Slogging.

I just got accidentally sucked into looking back through a bunch of old posts.  There goes an hour of my life...  Isn't it great what a trip down memory lane can do for your spirit?!  So fun.  We are in the midst of planning a camping trip for Memorial Day weekend, so it was fun to look at last year's trip and remember how relaxed and fun that it was :)

I have a lot to look forward to this spring and summer.  A LOT.  Steve's sister and her family are moving in next door in two weeks.  TWO WEEKS!  How lucky am I to have family and good friends right next door?  In the past year since Dave (Steve's brother) and his wife Christie left for Montana, (they used to live next door) it has been WAY LONELIER out here.  So I am really looking forward to Jenny and Haakon moving into D&C's house for a few years while they build.  We also have 3 camping trips planned for summer, a graduation party, a lake party, and birthday parties.  Phew.  But I also planned in at least 2 weekends a month to stay home.  Last summer I think we had maybe 2 free weekends in 4 months.  It was just too much for us to do.  So I am saying no to things this year, for my sanity and my kids, and staying home a lot more.  I am not very good at that work/life balance thing... I want to do all the things that everyone else is doing... but it's pretty hard to pack that into weekends.  So I am making a concentrated effort to have more downtime this summer.

I am glad to have things to look forward to because this spring is a slog.  A long, uphill at times, slog.  Full of beautiful and fun moments, but still a hard row to hoe.  Steve is working SO much out of town, which as all small business owners can agree, it's a good thing to be working.  Bills will be paid, cars will be fixed, credit card balances will be reduced and stress in a marriage over money is way reduced.  But... it also comes with a lot of alone time for me.  A lot of 1:2 with the kids.  A lot working all day and nights of of parenting by myself.  And this parenting gig is HARD.  Not for the faint of heart.  Especially with a potty-training two year old...  I sometimes think to myself -- will I ever sleep a full un-interrupted 7 hours again?  I know you other moms know how that feels...  Usually by Fridays the exhaustion has set in.  Thank the good Lord for weekends and days of rest.

My new job is going alright...  not quite what I expected in some ways, very very humbling in some ways, and good and satisfying in other ways.  It has allowed me already to take care of my family better by reducing my workload, which is such a blessing.  I actually work a 40 hour week (not 50+) and have a half hour of "me" time during lunch each day.  Good stuff.  It makes living life actually possibly when Steve is gone for weeks at a time.  On the flip side, this job has seriously has knocked my pride down by reducing my responsibility levels...  Some days it just feels like I took a demotion, for the same amount of pay.  I should be happy about that right?  Less responsibility?  Same pay?  But somehow I miss being in charge, miss being a "point person", miss the respect that goes along with all that.  Which for a woman who has had to claw my way up in my job through throngs of men... is just not fun.  I hate having to prove myself all over again.  But pride is not something I want to control me in a work environment, so at this point I will just do my work to the best of my abilities, and hope that my particularly stronger skills are able to be better utilized in the future. I do realize that it's only been 6 weeks.  6 short weeks.  I have plenty of time to gain everyone's respect and make new friends.  So for now, I'll slog through the spring, enjoying all the good moments (there are a lot!) and look forward to all the fun things we've planned.

So happy I actually got one post up in the month of April!

A shoulder ride from big brother

My handsome hubby at work in New Jersey

These kids LOVE tractor rides with their daddy!

Steve and my dad cut down a ginormous tree in the yard.  100+ year old Douglas Fir.  I felt a little bit like a tree killer... except there are 4 more just like it about 20 feet away :)

This kid has NW style down pat...

I told Olaf "hug your brother for the photo".  He semi-complied.  He's hiding a ninja hiking stick with his left hand.

I worked on a baby quilt for my dear friend Ariyl :)

Trying to get an Easter photo at my folks' house

We did it!

Helpers with new jobs.

My first pair of Keens.  I love them.

crush

I think Olaf has his first crush.  He's always been friends with all the girls at school but recently he just LOOOOVVVVEEESSS one of them.  This is a direct quote when I picked him up from daycare today and we walked past her photo on the wall...

"Kalli is just so pretty.  Just so so so so pretty.  I don't really like the color pink, but when Kalli makes that face at me, she is just so so pretty that I have to chase her!!"

I was dying.  Especially the pink part.  Because girl is seriously decked in pink every. single. day.  He used to tell me he was just chasing the color pink, but now I know the truth.

New Direction

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.

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.

The all self-portrait vacation.

Lanakai Beach.  Hello gorgeous!

Inside the USS Arizona memorial.  Very cool.

Arizona Memorial.

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.

Also, this ship is where WWII ended.  Legitimately.  On this very spot.  Pretty cool!

A little porch time after a hard day's work... (Clearly Steve's day was harder than mine!)

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!

FINALLY Steve got a little surfing time up on the North Shore.  He was happy.

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.

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.

Climbing on Chira's new play set!

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.

What we're up to these days

What are we up to these days?...  Too many activities sometimes, or sometimes not enough.  We try to find a balance of Steve and I needing to be social, and to get out or have folks over, and wanting to be outside... balancing that with the kids wanting and needing to just stay home on the weekends, since they are both at daycare all week.  I know they want to just be home whenever they can, so we are usually mellow on weekends unless I can convince them that they really want to go somewhere :)  Usually a trip to Grammy and Bumpa's and to the hardware store are an easy sell, and lately skiing has been an easier sell too!  (woohoo!!)

My two sisters came over for a weekend visit last month, and Kirsten brought her three kiddos --super fun to see them all and let the cousins play!  Kendra and Kirsten and I managed to break away (leaving 5 kids with mom and dad) so we could do a little moonlight cross country skiing on Plain Hardwares groomed track.  Amongst the many hi-tech skate skiers out that night, we were quite the ragtag crew in a bunch of thrown together classic three-prong setups, mom's teal and purple ski gear, and ill fitting ski poles, but we had just as much fun as everyone else.  Just goes to show that unless you are being competitive, (with yourself or others) there's just not a need for all that new stuff! 

Nephew Erick attempts to stand up and sled down the mound of snow.

oops.

Luckily he's tough.  This happened like 10 times.  :)

We took Erick and Aleksandr snomobiling in the back acreage... they were so excited!

Olaf and Daddy used his new legos from Kirsten and Grandpa to build a whole host of things.  A boy after my own heart... he loves when things are symmetrical!

We also had our annual family weekend with some of Steve's family up at a house in Marysville.  It was a little different this year in that the Montana Saugens and the CA Hizons couldn't join us, but we still had a blast!  The kids LOVE hanging out together, and they are getting so easy to watch it gives us mamas plenty of time to hang out too :)

Tara and I found plenty of time to make earrings during the football games :)

Crazy, unfocused, moving all the time cousin crew.

 Also had some mellow weekends at home while daddy was gone.  Full of nothing but playing with toys and watching cartoons.

Balance board action.

Making bread in our jammies.

Foresty's first day on skis! 

Olaf is REALLY getting the hang of it.  6 laps on Daisy with no assistance and only one wipeout.  He really likes making trains and following the leader :)

Hot cocoa treat.

Smiles with "Jemmy"

Skiing with Bumpa!

That is one tired out little kid.

Breakfast at the Original Pancake house in Seattle.  "Pampakes" are they way to my boy's hearts.

For Lent this year I decided to give up reading blogs.  So far it's been great...  Hard to do because that was part of how I "wound down" at night.  But so nice to not spend my whole evening living vicariously through a bunch of people that (for the most part) I don't even know!   I am much happier focusing on projects at home and (hopefully) putting together a few more blog posts of my own.  So many thoughts in my head and heart... I am not one to spill much heart stuff out here on this public blog, but hopefully some of my new thoughts make it on here :)