Happy Easter

Happy Easter Sunday!  The kids were excited to get up this morning and discover baskets filled with sidewalk chalk and eggs hidden around the downstairs.

We were late with the egg dying, so we also did that this morning.  Note that the egg dyes are in coffee cups.  I'm just saying that there might have been a moment where the coffee mug filled with egg dye was confused with the coffee mug filled with coffee.....

(also, check out Allison's new glasses that she LOVES).

After the egg dying and showers, we headed out to brunch at the Kangaroost - one of our favorite local restaurants and home of awesome brunches.

It's been low-key, but nice.

Oh yeah - the cat!

So, we got a cat!  Actually, we got her a few weeks ago, but I'm just writing about it now.  Funny story, actually...

I had decided that I wanted a cat.  The kids were totally on board with this plan.  I think Brian was more-or-less indifferent and maybe skewing a little towards "really????"  But I had some very specific requirements for a new addition to the household.  

1) must be declawed.

2) must be friendly.

3) must not be a kitten (kittens are a crap-shoot for personality later on).

So, I started with a local no-kill cat shelter.  I took the kids one evening and we met two very nice kitties.  I had to fill out some reference check paperwork to actually go in a pet the cats, but all was well.  Allison's favorite was (of course) the 20 pound FIV positive 13 year old cat.  Uh - no.  

So, then we went BACK to the cat shelter with Brian that weekend.  The kids were - shall we say - excited.  And I got the impression that our choice to have a declawed cat was somewhat frowned upon.  I don't know why - we wanted a cat that was already declawed - we weren't going to have it done to an undeclawed cat.

Well, a few days later I got an e-mail from the shelter saying that they didn't think the cats we were considering would be a good fit in our household.  They discussed our situation with the adoption counselors (?) and could not guarantee the safety of a declawed cat in our home.  Read-Between-The-Lines = The-Kids-Were-Too-Excitable and the cat would have no way to defend itself against the onslaught of attention.  Clearly, a double-income, cat-experienced, well-educated household with children who will love an animal and have no other pets to compete with is a terrible, terrible place for a cat!  I totally agree!  I mean - look at the horror!!!

So, next stop - Oshkosh Humane Society.  Allison and I stopped there on my birthday on our way home from Madison.  We met several nice kitties, but none really that I got super excited about.  So, I went on Thursday to the Appleton Humane Society and met two very cute cats: Riley, who was Superfriendly, white, and shed like crazy, and Kitty Gaga, who was a little less friendly, but also considerably less sheddy.

The kids had a half day the next day so I took them to meet the two cats.  The kids voted Kitty Gaga.  I figured there would also be an application, reference check, etc there too - but the lady was basically like "sure, when do you want to take her home!" and I was like....... uh, tomorrow?

The only problem with "tomorrow" was that we had NO cat stuff and I had to teach all day, which meant that I needed to send Brian to pick up the cat.  Brian, who had not met and/or exactly agreed to the bringing home of said cat.  (I was relaying this story to a friend who then said I was no longer in the running for wife-of-the-year. The fact that she thought I might have at some point been in the running was sweet to begin with).

So, Allison and I went to pick up a bunch of cat supplies, and then Brian and the kids went to pick up the cat.  Then I left for NC for most of the next week.  Yep!  I rock!

So - here she is:  Kitty Gaga.  She needs a new name, however as time passes the hurdle of getting a new name is getting larger.  The options are this: Frankie, Wiley, Kitty, and Sky.  We've eliminated Sky from the running. Feel free to cast your vote in the comments.  She likes armrests, belly rubs, and sleeping on our heads.  And yes - she looks EXACTLY like our last cat.  That was not the plan.

My new newsletter

I would like to start an alumni newsletter that features "People who just do regular stuff."

It will feature people who are teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers, stay-at-home moms, farmers, writers, business administrators, or whatever else does not include founding a world-famous technology company or finding the gene that causes cancer.

It will praise our annual $50 contributions to the scholarship fund.

It'll discuss how we "started" training for that triathlon we got pressured into signing up for by that one woman who always has time for everything.

And we'll cop to the fact that the volunteering we do is really just helping our kids go door-to-door to raise money for the endless list of crap our kids need to raise money for.

Yes, this will be my alumni newsletter..... for the other 95%.

In Memoriam

Even though I didn't ask (what child does?)..... today I'm not sharing my own words, but my Dad's:

Eulogy for Jeanne – April 2, 2014

I am sure DiDi (Minister present) has said many times, the Lord does not give you more burden than you can carry – but He does push the limit!  On behalf of Jeanne’s family, we want to thank you for the love, hugs, stories, support, and food you have given us.  More importantly, on behalf of Jeanne’s family, we wish to thank you for the love and support you provided Jeanne over the years.

Do you believe in fairy tales?

On June 7, 1968, a little princess named Jeanne was born in Fremont, Michigan.  Fremont is the home of Gerber Baby Food – what a great place to begin life.  She had two parents who loved her very much.  They watched her grow into a little girl who enjoyed fairy tales – listening to Snow White, Cinderella, and Humpty Dumpty.  Everything was good and right.

Those two parents and a loving aunt and uncle got up one cold November morning to stand outside for hours to help Santa buy a Cabbage Patch doll so a little girl would not be disappointed with Christmas and everything would be good and right.  If only life could remain so simple, we would stand out in the cold for days to make everything good and right.

The little girl was joined by two sisters and grew to be a teen.  Like her sisters, she was pretty, smart, and popular.  In high school she was Homecoming Queen, President of the Senior Class, and graduated near the top of her class to go on to complete a rigorous college degree in Engineering.

When the teen grew into a woman, her family expanded to include a step mother and two step sisters. Jeanne became a mother, bearing two sons who are handsome and smart.  She loved them very much and she was loved very much by her parents, sisters, and family. Everything was good and right.

But like Humpty Dumpty she had a great fall.  All the kings’ horses and all the king’s men could not put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

So, as with ourselves, let’s draw her faults in the sand and chisel her virtues in stone.  This woman’s stone will contain a very long list of virtues.   Yes, we still believe in fairy tales.

Parents are not supposed to lose children, but we have gained some solace from the Serenity Prayer:

God, Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Grant me patience with the changes that take time, an appreciation for all that I have, tolerance for those with different struggles, and the strength to get up and try again, one day at a time.

When the conversation turns to...

Ha - this is not a post for or about the kids.  It's just a humorous thing that happened to me the other day.  Well, more like a humorous thing that happened in my presence.  I'll take out the specifics but here's the gist...

So, let's say your company was hiring a new employee and you are one of the people who is reviewing and interviewing candidates.  Each candidate is brought in for a day long on-site interview that includes a tour, meetings with various people, a presentation, and a lunch.  That lunch (by the way) takes place at an awesome restaurant with awesome food.

Well, let's say one of the other people on the interview team is young and energetic; quite fun and a good person to make a potential candidate feel at home.  We'll say that person is - oh - an expert in women's issues.  Near the end of the lunch for the final candidate, it's revealed that this person is giving a lecture on the role of technology in women's lives throughout history - has it been a good thing, a bad thing, or neither?

The job candidate innocently asks - "well, which is it?" and the team member says that the audience will really need to draw their own conclusions; but there will be many examples.  Things like.... clothes dryers, microwaves, and "since we are done eating" - vibrators.

Let's say this launches a lengthy tale of the history of the vibrator - from medical device to sex toy (the 1920's and the advent of distributed porn caused that shift - and vibrators went "underground" so-to-speak).

OMG - awkward much?  Illegal?  I don't know!  I mean, you can't ask a job candidate if they are married but you can give them a history of a vibrator!  Hopefully - this candidate is not on twitter because if it had been me - I would totally have tweeted that #crazysexinterview.

We Skied - mostly

I have not posted about our ski trip....  So I'll do that now, as I've been too busy to make coherent thoughts about anything profound.

What can I say about skiing??  Oh yeah - it sucks to get an announcement over the loudspeaker that you have to return to ski school for your child.  Because, clearly, that means something like a serious accident has occurred.

But - Let me back up.

We went skiing the other weekend with some friends of ours who have slightly older kids, but are not skiers.  We signed Allison and Jacob up for ski lessons because it buys Brian and I two hours to go ski on our own, which is just about as much time as we need to hit most of the runs we want to.

So, we dropped the kids off in lessons at 10am.  We went clear to the other side of the ski resort to then started working our way, run-by-run, back to the ski school area.  This was pretty good for about the first 45 minutes.  Then my phone rang.  We thought it was Dad (who is recovering from his own run-in with a ski hill).  It was a local number.  I tried to answer it but my phone died..... too cold.

So, we deduced that it was the ski school and with no other info - we set off to return to the ski area as quickly as possible (including a foray through the trees that Brian later termed "ill-advised").  Clearly there was a crisis!

We ended up back at the base and decided that the ski school office was closer than the yurt (where they meet), so we went there right when our names were being called over the loudspeaker (across the whole ski resort).  We said they were looking for us at which point the girl said she didn't have any info, but we were supposed to head to the yurt.  Our child was refusing to participate in lessons.

Allison.

So, we showed up at the yurt to find Allison sitting at one of the tables, with no one but a ski instructor and two other girls in there that were clearly not affiliated with her.  He had no idea what had happened, except that they were severely understaffed as a bunch of instructors had called in sick and so they had broken the kids down by skill rather than age.  This - I guess - led to two problems.

(1) Allison had been required to ride the lift.

(2) She had been separated from her slightly-more-skilled brother.

At this point I left - because my ski binding had broken and (since there was no major crisis) I went to see if the rental shop could repair it (yes).  When I returned, Brian and Allison were still sitting there.  Allison's class had apparently returned to the yurt, but the instructor with them had no interest in re-introducing Allison to the group.  There was still one hour of lesson left.

So, we cut our losses and forced Allison to ski with us for the remainder of the morning.  That was when Brian took this picture:

She was entirely comfortable with the bunny area and magic carpet.  Which is also where the rest of her lesson group ended up.

After lunch, Allison was allowed to quit skiing and she and I went back to the hotel while Brian and Jacob skied the rest of the day - spending it entirely in the terrain park and on the "fun boxes."

Jacob is a big fan of skiing and can't wait to switch to snowboard.  Heaven help us.

On Sunday, Jacob and I returned to the ski hill for another morning of skiing.  I convinced him to go all the way to top of the hill (it was not crowded Sunday on account of it being about 10 degrees).

He skied the blue runs (snowplow all the way!) and then did it again.  Glad at least one of the kids enjoys skiing.  Next year, we'll have to ship Allison to Grandma and Grandpa's house for our ski weekend!

Piano recital

It has been a crazy-busy weekend here, including Jacob's piano recital debut.  He calls it "his worst performance ever."  I argued that since it was his first recital, that made it also his best performance ever.  He did not buy my argument.  I guess he played a song for his class without any mistakes.

To be fair, he handled his mistake well and finished the piece.  There were also A LOT of other kids making mistakes too.  Here's the video: