The Miles Rausch Family Website

As I end my last week on maternity leave, I’d like to share just a few things I’ve learned so far as a new mom:

• A smile from my baby can literally turn my mood around. Sometimes, even the opposite of smiling can.
• Not all babies take a pacifier.
• Everyone warns about labor but no one talks about recovery.
• His little noises and finger-holding during feedings will be my favorite memories of these first few weeks.
• Babies get toe jam. Somehow.
• Thankful that I’m not doing this alone.
• Vacuuming can (and will) be put on hold. For weeks.
• My baby sleeping on my shoulder is one of the best feelings in the world.
• I worry about if my son will be teased in school, or worse, will be the teaser.
• Vomit, pee and feces ain’t no thang.

More photos can be found on my Flickr page or Miles’s Flickr page. More video can be found at our YouTube channel.

We got money for Christmas from several individuals – all put together, with Miles’s bonus, we had a pretty good amount. We wrote down a list of various ways we’d like to use it. Some would take up all of it, others only part.

This “wish” list included:

• MacBook (or MacBook Pro) to replace Miles’s current MacBook, purchased in 2006, which does need replacing sometime.
• Maternity clothes for Holli (we’d get clothes anyway, but it was still on the list).
• Paying off Miles’s car (we’re pretty close to paying it off, and my car will need to be replaced within the next year or so).
• New video camera (a small one that will be quick and easy to film moments with the baby – currently in the running: Flip Mino HD, Kodak Zi8, iPod Nano).
• Droid (or maybe the Nexus?) for Miles (his cell is pushing four years old).
• Plane tickets to Ohio (to visit Bryce and Lindsey).
• Put all of it in savings (since we’ll have major expenses coming up in a few short months).

After making this list, we found that some of these might not work out – paying off Miles’s car would take up a little over half the amount, I’ve got only a few more weeks to be able to travel via airplane (and motion sickness has been a big issue) and I need to save all my vacation days for maternity, and just decided to hold off on a new laptop. We gave me a budget for maternity clothes, and I only went $0.65 over that. I got one cardigan, two camisoles, 8 shirts/blouses, and one pair of brown dress pants (the only color I still needed). Yippy!

Since the money was given to us as a Christmas gift, we know those persons want us to spend at least some of it on fun things for ourselves. Our first plan was to save 2/3 of it and with the other third we would spend it on a video camera and split the remainder between us to spend how we want. With this plan, I would have gotten chairs for our dining table. We currently use card table folding chairs. Gag me. The problem lies in that the table will be hard to find chairs for (it was Miles’s grandparents and his mom stained it and gave it to us) and I’ll want to get six. Ultimately, we decided against the two-thirds/one-third plan as we aren’t ready to make a video camera decision and we’ll just need to consciously save up for dining table chairs. As for matching (or possibly strategically mismatching?), I’ll just need to go into a store with one of the leaves from the table I think.

So we put it all in savings and decided that right away, we both could take $100 of it to spend however we want. We’ll still possibly get some of the things on the list eventually, like the video camera and cell phone (and we already got me maternity clothes) but for now it’s going to stay in savings. Miles is still working on his $100 wish list, but I’ve already spent mine.

• $20 – Purse from Gordman’s with a coupon. Something on my Christmas list that I didn’t get and would have had to pick out myself anyway.
• $30 – Rugs from Target so my favorite rug at our entrance doesn’t get destroyed by winter and to warm up the upstairs living area. The hard wood floors make it very chilly.
• $35 – Electric griddle from Amazon, something on my Christmas list that I didn’t get. I love to cook for us and friends, but sometimes I just want to do it all in one shot.
• $10 – Dry-erase calendar board from Amazon, also something on my Christmas list that I didn’t get but I think I’ll like.
• And with the remainder of my $100, I got a special hot chocolate from Caribou.

Most of you looking at my list probably think it’s a little lame. But it’s totally me. Yes, the lame part. The things I want are almost always practical things. (i.e. dining room chairs, maternity clothes, etc.) All the fun things on the first list above came from Miles. (You can bet I’m the one who put “Pay off Miles’s car” on that list.) His list will be more interesting, and will include PS3 games and Blu-ray movies, when he decides what he’s going to get. But I’m excited about what I got and the deals I got for them.

But why am I defending myself to you? It’s my blog, anyway!

We miss you.

My goal was to lose 50 pounds by June 19. Today is June 15, and I’m happy to report that I’ve lost 50 pounds! And then some. 51.2 pounds to be exact. I’m really proud of myself and feel good about where I’m at right now. I’d like to be about 15 pounds lighter still, but in due time. And according to my BMI, I’m no longer obese. Just overweight. I never believed much in BMI anyway.

Right now I am wearing a size 12 dress pant. It’s a little loose, but I didn’t dare try on a 10. I think I’m probably more like an 11 right now, but of course those don’t really exist. And it really depends on the brand. Some of my 14 pants would be too tight if they were 12s. Fashion’s weird like that. Before, I was getting too big for my size 18 clothes. I would have had to start shopping at new stores if I had gotten bigger, because normal stores don’t carry size 20. And I didn’t want to be a size 20. My very first goal was to lose 50 pounds by Christmas 09. I had an exception to that goal that it would still be met if I was a size 10 by Christmas but not 50 pounds lighter. I wanted to cover my bases in case I got smaller in inches, but not lighter in pounds. Almost have met both goals.

I was afraid I wouldn’t make it by today (though my goal was the 19th, I weigh myself on Mondays, so secretly I wanted to make it by the 15th). I was at 48 pounds last week, and had gained a couple weeks before that (the result of eating too many peanut M&Ms at Marissa’s graduation party without knowing the serving size or calorie amount. Yowza!) So I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to lose 2 pounds in time. Especially since we ate out more times this week than we eat out in a month. But I was somehow able to make it work in my caloric budget. I’ve got a good routine now of waking up at 6:30 to exercise for 25-45 minutes while Miles is sleeping and showering. Then I get ready. I don’t go in to work at the City until 10, but sometimes I work in the morning at one of my other jobs.

Which reminds me, I haven’t told you about that really. I’m working for Scott Meyer Photography. Sound familiar? He took our wedding photos! I’m his first employee, outside his immediate family, so it’s new territory for both of us. I’ve been doing graphic design, marketing, sales, assisting on a photo shoot, and general errands around town so far. It sounds like in a few weeks I’ll be photographing an event downtown for him, too. It’s exciting stuff and I love what I’m doing there and hope this can stick. Once I’m done at the City, I’ll be working more like 30 hours/week for him. So far I’ve been working from home on design stuff, or in the studio being trained.

I’m also working about 8 hours/week at Macy’s. Actually, it’s for Pea in the Pod, which leases a department with Macy’s. It’s nice because I get a sweet Pea in the Pod discount (which I don’t need yet, but some day might) and a sweet Macy’s discount. We also carry Motherhood Maternity, which is more of my price range (Old Navy, Gap, etc. comparison of clothing) but still a little spendy. Pea in the Pod, even on clearance, is pricey (high fashion, downtown boutique, etc. comparison of clothing). But a few nice pieces here and there are always good additions to any wardrobe! Last week I worked 12 hours, this week will be 16 (my manager is on vacation), but from then on it will be about 8 hours. There’s only two of us to staff that department, myself and my manager, but because it’s in Macy’s, if one of us isn’t there, they cover it. If it were a freestanding store, someone would obviously need to staff it during all open hours.

So, I’m working three jobs. It wasn’t intended to be that way. I had already interviewed with Pea in the Pod and contacted Scott Meyer Photography before my employment with the City was extended. I’ll be down to two in just a couple weeks. Somehow, we’re supposed to pack up the apartment during this time because we’re moving in three weeks! And I’m a little controlling when it comes to some things, so I don’t want to leave it all up to my dear husband. But he can pack up his books by himself. I might be too tempted to chuck ‘em.

And this post wasn’t meant to be this long in the beginning. But I started talking about things that I realized I haven’t told people. So now you’re told. Fifty pounds lighter, two jobs heavier.

Last weekend, my sister graduated from High School. Pictures are here. (You should know she’s wearing super tall heels in the above picture.)

This weekend, we had our second LOST party, rewatching season five. Pictures are here.

Both weekends included a lot of over-eating and taking in too much sugar. Need to kick it into gear to make my June 19 goal.