I could be wrong

Sometimes I imagine being a stay-at-home-parent is a lot like working outside the home. There are a ton of obvious comparisons, but I’m talking about when you work outside the home with people that behave like two year olds.

Some days I feel like I get tested at work and at home. It seems to me that the people that work for me test my boundaries;
“hmmm, wonder what she will do if I say this”
“hmmm, wonder what she will say if I do this”
Just like Hunter does.

I have always approached being a supervisor differently that I have being a Mom, but perhaps that is my mistake. I guess I have assumed there would be some maturity level from working adults that Hunter hasn’t attained yet.

yep…I could be wrong.

The unveiling… again.

Ok, here’s the basics of my new site look. I was going to just have it professionally designed, but it was really cost prohibitive. I don’t make any money on this blog. I just blog to… blog.

While looking for designs, I found one that I was in love with, but it needed some changes to really fit me. I’ve made those changes.

It is by no means complete, I still have some tweaking to do, but the header works and that is the coolest part! Just move your mouse over the pictures and you can see the whole pic. It still has to be validated and many parts just plain changed to work the way I want them to.

It’s going to be a busy couple of weeks for me coming up. I have a very important deadline coming August 15 and one of my office staff is on vacation for a week. So it means more work and less time at home.

It also means I don’t know when I will be able to make some more changes. I am sure they will be made slowly, but surely.

I am going to try to get some pictures posted from this weekend.

In the meantime, let me know what you think about the site. Is it hard to read? Do you see any weird glitches (besides the spacing on the sidebar and the header going away - grr). To leave a comment you click on the comment indicator on the right. To get back home, just click on “crap-o-rama” at the top.

I like how that is set up, but I don’t like that you can’t see the header. Like I said, it still needs some work but I do like it better than my other theme.

I hope everyone had a great weekend… I know I did.

I’m so disappointed

We are heading up north this weekend. We don’t have an Internet connection there. So I figured I would just upload my new page - little glitches and all. Especially since parts of the theme I’m using now is so … non-working.

But one of the major elements isn’t working right. And while I have been working on my perfectionist streak (it’s such a curse sometimes), there some things I just can’t get past. And a major element of my new page not working right… makes my eye twitch, so?

No new site yet.

The frustration comes from my test site works well. I’m running it on my portable drive. So I’m kinda baffled as to why it’s not working when I upload it live. But as anyone who does any kind of computer work knows, I just need to walk away for a minute and look at it fresh.

So fear not… there will be an unveiling and it will be worth the wait (I hope).

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Cindy - I was thinking going north puts us closer to you, but I checked a map… I think we are just about as far, just another direction. But maybe we can still meet in the middle some time. Of course you (and yours) are always welcome to the pad north - I’ll buy the wine.

Sunday was a walk in the park

…literally.

After dinner on Sunday, Dad had Hunter come and ask me if I wanted to go get ice cream. I knew something was up, but I agreed anyway.

Turns out we went to the park first. Dad even packed the camera. Luckily I keep extra cards in the camera bag, since two of my cards were on the dinning room table.

Look, Mom’s even in the pictures…

The park has this cool instrument. It has brass balls {hehe} on rods that swing into metal tubes and it makes music like a xylophone. It was very cool.

Hunter went down the regular slide and this tube slide. I love this picture. Nice job, Dad.

Hunter just couldn’t get from one place to another fast enough.

Dad was figuring out just how hard it is to get Hunter’s picture while he’s actually looking at you. Again… great job on the camera Dad!!

I think this zipline was Hunter’s favorite. I’m sure it won’t be to long before he’s doing it on his own.

Thanks Dad, we had fun.

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You know the site changes I keep talking about… well they are not far. I’m pretty excited too. Hopefully by the weekend.

new routine

Our routine has been going through so many changes lately. When Kev started his new job he only worked for a week before a two week shut-down. At that point, his new schedule was more of a novelty. The first week we were both on vacation. But now we are several days into what will be our new routine. Kev leaves at 5:30 in the morning. Some times I get up then and sometimes I stay in bed until 5:45 or 6:00. I go down stairs and have a cup of coffee from our new coffee pot with a timer. Even tho’ I miss my broken espresso maker, I’m loving having coffee already made when I get up.

I try and get my hair and makeup done and make breakfast for Hunter and possibly a bagel for me. Usually around 6:30 I hear “Daaad” - I’m sure this will switch to “Moooom” shortly… but it was Dad all last week and old habits are hard to break - even if you are only two.

I go get Hunter and he comes downstairs to eat breakfast. I usually finish gathering stuff for lunches and wash up the few dishes. I do this before I get dressed so I don’t get my work outfit dirty.

After Hunter eats breakfast, I clean him up and get him dressed. At this point he usually watches the rest of Blue’s Clues (they took The Upside Down Show off the 7:00 slot) and run up and get dressed.

We are usually out of the house by 7:30.

{fast forward to the evening}

Kevin now picks up Hunter from daycare and I can come straight home from work. Kev has been making dinner. So when I get home there isn’t much to do but wait for dinner to finish up and talk about our respective days.

We always sit down as a family and eat.

The added bonus: Today I got off work by 5:15 and was home by about 5:30. I had the dishes done by 6:30ish {I do the dishes when he cooks and vice versa}. We all changed our clothes and actually got some family time in the pool.

I’m loving this new routine.

Reason # 643 billion why I am married to an amazing man.

Hunter goes to daycare at a local church. The church runs a daycare program, a pre-school program and an academy for K thru 12th grade based on home schooling.

One of the ladies that has been caring for Hunter since he was an infant is a single mom, I’ll call her Ms. D. She doesn’t drive and she lives with her Mom. Her son, who is about 9 or 10, attends school at the church. She is a very quiet, thoughtful and loving person.

Once when my Mom was having so many health issues, she put a card in Hunter’s lunchbox for me, just to let me know she cared for my family a lot and she was praying for us.

Many times when I go to pick up Hunter and he is the last child there {insert Mom guilt here} he is often sitting with Ms. D and she is reading with him or playing with him. In fact one day last week, Kev kinda accidentally snuck up on her while she was dancing around with Hunter. She takes amazing care of our son and it shows.

Oh yea, this post was supposed to be about Kevin, not Ms. D. Moving on…

For Kevin’s birthday, I bought him a PlayStation 3 (PS3). My husband works hard and he is a great Dad so I had no problem justifying such a gift for him. He usually plays the sports games and on the occasion that he feels the need to play a violent game like Grand Theft Auto, he respects my feelings and plays it when I’m not around and he would never play it in front of Hunter. He is very responsible like that.

We had several ideas about what to do with his old PS2 and several games, including trying to sell it on Craig’s list or just taking it up north so he could play while we were there.

Yesterday Kevin took his PS2 and all the games and gave them to Ms. D for her son. She went and got her son (B) and said “Look what this nice man has for you.” B started pulling the games out and was very VERY excited. When he got the bottom of the bag and saw the game counsel his eyes were as big as saucers and he shouted “I got a PS2!”

After Kevin helped him put everything back in the bag (B originally tried to give Kev the bag back … so polite) he took Hunter by the hand and started walking towards the door.

As he was leaving, Kevin could hear B in the other room telling the student teachers about his gift; undoubtedly one of the most exciting things that has happened in this young boy’s life.

At the dinner table, as Kev finished telling me this story and I wiped the tears from my check he said “The look on that kids face was all I needed.”

How lucky am I?

June in Review - part 1

June was a big month for me. There were a lot of milestones to celebrate and take note of.

June 5 – my nephew turned 18.
June 6 – my nephew graduated from high school
June 12 – my husband and celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary.
June 14 – my other nephew turned 5 and my only son turned 2.
June 15 – Father’s Day and my best friend’s birthday. I would tell you how old she turned, but the last time I did that, she didn’t talk to me for a week. Nevermind that I put it on her garage… I’m sure that had nothing to do with it. Hehe
June 20 – my loving husband turned 40.
June 23 – my Mom had a serious medical procedure.
June 30 – my summer vacation (finally) started.

So as you can see by the above list, June was pretty full. And this doesn’t include any work items, with the possible exception of June 30 and the start of my vacation.

I know by now you are thinking: “hey Sheryl, you shit, you haven’t shared pictures of any of these cool events with us, what’s up?”

Well you are right. But I spent the weekend uploading until my little heart was content. But there are waaaay too many pictures to dump on you in one setting. Therefore, I figured I would do a series called “June in Review” and share some pics with you in small doses.

Because there was so much going on, we celebrated my nephews 18th birthday on June 1st.
On the way to my brother’s Hunter was playing with his hat. My son is a clown.

Need more proof? Here is my son singing into a nut and bolt.

The birthday boy:

Sorry these pics are cropped or anything. I was lucky to just find the time to upload them.

My husband is an amazing Dad!

And finally… what no birthday should be without: ice cream and cake. Notice how there is NO ice cream anywhere but IN his belly.

Part 2 – coming soon.

July 12 of 12

July 12 of 12

This is a cool little monthly ritual that I do because of Chad. Go check it out.

Here’s mine for July.

8:17 AM - Who needs toys when you have a box?

8:28 AM - Willow kitty out ON the swing.

8:29 AM My mission for the day. I’m normally more of a live and let live kind a gal, but but they bit my son so now they must die…

10:06 AM Hunter is helping me pick out a bee poking stick.

10:09 AM Strolling thru the yard admiring my flowers. Here is my maintenance free Hydrangea.

11:00 AM It’s raining now…

2:32 PM What to do when it’s raining like a bitch…play PS3.

2:46 PM Jake drinking out of the world’s largest drinking bowl.

2:48 PM You’ve heard of Dog the Bounty Hunter… well I’m now Mom the Wasp Hunter. They will be sorry they ever even thought about stinging my son.

3:24 PM Up from his nap and hungry.

3:41 PM Bet you can’t guess where we live? {stupid rain}

4:44 PM The weather has let up so now we can have some pool time.

5:37 PM BONUS picture - DEAD BEE!

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I have spent all morning (and most of the afternoon) uploading all my June pictures. I will be posting a June in review post soon. So stay tuned. Until then, I hope you have enjoyed my July 12 of 12, even tho’ it included dead bees.

Also? Obviously I didn’t get my blog redesigned… but honestly I am still working on it.. it’s just going slower then I imagined. Pesky work keeps getting in the way.

Who needs collagen injections…

when wasps live on your deck?

Fuckers bit my son…

… and now they are ALL dead.