Thursday, March 20, 2008

Lucky 13

13 years ago today I went on a blind date with someone I met on the Internet. We squeezed in a quick first date at Subway before I had to report to play practice. Later that evening I told my best friend/college roommate that he was "OK" and that "I guess I'd go out with him again".

Tonight we will recreate that first date. This time we will have our 2 adorably rambunctious children in tow and will probably spend the entire time planning our big move into our new home.

13 years can go so fast... and so much can change.
Luckily the important things are the same... and everything else is so much better!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

I hope I don't jinx it....

We sold the house!!!!!!!!

We have accepted an offer on our house... well actually we've been negotiating since Monday afternoon but late last night we left our emotions out of it (mostly) and decided to accept the offer.

I am feeling quite a few emotions today. I look at what has been MY house for 6 years and know that in about 2 months, it won't be MINE anymore. It will be some other family's home.

Some other family will put their children to bed in the nursery where my children first slept through the night. Someone else will bathe in the tub where my children had first baths and water fights and blew bubbles. No one will know that the flowering tree in the back yard was "The Brianna Tree" because we planted it to celebrate her first birthday. No one will remember when the living room/dining room was empty of furniture and Brianna used it learn to walk and run. No one will look out the bedroom window and remember all the nights I sat there and nursed the babies throughout the night.

I try to remind myself of all the memories we are about to make in our new house. It will be the place I take pictures of Brianna and Grant before taking them to the first day of school. They will learn and grow in this new house too... a new house we LOVE and can't wait to live in. But it won't be the house I brought my new babies to when we came home from the hospital. It won't be our first home, that home now belongs to someone else.

I can only hope they love it as much as we did.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Where did my pictures go?

Sorry about the below post, I don't know where my pictures went... they were there when I checked it earlier.... This is THE MOST adorable baby being hugged by a gigantic dog!

If you want to give me your e-mail, and I actually know you or can verify you exist, I will forward you the e-mail.

In an e-mail I received today

Instructions for properly hugging a baby:

1. First, find a baby.




2. Second, be sure that the object you found was
indeed a baby by employing classic sniffing techniques.








3. Next you will need to flatten the baby before actually beginning the
hugging process.





4. The 'paw slide'
Simply slide paws around baby and prepare for possible close-up.





5. Finally, if a camera is present, you will need to execute
the difficult and patented 'hug, smile, and lean' so as to
achieve the best photo quality.





Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Stress is my shadow

SO- I don't talk about work much. It's not a good idea to blog about work... I mean, you know I'm a teacher, but not where or who...

But I have to put this out there...

Yesterday, at school, in the middle of the school day, a child tried to hang himself from a stairwell/landing. Thanks to the quick actions of one of his friends, and some nearby teachers, he didn't succeed. The child was known as a little disturbed but no one knew it was like this. Even his friends didn't believe him as he started to put the thing around his neck. One friend reportedly helped him slip it around his neck thinking he was joking... that same friend who tried to save him by lifting him back up seconds later.

Some of this is rumor, some is validated but not yet public information, some is public. I didn't even know this boy but I am having a hard day. In 9 years of teaching, and as a future administrator, I've been brought in on some hard kids/cases. This beats all.

Why does this world have to be so hard?

When I went home, I told Brianna I was sad. She's 4... she doesn't ask questions, she just gives the world's best neck-breaking hugs!

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Like sanity and time for myself...

Jamie's Tag will just have to wait!

Love you James!!!

The typical morning car ride

In this scene, the characters are:
Johanna: The harried mother who is trying to eat breakfast and drive.
Grant: The 2 1/2 year old boy who is learning to talk and like attention.
Brianna: The almost 5 year old girl who is part patient saint and part victim.

(For the sake of the script, the strange garbled language of the 2 year old will be translated into real English.)

G: Pancake, Pancake mommy.
J: Are you eating your pancakes Grant?
G: Pancake, eat pancake mommy.
G: Pancake in bag mommy.
G: Eat one pancake mommy.
J: Good Job Grant, Eat your pancakes.
G: Moon, Moon, Moon, Moon, Mommy.
G: Pancake moon mommy.
G: (progressively louder) Moon Pancake, Moon Pancake mommy.
B: Mom, he's trying to tell you he took a bite out of his pancake and it looks like a moon.
J: Oh, Thank's Bri. Did you make a moon pancake Grant?
G: Yeah, moon pancake.
G: (louder and louder) Moon, Moon, Moon, pancake, moon pancake mommy.
J: Eat the moon Grant.
G: Bite Moon Mommy?
G: I eat moon pancake mommy.
G: (still louder) Boat, Boat, Boat pancake mommy.
J: Is your pancake a boat now Grant?
G: Yes mommy.
G: Boat, Boat, Boat in water mommy.
G: Boat in water mommy, water, water, boat in water mommy.
J: OK Grant, you made a boat.
G: Boat water mommy.
J: Yes Grant, Boats go in the water, good honey, eat the boat.
J: How are you doing Brianna?
B: (answer overlapped and eventually drowned out by Grant's next line)
I want more pancakes mom; mine are gone already.
G: (LOUDER) I eat boat pancake mommy. Eat boat, Eat boat, Eat boat mommy.
J: (LOUDEST) OK Grant, you ate your boat.
Brianna, I'm sorry, I don't have any more. You can eat cereal at school.
- a few seconds of silence-
G: another pancake in bag mommy.
G: pancake, eat another pancake mommy, pancake, pancake
J: (rolls eyes) Yes Grant, you have another pancake, eat it.
G: pancake, eat mommy?
G: Moon pancake mommy!
- repeat for each of the next 5 pancakes!-