Navigating the sticky, jam-covered road of life.  

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Feels like it was just yesterday and forever ago all at the same time.

Six years ago, this past Sunday, I married an incredible man.  You know, I really don't remember most of the details.  That day flew by in a blur.  My clearest memory is actually of scooting our chairs together before the Mass had started.  Sounds weird, but the chairs were like 2.5 feet apart.  We sat down, took one look at each other, stood up, and moved the chairs closer.  I just couldn't bear to be sitting that far away from him.  That hasn't changed.  Not even a bit.  

There isn't any place I'd rather be, or anyone else I'd rather be with.  I can't fathom that there would ever be a better partner for me out there.  

Happy Anniversary, Babe.  Love you so much!  


Tuesday, April 21, 2009

MOTHERHOOD = FAIL, PART II

I'm relatively relieved that there are no grades given for parenting.  No semester reports.  There is one major final grade given, but that's years away.  Good thing too, because I'm totally failing.  

Exhibit A: 

Sunshine woke up with a bad dream last night.  It took me a while to get to her because I had incorporated her crying into my dream.  I actually have no idea how long she was crying.  It was easy to put her back to bed though, and I didn't think about it again until this morning.  After we had cuddled for a moment, I asked her about her dream.  Apparently I was chasing a crab.  And trying to kill it.  Because I wanted to eat it.  And she didn't want me to.  

Wow.  I'm the source of my kid's bad dream.  I'm actually giving her nightmares.  I just don't know how I feel about this.  Is this a sign that I need to maybe knock off the ethnic food a little?  Get back to the mac and cheese?  

Exhibit B:

Ladybug and I picked up Todd for a trip the printer's this morning.  I had the radio on, and what song does Ladybug start singing?  Give You Hell by the All American Rejects.  That's right, ladies and gentlemen.  My 22-month old can sing Give You Hell.  

In my defense, she can sing her ABCs too.  And it could be worse... we heard one little girl singing We all just want to be big rock stars at the park about a year ago.  Life is about balance, right?  At least that's what I'm going to tell myself tonight.  Maybe I'll get it right tomorrow. 




Monday, April 20, 2009

Monday morning

I absolutely despise installing car seats.  I would rather do laundry than install car seats.  That's saying a lot.  Installing Sunshine's gi-normous car seat?  Well, lets just say that I'd rather invite 5 of her friends here to spend the day.  

But I spent yesterday doing it anyways.  Cleaned out the car too.  It needed to be done.  We're going to sell it soon, and while it needs to be detailed, the books were starting to multiply.  No kidding, I pulled 45 books out of the car.  Nearly that many hair bows too.  

So this morning, when Sunshine met me at the door, book in hand; I told her that there were no more books in the car.  It's a short ride to school, and she could do without it.  The fit that ensued?  Oscar-worthy.  Because telling her that she can't bring a book somewhere is akin to cutting off a limb.  

We finally made it out to the car, sans book.  She climbs into her car seat, and holds out a board book smaller than my palm.  "Moooommmm.  You must have missed this one."  The sarcasm?  She was dripping with it.  The only thing missing was a dumba** at the end.  Something tells me I'm going to need a metric ton of patience.  A lot sooner than I had anticipated.    

And by the way... oatmeal should NEVER be served on a Monday morning.  Ever.  

Friday, April 17, 2009

The Lost Month of April

So most of you probably realize that there must be big things going on at the Poole house.  You would be correct.  And no, there are no babies involved.  Unless you consider the brand new law firm that my brilliant husband has just opened a baby.  I guess it could kind of be considered that.  We've been working on it for quite a while.  It hasn't come without pain or joy.  Only this time it wasn't me in the driver's seat.  Thank goodness for that.  I, however, have taken over the role of the support person.  What can I get for you, dear?  Anything I can do to help?  Sure, I'll get right on that.  Talk about a total role reversal.  

Truthfully, I couldn't be more thrilled.  My husband is happy working.  I haven't seen him happy in his work for a very long time.  Now don't get me wrong, he actually works for longer hours now.  But they're his hours.  Working for his baby.  I couldn't be prouder.  

Scary as Hell?  Yes.  That too.  I've been working for the last two weeks on attaining health care.  Wow.  Un-freaking-believable.  It's so depressing that I've actually had to put it away several times.  I just can't bear to look at it.  There are actual policies out there that cost me $300/month just so I can have the privilege of paying for absolutely everything myself.  Preventative care, office visits?  Nada.  Until you hit the deductible of approximately a billion dollars.  Maternity coverage?  Hahahahahaha.  There's nothing that covers maternity anymore. And if you do want to purchase a special maternity rider?  There's a 12 month waiting period before you can even think about getting pregnant.  You get to pay for that lovely policy for 12 freaking months before you can use any benefit.  All I can say is that all those people out there practicing Natural Family Planning had better be very, very frightened.  

It's all worth it, though.    Just to see Todd thrilled about something other than the kids and me.  It's changing the person that I am.  By nature, I don't deal well with uncertainties.  This is forcing me to confront that fear of the unknown.  I have no idea where we'll be in a  year, or two.  I know where I hope we'll be.  And we're working like crazy to get there.  Sometimes I have to remind myself to slow down and enjoy the journey.  This is big.  Building something that is wholly our own.  

I'm not sure where this blog is going to fit in with the next few months of our life.  It will fit in.  But I think that it will have to come after being an assistant, secretary, courier, wife, and mother.  I guess I'm just saying that I will be slow.  And I hate that.  I love this blog.  So, I'm sorry that I lost the first half of April.  I hope I don't lose the second half.  

So... in the interest of supporting our family... anyone need a lawyer?

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Anyone want to make a delicious dish to showcase the cuisine of Spain? Oops, err, Europe?

When we enrolled Sunshine in school, we made it very clear to the school that we were not wealthy.  Our contributions to the school would, barring a lottery win, most likely not come in the form of large monetary donations.  We would, however, be more than happy to donate our time and talents.  

And to that end, we've been exemplary parents.  Todd has written articles for the monthly newsletter.  I've done everything from watching other people's kids while they help in the classroom to helping create the auction project for our class.  I've done photo projects, hosted a brunch, made plenty of hors d'oeurvres for different parent functions.  I'm generally there if people need a volunteer.  I've even taken home projects to complete for Sunshine's teacher.  So when a good friend of mine asked that I head up a continent for our school's World's Food Day, I said yes.  

Now I was a little reluctant.  April is just a really busy month for us.    And I'd never done anything like this.  I thought that perhaps someone who had actually attended the event once might be a better choice.  But I said yes, and I was given the task of finding people to cook dishes representing the countries of Europe.  Now I'm not sure how many of you have pulled out your map of the world in a while, but Europe...  Well, Europe has a lot of different countries, all with very different flavor profiles.  

But I sent out my nice little email requesting help for this fantastic event which would showcase delicious food from all over the world.  And almost immediately, I received three requests to cook for Spain.  But because I'm a novice at this and apparently lack all skills diplomatic, I made a crucial mistake.  I suggested that someone (the 3rd someone who had volunteered to cook for Spain) perhaps make an Italian frittata instead of a Spanish omelette.  She said sure, and then I never heard another word.  Until yesterday.

Apparently, there has been a whole flurry of emails going around about that mean coordinator from Europe and how she didn't want a Spanish omelette, she wanted an Italian frittata.  And did anyone else want help with their continent instead?  And really, yesterday was a terrible day to deal with this kind of beaurocratic BS.  

Silly me, I thought that the point of this event was to try to showcase as many different countries as possible.  So I did what any good, loyal parent would do.  I ate humble pie, a humongous serving of it.  I wrote the nicest email, copied to everyone on her little list.  I apologized for it taking me all afternoon to get back to her, that I've had a really sick little one.  I said that this was my first year at this school,  and that I was mistakenly looking at things a little differently.  That I was wrong for asking her to not cook for Spain.  And finally, that the omelette sounded delicious, and we would love anything that she would like to cook.  

And you know what I got back?  A terse email saying not to put her on Europe's list, she was still waiting to hear from Asia.  

Lovely.

Lucky for me, the coordinator of the entire event intervened and requested that she stay with Europe. So now I have three dishes coming from Spain, and that's it.  

I'm guessing that by the time this fantastic event showcasing delicious food from all over the world comes around, I'm going to be huddled in the corner, banging my head against the wall.