The Palmers in Colorado

Thursday, March 28, 2013

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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

New Beginnings...Big Changes...Just Keep Smiling

So obviously I'm still not good at keeping up with this blog. Maybe the recent changes will help...but I doubt it. Well let's see, since I finally posted about Christmas mid-January, a lot has happened. The highlights (and lowlight) were really moving into our first (rented) home (LOVE it!!!!); Kellan's 2nd birthday (supposed I need to get that posted...whoops); Joe's baby brother Doug getting engaged to the wonderful, awesome, beautiful, Kellan-approved Miss Diana; Joe starting his maters program in late June for clinical psychology; my getting into CU's Executive MBA program (to start in September, although I need to register for my review classes...add that to the list); and most recently, my being laid off (finally - after three or four near misses) from Ageless. That's been quite an adjustment, but one I am at least partially excited for. I'm really sad to not be at Ageless anymore. I devoted almost 5 years of my life to it, and treated it as much more than a job. I'll be the first to admit that I put it first before my family on multiple occasions and for what? But I accomplished so much and there were so many things that stopped working if I didn't do them. I worked during all of my vacations, and even was emailing on may way to and in the hospital while I was in labor with K. I still worry about it without me, but I know it will survive if is meant to. And I truly hope for my friends who own and now are manning it alone that it will succeed. Plus I'm still around to answer questions and help when needed, unofficially of course.

It's honestly embarrassing to be laid off (it's been hard to explain to potential employers, recruiters, and I cannot BELIEVE I wrote it in this blog!). And it's a bit frustrating as well...I mean, really, believe me, there has never been a more dedicated employee than me, not even Bob Cratchit working on Christmas Eve wasn't as dedicated. Although I know the books better than anyone, and know there were no other options, so it was nice that I was the last non-owner employee left (even though I was originally supposed to go with the second round). But I didn't go to law school and work my ass off to be licensed in two states to be laid off. This doesn't happen to me!!!! It happens to low level employees, not Controllers or In-House Attorneys! But I'm realizing my hang-ups weren't true. I am not alone and the economy still sucks! I also need to remember that you have to take risks in life - some pay off and unfortunately some don't. Ageless allowed me to figure out that I might want a different career path than previously imagined. I am SO glad that I decided to go for my MBA. I can't wait to start - maybe I'll be a professional student - a CPA wouldn't be that much longer, would it? And if I'm always in school I never have to pay back my student loans do I? (Totally kidding!!!)

But enough about that - no one really wants to hear anymore self-pity! Back to K-man...

As you can see from the first picture, Kellan and Sonya have reached some kind of an understanding, and they now occasionally snuggle in the mornings. I think Sonya has finally realized that Kellan is really the bread and butter of her living and she should tolerate him, although this week she's taken to trying to knock him down when he runs - he laughs and it's honestly funny unless she's successful. But really, the kid asks to take her on walks and to the park (to bark at anything that moves), demands she visits Grandma and Papa, and constantly drops food for her. All she has to put up with is a little "bad dog" and finger pointing - don't know where he picked that up?!?! :)

And we love our new neighborhood! We have some great neighbors, two wonderful parks in close walking distance (and I'm told by Joe several others beyond that, but close works for me), and the best part is it's clean (most of the time - and honestly my recently developed OCD version of not clean is clean to most people). Kellan likes the opportunity to have two homes - one is "Mama, Papa and Kellan's house" (my parents - although sometimes he tells my mom she doesn't live there) and the other house is "Mah home".

He has SO many words now too! He's getting good at colors, can count to three (hey, it's the little things), and even has some 5 word sentences. It's amazing to watch him learn and figure things out!! He's into anything cars related. I can't watch Cars or Cars 2 (or Monsters, Inc.) one more time...although I know I'll see all three at least twice tomorrow. :) But he now thinks it's cool to watch them on the MacBook - "Book", not to be confused with the "Pad" or "T" (MacBook, iPad, TV) - so I can ignore them a little easier. And he is absolutely enamored with My Gym now! He does all of the circle times, gymnastics and independent activities. He knows the opening and closing routines and is just a total ham. I love watching him do it, and the rest of the parents get a chuckle out of his enthusiasm! It's probably something we really need to cut from our budget right now, but I can't bear to do it because he just loves it so much. Plus the summer offers unlimited classes, so I'm hoping to try out other days and see if I can find a mommy I like for play dates. :) I get to have play dates now! :) His latest and greatest is that he wants to do everything by himself. "No mama, I'll do it". As you can see below, he's really just too cool for me already! Ha!

So it's kind of exciting now to have the opportunity to spend more time at home with him. It's only been a week and a half, and I'll admit it was scary and overwhelming at first - I mean come on, I don't do the dishes, laundry, cooking, cleaning, or really much of anything at home thanks to my wonderful husband, but now I feel the need to do it (a) because I'm home and why shouldn't I (so not as easy as it always seemed from a working mom's perspective), (b) it gives me a sense of accomplishing something on a daily basis, and (c) I am finding that I enjoy doing most of those things...for now at least. Although terrified of not being able to find something new - who wants a former litigator / contracts attorney that lightly dabbled in contracts for the last five years, but really was more of an accountant without an accounting degree - I really am excited to have more time with K. And maybe more time to blog...time will tell I guess!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Christmas 2011 in Review

Christmas hit the Colorado Palmer house out of complete left field. It just kind of snuck up on us like we had never experience it before! Thankfully Santa did some awesome shopping at the Douglas County Just Between Friends League so at least someone was ready. Oh, and of course Grandma was ready too. :0)

Santa brought K a big container of blocks (which was added to by Grandma), a Christmas Teddy (one of the two teddy bears, 4 loveys plus Max from the Grinch that he now sleeps with - seriously, there's more stuffing and fiberfill in that bed then there is K right now!), an AWESOME ride on train, some cool books with wheels, and other various little things. Mommy & Daddy's big gift to K was a train table, as well as a cool ride on horse game, a Hokey Pokey Elmo (Melmo, as K calls him), and other things which I've already forgotten. The kitchen from Grandma and Grampa-Grampa-Grampa was also a big hit, and I can't wait to read the Grimm's Fairy Tales from Uncle Nate (Unc Nay-Nay) and Auntie Ellen (Aun El) when he stops ripping good books some day.

The best part of Christmas was probably Nate & Ellen helping me get the family organized to ooVoo. We didn't make it back to Ohio for actual Christmas again (we're headed back in early February instead), so Nate & I tested ooVoo early in the morning - well early for us - and then we got the Lukacenas on the "call" later in the day. It was great for them to be able to see K ride around on his train. :0)

All in all it was a pretty nice Christmas in the Colorado Palmer house.

I was SO excited for Santa to bring this train!! It's just like at My Gym. He ignored it for a while, and then rode it until he smiled from ear-to-ear. Since then he's decided it's more fun to push Teddy on it for whatever reason, but I still love seeing him play with it. :0)

The after math. I can't wait for Uncle Nate or Uncle Doug to visit so we can use ALL of the blocks to build something...not sure what, but I want them ALL used. This picture doesn't even do it justice - this is just what came out of that bag from my mom. He must have at least 750 blocks now! Crazy!!!

The train table was okay - it's actually cooler now than it was that day. He's got some extra trains now - Thomas ones - so that probably makes it cooler.

This is the cutest Elmo ever! It does the Hokey Pokey!!! He was about to give Elmo a hug, but Mommy doesn't always have the best timing with the pictures so it looks more like he's wondering what the heck...

This is the last time he rode this...it's really a pretty cool game that hooks to the TV, but he's not interested yet. Oh well, maybe he'll grow into it.

Grandma & Grampa-Grampa-Grampa got him an awesome kitchen. He taste tested all of the food as a quality control measure. He also ran stark naked in the middle of a diaper change to check something in his oven, but I decided it was probably kiddie porn to post those pics. Needless to say he loves his kitchen!