Life Happens...Game On

Today is a Good Day

I know, I know. I still owe a report on our vacation. I'll get to it, promise. *cough*Leah*cough*

I'm just feeling really happy today because my little peanut is finally coming home from her Grandma and Grandpa's house. It has been almost two week's since I've seen her. You could almost say four since I was on business travel the two weeks before we left on vacation - crummy scheduling I know, but sometimes work travel just "works" that way. I do my best to squeeze in as much quality time as possible and let her know all the time that Mommy loves her. If only I could find a way to take her with me...because I'm SURE germ-laden hospitals are the best place for her to be hanging out. Maybe I could train her to conduct the interviews while I take notes. Hmmm....

It's really been hard being home, though, and knowing Paige is so close but still not here. Especially after Grandma Milissa called me on Tuesday morning to tell me she had started running a fever (101) that they couldn't seem to get down. They took her to the doctor and she was diagnosed with some form of a (viral?) rash that I've never heard of, but which is apparently pretty common among children starting from age 6 months to about 3 years. The only treatment was to give her alternating doses of Motrin and Tylenol to try and keep the fever from getting too high. I've been fairly alarmed that the fever didn't seem to be budging, but the good news is that within a few hours she appeared to be doing better and the fever is now ranging from 98.9 to 99.9 - still, it's hard being her Mommy and feeling like I'm helpless because she's not here and she needs me. Because no one could ever take care of her like me, right? Just nod your head and say yes.

Anyway, enough of that. She's on the mend and she's coming home and I'm HAPPY. The wish I could stand at the window and stare forlornly at the driveway until they pull in kind of happy.  The I better put in a hard day's work because I'm planning on leaving a little earlier than usual kind of happy.

Yes, today is a good day. My baby girl is coming home.

Because Sometimes You Have a Good Hair Day

We've all taken self portraits of ourselves from time to time, right? Hello? Anyone out there? Right - moving on.

Anyway, the reason I mention it is that sometimes you are on the road and your hair turns out good. I'm talking, I look hawt good. And then you realize that no one you know is around to see it. And maybe for most this wouldn't matter too much, but most folks who know me and see me on a daily basis generally get to see my crazy mane of hair pulled back into a skinned rabbit style ponytail. This is because I'm lazy. Yeah, I admit it.

So then you think to yourself that your hawt hair is totally going to waste unless you can prove that it actually existed. Enter the self portrait. Taken with a camera phone that you have no idea how to use. Ahem.

See Example 1

   

Attempt #1 makes you realize there is no way you are going to get a good picture of the back of your hair. Which is unfortunate because that's the part that looks REALLY good. So, you try again from a different angle. And with more light from the window. Which possibly makes you look like a ghost.

See Example 2

At this point, you have determined that perhaps you should try "fiddling" with the settings on the camera phone since you've never used it. Only to zoom in really far without realizing it. So you take a picture of your nose and your hair is cut out of the picture altogether.

See Example 3

You really want to get a good picture of your hair because it looks GOOD dang it, like Lilo's hair, except shorter (okay a lot shorter - but I'm growing it out). So you decide to give it one more try and then you look at the picture and realize that perhaps in reality your hair is not looking that great today after all. That maybe it more closely resembles some 80s hair band 'do - sans the bangs. Okay, maybe not that bad. More like Falcon Crest hair that still moves.

See Example 4

   

Then you decide that, nah, it really must be the camera phone's fault because it does look hawt in the mirror. And mirrors don't lie, right?

Sense-ational Sunday

I See:

Way too much of my computer screen. Jennifer got me hooked on PackRat and now I find myself squeezing in playtime when I should probably be doing other things. Todd was listening to me last night as I was spurting a few choice words because one of my cards had been stolen. I've been trying to get him to sign up and play, but he's afraid I may never speak to him again if that happens. I told him that so far I've forgiven everyone who has stolen cards from me, right before I launched into another verbal assault because one of my friends (Hi Toni - I still love you, promise...you steal another card from me and I cut you, you hear? I cut...okay I'm kidding. Kind of.) decided to steal a card I needed just for the heck of it. So maybe it is a good idea for him to steer clear after all.

I Hear:

The roar of jet engines. I haven't been traveling too much since I got back from maternity leave, but I was on a trip last week and later today I'm flying out for another work trip. I come back from that trip on Thursday night and then Saturday Todd and I fly out for vacation - so I'll be hearing that old familiar rumble a lot more coming up. It's funny how you get used to that constant hum when you fly all the time - it's like your ears become immune to it. Or maybe it just means that the aging process is starting to affect my hearing.

I Taste:

Harry & David Original Milk Chocolate Moose Munch. I LOVE this stuff. Caramel corn and nuts is a good enough mixture its own, but when you coat half of it in chocolate, the mix suddenly leaps to an even higher level. I picked up a box of this in the Portland airport Friday as I was getting ready to come home. This despite the fact that there is a new H&D store maybe a mile and a half from our house. It just LOOKED good, though, so I had to buy some. I didn't crack into it until yesterday. The box will probably be gone before I have to fly out later, though.  Todd and I ate at least half of it as we were getting ready to take Paige to the park yesterday afternoon. And I might have grabbed a couple of handfulls for breakfast.

I Touch:

Big, fluffy pillows. I'm one of those people that likes to be surrounded by mountains of pillows as they sleep. Most hotels I stay at provide you with at least four pillows if you are staying in a king room, but it's never like sleeping at home. Of course, at home I also have a cute honey to snuggle with. No hotel room pillow will ever come CLOSE to that.

I Smell:

Wet earth. We opened up several windows last night to let in some of the crisp night air, and then just went ahead and left them open overnight. Not sure at what point it started raining, but we woke up to the smell of damp lingering throughout the house. If it hadn't also cooled off so much, we probably would have gone ahead and left them open (they are under the shelter of porches) - I always was one of those kids that enjoyed playing in the rain.

Random Thoughts While On a Trip

Anyone that is around me for any length of time knows that my mind has a tendency to bounce around a lot and occasionally come up with seemingly random associations based on the topic of conversation. I was traveling yesterday on my way to visit a client and thought it might be fun to keep tabs of some of the various things that crossed my mind while I was en route to my final destination.

Technology rocks. Instead of my airplane norm (sleeping) here I am watching Notes from the Underbelly on my laptop. I’m totally being polite, too, by using my headphones. I think my elderly seatmate thinks I am a potential nut, though, since I am not a quiet, chuckling type of person. I’m more of the loud, guffaw type. And the show is hilarious. I can’t believe it got cancelled. What is wrong with people? They actually put something witty and worth watching on tv and no one shows up. What is the world coming to? I bet if it was some awful reality show people would watch. Well, technically I guess they do sort of have the pregnancy reality shows. And I did watch them…while I was pregnant. They aren’t so entertaining anymore. Hmmm…

You know you are in a green state when you go into the airport bathroom and the handles on the toilets are green. I don’t know how many airport facilities have instigated this practice as I've only had a few work trips since I’ve been back from maternity leave – so this is my first encounter with the green handles. The little signs in each of the stalls (both on the door and on the back wall) indicate you are supposed to lift the handle up for liquid waste and press down for solid. I really, really want to try each just to see what the difference is – I’m assuming length of time that the water runs – but I refrain because that wouldn’t be very green of me, would it?

Oh great. There is nothing left on the Emerald Aisle except for a few matchbox cars. Oh well, not any big deal. It’s not like I’m doing any off-roading or anything. (30 minutes later while driving in a torrential downpour on the highway…) Oh wow! My wheels just left the road – what was that scene from License to Drive again? Don’t slam the breaks…gently pump the breaks. That’s great. What do I do if I slide off the highway before I have a chance to pump my breaks? And there aren’t any shopping malls around. Because shopping while waiting on a towtruck to show up and pull your matchbox rental car out of the mud would be infinitely better. (FYI – I did manage to stay on the road.)

I didn’t realize Eddie Money had more than one song i.e. Take Me Home Tonight where he was accompanied by Ronnie Spektor. Now that was a good song. But what is this song they are playing? Shakin’? Never heard of it. And it isn’t that good. So why are they playing it? Oh wait, didn’t Eddie Money also do that Two Tickets to Paradise song? Meh – I’m not that crazy about that song either. “Take Me Home Tonight”, now there’s a good song. If I had this radio station’s number I would totally call in.

Salem is the capital of Oregon? Why didn’t I know that? I remember learning all the state capitals when I was in school, but apparently my brain cells have gone on strike since then. Wow – maybe I should avoid admitting that I didn’t remember the state capital to anyone. But then again, high school was a long time ago. I bet I’ve forgotten a lot more than just state capitals since then. Like math. Definitely math. They do say that if you don’t use it you lose it…but what does that mean I’ve been doing all this time?

Hmmm..what is it about hotel carpeting? I’ve yet to walk into a hotel and think, “Wow! That is some great carpet!”. It is almost like they try on purpose to pick out the ugliest pattern possible. I’m sure there is some method to their madness. Like in Las Vegas, where the carpet is crazy on purpose so that you have a hard time finding your way out of the casinos. Did I just make that up or did I read that somewhere? Either way, it makes sense. Because how many times have I been lost in a casino? Actually, have I ever been lost in one (other than that time I forgot what floor I was on)? So maybe I did just make that up. At any rate, this is some ugly carpet.

Sense-Sational Sunday

Unlike Em and Jen, I doubt I make this a regular habit. I'm waaaay to flakey for that. But I thought I would give it a spin.

Seeing:

Flowers. Lots and lots of them. We now have a crazy array of flowers filling our front flower bed. The bed has been an ongoing project over the past month or so. It started out as an overgrown weed garden with a couple of scrawny bushes - the contractors weren't that interested in making anything pretty when the house was built. They just slapped a couple of bushes in (no border) and called it a day. And well, last summer I was pregnant and refused to set foot outside the house for any longer than it took to reach the car. So, after a year and a half of being untended, the bed was in serious need of some TLC. We built a brick border, added several lovely perennial bushes along the front and tossed in some annuals for spice on the curved outer edges and in-between the perennials. We have no clue what we are doing when it comes to landscape design, but I have to say it looks a heck of a lot better than it did. And I bet our neighbors are thrilled that we finally did something with it. Except maybe the neighbor up the hill that has plastic flowers in their front bed. I would be afraid to ask what they think.

Hearing:

Right now, the baby monitor. I'm sitting with my laptop in our bedroom and the peanut's room is across the house from me. It's so quiet downstairs, though, I could probably hear her cry if she happened to wake up. (Granny is snoozing away upstairs and Daddy is in his man cave watching a movie - so I'm the only one down here). But I like to sit here with it on, though. I love the sweet little baby sighs and grunts that I wouldn't get to hear if it were off.

Tasting:

Grilled chicken fajitas. My super-wonderful hubby made dinner for us tonight. We were both exhausted from all the outdoor work we've put in (staining the deck in addition to digging/planting in the flower bed), but he knew I had some office work to squeeze in, too. The fact that he cooked is a testament to what a great guy he is. When I met him, he didn't even know how to open a refrigerator - much less acknowledge the fact that there could be something edible inside those doors. Tonight, he not only had to open the door, but thaw the meat, heat the grill and make sure the meat didn't burn. That's love for you.

Smelling:

Not a whole lot. I still haven't figured out if I caught the cold that both Todd and Paige have or if I have allergies. I'm trying convince myself it is allergies since it only seems to occur at night, but either way my head feels a little like it might explode. Blah.

Touching:

Dirt. Lots and lots of dirt. Even with my gardening gloves on, I still manage to somehow get it under my fingernails. It's not too bad, though. I loved making mud pies as a kid - now I still get to make them and just call it something else!

Flowers. Lots and lots of them. We now have a crazy array of flowers filling our front flower bed. The bed has been an ongoing project over the past month or so. It started out as an overgrown weed garden with a couple of scrawny bushes - the contractors weren't that interested in making anything pretty when the house was built. They just slapped a couple of bushes in (no border) and called it a day. And well, last summer I was pregnant and refused to set foot outside the house for any longer than it took to reach the car. So, after a year and a half of being untended, the bed was in serious need of some TLC. We built a brick border, added several lovely perennial bushes along the front and tossed in some annuals for spice on the curved outer edges and in-between the perennials. We have no clue what we are doing when it comes to landscape design, but I have to say it looks a heck of a lot better than it did. And I bet our neighbors are thrilled that we finally did something with it. Except maybe the neighbor up the hill that has plastic flowers in their front bed. I would be afraid to ask what they think.

Hearing:

Right now, the baby monitor. I'm sitting with my laptop in our bedroom and the peanut's room is across the house from me. It's so quiet downstairs, though, I could probably hear her cry if she happened to wake up. (Granny is snoozing away upstairs and Daddy is in his man cave watching a movie - so I'm the only one down here). But I like to sit here with it on, though. I love the sweet little baby sighs and grunts that I wouldn't get to hear if it were off.

Tasting:

Grilled chicken fajitas. My super-wonderful hubby made dinner for us tonight. We were both exhausted from all the outdoor work we've put in (staining the deck in addition to digging/planting in the flower bed), but he knew I had some office work to squeeze in, too. The fact that he cooked is a testament to what a great guy he is. When I met him, he didn't even know how to open a refrigerator - much less acknowledge the fact that there could be something edible inside those doors. Tonight, he not only had to open the door, but thaw the meat, heat the grill and make sure the meat didn't burn. That's love for you.

Smelling:

Not a whole lot. I still haven't figured out if I caught the cold that both Todd and Paige have or if I have allergies. I'm trying convince myself it is allergies since it only seems to occur at night, but either way my head feels a little like it might explode. Blah.

Touching:

Dirt. Lots and lots of dirt. Even with my gardening gloves on, I still manage to somehow get it under my fingernails. It's not too bad, though. I loved making mud pies as a kid - now I still get to make them and just call it something else!

So Much for That

So, it appears that Bill Self is going to stay at Kansas and Oklahoma State is still head coach-less. How disappointing, but this is what happens when you listen to grapevines. Even grapevines that trickle down from high places. C'est la vie. All I can say now is Holder better get it together - I suspect they were banking on Self being a shoe-in.

In other news, my kid is incredibly cute. (Of COURSE I'm not biased at all.) So we had some new pictures made to celebrate her (almost) 6 month birthday. Unfortunately, though, as of this morning it appears the little cough she's had has developed into a full blow cold. I'm likely going to be taking her to the Luxe office with me in case we need to make a jaunt to visit the doc - I'm waiting for a callback from their office.

There's not a lot else going on around here - I worked from home yesterday which mostly resulted in me making a few of my upcoming travel arrangements and churning out a couple of layouts that I've decided this morning need to be completely overhauled. *sigh* Sometimes it is tough being the amateur in an office full of talented creatives! (Love ya guys - mean it!)

But anyway - since I need to get moving (uh - still at home, NOT at the office where I belong) I'm going to share some baby goodness with you.

Everyone have a wonderful day...

 

Committing

I haven't exactly gotten off to the most consistent start on my blogging. But I have a good excuse. At least I tell myself that. It has been a crazy week. All kinds of goodies have landed in the Luxe warehouse and we have been busting booty trying to get them back out of the warehouse and into the hands of stores (and scrapbookers!) Now, I realize that only took up my working hours but trust me it really bled over into my home life too. I did good to crawl home every night and spend some time playing with the peanut before trying to not fall asleep head first in my dinner.

I have been itching to get back on here, though. I've had all sorts of ideas swirling through my head that I wanted to share - everything from my new weight loss plan (as usual, I'm always up to something that involves trying to get into a smaller size) to my penchant for singing along to songs I dislike to the story of my stuffed dog Rover. And yeah, I may eventually write about all those things. But not today. Because today I'm still busy.

I managed to drag out of bed by 8 am (in-laws are in town so they gave the baby her first morning feeding - hoorah!) despite not getting home until after 1 am last night after watching Eli Young Band in their first sold out performance - many congratulations to them, they are a great band and the show was awesome. Milissa and I took Nonnie out for a walk and now we are trying to get around because we are going to SMU's spring scrimmage, then tonight we are doing dinner with one of Derrel's friends (who is now on the coaching staff at SMU - ie the reason we are going ot the game).

Tomorrow - well, I have a few work related things to wrap up for Monday morning, but I hope to get some other projects done. Emily has given the Luxe team a challenge to Simplify our Stash using papers from our awesome new Simply Luxe line mixed with paper and embellishments that we already had. Already Pam has been whipping up some awesome layouts for the challenge, and she's also been busting booty along with me all week in the warehouse. That's motivation for you! But anyway, I really REALLY want to spend some time in my recently organized scrap area upstairs and create some projects using goodies I already have.

That's why I'm writing about it here. If I write about my goal out here in the open where others can see it, then I've made a commitment to do it. So, hopefully, I will have some pages (or other projects if I get REALLY creative - but most likely pages) to share in the next week or so.  And hey, maybe I'll even put up a few more blogs in the meantime.

Is it Growing Up or Growing Old?

I learned long ago to never say "never". Because we all know that as soon as you say never, well, shift happens and never suddenly doesn't seem so unthinkable. Despite being wise enough to sidestep that pitfall, however, I still felt there were a lot of things that were just unlikely to ever happen. I somehow imagined that, even as my life changed around me, I would always stay the same. Oh how wrong I was. As usual.

I think I started noticing the shift around my 28th birthday. My life was filled with cute, but flakey boys, weekends spent either out on dates or going to clubs with friends. My memory is a little fuzzy, but beyond that I think my free time - what little I had - was spent either reading or trying (unsuccessfully) to keep the multitude of potted plants on my balcony from dying.

And then one day, it occurred to me that I was tired. Tired of the flakey boys, cute though they were. Tired of going out every single weekend. Just tired. Looking back, I think having a crazy work travel schedule probably didn't help. I actually skipped my 10-year high school reunion because I was too exhausted to think about driving three hours to get there, even if it was to see people I may not have seen in 10 years. But anyway - I digress.

I was tired, and the changes started happening without me even realizing it. I started by cutting out the flakey boys. Sorry - no time for you. You are too exhausting to keep up with. Then I met Todd, who was not flakey but still very cute. We fell into coupledom and he was immediately sucked into the fold of my Dallas friends. Life continued on much as before but changes were afoot.

Without me realizing it, my Dallas crew had been morphing into something new. Leah was married and living in the 'burbs, Jason and Nani gave up their free-wheeling Dallas apartment for a house in the 'burbs, Erron moved to Puerto Rico, Sara moved to Detroit and St. Germain took a job that kept him out of town most of the time. It suddenly became much harder to get the group together, and much easier to stay home or just run out to a local restaurant for dinner followed by a movie.

I think it clicked that Todd and I had reached comfy old couple status when we decided to stay home one New Year's Eve because everything we were invited to do sounded like more of a hassle than a good time. What? A club all the way downtown? With overpriced drinks and a ridiculous cover charge? I think we'll just rent a movie, pop open a bottle of champagne and call it an evening. Lord help us all.

So, now a few years (and one peanut) later, one might think that we've stopped socializing altogether. So untrue. We've just changed venues. And our bedtime. Weekends are more likely to include dinner parties, happy hours and/or trips to local, kid friendly attractions. We still like to party with the best of them sometimes but more often than not we find ourselves dragging in at a decent hour. I would much rather be well rested when 7:30 am (ie Paige's breakfast time) rolls around. Sure, we have a built in nanny but I enjoy being a parent and refuse to just let someone else do all the work.

Which brings us to the title question - is it growing up, or growing old? I started thinking about this after creeping home from a dinner out with friends at a "hopping place" around 10:30 pm last weekend. And after giving it some honest thought, I believe the answer may depend on perspective and is likely to be different for everyone.

Example - I have the mid-30s friend who I affectionately refer to as Peter Pan (*waves* Hi Chris! Love ya, mean it!). I've noted for years that, while the rest of us are getting older, Chris manages to keep finding friends whose ages average in the early to mid-20s. Weekends find him out at whatever club is the newest and coolest. His last party included a bounce house and more people I didn't know than those I did.  He's older than me, single (well, perhaps I should say not married, since he does have a special somebody) and still living the swinging Dallas lifestyle. You can perhaps see where I get the Peter Pan from but I would hesitate to call him immature. Despite outward appearances I know him to be intelligent, upwardly motivated and responsible. If he were asked to comment on my life, he would probably say I've gotten old.

But am I jealouse of his lifestyle? No. I had a lot of fun back in the day and I'm still having fun. I would probably be unrecognizable to that 20-something girl with the crazy social life, but I'm glad she's back there in the past. I'm so happy with where life has carried me and I'm looking forward to seeing where it takes me. Sure I'm getting older, but age is just a number. You're only as old as you let yourself feel and while I may feel like I've finally hit grown-up status, I'm a long way from feeling old.