New Jersey Moms Blog

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......

Kung Fu Panda-monium

Our contributors from the New York City Moms Blog, New Jersey Moms Blog and the DC Metro Moms Blog with their families, compliments of HP and DreamWorks, celebrated the release of the new movie Kung Fu Panda. The kids made their way through activity centers, nibbled on food and then joined in with the special performers, the "Kung Fu Panda" dancers as they performed the "Pandamonium". We loaded the public pictures from the events on group rooms we created at Snapfish.com for NYC/New Jersey Moms Blog and DC Metro Moms. Listed below are the related posts from the event:

DC Metro Moms Bloggers:

Nicole posted at BananaBlueberry

Jodi posted at Jodifur

Leticia posted at Tech Savvy Mama

Robin posted at My Life As It Is

Niki posted at the DC Metro Moms Blog

Jean posted at Stimeyland

KC posted at Where's My Cape

Linda posted at Monkey Business

New Jersey Moms bloggers:

Fiona Charles posted at Mommyvents

Lynette posted at  Lynette Radio

Vanessa posted at Chefdruck Musings

New York City Moms bloggers:

Amy O posted at Selfishmom

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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Lost Catholic Mom Looking for Direction: Pope, Can you Help?

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

I found myself glued to the Pope's DC visit this morning while running on the treadmill. I even started to tear up a bit when I heard the familiar hymns. Maybe it was the number of people (46,000) who had flocked here or the perfect April day for the outdoor mass. Whatever it was I raced home to listen to the mass on NPR. The Pope is huge for Catholics, although the Catholic Church has been hit a bit in the past few years, the Pope still is such symbol of hope for me. My own hope of finding God in my changing life--now with young children. 

I was a child raised in the Catholic Church with parents who were noncommittal to the whole thing. They stopped taking me to church in 8th grade. By high school I missed it and found myself back, only going alone. I spent several years trying to decide what I believed and wanted to be a part of. During college, I was Confirmed Catholic and decided to make a go of it. My husband claims to be no religion, though raised in a fairly strict Catholic household agrees it's good for our kids to be raised Catholic and so we baptized them both in the Church.

But now I find myself lost again.

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