Monkey and Baby.

I started this habit of cleaning up the living room and play areas at night before I go to bed. I read it from a fellow blogger, who is a organization master and has 7 children (yes, I said seven). I do feel that this is very helpful and only take a few minutes and keeps us somewhat on top of things. It is a bit daily though, as in routine, boring and regular. I can up with a little game for myself, and maybe for Kate.

The game involves putting a few of her toys in unique places. It keeps them different for her, and for me. My favorites to move around are baby and monkey. They are a dynamic pair, those two. Monkey is the brains of the operation, but don't think that Baby is innocent in the situation. Those blue eyes and placid smile can be deceiving, but I think there is mischief underneath.

Katie usually finds them pretty fast once she is up, there isn't much laughing but they usually then are moved to her own location. I swear I went to college with Monkey, and he is still the guy with the goofy smile trying to get most of us into trouble. I think he was wearing that same shirt last time I saw him too.

I wonder what those two will be up to next?

Good Bye January.

I will be honest, make no excuses. I always hate January by the end of it. Prior to the kiddo we would go on vacation in late January and that seemed to help with my general grouchiness. Now, we can't really travel in the peak of flu and rsv season. No, we are trapped for the majority of the month in our house. I feel a little guilty whining when I know that some people are buried in snow with frigid cold, but bear with me with a little whine about our Pacific Northwest. For at least maybe you see the sun during the month.

First of all don't ever believe somebody when they tell you it doesn't rain that much in Seattle, or Western Washington. The are obviously liars, and or they have lived there in the summer months only. Because having lived in Washington state now for a bit over 20 years, I feel that I can give the honest report that it rains, and it rains for a majority of our seasons. Now, our total rain fall is not that extreme but on average 40 inches of rainfall per year. I think that this total gives a false picture of our reality.

First of all, particularly in the winter months you wake up and its dark and typically hear drops hitting the roof. Drop, dap, drop... dibble, dibble, dop. If the radio is on or the morning news, the weatherperson will be doing their best to describe rain in multiple different terms: increasing showers, decreasing periods of rain, brief periods of cloud break. Once you've left the house, and step over the standing water and brushed away the slime mold and moss that is growing on every object outside you realize that you are standing in a mist. I assume it is this mist that gives us our beautiful green landscape. Its like standing with somebody spraying you with a garden hose or one of those spritzer bottles, and it goes on and on. A damp mist covers you, the sky is gray and dark. You look for a bit of blue sky, but there is none to be found. Just gray, and dark with a mist covering everything. The next day will be a repeat of the previous, though sometimes there is big drops that make you blink when they hit your eye.

I don't remember the conversation with my mother exactly but, we were talking about how stores instantly go from Christmas to spring and summer. And she said something like, there just has to be something in between. I am sure there is something in between. From my standpoint I haven't figured it out yet. Dibble, dibble, dop, drop, drop... drop.

New Format.

I have more interesting things I could write about, but as you might have noticed. I am changing the blogs look a little bit. I am coming up on a year of writing, its January in a very rainy Pacific Northwest so why not start rearranging things a bit.

I need feed back though. I wish I was artistic and techy. I know that I have some people out there that read this and are both. I want a comment or two on what you think and I will keep tinkering away.

Happy Birthday!

Ironically just after I published a blog about all the pieces fitting together in life I made my husband's birthday cake and it looked like the above train wreck of a cake. What the hell happened? Wish I knew. I let it cool completely, five plus hours. The frosting went on easy and then I decorated it and covered it with the glass cake cover. Little K and I went to Costco, and when I got back it looked like a small earthquake had occurred in cake world.

I make him this cake most years, and this is the first true fatality. Though to be honest most of the time one of the animals usually has a nibble or lick prior to the big day so there is always a side that get turned to the back or I have to remember when serving it which piece not to give out (I know gross, but we have a lot of badly behaved pets). And this is the reason I placed it on a fancy covered cake stand.

I called Ed on the phone and explained the tragic cake fate. He of course said, no big deal I am sure it will taste just fine. Upon viewing it he even suggested they could just be really big pieces. I still feel that it is a bit pitiful for somebodies birthday, but when I faced the facts that I didn't have any ingredients or time to make another cake. I just let it be, and fixed myself a cup of coffee (it was too early for wine).

Very curious how I am going to get all those candles on it. All the same I hope my wonderful husband has a fabulous birthday, even with my silly cake.

Working Mom bliss.

The other morning Kate was

playing in her room alone.

It was too quiet.

The pictures are in reverse order, and

I found her happy as a clam in

her toy bin,

of course when I took a picture she wanted to see it.

Yes you read the title right! I actually am not going to complain about being a working mom for once, though don't worry I will be back to my complaining self before you know it. I did want to share though that there are moments in my working motherhood that are blissful.

First and foremost, my profession is beyond amazing. Now notice I say profession, because my job well that can be a whole other story (one not recommended for internet publication). Being a veterinarian is at times everything I ever wanted and more. I adore my patients, and just can't believe that I get paid to be the advocate for such special, loving and vulnerable creatures. I could write so many stories on these individuals and how they've stolen and broken my heart with their little fuzzy faces.

Beyond that everyday though challenging and stressful, is simply that challenging and eventful. I rarely have a dull day (when I do I am actually a little bit grateful to just have time to catch my breath). I get to work, and mostly just barely get everything done in the time allowed, and the day flies by. Just this week, I got to work up a few complicated internal medicine cases, do a complicated orthopedic surgery and advise countless clients in complicated decisions regarding their pets health. Along with talking to clients and seeing their pets for healthy visits, and these are people I see every year (or more) so I get to ask about their families and they ask about mine. In a strange way beyond being my clients and patients these are my friends.

And then I come home, and there is my happy munchkin. She will be joyfully playing in the living room. My stress of the day just melts away as I watch her move objects from the living room to her bedroom. Or she attempts to pull off my shoes while putting a silly bracelets on her arm. She still so young and innocent that she is just happy to see me home. No complaining that I was gone all day. No eye rolling because I didn't get something done for her. Just giggles, smiles and hugs. With my schedule I always work two days then have a day off, so my working mommy guilt is typically in check because I know I have a whole day with her or will in just another day.

I wouldn't say I have it all or that I have found the perfect work/life balance. I would just say that sometimes all the pieces fit together and when they do, what sweet bliss it is!

Milestones and more.

Before I had a child I didn't even have a clue what a milestone was. Sure, I knew that it was a big deal that they did certain things by certain ages and that particularly with your first child you would be excited with their first steps and so on. Of course then I had the micro-preemie and I became a walking encyclopedia on early childhood development. I have at least five charts, four handouts and several books on when Kate should do this and that. I mean literally everything has a spectrum of normal ages, with ranges.

Being high risk for just about everything, monitored by various specialist and the daughter of a very 'type A' organized poor Kate has been very analyzed. I tend to worry, worry and worry some more and then right at the cusp of when I think she needs a specialist she does what-ever milestone is next on the list. My current obsession is her speech which, I will continue to worry about in silence for now.

Because every once in a while, with no worry, no prompting my little peanut does something that just amazes me. Granted, I worked hard to set up the new craft table and I am very excited to start crafting with her over the next couple of years. I said nothing and just continued to work on something at the dining room table.

Meanwhile, Kate just got in her own chair and enjoyed her crayons. Making her mother very happy.

Girl meets snow.

There has been snow meetings other times this winter, as we seem to be getting a lot of it this year. Today was the first time we were organized about the camera portion of it. Unfortunately the model wasn't really up for posing this afternoon and she was feeling a bit clingy with all the white stuff around.

Momma had to improvise to get a smile out of her, and of course it was worth it in the end.

Long Run Sunday.

I signed up for a 21 mile race in California this May. I've got somewhere between 15 and 16 weeks to get ready for this. And though I've run three marathons and all sorts of race in between marathon and a 5K, I still have to prepare and train to run 21 miles. From now until then, I have to run increasing mileage in a somewhat organized fashion so that I don't get injured and I actually enjoy our time in California. I know that I will write several more post on this whole thing and my crazy motivation to do this but today keeping it simple.

The way I train, is to have one day that is my long run day. This is the one day a week that I go out and run my longest of the week, and eventually these will be 20 miles or so. For the most part these are on Saturday or Sunday (and I do see a whole blog coming on trying to fit these into an already busy life).

This week I was to run 9 miles. Last week it was 8 and we had a surprise ice storm and I had to drive to another adjacent town to get that one done. Well, I should have run on Saturday this week.

This is the view from the road outside of my house:

Oh, well I had to run so I head out. Hmm, this was a bit hardier than I thought it would be. I felt like I was running in sand. Going to keep going:


Okay, it was pretty ridiculous. I couldn't tell where the road was or the sidewalk, cars were crashing and I was not really feeling my ankles. I decided to just enjoy taking some pictures and have some fun.


I'll fit those 9 miles in sometime this week, or maybe I will have just had three in the snow. What can I say its winter.

Happy New Year and To do's!

I am a total organization geek! I love things in their place. My day planner has had 2011 in it since November. I have a label maker and I am not afraid to use it. I can honestly embrace the words anal, perfectionist and life plan. Structure is my friend and I love it.

Thus January is great, in my world. Full of resolutions and organizational bins on every corner. Time to get all that you want out of life in a nice little to-do list package. This is the year to make it happen, I will organize the world and beyond.

You may start to notice that I have the zeal of seven mom's on a quad shots. And in my zeal my lists, resolutions and expectations of myself can get very out of control. Then with all the pressure, and everything else on my plate I end up laying on the couch in the fetal position with a nasty cold feeling very overwhelmed.

From my couch of confusion today I did an exercise that I had read about but never tried:

Step 1) You write down everything that you need or want to do in the day, make your list as fast as possible.

Step 2) Imagine this is the last day of your life, what would you do on your list?

Step 3) Now imagine you've got six months to live, what would you do on your list?

Step 4) What did you learn?

Well, step one was a bit scary. I do love my tasks and lists. I whipped out twenty tasks on the list in a matter of a minute or so. Step two wasn't too hard for me either, a bit dramatic and extreme (both things that I tend to be at times too). Boy that narrowed the list down to two things:

1) Play with Kate
2) Transfer money

Then I did step 3, and there was a few more things on the list. Exercise, send out a letter but really not much else. Finally was step four, what did I learn? It was straight forward. When I stop and think, my priorities and most do's really can become clear. It took a lot of pressure of me too. I mean I'll admit I did more today than transfer money and play with Kate. But, I just kept thinking in my head if that was all I got done today then I succeeded in doing what was important.

Of course I did have a really good time playing with Kate!