balance and birthday

I never realized that Joshy eating solid foods would be such a help to me! Having him happy in the high chair for 20 minutes or so at a time does wonders for my ability to accomplish things...unloading and loading the dishwasher, making breakfast/lunch/dinner, maybe doing a little cleaning...he is a slow eater, so sometimes he won't want to just take a bunch of bites and be done - he'll take 3 bites and then chew on the tiger thing attached to his high chair table...smearing peas or peaches or garden vegetables all over it and then being quite delighted a few minutes later when he finds his tiger to be very delicious all of a sudden. He's quite the character.

Another thing I'm learning is that sometimes he wakes up from a short nap very very upset, but I can fairly easily get him to go back to sleep. For the first months of his life I just always assumed naptime was over - short or not.

It is Joshua's 7 month birthday today! Honestly, I do not think that the past 7 months have gone fast. I really don't think they've flown by. Well I think his second half of the nap IS over now...so I'll cut this short.

a funny funny world

The last few days have been especially good ones for Joshua. He's gotten to a point where so many things are funny...we just get such a kick out of watching him laughing. He went to his first Halloween party on Friday (where the Tigger costume picture in the video is from), and there were a couple things he thought were hysterical. He was sitting on Nathan's shoulders and Nathan was showing (and then hiding and then showing etc.) one of those plastic finger puppets of a little white skeleton/alien, and he was laughing sooo much. He also laughed at a little bat on a spring hanging from a doorframe. Today he laughed really really hard at the water dripping from the bathtub faucet after I turned it off. He also thought his Winnie the Pooh mobile was especially funny. He actually pulled Tigger off of it, but luckily Tigger went right back on - otherwise the balance would have been way off! Sometimes he just laughs at something and we can't tell what...the tv tray, the magnet on the door, the window...those are all just guesses based on what he seems to be looking at. Anyway - there is no better sound in my life than the sound of his laugh, so it has been really nice. I was hoping he'd get a nap before I go visit a lady from church in half an hour, but while he's been playing in his crib and whimpering in his crib, he has been doing not a single bit of sleeping in his crib. Ah well - another messed up sleeping patterns day, but such is life.

Oh some of his toys are going through the dishwasher today...on light wash and cool dry on the top rack...but I'm still nervous they might get ruined. He has a butterfly thing that laughs and I'm thinking it is a little possible that it won't laugh anymore, but I'm not going to be too distressed if that is the case, because it is a pretty frightening noise when it just starts laughing out of nowhere in the middle of the night...

Ok off to accomplish things and enjoy my sleepy and probably soon to be grumpy baby.

Teeth and holidays!

Well last night we found Joshua has his very first tooth! We can just see the top of it, but it definitely broke the skin without any warning or screaming! I'm hoping that all of his teeth will break through this easily, but that probably is wishful thinking. I'm proud of my good baby, though.

Also, here is the 3rd and final movie for the time being. Nathan just got on a roll with making movies, and probably there won't be another one for awhile. So happy holidays! Enjoy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0lsnJyuqIw

Yesterday I took a day off for the first time in a long time...it was nice. I got caught up on some emails rather than posting on the blog, talked to Mom on the phone for an hour, fed Joshua bananas and rice cereal, and then peas later, made lemon bars for the Halloween party we went to last night, spent a lot of time playing with Joshua on the floor - it was a very good day. I didn't do some of the cleaning that I wanted to, but Joshy decided that napping wasn't really for him yesterday...at least not for more than 20 minutes at a time - maybe that was because he was cutting a tooth. He's been sleeping for about half an hour...but maybe he sensed that I was typing about his sleeping habits because just now he started whimpering again.

gotta love babies - especially my adorable fat one. Time to go be with him. Have a wonderful weekend!

Oh, P.S. Joshua said mamamamama again today, for the first time since last Saturday - maybe it is just a Saturday thing. Ok bye.

one more comparison

I don't have many pictures scanned of me when I was a really really little baby, but here is one more that looks kind of close. He can't quite push himself up this far on his arms...but the expression cracks me up in both pictures.

Here is me:

And here is Joshua:

It is a beautiful day outside...and inside. Joshua is still growling a lot cuz his nose and throat are stuffy, but he's a much happier baby than he has been. Much to do much to do - off I go.

well it's after midnight

so I guess I didn't post again that day. This is a wonderful video that Nathan made. I love it. I love my baby. I love my husband. I hope you love this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOgtFqoT2gQ

some pictures

I think that our baby looks kind of like us. Just thought I'd do some comparing.


Here is Nathan: And here is Joshua:

Here is me:

And here is Joshua:

I love our baby. I'm often impressed that we made such a cute one :c)

Probably I won't post anymore tonight...but I might...hard to say. Mostly I just want these pictures to be on the blog.

sorry for the suspense

I know I know...I left quite a cliffhanger yesterday with that "to be continued" business. The rest of the day was mildly uneventful - the biggest adventure was that Joshua got to sit in the front of the shopping cart for the first time! Now that he's doing pretty good at sitting up, and doesn't quite fit in his carseat anymore, he's entered the stage where he has to actually be awake at the grocery store. He seemed quite interested in the whole situation...but he was really rather serious the whole time. He wasn't sad, but he didn't really smile either...that's the way he used to be at bath time, and now bath time is one of his favorite times of day! Now I always use the shower sprayer thing to fill his baby bathtub (which sits in the big tub now), and spray him all over while I fill it. He LOVES that...unless I get too much water in his eyes at first. If he doesn't have much water in his eyes, he'll stick out his tongue until I spray a little water on his mouth...then he giggles a lot and kicks his feet crazily and sticks his tongue out again. I love that baby! We haven't gotten any bathtime pictures in a long time...I think it's time to get a few more.

This month we've been working on a budget...well working on actually following a budget. This is the first time I've done this - I have never been super good at managing my money, so it's mildly painful for me. I do like spreadsheets, though (yeah, I know - ridiculously nerdy), so the only part i'm enjoying is setting up the spreadsheet, creating all the equations that show how much in the categories, and the difference, and the running balance, etc. etc. I actually like that part. But I made it so that our monthly income minus our spending is in red...and I don't like it that it's in red. Red means we've spent too much. We still have one paycheck coming in, though. It's been a big month in terms of having bought new glasses for both of us and a year of contacts for me, so that ended up being like $700. i'm quite sure that Joshua is doomed to wear glasses - pretty much everyone on both sides of our immediate family's needs them. I think my brother does, and he's just in denial, but possibly he missed the blind gene...

Baby's crying - poor little sick baby - gotta publish this. bye!

on we go

Ok. It's 1:15.

My day so far:
got up
fed baby
took a shower
got dressed
held sad baby who has a cold
ate breakfast
fed sad baby
called electrician to make appointment to fix broken heat lamp fixture
called carpet cleaner to schedule time to fix another part of carpet from yesterday
refilled prescription
put sad baby down for nap
did move-in paperwork and walk-through with first new resident
got very sad baby up from his nap
changed sad baby's diaper and clothes after he got sick all over them :c(
showed other carpet cleaner where big stains are in an apartment
got paint from paint vendor and showed him sample of wood we need the paint matched for
did move-in paperwork with second new resident (Nathan was home to do the walk-through)
put up closed sign
ate lunch
fed sad baby again
tried to put sad baby down for a nap
picked up sad baby from crib after nap didn't work so well
typed on blog while sad baby played on the floor fairly happily
picked up sad baby to try to get him to take his nap

to be continued...

wonderful moments

I love my baby - take a look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu7infUXnz4

That was two days ago - he didn't do it at all yesterday...maybe one or two here and there, but nothing nearly as exciting as that night! I'm sure he'll do it again :c)

Well, there's a new week ahead, huh? What's on my plate for this week? Today there are carpet cleaners coming to work on three apartments, paint people coming to drop off an order of paint and to match a color for our moldings (mouldings?) so we can make more corner pieces to fit on the walls where they have fallen off, and a previous resident coming to pick up coffee they left in their apartment.

I already ordered some new screens, a new weather strip for a door, contacted someone who hasn't finished their application process yet, talked with one of the people moving in tomorrow, contacted our handyman about coming on Wednesday to do a bunch of stuff, and got a good start on all the piles of paperwork for tomorrow's two move-ins. I also called my boss about finding new cleaning people cuz the new ones we started using are no good, and called some other people about getting some forms we're running very low on. Also photocopied a bunch of recycling notices that go with the move-in packets and put together a bunch of new packets after I got new stock of forms. Annnnd I've eaten some stuff, played with and changed Joshua a bunch, fed him two and a half times, and put him down for a nap.

It's not even noon!

Ya know what's weird? When I was filling out my profile for this blog, in the section marked "interests," it took me a long time to fill in a lot of stuff. I'm sure I have a lot of interests, but I feel like in the last few years, I haven't been able to really pursue them very much. My job at Willamette was very demanding and required me to be on campus most weekends and most weeknights, not to mention all day. So I do love camping and hiking, but I sure haven't done much of it in years. I also really enjoyed rock climbing and would love to do that again, but I haven't done that since I was probably 15 - wow, almost 10 YEARS ago! It's kind of sad how much of an effort you have to make to keep doing the things you enjoy doing when life happens.

And now...we have a baby, which certainly puts limits on being able to go out and do stuff, but with this job, I've had stuff I needed to be here at the apartments for on 17 of the last 22 days. So much for days off, right? We're supposed to have 2 days a week off, and I'm really only supposed to work 16 hours a week...but that doesn't really happen.

We have to be very deliberate in our planning and scheduling to make simple trips work - and I don't mean trips like going up to see my parents, I mean trips like going to the park for a walk with Joshua.

I think I have a new goal - to try to make plans to go do things that we enjoy - usually with Joshua and sometimes without him. Now we just have to figure out what those things are!

Since I've gotten a lot of my griping about this job out of my system in the last few days, maybe I'll be able to focus on better things - happier things! I was going to list what else is going on this week, but I don't really want to - it actually could be a pretty slow week, which would be amazing. I don't have anything scheduled that has to do with the apartments from Wednesday afternoon until the first day of November!! Other than faxing in reports on Sunday, but that doesn't take a lot of time. A lot of things may come up in that time and I may end up scheduling plenty of things during that week of freedom, but it makes me happy to look at those blank days!

In other news, I saw three big birds in the trees outside our living room window - I think they were Northern Flickers. One looked like a male and the other two looked like females. They seemed to be acting like woodpeckers, but I don't think they were woodpeckers - they were bigger and brown. That made me happy.

Well, I'm off to put together move-in packets, eat some more food, see my husband when he comes home for lunch, play with Joshy when he wakes up, and do business with all the vendors coming today for various things.

Gratitude

I really appreciate the encouragement from everyone - it means a lot to me! I feel like my last post was kind of complaining about stuff, so I think it is really important for me to write about what I am grateful for. Kris was right about the fact that I get to be home and be with Joshua, even though there is so much else to do - i'm not missing out on his accomplishments and development. He is a wonderful baby - here is my favorite recent picture of him. I'm considering contacting Fisher Price and asking if they want to use it when advertising this high chair.

So i'm super grateful for being at home with Joshua.

I'm so grateful for my wonderful husband and all he does for me - especially for how patient he is and how much he makes me smile. When we got married, he told me that he'd make me smile every day. And he has!

I'm grateful for my family and how supportive and good they are to me. I'm grateful that we make an effort to stay close and as my generation in the family grows up and has fat babies, that we're growing closer! :c)

I'm grateful for friends nearby and far away - especially for those friendships that have lasted for so many years in spite of distance!

I'm grateful for my calling as a Young Women leader at church - the young women are great examples to me and I enjoy learning from them when I teach and getting to know them better at activies. I've been really disconnected from them while I was really pregnant and then since Joshua has been born, so I'm finally getting back in the swing of things and I'm looking forward to it.

I'm grateful for our living situation, believe it or not, even with all of the headaches the job causes, we could never afford an apartment this nice, and the money it brings in allows Nathan to work part-time, so hopefully he'll be able to finish up school while we're here.

That's certainly not all I'm grateful for - I'm especially grateful for my faith and understanding of who I am and why I'm here, and where I'd like to be for eternity. My faith helps me to set goals for who I want to be, the things I want to do, and what is most important. I am grateful for direction and optimism and a clear understanding of forgiveness.

Well my dear little baby is sleeping - for that I am very grateful, too! Sometimes he has rough nights, but he's doing a lot better at sleeping for a long time, which is nice. I'm going to go get him some bigger diapers - he's already going to be in a size 4! That will help him sleep through the night better - lately he's been leaking every single night. I'm sure you wanted to know that :c)

Oh yeah - last night Nathan and I went on our very first date since Joshua was born. We went to The Best Little Roadhouse and then to Konditerei for expensive but delicious cake. It was nice to go out, and we REALLY appreciated Mindy for babysitting. Sadly, Joshua cried for about 35 minutes of the hour and 20 minutes or so that we were gone. Poor Mindy. He'd had a rough day, though. Barely any napping because we had to wake him up to go with us to the eye doctor, and then we took him to Willamette to see people, so he didn't have any long good quality naps. Hopefully that won't mess up the good patterns he's finally getting into!

Well as soon as Nathan is done with putting sealant on linoleum in an apartment, I'm going to Keizer to return a frame for Mindy, and then going grocery shopping, and then coming back here by 3 cuz Amber is coming over! I'm also teaching a lesson at church tomorrow, so I need to plan that! I'll get that started now.

Sooo...

Well the purpose of wanting to write in a journal the other night was to vent about stuff I'm stressed about, so I think I'll start out by doing that.

Here are the main things I would like to just be worried about (that I already AM...but with the addition of all the apartment management stuff that I wish I didn't have to worry about)...

Taking care of Joshua and being a good mom
Nurturing my marriage and being a good wife
Taking care of our home (cleaning, laundry, millions of other neglected things)
Cooking what I know how to cook and learning to cook more stuff
My church calling and responsibilities
Staying in touch with family and friends
Keeping track of and working on our budget
Getting insurance in order (health, life, renters, car, etc.)

But here are all the things with this job that I have to worry about on a daily basis:

Doing tons of weekly and monthly paperwork about the status of things and our earnings requests
Doing a lot of daily accounting and paperwork for all of the rent checks etc. that we receive (at least for the first two weeks of the month)

Doing paperwork as people tell us they're moving out
Contacting at least 4 vendors (cleaning, carpets, painting, blinds) for each apartment coming available (and I think we've had to fill 15 of our 30 in 5 months)
Signing paperwork after each vendor is done in the apartments (that alone would be at very least 80 knocks on the door)
Documenting, filing, and sending in all of that paperwork

Creating and putting up advertisements for the apartments

Showing an empty apartment or sometimes our apartment whenever people come

Taking, checking, sending in applications

Being there to answer the phone and get the faxes when Rental Screening sends it back

Calling the people back

Taking phone calls, emails, and knocks on the door of people interested in the apartments

Taking calls, emails, or verbal or written maintenance requests when appliances etc. have problems
Calling appliance companies/plumbers/electricians/pest control/maintenance workers/etc. to come and fix them (this also happens when apartments get turned over and also, Nathan tries to do as many of these things as possible)
Worrying about these getting done and balancing what Nathan does/other vendors do/follow-up/paperwork/documentation/etc.
Often going with the repair person to the apartment to let them in and/or be in there with them while maintenance is performed. I do this less now that I used to - now I often just open the door and give them the key
Contacting our boss when appliances need replacement
Being there when those delivery people come and letting them in/giving them the key/signing the paperwork

Making sense of what the previous managers did and some of the messes they left that we had to sort out
Creating new filing systems for pretty much everything
Creating filing systems that should have been there but never were (for 10 years!)

Creating parking permit system, getting vehicle info from everyone, documenting assignments of permits, distributing permits, reminding residents about permits and parking policies, giving parking violations, getting yelled at for giving parking violations

Creating, printing, and distributing newsletters each month
Creating, printing, laminating, posting informative signs outside our apartment, as well as various closed signs (for the day, until such and such time, or for the evening)

Taking photos for, creating, printing, keeping stocked outside our door full color flyers
Filling information out on, folding, and keeping stocked brochures

When new residents move in, getting together all of this stuff:
Filling out many parts of 3 page rental agreement
Filling out parts of 3 addendums
Filling out stuff in the Rules & Regulations handbook
Filling out Recycling Notice
Labeling new file
Creating new ledger card
Filling out new check-in/check-out form after noting conditions in the apartment
Assigning parking pass
Keys
Business card
Recent newsletter
Then we have to go through all of this with them, get their money, and walk through the apartment noting damages they see

It's frustrating because there is so so much more.

See what I mean?

I just want to be able to be at home and take care of my family and my calling at church.

It made me tired writing all of that - maybe it didn't help.

Oh well. Off I go.

My very first post

Well, I've joined the world of blogging. Welcome to my blog! I couldn't find a blank journal when I was looking for one the other night, and typing really is a lot quicker anyway.