alive and kickin'

So, it's been pointed out to me that it's been quite some time since I last posted. And, sure, I said in the last post I wrote (which was over a month ago) "Alas, I am going to make an effort to post more regularly." I think we can all agree that was a big fat FAIL.

In my defense, we were busy! We spent a week at the beach, which was no small feat since John insisted on going to Kiawah Island...9 hours from us. Then the big girls had Vacation Bible School and I found myself having songs about the 10 Commandments stuck in my head for days on end. The big girls then headed to Camp Grandmom for a week of fun, including swim lessons, tennis lessons, watching the Smurfs movie and numerous trips to Chick-fil-A.

And, C did a lot of growing. And being cute.


The big news round these parts is that I started a new job on August 1st. The job is with my old boss...but the position is quite different (and a lot more technical) than I'm used to. It's also a much bigger company than I've worked for. On the bright side the benefits are *amazing*, and while the commute is crappy, the office is located in a really awesome area. In theory, I could shop at some of my favorite stores or eat lunch at some of my favorite restuarants any time I wanted!

Rather than put the girls back at the daycare, we've got a nanny (who happened to be a teacher at the daycare). So far the transition has been a bit rough. C has gone on a sleep strike, making my otherwise happy-go-lucky babe a bit cranky. And the older girls are "testing boundaries" by hazing the nanny...the Von Trapp children would be proud.

Each day that passes is getting a little bit better...so hopefully I will post a little more. And, if I'm feeling a bit crazy, I'll start back over at Operation: Fit in my Pants, too. Because, unfortunately, I'm in need of a kick in the pants (heh) in that department as well!

where the magic happens

E gave me a rock she had painted at Girl Scout camp last week for me to bring to work. I told her that I'd put it on my desk. She asked me to take a picture so she could see it. Suspicious much, E?

Anyway, I took a picture...and thought you'd like to see where I spend 40+ hours of my week.

1. I have a bunch of "artwork" from the girls hung up. Some pictures they did hang on my walls. I also have a post-it that E wrote "Mommy" and drew a picture of me hanging from the monitor, and the newly painted rock on the monitor stand.


2. I have a bunch of pictures up, too. Last year during Rock Star week, the girls got their pictures taken with funny wigs and guitars and decorated frames. There's also a picture of us from the beach 3 years ago, and a print out of 2009 at-a-glance. When I get my pictures from this year, I'll definitely be framing one for the desk.


3. Apparently, I have a drinking problem at work. That's my coffee mug, a Diet Coke standing at the ready, and my leopard-print Tervis Tumbler for water.


4. In the office, I employ a 2-screen system. This allows me to look productive on right-hand screen (for peeps walking by), while blogging, etc. on the left-hand screen. Technology FTW!


5. I still kick it old school with a paper day planner. I try to write to-do lists every day. I took a Franklin Covey course for my old job, and old habits of highly effective people die hard.


6. I have at least one conference call a day. I love my headset, since I can continue to surf the web type while on these calls.

And, there you have it. The 30 second tour of my cube!

(barely) alive and kicking

I'm still here. Just totally swamped with work. And, by swamped I mean that I've already worked 40 hours this week. We've got a big deadline on May 18th...but then two other related projects will start up. Not really much rest for the very, very, very weary.

That's not to say that it's been all work and no play. Au contraire. Last weekend, the fam headed down to Charlottesville to go to Foxfield, which are steeplechase races that are a total drunkfest UVA institution.** (Trivia fact: John and I met/exchanged numbers at Foxfield. Twelve-freaking-years ago.) The weather forecast was very gloomy, but as our friend Pete always say, "God smiles on Foxfield." And, sure enough, it not only didn't rain, but was occasionally sunny and warmer than expected.

This weekend, we head up to Philly for the big race. Training for this race in the midst of my crazy work schedule has been difficult at best...but I'm still looking forward to running it. Actually, I look forward to casually mentioning that I ran 10 miles just to sound badass...but same difference, right?

Finally (WARNING: SHAMELESS BRAG!), I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the Slacker household is home to a 2-time Computation Queen. I wasn't able to make it to the ceremony this time (see also: Work Sucks), but John represented and took this incredibly blurry picture for me. It was almost like I was there...you know, if I were drunk or had vertigo.

So, that's what's been going on in our neck of the woods.


**EDITED TO ADD: Lest you think John and I got hammered this weekend, Foxfield *used to be* a total drunkfest. Wrangling the kiddos and just generally being adults have made it much, much less of the par-tay it used to be. But it was fun to see our friends!**

the new, old job

It's been a crazy week this week! In addition to recovering from an extended weekend of single mom-dom, I started a new job on Monday! Okay...not really a new, new job. It's my same job, except now I'm a full-time company employee instead of a part-time conatractor.

All in all the pros of this change far exceed the cons. Job security! Benefits! Paid Vacation! Holidays! But...that doesn't mean there aren't some bummers. Namely, it's officially a full-time position and I have to be in the office 5 days/week. The full-time isn't so bad...because let's face it, I haven't worked part-time pretty much since I started. But the in the office 5 days/week? Dude...that is going to suck. Luckily, we have "green Fridays" in the summer where we work from home every other week, which will help soften the blow.

Perhaps sensing that I needed some encouragement, E was talking to John tonight. She was telling him how much she missed him this weekend and said,

"From now on I want you to take me with you whereever you go...except for when you got to work. 'Cause I really like school and my friends."

So, at least for tonight, the mommy guilt is a little less.

the slow return to normalcy

This week has marked a slow return back to normal. The bane of my existence project I have been working on for the past month has pretty much finished up...there are a few more odds and ends to clear up, but the stressful part is behind me. I was able to work from home on Monday and today, and I'm even taking the day off tomorrow to spend time with Baby AJ and my family! Woo hoo!

Not that this week hasn't thrown a few curveballs my way. On Tuesday night, we had massive storms that totally killed my commute (despite having HOV access in the hybrid). It also knocked out my power so I was spared dinner duties. We actually ran into Marathon Mom and her clan at Chik-fil-a...which was great as our Monday night dinners have fallen by the wayside of late.

And, the girls have shown no signs of being forever damaged by my work craziness, which is always nice. Though, they do seem pretty happy to have me back around. Last night, dinner was a freezer dive of marinara sauce I had made a while back. E ran up and hugged me and said,

"Mama, you always make the *BEST* dinners! I love you so much!"

And today, we broke out the double stroller and walked to school, she yelled,

"This is so! much! fun!"

I guess it helps that they are pretty easy to please.

trick or treat

When we were grocery shopping this weekend, E and I picked up a box of Honey Kix to try. My girls are big fans of eating Honey Nut Cheerios dry in the morning...but since the food nazis daycare has a strict no peanut rule, they can't bring them to school. So, I was psyched to see that these were nut-free and, therefore, school-able.

Well, the girls have become little addicts. In fact, John had to put the box of Kix up on the top shelf in the pantry alongside the Girl Scout cookies since apparently the girls were fighting each other over them the other night. So it was no surprise that they asked for some to snack on during the looooooong commute to school. I mean, 2 minutes without food? Child abuse.

Since their Snack Traps were missing, I had to use ziploc baggies. I handed them each one and when I retrieved the box of Kix, this is what I got. Two adorable girls yelling "TRICK OR TREAT!"

 

You can see I tried for an After shot...but A was too busy devouring her Kix to comply.

 

Should be a good weekend round these parts. Baby AJ is bringing her parents along for a cross-country trip to visit! Yay! And the project that is consuming 99.9% of my time is (fingers crossed) going to reach a major, so-close-to-done-you-can-taste-it milestone today! YAY!

eye of the hurricane

I don't know if you know this, but the eye of the hurricane is very calm. The storms proceeding and following the eye are the problem.

And, that's where I am right now, the eye of the hurricane.

Last week and earlier this week was a frenzy of work, work, and occaisionally some family time. Next week will probably be crazy as well as we lead up to the final deadline (and all of June...when I return to my regular job duties, which have been all but abandoned for this fire drill). But for now, I'm in the eye of the hurricane.

Today, we're heading up to "The Elphia" (as A calls it) to visit the Four Little Princesses. We do have to cut the trip a little short so I can work on Monday (damn you, work!)...but I'm excited to get a little break, if only for a little while, to visit with friends, drink a lot of some wine, and not think about work 24-7.

Hilarity will ensue. Pictures will be taken. Blog posts will be written. Pinky swear.

what's this brown stuff on the fan?

I've been MIA of late due to a major crisis at work. I wasn't the one to cause the crisis ... but I've been tasked with helping to "right the ship" or whatever corporate mumbo jumbo you want to throw in about saving this project's ass (if a project were to have an ass, that is). Scarily enough, this project involves a lot of writing and editing on my part. Thankfully, I've saved all my bad puns and references to body parts to be used in this blog post.

Anyway, my Mother's Day was great despite having to spend a part of the day working. On the bright side, I was able to sneak in a chat with Kiki, I did get to spend some good QT with my family and John cooked a delicious dinner.

I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post this week since I'm working pretty much non-stop. Further, this work does not put me in front of my computer.

Finally, if you are a working mom, I found this article about mommy guilt so interesting...and so pertinent for me right now. Especially since I was almost in tears the other night since I was stuck at work and couldn't tuck the girls in since I don't know when. (Don't get me wrong...I don't tuck them in every night for fun reasons (travel, date night)...but this was the first time in recent memory that I wasn't home because of work.)

they got their way (of course)

I'm not going to lie, it wasn't looking good when I went to bed last night. There was supposed to be 1 to 3" of snow on the ground by 8PM...and it wasn't even sticking by 11PM. John and I were convinced that this storm was yet again going to be a let down.

So, imagine our surprise when we woke up to about 5 inches around the Slacker house. The girls' school was closed (as was pretty much everything around these parts). Both John and I worked from home and we took turns watching the girls. John did most of it while I worked (oh the joys of being paid by the hour!), and was a trooper through lots of crafts, some drawing and coloring and an afternoon screening of "The Little Mermaid."

Here are some pictures from the day...

Heading out to shovel and play

 

Driveway sledding

 

Hot cocoa and marshmallows

 

 

Movie time

Rocking out to "Under the Sea"

sick-o

Does this look like the face of a sick child to you?Nope. I didn't think so.

Sometimes you can't help but resent the 24-hour puke or vomit rule at daycare.

Thanks, Nonna for watching "the patient who did not nap" yesterday!

Edited to Add: When I dropped A off at school today, two of her little classmates shouted out "A!" and started waving furiously. The teacher told me that her little friend Alexa kept asking for her yesterday when she was out. How cute is that?

had i known i would have gotten a pedicure

Since I've gone back to work, there's definitely an element of guilt regarding how long the girls are in daycare...I mean, school. Sure, they have fun there, have friends and the teachers love them. But still, I can't shake the feeling that every extraneous minute that they spend there should be avoided at all costs.

This morning, I dropped the girls off a little bit early so I could make my Weight Watchers meeting. I felt a little guilty, but honestly since the girls have been getting up earlier this summer, it's not like I had to rush them out the door or wake them up to do this. But, to "make up for it", I planned on picking them up a bit early today. Well, I had to finish up something before leaving and I hit some traffic...so I ended up pulling into the parking lot at the exact same time that I usually do, fretting all the while about the damage I was inflicting on the girls.

I shouldn't have worried at all.

I found A in the gym having a grand ole time bouncing on the moonbounce that they had set up. Two other moms were standing there watching their kids bounce. "We've been here for at least 10 minutes," they told me. The other kids eventually got out, but not A. A usually runs right over to me...but she pretended not to see me or hear my announcement that it was time to go.

Once I wrangled A, we headed off to find E. She was firmly planted in front of a TV, watching Dora. "It's Wild West Week," the teacher explained. "So we let them watch a Dora cowboy episode." Of couse, A ran over to E's side and they both watched, danced and shouted the answers to Dora's questions until the end of the episode. It was touch and go on whether I was going to be able to hustle them out before the next one started, but luckily we made it.

By the time we finally got out of there it was after 6PM. And they were asking to go *back*. Seriously, if I had known how much fun they were having I would have stopped by CVS by myself to pick up toilet paper and diaper cream. Because bringing them with me was another post within itself...

nothing doing

Not too much is going on Chez Slacker to write about these days. The girls have been getting along wonderfully, and continue to make my heart melt by getting so excited to see each other, playing together and giggling hysterically along the way. The sun finally came out after days upon days of rain, so the plans to build the ark have been scratched. Work's been...well, work. Not too great or too bad...which is okay I guess.

I think the Slacker clan will all be home at a reasonable hour today, and there are plans to grill steaks for dinner. While usually I get psyched for steak (I love me some red meat and it's a sure-fire dinner that both girls will devour), I'm kind of over the steak thing. As a Mother's Day "gift" to me, he took both girls grocery shopping on Sunday...and returned with a whole beef tenderloin, 4 pounds of ground beef AND 3 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast. We've had beef everyday since Sunday. So I'll be making a big-ass salad for my, well, big ass.

Oh, and before you get all, "Wow, that is *so* nice of John to take both girls grocery shopping...I can't believe that she's complaining!" please note that I spent the time they were gone PLUS an additional hour and a half putting together this monstrosity:It's a combination gas and charcoal grill...all we need is a fire box and it becomes a smoker, too! While I admit, it's kind of awesome...I hadn't planned on buying and assembling a grill on Mother's Day.

So, there you have it. A big, bad post about nothing. Hopefully I'll have more exciting things later.

carrying on a family tradition

I've mentioned this before, but my mom stayed home with Kiki and I for the first few years and then went back to work when we were about 3 or so. My parents were *fantastic* working parents, and I aspire to be like them with my girls. I don't remember feeling like I was missing out, and I certainly remember them being at all the important things that parents should be at (and then some!).

That's not to say that growing up I didn't sometimes wish things were different. You see, my mom worked in DC when we were growing up and traffic was just as horrendous (if not more so) back then as it is now. So she was often up at 4:45AM and out the door before Kiki and I got up. My dad was the responsible party for getting us up. This was both a blessing and a curse. On the bright side, our morning routine included climbing into my parents' bed and watching cartoons (Mighty Mouse and others) with my dad. Unfortunately, it also meant that my dad was responsible for brushing Kiki's and my hair.

Oh, the horrors!

My dad's method of doing this was to cup one hand under our chin to hold it steady. Then he would brush our hair down as hard as he could, producing a greasy, stuck-to-our head look. To add insult to injury, our hair was already in a heinous bi-level cut (that's on you, Mom!) so we needed all the styling help we could get.

So, when I was in third grade, I looked forward to Fridays. My mom didn't work on Fridays, so there was a relaxed vibe in the house. No rushing to get kids out the door and parents off to work. And, my mom did our hair. So on Fridays, I wore pigtails. In retrospect, the bi-level pigtail didn't look so great, but I loved them nonetheless.

Now that I'm a mom and working part-time, Fridays have that same feel in our house. Usually I work in the mornings, but it's from home so we're not rushed. We often have breakfast and play before I take them to school. And I try to pick them up early -- sometimes before lunch and nap even. And this morning, E was so excited to be wearing a spring dress that she asked for piggles this morning.

And...since it was Friday, I happily obliged.

the road to urgent medical care is paved with good intentions

I'm working from home all this week, which has been *so* nice. No commute, and I'm able to get things done around the house during the day. One of those things is meal prep.

Yesterday, I decided to make pizza dough so that we could have pizza for dinner. As I was getting the pizzas ready, E wanted to help. So she dragged a kitchen chair over, climbed on it, and helped me spread the sauce and sprinkle the cheese. Of course, A wanted to get in on the action...so she hopped up on the chair with E. For a while, things were going well. We finished with our first pizza, and I went to go put it in the oven.

You can see where this is going, right?

While my back was turned for 15 seconds, some sort of scuffle had ensued. I turned around just in time to see both girls falling off the chair. While neither of them was seriously hurt, tears ensued. I almost cried right along with them, to be honest. They finally both stopped crying when I broke out ice cubes for them to put on their boo boos (in the case of E) or to try to eat (in the case of A).

Then, to add injury to injury, when I went to take the first pizza out of the oven, my finger slipped off the pot holder. Instinctively I went to steady the pan with my other, pot-holder free hand. So I managed to burn the bejeebus out of fingers on *both* my hands.

Ugh. Next time I'm ordering Papa Johns.

So, all you mamas whose kiddos "help" in the kitchen...how do you get them to counter height? Chairs, stools, levitation? Or do you do things on the kitchen table or a kids table?

turning lemons into lemonade

After yet another 2AM wake-up call from A (ugh!), I overslept my alarm this morning (ack!). So, I made the executive decision to work from home today and save myself from having to do the time-consuming activities going to the office entails...like commuting and showering.

Thus far I've been able to get some stuff done for work, get in a workout on the elliptical, and my house is sparkly clean. (Okay, my house would have been sparkly clean regardless since the cleaning lady did it...but I did let her into the house!) And, since it's such a beautiful day, I'm going to do a little work out on the back deck (gotta love wireless internet and laptops!). Later this afternoon, I'm going pick up the girls from school in the wagon and walk home, and then we are grilling out and eating on the deck. We picked up some kebabs from The Teets, so tonight is Kebab-a-Rama 'round these parts.

Turned out to be a pretty good day, after all.

can photoshop remove snot?

I ended up being able to spring the girls early from school today. But both of them were either playing outside or on the way to playing outside, so I really didn't get the hero's welcome I was hoping for. Since it was a pretty day, we played out on the swingset for a while...and I shot a bunch of pictures in the hopes of getting a decent picture. Unfortunately, a round of Kleenex were kind of needed.






Of course, no evening would be complete without a little Noggin in the evening.

be careful what you wish for

So in my last post I said I'd like to work from home more. And, today I am. Because A has the fever that E had last week, so she's home sick. My mom is here watching her (thank goodness!), but here I am working from home.

the new cube SUCKS

So, I got moved to my new cube in the "satellite" office. On the bright side, it's a window cube. That's about it. I'm on a different floor and down the hall from everything else, including the microwave and water jug.

And the other employee down here who works down here near me? Just came into my cube with her hand covering her mouth and asked for a tissue. Then she went on to say, "I just sneezed and...WHOO BOY!" So my prediction that she was socially inept was about on target.

I'm *so* going to make the move to work more from home.

conversations with a sick girl...

...who isn't feeling all that sick.

Me: E, what are you doing?
E: I'm going upstairs, Mama. I *have* to get a tutu.

And of course, there's this:

Me: E, I have to get on the phone for a conference call.
E: Okay, mama. I'm good to go. I've got Diego on and if I need anything I'll just let you know.

random thoughts about work

• So there are posters all over my office building alerting us to the upcoming [Office Name] Idol Karaoke Competition. Is it me, or does that sound like one of the worst ideas ever?
  
  First of all, I thought you had to be drunk in order to perform karaoke? Last I checked, drinking while at work is generally frowned upon. I'm not complaining if *that* rule changed...but I'm pretty sure it hasn't.
  
  If the contestants aren't drinking...then they must stone-cold-sober and singing in front of their co-workers. Which means that they must actually think they are good. Since, I don't work for a record company or anything...so I'm going to assume that these people are not. I'll be avoiding the cafeteria that day for sure.



• I just found this web site, Mommy Track'd. Christie Mellor, author of Three Martini Playdate, is a contributor. I haven't fully checked it out, but it looks great...including good advice and entertaining articles.



• My cube at work is getting moved *again.* And, it's worse than my current location. Instead of being planted in front of the copy machine, I will be in the newly opened "satellite office"...on a completely different floor...with two new employees that look socially inept. Thank god it's only for three days a week/ I did tell my boss that banishing me to the overflow office really puts a wrench in the whole "you should come to the office in order to interact with the developers" argument he has made in support of me not working from home full-time. I'm hoping to get at least one more day at home shortly after I get moved.