Winter in Minnesota

Dear Diary, I Love Minnesota
July 17 Moved to our new home in Minnesota . It's so beautiful here. The grasslands and hills are so serene and picturesque. Can hardly wait to see them with snow covering them. God's country ... I love it here.

Oct. 14 Minnesota is the most beautiful place on Earth. The leaves are turning all different colors. I love the shades of red, yellow, and orange. Went for a ride through some beautiful woodland forest and spotted some deer. They are so graceful. Certainly, they are the most beautiful animals on Earth. This must be Paradise ... I love it here.

Nov. 11 Deer season will start soon. I can't imagine anyone wanting to kill such an elegant creature. The very symbol of peace and tranquility. Hope it will snow soon ...I love it here..

Dec. 2 It snowed all night. Woke up to find everything blanketed with white. It looked like a postcard. We went outside and cleaned the snow off the steps and shoveled the driveway. We had a snow ball fight (Iwon) and when the plow came by he plowed the snow back into our driveway. I shoveled the driveway again. What a beautiful place. Mother Nature in Perfect Harmony ... I love Minnesota .

Dec. 12 More snow last night. I love it. The snow plow did his trick again (that rascal). A winter wonderland! ... I love it here.

Dec. 19 More snow last night. Couldn't get out of the driveway to get to work this time. I am exhausted from too much shoveling ... Friggin snowplow.

Dec. 22 More of the white shit fell last night. I've got blisters on my hands from shoveling. I think the snowplow driver hides around the corner and waits until I'm done shoveling the damn snow off this driveway ... A%%#@le.

Dec. 25 "White Christmas," my busted ass ... More friggin snow. If I ever get my blistered hands on the son-of-a-bitch who drives that piece of shit snowplow, I swear I'll castrate that bastard. Don't know why they don't use more salt on the roads to melt the friggin ice.

Dec. 28 More white last night. Been inside since Christmas Day except when shoveling out the driveway after Snowplow Harry comes. Can't go anywhere. Car is buried in a mountain of White Shit . The weatherman says to expect another ten inches of the shit tonight. Do you know how many shovels of snow ten inches is?

Jan. 1 Happy Friggin New Year. The weatherman was wrong again. We got 34 inches (?) of the white shit this time. At this rate, it won't melt until the 4th of July. The snowplow got stuck up the road and the shithead driver had the balls to come to the door to borrow a shovel. After I told him that I've broken six shovels already shoveling the shit he pushes in my driveway, I broke my last shovel over his friggin head.

Jan. 4 Finally got out of the house today. Went to the store to get food and another shovel. On the way home a damn deer ran out in front of the car, and I killed the bastard. Did about 3 grand damage to the car. Those friggin beasts should be slaughtered. Wish the hunters had killed them all in November.

May 3 Took the car to the garage in town. Would you believe the thing is rotting out from all the friggin salt they keep dumping on the road? Car looks like a shit box.

May 10 Moved to Texas . Can't imagine why anyone in their friggin right mind would ever want to live in that God-forsaken State of Minnesota .

Ok, I get it

Fine. I give in. He looks good. He's a hell of a speaker. Bruce likes him. And he's our new President. But do I have to be lectured about politics from a 2 year old?

Josie participated in the presidential election by learning about the candidates through the Weekly Reader at daycare. She even participated in a mock election. Heck, she even participated in the real election and was very impressed with the pretty sticker she received at the end. I would have thought she'd have forgotten about Bama-cain by now (I like to think she combined the best qualities of each candidate) but she seems to understand this monumental moment in only the way a 2 year old can.

Bruce, on the other hand, has always been fairly vocal with his political views. He used to show it simply by the lyrics in his music but in recent years he's been voicing his opinion by very openly supporting democratic candidates. Sure, I love me some Bruce air time, but I'd rather stick to the Super Bowl than the Vote for Change tour. I believe Bruce is a brilliant man and I want to believe in his whole hearted support of our new president. I want to believe that Obama will be the man to put this nation back on track. I want to believe that we can move forward as a nation again, rather than backward as in recent years. A lot of pressure has been put on him and I can only hope that he and his family will survive it. In the meantime I'll most certainly be enjoying my extra Bruce TV time and patiently awaiting the list of US tour dates for his new album.

So as I tucked Josie in for bed tonight we both reflected on this historic day. She talked about using the potty and doing the potty dance. I talked about our first African American president. She talked about watching Barack on TV. And yes, she said Barack. Apparently they are on a first name basis here. I explained that I did not get to see him on TV today because I had to work. She then talked about all the flags waving, music playing, and happy faces she saw. I told her that when she gets older and goes to school she would be talking about this very day and what impact Barack had on our country and our family. She then asked if Santa was coming to her house again. Gotta love the attention span of a toddler!

In the end Barack doesn't outrank Santa, but he will need a special suit and a bag full of goodies to pull this country through. I look forward to reflecting on this day when Josie writes a history paper on presidential elections. Hopefully we can talk briefly about the economic crisis that started in 2008, in depth about the end of the war in Iraq and I'll be able to recall how Santa fits into the whole thing.

Adventures in Potty Training and other random updates

We're still full steam ahead in the big girl undies department. I have a bag full of extra pants and undies ready for day care tomorrow but I'm crossing my fingers that she won't need it. Other than a few random accidents Josie has done a tremendous job making it to the potty in time. It will be very interesting to see how she handles it tomorrow back amongst her friends. Hopefully she won't be too distracted by all the fun she's having and can stay on track. Check out the pictures of her potty chart from the past 2 days. Stars=successes! Stay tuned on that front....

I went in for a yearly skin check this week. The surgical site has healed well from my first bout with Basal Cell cancer. They informed me that if I can make it 5 years without a recurrence my risk drops down to the same as the general population. Just as that wonderful thought was fully processing in my brain he found a spot on my cheek that needed a biopsy. I feared another surgery in sight but the doctor called Friday night and said everything is ok. Good news for the weekend! Or so I thought.......

Fast forward to Friday night- Brent and I smelled a hot electrical type odor in Josie's bathroom. My mother's safety monitor instincts kicked in and we reviewed locations of fire extinguishers and the escape ladder before going to sleep that night. Both of us had a restless night of sleep but something pulled me out of bed at 4 AM to check on the house. I woke up to an overwhelming amount of that same electrical odor and got Brent out of bed right away. The upstairs seemed in order so he ran down to check the main floor and basement. Brrr!!!! The thermostat had dropped to 55 degrees and clearly our furnace had gone out. We checked out the error code on the furnace and it appeared that the blower motor had gone out. Once Josie woke up, her and I headed over to my parents (free labor for their massive painting party- did they perhaps sabotage my furnace?) while Brent worked on finding someone to repair the furnace. Long story short- the blower motor was replaced at a relatively low cost (because Brent has a friend in the business and did some work himself) but we still had to pay extremely high weekend labor rates to get someone else to come in and replace the circuit board. $600 later we have a warm house again. Could have been worse, right?

It got worse. We had some reservations about poor Rex and his behavior around Josie. He bit me a few times last week and finally got Josie pretty bad on Saturday morning. We decided that she's too young to understand his behavior and we didn't want to risk it so we gave him back to the rescue group. He's a very cool cat and will make some other family very happy. I hope they find him a good home soon.

That about wraps up our week. We're all doing good and enjoying the wonderful warm weather! Special prayers to Jill and her family.....

She's growing up!

Miss Josie is growing up so fast. The other day I posted about her "listening to her body" and how we thought she was paying attention to us but yet mocking us at the same time. Turns out she really is listening and we're fully into the potty training process right now. She's been showing all the signs- telling us when she has to go or has just gone, staying dry for long periods of time, interest in sitting on the potty, and the ability to pull her pants up and down herself. Yesterday she had 2 successes at daycare and continued along those lines at home with 2 more trips to the potty. Today she woke up and wanted underwear instead of a diaper so we've hunkered down at home and are ready to give this a try! I initiated several attempts at trying this morning but Josie mostly cried and wanted to hold my hand while she sat on the potty. Then after lunch we were making cookies and she wanted some chocolate chips. Brilliant mother that I am (don't laugh!), I told her she could have a couple of chips if she went potty. Off she ran to the bathroom, asked for some privacy and took care of business. I asked her who she wanted to call first and she yelled out "my friend ya-ya" so we picked up the phone and called Lydia right away. And then she wanted to call dad, and grandma, and, oh yeah- she wanted those chocolate chips I promised her in the first place. And the best part of all this? I think she's just as proud of herself as we are of her.

Here kitty, kitty

We've been without a cat since August and have been looking forward to the day when we were ready for another one. Fortunately we were connected with a family who was giving away a cat due to allergies. We picked up Rex tonight and he's a sweetie! He was just declawed and neutered last week so he's a bit tender but very loving. We'll give it a few days to see how we all adjust to each other but I'm crossing my fingers that it will go well. Take part in the name poll so we can see if Rex sticks!

It really is the little things....

I've felt a little stressed this week after starting the week with an illness and then trying to play catch up after 2 weeks off of work. But as the weekend rolled around and things became more low key around the house, I was reminded that it really is the little things that keep us grounded. Here's a few examples:

• A wonderful husband who lets you sleep in on Saturday and Sunday




• Hearing Josie yell out "Mama- I see the sun! Wake up me!" when its time for her to get up each day




• A shopping trip with my mom- even though I could have watched a full length movie (and previews!) during the time it took her to pick things out at Lakeshore!




• Coming home and finding out that Josie enjoys the things I picked out at Lakeshore

• My Gopher hockey team making it out of UND territory bruised but alive. You're in our thoughts Coach Lucia!


• Discovering that Josie really does pay attention to what we say

We're always telling her to listen to her body as we talk about potty training. She took our comments to heart! Brent and I were cleaning up dishes after lunch on Saturday and walked into the living room to discover that Josie had stripped herself down and put her stethoscope around her waist. She was standing there saying "I listen to my body."

Freakin Genuis!

Josie is now sleeping and waking with the rising and setting of the moon and sun. And the best part? We control what time the sun sets and rises ourselves!!! Magic, huh? No, we have not taught her astrology nor do we let her sleep with her shades up.

We've certainly talked about how nice it would be to put a clock in Josie's room and request that she stay in bed until a certain time. Instead we ordered a Good Nite Lite and love it! She gets excited about saying goodnight to her moon and seems to understand the concept of waiting until the sun shows up before asking us to "wake up me". It was a 3 month wait for another shipment to be ready but well worth it. The true test will be how long it takes before she realizes that this sun/moon stuff is a bunch of BS and figures out that she could let herself out of her room if she really wanted to. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

For now I give the Good Nite Lite 2 thumbs up!

Sickies

You know that crud that's going around everywhere? The stuff that's even made the news? Well, I came down with it. Started with a bad headache Sunday night and experienced the GI sypmtoms early Monday morning. Not fun! I was feeling bad for myself that I've missed 2 extra days of work and haven't been able to be around Josie much until I read this- looks like our winter fun has just begun.

2 hot chicks and some wallpaper

That about sums up our weekend! Josie and I both got haircuts on Friday. Aren't we cute? Josie finally got rid of her mullet (but kept a bit of the curls) and I was just ready for a change.

My brilliant mother decided that we should start removing the wallpaper border from Josie's bathroom on New Year's Day. What a pain! She claimed it would be "real quick" but the only thing quick about it was how fast she bailed on me. All in all it took me 3 days of putzing with it while Josie was in the bath to get it removed. Now we're on to the next task- choosing a color.

Tomorrow Josie and I head back to daycare and work after a long vacation. Some days definitely seemed longer than others thanks to Josie's momma obsession, but it was a good break for all of us. Tomorrow Josie sees her friends, I see a mountain of work to catch up on and most importantly, we won't see each other for 14 straight hours. Dare I say I need a vacation from my vacation????

What's in a name?

Besides my obvious obsession with all things Bruce, I chose my blog title to reflect the never ending struggle between the past and the future. Some days I wake up and fear that I'm becoming my mother. Some days I look around and realize my mother is definitely becoming her mother. But is it really such a bad thing to become that dreaded person who showed us nothing but love and devotion our entire life?

This fear of living my mother's life has really evolved since becoming a parent myself. This has been my time to take things that have worked in my past and bring them forward to my daughter. It has also been a chance to try some new brilliant ideas of my own and see what happens. More often than not a version of "the way my mom would do it" works out for the best but Josie certainly hasn't been harmed in any of my half witted attempts at parenting either. I'm definitely not a fan of following the same path for the sake of comfort but I have discovered that taking advice from someone who's been there before can save a lot of headaches along the way.

Our ties to the past can be a stumbling block. They can remind us of the evil we all face and the hardships that we all endure. Those ties can also be the very things that give us the wings to fly. When I look at a recent 4 generation photo taken over Thanksgiving I can't help but see the physical traits that Josie will inherit over the years. What I can't see in that picture is who she'll become and what parts of me she'll want to take with her along the way. I can only hope that she can see the wisdom of my ways (even if I can't!) and have very few "I will never do that with my own kid" or "what was she thinking" moments. No matter which path she chooses I do know that she will have my support just as I had my mother's and she had hers.

Sure, there are quirks I'd love to un-inherit from my family but the bottom line is that these quirks make me who I am. And I'm one of them so we all can't be that bad, right? These are the Ties That Bind.