The Breuer Way of Life

Sometimes I have to take a step back from my life and drink in how lucky I truly am.  I have an amazing husband who encourages and motivates me every day, I have an incredibly supportive family who is always there when I need them (and always without judgment), I have a great job, an incredibly circle of friends and one of the easiest going toddlers known to mankind as a son.  Yes, things are good.  And with baby #2 almost here, I wanted to take a snapshot of how good things are as a reminder to my future self when we are thrown back into the midst of having a newborn.  So consider this “a week in the life of the Breuer Family.”

Every Monday morning (or at least most Monday mornings) Oskar and I head to the kitchen and make waffles to start the week.  Oskar helps to stir in the ingredients and then enjoys a few spoonfuls of applesauce while I pour the batter into the waffle iron and get coffee started for Martin. 

Oskar and I normally walk to school together, saying good bye to Martin on the corner of our alley so he can walk to his office.  Recently, Martin has joined us for the walks to school as Oskar likes to be carried part of the way and, as he kindly points out, “Momma’s tired.”

Each night after work, I rush home to ensure I am there to enjoy the dinner prepared by both Martin and Oskar.  With Oskar’s earlier bedtime, we now eat dinner at 6pm and Oskar is down by 7:30 leaving the rest of the night for Martin and me to relax and catch up on the day…or realistically, sit on the couch and have a moment to veg out.

Halfway through the week, Oskar reminds us it is Wednesday by asking to see the garbage truck pick up trash from our bedroom window.  And at the end of the week we celebrate with

Pancake Friday and homemade pizzas in the evening.  As a side note, the waffles, pancakes and pizza are all healthier versions of the original recipes J

Recently, our Saturday mornings have been spent with me at prenatal Yoga and Oskar and Martin at swim class.  And Sunday’s are the days where we have no idea what to do. For instance unsure what to do last week (and overwhelmed by the options of which museum, playground, farmer’s market to go to) I made the executive decision to just run errands.  Who knew IKEA could be such fun for a toddler? 

Somewhere in all of this, I try to sneak in a nap or two, Martin inevitably falls asleep on the couch each night and we try to get out of the house for a date night here or there.

Yes, life is good. 

PTSD and IPOs

One of the main reasons I left salesforce was my desire to take a company public. And with the news of DocuSign’s upcoming IPO, I have found myself reflecting on my experiences there.   Did I regret my decision to leave prematurely?  Was I happy with how things ended up?  How would life be if I stayed?

After surprisingly little reflection, I can honestly say that while I learned a ton and grew a bunch, leaving was the best decision I could have made… adding those three little letters to my resume was just not that important to me after all (Oskar and Martin definitely helped to refocus my priorities to where they belong)... Unfortunately while I didn’t leave with the coveted three letters of IPO, I did manage to leave DocuSign after two and a half years with four different letters - PTSD.

Blame the hours, blame the start-up culture or blame me trying to fit my round peg skills into a square-hole job. But it was stressful; and after being gone for over a year, while I don’t regret my decision to leave I still wonder every once in a while if I actually failed during my time there (which is the general feeling I left with) or if I am just being overly critical of myself. I probably will never know, but considering my old teammates (at least a handful of them) still reach out to catch up, share gossip or ask for career advice, I guess I couldn’t have been that terrible at my job.

And as for those other three little letters, you know, IPO, well I ended up getting those too. This past week, salesforce had its initial public debt offering and raised $2.5 billion. And I was one of the lucky few to be part of the event. We might not have rung the bell on Wall Street but we raised more in a day than DocuSign is worth, so there is that.

An Impromptu Easter

We were supposed to be at Dunsmuir for Easter weekend, but due to my work schedule and inability to leave early on Friday, we cancelled our trip last minute and found ourselves with no set agenda or expectations for Easter weekend...

Martin wanted to dye eater eggs at home with Oskar at some point and we had a few options for Sunday (brunch as a family, the local Easter egg hunt hosted by our friend Roxanne at the local park or do we potentially get out of the city for a hike).

Easter egg dying turned into an impromptu party on Saturday afternoon with all of Oskar’s friends (aka my mom friends) coming over to dye eggs, eat some snacks and enjoy some wine (for those able to).

And Sunday plans formed up around Friday morning with a text message from Costa Rica. My parents, along with my sister and her kids were coming back from Central America on Saturday night and invited everyone over to the house for Easter brunch.

For a “last minute” brunch, it was pretty well organized and attended. Cody and Brenda organized the food, Granny and Grandpa stopped by after church and Ray even drove down from Ukiah. And even after being out of town the entire previous week, my mom still managed to have Easter treats and decorations for everyone including the annual tradition of See’s Rocky Road chocolate eggs.

Hmmm come to think about it, it might not have been a last minute party but rather a last minute invite... should I be insulted?

If so, I can’t stay insulted for long, I always treasure the time we have all together and watching Oskar interacting with his cousins. So while Oskar still has yet to go on an Easter egg hunt or receive a basket full of candy, I would take the impromptu Easter celebrations any day.