TPS Reports (aka quick status update - yes I'm still alive)

Sadie is getting so big and learning so fast. It's crazy. She's talking/babbling like you wouldn't believe, growing, eating, pooping, playing, sleeping, and overall being the best baby ever. I'm allowed to say that right? She's my baby, I'm here momma, I'm supposed to say stuff like that. And I mean every word of it.

Work has been crazy busy - numerous deadlines, lots to do. Good stuff. Not to mention tax season on top of that for job numero dos. Phew. And Thomas has some crazy deadlines at his work requiring weekend work and second shifts here shortly. But it'll all soon be over. Then we can go back to "normal", whatever that may be.

Workout/Exercise has been fairly good. I've been participating in these bootcamp sessions after work. It's fun, it's different, and I have no excuse not to go because I'm already at work. I haven't seen much change yet, but at least I'm getting out there and doing it. And having other people there to encourage/push/shove me along is always helpful.

Moms groups - awesome awesome awesome. Lots of meetups everywhere - from coffee conversations to bunko groups to martini nights. Awesome. So much fun. And great to know that there are other busy moms out there that need an outlet for life like I do.

Sorry so short, internet, but this is all the time I have for now. Maybe more posts of substantial news and thoughts will come after tax season and after all of these deadlines at work. Just maybe. (But don't hold your breath on that one.)

Some time used wisely and a new program

Do I dare attempt a post? Yeah.... I'll give it a shot. Work has been crazy busy - and that's both jobs. At least Thomas and I have enjoyed as much of the weekend as we got together. We've done a bit of shopping at Grapevine Mills the other day. We bought Sadie some shorts and new shoes, which she has lready figured out how to undo the velcro and chew on her shoes when she gets her feet to her face. Yesterday, we met up with some friends for dinner and a movie at their house. It was a good just to get out, get away from the house and work, and relax and do something different than just coming home and eating dinner, watching tv, play with Sadie for two minutes, then off to bed for all of us. Today, we doodled around in Southlake for a few shops in there. It was a really nice day to be walking around outside. Sadie greatly enjoyed it.

On another note, I've started a new (yes, yet another) workout program. The husband of one of the ladies at my work is a personal trainer and holds group bootcamp sessions twice a week right after 5:00 pm, so there's no excuse for me not to go. I'm already there. I just have to change my clothes and actually leave my desk on time. (Which lately has been a little hard to do - STOP SNAGGING ME LAST MINUTE, PEOPLE!). I've gone to two sessions so far and I love it. I'm actually jogging. Yes, jogging. My big lump butt is jogging. I know I don't have a lump butt, but it emphasizes my point that I'm jogging. The last time I remember jogging or running was my freshman year of high school for my competitive soccer team. Yeah.... ten years ago. Ten stinking years. Holy crap. Now, don't assume that I've been a lazy turd since then - I have eight years of marching under my belt, and then a full summer of DCI marching... but never any jogging/running. The sessions are fun - lots of different exercises to make up a full body workout each time with weight training, resistance training, and cardio all rolled into one session. Awesome. I'll keep it up for at least the month that I paid for. Now the question is will I eat properly to help the weight loss effort along, or will I totally botch it and eat out and enjoy my Wing Stop once a week? Hehe. We'll see.

Cubes are so depressing.

I feel like a caged animal. Cubicles are not my thing. I don't mind a small office - and I mean small. You could stick me in a broom closet for all I care. I miss my beautiful office in downtown on the thirteenth floor with door and window and gorgeous view and beautiful modern furniture. How many offices do you know that have black hardwood floors in their entrance/lobby? But being sub-contracted out to another company for a while, I'm in a cubicle. I don't do cubicles. So mass produced and impersonal.

Well, I can at least change that last part. I decided to decorate my cube a bit and will continue to do so with small odds and ends here and there as time goes by. But for now, this is what I have. What do you think?

It was cheap to do to - $10 in fabric and some sewing pins/T pins. Easy cheesey. And it looks really nice. At least better than the ugly gray faux tweed on the rest of the walls. I know it needs to be ironed a bit more, but I don't feel like taking it down right now to do so. The wrinkles will eventually work their way out. But for now it at least adds a pop of color and some interest in my otherwise boring cube.

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.

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.