Growing up, I was a gymnast.  Mary Lou Retton was my idol and each week I spent hours in a stale warehouse turned gym by its fixtures of vault, bars, beam, floor trying to immitate her score of a perfect 10. I am reliving my gymnastics days a lot lately as I take Belén to [...]

We finally arrived at the top at which point, Andy and I kicked it in fast gear wanting to get up to the lookout at the “top of Europe” and try and catch the next train down. We stopped briefly at the bathrooms where a guy puked on Andy’s shoes. Between the thin area and train in a tunnel for 50 minutes a few people were sick. We were glad the girls were not with us. Belén probably would have freaked out in that tunnel, but even more importantly, it was not advisable to bring a baby up to this altitude as the air has 20 – 30% less oxygen than sea level.

A high-tech 90-second elevator ride up 364 feet to the Sphinx Observatory and we were truly at the “Top of Europe” from a vantage point in the Bernese Alps.

The Sphinx Observatory was completed in 1937 is the highest-altitude construction in the entire continent. With multiple laboratories, a weather observation station, astronomical and meteorological domes, and a 76-cm telescope, the Sphinx has served as a headquarters for researchers in fields such as glaciology, medicine, cosmic ray physics, and astronomy. And over the years, the building has adapted to meet scientists’ needs. Today, the observatory is fully outfitted with electricity, water, telephone, internet, and even a machine to produce liquid air (this information was borrowed from here.)

So I’m standing in the shower this morning when I see my shower gel next to Andy’s body wash. I literally pause as the hot water continues to hit my body and smile at how well our cleansing agent choices exemplify each of us. My Body Shop Shower Gel for “earth lovers” was purchased after [...]

More than likely, we are all doing the best we can and if we are not, we already know it. Rather that craft lofty goals and to do lists to address the areas where we are falling short, I challenge you, myself, all of us to stop what we are doing and address the problem by adjusting our priorities until they are back in check. For my money, I bet listening to that inner voice and taking action with the information it is telling us will take us a lot further towards being the people we want to be in 2012 than a list of resolutions.

Andy and I really needed the eleven plus days off of work. We enjoyed the heck out of our kids and reveled in the lack of schedule and commitments. In all honestly, I am surprised my adventure-seeking husband didn’t get cabin fever because, well, we were in the cabin (cabin being our home) a lot. It was great.

There was a pretty big sucky part to the time though, actually two pretty big sucky parts but the second one was planned. Before I go into more detail let me warn you that this is a TMI post so if you don’t want to look at us differently because you know some intimate medical information, please stop reading now. Don’t worry, its nothing too crazy but I always want to error on the side of warning you.

Okay, you are still reading, so considered yourself warned.

I have been thinking a lot about resolutions for 2012. As I look back from resolutions in 2010 and 2011, the same basic themes still apply. This year I am going to make them simple and SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely) so I can keep them at the forefront of my mind all year long and ACHIEVE them. The first is a big goal that can be accomplished in a lot of different ways and I don’t want to specify the how just now as I am still figuring that out.

Things really have gone relatively well though, especially considering Andy does the majority of the heavy lifting when he is in town. When he is gone, I realize all of these kid-related chores are not nearly as big of a deal as I make them out to be when he is doing them. Not to minimize what he constantly provides because it is A LOT but it is doable. You just have to be more organized and committed to being places on time’ish and such. It has been really nice that most people are out of the office this week so if I don’t make it into the office until oh you know, 9:35 am, it’s okay. I make up for it by the late nights I have been putting in anyway. Enough about that.

Do I indulge in a long, solo lunch? Drink wine? Go see The Help? Read? NAP!

I honestly don’t know what to do as it has been so long since I had a block of time like this.

Whatever it is I end up doing, it is going to be good!

Finally, listen to your body and your maternal instincts. I was planning to take a nap today because I feel really run down from this whole ordeal but then something told me to get in the shower. I took a HOT shower and massaged the clog area lightly because I vowed to be nicer to myself today…I couldn’t handle any more pain from compression massage. Then I heard Eloise crying from her crib even though she had only gone down for a nap ten minutes earlier. I finished showering, dried off and then went to get her from her crib. Even though it was not time to eat, she nursed and removed the plug. We were both supposed to be sleeping and instead my instinct told me to shower and hers told her to wake up and cry and then eat and voila, the issue was resolved.

I’ve been a bit absent this week because there has been A LOT going on. It’s really one of the craziest weeks of the past few years.

I think you will understand why I haven’t written when I tell you we have been dealing with an ear infection, nursing strike, clogged duct, two Stella & Dot trunk shows, the biggest and most exciting promotion of my career (and of course celebrating that) and the extra work that comes with doing two jobs (new and old job) on top of all of the usual stuff. Not to mention, we still don’t feel like we have really caught our breaths since vacation and I have about three vacation blog posts yet to write.

The whirlwind is going to continue for a little while so my posts will be less frequent for a couple of weeks. I do hope to get at least Oktoberfest Part II up this weekend though.