February 28, 2015

Kids update: Feb 2015

Ava 19 months, Rachel 4 years, 4 mo.

It's been a while since we've really shared much about the kids and what they are up to.

Ava is awesome.  Her sparkly blue eyes, round face and smiling mouth full of teeth are impossible not to laugh with.  She's moving from a sweet, calm, cooperative toddler toward an independent and defiant 2 year old.  But she's so darn cute that it's really hard not to just snuggle her up, give in to her every demand, and smile back.

Rachel is growing up!  She's so smart and funny.  She's learning all about healthy food and composting and math and early reading skills at school.  She's an empathetic friend who is developing closer relationships to several key classmates.


Rachel the vet
Rachel, ready to be a monster in the preschool fashion show


Ava, home sick with fever for 3 days


Mommy tried to face paint a Rachel penguin







Grumpy Bum pants knit by Nana 











Rachel at daycare

To watch their sibling relationship develop is interesting.  They say good night and hug and kiss each other.  They watch for each other and like to know where the other one is.  They play 'together' but argue about who possesses what and get frustrated having to share at all.


Highlights having included:
- Rachel's preschool fashion show, for which Rachel decided to be a monster

- Ava learning to say more words and phrases

- Playing in the snow


- Playing with bubble wrap

- Making forts and playing under blankets

- Playing in the garage

- Working together to do chores, like unload the dishwasher

- Sledding


- Rachel, still trying to ride her Strider bike, even though she's too big and it's too snowy


February 27, 2015

Did I pick the wrong sport?

Every Friday night for 6 six weeks, I've been going to 'No Nonsense Ice Hockey' at the local Y.  I signed up for this no contact event because I've always thought it would be fun to learn the sport.  It's on my bucket list to play ice hockey for at least one season.  This sort of counts.

I thought this would be a good intro to the sport since this program has 45 minutes of drills, followed by 30 min of a scrimmage.  Since it's not contact, I shouldn't have to worry about getting injured and not being able to work.

A few background notes:
- I grew up watching a LOT of ice hockey, as my Dad and brothers are huge Canucks fans.
- I grew up figure skating until I was about 10, and then haven't skated much at all since.
- I played about 6 ice hockey intramural games while in PT school in borrowed gear, and thought it was a blast.  But the highlight of all that was to try to get over the boards and on to the ice without falling over.  There was no instruction, no practice, no coaching, and we often lost games 10-0 and laughed our butts off.
- I played field hockey really seriously from the age of 13 until the age 25, and a little more after that on and off until I was 30.  I gave most of everything I ever had in hopes to get to the Olympics and did not succeed.  It was awesome and I'm incredibly thankful for all the things that happened to allow me to represent Canada around the world, but it was also very disappointing and difficult to figure out how to move away from that life.  I miss the sport and that life and those friends a LOT.  Even though my elite days are clearly over... I wish I could play field hockey with friends now just for fun.

The week before the ice hockey started, I emailed the program leader and asked what gear I'd need.  I thought probably a helmet, skates, gloves and a stick.  The answer was a whole lot of gear: skates, socks, shin guards, padded shorts, a jill, shoulder pads, elbow pads, stick, and a helmet.  I trolled craigslist without much luck and ended up at 'Play it again Sports' buying mostly used stuff.  I spent over $200 on all this stuff - a part I hadn't really bargained for, and on the same day that we closed on the condo.  Oops.  I was committed.

The first night I showed up to a few surprises:
1) The two change rooms we had were co-ed.  Men and women sharing to get ready.  Not something I had experienced before.  On one hand, I didn't need to get naked so I wasn't too uncomfortable.  Also, in general, I'm not that modest.  But, professionally, there's a good change I could end up treating any one of these people, and I don't want my patients to have seen me without clothes on or vica versa!

2) Another lady helped me get all my gear on and I figured out where it all went.  She even gave me some tape because that's how you keep your socks on.  You have to tape them on over your shin guards, every single time you play.  (What a silly system, right?!)

3) My PT rehab hockey jersey is too small and doesn't fit very well over my shoulder pads.

4) There were other people out there skating around like they were in the NHL.  Really.  A lot of the other people were really good.  What were they doing at the same 'learn to play' thing that I was at?

So I played.  And I didn't fall over.  And I was totally intimidated.  I was scared I was going to get hurt because people were fast and shooting the puck hard.  There were slap shots shooting by my shoulders and coaches were not helping to regulate things or keep us out of harm's way.

By the scrimmage, I was smiling and loved it.

Week after week, I improve.  The drills are good for me but I find the pace of it all quite slow as there's a lot of waiting in line.  I live for the scrimmages.  (Also, the women have taken over one change room and all the guys are crammed into another now.)

Three weeks ago, I realized I'm learning a lot and skating much better and getting decent.  I'm right up there with any of the other women and a lot of them have been playing for years.  I read the play well and I'm fast.

In the last three weeks, my expectations for myself have risen.  I can get all my gear on pretty quickly.  I can get on and off the bench quickly.  I can skate forward and backward and turn.

2 weeks ago, I 'scored' in our scrimmage.  It wasn't a real goal because it was actually against 'Benny the Bench' - a board in front of the net with certain holes for the puck.  But I did put a puck in the net, for the first time in any of our drills or games.  I was so ridiculously excited and went around and gave all my teammates knuckles with my glove on and a big goofy smile on my face.  Most of them looked at me, totally rolling their eyes and confused on why I was celebrating so much for such a silly thing, but I was genuinely stoked.

Tonight, in a drill, I score 3/4 times on real goalies.  First time I've put the puck past a goalie in any situation.  Exhilerating.  Jumped and squealed and did lunging fist pumps.  Again, other people were like 'uh... it's only a drill!'

And I'm annoyed with others now when they don't look up or give a good pass.  Or when they don't skate hard.  My standards are increasing!  I'm becoming the annoying person who is starting to think that they are better than they are.

I still fell over and into the net and got in the goalie's way, and I still hurt my neck every time I try to snap my helmet straps on.  (Seriously, I need suggestions on this one.)  Tonight I even learned that I'm supposed to put hockey tape over the blade of my precious $24 used stick to protect it.

But I feel so alive after I play.  So excited!  So confident!  Even cocky.  And that's very cool.  I'm pretty sure I haven't felt cocky about anything athletic since 2009 when I last wore a field hockey jersey.  It's really fun.  And I can laugh at myself and with others as I learn something new, outside my comfort zone, and start to see improvement.

When I'm driving home from hockey, goofy smile and all, I wonder 'what if I had started playing THIS sport when I was 13?'??  

Obviously, I'd be just like Hayley Wickenheiser now.

February 4, 2015

Keeping a clean house

I used to be a clean and organized person.

I used to be so many things that seem so far away now... like a shadow of myself I'm not sure even belongs to me.  I used to be a high level athlete.  I used to stay up late, dance and drink and be silly, do spontaneous things just to try them out and be irresponsible on purpose.  I used to have so much energy.

As a single person, I was usually pretty clean and tidy.  I used to help my mom clean our house a lot growing up.  I earned spending money but taking on extra cleaning chores in our house.  My mom seemed to be able to keep a house clean with 3 kids, a working husband (who traveled often), and work herself.  She had high domestic standards of cleanliness, baking, appearances...  In college, I did my dishes right away and made my bed and vacuumed my place often.

I've never really cared too much about fashion and clothing and I've never been good at taking quick showers.  But until I was married I always felt better when things were clean.  And when I'm upset about something, I still tend to clean.  In school, whenever I needed to study, I'd take a while to clean everything all around me first, even if that meant staying up an hour later.  I felt that I studied better if my environment was cleaner.

So how did I change from valuing a clean and tidy home to feel relaxed in and productive in, to the mess I live in now all the time and don't care?

I think I got a little messier moving in with Jason.  Not exactly because he's a messy person, but because we had more stuff.  I really like everything I own to have a home.  And with more stuff, it's harder to find homes.  More accumulates in the junk drawer or the shelf that just holds stuff.

Then we had kids.  Way more stuff.  Way more mess.

When I've been a full time stay-at-home mom, I've wasted hours cleaning up after my kids only to have them mess everything up again.  This is the ultimate frustration to me as a full time mother.  Work so hard and have nothing to show for it.  It seemed easier to just leave the mess and try to get it all sorted out after the kids went to sleep.

But then cleaning has to compete with all the other jobs that are reserved for 'after the kids go to sleep'.  Since working more and more, that time is more and more precious.

From 8pm-10pm, I have to choose whether I exercise, pay bills, organize my schedule, answer emails, finish my work that I didn't get done at work, clean my house, do laundry, spend time with my husband, run errands, go grocery shopping, be social, etc.

Currently, Jason runs two nights per week and I play hockey two nights per week during this time.

I'm not trying to compete here for the busiest person job.  I know I would lose.  I know there are loads of people who have things harder than I do, and I'm really lucky.

I'm just trying to understand why I just spent the last hour and much of my day at home with a sick kiddo trying to clean my house.  I could have read a novel, exercised, organized my photos, or picked one of a ton of other more fun and interesting things to do while she was sleeping.

But I can't seem to relax and unwind in my life.  It feels that I need to have everything totally caught up, organized, and clean before I'd actually be able to enjoy reading or exercising or anything.  And that will never happen.

We are debating about getting a house cleaner.  I'm emotional about this.  Practically, I'm cheap and don't want to spend money when it's a job I am capable of myself.  I have way more things I'd rather spend that money on.  Also, I don't want to have to pick up everything because the house cleaner is going to come to clean under all the mess on their schedule.

But really, there's more to it than that.  ...   It feels like cheating.  It feels like something only spoiled rich people have. (sorry I probably just offended someone that has a house cleaner)

I used to feel that way about daycare.  I didn't feel right having 'some stranger raise my kids'... a phrase I've heard many times and used to think a little myself.  I used to think that getting a sitter to exercise or use gym day care or getting a sitter to get myself organized all felt like I wasn't being there for my kids.  ... and I've changed my views on all those things.  I really do feel that I'm a happier, healthier, better mom and more patient with my kids after I've been away at work, made time for myself or my marriage or my body/health.  I really believe that the 'stranger's do a better job at being with my kids all day than I do, and that allows me to do a better job with them every evening and weekend.  I'm slowly letting go of that daycare guilt.

But who ever heard of house cleaner guilt?

Somehow, to me, I still believe that I (we) should be responsible for our own house.  Our home that we love and take pride it.  And, wrong as it might be on paper, I believe that keeping a tidy household is one role of 'mom'.  I don't feel like I do it well... but I know I can and I even enjoy cleaning when I do it.  But add that to the list of 1000 things moms should do well that we all strive to do but can't possibly succeed in keeping up.  I feel the same way about cooking dinner vs. going out.  It feels like cheating and more money to go out for dinner so I don't like to do it.  (Also, it's rarely enjoyable to me with kids.)

So... I will either have to:
1) let go of this guilt and put my money where my value is and hire someone
2) continue to do my best and be ok with a messy house and realize I value other things more
3) get less sleep or take away from other important elements of our lives in order to do more cleaning more consistently

I guess time will tell!

Our condo in Breckenridge

We bought a condo in Breckenridge!!
Ava stealing cereal from the pantry

We are so lucky that we have been able to do this, and hope that it is a place where the Oliver family can get together to share good times with extended family and friends.  We owe a huge thank you to Jason's grandparents Frances and Raymond Oliver, without whom we would not have been able to do this.  Whenever we go there, we will thank them, honor them and appreciate their adventurous souls.

For those of you who don't know, Breckenridge is very special to us.  We met there in 2005, at which time Jason was living there.  We were married there in 2007.  Since moving to Colorado in 2011, we have spent many weekends in the area and love it.  It's about a 2 - 2.5 hour drive from our house.

We started looking at real estate seriously in November, and then made an offer on Dec 6.  Since then, things have been very busy getting together documents for the loan, down payment, inspection, title company, etc.  We've also had to get our plans organized in terms of how much to use it ourselves vs. how much to rent it.

For the remainder of this ski season, it will serve us as primarily a rental property.  This is partly to make the initial transaction work financially and partly because we don't have ski passes in Summit County this year.

We hired a property management company to serve as a local service to help coordinate keys, inspection, small repairs, and a cleaning company.  We posted our page on vrbo.com and immediately had several requests for renting.

We got the keys on Fri Jan 16th from our awesome realtor, Matt Powers at Colorado Premier in Breckenridge, and spent the weekend up there with the girls.  Although the place came mostly furnished, there was still work to be done and things to be organized in order to get it ready for renters.  We bought a tv, got utilities hooked up, bought small things for the kitchen, etc.
Deciding what to pack up to take to our new home



welcoming gift from our awesome realtor, Matt Powers in Breckenridge

We didn't get as much done that weekend as we had hoped, although I (Meggan) did get to skin up Peak 8 at Breck and ski down with 2 girlfriends.  Jason got in a little running at altitude.  And we took the girls sledding and to the library.

We didn't sleep much at all during the weekend, since Ava continues to have trouble sleeping when she's not in her own crib.

We drove home with no traffic, since the Broncos were playing again.
Ava tries her best to mess up the new kitchen


Rachel and Ava eat breakfast in our new kitchen

Rachel unpacks silverware

Ava unpacks pots and pans
Didn't take us long to break in the couch






Organizing tv and cables
New entry way shelf/cubbies


Jason went up again the next weekend to finish organizing everything with another couple and playing in the mountains without the girls there to 'help'.
R loves the bunk bed

The place is now totally ready and we had our first renters this past weekend.  We have about 35 nights rented out for the rest of the season, and then we hope to start being able to enjoy it ourselves a little more!

Here is the link to our rental page, although we need to add more pictures soon:
http://www.vrbo.com/667992

Of course we'd love to have you come visit and play with us in the mountains!  Let us know when you can come.

Until then, we'll be at our normal house playing with the kids.