A story of tonsils and tears

HP went under the knife for the second time this past week. Not our favorite activity that's for sure. I am currently on day 3 of being at home with him during the recovery process. So far we're doing alright. I've just had to physically restrain him once so far to get him to take medicine. He insisted that he 'was full of medicine' and that he was all better anyway and didn't need anymore.

I've felt like a new parent again having to wake up several times in the night to crying and/or to check if he was in fact still breathing.

To keep my sanity I've run off to the YMCA while Jon's been home. Re-loaded with with energy and more squishy foods every time I return. So far HP likes pudding, chocolate milk and gummy bears. I have done my fair share of ice cream eating.

Sideways giggles while sporting our matching hospital bracelets.

Post op puffy face.

Daddy pep talks.

Life Shaping Events

I'm on a Listing Kick!

Sometimes I wake up with the alarm and lay in bed letting my mind just jog around my memories. Yesterday the thought of life-shaping events came into my head. The more I thought on it, the more events I found and questioned why I thought they were life-shaping relevant.

Let me share some :) And like most things I do....in no particular order. (aside from perhaps a little chronologically because that just helps me sort :))

1. Falling off a pier..sort of. When I was really little (before memory actually) my parents, Kellie and I went for a walk on a pier, my parents admired the surroundings for .2 seconds and looked back to see Kellie pointing downwards. There were my little fingers clinging to the edge.

2. Hearing that we were going to get a new sister...and our reply "but we don't need a sister, we need a puppy". Looking back I'm glad we opted for the sister :)

3. Building an amazing fort with the other ramshackle neighborhood kids and my sisters. It was a glorious child-sized escape.

4. Attending several elementary schools before staying put when I reached 3rd grade. Luckily my built in sister friends followed me to all my new houses.

5. Being bossed around by Kellie, but always beating her in the 'which picture do you like more Mom?' contest :)

6. Waking up in the middle of the night thinking I heard my father (who traveled alot) get home, almost go down to greet him but didn't. The next morning we discovered the house had been broken into and my Mom's purse flung up on the roof of a local school.

7. All the books I got lost in for hours and days (Redwall, Lloyd Alexander and Laura Ingalls Wilder).

8. Taking out a $30 loan from my accountant father who drafted up paperwork for me to sign and repay with my allowance...when I was 8.

9. Making fast friends in elementary and struggling to stick together through junior high while discovering perhaps we weren't so similar

10. Discovering my quick to learn brain and excelling through academics

11. Playing the deadly game of spin the bottle, where lives are ruined and reputations made.at age 12.

12. Trying out for volleyball with no prior experience but the sheer will of wanting to be on that team. Getting spiked in the face countless times but never quitting all season (perhaps to the chagrin of my teammates.

13. Being denied a spot on Varsity soccer in Junior year only to negotiate my way on the team anyway.

14. Riding the bench for the better part of my soccer career but never leaving the sport I loved.

15. Asking my future husband to walk with me in graduation ceremony.

16. Being in the top 10 of my graduating class.

17. Getting a full scholarship to the University of Michigan, but acquiring a job within 2 weeks of starting anyway...

18. Learning to drink late in the game of life and paying for it

19. Finding friends amidst a sprawling campus, and taking comfort that my first best friend, Kellie, was there with me for 2 years

20. Choosing Turku, Finland as my study abroad location (because it was a direct exchange, i.e. free) then sitting in my parents backyard a week before departure and thinking, will there be friends there for me?

21. Finding the most amazing friends from all over the world and sharing experiences that to this day make me smile.

22. Leaving those same friends knowing it will never be the same and learning that life is made up of chapters with beginnings and ends.

23. Losing my Abuelita while away in Finland, the closest of my grandparents. I can still, and probably always will, be able to tour her house in Alma in my mind's eye.

24. Playing rugby and breaking my collarbone while realizing the amazingly real feeling of colliding with people intentionally (haven't tried it? Do!)

25. Moving to NYC with a suitcase in my hand and no idea where I was going or what a borough was.

26. Acquiring a cafe job within a week of being in NYC to support myself (well to feed me really).

27. Finally landing a teaching job as a middle school ESL/History teacher. Being torn apart and put back together by my students.

28. Finding friendship and opening another chapter of life, maybe like the Laura Diaries...like the Carrie Diaries?...no?

29. Marrying the man that followed me to Turku and NYC and bet on us time and again. Closing the NYC Diaries and heading back to Michigan.

30. Having my sweet little HP, the beginning of a chapter that will last a lifetime.

30 on 30

30 Things to Do While 30

1. get a tattoo, yes Jon I'm being serious
2. go on a proper vacation with Jon
3. visit a city/State I have never been to
4. practice the 'new thing brought home, old thing leaves the house' rule
5. get actively stronger again
6. update the house in a meaningful way, like pick up a hammer kind of way new windows!
7. practice the art of not oversubscribing to people/events/obligations
8. pay off my library debt and never feel that shame again! done and done, clean slate as of January
9. pay off remaining CC debt
10. travel somewhere new to me in Michigan
11. successfully expand my career and better support my schools with actual support (past compliance issues)
12. train for and compete in an athletic event
13. babysit for my friends
14. be more of a cheerleader than a coach when it comes to my personal connections- most of the time we just want support, not advice
15. have more days filled with Laura-isms- coffee pots, magazines, comfy chairs, manicures, movies I've seen hundreds of times, Disney songs, grapefruits and hammocks
16. celebrate our 6 year wedding anniversary in style
17. get our car washed and detailed regularly
18. plant a smaller but better garden
19. pay for someones meal/drink at a drive thru
20. give someone a gift anonymously 
21. try out a church Fountain Street downtown
22. get involved with West Michigan refugee community
23. give my parents more hugs and tell them I love them more
24. find an out of office place that I can work at effectively and then schedule it consistently
25. purge my kitchen of old/dated cookware and upgrade
26. go wine tasting
27. landscape my yard
28. volunteer with HP
29. avoid buying more blue and black clothes...lets try for something different!
30. face my anxieties and fears by learning new coping mechanisms

Whew :) Want to help me on my quest for making Year 30 be as great as it can be? Hold me accountable and ask about the list, better yet join me in one of the adventures!

A New Year

Happy New Years!
Late and anti climatic but, here I am :) We didn't ring in the new year with anything special, outside of a HP and me dinner date. Jon had to work until 2 am but then had the 1st off. I have been on an extended vacation from work, almost 2 full work weeks off. It felt amazing. Last year I went in throughout the holidays and nearly fell apaet from lonely-holiday rage! So it was the right move to take a few days this time around :)

So whats happening in this new year?
-same jobs for both of us
-potentially putting HP into preschool this Fall
-a family trip to Portland for a week to see family and in my case work
-potentially going on a Europeon vacation with Jonathan in the Fall (cross your fingers and toes)
-doing some proper landscaping for the house (I did the demolition last year....just not the reconstruction so much)
-welcoming some baby additions to our circle of friends
-camping trip to Macinac Island
-oh yeah...turning 30
-talking to a realtor about the process of buying/selling a house (not likely to happen this year, but maybe next)
-finishing the basement
-joining Planet Fitness and saying farewell to the YMCA, even though we really did love HP's calsses it was just too expensive for our casual use
-maybe giving that 100 mile bike trip another go...and training for it this time

So there's the short list for now :)
Here's to a healthy and happy 2014.

A Fall Tradition + a wedding + NYC = Autum 2013 Update

What a great month :) Not only am I not travelling for work every week, I am really getting to enjoy the best part of the year with some of the best people I know.

ArtPrize Brunch 2013 was a success. The weather was perfect, the company happy, the coffee was flowing and the art was abundant.

Nope, we can't fit that ducky in your tub.

Our little puzzle piece

One big, mossy fisherman 

True to form, I just don't take pictures of guests. So you'll have to use your imagination and just trust me when I say there was more than just HP and I :)

Jon and I hadn't really celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary properly last June, so we waited for our friend's wedding celebration in NYC this Fall to go all out. We gave HP to my parents for a long weekend (he promptly said bye and went about his business of play- ouch), jumped on the plane and landed in NYC for an ideal wedding weekend.

We were able to stay at my friend's apartment, which conveniently was located 5 minutes away from the wedding :)

reunited with my besties 

Had a cute date 

Threw on a dress 

grabbed a drink, or two or three

and watched as my beautiful friend got married

then danced the night away 

under a canopy of lights :)

HP and Me

Little HP has been having a lot of Daddy and me time these past weeks. That is awesome, but I am slightly jealous of Jon. Although I wouldn't trade full family time, there is something kind of fun about one on one time with H.

I was have rounded the corner on my travels (cross your fingers) for work. Just one more 2 day outing in Ann Arbor and my calendar can relax for awhile. It's not really all bad, I've been able to travel to places I would not normally go. Friday I was in Atlanta, which was busy busy. I got to travel around Detroit and see our schools, which seemed like little havens in the middle of some struggling neighborhoods. And Ohio, I found out I actually like the State. Indianapolis has even risen on my short list of places that would be nice to live.

But these are my favorite times;

A Balancing Act

Happy Labor Day Weekend, I know I need it. It has been a big month and I've reached the halfway marker (I hope) of my traveling. On the whole I'm feeling good and confident about my travels and work life. However, it has thrown my life balance off. I knew going into this that it wold be a challenging start to the school year, and so far it's holding true. It's just a lot of work for one person to do. So, it's my Fall goal to put those two worlds in harmony once more. 

How will I do that?! Well, I've top-loaded my year with traveling specifically to get it out of the way in one go. I'm killing several birds by hosting conferences rather than visiting each individual school and doing my best to set up a network of collaboration, thereby spreading a little of the responsibility to others. It's a start.

So what's on the Fall Fun Family agenda? Lots! The Annual Art Prize brunch, hooray! A trip with Jon to NYC for a long weeding weekend, awesome! Picking apples at Klackle, yum. Plenty of Michigan football games, go blue! Coffee dates with friends, love me some coffee. Watching HP play in a YMCA sport-sampler league of 3-5 year-olds, hehe. Putting on my favorite boots. Pumpkin spice lattes and crispy evening walks. Delicious.

HP saw his first movie in the theater :)