The Good Life

Last week was the first week of our new routine. Joe working from home, me working three days a week and home with the kids for the other two. It feels like the future is going to be so much more relaxed for us, even though Joe will still be traveling some. Drew did about as well as you can expect with starting daycare. He took his bottles just fine but naps are a challenge. The nursery is noisier than his quiet room he has all to himself at home. Leah moved up to the preschool room. She's told me three times now that she doesn't like her new teacher because she doesn't like her hair. Any advice on that one? I've told her she might not like the way her hair looks but that doesn't mean she is not a nice person. Leah does like the other teacher in the room.

Joe is settling into his new job and learning his way around the new company's systems and databases, who's who and what's what. I feel like I've really been able to hit the ground running with my job. 16 of the 17 people there are from my old company and I quickly found out that not much has changed in the way they operate. It is a great environment and I am going to enjoy it, my only concern is that it is an upstart company so they are starting from scratch trying to establish a customer base.

Drew is really close to so many milestones. He can sit up pretty well with the boppy or if you sit behind him. He is still a little sporadic so we stay close. Drew is also getting closer to crawling. He can swivel around on his belly to see what is going on around him, or roll to toys. This weekend we saw him get his belly off the ground a few times. I know there is a lot between where he is and crawling but it feels like it won't be long now.

Caribbean Black Bean Couscous

Caribbean Black Bean Couscous from The Flexitarian Diet by Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, LDN

This recipe is per serving, so multiply the ingredients as needed. It is meant to be served as the main course but would make a good side dish as well. And, this is couscous, so just realize the mess you might be getting into when serving this to kids, but Leah loves this.
1/4 cup uncooked whole wheat couscous
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup canned black beans, rinsed & drained
1/2 mango, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
3 green onions, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, minced without veins or seeds
1 lime, juiced
1 teaspoon olive oil

Bring couscous and water to a boil. Take off from heat, cover for 15 minutes, and then fluff with fork. Warm beans in microwave for 1 to 2 minutes. Toss all ingredients with warm couscous.

495 calories, 6g total fat, 1g saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 20mg sodium, 96g carbohydrates, 14g fiber, 19g protein

Kids Photo Shoot

Sweet kids.

I should have seen this coming.

Goofy little boy!

Barbie had to join the mix.

Leah's Super Tight Squeeze

Really? You're going to let her hold me?

How cute is he?!?

End of 2010

Leah's letters.

We have a roller! Now we have to watch where he goes.

This is the sweet closed lipped smile I get most often from Drew. What a sweet boy!

First bite of sweet potatoes.

You could say our patio has turned into a tripping hazard. Joe and Bob were walking on it New Year's Eve, while it was wet and still warm outside. We will be talking to them about this on Monday.

Patio - Day 9, an improvement!

So...

Someone once told me that if your marriage can make it through building a house it can make it through anything. I'm starting to understand what he meant. We are only adding a patio to the house & it is frustrating and stressful.

I'm not sure how well it has shown up in the pictures, but the pavers are crooked. The first set of steps are flush with the house, but the second set of steps are out of square by 2" apparently. When they set the pavers they lined them up with the second set of steps, so in the end it made the steps by the house look off. Then, to make things worse the pavers on the lower patio are at a slightly different angle. All these slight angles confuse the eye. On top of that, the arcs on the top patio are different. You probably wouldn't be able to tell once you got the barbecue pit and a table & chairs on it but it just adds to our dissatisfaction.

I spoke with the owner today and he came out to look at things (that is when we figured out the 2" out of square). We decided to have them re-lay the top patio and reset the second set of stairs to make the square. This should eliminate all the different angles we're seeing. They are making no promises about the arcs being the same. I want to give them a piece of string and a geometry lesson. Hopefully one of us will be here when they cut the stones.

Overall, the plants are a lot smaller than what we were lead to believe they would be and the spacing on some things were off. I talked to him today about it and hopefully it will all work out. I just hate hearing that the reason the plants are smaller is because they didn't have any larger ones in stock.

All in all this is a big investment for us and something we will have to look at for a very long time, so we just want it done right. Hopefully the rest of the process will go smoothly.

Patio - Day 8