Hot Damn!

Ever since I’ve had kids I’ve been one of those moms that would say, if pressed, that one of the reasons I make it work staying at home is because I just don’t want to miss any of my kids’ “moments”. Well, I realized today, that there are moments that I’ll miss and do, now that I’m working a few days a week. Furthermore, I will relish in the fact that I am blessedly able to miss these moments and can leave them for my totally awesome and adored sitter, Lauren.

Lauren had all three at the pool today and Finn pooped right on the deck near the water. A nice green log dropped right out of the leg of his trunks. (What’s up with the ineffective mesh thing inside??) She rushed him into the shower and when she came out, a life guard was picking it up. She is mortified. I feel terrible for her, especially because a guy she knows works there. (I may be old, but I remember those days!!) But if I’m being honest, all I’m really thinking is, “Hot Damn! That is money well spent!”

End of summer = Big tip for Lauren

Can I bum a smoke?

I should be working right now. I was - and then I stopped. With all the bizarre situations I have been in, this might take the cake. As my hands shake, shoulders ache and I taste nicotine in my mouth, I have to wonder…. Could this be right?

As many of my close friends and family know, I have been in an ongoing battle with a condition called ulcerative colitis since I was pregnant with Logan. I was blessed to go into remission after her birth and my symptoms didn’t resurface until October of 2007 – what a reprieve! Following the advice of my doctor, I discontinued one of my meds in December of 2006 and that likely led to my problems nearly a year later. Now, almost twenty-one months since then, I am up to sixteen pills a day combined with a few other not-so-pleasant drugs and my symptoms, although better, still persist. I’ve managed to enlist the services of the inflammatory bowel disease guru at the University of Chicago, who helped me get back to normal years ago and plan to keep him as my primary GI doctor now. Let me just say that the university environment has thrown me into a world of the unexpected – which is where I am at this very moment.

Since I started back at U of C, the specialists there have been suggesting that I start smoking, just five cigarettes a day. Apparently, it is very rare for a smoker to have the disease and when you compare cancer rates of the general public, light smokers and ulcerative colitis patients; colon cancer from UC wins, hands down. The Mayo Clinic has done extensive studies on this and they concur that it is successful for an overwhelming number of ulcerative colitis patients. I just can’t deal with actually smoking and I’ve been trying other things since March, but as of my visit last week, I agreed to give the nicotine patch a go.

Now consider this: most, well, all people who use the patch are quitting smoking. They already have loads of nicotine swimming around in their veins. I don’t, so I went from zero to sixty in minutes. I smoked a bit in my partying days, but not since the nineties. So here I sit, at my desk, with my babysitter and three kids swirling around me. I have shaky hands and a huge nicotine buzz. I feel revved up and relaxed at the same time and I taste and smell cigarettes. My leg, where I affixed the patch, aches. I feel like I should be sitting out on my porch with some good old Florida friends and could really go for a beer.

Seriously, what kind of alternate universe am I living in? I hope this damn thing works.

Times Like These

With all the planning and effort that goes into all that we do, it’s ironic how life boils down to tiny moments of clarity; times when you realize that you’re exactly where you should be. I am so grateful, that right in the middle of each day’s frenetic chaos, I am still able to find these moments and savor them. I wouldn’t have expected one to occur at Just Tires on Tuesday. Nope, I had no desire to go get my tire patched with three kids along for the ride, at all. The four of us sat waiting in Adirondack chairs on a sidewalk facing the parking lot at 3 p.m. on a seventy degree sunny day. We joked and played chair hokey pokey, practiced bubble blowing, took goofy pictures and laughed like crazy. It took this moment of making the best out of something none of us wanted to do to remind me how blessed I truly am, that I like these three people better than anyone else in the whole world and that I can’t imagine my life any other way. Well, I guess I could do without the whining and potty on the floor, but it’s all worth it for times like these.

It's a wrap!

The end of May and beginning of June have brought a ton of events our way. Here are just a few shots from the big doings in our neck of the woods….

Finn's 3rd Birthday

Riley and her soccer coach!

Mommy and Daughter Brownie Tea

Off to Kindergarten!

On to Second Grade..... summer officially begins!

So what's on the docket now? Summer is already packed with loads of fun: our annual trip to North Carolina (Logan is heading out a week early for some sailing and alone time with Grandmom and Granddad), gymnastics and pool time, baseball games and block parties and Girl Scout camp and even Great America. Most of all I'm looking forward to a different routine for a few months... we need it!

Wedding Bells

He moved so lightening fast that you almost couldn’t see him with the naked eye. But he did it. Dressed all dapper-like in his tux and Chuck Taylors, the flames on the side must have inspired Finn’s speedster aisle debut. As far as weddings go, Tom and Michelle’s was top tier and we were so thrilled to be a part of it. The nuptial highlights were their personally written vows that rocked and Tom’s special vows for step-daughter Emily. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house. How lucky we are to have them in our family!

As far as the fun goes, the reception was a kids’ dream with a third of the guests falling into the youngster category. The dance floor was full from beginning to end and even my well-practiced rendition of the Hoedown Throwdown (as reviewed by vodka and tonic) went off without a hitch! It was great catching up with family, both new and old, and to watch everyone have a great time.

Thanks to Aunt Michelle and Uncle Tom for a heck of a hootenanny. We wish them everything wonderful in their forever together!

That's funny. Really.

I have a great neighbor who I really do like, but who finds it necessary to give me a hard time, whenever possible, about being an at-home mom. (If he ever reads this blog, I know he knows who I am talking about!) I have to admit, it definitely gets my dander up, to say the least, but I know it’s all in good fun. Being at-home is a rarity in this ‘hood; I’m one of only two moms in nineteen houses that doesn’t work outside the home. The other one doesn’t work at all. I don’t think my neighbor believes that I actually make an income from writing, but whatever. He jokes constantly about “how busy” my days must be. GRRRRR.

Well, here’s this she-woman’s morning in a nutshell. Don’t tell me I’m not busy. And by the way dude, Thursday’s my easiest day of the week.

Woke at 4:30 to work.

Wrote two articles for two different clients and sent them off.

Researched a third piece.

Watered all the flowers and shrubs.

Woke kids. Dressed, fed and got Logan on her way.

Watered the lawn.

Cleaned up the kitchen.

Vacuumed first floor.

Dug out entire vegetable garden, removed all grass and dumped it behind our fence.

Shoveled and wheel barrowed two whole yards of top soil mixed with compost from the pile about 100 yards away from my new vegetable garden.

Planted vegetables.

I swear, I don’t remember anything other than childbirth being as tough when it comes to physical labor. I am skipping my regular Thursday trip to the gym for sure. All this by 11 AM? I doubt I need to tell you how many interruptions there were from the peanut gallery.

With a light-hearted spirit – of course - I challenge my comedian neighbor to a busy-ness contest. Any day. Bring it on!!

Time to make lunch.

Man's Best Friend

One of my weekly jaunts takes me to obedience class with Jesse. I love this time for a number of reasons, most notable being the hour of walking that gets us there and back and the time alone with Jess devoted to her training. (As you might guess, at-home training sessions are a rarity.) She is a smart cookie and demonstrates each week that her breed was definitely born to work with humans. This floppy, uncoordinated juvenile delinquent makes me proud each and every class as she transforms before my eyes, picks things up effortlessly and focuses, like a sharp shooter, on the task at hand.

There are several Rowdy Rovers in our current class. It’s been eye-opening to watch them and I’ve realized that the rowdy ones are usually not the bad ones; they’re just reacting to a look or mannerism from a quietly aggressive classmate. And as I listen to our trainer, Mare, I realize that the rowdy dogs are the ones struggling with confidence issues, from lives spent in foster homes or unloving ones, that they need work through. Mare says that nearly all of them can overcome these issues and become happy, well-adjusted pets.

Funny how we have so much in common with man’s best friend. So many of us carry around baggage from the past, struggle to be confident or fight to keep old demons at bay. I’m amazed at how these diligent and loyal hard-workers are able to learn to trust, in humans and in themselves, and rise above whatever happened in their pasts. If only us humans could be as successful!

I am a dog person. And a human person, too. Here’s to all us humans moving forward!