be a good mother and wife

I am starting to really feel like me and fiance WILL last the distance – i did have a few doubts but i think everyone has that thought somewhere in the back of their mind… don’t they?

Aliera got her vaccinations today, so she’s a bit cranky. At least her next set won’t be due for another six months yet. It’s no fun to see her so unhappy. :(

Abby – the fabulous grad student that has been home-tutoring Max for the past 1-1/2 years is graduating this June! She starts student teaching next quarter so next week will be her last week with us! I’ve been looking for a new home tutor for almost a month now and I think we’ve got somebody lined up! Mary (also a grad student, just starting her Masters in SpecEd)came by one morning with Abby and met Max – he likes her which is important. Mary will work with Abby next week and if things keep working out she’ll work with Max after school 8 hours a week.

I got a recommendation for a new doctor for Max – we have an appointment this Friday Feb 29th. I was going through Max’s old labs and getting his records organized. For some reason today I am low energy. I am proud of myself: I have not fallen back on the comfort foods (chocolate, tea). Instead I’ve taken extra vitamins, been drinking lots of water and herb-teas—but still I feel like I’m simply treading water. Maybe it was looking back over all this doctor crap and feeling like three years have gone by and wishing we’d made more progress? Maybe it’s just an off-day and doesn’t bear lots of analyzing and fretting over! I’m going to leave work early today, pick up dinner on the way home so I don’t have to cook and definitely have a hot bath tonight with some Aveda bath salts.

We had such a nice day Sunday! Paco and I got the garage about 1/3 cleaned out: it was one full load in the pickup to the dump. All three of us went to the dump. About two blocks away from the transfer station is a great kite store by GasWorks Park. They have all kinds of fun squishy toys, spinny-sparkly things – Max loves this place! So Paco went and got some fish ‘n chips to go from a nearby Pub and Max + I went to the kite store and got some neat stuff. We took our fish ‘n chips to a park we saw on the way to the dump (it was a new park for us) and had a nice picnic! Max got to climb and play for almost an hour. Then we went home and cleaned house for a couple hours and had some friends over for dinner. Paco doesn’t often get to take weekends off so it was really nice to have the family all together.

to the ongoing pile.

my latest trick in this book is to write letters to my daughter in a journal once a week. so far so good. though she’ll probably be appalled to read it.

maybe I should start one for my husband as well ;).

I broke out of a 3 year relationship a while back now because it wasn’t going anywhere. I’m now engaged to the most caring sensitive and gorgeous guy – the sort i thought never exsisted, i’m so incredibly happy, we are planing to get married in Sept 2009.

my 96 year old grandmother died Friday morning. This summer her whole family went to Sacramento to celebrate her 96th birthday on 7/7/2007 and we all had a lovely, lovely time. After her birthday her health started to fail and then two days ago she became very ill and then finally passed away early Friday morning. Right now I am baking rice-flour cookies (like a shortbread cookie but with some white rice flour) my grandmother baked these for me when I was little; they are my favorite! When I got older she taught me how to bake, how to make peanut-brittle, how to sew and how to make jam. When I was small and got into trouble she called me “ornery”. If she was surprised she’d say “Egad!”. After a really good meal she’d announce “I’m full as a tick!”. Her house always smelled like good things cooking: roast, potatoes, dinner rolls, berry pie – I always loved coming through her front door and taking a deep breath!

Started reading “Getting Things Done” (thank you CrazyInAGoodWay for the recommendation!) and this weekend was amazing! Saturday I cooked Paco huge breakfast before he left for work. I got my to-do list organized, did a few things on it then took Max swimming in the afternoon. After dinner we watched “Ocean’s Thirteen” and Max fell asleep in my lap. Sunday morning cooked big breakfast again (even country potatoes from scratch which Paco loves) then finished everything that was on my “to do” list plus some extra stuff that had been on my mind (fix all the stretched-out buttonholes in the duvet cover, cut down the soggy, rotten sunflowers) and took Max swimming in the afternoon again! When we got home Max ate about half his snack then fell fast asleep. I watched “Ratatouille” with Max sleeping in my lap then when he woke up I made him some dinner then baked orange scones! There really is something about getting your “to do” items out of your head and into a trusted system. It really does free up your personal RAM (random access memory) and (1) I got more things accomplished than usual and (2) had a couple good brainwaves about current projects and possible future ones. Paco got a nice hand-massage last night; sometimes his hands get achey from the yard-work. So we’ve all had a lovely weekend!

just finally got to sleep about half an hour ago after being up all night. Which is great for her but not so great for me, as now I’m beyond the point of being tired and can’t sleep (or think clearly for that matter). newborns are fun.

in her defense though, she was marvelous on the plane trip back to Nome the other day. she slept almost the whole flight and didn’t cry at all. really makes for easier travel and fewer dirty looks when it’s like that.