For the first time since the pandemic began, the four of us braved dining inside a restaurant for Meggan's birthday. It felt great to be back "around" other people. The kids were clearly rusty at things like ordering, cloth napkins, free refills, etc. Luckily, they were able to get it all sorted out by the time dessert came.
When the chain pops off your kid's bike, you have two choices as a parent... fix it for them so you can be their hero.... or teach them how to fix it so they can be someone else's hero one day. I chose the second option. This falls in line with what I tell Amelia all the time (although I'm probably not supposed to say in 2021) - Learn the things that make you never NEED a "man". That way, you can only have them around when you WANT to.
Everett: I don't like reading. It's boring.
Also Everett: Let me show you all the books I've read recently and tell you one at a time what each one is about in an insane amount of detail even though we've already been in the bookstore for an hour.
Life has been crazy around here in both good and not so good ways. My sister visited with us all of last week - very good. Both dogs decided to have vet emergencies just in case I was looking for a fun way to spend $1,000 - not so good. Various family members received various vaccines - Good. I had one of those weeks at the office where you can't get actual work done because you're in 100 meetings to talk about why the work isn't done yet - not so good. It's on these weeks that I decide I am no longer going to post on here. I love it, but I just can't scratch the time out of my day to do it with any consistency. So, rather than let the readers dwindle away from boredom or apathy, I should just walk away. Then, Halloween rolls around and I get a picture of this adorable little guy and I know I'll want to look back on it in 5 years.... so, here I am...and I'll probably be here long after I'm the only one who still reads it...where else can I go to find the World's most handsome Mario??
Let's just say thanks to Lucy, I end up taking a lot of my work calls like i did today .... with my camera off....
what my coworkers would see if I turned on my camera....
This is what happened when I tried to take a piece of candy corn out of Olive's mouth. She chomped down with all her might and wouldn't let go. I know dogs get a little testy when they have food in their mouths. In fairness to me, I was only trying to save her ... not really from choking or health hazards... just from the taste of candy corn....
... who am I kidding? I love candy corn. Who do you think Olive stole it from in the first place?
As 2021 continues to be a giant ball of misfortune rolling down the hill, I had two people I love dearly going through surgery today. There's no need to discuss their private situations. The only thing that's important is both surgeries went well and they can both start their journeys to recovery. For that, and the continued health of my household, I am so very thankful. I'm also hopeful 2021 has turned a corner to a better place. As such, rather than focus on any of the lumps from this year, let's just smile at this picture of two pups melting into the floor...
There are a few things I don't like about working from home. Honestly, it can be a little lonely. That's why I decided to let Lucy shadow me during the workday like a Bring Your Kid to Work celebration. As you can see from this picture, she was a welcome addition to the company and provided a massive increase to productivity...
For reasons beyond my knowledge, this handsome quarterback (who has never played football once in his life) showed up on his teacher's Instagram page. With this level of intimidation factor, I assume the NFL will start calling any day now...
Given my last post, it is probably not surprising that today being my mom's birthday hit me a little harder than it probably should have. She would have been 78 today. If there is one blessing of her passing, I would say it is that she didn't have to endure through this pandemic. She didn't have to wear masks, figure out a stance on the vaccine, or most importantly watch 3 bright leaves on our family tree pass away. There aren't many days where I don't think of her at least once, usually cracking up over something she said or did. That said, today was a day where she constantly occupied my mind. Perhaps it's because I'm still processing Brian's passing. Maybe it's because it's been 5 years since she left us. It might even be because I'm missing all my family members so badly thanks to COVID. Whatever the reason I was slightly more down today was more than offset when my wonderful wife came home with a surprise. She brought home a box or purple cupcakes (my mom's favorite color) so we could celebrate her birthday with the kids and keep their "mawmaw"'s memory alive in their hearts. It was the perfect touch to end an imperfect day. So, while I'm terribly sad to be missing the woman who raised me, I'm so very thankful for the woman who puts up with me.
I've been gone from here for over a week. The truth is, my mind and my heart have been elsewhere. For the third time in a few months, a close relative of mine has been in the hospital battling COVID. For the third time in a few months, COVID has won the battle. At 6:30 yesterday, my cousin Brian, who has been like the 5th sibling in my family as long as I can remember, was freed from the suffering he's endured the last month. As my concern shifts from from Brian to his mom (whom I've always considered my second mom) and to my sister (who was as close to Brian as she is to me), I take comfort in the quote by Thomas Campbell "To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die." Brian's body may have passed on, but he will live vibrantly in our hearts forever.
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While they may look happy, this is actually the look of two pups worn out from the 3-step torture process I had the audacity to put them through....
step 1 - horrific half-mile car ride to salon (driving slowly, no traffic, me petting them to calm them down)
step 2 - terrifying bath and grooming (same place they've gone 100 times)
step 3 - nightmarish car ride home (again gentle, slow, unlimited free petting included)
Luckily for them, we followed it all up with a nice, long nap.
I found this picture on my phone tonight. It appears to be a character Everett has modeled after himself ... On one hand, I'm happy he set his personality to "cool warrior". On the other hand, he could have typed anything he wanted for his war cry....and he came up with "Eat my diapers"...sooooo.....
With Meggan at work and Amelia at a friend's house, I got to spend some solo time with this guy today .... or as he said, we got the be "lunch bros"... and we did a great job of it...
Is there a better way to celebrate the end of a long week than pizza, sodas, fresh air, and golf balls? We couldn't think of one either...
If you just came home from a week-long beach vacation, what is one thing you could do to put an abrupt halt on all fun, relaxation, and joy .... did you guess 6 hours of meetings via video conferencing? If so, you'd have described my day and been close. That said, my day was great compared to the way Everett celebrated coming home ..... by getting two teeth pulled. To his credit, he handled it like a champion. To my credit, I only fell asleep during 2 of the meetings.
We were lucky enough to spend the last few days down at the grandparents' house. This trip was even more special than usual as we were able to see family members we hadn't seen in a year and a half. We were able to catch up, laugh, play games, and light off the worst batch of fireworks the world has ever known. While we weren't complete since a few loved ones, including the newest additions to the family, were out of town, things felt like they were getting back to normal for the first time in a long time. We were even able to recreate a photo from years ago to see how much everyone has grown. Next time, hopefully we can have the whole crew...
Everett enjoyed his first time eating in a restaurant in over a year. He and I didn't set out to break his streak. That said, tt was nice to sit inside with literally zero other patrons and watch the people "being safe" in the packed outdoor dining rub shoulder to shoulder with strangers....I was able to teach Everett a few things like "you can't touch the table or booth with your hands if you're busy double-fisting french fries" and "before you pay to go to the exclusive VIP section of the bar, make sure there aren't more "VIPs" in there than there are normal folks in the rest of the place".
Yesterday was my 13th Father's Day. I'm pretty sure they're getting better each year. The kids are old enough to make the day special for me. I got to sleep in until breakfast was on the table. I got to open great gifts. The kids gave me a back massage while I watched basketball. We had a ping pong tournament. We watched a movie together. We grilled out. The kids and I crushed our own pints of Haagen-Dazs. A special thanks to my wonderful wife who was there every step of the way (except the ice cream, which was a huge mistake by her). Lastly, I'd be remiss to leave out these two....who continue to prove Father's Day isn't just about the humans...
In trying to figure out who destroyed our orange tennis ball, I came across this subject who denied any knowledge of the situation. She said she'd never seen the ball and explained she may have a bit of orange on her face from some Cheetos she had earlier in the day. She's cute, but I'm not sure I believe her. I mean, can you really trust a dog who walks around with her right ear turned inside out?? I didn't think so either.
The kids have now been gone for one week. The house is clean. The house is quiet. There has not been one cartoon, youtube video, or video game on the TV. There hasn't been one thought about posting on this blog. I haven't heard that anyone was hungry or bored. .... it's been a pretty great week....you know, aside from missing my hilarious, snuggly, favorite people on the planet.
Tomorrow, we embark on our first road trip in a long, long time. Now that everyone is vaccinated, we're headed down to Grandma and Grandpa's to see other humans. The kids are beyond excited to get to the land of no rules. Meggan is beyond excited to see her parents. And I'm beyond excited to see if I still remember how to drive on roads outside of a 4 mile radius of my house. Wish us luck.
Olive doesn't always care to have Lucy around ... but, she has decided she makes a good pillow.
In case you're wondering if studying for final exams is starting to make Amelia go a little bit crazy....I caught her going full Lady and the Tramp sharing a french fry with Olive today...
After a year of taking out food or cooking at home, Meggan and I finally ventured out to a restaurant. Yes, we're vaccinated. Yes, we ate outside. Yes, we wore masks. Yes, we still sorta felt weird and uncomfortable.
If you ever wanted to know what it's like to live with Everett, imagine yourself about to enjoy a relaxed dinner and when you look over, this is what you see...
No warning, no words, no reason....
When I took this photo a decade or so ago, I thought it was just funny timing and a bad flash. Now, I see it was actually just Amelia's spicy near-teenager demon trying to escape...
On weeks like this, which was a rough one, I'd do a lot of things to trade places with Lucy....her biggest challenge is figuring out who she's going to snuggle...
Luckily, on nights where Meggan and I are busy, Ev has found an alternative reading partner ...
Amelia's orchestra finally got to perform their annual concert. It was outside and performed in front of a capacity crowd of masked, very socially-distanced parents. Luckily, we were able to reserve front row seats so we could really see the action. I carefully went through our photos to figure out which shot paid the most justice to our view, which not coincidentally was also the one that highlighted Amelia the most...
...if you look closely behind the boy in front, you can sort of see her hand on her cello neck...
I am fortunately getting my 2nd COVID vaccine shot tomorrow. While I'm not afraid of needles, arm pain, slight flu symptoms, etc., I am deathly afraid of the unknown. What if I have a reaction??? What if I feel awful for days afterwards??? What if I'm the first person whose arm rots off after the shot???? In seeking to calm any worries I have, I sought the advice of the least stressed person I know .... my man, Everett.
Me: "Hey bud, you gonna take care of me after I get my shot tomorrow?"
Ev: "If you need me to, but I think you'll be fine."
Me: "Yeah, I'll be fine. I'll probably just feel tired."
Ev: "You just get your shot, lay down on the couch, turn on a violent movie like Indiana Jones, call it an early night, hit the hay, snooze, and when you wake up, you'll be all good and ready to go on a date."
Me: "Good plan, bud."
Ev: "That's what I would do."
So, as you can see, my relaxation guru has it all figured out. Sure, he doesn't understand the vaccine takes a few weeks and that I my goal isn't necessarily to be ready to go on a date....but, no need to get caught up in the details.
As I've said on here, I've been working quite a bit recently. While I am grateful to still be working from home, I do miss the hum of coworkers buzzing around. Something about that energy just makes me a little more productive than my current white noise makers ..... adorable snoring pups....
In case you're wondering if my work/life balance has come back a bit since my post last week .... I worked until 5am the night after I posted about how busy I had been and I am posting this at almost 1am.... so, I don't think I'm quite back in balance yet. Even these two have started having our daily work-from-home meetings without me...
Tonight will be the first night since last Thursday that I haven't worked until Midnight. I'm calling it at 11pm tonight so I have time to rest, relax, and make a blog post.
One person in our family was clearly more excited than some others about doing an Easter egg hunt this year. Guess which one it was....
Was it this one slowly walking/standing around waiting for it to end because it's hot outside....
If you guessed Everett, you'd be correct. Then again, it wasn't that hard to guess since a) he's a lot younger and b) he's always been pumped to do an Easter egg hunt......even when he mistakenly finds the dog's ball....
Did you know if you push the power button on your IPhone 5 times it will bring up the option to call 911?
Did you know if you put your IPhone in your bookbag and walk around, that button might actually get pressed 5 times?
Did you know your cell provider has family plans that send you a text that says "Your child has dialed 911" in order to 1) alert you to this situation and 2) make you poop your pants?
Did you know if you get a text like that you have to immediately find your child to make sure everything is okay?
Did you know if your child has their cell phone in their bookbag, they won't know it's ringing?
Did you know once you show up at your child's lunch to find them and make sure they're fine, your next step is to quickly contact everyone you need to in order to make sure the S.W.A.T. team doesn't storm the school?
Yeah, Meggan didn't know that before yesterday either.
One of the very, very, very few bright spots of COVID has been the extra time I've been able to spend with Amelia. After the Christmas holiday, we had to elect whether or not she would learn in person or remotely for the next 10+ weeks. While that was much longer than we were wanting to commit to remote learning, we ultimately made the decision to allow her to do it. It was a decision I will never regret. Thanks to my work still being "work from home", Amelia and I got to spend 24 hours per day, 7 days per week together for over 10 weeks. I'm sure that sounds like a bit much to some people (and likely to her), but I'd happily do it for another 100 weeks. It was not lost on me that very few people get to spend that kind of time with their daughters. Work gets in the way. School gets in the way. Summer camps get in the way. For us, there was nothing to get in the way. We instituted "McDonald's Mondays" (I apologize in advance to my Dr.), watched entire television series (Including M*A*S*H), went on walks around the neighborhood (don't tell the pups), and anything else we wanted. She never missed a class. I never missed a meeting. Her homework was always done on time. I worked late at night to make up any ground I had lost. I'm aware this time was probably more special for me than it was for her...at 12. But, when she's 42 and has a middle schooler racing to adulthood, I hope she looks back and smiles at the goofy things I did, the sweet things she did, and how much we truly enjoyed each other's company the time we spent 80 days not going anywhere around the world.
Thanks to rainy weather and the grass being freshly mowed, the girls decided to let their paws celebrate St. Patrick's Day ...
I want to take a second to brag on Meggan and myself. Today, as we were driving into the neighborhood, we saw a beautiful dog walking around unattended in a landscaped island in one of our cul-de-sacs. It was cold and raining and we had fresh tacos in the car. To say we didn't want to stop would be an understatement. But, our love of dogs and the fact that we couldn't leave this poor girl out in the wet weather forced our hand. Luckily, she was the sweetest dog in the world. She came to us when we called and even jumped into our car when we opened the door. I didn't feel great about her big, wet paws on my seats, but once she licked me, I forgot all about it. Meggan and I posted her picture on the neighborhood Facebook page and asked a few neighbors if they knew who she belonged to. Since we were pretty sure Olive would not take kindly to us bringing another dog home (she's still mad about Lucy), we drove her around the neighborhood, petting her, and reassuring her that it would be okay. Finally, we decided to drive back to the cul-de-sac where we found her and start knocking on doors in hopes that someone would know her. Despite not having a collar, she was clearly someone's very well loved pet. As I was trying to figure out what kind of parade float I wanted to ride on when the honored our heroics, a man came outside and it was clear she was his girl. We got out and opened the door to make way for their joyful reunion and ours heaps of praise. However, as it turns out, you apparently don't get that much affection and adoration when someone lets their dog out to quickly do its business and you pull up and kidnap it like a cartel soldier looking for ransom money. So, we didn't actually save the day and we probably won't get a parade .... but, at least maybe we taught that sweet dog a lesson about hopping into cars with crazy strangers.
For a dog that eats bugs, poop, and basically anything she gets near her mouth, I find it amazing that she picks through her dog food and spits all the pieces she doesn't like out onto the floor.... I mean, how bad do those pieces taste?!?
With the weather turning perfect, we get the pleasure of eating our lunches outside these days. Luckily for Lucy, she even found a curbside pickup window for Cheetos...
With Meggan having meetings 3 nights this week and me working until nearly midnight 3 nights this week, I didn't even come to the blog to post tonight...I just came to remind myself what my family looks like.
When you have one job and it is to get balloons for your daughter's birthday, you do your best to not screw it up. Apparently my best was to spend $24 on balloons just to hear one begin leaking on the ride home...
While the '1' is trying to hold on.....I'm sure by morning, we'll be wishing her a happy 2nd birthday.
