my long lost friend

Hi everyone!

Facebook (aka MYFACE if you're old and crusty like me) is really cool! Today, my dear friend from 8th grade contacted me! Her family moved to a different school district when we were entering high school and we lost track of one another for various and sundry reasons.

HOWEVER, I always thought about her. And wondered how she was doing. And hoped she was OK. The move seemed traumatic for her at the time--moving when you're that age is a BIG deal, so I know it was hard for her.

ANYWHO----despite the fact that life has taken her from Pennsylvania, to Florida, Kansas, and Ohio, and my life has taken me to North Carolina and Washington state, SHE NOW LIVES 30 minutes NORTH of my house in DC.

!!!!!

What are the odds? Is that crazy or what? So--she and I are going to get together next weekend. Thank GOD because I'm going stircrazy here cooped up with my mom (bless her heart) and my dear Snuffles.

And, in Snuffles news, in addition to him being A LITTLE BOY now, no longer a baby, he is sleeping through the night most every night. He is eating SOOOOOOOOO much, all the time and he has a doctor's appointment coming up very soon. Six months. We are almost past the major SIDS risk period, and soon, we will only have to worry about Autism. It seems to strike seemingly healthy, normal toddlers, with no explanation. Hopefully life will not just be a succession of scary things to worry about.

In Dave news, he got his grades back for the first semester. He is bummed that he didn't make the top 30, but is determined to redouble his efforts and excel overall. Go Dave, more power to you! We bought some clothes for him to wear to a career fair coming up. He looks like such a grown-up in a suit and tie.

In mom news, she is enjoying corresponding with her friends and email is fascinating to her. I think she's BORED SILLY here, because I am HERE but not really HERE since I have so much work to do all the time. But, this is still vastly preferable to being in a facility.

And, in family news--Dave's parents are coming! I can't wait! We have the guest room all set up--we got some new pillows and a soft mattress cover so it's ultra-luxe and cozy in our guest room. I have been reading Dave's book called Baking with Julia and I'm excited to try to make croissants for the first time. And Dave's mom is an EXCELLENT baker. Maybe we can bake stuff together while she's here. (Could she just stay with us all the time please? We would enjoy that)

In other family news, my mom's favorite cousin of all time got some reassuring news about her health recently, so everyone is a lot more relaxed and relieved.

And, mmfc's daughter and I are getting together soon (see my earlier post about lunch with the deputy director) --THANK THE LORD--again, because, like I said, I am bored to tears, and not excited to do some of what lies ahead--clearing boxes from the garage, recaulking the bathroom shower, ya know. I need a little inspiration.

And I'm certainly not going to get it from WORKING anywhere these days. There can be no JOB outside the home for me until we restructure our lives...and that's not going to happen anytime soon.

So--that's life, in a nutshell. Love you, miss you. Email us at schleiferkin@gmail.com.

I have cooties

OK, well, maybe not.

But, maybe I do have De Quervain's Tenosynovitis. I don't know, I would need a Finklestein test to confirm. It could just be Intersection Syndrome.

i miss my baby

Where did he go? And when did this ACTIVE LITTLE BOY show up?

He is loud, he talks continuously, he jumps on his exer-saucer and all he wants to do is touch everything and put it in his mouth. When did this happen?

It seems all of the sudden.

I miss my baby.

donde esta?

Hola amigos!

I can't believe it's already January 15th! My goodness, time flies when you drive 4 hours a day and care for an ill parent, a newborn, 2 dogs and a husband in school who works full time!

Who has time to BLOG anyway!?

The doggies and Snuffles and I went on a very long walk (off-leash) today. There are acres and acres of woods all around our house, so everyone really enjoyed themselves. I picked lots of beautiful, dried foliage to decorate our house. So--that was fun for me.

Aunt Mary is here! She is lovely and wonderful. She is here attending a conference for the leadership of the Catholic Church. She is a high-level person within the national leadership of the church. (So--like my descriptions of my other relative's jobs--I try to be vague enough so as to not reveal too much about them--not everyone likes a web presence--anyhoo.)

So--yes, she's here attending the conference and she stayed at our house until it started, and she may visit with us after it's over. She has lots of family in the area, and she's very popular, so we don't know her exact plans. :) Though, she has said how much she enjoys spending time at our house, because of Isaac, and because it's very comfortable and we have delicious meals. :)

I like when she visits because she babysits the whole time and helps me to GET OFF MY DUFF and get some longstanding, outstanding, large icky projects done. Like filing. I hate to file. Ms. Mary is an office manager, so filing for her is a piece of cake. So, it rocks. She can come here anytime and stay as long as she likes as far as I'm concerned.

So---other than Dave working and studying and being in school 100% of the time, the only new excitement around here is attending my mom's doctors appointments (woo-wee, dream big!) and trying to lose weight so I can get pregnant again. I was serious about wanting Irish Triplets like Aunt Mary. Fun for the kids and fun for mommy! After all, I am AMA. (advance maternal age).

Seriously, motherhood is the best. Especially when you can SLEEP! Isaac has had 4 nights in the last 7 where he slept from 10:30 pm to 7:30 am without a peep. He is much more like a little boy now and less like a baby. He likes to play in his exer-saucer. He can roll over and grab on to things now.

So--we're just rolling along. Still missing everything west of the Rockys. Especially since it's ski season!

K. Miss you! Email us at schleiferkin@gmail.com.

it's true

It's official.

Dave and I loathe the East Coast.

It's very sad actually. Many friends are here. All of our family members are here. That part is very nice. It's been thoroughly wonderful to see Dave's family a bunch, and reconnect with my uncle Adam and cousin Becca and her significant other, and her parents. And, there is a chance that my cousins Ethan and Rebecca and their sweet family will return here after a stint in England.

And--we've hosted my dad's sister Mary and I've gotten to see his brother Bob, and meet another cousin named Becky who lives here--so all of that is completely wonderful.

Dave has a cousin here who we keep intending to get together with, and his aunt and uncle have a townhome here--so we would love to see them all when they're in town.

But---make no mistake. And I am very sorry to say this, and at the risk of offending my many family members who are here: It totally SUCKS here. I could go on and on. If you read my earlier blogs, you will get to read just a couple of the many, many reasons why I think so. Seriously. So much so I'm not really sure why anyone lives here.

The weird thing is most everyone in the various families has visited or lived on the West Coast. I just don't get it!! Again, I am sorry, and please forgive me.

No one followed me during my campaign several years back to get people to move to Seattle. I guess the overcast sky and rain trumps all the good stuff it has to offer. And, I don't have much influence! I don't know.

Dave says to think of this time as just a really long, really bad vacation.

Anyhow. How to balance our enthusiasm for our family--with feeling inspired and happy about living everyday life? We may just have to be like Aunt Carol and Uncle Jim and do our best with beach vacations and holiday visits.

All I know is Dave's favorite songs are "Home, Home on the Range" and "Don't Fence Me In."

THAT SAID---we are going to devote ourselves to finding things to LOVE about living here. We did choose to be here on purpose, for Dave's school primarily, and for Isaac to connect with the family secondarily. So--we are going to RALLY and give it the old college try. And--speaking of RALLY--there is always RALEIGH--which would have excellent career prospects for Dave and we could hang with some of our favorite people in the entire world: Eric and Susan Stevens.

In Isaac news, he is able to roll over, roll onto his side and he can almost sit up by himself! He's eating 5 kinds of cereal, and he has had 2 nights where he slept the entire night (6-8 hours) by himself and a couple of times where he woke up, cried a bit and got himself back to sleep! Perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel? Mommy is going to teach him baby sign language because she is sooo excited to hear what he has to say!

In other news, we are sending our love and condolences to Dave's mom and aunts and uncles who are grieving the loss of Dave's grandmother, Esther Dawson--"Bubby." Bubby was very sweet and made delicious cookies and we so enjoyed visiting with her during the family reunion, many holidays and the Corolla beach vacation. Our thoughts are with you all, and we wish we could be with you now.

And, Aunt Mary is coming, Aunt Mary is coming!! For the inauguration. Could it be that she will meet the Pope? Stay tuned!! (You know, Salt Lake sure is pretty...)

K. Bye! Love you, miss you. Email us at schleiferkin@gmail.com.

happy new year!

Hi everyone!

Today Dave started his SECOND semester of law school! I can't believe how quickly the holiday break went by. I'm surprised on one hand, and not surprised on the other. It seemed like so much time, but we were both so tired, we rested a lot. And there is nothing better under the sun than relaxing at home with your favorite person in the world. Especially now that we have a huge sectional sofa! And, now that we have Isaac, we each have TWO favorite people in the world.

Speaking of Isaac, he is magnificent and wonderful...still. He is becoming very very active. He can stand and walk when you hold his hands. He is almost able to put his pacifier back in his mouth if he looses it. He likes to jump and play in his exer-saucer. He is not a little tiny baby anymore. He is more like a little boy than a baby. He still really does not like to sleep though!

He had such a nice time at Christmas. We had two celebrations, one here at home and then a second one at Dave's parents house. I'm not sure Isaac understood anything about Christmas or gift-exchanging, or trees or cookies, but he sure did enjoy meeting his cousin Evan. Evan and Isaac are 8 months apart in age. A big difference now, but not so much in a couple of years. They're super cute and they enjoyed playing with toys together.

We continue to watch Cesar Milan religiously. I learn so much from him about managing energy. Creating calm and reassurance is the job of the leader of the pack. It is a constant reminder to me to be very present and available with the dogs. I am sporadic at this point with walks, but we make up for that with lots of playtime and excrutiatingly long hand-feeding sessions to teach the dogs discipline and engage their minds. With Daisy--she's soooo energetic, her task is to sit quietly and let me put small bits of food near her nose and wait for me to let her eat it. It takes forever when she eats 2 cups of food. And with Merlin, he is very engaged by a game called 'Find it!' I put small amounts of food in little bowls and hide them throughout the house. Then I say "Find it!" and he runs round and round the house until he finds everything. It's fun.

At this point, it feels like BACK TO THE GRIND. But then I remember how everything about this is temporary. And then, I can enjoy it. Our life was really rich and happy before, and after this, Dave will feel more fulfilled in his work and we can maybe step back from the intensity for a while. Perhaps that is a fantasy--we are planning on having Isaac's little brother or sister as soon as possible. So--whatever. I guess, that's life!

Love you, miss you! Email us at schleiferkin@gmail.com.

christmas 2008

My goodness it’s been a busy year!
We…

Started a blog: http://schleiferkin.blogspot.com/
Went to a family reunion
Bought a house and sold a house
Threw all our stuff away and bought it all over again
Traded one career for a family
Enrolled in school to trade another
Drove across the Northern United States
Went to Wall Drugs and The Corn Palace
Moved 3000 miles away from our favorite coast
Visited with a million friends and relatives
Bought a doggie treadmill and taught the doggies to use it
Hosted 3 sets of houseguests
Entertained lots in our new home
Gained 40 pounds, HAD A BABY, lost 20 pounds
Went from being DINKS to having the bank account SINK

And argued only once* (…about continuing to drive to find a buffet restaurant…Dave was hungry and wanted Arby’s… I started to cry)

*unless you count the 3 (?) times that I had crying fits due to the pregnancy that seemed bizarre and out of context and were mostly due to the fact that I couldn’t do many of the activities of daily living (ADLs) that I am accustomed to doing normally because of my tree trunk ankles and all the hormones raging through my body and the massive amounts of blood loss. I take no responsibility for these events, they were more like emotional outbursts than actual arguments because there was no subject matter and I was the only one ‘emoting.’ Dave was rather bewildered more than anything. We seem to have made it out of the woods and everything is OK now. Except that I still can’t fit into any of my clothes from before Isaac and I refuse to buy new ‘fat’ clothes, so I always look appropriate for shopping at Wal-Mart now, which is good because I do that a lot in this phase of my life, so, I still do WANT to cry about that. But I don’t. TMI. OK, I’ll stop now. Sadly, the garage is still a mess.