Thursday follow-up

Wednesday night brought news after all.  Now Joe needs to decide the path he'd like his career to take, and if that road leads us to Austin.  Lots to think about, lots to research.  Lots to TALK about, and he's getting on a plane for Bangalore, India in two days.  Seven days of me holding down the fort.  I can do this, right?  I'm going to list out all the things I want to accomplish in his absence.  That list is coming tomorrow.
Stay tuned!

Please please please let me get what I want

Okay, so it's a song by The Smiths.  But it's also how I'm feeling this week as we wait for an update to The Conversation had on Monday.  After this winter, this lifestyle, I'm just about ready to pack my bags.  Hell, I'm ready to pack everybody's bag and head South.  Joe's a very bright, very ambitious people-pleasing employee who gives 200% every day.  What's to debate?  Just give us an answer already!! Because I've eaten wayyyy too many bad snacks today, as waiting is not one of my strengths.  Impatience is one of my biggest obstacles.  Sigh.

There's also a major wind and rain storm coming tonight.  Time to batten down the hatches and hopefully not lose power.  Fingers crossed.

Weekend in Pictures

Busy weekend full of nothing majorly exciting.  Freezing cold on Friday with slushy icy snow, James and I didn't venture far and he opted for fireman dress-up most of the day.  :)

I made a great big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner.  Perfect for a chilly night!

Then we stayed in and enjoyed a cocktail or 2 in the living room after the kids went to bed. On Saturday the kids went out to play in the inch of snow that we had, and Joe and I got a babysitter and went out for a nice dinner.

On Sunday the kids were scratching at the walls and the TV was becoming nonstop, so we bundled 'em up and threw 'em out!  Well, a good airing out does everyone good.  Joe joined them for some winter football throwing...

...and tried to teach Tommy "the Tebow" before we headed out on errands.  We all had a chuckle.

Julianne, on the other hand, had found a tiny patch of ice on the driveway, and was attempting to ice skate. Mm hmm.

Sunday we did a lot of cleaning up the storage room in our basement, full of boxes that haven't been opened for the past two moves.  It was time!  We unearthed some treasures and basically cleared out twelve moving boxes.  Hooray!  The evening ended with the kids' favorite "Breakfast for Dinner" themed supper

and a little before-bed storybook reading.  Good night!

Another freezing day

What a week!  It's been in the TEENS this week, with wind chills making it feel like it's in the single digits!  Wishing I were on a tropical beach somewhere.  With every passing year, my tolerance of winter gets smaller and smaller.  Pretty soon I'm going to have to high-tail it outta here!  Waiting on the bus stop at dusk (4 pm) in November and December, while the cold wind whips right through you, is depressing.  My hands are so dry they look like they belong to a 66 year old, not a 36 year old.  And I keep wearing the same turtleneck sweaters over and over because they're the only things that keep me warm.  Okay, I'll stop complaining now.  God knows I have so much to be grateful for, I really and truly do.  But there's something about this weather.........grrrrrrrrrr.  And schlepping 3 kids around in the freezing cold for various things is really.......okay, okay.  No more complaining.  Going to picture that tropical beach now.  :)

S is for Signs

The older I get, the more I notice signs.  You know when you're thinking of something and then BAM!, you see a picture of it somewhere?  Or you hear a word several times in various settings that you've just been thinking of?  Or a person?  That.  And so on.

Here's my sign situation.  Joe and I went down to Austin, TX at the beginning of the month to see friends and check things out.  Scout around, if you will.  Why?  Because there's a huge tech presence in and around Austin, and we're not ruling a relocation as out of the realm of possibility someday.  No plans as of yet.  A bit of hopefulness.  But I wanted to see what the city and suburbs were all about, so that I could nix the possibility, or perhaps embrace it.  More on that later.

Fast forward to this past weekend, which was the long MLK weekend.  My Etsy shop had been experiencing a dry spell for a few days.  Always frustrating when it happens, and exciting when a new sale finally comes in.  The customer who broke my dry spell on Friday night?  A woman from Austin, Texas.  The weekend proceeded to be full of various family activities (bunk bed assembly, anyone?).  On Sunday we took a ride to Pottery Barn Outlet in search of some nice bedding for the boys' new bunk bed.  We pulled into the quiet back parking lot, where there were a hundred spaces but just a few cars.  No one around us.  When we'd finished shopping and returned to our car, guess what was parked next to us?  A car with Texas plates.

On the drive home from the outlet, we passed a cluster of signs on the highway from November's elections that shouted, "Re-Elect AUSTIN!"

Not only did these things happen in 3, they really got us thinking.  Maybe the universe does have plans for us.

Oh--one final sign.  This one was an actual one from our trip to Austin earlier this month that I snapped as Joe was driving thru the hill country.  We don't see these types of signs in New York!  Haha

Goodbye, Baby Crib

I remember how excited I was when Joe and I drove to Boston Baby to look at furnishings for our soon-to-be nursery.  We picked out a beautiful white wood sleigh crib and a matching changing table with beadboard accents.  Perfect for a little boy or girl (in our case, girl!).  Three months later they arrived and with the addition of paint and bedding, the room was complete.  Two more children later, we'd enjoyed using the crib for three happy babies total.  We'd splurged on the best, and certainly gotten our money's worth.

But, Saturday night, the crib ended up disassembled on the curb.  We felt it was time for our youngest child to make the transition from crib to bed, and at the end of the summer, we purchased a bunk bed.  Which, until this past weekend, remained boxed and unassembled in our garage.  Finally on Saturday evening, we just decided it was time.  Time for the almost 3-and-a-half year old to transition to a big boy bed, and time for that same little boy to get rid of his binky.  So, over the course of 5 hours, up went the bunk bed, off went Joe to Sleepy's for a twin sized mattress, and down went Tommy's beautiful red bed and James' white crib.  And because of new rules stating that drop-side cribs are no longer legal, we knew that we couldn't donate or sell our beautiful crib.  The only place it would go, the only place it could go, was on the curb at 11 o'clock at night.

Taking it out of the house and putting it out for the garbage truck was almost heartbreaking.  Memories of winter 2004 came back, as we started to plan what life would be like as a family of three instead of two free-wheeling newlyweds.

Here is a picture from Saturday night.  For some reason I had to take my camera out to the street and take a photograph.  Sometimes I have a hard time with change and letting things go.  Photos help me transition, I think.  I feel like if I can go back in time and see something again, I can deal with it a little better.  

Anyway...new year, new changes...right?

TGIF

It's January in New York, so it's cold. Duh. But today feels extra cold and I'm in my studio while the littlest is in nursery school. And I'm shivering, so I'm wearing a turtleneck sweater with a tank top underneath, a big chunky knit cowl, and a hat! And the heat is set at 72, two degrees higher than usual. Heat is expensive and I try to max out at 70 for the sake of our bank account, but today it feels like it's 20 degrees outside. I'm trying to get some jewelry orders filled but I'm so bundled up that it's annoying to sit so close to the worktable and manipulate small tools in my cold hands. Guess I'll procrastinate and write!

 On the upside, the sun is finally out again. We had two (more?) weeks of darkness and rain up until today; finally the sun looks like it's not going anywhere for a while. Blue sky and all that. But, it's frigid!! So I asked Joe to stop at Uniqlo on the way home. There's a store on 34th St. by Penn Station. At Christmas, he brought me a long sleeve v-neck shirt that said "heattech" and man is it awesome!! I sleep in it, so I can't bring myself to wear it during the daytime.

 So that's where Joe comes in. Remember Speedy Delivery on Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood? The old guy on the bike? Well, Joe is neither old nor rides a bike, but he sure does hook me up with errands and late-night milk when we're out and takeout and now Uniqlo t-shirts on his way home from work. These things are $15 and are on sale now for $10 (!) and they keep you as warm and toasty as silk underwear that costs far more. And they are snug, super thin, you can wear them under anything! And long enough to fit over your hips. So, they're a winner in my book. The store on 34th is 64,000 square feet. Hopefully I'll get to check it out on one of my next trips into NYC. Here's a pic, in the meantime.

Click here to visit the Uniqlo website!

Welcome to my blog!

Yay! I'm finally up and running with my new blog. I'm hoping to write about marriage, kids, adventures, crafts, food, fun, whatever. I hope you'll join me for the ups, downs and everything in between as I travel down this road called life with a husband and three kids in tow.