good morning 2001. glad you made it.

Mason on a snow day contemplating the next sled run.

Clover enjoying her favorite food ever. bananas.

I feel like I need to at least acknowledge that it has been more than just a while since I have updated the book. Over a month has come and gone. Oh man. What a month it has been.

I think I want to start with what happened when I walked in the door after work tonight.

When I walked into my house tonight there was a little girl named Clover in my kitchen. When she saw me she screamed and grinned so big that her pacifier almost fell out. It melted my heart. She then proceeded to book it over to me flapping her arms with excitement so she looked kind of like she was trying to shoo a cat or birds away while squealing and running smiling and making me smile like an idiot because she likes me better than her rhinoceros blanket and was happy that I was home.

I like Clover. I miss her when I am at work too.

Work. Where to start. It has been a real learning experience. Do you remember the first time you drove a clutch? You saw whoever you were learning from do it and was like, oh it will be easy, I got this, then ended up killing the car on the first try. Then laying a patch on the second try. Then maybe killing it again a couple times before managing to get a smooth start, but killing it a the next stop because you forgot to put the clutch back in? I am not sure if that is exactly how it went for me, but I wanted to paint a clear picture for my analogy. The manager I served under as an assistant made it look easy. I mean seriously. I felt like I was going to come out of the gate ready to totally knock it out of the park. Not the case. I mean to tie it back to the clutch analogy, I killed the car a few times, I got it moving, and now I feel pretty confident in my role so long as I don't kill when I am trying to turn left on a green light... especially with people waiting behind me. I am getting the hang of my store and my crew. I am getting more comfortable in my role. I still get heartburn when I know that my district mentor will be spending a few days at my store. That is why I am posting this right now. It is about one o'clock in the morning. I woke up with Clover at about midnight and started thinking about tomorrow, and couldn't go back to sleep. I guess that I just wish things would come together a little faster for me. That is kind of what I get for being such a perfectionist. I know that although I am doing very well with my new store, I know it is not perfect... yet. I also know that although I feel like I seldom make the same mistake twice, I somehow manage to keep finding new ones to make. For example, scheduling an afternoon of interviews when my boss is going to be at my store trying to teach me something new... tomorrow. I know that if I did not make any mistakes, I would not be learning anything, and I should be grateful for every opportunity to get better. I just would like some time to kind of let the car idle for a minute before trying to put it into gear again after killing it... know what I mean?

Anyway, all in all the move and transition to a new store and new position has been good. I am growing everyday. Zupas Valley Fair is pretty busy location. It has been kind of fun to see regulars from my other store come out to the new place. It has been fun to see the crazy amount of potential this store has. It has been kind of daunting to visualize that potential as a reality. I am excited to see what the future holds.

Enough about work.

Kristin is holding it steady at home. She has been a total rock for me over that last month as I have been working longer hours than either of us expected trying to get things rolling smoothly at my work. She is a pro at keeping me looking fresh with clean clothes for work and a clean house and well behaved children when I get home. We are really enjoying having both Sunday and Monday off together. We managed to watch the whole Bones season 5 over the weekend a couple weeks ago. We have also just had fun hanging out and laughing a lot together. I love her guts and enjoy her presence in my life.

Mason is doing his thing. What is his thing? Wearing big boy underwear and going potty in the toilet like Kelton and dad (in that order). He also loves making huge messes, lots of noise and giving snuggles.

Clover is growing right up. She has started signing. She walks or runs everywhere. She only crawls if... she doesn't crawl anymore. She likes to check and make sure that Kristin and I are sill alive a few times every night by yelling at us until we are awake. Precious as ever.

I am a little bummed out because of the ratio of work/ family content on this post. It is an accurate reflection of how life has been over the last couple months. I feel like I am mostly just checking in with my children over the weekends and some evening if manage to get home before they are in bed. Same with my wife. We talk on the phone the whole way home from work because that is when we have managed to get some of our best hang out time over that last few weeks. I love my family. I miss them more than I think I should... not because I think I like them too much, but because I feel like I should be able to spend more time with them on my new schedule. I do know that when I do get a solid handle on work I should be able to spend more time at home. It has just been a wild.

Thanks for being patient. Thanks for being supportive. Thanks for everything.

-p