The 2013 Book Push



If you follow me on IG (@salenam) I am doing a final push for the end of 2013, I have 8 books to read totally 2,238 pages. I'm 175 pages into Eat Pray Love and loving it. I read at night, at work, cooking dinner. I have about 2.5 months to go to finish these books. Each book is around 300-400 pages. Some are funny, some are intense, one is a book about personality and how it relates to career.

 

After each book I might do a short recap on how I liked the book and what I thought of the writing. 

I don't know that's pretty undecided. I think I better get reading!

 

Little over a week....

Its been a little over a week since Chris' company shut down. I've never really talked about his work before besides the fact that he had a pretty good job with flexible hours and its was fairly reliable. Over the last year we knew that the company was shutting down this part of the company. Chris worked in Polymer development for a big name drug company with a diabetes care line. I guess diabetes just isn't that profitable (?)

I think over all a break from Chris working will be good. We are incredibly blessed to have received a very generous severance package which gives him just under 6 months of paid continuation + benefits. That gives us not only the wiggle room to not stress over him not having a job, it still allows us to have fun and do the things we enjoy. Its like a long vacation. Probably around the middle of October he will start to look for a new job. After 6 years in his field it will be good to take a small break.

 With a lay off it is nice to finally be able to spend time together again. My work schedule doesn't allow for a lot of time off. Just Monday and Tuesday are my days. So its great to finally get some family time. Please think warm fuzzy thoughts for Chris doing the stay at home dad thing, even if it is short lived.

It truly is the little acts of kindness

This morning Carson was just having a rough morning. Up to early, no one was paying any attention to him because little brother is teething and having a worse day. His waffles weren't heated all the way and he had to eat them in the car because I forgot to get cash to pay the sitter. So we had to stop at the bank. I locked the car and it set the alarm. Well he opened his door and set off the alarm. Awesome. Poor kid. He's crying and its loud. I fumbled with my key to get the alarm to stop. Got back in the car and ran to do a porch pick up, he doesn't know it yet but I got him a really awesome pirate costume. He loves them. But he was just off. I asked him if he needed a "coffee" this morning because he just seemed kind of sad. He doesn't really understand whats going on, but daddy lost his job today and will be home with him until he finds another one. But they are still going to daycare because we are not transitioning them in and out like that. Its not fair to the kids. Standing in line at the starbucks, I order him a tall hot coco. With Chocolate whip cream. Yum! He seems to be perking up a bit and then BAM he drops it after only two sips. Now he'd been standing here staring at these police men drinking coffee and they had spoken to him and he was being shy. As soon as his cup hit the floor the lid shot off and it spilled every where. He burst into tears. My normal reaction would have been to tell him "You have to keep a better grip" but my instinct said he can't handle that. Instead I scooped him up and told him "bug, you have to be more careful....with the next coco, okay?" He sputtered "mama its all my fault. I spilled my coffee and I wasn't paying attention" now this is sad for someone that is 3 (and 10 months!) to verbalize its his fault. It was just an accident and he was embarrassed and upset. I put him on the chair and told him I would order him another one. When I got to the counter the barista handed me a fresh cup and said that I did not have to pay for it. That we should have a nice day and that he was a very sweet little boy. I handed him his coco and reminded him to say thank you. This tiny little voice came out of my normally very loud child. "thank you" So to the kind barista at starbucks. Thank you. I'm hoping my baby has a good day today at school because you were kind enough to replace his spilled drink.

Working mom life

Its been almost 5 months since I went back to work. I'm just starting to feel like I'm getting the hang of this working mom juggle. Its pretty much a constant struggle to be a good mom and get things done at work. I've been truly lucky that my kids haven't been sick this summer. **Knock on wood** but its pretty much go go go, as all moms know. Working and stay at home. I work Wednesday-Sunday my hours vary so sometimes I'm home in the morning, and miss bed time. Sometimes I leave in the morning and drop them at school early and am (hopefully) home for dinner.

I constantly struggle with trying to find all the time. Once Wednesday hits I'm pretty much clocked into work mode. Weekends I'm usually gone 9-8 missing family dinners and trying hard not to miss bed time.

Its trying sometimes when my kids take my days off and have really whiney crabby days. That's hard. I hate that. I enjoy spending time with them but when its constant crying and whining any parent would be over that. Today is one of those days. Mondays are our marathon day. We do the weekly Trader Joes, Target, Fred Meyer trips. Then laundry when we get home. Usually I start laundry Sunday night and have 4-5 loads to fold on Monday/Tuesday.

Tuesdays are usually spent having a play date and cleaning up the rest of the house before the work week. I truly do love being a working mom but its challenging. Its hard balancing the kids, my job, myself and my home life. As weird as it sounds, Monday night soccer is usually my weekly sanity saver. Its the one place I'm just me. Not an employee, or a mom, just myself. Speaking of that...its almost time!!

New blog....

I needed a change, I'd been "CrazyDays and CrazyNights" for far to long. I had lost the spark I need to want to post and I think part of it is that just got stale.

I'm going to really start working on posting more often and linking up with some of the awesome ladies that do IG Fridays, Weight loss check ins and other fun posts.

The one thing I hate about taking a long blog break is that the first couple posts always seem so awkward, like a big social "whats going on" dump.

Like hey, we got a beagle puppy!  Carson loved soccer! I enjoy working! Chris is still employed! Oliver loves dirt! I play co-ed grown up soccer!


Look now you are caught up. I've done a few cool things with the house that I would like to blog about, mostly because they are pretty awesome and fun, and partially because I actually followed through on something in a timely fashion (so I want my props!)

Let me know what you think of the new blog and the layout. It needs some tweaking but I think its actually pretty alright for not really a lot of effort tonight because I am exhausted and Carson just woke up soaked and had a bloody nose. So ya know...bed time.

Updates

Works been busy and I've had to take a blogcation but I think that I am back. Blogging from my iPhone today, we've been working hard on the yard and house. I'm working today and then for my two days off I have big plans to get the garage in order (again) them tackle our walk in closet, then the boys. That's right we switched them together for sleeping and turned Carson's big room into a cool play room. If you follow me on Instagram you've seen what's been happening (@salenam)

This has been a crazy busy summer, and we've really done nothing, no fishing, no camping, no hiking and that's been bumming me out. Work stresses me out sometimes with my lack of down time. I do love that when I'm home, I'm truly home though. Mondays are spent gathering the troops and restocking the supplies. Then Monday nights I spend playing adult league soccer. Tuesdays are clean the house day and we have a play date with our amazing friends and then Carson goes to soccer.

Jenn over at "The Elsewhere" blog got me thinking about getting a once or twice a month house keeper to do all the deep cleaning stuff I fail at and Chris probably doesn't realize needs done. I have a consult on Tuesday to see how much it would cost for every other week cleaning . If we can tweak it and keep the cost fairly low I think it would really help my stress and anxiety over the house work. Just knowing my bathrooms are clean would be fantastic.

Follow my Instagram @salenam  for a more day to day look at our lives

Lost Pictures not memories

Last night I took Carson to see the Croods and it reminded me of that first mothers day I enjoyed with him. A lot has changed in the last 4 years. From pregnancy to infant to not being able to get pregnant to having a toddler and a baby to now, a child and a toddler.

I think back along those first mothers day's and I remember a little bit. I had pretty severe post partum depression during Carson's first year. Last night as we waited for our movie we ran into the Apple store and I asked about getting my pictures off my MacBook because it died a few months ago and I backed all my pictures up, but now I can't seem to find the external hard drive. Well you can't take a computer and get things off the hard drive if it can't be powered up. Sad.

But then this morning I went to log into my blog account and I was signed in under an old email. An email I used when I was "blogging" after Carson was born. Luckily for me it had been more of a photo dump blog. I reverted all the old written posts back to drafts because they were just terribly sad ranting little diatribes I can't even stand to think that that was me, 3 years ago.

But I was able to salvage about 100 pictures off the blog. Totally making my morning. I've been struggling because I'm upset I lost pictures of our wedding, Carson's first year, my pregnancy, our house (even though I hate that POS life destroyer) His birthday parties and my pregnancy with Oliver.

Luckily a LOT of pictures are on facebook and now that I  have a new computer I have been slowly going through at night and downloading picture after picture into folders trying to make sure everything gets saved properly and some day (soon hopefully!!) I will find that stupid external hard drive (probably as soon as I gather everything off of facebook) and will get those pictures back.

Memories are not lost, I have about 5 HUGE (first time mom moment) photo books. If I get desperate I can scan them and down load them that way.

What a difference years make. The love for my babies is always the same though.

Long Time, No "see"

My goodness its been forever. I've been lurking on the awesome blogs I normally read trying to keep up. But its hard doing it on the phone.

Not a ton has been going on here. I'm 6 weeks into my new job in sales, specifically car sales and while I'm horrible at knowing stuff about actual cars, I actually didn't flop all that bad in my first month. Selling 5 cars and the goal for the month was 8. So not to shabby.

I really have come to realize that for the most part, its a really boring job. We don't get a ton of clients coming in the door and for the most part, its a hard sell.

For the most part I enjoy my job. I miss my boys especially when its slow and I'd rather be home with them then "wasting" my day. This crazy gorgeous PNW weather is not helping my fever to be home and be outside with my babies.


Speaking of my babies! Carson starts soccer in a couple weeks!!! I can't wait for tiny cleats and shin guards. This is just a soccer class once a week for 6 weeks to get them ready for summer soccer! Now that is what I am excited about!!

Oliver started walking a couple weeks after his first birthday I'm really proud of him. He runs now and is always into things (I forgot I didn't like the into things stage!) I can actually hear him "talking" in his crib.


Until later....I'm so glad to be back to blogging. I've really missed this.

Working moms are super heros

Until I went back to work, I had certain ideas of what life would look like with me working. As I start week 3 of going back to work I am tired, my schedule is weird sometimes. I worked 12-8 today. Tomorrow and Friday are 9-5 and then the weekend is weird. One super long day and a shorter day.

I don't have a ton of time to do much of anything when I am working. I need to get better at blogging during my days off.

During my work week I am getting the kids up, getting them to the sitter and getting to work on time. I'm making lunches and keeping the house up. Chris has stepped up beyond words to make it so much easier for me to not be totally stressed out.

Keeping up with the cloth diapers has actually been easier than I thought. It's been great that the sitter is willing to use cloth and we've been keeping up on the diapers actually better than we had before. I have no choice but to keep up.

Same with the house work, I just don't have time to sit and let it pile up. When I get home I go go go until I crash in bed. I'm so lucky that Chris is really doing his part to pitch in.

First week back

I worked my first week. I sold my first car. I had my ups and downs. I missed my babies. Of course. At the same time, I missed them. Which was great, I really loved getting to pick them up at the sitters.

Picking up my boys is great, I love seeing their little faces and holding them after a day away.

As horrible as it sounds I really like missing them. It's nice. It makes being up at night a little easier when I haven't been with fussy pants all day.

Getting a routine down will be key, I need to work on this. I have to look professional when I get to work. Some how my boys have managed to poop as soon as I'm getting them in the car. That means I have to run them into the house, change them and back to the car. Usually this makes me stressed and feel like I'm running late.

We just have some kinks to work on. But over all after my first week, I'm excited to go back after my "weekend" my work week looks like Wednesday-Sunday.

Also I'm tired and my feet hurt, so I'm going to go hit the sack. Night y'all

First day back...

Today was my first day back at work. I took the boys early to their new in home day care "just in case" they did awesome. I did...fine. I was sad as I drove away. I was leaving my most prized possessions in the care of some one I met with for an hour the week before.

I stopped off at Starbucks because its always do hard to do with the kids. It was a nice way to snap myself out of being sad.

Once at work I did the training videos and learned all about sexual harassment and discrimination.

I'm very excited for what this new adventure is going to bring. It's going to be a really good opportunity for myself and my family.

Silence usually means changes

That's how it goes over here on my blog. If I'm radio silent it means a big change is coming.

The big change is not another baby, thank god we are getting the factory shut down. The boys are amazing and perfect and really we don't want to rock the boat. Oliver still isn't sleeping great and Carson isn't potty trained.

The big change is I got a job. A good job in fact. The choice was not made lightly, Chris' job has been on the chopping block for a while. It's scary to look at our Rent and bills and know that with out his income we'd be screwed. We realistically could not afford to live on unemployment and it would be a lot of stress if/when his site closes. It's looking up now, but you just don't know and it was a wake up call that we honestly need a second income.

I found the boys a daycare. They'll be there 3 days a week and Chris will be home on the weekends and I'll be home Monday/Tuesday. I'm nervous to leave them, it will be a big adjustment. But I'm excited this will bring a lot of good things for my family. Like searching for a new home in 3-4 years. We'll actually be able to save a decent down payment. We'll be able to go on real vacations, and put money away for a rainy day. I'm most excited about house hunting. Getting an idea of what we will be able to buy. I have not allowed myself to even look at real estate for the last couple years because we just were not ready, and while it will take a few years to save a solid down payment. It will be great to be moving forward!

So yeah, there it is. Also my computer is broken so I tapped this out on my trusty iPhone. Excuse any and all typos and sad grammar.

In other news...

My MacBook officialy died. Hence, radio silence. I'm learning to use my kindle fire.

Oliver turned one last week which was crazy!! He's a big kid, 30 inches tall and almost 24 lbs. I have a ton of pictures to share when I get my computer up and running or get a new one.

Carson's health problems are coming to a head and we'll be taking him to OHSU in the coming weeks to see a GI doctor :( I will elaborate more when I start getting results back.

I really need to catch up on house stuff and have just been lazy this week.

Running with the wee ones...

So friday morning I sat down to read some blogs. I've got to say I love being apart of a facebook blogger group. I love having the daily "reminder" to stop and read whats going on with other peoples lives that are also local. But friday morning I came across this blog in the reader, she titled it Controversy Hobby Jogger as I read it I really had no idea that there were people out there that considered themselves "Elite" runners that weren't doing it professionally (are there actually professional runners outside of like the Olympics/nationals?)

As I read it I realized, I don't really consider myself any sort of runner. I enjoy running. I love running with the boys in the jogger, I like running on a treadmill alone. I love listening to music while I run.  I don't run terribly far. I did 2 miles on saturday pushing the jogger with the boys and that felt good. I don't think I'll make my 500 mile goal (I kinda failed horribly already.)

I will say that even after reading the blog post, I was slightly more aware of encountering other runners. I was pleasantly surprised though that while out running on saturday morning I didn't encounter any "elites" I encountered a lot of respect. It was mutual because even being a "hobby jogger" I'm still lapping my former self on the couch, and thats what matters.

Baby Boy...

My little Man turned ONE on wednesday! Woah. So crazy. We had such a great day. His party is Saturday so that will be fun.

He reminded me four times last night that he is, still in fact a baby. By being up 45 minutes each time he woke up.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my Darling little boy. 

What a year this has been. 

Some favorite from this year 

Its friday

Normally today is for Flaunt Your Fluff Friday to keep the cloth diapering posts to one day. But anyway, I don't have much to say on that. 

Its unbelievably gorgeous out today for the PACNW. Like WOAH. Its hot out sun is shining, we had a play date with some new(ish) friends and then ran Chris some lunch since he left pizza for me. We had a nice Vday of pizza and college basketball. 

But yeah today called for daytime margarita and playing out in the back yard. Seriously moving was the best thing ever. 

Happy Love Day

Valentines Day...

We can't be the only people that don't celebrate, like at all, right?  Chris isn't into V-day and over the years its been easier to just blow the holiday off so I'm not left feeling disappointed when I've gotten him a card or made him something and I've gotten nothing. But thats kind of how it always goes.

I probably will have the boys get me some chocolates though.

So tell me, do you make a big deal of the holiday or just let it roll off your back? Is your significant other into the holiday? Is it hard if both parties involved have a different level of expectations on this day?

done

I give up. 

Today was seriously the worst day in the history of shitty days. I'm good. Think they make diapers for college kids? Yeah I don't think so. Obviously all kids end up trained, and today/tomorrow/this week is just not my kids time.