Dad, this is for you

Behind every great man...

...is a frazzled woman! Boy is this the truth in our house. Todd's success ultimately means I look like a 50 year old hag with a bad attitude. Oh well, it's not far off from my usual self anyway.
It took me months to get to this post, and many of you know this already, but Todd got a new job this winter! Very exciting after he spent a couple of years seriously searching for a way out of the Federal Government. It was a big decision for him, he's been at N.I.O.S.H. since he was a spunky senior at Gonzaga. His summer internship lasted a little longer than he expected, like 24 years longer. But after all those years he was brave and said goodbye to some great perks, a good retirement, and some really frustrating bureaucratic crapola. You would not believe the royal amount of ridiculousness he put up with at times. But now, drum roll please....Todd is Safe Mine's Business Development Manager for North America. Wow, North America is BiG, that's a lot to be the boss of! Pretty awesome guy. So far he is really liking the work, he loves to be back engineering and designing and building and figuring stuff out. It is a lot more hands-on instead of just management, which is what he was doing at the Research Lab. He went from managing 26 people to being the one-man-show in a lot of ways. If day-time Todd doesn't get something done, night-shift Todd tries to finish it. If night-shift Todd can't get his act together, than poor weekend Todd has to make up for it;) I know God orchestrated this whole thing, and I love knowing that Todd is happier and more fulfilled in his work. He works with some great people, most of them are Swiss, German, Australian or Brazilian ~ intense but amazing group of people. When he was interviewing for the job they asked if he could speak other languages, when he said no {although he is fluent in toddler jibberish} they said he should probably learn German on the side. Ha! They still send him emails in foreign languages for him to "figure out." His boss speaks 5 languages so I guess those of us who don't are considered doofus material. Safe Mine allowed him to stay in Spokane instead of relocating him to Oakland, which was a HUGE blessing. One of the adjustments we've had to make is with his travel schedule, which was well above average with his old job, and has gone up several notches with his new one. He spends a lot of time in Canada, and Alaska probably comes second. He travels to some beautiful and very remote places and has Indiana Jones-ish type adventures in polar bear reserves and Eskimo villages. Some of the mines he visits most often require creative transportation: plane, plane, then little puddle jumper plane, then ferry, then dog sled {kidding on the last one, I think...} He sleeps with other dudes in bunkers that only have outdoor bathrooms {in minus freezing temps this is extra fun I'm sure}, he eats cafeteria food with a bunch of foul mouthed miners. He sees moose and bear and elk and lots of canned green beans. He came home after a long trip in the dead of winter on some island off of Alaska and said "I'm too friggin' old for this!" So it's not very glamorous at the mine, but he does have his trips to the US office in Oakland and the conferences he speaks at, so he gets to have a little more "fun" on those trips. The headquarters is in Switzerland so he has meetings there once a year too, Ruff life! He's racking up the frequent flyer miles, and I have plans for those babies {betcha can't guess}. So we'll see where this job takes us, literally and figuratively. And even if it doesn't work in the long run, I'm proud of how brave Todd was to leave his comfort zone and take a big risk. Now if I could just figure out a way to sneak an extra ticket on the expense report for that Switzerland trip...

Here's a picture of Todd walking out of the Lab for the last time! The kids and I met Todd in town on his last day of work, and Dawson wanted to help Daddy grab the last of his boxes. So Todd took him to work for a bit and loaded up a quarter century worth of crap important work related items. I of course, being the sentimental schmuck that I am, shed a tear, or 20. Change is sometimes hard and scary, and I actually have a lot of memories there, it's all either of us have known. And even though I hate to admit this, I'll miss the 4th of July picnic with all the nerdy geologists and engineers. They made me feel good about myself;)

(inappropriate) quote of the day!

I'm so excited it's Spring I wet my plants!

I love Spring time. It's the promise of Summer ~ of Popsicles and ice cream cones, bike rides and walks, vacations and BBQ's. It's the smell of sunscreen and bug spray and Windex. One of my most favorite of all Spring activities is planting flowers for my patio. I look forward to it all year, which probably isn't normal. What colors will I pick?...will I go with a cottage like feel with lots of little flowers and vines dripping over the side, and flowers in soft colors? Maybe something cheery like bright purple and red and yellow flowers this year? Whatever I decide, I am just tickled pink to go from nursery to nursery picking out little plants, happiness in tiny little pots {I didn't say happiness is a little pot, although I have heard that's true}. The kids love helping me fill the planters and pots with soil, and taking turns filling the watering can with water over and over and over...Honestly I think they just like getting muddy, but whatever the reason, I love having their company and "help." And Spring is just busting out all over our yard this year. We spotted an adorable bunny in our yard a couple of weeks ago and it stayed here for days and days. It finally got so used to us that Dawson just went up to the little guy and pet him! Clearly this wasn't a wild rabbit, it obviously escaped some one's Easter basket ~ it was so cute and friendly. The kids looked forward to seeing it every morning and evening, and we even captured it for a while so the kids could really investigate this little creature. We went through a lot of organic carrots last week. And then Todd spotted a nest in one of our trees out back. The kids weren't tall enough to peek into the nest {neither am I} so Todd held the point and shoot camera up over his head and snapped a picture for us to see. Inside was a sweet, tiny duo of Robin eggs in my favorite shade of blue. This time of year just puts a spring in my step.

"Children are made readers on the laps of their parents." Emilie Buchwald

There's a lot about this whole parenting thing that I completely suck at. But one thing I think we got right is that we have read to our kids since they were babies. Not one book a day, or just a bed time, but honestly it is one of the things that I will drop just about anything for ~ to read to my kids. If they bring me a book and want to snuggle with me and read, then that's exactly what we do. We have a no TV rule on weekdays so it really forces us to read a lot. They love books, we have them in pretty much every room of the house. They think going to the library is like going to the candy store. I brace myself when we have to use the book drop at our little library, because they know that means we are returning books but not getting books, and the screeching and howling ensues. On this Saturday, Todd and I were working in the yard and came in to see all of the kids reading books, I zoomed in and snapped a few pictures before they noticed me. I love that Ella was reading to Dawson, and she was very into character, reading with a lot of passion and enthusiasm. Of course Dawson was sucking his thumb and soaking it all in. The babies were "reading" too, I just loved seeing all four of them lined up, barefoot, books in hand. 

Fresh Air

"Charlie, where are you going?!"

"Outside with my peanut!"

peanut = penis

(inappropriate) quote of the day