And we're back....

Well this last week has been out of this world crazy!

The squishies started back to school, I began my transition into my new role at work and we of course had to make time to watch SYTYCD...LOL! (No but seriously it is amazing)!

Anyway the squishies went back to school last week. Jase is officially a Freshman and Em is in 3rd grade, but for her this is her first year alone so it was bound to be a tear-filled Monday right? 

-WRONG-

Well at least from their perspectives. They both jumped out of the car and ran up to the school faster than I could say "I hope you have a nice day." *It looked a little something like this...

So I actually was the pathetic one crying in the car because my squishies were excited?! Really!!! In any case I did eventually pull it together and ventured off into the great world of the phased approach to me getting into my role. Only it's not so much a phased approach and instead is more of the "lets see how long her smile lasts when we give here THESE THINGS." 

I will say that from a leadership, motivational and even analytical perspective I am G2G...however from a "brand new to role entering initiatives that are 1/2 to 3/4 of the way underway I cannot help but occasionally feel like...

Typically this would have me frustrated because I need to know everything, I like to solve the puzzle and then be proud that I did because I rock! But this time I have decided it is time to work on developing my "patience" and "great smiles w/ head nods" approach. 

This is working very well by the way - no sarcasm applied.

No migraines and I am actually learning as time progresses that truly sometimes it is not about knowing all the answers but having all of my chess pieces in the right place so I can be sure to have the ice cream first. :)

Outside of that we also went to a few celebrations over the last two weeks (below) and of course watched SYTYCD, since it's back from the Olympic hiatus.

The company picnic (lazy river fun) with mi familia and friends! 

The Luau at the Lakes with my awesome in laws - really awesome in laws. Which isn't it great when you have in laws that you truly love. My father-in-law is one of the most amazing men that I have ever met and I am seriously lucky to call him Dad and Momma Suze...really if you have never met Momma Suze you need to get on a plane and fly here and meet her because once you do you will never want to leave. - I am truly proud to call them my in laws.

The St. Stan's Polish Festival this weekend with family...which was great and delicious...

Bon Appétit and good evening!  

Vacation, Promotion and back to school Commotion!

We have been busy bees around here so I have not had much time to update...

First the summer vacation!

We took an amazing trip though South Dakota! Stops included:

Sioux Falls - Where we went to Falls Park and enjoyed the beautiful falls in the city.

Rapid City - Where we experienced great views at the Badlands, Bear Country, Reptile Garden and stayed at the amazing - Cambria!

Deadwood/Custer - Mount Rushmore, plus the Cosmos and the Beautiful Wonderland Cave

Hot Springs - EVANS PLUNGE!!

It was such a wonderful getaway! Which is always nice when you live in such a busy city and have a soon to be high schooler and soon to be third grader!

...

Now a quick callout...over the last two months I have spent time interviewing for the Lead Manger role in my company and after 4 long and very difficult interviews.....

I WAS OFFERED THE POSITION!

This was great news! Everyone has been so very supportive in my close friends and family circle. With great success comes upsets as well though, as you find those few that are not supportive and instead try to ruin your happiness. I unfortunately have some family that are in the opposing stands for my life. I agree people should have their own opinions but why put down others to support your cause...I will never know. In my book "All you need is love, love. Love is all you need." But that doesn't seem to always be possible with people that always find a way to bully others and be so judgmental - drowning others in hateful words and beliefs. I guess that comes with life though and no matter how old you get you will still have to deal with those not ready to own up to being responsible adults, but really what can you do...

Back on track the last callout of course my husband!! He was and still is my #1 fan, completely supportive and at times I think he truly has more faith in me then I do in myself. It's great when you have that one person who gives you the love and support you need.

So on to back to school commotion!

As mentioned my squishies are going back to school next week..well really it's only 1 day worth of school next week and then they start their "regularly scheduled programs" the week after. So we have been busy with back to school supplies, uniforms and high school planning.

I volunteered last weekend at the high school book sale which was interesting. I thought since this is a private school the volunteer parents would be much more customer service oriented, since you know we're all "buying books" which you do not have to do at public school. Well they were fairly lazy, sitting around talking amongst one another and texting, so me and my partner put them to shame.

I worked "pre-sales" which really translates to get everything organized and ready for checkout...and when I say everything I mean everything. Take the books, cut the slips, count the books and make sure the total matches the number of slips, take the retreat form and cut that and any art forms, write "new" and "used" totals on the back of the last slips, box the books and send the parents on their way to the cashier...I bet you'll never guess what the cashier does....Totals my slips and takes a check.

Next year I need to get in good with the planner.

So now we're back to where we started...vacation, promotion and commotion!

Did you really open the umbrella in doors?!

I have never really been superstitious, actually I'm mostly a skeptic when it comes to certain things.

...

So last weekend we were working on the upstairs bathroom. It's been crazy here with our basic day to day activities in addition to redecorating and home improvement. Truly my husband has done an amazing job with my brother-in-law George on the flooring and new fixtures (commode and vanity with sink) but I don't want him to feel like he's not getting any help from me so I decided I would get in on the action today...remember what I said above.

After work I came home and went to work! I was going to be the awesome wife that started with sealing the grout on the floor. Easy enough? I mean this is a simple bottle of clear liquid with a brush top that fits perfectly into the grooves of the grout between the tiles. (Or so I thought)...

This is about the time that I break in with some information on me. I'm a mixed race baby. Yes, half polish and half african american (aa)...well not exactly half of each because I have a touch of Lithuanian and Serbian but really I'm mostly Polish and AA. Sometimes I kid that I'm more Polish than anything else because I'm so clumsy...well that's been the running joke in my family since I was old enough to remember. Fall on your face-it's because your Polish! (I'm guessing you know where this is going, but you only are thinking about half of the story. Just wait for it...)

So I opened the bottle of sealer and noticed there was a rubbery plug...at first I thought okay I need to get this plug out right? Well the plug was just that, plugging the bottle and it did a darn good job because it was seriously stuck on there. So I began to think (dangerously) maybe there's a little hole I just cannot see. Yes, this thought seriously crossed my mind. Maybe I just need to squeeze it and then I will see this "magically invisible hole" and I will be able to put the top back on and go to town being the Amazing Grout Sealing Queen. So I give the bottle a little squeeze and...

*POP*

The grout sealer plug hit me in the face, the liquid splattered out of the bottle into my face, right eye, hair and down my shirt. SERIOUSLY????!! I ran into the bathroom and quickly bathed my face, eye and hair because I had at least had the common sense to read the directions and emergency information before attempting to bathe in the sealer. In the midst of this madness I find my squish Em has Bath and Body Works soap next to the sink and I quickly lather it up and coat my face and hair...oh and I managed to coat my EYE too!! LET THE BURNING COMMENCE NOW! My eye was on fire...30 minutes later after my eye stopped burning I went back to work. 

After finishing the grout sealing I let it dry and went to the family room to paint. I'm actually pretty happy with the results of the paint. I have also placed tape on the walls to see what the boarders of my wall base will look like. Awesome right?

Once I was done touching up the wall downstairs I moved back into the bathroom upstairs and decided that it was time to paint the baseboards white. Happily I skipped downstairs picked up my brush, can of paint and skipped back upstairs to paint. After preparing my space (without a cloth) I shook the three fourths full can of paint...you will never guess what happened next. 

*POP AND GUSH*

The can opened, yes it opened. I'm not sure how because it was sealed very well...how can I even say that when it opened obviously I should say it appeared to be sealed very well. Needless to say half a can of paint gushed out of the can, amazingly the lid did not budge much, you would never have guessed though with puddle of white paint thick and congealing on my leg and about a two foot area of my bedroom floor. OH MY PAINT!!!! SERIOUSLY "THE SEQUEL" (It just doesn't get any better). Sometimes I think we are challenged in life every now in again to be tested to see how much we can take. Today my number was obviously up for bad luck. 

So again I'm back in the bathroom and thank God I'm quick on my feet because really there was so much paint where do you start. I tore my pants off and threw them into the shower and started the hot water. Then a grabbed a towel and ran back into my bedroom quickly absorbing the paint and running a marathon back and forth cleaning the floor and my pants. During this crazy time when I'm almost done my honey comes home and just looked shocked. He quickly decided he should run an errand based on the look on my face and so I finished cleaning and threw my pants in the dryer and believe it or not I went back to painting. (I will say that I think the carpet is good to go. We actually purchased this all purpose cleaner from a door to door salesperson about two weeks ago and that stuff worked miracles). 

After my painting was finished it was time to have some dinner. Rolf picked up something quick since we were working on the house. So what do I do?? - I knocked my whole soda over on the carpet...no I'm not joking and no a black cat has not crossed my path..although after today I began to think so! 

Nothing else has happened this evening (yes, I just knocked on wood)... I was proud though that although I seemed to have the worst luck in the world I didn't give up...much like when I was a child growing up...

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." -Sir Winston Churchill 

...So about two weeks ago we went to Wal-Mart and I opened an umbrella in the store...Rolf and squishies were shocked and said I gave myself bad luck. I laughed...

NO LONGER LAUGHING!

Vacation Anyone?!

We want to take a summer vacation and so my suggestion was let's go to South Dakota...I mean isn't that the first idea that pops into everyones mind when they think of vacation? Or maybe it's the 10 million times I saw the "Great Places, Great Faces...South Dakota" commercial and dreamt of the jingle.

So I did the most rational thing anyone would do that wants to go to SD. I ordered a massive tourist magazine from their tourism bureau..(I'm not joking when I say this thing is massive). And what comes with a massive tourism guide, too many darn decisions on where to go, what we "must see" and how to map this out in a four day trip with two kids and the hubs.

I am sure there are the "must see" places...Mount Rushmore...Mount Rushmore...black hills and a cave oh and the carhenge thing...is that even in SD? But we haven't decided which of the 18 different "caves/gold mining" locations we actually want to go to. 

I actually hit a roadblock with exploring earlier and started looking at Hawaii (not going this year but it was a thought that crossed my mind). So back to the planning pages we will go...

Earlier we took a great weekend getaway to KC (of course we did WOF/OFF) it was great. I want to make sure the squishies get to travel to see the country because I did not have that growing up...that is what has led me to SD...

I have three weeks before we depart so hopefully we will have this trip planner tool completed before then or we might just aimlessly drive around and visit all the rest stops in Western Nebraska...Giddy up!

The Great Blog...Charlie Brown

...so I'm not going to start this as if I have been blogging for years instead of trying to start "from the beginning" of something. Quite frankly I would not even know where to begin. 

A brief introduction though is probably needed. I am an adoring wife to my honey Rolf and I am the world's greatest mom (or so my squishies tell me so) to Jason (14) and Emma (8). And we have a wee little malti-pooh named Princess (I bet you didn't see that one coming).  


Together, we 5 live a great life, the best life because it is our life. A life we have built on faith, love, honesty and so much more...A life we have build with our own two hands, hard work and dedication. 


We are traveling down the road of life together, side by side and I wouldn't have it any other way...so now that we are through the brief introduction let's move into the day to day. Both my husband and I raise our amazing children jointly. (This is 2012 so yes we do this jointly. And actually let me state I find it hard to believe that anyone has a home where joint roles are not present and the wife/husband solely raises the children unless of course they are without partner). We do this while managing to be successful in our careers as well...it is true you can have it all and pull off both if you are spontaneous yet methodical, have fun but plan well and make sure that you have time for your squishies and still time for yourself, your talents and your goals. :) I guess the blogs namesake makes a lot more sense now. I carry a Management degree and Rolf, well he's still deciding what he wants to complete in school...no rush he is brilliant so it will come in time... 


With that all said let's share a bit about my intent. I plan to share my day to day ramblings...my thoughts things as well as feelings and my opinions...mushy love stuff, food (I'm a foodie) and anything else that I have not already mentioned. :) Let's start with just a random thought on today...


Today was ridiculously hot here in Omaha. I was at work in an air conditioned building and when I went out to my car to leave the temp read 104 degrees. Are you kidding me? I guess summer had to hit some time but really I would like it to go away now. Oh what I would give for some overcast <70 degrees days with light rain. (My favorite kind of weather). I regularly dream of packing up my two squishies and the hubs and moving to London! Get us out of the states, away from all the family drama(s) and too much "noise" for peace, love, quiet and did I mention the weather? 

Well it's time for bed so I will close with a good quote.


We must each lead a way of life with self-awareness and compassion, to do as much as we can. Then, whatever happens we will have no regrets. - Dalai Lama