Four Things

Today I flew out to visit my folks in Florida. Here are 4 awesome things that happened on the way:

Thing One: Here we go steelers!
By sheer accident, I went to the hosting city of the superbowl today. I had completely missed it was going to be hosted in Dallas this year. I happen to be flying through on a connection and was shocked to see so many Pittsburgh jerseys outside Da'Burgh. I had a dejavu moment. Forgot where I was. But that could also be because I was tired. The day started around 4am and I'm now somewhere in central time zone so, a long day.

Thing Two: Donuts and Coffee
I really like Dallas Fort Worth. Since moving out west it is really a great connector city back east -- so much nicer than Altanta or Chicago. Its about exactly half way between Denver and the Florida Panhandle, so you don't end up with a 3 hour flight followed by a 45 minute flight. (where the flight attendants throw the peanuts at you and buckle back up) It has coffee. For better or worse, it has Dunkin Donuts. I grew up around the corner from the DD, and donuts and comics on a Sunday afternoon pretty much were a regular event in our house before we moved out of the midwest. So it was just great to find fresh donuts (and galvanizing coffee) this morning across from my gate. I came up with a whole plan for world domination while drinking that coffee.

Thing Three: Multilingual
There were a large number of people on my plane speaking Spanish for some reason. It was awesome because they decided I spoke it too and asked me a couple of questions. My brain failed to return any romantic language response in time, (how do you explain "bag elevator" It's odd in English. bolsa de ascensor?) But for awhile there we were all together, experiencing the same flight.

Thing Four: Personal Pilot
As I was getting off the plane from Denver, I happened to glance at the door to the cockpit. It was open as is standard procedure at this time of the flight. Hanging on the back of the door were the two pilots' hats, kind of like this:
On the inside of one of the hats was a professional picture of a family; kid, mom, dad. I thought, "how sweet that this pilot takes a picture of his family along." Then the pilot came out: and it was the mom!

Some of you have heard, my grandmother passed away last Sunday. Nana was 96, so it wasn't really a surprise that she got sick after she broke her shoulder in a fall. But it was surprising how fast her health worsened. I happened to be down in Florida for other reasons, but it quickly became finding paperwork and talking to Hospice care. My mom was at the hospital every day. I am so thankful that in a moment of clarity Nana and I were able to talk together and say what needed to be said between us. She passed away in her sleep. I returned to CO as planned, so I wasn't there when it happened.

God really prepared the way for me to be in Florida at the right time. He really has wrapped my family up with love and compassion. We (Paul, Tobo and me) will be traveling down to Florida this week for the funeral. There is so much more I could say about her. She was a kick. She was stubborn as a mule. She was witty and crafty and could tell a good story. And now she's in a better place. God bless you, Nana.

Nov 8: snow mountain ranch

sunrise


dusk


sunset


It was a good retreat. Now I'm going to fall over.

work is work and play is work

First off here are some cute photos of my baby in his awesome onesie from chesh:



Here he is attacking his dad:


Roar!

Secondly, if you've ever thought about using cloth diapers, wander over to wmw's site to see her apt blog about why its important, and how easy it is. I expect another installment soon talk about what she's using, if you all are very good. Our journey into cloth diaper land is going well, even with Tobo's nasty rash. He looks much better, but we're still waiting for it to go away completely. I got my fun toys in the mail this week, so we have new covers and a new pocket diaper to try out as soon as he's done using the cod oil based cream OR I figure out where I can get bioliners on the cheap. The closest retailer is in Boulder and I'm trying to decide if it's worth the gas or just have some internet store ship it to my door. I'm also thinking about switching to cloth wipes as well since we go through so many. We've given up on regular baby wipes since he's skin is so sensitive. We're now just using water and cotton squares. (like for make up) Oh and baths to keep little boy from becoming disgusting. He's still not really interested in toys at all, really likes being held, will tolerate being put down if it's only for a short time, hates(!) the floor, also hates(!) being naked. He managed to stay awake in the sling a whole 5 minutes a few days ago. Usually it just turns him into butter.

Today I've handed Tobo over to Paul and hope to have a work day. I am not going to waste all my time journalling nor will I interrupt Paul as he parents our baby. No matter what coo or gurgle I hear. :) Paul has managed to get the infantino carrier from Grandma and Grandpa to work and they are bopping around the house.

I also was given InDesign Creative Suite 3 for my birthday from my folks (thanks! ) which arrived this week. I can just build whatever I need quickly, easily. And the projects are lining up. I have our next prayer letter to write, birth announcement, book to edit for OMF, and secret project X. Secret project X is...ah! You'll just have to wait to find out.

This is all in practice to start gearing up to work in May. After monday and my next doc's visit, I'll be officially done with postpartum which means I need to start getting in to the office a couple times a week and / or working from home. How that is going to work out is a good question. The biggest hurdle is feedings. I still have the electronic pump until the 15th, but I'd hoped not to depend on it since it is kind of an expense. I have a hand pump, which is slow and inefficient and oh yeah, slow. This is why I'm hoping to work from home as much as possible or have him in the office with me. Hope to work out a basic schedule with Paul today. At the moment, we're not planning on day care.

In the next few months we'll have another visit from Nana in May, Tobo's baptism in June (we'll be down in florida if you want to come!), and a all hands hoemke visit in July in Michigan. Some time in fall we hope to be getting out to Pittsburgh. Seattle is an excellent idea, but I don't know if we'll get there before you all will see us in Colorado. Lots of travel for a little guy!

Ok, off to work for me!

see cat babble

So these days I seem to be struggling with finding the right level of food at night. I'm trying not to over eat but if I don't get enough dinner, I am up at 2am and cranky. I don't think I've found that I can eat too much. Lately I feel like I'm eating 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, and 2 dinners, since I tend to split up meals and spread them out over a couple of hours to stave off hunger/grouchiness. If I find myself weepy or grouchy, that usually means that its time to go raid the kitchen for something solid. This happened last night. I got chinese for myself (wonton soup, friend wontons and 2 spring rolls) and man was I hungry by 4am. Of course, as soon as I eat Tobo gets a blood sugar rush (doesn't matter what it is) and starts dancing. He can really kick now, though he seems to get himself turned sideways, so when I'm lying on my side its like he's pushing off the bed and kicking at the same time. What is weirder is I can pretty much sleep through it.

Paul is doing well, though he's coming to the end of a long week. He's back on a plane tomorrow to start his "double saturday." He starts traveling sat his time and arrives 22 hours later on sat our time. Tentative reports is that the IT meeting has gone well but I'm sure there will be more on that later. As for me I've felt pretty productive this week, (except for last night) I got a few thank-you's in the mail, took good will to be dropped off, feed and clothed myself for a few days, etc. The house still looks like a moving van blew up in it, but a lot of this stuff I wouldn't be allowed to move anyway. My mantra this week has been "don't move furniture until paul's home." My to do list is still a couple of pages long though. I guess one step at a time. :/

We got a couple of inches of snow last night, which no one bothered to plough this morning. So my 30 minute commute took 1.5 hours to complete. The roads weren't even that bad, but everyone was driving like they were in white out conditions. Can I say, I'm quite happy about having a garage now? No digging out! The only problem is that the car and I can barely fit in it together. Since we are in Colorado, most of the roads were dry and salted by 5pm today, with the snow melting in places. Most of it will melt away this weekend as we go into another couple of days of 30ish sunny weather. So that was probably the only really bad day of driving for a few days anyway. I'm counting the number of days until the commute is over. (15)

Well, I should probably go crash so I am not too sleepy when I wake up at 2. I think I'm resigned to not getting a full night's sleep again until 2010. Nite!

travel peace

Remember this? Well its that time of year again. Paul is on his way to Singapore as we speak, to participate in this years IT Committee meeting. Sorry for the lack of lead up to this. I probably should have said something earlier. Unlike last year's freak out, I'm feeling pretty calm about him going, though I don't really have any reason to feel any different than I did last year. Maybe I know what to expect; Maybe we're in for a penny in for a pound now with acme; I'm not sure why. We had a good normal day on Sat which I think helped. With the break in the weather we were able to get around to all the little things that needed doing (oil change, new short sleeve shirt dress shirt for Paul, where did he put his electric adapter?) though we didn't really get to some of the big things. (the truck is just going to wait until he gets back) We topped it off with a run to the computer store to get a free promotional memory card and flash stick and then off to lunch at the original pancake house for some yummy food. (as a side note, I think I surprised the waitress because I cleared off 3 plates of food. um...I'm eating for two?) It was great. He got packed and then we crash early. We were up again this morning around 5ish, he getting a few last things, me standing around saying goodbye before going back to bed. And now we wait. Eventually he'll be back in touch once he is able to get wireless. I'm hoping this set of meetings will be as fruitful as they were last year for him and the rest of his IT fellows.

In other news, the bassinet appeared on Thursday night. I pushed dinner making off on Paul and put it together myself. Ok, it didn't require tools or anything harder than following the instructions, but now we've got a little 3 by 2' bed ready for the baby.If I don't exactly feel ready, I do feel like we've made a start.

Well, that's the news here. Hope you are all doing well.

*bleet bleet* to you little lamb

We're finally over our colds (except for a lingering cough) and about to step out the door for the holidays. I took my dad's advice and flipped over the rest of the advent calendar and sent on our christmas family present (from heifer intl) We did the Hope Basket and the Dream Basket. I like these both because the recipients pass on whatever their animals create to other needy people in the area. I made this awsome card. bleet bleet to you little lamb, and a merry christmas. :)

In a last note, I leave you with the biggest time waster of 2007, facebook. You can quit any time you want.

Happy holidays and see you after the break.

I just wanted to drop a note that Paul is back in Denver a-ok. He' s been up for over 24 hours now and is probably going to crash soon. He's running a bit at the mouth but other wise is well.