Category: Ryan/Married Life

Tips, tricks and adventures in the life of a wife and mother.

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Random Ryan/Married Life

Better than it started

My birthday ended better than it started, which is pretty good, considering how grumpy I was yesterday morning. Not only did Ryan surprise me by coming home from work at 9:30 (his work day starts at 7) and baking me a cake and straightening up the house, but he stayed home the whole day (hurray!).

I’m afraid I didn’t use our time very well 🙁 . But it was really nice to have an extra, extra long weekend and to have him home with me. Hayden wasn’t as grumpy as I’d feared, either.

Ryan got me a very sweet card and a pair of books with parenting coping strategies (which I know I need; I was very happy to get them!).

I sent him out to get rainbow chip frosting for my cake. A few minutes after I left, my sister arrived at my door. She came in and we talked for a minute before she said, “Well, go get ready.”

“For what?”

“Ryan’s taking you out to dinner. Surprise!”

Indeed. I felt like eating at Happy Sumo, so we did. I was sorely tempted to get what I did last time we were there (Fuji Chicken), but I ended up getting something different.

Before we left, we realized that the last time we were there was nearly a year ago—my belated birthday celebration. Should we make it a tradition?

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Kids/Parenting Random Ryan/Married Life

Things I learned while “working” again

Here are my life lessons from “working” again this week:

  • Planning ahead is a beautiful thing. I think last Wednesday was the perfect day. I had three posts live before I got out of bed. So, naturally, I slept in.
  • Getting up early can also be a beautiful thing. Cue the picture of Haydie slapping his forehead. I can’t believe it either. But on days that I got up early, I got a ton done. Even if it was all I could do to wade through news stories and e-mails before Hayden got up, it made my day go smoother. (Also beautiful: going to bed at 9. Divine!)
  • I can afford to take time to myself. These last two weeks I’ve spent more time actually working than I have probably all year. And even then, I was still able to spend time doing what I want to do. Believe me, gentle readers, you will soon be reaping the benefits. (WINK!)
  • What I want to do is write. I know you were wondering when I said that a minute ago, so I’ll tell you. So even when I wasn’t writing for work, I was writing.
  • I need FlyLady. Of course, that realization might also be prompted by the fact that my family is coming to visit in like three weeks and my guest bedroom is full of stuff and my bedroom is full of Goodwill boxes that we’ve had packed for more than a year.
  • Family is most important. The thing I regret most about these last two weeks, even up until last night, was neglecting Hayden and Ryan. I was actually pretty good, considering the pressure of keeping up with literally thousands of posts per week, and doing a side job for Ryan’s work. (Ryan is handing in my resignation today, I believe.)
  • If Hayden doesn’t get up before 8, he will not take a morning nap. Never mind that he’s perfectly fine getting up at 7:45 and taking a nap at 9:45 or 10. Today, he got up at 8:30 and would NOT go to sleep until around noon. I’m hoping he’ll either sleep for another hour or wake up like now and take another (short) nap around 4.

And there he is!

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Fulfillment Kids/Parenting Ryan/Married Life

Where I belong

Yesterday I took my sister Brooke and a couple of her friends to look for apartments for next fall. We looked at three places, including the complex where I lived my first year off campus. It was my idea to go there—I was arguing that it’s really nice to have enclosed hallways, instead of your apartment opening up right into the cold. (Also, with the strict curfew rules the university imposes on approved housing, it’s a warm place to hang out with friends after curfew.)

It was kind of weird to be back there. It even smelled the same. Brought back a lot of memories. We sat in the office and ate the freshly (under)baked cookies they had for us, and I imagined how much fun my sister and her friends will have, no matter where they live. I reminisced about how much fun I’d had, and my mind came back to something I think about probably all too often—what my single friends are doing now.

They’re following their dreams in law school, grad school or careers. They’re doing things for themselves. They’re dancing, partying, having fun. I’m getting up at 7 AM, changing diapers and watching television all day long, and going to bed early. I’m not even twenty-four. While I love Ryan and Hayden and I know this is where I belong, I can’t help but feel jealous of my friends who can still live for themselves.

Yesterday as I was back in my single stomping grounds, I reminisced about how I spent my singlehood—in those conveniently enclosed hallways. There was one boy in particular. I wanted so badly for him to care about me—not in a romantic way, though. I wanted him to be my best (guy) friend, my greatest confidant. And while he wanted to be my friend, he never could give me the depth of friendship that I needed. After I moved out of those apartments (and into Ryan’s neighborhood), he and I spoke only twice.

Last night, after stoking the fires of nostalgia all afternoon, I came home to Ryan waiting for me on the couch. He invited me to curl up with him. As I settled into his arms, I realized that Ryan was the friend that I’d yearned for years earlier, my greatest confidant. And while my friends do get to pursue their dreams now, I know I’m where I belong.

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Kids/Parenting Random Ryan/Married Life

Sometimes I’m so clueless!

Okay, I’ll take a shot for 5 things you don’t know about me, and we’ll see how many we get.

I was tagged by Lindsey.

  1. The first week I dated Ryan, we stayed up until 4 AM at least two nights. Week nights. And at least one of those, we were sitting (just talking!!) in my car. This is March in Utah, folks—we were lucky not to lose any toes! (We were so cold we could hardly move by the time we left!)
  2. Also that week, I overslept and missed work. I was working as a Teaching Assistant (my favorite job ever) and I had to be there—I was the teacher on Fridays. Woke up half an hour after my first hour of teaching started. Let my other two classes go after 15 minutes. To make amends, I had to give an extra make up lab (ah, it was just the basic principles of economics; they don’t need ’em!) at night (the one time Ryan got to see me in action). My boss opted not to hire me for oen of the limited number summer positions because of this, but she still wanted me back in the fall. I was still quite upset and cried for a long time. Karen (boss) was nice about that, though. It worked out okay in the end—Ryan and I got married during the summer.
  3. I’m a horrible eater. I’m picky about some things (I hate pepperoni—too spicy—eggs, crunchy peanut butter, yogurt or ice cream with seeds in it—even vanilla bean drives me nuts!) and often don’t realize I haven’t eaten anything until mid afternoon.
  4. I think I might be transferring this to Hayden. Up until last month, I was WAY too lazy to fed him solid foods often enough. I’m finally getting into the habit (although nursing is still far more convenient for us). However, I have the worst time trying to figure out what to give Hayden as finger food. My mom mentioned bananas, I replied, “Oh, we don’t have any.” Mom was like, “They have these things… I’m sure they have them in Utah… I’ve been in them in Utah… They’re called stores.” Riiiight. On the plus side, I do feed Hayden things I don’t eat such as sweet potato, squash and oatmeal.
  5. I’ve dropped Hayden approximately twice. Once, he was sleeping in his carseat and had a major blowout in the middle of the night. (It seemed major at the time; I would later learn better.) I picked him up to take him to the changing pad, carrying him with one hand under his head and one hand under his bummy. (I can’t believe we actually use that word, but I have to admit that I coined it in our family.) Bummy = slippery when covered in poo. His bummy slipped out of my hands and he fell about a foot onto the ground. The other time(s?) was just a dumb accident.

So, did you know those things?

I hereby tag… um… Jaime because she hasn’t updated in years (months, whatever), Brooke just because, Laura Wattenberg because I love her Baby Name Blog and book, The Baby Name Wizard (though I doubt she’ll ever see this or have time to respond), and um… Jasmine, Mom, Dad and Ryan to respond in my comments. They only count as half a blogger each since they don’t have their own blogs.

On that note, bonus #6: I’m tinkering with my comments. I’ve gotten them back to the old peek-a-boo style, but the JS to run that seems to be slowing my page loading time. I’ll also have to tweak the CSS so they’re not all caps. Bet you didn’t know I was so technical, eh? Yeah, well, I’m not. As I said to my coworkers (when I had coworkers), “We have a very low tech job (copywriting) in a very high tech field (Internet).”

Okay, so most of my list were about me in conjunction with my family. What can I say? They’re my life. They are a part of me. They’re who I am.

Though just about every day, I long to be my own person, if I’m truly honest with myself, I have to admit that Hayden, Ryan and the rest of my family are almost more a part of me than I am. And when I’m truly honest with myself, I’ll admit that I love it.

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Random Ryan/Married Life

Grrrret Scot!

Apparently, the Scottish military is running a bit short on kilts. According to MSN, they have 1 for every 15 soldiers.

We have two kilts they might could borrow. Okay, so they’re Ryan’s and, I think for at least one of them, he would rather go fight himself than loan it to someone that might hurt it. Oh, and also, they’re the wrong pattern. Here’s the best full body shot I have handy:

However, I think our flannel sheets are the right pattern. $30 at Kohl’s, guys. Run on down.

[MSN story]

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Random Ryan/Married Life

Let me get my manager…

Ryan and I are buying a car, probably this week. Last weekend we went and did test drives for our top three picks. Poor Haydie—that’s a lot of time in the car seat.

Our top three picks are (in no particular order) the Honda Accord, the Hyundai Sonata and the Toyota Camry. See if you can match the cars to my descriptions of the cars and dealer experiences.

  • Car A—A nice car—of course, it isn’t the lowest trim line either. Anyway, it’s a little bit tight getting the car seat in the back. Leg room seems a little smaller in the back. Radio controls on the steering wheel. Cool. Where’s the keyboard so I can text 😉 ? Handles nicely, quiet ride, good acceleration, but overall a pretty short drive.
  • Car B—Also a nice car. This is the lowest trim line, but has some features that other cars didn’t, including map lights and a sunglass case. I like the layout of the “cockpit,” with the cupholders, storage, etc. Backseat seems to have plenty of legroom. The gearshift (automatic) has a pretty convoluted track. Didn’t pay attention to noise, but I didn’t notice any. Vehicle stability is standard.
  • Car C—Radio controls on the steering wheel. That’s nice. A nice car… nothing extremely remarkable. Good drive.

Hayden got tipped over in the back seat once and it took us a few minutes to realize it and fix it 🙁 . Wouldn’t happen with the LATCH system, though. (LATCH is required on all cars, so not a selling point.)

  • Dealer 1—We look around for a few minutes at cars. Of course, we’re a little bit lost—there’s no real system to arranging cars in a lot. After a bit a salesman approaches us. He’s quite helpful and offers to pull a car out for us to look at. The first car he tries doesn’t start :/ . He gets a car out for us, we inspect it. The four of us (Ryan, Hayden, sales guy and me) get in and take it around the block. We drop off the sales guy and he finally tells us his name. We take off for 20 minutes. I get to drive, too. We come back—the show room’s under construction, and it’s noisy. He lets us sit in the training room so it’s not as loud for the baby. We have to wait a little while. He gives us a verbal quote of the final price (well below MSRP) and mentions a deal for 1.9% financing. That’s about it—no pressure. We get a viewbook for the car and a reprint of a favorable article.
  • Dealer 2—We look for a few minutes at cars before a sales guy approaches us. He lets us take out a higher trim line (trying to upsell us?). After a shortish drive, we come back. He invites us in. We see popcorn and a soda fountain. We are not offered any. We ask him to compare his car to other less expensive options. He almost balks: “It’s a [Brand]…” Assures us that there would be a big difference if we could see them side by side. Something about a solid feeling in the car when you slam the door shut. (My dad would kill me if I slammed the door shut!) He gives us a computer printed quote (lower than we’d expected, but just slightly below MSRP) and a viewbook for the car. Even less pressure than the first place. We only catch his name because his card is stapled to the viewbook.
  • Dealer 3—We get approached pretty quickly. The sales guy actually gives us his name! He comes with us for the whole test drive. When we get back, he shows us the optional leather seats. I don’t want leather seats, but he didn’t ask that question. Again, we drove a higher trim line than we’d wanted to. Apparently, there aren’t ANY of the economy trim line on this lot or the next nearest dealer’s lot. Hm… Gets us hot chocolate and a viewbook. Sales guy writes up a quote while we look at colors. Don’t have the color I like. He asks what color I want, I pick an okay color, he goes to check if there are any on the lot. There are. He asks if we’re Costco members. We are, so that’ll get us a better deal. We know this. According to Costco, if we go through them we’ll get a few thousand knocked off. Sales guy goes to talk with his manager to get us our best price. He knocks off $640. Golly, what a deal. Still well over MSRP. Manager comes over to talk to us. We ask him to compare brands. He tells us that this car is the most popular car in America. That’s neat, but “Everybody’s doing it” didn’t work on us even when we were in high school. Hayden is approaching melt down (this is our exit strategy). Manager: “What can I do to get you folks in a [Brand] today?” Nothing—we’re not buying today. Hands down, absolutely not. Takes us a few minutes to convince him of this fact. Meanwhile, Hayden’s starting to freak. Still, the meeting ends amicably enough.

It’s tough. As one guy at a dealership put it, “It’s difficult because all new cars are nice.” Can you tell which car and dealership is the nicest to us? And can you tell which car they match to?