Day two: not much better

I tell you that Greyson is the cause of my weakness. Today he brings me two little girls to watch over my lunch break. We were supposed to go to the playground while Greyson had a meeting with a client. But then he causually mentions that the girls haven't eaten lunch but he brought a bag of raisins and a granola bar. And then the girls looked at me with that "I'm starving look" and before I knew it the three of us where out for a girls lunch. I did enjoy my time with them and go out the door for under $15. To ammend I came home and cooked dinner and then made a pasta salad to take to work tomorrow. So far I am down ~ $45. I will do better. At least my caffine/alcohol/sugary drink abstaining is doing well.

I am in Vancouver working for the rest of the week and that extra drive always wears me out. At least the gas is cheap enough that my reimbursed mileage might make me a few dollars again.

I officially passed two tests I had to take to get my graduate certificate in GIS from PSU. It was a big pain in my neck but it is finally finished.

As you can see I am trying to get a small post in whenever I can. Hope you join me.
-Mel

Day 1 - not so good

So I decided to go back to a healthier, cheaper lifestyle. Christmas is my goal date. So what does that mean, it means:

1. No caffeine, alcohol or other over sugary drinks (trying for just milk and water)
2. No eating junk food (means any fast food, chips, candy etc.)
3. No spending on unnecessary things  (yes this can have grey areas, I am still working on a definition)

 

So I was doing well on all three today.  But then my husband came to visit with the girls.  Which was nice.  But somehow they got back home and had brought my set of keys back with them.  So, since Greyson had to come all the way back into town to deliver keys so I could drive home, he thought we should go eat Mexican food.  So I gave in (a little too easily) and we all went out to eat.  The food was great as normal.  I did eat chips (bad) but didn’t order guacamole, drinks or desert and kept the bill under $35, which seems pretty high for not getting the extras. 

 

So day 1 on my new “program”  was kind of a wash.  I will try better tomorrow. 

 

I got all sorts of unsolicited kisses from Samia today as she took a bath. So sweet. I am working on teaching them “Ho, Ho, Ho”. 

stumbled across this

Long overdue update

I have no good excuse for my long absense from the blog. So I will just get on with my update.

Work: Things are pretty good. I am more or less managing two projects right now and they are both going pretty well. One is a study looking at the impacts of a city drinking water withdrawl on a stream and its impact on the stream temperature. The other is the environmental permitting for a trail system through a waterfront section of openspace in Camas. It is nice to have the responsibility for the projects but I have lost a few nights sleep worry about them.

Babies: So we had Samia trying to walk between Greyson and I. She would take about 2 steps and then dive into our lap. We would clap and say how great she was. Suddenly Piper was like "oh no you don't go giving her all that attention and leaving me out. Un uh sister, I don't think so" (in her soul sister voice). So little Pipe seeing all our excitement crawled right over and showed us all she had for the next hour. She stood right up would walk 6 or 7 steps before falling. She did this over and over, while giggling as she went. She was so proud of herself. Samia is still a bit sick. I saw that the Camas kindergarten class had some strange bug going around; I wonder if Samia got it from Emma since they were together last week.

Life: Life is good. Greyson parents came to visit a couple weeks ago and that was nice. I invited them to come down for Christmas as well. I start to get bummed out this time of year as the sun set earlier and earlier. I think I need to move to a house that isn't in the shadow of a mountain. I think Archer Mountain shaves a good 2 hours off our daily sunshine here. My garden did pitifully this year. The only thing I can grow is squash of one sort or another. I did cook up the zucinni I grew and the girls liked it. I even like it. I still have yet to get a red tomato. I do have about 10 nice, plump green ones.

I saw that PSU had someone give 25 million dollars for establishing a new sustainability program at PSU. I find that almost a tempting subject to get a PhD in. I know they are going to be addressing solar/wind energies.

Well I think I have blabbed on enough for now. Thanks for reading,
-Mel

ummmmm

Hey all. Not much going on here on 9/11. I honestly forgot (gasp) until I read it in another blog. What's going on today? Samia is feeling a little under the weather. I guess there is a small upside to it in that she uncharacteristically likes to cuddle. End of upsides. Piper has noticed an imbalance in the parental attitudes, and it's a little challenging for one of us to address the issue. Piper also insists that she be cuddled, but she feels great and ready to climb, knee, and claw her way around your lap and you can add the afflicted redhead to the resulting list of casualties. Now they sleep, and I wait for the work god to give me a backhand as I write this. Listening to beethoven for baby brains. Alliteration, eh eh??? Good music, but I'm not feeling any growth.

dean family update

Yes!  I’m still using Mel’s address.  But duly noted at some point I will make an account…maybe.

 

We wanted to inform all family of the camping adventure at Timothy Lake- we are going to take the boat and go to the walk-in tent sites- it is nonreservable, so if anyone can head there early let us know.  We will have all the children with us. 

 

Nicholas seems “fine” with school.  He isn’t a real informative about his week- but so far it sounds like all is well.  He seems disappointed or confused that he is in a math “help” class- but his math WASL score was right on the borderline of not passing- so I’m sure it was an automatic for him to get that class and hopefully it will help improve his test taking abilities.

 

Gabriel says he really enjoys his new teachers- he really loves playing football.  He tends to give me a few more details- so I know exactly what is in and how he decorated his locker…that type of kid.  Funny how they are all so different.

 

At the last moment someone did drop from the part-time slot at the preschool- so we were able to switch Kalena to part-time instead of full-time- yeah!  That is a 200 dollar per month savings for us.  She jumped right into preschool- no problem.  She doesn’t share much- but I have visited each day during my prep for 5 minutes- to see what kind of things they are discussing…then ask her questions about the days of the week or the weather..etc.

 

Emma’s first day of kindergarten went well- when the bell to start class rang she told her dad- “you can go now”….:) she was quite detailed also with her accounts of the gingerbread creations and the activities of her first days of school.  She doesn’t like walking from the babysitter’s car into the school- but I think she will get used to that soon also. 

 

Brian managed to injure himself- and has a black eye- he let go of a crank of some sort on our boat- and it struck him on the side of the head near his eye socket.  He’s been busy helping get these kids ready for school, picked up, and keeping the house from burning down. 

 

Well that’s about it.  

 

Take care.  Let me know if you can make it to camp on the weekend of September 20^th.

 

Resurrection!

Mel, we still have technical excuses as to why there has been no participation in the blog (Brian). Then there are some feelings, whether it's the blues, conflict, whatever-time to put it out there. It's been far too long. Then of course, there is plain ol' laziness which is usually paired with "well I don't have anything to say"-well look here. I don't have anything to say, and dammit, I'm saying it. First off, everyone get your own account. Nobody here is retarded. This blog is what, nearing its 4th birthday? And still, tech difficulties? Still logging in as someone else? Create a new gmail account like a big boy/girl, and let's get this going again.

I'm sitting here trying to ignore Piper shouting in the bedroom. We just got back from a run, and I stuck them in bed. It's getting increasingly excruciating having the girls get into everything other than their toys, climbing up, and otherwise endangering themselves, which begs the question, why do they have toys at this point? If what they are interested in is anything other than what's already spilled all over the floor, then why don't we just throw all this crap away? It's not like we have the room for all of this stuff. That's it. Somebody get me a Hefty. Their personalities are getting more and more interesting, and they are able to hold their end of a conversation in their own way, but it already comes with a price.

I have some work to do these days, but it seems like I am losing the time to do it, and quickly. The girls can't hang with the big kid schedule yet (one mid day mega-nap), but they are having a really hard time getting to sleep on this second one. Sort of a limbo situation at the moment. So my work day is a little fractured. I may have to recruit the deans/lopez to get a bigger block of work time in. Maybe there'll be some money in it for someone.

I have a couple of friends coming over to play some music tonight. I'm scheduled to play a halloween party for our community and possibly at hoptoberfest in hood river which should be a fun one. Currently, I'm not particularly into the genre I'm playing, which is sort of down tempo blues for the most part. Even when it's up tempo, it's down. Sort of John Mayer type stuff-really good musicians and singers, if you haven't heard them yet.

I'm excited to see some interest in drumming from nicholas, and hopefully can get him over so I can begin to build my prodigy. We'll have to work that out. I recommended he get a really good sounding practice pad and sticks, and if he learns the physics of drumming, the rudiments (which is a REALLY nice way to relax IMO), and demonstrates some desire to learn the very basics, then the snare and set, the loud stuff, can come later, when he can make it sing something that makes sense. Here is someone I've enjoyed, and also has a really cool sounding pad (Jenn, show this to nicholas...it's pretty inspiring)

Clowns

Another blog post to notify everyone of a blog post. This one's pretty funny. Samia loves to accessorize.