Welcome back!

Hello, little blog of mine! It’s been a while since I’ve posted in this space. Life got away from me and my blog fell away from my priorities. I was working two full-time positions for seven months while my department was down a person, breastfeeding/pumping full time, running a household (with Dave’s help, of course), raising an infant, volunteering at church, volunteering to be an advisor for a collegiate chapter of my sorority, and was asked to head a fundraising committee for a new non-profit organization in town. Did I mention that the majority of our families both live in another state and therefore weren’t easily accessible to come help or watch Carter for a little while so I could catch up on everything.

Stressed doesn’t even begin to describe how I was feeling.

I raised the white flag and sadly backed away from as many commitments as I could. First the nonprofit, then my sorority and finally church (mostly). I was still drowning in tasks at work with no help, even when I asked for it. I was doing as much as I could but spending the evenings engaged with my family (and an infant who thinks my laptop is a toy and would scream at me if I left the play area) and fulfilling my household duties left the wee hours of the morning for additional work time.

I burnt out quickly.

Even with the addition of a new staff member in June I had a lot to catch up on. And then with some additional staffing changes at work I inherited more responsibilities and the requirement to attend evening and weekend events – keeping me from my family even more. All with no financial compensation or additional time off. It was killing me that was spending so much time away from home while my baby is growing so fast.

But there’s a happy ending to this story!

Long story short, Dave’s postdoctoral position was coming to an end and he was offered a permanent position at the company which came with the awesome job title of “Laser Physicist” (how cool is that!) and a very nice raise.

This allowed us to finally take the steps to achieve one of our long-time goals…


I get to stay at home with Carter!

I officially quit my job this week and my last day will be either September 19 or 25 (they asked me to stay for a while to help wrap up projects but I also want a solid finish date so things don’t drag out). Either way, I’ll soon get to focus on playing, reading books, and going on field trips with my little guy, plus better supporting Dave in his new position and taking care of our home… and blogging more! I am beyond excited to have this opportunity and so grateful that I have a husband who supports me staying home.

Praise God for answered prayers!

I’m looking forward to this new stage of life and hope you’ll enjoy following along, too. Cheers!

Day at the museum

Hello family and friends! It’s been a while since I’ve posted, and I hate that! Work has been crazy for me lately and, unfortunately, blogging is one of the first things on the list of things I don’t have the time for. Hopefully I’ll get around to retroactively posting a few things here soon.

Anyway, today is President’s Day and both Dave and I had the day off of work. We slept in (after an early wake-up from the little guy, but eventually got him back to sleep), had a delicious brunch, hug out around the house for a while and then went to the Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose. We weren’t sure how Carter would do, but we read online that there were exhibits for younger kiddos so we figured it was worth trying out. Turns out, Carter had the time of his life!



We started in the “Wonder Closet” which is designed for kids ages four and under. In the baby room Carter had fun shaking tubes and dancing along while an employee played songs, crawling up wavy stairs, banging on a xylophone, seeing himself in a three-sided mirror area and watching lights dance around the room in a giant kaleidoscope.











After that we went to the water play area. We knew he would love this because he loves to splash around in the bath tub and play with the water.



It was so cute that they had “waterproof” smocks for the kiddos to wear. Too bad it wasn’t very effective – C would sink his whole arm in the water and the water would pool in the sleeve and then when he raised his arms up the water gushed out the arm and onto his clothes. Oh well, he still had a blast!





Finally, we went to the bubble area to see how he would react. Let’s just say, this may have been his favorite part of the day…

Oh, that laugh! I’ll never get enough of it! There was a machine making bubbles and letting them float to the floor – that’s what we were “popping”. So fun. And then there was a tube blowing air that we dipped in bubble solution to make a big bubble and Carter loved popping those, too. He was already soaked from the water area so a little bubble goo on top of that was no big deal.





Carter had so much fun that he fell asleep on the way home with a half-finished bottle in one hand and a little shaker toy/rain stick that Daddy bought for him in the other. Sweet kid.

It was a wonderful day! We loved watching Carter experience new things and learn and play in a new environment. We hope to have many more family days like this in the future!