Blergh, in 2014

Life has been adventurous, stressful and just plain exhausting. Last weekend (11th-13th) we went spent our time in the desert sunning ourselves and taking in the Coachella Valley Music & Art Festival. It was our first parent-getaway that was for pleasure only, with no work involved. It was spectacular. The days consisted of sleeping in, relaxing by the pool, enjoying beverages and generally lazing about. The nights involved back-to-back concerts featuring some of our favorite musicians.

I think my favorites were:

• Girl Talk
• Beck
• Sleigh Bells
• Lorde
• Pharell (with special guests Nelly, Snoop, Gwen Stefani, etc.)

We also saw and enjoyed:

• Arcade Fire
• Lana del Rey
• Muse
• MGMT
• Broken Bells
• Little Dragon
• Ellie Goulding

And we caught a bit of:

• Captial Cities
• Foster the People
• Queens of the Stone Age

All were very good. Oh, and Outkast, but we didn't stay long for that one.

All-in-all it was a great weekend but it was EXHAUSTING. I needed a break from my break but we jumped right back into life.

Work is... going. It's ebbing and flowing and generally work is good. But I've gotten myself into a financial whirlwind and it's spinning a bit out of control. I'm making adjustments to create a more stable situation for us, but it's SUPER stressful and it feels like I'm clawing my way through molasses. I think it will be fine, eventually, but I think it's going to be a tricky ride to get through it all.

In the fun news category, our friends from MN are flying in this weekend and we're going to Lebowski Fest on Friday night. It should be very silly and very fun. They are here through the weekend, so it will be great to catch up with them and enjoy some adult time sprinkled in.

Speaking of adult time, our silly boy went and got himself infected with "hand, foot and mouth" disease via his daycare. SO ANNOYING. He's actually got a really, really mild case THANK GOD, but we had to keep him home from the park, gym, daycare etc. for the past few days and we're all getting REALLY stir crazy. We called our doctor tonight to see when/if he could resume normal activities, and based on our description of him today, he almost wrote a note without seeing him to allow him back in to school. However, he felt WAY better about writing the note if he could see him, so we'll be dragging JRB across town tomorrow to hopefully get approval to get back to real life instead of this weird limbo purgatory situation we're in right now. This boy thrives on his human interactions, and it's only been two days since we've been out and about and already he's going cuckoo for cocoa puffs.

Also, we had to 'cancel' Easter this year. So sad.

Anyway, I will say THANK YOU to the universe for the 'mild' case of this virus, as I hear the alternate version is a real doozy. SO THANKS!!

Anyway, I have to go dwell in my financial misery until a bolt of inspiration hits me. But first: some new 'things' Joaquin is up to...

• says "out-side" incessantly. No, seriously, he NEVER STOPS
• obsessed with frozen kefir, which I think is a good thing?
• was obsessed with macaroni and cheese for two weeks, but now we've somehow convinced him that greek yogurt with kale & spinach is the BEST THING EVER (so great)
• newly obsessed with "Animal" from the muppets since his Papa bought him a stuffed version. His version of "Animal" sounds a lot like "Elmo" which causes a lot of confusion.
• loves to make mama and papa "sit" on things. I feel like we're his trained animals. "mama, sit" and points to his little chair at his little table. "Um, ok!"
• we found a turtle pond at our favorite mall. Super random and super awesome since "tur-tle" is one of his favorite things to say.
• favorite color is: "poi-pul" (loves to say this almost as much as "OUT-side?") 2nd favorite is "bwoo"
• Can count - but only the #2.

More, but tired. Time to contemplate my financial shortfalls.