5 Things Friday

Hey hey, it's Friday again! This was a whirlwind week since I was gone Monday-Thursday for my work trip. Here are 5 things on my mind today. 

1. I've definitely reached travel burnout. Usually the trips are shorter 2-night stays but this NJ trip kind of pushed me over the edge as it was a 3-night trip. Of my 5 remaining trips (one more trip got added for December but it’s a short one to Chicago), 3 are 2-nights, the other 2 are 3-nights. I am going to really try to rein in the 3-night trips in 2025 because it's just a bit too long to be away, especially considering that Taco wakes up during the night when I travel... I should get a nice long month+ break from travel in December/January, though. I really need a break! 

2. The boys are SO excited for Halloween and we have a fun weekend of fall-themed activities on tap. Tomorrow morning there is a fall event at our church's pumpkin patch with a bounce house and such. Later that day we are going to a friend’s house for a pumpkin carving party! Then on Sunday afternoon, the PTA at Paul’s school is hosting a fall festival with bounce houses, face painting, etc. The boys have been wearing their costumes throughout the fall and are excited to get candy!! Paul will be Pikachu and Taco will be Chase from Paw Patrol. I hope this mild weather sticks around for Halloween. Last year it snowed the morning of Halloween!

3. I haven't talked about my RA for awhile, but that's not because everything is going splendidly... I still have a bad flare in the pointer finger of my right hand so the infusions have not been the wonder drug I was hoping they would be. My doctor doubled the dose of the infusion in October but that hasn't seemed to make a difference yet. If things don't improve after my next infusion in early November, we can shift the infusions from every 6 weeks to every 4. This flare has been going on for over 6 months now and I am so tired of it - and I'm also so tired of being on prednisone which makes it very hard to manage my weight. I keep telling myself that there will be a time after this. 

4. Luckily I have some time off to look forward to in the coming weeks, though. I decided to take 2 days off during the first week of November and 3 days during the first week of December. I haven't had a shouldless day in quite some time and I was feeling like I needed more than just a day off to really replenish my energy reserves. The days off won't fully be shouldless days, though, as I have a few projects that I'd like to work on around the house, like organizing the shelves in our window seat. But the days are mostly meant to be relaxing, restorative days. I need to add up the number of days I've taken off this year because I think the count is rather low... but I struggle to take time off since my calendar is filled with meetings and such. But now I know I need to just plan it in advance or it's not going to happen. 

5. I’m currently reading Ina Garten’s new memoir and it’s so delightful. Her warm, calming tone comes across the page. If I was an audiobook person, I would listen to this as she narrates it but audiobooks are not my jam. This book is the equivalent of a warm hug. I am so envious that she owns an apartment in Paris. What a dream! 

What’s on your mind today?

5 Things Friday - Re-entry Week

Happy Friday! Was this not the longest short week or is it just me? Here are 5 things on my mind today.

1. Paul started 1st grade on Tuesday! It was a beautiful morning but he insisted we take the photo inside because there were kids outside our house waiting for the bus and he was embarrassed about the sign. He's already embarrassed by his mom at 6.5. Sheesh. He was very excited for school but also a little nervous.

2. Re-entry has been ROUGH for the boys. I don't remember it being this tough last summer but maybe I blocked it out. Mornings have been rough and there has been so much attitude. Taco's back to his normal bedtime but wakes up in the worst mood most days. We're trying to get Paul's bedtime earlier but he fights it each night and falls asleep far later than he should (around 9pm, he should be asleep around 8-8:15 ideally). Then he wakes up so EXHAUSTED but forgets how exhausted he was in the morning when bedtime rolls around. Gah. 

3. Our activity schedule is heating up, too. Paul started soccer on Wednesday. He'll have it on Mondays and Wednesdays. Last time he did soccer he barely touched the ball but Phil said he was very into it this year. Yay! I stayed back with Taco so did not get to observe but I will take him sometime when I'm not traveling. Both boys start swimming lessons on Sunday afternoon and they will also attend religious ed classes on Sunday mornings. I am sure this sounds like a walk in the park to those with big kids, like Sarah and Kae! And don’t get me wrong - it’s not a heavy activity schedule since our kids are too young for that (IMO). The soccer schedule is tricky when I am traveling as it's from 6-7pm and we start Taco's bedtime at 7pm so he can be sleeping by 7:30-7:45. I'm encouraging Phil to hire a neighbor girl to stay back with Taco when I'm traveling so she can put him to bed. 

4. Between back to school and being in the office, I haven't ran since my 8 mile long run on Monday. I'm hoping to fit a 3 mile run in today and then I'll do one last 8 mile run on Saturday or Sunday. My race is next Saturday. You don't really need to taper for a 10 mile race that you aren't going to aggressively run, but I don't know when I will run next week since I'll be in Charlotte Mon-Thur where I have 2 client dinners, moderate 2 panels, and have 25+ client calls (it's a week where sales is encouraged to book a ton of calls). Looking at my calendar kind of makes me whimper... 

Red = client meeting or event. The big blue blocks are what I blocked for travel to/from Charlotte.

5. But ending on a positive, we have a pretty low key weekend ahead of us. We'll lay low tonight. Tomorrow afternoon/evening is our annual block party which features a shoe kicking contest (that I am TERRIBLE at but enjoy participating in). Sunday we have religious ed in the morning and swimming lessons in the afternoon. So Sundays are kind of set for the forseeable future since we have a morning and afternoon commitment. So we'll just need to add in the occasional park visit and those days will be set. 

How was your week? If it's back-to-school week, has re-entry been rough for you as well?

5 Things Friday

Hey hey, it's Friday! Here are 5 things on my mind today!

1. From the windows to the Walz. I, of course, have to acknowledge that Harris has selected our Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, as her running mate. I love this guy! It's been interesting/fun to see him gain national notoriety. He has total Midwest dad vibes! The governor's mansion where he typically resides is on the Twin Cities marathon/10 mile/10k course. When I ran the 10k years ago, I'll never forget how he was out on his lawn, enthusiastically cheering on runners! [I usually do not like to discuss politics on my blog because I am incredibly conflict-avoidant, so if you don't like him, please keep those thoughts to yourself as I'm not looking to engage in political discussions.]

2. Joint update. No, not that kind of joint - I'm talking about my hand joint. The injection from last week seems to have done the trick, thank goodness. The swelling is way down and I can finally start to taper off prednisone. That said, the joint doesn't feel great so I talked to my SIL who is an OT that focuses on hands (did you know such an expertise exists?). She thinks I have what is known as "trigger" finger which is common for patients that have elevated levels of inflammation. She recommended a brace which I promptly ordered from Amazon. If that doesn't help, I will ask my rheumatologist for an OT referral but I hope it doesn't come to that because I can't bear to add more medical appointments to my calendar... 

3. Summer fever. Taco came down with a fever on Tuesday when he got home from daycare. He started crying when he walked in the house, cuddled on my lap, and promptly fell asleep which is NOT typical for our energetic little guy. I know some parents take a "wait and see" approach but I nearly immediately booked an appointment at the CVS minute clinic to rule out strep throat (pro tip - CVS minute clinics are amazing - I would recommend going there v urgent care if you can snag an appointment online. They are staffed by a nurse practitioner. They can run strep and influenza tests and you get you results within 10 minutes.). We had our appointment on Wednesday morning and his strep test was negative but he has a double ear infection. Ugh. He got tubes around 11 months and they fell out about 6 months ago. I was hoping ear infections were behind us as Paul didn't get any ear infections after his tubes fell out. I messaged his doctor and she is hoping this is just a fluke and that he won't have recurrent ear infections. He's been ok during the day but has been spiking fevers during the night so we've had interrupted sleep in our household this week which I am so not accustomed to which means I feel extra tired.

My sad, sick baby. I did soak up his feverish cuddles, though.

4. Olympic fever. We continue to be obsessed with the Olympics. I feel like we've watched more coverage than ever this year, but I have some recency bias. I had a 8 month old baby during the 2021 Olympics so life looked quite different back then. It's nice to have something to watch together every night rather than doing the whole "what do you want to watch" / "I don't care, you pick" / "no, you pick" type of exchange. Instead at 7pm we tune into the primetime Olympics coverage which we watch with Paul until he goes to bed. 

5. Cool, cool summer. Well so much for the heat! It’s been downright fall-like this week. Today the high is 69. This is so bizarre. Apparently it’s related to the tropical storm on the east coast - I guess it’s keeping a cool front over us. It is great for running, though. Paul’s field trip is to a water park today but I am sure the cooler temps won’t hold him back from having a great time. It looks like warmer temps return next week so I will enjoy this cool spell while it lasts. It is nice to not run the a/c non-stop!

What is the weather like in your parts? Are you sad the Olympics are coming to an end?

5 things Friday + mid-year thoughts

Happy Friday and happy almost end of the first half of the year! I had a really great trip to the DC area for work this week. We did 10 meetings in 2 days which is quite a lot. I haven't mentioned this but my little sister and her family are moving to the DC area (in the coming days!!) and this trip made me extra excited that she is moving here because a) there is so much to do and b) it's only a 2-hour flight from Minneapolis!

Here are 5 things on my mind this week: 

1. Let’s start with that, ‘wow the year is going so fast’ cliche convo that we all tend to have. Phil absolutely loathes those kind of conversations because he is extremely practical and will challenge comments about time going faster because the passage of time does not change. And yet our perception of how fast time goes does seem to change as we get older. Remember how loooonnnnggggg it took for Christmas to arrive when you were a kid, if you celebrated that holiday? Now Christmas comes far too fast and I’d like December to have 6 weeks (but then I want Feb or Mar to have 2 fewer weeks because I hate the final months of winter). 

2. Since it’s mid-year, many of us assess how the first half of the year went which might involve looking back at goals. I had honestly forgotten what I decided to do about goals (I had set 2 quarterly goals for Q1 and then never looked at them again. Whoops.) This is not surprising because I have a tenuous relationship with goals. I feel like I don’t necessarily need them because I achieve a lot without detailed goals and will be hard on myself if I don’t achieve what I set out to do. I look at what I’ve done in the first half of the year and it’s a lot - some of it was planned, much of it wasn’t. 10 business trips, 1 family vacation, 200 client meetings, I made some big decisions about how to better manage my RA, we established a quarterly date night routine, we potty trained our toddler, we ordered a big boy mattress for him so we can start that next big transition, and on and on and on. I do see how goals are so very motivating for others but I might be team ‘no goals’ for life? I am required to set them for work so I comply but otherwise I am tempted to take the counter-cultural approach of avoiding them. SHU, can we still be friends?!? All that said, I really do enjoy reading about the progress others have made towards their goals! 

3. I wish I had good news about my flare subsiding but I don’t. It is just as bad as it was before and is especially painful in the am when I have gone almost 24 hours without prednisone. So I will not be tapering off that bastard of a drug anytime soon. Sigh. This time I contacted my doctor through my chart right away when 5 days had passed with no improvement. She was quick to respond and said it’s time for an MRI because the flare should respond to everything we have thrown at it. Luckily I was able to get my MRI scheduled for this coming Tuesday. I really hope there is a clear path forward but I might need to see an ortho and she mentioned a possible biopsy and GAH! Why is this all so hard? 6 months ago, you might not have even known I had RA and now a week can’t seem to pass without some sort of reference to this stupid disease. And to be honest, one of the worst parts of being on prednisone (besides the sleep issues and irritability) is that I have put on weight and I feel like I look a little bit puffy. I know body image is a challenging topic to address but I can’t pretend this hasn’t made this whole situation worse. 

4. I also get my 2nd infusion this coming Monday. I think this is the last 2-hour infusion and then they will speed it up to an hour if I continue to tolerate it well. I must say the set up in the infusion center is quite nice. I sit in a comfy recliner and there is a lap shelf thing they can lower so I can work on my laptop. The chair also has a massage feature so it’s not the worst 2 hours. Last time I worked with my feet up at a very minor recline while getting a chair massage. The kind nurses also brought me a warm blanket since I am always cold, especially in air conditioned buildings. If I ever had a desire for a side hustle I might create something similar for tired moms - come sit in our comfy, massaging chairs, take a load off for a bit, and feel free to doze off. We can even pretend it’s a medically-necessary appointment to assuage any guilt about taking time for yourself. 

5. Next week is the 4th of July which my brain thinks of as the mid-point of summer since I was on a mid-August to Friday-before Memorial Day schedule when I was in school. But it is decidedly NOT the mid-point of summer as an adult with a child who has only been out of school for 2 weeks. It’s the beginning. Which is good because it feels like summer weather has finally arrived what with all the rain we have had. Our family will be going to my parents for the 4th of July weekend which I am so looking forward to. Only one other sibling will be there but I will see a bunch of extended family and Phil can actually come with us for a change. He is busiest in the first 4 biz days of the month but will cram 4 days of work into 3 days so he can come to the lake with us. We haven’t been up there since February so are very overdue. The boys love sand and water so it’s the best place to be with them on a hot summer day. A change of scenery is a thing of wonder when you have small children and it’s extra wonderful when that change of scenery is the house of grandparents on a lake who are happy to help out as much as they can. 

How was your week? Did you set any goals for 2024?

5 Things Friday + First Infusion

Happy Friday! Here are 5 things on my mind today, including a check-in on how my first infusion went.

1. First off, thank you for all the thoughtful comments on my post about feeling joy! You all left so many insightful comments that really made me think.

2. I had my first IV infusion yesterday and all-in-all it went quite well. I'm used to getting IVs when I've been fasting for a surgery but getting an IV when you are hydrated is so much better (it's taken up to 3 attempts to place an IV before surgeries but this was easy peasy). I felt sleepy during the infusion which is apparently a common side effect but felt good otherwise. So overall I would say it was pretty easy aside from the hassle of being at the clinic for 2+ hours. I get my next one in early July.

3. Today is Paul's last day of school. He had a really wonderful first year of school and is sad that the school year is coming to an end. He has grown and changed so much in this first year. He started the year being able to read on his own on a very basic level and now I would say he's pretty much completely literate. He will struggle with bigger words but he can read books on his own now which is cute to see. Bedtime has become a bit of a struggle lately because he wants to keep reading his Dog Man books. It's kind of a good problem to have because it's great to see his love for reading flourish but he also needs to go to bed at a certain time so that mornings aren't too much of a slog... 

4. I had a really great trip to NYC. I landed Monday afternoon, worked in the office for a few hours and then was able to go for a run in Central Park! It's rare for me to get a run in while traveling as it can be tough to fit in before work so I was glad I had Monday night free. 

5. We have a gathering with my college friends tonight that I'm really looking forward to. Our husbands/kids are joining us so I am hoping Taco/Paul are entertained by the older kids so we can catch up with the adults but we'll see... It looks like it will be a beautiful summer-like evening so I am really looking forward to it. Besides that we don’t have much planned for the weekend but I am sure we will be outside quite a bit as the weather forecast looks pretty good! It’s Father’s Day on Sunday obviously but we are pretty low key - my gift is encouraging Phil to take golf or find another way to make time for himself.

How was your week?

5 things Friday

I’m drafting this post from the airport on Thursday night as I wait at the gate for my now twice-delayed flight home. So instead of landing at 6:30 and making it home for bedtime, I landed at 8 and missed it all. Le sigh. Here’s how the week shaped up.

1. We enjoyed some really unseasonably gorgeous weather earlier in the week. One benefit of springing ahead is having more sunlight in the evening. The boys went scooting after dinner 3 nights this week. Everyone is happier when we can get outside! Yes their helmets match their scooters but no, this was not planned! Taco just moved into Paul’s helmet and Paul got a new one that coincidentally matches his scooter. And of course Taco is wearing a Mickey shirt! We have no short sleeved Mickey shirts so I probably need to get some for spring/summer.

2. I had a very busy but productive trip to Chicago. I did some lunch and learn sessions with our sales people, went to a celebratory HH for people who were promoted/passed their licensing exams, and had a lot of meetings with people I work with. I also met up for dinner with the daughters of Phil’s cousin. They are in their 20s but were up for hanging out with me! We talked for 2+ hours straight. These girls are part of the family that we spend Christmas Eve with every year. Their parents are Taco’s Godparents so even though they are technically extended family, I kind of think of them as close family. One of the girls teaches yoga sculpt at core power yoga so I am hoping to take a class next time I am in Chicago! That was one of my favorite classes when I had a CPY membership. 

3. Today starts with 7:30 dentist appointment for Paul. We found out he had 2 cavities when we saw the dentist in February. Le sigh. I guess he has my bad dental genes (we still brush his teeth so I don’t feel like we did anything wrong, just bad luck/genes I guess). We go to a pediatric dentist so am going to trust that they will figure out how to get my sensitive boy to sit for the drilling process… I will report back.

4. Paul’s little birthday party with 5 school friends is tomorrow afternoon. Since I’ve been gone much of this week, I feel pretty ill-prepared to host anything. But I am telling myself that 5-6 year olds don’t expect much. I’ll have snacks, we’ll put a cute Lego set together and we’ll have cupcakes for the birthday treat, per Paul’s request. Hopefully it all goes off without a hitch! 

5. We don’t have any other plans this weekend, thank goodness. I’m definitely feeling worn out from my busy week of travel. And I do it all over again next week with a 2 night trip to Charlotte. Here’s hoping I get some good nights of sleep and come out of the weekend feeling rested.

How was your week? Was the weather beautiful?

Five Things Friday

Hey hey - happy Friday! Here are 5 things on my mind today!

1. Today is Paul’s birthday! He turns 6! I kind of think a child’s birthday is as much a celebration for the parents (especially the mom) as it is for the child! His birth is still very fresh in my mind. Will that always be the case? Older/more experienced moms, what do you think? Paul doesn’t have school today so I took the day off to spend with him. I know we are going to the aquarium at the Mall of America and the LEGO store there and I imagine we’ll get him a donut - we will see what else he picks! I’m excited for a day of 1:1 time with him!

Paul when he was just a few days old. He was known for making funny expressions as a baby!

Another funny expression photo from Paul’s early weeks of life! He often had his hand my his face in his early weeks of life - that must have been his favored position when he was in utero!

Wearing his birthday crown from school!

2. I also took yesterday off to spend as a ‘shouldless day’. A shouldless day is a day where you only do things you want to do and nothing you feel you ‘should’ do. Yesterday that looked like a workout in the morning and then getting a 90 minute massage and laying in my bed reading and napping in the afternoon. It was a lazy day but it’s what my body needed so I didn’t feel any guilt about it. Work has been so busy for really the past year and the harried pace of my week days definitely accumulates so I needed a low key day like that. 

3. Paul had his 100th day of kindergarten this week so it’s been quite the exciting week between that celebration, leap day and anticipating his birthday! His teacher made the 100th day so fun! He brought a collection of 100 things from home, they had a special snack and had just an all around fun day. I was relieved he didn’t have to dress up as an old person. Some of my nieces and nephews have had to do that for their 100th day celebration and while it’s cute, gathering clothes for that would have been a pain! 

4. Our weather has been nuts this week! On Monday we reached a high of 60, but on Wednesday we woke to a feels like temp of -11. We have had a mild winter so I shouldn’t complain. I just hated getting ping ponged around from really warm to super cold temps! But it will be back in the 50-60s this weekend.

5. This weekend will mostly be about celebrating Paul’s birthday. We are having a small family party on Saturday night - his 3 grandparent and his Godparents and their teen son will come over to our house for pizza and cookie cake. We struggled to come up with gifts for him as he didn’t seem to want anything specific. We ended up getting him a board game, 2 Wimpy Kid books, and I made a baseball-shaped card and Phil wrote inside that they will go to a Twins game together this summer. He’s a pretty easy to please kid so I think/hope he’ll be happy with what he gets!

How was your week? Have you/would you take a shouldless day? If you have kids, do you vividly remember their births?

5 things Friday

Oh it’s Friday, you say? I am so messed up on days of the week what with having Monday off, flying out Tuesday morning and flying back late (for me) last night. What time zone is this even? So this is my scatter-brained 5 things Friday. 

1. SC/NC. I was in Greenville, SC and Charlotte, NC this week for client meetings. Greenville was such a cute city with a great running path along the river. I got in before it got dark so was able to go for a nice walk. 

2. Shadow self. Longtime readers will recall that I lived in Charlotte for a year 10 years ago. It’s always a little weird to come back to Charlotte. That was a really painful year for me (I had just met Phil 2 months before I found out I had to move to keep my job, he lost his dad that year, and I was diagnosed with RA, among other challenges). The city has changed so much so it feels very different as I walked around, but I can’t not think about my shadow self - the Lisa of 2013-2014 who was just so sad and kind of broken - mentally (Phil and I broke up since the relationship was too new to shift to long distance, I was lonely and did not want to live in Charlotte) and physically (I was in so much pain from RA - before my diagnosis I thought maybe I had bone cancer or something!). I wish I could give 2013-2014 Lisa a hug and tell her that it’s all going to work out - she’ll eventually end up back in Minneapolis, married to Phil with 2 beautiful children. 

3. Travels. Well I am NOT holding the boundary well on traveling about once/month seeing as I have 9 work trips scheduled over about 5 months in the first half of the year. And I have even said no to at least 3 additional requests to travel. I don’t know what to do about this. But it’s kind of part of my job and I’m compensated well for the inconvenience of lots of travel. But wow, the mom guilt I feel… and the general level of exhaustion!

4. Husband of the year. Speaking of which, Phil deserves a prize for a) researching activities for Paul and b) signing him up for said activities (tee ball and golf). I did nothing. I feel some guilt but then a good friend reminded me that she has researched and registered her kids for all of their activities for the last 15 years and she is fairly certain her husband has felt no guilt over this… so there’s that. But I am excited to expose Paul to a couple of new things! He will take a break from karate while trying these new sports this spring and will also take a break from swimming over the summer. So his schedule won’t be too packed.

5. Potty training. I mean we don’t have much going on these days so why not try a potty training boot camp this weekend (insert maniacal laugh). Paul potty trained 1 month after turning 3 (after a horrific failed attempt at 2 at the start of the pandemic - because potty training while isolating and freaking out about a pandemic seemed like a GREAT combo… reader, it wasn’t). So in my mind Taco is ready since he is 3 years and 3 months and seems like the kind of kid that needs a full on boot camp. I will report back on how it goes (please, God, let it be successful. We are so over diapers!!). 

How was your week? Is there a younger version of yourself that you wish you could travel back to so you can tell her everything will be ok?

5 Things Friday!

Whew, it was another jammed week! And - fingers crossed - we will be heading to my parents after work today. This is our 3rd attempt to visit them (prior 2 planned visits were foiled by dangerously cold temps and kid illness) so hopefully the 3rd time’s the charm! Here are 5 things on my mind today!

1. Snow! We finally got a decent amount of snow! We got about 7" the night of Valentine's Day. So Phil got to use our snow blower for the first time and we got to reap the benefits of our first 4WD vehicle. We have joked that it's our fault we've gotten so little snow because a) Phil took our snow blower in for a tune-up in the fall and b) we finally bought a 4WD vehicle (first in our lives for either of us - we've always been team sedan previously). The boys were very excited and it does make the world prettier! And it was pretty much business as usual on Thursday morning because Midwestern cities can easily handle 7" of snow without school cancellations and such. 

Winter wonderland vibes at our house

Pic from daycare. So much snow which he’s so happy about!

2. Valentine's Day! The boys both enjoyed the holiday. They both did fun activities in school and Taco in particular looked cute with the little headband he made in class. The valentines I had made at the library event were in the backpack that got left at my MIL's on Sunday, so I had to make them again w/ our extremely limited craft supplies. The boys still seemed to like them even though they were way less cool than the ones I made at the library!

Math major mom trying to be crafty with limited success. Paul did appreciate that I wrote 'we love you to pluto and back!' inside. Yes the kitchen island in the background is a bit of a disaster.

Cutie patootie in his V-day headband!

3. Laziness. A local friend that I used to run with posted on her blog about a remote control that turns the pages of her kindle and I could not get on the Amazon website fast enough to buy one for myself! I do a lot of kindle reading in my bed and don't love that the hand that I use to turn the pages gets so cold in the winter. Now I don't need to have my hands out of the covers. Yes this is peak laziness but oh well. I'm a naturally cold person as it is so I appreciate being able to keep my hands warm! So I prop my kindle up with the blankets/comforter on our bed and my hands stay toasty warm under the blankets. 

4. New show! Phil and I started a new show this week - Mr. and Mrs. Smith on Prime. Most of the episodes are 45 minutes long which is the perfect length for us. I was motivated to watch it after it was raved about on The Popcast recently. It’s nice to have a show that we both enjoy that isn’t a documentary for a change!

5. Good luck Jenny and SHU!  Jenny is running a 50 mile (!!) race this weekend!! I am sending her the very best wishes! And SHU is racing a half marathon! Her training cycle has been so strong so I can’t wait to see how the race goes. Best wishes to these 2 Florida runners! 

How was your week? Did you do anything special for Valentine’s Day? Phil picked up take out from a local place in our neighborhood. After working in a restaurant all through college, a restaurant is the last place I want to be on Valentine’s Day! 

5 Things Friday

Hey hey, it's Friday! This has been the longest shortest week with time zone adjustments and such so I'm feeling a bit out of sorts and very behind on life (hence my spotty comments on blogs this week). But here's 5 things on my mind. 

1. I flew to LA on Monday to attend my company's global sales conference. I talked to my mentor while I was waiting to board my flight and he told me that I needed to stay out as late as possible as this was the best opportunity to network. So that looked like staying out until 12PST on Monday (so 2 am CST which is the latest I have stayed up in, um, 10+ years??) and 10PST on Tuesday (12am CST). I got a bit teased for calling it a night at 10 on Tuesday but our days start at 7:30 and I was so completely talked out at this point and felt like I'd been extra fun on Monday night. I mean I am usually in bed with the lights out at 9:30 CST and by usually I mean like every night. I'm proud of myself for socializing as much as I did. I met a ton of people for the first time that I had only communicated with over the phone or zoom so it was a really effective use of my time. I was just so very tired by the end! 

2. The meetings were at this very nice resort just south of LA. It's kind of cruel to be in such a beautiful location and have virtually no time to enjoy the surroundings. But I did manage to squeeze a run in before flying out on Wednesday. I can't believe that people actually live here and wake up to this every single day! When we had breaks during the day, I tried to spend them on the patio so I could soak up some vitamin D and stare at the ocean.

The view from my run on Wednesday am.

3. I guess it's February now? Dang January flew by but I am not sad! I do not love winter in the Midwest so the faster the weeks go, the better. We have gotten off so incredibly easily, though. We had one cold spell in mid-January but it was 50 on Wednesday and will be in the upper 30s to 40s for the next couple of weeks which is just not normal. Hello, global warming. So I'm glad January is over and I'll be glad to have February behind me since it's another month I don't love (even though I have a February birthday). 

4. Paul and I started a new chapter book last week - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I was so excited to read it to him as I loved this book as a child. But so far his interest is kind of tepid? I'm hoping that as we get into the story he'll enjoy it more. And I told him we can watch one of the movie adaptations after we finish it. Of course he wanted to skip right to the movie! I tried to explain that is a cardinal sin in my book but 5 year olds be 5 year olds...

5. I'm probably jinxing myself by typing this out, but Phil and I are going on our first date in ages tomorrow night. We haven't had a babysitter since Feb 2020 so please send us all of your good vibes that my kids do ok. I have no qualms about the babysitter as she works at a daycare so she's as qualified as they come - and she babysat for Paul several times pre-covid. But I fear Taco will refuse to go to bed for her. Hopefully it goes better than I think it might! I'm really excited for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants (112 Eatery). 

How was your week? 

5 Things Friday

Hey hey, it's the last Friday before Christmas! Here's what is on my mind today.

1. Paul's last day of school was last Friday, December 15th (he goes back 1/2). Isn't that SO EARLY for school to be out for the holidays? I swear "back in my day" we would have gone until the 23rd. I'm now of the age where I can torment my children with "back in my day" comments. How did that happen? But I digress! Luckily the after school program provides childcare for many of the non-school days. So he's there all this week and Wednesday and Thursday of next week. On Wednesday he got to go snow tubing (on fake snow because we still don't have snow - hurrah!). He told me "it was the best day of my life!!" Don't you love the enthusiasm of kindergarteners? I want to bottle it up and inhale it.

They captured a photo of him in his snow tube

2. Things are not exactly going swimmingly around these parts, though. Yesterday morning I got the dreaded "your child has just thrown up" call from daycare. Le sigh. Taco had had a rough morning but it's really hard to differentiate between something being off and his intense displeasure with mornings. We had taken his temp (no fever) and done a covid test (negative) just to make sure he wasn't sick. But it seems like all signs pointed to him being fine and just mad about having to leave the house at 7. He didn't throw up again after he got home so it seems to be a short-lived bug or a fluke? Now I cross my fingers and pray that no one else is struck.

3. If I had to describe our holiday plans in one word, I'd choose "precarious." Besides worrying/watching for signs of a stomach bug, we are going to test both boys and Phil for covid tomorrow morning. If they are negative (I assume Taco will be negative since he was yesterday morning), my MIL will come to our house that afternoon and we'll go to a Christmas Eve gathering at Phil's cousin's house on Sunday. If anyone is positive - or pukes in the next 24ish hours - it will be just the 4 of us, a la Christmas 2020 without a nursing infant that ate around the clock. I have to remind myself of that because even though it would suck to not celebrate with family, at least I'll sleep well and not have bodily fluids leaking from my body (but may be cleaning up the bodily fluids of Paul if he gets what Taco has?)? I’m clearly reaching for a sense of perspective. The Christmas Eve gathering is my absolute favorite part of our Christmas celebrations so I really hope the boys are healthy and we can celebrate as planned. Send us all of your healthy vibes, please.

4. Speaking of covid, I have fully recovered. I credit it all to Paxlovid. It made such a huge impact on my symptoms so I highly recommend getting a prescription if you come down with covid!

5. It seems like the word for this time of year for most moms is "harried." Dare I say it hasn't had a harried vibe for us (outside of all the illness but that's a different kind of harried)? But that's the beauty of only having 2 kids and being gift minimalists. Don't feel sorry for our boys, though. They will get PLENTY of things from extended family. Each boy is getting about 3-4 things from us and then their Santa gifts are joint gifts. They need each other to play with said joint gifts - Don't Break the Ice and a bucket of balls and a baseball bat - so hopefully they are fine with joint gifts. A bat and balls is usually not a great play for Christmas since it's usually cold and snowy here, but the boys both have winter birthdays, so there isn't a great time to give a baseball-centric gift. But hey - it's going to be like 40 here on Christmas so kind of spring-like!

Bonus photo:

I don’t have to do any holiday baking because my mom sent us a big Tupperware bin of cookies plus heath candy and peanut brittle! The boys were excited about the cookies!

How are you feeling as we enter the final days before Christmas (for those who celebrate)? Has this been a harried month for you? I think the fact that I haven’t traveled since December 7th has really helped! 

5 things Friday

Happy Friday! We made it through another week! And yes, that’s an accomplishment in our house given all the germs and such we are cycling through. Here are 5 things on my mind today:

1. My cough seems to be finally getting better. It plagued me for a good 3+ weeks. This is not terribly surprising. I’m on some serious immune suppressant drugs to manage my RA (my immune system has to be suppressed, otherwise it goes into overdrive and attacks itself, resulting in painful flares). I am going to attempt to run tomorrow. Hopefully it goes better than last weekend. 

2. Work continues to be so so busy. I’ve done 340 client meetings (mostly via zoom, some in person) this year. Last year I did 90 and I had the 2nd highest meeting count on my team last year. I’m probably in first place by like 100s this year. This pace of work is not really sustainable. But my new hire has taken over more than I dreamed he could at this point. He was here again this week so we got to work in adjacent cubes which was so nice. But it’s very workable to have him in Chicago. 

3. I have my 2nd to last business trip of the year next week. I fly to NYC on Sunday evening so I can be in the office Monday morning. It’s a longer trip (for me) as I get back late on Wednesday night. I don’t like traveling on a weekend day but it had to happen for this trip. I am excited to be in NYC, though. I absolutely adore the city and some of my favorite colleagues are based there. But I am glad the end of business trips for the year is in sight. I will do 14 business trips this year which is A LOT for me (and most people?). My goal was 9. And I even said no to a couple of trips, like a recent request the week of Thanksgiving. 

4. Taco has recently become interested in puzzles. I love puzzles so hope both boys are drawn to them. What was especially cute was that Paul was happy to help Taco with his puzzles! I whispered to Phil and said ‘oh my God, they are playing together. Quietly.’ 

Paul is wearing headphones but isn’t listening to anything. Taco is working on a seasons of the year puzzle.  He loves the winter puzzle which is puzzling for me as that is my least favorite season.

5. Tonight there is a movie night at Paul’s school and siblings are welcome. So I am going to take the boys and give Phil a night off from parenting since he’s got some solo parenting ahead of him next week. I’m so glad we’ve reached the stage where both boys are entertained by movies!! They are showing Lilo and Stitch which I have never seen. Popcorn is involved! 

How was your week? Do you like doing puzzles? I adore them! 

Five Things Friday

We are really limping to the finish line of the week in our house. Will was home 4 days this week (as I type this, I am hopeful he’s back at daycare on Friday) and then Paul was struck with a high fever last night. Here’s 5 things on my mind today. 

1. I’m glad I took Taco to the doctor on Monday. He had a 103 fever but he hadn’t even been sick for 24 hours so it was a little bit aggressive to take him in so fast. But his in-clinic strep test case back positive. And then the next day, his influenza A test came back positive. Strep AND influenza A. Can you believe it? No wonder he was so miserable. He is usually a champ at taking meds but it is a 2-person job to be get him to take the antibiotics for strep throat. It must taste awful. I so wish he could have had the penicillin shot but he’s terribly allergic to that drug. I went to CVS minute clinic on Tuesday afternoon to make sure I didn’t have strep or influenza A. Both were negative thank goodness. It was a very slick process - the flu and strep tests took 6 minutes!! So that is where I am taking Paul today. 

Taco got star treatment at the doctor - a pedialyte popsicle!

2. Our cat is back for a visit! Longtime readers know we got a cat in 2015. She went to stay with my MIL as her ‘emotional support animal’ during the pandemic. And we’ve since come to accept that she is happier there. We got her before we had kids and she is really NOT into kids. She’s back for a week or two as she had a vet appointment this week. She’s happy to be in Phil’s company and puts up with our kids. They so badly want to be friends with her but the feeling is not mutual. She did briefly sit on my lap when taco was sitting next to me which thrilled him! But it was short lived. 

Proof that she got close to Taco

Meet Oscar - we were told she was a boy when we got her, hence the male name. Soon after we found out she was a female!

3. Paul had his first karate class and got his white belt at the end of class. He was so excited!

4. I listened to a very inspiring episode of the ‘People I (Mostly) Admire’ podcast. The host, Steve Levitt, interviewed a Yale law school grad that spent 8 years in prison when he was a teen/in his early 20s. Now he runs a non-profit called Freedom Reads whose mission is to put books in prisons. I know lots of you are avid readers so I highly recommend checking the episode out!

5. We are supposed to have our first Halloween event of the season this weekend. Paul and I were planning to go to a pumpkin event at the zoo. We went last year and it was AMAZING! But now those plans are very up in the air with his fever. :( 

How are you doing? I hope you’ve had a better week than us! 

5 Things Friday

It's Friday but a weird Friday since Paul has his procedure today to remove his ear tubes - which is basically a very expensive ear cleaning. Send me all the good vibes. Paul has decided he does not want to be "put to sleep" (even though I've explained it's just a brief snooze and will be over before he knows it) so I fear it's going to be a rough morning. The surgery is at our Children's Hospital so surely they are good with, um, patients with strong emotions/feelings. We have to be at the hospital at 6:15am so I'm hoping for a nap later today! Will only has a half day so I kept him home for the day and my mom's watching him this morning. Here's 5 things on my mind today. 

1. I feel like I've found my groove in terms of a workout plan. I run on Saturday and Sunday and do strength training workouts on Mondays and Fridays when I work from home. I was trying different things for my strength training workouts but have settled into the Caroline Girvan Epic Heat program. There are "30 minute" workouts but really they are about 36-37 minutes with explanations at the start and the cool down. I really like them! I find myself dripping with sweat at the end of the workout, especially lower body ones! I see there are some HIIT workouts in the program so I may skip those since I'm getting my cardio from running but we'll see. Since I can only do 2/week, it's going to take me 5-6 months to get through the program but so be it. I just don't have the motivation and energy to get up at like 5 to workout before work and nighttime workouts amp me up so much and make it hard to fall asleep. But 4 workouts/week seems reasonable for a working mom with 2 young kids. I think.  

So. Much. Sweat.

2. I used to be terrible at setting boundaries but that is one thing I worked on when I was in therapy in 2020 - because the pandemic was a CRASH COURSE in setting boundaries and I was not prepared. It is still not easy for me to set boundaries (and not feel guilty about setting those boundaries) but work seems to give me plenty of opportunities to practice. Would you believe I received 3 requests to travel during the first week of September? My new hire starts on Tuesday of that week, we don't really have child care for Paul on Tuesday and Wednesday of that week (my MIL will watch him during the day but we will try to not make those days super long for her since she is 80), and Paul starts Kindergarten on Thursday. People were mostly understanding when I explained that my son starts K that week. That is back-to-school week for most schools in Minnesota but I suppose for much of the country, their kids  have been back in school for weeks so September 7th is just an ordinary Thursday. NOT FOR US! 

3. Elisabeth is often sharing great consignment store finds so it's my turn! I took a bin of clothing to the local consignment store last month and looked around while they decided what to keep. I found a brand new pair of Athleta pants - with the tag still on! Granted they were not nearly as cheap as the things Elisabeth finds but they were a fraction of what I'd pay for them at an Athleta store so I'm calling this a win. They are on the more casual side but they have a cute belted/ruffled waist that sort of elevates them/makes them appropriate for work, I think.

Crappy bathroom selfie!

4. The boys had dentist appointments this week. When I got the reminder call the day before the appointment, the person informed me that our pediatric dentist had suddenly died. SHE WAS ONLY 50 YEARS OLD. She had just gotten remarried in the last couple of years and has twin teens. We only saw her twice a year for the last 3 years but she was such a delightful person to work with and I marveled at the fact that she CHOSE to work as a pediatric dentist. This news really hit me even though we barely know this person. But it's so sad to hear of a person's life being cut so incredibly short. We were the only patients at the practice on Wednesday so I fear it will close. She was the sole proprietor so I imagine it will be a mess to figure out what to do with the practice. 

Paul getting his teeth cleaned. The practice is so cutely set up to distract kids. There is a big tree in the middle of the room with different animals carrying toothbrushes, etc and the walls are all painted with a woodland type of scene.

5. Let's close with something happier. Phil went swimming on Tuesday night at swim club so the boys and I hung out in the backyard. I thought they'd want to play with toys while I swept up acorns - but nope. They were more entertained by helping with that chore! Will in particular LOVES to be given a "job." 

And of course I can't close this post without saying happy birthday to Phil!! I can't imagine a better person to navigate the ups and downs of life. He is definitely the fun/funny one in our relationship and helps me to not take life too seriously. And he handles all the gross stuff involved with fishing - because I am certainly not touching worms or fish! I'm glad he gets some much-deserved time away this weekend with his college friends! We'll belatedly celebrate his birthday on Sunday when he's back!! Taco and Phil share a dislike for pictures so nearly all of my pictures of Phil are candids/photos I've sneakily taken. ;) 

How was your week? Are you good at setting boundaries?

5 Things Friday

Happy Friday! I'm off next week on another vacation so it's an extra happy Friday for me! Here's 5 things on my mind today. And buckle up, it's a bit wordy. 

1. After some hemming and hawing, we've made the decision to move Taco/Will to a new daycare. I am so sad about this because I love the teachers and the families we've met at our daycare. But 3 of the 6 preschool teachers resigned (a 4th teacher almost resigned but they must have talked her into staying, although she shifted from Taco's room to a different preschool room so it didn't really help our situation). We are so very disappointed in the leadership of the daycare. I won't go into too much detail, but there is a reason teachers are leaving in droves and I feel they are taking advantage of a vulnerable population as all of the teachers are Latina immigrants. The new daycare is not Spanish Immersion but we aren't sticking with Spanish Immersion for schooling as our boys will go to our community school. So it's not the biggest deal and hopefully Taco will retain some of the Spanish he's learned. There is a Spanish after-school program that we enrolled Paul in, so someday Taco will enroll in that as well. And maybe it will be like riding a bike and the base Spanish knowledge will come back? I am not thinking about it too much because maybe they won't even want to stick with Spanish. We need stability and to send our $$$ to a company that treats its staff well and has a healthy workplace environment. All this is to say that this has been a source of stress for us and has weighed on my mind so much over the last several months. Taco starts at his new daycare on August 28th. So we'll have more transitions ahead... Maybe by January life will feel settled for both kiddos? 

My sensitive little guy, eating apples on the couch while snuggling with Mickey.

2. So now that we are done with Spanish immersion, I've decided to shift from learning Spanish through Duolingo to learning French! I started to use Duolingo to learn Spanish a little over a year ago so I could better communicate with Taco's toddler teachers. A lot of shade is thrown at Duolingo but it has been wonderful for me. Some of the focus of the courses is a bit odd, like I don't need to say the cow opened the window or the owl opened the fridge. But it gave me more vocabulary so I could communicate a bit better with the teachers (usually one teacher is fluent in English but that was not the case in Taco's last classroom - which is FINE because Phil speaks Spanish and they brought in another English speaking teacher to translate for conferences or more involved conversations). But the country I am most obsessed with is France, so this week I switched over to learning French! Newer readers to my blog might not know how much I adore France. I mean, my love of France is mentioned in the tagline of my blog! But having kids is not conducive (for me) with traveling to France. So I'm on a grand pause for international travel until our kids are a bit older. But you can bet I'll be going back to France! When we are retired, I'd love to rent an apartment in France for like 3 months and really settle in/experience life as an ultra-short-term resident. So it makes sense to switch to learning French. Plus Phil has us covered on Spanish since he studied abroad in Spain and minored in Spanish. He isn't super secure speaking in Spanish but understands everything.

3. Onto a more positive topic: I am the person in our house who is most excited for Paul to get his welcome letter from his elementary school because it will include his school supply list (so I've heard - I can't find a supply list on the school website)!! I have the absolute best memories of shopping for school supplies with my mom. I usually went shopping with her for the supplies and then shortly before school started, us kids would sit around my mom and she'd disperse said supplies. Oh it was exciting! I loved school so so much. My mom talks about how I was up at 4:30 on my first day of school because I was SO EXCITED. I want Paul to be excited but I do not need to be woken up at 4:30 am so hopefully he doesn't "pull a Lisa." 

4. So I've mentioned that the transitions we've gone through this summer have been challenging - lots of big feelings/emotions/acting out. When I dropped Paul off at his summer program yesterday morning, one of the teachers said that he's the absolute best kid and is always happy and interested in what they have planned for the kids. He was always kind of the teacher's pet at daycare so I'm not surprised but it's nice to hear that he's doing well when he's at the program.

5. Next week I am going on what I can say is truly a vacation! I fly to Calgary on Sunday morning, spend a night with my friend Leigh, a URL turned IRL friend, and then my other friend Amber (also a URL turned IRL friend) flies in on Monday (neither blogs anymore - sob). Leigh leaves for vacation on Tuesday but she'll go for a hike with us on Monday. I haven't seen Leigh since our running trip to the Bay Area in October 2014 when she was pregnant with her first child! I haven't seen Amber since my wedding in May of 2017! We used to meet up every year and I consider her one of my closest friends. But we've both had 2 kids since we last saw each other. Her daughter is 3 months older than Paul and her son is 13 months younger than Taco. We keep in touch mostly over whatsapp but there is nothing like meeting up and spending time together doing something we love! We'll be staying in Canmore which is just south of Banff and will do lots of hiking. We used to run a race together when we met up, but for this trip I suggested we pivot to hiking - still a fun/active activity but no pressure to train for something! I do hope we can get back to seeing each other every 1-2 years now that we are both done having babies! I feel a bit guilty for doing a solo trip on top of all of the work travel I've done this year, but am trying to push away that guilt since traveling is part of my job... And I am hoping to not work on this trip. I said I would check emails at the end of the day on Monday and Tuesday since my co-worker is out those days, but once she's back on Wednesday I am not going to look at email until next Saturday when I will have to log in for my weekly Saturday data work. I fly back on Thursday night but I took Friday off as I figured it wasn't worth to work one day, especially since Fridays can be pretty quiet. 

Amber, Kyria and me, days before my wedding. They both flew in a bit early so they spend more time with me and Phil and could be at my bridal lunch the day before my wedding.

How are you? What's on your mind these days? Do you use Duolingo? 

5 on Friday

Whew, what a week! I had a great and productive time in the Bay Area but I am worn out! Here is a 5 things Friday post mostly about my time away this week. 

1. I did manage to see Kyria on Tuesday evening! We did not take a picture together, though. We met for an early dinner at a yummy Mediterranean place. I briefly FaceTimed with the boys as it was the only night I was done early enough to talk to them before they went to bed. But they mostly wanted to see Kyria! Mom - who’s she? Show me Kyria! They got to know her when she visited us in February and love her! 

2. I had extremely full days during this trip. We did 4 meetings on Tuesday, 7 (!!) on Wednesday and 4 more on Thursday before my 4PST/6CST flight back home. I usually don’t do THIS many meetings during a trip but everyone wants to talk about the sector I cover (taxable fixed income). It’s certainly going to help with my meeting count for the year which is already well over 200! 

3. Day 2 was the hardest day as we started at 9 and our 7th meeting was a HH that started at 5 and ended at 7. All the conversations were good but I was so tired that I started to yawn and had to try to disguise that. I kind of tried to stay on central time since I have a busy morning with meetings starting at 8 today so I didn’t want to acclimate to PST… so 7PST felt sort of like 9CST. Yawn. I didn’t quite stay on CST - probably slipped into MST. 

4. After a string of on-time flights, 3 out of my last 4 flights have been delayed, including my return flight back last night. So instead of landing at 9:30, we landed at 10:15. Le sigh. 

5. In non-travel related news, my candidate accepted his offer this week - he will start in early September! I’m really excited about the candidate and hope he will be a great fit. So here’s the funny thing. My colleague/mentor who retired in March is named Paul. (To be clear my son was named after my dad and my husband’s late brother - not my coworker.) Well the person I am hiring is named Will! So I guess I like to work with people who share a name with my children! Hopefully he doesn’t go by Taco, too. ;)

How was your week? 

5 Things Friday

Happy Friday! Here's 5 things on my mind today. 

1. I've been slowing trying to rebuild my wardrobe. This spring I got rid of a lot of pre-kid clothes that I know I won't fit into again unless I made a lot of sacrifices. I'm going to consign them next week and whatever the store doesn't take, I'll donate to goodwill. Now I have some gaps to fill so am gradually adding things. I lucked out and got a bunch of hand-me-downs from my neighbor but my newest addition is this dress I bought a couple of weeks ago. It's going to be perfect for work travel as the materials is the kind of material that doesn't wrinkle. As an aside, years ago I would have worn business suits on work trips. That ship has sailed!! I don’t feel strong or confident in a business suit. They are uncomfortable and unflattering. Now I nearly exclusively wear dresses. I wouldn’t present at a conference in this dress but I think it is appropriate for client meetings. 

2. My nephew has his HS graduation party on Saturday afternoon. I'm excited to see lots of family. It's kind of hard to wrap my mind around the fact that another nephew is graduating! In particular, I have spent a lot of time with this nephew as he lives in the Minneapolis metro area. I was the young, single auntie for much of his childhood so we went on lots of aunt dates. Here are some flashback photos from 2 of those aunt dates. Our usual date was to go to this awesome children's bookstore (Wild Rumpus) followed by ice cream. Now he's over 6' tall and heading off to the U of M to study engineering or computer science. 

Big brother Andrew and younger brother Matthew. Matthew just finished his freshman year!

Checking out a lizard at the book store

3. I'll be hugging my dad extra hard this weekend when I see him. I didn't mention this in my post on Monday, but my dad was in the hospital for several days due to a nasty infection. He was in the beginning stages of sepsis when he was admitted on Saturday night. But he got out on Tuesday and has a port for the IV meds he'll need to take for the next week or so, which my mom will be able to administer. We had FaceTimed with my parents on Saturday morning and my dad looked so terrible! The boys were so concerned and Will kept mentioning that Papa has an owie, so we did a mid-week FaceTime on Wednesday so they could see that papa is doing much much better. But oof, that was a bit of a scare. Thank goodness for modern medicine and I'm glad my mom is a nurse and knew to take him to the ER on Saturday (they had seen urgent care on Friday, too, but he was sent home with oral meds). 

4. At Paul's 5-year appointment in the spring, he failed the vision screen. He had failed the year before when Phil took him but Phil thought he maybe didn't understand what he was supposed to do. When he failed this year, it was clear he could not see so I took him to my optometrist and sure enough - he needs glasses. She said it's not so bad that we needed to rush to get him classes but he needs them sooner than later - certainly before he starts kindergarten. The practice I go to doesn't have pediatric frames so on Monday (we all have the day off for Juneteenth), Paul and I will go eye glass shopping at a place they recommended. I think he is going to look adorable with glasses! I am so glad that kids are screened better for glasses these days. I got glasses in 4th grade but should have had them FAR sooner. I remember having vision tests at school and I could not see the HUGE E at the top of the page of Es (do you all remember those tests?). I remember just sort of willy nilly moving my thumb around to say what direction the E was facing and somehow I passed? I don't know why I didn't admit I couldn't see a thing! I also wore out the carpet in front of our tv because I could only see if I laid in front of the tv - I could not see anything from the couch. Now if only I'd had the foresight to add Paul to my vision insurance! We'll be paying out pocket which is not a big deal for us but I imagine it IS a very expensive and big deal for other families! I think it's BS that health insurance wouldn't cover his vision exam at the optometrist even though that exam was deemed medically necessary by his doctor but I digress. Fingers crossed we find some frames that fit his sweet teeny tiny face (he’s very petite!). 

5. The hiring process kicked off for my new hire. I did 3 interviews yesterday and will do 2-3 more next week. Hiring is kind of stressful because it is a lot of work. But I have a great pool of candidates and am hopeful we'll hire someone great. But I will be glad when it's over because the process takes a lot of time/energy and is kind of stressful in that I want to get the right person and I feel bad for the people who won't get hired. 

How was your week? Do you wear corrective lenses? I nearly exclusively wear contacts but might wear glasses more as a show of support for Paul when he adjusts to wearing glasses.