Mom! Dude!

ha Aaaahhh, I love, love, love Halloween! Always have....usually, we went to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios, have for years. But this year, with a new baby, I decided to make my own Halloween Horror Nights....by having a Haunted Halloween party! Oh, it was so much fun...I love decorating for Halloween....I love to bake and make all kinds of creepy foods for Halloween, I love to dress up! I’m really just a big, dumb kid at heart and love, love, love Halloween! And I confess, I go ALL out for Halloween. Who wants to just call your family and friends with the invite, when you can buy specially bought Halloween stationary to make your own invitations? And who wants to type it up in regular Times Roman font when you can use CHILLER? (Sorry, the blog format doesn't have that font for me to use here). And who wants to serve up spinach dip as just plain old spinach dip, when you can call it “Hair of Witch”? And why set out a big bowl of pasta, and just call it pasta, when you...

I looked ahead to the day like one would look ahead to an appointment with a firing squad. Actually, I ended up being spared a day, because I was called for jury duty on Monday. And I ended up getting excused from jury duty because of having a newborn. So my actual first day back at work wasn't until a Tuesday. I got up that morning at about 5:00 AM. I was determined that if I was not going to be able to be at home during the day with my new baby, I would for certain make it impossible for him or his father to not feel my presence and my love for them. So when I got up that morning, I cleaned the house, I washed bottles, I did laundry, laid out clothes for the baby, fixed breakfast and lunch and set out and arranged every single, solitary item that they would need throughout the day. I tried to anticipate and prepare for every single thing they would need, every move they would make, every meal, every nap, every activity, every hour, every minute, every second of their day. ...

If you ever, while living in Florida, during the heat of mid to late summer: 1) Have a 6-month-old living at home; 2) Have a teenager living at home; 3) Take in Hurricane Dennis refugees (even if it is your stepson, daughter-in-law and grandson); 4) Start to suffer peri menopausal hot flashes; and then 5) Agree to take in two other teenagers for the summer, RUN, don’t walk, but RUN to your nearest shrink, because that’s a sure sign you’ve completely lost your mind. I got a call from my oldest and dearest friend from grade school, D, who was going through her own personal family crisis. She and her hubby were divorcing, and she was traveling quite a bit for her job, and asked if I could take her 15-year-old daughter for the summer. I’m a sucker for kids, especially kids in crises, so I said yes. Little did I know the adventures and mayhem that lay ahead of me that summer. Little did I know I was edging into “The Change!” So Chirpy (as we came to call her, because she talks nonstop, like...

So as Spring of 2005 moved forward, we began to settle into life as a family of four: my husband (the stay-at-home dad), my husband’s granddaughter whom we had informally adopted (Adrian), our newborn son (Alex) and me, the working mom. We proceeded through Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day with tons of pictures to show for it. March 20, 2005, the first of Angel’s birthdays without her. I bought a heart-shaped plaque inscribed with a memorial poem, her name and her dates of birth and death engraved on it, and gave it to hubby on her birthday. We hung it on a tree outside, since Angel loved the outdoors and all living things, right where we could see it at all times and be reminded of her. We also began a tradition on that day that continues even now. We lit a candle in her honor and spent an hour, beginning at 7PM, with our thoughts and hopes and prayers focused solely on her. We talked, we laughed, we cried...we let go with all our memories of Angelia. She came back to us for a bl...

It’s a weird phenomena, becoming a parent. It’s full of warmth and love and wonder and surprises...you realize how strong you are, how capable you are, how much you can love another human being, and, sadly, how truly, deeply stupid you can be. Welcome to the world of baby brain! I’m an intelligent, educated, well-read woman. I have a good job, and am a literate, organized, competent individual....or, I was until my baby came along. It’s got to be baby brain, right? For example, I know where the dish washing soap goes. I do. It goes in my house where it goes in most people’s houses....at the kitchen sink. NOT in the freezer where I somehow managed to put it. Another example: for Easter, I wanted to bake my traditional carrot cake. I love baking, I looked forward to it all week, getting my hands in a mixing bowl to bake my family my famous carrot cake. I got out the box, turned on the oven, hunted down all my ingredients....and forget to do anything else the rest of the day. ...

New York City! I had wanted to take a vacay to New York City since, well, like forever. Usually, time, distance and money prohibited DH and I from taking on a Big Apple Adventure. However, in the Fall of 2004, Adrian was offered an opportunity to be part of a marketing team for Fashion Week in New York City, so we jumped at the chance to go and be her chaperones. After a lot of confusion on her school's part as to when, exactly, Fashion Week was being held (kind of an important thing to know, doncha think?) and us, based on that mis-information, booking our flights and hotel reservations FOR THE WRONG WEEK, we finally arrived in the Big Apple on the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day, 2004. We flew into LaGuardia and faced a cold, rainy Thanksgiving Day....missed seeing the Macy's parade by a long shot. We booked our hotel, again, based on her school's recommendation, at a hotel that, in this blog, shall remain nameless. Let's just say it was NOT a chain hotel, an...