The one with the Older Lady

I'm 34. Thirty-four and tired. Thirty-four and established. Thirty-four and loved. It's amazing how the slow ticking of time leads you to your path. The culmination of seconds that independently don't mean anything but together have created you, your situation, and are guiding you to your future.

The past year for me has been a blur. Yes, we've added Grady to our picture but I've also seen how quick Eleanor has grown in one year. Last year, she was just learning how to roll over and the passing of time gripped my mother's heart and now I watch her run, climb, soak the world in, and I'm amazed at what she's done with the past year. Grady's past month even has me in awe as I'm not sure where the time has gone. Maybe they are making better use of their time than me.

I've been thinking a lot about time lately... It's been 10 years since I've been out of college, 15 since high school. I've been at my job and in our current house for 4 years. We celebrated our 4th anniversary this year. These are all official passings of time. I look at my mother caring for her mother but also playing with her grandchildren and see that unofficial passing of time. I look at Eleanor's hands in mine and suddenly by comparison, I see the age in mine. Time and aging happens so gradually that it almost feels like it doesn't until you see the big changes when you step backwards to look at the picture. I feel older some days... I know I can't handle hangovers like I used to (if I was drinking), I used to party til 4 or 5 in the am and still try to make it to class, now I need my sleep and long for naps just to make it through the nights with a newborn. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't go back in time and be in my teens or twenties for anything. I look at some of the teens around me and I don't envy their world and naivety. I'll admit now what I couldn't admit then, I know nothing and have a lot to learn. Oh, and I flounder and flail on a regular basis - I wouldn't have admitted that in my younger days.

So I'm officially in my mid-thirties...I'm a daughter, sister, mother, and wife. I'm happy with where I'm at in life and content with eating ham and cheese sandwiches and taking a walk around the block with my family while I point out puppies to wave at. To think, not long ago on my birthday I was partying in Canada....how this world changes.

ALR: Take a good look 
MJR: Because tomorrow you are an old lady?
ALR: yep, old and haggardly
MJR: I don't think you'll change too much.
ALR: Yes, I will. I'm not as young as I once was.
MJR: It's ok... I'm a summer chicken.
ALR: A summer chicken?
MJR: Not a spring chicken, a summer chicken.
ALR: What makes you a summer chicken?
MJR: Spring chickens are learning and experiencing things, summer chickens are steady and settled. You are a summer chicken too.

The one with the Annual Conference

This past week was a big week for me. The week that I plan for each year in my career, the Workforce and HR Conference. Planning starts in October with keynotes, breakouts in January,
sponsors and vendors in March, organization in May, attendees in July, and final details that boil down into September. This has been my fourth conference at Commerce but the third one that I've been in charge of organizing. Each year we've grown and not only do I enjoy the work with the conference but I also wanted to see the momentum continue to gain. It was hard for me this year to be in two places as once so I found myself working on some of y maternity leave to ensure that the quality of conference was where I would hoped it to be. It was our biggest conference to date.. with over 500 people. By the end of the week, I was exhausted.

When I decided to attend, I asked for Matt to support me and come with to help with Eleanor and Grady. He didn't disappoint... he was there for it all! Don't get me wrong, it wasn't easy. When we were trying to get Eleanor down on Tuesday night before the conference, I actually said to myself, "What the heck am I doing?" but at the end, I looked at him and said, "This whole week went bette than I thought!" I did chuckle though when I walked into the room on Thursday, during the vendor show and all of them were snoozing!

The nice part was that not only did my boss appreciate my efforts, but so did our Commissioner, who called me out in front of the entire welcome address. He acknowledged that the conference was my baby and also introduced my baby, Grady. And to top it off, Gov Burgum and his lead also appreciated my efforts. However, the best part was getting some of the feedback and seeing the changes that we made have a positive impact on the attendees. Also, everyone wanted to see, hold, or congratulate me on Grady... that's not a terrible thing to hear either!

After the first night, Eleanor didn't mind staying in Fargo, she got to see Janice and Jerry and she swam in the pool every night! She loved it and wasn't one bit scared of the water. In fact, when we were packing and she saw her swim suit, she was pissed that it was in the suit case and wanted to put it on. We stayed in Fargo through Saturday morning, which made crawling into the weekend a little easier. It was really nice though to sleep in our own beds on Saturday and it was even nicer to have Eleanor and Grady allow us to sleep in a bit on Sunday!

After the swimsuit in the suitcase temper tantrum

EER wants sippy cup from the kitchen

ALR: No, you already threw it, you don't get it any more

EER has temper tantrum.

MJR brings in cart to load luggage.

EER can't ride on cart because luggage is on it. Temper tantrum ensues.

MJR: So we've determined this vacation is over... obviously we should have been home last night, someone just can't handle any more fun.

DITL: The one with the sunglasses

ALR: So how was drop off this morning?
MJR chuckles: Well, we have a diva.
ALR: What?
MJR: She insisted on wearing her sunglasses and through a fit, so I let her wear them to daycare and we strutted through daycare with our shades on.
ALR: She wanted to wear them to bed last night night, but I told her she could have them today. I guess she took me serious.
MJR: This was how she rode the whole way to daycare...(shows pic on phone)

The one with the 4th and the 34th.

OKay - so we suck... yes, we do. Wannah know how you suck and you get older. You have to almost remind yourself of major life events because otherwise you'll skip over them and forget they exist nd eat meatloaf instead of giving them their proper due.


In the past week, we've had two major happenings... our fourth anniversary as well as Matt's thirty fourth birthday. These aren't little events like the anniversary of our first dental filling. These are major milestones worth acknowledging, worth doing a little something special for. What do we do... glaze over them so caught up in the basic functioning of life. It was so bad that Matt completely forgot about his own birthday and seemed dumbfounded when I asked if he wanted to go out somewhere to eat instead of having meatloaf as he had suggested when we began meal planning. To make matters worse, I've been somewhat landlocked at the house due to lifting restrictions that I hadn't been able to get a card or a proper gift from myself. The kids got him a Sioux flag (with my help) and I suppose I could have taken credit for it but it was the plan for awhile for them to give it.

This weekend, Matt worked on finishing another phase of the runway project. The original plan was for him to have to be at the airport for an overnight so we had Randy and Michele come down to help with Eleanor because I'm still limited on my restrictions. The fall weather (and Hurricane Irma) has sunk in and the rain came as a soaker, messing with the construction plans. It did give Matt the opportunity to plan a wonderful family night. He had his parents and invited Eric and his girlfriend as well as my parents for supper. Eleanor had so many people to entertain! She did her best and was in full form! Matt smoked a brisket, Michele added the sides, and my mother supplied the desserts. It was a really nice night.

EER reading with Grandpa Randy
Grandpa Randy: Dance with the Cow, Skip with the mice
EER flips page
Grandpa Randy: You didn't let me finish that page, that wasn't nice.
EER flips 2 more pages. 

The one with the New Normal

So... we are family of four and trying to sink into a new normal. This past week has been one that was challenging and wonderful to think in terms of "normal."

1. My mom came this week... and it was totally wonderful. It was good to have her here for so many reasons.. Sure the house is in the best shape it's been in since Eleanor was born/her baptism/her baby shower. But to catch up and have support is something that I will never forget. She's let me nap, drove me around town, and read Eleanor 15 million books.

2. The airport had a visit from Air Force One with President Trump and
Ivanka Trump. During our outings, Mom and I (and Grady) also made sure to sit on the route to catch him waving by. First president to see in person for me.

3. We made it through our first holiday weekend/first weekend as a family of 4. I won't lie - it was exhausting especially since we could seem to synchronize nap times. Being Labor Day, of course the
weather wasn't the best... it was windy, so we did get out of the house and go play at the mall's play place. But that was probably our big excitement for the day... well, that and Matt made a prime rib, to celebrate us and Grady being home.

4. The next weekend wasn't nearly as crazy but was equally as tiring. Grady wouldn't go to sleep one night... so after waking up at 2:30, we finally got him down at 5:00, which wouldn't have been bad but Eleanor woke up with blood curdling screams at 4:45 and wouldn't go back to sleep. Whoever thought parenting was a breeze can sleep at my house any time. Everyone looked forward to naptime We may not have accomplished a lot that day but survival may have been the only goal.

5. Eleanor is getting more used to Grady around... she looks for him on his side of the car, she checks his pack and play and will wave to him. We still are working on the aggressive head patting or the limb polling but things are coming along. It is very cute when she tries to say, "Hi Baby Grady"... it doesn't exactly come out that way but it's a step in a positive direction. She was really thrown off when Jess came to stay for a night and she brought Baby James (who is about 6 weeks older than Grady) with her. We were able to take his newborn shots despite having 2 babies and a toddler who didn't seem too interested in taking pictures.

6. Eleanor is still growing and changing. She now can tell you what a frog says, with her tongue. She can tell you where her nose, mouth, ears, eyes, belly, and hair is. She's still pretty reliable on the cow sounds. She could read books ALL day long! Matt and I have a good majority of them memorized.

MJR organizing closet.
comes out, MJR: Hey! Look what I found! (wearing Hawaiian shirt)
EER comes out of bathroom: Hmmmmm? (says skeptically and looks at him questionably)

MJR: So-and-so plays tennis.
ALR: I'm not surprised.
MJR: What does that mean?
ALR: Well, so and so plays a lot of preppy sports, why wouldn't tennis be in that list.
ALR: Do you know what sports I played in school?
MJR: Here's my cow?
EER: Moooooooo!!!!!!