Furloughed

Monday I went back to work for the first time since December 21. The first two weeks of being a furloughed federal employee were not too bad. I had planned on taking off the week of Christmas anyway so that CP and I could get some house projects done while the kids were at school. We did some touch-up painting, hung some shelves, hung a coat rack, cleaned the house after the holidays, etc. 

The following week also was not too bad with New Years Eve falling during the work week. CP and the kids were home for two days so I kept busy with them.

However, once the holidays were over the stark reality of being furloughed-banned from working and not getting a paycheck- set in. I deep cleaned the house. I made Weight Watcher-friendly meals to freeze (but not too many because we didn’t want to spend too much on groceries). I worked out almost every day (21 Day Fix). I took the kids sledding a few times. I did a purge of the kid toys and clothes. I listened to 10 million podcasts and read a few books. I texted with my employees and friends, venting and commiserating with them. I kept checking in with the news to see if there were any talks between the two sides, but no, there seemed to be no sense of urgency to end what became the longest shutdown in government history.

It was near impossible to find a part time job that didn't require any training, didn't violate any ethics rules, and one that I could drop on a day's notice. I thought about doing Uber or Lyft but didn't want to take out the car seats every day just to put them back in again before morning dropoff. My parents offered me a job at their law office and so I spent two weeks working for them, helping to clean out their files. It was humbling to say the least. 

 

I know this sounds like a nice, relaxing way to spend 5 weeks off from work but I can assure you it was anything but. The uncertainty of when I would be back to work and the uncertainty of when I would next have a paycheck hitting my bank account was super stressful. Not to mention all of the big meetings and events I had planned that needed to be cancelled. Five weeks lost of time I could have been working, making a difference with my job. I was stressed for not only myself, but for fellow employees, contractors, the small businesses that rely on federal employees, and the people that we serve. 

And of course we have had terrible weather this week. Monday we had a two hour delay due to snow. Yesterday and today it was -50 outside with the wind chill so we had to close the office and work from home (except my kids were also home so it made doing work more challenging). Not to mention it's hard to get back up and running knowing that all of this could happen again on February 15th. *sigh*

Catching up

I swear that I am not going to start every blog post with something similar to "I've been meaning to blog but..." Then again, it has been a month since I last posted so it's definitely time for a quick catch-up post!

1. Nine days ago on December 10th I turned 40. Basically the entire year leading up to the big 4-0 I was anxious and upset about it. Thankfully a few weeks before my birthday I simply said "F**k it" as it was coming either way! The first week in November CP and I had a great time to Key Largo, FL with some friends and NO KIDS to celebrate my upcoming birthday. 

Our beach view

Yes, that is a dolphin getting some serious air

I also rented a room in a nearby bar for a party on Saturday, December 8th so that I could celebrate with local friends. CP made a delicious dinner beforehand and my parents took the kids to Michigan for the night so that we could sleep off our hangover. :-) Now that I'm 40 I (of course) don't feel any different than when I was 39.

2. A few weeks ago on November 29th Izzy turned 5! She had a fun birthday party with her best friend (who also has a November birthday) at a local pottery painting place. It was a bit of a stressful party to make sure that 23 kids (including Wes) didn't break their pottery, but it all went well. We also had a family party for Izzy the weekend after Thanksgiving in Michigan.

Birthday balloons in MI

3. Thanksgiving went well this year. We had a small group as it was just my parents that joined us, so it was fairly low key. CP sous vide'd the turkey which turned out great.

4. We finally got the call that Wes had a spot to move over to Izzy's daycare so he started December 10th. It is SO NICE to finally do one drop off again and so far, he is doing great. I love that the kids see each other during the day and I think that it is super helpful for Wes that I drop both kids off in the same room in the morning. On his third day the school had a winter concert and he was one of the only kids that sang some words and he didn't freak out despite only knowing the teachers for 3 days!

5. The kids saw Santa last weekend and thankfully Wes didn't cry but he did give an amazing side eye and grab the side of the couch like he was ready to jump away at a moment's notice- lol. Progress!

6. Halloween went well this year. Izzy went as Wonder Woman, Wes went as Lightning McQueen.

7. Per usual, CP and I bought a tree that is too big. This year it is too wide and super duper heavy. It should be fun to try to get out the door in January....

Alright, that's enough for now. Here's hoping I can get another post in before January!

One year later

Facebook's "memory" feature is usually great. Seeing pictures of the kids when they were younger, seeing pictures of various trips, and fun memories with friends is a great trip down memory lane. However, I knew that a tough memory was coming up soon once I started to see pictures of my time in Texas to help Hurricane Harvey survivors last year. I just wasn't totally prepared to see it today.  

One year ago today we had to put Buster down. Re-reading my post made me sob today and I really can't believe that it has already been a year. Yesterday as we shopped for Christmas decorations we saw a puppy Berner in the store and my heart felt so sad as I was petting the dog (his name was Bodie). I "liked" the place where we adopted the cats and every time I see a dog adoption picture on their page I get jealous. I know that a dog is not exactly conducive to our lifestyle right now, but man I miss having a dog. As frustrating as Buster was with his quirks, he was my quirky dog.

😢

My new BFFs- Michelle and Oprah

I'm so behind on updating the blog! I am going to try to put together short posts to get caught up.

Since it is already on my mind, last night I was seriously lucky enough to get tickets to Michelle Obama's first book tour event in Chicago. It was billed an "intimate conversation" which was pretty funny because the United Center holds 23,000+ people. 

Oprah hosted and interviewed the event which was pretty cool. She looks like she has been rocking her Weight Watchers plan.

The event started with a long video of Michelle- her upbringing, her time in the White House, different appearances on shows like Jimmy Fallon or Dave Letterman. Then Oprah came out to talk for a few minutes before introducing Mrs. Obama. Their conversation lasted about two hours and it was really interesting. I haven't really seen any interviews this past week because life has been crazy so she may have talked about some of these things already....

The stage was pretty far away so at times it was easier to watch on the large monitors

One of the more interesting things Michelle talked about was how it felt like she was the "mom" of the country and Barack was the "dad." So while she is happy to be open about IVF, going through marriage counseling, etc. now she didn't really think that it was appropriate to talk about it while she was in the White House. There were so many other things going on at the time, she didn't want to be a distraction.

She also spent a lot of time talking about her experience in being the only woman or the only minority in the room with powerful men. Basically she spoke about how women and minorities' voices are important so we need to make sure to speak up. Also, there were tons of powerful men in these rooms but they weren't necessarily smart. :-) I'm butchering what she was saying, but it was powerful and true.

Anyway, I'm super happy that I was able to snag tickets for this hot event! I NEVER seem to get the hot tickets so the fact that I was able to get three (my mom and sister went with me) is amazing. Now excuse me as I have to call my new BFFs Michelle and Oprah. :-)

Good and the Bad

Let’s start with the GOOD because it is Friday.

GOOD

I ran my second 5k of the year last Sunday and averaged 10:33/mile for a time of 32:41 (this is the race that runs right by my house). According to Nike+ this is the fastest 5k I have ever run since I started tracking in May 2008 (prior to this my fastest 5k was 33:02). Woo hoo! I was up part of the night before with stomach cramps/diarrhea so I was pretty excited about my time. As I ran by my house a second time I asked Izzy if she wanted to finish with me (she was in her pajamas) and she ran with me for the last .25 or so. She loved it!

The other good is that over the month of September I was able to reverse the weight I gained in August (4 lbs) and now I am thisclose to my first goal of being under 200 pounds again. On Wednesday I weighed in at 200.5 so I am crossing my fingers I will see a number that starts with 1 next Wednesday. My goal was to be under 200 by my birthday in December so if I can do it two months in advance (despite almost getting there *ahem* two months ago and the backsliding) then I'm happy. 

BAD

The bad news is that there is something going on with my IUD. I hadn’t checked for the strings recently but did so the other day in the shower. It basically felt like the strings had embedded into cervical tissue as I could feel them but couldn’t move them. Today I had my doctor check them out and the good news is that she can see the end of the strings so they didn’t perforate my uterus but she can’t move them. The next step is to have an ultrasound to see if the IUD has moved. If it has moved and is no longer in place I am looking at a surgery (GRRRR) to get it removed and then I would have to get a different kind of birth control as it wouldn’t be recommended to get an IUD again. If it is in the right place my doctor recommends to remove the current one and replace it with one with longer strings. Obviously I am hoping for the latter because the no period thing with an IUD is super nice and I don't want to have yet ANOTHER surgery.

It’s a rainy, dreary day in Chicago and overall it has been a really hard two weeks with the Ford/Kavanaugh hearings bringing out a lot of emotions in me that I didn’t realize were bottled up. I hope everyone else out there is doing okay.

Friday news dump

Ugh! There is simply no time for blogging these days. I also need to catch up on my Feedly reader. That being said, here is what is going on in our lives these days:

-Izzy did great on her first two weeks at her new school. Her good friend at her old school was scheduled to move to a new daycare that hasn't opened yet but I was able to convince her parents to move her kid into the new school instead. Izzy is super excited for her friend to start on Monday! 

-I was supposed to be on a work trip this week to Missouri but it got cancelled. It has now been rescheduled for the very end of November which is fine except I will miss Izzy's birthday. :-( My MIL came into town to help CP out while I was going to be gone, but instead it has just turned into a regular visit. 

My MIL took Izzy for her first manicure

We also all went to the Brookfield Zoo

90+ degrees + no nap= this face

We also went apple picking and Wes got attacked by mosquitoes.....again.

We offered to have her join us on our trip to Cancun next February and she agreed which means we will get at least one night for a dinner to ourselves AND maybe even get to go scuba diving together!

-CP and I will celebrate 9 years of marriage on October 3rd a little early this weekend since we have a built-in babysitter (MIL). I got tickets to see the musical Avenue Q and then we are going out to dinner. Should be nice to have a kid-free night on Saturday.

-Izzy has started up ice skating lessons and tennis lessons for the fall. Poor Wes is in nothing until we will put both kids in swimming for the winter (likely around November).

-No work changes on the horizon any time soon. I continue to try to speak to people and have an in-person informational interview next Thursday. The area that I want to move into doesn't have a ton of positions so I may not go anywhere any time soon. :-( But I am working on my resume with someone to make sure it is ready.

-I'm super excited that although I was wait listed for the Michelle Obama presale tickets, I was able to get tickets for her Chicago event in November! I also got a ticket for my sister and my mom and figured they could be Xmas presents. :-)

-Friends of ours started a Healthy Kids Running Series group in our town and last weekend was the first event (the series runs for 5 weeks). Izzy easily won her 4-5 year old division (they only ran 75 meters and she was taller than any of the other kids). I volunteered to help on the race course for the older kid races and was so sad to see a mother berating her child during the last race (1 mile). Her daughter was in third to last place and the mother (who may have been athletic at one time but was not now) was upset that she was walking (it was 85+ degrees out and sunny). She told her daughter "alright, if you aren't going to try then we are just going home right now. Let's go." The daughter picked up her pace and finished, but I was heartbroken for the kid. These races are supposed to be FUN. I debated saying something to the mother but in the end decided not to. I'm still questioning whether I should have. Thoughts?

-Speaking of running, Izzy has been wanting to do a real race with me so while we were in MI my mom and I took her out for a run. She kept wanted to actually RUN instead of jog and we did some walking, but she ran a mile in less than 14 minutes. We were planning on dropping her off at the house and continuing to run, but then she wanted to run more with us. She ended up running another .5 of a mile, then tripping and falling and walking back home with my mom. I'm pretty proud of that 1.5 miles for her though!

-I ran my first race of the year last Thursday. I went out too fast and ran a 10:15 first mile which is unheard of for me. I ended up running the whole race with an 11:15 average so I slowed down towards the end but for a race at the end of a workday when I also was battling a cold I was okay with the time. 

My favorite tshirt of the night. Paul Manafort joke anyone?

But then this past Wednesday I got home and had 30 minutes to myself while Izzy, CP, and Wes were at ice skating so I laced up my shoes for a run. I was feeling good, but when it started to pour right after the first .5 mile I decided that I was just going to try to run fast since I should probably get inside due to lighting. Needless to say I only got to run 1.5 miles but it was at a 10:30 pace so maybe I need to start pushing myself to go faster? My next (and maybe final race) of the year is at the end of the month.

-This week I got the fantastic news that a college friend of mine (who turned 40 earlier this year) is pregnant! She just turned 40 and I had some in depth conversations with her about IVF, the drugs, etc. so I'm so happy that it worked (her first retrieval didn't go well)! She is due in February and I'm tempted to give her a onesie that says "I love science." :-)

A big move for Izzy

Today is the last day that Izzy will be at the daycare where she has spent the entire day, Monday through Friday, since she was three months old. She has been through countless teachers (more than she probably should have), but has learned so much from the awesome and amazing teachers that she has had. 

We have been contemplating this move for a few months as more of her friends leave for other centers. We stuck it out, saying that as long as she is learning, happy, and safe that we would stay with her current center. We had also been thinking for a while that we would push her forward into Kindergarten this year because her test scores were very high (cut off for the district is September 1st, her birthday is November 29th) as her current center had full day K (our public school system does not- yet) and would take her early. However, after doing a lot of research on pushing kids early, thinking about how much older some kids would be in her first grade class (especially those that red-shirted), etc. we decided that she should stick with her friends and her class.

Sticking with her class means that we were no longer tied to her current center and last week when the K/Junior K teacher quit because her husband got a new job in WI and the center director said "worse case scenario I will teach K and run the center at the same time" we knew that it was time to leave. Umm no. Some shoe will drop in that scenario. Luckily, a friend had texted me that the center that does before and after school care for K and our district once Izzy is in full day school had an opening (which is also super helpful because it is hard to get in once kids hit K). One of the teachers for her new classroom was someone that came over from Izzy's center so she would already be comfortable with her. In addition, there are a number of kids that had moved their kids from Izzy's center so she would know three other kids in the 4s class.

Izzy is a bit confused that she won't be attending K at the new school (her old school is doing a joint K/Junior K class) but I think that she is going to be okay. I took her over to tour the new school yesterday and she was very shy but happy to see one of her friends. She starts her new school on Monday and fingers crossed things go well.

So for the time being, we will be doing two drop-offs because unfortunately the new school doesn't have room for Wes- yet. He is at the top of the waiting list right now. Worse case scenario he doesn't get in until June and we are doing two drop-offs (one 5-7 minutes away from our house going north, the other 2 minutes away from our house going south) until then. Fingers crossed that won't be the case!!