funnies by Bryson Jr.

"Mom, this milk tastes a little funny" - Bryson Jr.

"It shouldn't, I just opened it this morning" - me

"Yeah. It tastes.....um, it tastes dry." - Bryson Jr.

Now that is a tricky taste to master for a wet drink!

 I opted to go out to dinner tonight with the kiddos instead of making it. It's been a busy week and I hadn't gone grocery shopping yet. :)

We parked the car, and when I went to put money in the meter I realized I had one quarter, a lot of random change and absolutely no other cash. Actually, I knew I didn't have any cash - that is why were are a restaurant eating and not the food court at Costco. They only take cash - which I believe is one of the silliest ideas they came up with....who does that?!

I drove past Costco and up Broadway to a place our neighbor introduced to us - Sac's this fabulous Pizzeria/Italian place over in Astoria - they really do a great job on thin crust, brick over pizza -- yum!  As the host was seating us, I asked if I could get change for the meter and dumped out all my change on the table...and along with those all the receipts stashed in the front of my wallet from PTA purchases for the Art Show/Silent Auction came tumbling out as well.  I put my OCD about my purse and wallet on the backburner this week, so that I could save it all for the class projects we are doing with 15 classes in 8 days before the big show/auction next week!  Anyway....as always I start to talk and I get sidetracked....the nice guy helps me count out $1.00, and comes back with 4 quarters, and so I turned to the kiddos to say....

"Stay right here, I need to go feed the meter"

"Why is it hungry?" - Bryson Jr.

straight faced, quick come-back, I don't think I've ever used that term around him before and so his response made me laugh. What a jokester!

 *****and what a cutie :) 

12:30am advice

The phone rang minutes after I had laid down in bed last night (Monday, 3/21) at 12:30am.  I had finally decided to go to bed as waiting up for Bryson during his work week is rather pointless - actually it's pointless most nights but I usually push myself and will stay up until 12:30-  1:30am to see him...but after a few nights my body can't do it anymore...I have to sleep even if he doesn't get to.  If we are lucky he gets home a little bit before midnight at least one week each month.  This month is not that scenario.  For the past 2-3 weeks it's been between 2 - 4am when he finally gets home.  He is exhausted to say the least.  I'm tired as well.  We are tired and trying to figure out what to make of the continual stress and schedule of this job.


With these thoughts running through my head, I picked up the phone call as Bryson told me he was finishing up.  I have had these phone calls before - so I asked if he was actually waiting for the car or finishing up at his desk....the difference being about 2 hours on average between "almost being done" and really being done!  He was actually in the car on the way home.  WOW!  And that's when a blog post immediately popped into my head.  I would have gotten up to write it when I had the thought - however, once my body gets back up it won't go back down for the longest time!....thankfully the thoughts were actually still around a few hours later :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My advice to anyone whose husband might consider going into Investment Banking....

First, look at how much time you spend with your husband and as a family.  Now divide that in half.

And divide that in half again.

And half again.

And for good measure, and just to be on the safe side...divide that in half again.

Now that you have that number in mind, know that there are many times where you will need to divide that low number in half again.  To the point that you are whittled down to a decimal so close to zero, that you really might as well call it zero.

And that is how often you will see your husband during 'busy' project times and even 'regular' work weeks.

If you can look at that number and say that in all honesty you will be alright to see your husband for that small microscopic amount....than sign up!  If not, run away.  Take the Gingerbread Boy's advice to run, run as fast as you can!

And that is my very small, but very honest advice.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As I shared these thoughts with Bryson we had a good laugh at our situation, at each other and the crazy situation we are in that there are many days and weeks where we primarily communicate via phone.  This past week, we have been sailing ships passing in the night/wee hours of the morning.  He comes home and collapses just a few hours before I get up with the children.

Then when I am up, it's a battle as we try so hard to keep things quiet for him, but with 3 children getting ready for school in this small space - that is not an easy task!  We zoom out of the house to get to school on time, and for the past few weeks I've had meetings and class projects to get ready for the Silent Auction going on at the school.  So, by the time Bryson does get up about 1/2 hour later I'm off to the next event for the day while he gets ready and heads into the office.  Even if I were to be home - our time together is 30-40 minutes.

I don't know if I'm becoming calloused to this life, but the past few weeks this crazy schedule hasn't bothered me as I've let it during some other times in the past.

It is what it is.

It might not be a normal that other people know.  But it comes back to this is our normal - and we are doing the best that we can with the situation and finding ways to thrive in the face of this rather peculiar schedule.  It's tricky, it's unique - and it definitely keeps us on our toes.

As much as we would love to have more time together - when we do get that time....oh how we treasure it, and love it, and try to enjoy it all we can {not perfect on this one....too bad, sometimes my mood takes awhile to adjust and I spend half a day crying because we are now finally spending time together!  Women and our moods - I don't think I'll ever understand myself!).  But we do enjoy whatever time presents itself to us, and consider ourself lucky if we are all together for even a few hours.

Now this little blog post that I had written in my head is much longer, and I'm thinking over this entire idea of how many hours a person works -  I have to say that I know others that are not in Investment Banking that have strained and heavy schedules.  For those that are fighting to stay up during long hours & scheduling in times to see each other just so you can say 'I DID see my husband/wife today!' - I have to say I hear you and I feel for you....we are there too.  And somewhere I hear that we might just become better for this.

Or, you could just remember to RUN! 

cookie, cookie, cookie - is good enough for me?!

I'm thankful that Activity Days for the girls in our church DO NOT sell cookies!  The bottom shelf in our hallways pantry is stacked with what should be a long time supply of Girl Scout Cookies - however they are dwindling out at an astonishing rate!  Madeleine joined a new Girl Scout troop that started here on the island last fall.  I've always wanted an in with the cookie orders - and boy did we get one!  Although it's not like there is a discount {in fact the prices seem to keep rising as the box has gotten smaller and fewer cookies end up in the box each year!}, but only a feeling that I should order as many cookies as possible to help raise the total for how much Madeleine's troop raises - which I don't really know what they are using the money for, but hey there are Samoas, Tag-a-longs and Thin Mints so it's not like I really needed...or was it wanted?....to question what the goal was to reach!!

I need to be sure not to open one more box of those cookies - it is completely ruining what I run for each day.  Why does something taste so good that is not so great for the hips?!

If anyone has missed ordering Girl Scout cookies, have no fears!  We can fill your order through the stock at our home, that I'm pretty sure was the original idea behind ordering those extra boxes.  Although, hurry fast....because these cookies are going quickly and not in the ideal way!!!

                                          

Happy 10th Anniversary!

I'm sitting here trying to convince myself to go to bed. It's 12:20 am. I should be IN BED!

I really should. I better as tomorrow is going to come fast and furious - Mondays usually come up like that!

However, I can't go to bed until I write just a few things down. Like that Bryson is at the office. Again.

It's been a lot of work this week - last week as well. However, we pulled off something miraculous. We actually got away this weekend. And not just for a date - for a night and part of a day - together. And it was bliss!  And it was before our 10 year anniversary!  

I called Bryson on Thursday afternoon - having a little pity party because I had seen him for exactly 40 minutes this week....and that is while we sat in Parent Teacher Conferences, and then he kissed me outside the school doors and I walked back home alone and he walked back to the subway to work another grueling 8 hours to get home at 4:30am. It's been a week of 2 - 4am work "days" and it was getting old - very, very fast.

So, when I called I asked him if he could be sure to get off on Friday afternoon - and I were to arrange to have the kiddos looked after - could we get away until Saturday night. And thankfully - he said that the major meetings and projects would need to be done by Friday afternoon....and so yes, he probably could get away.

That is all I needed. I called in a huge favor from one of my Visiting Teachers who always asks if she can come and watch the kids - and then I call her and she is busy....we seem to be on complete opposite schedules! Luck was on our side....she was able to come and stay on Friday night with the kiddos - she and her husband live on the island, and she slept over here to be sure our kiddos were safe and sound, while her husband stayed at their place with the dog. Reason #43 why I'm not interested in getting an animal any time soon! :)

So, I ran like crazy on Friday to:

1) do the laundry for the week - 6 loads in 1.5 hours! {having 12 washing machines is amazing, although I don't think some people in my building love that I use 6 washing machines at once when I do my laundry.  Oh well - can't change much on that one!}

2) ran on the treadmill while the laundry was in the wash, and enjoyed the thought I could do this only because Bryson was upstairs getting ready for the day as Jacob played on lego.com {have I mentioned that boy is obsessed with this website!}

3) Got ready and ran to get the car from the parking garage and ran Jacob over to his friend's house for a playdate while I cruised out to IKEA

4) Purchased art projects for 15 classes that need to have an individual project that we can auction off during our Silent Auction & Art Show on April 2nd. You'd think that last year when I started this with the classes, I would have realized that this means I get to be the one to do it any year we live here! I had most of the ideas for each class, however I was walking through IKEA trying to get inspiration for the other classes & I not only found enough ideas but a few more....and I left with 2 carts full and an Explorer that was maxed out with future projects that I hope and would love to bring in their own big amount at the Silent Auction coming up. Now the fun part - doing the projects with all of the classes in the next week and a half! Unlike last year I am going to schedule in grocery shopping and laundry for myself - otherwise it won't get done for 2 weeks!

*Back to FRIDAY!

5) I drove back as fast as possible - in almost true New York'er fashion, so that I arrived at the school just a little bit after it let out.  Thankfully our neighbor had picked up the boys with her daughter and so they were all playing at the park (in our lovely 70 degree weather that was much to lovely and a huge tease that spring was close!) - so I unloaded the car and put everything into the PTA room and remembered to load up the 3 boxes of random things to donate to the thrift store...only forgetting the other box that should have been donated as well!  I drove back to the apartment to put in the plants that had been purchased for a project.   Up 8 flights - set down plants & remember to pick up the 2 bookshelves to be donated.  Drove down Main St. to the thrift store and finally had everything out of the car!  Now it was time to load up for a different fun :)

6) Pick everyone up at the park and drive home and slide into one of the best parallel parking jobs I have ever done. At least I am getting better, as it's the only kind of parking most places we go to.  

7) Run upstairs and start making snacks, trying to pack, clean the house, schedule a place to stay for tonight ---- and get a hold of Bryson (Sr.) whom I haven't talked with all of the day to be sure he didn't get bombarded with work after his meeting so we can still go away!

8) Get the one load of laundry that I had accidentally left down in the laundry room - thankfully it's the jeans and long sleeved t-shirt load. It's one of the few loads that I'll leave unattended - either purposefully (yes, I've done that before) or by accident.

9) Put the boys back in the car to go pick up Madeleine from her playdate up at the Octagon (the building North of us). I wouldn't usually drive, but the car is already out front as I had to pay for parking on the street - my rationale with this is that if the car is there it will help me to hurry and get out earlier!....that was a nice idea in theory - terrible in actually having it happen!

10) We got back with Madeleine - and we head into super warp speed to finish everything.  Madeleine starts to fold and put away clothes, Bryson Jr. is on bathroom duty, Jacob is whining about wanting to play Lego.com.  It's tempting to just send them all outside in the amazing weather so I can focus on finally getting a place booked.  However, the thought of leaving even for a night and not having things done is too much for my OCD behavior ;)
11) Our friend finally arrives to watch the kiddos - and thankfully we are at the point where I can shoo them all away and finish the final things on my own.  Madeleine has Activity Days and is meeting another girls from church and her mom to go into the city.  I ask the gal to take everyone to go and get something to eat....as I need them out of the apartment and I don't really have something in mind for dinner.  Easier to just eat out!
12) After everyone is out, I move from room to room - hiding the things into closets that I won't be able to finish, and doing my best to finish off the things that can be seen - washing the kitchen and bathroom floors, the dishes, and the last parts of the bathroom that Bugaboo hadn't gotten to.

Life feels so great right now and I don't feel stressed because Bryson and I finally got away over the weekend. I have the dearest Visiting Teacher, who has asked to watch the kids but it has never worked out. Bryson's schedule the last two weeks has been back to the insane hours where he is home consistently between 2am & 4am....usually the later :( He needed a break, I wanted one as well, and the 10 year anniversary is tomorrow - so we finally decided we just needed to get away....and thankfully others pushed us to do it! We left on Friday night after Bryson got home early....at 7pm! {lol} We drove up to the Hudson Valley area & the highlights of the trip were: Bryson getting to sleep in until 10:30am and I got to work out without getting up super early or worrying about how to fit it in around PTA and Jacob's pre-k schedule..... oh and another highlight would definitely have to be 'The Strawberry Place' where we ended up for a 2 o'clock in the afternoon "breakfast/brunch" which had the most amazing food ---- waffles piled high with fresh fruit, ice cream and whipped cream. Mmmmmmmmm!!

Happy 10 years to us!  I'm so thankful that our friends were so willing to help us out, so that we could go and have a little pre-anniversary getaway!  That was probably one of the best ways I've ever had anyone visit teach and serve me!!  

The timing was also perfect, as the insanity has started and we are well on our way to the next two weeks living in crazy land! well, more crazy than the usual crazy.

The children's school last year started combining an Art Show with a Silent Auction, as the main fundraiser for the school & now specifically to fund Arts as our teacher was excessed due to budget cuts last year. We pay for an outside group to come in and teach art - which is working well, it's just very expensive...although not as expensive as the teacher was, and we are able to apply for grants to make this all possible. We are putting together donations that businesses and individuals have given. We are working with the group to get all the art work up from 400 students onto the walls of our two main halls. And I....I'm doing art projects with 15 classes. Lucky me. No, seriously I am lucky - I love this, it's a little touch back at teaching and working with children, without the stress of my own classroom. However, it is a lot of work....but I can only get mad at myself for coming up and proposing the idea which was a hit with the parents last year.

Anyway - I had a moment from getting home from being at the school and before we run off to dance lessons to say.....I want to keep updating, but life is going to be in the Audobahn lane for the next two weeks. Everything will be super fun - but like anything in life - it takes time.

So - if you don't hear from me....or the updates don't make any sense!....just know that I might be more insane than usual. This poor parent that was helping me today told me that if she were me, she would be completely stressed out. For me - I love this....adrenaline is pumping, brain is non-stop and the outcomes should be good. Oh please let them be good, because we need money!

If they aren't good - I suppose we can always push for the move away, so that I don't have to show my face anymore at the school :) Which that is another part to what could stress me out right now - we are still talking about what to do for next year. After looking at some homes, the weather got nice here and I don't feel as rushed to get out of the city. Funny how a changed perspective changes - well just changes it all! Also, we had a PTA meeting and there is the idea being thrown out that we would do Co-Presidents next year and my current position would now be a Co-President role. Hmmmmm....again I could run away from that, or some others (and sometimes myself) would like to stay.

And at some point - pictures will come with posts, I will write more and update more......when I officially-officially return most likely after the Silent Auction is finished!  

blah....

I sat down hoping to do a recap of the week. I tried two different ways to write it - nothing worked. So I tried to write about what I expected of the weekend. Three different starts and attempts to tell a story - still nothing worked. How frustrating!

Sometimes I have so much to say, that I don't know how I want to say everything. And other times I have nothing to say, but want to say something or everything.

This blog is mostly a blessing - yet there are a few times I think the writing curse comes out. I desperately want to say things that are on the tip of my tongue....until I go to write it, and then that witty comment disappears. I have mounds of photos that I want to share to document that we actually are living a life - we are here! we are here! we are here! {thank you Horton Hears a Who for that line, I love it). But sometimes there is just nothing that comes.

Nada.

Nada.

Enchilada.

So, I'll be back another time.

p.s. I did think of one little thing. I tried to be fun and do something for St. Patrick's Day....nothing elaborate and very fun like making a Leprochan trap.....no, I made waffles and eggs that I dyed green. It was a rather large batch of green eggs. And then NO ONE ate them. The kiddos all thought they were cool cooking in the pan, but not one person wanted to eat them.

I don't think St. Patrick's is the holiday for me and my "fun" personality. Perhaps the family will be ready to handle the color of yellow and springtime when I make eggs for Easter. :)

it's tradition....

Thinking about the bedding situation - I shouldn't be so surprised that we are testing out bedding and that I'm considering it's on loan....until I really make up my mind. 

I tend to do that with other purchases.  Big or small - there are just some things I don't want to commit to, until I know that I'm going to really love it and it's going to work for us. 

Example being - new camera.  I've asked for a new camera for....well, a long long time for the kind I have wanted.  I told Bryson it would be my present for every holiday and whatever this year if I could just get a camera!  And....he finally said yes.  And then he told me that it doesn't have to count for every present - but honestly, I'd rather it be this way....I like knowing that what I get is what I really want and will like. 

The problem with a camera - I didn't know what one I really wanted.  I've dreamed so long about having one, but I had no idea which kind to get.  I ended up at Costco getting groceries the Thursday night that Bryson's parents came in town, and I looked at the cameras.  And I asked about their return/exchange policy.  And I walked out with a camera....and a really big box that housed everything. 

And since then I've had fun trying out a few different shots.  I haven't had as much time as I had thought I would to read through the manual, watch the tutorial and really try it out.  However, I do know that I love taking pictures again with something bigger than an iphone, and although I don't know all the ins and outs - there are some great features on little Nikki (short for Nikon whatever version I got).  

The crepe post was one of the first group of photos I took - which was back last Saturday (the 5th) after we watched Bryson Jr.'s basketball practice, which I took pictures of as well, but I wanted to post these pictures of the boys. 

Bryson (Sr.) has been working really, really long hours lately.  I still need to catch up on the post about Virginia, but his intense work came back that week of President's Day when the kiddos had their Mid-Winter Break.  He worked all week - long hours.  we worked the following week - even longer hours.  He miraculously was able to get off some time while his parents were here....not like time off, but he worked what  we joke was a regular work schedule back in the day - he got off at 6pm that Friday and he was able to get off on Saturday and Sunday and do things with us, and even Monday night he was able to get off at 6:30pm and join us for Mary Poppins - although he did have to go back in the office for a wee bit after the show.  

This past week was more brutal than the past two weeks.  The last two nights, I finally had to go to bed around 1-1:30am as I was falling asleep waiting for him to come home....I think he said it was between 3 and 4am he got home....he honestly couldn't remember with last night he was so tired.  

Anyway - the point to this....the boys love when he walks through the door!  Today after church we dropped him off so he could do some things for a few hours and when he walked in the door the boys ran to him and did not stop talking to him or let him out of their sight for very long.  It's tradition to play and wrestle around with daddy and Jacob just couldn't get enough of daddy time tonight...

how to tutorial....

.....on how to eat a crepe. 

1) after your crepe is made just the way you like it with the perfect amount of nutella, whipped cream and strawberries - take a bite.....

2) wait - make that 2 bites.  Can it technically be a bite, when it just keeps going in?!  

3) and in some more....for what we might consider the "3rd bite"

4) until every last part of that delicious crepe is crammed into your little mouth....

5) hummmphhhh......

6) oh yes - and SMILE!  

7)  Last step:  finally take a breath right before you ask for another crepe! :)