Not easy. I could lie and tell you that being at home with the boys is magical and amazing but truly? It's not. I'm almost done ya'll. In two week I will be DONE with my Masters degree. D.O.N.E. I take a 4 hour written essay exam on August 13th and then...you can call me MASTER!!!
The house is still on the market- 43 showings(whose counting?). My boys are super. Seriously. I love them and they are sweethearts. Robert is kicking ass at work and is a great husband/father. I have nothing to complain about. Nothing. Highlights of summer '10
* 17 hour train ride to visit Gram/Papa in Walnut Creek
* Jake learning how to swim
* Bo going to TAG camp (Astronomy)
* San Diego trip to see my baby brother get married to sweet Katrina
*Oh...and finishing my Masters Degree :)
LIFE IS GOOD!
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
My Love Affair
I was thinking about saving this post until later...say May, but then reconsidered - I didn't want the moment to escape me. Bo asked me the other night, "Mom, why are we here?" A big question for a second grader. Heck, a big question for anyone. He was concerned because he didn't know why, "he was here." I reassured him that some people never find out their reason but with most certainty, he would at some point, find out his purpose. I told him that I did know my purpose and it is to touch the lives of children; both my own and the ones that I teach.
I love being a mom to my two sons. Being their mom gives me more joy and sense of purpose than I could have ever thought possible. I love tucking them in at night when they are all warm and snugly from their baths. I love reading them bedtime stories and giving the characters different voices. I love it when we go and see a movie at the theater and being able to watch their reactions in the dark when they are unguarded. I love their spontaneous hugs and kisses. I love cranking up my iPod on the Bose sound dock and having dance parties in the family room with them. I love clicking them into their seat belts and cutting up their meat so that they don't choke. I even love folding their small clothes that are getting bigger. I have loved, in all sincerity, every stage of their existence. From childbirth, to middle of the night feedings, to cleaning up the umpteenth glass of spilt milk.
I tell them that I love them every.single.day. Robert and I are that kind of a family. We say it and show it. Hugs, kisses and a, "buddy I love you" are commonplace.
I realize that when they are almost 8 and 5 that loving them is easy. Tweens and teens are tough - I see my possible future five days a week. Those sweet little cherubic faces can become sullen, sarcastic and withdrawn. Those little voices deepen and are not as ready to tell you how pretty you are or that, "you are such a good cook that your food should be in a restaurant!" I'm prepared for that transition (I think) but hopefully the metamorphosis is slow because frankly, this love affair I'm having is simply...amazing.
I love being a mom to my two sons. Being their mom gives me more joy and sense of purpose than I could have ever thought possible. I love tucking them in at night when they are all warm and snugly from their baths. I love reading them bedtime stories and giving the characters different voices. I love it when we go and see a movie at the theater and being able to watch their reactions in the dark when they are unguarded. I love their spontaneous hugs and kisses. I love cranking up my iPod on the Bose sound dock and having dance parties in the family room with them. I love clicking them into their seat belts and cutting up their meat so that they don't choke. I even love folding their small clothes that are getting bigger. I have loved, in all sincerity, every stage of their existence. From childbirth, to middle of the night feedings, to cleaning up the umpteenth glass of spilt milk.
I tell them that I love them every.single.day. Robert and I are that kind of a family. We say it and show it. Hugs, kisses and a, "buddy I love you" are commonplace.
I realize that when they are almost 8 and 5 that loving them is easy. Tweens and teens are tough - I see my possible future five days a week. Those sweet little cherubic faces can become sullen, sarcastic and withdrawn. Those little voices deepen and are not as ready to tell you how pretty you are or that, "you are such a good cook that your food should be in a restaurant!" I'm prepared for that transition (I think) but hopefully the metamorphosis is slow because frankly, this love affair I'm having is simply...amazing.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Moving on...
The house is on the market. The house that I brought both my babies home from the hospital to. Where they took their first steps, blew out their first candles and learned to ride their bikes. There have been so many firsts in this house and as a family we have grown both quantitatively and qualitatively; now it is time to move on. For people (strangers) to come into our home and both criticize and praise it is draining. Paired with the showings of course is the cleaning. All I do is clean these days. Oh. And work and go to school and try to be a good parent. A friend told me that when you put your house on the market it's like 50 first dates. Will they or won't they? Will they come back? Did they like me (it)? Only time and the market will tell - will we be moving on or maintain the status quo? Stay tuned.
http://www.portlandtoprealestate.com/Portland_OR_listings/34BF4231-D0A2-9275-1E0BBE1475D4C956.shtml
http://www.portlandtoprealestate.com/Portland_OR_listings/34BF4231-D0A2-9275-1E0BBE1475D4C956.shtml
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Holly-daze
Fa la la la la... I just couldn't get into the holidays this year for some reason. Oh, I know what it was, I'm too busy. I almost titled this post, "Portrait of a Working Mother in 2009" but then felt guilty not having something about Thanksgiving, Christmas, et al in the post name. Feeling guilty about sums it up though these days. Between teaching 32 hours/week (including a new plan which requires hours and hours of prep work), I am back in graduate school finishing my M.Ed. It's wrestling season so Bo has practice 3X/week from 6-7:15 and Robert is Mr. Wells Fargo which means long hours and crazy commuting. I'm really tired. It's all that I can do most nights to throw takeout in the microwave and turn Cartoon Network on for the boy so I can pay bills, do laundry or pour myself a huge glass of wine.
Gram and Papa came up for Thanksgiving which was super fun. Gram made gingerbread houses with the boys and all of us went out to eat a lot which made me happy. Oh, and Robert got the H1N1 that week. The following week a frozen pipe burst in the attic which landed us in a hotel for a few nights. Admittedly, I loved that portion of the inconvenience.
Christmas time this year brought snow, ice skating, more legos than necessary and a trip to Christmas Mass which has not happened since before we had kids. Honestly, I'm surprised that the church didn't open up and suck us right into the bowels of hell. Upon leaving Robert said to me, "I would rather run on the treadmill for 60 minutes every Sunday that do that again." Nice.
We're heading into the New Year - 2010 and while life is really good it's only going to get crazier. We are listing our house come spring and moving upward on onward. Where? We don't know- just bigger and closer to...anything.
Goodbye 2009 with your manic schedule and many blessings. Enjoy this video of me taking the boys ice skating which was just before I took them out to lunch and shopping due to overcompensating a la working mommy.
Gram and Papa came up for Thanksgiving which was super fun. Gram made gingerbread houses with the boys and all of us went out to eat a lot which made me happy. Oh, and Robert got the H1N1 that week. The following week a frozen pipe burst in the attic which landed us in a hotel for a few nights. Admittedly, I loved that portion of the inconvenience.
Christmas time this year brought snow, ice skating, more legos than necessary and a trip to Christmas Mass which has not happened since before we had kids. Honestly, I'm surprised that the church didn't open up and suck us right into the bowels of hell. Upon leaving Robert said to me, "I would rather run on the treadmill for 60 minutes every Sunday that do that again." Nice.
We're heading into the New Year - 2010 and while life is really good it's only going to get crazier. We are listing our house come spring and moving upward on onward. Where? We don't know- just bigger and closer to...anything.
Goodbye 2009 with your manic schedule and many blessings. Enjoy this video of me taking the boys ice skating which was just before I took them out to lunch and shopping due to overcompensating a la working mommy.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Roc(k)tober!
Busy month at Casa de Munly.
Robert is ending his first quarter at a new position for Wells Fargo Investments SO PROUD OF HIM! I'm starting my 3rd out of 6th course for my M.Ed. and I have no idea honestly how I am juggling teaching, school, being a mom, friend, wife, etc. I think that I'm slacking on the personal side of things :( Bo was student of the week earlier this month and met his 2nd grade math and reading benchmarks...in October. His teacher is really amazing. Mrs. Krueger - she's giving him "extra" math and Bo calls it. Division, percentages and the like. Jake is rocking pre-K. He can write his name and I find it EVERYWHERE. Important documents, his WALL...little stinker. He's also somehow inherited the math gene (from whom?) and is breezing through double digit addition problems.
Pumpkins, Duck Football, and drinking dark beer. October.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Waitress
“Holly, you’ve got a 38-top on table 1 and their lives are depending on you!”
I stand before the room, slugging down coffee that is homebrewed and lukewarm. I have a quiet kind of calm overtake me, much like one feels before entering a war zone or shark tank.
“I can handle this.” I reassure myself.
Before I turn the door handle, a fellow server slaps me on the back and says, “rough crowd in there. I’ve served some of them before. You’ve got your hands full.”
“Thanks a lot.” I say sheepishly well knowing what I’m in for. I’ve got 38 customers for the next 90 minutes and two of them have to sit on the heating and cooling unit because there isn’t enough room for them to sit elsewhere. Out of those customers, four are on IEPs, two have a 504 plan, two have epi pens in which I had to undergo training, and five have been deemed, “gifted and talented”. I am to differentiate and plan accordingly for these thirteen customers while at the same time not forget about the twenty-five who just want to order the daily special.
What we serve up is pretty special. It’s education. After twelve years working with these customers (teenagers) I can honestly say that there is no other place that I would rather clock in or out of each day, September- June. What makes this year so special though is the fact that due to state and federal budget cuts, class sizes are up and resources are down. Our once luxurious classes of 25, some with aides, an IT person in the building, surplus of administrative backing, not to mention the abundance of department money is poof, gone, much like the morale of many of my co-workers. It’s disconcerting to watch great teachers leave the country to teach where they can have abundant resources, or just give up all together and join the private sector.
We are like waiters and waitresses with too many plates on each arm. Don’t look down! Don’t misstep! Look ahead! Be careful! Don’t drop the plates! Smile! The kids, their parents, the administration, the district, the state, the county, the world…is watching.
I know that I personally wake up most nights in a cold sweat, anxiety ridden about how I can best serve “my” kids. Because really, they are not customers, they are someone’s daughter or son and somewhere in the year, they become my kids as well. I, like many of my fellow teacher colleagues, will not surrender to the act of simply surviving and continue to inspire and serve up the best the educational kitchen has to offer.
The collective desire to better these kids transcends all other obstacles and those of us who have remained refuse to drop a plate. We look ahead, we smile, and we don’t misstep. After all, our orders are up and their lives are depending on us.
I stand before the room, slugging down coffee that is homebrewed and lukewarm. I have a quiet kind of calm overtake me, much like one feels before entering a war zone or shark tank.
“I can handle this.” I reassure myself.
Before I turn the door handle, a fellow server slaps me on the back and says, “rough crowd in there. I’ve served some of them before. You’ve got your hands full.”
“Thanks a lot.” I say sheepishly well knowing what I’m in for. I’ve got 38 customers for the next 90 minutes and two of them have to sit on the heating and cooling unit because there isn’t enough room for them to sit elsewhere. Out of those customers, four are on IEPs, two have a 504 plan, two have epi pens in which I had to undergo training, and five have been deemed, “gifted and talented”. I am to differentiate and plan accordingly for these thirteen customers while at the same time not forget about the twenty-five who just want to order the daily special.
What we serve up is pretty special. It’s education. After twelve years working with these customers (teenagers) I can honestly say that there is no other place that I would rather clock in or out of each day, September- June. What makes this year so special though is the fact that due to state and federal budget cuts, class sizes are up and resources are down. Our once luxurious classes of 25, some with aides, an IT person in the building, surplus of administrative backing, not to mention the abundance of department money is poof, gone, much like the morale of many of my co-workers. It’s disconcerting to watch great teachers leave the country to teach where they can have abundant resources, or just give up all together and join the private sector.
We are like waiters and waitresses with too many plates on each arm. Don’t look down! Don’t misstep! Look ahead! Be careful! Don’t drop the plates! Smile! The kids, their parents, the administration, the district, the state, the county, the world…is watching.
I know that I personally wake up most nights in a cold sweat, anxiety ridden about how I can best serve “my” kids. Because really, they are not customers, they are someone’s daughter or son and somewhere in the year, they become my kids as well. I, like many of my fellow teacher colleagues, will not surrender to the act of simply surviving and continue to inspire and serve up the best the educational kitchen has to offer.
The collective desire to better these kids transcends all other obstacles and those of us who have remained refuse to drop a plate. We look ahead, we smile, and we don’t misstep. After all, our orders are up and their lives are depending on us.
School Daze
Dazed and confused is more like it. Didn't I just bring Bo home from the hospital? All wrapped up tight in a burrito swaddle, safe. Wasn't I just announcing my pregnancy with Jacob? Me nauseous, him growing inside of me, safe. Sending your child off into the world of public education is both thrilling and scary as hell. As a public educator, I am a strong proponent of public schools for reasons that may or may not be obvious. Yes, the price is right but what they can learn from kids of other creeds, races, religions is priceless. We're pretty open minded and accepting and we want our own boys to form their own beliefs in due time.
Bo entered 2nd grade this year and in the wise words of a good friend, "he's like, a REAL kid now!" Yep. It would be much easier to keep him swaddled in my protective cocoon his entire life, both he and his Pre-K attending brother, but I know that slowly but surely they will be inched out of the nest. So off they went and not a tear was shed - just smiles and enthusiastic waves all around. And me, at the bus stop, dazed.
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