I jinxed February

If you want to have a good month, don't ever claim that the previous month was: tough, hard or the "worst month ever." In fact, don't even set expectations that an upcoming month will be great. Take my advice: just go with the flow.  

January seemed rough in a non-life threatening kind of way. We were coming off the holidays, I had worked an unending amount of hours and Max lost his coaching job. But life has a sense of humor and clearly we needed February to tell us to suck it up buttercup.

So we'll keep it short and sweet and focus on the highlights that came between the work commitments (me), puke / croup faces (me and the kids) and the grave realities of a vocational shift (Max). Let's just say that Max impetuously booked us a week's vacation for Spring Break and I agreed to the condo having never even reviewed the listing. I just said, "Do it. If it will make you happy and it's warm and kids can swim, I'm in." We needed a bright spot.

The pics can do the telling and you can take my word for it that—as evident by the fact that I am writing—we survived February's bumps. Heck, I'll even throw in some March highlights since it all sort of just blurred together into one slushy mess (bookended by unseasonably warm climate change anchored by unending fights with Ryan over why you can't wear shorts in winter....even when it's 57º.)

January and the first two weeks of Feb consisted of more travel than I usually see in a year, all on high profile projects. I work for ddm and oversee a team that works on strategy, branding, marketing and communications for a medical device manufacturer. What that means (without oversharing on behalf of my client) is for the last 11.5 years, I've been getting a poor man's medical degree :) Need a vertebroplasty? I've got you. Want to talk about healthcare reform and the ACA? I got you too. So during the beginning of the year, I was in Scottsdale AZ with my amazing team crafting the visuals/messaging/fun for their national sales meeting, Fort lauderdale (with norovirus) presenting on corporate brand strategy and then Chicago facilitating a patient safety collaborative among multiple business units. We do brochures too. Needless to say, I love my team and my clients are wonderful, smart and leading the industry. They're my people. (The guys above won big awards the night of this pic, but started their careers training years ago with our team and remain friends). It's always exciting, dynamic and challenging, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Oh, and I got to fly in first class which was a complete novelty and they let me pretend to fly the plane....Just when I sound like a grown-up lady....

Ryan had a great set of months and ended up turning things around in class (see last post). He had more birthday parties than any 7 year old should attend and had his first sleepover at his besties. TJ and Ry are an unusual pair visually (top left) but we could not ask for a better kid / family for Ry to have attached to for the past three years. He also lost a tooth, attended his first circus and played a lot outdoors once it got warm enough for shorts and football. Look at those crazy socks. I love this kid.

This is the pukeface part of the post. And croup-face though it all mixed together in a barking, blanket covered mess. Norovirus hit us HARD and lasted over a week as it jumped between us all. Of course Max, the man of immunity, stayed healthy. The bottom right pic is Elise 3 days post Noro and Ry 2 hours pre-noro. There was very little sleep and lots of mom cuddles, which lead to me getting hit with it while in Florida on work. I literally got sick up until 1 hour before my 4 hour long presentation. I rallied. My co-workers shinned. And I practiced all the skills I learned during Elise's pregnancy (hyperemesis) to appear professional while wanting to hug the toilet. I will say that as a mom, getting sick at a hotel has its pluses, especially when your parents drive 2 hours to bring you necesites since they winter in Florida. Yeah Zofran and an extra night of rest at the W!

Though she's yet to play her first organized sport, Elise is quite the athlete. She loves throwing the football around and does yoga poses constantly. She's about to play her first season of t-ball soon. We can't wait to see her skills in action.

Meanwhile, Max and Ryan have participated in Northview basketball. The league is for third graders, but Ryan towered over the other kids for the most part. He is a beast and spent more time on the floor fighting for balls than he did at the hoop. He learned a lot about fundamentals and got much better by the end of the season. Must be the coach :) 

Other fun included nature hikes, movies at the crazy-nice movie theater with recliners (because going to the theater wasn't treat enough?) and visits to / from Abby (we had a very sweet Valentine's day dinner while I was in Chicago). Our good friend Ava and the kids found a skull on a hike behind her house and spent the morning researching it. It was a fox! We also managed an insane trip to Costco in under 25 minutes...and Ryan did not get arrested for public urination. A story for another time.

Other adventures included a swim trip to the high school and just good old fashioned lazy weekends when the weather was actually seasonally appropriate. Max headed up to the cottage twice in March to get us closer to the approval of our occupancy permit. We read a LOT of books thanks to our discovery of the library.

In March, Max headed to Vegas with our friend Rob for his 40th. Truth be told, Rob is one of my oldest friends for high school, but teaches/coaches at Northview. So we share custody. Since it wasn't appropriate for me to go on the trip, Max was super sweet and left me a surprise treat: a babysitter, a mani/pedi with Mindy, and dinner at PF Changs. Elise also had a stellar March. She got to attend the circus with Ryan's class since I chaperoned and we had a lunch date with Auntie K while Ryan attended one of the 1,000 birthdays that we bought a tin of Pokemon cards for.

In between adventures, Elise created her own superhero adventures. She lost her first pet, Mr. Nibbles—(#4)—went to heaven. Both kids were devastated. Until they weren't. And then they were again. We figured it out and Abby was here to provide her help, like she always does since she happens to be home visiting us every time a fish publically dies. (The passing of Nibbles 1-3 wasn't public news if you get my drift.) I wonder if Abby kills fish? Thankfully for us, she can be trusted with kids.