Giving Thanks

There are a lot of things to be grateful for. During a global pandemic, having the luxury of being healthy, employed, and together and as a family is something that is not lost on us. We are so fortunate and lucky in our situation, and that is not lost on us.

Sure, we may have to stay at home and work in the same space. Sure it's been 50 ish days since I've been out of my house for more than a walk around the block. Sure there are some times I get delusionally riddled with anxiety about the socio-political and economic state of our country. Sure, the quarantine fifteen is no joke. And sure, there have been maybe a few times one of us has slept on the couch. But how lucky we are, truly.

So, while browsing Meijer's website to figure out what to buy for our weekly grocery delivery, the thought of Thanksgiving popped in to my head. Well, really, it was "why is a whole turkey reserved just for one holiday?" and then "dang, it's not that expensive to grab a turkey" and then "dang, the last time we roasted a turkey it lead to a very interesting evening back in college...." but that is a completely different story I will never, ever continue discussing. And before you say anything, those Thanksgiving dinners I made for the lovely folks at S2Games and for those heading to Dreamhack were a replacement of the upcoming Thanksgiving meals they would be missing. In November. So that was different. That being said, I am now quite versed in making a bomb-diggity turkey.

So....

Why not have Thanksgiving in May?

COVID-19 Update from the CPK Family Week 2

Hello friends! Hopefully everyone is staying at home and safe if possible. If you are on the front lines of this, THANK YOU AND STAY AS SAFE AS YOU CAN.

Our little household is doing as well as can be expected. As an extrovert, I'm personally struggling. By the time I actually talk face-to-face with someone other than my husband or my two year old, I may have the social skills of a caveman.

Honestly, I was going to write this and I assumed we had more to offer in the way of an update. But legitimately this is going to be some bragging as to how Breaky and I have not killed each other yet. Just kidding love, I love you!

COVID-19 Update from the CPK Family Week 1

Hello folks.




What a strange, scary time to be alive, right?



I thought, well, hoped, that 9/11 would be the biggest crisis of my generation and in my timeline. that horrible sense that nothing will be the same for a while. Everything being cancelled and it is everything that anyone is talking about. The world didn't stay the same, but we did settle in to the new normal.



This seems just as big, if not bigger.

Two the Moon! Happy Birthday BabyCPK

Our BabyCPK, who really isn't a baby anymore, turned TWO recently. Two, y'all. I cannot even. 

Unfortunately, Breaky had to miss this birthday, as he was doing back-to-back events, but we took lots of pictures, thanks to Dylan Jeffery! 

This year we did a "Two the Moon" theme and I think it was a hit! It was definitely one of my biggest "Pinterest Victories" I have had as a parent, if I may say so myself.

There were a ton of friends and family that attended, but for privacy's sake, because a lot of the kids were younger, I am not including pictures of guests. But you can enjoy the still fantastic pics from Dylan Jeffery: 

CPKreepy 2019

It's that time of year again!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Our absolute favorite holiday (Christmas is up there, not gunna lie, but collectively as our little family, Halloween takes the cake)

We had our big Halloween Extravaganza this past weekend. For me, this marks 15 years of some sort of Halloween party. For us as a couple, this is #7. I have done everything from small, 3 person parties, big extravagant 20+ people stuffed in to a college apartment, to a mix of couples, families and kids.

This year, as Breaky had a unicorn costume already from a WePlay Valentine's Day Madness event in Ukraine. So I bought unicorn costumes for the rest of the family,  including DogCPK  

This year also marked the first Halloween in our new house. We had so much more room for festivities, kid-friendly activities, and space for adults to imbibe and play games.

Photo credit: Dylan Jeffery & (me)

Click Read More to continue with the pictures

Pokemon Themed 1st Birthday Party

Our One-derful BabyCPK turned 1.

Since we did a Pokemon Themed Pregnancy Announcement, and BabyCPK is too young to choose a theme for herself, we decided to go with a Pokemon themed birthday party.

From some suggestions from Pinterest and lots of shopping on Amazon.com, I decorated and came up with some creative names for party food that involves Pokemon.

I could not have pulled this off without my amaaaazing family. They did sooo much work for this party. I do not have an "excuse" for not doing as much as I could have, although work, at the time, was a drama-filled frazzle cake. Even Breaky chipped in and was the one who made the pizzas!

Empowerment: The Women Who Came Before Me, Who Stand Beside Me and Who Shape the Future After Me

The whole "Your Word of the Year" was popular this year during the new year.

Mine was "Empowerment"

Now,a s you can tell from the definition above, it can mean to either empower someone or the state of being empowered to do something.

One Year Old. Looking Back and Bonus Cake Smash Pictures!

If you are not familiar with my blog, I purposefully do not use names in order to give us a little big of privacy. 


On 2/28/2018 our lives changed forever.

BabyCPK was born.

2/28/2019 she turned 1. The Earth rotated around the sun. Her father and I changed, but not half as much as she did. From a little potato who could pretty much only cry, feed and poop to a toddler who can say "dada" and "Aa daa" (all done) and "Hello" and thinks it is hilarious when Daddy has to chase after her when she crawls all the way to DogCPK's water bowl before we notice.

Happy Birthday BabyCPK!

Happy Birthday BabyCPK! 

We love you very much!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Breaky travels a lot. That means that sometimes he misses holidays or milestones. We've been apart for an anniversary, a number of Thanksgivings, a birthday, was gone four days before our wedding and two weeks before BabyCPK was born. Needless to say, I'm used to it by now. 

This is our first Valentine's Day apart however. 

What a weird $%^&*() week

What a weird $%^&*() week


We knew the weather was going to be bad this week. I even took my work laptop home with me just in case. It's Michigan.

So the weekend went very well. We did a bunch of organizing, baby proofing and cleaning. Sunday night, I started to get some heartburn and feel a little weird. Weird turned into gross and well..... either I had the stomach flu or food poisoning.

Happy New Year

2018 was a whirlwind for both me and my family.

I could write a novel about all the firsts, all the highs, all the lows, lots going on.

So instead, I'm making a bunch of top 5 for 2018.

My Pocket Mom-Friends

I am a part of a Mom group....

On Facebook nonetheless.

It started out as a subreddit group for pregnant women who were all due around the same time. We created a Facebook group, as a lot of the functionalities of Facebook were different. Most importantly, the option to make the group private, so we can be a little more comfortable posting pictures and details about our pregnancies and babies (when they came) without the fear of creepy-reddittor-creeping that sometimes happens on, well, Reddit.*

*Disclaimer: I love Reddit. Still do. I am on it every day. Put down your damn pitchforks and keep reading my obviously hilarious and insightful blog post.*

What made this group different at first than the 5 other Mom groups I had been invited to, was how close we all were to the same timeline. When pregnant, if I had weird symptoms, instead of Dr. Google, or the probably safer Nurse Line, I would hop on my "bumpers" group to see if anyone else was going through the same thing. Often times I didn't even have to actively look, it was like they knew what I was going through and posted about it too.

This went on after we had babies and agreed to keep the group together. Weird skin rash thing? Totally glad someone posted, because I had a similar question/problem. Worried about baby-led weaning? No worries, there is a post from yesterday to get others' opinions. Venting about how it feels that we will never sleep a full 6 hours ever again? Yup, you have a sister in the same boat.

This group honestly has saved me SO much grief and worry.

Which is saying something.

What makes this group different from the other Mom groups that people complain about, is how on the same page we are with our general parenting styles. I'm sure this grew organically. Those who didn't feel the same way as we do slowly leaving the group. And I don't mean just different opinions on sleep styles or how we feed our kids, I'm talking the evidence-based discussions and open-forum ways we can come to conclusions as to what is best for our kiddos.

In many other Mom groups, I have to worry about reading a controversial post about vaccinations or MLM spam posts. Not in my group. We actually think the posts on the subreddit /r/shitmomgroupssay are HILARIOUS. Mostly because we all belong to other groups and this stuff is SO TRUE.

Y'all, this group is so tight, we are exchanging Christmas cards and did a Secret Santa (which, my giftee either hated what I got or I forgot to put whom it was from, so sorry either way! :/ I feel really bad)

It is amazing having so many Christmas and Holiday cards up on our wall. It really helps the holiday spirit, for sure.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. These ladies are my village. I am not like, super duper active when it comes to posting, but man, I do check daily. How else would I know about this amazing wizard hair tool that everyone claims can do magic. PS I added this to my "Christmas List", do you think Santa will think I was good enough to get one this year?

I saw this bit in our group and just had to include this in my blog about my "bumper" group:

This sentiment can be for your online gaming groups, your chat-room friends,  your friends you chat with every day online but haven't actually met. These friendships are real, and important. My pocket friends are all moms of kids around my child's age. We share stories, frustrations, fears, joys, announcements, passions and tears. Oh hey, look, I rhymed.


I try to tell all my now-pregnant friends to see if Reddit has a bumper group for them, worried, however, that their experience will not be as absolutely fantastic as mine, because, let's face it, this group is absolutely amazing.

"So, WifecCPK, what is the point of this blog?" you may ask with a shout! "My Mom group saved my sanity, without a speck of doubt."

CPKreepy 2018

Every year, my husband, BreakyCPK and I host a Halloween party. This year was no different. Except we had a few new faces, including BabyCPK! 

Here are a few pictures, picture credit: Dylan Jeffery

Food Friday for Fall: Apple Picking and Apple Everything

This past weekend we went apple picking. There are many farms in the area, but the one we went to was Gull Meadow Farms, as we have for the past few years. Ironically, both Breaky and I had been, but just never together. Each year, one of us had something else going on when the picking party commenced.

I consider it the start of fall. Whether this was actually planned or not, we actually DID go the first day of fall. The weather cooperated like it was planned: sunny, but in the mid to low 60s (Fahrenheit). It was also BabyCPK's first time at a farm and apple picking. So many firsts in these past few months, it's really hard to keep track.

We got Honey Crisp, Fuji, Gala, and a few other kinds of apples before calling it good. Breaky and I combined got just about a half a bushel.


Tangent Alert:
I don't know about anyone else, but whenever I hear the words "bushel" and "peck" I immediately think of the song "Bushel and a Peck"







With that many apples, you can imagine I'm scrambling to find and/or create recipes with apples in them. That, and my mid-day snack has been an apple. * Insert joke about an apple a day *

A few nights ago I made a pretty decent bacon-wrapped pork chops with apples with a poor man's risotto.

Last night, I made an apple pie. My recipe for that can be found here. That, however, was for dessert.

For dinner,  I made a Chicken Apple Stir Fry.

I have to admit, I made this recipe from many different recipes on Pinterest, as is my way. Heck, that's how I created my ever-famous Jambalaya recipe.

Here's the "recipe"
(I use "Recipe" loosly, as I kind of guestimate amounts and change things halfway through making it. Aka I wing it)


- 3 carrots
- 2 small zuchinni
- 4 Snack Peppers
- 1/2 packet of mushroom
- Chicken-Cubed-1 cup
- 2 apples-chopped up
- Apple Cider or Apple juice 1/2 cup
- 1/2 cup Soy Sauce
- (just a sprinkling) Red Pepper flakes
- Garlic powder to taste
- Minced onion- I dunno, like, 1 tablespoon?
- Cinnamon-Very very light sprinkling.

Drizzle olive oil on skillet or wok. Cook chicken. Remove chicken. Cook carrots, peppers, zuchinni, minced onion and mushrooms until carrots are soft-ish.


In separate bowl, add apple cider/juice, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, garlic powder and cinnamon and mix.

Add chicken and apples to skillet/wok. Stir together. Add liquid mixture.

Serve over rice. You can use white rice, brown rice, cauliflower rice, I'm not going to discriminate. All would be really good. You do you.

Turned out pretty good, if I may say so myself. Apple pie for dessert was of course pretty good. Enough about me. Happy Friday everyone! Enjoy your weekend.

When He's Here....But Not "Here"

I was chatting to someone who, I had assumed, I explained everything about what my husband does.

Me-"He's working from 12pm-9pm from this past Sunday to Thursday, so it's been a struggle"

Person-"Oh, he works nights then? Where? Is this a second job?"

Me:




Then I forgot that, while she know about the very basics about what my husband does, I obviously hadn't explained what he does when he is not actually traveling for work.


I have made many, many, many, many blog posts about what life's like while Breaky travels for work.


I don't believe (correct me if I'm wrong) I have ever written about what life is like while he's working from home.


So, for those of you who may be new: My husband, BreakyCPK, is an "Esports Broadcaster" or "caster". Meaning, he does play-by-play for online video game tournaments and games. About 16% of that job involves big events to which he has to travel, often internationally. The rest is done at home, in our office, at his computer.


If you've never listened to one of these broadcasts, take a listen:



Now imagine that coming from your basement for hours on end.



I think our baby who is ALMOST 7 MONTHS OLD THE TIME IS GOING BY TOO FAST, is probably used to hearing that from downstairs by now. Honestly, it's probably just white noise to her now.

A gamer in the making!

Some things that people don't realize when I tell them he "casts" from home:

1. Like our daughter, I don't hear the casting from the basement anymore 

It's all just background noise to me now. People who visit? Yeah they notice.



2. Unless there is a life-altering emergency, he cannot stop what he is doing



He can come visit on breaks and stuff, but when those would be? We never really know, and he could be unreachable for 3-4 hours at a time.



3. I prepare meals that can be eaten at anytime.



As mentioned before, he never knows when his breaks are. So neither do I, which means I eat by myself, leaving enough for him to nuke and take downstairs.



4. I will often pop onto the twitch channel to see where they are in the match to get a good idea of how the night will go.



I know enough about the game to know how much longer it could possibly take. Like who's winning, did it just start, am I going to be giving BabyCPK a bath by myself? Am I going to be able to shower today?



5. I get lonely



It's weird. Missing someone who is in the same house as you. I do have BabyCPK, but conversational abilities are a little limited. Although it would be three times more lonely if I didn't have her.

A Double Whammy

Who's big idea was it to have both the WoW expansion AND TI8 be at the exact same time?

Probably someone who wants our family to not get ANYTHING productive done this month.

As many of you probably figured out, Breaky did not make it to TI8 this year as talent. But that was good news for us, as we got to have more time with him at home! Kinda. 

I no longer play WoW, though I did try a while back. Even had a two-part blog experience as a result. Part I, Part II. I also did a little piece about being a WoW Widow. 

Between WoW and TI8, attentions were diverted, to say the least. So we made it a family affair!

TI was always on the TV in the living room, and Breaky was usually somewhere playing WoW at the same time. Within earshot of course! We made sure BabyCPK wasn't always in front of a screen, with equal family, bath, feeding and story time. It's all about that balance! 

Watching the finals! 

Watch party for the finals! 

And We'll Never Be Royals.... But We Can Watch Them Get Married

You may wonder what could compel someone to get up at the crack of dawn to watch two people she's never met get married.

Very good question.

The royal wedding of Harry and Meghan was this past weekend. You may wonder why someone who just celebrated her Norwegian heritage on Syttende Mai (Norwegian's Constitution Day) would be so very interested in the English Crown's latest pomp and circumstance. Well, I am also English by blood too. On my father's side, one half is English (his father's) and the other side is Norwegian (his mother's). In fact, I can trace my heritage in England back to 1240 with the birth of Ralph de Spalding. We, in fact, had several Lords and Ladies in our family tree until the 1600s when the first of the Spaldings (later changed to Spaulding) came over to the Americas.

Ancestry aside, the royal family always kind of held a special place in my family's hearts. My aunt has always had a kind of obsession with everything British, including the royal family. My parents were huge fans of Princess Diana. Heck, my Mom even rocked the Diana hair cut around the time my sister was born. I was far too young to understand what was going on, but I know my parents were devastated when she passed away.

My sister and I got up pretty early when Kate Middleton and Prince William got married. From what we can remember, I had tea to celebrate, but that was about it.

This year, it just so happens that this wedding corresponded with a "girls weekend" with my mom, my sister and my daughter. A perfect opportunity to get geeked out about a royal wedding.

We had scones, chocolates, tea (for me), and champagne. Now, before the mom-brigade jumps down my throat, I had enough champagne to toast to the new couple, and I pumped and tested my milk before giving it to my daughter. 

My daughter celebrated by being super cute in a very pink tutu.

We had a ton of fun, despite the very early morning. The wedding was significantly different from Will and Kate's, as it was more modern, laid back (as laid back as a royal affair can be I suppose) and more filled with celebrities than heads of state. Oprah, the Beckhams, Elton John, Serena Williams...the list goes on and on.

I thought Meghan's gown was perfect for her. I was in love with the veil, which, come to find out, had embroidered flowers for each of the 53 commonwealths. 

I could go on and on about the ceremony and the carriage ride after, but you can take a look at it online. This post is more about the geeky things the women did in our family for the Royal Wedding. :) Plus, an excuse to post about my little princess :)

Mothers Day

Happy Mother's Day everyone.

I usually will do a quick Facebook post about Mother's Day. Including what my Mom means to me, a shout out to all the Moms I know, etc...

This year, if I were to do that, I think my post would be far too long for anyone to read.

So, hence the blog post.

First and foremost, obviously the big difference this year is that I, myself, am a mother.

It is the most challenging, rewarding, beautiful, and messy thing I have ever experienced in my life. I am eternally grateful to Breaky for making me a mother and for joining me on this crazy journey.


A huge thank you to my husband's mother for raising such a wonderful, funny, patient caring man. He is the best father a woman could ask for, and that says a lot about how he was loved and raised growing up.


Obviously, I wouldn't be here if it were not for my own mother. More than that though, I owe her so much for being a wonderful role model. Not just as a woman, but as a mother. BabyCPK is lucky to have such a wonderful MiMi, and is lucky that I was raised by such a powerful, strong, smart, amazing young woman, because that is what I strive to be every day for my daughter.

A huge thank you as well to the wonderful mothers and mothers to be in both my family and my friends. Having a support group of women who understand what I am going through is one of the most important things I found helpful with raising this little bundle of joy (sometimes a bundle of terror, but you get the idea).

A very happy Mother's Day to all the moms, grandmothers, great grandmothers, and moms to be.



And in the meantime, don't mind me, I am just taking a well-deserved "me-time" break.

Another Day in the Life of an ESports Wife Baby Edition

This is the 4th installment about what life is like when Breaky is out of the country for an event.

Links to previous posts:
Blog Post 1
Blog Post 2
Blog Post 3

TL:DR the first two deal with some silly things, one post negative and the other positive, about what life is like at home when Breaky is gone. The third one dealt with what it was like while I was pregnant. News flash, things were harder while I was pregnant.

And then came the baby.

BabyCPK is the best thing that has ever happened to us, don't get me wrong. But people are not exaggerating when they say that babies are hard work. Just imagine a mini-dictator telling you exactly what you can and cannot do. Just without actual words, but screams and grunts. Need to go potty? Not if the little one needs to be fed RIGHT NOW. Want to go to the grocery store? HA. You'd better hope Amazon has it, because your phone is the closest thing you'll get to the store in the next 12 hours. Oh, and stock up on body spray, because you are very lucky if you get the minutes you need to shower.

While all that seems daunting, if you have a partner, it is manageable. One can do the dishes while the other rocks the baby. The other can shower while the other changes her.

So when Breaky said he was going to be gone for TWO WEEKS, not going to lie, kinda didn't want him to go. We are lucky in that we have an amazing Nanny who is watching BabyCPK while I'm at work. But when I get home, man, I really miss Breaky.

Here are the biggest struggles I have faced thus far

• Getting BabyCPK to nap long enough for me to take a quick shower

• When you do get the baby to nap or to bed, you realize how loud ordinary items can be. Shower curtain opening? Like a bomb landing next door. Turning on the sink? Like a rock concert. Dog barking? Nah, she sleeps through that... go figure

• Speaking of dogs, poor DogCPK has gotten very little exercise this past week. Really hard to do juggle a stroller AND a dog who loves to pull and bark at other dogs. Luckily we have amazing friends who are going to bring DogCPK on a doggy outing with their dog. 

• In one of my other posts about this, I had mentioned that strange noises were louder and more scary when I was alone. Now that I am responsible for a little life? Terrifying. Let me tell you, having the broom fall in the broom closet sounds like someone is breaking down the door.

• One pretty cool thing is that I propped up my phone while Breaky was casting to help with BabyCPK's tummy time. Figuring it would give her something to look at and hear her Daddy's voice. 

Tummy time! I didn't get a picture of her listening to Breaky. 

• It would be nice to be able to make a full meal again, and not whip together what ever I can while carrying a baby that refuses to be put down. Pro tip? Burritos are easy to eat one-handed, just make sure you do not drip any on your baby. 

All of us that are home are missing Breaky something fierce. We are insanely proud of him as he is casting the Epicenter XL Major in Russia. I also realize how hard it must be for him to be away, especially since the little one just turned 2 months old this past weekend. 

We love you Breaky! Continue to be awesome at the event, travel safely and come back to us soon. <3