Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Well, I did it.

I quit my job.

It really wasn't that hard. I agonized over it for two days. I created all sorts of scenarios in my head where I ended up running out of the office in tears.

Reality is often far less dramatic than my imagination. Thank goodness.

They were pretty much expecting it. Amy & Brenda knew before I left on leave that I wasn't coming back. I didn't know, but they knew. :-) And they all fully support it. And they've like answered all my secret dreams by offering to allow me some part time work when I'm ready for it. I can work from home, I can come in every other day, a few hours a week, whatever works for me. So that's FANTASTIC.

The best part is that I feel great. I feel like this gigantic weight has been lifted from my shoulders. That tells me I made the right choice for us. I hope we can make it work. Nick thinks we can, so I'm all for giving it a go. For me, the best choice for my son is his mother and he simply can't get that if I go to work. If I can give that to him, I absolutely should. So there's no harm in trying. If in a few months it turns out that we just can't survive comfortably on one income, then we'll figure something out. And thankfully, Greg has offered me a solution to that "what if" problem.

Whew.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Who the foccia took my bread?

Ahhhh that has nothing to do with my post, but it's funny so there. :-p

In the next coming days, weeks, months, etc I hope you'll start to see more creative and project driven posts from the Beesley's. I read a lot of creative like blogs and I get so inspired to do stuff - and some times I do....I should have posted photos of the Valentine's cards I made (I LOVE making cards)...but more often than not, my ideas are just left to stew.

First project - our master bedroom. Our room looks like a teenage kids room, but with nicer furniture. We bought our set from Craigslist when we moved here - we didn't previously own bedroom furniture as it wouldn't fit in our joke of a room in Washington. Random side note - I always laugh at people on House Hunters that complain about how small a room is or that the master closet isn't a walk in...be thankful you HAVE a closet or have a room that isn't so small you can almost touch both sides at once. Anyway, while the furniture is nice it's not really us. Our room has no theme, no order, it's just a bunch of random stuff shoved in. It's recently become our office as Ben is now residing in our office and I don't want to turn the guest room into an office. So. I have a plan.

My friend Jamie posted a link to a bed she's thinking of making. Making a bed you say? Not as in, pulling up the covers and smoothing sheets? No, no. Actually crafting a head and footboard. I looked at the link and fell in love. So. *insert grin here* I sent the link off to Nick and said he should set about making it. It looks fairly simple - the instructions are easy to read. It'll give him something creative and crafty to do that he would enjoy (he likes woodworking) that's not home work or school work or work work or kid work or wife work. Well. Okay. It's mostly wife work but it's wife work away from the wife. It'll probably time him awhile to do as he doesn't have a ton of free time, but that's okay. I don't mind waiting. We're also going to paint. A nice fresh coat of white on most of the walls and a pretty sort of Hampton-y beachy blue on the wall with the bed.

So that's my in of doors project. I also want to spend some time out of doors this spring and do stuff with our yard. Create a little veggie garden area and a composty area and a play area for Ben when he gets a bit bigger. So much of our yard is just wasted space. So, this year we fix that. We do more things that are close to home and less things away from home. It'll be nice to host BBQ's and stuff over at our house (I've been dying to host a luau type party where you're required to wear a Hawaiian shirt) and spend less money away from home.

Oh and to keep myself honest - here's a gorgeous "before" shot of our room. It really does look like this like 90% of the time (minus the laundry basket on the bed...I used to make our bed every day but now I get up with Ben before Nick does and he forgets):



Two posts in two days. Lucky you.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Update Schmupdate

Interesting doings at the Beesley's this house week. Well, okay, really just the last 2 or 3 days. On Thursday Ben had his 2 month appointment. He's doing well - he'd grown to 25 inches (up from 21 at birth) and he weighs almost 12 pounds, 11.75. Doctor is really pleased with his growth gave us home work - help him improve his tracking and head stability. That almost sounds like he wasn't doing well and needs improvement and that's not how it was at all. Just the next mile stones. She says at this point in development, he sees almost as well as we do and we can help strengthen his eyes by using rattles and other toys to move back and forth so he can practice tracking. Thursday he also got his first round of shots. Oh boy. Oooooooohhhhh boy. That wasn't any fun at all. He cried. And cried. And then was an unhappy little boy for the rest of the day. If he wasn't asleep (and he slept - a LOT), he was fussing. As a result, he was up most of Thursday night since he slept so much that day. Nick and I were fairly tired Friday. And Friday, Ben had his first stay away from mama and papa. We went to see Shutter Island (soooooo good) and left Ben with nana and grandpa. he was fine. I cried. Nick was concerned and for a minute there, I thought he was going to stop the car. I don't know why I cried - I've left him before (I guess the difference is that I always left him with Nick...not sure why I'd feel differently but I did) but this time was hard to just like, walk away from him. He did fine and we enjoyed the movie.

We went to go buy a camcorder yesterday. I've been wanting one forever and with our tax return money we can afford to get one so, off to find one we went. We first went to Costco and they only had one left, and it was the display model. We talked ourselves out of getting that one. We went to Best Buy, found the one we wanted and waited....and waited....looked around, and waited some more. Found the guy working in the camera department and he left every time we made eye contact and started to speak. So we left. I'll not go to Best Buy again. Ben's starting to get more active and playful and he's cooing (actually, he "hoos" like an owl) and I want to capture some of this stuff. So we'll keep trying. I wish our fancy still camera that Nick paid a small fortune for took video, but alas it does not and I should quit whining about it. Should. :-p

Next week is my mom's birthday and she's requested strawberry shortcake for her dessert. I found a fairly yummy looking recipe online and I'm going to try my hand at it. I have the store as back up if it's disgusting. :-) Hopefully it won't be!

So that's it. I thought I had more, which is why I blogged instead of posted this as a really long status update on FB but I guess I don't have any more. Wondering when the other half of the Florida Beesley's might make it up here to visit with Ben, before Tara gets too far along to fly. I hope it's soon!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Ben's First Trip

This week we went out of town for Ben's first trip. Well, okay. We didn't go out of town FOR his first trip - Nick had to do some work up north and Ben & I went with him, thus resulting in his first trip. Our destination was Orofino, Idaho, which is about a 5-6 hour drive north of here. Ben did so great. On the trip up we stopped about half way for a feed and change and then kept on going. He didn't start to fuss until we were about an hour away so I went and sat in the back with him and kept him calm until we got there.

snuggles with papa at the hotel in Orofino

The next day (Wednesday the 10th), Nick headed out to work and I traveled north to Moscow to see my old house (saw my friend Tiffany's old house, too and found my old dorm room) and to visit with my friend Heidi. We had lunch and drove over to Pullman, WA to look at her new house and then I came back to the hotel for the evening. Thursday I went over to Lewiston, ID to have lunch with my cousins, Julia & Megan and ended up being suprised when their parents (Marshall & Maria) came as well! We had a nice visit and then back to Orofino we went. We left on Friday, going back through Lewiston and over to Clarkston, WA where we had lunch and drove by yet another of my old houses. Before that, though, we stopped at a casino on the way where my aunt & uncle just happened to be visiting so we visited with them as well. Then it was home we went. The drive home was a bit hairy in spots, it started snowing at about New Meadows and didn't let up until after Horseshoe Bend.

We're glad to be back!! It was nice to visit and I realized as I uploaded pix to my Facebook tonight that I have got to get better about sticking the camera in people's face. I have to embrace my inner Anne (Nick's mum) and make sure I get my pictures. I only took one picture of my visits this week - bummer. I made up for some if it tonight - we went over to my brothers to celebrate his birthday (which was on Wednesday). Carin made yummy stew and biscuits and a most delicious cake. Yum. I already had some of my left overs. :-)

Jamie, celebrating his cake his way

It looks like we'll be able to survive on just Nick's check, so I'm going to talk to my boss this week about extending my maternity leave and using the other 2 months that FMLA says I get to have for maternity leave. This means I won't be back to work til May 1st - hooray! More time to spend with my baby! It'll be really hard to go back to work, I'm really enjoying being a stay at home mommy these last two months.

Lots of babies coming up! I have two friends named Tiffany that are due - Boise Tiffany is due really any moment now. I think her official due date is like March 3rd, but I'm hoping for her sake her baby comes earlier. Texas Tiffany (and my friend from the 6th grade - holy smokes!) is due in April. My sister in law, Tara, is expecting her 2nd baby in August.

game time at Boise Tiffany's shower

Well, Ben has his two month appointment on Thursday so I'll post again and let you know how he's doing (perfectly, duh)!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

I love...

... my son (duh)
... jewelery (I've started wearing it more recently)
... baking (but I need to stop...I'm making way too many sweets recently)
... taking walks (and I should take more, due to my aforementioned baking habit)
... crafting (I have more time for it now than I did before and I'm getting better at it. Especially making cards is my favorite)
... decorating my house (but I haven't been spending as much on this recently, because I'd rather be...)
... shopping for babies (I love baby things and I'm glad so many of my friends and family (including myself, ha) are having babies and giving me an excuse to shop!)
... sleeping (and I miss uninterrupted nights of sleep)
... quiet moments in these nights of interrupted sleep when my baby smiles at me
... my goofy dog (who doesn't get nearly the attention that she used to get and I'm sorry for it)
... my husband (but babe, we desperately need a break from one another...go to work more)
... lunch and dinner dates (any one want to get together?)
... Carin's yummy soup (that's what's for dinner Monday night!)
... spring (is it here yet? I want to do a spring photo shoot with Ben and a bunny...but I'm scared of bunnies (I know, random, right?) and I don't know where to borrow one from)
... when Ben laughs in his sleep (he doesn't do it for us yet, just when he sleeps)