Thanksgiving

It's that time of year again when we strap the kids in the car and hit the road to be with extended family. This is when I stop and think about how thankful I am for what I have been given. I have two, extremely healthy, happy, beautiful children so don't have a care in the world. I have a job that I enjoy going to. I live in an area where my kids can play from backyard to backyard while enjoying all that metropolitan areas have to offer; museums, parks, and cultural events. I have never had so many friends in my life that we have trouble finding time to just do nothing! I don't know who could ask for anything more?

I hope I don't do anything to screw this up! ;)

Some parents are just amazing

I have been blessed with two amazingly healthy children. I do not have to worry about what my children eat, breath, touch or play with and have never been more grateful for this freedom until now. My friend/colleague got a call from the school nurse that her daughter had swallowed a peanut and the epipen had expired. The school was calling an ambulance. As you can imagine, as my friend was trying to leave, she was beyond hysterical to say the least. In the moment, I grabbed her keys and we ran down to her car. I hopped into the driver's seat and we were off to the school. While she cried, called the school nurse and kept in touch with her husband and family I drove.

When we got to the school, her daughter was in the ambulance scared but relieved that her mom was there. We then headed to the hospital. I parked her car and found her husband and family. My friend's husband was beside himself. He couldn't pull his ID out of his wallet he was so worried. I told him that his daughter was doing okay and then he and I (not Grandma or Great-Grandma) were asked to come back to see my friend and her daughter.

There we found my friend and her daughter. She had an oxygen mask on her face, which thinking about it now, brings tears to my eyes. My friend grabbed me and proceeded to tell me work that still needed to be done at the office. SERIOUSLY? But my friend can handle this. Once her daughter was in the care of the best pediatricians in the world, her mind went to all the million other things in her life that still needed to happen and delegates.

I look up to all those parents that have to deal with this or any other chronic child healthcare issue.

Can you go home?

They say you can never go home. I hope not. I'm about to jump into the car, drive 8 hours away to enjoy my 10 year reunion at my alumna mater. The best time in my life was the four years I spent at a small liberal arts college. I had the honor of making the best friends I had ever had, met my husband, became a leader to my peers and oh yeah, "got me a edumacation" (not in that order)! I grew into the woman I am today today there. I'm just a little worried I'm getting my hopes up for the great weekend and will end up being disappointed. It happened at my 5th year reunion. I was so excited to be there and ended up hanging out with people I live 5 minutes away from (so we all drove 8 hours to hang out when we could have driven 5 minutes.) I also realized that not everyone stays that same person they were years ago, living across the hall from you. People who I considered my best friends where different some how. Different goals, different life expectations.

It's now been 10 years and I'm scared of what I might find. I hope that if my expectations are appropriate, I will be surprised to have had a great time.

Losing sucks

So I lost my race for President of the neighborhood civic association by 2 votes last night. To a guy that has never attended a meeting or event. He hasn't even volunteered to help when we have put out calls for volunteers. Yup. I lost to that guy. That's the story of my life. Mediocre at best. I'm really bummed because I have some great ideas to bring my neighborhood closer. Yeah, there some bigger stuff that is going on that the association will need to deal with like over development, bad traffic problems, parking problems, aging city infrastructure etc however I really want to help out and the group said, "Ummm, no. The guy that has no experience should do it." Great ego boost.

My Best Friend

Everyone once in a while I'm reminded about how awesome my husband is. I should remember all the time but you know, there are the things that drive me crazy like leaving his stuff all over the house so I get to clean it up or always forgetting to bring the kid's blanket and sheet on Mondays to day-care. (Seriously, I was on maternity leave with our second for 16 weeks. He forgot the blanket 16 times.) I got a reminder last night of how awesome he is when he almost went postal on our crazy neighbor who is trying her best to make sure I'm not elected to our civic association. Our neighbor walked over to my husband and two other husbands to hand out a flyer about how I shouldn't be elected. (She is bold doing it across the street from my house.) Luckily, 1. I was walking over to see what she had to say and 2. our friend started asking questions as to the legitimacy of the flyer (well done Jeremy.) I'm pretty sure my husband would have gone pretty ballistic (by the look and color of his face) but again, there were distractions.

This election is a civic association, not the presidency of the United States or somehow curing cancer. It is to organize parties and send letters to the City Council when traffic is bad but there was my husband, getting all hot and bothered because of our super crazy neighbor. I can only hope that every one has a spouse as awesome is mine is.

The Mommy Wars

So last night I went to one of those parties where they sell you stuff. This one was for my friend who is starting her own business making children's clothing and other stuff and her friend who sells hair bows and bags. I love my friend and support her entrepreneurship as much as I can. I knew going in that I would know no one and the possibility of me being the only working mom was a pretty big possibility. Who cares, right? So as I'm sitting there, in between women having a conversation about half day preschools. One says, "I just don't know how anyone can put their child in an all day preschool. Kids just can't do it all." HELLO, I'm a working mom, meaning full time working mom. My son goes to an all day preschool. In fact, he has been going there for over 2 years now and we couldn't be happier. Do these women assume that everyone lives just like them? Did they assume that even the women in the room they didn't know were just like them? Now what did I do in this situation? NOTHING. As always. I didn't stick up for myself.

However, I was there to support my friend and I didn't want to embarrass her. (I can do that in a lot of other ways.) In fact, I think I did embarrass her a little. As she and her friend were trying to get everyone's attention so they could present their merchandise, the women were still having this WONDERFUL conversation about preschool. I completely interrupted them to get them to shut up so that we could get the show on the road. Remember, I'm a working mom and taking 2 hours out of my evening puts my life way off track. I still had to do some laundry and get ready for the next day.

Thankfully, I got home and my husband had switched the laundry so as I was getting everything together for the next day I told him what happened at the party. He, as always, goes off on how well my son is doing with writing and the alphabet and that is totally because of the preschool he is at.

comparing

I hate comparing my kids to each other but I do all the time. We have a pretty high bed so we keep a chair by the end of it so my son (and yes, my dog) can climb up. My 18 month old daughter just climbed herself up there with no problem last night. Then she was outside climbing up to the play house of our play set. The rule is if you are old enough to climb up, you can be up there. The age requirements start at 3 years old. My son didn't do either until he was a least 2 1/2. Yeah, yeah, I know. The younger kid does everything earlier, just following along with their older sibling but seriously!

I have problems getting into my bed sometimes....

Working on the weekend...

Yup, two to three times a year I have to work on the weekend. My job includes meeting planning/services so I make sure the logistics of a meeting go well. I don't remember how I got to this stage in my life but I seem to do an ok job. There tends to be a IT hiccups that my colleagues snap at me about (all of which have nothing to do with anything I can control like a power cord doesn't work or a colleague can't seem to figure out how to plug in their USB jump drive into their computer) but otherwise, I make sure everyone is well caffinated and everything goes well. However I hate it. I get two days a week to be with my family and that is taken away from me. Now I do get compensated time from work so I add two more days to my vacation allotment but still. I miss my family! My colleagues all get to skip out of staying for the dinner after the meeting however I have to stay. That is the worst part. They complain to me that they haven't see their kids...helllo, I have kids also but I'm not skipping out on dinner. Seriously.

writing skills were never something to write home about

So I finally have taken advice from an old colleague to write down my adventures in Katy World. I warn you I can't spell, have no grammer skills and I'm convince the only way I got through college and grad school was because I was smart enough to have my English Major friend Jen proof read everything (we wouldn't tell her former employer she was proofing my work while "on the clock.")

Let me introduced myself: Hi, I'm Katy. I'm 33, married, have 2 little kids and live in the Alexandria, Virginia (DC area.) I'm incredibly sarcastic, clumsy and loud. I work for a non-profit membership organization's Washington "shop" however I do NOT lobby. Nothing wrong with lobbying, especially if you are lobbying on behalf of a good cause, let's say children, I just wasn't good at it but found my niche in non-profit administration. (I will stop rambling now.)

The other night we were getting the kids ready for bed. I was trying to get my son's pajamas on but he insisted on pulling at his genitals (my parents are pediatricians, we use the anatomically correct words.)
Me, "remember Bud, playing with your penis is for private time in your room."
Andy, "Yeah, I know. Miss Valerie told me that at school."
Me, "Oh, really? Well then please stop. "
Andy, "Well, what is this?" pointing to his scrotum.
Me, "Your scrotum"
Andy, "Can I play with that?"

I grew up with a younger sister. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to handle a boy.