A Teacher's Wife

Eric is more than halfway through his first semester of teaching. He wishes he had realized 10 years ago that this is what he wanted to do. Considering the relatively large pay cut he took to change careers, we are both really happy that he likes his work so much.

It's awesome to have more time together as a family. Eric is required to stay at school until 4, and usually he stays later than that, but he's still generally home by about 5. Contrast this with the old job in which he arrived home closer to 6, and usually later if he carpooled. (His commute went from 23 miles each way to less than 7 miles each way.) We can eat dinner earlier, which overall, has resulted in happier children. After dinner we still have plenty of time to play, go on walks or otherwise be together.

I am still working 20 hours per week. As I've said before, it's a little more than I'd like, but with Eric's new job it's become much more manageable. Eric has class on Tuesday nights (so he can become a certified teacher), so we don't usually see him until almost 9 on those nights. It makes for a long day for me since I also work on Tuesdays, but it's just one night a week. Since Eric is done with work so much earlier, he is now eligible to pick up the boys from the sitter's house. When he was not getting home until close to 6 that wasn't an option because our sitters don't generally want our boys that late. So on Wednesdays Eric picks up the boys while I work until 8 or so. Again, it makes for a long day. But usually it means that on my at-home days I can limit my working time to when my boys are napping. It's been great to have that change.

We are loving that Eric has so many school holidays and are eagerly planning future road trips and vacations. It's a little ironic that we now have more time to travel, because we most certainly have less money to do so. Still, we've always been frugal, and we are by no means destitute.

All in all we are both really happy with the career change. He's happy as a teacher, and I'm happy as a teacher's wife.

The Obligatory Pictures of My Cute Halloween-Costumed Children

If you are friends with my on Facebook, sorry for the duplication.

I was gifted seven garbage bags full of boys' clothes shortly after Ike was born, and included in that generous gift was a dragon costume. I've  been eagerly waiting to use that costume ever since. Then, a few weeks ago somebody posted on Facebook that she had a dragon costume meant to fit a baby aged 3-6 months. We went and tried it on, and my teensy one-year-old can still wear clothes meant for infants. Voila, two dragon costumes for free.

  

Ike had a great time trick-or-treating with his best friend who lives across the street. He couldn't keep up with her older siblings and definitely couldn't figure out why the big rush. He also eagerly corrected anybody who mistook him for a dinosaur.

Trees

If we continue at this rate of progress on our back yard, we'll be looking really good in about three years. We got trees this week.

Technically we bought our trees on Friday. It was a surprisingly good experience. We went to Cook's Nursery, and we worked with an awesome employee who really knew her stuff. It was so much better than the oodles of employees I've tried to talk to in garden departments at hardware and ginormous stores. Those employees are total nitwits. The folks at Cook's know what's what about plants. She really helped us get a good idea of what trees would work well in our soil and in our terraced back yard, and then she helped us choose the best specimens they had to offer. Most of their stock is 20% off right now since it's the fall, so that was a huge help for us since we bought seven trees.

The trees were delivered on Monday afternoon, and Eric planted them that evening. I took this picture yesterday morning, and I don't have a panoramic option, so I had to make do with using Paint (the photo editing tool of choice for people who are digital-image-inept. This explains not only the vast lighting differences, but also the uneven back fence.)

From left to right, the trees are:

• crabapple, named Krabapple (prounounced Kruh-bahpple, like the teacher from The Simpsons)
• choke cherry, named George
• hornbeam, named Horatio South
• hornbeam, named Horatio North
• Swedish aspen, named Björn
• Norwegian spruce, named Thorlief
• flowering plum, named Professor

Everyone names their trees, right?

Things I'm eagerly awaiting:

• In a few years those hornbeams will be nice and tall, which will block that horrible setting sun that beats down into my kitchen and dining area every evening.
• In a few more years that choke cherry will be big and beautiful and shady.
• Each spring we will have some beautiful blossoms. I can't remember which trees will have which colors, but it's going to be wonderful.
• Every fall that crabapple will have beautiful, bright, red berries. At first we were looking for a non-berry variant of the crabapple, but after seeing enough of the red berries on the trees at the nursery, I changed my tune, and we got a berry variety. We'll just make the children find and clean up the berries.

I'm not sure anyone has ever been quite as excited about trees.

Felix - Twelve Months

He's 1! Felix's favorite things are milk (not from Mom anymore), his brother, being held by Mom, exploring on all fours, wiggling, and bread. He is figuring out how to climb down from things like stairs, but he still hasn't mastered that. He loves to empty cabinets and shelves at any chance, and this month he has learned he can also put toys and other small items into buckets or boxes. He no longer takes a morning nap, but he's a fantastic nighttime sleeper. Felix doesn't say any words, except may "dog." I'm not quite sure about it, though. When he hears the bath water running he comes crawling as fast as he can to join in the fun. Ike has really grown to be a much more involved big brother in the last few months, and I love to hear him try to involve Felix in his activities. He is happy to have Felix follow him around laughing at his antics, and I love to hear the two of them together. I love this little guy. 

(But I sure hope he stops spitting up soon. Enough's enough, amiright?)

Toddler Talk

My boy's ability to speak in somewhat coherent sentences really took off in about May. I'm finally getting around to posting some funny things he's said:

After leaving him playing with a cup of water at the bathroom sink:
"Hi Mom! I brush teeth!"
"You brushed your teeth? Oh dear. How much toothpaste did you use?"
"Um... BIG PIECE!!!!!"

After handing me an inflated ball, "Mom, blow it down." (He wanted me to deflate it.)

"Mom, I stand wight here and watch you," (as he pulled a chair up to the island to watch me cook).
"Okay, sweetheart."
"Sweetheart? Heart? Heart? Heart?"

I showed him a pastry knife and asked him if he could remember its name. Then I reminded him it was a pastry knife. "A pastry knife? No, a pastry MEAN!"
(The great thing about this is I'm pretty sure he knows "nice" and "knife" are different words, so he totally created a word-joke out of it.)

"The moon! Hi moon! How are you, moon?"

"Look mom, the sun! Hi sun! Sun so nice, mom!"
I'm not sure why he's so interested in the sun and the moon, but he is.

After Eric did something nice for me, "Thank, you're a gem."
"Jim?"
"No, gem. Like a diamond or a ruby."
"Boobie????"
And then he walked away without an explanation from me. I don't know what he thinks a ruby or a boobie is now. The word "boobie" is not one we use around here.

Another Weekend in Jackson Hole

On Friday I was featured in the Career Day section of Aspiring Mormon Women. Go check that out if you want to read all about my job.

Also on Friday we headed up to Jackson Hole for the weekend.

I ran (and walked, but mostly ran!) a 5k.

Felix competed in the Diaper Derby. He had a strong start, but he ultimately got sidetracked and didn't quite finish the race. He could have won had that bright yellow finish line not been so distracting. 

Later that day we hiked up to Crater Lake and checked out the benches my nephew built for his Eagle Scout project. It was a very steep hike, particularly after the 5k earlier that day. My brother's new puppy hiked pretty much the whole way. My kids mostly rode in the stroller, but Ike got to help walk LaFawnduh a a few times (but not as much as he would have liked.) And yes, the puppy walked him more than he walked her.