About



Welcome to Speed Bump! My name is Paige and this blog is about our family and the things we love to do - exercise, cook, eat healthy, travel, and hang with family and friends. I'm a full time working mom and I tend to spill my thoughts about the push/pull of work and motherhood now and again. 





























About Maniger
When we got married, I kept my last name. Ryan and I used to joke that when we had kids we would give them some made up name that was a combination of our two last names (we did not do this, fyi). So MANI are the first four letters of Ryan’s last name and IGER are the last four letters of mine. MANIGER. And there you have it.

About Speed Bump
Ryan set up this blog for me while I was pregnant with C. We thought it would be a great way to post pictures for relatives and chronicle our baby’s new life. He picked Speed Bump for the blog title because our house is located between two speed bumps. A fact that is very convenient when giving directions to our house (Update: we no longer live in the house between two speed bumps. Nevertheless, the blog title still suits us, see below). But I think the title also has another meaning.

In many ways, having kids can be a speed bump for your career, your relationship, or, for other things you may have planned for your life. Speed bumps can be obstacles in your way or, as I now like to think of them, they can afford you the time to slow down and be present in your life before it zooms past you going 90 mph. We face speed bumps every day in our lives, and each day we get to choose how we react to them - as obstacles that slow us down or as reminders that life doesn’t always have to be lived at mach speed.  

The stars of this show...

Charlie,4, loves all things sports and superheroes. All boy, and for the most part, a very nice big brother.


Izzy, 2. Sometimes answers to Helen (real name is Helen Elizabeth), always wants to be held, and may sleep with us until she's 15.





We are currently living in a loft in downtown Kansas City, what an adventure with kids!



My titles in this family include Mom, beloved wife, lunch maker, baker, kid's chef, gift buyer, appointment maker, closet organizer, blogger, photographer (as in I take the pictures but am by no means skilled), among others...Outside of the Maniger household, I am a professor at a state medical school where I teach graduate and medical students. I also run a laboratory with a primary research focus on the effects of exercise and heat therapy on on the development of Type 2 Diabetes and Alzheimer's Disease. I am passionate about exercise and healthy eating and I spend a lot of time thinking about how to add more of both to my life.


Ryan holds many titles in the Maniger household as well. They include Dad, hot hubby, chef extroirdinaire, landscaper, grocery shopper, vacuum king, chief recycler, family accountant, head tickler, among others...Outside of the Maniger household, Ryan is an attorney in a construction law practice where he puts his training as an architect to good use.
Why blog?
I am a scientist. I am not crafty, I cannot make things. I can barely sew on a button. My kids will never have handmade Halloween costumes. I will never manage to keep photo albums of my kids updated and organized. But I like to write and I have a secret longing to be creative. Blogging is a way to chronicle our family life and also do something creative that doesn't involve glue, needles, paint or a hammer. This blog is about our family and the things we enjoy doing together: cooking and eating healthy food; being active and fit; traveling and spending time with friends; and, most importantly, enjoying every day with this crew.

C, Iz and Roxie. Roxie was 9 on her birthday, the 4th of July, 2011. She's embraced the new additions to our family with patience and love.

I'd love to hear from you, so leave a comment or email me at pgeiger13 at gmail.

Popular posts from this blog

Children know best

Image
I’m with my Mom, sitting next to her in a crowded restaurant, and yet I feel alone. I should be warmed by her proximity, by my ability to put my arm around her shoulder and squeeze her towards me. I can swing my leg three inches to the left and our knees will bump together. But she is light years away. She is the earth and I am the moon. She is a falling star glimpsed out of the corner of my eye; I’m fervently making a wish upon that star, my mother the star. I'm in the middle of my life with an established career, strong marriage, and healthy and active children of my own. But my Mom's dementia has only made me realize how much I still need her. There are so many things I want to tell her, so many lessons she has yet to teach me. I think about my Mom's life and my own, the similarities and differences, the choices we both made. We've always been close, I thought I knew her well. But there are so many things I've never asked her, so much about her I don't k
Click here to see more...

Just say Yes!

Image
I had the best, unexpected and unplanned Sunday with Charlie. Izzy had a busy social calendar (first grade girls do not mess around), Ryan was busy and Charlie and I found ourselves alone. What to do? Sundays are our catch-up days at home and our parental to-do list is usually long. I don't enjoy it, but it is the one day we go to the grocery store, do laundry, vacuum, run errands - all the stuff that has to get done around the house when both parents work all week. Most Sundays we encourage the kids to play outside, have a neighbor friend come over and basically entertain themselves. On Sundays, I say 'No' a lot. No, I don't have time to play. No, I can't throw the football. No, I can't play dolls or dress up. No, no, no. There just isn't enough time in the day, in the week, to get it all done. This Sunday I asked Charlie what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to make a saxophone! To back up a bit, Charlie's third grade class went on a field tri
Click here to see more...

Izzy's rainbow party - behind the scenes

Image
It's hard to focus on much besides Izzy's beautiful rainbow birthday cake...     But there were other aspects of the party that I really enjoyed as well.   I loved the idea of using baby food jars to decorate for Izzy's first birthday when I saw this post . In the interest of time and my waning energy, I decided to simplify this idea.
Click here to see more...