One of Many...

Thursday, November 13, 2008
... reasons I love my husband:

He makes me peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when we run out of lunch meat. But not just any peanut butter and jelly sandwich - the kind of peanut butter and jelly sandwich that he HATES.... the heavy on the peanut butter kind. Apparently he suffered some sort of traumatic thick peanut butter incident as a child, and has never recovered. Thick peanut butter makes him almost as angry as cauliflower does. I know. Don't ask. Anyway - he knows that I don't care for his style of PB&J - which equals thin peanut butter. Peanut butter so thin you can barely see, hear or smell it on your sandwich. Peanut butter portions so thin that I actually feel sorry for my children when I find out that he's made them PB&J sammies for lunch without me there to intervene. Because what kind of a life is a life without thick peanut butter??! Thank God they've got me to balance out the thin peanut butter insanity.

What was I talking about...?

Oh, yeah. How much I appreciate that he's able to overcome his phobia and make me a proper PB&J sammy because he knows how happy it makes me to have a thickness of peanut butter no less than a mattress. A mattress with a pillowtop. And then he puts in in a sandwich baggie, and labels it lovingly with a "C" so I know not to mistakenly grab one of his sandwiches by mistake. Because believe you me... the wrath he has to endure if I get an inappropriate thickness of PB on my sammy... oh, yeah. Quite embarrassing - especially at work. :)

And how lucky am I that he hasn't kicked me to the curb and told me to make my own frickin' sandwiches?? I know. Damn lucky.

The Morning After

Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Josie and Eve,


Something happened last night. Something bigger than you can understand, but I want to put in writing my take on a small piece of the history that you were part of – even though you are too small to realize it.

We watched coverage of the events on television, and I’ll apologize now for not having given you my full and undivided attention. Josie – you probably won’t remember watching the colors of the night, red and blue, on the screen, and seeing the states across our country fill in with those colors. You are 3, and you wanted to break everything into “good guys vs. bad guys” or “mean and nice.” And you probably won’t remember that Mommy was sad… not because of what was on t.v., but that Daddy wasn’t there to watch it with us. He was traveling for work, so Mommy had to settle for talking to him on the phone. It wasn’t the same, and I will always regret that Daddy was in Texas (of all places) while history of this magnitude was being made. Eve – you won’t remember laughing at Mommy as I cheered when the color I was pulling for popped up on the screen, and you would yell, “Again!” You can thank the people of the United States for fulfilling your wish, as Mommy had a lot more cheering to do before the night was over.

A Man named Barack Obama became both the 44th and the 1st, all in one night. He will be our nation’s forty-fourth president, which, in and of itself, is not all that historic. It was time, and someone needed to be the next president. But what is historic is the fact that he will be our nation’s first African-American president. And if events hadn’t unfolded the way they did, we would have seen ballots this election year with America’s first woman presidential candidate. So either way, big changes and big choices for America. We heard a lot of talk this election year. Much of it, I’ll admit, bores me to tears, and annoys me beyond belief. But what will hold up in my memory from this year are some of the words which resounded over and over again: Change. Hope. Country First. Maverick. Make sure you guys look up that last one along with “Tina Fey” and “SNL.” It may not mean much to you, but trust me- it was comedy gold in 2008.

I’m not going to turn this into a political platform on which to launch my views and beliefs to the world. I’m not that kind of person. I believe what I believe, and I firmly respect the right of every human being to believe what they believe, whether it differs from my own view or not. I may disagree with many of the beliefs and views of those around me, even family and friends, but you will never hear your mommy in a heated argument trying to persuade someone that what they believe is wrong. There are plenty of others out there who derive pleasure from that task; I honestly don’t see the point.

When you are old enough to want to do the research, there will be mountains of material available for you to read and listen to in order to get the facts behind what the candidates in the presidential race of 2008 championed for. And I hope to instill in each of you the ability to listen, and read, and form your own opinions. You can learn a lot by just listening and watching. There’s a whole lot of B.S. out there; the trick is learning to filter through it to get to the good stuff. And if you want to be one of those who speaks their minds and tries to persuade others, then I will support you – as long as you speak the truth. And if you want to sit back with me and just take it all in – I’ll be there for that, too.

One of the things that I take away from this election, and I think that no matter which side of the fence you sit on, you’d have to agree that what we witnessed last night and the impact it had throughout the world, was truly astounding. Now we wait to see the effects of the impact. Many times elections are, unfortunately, about choosing the “lesser of two evils.” This election didn’t feel that way to me. We had to choose between two very different candidates with very persuading arguments. Maybe I was more invested in the election this year, because I’m a mother now and the choices we make will affect you, Josie and Eve. I hope and pray that America has chosen wisely for you and your future.

Love,
Mommy


Test Your Color IQ

Tuesday, November 04, 2008
This is how I spent part of my lunch break today. I scored a 23... post a comment and let me how you did!

Lions and Bears and Cats and Dogs and Dragons... and a Fairy Princess... Oh My!

Saturday, November 01, 2008
Halloween 2008 was more fun than you could shake a stick at. I watched the Gronau kidlets (and my own, as well, in case you were wondering) in the a.m. while Mama Meg danced with Pirates and was even able to whip up a yummy lunch and happily report that all four children survived my watch unscathed. Yes!

The Gronaus departed and The Dalys happy-nappy'd and then went to Daycare Betty's for a quick little Halloween party action before hitting G'ma/G'pa Dalys for a little pre-trick/treat lasagna supper and visit.

We booked it back home to meet up with the awaiting Mathews' family and hit the sidewalks for some sweet candy-action. Eve didn't know what to think of the hoopla; we went to the home of our next door neighbors first, and she wanted the girls to come in the house to see her husband before we left. We left, and went to the neighbor on the other side... and when they opened the door... Eve went right on in! Guess she thought each house would be like the first, and we were going to do a whole lot of visiting before the night was over. Will was less than thrilled the first couple of stops, but then he figured out that steps = house = candy... and repeat... and he was more than willing to keep it up. And a cuter dragon you've never seen than his brother, Keaton. Perfectly content to chill in the stroller, and catch a little nap.

(Sidenote... Eve has been in bed for almost an hour. She's still awake, and right now she's saying, "I want to get up. I'm awake. I want cereal. I want to get dressed." A little while ago, it was, "I want to go in the baby swing." Followed by, "I have a hair in my mouth. I need my toothbrush." It could be an interesting night. Oh, now it's, "I don't feel good. I want a Kleenex. I have boogers.")

Back to the play-by-play. We met up with a gaggle of Gronaus and continued on. Yadda yadda yadda... candy, walking, costumes, beautiful night, fun friends, cute kids... I'm really tired today. See for yourself (in reverse order. Stupid, stupid Blogger):



End of the night... Eve, Jo, Will and Keaton.


Keaton and Tricia.


"Get. Me. Out. Of. This. Costume." I've never seen a more forced smile.


Happier moments.


The Mathews Family - sans Keaton.


Away in a... stroller, the little Dragon Keaton, lay down his sweet head.


All our kids. On someone else's steps.


Woof, woof! Eve played up being a puppy.

Yo, mamma. I mean, Obama. The kids mowed over this sign, and Meg was worried the fate of the election lay on the lawn of an Eastsider.
Let me go... there's more candy over there!
A princess and her pet.
Ed was all about manners. "Thank you! Merry Christmas!"

Eve and Will.
Try to tell me you've seen anything cuter than this. Just try. That's what I thought.

Baby Keaton and Mama Tricia.


Sir William Growlsalot.

Eve and Jo. A matched set, even in costumes.


With cousins Trevor (ninja) and Trent (batman).

Josie and daycare friend, Lily.
Some of the kids from Daycare Betty's house.