Farm Deliveries

I don't think I've written about this yet, but halfway through the summer, I took on some tiny eeensy weeensy part-time work for the farm share we joined.  That's right, I'm officially gainfully employed again.  Weird!  (Right?)

It doesn't really feel like a real job, since it takes probably less than ten hours a week.  They set me up with an email address, and I answer questions from buyers and do some basic customer service stuff.  And once a week I deliver a carload of produce for the farm.  That's it.

So I spend most Wednesday mornings with my car looking something like this:

No, the kids are not buried under there, I can't believe you even thought that.*

I keep joking about how it's a good thing I spent all those hours in high school (of course not in class, mom and dad... ahem) playing Tetris on my calculator.  It means I'm kind of an expert at fitting as many boxes into my car as possible.  I secretly get a little pleased when I hit a new record (today! 40!) and regardless of the chaos indicated in the picture above, I'm usually very good at my craft.

Don't worry, the ones on their sides are the *empty* boxes! Don't you trust me at all?

Some weeks are a little hairier than others.  For instance, today I ran out of gas, killed** a squirrel, and also had some produce casualties when I thought that the car's hatchback door was closed properly and it wasn't.  But not every week is that exciting.  (Thank goodness.)

The farm's summer season ended today, but they'll do a fall season for buyers as well.  So after a couple of weeks off, I'll be back at it until Thanksgivingish.  And then, then, I promise to be completely unproductive on my Wednesday mornings alone.

*Although, in the interest of full disclosure on car/box safety, I did take this picture while driving.  But... at a red light!  That's not technically driving, right?

**Yes, the squirrel thing made me cry a little. 

Eleven Months: Almost 1!

Anneliese is eleven months old today.  This is the last time I get to count her age in months.  (Except in mommy circles.  Mommies can think in months when no one else can.  Mommies can also think in weeks -- up to forty, anyway -- when no one else can.  True story.)  I can't believe my little baby girl is almost one.  Wasn't she born like a few days ago or something?

A year ago this week, I was getting ready for a mommy-daughter baby shower, watching Mark assemble a tandem stroller (you know, for our two babies), taking a tour of the birthing unit where Beanie would be born (a trip which ended with me overwhelmed and sobbing in the hospital parking deck), and starting a little guess-the-birth-date contest (which thirty-eight of you participated in, and none of you guessed the right date). 

And now that baby we were getting ready for is almost one.

This month, Anneliese has:

- weaned herself down to one nursing a day, which broke my heart for a few minutes (or weeks, who's counting) until I realized she's still voraciously interested in that morning feeding, and is therefore definitely not done with the breastfeeding relationship... which means she'll still feel like a baby to me for at least a little while longer.

- taken two road trips (a day trip to the beach, and a weekend in Huntersville) and slept like a champ on both of them.

- finally gotten her top two teeth in (after getting the two bottom ones really early, before five months).

- perfected her backwards sit-scoot around the house -- as you can see, she's quite pleased with herself about it.

- had gleeful fun emptying the toy and clothing bins in her room, and the dvd rack in the living room.

- started saying boo when we play peek-a-boo with her, and started saying ball and hey more consistently.  Also, new yesterday!  She is emphatically (almost frantically) saying nay-nay-nay-nay when she sees Nathan.  So precious.  (Still not as awesome as mama, but it's a very cute second.)  Video forthcoming; stay tuned (try not to fall of the edge of your seats).

- gotten herself down to one nap a day (I might or might not have (brace yourself: euphemism alert) "encouraged" this, to get both kids on the same nap schedule... which has now finally happened, praise the Lord).

- eaten lots and lots of "grownup" meals, when I toss our leftover dinners (as well as any miscellaneous produce we have left in our farm share box) in the food processor to freeze in jars (Merritt's pizza casserole is one of her favorites) -- yes, it looks completely gross, but she eats it great, poops it great, and she's growing well... plus it saves me lots of money over store-bought baby food.

- gotten very good at picking up puffs and cheerios (and small chunks of canned pears) and feeding them to herself.

- put on over a pound of weight -- she's now just over 17 lbs (7th percentile) and 31 inches long (off-the-charts tall), and we're so thankful her weight is now going up instead of down.

- stayed the prettiest almost-one-year old I know, and made her family and friends smile every day.

We love you, Anneliese!  Happy eleven months, sweetie!

C-L-E-M-S-O-N!

The boys are in Clemson today.  Mark is taking Nathan to his first tiger football game (apparently we're very very excited about this).  They're meeting up with Mark's friend Jeff and two of his sons, and all going together -- something they've talked about doing since they were roommates in college. 

Two dads, three little boys ages four and under, and ninety thousand other people (not an exaggeration).  A recipe for... something.  Right?

For the first six months of our marriage, Mark was finishing his senior project, so we made our first home together in Clemson.  (I worked at a little sports shop and made important decisions like whether the t-shirts we carried should be orange with white tiger paws, or white with orange tiger paws.  Oh yeah, I hit the big time in my first post-college job.)  So I know firsthand how crazy Clemson is on game days.  While the chaos can be fun, I'm secretly glad for a couple of days at home with sweet Anneliese this weekend, away from all the orange nonsense.

Anyway, on game days, lots of parents would show up in the store with their kids in tow, all decked out in orange, dressed up like little football players and cheerleaders and tigers, chubby cheeks painted with paws.  They were cute.  But some of those kids could finish the fight song (watch this) and spell c-l-e-m-s-o-nnnn... before they could even spell their own names.  Little sweet brainwashed team-spirited toddlers.

Obviously, we made fun of those families.

And apparently now we're one of them:


(If you can't see the video embedded above, click here to watch it on youtube.)

Happy game day.  And, um... go Tigers.

Mama

It's not new, just new to video. And it's still the sweetest sound in the world.


(If you can't see the embedded video, click here to watch it on youtube.)

Tigers and Tar Heels: Divided Loyalties

Just this week, Nathan has finally mastered the art of putting on his own shorts.  (Mastered meaning: at least half the time they end up backwards or hanging off his booty. But we're still calling it a win.)  So getting-dressed time is much more fascinating for him now, and he cares so much more about choosing his own outfit than he used to.

This is what he came up with on Monday:

Why must he *cheese* so hard that his eyes close??  I mean really.

Half Clemson, half Carolina (the real Carolina, in case there's anyone out there still questioning this).

I'm sure Daddy was grumbling a bit about the heresy of those tar heel shorts mucking up the beauty of an all-orange ensemble.  But I can think of a few people (including a Grandpa, two aunts, two uncles and a handful of friends) who will be pretty pleased with his seemingly divided loyalties.

That tiger paw might be holding strong, but we do, after all, live in tar heel country. :)

Back to School!

Nathan had his first day back at preschool today.  He's now in the 3-year-old class, which means (at our church, anyway) he goes three mornings a week -- Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays -- for three hours.  I have yet to meet his teacher, since Mark did both the orientation last week and the first-day dropoff this morning. But apparently she's great and several of Nathan's friends are also in his class.  He came home today with lots and lots to tell me about which toys he played with, and which friends can jump really high, and which songs he sang in music.

Today was also Anneliese's first day in mother's morning out (mmo).  She'll go one day a week for four hours.  By all accounts, she also did great today -- her teachers said she ate well, and took a nap, and I might have gotten a little stalker-mommy-ish and asked Another Nathan to sneak out of his office and walk by her room to make sure she wasn't crying (she was playing contendedly on the floor, sitting upright like a big girl).  Apparently being dropped off at church for a couple hours is old hat for her, and she took it in stride.

Let me tell you all the reasons our preschool arrangement for this year is awesome:

First -- Since Anneliese is done an hour after Nathan, I get to have a weekly lunch date with him before we come back and pick her up.  I'm embarassingly excited at this tradition to-be. 

Second -- I also get two whole mornings a week with just Anneliese, on the days when Nathan is in school and she isn't.  And I'm thrilled about that too, since there's obviously not as much one-on-one time with a second baby as the first. 

Third -- on Wednesdays, both kids will be at the church, which means *I* will be blissfully alone. I am going to try very hard to use that time for something more fun than grocery shopping, I promise.

Happy back-to-school!  (It's the most wonderful time of the year and all that.)

Labor Days with Sarah

The second half of my holiday weekend was full of Sarah!  (You can't see it now, but even just typing that makes me smile.)  I love Sarah, I get Sarah, and Sarah gets me. 

We went out with two other Furman friends, Betsy and Katie, on Sunday night, and I honestly haven't laughed that hard in a really long time.  So fun.

Having Sarah around this Labor Day weekend was oddly reminiscent of another Labor Day weekend a few years ago...

Sarah and Nathan -- Labor Day 2007

Sarah and Anneliese -- Labor Day 2010

The Pictures I Didn't Take*

*Alternately titled: Another Nathan Goes to Huntersville!

The kids and I (and Another Nathan!) spent the first half of the holiday weekend at my dad's.  With two cameras in tow.  Both of which were very underused.  Here are the top ten pictures I should have taken this weekend but didn't.

10.) The airplane sailboat that tipped over in Lake Norman and caused even-worse-than-normal traffic jams in the whole area because it totally looked like an airplane.  Seriously, I thought it was an airplane.  Apparently everyone on the radio did too.

9.) Another Nathan changing his first poopy diaper while taking care of my kids so I could go to the orthodontist to get my retainer fixed (because apparently it's 1994 again) and then get my hair cut.  He came in town with me partly (2%) because he had a couple days off and was ready to get out of town himself, but mostly (98%) because he's ridiculously helpful and a great friend.  (Don't worry, he got back at me for the unscheduled poopy diaper by no small amount of mocking when he saw my painfully awkward middle school pictures.)

8.) The burp cloth my mom duct-taped to Anneliese as a makeshift diaper.  I'm pretty sure that bringing extra diapers is on the top ten list of obvious things moms should know.  Fail.  Good thing my mom is all kinds of redneck-handy.

7.) The logging truck masterpiece in crayon. Ok, technically I do have this picture -- not a photo, but the one that the Nathans drew together. If I could put my hands on it, I'd scan it in and post it, since it's quite impressive. Another Nathan's crayon skillz make Mark and me look like lazy coloring parents.  Slacker childcare provider, he is not. I'm pretty sure it's fridge-worthy, even coming from a grown-up.

6.) The red silky lady-scarf my mom's trainer Michael used as a sling for his newly-broken arm.  Apparently he fell while running.  Why is there always someone in my family who has just fallen and broken something?  No, really.  Why?

5.) Both Nathans playing the piano together.  More specifically, the look of sheer joy on my Nathan's face when they played.  Although as cute as it was, it sounded horrible. The two of them seemed happy with a cacophony that most certainly did not require a master's degree in organ performance (ahem).

4.) My dad's gorgeous new screened-in porch.  For which he is laying the tile himself.  (While recovering from broken ribs.)  Wearing impossibly dorky comfortable knee pads.  With a "helpful" toddler standing in the doorway letting forth an unending stream of What's that called, Grandpa?  What are you gonna do next, Grandpa?  What kind of glue is that, Grandpa?  Is that a really big rectangle, Grandpa?  But really.  His porch is awesome enough that it's making me consider going the screened-in route at whatever point our own deck gets a makeover.

Update 9/6 -- my dad texted me pics of his finished porch! So awesome.

3.) Ikea!!  More specifically, a picture of us inside Ikea (as opposed to just pics to show Mark later when we're ready to buy stuff for our new kitchen).  Or maybe a picture of Another Nathan opening one of the zillions of cabinets that said "look inside" -- instructions he apparently doesn't have the willpower to resist.  Or maybe a picture of our lunch in the Ikea cafeteria.  Or the pet bed he pretended was a magic flying carpet.  Any of those would have been good pictures to take.  Bummer.  (But can you tell I *heart* Ikea?)

2.) Another Nathan juggling both kids.  Picture this: Anneliese on one hip, while he balanced a half-dressed Nathan standing on the bumper under the hatchback while we wrestled him into clothing.  (A feat all the more impressive considering he was also up against my typical pre-meal moodiness.)  Seriously.  Rock star friend.

1.) The silliness that ensued in the car.  Yes, it was loud.  But it was happy noise.  Making each other giggle, holding hands, (kind of) sharing toys.  Do you think I'll ever get tired of how adorable they are together?

How Germany Defined Me

You know those moments, those decisions, those events in that really define you?  For me, there's a small handful of major ones.  Becoming a wife... sure.  Becoming a mom... of course.  My parents' divorce... most definitely.  But I think there's something that shaped me even more than any of those major life events.

Ten years ago today, I got on a plane and flew to Germany, to live in a little village called Witterschlick, on the outskirts of Bonn. 

It was for a study abroad semester, my sophomore year at Furman. And I would be so different today if I hadn't done it.  Yes, it's a total cliche to say this, but that trip totally changed me. 

It taught me confidence.  Hard to believe now, but a decade ago, the idea of going to a foreign country -- away from my family, my friends, my language -- terrified me.  I came very close to backing out of the trip, but after several long and tear-filled conversations with my Dad, I got brave and went through with it.  (I will always always be grateful to my Dad for that encouragement.  It stands out to me, especially in hindsight, as one of the best parenting moments in our history.)  And I did the scariest thing imaginable in that moment.  Which taught me that I could do it again if I needed to.  Suddenly I felt like I could do anything.

It taught me another language.  What I thought I learned in the year of German classes before I went abroad was kind of laughable once I arrived.  Immersion is what made me a comfortable speaker of German.  And being a non-native speaker in a foreign country forced me to listen carefully, talk less, and choose my words thoughtfully.  (It's a lesson I'm still learning.  Ahem.)

It taught me how big the world is.  And how much of it I want to see.  During my time in Bonn, I used pretty much every free weekend to take off and see some new European city.  (Thanks, mom and dad, for that Eurail pass... it might be the best money you ever spent on my "education.").  I even got brave enough to go on two trips alone (yep, the same girl who several months earlier was terrified to get on that plane) and loved it.  I didn't have much of a travel bug before I went to Germany, but now my inner yearning to roam the world and experience new places and people and drink in new cultures (like, take in, not get drunk in*) will have a huge influence on how our family spends our money, energy and time.

Ridin' the rails

It taught me how small the world is.  When you get right down to it, families everywhere are pretty much the same.  We all have people we love, kids we're proud of, and parts of our pasts we're ashamed of.  It's oh so easy to find the commonalities between cultures when you make a personal connection abroad.  And so much harder to regard other another country as an "enemy" when you have a friend living there.  (This truth really hit home for me on my second study abroad trip, when I lived in a house with people from 26 different countries!) 

It taught me how to be friends with all kinds of people. Unlike the lovely gals from my freshman hall (still some of my closest friends) who were all, um... very much like myself, the Furman delegation to Germany in the fall of 2000 was extremely varied, in personalities, talents, and backgrounds. Much more varied than I even knew Furman could be. Making friends with people who seemed so different from me was eye-opening, and permanently changing. Not only have some of those Germany friendships stood the test of time, when I did re-immerse back into the Furman bubble, I unhesitatingly made lots and lots of new and different kinds of friends... people who ended up redefining my college experience. Most notably, my college bff David -- a core-shaking friendship from someone who might have never even blipped on my radar if I hadn't learned the joy of getting to know different -- and interesting! -- people. I'd like to think I learned a little about how Jesus wants me to love, after that semester in Germany.

With Pamela and Hank, two of my favorite study abroad friends

It taught me how to be away from Mark.  We didn't go to college together, but we were still pretty darned close.  We both needed to learn independence.  Don't get me wrong, it was a painful lesson upon re-immersion... one that almost broke us.  But we're both so much happier having our own space, interests, and friends.  (Yes, there's an implied duh at the end of that statement.  But, it wasn't so obvious to us at the time.)

It taught me how to preserve memories.  I took a zillion pictures in that semester, and I scrapbooked along the way, even though everyone told me to wait til I got home and develop the film in the states for cheaper (yes, film... don't mock).  But I didn't listen, and I'm so glad.  The end result is a book of memories that captured things right as they were happening -- the jokes, the everyday living, the things that would have been forgotten if I had just tried to photolog the "highlights" later.  (This whole idea is totally why I write a blog.  Oh, the things about parenting that I would have forgotten had I not deemed them blog-worthy in the moment.  And I want to remember it all.)

With my host family -- Sept 2000

Most of all, it taught me how to love another family as my own. The Schroeters, my host family, should win some kind of award for bestest most awesomest super host family ever:

My host dad, Juergen, left breakfast for me every morning before he went to work. He taught me how to like beer (kind of) -- koelsch, it's the best and only kind worth drinking, don't you know? He nagged me to shut doors and turn off lights just like a real daughter. He did a great job pretending not to understand English (forcing me into German), and mastered the art of speaking German slower and louder to get it through my thick head (yeah, um, I still didn't understand). He always has a kind smile, and that's probably my favorite thing about him.

My host mom, Elisabeth, made us a pot of tea almost every afternoon, and we sat at the kitchen table with a big ol' dictionary between us, and stumbled through conversations in German (well, *I* stumbled).  She was patient with my questions, my language... and eventually my German got good enough that we could have real conversatons about real issues and she could give me wise advice.  She's a smart and capable career mom and I admire her so much. Also she makes a killer cream of mushroom soup. She's beautiful and wonderful and sometimes I get teared up just thinking about what a blessing and a gift she has been in my life.

My favorite pic of Elisabeth and me -- back-to-Bonn visit, Sept 2002

My host sister Claudia (who was 12 then) introduced me to Harry Potter, made me really love Britney Spears (she'd be ashamed of that now, but I'm so not), and taught me how to jump the safety rail when I got to the rail crossing too late to catch my train (dad, Juergen, don't read that). My host brother Jan (who was 15 then, and turns 25 today -- Happy Birthday Jan!) introduced me to German rap, gave me endless crap about my terrible grammar, tormented me on the phone when Mark called, and was a most helpful translating friend when I really needed to say something in English. Basically they were everything I needed in a little brother and little sister when I was missing my own.

I've been back to visit the Schroeters several times over the years, and we still keep in touch via email (as best we can, considering the ever-declining state of my German abilities).  Both of my parents have been to visit them.  Mark has been to visit them, three times!  They were awesome hosts to one of my college roomies who studied abroad (and lived with them too!) three years after I did.  And they were warm and welcoming to that aforementioned college bff David, who also later studied abroad in Bonn.  We even brought Mark's Clemson roomie and his wife to meet them, back in 2005.  And they came to visit us in North Carolina a few years ago -- we took them to Furman, stayed a while with my parents in Huntersville, and then I was so honored to host them in my house for a short while.  So clearly this is a family who is a Big Deal to me.

Schroeters -- 2007

Sometimes I wonder what I'd be like now if I had never been on this trip.  I certainly wouldn't have studied abroad again (in the Netherlands, my senior year) or tried to master a third language (Dutch... um, fail) or fourth (Russian... um, mega-fail).  I probably wouldn't have taken a travel-related job, and honed my sales and negotiation skills (something I didn't know I even had upon graduating college).  I probably wouldn't have jumped at opportunities to visit Africa and Asia.  I probably wouldn't vote the way I do.  I probably wouldn't be so brazen when it comes to approaching new friends. I probably wouldn't be consisering a language-immersion program for Nathan when he starts kindergarten in two years.  I probably wouldn't dream of showing my children new places and new idea and new people as a core part of their upbringing the way I do now.  The mind boggles.

So.  Defining moment.  Ten years ago.  And I remain completely and recklessly in love with the experience.

*Ok, maybe both.  :)

Mobile Baby?

She's the last of her friends to roll.  To sit up.  She still won't pull up or crawl or even scoot.  But can we count this as Anneliese finally being mobile?



(More importantly, does it count as mopping?)

I'm pretty sure I'm going with yes on both counts.

If you can't see the video embedded above, click here to watch on youtube.