My lab results

I received the results of my lab work in the mail today. Lincoln hasn't received his yet because he didn't go in until this morning. All of my tests came back negative and my cholesterol was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. If I remember correctly the last time I had my cholesterol tested I was a little over 200 (holy shit!) but now it's 181. Hopefully it will continue to go down.

The weird thing is that I'm apparently anemic and my blood count was low. She also told me that I should start a multi-vitamin with iron. As stated in my love letter to Lincoln on Valentine's Day, Lincoln sets out my multi-vitamin (with 100% of my daily iron needs) every morning and makes sure that I take it. I'll have to give them a call tomorrow because I'm not sure what else I should be doing. I really hope they don't tell me I have to start eating more broccoli because I just took away dessert for a week from the kids for not eating their broccoli and I'd hate to have to go through that at dinner every night.

What have I gotten myself into?

Last Saturday Kiki came over to play and stayed for dinner. After dinner we invited her to spend the night and I took her home to change into her pajamas and get her stuff. While we were home she had a change of heart and decided to sleep in her own bed for the night. Both kids were absolutely devastated and in a moment of weakness I promised Hannah she could have a slumber party this weekend. Yes, you read that right. I didn't agree to just one kid coming over.....I agreed to multiple kids coming over. What the hell was I thinking? Just what I need as I'm racing towards my yearbook deadline. The good news is very few kids seem to be able to get through a sleepover these days so I fully suspect most kids will end up being picked up before bedtime. I can live with that. Please keep your fingers crossed for me.

Secrets of a Happy Marriage

A few years ago Lincoln and I were getting ready for a trip to Iowa with the kids and things got a little crazy. Our fridge died a few days before we left and I remember standing in Lowe's looking at refrigerators with Hannah when Jake's daycare called and told me he had broken out in a rash of some sort. With everything else going on in regards to just getting ready for the trip it made for a really crazy few days.

Once we got to Iowa we were having a very enjoyable evening with some friends and I was talking about how crazy and hectic things had been. Our friend asked Lincoln if things got stressful between the two of us when all those things started going wrong at once....basically she was asking if we turn on each other like some couples do.... and I absolutely loved Lincoln's response.

Link: No, because it's us against the world. We're in this together.

That is so true in regards to our relationship. Everything we tackle we tackle as a team and I think that makes our marriage incredibly strong.

Last night we went out to dinner with my friend Jennifer and during dinner we were talking about how long Lincoln and I had been together. I said that we have been dating for 10 years this August. It's funny that we will have been married nine years this coming October but I still measure time in terms of us dating. We make the time to be together as a couple in addition to being parents and husband/wife and I love it. I think it's good for us and it's good for the kids to see their parents so in love.

And those are my wise words for today....

Is it too much to think of him as Prince Charming?

Tonight we were watching Aladdin and Jake was curled up in my lap. He leaned up and whispered in my ear:

"Mommy, why are princesses always so pretty?"

Saturday morning cleaning

Hannah: I finished dusting and I cleaned up my desk and Jake's desk. When you're done with the bathroom I'm ready to go upstairs. (long pause) Why are we cleaning the house today?

Me: Because it's dirty.

Hannah: Who is coming over?

Me: No one. Sometimes it's just nice to have a clean house for the sake of having a clean house.

Hannah: Isn't Grandma coming for a visit?

Me: Yes but that's about a month away.

Hannah: Oh.....hmm.

I didn't want to tell her that the real reason is because I need a productive reason to be avoiding working on the yearbook.

Why would anyone want to be president?

Seriously, why on earth would anyone want to be President of the United States? As much as I loved to mock George W. I even feel sorry for him. I mean, the man couldn't even choke on a pretzel and fall off the couch without the world mocking him. (Okay, that was pretty damn funny.) But at least I think he got to a point where most people just ignored him. He made such an ass of himself mangling even basic words when he spoke that people just sort of wrote him off as an idiot and I think in the end Republicans and Democrats alike were just counting down the days until he was gone.

Now we have a new President, and unfortunately for him, he is one that drew support from a lot of demographics and everyone of those demographics now want him to be 100% perfect 100% of the time. They feel like they own him and to a degree, yes, we all "own" our President. But let's not forget that all of our presidents are human. They're not God.

Yes, he made an unfortunate Special Olympics joke on The Tonight Show but he apologized before it even aired. He knew he made a mistake and he said he was sorry. George W. Bush was asked at one point in his presidency if he had ever made a mistake and his answer was "no". Let's move on. Invite the Special Olympics kid that says he bowls a 300 game to the White House for a photo op bowling game on the White House lanes and move on. As great of a cause as the Special Olympics are, and they really truly are, I'd rather my president be worried about fixing the economy and ending the wars that we're currently fighting.

And now the marijuana smoking people are going after him. Seriously? He was asked in an online town hall meeting this question: "Will you consider decriminalizing the recreational/medical use of marijuana(hemp) so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and a multi-billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?"

I have to say, it's a valid question. It is a billion dollar industry and we could certainly use the tax money these days but really, what was he supposed to say? Yes? That would have gone over really well with the rest of the country. Either way he wasn't going to win and now one of the headlines on CNN.com is how the marijuana advocates are all pissed off at him because they supported him through his run for the presidency but now they're receiving record numbers of donations because he laughed off the question. If he had said "yes, I think that's a GREAT idea" then record numbers of donations would be pouring into anti-marijuana organizations. The man can't win.

Any president, Republican or Democrat, especially in their first 100 days faces considerable amount of scrutiny and I have to wonder why anyone would put themselves through that? Obama could walk outside and say "What a beautiful blue sky we have today" and the color-blind people of America would be in an uproar.

Why don't we let him see what he can do. Even in the worst case scenario he can't do any worse than we sunk to with George W. If he can come in and clean some of this shit up, great....let him. If he can't, vote him out of office in four years. Let's just realize that not a single one of us could live with our every word being scrutinized to the degree that he lives with every single day.

I had a friend ask me the other day that if the Red River flooding means that Obama hates white people (a la Katrina and W). My answer would be: only if he lets them all shack up in a crumbling stadium with no plumbing, no food, no water, and people dying around them while he goes on vacation and tells the guy that left them there to suffer that he was "doing a hell of a job".

Now, let's give the guy some damn breathing room and let him do his job.

Quick weekend update

I realize that I didn't post anything on Thursday or Friday this week and I have to say our lives are pretty boring right now. Lincoln had to work late both nights so I had to duck out of work early in order to get the kids before daycare closed. Last night the kids and I actually went out to dinner with the Walkers and since it took so long to get a table and get served on a Friday night Lincoln was able to join up with us before we had even finished our appetizers. It was a nice meal and we haven't seen them in awhile although we see the girls quite a bit since they babysit the kids a lot. It was this time last year that we got together with all of them to once again plan the Kentucky Derby party and that meal ended up with an ambulance and a surgery. Deb decided to race Hannah outside of Applebee's and ended up tripping and falling into a brick pillar and severely breaking her arm. It wasn't pretty and I'll just sum it up by saying that yes, an ambulance was necessary for a broken arm in this situation. Let your imagine run with that.

We have no real plans and all sorts of plans for this weekend all at the same time. I've got a ton of stuff to do this weekend with the yearbook and finishing staining some wood shelves for our bedroom as well as general cleaning around the house that was ignored last weekend. I've also got to do some returns at Kohl's and Fashion Bug and take Hannah to buy fabric for sewing class before Thursday night. We also want to take the kids to an expo thing down at Valley Tech and Lincoln said if it's nice we'll all go hiking to Peppercorn. Tomorrow we're meeting up with my friend Jennifer for dinner. So I guess we really do have a lot going on this weekend but at the same time I'm not feeling the all consuming "oh my God how am I going to get this all done" feeling that I had last weekend with the yearbook and the basket raffle website.

Who knows what will actually get done. I'm feeling kind of lazy this morning. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Obviously we need to cut WAY back on their TV time.

Jake: Do you know there is a towel that is better than the rest?

Hannah: Oh! I know what he's talking about. There is a commercial on the TV for the Sham Wow.

Lincoln: Jake, you are very susceptible to advertising, aren't you?

Me: They are watching way too much TV.

Some creative new Google ideas

I use gmail for my personal email address and I have to say, I really like Google. They also tend to come up with some really creative ideas. According to a CNN article here are two of their new ideas under development. I think these are pretty creative.

Jon Perlow, a Gmail engineer, introduced the practical idea of "Mail Goggles" to help users, including himself, stop sending "mail you later regret." Perlow created the function last fall when he found himself sending messages to an ex-girlfriend -- late at night -- asking to get back together.

With Perlow's Mail Goggles, users can specify which hours they would like to enable the feature. If a user tries to send an e-mail during the self-selected time -- say, midnight to 3 a.m. -- a screen pops up forcing the user to solve a series of simple math problems before the message can be sent. Theoretically, this gives time for the intoxicated or emotional e-mailer to reconsider.

Gmail Labs also recently developed a feature that helps users who forget to add photo or document attachments to their e-mails. Users can turn on a "forgotten attachment detector"; if the program finds the word "attachment" in the e-mail text, a box pops up reminding the user to add an attachment.

I can be really slow sometimes

Hannah has been complaining about headaches for awhile. They tend to come and go without any sign of them being too terribly serious but since it seems to be a consistent problem I decided to take her to the doctor today. For the past week I've had her keep a log of when she gets a headache and what she was doing just prior to getting the headache. I figured if they were happening at school or while she was watching TV that it might be her eyes. Unfortunately it wasn't that consistent and the thing that kept throwing me is that she has them when she wakes up in the morning.

As I'm sitting in the doctor's office listening to him talk about neurologists and CT scans I was going over and over in my head about the headaches when she wakes up because it just seemed like that should mean something to me.

Then it occurred to me. Hannah grinds her teeth. I don't know why I didn't think of it before. Not only do I think to myself every time I hear it "That's going to cause her problems when she's older" but I also have to wear a night guard myself because I clench my teeth in my sleep. If I don't wear mine I wake up with very severe ear pain and occasional headaches. Why the hell did I not think of that before? I guess I just thought she was too young for that sort of stuff. Now I need to make her a dentist appointment. My night guard wasn't cheap so if that is what she needs I'm not terribly looking forward to paying for new ones every few years. I think mine cost $400.

In more medical news, Lincoln and I both had our physicals today. Everything checked out for both of us although we both have to go in and have routine blood work done. Lincoln has been referred to a dermatologist for a suspicious looking mole which makes me a little bit nervous. I briefly dated a guy in high school whose father died from skin cancer when he let a mole go unchecked for too long. Needless to say that makes me a little nervous and Lincoln has promised he'll call first thing in the morning to get an appointment scheduled. Dad, if you're racking your brain to figure out who it was that I'm referring to, it was the one you only ever referred to as Goofy.

Mrs. Snow

Today I went into Hannah's school to see the diorama presentation and to take some more pictures for the yearbook. It always cracks me up to go in there because the kids all call me Mrs. Snow. It's very rare in my day-to-day existence that I'm called Mrs. Snow. I've never been one to have my kids call grown-ups by Mr./Mrs. and their last name although I do sporadically insist that they use the southern tradition of calling grown-ups Mr./Miss with their first name. For example, Hannah's babysitter is Miss Lori. I think Lori gets a kick out of that since she signs notes to Hannah as "Miss" Lori - quotation marks and all.

I started laughing today because I was in the library taking pictures and a girl walked up to me and asked me what I was doing. During the course of our conversation I asked her what her name was and then said "I'm Diane....ur...Mrs. Snow.....You can call me Mrs. Snow."

Very graceful. No wonder I do all my school volunteering after hours.

Hannah's Diorama - Part 2

Hannah finished her diorama over the weekend and turned it in to her teacher today. Here are the rest of the pictures of her working on the diorama and the final product.

Putting waves in her ocean:

Gluing in the rocks:


Writing out the facts:

Watching Daddy cut into her project in order to make the pteranadon fly:


Testing the flight capabilities of the pteranadon:

Check out the video to watch it fly:


Taking the final product to school:

If you're wondering why we did it half day and half night it's because we couldn't find if they hunted at night or during the day. The gash in the back, of course, is the flight path of the bird.

Graphic Content Below

I don't know how many of you are following the Chris Brown/Rihanna dating violence saga that is going on these days but I've been very disturbed by it. What disturbs me the most is that he allegedly beat the shit out of her and yet an alarmingly high percentage of teenagers surveyed are saying that she must have done something to provoke him, that she is to blame, and that being hit in a relationship is not uncommon. What the hell? It is NEVER okay for someone to hit you. I don't care what you say or do to them they should never hit you. Luckily I feel like my children are growing up with good role models in me and Lincoln. We never fight, verbally or physically, and we talk things out in an agreeable manner. Hopefully that is what both of them will come to expect out of their relationships as well.

The police report that was leaked to the press describing what allegedly happened that night is very heart wrenching to read. It sounded brutal. DoSomething.org has actually made a video re-enacting the scene while a narrator reads the police report out loud. It's a brutal dose of reality but I think people need to see it. This should never, ever happen to anyone. Here it is if you're interested in watching it:

Life Lesson Learned (courtesy of Grandpa Dan)

After a long weekend we decided to go out to dinner tonight with the kids and our niece Kayla. Kayla has been down at the house the past two days playing with the kids while I work on the yearbook and Lincoln does everything else around our house (including our taxes which we haven't filed yet).

Jake: What's that noise?

Me: A blender.

Jake: What's a blender?

Me: It mixes things together. They're probably making a drink.....like a margarita.

Kayla: He probably doesn't know what a margarita is.

Me: Yes he does.

Lincoln: He's gone out to eat with Grandpa Dan often enough to know that one.

Now that's a novel idea....

Me: I'm learning a lot doing this yearbook. A lot of things that will help make it easier next year.

Lincoln: Like learning to say no?

Yearbook....Yearbook.....More Yearbook

All day yesterday I sat at my computer for 13 hours working on the yearbook with only brief breaks to help the kids and check on them outside every now and then. Lincoln did most of the parenting (as usual) and I stared at my computer for 13 hours. Today I've been at it for the last 6 hours.

Me: I'm taking a break. I'm heading up to take a shower before I start working on the basket raffle website with Denise. She's coming over at 2:30.

Link: Ok.

Me: I feel disgusting. I haven't showered all weekend. I did wash my face and brush my teeth though so I feel semi-human from the neck up.....but below the hair. I haven't washed that either.

As for getting myself into these situations, it happens every year. I enjoy doing it but it always seems like it's hurry up and wait and then it all comes down to a crunch deadline.

The Burden of Caution

These are my yearbook binders that contain the photo and name waivers for the students at Hannah's school. What a pain in my ass.

Hannah's invention

Hannah just came into the office and asked for some duct tape. She took a empty paper towel roll and a little plastic cup and taped them together to use as a thing to pick up and collect all the small pieces of stuff on the floor. Of course since it was a cool new invention Jake wanted to try it despite his distinct dislike of helping anyone clean up anything.

Jake: Hey Hannah, can I try it?

Hannah: Sure.

Lincoln: Be careful....you may actually clean something.

Wow! Who knew we had one of those?

Hannah wanted to buy a bunch of books from the latest Scholastic Book Club flier so we worked out a deal that if she cleaned the toy room, helped watch Jake this weekend, and folded the towels in this week's laundry she could order all the books. This morning she started working off the money with the toy room.

Hannah: Hey Dad, guess what I just found?

Lincoln: The floor?

Hannah: Yeah!

Lincoln: Was it under something?

Hannah: Under a LOT of somethings.

(not five minutes later Jake enters the toy room while she's still cleaning)

Hannah (very exasperated): Jake! That's exactly the problem. You just open the door and throw your stuff on the floor. You need to actually walk in, put it away, and then leave.

Spring Cleaning!

I'm pretty caught up on my work today so I decided to get to some much needed spring cleaning in my office. It was getting pretty bad and things were piling up everywhere. I cleaned out some drawers of a rarely used filing cabinet and not only found Advil packets that expired in 2004 but also a box (just the box) of a pregnancy test and prenatal vitamins. Hmmmm.....I wonder when I last cleaned that filing cabinet out?

Hannah's latest sewing project

Here is Hannah's latest sewing project. This one took two 1-hour classes to accomplish. I wish you could see the precision with which she sewed the hood. It's amazing.

I'll see your jerk and raise you two idiots

My assistant and I were just comparing horror stories of people we've had to deal with today. I don't know what it is but it seems like everyone is driving me crazy these days. Is it because my job is getting so much harder to enjoy given our current corporate culture, and my lack of options if I really got fed up enough to leave, that makes dealing with these people so painful? Or is it the fact that everyone is so miserable these days that they're out to make everyone else's life miserable as well?

For example:

Me: There is about $3,000 in the account but there has been no activity on it lately so we need to do something or the state will seize it as abandoned property in 30 days.

Person on Phone: So we don't need to do anything with it then.

Me: Well, we need to either close the account or transfer the balance. There is about $3,000 in there.

Person on Phone: Well you didn't say that.

Me: ?????????????????????

I love JetBlue

Check out their new advertising: www.welcomebigwigs.com

It's three catchy little videos that rip on the culture of CEOs in our country.

A Public Plea and a Musical Challenge All in One

Last June Jennifer made me a fantastic "angry mix" CD. Since work has been so extremely craptastic lately I'm afraid I'm wearing the CD out.

So......

Jen, if you're bored up there in Maine please feel free to send me another one. I need more "angry" music.

Chad/Melissa, my other two music nerd friends, please feel free to take this on as a challenge. Let me see what you can come up with to help me vent my frustrations!

And Lincoln, can you please help me get my Angry CD onto my iPod so I can stop carrying this CD everywhere? What is this, 1995?

Hannah's report card

Hannah received her 2nd term report card last week and she got excellent scores. The kids are scored on the following system:

1 - Below grade level standard
2 - Nearly meets grade level standard
3 - Achieves grade level standard
4 - Exceeds grade level standard

They say that 4's are almost impossible to get and I'm happy to say that Hannah has two of them. She received a 4 in "writes with focus, organization, and detail for different audiences" and "uses correct spelling of sight words and/or spelling words". She got 3's in everything else EXCEPT for a 2 received for "demonstrates use of computers and applications, and understands concepts". I would definitely argue with that one since Hannah received her first computer when she was 16 months old and could type her name before she could write it. She also creates PowerPoint presentations for fun. Obviously the Technology teacher has never met my daughter.

Under general comments this is what her 2nd grade teacher had to say about Hannah:

Hannah loves every aspect of school. She is eager to learn new things and is always willing to accept a challenge. She's worked diligently to improve her self-editing skills and is now consistently using punctuation and capitals in her sentences. In math, she is working in a more organized way and is checking her own work. Hannah should be proud of her growth this term.

I'm exceptionally happy about Mrs. B's comments regarding Hannah's math skills as that is the only section she received a few 2's in last term (there was no Technology grade last term). She is now up to all 3's in math.

We are VERY proud of her and this report card.

One year ago today

One year ago today Lincoln and I were on our way to Greece and Turkey for a 10 day trip. I had a great time but Lincoln didn't since he was very, very sick while we were over there. Below are a few of the pictures from our trip. I've tried to choose the ones where Lincoln doesn't look like he's about to keel over.

Lincoln in front of the Theater of Dionysus:

Temple of Apollo in Corinth:

Looking down on the Sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi:

Looking down into the Theater of Dionysus from the Acropolis:

The Streets of Istanbul:

Lincoln inside the Spice Bazaar in Istanbul:

The fishermen on Galata Bridge in Istanbul:

The two of us in front of the Blue Mosque:

The Grand Bazaar stall where we purchased the hand painted tiles for my bathroom:

One of the many beautiful mosques in Istanbul:

Cover your ears

I can NOT sing. At all. I'm really, really, really bad. So bad that I actually enjoy playing up how truly bad I am when I sing around the house. It drives the kids crazy. However.....I think I've gotten to the point where it has become detrimental to my children's musical enjoyment. When we were in Las Vegas we did a gondola ride at the Venetian and the lady who was steering the boat said "Can I sing you a song?" and Jake immediately put his fingers in his ears. Last Thursday we went to dinner upstairs at the Rose Garden. On Thursdays they have a Music Revue in there starting at 8 p.m. We were just finishing dinner when they started to set up.

Jake: What are they doing?

Me: They're getting ready to sing. It's music night.

Jake: (puts his fingers in his ears)

Me (to Lincoln): I've ruined my children for singing haven't I?

Link: Yeah.

Hannah's Diorama - Part 1

Over the weekend Hannah and I worked on her diorama for school. They each have to pick a dinosaur and she chose the Pteranadon (which technically isn't a dinosaur but I guess it's close enough for the school curriculum). Here is her work in progress:

Mixing the plaster for her rocks:

Pouring the plaster into the rock molds:

Laying down the grass:

Putting in the water and the beach:

Painting the rocks:

Making the pteranadon's nest:

More to come....... This is definitely a work in progress.

Jake's Very Own Personal Urinal

In our ongoing quest to make going to the bathroom an exciting new endeavor, and to teach Jake how to pee standing up, I recently purchased the Peter Potty Toddler Urinal. He LOVES it.

Baby Lincoln!

Yesterday morning we had a nice little get together with Lincoln's parents and his aunt and uncle Russ and Elaine. Even though Lincoln's family is quite close geographically we don't actually get to see them very often so yesterday was a great day to sit and catch up. They also keep up on our day to day life by reading this blog so it's nice to know that even though they're not around our kids very often they can keep up on how they're growing and what they're doing.

The picture above is one that they sent me this morning of Lincoln when he was a little younger than Jake at a "Christmas in July" one year. Isn't he adorable?

The other thing that I have to mention about the get-together is that it's absolutely hilarious to watch Russ needle my father-in-law. I can just imagine what a pain-in-the-ass little brother he must have been for Bob when they were growing up but it's great to see that even in their 70's they still have such a close relationship.

Boy/Girl Night - March

Tonight is our monthly boy/girl night where the girls have a sleepover in the master bedroom and watch a movie and the boys sleep downstairs and play video games. Unfortunately Jake crapped out early so Lincoln is on his own tonight.

The kids played outside for about 5 hours today so Jake barely made it through dinner. He actually got up from the dinner table and went to lie on the couch. About 15 seconds later he was sound asleep.

A Happy Childhood?

What makes a happy childhood?

I have actually pondered this question quite a bit. I loved my childhood....especially the first eleven years when I lived in Iowa. Once we moved to Seattle it became a little dicey....I didn't not like my childhood then but it was certainly different. It wasn't quite as carefree or as innocent. I didn't have friends that I had known since birth. I was entering my pre-teen years.....

But what makes my childhood any better than someone else's childhood? Lincoln grew up here in Upton. As far as I know he enjoyed his childhood. And yet I look at my children and I wonder if I'm depriving them of a wonderful childhood by not raising them in Decorah. We've talked about moving there before. We once said that if either one of us lost our job that would be our sign that we should move to Iowa. Lincoln lost his job and I immediately started looking at houses online, contacting a realtor, and planning trips back there to buy a house. I wasn't entirely sure that it was what I wanted to do but at the same time I was excited to move back. Then Lincoln's company realized they had made a mistake in laying him off and they hired him back....at a higher rate of pay and letting him keep the generous severance package he had received....and the idea of moving to Iowa was dead. The next time he got "laid off" (actually his Boston office closed and he was offered a chance to work for the Indianapolis office) we didn't even consider moving because it was a bad time for us. Now that Lincoln has started his own company, and it is off to an excellent start, he has no desire to move. And I'm happy here....I love my job (most days) and I'm involved with the PTO and I have friends here....but I still sometimes feel like I'm robbing my children of the ideal childhood. And who knows what Decorah is like now. I left when I was two months shy of eleven years old. It was 1988 and now it's 2009. As idyllic as the town seems when we go back there on vacation I know it's not the same as the time when I grew up.

As hard as it could be when I was moving around while I grew up I came to value the fact that I moved around as a child. Since we always moved in the early summer, and I was a late summer baby, I always view our moves in "I was almosts". We moved from Iowa to Seattle when I was almost 11. We moved from Seattle to Arkansas when I was almost 15. I moved from Arkansas to Minnesota when I was almost 18. I moved from Minnesota to Boston when I was almost 22.

When I was in college I did a Sociology paper on the benefits of moving as a child. I felt I was more extroverted and possibly more open to the possibilities of the world around me because I hadn't lived in one location all my life. I'm glad I didn't grow up entirely in the bubble of a small town in Iowa and yet now that I'm an adult I miss that bubble. I miss the promise of what my mind has created. Would I have been happy had I never moved from Iowa? Would I be as excited about traveling the world and seeing different parts of America if I had never moved from Iowa? Who knows.

But what about my children? Are they enjoying their childhood? Are they having as great of a childhood as I remember mine being in my mind? Is every childhood a great childhood as long as it's free from abuse, neglect, and hunger? Am I doing everything I can for them to have a great childhood? I think they are enjoying their life here in Upton but I just hope every day that I'm not depriving them of the great childhood that I had. For example, every year there is a Loyalty Day Parade here in Upton where the children involved in baseball walk from the school down to the VFW. There are no floats....just the kids walking and throwing candy, and it pales in comparison to the huge parades that Decorah had for Homecoming and Nordic Fest and yet my kids seem to enjoy it just as much. Personally I think they're getting the short end of the stick but they don't seem to.

What makes a great childhood? And is their childhood great enough? If they think their childhood is great does it matter that it's not as great as mine was? What makes it great? Experience? Comparisons? Is it okay if it is their ideal even if it isn't mine?

Goals, Regrets, and Reality

My friend Stephanie always tells me how impressed she is that I accomplish everything that I set out to accomplish. For some reason that always strikes me a little funny because to me, the things that I've accomplished are fairly basic although I'm no less proud of having accomplished them.

Back when I was in high school I read that if you write your goals down you are more likely to achieve them. I'm sure this is something I read in one of my teen magazines that I was addicted to back then. Anyway, somewhere still floating around my house is a light purple sheet of loose leaf paper with my "goals" that I wanted to accomplish in life. When I write myself up a "to do" list these days I usually toss on a few things I've already done or things that will be done quickly so that I can have the sense of accomplishment when I cross them off. Similarly, my goals list had a few "givens" on it that were never in danger of not being accomplished. I think #1 on the list was "graduate from high school". Some of the other items on the list included "Go to Gustavus", "move to Boston", "get married", and "have kids". Obviously I accomplished all of those. I honestly could not tell you what other goals were on there or if I accomplished them or not. The next time that purple piece of paper turns up in some random box in my house I will let you know.

I don't have many regrets in my life. Sure there are little things here and there that I wish I hadn't done or hadn't said. There are small things that I would change here or there but I've been blessed with a really great life and I couldn't be happier (unless all of a sudden we became millionaires...that would be nice).

I got married very young for this day and age. I met Lincoln right before my 22nd birthday and we were married when I was 23. Hannah was born six days after I turned 24 and Jake came along when I was 27. Many of my friends and colleagues who are the same age as me were barely starting to think about getting married and having kids by the time I was done having my family. Many of the parents that I work with in the PTO, who have children the same age as mine, are much older than me. Under no circumstances do I regret getting married or having my children at such a young age. I firmly believe I'd rather have them young and then (hopefully) be young enough and successful enough at that point in my life to be able to travel and see the world in a way that I never could have with my limited budget in my 20's.

But there are a few things I wish I had put on that list.

I wish I had lived in New York City. I could never live there for long but I wish I had spent a summer there. Three months would have been good.

I wish that I had moved to London after college. I toyed with the idea when I was a senior in college and I probably would have given it more thought if I hadn't had Boston as an option but I really wish I had explored it more. The job I got when I moved to Boston (one criteria for moving to any city: have a job lined up first!) was at a sister company of where I worked in college. They also had companies in England so I totally could have explored that option.

I wish that I had studied abroad. I did a three-week study abroad class called "Theater in and around London" when I was a sophomore in college and I loved it. I really wish that I had done a semester (or a year) somewhere. Many of my friends did this during college and I know it was one of the best experiences of their lives. I was seriously looking into studying in Greece during my senior year at Gustavus but after the tornado hit St. Peter and I had to buy a new car it just sort of fell to the wayside. Now having spent some time in Greece I really wish I had done it because I loved the country, the people, and the food. I would have loved living there for a few months.

For some reason I've been thinking about this a lot lately, partially due to Revolutionary Road which is about a family wanting to move to Paris, and then earlier this week I got the latest edition of The Gustavus Quarterly alumni magazine which has a cover story on studying abroad. There were all sorts of stories in there about students who have studied in exciting places and it sort of bums me out. I really wish I had been able to do that. And more importantly, I hope my kids get to that and that they want to do it. What a fabulous opportunity.In the end it's a good thing that I didn't do any of those things because if I had I would never have met Lincoln and had Hannah and Jake so ultimately I'm happy that I never did those things that I wanted to do. And who knows.....I'll only be 45 when Jake goes off to college so that leaves plenty of time in my life to move to London for six months. Right Lincoln?

Not a good day for a wine clearance sale

My car is currently in the shop having it's 7th, yes SEVENTH, wheel bearing replaced in the past 5 1/2 years. It's going to cost me about $450 on top of the $600 in new tires I just bought a few weeks ago. So getting to work and finding an email for a wine clearance sale from my favorite winery is not a good sign. I might buy out their entire stock.

It's my road....you can use it when I'm done with it

I drive a lot going to and from work. I'm the first the admit that I can get some serious road rage when I'm driving. The words that can come out of my mouth when someone pisses me off in traffic could make a sailor blush. I firmly believe that it's my road and everyone else should defer to that belief but I know it's never going to happen.

HOWEVER.....

I can't help but yell at an idiot with a handicap tag hanging from their rear view mirror who cuts me off in traffic. I want to force them to pull over, walk up to their window and say: "Gee, I wonder how the hell you became handicapped you stupid, fucking idiot. Learn to drive!" Except I don't usually say it so nicely in my head. And if they have a dented car and a handicap sticker it's that much worse because obviously they're the worst driver ever. Now, if that same someone cuts me off when I legitimately have the right of way then all I can say is "Hell hath no fury like a road raging Diane".

You've all been warned.

The truth comes out

Tonight Hannah came home from her playdate with a little mark under her eye. Apparently she somehow managed to fall into a metal trashcan. It's not much of a mark but it's right on the top of the cheek bone and below her eye. We were talking about it at dinner and so I told them the story of when I fell into my Mom's sewing table when I was in junior high and hit right above my eye. To start out the story I described to them how our laundry room used to be set up with a counter on the left, the washer and dryer on the right, and an old-fashioned sewing table where the sewing machine popped up out of the table in the middle of the room along the wall.

Me: I don't remember what I was doing, or why I was on the counter in the laundry room, but I was probably doing what Jake and Hannah always do (pointed look at the children) and must have swung myself off of there for some reason and managed to fall into the corner of the sewing table. Anyway, my right eyelid drooped for awhile after that. I don't think it does anymore.

Link: Actually, I think it does when you're tired.

Me: Really?

Hannah: Wait, how did Grandma hit her eye?

Me: What? She didn't. I did. That was the point of my story.

Hannah: Oh, I thought you were talking about how Grandma fell into the table and hurt her eye.

Me: No, actually Grandma pushed Mommy into the table and I hurt myself.

Hannah (indignant): She did not!!!

I would just like to be clear that Mom did not push me into the table. I just can't resist riling Hannah up sometimes.

Hitting a wall

I have had such a productive day and now I've totally hit a wall. I've lost all ambition. I need chocolate.

I hate March

Yesterday was beautiful and in the 60's. The kids were playing outside and even ran around with no coats on for awhile. I had the heat off and the windows open.

Today it's snowing and in the 30's.

I hate March in New England. Make up your mind already Mother Nature!!!

Teaching them while they're young

Last week while we were on vacation Jake was looking at the plastic cup that Uncle Mark was drinking out of. I don't know how the conversation came about but they started discussing the triangle on the bottom of the cup.

Uncle Mark: Do you know what the triangle means Jake?

Jake: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Don't provoke Mama Bear

For the most part I can let a lot of things roll off my back and just chalk them up to a society that is overburdened with rules and regulations because life is becoming overly bureaucratic and people get off on complaining about every little detail. For example, even though it's going to be a pain in the ass and, in my opinion unnecessary, I am going back to all 600+ parents of Hannah's school to get permission to print their student's name in the yearbook. Mind you I already got permission to print their pictures but the principal now won't let me print their names without an additional waiver being signed by the parents. That is a pain in the ass but I just shrug my shoulders and say "Oh well, what am I going to do about it. That's just how overly careful schools are these days." It's not a battle I figured was worth fighting.

But yesterday we got a letter from the school that really pissed me off. Basically it said that Hannah has been absent from school 9 times since the beginning of the school year and that they "wish to point out that Massachusetts General Laws Ch. 76, Section 2 allows that a child miss no more than 7 days in a six month period." The letter then went on to say "We would encourage you to make every effort to ensure that your child attends school regularly. We are concerned about Hannah's success." (emphasis mine)

Here is what set me off:

1) They tell me that I've essentially broken the law but they don't tell me what, if any, consequences there are for doing so. Will she be held back? Will she receive a failing grade? Nor do they ever tell you at the beginning of the year that they're limited to those 7 days. Hell, I get more sick days at my job than these kids get and I'm not spending day in and day out with 25 snot nosed kids coughing and hacking all over my pencils because their parent sent them to school so they wouldn't have to miss work and/or find daycare for them.

2) How the hell do you avoid all these absences when school policy practically makes you keep your kid home for 3 or more days when they're sick? If Hannah gets sick on a Monday and is really sick Monday and Tuesday but is 100% healthy on Wednesday she is still not allowed to go to school because she hasn't been symptom free for 24 hours. And if she's 100% better by 10 a.m. or so on Tuesday she still can't go to school on Wednesday unless we take her in late in which case (as evidenced by her attendance record) she is marked down as an unexcused tardy which is also held against her. If she gets sick in the fall and again in the winter or early spring you're already up to 6 of the 7 days that she's allowed for the entire year. So do I follow Mass Law or do I follow school policy? Get it together people.

and finally....

3) Don't you DARE question Hannah's success at school. That condescending, and completely unnecessary comment, sent me over the edge. I realize this is probably a form letter but they could change it up a little bit to fit the situation. At least pretend you know what the hell is going on in my child's school life. Either you send a form letter which just shows me that you have no actual involvement in my child's education other than collecting a paycheck or you take the time to realize that Hannah's success is never in doubt.

I'll spare you the entire letter that I sent to the principal and the dean of students but here was the final paragraph:

I realize that you're probably required to send this letter and if it's a law you certainly can't do much about it but I do not appreciate the tone of the letter (be it a form letter or not) saying that you're concerned about Hannah's success. Hannah could miss half the school year and still be as successful, if not more successful, in her studies than many of the other kids in her grade. I am less worried about her success than that of the school's ability to keep her challenged and learning at the level that she is capable of accomplishing. If she is honestly struggling in school, or her academic success is truly in jeopardy, then please contact me, not by form letter but by asking for a meeting or calling me. Until then do not waste my time questioning her (and our) commitment to her education or filling her student file with cryptic letters that erroneously cast a shadow on her academic achievements.

Like I said, don't mess with Mama Bear.

Jakey's bad word

Jake: Mommy, I said a bad word earlier.

Me: You did? What did you say?

Jake: Fookit.

Me: Oh dear. That is bad.

Jake: I like it. It sounds like a cool word. It sounds like a rock star. I like that word.

Lincoln: Jake, I already told you not to say it anymore. It's too close to a really bad word.

Jake: Oh man!

Bedtime

Jake: Why do I have to sleep with nobody?

Me: You got used to sleeping in beds with other people on vacation didn't you?

Jake: Yeah. Why do I have to sleep alone?

Me: Because we're lucky enough to have a big house where each of us can have our own bedroom.

Jake: Why do you and Daddy get to sleep together?

Me: Because that is what Mommies and Daddies do.

Jake: That's not fair!

Me: I know Buddy.

Jake: I told Miss Jeannie "no" one time today.

Me: Huh?

Jake: Maybe two times.

Me: What are you talking about?

Jake: Two, maybe three times.

Me: Why did you tell Miss Jeannie "no" today?

Jake: Then I went to sit in Miss Kathy's office.

Me: Did you get sent to the office today at school?

Jake: Three, maybe two times I said "no".

Lincoln (walking into the room): Did Jake tell you about how he got in trouble at school today?

Me: I think he's trying to.

Our trip

I don't even know where to begin....

It was a busy few days but our trip was a lot of fun. We flew in and out of Las Vegas but spent a few days down in Needles, CA at a house my parents have rented for six weeks.

Friday night we boarded our flight to Las Vegas. The flight left about 35 minutes late due to some wind delays encountered by the incoming flight. It was super windy on Friday evening and the flight was coming from JFK airport in NYC so I don't know if the wind issues were on the New York end or our end but since they turned the plane around and got us out pretty quickly I think it was a delay on the NYC end of the flight.

Despite some issues with our seating reservations earlier in the week Lincoln and I really lucked out and managed to have two complete rows for the four of us. Lincoln and Jake had three seats to themselves on one side of the aisle and Hannah and I had three seats on the other side of the aisle. The plane was pretty full and there were less than 5 empty seats on the entire plane so how we managed to get two full rows to ourselves was a little JetBlue miracle. Our flight left about 7:45 p.m. and the kids sat and watched TV in their seats for a little while and then Hannah went to sleep around 9 p.m. and Jake a little while later. The flight was fairly smooth and even though Lincoln and I didn't get much sleep it was an okay flight. We actually were both dozing off about halfway through the flight when all of a sudden a man who was walking down the aisle passed out and hit the floor right between our seats. Apparently he was overly dehydrated and got light headed and fainted. He was a big guy though and they were afraid he had hit his head on the way down. Luckily there was both a doctor and a nurse on the flight and they took good care of him. Even though he was fine they had medics take him off the plane to check him out before they let everyone else get off the plane in Las Vegas.

Our flight got into Las Vegas somewhere around 11:00/11:15 p.m. local time. By the time we got all of us off the plane, did a potty break for everyone, and took the tram to baggage claim our bags were waiting for us. They were actually being collected off the belt by the airline since they were the only bags left by the time we got down there. After we collected our bags we tried to find the hotel shuttle stop but couldn't find it. I called the hotel and they said that the next shuttle wouldn't leave the airport until midnight. Since it was only 11:35 p.m. (which was 2:35 a.m. for our bodies) we decided we'd take a taxi instead since it was so late. By the time we got through the taxi line at the airport it was about 11:55 p.m. so we didn't save much time but at least we felt productive. The kids were doing great and pulling their own bags. Despite being young kids they are great travelers and despite long flights and crazy hours they always hang in there with us and very rarely complain. Considering how much they complain at other times I find this to be a miracle every time we travel.

The first night we stayed at the Doubletree out by the airport. It wasn't anything fancy but it certainly served its purpose. By the time we got to the hotel, got the kids in fresh pajamas, and everybody in bed it was about 1 a.m. Unfortunately that doesn't mean the kids (or the adults) got to sleep in late on Saturday and we were all up by about 5:30 a.m.

My sister Debbie and her husband Mark were flying in on Saturday morning around 10:30 a.m. and we were going to meet up with them and head down to Needles together in order to save on the rental car situation. Since we were all awake so early, and we had so much time to kill, we decided to head out to the Strip to get breakfast with the kids. We took a taxi to the Paris hotel ($25) to eat at their breakfast buffet ($59) and then walked down the Strip before ending at the Venetian and taking a gondola ride ($74) and heading back via taxi to the hotel to meet Debbie and Mark ($25). Basically breakfast in Vegas cost us $183 so it was a good thing we were heading down to Mom and Dad's for the rest of the weekend. At that point we'd pretty much spent our entire vacation budget.

After heading back to the hotel to meet up with Debbie and Mark we headed down to Needles which is about an hour and a half away. It's a pretty rundown little town but the house that Mom and Dad rented was very nice. Grandma B is staying down there with them and the kids haven't seen her in quite awhile so I was really glad they got to spend time with her. It's great that they're going to be old enough (especially Hannah) to remember spending time with their great-grandmother. She's 95 years old and hopefully she'll hang in there for a few more years. She has already selected where we're going on vacation if she reaches 100 years old.

Saturday afternoon we didn't do too much but we went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Bullhead City, AZ. The really freaky thing about the area that Mom and Dad are in is the fact that they're across the river (about a mile or so from their rental house) from Arizona and the time is an hour later in Arizona than it is in California because Arizona doesn't change with Daylight Savings. It definitely can make things a little confusing.

Saturday night Mom and Dad took the kids to a local hotel since the rental house isn't big enough to sleep all 9 of us and to take the kids swimming but unfortunately the hotel pool had been drained for repairs. Lincoln, Debbie, Mark, and I all crashed pretty early that night (well before 8:30 p.m.) and it sounds like the kids outlasted us by hanging with Grandma and Grandpa at the hotel.

Sunday we got up and took the kids to Oatman, AZ. Oatman is a ghost town where there are burros walking up and down the street and you can feed them carrots. There are also staged shoot-outs in the street which are pretty interesting. The kids had a good time and we spent a few hours hanging out in Oatman before hitting Route 66 and heading down towards Lake Havasu, AZ. Lake Havasu is where Grandma and Grandpa B used to live during the winter before Grandpa started to go WAY downhill health-wise and needed to be moved into a home back in Minnesota. I really like Lake Havasu and I would love it if Mom and Dad decided to move down there themselves. It's a great little town that isn't too big but also not too small. We got there just in time for dinner (the only lunch we had was ice cream in Oatman) and went to the Mudshark Brewery for dinner. The food was delicious and the beer was too. It was also Debbie's birthday that day (she's 29....again) so they brought out a dessert for us to share as well. After dinner we headed over to a small traveling carnival and the kids got to go on a few rides before we walked down to London Bridge and then headed back to Needles. Mom and Dad were going to switch hotels and stay down in Lake Havasu at the only hotel with an indoor pool but it turns out it wasn't heated for some reason. It was too cold so Mom and Dad took the kids back to the hotel in Needles and Debbie, Lincoln, Mark, and I headed back to the house to watch the Amazing Race (my favorite show) and have a few beers. Debbie and Lincoln went to bed fairly early but Mark and I stayed up playing cards. We started our playing a drinking game called Drunk Driver but quickly decided we'd end up dead if we continued so we switched to Blackjack instead. I've never really played Blackjack before so Mark was teaching me. We started playing with honey roasted peanuts and I'm happy to say that I started with 30 peanuts but walked away with 64. Woohoo! It was my most successful gambling of the weekend. The only other gambling I did was putting $8 in slot machines and losing it all in less than 2 minutes on the last day. Needless to say....I'm not a gambler. I suck at it. Even at the slot machines.

Monday morning Mom, and later Lincoln, took the kids down to the Colorado River to play on the beach. After Lincoln took over kid duty at the beach Mom, Debbie, Mark, and Dad headed into Bullhead City to do some shopping and I sat out on the deck overlooking the golf course and read my book. It was 80+ degrees and it felt wonderful to be out in the sun - especially since I knew Boston was getting 15+ inches of snow that day.

Monday afternoon we all headed into Las Vegas and checked in at the Golden Nugget down on Fremont Street. The hotel has been renovated in the past few years and was very nice. I like being down on Fremont Street as it's not quite as chaotic as being on the Strip and is much easier to walk around. After a fairly lackluster dinner at the buffet at the Golden Nugget Dad headed out to gamble, Mom and the kids went back to the hotel room, and Debbie, Mark, Lincoln, and I headed out to Fremont Street to see the light show. We walked around a bit, watched some cool artists paint really neat pictures of Las Vegas, and then I crapped out and headed back to the room. The other three went on to drink and gamble but I was still worn out from the night before and my wild night of gambling with peanuts and a 12-pack of Corona.

Tuesday was a beautiful day and we finally got to take the kids to a pool. The Golden Nugget has a fantastic little pool area which has a large shark tank in the middle and a water slide that goes right through it. It also has a bar which made the grown-ups happy. Even though the air was a bit cool when the breeze kicked up it was a pretty nice day and the pool was heated. Mom, Lincoln and Mark got in with the kids and played for quite awhile. Mark was in the pool with the kids for almost the entire three hours and they had a great time climbing all over him and splashing around. Mark took some awesome pictures with his underwater camera and I can't wait to post some of them up here on the website. After three hours and a little bit of sunburn on some of us we headed back to change for lunch. After a light lunch of Subway the kids headed back to the room with Grandma and Grandpa for a nap, the boys (Lincoln and Mark) went to gamble and the girls (me and Deb) headed to the spa. That was just what I needed! After the spa we all went for a very nice dinner at the Grotto inside the Golden Nugget. After dinner we all headed out to Fremont Street for awhile to show the kids the light show and do a little shopping. After that we headed up to the room to finish packing and headed out to the airport. Lincoln and the kids and I were flying out on Tuesday night and Mom, Dad, Debbie and Mark were all heading out on Wednesday.

Tuesday night we took the red-eye flight home and left Las Vegas on an 11:15 p.m. flight. It was a fast flight (4 hours and 15 minutes) and we touched down in Boston at about 6:40 a.m. local time the next morning. The kids slept through the entire flight and both Lincoln and I got a little bit of sleep as well. Luckily there were no medical dramas this time to keep us awake. Jake and Hannah headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Snow's for the day and Lincoln actually headed to work but I went home and crashed. I took a 6 hour nap and still felt groggy. Today we're all back at work and school and all I can say is thank God tomorrow is Friday. I must be getting old because these trips are getting harder and harder to recover from.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming

We have just returned from our trip to Las Vegas. After we've all recovered from our red-eye flight home last night I will post some of the details from our trip.

Gutter may contain adult content

Yesterday Lincoln and I took the kids for a walk down the Vegas Strip. I forgot how many pictures of naked women are littered in the gutter all through Vegas.