ya ya ya....

it's been a long time...yet again.

It almost felt like spring had finally sprung but then the rain came back....le sigh.

But rain or no rain the forsythia are out in full force which is at least a promise of spring.

Some warm sunny days brought a flurry of activity on the house front but still no offers.

While we wait I am trying to stay thoroughly distracted from thinking too much about it. Silly books, long walks and lots of hot baths and tea are good. But perhaps best of all are fun activities with Margot. This past weekend we took her to Portland and had a fun trip at the zoo with Chris' parents. Tuesday Margot and I went wedding dress shopping with a dear friend who's wedding we are going to be in and Margot oohed and awed over her flower girl dress. And last night we gave Margot her first hair cut.

It was definitely one of those "sob sob...where has my little baby gone" moments. 

I finally succumbed to all the hype and we got our first package of honest company diapers yesterday. We are already kind of obsessed. They are so cute! 

I loathe the change to Facebook's news feed format. Anyone else??? It's harder to read and much harder to quickly scroll through for the names I care about.

Easter is coming and I can't wait to go Easter basket shopping. I find Easter basket's ridiculously fun! I already have a few ideas. Easter dresses for Margot and I have been procured. Margot's is a darling thrift-ed baby gap dress. Pink with an ivory peter pan color and an ivory eyelet lace petticoat. Classic. Mine is an ivory cap sleeve shift dress with irregular black polka dots on major clearance at the j crew factory.

And lastly, "conscious un-cuppling"...there are no words.

The photo conundrum??? Help Please!

 Okay internet friends I need advice... I am trying to wrap my head around how to organize, store, print and catalog photos. I have something like 1000 photos from the past year on my computer and camera and I'm totally at a loss for how to deal with them.

How do you deal with photos? I think I'd like to have them sorted, weed through them and edit them all then maybe store them filed by year and month on disc and backed up on the web? maybe through picasa web albums?


I am also thinking of making a photo book for 2012 and 2013 in lieu of the traditional photo album with prints.




Margot January 2013, 14 months
Margot February 2013, 15 months

Margot and Chris, April 2013, 17 months

Then of course there is the question of the 1000+ photos on my i phone which are of course all still on my i phone. I am thinking about making magnets out of my instagram feed. Has anyone done this?

And how would you back up those?  

Thoughts? Advice? 

Margot and I Glacier National Park, July 2013, 20 months

Margot says...

"I'm not a baby. I'm a little girl. My name is Margot. My nick name is Margot pants and I'm a moon pie!"


"Mama we need to pick up my kitchen because Miri dumped out my jar and it's a mess. Oh Mama you picked it up, thank you Mama, now Miri can come mess it up again!"


"I am not eating dinner. Just olives."


"Mama I like your pretty shirt with ruffles when I grow big and have boobies can I wear it?"


"I'm the Mama. I am going to work. Here is my baby you can take care of her for me while I go to work"


"Daddy is my best friend because he plays with me the best"


In response to us telling her it's time to get ready for bed and read a story, "Don't you mean two stories!"

From working mom to stay at home mom?

Last month marked my two year anniversary as a working Mom. After a standard three month maternity leave, most of which I spent in an exhausted confused haze, I returned to my full time+ job. At the time this decision was mostly financial but I was also fairly positive about it. Perhaps if money had not been an issue I wouldn't have come back only because it was so hard. Hard to leave my baby but more-so hard to figure out the pumping, and transporting and early meetings and late nights, juggling and sleep deprivation. The whole working Mom package was intimidating. But after a few months it was easier and I found that by May I was really happy. Sure I missed Margot and I always wished for a little more time with her, but I was loving my job, loving getting dressed up and out of the house and sitting down with coffee to work at a desk without spit up or screaming or nursing to interrupt me. We had an ideal situation, Margot spent every day with my Mom which, for me, removed all guilt. I knew my Mom took care of her just as well, if not better, than I would. And personally there were things in my career I really wanted to accomplish. So when our financial situation changed a couple of months later and staying at home was suddenly a financial option I chose to keep working. I was in the middle of a huge campaign and I loved all the people and issues I was working on.

But as Margot got older the hours away got harder. When she started talking about our situation I suddenly started to feel very different. Little phrases like, "I'm the Mama, I go to work, Nammy takes care of my baby" just broke my heart. Dragging her out of bed at the crack of dawn and putting her in a cold car when all she wanted to do was snuggle because I had an early meeting was horrid. And the daily greeting of "oh Mama, I missed you" and "don't leave me Mama, please stay with me" soon were becoming more than I could take. Work started to loose its appeal and I really started to question my decision. At this point we had already bought a more expensive house, we are still paying off law school loans and preschool was a looming expense. And suddenly I felt very very stuck. 

So when out of the blue came the opportunity to move to a new town, for Chris to take a more stable and secure job that he wanted, for me consider leaving my job...well the decision seemed blatantly obvious. Politics and I had a good run. I did the working Mom thing. Now it was time for a change. 

At some point in the not so distant future our house will sell and I will pack up my office and say goodbye to all my great friends and colleagues. I will leave my 9 years of political/policy work behind and will focus my time an energy solely on Chris and Margot, our house and our new community. I honestly don't really know what to expect. I have some ideas that I'm sure are naive and unrealistic about how it will be. I really hope I have more time to things I love like cooking, decorating and art. I hope that this removes a lot of the stress from our household. But regardless of the day to day I know that right now this is the best decision for our family. I'm sure I will work in some capacity in the future whether it's in politics or something else. But I am looking forward to some time and space to figure out what I would like that to be. Mostly though I am really grateful that we have this opportunity. 

Lately...

I can't remember when I last blogged. Sadly, I am neglecting my little record of life. Lately we are in a weird limbo of sorts. Waiting for our house to sell, waiting to move, waiting to quit my job and waiting to get to know our new community. Limbo is not my friend. I'm tired of it. Meanwhile we go to work, and cook and buy groceries and try to keep the house spotless for showing and play with a somewhat confused Margot.

In early February we had another massive snow and ice storm. This one brought about a foot of snow to our house and left a 1/2 layer of ice on everything. The result was hundreds of down trees, broken power lines, split poles and transformers throughout south and south east Eugene. Our power went out forcing us down the hill to seek refuge in my parents houses with plenty of heat, hot water and warm food. 

Margot however was a big fan because she got to build "the most giant snowman ever!"

Valentines day was a blast this year. Margot was totally into it. She made cookies with lots of sprinkles, made valentines for Mommy, daddy and "nammy". And she got presents! Coloring books, stickers and from nammy and grampy, The Jungle Book! On Valentines day Chris and I skipped the fancy dinner to watch the Jungle book and make spaghetti with Margot.

After Valentines Day Margot was so excited to go to her friend Lydia's birthday party. She even got wear her new pink cowboy boots for the occasion. She loves to wear them and then pretend to be a cow girl and ride her rocking moose.

The past two weeks we were all down with the worst stomach flu. But we were all healed by last weekend and were able to have some fun outside, go shopping for Nammy's birthday present and play lots of candy land.

So we'll keep waiting and working our way through limbo. Meanwhile there will be lots of fun with Margot who is talking all the time and loves to do things with Mommy and Daddy. Cooking, playing, dancing and talking about our day are all popular. And we will try to be patient, stay present but still look ahead to good things down the road.