Road Trip!

We took an extended family road trip - for as far as Dennis and I can recall – only the second time as a family. We hit the road on Thursday and headed due east to AdventureLand on the east side of Des Moines. I’m not a big amusement park fan. They’re right up there with shopping malls and Tea Party rallies, but my kid and husband were SO excited. I’m still not sure who was more psyched!

We hit the park at 11 and played until 3, and it was fun. It was perfect for a 5 year old.

Addie, to my surprise is a bit of a dare devil. She wanted to go on EVERYTHING. Luckily her daddy can still sit and spin. Her momma can’t even push the merry-go-round at the playground, so I’m basically zero fun. We all agreed that the log ride was the BEST and walking around in wet undies is totally worth it.

After AdventureLand we continued east to Iowa City to my beloved friend Kathryn’s home (see her blog to the left). I was so excited to see her new (to me) digs, and her beautiful family. Seriously. She has the most beautiful children and sooo sweet and engaging. They both were completely welcoming and excited to have us. Addie loved them both, although I wish she wouldn’t have been so pooped from all of her previous adventures at the amusement park. There were a few meltdowns . . .

My favorite part of our stay there was the next morning when Alex comes into the living room in his Toy Story underwear to show me his favorite book – Captain Underpants appropriately enough! Then came little Lila with her pink bear and her thumb in her mouth. She climbed right up in bed with me and we all had a little chat. How great is that?

And Howes, how come y’all have to live so stinkin’ far away?

We hit the road for Chicago Friday morning. We made great time until I-90. We could SEE the city, but it still took an hour to reach Michigan Ave. We had plans to hit the shore that afternoon, but by the time we parked, checked in to “Hotel Felix” and made it downtown, it was late, late, late. All we had time to do was grab some grub and then skedaddle back to our hotel before a nasty storm hit the city – 70 mph winds and hail. It was a tad dicey there for a bit . . .

Friday night was Rocky’s graduation ceremony. No photos here since my ancient camera eats batteries, but the key note was given by some famous-ish chef who was Chris Farley reincarnated. I swear. We then all hit the restaurant where Rocky now works as one of their chefs – Branch 27. All I can say is YUM. We sat and ate until 11:30, and Addie hung in there like a trooper until she passed out on my lap at about 10:30.

She was SUCH a good girl the entire trip. Just a delight. It made us so proud.

Saturday we hit the beach. It was a beautiful day. We had planned to go to the Shed Aquarium, but it was too nice to be inside all day. We were at North Ave. Beach with mom and Aunt Loretta (thanks to Dennis’ extreme generosity in parking the car – practically in Wisconsin). The moral of this story – don’t drive in the city. Use your feet, man. It’s the way to go.

After the beach we said goodbye to G-ma and Aunt Loretta and then the Popes walked the city. We walked from Navy Pier to Millennium Park and then back to our hotel. Chicago is such a great city.

We drove home Sunday. Addie again amazed me with her travel skillz. We had bukue DVDs for her to watch, but she never even asked for a movie. My kid loves to travel, (thank you Jesus!) and I’m already looking forward to our next road trip.

A note from Teacher

One of Addie's teacher's, whose son attends school with Addie, sent me an email this week that made my heart swell with pride and my eyes well with tears . . .

"Hello! I'm not sure if Addie has mentioned this to you, but she has a three year old who is very fond of her. It happens to be my son. :) I wanted to share with you what I've noticed about this relationship, and the opportunities that are being revealed.

He loves to be with Addie as she does her work (not for the entire day, but at least a part of it, usually in the morning). It's clear he looks up to her, and the really exciting thing is that Addie is taking it as a great opportunity to develop her leadership skills!

She is very gentle, kind, and supportive of her new friend. She shows him some of the work she knows, "reads" to him, helps him know some of the rules of the farmhouse, etc... I've seen a whole new part of Addie blossom because of this opportunity that so naturally presented itself.

Yesterday, the three of us worked on some sandpaper letters, with the emphasis on Addie being the "older child" to help show this work. It was a wonderful experience. It's helping Addie to clarify some of the things she is close to mastering, but needs a bit more repetition with, AND it's giving her the chance to feel like she's a real leader (she really is !) It's wonderful that she is excited and kind about showing him the ropes. She does it in a wonderful way.

As a teacher, it's an affirmation of the benefits of the three year cycle (having 3-6 year olds in the same learning community) and the value of mixed ages. As a mother, it's heart warming to see how the two of them seem to be working together to benefit each person without even being aware of it on a conscious level."

Seriously, how great is that?

Gimme 5!

Addie turned 5 last week. She’s now an entire hand. She has been asking about her birthday for about 9 months, so we all can’t believe it’s here and gone.
I can’t believe she’s 5.

For some reason 5 has been hard on me. I’m realizing that my baby, my toddler and my preschooler is no more. Poof. She is an official, full-fledged kid, and in some ways, very nearly a tween! She is already WAY into her girlfriends. She’s already cliquey; she already desperately wants to fit in. She goes around singing “Put a Ring on It.” (Parents. Do NOT let your little girl watch “Chipmunks. The Squeekquel” unless you want a daily rendition of your child shimming across the living room singing “All the single ladies! All the single ladies!”) ((BTW, way to go, Dennis. )) : )

What I’m trying to say is that I can see her baby innocence seeping away right before my eyes, and I’m sad. I’m just plain sad.

I feel bad about being sad. (Yes. I need therapy.)

I shouldn’t be sad that she’s growing up. Five years old mean so many wonderful things are in store for our little pumpkin and I’m soooo proud of all she can do. Our beautiful daughter is learning to read and write. She can ride her big girl bike and can hold her own conversation with anyone, granted that conversation may contain questions like the one I got just yesterday, “Momma, how do kitties smile?”

I love all of this. I could not be more in love with my five year old. She is a delight and my biggest joy.

But still . . . where did the time go?

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb

March started off crazy. After being away from home for nearly the entire first week, I was so excited to see Addie when I picked her up from school that Friday. She was pretty excited to see me too, and chatted all the way home, and continued to provide a play-by-play of her entire week once we reached home. As we approached the back door of our house Addie was turned back looking at me and excitedly chattering away. She missed the first step and landed face first on the second. I'll never forget the sound of my precious baby's face hitting the concrete.

Addie was so brave. She cried, of course, but she never totally freaked out.

I'm proud to say that I didn't freak out either, but it took a very conscious effort! We did end up making a trip to the ER to make sure she didn't need stitches. Thankfully she didn't, and we're hoping she won't have too much of a scar. It's healed nicely as you can see.

Addie had me document the entire event with a story she had me write out for her. It goes like this: "I fell on the concrete step. I had a big ouchy. We went to the doctors. We went to a restaurant. Then everyone went to bed."

Yep. That pretty much summed it up. I'm hopefully this matter-of-fact attitude carries through into the more drama-laced teen years. But then again, she IS related to me, so . . .

Thankfully the month ended on a much more positive note. I learned that I was hired for the job I applied for back in February! I'm really excited, (and a little nervous).

Am I really ready for this much responsibility? I'm going to be someones boss for heaven's sake! I'm on the "state leadership team." What?! It's all a little weird. I am an official bureaucrat!

My title cracks me up - Public Information Officer. One of my girlfriends who also works for the Federal government was quick to point out that the acronym for my position title is PIO, which could loosely be pronounced "PEW." I now want people to greet me with their fingers shaped like guns, and as they mock shoot me make laser gun sounds "PEW! PEW!"

See what I mean about not really feeling ready for this much responsibility?

Bring on SPRING!

I walked out of the house this week and heard birds singing. Birds! SINGING! I nearly wept.

I think it’s been the longest winter ever. But finally, and amazingly, most of the snow is GONE. That snowman shown below in my last (and extremely outdated) blog post JUST melted this past weekend. Only his sad little stick arms remain in our squishy yard. That snowman, in various states, had been in our front yard since the middle of December.

Yesterday, when pulling into our mud laden driveway, I noticed a newspaper tossed on the ground. At first I thought we scored a free-bee since we only get the weekend paper. Turned out it was a newspaper from December 27th that had gotten buried in the snow and was just resurrected.

It’s been a long winter. It’s not just that the winter weather was more wintery than ever, or the two solid weeks of fog in January. The Christmas blizzard was just the beginning of a snow storm of crazy blowing into my world.

First, my boss retired. I had a great boss. When he retired the last day of December I knew I’d miss him, but I didn’t realize that I’d mourn his retirement while also taking on all of his job responsibilities. I’ve been scrambling since the first day of 2010. It’s been cray-zay.

Second, with my boss gone, that left a vacancy for which I debated applying. It’s a promotion. A considerable promotion, but it would also be a jobby big-girl job. Were the additional responsibilities worth the additional pay? I decided to apply.

Those who have ever applied for a job with the Federal government you know it is an extremely daunting and arduous process. So, what also contributed to a very long winter was me putting together my job application and writing 10 pages of my “Knowledge, Skills and Abilities.” This job application immersed me into a career reflecting, thesaurus flipping, no weekends and long week nights, typing fool. After (sadly) even working on my application on our family vacation to Florida, I handed in the monster on February 19th 15 minutes before the job vacancy closed. It was terrifying and extremely liberating at the same time. So, now the wait. No news so far, but I do know there were over 40 applicants.

Meanwhile, I’ve been learning a lot. I’ve been traveling a lot. I’ve been to a LOT of meetings. Thankfully, things have settled a bit, and I’ve come up for air.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Here’s to spring, and new beginnings.

A Ridiculously White Christmas

I don’t think anyone in eastern Nebraska will forget the Christmas blizzard of 2009 for awhile. This was a doozie - a snow event that lived up to childhood memories of how it “used” to snow in Nebraska.

The rain/ice started on the 23rd. It proceeded to cover every outside inch of everything in ice. On Christmas Eve the snow started in the early afternoon. It wasn’t done until the morning of the 27th.

Needless to say, this totally bungled up our Christmas plans. My mom was in town visiting from Missouri. I had taken the entire week off so we could have lots of holiday fun together – going to the movies, Christmas shopping, and general hanging out. On Christmas day we were all planning to head to Sterling to spend the day with Dennis’ folks. As it turned out, Dennis, Addie and I celebrated a very quiet Christmas day at our place, my mom was stuck in a hotel room by herself for 3 straight days, and we’ve yet to celebrate Christmas with Dennis’ family.

I love my family, and I’m a true homebody, but there is a profound difference between choosing to say home and being trapped at home praying we didn’t lose power or our sanity. I’m being a bit dramatic, but when our neighbor came and plowed out our driveway I wanted to climb into his tractor cab and kiss him.

So, I’m in mourning for the Christmas that wasn’t. No oodles of time with my mom. No Christmas Eve church services. No time with extended family. When I called my parents and could hear everyone’s voices in the background as they gathered for their Christmas dinner, I wanted to weep.

Still, I need to rejoice for the Christmas that was. We were abundantly blessed. Everyone was safe and sound (I personally know of someone whose son was killed on I-80 during the storm, and another who suffered a scary medical emergency during the blizzard – see Misty’s blog at left.). We could have been stranded on the side of the road or sleeping on the floor of the airport. What in the world did I have to gripe about?

It made me think about the virgin Mary. I’m sure her Christmas plans weren’t exactly what she had in mind!

This was a beautiful Christmas. Dennis kept our fire roaring. We had plenty of food and fun. We sledded. We skied. We built a snow man. It was a regular winter wonderland for goodness sake!

That being said, I’m still greatly anticipating the full-on family gathering. So what if it doesn’t’ happen until next year.

Santa

Christmastime is upon us. We’ve got the tree up, names exchanged, lists sent to “Santa Central” (a.k.a. emailed them to Grandpa Wes). Addie even got to speak personally with Santa last week. We were a little worried about this visit because she’s old enough to question the concept of Santa, and were afraid she’d just ask him directly.

Addie had been asking a lot of questions about Santa. The usual questions – “How does his sleigh fly?,” Why is there more than one Santa?,” “Why does he live in the North Pole?” and so on. Then came the more profound and difficult questions, “What happens to Santa when he dies?” and the doozie “Is Santa real?”

Even though we haven’t worked hard to perpetuate the (spoiler alert!) myth of Santa Clause, we certainly don’t want her to be the kid who ruins it for everyone else! When she asked me if Santa is real, I just asked her what she though. She said she didn’t think so. Yet, she hasn’t really surrendered the fun of Santa, which makes me very glad. Santa is fun, and I don’t want my kid to be deeply vested in reality and pure fact at the ripe old age of 4 ½.

So, yes, Adeline, there is a Santa Clause - in your heart and at the Gas n’ Shop (we saw him filling up his Nissan), and at the Mall, in the Star City Parade, and Uncle Zach’s Shriners Hall . . . and it’s all good.