It's past my bedtime, but I wanted to post just a few of my favorites from our adventures in Washington this summer- more to come soon!
Fun at the Seattle Science Center
Learning the important things from their Auntie's!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
RERUN: babysitting co-op anyone???
There wasn't enough interest last time I posted, but its a new school year around the corner, and babies are older now, so I thought I'd put this idea out again.
***Everything in italics I copied from a family friend's blog, referred to me by my mom. We wouldn't have to have the same time slots or rules, this is just what worked for the group in Idaho.***
If you are interested please let me know!
YOU MUST READ THIS!!!
Sorry for the dramatic headline, but I really want all of my friends to learn about the greatest "mommy" help in the world! It is our babysitting co-op, and it has saved my life, and the lives of many other women here in Coeur d'Alene who participate. Please read about it, and then you will definately want to start one in your area.
It goes like this:
10 shifts a week, 10 ladies involved.Each person takes a day, Monday through Friday, and a shift, either 9-12 or 12-3 (we did those times b/c it works perfect with 8:50 school drop off and 3:15 school pick-up).
It works on a ticket system. Each kid and each hour is one, 1-hour ticket. So I have Wednesday mornings from 9-12. Today I had 3 kids from 9-10:00am (3 tickets), and 2 kids from 9-12 (6 tickets). I just earned 9 tickets. I can drop off Jane Monday morning while I go to the office (3), thursday morning while I go to the gym (2), and drop off Braden and Jane for 2 hours Friday afternoon while I get my house ready to leave on the cruise (4 tickets) and I break even.It works because it's totally fair. If you babysit, you have tickets, if you run out, you run out. We all did start with 20 hours of tickets to begin with which works really well.
There are rules, like:
-call at least 30 minutes before (preferably the night before)
-no sick kids
-kids must be at least 10 months old
-NO being late
-you decide how many kids you want, you can always say you are full
-if you can't do it, switch with someone or email as soon as you know
-everyone needs to try to use it at least once/week to keep tickets distributed
We made up our own rules and you could too. whatever works for everyone in the group.We do have a few girls who haven't been using it hardly at all and people keep using them to babysit. So they have tons of tickets and just don't have as much of a need to use it, however they want the option to use it if they need to. So we just switched around a few people and gave this girl a less popular afternoon that we found rarely gets used and gave another girl (who uses it all the time) the Tuesday morning she had that seems to be used a lot.
I hope it's all making sense. I wish I had this in Seattle during dental school, and in Salt Lake when I had so many wonderful friends I would have loved and trusted to do this with!A few random things: If you only have 6 or 8 girls that want to do it, you can still do it. Pick the times you want to have it available and schedule those times! Also, you may have weeks that you don't need it at all, and weeks you need it 3 or 4 times (like me this week!) You may have times you have 10 kids at your house (if you choose to have that many) and weeks you have 1 or even none!I promise, if you participate, you'll love it. You'll never need to find someone to watch your kids again when you have a doctors appointment, want to volunteer at the school, go to the gym, or just want to clean your house without a 2 year old helper! I even have a friend who has a 2-month-old who sometimes uses it to take a nap!If you have any questions, leave a comment and i'll answer it!
***Everything in italics I copied from a family friend's blog, referred to me by my mom. We wouldn't have to have the same time slots or rules, this is just what worked for the group in Idaho.***
If you are interested please let me know!
YOU MUST READ THIS!!!
Sorry for the dramatic headline, but I really want all of my friends to learn about the greatest "mommy" help in the world! It is our babysitting co-op, and it has saved my life, and the lives of many other women here in Coeur d'Alene who participate. Please read about it, and then you will definately want to start one in your area.
It goes like this:
10 shifts a week, 10 ladies involved.Each person takes a day, Monday through Friday, and a shift, either 9-12 or 12-3 (we did those times b/c it works perfect with 8:50 school drop off and 3:15 school pick-up).
It works on a ticket system. Each kid and each hour is one, 1-hour ticket. So I have Wednesday mornings from 9-12. Today I had 3 kids from 9-10:00am (3 tickets), and 2 kids from 9-12 (6 tickets). I just earned 9 tickets. I can drop off Jane Monday morning while I go to the office (3), thursday morning while I go to the gym (2), and drop off Braden and Jane for 2 hours Friday afternoon while I get my house ready to leave on the cruise (4 tickets) and I break even.It works because it's totally fair. If you babysit, you have tickets, if you run out, you run out. We all did start with 20 hours of tickets to begin with which works really well.
There are rules, like:
-call at least 30 minutes before (preferably the night before)
-no sick kids
-kids must be at least 10 months old
-NO being late
-you decide how many kids you want, you can always say you are full
-if you can't do it, switch with someone or email as soon as you know
-everyone needs to try to use it at least once/week to keep tickets distributed
We made up our own rules and you could too. whatever works for everyone in the group.We do have a few girls who haven't been using it hardly at all and people keep using them to babysit. So they have tons of tickets and just don't have as much of a need to use it, however they want the option to use it if they need to. So we just switched around a few people and gave this girl a less popular afternoon that we found rarely gets used and gave another girl (who uses it all the time) the Tuesday morning she had that seems to be used a lot.
I hope it's all making sense. I wish I had this in Seattle during dental school, and in Salt Lake when I had so many wonderful friends I would have loved and trusted to do this with!A few random things: If you only have 6 or 8 girls that want to do it, you can still do it. Pick the times you want to have it available and schedule those times! Also, you may have weeks that you don't need it at all, and weeks you need it 3 or 4 times (like me this week!) You may have times you have 10 kids at your house (if you choose to have that many) and weeks you have 1 or even none!I promise, if you participate, you'll love it. You'll never need to find someone to watch your kids again when you have a doctors appointment, want to volunteer at the school, go to the gym, or just want to clean your house without a 2 year old helper! I even have a friend who has a 2-month-old who sometimes uses it to take a nap!If you have any questions, leave a comment and i'll answer it!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Seattle shenanigans: Whidbey Island Triathlon
OK, on facebook I promised to update the blog, so here it is: I still don't have access to pics of our little sojourn in Seattle, but Dana and I did finish a triathlon on Whidbey Island on Saturday. We were still wondering "what in the world have we gotten ourselves into" at the start of the race. First, we parked a mile from the start (and T1), then realized we needed to figure out how to get the bikes and all our stuff there. Luckily, Dana had the brilliant idea to turn our numbered drawstring garbage bags into back packs. So, off we went. The chain on my bike popped off just a few hundred feet from where we parked, and we considered just bagging the whole thing, but luckily it went back on very easily.
We got to the start and it seemed like EVERYONE else was wearing a wetsuit. So of course we're wondering how cold the water is, but we were too chicken to test it before the start because if it was cold, we might bail on the whole thing. Fortunately, when we entered the water for the start (well behind the rest of our wave), we were surprised with nearly lukewarm water! The swim course was a triange, and I was feeling really good until on the last leg I was shocked to pause and discover I was WAY off-course and swimming nearly perpendicular to the course line (away from all the other swimmers)! Dana was laughing so hard and I started laughing so getting the rest of the way in went even slower than normal. 24 minutes for a 1/2 mile swim.
On the bike portion, I realized how poorly I had trained for the bike portion. It was beautiful scenerey though. 1:32? for 19.5 miles on the bike.
When we started the run, my calves felt SO tight and I also felt majorly knock-kneed, like my knees just couldn't give me any support. But by the first mile, I was feeling pretty good. 31:50 for 3.8 miles. I surprised myself by finishing 5th in my age group for the run portion, but I was last place or next to last place in my age group for the swim and bike.
Before the race, I thought we'd do well to finish under 3 hours with transitions and everything. I was surprised that we finished in 2:38! But, next time I'll have to train better on the bike, and learn 'sighting' for the swim.
Anyway, probably TMI for many of our loyal blog-readers, but there you go. Hopefully pics will follow sooner than later!
We got to the start and it seemed like EVERYONE else was wearing a wetsuit. So of course we're wondering how cold the water is, but we were too chicken to test it before the start because if it was cold, we might bail on the whole thing. Fortunately, when we entered the water for the start (well behind the rest of our wave), we were surprised with nearly lukewarm water! The swim course was a triange, and I was feeling really good until on the last leg I was shocked to pause and discover I was WAY off-course and swimming nearly perpendicular to the course line (away from all the other swimmers)! Dana was laughing so hard and I started laughing so getting the rest of the way in went even slower than normal. 24 minutes for a 1/2 mile swim.
On the bike portion, I realized how poorly I had trained for the bike portion. It was beautiful scenerey though. 1:32? for 19.5 miles on the bike.
When we started the run, my calves felt SO tight and I also felt majorly knock-kneed, like my knees just couldn't give me any support. But by the first mile, I was feeling pretty good. 31:50 for 3.8 miles. I surprised myself by finishing 5th in my age group for the run portion, but I was last place or next to last place in my age group for the swim and bike.
Before the race, I thought we'd do well to finish under 3 hours with transitions and everything. I was surprised that we finished in 2:38! But, next time I'll have to train better on the bike, and learn 'sighting' for the swim.
Anyway, probably TMI for many of our loyal blog-readers, but there you go. Hopefully pics will follow sooner than later!
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