I’ll be 100% honest with you right now, I’m not to happy with my job. It’s very demanding right now without much reward other then another project. It feels like this entire week has been “hurry up and finish” with no time to breath and the effects are starting to take their toll. I’m grumpy, I’m irritable and life just isn’t very fun from 8-5.

Now when I often bring this up with folks, they like to point out how lucky I am just to be working and making money. While I normally agree with the making money part, I don’t believe that this gives a company reason to treat employees like crap. Cutting benefits, increasing work loads, removing the “fun” from the work day and then turn around to tell me how thankful I am to be employed right now. Yeah, sorry, that crap don’t cut it. Now, me complaining about work isn’t the point of my story but I want to get across the frustration that’s coming with it. Do you feel the general loathing coming through the text? If not, I can wait a bit until you can imagine it … Good to go? Awesome.

Now, imagine all that loathing, hating and general bad feelings towards work. Take all that emotion and place yourself in a car driving home. Now that was me a few days ago. I was a bitter ball of angry just mulling over my horrible day at work, knowing full well I’d be on my way back there the next day with the same amount of crap to deal with. I was almost wanting Diane to ask how my day was so I could just unload it all on to her. It wasn’t going to be fair but I was just in a bad mood. But when I was driving, I noticed something on the side of the road. Something so amazing that it literally pulled me out of my mood and put a smile on my face. So what was so powerful? Well… Read the rest of this entry »

So I was originally going to write about the awesome black eye that my daughter got this week but I realized a few paragraphs in that it wasn’t my story to tell. While it is a very important thing to talk about I felt like I had given to many “here’s a list of things” stories lately. So to switch things up a little, I’m going to talk about something that I struggle with on a regular basis here in the Reese household, balancing baby time with creative time.

Before my daughter showed up 7 months ago, I had all the time in the world. I was able to stay up late, randomly start projects and finish them as I saw fit but as any parent can explain, that all changed when that little bundle of joy showed up. Like most people struggling with life, you have to figure out what the balance is for you and for 24 years of my life, that was a really easy thing to figure out. I only had to think of myself. Yes, I had other people in my life: girlfriends, family and friends, but they always came second and for good reason. If you think about it, it makes sense really. If you aren’t feeling well then hanging out with friends might not be the best thing. But I digress, for this article isn’t about random instances in life but a very specific subject – creativity. Read the rest of this entry »

So this week has been particularly busy and that means that my blog post is last on my list of things to do. So it would appear that I need to have this thing written and wrapped up in the next 2 hours in order to meet my deadline for this week. But my main problem is this, what do I write about? I could bore you with some more details on my daughters adventures in mobility, or that she’s starting to move onto solid foods. But I don’t really feel like it. Sorry, but sometimes the truth hurts. Being 100% honest with you guys, I kind of what to talk about me. Not me as a father but just me.

Looking around the room that I’m in, the Xbox 360 is on and we’re sitting on the home screen. Diane is surfing the net on her computer waiting for me to finish so we can do something while the little one is asleep. This week was hard (like I said before), so I have my feet up and I’m just relaxing. You know, that thing you used to do before you had a kid. Yeah, it’s funny sometimes because I don’t know what to do with myself when I have free time. I can honestly remember being so bored when it was summer vacation in high school and wanting to go to school because I had too much free time. Not anymore. But that’s the curse of being an adult, you never know what you got until you don’t got it no more (or some other proper version of English). Also, I’m going rogue so spell checking is kind of out the window. Read the rest of this entry »

Along with all the great things my daughter is discovering lately (crawling, pulling herself up, solid foods, etc), the one revelation I could do without is the overwhelming need to be with us. You see, my daughter has developed an uncontrollable need to always be with me or Mom which is a nice bump to my ego but comes with the huge disadvantage of never being able to do something alone. Now I’ve done my research, I’ve taken the time to see if this is a natural thing and the good news is, yes, this should be happening. And as any parent can attest to, doing little things like going to the bathroom, relaxing on the couch or even trying to cook a meal can get really hard when your little one won’t let you put them down. Well, don’t pull all your hair out over this issue (you’ll need it later, I swear), the following is what I’ve learned on how to cope with infant separation anxiety. Read the rest of this entry »

As the title suggests, we’ve made a huge breakthrough this week. After several weeks of trial and error, my daughter has finally figured out how to crawl! Learning wasn’t always easy with her; she tried the butt wiggle, the caterpillar, and the frog launch even though none of them worked. But no sooner have we learned to crawl then we’ve moved onto running. Yes, the little one who never sits still is now trying to pull herself up into the standing position and my house has never looked more dangerous. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome back to the Plus One Blog, a random collection of thoughts, jokes and snippets from my life. This week I’m inviting Diane back to give you an update on what’s going on with us right now. Things have been crazy to say the least, but it’s always good to take a moment to reflect on the little things. As usual, feel free to check out Diane’s blog anytime at Tocket.info. Enjoy!

As I look around my toy infested living room, I realize that I’ve neglected to post any baby stuff recently. So let’s dive right in to the amazing and awesome developments.

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Before my daughter was born we held several baby showers and received lots of great gifts. Of all the gifts, we received a large amount ”cute” baby clothes. I put “cute” in quotes because we did not ask for any clothes as we were already stocked from head to toe but that didn’t stop the onslaught of socks, onesies, and dresses. We got so much clothing that anything that didn’t resemble clothes became the most amazing gift ever. Other great gifts we got were stuffed animals, toys, books, diaper bins and strollers. So why the trip down memory lane? I was recently going through our stock pile of baby stuff and found something that was particularly interesting. My mother, as reluctant as she was towards becoming a grand mother, had gotten us something a bit different to celebrate the occasion; she got us a baby ring. Confused by the tiny object we’d received, she explained that it was more of a decorative piece, not actually meant to be warn around the finger but maybe from a chain around her neck.

Now that Munchkin is crawling on her own it’s only a matter of time before she’s all grown up and that has me thinking. When would be a good time to give this baby ring to her? And for that matter, when is a good time to introduce jewelry to her? Diane has a nice stone on her finger as well as some other pieces that she wears a lot and it’s only a matter of time before she wants to imitate mommy and have her own items. Granted, we can get her some fake ones but I’m a bit worried that they’ll break, fall apart or generally be a hazard to my daughters health so I set about looking for something that wasn’t too expensive but also consisted of quality. What I found was Molly Brown. Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks ago, my daughter got what most parents dread: her first cold. While I was at work, I got a few messages from Diane telling me of the heart break that was at home. Our happy go lucky baby kept sniffling, having trouble breathing, but was smiling through the whole experience. I guess we got lucky because she could have been cranky but I argue that it was just as bad. Our baby was so happy yet was sick, it was so sad to watch! But we made it through and everyone is healthy again but I wanted to share with you our experience and what we did to survive baby’s first sniffles. Read the rest of this entry »

This year for Christmas, my brother was a little short on cash and decided to get everyone in the family a Snuggie. Having never wanted one, Diane and I came into possession of 2. I have to admit that my brother did take the extra time and energy to somewhat personalize our Snuggies. I received one patterned with my universities logo and Diane got a lovely zebra print. Fancy, I know. When we got them we were happy because it was a thoughtful gift from my brother and that in itself was enough for us.

After my brother had left I opened mine up and ran around showing it off to family, friends and neighbors. “You look like a wizard” was the most common comment I got and in all honesty, it was true! Needless to say, Diane and I were stumped as to when we’d actually use the darn things as we had perfectly good blankets at home, waiting for us on the couch. Well my friends, I figured out what we use them for and it’s a lot more then I originally thought. Also, did I mention that I figured out why they invented the Snuggie™? Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to my mini-series entitled Dustin Vs. which follows the adventures of me, Dustin, as I go out to the cold city of Milwaukee to meet Diane’s parents, but I like to think of them as the in laws. Today I will be covering Diane’s mothers name and our wonderfully boring events around the house.

So yesterday I promised to explain how I don’t know Diane’s mothers name and I’ll start there before I go into the boredom. As it currently stands, Diane’s mother has 2 names: one for formal/distant relationships and one for those who know her. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve never met these people so I was unsure which name to use. I mean, I did father her grand child after all. Anyway, so which one am I? According to Diane, her mother would introduce herself and that would settle the whole situation. Well, I’ve been here for a few days and no one has yet to say her name! Her husband refers to her as “wife” and her daughter affectionately calls her “mommy”. Diane goes with “mom” most of the time. Read the rest of this entry »