Whew, that was a tougher week than it should have been. I think I expected everything to be perfect and wonderful because Jared started a new shift where he was supposedly going to be working half days for two weeks. Well, two half days came and went, and then the rest of the week Jared had to work long full days. This next week will be the same, plus Jared is working a 24-hr shift into Saturday, so there goes the last of our fall weekends together. To make matters worse, after our two nice half days were up, I came down with a terrible cold and Jack starting cutting three new molars. So I was sick, Jack was grumpy, and there was none of the assistance from Jared that I thought I'd have this week. I thought I'd mastered setting aside all expectations as far as medical training goes, but I still have some work to do on not getting my hopes up. At least we were able to make the most of those two half days. On one of them we spent the afternoon up in Casper Mountain, as we knew it was going to snow the next day and this would probably be our last chance.
Jack is a big fan of being spun around like this. All day long he holds his hands up for me to grab them and asks to do "Mo Bo" (motor boat). We spin around and around until I'm too dizzy and can't anymore, and then he pitches a fit because he wants to keep going. Toddlers are fun.
It does all of us a lot of good to get up there in the fresh mountain air and hike around a bit. This day we had the entire mountainside to ourselves. Jack loved flying through the leaves and throwing and jumping off rocks. It's a 30-45 minute drive to get up into Casper mountain from our house. Someday when we're buying our forever home, we want to be a 15-minute maximum from the nearest mountain. (p.s. I'm writing this post while Jack "naps" in his room. I just heard some very loud meowing coming from his crib, haha. He just learned how to meow and it's hilarious because he sounds like an actual very loud cat.)
This will probably be our Christmas card picture this year. Jared has another tough rotation coming up, and then we're gone for the rest of the year. Another reason it's been a tough week--I think it really sunk in that starting in November we'll be doing the nomad thing again for 4-5 months, and I'll be doing the single parenting thing for half of that. Ugh. It's difficult to feel settled into a place when this sort of thing happens yearly. Hopefully some good will come of it though. Jared's hoping to get to know all the family practice doctors in Evanston during that time and sign for his first post-residency job in the spring. Maybe in Wyoming, possibly in Utah, and potentially somewhere else entirely. I'll keep you updated!
Jared just finished working 6 weeks of 80-hr/wk night shifts. It was brutal for both of us. For him because all his life consisted of was working 15 hours during the evening and night, coming home to sleep all day, and then waking up and rushing to get ready for his next shift. Not to mention that every Monday brought a 24-hr shift. It was just as brutal for me. It's hard enough to feel like you're parenting without support. It's even harder when your husband is there at home all day, but you can't go to him for help or anything because you need to let him sleep all day.
During Jared's last week of nights I decided I needed to get away. Me and Jack drove to Utah to be with my family for a week and see the fall leaves. This was my first time driving so far by myself, and definitely my first time driving so far alone with a toddler in the backseat. I think it went pretty well, all things considered. Jack doesn't sleep great in the car, but I handled his tired whines just as well as I would have if Jared had been there to help out. It helped to have a box full of books, toys, snacks, and his kindle tablet loaded with baby cartoons.
The leaves were beautiful. I think this was my first time seeing Utah with its peak fall leaves since before med school. There weren't as many yellows as I remember, but lots and lots of reds. Jack and I went up to Big Springs one afternoon. It was perfect, and Jack found a little playgroup of toddlers playing tag. He couldn't resist joining in.
Jack enjoyed plenty of quality time with grandma and cousin Cole.
My must-eat food list gets shorter and shorter each time we go back to Utah. Not because there's a shortage of good food there, but because we live close enough now and visit often enough that I don't feel like I NEED to hit up all my favorites every time. This time the only two on my list were a Cubby's salad and Chubby's burger and fries. I only made it to Chubby's and wasn't in the mood for a burger, but their battered fries hit the spot. I was sad I couldn't take Jack to the Puppy Barn next door--they were closed for renovations.
Jack is a biiig fan of "Umpa" (Grandpa). He loved playing with and reading with grandpa so much. I've never seen him sit so still for so long as he did while reading bedtime stories with Grandpa Haines.
My favorite outing was our trip to Cornbellies with Mom and Dad. It was insanely crowded when we get there and the entrance fee was outrageous, so instead we enjoyed jumping off the hay bales in the parking lot and watching the animals at Thanksgiving Point on the way back to the car. This kept Jack more entertained than I think he even would have been at Cornbellies, for free! We stopped at Del Taco for dinner on the way home because they had a play place. Jack enjoyed organizing everyone's belongings in the shoe bins.
Jack loved playing in Nana's (Great-grandma Roper's) yard! We stopped by two afternoons and he loved her snacks, flowers, and swings. He got a kick out of making the swing rotate in a big circle around him without touching him.
During Jared's last week of nights I decided I needed to get away. Me and Jack drove to Utah to be with my family for a week and see the fall leaves. This was my first time driving so far by myself, and definitely my first time driving so far alone with a toddler in the backseat. I think it went pretty well, all things considered. Jack doesn't sleep great in the car, but I handled his tired whines just as well as I would have if Jared had been there to help out. It helped to have a box full of books, toys, snacks, and his kindle tablet loaded with baby cartoons.
Jack did better than ever in a shopping cart when we went to Costco. I think he liked looking around at everything and everyone. But his favorite shopping trip was probably when we went to HomeGoods with Grandma and Jack fell head-over-heels in love with this giant rubber duck he found in the toy aisle. Grandma bought it for him and he hasn't stopped snuggling it or giving it "muh"s ever since. He even sleeps with it in his crib. It's so sweet.
^^These pictures are at Big Springs, but on our last day we were able to drive the Alpine Loop. This was a good decision because the leaves were beautiful and I haven't done that drive in probably half a decade now (WOW), but a bad decision because Jack was very tired and not happy to be stuck in the car for two hours. Next time I want to do this drive I'll do it when he's down for a nap or bedtime.
All in all it was a good, needed break. Jared is finished with night shifts and just starting to get used to sleeping at night instead of during the day again. He's still wanting to take naps whenever he gets home from work, but I'm hoping that will wear off in another week or so. This life of medical training sure is tough. I thought the toughest times were behind us, but I'm realizing that we will be living the nomad life once more over the next 5 months as Jared has a month-long away rotation in Spokane, and then we'll be in Seattle for Christmas, then back to Casper for a little over a month, and then another month-long away rotation in Evanston. I'm growing weary of this lifestyle. I may have adapted to it to some degree, and I'm able to accept it as the life we chose to take on to get where we want to go, but I just feel weighed down by it right now. I wish we could settle down in our forever home in the mountains, somewhere closer to family but with a sense of peace and solitude and permanence. Where we could leave if and when we wanted to, but not for several months out of the year because we HAVE to. Here's to hopefully only doing the nomad thing for 2 more years until Jared graduates from his residency!
Also bunny-related, Jack brought his favorite stuffed bunny to church yesterday. It was all cuteness and snuggles until we tried playing "peek-a-boo" with the bunny to keep him entertained and his shrieks of delight and laughter were so loud (during a talk about reverence) that I had to rush him out until he could contain himself. That's his new favorite game, is popping his bunny out from around corners and saying "Boo!" Funniest thing in the world.
Next we went for a short hike near the archery range. Casper Mountain may not be huge, but I'm so glad we have it. This type of mountain feels like home to us. It was pretty chilly because of the wind, plus we have a toddler now, so we hiked maybe 50 yards before turning back. The leaves were just starting to yellow. We'll be back again next week.
This is my first time blogging from my phone! I've always blogged from my laptop because I can type faster there and import all the pictures from our nice camera directly to the laptop. But lately I've been taking most of our pictures with my phone, so I figured I'd try this out.
Over the weekend we took a day trip to Lander, WY. My mom asked us what's in Lander, and really the answer is "nothing." It's just a cute small town right up against the Wind River Mountains. And most importantly, it's "only" a 2.5 hour drive from Casper. We were in need of a family adventure. It's been difficult to have Jared working the night shift this time around. In the past when he's worked nights, he usually has woken up by 3:00 in the afternoon, so he'd have a couple hours with us before having to go to work again at 5:00. This time around he's been sleeping until 4:00, so by the time he wakes up all he has time to do is shower and get ready for his next shift. I'm glad he's sleeping until 4:00 and getting a good 7 hours of sleep in, but it's tough to not ever spend time together.
So anyway, we decided on a day trip to Lander because we've already visited all the other towns within a 2-hr drive of Casper and we wanted to explore somewhere new. There really aren't many towns in Wyoming near us.
The drive up was long. We probably won't visit again for that reason. Jack just doesn't do well on long car rides. But Lander itself was cute! The population is less than 10k, and the homes are old and beautiful and full of character. We stopped at a diner where the service was "eh," the food was just "ok," they got our order wrong, and the waitress was kinda mean. At least the food was cheap. Then we went straight up to the mountains, which was a good choice.
We meant to do a short hike to Popo Agie waterfall, but we missed the trailhead and ended up driving a little further up the mountain to a quiet lake instead. This made the trip worth it. The leaves were just barely starting to change, and the lake had lots of sandy beach to play on without another soul in sight. Jack was in heaven. He threw rocks into the lake, dug holes in the sand, and Jared taught him how to sword fight with a couple of sticks. He got the biggest kick out of that.
We are all happiest out in nature. It was cool to realize that if we hadn't accidentally stumbled upon this random mountain lake near Lander, we never would have even heard of it. And we had the best afternoon there making memories as a family! It makes me wonder how many other hidden mountain lakes there are in this world. In the afterlife I want to spend a day on the banks of each one with my family. Quiet quality time in the mountains is my love language.
After a good hour or two relaxing (and changing some gnarly diapers) on the beach by the lake, we knew it was time to head home. We grabbed some chocolate frosties in Riverton and settled in to enjoy the last two hours of our drive while the sun set. Turns out there wouldn't be a lot of "enjoying" the sunset. Jack screamed himself to sleep for 20 minutes and then RIGHT as he finally drifted off to sleep, a deer jumped in front of our car and Jared somehow didn't see it, so I had to scream at him to swerve. We miraculously missed the deer, but Jack woke up and then had to scream himself to sleep all over again for another half hour. By then the sunset was long-gone and we were on edge expecting more deer to jump in front of us. Now we know why everyone in Wyoming has a truck. We'd have way more peace of mind driving around if we knew that hitting a deer wouldn't kill us.
Anyway, overall it was a good trip. We only have another month of good travel weather before the long Wyoming winter sets in. Glad we took advantage of one of our last free weekends. And hopefully after residency the Evanston thing works out so we can live within a mere hour of the Uintah Mountains and all of their beautiful hidden mountain lakes.
Whelp, that's it for this week. I don't think I'll be blogging from my phone again. Typing this all up wasnt as quick and smoothe as I was expecting. It was a good experiment though.
So anyway, we decided on a day trip to Lander because we've already visited all the other towns within a 2-hr drive of Casper and we wanted to explore somewhere new. There really aren't many towns in Wyoming near us.
The drive up was long. We probably won't visit again for that reason. Jack just doesn't do well on long car rides. But Lander itself was cute! The population is less than 10k, and the homes are old and beautiful and full of character. We stopped at a diner where the service was "eh," the food was just "ok," they got our order wrong, and the waitress was kinda mean. At least the food was cheap. Then we went straight up to the mountains, which was a good choice.
We meant to do a short hike to Popo Agie waterfall, but we missed the trailhead and ended up driving a little further up the mountain to a quiet lake instead. This made the trip worth it. The leaves were just barely starting to change, and the lake had lots of sandy beach to play on without another soul in sight. Jack was in heaven. He threw rocks into the lake, dug holes in the sand, and Jared taught him how to sword fight with a couple of sticks. He got the biggest kick out of that.
After a good hour or two relaxing (and changing some gnarly diapers) on the beach by the lake, we knew it was time to head home. We grabbed some chocolate frosties in Riverton and settled in to enjoy the last two hours of our drive while the sun set. Turns out there wouldn't be a lot of "enjoying" the sunset. Jack screamed himself to sleep for 20 minutes and then RIGHT as he finally drifted off to sleep, a deer jumped in front of our car and Jared somehow didn't see it, so I had to scream at him to swerve. We miraculously missed the deer, but Jack woke up and then had to scream himself to sleep all over again for another half hour. By then the sunset was long-gone and we were on edge expecting more deer to jump in front of us. Now we know why everyone in Wyoming has a truck. We'd have way more peace of mind driving around if we knew that hitting a deer wouldn't kill us.
Anyway, overall it was a good trip. We only have another month of good travel weather before the long Wyoming winter sets in. Glad we took advantage of one of our last free weekends. And hopefully after residency the Evanston thing works out so we can live within a mere hour of the Uintah Mountains and all of their beautiful hidden mountain lakes.
Whelp, that's it for this week. I don't think I'll be blogging from my phone again. Typing this all up wasnt as quick and smoothe as I was expecting. It was a good experiment though.
He also loves to wander around the house finding the most comfortable blankets and pillows, and then he goes and stuffs them in his playhouse to make it ultra comf. Funniest (and most annoying) of all, he now wants to have every member of the family in the playhouse as often as possible. First of all, our robot vacuum that Jared's sister gave us for Christmas. Yes, it is a member of the family, and for some reason we have named it "Beeboop." Whenever Beeboop wanders into Jack's rooms, he gets a mischievous glint in his eye, picks it up off the floor (it's pretty big and heavy so this is impressive), and shoves it into his tent. If Savvy wanders into his room, it's game over for her. He gets the same mischievous look, and then he'll grab her by either the tail or an ear and try to drag her in. This rarely works out for him. When he wants me in the playhouse, he grabs me by the clothes and pulls so hard until I follow him in and have to spend the next 20 minutes watching him jam out on his little music table. Good thing it's super comfy in there.
Another nice moment from yesterday afternoon happened when a little thunderstorm came over our house. We haven't had rain in what feels like over a month. We sat on our patio and watched the storm for half an hour. Every time thunder would sound, Jack would hug one of us tightly around the neck and snuggle in. Jack is not a snuggler AT ALL, so we really relish the moments when he'll voluntarily hug us, even though usually it's only out of fear. Within ten seconds he'd be back on the ground playing with rocks or something, but it was just a really nice afternoon.
Weight: 28 pounds. Yesterday I pulled the scale out to weight him, thinking I'd just hold him and subtract my weight, but when I put it in the floor he climbed on by himself and stood perfectly still until the number "28" appeared, then jumped off.
Height: I just tried to measure him. I think he's 33". He's definitely on the tall side. Doing this post is reminding me that I probably need to schedule him for an 18-month checkup.
Teeth: His teeth have come in slower than the other kids his age, but I've heard that means he'll have stronger teeth in the end. He only has one molar so far, but I wouldn't be surprised if another one's coming in. He's been teething and grumpy about it lately. But he loves to brush his teeth, and this week we taught him how to rinse/spit it out when he's done. He think it's so funny and is now very into spitting.
Hair: Blonde and adorable. It's definitely lightened up over the summer. I'm sure it'll be a little darker during the winter, but overall I think he'll stay blonde at the very least through his toddler years.
Toys: His favorite toys are also the toys that drive him (and us) the most crazy, so they get hidden pretty often. He has an obsession with any toy that is large and has wheels: his walker, his little bike, the vacuum... He gets so excited when he comes across them and he'll wheel them around the house for a while, but then he'll inexplicably start screaming because he can't get the toy to do exactly what he wants, or he'll scream because he wants to take the toy outside, and once the toy's outside he'll run it straight into the road and scream some more when we try to get him out of the road or take the toy away. It's not fun. His other favorite toys are balls, but we often run into the same problem with those so he mostly only gets to play with big balls when he finds them in the church gym.
Shows: I try not to let Jack just sit and watch tv endlessly for no reason, but there are key times when he'll absolutely end up getting some quality screen time in: (1) Long car rides. Or sometimes even short car rides if I'm losing my mind and I know he's going to scream the whole way. (2) If I'm making dinner or working on something that has an immediate deadline that couldn't be finished during his nap. (3) If I'm losing my mind on a bad toddler day and just need him to chill or cuddle up to me for a minute. (4) Diaper Changes. Jack has NEVER cooperated for diaper changes. In fact, I know he's young, but I'm going to try potty training him when winter sets in and we're cooped up in the house anyway because I think everyone (especially Jack) would be a lot happier not to have to deal with diapers anymore. I know it might now work out with him being so young, but he's a really smart kid so we're gonna give it a try. The only way we can get Jack to hold still for a diaper change is if we hand him the phone with something to watch while we're changing him. His favorites are "Kazoops," "Little Baby Bum," and sometimes "Peppa Pig." He also loves watching music videos--especially Beck songs. Jared is very proud of this and they often sing and dance to music videos together.
Nursery: Jack "officially" had his first week in nursery and loved it. I put quotes around "officially" because he has been to nursery probably a good dozen times in the past. Jared and I get asked to substitute in nursery frequently. That has ended up being a good thing though because Jack has been acquainted with and loved nursery for months already. His favorite parts of nursery are playing with the toys (he's not sensitive at all and plays great with the other kids), the bubble machine, snack time (always finishes his snacks waaaay before everyone else, then starts eating the other kids'), and it's funny to watch him be such a good boy during the prayer as he watches all the other kiddies folding their arms. We've also discovered that he's a crayon eater during coloring time. He did great being dropped off by Jared yesterday. No tears at all, and he was happy to see me when I came and picked him up. He did hold my hand quite intently all the way to the car though, which he never does.
Food: Homeboy is a GREAT eater. He can be a pretty difficult kid in regard to most other things, so I am forever grateful that he's not a picky eater. During meals we'll just dump some of whatever we're eating onto his highchair tray and he'll gobble it down. He loves when he can use a fork or spoon. He eats honestly probably as much as or more than I do at any given meal. He spends his entire day running around without stopping though, so I can see why he has a big appetite. Jack's favorite snacks (when there aren't leftovers to eat) are graham crackers, greek yogurt, hummus, avocados, veggie straws, mandarin oranges, applesauce pouches, scrambled eggs, and let's be real--pretty much anything I put in front of him. (Not EVERYTHING, but most things.) Hallelujah.
Sleep: Even more than being grateful he's a good eater, I am BEYOND grateful that my colicky, sleepless newborn turned into the king of toddler sleeps. I largely credit myself for the countless hours I spent researching and implementing sleep training techniques when he was younger and had the hardest time falling asleep. Jack still takes 2 naps a day. If I didn't read up so much on baby and toddler sleep I would probably be second-guessing this and have him down to one nap since all his peers seem to be down to one nap by now. But I know that it is absolutely normal and even encouraged for him to be taking 2 naps until he is 20 months old if he continues to do well on 2 naps and not fight them.
Jack goes down for his first nap between 9:00 and 10:00. Usually he goes right to sleep, but sometimes he'll talk to himself for 20 minutes first. I love that he has that time by himself, since when he's awake he never plays on his own. He usually naps for 2 hours and then is awake for 2 more hours before I put him down for his afternoon nap between 1:00 and 2:00. He usually talks to himself for 10-20 minutes, and then he'll sleep for an hour or so. He goes down for the night between 6:00 and 7:00, and then he sleeps until about 7:30 in the morning. Besides the sleep training, I think another reason he's such a great sleeper is because, again, he doesn't stop moving all day long. He's running around from thing to thing basically 100% of the time when he's awake. I'd sleep amazing if that was my life, too. (Actually I do, and it is, because I'm constantly having to chase Jack around to keep him alive.)
I'm sure I could keep going, but I'm going to cap this update off there. In sum, I'd describe Jack as a busy, smart, dare-devil (his current favorite thing is jumping off furniture), exhausting, fun little boy. We're so grateful to have him in our life!
Sorry Grandma! I had schedule this post to publish last Monday, but I guess it never happened. I guess it will do for this week's post instead.
I remember when my mom used to say "The Whole Fam Dam" and I thought she was making a terrible swear. Now we here.
Our trip to Utah last week was wonderful! I will probably share even more pictures next week after I empty my camera cards. For now here are some shots of my whole family that I took with a tripod. Get you some children with some marketable skills (photo editing) that you can use for freeeee. So far Jack's only marketable skill is eating all the leftovers that are now gross to me and I don't want to eat but also don't want to throw away. Not really a marketable skill tho. I'll report back in 20 years.
Back to the Utah trip! We had a great time. With Jordan+Amanda+Asher also coming in from out of state to see Tim come home from his mission, my parent's home was fuller than it's been since probably before I got married. Jack and Asher are the exact same age. Jack is the crazy one and Asher is the calm one, so I was thinking that Asher's wonderful mannerisms would rub off on Jack and Jack would teach Asher how to get into trouble, but kind of the opposite happened: Jack taught Asher to be less of a picky eater and Asher taught Jack about saying "no" and he gave him croup haha. Oops! The croup didn't show up until after we got home from Utah though. Luckily he was in good spirits during our "vacation." He loved all the attention and jumping off my parents' furniture all day.
My favorite adventure from our time in Utah was off-roading with Dad in his new truck. We went up through Wallsburg and up this crazy bumpy canyon trail that I never would have dreamed a vehicle could handle. Felt like we were riding Indiana Jones at Disneyland. I think we'll have to get a truck at some point now. The adventure ended with a tire popping in a rocky riverbed. Luckily a nice mechanic was driving by with his family in an ATV and he helped us change it out lickity split. It would have been a gorgeous drive in the fall. I'm secretly hoping to sneak back to Utah with Jack when the leaves start turning in a few months. It's been too many years since I've been able to enjoy a Utah fall. Jared is coming up on a couple months of night shifts, so that could be the perfect time to get away.
Of course the real highlight of the trip was being reunited with Tim. It's almost weird that he's the last one and now the whole family is home for good. It was fun to have Tim drive me and Jack back home to Casper. We talked about upcoming college life and business ideas while Jack screamed bloody murder in the backseat. Taking a tiny child on a roadtrip is FuN!
Ok, Jack is waking up in the other room. Usually I just leave him to talk to himself in his crib for 5-10 minutes after he wakes up, but poor sick buddy has the saddest little croup cough so I'd better go get him. Until next week!
I remember when my mom used to say "The Whole Fam Dam" and I thought she was making a terrible swear. Now we here.
Back to the Utah trip! We had a great time. With Jordan+Amanda+Asher also coming in from out of state to see Tim come home from his mission, my parent's home was fuller than it's been since probably before I got married. Jack and Asher are the exact same age. Jack is the crazy one and Asher is the calm one, so I was thinking that Asher's wonderful mannerisms would rub off on Jack and Jack would teach Asher how to get into trouble, but kind of the opposite happened: Jack taught Asher to be less of a picky eater and Asher taught Jack about saying "no" and he gave him croup haha. Oops! The croup didn't show up until after we got home from Utah though. Luckily he was in good spirits during our "vacation." He loved all the attention and jumping off my parents' furniture all day.
My favorite adventure from our time in Utah was off-roading with Dad in his new truck. We went up through Wallsburg and up this crazy bumpy canyon trail that I never would have dreamed a vehicle could handle. Felt like we were riding Indiana Jones at Disneyland. I think we'll have to get a truck at some point now. The adventure ended with a tire popping in a rocky riverbed. Luckily a nice mechanic was driving by with his family in an ATV and he helped us change it out lickity split. It would have been a gorgeous drive in the fall. I'm secretly hoping to sneak back to Utah with Jack when the leaves start turning in a few months. It's been too many years since I've been able to enjoy a Utah fall. Jared is coming up on a couple months of night shifts, so that could be the perfect time to get away.
Of course the real highlight of the trip was being reunited with Tim. It's almost weird that he's the last one and now the whole family is home for good. It was fun to have Tim drive me and Jack back home to Casper. We talked about upcoming college life and business ideas while Jack screamed bloody murder in the backseat. Taking a tiny child on a roadtrip is FuN!
Ok, Jack is waking up in the other room. Usually I just leave him to talk to himself in his crib for 5-10 minutes after he wakes up, but poor sick buddy has the saddest little croup cough so I'd better go get him. Until next week!
I'll keep this one short since I have sooo much to do today that I don't know how I'm gonna make it all happen. We've got an exciting week ahead of us! My youngest brother Tim (hi Timmy!) will be getting home from his LDS mission this Friday! We are going to drive down to Utah so we can meet him at the airport and spend time with family. Jared is only able to take a couple days off work, so we are hoping to drive down right when he gets off work Wednesday evening and get there around midnight. This could be the best idea we've ever had if Jack falls asleep and stays asleep at his normal bedtime, or it could be the worst idea we've ever had if he won't stay asleep in his carseat and is a grumpy mess. I guess we'll find out.
In the meantime, we've got lots of packing, cleaning, and preparing to do. I need to get a couple Bucketless Family posts planned out and photographed so I can continue posting once or twice a week while we're away. I should do even more than that, but I'm lazy. Jared needs to get caught up on his patient notes and ahead on his readings. Tim will actually be driving me and Jack back to Casper when we're done in Utah, so we need to get our house ready for guests (this is tim so i'll probably just stock up on ramen and call it good). Anyway, we're very excited for this week. Jared will evne get to spend some time with his family, who will be in Utah while we're there.
Not much new to report during this past week. Jack is teething again, booooo. Luckily he tends to do better with teething when he's busy and distracted. It's a great time to go to Utah. Casper is already starting to cool off, which is bitter-sweet. I love fall, but all-to-soon winter will be back. We're going to have to hit up some swimming pools and snow cone shacks before it's too late.
Well I guess that's it. We'll be seeing many of you next week! I'll apologize ahead of time for if I don't get a post up next week. I'll try, but I'm also going to focus on really enjoying all the time being with family in person. I'll for sure have one up the following week though. We love you!
In the meantime, we've got lots of packing, cleaning, and preparing to do. I need to get a couple Bucketless Family posts planned out and photographed so I can continue posting once or twice a week while we're away. I should do even more than that, but I'm lazy. Jared needs to get caught up on his patient notes and ahead on his readings. Tim will actually be driving me and Jack back to Casper when we're done in Utah, so we need to get our house ready for guests (this is tim so i'll probably just stock up on ramen and call it good). Anyway, we're very excited for this week. Jared will evne get to spend some time with his family, who will be in Utah while we're there.
Not much new to report during this past week. Jack is teething again, booooo. Luckily he tends to do better with teething when he's busy and distracted. It's a great time to go to Utah. Casper is already starting to cool off, which is bitter-sweet. I love fall, but all-to-soon winter will be back. We're going to have to hit up some swimming pools and snow cone shacks before it's too late.
Well I guess that's it. We'll be seeing many of you next week! I'll apologize ahead of time for if I don't get a post up next week. I'll try, but I'm also going to focus on really enjoying all the time being with family in person. I'll for sure have one up the following week though. We love you!
A month or so ago I started an Instagram account called "The Bucketless Family." Essentially it's just a fun creative writing and photography outlet, with the potential to become something bigger and produce a good side income for our family and help us pay off the med school loans. I'll give a little crash course on making money on Instagram for Grandma:
If you create an Instagram account that is interesting enough that lots of people, say 10k or more, want to follow it to see what you post, then you can make money on Instagram as a marketer (sometimes called "influencer"). Brands and companies will work with you to talk about their product in one of your pictures or stories. It's kind of like commercials on a television show: your account is the main show, but every once in a while there will be a commercial for a product, and these commercials are what fund the show so they can keep putting in the time/effort/money to create it.
The general rule is that you can make $10 per 1,000 followers you have if you create a sponsored post. So if you have 10,000 followers, you can find brands who will pay you $100 to do a sponsored post. If you have 100,000 followers, brands will pay $1000 for one post. And if you are a really big deal and have a million followers, then you can make $10,000 to publish a single sponsored post. I think lots of people are shocked to hear that. I know I was the first time I heard about it, but those rates are the industry standard. There are many people out there who have grown huge instagram followings and are able to make an excellent full-time salary through instagram alone.
Most Instagram "influencers" who do this create beautiful pictures daily about their lives, outfits, hairstyles, or travels and post them with captions. They'll throw in a sponsored post every week or so--maybe a hotel is paying them to stay and post a picture with a caption about their experience. The biggest traveling influencer family on Instagram is The Bucketlist Family. They are a nice little LDS family who met at BYU and now have 3 young kids. Soon after graduating, they sold their cars and belongings so they could travel the world for several months (sounds risky, but they did have a large nest egg to fall back on from selling a phone app). During these months, they built up a large instagram following and started to make good money from hotels who would pay them to stay there and post a picture about their stay. They were one of the first families to ever portray this full-time travel lifestyle on instagram, and they have done very well. They have a following of nearly 2 million viewers. They traveled the world full-time for 2 years and eventually bought a bungalow on a beach in Hawaii.
This is all well and good, but I started to think how novel it might be to start an instagram account that would be more relatable to the general masses, with a humorous twist. The new account I started is a visual story about a family (us) who would love to be able to travel to exotic places, but is unable to do so because they are "tied down" and in a heap of student debt. So they start up an instagram account in hopes that it will eventually allow them to travel occasionally, but because they don't have money to start out with, they travel to humorous places around town like some dumpsters, a parking lot, and a thrift store. I called it The Bucketless Family because we are "too poor to afford even a lowly bucket." Like I said, it started out as a creative writing hobby for me, but only a month or so in, people started to notice and eat the account up. It's something that's never been done before and is a refreshing laugh in an Instagram world full of model influencers with glamorous lives. Others with student debt or who would love to travel but are unable to are the main fans. Over the weekend many people started to share our account with their friends and next thing we knew, we had 3,000 new followers enjoying our fun little project within the span of 24 hours.
I like to keep my expectations low but my aims high. So while this project is still in the early stages and may never become a huge sensation, I am having a lot of fun creating new posts a few times a week and thinking about ways I could use this platform to help our family even if I never publish a single sponsored post. The most appealing thing about having a large platform to me is that if I ever wanted to start a business (which is something I would love to do someday), there will already be thousands of eyes of our fans on whatever product or service we create.
This is getting to be a much longer post than I anticipated, but it's a fun part of my life I wanted to share with anyone who may not understand this particular aspect of social media. We've got a good week ahead of us! Nothing too crazy, but Jack is acting more happy these days than he has in weeks, and we're enjoying our yard now that the mosquitos have subsided. Jared is enjoying being a second-year resident with more responsibilities, and Jack is enjoying pushing his new favorite toy (an empty diaper box) down his slide. It's a good life.
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