Auntie Em, Auntie Em!

This is the story of how my daughter lived through her first tornado.

Friday was a hot day, but in a good way because lately I'd been thinking of building an ark. Honey had said we were going to get a thunderstorm later in the day but the blue sky made me think differently. In the afternoon after hanging out with the Lovie all day I decided I needed to leave the house. So I went to Kohl's. (Let me pause for a moment in my tale to tell you that every single time I go to that place it rains. Every time. Somehow, I thought Friday would be an exception. Remember I mentioned the blue sky.)

The trip was uneventful and when I left the sun was still shining over the store; I thought I'd been spared the rain that accompanies my my trips but large dark clouds were quickly forming. By the time I got down the street to my next destination (to get dinner supplies) the sky looked like the apocalypse was coming. So what did I do? I went into the store to buy fish. BIG MISTAKE. Had I just gone home I would have been safely inside before the storm came and I wouldn't have had to just throw out the fish that sat in an unpowered fridge for two days. I've gotten off the subject, main trial.

I made a mad dash to the car and a quick trip home. As I walked from the house to the car I'm pretty sure I saw the Wicked Witch of the West ride by on her bike. The wind and rain had picked up and the lights were flickering. Honey and Lovie were quite content watching the storm out the windows. I dashed around to close all the open windows and that's when it came. The hail. Or more appropriately, large frozen golf balls. The lights went out. The rain was coming down so fast that the gutters overflowed and water started pouring in the kitchen window. Lightening, thunder, tree limbs, leaves, and small dogs blowing around outside (Ok, not the small dogs, but you get the point). It was bad. I can't remember the last time I had seen a storm that bad.

I was enjoying watching it all unfold until I realized I was holding Lovie. She was blissfully happy watching as well but my mother instinct kicked into overdrive. What would happen if the big giant tree in our backyard fell on the house? That was when I asked Honey "Should we go to the basement? Is this a tornado?" Suddenly watching this didn't seem like so much fun anymore as I figured out it had the potential to hurt my kid. No sooner had the words left my mouth that it seemed like the storm was letting up. Five minutes later it was over. Well, not exactly. The power was out for 25 hours and we had to throw out everything in our fridge. We also learned the hard way we only have one working flashlight.

Now, two days later, the National Weather Service has confirmed that we did in fact have a tornado touch down with 85 to 100 mph winds. I believe it. Some town residents have lost their homes, some are still without power. Honey, Lovie, and I made it through with only branches and limbs to clean up. That and a new found respect for my mommy instincts, a greater understanding of the need for electricity, and a to-do list that now includes making an emergency preparedness kit.

I guess I got distracted.

Back in November I set out to write daily. So I lasted four days, who's counting? The title of my blog has real significance in this situation. My day to day life of work and home with Honey and the Lovie is chaotic; it distracts me from the other things that make my life whole (like regular pedicures) and some things that don't (like scrubbing the kitchen cabinets).

In the time I've been away lots has happened. The Lovie is now almost 11 months old. She crawls and giggles and smiles big to show off her two teefies. The Honey worked hard to accomplish the goal of earning his Master's degree. It arrived unceremoniously in the mail on Tuesday without the expected pomp and circumstance. Rather than don cap and gown to celebrate, we went out for ice cream. I decided to take a big step and try out a small business opportunity in the hopes of walking away from the 8-4 grind of working in a school after a year.

November to June wasn't all fun and games though. Honey and I stumbled through the grief of his mother's death as it greeted us unexpectedly from time to time. Christmas was particularly difficult for us both. The last day of the school year was tough on me too. In September I was watching Honey go back to work at the high school and my mother in-law was calling every Tuesday to sing Happy Birthday to the Lovie. But when June came, the last day of school greeted me with an article in the paper about the family friend who replaced Honey's mom in her well-respected role as a figurehead for a non-profit organization. The wind was knocked out of my sails.

Now a week later, I sit down to reflect on where I've been since November. The easy answer is to say I was distracted. The truth is I was living life. Honey and I watched Marley and Me the other night. I thought it was supposed to be a cute movie about a dog and his family. It was that, but it was also a tale about the twists and turns of life. It made me think. And it made me sit down at the laptop and start blogging again. This is important. It makes me feel good. So I will once again make a vow to myself to try to be less distracted by the chaos while I live among it, and I will do my best to share it here.

Everything but the kitchen sink.

Last night I went to run the disposal in the midst of doing dishes after dinner; I heard the motor but the water wouldn't budge. Mucky, gray water slowly filled the sink. I called for Honey, who came and immediately told me to get out of the way. [What is it with guys thinking woman have no idea how to fix a house-related problem?] He harumphed and looked and ran the disposal again (which apparently is the Control, Alt, Delete of the kitchen) to no success. I could see exactly where this was going. I was going to be out of a sink for awhile.


I need the kitchen sink. The saying goes "Don't know what you have til it's gone." As I heard Honey shuffling junk under the sink, all the things I needed my sink for flashed before my eyes. A diswasher full of dishes, a counter full of Lovie's bottles, the rest of the food scraps from the disposal floating in the muck. I also realized quickly how difficult it would be to make coffee, umm I mean bottles, without a sink. Ugghhh. I knew how much Honey DID NOT want to be working on this project. He had a rare night off, only to be plunged under the counter. He did what I assume all guys did to solve a house problem. He called his dad. After his dad's idea deadended Honey suggested I call my stepfather. At this point I politely [read: rudely and with attitude] asked him to call a plumber.

I am happy to report that I am typing away to the sounds of the dishwasher. The plumber came this afternoon and $150 and one P trap later I have a functional kitchen once more. Many thanks to Honey for putting up with my crap, this and every other time, and to Neil, our lovely plumber who shows up and makes it all better.

My iPod understands me.

The other day I hopped in the car with Lovie and headed for a drive. As usual, after starting up the car and before backing out of the driveway, I turned on the iPod. Lately, I've put my listening pleasure in the iPod's hand and hit the Shuffle button. About a year ago I used Shuffle for the first time because I wanted to see how long it would take to shuffle through all my songs. It took almost four months. Since then, Shuffle has been a trusted friend. It's like listening to Cora Radio. All my songs, randomly selected just for me. On that ride with Lovie it occurred to me that the iPod understood me. This particular day I was feeling pretty mellow and Lovie was asleep. The iPod played all the mellow tunes: Indigo Girls, Ben Harper, Paul Simon. The day before when I needed to rev up my energy level my iPod shuffled to Matchbox Twenty, Nine Inch Nails, and Gwen Stefani. It seems the iPod never lets me down. I wonder what the iPod will play when I've decided I don't want to listen to anything? Silence?

Me time?

Before Lovie was born, I used to think it so strange when mothers said they had no time for themselves. How could that be I wondered? They had husbands who seemed to be equal partners and good fathers. What was stopping them from devoting a part of the day to their own individual pursuits? Then I became a mom. Now I get it.

As a married, no kid lady I had it made. I could get up when I wanted, eat when I wanted, shower without of the soothing sounds of the canned music from the bouncy seat. I could even leave the house to run up the street without lugging a kid in a car seat and all her accessories. Pre-Lovie I was an alone time kinda girl. I thrived on it. My husband, Honey, understood this and accepted it. Now that she is here I find alone time is a thing of the past. Honey is a great husband and an amazing father. That being said, he has left the house with Lovie by himself 2 times total. When he is home I find it hard to leave because I value the time we have as a family so much. I end up sitting on the couch watching Lovie coo at Honey when I really should put on my sneakers and head to the gym. Or even walk upstairs and read a book. [Just an aside: no one tells you that reading anything other than baby care books is not allowed. Be forewarned.] After Lovie is asleep, rather than have quality time with Honey, or again-take time to myself, we end up half asleep catching up on DVRed TV shows.

I don't really think there is a solution to my problem. It's really not a bad problem to have. In the grand scheme of things anyway. I do need to remind myself however that I value myself as a person as much as I value my family. The mother must mother herself. To that end, tomorrow I am going chat, eat, and most importantly laugh at the monthly dinner with the girls. Lovie will be coming with me. Hey, it's a start, right?

New Year's Resolution

Last Monday was my (ahem) 32nd birthday. Or as my friend Deb likes to call it: The 3rd anniversay of my 29th birthday. Big things happened this year. It was a year ago on my birthday I found out I was pregnant. Nothing prepares you for the life changes that await you with becoming a mother.

My little Lovie's birth gave me a wake up call that while I don't want to be a SAHM, I don't want to keep up with the "real" job either. So, I decided not to wait until January to make a New Year's resolution. Basically, now that my birthday has passed, this is a new year for me. My resolution wasn't to lose weight or work out more (although my extra 20 lbs might disagree). In fact, I resolved to blog. Daily. This is the short term goal that will hopefully get me to the long term goal of writing a book. The craziness of life is getting in the way of me writing and that needed to change. This seemed to be the quickest way to make that happen. Hopefully, the simple act of blogging will make ditching the "real" job a reality. (Insert wishful thinking here.) Now, ask me home many times I've blogged since I made this resolution. You guessed it...once. Isn't that what New Year's resolutions are all about: making them and then failing to make them happen? My plan is to change that. Wish me luck!

Impending motherhood

There aren't too many things more distracting or chaotic as impending motherhood. It doesn't just start at pregnancy either. It starts long before that, when you decide that you are ready to change your life with a new one. There are plenty of things to keep you distracted from the beauty of that new life's arrival.


For starters, everyone tells you pregnancy is 9 months long. Don't believe them. 40 weeks=10 months. Being that I am 8 months pregnant now, people have been commenting that I'm almost done. Not exactly. I still have roughly 7 weeks left to go. The previous 32 weeks haven't been sunshine and roses either. There's morning sickness (which in my case started at 2AM). Then the all encompassing pregnancy fatigue that makes you wish the sun set at 6:30 so it wouldn't be so bad to go to bed that early. Next came heartburn. The day I realized I could not longer start my day with coffee OR peanut butter was a sad one. Aversions, cravings? Had those too. Perhaps the worst "symptom" of the beauty of pregnancy for me was migraines. Once I got them all the woman I knew started coming forward saying "Oh, I had that too."

And even before all that starts you have to actually GET pregnant. Again, no one tells you getting pregnant is hard work. I assumed the husband and I would have some good, clean, unprotected sex and the Voila!, egg meet sperm. Alas, this is not the truth. That fairy tale happens for the lucky few (most of whom I seem to know personally). For us, the getting pregnant process included thermometers and charts, tears, and on more than one occasion-forced sex. I still consider myself lucky that all the rigmarole only took 6 months, and even that seemed like an eternity.

Is it worth it? Absolutely. The chaos of pregnancy and being a new mommy have mangaged to keep me so distracted that it is now November when I finish writing something I started writing in June. My 3 month old daughter is listening to the tap tap of the keys from her mat on the floor. I can hardly remember being pregnant. (Who am I kidding? I remember it vividly. Especially every time I look down at my extra 20 pounds.) Even so, I'd do it all over again if it meant I get to spend the day with my girl.