Thoughts of a New Website

OK this is more meant to be a brainstorming post...so it really isn't about a whole lot in particular :)

As some may know (or not know), I've had blogs, websites and all sorts of things scattered around the web. I've had a personal website (www.amycoon.com), Mike and I have had our couple-turned-family website (www.amyandmikestone.com), alongside various blogger/blogspot sites. I've posted entries and notes on MySpace and Facebook. I've tweeted (some). In other words, I just have stuff scattered everywhere. Some of it overlaps chronologically, some of it doesn't.

In my spare time (which isn't much), I've given some thought about what I'd like to have for a new and improved website. A one stop place for all things Amy. And Mike. And the boys. How would I put together all of the things I've collected?

The obvious is the blog posts. Collecting them up is the first step, and then organizing them by person (since I started a blog for each kid, and actually have spots reserved for not-yet-conceived children), and organizing by time. Perhaps a timeline? I could add my (limited) tweets in there too.

Then comes pictures. I like those chronologically too, and maybe an option to have them interspersed (but able to be separated out) with blog entries/tweets.

Then silly sections that I've thought of. How about a numbers section? Just a crazy thing where I have "numbers" of items, or times I've done something, or places I've lived. Another silly one that I'd thought of was "pieces of me". Sometimes I take odd pictures of myself...like my uber swollen foot/ankles while pregnant with Daniel. An imprint of part of my shoe on my arm. Imprint of my fingers on my legs. Imprint of Mike's hand/palm on my leg. Bruises. Cuts. Discolorations. Any other types of oddities. Put them all together and you get me!

And lastly (and I haven't figured out specifics on this one)...topics that might be near and dear to me. Something work related? I always feel the need to relay some of the "science" stuff to people in lay terms. Make it understandable and exciting as it is to me. Also things baby/child related. Simple things that have worked for us.

With any luck...it will happen!

Happy Anniversary!

It hardly seems possible that it is our FIFTH wedding anniversary already. In many ways (and Mike and I both agree on this), it seems like it was just yesterday, but at the same time, it seems like we've been together longer!

So I'll go into today...woke up in the usual way, got ready for work and got the kids up and got them ready for daycare. Mike was working from home today (now according to his "typical" work at home schedule...Monday and Friday). I went to work, did a few things in the lab and really wanted to go home early to spend some quality time with Mike.

And right before 2pm, who comes walking through the doors of the lab...my sneaky husband! A vase of roses in hand! SURPRISE!

Now, I've never really been the cheesy type of romantic, as I appreciate smaller gestures and genuine surprises much more than having someone write me poetry or other stuff like that. This was DEFINITELY a genuine surprise, the point that I wanted to jump up into his arms in the lab...whee!!! Yeah, indescribable...I don't think it could have worked out any better!

With any anniversary or birthday type event, I start to let my mind wander to the past and to the future (but not lose sight of the present, of course!). How far have we come in the past 5 years? We got married on Lake Tahoe on a cloudy and almost stormy Saturday late-afternoon. We were living in Nevada at the time, and had probably thought that Reno was where we'd be for the next few years.

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary on the same boat that we got married on, and we were in the midst of trying for our first child. Our second anniversary, we were weeks off of becoming parents (no boat ride that time!). Our third anniversary we got to spend with our almost 1-year old son, and he got to go on the boat ride with us. Our fourth anniversary came after a move to Phoenix, and not long after, we found out we were expecting our second child. So, as you can see, each anniversary keeps building upon the last!

Where are we going to be in 5 more years? I find it fun to prophesize about these sorts of things. I'm sure I'll come back in a year and laugh at where we thought we'd be, especially if it's way far off of what I'm about to think of here. In five years, I think we will have at least another child, if not two more. We will still be living in Phoenix, and both Daniel and Jared will have started school. We will most likely have moved to the other side of the Phoenix. Both Mike and I will have settled even more into our jobs, and things will be more relaxed when we are more financially sound (I hope!).

Well, that's about all! It's a whole lot to take in, but a whole lot has happened in five short years! I look forward to the next 5...or 50... :)

All Things Mommy Related

Once again, time has passed to the point where I have been neglectful of my blogging duties (as if it was an actual requirement!).

In Mommy news, Jared turned 3 months today...a quarter of the way to a year! Daniel is less than a month away from turning 3. And what are the boys doing? Jared is the smiley boy...he smiles whenever he recognizes one of our faces (mine, Daddy's or Daniel's!). He started grabbing at things like toys on the swing at daycare. He's been sleeping pretty consistently, still, and there's been a few times that he's slept all the way through the night until we had to wake him up to get ready. Daniel is chatty little fellow, and he picks up on so many new things so quickly. He can count to 15 pretty reliably, he's decent at telling us what color something is (he knows well enough to give a color as a response...whether it's the correct color or not is up for debate). He can name all of his toy cars and trains, and works the computer like a pro on a little PowerPoint that I set up with pictures of his trains. And this evening after his shower, he actually pee'd in the potty! It was an amazing moment (especially since neither Mike or I have seen him pee...only poop).

In the interest of professing something deep and philosophical, I'll switch to talking about some life change-type things and maybe some random bits of Mommy knowledge. As if I could word that more awkwardly. Here's also hoping that I can remember the dialog for this that I had running in my head earlier today.

It sounds cliche, but the whole thing about "everything changes when you have a baby" is true. It's happened twice to us, and things definitely change, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be all good or all bad. Just different. I hope it is different with our next child(ren) as well.

The good things...it's made me become more patient. I like to think that I was pretty patient before having kids, but I've somehow acquired a more "relaxed" type of patience. I think almost everyone has the urge to rush things up or start to fidget when another person is taking a long time to complete a task. I try to set myself up to not have to be rushed, so that I do have the time to wait. It's not wasting time...it's just not stressing myself out. "Old" me would have her mind in another place or thinking about the work that needed to be done (thus not enjoying what is going on in the moment). I think it helps not only making time with the kids more enjoyable, but also able to deal with interns at work, students in one of my classes, or other people that I'm working with on a project.

Second good thing...learning to accept help. I'm still working a bit on this one, and it has many different facets to it. I don't mind if someone comes to help with the baby, or do something around the house like take care of dishes or cook dinner. I've accepted help in the form of childcare when I really needed a couple of days to recoup after childbirth (and not wanting to worry about having two kids at once...I could just focus on the newer, more demanding one). But on the flip side, I've not asked for help many times that I think I could have used it.

Third...deciding what's important to worry about and what's not (or "letting go"). House not completely clean the day after you come home with a new baby? Who cares! Trying not to do it all, especially not all at once. It's awesome to work hard and reap the benefits, but not if you make yourself ill as a result.

OK so now some changes that aren't all that great (I hesitate to call them "bad"). Worry. Where did this worry come from? Before, having to worry about ones own self was pretty much it. Don't get me wrong, I worried (in a healthy way) about Mike too, but it's a different type of worry aimed towards a child. When they are sick or hurt or something along those lines, it sends an indescribable sensation through your body. I have a weird sense of empathy, almost feeling what I imagine they must be feeling.

In the interest of time, I'm going to stop and continue this later. But I do intend to have a little spout about some of the ways that life is better, and some of the nuggets I've picked up on along the way!

Obligatory Birthday Post!

Once again, the Earth has made it's rotation around the sun and landed in the spot where it was when I was born! I usually use this day (when I remember to blog!) to reflect on things that have happened in the past year since my last birthday...and today I will follow tradition with that!

So...Happy Birthday to me! I turn 34 today! It doesn't seem quite possible that my age has become firmly rooted in the 30's. Not that I think that I'm old by any stretch of the imagination, but rather I think of where time has gone and what will come in the next 34 years!

In the past year, I've gone through another pregnancy, and had another awesome little baby boy! At this time last year, I wasn't even pregnant yet, and I hadn't even gone off birth control (or had the IUD out, rather). I was still "settling" in to living in Phoenix, and was 4 months in to my new job at TGen. Daniel was not quite 2 years old yet, and was changing so much every day! We celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary in June as well, and 7 years together on New Years. Mike finished out one job (at Charles Schwabb) and started a new one this past March.

It's hard to say what will come in the next year, but there are tons of things to look forward to! Jared turns one month old today...and I go back to work in another couple of weeks! Daniel will turn 3 (wow!) in July...he's already growing by leaps and bounds, and it seems like since Jared was born, he's grown up a ton more in a short period of time! We'll have our 5th anniversary in June, so we'll figure out something to do then maybe! We have visits planned with Mike's parents, and visiting Montana in September for a wedding. Hopefully by then, Mike will be hired full time, I'll have some papers published this year and plan for the future at work! We might move to a different house at the end of the year, perhaps. And, ultimately, as things are more stable (and certainly not by the time my 35th birthday rolls around), we might add another baby to the family!

Out of all the things that have happened this year, I'm pleased with the way things are going...and look forward to another great year!!!