YellowJeepGirl

SO - Im truly tired today. Insomnia, with its advantage of letting you get Lots Of Shit Done, eventually catches up to you. And so- When I get so tired, and I still cant sleep, I get bitchy. With that: Three things I’d really enjoy bitching about for just a couple seconds o’ your time. (it’ll make me feel better )

1) The bathroom at work. (go figure) Since the downstairs bathroom has the fragrant, almost delightful smell of raw sewage, Im again frequenting the 2nd floor restroom. Im willing to walk a little further for a relatively odor free urination experience.

However, my biggest pet peeve (with relation to the bathroom, of course) is the cleaning “Check List”. Im not pissed over the fact that they have a “Check List” mind you, I’m actually a huge “Check List” fan. If there was a fan club for checklists, I’d be the number one! Checklists and lists in general, oh how I heart you. But no, I like the list.

What pisses me off is the fact that I think they’re just placing x’s in the boxes with out really doing the work. Why, might you ask?

Well.

One of the items to Check, near the bottom of the List, is “Toilet Plungers out of sight”. I think this is a great idea. I don’t necessarily want to look at the plunger. I don’t daydream of clogged crappers while making use of one. And yet, despite the fact that the “Toilet Plungers out of sight” box is checked off twice a day, every day, THE PLUNGER REMAINS IN FULL VIEW! I can see the plunger! Its NOT out of sight! You LIARS! Put it in the damn cabinet, and stop just filling out the paperwork! I really don’t want to look at the feces encrusted molded rubber shit stomper anymore! Gahh!

Of course, I could also put the thing in the cabinet myself, but: Its not covered in my poo, and besides that - its the principal of the matter. Someone doesn’t take their job seriously enough! I have to do my job, you have to do yours, and as mundane as it may be, take some damn pride and for God’s sake - put the plunger away!

2) To the dude in front of me at the coffee condiment section in the break-room at work. Or really, anyone utilizing said break-room and performing the below orchestration. Anyways. Really, man, woman, troglodite, whatever:

I get that you view your coffee as a precious work of art. I can totally appreciate the care and attention you give to measuring the perfect amount of powdered non-dairy creamer. Your sugar dispensing is a sight to see. Im a little OCD myself. I wanted to clap for you.

But seriously. You looked behind you and saw that 5 freakin’ people are were angrily waiting to even grab a damn styrofoam cup (yeah, we’re super eco-friendly here…) because your big slow ass was hogging up the whole area and you STILL DIDN’T MOVE. Common courtesy! Take your shit and move down so I can get my damn pretend caffeine! For the love of everything Holy! Its 8am! I’m tired. I want coffee. I’m pissy. I cant have real coffee and that makes me pissier. (i just made that word up!) Some mornings, that stupid decaf which is masquerading in my cup as “coffee”, is all that gets me through. So while you work on your masterpiece, keep in mind that there are anxious people jonesing for a fix. Take longer than the terribly adequate 30 seconds grace time to mix your shit, or be prepared for the wrath of my dirty looks. I know you dont know me, but that look should scare you. Im scrappy dude, I could whip your ass.

3) Yeah, now I cant remember. Maybe something to do with the weather and humidity and frizzy hair. Probably something to do with why jeans shrink in the wash. Because that generally pisses me off too. I might have been angry at Outer Mongolia. Screw that whole place. Inner Mongolia however, is the bee’s knees. If bees had knees. If they did (do?) they suck too though, because bees are just assholes on principal. Screw you bees. So maybe Inner Mongolia is like warm sunshine. Im tired. feh.

******

Update! Now you can see the very-much-not-hidden plunger. And! I added a little note to let the cleaners know I can still see the plunger. It was a very polite note: (click to enbiggen)

So I started in a new role at work, and along with many many new changes in my life - I have a new spot to sit in on the 2nd floor. Same floor I was on, just a new location. Temporarily however, while I transition, Im sitting in a cube on the first floor of our building. While I enjoy cube life again, I do not like this location for one reason alone: The first floor women’s restroom freakin stinks to high heaven. I’ll be glad to get to my permanent spot upstairs just for the clean smelling 2nd floor bathrooms. Shit, apparently, literally rolls downhill in this building…..

I am going crazy with the introduction of fantasy football in my life. I have never played before, and while I love football, its more of a general love than a powerhouse of statistics, players, scores, teams and strategies.

I know the rules, I know which players and teams I generally like, I follow the season and I like to yell at the tv and shout at the players making stupid moves and stellar scores.

This new aspect of the “sport” though, may very well increase my memory for generally useless knowledge, my love for the game, and my frustration with my own type-a personality. I have books, magazines, website articles, friends suggestions all laid before me. I’ve looked at all I can look at tonight. I don’t know if I have it in me to properly predict who is going to perform well, who I should pick in round 4, 7, and 14, and who’s injury is going to prevent a stellar season. Its like a test I dont know how to study for, and it comes down to a totally random set of questions regarding placement in the draft.

So with a humbled heart, I sit here and I ponder - Do I want to go RB/WR/WR/RB/WR/QB, or do I go RB/RB/WR/QB/WR ? And when do I get the Tight End?

I think its basically a crapshoot for me this time. Hopefully my Cereal Killers will turn out ok.

I was too tired to blog it then, but I had a fabulous run last night. I’ve been struggling to ramp back up after the week long break on vacation. Poor nights on both Monday and Tuesday had me fretting the Weds big run.

I went out with the wife of a co-worker, someone who’s run a 10k and regularly runs 3 miles on the loop around our nearby shopping center. I had been under the impression that this was a 5m loop, and had been psyching myself up for it for a week now. She runs faster than me, this run would be my farthest so far and will put me on real roads with hills, not just the tracks.

I ran the actual loop of 3.5m in about 40 minutes with some real hills and some REAL effort. 3 times I found myself pushing myself, giving myself the mental pep-talk, re-assuring myself that I could do it and I needed to do it. And I did. I’m really pumped. A faster pace than ever before, a longer run than ever before (even though its not the 5m I wanted, I felt strong enough I think I could have done it), higher temps than ever before - it was 94 degrees when we finished.

I’m really proud, and I *know* now that I can easily do the 5k in Sept, and am really confident to run the 10k at the end of the month, even if I have to walk a part of it.

Here it is, graphically, in case anyone is interested:

Also I found a protein supplement I finally like. It makes me fart — I just knew you were interested

Had a bad run yesterday, but I dont care because it was 97,000 degrees (kelvin) yesterday. It was like running on the surface of the sun. I’m just not cut out for the heat. But we ran faster, which is a bonus, and maintained it for almost a mile. Pretty novice when compared to Joe, but its only been a year. I have a massive (for me) 5 mile run tonight with Ghazaleh tonight anyways to make up for it.
I finally got signed up for the Human Race 10k, and the KP5k which are both rapidly approaching. If those feel strong I may push for the Womans 1/2 marathon in Oct or the Turkey Trot 1/2 marathon in November. We’ll see. I’ve got another 4 weeks to train for the 10k.
On the training front, I got some protein powder last night. Its an ISOPURE whey protein. Little more expensive, but low cal, and zero carb which I wanted. 50g of protein per serving, which I’ll cut in half. I really really dont need 50g of protein on a 1100 calorie diet.
The pushup challenge took a 1 week hiatus for me. I’m ready to start again tonight, so we’ll see how that goes.

Work has put me in a bit of a decision mode right now. Decisions. We’ll see.

A friend sent this link to me in email today. Its NSFW, but worth saving off for when you need a really good laugh.
“The 10 most terrifying Guides to Sex”

I need a new look, and I’m completely undecided about it. (for the website)

Ohh to be home again. I missed my bed, and my house, and my own non-wacko ac. I did not however, miss the freakin humidity of Atlanta. I forgot how horrible it is. We took the kiddos over to the park to feed the ducks who live in the cesspool over there, and were sweat drenched inside of 20 minutes.

Coming home always means finding something new. Yesterday it meant finding a slew of some random teeny bug in one of our cabinets. I think they were baby gnats or something, but it was disgusting. We threw out every open container of everything we could find in the house, and all flour/baking mix products. Good thing we recycle. As an aside, this is how the ducks got fed at the pond.

This now meant we had to go grocery shopping since we’re totally out of staples now. We hit whole foods, aka whole paycheck on the way home from the park. I love and hate Whole Foods. While I like the selection, I hate the fact that its like the walmart of grocery stores. You cant go in, and not buy something. We needed bread and milk, we left with cheese, fruits, smoothies, lox, protein and energy bars, gelato, fish, ribs and meatloaf. Never ever ever go to the grocery store hungry.

We got slightly lost on the way home. Well really, google directions got us lost (whoa, this *NEVER* happens - hah), and garmin totally screwed the pooch for us. I had to navigate us through backwoods Florida and Alabama on my cellphone. For 2 hours I stared at a 2.6inch display. At downloads of 196k a second when we were not roaming. Thanks Helio! I love you and your supafast 3g which is never available when I really need it. But we made it home, and both kids and parents survived the trip in one piece.

Now I must go upload lots of photos.

This entry might as well begin with the default “hello world”

So, it is the first post in a long time. WTF else is new here? This time, i am actually going to make a concerted effort to continue blogging. I keep attempting, and in the past I would quit as soon as I would see a specific referrer pop up in my logs. I’ve since realized that its probably never going to end, as long as I have a public site the same person would continually try to peek into my life. I’ve no plans to password protect, move sites or change what I write. The only change I’ll make is to stop caring who reads. So for all of you who’ve stuck around though many months of imposed writers block, thanks!

On vacation now, the last day actually, in Ft Walton Beach Florida. Isi and I havent been here in years. The last trip down in fact, was in 2000 when I spent a month and a half here for a Blue Flag in the military. This town has grown up in the last 8 years. A lot. Some things never change though. Its still a sleepy little town between Destin and Eglin. There are just a lot more “beach” stores and hotels and condos.

Beach has been nice, not crowded since we’re in a private condo, though we could certainly live w/o the jellyfish. The girls have loved the sand. Well, Piper loves to dig in the sand, and Violet likes to walk around and eat it. They both loved the pools, and Piper has become quite the little fish. They both got to stay up past bedtime on multiple occasions, making it nice to sleep in later in the morning.
Isi and I definitely needed the vacation. Loved the private condo, especially the roof access and private hot tub.

Long story short: Skip the Gulfarium, go eat at the Donut Hole across the bridge in Destin. Destin West condos on the bayside are spacious and well appointed. Pools are nice. Beaches are still clean, but chock-full-o jellyfish right now.

Didnt run a lick this week. Hoping to manage 45 minutes on Saturday evening if John is up for it. Hint Hint…. I did do the pushups this week, but think I actually have really hurt myself. My lower left abdomen lets out a searing pain now when I tighten my core. Not good. Giving it 3 days rest to see what happens. Hopefully its a pulled muscle and nothing more.

Isi did upgrade me to 2.6, and hopefully we’ll be fixing this theme soon. I’m in love with the pinkness. I need a third column, and i’ve fallen in love with the widgets concept. I’d like a good flickr rotator/randomizer though if anyone knows of one.

Oh. And I’m twittering. Tweet Tweet

I’m still going batshit crazy, but Violet is sleeping and Piper has been lazily watching princess movies with her feet up in my lap, so I have a few precious free minutes. We pretty much have “Cindabrella” memorized, so I know when she is about to loose interest.

Things are good here. Violet, all 9 months of her, has 2 ear infections, 3 teeth, and hasn’t gained a lb since her last checkup at 6m, but otherwise she’s doing great. She’s getting brave now with the walking, and will attempt a step, if, and only if, we aren’t close enough to catch her. She enjoys jumping while holding the side of something, and crawling at top speed for whatever Piper’s got. She’s getting more courageous in what she’ll attempt to eat too - power cords, cookies, remote controls, stickers, rice puffs, seaweed, potato bits, shampoo containers… You name it, she’s probably attempted to eat it. Quite the oral fixation on that one. Plus the yelling. She’s started clapping and yelling. Nothing in particular, just freaking yelling to yell. Fun. Especially at 6:30 will G1 is trying to sleep too.

Piper is calming on the tantrum front. That or we’re doing a teensy better in anticipating a screaming crying throwing things breakdown by trying to gauge the hungry/tired/frutstrated crank-o-meter. We’re trying to use words that are more positive than negative. Instead of, “No, you cant have more milk”, we’ll lie - “I know you want some more milk, but we are out of milk right now” “No, I know you think the store has more milk, but I promise, all the cows in the world spontaneously stopped producing milk today, and there wont be anymore milk until tomorrow.” (or at least till i can get to the store after they are both in bed) We’ve had to establish that nice girls get things they want, and mean girls don’t. That’s helped a lot, along with setting up some basic rules… No Yelling at Anyone, Asking Nicely for Things, and Listening to Mommy and Daddy. Or as she’s started calling me, much to my hearts chagrin, Mom. I hate MOM. It’s too mature for her. Especially at 3.

We’re having a small party for her this weekend. Because we are retardedly insane, we’ve invited a bunch of her “friends” over to eat cake and play with paint on the deck. I’ve got no idea what we’ll do with a bunch of 3 year olds, but we’ll see. Updates and pictures to follow, I’m sure.

Things otherwise are pretty much the same. House still needs work, but now we are being bombarded by carpenter bees and a squirrel fell into the chimney the other day. Hopefully he got out, after Isi drilled a hole in the side of it. I managed to get a ton of laundry done, and Isi spent two days cleaning the garage, so thats a bonus.

Running is going well, and I’m pretty positive that I’ll be able to run the 5k this fall with no issues. Hopefully I’ll be able to do it in 30 minutes. Thats the goal, we’ll see. I had been contemplating the Nike+ Ipod sports kit, but thats quite the outlay of cash, when we’ve got much better things to spend it on. I’ve already got some shoes that will last a while longer, and a shuffle that I love. I dont necessarily want a nano, since I dont think I’ll make use of the video. A garmin forerunner or a Polar would be nice, but again, I’m looking at 300 bucks gone like that.
So in the place of all of that, I’m considering the Nike+ Sportband. Its only 60$, and is basically a glorified pedometer without the benefit of counting steps. It measures pace, distance and elapsed time. I think its a good balance of the huge outset of the Nike+ Ipod system or a Forerunner for what I need now. Not that I need anything, but since I will eventually want to know pace, and run outside, it will be helpful. We’ll see…

Yes. Batshit crazy. The house is driving me crazy, the weather is driving me crazy, the kids are driving me (mostly) crazy, the job is (definitely) driving me crazy!

The house: We’re never done working on it. Ever. Ive decided we are houseworky people. Even before we finish a project, I’m picking us a new one. Gah! We’re still a few details from done in the kitchen, we’ve ripped out a cabinet we need to finish in the basement, we have a closet and bathroom to spackle and paint, carpets that need cleaned and drapes that need finishing touches, yet I am still mentally re-doing Pipers bedroom, the basement, the downstairs bath and picking out flowerbed plans for the yard! Not to even mention the high dollar items that we need in the future: roof, driveway repair, new furnace in the upstairs, a playable yard for piper. I’ll never learn.

The weather: Its April. In 2 weeks its May. Stop being 40 fucking degrees outside! This is Atlanta, stupid asshole weather! 40 and sunny, then 85 and rainy, 60 and tornadoes, then 75 and windy. I went running the other night and it was 33 and bone chilling cold. Get on with real weather!

The kids: Alltogether not bad, but remember when I said Piper doesn’t really throw tantrums or have attitude? I should go back and smack myself in the face for saying that. Oh my good lord, I want to just walk away and scream because of her some days. Most days in fact. Eternal terror, where did you come from? I asked her today when we picked her up at daycare, if I was bringing home Nice Piper or Mean Piper. She said nice Piper, but that little liar pulled a fast one. Violet, still mostly an angel, but with double ear infections, 3 teeth coming in, and learning to WALK all before 9 months, we have a screamin’ nonsleepin’ demon on our hands. I still love them, but they are cementing our decision to stop at 2 kids.

The job: Holy cow of all sacred cows. I bow before this holy cow, because it has laid down some deep bullshit, and its way uphill of me. I’m now oncall every other week, the workload is heavy and completely thankless. Im constantly feeling drained, and genuinely wondering if this is the best place for me. I still love it, and love the people I work with, but I’m concerned that this wont pass. It has to, for all things eventually do, but how to deal in the meantime.

I go Batshit crazy. Thats how. Then I rant. Then its all good again.

(and yes, i know I shoudn’t complain because yes, we were smart enough to buy a house we can afford and we’re not being foreclosed on and buried in debt/homeless, we’re not flooded or currently experiencing wildfires or tsunamis, both kids are happy and healthy and alive, and, despite it being hugely ungratifying, I have a somewhat decent paying job. I’m aware there are those less fortunate, but its my blog and I’ll whine if I want to.)

I took Piper to see the Little Mermaid at the Ballet today. I thought she would enjoy it, but was worried, since it was non-speaking, at a large auditorium, and 2 hours long. She’s got a pretty short attention span, and bores quickly. Not that she’s attention deficit or anything, but she is only 2. Since tickets were only 15$ each, i decided to go for it, and figured if she misbehaved, we’d just leave.

I have to say, I had my doubts about her enjoying it, or even sitting still through it, and I was pleasantly surprised. She sat still, on my lap for both hour long segments. Isi and I had sold it big, telling her she was going with mommy to see the princesses dance on stage a couple days before. She’s into full on pricess-o-rama mode, (when she’s not building train tracks or playing with her dinosaurs) and I knew this would get her excited. Needless to say, it worked.

She was pretty entranced by the ballerinas, booed at the witch, and clapped at the appropriate parts. I’m excited to take her to the Nutcracker this year now!

I am obsessed with them. They mask the smell of diaper and dog food in our house. Not that our home is a massive pile of diapers, wipes, and dog treats. At least not on most days. But, I really like the smell of these new ones I have. They are the Yankee Candle aroma therapy new age-y smell. One is called “Bliss” which is an orange vanilla smell, and another is “Sensual”, or as I like to call it, “Get it on”, which is jasmine and sandalwood. In Love with them.

We’re in playground equipment hell right now. Both Isi and I want to get a yuppie playground deal for Piper and Violet, well mostly for Piper right now, to play on. So. Many. Options. Yet. So. Damned. Expensive. We cant decide between building our own from scratch, buying a pre-made and letting someone else deal with it, or getting a kit. We’ll see. Prepare yourself for pictures and cussing - I’m sure its coming.

We had the chili cookoff today, and I came in fourth, but who gives a crap, there was a ton of awesome chili! I think I ate chili until it is going to ooze from my ears later today. I love my own recipe, but holy cow, there were some really really good ones there.

In other news, I am in love with a big hunk of steel. Isi got me 2 new knives for Christmas, super nice Wusthof knives. Neither of which I have used, because I have no place to store them, because I want a magnetic knife rack over the stovetop, but I dont have one yet, so I wont put them in a drawer to get all nicked up and potentially cut myself digging in a drawer, wow long run-on sentence.

So I used this knife, a santoku (fancy word for “general”) knife, to slice some raw beef. Oh my god, the term “hot knife through totally melted liquid butter” came to mind, and yet could not describe how well this thing cuts. I am pretty damn positive I could take a finger off with little to no effort. Why oh why have I waited so long to buy good knives?

Oh. You know what? I didn’t know Andromeda was crashing towards us. Did you? That would be pretty freakin awesome to see. You know, before it killed us and all….

Violet has a tiny fever tonight, and Piper had a number 2 accident at school today. Thrill of thrills, this is the exciting life I lead. She (Piper) actually felt really upset about it, crying at school when it happened, and telling me “tomorrow I’ll tell Miss Tammy, and go poopy in the potty, not in my underpants”. Poor kid.

She’s really into stamping lately, so I took her to Hobby Lobby to pick out some stamps and some colored stamp pads. She’s had this Charlie and Lola foam stamp set with a small red pad for a month, and about has it worn out. She was so thrilled with the new stamps, she spent the entire night playing with them.

We’re doing the birthday party debate right now. We cant decide whether to have a party, or just have some kids over at the house. We’re both on the low key side right now since we have a trip to florida, her birthday, the house party, memorial day, a camping trip or two, 4th of July and Violets birthday, all right after each other. Spring/Summer are just a busy time of year for us.

I spent the day at home today, cleaning after our mass exodus from gaming this weekend. It took me 2 full hours to clean the kitchen and basement. Graah! Then I started prepping my chili for the cookoff tomorrow. Used the same recipe I usually use, but for some reason, it seems soupy this time. Hopefully it still tastes great. Hell, hopefully I win.

We’re going to go see a ballet performance of Alice in Wonderland this weekend, assuming we can get a sitter. Isi has never even seen the cartoon. Crazy, I cant get over that. I loved Alice as a kid. I’m excited to go see it.

I just watched my 487 billionth “How its Made”, which is like crack for Isi and I. They were showing miniature silver sculptures for dollhouses, hot air balloon baskets, and curved wood furniture. Okay. Must go take a shower now. I smell.

Took the dog running with me tonight. John was along as usual, we had been discussing the possibility of taking the dog with us when we run. I used to walk with Uno all the time, up until I got pregnant with Piper and we joined a gym. I started taking him again in December, and for some reason I stopped. He usually did pretty decently, with only minor corrections needed.

I decided to bring him along again tonight, and since we no longer run in our neighborhood, it was going to be an experiment. Uno long ago outgrew his need for a harness, and I’ve walked him in a simple nylon collar since he was about 3.

He did pretty decently, save for trying to figure out where to run him at. John and I usually run side by side, and it was a bit of a juggle trying to keep all of us on the sidewalk at the same time. Uno usually trots along by my side, but the prissy thing insists on being on the sidewalk. He has a mud/grass aversion. This would have been ok, but John and I barely fit on this sidewalk ourselves, and Uno was doing his part to force us off. Eventually he got the hang of running up in front of us, with only minor correction needed for wandering from the center, and a little prodding when it was time to switch from a walk to a run.

Hopefully he picks up the “in front” concept and I can continue to bring him along. He definitely needs it, after 7 years, he’s not quite so lean anymore.

Do they make reflective doggy vests?

Piper has announced that she is Daddy’s Retirement. Shortly after this announcement we asked if she would like boobies or brains. She states Brains. I’m still holding out hope that we can convince her she wants both.

I would really enjoy a piece of Oreo Cookie Cake from Publix right now.

We (isi, the kids and the guys) all went out for lunch at Mambo Italiano right around the corner from us today. It was very so-so. Normally its great, but everyone felt very blah about thier food today. I think it will probably be a while before we go back.

I have to orchestrate a chili cook-off at work on Wednesday. I need to get out my recipes and start looking for key ingredients for something fresh. We’ll see how it goes. I love chili. Meat! Beans! Meat! Yum!

Alrighty, I lied. Piper decided to hit her what we’ll call a “lapse in being a good child”. Not that she’s being bad, just bratty. Talking back, yelling and screaming at us, generally pushing her limits. And granted, its her job, thats what she’s supposed to be doing at his age is testing us, but dear god, its frickin annoying.
And, I am sure only because I mentioned it, Violet got the creeping crud giving her vomiting and diarrhea, and subsequently - waking her ass up all night long when she poos.

We watched Boy from Mars or something like that, Alien Child, or some other title like that. It had John and Joan Cusak and some kid. Decent movie. Best part of it was when he said that baseball is the only time in your life when you can fail 70% of the time and still be a superstar. Awesome quote.

Work is kinda sucky lately, its been really busy and quite a drag to go in. The best part of the day is leaving to go get the girls.

Not doing much this weekend. Gaming with the guys, and hanging out with the girls. Should be uneventful.

Piper is almost 3. Its amazing how she grows and changes with each day. We never really hit what I would call the terrible twos, and hopefully it wont happen at 3 either. She has her whineyness like any kid, and general hungry/tired induced crabbiness which usually hits at about 7 pm, but thank god, bedtime is at 8!

She’s still little, but can totally choose her own clothing, is totally potty trained, dresses herself, and to top it all off, has the most amazing manners. She can read all of her numbers, and has an incredible vocabulary. Her observational skills are ever increasing, and she’s certain to let us know what she’s perceving. This week she’s announced that I was playing music too loudly, its no longer raining outside, Violet is happy or sad, Isi is driving too fast or too slow, he was going in circles with our red car, and that his underpants were too tight.

She’s become very affectionate with Violet, and its starting to play out with her babydolls, something she has never shown an interest in before. She pretends to feed, cuddle, hold and drive them around in strollers now. She likes me to go check on her (violet) when she is napping, and makes sure Violet has her bottles and pacifier and her OWN toys. With Violet becoming ever more mobile, she’s been on the hunt for whatever it is Piper’s playing with, something Piper has been desperately trying to block. About every 20 minutes or so we hear shrieks of “She’s putting her mouth on my train!”, “Violet is eating my book”, or “Violet is chewing my dolls!”. But, all in all, I really am very pleased with how Piper is with Violet, I couldnt ask for more out of her, or for a better big sister for my baby.

Violet is 7.5 months now. Of course, I’ve been back to work for four and a half of those months, which, to be honest, sucks in general, but I am really really pleased with the care she gets at daycare. She LOVES her “teachers” and they really love her too. She totally has them fooled though. At home she sits unattended, rolls all over the house, eats a megaton, and scoots/almost crawls to eat whatever it is Piper has. At school, they have to carry her everywhere, or she lies on the ground on her back and giggles at them. To that note, she has to be the funniest happiest baby I have ever seen. She is constantly smiling or cooing or laughing at us, and its a rare day in the house if she cries. We comment constantly on how different the two kids were at the same stages in their lives. Piper’s reflux really made her a moody child and while we of course thought she was happy, (and its not like she was a screaming monster) its very evident how much of an impact it made on her, and our lives at the time. Violet is the total opposite, but has her own tummy troubles with a worrisome allergy to both dairy and soy that I am praying she outgrows.

She just recently, at 7 months started sleeping 12 HOURS straight at night, which I have to say, Isi and I were grateful for. Sleep deprivation was really starting to take its toll on both of us. She also is down to two naps a day, for an hour or so in the am, and about 2 in the afternoon. She’s incredibly easy to put down. Wait till she rubs her eyes, and you can lay her down wide awake and she’ll roll over and go to sleep. (usually) She has two chompers now, and gleefully chews her hands and anything else in sight with them while babbling happily at us. She is totally enamored with Isi, Piper and of course, Uno. Uno is center stage in Violets eyes, followed with whatever Piper has, Piper, Isi, then me. Its amazing how they’ve changed our lives.

And to top it off, I have tard-mom matching outfits and naked bath pictures with my two girls.

Ski Trip: Isi and I and a bunch of friends headed out to Utah sans kids about 2 weeks ago for a MUCH needed vacation in Park City. Holy bananas I love Utah - I dont love the asinine blue laws, but its an outdoor gals paradise. Of the 5 days we were there, I skied all 5. Isi and I brought our own skis, which actually much less of a hassle than I thought it would be. The place we stayed was beautifully decorated, wonderfully appointed, and way too small for 6 adults. The resort was great. Having only skied here in the east, and being very confident on the blue slush here, I was in for a world of awakening on the green powders there! I’m in love with the Wasatch Mountains now. Greens out west are blues here, blues there, blacks here. I did pick up pretty quickly for not having skied in almost 4 years, and only one time at that. The last full day I was really confident at high speed down steep groomed blues, and getting comfortable in the non-groomed. Our last runs were down the top of the slopes at 10,500 feet on double blues. Amazing. I was simply in awe and humbled by the views, and how insignificant our daily troubles are when in the shadow of those mountains. Isi, Chris and Shawn are much much better skiers than I am, but I managed to hold my own with one of the other guys on the trip. As the general novice on the trip, I was pretty pleased with myself, and cant wait to go again next year.

Being away from the girls was tough, but now that Piper is conversational on the phone, it was easier to leave her with her grandparents than it usually is. Violet gave me the biggest toothiest grin I ever got when she saw me again, until of course, she saw the dog…

I’ve been running now for the last 2-3 months, trying to train for running a 5-10k by this summer. I remember what I forgot about running when I was in school, and how much I loved it. My friend John runs with me, and its great to have the company, and the motivation for sure. We’ve run in the 5 degree weather, in the snow, in the rain. The snow was the most fun, but I am happy for it to be in the 30s again, since we run at night. Its nice enough for a light jacket and pants, and cool enough that I’m not a sopping mess when we’re finished.

The weight I’ve gained is slowly sliding off, and I’m not trying to rush it. I’m at pre-Piper weight, which I havent seen in 3.5 years now. I’d like to trim up a little more, but its going to require more motivation on my part. I was eating really well and working out pretty steadily pre-ski trip, and since getting back, I’ve slipped a little. Not too badly, but enough that I’ve noticed. Need to do something to get that motivation back. I did a second fast a while back, and it was a great kickstart to being healthier.

Isi and I are doing really well. I’ll be 30 in a couple weeks, which I am happy about. I never really thought I’d be where I am in my life right now, but I couldnt think of anything I’d rather change. Well, less bills, less stress, and less work would be wonderful, but other than that, nothing. Isi and I have both felt the urge to quit our jobs and move to a more spacious, less tied down lifestyle, but with things so good, we’re sticking with reason and staying put for now.

Now I’m off to do a mass flashcard -> flicker transfer. I still just cant believe Piper is going to be 3. Shortly after that Violet will be One, and after that, Isi and I will have been married 10 years. Hopefully we’ll be able to fill the gaps between those events with laughter, smiles, family vacations, good times and happy memories. If I’m lucky, I’ll squeeze in a trip to Disney. *pokes Isi* Its going to be a great year.