Category: Life as I know it

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We have lost our manners

I heard that on the radio the other morning, and I could not agree more. We seriously have lost our manners. “Please.” “Thank you.” “May I?” “Excuse me.” (without being immediately followed by “excuse you” from the other party) Opening and/or holding the door for someone. You know, simple common courtesies that have unfortunately become less-than-common.

 

My sisters and I were raised to use good manners. You say “please” and “thank you”. You address adults by “Mr.” and “Mrs.” You say “excuse me” after you burp or fart. That is, after we were glared at for daring to let out said burp or fart within earshot of others in the first place. You do not chew with your mouth open or talk with your mouth full. You do not rest your elbows on the table while you eat. You write thank you notes after receiving gifts. You look people in the eye when being spoken to. You do NOT talk back, especially in public. You do not lie. And you are overall generally obedient to your parents.

 

And I’m sure this will garner many groans and eye rolls, but for the most part we complied. We were, I think, pretty well-behaved children, and have grown into well-mannered adults. I’m sure my mom can provide plenty of instances to the contrary, but I’m speaking on the whole here. Mom.

 

I’ve noticed so often, though, that kids these days are just shitty. They’re rude, they’re disobedient, they’re immature (yes, even kids can have a certain level of maturity for their age), they’re violent, they’re mean, they’re beyond disrespectful, and they’re just plain jerks.

 

How has this happened? Have manners really become so passé that parents can’t possibly be troubled to instill them in their children? Have we become so technologically advanced, absorbed, and jaded that it’s ridiculous to think we would bother to teach children such basic organic processes as good manners? Just leave it up to the computer or cell phone to do that for us? Is it really that hard? Nope. I don’t think so.

 

And when did this happen? When did it become so taxing to insert an extra word or 2 into your sentences here or there? When did it become uncool to be polite? When did we stop smiling at people as we pass? And god forbid anyone actually nods hello. No! Grumble, grumble, shuffle past. What the? Where are we living?

 

Am I the only one who feels this way? Am I the only one who orders by saying, “May I please have…?”; or says “thank you” to a compliment or good deed; or says “you’re welcome” to another’s “thank you”; or holds the door for someone behind me or someone who needs assistance; or hands someone something they dropped instead of walking by pretending not to see; or actually does try to look people in the eye as I walk by and say “hello”, or maybe just “hey”, but still, it’s better than staring blankly past them like they don’t exist? Am I crazy for doing all these things? I guess it doesn’t really matter if I am, for I’ll still do them. I was taught it’s just what you do. It’s not some big, unusual occurrence, not something that needs to be rewarded with a gold star each day. You just do it.

 

Anyone want to join me on a crusade to re-manner the world? Ok, maybe not the whole world, but at least re-manner our own little corners of it? I fully intend on raising D to use good manners. Nothing would crush me more than to see her growing into one of the foul-mouthed, ill-mannered, bad-tempered little hoodlums I see running around, pissing me off. Because really, that’s not the sign of a truly bad kid. I don’t think kids themselves are inherently rotten. That’s the sign of an extremely poor parenting job.

 

Thank you.

 

 

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11~11~11

First of all, Happy Veterans Day. Thank you so very much to all our servicemen and women for all you do, have done, and always continue to do.

But back to that date. Cool, eh? Especially if you’re one of those people who loves the superstition surrounding 11:11 and all that, today must be like Christmas!

Speaking of Christmas, how is it that it’s already basically the middle of November?? Who told the Holidays they had permission to sneak up like this? Yes, Holidays with a capital H, because they always barge right in and steamroll over everyone/thing like they own the whole end of the year. Eat this turkey! Wrap these presents! Drink this nog! Geez.

Don’t get me wrong – I love the Holidays. Especially Thanksgiving; it has surpassed Christmas as my favorite. You get to relax (hopefully) and spend time with family (unless you can’t stand your family, then i guess it wouldn’t really be one of your faves), eat a ton of delicious food, and not have to worry about the gift-giving that comes with Christmas. And then later that night and certainly the next day (or 5) comes the best part – leftovers! R has started a tradition in our house, too, that beginning on Thanksgiving we play the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack to kick off the Christmas music season. NOT BEFORE!

Then Christmas is great, because who doesn’t like getting presents (or if you’re like me you actually enjoy giving them more now)? Plus all the decorations are really beautiful, and I do still feel like there’s just something magical about Christmas. Especially if we get a white Christmas (the 1 time of year i actually will tolerate and kind of welcome a snowfall) – I always feel like I could go outside and find some secret reindeer hoof prints somewhere. And Christmas morning? Forget it. I always feel like a kid when my eyes first pop open that day – it’s Christmas!! Now having a kid of our own, it’s even better. It will really be fun once D gets the whole idea, and I hope we can keep the Christmas magic alive for her for years and years to come. And yes, I still put out cookies and milk for Santa. It’s tradition!

And of course then comes New Year’s Eve, the granddaddy of all parties. What better excuse to have a bunch of bubbly and make out with your beloved at the stroke of midnight? (or all night long if you’ve imbibed in a little too much of said bubbly. *ahem*) Streamers and hats and confetti and noise makers and fancy outfits, because everyone needs a little bit of sparkle on New Year’s Eve. It’s fun. And last year we did even make it up past midnight with tiny barely-5-month-old D snuggled soundly in her crib.

This year will be a little different, however. Thanksgiving is golden – we’re spending the day itself at home, just the 3 of us, which will be awesome. Then D and I are heading down to my mom’s house for a couple days to see family, and R’s going up to his fam’s area to see them and attend his 15 year high school reunion that he’s organizing. But then for Christmas, we’re leaving on a jet plane to get our luau on in HAWAII! That’s right, don’t hate. We are so lucky to be getting to spend the entire holiday week on the sunny shores of Maui. Aloha Oe! We fly back overnight on NYE, spend a day with my sisters and brother-in-law in Denver, and get home in 2012. Crazy.

So you see, it’s kind of a non-traditional celebration for us this year. It’ll be awesome, no doubt, but it’s oddly kind of throwing my brain into a planning tizzy. Like should we get a Christmas tree since we won’t even be home over Christmas? And if we do, should I take it down and throw it out before we leave so I don’t have to mess with it when we get home, or would that be too much of a dead giveaway to potential robbers (always thinking, i am)? Are we doing gifts out there with everyone (we’re going with my mom, stepdad, 2 sisters, bro-in-law, and step-bro and -sis), because how are we going to pack presents without spending a mortgage payment on overweight bag fees or taking 24 suitcases? What in the hell are we going to do with a toddler on a what, 8 hour flight? Make that TWO 8 hour flights. Do I need to go shopping for anything before we go or do D and I have sufficient cuteness in our wardrobes for a Christmas week in the sun (R’s good. it’s so not fair how boys can pack for any extended amount of time in approximately 7 minutes)? Because let’s be honest – traveling to beachy places is all about looking good while soaking up rays (yes, wearing SPF. i’m sure i’ve done plenty of sun damage to my skin already for about 18 lifetimes). Oh, and enjoying my wonderful family’s company, of course.

So you see, my organization-loving mind is starting to spin a little. I am truly excited for this trip, because although I’ve been to Hawaii 5 times now, I’ve only been to Maui once, and that was our honeymoon. And it’s one of the few places I’ve ever been where I really would have been totally fine never coming home. It’s simply amazing. But my Holiday calendar is now a little gnarly. Throw in a trip to central IL the weekend after Thanksgiving to see my dad and his side of the family, and my free weekends between now and the end of the year are quickly running out. Maybe I’ll just look at this picture continually until then to wash some of the worries away and remember to just have fun and enjoy the Holiday season, no matter where we are…

 

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1 year

As of today, that’s how long I’ve been back at work after having D. 1 entire year. Hmm, how do I feel about that?

 

Well, I’d still much rather be either working from home or staying home period so I could be with her full-time instead of having to use daycare. So there’s that. Fortunately we do love her daycare, and I know she has a great time there, as evidenced by her smiles and waves good-bye most every morning. Plus she’s learning a lot, so I’m definitely not complaining about the caliber of daycare. It’s just needing it period that I’d rather not have.

 

How is work? Well, in some respects it’s better than when I first came back. As in I no longer feel like I’m fighting for my own goddamn job every single day. In other respects it’s worse, as in see paragraph above… So I guess the answer to this one is my standard “Work is work.”

 

How is D? Awesome, of course. The difference between November 8, 2010, and November 8, 2011, just in her alone is astonishing. A little photographic comparison for you… Then:

 

11-8-10
11-8-10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now:

 

10-30-11

 

For those 2 pictures from last year I had to search all the way back through my text messages from R from that day, which I found amusing. All you working mamas know how heart-wrenching that first day back at your desk and away from your baby is, so here’s a little peek at how I was feeling that day:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A whole year, eh? Crazy. I will tell you 1 thing that hasn’t changed since that first day back last year, though, not even in the slightest. The moment I get to leave work to go pick up D, see her smiley little face again, and know we get to spend the rest of the night all together at home is still the highlight of my day. I have a feeling that won’t ever change, either.

 

 

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What a week it was

As you all know, last week I participated in the Week in My Life project with Mel from Adventuroo. After those 7 days of continuous posts, I figured I should do a little recap of sorts.


I took pictures (lots of pictures!). I made notes. I kept track of times. I paid attention to details I may otherwise have glossed over in the general day-to-day. I spent hours putting everything together so I could share these little moments of my life.

So what did I take away from all of this work?

  • I love being a mom. This should come as no surprise, seeing as I’ve talked about how having D has changed my perceptions in so many ways time and time again, but realizing that my posts from the week almost entirely revolved around how we spent our time with D really solidified in my mind and heart that my role as Mommy is what’s most important to me.
  • I want to be able to stay home with our children, and I’m going to work very hard these next couple years to hopefully make that happen someday.
  • After learning so many stories of SAHMs this week, I find myself trying harder to do what it would take to be a good one. More play time with D; more instructional/educational stuff for her so I could actually teach her something worthwhile if she weren’t at daycare each day; more hands-on with her toys to really be engaged with her; lots of reading books, which she now loves; lots of talking to her and with her, even without real words yet.
  • I am so blessed to have in R a partner who wholeheartedly loves raising and nurturing our little family as much as I do. It doesn’t hurt that he’s a culinary master either, so we don’t have to live on the bowls of cereal that are about the extent of my skills in the kitchen.
  • We want to take more advantage of nature. We live in an area with so many wonderful state parks, that after our little hiking adventure last week we realize we need to use them much more often. Sitting around the house on free weekends is great and all, but D loves to be outside and I think a weekly or even biweekly jaunt would be fun. Like our Saturday or Sunday morning time – head to a park, play around for a little while, come home and relax. Sounds totally doable.
  • R and I need to give each other more hugs. We’re constantly smothering D with hugs and kisses. Can’t forget about the adults in the house, too.
  • Even if I’m not continually taking pictures each day anymore, I should try to really capture the everyday mentally. Watch D’s little face because her beautiful expressions change daily. See her mouth trying to form new words and sounds and feel my heart almost explode at what an amazing little person we’ve created. Soak in her smell because nothing smells better than warm baby. Hear her contagious peals of laughter and tiny quick footsteps padding around the house. Watch in utter adoration as R picks up his baby girl and feel my heart overflow with love for those 2 – my family.

I can honestly say I never would have thought to do something as intense as this Week in My Life, but I’m so glad I did. Thanks again, Mel! You’ve helped me remember something that can easily get pushed into the background – I love my everyday, and every day of it most definitely is a blessing.

 

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Week in My Life – Day 7: Sunday

We made it! The final day in my Week in My Life with Mel from Adventuroo, and I survived. I’ll admit, it’s been hard work and some late nights, remembering to capture all the everyday moments I wanted to share with you all, figuring out what I wanted to say about everything so you got a true glimpse into our lives, and getting each picture edited and uploaded here for your viewing pleasure.

But you know what? It’s been great! I’m so glad I undertook this endeavor because I think looking back on this record of these 7 days years from now to see how we all looked, how little D was, and what our daily routine was will be pretty special. So here’s how my last day went down…

I know yesterday I said I was going to document our sports moments this weekend, but today’s Brewers vs. Cardinals game got moved to a 7:05pm start time, since the Texas vs. Detroit series ended yesterday. That meant ours was now the only game being played today, so they pushed it back to be a night game for tv.

Total boo on that, since night games are harder for D, what with the staying up late and being at the ball park way past her bedtime. Plus it totally screwed up our tailgating plans, because R was making jambalaya for it today and now we didn’t feel like lugging all the stuff for it out there.

Night games we usually park outside the park lots and walk in, which isn’t conducive for tailgating. Plus doing my post after another night game would mean staying up way late for me again, and I just got caught back up on my sleep from last week. So anyway… A change of post plans.

Instead of Brewers game pictures, I thought I’d share a little of our outside time this afternoon since it turned out to be a really nice Fall day.

D took a nap from 11:00 this morning until almost 12:30, then had some lunch and we headed outside to play with Daddy while he listened to the Packers on the radio and cooked the jambalaya in the driveway since it wasn’t going to Miller Park with us.

These were all taken around 2:00pm and prove that D was a little less enthused to be “jumping” in the pile of leaves than we expected. They were also taken with a real camera, not my iPhone this time. My treat, you’re welcome.

So that’s that! I hope you’ve all enjoyed sharing a week of my life with me. I know I’ve discovered some great blogs and bloggers through this process, and hopefully some feel the same about me. Like I said, this has been kind of a marathon blogging experience for me, so now I need to rest my feet. I’m gonna take a little break, but I’ll be back in a few days, nice and refreshed. Stay tuned!

Week in My Life. The End.

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Week in My Life – Day 6: Saturday

Seeing as I don’t normally post on weekends, you may be wondering what I’m doing here. Well, we’re still in the midst of Week in My Life over at Adventuroo, so I decided I’d give you all a glimpse of what my weekend life is like as a little treat. I see you’re thrilled. Excellent!

I couldn’t figure out what I was going to document for today, since I really didn’t feel like doing the whole day. 1.) I don’t have enough energy to run around snapping a picture of every hour, and 2.) I’m really not all that exciting and didn’t want to bore you to tears. So I chose to capture the sporting moments of this weekend. Wisconsin sports are ON FIRE right now, and this weekend holds both a Badgers football and Brewers baseball game. We’re big fans, so I wanted to show you how we here in SM land root on the home teams.

Today the Badgers played Indiana at 11am. It was a home game at Camp Randall, and our Homecoming. Go Badgers! Unfortunately it ended up being probably the least enthusiastic Badgers cheering section in our house in a long time. It wasn’t a super important game to get all fired up about since we were favored to win by 40, but still. 2/3 of the Badger contingent spent the majority of the game doing this…

And then there was me, stuck watching a good portion from behind one of the 5 loads of laundry I did this morning. Awesome. (but remember, at least it was only laundry, no other cleaning since i did all that crap last night. wahoo!)

D woke up a little over an hour into the game, and immediately began cheering on top of Daddy. Fortunately there were plenty of “touchdowns!” to cheer about today.

Since we didn’t exactly have the most exciting Badgers game viewing party for you, here are some bonus pics of D from this morning. She was playing in the bathroom as I got ready and then was enthralled by the animals on Jack Hanna’s children’s nature show on tv. I’m not really a fan of plopping her in front of the idiot box, but she LOVES animals and I figured it was relatively educational.

Tomorrow we’re going to Game 6 of the NLCS when the Brewers come home in a must-win situation against the Cardinals, so I should have a little more to show for that one. Hopefully the right team wins. Go Brewers!

 

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Week in My Life – Day 5: Friday

Now try not to get too jealous, but I just had the most exciting Friday in the history of Fridays. This fifth day in my Week in My Life with Adventuroo was stupendous. Please come inside and share my story, won’t you?


Friday afternoons at work generally result in my leaving pretty early, and today was no exception. R went to Great Lakes Distillery for a couple drinks with one of his coworkers after work today, so I picked up D and headed home.



Here comes the juicy part of my fun. You ready for this? I spent my Friday afternoon CLEANING MY HOUSE. Yep, that’s right – dusted, vacuumed, and cleaned the bathroom. Holla! I can see you all are green with envy, so I’ll break it down a little for you.

Yeah, I was totally kidding in that first line above, in case you hadn’t sensed my sarcasm by now. But here’s the deal. I hate… no, HATE! wasting even 1 second of my precious weekend time doing chores. I would much rather spend a late-week weeknight getting all of the housecleaning for the week done than have to do any of it on a Saturday or Sunday. Especially when we have nothing planned that night, why not get it out of the way while I can?

So today when D and I got home I dialed it into clean machine mode and got started before R got home. It’s actually much easier for me to do the cleaning while he’s gone and out of my way, so I wanted to take advantage of all the time I had before his coworker dropped him off after their little happy hour. Like I’ve said, D is really pretty good about entertaining herself, so once I satisfied her little “get me” arms reaching up with a few minutes of holding and snuggling, I gave her a bottle of milk and snack tub of Cheerios and put her down to play while I got to work right about 4:00. She loves just following me around the house watching, too, so it usually works out pretty well.




These Swiffer dusters are my best friends. I don’t think I’ll ever use a cleaning spray and rag again. These babies do the trick nicely.


I love those pictures of D above with both her milk and water bottles, because it shows how she plays with her hair every time she drinks from one. Apparently it doesn’t matter what’s in it either, as long as it has a nipple the hair gets twirled.

R got home shortly after 4:30 and played with D for awhile as I continued the dusting. Thankfully he gave D dinner tonight so I could finish vacuuming the rest of the house I didn’t do last night, Swiffer sweep under the bed and couch where the vacuum won’t reach, and wipe down the bathroom. D didn’t mind the vacuum at all tonight, and actually followed me the entire time wanting to inspect it and even touched it a couple times.




These are my second best friends, because I’m often not in the mood to do a full-on bathroom cleaning and will just wipe everything down to disinfect with them. Too bad I used my last one tonight, boo.


Hooray! House is clean! It was just before 6 by this point, so it took me right around 2 hours to get everything done. And just like that, I will not be wasting any of this weekend with a duster or broom in hand. I will need to do laundry and maybe mow the yards tomorrow, but those are easy chores to me. It’s this inside tediousness that I don’t really like. And now it was bath time for D since she didn’t have one the past 2 nights. Be prepared, because Naked Baby made an appearance after the bath and decided to do some dancing in the living room.







Tonight R and I ordered fish frys from the Legion Hall near our house, so R called those in for pick-up as I was doing a last little bit of cleaning up in the kitchen after Naked Baby was diapered and dressed. I wanted to be back in time for the Brewers game, so we nailed the timing. I left at 6:48 to go get the food and was back at 7:00, just in time for the first pitch. Go Brewers!



D played for awhile as R and I watched the game and ate our fish, with plenty of “touchdown!” arms when she heard the crowd cheering. She has an inflatable beer bottle (yeah i know, bad example, but she loves playing with it and obviously has no idea what it is) that she now likes to ride like a horsey and often bounces right off.




Around 7:30 R noticed she had puked up a little milk over in her play corner, so I went and changed her jammies to get the sour off. With a new diaper and fresh pair of pjs on, her tell-tale bedtime eye rubs prompted me to refill her bottle of milk and take her in to rock to sleep a bit. I carried her into her room at 7:41, rocked and snuggled for a few as her heavy eyelids finally closed for the night, and put the remainder of her bottle back in the fridge at 7:50.

And now, as promised, I am enjoying my glass of Hallowine. I may have to make it a little more than a glass tonight; this bottle’s almost empty, and I have another flower that could use a vase. What? It’s festive.

It’s 8:30 again, I just started the dishwasher, and I should have this post finished up and pictures added in about half an hour. Then it’s lounge, lounge, lounge for me and R the rest of the night. Hopefully the Brewers can get their heads out of their asses and pull off a comeback here, for this one’s looking pretty ugly tonight.

I still haven’t decided if I’m going to do a separate post for Saturday and Sunday this weekend or just combine them into one big recap, since I don’t usually post on weekends. I guess you’ll just have to come back to find out. Oh the suspense!

It’s the freakin’ weekend, baby, and I’m about to have me some fun!