Well Hello There

Wow, it's been a long time. I don't really have a good excuse for not being here. I suppose it's partly that I didn't had any brilliant blog ideas. Partly that I didn't have any TIME - two kids has doubled my work, and work is crazy, and nursing/pumping/bottle washing made/makes me crazy. And then so much time went by that it was just easier to not come back at all, rather than to come sheepishly crawling back. But still, here I am. And I wish that I had stayed around, because, now that I think about it, I have so much to say - on the topics of nursing babies and raising a girl instead of a boy and trying to balance the attention I spend on two children and the awesomeness of watching Charlie step so easily into the "protective big brother" role. And how my little group was purchased in January by a bigger group and how it totally threw my work life into upheaval and how I should just be thankful that I still have a job but I'm still sad at the loss of my vacation time and other monetary benefits. And how I've managed to keep up with my running program (hey, I ran a 1:43 half marathon in March and a 3:39 marathon in April, and I'm gunning for a BQ this fall!) and I've tried a lot of new beers (well over 200 different kinds) and made some fantastic new recipes, and took a few good trips out of town both with and without the family, and how funny it is that I'm making the same pea pancakes for Em that I did for Charlie. And all this time I felt like I had nothing to say.