Getting the Dirt on the Dietz's: Answer This

Getting the Dirt on the Dietz's: Answer This

Summer Goals

Summer is winding down. Backpacks and school supplies have replaced patios sets and firepits at Fred Meyers. And, I start school in four weeks. I love my job. I really, really, do. I consider myself fortunate that when I go to work each day, I don't dread it. I want to be there. However, this year will be different. I am already predicting some tears on the first day...or the first 30 days. The idea of not being with Grace all day makes me hurt. We are SO, SO, fortunate though, because instead of going to a daycare run by someone we don't really know, Grace will be spending her days with Sharlee's aunt and cousins. Which, makes me feel infinitely better. I just know I'll miss her.

Anway, my real reason for this post is to set some summer goals. There won't be too many and they won't be big ones I can tell you that. But, with summer winding down, there are a few things I want to make sure that I do.

1) Go for a walk with Grace nearly every day. For the most part we've been doing this.

2) Spend more time on the patio. Last year I spent every morning on my patio, drinking coffee and reading. Last night I took Grace out there and just rocked. It was so nice and I realized that I need to do more of that.

3) Plant some flowers. My poor planters have been neglected this season. My roses too. I don't want to do much (it's hard with Grace at this age), but I want to at least plant some flowers in my whiskey barrels. I really need to get out there and clean up my rose bushes too.

4) Read at least one more book. I've only read two this summer. It's sad, I know. I've been busy though.

5) Clean our laundry room (which is more like a closet). The two shelves that we have desperately need to be organized.

6) Finish decorating my daughter's room. It would be done by now, if I didn't have such a hard time making decisions.

7) Get out more. We've gone shopping quite a bit. We make frequent trips to Hastings. A few trips to Starbucks. A weekly trip to Walmart. These aren't the types of trips I'm talking about though. I'd like to take Fenix to the pool and let Grace put her feet in the kiddie pool; I'd also like to walk the greenbelt and just get to the park more. We took Fenix and Grace to the park the other day and had a blast. I put Grace in her carrier and swung on the swing with her and she loved it. (She also fell asleep:). I'd love to drive to the lake one day, but we'll see. Our weekends (when Ken is off) have been filled with Ken and I playing tag team, as I finish cleaning out my mom's house, so in truth, we just haven't had the time.

8) Lose at least five pounds. This is a realistic goal. It's not too many, just a pound and a little extra a week. Of course, I'd love to lose fifteen pounds and be back at my pre-pregnancy weight before school starts, but I'm fairly sure that won't happen. Wishful thinking though:)

Well, that's it. It's really not that much and my goals aren't difficult ones. So, wish me luck.

Answer This

I'm stealing the "Answer This" thing from Sharlee. I will only steal it momentarily though:)

This weekend we finished cleaning out the remainder of my mother's house and garage. Currently I have a huge, and I mean HUGE box (HUGE!) of photo albums just sitting on my living room floor. (Did I mention Ken's mom and step-dad will be here Wednesday? Which means that I have to find a home for them, and ASAP. Most likely they will be going under our beds for now. Note the OUR-that means Ken and I's, Fenix's, and possibly Grace's crib.) It got me to thinking about how we never print pictures at our house unless we are putting them in a frame. Because we have a digital camera and upload our pictures to our Picasa website, we never really print them. I definitely don't want Grace to have to someday deal with double the amount of photo albums that I am dealing with now. (I really don't mind. I want them. I'm happy to have them. I just don't know where to put them, and I suddenly feel like our house is too small.) But at the same time, I feel like I should be printing our photos in some capacity.

So, here's my question:

What do you do with your digital photos? Do you have a method? Photo album? Scrap book? Do you limit what you print or do you just store them online?

I really, sincerely want to know, so I'd love to hear from you.

Oh yeah, and while we are on the topic of photos, I thought I'd share a few more of Grace:)

The Mark of a New Mom

Since becoming a new mom, I have:

1) Been late to almost everywhere I have plans to go to.

2) Gone to the mall in sweats and a baggy sweatshirt and NOT ON PURPOSE! The baggy sweatshirt was, but the sweatpants were a complete accident. I didn't even realize I as still in sweats until I was parking my car at the mall, looked down and thought, "Well, crud!"

3)Gone to Walmart without showering, with a mop of curly unwashed hair on top of my head and no make up (Grace was on a strike from napping that day, and so I wasn't able to shower until Ken got home.)

4) Wore my pants inside out in public. They were those black stretchy work out capri kind. In truth it wasn't all that bad. The only real give aways were the seams on the outsides of my leg and THE TAG HANGING OFF THE BACK. I only received one look, well two looks considering the woman did a double take.

Tell me I'm not the only new mom who does these sorts of things. This will pass, right?

One Month Old! (O.K. So Maybe We're Passed the One Month Mark. Oh Well:)

Now, I don't have much time to post this (Grace is sleeping), but I wanted to get this picture up on here before Grace hit the two month mark:



At this point she's really 6 weeks and a day:) You'll have to excuse me for being cliche here, but she really is growing up too fast! Already I'm dreading August and having to put her in daycare. Just the other day I went to put one of her "newborn" outfits on her and it no longer fit. Instead it was more like a belly shirt on her. I have very mixed emotions about this. On one hand, I look forward to her being more interactive (not to mention she has a lot of really cute 0-3 month clothes that she's slowly starting to fit into), and then on the other hand, I'd just like her to stay a newborn forever. Although possibly with Mom getting more sleep:) In truth, she has gotten so much better about sleeping at night (knock on wood). She still wakes up every three hours to eat, but she falls asleep right after, which is nice. We were going through a period there where Grace was confused and thought 2 a.m. was the most ideal time to be up and about. I'm crossing my fingers that blogging about this, doesn't jinx us:)

I Don't Believe an Accident of Birth Makes People Sisters or Brothers.

To the outside world, we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time.
~Clara Ortega





Our brothers and sisters are there with us from the dawn of our personal stories to the inevitable dusk.
~Susan Scarf Merrell



I don't believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at.
~Maya Angelou




This is my wish for Fenix and Grace:

I hope that despite their age difference that they are the best of friends. I hope that they always support one another. They they share secrets. That as they grow older they share stories of their childhood, that they laugh at their parents (make fun of us even), I hope that they bring out the best in each other, that they be strong role models for each others' children, and that they never forget how precious and important their relationship is.



How lucky they are to have one another!

If You Couldn't Tell by the Previous Post...

She's here! After 39 weeks and much, much, much, anticipation, Grace made her debut in the world on May 8th, Mother's Day, at 11:24 p.m. She weighed in at 6 lbs, 14 ounces, and was 20 inches long. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind (in a good way!). Grace has definitely kept us busy. Ken was able to take the first week off of work, but then had to go back the next. So, since then, it's just been us girls (and our many animals--all of which (with the exception of Byron who ADORES Grace) aren't exactly sure what to make of this new miniature addition to our family). We have been thoroughly enjoying our time together. In fact, I already feel like it's going by too quickly. I took Grace to the doctor on Monday and she already weighed 7 lbs and had grown half an inch. The day after we left the hospital she weighed in at 6lbs and 4 ounces-we had a little trouble keeping her weight up that first week, so 7 lbs seems like a lot considering what she was the two weeks before.

It's hard to find words that describe my daughter (by the way, it's still so weird to say the words "my daughter"!) or being a mom. But I'm going to try, so here I go: absolutely beautiful (I know that as her mother, I am biased, but I am constantly amazed looking at her. It's hard to believe that Ken and I could create someone so beautiful and perfect); overwhelming (I know this word usually has a negative connotation, but in this case, that's not how I mean it. I have never felt so overcome with love before. And in turn, fear. What if something happens to her? What if I fall asleep holding her? What if she gets sick? etc, etc, etc. I can be a bit paranoid by nature, so it's only natural to have motherhood bring that out even more in me:) ); adoration (the first 48 hours of her life I couldn't put her down, unless we had a visitor who wanted to hold her, or my husband for that matter:) In our birth class they said to get as much sleep as you can in the hospital. They suggested sending our babies to the nursery so we could catch up on sleep. I had planned to send her so that I could nap, but then once she was actually here, I couldn't. The one time I sent her to the nursery so that I could eat dinner and catch a little sleep, we brought her back in within an hour. The minute she was gone, I ached to have her back); sheer awe (I know I've already said this, but I am in complete AWE that Ken and I brought something so perfect into this world. It's amazing that we were able to do that, it's amazing that my body was able to do that (I know I'm overusing the word amazing, but really I'm unsure if there is a better word to describe this experience)).

I'm hoping I may blog a bit more now that Grace is here. No guarantees though:) My track record with updating my blog is less than impressive, so we will have to see. I'm attaching a few photo collages below. The first one is from the hospital ( I look horrendous! Seriously, I do. I retained a lot of water in the hospital--I seriously came home only 6 lbs lighter than when I went in, and apparently from the photo after she was born I must have been retaining some water before she came too --possibly it's from them pumping me full of fluids? One can hope.) Anyway, back to what I was saying. The first is from the hospital and the second one is from her first week home.




The collages show up pretty small, but if you click on them it will bring them up much bigger on a separate screen.