Back on the air

It has been FOREVER since I posted, I know. But for anyone actually reading this (all four of you), I'll bet you understand. It has been a hell of a few months. When is it not, right? But holy crap it's been crazy here. When it rains it pours. I've been having deluges for a while.


Darin took a little unscheduled trip to California, leaving the day after Father's Day. While he was out there we put the house up for sale, thinking it would take at least until next Spring to go. HA! Eight days later we had a signed contract for our exact requested selling price. Cue the scramble to find a new place to live.


Finally we are all moved in to our new tiny duplex in Springfield. I have the best commute there ever was. My daily routine has been concentrated into about a two mile square area encompassing this rental unit and Cox hospital. Yay simplicity.

The move feels like a fresh start. I'm excited about it. The future is not set in stone quite yet but I do know that there are non negotiable changes afoot. It is one of those times that things get better, because they absolutely had to change.


Enough of all that. Who comes here to read my ramblings. What about Mia and Quinn?

Kid updates: Quinn is trying hard to talk. His favorite word today: "uppee dah" (puppy dog)

Mia just moved up to the "Fireflies" room at preschool - one more step on the ladder to kindergarten.

Happy Birthday Baby

Today we had a party for Quinn's First Birthday. He dug right into that cupcake with no hint of hestiation.

Some pics!

And in Honor of Father's Day

FLAT OUT - LOOK AT THESE BEAUTIES!

I can't resist it - just had to post a few pictures. Lots of transition going on right now, and there will be more time to write big thoughts once things settle down. But I will say, the kids keep it worth it.

Quinn is just a few weeks away from ONE year old. Sweet little baby boy! Where did our first year go? You are a big ray of sunshine in a small little package. The powers that be must know who needs some supernatural joy in their life because you exude it.

When you were about 3 days old, I was holding you watching you sleep. Out of nowhere your face curled up, mouth opened, and you let out a huge belly laugh. Never woke up, just yukking it up with your subconsious. I think you were born a jolly soul.

How sappy am I, this last few weeks of your first year? You and my best girl Mia are my life and I love you with every last part of me. I've never felt anything like it. It takes my breath away.

Walking Skills, Car Crash, and Epiphany.

Quinn is officially a walking boy. He is so proud and so cute. If I hold his little hand and we go for a walk together through the house you would think I just hung the moon, the look on his face.

Fun!

Saturday morning I crashed my car into someone else. Completely my fault. My mind was a million miles away and I blew through a red light. Both kids in the car. What a wake up call. Everyone is okay, thank GOD.

It was the universe calling. Time to stop sleepwalking through life. Time to seize the moment and make some changes. My babies count on me not to be asleep at the wheel.

Stay tuned!

Quotes and pictures

I am choosing motivational mottos at Sparkpeople.com, my bestest website ever. Some I'm considering:
"Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?"
"Some say motivation doesn't last. Neither does bathing. That is why both are recommended daily."
Random kid pictures:

Fresh out of moral outrage here. Check back next month

Have been in a funk lately, as evidenced by my previous post. Nothing ground breaking. Just ugh. Lots a medium to little stuff rolled into one big ugh.

So I am ruminating before my databases the other morning when the office conversation (a rare event in itself) turns to the subject of a MSU professor who resigned this week upon his exposure as a registered sex offender. Turns out he was convincted twentysomething years ago of rape of a minor. RAPE OF A MINOR. He does not claim innocence, by the way. Just says he has put his life back together, walked the straight and narrow, paid his debt, etc etc.

Whether or not he keeps his academic job, I am deeply ambivalent about. Could not care less. There is a campus community there that needs to duke this one out amongst themselves. He is a sex offender; there are child care centers, a major private school, not to mention thousands of our state's young adults in the mix there.

One of my coworkers has many close university employee friends. All her comments on this case, which is all over our local news, center on how sad it is for this professor. "Award winning researcher and professor, forced to resign" is about a verbatim of the typical comment. Other coworker in 30's (there are only 3 of us) is all about condeming the reporter who first outed this guy to the public. Oh, he's getting depressed. I hope he can put his life back together. All because this guy who is such a joker outed him in the press. Both of these people just graduated from the MSU business school in the last few years.

Um. I am obnoxiously drawn to play the devil's advocate in matters great and petty. One of the reasons, I'm sure, I was such a JOY for my parents to hang out with when I was a righteously indignant teenager. In this case I found myself getting really irritated, not just inspired to poke at their opinions for sport.

The debate over this red lettering of sex offenders is a legitimate one. To me, the statistical reality of recidivism among these people is scientific proof that we need to be wary. Not paranoid, not stripping them of all civil rights, but wary. Felons forfeit certain rights.

Couple of crotchety thoughts to wrap this uP:

• if this guy thought there would be no politics involved in his teaching at a public university as a registered rapist of a minor, he is not as smart as he seems.
• would my coworkers be so outraged on behalf of some guy not so peerlike? Say, the black guy who sweeps the floor, never finished high school, raped a minor back in the day but now just wants to keep coming to school to sweep the floor; to have a chance to put his life back together? gimme a break.