Category Archives: Oh, Baby!

Monday Brain Dump

Posted on September 18, 2017 | Leave a comment

It’s been a ridiculous week. I have a lot of thoughts in my head. I’m not gonna share all of them, but I’ve got some stuff for you.

You all know my kiddo was in the ER for a head injury Wednesday. We went for a followup visit Saturday and he is AOK – just needs to try to take it easy for a few more days. Limited screen time (I think, all told, we’ve had <45 minutes total for the whole Friday-Monday morning time), limited running, zero falling down and whacking his head any more.

Peak bruising was Saturday morning…it’s starting to fade to yellow, although it’s still spreading.

Friday, I took the Beer Guy to the airport for his 2.5 week trip to Belgium. I already miss him like crazy. (As does the Bean who was super disappointed that the Beer Guy didn’t make it home for waffles and bacon Sunday morning…”Mom, he loves waffles and bacon. Why didn’t he come back for breakfast? It’s because you didn’t buy enough bacon for everyone, isn’t it?” Yep…totes my fault on that one, kid.) So when I picked Bean up from kindergarten on Friday, I said I’d take him anywhere he wanted to go for dinner.

AB: “Oooh – Pizza Fino is good!”

Me: “Okay, let’s go there.”

AB: “But Atomic is even better. Can we go there? The Beer Guy will be so jealous because he loves it and we can take a picture and send it to him and he will miss us.”

Me: “Interesting motivation, but sure. Let’s go there.”

As we approach Atomic Pizza, Bean says, “Mom. I don’t really want the Beer Guy to be jealous. Let’s go to Lucky Lab. He won’t be sad that he missed that.”

Truer words, kids…

Lucky Lab dinner date. I don’t really like that place, either, but I’d said he could pick.

Saturday late afternoon/evening we got to have a play date. Well, Bean played with his BFF (and eventual roommate – he’s planning on moving into their basement when he graduates from high school) and I got to hang with my good friends and former neighbors who were gracious enough to have a kid the exact right age for play dates.

Yesterday was a mellow day. Bean was wiped out and needed a break (and I needed to finish up my editing project for a client so that I’d be ready to start edits on The Ruby Blade when it comes back this week). We putzed around the house, did lego projects, messed with the kitten, and had a pretty quiet (activity wise, definitely not volume wise) day.

We kept watching the sky for rain, and it came in fits and starts, but not quite what I was hoping.

I stayed up too late Saturday and Sunday (Friday, I was asleep on the couch by 9, dragged myself to bed about 10, and then woke up at 1:30 am and was awake for 2.5 hours…dammit.) but still don’t feel too exhausted.

I got the final cover for The Ruby Blade and will be doing an exclusive cover reveal preview for all newsletter subscribers in a couple weeks – so if you want to see before everyone else, sign up for the newsletter (check the sidebar).

tiny sneak peek

This week is all about writing and editing and reading (and work, of course) for me. I have a milestone on book 4 I really want to hit. I also want to – now that I’m starting to feel a little better physically – start moving again on the regular.

But mostly, I want to snuggle my Bean up tonight and tomorrow night before he heads back to his dad’s for 5 days.

Rainy Days and Mondays…

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Posted in Aggressive Happiness, Book-It! Please send pizza, Gravity's Bitch....again, Made of Awesomesauce, Oh, Baby!, Priorities!, The Beer Guy, Where's My Towel, Write Now!, Zen AF

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Family Friday

Posted on September 15, 2017 | Leave a comment

Tonight, my baby (I AM NOT A BABY) comes home for five nights in a row. That’s never enough – I hate that Wednesday morning I’ll drop him off at kindergarten and won’t see him again until the following Monday after school – but I love my long stretches with my boy. In a month, we’re switching the schedule to eliminate the mid-week transition and I’ll get him for week-long stretches at a time (of course, this also means he’ll be gone for week-long stretches at a time, which is a major bummer…sigh). I would give almost anything to have him more. The sticky, cotton-candy kisses I got last night at back-to-school night are everything.

 

My other local family, the beer guy, is on his way to Belgium, which is his very favorite country, right now. He told me he’s eventually coming back, although for some reason, I had the return date wrong in my head (and on my calendar), and even though he kept correcting me, I still couldn’t remember the right date. I think I finally have it now, which means I’ll show up to the airport on the right day to pick him up and not leave him stranded for 24 hours. One of my favorite things to do when he’s traveling is to sky-stalk him with the Flight Aware app. He’s currently (as of this very second) flying over the flyover state of Nebraska. (Sorry, Nebraskans – but I’m from the flyover state of South Dakota…it’s just how it goes.)

One of my biggest challenges when I’m sans beer guy is to remember to eat and sleep. Yes, I know that sounds dumb, but it’s my biggest challenge. So I’m putting it out here that I will eat and sleep on the regular for the next few weeks. That means no skipping meals, no having “fruit salad” for dinner, and going to bed and to sleep at a decent hour every night.

This will NOT be me. Most of the time.

Fortunately, I have a lot to keep me busy. I’m wrapping up an editing project this weekend, just in time to get The Ruby Blade back from my editor to do revisions. I have a Raj chapter to write, I’m deep in Eleanor book 4, and I’ve started outline books 1-3 of my new series. Plus, all that kid time with the world’s best kid and future leader of a unicorn cult.

GAH! That bump!

 

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Posted in Aggressive Happiness, Friends & Family, Gin, Cheese & Other Necessities, Gravity's Bitch....again, Oh, Baby!, Priorities!, The Beer Guy, Where's My Towel, Write Now!, Zen AF

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Three Things Thursday – Adrenaline Rush Edition

Posted on September 14, 2017 | Leave a comment
  1. I was in the middle of updating my Writerly Wednesday post for publication yesterday when I found out that my child was en route to the emergency room. (All of the exciting tidbits that showcase the more boring financial pieces of being a writer will have to wait until next week.)
  2. I obviously ran out of my office like a decapitated chicken and got a Lyft to the hospital, imagining every worst case scenario that could’ve possibly happened from when I talked to the school (bump on the head, he’s fine, just needs to go home) to ER-bound. We sat in  the ER for a while, keeping my irrepressible and very active kiddo occupied, while also trying to keep him from falling off the bed, bouncing off the walls, or kidsplaining the human skull to the pediatrician. (“I have an anatomy book at home. I know all the bones.”)
  3. He’s fine. Mild (likely) concussion (possible unicorn horn sprouting). He’s back at school today, and when I talked to his teacher this morning about making sure he remembers to not run around too much, she said that she always has a kid or two like him every year and she’ll remind him to go slow. (She also said that he fell out of his chair earlier this week because he was so excited about something.)

This kid. THIS KID! I maintain the position I developed in 2013 when he jumped off a playground structure: parents should be given defibrillators when discharged from the hospital with their newborns. It’s a good thing I’ve decided to embrace my natural hair color, because the smattering of greys I earned in the last 24 hours is likely too powerful for any dye. Bonus – kid has a new “career choice of the week” and is going to be a doctor who takes care of sick kids and he’s going to work at that specific hospital.

 

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Posted in Not Dead Yet!, Oh, Baby!

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Three Things Thursday: My baby’s in kindergarten

Posted on September 7, 2017 | 3 comments
  1. After a one-day delay due to heat and terrible air quality, Alvie Bean started kindergarten yesterday. He was beyond ready, and so was I. Kind of. I mean, my eyes watered a bit off and on all day yesterday, but that was probably from the smoke. I got to FaceTime with him last night and I don’t think he even took a breath while telling me all about his first day. I’m sad that I won’t get to see him again until Monday (or, as he informed me, his fourth day of kindergarten), but I’m glad he had a wonderful time.

    First day of kindergarten!

    He was so ready for school that he didn’t even notice I wasn’t next to him as he took off.

  2. Speaking of air quality, it’s so bad here. My throat hurts, my eyes burn, and I have a constant headache. The whole western US is on fire, I think. Obviously the fires in the Columbia River Gorge are my main concern, both due to their proximity and the fact that I love that area so much (and it’s been destroyed because of teens with fireworks). All spring, Portland (and the PNW in general) was breaking precipitation records. Between our snowfall in January and the rain that lasted until June 13, it was wet. So wet. Since June 13, we’ve had 0.01″ of rain in Portland (8/13/17). Seriously: 0.01 inches in the last 88 days. So much precipitation early led to a lot of growth and then our record heat and extended dry spell made everything a tinderbox. There’s no real rain in the forecast for the next ten days, and between our fires, the hurricanes in the Atlantic, the earthquakes in SE Idaho, I’m beginning to wonder if this is the apocalpyse. (Eleanor is really sorry.)

    Ashfall on my car Tuesday morning

    Regional Wildfire map as of 9 am this morning

    This morning’s smoke-obscured red sun.

     

  3. I am so ready for rain and autumn and sweaters and leaves turning colors and cooler weather and Halloween. (True fact: I got married on Halloween so that even if I ended up divorced, there wouldn’t be a sad divorce day, just a “it’s still Halloween and Halloween is awesome” day.)

    Me, last night, pretending it’s autumn…and sweating like crazy.

    I’m just gonna leaf this here.

    Halloween is the best

    I’ve really grown as a person since my excessively DIY hippie days of a decade ago.

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Posted in Dammit!, Not Dead Yet!, Oh, Baby!

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September 2017 – Goals

Posted on September 1, 2017 | Leave a comment

Every once in a while, I like to pretend I’m going to resurrect my habit of setting (and achieving) monthly goals. This is one of those months. I’ll try to remember to report back. I’ve got a busy fucking month ahead of me, and I need to be clear about what I’m doing. So, my goals, in mostly chronological order are:

  1. Pick my son up from his very last day of preschool ever. Take a picture. Don’t cry. (9/1)
  2. Finish all my last pre-editor edits on The Ruby Blade and get that sucker to my editor. (9/2)
  3. Drink champagne. (9/2)
  4. Make an apple pie with the Bean, because he wants to make one for the beer guy’s parents who are visiting. (9/3)
  5. Drop my boy off at his first day of Kindergarten. Take pictures. Don’t cry. (9/5)
  6. Edit a book for a new client (early Sept)
  7. Get my skin checked to make sure there’s no suspicious activity (9/11)
  8. Meet with new personal trainer and get new workout schedule set up (9/12)
  9. Write 45K words on Eleanor #4 (sekrit goal is 60K – which is 15K/week and my current average, but see all busy-ness)
  10. Write 2 chapters on my Raj novella
  11. Survive the beer guy’s 2.5 week trip to Belgium (I mean, obviously, I’ll survive, but, you know…)
  12. Keep on top of my day job stuff
  13. Write outlines for the first three books in my new series coming out about this time next year and conspire with my cover artist
  14. Turn around my article edits SUPAH FAST
  15. Write 4 chapters on SUPER SEKRIT PROJECT
  16. Actually sleep? I guess?
  17. Start meditating in the mornings again, which means
  18. Start getting up at 5:30 am again, which means
  19. In bed & asleep by 10:45 on school nights
  20. I really want a 20th goal, but couldn’t think of one, so how about a picture of a cat? (I also really want to show you a picture of my arm at the Nexplanon insertion site, because it’s HORRIFIC, but I won’t do that, either.)

ls,

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Posted in Aggressive Happiness, Cubicle Whore, Friends & Family, Made of Awesomesauce, Oh, Baby!, Priorities!, Run Away!, The Beer Guy, Woot!, Write Now!, Zen AF

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