So the other day was like Christmas. Ever have one of those days where
everything just works out well, you're in a good mood and you just think
to yourself, I'm so happy? That was yesterday. I was picking up Emily
from my dad's, and talking about the hot tub we almost purchased but
decided it is not financially smart right now. I then mentioned how
maybe instead we could get a jet tub for our future basement bathroom,
it would be gobs cheaper both to buy and maintaine, and it is functional
as it would be the tub/shower in the second bathroom.
So he says,
your uncle has one he would probably give you. Say again? My uncle
had an accident a few years ago and is now paralyzed from the waist
down. When he put in his handicapped shower he apparently had to get
rid of the jet tub and it's just sitting in his garage. My dad thinks
he would just give it to us, happy to see it put to use. We would of
course offer him something, but no matter what he would charge us for
it, it would be cheaper than new! So excited!
So I call my
husband on my way home and he said he went to the red wing store (a very
expensive boot/work shoe store)....I was like oh no, that place always
costs us money. He pretty much has to get a new pair of work boots
every year because he wears them out so much. He took his pair in to
have them re-soled or whatever the word is, and the guy was like no no
no, how long have you had these. Ryan responded, about three months.
The guy was like no, these have not held up at all for just three
months, so he gave him a brand new pair of boots for free! Holy crap!
Those things are like $300!
Then I get home and we had a letter
from the city. Starting in September they are switching to city
provided trash cans so the truck can just pick them up by the handle and
dump them in. They're huge, they hold about 3 regular cans worth of
stuff, they have wheels and match our recycle bin. The best news, it
has a heavy lid to keep pests out. The raccoon buffet restaurant in our
backyard will be closing. They're terrible, they either drag the bag
out of the can, tear it open and go to town, or they get in the can and
dig in. It's always a mess, there is always garbage on our driveway, I
step on chicken bones, they drag the garbage all around the yard, yuck!
They've
also told their friends, so it's quite a party every night. We've even
tried mint smelling garbage bags that claim to repel rodents, but I
think they just use them as an after meal mouthwash to freshen their
breaths. I cannot wait to get these new cans....yes I get very excited
about city issued garbage cans. So glad we didn't buy new ones
ourselves last summer.
So in additon to all the plans I am making
once I am not working the 9-5 (8-5 but whose counting?) I've decided to
try my hand at an Etsy shop. There are a few things I've made for
myself for fun, and I think with some precision and a plan for mass (or
more than one) production I could make some really nice items to sell.
The one I plan to do is your first dance lyrics printed on a photo mat
framing your wedding picture. I think I could also do a good job making
decorative baby names for the nursery wall, and I made myself a picture
of our wedding date and framed it, and I made one for my stepmom for
Christmas with hers and my dads anniversary date. Those would be
easy/fun to make. I also made the ringbearer pillow for our wedding and
despite not being a great seamstress, it turned out pretty darn good.
I
have a newer sewing machine and my MIL said she would teach me how to
sew. I know enough to hold two pieces of fabric together, ie our ring
bearer pillow, a pair of pants that need hemmed, some bare bones
curtains in the bathroom. But I want to be able to sew well, good
quality items and not want to kick my machine every time I don't know
how to do something. So she's going to really teach me how to use it
and how to sew better so I could add RB pillows to my shop.
But my
favorite part is the name of my shop, it's going to be KayKatDesigns,
for Kayla Kathryn. I'm also excited about keeping the books for my shop
and seeing the money pour in, haha. I have no delusions of making this
a lucrative career, but I think they would be fun projects to make for
people and make a little cash on the side. I wish this were my last
week of work, I am eager to get started.
And last night, I finally
got Emily to laugh. She had so far laughed for my brother, SIL, and
MIL, but finally did it for me last night. It was music to my ears. I
love that little bundle more than life itself.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Two weeks
Well I did it, I put in my notice a couple days ago, my last day is the 25th. I was 100% excited until we made the final decision to do
it. Now I am about 85% excited, 10% nervous and 5% sad but I think
that's pretty normal. I've worked here for nine years, it is going to
be a big change. But I have lots of projects in mind for my new found
freedom.
First, it's very important that I stick to a schedule and not be lazy. Just because I will be at home, doesn't mean I am on vacation. My new job title will be wife and mommy and hopefully soon online professor. Sure I'll probably take breaks here and there since technically my job never ends, and I might have a lazy day now and again, but I really hope to stay busy M-F between 8 and 5. Emily wakes up for a bottle around 6, so I probably will go back to bed until 8 after that but no later. I have to make myself get up just like I would for work. I think 8 is a perfectly acceptable time to get up.
Now that I will have so much time, there is NO excuse to not get this weight off. It's probably mostly water weight but I gained like 5 or 6 pounds this week, meaning I am only 10 pounds down from my pre-pregnancy/during pregnancy weight. That is NOT acceptable, I need to start losing before this gap gets any smaller. So the other day I got the app for couch to 5K and I signed up for a 5K that my husband and his running club are doing in September.
I plan to start it my first day of freedom, and the program is 8 weeks and the race will be 9 weeks from there, so perfect. So I plan to get up, get dressed and Emmy and I will hit the street. We'll go out five days a week, just walking on Tuesdays and Thursdays and doing the program MWF. I'm so excited. I don't know if I'll be able to run all or even most of the 5K, but I'm excited to have a goal and a timeline and a plan. I'm also going to grocery shop every Sunday, buy healthy foods, plan dinners for the week and make my salads for lunch for the whole week. Just because I will be home doesn't mean I will feel like making a salad everyday, so if I have one ready each day it'll be much easier to just grab, especially if Em is needy some days.
I also plan to get the house in order, and keep it clean so everyday I only have to do maintenance cleaning instead of marathon cleaning all the time. The way to live a healthy, stress free-ish life is to be organized and clean. Of course I don't want to cook when there are dishes piled in the sink and clutter on the stove. I also have projects.....our bedroom is a light gray, and I saw on pinterest where the whole room was a light gray like that, but the wall that the bed's headboard was against was a darker gray and it looked really nice. I hate painting, but that one small wall shouldn't be bad.
I'm also going to start making our bed every day. It sounds silly, but I once read that people who make their beds each day are more productive. It's probably along the same lines as getting dressed each day instead of sitting around in your PJs. Right now our bed is less than aesthetically pleasing. We don't use flat sheets because they end up getting kicked to the end of the bed by the end of the night and Ryan and I hog the covers, so I have a blue velour blanket and he has an ugly brown one with like white fur on the back.
So I've decided we'll share a blanket again, so I bought a new velour blanket but I got a king size so hopefully we can share and play nice. I also bought a beautiful gray and yellow comforter....it will just be for decoration. I know, kinda silly, but like Billy Zane says in Demon Night, if it makes you feel good, do it (my best friend and I love Billy Zane in that movie, so hot).
I also want to clean out the basement and get my gym back. When we had our plumbing redone last winter we had to pile all of the junk in my gym. I can barely get in there to get laundry let alone work out. So then if the weather is nasty Em and I can go down there to work out...I plan on getting her an exersaucer so she can work out with me :) Now I know what you all are thinking....pshaaaa, like you're going to have any time to do this. I get it, somedays Em will be needy, somedays things will go wrong and I won't get any work done on projects. But there really is no reason I cannot scoop the litter box everyday, make our bed and throw in some laundry. By keeping on top of the cleaning, I am actually excited to do it.
And of course in between those projects I'll be taking care of Emily and playing with her. She's so amazing, it's like every day lately she learns something new. She's very close to rolling over, I think as soon as she can figure out how to get her arm out of the way she'll be rolling. So far this week she has been holding her own bottle for a minute or two here and there three times, and the other morning she drank her entire bottle holding it all by herself. I had to help her tip it up a couple times when it was getting too low, but other than that it was all her. I'm so proud of my baby girl, she's so smart. She's giggled three times now, once for my brother and SIL (though I didn't hear it so it didn't happen), once for my MIL and finally today for me! It made me so happy. Just two more weeks until I can be home with her every day!
First, it's very important that I stick to a schedule and not be lazy. Just because I will be at home, doesn't mean I am on vacation. My new job title will be wife and mommy and hopefully soon online professor. Sure I'll probably take breaks here and there since technically my job never ends, and I might have a lazy day now and again, but I really hope to stay busy M-F between 8 and 5. Emily wakes up for a bottle around 6, so I probably will go back to bed until 8 after that but no later. I have to make myself get up just like I would for work. I think 8 is a perfectly acceptable time to get up.
Now that I will have so much time, there is NO excuse to not get this weight off. It's probably mostly water weight but I gained like 5 or 6 pounds this week, meaning I am only 10 pounds down from my pre-pregnancy/during pregnancy weight. That is NOT acceptable, I need to start losing before this gap gets any smaller. So the other day I got the app for couch to 5K and I signed up for a 5K that my husband and his running club are doing in September.
I plan to start it my first day of freedom, and the program is 8 weeks and the race will be 9 weeks from there, so perfect. So I plan to get up, get dressed and Emmy and I will hit the street. We'll go out five days a week, just walking on Tuesdays and Thursdays and doing the program MWF. I'm so excited. I don't know if I'll be able to run all or even most of the 5K, but I'm excited to have a goal and a timeline and a plan. I'm also going to grocery shop every Sunday, buy healthy foods, plan dinners for the week and make my salads for lunch for the whole week. Just because I will be home doesn't mean I will feel like making a salad everyday, so if I have one ready each day it'll be much easier to just grab, especially if Em is needy some days.
I also plan to get the house in order, and keep it clean so everyday I only have to do maintenance cleaning instead of marathon cleaning all the time. The way to live a healthy, stress free-ish life is to be organized and clean. Of course I don't want to cook when there are dishes piled in the sink and clutter on the stove. I also have projects.....our bedroom is a light gray, and I saw on pinterest where the whole room was a light gray like that, but the wall that the bed's headboard was against was a darker gray and it looked really nice. I hate painting, but that one small wall shouldn't be bad.
I'm also going to start making our bed every day. It sounds silly, but I once read that people who make their beds each day are more productive. It's probably along the same lines as getting dressed each day instead of sitting around in your PJs. Right now our bed is less than aesthetically pleasing. We don't use flat sheets because they end up getting kicked to the end of the bed by the end of the night and Ryan and I hog the covers, so I have a blue velour blanket and he has an ugly brown one with like white fur on the back.
So I've decided we'll share a blanket again, so I bought a new velour blanket but I got a king size so hopefully we can share and play nice. I also bought a beautiful gray and yellow comforter....it will just be for decoration. I know, kinda silly, but like Billy Zane says in Demon Night, if it makes you feel good, do it (my best friend and I love Billy Zane in that movie, so hot).
I also want to clean out the basement and get my gym back. When we had our plumbing redone last winter we had to pile all of the junk in my gym. I can barely get in there to get laundry let alone work out. So then if the weather is nasty Em and I can go down there to work out...I plan on getting her an exersaucer so she can work out with me :) Now I know what you all are thinking....pshaaaa, like you're going to have any time to do this. I get it, somedays Em will be needy, somedays things will go wrong and I won't get any work done on projects. But there really is no reason I cannot scoop the litter box everyday, make our bed and throw in some laundry. By keeping on top of the cleaning, I am actually excited to do it.
And of course in between those projects I'll be taking care of Emily and playing with her. She's so amazing, it's like every day lately she learns something new. She's very close to rolling over, I think as soon as she can figure out how to get her arm out of the way she'll be rolling. So far this week she has been holding her own bottle for a minute or two here and there three times, and the other morning she drank her entire bottle holding it all by herself. I had to help her tip it up a couple times when it was getting too low, but other than that it was all her. I'm so proud of my baby girl, she's so smart. She's giggled three times now, once for my brother and SIL (though I didn't hear it so it didn't happen), once for my MIL and finally today for me! It made me so happy. Just two more weeks until I can be home with her every day!
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Family Vacay
We went on our first family vacation this past weekend. We left
thursday afternoon and went up north to my dad's place (we took our
camper, our home away from home) for our family reunion and fourth of
July celebrations. It was a lot of fun, but I am glad to be home. When
we got there it was about 9pm so we just visited with my dad and
Brenda, gave Emmy a bath and got ready for bed. We had to bathe her in
the kitchen sink since we didn't haul her tub up there, so my dad helped
hold her up so she didn't fall back and smack her head.
He talked about that for days afterward, he just thought that was the most fun thing to help give her a bath. How cute. What I thought was really cute were her little fat rolls around her tummy. In her bathtub she lays back a bit, but in the kitchen sink she was sitting up so all her roles piled up. Too bad fat rolls don't stay cute once you're an adult.
My brother and his wife got there a few hours later. That night was so cold....it was pretty chilly anyway but we also left the air on too long in the camper. Brrrrr. We didn't realize we needed both the propane and electric to run the furnace and it wouldn't stay on with just electric, so we had a cold night. To make matters worse, we bought a memory foam bed topper since that bed sucks, and it has that cool gel technology which will be nice on hot nights, but it just made it so much colder. But the next night we got the furnace working and then I was sweating! So the next morning we all had breakfast and then we went into town because Ryan forgot to pack his running shoes and needed to buy some for his race the next day. It's a good thing he needed new shoes anyway. We had lunch while we were out and got some groceries.
After that Ryan mowed my dad's lawn, because he is weird and wants to work on vacation. Meanwhile me, my brother and my SIL drove into town and took a bike ride on the new bike path they have. The full length is 22 miles one way but we weren't up for that, so we did about 14 round trip. It was fun, it was mostly through woods so it was shaded and had beautiful views of ravines. I'd like to do it again sometime. My SIL is pretty new to biking so we had to go pretty slow which was a little annoying but at the same time it was nice to just go for a leisurely ride.
That night we had dinner with my dad and Brenda and then a bunch of our family came over for Ryan's firework show. It turned out really well, and no injuries! I joked with my dad that he should go to one of those firework tents, grab some fireworks with his left hand (where he is missing fingers from his accident) and be like "I love fireworks, I hope this year goes better than last".
Saturday was my family reunion. I tried to get Emily back often enough and I took her inside for an hour nap and rocked her in the recliner, but she was still pretty out of sorts from being overstimulated. But it's nice to see how many people love her and want to snuggle her. That night grandpa and grammy watched her so Ryan and I could go out with some of my family for go karts and ice cream, and I bought a really cute Silver Lake sweatshirt. After that Ryan continued on to go drink in my uncle's garage with a few others, but I went back to snuggle Emily. She and I went back to the camper, I put her down and then I watched TV in bed. Haha we're really rustic campers.
All in all it was a great weekend and a great first family vacation. Unfortunately Emily was too little to really do anything, and spent more time being watched by grandpa and grammy while we went out and did things. But we had fun, I know they loved watching her and Emmy was snuggled and loved on, so everybody wins.
In other news, a big decision has been made. I'm quitting my job, I am giving my two weeks notice on Monday. We've been talking about it for a while, but hadn't really committed to it, but we discussed it seriously and Ryan said I have his blessing. Now that the plan will be set in motion, it's a little scary. I've been working for almost 20 years, I just celebrated my 9th anniversary at my job, working is all I know. And of course, there is some anxiety in the decision. What if I suddenly don't enjoy being home when I have all the time in the world? Did I enjoy maternity leave because my time was limited? Now that I'll get what I always wanted, will I still want it?
What if I cannot get any or enough online teaching jobs....what if I do? I'm excited to do that, but also a little nervous. What if I have to go back to work in a year, it will be hard to go back out into the work force after being out for a year. And then of course there is the guilt. I feel guilty when I leave her all day, I feel guilty that the house is always a mess and I rarely cook, but on the flip side I feel guilty and I feel like a wimp for wanting to quit. Plenty of other women work with children at home....women with more hours, longer commutes, more kids. They somehow make it work, so shouldn't I? But then I wonder, how many of them would still do it if they didn't have to.
In the past, me not working wouldn't even have been a possibility, but now it is. I'll bet at least a large percentage of women would not be doing what they are doing if they had the option to do something else. But despite all the worries and fears, I am very excited. I'm excited to be home with Emily all day, I'm excited to have time to get things done, and I'm so excited to actually have time and energy to work out and eat better and shop for healthy food and finally get this damn weight under control.
Now to tell my dad....haha. I mean he knows we've been contemplating it but he doesn't think it is a great idea. He wants me to do what is best for us and what will make me happy, but he's understandably nervous about it. Even though I have a baby, I am still his baby. Though I do feel a little bad about the fact that he won't be able to watch her all week anymore. I mean ultimiately I am glad because he likely would have had to watch her indefinitely until she goes to kindergarten, and by then it might wear on him, especially when she starts being able to misbehave. But I know right now he LOVES having her every day, he's always so excited to see her in the morning and he takes her out on all his errands and just loves the attention the two of them get. So I'm sad that he'll be sad he won't have her anymore. But, since my schedule will be so wide open we can always go over and visit anytime we want.
And actually if the online teaching takes off, I will still need him to take her at least one day a week so I can get some serious work done, outside of whatever I can get done when she is napping and once Ryan is home.
He talked about that for days afterward, he just thought that was the most fun thing to help give her a bath. How cute. What I thought was really cute were her little fat rolls around her tummy. In her bathtub she lays back a bit, but in the kitchen sink she was sitting up so all her roles piled up. Too bad fat rolls don't stay cute once you're an adult.
My brother and his wife got there a few hours later. That night was so cold....it was pretty chilly anyway but we also left the air on too long in the camper. Brrrrr. We didn't realize we needed both the propane and electric to run the furnace and it wouldn't stay on with just electric, so we had a cold night. To make matters worse, we bought a memory foam bed topper since that bed sucks, and it has that cool gel technology which will be nice on hot nights, but it just made it so much colder. But the next night we got the furnace working and then I was sweating! So the next morning we all had breakfast and then we went into town because Ryan forgot to pack his running shoes and needed to buy some for his race the next day. It's a good thing he needed new shoes anyway. We had lunch while we were out and got some groceries.
After that Ryan mowed my dad's lawn, because he is weird and wants to work on vacation. Meanwhile me, my brother and my SIL drove into town and took a bike ride on the new bike path they have. The full length is 22 miles one way but we weren't up for that, so we did about 14 round trip. It was fun, it was mostly through woods so it was shaded and had beautiful views of ravines. I'd like to do it again sometime. My SIL is pretty new to biking so we had to go pretty slow which was a little annoying but at the same time it was nice to just go for a leisurely ride.
That night we had dinner with my dad and Brenda and then a bunch of our family came over for Ryan's firework show. It turned out really well, and no injuries! I joked with my dad that he should go to one of those firework tents, grab some fireworks with his left hand (where he is missing fingers from his accident) and be like "I love fireworks, I hope this year goes better than last".
Saturday was my family reunion. I tried to get Emily back often enough and I took her inside for an hour nap and rocked her in the recliner, but she was still pretty out of sorts from being overstimulated. But it's nice to see how many people love her and want to snuggle her. That night grandpa and grammy watched her so Ryan and I could go out with some of my family for go karts and ice cream, and I bought a really cute Silver Lake sweatshirt. After that Ryan continued on to go drink in my uncle's garage with a few others, but I went back to snuggle Emily. She and I went back to the camper, I put her down and then I watched TV in bed. Haha we're really rustic campers.
All in all it was a great weekend and a great first family vacation. Unfortunately Emily was too little to really do anything, and spent more time being watched by grandpa and grammy while we went out and did things. But we had fun, I know they loved watching her and Emmy was snuggled and loved on, so everybody wins.
In other news, a big decision has been made. I'm quitting my job, I am giving my two weeks notice on Monday. We've been talking about it for a while, but hadn't really committed to it, but we discussed it seriously and Ryan said I have his blessing. Now that the plan will be set in motion, it's a little scary. I've been working for almost 20 years, I just celebrated my 9th anniversary at my job, working is all I know. And of course, there is some anxiety in the decision. What if I suddenly don't enjoy being home when I have all the time in the world? Did I enjoy maternity leave because my time was limited? Now that I'll get what I always wanted, will I still want it?
What if I cannot get any or enough online teaching jobs....what if I do? I'm excited to do that, but also a little nervous. What if I have to go back to work in a year, it will be hard to go back out into the work force after being out for a year. And then of course there is the guilt. I feel guilty when I leave her all day, I feel guilty that the house is always a mess and I rarely cook, but on the flip side I feel guilty and I feel like a wimp for wanting to quit. Plenty of other women work with children at home....women with more hours, longer commutes, more kids. They somehow make it work, so shouldn't I? But then I wonder, how many of them would still do it if they didn't have to.
In the past, me not working wouldn't even have been a possibility, but now it is. I'll bet at least a large percentage of women would not be doing what they are doing if they had the option to do something else. But despite all the worries and fears, I am very excited. I'm excited to be home with Emily all day, I'm excited to have time to get things done, and I'm so excited to actually have time and energy to work out and eat better and shop for healthy food and finally get this damn weight under control.
Now to tell my dad....haha. I mean he knows we've been contemplating it but he doesn't think it is a great idea. He wants me to do what is best for us and what will make me happy, but he's understandably nervous about it. Even though I have a baby, I am still his baby. Though I do feel a little bad about the fact that he won't be able to watch her all week anymore. I mean ultimiately I am glad because he likely would have had to watch her indefinitely until she goes to kindergarten, and by then it might wear on him, especially when she starts being able to misbehave. But I know right now he LOVES having her every day, he's always so excited to see her in the morning and he takes her out on all his errands and just loves the attention the two of them get. So I'm sad that he'll be sad he won't have her anymore. But, since my schedule will be so wide open we can always go over and visit anytime we want.
And actually if the online teaching takes off, I will still need him to take her at least one day a week so I can get some serious work done, outside of whatever I can get done when she is napping and once Ryan is home.
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