Microblog Mondays: Back in our house

I would like to skip to the end of the month of August where hopefully our house remodel is complete and there is one less thing on our plate. This weekend I was so excited to move back into our house, despite the fact that the work is not complete. Our general contractor and subs were able to get the house in good enough shape in two days for us to move in (on Wednesday I joked on Facebook that we were going to need a Property Brothers-esque miracle.) There is only one part of the project that is fully complete though- our only full bathroom (obviously a very important part).

The most exciting part of the weekend was that our new treadmill was delivered! We need to get a mat to put underneath the machine so that it doesn't scratch up the new basement floor but I am so, so excited!

But, in the midst of that excitement we can't find ANYTHING. Izzy's treasured Pooh Bear pillow that she sleeps on every night was missing for two nights (found this morning looking for something else), CP's razor was missing until this morning, and I still can't find my computer cord for my work laptop. We can't really start to unpack stuff in most of the rooms because they are still working on them (argh). 

Adding to the chaos, yesterday Wes had a concerning red rash show up on his stomach. Because CP is still new at his job, I of course had to be the one to take him into walk-in hours this morning. Thank goodness it was a viral rash which is contagious....but as soon as you start to see the red bumps it is no longer contagious which means I could drop him off at daycare- SCORE! Poor guy was irritable so I did feel bad dropping him off but I would literally have no place for him to go in our house and no food since we have no appliances in our kitchen. 

Mama needs some wine tonight.

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Microblog Mondays: Coffee

At 38.5 years old, I think that it is finally time that I start to drink coffee. I have always hated the taste and smell (even of coffee ice cream!) which is clearly an issue when you want to start drinking coffee. But chai tea lattes are expensive and don't pack much of a caffeine punch. I do like a few teas (my current favorite is Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice), but again, it has about half the caffeine content of coffee and so only moderately helpful.

Starburcks Refreshers are a little better caffeine-wise, but I do know that they aren't super healthy with all kinds of weird stuff in them. And I don't even have to go into the specifics of how bad soda is for one's body....that's a habit that I would really like to kick.

So, coffee. It's time. I have started to read up on how to get my body to like coffee and it boils down to a few suggestions:

1. Start by drinking iced coffee. The bitterness won't be as prevalent in a cold drink, plus there is milk and sugar already in the drink.

2. Start by drinking espressos with some sugar poured in. I would only have to drink a small amount of coffee at once.

3. Start by drinking things like frapaccinos because all of the extra stuff will mask the coffee taste.

#3 is my least favorite option because I am partially trying to learn to drink coffee so that I can get away from caloric/chemical-laden drinks. I am leaning towards #1 simply because CP already likes iced coffee and maybe I can steal some tastes of his coffee and slowly learn to like it? Plus it is finally hot out....

Has anyone gone through this and have any suggestions? 

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Microblog Mondays: Smaller size!

This weekend it rained all weekend long. Once both kids went down for naps, I left the kids with CP and headed to the mall. I needed some summery shirts that were not specifically for work. I found a few that I liked and realized that I had a gift card from Christmas to Macy's so I headed over there to look for a few new bras now that I am not nursing anymore. I had to wait to be measured, but was shocked and excited to hear that my cup size drastically went down. 

The bras that I have been wearing (the same ones that I wore after having Izzy)? 38H. My new size after Wes was done nursing? 40DDD.* I know that the triple D is still a rather large cup size but really, this is so exciting!!! I was always astounded that I got up to an H- isn't that size for people that have breast implants or weigh a lot more than I do? I guess not.

My mom always joked that after nursing me and my sister she lost her boobs and as someone who has always had huge boobs, I would joke that I couldn't wait to nurse so that my kids could make my boobs smaller.** When friends complained that they wanted some of my boobs, I would reply that I would happily give them some of mine as I clearly have more than enough. I was so sad when my boobs were still huge after nursing Izzy so I was convinced that a second kid was exactly what I needed. LOL. 

I came home and excitedly told CP about my smaller size and as expected, he didn't really care. But it was a nice boost to my self-esteem on Saturday to have well-fitting bras again (clearly I didn't need the H cup anymore!) and for my boobs to look a little perkier. It's amazing how little things can make someone so happy!

*I'm not super happy that my band size is a 40 but I know that I can get that down as I continue to work out/eat better. 

**This joking was before I knew that I was infertile of course....

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Microblog Mondays: Time to work out

Wes has been outside my body longer than he was inside despite the fact that he isn't quite 9 months old yet (Saturday). For a while now, I have been unhappy with the way my body has been looking. At this point with Izzy I was running consistently and felt more in shape. These days I'm just happy when I hit 10,000 steps on my FitBit and I'm consistently weighing about 5 pounds heavier than just a few months ago. Having to take Buster on shorter walks because of his partially torn ACLs doesn't help.

While things are absolutely insane with my life right now, dropping nursing has added at least a few minutes to my day and hopefully my boobs will get a little smaller in the next month or so (but I'm not holding my breath). So yesterday I decided that with the weather getting nicer, it's time to revamp my eating habits and start to exercise when I can.

The gym is out of the picture since we are 20 minutes away in our rental place, but that's why the internet is so awesome. I have little time so I need something fast but intense. I originally saw a Betty Rocker advertisement on Facebook (I think a friend "liked" her page so I saw it?) and thought it would be something fun to do with my best friend before her wedding. I kept saying that I was going to start, but never did (meanwhile, she finished 20 days of the 30 day challenge).

Well, yesterday on my walk with Buster I decided that I was sick of my weak stomach muscles that were destroyed by two pregnancies. I didn't want to look at bat wings in the mirror this summer. I didn't want to feel weird about wearing a bathing suit to the pool that all of our neighbors also frequent. It was time to get healthy- not just for me but to set a good example for Izzy and Wes. So, after the walk while the kids were still napping I put on my workout clothes and did Day 1 of the Betty Rocker 30 day free challenge. Today I feel sore in all of the right places which is always the sign of a good workout. I can't imagine that I am going to do all 30 days in a row, but hope to finish the 30 days soon!!

Losing weight and toning up is not just about working out though so my eating habits need to get better. I don't necessarily have as much of a plan for that as I should but simply eating smaller portions and focusing on eating more fruits and vegetables should help.

Wish me luck! Anyone want to join me?

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Microblog Mondays: We have a crawler!

In the midst of a crazy weekend Wes started army crawling this weekend!

It's crazy. At the same time he is pushing up to his knees and staying there for a while instead of dropping back down like he was doing just a few days ago. I think that he will be crawling for real shortly.

I'm so proud of myself!

CP gets back Saturday night from China. I think until then I am going to have to be on my toes the rest of the week with our newly mobile infant!


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Microblog Mondays: Sometimes, all you can do is laugh

This morning, as I was trying to get the kids into the car and to daycare so that I could make my train on time, all I could do was laugh. Wes was crying in his car seat, possibly because I wasn't paying attention to him and instead trying to wrangle Izzy. Izzy was crying because she is three and I couldn't find her Frozen hat (it was in her cubby at daycare). I was tired because I tried to go to bed earlier than usual but I still didn't get into bed until 10. So with the tandem crying, I just started to laugh, thinking "it's only day three." It wasn't the best of reactions because the laughing made Izzy cry even harder. :-/

This is after a loooooong weekend where CP left for China Saturday morning, the kids didn't nap well, and there was only one of me and two of them. I shuffled the kids to Izzy's soccer class (where half the time she pouted on the sidelines) and to Izzy's swim class. I viewed two houses that we are looking to rent on April 1st while our house gets renovated. Turns out it is really hard to find a house to rent that is not too expensive, allows dogs, and will allow for a short term (3 month) lease. It looks like the Sunday house is going to work out which is good because the Saturday house was only looking for someone to rent for two months (so that they could get a year long tenant during "prime renting season" on June 1st)...which means we would have had to move to corporate housing for a month (expensive/not great for Buster).

What else is going on? My problem employee has been out sick for two weeks so I'm doing a lot of her job. After the kids go to bed every night I have to continue to pack up various rooms in the house. We are doing our best to finalize the contract with our general contractor. You get the gist- things are busy so CP up and leaving for two weeks is NOT ideal.

Now would be a great time to use one of the four spa gift certificates I got for my birthday back in December...but I don't have time to go! *sigh*

12 more days. I may have to laugh a lot....and I may need a lot of caffeine...but I can do it.


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Microblog Mondays: Why I March

On Saturday I joined 250,000 close friends in Chicago at the Women's March. Less than two weeks beforehand, organizers thought that we would have 22,000 people....so to jump more than 200,000 is amazing!

Being that I am a privileged white female, this was my first march. I wasn't very political in high school and *just missed* being able to vote in the 1996 presidential election (I turned 18 in December of that year). In college I was too worried about sports, my boyfriend, partying, etc. to really look too hard into politics. That changed right before the 2000 election and I have been paying attention ever since. However, nothing so far has gotten me off my a** until Trump was elected. I would still say that I am fairly safe, but I am not okay with my friends OR strangers being vulnerable to terrible policies and illegal actions.

Thankfully CP was in town and able to stay home with the kids so that I could meet up with my sister, her husband, and some friends for the march. Cell phone connection was spotty because there were so many people there, so when my sister got an alert on her phone that we weren't going to march because there were too many people, I first became disappointed. Then I was pissed and knew that other people in the crowd would be pissed too. I'm not sure what exactly happened, but about 15 minutes after we got the alert, the crowd started shuffling and we were off, slowly but surely.

Waiting to march

Marching towards the Loop

My favorite sign of the day

I am happy that I made my voice heard on Saturday and put Trump on notice that I will be watching and participating more than I ever have before.


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Microblog Mondays: A sign?

I think that I am giving out a vibe of either being totally rundown or needing to relax a bit as for my birthday I received a massage/spa gift card from my husband, my MIL, my best friend, and my parents. I laughed every time I received another one, but am a little worried that I look like I don't have my sh*t together these days. 

Now I just have to find the time to get away and actually use them....


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Microblog Mondays: Holiday list

We still have a while to go before Christmas, but I can already tell that it is going to be a special year with Izzy. This weekend we knocked some fun holiday things off our list.

We made and decorated Christmas cookies at a friend's house:

We took the easy route and had CP buy a tree at a nearby tree lot (in future years we hope to make it more of a production but I am sick and it would be hard with a stroller). Izzy was excited to help decorate and after we got all of the ornaments on the tree, Izzy started jumping up and down. I think that she may be a teensy bit excited about Christmas?

We went to a holiday train exhibit at the Botanic Gardens with friends (third year in a row). Sadly I didn't see any of it because Wes got hungry as soon as we got there so fed him the whole time!

No pictures of trains, but we did get a picture of a blue W for the Cubs World Series win!

We had a snowball fight with the kids:

Wes wasn't too sure about his first real snow, despite being warm enough:

Izzy made her first snowman:

Finally, Izzy enjoyed a sled ride around the backyard while Buster ran around like a crazy man in the snow (it's his favorite):

All of this excitement and no nap for Izzy made for an epic meltdown at the end of a dinner she refused to eat and then when trying to put her to bed, but it was a great weekend nonetheless!

What are some must-dos on your holiday list?

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Microblog Mondays: snoring

I seriously need to get CP into a sleep study or maybe into a doctor that can prescribe a treatment for snoring. He just laughs and says that I should be able to sleep through his snoring, but most of the time he falls asleep first and his snoring is so loud that I can't fall asleep. A perfect example was last night- we both went to bed at the same time. He fell right asleep (how can men do that?) and started heavily snoring. Sometimes my go-to trick to stop him from snoring is to have him roll on his side but he was already there. I lay in bed getting angrier and angrier because I was so tired (which of course doesn't help me fall asleep)....so after a few minutes I headed downstairs to sleep on the couch. Wes woke me up at 1am (grrr) and I tried to go back into bed at 1:30 but once again, CP was snoring so I went back downstairs. It certainly didn't help that Wes woke me up AGAIN at 4am to eat (grrrr); I was able to get into bed around 4:20 and juuuuust fall asleep before my alarm woke me up at 5am.

This is not ideal. We have a comfortable couch but it is certainly not as comfortable as a bed. Not to mention that it would be nice to, you know, sleep next to my husband when he is actually here. Anyone know how you get your partner into a sleep study? Or have you worked with a doctor on a treatment such as a mouthguard that made a difference? I know that his snoring would lessen if he lost some weight but trying to figure out how to broach that subject without hurting any feelings would be tough.

Signed,

Someone who is seriously cranky from lack of sleep

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Microblog Mondays: Almost over

Back in June I declared myself ready for the election to be over. It could have something to do with being in my third trimester and already not being able to deal with the negativity of the Trump campaign. Fast forward to today. I voted early- almost two weeks ago and it was an easy vote for me.* Hillary has the experience, the temperament, and will work on issues that I care about. Like Louie C.K. said recently on Conan, Hillary is a mom and moms get sh*t done (paraphrased).

I am looking forward to tomorrow so that hopefully Donald Trump and his laughingstock of failed businesses will fade into oblivion.

I plan on rocking a pantsuit to work tomorrow and with any luck, celebrating the amazing (and overdue) accomplishment of our first female President of the United States tomorrow night. A friend recently added me to the Facebook group "Pantsuit Nation" and with over 1,700,000 members and tons of inspiring stories about why people are voting for Hillary, I am energized and ready for her to win!

#nastywomenvote. #imwithher

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Microblog Mondays: Bad Moms

When the trailers started a few months ago for the movie Bad Moms, I knew that it was a movie that I needed to see. However, it was coming out only two weeks after Wes was scheduled to be born so I wondered whether I would be able to see it.

Thankfully three neighbors of mine were going to see it on Saturday night and invited me. Being the awesome husband that he is, CP agreed to watch both kids so that I could go to the movie- provided there was enough milk in the fridge for Wes.

Going out to see a movie- something that I haven't done since I lived in CT over 4 years ago (!!)- was such a nice mental break from being at home. I was able to enjoy a nice glass of wine and tons of laughter as the movie was FANTASTIC. I was so happy that I didn't waste my time with a stupid movie or one that blew all of the funny jokes on the trailer. When I got home, CP let me know that he had an easy time putting Izzy to bed and Wes literally slept the entire time I was away. Good job kids!


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Microblog Mondays: Owned by Izzy

On Saturday, Izzy and I were playing with various shapes. I picked up a shape and asked Izzy what it was. "Octahedron" she stated. "No it's a diamond" I replied, but amazed that she even knew the word. I want to say that I knew exactly what an octahedron was, but all I knew is that it would have 8 sides. I asked my resident engineer, CP, what an octahedron looked like. "It's basically a 3D version of a diamond" he replied.

So technically I was right because I held up a 2D diamond, not a 3D version. However, the fact that my 2.5 year old knew the word octahedron and used it somewhat correctly? Boy I'm in for trouble. I guess the Leap Frog Letter Factory videos on Netflix we allow her to sometimes watch on the weekends are teaching her some things?

Of course, this is coming from the same 2.5 year old that sometimes can't tell the difference between a square and a rectangle so maybe she just got lucky....


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Microblog Mondays: Over or Under

I never believed that there was a right or wrong way to load the toilet paper until I had a toddler. In fact I thought that it was seriously stupid that people actually spent time thinking about it. Then came Izzy. Izzy likes to slap the toilet paper roll at times and if it is not loaded the correct way (aka "under"), the entire roll could spill to the floor.

So despite what the original inventor of perforated toilet paper said in his patent application, the correct way to load toilet paper is under. (The inventor clearly didn't have kids.)

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Microblog Mondays: Botanic Gardens

Yesterday it was a gorgeous day in Chicago so we headed out to the Chicago Botanic Gardens. I tried to keep my picture taking to a minimum- I asked Izzy to sit still to take a picture in only four spots. Isn't 2.5 years old too early to be annoyed at your mother for taking your picture?

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Microblog Mondays: First Day

Today is my first day at my new position. I don't have much information on what I will actually be doing or how much things will change around here, but I think I am going to get a whole lot busier! At some point my boss and I will have to sit down to have that conversation about what I am taking over (more than just taking over supervision of 7 employees from him), but I think it will take a while to sort everything out.

I am less worried about the actual work than I am of being a good manager. The 7 employees that I now have to manage were all co-workers just last week and all of them except for one are older than me. How are my relationships with them going to change? I want to make sure that I am a good and effective manager but have no training to help me learn the ropes.

Here goes nothing!


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Microblog Mondays: Supervisor

Well, I was going to post about how potty training went this weekend, but will save that for tomorrow because this morning I received a tentative offer for the Supervisor position at work! YAY! I was getting worried because I hadn't heard anything, but should have known that HQ needed a few days to get everything together to make an offer. Once I pass the background check (which shouldn't be difficult considering I already work here) I will be good to go!

Not only will this be a nice raise for me, but today CP got word of his annual raise and bonus at work so this is a good day for the NSC household!


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Microblog Mondays: Great father

Whoa jet lag (and/or pregnancy insomnia?). I got a whopping 4.5 hours of sleep last night so today is going to be a rough day of work.

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Today I wanted to salute my husband CP. Izzy is on a bit of a "daddy is my favorite" kick right now which while it made me a little sad, was also sort of nice and made our trip to Hawaii a bit more relaxing (for me at least). I have been her favorite for the past two years so it's nice that he is getting a turn. We decided that since we never use the stroller at home we wouldn't bring one to Hawaii and instead would bring the hiking backpack for hikes through the National Park. Usually I like to wear on the backpack because I get a workout carrying around Izzy's 30+ pound frame but because the straps would hit me right on my baby belly, CP took over as Izzy's personal Hodor for the week (sorry non-GOT fans- you may not get that reference). I carried Izzy a little on my hip but CP did most of the carrying if Izzy got tired from walking around too much. He never complained and Izzy had a blast.

Izzy on CP's shoulders while hiking Pu'u Huluhulu (Hairy Hill) 

I also love how we trade off on getting up with Izzy if she wakes up during the night. I know some wives complain about their husbands' sleeping through crying at night and CP certainly did that sometimes when Izzy was an infant. But really, as soon as I went back to work and Izzy started sleeping through the night we would take turns getting up when she cried. Last night I couldn't sleep so when Izzy cried out in her sleep at 11:30, CP sat up with a start and was ready to go into her room. Luckily she put herself back to sleep within 20 seconds but around 3am she started crying for us. I took the first shift, then when she woke up later, he took the next shift. Teamwork at its best.

I know that CP won't see this blog post but I made sure to thank him this week and this morning for being so awesome.

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Microblog Mondays: Promotion opportunity

Last week a supervisor position opened up in my office. It's a new position and basically the only way for me to get a promotion unless I move to a new division (which I don't want to). I believe that I would be able to keep doing what I currently do (and love) and just add some supervisory functions. I have been hoping for it to open for almost two years now and of course it comes at the worst time! I haven't told anyone at work that I am pregnant yet and although I know that it is illegal to bypass a pregnant woman for a promotion, I think that I may wait to tell anyone about the pregnancy for a while. I just don't want to chance it. 

My boss and his boss (both men of course) love my work and know that I do great work. But in the back of their minds, they may think that having a second child may change my work ethic, or just that my three month maternity leave could be a problem in terms of their work load....so it's just not worth it.

So until then, I'm rocking the maternity pants but not the shirts yet (I don't need them quite yet) and trying to hide my belly that is getting a little bigger every week. I don't look pregnant yet...just like I have gained some weight in my midsection. We'll see how long this ruse lasts.....

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Microblog Mondays: Not worth the risk

Well, the trip that I have been looking forward to for months had to be cancelled. CP and I had booked a 9 day vacation next month to Costa Rica with Izzy and my MIL. When the CDC Zika virus warnings started to come out I brushed them off saying that they weren't anywhere close to Costa Rica. Then I started to hear the stories of some of the babies that were being born in places like Brazil and I felt awful for the families of those babies. A simple mosquito bite could do that (potentially- it hasn't been proven yet)? 

Then the CDC added 8 more countries. While Costa Rica was not one of them (yet), I assume it's only a matter of time. As I thought about it more, it wasn't something that I wanted to worry about during my pregnancy. Because that's exactly what would have happened. Even if there had been no Zika issues in Costa Rica by the time we arrived next month, I wouldn't have been able to relax. I would have had to wear long sleeve clothing, spray DEET all over myself, and would want to stay indoors behind screens/mosquito netting the entire trip. And that would not have been fun at all.

So this weekend we cancelled our flights, getting all of our United points and almost all of our money back. We cancelled our hotels and car rental as well. Then yesterday we went looking for a new place to go next month that is warm. Our current choices? Hawaii or Arizona. We have plenty of airline points to get us to either place. Now we just have to find housing.....

And yes, I realize that I am incredibly lucky to be able to do this. Currently my country is not advising me not to get pregnant for two years (like El Salvador) and I have the option to steer clear of countries that are having Zika outbreaks. Hopefully in a couple years we can re-book the trip to Costa Rica when I am not pregnant as it is still one of the countries that I can't wait to see!

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