Chicago Moms Blog

Governor Palin? Knock, Knock. Who's There? MomsRising.

....cross posted from our sister site, DC Metro Moms Blog.

Yesterday, I joined MomsRising's co-founder and Executive Director Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner and 13 other moms to hand deliver a letter to Governor Sarah Palin's state office in The DC.  The letter had been signed by over 21,000 mothers and others.  None of this was supposed to take much time, I mean how complicated could it be go into an office building, take the elevator up to the third floor and drop off a box on someone's desk?  Quick In n Out then off to grab a bite to eat. Yes?

NO! Here's how it actually went down.  I arrived at the appointed time just as the local ABC News , Channel 7,was wrapping up an interview with Kristin. More moms arrived. We posed for a group photo  Kristin asked us to walk into the building where, she had been instructed, we would all be required to sign in at the lobby desk.  Again, nothing unexpected.  With the exception of the security guard who was less than thrilled to have 15 women in her lobby. Yes, she actually referred to it as her own lobby. Lobby ownership aside, we were told to wait for the news crew to return from upstairs.  Which we did.

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The Business Plan of Happiness

... cross posted from our sister site, DC Metro Moms Blog.

I've never been one for timing.

I graduated from college in the tech boom of the late '90s and immediately started to work my tail off in the San Francisco Bay Area...for peanuts as a federal government employee. I watched my fellow sorority sisters and classmates secure jobs at Cisco and Intel and startups. As they became worth millions "on paper" and rose to Internet stardom and power, I plugged away writing press advisories and attending town hall meetings and helping constiuents, with a second job in the evenings at a store. I was happy and fulfilled...and poor.

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Welcome to the World, Baby Blackberry!

... cross posted from our sister site, DC Metro Moms Blog.

I'm now officially a mother of four. I know, I know, I've totally overpopulated this world. Blame it on my innate sense of American consumerism and need for consumption. But I had to have a fourth.

But I didn't realize how much I wanted her until she came into my life just a little over twenty-seven hours ago, and one day ahead of schedule. I'm already madly in love with her. She's so tiny, weighing just shy of four ounces. Her little digits are a scrumptious sight. How did I survive all of these years without her? Why didn't anyone tell me how much I'd come to need her. Well, I guess maybe a few of you mentioned it.

Click HERE to continue reading at DC Metro Moms Blog.

Road Trips Down Memory Lane

... cross posted from our sister site, DC Metro Moms Blog.
In the spirit of road trips....

I just completed the second leg of a road trip with my three children. Me, Myself, and I and the three babies in the minivan traveling "back home" to visit family sprinkled around various New England points. I didn't plan the solo excursion, it just happened. The night before I was scheduled to return to DC, I decided it would be fun to "surprise" extended family with unannounced arrivals. I was in need of some spontaneous adventure. Maybe even reassurance that SAHM doesn't stand for Stuck at Home Mom. Good thing my family doesn't take issue with drop-ins.

Our surprise visits were well received. Grandparents were over the moon to see the grandchildren. They didn't seem to take it personally that my youngest wanted absolutely nothing to do with them--a.k.a separation anxiety. They also didn't seem to mind that my little guy nearly ate them out of their homes or that my oldest child didn't hold back when she was bored--I'm so bored, Mom, can we go now?

But the biggest surprise was on me and would come at the end of our visits.
Click HERE to continue reading at DC Metro Moms Blog.

Read at Your Own Risk

... cross posted from sister site, DC Moms Blog.

Many bloggers are introspective. We tend to write about our inner lives, as well as our corporeal lives. One day we'll share a funny poo anecdote, the next day our favorite shoes, a blurb about infertility, and wrap up the week with something about our childhood or a relationship with an old boyfriend. There are those who prefer to forget the past, to pretend it never happened. While I live far more in the moment than in my past, I subscribe to the belief that an unexamined life isn't much worth living.

What happens when the examination of your own life intersects with the privacy of another?

Admit it, most of us have written about people from our past in a way that makes us fervently hope they will never locate our blogs. Some of us blog anonymously to prevent that from happening. Some of us don't care and just let it all hang out. Some of us straddle the line in between, only letting friends or those we think are friendly, know where our innermost thoughts can be found on the Internet.

Click HERE to continue reading at DC Moms Blog.

Day One - I feel like a statistic

....cross posted from our sister site, DC Metro Moms Blog.

The front door opened. Startled I looked up to find my husband coming home from work early yesterday.  I was about to take a work related phone call so I just briefly asked him what was up. He perched himself on the edge of the kitchen counter and said, "It's done.  Over.  I got laid off."

Immediately, I had to grip the counter myself and keep from feeling as if my brain was doing a fade to black sort of thing.  If there wasn't already a baby growing inside me it would have felt as if my stomach was being kicked in. Pummeled.  I hear the words being calmly stated, "Two weeks severance...one month of insurance...", and my mind just reels.  How are we going to survive?  I feel like one of those brief profiles you read about in a story on the current toll of the U.S. economy being featured in Newsweek.

Click HERE to continue reading on DC Metro Moms Blog......

We caved and went to Hooters for our son's birthday

....cross posted from our sister site, DC Metro Moms Blog.

Almost a year ago our then 7 year old son announced out of the blue, "I want to go to Hooters." Figuring he'd forget about the request in 10 months, The Huz flippantly answered, "Maybe for your birthday we can go to Hooters." The Huz and I joked with one another about what kind of RSVP's we would get if we sent out birthday party invites to all of Son Two's friends, "Please join us at Hooters as we celebrate our son's 8th Birthday!" According to The Huz, all the dads would definitely be bringing their kids to that party. We both rolled our eyes and we thought that was the end of it. 

Stupid us. About 3 months ago I was driving Son Two past a Hooters and he intently peered out of the car window and announced, "I see the Hooters! I see them. Oh wait, there's a man in there. I bet he's got man boobs."  What??? Did my 7 year old just say "man-boobs?!" WTF?  Where did he pick that up? I'll admit we've used the term "man-purse" on occasion in our family, but "man-boobs"? Um. No.

Click HERE to continue reading this post on DC Metro Moms Blog....

Teenage Angst. About 12 Years Too Soon.

....cross posted from our sister site, DC Metro Moms Blog

Ok, so I expected to run into the drama and misery of my daughters' teenage years sooner or later...just not when she was 3 1/2 years old. Lately, Chatterbox is unhappy about, well, everything. I noticed that it began a week or so ago when she started insisting on wearing the same pair of jeans every.single.day. Also, I bought a brand new pair of adorable shoes and she absolutely refuses to wear them, but only wantes to put on her broken down old shoes from last fall. So getting dressed in the mornings became a battle.

Then came Alexa.

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Why showering every day is worth the money.

....cross posted from our sister site, DC Metro Moms Blog.

Have you seen this article from Parade Magazine asking for people to vote for their support for PBS programming?  I for one do not want public television or radio to go under and I am very willing to pay $1.31 cents per year to make sure PBS stays afloat.  Not only am I willing to fork over that money because I enjoy PBS and have done work for them, I am willing to pay up because I do not support the argument that PBS programming can be replaced by Cable Television programming.  Pardon me while I rant for a moment...

It is out-fucking-rageous that anyone would be so out of touch to not know that there are families who cannot afford Cable Television! Yes, there are actually people who cannot afford to have cable television.  And you know what else? There are people who do not want cable television. Yes, they walk among us!  I have even been in their homes on more than one occasion, and you know what? Not all of them are dope head crack dealers who neglect their kids.  These are families who either don't have the cash or believe that having hundreds of channels doesn't meet their need.   

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Where Will It End?

...cross posted from our sister site, DC Metro Moms Blog.

As an attorney who works in child abuse, I have tried to keep my mouth closed about the polygamist sect raid.  Considering I am intimately involved in taking people's children away, I felt my opinion was a little hypocritical.  But after reading this article in the Washington Post, I knew I had to speak.  (Or blog ).

I feel very strongly about child abuse.  I feel very strongly about taking children away from abusive situations.  But, you cannot remove children for "a way of life."  We used to do that, we stopped.

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