Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Merry Christmas Yia yia

Today I started putting away some of the Christmas decorations.  It always makes me a little sad to do so, and I usually put it off as long as possible.  At Christmas I use my good china, crystal, and flatware for meals and desserts.  I love these things, but I hate to hand wash them.  I almost didn't use them this year at all, because I didn't want to wash them.  Then I realized that was really stupid and I got them out.  My Grandmother gave me a set of nice flatware that I love.  She passed away 7 years ago and I always think about her when I pull out the box with all of the pieces in it.  She had handwritten a note that I keep in the box and I read it every year. 

My Grandmother was born in Greece and came here when she was in her 20's.  She kept her thick Greek accent all of her life, and all of us grand kids loved to try to imitate her accent.  One year at Christmas she called to say hello, and in my best six year old version of a  Greek accent, I exclaimed, "Meddy Christmas Loddy!" (my nickname is Lori).  My Greek cousins thought that this was hilarious, and to this day we still tell each other "Meddy Christmas Loddy."  One of them posted that on my Facebook wall, in fact.

My grandparents met for the first time at their engagement party.  It was an arranged marriage, and soon after the wedding they came to America.  My Grandfather, or Papou in Greek, had been to America before and had started working here. He went back to Greece to find a bride to cook and clean for him.  He found my Grandmother, or Yia yia in Greek, and brought her here. She had grown up on an olive farm, the only girl in the family with five brothers. She spoke not a word of English, and knew no one.  She barely knew my Papou. 

This was in the 1930's, and there weren't many working moms then.  So she cooked and cleaned and learned to speak English on her own.  She had 3 children, the youngest was my Dad.  My Yia yia was very smart, and I think if she were born today, she would've been a doctor.  She loved to try and diagnose her friends and family when they were sick.  She even subscribed to medical journals to learn more about medicine.

I am glad to have opportunities that my Yia yia didn't have.  She made the best of what she had, and made a great baklava.  Meddy Christmas Yia yia, I miss you.


Thursday, December 22, 2011

2 weeks vacay at home = 12 days too long


I'm bored, but cute!
My kids' last day of school before Christmas was last Friday, December 16.  They don't go back to school until January 2.  Luckily for me, that means that we are almost halfway through. I love my children, don't get me wrong, but what the heck are we supposed to do all day for 2 weeks?  To make matters worse this week it has been raining.  We have made cookies, gone to the park (before it started raining), and gone shopping for last minute presents. Yesterday we went to see the new Chipmunks movie (In case you're wondering, it wasn't that bad.  The Smurfs movie was much worse!).

Today I took them to an art studio for a drop in session.  I am now officially out of ideas.  Please send me all of your suggestions, preferably suggestions that are low cost / no cost. And please don't suggest board games, because I hate them.  I also hate crafts.  I really need to go back to work!  My 13 year old son is especially hard to entertain unless video games are involved. Unfortunately several of his friends that lived in our neighborhood have moved away, so that makes it hard as well.

I have seriously considered letting them open an early Christmas present, but so far have held myself back.  Yesterday presents arrived from my sister and from our next door neighbor, so we spent the afternoon trying to figure out the new Figits and and playing with Barbies.  I keep trying to remember what we did last year during this time, but that was right after I lost my job and I think I have blocked out the entire month of December 2010. It's hard to be happy with your kids at home, when you're worried about how you're going to pay for Christmas presents, your mortgage and your car payment. 

So Christmas, hurry up and get here!  I might have to resort to doing laundry and cleaning out closets! ACK! Someone, please come entertain me!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Please don't punch my kid in the face

While out of town this week on a job interview, I received an email from Sarah's Kindergarten teacher.  Apparently, one of Sarah's male classmates decided to punch her in the face.  Neither the teacher nor Sarah knew why he did this, and apparently was unprovoked.  The email went on to say that the boy's parents were called in to the school to speak with the principal, and that the boy had to apologize to Sarah.  This was not an email I wanted to see while 800 miles away from home.  And by the way, didn't this at least warrant a phone call from the teacher?  Not that I could have taken the call, however; my day was filled with 8 interviews and a store walk through. 

I forwarded the email to my husband and called home to talk to Sarah.  Did it hurt?  Yes, but it's fine now Mommy.  Why did he do that?  I don't know Mommy.  Hmm.  I flew home as planned Friday morning, which was the last day of school before "winter break".  I guess you can't say "Christmas vacation" anymore, even in Kindergarten.  I picked up Sarah, and she had several things to show me.  The boy had written out an apology letter to Sarah, and an apology letter to me and my husband.  There was also a letter from the boy's parents to me.  Additionally, there was a Hello Kitty doll.  The letters explained that the boy had to spend his allowance to get Sarah a gift as an apology / peace offering. The boy's Mom explained in her letter that her son had issues with "impulse control" and he had "made a bad choice."  Yeah, I guess he did. Wow.  I kinda felt bad for this boy.   As parents we never want our kids to be the ones making the "bad choice", but let's be honest, it happens. I'm glad these parents took it so seriously.  I also personally love Hello Kitty, and that helped.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

The Magic Hat

As a Mom, I try to get my kids Christmas gifts that they will really love.  As I think back to Christmases I had growing up, I remember bikes, clothes, games, books and toys. But the most memorable gift I received was a magic hat set.  It was a plastic top hat and magic wand set, complete with instructions on how to do magic tricks.  I don't remember if it was a gift for me, my younger sister, or for both of us.  Santa sometimes brought us joint gifts since my sister and I were just 14 months apart.  On this particular Christmas I think we were around 7 or 8 years old. 

I opened the magic hat and started trying to figure out how it worked.  My Dad took one look at it, and decided that he knew how it worked, without reading the instructions, of course.  My Dad is by far the smartest man I know.  He could take a car apart and put it back together.  He could build anything out of wood: our kitchen table, toy airplanes and cars, bookcases.  He could answer any question that I could ask him. He knew something about any subject.  He tutored our babysitter in algebra.  Later when I was in high school he tutored me and all my friends in physics (Interesting trivia fact: our physics teacher was a finalist to ride on the space shuttle that blew up).  So when my Dad said to me on that Christmas morning that he wanted to try out the magic hat, I didn't doubt his ability for a second.

From this point on, there are varying versions of the story, depending on who tells it.  I remember it as Dad pouring a glass of water into the hat; Mom remembers it as Dad pouring a glass of milk into the hat.  Then Dad said to me, "Hey Lori, let me put this magic hat on your head."

"But Dad," I said, "the milk / water / unknown liquid will pour out on my head!"

"Don't worry," Dad said.  "Trust me!  It's a MAGIC hat."

So I walked over to him and waited for him to put the magic hat on my head.  In seconds I was drenched.  I looked at him in disbelief.  I couldn't believe that he would do that to me.  My Mother later told me that the look on my face was that of pure shock.

"Oops," Dad said.  "Sorry Lori." 

Moral of the story?  Read the directions. And don't be your Dad's magic hat assistant.

Happy Holidays everyone.  And please don't buy your children a magic hat!

Monday, December 12, 2011

To wrap or not to wrap?

I really dislike wrapping presents.  I think it is a waste of time and money.  Not to mention it's not great for the environment, either.  All that time and effort, spent on something that the kids will rip apart as soon as they see it.   A few years ago I tried convincing my husband that we should just leave the gifts from Santa unwrapped under the tree on Christmas morning.  I have some clear memories of Christmas as a child, coming downstairs, flipping on the lights, and feasting my eyes on all of the presents that Santa had brought, unwrapped of course.  I think that was the year that my sister and I got a magic hat set (which will be the subject of tomorrow's post).  However, there was no way to convince my husband that this was a good idea. We must wrap everything! In over sized boxes! With bricks in the bottom to fool them! Ugh.

I taught my nephews to call me Aunt Pretty.
I think Austin was 10 years old before he
realized that my name was Laraine.
Back when I was a working Mom, my time for wrapping was limited.  Our weekends were busy with family activities, sports, and errands.  Mostly I would wrap at night when the kids were in bed. So I would stress out about wrapping all this stuff, stay up  too late, and repeat the cycle the next night until it was done.  And then of course my husband would tell me that I wasn't wrapping the packages "correctly".  Good thing we only have blunt tipped scissors in our house.  Actually he can't help it, he's a Virgo.  Virgo's have an inherent need to compulsively organize and line up things.  I am the polar opposite, and see no need to line up cans in the pantry or load the dishwasher a certain way.  I feel like if the wrapping paper is on the package, then my job is done.  Line up the design? Hide the tape? Please. Give me a break.

Sarah, my 5 year old, has been asking me every day for the past week to help me wrap presents.  Yesterday I finally gave in.  Sarah and Olivia helped me wrap presents for our family members.  Sarah was in charge of the tape, and Olivia wrote out all the gift tags.  Then Sarah wanted to write out some tags, too, and all hell just about broke loose.  Let's just suffice it to say that Olivia ended up in time out and we wrapped it up pretty quickly after that. I bought some more gift wrap (on sale) at CVS today.  Maybe I can get a few more presents wrapped before time for carpool.

Friday, December 9, 2011

The out of town interview

Well it's official.  I have a plane ticket for an interview next week.  Please be thinking about me as I have a full day of interviews starting at 8am and ending at 5pm.  I will be interviewing with 7 different upper level management people.  The hardest thing about these kinds of days is that by the 5th or 6th interview, it's hard not to feel brain dead. 

I have had a few out of town interviews this past year, some I was semi-interested in, and some I was VERY interested in.  In February I interviewed with a company that I was VERY interested in.  They flew me down, and had a car pick me up at the airport.  The hotel where I was staying was only a few blocks from their downtown office building.  This hotel had a shuttle that would drive me over in the morning, no problem.  I had a friend that already worked at this company, and we met for a drink when I got there, the night before.  Things were going smoothly; I liked the area, everything looked great. 


Me and my new travel umbrella
I woke up the day of the interview and it was pouring rain.  Hmm. I had no coat, no umbrella, nada.  Good thing the hotel has that shuttle, right?  I got in the van and told the driver where I was going, complete with address.  He drove me the couple blocks and dropped me off.  I got out and realized that this was not the right place.  He had dropped me at the wrong office building.  It was still raining.  Panic set in. Ok, deep breath, get out your iPhone. I GPS'ed walking directions from my location to the correct office.  Only I had no idea which direction was north, even though I was less than a quarter mile from my destination.  I could figure that out, but I would need to walk in the rain.  Ah ha! A gift shop in the office building where I was, surely they will have umbrellas.  They didn't. Panic.

There was no way I had come this far to give up now.  I saw a man behind a desk in the lobby.  I walked up to him and said, "Sir, can I buy that umbrella there behind you?"  Being the southern gentleman that he was he said, "No, but you can borrow it, just bring it back."  Ok, great, I'll solve the problem of the return later.  I thanked him and was off.  Hopefully my shoes wouldn't be ruined.

I was now going to be late.  I called my HR contact, no answer.  I left a message and carried on. I found the right building and ha ha funny story to tell!  It's raining!  I had to borrow this umbrella!  Driver took me to wrong building! I think I had 7 interviews in a row that day too, including a store walk through.  It all went pretty well.  At the end of the day I asked my HR contact to please please please return this umbrella.  I really hope that he did.  I flew home, and I hoped for an offer.    Needless to say, I didn't get it.  My HR contact finally called to tell me that they really liked me, but offered the job to someone else with just a little more experience.  He also told me that I was their 2nd choice.  Gee thanks. I was crushed. 

After that interview I bought a travel sized umbrella.  I always take it with me for interviews, no matter what the forecast.  Live and learn, I guess. 

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Things I learned in Kindergarden

I don't remember much about my own time in Kindergarten.  We lived in Petersburg, VA, and my sister and I attended a church kindergarten.  I remember show and tell, weekly readers, and riding tricycles on the black top. 

Sarah's stocking creation

This year my youngest child, Sarah, started kindergarten.  At the beginning of the year, the teacher sent an email via signupgenius.com asking for Moms to volunteer to help with "centers".  Being the Accidental Stay At Home Mom that I am, I thought, sure! I'll help! Why not?  I logged on and reviewed the time slots (this was in August, mind you.)  Two of the other moms had signed up for every single time slot from August through the end of November.  Seriously? While I was glad to see that Sarah's class had some very interested Moms, I was ticked off that I would have to wait until December to help out in her class.  I mean, surely I would have another job by then, right?  But here we are, December 7th, and I am not working. So off I went to kindergarten. 

I arrived a few minutes early and the class was having their math lesson using pennies and nickles. 
Teacher: Class, if I want to buy a candy bar that is 10 cents, what coins would I use to pay for it?
student #1: Ten pennies!
student #2: Ten dollars!
student #3: A credit card!
For the record, student #3 was not my child.   However, I am surprised that Sarah didn't say that.  During the course of the lesson, one kid fell out of his chair, one kid picked a scab on his elbow and started bleeding, and one kid started telling me about how his family read a story about St. Nick last night.  Controlled chaos.
Soon it was time for me to help with "centers", whatever that is.  The teacher explained to me that for my center,  I would be helping the children make construction paper stockings.   The kids would sew these with yarn, glue cotton on the top, and write their initials with glue and glitter.  Um, hello, this is a CRAFT.  I do not like crafts.  I am not good at crafts. I avoid crafts at all costs.  Now I have to help 15 five year olds complete this craft. I showed the kids the finished example, then tried to explain how to push the yarn in and out of the pre punched holes.  A few kids could do this without any help.  A few kids just didn't get it at all.  One sweet little girl started to cry when she couldn't get the yarn through the hole.  I was kinda surprised at how many different skill levels were in just this one class. Soon enough, my hour was over, and I was covered in glitter.  I needed a nap.  Or a glass of wine.  Maybe both.  I'm not sure how these other moms do this.  I certainly confirmed that I would not be a good kindergarten teacher.  But for one day, it wasn't so bad at all.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Elf on the Shelf


Sarah and Olivia with Justin the Elf
Justin found a spot on the oven recently
As a former working Mom, I had co workers who would swear by the Elf on the Shelf.  I would hear tales of how their kids loved it and how they would be so good for the month before Christmas. I really didn't know what this elf thing was, or why it was a good idea.  I put it on my list of "things to Google" and went back to to my desk.  This year, as an Accidental Stay At Home Mom, I finally had the time to check it out.  A few weeks back I was cruising the aisles in Target, and saw that they had these Elf things on sale.  I picked one up and learned the rules to Elf on a Shelf:

1. You must name him
2. At night the Elf flies back to Santa and reports on the childrens' behaviour
3. The Elf will reappear in a different spot in the house
4. No one is allowed to touch the Elf

For a link to the official Elf on a Shelf website, click here
My 2 girls are ages 5 and 7 and have really gotten into this.  They went through several names (Sebastian, Daniel, Fred) before settling on the name Justin.  They now pop right out of bed every morning to see where Justin has landed. They each want to be the first one to find him.  Sarah's eyes light up and she is so happy when she finds him.  For the first couple of days Olivia kept asking, "Mommy are you SURE that it wasn't you that moved the Elf??"

Yesterday we had some of the girls' friends over to play.  Things were going well until Kylie, age 8, screamed out from the kitchen,  "I see Mr. Nutcracker! I see Mr. Nutcracker!"  Alarmed, I walked over to see if there was a serial killer sitting at my kitchen table.  She was pointing to our Elf, Justin, who had landed on the light fixture above the kitchen table.  Whew.  OK, another crisis narrowly averted.  "Mr. Nutcracker?" I asked. "Yes," Kylie said, "We call our Elf Mr. Nutcracker."  Gotcha. 

Monday, December 5, 2011

My husband, the Iron Chef

I have never been a very good cook.  I have made attempts at it now and then, but not with much success.  My son Alexander loves to tell the story about when Mommy tried to cook dinner and made a big ball of cheese (not on purpose).  My husband, Christopher, however is a great cook.  I think he is a better cook than chefs in most restaurants where I have eaten. Back when we first started dating about 8 years ago, he offered to cook me dinner.  There was nothing in my townhouse (that I could cook) and I suggested that we go out.  He looked in the freezer and the pantry, and within about 30 minutes whipped up a pasta primavera type dish out of frozen peas, pasta, and shredded cheese.  It was delicious!  I think if he'd asked me to marry him right there, I would have said yes.  We did actually get married about 6 months after that.  He had been thinking about quiting his job and going to cooking school in NYC when we met.  He never got around to going to cooking school, but he has watched enough Food Network to fool most people.


The secret is the brine
Since we were in London over Thanksgiving (see previous post, "London Calling"), Christopher didn't get to make his traditional turkey dinner. He loves to cook for lots of people, coming from a family where he had a twin brother, plus 6 other adopted brothers and sisters.  One year I think we had 25 people over, and Christopher cooked just about all the dishes. This past Sunday, Christopher cooked a turkey, and made dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes and rolls.  It was great.  It also reminded me that I really need to start running again or else my clothes are not going to fit. 

Since I am now the Accidental Stay at Home Mom, I feel compelled to try to cook dinner. There are a few things that I can cook: roasted chicken, pasta with meatballs, tacos.  My husband likes it when I attempt to cook, but even my girls know that "Daddy's cooking is better!"  When I am in super coupon mode my grocery shopping becomes somewhat erratic. I come home with all kinds of new and different items (they were free! under a dollar!  on clearance!).  My husband grumbles that there is no way we need 5 bottles of hot sauce, and that I am not buying ingredients that he actually needs for cooking dinner.  I just smile and tell him to pretend that he is on Iron Chef.  Secret ingredient: Hot Sauce! 

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Huntersville Half Marathon Blues

Although I signed up and paid the $50 to run the first Huntersville Half Marathon this past Saturday, I was unable to do it.  My calf injury did not heal in time, and as a result I missed too much of the training.  However I did go out and cheer on the runners, since the race went right through my neighborhood.  My two girls and I bundled up, stood on the curb, and clapped and cheered for the runners as they went by.  Some waved back, and said thanks, others smiled.  When I have run in other races, I have noticed people clapping and cheering on the sidelines, and I always appreciated it.  But I always wondered, why are they on the sidelines and not in the race?  Who are they really there to support?  If I stop and walk, will they stop clapping?
My sister, Ec, and me last year before
the Kiawah Half Marathon. Ec does triathalons
too and is super fast!

I saw my former Team in Training Coach, Kenny, and we clapped and cheered for him.  Last year I ran the Kiawah, SC half marathon with Team in Training and raised money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  Unfortunately Kenny had his headphones in and didn't hear or see us.  I saw lots of my Fleet Feet training group friends, including Bernadette, who I used to run with during the Saturday training runs.  We both ran with around a 12 min/mile pace, so we usually ran together and kept tabs on each other.  We were the slowest runners in our training group.  I usually don't like to run with other people, since I am so slow, but "Bern" and I really matched up well.  When I saw her running she came over to me and gave me a big hug.  She did great, finishing the half in 2:44. 

After all the runners went by we went back home, and my husband decided to trek out to the grocery store.  On his way home, he passed a lady sitting on the curb, wearing a half marathon race number, and crying.  He stopped and asked her if she needed help.  She said that she had gotten lost in one of the neighborhoods, and kept running in circles. She couldn't figure out how to get back on the half marathon route. I thought that this route was really complicated and hilly, and the traffic was not blocked off for it.  My husband said that she reminded him of me.  He told the lady that his wife was supposed to run in this race, but hurt her leg.  He offered her a ride, which she cautiously accepted, and he got her back on track.   I am glad that he stopped to help her.  When I hurt my calf I sat on the side of Birkdale Commons Parkway and cried for about 5 minutes because I knew that I had really hurt myself.  I always run with my iPhone, and debated calling my husband when my running coach Christina came along and found me. 

Whenever I register for a race, my girls ask me if I am going to win. I try to explain that no, Mommy just wants to finish, I'm not trying to win.  Then they look at me like I have three heads, shrug their shoulders, and then go back to whatever they were doing.  Congratulations to all the finishers of the Huntersville Half Marathon.  Y'all did great!

Friday, December 2, 2011

30 Days of Thankfulness




Me and my Dad at his 70th birthday party
This year during the month of November, I decided to copy some friends' Facebook page idea, and post one thing every day that I was thankful for.  Days 1-15 were easy: kids, family, husband, friends.  But after that it got harder.  I had to really look at all that I had around me, things that I took for granted on a daily basis, and give thanks for those things.  Beautiful sunny days, rainy days, cinnamon rolls, naps.  Things I normally don't think about for more than 2 seconds.  Some days I just stared at the computer trying to think of something, which looking back, is ridiculous, since I have so much to be thankful for.  But the process helped me shift my focus from oh crap, how am I going to make the car payment this month, to hey, I get to go be with my daughter for her school's Thanksgiving Feast today. 
My husband, Christopher, me, Jessica and John Gallman
Yeah the economy stinks, I am unemployed, and Christmas is right around the corner.  But for 5 minutes a day let's focus on what we do have, even if it's eyes to see or ears to hear.  We all have so much just living in the USA: clean water, free education, highways.  Not everyone in the world is so lucky.  So for today, for just 5 minutes, give thanks to the universe for one thing you have.  Maybe it will change your outlook on the whole rest of the day.


Laraine's 30 days of thankfulness list (in a nutshell) :
1. My husband, Christopher
2. Harris Teeter Super Double coupon week
3. My kids
4. My home
5. Great schools
6.My torn calf muscle almost healing
7. Being able to pick up my daughter from school when she got sick
8. Friends
9. Parents
10. Neighbors
11. Our Dr. Barracus
12. my Dad's 70th birthday party
13. just missing a bad wreck on the highway
14. Beautiful weather
15. Being able to go to Sarah's Thanksgiving Feast at school
16. Rain
17. My husband's blog, and getting to go to England
18. Olga, our former nanny
19. Cinnamon Rolls
20. Naps
21. 75 Degree days in November
22. Travel
23. Safe airports
24. Travel size liquids
25. Frequent flier miles
26. being back in USA
27. Star Wars marathons on TV
28. Unexpected windfalls
29. Calls from recruiters
30. Thankful to be done and thankful for this year