Those Crazy Schuberts

SO …. In addition to my ‘day job’ (that takes up 52.5 hours/week including commute) …. I ALSO have taken on a very (very) parttime job.

You may have seen this on Facebook already – but I am the Studio Manager for Maggie Keegan Gross Photography!!

My first official day was Jan 15 … and since then I work about 5 hours each week.

Duties include customer service-type work (like scheduling appointments, taking payments, etc), some marketing work (like writing blurbs for her newsletter or researching getting published) and assisting on photo shoots (like carrying 2 dining room chairs in and out of Placerita Canyon State Park).

It’s fun and it’s interesting, and it’s the kind of job I am actually really good at.

Plus I get to work with/for Maggie, who I’ve known for YEARS.

I get to do most of the work from home, in whatever hours I have.

And I get free headshots

So, you know. Forgive the sparse posting here in the last few months. I’ve been BUSY!

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Andrew’s brother Daniel was in town for a week. … and during that time ALL the Schuberts were able to get together Saturday night.

Just for laughs, and dinner, and hanging out

And photos, of course ….

Joey’s teething:

And *kind of* walking

Fun fun

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Daniel has lived in Chicago since January 2011 … and has only been able to come home to visit a couple times. And NEVER since Joey was born!

Bad uncle.

But he came home in January (2013) for a week!

Andrew was so happy

I mean all of the family was happy, but Andrew and Daniel have a special bond

Brother-uncles.

Daniel was in town for about a week and stayed at our house most of that time. A couple mornings he was barely awake by the time I left for work at 1:30p

And one other morning he started doing yardwork in our backyard. Because it was a “nice day”

Weirdo.

On the Sunday D was in town, he and Andrew went hiking with Jenae and several of their friends…

Again with the “nice day”

Mostly, Andrew just was goofily happy all week … until Daniel left.

DANIEL: Come back from Chicago so Andrew can be happy again!!

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Photo of the week: Adorable backyard of one of Maggie‘s clients

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So I learned over the weekend that my library only allows you to request up to 50 books.

Huh.

I’m addicted to books…. I get the same little rush/thrill out of requesting/checking out/reading (library) books that other people get from buying clothes or furniture or something. I’m on track to read 100 books this year (approximately). I make sure I find time to read for at least 20 minutes a day to keep my sanity.

I also have this thing where I want to know everything. Truly. I want to be the smartest person you know …. Working on that by reading a little bit of everything …. from crime novels to U.S. History to marketing to nutrition to the classics and on and on.

The other day I was discussing with a co-worker how I decide what to read next…. I’ve developed this little “system” over the last few months and I LOVE it…

STEP ONE:

Spend a ridiculous amount of time browsing Goodreads recommendations and add about a million TO READ books to your list.

Currently I have almost 700 books on my to-read list….. This is a combination of browsing Goodreads and adding specific books I hear about on blog posts or podcasts or from friends.

STEP TWO:

Sort your TO READ list by highest average rating.

Obviously there are some outliers…. In the screenshot below, I bet The Birth of NASA only has 1 review and that’s why it’s 5 stars, but in general I find this to be a decent guide.

STEP THREE:

Scroll through your TO READ list and pick out 3 or 8 or 14 books that you want to read next.

(Note: Because I’m reading U.S. History in roughly (roughly) chronological order, I skip over all of the after-1830 U.S. History books at the top of the list)

STEP FOUR:

Add those selected books into your requests list at the library.

STEP FIVE:

Most important! Our library allows you to request books for the future. ….

So when I put in a request I (almost always) choose a date sometime the future. Mostly randomly.

For example, I read a Gore Vidal book, decided I liked it and went and added a bunch more of his books. I spaced them out randomly for dates in May, June, August and October.

library1

STEP SIX:

Wait for the library to let you know your books are available.

Since I am *mostly* choosing random dates weeks or months in the future AND sometimes I have to wait on a list in addition to that future date, it’s almost always a surprise to see what book/books are available for me to pick up at any given time.

Our library emails when books are available, so I never have to log on to check if I don’t want to.

ALSO: I have this thing where I don’t like to renew books. It’s a point of pride to be able to read each book in the 3 weeks I get it the first time.

*One exception to this method: When I’m REALLY busy, I do log in and move the dates back for some books if I know I won’t have time to read the book when it’s available to be checked out.

How do you decide what to read next?

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SUPER exciting …. Andrew and I both had New Year’s Day off.

Between his crazy work schedule and my vacation black-out dates, we don’t get hardly any days off together.

In fact, in the 10+ years we’ve been together, we’ve only started to get weekends off together in the last couple months. True story. Finally makes me feel like a grown-up.

Anyway …. New Year’s Eve I worked til 8p, and we didn’t really do much that night. Saving it all for New Year’s Day! A WHOLE DAY off together ….

This is what we did …..

Andrew laid on the couch all day with kleenex and throat lozenges within reach.

Poor thing.

The girls played with this new “toy” – a little string tied to the landing. I read and watched movies and worked on the computer.

And Andrew just stayed under the covers and slept.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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Christmas Day!!

I’m so glad we did our Christmas at home – our first year in this house and our first year with the girls. I mean. Cats. I love my cats. What?

We had a slow morning…. My parents left around noon to drive back home, so before then we just relaxed.

Both Andrew and I actually went back to bed for little naps at various times throughout the morning. Christmas nap!

We had plans to go over to Andrew’s parents’ house in the afternoon – and a Schubert family tradition is Mexican food on Christmas day!

I contributed my (fantastic) chicken enchilada dish, so spent the later Christmas morning putting together enchiladas…

We headed over the the Schuberts’ house across town in the early afternoon – timed about the time that Joe and Kaitlin came up.

NEPHEW!!! Joey’s first Christmas!

love him.

Such a cutie…

We ALSO did no-gifts-just-stocking-stuffers with Andrew’s family. Except for Joey, of course.

We just slowly opened gifts throughout the afternoon, played with Joey, ate Mexican food.

SUPER relaxing.

Kaitlin and Joe made Andrew this clock using one of the records he put out – it’s currently hanging in our guest room.

Lazy Christmas.

LOVED it.

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In honor of my BIRTHDAY!!!

Loving: The way Andrew talks to the cats. His voice gets all high and lovey like he’s talking to little girls. He is just ENAMORED with the cats and it cracks me up. Especially because they’ve been getting more vocal lately and we have “conversations” with them He bought them leashes so they could hang out in the backyard with him while he weeds and stuff.

Reading: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl – recently made into a movie (with Emma Thompson, Jeremy Irons and Viola Davis among others). Just finished reading Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. LOVE Gillian Flynn. I want to buy and re-read all her books.

Watching: Game of Thrones season 2 – we get the final disc from Netflix today! I hate that HBO won’t put their shows on Netflix live streaming.

Creating: A big big big blogging ecourse. Project Life pages. Scotland Blurb book. A personalized Team Schubert cookbook (using these). Trip itinerary for this summer. I always have a ton of projects in the works

Thinking about: The big big big blogging ecourse I’m building for L&R. I think about it constantly. I know the structure and 99% of the content, but I keep thinking of stuff to add and do and re-write and all. I think about it in the shower. I think about it while I’m driving.

Surprised by: How close I am to being able to quit the day job. For so long it was a ‘someday’ goal …. but it’s starting to feel really really real. Andrew is 100% on board (even though our income is going to drop significantly). I actually have very little left to do before I can quit. I actually know how many days of work I have left (at the most, possibly less). I can’t believe how close this is!!

Making me sad: Disappointed in myself for falling off the I Quit Sugar bandwagon. I won’t tell you how much weight I’ve gained back. It’s just because ice cream is my vice (see photo above). I KNOW that I feel better when I stick to protein+veggies, but ice cream is soooo good. So today is the last day of sugar (again). I bought the print version of the I Quit Sugar books. I already own the pdfs, but I want to A) spend the money that will keep me accountable AND B) having that physical book sitting on my counter will remind me over and over. I think I’ll be able to do SO MUCH better once I’m no longer working at the day job. There is always some kind of junk food sitting around in the office. And then I’m just sitting in my cubicle hour after hour and I eat because I’m bored. Looking forward to recommitting to eating healthy.

Making me happy: The SoCal weather – warm enough for skirts and open windows at night. Salads every day. I bought a dozen red bell peppers from Costco and we ate them in a week. Our house. LOVE it. Needs a lot of work but I still love it. The library (I need to do a post about how I request books). Traveling (planning trips for this summer).

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Post structure inspired by Danielle

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Christmas EVE!!

Reminder for those of you who realize it’s the END OF MARCH, Christmas was on a Tuesday in 2012, so Christmas Eve was on a Monday, and my parents and brother came into town the Saturday and Sunday before that.

First Christmas at our new house!

I don’t always get Christmas Eve off work, but I just happened to this year. Andrew had to go in for a few hours, but not all day.

Turns out he LIED TO MY FACE and did NOT go to work.

Instead he went over to his mom’s house to borrow some of her craft supplies and make me a Christmas gift.

He always does this. We decide NO GIFTS for birthdays/Christmas so we can save our money for vacations and furniture and things …. and then he goes and comes up with this fantastic surprise.

Love him.

PLUS – Andrew even took photos so I had some for Project Life.

SERIOUSLY THE BEST HUSBAND.

And wait til you see the gift

Kevin had to finish some of his Christmas shopping, so went out for a couple hours in the afternoon – Muppet was excited to see him when he got home

Also Monday afternoon while Andrew was “at work” my dad got out his guitar and harmonica to practice a song he was playing in the next week….. and the cats just thought it was the strangest sound.

Yes, we have music on all the time here, but a record and a live harmonica are 2 very different things.

They relaxed a little bit around the strangers – now that they had been here 3 days.

The girls also spent a lot of time destroying their rat.

Kevin gave it to them on Saturday afternoon and by Sunday they had chewed off the face, and half of the tail and one of the ears.

Andrew got home in the early evening and we did “Christmas morning”!!

Even though we had all decided NO GIFTS – just stocking stuffers – it obviously did not work out that way….

This was my Christmas gift from Andrew …. He had FOUND 2 wooden cat ornaments and painted them to look like OUR cats!

haha!

AND – just like Khaleesi and Fang – one of the ornaments was smaller with a squat neck (K) and the other was slightly larger (F).

I love love them Andrew is the best.

As per tradition …. Kevin wrote ridiculous “From” labels. Always trying to be clever, that one. It’s funny to try to guess what is in the package just from the From

The girls were left out of the festivities. They weren’t brave enough to come down, so they hung out on the landing watching everything…. SO funny

We did give them a little catnip for Christmas, though. Fang was a little manic and tried to grab this container with both paws.

Later Monday night – Hann family tradition of Shanghai (love that card game)

Merry Christmas!

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The Sunday before Christmas my house was even MORE full of family….

I basically spent most of the morning cooking, and then worked on the computer the rest of the day (until cooking again at dinner).

Aside from my parents and brother and Andrew, we also had Ted and Kristi, Courtney and Trace, Spencer and Sara and Lucas over for brunch on Sunday morning (Grandma stayed home so she wouldn’t catch Kevin’s cold). How many people is that? 12?

Turns out I don’t own 12 forks….. so that was fun

My mom (and Andrew) helped prep brunch, and once the food was all done, it was actually a pretty relaxing morning with everyone just hanging out.

Well, for us. Khaleesi wouldn’t come down stairs and Fang was being super brave:

I got muffins and danishes from Costco, put out stuff for toast, oranges, grapes, chicken sausages and roasted bell peppers stuffed with (homemade) mashed potatoes with all kinds of yummy toppings.

SERIOUSLY delicious, if I do say so myself.

There’s no way we could all eat together, but there were seats throughout our bottom floor to fit everyone.

Fang was cracking me up. She would come down and watch Muppet, as long as Muppet stayed mostly still. As soon as Muppet spotted her and tried to play, Fang would get spooked and run upstairs again.

Of course, Muppet thought Fang wanted to ~~play~~ be chased, so that always worked out

Ted had to go to work around 1p and Courtney, Trace and Lucas left not long after that, but Spencer and Sara stayed through the day and played cards….

Kevin taught them poker…

The girls spent a lot of time on this landing …. just watching what everyone was doing since it was far too scary to come all the way down to where the dog was.

Eventually they moved on to the classic Hann-family game: Shang-hai. My dad and I just read/worked on our computers the bulk of the day…. A lovely relaxing Sunday (my favorite kind)

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Aaaand …. we’re back!

Maybe not entirely – I’m still way behind on a BUNCH of stuff – but let’s start the Christmas posts now.

Since moving into Schubert HQ early in 2012, Andrew and I decided we wanted to spend our first Christmas in our house, actually IN OUR HOUSE and not go anywhere. PLUS I had to work on the day after Christmas and Andrew had to work the Saturday before, so it would have been a very short trip anyway.

So my family decided to come to us. My parents drove out the Friday night before (got in late) and met Fang and Khaleesi for the first time. The girls were wary but not totally reticent…..

Until Kevin got there with his dog Muppet.

Muppet is very sweet and very mellow, but the cats didn’t know that.

They arrived (from Colorado) around 3a. Khaleesi was near the stairs when they walked in and she just bolted when she saw Muppet. Fang was near the back door so more or less got cornered.

Not that Muppet paid any attention to her whatsoever, but Fang didn’t have anywhere to run if she wanted to.

She happened to be playing in a box when Muppet came in, so she was at least afforded that little protection.

Since it was so so late, Kevin just went to bed (Muppet slept with him in the guest room) and the cats both went upstairs with Andrew and I …. Deal with whatever that big shaggy thing was in the morning, I guess.

In anticipation of Kevin staying here with Muppet for several days, we moved the cats’ food bowls upstairs and early Saturday morning Andrew went and got a baby gate to put at the bottom of the stairs.

This way, at least, the girls could stay upstairs and feel safe away from the dog if they wanted…. but they could also easily go through the bars of the stair rails and come downstairs if they wanted.

I don’t know if Khaleesi even left our bedroom. She was petrified of the dog.

Everyone woke up, ate, relaxed, and Kevin had not yet met the cats…..

He got them this HUGE stuffed rat that actually has a pocket to put catnip inside it… So we all went upstairs to watch him give them their Christmas present.

But, of course, having strangers up there scared them too, so they both stayed under the bed until everyone left …. Once the cats felt more comfortable, I got some fun shots of them checking out their new toy:

The rest of Saturday was pretty low-key.

Andrew got home from work… Grandma came over (she was staying with Ted and Kristi) and Spencer stopped by as well.

Khaleesi was a baby, but Fang was brave enough to come down and check things out.

I hadn’t really made any plans for everyone except dinner.

Brussel Sprouts with bacon, quinoa with butter and green onion, and pork roast….

I think it turned out pretty well…

super sweet dog…

After dinner, Andrew was really hoping Khaleesi would be more social (we hadn’t seen her all day), so he tried to calm her down by making her smell catnip….. It didn’t really work

Grandma went back to Ted and Kristi’s after dinner, but Spencer (and then Sara) stayed to hang out and play Mario Kart.

I love that my dad plays video games with everyone

I went to bed relatively early on this Saturday night …. since I was going to be making brunch for something like 17 people the next morning.

But that’s a future post…

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