It's almost 2018 (really!) and the Eff Family has been uprooted. After 17 years of living in NC (13 in the same house), we packed up, donated, or sold all our stuff and moved to the midwest, three states away.
The main reason for the move was that I left my job of seventeen years. I moved to a new area in my field, and was able to get a job that was much less stressful. I had gotten to the point where I dreaded going to work everyday. I'd been looking since my maternity leave, so I was thrilled to be able to find an interesting job in a location we were happy to try out.
We were never good southerners. For one thing, we hate heat. The mild winters were OK but the summers were blazing humid hell. Then, there were the bugs. For all I know, there may be just as many hideous creepy-crawlies in our new state. But I can tell you one thing: since I am no longer living beneath a canopy of oak forest, not nearly as many will be marching into my house or lurking right outside my front door. Woohoo, less bugs!
Leaving was a happy-sad thing for Isadora. We had already moved schools this year from a magnet to the neighborhood elementary so she'd only been there for a month. But she's such a sociable kid, she'd already made friends and gotten to like the teacher. So she was sad about leaving the new teacher and her new friends. But she was over the moon about not having to catch the bus at 6:40 am in the dark. Now, we can walk her to school; it's only a couple blocks away and it starts at 9! NINE!
Rory doesn't seem to be phased by the move. He had fun "helping" pack all the boxes, then unpack them (there are still a few to be unpacked). He and Isa both are fascinated by the stairs in our new rental home. He turned one at the end of September and had a little family party with his grandpa, stepgrandma, and our family friend Steve. At that point he was standing up a lot but not walking. By the time we moved into our townhouse, he was starting to really walk, and he quickly learned climbing too. All the way up the stairs!
It took a lot of stress, planning, uncertainty, and work, but we love our new city so far and all the other "new" things that go along with it. We already know two families from WV nearby, and Mr. Eff's cousin moved about an hour away too, so we didn't totally move into a strange area.
The grandparents are only 3 hours away instead of 5 or 6! We took advantage of that and went to see them and a bunch of other family for Thanksgiving.
We're hoping to get a tree put up this weekend, and we are planning Isa's 7th birthday at the same time we're planning for the holidays. Isa and I took skating lessons before we left Durham and we are going to continue those in the new year. We are also going to our first college hockey game soon, a Chinese Lantern Festival, and a few other holiday events we've found.
It was a tough move and a lot happened in a short period of time, but it was all worth it!
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
My life is crazy
I don't post a lot about my personal life (or at all, really!) because I'm too busy living it for the most part. But sometimes it's crazy.
We just got back from a wonderful vacation in Tennessee with family. It was so great to spend time with my brother- and sister-in-law, their kids, and their family friend (who really hit it off with our daughter!). We don't see them often enough so I'm glad we took the opportunity to share a vacation with them.
While we were there I learned to kayak and discovered I really enjoy it. I think I might take some lessons or rent a kayak soon and go out on the river or one of the lakes around here.
I also had a nice breakfast with one of my best friends, which I don't get to do often enough since we're both so busy. Thankfully we can stay in touch online, too, but when I do go out with her I really enjoy and appreciate her company.
I went back to work yesterday after being out for a week. Someone had helpfully pulled my door closed. I remember pulling it almost closed, so everyone could see the vacation sign on it. I had plans to work my tail off to catch up, because we're down two, soon to be three people, and I was out for a week. Well, someone else probably accidentally pushed the lock in and when it got pulled closed, I was locked out of my office.
Until noon when a dedicated HR employee and the building handyman were able to completely destroy the knob.
So needless to say I didn't get half as much work done. I did go through some physical proofs that had come in, so at least I had something to do. I am also very grateful I could get it at all because I work from home Wednesdays and I did not want to go in on Wednesday to get my computer that was locked up in the office.
The thing is, I want to spend as much time as I can with my kids. They're both still pretty little and I don't want to miss anything. I value my Wednesdays a lot, even though I have to pry the kids off my lap or legs and tell them to go play with their dad most of the time. Even if one is sitting on my lap drooling on my page proofs as I flip through them.
And even though I just spent the whole week with them both, which was great, that also means that Rory got really attached to me. So he wasn't thrilled when I went back to work, and my game plan was to work a day, be home two days (one working, one not), then work in the office the other two so he had an easy transition back to me working.
So I was thrilled to get in the office but not so thrilled to get even further behind.
As a working mom, I always feel like I'm having to half-ass something. Work or parenthood or the house or myself. It's not a good feeling sometimes. But seeing my kids' faces light up when I am home makes it all worth it.
I am also very lucky to have their father, who is an awesome stay at home parent and who takes such great care of them. I keep telling myself the kids are growing up so fast, and all this other crap will still be here when they don't want Mama so much anymore. That makes everything else just sort of fade into the background (it also makes me sad, but that's another story).
We are all just doing the best we can and hoping it's good enough. It helps to remind yourself of that sometimes.
We just got back from a wonderful vacation in Tennessee with family. It was so great to spend time with my brother- and sister-in-law, their kids, and their family friend (who really hit it off with our daughter!). We don't see them often enough so I'm glad we took the opportunity to share a vacation with them.
While we were there I learned to kayak and discovered I really enjoy it. I think I might take some lessons or rent a kayak soon and go out on the river or one of the lakes around here.
I also had a nice breakfast with one of my best friends, which I don't get to do often enough since we're both so busy. Thankfully we can stay in touch online, too, but when I do go out with her I really enjoy and appreciate her company.
I went back to work yesterday after being out for a week. Someone had helpfully pulled my door closed. I remember pulling it almost closed, so everyone could see the vacation sign on it. I had plans to work my tail off to catch up, because we're down two, soon to be three people, and I was out for a week. Well, someone else probably accidentally pushed the lock in and when it got pulled closed, I was locked out of my office.
Until noon when a dedicated HR employee and the building handyman were able to completely destroy the knob.
So needless to say I didn't get half as much work done. I did go through some physical proofs that had come in, so at least I had something to do. I am also very grateful I could get it at all because I work from home Wednesdays and I did not want to go in on Wednesday to get my computer that was locked up in the office.
The thing is, I want to spend as much time as I can with my kids. They're both still pretty little and I don't want to miss anything. I value my Wednesdays a lot, even though I have to pry the kids off my lap or legs and tell them to go play with their dad most of the time. Even if one is sitting on my lap drooling on my page proofs as I flip through them.
And even though I just spent the whole week with them both, which was great, that also means that Rory got really attached to me. So he wasn't thrilled when I went back to work, and my game plan was to work a day, be home two days (one working, one not), then work in the office the other two so he had an easy transition back to me working.
So I was thrilled to get in the office but not so thrilled to get even further behind.
As a working mom, I always feel like I'm having to half-ass something. Work or parenthood or the house or myself. It's not a good feeling sometimes. But seeing my kids' faces light up when I am home makes it all worth it.
I am also very lucky to have their father, who is an awesome stay at home parent and who takes such great care of them. I keep telling myself the kids are growing up so fast, and all this other crap will still be here when they don't want Mama so much anymore. That makes everything else just sort of fade into the background (it also makes me sad, but that's another story).
We are all just doing the best we can and hoping it's good enough. It helps to remind yourself of that sometimes.
Thursday, December 29, 2016
Introducing Rory
I am so bad about updating this thing, it's nearly been a year. Isa is six now, and she has a little brother! Yeah THAT BAD. ha ha.
I found out I was pregnant last January right after I'd gone to a fertility clinic for my first consultation. What luck! Rory joined us in late September. He was a week past his due date. This time around, I had a scheduled c-section. It went pretty well as far as major surgeries go. Much smoother than having a c-section after you've had a failed induction and been in labor!
Rory came out screaming and the only thing that settled him down was to eat. He ate while they were stitching me up. He ate in the recovery room. He kept eating on and off the first four or so hours of his life. He is still a champion eater. Other than that, he's a very mellow baby. Just get him the food on time!
I found out I was pregnant last January right after I'd gone to a fertility clinic for my first consultation. What luck! Rory joined us in late September. He was a week past his due date. This time around, I had a scheduled c-section. It went pretty well as far as major surgeries go. Much smoother than having a c-section after you've had a failed induction and been in labor!
Rory came out screaming and the only thing that settled him down was to eat. He ate while they were stitching me up. He ate in the recovery room. He kept eating on and off the first four or so hours of his life. He is still a champion eater. Other than that, he's a very mellow baby. Just get him the food on time!
He looks just like his sister. I joke that I don't have babies, I have clones. We're so lucky to have them both.
Friday, January 29, 2016
Five years old already
Isa is growing up so fast. We're in our second and last year of preschool, and working on choosing kindergartens for next year. It's so hard to believe my baby is already five years old!
She learned to read over the past year. She started out with the Bob books, which use three-letter words. They're a great way to introduce kids to reading. She picked up steam really quickly and now she is reading easy readers and some chapter books on her own. She is currently hooked on The Magic Treehouse, and I can barely keep up, gathering them from the library so she can read them in order.
Yesterday I picked her up from school and she said "Guess what Mom? I sneaked some snow from the playground and put it in my pocket!"
I said "Oh, honey, I bet it melted. Is your pocket wet?" I thought she'd probably gotten a little handful of snow and she'd be disappointed that it was gone.
She reached in her coat and said "No it didn't. Look!" She pulled out a pocket-sized lump of ice. She was so proud of it. She named it Icy, and asked me to put it in her snack container. She told me I couldn't run the heater on the way home. When we got home we put it in the freezer. Now she has a memento of our one substantial snowfall so far this year.
She has such a great imagination. We went to Disney World for her 5th birthday and to celebrate the holidays. She still believes in all the characters. I love how she is able to believe that scary characters aren't real, but good ones are. When she asks me "Do you think mermaids are real?" or "Do you think fairies are real?" I usually say "What do you think?" I hope she never loses her belief in magic, or her ability to create a little of her own every day.
She learned to read over the past year. She started out with the Bob books, which use three-letter words. They're a great way to introduce kids to reading. She picked up steam really quickly and now she is reading easy readers and some chapter books on her own. She is currently hooked on The Magic Treehouse, and I can barely keep up, gathering them from the library so she can read them in order.
Yesterday I picked her up from school and she said "Guess what Mom? I sneaked some snow from the playground and put it in my pocket!"
I said "Oh, honey, I bet it melted. Is your pocket wet?" I thought she'd probably gotten a little handful of snow and she'd be disappointed that it was gone.
She reached in her coat and said "No it didn't. Look!" She pulled out a pocket-sized lump of ice. She was so proud of it. She named it Icy, and asked me to put it in her snack container. She told me I couldn't run the heater on the way home. When we got home we put it in the freezer. Now she has a memento of our one substantial snowfall so far this year.
She has such a great imagination. We went to Disney World for her 5th birthday and to celebrate the holidays. She still believes in all the characters. I love how she is able to believe that scary characters aren't real, but good ones are. When she asks me "Do you think mermaids are real?" or "Do you think fairies are real?" I usually say "What do you think?" I hope she never loses her belief in magic, or her ability to create a little of her own every day.
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Spring has sprung...now summer is here
First day of summer and Happy Father's Day! We've had a busy, crazy spring.
After all our parties and stuff were over, I didn't get many more x-mas and birthday pics because, well, this was happening:
Here she is nibbling a chocolate bunny at Easter. We stayed home for Easter and had a great time. She played with the pink paper Easter grass for days.
Another highlight of our spring were these tiny turtles. We stumbled across them (literally) in the yard one day and checked them out. Then we checked on them every day for about a week until they both moved on or...something (yeah, let's go with "they found a happy turtle home").
Isa finished up her first year of preschool at the end of May. She loved her class and teachers. We thought about trying early kindergarten since she is so smart and mature for her age, but she gets along really well with her classmates, and we didn't want to rush her into a five-day-a-week full time school.
Especially since for her 5th birthday, we're GOIN' to DISNEY WORLD! :)
It will be the last year we can just do whatever we want without worrying about missing school, and she turns 5 in December. So we thought it would be a great time to go before she ages out of a lot of the Disney stuff. It's also coming up on mine and D's 15th anniversary, and that's where we went on our honeymoon.
Planning our Disney trip has taken my mind off of other things, such as D. finding out he's allergic to even more stuff: oats and wheat. He had another severe reaction that clued us in to that, one involving 911 (again!) and the e-room. But this time he actually swallowed part of the offending food so it was like a little bomb going off internally. NOT fun. After that, he injured his back, and it took him weeks to recover. But he is feeling better now and we're thankful he's back in good health.
I even figured out how to make him cake for Father's Day.
All those nice gluten-free treats and mixes out there cause big problems for D. They either contain or call for eggs. So we reverted way back in time before I knew about Depression Cake. All the way back to when the only way I knew to make eggless cake was to dump a can of Coke into a cake mix. And darned if it didn't work out perfectly fine for a GF mix.
I used Betty Crocker's GF version. The reason I chose Betty rather than a different brand is, the original Coke cake worked best with a mainstream brand of mix. It took less coke than a standard mix - just about a cup. But it rose and baked fine, and was sturdy enough to hold up the massive pile of frosting I put on there (frosting is GF by nature. Thank the Universe for small favors).
I would post a recipe but there really isn't one. A standard GF cake mix (I know Betty works and others probably do too; would love to hear from others who try it) and a cup of Coke (or diet coke, or sprite...). Stir, pour into a pan prepared the way it says on the box, and bake according to package directions. Easy as pie...er...cake. I still haven't figured GF pie out.
After all our parties and stuff were over, I didn't get many more x-mas and birthday pics because, well, this was happening:
Here she is nibbling a chocolate bunny at Easter. We stayed home for Easter and had a great time. She played with the pink paper Easter grass for days.
Another highlight of our spring were these tiny turtles. We stumbled across them (literally) in the yard one day and checked them out. Then we checked on them every day for about a week until they both moved on or...something (yeah, let's go with "they found a happy turtle home").
Isa finished up her first year of preschool at the end of May. She loved her class and teachers. We thought about trying early kindergarten since she is so smart and mature for her age, but she gets along really well with her classmates, and we didn't want to rush her into a five-day-a-week full time school.
Especially since for her 5th birthday, we're GOIN' to DISNEY WORLD! :)
 |
| Fairy Isa |
It will be the last year we can just do whatever we want without worrying about missing school, and she turns 5 in December. So we thought it would be a great time to go before she ages out of a lot of the Disney stuff. It's also coming up on mine and D's 15th anniversary, and that's where we went on our honeymoon.
 |
| Princess Isa |
Planning our Disney trip has taken my mind off of other things, such as D. finding out he's allergic to even more stuff: oats and wheat. He had another severe reaction that clued us in to that, one involving 911 (again!) and the e-room. But this time he actually swallowed part of the offending food so it was like a little bomb going off internally. NOT fun. After that, he injured his back, and it took him weeks to recover. But he is feeling better now and we're thankful he's back in good health.
I even figured out how to make him cake for Father's Day.
All those nice gluten-free treats and mixes out there cause big problems for D. They either contain or call for eggs. So we reverted way back in time before I knew about Depression Cake. All the way back to when the only way I knew to make eggless cake was to dump a can of Coke into a cake mix. And darned if it didn't work out perfectly fine for a GF mix.
I used Betty Crocker's GF version. The reason I chose Betty rather than a different brand is, the original Coke cake worked best with a mainstream brand of mix. It took less coke than a standard mix - just about a cup. But it rose and baked fine, and was sturdy enough to hold up the massive pile of frosting I put on there (frosting is GF by nature. Thank the Universe for small favors).
I would post a recipe but there really isn't one. A standard GF cake mix (I know Betty works and others probably do too; would love to hear from others who try it) and a cup of Coke (or diet coke, or sprite...). Stir, pour into a pan prepared the way it says on the box, and bake according to package directions. Easy as pie...er...cake. I still haven't figured GF pie out.
Monday, December 22, 2014
Happy Holidays!
That same weekend, we went to see Frozen on Ice. Isa had a great time. The snowman song was the best. Even though the place was Frozen-mad, she picked out an Ariel snow cone cup for a souvenir. Still loyal to The Mermaid.
Unfortunately she got sick right after that and missed most of the last week of preschool. She misses her friends already, but she gets to see them before school starts again since one of them has a birthday party coming up.
On Friday we went to a party at the Hillsborough Rec Center and I got Isa to wear this holiday outfit by telling her she was dressing up as a candy cane. :) These little parties are great! She got to make fake snow (mix shaving cream and corn starch - who knew?), color gingerbread people, make a snowman ornament out of popsicle sticks, and play games with the other kids. I got to go yarn shopping while she did all that. :D
We've been busy gearing up for Christmas. We did our first cookie house, and I made a ton of homemade gingerbread for us, work, Isa's classmates, and various other people. I went a little heavy on the frosting...we like our snowmen and bears fluffy.
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| "I ate all the extras" |
Just 3 more days! Hope you and your family have a great holiday season and a happy new year.
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Fall fun!
We're having a great October so far.
The first weekend, we hit the library book sale. Nevermind that we'd just shopped at the preschool book fair (you can't have too many books). We got a pile of books at the library sale. Even though it's pure chaos, we look forward to the sale every year, and we always load up. I've slowly been picking up easy-reader books for Isa since she's starting to learn sight words (when she has the patience to wait on us to point to them - maybe for one book out of three!).
Then I took a day off to go to the zoo, because they have LION CUBS!!!!
We were lucky to get there when the cubs were pretty active. They were all nursing for a while, then some played while some wanted to keep bugging the mama to nurse some more.
Of course after all that lion adorableness, when we got to the carousel we had to hop on the lion.
This weekend, we went to Ganyard Hill Farm for pumpkin picking. We'd never done the pumpkin patch thing before so we were in for a happy surprise! There was lots to do: hay rides, a corn maze, a hay mountain with a slide, and Isa's favorites, the corn crib and cotton field.
After all that fun, we went out and picked our three pumpkins. It was neat getting to pluck them right out of the fields!
Here's our pumpkin trio, all cleaned up and ready to decorate:
Happy Fall!
The first weekend, we hit the library book sale. Nevermind that we'd just shopped at the preschool book fair (you can't have too many books). We got a pile of books at the library sale. Even though it's pure chaos, we look forward to the sale every year, and we always load up. I've slowly been picking up easy-reader books for Isa since she's starting to learn sight words (when she has the patience to wait on us to point to them - maybe for one book out of three!).
Then I took a day off to go to the zoo, because they have LION CUBS!!!!
We were lucky to get there when the cubs were pretty active. They were all nursing for a while, then some played while some wanted to keep bugging the mama to nurse some more.
 |
| "I got up and moved for a REASON, kid!" |
 | ||
| This one just wanted to cuddle. Aw... |
 |
| Sleepy babies! |
Of course after all that lion adorableness, when we got to the carousel we had to hop on the lion.
This weekend, we went to Ganyard Hill Farm for pumpkin picking. We'd never done the pumpkin patch thing before so we were in for a happy surprise! There was lots to do: hay rides, a corn maze, a hay mountain with a slide, and Isa's favorites, the corn crib and cotton field.
 |
| We brought home handfuls of cotton and I'm sure it will come in handy for something crafty. |
After all that fun, we went out and picked our three pumpkins. It was neat getting to pluck them right out of the fields!
Here's our pumpkin trio, all cleaned up and ready to decorate:
Happy Fall!
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