New Playroom

There is one room in our house that has changed identities 3 times in the last 4 1/2 years: our "dining room". We did use it as a dining room for the first year or so, but it became an office when our office turned into Riley's nursery. As Riley and Tyson grew, the "office" space transformed into our playroom. It's gone through many different phases as a playroom, but I think we've finally come up with our ideal set-up...

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

We are so thrilled with the way it all turned out! The table houses a paper roll and the kids LOVE to color constantly now. It also has drawers for their coloring books. All of the baskets have chalkboard labels to keep their toys organized and so far they have done pretty well with cleaning up one basket before getting down a new one. The large drawers below the baskets hold all of their bigger toys, the cubbies without baskets work well for books, and now they can watch their own television and movies. There are just a couple more things I would like to do to make the room complete, decorating the top of the unit with some family photos and creating an educational wall (the one opposite of the unit, to the right of the camera) with letter and number posters and a place for the kids' artwork. So, maybe they'll be before and after photos of that wall to come!

Look who's sitting up!

I still can't believe how quickly he is growing up.
Before we know it, he'll be crawling... yikes!

I love that when Cooper is happy, his whole face smiles... squinty eyes and all!

Happy Easter!

What a fun and busy Easter Sunday we had!

Rick took the kids to an Easter Egg Hunt in Gresham on Saturday while Cooper and I were in the Tri-Cities.

Checking out all the fun things the Easter Bunny brought!

Cooper's only interest in his Easter basket was gnawing on the handle.

After church, we had a little indoor egg hunt for the kids in the living room and play room. They got coins for their banks and some treats!

We also colored a few eggs!

We had Easter lunch over at Uncle Tim and Aunt Debbie's house. Here is Cooper getting ready to nap on Cousin Jamie's shoulder.

Tyson was having a blast on Cousin David's shoulders... that kid has SO much energy, he was wearing us all out!

Cooper hanging out with Cousin Melissa!

Blowing bubbles with Cousin Emma!

Typical... trying to get Tyson to sit for the photo. Riley's just sitting there all cute in her dress, while Cooper thinks it looks good enough to eat!

After about twenty attempts, finally a decent family photo! :)

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Quick Visit

Cooper was once again my little travel companion over the weekend on a quick trip to the Tri-Cities. My good friend Brianna was having a baby shower on Saturday afternoon, but not wanting to make the round trip in one day, we drove up Friday night. Friday night was filled with great conversation with my sister, something we don't get to do very often, before getting to bed around 1am. Saturday morning followed with more great conversation with my friend Courtney, again something that doesn't happen very often and was long overdue!! Lunch with my sister, the shower at 2pm, a visit with my dad and stepmom, then back on the road again to get home in time for Easter. As I pulled out of town, I found myself a little sad that I don't live closer to such important people in my life. Thank goodness for phones, email, facebook, etc., to help with the distance. Cooper, as always, was a great little traveler and was quite the charmer at the baby shower!

Cooper getting ready for his 3 hour nap on the drive home, taken while I was standing in the cold and wind, filling the car with gas. Having a law against pumping your own gas in Oregon is something I definitely take for granted! :)

Fear

I found myself thinking the other day, "What am I so afraid of?" The answer: Failure.

Rick painted Riley's room a couple of weeks ago (photos to come when the room is finished) and I have never painted before. I know it's not too hard, but when I had the roller in my hand, I was overcome with a fear of messing it all up, dripping the paint, simply not doing it correctly.

My mom gave me a great quiche recipe I wanted to try on Monday... it took me until Thursday to actually make it. Of course it turned out just fine, but I almost didn't make it all because I was sure it would not turn out.

The discussion came up yesterday about Easter dinner and what we would be doing this year. I mentioned I like ham for Easter dinner, but since we weren't going to our family's houses, we'd have to have something simple. Because of course, I've never made a ham on my own and I couldn't possibly look up how to do it and buy a ham and just stick in the oven. Rick pointed out that the worst that could happen was we ruin the ham, learn from it, and make a better ham next time... hmm... seems so simple.

I may be attempting my first Easter ham on Sunday... then again, I may not. Sadly, these three examples are only from the last few weeks. I could go on and on and on about the new things I am afraid to try, because I'm sure I will fail. I must work on that.

*I'm off to the Tri-Cities tonight with Cooper for a quick less-than-24 hour-visit to attend a friend's baby shower. Looking forward to the trip, but I will certainly miss Rick, Riley, and Tyson while we're away! Happy Easter weekend everyone! Hopefully we'll have adorable pictures of the kids all dressed up from Sunday's events to post.*

The Flight Attendant Chronicles: Part 1

I have been a flight attendant for nearly 10 years and with the exception of a couple of my blog readers (hi Amy and Jill!), most people know very little about what it's like to be a stewardess... er, flight attendant. It is a difficult lifestyle to understand and it is definitely not for everyone, but I truly enjoy my job... yes, even being away from home for a few days. Does this make me a bad wife and mother? I don't think so. In fact, I've figured out after my last trip, it probably makes me a better wife and mother. Being a flight attendant isn't just what I do, it's what I am. Yes, I may be gone for a few days at a time, approx. 9 days a month will be my average, but I'm home the other 20+ days. Rick is amazing at taking care all things house and kid related while I'm on the road and we have a wonderful nanny who comes to the house while Rick is at school. She has two kids of her own (and one on the way), that she brings with her and the kids love it (hi Sarah!).

A few basics first, I am based in Oakland, California, so every time I go to work, I have to fly to Oakland (OAK) first. We have AM trips (that start in the morning and end in the afternoon) and PM trips (that typically check-in late morning or afternoon and finish late at night). So, if I work and AM, I commute to OAK the night before and PM's I can commute in the day of the trip, but then have to stay the night in OAK before I can commute home the next morning. We fly for free (yahoo!), but only if there are empty seats on the plane. During busy seasons (spring break, summer, Christmas, weekends, etc.) commuting to work can be STRESSFUL! Probably my least favorite part of the job is the commuting aspect. Worrying about if the flight has room, if it's on time, if I'll make it, etc., can really wear on a person!

It works out best for our family schedule to fly Thursday, Friday, Saturday trips, so we're only paying for childcare 2 days a week and not giving up our entire weekend together as a family. I have Saturday nights at home and all day Sunday to go to church and have some quality family time. Works out well because I have pretty decent seniority after 9+ years, so I can hold great weekend trips. The one I just flew is a great example of the kind of trip I would love to fly every week. The only thing it was lacking was an In N' Out Burger near the hotel in San Diego!

Now, here is a rundown of my most recent trip:

Wednesday night:
Flight to Oakland. The flight was suppose to leave Portland (PDX) at 9:30pm and get into OAK at 11:15pm. It was running an hour late, so we didn't pull in to OAK until after midnight. Ouch! It was too late to justify getting a hotel room (for only 5 hours), so this was my resting place for the night...

Two chairs pushed together at the airport... not the best night's sleep, but whatever!

Thursday:
I checked in at 6:40am for my trip and made my way up to the gate. One schedule for the day, working two flights to Indianapolis (IND). OAK- Chicago's Midway Airport (MDW), then MDW-IND. First stop before the gate:

Nothing like a little Starbucks Iced Skinny Vanilla Latte to get the morning started!

After replacing a leaky toilet and taking a 30 minute mechanical delay in MDW, we made it to IND and one of my favorite hotels to stay at. The hotel used to be a train station, with some rooms actually being old train cars converted to rooms. It's in downtown IND, right next to the old and new Colts stadium.

This is the inside of the hotel and those train cars are hotel rooms. So fun! I've never gotten a chance to stay in one of the train car rooms, but I ask every time! Hopefully someday...

This is what is left of the old stadium the Colts played in, they apparently imploded it in January and nobody was allowed outside in the area for 4 hours after they did it. I took this picture about 3 steps outside of the front door of our hotel- close!

This is the new Colts stadium- it's really pretty in person. All brick and very state of the art. I took this picture on the corner right next to the hotel, great location!

As tired as I was after a long day of flying, I made myself go down and walk on the treadmill for 35 minutes. I met another flight attendant for dinner, showered, and then found my self having serious trouble falling asleep. The 3 hour time difference and knowing my alarm was going off at 1:30am Pacific time was really messing with my head. I think I finally fell asleep around 11:30pm, getting only about 5 hours of sleep... two nights in a row of little sleep.

My bed for the night... it's not at home with my husband, but comfy nonetheless!

My uniform, all pressed and ready for work the next day.

Friday:
Ugh... alarm at 4:30am (1:30am my time). Dressed and in the lobby by 5:20am and our wonderful captain for the day bought me Starbucks at the airport, this time a hot Skinny Vanilla Latte. We had a long day ahead of us, four flights to San Diego (SAN): IND-Kansas City (MCI), MCI- Dallas Love Field (DAL), DAL- San Antonio (SAT), SAT-SAN.

The sight of a completely full flight from the back galley.

The great thing was, because of the time change back to Pacific time, we landed in SAN just after noon and I was sitting in my hotel room by 1:30pm- 12 hours after I woke up! :) I love San Diego and our hotel is right on the water- we even got water view rooms with balconies. It is my favorite place to run and although I'm not in the shape I used to be, I still attempted my 5+ mile run down the harbor and back again. I made it 4 of the 5 miles, not a bad start! I can't wait to get there again and improve on my time and make the whole 5+ miles!

The view from my room's balcony, just as a cruise ship was pulling out of port.

After my run, I met both of the other flight attendants and we walked about 10 minutes up to Little Italy and had dinner a little hole in the wall called Filipi's- great Italian food and great conversation. I was lucky to fly with two really incredible people and I get to fly with one of them again in just a couple of weeks. We had all gone for a run along the harbor after getting in and noticed there were quite a few homeless people along the way (if you have to be homeless, San Diego has great weather for it I suppose). Without refrigerators in our rooms, leftovers don't stay too well, so all three of us walked along the harbor until we found a homeless man and offered him the food, then made our way back to the hotel.

My bed for the night.

The sunset from my balcony.

I was exhausted after an early morning, a long day at work, a 4+ mile run, and yummy ravioli, but it was only 6pm, way too early for bed. So, I worked a crossword, watched television, and did all I could to hold out on sleep until after 8pm. Talked to Rick and the kids on the phone and was out by 8:30pm. The best thing about this trip was the schedule set for Saturday...

Saturday:
We didn't have to be in the lobby until 8:15am... a rare late start for an AM trip. I set an alarm for 6:30am and slept the entire 10 hours... it was heaven. Had a leisurely start to the morning, taking my time to get ready and eat breakfast in the room (instant oatmeal). Our schedule for the day was EASY- we had two working legs, SAN-OAK and OAK-PDX.

A picture of Crater Lake, taken out the window between OAK and PDX. I love sightseeing out the window when I can, but the flight was full so a passenger took this photo for me!

I felt like a new hire, all excited to get my picture taken in the flight deck! :) I promise this was taken on the ground and not while flying!

Our last scheduled flight for the day was a deadhead (flight crew speak for a leg you are paid to be on, but you are not working the flight). We are now able to waive our deadheads, which means I didn't have to take the last flight from PDX-OAK. For those people who live in OAK or somewhere else, they would take the deadhead to get home. The beauty of this deadhead was, I live in Portland (PDX), so I just got to drive home!!! Remember when I said my least favorite part of my job was commuting? I didn't have to commute home from OAK this trip and it was wonderful! It is rare to find trips with PDX deadheads like that, but all my trips for the month do, so I will only be commuting one way all month. I love it!

A Southwest plane landing in PDX. I took this from the employee parking lot as I was getting into my car to drive home!

Hightlights of this trip:
The amazing crew I worked with, getting to talk to Riley and Tyson on the phone, the fun hotel in IND, working out both days, especially running along the water in SAN, free Starbucks from the captain, 10 hours of uninterupted sleep in SAN, not having to commute home/waiving the deadhead, and the hugs, kisses, and excitement I received from my family when I got home. I love my job...

Coming soon!

I know it's been over a week since my last blog post, but I promise I have a couple of good ones up my sleeve. I made a promise to myself (the queen of procrastination): I can't "officially" update the blog until I get my final paper written for my class, which is due tomorrow night. It's a simple reflection paper on how my thoughts on multicultural education have change over the course of the seven week class. I just need to sit down and do it...

So far today, I have swept the kitchen floor, vacuumed the whole house, started dinner in the Crockpot (pork loin with salsa and brown sugar), unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, started the laundry, fed the kids breakfast and a snack, organized one of my cupboards in the kitchen (trying to do one cupboard/drawer/closet a day until everything is in order), written this "unofficial" blog post, and getting ready for lunch and playtime outside with kids to enjoy the 70+ degree weather we are having today! As you can see, I have been doing plenty, but still putting off my paper. I will complete the paper during afternoon nap and hopefully have time tonight to blog while enjoying some "24" and Dancing with the Stars (yes, I'm a fan).

I'll leave you with one little teaser... the title of my next post will be: The Flight Attendant Chronicles or something similar. Until then...