May 25, 2011

a day in the life - emily

My Wednesday started a little too early this morning.  Seriously, doesn't my child know that it is sort of rude to wake people up before 6am?  Geez.  Will she ever turn in to a sleeper?  Anyway, that is beside the point.  Today I hope you enjoy a peek at Emily's life!  You can catch more of Emily on her blog.

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Hi, I’m Emily! My husband Justin and I, and our 15-month-old little lady Tressie, live on my family’s four-generation cattle ranch in eastern Colorado in the little town of Wild Horse. We are part of the day-to-day operations of the ranch and also own our own small cow/calf herd, but Justin and I also both work full-time jobs in town.


I want to give a big thank you to Ashley for inviting me to share a day in our life with you. If you find our typical Thursday intriguing, check us out at Toddling with Tressie and Trailerhood Aristocrats.

5:00 a.m. – Beep...beep…beep. I’d like to tell you that I jump out of bed eager to face the day, but the reality is I drag myself out of bed and in between yawns I pull on my yoga pants and tennis shoes and head to the gym…my living room. Right now my personal trainer is Jillian and I’m tackling the 30 Day Shred. I don’t particularly love getting up at this hour to exercise, but if it’s going to happen, now is the time.

After my quick work-out, I check e-mail, facebook and blogger and then shower and get myself ready for the day. Once I’m ready, I get everyone’s breakfast around and lunches packed.


6:50 a.m. – We are very blessed that my parents live just down the hill from us and watch Tressie during the day while Justin and I go to work. Tressie is not a morning person, (yes, this means I do get to sleep in on the weekends!) so every morning I have to wake her up. She looks up at me through sleepy eyes and growls at me as I change her diaper.


7:00 a.m. – We drop her off at Grandma’s, still in her pjs, and we head to work. I mentioned that Justin and I both work full-time jobs in town…town is 55 miles away. I use this time to eat my breakfast and on many mornings, I catch a few more zzzz’s as Justin drives us to work.

While we’re headed to work, Tressie drinks her morning bottle. (She still gets a bottle in the morning and I’m really not quite sure why…she likes her sippy cup just as well?.?.) Once she’s finished it, the still sleepy girl goes back down easily for my Mom and will usually sleep until 9:30-10:00 a.m.

8:00 a.m. – I arrive at work. I’m the Marketing Director for Farm Credit of Southern Colorado; we lend money to farmers and ranchers. I love my job! It allows me to be involved with an industry that is very near and dear to my heart, agriculture, and use my talents in marketing and public relations. After I catch up with the girls in the office, they love to hear the latest Tressie story, I go through e-mails and voicemails and then dive into my latest project. We’re in the beginning stages of a website re-design, so work is very busy and exciting lately!

10:00 a.m. – Tressie is waking up and enjoying her breakfast of oatmeal and fruit, while watching her favorite show, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.


After breakfast, Tressie plays. Some of her favorite toys right now are her cell phones, Little People, baby dolls and her plastic eggs from Easter!

12:30 p.m. – It’s lunch time; we’re half way through the day! Since Justin and I both work in the same small town, some days we meet for lunch, but we have a trip to Florida planned in September, so trying to shed a few pounds means a turkey sandwich, Baked Lays and an apple for me. I spend my lunch hour visiting with co-workers and catching up on my latest read.

About this time back on the ranch, Tressie’s Grandpa is coming in for lunch. Tressie loves her Grandpa! After lunch, Tressie and Grandma head outside to go for a wagon ride. T loves to be outside. We gave her this wagon for Christmas and it's been one of our best purchases yet. The little lady is a busy body, but she actually loves to ride in her wagon!



3:00 p.m. – I’m beginning to get anxious for the end of the day (and reaching for a Diet Coke to help me get there) and Tressie is going down for her afternoon nap.

5:00 p.m. – Tressie is up from her nap and enjoying her favorite snack, yogurt. My Dad rides his horse by the house to tell my Mom he is headed out to the pasture to check cows. Tressie sees Grandpa and Moe, and begs for a quick ride on Moe.



Justin and I have made it through another day of work and are on the road again. On the ride home, I check facebook and visit with Justin about his day.

When Grandpa gets in from checking cows, Tressie gets to see a new baby calf!


6:00 p.m. – My favorite time of the day, our little lady eagerly greets us at the front door! Two or three nights a week my Mom invites us to stay for dinner. Tonight we’re having pork tenderloin with them. (Have you caught on to the fact that I’m able to be a working Mama and commute 2 hours each day because of my Mom!) Tressie loves food and eats whatever we’re eating for lunch and dinner. She hasn’t turned anything down yet!

7:00 p.m. – Anxious to enjoy the nice evening, we head outside to play with our Goldens, Lucy and Lacy. They love Tressie and she loves them!



7:45 p.m. – We head in for bath-time and to wind down for the evening. Tressie loves her baths, it’s getting out of them and putting her pjs on that she doesn’t love so much! We have a pretty laid back evening routine (and I use the word routine loosely!). Tressie’s mood dictates her bedtime. Most nights she likes to stay up late and hang out with us. That is fine with us, it gives us a chance to spend time with our little lady. Tonight she starts getting fussy around 9:00 p.m., so I pick her up and we head back to her room, she’s protesting all the way. I lay her down and after 17 seconds of crying, she’s out for the night. We have a rock star in the sleeping department; she sleeps all night, almost every night!

9:10 p.m. – Between several loads of laundry, Justin and I catch up on our DVR recordings, tonight it’s the season finale of Grey’s and an episode of Body of Truth. I have an apron that I need to make for part of a shower gift, so I work on cutting it out while we watch TV.


10:45 p.m. – I check e-mail, facebook and blogger one last time before heading to bed.

11:00 p.m. – I’m asleep within 30 seconds of crawling into bed!

Questions:
What is the most surprising thing about being a mom?
How naturally everything came. I had never really spent much time around babies (especially newborns), so I was nervous about knowing what little Tressie would need, but like every one told me it would, my Mama instincts kicked in, so between that and help from my Mom, we were just fine!

What are some tips or advice you would give to new or soon-to-be mamas?
Do what works for you and your baby. For some, that’s a firm schedule, for us, it’s going with the flow. We’re on the road lots, especially in the summer, to and from ranch rodeos and county fairs, etc. So when Tressie was a baby, when she cried and was hungry, we fed her, when she got fussy and sleepy, we put her down for a nap. Today, we have a very flexible toddler who goes great!

What are your top three baby products?
HALO Sleepsacks
Tressie quickly grew out of liking to be swaddled. I still wanted her to be warm at night, but didn’t feel comfortable giving her a blanket, so she’s been wearing a sleepsack to bed since she was itty bitty.

Fisher-Price SpaceSaver High Chair
We have a nice Chico high chair that we keep at my Mom and Dad’s, because let’s face it, Tressie probably eats more meals there. But we obviously needed a high chair for our house too, so we ordered the SpaceSaver, and I love it! It’s easy to transport, so it always goes with us when we’re headed to someone’s house for dinner. It makes being dinner guests so much more relaxing!

Joovy Playard
This playpen is awesome…it is HUGE! We don’t use it much, but when I need to do something and need to confine the little lady for a few minutes, she actually doesn’t mind spending some time in this.

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Thank you, Emily, for sharing your day with us!

1 comment:

Emily said...

Thanks again Ashley for inviting us to share our day on your great blog!