I Have Camped.

It's official--I have camped. In a tent. Now, just to clarify, this past weekend was not the first time in my life I've gone camping. I used to go a lot as a kid, when my dad would take my brother and me in my grandpa's old 70's era camper (which I thought was a hotel on wheels. It had a bathroom inside it, for heaven's sake). But I haven't camped in almost fifteen years, and tent camping is not something I've ever done--aside from setting up a tent in the backyard when I was young and playing in it during the day. Hardly the same.



So this weekend we went back to Punderson State Park and camped, tent and all. I survived and, to my surprise, enjoyed most of it (with two exceptions: the hissing/grunting mystery animal that was roaming around for the first half of the evening and the surprise rainstorm that showed up the second half). I'd definitely do it again, but I'll probably pick a time that's a little cooler and less bug infested as this time of year. But no more than one night in the tent...I just can't. I like showers, air conditioning and mattresses too much.

Punderson is a gorgeous park and less than an hour away, so it makes for a great camping location for us. It's large and laid out well; there were a lot of other campers there but it never felt crowded. There are playgrounds, beaches, hiking trails and a lake where you can kayak, canoe and fish. There's also an old manor (rumored to be haunted) with a pool, restaurant and hotel rooms, plus a couple dozen small cabins to rent. There are bathrooms located near all the camping loops (not fancy, but they have toilets that flush and sinks with running water and soap--a win in my book). And there's a small convenient store at the entrance with all the necessities, plus ice cream and coffee (arguably, also necessities).

We left Saturday morning and made a donut stop on the way. We spent the day reading at the campsite, visiting the playgrounds and beach, taking hikes/walks, and roasting marshmallows. Pretty standard camping activities :)

While we were walking near the road I told her "you have to hold someone's hand", so she got me on a technicality and held onto her own hand.

Happy Camping :)

~Stacy

Summer

My poor blog, it's been so neglected. Many things have been neglected since starting my new work schedule and figuring out when home chore stuff gets done. This past week was consumed with setting up for a garage sale, which was quite an undertaking. While we were in Michigan we were talking about how if a catastrophe happened and we had a few minutes to grab some possessions, everything we'd want (and then some) was in the car with us. So that got us thinking about excess stuff and how great it would feel to get rid of it--which coincided nicely with an e-mail from my neighbor about setting up a street wide sale. We went through every room in our house (including the attic and basement, two areas I avoid if possible) and unloaded a ton of stuff. My parents did the same so between the two households our garage was full to bursting. It was pretty successful, but I'm glad it's over and if I never do another one again it will be just fine :)

These were my favorite customers:

This guy was not my favorite. Cute as he is, he eats all my strawberries before I can pick them. ALL of them. At least he doesn't care for my tomatoes (even if he does dump the pot over to get to the strawberries).

I did buy one thing from the street sale: a Nemo costume. This is why:

I love how she's just wearing it and eating a marshmallow like it's no big deal.

After the sale wrapped up Chad and I got to go out and celebrate our anniversary--9 years! We went downtown to the Greenhouse Tavern, stopped at the Cleveland Clothing Co. t-shirt shop, and then walked around Edgewater Park. 

Then today, an unplanned morning trip to Oberlin to walk around the park, visit the general store, and have lunch at Black River Cafe. Lovely.

I love summer. It's officially summer now, which is great. I'm glad the days are long because I need them--I need to soak up the sunshine and the warm weather and beautiful colors and sounds and smells of this glorious season so I can remember why the heck I live here come winter. In the meantime, we'll be outside.

Happy Summer :)

~Stacy

Rusty

I've been feeling a bit rusty lately--as in, mentally creaky. Like, you can probably hear the gears of my brain turning as I attempt to think really hard or complete a task. Particularly the gears responsible for memory, focus and any kind of technical skill.

If you read this blog, chances are you actually know me in real life because a grand total of about five people read this blog and I am likely related to all of them. But in case you did not know this, I recently went back to work part-time.

When I was pregnant with Charlotte, I was working full-time (and then some) as an HR Director for a non-profit. I had planned on going back to work part-time after my maternity leave was up, but after just a few weeks home with my new baby I tearfully told Chad that we had to find a way for me to stay home with her. So we did, and thus my maternity leave went from an expected three months to almost three years.

During that time, I still worked as an independent consultant for the same organization. Thankfully their Executive Director (my boss) is an incredible person who allowed me to keep my foot in the door and work for them as a consultant, rather than just telling me to take a hike :) So while I have been working these past three years, I've not actually been anyone's employee. I've had no office, no co-workers, no space separate from the one I live in to physically go. I worked here and there, between naps and story times, after her bedtime, and at random points during the week where I could squeeze it in.

Somewhere along the way I started getting antsy. Over the winter it was especially noticeable, likely due to the hellish winter that went on for 74 months and almost took my little remaining sanity with it when it finally left in May. I was feeling out of balance in a way that I knew I had to do something about, but wasn't sure what. Charlotte had become a bit more independent, I was feeling stuck in a rut, and I was really starting to miss interaction with adults and having a group of peers and co-workers around me for longer than an hour here and there when I had a meeting to go to. Sure, I run into other adults every day but typically it's in a setting where those adults are also with their child(ren) and our conversations are inevitably about said child(ren).

So on a cold winter day in January my boss called to ask if I'd be willing to come back to the office one day a week. I could not say yes fast enough. I started in February, found that I was enjoying it a great deal, and now another day has been added to my schedule. My contract as a consultant ended in May, and as of last week I am back at my old job two days per week as an actual employee--with an office, an email address, phone extension and space completely separate from my home.

It's a unique situation to jump back in to your same job that you left three years ago. First of all, the organization moved office buildings about two years ago--to a different city and everything--so there was a lot right off the bat that was unfamiliar. Little things, like where the silverware drawer in the kitchen is or how they work their new fancy coffeemaker, are new to me. There are so many new faces. I used to know everyone's name, and now at least five times a day I am introducing myself to someone I've never met--sometimes employees who have been there over a year or two. I used to know everyone's job title, phone extension, work site. Now I have to check a list for everything. Passwords to all of the websites I need to access? I don't know a one. I have a list of login information that's six pages long and I have to refer to it every time I work.

They have a new fax machine, new copier, new mail filing system, new phones. It's all foreign. They have different people who do different jobs, some jobs that didn't even exist last time I was there and some completely altered and reassigned.

I filled out new hire paperwork, something I used to administer before, and had to ask an embarrassing amount of questions. Where should I sign? What forms do you need back? Who should I turn this into? I used to answer those questions and now I'm the asker.

I feel like the new kid, but then again I have more history overall at the agency than many of the people there. I just don't have the recent history.

So I'm rusty. Creaky. But so glad to working these forgotten gears in my brain again. It's a good thing--for all of us.

Vacation Part II: Saugatuck and Holland

Continuing on with the summary of our Michigan vacation...on Day 2 we visited Saugatuck, which is about a thirty minute drive north from South Haven. It's another small beach town full of cute shops, restaurants, and art galleries and also has a few beaches and a state park (though the state park is a bit of a drive from the downtown area, which is where we spent our time).

The downtown area in Saugatuck was probably my favorite of all the towns we visited. It had a playground right in the middle of it, so I could visit the shops while Charlotte and Chad hung out here.

On the last day of our trip we went to Holland, MI, which is about fifteen minutes north of Saugatuck. It's the biggest town we visited, and more spread out than the others. There are lots of things to do in Holland, but we spent most of our time at a beach. We had walk up a large sand dune to get to it, then down a large flight of steps. It was a gorgeous beach with brilliant blue water--one of the nicest beaches I've ever seen.

It was a great trip, but it was good to get home. By the last day Charlotte was asking "to go home to our blue house", but then today she wanted to know if we could "go back to the rental house and have vacation?"

Enjoy your week :)

~Stacy

Three Years Ago

Exactly three years ago we were spending our final evening as just a couple. In about nine hours we'd be heading to the hospital to so I could finally give birth, after what felt like a 29 month pregnancy.

Three years ago I was six days past my due date, very large, very uncomfortable, and very excited to finally meet my girl. The girl I'd tried to picture in my head over the past nine months (truthfully, much longer than that). I figured she would have blonde hair, I knew she'd have blue eyes, but beyond that I didn't really know what to expect.

I imagined that I might end up with a stubborn child, since it's a pretty strong trait of mine. I also thought there would be a good chance my child would have a silly sense of humor, after her Daddy. I was correct on both counts.

What I was not expecting, however, was to create a person with the biggest and best personality I have ever met. From the moment she entered the world she was an active and eager participant, taking a few minutes to look around the hospital room and take it in before letting out any kind of cry. I knew she was healthy since the doctor and nurse were unalarmed, but all the babies I'd seen born in movies or TV shows always came out bellowing. I finally asked the nurse "shouldn't she be crying?" and it wasn't until the nurse wiped her eyes with a cloth that she let out a wail.

She makes friends wherever she goes and can charm anyone into a smile. If we go anywhere and she sees another kid, she immediately approaches them and refers to them as "my friend" regardless of how long they actually spend together. She's game for anything; as long as we're going somewhere or seeing people, she's happy.

Her extroverted, social personality is what threw me for a loop. It's very different from mine--I have to remind myself to approach new people, engage and be social. It isn't a natural part of my personality. Where I am tired out by large social settings, she is recharged.

I am thankful that her personality is so different. It constantly takes me out of my comfort zone in a good way and serves as a daily reminder that the world is a place to be explored and enjoyed. I have always been an optimist, but she gives me a reason to stay that way.

She loves books and will sit for ages making up her own stories or reciting parts of books she's memorized. She has an imagination that fascinates me and a sense of humor beyond her years. Sometimes she shocks me with her intelligence (as she gets older, I'll have to brush up on a lot of things just to keep up with her) and she seems to have inherited the musical gene that skipped me. She makes up songs for just about everything and asks us to do the same. She watches PBS Kids every morning over her breakfast of a waffle and banana, loves peanut butter sandwiches (no jelly), could eat yogurt with every meal, and will never ever turn down ice cream or chocolate chip cookies.

She doesn't just walk anywhere--she skips, gallops, dances or runs. She loves swings, slides, climbing, and copying Daddy's yoga moves. She shows an athletic side that, sadly, also mostly skipped over me. She wants to wear a baseball mitt as much as a princess gown and is almost never without nail and toenail polish. She loves to run around "with my piggies out" (barefoot) and loves Buzz Lightyear almost as much as Cinderella.

Her favorite color is every color--her answer will change depending on the direction of the wind. She loves anything sparkly and has never seen a cat she didn't like. She gets excited to ride her bike every day and cannot wait to go to school. She wants to ride a school bus, drive a car, learn to sew and marry her Daddy.

She dislikes loud motorcycles, thunderstorms, feeling even a little bit embarrassed, slimy things, rain,  or going to bed on time.

She is fiercely independent, a master negotiator (come to our house at bedtime to see what this girl comes up with to delay the process), impatient, and very stubborn. If she wants alone time she'll ask for it and don't dare interrupt her. She wants to be a big girl most of the time, unless it's inconvenient--then she sorely misses being a baby. She has an irresistible charm that I'm not sure she's fully aware of, but it scores her a shocking amount of free stuff. Try going to the farmer's market at Crocker Park with her some Saturday and you'll see what I mean; she just might come home with a chocolate croissant, lip balm, and a flower, all from different vendors and all for free.

Three years ago I did not yet know any of this. I could not have imagined the things to come, and so many things in such a short amount of time. This girl is my very, very best and I will do everything in my power to make sure that as she grows up the world does not dull her sparkle.

Happy 3rd Birthday to my beautiful Charlotte.

~Stacy