Happy Mother's Day!

Traditionally, we here at the blog mark every Mother's Day by having a blog.  Really, our primary audience is our Moms and Grandmothers.  So, for you dear ladies and all you do- Happy Mother's Day.

This year, Matt and I got to celebrate Mother's Day hole hog.  But before we get there- it's been kind another crazy week.  Matt's CDL class takes up so much of his time that we try to plan for fun things when he isn't working/driving.  Friday night he went for a ride and had a bonfire with his bestie Jeffrey, but we didn't stay too late because of the CDL class, which was EXTRA early on Saturday.  Like 6am leaving from Renton early.  Sometime later, when I woke up to go to the bank, I had a confused memory of Matt asking me for my pillow- the fluffy pink one, not the understated green one Matt sleeps on.  I asked him later if that really happened and why, he said "It was kinda a tough morning.  I was confused, and your pillow looked like the best." (It is.)  He said that morning all the guys looked like the were going to a slumber party.  (They can sleep in the sleeper part of the truck while they take turns driving)

After a long day of driving to Yakima, Matt and Nana and I jumped into the car and headed up to visit Betty (meta-Mother's Day!).  It was a beautiful day for a drive, the Cascades and Olympics were out, the Skagit River was high and the roads were clear.  Brilliant.  We went "in to town" to have omg-super-yummy-pizza at the local Pizza joint which was a nice start.  But come Sunday, we got serious about Mother's day.  Betty and I made a pretty wicked breakfast (if I do say so myself)- awesome spring hash with asparagus and salami, a cheesy veggie omelet and a fresh fruit salad.  While Matt and I cleaned up, Nana and Betty started on a garden tour, but quickly got way-laid with gardening projects.  All in all, we planted carrots, weeded many beds, strung up the peas, swept the roof, cleaned the gutters and re-potted some plants (which were for me to take home).  All this with the some hot sun and the constant buzzsaw background noise of hummingbirds at the feeders- Betty must have a cycle of no less than 15 regulars constantly taking turns and waiting in the wings for their turn.  They are amazing, and if I get the pictures of Matt's camera I'll share some here.  Matt topped off the day with a unicycling demonstration that wowed the crowd.  It was a a fantastic day, the kind of day that makes us really glad we get to live in the same state as our family. 

To all the Mom's we didn't get to see today, Happy Mother's Day to you too!

Blah-blah-blog

I have two main excuse for intermittent blogging- 1- working and job hunting keeps me crazy busy, 2- I see my primary audience quite often.  I tend to think of my core readership as, well... Nana.  And I see her about as often as I might blog, so it seems less pressing to get a post together.  But I blog for my MOMMY, so here is a little effort.

Real quick, no updates on the job front.  Although I sometimes wonder if I'll ever miss semi-regular coffee meetings with strangers and unending follow-up/scheduling meetings.  Ahahaha...

I'm taking this class at the community college which is proving to be interesting.  Introduction to Project Management- it's a good add-on skill to the many skills I have (on the other blog, I am using my job hunt as a case study for project management).  I am thinking about taking the next class,or possible the Intro to Technical Writing Class, or possibly... studying for the patent agent bar- because having a B.Sc. in Biochemistry allows me to skip Law School for this purpose.  Basically, I'm bored with not knowing where my career is going so I am scrambling to make up more viable paths for myself.  Would anyone like to weigh in on which of these things seem most in-line with my interests in skills? 

Mom and Dad were down for one scant day over the weekend, but it was enough to showcase the great digs Nana has set up in Bothell and catch up a little.  I don't mind if they come for short visits so long as they come often.  On a related note, the campaign to have the first "Post-Retirement Vacay" at my house has already started.  Noel, I think we could easily rope together a couple legs of this journey, as a "Make Dad jealous of Mom's travel schedule and want to retire, too" trip.  We can discuss more later.

Matt's CDL class is moving along.  They've been driving on the streets, and will probably be on the highway this weekend.  I'm glad he is making progress, but I can't wait for it to be over.  To adjust to his new hectic schedule, we are trying (trying) to go for some short runs in the evening.  I don't mind jogging at night, but it seems silly to do after some of the beautiful days we've had here.  Matt is just about down to a 6 minute mile (what?!), and whatever his whole warm-up/cool down cycle is is how long it takes me to run a mile as well.  Oh, and another favor dear readers: I am re-reading a Terry Pratchett book (Feet of Clay, I forgot how much I like that one), which is a sign that I am both over-extended, and out of good reading material.  Suggestions?

Post-Op

Tyler is Just fine. It's important to lead with the headline.

So we got up at a little after 7 today and got ourselves ready while leaving Tyler in his crib for a while. We heard him wake up, but he wasn't allowed to have anything in his stomach for his surgery, so we figured our main obstacle would be a starving-hungry baby. After we were all ready to go, we got Tyler up, changed, and directly into his car seat. Despite the change in schedule, he was actually in pretty high spirits. The drive went fine, and then we got to Simply Pediatric Surgery Center, a place clearly designed to help your kid get in and out of his (hopefully quick) surgery with the minimum of fussing. Lots of bright colors and lots of rooms with parents and babies getting ready for their procedures. And I checked for dad, they did have red wagons that they use when they need. We spent a little bit of time filling out forms and having any questions answered (very few, it's a simple procedure) and then it was time for him to go. We gave quick goodbye hugs and then the nurses took him away, distracting him with stickers. He didn't make a single fuss. We went off to the recovery room to wait, and 10 minutes later the doctor came by to let us know he was done. They kept him in a stage-1 recovery room to make sure he woke up okay (they put him to sleep with gas) and then brought him to us.

We heard him before we saw him. He was fussy in an unhappy way. He went right to mommy who soothed him with a bottle for a while. The first 15 minutes were pretty unhappy, but then he calmed down and got a bad case of the sleepy-faces. We got ourselves paperwork-ed out, and then went for lunch at Home Slice Pizza with a very sleepy baby. He conked out in the car and slept through all the pizza. He was in a good mood for the drive home, though, and has been doing just fine every since.

His ears have been draining, there was evidently a lot of fluid behind the ear from his most recent runny nose. I'm guessing if it wasn't for the tubes, we would have been back in for antibiotics pretty quickly. Oh, and when we got back I took a nap for 4 hours. I guess I was more tired than I thought.

Anyway, that's the story of the surgery. Enjoy some pics of the process!

Distractions with Daddy

Distractions with Mommy

Just back with us, unhappiness in the face.

After a little more time, feeling better. 

Identification

-N

Pre-op

Just a short note, for now. As most of you know, Tyler is going in for that most common of baby surgeries, ear tubes. I'm not worried as to the outcome, they do this sort of thing probably 50 times a day just at the one surgery center we're going to. It is sort of an odd day, though. And there's no getting around the general worry that you have whenever your kid is about to go do something even remotely dangerous. I do hope it helps out his ears, though. He's starting to learn words and sounds, now, and he'll need as much of his ears as he can. We have to get there at 8:45, and surgery is at 9:45, so by the time most of you wake up, it'll already be over and we'll be able to share the news. The hardest part is that they want Tyler's stomach empty for the surgery, and so as soon as he figures out he doesn't get breakfast today, he's going to be a real grouch. Wish us luck! 

-N

Agog is the word...

Thought this deserved wider distribution for the sake of our lurkers: From Nana's E-mail.... Not sure you all are agog about how this retiree is managing but I'm offering a sample: Seriously wake up at 11 a.m.(it's been a party-ing weekend remember) and half hearted efforts don't count. Gulp orange juice (thank you Sandlin) go for lunch and then join the every Monday 1:45 WALK IN THE PARK. THE van picks a different place to go each week , there are a lot of options. This week we four residents " democratically" decide to skip Edmonds (too cold & windy there) for Community park in Woodinville (I may have the name wrong).( Smallish but memorable because of man giving workout to his prize winning golden lab retriever using whistle and hand signals ala Scotland sheep dogs. Dog also on TV as show winner. There is also an inactivated rope landing gear climbing tower connected to rope-and-plank walkway about 25 feet long leading to another tower w/rope landing-gear exit. My imagination gallops along. speculating on the excitement on a warm summer day. Back at 3:10--start reading Seattle Times in lobby when LaVerne reminds me of once-a-month book club in library at 3:30. Join 10 residents for discussion of THE MAN WHO LOVED BOOKS TOO MUCH--led by a retired Chateau marketing manager- (bubbly vivacious-)-who will try to arrange coaching for three of us with Nooks, but don't really know how to check out public library books. Brisk discussion that runs a "little long"--then ascend to 3rd floor dining room . Book Club custom is to eat dinner together and wine drinkers have choice of white/red. Menu in Dining Room changes daily, always has LONG salad buffet and GREAT variety of desserts. Special of The Day is Repeated as Eating Light that skips rich sauces, Has always been delicious as far as I'm concerned but old hands cluck and are greatly pleased that a new chef starts this week. My strategy is to ask for half orders--"small" milk. Singing group practises on B1 level 4th Monday at 5:30 Frankly, I'm ready for bed. Needless to say I'm a happy camper. Blessings to all. MP

More reasons it's awesome Nana lives here

1) Since Nana lives here, sometimes Mom and Dad wanna 'just come by for the weekend.'  They never did this when I lived in Pittsburgh.
2) Since I get to see her all the time, I get to hear Nana stories.  It's refreshing to be reminded that I come from a long line of women who work really hard, and manage to be successful even while juggling many needs.  Last night Nana was telling me about how her Mom had made her and her sister a little play house, complete with furniture, at their home in Wyoming.  And that she always made all the cabinets, clothes and food for the house.  Yeah, my people are handy and industrious!
3) Nana provides great excuses to see other people I want to see.  Party with the family next weekend!
4) Nana does stuff I only imagine doing, so it's like a preview to adulthood.  She is selling her house.  "Buying/selling a home" is no no longer on the list of things I know nothing about.  I've been a privileged observer to the proceedings of offers, negotiation, financing factors etc.  I'm looking forward to seeing how the various inspection/assessments play out, but the theme seems to be "Lots of Paperwork."  Who knew?  (oh, and in case you didn't know, Nana has accepted an offer on her house from a young family, and everyone feels good about it.)

I expect to be adding to this list quite a lot in the near future.  In other news, I am spending the day catching up on PM homework.  I've got like a hundred pages of reading to do before Monday, but considering how... um,... not dense it is, this will be no big.  It's weird to go into a field that is meant to describe an abstraction, I keep skimming past the 'vague stuff' only to realize that's the entire discipline.  It makes me wish I were taking the class in combination with having some big project.  Perhaps I'll convert my job hunt to a Project- and then manage the heck out of it.

NON-STOP ACTION

I like to be busy.  Well, not busy, but I'd rather have my time accounted for then to have nothing to do- and that sometimes means I overfill by time, but I'm happier that way.  I may have gotten ahead of myself this week, but I'd rather hardly have time to sit down then to be stuck at home.

I got a project at my internship with an imminent deadline, which gave me something to work towards.  I've been trying to stay on top of the job hunt, and have had some more phone calls and meetings crammed in between other things.  I started taking a project management course at the community college, it probably won't be hard, but there is a lot of reading I ought to do to get my money's worth. 

And then I got sucked into some extra hours at the bank as a result of something we aren't supposed to talk about, but we are calling "the Russian mobster incident."  I used to think that there were some jobs where there was so little responsibility that you could NEVER have a bad day.  I take it back.  Also, I don't think banking is my calling.

And Nana got an offer on her house!  This is great news for her, and a sweet primer for me a on the paper-work involved in buying/selling a house.  (hint: a lot).  Someday, when we are DINKs, we'll get to put all this practical knowledge to use.  Actually, this was double awesome because having Nana over to talk about counter-offers provided me the motivation to actually cook something for the first time in ages. 

Both of the professional societies I am a board member for had meetings this week, and I got a new writing contract that will take a couple weeks.  Busy-ness is just part of my future.

Matt's CDL class is keeping him very busy, but hopefully this weekend they'll get to shift gears (literally, they've driven miles in the parking lot in first gear).  We are hoping to go see Tulips again this weekend, so I'm going to be mad productive until then so I can enjoy a few unhectic hours with my family.