stormblog

Sleepy Jo

2011-12-15T04:54:00.001-08:00

We went to the Gingerbread House Display last weekend. On the way there, Jo asked, as she always does, “Do we have to go on the freeway?” Lexie asked her, “Why do you ALWAYS ask that?”

To which Jo replied, “There are two whys that I don’t like the freeway. One is it’s loud. And two is it makes me sleepy.” This was her two minutes later.

Dave has started paying Jo one dollar for every morning she wakes up in her own bed. Last night Jo told me, “Every night, I close my eyes and think, ‘I’ll go to mommy’s bed in one minute’. Then it’s morning and I say, ‘DANG IT! I didn’t go to mommy’s bed. DANG IT.”

23 Adult Truths

2011-12-04T06:28:00.000-08:00

You've probably already seen this, but in case you haven't... enjoy. Also, if you find out who authored this, will you let me know?

1.Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the @#!*% are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind-of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't
going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.

13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Light than Kay.

17. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

19. How many times is it appropriate to say "What" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear a word they said?

20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front.
Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

22. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.

23. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.

Smells Like Shari

2011-10-18T13:14:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I took the girls down to the Seattle Center and then to The Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch.

We were sitting in the lobby and Lexie says, “it stinks in here.” It didn’t really stink, it just has that old-building smell.

“Yeah! It stinks in here!” Jo said, much louder.

“All buildings and houses have their own smell. This one just smells old,” smart Rebekah pointed out.

Lexie picked up my arm and buried her nose into the sleeve of my turtleneck.

“There, that smells much better,” she said.

Rebekah followed suit and put her nose against my shoulder on the other side.

Then Jo stood between my legs and nestled her face into my cleavage.

“It smells like Shari,” Lexie said and all girls agreed.

Who cares if we looked like a totally doofus family, sitting in the Speg Fac, with three girls smelling their mom? It was one of the most fulfilling moments of my life.

Charades

2011-09-05T04:54:00.000-07:00

We went kamping at a KAO this weekend. One of our afternoon activities was playing charades.

My six-year-old was, among other things, a cherry, a ballerina, Justin Bieber and a cowgirl. Lex’s charade playing is solid.

My four-year-old played with a bit more flare. Her standout charade moments included:

A dog fighting with a baby

A frog that had been turned into a statue

A Husky cheerleader that had been hit by a football and decided to try make a touch down with it

An Attempt at Poetry (Don't Laugh)

2011-07-31T08:49:00.000-07:00

Milk

We ran out of milk so he left for the store

For ten years I lay my cheek on his shoulder
Every morning I hugged his waist and he kissed my head

We ran out of milk so he left for the store

We built a life together
We lived in a house, on a street, with our children, our dog, our neighbors, our lawn

We ran out of milk so he left for the store

At the same time we needed milk
A different man, in a different house, on a different street wanted whisky

We ran out of time and he left forever

Burning Calories

2011-05-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

For Christmas, my mom gave me this heart monitor. You strap it to your sternum and put the watch thingy on and you can see how fast your heart is beating. It calculates how many calories you are burning.

Guess how many calories I burn getting my kids ready for school in the morning.

Wait for it….

600!!!!

On the third day of wearing my little contraption, I happened to look at my wrist as I was trying to get the girls into the car. Of course I was running late.

Jo (who is three) had both arms wide open with a hand on either side of the car and was stiff as a board. She was screaming, “I don’t want to go to school-day!”

Meanwhile, Lexie (who is five) was in her car seat, kicking the back of the front seat screaming, “Don’t put her in here!” and the seven year old had her hands over both ears and was screaming, “BE QUIET!! I have a headache”.

I glanced my wrist and sure enough, my heart beat was 120. No wonder it says I burn so many calories in the morning.

Speaking of burning calories, I’ve taken up running. Well, I fast-walk with a little jogging thrown in, every Sunday. I’m looking for an ap or tool that will do the following.

1. Let me set it for interval notification. For instance, after five minutes it will say, “run” and then after one minute it will say, “walk now” etc.

2. Track my mileage. What would really be cool is a GPS / map mash-up.

Do you know of anything like that?

A Note to My Mother

2011-05-08T06:21:00.000-07:00

Recently, I’ve had a few meetings at Padelford Hall at University of Washington. Every time I park my car in that janky parking lot and ride up those creepy escalators, I think about how my mom must have felt the first time she took me to my college.

Why the university has anything for new students in that building, I will never understand. That building makes the Winchester Manson look simple.

I, of course, remember little of the day. We went there, “we” found my testing rooms, we did all the things you have to do before you start college.

As I think back now, I have a whole new appreciation for my mother. I try to picture myself, taking Rebekah up that nasty escalator in that strange parking lot, evidence of homeless dwellers everywhere. And then entering that maze of a building and trying to get figure out where the heck we needed to be to take tests that cost me hundreds of dollars (that my daughter promptly failed). I don’t remember my mom being stressed out at all. I’m sure she was. I know my mom. She was stressed out. But why don’t I remember it?

My grandfather passed away last December. As the family was sitting around reminiscing, we started talking about the trip we all took to Minnesota the summer before my 5th grade year. My mom pointed out that she had sprained her ankle when we got to the cabin.

Again, I hadn’t remembered that. I remember a fun week, frolicking with all of my cousins. Now that I have three small children, I know exactly what it would be like to be at a lake cabin, cooking and cleaning for a houseful of kids on “vacation” with my husband’s family (as opposed to my own family, who I could bitch and be nasty with and they’d be genetically disposed to put up with me) and to have a sprained ankle.

But again, I only have only the vaguest of memories of a sprained ankle.

I think most people with good mothers remember them in this way. We remember them less as people and more like the constant guiding force that was just in the peripheral. Maybe a little like the sky. I know I look up at the sky every day of my life, but no single particular images of the sky come to mind when I think of the sky. I appreciate the sky, and think it’s beautiful and am very grateful that it is protecting me from space, but I take it for granted and so does my memory.

Tina Fey’s poem, A Prayer for My Daughter, has a great ending:

And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord, that I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 A.M., all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back.

“My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget. But I’ll know, because I peeped it with Your God eyes.

Lately the delayed gratitude for my mother has been washing over me. This morning I make a Mental Note to call her.

Me and My Wine

2011-04-03T12:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, I overheard a conversation my five year old (Lex) was having with my seven year old (Bek). They were sitting at the kitchen table and Lex had picked up a glass of juice that I had left there earlier in the morning.

She sniffed the juice and said to her sister, “I want to drink this. But is it mommy’s wine?”

To which Bek replied, “No, Mom doesn’t usually drink wine for breakfast.”

I announced myself with a “HEY! For the record, I never drink wine at breakfast!”

They started giggling (for real, I don’t drink wine for breakfast).

But I do drink wine every night while I make dinner.

A few weeks ago, Dave was making a Lego house with the girls while I was making dinner. The house was a cross section (like a doll house). They were putting together the inside rooms and Dave says, “And here is where Mommy can drink her wine.”

I looked at him and asked defensively, “Do you have something you want to say to me?”

He laughed and said, “Relax!” as he turned the house around and there was a little Lego table with a little Lego wine bottle and two little Lego wine glasses.

Right.

Sundance – The Rest of the Days

2011-01-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

Part 1 – Movies

We saw a midnight screening of Indigenous Shorts. There were ten five-minute films. My favorite by a long shot was Ebony Society, out of New Zealand. It’s about two teenage boys who go on a stealing spree on Christmas Eve and find a baby in a house that they are robbing. I was amazed at how much of a story was told in five minutes. It also met my shallow criteria of having a happy / heart warming ending. I really loved it.

Then we saw The Details, which was filmed in Seattle and stared Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney and Dennis Haysbert (David Palmer from the first 24 season). I had low expectations going into it because of all of the trouble they had filming it. But it was really good and the audience loved it. The actors did a great job. After credits ended, Toby took the stage. It was really fun to hear them talk about how great Seattle is and how good it is to film there.

Then we saw The Oregonian. Someone at dinner put it nicely. He appreciated it like he appreciates avant garde music. He listens to it with a respect for the artist, but he wouldn’t pop it in for a road trip. I, on the other hand, can only say I didn’t like it. While I appreciated the edginess of it and the images were often interesting, the reason I didn’t like it was because I thought I was going to puke throughout the entire movie. It was not because of the intensely gory graphics – like a woman walking in on a man raping her corpse and watching another man put an omelet in the gaping wound in her corpse’s back. (I know, right?) I felt like I was going to get sick because the camera shots were so choppy and the noise was so loud that I felt motion sick. The background noise was a loud screeching dispersed with the sound of static radio. Sorry to all of the talented artists who poured their heart into it, but it was a long 82 minutes for me.

Then we saw Catechism Cataclysms, another movie filmed in Seattle that I also really liked. I can’t say too much about it because I don’t want give any plot away. It’s funny until it gets dark. Once again, the actors were great and I loved the dialogue. It stars Robert Longstreet who is making all sorts of news with his show on HBO and some of the other movies he was in at Sundance.

Part 2 – Celebrity Sightings

Ray Liotta
Ben Kinglsey

Sundance – Day 1

2011-01-24T17:14:00.000-08:00

Part 1 – Embarrassment

After being up late Friday night, packing and getting my mom situated, we were up the next morning at 2 am to catch our 6 am flight. Luckily, both of us have an amazing ability to sleep on an airplane.

We zonked out even before person sitting next to me arrived. I didn’t wake up until I heard a voice on the intercom telling people to pass their garbage to the flight attendant. I looked up and saw a man in a vest who was walking slowly toward us and looking purposefully at each row. He reminded me of Cameron from Modern Family. I assumed he was the flight attendant.

And so I handed him my tissues for the garbage. He looked at me like, “Really?” and I knew instantly what I’d done. I’d handed a random guy my garbage. Ouch.

Part 2 – Celebrity Sighting

We’ve seen:

James Cromwell
Danny Glover
Peter Dinklage
Fred Armisen

Part 3 – Movie Review

I saw one movie yesterday – the much heralded Seattle-produced movie The Off Hours. It was really, really good.

I’m biased, of course, but I do think that the scenery helped tell so much of the story. It’s a story centered around three people who work in an all night diner. It’s about the lives of people who are lonely and stagnant. But it’s beautiful and oddly uplifting. Dave secured most of the locations in the movie, so pay special attention to the diner, the apartments and the gravel parking lot. My favorite was the train tracks she walked past every night to get to work and every morning to get home. How have train tracks come to represent poverty in our country? Anyway…. See the movie.

Part 4 – Parties

We were invited to two parties. The first was the post-premiere for The Off Hours. It’s the first time in my life that the bouncer has looked at me and said, “She’s in” while a line of super cool people wait to try to get in. Of course, it was because she knew Dave but I’ll take it anyway.

Within the first few minutes, I met the editor of IDMB and learned he lives in my neck of the woods. We had a great time chatting with him.

At the second party, I was chatting with Jay Wesley Cochran (a Seattle-area actor) when Rico Thomas joined us. Rico and Jay are sharing a condo with several other people from Seattle and the two of them are sharing a room. Rico started telling me the etiquette when two very large, very straight men share a bed. Suddenly, he is in full comedic mode and people around us have stopped talking and are listening to him. It’s like he was serenading me, only it was a comedy act. And it was HILARIOUS! I was crying he was so funny. Below is a photo.

40 Films Filmed In Seattle

2010-10-27T20:39:00.000-07:00

Last week, my hubs turned 40. My gift to him was 40 films filmed in Seattle. Since he’s worked in the film business for the past six years, it’s especially fun to see not only his friends, but even himself, in the credits.

Interested in 40 films that were filmed in Seattle? Here is the list:

1. Tugboat Annie (1933)
2. You Came Along (1945)
3. It Happened at the World’s Fair (1963)
4. The Slender Thread (1965)
5. Harry In Your Pocket (1973)
6. Cinderella Liberty (1973)
7. McQ (1974)
8. The Parallax View (1974)
9. 99 and 44/100ths Dead (1974)
10. Frances (1982)
11. Wargames (1983)
12. Streetwise (1984)
13. Trouble In Mind (1985)
14. House of Games (1987)
15. Harry and the Hendersons (1987)
16. Say Anything (1989)
17. The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)
18. Dogfight (1991)
19. Singles (1992)
20. Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992)
21. Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
22. Mad Love (1994)
23. Assassins (1995)
24. Hype! (1996)
25. Prefontaine (1996)
26. Practical Magic (1997)
27. Ten Things I Hate About You (1998)
28. Life or Something Like It (2002)
29. The Ring (2002)
30. The Heart of the Game (2005)
31. Snow Day, Bloody Snow Day (2005) (while this is a short, it made the list because Dave is actually in it)
32. Into the Wild (2006)
33. Battle in Seattle (2007)
34. The Whole Truth (2008)
35. Humpday (2009)
36. Worlds Greatest Dad (2009)
37. The Details (2009)
38. Love Happens (2010)
39. Late Autumn (2010)
40. The Off Hours (2011)

National Geographic – You of All People!

2010-08-05T03:42:00.000-07:00

My story starts with an email I got from a colleague yesterday who just had his second child. “How do you do it?” he asked me. I laughed and thought, “Oh, if you only knew me better, you’d never ask that.”

My close friends and family (and a few co-workers) know that my list of accomplishments is not nearly as long as my undone to-do list. For example, Dave’s Christmas gift was a subscription to National Geographic – a subscription I gave him last December and JUST ordered in July.

Which brings me to the second part of my story.

As I was doing dishes last night, the phone rings and it’s a man from National Geographic, welcoming me to the family. He proceeds to tell me that they will be sending me a free map of the world as a thank you gift. “Oh, how nice,” I think, “I like maps of the world.”

But that quick thought makes me miss the next sentence. They are also sending me a DVD with the best episodes of National Geographic. I tune back in, “which is mine to keep for only $9.95.” Now he’s talking really fast and my momentary lapse of attention has put me at a disadvantage.

From what I can gather, I’ve got two weeks to return this DVD or I’ll be charged $9.95.

“OK,” I say to myself, “I guess I can give Dave a DVD as well as a subscription.”

Doh! The fast talker has now turned on a recorder and is asking me for my name and address and now he’s telling me that if I don’t return the DVD in two weeks, I’ll start receiving DVDs every month at a cost of $14.95 plus shipping.

My mind flashes to May 2011 when I’m furious at myself for paying $200 for a stack of unopened DVDs scattered on the floor of god-knows-which room.

“Stop!” I say into the recorder. “Do NOT SEND me a DVD!”

“But why?” He sounds truly astonished.

“Because I will forget to return the first one and you’ll start sending them every month and it will take me forever to figure out how to stop the subscription and I will be furious.”

“But ma’m, it’s impossible to forget. We will send you an 800- number so you can get instructions on returning the DVD.”

Impossible to forget? The list of things I have forgotten over the past ten years is SHOCKING!

“Do not send me the DVD. Repeat, do not send me the DVD.”

“Fine,” he says, “You don’t get the free map of the world either.”

OH. MY. GOD.

Am I getting the bum rush from ….. National Geographic?

I mean, really! I might expect that from Cosmo or Maxim, but National Geographic?

What would Mutual of Omaha think of this?

This Is Why I Hate Traveling

2010-05-26T20:52:00.000-07:00

Annnndddd….. my bad travel luck continues.

After two days in the luxurious JW Marriott, I left for the airport (with an hour to spare, thank you).

Two weird things happened at once.

1. When I walked through the door, the people behind the ticket counter immediately announced that the flight to San Fran was delayed and I was going to miss my connecting flight (I have to say, this is not the first time I have walked through the airport doors to be told my flight was cancelled, it happened in Florida too).

2. Turns out, I had screwed up my Expedia order and it didn’t matter anyway, because I had myself flying out 24 hours later regardless.

I’m fortunate to have a husband that could quickly get on the interwebs and book me a hotel for the night.

Now, there might be two assumptions you would make (like we did). For example, that the there really isn’t that much difference between an $85 a night hotel and a $385 a night hotel. You might also think that a city like Palm Springs doesn’t have a ghetto.

You would be VERY wrong on both accounts.

I’m not FourSquaring this place. I don’t want anyone to know where I am right now and I really don’t want to know who the mayor of this place is.

I’m going to try to fly standby tomorrow at 5 am. Hopefully, some sad sack will sleep through their alarm and I’ll get to take their place on the plane and get home! Wish me luck

P.S. I have never stayed in a hotel with cement floors. Have you?

Eating Hamsters

2010-04-03T07:28:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, we visited friends who have a cat. As I was telling Jo (who is two) her bedtime story, she says, “My like kitty cats”. I said, “Yeah! So do I and I like dogs.”

“My like dogs too.”

“And I like bunny rabbits.”

She repeats the sequence, “My like kitty cats, doggies, and bunny rabbits.”

I say, “I like hamsters.”

“My like to eat hamsters.”

“What?”

“My like to eat hamsters and carrots.”

It took me a moment to process where the hell that one came from.

“Do you mean you like to eat ham?”

“My like to eat ham, from hamsters.”

“Ah sweetie! Ham comes from pigs, not hamsters.” I kissed the top of her small blond head, “And probably you should tell people we eat hamsters.”

“Oh Tay!”

99 Pounds

2010-03-28T10:57:00.001-07:00

My three daughters collectively weight 99 pounds. Not only are they young, they are scrawny.

I have a good friend who has three boys, all in high school, all in sports. We laughingly compare our children’s eating habits.

My daughters can share a Red Robin mac and cheese dinner and be full. Her sons order two McDonalds meals a piece and are still hungry. It takes a week for us to go through a loaf of bread and gallon of milk. She goes through two a day. My kids eat ham by the thin slices, she buys whole cows and pigs for her sub-freezer.

Last week, the discrepancy of my situation, compared to others, really hit home as I ran into Rebekah’s former kindergarten teacher.

Rebekah’s teacher is known all over our area as the woman who has adopted 26 kids.

I ducked into the store to buy a fast dinner on a Friday night. As I was standing in the express line with my medium sized container of honey chicken (which would be enough to feed all four of us – Dave being gone), I looked over and there was Mrs. Hehn and her husband, with a shopping cart full to the brim with food.

“This is dinner for tonight!” she said to me.

I didn’t have the heart to hold up my container of Chinese food and tell her the same.

The Garbage Men

2010-01-16T06:16:00.000-08:00

In December there was a sign in Lex’s class that read

“We will be having a pizza and movie party on Friday.
The pizza and movie have been paid for by the garbage carriers”

I read that sign and thought, “What the heck?” And then promptly forgot about it.

Yesterday, as I was dropping the girls off, the garbage truck pulled in front of me. I was just getting Jo out of the car and she immediately clung to me and started to cry because of the loud noise.

When the truck backs up, it is sooo loud. I was getting annoyed because it seemed to have been backing up for an excessively long time. One of the men had jumped off the truck and was waving to Jo, who was having none of it.

The moment they cut the reverse and shut off the engine, the morning erupted with cheers!

I looked over and all of the windows of the daycare were open and it was lined with at least 20 three and four year olds, all were cheering at the garbage men. The men were waving and the kids were going wild.

THAT explains the pizzas.

And OH MY GOD….. as I write this, it suddenly dawned on me that it explains this post as well.

Ha!

Messed Up MayDay Surprise

2009-12-06T15:03:00.001-08:00

Last week, our doorbell rang late at night.

This is what was on the doorsteps. It’s been four days and nobody has come to claim this lawnmower.

I’m pretty sure there are laws against leaving an old lawn mower on someone’s doorstep.

And THIS is Why I Hate Traveling

2009-11-03T05:09:00.000-08:00

A year ago, I wrote about my bad travel luck. Let me tell you, it hasn’t gotten any better in 2009.

In January, our daughters were flower girls in a lovely wedding in Minneapolis. After traveling several hours, we touched down in Seattle and Dave ran to get our car from the park and ride.

Of course, the car wouldn’t start. He called a tow truck. Tow truck took an hour to get there, only to find it couldn’t fit under the awning of the park and ride. Another tow truck was called. An hour later, that tow truck arrived, only to break down on I-5 on its way to the shop. That tow truck left our car on the side of the free way, unlocked, with the keys in it. When I complained about this, the tow company said, “Well, it wasn’t like anyone could get it started.” Good point, except for the fact that it was full of our luggage.

Meanwhile, I am trying to entertain a tired and cranky 5 year old, 3 year old and 1 year old in the baggage claim area of a crowded airport for THREE hours! (After traveling for five hours).

That was a very bad travel experience.

Last week I went to Madison. On the flight home, the flight from Madison to Minneapolis touched down right on time, only be told there was a snafu with the runway and they couldn’t get to the gate.

I missed my connecting flight by minutes. After running 47 gates, I panted up to my desk and could see the airplane. They told me they couldn’t let me on because it would make everyone else late. So I watched it fly away and hunkered down for an extra seven hours in the Minneapolis airport.

Since I was now getting in at midnight (on Dave’s birthday to boot), Dave asked his sister to pick me up. When she went out to her car at 11 pm, it had been broken into – only feet from her house!

So she had to deal with the police and Dave had to pack the three girls into the car and come and get me at mid-night.

On the way home, I asked Dave, “NOW do you believe me that I have the worst travel luck of anyone, ever?” He chuckled and gave me his, “You are being over dramatic, Storm” look.

Yesterday I left for my Cleveland/Brooklyn trip. On Friday, we had an email meltdown at work and I lost one years worth of emails. Included in those were all of the emails I put aside to print on Friday to have with me when I left on Monday. Sooo…. I left for my trip missing the following pieces of information:

- Cell phone number of person picking me up from airport in Cleveland
- Address of the place I am speaking at noon on Tuesday.
- Contact name of the person who is hosting me at Borders on Tuesday night
- Name and address of hotel I am staying at in Brooklyn
- Contact name and email of journalist who wants to have coffee with me in New York

See! I’m sure our email server would have been just fine, had it not been for me traveling out of state. I’m serious.

What Daddies Do

2009-10-03T05:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday as the girls were eating breakfast, I overheard Lex say, “I wish Daddy drove a garbage truck.”

I couldn’t resist. “Why, Lex?”

“So when I was playing in the grass at school, he will drive by on the back of his truck and I could wave to him and all the kids could see him.”

Sounds good to me.

It reminded me of a time when I was working at Consumer Credit Counseling Services and we were teaching a class at the local Boys and Girls Club. It was a four-week series about money called, “Earn It, Spend It, Save it, Share It.”

During the “Earn It” week, we were talking about jobs and the kids were sharing what their parents did for a living. One little boy said, “My Daddy works for Dominos and he delivers pizzas.”

The room went silent and all of the kids looked at him in amazement. Some of them even whispered, “Wow.”

And then one little boy said, “You are so lucky. My dad just works at Boeing.”

I love those conversations when kids are too young to consider salaries or prestige as the defining characteristic of a successful vocation and just revel in the coolness that comes with some jobs.

On another note, Bek said a few months ago that she wants to be a mom when she grows up because, “They are the boss of everything.” Oh dear.

Quick Update

2009-09-24T05:14:00.000-07:00

This blog has become much like my closets – very neglected. My book launches next Tuesday so I (and Dave, for that matter) have been more busy than usual.

Here are a few places I’ve been booked to appear:

October 6 – Martha Stewart Radio Show 7 am PST (interview)

F5 Networking Group (presentation)

October 9 – Book launch party

October 12 – KING 5 News 8 am PST (interview)

October 15 – Swing Bar, Olympia WA 8 pm (book signing)

October 16 – South Sound Rotary 7:30 am (presentation)

October 21 – Borders, Madison, WI 7 pm CST (book signing)

October 28 – Kirkland party (book signing)

November 5 – Momasphere Event, Brooklyn, NY (presentation)

Ahhhh, but you didn’t come to this blog for that sort of info!

Let me give you more important updates.

Jo (age 2): Yesterday in the car, she says to Dave from the back seat (in an “this pains me to tell you” tone) “Daddy, my no tooo. My free”. To which Dave replies, “You aren’t two? You are three?”

“Yes” she says nonchalantly. “My free now”.

Oh, they grow up so fast.

Lex (age 4): Last night as we were eating our pre-bed snack, she says to me, “Mommy, you can die of a broken heart, can’t you?”

My heart sank! So young to be asking such heart wrenching questions. But wait…

She continued, “That rocket star died when his heart broke.”

I scanned my Lex database. Quickly sleuthing, “Rocket star means rock star. Rocks star? Rock star?”

“Are you talking about Michael Jackson?” I asked her in surprise.

She nodded. “Yes. He died when his heart broke.”

Bek (age 6): Well, she is at that age where she doesn’t like me to share her cute stories. She says, “It’s embarrassing.”

Sigh. They do grow up quickly. Don’t they?

Someone Could Get the Wrong Idea

2009-09-13T08:16:00.000-07:00

We’ve got a few things going on in our house, that, from an uninformed outsider’s point of view, probably look a little odd.

During Bek’s first few days of kindergarten, she and Dave designed an elaborate good-bye ritual. One of the things that stuck was a signature good-bye wave. It’s a wave, chant combo. It goes like this:

“Family” (fingers on hand spread wide)

“Together” (fingers clasp together into a fist)

“Forever” (pump the fist)

SherrySteckly picked me up to carpool last week and the girls stood at the window and did the family wave.

“Oh my!” Exclaimed SherrySteckly. “What is that?”

“It’s our family wave,” I explained.

“It looks like the Black Power fist”.

No, we definitely aren’t teaching our children anti-establishment gestures. It just looks that way.

Also, Jo loves to play “ni-ni” (short for “night-night”). In this game, she is the teacher and her dollies are the students. She re-enacts naptime at her day care.

At 11:30 every day, two teachers manage to get 12 toddlers to fall asleep in straight little lines on mats on the floor. It is amazing. I don’t blame Jo for wanting to imitate it.

Jo spends a good part of each day sitting between two dolls, who are laying face down on the floor. She rubs their backs and whispers, “Ni-ni. Ni-ni” and hushes them. Once they have fallen asleep, she puts a blanket over their entire bodies (including heads) and moves on to the next two babies.

So when you walk into our living room, or onto our deck or through the hallway upstairs, you are likely to find mounds of dolls, laying shoulder-to-shoulder face down, fully covered by a blanket.

It looks, well, a bit disturbing. It’s not. It’s cute when she is doing it. It just looks menacing when you see the results of her game. They aren’t doll graves. Really.

And lastly… this photo?

Jo is screaming in delight.

That. Scared. Me.

2009-08-15T17:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know many mothers have gone through the same thing, but holy crap. That scared me.

Dave’s been working long hours on a commercial so I had the girls all day by myself. I invited a friend and her 6-year old daughter to meet us at the Taste of Edmonds.

She brought along one of her friends so we had three women and four kids. Everything was going as smoothly as it can in crowded festivals like that until I looked around and couldn’t find Jo.

I had been standing in line at the big inflatable slide with the two six year olds and Jo. Lex was in the stroller with one of the women. Jo was standing with the six years olds and then she wasn’t.

“Where is Jo?” I asked Bek. She shrugged. I looked around a bit.

“Jo?” I called.

No answer.

We were in a fenced in part of the festival that had five inflatable kid stations.

“Jo!” I yelled. I scanned the area and didn’t see her anywhere.

My two friends started yelling for her.

The three of us were looking around and we couldn’t see her anywhere.

Soon, we had about ten people yelling and looking for her. I was getting frantic. I’ve lost sight of kids before, but I’ve never had other people looking with me.

Then the all the workers were gathering around and helping us.

I went around the big slide. Behind the ride were gaps in the fence that any creep could climb through, snatch a kids and sneak back out of. The ride had all sorts of nooks a two-year-old could crawl into.

Adults were going into all of the rides, looking to see if she had slipped into one.

I was screaming for her. Crying. I looked down at Bek and she was crying too.

“JO!” I yelled over and over.

This is how it feels, I thought. This is how it feels when your kid disappears.

Everyone in the area was looking for her.

Stop being dramatic I told myself. I wanted to text my husband and tell him to come quickly.

And then my friend yelled my name. Jo had wandered to another area of the festival. They found her in the dirt by a service RV.

I hugged her tightly and felt like a total fool.

I joke that Jo is too ornery to ever be kidnapped. She’d be one of those cases you read about where the child chews off the rope, kicks out the back of the car and jumps to safety.

I never, ever want to find out.

Jo Turns Two On the Hottest Day Ever

2009-07-30T10:13:00.000-07:00

If you haven’t heard, Seattle’s havin’ a heat wave. As a matter of fact, all the news yesterday was that the temperatures hit record-breaking highs. How they can say it was the hottest day ever, I don’t know. But I agree.

It was also Jo’s second birthday. Since I have been pregnant every other summer for the past six years, I woke up with a prayer of gratitude that I will never be pregnant in the middle of the summer again.

Unfortunately, our plans of a fun birthday day for Jo disintegrated.

I started feeling a little sick in a one o’clock meeting at work. I ducked out early to try to take a nap before the evening. When I got home, Dave was lying on the couch, also not feeling well. Soon, the phone rang. It was the day care telling us to come get Lex.

When I got to school, Lex was lying on the floor of the office, and Bek was stroking her sweaty hair. “She has bark in her throat!” Bek announced. “I have a liddle bark in my froat” Lex said in her quiet voice. I’m not sure what led Lex to conclude her sore throat was due to bark, but she insists that was her condition.

As the afternoon wore on, both Dave and I started getting sicker and sicker. Finally we came to the realization there was no way we could host a birthday party.

If you’ve ever had to tell little girls that the ice cream cake / swimming / birthday party they were expecting has been cancelled on the hottest day ever, while you push back the urge to throw up and your little one lies on the couch lethargically, you know what feeling horrible is.

Everyone seems to be on the mend today so we’ll get that birthday party in and the temperatures seem about to go down, so it’s better here.

Hum

2009-07-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

Not quite sure what I think of this ad.... but worth 60 seconds of your time.

Six Degrees of Jo

2009-06-07T06:35:00.000-07:00

Six Degrees of Jo

As Jo nears two, some of my friends have asked what her personality is turning out to be. She is head-scratchingly hard to define. On one hand, she is extremely reluctant to be with new people (she clings to me), yet she is very dominant when she is with the people she knows. She is has a sense of humor. She is funny. But she can also be a tad on the mean side.

Perhaps instead of trying to label her, I’ll give you six stories of examples. (Keep in mind that she doesn’t talk yet. Well, she does say words, but only the family understands what she is saying).

Jo at the Pool

Last weekend we had a board retreat at Suncadia. In the afternoon, I took the girls swimming. Jo (who NEVER voluntarily goes to anyone if I am around) was jumping into the pool and I was catching her.

SherrySteckly stopped by on her way back from a walk. She had on khakis and a white shirt. I said to Jo, “Ha! You should go give her a big hug.” Jo turned, waddled over to SherrySteckly and wrapped her arms around her legs and buried her wet head into the folds of her crisp khakis, making it look just like she had wet her pants.

Jo in Kennewick

I took Jo to see my dad two week-ends ago. We stopped by my grandparents’ house. Jo hadn’t been in the house ten minutes when she ran over to a glass angel my grandmother had on a stand, picked it up and dropped it on the hearth. There was yards of carpet she could have dropped in on, but it was the hearth she picked, shattering the beautiful angel.

My dad kept insisting it was an accident, until at his house, she got into a cupboard, pulled out a dish, ran into the bathroom and threw it into the bathtub, shattering the dish.

Jo in her Pajamas

Jo often insists that she wear one of her bathing suits to sleep. Friday night, she selected her Dora bathing suit, and then went into her older sisters’ room, rummaged through their drawers until she found the perfect pair of Hello Kitty panties and put them over the suit. This outfit was premeditated and precisely executed.

Jo Bites

We have huge issues with Jo biting. She bites when she’s mad. She bites when she is trying to get attention, and apparently, she bites when she is bored.

Last night as the girls were watching a movie, I ran downstairs for something. Suddenly I heard Lex scream. Then I heard Jo at the stop of the stairs, “Bit, bit” she was saying.

“You bit Lex?”

Nod.

“Air”, she said as she grabbed a chunk of her own hair.

“You pulled her hair too?”

Nod.

“Pinsss,” she said and mimicked pinching an arm.

“Aaaannnd you pinched her.”

Nod.

Jo Copies

When it comes time to brush hair or apply sunscreen. We usually do the older girls first. Most always, they cry. Jo will watch them intently and we are done, say, “ma turn, ma turn!”

We head to her with the hairbrush / sun screen. She will put out her face for the brushing or the rubbing and then do a spot-on imitation of her older sisters crying.

Jo on the Escalator

Jo and I were at the downtown Barnes and Nobel yesterday and she was fussing that she wanted to go on the escalator. Finally I said, “OK, let me hold you.”

“No!” came her response.

She was standing right next to it, tapping it with her toe.

“I need to hold you before we get on.”

“No! Me do it.”

“You can’t get on without me holding you.”

“Peeeese?” (In very nice voice)

“Ok, hold my hand”

We held hands at the foot of the up escalator and I said, “One, two, three”

She jerked her hand away just as I got on and kept her feet firmly planted on the ground as I started riding away from her.

Now, there is no way I could let a 22 month old hang out by herself as I went up one escalator, ran across the store and came down the other escalator.

So I about faced and started running down the up escalator. In flip-flops! People around were laughing.

I would have spanked her but we both knew that one was squarely on me. That is what I get for trusting a two-year-old.

Dave's Latest Project

2009-05-20T20:14:00.001-07:00

At the minute 41 mark, you can see Dave run across the background.

A Video Birthday Card

2009-05-05T04:32:00.000-07:00

All Your Eggs in One Basket

2009-04-12T14:31:00.001-07:00

Jo grabbed her first two plastic eggs, put them in her hands and wouldn’t let go. It made picking up the rest of the eggs quite a struggle. As she bent down, one egg would drop. She’d pick up the next egg, put it in the crook of her arm, reach for the first egg and the egg in her arm would drop. I must have told her ten times to put the eggs in her basket. She would put eggs three, four, five and six in the basket, but first and second egg had to stay with her at all times.

Meanwhile, Lex and Bek were running circles around her. Lex, however, started getting distracted by her toys. As she was finding eggs, she would exclaim, “Oh! My puppy purse! I’ve been looking all over for this!” and a few minutes later, “Oh! I love this book! I have to remember to read this book today.”

And lastly, Bek was doing a heartwarming job of helping her younger sisters find eggs, that is, until she pointed to the American Girl doll on shelf and instructed her younger sisters, “Look at the doll’s vagina and you’ll see an egg.” Technically she was right, but Dave didn’t appreciate the description of the egg placement he had found so cute last night.

rambling

2009-04-06T15:48:00.000-07:00

That is a photo Dave took of the girls this weekend in their Easter dresses.

I had to travel to Arizona today. Last night, right before bed, Lexie says to me, "I have a headache".

I took her temperature as I was walking out the door to catch my flight this morning - 102 degrees. Ugh.

On my lay-over in Portland I got a text from Dave "Little Lex barfed in my truck".

Poor kiddo has been sleeping all day. Oh, I don't like being away when they are sick. Dave sent me this photo to cheer me up. We did have such a fun time last weekend - meeting Kate, Stephen and Katie down at the market and having brunch and then walking around. We watched a street band for quite awhile and Jo danced with the best of them. I want to hire that band for my book release party - which - by the way - is on October 9. Mark your calendar!

To cheer me up, Dave also sent me some Lexie quotes. We both agree that her fever has made her especially chatty. Here they are:

“Daddy when I grow up I will be all the things I will be a mommy and a dinosaur scientist and a rocket star. And I will do karate chops in the gym but it will be my gym, my school gym but it will be at my work. For the karate chops.”

“Daddy as soon as I finish the granola bar I will go to be bed because I had so many yawns. Do you know how many yawns I have? Two yawns when I was going to potty and one yawn out here and now one more yawn when I tried to eat my granola bar. But if you have too many yawns that means you have to go to bed because you are tired.”

“Daddy I have to stop talking because when I am talking so much my head hurts more.”

Bek Skis

2009-02-18T12:03:00.001-08:00

Bek had her first day on the slopes. She takes after her parents - she has her dad's love of the mountain and her mom's love of gabbing.

One Year Anniversary

2009-02-13T05:04:00.000-08:00

Dave texted me while I was at the gym last weekend and said, “It’s been one year since you got your book deal. Smile. ILY”

How sweet is that? Actually, it’s been one year since I got The Call.

Things are full steam ahead with the book. I’m in the final stages of manuscript editing and the marketing has begun. We’ve gone back to the drawing board (again) on the title. The publisher is circling around the title “Actually, I Am the Boss of You and Other Things You Can Say at Work”. I like it. I like saying it (much better than the title they had picked out previously).

We are working on getting the blurbs and the catalog page. Apparently, every book buyer gets a catalog before spring and fall and that is how they select what is going to go on their shelves. It’s quite fascinating. The catalog seems to be one part book description, one part marketing plan and one part picture book. Those are the three things the catalog page consists of – a description of the book, a synopsis of how much marketing it’s going to get and photos of the author and book jacket.

I used to make fun of my real-estate friends who had their photos on their business cards and now here I am, trying to sell a book with my smiling mug.

At any rate, the girls are doing fine and doing all sorts of things I know I should blog because you would laugh, but time seems even shorter than before.

I did however, get this link sent to me today and it made me laugh, so I will share it with you. (And secretly pray that Ellen someday invites me on to her show to schlep my book!)

Our Jobs

2009-01-31T08:56:00.001-08:00

For those of you in Washington State, if you are watching the Super Bowl tomorrow, it’s rumored that Dave’s latest commercial will air. If you see goats, that’s his. When watching, just keep in mind that it was filmed on the snowiest day of the snowstorm in Seattle.

Also, the film he worked on this summer, World’s Greatest Dad, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. I just learned it was produced by the same woman who produced The Wrestler (which is getting all sorts of great reviews right now).

Dave’s job continues to be waaaaaay cooler than mine. While I’m dealing with the credit unions’ re-capitalization of our corporate (don’t ask), he’s securing a skyscraper rooftop for a video game company.

Although, on the book front, things are moving along nicely. I’m in the final editing stages of the manuscript and the marketing has begun. We are now getting blurbs for the book jacket. Among others, I got one yesterday from a Pulitzer Prize winner, Women’s Day Magazine and the Chair of the Board of PCC – the largest organic grocery store chain in the country.

Apparently, I’ll be meeting with my publicist soon. I guess having a publicist is pretty cool.

Lex Takes Her Positive Affirmation to Heart

2009-01-13T06:38:00.001-08:00

Most modern cartoons, coloring books and daycares give children an overabundance of positive affirmation and moral direction.

At 3, our Little Lex is a good study.

A few weeks ago, she said to me, “Tarantulas are bad.”

I replied, “Yeah, you should probably stay clear of them.”

To which she replied, “They don’t do the right thing.”

Later, after being a flower girl, she told me, “I was a good flower girl because I never gave up.”

Last night, when discussing her “Star of the Week” debut at daycare she told me, “I was a good Star of the Week because I believe in myself.”

Yep.

Super Sleuth

2009-01-03T18:45:00.000-08:00

Lex got a magnifying glass for Christmas.

She kept it with her in bed last night. As I was tucking her in, she told me, “Tomorrow I am going to use my magfying glass outside to find rocks…. And beads that people dropped.”

Perhaps we will get her a metal detector next year.

What Was The Best Gift You Gave This Year?

2008-12-30T12:57:00.000-08:00

My friend, Brent, asked me that question yesterday. I told him it was the little handbag that the girls gave their grandmother. It was the best gift because it was from my good friend, Carol Shillios' store, that just opened in Edmonds. I not only love supporting Carol's project, Fabric of Life, it turns out she is friends with my daughter's kindergarten teacher, who has adopted 24 children from Ethiopia. Bek was thrilled that we met someone who knows her teacher.

Then a friend I have not met yet, Val Mohney, sent me this video today. If you are ever in Edmonds, stop by Carol's store.

Mommy, Are There Bad Guys In Real Life?

2008-12-20T07:12:00.001-08:00

Last week, as I was pumping gas, a very dirty, drunk, stoned transient approached me. All three girls were in their car seats.

“I’m John.” He held out his hand.

I did not extend my hand to him. He sent my fear radar off.

“What, you can’t shake my hand?” he asked.

I knew there were six big blue eyes watching this exchange.

“You are a stranger, sir.” I said to him, debating whether I should get in the car and drive off with the gas hose still in my tank or move closer to him to put it back.

“My wife and I are hungry.” He said.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t have any money.” I said, putting the hose back into the pump.

“We want food.” He replied.

“I’m sorry, I don’t have any food.”

“Will you please come in the store and buy some with your credit card.”

“No, I will not go anywhere with a stranger.”

I got back into the car and locked the doors. The girls asked all sorts of questions and I re-iterated how we never, ever talk to strangers.

A few nights later, I was making dinner for the girls and Lex says, “Mommy, are there bad guys in real life?”

“Yes, honey. Unfortunately, there are. What do you say if a bad guy grabs you?”

“I scweam ‘this is not my daddy!’”

“That’s right. That’s how people will know to help you. What else do you do?”

“Bite him hard and run away.”

“Good girl.”

Bek pipes in, “Mommy, what if a bad guy comes into our house?”

The look on Lex’s face was tragically sad. It was clear that she had never, in her three long years on this earth, consider this as a possibility.

“If a bad guy comes into our house, I would say, ‘Bek, run to Art and Daisey’s’ and then I would smack him on the head with a frying pan or a flash light or that long stick daddy uses for his knee.”

“Why do I have to run to Art and Daisey’s?” Bek asked

“Well, Daisey would call 911 and Art would come over to help us. I’m pretty sure he would bring a gun too.”

Meanwhile, Lex must have been digesting the idea of mommy as the aggressor and it didn’t sit well with her.

“Mommy? Would you hit daddy on the head with a frying pan?”

“No.”

“What about Papa or Grandpa.”

“No honey. I only hit bad guys on the head with frying pans.”

Long pause.

“Mommy? Are their giants in real life?”

“No.”

“Dragons?”

“No.”

“Alligators”

“Yes, but none in Edmonds”

“Are there maps in real life?”

“Yes”

“But they don’t talk, right?”

“Right.” Then I thought about GPS units. But I decided that this conversation had already been far too complex and modern for three little girls with a combined age of 9. So instead I asked,

“Who wants a spoonful of whip cream before dinner?”

Insane

2008-12-20T06:47:00.001-08:00

This photo is just insane. This is I-5 in Seattle.

Dave was prepping another part of I-5 for a film shoot yesterday very near this. (Think huge giant blow torches to melt snow on street.)

What you can’t see is another bus right behind it. Apparently, one bus rear-ended the other while they were both sliding in the snow. Could you imagine?

Dave is on a shoot today. Ooooh, I wish I could blog what is going on. But there are marital rules against it. I told him his clients would never read my little ol’ blog, meant only for my family, but he still said no. OK, I’m not saying anything but one word. Goats.

We have another storm headed our way today. This one is supposed to be big wind and freezing rain. Everyone is being advised to say goodbye to their electricity.

We’ve got tickets for the Santa train today. I’m not sure if it will be canceled or not. Poor Bek, her holiday recital was canceled, she hasn’t gone to Kindergarten in three days and Papa and Nana couldn’t come last night. She isn’t liking this weather one bit. Nor am I, I must say.

Seattle is a Funny Funny City

2008-12-17T06:05:00.000-08:00

All the news people were raging about a snow storm that was supposed to happen last night. I had a focus group at 6 pm. Half of the women canceled because of "the snow".

Everyone canceled their meetings with me today because of the "the snow". I got a few calls from people to cancel their Thursday meetings as well.

This morning, our school district canceled all school for everyone.

It hasn't snowed one flake. The three inches we were supposed to wake up to - nada. I told Bek last night, "Don't get your hopes up. I don't think it will snow tonight. This is something you must get used to if you live in Seattle." But lucky for her, they still canceled school. What the heck? (B loves school, but they were having a substitute today).

I think I may tell my boss I'm coming in late today, because of "the snow".

On another funny note, the school calls all numbers they have on file when there are school closures, including our emergency contact, Aunt Kate. Every morning she's been getting a six am call telling her school is late. Dave thinks this is quite funny. I think it's downright cruel.

My How Snow Days Are Different

2008-12-15T06:50:00.000-08:00

Every once in awhile, I’ll be struck by how different my kids’ lives are than my life was. The combination of 30 years ago and city versus small town make for some interesting contrasts sometimes.

Like today. We are experiencing our first school delay due to “snow”.

First off, it snowed Saturday, about three inches. In Kennewick, there’s no way school would be delayed because of that. But, we have more hills in Seattle, and more “cautious” drivers.

When we had snow days in Kennewick, I remember sitting anxiously by the television, waiting for Westgate (or Highlands or Kamiakin) to be mentioned on the morning news. It took about three minutes to announce all schools in the tri-city area.

Today, I started watching the news around five. I watched school after school make their announcements. Good heavens we have a lot of schools here! Then, at six am, our home phone rang, then Dave’s cell, then my cell, then my work phone. It was almost simultaneously. Each call had a recorded message telling us school is two hours late and snow routes are in effect. I’m sure I’ll get an email soon.

So we are running late today.

Jo had her first romp in the snow yesterday. Actually, it wasn’t a romp at all. I bundled all three girls up and took them outside. Bek bounded off to play with the neighbors and Lex and Jo just stood there for a few minutes. After about seven minutes, Lex said, “I’m cold. Can I go watch TV?” To which I said, “Yes.” And snow play was over.

Gidget

2008-11-26T05:32:00.000-08:00

Last month, after working late, I came home to find Dave chasing Jo down the hall. He tells me “I’ve nicknamed this one Gidget. It’s short for getting-in-ta-shit.

Last week, Gidget lived up to her nickname.

Shortly before bedtime, we were hanging around on the upstairs landing. Bek and Lex were playing on the floor and Jo was busy shuttling toys, diapers and clothes back and forth from her room to ours. She's been doing a lot of this sort of thing lately— little construction projects and the like. Anyway, Dave and I were trying to chat and catch up on our days. After a few minutes we hear Jo clanging around in the bathroom down the hall, and she returns with a few bath toys. Then back she goes for another load.

A few more minutes pass and we realize Jo hasn't come back in a while. We can still hear her banging around on the bathroom tile and babbling.

Dave went downstairs to get pajamas and I went in to get Jo.

She came barreling out of the bathroom with Bek’s toothbrush in one hand and an angry, angry face. There was brown matter all over the toothbrush, face and hair.

Uh-oh.

One of the girls had not flushed after they were done going number two. I quickly deduced that Jo had spent the past few minutes stirring the toilet water with her sister’s tooth brush and then decided to give her nasty, newly-made soup a try. Apparently, the taste repulsed her so she spit it out while simultaneously shaking her head vigorously. The results were foul.

I quickly shouted “Code Red! Code Red! This Is Not A Drill! I Repeat, This is Not a Drill!” and swiftly closed the door so the older girls could not see what just happened. Dave bounded into the bathroom and locked the door behind him.

We put Jo up on the counter and proceeded to scrub her face, hair, and especially her tongue. I asked Dave if we should call the doctor.

“Uh, yeah, Doc? Got a quick question for you…. Our 15 month old just ate her sister’s….”

But Jo was happy as could be. She only got bent out of shape when we pried the toothbrush out of her tiny fingers. Beyond that, she was all smiles - flashing that shit-eating grin of hers.

I told the story to SherrySteckly and she responded, “Perhaps she thinks she’s Jo the Plumber?”.

Ugh.

The Place What Has A Grandpa

2008-11-16T06:12:00.000-08:00

This morning, both smallest girls woke at 5 am. WTH?

So I did what any good mommy does at 5 am on a Sunday, I turned on the TV. (It was BrainCandy so I don’t feel too guilty.)

As the DVD was warming up, Lex says to me, “I want to go to the place again what has the grandpa that isn’t my grandpa.”

“The what, honey?”

“The place with the grandpa that isn’t my grandpa.”

This stumped me.

“Do you mean Nana and Poppa’s?”

“No!” she looked at me like I was nuts. “Poppa is my poppa. The other one that isn’t my grandpa but is a grandpa.”

“Tell me more…. who was with us?”

“Aunt Stacey but not daddy.”

Then I knew! She was talking about MY grandfather’s. We visited them last week to celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary.

We spent a few hours at their house. How could she not want to go back? My grandma has a player piano that you can push the pedals and make music. She has 50 year old miniature dolls on a bottom shelf. She had never ending candy. There were pretty smelling sprays in the bathroom and seemingly endless rooms to peak into. It was quite the adventure and clearly left a warm memory in my three year old’s heart.

Lex and Barack

2008-11-14T05:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Lex materialized beside me at 5 am. She does that. Dave thinks she has Star Trek technology. She will suddenly appear out of nowhere. You’ll be working on your laptop, feel someone looking at you and there she is, standing beside you, blanket in hand, waiting patiently for you to notice her. You never know how long she had been standing there because she gives no indication.

So she materializes at 5 am and tells me her stomach hurts and she needs some yogurt.

I hoist her up to the kitchen bar and as I’m getting her yogurt, she says in a very small voice, “I like it when it’s just me and you.”

I smile at her. I like it when it’s just her and me too.

Then she says, “I wish Barack Obama would come to our house.”

I stifled a surprised laugh.

“You do?” I lean down to her level. “What would you say to Barack Obama if he came to our house?”

The pause was so long, I thought she wasn’t going to answer. Sometimes she does that. You’ll ask her a question and she’ll consider it for a long time and then decide not to say anything. Perhaps that is why she is drawn to politics at the tender age of three.

But then she shrugged and in the same small voice said, “I’m a little shy. I probably wouldn’t talk to him.”

And then she ate her yogurt in silence.

Homeward Bound

2008-10-11T00:38:00.000-07:00

After 19 days abroad, Dave and I are heading home.

As always, my travel anxiety is starting to rev up. I do, after all, have the worst travel luck of anyone I know. Need proof?

In 1998, we spent two days post-honeymoon on the floor of the Honolulu airport because of the pilot's strike.

In 2000, we left for our two month sabbatical the day the dot.com bubble burst (and Dave was working in high-tech).

We had a flight home on September 12, 2001, and ended up being stranded in Europe for an additional 10 days.

When I traveled to Poland in 2002, I was pulled out of line, searched, and when they gave me my passport back, I didn't notice until I was sitting in the plane that it wasn't my passport. They had switched mine with another man's during the security search.

I've been evacuated from a plane due to a tornado.

I've been in the Houston airport when it was hit by lightening and lost power.

I was scheduled to fly out the day South Dakota got a record-breaking 19 inches of snow in April.

I've been one of those sad saps stranded on the tarmac for four hours on Christmas Day.

I've flown in to Florida only to burst an eardrum and break a tooth.

I landed in New York last January on the day the stock market plummeted and Heath Ledger died.

I was in Spokane with a six week old baby when the FAA grounded all Horizon flights back to Seattle.

Last time in was in Florida, I was standing in line when they announced the cancellation of my flight. I started joking with the man standing next to me that he should probably move away from me and my bad juju. He was on his way to a high priced hunting trip. As we were checking luggage, I looked down just in time to see my Seattle sticker being attached to his Montana-bound hunting riffles. They made the change but I think I freaked him out a bit.

I'm hoping that the WaMu melt down, which happened on the day we departed, was the bad luck that I can attribute to this trip. However, I never underestimate how many things can go wrong with my flights and the world when I am outside of my home town.

Wish us luck.

And You Thought Your Mother-In-Law Was Bad

2008-10-05T04:48:00.000-07:00

Today we visited The Harem in the Topkapi Palace. Unlike our visions of a Harem, it was actually the "carefully administered social institution that ensured the longevity of the Ottoman Empire" (credit to our hero, Rick Steves)

While the Sultan is the head of the household and lived in the Harem, his mother really ruled the roost. She selected his wives (of which he could have up to four). She selected his "favorites", of which he could have four. And then she dictated and recorded which night he could visit each of them. As a matter of fact, her quarters were situated between his quarters and the wives and concubines quarters.

Could you imagine?

The Sultan's mom wielded tremendous influence in state affairs as well. In the mid 16th century is known as the "reign of the ladies" because the mom and the wives had so much power. By all accounts, they ruled better than their sons, husbands and fathers.

Greetings from Istanbul

2008-10-04T22:58:00.000-07:00

Three days ago we docked in Bodrum, where we explored the little sea-side town for the morning and then water skied the rest of the afternoon (solidifying our rep as the ship's adventure duo). Not that many of the people on board don't water ski - many of them have summer homes by lake - it's just that the conditions were choppy and the water cold. And oh, by the way, I kept my bathing suit top on :)

The next day was the amazing ruins at Ephesus.

Then we had a day at sea. We have become friends with a reporter at NPR. She asked the cruise director to tape the VP debates and play them in the mezzanine so we could have our own public forum afterward. They told us no. I joked with her that just because she is comfortable with plane wrecks and terrorist attacks (which she covered a great deal in her last job) that doesn't mean the cruise ship is. Not that anyone would be nasty BUT most folks on the ship were categorically Republicans and the few Democrats liked to wear politically provocative tee-shirts. It made for interesting dinner conversation.

Yesterday we landed in Istanbul.

Did you know that Istanbul has twice as many people as New York City? Did you know that half of the city is in Asia and half in Europe? It's true.

Also, 98% of the people who live here are Muslim. The call to prayer can be heard throughout the ENTIRE city five times each day.

The people that we have met so far (with the exception of the carpet salesmen) have all been so warm, thoughtful, and friendly. As one of our tour guides pointed out - do not judge a religion by its fanatics.

In the morning, we visited the breathtaking Haiga Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Then we went to my favorite, the cisterns. In the 500's A.D., Emperor Justinian built an amazing underground water repository, with 336 magnificent columns. But during the dark ages, people simply FORGOT they were there! It wasn't until a few hundred years later someone rediscovered them. You take a few steps under ground and suddenly there are columns as far as the eye can see. It is so amazing. They don't use it to capture rain water anymore, but there is about two feet of water. They have a restaurant and concerts down there. It's cool.

For dinner, we went to Asia. We actually went to Asia twice yesterday. How cool is that? The people we have met are quick to point out that they are Asian decedents, rather than Arabic, although many Americans assume Turkey is Arabic. One guide even told us they share DNA with North American Native Americans. I will have to fact check that when we get back.

We went to the Spice Market, which is a sight to behold. We bought some Turkish Delight (think applets and cotlets but way better). It is so amazingly addictively good. We actually went outside and gorged ourselves on it. Not a pretty site.

Hookah Pipe bars are very popular (think water bong bars). We passed by several water front restaurants that had hundreds of yards of brightly colored bean bags with patrons smoking fragrant tobaccos from the foot tall pipes.

I must leave you now. There are others waiting for the computer. Today we are going to a museum, a Turkish bath, and then to see a Whirling Dervish show.

I will try to write more tomorrow.

Hope all is well with everyone back home. We miss you!

Greetings from Rhodes

2008-09-30T19:29:00.000-07:00

We docked in Rhodes today and rented a car. We drove over an hour out of the regular tourist beaches and found a great family beach called Genadi.

At the beach, I figured I'd continue my adventurous streak. Afterall, I'd climbed to the top of a rainy Manemvisia two days ago, rode donkeys up Santorini yesterday, what was I going to do today?

So I did like the locals, took off my top and swam topless in the Aegean Sea. Granted, the beach was fairly secluded and had only a few Greek families playing in the water. Nobody noticed me.

Back on board the ship, as I was entering the dining room for dinner (think fancy clothes, rich people), a couple from Quebec came up to me and said, "we saw you today!".

My heart lept to my throat and my face turned bright red. I realized then that I am not nearly as brave as I might give myself credit.

"You saw me? today?" I asked in a croaky voice.

"Yes! You rented a car. We were behind you in a taxi."

"Did you go to the beach?" I was panicking.

"Oh no, we turned off to go to a ceramics museum".

"Thank you baby jesus" I said to myself.

Today we enter Turkey.

Greetings from Santorini

2008-09-29T01:32:00.000-07:00

From Dave -

Hello from Oia! Shari and I just ducked in to a cafe to send a quick note. We are amazed by this place. All the postcards and pictures we have seen did not do it justice. Simply incredible.

This morning Shari solidified her place as Greatest Wife in the World, when she took the donkeys up the slope to Fira with me instead of the cable car. It was quite an experience, I can't wait to show you the pictures. The 'guide' smacked our burros on the ass and sent us up the path, but didn't come with us. About a third of the way up, they just stopped. No amount of kicking, yelling or pushing would get the donkeys to move. After about 10 minutes another set of donkeys came-- but they were going down. Our rides tried to follow them before a guide finally got them turned around. We continued up the hill, but they stopped several more times and would only go when they felt like it. They also seemed to prefer hugging the outside wall quite a bit, which was a bit disconcerting as we got 1000+ feet up. Shari was a real trooper. Right now we both smell like donkey.

Yesterday we were diverted from Mykonos due to weather-- we went to a port called Manemvasia on the Pelopponesian Peninsula. The weather was terrible-- 50 degrees and raining. It made the Greek Islands look like the San Juans in November. Luckily, we LOVE the San Juans in November, and weren't going to allow a little rain to slow us down. We hiked to the top of the Rock of Manemvisia, which gave us incredible views of the walled city there. It also gave us a little bit of a reputation on the boat (we are officially the youngest tourists aboard). The donkey ride should help solidify our "adventurous" status.

Greetings from Athens

2008-09-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

Here is where Dave and I are staying in Athens.

It's remarkable that the photo on their website did not include the pawn shop and porn stand which shares the same space. Oh well. The view from the top is gorgeous. We've had drinks here almost every night.

We visited the Acropolos and the Agora as well as the Archeology Museum.

I must admit, I'm not quite as interested in Greek ruins as Dave (big shocker to some of you, I know).

But I did find catch this interesting site:

At the Roman Agora - there is a preserved public bathroom! So check it out - picture a square room with a bench around the all four walls. The bench has circlular holes side by side. Under the holes is a trough with flowing water. People would sit, thigh to thigh and take care of their business. In the middle, there was often an orchestra. Many people think the music was to distract from the sounds. Could you imagine being the flute player in that band?

I'm going to keep that in mind the next time I'm not liking my job.

At least I'm not playing a flute while people poop all around me.

May I Have This Dance?

2008-09-03T05:23:00.001-07:00

The first alarm clack didn’t work so well. B thought it was the fire alarm and it freaked her out. Now she has my super alarm clock that plays a CD when it goes off and I have the Fred Meyer alarm clock. (I guess I’m old enough to remember the alarm signals its time to wake up, not evacuate the house).

She chose her wake up song carefully. It’s what she calls the “Bekah and Lexie Song”. You may know if it by the name “This is Us” by Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris

“You and me and our memories
This is us”

On the first day of the new alarm clock, B jumped out of bed and went to L’s bed and asked, “May I have this dance?”

L rolled over and said, “go-ed away”.

We survived the first day of Kindergarten with one traumatic event in the morning and one in the afternoon.

When dropping 3-year-old L off at day care, we discovered that she actually thought she was ‘starting elementary’ that day as well. She was maaa-aaad that she wasn’t ‘going to elementary’ with a lunch box and recess and everything else we’ve been talking about.

Then, at 3:30 pm, my cell phone rings (the only people who call me on my cell are those few people who take care of my children).

It was the principal of B’s new school. She got on the wrong bus, I was told. She is sitting in the principal’s office and is upset, please come get her.

When we got her, we learned that she didn’t actually get on the wrong bus, she didn’t get on any bus at all. They gave her and one other little girl from her day care a purple ribbon and told her to find the bus with a purple sign. As the six other boys from her daycare boarded the PINK signed bus (because their ribbons were pink), she looked at her ribbon, looked at the bus and got very confused. Soon all the buses started pulling away and she and Ann were not on any of them. She never found a purple signed bus because there wasn’t one and it’s a big mystery why she and Ann were given ribbons for a bus that didn’t exist.

She wasn’t sad or scared – she was maaa-aaad! She told me she wanted to ride the bus on her first day of school and her first day of school was now gone. True, I told her. True, but like many things about school, beyond our control.

In Ten Minutes

2008-08-28T05:45:00.001-07:00

Rebekah’s brand new alarm clock is going to buzz for the first time. Kindergarten starts next Tuesday and we are all practicing getting up early.

Even though she is totally excited for it (she actually went to bed early last night in anticipation!), I’m sad for her.

I’m pretty sure she’s going to hate the sound of the buzzing waking her up and I’m doubly sure she has no idea that this is how it’s going to be almost every day for the next sixty to seventy years.

But she’s surprised me before.

I’ll post an update tomorrow.

Oh, and we met her teacher last night. She seems very nice and smart. One thing about her that has us scratching our heads… she has 27 children. Apparently, she adopted 23. She assured us that only 16 are living with her right now.

Dave and I can’t decide if that makes her a saint or a loon. I’ll report on that in a few months as well!

10 Years Ago Today

2008-08-21T05:09:00.000-07:00

10 years ago on this day, my wedding day, I woke up to discover the apartment I had moved out of two days before - that had nothing in it but my wedding dress, shoes, make-up and veil - was locked and the key was lost.

You see, the night before, Dave’s friends had ‘kidnapped’ me at the rehearsal dinner. Apparently this is a Stukel family tradition.

In the chaos of the kidnapping, someone had grabbed my key ring and nobody knew where it had gone.

My sister drove me to the hotel where hundreds of Dave’s family were staying. We met up with his parents and his dad innocently asked me why I didn’t have a spare key. In my stressed out, sleep deprived state, I started to unleash on him, going back to the fact that I had moved my entire apartment the week of my wedding BECAUSE we had not lived together BECAUSE Dave had not wanted to disappoint them…. My sister quickly grabbed my arm and pulled me away. Luckily, Ron shook it off and if I offended him, I still don’t know it.

We finally found the key and I was wed in the dress as planned.

I laugh at this ten years later. Not a whole lot has changed.

Our lives are still hectic and disorganize. We lose things like crazy (as a matter of fact, one the girls’ favorite sayings when they spot a random toy is “I’ve been looking ALL OVER for this!”)

We are still blessed with friends who do crazy stuff that good friends do.

Our families are still standing with me in moments of stress. I still snap at them sometimes and they continue to shrug it off. We are still a family without much drama.

I could get mushy and write about how much I still love my husband, but if you’ve read this blog at all, you know I adore him.

Dave’s younger sister, Kate, is getting married in a few weeks. I’m sure the event will be like most good marriages. It will be the hardest, sometimes the most stressful, work she’s ever done, for a party that is more fun than she can even imagine.

I love you Dave.

Jo’s Got A Shiner

2008-08-02T08:23:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I was going to write a post titled “Lexie Saves the Day”. The plot was centered around an evening when we were at Dairy Queen and after Bekah was ¾ of the way through with her Sundae, it dropped on the ground. She started crying and demanding another. I figured she was more shrewd than clumsy so I denied her; which cranked up the volume on the crying, until Little Lexie said, ‘”here, you can share mine”

Crying stopped and day was saved.

Fast forward a few days. We were out and about and I saw a dime on the ground, I pointed it out to Bekah and she was thrilled to find a dime on the street. An hour later, I spotted a penny so I alerted Lexie (I’m getting like my father in my coin-finding acumen). Bekah went nuts. She was angry because she wanted the penny. She said to me, “mommy, how would you like it if you were a little girl and you found a dime and then you lost it and your mommy found a penny but gave it to Aunt Stacey?”

I started to admit that would make me said when Little Lexie handed the penny over to Bekah and said, “Here, you can have it.”

I told my parents the story that night and my mom observed, “Lexie is going to have to learn to stand up for herself”. Which was exactly my inclination until I gave it more thought.

To assume that Lexie is giving in to peer pressure might not the proper assumption.

See, Lexie doesn’t have a monster sweet tooth like her two sisters (and her mother). She often eats half a cookie and puts down the rest because she is full. And, at three, she doesn’t understand what money is. So, in her little world, what’s the big deal if she hands over ice cream or a penny? She doesn’t dig her heals in over principle, like some people do (me).

I think life might be easier on her with this outlook.

But there is the worry that she is too much of a pushover. She is sandwiched between two domineering personality types. The question lingers, will she be able to hold her own in this household of extroverts?

So last night, Lexie was playing with her puzzle. Now her puzzle – that is something she cherishes. Jo came up and tried to take the puzzle. After the third attempt at a capture, Lexie socked her – right in the eye.

She socked her hard enough to give her a black eye. Now, I’m in no way advocating violence under my roof, but I do have to admit, it probably isn’t the worst thing that has happened to the sister dynamic.

The thing I find a bit more interesting, is that, now that I pay closer attention, I notice that Bekah NEVER tries to take Lexie’s books, puzzles, blanket or paci. Clearly, they have worked out their own boundaries and something tells me, Lexie played a lead roll in setting the rules. Something also tells me that those rules will be established with Jo as well. She’s a little slower on the learning (she’s only one, after all) but I witnessed Lexie give her a firm “NO!” when she tried to mess with her books yesterday.

Yeah, Lexie may be quiet and soft spoken, but she can hold her own.

LOL

2008-07-20T06:47:00.000-07:00

For most people, LOL has come to mean “Laughing Out Loud”. But in our family, it has a whole different meaning. One that sometimes drives Dave and me to the brink of divorce.

It means

Lost on Location.

When Dave is working on a film and the prop people, or the costume people or even the craft services people need something, he is so focused and so wrapped up in producing the best movie ever, that he will borrow from our household whatever it is that the movie crew needs.

And, inevitably, it gets lost.

Hence the term, “lost on location”.

I could list the litany of items that have disappeared from my house into that cosmic black hole that is a movie location, but I will not, since I do love my husband dearly.

So yesterday, the girls and I went to visit Daddy on the movie set. We walked around the huge semi trucks that housed the generators they are using to power all the cameras and lights (filming is in a shut down school). We peeked at Robin Williams trailer. We saw all of the racks and racks of costumes and talked with the hilarious woman who was sewing all of them. We marveled at the two classrooms that the props people painstakingly set up like an English class and Art class. We walked through all the different parts of the set wide-eyed and smiling at all of the different and amazing things. Until

“HEY!” I yelled at Dave

“That. Is. My. Lunch box!”

Luckily, there was no body else in the ‘control room’ when he was giving us the tour, lest they think his wife is a raging lunatic (which I kind of am lately, as I’ve been pulling single parent duty, while working full time as an exec and finishing my book).

However, it is my favorite lunch box. It’s the one with the wide bottom so my Lean Cuisines fit comfortably inside and it has the adjustable strap and the thermo-whatever, works the best of the others I have.

Dave quickly handed it to me. “I wasn’t going to let it get lost, I swear.”

Yeah, right.

Far be it from me to complain, but being the wife a movie guy is not nearly as glamorous as I thought it would be. Although when we walked past the security guard, he did call Dave “boss” and the girls thought this was the neatest thing ever. Of course, Dave called him “chief” back, so I think these are just odd movie-people terms of endearment that aren’t really literal.

Summer Nights

2008-07-05T20:11:00.000-07:00

Last night, as illegal fireworks exploded on seemingly every side of our house, they drown out the quiet patter of three-year-old feet coming down the hallway.

It wasn’t until a small hand touched my face that I woke at slightly past midnight.

“Mommy” said timid little Lexie, “I don’t want fire works on my birthday.”

I hoisted her into bed with me and wrapped my protective arms around her.

“They are noisy” she complained. “Too noisy for me to fall asleep and I am tired.”

When we were in Ireland last, I remarked to our friends who live in Galway at how late it stays light outside.

“How do you ever get your kids to go to bed?” I asked one of the locals.

“I dress all of my kids in red,” he said to me.

This was very intriguing. Luckily, he went on.

“I dress them in red and my neighbor, he dresses his children in blue.

We send them to the park and let them play until they all fall down from exhaustion. Then I go pick up all the red ones and he picks up all the blue ones and we are done for the night.”

As I sit up in my office, trying to put the finishing touches on my book, I can hear my kids down in the back yard with my husband and my parents. My parents gave them a swing set and they are all playing loudly on it.

Dave and my parents are putting the kids down tonight so I can keep working. I’m pretty sure their strategy for getting them to sleep has a touch of the Irish in it.

Would Somebody Please Let Mommy Sleep?

2008-07-03T05:51:00.001-07:00

Last night:

1:30 shouts from Bekah – leg cramp.
2:00 thunder claps
2:01 dog jumps into bed (first time in the 8 year we’ve had her)
2:15 heavy rains crash into open windows
3:30 Jo wakes up – stays that way until 5:30

Yesterday morning, in my sleep deprived / book deadline stress induced state of mind, I packed all three girls up in the car and headed out. But instead of turning right to take them to school, I went straight – to work.

I didn’t get far before Bekah asked “Mommy! Where are you going?!?”

Lexie laughed in the back seat, “Mommy, you forgot to put us to school!”

Jo is walking now. She walks and she loves the dishwasher. She can hear that thing open from anywhere on the premises. She can crawl and walk so fast when that dishwasher opens. She is dying to crawl inside. I think she thinks there is magic in there – like The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe closet or something.

Of course, I don’t want to break the dishwasher door.

So we basically do dishes even less than we used to.

It’s messy and sleepy at my house right now.

New Website

2008-06-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

I've got a new website, courtesy Brent Dixon. Come visit.

www.sharistorm.com

Lexie at the Door with Neighbors

2008-06-12T04:51:00.000-07:00

The other night, our very nice, retired neighbor, Art, came by to tell us that our dog had escaped again.

Usually, when Art stops by, we shoot the breeze.

This time, I opened the door with Jo in my arms and Bekah by my side. As he was telling me that the dog got out, Lexie walked up to my other side.

Art glanced down at her and then stammered something, turned around, and I would dare say, bolted from the porch.

I thought it was so odd. I stood there watching him, then shut the door, looked down at Lexie and saw a little girl with nothing on but a pull-up, pink cowboy boots and large pieces of scotch tape on her legs. I don’t know what she was playing before Art came by, but she certainly was a sight to behold.

Last night, we stopped by our neighbors house to give them a birthday invitation. The mother, Claudia, opened the door and exclaimed, “Lexie! Girl! Your Hair!”

I thought this was odd. I had a fleeting thought of “oh crap! I forgot to look at her before we left the house again!” But I looked down and it was just normal Lexie, with her huge head of blond hair. (which, we recently had cut but it did nothing to tame that head-o-hair).

Claudia saw that I looked puzzled and said, “I’ve only seen Lexie riding her bike with her helmet on. I never knew she had soooo much blond hair.”

Yep, Little Lexie is making an impression.

After Our Walk

2008-05-26T06:08:00.000-07:00

I took Jo on a walk yesterday. Here is a photo of the results along with a haiku.

"No She Is Not Dead
She Just Looks That Way Right Now
Asleep In Stroller"

Scratching Their Heads

2008-05-17T19:46:00.000-07:00

I’ve joined a book club. Of course, I have absolutely no time to read books. So I buy them on iTunes, download them to my iPod, plug my iPod into my car stereo system and listen to them whenever I drive.

This morning was bright and sunny. I had to go into the office to get some work done and write a few chapters of my book. I had the windows rolled down, the sun roof open and my latest book club book playing loudly on the stereo when I pulled out of our garage.

We are “reading” Under the Banner of Heaven, by Jon Krakauer. The book is about Mormon Fundamentalist sects.

As the book was narrated through my stereo, I realized that the stroller Dave needed to take the girls to the park today was in the back of my SUV. So I stopped the car, got out, walked around, opened the back hatch and pulled out the stroller.

I wasn’t thinking much of the stereo until I caught site of my two neighbors staring at me. Then I realized what was blasting out of my stereo:

“Here the Lord very clearly and definitely says, that in order to enter into His glory, men MUST live the law of plural marriage. He makes no exceptions. There are no ‘ifs’ nor ‘ands’ about it. ‘All those who would enter into my glory MUST and SHALL obey my law.’ And ‘my law,’ as the Lord was treating it, is the law of PLURAL MARRIAGE”

I was, clearly, at the part of the book where the author was quoting John Taylor’s covenants.

I’m sure this confused my two neighbors. Not only do they know we baptized both our younger daughters at the Catholic Holy Rosary, they also know that Dave is responsible for the majority of the child care in our house hold.

I laughed at the thought of the impression I just gave to my neighbors and my mind wandered to what life would be like if Dave married more than one me.

I envisioned three women getting ready for work, on a day when he wasn’t working on a film.

“Can you pick up my dry cleaning today? I really want to wear my brown suit to the next board meeting.”

“Oh, and I need my website URL repurchased, would you mind taking care of that?”

“Don’t forget that I am leaving for New York day after tomorrow so you’ll have to take the kids to the doctor”

If Dave had three wives, that would be so strange. And he would be very, very tired.

At any rate, that will be my contribution to the book club conversation next month.

Moment of Truth

2008-05-10T20:27:00.000-07:00

Since before Rebekah was born, I have been overly committed to raising daughters with a healthy body image. I told my friends when Bekah was still in the womb that I was not going to talk disparagingly of my weight in front of my daughters and I didn’t want them to either. As a matter of fact, I sometimes go as far as compliment myself in front of them so that they grow up knowing there is nothing wrong with liking the way you look. (If you ever want to test how pervasive self-flagellation is in our culture, just try complimenting your physique in front of your friends)

I have always struggled with my weight and I don’t want my daughters to go through the same. I try to be on a diet. I try to go to the gym every morning. All of this I do without talking about it in front of the children.

Lately, the struggle has been extra difficult. Baby number three + late thirties + writing a book while working full time = serious weight gain for me.

Last night, I was brushing my teeth and Rebekah came in and stepped on the scale.

“35” she said proudly.

“That is a very good weight” I agreed with her.

“Mommy, you get on the scale”. She said out of the blue.

“Me?” My heart panicked. “I’m busy”

“Why don’t you want to get on the scale?” asked my uber-observant four-year-old.

Good question, I said to myself. This is the kind of thing she will take her cues from. I can't let on I am embarrassed about my weight. I am trying to be the role model for self acceptance.

So I stepped on the scale.

“Wow!” Mommy you weight a lot!”

Great, I thought. Now what do I do? How do I turn this into a teachable moment?

“It’s not too much.” I shrugged. “Lots of grown ups weigh the same as me”.

“Mommy, is one hundred and (blankty blank) more or less than one million?”

“It’s less, sweetie”

I acted totally nonchalant about the whole episode. But inside I was praying, “please baby jesus, do not let her tell the neighbors how much I weigh; especially the mommy who is the young, blond, perky aerobics instructor.”

Tomorrow to the gym for me.

Happy Hump Day

2008-05-07T06:28:00.000-07:00

Last week I sent this link to a few of my friends because I thought the story was so great.

One of my friends, Nicki, responded with the following story about her seven year old son with autism.

I have my own feel good story about sports. It won't make national news but. . .

Trevor is in TOPS soccer (program for special needs) and a couple of Saturdays ago, he was the highest scorer for both teams, scoring 2 goals for his team and 2 goals for the other team. The other team won with a score of 3 to 2.

In other news -

Jo continues to crawl and get into everything. She has two teeth on the bottom.

Lexie had her first dentist appointment. She cried at first but then bucked up and forged through it.

Rebekah took part in another series of early childhood development studies at UW. Part of the study is about children and delayed gratification. She went ten minutes alone in a room, with absolutely nothing to do but stare at a cup full of fruitloops. At 11 minutes, she said she had to go to the bathroom. She never ate the fruitloops, but she didn't sit the entire 15 minutes.

Dave has worked on a couple of commercials. They are not glamorous, (think vacuum cleaners), but its good work.

And I, if you have not heard, finally got a book deal.

And that's it for us right now.

Lexie Reads

2008-05-03T05:58:00.001-07:00

Lexie, who is not yet three, has been watching her older sister learn to read.

Lexie knows all of her letters by sight. She does not, however, know that each makes a certain sound.

At any rate, she’s been watching Rebakah closely. Last night, she opened her children’s dictionary and put her finger intently on the first letter of the first word and then she said,

“Aaaaa gaaaa daaaa wrrrrooo paaa. Whas sat spell?” (looking at me)

“airplane” I reply

She nods happily, just like Rebekah does when she properly sounds out a new word. Rebekah will sound out a word, and then look up and ask, “What’s that spell?”

Next word

“maaa daaa graaa saaaa. Whas sat spell?”

“arm” I say.

Happy nod.

Then she must have gotten lazy about coming up with sounds because she started doing this.

“raaaa beeeee kaaaaa. Whas sat spell?”

“Carnival” I say.

Happy nod.

One thing about Lexie – she stays on a task like this for a long time. I was wishing I had a nanny camera pointed at her. It was less what she was saying and more her perfect imitation of her sister. It was cute.

From the Mouth of Babes

2008-04-20T07:29:00.001-07:00

Bekah and I were sitting there one day and out of the blue she says, “If cars were made out of poop, you might accidentally put your hand in your mouth after you touched the handle and then you would get sick. That is why we don’t have poop cars.”

Indeed.

She came running downstairs on evening and exclaimed, “I tried to turn on the hall light but it is out of e-light-tricity”.

Why don’t we call it e-light-tricity?

One night I told her to stop jumping on the bed. She says, “I’m not jumping on the bed. I’m only showing you an e-zample of what it would look like if I really were jumping on the bed.”

I’m going to try that one at work.

Thank You Yesterday

2008-03-25T03:59:00.000-07:00

I needed things to turn around for me. I really did. Last week was hard. And I say that with some trepidation because ten people in my husband’s family lost their father last week. My week wasn’t hard like that kind of hard, but it was hard.

It started with Grandpa Stukel dying (Dave’s maternal grandfather). Oh, he was 101 ½ so it wasn’t entirely unexpected, but sad nonetheless. It marks the end of an era and it is never easy to lose someone you love.

Dave headed out to South Dakota on Monday. Jo has been having sleep problems, torturous sleep problems. On Monday night, I got all three kids into their own beds by 8:50 pm. I sunk into the pillow and had an overwhelming sense of happiness. 100 minutes later, Jo woke up screaming.

And that was the longest she slept for the next three nights.

By Wednesday, I was a WRECK!

I cried at work. I’m not usually a crier, but I let loose – on my boss no less. And why? Because he came into my office and wanted me to look at a sport’s website. As a childless bachelor with only brothers, the poor guy didn’t know what hit him. He quickly scurried out of my office.

I haven’t seen him since.

Luckily, Jo had a doctor’s appointment scheduled. I had already made up my mind that I was going to talk to the doctor about her lack of sleep and it’s dangerous effect on me.

So I get to the doctor’s office. Now – a little back story – they had called me on Monday because Bekah’s kindergarten immunization records were ready for pick up. Then they called on Tuesday to remind me that Jo had an appointment on Wednesday to get her flu shot.

On Wednesday, I got off work early, picked Jo up from school and went to the doctor’s.

First, I asked for Bek’s immunizations. They didn’t have them. Not only that, they wouldn’t give them to me until I filled out their silly release forms again.

Filling out the forms made Jo get antsy and fussy. By the time I was done, she was really irritable.

I waited for a half hour with little cranky pants and finally a nurse came out. She took me back and then told me, “I’m really sorry, but we don’t have a flu shot for Jo. We ran out two weeks ago. We tried to call all of the shot appointments and tell them not to come in.”

Even though I was furious because they had wasted an entire afternoon for me, I said, “no problem, that kind of stuff happens. But, while I am back here, could you look in her ears? She isn’t sleeping and I think she has an ear infection”

The nurse looks at me and says (and I’m not making this up).

“No, I can’t because you don’t have an appointment”

Ahhhh… but there is where you are wrong nurse lady. I DO HAVE A FREAKIN’ APPOINTMENT!! WHY ELSE WOULD I BE STANDING HERE?!?!

But I didn’t say that. Instead, I just stared at her and started crying. The tears were streaming down my face. With my half-working mind, I was processing the fact that I needed to take Jo to the hospital and figure out what is wrong with her.

There must be something highly disconcerting about a woman in a business suit, silently crying in the middle of a doctor’s office because the nurse said, "I’ll be right back with the doctor".

They scooted me into a room and I started really crying. The combination of taking care of the girls alone, stress at work, and lack of sleep came tumbling out.

The doctor took one look in her ears, diagnosed a dual ear infection and prescribed antibiotics. She took one look at me and prescribed a short term pain medication. I asked if it were for me or the kid. She said, give it to the baby to make sure she sleeps – and that I sleep.

Things slowing started to get better after that. Dave came home. We had a nice Easter. I caught up a little at work.

But yesterday was nice.

Top Ten Reasons Why I Liked Yesterday

1. Jo slept through the whole night – in her crib.
2. I got the girls to school and me to work on time.
3. Dave is working on a job he loves and it pays well.
4. We had a crisis at work and my manager handled it like a pro.
5. I finally turned in our taxes to our accountant (and we are getting a sizable return).
6. I found my blue suit that I thought I had lost.
7. I stole away an hour to watch “Gilmore Girls”
8. I took the girls to the park and they were delighted.
9. Bekah ate a sh*tload of broccoli for dinner.
10. It was a brilliantly sunny day – all day.

Lexie's Stacey Infatuation

2008-03-09T10:20:00.000-07:00

The girls know we always call nana and poppa on Sunday nights. Last night, Dave told them we were going to call grandma and grandpa after dinner. Rebekah says, “let’s call grandma and grandpa every Friday night”

Lexie says, “let’s call Stacey and Aram every Monday night”

This morning, when I came down, Lexie was singing “Stacey, Stacey, Stacey” in her chair. I asked her what she was doing and she told me her yogurt was named Stacey.

Odd child.

Either She Is A Genius Or..

2008-02-20T03:58:00.000-08:00

Lex is 2 ½ years old.

Yesterday, she looked at my FLORIDA sweatshirt and pointed to the F and asked, “what number is dat?”

I said, “that is the letter F”

She pointed to the L and asked, “dat?”

I said, “L”.

She points to the O.

“Lex, you know that one!”

“O!” she exclaims.

Then she points to the R and says…. “R”

And then points to the I and says…. “I”

And then the D and the A and, well, you get the picture.

My 2 ½ year old can spell Florida.

That means she is either really, really smart for a 2 ½ year old or….

I wear this FLORIDA sweatshirt far too much.

I Am A Bad Influence

2008-02-16T04:54:00.001-08:00

Last week, at Bek’s Montessori parent teacher conference, they told us how well she reads, and writes her numbers and gets along with others.

Amongst the praise, the teacher mentioned, “one odd thing she does is insists that her youngest sister is zero years old. We try to explain that nobody can be zero”

I laughed. “Oh! That is my shtick”.

They look confused.

“When people ask”

Still looks of confusion and now I’m starting to feel a bit silly, but I forge ahead.

“When, um, people ask, I say, they are four, two and zero. It’s a joke…. You know. Because nobody can be… zero….. um, it’s irony.. “

I realize I’m not making progress so I change tactics, “its kind of funny but it’s also easier, then I don’t have to… um, remember…. Um….Jo’s age…..”

Confusion starts to turn to hints of concern so I stop.

“Alrighty then! I’ll make sure Bek understands that the baby is six, um, I mean, seven months old”.

Later that night, as I was feeding them dinner, I poured them their soy milk and said, “cheers!”

Lex pulled her cup to her chest.

“Teacher say, Lekki no do teers”.

“What?

“Teacher say my get time out if my do teers”

“She did!?” I ask incredulously.

“She said no teers even if you have lid”

Aah, that makes sense. I’m sure when they have 10 two year olds sitting around a table, they don’t want one of them clonking cups with all the others.

“But you can do cheers at home, Lex, when it is just us”

Lex shakes her head. It is clear by her expression that she considers her teachers to be all knowing and all seeing. If they said no cheers, then it means no cheers.

Deep sigh. OK.

Our Brush With Oprah

2008-02-05T04:46:00.000-08:00

Dave and I have some long time friends, Dave and Kari. Dave and Dave were in the same fraternity and then they were roommates for awhile after college. Dave and Kari met while teaching high school. We were at their wedding, baby shower and other life events. They are good people.

A few years ago, just after their first son was born, Kari’s brother started having difficulties caring for his three pre-teen daughters. And, as good people do, Dave and Kari stepped up to help.

The girls moved in to Dave and Kari’s modest home and suddenly, 1,400 square feet became very small for six people and a cat.

In December, on a whim, Kari wrote to Oprah and explained their situation. A few days later, they got a call asking more questions. After the questions, they were asked to send photos of their house. Then one Friday, the folks at Oprah called Kari and said, “video tape your house and FedEx us the tape on Monday.”

So Dave and Kari called Dave. Dave went over the next day, filmed some footage of them in their house and spent part of his Sunday editing the footage into a really touching, heartfelt, humorous four minute look at their lives and home.

Dave and Kari FedExed it on Monday and on Tuesday got a call from Oprah’s people. More interviews followed.

A few weeks later, Dave and Kari called us one evening to tell us they had heard back. They got a call with good news and with bad news. The bad news was they did not win the Oprah home makeover. The good news was, they were one of the three runners up and they won a $5,000 shopping spree at Pottery Barn. Oprah’s people told them to be at the local Pottery Barn at 7 am the next day. They were opening the store just for them and there would be a film crew there to film some of the shopping and it would air on Oprah.

We were thrilled for them.

The next morning, our phone rang at 7:30 am.

“GUESS WHERE WE ARE!!!!” Dave shouted into the phone.

“Um, at Pottery Barn?” my Dave guessed.

“NOOOO!!! WE ARE HEADED BACK TO OUR HOUSE TO MOVE OUT!!! WE WON THE OPRAH HOME MAKE OVER!!!!!”

While Kari was sitting in the chair, getting her make-up put on for the photo op at Pottery Barn, who else, but Nate Berkus, steps out from behind the camera and says, “Kari…. I have something to tell you….”

Kari immediately started crying.

Nate told them they had won a home make over and they were moving into a hotel that day. They called us en route.

Then they called back an hour later and told us it was a super huge, gigantic secret. We had to stay mum for three weeks until the remodel was complete.

Torture.

For me, pure torture.

Last night, it was finished. Dave and I took the family over to Dave and Kari’s to see the final product. All I can say is Oh. My. God.

Oh. My. God.

Dave and Kari and the kids leave for Chicago tomorrow. They will be interviewed by Oprah on Thursday and the episode will air on Monday, February 11.

Set your TiVo or your DVR or your video machine. However you can, watch it. You will be utterly and absolutely amazed.

It’s Good to Be Home

2008-01-27T15:53:00.000-08:00

Dave and I spent last week in New York City. As is our travel luck, we touched down and the Dow dropped 400 points and Heath Ledger died.

But, luckily for NYC, we are home now.

We got back around 9 pm on Friday. All the girls were still up so I promised a snuggle with the two oldest ones.

As I burrowed down with the four year old, she says to me, “so, how was your flight?”

It wasn’t the words that made this exchange so funny, it was the exact replication of tone and cadence of adult-speak. You know that way that you ask someone how their flight was when you are making small talk and you fully intend NOT to listen to the answer? She pegged that tone. I made a mental note not to ever ask that question again.

Then I settled in next to the two year old who was almost asleep. In a very tired, very soft voice, as she put a little hand up to stroke my hair, she said, “my missed you”.

It is good to be home.

Jason Knight on Fox News

2008-01-25T04:43:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine, who I have met at various speaking engagements, was on the speaker's line up with me at Online Innovations in New York City this week. As he was leaving, he mentioned he was going to be interviewed on Fox News (I want to be that cool some day). Here he is below. I love his product and he is a really good guy.

Dora Gets Her Funk On

2008-01-20T17:08:00.001-08:00

Guest Blogger

2008-01-09T08:47:00.000-08:00

Dave sent this email to his parents yesterday.... It's a good read.

So tonight was bath night. Shari was bathing Lexie and Bekah at the same time while I did some chores. Towards the end of the bath, she decided to put Jo in with them, in this little support chair we have for the bath. Their first bath all together, it was totally cute. I got the videocamera and taped them for a minute or two. Then I turned the camera off and went downstairs to get the still camera.

On my way back up the stairs 30 seconds later, I hear Shari shout “911 Red Alert!!!!!!” I go running in to the bathroom. Floating behind Lexie is a turd the size of a bratwurst.

It all happened before Shari could react. Lex even called her shot, saying “My pooping” before she pinched it out. Shari protested, but was helpless as she had to extricate Jo from the support chair. As I rushed in I quickly yanked Lex out of the tub and onto her toilet. Luckily (or not?) she had apparently finished the job, as there wasn’t anything hanging off her backside. Meanwhile Bekah was standing in the water calmly discussing how huge of a poop it was. I grabbed her next while Shari tended to Jo. Lex casually sat on her toilet, watching the whole scene. “My pooped,” she says again.

Damn we need to get that one potty-trained.

Question of the Day

2008-01-07T16:12:00.001-08:00

Brought to you by four year old Bekah:

"When all the Mommies and the Grandmas die, what happens to the earth?"

VERY good question.

Did I Do This To My Mother?

2007-12-26T18:06:00.000-08:00

Some recent conversations with four year old Bekah:

On the alphabet

“Mommy, is S in the ABC’s?”

“Yes”

“No it’s not. Listen, A B C D E F G H I J K ELLEMENOPEE Q R X T U V W X Y AND Z”

“S comes after R”

“No it doesn’t. X does.”

“Honey, there are few things in life that I am certain about. This is one of them. S is in the alphabet”.

“No it’s not”.

OK.

On Hanukkah

“Mommy, Kyle doesn’t celebrate Christmas.”

“He doesn’t? How come?”

“I don’t know. Do you know?”

“I bet it is because he is a different religion. Maybe Muslim, or Buddhist or Jewish. Probably he celebrates Hanukah.”

“Yes! That is what he celebrates – Hanukah. But we can call it Christmas.”

“No, you can’t call it Christmas. It is different than Christmas.”

“I can call it Christmas if I want to.”

“That is true. But it is like calling Normandy a cat. You can call her a cat, but really, she is a dog”.

“NO! you can call it Christmas. They said so on Blues Clues”

What?

On lesbians:

Our conventional family is probably in the minority. We have single parent families, grandparents raising their grandchildren, adopted kids, step parents, and, of course, same sex couples raising children. The girls are so used to families that look different than ours that it doesn’t even faze them.

Recently, however, we played with one playmate whose two mommies are quite masculine.

On the way home, Bekah asked, “Mommy, why is Pat’s mom a boy?”

“She isn’t a boy, Honey. She is a girl.”

“No she isn’t. Her hair is like a boy’s and her clothes are like a boy’s”.

“Trust me sweetie. She is a girl”.

“No she isn’t. You don’t know!”

Sigh.

More On Sleep

2007-12-08T16:53:00.000-08:00

So, one odd thing about me (or at least Dave thinks it is odd) is that I like to fall asleep to the sound of the television. My favorite sleep-falling show is “Snapped”, but anything on Biography usually does the trick. I turn the TV on, roll over and fall asleep.

Last night, I must have fallen asleep between turning the TV on and turning to channel 275 because when I woke up three hours later, Saturday Night Live was on.

Yes, it was a little after midnight, Dave was downstairs, SNL was on and there was Lexie, sitting in the middle of my floor, sucking on her pacifier and watching Destiny’s Child perform.

Crap.

Now she is going to come to my bed every night and ask me to turn on the TV. I know she will.

Either that or she’ll start saying “Maaakin copies” all the time.

Family News

2007-11-29T18:23:00.001-08:00

For those of you who have been following the story of my nephew, you’ll be happy to know he got his cast off!

Nolan, who is two and a half, fell on Labor Day and broke his femur. He has been in a body cast since then.

Here are the email updates we got from Rob (Nolan’s father) after the casts were removed.

First Update:

Nolan did end up getting his cast off today. It was this afternoon. As happy as this is in theory, it was a highly unhappy day, as he was traumatized beyond belief. They said it would be tender and sore for a while, but he was near convulsions for the first half hour, and couldn't shake out of it the rest of the night. Impossible to know how much was psychological and how much was actual pain. I think he had come to believe that the cast was normal life, and now with its removal he's become horribly deformed. We're assuming he'll be much better tomorrow after moving it unconsciously in his sleep. Anyway, no more cast, which is fantastic. Next up, his first bath in three months.

Second Update: (sent the next morning)

Revision: Was standing in his crib when I went in this morning, and is hobbling around like a spaz now, scaring the crap out of me by playing ring around the rosey, etc. I'm feeling the need to hobble him like a horse so he can't move too much. He tried to take the step into the living room at a canter and wiped out awkwardly. I nearly soiled myself. He's very happy to have a free leg. He still walks like he has the cast on, swinging it out to the side, and it looks like he can only bend it to about 45 degrees, but any psychological damage is gone. Though if you mention his cast he gets a wistful look on his face. It's the same look he gets if you mention Abby, a girl he knew at daycare for two brief weeks before she was gone from his life forever.

Final update:

Every time he falls down he gets up and then looks at us and asks if he's broken his leg. I hope we can rid him of this habit before he starts gym class.

Sleep

2007-11-16T07:36:00.000-08:00

Most of my posts lately have been about sleep. The reason is simple. I am coveting it.

It’s strange that I have a baby that ‘sleeps through the night’, yet I am a sleep deprived lunatic right now.

On any given night, at least one child will wake me up. Right now, odds are it is Lexie, but Jo has been pretty good about following up the ol one-two-punch with a 4 am feeding.

Then my insomnia kicks in and well…. I’m writing blog posts at ungodly hours.

We’ve got an interesting development. As the kids get older, Dave is becoming a more sound sleeper. Less and less wakes him up. Like the other night, when Bekah woke at 2 am to go to the bathroom and sat on the toilet yelling “DADDDY DAAAAADDDDDY”, he didn’t stir.

I however, still have mommy hearing and jump to attention the moment a small foot hits the floor (it helps that our dog, a genetically driven herding dog, starts running from the child to me and back whenever either of the girls gets out of bed in the middle of the night).

So Dave sleeps through this. However, when I put one of the girls in bed with us (as I am prone to do), he immediately can’t sleep.

I, on the other hand, find the soft sound of their snoring quite lulling and it actually helps me sleep.

A typical night looks like this:

9:00 pm all girls asleep in their own beds
1:00 am Normandy starts running from our room to girls’ room
1:01 am mommy wakes up
1:02 am Lexie arrives at mommy’s bed
1:04 am Lexie is cuddled up next to mommy, sucking sweetly on her paci
1:30 am mommy drifts back to sleep
1:45 am daddy wakes up frustrated and takes Lexie back to her bed
1:50 am mommy is now awake and daddy is snoring
2:10 am mommy falls back to sleep
3:30 am Jo starts to stir
3:33 am Normandy starts running from bassinet to mommy’s bed
3:34 am mommy is awake
3:35 am Jo eats and goes right back to sleep
3:40 am mommy’s insomia hits and she gets up and works
4:00 am all family except mommy are asleep in their own beds

That is far too much activity for one night!

103 at 2 am

2007-11-08T03:02:00.001-08:00

The bad news is Lex is sick. The good news is she does not have insomnia.

She has crawled in bed with us at 2 am for the past two nights. Both nights, she has laid there for over 90 minutes and softly talked to herself. She sings every song she knows (which is very few). She plays “teacher lekki”. She pretends she is in ballet class.

I figured she was just taking after her nana and her mother and was a crazy early riser. But nope, she bona fide sick.

Her voice started sounding funny yesterday. When I checked her tonsils before bed, they are swollen to the point of touching each other. When I picked her up to put her in our bed tonight, she was burning up.

“does your throat hurt?” I asked her.

“no”.

“does your head hurt?”

“no”

“water feel me better” she says.

She is just like her aunt Stacey – stoic.

We gave her water and Tylenol and now she is taking up all of the California king size bed that once felt so big. How can such a little thing take up so much room and put off so much heat?

As I watch her, she is tugging on an ear in her sleep. To the doctor for that one.

Before she fell asleep, I unzipped her little pajamas to cool her down.

She has a belly button tattoo.

Not a real one! Sherrysteckly’s sister and mum sent the girls belly button tattoos. They had the best time last night putting them on. They were giggling and giggling. Then daddy surprised me and put one on Baby Jo. Now every one has belly button tattoos. Except me. Getting woken at 2 am three nights in a row is enough torture for me.

Siblings

2007-11-04T06:00:00.000-08:00

Saturday nights are the girls’ 'special night' because they get to fall asleep in mommy’s bed while watching a movie. (Actually, this is really parents’ 'special night' because we don’t have to go through the rigmarole of getting three kids to sleep on Saturday nights – it’s almost like date night for us.)

Last night I was telling the girls their choices for Dragon Tales. Rebekah picked the show “Siblings”.

I asked Lexie, “Do you know what siblings mean?”

She nodded confidently and gave a forceful “YES!”

“It means ‘sisters’”, I told her.

“SISTERS!” she repeated enthusiastically.

“and brothers” I continued.

“AND BROTHERS!” she confirmed.

“AND PORCUPINES” she added, completely out of the blue.

Sisters and brothers and porcupines. Sounds like a good definition of siblings to me. I’ll add it to wikipedia.

Lexie Has Long Arms

2007-10-30T03:59:00.001-07:00

Last week was Johanna’s baptism. We had the family over for a wonderful brunch afterwards.

The girls were playing some sort of tickle game with Aram and he pointed out that he had the advantage because he has long arms.

Lexie immediately informed him that she too has long arms.

Later that night, as Dave was putting the girls to bed, Lexie says to him “my have long arms”. And she raised her arms over her head.

Her hands barely reach past her pigtails when she raises them.

The next night in the bath tub, she says to me, very seriously, “my have long arms….. and big muscles” She flexed her arm.

Lexie has neither long arms nor big muscles. As a matter of fact, her arms are SCRAWNY. She had her two-year check up this month and she is now in the 25th percentile for weight and height. She used to be in the 90th percentile for both but she is shrinking. Or, as my pediatrician corrected me, slowing down (this doctor doesn’t get my sense of humor).

Baby Jo is in the 90th percentile but her arms are even shorter right now. They barely reach past her ears when you raise them up.

That is so odd that babies are born that way.

Truer Words Were Never Spoken

2007-10-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

Lately, Bekah has been intrigued by birthdays (probably because Dave’s is around the corner).

The other day and she says to me, “Mommy, your birthday is coming up and we are going to get you a present. What is your favorite thing?”

And then she pauses and says thoughtfully, “but don’t say KIDS because we already have enough of those”.

-------

I left my nursing bra pads on the coffee table the other day. Lexie brings them to me and says, “mommy, you lost you boobs”.

The Raspberry

2007-09-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, Dave and Bekah took the dog to the dog beach. When they returned, they were full of stories of Normandy’s swimming adventures, meeting other dogs, climbing on rocks, discovering sea-life. After a few minutes of exuberant story-telling, they retired to the kitchen to have a cookie.

I heard Dave say to his daughter, “Oh! You forgot to give Mommy that surprise!”

Bekah comes running back out to the living room. “Mommy! Mommy! I have something for you!”

She opens up her little fist and hands me a slightly green, rather hard raspberry. It was suspiciously warm. “Eat it!” she encourages me. “Eat it!” Dave echos from the kitchen.

I say demurely, “oh, I’m so full. I couldn’t eat it right now. I’ll save it for later”.

“I had it in my hand for a long time then we had to wash Normandy so I put it in my shirt. It fell down my shirt and into my panties. So I took it out of my panties and put it in my pants. But then it fell down to my knee and then out of my pants so I put it in my sock.” Bekah said proudly.

Dave laughed and said, “Oh man! I was hoping you would pop it in your mouth before she told you that story.”

I looked at him with exaggerated disbelief. Then, in my best Italian mobster voice I said, “wha? You think I became a mother yesterday?”

Shadows

2007-09-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

When Lex turned three months old, we moved Bekah to her big girl’s bed and Lex from our bedroom to a temporary place in the hallway.

We also put night lights in the hallway so everyone felt safe.

On the first night of the transition, I woke to see a HUGE shadow of a person on my bedroom wall. They were looking into the bassinet! It was terrifying.

I sprang out of bed and raced to the hallway. Instead of the menacing giant I fully expected to find, I found only two year old Bekah paying a mid-night visit to new sister. It turns out that having night lights low on the hallway walls makes for casting huge shadows in our room.

Lexie got her big girl’s bed last month.

Now, in the middle of the night, she will come to our room and throw open our bedroom door. She is such a quiet little girl, but she throws that door open with a force that is surprising. She will stand in the door frame for a minute, like the bad-ass sheriff in an old Western movie. When I look at her ten-foot tall shadow, I envision a rugged John Wayne – only he is sucking on a pacifier and has pigtails.

It makes me smile slightly as I think of that vision. But then I remember that I’m about to lose another hours worth of sleep and the smile goes away.

I know there will be a day when the four year old, the two year old and the zero year old will sleep through the night.

I look forward to that day.

A Bug In the Back Seat

2007-09-04T07:49:00.000-07:00

Last night, we stopped by the Mortimer’s and hung out in their beautiful back yard for a bit.

On the ride home, Bekah announces from the back seat, “mommy and daddy!! There is a HUGE bug on my chair”

Dave and I, conditioned to Bekah’s dramatic approach to life, gave her a non-engaged, “uh-huh”.

“EEEWWWW! It is HUGE, mommy and daddy. I’m scared!”

To which Dave replies, “when did you become scared of bugs? I saw you playing with worms the other day and they didn’t scare you. They are bigger than bugs”

“But this is bigger than a worm daddy. And it has a shell. I think it is a snail”.

“Is it a lady bug or a rolley-polley?” I ask.

“No mommy. I’ve never seen it before. AAACCCK It’s going toward the baby!”

“We’ll get it as soon as we get home” one of us said.

I was envisioning a gnat or a fly or something. After all, Seattle doesn’t really have any menacing bugs and I’ve never seen a snail.

“How did it get in here?” Bekah asks from the back seat. “It doesn’t have any wings. How did it get in the car?”

(as I type this, I am feeling like a really bad parent.)

Click on this link to see what we found when we pulled into the garage….

Dave and I each opened one side of the car to get the girls out. We saw it at the same time. I gasped, “Oh my god!” and Dave exclaimed, “what the fa….”

Lexie immediately caught on that this was not an ordinary bug and started crying. We quickly got all girls out of the car and then snapped that photo.

Bekah was right. It was a snail. And how DID it get in the car?

The Curious Incident of the Rat In the Daylight

2007-08-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

We were the talk of the cul de sac yesterday – particularly with the under-six crowd.

Everyday, around 3, the neighbor kids start coming around to see if Bekah can play. No matter how many times I remind them of the sleeping baby, they still ring the door bell. Dave says that we should put a sign on the door that says, “bekah in” or “bekah out”. I remind him that none of the kids can read yet.

But I digress.

So yesterday, they rang the bell and knocked with a greater vigor. The reason? The neighbor kids found a dead rat in our lawn.

This is big happenings when you are five.

Jean and I went out and took a look, and sure enough, there was a dead rat in the lawn. It didn’t take long for a few parents to come take a look as well.

We waited for Ron to get home to take it away.

I try very hard to teach my daughters that anything a man can do, a woman can do too. But deep down, I have to say, I believe that there are certain things god intended for men to do – like clean up rat carcasses from the grass.

Before Ron could take care of it, some of the kids from the cul de sac over pedaled by. News travels fast, I guess.

After Ron disposed of the rat, he talked to Art, who talked to Harry and we discovered Harry was the one who has put rat poison in his crawl space.

One of the little kids said, “eeewww that’s gross that you have a rat in your yard”. I wanted to say to him, “For the record, this is Harry’s rat. And let’s face it, if he has rats, we probably all have rats”.

But I stayed away from talking neighborhood politics with a four year old.

Our 15 minutes of fame is probably over… but there is still that pesky woodpecker that pecks the side of the house. Perhaps the kids will find that thing in the lawn soon…. One can hope.

My World Just Got An Inch Smaller

2007-08-20T09:05:00.001-07:00

About a year ago, we were planning a client appreciation event when a man I work with came into my office and told me he was friends with Bill Resler and that we should have him be the guest speaker at our event.

I had never heard of Bill, so my colleague sent me the link to Heart of the Game.

We had Bill speak at the event. He was a huge hit. I blogged about it and a few days later my husband’s brother’s wife emailed me and said that her brother’s company was co-producer of that documentary.

(for those of you trying to keep up – that would be my husband’s brother’s wife’s brother).

A few months later, a board that I am involved with invited Bill to speak at a luncheon.

In comes Pemco…..

After hearing Bill speak, Pemco contacted me and asked if I could put them in touch with Bill to schedule him to speak at Pemco.

Fast forward a few more months.

Now I am on maternity leave and Dave is working on a big job with…. Pemco.

I finally get a chance to watch Heart of the Game and lo and behold…..

My very best friend in the whole world’s DAD is the man who represented Darnellia against the WIAA.

I tried to call her, but she was not home, so I emailed her brother…. Who works at Pemco….

(for those of you trying to keep up, my best friend’s dad represented the girl on the team of my co-worker’s friend who was in a documentary produced by my husband’s brother’s wife’s brother).

At any rate, I can’t say enough wonderful things about that documentary. Everyone should run out and buy it. It should have won an Academy Award. Seriously.

Rebekah Writes Thank You Cards

2007-08-11T15:45:00.000-07:00

Last week, Bekah and I sat down to write the thank you cards for her birthday. The plan was that she would draw pictures and write her name and tell me what else she wanted to say in them. Here are how a few turned out…

To Bailey (who gave Bekah sidewalk chalk)

Dear Bailey – thank you for coming to Lexie’s birthday. It was fun playing with you and chasing Trevor. Thank you for the chalk. I love it. I left it in the rain and it ruined. I miss you. Love Bekah.

To Stacey and Aram (who came over for a combined celebration)

Dear Stacey and Aram – thank you for coming over. I loved playing with you and thank you for all the things you gave me. Thank you for watching Daddy play the Wii. He needed the practice. I miss you. Love Bekah.

To my grandparents (who give her a subscription to Highlights magazine). This time, she wanted me to draw some pictures. I resorted to the only three things I can recognizably draw – a snail, a heart and a flower.

Dear Grandma and Grandpa Storm – thank you for the Highlights Magazine. I am very good at the hidden picture puzzles. Here is a story for you. The snail went to a birthday party and saw a heart that was really a balloon. There were lots of twirlies too. I miss you. Love Rebekah.

Pop!

2007-08-05T20:50:00.000-07:00

There is a certain irony to the fact that we named our second daughter after the “shot heard ‘round the world” and it was our third daughter that entered this world with a pop.

A week ago today, I was in a deep sleep when a POP inside my stomach woke me up. It was about 1:30 in the morning. I woke up briefly and wondered if it meant anything but decided I would know for sure if it did – and I was really tired - so I went back to sleep.

A half hour later, I woke again to go to the bathroom (which I was doing about seven times a night, by this point of the pregnancy).

My PJ’s felt a little damp, and then I recalled hearing that some women feel a POP when their water breaks.

So I went down stairs and googled “water breaking”. As I was sitting at the little table and little chair (where my laptop now resides so Bek can play on the internet while I lay on the couch), I felt a contraction.

I woke up Dave and told him it was time. We packed the car, alerted my mom, and took off.

It was about 3:00 in the morning by this time, which was really good because 405 has been a nightmare mess of a traffic jam all summer and by the time we were driving, the contractions were six minutes apart and lasting over one minute. There was no one on the road to slow us down.

When we arrived at triage, I was six centimeters. Dave warned the nurse that my births have all been fast, but she didn’t seem to believe / care / mind / hear him.

I was in the room by 4:00 am. By then, I was having contractions every three minutes or so. I ordered up the epidural. The nurse started to prep me and she put the IV needle in the side of my wrist and did it wrong. My arm started swelling and hurt like hell. She called in another nurse who tried again. Good lord! Between the contractions and the needle going into my swollen wrist, I had to vocalize (the doula had told us this was OK). I guess dropping the f-bomb was not what she had in mind. I think I rattled both nurses – and Dave, actually.

It was a little after 5:30 am when I was finally prepped and receiving the anesthesia. The anesthesiologist told me it would last a little over two hours and she would be back to give me another dose.

Things slowed down after that. The contractions were still really painful and I had to use breathing techniques to make it through them. The nurse kept suggesting that I get more pain medication. It was perfect for me though. I still wanted to feel the contractions. I didn’t want to be oblivious to them. I just didn’t want them to be a little less terrifyingly intense.

At a little before 7:00 am, she checked again and I was at eight centimeters. Dave made a quick call to him mom and his brother and when he got off the phone, I told the nurse she should call the doctor. She said she would in five minutes. I told Dave to tell the nurse to call the doctor. Now. I felt the urge to push. She said I was only at eight.

To which I growled (yeah, I growled, there is nothing lady-like about birthin’ – nothing). “I’M PUUUSHIING”

She told me to say POP POP POP.

I started to say POP POP POP -- as I was pushing.

The nurse walked out into the hall way and then another woman came in.

I looked at her and asked if she was the doctor. She said no but she had delivered babies before. I told her good because I was pushing.

The doctor finally hurried in and I said, “I’m pushing”. She asked if she could put her gloves on first.

I told her no.

She sat down in her little chair, and about three minutes later, Jo was born.

After Jo was all wrapped up, the anesthesiologist came back in. She was there to give me another dose in the epidural.

“You have a baby!” she said with her eyes open wide.

“Yep”, I said. She couldn’t believe it.

We’ve been with Baby Jo for one week now. So far, her personality is as easy as her delivery was. She cries very little and sleeps quite a bit (the Le Leche nurse told us we need to wake her every three hours to feed her at night. Dave said we should temper that advice with some common sense). She sleeps about four hours per stretch at night and when she gets up to feed, she goes right back down.

The girls love kissing her and seem to be adjusting really well to having another sister. I’m finally feeling human again. Dave seems to be doing as good as any man can, living with four females (five if you count the dog).

My parents just left and Dave’s arrive in a few days. We’ve been blessed by friends who have brought us meals and helped with a little child care.

I guess all I can say is, so far, so good.

Noises

2007-07-12T06:16:00.000-07:00

Bekah has decided that she has an aversion to the sound of the toilet flushing…

Lexie has stated (with her hands over her ears) that the fans in our non-air-conditioned house are “too loud”….

Neither are good developments for this heat wave we are having.

I’m in week 37 of the pregnancy. Doesn’t that mean I am more than 9 months pregnant? I’m no math wizard, but 4 x 9 = 36. (four weeks times 9 months). As far as I can reckon, I’m 10 months pregnant right now.

Temperatures topped out at 93 yesterday (I know, I know our family from Eastern Washington and from South Dakota laugh at this). But I swear – it’s HOT!!

Did you know only 7.4% of the homes in Seattle have air conditioning?

Luckily, all the restaurants and malls have cooling systems. That is where we spent yesterday evening.

At the mall, Dave had to buy some stuff so I had the kids myself for a bit. My little darlings whose ears are too tender for the sound of a flush or fan, ran around the sitting area screaming at the top of their lungs. I just sat there, feeling tired and looking haggard. Luckily, there were several other sets of parents just like me. (except for the part about being 10 months pregnant).

Here’s hoping the heat breaks and my children’s noise neurosis fades today!

Happy 4th of July

2007-07-03T15:35:00.000-07:00

With one born on Flag Day and one born on the 4th of July, how can we be anything but a patriotic family?

Last night, we assembled the pool that my parents gave Bek for her birthday. I wish I could post the photos, but the girls decided less was best and shimmied down to their nothings. (we've decided to no longer post any photos like that on any of our sites).

Funny quote of the day - as both girls stood in the pool, playing with their toys - Bekah asked, "so what are we waiting for?" . Dave and I were confused at first.

Oh! It's a WADING pool.

Can You Believe She Is Four?

2007-06-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

It seems like just yesterday......

Raising kids is like reading a really good book on an airplane. It makes the time fly by inexplicably fast.

Here is a recent photo of us when she and I were on the set of BrainCandy.

The Princess and the Pea

2007-06-13T05:43:00.000-07:00

When Dave and I were younger, we used to spend a fair amount of time at the Four B’s (Ballard’s Billiards, Brew and Burgers).

Four B’s has taken on a whole new meaning for us these days – Bottle, Binky, Books and Baby.

Those are the four things Lex must have before she can go to sleep. The funny part about this is that she puts the Binky in her mouth and then puts the Bottle, Baby and Book under her tummy – and that is how she falls asleep (usually with her rump up in the air).

The girls have been sleeping on our floor for the past few nights because Stephen is painting our nursery after work and well into the night (have I mentioned we LOVE Stephen?)

Last night at 2:30, I rolled over and – Boy Howdy! – I rolled on to a Book and a Baby – several Books and Babies, actually.

There was little Lex, at two in the morning, methodically placing a row of Book-Baby-Book-Baby-Book-Baby along the side of my bed.

“Lexie” I said to her, “what are you doing? And how on earth do you sleep on top of these things?”

“Hi Mommy” she smiled at me.

Rebekah Was Very Upset

2007-05-28T21:14:00.000-07:00

That we didn’t have cookies for dessert.

“But mommy!” she said in utter frustration.

“You said it was Oreo day!”

Happy Memorial Day every one.

Drummond Family Knock Knock Jokes*

2007-05-20T08:42:00.000-07:00

Knock knock

Whose there?

Lex

Lex who?

Lex go to the beach!

Knock knock

Whose there?

Grandma

Grandma who?

Grandma sun screen

Knock knock

Whose there?

Shari

Shari who?

Shar is sunny outside

Knock knock

Whose there?

Bek

Bek who?

Bek before dinner!

*Courtesy of Daddy

We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters

2007-05-11T16:50:00.001-07:00

Every once in awhile, something will pop out of my mouth and I will think, “dang, I sound just like my mother.” As I grow older, it is happening more and more often.

And then, every once in awhile, something will pop out of Bekah’s mouth and I will think, “dang, she sounds just like me”.

Oh sure, there’s the inevitable mimicking. She’s gotten in a few zingers recently. A few weeks ago, we were walking down the street and she said, “it’s freakin’ cold out here!”. Dave looked at me disapprovingly and I shrugged apologetically.

Last weekend, we had a series of mishaps on our way to my board retreat. By the time we got to the room and the key would not work, Bekah let loose with a “you have GOT to be kidding me”.

But sometimes, she will say something that really hits home how hard wired we are in our response to life.

Earlier this week, I had to take the girls to the grocery store after work for eggs, milk, cheese, coffee and diapers. I was able to get everything in the cart before the inevitable melt down.

Unfortunately, as I was waiting in line, I realized I had actually forgotten diapers. “OH CRAP!” I cried. I felt totally defeated and exhausted. “I forgot diapers”, I said to them; looking dejectedly at the line of people behind us. “Come on. We have to go get one more thing” Bekah started whining and Lexie gave me her police officer hand, furrowed brow, resounding “No”.

As I was lamely trying to negotiate with them and put all my stuff back in the cart, the very nice, elderly gentleman in front of me suggested “why don’t you just have a runner go get them?”

I could surmise, based on his generational placement, that he had never been down the baby isle of the grocery store.

“No, that’s OK” I said as the girls’ resistance grew more decisive. “I’ll just come back later tonight” I said.

“How are you going to come back later tonight?” Bekah asked. “Daddy will be at work. Will you bring us?”

That made the nice gentleman in front of us even more determined to get a runner.

“Son” he motioned to the 16-year-old bagger boy. “We need a runner to go get this lady some diapers”.

Bekah took one look at the poor kid and said loudly, “how will he know what to get us?”

I chuckled because this was EXACTLY what I was thinking.

It didn’t stop there though. She looked him up and down and said, “he’ll probably bring us back Huggies”.

I was fully laughing by this point.

“And it will take soooooo long” she pouted.

I put my head by her ear and whispered “that was exactly what I was thinking!”

Between the two of us, we were able to talk everyone out of the runner idea. I am still amazed at my three year old’s ability to size up the situation in exactly the same manner as I did.

It makes me wonder how often my mom looks at me or my sister and sees herself. Does Jean look at Kate and sometimes feel like she is looking into an emotional mirror?

It is an interesting thought for this Mothers’ Day.

The Upside to the Little Sister Syndrome

2007-05-02T05:53:00.000-07:00

While Lexie has been my angelic, peaceful, smiling daughter, she does have two personality traits that make raising her a challenge – her fierce independence and her relentless imitation of Bekah.

Lexie was crawling on stairs from the moment she could crawl (and for the record – she crawled early). I’ve never seen her go up or down a set of stairs on her tummy or her bum (as most little kids do). She insists on going up and down exactly like Bekah – with both feet flat on each stair.

She sat in her high chair for about five days before insisting on a “big girl” chair. We were able to strap a booster seat to a stool for a few weeks but then she figured that one out. Its funny when we have other adults over and they watch her, perched precariously atop a bar stool as she eats. She has only fallen off three times, but it doesn’t seem to deter her.

She has “used” a spoon for as long as I can remember and has “declined” a bib for just as long. That has made for lots of laundry and hair washing in our house. Baby food? Fugetaboutit. Lexie only eats what Bekah eats. Poor Bekah was raised on soft foods until Lexie grew some teeth.

Getting dressed in the morning is a major ordeal. She wants to look just like Bekah (actually, she would prefer if she could simply wear Bekah’s clothes – which we sometimes let her at night). She also wants to dress herself – like Bekah. Every morning, the fact that she does not yet have the dexterity to put on her own shirt makes her piiiiiisssssssed off.

Yes, for a bit there, I thought Lexie was the yin to Rebekah’s yang, but I have come to the realization that Lexie sees herself as the yang-iest of the yang.

On to the point of my post… the other night, as Bekah was getting ready for bed and going potty, Lexie comes running in, pulling at her diaper. “off” she said to me, “off”.

So I took off her diaper and she ran in to the bathroom, sat down on the little toilet beside Bekah and went potty! She has done this twice, so I am thinking she might be ready to be potty trained.

Having her potty trained before two would be awesome. At least, I think it would be awesome….. of course, she won’t go in that little toilet for long. She’ll want to sit on the big toilet, which she is way too small for. I’m sure she’ll fall in a time or two…. Hrrrmmm…

Update on Baby Lexie

2007-04-16T07:13:00.000-07:00

Lex went in for her six month check up after her ear surgery this summer.

The doctor found nothing so alarming that we have to take action, but she did find enough not to declare the case closed. She set a follow up appointment with an additional doctor in six months.

First, the left tube has come out and is sitting in the ear canal. That just means that Lex is once again prone to ear infections. If she gets another one, they’ll go back in and replace the tube.

Secondly, the kid’s got abnormally large tonsils. (I kept telling Dave that but he didn’t believe me). Again, not a huge cause for concern. She’ll probably grow into them, but if she doesn’t, she is at a higher risk for sleep apnea. Which is interesting news since she has not been sleeping through the night for several weeks now.

Thirdly, her speech development is not at a place where the doctor can say with certainty that she is not delayed. It is still too early to determine anything. It could be a matter of second child syndrome, or it could be because she simply has a reserved personality. The doctor assured us that the tones Lex makes do not mimic a person who is severely hard of hearing.

Lex was very funny in the doctor’s office. She let her look in her ears and mouth without resistance (I was so thankful). After we had talked with the doctor for awhile, Lex interrupts the conversation, points to the door and says, “Bek” to the doctor.

The doctor looked puzzled. “back”? she asked.

“No, Bek” Lexie says again, very seriously.

“It is important that you now that Lexie has an older sister, named Rebekah”. I tell the doctor.

Lexie nodded.

“goool” Lexie says.

“Rebekah is at school”. I tell the doctor and Lexie nods in affirmation.

As we were leaving, the doctor asked Lexie if she wanted a sticker. Lexie nodded and said, “Bek”. This time, the doctor understood. “You want one for Rebekah too?” Lexie nodded. The doctor laughed and said, “you sure love your sister!” To which Lexie replied, “Bek”.

As we were leaving, I marveled at how far we had come since those first visits to the hospital. There was no way Lexie would have had that conversation with the doctor back then. Also, I had forgotten that when we visited the times before, she would scream when we got into the elevators and the doors started to close. I am sure it was the pressure hurting her poor little ears. The elevators didn’t faze her this time.

She was very proud and happy to give Bekah her sticker when we picked her up from school.

Warning – These Links Will Make You Want A Guinness

2007-04-10T20:42:00.000-07:00

Here are two YouTube videos of our friend, Mike Chang, playing at an Irish pub.

I’ve been waiting to post this for almost a week now. I’ve come to the realization that, even though swinging my pint glass in Galway, with my husband and friends, are some of the most memorable moments of my life, I don’t have the writing chops to convey the magic that is Ireland.

It is hard to capture what it is like to walk into a pub in Ireland and be enveloped in the music and kinship. It's as if the Irish have had so many generations of deep appreciation for good music, good beer and good friends that they see nothing spectacular in stopping by the local pub on their way home from work and listening to some of the world’s best musicians play trad music in the corner.

At any rate, check out Mike. Oh, and if you like music and beer, even a little, put visiting Ireland on your life list.

Slainte!

Bittersweet Morning

2007-04-10T12:30:00.000-07:00

Every Tuesday, I must leave my house at 6:30 in order to get to my Emerald City Rotary meeting on time.

I like going to my Rotary meetings. I like the chance to go downtown. I like hobnobbing at the WAC. I like talking with business people I wouldn’t normally cross paths with. I like the interesting speakers each week. I even like the oatmeal they serve.

As I was rushing out of the house at 6:45, Dave was just getting into the shower and both girls were still asleep.

I pulled out of the driveway and our front door opened. There was a pajama clad Rebekah, rubbing her sleeping little eyes and waving to me.

I blew her a kiss and waved goodbye.

She looked at me sadly and motioned for me to come back.

Now, I’ve only been at this parenting thing for less than four years, but I am pretty sure there is some rule against leaving your barefoot three year old in pajamas on the front door step as you drive off to work.

So I pulled into the driveway, got out and gave her a hug.

She whispered in a tired little voice “mommy, can you help me surprise daddy?”

Who could say no to that?

We scrambled upstairs and dressed, brushed teeth, combed hair and put on shoes before daddy was out of the shower (only a parent of a three year old can know what an accomplishment this is).

I’m back in the car at 7:00…. Big dilemma, go to Rotary? Go to work? Go get breakfast. Ugh.

So I just start driving; figuring inspirations is bound to intervene – at least before I reach Portland. At the 85th Street exit, it hit me.

I want a cookie from Happy Go Latte.

It’s been years since I have been to Happy Go Latte. I used to be a punch card carrying member of the little corner coffee shop. They have the best cookies.

But alas, Happy Go Latte is gone. All that is left is a graffiti scarred building with a giant sign that says, “Thank you for your years of friendship and business. We will miss you. – Happy Go Latte”.

Sad.

Really sad.

I turned down 16th to go back to the office and passed by the house that I lived in with Jill when we were first out of college. I loved that house. Her dad had bought it as an investment when she graduated from UW and we rented it from him really cheaply.

I had heard that he sold it. It shows. It used to be so cute. It had this white little picket fence and a great flower bed.

The picket fence is gray and falling down and the flowers are overgrown by weeds. There are weird bumper stickers in the windows now. No more cuteness.

I spent a few minutes thinking about the great summer days I had with Jill in that house - we were the queens of Happy Hours. Beers and darts at Coopers were a staple of our evenings. We cooked so many great dinners (well, she cooked). We had parties and barbecues and late night chats.

Alas, I had neither oatmeal from the WAC nor a cookie from Happy Go Latte for breakfast. Instead, I stopped by QFC and bought a vegetable tray. Broccoli is probably better for the baby.

It Appears Lexie is Also Ready

2007-04-01T11:36:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, I boldly announced that I am ready for three kids. It’s looking like Lexie is feeling the same way.

On Friday, when Dave dropped her off at daycare, she started to cry. Lesia, the teacher in the infant room, stuck her head in and coo-ed, “oh my little Lex-chichtka, are you sad?”

Lexie picked up steam with the crying.

“Do you want to come and see the babies?” she asked her.

Dave said it was as if Lexie’s crying was a fire hose and somebody turned off the water. She abruptly stopped crying and ran towards infant room.

“She loves the babies” Lesia said to Dave.

Yesterday, I took the girls to Aiden’s first birthday. Aiden is only a few months younger than Lex, but she fell into older girl mode immediately.

“Baby’s ball” she said to me and held up one of Aiden’s toys. She handed it to him and said with a maternal tone, “here baby”. She did the same with a book and a stuffed animal.

Speaking of Aiden’s party, Bekah had the time of her life (there were about 300 other little kids there). In the car on the way home, she says to me. “That was fun. Do you think Aiden will invite me to his party when he turns two?”