Busy Relaxing Weekend

I hate to tell my gaming buddies this, but not playing on the weekends is really helping me get stuff done around the house as well as spend quality time with my wife and kid.

Another pleasantly productive weekend. Saturday was pretty low-key where Kate, Tessa, and I spent the morning just hanging around the house. Kate got some cleaning down while Tessa and I played World of Warcraft. (Tessa is very concerned that my Tauren Warrior doesn't have any shoes, but she also thinks my Blood Elf Mage has big ears and jumps well.) While Tessa napped in the afternoon, Kate and I prepped a few meals for our friends Bill and Tammy, who recently welcomed a daughter into their family. We remembered when Kate's Dad visited with us and cooked three or four meals for us after we got home with Tessa...and it was a blessing not to have to do any cooking or cleaning. We tried for the same, sending a lasagna, a chicken tetrazini, a chicken and black bean casserole, and a dozen or so homemade dinner rolls to the new parents. Kate also put together a apple-cranberry crisp as a dessert for dinner at the Keyes' home.

Dinner was a "mole" chili that our friend Ron put together. Let me tell you, if you ever have the opportunity to have my amigo Ron cook a soup or stew for you, take the chance! It was a great chili, and everyone seemed to enjoy Kate's dessert as well. We gave the sizable leftovers (Kate made a double batch) over to Bill and Tammy in case their sweet tooth needs tending to.

Here's some pictures of their baby girl, named Felicia Irene Keyes:





Great hair, huh? :-)

That evening, I got to feel like a real father because Tessa wanted me to read her bedtime stories while Kate hopped into the shower. When Tessa started to whimper that she didn't want me to leave her, I pulled her into my lap and held her close, rocking and bouncing her gently. She nuzzled on in and within ten or so minutes, she had dozed off. That's right - my daughter fell asleep in my arms. I may have fallen in love with her all over again; I'm not sure. :-)

After Tessa was down, Kate and I played a couple rounds of our new expansion of the Dominion game. I have to say - this is a fun game. Many thanks to our friend Dave and Gina for introducing it to us!

Sunday morning was a lazy affair. Kate's lingering cough had kept her up part of the night so she wasn't in a hurry to get up. Fortunately, we had a couple of church services to choose from so we stayed in bed an hour or two longer. Tessa started to have a fit, but again Daddy was able to hold her close and calm her down. Yay me!

We went to church then ran some errands around town real quick. Then we brought Tessa home and with some effort put her down for a nap. While she was resting, Kate and I continued our weekly project - namely, picking a section of the house and totally weeding/organizing it. We've been working on our office/guest room and I've been mercilessly throwing tons of stuff out in an effort to trim down our stock of stuff and furniture. And I have to say, it's felt really, really good to do so. It continues to amaze me how much stuff I keep around that I really don't need or even want. And it's also amazing how GOOD I feel once I've gotten rid of it.

So Kate and I plowed through the office again, this time with the goal of consolidating our books and other materials from four bookshelves down to the three. We were more than successful, and we now have a large bookshelf ready to be hauled away for Arc or Goodwill. We're hoping to do the same with our computer desk next since it's really more desk than we need...but that'll be another weekend.

I also did a little weeding of my t-shirts and the books we keep in the hallway and bedroom. More decluttering progress!

By the end of it, neither Kate nor I felt like cooking the dinner we had planned. So instead, I fished out some money from my cash jar (my "allowance" - made up of the dollars we save by my taking the bus to and from Longmont instead of driving) and made a quick hop over to King Soopers to buy a discounted large pizza and some broccoli-cheese soup for our dinner. Boy, after a productive afternoon and evening, some high-fat, greasy chow sure tasted great! ;-) I also grabbed a cheesecake slice for dessert but it was getting late and I have work in the morning. So we're saving the dessert for tomorrow.

All in all, I gotta say that I'm enjoying these weekends. The work around the house not only feels good to get done, but it's also good time that I spend with my wife and Tessa. Kate truly appreciates the time together as well as the completed chores so it's a win in both our eyes.

Here's hoping we can keep up the pace. :-)

As always, thanks a lot for reading and I hope you're having a really great day.

Sick Week

And the week had started out so well too.

Last weekend was Kate and my sixth anniversary -- that's right, six years of Kate putting up with her slipshod of a husband. :-) We had decided that we would have a relaxing weekend. Kate had to work on Saturday so Tessa and I had a Daddy-Daughter Day in which we got quite a bit of house-cleaning done plus some grocery shopping. All that in time to prep chicken enchiladas for dinner and walk through the neighborhood to meet Kate on her walk back from the Main Library.

Sunday (our actual anniversary date) was just as good. Tessa went down for her nap without much trouble and Kate and I played some Lego Harry Potter on the Wii for a couple hours. Then when Tessa woke up, we took a family outing to Edora Park and showed Tessa how to kick a ball and toss a frisbee. Naturally she needs some practice, but she's very enthusiastic. Then Tessa's babysitter for the night, Emily (one of the girls who work with Kate at the Council Tree Library), took our kid for the night while Kate and I got gussied up and went to dinner at the Melting Pot, a fancy fondue place we've been wanting to try. Dinner was exceptional and our server Ian was fantastic. We're definitely going to find some excuse to frequent the Melting Pot again.

So naturally...with that kind of weekend, we were raring to start the week off. So guess what happens? If you said, "Both you and Kate caught a cold," you'd be right. :-(

It hit Kate pretty hard on Monday and tagged me hardest that evening. I still plowed through work Monday and Tuesday (primarily because I had desk time) but I was so congested and exhausted that I just couldn't focus on getting any real work done. I finally called out on Wednesday and took a serious rest day with Kate. Bless her, Tessa was pretty well-behaved and we both got good rest.

Now it's the end of Thursday and we're both on the mend - mostly just that annoying cough that seems to mark the end of a stuffed and congested head. While I'm glad to be recovering, I can't help but look back at the week and grumble about the wasted time. I'm already a trifle behind in my projects at work and the load isn't looking to lighten any time soon.

So far Tessa hasn't shown any sign of catching our bug. (Knock on wood!) She had her first cold some months back and the poor thing was miserable. She obviously felt awful but couldn't understand why. She didn't understand that if she'd rest and have some food and liquids, she'd start to feel better. Nope, all she knew was that she hurt and Mommy and Daddy weren't doing anything about it.

Not that her parents are much better when they're sick. We're a pretty whiny pair when under the weather.

Oh, well, here's hoping that we're both fully recovered by this weekend and maybe we can hit the ground running for next week!

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you're having a great day.