It is going to be so hard to go back to work. I love being at home. I love taking care of my son, cleaning the house, buying the groceries, cooking dinner…you know…all that housewifey stuff. I don’t mind working. I’m a very hard worker and I’ve almost always put my heart into my jobs, but I really love being a housewife. As Mike said, I run a tight ship. I spent my first week of unemployment relaxing. I spent my second week deep cleaning the house. Then I assigned every adult in the house their own rooms to pick-up daily and clean once a week. Now, the house is staying fairly clean…barring the fact that I’ve got a one-year old running around and messing things up quicker than any human could pick up after.

I think Gabe is really enjoying it too. He’s really become a Mommy’s boy in a very short time. Our hearts will break when this all comes to an end…but let’s cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, my husband is rested, my house is pretty clean, I get to spend quality time reading “The Little Red Hen” to Gabe about a dozen times a day. In short, my life is wonderful.
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We had a great weekend too. Saturday, our friend Scott came into town for dinner and a show. We had a fabulous dinner at The Olive Garden and we saw Ragtime at the Omaha Community Playhouse. The show was incredible. The cast was fabulous. The leading man and woman in the show had the most amazing voices. There were so many times when I had chills and goosebumps. I’ve always been amazed at how well the OCP can put on a show. Sure, I’ve seen a flop or two…but more often than not, I leave amazed. This was no exception. This was truly a production that was so much larger than this community theater. I’ve never had the luxury of seeing a Broadway production, but this could have been on any Tony Awards show that I’ve watched.

On Sunday, we went to church and then we spent the day with Mike’s Brother and Sister-In-Law, Nate and Rachel. It was a wonderful day. We went out for lunch, although most of us had breakfast. We spent about an hour talking about the Bible and sharing beliefs and asking questions. It was extremely enjoyable. We kept turning our waitress away because we hadn’t even cracked open the menu. Amazingly, Gabe was incredibly well behaved. We actually had to cease our discussions temporarily just to decide what we wanted because we were afraid that Gabe’s temperament wouldn’t hold out much longer. He was really patient and it was so nice to have that conversation with peers and family. Nate and Rachel came back to our place and we spent an appreciable amount of time on the patio conversing and enjoying the beautiful weather. Then we came inside for dinner and some SCIII. A lovely day to wrap up a lovely weekend.

Happy Father’s Day

I have fantastic parents. The older I get, the more people I meet with stories of their own parents, the more I realize just how spectacular my parents are. Great parents seem to be a rarity.

Of course today, I’m going to focus on Dad. Part of what makes my Dad so noteworthy is he didn’t have to be my Dad. He didn’t have any obligation. He chose to be my Dad. I wasn’t the primary factor in his choice, I know, but I had to be a significant consideration. He’s been my Dad for so long, that I have very few memories of my life without him in it.

I don’t think I appreciated either of my parents as much as I should have growing up, but I think it’s especially true of my Dad. My appreciation has grown so much since I became an adult. It bothers me now that I didn’t take advantage of the time I had at home with him.

Dad didn’t teach me to play football. He would have, but I wasn’t interested. He took me fishing a few times at a local pond. I enjoyed it for a time, but lost my taste for it quickly after a fish swallowed a hook and removing it was… unpleasant. Dad did much of the cooking at our home. But he didn’t teach me to cook. Dad’s a fantastic artist. I like to draw. I can remember him sketching some shapes onto a sheet of paper and telling me how to properly proportion a super hero’s anatomy. Some of it stuck. When I sketch the outline of a human head, I can remember Dad telling me how to position the eyes and the nose. But that’s about all that stuck. I wish I could have inherited some of his natural artistic ability. He really is amazing.

Still, I learned a lot from my Dad. Not things he sat down to teach me, necessarily. In fact, I think I could count the number of lectures he gave me on one hand and with fingers to spare. I learned from my Dad by watching him be the man he is.

I’ve recently come to a place in my life where I’ve begun to rediscover my faith. I hadn’t lost it by any means, but I never learned it for myself. I believed what my Dad believed because he taught me. And again, I can’t remember how I picked it up. He didn’t sit down with me to instruct me, but I still picked it up. I’m constantly impressed the more I learn for myself the more it verifies what Dad taught me.

After my faith, the most important thing I’ve now learned from Dad is that I’m always teaching my son. Always. Every moment Gabriel is awake and in my presence, he’s learning. He’s learning my behavior and my demeanor. Just like I learned from my father.

My genes don’t come from Dad. What I got from him was a role model. And if I can pass that along to my son… that’s an inheritance to be proud of.

That smile of his fills me with joy!

Originally uploaded by fl0w3r.

Well, honestly, this whole job thing hasn’t been that tough on me. I can’t help but think it is an opportunity for me and our family. If it ever does bring me down, all I have to do is look at his smile and everything is better. I have a remarkable husband and a wonderful son. My life is good.

I’ve always known in my heart that a job was just a means to pay the bills. All of the important stuff happens between the front and back door of my home.

So any of you folks out there know of a good job in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area? As of 4:00 pm today, I’m officially on the job market.

We just wrapped up Gabe’s 15-month check-up. Can you believe it? He’s 15 months old. I swear some time just vanished while I wasn’t looking. Here is the recap. He’s in the 97th percentile for his height, at 33.5 inches. He’s so tall. I see him standing next to children at church and he’s easily as tall as some 3 and 4 year olds. He’s in the 75th percentile for weight and head circumfrence. He wieghed in at 26 lbs and 12 oz. I truly thought he had to be heavier than that. He sure feels heavier than that!

Overall he’s on target with all of the stuff that most 15-months olds are doing, like standing, walking, drinking from a cup,etc. However, he isn’t saying words yet. Plus they asked if he is able to walk backward. I have no idea, I haven’t noticed, but honestly I don’t think I would have recorded it to memory if I did see it. I guess I’ll watch for it now. When they asked if he was speaking 3 or more words…I darn near asked if “baboom”, “gogogo” and “ooooh” counted. He says “Baboom” all the time. I know it must mean something to him, but I have no idea what it could be. My Mom, of course, thinks he’s saying Grandma when he says “baboom”. They sound so much alike.

The doctor also pointed out that we need to be considering, if we haven’t all ready, legal guardianship and a will. We haven’t given it a great deal of thought, but we should. The guardianship is a difficult thing to tackle. In a perfect world, we would like a married couple close to our age with our values and of course they would need to be good with children. That is where we run into a bit of a problem. We don’t know anyone that fits that description. We have some other good options, but why does that seem like such an awkward thing to ask someone to do? You know, it puts the individuals in a situation where they feel obligated to say “yes”. I remember the feeling. Mike and I were asked to be guardians for my nephew. I remember feeling honored but then the “Oh crap, I barely know this kid” feelings kicked in. None-the-less we better get this situation handled, because I need to know that my son will be in the best situation possible, if something were to happen to Mike and I. Wow, I really hate thinking about that.

Enough of that!

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