Aunt Kaitlyn and Uncle Daniel came to visit... which was fun for the baby and for the adults. World's quickest trip to Texas... I've been baking up a storm lately... We'll call this section: "Cute Pictures of Zianne..." Subtitle: "Desperate for pigtails..." Snuggles with mom; story time with dad... Splash pad and swimming pool. Z loves the water... Brunch with girlfriends... Not mad about a Thursday night date... ||To see more of our life lately follow @jenrussum on Instagram|| ... Read more
Sharing a few achievable goals on my blog each month has proven to be incredibly beneficial for me. I feel extra accountable to get things done when I know I will report back to my readers in this space. I don't always get everything accomplished on my monthly list, but I'm usually able to knock out the majority of my goals, and I consider that a very good thing. {via} RE-CAP OF LAST MONTH: Sell clothes... Done! But I am on a major minimalist kick right now, so I might post more clothes soon. I kind of want to become one of those fewer-than-fifty items of clothing people. Follow@thecuratedcloset on Instagram if you want to shop my closet in the future! Get life insurance... Done! I filled out my application. A nurse came to my house and drew my blood. I'm just waiting on final paperwork telling me that everything has been processed. Update camera... Done! New Wi-Fi SD card and fixed 50mm lens are installed and I love them both! However, I discovered that my camera doesn't work with a remote, so I need to sell mine. This is the model. Leave a comment if you are interested. It's brand new and I'm willing to sell it for $10, which is half price! :) Finish two books... Eek! I only finished one. I'm still working on Gone Girl, because I had to return it to the library just when it was getting good. I just checked it out again and I hope to finish it this week. Write one letter of encouragement and a letter to my grandma... Done! GOALS FOR THIS MONTH: Return Bebe Pod. The strap broke on Zianne's Prince Lionheart chair, but they have great customer service and are sending me a whole new chair as soon as I fill out a form. I've been putting it off for a month, and I need to get it done now! I think the strap clip breaking was just a fluke, so I would still highly recommend this product. It has more room for chubby baby thighs and is also safer than the similar Bumbo chair because it has a wider base. Rollover 401K. This is embarrassing, but I have a tiny 401K from the teaching job I had before Micah and I got married, and I need to roll it over to a different account... The embarrassing part is that this relatively easy task has been on my to do list since summer of 2011. This month I'm going to make it happen, y'all! Study ten hours a week. I am gearing up to take my PhD reading exam in the fall. I was supposed to start studying for it in May and the month quickly got filled up with other tasks and events. Starting today my goal is to study for two hours a day Monday - Friday and use Saturday as a catch up day if I get behind during the week. It's clearly going to be a thrilling summer in the Russum household as I read 55 academic texts... Print large family photo. Last summer I enlarged a wedding photo to hang in our bedroom and I have a matching frame that I reserved for a family photo after Zianne was born. She is here. We've taken family portraits. Now one needs to make its way into the frame. One of my overall summer goals is to hang art and photos in the master bedroom. Since we moved into our house, all of our wall hangings have been sitting on our dressers and leaning against the walls below where they should be hanging. I hope that getting a family picture printed will get the ball rolling on getting all our bedroom walls finished. Read two books... I'm still a book behind on my one per month goal for 2014, so I hope to finish two this month to get back on pace. Write one note of encouragement... |Linking up with The Tiny Twig's "Goals with Grace"| ... Read more
This weekend Zianne and I made a quick jaunt to Texas. Our main reason for the trip was to attend an academic conference in San Antonio. I was selected to speak on a panel about the rhetorics of motherhood. It sounds fancier than it is, but nonetheless it's a big conference in my field, so off we went, me and my eight month old travel companion, because she's the one that gives me authority to speak on the rhetoric of mothers. But you know I couldn't get within a few hundred miles of my sister and my best friends without stopping to see them too. So our four days in Texas included three major cities... First, San Antonio for the conference. Second, Austin to see my sister. Third, Fort Worth to see my college best friends. I am forever grateful to my friend, Kristin, who drove from Fort Worth to San Antonio {about a four hour trek} to pick us up from the airport and personally escort us all around the great state of Texas for the weekend. A million smooches to her from Z and me. If you haven't heard yet, my baby is a gem. She is seriously an extra sweet gift from God. She rarely cries or fusses. She's a great sleeper. She hasn't encountered a food she doesn't like. She smiles and waves at strangers on command. I seriously think God gave her to me as a giggly, pudgy message that I can, indeed, finish my PhD program after having a child. But here's the thing about traveling with a baby. It is hard. Even when the baby is of the sweet Zianne Eileen category. I'm glad that I've gone on a number of trips with her, and I'm thankful she's proven to be a flexible traveler so far, and I know traveling with children from the start pays off in the long run because they adapt well to different settings, etc. But whoooosh.... it is tiring. And on this particular trip, Zianne was battling some type of virus. I hurried her to the pediatrician hours before we left to discover she had an ear infection in addition to the whole cough/snot thing going on in her chest and sinuses. We picked up her meds on the way the airport and for the next two nights we slept in the same room where she made a wailing sound every time she rolled over. She never woke up, but I did. Every. Single. Time. She finally started feeling better about halfway through our trip, but she greeted every friend with snot running out of her nose and became hysterical if I tried to wipe it off. She really is a gem, I promise. She just has strong opinions about having her nose wiped. Anyway... back to my point. I'm not complaining. I'm thankful my baby traveled like a champ despite not feeling well. I felt a little guilty all weekend as we toted her all around. In the car. Out of the car. Makeshift crib. Loud restaurant. Twisted car seat strap. Skipped nap. Skipped nap. Skipped nap. But you know what? It was worth it. It's worth it to teach her how to be flexible. It's worth it to visit fun places will a baby perched on my hip. And it's so, so worth it to see Zianne interact with friends and family all over the world who love her so much. But y'all. I'm tired. I'll be in recovery mode the rest of the week. Teaching Zianne to "Remember the Alamo"... Yes, I got to see Ruthie! ... Read more