Category Archives: My crazy life

Quiet

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Today Scorch did 6 hours of baseball camp and then was supposed to have 2 more hours of baseball practice this evening. Sounded doable in theory…that is, until I picked up Scorch at 4:30 and he lost his ever loving 8 year old mind over something so idiotic that I couldn’t help but notice that perhaps he was a just a wee bit over-tired.

So tonight we put the kabosh on all activities. I put a movie on for the kids, we had breakfast for dinner and they were both in bed, asleep by 8:05.

The poor Hubs had to work wickedly late thanks to some stupid criminal.

All of which means I have the house to myself. So I read a book and watched Teen Wolf (the TV show- don’t judge me). There is no point to this post except to tell you that 1) while this summer rocks, it’s exhausting and I love the rare quiet times and 2) seriously, watch Teen Wolf.

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Speak of TV shows, any Outlander fans going to watch the TV show on Starz that starts on the 9th? I’m really, really debating it but I’m so scared that it can’t possibly live up to my expectations that I’ll end up really ticked off.

(Almost) Finished

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The kitchen is now 97% done and you guys- it’s gorgeous.

As a refresher, here is the old kitchen:

OldKitchen

And now here is the new kitchen complete with countertops and back splash…

Completed Kitchen Web

If loving tiled back splash is wrong, I don’t ever want to be right. *swoon*

We still need to do the flooring and some slightly finishing work around the island, but for the most part it’s done and I really couldn’t be happier.

If anyone local needs a contractor recommendation, I have one for you!

 

Here & Now

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There are a lot of things I love about my house (have you met my pantry?), but there are a lot of things I’m not particularly fond of.  Our porch is one of them.

This is after we powerwashed it into submission.

This is after we powerwashed it into submission.

It is the highest traffic area in my house and no matter what solid stain we put on it every year, it looks like that by summer. It’s annoying and time consuming and generally a giant pain in the butt.

When the kids were little, staining this (and the back porch- same issue, only three times as large!) was The Project of the spring as we could only do it when the kids were sleeping because they’d want to help. And anyone with half a brain knows that “help,” “paint,” and “3 year old” don’t belong in the same sentence.

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My kids finished school this week. Scorch ended a wildly successful 2nd grade year. The year wasn’t without growing pains as he’s had to learn to take on more personal responsibilities and make good decisions (the age old quandary of after-school recess vs homework club tripped him up a few times), but really, he rocked it. I couldn’t be more prouder.  And the Bean? She discovered her love of reading and writing this year as she went through Kindergarten.  She came out of her shell, made a ton of new friends and grew so much!

I seriously can’t believe I have 3rd and 1st graders.

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Tonight was the dreaded night to start staining the decks. We’re doing it later in the year then we normally do and it just can’t wait any more. The Hubs had to work late, so I got a jump start on it. I got a pizza and a movie for the kids and figured that would buy me a good 90 minutes of kid-free time to get this going.

Only the kids didn’t want to stay inside- they wanted to be outside with me.  Of course they did.

I told them they couldn’t help because I was doing the railing (a different coloring then the floor) and I couldn’t afford huge messes. Much to my surprise, they took that news just fine and came outside and played. For 2 hours. Peacefully. They played baseball and kickball and then spent 45 minutes trying to capture moths.

Kiddos_JuneNight2014

There are times I miss having a babies and toddlers around so much that I ache. Then there are nights like tonight where I’m too damn busy being thankful for what we have right here to miss anything.

My Wickedly Crazy Life

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Oh hi…I have a blog. One that I used to post to regularly, even. Then baseball happened.

Scorch got pulled up a division, so he’s going 3 days a week. Bean is playing t-ball so that’s 2 days a week. Most days we’re rolling home after school at 5 pm, then leaving again at 5:30. Things like homework and dinner have fallen completely to the wayside since we don’t get home until after 8 most days. Thank goodness Scorch gets up early to do his work and that both kids love breakfast and PB&J for dinner.

Don’t get me wrong, we really love baseball. The kids love playing it, the Hubs loves coaching it and I enjoy socializing in the stands. Win/win/win.  But, I’m tired.

Add in a kitchen remodel and well, you get even more craziness.  The upshot is that our kitchen remodel went so very much more smoothly then I had hoped. We bought our kitchen through Lowes and while they were wonderful during the design and buying process, they basically disappeared once the contract was signed. Thankfully our contractor went above and beyond to make this as painless as possible. I can’t say enough good things about the contractor and his crew.

Here was our kitchen before.

OldKitchen

It was small and cramped with next to no storage space. The cabinets were cheaply made and the white laminate was peeling off. The cabinets over the fridge were basically inaccessible because they sat so far back.  What you don’t see in this picture is all the stuff that normally sits on my counters because there is no other space for it. Bread, medicines, fruit and mail cluttered our counter tops because there was literally no space to store it all. I loved it because it was wide open- to the left is our dining room and I’m standing in the thresh hold to our living room. But something had to change.

So, here’s our new kitchen. We’re waiting on the counter tops to be edged, so that isn’t installed yet, nor is the backsplash. The cabinet handles are on order so those will go on soon. And the new flooring? Well- that was the one snafu we hit but that should be in within a month. But the rest of the kitchen, I *love*.  We have storage space for everything! I can see what’s in my cabinets and access it all. I’d marry my pantry if it was legal.  Once the counter tops go on, they’ll hide the outlets on the island so they aren’t as visible.

NewKitchen

It’s so much more functional and well worth the dust and disorganization we lived through last week! I cannot wait to see everything completed.

So, here’s to 2 more weeks of baseball! You know, before lacrosse and 4 different camps start for the kids. At this rate, I’m pretty sure life will slow down when I’m 50.

 

 

 

Restoring Order

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The Hubs was out of town last week for work. It was the first time he’s traveled in a really long time and you know what I discovered? That I turn into a sloth when he’s not around. A slovenly sloth. Dishes? Eh, they’ll wait. Laundry? We have enough clean clothes. Bedtime for me? A mere suggestion. Cooking? Why bother- kids love cereal!

Mind you, the kids and I did just fine. I managed to juggle working, kids, sports, animals and other random events just fine. It was just the other stuff that fell through the cracks.  The worst though was my schedule. I stayed up way too late every night. I watched the Veronica Mars movie (love!), read 3 books (2 out of the 3 were fantastic), watched 7 DVR’d episodes of Bones and basically acted like I didn’t have to get up early the next day. Which I didn’t since I was used to getting up at 4:55 am when the Hubs was home and could sleep into 6:45 with him gone (can’t leave to work out in the morning when I’m flying solo).

Thankfully the Hubs got home in time to restore some order to our lives. Now we’re back to our regularly scheduled activities like cooking, cleaning and going to bed on time….

Until next week when our kitchen remodel (and all the chaos that goes with that) begins. Considering the bathroom remodel almost killed me, this should be fun. Say a prayer for my sanity!

What’s Inside My Brain

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I feel like I should write. I have the urge to write. But I don’t know what to write about.

Life is settled right now. We mostly have this whole me working outside the house thing figured out. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’ll never have a quiet night again. Like, ever. If it’s not baseball, it’s therapy. If it’s not therapy, it’s swim lessons. If it’s not swim lessons, it’s some random dinner/meeting/function. And it’s ok, we’re making it work. My laundry pile is taller then my children and my house isn’t getting quite as clean as I’d like it, but there are meals on the table every night and I haven’t dropped anything major yet.

I feel like I should share funny stories about my kids. But they are getting older. So the stories of mischief and amusing misunderstandings have given way to two kids who are smart and funny and sweet and independent. Kids who will happily play outside for hours every day or let us sleep into 8:30 on a Sunday because they can basically get anything they need without our help. And they are amazing- that is amazing. I adore everything about the people they are slowly morphing in to. But it’s not great blog fodder.

I have a rash of friends and family having babies this month. Sweet, smooshy, yummy smelling babies. And I wonder and I think and I agonize over if we want to add just one more to this crazy brood. I love being a mom to babies. But babies turn into toddler and toddler are so damn exhausting. Do I want to give up all the independence we have for a baby? We’re 12 years away from having an empty nest. Do I want change that up and all of a sudden be 18 year away from that? I’ll be 55 and the Hubs would be 57 when this hypothetical baby goes to college. Is that even appealing? I don’t know.  I love feeling pregnant lady’s bellies and newborns. Not sure if those are good enough reasons.

All I do know is that I love my family. I love my new job. And that spring is slowly, slowly coming. All those are amazing things and right now, they are more than enough.

My view driving home at 6:25 this morning. Breathtaking.

My view driving home at 6:25 this morning. Breathtaking.

 

 

 

What’s Cooking?

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This is the post where I admit that life kinda sorta is really, really hard when both parents work outside the home.

Shocking, I know.  Alert the press.

I knew in theory working outside the house would be much different then working from home schedule-wise.  I’m not an idiot. But until last week when that theory became reality I didn’t know how very good we had it when I was working from home. Specifically when it came to our evening routine- homework, dinner, baths, bed, etc.  We had pizza twice last week, McDonald’s once and Scorch had two days where he did his homework at 6 am because we didn’t get to it the night before.  Now, last week was an especially chaotic week as we had the extra bonus of having something going on every night- but still, that’s bad.

So, in the hopes of getting some of control on our lives, I made 3 dinners tonight for the rest of the week. Again- not earth shattering as I know people have been doing this forever, but for us it’s huge. I normally fly by the seat of my pants with dinners but that’s a thing of the past.

This is where I need your help! If you have an tried and true recipes I can use for freezer meals when I cook on Sundays, I’d love to know about them.  Chicken, beef or fish- we’ll give ’em all a shot!

Making It Work

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Tonight ended in tears.

Scorch was crying because he couldn’t sit where he wanted to when we played Uno and the Bean was crying because the Hubs and I scrapped the idea of playing Uno all together because everyone is exhausted. Today was Day 2 of our new schedule that includes me going into the office 45 minutes away on a daily basis* and the kids going to after-school.  To top it off, we’ve have something going on every night this week. All of this is manageable- barely- but tonight the order in which we were sitting playing Uno was the last straw for poor Scorch.

The very excellent news is I love my new gig. I’m still absorbing an insane amount of information, but the people have been fantastic and I’m really excited to dive into the job itself! Right now it just feels like the right fit and I’m so, so very glad this opportunity presented itself!

As for our new schedule- we’ll make it work, of that I have no doubt. It’s just new and new things are always a struggle at the onset. It’s making lunches at night and packing lunches for 4 people instead of 2 or 3. It’s figuring out office-appropriate outfits 5 days a week (something I haven’t done since 2002!). It’s taking our finely tuned morning schedule and making it even tighter and praying for no traffic on the way to work. It’s texting during the day with the Hubs to figure out who can get the kids and who will handle homework and what we’re having for dinner.  It’s being a passionate team member who has to leave earlier then most to get my kids (something my manager, bless him, is totally fine with).  It’s trying not to drop too many balls and ignoring the 4 foot mound of laundry in the corner because the pipes are frozen again and I don’t have 2 hours to spend at the laundromat this week.

So basically it’s all the stuff everyone else who works out of the home deals with on a daily basis and, just like everyone else, we’ll find that balance sooner or later. There may be a few bumps in the road, but this life is more than worth it!

 

To New Routines

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Well, it looks like the folks I interviewed with who saw my blog didn’t think talking to a psychic was too odd because they offered me the job and I accepted! Starting the first week in March I’ll be back to working full time for 1 employer and I couldn’t be more thrilled! Things fell very quickly into place with this job and it just feels right- let’s hope my gut is leading me on the right path.

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The kids went back to school yesterday after a week long February break. Why do we have a February break when we also have a week long April break, you ask? To make parents crazy. That is the only answer I could come up with that made any sense.  While honestly we had a great break, the stress of trying to work, juggle playdates and keep my household somewhat functioning almost broke me.  I was beyond thankful for 1) our babysitter that give me 9 hours out of the house, 2) friends who graciously took my kids for playdates and let me take their kids in return to occupy my kids and 3) kids that get along very, very well 90% of the time.

The other 10% of the time gave the Bean a really good excuse to try to spell out a new sign for her bedroom door:

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Translation: Scorch is not allowed in my bedroom

I give her mad props for the freaky smiley face, but the fact that she thought “Barm” = bedroom makes me wonder why we’re spending money on a private school education.

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Next week starts a new normal as I’m back in an office full time. After a few weeks, I’ll be spending the majority of my time working from home, but these next 3 weeks will be the first time ever that both the Hubs and I will be working outside the house 40 hours a week. I foresee lots of scrambling, breakfasts for dinner and a messy house. But I also see two kids thrilled they can go to after school again (after school = play time), a wife (me!) feeling like she’s pulling her weight again and a job I can’t wait to sink my teeth into.

So here’s to new routines, new normals and a fresh start!

Great First Impressions

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So you know what’s fun? When you go to a job interview for a position that you’re very, very interested in and you talk at length at how much you love to write and how you wrote a professional blog for the Big Company and how you have your own personal blog as well.  And then the people interviewing you ask to see your blogs. So you say sure because, after all, both blogs are public and you haven’t written anything that you’re embarrassed about on either one. Except for that on your personal blog, the last entry is about how you saw a psychic and tried to communicate with your dead childhood friend. While you’re not really embarrassed about this, it’s still just a little odd to reveal that at your interview with the company you’re hoping to work for, no?

And that’s my life.

*Hoping to have 2 full-time job offers this week. Say a little prayer for me, will you?