Week-ends Together

Week-ends together as a family are awesome! Ever since Aaron and I got married, we have had very few full week-ends together. When we were first married, I was working at the credit union and had to work three Saturdays a month. The credit union moved to every other Saturday just before we moved away. Even when I was on maternity leave with Claire, Aaron was working at a bank one Saturday a month and he was also working craft shows with his family a lot of full week-ends.

So he got a job at Dell Inc. the worst situation of all. He was scheduled for three full months of Sundays! Dell is a horrible place to be a salesperson, by the way. Besides the three months of mandatory Sundays, the indecipherable paycheck stubs, the inability to explain how commission gets paid, the whole delinquency in their filing with the SEC problem, there is the whole postponing paydays thing. Aaron was supposed to get his last commission check yesterday and found out that they postponed them for another week because they still needed to "line up the quartiles" (whatever that means?) So how do we pay our rent and bills that are due on October 1st? How can they do that to families? I am so glad that Aaron got out of there. Good riddance.

So now the happy ending. Aaron now works for the State of Texas. Even though they won't pay for insurance until he has worked 90 days and that is causing us a lot of stress due to my pregnancy; no week-ends! Aaron, Claire, and I can finally have Saturdays and Sundays together! Once we can get back on our feet from the move we may actually be able to go on a week-end trip! Today we went for a walk on one of those seemingly perfect trails and then had a nice lazy, college football watching Saturday. Tomorrow we can spend Sunday chasing Claire up and down the isles of the chapel together!

New Baby Doll

Claire got a new toy from her Aunt Hiromi. I had been wanting to get her a baby doll for a while now, since she calls all her stuffed animals, "Baby". I felt bad because everytime I thought we were finally getting the doll out of the package I would find another fastener to undo. But this video has a happy ending. She is super excited and carries the baby all over our apartment now.

playing dress-up

Everytime I open her closet door, Claire points at one of her princess costumes (donated graciously by her cousins) and says, "Ooh!" Who can blame her? They are adorable and they sparkle and shine. I don't know if she just wants to play with them or wear them, but I can't help putting her in one when she does this.

Then she runs all over the apartment and I chase her around with the camera. What a silly mommy!

Checking for monsters under the bed? No, there are toys under there.

Well, she appears to be having a good time. Maybe she did really want to wear her princess clothes today. I hope I'm not turning my daughter into a miss priss.

The perfect trail

Nichols Arboretum, Ann Arbor, MI

Everywhere I've lived I've tried to find places to go walking and running. I was a little disappointed to find out that once we got here there was nowhere to go nearby. I wish that we could just get up and go for a walk, but we live right on the frontage road of a big freeway and it's way too busy. Somedays when I am motivated and feeling green concientious, I will just put Claire in the jogging stroller we'll stoll around our apartment complex parking lot. Boring... but effective. It's got a nice hill and I'll bet its almost a mile around. Yet, I want better scenery. When I started running, that was my favorite thing about it- the scenery. I've never been a fan of treadmills for that reason.

On more ambitious days, Claire and I will take a drive to try and find new places to go running. A little while ago I found a really nice place. The problem is that it is about 10 miles away. I haven't been able to find anything closer than that. The perfect place to run for me has a clear trail, with distance markers, surrounded by trees and if possible is parallel to a body of flowing water. In Ann Arbor, the Arboretum at U of M. In Lansing, the River Trail and MSU campus. In Utah, the Jordan River Parkway. Here, I think I've found the nearly perfect place for us. Why does it have to be 10 miles away? Well, when we are looking for a house, if ever - location within walking distance of perfect trail -will be non-negotiable.

Today was a beautiful day for a run, by the way. 72 degrees, with a nice gray blue sky with puffy clouds.

Big Change

Beaumont Tower, MSU Campus

Aaron got a job offer from the State of Texas for an Economist Position. We are very excited about the opportunity this gives him to use his education and start working towards a career that he will hopefully enjoy. This will be a step up in many ways from his Sales position at Dell. The only problem is that health insurance benefits from the state job will not kick in until January. That worries me a lot. We can't afford Cobra and private insurance will not cover an already pregnant woman. I've got some things in the works so hopefully with some faith and a lot of prayers we will be all right.

So, this means that our stay in Texas will most likely become more permanent than we originally thought. I'm O.K. with that so far. But I sometimes I really miss Michigan. Especially right now as its back to school time. I picture the streets of downtown East Lansing filled with new freshman going to get their new books. I loved getting those free back to school packs from SBS. The ones for girls with the shampoo samples and free razors and deoderant. The ones for guys had the same - only the guy versions. I miss taking walks on the MSU campus to the children's garden, botanical gardens, or down by Admin to feed the ducks. Right now I am really craving an cookie/icecream sandwich from Melting Moments... But, I'll bet that by November and definitely by January my thoughts will be more of gratitude I am here rather than there.

Our Family is Growing

Sarah, Claire, and Aaron at Slater Park, Lansing, MI (March 2007)

Well, it's time to share the news with everyone. We are adding another member to the Adams family at the end of March. For those of you who check the Recipe blog, you may have noticed posts have slowed down. I haven't been into food very much lately. But we are always looking for more contributors, so please send me an e-mail if you'd like to join.
Things have been somewhat easier this time than with Claire. I think that comes from being in better shape and not having to work full-time. Plus my thyroid has been doing well. My doctor back in East Lansing thought it would have gone kaput by now.
We had our first ultrasound a couple weeks ago and the baby looks normal with a healthy heartbeat. We are excited and a little scared about have a second child, but we know that things will work out. I don't know about posting belly shots - my belly is kind of shot from the last pregnancy, but we'll keep you updated on how things go.