Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!! Benjamin is celebrating today by wearing his penguin suit.

This morning Benjamin and I met a friend out for lunch at Cafe Twenty-Eight. Delish Fried Egg Sandwich and Garlic Tomato soup!! What a cute little restaurant. After late breakfast/ early lunch we headed next door to the Wild Rumpus bookstore. Benjamin didn't have as much patience as I did, but we had a great time looking at the animals (birds, 4 tail-less cats, a reptile, 2 chinchillas, rats, and ferretts) and all the beautiful books. Now we are off for a little Halloween party with our Mom and Baby friends. Can't wait to see all the babies that have grown up!

Hope you all have fun trick or treating tonight!

Vanishing Acts

I really have about ten other things I could be doing right now, but I have a few things on my mind to share.

Tonight I finished ready Jodi Picoult's book, Vanishing Acts. It is only my second Picoult novel (after reading the first one- the title escapes me - about the young couple murder/suicide story, I swore I would never read another one) and again, I am not sure if I will read another of her books. I can't quite explain it but they are so laden with grief, with foreboding, with unhappiness. I end up feeling emotionally drained after reading. I also think a lot about what pushes her to continually explore the gray area between right and wrong and do so with many of the same scenarios: children growing up together and turning into lovers, a search for identity, a jail stay by someone you would never expect, unhealthy romantic relationships... I could go on. Regardless, the book was entertaining but also not what I would probably chose to read again...At points it made me feel physically ill thinking of losing Benjamin.

Another rash of pregnancies. Spreading like wild-fire and I love it! Can't wait for more little kiddos to be a part of our life (not to mention our social scene). I also have to admit here that once you are pregnant it is totally easy to guess when someone else is pregnant, and it is hard to wait to get the official word. Most notable of the latest pregnancies are: a) my sister with her second, due in April. I am super excited that Benji will have another cousin and that Emma will have a sibling. b)a couple that husband I met about a year ago now through another couple that we know. I remember being at a Christmas party with them last year and having them both pepper us with questions about being pregnant and our plans for having a baby. Congratulations to them! My how time flies, now we have a six-month-old.

Speaking of the six-month-old, I keep thinking I should post some of my reflections on being a mother here, but duh! I have no time. I remind myself that I need to write them down, lest it is so easy to forget the thoughts that we have about the precious times in our lives. Needless to say, I am in awe that Benji is already almost six-months, they time has flown by. I am in awe of how much I love him. I am in awe of how much I love being a mother. I am in awe of how much I love being a family of three. I am in awe of how very different life looks from this vantage point.

Today, I stayed home with Benji. Normally husband and I work from home together on Wednesdays and tag team all day. I had comp time built up from some late nights where I didn't get to see him and Jff had some pressing out-of-the-house things to do for work today, so I was a stay-at-home-mom for the day today. It was great. Benji and I went for a walk around the lake and it rained the entire time. He slept in the BOB and stayed very dry and cozy in his fleece snow suit and I wore a combo soft-shell/hard shell coat and got soaked, but it was nice to be out. Although I love my job, I sincerely wish to work one less day a week so that I could have a four-day work week every week to do things like walk and spend time during the day with the boy, but for now it doesn't fit with the position I have. So, I will just have to hope that by the time we have our second, something will have shifted that will make it easier to go part-time in my position.

A group of us that took a mom and baby class together this summer are in the process of planning another gathering and I am excited to see all of Benji's little buds. I really like the moms and hope that we will all stay in touch in the long run so our kids will know each other.

Lastly, Benjamin's baptism this last weekend was great. I really enjoyed it and he did wonderfully. It was fun to have so much family there to celebrate with us. I am also glad it is over, it was just another thing in a long list of events this fall that have made the weekends crazy. Benji celebrated his baptism by cutting his first tooth!

Faultless Customer Service

Several months ago we bought a new can of starch. The next day as I was ironing, the starch fell off the ironing board and the plastic spray tip, the "actuator" broke upon impact. The can was still intact, but with out the plastic nozzle I couldn't spray the starch anymore. I was frustrated that it was a new, full can. I thought I was going to have to throw the whole can away, but I couldn't bring myself to create that much waste so I just put it in the closet.

The other day I found the nozzle-less bottle and realized that I could possibly contact the company for a new tip. I wondered if I should use some of my rare moments of free time on such a stupid task, but decided it was worth it, hoping I would get some sort of response.

In about three minutes I found the Faultless Starch/Bon Ami Company website. A second later I was using their customer comment email form to ask them for a new actuator tip. That was at 9 pm. The next morning BY THE TIME I GOT TO WORK, I had a response. The customer service representative emailed me back to ask about the condition of the can and if a new plastic piece alone would fix the problem. Upon confirmation, they sent out a new actuator for me.

Last Friday, a few days after emailing the company, I get a letter in the mail. In the envelope are four new actuator tips, five coupons for free cans of any variety of Faultless Spray Starch, and a very nice letter. The letter describes how to safely reattach the actuator tip, and what to do if I thought that the can was actually damaged:

"It would be helpful, should you have any product difficulty in the future, if you would return the questionable can so that our quality control laboratory may examine it. As we try and provide the best product possible; the data that we collect from returned cans allows us to continually improve our products and keep updated on the occurrences out in our distributors and retailers. You may send the product by domestic surface mail through the USPS as this is a ORM-D classified product and is safe for ground shipping; naturally we will reimburse you for the product and postage upon receiving the item."

After reading the letter, I was floored. I had not expected such accommodating service. Now that is customer service!!!! Through a simple letter, a few coupons, and fast service that company has solidified a customer for life- a lesson they could teach a few other companies lately.

Baseball's homerun

Maybe it's because we celebrated husband's birthday at the game this year, maybe it is because we had a game on while I was in labor with Benji (this is true, believe it or not), maybe it is because we got a new HD Television, or maybe it is because this summer watching the game in the evening while doing the bedtime routine became habit, but either way I have become a huge fan of our hometown baseball team.

I have always liked baseball. I remember watching the Cubs in the evenings at my grandparents house in the summer time. I remember my other grandma also being very knowledgeable about baseball. I played softball most of the way through my childhood. But this year it became something more. Recently I was able to quote a player's batting average accurately. I know names, positions, and many more rules than I ever have. Now when my dad and brother, Nate, start to talk sports with husband, I can contribute to the baseball portion with knowledgeable comments.

No matter how interested I have become, however, I have never done what I did tonight. I, wondering why the game was not on (and with Jff gone), went to MLB.com to find out.  I actually had to laugh while I was in the process at how proud husband would have been of me AND how far my baseball "phase" has progressed.

Do you speak cupcake?

 Fun article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/dining/23cake.html?_r=1&em

I love how something so simple as a cupcake crosses cultures but also melds with them.

Tidbits

It's been awhile... mostly because working and trying to be a mom to a 4 month old is a little like patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time: at first you do neither very well, and once you get the hang of it, you don't want to add anything else to the mix lest you lose the rhythm.

Here are some of the latest tidbits:

My long-time friend and buddy in all outdoor adventures just got his PhD AND is completing the Wisconsin Ironman on Sunday. The PhD was a long road that started the year I moved out of Wisconsin. Training for the Ironman started in earnest last year, although he had been competing in some tris for a while. Both are amazing accomplishments, but at the same time: A-MAZING. Maybe just working and being a mom at the same time isn't that hard.

Tomorrow I am running a retreat for 35 students from 9 am until 11 pm. I am excited to see all of my returning students (yay!) get to know the new students (fun!), and do really intentional work with them to make this year really great. I am also a bit nervous... I am hoping they all like each other (hmmm... how to make a group out of a bunch of very different people), I have a lot to cover and to facilitate, and oh yeah, I will have to find time to pump all day long. Luckily husband is bringing Benji up to visit during lunch, otherwise I wouldn't see him at all tomorrow (what a great husband to support me so much in my job!)

We were up at the cabin for Labor Day Weekend and had a great time with the family. It was great to have BOTH of my brothers there, especially A since we have seen him rarely this summer. He is at a bit of a crossroads in life and it was helpful to hear a little bit more about it from him. I think he is about to make a huge leap and move to Hawaii to see about a girl. It is a risk, but really when it comes down to it he needs a breath of fresh air, he needs to be on the road to find out, and he needs to make a break from the parents for a while (they have too many opinions that are shared too often). I am praying for him that he can make his own decision and ultimately finds happiness no matter what happens in the process.

I have been feeling really lonely lately. Working and moming leaves little time to see friends or to generally socialize. It is so darn isolating when the routine is the only thing you have time for!  Plus, our group of friends that we see has shrunk considerably since we are now with child and most of our friends are not. I was really afraid of this and it has come true, sadly. Many of the people we used to hang out with make little or no effort towards us, and even though it makes me sad, I am becoming more at peace with it. Instead I have been incredibly thankful for the friends who do continue to reach out and remind me that I am worth calling, even if my life is a wee bit different now. These friends are, of course, the ones that who have always been there through life's stages and changes. I think for a moment I thought that I had encountered a big enough change that it had shaken even my most ardent buds off, but to my great relief, it is not so. With all the crazy of returning to work I had forgotten, how many great people I have in my life. Thank you to the gals who have shown me so much love lately! Also some great new friends have emerged in the process of becoming a mama, and for that I am also thankful.

In two days ultimate frisbee, fall edition begins. Yippee! After years of playing every season, I was out from last November until now. I am thankful that I am going back for the best season- sunny fall weather, close to home, and my favorite team that has been around for quite a while now. Benji will be in good company on the sidelines with all the other kiddos and happily I will once again be out on the field once again running around! Can't wait.

Thanking my lucky stars for the 185th time

Today I caught myself doing something that I do often at work lately. I had been having lunch with a professor who I did some of my graduate work with, but who is a colleague of mine now (we both run civic engagement programs at the college- his has to do with public policy, mine with community engagement and service). We spent two hours talking about things we had been reading lately, we referred back to some of the things we had read together two years ago, we talked about linking those ideas to our programs and we talked about how to link our programs more closely to each other this year.

I got up from our long lunch and started across campus to my office. It was beautiful out and as I was walking, two of my students summoned me over to a bench they were sitting on in the quad. They had a few questions about the program that they are in and that I run. We sat in the sun and talked for a while about some ideas for this fall and about our upcoming retreat.

I got up from the bench and continued on my way back to my office, thinking to myself, "man, where has the time gone? I better get back to work".... And then I remembered that I was working. That I get paid to do things like talk to people, create relationships, and organize a program where students learn about themselves and at the same time provide resources to non profits in the community. That I like doing this so much that it often doesn't feel like work. I like it so much that I often forget that I am working altogether.

Hmmm. I decided today that I like that feeling, especially after reading about a dozen facebook posts about teachers returning to their classrooms today. I am not returning to my classroom this year. Instead I am thanking my lucky stars for approximately the 185th time that I left my classroom and ended up working in a job where I often am having so much fun that I forget that what I am doing is actually earning money.