and one for May

Since May is almost over, I guess it is time for me to make an appearance. Just doing the usual and then some has kept me busy. My program at the health dept is up and running. I put in over 40 hours already this month training, creating forms, etc... 40 hours doesn't sound like much but for someone who doesn't have regular childcare, and a baby who is a night owl, it was tough. A little over half of those hours was in-office time without children, from now on my work time will be much less and much more child friendly.

I have to admit that I really enjoyed working professionally again. I have "worked" over the years with LLL but it is almost always with children in tow. I speak at meetings, present topics to various groups, with a baby or toddler attached to me, this was different and I loved it. Not enough to actually commit to doing it more, I do admit that 2 different positions become available at the health dept that I was qualified for and would of loved to have, I entertained the idea for 2 seconds knowing that I enjoy being around daily for my children more than I want to be working outside the house (mostly) right now.

Juggling the program I now supervise, studying for an exam this summer, and 3 children has made me realize that I can do more. I am seriously considering going for my masters in science/nursing. I already have spoken with a university that accepted all of my old college credits, I am short 3 classes to be admitted to the program. I had tested out of Biology and math 11 years ago when I was taking classes for nursing, now I need those credits and doubt I can pull off testing out at this point in my life. I am giving myself some more time to mull it over before I commit, this is something I do want to do, just is this the right time? I wouldn't start until the fall, I need to finish my current studying first!

because...

I am posting because apparently it has been a month since I have had the time! Next week or later this week *might* be calmer so maybe I will be back later. Job is in full swing, I have hired NINE peer counselors! yes, you read that right. 4 are guaranteed a position, one is conditional, and the rest will be trained and then placed on inactive status waiting for a position to open up. It has been rough coordinating everything, baby, activities, all the calls, office time, etc... And I thought I was always on the phone previously, I truly have reached another level now with that, I feel like one of my 3 phones is always ringing.

One of the perks of working in lactation is that no one minds a nursing baby! I have Julian brought to me every few hours to eat and he has been doing well with it. I am in a lull at the moment, employees hired, I put them through a 25 hour training in May, and right now I am just slowly working on training material, and lining up job shadowing. I am looking forward to June, everyone will be trained and other then 3 meetings a month, my job will be mostly at home.

my child is a ski bum

I just counted the days that I happened to have marked on my calendar, I have 35 days marked on there since the week of X-Mas that Madeline has gone snow boarding. I'm sure there was more, but 35 is not bad for a child, I think many adults would be envious of that!

and it is March

It has been busy around here lately, and the snow is still here, blech. February was a whirl wind month of lots of illness, studying, and our regular life. Gabrielle got pneumonia, we discovered later it was RSV, then Julian got it, went on a 5 day nursing strike, AND got a stomach bug all at once. Needless to say, he got IV fluids and lost a few lbs.

Madeline's school does this big annual trip to a lodge in the mountains every winter. It is a overnight trip, Ryan went with her since this was right during the RSV period.

She had so much fun!

Madeline still spends every second that she can up snowboarding. She is not pleased that this is the last month before the slopes close for the season.

We have never had this much snow while we have lived in this house. This is my living room window, this window is high off the ground due to our sloped lot, it is basically as high as a 2nd story.

Somebody is into everything now.

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And he seems to think that he is cute as well.

Gabrielle is ready for summer. I told her she couldn't go outside in sandals so she changed, sort of.

See, into everything.

I can't tell yet if Julian's eyes are going to be a darker hazel or turn brown. Right now they are the same as Madeline's, they look light brown but when you really look at them, you see green as well.

Ryan was working late yet again tonight, I had a tired Gabrielle who wanted me to lay with her while she went to sleep and a tired baby boy. I left the baby with Madeline and went in with Gabrielle for 10 minutes, and this is what I came out to.

our january

Has been a busy one. You can expect a long, random post every now and then from me, there just is not enough time to do small frequent ones at the moment.

This is an old pic, but Julian is crawling. He is all over the place doing an army crawl. I was making dinner in the kitchen last night and here he comes crawling down the long hallway to join me. Cute little bugger. He will be 9 months old tomorrow which I can not believe.

I have been studying and studying and studying. Gabrielle has had more free time and less supervision as you can see. I am attempting to finish an intense 3 month class in less then 2, and I am getting close, I think I might be done in another 2 weeks. My reason for working my butt off is that then I can hit the books for my IBCLC exam. I am hoping to take it this year but may postpone it a year if I am not able to get enough study time in the next few months. I only have one chance a year, it is always only offered in July. My other reason for working so hard is that my grant for my new job has been sent in as of last week, I hope never to work on another grant ever again by the way! The money is expected to roll in March 1st and then I have to hit the ground running.

It has been snowing as you can see. We have officially run out of places to stash the white stuff.

The good news is that the snow mounds are so high that every one makes a great sledding hill! I caught Madeline and a friend on the roof of the house yesterday trying to sled down. The snow hill was up to the roof so I guess I don't blame them for thinking it would be fun.

Once we dug out the hot tub, we discovered that the last storm dropped so much snow at once, 40 inches, that the cover broke in half. We had to quickly drain it and cover it for the winter.

For the first time we hired a crew to come out and shovel the roof, we had 5 feet of snow on the roof and it had to come off. It would of taken Ryan the entire weekend and he refuses to climb up there after falling off last year!

My backyard. My living room is raised from the backyard, you have to go down an entire flight of stairs to get to the yard, and the snow is up to the window in the living room.

Madeline has been snowboarding and snowboarding and snowboarding. She went 4 times this week, not bad for a 7 year old whose dad works 60 hour weeks and two younger siblings. She is quite good. This hill is less then 10 minutes from our house, offers challenging runs and night skiing. Ryan took up her to Purg the other day, which is the big ski resort 40 minutes away. She spent the entire day doing all the black runs, which is what she does at Hesperus as well. She quickly learned how to board in all this recent powder but does have a problem once in a while like the other night where she sunk up to her chest in the fresh snow. She is going up again today, snowboarding is all she thinks and talks about, I didn't expect to have this problem with a child when she was 7 years old!

The pic didn't show it but her face is actually wind burned from all the time spent flying down the slopes.

what we have been up to

A Roomba is great fun in this house. It cleans the floor for me, the girls chase it around, and Julian tries to catch it crawling.

What Madeline decided she wanted for her birthday. A ladybug cake, much easier actually then the gumball machine cake I made for Gabrielle a while back.

When you are the third child, you are just so happy that you get to sleep that you don't care where. One of the girls never would of been sleeping like this.

Happy to be 7 years old.

Happy new year!

A day late but hey it counts!

Madeline just wrapped up two weeks of snowboarding lessons, she is doing quite well. I've been taking her to the little ski hill in town. I never used it as a child, my dad always took us up to the "real" mountain since he was/is an avid snowboarder. I'm loving this little hill. It is less then 15 minutes from my house, has two tow ropes for the kids, and is quite cheap. Perfect for learning on.

Right next door to the hill is the skating rink which we are just starting to use as well. Taking the kids ice skating is rather difficult when there are 3 of them, two unable to skate, a mother who does not skate and is accident prone enough that she doesn't want to learn at this point in her life, and a father who barely skates! Madeline attempted it last week, she fell and fell and fell. I could not believe that she kept trying but she did and is asking for lessons. Another thing to add to my list of things to do I guess.

Crap. I put the pics in the wrong order and I'm not interested in moving everything around right now so we'll just go backwards. This is Madeline at the top of the little rope tow they use to teach the kids how to use on. She is up towards the top middle in the pink jacket.

This rope goes very slow and is literally on the ground, they have to pick it up and then kneel down, hold on and keep their balance while it pulls them up. A rope tow is actually quite tricky to learn how to use it.

And here she is on the left snowboarding down! She can turn and stop without falling, sometimes, now she just needs lots of practice.