typical tuesday: Melinda Shimizu

A while ago Melinda sent me her typical tuesday, but I totally spaced it until a few days ago, (sorry Melinda!) I loved reading about her tuesday. Melinda is: a smarty pants (almost has her Ph.D!) A mom, and a wife...she wears many hats. Also, she is adorable. Check her out!

Hello! I'm starting to think there's no such thing as a "Typical Tuesday" in my house! I'm a Ph.D. student and until a few weeks ago my husband was a Masters student so our schedules were dictated by the school calendar. Which means that every semester it's different! I've given up hoping for stability and am learning to embrace this more fluid lifestyle.

My day usually starts about 6:10am. I want to start earlier to get in running too, but so far have been unable to do it. I love my sleep!! I thought I took a picture of the time on my iPad when I got up...but it looks like I was still too groggy!

I shower pretty much every morning - it's like coffee to me. Even if I showered the night before for some reason, I'll often still take my morning shower. It helps me wake up! And it usually is a good 15-20 minutes in the water. Terrible for water conservation, but so wonderful for my sanity. It's why I get up when I do! To make sure I can take a lengthy shower before my little fella (20 months) wakes up!

1. Shower. I may daydream a bit. So worth it.
2. Make up! Very simple.
3. Clothes - today I'm feeling very Waldo-ish.

Ready for the day!

After showering and getting dressed I nearly always stop in my office. So far, this Tuesday is very Typical.  I have my iPad set up because I'm about to Skype with my Ph.D. advisor. She's in Switzerland on sabbatical. (this is less typical...we usually Skype every other Tuesday at 11am my time, but I asked if she could "meet" at 7:30am my time instead this time. You'll find out why!) On the right is my video monitor of my little guy. Still asleep! He's had some sort of cold that's making him cough at night. We have a humidifier going, washed all his bedding, we bathe him before bed, and have even been trying Benadryl! But he's still coughing and oooh so very tired. So he's sleeping in a bit! 

Until my 7:30 appointment time I check my email, get my notes and files ready for the meeting, and then Camden wakes up! Yay! Erik and I go in to get him together and I get to play with him for about 10 minutes before I have to go. While I Skype with my advisor, Erik and Camden eat breakfast, get dressed, and I have no idea what else they did! But I heard a lot of giggling!

I was sad that I was missing out on the giggling - but it was a good meeting with my advisor. Turns out she thinks I'm in a "good place" as far as my dissertation is concerned. If she's happy, I'm happy! (she's basically my boss)

The meeting went way longer than usual (1 hour instead of the typical 1/2 hour) so when I finally emerged I found my little guy having his morning snack! He usually gets that at daycare, but we're running waaaay behind now!

He LOVES raisins. And blueberries. You can imagine how that looks in his diaper. (it's dreamy)

As soon as he saw me he wanted down! And then immediately started trying to sweep up all the food he dropped! He had just put the broom back when I finally snapped the picture:

He can be so tidy. But don't worry, he makes way more messes to make up for it. :)

Next, he asked for Baby?! This means go into the office, and watch videos of himself as a baby. I'm trying to compile a DVD of all the videos we have of his first year, and it's sloooow going. I only got the software 3 months ago, so I have a lot of catching up to do! But he loves watching that little baby! And seeing people he recognizes like his Daddy and Buh'Pa (Grandpa).

He also likes playing with the iPad, which I used to take this shot.

And then I saw the time - 9:15!! Good heavens! Camden's usually AT daycare between 8:30 and 9am! We needed to move! We quickly assembled everything we needed, got our shoes and socks, and were out the door and on our way to Camden's School. He loves his school so much. I was so apprehensive about putting him in daycare at all, but he really loves it. And I'll be teaching over the summer, so we need someone to watch the sweet boy!

After dropping C at daycare (sorry, no pictures! It's the rules!), Erik and I started our Adventure. (this is why I'd asked my advisor to meet earlier in the day) We had decided (that morning) to drive the Apache Trail! (okay, we'd talked about it the night before) A couple of things led to this very unusual activity for our now very A-typical Tuesday. Mainly, Erik had the day off from his part-time summer job (he's looking for work, so for now, we'll take what we can get!) and I haven't started teaching yet (I'm teaching at the community college this summer)...so we thought we ought to do something with this coinciding time of freedom!

Originally I'd thought we'd take little Camden too...but it was going to be a loooong day. And with his cold it seemed like a regular schedule with a solid nap was more important. So we left him at daycare. This actually gave me a lot of anxiety. I trust those people of course, but I've never left him in the care of someone besides Erik and then left the immediate vicinity (his daycare is about 15 minutes from where my office is at school). If our day went as planned, there would be times when we'd have no cell service. And for a few hours we'd be a good 1.5-2.5 hours away from him! What if something happened!?! I finally called my good friend to see if she'd be in town and around just in case. She was. That was enough for me to feel better about the situation, so away we went! (everything was totally fine, so no need to worry...but it's what I do. No matter how hard I try to shake the habit!)

First stop - gas and Treats! Mmmm...have you had Dunkin's Munchkins? Delicious. Totally worth it!

Oh yeah. So by now you know I have a husband, Erik, and a son, Camden. Please meet Pete. The blue walrus. That we picked up from a Geocache in Rome, Italy. He's our picture bomber, and he was missing for over a year! During that time we moved! I thought he was gone for sure! (on another adventure, likely) Instead, he turned up 2 weeks ago in our shoe bin!

Did I mention I live in Phoenix, Arizona? No? It's in the Sonoran Desert, so it's HOT down here. I kinda hate it, not gonna lie. And for a long time I really did not like the brown and the distinct lack of trees. But we've lived here going on 6 years now, and I've learned to love the desert. And appreciate it's unique beauty. And I've deluded myself into thinking there actually ARE 4 distinct seasons down here (they're just subtle). Anyway, if all goes as planned with the Ph.D. I'll be a Dr. this time next year and we won't be living here anymore! This has prompted a sudden urgency in doing things unique to our area. Unfortunately, it's HOT.  It kind of limits what you can reasonably do. For instance, at least for me, hiking is OUT in the summer. (we hike in the "winter") But we decided we could drive the Apache Trail (our car has AC!).

So off we went! It's a 2 lane road that was originally a stage coach trail built to provide supplies to build the Roosevelt dam from 1906-1911! It's about 50 miles long, and about 30 of those miles are unpaved. But well-graded. So our Civic could make it!

We started the trail by the Superstition Mountains (top images)

We got to a town called Tortilla Flat. It has a population of 6. We had lunch there, even if it was on the early side (about 11am). The "town" has a general store, a restaurant, and a gift shop. I believe there's a post office too? The buildings are "old West" style (lower left picture).

It was good!! The upper right picture is how the bathroom stalls are painted!

After lunch, we pressed on enjoying the scenery! One bonus to going in May: the saguaro cactus are blooming!

At one point the road is near a "river" - and there are trees!!! (lower left) Of course, the actual river bed is dry...the water is all running underground. We're in a bit of a drought, and there's been some overuse of the aquifer. Our Civic is getting dusty! (lower right)

We finally make it to Roosevelt Dam! It is pretty impressive! And I've seen a few dams in my life!

There are actually 3 reservoirs from dams along this stretch - the lake in this picture is Apache Lake.

After seeing the dam the trail ends, and you wind up back on pavement! Hallelujah! Now it's just a roughly 1.5 hour drive back to Phoenix! On the way, we saw a sign for Cliff Dwellings, so we turned and followed the signs! We estimated we had about 1 hour before we needed to go so we'd be on time to pick up Camden. We hustled up the trail to the dwellings. It was about 102 out. I do not recommend this at all. The dwellings were pretty interesting, but also full of gnats! SO annoying! I recommend this part of the trip at a different time of year! Namely, when it's not 102 out!

On our way back we got stuck on a 2 lane road, with no passing for about 15 miles, behind this guy (big truck in upper right). So that was fun. We made it back to civilization with enough time to stop at Bahama Bucks for a frozen treat! They make the BEST snocones ever! The shaved ice is soooo nice and we always get their Bahama Rama Mama, which means combining the shaved ice with Blue Bell vanilla ice cream! Yummmm!

I turned my tongue blue. 

We picked up Camden at 4:30! He was happy to see us! And ready to play! We...were pretty well tired. It had been a LONG day of driving!!

So we all went home, horsed around for a bit, and then had leftover meatballs and mashed potatoes for dinner:

Actually, super yummy!

We actually had a fruit salad too, but it looked even worse in the picture, so I'm going to let you imagine something delicious.

Soon after dinner Camden was cranky and rubbing his eyes, so we decided he needed an earlier bedtime. So by 7pm, he was tucked into his bed and nearly asleep! Our bedtime routine consists of bath, and then we "pat the baby dry" and "grease the baby" (grease him up with Cetaphil cream to keep his skin hydrated!), and then put him in jammies, read a story (sometimes he reads to us now!) and then we tuck him into his bed. That's it! He's really pretty good about it!

After he's in bed Erik and I looked at each other wearily. We were probably tired enough to go to sleep then, but have too much pride to ACTUALLY go to bed at 7:10pm. :) Instead we picked up the living room, played Draw Something (we're on a bit of a winning streak)

and I caught up on some homework and blogs, and then we watched an episode of Futurama, talked briefly about a book I'm reading (Raising Cain), and then finally decided it was a reasonable enough hour for sleep. Why is driving so exhausting, even for the passenger?!

Night Night!

Thanks Melinda!

Wanna share a typical tuesday with us? You know you do. Just email me, K?

rachel . meynders @ gmail . com