Christmas in Pictures 2009

Road Trippin'

We decided to drive to Indy for Christmas this year. We had a fantastic time with the Indiana family. I'll post more on Christmas '09 soon. (gotta get my pictures downloaded first).

I wanted to share some things I have learned from this last road trip with my family.

• Kids cooped up in a car seat all day WILL be crazy once the driving is done. Allow them to run around and be crazy before trying to settle down for bed.
  
• Talking with an almost three year old to prepare her for what's ahead is a good idea.
• Always look at your hotel room before you decide to stay for the night.
• Comfort Inns are a good bet (or any Choice Hotel chain).
• Gusty wind isn't fun while driving in the middle of Kansas.
• Flexibility is key
• Eating semi healthy while on the road pays off.
• A car dust buster may be a good investment.
  
• Kids sometimes surprise you and do really well on a long road trip.
  
• I think we'll be flying to Indy at least until our kids are a bit older.
  

Jack is One!

My little buddy is One today!

This has been an awesome, joy-filled and very fast year. Jack has brought so many smiles and lots of love into our lives.

Some things about Jack:

• He is quite social. He loves the ladies!
• He loves stairs. The moment we open the gate, he squeals and crawls as fast as he can towards the stairs. He does well going up - still working on going down.
• He likes to walk holding onto our fingers.
• He's a good eater. He prefers finger foods. Mommy does too - not so messy!
• He can be rough and tumble with his big sister Lily. He's a tough guy.
  
• Speaking of Lily, he loves loves loves his sister.
  
• He still looks like his Uncle Matt.
• He's a good napper - still working on sleeping ALL the way through the night
• He loves to clap
• He gives "fives"
• He jibber jabbers quite a bit
• He's learning sign language. He signs when he wants to nurse.
  

We love you Jack!!

Single Parenthood

This weekend I'm home alone with the kids. David is in Las Vegas visiting his Mom. He comes home tonight and I can't wait! I realize how much I rely on him when he's gone. I'm managing of course and even having some fun with the kids, but boy, it's tiring. I have a new found respect for single parents or military spouses.

Yesterday we attended a birthday party for Lily's little buddy, Ian. This was held during the normal afternoon nap time. I was a bit nervous about taking them as I was afraid of major meltdowns. They did okay! The only crying was at the very end when I told Lily she could only have one piece of cake. Once the crying began, we headed out and the kids took a short nap when we got home.

Today we have another party in between Jack's morning nap and the kids afternoon nap. I'm glad we have some fun activities this weekend!!

We've only had a few things break this weekend - a mirror frame and a honey dispenser. The mirror happened last night. We were up in Lily's room and I was putting away her toys. I had my back to the kids as I was hanging Lily's shirts in her closet. Jack crawled over to Lily's standing mirror and pulled it down. The mirror itself didn't break, just the frame. It was a very old mirror (from my childhood) and just one of those cheap ones you can get at Target. I will try to repair this one, but if it's not repair-able, I'll look at getting her one that hangs on the wall. Then this morning, I was holding Jack while preparing Lily's breakfast. Jack decided he wanted to Cheerios box and knocked it over, which hit the honey dispenser and cracked the top. I was afraid of glass shards in the honey, so Lily was a bit upset that she had no honey on her Cheerios - she got over it quickly.

David, we miss you! See you tonight!!


At Ian's party....Melanie: Ian's Mom with Jack (Melanie is pregnant with baby #2 due in March, can't wait to meet the newest addition!)

Socks

Now that the sweater is done, I decided to work on a smaller project: socks! I'm hoping to finish these up by Christmas and perhaps give them as a gift!

Today we had my company holiday luncheon. I work for a very small company (12 people) so we held the luncheon in our conference room. Normally I don't work on Fridays, so I just popped in for a few minutes (for the food of course). David and the kids came with me so my coworkers got to meet them.

This coming weekend is a busy one. I have a Lemongrass brunch on Saturday and I believe David is inviting a high school buddy and his wife for dinner Saturday night. Sunday is lunch with my former coworkers at Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group. If the timing goes well, I will go from my coworker lunch to a meetup with my bookclub girls! I love social weekends! Now I just have to figure out how to get my chores done at home in-between.

Christmas 2010 came early!

I am done! I finished David's sweater!! I started this project back in October '06 and promised the sweater by Christmas 2010. I'm very excited, happy, and proud that I finished it. I learned quite a bit from this project and feel a bit more confident to take on harder knitting projects. I think my next project will be a few socks. Time to get out my double pointed needles!


I think he's happy I finally finished! :)

Seaming Away

I have been working on David's sweater all weekend and it's starting to look like a sweater now! I have the sleeves attached and now I'm seaming up the sleeves. Once they are seamed, I will seam the body! I will have to buy a zipper and teach myself how to attach it onto the sweater. In my mind, I cannot possibly see how a zipper is sewn onto a knitted sweater, but I know it can be done with some research. I love the internet!

oh so close

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I'm getting very very close to completing David's "Christmas 2010" sweater. Could it be, could it be that I may finish this early??

This is the front and back of the sweater. I had it on our table so I could seam up the shoulders! Currently I'm working on the neckband. Once that is done, I sew on the sleeves, sew the front to the back, find a zipper and figure out how to get the zipper on! The internet has been a godsend for getting this sweater put together!! I'm doing lots of techniques I've never done before. I just hope it looks like a sweater when I'm done! And it only took me 3+ years!

I love Tuesdays!

For those of you on Facebook, you may have seen my statuses of Massage Tuesdays at work. Every Tuesday, two massage therapists come in and all employees get a 20 minute massage. I find this benefit to be one of my favorites. I work part time and appreciate them allowing me to participate in Massage Day. I feel more companies should provide massages to their employees. It's amazing how relaxing and uplifting it is. I come back to my office feeling quite refreshed. I also found out today that I receive some paid time off! Being part time, I figure I wouldn't receive any benefits - so I'm pleasantly surprised by my PTO.

Work is going well. This week I worked on a Cultural Diversity presentation for one of our clients. I also worked on Medicare D notifications and an FMLA/ADA issue. I'm learning so much at this company. I'm a true HR geek and am so grateful for the opportunity to learn the different facets of HR.

This weekend, my friend Christine and I went to a chili cookoff. I'm not a huge meat eater, but did partake in the judging of the chili dishes. My favorite was a pork chili. After the cookoff, we went to JoAnn Fabrics and Hobby Lobby. I attempted to sign up for another sewing class, but as I looked into the class further, I decided not to go forward with it as I feel I need to practice some more before moving on. This class was making a fleece robe and pajama bottoms. Sounds like an awesome class, but I don't think my skills are quite that advanced yet. Once a month, JoAnn Fabric holds a '1/2 off classes' day. The next one is December 5th and I will sign up another beginning sewing class. The next beginner class makes a reusable gift bag. This could be handy!


me, Michelle and Christine at the chili cookoff

Jack of all trades, Master of none

For those of you who know me well, you know I like to dabble in many things. I do a little knitting, crocheting, stamping, cross stitching and now sewing. I'm looking around for some very easy sewing projects. I think I'd like to try to make Lily a few summer dresses next year once my skills are a bit stronger. I did fix my pillowcase by the way! I bought a seam ripper and fixed my middle seam issue and now my seam is on the side. I am currently using the pillowcase too!

I'm working really hard on David's sweater so he can use it this winter. I'm about half way done with the 2nd sleeve. I will need some help putting the sweater together. I will most likely hit my favorite knitting store as they are quite friendly and helpful.

I also have two months worth of cards to make from Kimberly's Stamps in the Mail projects. I generally only like to work on cards when I'm hanging out with some friends. So, card making friends - let's get together soon and I can get those projects under my belt! :)

I'm a class taker. I love love love to take classes! Some classes I'm interested in taking in the near future would be: more sewing classes, a calligraphy class and perhaps an HR Law update class!

New Look

I like to change things up from time to time. For those of you who have followed my blog for awhile, you may have noticed I change templates semi-often. Well, as I was playing with a new template, I accidentally deleted my complete template from before. (always backup before changing!). Oh well - thought this may give me a chance to do something new with the blog. I have a basic template right now and will be adding items as time allows.

Strange Woman in a Strange World

So last Monday, I took my first ever sewing class. I signed up for the class about 6 weeks ago. All I remember was that I was to bring my own machine or one will be provided for me. I have my Mom's old machine, so I happily brought that to class with me. I was even 10 minutes early! I was ready to go! Or so I thought. As I saw the other students coming in, I noticed they were taking out scissors, pins, and fabric. I was supposed to buy fabric? I asked one of the students how much fabric I was supposed to get and hurried out to buy some. I was so embarrassed. I pride myself on being a prepared person and I completely didn't read the class instructions before coming.
Once I had all my material, the instructor showed us some of the basics to sewing. I really enjoyed the class. However, I made a huge mistake on my project. We made pillowcases and somehow I ended up with the seam in the middle instead of on the side. Oh well - lessons learned.
I'm now looking for some simple and easy sewing projects. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. I may try the pillowcase again to make a correct one!




The sewing machine I have is old enough to say "Dear Homemaker".
This is the pillow case I made. If you look closely, my seam is in the middle instead of on the side.

My first week

I just finished my first week of my new job. Lots of training and getting acquainted with my coworkers and what I will be doing, etc. This job will allow me to learn about benefits, COBRA, and unemployment. These are the areas in HR where I'm not as familiar and am very excited to be gaining this knowledge. I'm also seeing opportunity where my strengths in HR will help the company (such as report writing). I'll be working 12 hours a week, which is just perfect for our family. It allows me to use my "work brain" for awhile which I had been missing. It gives me some me time and adult time which I feel all parents need for themselves. David and I are working through the quirks of scheduling. I'm still breastfeeding Jack and I am working on my pumping schedule to make sure we have enough milk for when I'm gone. Once Jack is a year, we'll switch him to whole milk while I'm gone. That is only two months away (Jack is 10 months today!), so the pumping schedule will only be for a short time.

This last weekend I went to a Canvas class with my stamper teacher friend Kimberly. This canvas is for Jack's room. I kept it fairly simple as Jack's room is quite simple. I felt a bit rushed in finding a picture to work with. I may make another canvas on my own and have David pick a cute Jack picture. He's the family photographer :)


I'm still working on David's knitted sweater. I'm on the last sleeve. Then the task of putting all the pieces together comes next. I've never knitted a sweater before, so I'm sure there will be lots of opportunities for learning. I tend to knit at night when the kids are both asleep. I am just not in a good place to knit while they are awake. I'm still managing Jack and his whereabouts. He is quite mischievous that little guy!

This coming Monday I'm taking a sewing class at JoAnn Fabrics. I can't wait!!

Shared Blog

Check out the shared blog David and I created. I'll post on both Vida Pacifica and We Made People. I may focus this blog on my views, my new job, my crafty stuff etc. I will mostly like post family stuff on We Made People.

I miss boring

We have had quite a lot going on the last two weeks or so. Both kids had ear infections. I had an ear infection. I still can't hear out of my right ear. It feels/sounds as though I'm under water most of the time. I sound like an old lady with my "huh, what did you say?" The one benefit to bad hearing would be the lovely times when both kids are screaming at the top of their lungs.

Yesterday I had my 3rd interview with the part-time HR job. This time I met with the Payroll Director and I felt we had really good rapport. I was supposed to take the DISC personality test, but the person who administers it was out sick. I'm hoping to return early next week to take the test. Then from there, I hope to get an offer! I believe I'm up against one other person. I just hope I have that extra to get me the offer.

Jack is currently on a nursing strike. This happened the night we returned from Indiana (more on that trip later). I believe the strike is due to a number of things: teething, ear infection, traveling and biting. He got into the habit of biting me while nursing and I would sternly tell him "no biting" and set him on the ground. (let me tell you, biting hurts like you-know-what!) I'm struggling with feeling rejected. I'm also struggling with feeling like I'm failing as a breastfeeding mother. I wanted to breastfeed for 12 months at least and I'm falling short of that. I have nothing against formula, so not sure where this is coming from. I guess I am just proud of the fact that I made a commitment to nurse for a year and feel like I'm giving up if I don't.
I'm also not in love with the pumping every 3 hours. Pumping has never been a favorite past time of mine. I was given a name of a doula/La Leche League representative (thanks Leslie) and she gave me some really good tips. I will work on these for the next several days. If it appears he is definitely done with nursing, I will continue to pump and perhaps substitute a feeding or two with formula. I'm reading that most babies who strike do go back to breastfeeding. Wish us well!

We were in Indiana this last week. It was so very nice to hang out with the family. I always enjoy my Indiana time. With my ear infection, it wasn't as pleasant as in the past, but I am grateful for the time I had with them. I miss you lots family!!



Sisters: Christie and Bonnie/Jack, Matt (my brother), Lily and Christie


Jack with Mama and cousin Katie/Lily and Cousin Cassie


Jack took a little snooze on Nana


Katie is a walking fool these days!/My sis-in-law: Carrie


Abba and Lily: together again!/Bonnie and my B.I.L. Mark

*note: I have one picture of my Dad and David together, but you'll have to check it out on Facebook - it's rated PG and I'm trying to keep my blog G-rated - hee hee