Where Am I?

Guys... I can't remember a time work has taken over so much of my energy. Usually it's this lively 2 year old exhausting me, but in this case - it's a case of the Mondays every. single. day.

Here's our schedule right now:

6:15am: Feet hit the floor for the shower
6:45:am: Poke Lee in the ribs to get up. If he isn't awake already, get Logan up and start his breakfast.
Explain to him that "sleeping in" is only on weekends dude.
7:15am: in the car. Yes, I know we didn't finish Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, I'm really sorry.
7:45am: Drop off Logan.
7:50am: Make coffee at work and sit down.
On Tuesdays: 8 am conference call. Gee thanks.

I spend my day answering questions by email while listening to Pandora radio while answering coworker questions while drawing in CAD while holding my pee and wiggling in my chair.

5pm: go get Logan
5:30-5:40pm: home
6pm: Feed Logan
7pm: Logan is in bed
7:30pm: feed ourselves
9pm: Fall asleep on the couch.

Fun huh?

In other news, we are trying to sell our house so we spent last weekend boxing up misc clutter and hauling some extra furniture to the storage unit to make the house look a little roomier.
It does, but now we have no tv in the bedroom and that's sucking.
While packing I did find this little gem:

My lettermans jacket.

Now, you must understand, you didn't have to actually letter in anything to get the jacket, hence only having one patch for the one thing I did as a group in high school.
I was a bit of a non-participator.

After a day of packing and moving, we had Lee's parents over so his mom could assess the house and get us ready to list it. We enjoyed wine and ribs in the back yard.

So with all that going on, I really hope you understand my tendancy to be MIA.

And with houses selling in our target area in 5 days, I am pretty sure that once our house sells, we will be homeless. 

At least I can then blog about living in a hotel with a toddler, 2 dogs, a cat, and a husband.

And still only one bathroom.

Rats.

Whoops...

There I went, letting a week go by and not stopping by to say hello to y'all.

I'm so sorry.

Hello Y'all.

Where have I been? That's a long and short story to tell ya the truth.

First - back in December, my good buddy Christi left my office to work elsewhere. I have inherited her work load on top of mine and they both got busy at the same time. We are trying to hire but someone else left today so now we are down two brave soldiers so things are about to get crazy. For instance, my calendar last week looked like this:

Cray cray.

So once I am done with that, there is our home life - which is equally busy. We are preparing to sell our home so now we have to pack some things away to clear the clutter and make the house less haywire.

This past weekend was a hard one as far as being parents of a 2 year old goes.
Friday when I got to school to pick him up, he had a pretty good scratch on his face from another kid. Same ole story as he hit so they retaliated. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of it being all "well he is rough and the other kids are just defending themselves." To a degree, fine. But are you teaching those children there are better ways to assert themselves just like Logan needs to learn to be gentle and share?
*sigh*
Anywhoo he was a gumpy grump all evening and tossed and turned and didn't settle to sleep till 8:30.
And was up at 6:15am.
The grumps continued but we decided to go to the Butterfly and Dinosaur exhibits at the museum.

He was generally pretty happy and well behaved and even enjoyed the grocery store (somewhat)

After nap and some playtime we went to Star Pizza and had a really nice time

Yucky scratch huh?

Another night of tossing and turning and late bedtime.

Sunday was another early rise and we were looking forward to Sunday school.

Speaking of that - I am really enjoying our class and we happened to talk that day about Discipline vs. Punishment. The pastor who wrote the book and workbook talked about how what really annoys us about our children could be a hidden asset in their personality. An energy we have to channel.

What hitting, kicking, throwing and yelling have to do with that, I'm not sure. But I took the lesson to heart, turned off the tv after lunch, and played "weggos" on the floor for 30 minutes with my boy before his nap. I think over-stimulation may be a factor and I'm working on dialing down the TV time. It's hard when we're tired and frustrated because the TV is an easy out (even though he doesn't really sit and watch it much.)

Ideas?

In the end, we had a nice weekend although it was challenging. I know these weekend will happen along with the "good" ones. No matter what, this face is one of my favorite things in the world:

I may be scarce until I can find balance in work/life but I'm still around.

Le Tired

A Long long time ago a link to this video hit my email:

Seriously like a few years ago this happened.

Ever since then Lee and I use the "I am Le Tired" line when we feel lazy and don't want to do something.

Anywhoo - my lack of blogging can only be explained as Le Tired.

Work is slightly overwhelming, as well as my toddler who thinks 30 minute naps at school are super fun, and then this house. It keeps getting dirty. It needs to be cleaned so we can get it on the market to sell...

Le Tired.

Lately we have:

Been to the zoo:

My heart is so full!

I made coffee on Sunday to enjoy all week over ice

I'm taking conference calls at 8am in the car

and having Pizza Dates with this guy

Between my jam-packed work schedule, an active toddler, and also being a wife - sometimes I am just Le Tired and can't get around to blogging.

But I still think about y'all.

Hot vs. Hotter

Lately, Lee and I have been obsessed with Sons of Anarchy. We discovered it over the holidays on Netflix (all but this most recent season) and we are one episode away from being through season 4.

It is a great show, has hard to watch moments, but very entertaining. Kind of like Sopranos meets Hells Angels.

A few times while watching it, though, I realize that they are aiming at my age group to think the main young guy, Jax Teller, is hot.

Yeah I don't think so. I mean he isn't bad looking but his eyes are kind of close together...

Also, he looks eerily similar to my cousin, Bryant - and that means I just cannot sit here and look at him that way.

If you want to find a hot bad boy - look no further than Mr. Jesse Pinkman (Breaking Bad)

Even if he does use the word "Bitch" as a noun, verb, and adjective.

Do you have a bad boy crush?

This Week's Menu

Every weekend, I sit down and dig through Pinterest plan my menu for the upcoming week. I try my hardest to bring in a new recipe to keep things interesting. Sure, there are weeks we go with the standard spaghetti / tacos / stir fry rotation, especially if things look busy that week.

This week I have 2 new recipe's I am giving a whirl and I am pretty excited about them.

Sunday: Sausage and Polenta Pies (New recipe)

Via Better Homes and Gardens

The only way I am going to vary on this is to make one large casserole rather than a few small ones. Why? Because I don't have 10" ramekins. Sunday night is still Donald and Aunt Kelly night so I am always looking for something that will feed us all.

Monday: Pork Loin Stir Fry
I happen to have these pork loin chops in the freezer that I portioned when we bought them - so I can just thaw what we need.
I usually just dig around for veggies in the fridge - and land on onion, bell pepper, and carrots. This week I grabbed a little bag of snow peas at the market to add some variety.
For the sauce I whisk up rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, chili garlic sauce or sirachi, and honey. If you have any ginger you can throw that in as well.
Here is a really old post about throwing that together Here.

Tuesday: Spicy Bean and Rice Burritos (New Recipe)

Source: tastykitchen.com via Breann on Pinterest

Usually Lee is all "Where is the meat?" This time, though, he agreed to try it.

Wednesday: Stuffed Shells

Source: inspiredtaste.net via Breann on Pinterest

I made these a few weeks or so ago and everyone really really enjoyed them. I use low fat ricotta and lean or low fat pork sausage to give it a healthier edge. Serve with a salad and you have a winner.


Thursday: I have a cooking class at Sur La Table so Lee is either having leftovers (if there are any) or a good ole ham sandwich.

Friday: Out!

How about you? Do you menu plan or just wing it?

Current Favorite

My hair. *Sigh* It's flat, fine, boring.

When looking for a good shampoo, I am usually on the hunt for something volumizing - but I also need conditioning since I highlight my hair.

Right now I am really enjoying this shampoo and conditioner:

It smells great, it's light and doesn't weigh my hair down, and it smooths the frizzies.

Living in Houston, where it is humid 364 days of the year, smoothing frizzies is kind of a big deal.

Anywhoo, just putting that out there for you.

Also, what's better than the your hair on the first day of new shampoo? Pretty much nothing.

Other than chocolate.

Or wine.

Mind-Full Monday

As Monday morning goes along in it's way, I have many things on my mind.

 I started a class at church based on this book. It even has a little workbook and we sit in groups and discuss questions. I loved it and even made myself speak up. I am not sure how red my face was but at least I participated, and so did Lee.

This is still part of my exploration of faith and need to be a part of a community and support system. So far I am very happy to be back.

 That's my whiteboard (hastily installed with push pins for now) at work. Since Christi left and I inherited some of her projects and accounts, my work load has soared. It's like everyone finally woke up from the Holiday slumber and it's GO GO GO. The three sections are phases of projects: SP (Space Planning) PP (Prelim Pricing) and CD/CA (Construction documents/Construction Administration).  I have a 3-floor project entering CA right now - so here we go 2013!!

My two-year old surely shows signs of those stubborn terrible two's - but he also can be tremendously sweet. We had a really nice weekend.

I hope you all have a great Monday and that your mind is full of great weekend memories.