• Confessions,  Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?,  Family Fun,  I'm Apparently Old.,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz,  Queen of Denial

    Six Of One, Half Dozen Of The Other

    I have always been very proud of the way I can remember things. From dates to pop culture factoids to details about all kinds of things, remembering is one of my greatest skills. Well, it was. As I’ve grown older (and frankly, more dependent on Google Calendar), my memory bank is shutting down a little more often than it used to. I like to justify it by saying that since I’m older I have more information that has to be held in there and so it’s only natural that some of the little things would fall through the cracks, but I don’t necessarily believe that. It’s just my way of…

  • Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Blessings,  I'm Apparently Old.,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz,  Proud Moments

    A Simple Birthday Message

    For J, who turns nineteen today… I knew I wanted to write a post on your birthday, but I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to say. I kind of wanted to say that I can’t believe you are nineteen already but that, although true, sounds overdone. I definitely wanted to write about how I have just one more year of saying I have a teenaged kid, but that’s stating the obvious… I was going to write that I am so proud of the young man you have become. You’re a caring, thoughtful, and responsible person, and I couldn’t ask for any more than that. You care about your school…

  • Blessings,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz,  Proud Moments

    And, Exhale.

    It’s amazing how, sometimes, things just fall into place. The last couple of months have been extremely stressful for D as he has worried about finding a job or two—any job—right out of college so he could continue living in the Wisconsin house with his friends until their lease ends on May 31. Things hit a fever pitch after Christmas because the time clock was ticking down to zero on his ability to stay in the house: we paid his rent through the end of January and he needed to either fish or cut bait. The uncertainty was troublesome, to say the least. He was applying for jobs both in…

  • Family Fun,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz

    New Phone, Old Phone, Smart Phone, Dumb Phone

    Today is my dream day. I’m finally able to get a new cell phone with a new cell phone carrier. The last two years have mostly been a cell phone nightmare (ask any of my family members and close friends), and I’m relieved it’s about to be over. For the last couple of months I’ve been using what I call my “bridge phone”: it’s an unlocked phone I bought on eBay just to get me through to today, when I go and pick up an iPhone 5s. Whee! The boys are pretty excited about today, too. (Jim’s phone is company-provided so the only thing he’s excited about regarding today is…

  • I've Got Mad Skillz,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz

    The Listmaker Doesn’t Fall Far From The Tree

    As my boys have grown, it’s been very interesting to see which personality traits they’ve inherited from Jim and me. While I have felt terrible when we’ve discovered certain that some of the less desirable characteristics have been passed down—cough, cough, procrastination, cough, cough—I have laughed a little bit at others. Here’s an example. This conversation happens several times a week in my house, year-round: Jim: “What do you have going on today?” Me: “Ugh, so much. My to do list is miles long.” This conversation happened on Tuesday: Jim: “What do you have going on today?” D: “Ugh, a lot. My to do list is six and a half…

  • Amazing People,  Confessions,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz,  Reflections on Parenting

    Something Wonderful

    Something wonderful is happening around here. (Indulge me while I brag for a moment. Thank you.) Although it seems like yesterday that we were in the midst of his college search, D is finishing his coursework a semester early. He’ll be done with classes in less than a month! It’s a pretty spectacular accomplishment: he achieved it via a combination of some AP testing for college credit, testing into (and then passing) an advanced German course which earned him the credit for that class plus the year he skipped, and mostly due to his staying the course with his major and getting awesome grades (Dean’s List all the way!). Did…

  • Blessings,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz,  My Kids Have Mad Skillz

    College Drop Off: We Went, We Moved Him In, I Got The T-Shirt.

    Two, actually. I bought two t-shirts, because I couldn’t decide between the short-sleeved hot pink shirt and the long-sleeved orange and blue shirt–school colors–so I went home with both. So, the deed is done. We dropped our younger son off at college and I didn’t die. I can tell you what leaving felt like, though. It felt like having a full-body bandage pulled off, with that last little sticky part that always stings the most being positioned right over my heart. But again, I didn’t die. Jim didn’t either. We were sort of thrown for the rest of the day, but we’re going to be absolutely just fine. Also, there…

  • Amazing People,  Confessions,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz,  Reflections on Parenting

    Son Set

    I really didn’t want to write about this–the emotion surrounding sending my kid off to college–since I wrote about it at length three years ago when I did it the first time, but I can’t help it. The fact is, I’m doing it again and I have returned to that state of mind. Under the circumstances, I feel an intense need for a cathartic release–again–especially because this time involves the added element of becoming an empty nester. Though I still carry a smile on my face and am truly, extremely happy, I have this inner shrieking and squirming that ebbs and flows underneath it all. The act of putting these…

  • Confessions,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz,  Reflections on Parenting

    Foiled again.

    We have a long history in our house of food labeling. I’m not talking about anything having to do with nutrition facts: I mean literally labeling food. As in, “J’s cereal”. The two people mostly likely to label their food are Jim and J, because they like many of the same things, meaning whenever I buy said items they don’t last long and one always blames the other for finishing it off. (You can read a great story–with pictures–about it in this old VINTAGE Suburban Scrawl post!) It’s been a while since the last kerfuffle over food, and I put it out of the front of my brain for the…

  • Music,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz

    Stoopid Aweesome Indeed.

    It’s rare that a day goes by on which there isn’t music playing in this house, thanks to J and his regular practice of his DJ skills. He’s hoping to get actual gigs someday, and in order for that to happen he has to work on increasing the length of his mixes. That’s why it’s not unusual for my house to be vibrating with heavy beats on any given evening, often while we’re preparing dinner. Unlike the parents who complain about their kids’ music being too loud or annoying–I often think of those who relegate a drum set to the garage or deep in the basement–I adore what J creates.…