Well, I suppose I have been failing at this venture of blogging. It has fallen to the backburner, like many things in my life that I used to balance with ease, before this parenting gig kicked into high gear. Don’t get me wrong, life is full of activities and get-togethers and plans, but that is what gets in the way of the rest…the cleaning, the blogging, the posting pics to flickr and so many other corners of my life. I was looking at my statement on my blog, the one about trying to balance work, home etc…guess this is evidence that the balance hasn’t been very well balanced. I assure you, the important things are getting done. A few updates…

1) McKenna still isn’t talking much and although I know this shouldn’t upset me…some days it does. An article automatically sent to my email telling me the age of my child and all she “should be” doing and saying…and she is not, saying at least. I am not sure if those updates are really a wise thing for moms to get…being blind to what your kid “should” be doing, kinda makes the day go better and lowers the mommy guilt that is always there anyway.

2) My left upper eyelid has been twitching for 3 days now…ALL DAY LONG…kinda like a reminder to me that I am probably just twitching along right now, with all there is to do. I am sure stress and eye allergies have something to do with it…

3) Mark is scrapping the painting he is working on and starting over…the due date is just around the corner. Trick is oil paints don’t dry fast, and he won’t finish in time. So he bought fast-drying oils so he can crank it out fast…I CAN’T BELIEVE HE IS SCRAPPING IT?! It is beautiful and at least 50-75% done..but all the detail work will take time, and it takes about 1 week to dry and with layering paint, it just won’t work. So sad…but he is dedicated and it will be gorgeous in the end!

4) My friend got married last weekend. Mark helped her with some of her art needs. That was great but, one more time-consuming things to do! She married a Morrocan man, who is wonderfully sensitive and has the brightest, sweet spirit about him. He is so warm and loves little kids…he is so ready to be a daddy. They are both believers of the Bahai faith and have a very loving future ahead of them. I am so happy for them both. They met on the internet too!

5) We have been to Hawaii, the Sequoia’s, the central coast and our own inflatable backyard pool, this summer! McKenna swims like a champ, no lie. She even dove off the side of the pool 2x, unprompted(at lessons, not in our inflatable 🙂 pool). She dives for sticks (can you believe it)? goes on her back on her own, and can swim about 10 feet with one breath. SHE LOVES SWIMMING! She has excelled in gym class this summer, swinging from the bars and doing a forward and log roll on her own. She walks the wide beam with ease, on her own…and with spotting, can do a forward roll on it. What she lacks in speech, she makes up for in her physical adeptness and outgoing nature with the other kids…she likes to hug and sit in random mothers laps…weird, huh? Guess she is like her mom…although I don’t sit in random mothers laps, I am quite social. This makes me smile! We look forward to what the fall brings for her in class.

6) McKenna is a hoot, I love being her mommy and Mark’s wife. That is all…for now…I hope it won’t be another 4 months until you hear from me again! Maybe some pictures next time…Lord knows I have a whole hard drive entitled Summer ’10.

We have been busy as of late. I wanted to devote an entire post to each weekend, however, clearly my energy and time constraints are making that difficult. We are getting further and further away from these events, so I will try to collapse our activities into one post.

A few weeks ago we went to visit our good friends Matt and Maddy, in L.A…you might know them www.mattlogelin.com . As usual, Matt is never short on activities for us to fill our days with. We arrived on Friday night and he cooked some meat for us on the grill. It was a little overcooked, ok…burned really, but we ate what we could of it. Saturday we got a late start, since we had been up so late the night before. I kinda regret getting there so late because I might have been able to save Maddy from what would be her fate, Matt cutting her bangs too short. I about gagged and cussed when I saw what he did to her. She was none the wiser and jumped down to play (hit) McKenna. They worked it out and were kissing in no time. We went to Long Beach to the aquarium and saw some fun things, such as fish and tidepools and some funnier things like, Birdemic. The lorikeets decided to feed on Mark’s ear and drew some blood. Funny, Matt never mentioned those birds were mean. It makes sense now that he never got any food for them and just stood back to take pics! I wonder if that is what he does with all of his out of town guests! These pics are from that day…

That night, Mark and Matt went out to a concert which meant that I got to babysit these lovely ladies, which let’s be honest….scared the crap out of me…2 kids under 2…not my idea of a weekend out of town. So I called on my awesome friend, Andrea…you might know her www.andreareneeremembers.blogspot.com to see if she was free and wanted to hang out and help save me. She did, and it was fun…always fun to see her bright, smiling face. She has a look of wonderment and openness on her face that is so refreshing, especially with all her family has been through over the past 18 months. A good time was had by all, guys and gals, that night. At some point during the weekend, the girls needed to burn off some energy and decided it would be great to make Matt’s house a race track. I have a neat video of that, but for some reason I can’t seem to post it here. It is on my flickr page if you care to see it. The following day we went to Huntington Gardens, a place we have wanted to see for some time. Ever since I saw the many pics of Maddy frolicking in the water, I knew McKenna would love it! So we went…and the water main was broken. So…they splashed in the pots and didn’t seem to notice the difference.

Afterward, we headed to some of the vast, open spaces, so the kids could run, or tackle each other.

Maddy finally felt bad that McKenna couldn’t stay on her feet and did what only friends do for each other…she helped her up!

Yes, Maddy is as sweet as she is beautiful! And check out my little one taking a moment to observe the flowers…

The day wouldn’t have been complete had the girls not given each other their legendary kiss…

It was a fantastic weekend had by all.

The following weekend had nothing important come to mind, other than these great shots of McKenna finger painting for the first time with her daddy. Mark found a recipe online for paints and made is magic (mess) in the kitchen. This was the result!

This was a fun process and we should definitely do it again soon.

The following weekend we took an impromptu visit to the coast, Morro Bay and Los Osos area. This is where I went to high school and my mom and sister still reside there. We plan on relocating here in another 2 years or so. This is McKenna sitting in a tree at a playground in Morro Bay. What a view from the swing. It was a gorgeous day!

And these were around the same time period at home, and I like them…

We have more fun activities to post about and pics to put up from last weekend…but sadly, I have this on my to-do list yet. As you can see, we are busier than I can keep up with on here. I hope you enjoy this snapshot of our lives!

This post is just about me venting. I truly love the work I do and the clients I work with daily. County bureaucracy and fiscal cuts have just tied our hands so many times, it’s a wonder clients still find us helpful. I am grateful for my employment, so understand this is me getting my thoughts down on paper as I process this new role I find myself in.

Is it possible that I have even less time now…less time at work to make up for my lack of time at home to get the little things done I used to? What I wasn’t able to get done at home because business’ were closed or McKenna is too needy, I was squeezing in at work between clients…now that has become a challenge. Scheduling dog grooming and car repairs and hair appointments and activities was once a reality, making me feel like whatever I had dropped at home I could pick up here and there at work. It’s not looking like that will happen much now, and I feel even more squeezed for time. Up until now, I was  assigned two roles at work, as I am now…only one role has changed, significantly. My primary role is responding to Emergency Rooms when they call and need a psychiatric assessment on someone who has been placed on an involuntary hold due to being a danger to themselves, others and/or is gravely disabled (unable to provide food, clothing, shelter due to a mental illness). We don’t get called too often for this task, as most of the hospitals have their own internal system for managing these clients. In between these calls, I was scheduled to see 3 people for a mental health assessment and determine a treatment plan and linkages to services. This was Great…I had  structure and knew where I could plug in some calls when I needed to. Monday, that all changed. While I still will respond to the ER’s , I now have been assigned to handle all the walk-in’s and triage them out, determining what resources they need, addressing crisis situations and scheduling assessments. This is all stuff I am good at, some might say great at, but herein lies the rub…the lobby is ALWAYS full! So no matter how hard, diligent and fast I work, I can never finish. It would be nice to see the reward of an empty basket sometime to feel a sense of accomplishment, catch my breath and maybe build in some down time like other staff find time for, even minimally. I find myself racing, racing through paperwork, racing through lunch, etc. This is supposed to be a role I am assigned to solo, but that is not a viable reality. We are swamped daily and there is no way one person, alone, can see everyone. Most days when I leave there are at least 4 more people to be seen and 90 minutes left in the work day. Fortunately, I work with some great ladies who all pitch in and help.

I guess my frustration is that not only can I not find time to fit in my calls anymore, I can’t even finish my duties each day because the task is impractical. I enjoy feeling a sense of accomplishment, it is important to me and for the people I actually see, I can do that. There is just something about that never empty basket that is eating at me and makes me feel like I am unable to meet this challenge. At home, I now have less time for twitter and following my blog roll, but that just seems to be about other things taking precedence. I feel completely disconnected, even though it is for good reason. But really, who am I kidding…if I could just find the time to get my calls in, I think I could be ok with never seeing the bottom of the basket, although missing out on my online buddies will never sit well with me! It is just one of the many areas in my life that I find myself “settling” in since having my wonderful child. Hopefully, I will figure out my new balancing act, soon!

…is getting my hair done tonight, in peace, because my awesome husband offered to watch McKenna at home (which is really easier on all parties, considering) so that I could really enjoy the process. P.S. my hair looks hot!

Happiness is…the fact that when I got home, my child was fed, bathed, in her pj’s carrying around her blankets and willing to go to bed (no bedtime battles here)!

Happiness is that I am able to write this on the computer while I listen to my happy, albeit nerdy, husband in the background laughing and enjoying his weekly “man date” on the PS3 with his brother and others, while they play video games and *cluck*. This is the term my husband likes to use when I talk to my friends…funny thing is on “man date” night, they do WAY more clucking and laughing than I could ever have time for! I enjoy that he can enjoy and connect with his friends through the t.v. screen and silly blue tooth gadget he wears in his ear, however I keep trying to imagine the men in my parents’ generation doing such things…I Cannot for the life of me picture it…I guess it is a Gen. X thing.

Happiness is that he has his “special” way of connecting, and I have mine (twitter, blogging) and we both respect and support each others interests.

Happiness is, although I dread leaving my child to go to work, I am grateful that I have a job to go to and no fears that my child will go without anything, when so many are, and by no fault of their parents.

Happiness is…today at work, in a field that can be ruthless, can take everything from you and never say “thank you”, a woman who tells me after meeting with her for 90 minutes…”thank you so much, what you said today made the most sense and has been the most helpful tool I can use in all my years of having therapy”. A reminder to always give your best daily, because you never know when that one person is REALLY listening and you just might make a difference in one person’s life!

Happiness is…the fact that I had the right words at the right time to make even a small difference in someone’s life, and hopefully in the life of a special friend of mine that is really getting hit hard right now…I have a special place in my heart for her, and I have only known her for a short time. I hope that what I say to her can be as helpful to her as the words that came to me with the stranger I spoke to today.

Happiness is that I have the tools to help someone and that all my years of schooling and experience actual paid off.

Happiness is the fact that I have this outlet to share my triumphs and tribulations and can rest my head in peace knowing I did my best today! I can hope that tomorrow will bring a grateful stranger my way, while knowing that this is the first “thank you” I have received in a very long time.

Maybe I should have titled this post…grateful…because truly my happiness is tied to gratefulness…one of the pearls I have gained from working with others who have lost so much and have so little.  Imagine what our world would be like if we were all more grateful and less entitled? Might we all have some happiness, somewhere? What are you grateful for, I’m curious…

And with that..I leave you with these recent pics from the park.

Good night!

By the time work let out on Friday, I was ready for a three-day weekend. Truth be told, I am ready for a three-day weekend everyday! Friday night was kicked off with Indian take-out. While waiting for our Chicken Tikka Masala, Aloo Gobi, Paneer Pakora, Shahi Paneer, rice, and garlic naan, McKenna decided to drink off some stranger kid’s capri sun, awesome! This germ thing is gonna kill me. That was ALOT of food, but it was enough that we got 6 meals out of it, matter fact I am finishing off my rice and Aloo Gobi today!

Saturday consisted of Mark and McKenna napping while I cleaned. He said he would help, but alas, it was all me! My mom arrived Saturday night and baby girl was estatic! More people to show off for, awesome! At least it was clean for a minute, ugh!

Sunday was zoo day. She loved the animals and I helped her feed the giraffes. They have very long, sticky tongues. It made me think of the stickiness from the mouths of the creatures in the movie Aliens. Gross, but fun nonetheless. I will have to get some pics up soon. McKenna loved the zoo but we went over naptime, which caused us some grief. That night, Mark and I went and saw Wolfman since gma was babysitting. It was alright. Since when did movie goers decide it is ok to yell out at the screen when they like something.. or yell “f*#k her already” during a love scene?! Where is the class? Mark made us my favorite meal he cooks, filet mignon with goat cheese and balsamic vinagrette with red potatoes! So creamy…what a Valentine’s treat! My mom surely lucked out!

Monday, Mark had to work, but Mom, McKenna and I went shopping. Found some cute yellow converse shoes for baby, as well as some adorable summer outfits. Later, we dropped McKenna off for her nap while we went back out to shop some more. I got a couple cute lightweight sweaters and my mom got some stuff. The weekend went by too fast and I never have enough time to spend with my mom. I love her to death!

To top off the night, McKenna pooped in the tub, which I couldn’t see through the bubbles until towards the end of the bath…after she had been drinking the water and sucking on her washcloth….BLECH! and today, just as I thought, she has diarrhea…poor Mark. Wonder what will be in store for me when I get home…

I am really looking forward to the weekend. Work has been tough. These budget cuts and all the people in need is beginning to usurp my energy level and exuberance for work. HAHA, who are we kidding, my exuberance ended many years ago. Truly, everyone is at the end of their rope, not sure how much help we are really offereing at mental health these days…”Can I get some mental health help, pahleese” I feel like saying. Needless to say, I am looking forward to being out of here for 3 days. I have president’s day off, Mark does not. Video game companies seem to give very minimal holidays off. Like, New years day, 4th of July, Memorial day, 1 day for Thanksgiving and one day for Christmas. Working for the county, I get 13.

So, my mom is coming up on Sat. Maybe Mark and I can go out on a date, that would be awesome, maybe catch a movie, since that is what we miss most having a little one. Sunday, we are taking grandma and McKenna to the Fresno zoo, I wonder if they will  have any Bulldog gang members behind the bars since the jail is full and broke and they had to release them early! LOL! McKenna is at the age where she loves animals and listens to the birds or hawks or something rather large, make love calls to each other. I think she will love it! In between all of these activities, maybe I should clean my toilets or sweep. GAH my house is NOT happy right now.

McKenna has been waking up at 5:30 the last few mornings. That really sucks since I have to be at work at 7 and enjoy sleeping til the last minuted. She wants some milk and a dry diaper and wants to point and talk. “sorry, sista”. She seems to go back down pretty easily, but has been starting her day earlier, like at 8. Mark hates that. Here’s to hoping she sleeps in this weekend!

My dogs need to be groomed. They need their rabies shots and I need to pick up a 6-n-1 shot to give them. It is cheaper when I give it. It always falls to the bottom of my list. Oh, and I will be getting my rear end up into the attic to replace our filter this weekend too. Who needs a reminder sticker when I have my allergies? And WHO decided it was a good idea for humans to crawl into the attic to replace something every 3 months, idiots! You should have seen me do it pregnant, not pretty.

I have been having a hankering to try to make some fish. This is big for me. I am not much of a fish eater, the smell makes me barf. But I found some good recipes on the Food Network that I printed. I might try one this weekend. We will see if I can get past the smell. My mom will hate me and leave prematurely, I am sure of that. Maybe I won’t make fish.

That’s about all I have. Hope everyone has a wonderful retail holiday on Sunday. Remember to love all your peeps, spouses, parents, kids and a little chocolate never hurt!

Today you are 17 months. I cannot believe it has been 17 months since you came into our lives and brought us more happiness than we could ever have imagined! 17 months since my round belly was aching and my water broke as I awakened and rolled out of bed. 17 months of being a mommy…I love you so much, McKenna, you make me whole! I love being your mommy! You can do so many things now. Some of the newer things you can do are:

1) walk on your tip toes

2) jump

3)spin…on command, I might add

4) recently started sleeping through the night…Most awesome skill yet!

5) blow bubbles in the tub

6) grew in all your teeth, minus your second set of molars

7) hug the dogs and pet them without tormenting them and ripping their hair out

8) say “Par, Par” for Park, your favorite place to be!

9) color with a crayon or pen

10) eat less messily with a spoon (most gets in your mouth)

11) Scream with excitement, turn your hands upside down like “I can’t believe it” and dance and spin on the floor when either mom or dad come home and see you! Such a gift to us both!

We love you so much McKenna, you have no idea! Thank you for being our biggest blessing ever! Happy 17 months, baby girl!

Love Forever,

Mom

 

Lately, I miss my husband. He works so much and is always at home, behind the computer. We are both there, at home, which gives me some sense of closeness but I miss laying in bed watching tv. I miss our conversations about the ongoings in the world and what we each think of things. Part of this is winter, and just not being able to do much outside. We do make an effort, almost daily, to take McKenna to the park for 45 min. or so to get her out of the house and work on her gross motor control and to play and have stimulation outside of our 4 walls. But, I think we are dedicated to US getting out of the house too! The other part of missing Mark is that he is constantly playing catch up. Since we are dedicated to keeping McKenna out of day care, he attempts to meet her needs in the day and work too…doesn’t always work out too well. Then when I get home in the late afternoon, I take  over and he begins plowing through work in an attempt to meet his deadlines. Their art deadlines are crazy unrealistic anyway, much more work than 8 hours daily can accomplish. So, really, he is working what feels to be around the clock. He doesn’t go to bed most nights until 2-3 am and then is up again around 8:30-9 when Miss M wakes up. He is so dedicated to her and his work, so our relationship usually is what sits on the backburner, and that’s ok, we agreed to this and try to make up for it on the weekends. Although, for the past 3 weekends we have not and I am beginning to feel it. He has had to work the majority of the last few weekends as getting “caught up” during the week is proving to be less fruitful. Having several widow friends, I feel bad even feeling this way, since at least I HAVE my husband and can plan things with him. I am truly grateful for that and our situation isn’t  bad, so really this isn’t me complaining. I am ok with our decision. There are just tinges of our pre-parental life that I really miss.

On the one hand, it doesn’t bother me because it lessens his stress when he knows he has that time to catch up, which makes us both feel better and it’s what needs to be done to keep McK home with him and continue to save on day care costs….BUT having to entertain her away from the house so he can work is hard when 1) I have tons of housework that is glaring at me that I can never get to 2) I would rather have him with us 3) I don’t want to take her to the zoo or anything “Special” since I feel it is unfair he would be missing out. 4) I don’t want to compromise our closeness by never getting time to connect. Maybe I am complaining, just a wee bit. I just miss him.

So I am thinking about what we can do as a couple that will be special. I am not sure yet. My mom will come up later this month for a 3 day weekend and I am thinking I might want to go overnight with him separate from McKenna. Even just writing that gives me anxiety. I have never spent a night away from her. If we decide to do it, I know just what we will be doing…sleeping in! If we decide we just can’t leave her, I think a nice dinner out and maybe a movie or dinner theatre might be a nice way to connect…here’s to hoping!

I leave you with a picture of the most important reason we do any of this anyway…

TOTALLY worth it!

Well, we survived McKenna’s first blood incident, not her first injury, mind you…but her first blood incident. We still don’t know what really happened, but we have surmised that she slit her right thumb on the hall mirror which is on the back of a door. I could be sharp if you rubbed it the right (or in this case) the wrong way. When it happened I was standing across from her in the kitchen, making her last sippy of milk before bed. I was feeling accomplished and slighly organized. Kid bathed, med given, jammies check. Only thing left was milk and teeth brushed. She just sat there whimpering on the floor. I looked up and saw blood like war paint, all over her face, blood on her outfit and smeared on the floor. WTF! I was standing right there! As my heart started pounding, I searched her over and found that lone thumb. It kept bleeding, and bleeding. I called for Mark and he got me some papertowels and he worked on locating some bandaids…why do they never know where things are, and yet they have seen them a million times…I digress. Anyhow, as I am waiting for said bandage, my little miss is fighting me and fussing that I have now entrapped her thumb and she cannot move. My kid HATES to be held down or detained in any way. She could have cared less about the blood. Mark on the other hand, was turning everything off ready to head off to the hospital. I, trying not to overreact and remember to remain rationally focused, attempted to look at it. This has never bothered me before and I now realize another way that having a child has changed me. After initial inspection (limited since my kid won’t hold still) I felt that it wasn’t that deep and wouldn’t need a stitch since the skin was touching and not pulled apart. In hindsight, I still feel that was a fair assessment but for a different reason. I was a lifeguard for many years and saw many injuries and felt confident that if it was bandaged overnight it would close and begin healing. That was with the premise that it would STAY bandaged. Thank God it wasn’t her thumbsucking thumb, or this would be a different post entirely! McKenna had other ideas about this plan. Long story short, she ripped countless bandages off, varying from band aids to gauze with very sticky medical tape. She used her teeth, she used her other hand, whatever it took, she did not like being restricted. 2 things that were really great during this process are 1) finding bandaids in the crib with blood all over the sheets and dried to my kid’s face/lips while sleeping 2) watching my child actually chew on and rip the skin on her injured thumb, thus making her slice a tear…awesome! WHO does this, may I ask? Doesn’t a 17 month old realize that shit hurts? Mark and I became super neurotic about that thumb and keeping a bandage on it, we should take out stock in the company we went through so many. I began to worry if it would ever heal so we took  her in the pediatrician, who may as well double as a grandfather with as many times as we have visited him this winter. He states “ah, you again”. Not a good way to feel like an accomplished parent, I assure you. The conversation went something like this “what has McKenna been up to lately”, me: “oh you know, slicing her thumb on who knows what” him: “mmmmhhhmmmm, mmmmhhhmmm”, as he inspects it, then “well, it could have used a stitch that first night, but what you did was fine too, hopefully it won’t get infected since she is still on her antibiotics”, me: “well that is good, I am glad they came in handy and we are getting our money’s worth for dual uses”. “So what do we do to keep an injury like this bandaged when our child gnaws like a rat”? him: “well, try to keep it wrapped up over the wrist and tape it” me: “and when she eats the tape” him: “she is very resourceful, I’m not sure”. GAH…Tell me something I don’t know. The good news in handling her finger at home is that had we gone into the ER, he said they would have confined her on a papoose board to stitch it! OMG, that would have never worked with this little wiggler and she and I would have been traumatized for years to come. Even though I addressed her cut at home for the reason that I thought it was less deep than it was, I unknowingly made the best choice for all involved to avoid Mr. Papoose! Let’s hope he heals quickly, cuz she needs a bath!

It is normal and healthy for couples to disagree and even argue a bit. I have been in these relationships, but with Mark, it is different. It really doesn’t happen very often, like maybe once every 6 months, maybe once every 2 months if you want to count a small irritation that is only worthy of an eye roll. Needless to say, we are very fortunate, Very fortunate…and to think a computer matched us! EHarmony matched us back in October 2003. There is something intrinsically wrong with a computer matching a couple better than they could have matched themselves on their own, but that is a story for another day. There are certain things, though, that I know will piss him off…he is like a kettle, slow to warm, but when he finally has had enough, he may throw his cap on the ground (happened once) or may raise his voice (rare) or generally just shake his head and go off by himself to stew or sleep it off. These things involve having poor judgment with our kid, like when I left the den door open and she fell over on her head in her walker…GUILTY! no getting out of that one or the time I got identity fraud cuz I used the blue mailbox on the side of the road (how was I to blame for being the victim, hello) or the most recent time that I, uh, washed his leather wallet and all it’s innards….oh yeah and then dried it. I kept wondering why all this paper was in there…and then I saw it, the wallet, SHIT! with all his coveted receipts, for what I don’t know, and phone numbers to art studios, and medical cards and many other things, that if you ask me, should be kept somewhere safe, not in your wallet. It could get stolen, for pete sakes, or your wife could wash it. So, I proceeded to finish the laundry, judging his current mood to determine when might be a good time to broach the subject. I opted to just lob it out there, while he was working on the computer. He looked at me and said “What….damn it!” I told him I saved what I could and it was in the kitchen. He was not happy and started citing all the things he lost and how I had ruined the pictures of myself, McKenna, his nephew and parents (his father is deceased now so not a good pic. to ruin). I offered to try to replace them….then it came…he said “why didn’t you check my pockets?”, I told him I did…a cursory check, he has like a million pockets in those shorts that he has 4 pair of and the weight of the shorts seemed right, so I threw them in. Then I had to say “how many times have I asked you to take your wallet, keys, change, important shit OUT OF YOUR POCKETS like a normal person when you discard them on the floor, or preferably in the basket like I have asked a million times. Of course he thought I was failing to accept the appropriate blame and didn’t like that I was joining him in part responsibility for this wallet fiasco. But really, don’t you think this happened because we both failed in part? And really, why AM I doing his laundry for him, if he doesn’t like it, he can dump his own pockets and wash them himself. Anyway, guarantee I will be checking in the future….hoping that was our only dispute for the next 6 months. I leave you with what I captured as the remnants of his wallet….oh, and isn’t my glamour shot hot!? Also, notice our goal sheet survived…in the long run that is all that matters right, making it to the next goal, together..with awesome wallet stories to tell and listening to Mark open his handy back-up vacation wallet instead! What a nerd…he loves reminding me everytime I hear it rrrriiiiiippppp!