Baby Giggles Make Me Melt

Like any good red blooded human, baby giggles are my weakness. Children are so innocent, well except when they are knowingly being naughty. 

This week I got my fair share of giggles, both of the toddler and baby variety. Let me set the stage for one of those experiences for y'all. HB, RC, and I were sitting in disaster zone 1- the bedroom. Every toy was out and amuck on the floor. The toy car bin was upside down on my left side and the plastic bug like creature for riding on-equipped with small trunk, is on my right. RC was sitting on my lap between my criss-cross applesauce style legs with my arms helping to keep him upright. 

Now the scene. HB and I were loading cars, monster trucks, and one die cast school bus into the trunk of the bug. Counting as we went. We could fit 10 cars in the bug (HB counted to 10 by himself!)-not 11. HB then dramatically plopped down on the trunk, which is also the seat, of the bug. While plopping dramatically, HB giggled loudly and almost uncontrollably. I pretended to slightly jump, with my arms around RC and exclaimed mid-westernly, "ope!" RC was watching HB intently this entire time, with baby brother fascination. HB liked my reaction so he repeated his plop. I repeated my movements and ope- then to our amazement a four month old RC giggled! He laughed at HB and HB loved it! He was so excited that his baby brother thought he was funny that he proceeded to plop about 47 more times. Meaning I had to ope as well! Eventually RC lost interest in us but it was magical while it lasted. 

That was absolute joy I was experiencing. HB was joyful, RC was laughing so we interpret baby giggles as joy until science tells us different, and we were filled with warm fuzzies the rest of the day.

It is giggles like that that remind me too of when I was younger and one of my hard-fought-for goals was to make my dad laugh. When you could get him laughing and almost slapping his knee it was awesome. I was always proud of myself for coming up with something so clever that my dad would think it was funny enough to react with more than a smile. 

Sigh-I love laughing. It is the best. We are going to laugh everyday these boys and me. Hopefully not just at farts and such.     

Lellow

I love how little kids cannot say yellow. Love it. HB is no exception. Adventures in Auntie Jes Day Care today brought us some markers and this scary Oscar the Grouch masterpiece. I kept reminding him to stop coloring that he was going to rip the paper. He just kept looking at me. Then proceeded to do it to the other eye.

Never a dull moment. :)

Three Days- One Nap

We are in week one here of Auntie Jes' Adventures. Here are the highlights:

• HB doesn't like naps. Well to be fair today was abnormal I guess because Dad came home when we were close to starting our nap. 
• HB is adorable. He argues and says no a lot and refused to get on the potty 6 out of 10 times. But just like Urkel I am wearing him down. 
• When one hears wheels on the bus from across the house, one must sing along. (editor's note: they have changed all the words to my childhood songs-three of the four different versions of the wheels on the bus I heard this week did not even have the wipers verse. What the heck! What do those buses do in the rain?)
• I really don't swear when I am around these muffins. Which is good because just last week I was accused of corrupting the newest College employee with my naughty lyrics. 
• RC is THE CUTEST baby in the world. He just smiles and farts and smiles. He was just happy to be invited to the Paw Patrol, PJ Mask, dinosaur crossover experience we were having in the living room. 
• Sitting on the couch with one baby sleeping in the dried up spit up on my shoulder and the other sleeping one's cold feet stabbing into my side is pretty great :)

I am re-learning my way around here again too-it is all coming back to me now. One con-it took me 20 minutes round trip to pop into the store quick. Everything is no longer in a 5 square mile speck. I did find that the local library system is waaaaaaaaay bigger. It stretches all over the place and they had Jodi Picoult's newest book available! I have stolen my cousin's library card for all my library needs. I got a book on CD today for my commute now that it is no longer 3 minutes, printed off my passport renewal paperwork and surfed the web at my current local library today. I still love libraries! 

Welcome to the Mitten!

I moved to Wisconsin in a Durango and a Neon. More clothes than anything else was packed into those cars. It took a 10ft truck and the entire Hondog to get back to the Mitten. And I still had to leave items on the curb- unplanned of course. Yes that is the amazing sectional couch I have loved for years. But it was falling apart and part of it just turned to dust as we carried it out of the house. It was time. 

If you have ever wanted a laugh think about me driving down I-94 towing a Honda while driving a box truck full of fishing poles (yes I brought all 7) and so many things that I categorized as "collectibles" so I didn't have to throw them away. It still seems like I own waaaaaay to much stuff, but I have another 12 months to thin out the items I moved into something more manageable. Minimalism is not easy in our culture, if it were more people would do it.  

I tried to donate and recycle as much as I could from the Newbury House but I still ended up with a lot of trash. I was disappointed in myself but I need to remember the amount I did find new homes for and that did not end up in a landfill. I will work hard with the last bits as well, but many of these items I have assigned some sentimental value. But stuff is just stuff and I have Pinterested some ways to keep these memories without keeping the physical stuff. 

For those if you just tuning in-I have started phase two of my post 30 life. I have moved myself back to Michigan to start operation Auntie Jes Day Care to HB and RC-the world's most adorable nephews. While working on this new task I am also going to start the tiny house in earnest. I have a plan and an idea for exactly what I want and now I have my brother's garage of tools to help get me there. 

So for now I have learned to love PJ Masks and I am soaking up all the baby snuggles I can get :)

Caffeine

What an odd chemical that devil caffeine. I mean I suppose any naturally occurring caffeine should not described as a devil, but I rarely consume caffeine in an amount that would be considered natural. 

In my current world I fill my off brand Yeti with 24 or more ounces of coffee and I do not avoid other caffeine sources throughout the day, each and every day. I am torn now wondering if my "downs" during the day are due to a change or lack of caffeine or my stress and negative attitude. Today though- it had to be caffeine deficiency. I consumed the prescribed 16.9 oz emergency caffeine and miraculously I bounced back. Which was good because I have close to 15 million things to do before January!

Last night and tonight I managed to update the good ole resume and get it out. I will be in need of some part time cash flow when I return to conquer the Mitten. And boy how did that pay off! A phone call this morning and an email offering an interview felt pretty good. I am forward thinking too for my life once I transition to my nomad lifestyle. 

I have been working toward the tiny house dream for a few years now and income will be necessary if I do not homestead and find success with my artisanal goat cheese. I am currently keen on the van lifestyle where I can travel, be a campground host around the country, and work somewhere remotely. So my caffeine fueled afternoon has morphed into an evening that resulted in some applications sent off to the virtual world...hopefully tomorrow morning will result in job related good news like today! 

A Tunnel of Light

In my mind I keep hearing myself say "There is finally light at the end of the tunnel." Now that I have made the decision to radically change my life by leaving WI and hanging out with my cute nephews. But the idea of that phrase indicates that there is something positive is on the horizon after a challenging or difficult period.

I don't think I can describe the last 15 years as a difficult period. I have LOVED so many people and experiences that I have had here. Some of the best moments in my life. I had a love that changed my life forever. Ferdinand was by far the best thing that came out of my life changing move to WI. It was hard to make the decision to leave here not knowing when I would be back to visit St. Paul's or be in places around here that hold such strong memories for me of him and our life together. But I have to remind myself that he is not just in Wisconsin-he is in my memories of him. 

I'd like to think rather than a light at the end of the tunnel, I have a path through the trees like the picture above. I am at peace with a decision to radically change my life. I am going to do some things I swore I would never do, but I am ok with that. I am moving towards my ultimate goal of working and living off grid. Of living a simpler life with out the stress I have currently. I am going to make myself happier and that is something I have not made a priority for years. 

In Higher Ed you are always working to make someone else's life better, different, easier, functional, etc. I used to get really upset when people described my work as a glorified babysitter. But now I can see some of that- a babysitter is someone that is not related to you but cares about you and how you are doing. For some families there are regular babysitters that love their kids and would do anything for them. That describes how I have felt over the years. I have loved some of these students in a way that when they succeeded I felt success, when they struggled my heart was breaking right along with them. I am looking forward to worrying only about my successes and stresses for a little while. Is that selfish? Maybe. But I have put in my time. 

So I am going to keep traveling down this tree covered road to whatever lies at the end of it, for now there is a toddler and a itty bitty baby who are excited to play with Auntie much more often. 

Decision Day!

Hello Queen Isabella's Musings followers! 

Today I have made a fateful decision-I am leaving Higher Ed. After 15 years in the biz I am officially hanging up my CAS standards and my Ice Breaker Dictionary. 

This has been a hard decision, I have talked for years about making a career change and using my transferable skills in a different application. The time is right now too as my sister in law just had baby number 2 and these two little boys want to visit with their Auntie a couple days a week. 

As I look into this transition I am looking at a few different things to accomplish that have been on to do list for too long:

1. Invest in and build the tiny home. I am serious that this is phase 40. In my 40s I want to transition to living tiny full time and this career move and travelling to live near my brother will give me access to his carpentry work shop full time. I can spend all the time I want building and perfecting the tiny home with FREE access to tools :)
2. Blogging more regularly. I have always wanted to spend more time blogging my adventures and keeping track of my life. Using this medium has proven to be a wonderful creative outlet for me and a way to express my many witty thoughts. 
3. I can spend time with Nugget One and Nugget Two. Nugget Two is so small and little being only a week old, I have lots of things to learn and catch up on with infants and what they spend all their time doing pooping. 
4. After my youngest brother moved back to MI I have noticed that I am missing something, him! I really enjoyed reacquainting with him and his lazy 20 something self. 

So I will keep y'all updated on my toddler and baby nugget adventures and of course updates on my journey to tiny.