We have had a lot of changes in our household.

We've moved back to the wet side of the mountains. Big N is in middle school. Little N is in her final year of elementary school. Big A is a big A. Yes, since I haven't been posting a lot of blog updates there has been a little A.

So, to say things are moving forward is the understatement.

I've taken a hiatus from work to care for Big A and little A. I've done some consulting now that she is healthier. That's been a nice change of pace.

Welcome Baby A

I haven't been posting much lately, but in all reality, I haven't been ready to talk about everything that has happened over the last 6 weeks on such a public forum.

Baby A arrived in a beautiful and super fast home birth. We welcomed her into our home and everything looked great. She nursed within minutes of being born and then again before the midwives left.

Baby A then proceeded to give us a scare. She was admitted to Children's hospital about 3 days after she was born. After talking to her pediatrician, this was something so unexpected that no matter where she was born, she would have been home when everything got worse for her. We are happy to have had some time with her at home and look forward to having her home, again, when she is ready.

I've posted some information on a caring bridge site. I think I needed to be a little more private while I processed what she was going through.

The site is here:Baby A's caring bridge site.

The dreaded question...

There are many articles that talk about the lack of support women in this country have when it comes to the decision to work or not to work. On some level, we self-perpetuate the myth that women should be able to have a career and a family. Companies don't have day care onsite, which they should. Companies don't push to offer more time off for a mom and a new baby, which they should. You have to fight to pump your milk someplace other than the bathroom because companies want to ignore that some of the employees will lactate.

I got the question today or perhaps it was a statement on my current life choice, "SO, does this mean you'll finally quit and stay home with the kids?"

Why is it a question only for woman? I have a Masters in Electrical Engineering and a career in semiconductors spanning twelve years. It is assumed that I will give it all up. Why do we as a country not find a way to better support women and families in the work place instead of assuming that half of our workforce should be at home.

Why wasn't the question, "So, will your husband finally quit and stay home with the kids?"

We don't know how to handle professional women. Period. Let's look at the latest CEO of Yahoo. She started the job six months pregnant. Should this be a major issue? At six months pregnant there was no way she was trying to hide it. However, investors panicked. Pregnancy should be viewed as good thing. It shows that this woman is healthy and young with lots of time to invest in the company. And let's be realistic, as a CEO day care costs will not be an issue. It's a little different for those of us lower down in a company, but somehow her pregnancy upset the business world.

As a professional woman, it is hard and it is even harder to connect with other women and feel like part of a community.

Going back to work with a newborn is hard. There is no ifs ands or buts about it. You don't want to leave your baby with someone else, but your do. Not to mention, if you do not have a good day care situation (another story for another day) it goes from hard to horrible. Maybe my job situation will change, there aren't any job options for me in a small town and my boss could tire of my working remote. Until that happens, I will continue to work.

Polka Dots!

Little N was helping me go through some hand-me-down maternity clothes the other day and came across a great little polka-dot sleeveless shirt. The shirt had gigantic black polka dots sprinkled across it. She immediately squealed in delight. Little N ran to her closet and produced her Easter dress from last spring. Wouldn't you know it, her Easter dress also has gigantic black polka dots sprinkled across it.

Little N informed me that I was to wear this polka dot shirt to church and she would wear her polka dot sundress. However, it was December and not exactly sundress weather. We dug around to find sweaters for both of us to wear during this non-sundress weather.

I had a lovely day being a polka dot twin with my little girl.

Big N's Last day of 2nd grade

Today was the last day of school for both kids. Both Pete and I took the day off so we could go to the assembly. Big N got a certificate for perfect attendance. He has had perfect attendance for the 3rd year in a row.

The sites in Yellowstone

One of the first places we visited in the park was the mud volcanos on the west side of the park.


Both kids loved hiking through the mud volcano site. Little N listened well and stayed on the path, which made our lives a lot easier. Big N was pretty thrilled using my old digital camera to take his own photos.




Little N was not a fan of the sulfur smell that was prevalent at the geothermic sites in the park.




I harassed one of the other park visitors in order to get a rare photo of the entire family.




Later that day we stumbled across the Lower Falls at Yellowstone. This area appears to be responsible for the name of the park. It was spectacular to see.

Summer Trip to Yellowstone

This summer en route to the family reunion in North Dakota, we drove through Yellowstone National Park. We left on the morning of June 18th and arrived in the park on Father's Day (June 19th).


We camped in Bozeman, Montana the night before and entered at the West entrance on Father's day. The drive into the park was beautiful on its own.

From what I have heard about trips to Yellowstone, Father's day weekend must be an ideal time to arrive. The park was not at all crowded. We've heard stories of long traffic jams throughout the park. Apparently, everyone else was busy honoring their dad on Father's day because we hardly saw any other cars. Sorry, Dad.



However, we did see buffalo almost immediately upon entering the park.


The rivers were really high. This was actually the case for about every river we saw along the drive through Washington, Idaho and into Montana.


There was snow on the ground in the passes, which shouldn't surprise anyone. The passes were over 8600 feet.



When we stayed in the park, we camped at the Fishing Bridge campground. This was a great location requiring hard sided vehicles. We figured out why on our last day in the park when we saw a bear wandering through the campground as we were pulling. It did make me rethink having let the kids play in the snow in the woods near our spot.

The campground is over 7000 feet high, meaning it was very cold at night! We had some very cuddly kids every morning. The kids even played in the snow around the campsite using their sand buckets.

Family Reunion in North Dakota

I owe the blog a number of posts. We've been so busy this summer, I feel like I am just now starting to catch up.

At the end of June we went to my family reunion in Rock Lake, North Dakota.


It was nice to see everyone and to meet my cousin's baby, G. His smile could warm anyone's heart.


The kids got to see cousin A, who is walking up a storm


More photos of baby A at the Family blog
It is always nice to see Grandma. We miss her.

Pete's Potato Salad

Three weeks ago, I flew off to Bangalore for work. I flew home a week ago and Pete left for Boston the day after I got back. Needless to say, I am looking forward to talking to Pete when it doesn't involve first figuring out what time it is where the other person is.

In honor of Pete coming home, I'm making one of his favorites. It is actually more of a recent favorite I've put together based on tips for some of my friends in my life.



Pete's Potato Salad

2-3 lbs of white and red new potatoes
1 or 2 celery stalk - diced
1 dill pickles (spicy garlic!) - diced
1/4 cup diced onion
1-2 Tablespoons white vinegar
4 slices of bacon, cooked, cooled and diced.
1 or 2 boiled eggs, diced
Kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper
1-2 Tablespoons Mustard
Mayo (~3/4 cup)
paprika

Clean and chop potatoes into large bite-sized pieces. Boil until fork tender. Drain. Add to a large bowl and toss with vinegar, Salt and Pepper. Cover the bowl and chill in your refrigerator for a few hours.

Once potatoes are cooled, add pickles, onion, celery, boiled egg, diced bacon. Hold a little of the bacon off to the side to sprinkle on top. In a separate bowl, mix the mustard, paprika and mayo. Add salt and pepper to taste. Fold into the potato mixture. Sprinkle remaining bacon on top.

Serve chilled.

Seeing Thomas

Today Thomas the Tank engine came to visit Seattle, well, Northbend. The kids were thrilled! The major hit of the day, other than the ride, was the garden railroad display at the railroad museum. Big N would have stood there all day if we had let him.



The second big event was having Thomas run over some pennies. The kids thought that was pretty cool.





We are convinced that this may be the last year that the visit to see Thomas is a magical event. Big N enjoyed the visit, but it wasn't quite like the time we saw it when he was three.

Big N loves trains!

Big N received a train from his Uncle Brian for his birthday. We let him take it out on special occasions because it is more fragile than anything he normally plays with. This occasion warranted a song and dance.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

The big fence project

I caught Pete working on the fence yesterday...



Its a little hard to see the orange line on the fly rod, but this was a break to practice casting a fly rod.

To his credit, he has been slaving away at this fence for weeks now and he just received this fly rod.

Tooth Fairy

The tooth fairy came to visit Little N while she slept last night. The tooth fairy left five dollar coins in Little N's borrowed tooth pillow. However, Little N's wild sleeping habits sent the pillow flying and one of the dollars disappeared.

Little N was disappointed, Big N was convinced her tooth must not have been clean enough since there was only $4 in the pillow. Big N had received $5 for his first lost tooth just over a month ago. This really didn't help the morning go well.

Luckily, we did find missing dollar this evening. It had become tangled up inside her pillow case. As far as Little N is concerned, all is now right with the world.

The tooth fairy and I need to chat about possibly switching to paper money in the future.

Toothless Tuesday

Little N lost her first tooth yesterday evening! I was horribly unprepared, expecting her first tooth to come out much later using her older brother as a reference. Once again, I have proven to myself that by having two children all I am really sure of is how completely different they both can be.

Luckily for me, Big N jumped in and offered his monster tooth pillow for the tooth fairy visit. Little N was un-phased at not having her own pillow. In fact, I think she was very excited to use Big N's special pillow. He was very excited to let her share it, which brought out a little bit of my momma pride in him. It was a sweet moment in the household.

My little girl is growing up so fast and enjoying her toothless Tuesday.

Little N is ready for the summer!

My latest project has been a swim suit cover-up for Little N. It had to twirl and it needed a hood for wet hair. I also thought a pocket would be nice. The cover-up is loosely based off of one I came across on crafterhours blog. I used a sweatshirt to build my pattern and added a big front pocket.

Little N could not have been more thrilled with the outcome. She wants to wear it as a dress.

I started with two towels with complementary colors in them.


I then traced a dress that fit's Little N well and added a very generous seam allowance. My thoughts are that the beach cover-up should be loose and slightly large. I made the dress a little boxier. I also shortened it and planned on a 7-inch ruffle on the bottom of the dress. I used a sweatshirt to figure out how large the hood should be and how to modify the back piece to attach the hood.

I used my overlock machine for all of the seams. I only ended up using the sewing machine to attach the pockets, bias binding and hem the bottom.

I have one happy little girl who is ready to swim!

Sugar Cookies

Both the Ns and I made cookies on Saturday. The kids had wanted to do a rolled sugar cookie using cutters. I decided to try the recipe on the back of the last bag of sugar. I haven't found a sugar cookie recipe I really like, so this one appeared to be as good as any other.

There was a slight problem in that the dough was a drop cookie dough, not a rolled cookie dough. The kids were having no part of a drop cookie. They both wanted to roll out their dough and use the cookie cutters.

Little N hasn't quite grasped the concept of not overworking the dough, but she had a blast doing so. If it meant we didn't eat (or in this case, bake) half the cookies, she didn't seem to notice. Big N wasn't a fan of the sticky dough, but he was a fan of the edible cookies. As a compromise, we pulled out all the play dough while the cookies baked and all was right with the world.

I was quite happy with the flavor and texture of the cookies, so I will have to share the recipe before I toss out the empty bag.

Old-Time Soft Sugar cookies
Courtesy of the Fred Meyer bag of sugar

1/2 cup shortening 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup light brown sugar 1 egg 3/4 cup buttermilk 1 teaspoon vanilla	2 Cups all-purpose flour 1/2 tspn baking soda 1/2 tspn salt
Cream together shortening and sugars. Mix in egg, followed by the buttermilk and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and stir into the wet mixture. Chill dough for about an hour. Drop by rounded teaspoon 2 inches apart onto a parchment covered baking sheet. Sprinkle sugar with cinnamon (or colored sugar) on top of the cookie. Bake at 400ºF for 7-9 minutes or until set.

NOTE
I do not keep buttermilk on hand. The best substitution I've found is to pour your milk into a glass cup measure and add a tablespoon of white vinegar. Let it sit for a few minutes, and you have a great alternative to running to the store for buttermilk.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great time with all our guests. Happy Thanksgiving!

Vacation!

The kids spent an entire week at Grandpa and Grandma's house. They were able to go to Vacation Bible School at Grandma and Grandpa's church in Everett. Pete and I took advantage of the quiet and went on vacation!

Pete and I drove to Winthrop over the Cascade highway, starting in Everett. We spent a few days at Sun Mountain, horse back riding and hiking. It was gorgeous! I have never seen so many deer in my life. We drove home through Wenatchee.

This was a really nice trip and the view was spectacular. It didn't hurt that the hotel was pretty empty on a Monday night with most of the crowds showing up as we were checking out.