Jonah Babbling - 8 1/2 months

the good thing about being a daddy

This is what Trey said to me yesterday:  "when I keep eating all my food I will grow up big just like daddy and the best thing about being a daddy is that I can reach the gummys and I will get my own phone!"

(The gummys are fruit snacks that joe keeps on the highest shelf so Trey can't get to them.)

Lazy Sunday pics

{more pics}

Lil' Froggy

{more adorable pics!}

glad to be home!

After almost 2 weeks of being out of town, I am so glad to be home.  I had some good training in Framingham, then a great visit at Grampy’s house, but it sure is nice to be home. 

 

Yesterday’s blizzard was not too big of a deal.  We got about 7 inches of snow at the house.  I left work early yesterday due to all the dire warnings, but it didn’t even take me too much longer than normal to get home.  Visibility was bad but not horrible, and I didn’t slide around at all.

 

We are planning to rent skis for Trey this weekend and send him down the big hill in the park.  I’ll be sure to take pics!

 

 

1st day with the triathlon training plan - not good

I started a bit early on my triathlon training plan today.  I'm not sure what I expected, but I think I had in my mind that each event would be about 30 minutes long.  Well maybe it will after 3 months of training, but this morning I did only 10 miles on the bike (tri will be 12 miles) and it took me 42 minutes.  Then after work I ran on the treadmill and only made it 2 miles.  I have a long way to go.  This weekend I will try a 1/2 mile swim and see how long that takes me.  I'm guessing about an hour.

Jonah's new sleeping position

Joe said that this morning he found Jonah asleep in his bed, on his belly, binkie in his mouth, arms above his head, and face smashed on a pile of binkies.  Apparently he arranged them all in a pile sometime during the night and laid down on them.

 

New Blog Review

I started getting flooded with orders this morning, so I checked and most of them are coming from this review.  Believe it or not, Celebrity Baby Blog has a TON of readers. 

 

sure...I'll tri it!

After considering it for several years, I have decided to do a sprint triathlon:  .8K (.5 mile) swim, 19K (12 mile) bike, 5K (3.1 mile) run.  It is not too far from the house in Aurora on June 28^th.    This gives me only 3 months to train.  Yikes.  Here is my plan: 

·        Month 1:  complete each event separately.  Meaning, during my morning workouts I either do the .8k swim, 19k bike, or 5k run.

·        Month 2:  2 back to back events.  So I will bike and run one morning, then swim and bike the next, etc.

·        Month 3:  3 back to back events.  I should probably try the swim, bike, run combo at least a few times before the race even if I don’t do the whole distances.  It isn’t like I’m trying to win….just finish.

You know me…I have to have a plan and goals.  No sense trying to suppress who I am.  So here is the plan, and I know it is lofty.

 

• Month 1:  5 days per week working out, 4 weeks in the month, this means 20 workouts.  So 1 event per workout (3 events), means I should do each one 7 times during the month.  Converting to mileage, this is what I need to do in April:  swim 3.5 miles, bike 84 miles, run 21.7 miles.
• Month 2:  4 days per week working out, 4 weeks, 2 events each workout, 32 workouts total.  I need to do each event 10 times in May:  swim 5 miles, bike 120 miles, run 31 miles
• Month 3:  3 days per week working out, 4 weeks, 3 events each workout, 36 workouts total.  I need to do each event 12 times in May:  swim 6 miles, bike 144 miles, run 37.2 miles

 

Wish me luck!  I’ve created a tracker on the right side of the blog to hold myself accountable.

25 Random Things

This is from my facebook profile.  In case you haven't experienced it, FB has the equivalent of chain letters and "25 Random things about me" is one of them.  Enjoy!  {hopefully I can get Joe to do this too}

1. I once witnessed an armed robbery. Guns and everything.

2. I hold the 3 meter springboard diving record at Bucknell U. I wasn't that good...it was one of those fluke meets where everything went my way.

3. I once quit my job and followed phish on tour. I gave away many of my show tickets - I preferred to hang out in the Westie with Quinn and read a book. I could hear the music from the car, and after a day of drinking it was the perfect evening.

4. Seeing or even thinking about worms or slugs makes me physically nauseous.

5. I have no interest in learning how to cook and I'm sure I wouldn't be good at it if I tried. If it can't be made in the microwave, I really have no business attempting the recipe.

6. At the gym or in the car when I am listening to music, I daydream about killing the song in karaoke. The crowd loves it. I am a star. A karaoke star.

7. I did the whole "backpack through Europe" thing and loved it. I still think about the missing roll of film taken at the Pink Palace in Greece. I wonder what is on that missing roll? Probably best that it was lost somewhere in France.

8. I had a rollover car wreck my junior year in college. For years afterward I couldn't drive in the rain. To this day I can still remember the feeling of losing control and rolling down the embankment. Not something I ever want to repeat.

9. I have a degree in Electrical Engineering.

10. I don't have a sense of smell. It is called anosmia.

11. I have never given up on a Britney comeback.

12. I love parades, especially marching bands. I would stand out in the cold, freezing rain to watch a parade. Oh wait...I've done that.

13. I once broke my foot just walking on a flat sidewalk.

14. I have been skydiving twice and indoor skydiving once.

15. I've lived in 12 houses, not including dorms/houses in college.

16. I find it hard to come up with 25 random things.

17. I'm on my 3rd job in almost 11 years.

18. When I was little I won a roller skating limbo contest. I think I was just the shortest contestant.

19. I have an older sister and younger brother. Whoot Whoot Mari and Clint!

20. My mom and dad are on facebook.

21. I have pledged not to buy new clothes for 2009.

22. I will never give up my subscription to US Weekly.  {this was written 2 months ago, and in the spirit of cutting back and simplicity, I did, in fact, decide to give up my subscription.}

23. I have 2 sons.

24. I don't like fancy desserts. Nothing is better than 3 day old, starting to get crunchy, grocery store cake icing.

25. I love to travel.

boy stuff

Trey has been very into guns and shooting and fighting and bad guys lately.  It started all of the sudden, and I have no idea where it came from.  I don’t allow any toy guns in the house, but he builds them out of legos anyway.  When I tell him he is my big boy, he insists he is a bad guy. 

 

Joe took him to Target last weekend, and on the way out Trey said “don’t worry dad.  I won’t fight anyone at target.”

 

A few days ago I was reading a book and there was a line about shooting stars.  Trey said “but mommy – shooting is NOT nice!”

 

 

This week

This week’s updates will be light, as I am in Boston for training all week.  Then Joe is bringing the kids to Grampy’s house and I meet him there on Friday night.  I’ll miss those boys!

 

Castlewood Canyon

Last weekend (again...warm), we went to Castlewood Canyon. It is only about 20 minutes away from us, and a very nice place to go for a leisurely walk on the paved nature path or a real hike down into the canyon. Needless to say, we took the first option as we had the kids and Black with us. It is 1.2 miles from the parking lot to a nice overlook. Trey did great on the way there, then got tired and rode in the backpack on the way back. A nice little workout for Joe carrying 32 lbs on his back. I can't wait to go back and try a real hike.

{more photos here and on the right in the photo albums list}

Zoo

We had a few very warm days in February. Joe headed up to the mountains to go fishing, so Mari and I took the kids to the zoo. We had a blast! Jonah slept in the stroller while we had a picnic lunch. The kids has fun swatting at the geese to keep them away. When they came close Trey would saw "Just smack 'em!" Mari took the kids on the train and carousel.

{more photos here and in the photo album link to the right}

Goods for Goodness' Sake is open!

{press release}

Altruism Meets Consumerism:

New Online Boutique Goods for Goodness’ Sake Donates 100% of Profits

The newly launched online boutique, Goods for Goodness’ Sake, donates 100% of its profits from goods created by small women-owned businesses to customer-selected US-based charities.

Parker, CO  March 2, 2009 —Even though the economic sky is falling, rather than duck for cover, solo entrepreneurs Cathereene Huynh-Sison and Lara Frankovitch joined forces to start a new venture. Far from a quickly conceived cash cow to see them through tough times, their new online boutique, Goods for Goodness’ Sake donates 100% of its profits. And no, that is not a misprint.

Ushering in a new way of shopping befitting the nation’s renewed focus on responsibility and giving, the boutique not only supports smaller US-based charities, but small businesswomen as well. Their tagline says it all, “shop responsibly.” So, what inspired these women—who have three businesses, two husbands and three children under the age of three between them—to donate their time and passions to a non-revenue producing endeavor in these dire economic times?

“Everyone is hurting right now, but some more than others. We just started wondering, ‘what’s going to happen to all those small charities?’ We wanted to help, and the world of e-commerce and creativity is what we know. It was a natural step,” the two explain of their impetus.

From “in lieu of wedding favor cards” for the donation-minded newlyweds to recipe cards to magnet sets, the offerings from the initial twelve participating designers run the gamut of the stationery, gifts and home décor category. The current participating designers, all creative business women, include: Tiny Tales, Three Wheels Design + Paper, Shimmer Studio, Rock Scissor Paper, Paperluxe Studio, Paper Stories, Marzipan, Loop LLC, Hen and Barley Press, Feterie, Bride Design and Artful Sentiments.

So how does it work? Ranging in price from $3 for a single card to $60 for a limited edition fine art print, philanthropist shoppers simply select the item they’d like, then choose the charity they'd like the profits from the sale of that product to benefit. They can also opt to donate up to $10 more per purchase. The item ships directly from the designer and donations are forwarded to charities quarterly. Gift certificates and non-sale donations are also available. Shoppers can even create a wishlist through Wishpot.

With the help of Goods for Goodness’ Sake newsletter subscribers, Cathe and Lara selected five initial charities—Project Night Light, Cystinosis Research Network, One Warm Coat, Craft Emergency Relief Fund, and Stand up for Kids. There is also a nomination process by which customers are encouraged to submit other charities for consideration.

“Obviously we don’t have a huge budget or even a cool supply closet to filch from—this is a labor of love, and not only for us, for everyone who shares our vision and offers their services at a discount or for free—from the web designer to the marketing firm. There is so much goodness,” reflects Huynh-Sison.

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Facebook

For those of you who have noticed the feed of my facebook status updates on the left side of the blog, and who aren't familiar with fb, it makes you talk in the third person. I don't typically choose to talk like that.

Resolutions check-in

Another month, another resolutions and more resolutions check-in!

1. Increase the amount of money put into savings month over month. We did amazingly well in Feb! We practiced our rule of absolutely no discretionary purchases until the end of the month. This meant I was digging out past Clinique bonuses when my favorite eyeshadow ran out and Joe had to wait for the banjo strap he wanted. I never want to give up going somewhere or doing an activity, so we still used money for plane tickets and for places to go with the kids (like Trey's favorite place Little Monkey Bizness).
   
2. No new clothes for 2008. Still good. This is so easy I feel like I am cheating. I am excluding socks and undies in this category.
   
3. Eat more simply, which means no fried food. Still good. Unless you count the frozen french fries and corn dog that I cooked at home once. They might have been fried at some point, but not recently and not by me. So I don't count them.
4. Give up papertowels and paper napkins and move to cloth. We are down to our last roll. I found some nice cloth napkins I had forgotten about.
5. Have a garage sale. Starting to gather stuff.
6. Use reusable bags. So-so on this one. I rarely go into stores, so when I do I seem to forget to take a bag.

I'd love to hear your resolutions and how you are doing on them. Leave a comment on this post.

Jonah Jump Up

A little cheer in my office

Joe bought and potted these plants for my office, and they are a little bit of spring right here inside. Love them!

Cousin Anne, corrupting my child

Johnny Jump Up

In these pics I caught Jonah when he was ready to get out of Johnny Jump Up, hence the face, but he was LOVING it before.