All growed up

Jeff and I took a whack at a more refined Saturday night; holiday party at the always-elegant Brinks Lounge, complete with ballgowns, tuxes, bands and general merriment. It was lovely, had a blast (discovered Orange Chocolatinis, oh my hell) and...Miss Wisconsins!

No-nap Lola

That title pretty much sums it up, we are wearysville here tonight.

Today was a(nother) vicious cycle of non-productivity. There are moments I appreciate my job, feel I do it well, and enjoy the camaraderie of my co-workers. Other moments, gah, I'm just clearly not cut out for this.

What am I cut out for? Let's see...

Fitness stuff (lately), including health, nutrition, various diet and exercise regimes.

Parenting. 5 daughters'll do that to ya.

I guess the karaoke stuff, business management in general.

Cooking. Sometimes.

Fanatic experimentation with clothes, make-up, skincare. Am still hoping for the holy grail of looks and lines that work for short midwest Filipinas. Ha, to this.

I can event plan something to within an inch of its life, then emcee and host said event. This particular trifecta is renewed; I had the confidence years ago, got fat and lost it, and have worked my way back to that confidence level. Is good.

###

That was a fun exercise. In fact, more on this later.

better ones

Lola just told Jeff he should "come up with better stories, Daddy."

Oh, the tragedy of being 3.

Finally!

Finally!
Originally uploaded by msmarivic

me likey

Also today.

121008
Originally uploaded by msmarivic

Nice hair, woman.

Marivic 121008

Marivic 121008
Originally uploaded by msmarivic

Today. I'm not actually that blurry.

South Dakota...somewhere

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Originally uploaded by msmarivic

37 (?) lbs. ago.

Fun with Fettucine

Fun with Fettucine
Originally uploaded by msmarivic

Beaner and some short chick

Beaner and some short chick
Originally uploaded by msmarivic

Beaner!! Remember this? (Lookit YOUR HAIR so long and purty)!

Wowsa

First RBR (work).



Then coolness from Linda's Fitness blog.

It's interesting to read that now, I think I wrote it a couple months ago? Anyway, I'm in the 6-8 range now, with another 5ish lbs. to lose. The real take-away though was my idiot rambling, the post got away from me and I didn't self-edit.

Whereas, with the work piece - it's tight, concise, and well-received thus far. Good writing. Who knew?

More later, it's Monday, Madison's gonna get DUMPED on today, and we're off...

I wasn't kidding about the crazee

Punchdrunk sugared up crazee

Punchdrunk sugared up crazee
Originally uploaded by msmarivic

Ring-around-Bailey wasn't enough, the evening turned to box-on-head-run-into-things night.

Winding down...

IMG_2349
Originally uploaded by msmarivic

Turns out Lola's new puppy ("Bailey") (thank you MELISSA!) has a great butt for resting one's head on. Who knew.

Eyeing stuff

Eyeing stuff
Originally uploaded by msmarivic

Oddly, not presents, but rather a prickly cactus. Kids are weird.

I'm not sure who looks goofier.

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Originally uploaded by msmarivic

Like it matters, lol.

Someone got my eyebrows.

IMG_2321
Originally uploaded by msmarivic

The 48-hr Birthday

In no particular order, some photo goodies of the last couple days...

Lola was rockstar toddler for the drive to Milwaukee Monday night. The weather sucked, but other than an occasional squawk (itchies! i can't see! - at night...) the only horrible thing was that she unsnapped her seatbelt, ninja-stealth style. But we got to Grandma's and she went running in the house and sat and ate and colored, only picking at the gaily-wrapped present on the table once. We bundled back up and by then Jeff was there, so we crossed the street exactly in the nick of time to see Dale turn on the bar and his home lights, hugely impressive. Everyone counted down and Lola's face lit up and she chirped "Party!". Then she had a kiddie cocktail and went back home with Grandma while Jeff and I hiked to the 2nd-from-the-top row for Neil Diamond, which was such a treat and why the hell don't we do that stuff more often?

Hell-night for Jeff (he slept on the floor by kicking-Lola) Monday night, but Tuesday was more presents and driving and yet more presents. She spent her first night being 3 in her new (HUGE) bed, without falling off tyvm.

More later, actual work to catch up on, but here - the pics (I know, the only reason anyone's here!).

Baffled

Danica left Lola home alone, Billy came home to Lola wandering the basement playing with paint. I just burned a plastic bowl with hot bacon grease, and hosed myself down trying to aim the water nozzle thingy at the melting blob. Tonight's Mother of the Year Award: Guess.

Snapshot

Marinette's en route to LA for a couple days.

Danielle had a fire at her school. After much lecturing (me, to her) about when it is and isn't appropriate to swear, she refrains from swearing in her comment on FB regarding the fire. That kid, I swear...

Work is...there are no words. Big fat press release went out today, I think I'll exhale sometime this week-end.

Beaner is back from Spain and parts unknown (literally, I do not know where she's been on break), and is the happy consumer of all things Oreos and Wafer Cookies.

###

Neil Diamond here we come!

I used my "2 years with Company present" to get el cheapo tickets to none other than Neil Diamond. Jeff sounds excited, I'm looking forward to it, however it's Monday night and I don't want to take time off work (the next day) except I kinda sorta do as Tuesday is Lola's birthday. No answers there yet, it's just nice to have a big date-kind-of-thing to look forward to.

So. I'm determined to get some sleep before then, holy hell.

And, 12..7? Yah, something like that. Tired woot.

PS

Lola Saturday morning (an absolute peanut at breakfast)!

And me, uh, Saturday night with some other* girls:




*the best friends evah

PAUSE

Criminy, the week's barely started and it feels like I'm starting on 4th and 10.

Things I'll talk about after I catch my breath:

- Jeff's home. YAY omg YAY. It's just so very nice to have him home where he belongs. And Lola couldn't get off the couch fast enough (just about tripping in the tangle of covers she'd creating squirming free) to run over and hug him up. That was awesome.

- "Come to Jesus" meeting at the house. Cannot. Clean. Up. After. EVERYONE. Dammit.

- Work. For real, oh the amounts of work to plow through...

- Maybe mention the Motrin ad. I can say this because no one actually reads this blog, but: huh? It was tongue-in-cheek to a very specific audience (clearly the non-baby-wearing-audience) but not the federal offense it's been made out to be. More later, just wanted to say it's interesting to see the backlash play out online, will track to see if the backlast translates to measurable gains/losses for Motrin brand.

- Diet. Blah. Did well going into week-end and then ran outta steam yesterday afternoon. It's ok, progress takes time.

More later, deep breath...

4:45 c'mon, week-end...

I have (so far) survived this week. I have the "second shift" yet of getting home, taking care of dinner/lola/cleaning/bedtime/etc. but thank the stars, it's Friday.

I need brain food. Also, groceries.

My sister's here, I'm worried that Billy can't handle the living situation, I know Danielle's grumpy about doing the basement (even though it was her idea to help get it finished up) and I honestly don't even know where Danica is half the time. I know I need to be patient, but can only keep up with so many sensitivity levels at once. I'll do what I can to get through this week-end but once Jeff's home it's time for a summit at 2215 Superior St. Everyone needs to play nice and pitch in.

recon/necting

It's nice to reconnet with people from your past, as I just did with a former colleague. It's easy to forget just how many people out there hold memories of you.

spiraling

On my professional Twitter account, I have people following me where I'm not sure how they found me. I'm (maybe oddly so) painstakingly deliberate in who I follow/subscribe to, and for the most part I can connect the dots from them to me. From me to...them (whomever "them" might be) isn't as clear.

I'm sure I'm not the first genius to encounter this. Still...weird.

Bedtime with Bonzo

Cheesy as hell but if you're Grandma or, oh, say, Daddy on the road, this'll cheer you up:

First up, ABC EE EEs...



And then a little Itsy Bitsy with extra Itsy:

where'd they go?

I had all these deep, flowing currents of blog fodder on my brain last night. We'd (me and Lola) had taken Unca Buh to dinner for Veteran's Day, I was testing the replacement power cord ($94 are you freakin' kidding me?) and Lola was post-tubbies Elmo-PJ'd snuggling on me. I wanted to crack open the laptop, navigate to a new post, and describe the simple completeness.

Instead I videotaped Lola singing a couple songs (posts shortly), took a Tylenol PM and crashed to Sex and the City reruns. A different simplicity, I guess.

Day...2?

Jeff and Chris are hauling ass cross-country. Last night, I cooked (well, re-heated leftovers), Lola and I did our 'exercises' (with Danielle, ha HA) and had our cuddle/show/books/songs. The imp (Lola, not Danielle) snuck outta bed and got herself all comfy cozy on the couch with a blanket and the TV on before I sent her back to bed. Oh, that sad pathetic cry when she's busted could the world be MORE unfair? It's more than a little heartbreaking.

But then I got sucked into watching "Juno" and marveled at the similarity between Juno's dad and mine, physically uncanny. And I like to think that, had our communication been closer then to what it is now, my dad and I would have had similar moments. The difference is that I kept Ashlei, and he showed his support once it was real.

Anyway (more on that huge topic another time) it was a relaxing, productive evening. And, I'm at 129. Life's good.

happy to lose

I can't blog every day. And I'm not a bad person for it.

Also, how lazy have I been? In a flurry of getting shit done this week-end:

- resume basement remodel
- yank ivy off garage
- clean gutters (well, have twins do that)
- rake the yard (again, with help)
- put up full-length mirror (thanks hon!)
- work out (basic AND Pilates, with Lola's 'help')
- cook many many meals and prep lunches
- send Jeff off on his 7-day national tour (wah)

I realized the little things make SUCH a big difference and what the hell, Marivic-of-the-last-year-or-so? I know running shows 3 - 5 nights/week on top of a full-time job and the travel and the kids and a toddler and actual relationship stuff can be...time-consuming. And tiring.

But it takes 2 min. to prep the coffee maker. Pop leftovers in baggies for tomorrow's lunch. Dinner can be...omelettes. Lola LOVES "exercising" and remember running up to 3 miles at a time?

As usual, more later, this was my lunchtime diversion.

Oh, and Operation Potty Training commenced. HOO-BOY.

wherein, whatever

It's looking to be a quiet day at work. Myself, the usual - dig into this all-consuming project while not yet sure the powers-that-be actually approve. Oh well.

Lola, darling muffin that she is, has GOT to sleep in past 7:30am. I know the time change fucks with toddlers (who am I kidding, it's the parents that get the shaft) but I keep waking up to her petting my arm and standing there oh so hopeful it's time for TV and Treats even though it's, gah, virtually still dark out. I do enjoy the morning cuddles (when she's actually lying still and not atwirl in our bed) but what motivation I have for getting up and going to work whittles away with each warm-bundly-second. See above: those seconds don't last all that long, so I'm generally fine.

Coffee's cooled off enough to drink, 'cheers' to Friday.

Bitter, blustery and toothpaste

It's cold, dreary, rainy, windy and Thursday.

I did the 'check in the elevator mirror before walking into the office' bit this morning.

I had toothpaste on both cheeks from Lola's g'bye kisses.

Thumbs up: I caught it before going into work.

Thumbs down: I rode the bus to work like that.

Wunderbar.

House(video)cleaning

Expect more of these chronologically-whacked excerpts, trying to lighten the laptop load.

This is...maybe a year ago? All I know is it's pre-Ashlei-cutting-her-hair-without-telling-me:

SUCH a good sport

IMG_2308
Originally uploaded by msmarivic

Jeff (and Unca Buh) were in surprisingly fine spirits given their guy lost and I dragged them to enemy camp. I think the Tequila helped.

High Noon indeed

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Originally uploaded by msmarivic

Quite possibly the only moment we weren't all 3 on our iPhones/crackberries - GREAT gals to be out celebrating with!

And finally, me

Oy...rough start and then thank baby jesus stars the battery on the camera DIED. I clearly have no pride or I wouldn't be posting this but HEY I'm feeling festive.

As promised: Jeff rockin' the Gomeroke

Our election celebration continued with Jeff "Dancin with the Devil"

Our election night celebration

Inadvertently included karaoke! Well, "Gomeroke" (karaoke with a LIVE BAND), as they were the entertainment at the bar in which we chose to watch the returns.

First vid though, Lola chirping about the "OROCK OBAMA PARTY":




Up next: Jeff vid

new post on a new day, a new era

Tonight was beyond description. Beaner, if you're reading this in London YES yer mum bawled her eyes out at the Obama celebration.

I have 5 bi-racial daughters. This, now, is the world they come of age into. To the scared, wandering 4 year old new to American shores (and snow) that was me so many year ago , I give this nod: This is why. To my girls (I'll have better, real sentences tomorrow) 'cheers' and I love you dearly.

scratch that

My nerves couldn't POSSIBLY handle any type of repeat of today. Thank gawd for Lola, running around yelling "arock obwama" like, well, the toddler she is.

Heading out for dinner, with plans to hunker down the rest of the night after that. I realize the economy is the lead issue these days, and we're going to celebrate this historic night by being good little consumers. Go us.

Oh, and CNN/Fox/etc? Quit calling shit with single-digit percentages in. Rubes.

Can every day be election day?

Everyone's googling and drudging and feedreading so I'll spare you the link farm, I just want to comment on quality and inspiration and FEELING all over the 'nets today.

People are sharing and reaching out. There's a connectedness (thank you Twitter!) that, while oppressive and (for me) mostly 'opt-out' most days, is refreshing today.

I'm not a joiner. Hell, it took me HOW long (yah, this long) to start blogging (which, I know, soo 2005). And I work for a tech company!

But today, sign me up. I'll read, I'll share, and look - I'm writing.

Today? I'll take it.

clothes make the woman

Absurd, yes, but true: I had a red T-shirt on, went back in and changed (to a black one). I didn't want, on election day, anyone thinking I was in the McCain camp.

To be totally honest, I'm not in either camp. I wanted Hillary to win. But an Obama victory, pretty cool and not the end of the world. With a McCain win, we'd see a woman as VP. Not bad choices facing Americans today.

And that's all I'm going to say on it. This was really about, uh, the color of my shirt. (what?)

Jeff and Marivic

Jeff and Marivic
Originally uploaded by msmarivic

aka The Joker and Poison Ivy.

We didn't win the costume contest, but WERE total winners in that we left early (for us, just past midnight) and managed to be rested for the Lola-candy-thon rest of the week-end...

you had me at hello

hi from Tommy
Originally uploaded by msmarivic

I asked my former boss (then-WI Gov) Tommy Thompson to say hi, he launched into...uh, this...(am not sure he actually remembered ME as much as working with WOMEN, geez).

NoBloPo shot already

That's ok, I've got pics!

yesterday, once more

Ok, I missed day one already. Oops.

I'll fill in the blanks, but providing the sound system for the McCain rally was way trippier than even I thought it was going to be. Hint: Tommy Thompson there.

Vid later, off to numanumbs.

motivation

How to keep from eating ALL of the chocolate your operations manager made YOU go buy??

Keep repeating to yourself your plan to DRINK your carbs later.

watch out for the POISON IVY

HAPPY HALLOWEEN ("Poison Ivy" from Batman, kudos to Danielle for the makeup!)
And, yah, I ran out of hair paint (it's actually red, looks pink in the pic)...have fun today!

the odds

I composed a tight, concise email to my boss explaining some work stuff. I think it was good: relevant and informative.

And maybe it was, but it was also delivered 3 times in a row due to the web version of Outlook we use. So, brilliance aside, my boss now has to overlook the marketing person's inability to master technical tools in CONTEXT of an email regarding technical tools.

It's a sign. Step away from the tappity-tap.

your what hurts?

The internets were a big gulp of vinegar today. Good for you, I guess, but I'm a little twitchy there is just SO damn much to process out there.

This little "work experiment" may have some casualties, we'll see.

Well that was fun

So, a little work experiment.

In other news..am already confoosed by noblomopowhatev...

NoPoBloMo

Or something like that.

It's where you post every day for a month.

I'll try.

The show went well, but I was glad to get a ride home early since Jeff was gonna keep going. It seems all the shows are going late now, methinks we're spoiling our clients.

Lola was up and chirping before my alarm clock. She managed to lay still and sorta sleep with me for a bit before playing with my head and whispering and randomly tracing x's on my back with her cold little feet. She got up to torture Unca Buh and while she's mostly funny and endearing and so damn smart, she is one bossy little toddler and that really needs to be reigned in. Unca Buh though, ever the pushover...

Beaner had a great blog post up today (scaling mountains in Scotland) and I tell ya, it's a trip being a mom to 5 COMPLETELY DIFFERENT souls on this planet. More on that later, back to my disgusting coffee.

money for nothing

I'm experimenting with GoDaddy for website hosting, and by "experimenting" I mean trying to get as many features as I can without actually paying for anything.

Well, you get what you pay for. Ads aside, I'm not a fan of the 'website tonight' site builder, even though I've successfully built client sites using that tool in the past. I don't like their (free) blog tools, primarily because of what you can't integrate, ie Flickr photostreams (you can upload one pic at a time, no thanks) and the Twitter feed is spotty at best.

I may use it for lolawillamena.me but I think I'll either host marivic.me somewhere else or pony up and upgrade. Still don't know what to do with my blogger account but hey, at least I know what DOESN'T work.

epiphany

On the bus ride home, I realized 'it is what it is' which for me, had to do with my life is about what it's about.

And since my life these days is working and parenting and losing weight, that's what this space needs to be out. I read blogs work for work and for me, but what I publish for work is separate from this, and that's ok. So, I'm home now, it's the mad dinner dash and then hopefully a little downtime. First stop: Good Lord Lola sounds cranky. Crumbs.

already done with blogger...maybe

It was fun while it lasted, but if I'm going to do this ("this" is...dunno) I need to jump in with an actual hosted site. Good thing I grabbed marivic.me when the .me's were made available.

Anyway, I'm posting this pic as a "before" and will do the "after" once we have The Joker in place. As Lola would say, "duh da da duuuhhh!"

frakkin SNOW are you kidding me?

I know, it's late October in Madison this happens EVERY year and will continue to happen EVERY YEAR yet EVERYTIME it happens I get grouchy.

It's snowing, just ever so much. I, however, am wearing a dress (albeit with tights) and my commute involves walking and busing. Oh, poor cold me, right?

Today's blogoworld has been interesting, to say the least. I'm getting my feet wet by commenting more on blogs I admire, and following links to other blogs I feel would be fun to read. Some of the vitriol today, however, has me gun-shy.

The blogging exercise is, for me, two-fold. It's a social experiment related to work (online communities, etc.) as well as basis for eventually promoting the work being done on cyberaoke.com. There's the added benefit of forcing me to actually write, a discipline long-neglected, but it's the exercise itself that ignited my recent efforts.

I see the shitstorms on other blogs today though, and make myself close out of the tabs, "x", just like that. Just for a little while. I do not want to be discouraged.

in no particular order

I love tights (hate nylons) but would kill for a pair that wasn't quite so CONTROL with the control-top. Ow.

Managed to pack breakfast and lunch and make my own coffee. For some reason though (filter still dry when I loaded it up last night?) the coffee was overwhelmingly disgusting, went right down the drain as soon as I got to work. Crumbs.

Solid 131. I'll take that.

We had a good week-end (the little black dress that actually for real really fits was an unqualified hit Saturday night). Lola was a BEAR yesterday morning so we left her with Danielle and went to breakfast just us; we couldn't shut up about being able to read the paper, not caring how long the food took to get there, blah blah nutbars we were grooving on "the good old days".

And then we went back to pick her up for the rest of the errands. It's our only day with all of us together, we actually kinda missed her. We wore her out with the grocery shopping and run to the mall (I was inordinately excited about the purchase of a food processor, how'd I get old?).

We napped (!) I cooked, check this out:

Bacon wrapped asparagus (1.6 each bunch, they were SO good)
Cauliflower mashed potatoes (1-2 per serving, with the blender this was super easy)
Biscuits (>2 each, and 2 are part of my breakfast this morning)
Steak (0)

Watched Dexter and marveled at the plot twists; holy hell is it getting good.

More later, time for work and non-ass-tasting coffee.

OH and Danica was lovely and talented and wicked-good as the bitchy snotty girlfriend of the high school football captain. It was weird seeing her in a play with her dad (my first ex-husband and I did a fair amount of theatre together when we were both in high school) but overall the play - the world premiere of "Ballots" - was infinitely worth missing my Saturday nap.

D2

IMG_1182
Originally uploaded by msmarivic

My oldest-by-a-minute twin...nope, won't even make it 5 seconds into the show.

Weighty weights

I hate my scale. It's probably not the scale's fault, but the needle doesn't ever reliably just fall; instead it drops a pound or two, pops back up maybe one, then, meh, eventually dips back down. Maybe. Hopefully.

So I get why you're only supposed to jump on the damn thing maybe once a week but it's maddening nonetheless.

Moving on...

I used to love Fridays. Because after Friday came Saturday and Sunday, two days during which I didn't have to go to work. Now week-ends mean tapping out shit on my blackberry while at the grocery store vs. the convenience of a laptop. Week-ends (and Wednesdays, actually) are karaoke shows. They're grocery shopping and cleaning and herding errant teens and wondering what the hell Lola's still doing awake at 11pm on a Friday night. Sometimes they're exercise and a new magazine but more often than not...week-ends are just different scenery. With crappy coffee since why the hell can I not make a decent cup at home?

On the good news front: progress on cutting back spending. I only went out for lunch once this week, and then it was a side salad with a scoop of tuna (no dressing) and with tip it was about $4 yet filled me up completely. The rest of the week I managed to bring lunches, snacks, coffee, etc. And, D1 has her show this week-end (I missed opening night last night) so I'm really looking forward to that. She's been in theatre all her life, this is her first lead role and if I can make it through the first, oh, 10 seconds without crying all of my kids will be mightily impressed.

I wouldn't bet on it.

Sorry, this pic has always cracked me up

crash boom

Too busy to post, yes. But mostly just so damn tired.

The scale said 130, maybe 130.5. That was weird.

who's on where

I take the bus to work. The bus stop is a block and a half from my house, and I can see it from my front living room window.

Which means I can see my house from the bus stop. What I saw this morning...as I get on the bus, I noticed D2 getting in the Saab.

1. She's not allowed to drive that car at will.
2. She's not allowed to drive right now at all (grounded for quite possibly ever).

The real problem though, was that she (D2) was sitting on the couch watching TV with Lola when I left, the nanny hadn't arrived yet.

As the bus pulls away, I get a text msg from the nanny: on my way running late. I texted back, Danielle WAS home when I left...

Per the nanny, Lola was still sleeping.

Enter...wtf??

ANOTHER text from the nanny: I thought she was sleeping cuz I didn't see her, she was playing in D2's room.

I'm not sure who to yell at first.

Happy Wednesday.

PS Weight: Uh, 132? Probably 132.5. So - - 30 lbs off.

My mood on Lola's face

too much Tuesday already

This needs to be a day where you blink and it's over, clear the grit from the eyes and start fresh...tomorrow.

Or maybe have some coffee.

Apace

Everyone's struggling, pulling back on spending, so H. and I are hit twofold: 1, no one's buying new furniture or appliances or exercise equipment or pool tables; without those purchases, his company is hurting. 2, people are staying home more. We've had one show negotiate a reduced rate, and another show cancel altogether. I'm grateful for my real/day job, and things are healthy overall, yet still. Suckage.

redux

I've tried blogging a couple times. I've failed a couple times.

So I'm not going to approach this as a new habit or "thing" I do. If it's fun GREAT if not, well, it's shaping up to be another great season for Dexter. Baby steps.