Dad Life

This is hilarious......

Dad Life from Church on the Move on Vimeo.

Happy Birthday Mike!

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday Mr. Super Dad and Husband....
Happy Birthday to you!


Twenty seven years ago today, one of the most amazing women I’ve ever known gave birth to the most wonderful man I have ever known.

To her I say: Thanks for raising such a wonderful, caring, sensitive, and strong man. Thanks for teaching him what’s right and what’s wrong. Thanks for showing him that love and affection are wonderful things to have and to give in life.

To him I say: Happy Birthday, Babe! I love you with all my heart. Ethan and I are so lucky to have you in our lives. You are our rock. We are so very proud of everything you have accomplished, and we are here to support with everything else you got stored up your sleeves.

Five on Fridays: Empty Nest Syndrome, A Shiny, New Toy and Annoying Customer Service Reps

1. Today is Day 5 of Ethan being gone. Sure, he's having a blast, but I think Mike and I are going through Ethan withrawals. Mike actually turned on the tv this morning and left the channel on Dora the Explorer, so I had to listen to it while getting ready, and by the time I walked out the door, I was miserably missing my baby and singing an awfully-written-incredibly-annoying-repetitive song about a map.

Fun day at the water park

Zoo day with Grandma and best bud Travis

Gameboards with Poppi

2. Got a semi-surprise visit from Mike's mom (to pick up Ethan to take to Ohio) over the weekend. And it was nice that she was able to join us for one of Mike's races (with the usual gang, of course), and then we all celebrated Father's day with a family dinner at the Yard House. But the best part of the short stay was meeting Jacob for the first time and I'm sure being able to spend time with both Ethan and Jacob made the long flights worthwhile in itself.

Hanging out after watching Toy Story 3

Dinner with family at the Yard House

3. So Mike turns a year older on Sunday (not a young buck anymore!), but he got his birthday present about a week early since we agreed that it's a Father's day/Birthday combo. Yes, it was that much. It weighs as much as my wrist. It's blue. It's shiny. It's got fancy shifts and gears. It's made by the same people who make cameras so it must be good. And supposedly, the fact that it's made of carbon fiber will help Mike go that much faster.

4. Holy crap! Who knew there is actually such a thing as a McGangbang? All this time, I thought my brother and his friends (who all equally love to raid my kitchen) are just trying to get me to order it and look stupid. But this concoction is apparently not only real, it's reserved for select special people who even know about the damn thing.

Now that's a heart attack in a bun...

I'm on semi-diet kick (I'm not about to gain that pant size back from one sitting) so I'm not at all tempted to get one of these, but I dutifully stand corrected.

5. Did I mention I hate the IRS? I have spent more hours on the phone (holding and arguing with customer representatives) the past week than I ever care to again for the rest of my life.


I call the 888 number.

Stay on hold for 30 minutes.

Get assigned to a Customer Service rep who tells me the reason why our tax returns got shot down is because I'm missing a form and that I can fax it to them. But, they can't receive fax.

So who can?

They tell me to call back that same 888 number and maybe the next randomly selected Customer Service rep can receive a fax.

WTF?

Am I supposed to just keep calling the SAME number, and sacrifice lamb to the gods of IRS customer service roulette, and hope and pray that the next person I get happens to be sitting in walking distance from a fax machine???

Can you transfer me to whatever department that has the capability to receive my fax?

Nope.

Can you forward me to a supervisor?

I don't have a supervisor. They are randomly selected.

Huh??????

I seriously hate the IRS.

Now, I know most of these people probably don't receive the training they ought to have, but COME ON. Customer service without the service is bullshit.

Lollipop Snatcher

Let's get our priorities straight: I need a new "purse"

I have a confession to make.

While Mike is busy making dinner reservations at the Eiffel Tower, I am currently obsessed with more important things.... like how I'm going to survive 10 days of carrying my camera around Europe while

1. Not looking like a tourist with an ugly camera bag in tow,

2. Not breaking my camera overseas by stuffing it into one of my handbags, and

3. Not risking getting my precious stolen in stinking Florence (we have a bad history) because my handbag was too heavy for me to sling on my arm. I had a HUGE backpack during that 2003 trip, and was surrounded by people in my trip, in a crowded hotel lobby.... it only took them 2 seconds to swipe it right under my nose. Lessons learned: I need a bag that will stay ON ME at all times.


This is my most powerful argument for buying a new "purse" and I'm sticking to it.


:)


I can't help it.... when I saw the Epiphanie bags, I was hooked.

Decisions! Decisions!

So, after a little bit of soul searching and dusting off my powers of pursuasion, I finally chose the black Lola..... I can't wait til she comes!

No Ethan for 2 Weeks!!! =(

Mike and I both woke up this morning at the usual 5:45 and were a little relieved we could hit snooze on both alarms. This is day 1 of not having Ethan. As promised, he gets to spend 2 weeks in Ohio with Grandma, Poppi, and "old" Grandma.

I don't get to sleep in very much, so I was happy to get the extra 15 minutes. When we finally got out of bed to get ready for work (45 minutes later), we found ourselves (even with the extra sleep) with seemingly a little too much time of just......... silence.

No Dora the Explorer in the background to "encourage" Ethan to get out of bed. Mike usually dresses Ethan, only for me to look at him and decide on the spot that I didn't like his outfit so I change him again. Mike didn't have to cook microwavable pancakes. I had to fight traffic without the carpool lane because the carseat behind me was empty.

It was really weird.

Last night, we had our first Skype date... something I had made mandatory on this trip to have every night before he goes to bed. He was so blown away by all the new toys Grandma got him, that he didn't even seem like he missed us one bit!

Wooden Annivesary = Eurotrip!

So it was no secret that I was nearly 4 months pregnant when Mike and I got married in 2005. It put a little damper on our Honeymoon which was a week long all-inclusive trip to Cancun (a wedding present from my mom). We have since then promised we would try to do something special every year on our anniversary.


Year 1 - We went on a Carribbean cruise.


We made out with stingrays

Tubed through caves in Belize

Made friends with Mexicans who can't take pictures after getting stranded with no money for a cab

Drank a little too much in Cozumel

Ravaged through ancient ruins in Costa Maya

Year 2 - We said, screw it, let's jump off a perfectly good airplane.

Year 3 - We spent a week-worth of free beach-front suites in the East Coast.

We went to our first NASCAR race in Richmond

Almost decapitated Mike in Williamsburg

Climbed our first light house at Fort Story

Drank a little too much in Ocean City

Got diarrhea from jumbo pizzas in DC

Year 4 - BIG FAT NADA

I'm sure we went to dinner or something, but goes to show you that it must've been THAT boring that neither Mike or I can remember what it was. We had just bought the house, so not only were our funds a little low, we probably just didn't have enough energy left to plan anything.

So for Year 5, we are pulling all the stops and we're going to Europe for 10 days!!! We are super psyched!

Is it September yet???????

We Will Miss You, Oliver

Today, we didn't just lose a friend. We lost a family.

Thank You to All Those Who Serve

Raving in the Backseat

Couldn't help but post this video of Ethan dancing his pants off in the backseat. He literally danced like this for 10 minutes straight!

My Mom Called me a Bore

Notice anything different?

I actually had my hair done (not well, I might add) for Mother's day. My beautiful sister decided she would spend her hard-earned mula to break me from my comfortable long black do.

I liked the fact that

1. I got to spend some girly time with my mom and Sissy, but mostly

2. that I didn't have to pay for it.

But I had reservations.....

My mom ended up taking us to this lady that she goes to. We went to this lady's house and she propped me in front of a mirror in her family room. "She used to work at a salon," my mom reassures me. Apparently, I looked a little worried.

I really didn't want to color my hair. I've dyed my hair ONCE my entire life (on a spur of the moment kind of thing in Italy years ago). And guess what... I dyed it jet black! Ha! Talk about adventurous.....

"You're boring!" my mom finally said. "You shouldn't look older than me!"

True, I thought. I shouldn't look older than her. So I popped my big girl pill and (with hesitatation) agreed to everyone's suggestion to chop my hair off and put blonde highlights.

You know when they say stick to your first instincts?? Well, let's just say I wasn't a happy camper when this lady was done. I was so mortified, Sissy had to dye it back to black that same night.

Well, it's been over a week and a half and the black over-the-counter dye is now starting to fade so my highlights are coming back. They're more subtle than they were that fateful Saturday, but I'm afraid it's going to go back to the chunkly platinum blonde highlights. For now, I'm trying to get used to it, but I think I prefer my long black hair. :)

Ethan's First Tball Season

Well! The season's over... and we're all a little bummed about it. It was the first team sport we put him in, and he enjoyed it a lot... looking forward to every baseball practice and the "real game" on early Saturday mornings. The early wake up calls aren't going to be missed as much, but being able to give Ethan the opportunity to make friends, learn the fundamentals of a sport he clearly loves and learn about teamwork was priceless.

And because I was a bad mommy and didn't post after every weekend of tball, here's my sad attempt of a season wrap up.


The kids were all a hoot, 9 boys and 1 girl. They don't have much concept of "positions"... it's more like "whoever gets the ball first wins". For the first few games, the kids were like puppies climbing over each other to get the ball, arms and legs flying wildly in the scrum. Frequently, whichever kid won the ball in the scrum would just hold it up over his head triumphantly... then look around while the coaches and parents (including myself) yell "Throw it to first base!" Eventually, towards the end of the season, they started to learn to stay within their own boundaries.

But attention spans being what they are, each game would start to deteriorate a bit after the first two innings. The trick was to rotate the kids so that they all have a chance to "do something" other than wait. Seeing as we played 90% of the games on grass and not dirt, the balls didn't normally go past the pitcher's mound, so unless you were the pitcher, the short stop or the first baseman, there really wasn't much action to go around. In Ethan's case, there are times when he said he didn't want to play anymore because he didn't get the ball... but when he did get the ball, you would think the boy had just won the World Series. Their favorite part was batting and running around the bases. They all got considerably better in the few weeks they played, and Ethan especially loved wacking that ball as hard as he could!

He also loved being the catcher, or as we called it, the "Transformer". Putting on all that gear never appealed to the kids until we started calling it that, then everyone wanted to be the Transformer. Since the kids hit from a tee, the catcher's job was solely to get the ball thrown from first base and put it on the tee and sometimes tag the kids running to home plate.

During one of the games, several outfielders got into a wrestling match, which the coach decided wasn't worth the effort to defuse. There was one particular kid who would sporadically take himself out of the "game" and just hang out with the rest of us on the side. Ethan danced when he got bored......

The sidelines (ie makeshift dugouts in the outfield) were always filled with proud parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in lawn chairs, many with dogs and/or younger siblings trying on helmets that covered their whole head. One of the best parts of the season was watching parents step up to be base coaches. EVERY SINGLE PARENT of the kids on the team were at some point on the field cheering on every player (not just their own). Of course, I instinctively became the unofficial team photographer. Everything was so chaotic, not necessarily in a bad way, but most parents were too busy either coaching on a base or getting the next batters up ready, that they got too busy to take pictures on their own. I made sure all the parents had a chance to have some of those memories preserved....

Coach Mark and Coach Mando were great with the kids, especially Coach Mark. His kid played in the same league last year, but this was his first year coaching. Practices were at 4 on Tuesdays so my mom and dad took Ethan to practice, so my interaction with the coach was limited to the Saturday games.... but he was GREAT with the kids. He coached them no different from coaching his own. And the best part was that at the end of the season, he was truly and genuinely proud of each of one of them. So proud, in fact, that he ended up buying personalized trophies for all the kids (the league would only provide medallions).

The end of the season was bittersweet. Yes, these are only 4 year olds, and yes, there will be plenty more baseball seasons in our future. But this was his first. His first uniform. His first team. His first single. His first slide home. His first coach. His first trophy.

Way to go Ethan! Mommy and Daddy are PROUD OF YOU!

GO CUBS!!!!