mandalei

I have lost 10 lbs as of today.

It must be time to post again, ha.  And what a month it’s been!  starting on New Year’s Day, Jack threw up in his crib and that about sums up what we’ve been doing lately.

Seriously, though, it’s been a rough couple of months for us, with the illnesses a-coming like, well, like the plagues of Egypt.  We have a play group we go to on Tuesdays, and since Thanksgiving, we’ve been been able to go *twice* because every other time we’ve had a cold or something.  This last week, Jack and I both got slammed with some stomach bug, which had us throwing up and otherwise in the bathroom for 24 hours, and then since Friday we’ve both been incapacitated… intestinally, shall we say.  it suuuuuuucks!

In Honesty news, before the stomach bug hit, I had lost 7.5 lbs in 4 weeks.  not bad!  Then I stalled out and hadn’t lost anything in 2 weeks (although when I had the stomach flu, I lost 3.5 lbs between Wednesday and Thursday morning).  I have been eating about 300 calories fewer than my daily allotment of calories and exercising every day which is supposed to bring it down even further, so it’s very discouraging.  Oh well, I guess maybe i’m building muscle or something.

I got a faboo camera for Christmas, which I love with a deep and passionate feeling.  And I need to upload some pics of the things I have been working on and actually post them, sheesh.  I always feel like I am not getting anything accomplished, but then I look back and see just how much I have finished up in little projects and it’s not as bad as all that. Things I’m currently working on:

• a knitted scarf
• Jack’s geometric quilt
• Mike and Melissa’s wedding quilt
• Libuse’s quilt (planning stages only–the first one I had worked on was when I was pregnant and I think the painting-while-pregnant rule applies here as well: never choose color schemes for painting your house while pregnant!  I hated the color combos in that quilt once Jack was delivered.)
• learning how to knit socks (to be started once the scarf above is finished)

Also, I think if Jack could, he’d have a poster of Rachel Coleman from “Signing Times” hanging on the wall above his bed.  Since we’ve been sick, we’ve been watching hella lots of “Signing Times” and the kid can’t get enough.  I don’t blame him, really, she seems like the kind of person I’d like to hang out with. Sometimes I think I want to go back to school to become proficient in ASL.  It’s a fascinating language, and hey, something to add to the Latin, Greek, and French.

I’m having a hard time parting with it.  I am dragging my feet, “just one more day,” i think, “it’s still got alot of life in it.”

I don’t want to, but I think it’s time: the Christmas tree has to go.  There are only so many days out of the year that the garbage company takes them for compost.

In other news, we have had a great New Year so far!  Ben and I got to participate in some Austrian traditions (my favorite involved melting lead trinkets over a butane torch and then dumping it into cold water to interpret the fortune for the next year), and then Jack got some stomach bug the following night around midnight (and I am just getting over it myself, although, fortunately, I didn’t soil my sheets x 2, sleeper x2 and sleepsack combo, and teddy bear x 3… I just felt stomach pain).

Pictures to follow.

I am so looking forward to this year.  Mainly because it is a blank slate and while last year was a good one for us and our little family, it also seemed very hard, for all sorts of other reasons.  Here’s to a better year.

I hope to post once a week (maybe even twice!) as one of my resolutions.

I hope to get on the healthy living kick and stick with it longer than a few months.

I hope to be more creative.  I know I have made a bunch of stuff, but it’s been other people’s patterns or tutorials.  I want to come up with the projects I do from start to finish (at leat a few of them!)

I hope to travel and see family and friends more.

I hope to finish painting and getting the house in order.

I hope to relax and laugh more, and enjoy the moment.

What are your wishes?

You know that state of disarray, when you’ve got a ton of things going on but nothing can seem to be finalized?  That last dish doesn’t make it into the dishwasher, the laundry is still in the washer ( a day.  ok, maybe two days, but just that one time), and there have been 2 months without more than a weekend free (glorious, full-of-friends-and-fun months, but still no free weekends, save one).

I love the busy-ness, but by the end of this summer I will be one tired cat.  Speaking of… better check the litter box.

Jack and I have been traveling for most of the week, so the posting, it was sporadic! We got to see some old friends from the life before we moved, though, and that was great.  It also involved pool and lake time, and some truly beautiful locations and weather, which was also great.  My best friend, K. (hi K.!) is coming up this weekend, and then my best friend from Nashville is coming up a few weeks after that.  Busy summer!

Jack has learned how to say “go” and now point both fingers up to the sky.  I think the rockets as decor in his room are influencing him.

We completely rearranged our house last weekend (and are dealing with the ensuing aftermath of messed up drawers, stuff lying out everywhere, etc., because we weren’t able to finish before the weekend was up), and Ben and I are loving the results.  We can now watch movies in the basement and Jack won’t wake up to hear!!   Yesssssss….

I am still working on Baby E’s quilt.  It’s looking pretty good, and all those little triangles didn’t make me want to stab out my eyeballs as much as I thought they would.

With respect to my earlier post, I would totally choose the Kindle.

I am stumped.  Really.  Why anyone thought it was a good idea to make antibiotics for cats in bubblegum flavor is beyond me.  It even says right on the container “for veterinary use only”, so it’s not like this is doing double duty for humans. Seamus is already picky about being touched, and forcing him to ingest pink goop that tastes like something he would never choose in nature is just made that much harder (the vet said to mix it with tuna oil… I can’t even begin to imagine what that tastes like).

Jack, however, sees the pink stuff and starts hooting and making the sign for “eat” since he likes sweet sweet bubble gum.   Fortunately for him, since his pinky nail is infected, he gets it four times a day.  Yesssssssss.

Well, I was off visiting Ben’s family in Michigan for the week, and Ben’s cousin was getting married, too, so there was alot of celebrating to be done!

Jack had a fantastic time on the farm, and spent almost every waking minute outside looking at the corn and/or soybeans, riding in the gator out into the fields (he even steered it himself… watch out for that boy!), and helping Grampa pick up apples.  He loved his time there, and I can foresee many happy summers for him in the future, as he goes to visit the family farm.  Ben and I also got to hang out with Jeff (Hi Jeff!), which was awesome.  At one point during lunch he said, “It’s happened: we are now the kind of people who get together and talk about our kids.”  We talked about other stuff, too, promise… but there was alot of comparing of stories, probably because parents always tend to wonder whether we’re doing things right (even the ones who don’t admit that they worry about that).

Our Tuesday evening flight back was OK but delayed by an hour, so we didn’t actually get back in the door until about 1:30 Wednesday morning.  After a day of recovering, I was looking forward to a day of normalcy.  Until (cue forboding music) Seamus had to go in for a follow up on the cut on his face.  He came back from the vet wearing a floppy collar, which he proceeded to work over his shoulders until it settled on his waist.  He ran around the house with it like he was wearing a tutu.  I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Then… Jack has had a slightly yellow pinky nail that I have noticed for the last few days.  Today, he reached down to pick something up, and it ended up peeling back almost to the nail bed–my boy is about to lose his nail.  I called his pediatrician, explained that it was pretty far back there and I didn’t know what to do, and they told me to take him to urgent care, since they didn’t have tools to remove the nail.  I go to urgent care, pay a $75 co-pay (since it’s considered emergency room care) and they tell me they won’t remove the nail.  Which I am sure my pediatrician would have said if my pediatrician would have let us come in like I ASKED.  for $15 co-pay.  ARGH.  Jack’s now on keflex for the infection.  Fun and games at our house!

Anyway, pics to follow at some point, once I a) find my camera and b) locate the card reader.  Hope my readers reader (?) is faring well.

Anyone who is a fan of Joss Whedon’s work should go directly to this site, Dr. Horrible’s Singalong Blog and watch the episodes that are up for viewing.  I love Nathan Fillion, too boot.  Make sure you read the master plan, too.  BRILLIANT.

The last month has been one of those where you turn around and say “where the hell did my last month go?”, even though it was packed with friend-y goodness.  We had two weekend visits with friends, and then went to Michigan for almost a week to celebrate Ben’s mom’s retirement, and to have a birthday party for Jack with the family.  We had a great time, and Jack loved being out and about (even though it was pretty darn hot).  We also were in town for a wedding shower for Ben’s cousin, and had a great time hanging out and eating (and eating and eating).

Jack’s official birthday is on Father’s Day this year, and we’ve decided to have a party.  At this age, the party is actually more about us getting friends together more than anything else.  My parents are able to come in for it (it’s their anniversary on the day of the party), so it’s going to be a Red Letter Weekend.  There’s alot to be done before it happens, though.

In other news, I have my interview on Thursday afternoon for a half-time Latin position.  It’s at a public school, and they require certification but are willing to waive some of the requirements given my experience and background, which I will find out after the interview.

But you know what?  I don’t even know if teaching is what I want to do anymore–I’ve been in academic “stuff” for so long, I don’t even know what else I would be good at, although I like to fancy I am one of those “show once” sorts, and can be proficient within a few months.  I was thinking about how I am just not feeling excited about being in the classroom, even though I like teaching and am good at it, and then I started thinking about, well, what AM i into?  What am I excited about doing when I wake up?  And it was a hard revelation that I would much rather be with Jack and watching what happens with him right now than anything else–that I love being able to cook for us (even though I hate cleaning), and I love seeing Ben during the day.

So why is it a “hard” revelation?  I think it’s because I have always thought, for years, that I would be on of those women who was a real go-getter in whatever job I was doing.  Which, for a while, was academia.  About halfway through my PhD program, though, I realized I just didn’t care enough about the subject matter to a) give up my freedom of choice about my personal life and b) devote years of my life to it and research and stuff and miss out on a family of my own.  yeah, yeah, before people get upset, this was my decision based on what I had observed about women in the realm of academia as well as my personal perceptions about what the state of the job market was and would be.  I miss the travel, and the ability to talk about experiences most people will never have had, and when I look at some of the places people in my discipline have been and the stuff they have seen… yeah, I will admit that I get a little jealous of that.  Of being someone who was accomplished in the field.  My traveling is definitely curtailed.  However.  I think of what my dad told me, once, when I talked to him about this subject, a man who had also been through the academic lifestyle, as a student and a professor.  His advice was more along the line of a question: When you die, what do you want on your tombstone: she will be missed by friends and family, or she made tenure?

So, now that I have been home with Jack for a year, I was idly browsing through the job listings, and found one for a town a little ways away.  I applied on a whim, and got a phone call immediately after they received my application saying they were very interested.  I have had two weeks now to think about the whole thing.  Being a teacher, with the teacher benefits (vacations same as Jack, retirement, being a two-income household again) are all great things.  Worst case scenario, though, I would also have to go back to school to work towards certification while I was teaching and while Jack is still less than two years old.  The college with the accredited classes I would go to is about an hour away.  We probably wouldn’t be eating as well/healthy as we are now.  The house work wouldn’t be as kept up (not that it’s so great right now–like I said, I hate house work).  And… I like being able to do things for my family.  Do I want to add that to everything else?   I never thought this would be me, you know?  Wanting to stay at home as a mom.

Big thoughts.  Still not sure.  Of course, not anything to get my panties in a wad about right now, since I haven’t even been offered the job!