Long time, no post - well, really just too stinking busy

Hello, blog. I'm Jenni. Remember me? I'm not surprised if you don't. With holidays, parties, drinks with friends you would never have dreamed drinking with (more on this later), lack of sleep, watching Sadie grow like you couldn't believe, sort of changing jobs, gearing up to start job number two at the same time, lack of sleep, new PS3, Guitar Hero games, making dinner, lack of sleep, planning for my brother's boot camp graduation, cleaning the house, Six Flags, finally taking down the Christmas lights and decorations, working out at least 3 one-hour classes a week, ... oh, did I mention lack of sleep?
Let's delve into each of these topics, at least for a quick blurb about most of them.

Holidays - enough said. Family and presents and planning events. Always fun and more often than not leaves you winded after everything settles down.

Parties - Christmas parties and birthday parties out to whazoo. And all over Timbuktu. We've been everywhere from Aledo to McKinney. Some were good, some were really loud - but that's just that particular circle of friends. Oh, and baby showers! Lots of babies! I know two to three women about to burst in the next three weeks, and another friend is due in May. Crazy.

Drinks with friends you would have never dreamed drinking with - let's just say this. Church youth group chaperone/mentor figure. The same guy that married Thomas and I. His wife, him, and a friend we've known since high school and our youth group days. All playing Texas Hold'em in our dining room, taking back beers and Crown & Cokes, then playing a bit of Guitar Hero till four in the morning. Fun stuff. Odd, but awesome all at the same time.

Sadie - that should be all that I have to say. But I will elaborate because she's a monster (in a good way). She's definitely teething now that she has two little tooth buds sticking out of her gums - one up and one down. Weird. Most people say teeth come in in pairs, but we'll see. She's focusing, reaching, and grabbing everything. She's talking like a bad auctioneer. She holds her own bottle, for the most part, and makes feeding her extremely convenient. She's trying different flavors of "real" food - well, baby purees, but close enough. She's had bananas, applesauce, and squash. Yummy. She knows to start making noise when you pat her mouth to make her go "whaa whaa whaa whaa" everytime you pat. She has the coolest pacifier leashes that I bought from a store on Etsy.com - OhMyMommyClementine. Sadie has three leashes wth skulls and crossbones in black/white/pink, pink/white/black, and brown/pink/white. Awesome. Last note - holy crap she'll be five months old next week!

Sort of changing jobs - I "started" work this past week. See, I got hired on to one company to be subcontracted out to another. Well, the project was a little behind at the second company, so I did a little work at my parent company. This Monday I started at the second company as a contract employee representing my parent company. No more 13th floor office with door and window and beautiful view of downtown.... now into the land of cubicles. But it's not too bad. Haven't done much there in the past week because the project is still a little slow, but it should pick up in the next week or so. (There's only so much time you can spend doing "research" on the internet without getting insanely bored.)

Job number two - This time last year, it was job number one. But now it's number two. Yay tax season! No more crazy 60 hour work weeks while growing a bun in the oven like last year. This year I am working only Saturdays at the tax office. That's what happens when you work somewhere else 40 hours a week like a normal person. We'll see how it goes. Oh, quick mention, I think it's awesome that the tax office is going green - we've set up scanners and now only print one copy of the return for the client while everything else is digital copies. Unless you've been there, you won't understand the massive amounts of paper and folders and time to pay someone to file all that will be saved.

New PS3 and Guitar Hero - I'm lumping these two together because it's something that Thomas and I have been talking about for a while and finally got as sort of a Christmas present to ourselves, and a birthday present to Thomas. Tons of fun playing an hour or so the past few nights.

My brother's boot camp graduation - My brother joined the Air Force and is in boot camp for eight weeks. He graduates in the middle of February and we'd like to go to the graduation ceremony. My mom is going too. Trying to get details of when the ceremony is, getting my mom's flight figured out (fly to DFW or just to San Antonio?), hotel, travel time for Thomas, Sadie, and I by car, getting that weekend off from work, etc etc etc. Lots of planning, but we're definitely going. I wouldn't miss it for anything.

Six Flags - We went with a few friends to Six Flags last week for one of their birthdays. It was fun. The weather was really nice. Thomas and I decided to get season passes in hopes of entertaining ourselves for the rest of the year with no excuse of why we couldn't get out and do something. Here's an interesting about Six Flags - it was Thomas and I's first date, before we were even dating. Quick background story - we met in high school at band camp before school started for the year. Thomas came up to me and introduced himself (that took guts back then). A few days later after more camp but not getting to know him too well (because he played drums and I played saxophone then), he asked if I wanted to go to Six Flags with him. I asked my parents and they said ok. That was the beginning of Thomas and me. Now, we've been married for three years and have a crazy nearly five month old daughter. Nuts, huh?

Working out - I guess you can call it a New Years resolution, or at least close enough. I've been going to workout consistently for the past few months, minus a few oddball weeks in there. Heck, I was even working out twice a week consistently when I was pregnant up to 38 weeks along. I have found that the easiest (for now) way to make myself go without fail, and to get Thomas to go with me, is to go to some of the classes the gym offers. We've both put the classes into our phone calendars so we know for sure we need to leave work and get going. We've done yoga, mat pilates, and a cycling class together. Other classes that I like going to are Body Works (a dumbbell workout set to music) and Step. Fun stuff. I like the changes that going is making for me - having a "regular" schedule/routine of something, getting away from everything else for at least an hour, getting more in shape. Too bad it hasn't shown squat on the scale yet, but I think I'm in that weird change out body fat for muscle phase where the scale doesn't reflect because muscle weighs more than fat. We'll see.

Last, but not least, but definitely the least of - sleep. I've been sleeping like crap lately. I can't figure out why. Probably just stress. And Sadie is teething, so about four days out of seven, she wakes up in the middle of the night and wants to chew on something or is hungry again. I can't sleep in past 8:00 am, if that, because my body won't let me. (Word of warning to those who want kids - kiss sleeping in goodbye - once they are up, you are up too. At least until they are old enough to occupy themselves with some toys in the morning on their own.)

Ugh. Enough yip yapping. (And scrolling back up, that was a lot of yip yapping.) On to my weekend tasks of laundry, dishes, cleaning the house, working out, and maybe, just maybe, taking down the Christmas lights and decorations if the weather permits. Oh, sleep? I gave up on that.

Merry Christmas ... bla bla bla...

Yeah, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays... soon to be Happy New Year. Holy crap it's already 2009! Holy crap a whole year has gone by. I can't remember if I scratched my butt in the past year it's been that crazy. Being pregnant, having Sadie, playing with Sadie. Finishing my certificate as a half-masters type of deal. Thomas finishing his masters. Buying a new motorcycle. Wait... I digress. That list of stuff is for a post in a few days.

As for Christmas, it was great. It was our first Christmas together as a family and Sadie was a little over 4 months old. Can you believe it! Four months! And she's growing like a weed, and learning so fast. She can hold her bottle, reach for toys, she'll tell you a whole story (or quietly scream it, really). It's nuts. We got pictures with real Santa and then some with Santa Cow at Chick-Fil-A. Of course, we couldn't resist the cow costume from Halloween. She got so many cool toys and outfits. Spoiled already, I tell ya. And I wouldn't change it for the world.

It sucks we didn't get to go to Florida as previously planned, but maybe it was for the best. I'm not particularly fond of not seeing my family but once a year, if that. If it's more frequently, it's only one member at a time. Luckily, we did get to see my brother a week ago, even if it was for only 20 minutes. We should be seeing both him and my mom in February when he is done with boot camp, before he starts tech school. That will be a nice visit, granted Thomas and I aren't swamped at work. We'll see.

Overall, great Christmas. A few parties with friends, plenty of family gatherings for meals, board games, and movies. Now it's time to get back into the swing of things with work and daycare and what not. Especially with working out. I've sort of slacked off a bit in the past week or so. My excuse that is acceptable for some of that - I was sick. So was Thomas. So was Sadie. We all had crud stopped up in our heads. But now we are all clear, minus the occasional cough or so. Not too much to worry about though. As for exercise, I'm really trying to stick with it... but I don't know if I'll make my goal of 150 by January 1. I'll be really fricking close... but not quite. I'm planning to set small obtainable goals for the upcoming months to make it something not too unreasonable. For example, trying to go the gym everyday is great, but I get a bit burnt out, then stop going for a week. Now my approach is try to go 4 days a week. Whether it's a class (which I have found these easiest to commit to because they are scheduled at particular times) or just good old regular cardio somehow, or trying to get Thomas to join me to lift weights, something's gotta give in getting this going. Maybe once a routine gets going I can better stick with it. I'll be sure to comment more on this as the weeks go by.

For now, that's all I got. But more later in terms of a New Year's post/2008 recap. There's plenty to add to that post, so I'll be sure to add tons of info there. As if the internet really cares, but it's good to get it out there. For me at least, if not for anyone else.

Thanksgiving and Family

Yes... a typical post that I'm sure a bazillion people have made in some respect in regards to the holidays. Oh well. Here's my version.

We hosted Thanksgiving this year at our house. It was nice having family over - although a little cramped with 11 adults and two babies. But it all worked out. Despite ruining our turkey - before it was cooked. We left it out over night instead of putting it in the fridge to thaw. Now, don't get me wrong, we had it in one side of the sink in ice water that we were adding ice to every hour. But when we woke up Thursday morning ... poo. Luckily we had someone available to run to the store to get one that was not frozen and on our way we went. I found a recipe online that called for chicken broth and champagne. It was good and tender and juicy. Yummy. Now we have leftovers for a few days (which I'm sure most people do). My parents are sending me a packet of curry mix to make turkey curry because that is something we have always done with leftover turkey... and something that Thomas loves. I have never cooked it before myself, but we'll see how it goes.

We had our immediate family over and some grandparents. Unfortunately, some of our other grandparents were not able to make it because they were sick and didn't particularly want to drive four to five hours to meet people to make them sick. Thomas and I have decided that we will drive down to see them sometime soon. We took a few pictures last minute, but here's one of my favorites. It's a generation picture - four generations total. Awesome. Happy Turkey Day.


P.S. As for working out, I've gone just about everyday for either strength training, cardio, or a class (yoga, pilates, step, etc), minus a three day span in there when I was totally pooped and ended up cleaning the house. Does cleaning the house count? I think it should - vacuuming and sweeping on crack (aka super speed mode because I didn't allot enough time to do it all) is definitely a workout. My sister-in-law and I even worked out yesterday (Black Friday) for two hours straight in a mix of dance classes, pilates, yoga, resistance training, and cardio in general. It was awesome. But I'm not sure if I burned enough of that sweet potato casserole off yet. :-)

Busy and a new job

Is it possible to have been so busy really doing nothing? I guess so. I look back at last week and realize that all I did was go to the gym and go to one meeting for my new job (more on that later). How does a whole week go by doing only that? Oh... I didn't mention that I went to the gym every day, sometimes twice, for classes, strength training, and personal training appointments. Then came home and cleaned the house, played with Sadie, worked on a project for some Christmas presents that I'm making, and made dinner. Wheew.

In the world of Sadie-dom, I took all last week making sure she is comfortable with bottles again because that's what she'll be getting when she goes to daycare starting next week. I also have made sure she is good with formula in case I run out of supply for the day for her. She's good in both departments. No issues whatsoever. Ok, well, maybe one small - stinky, really - issue... gas. She can beat the biggest dude you can imagine on gas. And then she smiles and it's all adorable from there on out, regardless if your nostrils are burning or you may feel like you need to vomit in your mouth a little. That's my sweet little Sadie for you.

Now to details on my new job. First off, let my just point out that this is something that I have thought long and hard about in terms of working and having Sadie. I love being home with Sadie, watching her grow and be silly and changing diapers left and right. But my brain is going total mush. And as an educated person, I can't take much more of it. Neither can my wallet. I've been better, but when there is nothing to do around the house, and you've already went to the gym, shopping is all that is left. Don't get me wrong - I don't blow money left and right on total frivolous things... but there are all the small things here and there that I think I need that slowly gnaw my wallet to pennies. If I have a job, my brain will thank me and so will my wallet, in more ways than one.

The job itself is awesome (or so I hope, I'll update more next week after I have been there for a few days). I actually did the interview in the middle of September for the position. Played the waiting game since then because I was in no hurry to truly start with Sadie being so little. The company offered me the position and I start next week. Sadie will be 3.5 months, so I've been home to enjoy her for sure - to the point that my brain doesn't go total mush. I'll be doing environmental and GIS consulting type of work for an engineering consulting firm. Let me clarify why this is awesome to some extent - I'm not an engineer. I'm a biologist with GIS training. The company sees a lot of potential in how they can use me to their advantage in numerous projects that they are running and are looking to do in the future. Awesome.

And back to being busy.... I love writing in circles.... Thomas and I are hosting Thanksgiving this year for the immediate family and some of the grandparents are coming too. It'll be the first time they get to see Sadie. I have the camera ready to go. Hosting calls for more than just having the seats, plates, and silverware ready. It requires a full scrubdown of the house so people don't see how dirty it normally is. It requires that even the closets be somewhat orderly in case you need some random item of them and you need to actually get to it or, heaven forbid, ask someone else to venture into the depths of the messy closet to get it for you. To me, that's unacceptable. So my tasks over the next few days include a good scrubdown and a full organizing/cleaning up spree of the weirdest things - like closets and undersinks. But I have to give credit to hosting - it at least forces me to clean those places that would otherwise not ever be touched until some other big event or great great boredom sits in.