Well as I stated earlier (last month...), I gave up reading other people's blogs for Lent... And though it has been hard, since that was kind of my daily "go to" to wind down after the kids were in bed (in lieu of newspaper or magazines I guess), it hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. Of course it bugs me that I haven't stayed caught up with some of my favorite "in real life" friend blogs (Gina, Ranelle, KT...) and therefore don't know what they are up to, but I really haven't missed reading all those other blogs of people I have never met. Which is good.
Instead I did a whole lot of other stuff.
First and foremost, I quit my job of 6.5 years with DOT, and started a new job with the City of Wenatchee as a Project Engineer. So far so good. I have found that my responsibility levels and stress levels have gone way way way down... but that comes with having to learn new programs and a whole new organizational structure and new policies and politics, and like 30 new names... oy vey. And the big one -- having to earn everyone's respect in the workplace all over again. Never a fun transition. And they all think I am like 25 years old. (But I am just going to go with it -- no one needs to know how old I actually am, right?) I am not going to elaborate on why I left DOT, but it basically came down to needing to reduce my stress levels and work hours and therefore improve my family life, and also wanting new experiences and work on the municipal side of things. Hopefully it all works out for the best!
In the transition time period, I took a week and a half off work. And in the middle of that vacation, Steve found out he needed to be in Oahu for work for 3-4 days. Bummer, right? (ha ha) Except our family and friends stepped in and watched our kiddos and I got to go too! All for the price of a companion fare plane ticket and a little additional food! RAD! I also got to see my cousins, Autumn and Waylon, who I haven't seen in, oh, 20-25 years? So that was a big bonus. And I was happy to come home and spend some more quality time with the kiddos before heading back to work at the new job. Lightly tanned of course.
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| This beach had flags up for strong current, jellyfish, and some other dangerous thing that I forgot. Needless to say, I did not spend a ton of time in the water here. Sure was gorgeous though. |
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| The all self-portrait vacation. |
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| Lanakai Beach. Hello gorgeous! |
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| Inside the USS Arizona memorial. Very cool. |
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| Arizona Memorial. |
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Remember the movie Battleship? With the USS Missouri? Yeah, this is the ship. It is rad. It was deployed as recently as Desert Storm, which is crazy because the way it is set up, it makes it much easier to imagine what it was like when people lived on it. I was there by myself so I nerded out to my heart's content.
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| Also, this ship is where WWII ended. Legitimately. On this very spot. Pretty cool! |
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A little porch time after a hard day's work... (Clearly Steve's day was harder than mine!)
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| The people watching on Waikiki Beach was unreal it was so good. I am so thankful we stayed on the east side and not here. Nice beach though! |
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| FINALLY Steve got a little surfing time up on the North Shore. He was happy. |
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| While Steve was surfing, I did a little SUP surfing myself. I caught quite a few little waves on it... (we are talking 1-2 feet here, not big) but those same waves also knocked me off my board a few times... Came back bruised and happy! |
The kids are as cute (and crazy) as ever. They may finally FINALLY be figuring out how to play together instead of just get frustrated with each other, which is really fun to see.
Olaf is also starting to read a little on his own in those little "Bob" books. It's fun to see him be so proud of himself when he does well! We are reading them at home. However since he already in daycare 4 days a week, 3 of those including pre-school, we aren't pushing the reading or extra learning at home too much. We try our best to maximize play time instead! Legos are a favorite for Olaf these days, and he is super creative in what he builds. It's all symmetrical, with matching colors if at all possible. Ahhh... a boy after my own heart.
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| Oly also loves puzzles. |
Forest still enjoys playing with cars and trucks the most, so we have quite a bit of that going on as well. Also he's in the middle of potty training right now.... Definitely taking way longer than it did with Olaf. Ah well, it will be over someday, right? He continues to be more adventurous and loves climbing and jumping and dancing.
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| Climbing on Chira's new play set! |
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| Block stacker extraodinaire. |
And with the additional daylight these days, we've all been enjoying spending much more time outside in the evenings before dinner. Swinging, helping Steve on the tractor, filling dump trucks with snow from the berms that fell off roofs.... good stuff. Life is full of good stuff these days.
