Bohemi-Anna

30

2011-04-19T08:53:00.002-05:00

30 things I have done in the last 30 years...

Gotten married
Had 2 children
Birthed one of those children at home
Loved many animals & adopted 2 cats and 2 dogs
Traveled in 7 countries on 3 continents
Visited 19 states
Been pierced & tattooed
Danced on a bar (totally sober)
Climbed a pyramid (Mexico)
Learned enough Spanish to have a reasonable conversation
Stood at the top and base of a waterfall (Argentina)
Witnessed human and animal births
Managed a business
Earned a bachelor's degree
Been in a major car accident
Sang on stage in front of hundreds of people
Learned to belly dance
Sold a piece of art I made (and a few crafts too)
Dyed chunks of my hair purple, pink, turquoise, red, and orange (not all at the same time)
Learned to play the clarinet, the violin, and the accordion (though the only one I currently play is the accordion)
Learned to figure skate well enough to do a couple small jumps and spins
Gone skinny-dipping
Learned to sew, crochet, & embroider
Killed every single houseplant I've ever had
Worn wings & a tiara in public as an adult
Slept under the stars
Slept in my car overnight
Lived in poverty
Bought two houses
Learned to love myself (though some days more than others)

30 things I want to do in the next 30 years...

Help my daughters grow into confident, well-adjusted women
Become a grandma (as long as my daughters are willing)
Visit the rest of the 50 states
Visit all 7 continents
Travel in India
Go to the opera
Dive off a cliff (preferably into water ;) )
Learn to play roller derby
Earn a master's degree or higher
See the pyramids in Giza
Try surfing with a board
Paint the outside of my vehicle
Learn to keep plants alive
Learn to swing dance
Go to the Grand Canyon
Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower
Watch the sun set over the ocean
Swim with dolphins
Take a coast-to-coast road trip
Get extensive tattoos on my torso and legs
Renew my wedding vows to Jake
Make a tangible difference in my community
Live in a house that doesn't have a home improvement to-do list more than 5 items long
Pet a sea turtle
Go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans
Learn to meditate with a quiet mind
Wear a formal sari
Go on a cruise
Maintain and improve my Spanish skills (fluency is my ultimate goal)
Live a life balanced between striving for new goals and being content with where I am

30 days to 30 - My 30th year

2011-04-18T19:59:00.004-05:00

AKA this past year...

In this year I finally finished college and graduated & I even made the Dean's List in my final semester! I worked incredibly hard and I'm very proud of myself for not only doing it, but doing it well. I definitely earned that diploma!

There was no time to loll about and enjoy my academic success though since I graduated on a Sunday and started working full-time the next day. May through October are very busy days at the Humane Society since the weather is much nicer than the other half of the year and we plan a lot of events and fundraisers to take advantage of that. As a result I spent most of my summer working... except for 2 weeks of fun.

In June, Jake and I took a lovely trip to Spain where our friends Sara and Ari were living. For 2 weeks we alternated between exploring Barcelona with our friends and setting out on a few of our own adventures to Girona, the small country of Andorra, Madrid, Sevilla, and Granada. We had a fabulous time!

In the fall, Vivian started Kindergarten which hit me much harder than it had when Cecelia started. This time around I know how much time full-time school takes and how little I get to see my babies. Of course I'm working while they're in school so it's not like I'm home pining away for them, but still... it's hard. Kindergarten makes Vivi seem so grown up and it's bittersweet that my baby isn't a baby any more.

It's been a challenging year and I have to admit that I'm still floundering a bit when it comes to balancing work, family, and other interests. I've had my share of stumbles as a full-time Director of the Humane Society too and there has been more error in my trial and error than I'd like. All in all though, I'm happy with where things are headed.

About 6 weeks ago, we adopted another dog named Pixie who is a Boxer/Pit Bull mix. She's 4.5 months old and is a total sweetheart. I swore I never wanted to get a puppy... then I met Pixie. The universe has a way of challenging the things we get set in our heads like that. I guess that's maybe the biggest life lesson I've learned in the last 30 years...

30 days to 30 - My 29th year

2011-04-17T18:30:00.004-05:00

In my 29th year I continued going to school and working part-time as an interim director of the Humane Society. And of course, I still had my kiddos keeping me busy.

I had completed 2 semesters of Spanish in my 6 weeks in Mexico but still had to complete 2 more in order to graduate so I planned to go Mexico again for just 1 3-week semester then attempt to test out of the 4th level. Unfortunately, the swine flu hit and the U of M cancelled all study abroad to Mexico so I went to Buenos Aires, Argentina instead. (Ironically, the swine flu hit there even harder than it had in Mexico, especially since I was there in the Southern Hemisphere's winter.) I had never really had a desire to visit Argentina, or to go to a place where it was winter during a balmy Minnesota summer, but it was a good experience. I deepened my knowledge of Spanish, explored an interesting city with an interesting history, and then traveled in the area with Jake who came down for a week after my semester ended. We spent a day in Colonia, Uruguay - a beautiful little city, and took a LONG bus ride north to Iguazu Falls - the largest waterfall in the world by volume of water (only Victoria Falls tops it in height.) Iguazu was totally worth the disrupting change in study abroad plans, the threats of La Gripe (the flu), the insanely long bus ride and everything. It is simply the most amazing natural thing I have ever seen in my life. We spent 2 days wandering around the falls and were greeted with one breathtaking view after another.

Later, I took and passed my Spanish proficiency exam which meant there were no more major hurdles standing in my way of graduation - other than 2 more semesters of classes in my major (Religious Studies) and minor (Anthropology.)

That fall I officially applied for the position of permanent Executive Director of the Humane Society and was hired in November - though I remained part-time until after I graduated college. I was excited to get to continue what I'd started there, develop the shelter's operations, and develop my non-profit management skills as well. It's not a lucrative job but the perks (super cute animals, the satisfaction of doing a good thing, job flexibility, and huge potential for growth) make up for it.

Speaking of perks, in December of that year I got first dibs on adopting Ruby, an adorable little Yorkie that was surrendered by her previous owner. From the day I met her, I just knew she was meant to be my dog and she's been my little side-kick ever since.

I began my final, and most challenging, semester of school while juggling work and family and hanging onto my sanity by a thin thread...

30 days to 30 - My 28th year

2011-04-17T18:14:00.004-05:00

The most momentous event of my 28th year was getting my passport and using it for the first time on a 6 week trip to Mexico. It meant leaving Cecelia, Vivian, and Jake behind since I went by myself. It was a trip full of firsts including my first time embarking on major travel by myself. I met Katherine, who would be my roommate in Mexico, in the Dallas airport shortly before boarding our plane to Mexico City. Luckily we became friends quickly and did a lot of exploring Mexico together.

Studying in Mexico was difficult since I had VERY rusty Spanish skills and missed my family, but it was also wonderful! I learned a lot of Spanish by being completely immersed in it and having to use it constantly and I got to explore many amazing places in Central Mexico like Tepotzlan, Teotihuacan, Taxco, Mexico City, and Cuernavaca - the city I called home for 6 weeks. Katherine and I stayed in the home of Consuelo, a sweet lady who made us feel welcome and loved.

In my 27th year I had started volunteering with the Humane Society and joined the Board of Directors but I became much more active in my 28th year, especially after the Director at the time resigned. After another board member served as interim director for almost 2 months he resigned and I stepped into the role with help from a fellow board member and friend, Linda. It was a lot to juggle while also going to school and caring for two young kids, but I enjoyed the challenge and the feeling of making a difference.

30 days to 30 - My 27th year

2011-04-16T22:45:00.004-05:00

Shortly into my 27th year, after finishing my last final of Spring semester, I walked through the main part of the campus between Coffman Union and Northrup Auditorium where a group of graduates were gathered in their caps and gowns and I started to cry. Graduating college seemed like an immense mountain that I had a burning desire to climb... but I knew it was going to be tough and it seemed so difficult and distant.

I took the summer off and enjoyed being a stay-at-home-mom again with the freedom to choose my own reading list and set my own schedule. By fall though, I was ready to dive back in. One of the requirements for my degree was 4 semesters (or the equivalent proficiency) in a foreign-language. I had taken 2 semesters of Italian 6 years prior but all I remembered was how to say hello and f-you. I actually remembered more of my high school Spanish so I decided to start over with Spanish. The trouble is that most language classes at the U meet every day Monday-through-Friday which would have been a nightmare for driving and childcare. I looked into all the different options and the one that gave me the best chance to learn Spanish, as well as the least cumulative time away from my kids and the lowest total cost (once transportation was factored in) was to go to Mexico the next summer. I spent my school year juggling student-life and parenthood and also planning for a study abroad trip to Mexico.

Meanwhile, Cecelia started Kindergarten and Vivian started daycare on the days I had class. Both were new and little bit scary for all of us, but we all not only survived but thrived. That which does not kill you makes you stronger, right?

When I look back on those years of being in school it is largely a blur that I can only piece together by looking at my transcript of when I took which classes, and thinking about which books I was reading during other life events - that's how I can piece together the rest of my life.

This year I had the honor of being there as another friend gave birth to her baby. The setting was different, the friend was different, & the setting was different - but it was still every bit as magical and wondrous.

30 days to 30 - My 26th year

2011-04-16T22:27:00.002-05:00

Somewhere in the midst of being in a new house with its myriad of home improvement projects, having a new baby & a toddler, and having a husband who was working long hours I got it in my head this year that I HAD to finish college. The decision hit me like a cartoon light bulb moment & there was no going back. I called the U of M and got myself readmitted and registered for classes which made me absolutely giddy.

Going back to school was tough since it meant driving an hour to the city and leaving my kids behind. It also meant that I was a 25-year-old in classes with 19-year-olds whose lives were vastly different from mine. There were a lot of times I felt old, out of touch, and insecure. All of that was shadowed by how excited I felt though... I loved (and still love) the feel of the campus in the early fall and late spring, the promise of knowledge to be gained from the stacks of books in the bookstore, and the excitement of picking interesting classes from the course catalog. Going back to school was incredibly challenging, but completely worth it.

30 days to 30 - My 25th year

2011-04-14T21:28:00.007-05:00

The major development in my 25th year happened on the 4th of July when I had my second baby at home (on purpose.)

After over a week of off-and-on labor, labor-inducing massage and acupuncture, and too many people around me, I was just DONE being pregnant. I'd wanted to avoid a holiday baby but little Vivi started challenging my preconceived plans right from the start, and when I went to bed still pregnant on July 3rd and I knew I was going to have a holiday baby. Sure enough, shortly after I woke up, some serious contractions started and 2.5 hours later, Vivi was born on the floor of my bedroom with Jake, Cecelia, my mom, my midwife Rachael, and an assisting midwife Tanya present. The home birth was an incredible experience. Just to be in my own comfortable space with people I loved and trusted made it so much easier than the hospital birth I'd had with Cecelia (even though it was a hard, fast labor) and it felt much more intimate and natural.

The rest of my year was spent learning to juggle 2 kids. Luckily, I had learned more about slinging (something I'd started with Cecelia when she was about 5 months old) and could wrap Vivi to my body so I could still get around and be with Cecelia.

That fall we took a road trip through Wisconsin to Chicago, stopping at slightly off-kilter attractions along the way like the taxidermy collection in the basement of Cress Funeral Home, and the Mustard Museum, carting the kids along for the journey.

Also that fall, Jake made the mistake of telling his 4-months postpartum wife that she looked "frumpy." The next day I chopped off my waist-length hair to chin level and dyed it bright red. To this day, my friend Shellee tells Jake he looks frumpy whenever she sees him.

We bought a new house in November and moved into it in December of that year (and we're still there.) It was extra hard to leave our old house that had not only been our first home but the place our child was born, but the new one had a lot more space, better potential, a nicer yard, and was in a better location. Moving in the winter was not fun, and neither was moving with a 6-month old, so there was a lot of bitter with the sweet but all in all it was a good choice.

I had the privilege this year of being present for the birth of a friend's baby. It was the first time I'd ever been at a birth where I wasn't the one being born or doing the pushing, and it was an experience that I can not put into words. It was amazing and awe inspiring.

30 days to 30 - My 24th year

2011-04-12T22:00:00.005-05:00

In my 24th year I started to really make my new town & new house HOME. To that end I...
- took Community Ed belly dance classes
- took a Tarot reading class and met my friend Dani
- joined a newly formed women's group & made more new friends
- took part in a community theatre in a production of Meet Me in St. Louis (in which Cecelia made her stage debut as an extra) as well as a play written about the history of the town
- started going to ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) which is a sort of organized play group
- joined La Leche League
- joined the library book club
- made good use of the stroller and walked around our town to do most of our shopping
- adopted our cat Cosmo from a Humane Society (I went in to get a small female black cat and came out with a large male buff tabby)
- took in a small female kitten from a man who could not keep her. Incidentally - the free kitten cost over $300 in the first year once she was fully vetted and spayed whereas Cosmo's $100 adoption fee was all we paid for him. Just a little something I like to share with people. :)
- got pregnant with Vivian

Jake got a good job which was a huge load off of us and I later quit working from home. It was time since it was growing increasingly difficult to have serious conversations with Fire Marshals when a 2-year-old was babbling alongside me.

During this summer my mom, Cecelia, and I flew out to visit my sister in New York. It was Cecelia's first time in an airplane and my first time being vomited on by a child in an airplane. Other than that, the trip was great! My only regret is that Cecelia, being only 2 at the time, remembers none of it. It was her first & only (to-date) flight in an airplane, visit to the ocean, time with her (sort-of) aunt, uncle, & cousins, and trip to Manhattan. I guess that just means we'll have to go back. :)

30 days to 30 - My 23rd year

2011-04-11T22:37:00.003-05:00

In my 23rd year I bought my first house which also meant decorating my first house. :)

Jake and I were ready to not live in a tiny 1-bedroom apartment with a baby anymore, but he had a pretty modest income and I was back working VERY part-time for the security company so our house-budget was pretty small. In Minneapolis we could afford a place in the worst neighborhood with boarded over windows and doors. (This is NOT an exaggeration.) So we expanded our horizons...

We had taken a vacation to camp in a small town an hour from the city while I was 7 months pregnant with Cecelia. If that sounds a little dicey to you, add in ridiculously high temps and high humidity as well. To escape the rainforest feel of our campsite, we made many trips into the town to soak up the air conditioning and started to fall in love with the town. When we then started to look for a place to live outside of the city we checked the small town and there we found several options. We put in our offer, I got a work-at-home arrangement from the security company, Jake lined up his commute back to the city and off we went!

Our first house had 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room, and an eat-in kitchen so it wasn't a huge jump in space but it also had 2 porches, a yard, and a basement. It was perfect! Cecelia had started walking at 9 months but really started to make use of her legs when we moved into our house 2 months later. For the first week she would run from room to room to room giggling.

One of the funnest things about getting our house was picking out PAINT. Jake had grown up in a house with mostly pastel walls, and mine had always been stark white, and we hadn't painted our apartment either. Our first stop after closing on the house was to the hardware store where we picked up orange, turquoise, and lime green paint. We did a lot of work on the house: painting the walls, ripping up the carpet and refinishing the wood floors, ripping out hedges, putting in a fence, building in shelves & seating, and less noticeable things like replacing appliances.

Also this year:
I painted my first acrylic painting.
Cecelia turned 1 in our new house.
I got my nose pierced.
We went to Chicago to visit my brother-in-law for the first time.
Jake got a local job that was only temporary & was then unemployed for over 5 months.

30 days to 30 - My 22nd year

2011-04-10T20:53:00.003-05:00

Most Americans ring in their 22nd year by getting shit-faced drunk. Mine fell on a Friday and would have been perfect for a 3 day bender... if I hadn't been 5 months pregnant. So instead, I celebrated by having an ultrasound and getting to see a ghosty version of my baby girl for the very first time. We found out that her heart and spine looked good and she was measuring correctly and so on, but to be honest, I was just there to find out that she was a she.

Of course the biggest event of this year, and of my life up until that point, was giving birth to Cecelia on August 27th. I had an erratic labor for about 22 hours, 9 of which were spent in the hospital. Looking back there are a lot of things I would have done differently for the labor and birth (like have her at home instead!) but I am still proud of the way I listened to my body and birthed Cecelia without any medical intervention. It was a grueling, but amazing experience.

And then there was a baby! My baby! My holy-crap-are-they-really-going-to-let-me-leave-with-this-tiny-human-life baby. Up until then I'd had plenty of experience with toddlers and kids from baby sitting, but I was never a fan of newborns. I didn't know what to do with the floppy head, the soft spots in the skull, the helpless little body that couldn't do much of anything. They scared the crap out of me! But none of that anxiety was there with my own baby. She was mine.

I worked for the security company pretty much right up until Cecelia was born (worked Friday, went into labor before work Monday morning) and then became a stay-at-home-mom. Being a new mom was tough at times since Cecelia liked to be held (and nursed) pretty much every moment of the day, we developed thrush (a yeast infection common for nursing moms & babies), and I was rather isolated in my tiny apartment with no other mom-friends nearby. But mostly it was awesome. I loved spending my days with my baby!

The rest of my year was spent getting used to being a mom and getting to know my awesome squishy little chunk named Cecelia Avonne.

30 days to 30 - My 21st year

2011-04-09T22:58:00.003-05:00

During this year...

I took responsibility for my shopping addiction (spending 40+ hours in a mall every week was not a good situation for me,) cut up ALL of my credit cards, and started the process of paying off my debt. I have never had a credit card since then.

I left my job at Express to become an Administrative Assistant for a security company and loved having a desk job.

Jake and I moved into the first place that was truly both of ours - a tiny1-bedroom apartment in Northeast Minneapolis. It was about 500 square feet with literally 1.5 square feet of counter space, but it was home.

I got married to Jake on June 23rd, in a laid-back outdoor ceremony at a park I loved. It was a beautiful evening spent with good friends and family - a wonderful way to start our lives together. We couldn't afford a honeymoon (and I didn't have vacation time accrued at work yet) and I regret that we didn't have that time set aside for us because we certainly had the honeymoon feeling and it was an idyllic time in our relationship.

I had my one crazy bout of alcohol-induced wildness culminating in my passing out in a public bathroom. That was enough for me to learn my lesson about setting healthy limits with drinking and I've never been that out of control since.

I got pregnant with Cecelia. I started having some suspicious symptoms around Christmas of that year and I started to wonder if I might be pregnant. We were up north for the holidays and went to the bigger town to watch a movie so I popped into Target, bought a test, and found out I was going to have a baby in the Target bathroom. It was a surprise, even though we hadn't really been preventing pregnancy, and it was a little scary since Jake had just finished school but didn't have a job, but still I was THRILLED.

The rest of my 20th year was spent preparing to become a mother.

30 days to 30 - My 20th year

2011-04-08T22:25:00.003-05:00

My 20th year started off with a bang...

On my golden birthday, Jake proposed to me by creating a treasure hunt through our apartment eventually leading to him. Later in the day I got my navel pierced (my first non-ear piercing) and went out to dinner with friends. It was a wonderful day!

A month later, I was not doing as well when I developed a UTI that spread into my kidneys, had an allergic reaction to the first antibiotic they gave me, took a second powerful antibiotic, then developed a serious intestinal infection from all of the antibiotics, was prescribed a drug in the ER that had no generic, broke down crying in the pharmacy when I found out it would cost me $400 I didn't have, and went to go BACK to the hospital to have my regular doctor prescribe me something equally effective that I could afford - all in the span of about 2 weeks at the end of my 2nd semester of college. For 3 weeks the only times I left my house were to go to the hospital or pharmacy, and then to take my finals. I never even did the term paper for my history class (though I still managed to pass the course... barely.)

That summer I decided to switch from my planned majors of journalism & political science to graphic design only to learn that there was a 2 year waiting period at the U of M. So I decided to go to an art school instead. The problem was that the financial aid wasn't as straight-forward there and I would need to pay for a lot of the initial costs out of pocket. On a Friday I had a $400 payment due on Monday that I would have no way to pay. That night when I was working at Express my manager said I was good at what I did there and asked why I wasn't full time. We discussed increases in my wage & hours and I told her I would think about it but there wasn't much to think about. Find a way to shell out $400 that I didn't have or start a real job and MAKE money? And that is how I came to drop out of college to be a retail manager-in-training. That big decision - to drop out of school & to choose my own path for my life - was another watershed moment for me in becoming who I am. When I was juggling being a student AND a mom at the same time I sometimes looked back and kicked myself for the decision I made at the age of 19, but in reality it was a good decision for me at the time. I learned a lot outside of school and was much better prepared to go back when I did - even though life had become MUCH more complicated by then.

I also got my first tattoo this year to represent the year itself - a dragon across my left hip and lower back in the year of the dragon.

30 days to 30 - My 19th year

2011-04-07T23:40:00.002-05:00

In my 19th year I graduated High School and spent one last summer in my tiny town. In August, I packed up my things and moved to Minneapolis to go to the University of Minnesota. Jake also moved to Minneapolis to attend what is now McNally Smith College of Music which worked out well since we'd both had enough of being in two separate towns.

I would have lived in the dorms - in fact I wanted to - but I failed to get my housing deposit in on time so I was put on a very long waiting list. So I moved from my tiny house in the middle of the woods to the city and also had to find a place to live. I ended up in a tiny room (seriously the size of a walk-in closet) in a crowded rooming house with 13 other girls and 2 bathrooms. It was not exactly how I'd imagined my college experience.

Meanwhile, Jake was renting the large lower-level of a duplex owned by his aunt and uncle. Soon, my closet-sized room became primarily just that - a closet - and a place to catch a nap or do some quiet reading between classes, and I moved in with Jake.

Living with Jake was both wonderful and aggravating. Being a weird only child, I hadn't ever really had to share my personal space the way I suddenly did living with him. Our first few years of living together were a bit volatile as we dealt with being together not just for a few hours at a time but day in and day out, as well as our shared poverty, our respective studies, and life in the city. There were a lot of adjustments being made and life lessons being learned so it was quite the roller coaster. Lots of wonderful hills... but a fair amount of low valleys as well.

Jake's big blue car played a role in this year of my life as well since going off for a drive in it was my favorite way to storm off after an argument with Jake. I would drive around the city, get terribly lost, and then find my way back. In fact, I can credit a great deal of knowledge of Minneapolis streets to the difficulty of becoming roommates with my boyfriend.

My first year of college was tumultuous as well since it was a big change from my small town high school. I LOVED so much of it... the towering rows of books in the bookstore, the pages and pages of course options, the large sprawling campus, the hoards of people... More specifically, I took Italian - a language I love, studied "Baby Got Back" in a Cultural Studies course, and learned about the intricate politics of places I'd never really thought of before.

I started working at the clothing store, Express, in January which would both help and hinder my finances. A big discount on fun clothes for a girl who could count teenage visits to a mall on both hands is a dangerous combination.

30 days to 30 - My 18th year

2011-04-06T23:47:00.002-05:00

Shortly before my 17th birthday I went to Hawaii, as I mentioned, but I forgot to mention that when I got back I competed in the State Speech competition on the day before my birthday with a speech I'd written about Vincent van Gogh. I was jet-lagged and emotionally drained for the competition, but it was still a great honor to be part of it.

Then Jake and I went to Canada on my birthday since it was pretty ridiculous that I'd grown up 90 minutes from it but had never crossed the border. We crossed the bridge, explained to the skeptical but ultimately trusting customs officers what we were doing and assuring them that our parents were fine with it, went to the grocery store, bought Clearly Canadian soda, (something I bought all the time in Minnesota but hey it said Canadian on the bottle), and drove home. We spent the rest of the day lounging in Jake's baby blue Mercury Grand Marquis with blue velvety seats and even my mom came to sit in the car. Jake's car inspired a great plan for the three of us to take a road trip to New York to visit my sister that summer.

I spent the summer of my 18th year working as a nanny for two incredibly sweet kids on weekdays, doing the Pizza Palace thing a few evenings, and hanging out with Jake pretty much every other waking moment. And then we took the road trip of all road trips. However, we did NOT go in a big comfy Mercury Grand Marquis with velvet seats, but a tiny Geo Metro with no air conditioning or even a radio. The trip is worth a post all its own but the short and sweet is that we made it from northern Minnesota to Long Island in 2.5 days with stops in Ottawa & Niagara Falls on the way, and back in 2 days. On our trip I fell asleep driving for the one and only time in my life... in the Adirondacks (obviously I'm writing this so I woke up in time,) and my mom bought a giant wreath made out of sticks that poked her in the head all the way home from Michigan.

In the fall, Jake went off to college in a town about 2 hours away, and I began my senior year of high school. I honestly don't remember much about school that year since I was busy working on the yearbook as an editor along with my friends Angie and Sarah, and being involved in pretty much every extra-curricular activity possible. I think I was probably out of class more than I was in it! Even in class, we did a lot of playing the senior card and doing things like watching Blue's Clues instead of doing our Advanced Biology work. I had a lot of cool experiences that year though, including a week long trip to Washington, D.C. & taking part in a touring theater company.

30 days to 30 - My 17th year

2011-04-05T21:01:00.000-05:00

My 17th year was the one in which I got my driver's license, was in a pretty bad car accident and totaled a car, ended a bad relationship, and started dating the guy that's now my husband. It was kind of a big year for me.

It was also the year I first flew on a major airplane, to Hawaii no less, and the year I got my first job that didn't involve taking care of kids (waitress & cook at the Pizza Palace).

When I look back, it was during the summer and fall of this year that I took a big giant step towards the person that I am today. I had some deep moments of realization & self-awareness that I'd never really had before. My relationship with Jake helped that all along as well since he became the best friend I've ever had. Granted, our relationship in high school had some teen drama, as one would expect, but right from the beginning we developed a healthy relationship based on honesty and trust and we've both helped each other grow a lot over the years.

30 days to 30 - My 15th & 16th years

2011-04-04T23:03:00.002-05:00

It was actually during my 13th year that I got to know Jake a bit, but we really became friends during my 15th year. I had a boyfriend for a few months during the winter of that year, but during the spring, Jake and I became friends and both of us developed little crushes on the other.

In the fall of my 16th year, a new guy to town asked me to go to one of the dances with him. I asked Jake his opinion of the guy and Jake said, "Well, I think he's kind of an ass, but if that's what you want to do, whatever." It wasn't exactly the reaction I'd been hoping for - I was imagining more of a "No! He's all wrong for you - go with me instead!" - but I shrugged it off and went out with the new guy for the next 9 months into my 17th year. It was not one of the best choices I've made in my life.

In the summer of my 15th year I learned how to do a handstand under water by practicing with my friend (and now my sister-in-law) Beth for hours in the lake at her house. The water came up to my armpits and I ended up lobster red everywhere from the armpits up. I also perfected my intentional belly flop at her house which earned me long pressure bruises along my arms and legs. I was oh-so-kind to myself that summer but those are skills I am still proud to possess today!

One aspect I totally forgot to mention in my 13th & 14th year was that during that time I started going to Deeper Life Bible Camp. By my 15th and 16th years there I had developed deep friendships there and it seemed that I spent 51 weeks out of the year looking forward to that 1 of camp. I think it was when I was 15 that became a camp staffer as well, along with some of my friends, so I got to spend extra time there and even filled in as a counselor. I LOVED that camp - the songs, the cheesy crafts, the rustic cabins, the small bathroom with its ice cold showers, the dining hall food, the snacks from the canteen, paddle boating & swimming, beach volleyball, the mud-fest that developed during a particularly raining year, the campfire... ALL of it. Since it was/is a Christian camp, and I'm not exactly Christian anymore (meaning: I still believe in much of Christianity but not all of it so I don't feel right to call myself a Christian,) I've lost touch with many of my friends from camp and it just no longer feels like "home" like it once did. I do miss it though, and cherish the memories I have of it.

30 days to 30 - My 13th & 14th years

2011-04-02T08:55:00.006-05:00

My 13th year was when I started 7th grade. Enough said, right?

One of the nice things about 7th grade was becoming friends with Sarah - a girl I'd known but hadn't really hung out with much in elementary school. Another was my awesome music/band/choir teacher, Mrs. Furlong, who helped gave my confidence a boost when it came to singing. The not so nice things were primarily the things I think most girls experience at this age: puberty, insecurity, and other girls who were also going through puberty & insecurities.

---

In the early part of my 14th year, my dad, who had spent long periods living away from us during work and hunting trips, went public with his girlfriend and actually moved out of our house. It was a tumultuous time that extended over many other years of my life since my parents are *still* not divorced even though they haven't lived together in 16 years.

During my 14th year my dog had her 3rd (and last) litter of puppies. One of the puppies in particular quickly became my little buddy and would always crawl up into my lap when I sat crossed-legged on the ground. Because he was my side-kick, no one who came to look at the puppies paid much attention to him so he was the last one left long after the others had found homes. My dad finally decided I could keep him and gave him the name "Mike" after one of our previous dogs. I was thrilled! He became my baby, slept in my bed, and still sat in my lap whenever he had the chance... something that became a bit awkward when he weighed 80 pounds.

Unfortunately, Mike developed the very bad habit of going for runs WITHOUT me. Since we had 40+ acres of land we didn't have a fence and our other dogs were allowed to roam in our yard and into the woods a bit. Mike liked to go much TOO far though and the habit wasn't broken by having him neutered. One Friday night in March my grandpa came to pick me up from a basketball game instead of my mom. This was odd but I didn't think too much of it. We went to his house and my parents met me at the door. As soon as I saw them I just knew what had happened. Even though my parents never would have brought my dog with them I asked, "Where's Mike?" My dad told me he'd been hit by a car and I didn't even have to ask... I knew he was dead. I collapsed on the floor and sobbed uncontrollably. We went back to my house and I sat with Mike's body outside in the cold, petting him and wiping the dirt out of his coat. I cried for days and days & I still think about him... my first sweet dog.

30 days to 30 - My 12th year

2011-03-31T21:46:00.003-05:00

For some reason it's hard for me to nail down a lot of memories distinct to this year... maybe the pre-teen hormones killed my memories the way they spoiled my attitude. I believe it was around this time that someone said to my mom, "Anna's a little melodramatic isn't she?" To which my mom replied, "No... there's nothing 'mellow' about it." Ahem.

I stayed at the super teeny-tiny school for 6th grade as well and continued to love it there. That year we took a 2 day trip to Duluth and took in the North Shore which was really nice.

The most memorable aspect of this year was a litter of 9 black lab puppies.

It was during the summer of this year that my family dog, a black lab named Kaycee, had her first litter of puppies. I was obsessed with the process and as Kaycee's due date got closer I obsessively checked her temperature and other vital signs to try to predict when the puppies would be born. Of course they came in their own time and Kaycee knew just what to do without my help. It was my first hands-on, up-close-and-personal experience with birth, instinct, and the beauty of letting nature work. Of her puppies 8 of them were cute and happy and healthy... and 1 was not. She was the runt of the litter who couldn't quite seem to latch on to nurse correctly, and even when she did she would fall asleep and be pushed aside by another puppy. After about a day of watching this, I started to bottle feed her. She died in my arms 3 days later in the early morning. And THAT was my first hands-on, up-close-and-personal experience with the moment of death. Seeing life there one instant... then... nothing.

Also through the experience of raising a litter of puppies I learned the pain and joy of letting them go. They were mine to love and hold (and clean up after) for 8 weeks and then, one by one, they left to go live with new people. Birth, death, impermanence... that litter of puppies had a profound impact on me.

30 days to 30 - My 11th year

2011-03-30T21:01:00.003-05:00

Fifth grade was an interesting year for me. My mom got a job teaching at a different elementary school about an hour from where we lived and was commuting back and forth. I visited the school and loved it so I decided to transfer to that school after the Christmas break. It was so nice to start fresh in a new place!

My new school was even tinier than the one I'd come from - it was so small that 1st & 2nd grade were combined, 3rd & 4th grade were combined, and 5th & 6th grade were combined. In my actual 5th grade class there were 3 other students - together with the 6th grade there were 17 of us. It was a complete departure from my previous school experience and I loved it.

My teacher for both 5th & 6th grade was Mrs. Kilpela who was amazing. For the first time I actually LIKED Math and with her I grew as a student and as a person. Of course there were challenges and I had disagreements in my new school, and I was still a fairly odd kid, but overall it was a wonderful experience. Even though the school was small, the parents were super-star fundraisers & with small classes, we could afford to do a lot of things we didn't have the opportunity to do in the larger school. When I was in 5th grade we took a (combined) class trip to the Twin Cities for 4 days visiting the State Capitol, the zoo, the old carousel, the science museum, & other places I know I'm forgetting.

Also this year, I found out that I had a half-sister who had been born when my mom was 17 and who had been given up for adoption. It was surreal! The hardest part was that I couldn't really tell my friends because in our small town - my parents thought that everyone suddenly finding out that my mom had another child would have sent the gossip machine into overdrive. We met my sister (who was then 20) for the first time a few months later. We spent a few days with her (she grew up in the Twin Cities but was living in Florida,) got to know her a bit, and met her parents and sister. As a 10 year old, I thought it was SO cool to suddenly have an older sister, especially since she was a flight attendant and got to travel all over the world (whereas I'd never been in an airplane at all.) We still keep in touch and are alike in many ways, despite being raised very differently. It's all very interesting though complicated to explain.

30 days to 30 - Years 9 and 10

2011-03-29T17:58:00.004-05:00

My 9th year was pretty uneventful. I was in 3rd grade and, to be honest, I don't really remember much about it. I do remember convincing one girl that I was a witch and that I was going to turn her into a vampire. (Vivid imagination, remember?) I was only kidding but she took it pretty seriously & I feel bad that I traumatized her.

My 10th year was all too memorable... I was in 4th grade and had a teacher that pretty much hated me. Now I know a lot of students think that, but I had pretty good reason to draw that conclusion.

Once, during a test, the teacher said she saw my lips moving and since no talking was allowed she tore up my test and threw it in the garbage. (I was NOT talking, but just chewing on my lips.)

Another time, I passed a lunch ticket to a friend who was out of them (they were what we used to "buy" lunch at school) and was accused of passing notes. The teacher made me go wait in the bathroom - not just the hallway, but the bathroom - while she dumped my entire desk out on the floor and rifled through it. Then she brought me back in and told me to clean it up.

Because I liked to talk, and so did another girl, she pushed our desks to the front of the room and said that we were the bad kids who should only talk to each other. She said, "Since you two like to talk so much, you can sit there and talk all day." So I did. I told that girl every little bit of my life story to date until the teacher was so frustrated she moved my desk back. (I didn't instigate her hatred for me, but I wasn't going to take it ALL lying down either. ;) )

She never called on me. She laughed at me & made me feel like a complete outcast. The woman's name brings bile to my mouth to this day and when people talk about the problem of bullies in school, SHE is the first person I think of. 4th grade is a difficult age for a girl anyway, to compound it like that is despicable. According to other students of hers, she had a favorite and a hated child in each class - one year my cousin was the hated child, maybe it was a last name thing. ;) I've moved on from 4th grade, but I am still saddened by it & confused as to what would lead a grown woman to treat a child like that.

But, I wasn't totally innocent in my 4th grade year either... Well after becoming the anti-teacher's-pet (so it was NOT something that initially shaped her opinion of me) I got suspended for biting Julie J. during recess hard enough to draw blood. It was a terrible thing to do, but I only bit her to get her to let go of my wrists and stop kicking my best friend so I wasn't quite the villain I was made out to be. Still, drawing blood on another kid with your teeth isn't the kind of thing that wins friends.

Is this project making me sound lovable and awesome or what? ;) I was the weirdo only-child with a warped sense of humor and crazy imagination who was kind of bossy, hated by teachers, and bit people. I might as well have had a contagious disease for how well that went over for me in a small town.

Office Re-do, Part 1

2011-03-28T12:28:00.007-05:00

I became the director of the Humane Society on an interim basis so I while I organized things, I didn't really personalize my office much - it was supposed to be temporary. Then when I got the permanent job I was so busy DOING the job while finishing my last year of college that I still didn't do a lot of personalizing or decorating.

But now - the time has come! It's time to settle in and claim the space as mine, making it not only work for me but also represent me a little.

Last weekend I went in after hours and painted the room. Before, it was a receiving-blanket yellow that was a little too sleepy for my taste, not to mention that it had become dingy with age, with boring beige trim. Unfortunately, I didn't take any before photos, but just use your imagination. Now it is a sunny yellow with light robin's egg blue trim.

I'll be sharing photos of it as I finish the room, but for now, here's a sneak peek at one of the walls (a basic tutorial is below.)

And here's the how-to for the photo wall!

How to: Photo Wall

2011-03-28T12:00:00.002-05:00

This is NOT an original idea by any means, though at this point I don't remember where I learned the method. (Most likely it was from an episode of Martha Stewart or a show on HGTV.) But this is my How-To for the photo wall I added to my newly redecorated office.

First, I gathered my framed photos/images and started playing with arrangements on my kitchen table. For this project, I used only black frames - most of which came from the thrift store and had to be spray painted black, a collection of photos of my family, my travels, and my pets, and some decorative scrapbooking paper that worked with the color scheme of the room.

Once I had a design I liked, I sliced open 3 grocery bags and taped them together to make one large sheet of paper (printed sides down.) Freezer paper or something like that would also work. Then I moved the frames from the table onto the paper.

In hindsight, it would have worked better to have had the paper on the table from the get-go, but I don't always fully plan my projects out like that. :)

Once I was happy with the positioning on the paper, I traced around each frame with a Sharpie.

Inside the traced border I wrote a note to remind me what each frame held, and made a mark for where each frame's picture hanger was. (To do this, I measured the distance from the top edge of the frame to the hanger then measured down accordingly on the paper from the traced top edge making a mark with my Sharpie.)

This was the result:

Once my office was all freshly painted and ready for pictures, I used painters tape to attach my paper template right to the wall. I made a few adjustments to get it positioned how I wanted then started pounding in nails.

I pounded the nails right through the paper at the hanger-placement marks I'd made before. Then I carefully peeled the paper off leaving only the nails behind.

Now my notes for each picture came into play and I just matched the pictures up with the nails according to my diagram.

Voila!

(The "live every moment" image is a Simply Said vinyl wall design.)

I'm pretty happy with the end result, though I may add some additional photos to the right side. It adds a lot of interest to this otherwise boring wall and brings in personality with my photos. I love it!

30 days to 30 - My 8th year

2011-03-27T21:46:00.002-05:00

Hmmm.... 2nd grade... I don't have much to say about this year.

I guess the most remarkable part was that my mom, who had gone back to school to get her teaching license when I started kindergarten, graduated from college. At the time, I was angry that the date of her graduation was the day my class was watching the Flying Purple People Eater in class, but I was reminded by the rest of the family that watching my mom graduate was a pretty special event. I liked the ceremony and the cake after, and I loved playing dress-up in her graduation gown, but it wasn't until I was a college student and mom myself that I fully appreciated what she did. My mom was & is amazing.

30 days to 30 - My 7th year

2011-03-26T20:31:00.003-05:00

This was the year I:
- had my aunt as my school teacher
- decided I would paint my future house pink with purple stripes and polka dots
- got the Chicken Pox
- moved into my own bedroom...

We moved from our basement into the upper floors of our house and got that there indoor plumbin' and everything! My room was in the top floor of our house up in the loft with one flat wall, two angled ceilings, and a railing on the other side where I could look down into the living room & kitchen. This little crow's nest perch would be my room until I moved out at the age of 18.

Also during my 7th year I went on a week long trip to visit my aunt and uncle in Milwaukee, Wisconsin which is approximately 10 hours from my home town in northern Minnesota. It was the first road trip I'd ever been on and I LOVED it. On the way, we drove into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and turned around just so I could say that I'd been to Michigan. It was the highlight of my trip! It was at that point that I decided that I would someday visit all 50 states - 3 down, 47 to go! This trip was also my first memorable experience with a large city. I'd been to the Twin Cities metro area to visit relatives, but we'd stayed in the suburbs for all that I can remember. I remember being enchanted with the city lights. While we were there we rented Back to the Future which introduced me to the novelty of a VCR (we only had an ancient TV that got PBS and the Canadian CBC stations,) the awesomeness of Michael J. Fox (on whom I still have a crush,) and the phrase, "Holy Shit!" which I repeated to my mother while brushing my teeth that night (it was as well received as one might expect.) We also took a ride in my uncle's fancy new car that had actual LIGHTS on the dashboard for all of the gauges, stereo, clock, etc. Considering that our old beater vehicles barely had headlights, this was the epitome of fancy for me and I thought we might actually be able to travel back in time in it! Yep... I was a hick!

30 days to 30 - My 6th year

2011-03-25T20:33:00.003-05:00

In my 6th year I started school.

When I started Kindergarten I could already read at a 3rd grade level but was a bit lacking in social development. Remember, I was an only child. I had friends that I played with and a cousin my same age that I saw regularly, but on a day-to-day basis I was the only kid so school was a big shift for me. Because I played alone I had that fabulous imagination I mentioned earlier, but I was also pretty particular about how I wanted things. I didn't often have to negotiate what I would play or how I would play it - it was me, myself, and I - so I wasn't very good at playing with others. I had been raised to share and be nice but the subtleties of interaction with my peers hadn't quite been instilled. Thus, at the ripe old age of 5, I was labelled bossy (which became bitchy as I grew older), and my imagination (and penchant for drama) had me branded as weird. I deserved the labels to some extent, but I also remember being picked on for things that were undeserved. In a small town, labels acquired at age 5 might as well have been tattooed on since they would follow me for the next 13 years. School was difficult for me and I cringe when I remember most of it...

One of the things I remember fondly about Kindergarten though were the buckets of objects our teacher had placed in a line under the chalkboard. One bucket held nothing but keys, another held those plastic tabs off bread bags, one had washers, and I don't remember what else - the keys fascinated me. What did they open? Why were they shaped the way they were? I loved the different designs - especially on the older keys - and they were mysterious especially because we didn't even have a key for our front door (lived in the boonies, remember.) The keys were my favorite things to play with and I love keys to this day.

30 days to 30 - My 5th year

2011-03-24T21:50:00.003-05:00

The thing I remember most about my 5th year was tagging along with various adults...

When my grandma Irene watched me I went with her to the Over 50 Club where I learned to drink coffee, eat ham salad sandwiches, and play cards with the senior ladies. Alternatively, I wandered around the small town with some of the other kids in the area.

When my dad had to watch me, I went with him to construction sites and either played in his pickup or in whatever area was safe from moving machinery/saws/things that could fall on me. My dad is a carpenter and at this point in my life he was mostly working on residential construction so it was relatively safe for kids.

When my mom had me with her, we hung out at our house in the woods or I went with her to the school and "worked" on collating paper, stapling, filing, etc. (I was an office supply geek even then.)

It wasn't the typical daycare/stay-at-home upbringing but I learned to be self-reliant and adaptable to a variety of situations.

30 days to 30 - My 4th year

2011-03-23T20:30:00.003-05:00

My fourth year was a very difficult one for me, and even more so, for my family.

During this year my grandmother, Avonne, lost her battle with cancer and died. I remember bits and pieces of her last few weeks on hospice and I remember being told that she had died. My response was to go pack my small suitcase with an adult woman's dress that I used for dress up so that I could bring it to her when I died so she wouldn't have to wear her pajamas in heaven. My parents didn't bring me to her funeral but I remember the family grieving. I was very young but I already felt a deep bond with Avonne and her death affected me deeply. For years after her death I would find myself sobbing with no explanation other than that I missed my grandma.

Then there's the list of accidents that could easily have killed me...

I (being mischievous) accidentally opened the door handle on our truck and fell out while we were driving around a corner in town. Car seats weren't really something people used in our area at the time and our truck didn't even have seat belts. Luckily I survived with no physical injuries.

My other grandparents' dog Rocky, a large Chesapeake Bay Retriever, bit the back of my head. While my grandma Irene was cutting meat for dinner on the kitchen counter the dog went over to check it out. I pulled back on his haunches to get him away from the counter and without any warning he spun around throwing me back where I landed face down. He then chomped down on the back of my head creating 5 deep gashes into my skull (luckily not quite deep enough to puncture it.) He pulled back and went in for another bite but my dad grabbed him and pulled him off of me. (Unfortunately, my dad slipped on the linoleum floor and cracked his ribs against the kitchen counter in the process.) I don't remember the pain of the bite itself, but I do remember the trip to the trip to the emergency room and the pain involved with having the wounds cleaned. I still have bony bumps on my head where my skull healed and scars where no hair will grow on top of them.

At the end of my 4th year (or shortly into my 5th) I fell off the dock into our lake and almost drowned. My dad had turned his back for just a minute and when he turned back I was gone without a sound. I would have had to go past him to get to shore so there was only one place I could be but he didn't initially see me in the water. In our murky lake it was the bright white of my tennis shoes that he finally saw. He found me lying on the bottom of the lake under the dock with my eyes and mouth wide open and pulled me up by my feet. Of this I remember sitting at the end of the dock and the next thing I remember is walking back up the hill to our house soaking wet. The memory of what actually happened is buried somewhere in my mind though since for years I could not stand to have my face underwater and to this day I have to fight against inherent panic when swimming.

I believe it was also this year that I developed pneumonia and barely left the couch for about 2 weeks.

Before having kids I used to think about my series of accidents as a bunch of scary events but I didn't fully appreciate the magnitude until having my own kids. Cecelia and Vivian have only had a few minor accidents - nothing even close to life threatening - and even those made me shudder with thoughts of what could have been. I now think about what this year must have been like for my parents... what it would be like for me to have one of my children involved in 3 serious accidents, sick with a scary illness, and all within a 12-month span of time already plagued with grief and loss. The very thought makes my chest feel tight - how my parents made it through without complete nervous breakdowns is amazing.

Thankfully, I have not had such a negatively eventful year since and I hope I never do. Even more so, I hope my children never do.

30 days to 30 - My 3rd year

2011-03-22T21:31:00.002-05:00

There's not really a whole lot to tell about year 3... let's say it was the calm before the storm. I'm sure my mother hardly thought *I* was calm but year 4 brought a whole lot of drama, trauma, and heartbreak.

During my 3rd year of life (well... my 2nd, 4th, & 5th as well) my mom worked as the secretary for the elementary school in our town. While she was at work I usually spent my days playing at one of my grandparents' houses (or tagging along with Mom) where I found a variety of ways to amuse myself (see also "into absolutely everything" and "only child.") While we only children can admittedly be a little weird, we are also quite often very creative - the two really go hand in hand since, when you think about it, one person's weird may be another's creative and vice versa. Regardless of how you label it, I had a vivid imagination and used it to keep myself busy and entertained with "toys" I made from office supplies, hardware odds & ends, nature outside, etc. Perhaps it's why I am so adept at both crafting & killing time... from an early age I learned to play with inconsequential items for HOURS on end and to use my mind to fill in the rest.

30 days to 30 - My 2nd year

2011-03-21T21:03:00.004-05:00

My second year of life was fairly uneventful as I suspect most peoples' are.

My dad worked out of town quite often so I spent a lot of time with my mom in our little house in the big woods. According to my her, I was quite a bit like my Vivian - feisty, mischievous, and into absolutely everything. Also like Vivi, I was super cute and skilled at batting my little eyelashes - necessary qualities if one is going to be feisty, mischievous, and into absolutely everything.

Around this time, my grandma Avonne - the one who ran through the church yelling, "It's a girl!" - had a relapse of her cancer and became very sick. The memories I have of her before she was completely bed-ridden comprise the majority of my memories from this time in my life perhaps because I have revisited them so often in an attempt to hang on to my grandmother herself. I remember her making pancakes in the shapes of animals, picking fresh berries, scolding me for being into absolutely everything, and holding my hand as we walked down the gravel road by her house.

Interestingly, Jake also remembers my grandma from around this same time period since she would babysit him and his brother - one of those little oddities that comes with marrying someone from the same itty bitty town. (It is worth noting here that he and I are NOT related. We may be from a small town, but we're not total hill-billies.)

And life went on...

30 days to 30 - My first year

2011-03-20T22:05:00.002-05:00

I turn 30 in 30 days so I've been reflecting on my life so far. Not that I want to go back - I'm happier now than I've ever been in my life - but reflection just seems right for a milestone year.

I'll start at the beginning...

Naturally I don't remember my first year of life, though it's pretty easy to piece together since not much changes in my tiny hometown and of course I've been told various stories.

I was born on Easter Sunday during the church service. Not IN the church but my grandmother made sure I was part of the service. As the story goes, my dad knew his parents would be at church so he called there to announce my birth to them. My grandmother answered the church phone then ran down the aisle of the church yelling, "It's a girl! It's a girl!"

I was essentially an only child (I have an older half-sister who was given up for adoption at birth) and grew up 10 miles from a ridiculously small town. My parents brought me home for the first time to the place I would continue to call home for the next 18 years. To be accurate, when I first came home from the hospital, it was to our basement. For the first 5 years of my life we lived in the walk-out basement of our house while the upper floors were finished. The basement was one open room with a corner designated as the kitchen, a corner for the livingroom, a corner for the bedroom, and a corner for storage but lacking running water for the first few years. Looking at it from the outside now it seems extreme and almost sad, but I only remember it being cozy and loving.

To-Do in 2011

2011-01-01T22:08:00.003-06:00

1. Mission Fun-Mom 2011 - have fun "quality" time with the kids at least once a week.
Once a month dates in previous years was too easy to put off so this year, I'm aiming for at LEAST one Fun-Mom thing every week. It doesn't necessarily have to be an outing or cost any money but I need to spend a chunk of time having fun with the kids.

2. Read at least one book for fun each month. Even though I theoretically have more time to read for enjoyment than I did when I was in school, I'm finding myself more tired and likely to zone out online or watching tv than reading like I used to pre-kids/school/work.

3. Celebrate 10 years of marriage in a big way. :)

4. Send more thank-you cards. And by "more" that would pretty much be any at all. I have really good intentions and feel gratitude for a lot in my life, but I really suck at sending out thank-you cards. This year, my goal is to send a thank-you for every gift received. (We'll work up to sending for less tangible things for which I am also grateful.)

5. Get another tattoo.

6. Work on balancing family/friends/work/household tasks/fun/sleep. Becoming a full-time working mom has pretty much kicked my ass. I'm starting to figure out how to juggle it all, but there are still a lot of balls getting dropped.

7. Craft! I need to get my butt off the couch and go hang out in my craft room at least once a week. I *think* about a lot of things I want to make, but the whole issue above and fatigue keeps them largely theoretical. I'm not setting any hard goals about how productive I'll be or listing things on Etsy - for now I just need (and WANT of course) to get back into my creative space with the freedom to make messes, make mistakes, and just play.

8. Purge our extra stuff - including the extra junk in our basement and garage, as well as clothes that don't fit or aren't worn for some other reason, and even some craft supplies.

I'm noticing that there's a real theme of balance here, particularly balancing the things I need to do practically with the things that I need to do to be happy and have a fully-lived life.

To-Do in 2010 Review

2011-01-01T21:50:00.002-06:00

I don't really like the idea of resolutions, exactly, but I do love me a to-do list so I make one at the beginning of each year. Last year's was pretty short and sweet so let's see how I did...

1. Use my passport at least once. (Location TBD) Grade: A.
Jake and I went to Spain & Andorra (with a brief layover in the Netherlands) - the first trip to Europe for both of us.

2. Graduate from the U! Grade: A+
I not only graduated, but made the Dean's List and did NOT have a nervous breakdown.

3. Have at least one fun-date with Cecelia and Vivian a month. Grade: D-
Between finishing school and diving into full-time employment, I pretty much sucked it when it came to having fun with my girls. :(

4. Have at least one date with Jake a month. Grade: C
I don't think we had one every month BUT we did have a 2 week trip to Spain together for extra-credit.

5. Maintain and improve my work at the Humane Society. Grade: B
Whenever I start to feel like I'm a rockstar director, I come to realize a gaping hole in my work that needs to be patched. It's sort of a 2 steps forward, 1 step back kind of deal. I'm continually doing better and learning more, but there's still plenty of room for improvement.

Overall grade: B

All in all it was a good year, but as to-do items 2, 3, 4 & 5 indicate, it was also a very busy year. The kind that rushes by in a frenzy with little time to stop and smell the roses. For that reason, I am SO glad we were able to take the trip to Spain.

Do other girls really get into this crap?

2010-12-01T18:13:00.004-06:00

Jewelry buying season is apparently in full swing, or at least that's what the 10 ads per hour tell me. They also tell me that true love is expressed in shiny rocks placed in hideous settings and that I should get all gooey and cry if I am presented with such an object.

Now, heaven knows I love an accessory. In fact, I spent no fewer than 2 hours looking at kiss-lock purses on eBay (that little click just tickles me) this past Saturday. I have - literally - a suitcase filled with jewelry and other little accessories that I love wearing. I feel naked without my rings and my beaded bracelets, and I wear a flower in my hair at least once a week. This is all to say that I can appreciate a sparkly accessory as much as the next girl. However...

In allowing for taste, I can see why some people like the pieces that I find hideous, but I still can't get over the cost. I'll admit I'm a big cheapskate but seriously $400 for a 1" bit of sparkle? For that price, I'll take a plane ticket somewhere fun, thankyouverymuch. Or how about a nice dinner out to spend time together (with plenty left over for a donation to a charitable organization.) But to wear $400 around my neck once in a blue moon? I just don't get it. (BTW - There are a number of Etsy sellers with beautiful handmade jewelry for under $50 that have so much more style than anything made out of a "chocolate" diamond.)

Should my husband really be expected to pony up over $300 for a cheesy piece of jewelry to make my holiday? And am I supposed to like that piece of jewelry just because it includes a very strong shiny rock to which we have ascribed great value (even though we overlook the human cost involved in its acquisition)? What about personal taste? What about creativity and originality? What about gift giving being more about genuine caring than feelings of obligation?

These are questions that bubble up in me, along with feelings of disgust, every time one of their stupid ads comes on but today I heard one on the radio that prompted out-loud rantings in my car. One jewelry company is selling some diamond thing that comes packaged with a teddy bear. Barf. An overpriced rock with a stuffed animal (like I'm a 6 year old)? Is that really what other women like and want in a gift? Seriously?

Ladies, let's do better. Let's allow our magpie tendencies to be satisfied with a piece of cheap glass and allow gobs of money to be spent on something a little more worthwhile. Let's stop associating pulling out a credit card with chivalry or affection. Let's grow up and use our brains instead of being sucked in to the crap fed to us by the jewelry industry.

I have the best luck with cars...

2010-11-29T19:14:00.003-06:00

On my way home from work today, I got a flat tire. In the just-barely-above-freezing rain. Yay.

But I'm a big girl - I know how to change a tire - so I got the car jacked up on the little toy jack that came with my car, got the tire off, and then attempted to raise the car up a bit higher so I could put the spare on. That's when the jack slipped & fell over and my car slammed down into the ground.

THAT is when I decided I was done being a big girl and got out my cell phone like a good little princess and called the local garage (who, I might add, has bailed my princess-ass out more than once.) They came with a real jack and had my spare on in about 5 minutes.

I followed them to the garage where I told them to put on the CHEAPEST replacement tires (flat was not fixable and other front tire was crap too) since I'm hoping to get a different vehicle soon. Then I sat down and ate a bag of chips for dinner and chatted on the phone like a good little princess until my car was ready to go.

The garage also sells lottery tickets. I did not buy one.

Overheard

2010-11-28T13:06:00.006-06:00

A recent fight between 5-year-old Vivian and 8-year-old Cecelia...

Vivian: You never let me say what happens [in pretend play]!!!

Cecelia: I just don't like that it always has to be so tragic.

Vivian: I don't even KNOW what that MEANS!!!

Cecelia: It means that there's always something bad happening. Everyone's going to a birthday party and then you make it that suddenly they find out their uncle is almost dead. I'm just sick of it.

Excuses, excuses

2010-11-01T21:48:00.003-05:00

So it's November now and my last post was October 11th. Here is where I pull out my excuse trump card I hope I will never get to use again...

I have pneumonia. I get a pass on screwing anything up for awhile because I have fucking pneumonia.

I've had this cough for about a month now so last week I finally caved in and went to the doctor. He figured it was a bacterial infection in my lungs and gave me an inhaler and antibiotics and sent me on my way. They finally started to kick in a few days later but then one section of my rib cage started to feel like I was being stabbed with a hot knife when I did crazy things like breathing. This prompted x-rays which revealed that my bacterial infection was full-blown pneumonia. It was kind of nice to get the diagnosis so it's official that I'm not just a candy-ass crying over a cold but that I am truly sick. Of course, it's NOT nice to actually have pneumonia, but you know... I know my fellow hypochondriacs understand. ;)

After spending a few hours outside on Saturday, I was wiped OUT and spent almost all day Sunday in bed. And when I say almost all day I mean all but about 3 hours of my day was spent in bed. It was glorious and felt very indulgent. I made the kids wait on me and spent the day reading, napping, and looking at dumb things online. It would have been the perfect day if it wasn't for the stabbing chest pain and horrid cough but they made for a pretty iron-clad excuse. As long as I have to put up with the symptoms, I might as well milk out the excuse, "I have pneumonia." So there. :)

24 hours in my life

2010-10-11T21:09:00.000-05:00

Noon Friday: I am furiously finishing getting things ready for the Humane Society's second gala dinner - this time with a silent auction. I printed the last minute place cards and packed my car full of paintings, prints, gift baskets, and a whole bunch of other stuff that would be auctioned off later.

1 pm: After a snafu with the elevator, one of the board members and I finally get to the dining room with our luggage rack full of load #1 and start setting up.

2 pm: We pretty much finished the set up so we leave and I run through Caribou Coffee to get a warm little pick-me-up that will feel good on my scratchy throat. I chose the delicious Pumpkin White Chocolate Mocha. Yum.

3 pm: I'm back at the Humane Society and my left hand starts to go numb. It works it's way up into my face. I had this symptom from a migraine before but this time my head doesn't hurt at all.

4 pm: My vision is now all wonky too and feeling is coming and going in my hand/arm but I have a lot to do so I'm squinting and trying to force my eyes to focus on financial records and my powerpoint presentation. My heart is racing, my head has started to hurt, I feel nauseous, and then there are the vision and numbness issues.

5 pm: Time to go. The things that are undone will just have to remain undone. I grab my stuff and head for home. 5 minutes down the road I think of 2 things I forgot and call a board member who lives close to the shelter to pick them up for me on her way to the Gala. (I had also forgotten my wallet at work, but didn't realize that until much later.) Once I get home I just want to curl in a ball on the couch and cry myself to sleep. Instead I put on my dress, heels, touch up my make-up and we are back out the door.

6 pm: The kids are at a friends house and Jake and I are at the Gala with guests arriving. Meanwhile, I am trying to finish my powerpoint.

7 pm: I'm feeling much better and am Gala-ing it up.

8 pm: I've given my presentation (whew!) and have eaten my dinner - time to relax a bit.

9 pm: The Gala is winding down and it's time to pack it up and clear out.

10 pm: Back home the energy of the night has worn off and my exhaustion is back with full force. I throw on sweatpants and chill on the couch with a cocktail of Afrin, Mucinex, and Ibuprofen for awhile before heading to bed.

4 am: I am awake. WTF for, I have no idea. But thank you, 2 pm mocha. At this point I decide to go off coffee again. *sniff* At least I got one pumpkin drink in first...

6 am: I finally feel tired again and nap on the couch for a bit.

8 am: I am awake again since my kids are awake and are not very quiet people. Vivi lets the dog outside and then comes running in to tell me that Ruby has a bat in her mouth. I go out and discover a barely living bat with a shredded wing and puncture wounds in the grass which I put out of its misery. Then I call the vet to double check that Ruby is current on her rabies vaccinations.

9 am: I get myself ready to go for the day and tell the kids to do the same. They hem and haw until I become insistent. At this point Cecelia - the EIGHT year old - has a crying, stomping temper tantrum because she has no clean socks. I inform her that she can go without then because I need to leave. She freaks out some more so I tell her she can stay home and Vivi and I leave.

10 am: I load up Chance, a very energetic (but sweet) Golden Retriever/Lab mix into the car along with Cloud (a grey cat) and Vivian. Cloud was confined to her portable crate, thankfully, but Chance and Vivi got to sort it out in the backseat. (It's awesome being my kid.) We drive downtown where the art festival is going on so it is very busy and parking is at a premium. We find a spot and walk to the book store where Chance and Cloud's presence has been requested. About a block away, Chance stops to take a huge poop in some city bushes. All of my plastic bags are in the car. We're too late to go back to the car so I leave it there and hope no one saw - or at least doesn't also see that we're the Humane Society. After our book store visit, in which Chance licks and tries to cuddle with every kid in the place to their general delight (thankfully), we head back out making a detour to the garbage bin where I steal an empty coffee cup and plastic wrapper. Once again I'm hoping for to be unseen doing this. We walk back to the car, stopping to scoop up Chance's offering and dispose of it in a garbage can.

11 am: I'm back at the shelter having returned Chance and Cloud to their respective cages and am playing detective trying to figure out various shelter mysteries.

Noon Saturday: Vivian and I are back on the road - this time without cats, dogs, or tempermental 8-year-olds - to go to a birthday party at a nearby nature center. The rest of the day was rather calm, spent soaking up the beautiful weather and eating delicious apples and other snacks.

My kitties

2010-09-30T19:37:00.006-05:00

It just occurred to me that I have blogged about my super sweet cutest-thing-ever dog Ruby, who has been in my life for less than a year, but have NOT blogged about my cats who have been part of the family for 6 years! Hence a post about my kitties.

Cosmo

Cosmo is a 9 year-old male buff tabby. I went to a humane society with the intention of getting a small female black kitten. I came out with him.

He is needy - crawling up onto my chest DEMANDING love and affection when I've been gone too much - and loud. He gets into any type of food left out (which often causes him to throw up throughout the house), darts out the door when the opportunity presents itself, and sometimes pees in my bathtub. He frequently aggravates and annoys me. But I can't help it - I love the guy and so do my kids.

He's our Mr. Snuggles who comes when he's called and just loves up every bit of attention he's given.

Luna

Luna was taken in as a kitten 6 years ago from a man who couldn't keep her. When I brought her home, Cosmo immediately adopted her and gives her nightly baths to this day. (He was completely beside himself when she was gone overnight to be spayed.) When she came to us she was little and cute and slept almost all day.

She's now quite a bit larger, cute, and sleeps almost all day. We joke that when Luna breathes her last we will have her stuffed in the below position to remain in her spot on the chair or couch eternally - and no one will know the difference.

When Luna is not asleep she's very talkative and afraid of almost everything. One night, in a perfectly quiet living room with no one moving at all Luna was spooked by something. It inspired her to jump straight up into the air and land on my lap which was holding my laptop at the time. She tore off into the basement and, in the process, ripped a dozen keys off my keyboard. She's a special girl. And I love her in spite of, and sometimes because of, her quirks.

Collections

2010-09-26T22:47:00.004-05:00

Okay, so there's a line between being a hoarder and a collector. Jake would say I've threatened to cross it a time or two, but now that I have my craft room where I can squirrel all my treasures away it's not too much of an issue. As a crafter, I love re-purposing items so I can't help but collect things for future projects. Here's the list of things I currently collect:

bottle caps (the goal is to make a bottle cap "tile" mosaic)
cool neckties
vintage handkerchiefs
pieces of broken jewelry
broken dishes and tiles
colorful pages from magazines
interesting packaging (I LOVE Celestial Seasonings and Yogi tea boxes)
baby food jars (and other small containers)
fabric (including old clothes)
miscellaneous craft supplies

The trouble is that over the past few years I've been doing far more collecting than crafting! It will all balance out eventually though.

Balance

2010-09-25T07:45:00.003-05:00

I am a busy person - often by choice - and in truth, I feed on it. There is a phrase though that comes to mind: "That which feeds me, consumes me." Believe me, I have a chronic tendency to be consumed and over the past week and a half, it's gotten out of control. Now it's time to find balance again.

When I have too little to do I sink into malaise, lethargy, and depression. Life seems to string on in an endless series of unimportant days and feels meaningless. There's no rush, no real reason to DO anything today... or the next day... or the next day. What difference does it make if I even get out of bed? Who will care? Why bother... It is a downward spiral that has threatened to destroy me at several points in my life so it is a cycle that I must consciously fight.

I fight it by keeping busy.

On the flip side of depression, however, is mania. I like to feel needed, important, helpful and good. This, and my susceptibility to guilt, makes me a sucker to take on too many things. When I am part of a group and something needs to happen that I have the ability to do, I volunteer. Surely I have time to quickly wash those dishes or type up that letter, it'll only take a few minutes. I'm at every meeting anyway, why not be the secretary? I have a few hours, I could sort through those 3 file cabinets and get them organized for you - no problem. I can't NOT sign up for at least something when someone looks out into the group and asks for help. The trouble is that I always grossly overestimate the amount of time that I have and UNDER estimate the amount of time tasks will require. In truth, there are also some things that would be better delegated or taken on by someone with a different skill set, but I'm the one with the guilty conscience. It's not all guilt, though - a large part of the reason I sign up for things is that I genuinely care about a lot of issues and genuinely want to do a lot of things. But I can't always do it all... What a hard thing to admit.

When I take on too much - and the line between just enough and too much is ever so fine and tough to see - bad things happen. I start to neglect things that aren't MUSTS on my to-do list but which fill me up (reading a novel, sewing something fun, making a mess of paint and glitter) and I start to neglect my responsibilities at home. When I DO have downtime, I am so exhausted and so busy mentally going over everything that needs to be done, that I become paralyzed. I have so much to do, that I don't do anything. Then the depression cycle kicks in - this time with extra guilt about all that I need to do but am not doing. Aaagh!

So I strive to find balance. Enough. Not too much, not too little - just enough. The "just right" that Goldilocks could easily find from her 3 choices but which is a bit more elusive in a complex life (and without breaking and entering.)

Today, I will put on my working clothes, lace up my get-off-your-ass running shoes, and get life back on track. I will clean my house, get organized, and make a plan. I will not be driven to a nervous breakdown by mania or sucked into debilitating depression. I will make my to-do list (it's what I do - it's how I cope) and I will start checking things off, one at a time.

10 little things that make me smile

2010-09-21T23:30:00.002-05:00

Richly patterned & colored paper/fabric/etc
Fresh raspberries
Glitter
The smell of a book
Laying my head down on a perfectly soft (but firm) pillow
Embroidery (finished products AND the act of doing it)
Petit Ecolier cookies
A cup of good tea
My dog's wagging little nub of a tail
Henna (look/smell/feel/pattern/everything about it)

Kid-speak

2010-09-18T17:48:00.004-05:00

Vivian, like most kids, has her own dialect that is slowly fading away as she grows. Before I forget it, here are some classic Vivi-isms.

English / Vivi-speak
Moose = Smoose (This is why her nickname is "Smoose.")
Breastmilk (when she was nursing) = Mewksies
Pretzels = Prentzels
Kung Fu Panda = PandaFu
Flip-flops = frip-frops
Slippers = Swippers
Ruby = Wuby (and other similar r-to-w pronunciations)
Oh no = Oh Benjamin Bunnies

The only one I can remember for Cecelia is that she had a hard time pronouncing the S at the beginning of a word. For example, "snow" came out as "no," and "snake" was "nake." The best was after she weaned but still needed to have regular cuddle times with me she would say, "Mama, I need to 'nuggle." It still makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to remember it.

Ideally, I would be putting all of this in scrapbooks for each child full of completed, artfully designed pages, with beautiful photography. However, that is not my reality so this incomplete online list will have to do for today.

Lessons I Have a Hard Time Learning

2010-09-17T06:49:00.003-05:00

I am 29, a mother of two, and head of an organization yet there are still some life lessons that I have a hard time learning/remembering/acting on.

Take a shower RIGHT AWAY when I get up. I love taking showers & take long hot ones so I don't know why I don't race to the shower. For whatever reason, I like to dawdle around until a half-hour before I have to leave, take my long hot shower, and then rush around like a maniac trying to still get out of the door on time.
"Leave" 10 minutes before I have to actually leave. There is ALWAYS some kind of snafu from lost keys, kids that all of a sudden can't find their shoes, getting in the car and THEN realizing I forgot something in the now-locked house, etc. (I'm perpetually late, can you tell?)
Respond to - or delete - e-mails right away. I always tell people that e-mail is the best way to reach me and it IS the best way for me to hear what you have to say and mull it over but it is NOT the best way to actually get a response from me. In my world, if it doesn't move, flash, or make noise it doesn't get a lot of attention - too many things DO move, flash, or make noise that compel my immediate action.
Pay bills right away. Same reasoning as above. Did I post about how I got my water shut off a couple of months ago? I had money to pay the bill - I just forgot. Doh. And when one gets home at 6pm to find no water, there is no getting it turned back on until morning - just FYI. Lesson learned.
Closing my eyes during a commercial thinking I'll then be fresh as a daisy to watch the rest of the show results in waking up on the couch, freezing cold, at 2 am.
Likewise, when I say I'm going to bed at the end of a show - STICK TO IT - don't get sucked into the next show that starts up immediately after. I'll be just fine even if I never find out who killed so-and-so in the true crime show. (TV is a total time/mind-suck for me - closed doors on the entertainment center are the best things ever!)
Eat. Meals. I have this horrible habit of feeling too busy to stop and have lunch at work at 11:30 - next thing I know it's 3 pm and I think, "What's the point now?" so I just snack on something really healthy (cookies/chocolates/etc) until I get home. In theory this is great for my productivity since I'm working straight through lunch but it's SO not. Me and low blood sugar are not compatible. (And the crazy people who escalate situations up to me tend to come out of the woodwork from 3 to 5 so it's not a good time to be off my game.)
Do what needs to be done, or totally slack-off - don't half-ass it. I have another horrible habit where I am avoiding something that needs to be done (usually something cleaning related - used to be homework) but instead of either doing it OR realizing I'm not going to do it and thus doing something fun, I dawdle. To go to my craft room for an hour or take the kids to the park all feels too indulgent. So instead, I waste time, usually online. At the end of the hour or three I have nothing to show for it - no fun times had and certainly no actual work done. At least if I TOTALLY blow off what needs to be done I have some FUN and am in a much better mindset to then tackle the to-dos. (BTW - This is a home problem - I am much more productive at work. I don't want anyone to think I'm killing hours online at work!)

I'm sure there are many more bad things I do but in order to NOT fall into trap #2 and actually leave BEFORE I need to today, it's time to go get ready. I did already shower & dress before sitting down at the computer, though. Maybe it's not too late to learn these things...

The Accordion

2010-09-15T21:35:00.003-05:00

My in-laws got me an accordion several years ago (I had mentioned that I wanted one and they found one at a garage sale) but I just started taking lessons last week.

So far, I have been playing the accordion for 8 days and while it's a lot harder than I expected (hoped) it would be, I really enjoy it. This is about twice as long as I managed to continuously play guitar, cello, or piano. (I've tried to learn all three of those several times but gave up after just a few days.) The fact that I am still playing and dutifully practicing 30 minutes each day is quite exceptional for me.

In other news, I got some new glasses. I think they go especially well with the accordion.

Next life

2010-09-14T21:51:00.003-05:00

In my next life I think I would like to be a Dad...
... provide half the genetic material for the child and then go on about life as usual while someone else does all the work.
... let the kids eat suckers and dry cereal (out of the box) for dinner while I busy myself somewhere else.
... have someone else be ever vigilant about someone being home to meet the kids off the bus or pick them up.
... have someone else schlep my kids around from one enriching activity to another, and complain and/or bungle it all up if I have to do it on an occasion.
... never have to worry about about where my children will be, what they will be doing, and who will be watching them when I'm at work, running out to the store, in the shower, going pee, etc.
... have a wife to make my appointments, pay the bills, plan the meals, do the shopping, sort the laundry, etc.
... never worry about my kids' social/physical/mental development and stress over what class/activity/book/past-time might improve said development.
... never care if socks are matched, clothes are stained, or hair is brushed.
... be given smiles and nods of pity/understanding when I show up in public with my children looking like they just crawled out from behind a cotton candy stand at a skeevy carnival.
... get to drive a car that doesn't have a half-rotten banana squished between the seats.
... never plan for a babysitter.
... stand in the hallway gagging and staring while my wife cleans vomit/diarrhea/blood off one or more of our children.
... never fill out seventeen enrollment/registration/enlistment forms for school.
... have refrigerator blindness and such limited spacial relations that I can only manage to put 3 things into the dishwasher per load (thus leaving all refrigerator and dishwasher related duties to someone else.)
... feel no twinge of guilt/shame/need-to-go-shopping when I notice that my kids pants are bit too short or shoes are too tight.

But of course in order to be a dad I'd have to be male. Ugh.

On second thought, I think maybe in my next life I'll just be a cat lady.

First Days of School

2010-09-11T21:57:00.004-05:00

This week both of my girls started school.

For Cecelia, it was all very old-hat, even though this is her first year at the next level elementary school. (Here Kindergarten - half of 2nd grade are in one school, the other half of 2nd - 4th are in a different one.) She got herself all ready with virtually no prodding, and left for the bus with barely a good-bye. She was annoyed by my instance on taking pictures and adamantly refused my offer to escort her to the bus stop.

It should be noted though, that while having a THIRD grader makes me feel incredibly old, I was also rather blase about Cecelia's return to school.

On the other hand...

Vivian went and started kindergarten this year and broke my heart. When Cecelia started Kindergarten I shed a few tears but for the most part, I took it well. But now, three years later, I know how much faster time seems to go once kids start school. I know that this is the beginning of the end of being the most important person to Vivi. I know that there is no going back - my baby isn't a baby anymore.

So with the knowledge of all of that, I dropped Vivi off at school and waited until her class went inside. She followed her teacher without so much as a look back at me which is just as well since I was crying like a baby by that point.

"Making the decision to have a child-it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."
-Elizabeth Stone

Reading

2010-09-10T22:05:00.002-05:00

Before I had kids I was a voracious reader. It was nearly impossible to keep me with new reading material (much how Cecelia is) but something changed after I had kids. I started reading more magazines and, of course, things online and I stopped devouring books like I had.

That said, I've had several instances where I have stayed up past 3 am reading and there have been a few grown-up books I've read cover-to-cover in one sitting, but the thing is that these instances have been far between. I'm not sure if it's just that I'm busier now with kids/activities/jobs/etc, that even my down time isn't all that conducive to reading (being climbed on or asked questions every 5 minutes), or if maybe my reading tastes have just changed with age...

I'll have to ponder that more. For now, I'm going to shut off my computer and go read a book.

Hair do or don't?

2010-09-09T20:20:00.007-05:00

I had a rough day. Not whack a door into my face rough, but rough. But instead of blogging about that, I'll blog about the minor thing that's been causing me anxiety all day: my hair.

I can't stand to have my hair down at work - sometimes I have to scoop up dog shit and that's not a good time to be tucking hair behind one's ear, trust me - but I get tired of just sticking it in a ponytail. I wanted to try something new today and then I second guessed it all. damn. day. when I of course had no time to do anything about it.

So let's pretend like this is Glamour and like you care - is my hair-do today a "do" or a "don't"?

Things to keep in mind:
1. I am the Executive Director of the Humane Society. As such, I need to look professional (while still appropriate for poop-scooping.)
2. I am 29. I am often told I don't look old enough to be the director which feels the opposite of a compliment in context. So things that make me look really young are not so great at work.
3. I wear scrubs to work which lack personality for which I feel compelled to compensate.
4. It probably (hopefully) looked better 14+ hours ago when I started my day.

Leave a comment and let me know...

Craft Organization: Small Supplies

2010-09-08T08:21:00.002-05:00

One wall of my craft room has a large built in shelf unit that holds the majority of my supplies.

On the top shelf I have bins of found objects for projects: neckties, handkerchiefs, old junk CDs, bottle caps, etc. It's sort of organized chaos up there.

So moving right along, I then have a row of plastic shoe-box type bins. I've found two different kinds of these - the super cheap (80 cents) ones and the heavier ones that are a whopping $1.30 each - definitely go with the heavier duty! I bought several of the cheaper ones for the kids playroom and even the ones that get minimal use became brittle and cracked whereas my heavier ones are still going strong.

Bins are my preferred method of storage because they can be rearranged easily. I can't help but feel rebellious when I am locked into a system, even if it's just a set of drawers - so I often find myself resenting the size/shape/layout of any prearranged configuration. I frequently rearrange in ways that would mystify others such as swapping the contents of two drawers because I determine that the work surface closest to drawer A is much better suited to the items in drawer B. It's a sickness. So anyway, bins are AWESOME for this since I can just easily reorder them or move them to a different end of the room. Of course, if I'm working on a project with fabric paint, for example, I can just bring out the fabric paint bin and not have to go back and forth to a cabinet.

I also love bins because I can sort things down to a micro-level. (Several of my bins are filled with small bags further sorting out the contents. Yes, I'm a little anal retentive.) My reasons for this, other than being anal retentive, is that I do a wide variety of crafts and often use materials in slightly unconventional ways. If my only craft hobby was scrapbooking so all of my tools and embellishments were used for that, I might not be so concerned with having things separated out. But given that I sometimes use a paintbrush to paint on glue for decoupage - I don't want my paintbrushes stored with my paint - I want them in their own container. I might use rivets for a paper project or for a sewing project, beads might be for jewelry or to embellish a painting, ink and rubber stamps might be used together - or might be used completely separately, and the list goes on.

In addition to the bins, I have 10 wood clementine crates that I use to store things that I don't want in a container with a lid. Tape, glue, frequently used paints, etc. live in these bins that are quick and easy to get into since I only stack them 2 high.

Another thing you might notice about my containers is that they are very clearly labeled. This is critical for me, even with clear bins. Labeling obviously helps me find the bin I want quickly (without having to open 3 or 4 first) but it also helps define the contents for me. When I have ribbon that needs to be put away I might be tempted to just shove it in the box of beads that's out and open but when the bins are clearly labeled, that's tough to justify. Essentially, I'm guilting myself into putting things away in the right spots! But I know how I am, and I will totally take the easy out if it's available.

Sarah Addison Allen

2010-09-07T20:28:00.002-05:00

A few years ago, on a particularly craptastic day that involved blown tires and opening a door into my own face, I picked up Sarah Addison Allen's book, Garden Spells, to be the literary equivalent of chocolate cake - delicious enough to make you forget your sorrows, but not made of great substance. I loved the book from start to finish, though I have to admit that at first I wrote it off as a Practical Magic copycat. By the end, though, I was ready to give it a bit more credit. It was a fun read in the genre of magical realism - just enough fantasy/magic to be interesting while still remaining plausible.

Last summer, I had the pleasure of reading her next book, The Sugar Queen, and I became a die-hard fan of Sarah Addison Allen. It veers a bit further towards fantasy than Garden Spells, but I was still able to suspend my disbelief, especially because I grew to care about the characters so much. I felt like I could see, smell, and feel the characters, as well as identify with them. It was heartwarming, funny, intriguing, and just a lot of fun.

Then this summer I dove into her latest book, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, and devoured it! My friend Dani thinks that this was Allen's best book and though I think The Sugar Queen still reigns supreme for me, this is a close second. This one often reminded me of the film Big Fish (one of my favorites) and had the most variety of characters.

I'm definitely a Sarah Addison Allen fan and I can't wait to read her next novel!

Craft Organization: Embroidery

2010-09-06T20:11:00.005-05:00

Over the last few years of being occupied with school, I've hardly spent any time in my craft room - just enough to cause a mess apparently. I've been working on cleaning it up and it's been going pretty well since I have a pretty good organizational system underneath all the chaos. It's just been a matter of putting it all back where it goes. Anyway, I thought I'd share my methods for getting it organized for whatever they're worth.

First up: Embroidery
Even though I've prefaced this by talking about my craft room, I do the majority of my embroidering in the living room (or out and about) so it's a portable system.

Here's a little floss porn for my fellow crafters...

I have a lot of different colors, but I'm very picky about choosing just the right color so I like to have a lot from which to choose. Also, embroidery floss is CHEAP so I buy a few skeins every time I go to the craft/fabric store.

I keep my floss wound around little cardboard cards in a plastic organizer because I've found it to be the most compact and portable way of keeping things organized.

On each card I write the DMC number of the floss. I don't usually do counted cross-stitch or use formal charts where I need to select my colors by number so I used to not pay any attention to the numbers. That is until I was working on a large project and ran out of a shade of turquoise I'd been using. I made several trips to the store and came home with several different shades before I got the right one - having that number to reference helps!

Inside a small leopard print case that I got from the kids' toy section of the thrift store, I keep a pincushion with needles, a pincushion with straight pins, embroidery scissors, safety pins, a small plastic hoop, a tape measure, a Sharpie, a white marking pencil, a pencil sharpener, a small case of beads, and a random tangle of extra bits of floss.

That case is stuffed along with my collection of floss into a matryoshka doll printed tote bag I got from my friend Lisa. My current project also lives in here.

This tote goes with me on family vacations and wherever I know I'll have time to stitch.

Downstairs in my craft room I have an old wooden mail sorter that had tacky "country kitchen" labels that I simply covered with pieces of decorated paper.

In the mail sorter I keep patterns I've drawn myself, Sublime Stitching patterns, and transfer paper and pens.

I also have a collection of craft books including Sublime Stitching's books and some old needlework books I got from used book sales that I reference when I need some new inspiration.

Embroidery is one of my favorite crafts and it is also probably the most portable and uses the least amount of space. My only problem is deciding on a pattern and a placement but that's a whole 'nother topic.

Ruby

2010-09-05T20:41:00.004-05:00

I am kind of completely obsessed with my little dog, Ruby.

I grew up with big labs, including one big boy who thought he was a lap dog - all 80 lbs of him, and have always wanted a dog the size of a small horse. HOWEVER, I now own MULTIPLE articles of dog clothing and am in the market for a dog purse so I can smuggle my little 7 pound* Yorkie into Target with me. I have not yet put her in a baby sling or a Snugli, but I'm not ruling it out.

This is the face that has driven me to such madness:

It should be noted that in these pictures she is laying on top of not one, but TWO pillows beside me on the couch. She's just the tiniest bit spoiled. I justify all of this because she came from the Humane Society and has a slightly traumatic past. And, well, because she's my dog and I can spoil her all I want. The nice thing about animals is that I'm not trying to rear them into productive members of society with all that character building adversity and such - I really just need them trained enough to know where to pee, the rest is just gravy - so I can pamper them a bit more than I would my kids. It doesn't hurt that Ruby talks back a lot less and makes far few messes , either.

When I am home, Ruby is my sidekick. In my craft room she curls up in my arm chair while I work on projects. If I am in the livingroom she is usually lying beside me (if not ON me) on the couch/chair; in the dining room she lies by my feet under the table if I am so cruel as to not allow her on my lap (like during meals). She even follows me into the bathroom, and sleeps in my bed. And I don't mind any of it at all.

* Ruby, at her full-grown adult size, is smaller at her than either of my children have ever been since they've breathed air. By more than a pound.

Why I Love Lists (in list format - of course)

2010-08-31T20:43:00.003-05:00

Lists give me focus. When I have a lot going on or chaos around me (ahem - as in, always) I find myself either not knowing where to start or flitting about from one thing to another but accomplishing little. So the first thing I often do is make a list of all that needs to be done, then I can prioritize the list and start tackling some of the things on it.
Lists help me feel more calm. That flitting around mentioned above makes me feel panicky and anxious so lists are like Xanax for me. Making a list is doing something and it's something that will help my productivity in the long run. Thus, the act of making a list serves as my transition into whatever action I need to take.
Lists help me sleep. I have a tendency toward insomnia (do I sound like a total headcase yet?) that is exacerbated by my mental to-do list recycling through my mind. I tend to think about the same things over and over in a paranoid attempt to sear them into my memory lest I forget them once I wake up in the morning. If, instead of mentally rehashing, I just get out my notebook and write them out it helps me put the demons to rest so that I can too.
Lists help me remember. I have a memory like "a steel sieve" as Grandpa Pat would say which should make my frantic mental rehashing a little more understandable. Essentially, if I don't write it down there's only a 50-50 chance I'll remember it.
Lists help me feel accomplished. I joked on Twitter today that I should make a daily to-do list that says things like, "Wake-up." "Pee." "Brush Teeth." I just love the satisfaction I feel when I get to cross something off my list.
Lists not only help me focus, but they're often the extent of my focus. Granted I am rather verbose, I am often too flighty to come up with coherent posts or journal entries about much of anything but I can always make a list.

(P.S. I apologize if this isn't interesting or relevant to you. If this is the case, there are a great number of blogs out there so I encourage you to check them out. If however, you enjoy this glimpse into my psyche and my self-absorbed rantings then you get a gold star for the day.)

10 Reasons Why I Haven't Been Crafting Much

2010-08-25T20:15:00.003-05:00

I was going to list them (I do love a list) but you know what they say about pictures and words.

Top of my at-home to-do list: Clean my room!

Hamster Hullabaloo

2010-08-22T11:56:00.003-05:00

Most of the animals I deal with at the Humane Society are cats and dogs, but the most interesting story of late involves a much smaller creature.

In early July, we took in 5 baby female hamsters to place in new homes. Two were adopted right away, so three were left. One night, we had a board meeting and I brought my kids to play in my office but Miss Vivian decided she wanted to look at the hamsters instead. This was all well and good until she accidentally removed part of the cage and didn't tell an adult... can you see where this is going? The hamsters made a break for it and all were recovered except for one. (Cue ominous music.)

The next day the remaining two female hamsters were adopted and no sign had been found of the missing hamster. A week later the missing hamster was presumed dead.

Then we got a phone call from a lady who had adopted one of the other female hamsters... it had just had babies. I called the person who had surrendered the female hamsters and discovered that the father hamster had accidentally gotten into their cage for just a few minutes before they were brought to us at the Humane Society. It wasn't for long, but apparently long enough to impregnate one female hamster - possibly more. (Cue even more ominous music.) We called the other female hamster owners to let them know that there was a possibility theirs might be pregnant as well. Of course, one female hamster was still on the lam... and possibly reproducing. Rur-roh.

A Google search revealed that one litter of hamsters can produce 20,000 descendants in one year. Visions of one day next summer having 20,000 hamsters suddenly bursting forth from walls and ceilings danced in our heads. *shudder* But we saw no sign of loose hamsters so it was eventually forgotten. Until last Saturday.

On Friday I was up north with family and received a phone call that our phone lines in the front of the building were not working. Considering that these lines operate our credit card machine and our main phone hub, this was a big problem. The staff managed to muddle through and on Saturday morning I did a little rearranging to provide service again. I also had to move part of our front counter in order to unplug our pet tag engraving machine so I could take it with me to an event. When I lifted the base of the counter, I discovered a bunch of insulation underneath it. At first I thought it was just left from when Jake and I installed the counter and ran wiring, but when I thought about it more I remembered we didn't run anything through the wall with insulation... a closer look revealed that the pile of insulation contained rodent droppings and pieces of our gnawed on phone cord. Since the phone situation had been resolved and I had lots of other things to do, I left the rodent situation to be dealt with when I returned to work on Tuesday.

Tuesday came and I was busy doing a million things so I forgot about the rodent situation until, incidentally 10 minutes before an important meeting with the chief of police, I was reminded. Scurrying along the wall in our main room was a hamster! (Cue circus act music.) I yelled, "Holy @#$%! There's the hamster!" and Hillary, another employee, dove after it, barely catching its tiny legs in her fingers before it slipped away behind some cat kennels. I ran up and tried to head it off but it shot between myself and Hillary where Amy, an employee, saw it run up to the front counter. Amy, Hillary, and I frantically disassembled the bottom of the front counter, section by section, tossing boxes of receipt tape, toner, and other supplies carelessly aside. We finally had the hamster trapped in the middle section - or so we thought. It popped out through a hole in the base made for cords to feed through, and ran into the hole it had made in the wall (the source of the insulation.) Argh!

Hillary devised a hamster trap in the form of a bucket with food at the bottom and a ramp leading up to the top of the bucket from the outside, and we tried to put things back together and compose ourselves back to a semblance of professionalism.

On Wednesday morning when we arrived at 8 am, there was no sign of the hamster. (Cue sad, disappointing music.) However, at 10 am, when I went back up to the front there was a very frustrated hamster scratching away at the inside of the bucket futilely trying to escape! (Cue ta-da victory music!) But this is not the end of the story...

The lady who had surrendered the hamsters to begin with came to collect the adventurous little female and left her in the bucket for transport home. Unfortunately, the bucket tipped at just enough of an angle on the seat of her car for the hamster to once again escape. The bucket trap failed (the hamster ate food out of the bucket but was not trapped inside) so a live trap was set but without success. To date, the hamster is presumed escaped into the wide open world or just happily living inside a seat cushion. The truth may never be known...

Still, it would seem that we are finally finished with the hamster saga at the Humane Society at least. The hamster did not appear to have been nursing so it is unlikely that she had any babies in our walls though I have learned in my job to never get too confident or too comfortable with anything. There's always another adventure to be had at the Humane Society.

I'm exhausted

2010-08-18T19:55:00.003-05:00

In the last 2 weeks...

My grandpa was put on hospice, died, and was buried.
My yard was ripped up, a chunk of fence (that kept my dog in the yard) was removed, and a crappy cement slab was poured (which I will fix up with tile later.)
I have had 2 days when I did not have some kind of most-of-the-day event (work/parade/funeral/300 mile drive.)
I saw puppies being born and cats dying.
I chased a rogue hamster that had been on the loose in the shelter for over a month.
I made 11 tutus and 11 sets of wings.
I had my best-laid plans and intentions fail in ways that ranged from mildly disappointing to deeply crushing.
I barely did any laundry except for underwear, jeans and the scrubs I wear to work.
I made my kids get out of the car and just stand beside it for 5 minutes so I could have some peace because I was abso-friggen-lutely sick of bickering.
I cried a lot.
I realized some ugly truths about some family members and decided it sucks to be a grown up.
I realized some ugly truths about myself.
I came to appreciate both of my parents more than ever.
I saw my kids' empathetic nature come out as they grieved for a man they'd barely even met simply because they could see/feel how much he meant to me and their own grandparents.
My dog decided it was a good time to start peeing and pooping in the house.
My dog also ran off to visit the neighbors many times because of the lack of a fence.
My dog knew when I was most upset and came to lay beside me.
I spent over $300 on school supplies and a few clothes/shoes for the kids' back-to-school pleasure.
I smiled and watched my kids get ridiculously excited over markers and calculators and excitedly show their dad the 4 folders they had each picked out.
I went out to eat or had take-out almost every night.
I despaired over the state of my bank account in part because of the above eating habits and school shopping but still found myself tempted to engage in retail therapy (and succumbed to the temptation a little bit.)
I made it out of Joann fabric store with only the 2 yards of fabric and two pillow forms I'd gone in for. (Probably a record.)
I felt like an inadequate parent/boss/wife more times than I can count.
I wore a tiara for most of 2 separate days and am contemplating wearing it every day from now on.

No wonder I'm exhausted.

Fairy Dog Mother

2010-08-09T21:09:00.004-05:00

The show must go on...

This past weekend was my town's annual festival, River City Days, so I decided to put my Humane Society in the parade with a float theme "Fairy Tails."

That's the shelter van dressed up like a dog (thanks to board member, Linda), 5 little fairy cats (daughters of shelter employees and friends), fairy dogs (dogs of shelter employees and friends), and adult shelter employees and friends wearing their snazzy parade t-shirts.

This is a shot of the backs of the t-shirts that I designed and made with iron-ons. I wasn't thrilled with the ghosting from the transfer but it looked nice from a distance.

For my part, I dressed up in my fanciest parade wear as a Fairy Dog Mother, complete with dress (taken in from a thrift store find 14 sizes too big), tiara, fake hair clip, fake eyelashes, sparkly Mimi-esque eyeshadow and a sash proclaiming my title.

Grandpa Pat 1923-2010

2010-08-09T21:05:00.002-05:00

Rest in peace, my dear sweet grandpa. He was the first man I ever wanted to marry and a treasure in my life. I'll always be "pompa-dirl" [grandpa's girl].

My grandpa is dying

2010-08-06T01:09:00.003-05:00

My sweet Grandpa Pat is dying.

He was diagnosed with dementia about 15 years ago and has been living in a nursing home for the past 5. With us making fewer trips to his town and Grandpa's rapidly disappearing memory, it was easy to find excuses not to visit him. Last summer I saw him for the first time in at least 2 years and I hardly recognized him. We were about even in this regard since he didn't recognize me either and I introduced myself to him 4 times in my short visit. He remembered me as a child and talked about me in the 3rd person, but couldn't hold on to the connection between that little Anna and the one sitting beside him.

A couple of weeks ago I visited again and was shocked to see how much he had declined. I held his hand, helped him eat his dinner, and just sat next to him. The nurses' assistants were busy trying to care for too many patients and a clear tone of irritation and burn-out was present in their voices as they talked to the residents. Where I saw a man I had loved all my life and who had always loved me, a man who was feisty and funny, they could see only the shell that remained. They looked at him like a task to be completed - something keeping them from taking their next break - and not like a complete person who had over 80 years of experiences and a large network of friends and family who loved him. This time, my grandpa barely spoke and spent most of our visit in his own mysterious world.

Since then, he has taken a turn for the worse. An infection in his foot has spread to slowly consume his entire body. His medications (aside from pain medication) have been stopped, and Hospice has been called in to help him and the family with his final days. Since Tuesday, family has gathered to say goodbye and help him pass the rest of the way from this life. Despite expectations, he is still holding on to life, though only by a thin thread. There is no hope of recovery from his infection and the related illnesses, and even if there were, there is no hope of recovery from his dementia. This is the end.

Our Trip to Spain - Part 2

2010-08-02T23:48:00.003-05:00

More from our lovely trip to Spain...

After a few days in Barcelona and a trip north to Girona and Andorra la Vella, Jake and I set out on a sampling of Spain via rail. Holy Mary, I LOVE rail travel. The AVE was a bit pricey compared to the buses I'd taken in Mexico and Argentina, but still cheaper than airfare and given that it does not require me to eat Xanax or go through security cavity searches, it was worth it.

First though, I lost my shit in the Barcelona train station. I was ever so slightly a smidge hung-over and very sleep deprived from the night before and feeling the pain of my rusty Spanish skills. After a misunderstanding at the ticket window I excused myself to a corner of the station, sat down on the floor and cried, once again making a spectacle of myself. After I ate a chocolate pastry and had some coffee, I was functional enough to move on with life and we made it to Madrid.

Incidentally, on the train we discovered that cell-phone rudeness is not solely an American trait as we listened to a girl an entire car length away from us yapping loudly for the entire 3 hour train ride. It was annoying to say the least but it did make me feel better to know it's not just an American problem.

Once in Madrid, I lost my shit again. We were trying to find our hostel and due to a fun little game in which streets were mislabeled on maps, streets were unmarked in person, and the street our hostel was on was named one thing for one block and another thing the rest of the way, we wandered around one little neighborhood in the heat of the day with backpacks on for over an hour. I asked for directions from 3 different people and got 3 very different answers but eventually we found it. We dumped our stuff and set out to wander some more - this time, with a better map.

Sights in Madrid included a multi-colored tinsel goat costume & a man in lederhosen (whom I photographed over my shoulder sneakily.) We weren't really in Madrid for long but we got a small taste of it and were ready to move on.

Next stop: Sevilla

We had learned our lesson in Madrid, and before heading to Sevilla, looked up our hostel on Google Streetview so we were able to find it quite easily. We also mastered the art of taking photos of detailed Google maps so that we could simply look through our camera to keep us moving the right way.

We climbed the tower La Giralda... (hard to get a good perspective, but it's the big tall thing on the right) which had been a Muslim minaret back when the cathedral was a mosque.

We saw Columbus' tomb - which is basically a big casket held up by statues right out in the open of the church. Kiiiind of creepy (this from a girl who enjoys visiting cemeteries) and all I could think about was how much that must've stunk 500-some years ago. Wikipedia tells me that his remains weren't moved there until much later, after being shuffled around to a few places, which now makes me feel better about the stink, but worse about the creepy factor.

And then we were entrapped by gypsies who read Jake's palm despite his protestations and insistence that he had no idea what they were saying and then insisted that I pay. (I gave them a little - though not as much as they wanted - and we scurried away hoping we weren't cursed.) I discovered later that I had a picture of part of this since I had been taking a photo of the view from the cathedral when Jake was ambushed.

We splurged on a horse-drawn carriage ride around the city, during which some English girls rode by on bicycles - shrieking and giggling about avoiding the horse manure. The driver asked if I could translate what they had said into Spanish and when I did - using my newly acquired word for shit - he was highly amused. Then we wandered and took a tour of the bull fighting arena and museum.

I had paella and sangria for dinner outside a bar while a World Cup soccer game (in which Spain was playing) aired on the television and the entire city erupted in cheers when Spain scored. That moment was SPAIN in capital letters for me.

Throughout our journey, I discovered that I have a sixth sense about the location of a shop that smells of incense and sells south-Asian imports and Jake rediscovered how much he dislikes shopping with a girl who wants to see, touch, smell, and admire everything in such a shop. Jake lost HIS shit after being forced to wander through the bazaar in Granada which I found to be my mother-ship. More on Granada to come...

Our Trip to Spain - Part 1

2010-07-30T12:20:00.008-05:00

Jake and I had a really good time in Spain for the most part. Of course we had our moments of unpleasantness (or complete meltdowns) but all in all it was a good time. Here's some of what we saw and did:

- We flew from Minneapolis to JFK and then on to Barcelona and both Jake and I agreed that JFK is the worst airport we've ever been in. It was dirty and disorganized and we had to ride on a hot bumpy bus with no seats around the tarmac to get from one terminal to another. Also, there were birds. Inside the airport. I thought maybe we'd taken the wrong flight to some war-torn 3rd world country.

- We stayed with our good friends Ari and Sara in Barcelona which was a real treat. We were wined and dined and showed around with a free comfy bed to sleep in at the end of the day. We had a great time hanging out with our fabulous hosts and getting to know Barcelona a bit. Still, we wanted to get out of our hosts' hair and do some adventuring so we made a few side trips.

- We journeyed north to the city of Girona which we were told was beautiful with a lovely river running through it. The thing is, when you arrive on the train it is not exactly the pretty part of town and our first glimpse of the river was in a spot where it was more a dried up creek. We ventured on though and came to this.

THIS was what people were talking about. There's a beautiful old cathedral in the city, an old city wall, and lots of winding little streets lined with interesting shops. We also saw a man enjoying a little self-love in the bushes beside the monastery, so that was interesting AND disturbing. Anyway... We spent a relaxed afternoon/evening wandering through the city before continuing on to the country of Andorra.

- Andorra is a tiny country nestled in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain that resembles an enormous duty-free shop with mountains. (We found prices to be about the same as the US for things, but it's apparently a hot shopping destination for the French and Spanish.

We spent an awkward day wandering around looking at the things we had no interest in buying and trying to communicate with people who largely spoke French and Catalan - not languages I know. Our hotel smelled like fish and cabbage in the common areas but our room was clean, odor-free, and cheap with a fantastic mountain view.

- After Andorra, we went back to Barcelona where we saw more of the sights. Ari and some friends have a band there so we went to one of their shows which was a ton of fun. In semi-related news, I am in love with Havana Club Especial Rum from Cuba. It doesn't exist in the US but I made it's acquaintance in Mexico and Argentina. We met again in Spain and fun times ensued. In particular, I asked the bartender in my broken Spanish what the difference was between "cinco" and "siete" since the rum has a number on the bottle. The answer? Two years. Apparently the numbers refer to the years it ages before bottling. My lack of understanding and silly question provided great comedic relief for the bartender and other bar patrons. I like to think of myself as spreading amusement around the globe through my idiocy. We all have our part to play in this world you know.

- With Sara and Ari, Jake and I took the train to Montserrat which is monastery at the top of a mountain. To get to the top you can take a long winding road, a train, or a cable car. We purchased the tickets for the cable car along with our train tickets and it wasn't until we got there that we realized exactly what the mountain situation was. In the following picture Jake and I are standing at the base from which the cable car leaves. See the little yellow thing? That's the cable car, about 1/4 of the way up on its little journey.

Now see this photo?

This is how I spent the ride up AND down the mountain. I was terrified but also struck by the humor of my terror so I was laughing hysterically to the point where tears ran down my face. Other passengers thought I was actually crying and pointed/laughed/patted my hand/commiserated. I'm pretty sure I'm part of several tourist's vacation stories as the crazy American girl who cried over a fear of heights. Like I said, we all have our part to play.

To be continued...

Blogging again

2010-07-29T17:50:00.002-05:00

So at the behest of Zebrabelly and imadeitso, two of my very good friends who are also very good bloggers, I am back blogging again. They made me. And they made me mention them. Apparently, I do what the people in my computer tell me to do which sounds frighteningly schizophrenic. But anyway... even though it's been over a year since I was there, I'm finally publishing my post about Iguazu Falls. Enjoy. :)

Iguazu

2010-07-28T21:47:00.006-05:00

The coolest natural wonder I have ever seen would have to be Iguazu Falls which is an enormous series of waterfalls on the border between Argentina and Brazil. The Brazilian side has the most panoramic view of the falls but the Argentine side has the most up-close-and-personal experience.

Truly, the experience of the falls can not be put into words. It is breathtaking, awe-inspiring, a little scary, and just... wow. It is the largest waterfall in the world by volume of water (Victoria Falls is the largest by height.) The cliffs that form the falls are shaped much like a number 3 with the big top curve known as the Devil's Throat. The Devil's Throat is one huge torrent of water the other series of cliffs is broken up into several smaller (but still amazing) waterfalls. There's pretty much a waterfall every which way you turn.

Iguazu is located in a relatively remote part of South America so your options to get there are either a plane or LONG bus ride from Rio de Janeiro or Buenos Aires. Since we were on a tight budget, we opted for the bus ride... a 16 hour bus ride. Still, it was totally 100% worth it and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

The highlights

2010-07-28T20:18:00.004-05:00

Let's see...

Since April 3rd, a bit has happened. Here are the highlights:
- I graduated from the University of Minnesota. Woo-hoo! I even managed to make the Dean's list for my final semester so I'm quite proud. The fact that I managed to do this without suffering a complete nervous breakdown is even more impressive. ;)
- Jake and I took a fantastic trip to Spain for 2 weeks. Right after celebrating the addition of a new sister and niece to the family (aforementioned wedding), we ditched our kids and pets and flew to Spain. We stayed with our friends Sara and Ari in Barcelona for much of the time, but also traveled to Girona, Andorra, Madrid, Sevilla, and Granada. We had a wonderful time!
- I've been working my little tail off at the Humane Society. For every thing I cross of my to-do list, I think of 4 more new things so progress is slow and I frequently feel like I'm spinning my wheels. When I take a step back and look at the big picture, however, I'm pleased with the path we're on there.
- My baby girl turned 5. Wow. She'll be entering kindergarten this fall. Double wow.
- In semi-related news I made peace with the curvy hips that I still have left over from my baby being born (5 years ago) and bought bigger jeans. Turns out I'm not fat, I just need appropriately sized pants. How about that. No more muffin tops for me. :D
- I decided to not go to Lilith Fair 2010 even though I LOVED the first 3 years of it since they opted to hold it in the Target Center (a crappy rectangular stadium) but Jake and I did go to the Gaslight Anthem concert just a few nights ago. There I learned that I am too old for the mosh pit and too old to not wear earplugs, but will never be too old to love watching musicians play their hearts out.

And that's really about it. I'm afraid life is rather mundane around here since I work 40+ hours at the Humane Society and then try to clean up the wreckage at home when I'm home. Adjusting to being a full-time working mother is a challenge, to say the least. I was working or in school for at least 40 hours a week during the past school year but the kids were also in school and somehow it just all seemed more manageable. Or maybe it wasn't, but I was too busy and scattered to realize it. Either way, this has definitely been an adjustment.

40 days

2010-04-03T09:10:00.002-05:00

Just as the season of Lent is ending for my Christian friends, my own 40 days of sacrifice are just beginning.

I am officially done with school in 40 days when I will take my last two final exams. (I graduate 4 days later.) I am sacrificing sleep, sanity, time with my family, and a clean house. We have more of our clothing in baskets (or on the floor) than in closets or drawers and frankly, I don't give a damn. After all, this is temporary. It too shall pass.

40 days =
3 papers to write (24 pages to-go as of today)
4 exams to take
5 books (and lots of articles) to read
Immeasurable responsibility and guilt to ignore

Let the countdown begin...

News

2010-03-14T18:01:00.003-05:00

It's Spring Break for me which means that I (theoretically) have a little more time on my hands. Given that, here's my latest* news:
(*latest meaning from the last 7 months)

I'm graduating!!! May 16th is the big day when I will be officially done with the University of Minnesota and the proud owner of a $40,000 piece of paper! (I will have a Bachelor's of Arts in Religious Studies with an Anthropology minor.)
I'm the official, permanent-ish until I decide to leave or royally bungle it up, will-be full-time (after May 16th) executive director of the Humane Society! It's a cool job that I enjoy and that I do fairly well. It's a bit stressful balancing it with school at the moment, but come May 16th, all will be well. :)
I got a dog! Her name is Ruby and she's a cute little Yorkie. I just love her to pieces!
I got a new tattoo on the inside of my right wrist. Facebook friends can see it there.
I haven't crafted anything in my craft room in an insane amount of time. The last thing I made was a few pieces of jewelry for Christmas presents. I am absolutely itching to get back to it and have been sketching and thinking up new ideas like mad.
I won the lottery! Kind of. I won $3 on the Powerball. Still, it's the most I've ever won and given that I've only ever bought 3 Powerball tickets in my life, I've now broken even.
Jake and I are planning our next vacation for the summer... we have to wait to see what vacation days of his get approved by the knuckleheads in charge and then we can really make plans. I'm SO excited!
I'm getting a new Sister-in-Law and a neice to boot! I'm thrilled!
I am now married to a 30-year-old and I enter the last year of my twenties in a little over a month! I feel old! I think I will postpone celebrating 29 until after graduation when I can REALLY celebrate.

That's about all I can think of at the moment. I could promise to update between now and May but we all know that's a lie. So happy spring everyone (all 4 of you who read this) and I look forward to posting new projects and travels once I finally close the higher learning chapter of my life. See you in May!

Love in the time of 2nd grade...

2010-01-14T19:27:00.002-06:00

I just had an interesting conversation with my 4.5 year old and 7 year old over dinner regarding their crushes and the subject of love in general.

Vivian has a crush on Mason F. - not to be confused with Mason S. who she wants to put in jail for being a biter.

Cecelia has a crush on Cameron who told her he wanted to marry her. Vivian then announced that Mason F. was going to propose to her and I suggested that the people they thought they wanted to marry at the age of 5, 7, 9, or even 17 may not be the person they would choose once they are grown-ups and to not spend too much time worrying about it now.

Cecelia thought this was reasonable and to illustrate she talked about her previous, and now undesirable, crushes from preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade. Her first grade crush ended when she discovered the boy in question had lied about something. It was generally agreed that lies were no good. This is how the rest of the conversation went:

Cecelia: The thing that attracts me is kindness. If I see that someone is nice I like that and I'll fall in love with them... if I want to.

Me: Yes, kindness is important. So then do you think I made good choice marrying your dad? Do you think he's kind?

Ce: Yeah, Dad's nice. And he's really good at fixing things so you don't have to pay someone else to fix them and you can spend your money on things that will last a lot longer.

Lessons learned: Lying is bad, kindness is good, being handy is even better.

To-Do in 2010

2010-01-01T22:44:00.002-06:00

Here are my short and sweet 2010 goals...
1. Use my passport at least once. (Location TBD)
2. Graduate from the U!
3. Have at least one fun-date with Cecelia and Vivian a month.
4. Have at least one date with Jake a month.
5. Maintain and improve my work at the Humane Society.

Goodbye 2009

2009-12-31T20:26:00.002-06:00

Here's how did on my to-do in 2009 list...

1. Build my Spanish-language skills with another trip to Mexico.
Nope... but... I DID hone my Spanish skills with a trip to Argentina though, passed my Spanish proficiency test required for my graduation, and visited two new countries.

2. Take a vacation with Jake. Just Jake - no little people.
Check! In Argentina & Uruguay.

3. Get my cumulative GPA up over 3.5 (finally).
Check! And as long as I maintain my record of getting no less than a B+ in all of my classes it'll be well over 3.5 when I graduate.

4. List at least 10 new items in my Etsy shop.
Dismal failure. In fact I listed NOTHING new and allowed the old items to expire. I crafted some things for Christmas but that's really about it. I probably won't get anything new listed until at least June 2010, but don't hold your breath.

5. Downsize our junk to just the stuff we use and love.
Gettin' there... we got rid of a lot of stuff (5 BIG boxes full of outgrown clothes were donated) but there's still a bit more to thin down...

6. Read either War & Peace or Anna Karenina.
Fail. I read A Tale of Two Cities though. (I love Dickens.)

7. Make time for our family to play a game or do something fun together once a week.
Hrm... well... maybe every 2 weeks? Between the kids schedules of lessons, mine and Jake's with work and school, the time slipped away. :(

8. Plant something outside (even if it's not an entire garden.)
Check! I grew a wicked sage plant, a few other herbs, and some beautiful dark red (almost black) sunflowers. I also had a TON of green tomatoes that never quite ripened (I think we got 3) and a pumpkin that inexplicably started growing in September and was burnt black with frost before it could orange up.

9. Get my accordion tuned up and look for a teacher to show me how to play it.
Fail. I took it out of its case twice and that's about all I can say for it.

10. Get another tattoo.
Nope... I've thought about it lots though!

4 out 10 - that's not even a passing grade. I'd hang my head in shame, but really this is pretty representative of the year. Not that it's been a failure but that this year has been one of changing plans... Mexico became Argentina, getting a tattoo became getting a dog, learning the accordion became learning QuickBooks. This year has been exhausting in many ways, and its certainly not what I expected a year ago, but at the same time there have been a lot of really good things. How's that for non-committal? ;)

The funny thing about travelling to South America in July...

2009-10-23T14:48:00.002-05:00

It really throws off your sense of seasons. Oy.

Now that it is cold and rainy/snowy in Minnesota, I am extra unhappy about it since I've had more than enough crappy weather this year. The fact that August and September were unseasonably cold here doesn't help matters at all - it seems like it's been winter for the last 4 months only it's really just starting. I predict I will be seriously tweaking out by March. Considering that I'll also be in the midst of writing my senior paper then, I'm thinking I should just go ahead and schedule a nervous breakdown now.

I've also had more than enough media-sensationalism and general panic about the H1N1 flu, or "La Gripe A." I just wish they called it "La Gripe A" in the U.S. - it sounds so much scarier in a comedic way - like a cartoon villainess.

Mini-Vacation

2009-10-18T23:26:00.004-05:00

This past weekend, Jake and the girls and I took a little mini-vacation to the Mall of America. Those of you who know Jake may have just raised an eyebrow or chortled in disbelief since a mall is generally about as appealing to him as a root canal but I speak the truth. However, we didn't do much in the actual shopping areas since for me shopping with Jake in tow ranks far worse than a root canal for me. What we did do was visit Underwater Adventures and the Nickelodeon Universe amusement park.

Even though we live only an hour away, we decided to make more of a vacation out of it so we drove up there Friday afternoon and spent the night at the Hilton hotel just a few blocks from the mall. It was a bit of a splurge, but we got a package deal that included a breakfast buffet for the 4 of us ($50) as well as 4 passes to Underwater Adventures (about $60), and the total room cost (with tax) was $180 so it wasn't all that bad. It came with the nice Hilton perks like super comfy beds, Crabtree & Evelyn soaps, and upscale decorations which made the girls feel like princesses. However - with only 10 free tv channels (less than basic cable), a cost of $15/movie to watch in the room, $5/show for on-demand tv, and a $10/day charge to use the wireless internet, all of which we passed on, the Hilton didn't seem so hospitable. The continental breakfasts might be a bit dodgey sometimes but at least most budget chains offer free wireless internet. I can't say I'd stay at another Hilton if I had a choice, but it was fun for a night. We swam in the pool for over an hour and a half before having dinner and settling in for the night.

On Saturday, we got to the mall at 10 am and stayed until about 6 pm - a full day that left us all pretty exhausted. Underwater Adventures was our first stop and it is a neat experience, especially to see the rays swim up over the glass tunnel right above your head. We saw turtles, rays, sharks, fish, an octopus, jellyfish, sea horses, sea stars, coral, anemone and more. On the downsides, the underwater tunnel is a bit dizzying since the curve of the glass and movement of the water creates some optical illusions that mess with your sense of balance, there isn't as much information about the different animals as you'd find in a zoo, and it's a bit harder to wander at your own pace in a tunnel with a bunch of other people, so it's not a place I'd insist on visiting regularly but I'm very glad we went and I'd go back again sometime. The thing Jake and I, and other older visitors, really enjoyed was getting to pet the star fish, horseshoe crabs, anemone, and snow crabs at the very end of the exhibit. By that time, though, Cecelia and Vivian were more interested in running off to the little pirate ship play area so they didn't get as much out of the hands-on exhibits.

Our next big stop was the American Girl store which delighted Ce and Vivi to see the dolls they ogle over in the catalog up close and personal with all their tiny little accessories. We watched the hair stylists in the doll salon create new hair-dos for visiting dolls, and quickly checked out the bistro upstairs where girls can eat lunch with their dolls. I was also impressed with the staff there who were incredibly friendly and personable to all of their clients - they really seem to enjoy their jobs and it left me with an even better opinion of the company.

Then we spent the rest of the day at Nickelodeon Universe where we rode almost all of the rides for which Cecelia and Vivian met the height requirements. Usually this involved Jake and I being crammed into kid-sized cars as well, but even some of those rides were surprisingly fun. We took a break to eat at the slightly overpriced but child-enchanting Rainforest Cafe. With a $10 off coupon printed from their website, it was pretty reasonable and the kids thought it was amazing.

By the time we left at 6, the place was starting to get a bit crowded, Cecelia and Vivian were starting to wilt, and Jake was starting to fray at the edges from a day spent in a mall. I got a couple of mochas for Jake and I, and chocolate chip cookies all around which perked everyone up enough to make it to the car without any meltdowns. Vivi was asleep before we were out of the parking ramp and both she and Cecelia were happy to lay their heads on their own pillows when we finally got home and they had some dinner.

All in all, it was a nice little trip and a great chance for the four of us to spend some time together playing and having fun.

Okay... I lied

2009-09-24T18:02:00.002-05:00

I made myself my handy schedule of when I'd post things about my trip and then I promptly ditched it. In my defense, school this semester has been intense and work at the Humane Society has also exploded into a lot of time-consuming, challenging stuff.

I WILL get that stuff posted and I will continue to blog, but you all will just have to be patient with me as I fight to keep my head above water...

San Telmo

2009-09-07T14:21:00.005-05:00

San Telmo is one of Buenos Aires' oldest neighborhoods which means that it is filled with beautiful old architecture, but also means that a significant portion of it is also very run down. At night parts can be rather sketchy and I know several people who were mugged in the area. Still, there's a lot about the area worth exploring.

My favorite part of San Telmo is the street La Defensa which becomes a pedestrian only street on Sundays and overflows with street performers and vendors.

There are vendors selling hand-knit sweaters, leather goods, flea market antiques and vintage clothes, jewelry, mate gourds, photography, and tons of other things. There are also musicians, mimes, tango dancers, and the above man who does a unique marionette opera show.

I loved walking down La Defensa on Sundays! Especially with a cone of amazing Freddo ice cream in hand...

El Ombu

2009-09-06T22:38:00.006-05:00

One weekend, my roommate and I took the bus from Buenos Aires to the small town of San Antonio de Areco and spent the day at an estancia (ranch) called "El Ombu."

After a bumpy $8, 2-hour bus ride, and a crazy private taxi we arrived at the estancia. The main public building housed a dining room, reception, kitchen, and bathrooms, with the larger original ranch house divided up into individual guest rooms. I was most excited about the roaring fire in the dining room - actual heat!!! We didn't stick around the building for long though because there were horses to ride.

I've gone horseback riding many times, but I am far from comfortable on a horse. Something about hopping on an animal several times my size that can run at break neck speeds and expecting my clucks and desperate tugs on the reigns to convince it to do what I want just doesn't seem sensible to me. Still, it was fun - and though the first horse I rode didn't like to run despite my asking it to, and the second horse didn't like to walk despite my asking it to. But I survived, rode with gauchos, and got a feel for the country life.

Between our trail rides, we settled in to a fantastic lunch on the lawn of the estancia. We were served a traditional estancia meal of grilled meat, sides, and wine. It was fabulous and we ate until we were stuffed!

Then before heading back to the city, we were served Argentine sweets and tea while we watched the sunset across the sprawling pampas (flat grass lands).

The day at the estancia cost us about $70 but it was a full day and a full experience. I'm so glad we went!

Home

2009-09-06T15:36:00.005-05:00

Don't worry, I made it home as scheduled almost a month ago, it's just been a whirlwind of activity since so I haven't had time to update my blog! I also didn't have time during my last week and a half in Argentina, so I'll be adding more about my adventures there soon. In fact, here's a schedule...

Later today: La Estancia "El Ombu" - a ranch outside in San Antonio de Areco, about an hour from Buenos Aires
Monday 9/7: The San Telmo neighborhood
Wednesday 9/9: Iguazu falls
Saturday 9/12: Colonia, Uruguay
Sunday 9/13: A recap of my experiences and my favorite things from my time in Argentina
So stay tuned!

Growing on me...

2009-07-28T16:39:00.003-05:00

After 2.5 weeks here, I can say that Argentina has really started to grow on me. It helps that the weather has warmed up a bit and I was able to do a little more exploring this past weekend than I had done previously. On Friday night I partied it up like a porteño, making it home at about 5 am (only 15 minutes before our host-sister came in). Saturday I went with a group to the city of Tigre, an river delta area where the majority of the town is located on islands accessible only by boat. Then Sunday I took a long bus ride out into the country to visit an Estancia (a type of ranch) where I rode horses, watched a gaucho show, and was treated to a fabulous dinner served on the lawn of the ranch.

My Spanish skills are also constantly improving and though I am a long LONG way from fluent and can't even imagine using the language effortlessly, I understand more and am able to express more every day. I still feel like an idiot when I have to ask someone to repeat sentences multiple times, or when I use the wrong word, or completely misunderstand something, but at the same time I am proud of how far I've come. That is a really good feeling...

My daily life in BsAs

2009-07-22T17:43:00.002-05:00

7 am: Wake up call. I go take a shower in our bathroom that is basically a giant shower and as a result requires special arrangements to prevent everything from getting soaked.
7:30 - 8 am: Get ready for the day and curse my lack of warm clothes.
8 am: Eat breakfast which consists of black tea and toast with a cream-cheese like spread and marmalade.
8:30 am: Board the Subte at Estación San Juan with a couple hundred other people.
8:45 am: Get off the Subte at Estación Lavalle and walk the remaining 6 blocks to school.
9:00 am: Class starts.
11:00 am: Break time! I go get a cup of tea or hot chocolate and maybe a snack.
11:30 am: Back in class.
1:30 pm: Class finishes for the day and it's time to go find something to eat and maybe explore the city a bit.
6 pm: I usually go to the Locutorio (internet shop) for awhile to call Jake and the kids on Skype and check e-mail.
8 pm: Time to finish up any homework I didn't finish in the early afternoon.
9 pm: Dinner with the family after which we help clean up and wash the dishes. Dinner usually consists of meat, vegetables, and bread with water to drink and a piece of fruit for dessert.
10 pm: I settle into my bed to do more homework, read or journal.
11 pm - Midnight: I'm out for the night...

Things I've Discovered in BsAs

2009-07-21T16:28:00.004-05:00

The annual rainfall here is something like 4 inches. I think today we got at LEAST that much and this kind of rain does not make porteños or their gutter systems or roofs very happy.
Usually the rain is much more of a mist.
During a downpour, roofs in even nice building leak.
People eat eggs on almost everything... on sandwiches, hard-boiled on pizza, hard-boiled inside pastries, etc. but never for breakfast.
Breakfast here consists of coffee or tea and toast, crackers, or these sweet croissants called medialunas that are to die for.
There are several Jewish temples, but keeping kosher here must be quite a challenge since meat and cheese (usually together) are huge staples of the diet. Also...
Beef may be a strong part of the economy and the pride of Argentina, but ham is their other favorite meat. There are several different varieties of ham flavored snack crackers available at every snack stand and every restaurant has several options of ham-based meals. Bacon is also popular although it's not crispy and resembles ham more than American bacon.
People do not clean up after their dogs here, and there are a lot of them, which means you really need to watch your step.
There are TONS of pigeons here, one of which almost pooped on me further lowering them in my opinion. I have grown to loathe pigeons.
There are very few controlled intersections so driving and walking is always an adventure.
In the intersections that are controlled, they give a yellow light warning when it changes from green to red, but also when it turns from red to green letting people know to get ready to GO and FAST.

La Boca

2009-07-19T15:07:00.006-05:00

Yesterday we went to the neighborhood of La Boca which is the most colorful and vibrant part of the city surrounded by the worst (and notriously most crime ridden) slums.

The 9 or so blocks that are fit to go down, however, are very interesting. The buildings are painted a variety of bright colors and the pedestrian-only streets are lined with restaurants, shops, and art galleries. In the streets themselves are Tango dancers, Gaucho dancers, and other street performers.

Wandering around the area was the most fun I've had exploring the city so far. Even the cold weather and our cab driver's warnings about the dangers of La Boca didn't prevent it from being a good day. The restaurants there were a bit on the pricier side for the city but the souvenirs were good prices and there was plenty to do and look at for free.

Finding My Way in Buenos Aires

2009-07-15T15:36:00.004-05:00

I've been in Buenos Aires for 5 days now and I'm almost now starting to feel like I know where some things are. It's a very large city which makes it intimidating, and the lack of street signs doesn't help any. Of course, even if you know what street you're on, if it crosses another major street, it is likely that its name will change on the other side and the street numbering will also start over. As you might imagine, this makes finding your way in the city a bit difficult. The subway is actually the least confusing, at least when you're on it... figuring out your bearings once you surface is a different story. Still it is starting to make some sense to me and I'm starting to recognize street names and sites.

Another part of finding your way is figuring out the culture. So far it has been my experience that the porteños (the name for citizens of Buenos Aires) are rather reserved, unless of course they are trying to sell you something on the street. They might give you a kiss on the cheek when you meet but even that feels a bit distant. This has made the city seem like a very cold place in a figurative sense in addition to the cold temperatures. As a result, I'm not exactly in love with Buenos Aires yet, though in fairness, I haven't had much time to visit the most interesting sites since I've been busy with homework and fighting back a cold. I have 3 more weeks here to see what Buenos Aires has to offer and I'm keeping an open mind but... well... I can't say yet the BsAs is a place on my to-visit-again list at this point...

P.S. For those of you following my blog from the Global Crossroads study abroad blog of the University of Minnesota who are interested in the backstory, here´s a link to my earlier posts about my trip to Argentina.

¡Estoy en Buenos Aires!

2009-07-14T14:05:00.002-05:00

I arrived in Buenos Aires on Sunday after a very long over-night flight during which I got VERY little sleep. As a result, my first experiences of the city are sort of hazy. After meeting my roommate at the airport, we took a cab to our home away from home and started to unpack. We live in the neighborhood "San Telmo" which is one of the oldest parts of the city. Every Sunday they have a street fair with performance artists and artisans selling various items so we wandered around that for a bit before crashing for a serious 3 hour siesta. For dinner I had empanadas for the first time and started to feel a bit more human and settled in.

Yesterday was my first day of classes and so far they are going very well. Spanish is still a struggle for me, but most of what I learned last summer has come back to me and I´m holding my own. The school and the instructors here are very good and I´m really enjoying the class time. I´ve had quite a bit of homework so I haven´t had much time to explore the city yet, but I´m starting to develop familiarity with the area in which I live and where the school is located. Having a sense of normal for those things makes it then easier to try new things. The new thing for today was the Subte (subway). It´s pretty much like any other city subway so is nothing too exciting, but having a first experience of the subway under my belt makes me feel much more comfortable branching out to check out other places, or ride the subway into different areas of the city.

Pictures will follow eventually, but not today, unfortunately. I have homework to do!

Countdown to Argentina - 1 day!

2009-07-10T22:49:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow morning, I will leave at 10 am for about 20 hours of travel, flying from Minneapolis to Dallas and on to Buenos Aires arriving at 6 am Minnesota time on Sunday (8 am local time.) *yawn* I suspect the rest of the day Sunday will be spent recouperating from a night spent trying to overcome anxiety and being wedged up next to some stranger in order to get a little sleep. But eventually Sunday or Monday I should find my way to a computer to give some updates.

Bags are packed, MP3 player is loaded up, and everything else is either done or not getting done by me for the next 4 weeks.

Ready or not, here I go...

Countdown to Argentina - 3 days!

2009-07-08T10:31:00.002-05:00

Here's the state of affairs...

My kids are safely and happily up north with my mom with everything they'll need for the next month - except their mama. (Many tears shed over the goodbye, but we'll all survive...)
I got a good selection of guilt gifts all wrapped up for the girls to open while I'm gone and a note with stickers for each day they're away.
My suitcase is packed. (Though I'm thinking about how to pare it down... it's carry-on size, though I'll be checking it, but I still think somehow it's too much...)
My carry-on is packed.
My flight info has been confirmed.
My bank has been alerted that I'll be using my ATM cards in Argentina and possibly Uruguay.
All important information has been written out/copied and given to all concerned parties.
I've been getting the things that I handle wrapped up at the Humane Society. (I'll finish that tomorrow.)
Since the kids are now gone, Jake and I have had a little more time together and went on a hike up the big bluff along the river tonight. We watched the sunset and saw a red fox on the trail. Soaking up the together time before we say goodbye for 3 weeks.

But...

I still have a lot of clean laundry that should get put away lest it become dirty in my absence. And really, who wants to come home from a month abroad to put away clothes?
I need to connect with my friend Carol about meeting up with her during my layover in Dallas/Ft. Worth airport.
I could stand to study Spanish a lot more... all of the adult English-language learners that I work with are Spanish-speakers so I get some practice in which helps. Today I translated a questionnaire and one man gave me a 5 minute lesson on the way I pronounce "b" and "v" today. Most of them love that I stink at Spanish - I think it makes them feel better about not being proficient in English yet. I am all about making others feel better about themselves at my expense. :)
My stinkin' Eyewitness Argentina book that I bought on Half.com almost a month ago still hasn't arrived. I read other travel books, but I love the Eyewitness ones because they are small and have good detail, especially in their maps. Hopefully it will arrive before tomorrow or Friday.
I REALLY need to back up my computer files. My laptop is on it's last leg. I am only able to see anything on my monitor courtesy of a gigantic clamp that is pinched at the top left of my screen - without it, it's just technicolor stripes. It also shuts itself off all the time and I have a trojan every time I do a virus scan. *sigh* I think I better back it up now in case it decides to just stop powering back up when I get home.

All in all, "Woo-hoo!" and "Holy #$%^!" - I'll be on my way to ARGENTINA in 3 days!!!

This Date in History

2009-07-04T10:26:00.003-05:00

233 years ago something happened that is kind of important in U.S. history, yadda, yadda, yadda...

What's MORE important in our house is that 4 years (and 1 hour) ago, Vivian came into the world and things have never been the same. Vivian's name means "full of life" and sometimes I joke that we should have named her something that meant "dull, boring, quiet and never sassy" because she certainly has lived up to her name.

She is my snuggle-bug who is always wanting a hug and a kiss and to tell me she loves me. She is my alarm clock crawling into my bed at 7:30 am saying, "Good Morning, Mama!" with her face about 3 inches from mine. She is my boundary tester, never quite believing that I really mean what I say. She is my fountain of energy, always wiggling, bouncing, jumping, running - or dead asleep since for Vivi there is no middle ground. She is my performer, always putting on a dramatic show involving improved songs and interpretive dances. She is my bull-horn, whose whisper is louder than most people's conversational tone. She's my baby, forever my youngest, my sweet, lovable, hilarious, determined, caring, feisty, dramatic Vivian.

Happy Birthday, sweet girl. Your mother loves you more than you will ever understand.

This week

2009-07-03T09:15:00.005-05:00

Time flies when you have an insane to-do list...

This week I spent several hours in the Mayo travel clinic getting my yellow fever and typhoid vaccinations. Vaccinations kind of ook me out - not the needles but the STUFF being injected into my body. *shudder* But so far I'm feeling fine. Also from clinic I received a horrifying little booklet that goes through the worst case scenarios of all of the injuries and illnesses that could befall you if you dare to leave your home country. In fact, it's probably best if you never leave your house. (They don't go to quite that extreme, but it's not a far leap.) I understand that it's important to know the risks, but man, LIFE is a risk. Some risks are just worth taking. Besides, the majority of the travel advice can be summed up as, "Don't be an idiot and pay attention." Look how much they could've saved on printing!

This week I spent 5 hours cleaning the house we rent out to get it ready for the new tenants. I am not a huge fan of cleaning in general and am even LESS excited about it when it's someone else's mess. Particularly if that someone still owes me a lot of money.

This week I finished up with a series of Family Fun Nights I was leading with my fellow religious education teachers. This was the final of four weeks and I helped 7 little kids tie-dye t-shirts. I only had one pair of latex gloves so I let the kids wear them. This is the reason that my hands are various shades of turquoise, purple, pink, and green. We had a lot of fun with the program and I really enjoy the other teachers I work with, the kids, and the parents but at the same time, it's nice to have one less thing rattling around in my mental to-do forum.

This week my girls started to get sad about leaving to go up north. I figured it would happen eventually, but I'm confident that they will get over it and will have fun without me. Still... it's hard.

This week my sunflowers started blooming, we ate several meals that included fresh herbs from the herb garden, and my tomato plants sprouted flowers! My black thumb is showing the slightest shades of green which delights me. I doubt I'll have tomatoes before I leave but just the fact that I kept them alive long enough to form buds is promising. My pumpkin vine is also growing so I hope to have homegrown pumpkins to carve up for Halloween. Jake and I also planned out the landscaping for our front and back yards. It'll be awhile before we'll have the money to do everything we want to do, but I like having a plan, especially one on paper so Jake can't dispute it later.

This week I spent a ridiculous amount of time working on MixBooks - online digital scrapbooks that can be printed out in bound books. I'm working on one with friends to showcase pictures from our get together in Kansas, one for my trip to Mexico (which I want to finish before I leave to start on a new trip), and two of my girls.

This week I stood in the kitchen of my old house (the one we rent out) and remembered 4 years ago. Four years ago, Vivian was born in that house. I sat in that kitchen watching the few fireworks I could see above the neighboring houses holding a newborn baby. I remember it like it just happened, but that baby turns four tomorrow. Time flies, to-do list or not...

How to: 2 shirts for the price of 4!

2009-06-30T17:50:00.005-05:00

It doesn't sound like such a good deal when it's worded like that, but I couldn't be happier with the results. Let me explain...

I hate having my shirt ride up flashing my post-kids belly to the world against my will. While I appreciate all the work my body did growing and housing my two girls, I'm not a huge fan of the saggy skin that remains on my stomach years after their births. I love my kids and am at peace with my body, but I'd still rather keep my stomach covered than not. However, especially being on the tall end of average with kind of a long torso, finding shirts that fit right can be a problem. Every once in awhile I go through my closet and take out clothes that don't make me feel good. I might love the color or the pattern, but if I end up spending my time tugging and adjusting something in order to feel comfortable it's got to go. I went through my closet this spring and unloaded several items, including 3 tanks that I loved on the hanger but were not great to wear due to their tendency to ride up landing them in my recon bin in my craft room.

Here's what I started with last night:

1 orange paisley built-in-bra tank
1 solid orange built-in-bra tank
1 solid turquoise built-in-bra tank
1 solid light turquoise t-shirt bought from the thrift store for its fabric that I had on hand (Some people horde canned goods, I horde fabric and clothing to cut apart. We all have our quirks.)

Other materials needed:

Sewing machine
Thread
Scissors
PINS - lots and lots of pins... no winging it when stretchy material I intend to wear is involved

Sorry, there are no before or during pictures... I tend to forget to grab the camera when I get the urge to craft something at 11 pm.

And here are the results:

I cut the top layer of the solid orange tank in a straight line all the way around from the armpits resulting in an orange tube. I then (rather sloppily) sewed the raw cut edge onto the elastic band of the built-in-bra on the paisley tank. The end result is a layered look with the orange tube hanging out about 3.5 inches from the bottom of the paisley tank. Because the seam is up under my boobs it's not noticeable at all and does not change the look of the paisley tank at all. I LOVE the result.

(It occured to me when I was done, that if I was still breastfeeding I could've cut slits into the built-in-bra and made it a nursing top - I have no need for a nursing shirt, but if you do and try that, let me know if it works well.)

Next I combined the two turquoise shirts.

The lighter colored shirt was a bit big and the darker tank was rather thick so I decided in order to reduce the amount of sewing and keep the end result shirt from being too hot in the summer, I would just add a band of fabric from the t-shirt to the bottom of the tank. I cut a 4 inch strip off the hem of the t-shirt and took in one side to make the circumference match that of the tank's hem. Then I pinned raw cut edge of the t-shirt strip onto the underside of the tank (right side to wrong side). I simply stitched around the edge, keeping my stitches evenly spaced in relation to the original hem stitching on the tank.

The end result is functional - it looks and feels great - but the hem line is not quite as clean as the orange tank. On the hanger or lying flat, the seam where the two shirts meet puckers a bit, especially since I have a very basic sewing machine and had to do a basic straight stitch. Once it's on me and is stretched out, it smoothes out, but this method would not work as well with a looser shirt. Also, the shirt is maybe a bit more obviously modified, where the orange tank looks legitimately layered. The upsides for this version is that it is light weight (read: cooler in the heat) and required much less of the second fabric than the orange version.

There are two examples of how to lengthen a shirt for my fellow long-torsoed anti-belly-shirt friends! I'm sure those of you in this camp will agree that 2 for the price of 4 is a good deal if it means no more tugging.

Countdown to Argentina - 2 weeks!

2009-06-28T11:10:00.002-05:00

Two weeks from today I will be landing in Buenos Aires, Argentina and embarking on a month of adventures!

I'm at the point now where I'm as ready as I'll ever be. There are things I want to do and need to do in the next two weeks, and I could certainly stand to have more money and know more Spanish, but there comes a point when it's time to go - ready or not. I learned this last year and discovered that although I panicked to get the house completely spotless before I left, there was still cleaning to do when I got home, and although I scrambled to accomplish things for people and organizations I'm involved with, they all survived just fine without me for awhile. Basically - I'm not quite as important as I like to think I am.

Jake is entirely capable of fending for himself for a month (even if he DOES forget to clean the bathroom) and Cecelia and Vivian are well cared-for and happy staying with my mom and in-laws. We will all miss each other, but we will all have a lot of fun and have great stories to tell when we're back together. So this time around I am not as worried about the other people in my life.

I am also not as worried about myself. I learned last summer that in less than one week in Mexico I had figured out enough Spanish to have a reasonable conversation, take a cab, order dinner, and buy a cell-phone. Being immersed in a language I hardly know is intimidating and sometimes overwhelming but it's also really fun and interesting. I also learned that even though I love my family and miss them very much when we are apart, it does not prevent me from having fun without them.

Almost everything about going to Argentina will be different than going to Mexico, but the key lessons I learned about myself and my family from last summer's experience remain. Am I nervous? Of course I am! Do I have an insanely long to-do list? You better believe it! But still, I feel ready in the ways that are most important and am confident that the rest will fall into place.

The Reason for the Drive

2009-06-27T14:17:00.003-05:00

I've posted about some of the things the girls and I saw on our road-trip to Kansas and back, but I haven't posted about the whole reason we went on the trip in the first place.

We went to my friend Allison's house in Topeka, Kansas along with Jess and Angie from South Carolina, Kristin from another part of Kansas, and Corey from Colorado. All together there were 6 moms and 11 kids - quite the crew! - and Allison graciously hosted ALL of us in her home.

We had a fantastic time "meeting" people we already knew just hanging out at Allison's house, and going to the park, the pool, an outdoor concert, and the lake. It was a blast and we can't wait to see our friends again next summer - location to be determined!

The Grotto of the Redemption

2009-06-25T10:44:00.009-05:00

Wow.

The Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend, Iowa is... big. And covered in stones of varying shapes, sizes, colors, etc. It really can not be described or captured in photos... it is something that must just be experienced.

There are shrines depicting various aspects of the life of Christ, including the above corridor with the stations of the cross, and devotional shrines to the Virgin Mary and other saints. Every inch is covered in shells, coral, and stones of varying brilliance from basic brown rocks like you'd find in your driveway to agates, turquoise, and quartz.

It is a massive structure with wandering paths, staircases, and cathedral-like arched rooms around every corner. The above is a composite photo of one of the huge Marian shrines...

It was a ridiculously long drive on tiny little Iowa roads to get there, but it was worth it. Cecelia and Vivian had a blast running around discovering all of the little coves and whispering (think loud stage whisper), "MOM! Come here, you've got to see this!!" There was plenty to see and plenty of space to move around on the winding paths and staircases. The Groto Cafe was closed so we didn't get any snacks, but we got to stretch our legs and take in some wacky religious awesomeness. Definitely worth the detour.

World's Largest Ball of Stamps

2009-06-24T20:28:00.007-05:00

Instead of taking the much faster (though more boring) interstate highways back to Minnesota from Kansas, we took a bit of a detour, heading north into Nebraska and then over into Iowa. This allowed for two silly Anna things... First, I got to check off Nebraska as a state I have visited - 18 down (plus D.C.), 32 to go - (and unless the Western side is a heckuva lot more interesting or future road-tripping requires driving through it, one visit was enough). Secondly, I got to go to the world's largest ball of stamps.

I have kind of an affinity for stamps. They're little and delicate (especially the old ones), are usually pretty or at least look interesting, and are most often from some place far away. I love them! This would be why I have a table covered with them and make earrings out of them. Anyway, so we needed a place to stop and wander around and the ball of stamps just happened to line up with my route. (It's amazing how things will "line up" for you when you make lengthy detours.)

The ball of stamps resides in the Leon Myers Stamp Center which is actually just kind of a back room of the Boys Town Visitors Center in Boys Town, Nebraska. There's the large 600 pound ball, the wall mural of stamps, some stamp history, and stamps for sale for a penny all the way up to about $100 for serious collectors. We took pictures, looked at stamps (naturally) and bought a few new ones from the penny bins.

Cecelia even found a stamp from Argentina on the ball so we had to take a picture. The cool thing about a ball, or table as we've discovered, covered in stamps is that it makes for a great I-Spy game so the girls had a blast and got to stretch their legs. Yay for weird stuff to look at...

"Ooh, Eee, Ooh, I look just like Buddy Holly"

2009-06-23T09:10:00.005-05:00

It was to that Weezer song that I first danced with Jake (back when he WOULD dance on occasion) and now, almost 12 years later, we are celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary. How time flies...

Cecelia and Vivian love that song, but had no idea who Buddy Holly was. I'm not sure they know a whole lot about him even now, but they got a bit of a crash-course in music history when we visited Clear Lake, Iowa. We went to the Surf Ballroom which was the last place that Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper played before their deaths.

We looked at photos, newspaper clippings, and souvenirs (passing up our chance to buy a plastic replica pair of "Buddy Holly glasses.") We also visited the memorial built for the 3 musicians and the pilot who died in the plane crash.

It's a neat place with interesting, though sad, history and wandering around there provided a good chance for us to stretch our legs. The kids also got a little education out of the experience and thought Buddy Holly was pretty cool when I put "That'll Be The Day" and "Peggy Sue" on in the car.

Countdown to Argentina - 3 weeks!

2009-06-21T11:55:00.004-05:00

Holy #$%&. Less than three weeks to go - also known as the point at which I start to kind of freak out a little. Luckily, all of the big events in June are past so I have a bit more time to dedicate to freaking out. I really don't have all that many things to do related to the trip, but there are just so many things that I want to do and I don't want the summer to just rush by either.

Here is what I hope to accomplish before I leave:

Mail out Vivian's birthday party invitations. First I will need to decide what time we will be having her party. Her birthday being a major national holiday is sometimes very complicating...
Refinish our dining room table. This has been on my to-do list for over a year.
Draw up the floor plans and landscaping plans for our home remodelling.
Go to the pool at least a couple times each week. We live just down the street from an awesome park with a great pool but we don't get there nearly enough. I need to get my stuff together more often to pack us a lunch and go hang out down there for the day.
Plan the big first-ever Gala for the Humane Society.
Purge and reorganize the kids' toys.
Make some fun new things for my Etsy shop.

For the actual trip, I need to start taking my Chloroquine (malaria prophylaxis), get my yellow fever vaccine, plan things for the girls while I'm gone, brush up on my Spanish, and do the final things like packing and loading up on books and magazines for the plane.

Awesome crafty blog

2009-06-18T09:42:00.002-05:00

Carina's Craft Blog http://www.wardi.dk/2009/06/act-inspire-yourself.html

I LOVE her use of color. Excuse me, I must go craft something now.

Road tripping

2009-06-17T23:44:00.005-05:00

Being in a car for extended periods of time is not always fun... add in young children and no other adults and it can be hell. BUT it can also be a great experience if you do it right. I'll admit that I don't always love to drive around with my kids, but I don't dread it either. In fact, not even 24 hours after getting out of the car from our last 1100 mile trip (which was AWESOME, by the way, details to come), I started mapping out an even further one for next summer. I might be completely crazy, but there's a method to my madness and my girls have become pretty good travellers.

What I have learned in all my insanity...

Ice cream pails are necessities, especially if you have a child prone to motion sickness. Even if you don't... it's good to be prepared. We have two in the car, one that I use for trash and another on standby. Baby wipes, toilet paper or tissues, and an extra bottle of water (for cleaning) also come in very handy.
Books on CD are one of technologies greatest gifts. Of course, not all audiobooks are created equal. Long, slow-paced, or intricately detailed stories are not great with young kids (or to keep the adult who is driving awake - the Secret Garden for one.) Also, depending on the age of the kids, some stories may be too mature (like the later Harry Potter books). Dr. Seuss books are good on CD but, at least in my opinion, are far better when accompanied by the pictures so they are not my favorites. Still, there are some great books out there. This last trip we listened to The Tale of Desperaux (a bit on the slow side but good), Because of Winn-Dixie (perfect), Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle (funny - a big bonus), and Ivy & Bean (short, engaging, and funny). A tip - take a look at the running time. An 8 hour story is unlikely to keep anyone's attention straight through... unless you know it's a favorite, stick to the shorter stories or break it up into sections.
MP3 players rock. A long car ride is the perfect time to bust out some music you might not normally pick. For example, a short playlist of "dance party USA teeny-bopper type-o-shit" (name that movie!) can be a great way to break up the monotony and get everyone grooving from within their seats. Zydeco, Reggae, and 50s-60s oldies are fun and Mariachi music is perfect for maneuvering in traffic and going around and around various exits and cloverleafs. As a rule, I do not play kid music (especially not on long car rides when my sanity may already be in jeopardy) but I WILL play the Hairspray soundtrack and other kid-friendly music that I also happen to enjoy.
In-car DVD players may rock, but if you have a motion-sickness prone child, these are not so hot. Also, they do not rock so much if they do not also have headphones and you as the parent do not want to listen to Happy Scrappy Hero Pups (name THAT movie!) over and over and over. Plan accordingly.
Pick good in-car toys, and pick them yourself. I have learned the hard way that when my kids pick out their own toys we end up with a random smattering of things - like a doll shirt but no doll - with which they do not actually play in the car. I have found that the BEST toys are ones that allow them to use their imaginations in many different ways, are very washable, do not require adult help, and are small. Although we are an Adult-Barbie free house, I love the little Kelly dolls and they are great to bring along - just without their shoes which inevitably get lost anyway and require adult help. Also, the Littlest Pet Shop, Puppy In My Pocket, and similar small toys are good. Puppets are fun and simple dress up items like little tiaras, gloves, and sunglasses are good. Silly Putty is fun for slightly older kids but is a pain in the butt, no pun intended, when it is sat on and smooshed into the car seat and the child's clothes. If you see Vivi out in a pink dress with a big green stain on the side, this is why. I avoid any books other than board books since paper pages are easily ruined by spills and being tossed around and are also not good for the motion sickness.
Plan for stops. Lots of them. For every 2 hours of drive time that Google Maps tells you, I add at least 15 minutes. It is best to be proactive about stopping - stopping BEFORE you're all of a sudden 40 miles from the nearest toilet and someone has to pee NOW (leading you to teach said child how to squat on the side of the road) or BEFORE everyone's nerves are totally fried and no time on the playground will make you happy. Parks are easiest to find in small cities, and in my experience tend to be located near bodies of water - if there's a lake, drive around it and you stand a good chance of hitting a park at some point. This is also a place where Roadside America comes in... my kids love to stop and see wacky stuff and it gives me something to look at while they run around. If the weather is crappy there are always McDonald's playplaces, but even just wandering the aisles of a Target can be a good chance to stretch your legs, use the bathroom, and pick up anything you suddenly realized you forgot. (Wal-Mart works too and their parking lots are also apparently good places to cause traffic accidents, but that's another story.)
Plan your route. Especially if you are the only adult in the car, figure out where you're going and what roads you'll take before you start driving. This is also a good time to plan out some possible stops given the info in #6. I like to give myself a rough time line as well so I know how far we are on or off schedule and thus how long we can afford to stop.
Kids' Thermoses are fantastic. A water bottle with a good spout that keeps the drink cool is so great to have and easy to refill from a larger jug or with water/juice picked up at the gas station (which would otherwise be major spill-hazards if left in their original bottles.)
Snacks are a must. I hate using a lot of disposable packaging, but I love to divvy up large quantities of snacks into little plastic bags or containers. It is so much easier to hand back a bag of pretzels than to hand back 3 pretzels every 35 seconds. Our favorite car snacks are: pretzels, cheesy crackers, trail mix, apple slices, grapes, strawberries, bananas, orange slices, cucumbers, baby carrots, cookies, granola bars, peanut butter sandwiches, cheese sticks, and yogurt. Obviously, a small cooler is important to keep the perishables cold.
RELAX! Remember that "getting there is half the fun" and just go with the flow.

Here's how I stock my car for road trips alone with the kids...

In the center console area: sunglasses, phone, MP3 player, wallet, chapstick, camera, and my water bottle
In the passenger seat: a small cooler and a box full of individually packaged snacks, as well as a notebook with my directions and maps inside
On the floor of the passenger seat: a jug of water for refilling water bottles, my backpack with my purse/umbrella/sweater inside, a library bag with books on CD
On the floor of the backseat: a pair of flip-flops for each kid in addition to the shoes on their feet (they often take shoes off and can't find them in a hurry to go in to the store), the garbage bucket
In between the two carseats in the backseat: the extra bucket, the tote of toys.
In the pocket of the two front seats: a small pillow and blanket for each child
In the trunk: everything else!

This is what works for me. :)

We're off to see the wizard...

2009-06-10T20:55:00.004-05:00

or at least Kansas.

Friday morning we'll load up and head south to visit friends in Kansas. Although they absolutely are my friends, we've never met in person - I will be "meeting" 5 friends from across the country that until now I've only known online. I'm sure this seems a bit strange to people who have not been part of an online community, but considering that I've been part of my attachment parenting message board for over 7 years, it seems perfectly natural to me.

And if they do turn out to be creepy 40 year old men who live in their mothers' basements and have been posing as mothers of young children for the last several years, well, just think of the great story that will make! ;)

Countdown to Argentina - 5 weeks!

2009-06-06T21:22:00.004-05:00

This week I practiced packing to give me time to really think about what is worth schlepping around and see if there were any things I still needed to buy with Rick Steves' words ringing in my ears. He says, "You can’t travel heavy, happy, and cheap. Pick two." Even though he sometimes he comes across as a little cheesy in his travel videos, he's an experienced traveller and has some wise words in "Pack Light and Travel Happy." While I'm not as much of a minimalist as Steves, I'm getting better at overcoming my desire to pack everything but the kitchen sink in an effort to be "prepared." I'm down to a carry-on size suitcase and a backpack (each with room to spare) which I think is pretty good considering I was the girl who showed up to summer camp with a bulging suitcase and two laundry baskets full of stuff.

I also figured out how to fully utilize the features of the new MP3 player Jake got me for Mother's Day, added more songs and created playlists. When I feel stressed, a little music is a wonderful cure so my MP3 is worth its weight in gold to me. Any device that shuts you off from your surroundings can be easily abused so I try to limit using my MP3 player especially when there are people to talk to and experiences to take in. Still, on a 10 hour flight or at the end of a long stressful day of fighting to express myself in a language that does not yet come naturally to me a little technology can be a godsend.

Today I read a children's book about Argentina. I felt a bit silly sitting at the table with my tea and a kid's book, but it was a great way to get a crash course in Argentinian history, culture, and land with lots of photographs. I've also busted out the flash cards in an attempt to dust off my Spanish skills. I know so much more than I did at this time last year but I still have so much to learn.

Just a little over a month to go!

No more homework, no more books...

2009-06-04T10:35:00.004-05:00

No more trying to roust a sleeping child out of bed at 7:45 so she can get ready for school, deciding it's worth driving her to let her sleep an extra 30 minutes, finally getting her up, getting her to shovel in some breakfast, trying to find an appropriate outfit and untangle the dreadlocks formed in her sleep, discovering papers her teacher needs back TODAY, having her sister decide 2 minutes before leaving that she needs to completely change her clothes and/or cannot find shoes, loading the barefoot/half-naked sister in the car, hauling ass to the school and STILL having the child walk in 2 minutes tardy.

In other words, today is Cecelia's last day of school. WOO-HOO!!!! (I think I'm probably more excited than she is.)

P.S. Please remind me of my excitement next week when Cecelia and Vivian are not quite adjusted to being together 24/7 yet but when the novelty has worn off and they are ready to claw each other's eyes out.

Roadside America

2009-06-02T09:15:00.005-05:00

I'm planning a road trip to Kansas next week which entails driving all the way across the state of Iowa with two kids. Naturally, we will need to make a few stops so I went to my favorite road-trip website, Roadside America, to find a few quirky pit stops.

On Roadside America people post information about odd tourist attractions such as giant statues of wildlife/farm animals/mascots/etc, atypical museums, and interesting decorations such as a house covered in beer cans. It's great fun, and we spent an entire week driving around Wisconsin to look at these things a few years ago, my favorite of which was the Cress Funeral Home in Madison, with a basement display known as "White Squirrel Heaven" featuring hundreds of taxidermied animals (mostly squirrels and chipmunks) in creative poses, like playing poker at a bar. I'm also a big fan of Prairie Moon which is only about an hour and a half from my house, and Jurustic Park.

My trip through Iowa is a pretty straight shot so I won't be making a whole lot of deviations from I-35 which means I'll miss the American Gothic house, the Grotto of the Redemption, or the Field of Dreams. I think I'll still find enough to keep us entertained though and maybe on the way home we'll make a few extra detours. There are crazy things to see everywhere, and that fact just delights me to no end.

Firoozeh Dumas

2009-05-31T23:07:00.003-05:00

Firoozeh Dumas' books, Funny in Farsi : A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and Laughing Without an Accent : Adventures of a Global Citizen are funny, touching, interesting, and just great! I read them out of order (just finished Funny in Farsi) but it didn't really matter. Both books are sort of collections of short stories about different aspects of her life: her childhood in Iran, first impressions of the U.S., being a new mom, dealing with nutty parents, etc. The short chapters make the books great to take along on errands - I read an entire chapter in the line at the grocery store - or just when there's limited time/focus to read (i.e. in a house with Vivian). Some stories are a bit sappy but I still enjoyed them. Dumas' experiences are so different than my own, but the way she tells them makes them relatable. I definitely recommend them!

Countdown to Argentina - 6 weeks!

2009-05-30T10:37:00.003-05:00

Six weeks from today I will be hopping on an airplane and heading to Argentina! The thought of it makes me really excited, a bit nervous, and makes me realize how much I need to do in the next month and a half.

I've got my passport and my plane tickets, all of my confirmation materials have been submitted to the university, and the childcare arrangements have been made. The big stuff is covered (whew) but now it's time for the million little things I need to do.

My 6 weeks out to-do list:

Make my packing list. (I just love when making a list is on my to-do list. Me and lists we're good pals.) I might even do a dry run to see what fits in my suitcase and revaluate what I REALLY need.
Dust off my Spanish flashcards and start studying them every day.
Find a Spanish conversation partner for more studying.
Make a list (yay!) of the things that need to be done around the house before I leave. (If it's not on a list, it doesn't happen.)
Get Cecelia some "new" clothes (garage sales and thrift stores, here we come!) since she's grown out of just about everything and I need to be able to pack some actual clothes for her when she goes up north to grandma's.
Start on whatever letters or goodie boxes I'll be leaving for the girls while I'm gone. (Unfortunately for them, my mama-guilt is not as heavy as it was last summer so they aren't getting spoiled quite as much.)
Go fill my prescriptions for Xanax (flight anxiety) and cloroquine (malaria prevention since I'll be going to a higher-risk area in northern Argentina.)
Make an appointment at a special travel clinic to get the yellow fever vaccination (again since I'll be going to the northern part of the country.)
Figure out my travel budget.

And finally...

Enjoy the next 6 weeks with my kids soaking up the Minnesota summer and not stressing out about getting things done.