Saturday, April 23, 2005
Playing Catch-Up
Sorry for my recent absence. I have no excuse. Well, that's a lie. I have a TON of excuses but they are just that - excuses. So I'll just plead insanity and hope you'll forgive me. I don't have any single subject to write about, so this is my big, catch-all make-up post. It's a little scattered.... but so am I.
First, a picture review! I received a few photos from the recent bachelorette trip. Nothing *too* incriminating so I'm posting them here to share. This first one is of the 4 sisters in my family (L-R: Maureen, Carrie (the bachelorette wearing an utterly tacky and humiliating penis hat), Me, Katie). Do you think we look like our birth order? (MP, Katie, Maureen, Carrie) Wait - don't answer that. See? My top had a fairly low neckline, but nothing ridiculously hootchie. And you can even see the fake tattoos on the arms of Mo and KT. Nice. And if I hadn't cropped the picture you would have had a nice view of some naked gay dude on the wall. They were EVERYWHERE. Blech! Looks like I need to really work on getting my arms toned up for the wedding. I'm running out of time!
Carrie getting her groove on dancing on the table. Go Girl! God, I wish I had her figure! Those were the (pre-kid, pre-30's) days....
While I was away, this is what my family was doing: kiddie trout fishing in a wading pool! Here's a picture of Nicholas trying his best to catch a fish. No luck.
But Daddy just reached in and caught one with his bare hands! They caught 3 in total and told me they were quite tasty grilled up for dinner that night.
And this is the reception I got from Lauren when I got back. She's a French kissing bandit! I don't think there could have been a better homecoming than this. Awww!
In other news, we're celebrating! Mr. Chick finished up his last law school lecture ever! He's done! Well, he still has finals looming plus the Bar Exam, but law school proper is behind us. Hip Hip Hooray! And the icing on the cake is that he's being seriously considered for a job. A JOB, people! It's a tight market for attorneys, so this is really big. He had one interview last week, and they've asked him back for a 2nd interview on Monday. They are a mid-size firm specializing in business law - just what he's looking for. He has a few reservations about them, but all in all they sound like a good firm and a good fit. And best of all? They're considering him for a job higher than entry-level, fresh out of law school. It's his business background (CPA, CFO) and the fact that he's been a law clerk for a bank for the past 2 years that sets him apart. They do a LOT of work with banks, apparently, so this is a big plus. Hopefully we'll hear something next week. Oh I hope it works out and he gets an offer!! That would make everything so much easier. We could start to make plans, like when to move, when to put our house on the market, what kind of house we can afford, etc. Then we can start to drill down into specific areas of town we'd like to move to for schools and all that jazz. My views on schools is a whole 'nother post!
To celebrate Mr. Chick's graduation I'm planning a huge party. Big. My fil is financing this bash, and really, it's more for him than us. He comes from a large family (11 kids) and pretty much most of them are coming. Mr. Chick has a ton of aunts, uncles and cousins. He's an only child, so this extended family is important. Plus my family, which is small by comparison, and some close friends. I'm planning on 50-60 people. I've reserved a banquet room in this posh restaurant and we're doing a big buffet dinner, open bar, and fil hired a DJ for dancing, and karaoke. Yes, karaoke. It makes me shudder to think of it - it's soooo not my thing. But fil loves it, as do his brothers, apparently, so it'll be part of the party. "He who pays for it can call the shots." I did put my foot down on hiring a photographer - this is not a wedding for pete's sake! It should be fun, if not a little embarrassing, with the whole karaoke thing.
Something I'm NOT celebrating is the apparent nap strike that Lauren is on. More days than not she's refusing to take a nap. She'll fall asleep in the car for 10 - 15 min when we're on our way somewhere and then call that good for the day. If she falls asleep on the way home I can usually transfer her to her crib and she'll nap for an hour or so, but mostly she's surviving on less than 20 min in the car. No matter how tired she is and how often she's rubbing her eyes, she won't go down for a nap. I'm dying. She's wonderful at bedtime - goes down like a charm around 8pm and sleeps straight through until 7am, but naps are becoming a problem. On the days she doesn't nap she's a real crankpot. There is no pleasing her. She fusses to be picked up, and then she squirms to be put down. She points to something she wants but then can't identify the object. Like she forgets or something. It's making life really hard in the afternoons. I can't get squat done. I STILL haven't completely unpacked from San Francisco and that was a week ago! I can feel my patience oozing out of me as the day wears on, and I tend to get really short with the kids. Nicholas, on the other hand, gets more sleep than she does. He still naps for a solid 2+ hrs a day, and gets at least 10 hrs at night. It's wonderful. I just have to tell him it's rest time and he goes and lays down in his bed and goes to sleep. Just like that! SuperNanny would be so proud. Now if I could only get his sister to follow suit.... ahhh!!
And lastly, I'm in the middle (ok, really the start) of planning a fun vacation for our family. Some law school friends are getting married in early September in New Jersey, and we want to go. With Mr. Chick (hopefully) starting a new job we probably won't get much vacation right off the bat, so we need to go while the gettin's good. We have several friends who live in Virginia, so we're trying to combine a visit to them with the wedding trip. Mr. Chick wants to go for 2 weeks! Wow! I've NEVER been on a 2 week vacation. 7-10 days, yes, but never the whole 2 weeks. So we're planning to rent a beach house at the Outer Banks, NC for a week and have our VA friends join us there for a bit. Take some time to just play on the beach and have some R&R post-Bar, pre-job, pre-move. Then we'll take our time making our way up to NJ. Maybe spend a day or two in the DC area, and then spend a few days knocking around NYC. Then the wedding, and then home. The kids would be coming with us, which adds some wrinkles here and there from a travelling point of view, but that's the way it goes. I'm excited! It's no tropical paradise with just Mr. Chick and I, but it will be a lot of fun! I just hope we don't get spanked by hurricanes. We're cutting it close to hurricane season, maybe even booking for the first week or two of hurricane season. And the Outer Banks, well, they vulnerable. I'd appreciate any tips or insights!
I promise a more cohesive post next time!
First, a picture review! I received a few photos from the recent bachelorette trip. Nothing *too* incriminating so I'm posting them here to share. This first one is of the 4 sisters in my family (L-R: Maureen, Carrie (the bachelorette wearing an utterly tacky and humiliating penis hat), Me, Katie). Do you think we look like our birth order? (MP, Katie, Maureen, Carrie) Wait - don't answer that. See? My top had a fairly low neckline, but nothing ridiculously hootchie. And you can even see the fake tattoos on the arms of Mo and KT. Nice. And if I hadn't cropped the picture you would have had a nice view of some naked gay dude on the wall. They were EVERYWHERE. Blech! Looks like I need to really work on getting my arms toned up for the wedding. I'm running out of time!
Carrie getting her groove on dancing on the table. Go Girl! God, I wish I had her figure! Those were the (pre-kid, pre-30's) days....
While I was away, this is what my family was doing: kiddie trout fishing in a wading pool! Here's a picture of Nicholas trying his best to catch a fish. No luck.
But Daddy just reached in and caught one with his bare hands! They caught 3 in total and told me they were quite tasty grilled up for dinner that night.
And this is the reception I got from Lauren when I got back. She's a French kissing bandit! I don't think there could have been a better homecoming than this. Awww!
In other news, we're celebrating! Mr. Chick finished up his last law school lecture ever! He's done! Well, he still has finals looming plus the Bar Exam, but law school proper is behind us. Hip Hip Hooray! And the icing on the cake is that he's being seriously considered for a job. A JOB, people! It's a tight market for attorneys, so this is really big. He had one interview last week, and they've asked him back for a 2nd interview on Monday. They are a mid-size firm specializing in business law - just what he's looking for. He has a few reservations about them, but all in all they sound like a good firm and a good fit. And best of all? They're considering him for a job higher than entry-level, fresh out of law school. It's his business background (CPA, CFO) and the fact that he's been a law clerk for a bank for the past 2 years that sets him apart. They do a LOT of work with banks, apparently, so this is a big plus. Hopefully we'll hear something next week. Oh I hope it works out and he gets an offer!! That would make everything so much easier. We could start to make plans, like when to move, when to put our house on the market, what kind of house we can afford, etc. Then we can start to drill down into specific areas of town we'd like to move to for schools and all that jazz. My views on schools is a whole 'nother post!
To celebrate Mr. Chick's graduation I'm planning a huge party. Big. My fil is financing this bash, and really, it's more for him than us. He comes from a large family (11 kids) and pretty much most of them are coming. Mr. Chick has a ton of aunts, uncles and cousins. He's an only child, so this extended family is important. Plus my family, which is small by comparison, and some close friends. I'm planning on 50-60 people. I've reserved a banquet room in this posh restaurant and we're doing a big buffet dinner, open bar, and fil hired a DJ for dancing, and karaoke. Yes, karaoke. It makes me shudder to think of it - it's soooo not my thing. But fil loves it, as do his brothers, apparently, so it'll be part of the party. "He who pays for it can call the shots." I did put my foot down on hiring a photographer - this is not a wedding for pete's sake! It should be fun, if not a little embarrassing, with the whole karaoke thing.
Something I'm NOT celebrating is the apparent nap strike that Lauren is on. More days than not she's refusing to take a nap. She'll fall asleep in the car for 10 - 15 min when we're on our way somewhere and then call that good for the day. If she falls asleep on the way home I can usually transfer her to her crib and she'll nap for an hour or so, but mostly she's surviving on less than 20 min in the car. No matter how tired she is and how often she's rubbing her eyes, she won't go down for a nap. I'm dying. She's wonderful at bedtime - goes down like a charm around 8pm and sleeps straight through until 7am, but naps are becoming a problem. On the days she doesn't nap she's a real crankpot. There is no pleasing her. She fusses to be picked up, and then she squirms to be put down. She points to something she wants but then can't identify the object. Like she forgets or something. It's making life really hard in the afternoons. I can't get squat done. I STILL haven't completely unpacked from San Francisco and that was a week ago! I can feel my patience oozing out of me as the day wears on, and I tend to get really short with the kids. Nicholas, on the other hand, gets more sleep than she does. He still naps for a solid 2+ hrs a day, and gets at least 10 hrs at night. It's wonderful. I just have to tell him it's rest time and he goes and lays down in his bed and goes to sleep. Just like that! SuperNanny would be so proud. Now if I could only get his sister to follow suit.... ahhh!!
And lastly, I'm in the middle (ok, really the start) of planning a fun vacation for our family. Some law school friends are getting married in early September in New Jersey, and we want to go. With Mr. Chick (hopefully) starting a new job we probably won't get much vacation right off the bat, so we need to go while the gettin's good. We have several friends who live in Virginia, so we're trying to combine a visit to them with the wedding trip. Mr. Chick wants to go for 2 weeks! Wow! I've NEVER been on a 2 week vacation. 7-10 days, yes, but never the whole 2 weeks. So we're planning to rent a beach house at the Outer Banks, NC for a week and have our VA friends join us there for a bit. Take some time to just play on the beach and have some R&R post-Bar, pre-job, pre-move. Then we'll take our time making our way up to NJ. Maybe spend a day or two in the DC area, and then spend a few days knocking around NYC. Then the wedding, and then home. The kids would be coming with us, which adds some wrinkles here and there from a travelling point of view, but that's the way it goes. I'm excited! It's no tropical paradise with just Mr. Chick and I, but it will be a lot of fun! I just hope we don't get spanked by hurricanes. We're cutting it close to hurricane season, maybe even booking for the first week or two of hurricane season. And the Outer Banks, well, they vulnerable. I'd appreciate any tips or insights!
I promise a more cohesive post next time!
// posted by MP @ 12:41 PM 
Comments:
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You look fab, MP! Even though you said you haven't lost any weight, you look smashing!!!! I can tell your hard work has toned you up --- not that you were UNtoned before. You know what I mean. Right? I hope. :)
My Oregon family isn't coming back this way for vacation again, so I'm hoping that we might *possibly* squeeze in another trip later in the year. This time we are going out for a GIRLS night, if I do!
Congrats to Clif - that is just awesome and what a huge relief!!!
My Oregon family isn't coming back this way for vacation again, so I'm hoping that we might *possibly* squeeze in another trip later in the year. This time we are going out for a GIRLS night, if I do!
Congrats to Clif - that is just awesome and what a huge relief!!!
Congrats to your hubby! What a relief this must all be. I hope everything goes well with the job. Have fun at your party. What a great celebration. Love the pics - you look great.
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