Mike & Jenny

Amalia (lia) Bailey Olson was born on Nov. 23, 2009 at home. She weighed in at 9lbs 2oz and was 22-1/4" long. (pronounced Ah-mah-Lee-ah not Ah-mall-ya)

Photography and slide show by betsy Rudicil of Rudicil Photography http://www.rudicilphotography.com/

It has been ages since Mike or I have taken time to update this blog. A couple of times Mike mentioned killing the blog, but I am not ready to do that. We just need to get back in the habit again and take the time to sit down and put our lives in some sort of perspective. I know that my mindset has really been changing now that I have the luxury of time and energy to start thinking and learning about things that have intrigued me for a while. I am getting involved with a couple of moms groups that are allowing me to really dive in and figure out how I best want to raise the kids and the lessons in life I want them to learn. I have been questioning a lot of things lately and trying to figure out ways to help make our family unit stronger. I have also been making it a priority to develop friendships and a support network that I have never really had. It's a journey that scares the heck out of me since it is something I have always struggled with. I have been fortunate in the past to know some incredible people, but have always had a fear of being close to them for various reasons. I've come to the realization that family and friends are what enrich your life. Without it is emptiness.

Life has changed for us since we left Wisconsin and I think we are starting to feel like we are home here in Iowa. It has been an adjustment with all of us having our own struggles, but I think all of us agree that it has been a good move overall. Ashlynn might disagree from time to time as she misses many of her friends back in WI as the rest of us do. The kids have settled in well here and have a good network of friends, especially Alec who had many difficulties with his own peers in the past. The school year (homework wise) was a challenge, but now that summer is here and they are visiting their dad in Texas I am trying to analyze the heck out of things to gear up for the next year. Both of the older kids will be in middle school!

Mike's job is going well and he continues to be busy which we try to remind ourselves is a good thing with the economic uncertainty. He is being challenged professionally, both good and bad, but from my perspective appears to be handling it quite well. From what he tells me, it leads me to believe that he has a great opportunity to help strengthen the weaknesses he has identified in his new job with things he learned that worked well in his old job. He is also being allowed to gain experience in areas not available to him in his prior job, sometimes with a good deal of frustration. Speaking as a former co-worker and not just as his wife, Mike is good at what he does and always puts in his best effort to do his job to the best of his ability. He also has an amazing ability to not recognize that and can be his own worse critic....but I think sometimes we have to do that so we stay grounded and continue to strive to better ourselves and our work. I think that people he works with now see that in him and view it as an asset. I'm proud of him and appreciate everything that he does for us. (I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't balk at this paragraph and/or erase it completely)

Kjersten is growing up fast and quite the talker. She amazes me with the things that come out of her mouth and seems to be 2 going on 8. She loves her brother and sister and the dynamics between the three of them are really neat to observe. She can hold her own with them and they all seem to love each other. Right now, Ashlynn and Kjersten are two peas in a pod and Alec is somewhat the odd man out. It changes from time to time, as only a few months ago Kjersten was all about Alec. In November, we will be welcoming another little one into our lives and we look forward to that.

No, we didn't fall off the face of the earth or get lost in the move. I have to say that the move and closings on both of the houses went well despite our nervousness with all of the financial crisis that hit over the last few months. I didn't really breathe a sigh of relief on the Wisconsin house until our realtor and friend, Dave, called to say that the closing had occurred. You never know.

It's hard to believe that we've been in our house now for two months and I'm still employed as the household domestic engineer. Some days I wonder if I should be fired and sent back into the workforce, but I guess Mike thinks I'm doing a fair job being home. Keeping the house clean with three kids, a dog and a cat in near constant presence is nearly impossible and I can see that trying to keep the house up to pristine cleanliness could lead to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I've discovered that it's a little harder than I had anticipated and requires much more assertiveness and initiative than I would have guessed.

We have settled into our new home for the most part and are trying to get settled in to a routine. Entertaining Kjersten throughout the day, every day, has been a challenge for me too. We usually visit the library once a week and go to the YMCA atleast 2-3 days a week. Ashlynn and Alec are enjoying their new schools and making friends though I'd like to see them hanging out with their friends a little more than they do. I try to remind myself that I should be glad that I know where they are and what they are doing.

I'll be glad when spring gets here so we can go to the parks, play in the yard and work in the garden. Our vegetable garden was a great source of joy for Kjersten as she always found a tasty snack to enjoy and plenty of bugs to watch in the flower beds. We'll miss our established gardens in Wisconsin, but are looking forward to sowing our new ones. I'm also happy to have the expert assistance of Mike's parents as I know very little about growing plants.

That's how long I have been here at AEI and today is my last day. It's bittersweet as I am excited about the changes to come with being home with the kids and to start the next chapter of my life. However, my heart is heavy to leave my job. Even though it has been very stressful at times over the years, it has largely been a wonderful and empowering experience for me. I've worked on a number of exciting projects, worked with incredibly talented people and traveled to places all over the US that I might not have gone to otherwise. It's hard to give all of that up and I do so with a very heavy heart. Change is exciting, but it is hard too. For the last hour or so, my emotions have been building to the point where I just feel like I am about to explode.

So while I am likely to cry my eyes out today, I know I gotta pull up my big girl pants and get over it. While I leave something behind, I have much to gain that I have yet to discover. A good attitude and tons of positive optimism can go far under the most uncertain of circumstances. I'll be glad to get this move behind us and start getting settled into our new home. We have all missed Mike since he has been in Iowa for the last three weeks and we look forward to being together again. I'm sure the next three weeks will likely pass quickly, but right now it seems so far away.

So the next time I post, I'll likely be well settled into my new domestic engineering position at the new casa de la Olson.

If anyone still bothers to view our blog, we applaud you, since we have been lousy at updating it. There is a good reason for that though, trust us. We have been a little busy lately trying to sell our house.....that's right, we are moving to Iowa! Why in the world would anyone move from Wisconsin to Iowa?

Mike interviewed for and accepted a new job in Des Moines, Iowa, in July. So during the month of August, we have been busting our behinds preparing to put our house on the market. Our first Open House was on August 10th, and after a short 2-1/2 weeks, we accepted the second offer on our house on August 27th! We also made a trip to Iowa to look for houses, and we found one we liked in Ankeny, IA, which is between Des Moines and Mike's parents in Ames. We decided to put an offer on the house before we sold our house in Wisconsin, but the stars in heaven aligned for us, and our offer was also accepted on the same day, August 27th! We will not be able to close on either house until the end of October, so Mike will start the new job (doing the same thing) on September 15th and commute from Ames for about 6 weeks until Jenny and the kids are able to move.

WOW, it has been a crazy past few months for us! The first reason for this life changing event, is because we decided that it was time to live closer to family and actually have a support system close by. We love it here in Wisconsin, but not having family close by is getting harder and harder by the day. The second reason is that we decided that the kids needed full-time attention, and with both of us working, that was impossible. So, with this move, Jenny will be a full-time "domestic engineer", and take care of all things important in our lives. We hope these changes will bring peace to the family and hopefully less stress. We know that there will be new challenges and issues we probably have not encountered before, but we believe it is worth it.

If anyone still looks at our blog, please drop us a line when you get the chance.

Love,

Jenny, Mike, Ashlynn, Alec, and Kjersten

Check out this article on a new book to read to your kids/grandkids.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/24187476/

I find it fascinating that our culture has become so casual about plastic surgery. I don't think there is anything wrong with getting something touched up due to aging, having kids and resulting effects of gravity or to reconstruct areas due to illness, surgery or accidents. I do think some people go way overboard with it and it's sad that it seems to be sold as something that we have to do. Sure, there are a lot of people who want to be beautiful, but why does society need to put much more emphasis on the outside over what is on the inside of a person. Is a person's physical appearance that critical to their worth as a person? I don't think so.

As a mom, I worry about how this attitude is going to affect my daughters' self image and afraid that they will be careless about changing everything about themselves physically at the expense of their psychological well being. Ashlynn, at only 11 years old, is already worried about her weight and has made an occasional comment that she needs to go on a diet because her thighs are jiggley. She only weighs 67lbs and is just under 5' tall, which puts her at the 3 percentile for weight at her age. Last year, when the controversy of super thin models dying of anorexia made big news, some of her friends told her she was going to die from anorexia and she had anxiety about it. All I can do is try to talk with her about it and hope that she will find more merit in herself as a person over what society tells her she should be on the outside.

It's hard enough to be yourself and accept the person you are. Why spend the energy to be someone your not? There's nothing more attractive than someone who is genuinely secure in themselves no matter what height, weight, skin shade or other external factor they are. Most people will remember your character, not your dress size.

I recently bought a National Geographic TRAVELER magazine on a recent business trip (the main magazine article was about Paris, and the Eiffel Tower was on the cover - anyone who knows me knows that I am a sucker for the Eiffel Tower...) and there was a terrific quote that I want to share with everyone:

"If I had a choice between sending someone to travel the world and sending him/her to college, I would send him/her around the world. You will learn far more about the world by traveling, far more about your own life, what the future of this world is. More solutions to problems like global warming, poverty, and war would result if people did more traveling, because that is how you find out that others are just like you. They want peace. They want decent jobs. They want to make the world a better place for their children. Having traveled all these years, I've concluded that the citizens of the world are far more open and tolerant and hospitable than governments, overall. Most people are kind, generous, and open-hearted. They really want to welcome you. What is interesting is that the poorer the country, the more generous the people. That is one of those remarkable things in life."

I had the opportunity of a lifetime to travel to Norway when I was a student at Iowa State and have to give all the thanks in the world to my parents for allowing me the opportunity to do that. So in a sense, they gave me the chance to experience the best of both worlds.

Now that I work for a living, one of the best parts of my job (maybe THE best) is having the opportunity to travel to different projects across the country. Over the past few years, I have been able to go to New York City, Boston, Chicago, upstate New York and Lake Placid, Virginia, Rhode Island and the best place of all, Ames, Iowa! All for my job! There is always at least one interesting thing that happens on every trip, and I want to try and write a blog entry after every trip, and share what that interesting thing is. No matter what, there is always something that will stick with me forever.

I mentioned going to Virginia. I went to a Medium Voltage transformer plant in Bland (think dueling banjos), Virginia for a factory witness test. The night beforehand, I went to dinner with a few guys and their wives from the plant. I said I was from Wisconsin and we talked about the difference in weather and everything like that. It was prior to the NCAA Basketball tournament, and I was asked by one of the wives , "Who do ya'll cheer for on the West Coast?" Me: must think and respond quickly, but West Coast? Why would she ask me about the West Coast?

Once it hit me that she thought I said Washington instead of Wisconsin, I was floored and didn't know what to say. I think I said something to the effect of, "In Wisconsin, we really don't cheer for anyone on the west coast." She was awfully embarrassed, and her husband said they would have to get out the atlas when they got home, which doubled her embarrassment.

I used to get the same thing from southerners when I said I was from Iowa. In general, they are not sure you said Idaho, Ohio, or Iowa, and also because they probably do not know where those states are anyway. I think it goes to prove that this country is TOO big; there are so many different types of people, with different customs, cultures, and English dialects (much more than just accents).

Next time I will share my Indiana Jones moment from the mini-bar in my New York City hotel room...