Twilight Landmarks

B and I recently finished reading the Twilight series. It was a fun and entertaining read and definitely satisfied my mild vampire obsession (for the time being anyways). The series is set in the town of Forks which according to the book is in NW Washington over on the Olympic peninsula. I'm pretty accustomed to fictional books/tv shows being set in fictional towns, and I always try to figure out what town the fictional location is based on. So you can probably imagine my surprise (and glee!) when I found out that Forks, WA really does exist!!! Along with the town of La Push - tribal home of the Quileute Indian tribe! I know - totally dorky to be excited about such things. :D

Of course once I figured this out I immediately started bugging B about going out there for a visit. We've been pretty busy these past few weekends, so we haven't had time to plan a trip out there. (It's a 3 1/2 hour ride, so it did require a little advance planning.) Well, this past weekend we were surprised with some really nice weather, so we decided that Sunday we'd make the drive. Yay!!

We got up early, packed up the car and kid and off we went! We followed the northern route and took the ferry from Edmonds to Kingston and eventually got on route 101. We could not have picked a more beautiful day for the drive! Forks historically gets a crazy amount of rain (it's right in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountain range), but every once in a while the sun finds its way thru and shines down brightly. The other key thing about Forks is that it is about 12 miles from the Pacific coast. I was just awestruck by the beauty of the coast and kept lamenting about not having made this trip sooner! I tell you, the scenery along the coast was absolutely breath taking.

The town of Forks itself wasn't too exciting. We were amused by everything being named "The Forks Something or Other." The Forks Diner. The Forks Motel. The Forks Library. The list goes on and on. La Push, however, has some amazing beaches. Not very creatively named mind you: First Beach, Second Beach, and Third Beach. And getting to Second and Third beaches required mile long hikes through the forest and then the challenge of scrabbling over huge logs of driftwood to get to the actual beach. Man was it ever worth it tho! I can't believe how beautiful those beaches are.

After spending most of the early afternoon in La Push and Forks, we drove for about another hour to the Lake Quinault Lodge which is were we crashed for the night. We had a nice dinner at the lodge, got the boy settled for bed and then spent the evening out on the balcony enjoying a nice bottle of wine, talking and listening to the sounds on the lake.

It was a short night given that we were up by 6am the next morning to get ready and make the trip back in time for B to get to work. We took the southern route back which took us through Hoquiam, Aberdeen (home of Kurt Cobain) and Olympia. Sunday's drive was definitely more scenic, but I had fun taking seeing some new towns on Monday's return trip.

Here are some pics from our trip. The rest of them can be found here.



This is First Beach - where Bella and Jake hung out.



These are the cliffs where I imagine Sam's pack would do their cliff diving.



This is a pic of Second Beach.



Here is the family at First Beach.



A glimpse of the ocean along hwy 101 en route to Lake Quinault

New Plans

One thing I HATE doing is planning meals. I don't know why I find it to be such a chore, but it's gotten to the point where our dinners have been suffering horribly for MONTHS. Back when we were doing Weight Watchers (or "The Watch" as my friend Kristi calls it), I was doing really well with planning meals and keeping us on the straight and narrow. And then I made goal and did well maintaining for awhile. But then I got lazy. And bored. And somehow started viewing the weekly meal planning ordeal as a major chore. So naturally I started to avoid it. Days lead to weeks and weeks to months. Now the very idea of sitting down to look at the grocery circular damn near gives me hives. Ok, not really, but you get the gist.

I've been seeking ways to circumvent this behavior and thought that the co-op might help jump start the dinner planning routine. I figured this way I at least wouldn't have to figure out a vegetable component - we'd already have it! But alas, this hasn't worked. Instead, veggies are spoiling in the fridge as they lay forlorn and forgotten in the crisper. (I blame it on the influx of lettuce. We just aren't disciplined salad makers and it bites us in the butt more often than not.)

Well, these last few pregnancy pounds have been lingering and really getting on my nerves. I don't revel in the jello effect my thighs have taken on, and I am really tired of my kangaroo pouch. This has led to the formation of two plans!

Plan the First
B and I are engaging in a weight loss challenge. It's not so much a competition as it is setting some goals with the promise of payoff (or loss if we don't make our goals). We each get to work towards $500. There will be $100 milestones to attain, and if one or both of us miss the milestone, the $ goes to a charity we despise. (C'mon, it's gotta hurt to lose the money, but it should go to someone's good cause, right?) We haven't set a start date just yet, but it's coming. Overdue in fact.

Plan the Second
Monthly meal planning. No, that doesn't mean 30 days of individual meals. I can't even get 7 together on a regular basis. What it DOES mean is this: for one month, each night will have a set meal. For example: every Monday is salsa chicken night, every Tuesday is leftovers, every Wednesday is apple pork chop night, etc. There will be one wild card night (same day each week) whose meal will change week to week. It can mean dining out or ordering in or cooking something. For the set meals, I might build in some flexibility around side dishes, but the main course will be the same. This will also help us better plan/manage shopping lists (another thing I haaaaate), and potentially allow us to make less frequent shopping trips. I can also get creative and play to the seasonality of certain foods. For example, summertime could feature more grilled out meals. This may sound anal and over-thought, but you gotta realize that I thrive on organization and planning. You'd think the 7 day planning would satisfy that. For some reason it doesn't and stranger still, I'm really looking forward to the 30 day planning. :)

DONE!

I turned in my badge, dropped off the computer, said my goodbyes and walked out the door. And I feel GREAT! I was a little nervous last night and wondering how I was going to feel today. But once I got home, reality set in and I was positively giddy! Like, dancing around the kitchen giddy! :D

And picking up Caiden from daycare for the last time today felt just awesome. All week long I've been telling him "this is your last Monday in daycare" and "this is your last Tuesday in daycare" etc. Granted, that really was more for my benefit, but still he was in an exceptionally good mood this morning, and the woman from the daycare said he was extraordinarily good today. So maybe he really did understand today was a big day. :)

I am so excited to embark on this next phase of our lives. It's been a long time coming and well worth the wait. I am normally one to fear change, but right now I've got my arms wide open and waiting for the embrace. :D

Caiden's First Post

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UPDATED: Watch This Space

Big news here folks - I've quit my job. Yep, I'm breaking up with Microsoft. This was a huge decision to make, and it involved lots and lots of discussion with B over the last several months. I did a lot of hemming and hawing over the summer as it was easy to forget a lot of the minutiae while I was away from day-to-day work obligations. I have really been concerned that the hardest part would be walking away from the MS benefits. But once I was back here and walking the halls, I was able to make my peace with the decision. I realized that being in a job I was not passionate about and putting Caiden into daycare to be at that job was simply not worth it. I'd much rather be at home and giving him the care that only a mother could provide. :)

You may not know this, but being a stay-at-home mom has been a long term goal of mine, and I am so very excited that we are going to be able to make it a reality! :) Things will naturally be a little tighter financially, but we've made a lot of strides in getting our finances better under control and getting smarter with our spending. Plus, I might be taking on some part time work which would definitely help cushion our bank account and give us a little more security.

Whew! It feels great to finally be able to talk about this openly!!

BUSTED!

Whiny Bastards

One thing I have come to loathe about living in this state is the way city officials or engineers or traffic planning people or whoever it is that makes the decisions kowtow to the whims of whiny neighborhood residents regarding street traffic.

See this?
What is outlined in red is the route I wanted to take. Why? Because that whole section of 520 from "Point A" (where I drop Caiden at daycare) was at a complete stand still. So I figured, why not avoid the whole mess and get on at a later exit? Save me some gas, help alleviate a little bit of the traffic crush trying to get on the highway there, and most importantly, preserve some of my sanity. Obviously, I'd been doing some map studying this week for situations such as these, so I had an idea about where to go. And when you look at the map you can see for yourself that I could very logically follow my desired route. If only it were that simple. As it turns out, some residents of the fancy schmancy neighborhood this route takes me thru apparently did not like having dirty nasty cars soil their pristine little area. Apparently they whined and complained loud enough (read: bribed and/or threatened legal action) to get the city to barricade the road so that cars could no longer drive through. Apparently SOME people couldn't figure out to how research the area before they buy a home!!
This is the snafu I ran into. See that big giant "X" on the map? THAT is where the street no longer goes through. Yes, that is right. They chopped the road in half and created a dead end. No more nasty traffic going through their precious neighborhood. GRRRR!

And this isn't the first instance of this sort of behavior either. There are at least 2 other neighborhoods in Woodinville that B and I have stumbled across that have done the exact same thing. When you cut off all side routes and force traffic to use the same overburdened paths, it's no wonder that trying to get from one destination to another is nothing but a headache during periods of heavy traffic. It's times like this that I just want to pick up and move to the middle of nowhere.

/end rant.

Communing with the Cat Whisperer

Yesterday boasted a nifty experience: I got to be on the radio! As I was driving into the office, I was listening to NPR as per usual. They were promoting the topics for the 9 and 10 o'clock hours for "Weekday." When Steve Scher announced that Steve Duno was going to be the guest my ears immediately perked up! Steve Duno, aka The Cat Whisperer, is an animal behaviorist and appears on Weekday from time to time. Last time he was on, I tried calling too late and didn't get the chance to ask my question. But THIS time I was determined to get on the air! :) I parked the car, ran up to my desk and tuned in via the internet. As soon as Steve Scher announced the call-in number, my fingers were a-dialin'!

You can probably imagine my surprise when I got thru on the first try and wound up being the 2nd caller on the air!! (I've had YEARS of experience calling in and winning radio contests and was 100% prepared for busy signals and repeat dialing galore.)

My question was mostly about the orange and white ball of fluff who has been known to go by Fatty Fatty Bang Bang when I'm feeling particularly creative. See, FFBB has started engaging in a rather unfortunate behavior. In February of last year, he started spontaneously peeing in the front hall entryway. On our friends' shoes. Yes, I know. Gross. We've tried all manner of things to discourage the behavior including removing all pee on-able items, feline pheromone, enzyme cleaner and restricting him from being down there. He has *mostly* stopped, but I still haven't 100% eradicated the odor which not only drives me insane but also means he can still smell it too. Again, gross. He has also picked up the disgusting habit of not covering his number 2s, which without fail has either B or me diving for the incense the moment we hear the nefarious "scratch scratch scratch" emanating from one of the litter boxes.

Sadly, the Cat Whisperer didn't have to terribly much to recommend. He did suggest introducing some new scents like lavender or an evergreen bough in another room to see how FFBB responds. He also indicated that this was likely territorial behavior - both the pee sprees and evasion of doodie duty. Sadly, there isn't too much we can do with that short of making this a single kitty household, and THAT just isn't gonna happen. What I've been meaning to do is follow a 30-day intensive plan for cleaning and treating the front hall that was outlined in another book I read on cat behavior. Sadly, in my world, "meaning to do" and "actually doing" are two concepts that live in vastly different worlds. You can prolly guess just how far I've gotten on that particular project. :P

Anywho, if you are interested and want to hear my ultra sexy radio voice (HA!), surf on over to NPR to listen to the show I was on.

Bizzare New Fad

...courtesy of Japan of course. :P So have you heard of BJDs aka Ball-Jointed Dolls? I was listening to NPR yesterday, and heard all about this new phenomenon that is sweeping the nation.

Lest you be confused, these aren't dolls for kids. Fully grown women are snapping these dolls up at a furious pace along a dizzying array of accessories. There is a pretty lengthy Wikipedia entry that describes what these dolls are and where they came from.


Photo by Nancy Mullane/NPR

From what I understand, part of the draw is that these dolls are freakishly realistic. So much so that you can customize one to be a mini version of yourself. Even the eyes are interchangeable! (But costly, eyes can cost anywhere from $30-$100.)

As I was listening to the story, my initial impression was that this was an interesting new fad, and I was curious to see what these dolls looked like. As the story continued I grew more and more weirded out. There are conventions for doll owners. These people talk about and treat these dolls as if they were their children. People will pay upwards of $1,000 for these things!! And then this quote took the cake:

"I'm actually dressing my doll just so that she's going to look OK when I take her downstairs to meet all the other dolls," explains Southall as she selects an outfit for Soo Yun, her knee-high BJD. "When we go around and look at the different doll shops to see what they have to sell, she can choose some more wigs and more outfits so she can look presentable."

Um, excuse me? Lady, you are talking about this doll as if she is a real person. "She" cannot pick out clothes. "She" can not choose her own wigs. I just get this image in my head of this woman conversing with her doll and leaning the doll over tables of merchandise and making the dolls arms/hands reach out to pick things out. Behavior for a 4 year old? Sure! For a grown woman? WEIRD. I was never really "into" dolls when I was little. Instead, I was far more interested in playing Monopoly. So maybe I'm missing something in the allure. Nostalgia for childhood perhaps?

Regardless, I guess there are collectors out there for everything. Part of the beauty of consumerism is the knowledge that people will buy practically anything. Especially when "everyone else" is buying it too. Now...what can I do to get me a piece of these dollars? ;)

Survival Mode

Yeah...the title of this post is a bit on the dramatic side, but it somehow sums up a little too perfectly how I am feeling about this week. In case you didn't know, I returned to work this week and took Caiden to daycare for the first time. I had been dreading this day for what felt like forever and knew it was going to be a struggle for me. Predictably enough, I was a complete wreck Monday night and Tuesday morning. I cried enough that my eyes felt heavy and tired all day on Tuesday. And yes, I wound up crying at the daycare, and it took me 45 minutes just to say goodbye to Caiden.

As for the little man? Totally fine. He seemed completely unfazed! However, as I had feared, his nap schedule is suffering. He normally naps 5-6 hours throughout the day. On Tuesday he napped for 1 hour. Wednesday he napped for 2.5 hours. We'll see how today goes. So far he's been asleep for 90 min. Oh and by the way - none of these naps have been at the daycare. Fortunately his night sleep remains largely uninterrupted.

Anywho, yesterday was a tiny bit easier, and today I managed to drop him off without crying. Next week will be another challenge to overcome. This week I've been working half-days to ease us both into the new routine, but next week I go back to full days. I'm worried about how he'll do with a full day's separation (or how I'll do for that matter!), and how my milk supply will hold up. I'm making use of the mother's room in the office to pump milk. I just hope it's enough for him.

The daycare itself isn't awful, but it is far from ideal. The room he is in is kind of small. There are 7 other babies in the room. The caregivers are nice, but they don't seem to be listening to my advice with regard to how he naps best. Then again, maybe Caiden isn't cooperating either and might be struggling with our usual nap routine since this is a completely different environment. He does seem to enjoy the toys there, and we might just have to get ourselves an exersaucer for him to play in. I know a lot of this just requires patience for the adjustments to settle in. But I still think this sucks, and I feel terrible leaving him.

I know I'll get thru this, and the hard part will be over soon. Thank you to everyone for your support - it means a lot to me!

Love

For many years, I spent a lot of time on the fence over the idea of having children. B was always very supportive of me and told me that he would endorse whichever path I chose. There was a point in my life where I was pretty certain that we would be DINKs (dual income, no kids). But I would waver from that thought time and again, and eventually I got pretty comfy up there on my fence. Always looking from one side to the other, never quite sure which side was the right side to choose.

In May of 2006, I went in for a routine exam. I was 29 at the time, and I already knew I had a fairly benign medical condition that might interfere with getting pregnant. I thought I still had plenty of time to try and figure out if I wanted to have kids. Near the end of my appointment, the doctor told me if we wanted to have a baby, we'd need to get pregnant in the next year. You can probably imagine the anger, panic and frustration I felt when faced with the pressure of making such a monumental decision. I knew I wasn't making this choice alone, but that still did not do much to allay the mental and emotional turmoil I suddenly found myself in. This situation certainly did not allow for any snap decisions, so we decided to approach our choices very slowly. We opted to think about it for a few months and then open up the topic to discussion. See where each of us was on the matter. So we talked a little bit in July. And again in December and January. We finally decided in February to give it a shot. We told ourselves if it didn't work out, it wasn't meant to be. That gave me some comfort so that 10 or 20 years down the road, I wouldn't berate myself for making the "wrong" decision.

When I found out I was pregnant, my thoughts swung between "We are going to have a baby!!! YAY!!!" and "Holy crap, we are going to have a baby." Throughout my pregnancy with Caiden, my feelings often shifted from wonder to fear to excitement to awe to panic to happiness and even doubt at times. Quite the roller coaster, right? If you haven't already figured it out, I really struggle with change. I like things to remain consistent. If things have to change, I like to know HOW they will change so I can be prepared. There was no way to 100% prepare for bringing a child into your life. Sure, I could get all of the physical things like a crib and diapers and toys and a changing table and clothes, etc. But the mental and emotional preparation was damn near impossible. And it really freaked me out. I was so scared that I would be unhappy. That I would feel like we made the wrong decision.

For much of my pregnancy, I had the hardest time imagining what life would be like after he was born. It was like I could see our lives up to that point, but anything beyond that was a huge mystery to me. I just could not picture myself as a mother.

And then Caiden was born. At first it was hard for me to put together that this curly haired blue eyed newborn baby was the same little person who was growing inside me for nine months. But as soon as he was in my arms, I could barely take my eyes off of him. We bonded quickly in those first few days of his life in this world, and I love him more than I could ever put into words. The amount of love I have for him feels overwhelming sometimes. But it's a good thing. It's almost like my heart keeps growing every time I think of him. I knew what it was to love someone before he came along, but I never knew that this particular kind of love existed. I know what it means now when people say, "you won't understand until you have a child of your own." Caiden's purpose in life is to show me how much my mother and father love me. I totally get it now. And I recognize what a tremendous void would be left in my heart and my life were something to happen to Caiden. He is absolutely and utterly amazing, and I am truly blessed to have him in my life.