Working Woman

I work in a male dominated profession. For the most part it is great! It can work in my favor. However, I occasionally get extra attention for being a young female.

For instance, as I was walking into work today I took the stairs near the elevator. A male I have never seen before, saw me and asked "Is it safe to ride in this elevator?" I wish I was more witty and said a funny response. I just said no. Is this really the best line you could come up with to talk to me?  A "hello" or "how are you" would do better. I guess my bright pink plaid tote and black high healed boots makes me look knowledgeable on elevators. His comment made me chuckle. I am flattered that he wished to talk to me anyways.

My all time favorite male work comment came one day while I was waiting to order food at our cafeteria. A young guy behind me asked "Do you work here?" Ahahaha. I should have said "Nope. I just come here for the food." You know, work cafeteria food is fantastic and anyone would pay top dollar for it.

You know you're a ftwm when...you have the ability to shut out all noise around you at work (a mom trait of selective hearing) to where you don't even notice when coworkers mention your name to pull you into a conversation.

Cuteday Tuesday

Teagan was in love with a foam bathmat we picked up while shopping. She laid on it in the shopping cart. Besides giving us a good laugh, many fellow shoppers smiled at her too.

Case of the Mondays

Instead of having zero motivation to go to work this morning, I think I had negative motivation. That's less then zero. I enjoyed spending 5 days with my husband and daughter and was not ready to go back.

My commute was very light. Did I not get the memo that we had Monday off too? Not so lucky. My work was open. I found after a couple of hours at work, I was back to myself. I think my motivation level became positive. This surprised me. I thought my whole day would drag on but it turned out pretty good.

So my real delima for the day is, to put up a Christmas tree with a toddler or not? I usually put it in the corner of my family that has now been taken over by stuffed animals, blocks, and a little riding car. Could Teagan adapt to having her toys moved for a month? Would my ornaments be left alone?

You know you're a ftwm when...you don't want to drive when your coworkers go out to lunch for embarrassment of the spilled Cheerios in your backseat.

Happy Thankgsgiving

Hi Everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. I sure did! This year we are visiting my side of the family who lives out of state. We drove 9 hours with a 16 month old and survived.  Our secret is that we drove after work so she slept most of the way. Any other parents have advice for road trips with toddlers or small children?

I have found myself to becoming paranoid about family visits. Each year it gets harder and harder to live so far from my family. I get so excited about an upcoming visit but when it finally comes, I spend the whole trip worrying about how much time I have left that I can't fully enjoy the time I do have. I know that sounds a little crazy and I'm aware I do this but I can't stop it. We came up a month ago for just a weekend visit. I kept waking up the last night since I was so sad about leaving. I'm acting like an old lady set in her ways. Anyone else live far from their families?

We're so lucky to live near my husband's side of the family. It is helpful with having a baby. However, my mom is worried she's going to be "grandma far away" and my children won't know her. I worry about this too and make sure to show Teagan pictures and tell photos of her distant relatives.

There is one benefit to have one side near and one side far for holiday plans. When both families are close, you have to run around visiting everyone in one day. Bret and I just to spend all day in one spot. With both families far, you have to travel to two or more places. Traveling with kids to one place is enough for us.

We can never live in a place where everyone will be happy, including us. This is a hard fact to accept.   Add kids into the equation and people are even more sad.

We are thankful to be close with our families. We are thankful that they love us dearly and want to spend time with us and that we want to spend time with too. I am so BLESSED to have these people in my life.

I hope this blog didn't come off too whiny. I just wanted to state the facts and note the additional layer of complexity I have in my life.

You know you're a ftwm when....you need organization skills in both your personal and professional life.

Cuteday Tuesday

Eating Handy Snacks for the first time.
She licked off the cheese and ate zero cracker sticks.

Teagan likes to be wrapped up in a blanket.
One morning last week she wanted to be wrapped up
after we got her ready to go outside.

Sunday Rambles

While out at Target this weekend, I decided to take Teagan down the toy aisles to get a feeling for what she wanted for Christmas. I showed her two different dolls. The girl owns none. Teagan put up her hands and waved no. Her daddy then showed her a toy helicopter and she got very excited. We both found this amusing. We'll see what Santa brings her.

I have a two day work week this week. As Bret said:  its a Monday/Friday only week. :) Knowing I only have to work two days made my Sunday better. Sometimes, I get sad on Sundays since I have to leave my baby girl the next day.

I'm only working 8 hour days this week. Also, my team is going out to lunch on Monday and we're having a potluck on Tuesday. Perfect bonus to my short week. Mmm. What is it about eating out or potlucks at work that makes me look forward to go into work?

Have a great week everyone!

You know you're a ftwm when...your neighbor comes over and says "Whoa, your house is clean." Yes this actually happened. It is shocking when my house is clean.

I Challenge You

Since I've started my blog, I've been overwhelmed by all the positive feedback people having been giving me.

I have always felt like I'm doing something wrong by being a working mom. That's partially due to comments made by others. I didn't realize how many people are supportive of me until now.

I started thinking. It's very easy to think negatively and to judge. It's harder to think of something positive about someone. I'm not quite sure why this is. People (friends, family, and strangers) are quick to say harsh things more than to give a compliment.

So I challenge you. If you know of a momma that is pushing herself for the best of her family (even stay at home moms, they have a hard job too!), tell her you support her. It is truly wonderful to hear that you're doing a good job. One compliment can take off weeks of stress. Then after you're done doing that, tell your mom how much you appreciate all she did for you.

Being a mom is the most challenging and rewarding job. We give lots of love and support, and ask for nothing in return. But when we're told a small thanks, our hearts melt.

To my mom: I love you more than I tell you. You have always been my biggest supporter and have given me a wonderful life. Thank you for everything, even those ugly spandex cuffed pink corduroy pants. You're my role model and my friend. I'm thankful to have you in my life.


You know you're a ftwm when... you call your mom for advice more than ever.

Cuteday Tuesday

Warning: Highly Cute.

Making pucker faces while eating PB and J.

Operation Cleaning Army: Complete

The real reason I had kids was to have my own little cleaning army.

... Just joking.

Teagan is an anti-cleaner. She's more of a mess maker then a put away-er.

Last Sunday the best thing ever happened. Teagan wanted to vacuum my floors! As I was vacuuming, she came over, and demanded I hand over the vacuum. I was not even allowed to help her.






You know you're a ftwm when... you wear too many hats and it's nice when some else picks up the cleaner hat :)

A Happy Relaxed Mom

Yes, it does happen. I can be happy and relaxed :) A three day event free weekend will do this. Its been months since we had no plans and I loved it! My house is cleaned, some errands were completed, and lots of family time was had. As we were out driving today, I turned to my husband and smiled. I realized I what a great mood I was in. Can I have a three day weekend every week?

I didn't get my satellite radio in my car fixed on Friday. The dealer needs to order a part. Lame. Hubby worked from home last Friday so it was easy for me to drop off my car. I'm not sure what we'll do when the part comes in. We both  need our cars to drive to work. I wish car service departments were open on weekends or evenings.

I did buy a new frame. It was part of a set so I had to buy the whole set again. They changed some of the frames so I added the extra pieces to my current collection. 3 months later my wall no longer is half finished.

I do not recommend the Command wall hanging strips. I originally used these to prevent lots of holes in my wall. But some of the frames fell, two broke (one I was able to glue back together), and my base board was damaged. I am now using normal wall hooks.

How my wall looked for the past few months

New "Laugh" frame

Bonus extra frames

You know you're a ftwm when ... you don't know how to handle being relaxed since it's not a common feeling.

Off Fridays

I work 9 hour days and take every other Friday off. I love my off Fridays. Due to circumstances I was not able to have an off Friday with Teagan at all in October. I'm rather enjoying our day off today. Any day I get to spend all day with Teagan is a great day!

Having a compressed work schedule is hard. It doesn't leave much time for me to do things like go out to lunch with my coworkers or run an errand after work. My mornings are rushed trying to get out the door so I can put 9 hours in. Sometimes my hubby does both drop off and pick up since I work longer. He doesn't mind, but I feel like I'm being selfish and burdening him. I wonder if this schedule is working, but then I have an off Friday and spending the day with my girl changes my mind.

I really try to focus on doing fun things with Teagan. We have gone to parks, petting zoos, children museums, fun farms, inflatable gyms, etc. I try to pretend I'm a stay at home mommy and chat with the other moms. I wonder if they can sense I'm a fake. :)

Its very easy to get caught up on using my off Fridays to get stuff done. Today will be a hybrid day. Half getting crap done. Half playing with Tea. My goal today was to get my satellite radio fixed in my car (requires a trip to the dealer) and to replace a picture frame that broke. Both of these things broke last summer! I have such little time that it has taken me over 3 months to fix them. Whew.

You know you're a ftwm when...you value every minute with your child so much more.

Here is my missing frame. It said "Laugh" and should be in the center of my collage. Looks a little strange without it.


Here are some pictures from off Fridays past:

Cuteday Tuesday

I going to try to start a weekly posting on cute things my daughter does. It will be titled Cuteday Tuesday. Visit my site often so you don't miss out :)

Pigtails. Very cute. Enough said. 

One morning Teagan needed a bath due to an overnight bed wetting accident. Mommy and Daddy already took showers and used up all the hot water. Teagan normally takes baths at night so we didn't conserve the hot water. Poor girl had a cold but quick bath. While though she was curled into a ball in the tub, she still refused to get out. Afterwards, I wrapped her in a blanket and placed her in her highchair to eat breakfast. She loved it. Every time the blanket came unwrapped she insisted we rewrap her up, mummifying her arms. Too cute!

One of Teagan's favorite things to do is color. I should take a video of her saying "color." It's not quite right, but sounds very adorable. 

Parents As Teachers

http://www.parentsasteachers.org/

Have I mentioned Parents As Teachers yet?

A coworker highly recommended PAT to me last spring. Our family is now enrolled and love it. I'm surprised how few people know about it. Its a program where a trained parent educator comes to your home. They show you methods that you as the parent can use to teach your child various skills, from motoring to language to relating with others and so on. They assess the specific skills your child may need more attention on. Depending on where you live, the program is either fully funded or partially funded by your city.  Its for young children, those not in school yet.

The results are fantastic! This program has made Bret and I more confident in our parenting and our little girl is thriving. Our educator has even shown us things Teagan can do that we didn't even realize she could do.

If you're interested, find the PAT office near you from their website.

You know your a ftwm when...you use your commute time to mentally make todo lists.

TGIF?

I'm not quite sure I has was thankful for this Friday.

The whole work week was rough. There were many issues and frustration among my team. Our moral was down. Today it was thought that we needed to send someone on travel next Monday. Most of my teammates were not available.

That left me.

I am available but I don't want to travel. I just came back from a trip a week ago. I was hoping not to travel for the rest of the year. My little girl is sad when I'm gone and I am sad too. Did I mention I have traveled 8 times in the past 3 months? I am very burnt out on traveling. Only 2 of those trips were work related.

I said no. Eek. Is that allowed? I felt so strongly about not traveling that I said it. No. My stomach was is knots. I hate letting down my team. I rarely say no in my work life and personal life. But I truly did not want to travel.

Luckily it turned out the trip was not needed. Whew!

To top off my wonderful crummy day, I had a 1 hour and 40 minute commute home. There was an accident.  I know I should be thankful since the person in the accident clearly had a worse day than me, but I was still crabby. Traffic jams are annoying.

You know you're a ftwm when...some days you wish you were a stay at home mom.

Happy Halloween

Tractor ride to the pumpkin patch

Very Very Relieved!

I stayed up late last night researching what could be wrong with my SD card. I couldn't sleep. I was sad that I might have lost so many photos of our sweet Tea.

I found this morning that I did a back up in August! I would only lose the last 2.5 months of photos. Okay. That's a little easier to swallow.

I called a couple of computer repair stores today and they said I was out of luck since nothing recognized my card. I tried many card readers but they all acted like nothing was in the slot.

I found a company that pulls the chip out of damaged cards and recovers data, for a nice fee of $300.

Then tonight I figured it out! The interwebs (as my coworkers say) helped me out! The casing of my card was damaged. No idea how that happened. But as I looked closely one side was cracked. An article on eHow.com told me to use a part of a paperclip and some tape to repair it....and it work!!!!! After some jiggling, I got my camera to recognize the card. Some photos were gone, but they were ones I had already backed up. YAY! All of my photos are now safely backed up.

The hubby and I did some major backups tonight on all our data. I learned my lesson!

You know you're a ftwm when....hearing "no" regarding your kids (like no we can't recover your child's photos) won't stop you from trying.

I would have really missed not seeing this photo again:

Here is my handy work

First photo from trying out a new SD card. "Here kitty kitty"

Very Very Sad

Well I came to blog tonight. I wanted to post pictures of Halloween. I realized my memory card got corrupted. I have tried 2 computers and 4 memory card readers. Nothing will recognize my card. I can't even try to recover the photos. I have photos since when Teagan was 4 months old on this card. I have pulled some off here and there, but just a fraction of them. Basically my child's first year is on a crappy piece of plastic and I can't view it.

I know. I should have known better to back up the photos.

I'm really bummed. I will now cry myself to sleep.

Sorry, no Halloween photos.