Thursday, July 29, 2010

Redfish Lake

Here's what we did on our annual trip to what I think is the greatest place on earth:

We ate at our traditional spot on the drive up.
From Redfish 2010

Had an impromptu photo shoot upon arrival.

From Redfish 2010

Walked the dog.
From Redfish 2010

Partied it up.

From Redfish 2010

Built a boat.
From Redfish 2010

Climbed a mountain.
From Redfish 2010

Went hiking with my uncles.
From Redfish 2010

Stopped for a Pepsi break.

From Redfish 2010

Hiked with the fam.

From Redfish 2010

From Redfish 2010

Used the camelbak.


From Redfish 2010

From Redfish 2010

Saw pretty mountains
From Redfish 2010

Played dress up.
From Redfish 2010

From Redfish 2010

Painted a fish
From Redfish 2010

From Redfish 2010

Colored a fish
From Redfish 2010

More pretty mountains
From Redfish 2010

Found a feather
From Redfish 2010

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Working Mommy Wednesday, again

I’m back and refreshed from a visit to one of my favorite places on earth. That's why I went a whole week with nothing. More on that soon.

For now, however, I’m linking up to Julia again for Working Mommy Wednesday. This week, she gave two choices:
#1. Brag about you... an accomplishment at work, the huge amount of funds you raised for that big project, the fact that you're the talk of the office because of your sense of fashion or your bubbly personality. Here's your chance to brag about you!

#2. When I grow up... when you were little, what did you always want to be when you grew up?


Maybe I’ll combine the two a bit. When I was little (and now), I had a lot of career ideas. The problem with all of them is that I seem to have an aversion to any career that makes money. I have considered, and still do on occasion, social work or teaching, and I have had a pretty good career in journalism. All of those things require a degree, and none of them alone could sustain a family above the poverty level.
I don’t think the problem is that I dislike money. I think the problem is that I really want to do something that makes a difference. And in our society, the jobs that make a difference, that I argue are some of the most important, pay the least.
I will never understand why a CEO of a large corporation is so wealthy and the social worker who makes sure children are in safe homes with enough to eat barely survives above the poverty line. Why is it that teachers, who are making sure the next generation is capable of leading us into the future, have to rely on government aid to receive health insurance for their children, and professional athletes have giant mansions with dozens of cars? The teachers at my kids’ daycare have associate degrees in early childhood development, and they could make more money working at a fast-food joint.
In our society, we tend to believe that to be successful, you have to work hard and be dedicated to what you do. But we don’t attach a salary based simply on how hard someone works.
Professional athletes work hard, without a doubt. They have unique hurdles, such as being forced to lead their lives in a public arena. But do they work that much harder than the teacher who comes early and stays late with a child who just doesn’t understand a concept and gets no help at home, or the high school coach who uses his own hard-earned money so one of his athletes from a low-income family can have appropriate shoes to wear? Do they work harder than the newspaper reporter who sits up late at night writing stories that shed light on the injustices shown to people who have no voice? Or, do they work harder than the cashier who has to work two jobs to put food on the table for her children?
I wish, in our world, salaries were paid based on how much someone’s job affects our lives and benefits our future. Recently, our state legislature asked local districts to cut teacher pay — our teachers’ salaries are already 41st in the nation. One lawmaker said it was the best way to cut in a fiscal emergency because “teachers don’t teach for the money.”
Well, of course they don’t. We don’t pay them enough to do it for the money. But should we take advantage of people who enjoy their job because they care about the people they help?
For 10 years, I worked in journalism and I absolutely loved it, but I didn’t like the direction the field was heading. So now I work in public relations for higher education. Do I like it? Yes. Do I feel like my job is as important as it was? I think it’s important, but maybe not as directly.
I am still working for something I believe in — I think higher education is vital to the future of our world, and I want to be a part of helping keep talented students in our state so they can succeed. I guess, regardless of income, that’s still what’s most important.


Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Destressing

This week, Julia at Working Mommy Wednesday asked how I destress. I guess I don't, really.

To me, it seems like by the time I get home for the day, I've missed too much of my kids. So it's all about them. It might make me crazy later, but it's how we're working it for now.

One thing that has saved my sanity is a special treat we get each summer at work. SUMMER HOURS :) :) :)

Instead of working from 8-5, we work 7:30-4 p.m. with a shorter lunch. I don't think I can even explain the difference between picking a child up from daycare at 4 versus 5. At 4, they have had an hour less to exhaust themselves with the other kids. We come home, and I have an extra hour to spend focused on them before I have to make dinner. Coming home at 5 means cranky, screaming kids fighting while I rush through cooking, hoping to survive. Coming home at 4 means walking in the door, reading a book together, looking through our menu plan to find a dinner we can make together, maybe even going for a short hike on a nearby trail on our way home. It's peaceful.

In three weeks, we go back to regular hours. I'm not ready. But I think I learned something this summer. Maybe dinner doesn't have to be ready at 5:45. Maybe I should sit down with my kids and read a book even if we're home an hour later. Maybe it's not so bad to let them have a snack and postpone dinner for a bit so we can destress together. They need the destress as much as I do, I think.


Thursday, July 15, 2010

What we've been doing

Here's a bit of what we've been doing this summer

The last weekend in June, we went to visit Matt's parents. We went to a pretty cool ghost town.

From Missoula and Garnet

From Missoula and Garnet

I thought it was cool that they just left the detriorating buildings, protecting them but not redoing them. It was definitely a more authentic feel.

We stumbled across a free water park. Luckily, I had ANne Marie's swimsuit in the car. I didn't have Thomas's, but he didn't seem to mind.

From Missoula and Garnet

We went on a tour of an old mansion. I didn't take any photos of the mansion, but I did get a nice one of Thomas and his grandparents. :)

From Missoula and Garnet

We've gone hiking.

From Missoula and Garnet

From Fourth of July

Thomas sported his first do-rag.
From Fourth of July

We did some parades.

From Fourth of July

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Nobody told me...

Julia at Work Wife Mom Life asked this week for 10 things you wish someone would have told you about motherhood. I only have three, because I was long-winded and got tired. :)


1. Sometimes, you have to be tougher than you otherwise would be, and it’s your kids who help you do that.
I’m not the type to break down in tough or scary situations. I usually try to get things done, and get through whatever issue we have as unscathed as possible. But there have been times when I know I’ve held it together so my kids didn’t have to be scared or feel insecure, and we haven’t even had anything big happen.
About a year ago, we bought a horrible SUV that turned out to be a lemon. Here is a photo of the car. Looks innocent, doesn't it? It's not.
From Emily Juggles

In its second of several major breakdowns, we were traveling down the freeway in a busy section (busy for Idaho). I was alone with both kids in the car — Thomas was five months old and Anne Marie was 2. Every time a semi, or even a car, passed, my entire vehicle shook. I called the roadside assistance on my insurance.
The person on the roadside assistance line told me we were two hours from the nearest town, then mentioned the name of a town that I know has less than 50 people and NO tow trucks. I told her I had lived in the area most of my life, and there was a town of 15,000 people and several tow companies just 10 minutes away. She told me there wasn’t, then I lost the connection.
She called back, and said she found a nearer tow truck, but they wouldn’t be there for two hours. Then I told her I would call the police, get a nearer truck and they would reimburse me. She told me it was fine. I called the police, found a tow truck willing to be there in 10 minutes. After that, roadside assistance called me back and said that she had found a closer tow truck too, and that if I didn’t cancel the one I had chosen, they wouldn’t reimburse me. I politely told her to go to hell.
Thank goodness I did. The tow truck she had found called me moments later, and said they weren’t coming at all. I would have been stuck forever.
While I was having these conversations, Thomas was screaming. He decided to blow out his diaper, and there was poop all over his seat. We couldn’t get out of the car and stand on the side of the road away from the freeway because the side of the freeway was a sea of lava rocks. I took his carrier and moved him so he wasn’t on the side of the car nearest the freeway, changed the diaper and considered doing a primal scream. I was scared we were going to be hit, and unsure if any tow truck was actually coming.
But instead of the scream, I held it together. It’s what my mom would have done. She never made us privy to her worries, even when they were big. I asked her the other day how she afforded our swim lessons and soccer as a single mother with no child support on a small salary.
“Sometimes,” she said, “I literally cried over spilled milk. I cried when you guys spilled your milk because we didn’t have money for more.”
I never knew we were that close to total poverty because she never let me know. I hope I can be that tough.
2. Everyone knows how to raise children as well or better than you.
Sometimes advice is good, sometimes it’s not. Just take it all in and smile. Use what you can and don’t worry too much about the rest.
3. Parenthood is exhausting.
People say that it gets better after the first few months, but after three years of parenthood (hardly an expert), I don’t believe it. There is always something happening that will exhaust you, at least so far. I really am not sure if I will ever sleep again.


Saturday, July 10, 2010

One year ago...

Every once in awhile, I like to look at photos from the year previous, and see how different my kids look. It's crazy to see how much they've grown.

Here's Anne Marie now:

From Missoula and Garnet

One year ago:
From redfish 2009

Two years ago: (doesn't she look like a blonde Thomas?)
From Boise Zoo

And, a short three years ago:

From Anne Marie 6 months

Thomas's back in time trip is much shorter. :)

Today:

From Missoula and Garnet

Last year:
From Thomas 4 months

Friday, July 9, 2010

FIve question Friday

1. What is one food you could eat everyday?
I could, and probably do, eat cheese every day. All kinds of cheese except for Swiss.

2. Are you working in the career you thought you would be when you were 18?
Not even close. My idea at 18 was to take my scholarship in journalism, use it until the last year, then change my major to environmental science, with the hopes of going into environmental law. By the time I got to my junior year, I loved journalism and that was it.
My plan after college was to be a journalist forever, and now I work in public relations, part of a sometimes-contentious relationship between the media and those who seek to influence the media.

3. What is something that you wish you would have done when you were younger and you didn't?
I wish I would have lost my extra weight at 26 or 27 so I didn’t have to do it now. I also wish I would have done more traveling, since now it is a much more expensive affair.
4. What color are your kitchen walls?
They are this grayish color, but I want them to be yellow. I even have the paint for it. I bought the paint four years ago, but someday, I think it will become a reality.
5. Do you remember what your very first favorite song was?
When I was 3 or 4, I LOVED Karma Chameleon by the Culture Club. I sang it constantly.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Ridiculous

This has nothing to do with my normal blog stuff, but I read this today, and was disturbed:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/business/economy/07generation.html

The headline reads, "American Dream Is Elusive for New Generation."

So you would expect to find a story about a young person who is desperate to find a job, but can't find anything, right?

Wrong. The young man hadn't found any jobs that were good enough for his brilliance.

The young man was offered a job, but since it was only $40,000 a year at an insurance company, he saw it as a dead-end and turned it down. Seriously?

I always thought the American dream involved working hard while looking for new opportunities and creating a better life for yourself. I didn't think you could be expected to get the American dream living with your parents and waiting for the perfect job to fall in your lap.

The headline should read, "Humility and Work Ethic Are Elusive for New Generation."

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Mom guilt

I almost missed Julia's Working Mommy Wednesday. She asked about mommy guilt this week.






I never planned on working full-time with little kids, but even though I’m working full time, I know I’m a lucky one.
First, living in Idaho, there is no commute. Not only that, but my kids are at on-site daycare, and only for three days a week, sometimes not even all day.
Even with a traditional full-time schedule, my kids were able to do swim lessons with me because I took my lunch break for Mom and Me classes. In the summer, university hours end at 4, giving me lots of evening with the kids. Matt doesn’t work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and we all have lunch together. Our weekends are full of fun.
One of the things that makes me the most lucky, however, is that I have wonderful people caring for my children when I can’t be there.
Most of my friends who work have looked for a home environment for their kids when they are away. When my babies were tiny babies, I did too, and I still think it was best at that time. But now, both kids are in a daycare center.
Of course, like all working mothers, I sometimes feel guilty about the fact that I have to work. You hear about daycare centers on talk shows and amongst those who believe that women who send their children to daycare are committing child abuse.
They paint pictures of institutions, with sad-eyed children on leashes walking around the grounds, if they go outside at all. You hear about how they scream for their mothers who aren’t there, and are ignored. It’s enough to make any mother feel guilty.
But, it only takes one visit to my children’s daycares to know that the perception those people create is, at least in our case, false. I walk in the doors to a smiling receptionist who greets my kids by name even though there are 200 kids there on any given day.
They go to their rooms, Thomas to a room with a few other babies and cuddly, sweet women, and Anne Marie to a preschool-style room with a teacher and her friends.
On any day, I can walk out of my office and see both of my kids outside playing, with teachers who are playing right alongside them. All the kids look happy. Of course, I’ve seen the occasional temper tantrum, but if it happens at home, it’s bound to happen at daycare too, right?
Thomas doesn’t cry when I drop him off. He immediately greets his caregiver, then walks over to the Elmo toy he loves. Anne Marie is always a little sad to see me go, but she always has great stories to tell me on the way home about her friends, the sandbox, the new songs she has learned and more.
It’s not home, and the caregivers are not my childrens’ mother. And, although our daycare bill is more than our mortgage, those caregivers, who have certificates and degrees in the field, would be better off salary-wise in the fast food industry. But they care about my kids and they want what’s best for them, just like I do.
Thomas and Anne Marie learn and have fun at daycare. Anne Marie has known all her colors for more than a year. She knows how to share and how to communicate with other kids. She knows her shapes and the alphabet. She can even recognize a word or two. Thomas can sign “please,” “more” and “milk,” and he is learning to share as well, although I think the sharing deal is a bit slower for him. ☺
I don’t think I’ve missed any first steps or other milestones, but, honestly, I’ll never know if I did, and for that I am grateful. One day, I walked into Thomas’s daycare one day and saw one of the little babies walking around. I mentioned it to one of the women, and she said, “Oh, I know. It’s great! Don’t tell T’s mom. He’s not walking at home yet, and we don’t want her to think she missed it.”
At first glance, it might sound like they weren’t being honest, but to me it simply means they understand. They know what it’s like to have to leave your child with someone else, and how important it is to not feel like you have missed something. I love them for that.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Ten things that make me smile when I’m not happy:

1. Anne Marie telling me her favorite joke — “A man spilled soup all over his head.” Yes, that is the whole joke, not just the start.
2. A nice, sunny day that’s not too hot.
3. Planning a trip.
4. Hiking.
5. Thomas’s awesome dance moves.
6. A good comedy.
7. A phone call or e-mail from a friend.
8. Looking at photos of my kids.
From first zoo visit 2010
From more anne marie skiing
9. Reading a cookbook.
10. Chopping vegetables. I LOVE chopping vegetables.