What we've been up to

Opportunities to blog come rather few and far between so I feel like I owe my readers a more thorough update on what we've been doing beyond getting older (the kids) and running (me).

We seem to be functioning under an ever-changing routine which, in and of itself, basically goes against the definition of the word so I guess we can't even really claim to have one of those!

I went back to work at the end of February, beginning at one day a week to ease the transition. It's gone remarkably better than expected and I've found that a) I enjoy using that other part of my brain (hooray! it's still there!) and b) earning a paycheck feels really good. As much as I loved being home with the girls for the time that I was, seeing our bank account hold steady instead of decreasing is really nice! This past week was crazy as I went back up to my full 0.3 FTE (1/3 time) in addition to going in extra for training classes for the new computer charting system we are moving to. Other than all the commuting, working part time is going rather well!

Graham has a leave of absence from school again this quarter because of the way the classes fell when he changed to the Nurse Practitioner program. This break is timely as it has made my transition back to work just that much easier. He has a huge research project that has to be completed before he graduates that he's hoping to pound out while he's "off" this quarter. Come summer, you nor I will be seeing much of him until June of 2013. Boo. But, on the bright side, GRADUATION IS IN ONE YEAR (give or take a couple months)!

As far as other randomness goes, we totally got into the show Downton Abbey. Unfortunately, we whizzed through both season and are now somewhat at a loss as to what to do with our Friday nights now that we have no show to claim as "ours."

Graham's taken a real interest in cooking in his spare time and I have been happy to let him take the reigns in the kitchen every week or two (that is until I see how many sticks of butter went in to the recipe....) I used to adore most all Cooking Light recipes but have found that dull somewhat when served alongside those published in Bon Appetit. Sigh.

Speaking of French, I have been experiencing some strong feelings of nostalgia lately. Sometimes it sort of feels like our life is on repeat, having girls whose birthdays are 5 days apart. The seasons fall at the same age for Emma that they did when Isla was a baby. They both got to wear the same dress on their 1st Christmas and Easter. And now, as we approach the month of June, I feel like we should be preparing to take Emma on a 3 week tour de France. It only seems fair! It doesn't really help matters that Emma is fitting into this shirt that Isla wore while we were abroad. Every time I put it on her, I get this crazy urge to go book plane tickets.

We were THIS close to planning a trip to Europe in the late summer until we started crunching the numbers. I'm not sure where we were expecting the finances to come from but it was a really fun dream for a few months there. Instead, Graham and I are planning to take our first extended trip alone as a couple. We'll get to hit up wine country but it'll be California-style (almost as good as Europe). We're also really excited to spend 5 days on San Juan Island with some friends, go camping, and I'm still hoping to get a couple nights at Cannon Beach on the books.

Ok so this post has become slightly less creative than I was hoping and is starting to sound a bit like a Christmas letter....I guess that's a good indication it's time for me to sign off!