Family Day

We had a family day at work last weekend.  Unfortunately, it rained all morning.  It was just a light rain, so it was bearable for a while.

We blew bubbles, and played some games...

And they had a train!  If it had been nice out, I think they would have been on it all day.

After the train, we went to see daddy's desk, sit in daddy's chair and spin around, and Emma did some pounding on daddy's keyboard.  Mommy's desk was locked up for the weekend.

We got tote bags for all of our treasures, but then it just became a matter of Greg carrying all the bags and having to figure out whose was whose whenever they had a new treasure.  When they finally took them themselves, Julie decided to wear hers messenger style, which is how she prefers her purses, too.

The girls were actually the ones that pulled out the rain boots.  Smart (and fashionable) ladies.

Emma showing off her crown and stuffed animal (jaguar?).

When it got to be lunch time, the cafeteria was packed, and we didn't feel like sitting outside in the rain to eat, so that's when we decided it was time to leave.  We did pick up some cotton candy on the way out.  They'd never had cotton candy before, just read about it an Olivia story.  Julie had become fixated on it when, the weekend before, we drove by another local company that had rides out that we could see from the road.  We explained that it was another company's family day.  She insisted she saw a cotton candy machine, and decided that we would have cotton candy, too.

So, they tried cotton candy, and Emma ate a bit of it.  Julie and Becca weren't too fond of it, and all three of them willingly put the rest in the trash.  Are these my kids?

Do Over

If ever there was a day (well, in recent memory) that required a do over, I think it was today.

It started with waking up late.

I took the girls into daycare, and pretty much wanted to cry by the time I left.  Emma and Julie did not want to go.  I was trying to push them in the room with one hand and close the door with the other.  I left to the sound of both of them wailing.

I checked my phone in the parking lot and had a message from my boss.  Someone (pretty high up) was looking for a file that I forgot to send out last week.  She had left me a message on Friday afternoon (I left early for the consignment sale) and started sending desperate messages and calling my boss at 7:45 on Monday morning.

When I got in to work, I ran in to my boss.  Not sure if he was looking for me, or if it was an accident.  Either way, I told him I'd send the file right away.

Walked into my cubicle.

And remembered that my computer was still at home.

Awesome.

So, I race frantically back home and try to log on from home to send the file.  But, due to a firewall upgrade last week, my messages wouldn't send.

And then I raced back to work to finally send it.

I had a meeting this afternoon.  For two hours.  Where the person I was meeting with didn't know what she needed.  Perhaps the most unproductive meeting in recent memory.

I sent a text message to a coworker instead of Greg with my Target list.  Luckily there wasn't anything too embarrassing on it.

And, my house still smells like burned brusslels sprouts from dinner last night.

Ladies and the Animals

It had been a rough week at work...  One of those where it just seemed like everyone was driving me crazy.  In hind sight, of course, it wasn't really that bad.  But by the time Thursday rolled around, and I had no meetings scheduled for Friday, so I decided enough was enough.  I took a vacation day on Friday, and surprised the girls with a trip to the "big" zoo.

One of my other deciding factors was the weather.  It was supposed to be perfect.  And I have been here long enough to know that there aren't many "perfect" (meaning bearable) weekends once summer finally hits.  It's been so nice spending time outside the past few weeks, so I really wanted to take advantage of it.

 We made it out without buying this guy.

I was trying to get a picture of them on the elephant statue, but they were too busy looking at the real elephants.  You know how they like animal statues.

I almost think we could have skipped the animal entirely and just played in this rock garden for hours on end.

It was feeding time at the giraffe exhibit.  They've got a feeding platform, and you can buy (of course) giraffe food.  I believe giraffe food was lettuce.  The giraffes come right up to the platform, which was pretty awesome for taking pictures.  But not awesome if you prefer animal statues (and stuffed animals) to real ones.

Julie checking out the turtles.

The zoo is right along the river, and immediately on the other side of the river is the botanical gardens.  They're connected by this bridge, and a free tram runs between the two.  (It's a deceptively short distance on the zoo map, but oh my goodness, I'm so glad we didn't walk.  Huge hills.)  Anyhow, they loved riding the tram.  We got up to the botanical gardens and I asked if they wanted to walk around; no, they wanted to get right back on the tram and go back to the zoo.

Earlier in the day, we had passed the pony rides.  I asked if anyone wanted to go on a pony ride; Julie and Becca piped up.  I gave them a little while to think about it, and we came back.

I should preface this all by saying that there's a horse farm on the way into our neighborhood, so they see the horses all the time.  And when we go by, they're always saying "When I grow up, I'm going to ride on a horse!"  or "I want a horse at my house."

So, Julie and Becca still wanted to ride.  Emma was a no-go.  We got up to the front of the line, and they put the helmets on.  All of a sudden, Emma wanted to ride.  She put a helmet on.

Becca got on the pony with no fear at all.  Started going.

When it was their turn to get on, Julie and Emma said "I don't want to ride a pony!"  Even after Becca got back safe and sound, I was still giving them a chance to change their minds.  But no.  Just Becca rode the pony, and she loved it!

They were all also kinda infatuated with the milking-the-fake-cow thing.  Should I admit that I was kind of relieved when other kids came up and I told them they couldn't have any more turns?

More statues.

Oh, the smirk.

They were itching to get on the carousel all day.

Ice cream, of course.  And then a little playing on the playground.  And I know that it's sacrilege to complain about ice cream, but by this point, it's HOT out.  All the tables out the ice cream shop are full.  And they really overfilled the ice cream cups.  So, we had to walk for a while to find somewhere to sit, and by then, everything's melted so much that it's already running over the (overfilled) cups.  Sigh.  I'd be happier with less ice cream and fewer clothes to try to get stains out of.  Well, this time.

 

I told them we had to leave once they had ice cream, but I'm soft.  They talked me into one more ride on this little train.  Crazy girls.  But you'll notice the big chocolate ice cream stain on Emma's shirt.

Our last stop was supposed to be the flamingoes, but somehow in our wanderings, we had missed the penguins.  We walked in there right at feeding time, which was pretty cool to watch.  The girls loved it, too.  On the way out of the penguin house, there was this little dinosaur statue.  I didn't get a chance to figure out its relevance to penguins, since my kids were fighting with each other to get on it.

A long, but fun, ladies' 'venture day.

Last Tuesday, in pictures

I've been trying to purge pictures that I know I'm not going to use.  I used to keep everything, but my computer (and external hard drive) are almost full, so I'm trying to get better about choosing what to keep.

Flipping through photos from last Tuesday, now that it's down to 5 photos, tells an interesting story.

First of all, I love the lids on McDonalds coffee.  Beyond the "Caution: I'm hot," I love the way the lid looks like someone yawning.  I stopped to get coffee on my way to take my APICS exam.  I didn't stop at the McDonalds closest to the house, because it's a nightmare to get back out of.  But, by waiting until I got to the next McDonalds, the coffee was too hot to drink before I went into the exam.  So I went in uncaffeinated.

The book, sitting on the car seat next to me.  I fell asleep on the couch the night before with the books, and, well, didn't quite make it through all of the chapters.  So I sat in the car before I went in and flipped through the last 2 chapters.  And yay, I passed!  3 more to go.

The radio station that's nearly tolerable, if it weren't for all of the "female-hormone-replacement-weight-loss-digestive-advantage" ads.  Seriously.  This is my demographic now.

Conductor Julie guarding her "happy birthday."  I just like the look on her face.

Becca cleaning up after "monkey had a accident."  She's got a sponge, and is wearing an oven mitt.  Love.

And that, my friends, is what a Tuesday is like in my life.

Today

Today was one of the craziest days I've had at work.  Non-stop meetings that I was only partially prepared for because I just ran out of time.  Never even checked voicemail because it would have just added to the list of things that weren't going to get done.  I'm totally counting on Friday to catch my breath.  Well, at work at least.

Our nanny had a sick kid, so Greg stayed home with the girls today.  So what got me through an otherwise grueling day?  Messages and pictures from Greg.

9:09 am.  Life cereal = squares as of this morning.
9:10 am.  Emma is calling you on my power supply to ask if she can have another trick (unwrap the velcro cord wrap on my mouse cable).
10:19 am.  Taking an Olivia break.  I had 2 doctors checking me over.

11:12 am.

11:57 am.  J said "here daddy, here's your purse.  I put balls in it for you."

12:00 pm.  Having lunch.  Turkey and cheese.  E requested I hold the turkey on hers.

12:18 pm.  E said "daddy a butterfly!"  Yeah lunchtime for spider too.  {We have a resident spider in the corner of one of our kitchen windows (outside!).  It's fascinating, really, to see her catch moths, wasps, etc and wrap them up in her spider silk.  Luckily the girls haven't figured out what's going on yet.}

12:38 pm.  R in daddys steel toe shoes.

1:57 pm.  Bouncing off the walls.  Going to go for a walk or something.
2:35 pm.  Heading to the zoo with my little monkeys.  Who will probably fall asleep on the way and be very grumpy when we get there.
3:22 pm.  At playground because of the monkeys.  {Girls are terrified of the screaming monkeys at the zoo.  You can hear them from the parking lot.}


Love my family, and my husband, for helping me get through this day with a smile on my face.

December Daily: Dec 14, 15, 16

Wednesday December 14 was another work day, with the girls home with Grandma and Papa again.  Greg and I came home early, though, because the girls had a 6 month recheck with the ENT to take a look at their tubes.  Emma's are still in, Julie's are barely hanging in, and Becca has one left.  The good news is that their ears look great, they will most likely not need another set of tubes, and we don't need to go back for 8 months.

We all went out to dinner, and Papa chose the restaurant at the airport.  We got there just as it was getting dark, and got to see a bunch of planes take off, and a helicopter land.

After dinner, we went to see Santa Claus at the holiday lights that we've been going to since the girls' first Christmas.  Becca was actually excited to see Santa, but Emma and Julie?  Wouldn't let Greg and I leave the picture.

On Thursday, Dec 15, Grandma and Papa took the ladies on another trip to the park.  (On Wednesday, they discovered that cutting off breakfast at 9:00 was the only way to have time to get them out and about.  And that fresh air and running around is one of the keys to getting them to take a nap.  So on Thursday, they weren't messing with success.)

Love, love, love this picture of Julie.

Friday the 16th was again another work day.  And at the end of it, my work Christmas party.  The location was fabulous, food was great, and we got a $10 Best Buy gift card (I'm working up to an iPad) and a little tote bag.  I was exhausted and had a head ache all day on Friday.  Seriously, it felt all week like I hadn't caught up after the drive home from the Polar Express the previous weekend.  I got a short second wind at the party, but by about 9:00, I was ready to crash.  They had a photo booth at the party, so I'll use one of the photo strips in my album.

Random notes from the past few weeks

When we went to the zoo in Atlanta, we were driving through the middle of Atlanta, probably the first time a girls have seen a city.  Or a building more than 3 or 4 stories.  Looking at the skyscrapers, Julie said, "Look at the sandcastles!"

Julie likes to be in charge of dealing things out.  She still talks about the time that she went to the doctor and got three lollipops and gave them to her "stisters."  There was something she had once where she made Emma and Becca sit on the couch before she would give them whatever she was giving out.  That one likes the power.

The girls have been helping to set the table for dinner lately.  They love it!  We let them do pretty much everything, and I know I'm jinxing myself, but we haven't broken any dishes yet.

At some point recently, the girls picked up "No paws on the table," which is what we say to Dusty and Lefty when they're just stretching up and their paws happen to land on the table.  Dusty has also been hanging around the table a lot lately, and she will sometimes just stretch up and put her paws on one of our legs.  When the girls started yelling at her, to distinguish between what's ok and what's not, Greg was trying to explain that what Dusty was doing was ok.  He must've said, "Paws on daddy are ok."  Because now, all the time, whenever someone says "No paws on the table," someone else ALWAYS follows up with "Paws on Daddy ok."

We had to take Julie to the doctor a few weeks ago because when she woke up one morning, both of her eyelids were hugely swollen.  Her eyes weren't swollen shut or anything, but something definitely wasn't right.  They'd been playing outside a bunch the day before, and she had two mosquito bites on her face, so the doctor thought it was from the mosquito bites.  She was still red and swollen after two doses of benadryl, though, so we called back and got her on some antibiotics.  It was just weird.   She's actually had something similar before, but I think it was just one eye last time.  Just swells up.  Not pink eye or anything.  Somehow her eyes just seem to get infected.

My kids thing eggs are the coolest thing ever.  Whenever we have to crack a raw one, they all want to gather round and watch, and they'll scream and squeal.

I'm in class again, trying to satisfy a work objective.  Oh how I do not miss being in class.  It's only 9 evenings, and we're more than halfway through, but I wish I hadn't left this until November.  There's too much that's more fun to do this time of year.

I've never been much of a texter, but it's just become really convenient the past few months.  Random, I know.

A Big Fat Mess

I think that's the only way I can describe last week. I just couldn't wait for the week to be over. It just felt like one big failure.

I was sick on Monday. Again.

Slept late on Tuesday, and consequently showed up 15 minutes late to a meeting with my boss's boss.

Had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday that I've been waiting two months for, hoping to get some answers. But after all the poking and prodding, I still don't have any answers.

I had so much work that I spent Wednesday and Friday nights doing work at home after the girls went to bed. I hate that. And I'm still behind.

Two accident reports - Julie's head and Emma's finger. They called again around noon on Friday and said that Emma was really cranky and wouldn't let anyone touch her finger. It was still hugely swollen, and she hadn't been letting me touch it other than to put a band aid on it. She also had been avoiding using her whole hand - making me pull her pants up, snap her in her car seat. Very not like her. To make a long story short, because her dr appt was at 2:30 and because we carpooled and because there could have been a late x ray involved, I had to leave an all day meeting 5 minutes after my boss got there. Nice move on my part. The good news, of course, is that her finger isn't broken. He called it a "crush" injury. And it actually looked a lot better on Saturday.

Speaking of Saturday, I pretty much slept all day. The girls were up at 6:30, and after trying to get them to calm back down in our bed ("sshhhhh, the cows are sleeping"), Greg took them downstairs, and I didn't get up until 9. I crashed again at nap time (we turned the monitor off), and didn't wake up until almost 5. In the short time that I was up, poor Greg had to go out and get two nail holes in the van's tire patched, and go to Costco on a Saturday morning.

So, there ya go. Exhausted, overwhelmed. Ready to start a new week.

One eyed flying purple people eaters

The week was such a blur.

On Tuesday, I had my first business trip in ... 2 years? Luckily it was just a day trip on the corporate jet (don't I sound fancy when I say that? I'll have to admit ... having your own plane is the way to fly.), but it meant a really really long day for me. On the plus side, though, I was finally able to put a pretty big dent in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and I really like it. Someone was asking me about it on the plane, and I'd heard a lot of opinions that it started out really slow, but I really didn't notice.

I also volunteered to make cupcakes for the girls' Halloween party at daycare on Friday. And I really really wanted an excuse to make cake balls. Mmmm, cake balls. And oh, they are good. Were good. A little labor intensive versus, oh, stopping at the grocery store and buying cupcakes.

One eyed purple people eaters, and ghosts.


Grandma and Grandpa S headed back home on Thursday morning, so the end of the week has been a struggle in terms of getting back into a routine. But we had lots of fun over the last two weeks, and the girls are certainly attached to their grandparents.

I've been working on a lot of scrapbook stuff lately, too. One nice thing about the CC design team is just that I am scrapping so much more than I had been. I don't have anything to share yet, but maybe some sneak peaks by early next week.

New Job

Monday, June 21 is my first day in a new job. I don't talk about work much anymore, unless someone really does something funny. Or like the time someone asked me how to save a file to a floppy disk. But, for the most part, it's just work. Life is much more interesting.

Most of you know that I'm a (chemical) engineer, and the work I've been doing for the last 4.5 years has been engineering, but more like mechanical engineering than anything else. There's a reason I didn't major in mechanical engineering. The majority of my work load for the past few years has been more along the lines of finite element analysis and computer modeling. There's a reason I didn't major in that either. Don't get me wrong - I like my job. There's a sense of familiarity that's nice. And, compared to my first job (I didn't major in dirty, thankless, grunt work, either), it's a dream come true. My boss is fabulous, and gives me the freedom to get my work done, and pretty much manage myself. I've got incredible flexibility, and my group is great (especially now since the weird/crazy guy retired). They're all much smarter than I am, so I'm constantly learning from them. My job has its frustrations, but for the most part, I consider myself very lucky.

But it's time for a change. I finished my MBA in the end of 2007, and have some interest in supply chain ever since. I feel like it's a better fit for my personality, especially since the girls were born - I think I have earned an honorary doctorate in supply chain optimization. The job I'm going in to is still technical (product development supply chain as opposed to end product supply chain), so I'm hoping to use all of the stuff I've learned (no one in the new department really has that background), but it will be enough of a change that hopefully, in a few years, I can decide if product supply chain is something I want to go for, or, if I hate it, I'll still be close enough to the technical world to go back. The new job has a lot of plusses. My new department is a majority female, and most of them are working moms. I'll be working for a woman who has 4 young kids of her own. I'll still have the flexibility to do some work from home. I won't travel ... except maybe back to France... And I'll still be at the same campus as Greg, so we can continue to carpool.