Goodbye, Grandpa

My cousin (right) and me (left) sitting with Grandpa

My grandpa passed away last night. At 106 years old, we saw it coming. For years we’ve made sure to stop by for a visit anytime we came through town, knowing it could be our last chance to say hi, give him a hug, and tell him we love him.

Despite him getting older and his health slowly declining, we were still able to see who he was in those short visits.

Like December last year, when he noticed my brother taking pictures on his cell phone and asked about his camera, only to be fascinated by the technology that also allowed him to record videos, make phone calls, send messages, and much, much more.

Goodbye, Grandma

My grandma passed away a couple of days ago. She lived a long life, and I'm glad she's not in pain anymore, but it's definitely a change. 

When we booked our flight to go to California for the memorial service, my dad mentioned how it was strange, because normally one of the first things he would do once we made travel arrangements was to let her know we were coming down. She liked to know what was going on, and she liked bringing people - especially family - together.

Changed Plans

This past week was going to be awesome. It was going to include scoring tons of adorable baby clothes at a fantastic price, dinner with one of my best friends and her husband, a baby shower, a visit from a friend from Jr. High and then a trip to the zoo. At least that was the plan...until I threw out my back hours before the baby clothes sale. It was bad. I could barely walk.

So instead my week was spent alternating between lying down and walking around, and disappointing a 16-month-old that kept running up to mommy, expecting to be held. Needless to say, I was disappointed too.

I don't know why this happened this weekend instead of one where I didn't have any plans. But I thought it might help to make a list of the positive things about the situation:

Nothing Extremely Profound

Well, it's been almost 7 months since I've updated this blog. It's funny, because the longer I wait to update, the more pressure I feel to write something really profound. But in the end, I usually just start typing and letting my stream of consciousness come out. And because I still have a tendency to fight bedtime, this usually happens when I'm tired and should be going to bed. Anyway...

7 months. Even though it's gone by quickly, when you live with a toddler, 7 months is a long time. It's the difference between struggling to maneuver your body to reach a toy that's just out of reach and running around the house, giggling as Mommy or Daddy chases you. Or being able to clearly communicate what you're curious about, excited by or want to have, even though words are limited to a single consonant and vowel.

Despite times I wish I could just leave her lying on a blanket or move something out of sight so she'd forget about it, I absolutely love this age! It's so much fun to be able to interact with her and catch a glimpse of what's going on in her head, like when she references a song we were singing earlier or starts pretend playing. Needless to say, I'm still really enjoying being a mom!

Okay, as a side note, as soon as I wrote that last sentence guess who woke up and started crying for me, reminding me that even "my time" isn't my own. Perfect timing, as usual :)

Anyway, I feel like we're in one of those moments where everything is perfect. Or at least as perfect as it can be. Of course there are days I feel drained or moments I get frustrated that someone isn't cooperating, but for the time being we're in a good place. I have no idea what's coming up next, so I may as well enjoy where we are now, right?

So besides having fun with our 16-month-old, what else is going on?

• Work is going well. I've especially been enjoying recording my first vlogs (video blogs). You can see some of them here, and make sure you check back on Monday. I'm really happy with how that one turned out. I'm also excited about a new account I just started working on. It's still in the very early stages, but once I can tell you more about it I will.
• Matt's job is going well too. His schedule has been working well with balancing against mine, meaning we're still fortunate that we don't need to worry about childcare. Even when his schedule switches around in the summer, we can still make it work without needing to totally change my schedule.
• And although our schedule is somewhat busy with the whole work and parenting thing, we've been able to find time for family nights, socializing with friends and occasional date nights, too. I think that's one big thing that's been particularly helpful for us.
• We're also still very active at church. It's so fun to see how comfortable the little girl has gotten. The last few weeks she hasn't even complained when I've dropped her off in her class! Hopefully that will continue, although I expect it will take some adjusting when she moves up to the next class in May (once she's 18 months).

So I guess that's all I have for now. I should probably head to bed - I do need to be up in 5 and a half hours. But I'm excited to see what comes next and think this summer will be really fun, with trips to the park, friends and family visiting, vacation in California for a week, etc.

On that note, here are a few pictures. Good night!

 

9 Months In...

There are moments when I can't believe my little baby is already 9 months old. When I think about how much she can already do compared with, well, 9 months ago she seems so big! But then at the same time I know we're just starting out and there's so much to this motherhood thing I'm still clueless about.

Sometimes when I think about what's coming, I start to get overwhelmed and have no idea how I'm going to handle the future, like:

• Having another one or two (which is hopefully still a ways down the road) on top of everything else going on.
• Actually needing to discipline, beyond the simple foundational things you can do with a 9-month-old.
• Balancing the desire to give her everything she wants with the knowledge that it's better she doesn't get it all, and picking and choosing which "wants" we let her have.
• How life will change and she gets older and starts walking, talking, expressing her opinions more clearly and often, going to school, choosing friends, learning how to deal with peers, experiencing pain...
• Knowing when to push her towards the edge of the nest and when to pull her back and protect her.
• Preparing her to be the woman God wants her to be.

Of course I could go on, but I don't want to get too overwhelmed here...

As a list-maker, I thought a list of things I've learned first-hand would help calm me down:

• Maternal instincts definitely exist and kick-in when necessary.
• A lot of this motherhood thing is doing your best and counting on God for the rest.
• God gives us the kids we get for a reason. Yes, sometimes it's a challenge when my little night owl fights bedtime and naps (and I'm sure that's a battle we'll be fighting for years), but in talking to friends about their babies, I'd take that over their kids' personality quirks, and I'm sure it's vice versa too.
• There's no one right way to do things. Experts tell you conflicting things all the time, from how warmly to dress your baby to whether or not they sleep in your bed with you. Figure out what works for you and go with it.
• Moms come in all different shapes, sizes and personalities. Comparing yourself to other moms will only make you feel bad about yourself and self-conscious. Yes, you can always be a better mother, but play to your strengths and get help in areas you aren't as good at. 
• Life is in constant flux, but the changes come little by little so that by the time you reach the next milestone you're a little more prepared.
• 9 months ago I barely knew anything about babies. Now I know how to feed her, play with her, encourage her, soothe her, tell the difference between her cries...
• I'm not alone in this. In addition to each other, Matt and I have a lot of friends and family we know we can count on for advice, help, etc. Plus, you know, the whole God's hand being in everything thing :)

Yes, the last 9 months have been the hardest of my life. But I absolutely love where we are right now and am excited for what the future holds!

The Past 4 Months With a Baby

Well, it's been about 4 months, so I guess it's time for another blog post. As hard as it is sometimes, I absolutely love our life with a baby. Not so much in the middle of the night when she refuses to sleep in her crib. Or when I start to feel trapped, like I can't do anything I want to do. Oh, and the days when we're both exhausted aren't so fun. But I have a very understanding husband, an extremely flexible boss and all sorts of helpful advice from family and friends. Plus our little girl is so worth all of it!

Here are a few highlights from the past four months:

Dedication - In addition to having the opportunity to stand up and ask our church family to both hold us accountable and help us raise our daughter to know God (on Matt's first Father's Day, by the way), this was a fun chance to see family. My parents came up from California for a week, and Matt's parents are still in town so we'll get to see them for a few days later this week.

Matt's first Father's Day :)

Date night! Twice! - Over the last couple of months we got to go on two dates! Someone didn't seem to like the idea of us leaving her for a few hours the first time, which meant I didn't get to see all of Star Trek, but a nice relaxing dinner was more than enough for me! Plus I was able to leave her with Matt and go see the whole movie the next day. The second time she did a great job, and we made it all the way through lunch (below) and Man of Steel. 

Common Ground - While my parents were in town, Common Ground was on tour, so we got to go see them up in Kent. In addition to seeing my brother, it was fun to see the show and our friends that are involved as leaders.

California for my grandpa's 100th birthday - My grandpa turned 100! So we hopped on a plane for the weekend and attempted our first trip to California. Overall it was a success and traveling with a 4 month old wasn't so bad. We'll see how traveling with a 9 month old is during our next trip (I think that's how old she'll be?) Anyway, I totally spaced and didn't get any pictures with my grandpa (although other people did - they just haven't shared them with me yet), but here we are with my mom, grandma and aunt:

The church nursery - The baby has started hanging out in the church nursery on Sundays. Of the three times I left her there, she made it all the way through one service and a decent chunk of time through the other two. It's amazing how getting to listen to an entire sermon is such a treat :)

Visiting Portland - We had the opportunity to head down to Portland to visit Matt's sister and our awesome nephew a few weeks ago. We had a great time hanging out, scouring through Powell's books for board books and eating (a trip to Portland just isn't complete without delicious food).

Visiting Friends - We've had a couple of friends come and visit! One of my friends from college came down from Seattle for about half a day to catch up and hang out for a while, and another friend from California (who now lives in WA) came up to visit for a couple of days.

I think those are the main highlights for now. I'm probably forgetting something, but that's what happens when you're trying to remember everything off the top of your head while a baby sleeps on your lap. I have to say though, all in all things are going pretty well!

My Allergies Are Gone! ...Maybe

Allergy testing

Because of various reasons, I ended up seeing an allergist yesterday. If you don't know, I've had pretty extensive allergies my entire life. When my mom was nursing me, she was down to 5 foods she could eat that I wouldn't react to. I would even react to the amount of wheat in one of those small, styrofoam-y communion wafters when she ate it.

Anyway, food allergies have been kind of a big part of my life for as long as I can remember. When kids would bring cupcakes to school for their birthday, I got a box of raisins. My mom would often cook two meals for dinner, one with cheese and one without. So when the allergist tested me for everything I've been allergic to for as long as I can remember (nuts, dairy, wheat, shellfish, cats and wool), I was completely shocked to find out each and every test came back negative!

How could this happen? Apparently, a change in allergies is common after pregnancy. The allergist said he sees it all the time - women who have never been allergic to anything suddenly having them or those that have always been allergic suddenly aren't. It has something to do with the baby's immune system reacting with the mother's or something...he explained it, but I don't really remember how it works. Apparently it's fairly common though?

My first graham cracker in more than a decade

Of course, I'm kind of taking this with cautious optimism. I mean, part of me doesn't really believe it. I've just been resigned to the fact that we'll always need to order two pizzas (one without cheese) and that when the ice cream comes out I'll just opt for a cookie with some sorbet. I did test this last night though, and the results were good. After my appointment I picked up some graham crackers (an item I've reacted to since I was about five) and tried two of them. No reaction yet. I guess over the next several months I'll keep trying food out, paying attention and seeing what happens...

Happy New Year!

Ok, I know January is almost over, but blogging hasn't been quite as much of a priority lately (shocking, I know). Life has been busy, what with having a two month old that needs feeding, cleaning and interaction, both of us working (I went back earlier this month) and maintaining a household - or even just getting food cooked, putting dishes away and washing laundry. I seriously am amazed by single moms that are able to do it all, because with two adults we're still working on getting a system down that works.

Every once in a while it's nice to have some time to each do our own things, though. At the moment the baby is napping (I expect she'll wake up and eat some more before going to sleep for the night), the husband is playing video games and I'm spending time playing on the computer. I've found I have a lot of time to browse Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. on my phone, but finding time to sit down at the computer is a lot harder.

All in all, life with a baby is going well. Yes, I need to find time to work at odd hours throughout the week, but my boss is amazing with all the flexibility she's giving me. Our daughter is pretty awesome. She's got the smiling down and has started laughing once in a while. It's super cute! I know, I'm biased, but my baby is so incredible. You have no idea (and I'm sure I'm the only mother that feels that way about her kids - haha).

I have found that with nursing I have a lot more time to watch TV. This means I've gotten into many more shows. In addition to Castle and Bones, I've started watching Ellen and the Price is Right (although it's not the same without Bob Barker). I also went through a few shows on Netflix's Instant Queue (Sherlock, White Collar, Once Upon a Time and Parenthood), but sadly Netflix only goes so far and I don't want to just jump into the current seasons in the middle. Maybe I'll have a chance to catch up at some point...? I am excited I just borrowed the second season of Downton Abbey from a friend; I'm sure I'll enjoy that over the next few weeks.

In addition to watching TV, I've been trying to learn how to be semi-productive during the day. I decided it's a good day if I can get at least one full chore done while the husband is at work, such as folding the laundry or loading the dishwasher. I'm optimistic I'll be able to bump that up as time goes on, but I'm taking the small victories (a month ago, I couldn't even do one chore during the day).

Hmm...I can't really think of much else to write at this point. Obviously my life has become all about the child, which I think is appropriate for me, but probably not quite as fascinating for you. Plus she's starting to stir so she'll probably decided she wants to eat soon (at least, I hope she wakes up soon so we're not up too late tonight!). So on that note, have a good one!

Thankful

I've been meaning to write this post for a couple of weeks, but this is the first chance I've had to sit down and write it out. I've been feeling so thankful lately, not just because of Thanksgiving last week, but also because of the big changes made to my life a couple of weeks ago. Here's what I've been thankful for lately:

1. Our daughter. Despite not having many chances to sleep and moments of feeling like a cow, I am so, so, so grateful for our beautiful baby girl. 
2. Smooth pregnancy/delivery. I'm so thankful the entire pregnancy went smoothly and the delivery was complication-free. On a similar note, I'm also thankful for modern medicine :)
3. An amazing husband and happy marriage. In addition to our daughter's arrival, our 4th wedding anniversary was earlier this month - I'm so happy I get to share my life with my best friend. I can't even begin to describe how great a husband he is, and he's already such a fantastic father.
4. Supportive friends and family. We're so grateful for all the ways family and friends have helped us as we adjust to life with a newborn, especially by providing some meals and helping with housework. I'm also so thankful that both Matt and I have great relationships with our parents, siblings, grandparents and in-laws.
5. My boss. I'm so, so thankful for a boss that's so understanding and encouraging. It's hard to believe I've been with the same company for 6 years, and from the day I told my boss I was pregnant she's been so supportive and excited for me and our expanding family.
6. Matt's job. It's so great he has a job he enjoys and that provides what we need. 
7. Giants winning the World Series again. I love the team the Giants put together this year, and I was so happy they won again this year.
8. Cold, rainy weather. I just love this time of year - whether I'm bundled up inside listening to rain on the skylight or venturing outside to enjoy experiencing it for myself.
9. Our house. I'm so grateful we were able to buy the house we bought. At the moment it's perfect for us and hasn't needed a lot of work done to it.
10. Resources available to us. We live in a time and place with so many resources available to us, and I'm so glad we can use some of them.
11. God's grace. I know I mess up a lot. I'm so grateful for God's grace, and the grace of those that forgive me for my mistakes.
12. My iPhone and its apps. My phone is certainly very handy for connecting online when both hands and lap isn't available.
13. Chocolate chip cookies. C is for cookie, that's good enough for me :)

I know there's a lot more I am thankful for, but that's all I've got right now - my favorite daughter is calling for me :)

Still Waiting...

It seems like the hardest time to wait is right before something big happens. As someone that likes to know the plan, waiting for an indeterminate amount of time is especially hard for me. Despite wanting my daughter to arrive right away, I try to be an optimistic person, so I'm trying to dwell on a few benefits to her not coming yet:

1. More Time With My Mom. Because my mom wants to be here for the delivery, she came up last week so she doesn't miss it. Even though we haven't had anything happen yet, it's been a lot of fun having time with her to talk, go to various stores, walk around, watch various TV shows together, etc.
2. More Time For Organization. The extra time has given us a chance to work on putting things away better and organize more efficiently. A few weeks ago, Matt's parents came up and helped build some really great shelves in our garage. Although I still want to consolidate a bit more, we already have a lot more room and feel much more organized. The extra time has certainly given us more time to put things away and find homes for a few things we never quite got around to unpacking when we moved.
3. More Time For Work. I have a wonderfully flexible boss and a job that doesn't take much physical exertion, so I'm able to continue working and don't need to spend time on leave until the baby's actually born. 
4. More Time For Development. Ultimately, I want our daughter to come when she's ready and fully-developed. So if she's not quite ready to come out yet, I'm trying to remember that she's still got some growing to do in the womb. That and God's timing is better than mine...in my 28 years of experience, His plans have always been better than the ones I come up with.

Despite the benefits, I'm still really excited for our daughter to make her appearance and am tired of waiting. Maybe today will be the day??

Photo Credit: deux-chi

My Own Personal Advent

As I was lying in bed a few minutes ago, I realized I'm kind of in my own personal season of advent. I grew up in a church that followed and celebrated seasons, one of them being advent. The color is blue, and it's a period of time where we're waiting, or anticipating the arrival of Christ. 

As I was thinking about that this morning, I started to realize how different that period of advent would have been for Mary than it ever was for me growing up. We celebrated by using the color blue throughout the sanctuary, and on Sundays we would light one of the candles on the advent wreath and sing a song about hope, love, joy and peace. 

Those four weeks before Jesus was born were probably a little different for Mary. If I feel anything like she did, hope, love and joy were there (although I'm not expecting much peace for at least the first few weeks), but there are a lot of other elements mixed in, too. As much as I wonder if I'll be a good mother and teach my daughter what she needs to know, I can't imagine what it would be like to anticipate raising the son of God.

I also can't imagine what the journey to Bethlehem was like for Mary and Joseph. It must have been long. I've got 7 weeks until my due date, and I'm moving pretty slowly (at least, compared to my normal walking speed). Traveling by car isn't bad, but sitting on a horse or donkey for long periods of time couldn't have been comfortable, and then the extra movement would have forced additional bathroom breaks...crazy.

Regardless of the fears, Matt and I are so excited to meet our daughter. I'm just so glad that, in addition to the support of our family and friends, we have the reassurance that God wouldn't bless us with her if we couldn't handle being parents. I know I haven't been as good about keeping up with my blog in recent months, but I'll keep on sitting down and typing out a post here and there when I can. No promises on how often, though - my world is about to make a big change :)

Photo courtesy of John-Morgan

Guess What! It's A...

For my 100th post, I thought this would be an appropriate subject.

Today was an exciting day; we just got back from an ultrasound where we got to see the baby pretty clearly. We could see the head, spine, heart...plus the legs and arms were moving around, which was pretty cool (and super cute!)

We also found out that we're having a...girl! Although the technician couldn't see extremely clearly (the baby was moving around enough, and kept finding a comfortable spot obstructed by my belly button) there's a 90% chance it's a girl (based on what she saw and also what she didn't see).

Of course, we would be absolutely thrilled with either a boy or a girl. I think my favorite part was just getting to see her move her arms around and kick her little legs :)

Photo courtesy of jmlawlor

Getting Crafty

Looking back on my posts, I guess I never updated my blog with the news that we're expecting...well, good news - we're expecting! I'm due in November, which means I'm solidly in the 2nd trimester, and I'm pretty sure I'm at the beginning stages of what's called "nesting."

For most of the pregnancy, I haven't really felt like doing much (which was great for moving right at the beginning). Although I can't complain (I haven't had any major discomfort yet), I've still been tired and just want to relax by the time I reach the end of the work day. That changed earlier this week. I decided that we need to get better at planning our meals ahead of time. The challenge is that Matt and I both take turns making dinner, but we're wired completely differently, so where I might be happy sitting down and filling out a list of meals and groceries, he's not going to want to take the time. Enter my brand new system: A menu board!

I saw this idea on Pinterest and, although I'm not the craftiest person, it looked like something I could handle. I have to say, I'm very happy with the outcome:

What I like about this menu board is it's very easy for either one of us to pick out the meals and put them up on the board. Then, I can go through and look at the back of each one (which lists the necessary ingredients) to create a shopping list. Here are pictures of the process:

So now I need to type meals & ingredients up and print them out onto cards, but I figure that can be an ongoing process as I find dinners over the years.

I also made a list of everything I want to start working on, and I have a lot of ideas about how to do them so the areas remain easy to maintain. Here's just some of what I want to get to in the next few months:

• Organize the pantry
• Get my bedside table set up and organized
• Re-organize the linens (dining, bedding, towels)
• Go through boxes in the garage
• Organize the closet in the office
• Organize the closet in the master bedroom
• Find homes for everything not baby related that's currently stored in the baby's room
• Rearrange the bookshelf in the office

We'll see how it goes!

Crazy, But Good Crazy

We have now officially moved into our new house! The last several weeks have been crazy, so I'm excited that we've started getting back into our regular rhythm over the last couple of days. But things were crazy a few weeks ago for several reasons (all of them good):

• A lot of paperwork had to be collected and signed to get our house.
• We made time for a quick trip down to Portland to see Wicked!
• Within one weekend (actually, it was Easter weekend) we painted six different rooms in our house and moved everything in (a BIG thanks to everyone that came and helped - we couldn't have done it without them!)
• We hired 3 new people at work and I did training with them last week. I'm super excited the team's expanded, though, and all 3 of them are doing a great job!

It's amazing how much calmer I've felt over the last few days. I mean, I wouldn't say I was exactly stressed a few weeks (or even a week) ago, but more...overwhelmed? That doesn't seem like the right word either. 

I know this is a short update, but I don't really have much else to include at the moment. I'll leave you with the hallway in our master bedroom (perfect for my solo dance parties!):

This Month's Update

Warning: This post will be rambly. I just haven't felt like updating my blog recently. One big reason is once I get done with work I just don't want to be on a computer anymore. And blogging without a computer is kind of difficult. We've also been busy enough that when I do have downtime, I just want to veg out and turn my brain off for a while.

Big news in our life? Well, a few weeks ago we put an offer on a house! It was accepted and everything seems to be underway to close towards the end of the month. I'm excited to paint its rooms different colors (I've wanted to paint our apartment for a year, but that's not really allowed). The way the timing will work, it looks like we'll have our apartment for a couple months of overlap, too, so we'll be able to take our time moving out without a lot of stress. Yay for that :)

What else has been going on...? We went to a conference with our high schoolers earlier this month and learned about prayer. It was lots of fun! We also saw the Hunger Games twice this weekend: Thursday night at midnight and Friday night. I really enjoyed it. Yes, the book is way better, and there were a few things I would have done a little bit differently, but I thought they did a good job of capturing the book on film. Since the book is written completely from Katniss' point of view, it made parts of the story hard to capture (or at least her thought process and how she feels about things). Overall it was great, though!

Oh, and I wanted to mention my grandpa turned 99 this month! I was a little sad we weren't able to make it to his birthday party, but I did get to talk to him on the phone and it sounds like he had a good time :)

On that note, I'm calling it a night. Good night!

Another Blog

Well, I started another blog (this song just popped in my head when I typed that). Basically, I'm going to use this blog to call attention to the various things I'm learning, so every post will start with "what I learned." For those of you that don't follow me on Google+, Facebook or Twitter, here's the first post: http://recentlylearned.blogspot.com/2012/02/wonderful-array-of-apps.html.

I'll keep updating with random streams of consciousness, etc. here as well. This blog is still my catch-all. The other is more to be used as a way to keep track of what I'm learning, and should be fun to read over in a few months/year.

Hopefully that last sentence made sense. I'm rather tired.

Your Opinion, Please

Would you mind giving me some feedback?

Lately I've been thinking about the idea of starting another blog. Not to replace this one, but to instead be about something specific. This blog is basically a random stream of my thoughts about whatever is going on in my life, which is great for a few people that know me and care (especially those that live farther away that I don't talk to very often), and I plan to continue using it, but I kind of want to start one that's all about one subject. In addition to giving me something to learn more about, it would give some of the posts I write more focus.

I have a few ideas floating around, but nothing has really jumped out at me. I think of myself as someone that dabbles a bit in various subjects, and I find it interesting to learn a little bit about different things...perhaps that's an idea to run with? A blog that chronicles what I'm learning? Or should I go in a completely different direction? Do you have any insight for me? What subjects do you think of when you think of me?

Photo Credit: mrsdkrebs

Go Me

I just realized I completed one of my goals last year! I updated my blog at least once per month. Well yay! Go me. We'll see if I keep it up this year, too :)

I think this will probably be a short post. As much as I enjoy blogging, there just doesn't seem to be the time as more and more activities are added to my life. The good news is we're officially house hunting now! Tonight we got to spend some time actually looking in houses with our realtor, so that was fun.

I've also been trying to make it to crew more regularly. I did pretty well for a few weeks before things started getting busy again, but we're back on the water on Saturday - extra motivation to make it!

I still haven't gotten back into TV shows - I haven't really watched TV since before Christmas! It sounds much longer than it feels.

I think that's all the energy I have for tonight. I should probably go to bed (we'll see if that actually happens).

We Meet Again

Yes, my title is referring to the time of night. Yet again I'm up way later than I should be, and am I going to sleep? No. Instead I'm blogging about it. 

The big news around here lately has been the snow. We got tons of it. I mean, usually we get a few inches and everyone flips out and has a great time until it melts the next day. But the snow has been here since Sunday. And there's been a lot of it. I mean, look at how high it comes up on me:

The last few days have been a lot of fun enjoying the snow, but then today it got really slick and icy. That and our Internet was down for about 5 hours this morning, which made working a bit of a challenge, although I was able to keep busy and work on things offline for a while. Then, a couple of hours after our Internet was back up the power went down, which meant the router turned off and, again, I was without Internet. Although my work day wasn't quite as productive as I was hoping, I still got a lot done and was able to use the time effectively.

One thing that really helped was the ability to check email on my cell phone. That's right, we upgraded from our regular old phones to smartphones! We are now two proud iPhone users. I've been having fun exploring all sorts of fun apps, etc. If you have any suggestions, let me know. So far I've got everything from social media and productivity apps to sports and games apps. I decided to jump on the bandwagon and start using Instagram. Here's my first creation:

I found another fun photo app that let me add frames, so I created these two photos:

Needless to say (although I'm going to write it anyway), I've been loving my new phone. 

Anyway, it's 3am and I have a busy day at work tomorrow, so I'm going to go to sleep now. Really. Let me know if there are any more apps I should download, and good night!

A Stream of Thought

Apparently this is one of those nights where I stay up instead of going to sleep. No, I won't make it to crew in the morning; 3 hours isn't enough sleep for me. Although at this rate I still might not get a full night.

I'm doing pretty well with my goal of at least one blog post per month. I know I don't have the most readers, but I still enjoy writing every once in a while, even if it's about nothing in particular. Besides, I'm pretty sure I have a couple of loyal readers that will read almost anything I write - my parents are dependable like that ;)

We've been pretty busy the last couple of weeks. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, we've been pretty busy the last couple of months. Work has been insanely busy. The good part is we've been having a lot more clients come in. The challenging part is simply getting everything done. We did bring someone new in a few months ago, and she's been working amazing. That definitely helps!

But besides work, December is just always busy with getting ready for vacation, visiting friends/family in California (we had a blast, by the way), and then returning from time off. I feel like I'm finally starting to get a handle on things again - more than a week after getting home. Is that normal?

The good news is I've realized my priorities have totally shifted in a good way. I'm giving God the credit for that one, by the way. While we were in California I started seriously consider if I'd be able to make it back to crew after about 3 months off this past fall. I decided I wanted to do it, and despite being swamped with playing catch up, I've been able to make it to practice twice so far! Yes, I'm skipping tomorrow to give myself a few more hours of sleep, but I'm confident I'll be back on Saturday.

With spending more time working, adding crew back in, and taking care of various other tasks (weekly events with church, writing newsletters for a couple of different organizations in my free time, etc), I started trying to figure out what I would let go. As it turns out, that's a decision God seemed to make for me. I've lost pretty much all motivation to keep up with TV shows. Don't get me wrong, I still like my shows, but I'm not driven to watch them the same way. I'm happy to just wait and get to it if I get to it. Instead I'd rather spend the time doing things around the apartment, reading a book, hanging out with Matt or going out with friends. I'm still me, though. I seem to find ways to keep myself busy that don't include doing the dishes, housework, etc. Go figure.

We'll see if this shift in priorities lasts. I'm enjoying it while it does, though. I recently found a cute new photo album and printed out pictures from when we moved to Washington in 2009 to this past trip to California, and I'm almost done putting it together. I've also been wanting to eat food at home that's more healthy, although I haven't wanted to cook anything for a long time. It's more convenient if the healthy eating goes with a cooking phase...