A bit sidetracked...

This being home on vacation thing rocks!  I have tons of time to do all kinds of neat things and of course to scour Pinterest for fantastic ideas.  This week I went to the store to find a frame for the wall art that I'm planning (which I found) but I got sidetracked by some super cute fabric.  Let me preface this by saying that I asked for a sewing machine four years ago and got one....and it has remained in the box without even being opened since then.  So I bought the fabric, broke out the sewing machine and whipped up a cute little cover for my Kindle.  It definitly isn't pretty, but I wouldn't call it a total fail.  I did this without a pattern and just kind of went with it...and it was a great way to get back into sewing so maybe there will be some more projects like that coming up in the near future.

In other news, we celebrated little man's first birthday yesterday.  I cannot believe that it has been a year since the marathon birth occured (you can read about it here if you really want to...but I totally downplayed the awfulness of it in my post-partum, sleep neglected state).  I cannot believe that he has been a part of our lives for a year.  It seems like it was just yesterday that I was bringing him home and wondering how the heck I was supposed to keep him alive.  Yet at the same time, I cannot remember what life was like without him.  And now I am officially the mother of a toddler....god help me!

Our First Christmas....any my new project

First, an update on our first christmas.  Evan was a champ!  He wasn't too into opening all of the gifts, but he certainly enjoyed all of the fun new toys he got.  He even survived two days of little naps and late bedtimes.  Wooh!  Here's a few pictures for your viewing pleasure:
Xmas EXPLODED in my living room.  If this kid isn't spoiled.....

He wasn't toooooo sure how to open those things....

But playing with Auntie Kiersten's puppy was pretty fun!

All in all, it was a pretty good day!

Now onto my project for the month.  In all honesty, January is most likely going to have a few projects as its little man's first birthday too and I'm planning some pretty fun cupcakes.  But for now....I have this spot in my hall where I hung a very nice holiday picture.....and it stayed there all year.  See?

Clearly that just isn't going to work for another year!  I suppose I could blame last year on the whole having a baby thing.  Yeah.  Maybe.  Anyhoo, my plan is to revitalize this wall.  I'm thinking of a combination of a few things.  The first is inspired by this photo from this blog.  The plan is to head to the craft store as soon as little man wakes up and see what I can find.  Stay tuned for the other additions to the wall!



Reindeer Cupcakes

Project #1 was a success.  I made these super easy, super cute cupcakes for Evan to bring to daycare today.  They took less than an hour and took very little skill.  Heck, if they came out looking this decent and my uncrafty self made them, then anyone can do it!

I used simple white cupcakes with chocolate frosting.  The muzzle is a vanilla wafer, pretzels for the ears, an m&m for the nose and any white candy bit with frosting for the eyes.  December Pinterest Challenge = success!

Baby Jesus

So I'm not proud to admit this, but for the past few months my motivation for going to church has been so that little man could be baby Jesus in the Christmas pagent this year. I mean really...he's adorable and the perfect age....it's a once in a lifetime opportunity! The first few weeks of December came and went and I assumed that they didn't want a real baby Jesus. Shucks!

Then it happened....on Sunday I was approached and asked if I would be willing to let Evan be in the pagent as the one and only baby Jesus. I of course said yes. Fast forwad to Tuesday night and a phone call from the coordinator at the church. She wanted to discuss logistics. The conversation went something like this.

Me: Should he wear something special?
Church Lady: No...just something white. And we'll put him in the manger. Mary will be right next to him the whole time.
Me: Great. Who's Mary?
Lady: She's in 5th grade.
Me: Oh. Well, I'll jsut be sure to sit right in the front row in case I need to grab him.
(Awkward Pause)
Lady: Welllllll, we were hoping that you would be an angel. You don't have to wear wings or anything....
Me: Well ,I guess I could do that.
Lady: Great! Do you want to be a silver or gold angel? Oh, and you'll be the only adult on stage just so you know.
Me: Oh, okay. I'll just hide in the corner then so I'm not too obvious.
Lady: Oh no! We'll have you right up by the manger. It'll be great!

What!!!!! I think God was laughing at that trick. So I got my wish, but with a twist. This girl is officially the only adult angel in the children's christmas pagent. But my son gets to be Jesus. Sigh. The things I do for him already. I'm sure pictures are to follow....

A new mission....

So clearly I haven't been very good at this whole blogging thing lately. This OBVIOUSLY has nothing to do with the fact that once the little guy goes to sleep all I want to do is crash on the couch and has EVERYTHING to do with the fact that this website is blocked at work (the nerve!). I also think that one of my problems is motivation and direction. Is this a mommy blog? A teaching blog? A boring blog? All of the above? Sooo....I have a plan.

I'm inspired by two things: 1.)a great friend of mine who started a blog last year and wrote about monthly resolutions and 2) Pinterest.  If you haven't checked out Pinterest, you have to!  It's full of fabulous ideas about everything from cooking to fashion and has tons of inspiration on it.  I have always attempted to be a craft/clever/creative person and often find myself falling short.  Sometimes it is lack of time....othertimes its just that I kind of stink at crafts.  Oh right...the plan...get back to it.  The plan is that each month I will find some sort of project (even if its something as simple as a recipe) to try out and I'll blog about it.  Don't worry....there will still be plenty of humor considering that most of the times that I try this my project are epic fails....and I promise to post pictures of everything.  Even the fails.

So if this cute face isn't enough to keep you occupied:

Hopefully my crafty things are :)  This months project is going to be a quicky considering that it's already almost over.  I have to bring in cupcakes to Evan's daycare on Friday for his birthday and figured I'd give these a shot.  There aren't too many kids so it shouldn't be very time consuming.





The original post is found at a super awesome blog called With Sprinkles on Top.  Stay tuned for the end result :)

Small victories

I have taken this long to write because I didn't want to write until I felt I could post something positive.  And as I sit here in my classroom on my 7th day at the new job I'm finding that for the first time so far I'm excited for the kids to come in.  Finally.

It was a rough first week.  I started a job in a building where I didn't know procedure, curriculum, my students, expectations, or anyone else.  Couple that with a few super challenging classes who are pushing boundaries after a month of school with substitute teachers and I found myself in tears over a glass of wine a few evenings last week.

Since then, I have had some small victories.  My difficult class was quiet for a whopping 20 seconds yesterday and about 50% of them completed their assignment.  Again....small victories.  Considering that in that same class a random condom appeared on the floor on my second day and I'll take it.  I have found some wonderful supports in my fellow teachers and am finally starting to feel a little more at home in my classroom.  I am amazed at how quickly you get rusty!  I've always been a natural teacher....my personality flows into my classroom, but I realized mid last week that I seemed to have forgotten how to do that.  Luckily, I have since remembered and my students are noticing that.

I'm seeing glimmers of interest.  We watched a news story last week about the NASA satellite that was falling back down to Earth and on Monday I had at least one student from each class ask me if it fell.  Yea for engagement (even if it wasn't totally on topic)!  I'm seeing a routine start to settle in.  We're not there yet, but we're getting there.  For those of you that teach, you know that there's a "honeymoon" period the first few weeks of school where its easier to lay the groundwork for your rules and expectations.  I missed that honeymoon period and inherited classes with no rules and expectations in place.  I have to keep reminding myself that today is only day 7....and that's a small amount of time to already be seeing improvements.  Small victories....here we come....

A fresh start

A quick update….


In just a few short days I will be leaving behind my well worn desk chair, my keyboard tray that seems to accumulate crumbs faster than Alaska accumulates snow, and my dull grey-ish cube for the world of colorful whiteboard markers, office supplies galore, and of course kids. Yep, that’s right….I am officially a teacher once again.

To maintain anonymity (somewhat) and so I can continue this blog I won’t tell you where I got a job, but I will be teaching middle school general science. While I’m no stranger to teaching, I am new to the world of middle school. I’ll be trading my zitty kids for smelly ones and my horny ones for well….those hormones will still be flying  I am so super excited to start, although I will be jumping into a classroom after the year has already started so I’m sure there will be a bit of an adjustment period for me and the kids.

Either way….the prospect of summers off, and vacations, and three day weekends, and snow days….well you get the picture. It will mean more time with my little man though which makes me oh so happy. I’m already looking forward to trips to the beach and museums and other fun things for next summer.

So here goes nothing…..now I just have to hope that I can control the trucker mouth that I have developed over the past few years :)

I have an interview !!!!!!!!!!!!

And just like that summer is gone. Work has been CRAZY busy and I’m just now settling back into somewhat of a routine. Hence the update. Not much has changed in the Radz household…work is work….Evan is growing (and pulling up on things…yikes)…the house is still falling apart. Same old, same old. What is new is my job situation. Mainly that tomorrow at 12 noon, I have an interview to get back in the classroom! I have been wanting to get back in the classroom for some time now and finally have a few promising leads. Those who know me, know that I was meant to be a teacher. For those of you who don’t know me, here are a few of the reasons that I MUST get back in front of the kiddos.

 

1. I like hearing myself talk which means that I’ve started talking to myself….not good.
2. I looooooove the kids. There is nothing like the relationships that you build when you see the same kids every day for a whole school year. It’s amazing to watch their successes and their failures and every once in a while you get that kid that comes along that makes you say, “Now THAT is why I’m a teacher.” 
3. I love buying school supplies….and without being a teacher I really have no reason to buy them and instead I look like the sad old lady at the office supply store buying colored pencils and fun paper clips.
4. I am just not meant to sit at a desk. Sitting in front of a computer leads me to do troubling things like…well….talking to myself, giggling at absolutely nothing, yelling out random obscenities, stealing things from other’s desks for ransom, and other equally psychotic things.
5. I want my summers back…and vacations….and 3 day weekends….and snow days  I realize that sounds selfish, but really it’s all about more time with my little man.
6. I need to have my own classroom that I can just close the door to from time to time. I realize that I will still be accountable for my work, but there’s nothing like being able to just do your own thing and run with it.
7.  I’m hilarious. No really….I am. Okay, so maybe day to day I’m not too funny, but something about being in front of 30 teenagers brings out the inner comedian in me. They even laugh with me sometimes! (Alright, maybe it’s at me….but it’s still laughing.)
8. Where the heck else am I going to my funny stories from? Like the time the kid saw me at the movies and asked why I wasn’t at school….on a Friday night. Or the brilliant student who asked me if she dyed her hair if her unborn baby’s hair color would change. Or the ….well, you get the idea.

And most importantly….

 

Teaching is truly my passion. I find nothing more rewarding than getting kids to realize that they are amazing individuals and that even if (gasp) science is not their thing, they all have strengths. I love watching the “trouble” kids come alive with a little bit of support. I love the kids that come back after they’ve graduated to share their success stories. I love knowing that maybe, just maybe, I am the topic of conversation around the dinner table because a child learned something so fun that they just had to share it with their parents.

 

Anyways, fingers crossed that this interview goes well. Ah hell….cross your toes, arms, legs….whatever you can manage for me 

 

My amazing burglary skills...

I figured it was Friday and a good day to post and even though I missed the  MamaKat posting day I went to her for a prompt and came across this gem.  Couldn't have been more perfect.  Enjoy.

1.) Write about a time you had to crawl through a window.

It was a beautiful summer day...a bit on the hot side, but bright and sunny....perfect for getting a little tan on my glowing white skin.  At the time, I lived in the third floor apartment and we had the cutest little deck off the back of the house that rested right on the peek of the roof from the floor below (picture this...its important later).  I don my tiniest of bathing suits to avoid tan lines knowing that no one can see me on the back deck and grab my iPod, a towel, and a bottle of water and walk out, closing the one door back into the house behind me.

Fast forward about an hour later....I am sufficiently fried, my water is gone, and I'm starting to get a little woozy so I figure its time to head out of the sun and cool off.  I gather everything up and go to open the door....and the knob doesn't turn.  I try it again, thinking maybe the sun has gotten to me.  Nope.  Nothing.  I have locked myself onto my little 6'x6' deck 3 stories up in 90+degree heat.  Lovely.  Panic sets in when I realize that I will be home alone for at least the next 5 hours!  I could be dead by that point!  So I take action.

If you read this normally, you know that I'm a fairly athletic person (klutzy yes, but somewhat coordinated when I need to be), so I haul bikini-clad self over the railing of the deck and lower myself onto the STEEP pitch of the roof below...and realize the black roof is burning hot!  I try desperatly to scramble back up onto the deck, but can't quite get the leverage I need while alternating which foot I'm standing on. Realizing this will never work, I turn around and crab walk (not sure why that seemed intelligent) down the roof to the much flatter roof of the second story.  Once there I find a little bit of shade and sit down to contemplate my next move.  I look around to see if there's anyone I can call to....there isn't.  Which is good because that also means that no one has seem the woman in the bikini just scale her roof, but bad because I'm still stuck two stories up.  I look over the edge of the roof and try to calculate how far the drop would be if i hung all 5'3" of me from the gutter and figure that its prob still a good 20 feet....not doing that.  Soooo I lay on my back on the roof of the second story and figure I'll wait for my lovely husband to come home and rescue me....and then I notice that I'm staring at the window of the 2nd floor apt.  Wooh!  I knock on the two windows that I can see and call to whoever may be inside...and no one answers.  At this point, I'm desperate....hot, sweaty, practically naked, and a bit light headed....so I try to open the window...locked.  To this day I'm still not sure how I actually got the window open, but I think I had one of those superhuman strength moments...and before I knew it I was in the apartment.  I quietly closed the window and tiptoed through their apartment (not sure why I tiptoed...no one was home), out their front door, and back up the stairs to my apartment where I put some aloe on my burned to shit feet and took a well deserved nap.

How about you?  Ever broken into anywhere?

Another day....another pound?!?

At the beginning of last week I started a diet.  This would be unremarkable for most people, except that I typically don't believe in dieting.  I'm known to tell anyone who says they are on a diet to "just eat in moderation...you'll be fine!".  That was before....when I was already skinny.  Easy to say then.  Fast forward to today....and my post baby body is still not quite back to normal...and I have a stubborn ten pounds that just don't want to budge (really, I could probably stand to lose 20 lbs, but I'll settle for the 10).

The diet that I started is called the slow carb diet and basically involved me eating lots of protein and veggies and very little carbs.  I should really only eat carbs when I'm working out, which I'm not doing, so I really eat practically nothing.  The cool thing is that I'm allowed a cheat day once a week where I can eat ANYTHING that I want to (yummo!).  So I started this last week and I've already managed to lose 5 lbs!  I'm sure that that'll come back a bit, but I also know that for me once I lose weight I'm pretty good at keeping it off....so bring on the crazy diet!  Wooh!  Wish me luck :)

Inherited Traits...kinda...

I was feeding Evan last night and noticing that he had quite the stubborn streak already and I got to wondering….exactly how much of our personality traits are inherited and how many are just because we are raised by our parents and end up taking on traits they have. I kind of thing that a lot of it is genetic predispositions to certain personality traits, but I won’t bore you with that. Instead, I got to thinking about what I may have “inherited” from my parents. Look wise, we know that I look NOTHING like most of family. The running joke is that I was switched at birth. Despite that I have inherited some pretty strong personality traits from my folks…for better or worse.

• Like Evan, my stubborn side. When I dig my heels in, look out. And I didn’t stand a chance because I get this from both of my parents.
• My ability to guilt trip. This totally comes from my mother. The woman had the ability to make you feel absolutely horrid about the most trivial of things. I can’t count the number of times where she didn’t even have to raise her voice (though she usually did) to have me in tears and wrought with guilt. I have used this trait to my advantage in my teaching career and I must say I’m pretty darn good at it (and clearly super modest too). If you’ve ever been on the other end of one of my guilt trips, I’m sorry. If you haven’t considering yourself lucky.
• •My work ethic. My dad is not college educated and yet has managed to work himself up from an entry level position in a local manufacturing facility to a small business owner. And all because he works his butt off. I know that I can certainly be lazy from time to time, but when push comes to shove I’m a pretty darn hard worker too.
• My singing voice….totally from my mom…it sucks. My sister got the good voice from my dad (who has the uncanny ability to sing any pop song and make it sound Frank Sinatra-esque).

What “traits” have you gotten from your parents?

 

He hates me....

I figure I’ll make it a two post day considering that its Friday and I’m done with work in 30 minutes and because I need to vent.

I have neglected posting about work on here….not because it hasn’t been active, but because I’ve been venting through email with my co-workers instead (and the thought occurred to me that those could be hilarious to read also…too bad I delete them all…). I have come to the conclusion that my boss hates me. And its not just me. Ask anyone I work with and they’ll tell you the same thing….I get treated much more harshly than anyone else. Case in point…

1. He has made comment to other co-workers that I would like to be an intern. Mostly this is because I like things neat and organized…both things which he is not. So if things get messy I clean up after him….so I want to be an intern. 
2. I am his personal secretary and he enjoys that way too much. Because my master’s degree in curriculum development means that I should mail out your letters and order food for your workshops. Thanks.
3. He will make comment to everyone else about how my work sucks….even after I’ve done exactly what he’s asking and have the emails to prove it.
4. The other day I approached to ask a very simple yes or no question….I very politely and somewhat quietly said, “Hey, N***?....” to which he responded all flustered and snippy…”wait, your third on my list”….There was only one other person anywhere near him. Jerk. You could have just said one minute.
5. He constantly tries to catch me doing things I’m not supposed to be doing. He is known to burst into a room where I have gone to work and then act disappointed when he finds that I am, in fact, engaged in productive activities. He has even taken to showing up to the office on his days off….I swear with the purpose of catching me doing something I’m not supposed to. This has led me to set my desktop image as a screenshot of my desktop when I was being productive….just in case

Luckily, his general snippiness is lessened by the fact that he is the most anal retentive person I have ever met and I find this hilarious. He makes sure that….

1. He doesn’t come into contact with anything BPA related….including receipt paper (really?!?) 
2. He thinks that everything causes cancer.
3. He bakes things with all kinds of low fat substitutes….just wrong.
4. He thinks caffeine is the devil and will get all red in the face when discussing how we will not give it to children.

I know there’s more, but its Friday and I’m stuck for idea. That and I’m sure there are only two people reading this right now that find this even remotely entertaining. If you made it this far….congratulations….now go have a drink.

Rules Schmools.....

Rules are made to be broken right? Especially fashion rules…


I have never claimed to be fashion forward…or even very fashion conscious. As long as my clothes cover up my bits and don’t make me look like hippo I don’t worry about too much else, much to my mother’s dismay.

My mom is very fashion forward. She is 50 and her wardrobe makes mine look like the old lady’s. We’ve gotten to a point now where we laugh at my numerous fashion faux pas, but it was a pretty big source of strife growing up. At least now we can laugh about it. Case in point…

I showed up to her house a few weeks back with Evan in tow. She scooped him up and once she had smothered him with kisses began to examine his outfit…which is when she noticed the socks. I couldn’t find two matching socks so he had on one white dress sock and one white baby tube sock. At which she busted out laughing and proceeded to tell me that as a child I used to think it was acceptable to wear two different socks as long as they were the same color….and apparently I’m passing that along to Evan.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I still wear different socks on a regular basis. In all honesty, no one notices if I have on two black dress socks but one of them has an every so subtle pinstripe to it and the other doesn’t. Or maybe they do and they don’t tell me. And who cares what kind of socks I have on if no one can see them? If I’m wearing long pants and boots…I may even wear two colored socks completely! And I’ll sit at my desk smugly all day knowing that I am totally being a rule breaker 

Barefoot and hormonal....

Ah pregnancy.  Let me preface this by saying that if you take away my irrational penchant for pancakes and bacon (both food that I despise normally) and my insistance on doing handstands through my pregnancy so I could see my center of balance changing (as a side note...nine month pregnant handstands just don't work no matter what you try)...I was a very sane pregnant lady.  I def didn't glow and all that jazz, but I wasn't that crazy prego lady.  And I can say that because my husband doesn't read this and he's possibly the only person who would disagree with that statement.  I did, however, have a few irrational pregnancy stories that looking back on make me giggle.

For starters, I was a MASSIVE pregnant lady.  My 5'2" short torso-ed frame had nowhere for poor little man to go but out.  As evidence, here's my halloween pictures...keep in mind that this is me at the seven month mark....I still had two months to go and already that's some belly.

That's a freaking belly.  Moral of the story....I was clearly pregnant.  I was in my last few weeks and hubby and I decided to go out to dinner.  By this point I was used to people asking about the baby and how I was feeling, etc.  For some reason, that night we made it through the entire outing without one person commenting.  We settled into the car to head home when a shocking thought hit my mind and the tears started to flow.  Poor hubby, having no idea what the problem was, attempted to weed it out of me in between sobs. I choked out, "No one said anything about the baby....they must all think I'm just fat!" He sat back in his seat, gave me the side eye, put the car in gear and just drove off.  Hmm....

The only other crazy prego thing I did was fight to stay in work (really!).  The docs had wanted me out about a month before little man was born because of my blood pressure and for some odd reason I insisted that I HAD to work.  Hell...if you told me today that I could stay home on my fat butt, watch re-runs of Teen Mom, and have an excuse to do nothing and still get paid I would be running out the door...

What about you?  Any good prego stories?

Unknown

Today's 60 second blog post is about things people don't know about me...hmm....considering I'm kind of an open book this could be tough, but here goes.

1.  I have HORRIBLE road rage.  Though I'm normally a very calm, level-headed person...get on my bumper and you will get brake checked...cut me off and you will get tailgated, cursed out, and probably flipped the bird.  It's bad.
2.  I'm acutally quite shy.  Despite the job I have and how I come across I get very nervous in new social situations.  I can hold it together really well, but inside I'm probably dying.
3.  I fight a battle with laziness daily.  I wasn't always this way, but I chalk it up to never having any real downtime....
4.  I'm a huge nerd...actually if you know me you know this...never mind....

Okay, time's up.  That wasn't too good.  Tomorrow isn't a timed post and is sure to be better...

Believe

My 60 second post of today is around the word believe...as in "I can't believe I just did that!"  I have two...one serious...one not so much so i'll write for 120 second today.

Here's the first....
As they placed the very pink, very squinty, very warm little bundle of skin into my arms I thought to myself I can't believe I just did that.  I can't believe that I just brought the most perfect little man into the world...can't believe that I am a mom....can't believe that this little guy means more to me than anything else in the world ever has. 

And the second.....
As a biology teacher I am sometimes faced with hilarious situations, but being the mature teacher I am I have to deal with them in an adult like manner.  I'll never forget the first time a student, my most goody goody student mind you, replaced the word organism with the word orgasm while answering a question.  I turned to the board with tears in my eyes and shoulders shaking from silent, held back laughter....I couldn't believe that I was laughing at this poor students mishap.  I hope she isn't permenantly scarred.

Love

I figure its time for an update….and a peek at my goal for this week. I stumbled across a blog called One Minute Writer that posts a prompt each day and asks that you write about it for one minute. Since I usually don’t blog because of the time constraints I thought this might be a good way to get some things onto paper. I’ve decided to aim for it each day this week (with the exception of today because I’ll do my update for the day today). I’m not promising things will be deep or insightful and they will totally be stream of consciousness writing, but maybe it’ll lead to something.


Evan is going to be 6 months old at the end of the month. I have no idea where the time has gone! He is sitting up, rolling over both ways, and is possibly the smiliest baby I’ve ever seen….and that smile can melt hearts…and it does on a regular basis. My Mr. Charmer is also figuring out already that he has mommy wrapped around his little finger…uh oh.

This whole mommyhood adventure has lead me to reflect lately about the human capacity to love. Over the past months the amount of love that I’ve been doling out has dramatically increase. What amazes me is that it doesn’t get spread any thinner. How is it that we find room in our hearts to give more and more and not short change anyone along the way? I don’t know the answer to that…doubtful anyone does…but it really is amazing how big one’s heart can get.

Oh Old Blue

I am being super creative today and two…yes TWO….of the writing prompts from MamaKat’s workshop. Here’s the prompts…

3. Your first car.

5. Write a love letter to someone (some thing) you love.

Yep…I loved my first car…so here goes.


Dearest Old Blue (yep, my car was named old blue),

I know that you weren’t much to look at. But in all your sky blue, old lady car, early 90s grandness you gave me freedom. You gave me my first taste of being able to feel the wind in my hair when I rolled down your windows…and you were kind enough to give me a workout in doing so through your nearly-impossible-to-turn crank down windows.

I have such fond memories or cruising through town with you, girlfriends in the backseat and maybe some in the front seat because your bench seat allowed us to squeeze in as many people as possible. Not to mention the memories that I harbor of my passengers deciding it’d be funny to reach their foot over and press my foot against the gas pedal…because of course your bench seat front was totally open.

I would also like to thank you for keeping my butt safe through my teen years of driving because we both know that I wasn’t the best at it. And I didn’t get much help from my friends. Your huge ass end make parallel parking a b**ch and while I still have mental blocks against it (yep….I REFUSE to parallel park or back into a spot…I’ll park miles away rather than do those things), it saved me from injury in many an accident. I’m sorry for backing you into a pole that time I “forgot” I had a rear-view mirror and for staring open mouthed as that big truck backed right into the side of you. I forgot you had a horn. I’m also sorry for turning you into a neighboring lane of traffic and right into a van. I blame your blind spot. You got me back for that one by causing the AC to malfunction.

Despite these setbacks, you faithfully stayed by me through my high school and college careers. I miss you terribly still and I was very sad that day I gave you up. And by the way…nice trick you pulled not starting for the car dealer as soon as I was in my new car. That one was classic.

Love always,

Keagan

My Mommy :)

I'm not sure that I have a single memory of my mother that stands out above the rest from my early childhood.  She was always there...a constant in my life...my cheerleader.  She trudged me from softball practice to gymanstics practice to school and back.  She sat at meets for entire Saturdays watching the same routines out of every little gymnast all day.  She hounded me to do what I was supposed to be doing. 

I think the best memory I have of my mother happened my freshman year in college.  I am the oldest child of three and am very much a homebody.  I enjoyed nothing more than game nights with my siblings and family dinners spent chatting about nothing in particular.  The year that I moved away to college was very bittersweet for me.  Granted I was only about an hour from home, but becasue I didn't have a car on campus I knew there wouldn't be frequent trips home.  I was excited to be on my own...excited to finally be moving onward and upward....but it was also my little sister's freshman year of high school and I was going to miss being there for that.  I was going to miss the soccer games of my brother and hearing about his middle school adventures.  So, yeah, I was a bit homesick.

Add to that that my birthday was on a weekday in the beginning of September.  I had been at school for about two weeks and I had to celebrate my 18th birthday in a dorm room with a roommate I barely knew and friends who I had met just a few days prior.  I remember trudging back to my dorm for lunch after chemistry (ugh...awful class too) and deciding that I wasn't feeling like eating at the dining hall.  Instead I cracked open a can of spaghetti-os, dumped them into my yellow bowl with a straw (no idea why I remember this), and walked to the microwave in the common room.  I sat watching the bowl twirl around and couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for my birthday girl self.  Then, as I was walking back to my room with my steaming bowl of processed goodness, I glance down the hall to see my ENTIRE FAMILY walking down the hall.  My mother hadn't wanted me to celebrate my birthday by myself and due to a fortuitous early dismissal had hauled not only my brother and sister, but my aunt (who is my mom's identical twin and like a second mother to me) and her kids up as well.  I have never been so happy to see their faces....and I think she knew just how much I needed that.

Funny Sleepers....

This was a prompt that I came across a while ago and am just getting around to writing about. I have come across my fair share of funny sleepers in the years of college roommates and sharing my bedroom and camps, etc. but none beat my brother-in-law. Let’s go backwards about 10 years….


I’ve mentioned before that hubby grew up camping at a campground all summer. When I first met him, he shared a tent with his brother…which meant that when I stayed with him, I slept in the tent with him and his brother (it was a big tent….I swear). Anyways, one night I was woken out of a dead sleep to the most amazing string of potty-mouth words I have ever heard. I sat bolt upright thinking that something awful was going on and shook hubby to wake him. He mumbled something about how I needed to go back to sleep….it was just Kevin sleep talking. What???

Apparently, Kevin has the habit of fighting people in his sleep. And he does this out loud. Often. This really wouldn’t be very funny except that after a few different times of being awoken by Kevin’s strings of swears I realized that I could egg him on. Yes….I could talk to him and he would respond. So I amused myself for quite a long time encouraging Kevin to “get em”. I even managed to get him to sit up and throw a few sleep punches. Hilarious! I have never known anyone who can carry on conversations…coherent conversations….in their sleep, but he can. The best part is he NEVER woke up and NEVER remembered anything, which made it equally as entertaining to tell him about his fights in the morning.

Any funny sleepers in your life?

Traditions

Having gone through the first major holiday with my new little family I got to thinking about traditions. Many of the little things that we have always done in my family seemed to sneak up on me this Easter…even ones that I didn’t really realize were traditions. Evan is still too young to remember any of this, but I still felt compelled to dye eggs with the same good ‘ol Paas kit that I used growing up. I still made the traditional “Mommy” “Daddy” and “Evan” eggs like we always did growing up. I put the same types of candies in his easter basket (chocolate bunny, Cadbury cream egg, a few peeps. The Easter Bunny was always sure to leave our baskets by the wood stove in the house….I don’t have a woodstove, but I did put Evan’s basket in front of the fireplace. I did all of these things without even really thinking about the fact that it’s the same things I have been doing for as long as I can remember….which I find kind of neat. My traditions are so a part of me that I didn’t even have to think about doing them. Here’s a few other neat traditions that my family has.

 

1. Xmas Eve at my mom’s house. It changes slightly from year to year, but it always includes dressy clothes, shrimp cocktail (gag), lots of delicious picky foods, Norad’s Santa Tracker, and the dads sneaking away to do shots of Sambuca or Hot Damn when they think we aren’t looking. Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without this one.
2. Christmas Day….Keith’s family does this really odd Polish tradition that I have come to really enjoy. I got kind of ambushed by it the first year though. Picture this….I have been dating Keith for about 6 months and, while I know his immediate family, I don’t know his extended family too well. Before dinner, each person gets a host. I am not Catholic so don’t take communion at catholic churches and eating host was a new thing for me. Once everyone has a host, you walk around and break off a piece from each person’s host thingy and give em a smooch. I decided to play nice and go along with this…not realizing that it’s really easy for that stuff to stick to the roof of your mouth….so I wandered around kissing total strangers with an enourmous pile of sticky host in the roof of my mouth. I don’t eat the host anymore (I give it to a younger cousin) but I still enjoy this one.
3. Thanksgiving….this is a personal favorite of mine. We all get together at my aunt’s house and chow down. All 16 or something of my cousins still sit at the “kid’s table” and are generally loud and obnoxious. It always seems that despite where life takes us we all end up back around that table on Thanksgiving. I hope that never changes. The day concludes with all of us going on a hike with the dads/uncles. This started as a way to get all of us out the mom’s hair for a bit when we were rowdy youngsters and has continued to include beer and a way to get out of kitchen duties  
4. Sunday dinners. Once Evan came along these became much more frequent, but it’s a way for me to get out of cooking to keep in touch with my siblings and my parents and relax before the start of a busy week.

 

I’m sure there’s more, but this has turned into an post of epic lengths already. Any neat traditions on your end? And a pic of Evan for your viewing pleasure :)

 

Ten Things My Mother Taught Me....

This may be a difficult post to get through without getting all teary, but here goes...

1.  How to make "hospital corners" with the bedsheets when making the bed.  It's still the only way I can sleep.

2.  Never quit in the middle....even if you hate what you're doing.  If you made a commitment finish it.  Once its finished you can always stop.

3.  It's okay if my house isn't spotless as long as my family is happy and healthy (she taught me this one a bit later in life).

4.  That Whopper Juniors from Burger King are the perfect way to beat a little bit of stress.

5.  To suck in my gut and squeeze my bum when I walk...along with holding your shoulders back. 

6.  Table manners.  We went to a fancy New Year's Eve dinner as a family each year just so that we knew how to eat properly.  Sadly, I forget a lot of this :)

7.  How to get all dolled up for a boy....but that that isn't what it's all about.

8.  It's okay to be a strong woman...and we are strong women.

9.  But it's also okay to know when you need someone to lean on.

10.  And most importantly, she taught me what love is.  How to love and how to be loved.  That one right there is the greatest gift I could ask for.

And there's the tears....

And this way yet again, another response to Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop.

WTF Tuesday...

A mommy board that I post on does a WTF Friday each week.  I decided that it needed to be done today instead for me.  I am in a spicy mood and figure this blog is a good outlet.  Here goes....

WTF weather....I thought you were going to toss a few nice springlike days my way on my last week home with Evan to enjoy.

WTF America...Why can't you give women year long maternity leave like Canada.

WTF Work...I've been asking you for work for three weeks and you haven't given me any.  Now you dump these hopeless projects on me that need to be done ASAP because you dilly-dallied.  The worst part is that I know you only handed them off because you hit a roadblock and didn't want to deal with it.

WTF Fever....Again, it's my last week home with little man and you creep up on me.  And if you even think of sneaking up on Evan I may just have to kick your temperature-increasing, chill and painful skin-inducing, headache creating, bowel wrenching fever ass.  No one messes with my little man.

WTF Squirrel....Why did you have to run in front of my car?  I tried to stop but out of fear of throwing poor Evan through the windshield I couldn't in time and now I feel really bad.  I know you got away, but I def hit you.

WTF guy at the gas station....I told you his name was Evan and refered to him as "he" several times....and he's wearing a very boyish outfit yet you still insist on telling me what a "beautiful little girl I have."  Really?  Maybe that's why you work at a gas station? (ouch....that was harsh)

WTF guy with the obnoxious lisence plate.  It said "DRS+ESQ" then they had a sticker with an equal sign next to it followed by the logo for their SAAB.  Does this really mean what I think it means?  Are you really that much of a tool?

Phew....I feel lots better now.  And a big thank you to Handy Manny who has kept Evan occupied while I got out this rant.  Off to be a better mother now...

Back to work, Back to work, to prove to dad I'm not a jerk....

Hehe....get what I did there.  Adam Sandler anyone?  Ah well, silly humor.

So the realization set in the other day that I have to go back to work one week from tomorrow.  WTF?!?  Where did my three months go?  I am sooooo not looking forward to going back to work.  As some of you may recall I posted previously about four of my co-workers here and here.  The loud talker and the Annoyance are no longer there, but the Gopher and my boss still are.  And we have a few new people around the office that I'm sure will be interesting conversation starters. I know we have loud sneezers and talkers and other interesting folks to talk about.
I called in during their weekly meeting this past week and wanted to cry sitting here on my couch.  Partly because I have to leave my sweet little man in the hands of someone else....someone else will get to share his smiles through the day and see him reach his milestones.  Partly because I have to go back to that nuthouse.  Ah well....at least I'll have some writing fodder as this blog has been getting fairly mundane as of late.

Keep your fingers crossed that I manage to get myself back in the classroom next fall or I may have to check myself into a mental institution...

A Memorable Neighbor....

Yet another response to Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop.  Today's prompt was to write about a memorable neighbor.  I had trouble chosing just one, but decided to talk about Peter (and I feel comfy using his name because I am positive that he will never ever read this blog).  Peter was the single man in his 40s that lived next door to my family growing up.  He was meticulous about his yard, disliked children, had a cat that was his world....yep....one of those.  Now despite the fact that he lived in a neighborhood FULL of kids he really didn't like us...except for some reason me.  Peter actually liked me.

Now I was an inquisitive little bugger (still am) and I attribute the fact that I went into science to this personality trait.  I was that kid that would ask a million questions and expected answers to all of them.  I loved to talk to "grown ups" and have "grown up" talks.  I vividly remeber that whenever Peter was in his yard or his driveway I would run over and we would have hour long talks about dinosaurs and the stars and other strange things. 

Things started to go south with Peter and I when I began to lose my childlike charm (ha!).  I always fed Peter's beloved cat, Jasper, when he was out of town and I took great pride in that job (especially because Peter loved Jasper so much....Jasper even got a tombstone in the backyard when he passed away...yep).  Anyhoo, one time Peter returned home and instantly came over to talk to my mother.  I sat in my room shaking in my boots over what I could have possibly done wrong.  When Peter left my mother called me into the room and asked me if I had been snooping around Peter's house.  I wracked my little kid brain and told he that the only thing I had done was looked under the bed in Peter's room for Jasper because I couldn't find him.  Apparently Peter knew that because I had left footprints in the rug.  What?!?  Then my sister and I got in trouble a few years later because we ate two Hershey Kisses out of the candybowl on his counter.  Again, WTF?!?  Did he count them????

I heard that Peter got married a few years ago....I would love to meet that lady..... :)

You Know You're a Mom When

I'm finally starting to feel like I've had some good mom experiences so I thought I'd toss this out there.
You know you're a mom when,

1. You can carry a purse, diaper bag, travel seat, bag of library books, and an umbrella into a building in the pouring rain and do so without dropping anything and while remaining completely dry.
2. You forget what its like to do something with two hands.
3. And along that same line, one arm muscle is much more developed than the other.
4. Poop is a normal conversation topic.
5. You have to remind yourself not to answer the phone in baby talk.
6. You know the theme songs to Little Einsteins, the Wiggles, and Handy Manny.
7. You suddenly remeber the lyrics to all the nursery rhymes you used to know.
8. 9pm is late.
9. You have pacifiers strategically tucked into most every room of the house and have a few in the car, just in case.
10. You can't seem to remember what life was like before kids....and you don't really want to either.

What's yours?

I got lucky....

Not that kind of lucky...sheesh....

I mean that I closed my eyes and my life miraculously seems to have fallen into place.  I'm married to a great guy, own my own home, and now have a wondeful little family started.  I have a tendency to stress about things in hopes that they turn our right and it seems that when I relax and just let them happen, they work out alright.

This brings me to my newest dilemma.  You might know that I am a teacher.  When I was laid off from my last job, I took a job as an education specialist.  This took me out of the classroom and into designing curriculum more.  I thought I would LOVE it, but I miss the kids something awful.  Not to mention teacher hours are super perfect for a mom.  Luck would have it, a long term sub position opened up in the town that I live in.  There's a chance (but no guarantee) that the teacher won't come back next year and in that case the job would most likely be mine long term.  The problem is, is that if I take the job and she DOES come back then I will have given up my full time job and be unemployed....but not even able to collect unemployment.  The job is a dream job, but I don't know if I can sit back on my luck yet again and hope this all works out for the best.  I'd be putting my family in a tough situation.

That said, I do believe that everything happens for a reason.  There's a reason this position conveniently opened when I was home on maternity leave and could easily take the job.  There's a reason it opened up just when I needed it most.  And there's a reason they offered me the job....

I just wish that someone would tell me what to do, but I know the decision is allllll mine.

And here's some smiley Evan pictures for reading this far.

Holy emotions, batman!

So the emotions that go along with this being a mom thing are CRAZY.  And I'm not just talking the whole postpartum hormonal ish....here's the story.  On Monday we got a call from Evan's pediatrician saying that he needed to have his  newborn screen redone because he had an abnormal result for a genetic  disorder.  She was  fairly positive that it was a false positive, but when something like that happens it hangs over your head.  We re-did the screen and in the meantime I researched like a crazy lady about LCHAD, the metabolic disorder that Evan could possibly have....and scared the living daylights out of myself.  Basically, he could lead a fairly normal life, but would have to have a special diet and may not be able to participate in sports or things that required large amounts of energy.  Needless to say, I had a knot in my stomach all week and realized yesterday that I haven't really been eating (not smart as  I'm nursing...bad  mom).  Anyways, the lab called yesterday ( after I had called them twice in the past two days) to say that everything came back completely normal!  I didn't realize how tightly would I was until I was able to relax.  It was def a more intense emotion than I've felt in a while...even stronger than the whole Down's Syndrome debaucle we went through with him when I was 17 wks pregnant (yes, this is the second genetic test he's "failed").  Anyways, here's some picutres for your viewing pleasure.

 Evan and Dad sleeping on the couch...well Evan was  at least

 He gets a 'fro when he gets out of the bath...love it!

 He wasn't too sure what to make of that giraffe

 A hospital picture...I cannot believe how much he has changed already!

 Channeling his inner Zoolander...can anyone say Blue Steel?

 Evan meeting his first new friend, Sophia.  She just wanted to eat him.

And a sneak peek of his first professional photo shoot.  I'm sure there will be many more of these when we get them!

I'm a Mom...

I've clearly neglected this blog, so this post will probably be epic in length.  Sorry in advance, but I have a lot to catch you up on.  As you can probably tell from the post, Evan Keith arrived on Dec. 29th at 1:09am (ironically, on his due date despite the fact that we tried to evict him two days before) weighing in at 6lbs. 3 oz. and 19.5 inches.  Here's the story...

We went into the hospital Sunday at 4 to start an induction process because my blood pressure had gotten a bit high.  We settled in and started Cervidil (a cervical ripining thingy) at 6pm.  That lasted overnight and was possibly the worst part of the whole induction.  I had basically one big cramp all night long and didn't sleep a wink.  We started pitocin at 6am on Monday morning and waited for things to kick in.  I had contractions all day, but nothing terribly painful and nothing at all productive.  By 6pm on Monday, I had only progressed to 2 cm so we stopped the pitocin and let me rest a bit.  We did Cervidil again overnight, but this time I took an Ambien so I slept through the night.  It was the first sleep that I had had since Saturday night so this was lovely.  The next morning (Tuesday) I still hadn't done much so we tried another treatment (Miso) and when that was over broke my water.  That happened at about 12 and by 1 I was having very strong, very regular contractions.  I had an epidural (heavenly) at about 4pm and found out that I had progressed to 7cm!  Awesome!  Things were looking great.  I was checked again a few hours later and was at 8...and then I stopped.  I stayed at 8 until about midnight when we decided to go ahead with a C-section.  At that point, I had been in labor since basically Sunday night and I was ready to have this kid out of me.  Keith was great throughout the C-section and everything went great!  Here's a pic of my new family right after....and I realize I look like shit but I just had surgery after a 2 day labor...deal.

Evan is doing fantastic.  He's a great baby, a good sleeper, a good eater, and super content to just hang out in his swing.  I'll be sure to post some more pictures up here as soon as I get them onto a computer.