Never Say Never

Last week took a completely unexpected turn with a Wednesday that seemed much more like a Tuesday...

From the get go Wednesday just felt off. We were running a little late and I apparently was not as in tune as I normally am. While making our way down Mcloughlin to Highway 224 I got gunned and stopped by a lovely City of Milwaukie Motorcycle Cop. I was allegedly doing 64 in a 45. There was no excuse for this. I kindly accepted my ticket to the tune of $160 and continued on to work. I was proud of Collin; he didn't laugh or say anything to me that may have ended with him sitting on a curb somewhere between there and work. The only positive is that I have NEVER had a speeding ticket and should be able to do a diversion program. I will be calling the court this morning to find out, or at least start the process.

The rest of the work day was honestly fine. Just zipped by at it's normal pace, had a hilariously awesome staff meeting after lunch. At second (last) break, Collin and I got ice cream. Yep, on Wednesdays during the summer they sell ice cream at last break at my work. We sat out in the courtyard basking in the sun while enjoying our frozen (and in my case minty) treat.

After that it all went to pot.

Climbed the stairs to head back to my fortress of solitude (aka my cubicle), arrived at my desk and found that I had a new voicemail... From Emma's daycare... I listen to the message and they inform me that my little hellion is "vomiting" and "uncomfortable" (mind you she's teething; most likely top and bottom teeth coming in) and that we need to come get her. I call them back and tell them we should be there within an hour. Get there, and as I already knew, the admin advised that she cannot be at daycare until she is 24 hours symptom free. I then walk into the room where they are just finishing feeding her the third and final helping of her solids.

Mind you, the key symptom sited was what? Oh, yea, vomiting. Yet here my little monster sat being fed curried sweet potatoes and apples. On top of that, miraculously for a vomiting child, she was still in her original outfit that I dropped her off in. And in order to keep her home they typically need to site two symptoms so her second was that she was uncomfortable.

Because no baby before her has ever been uncomfortable while teething... Right?

Then the teachers were telling me how she was doing this and that and this and the other thing, and they thought it was more than teething. So, remember how I mentioned that they had just finished feeding her? I terrifyingly awaited this vomiting. The whole ride home, and for a decent chunk after we got home as she proceeded to play and crawl and jump in her exerciser. Lo and behold, it never came.

So I got to (luckily) work from home with her on Thursday. It went better than I expected and gave us some fun mommy & Emma time that we haven't really had since my maternity leave. And after I was done working for the day at 2ish, her and I went grocery shopping.

Needless to say, she never vomited. Her appetite was less than normal, and I know the daycare loves her for being like clockwork, so if anything I am guessing they were feeding her as normal, and she was too full so up it came. This teething business does weird things to their tiny bodies. A friend went through a similar situation with her little one at our daycare, but hers always "had a fever". Keep in mind we don't get reimbursed for these "sick days"...

Well, that is all for now. Tomorrow I will shoot for a commute related post sans police involvement. Now to clean the baby smudges from my glasses and attack this Monday like a PMSing woman attacks wine and chocolate.

Random thought of the day:
Mom's are made up of six key components: blood, sweat, tears, coffee, wine, and most importantly love.

Cold Fusion

My great freezer meal experiment worked, but the results were not as awesome as I had anticipated. Of the twenty  some odd recipes I tried and made, I maybe truly liked five. There are some other recipes I want to try, but we'll see. The time saved was maybe a couple minutes here and there, but nothing significant enough to make me want to do this again. The couple minutes weren't worth the three hours I spent prepping and pre-cooking a lot of the things.

I guess, after all that, I am more of a fresh ingredient cook. So I will resume my normal method of monthly meal planning. I will still make and freeze large batches of chili and stew, but nope, not going to repeat all of this.

The main thing that killed it for me was the chicken. No matter how I cooked the damn marinaded (so not a word, but I'm going with it) chicken it came out tough and chewy and/or dry. Chicken does not normally turn out this way when I cook it, EVER. I slow cooked, baked, grilled, and pan fried the chicken and always the same frustrating result. The flavors were predominately good, and I enjoyed those, but the meat seemed ruined in a way.

I will probably steal some inspiration from some of the recipes, but I won't be making them ahead.

For the next grand experiment we will be having a go at a mostly gluten free month. Both Collin and I are intrigued to see how our A blood type bodies respond to this in a general sense and in a fitness sense. Any super good recipes I find I will try and remember to share with you all. I am confident (as long as I get to work early) I should be able to keep on top of this. Especially since our dinner tends to be our lunch the next day, I should be able to recollect the super good ones.

On an unrelated side note:

My little booger face is EIGHT MONTHS old today. How is she already eight months?!? That sounds so close to a year. Closer than I want to think about.

For her daycare I had to do a weird little questionnaire on her age and stages she should be in... All of them she hit at as she should. Then towards the end they had some fun questions and the dark humored, evil voice in my head so badly wanted to give some highly messed up answers. Like, "Do you have any concerns about your child?" Yes, it worries me when she stares and makes a slashing motion under her chin. Or, yes, when she screams and lunges at my throat mouth agape. I am concerned she is too influenced by the Walking Dead.

I refrained, as difficult as it was.

Now to work. To sleep no more. I wasn't sleeping to begin with.

Yea, I Didn't Even Try

But I will do this time (total Star Wars thing there).

I just can't find the time at home to sit down and type up a post. I'd much rather play with Emma, who will be eight months old tomorrow, or I find myself cleaning or making food. Then in the brief moments after Emma is asleep and we prepare for bed I kind of enjoy just mindlessly drifting while watching some show on Netflix.

I realized this weekend that every morning when I get to work (fifteen to thirty minutes early; the commute is weird I'll explain later) I sit, on my phone, scrolling through Facebook or Pinterest. It dawned on me this weekend: Why the hell am I not using this time to write??

My overly tired brain is probably just not wired right to come up with these things sooner.

I don't even know where I left off. This seems to happen every time I post. That said, this is where we are.

Emma is on the brink of crawling (in her own special way), and she loves to stand, bounce, and dance. She can clap, and her laugh is so utterly infectious, it has become the highlight of my days.

Collin and I are working hard to find a balance between parenting and still enjoying our favorite pre-Emma activities. I think we are almost there. He has his weekly Man Dates with his best mate, and on the weekends he has a couple hours to just put on head phones and blow suckers away in Battlefield 3. My me time is a little less exciting, but oh so healthy (mentally, physically, and emotionally) for me. I am working back up to running at least three times a week. Two weeknights and Saturday mornings. Also during daddy's computer time, Emma and I usually enjoy a lovely stroll around out area. I think we are getting it down pretty good.

In other exciting family news, we have been preapproved to buy our first home! We are so excited and nervous and terrified and happy and giddy all at once. Thanks to my awesome supervisor we have found the most amazing realtor to assist us on this journey. She knows the areas we are looking in very well, and is just wonderful.

But this is it for now. In my next post I will share my findings on freezer/make ahead meals, and the finer points of our hellish commute (big point in wanting to move before winter).