Project

I haven't had too many projects at our house.

I guess when you buy a new house you don't have a lot of home improvement projects, and since I'm not very creative or crafty, I've limited the decorating to hanging a few pictures.

Speaking of hanging pictures, I've had a couple that I wanted to hang in our entry way, but wanted a table to go underneath them.

Since, I didn't want to spend a lot of money, and didn't seem to want to spend a lot of time, it's taken me almost a year to find a table that will work for the space.

Here's how I bought it at a consignment shop:

Then I did this to it:

And finally, hung the pictures to go with it.

I'm pretty happy with the result.

Lessons learned

Or... Lesson's learning!

My mom bought me Photoshop for my birthday.

In March.

I made a few excuses (my ailing laptop for one) and didn't load it on to one of our computers until Justin needed it for a photo montage he was working on.

So, then it was loaded. But, I still was reluctant to get started, since I've never really used it before.

I looked at it for a few minutes one night, and didn't get very far.

I made a plea on Facebook for someone to offer me free lessons.

My friend Bryon noticed my appeal, and bought me a subscription to lynda.com as a belated birthday gift (irony?). It's a site that has HUNDREDS of tutorial video's on all sorts of topics. And, it just so happens to have about 6 hours worth on Photoshop.

Yay! Thanks, Bryon.

Now, if only I can find those 6 hours.

BBQ's

We had a weekend of BBQ's for Memorial Day.

I didn't do a very good job of getting pictures taken, except for a few of the Little Man, of course.

Friday was a BBQ with friends at the church's park.

Saturday was a dinner at Kris' (Justin's brother) new house. It was an AMAZING dinner and it was fun to see their new house. Plus, the Little Man likes being around little kids, especially his cousin Laila.

Sunday was a birthday party/BBQ at Justin's uncles house. It stated raining halfway through, but that didn't stop most of them from playing a round of croquet.

And, Monday was a BBQ and graves at my aunt Karens. We played another round of croquet, lawn golf and a few (loud) games of Pit.

It was a fun weekend, and now I have a fridge full of left-overs!

What gives?

My old job was pretty stressful. I know there are jobs that were worse than mine, but a state caseworker has a lot on their plate.

For any given month I had between 14 and 17 kids. You had to manage (juggle) your time between home visits, school meetings, court hearings, family visits, staff meetings and trainings and the all-too often crisis that your kids and families seem to go through on a regular basis. And... then you have to do the whole thing again the next month.

On top of 'work', I also had a life of my own. I went to the gym 5-6 times a week sometime between 5 and 6 am. I had friends. I had a family, the last two years I had a husband. It was a hard balance to strike between work and your own life, because, at the end of the day, you were responsible for a child's life and their family unit. It didn't always end at 6 o'clock.

But, I managed. With relatively few breakdowns at work or at home.

Today?

I'm not handling my time well I guess. I can handle one or two things a day -apart from the 'hang out at home' time. More than that and I seem to have a meltdown. Or, at least a mini meltdown.

I guess it could still be the lack of good sleep. Or... maybe my hormones are still a little unstable. Maybe I'm having a hard time adjusting to life as a stay-at-home mom -even though the thought of going back to work makes me sick to my stomach.

I had a million things going on at once, which, at least at first, all seemed to need my attention. Now, the one little man that actually NEEDS my attention is taking all of my time and energy to keep up with.

He is pretty cute, though!

Who knew?

This kid looks like he's up to something -don't you think?

The Little Man is really good at rolling over, sticking his tongue out, drooling and getting colds. He's pretty much had one right after another for the last 2 months.

I've been thinking about hidden benefits of having a baby. (Trying to take my mind of the disadvantages I guess -no sleep, extra weight that won't go away and trying to ignore unwanted advice and judgement).

Here's what I came up with:

One thing is since you've always got a second person with you you pretty much always get to drive in the carpool lane on the Freeway.

People open doors for you -especially when you're carrying a car seat.

Instant friends. This can sometimes be annoying, but I hardly ever go out anymore without someone talking to me -usually about how dang cute the Little Man is!

Conversation piece. Justin and I noticed this when we hosted our international dinner - there's always something or someone to talk about when you have a baby.

No more overeating at restaurants. I suppose it can still happen if the Little Man's with a babysitter. But, as I realized last night, there's just no time or way to eat too much when you've got an infant with you. I probably worked off more calories at dinner trying to keep him entertained and off of the table then I actually ate.

As long as my kid looks cute, who's going to notice me? This may just be in my head, but I figure that everybody is looking at the baby, not what the mom is wearing -or her lack of makeup because he's 'kissed' it all off or pulled my hair so it's fallen too.

Who knew there were so many benefits of having a kid around all of the time??

**By the way, for those of you who follow the Little Man's blog and got tired of checking it because it has been so long since I updated, you're in for a treat, because there's a new post (with pictures) up.

Dun dun dun duuuuunnnnn! (Think Superman Theme)

Sloberier than a fierce K-9....stronger than your average 5 month old...able to almost leap out of his bouncy chair in a single bound...its...

Melanie and I stopped by a costume place since they are going out of business and everything is 75% off...I had one requirement: something with a cape! Super H! I even love how he has the Superman fists!

He's my hero.

A laptop... without the lap.

This is my computer.

It's not that different from your average laptop that you probably have yourself.

What makes it so unique?

The fact that the white fan and the bubble wrap (it's been anything from chapstick containers to small books-anything handy to keep it angled) is a package deal now.

You can't have the one (laptop) without the others anymore.

Well, you can... but the computer will only run for 15-45 minutes before freezing.

We've taken precautions, as I've mentioned before. All of my files are on a Media Storage Drive that networks our computers together. And, it's not like I'm without a computer -we have two downstairs in the office.

But, with all of the stuff I do on my computer (both work-related and non work related) its nice and almost a necessity to have a laptop so I can fit in a few minutes here and there when the Little Man is playing by himself.

For now, I'm confined to the kitchen table -pulled up close to the island so my fan can be plugged in. It's really not THAT bad of a set up. But, it will be nice to use a laptop on my lap again soon.

An international affair

Monday night we hosted a unique group of people for dinner.

At a recent Kiwanis club Justin volunteered to have a group of people from the Middle East come to dinner. We had 3 people (one woman and two men) plus an interpreter and a couple of our friends come over. Justin and I were a little nervous (which is one reason why we invited another couple to come -just in case we had nothing to talk about). We weren't sure how much English they knew, or what to cook for dinner.

Thank goodness for the internet, because we quickly found out their dietary restrictions. Muslims have their form of Kosher called Halal. Justin found a Halal market in town and bought some chicken from them. He also asked a few questions about the meal we were cooking, and the guy there offered us a lot of help. We had to buy whole chickens, but luckily the store owner cut it up for us. And, luckily for me, Justin de-boned it.

It was actually a really fun evening. They loved The Little Man, and he was pretty good during most of the dinner. And, they all spoke English. There were a few words and phrases we'd get stuck on, and then the interpreter would help out. They were from different area's of that region; Palestine, Gaza and Qatar -plus the interpreter was from Lebanon, but has been in the states for 4 years. They all worked or volunteered with different people -womens issues or after school programs. I'm not quite sure what they were doing here, or who they all met with while they were here, but we enjoyed their company.