Happy Thanksgiving!

We are up at my parents house on Camano Island until Monday. Right now the smell of turkey and pumpkin pie is in the air...I just finished peeling potatoes, Will just got back from taking Preston for a jog in the jogging stroller, my Dad is helping my Mom set the table...I LOVE FAMILY. :)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Preston's Post

Preston wanted you all to know a few things.

Well, Mom is going to attempt this again with me:

Here's how I like it. First we have to find...

I am:

Because I think books are so tasty!

P.S. This is Jenni. Thanks everyone for your kind words. We are going to be just fine. Do you want to know how I found out about Will being laid off?

Friday night I knew he was going to be late coming home because he was going for a run with a friend (they are training for a 50K in January). I had made a pumpkin pie for a Friday night treat and called Will and asked him if he would pick up some whipping cream on his way home. I actually tried calling him all afternoon, but no answer.

He got home and pulled out a tub of Coolwhip.

Well, I am sort of anti-coolwhip ever since I decided that foods in their natural state were better than subtsitutes. So I said, "Will, you know I hate coolwhip - it is full of hydroginated oil and aspartame. Why did you get the real dairy stuff like I asked?"

He said, "But the coolwhip was on sale!"

I replied, "Yeah, but you could have just paid like 50 cents more and gotten the real stuff." (with a major sad face on)

"Well I would have gotten the more expensive stuff but I lost my job today." He replied.

I just looked at him like he was completey joking - because Will is always playing jokes on me. I was like "Yeah right." But he was very insistent. "That is why I didn't answer my phone all afternoon - I was in a meeting with Chad. I brought home everything from my office in a box."

"Coolwhip is just fine. Thank you." I said with a gulp.

We are surprised that Will was fortunate enough to hold on to his job for so long being how the market is, but I know it is because he such a hard worker and good at what he does (he won't tell you that). We have enough in savings to last us for a couple of months and in the meantime we will hunt for a new job and enjoy our time together.

When Will and I were first married, neither of us had jobs for about 4 months. It was one of the happiest memories. We didn't have much money but we spent so much time together and made so many lasting memories. That is how I am looking at this right now - just some time we will get together because soon enough Will will be back to work and gone 5 days a week for 50 hours. We will enjoy him here while we can. :) Some say that is an all-too optomistic attitude, but hey you gotta look on the bright side. :)

P.P.S. If you have no idea what I am talking about, Will wrote a post yesterday about how he was laid off.

P.P.P.S. I obviously must be either typing super fast or I am tired because I made a LOAD of spelling errors in this post. But I am not fixing them. :)

Bye Bye Buchan!

Well, it's official. Friday was my last day at John F. Buchan Homes. With the financial/real estate mess that the country is in, it finally caught up to me. I'm suprised I made it so long. When I came on board with Buchan 3-1/2 years ago right out of my graduate program in Real Estate Development, we were building close to 200 homes a year with an employee base of about the same. Next year they are hoping to build 20 homes, if they can find a bank to loan them money and they have about 100 homes waiting to be sold. This leaves one employee in the estimating/purchasing department until things rebound.

I loved working here. It was a great family owned company, that built very nice homes. I had an excellent boss and co-workers (just co-worker towards the end. LOL). So if you know any millionaires out there that are looking for a nice million dollar home on the Seattle Eastside, we could use about 100 of them. Just send them here.

In the mean time if you know of any great Finance/Real Estate Jobs you can send those to me. LOL

I guess this way, I can finally finish typing up that blog about my last race that I have been trying to type for the past two months. LOL So stay tuned...

Jenni is ACTUALLY doing a tag???

Sigh.

My friend purposely left me out of a tag because, and I quote, "I'll tell you who I'm NOT going to tag! Jenni - you're NOT it! Because I know you, and know if I did tag you, you would purposely not do it. So you are not tagged - ever. :) Love ya! "

Okay okay so everyone must know how much I hate doing tags. So Lori-ann, THIS one's for YOU! Shock! Gasp! Jenni's doing a tag! But only because you said I wouldn't do it. Pthhhhhhhhhhh!

My quirks:

1. I can't cook in a messy kitchen. Even if I'm hungry enough to eat a horse, I will do all the dishes, wipe the cupboards and stove down before I start cooking. Ask Will. He's often sat there and watched me. This applies also even if I just want to eat something as simple as a sandwich.

2. I can't sleep crooked in bed. I have to be completely parallel with the bed.

3. I will stay warm as long as my feet are covered. It's completey psychological. I could be wearing flipflops and my brain will think I'm warm. I actually wear flippies throughout most of the winter here in Seattle.

4. I have a routine in the shower and if it is messed up, I get confused as to what I've already done.

5. I am very sensitive to smells. I think I am going to die if I inhale car exhaust for too long, and I will hold my breath for long periods of time to avoid sucking in cigarette smoke.

6. I can't stand having loud music on in the car unless I am alone. It's annoying when you're in the car with someone and you can't have a conversation because there is music. All I do is hear the words of the music. It is very distracting.

7. I can't eat before I perform. I will throw it up.

8. My closet is organized first by color, and then by sleeve length.

9. I often sit in church and look at other people and imagine what I would do with them if I was giving them a makeover. (not saying they need one, but I just think about what I would do).

10. I think sleeping takes up too much time and if I had it my way I would get little projects done all night while everyone else slept. I'm obviously a night person.

All right. I'm sure I have other quirks too that I can't think of. Will, can you think of any?

Musical Storytime

Yes, it would appear that Preston is outgrowing his infant carseat already at 5 months. But that is not what this about...

Last week I decided that Preston was old enough to take to the local library for storytime. We've tried or own storytime, but all he wants to do is eat the book. So I figured if we went to a storytime where there were lots of other kids, and the book was a good 10 feet away from him - he might actually get something out of it.

Lucky for us, our town's library was actually the only library in the entire county that hosts a storytime for ages newborn - 12 months. Perfect!

Being that it started at 10am, I decided to for-go the shower and just get dressed and go. So I got Preston ready, and myself and we were out the door by 9:45 a.m. Pretty early for us, being that I usually spend half of my nights up with him.

We arrived and found ourselves amidst an entire Montessory Preschool group, plus a ton of other moms and little kids. I was kind of nervous, because this wasn't only Preston's first library storytime, but mine as well.

We went in and found a seat. I guess for being for "newborn to 12 months", we were a minority. The woman next to me whispered, "It's a special storytime. It's not usually musical."

Ahhh, that would explain it.

Talk about deja vu.

About 3 years ago, I worked as an educator for the Seattle Symphony and part of what I got to do was musical storytime on Saturday mornings for kids. I got to play my violin, and the piano and sing, and read stories. It was pretty cool...for an adult job.

Although, I didn't dress like this. There were definitely:

Aside from fact that I couldn't help critiquing their odd minorkeyed versions of nursury rhyme favorites and noticing the tiny environmentalistic plugs in their music to not chop down too many trees or eat too many fish or polute too much water, they were pretty fun.

I think Preston enjoyed it.

He really dug the music, the laughter, watching kids jump up and down, the hoola-hoop being tossed around, and particularly me helping him do the hand motions. He was good for about 40 min, and then started to do the whole arching-of-the-back and being distracted by everything. We left 10 min early because he was about to break out in full-blown crying if we didn't jet. That and the fact that the smell of his poopy diaper was driving me crazy.

But we will do it again. :) Storytime, not the poopy diaper. Well, actually we will most definitely do the poopy diaper again too.

Afterwards we met my friend Erika at the mall and went to Nordstrom Rack and Osh Kosh BGosh. Then we ate gyros at the Greek bar and the woman there told me in a thick Greek accent that my baby looked like an adorable little girl.

"Ohhh that's so nice, he's actually a boy."

"No he looks like a girl. Just like you! Mom and daughter."

Haha okay.

Side by Side

I thought it would be fun to see comparisons side by side of Will and I as babies next to Preston. It was hard, but I tried to find photos where we were posed simularly. And not to mention, finding photos where we were around the same ages was difficult too, so they are not exact. In fact, I think one of Will at the bottom was of him at 1 year of age.

This first set is Preston side by side with me as a baby.

(Top: Preston at 2 weeks, Jenni at 1 month)

(Bottom: Preston at 5 months, Jenni at 3 months)

Next is Will side by side with Preston.

(Top: Preston at 4 months, Will at 5 months)

(Bottom: Preston at 4 months, Will at 1 year)

Definitely not the mailman's baby. :)

Pay Day

Congratulations to me!

Yesterday was like Christmas after the UPS man came.

I got brand new Salomon Threat twintip skis, tshirts, two snow beanies, and 2 dvds of the movie Reasons.

Why you might ask?

This was the first installment of two payments owed to me from Poor Boyz Productions for using my song "Fly Away" in their award winning film Reasons (They took home 4 top awards at the International Freeskiing Film Festival in Montreal).

So I got my swag, and then next will come my check.

That's right. I am finally getting paid for having my music in movies. It feels pretty nice. I've had my music in several indie films over the last year, but this is the first non-indie film and the first time I've actually been paid.

So again, congratulations to me. :)

And to Will, because I'm giving the skis to him. I already have some nice Rosi's and Will has been skiing on used rental skis. And twin tips? Are you kidding me? As IF I ski downhill backwards. I will leave all those types of tricks up to Will and his brothers this year at the family reunion at Yellowstone.

On another note, I was just selected to be an author on a music teacher's blog. I'm pretty excited. I will be contributing one article her month. I put the link on our sidebar under the "Other Blogs We Dig" category at the bottom.

Night Out at the Seattle Symphony

What you are about to read will either make you laugh, or cry. I am the one who actually experienced it, and I did both.

For about 6 weeks now, Will has been planning on taking me to the symphony. It was to be our first dressy date since Preston was born. The tickets were purchased, the babysitter was lined up, and the dinner reservations were planned.

The night was Tuesday evening.

I had considered everything I needed to get done in order to be ready and knowing I needed to leave no later than 3:15pm, I started counting backwards to estimate my schedule.

Ok, 10 min to load the car. 15 min to feed Preston. 15 min to eat lunch. 1 hour to get ready. 20 min to shower. 15 min to feed Preston. 10 min to dress him. 15 min to get diaper bag ready. 10 min for diaper changes. 45 min to work out. 3 min to look up directions and print out.

I need to start doing all of this by 11:30am.

Everything was going great.

I had been pumping milk for the last day so that I would have enough to give our friends (aka the babysitters) to watch Preston all evening. I went to the fridge around 1pm to do one last pump. I found the bottle of milk (only 6 oz of the precious stuff that I was able to spare so far) had tipped over in the fridge and drained to the bottom of the fridge floor.

I was devastated. If you have breastfed before, you know how hard it is to come up with extra when you are trying to simultaneously feed as well. What was I supposed to do? Now Preston would not have any milk for the rest of the evening.

I tried to stay calm, going over in my head "Okay, I could try to pump some more but there still won't be enough. There is none frozen in the freezer. CRAP! He is going to have to have his first taste of formula."

Well, Preston won't even take a bottle. So giving him some new type of milk AND a bottle? I felt sorry for our babysitters already.

I continued getting ready, all the while Preston was fussy and crying and needing my attention. I hadn't eaten lunch yet, it was already 2:30 and I was supposed to leave in 45 min. So the easiest thing I could think of, was to make a smoothie and drink it while I was getting ready.

During this: Fussy baby, fussy baby, and more fussy baby. I am even more behind schedule.

I go to my closet to pick out what to wear. I look at my huge selection of fancy dresses knowing that I only fit into, oh, maybe 2 of them. But I grab 5, starting out with trying on the ones I knew probably wouldn't fit, and ending with the ones I knew did fit.

Well, it was of course the last dress I tried on that was the only one that fit. Put the dress on. Preston is crying to be fed.

Take the dress off, feed him. Put the dress back on.

I go into the bathroom seeing how it is now 3:15, I still have curlers in my hair, and I am not even remotely ready to leave yet.

I reach over to grab something off the bathroom counter and knock my glass of strawberry smoothie over. It falls and spills all over my makeup, into the bathroom drawers, onto the floor and splashes all over the front of my dress. And the ONE dress that fit me, I remind you.

I am crying at this point but trying not to because I don't want to have to redo my makeup on top of everything.

I am able to remove most all the smoothie from my dress. I hurry and put my shoes on. Preston is miraculously being good. I take my curlers out and realize again how much I hate my hair since I cut it all off.

I grab everything and take it down to the car, realizing I left some things upstairs. I start the car and run back up the 25 stairs only to find I locked myself out. I run back down the stairs and grab the keys from the ignition, and go up again and grab what I need.

I drive 15 min to the babysitter's house and realize as I am almost there, that I forgot Preston's formula and his jar of applesauce. This was a necessity that I bring it, being that he does not have any breastmilk.

So I have to turn around and go all the way home and get his food. By this time it is 4:15.

Finally, I drop everything plus Preston off at the sitters and leave to go pick up Will from work. It was 4:30. And our dinner reservation was for 5pm.

After this point though the evening actually ended up going really smoothly. Our date was lovely. The food was fantastic, the concert was fun, and it was nice to be together. But WOW. The part leading up to the date? Hope that never happens again!

5 Months!

That is right. Our little guy is now 5 months old! Okay, well actually not until tomorrow. For some reason I keep thinking that TODAY is the 13th. He was born June 13th.

Now he just needs to double his lifespan outside the womb to equal the time he was inside.

The poor guy is sick though. I knew it was inevitable that he would catch my cold with our close contact 24 hours a day. It breaks my heart to see him sniffling, hardly able to breath, coughing and hacking.

The Family That Hikes Together...

...Gets wet together. Just kidding, they stay together too.

First of all, a moment of silence please.

Right now, while I am at home hacking phlegm from my lungs and speaking with an almost-man voice, my darling husband and little boy are at church.

Do you know what this means???

I am alone in our house, without a baby. This is probably maybe the 2nd time this has happened since Preston was born. It is very quiet. I almost shutter at how quiet it is, aside from the clicking of keys on the keyboard as I type this of course. I know I should be sleeping, but I feel this urge of excitement that I might actually get a few projects done during this two hour baby-less block of time.

Okay so back to the good stuff.

Despite the fact that I've had a nasty case of phlegm-hacking-itus this past week, I relented and went along with Will's idea to go climb Mt. Si yesterday afternoon.

So let the adventure begin...

Remember this contraption? It was the very first thing Will went out and bought after I told him I was pregnant. Now, almost a year later. He gets to use it.

As you can see, Will was...

It was a tad bit chilly for Preston, so I made sure that:

All snuggled and cinched in...

What do you think of that, Preston?

He is just happy that he is

So then we decided to set the camera on the trunk of the car to take a family photo...

We tried it again later on during the hike. It turned out:

But it is hard to keep hands steady to take pictures without the flash.

Will was wondering if his son would be a...

A family self-portrait:

And a closeup on that little guy in the background:

We think we make cute babies. Maybe we'll have to add more.

Geez not NOW sillies. I just had one. We mean like next year. Way way WAY late next year, or maybe the year after.

So anyway, we finally decided that it was:

It was getting darker, and the little guy just couldn't take it any longer. Good thing the piggyback has:

Back at the car, Preston was...

And thus ends our tale of this particular adventure.

And why I am home sick from church. You really shouldn't go out in the rain and cold if you're already sick.