31 Things: Days 14 and 15

Today’s stories include one that’s short and sweet but was one of the best I wrote (I think.) And the other is a week in the life view of Becky at 9:15am. How funny that this time last year 9:15am would have mean still unpacking my stuff onto my desk and grabbing my first cup of coffee? Now…I’m two hours or more into my work day. It’s good stuff. 

Story 14: View

As I sit here at 5:10 pm on Wednesday, my view is of my beautiful and vivacious daughter running around the soccer field and my handsome Little Man drinking ice water in the stroller next to me.

It’s me in my workout clothes ready to leave here and hit the treadmill to see if I can make it through Week 1 of my new Couch 2 5 K app. It's Andrew in his plaid shorts and orange polo shirt, looking just like his Daddy, as he points at his sister and grins. It's Allyson in her white soccer cleats and pink and black Adidas soccer socks who is taking a quick water break before she heads back out on the field. We're only missing Steve who is hard at work for his family and working late because it's the end of the month.

This is the view I've been waiting for all day. This is the view I wanted to write about. This is the view that matters. Soccer and sunshine, a little exercise and playing peekaboo. This is my view...and my life...and I love everything about it.

Story 15: 9:15am

I couldn’t just write about 9:15 on one day. It would kill me to waste a whole prompt writing about what I saw on my stinkin’ computer screen at that time. I decided to make this one a bit different. A Week in the Life at 9:15am.

Monday

9:15am – Memorial Day and a much loved day off from the office. Steve’s home. We slept in and at 9:15 we’re making breakfast for the kiddos. French toast and bacon. YUM-MO!

Tuesday

9:15am – Feeling a little lost at work because the two projects I’m working on are kind of at a standstill. I’m stuck between telling my boss I need another project and then having the two I’m working on pick up steam causing me to be completely overwhelmed. Not the greatest of places.

Wednesday

9:15am – More of the same work stuff. On this day I started to think about my sister-in-law who is due with my nephew in August. A couple of her friends are throwing her a shower and I decided to butt in to see what I could help with. This is my nephew – I can’t NOT be involved in some way!

Thursday

9:15am – I decided to send out an email for a Freezer Meal Party I’m having at the end of June. I am super excited about the party because the Wildtree products we’ll be using are delicious AND friends will come with a few groceries and leave with 10 freezer meals that can be prepared in less than 20 minutes. How cool is that for busy families?

Friday

9:15am – Worked from home this and was listening to Pandora while responding to email. It was bizarre being at home without the kids – they were at Auntie ‘Chele’s house and I was going to pick them up later. The silence, however, allowed me to get some work done. Both for work and for home. Nothing like finishing a loads of laundry on breaks between conference call.

Saturday

9:15am – Madly getting ready for to take Allyson to dance class at 10. At 9:15 she was dressed and eating breakfast. Pink leotard, pink socks and hair in a bun. I love that she loves dance. And we’re only a couple Saturdays away from her recital.

Sunday

9:15am – Was a sleep in day. But with small kiddos, sleeping in is about 7:45. By 9:15 we were finishing up breakfast and planning for a trip to the park with the kidlets. I think the day and this 9:15 was my favorite of the whole week. Up and ready with the whole day ahead of us. Dishes done and dinner defrosting on the counter. It was the start to a great spring day.

~Becky

Dance-y Girl

On Friday June 22nd Allyson performed in her first real dance recital. It was fantastic. I’m not going to tell you she stole the show or is on her way to prima ballerina status, but it was a truly enjoyable experience and I was so proud of her.  


Allyson started taking dance lessons at 18 months old. She went to this place that was actually a gym that also had a small dance studio. She loved it there – for about a year and a half. At about 3 she decided it wasn’t for her. Every time I took her to class she cried and cried. I don’t know if it was because her favorite teacher went out on maternity leave or she was just going through a phase. Either way, I wasn’t going to torture her, or continue paying for something that she hated and was supposed to be fun. So we quit going. 


I don’t know if it was going to preschool that opened her up to the idea again or a long enough time had passed that she was ready to try again, but I broached the topic just after her fourth birthday. She had been dancing and singing around the house and I decided it would be good to focus that energy somewhere, even if it was only for an hour a week. One Saturday morning we tried out two different dance classes and I let her choose her favorite. She made the choice pretty easily and has been one happy camper heading off to dance class every week. 


Fast forward six months and its recital time. Here’s my attempt at documenting it:

Close up Page 1

Here's the text from page 1:

 

           After six months of lessons, our very own Miss Allyson Jae performed in her first official dance recital. As you can see, she was undeniably adorable. I had such a good time rolling her hair into curlers, adding just a few touches of make-up (a little blush, some eyeshadow, mascara, lip liner and gloss - hey! it’s stage makeup!)

  Allyson is attending Roseville’s Northern California Dance Conservatory and we both really love it. It’s a real-deal studio that puts out some fantastic dancers. Do I expect her to dance on Broadway someday? No. But I wholeheartedly believe that the technique she can learn in a place like this will transcend so many disciplines. Be it softball or soccer, debate team or drama club, she is building confidence and poise and is having a ball doing it.

The whole family turned out for the performance. Not pictured because they attended the earlier performance were: Mummum and Poppa G and Uncle Matt, Auntie Kirby, Hailey and litle brother Andrew. 

We were all SO proud of our little tap dancer. She hammed it up and brought tears to my eyes. Our litle girl - big time stage performer!

Close up page 2

Allyson did such a great job this year and is enjoying dancing so much that I've already signed her up for next season. A little more ballet and a little more tap is just what this little girl needs. If she can enjoy herself, build confidence, learn how to push, move and depend on her body, she'll be learning more than shuffles and first position. She'll be setting a precedent for some pretty fantastic life performances, both on and off the stage. I can't wait to have a front row seat.


~Becky


P.S. I know I need to give credit where credit is due to those who supplied all the fantastic digital scrapbooking supplies I'm using. I need to learn how to link these in to these posts. I'm working on it. 


Until then, all the supplies above are from the following sites:


Becky Higgins
Rhonna Designs
Ali Edwards
Rosey Posey

31 Things: Days 12 and 13

After a brief absence that included a dance recital, wine tasting in Amador, a couple of parties here at the house and a trip to Reno (hopefully some posts to come with those events), I am back in the land of the blog. Up today are stories number 12 and 13. Watch for placing all the blame on my parents in number 13 and now that I think back on number 12 – I could probably edit it a bit more. The TV watching (aside from kid shows) is at about zero. Maybe I’ll just leave it as is because I do wish I had some extra time to zone out in front of the TV, but lately, if I have some spare minutes, my face is buried in my book and not in front of the Samsung.

Story 12: Watch

TV watching, like many other things, most specifically private time in the restroom and long, luxurious baths, went out the window once I had children. Well, not since I had children, but since I had a child that is old enough to look at the TV and say, “Mom! What is that blood?”

I love dead shows. I used to, and up until recently, watch every iteration of CSI, Law and Order, NCIS, Bones, etc. (notice the pattern?) About a year ago Allyson started paying attention to what Steve and I had on TV. That relegated TV watching to times when she had gone to bed or was napping. As time went on, and the DVR got more and more full, I realized that I just didn’t have the time I used to to sit and watch all that TV. Now it’s more Disney, Food Network and the quick ½ hour shows that we can watch with the kiddos awake. It’s probably for the best, less time in front of the TV means more time up and about. More time seeing what the kiddos are getting into and just “being” with them. It means more time for books at night and better, restful mornings.

I have found that I don’t miss it much. Sitting in front of a computer all day makes me not want to sit in front of any glowing thing at night. I love to read and listen to music and I feel that it’s important for both my children to see me doing that. Andrew LOVES a good song, and now that Ally is back into dance class, she’s pirouetting all over the place. She sings loudly to songs (and not just the kid ones) that she knows - this makes my eyes well up for some reason. All of these things would be lacking in our lives if we plopped down in front of the TV every free opportunity.

Even with all that, we probably watch too much. I am completely guilty of turning on a Disney show to get this or that accomplished around the house. I admitted in a previous post that I love me some Jeopardy. I am encouraged to see, however, that most of the time my kids don’t make it through one show. Halfway in, they’re bouncing around and moving on to the next great event or disaster in the making. 

So, I watch. I watch a little TV every now and then. I let my kids snuggle up with me and watch TV. More importantly, I watch myself to make sure we don’t end up completely dependent upon the TV. I watch to make sure that we’re getting outside and soaking up that wonderful California sunshine. I watch to make sure that we’re balancing the reading and singing and dancing with the TV time. But most importantly, I watch my little family grow up around me and make sure that I am “there” and not zoned out in front of some mind numbing program. These are the memory making days and I’d much rather those be out in our backyard than in front of the latest episode of Sponge Bob. 

Story 13: Chores

I never had to do chores growing up. My Mom cleaned my room, did my laundry, picked up the house. She did everything. When she went back to work when I was in elementary school I remember having house cleaners but she was still the one that did everything around the house to keep it tidy. That being said, my room was always a disaster. So when the house cleaners would come, they’d make my bed and then pick all my crap up off the floor and place it on the bed to “clean” the rest of the room. Ridiculous, right?

So, Mom. I’m sorry for that. Thank goodness we had a two-story house and you could hide the disaster that was my room from any company we might have had. You should have kicked me in the ass and made me clean it up. And now you are getting your revenge.

Today. I am faced with a house that I am in charge of keeping neat and tidy. And I hate house work. And Steve, although he’s kind of a neat freak and is very particular about many things, is not a house cleaner either. He grew up in a house with a Mom that did not work most of the time her boys were in school, so she did everything for him. No housework for Mr. Carroll either. Then, Steve moved from his Mom’s house to his wife’s house. We got to a point in our lives, early on in our marriage, where we fought about house work. What? Fights about this? No way Jose. We had to find another way.

I know that many would think that we took the easy way out and that we may just be, bottom line, lazy but we did what we had to do. We hired a house cleaner. She visits us every two weeks and does all the deep cleaning. You know what? Steve and I stopped fighting about the housework. We still have dishes and laundry and picking up to do on a daily basis, but cleaning toilets, mopping floors and dusting blinds is all taken care of. Sure – we have to pay for it. But we both work 40 hour a week jobs and decided that is was worth the cash to be able to come home and play with the kids in the backyard and take trips to Grandma’s house on the weekends rather than worry about when the baseboards were last scrubbed.

I still fight my inner slob to make sure that the kitchen counters are uncluttered and the dishwasher is running. I fight against my disdain for laundry and all that makes it my own personal torture. But I know that I need to be thankful to able to afford to have someone come in and help us out.

My struggle now is helping Allyson to know what chores look like. She’s going to grow up as I did, and have someone do much of the hard stuff for her. But unlike my Mom did for me (sorry Mom – you are wonderful at so many things, but making your kids do chores you were not-so-good at), she needs to learn to do some of this. She’s four years old, so I wonder what she can tackle at this age. We already battle about leaving her shoes all over the floor (I’m a culprit too) and putting things away when she’s done with them (again – guilty.) So I have to try harder. I have to try harder to set a good example for her. To hold her to responsibilities that are hers to keep. And to make sure that she knows that even though we may have some help, it is our responsibility to keep our things nice and have a home that we’re proud to invite people over to. Easier said than done.   

~Becky