Life Updates of a Larger Magnitude

Leaving NOR has forced me to send out follow up contact information to my awesome coworkers.  Since I didn't want their goodbye emails to contain things like, "'Yell O Pippi!', why did you choose that?" or incorrectly put a "w" in my email and not be able to reach me, I distributed my beka.shea email address.  But I never check that email, so I bit the bullet and figured out how to forward it to Gmail.  And then I thought, "Self, you should do this across the board."  So, if you have any of these addresses for me: beka@alum.wpi.edu yellopippi@yahoo.com yellopippi@hotmail.com beka.shea@yahoo.com or beka@fowler-re.com They will all come to my yellopippi gmail account.  It feels GOOD!  It feels overwhelming.  Now I'm going to have to actually start unsubscribing from 18 years worth of newsletters and mailing lists. I'm dreading that...

I just quit my job.  My very challenging, mostly rewarding but sometimes incredibly stressful, well paying job.  I am high on excitement.  I am scared to death.  I'm not usually one to swear in these forums, but this qualifies.  Oh shitburgers. The adrenaline is too much to coherently reason it out, but I want to try to FLY!  We're starting a house-flipping gig, and I want to devote my time to that.  And I also want to devote more time to my family - I'm not cut out to be a stay at home mom, but I also don't want to be an Executive mom right now either.  And I don't want to be a crappy hourly minimum wage worker just so that I can cut back my hours.  So I'm starting my own deal, and I hope I hope I hope it pans out.  And if it doesn't, hopefully Corporate America will find me another seat at some table. :P I DID IT!  I'M FREE (I'm terrified). Convo with my boss: Me: "If it makes you feel any better, the reality of the situat...

This free picture slideshow personalized with Smilebox

Is it strange that I find going back to work less stressful than being home with the girls?  That's an easy question - I only feel that way because I don't have any crazy projects going on. I can actually use the time at work to tackle both work and life stuff, without distractions.  It makes me a saner  person.  Today I wrote Thank You notes, ordered a baby gift for a friend, and balanced my bank account while simultaneously taking mandatory company safety training.  (Actually, the first aid refresher was quite useful.  The construction site stuff was not so much up my alley.)  I'm going to empty the dishwasher and have a cup of coffee before I get Lil and Eve, and otherwise prepare myself to be a better parent before they get home.  I guess I need to get groceries for dinner during that trip as well...   This weekend Matt and I had an awesomely relaxing weekend which was the direct result of not making any concrete plans.  We...

I was witty and pithy and lots of other words that have escaped me completely.  Now I feel like my brain is operating in molasses.  I wish I could blame it on the lack of sleep, but Lillian is a fantastic sleeper.  (I mean, I don't wish that because that would mean that I wasn't getting any sleep.)  I feel sorry for people who are just meeting me because I must come across as a total airhead.  Walk 2 feet, lose track of mission, focus on the pretty thing in front of me, stare blankly, recite random response to conversation from 2 hours ago.  Awesome.

We've done a lot of neat projects around our house to make it prettier and/or more functional.  I'm a huge believer that you can make do with a lot less space than you think, so long as you think smarter not bigger.  I guess that's why I heart Ikea so much, but also why I love Ross Chapin and Sarah Susanka.  They're my mentors in the form-versus-function of a house.  So anyway, I started a blog to just cover house related projects, but then I got caught up in trying to backdate posts so that the chronology would be correct, and adding filler details, and pictures, and blah blah blah.  And it overwhelmed me, so I've been not really blogging on it, which makes me sad.  I haven't come up with a solution yet, but I'm not giving up on it either.  I just need to continue my little hiatus and figure it out.  I also need to figure out the ubiquitous toy dilemma and the "I don't like / I don't fit those clothes anymore" refrain that I hear from the ...

Men, if you've got a little bit of a gut going on, I've got the solution for you that doesn't require exercise.  Get a boob job!  They totally distract from any little love handles.  Although in your case, in might not be a good thing... Sushi mouth - when you shove too much food in your mouth but try to chew through it anyway.  Like when you put that sushi bite that's *just* too big in your mouth because you can't figure out any better way to eat it. You are now dumber for reading this. :)