My Areas of Expertise

Annika has joined 4-H this year (and Daniel has announced that he will join "when I am 7 years old"), which is a wonderful youth organization that emphasizes project participation and "learning by doing." Projects are a big part of being in 4-H and the clubs are constantly looking for parents to serve as project leaders to help guide the youth in learning various skills.

I have come to the conclusion that I have no useful skills to offer the youth of America, given that I know nothing about animals, arts and crafts, photography, cooking, woodworking, gardening, or any other valuable skill. I had the brilliant thought tonight, though, that the problem is that I do not have any valuable skills...it is that 4-H needs to add these additional projects areas where I can pass on my wisdom. I present to you 10 Areas of Expertise where I would be qualified to be a project leader:

10. Typing Fast - thanks to Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing in 7th grade, I can bang out half-baked thoughts like none other. I can also watch in ever-growing frustration as Annika hunts to find e.v.e.r.y s.i.n.g.l.e. l.e.t.t.e.r. when she types on the computer.

9. Making Toast - I might not be a cook, but by golly, I don't think I have ever burned a piece of toast in my life. This is probably because I rarely make toast, but hey, rock on!

8. Sending Email (well, for work, anyway) - probably because of #10, I am excellent at responding to emails. If you send an email asking for a response, I will give it to you! Except when I forget...

7. Buying Things for Parties - Other moms scour Pinterest for super cute and creative ideas for their child's class parties, birthday parties, Girl Scout get togethers. Not me! When emails requesting contributions to class parties or the like go out, I am all over it so that I can claim "bottled water" or "paper plates" before anyone else.

6. Making Lists - in case you haven't noticed from my blog, I love lists. Lists at work. Lists on my iPhone. Lists of lists. Heaven! Well, except for the grocery store. Then I like to be all crazy and spontaneous and buy random bags of Kale Chips or the like.

5. Posting on Facebook - I joined Facebook when I started at UCF in 2005 and this is probably the ONLY thing in my life I have ever been on the "early adopter" end. I have enjoyed it even more now that the masses are on and not just college students, and as anyone who is my friend on Facebook can attest, I love to post there.

4. Talking About Running - I am a super slow runner, but I can have excellent discussions about running, thanks to years of cross country and track and a bunch of family members and friends who love to run. And I can embody every reason why Runners are Jerks:
http://guyspeed.com/runners-are-jerks/

3. Getting Ready Fast - One benefit of being super lazy is that I can get ready really, really fast in the morning. This is excellent because it gives me more time to waste on things like playing Scramble with Friends on my phone.

2. Eating Chocolate - I can spot a piece of chocolate from a mile away, and can somehow always finagle a way to get my hands on it. And if there is hot chocolate present....watch out!

1. Volunteering for Things - I had a lovely conversation with someone this morning talking about how I really, really cannot take anything else on this semester because I am barely treading water as it is. This afternoon, I agreed to be our department's Untied Way representative because, well, agreeing to do things is what I do best.

What about you? What areas of expertise do you have to offer the Youth of America?

Closing a Door

"Close some doors today. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because they lead you nowhere."

-Paulo Coelho

Well that is all very well and good for you, Mr. Coelho, but I want to have all the doors open! 

I love having choices and I love options. I remember one time during my sophomore year in college dissolving into tears because I had figured out by studying the university catalog that it would no longer be possible for me to obtain all of the pre-med credentials for medical school if I still wanted to graduate on time. Never mind the fact that I had ruled out becoming a physician after a depressing volunteer experience in 8th grade on the oncology floor of a hospital.....or that I had dropped high school biology because I couldn't draw a cell. No, I still wanted the option of doing that and the fact that that door was closed made me sad. 

I was thinking about this at our trip to Worlds of Fun in Kansas City this weekend, when Annika realized that she was taller than 52 inches and could not go in the much-anticipated bounce house. Not only that, but she would was quite bummed that she would never, EVER be able to go in the bounce house again. And I completely understood how it feels to see so many exciting doors that open to you as you grow up and move through life, but yet, realize that doors have closed and you can never.go.back.

And doors also close to us as a parent. I will never be able to carry Annika around in my arms again. I do not even know when the last time I might have done this was, just that I have not been able to do so for a very long time. I will never listen to Daniel cooing over the baby monitor in his crib upon awaking in the morning. Will and I are completely done having children (that door is nailed shut, so to speak) which means that I will never give birth to another baby. Our family is now in full throttle with The Elementary School Years, which are truly glorious and wonderful, but this also means that the Door to the Baby Years is Closed Forever. 

Closing a door is hard. 

I Will Never and Yet I Did

Life is what happens to you

While you're busy making other plans....

-John Lennon, "Beautiful Boy"

I am a girl who likes to have my life all planned out. And like so many other life-planners, I have made many well-thought out pronouncements about what I would never, ever do. I therefore present 10 (non-inclusive) examples of things I said I Will Never Do and Yet I Did.

10. Get Married Before I Was 28 Years Old

I made this declaration in high school, although I really figured I would just end up with an orange cat named Marmie. Waiting until 28 years would give me time to graduate college, go to law school, and practice for 3 years. Um. Yeah.

9. Okay, Have Children Before I was 28 Years Old

Having broken the "28 and married "rule, I revised this so the "28 and children" rule. I think this arose when I announced during my freshman year of college that I was marrying Will that summer (after having changed my major at least twice), which raised the oft-asked question of whether that was because we were expecting a baby. To quickly dispel such rumors, I always remarked that we would....in 10 years, when I was 28. Well, 24 is much closer to 28 than 18. ;)

8. Send Text Messages

I honestly did not understand text messaging at.all.for.years. I remember writing a long, impassioned statement about how it was pointless because it took f.o.r.e.v.e.r to type everything out on a key pad when a phone call would be resolved much faster. Our cell phone minutes used last month: 8. Text messages sent last month: 2.4 million.

7. Live in an Apartment with a Child

Will and I bought a house in Olathe (Kansas City area) right before I was pregnant with Annika. This was very important because I would never, ever, ever rent (the horror!) an apartment with a hypothetical child. In fact, we were never going to ever sell our house in Kansas City, so we locked in a 30-year mortgage rate rather than a much cheaper 5-year ARM (this is back when ARMs were still sexy). Less than two years later, we sold the house....to go live in an apartment. With our child. In Florida.

6. Send a Baby to Daycare

After Annika was born, I suddenly developed strong opinions on child-rearing and sort of fell into the "Attachment Parenting Light" camp. It was super important to me that I as the mom be at home. And yet, one year later, Annika went from always having been with either me or Nonnie, to being in full-time daycare in Florida. And when Daniel was born, he started full-time daycare at the ripe old age of 4 months.

5. Have Children Spaced More Than 2 Years Apart 

My sister Julie and I are really close and I always wished we could have been closer together grade-wise in school (we were 3 years apart most of our time in school but were only 2 years apart after she skipped a grade into high school). I had the great plan that our kids would be no more than 2 years apart so that they would be guaranteed to be Best Buds. Both Will and I starting a PhD program kind of put a crimp into that plan. ;)

4. Buy a Split-Level House

Oh, I had some *strong* opinions on this. I even remember discussing with some friends about how I would never ever EVER live in a split-level house, and my friend said, "The older I get, the less I say things like 'never'". I thought that was kind of funny at the time because he was clearly wrong but yet, here we are. Seattle Style Split.

3. Ever Run Again 

I broke up with running my senior year of high school, but somehow, we have made up and I am at it again now.

2. Fix Separate Meals for the Kids

This encompasses all of the sins of modern parenting. Laziness! Poor eating habits! Crappy parenting! Will and I are eating Bulgar wheat blue cheese enchiladas tonight. The kids are...not.

1. Never Say Never Again! 

Clearly the most logical response to all of this is to just to Never Say Never because the best laid plans always go to waste. But somehow I don't see that happening...

What about you? What would be on your list?

What Is There to Do at the Kansas State Fair?

Our family went down to Hutchinson for the day to visit the Kansas State Fair. We had excellent timing - after a summer in which the highs in July were sometimes in the 60s, the fairgrounds were reported to be a balmy 106 degrees. We also had a serious of  unfortunate events on both the drive up and the drive back that greatly extended the typical one-way travel time of 2 hours. All of which begs the question, What Exactly Is There to Do at the Kansas State Fair? 

Anticipate the thrill of the fair. Or enjoy whatever DVD is playing in the van. 

Speculate about large fires.

Purchase admission tickets and use up almost all of our cash. Marvel at how we are paying to enter a place where the entire goal is to spend even more money on vendors, rides, the lottery.

Oh yes, the lottery.

Watch a live Pig Race. Or not.

Comment on how the many tractors on display look just like Pa's miniature tractor collection.

Whine the entire time about the 106 degree heat and attempt to join the masses in one of the few air conditioned buildings.

Melt.

But while melting, try to convince the kids that the fact that this is the 100th anniversary of the fair is really super cool!

Check out the Domestic Arts building with sewing and cooking projects in display. Hear strong opinions from our under-10 crowd on the mistaken decisions in the quilt judging.

Watch foods' judging.

Check out the Girl Scout and Boy Scout  exhibits. Remain confused the entire time how this overlaps with the 4-H exhibits.

Check out the visual arts projects on display.

After a near meltdown, discover there is a booth with FREE ice cream! Revive.

Prevail in the mission to view the Butter Sculpture! 

Go on a ski-lift type ride across the fairgrounds. Decide this is the most terrifying experience ever and will not be repeated (okay, that was just me).

Make a super fast attempt to actually see some of the 4-H animals on display (okay, just me, again).

Visit the exotic animal petting zoo! Fall in love with the kangaroo and emu.

Go on a Camel Ride!

Play Midway Games. Somehow get lucky on all games, again.

Go on Carnival Rides!

Run into one of my WM friends and get to hang out with her and her delightful children!

Encounter a Robot.

Encounter many pro-4-H-recruiting signs, including quite a few that seem tailor-made for our family.

Melt. Always melt.

While the Kansas State Fair was the big highlight of today, we have been having other fun this week. On Monday (Labor Day), my parents came up for the day to visit! The crew headed down to Rocky Ford Fishing Area. Once again, Daniel was in heaven with the abundance of dead gar.

Then, Thursday was a "Worldwide Holiday" (according to my iPhone)...Will's 37th birthday!! Daniel had turned down our invitation of joining him for lunch at school previously, but decreed that since it was Dad's birthday he would tolerate our presence. ;) We all had a great time and are going to plan to eat lunch with both kids every Tuesday (Annika was on a school field trip when we visited Daniel).

Daniel loves the after-school program, just like he did at camp.

That night, we had the Thorntons over for ice cream cake, present-opening, and chair destruction demonstrations.

Happy Birthday, Will!! We love you!