Memorial Day Weekend

What a great weekend, it really felt like a holiday. All of those years working in a fab made it easy to forget there are 3 day weekends that everyone else takes advantage of, and you don't have to treat them like any other old day. Of course one could argue every day is a holiday for me... That's somewhat true. But Jamie had a long weekend, so that was nice for all of us.

The first half of the weekend was pretty wet and rainy, which is a different sort of holiday all together in the desert. While we didn't actually do any projects, we did spend time preparing for them, so that counts as project work in my book. Jo and I scoped out some big-girl beds, Jamie and I made a big Home Depot trip (the first since the remodel) for paint and garage storage and garden plants. The plants did get planted. And we did a bunch of yard work. Which is never ending unless there's snow on the ground.

We ate lots of summer holiday-y food, like chicken wings and burgers and corn on the cob and watermelon. If you can get grossly fat on watermelon, I'm about to find out. And I made rice krispie treats, a.k.a. crack cakes. Of course, no one helps me eat them. Jordan doesn't like them. But if I get fat I'm blaming the watermelon. Oh, and the baby of course.

On Memorial Day we went to Bandelier National Monument for a day of hiking. It was awesome! It's about 2 hrs away, near Los Alamos, and has cool cliff dwellings and Indian ruins. I couldn't tell you much more than that, because, true to form, I never read any of the museum-type info. Probably because growing up, whenever we would go anywhere (museum, zoo, sea world), we'd have to wait while my mom read every snipet of information. But I digress. We started out with the easier cliff dwellings hike, which Jordan loved. It's pretty short, paved, but with lots of stairs and ladders to climb.

We could see a strom brewing, and on the way back we got wet. They had a Buffalo Dance demonstration at the visitor center, so Jo was all about the drums and chanting, but she couldn't get a good view. After lunch we set out for the waterfalls, which is another pretty easy hike. Of course, I didn't have to "wear" Jo.

And she fell asleep on the way back, head bobbing and drooling all over Jamie. Good times.

So now it's back to the grind. It's nice to be caught up on the pictures and the blog. Laundry can wait.

Luxuries

What I would pay other people to do (if I was rich...)

- Bathe my dogs, like once a month (it's been about 9 mos since their last bath).

- Clean all the freakin wood blinds in this house. Ugh!!!

- Dig up the crab grass, which is now about 20% of the back yard.

- Do my taxes.

- Shop for the prefect greeting cards for all occasions.

- Deliver the thing I forgot to buy at the grocery store.

Back from Vay-cay

Home sweet home... Jordan and I just got back from a two week vacation in Austin. We had an awesome trip, got to see lots of friends and family, and came back relaxed and ready for a beautiful ABQ summer. Below are some highlights from our trip:

Graduation - my little sis just finished her masters in nursing and she's set to administer anesthesia to the pained in Houston. We had a packed and cozy car ride to Houston the morning after Jo and I arrived (me, Jo, Nana, Pa, and Grandmama) and ate some good Tex Mex, suffered thru Houston rush hour, and attended graduation. Jo and I stayed with Auntie Karen, and got to feast on kolaches for breakfast (ABQ needs a Kolache Factory!!) Jordan and I survived the Houston humidity and were reacquainted with AC.

Mothers Day - I was on vacation and my mom did everything for me for two weeks. It doesn't get better than that. She did want to go to the mall (gasp), where I did all of the shopping and spending.

A Baby is Born - Our good friends LaShelle and hubby Jeremy welcomed baby boy Greyson into the world on 5/11. He's precious, and I'm starting to think just a little too easy on his mom and dad.... All he does is sleep and squeak!!! Good for them, I'm just jealous. I spent a good bit of time visiting with them and snuggling Greyson.

Playgroup Reunion - Jordan was one of a slew of Freescale babies born within a month or two of each other. Four of us started a regular playgroup when they were only a few months old. This was the first time all of the "original four" got together in almost two years! And the playgroup is about to double in size: 2 of us are preggers and one just had a baby.

Co-worker Lunch - I met up with some old office buddies from Freescale one afternoon and satisfied my Texadelphia craving. It was fun to hear about new babies and office gossip.

Family time -We got in lots of QT with the family as well. My Grandma was there the whole time we were, Karen came back after graduation for a few days to hang out with all of us, we met up with Papa and Dah and Jo's cousins for dinner and playground time, and of course Nana and Pa spent every minute possible spoiling Jordan to death. To be fair, they spoiled me, too.

Friends time - Besides our playdate, we had brunch with the Freys (pancake feast!) and got in a nice visit with the Pfeffers and their baby girl. Jordan had fun playing with kids and scored TWO tattoos that day.

General Laziness - I didn't cook, clean, wash laundry or fold it, barely ever had to change a diaper, read THREE books (that weren't Jordan's library books), only walked twice, slept til 7:30, ate plenty of junk, and took naps with Jo almost every day. That's vacation :-)

Oh. And this is what the fridge looked like when we got back:

Little Nugget

We "met" the baby today at our 1st trimester screen ultrasound. All looks well!! You could see fingers and toes; lots of detail for someone who's only 2.5 inches long. He (still convinced it's a "he") sucked his thumb, waved, stuck out his tongue a few times, and was generally very cooperative for the sonographer. We have lots of cute pics to show that actually look like a human baby. He measured a little big, right on the line of revising my due date back about a week. Just as long as he doesn't come Halloween night. I have plans.

Jordan was there, but she didn't get it. She was too preoccupied with wanting to lay on the table and get her own ultrasound. After watching for a bit, she started saying her tummy hurt and she was sick, while rubbing her belly and eying the doppler thingamajig. We tried to tell her there was a baby in Mama. It'll sink in soon enough.

What's been going on

We're getting ready for our trip to Austin this week, and I'm very much looking forward to going. Jordan's been giving me the blow by blow of what's going to go down: see Nana, see Pa, swim in the pool, ride on the plane. Here's my version: see Nana, see Pa, see Karen graduate, try to survive 24 hrs of Houston humidity, spend two weeks catching up with friends, and NOT cooking. I think I'm a little burned out on cooking, probably because everything I make I'm no longer in the mood for once it's made.... EVEN the desserts (wha?!?!)

We celebrated Jamie's Birthday this weekend with some Derby watching and dinner out. Jamie got all yard tools, so he did lawn work all day :-) Since there was no live racing here, we didn't go to the track to bet on the Derby, which turned out to be a real bummer because a long shot from NEW MEXICO won. And given the horse's roots, that's definitely the one we would have picked for our long shot bets. Oh well.

A friend of ours gave us their kid backpack for hiking. Jamie keeps insisting he can schlep Jordan's 35 lbs on the trails, so we put it to the test yesterday. He admits it'll take some getting used to. We just did a quick hike on the Embudo trail to the falls. Jordan loves the backpack. She always asks to sit in "the chair". It's a really nice pack, despite being Aggie maroon...

I think when we get back to the ABQ it'll feel like summer, which (hopefully) means a family vacation, swim lessons for Jo, cooking and eating outside, and who knows what else. It'll be our last summer as a threesome.