Weekend Recap

This weekend was another fairly laid back weekend for us.  Russell started it off by having an outpatient procedure done Friday morning.  Everything went successfully, but he had to take it easy this weekend.  But, more on that later.

We had a pretty lazy Saturday.  We were able to sleep in.  After lunch, Kellie and the twins came over to watch the Husker game and then we ate dinner together.  And that’s about all we got accomplished.  It was GLORIOUS!!!  Every once in a while you need a day like that.

Sunday was a bit busier.  I ran around town getting some of the items we need for the daycare and for my doula bag (more on that later, hopefully).  Then, after lunch, Russell got ready for work while the kids and I went to a birthday party for a friends’ son.  Once we got home, we ate dinner and then I busied myself putting away my purchases from earlier.  Then, I let the momentum continue and I worked on some neglected areas upstairs.  And after all that, it was time to lay my weary self down in bed, reboot, and prepare for the next week.

Happy Monday, everyone!

Happy birthday to me!

Well it has come and gone, my thirtieth birthday and the last of the holiday/birthday landmine that happens at our house between Nov-April! Despite everyone’s ribbing, I’m feeling pretty good about turning 30. Honestly, I think I went through my “crisis” at 25. At that point, I was very unhappy with where I was in life. That was what pushed me to start grad school and find a new job. But, 5 years later, I am thrilled with where I am in life. I have my Masters, 2 kids that I adore, a wonderful job that allows me to work part-time, so I can be home with my kids more, and a new business that is gaining momentum! So, as if I wasn’t spoiled enough, I got a HUGE surprise for my birthday!

First of all, Russell picked me up from work Wednesday night and took me to Target under the guise that we needed to pick up diapers for Delilah. I was, however, a little suspicious because once we got the diapers, he asked me if I wanted to look at clothes…very out of character. :-) We get to the house and the first thing I notice is my friend, Kellie’s, car parked on the street. I think what I said was “What the heck?” and all I got in response from Russell was a smirk. I walk in the door and was greeted by my friends and family. I was surprised by the number of people that came out in the middle of the week!! Amazing! Jameson immediately grabbed my hand and pulled me over to see my cake, a beautiful, VEGAN (more on this in another blog), red velvet cake done by the very talented Ashley of Sweet Bites (seriously, check her out, she is amazing!!).

As if the party wasn’t enough of a surprise, Russell tells me to look at the calendar. He had crossed off all of the activities for the next few days and wrote “Washington DC, WOOT!” across Thursday-Monday. And then informed me that we would be leaving at 6 am, the next morning. Oh, you know, like 10 hours from the time he told me… But, amazingly, he talked to my boss and got me out of work, reschedule doctor and chiropractor appointments, got my Kid-Ability class covered, and arranged childcare! Amazing! Oh, oh AND he built my garden boxes (which is all I REALLY wanted for my birthday)!!

So, off we go to DC, on about 2 hours of sleep. I got to sleep on the first leg of the flight and Russell got to sleep on both. Once we arrived at DC, we hit the ground running. We stopped and grabbed lunch at this crazy deli, that also was like a convenience store – with a wine section- and you could rent things like laptops from them…maybe? It was weird, but the food was good! Then we walked over to the Metro station and figured that out. The plan was to go to the Air and Space museum, but *someone* (hint, not me) had to use the bathroom and couldn’t wait, so we made an impromptu stop at the Pentagon. Which, in case you were wondering, is the ONLY Metro stop without a bathroom. So, we stopped at the 9/11 memorial because it was near the bathrooms. After that adventure, we did make it through the Air & Space museum. The weather was perfect and the museum was not very crowded, so we were able to look at everything at our leisure. It was just about perfect! Then we went over to this cool part of town off the East Market stop for dinner. We were looking for this Asian Fusion restaurant, but passed this Thai place on the way and decided to stop there instead. It was NOT a mistake! Dinner was delicious!!!! Then we went back to the hotel to recharge for the next day.

Russell had contacted the office of our local Senator, Ben Nelson, for a personal tour of the Capitol on Friday. We show up and his staff started chatting with us. One guy asked what we were planning on seeing and mentioned the National Archives (pronouncing the “ch”), so that was our running joke for a while. We met the girl who was going to give us our tour (and I can’t, for the life of me, remember her name!). She took us down on the elevator and then we walked through some hallway, which was underground to a small tram (that I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of, but I thought for sure we would take it back). Anyway, that was pretty cool because most people don’t get to see the secret underground tram thingy! :-) She pretty much took us on the standard capitol tour, but she was very patient when we wanted to take our crazy pictures. We did get to see the Brumidi Corridors, is on the first floor of the Senate side of the Capitol building, which are murals painted to reflect great moments and people in United States history. The painting started in 1856 and includes depictions of Benjamin Franklin, John Fitch, Robert Fulton, and events such as the Cession of Louisiana. And apparently he’s psychic because also included is the Spirit of St. Louis, the Moon landing, and the Challenger shuttle crew. :-) After our personal tour, we headed back to the hotel…for surprise #2. Much to my surprise, Russell walked past our hotel room and knocked on the room next door, which was answered by my dear friend Danielle!! Danielle and her family (David, Briauna, and Ella) live in Maryland and came up to DC to see me for my birthday!! On Ella’s 2^nd birthday, might I add. The last time we saw them was our crazy trip to Maryland 4 years ago!!

Once we got assembled, we decided to head over to the Natural History museum. The running joke was that we were looking for the Unnatural History museum or the Super Natural History museum. We continued our series of crazy pictures (I’m going to make a separate blog post with just pictures because that will be easier). Afterwards, we were going to figure out dinner, but first we had to wait for Russell’s pre-dinner snack of a hotdog and chips. Good grief! We decided to go to the Asian Fusion restaurant, for real this time. It was delicious!! It was happy hour, so the adult all had a drink – hey, none of use had to drive!! Danielle had them bring dessert and serenade Ella ("Ellen") and I for our birthdays! David went down the street, to the liquor store to buy a bottle of wine and some Captain Morgan. Which lead to some crazy shenanigans back at the hotel involving a birthday grope, Danielle jumping from bed to bed and ringing in my birthday in Eastern AND central time zones! It was a good night! :-)

Saturday was my actual birthday. It started off slow. We had breakfast and then headed over to the Metro station and waited as Danielle and Russell coordinated my 3^rd (and 4^th) birthday surprise(s). Once everything was synchronized, my fabulous, beautiful friend, Harper, and her son Liam came all the way from New Jersey to DC to see me!! So, we braved the rain to go to the American History museum. And there we met my wonderful, adorable friend Sarah. Thanks to the internet, I’ve been friends with Sarah for years, but I’ve never had the opportunity to meet her until now!! Sarah’s brother lives in DC and she was visiting him, but she made time for me on my birthday!

We were pretty much limited to the museum due to the rain…and so was everyone else. It was packed! I did a chance to chat with my friends while browsing what I coined “the junk drawer of the Smithsonian museums” (you know, all of the stuff that they don’t know what to do with :-) ). Anyway, we took some more funny pictures. Harper and Liam had to leave around 3 because she had a drive ahead of her with a little one (which ended up being waaaaaaaaaay longer than the drive up). Thanks again Harper for making the drive, it was a WONDERFUL surprise!! Then we decided that it was time for dinner. Russell and David suggested Chipolte (which breaks my traveling rule, but that’s okay for one meal out of 10+!!). After dinner, it was Sarah’s turn to leave. Sarah, Thank you for taking time from your visit with your brother to hang out with us. I’m so glad I got to finally meet you in person!! Then we headed back to the hotel and it was time for Danielle and family to leave. :-( *S* family, thank you sooooooooooooooo much for coming out to visit me. And Bri, thanks for taking a day off of school to make the trip. We made lots of memories, to last us until we are able arrange another meeting! ;-)

Then after my whirlwind of surprises, it was just Russell and I again. It was kind of weird for it to be just the two of us after being surrounded by so many!! It was still kind of drizzling, but the rain had let up quite a bit. We agreed that we still wanted to see the White House, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, etc. and there was really no better time to do it than this night. So, we made the trek, in the intermittent rain, under the big umbrella that we had purchased earlier that day. This was one of my favorite moments of the entire trip. From what I remember, we saw the White House, the WWII Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the FDR Memorial, and the Jefferson Memorial. Believe me, that was quite the walk!! But, it was nice to be snuggled up under the umbrella with Russell. The only disappointing thing was that the reflecting pool was drained for repairs. But, other than it was a pretty perfect evening!

Our last touristy day, we visited the Holocaust museum and Arlington. You know, the really uplifting stuff. :-) I had been to the Holocaust museum before, but Russell never had been. They had a crazy long wait, but fortunately they offer an open-ended ticket for military, State, and Government workers (something like that, anyway). And we were VERY lucky that Russell had his military ID on him!! Score! :-) It was strange because the only thing I remembered from my trip in 8^th grade was the room with the shoes and the reflecting room at the end. It’s amazing to me how differently you experience things with a little more maturity and then add parenthood to the mix. It was very moving (and disturbing). After lunch, we set out to find a vegan bakery for a DELICIOUS birthday cupcake. On our way, we discovered the Museum of Unnatural history. It was a funny little gift shop that sold things such as “unicorn tears” in order to fund a completely free, drop-in tutoring program called 826DC. Check it out, it’s pretty cool. Of course, we took a picture to send to the *S* family as this was our running joke at the Museum of Natural history. After that, we were on our way to Arlington. Amazingly enough, we made it to the Tomb of the Unknown Solider just in time for the changing of the guard. It was incredible to watch! Then we made our way over to JFK’s gravesite. After that, we walked over to the Marine Corps Memorial. And then our trip for all intents and purposes was over. I was sad to see it come to an end, but I COULD NOT wait to see my kids!!

Aside from nearly dying in the shuttle on the way to the airport the next morning, our trip was pretty uneventful. It seemed to take forever, but eventually we were back in Omaha, getting picked up by Kellie. I was sooooooooooo anxious to see the kids. We got home, ditched our stuff and quickly went over to Nana Sandy’s house to pick them up. They both had just woken up from their naps. We walked in and Russell quickly grabbed Delilah from Nana. At first she didn’t know how to react. I think she even reached back out for her Nana, but once she realized who we were she broke out in a huge smile and hugged us. Jameson came down the stairs and started yelling to us once he saw us. It felt so good to be a whole family again.

I couldn’t have picked a better birthday present. I had such a wonderful time!! A GIGANTIC thank you to everyone who helped Russell pull this off and those who made it extra special. Thanks to Papa Terry, Mama O, Nana Sandy, and Papa Bruce for watching the kids. Thanks to Staci for feeding the cats. Thanks to Ashley for my awesome cake. Thanks to Danielle, David, Briauna, Ella, Harper, Liam and Sarah for visiting me. Thanks to my Mom, Ione, and Sandy for helping out with the party. Thanks to Kellie for picking us up from the airport. Thanks to Ms. Minnie and Ms. Crystal for working with Russell and letting me out of work. And thanks to everyone who attended my party and sent me messages for my birthday! I appreciate each and every one of you. (I apologize if I forgot anyone, remember I wasn’t around for the behind the scenes stuff).

Oh wait, last but certainly not least, thanks to my AMAZING husband for out doing yourself and making this birthday extra special for me. Love you!

The Seven Year Itch?

The seven year itch refers to the inclination to become unfaithful after seven years of marriage. It has been a running joke in our household the last few months as we approached today, our anniversary, it has been 7 years since I married the love of my life.

So, as we have now hit that anticipated 7 year mark, am I worried about the 7 year itch?

Nope.

Of all the things that I struggle with in life, my marriage has never been one of those things. Are things absolutely perfect 100% of the time? Not a chance. But, when people talk about how hard a couple has to work to make a marriage work. I smile and nod as if I know exactly what they are talking about, in reality, I don't have a clue. I don't know, things are just easy for us, I guess. Believe me, I recognize how absolutely blessed I am...on most days, anyway. :-)

2004

2011

More changes around the *B* household!

This weekend Russell switched to the overnight shift. It should be feasible since I work part-time. He can sleep until lunch time, when I need to get ready for work. This way, we are not dependent on everyone to watch our kids and we're not driving them all over Omaha. Also, Jameson will have consistency so that we can work on potty-training soon. Russell is excited because he can watch football. So, overall we felt that it was in the best interest of everyone. Plus, we may actually get someone to watch the kids so we could have a date night once in a while!! :-)

So far, he's worked 3 nights. The first night went smoothly and the morning was pretty easy. But, Monday night was a little more difficult. Jameson was dead set on not sleeping in his bed. He laid in bed crying "Mom's bed" forever and he came downstairs a couple of times. I was so worried that he was going to wake Delilah up! I think he finally fell asleep around 10 or 11. Then he woke up around 2 am crying!! This really won't be that big of an issue, but I had to teach a class in the morning.

Last night was somewhere in the middle. He didn't want to go to bed (last night, he thought he was going to sleep on the couch!). But once I got him upstairs, he stayed in bed all night and didn't wake up until 7:30. For the record, on all three nights, D was the perfect sleeper that she usually is. :-)

This weekend we finally took the leap and got rid of cable. We've been talking about it forever, but postponed it for one reason or another. We decided to do it because the only thing we really watch that can't be watched online were the shows on HBO. And currently the shows we watch on HBO are on hiatus until summer 2011. It really doesn't make sense to pay $70-80 a month for "free" HBO. So, cable got the boot and we signed up for Netflix instead. We will evaluate getting cable back when our shows start up again. Or, maybe we'll just crash a friend's house that has cable (Hi Kellie!!).

This weekend the kids had the opportunity to see two sets of grandparents. Papa Terry and Grandma Onie ("Mama O") stopped over for a visit. Jameson had to show them just about every single toy of his. He also would run over to the door and point out Mama O's car. Delilah showed off her crawling skills. She also showed us that she could duck her head so she could crawl under the coffee table!

On Sunday, we all went over to Papa Bruce and Nana Sandy's ("Nanny") house. We visited for a while and then we ate dinner. The kids are growing up. Jameson sat in a booster seat so that Delilah can now sit in the highchair - which is the highchair Russell used when he was a baby. Jameson had to show Daddy where he now naps when he's over there (in Uncle Ben's room - which was Russell's bed before that). Delilah was again showing off her crawling skills. In fact, she tried to crawl OVER Nana Sandy!!

To round out visits with the local grandparents, Graham Cracker came over Wednesday night to watch the kids. But, she didn't actually SEE the kids. Russell's crew went out after work on Wednesday because that was the last day they were all working. I wanted to go as well, so my Mom came over and "watched the kids" so that I could go. The kids were already in bed and, thankfully, stayed there for her until we got home!

Oops, this got long! I'll try to be better about updating more frequently!

Pretty quiet over here...

So, we had a wild weekend, but otherwise it's been pretty quiet. Russell took Sunday and Monday off for the circle party and then Tuesday and Wednesday were his normal days off, so he had a nice little break. Unfortunately, we all started feeling pretty yucky on Monday night. I'm hoping it's just allergies. Sneezing, coughing, stuffy heads, etc. It seemed to hit Russell and Delilah the worst. I was worried that D's ear infection was coming back, but she looked a lot better today - no gunk coming out of her eyes. So, I think we're on the road to recovery, but the earlier part of this week was spent sleeping! :-)

Weekend Recap

Geez, it's been a week already (again!). And THIS time it's because I have been super busy!



Let's start with Delilah. I receive emails weekly with a "your baby this week" -type updates. On Thursday, I got one that said "is your baby sitting up?" So, I wondered CAN my baby sit up? I had tried a week or so ago and she toppled over. She's been able to sit propped up for a little while now. But I decided to try to sit her up and guess what...

We have a sitter!!! She's still pretty wobbly, but she is loving this new perspective of life! Oh and notice her little faux-hawk she's sporting. I did that last Sunday after her bath and it stayed until her next bath. So, I did it after the next bath too and the one after that... :-) Basically this has been her new 'do this week!

I did REALLY well with weight watchers this week. It helps that I get a ton of points because I'm nursing. But, I have to cut back when we start D on solids in a few weeks (What?!?!). So anyway, I'm down 3 lbs!!! Woohoo!!

Jameson has been a mess the last few days. He may look an awful lot like his Daddy, but it seems that he inherited my allergies. Lucky boy! He has been a sneezing, coughing, mucusy mess! I think not feeling well plus the excitement last night threw him off today. On top of all that he refused to nap today. It seemed like everything I did was followed by banshee-like screaming from Jameson. But after about 20 minutes of me standing outside his door and ushering him back to bed, he's asleep. I can only hope that tomorrow will be a new day.

The major excitement in the *B* household is Russell's birthday. Today he turns the big 3-0! He was mad that he had to work this weekend. Too many people already had the weekend off, so he wasn't able to get it off. So, I planned a surprise party of him. I had everyone come over and they surprised him after work. It was a huge success! He was totally surprised! :-) I am very tired today, but it was definitely worth it!

A special thanks goes out to Russell's sister, Becca. She came over for most of the day to help me get ready. There's NO way I could have pulled it off without her!

Tummy Bug?

There may or may not be a tummy bug going around our house! Jameson has woken up the last two mornings crying and pointing into his mouth. This morning I gave him some water thinking maybe his throat hurt. Russell took him downstairs to start breakfast and by the time I made it downstairs, Russell was cleaning off Jameson's booster seat. He said he threw up all of the water I gave him. Jameson didn't really eat much breakfast, he got really whiny, and wanted me to hold him. He then threw up all over me. Ah, the power of a mother's love! :-)

At this point I made J a Dr's appointment and decided to call in to work. Then I took a shower. While I was in the shower, Jameson laid down and fell asleep on the couch. And of course he woke up feeling fine. I still took him to the Dr because I wanted them to check his throat, since he woke up crying. So, of course, today was the first day of Dr. Zimmerman's maternity leave. There was only one Dr. seeing patients and I originally thought it was the one I don't like but, thankfully, I was wrong!

The Dr, of course, could not find anything wrong with J. *I* think (you know, Dr. Mom) he had some drainage and his tummy is sensitive to it. He had a similar, but worse, episode while Russell was in Texas. The Dr said that could be it and recommended that I continue to give him allergy medicine.

I get home and a while later Delilah spit up all down my shirt. I was not having a good day. Later that evening, Russell - who also called in - and I were watching a movie. We were complaining about our upset tummys (mine hurt because I ate too much). All of a sudden, Russell jumps up and runs into the bathroom to throw up. Soooooo, I think there was a tummy bug going around our house! Fortunately, I felt fine and everyone seems to be doing better.