Day in the Life - Summer 2015

It's time for another Day in the Life as hosted by My Life in Transition. I was going to do this earlier in the week, but we had our Luxembourg guests. They were actually featured in my Day in the Life two years ago when they visited, but I really wanted to capture a regular summer day.

Sunday, 7/12/15
Riley is 5 and a half
Jesse is 40 and I'm 43

10:24 pm - Saturday night I had planned to get to bed by 10:00, but realized I had some laundry I needed to switch out as I didn't want to leave wet clothes in the washer overnight.  I did some reading while waiting for the laundry and then slept pretty well with the normal couple wake ups over night.

1:37 - I wake up, go to bathroom, and fall right back to sleep.

4:10 - Up again. Same routine of bathroom and back to sleep.

6:31 - Wake up, but Riley's not up yet so I debate about trying to fall back asleep even though I got 8 hours of sleep. Jesse's already gone downstairs so I decide to grab my book The Big Burn  which is about a huge wildfire in Washington, Idaho and Montana in 1910. It talks a lot about Roosevelt's preservation of land which is interesting. I'm achy this morning and hope it's not going to get any worse.

6:44 - Riley's awake and yelling from her bedroom that "IT'S SIIIIIIX". I hop out of bed and go to her room where we hang out for a bit. She realizes it's a 'day in the life' since I have the camera with me and decides she's going to take some pictures for me.

Bad picture, but lolz on Riley's face. Is she scared? I think she's trying to smile.

Picture by Riley

Picture by Riley

6:54 - Riley heads downstairs to find her dad while I make beds and get dressed for the day. I'm meeting a friend for a walk at 9:00 and it's already a warm morning so I try to dress appropriately (it's supposed to be close to 90 this day). I decide to wear my uniform of capri's and layered tank tops from Old Navy. I have them in many colors and a couple different sizes and wear them all the time. I go with the red top since I have sparkly red toenails (from the 4th of July), but later realize no one will notice my awesome coordination skills since I put on socks and tennis shoes for my walk.

Still working on Riley's room, but getting close to being done. I'll be adding a picture above her bed.

Up late the night before means a big pile of books next to her bed.

7:00 - I head downstairs and eat breakfast while Riley and Jesse are in the basement. I start laundry and clean up around the house. I do all my morning eye stuff except for the warm compress (two different eye drops and a lid cleanse). Riley and Jesse come upstairs and he sets her up with breakfast while I look up how to get to Como. I know how to get there, but it's been close to a year so I totally second guess myself. When I look at the directions it's exactly how I remember, but now I can drive there confidently.

Free paper that's mostly ads.

7:53 - Go play 'pretend' with Riley and some magnetic Frozen toys. It's my least favorite type of play, but I try to put some effort into it since I will be gone for a couple hours this morning. However, it doesn't last long when I realize I have to do a couple more things before leaving like brushing my teeth, getting ice water, etc. I then get Riley dressed as she and Jesse are going to go to the gym and run some errands. She asks for a dress and requests a hand me down that's pretty stained. Whatever.

Lucy likes to play with us too.

8:33 - I drive to St Paul for a walk around Lake Como. It takes me a half hour to get there, but, even with construction detours, it's an easy drive today - this isn't always so. I meet Jennifer in front of the pavilion and we loop the lake twice. It's already hot and Jennifer likes to walk at super speed. I should have asked to take a break, but even with drinking lots of ice water, I overheat and get a headache that lasts most of the day. I was afraid this would happen especially with waking achy (sometimes it's a sign that I won't feel well later), but was hopeful that I could just enjoy a walk without repercussions. This is also why I don't make a ton of plans, because I never know how I might feel. Anyhoo, it was good to see Jen. We work at the same company and used to be on the same team, but not anymore so we don't get to connect that often. We catch up on our recent vacations and her pregnancy.

10:08 - Walk done. We decide to high five instead of hug because it's just too hot and we are both too sweaty. Feeling gross. I drive home and see that Jesse and Riley are finishing up an early lunch - although it's pretty common for Jesse to eat his lunch around 10:30 because he's weird like that. I also eat some food. I'm hungry and food often helps with my headaches so I eat yogurt with granola, but I really want to take a bath in frozen yogurt instead

Riley shows me a picture she made for me at the gym. It's rolled up and tied with a purple string like it's a present. So sweet, that girl. She also shows me the fly swatter she and her dad picked up while a fly proceeds to buzz around our house. I get her set up with a snack about 20 minutes after she ate her lunch because she says she's still hungry.

And then I eat some more food because I, too, am hungry. I grab a leftover salad from two days prior. It has seared tuna in it and it's not until after I eat it all that I wonder if it was a smart idea to eat two day old raw tuna. In the end I was fine so all was good. I peruse the internet and watch a short video about a guy who quit the job he loved to ride his bike through South America. He talks about his motivation being that so many people state that they wished they worked less and lived more. He also notes that the monotony of a job doesn't challenge our brains. Wish I could quit my job and go on an adventure.

11:33 - Well overdue for a shower so I take a luke warm shower followed by a cold burst on my still aching head. I get out of the shower and get dressed in my 'uniform' of capri's and tank tops, but this time I switch to pink. I'm not kidding that I wear this pretty much all summer.

12:04 - It's laundry day so I fold some clean towels and then head to the basement where I find Jesse has introduced Riley to a Mario Brother's game which they are playing together. It's cute to see her working the controller and them chasing each other on the screen. I decide to watch while sitting in the massage chair behind them, but a few minutes later Jesse announces that he's going to buy brats at Byerly's. We're going to a BBQ later so I ask if he's getting any side dishes. "No", he replies so I tell him he has to wait for me as I am going with. I think he's crazy not to get side dishes, but I think he only ends up eating brats at the BBQ. Weird.

12:25 - Off to Byerly's where I get a Caesar salad and smoked salmon and some grapes and Jesse picks out some brats.

1:08 - Home and hungry. I warm up some Tuscan Kale soup. Kind of a weird food day as we've all eaten multiple times already. We make this soup about every other week as we love it so much. We add a little more carrots, extra can of beans, and some real shredded chicken on top of the recipe linked above.

1:33 - Lol. Riley asks for some food so I set her up with some grapes. I do some stuff around the house, sit in front of the computer a bit, and pack our bags for our BBQ. Jesse is into gaming and one of his gamer friends is in town from California. They are all meeting at Oak Hill, a park by our house, to BBQ. There are a couple playgrounds and a splash pad there so I make sure to grab Riley and my bathing suits. I almost decide to bring my board shorts instead, but decide I better try them on as I've gained weight lately... and thank God I did, because there was no way I could wear those. Gah, not sure what caused the weight gain, but everything I own is tight or no longer fits. I prep the salad and put everything in a bag except the grapes which were still wet from washing.

Side note: Gamers all have gaming names so I have to try and keep straight the game name with the real name. For instance, Jesse is known as "Soy" although his game name is usually "Powered by Soy". Yeah, I never thought I would marry a gamer, but at least he's not one of those that forgets about hygiene and social skills and that sort of stuff.

1:50 - Riley's now watching a little TV so I tell her that if she needs anything to ask her dad as I am going to take a nap. I feel like crap and am hoping the nap resets me a little for our BBQ at 3:00. I have a hard time relaxing when I get into bed and worry that the pain in my head will keep me from being able to sleep.

2:33 - I hear Jesse walk up the stairs and grab socks out of the dresser. Bummed that I am awake so soon, but know I was out as I came too with drool on my cheek. Just keeping it classy over here.

I get up and see that Jesse has finished packing up the grapes and put all the food in a cooler - except for the brats which he's cooking up. He didn't feel like getting charcoal and cooking at the park so he's doing this instead.

2:56 - Off to the park and we're the first to arrive. All the shelter's are taken, but we find a couple picnic tables in the shade near a grill and set up. Riley and I go up to the park and then return when a couple people show up. Later we go to the splash pad where Riley runs through some water... as in, she lets her face and head get wet. Someone has switched my kid. Hopefully, this carries over to Monday when she goes to her first swim lesson.

Waiting

There were at least twice as many people that showed up.

We go back to the tables where more people have arrived. I introduce myself to some people as Jesse isn't doing it, we grab some food and then go back to the splash pad where Riley continues to amaze me by playing with the previously, highly avoided water cannons and even gets close to the tipping water buckets and almost runs under one. Wish I captured a picture of her embracing all this water. (I only took pictures when she was around the 'safe' water area). We go back to the group and play corn hole, Frisbee, and go swinging again before heading home. It was a scorcher this day, but the splash pad provided a huge relief.

6:05 - We head home were we all take showers. Riley gets in with me and then cries when I rinse of her face with the shower head. What happened to the kid who was just running all over the splash pad getting her face wet?

Riley plays a little more "wifi" with her dad and then we head up for bedtime a little after 7:00. I read her a book and then we play a new "game" in picking out her other books to read. We usually just pick them out, but I have her give me a letter and I select the book based on the letter she's given me.

7:18 - Usually, we're not done reading a book together until at least 7:30 or later, but we finish up early. I move a decorative pillow from Riley's bed and she squeaks to get it back. She does a lot of this squeaky stuff and we are often working with her to use real words or sentences and her manners. This is one of those times that I make her ask for the pillow and it's more of a struggle than usual to do so. I can tell she's beat, but she does say "mommy, can I please have the blue pillow" so I give it to her, tell her I love her and good night and I head downstairs. I go straight to the laundry room and swap loads and when I come up from the basement, Jesse is coming down from Riley's room. Apparently, she started crying as soon as I left the room. Jesse had no idea why, but I think she was super tired and me pushing her to speak and not squeak sent her over the edge. She's quiet the rest of the night so I think she crashed early (for some reason the night before she was up until at least 10:30 even though we put her to bed at 7:30).

Telling me a story

Perhaps already crying here? This is how I left her. 

7:36 - I make myself a snack since I am still hungry and decide to watch Olive Kittridge while starting to write up this post. I watch part 3 and 4 (the last parts) of the mini series and would recommend it to others. I only get to about 10:00 am on my Day in the Life before my brain starts to tucker out. My head is feeling way better, but I can get pretty foggy headed during and after a migraine day.

9:39 - I've done my nighttime ritual including 3 different prescription eye drops (that I'm not sure are really helping my dry eye issues). I skip the step of a warm compress as I've failed to do that all week. I'll get back on schedule tomorrow, I swear. I go upstairs where Jesse is already in bed reading. I grab my book and check my Fitbit. 13,901 steps! That's way more than a usual day and I can feel it too.

10:02 - I have something in my right eye that's bothering me and after about 5 minutes of reading with one eye I come to my senses and decide to go to bed. I sleep good again (two wake ups - one of which was a noisy storm, but crashed right away after waking), and wake up migraine free. Yay!

Project 52 - Long Shutter - Week 27

27/52

This week I took pictures of my family playing with sparklers. You guys, making this weeks picture was so much fun - except for the part where Riley burned her finger on a sparkler and then I felt guilty for giving a 5 year old a sparkler. But other than that, this was a cool experiment for me.

Normally, when taking pictures I try to have a low ISO, a wide open aperture (to get some good bokeh), and a fast shutter speed (imperative so I don't have a blurry child), but with sparklers (and fireworks which I took pictures of earlier this week) you want a slow shutter or a long exposure.

So last night I gave my nephews and my sister in law some sparklers and asked them to spin them and write words and this is some of what we got.

Above, we tied a sparkler to a string and spun it around. The faster you move the sparkler the smoother the lines. Below you can see that Cade spelled his name slowly as the lines are thicker and sparklier.

Writing words with sparklers is a bit challenging since you need to write backwards (or flip the picture in editing). Susee is the master of writing backwards and whipped out Riley's name in no time flat.

Tips if you want to try this:

• Camera settings - ISO 100, Aperture 11 (although in my previous try I had it at 16 and would probably do that again next time), and Shutter Speed was set on Bulb (I just held the shutter down until the writing was completed). I also tried the Shutter Speed at 10 - 20 seconds with some other pictures.
• Use a remote or wired shutter to help lesson the shake from touching the on camera shutter button
• Use a flashlight or phone to focus on your subject and then change your auto focus to manual before taking your shot.
• Be mindful of other lights and distractions in the background.

I had so much fun trying something new to me and can't wait to play with long shutter speed more.

4th of July

This 4th of July weekend was especially memorable because our Luxembourg family was in town. We spent two different days on the boat (I think the last time we were on the boat was when they were here two years ago) and we even took Riley to see fireworks... and she didn't freak out!

Jesse's brother and his family came in late Thursday night and stayed at our place so Friday we headed over to my in laws to hang out with them. We ate and spent time on the boat and enjoyed each other's company. 

On the 4th we planned more eating and boating and just hanging out. There was a boat parade on Prior Lake at 1:00 which we went to, but sort of missed. There were boats decorated driving around, but they ended up driving away from us so I feel like it didn't happen. That was ok, because some of those boats had water cannons and I'm not sure our entire boat (Riley) would have liked to be hit with a water cannon. 

While we were in this area the boys jumped into the water (and eventually my sister in law Susee, Riley and myself) and before you know it all the other boats were gone. We hadn't really noticed since we were having so much fun. We were all pretty amazed how Riley asked to go in the water (and would get out, but then go in again over and over). We didn't have to talk her into it, but I guess it shouldn't have been that big of a surprise because she seems more open to trying things when she sees her cousins doing them.

After going back to the house to eat we headed out again on the boat and stopped at some friend's of my in laws.

Imitating certain tourist pictures

Jesse was squatting in the yard a lot so I made some comment about how he looked like a monkey and her ran with it. He asked me not to put the picture on Facebook, but never mentioned the blog...

Riley spent a bunch of time at the edge of the water soaking her skirt and playing. It was like she was a different child and made me want to live on a lake where she could play on the beach all the time.

There was a trampoline float that the boys played on while the adults chatted on shore.

We headed back to the house and ate dinner before checking out the fireworks. Everyone else was headed back on the boat, but we weren't confident that Riley would tolerate that since she's been freaked out by fireworks in the past. She said she wanted to see them this year so we decided to go to the Aquila fireworks by our house. By the time we got home it was pretty late so we weren't able to get a spot up close, but that was probably ok for these first official fireworks for Riley.

We parked over by Knollwood mall and were really only able to see the fireworks that were up high. I really wanted to try and get some good pictures of them, but we were in a terrible spot as there were about 20 phone lines, and because of construction, there were flashing street lights just below the fireworks. I still used the opportunity to practice and feel like they turned out pretty good for my first time.

And that was our 4th of July. I'm excited about next year now that we know Riley enjoyed the fireworks and was able to stay up late without too much of a breakdown. Too bad it's a whole year away.

Project 52 - Public Places - Week 26

26/52

My Luxembourg family is coming this week! That would be my husband's brother and his wife and their two boys. We are very excited and in prep mode... cleaning the house, getting a new comforter for the guest room, hanging pictures, and finishing up outside projects that have been on the list. Nothing like having visitors to light a fire under you to get things done.

They'll stay at our house for part of the visit and at my in laws for part so I wanted to make sure that we'll have more than our usual amount of food. I went shopping this week and decided that I would test myself again in terms of taking pictures in public... where you normally wouldn't do so. I almost forgot as I was so into checking off my grocery list, but remembered while I was in the second to last aisle. Luckily no one was there, although the true test would have been to whip out the camera in the produce aisle in front of other shoppers. Not sure I'm that brave yet.

Also, taking a picture at Target is probably a large representation of our life since we're here at least once a week.

We don't have any big plans while they are here except to watch the fireworks. My in laws live off of Prior Lake so I'm sure there will be some boat time as well. Riley has been absolutely freaked out by fireworks in the past, but last year I got her to actually watch them a little from her bedroom window. She says she's ready this year, but we'll see how it goes. We'll be bringing headphones and have an escape plan in place. She's usually more open to these things when her cousins are around so who knows... maybe she'll be a champ.

Whatever happens, I'm sure we'll have a blast with our visitors in town. I can't wait until they arrive!