brandon, and while I don't get over there enough-I do try to get over there when I can. I like to take Laura specifically because it's amazing watching old eyes light up when you enter the room w/ a baby, it's as if they have a gravitational aura that instantly puts a smile on their face. Granny has been there for a few years now, as have some of the other residents so when you walk in-it's as if you're greeting a family: the other people who live there, and the staff who supports the residents. Donna is a quiet but friendly lady who suffers from Alzheimer's-it's a given when we go there that I will probably be asked "what's her name, or is that a boy or a girl?" a few times within a short timeframe. Dorothy is a quiet lady who sits in her wheelchair most of the time, doesn't say much but just smiles and says "look at the baby". And then there's Laura, a sharp woman who I believe used to be a teacher. When we walked into the dining area yesterday, she didn't make mention of baby, just directly asked how old she was-and upon me telling her 9 months, Laura promptly said "she must be sitting by herself, and possibly crawling?" When I confirmed she was a crawler, she said-"studies show that early crawlers are better readers". I just smiled, then the woman asked what her name was-you can imagine the excitement when I responded w/ "Laura". "That is an 'old' name" she said, to which I told her that Laura was named after her great-grandmother so indeed it was a name of older generations. And there are a few other ladies, but those are the 3 that stood out upon yesterday's visit. Lastly, after playing show and tell w/ my baby, I go over to my main reason for coming-there sits my grandmother at the dining room table. A woman who once prided herself on her self-sufficiency sits at the table waiting to be fed her dinner. Parkinson's and a temporal inflammation have left her quiet, shaking, and unable to see anything out of her right eye-and minimal out of her left eye. The past 2 years have transformed her into a person that we barely recognize, but we just continue to tell ourselves that the old Granny is still in there someplace. When we go to visit, we're lucky if we get a laugh or a goodbye out of Grandma. It's the small things that I look for-the way she looks for Laura's little face when she'd normally sit w/ her eyes closed while others converse around her; the way she grabs for those little hands and feels every little piece of Laura's body; the way Laura doesn't let her close her eyes because she's constantly poking or prodding at her face, hands, arms, legs and feet. While Granny doesn't say a thing, her natural instincts with a child still let me know that grandma's spirit is still very much alive inside her. Her biggest pride was her grandchildren (14) and great-grandchildren (33+), I am the youngest grandchild and my children fall on the latter part of that timeline. So it's in these short visits that I do my best to try and get my children to know my own grandmother, Alex is to the age where going scares him a bit-so I will take Laura as much as I can until she reaches that point. It's amazing how one little angel can lift so many spirits in such a small amount of time-in those that make it apparent, and in the one who doesn't say a word (and means the most).

Potty Training 101 (Man vs. Woman)

With the house now being done, we can finally focus on more important things in our life. At the moment that happens to be working with Alex to get himself potty trained. Every day is different, and it's usually an all or nothing thing-he's either game for training that day or he isn't. Since Jason is self-employed we try to save ourselves a little money in daycare, so Jason works Tues-Saturday and stays home with the kids most Mondays. The weekends are the best times for us to focus on this because Alex gets a good 3 days of consistency, and it's when we have our most success. This past Monday I jumped off the cliff and scheduled an appointment for both kids to have professional photographs taken simultaneously. It has been a year and half since Alex's last "nice" photo, and Laura hasn't even had one taken yet due to the chaos the last year has been.

Since I didn't go to work this particular day, I got to start the day out at a more relaxed pace. Teri's definition of "relaxed pace" means I was able to drink a couple cups of coffee before I walked out the door, and I would be able to shave my legs in the shower. As I was enjoying the latter part of my relaxation, I hear the door open to the bathroom. "Mom, gotta poop" Alex tells me, since Jason happens to be home I tell Alex to go let his dad know-so I didn't have to interrupt my leg shaving time. I hear the door shut, and assume that Alex has went to tell Jason about his plans. I finish up and grab my towel as I'm getting out of the shower and as I shut the closet door, I catch Alex out of the corner of my eye-apparently he decided he couldn't wait, and had taken the liberty of putting the seat on, pulling the stool up to the toilet and parking his butt for a while. He got up, and proclaimed in a stern voice "Pooped mommy". That was my cue to make sure he was clean and ready to face his day, being a mom-I've seen poop a few million times, so I took Alex at his word, and didn't feel the need to double-check it right away. Well, Alex being a boy, opened up the door and yelled "Pooped Daddy!!!"; Jason being a man, felt the need to come examine what was left in the toilet. I continue to try and get ready for my day, and all the "poop excitement" around me continues as Jason comes in, he looks in the toilet and as serious as a heart attack says "he didn't do that, did he?!" Honestly, only a man would even consider that his wife would do something like that and then to think that I would ploy my kid to get him to come look at it?! Instead of interrogating me, I'm surprised he wasn't gloating about his kid's new found (and probably inherited-or so Jason would say) talent.

So that particular day was a success, as was the next day, and this morning as well. Some days are better than others, but we know that he'll eventually get there-when he decides that it's time. Until then, we won't push-we just try to celebrate like Rock Stars when he does do well.

Welcome

To those of you who have received an invite-I've done so because I get sick of sending emails or copying and pasting information from one person to the next. I never remember what I've sent who-and who's requesting what. I figure if it's all in one central location, then people can look when they want.

This blog is about typical or unique days in my life which would include work, school, home, and most importantly, my children. I don't intend on posting every day, heck once a week will probably be a feat-but I will do my best.

Basic information about myself. . .

Work: I work fulltime at Ripon College as Assistant Director to the Information Technology Services department w/ an emphasis on "desktops and student computing". Many people wonder, what does this really mean? Basically, I get paid to:

• configure computers that are rolled out on a 3 year lease cycle, every year we have a "batch" of systems that needs to be refreshed


• asset manage where our current systems are


• proactively troubleshoot known issues prior to returning current systems to keep casualties to a minimum


• coordinate purchase orders and returns for all systems (fancy word for box old systems, and make room for new ones) And I've actually graduated to hiring my own student workers for this purpose-man I'm moving up in the world


• create master image, deploy to all new systems, and deliver new systems to end users


• support end users


• manage a student worker staff which provides troubleshooting services to the student body


• and many other little trivial things that come with working in the IT department

Wow, I didn't realize how much I do-guess I know where to look when it comes time to start polishing up that resume!

School: I'm currently attending Moraine Park Technical College as a part-time student to obtain my IT Tech Support Specialist Associates Degree. Many people think to themselves "why associate?", well for some reason I'm doing this ass-backwards and getting my degree in what I actually do. I figure it gives me some competency in my position, RC has offered to pay for it, and if for some reason I ever decide to leave RC-I may have given myself a few more options. I also don't have the time or mental ability (at this point in my life) to devote to a Bachelor's. It is my goal to eventually obtain a BS, but for now baby steps are good enough for me. I have about a year left (at my current pace) until I graduate. I'm hoping to graduate w/ a cumulative GPA of 3.9 or better.

Home: Well most of you know my home life, otherwise you probably wouldn't be here. Anyways, Jason and I live in our recently remodeled farmhouse. It was what we would call our "labor of love", while I can attest that those 10 months ensued some of the best and worst times of our life so far-it was well worth it in the end. We live at home with our two children, and Mag-my 9 year old dobe.

Children: And most importantly I will wrap this up with those two little angels who give me an even better reason to wake up every day. Alex, my son, is quickly approaching 3 years old; and Laura who is almost 9 months old. These are the subjects that will probably receive the most attention on this blog, as you know-I love to snap photos, and update people on their latest milestones.

So, welcome to my world.