Episode 1: Mother's Day.
I love my mom. She's taught me so many things, like for instance, how to cook without measuring, I do the 'little bit here', 'dash there' thing all the time. It frustrates Drew sometimes when he asks me how to make something and I never know quantities. So for mother's day, reflecting on my own mother's experiences-- my life in review looked something like this:
At 5 years old: make ridiculous gift- likely ugly Christmas tree ornament for mom, she accepts, slaps a smile on her face and graciously says thank you as though I've just handed over a string of pearls. Said ornament continues to show up on "downstairs" tree for years to come. I wonder who made the ugly thing.
Flash forward to 12, tween-days. Mother's day comes around, spend the day 'pretending' to be appreciative. Instead wonder how I ended up with such a horrible life. ugh. Tweens are so terribly dramatic. Sorry mom. I pretty sure I was particularly full of shit at that point.
Flash forward to 16/17 or so. Spend mother's day, as usual, at the Mother's Day matinee for whatever show the high school is putting on (Sound of Music, Maybe?). I'm in the show, covered with three inches of pancake makeup and as I'm approaching back stage for opening curtain I see friends giving their mom's flowers. It occurs to me I've totally forgot, and not only have I totally forgot, my younger siblings had no idea it was mother's day without my help. Its the end of the day, and we haven't even said "happy mother's day". Still feel shitty about that one. Bigger Sorry mom.
Flash forward to 24/25. Settling into life, newly married, excited to be a mom. Start to realize how fantastic my mom was in my life growing up. Hmmm. How is it that the culmination of realizing my mom's tolerance, love and generosity were enormous, took, oh say, 25 years. Plan to pray for my own kids not to be so dense. Sorry again mom. In a nutshell, I love you. It took me a long time to grow to the person I am now, but I'm very happy and attribute so much of that to your love.
Episode Two: The shiny new car.
So it has been on our minds for awhile to purchase a new car. Our family will expand one day and I'd like to be able to get to the back seat of the vehicle without turning on my hazards like a John Deere tractor, slowing to 35, pulling over, straddling the seat and falling into the backseat to determine what exactly it was that made Collin cry in the first place. So off we went to see cars while Lori and Pete watched the little man. We had already discussed what we were in the market for--I was not about to be part of the soccer mom variety sporting school bumper stickers and a personalized vehicle-only kiddie menu in place of my sanity, complete with four automatic doors that slide on a minivan, thank you very much. No Odyssey, Town and Country or Sienna for us. We were exclusively looking at crossovers. We've even narrowed it down to the Chevy Traverse or Buick Enclave because we get the lovely friends and family discount (thanks Uncle Pete!), so really, how hard could it be?!?
I thought, 3 hours MAX and we'll have a good idea of what we want. 8 hours later I was trying to poke my own eyes out.
Hour 1: Look at every tiny detail on Chevy Traverse while sales lady continues to banter us about purchasing a car. Continue to tell her over and over we're not buying until we see other cars at other dealerships. Said sales later tries to extrude early literacy advice from me while test-driving cars, all the while I'm thinking, what do I get in this exchange? Reduced APR???
Hour 3: Move on to Walser Buick to see the Enclave. Meet snotty sales lady and her side kick. Side kick is especially douche-like. Can't handle sitting in front of him for more than 10 minutes. After asking for a quote on paper, which he refused to provide, we leave. Both of them are sweating "my shit doesn't stink and you'll buy a car on our terms" airs. Sort of makes me want to throw up in one of their cars.
Now were cranky because of dealership and because we're starving because we wasted another hour at this place. Boo Hiss.
Hour 5: Wander into Whitebear lake superstore (read Buick) dealership with trepidation. Fear the Enclave cockiness is ingrained in all sellers of the vehicle. Wait for sales man to approach us. We're ready for the punches to fly. But, surprisingly, its a whole different atmosphere at this dealership. This guy doesn't seem to think that Buick Enclaves are to be auctioned off to the highest bidder....So we start to get serious and he totally wins us over. This sales guy talks us out of navigation package and DVD package. We're a little bit surprised, but glad to see there are some Minnesota nice folks still out there who believe in customer service. So after hours of adjusting prices, meeting our needs and trying really hard to stay patient and positive (after financing, insurance, tax, title, and other necessary crap) we finally left the dealership driving a brand new, lovely and spectacular Buick Enclave.
A month later I still am completely in love with this car, which makes us confident that we've made the right decision. We're planning to have this car around for a long long time, so our investment is for the long haul hopefully hasn't been in vain :)
Episode Three: Collin's Cough
A few weeks before Collin's first birthday, (about a week before he was supposed to get his one year shots) we woke up to a sad little face troubling to breathe, with that awful wheezy, bark-y cough hoping for our help at 3 a.m. It was on a Wednesday, so at three a.m., in a panic, with Collin equally panicky about not being able to breathe- we set up camp in the bathroom with a never-ending steam bath emanating from our our shower head. By about 5 a.m. he was breathing better, but I was convinced my adorable baby had made it nearly to a year without so much as a cold and now we were paying for it with Croup. So, on Thursday morning we made an appointment and wandered into see our Doctor. Unfortunately for us, our regularly happy and helpful doctor was off for the day, so we'd be seeing another doctor, who was less than cheery. After two minutes of listening to Collin breathe and asking us to describe his "bark" she determined it wasn't croup, just an "awful virus" and there was nothing to do for it. We were less than satisfied :( Two weeks later, one rescheduling of 1 year shots and lots of nights of a misserable baby our little guy was still barking. So, at his one year shots appt we asked again, only to hear, its just a virus, and we might be waiting for up to two weeks for it to get better...Three days later, Memorial day weekend began, our family flooded Minnesota and everyone was worried for Collin's cough. So, on and on, a total of three weeks later (that's 21 whole days!) it was finally starting to wane. I hate having a sick baby! We felt so guilty that we couldn't do anything for him while he coughed and coughed. I feel doubly awful for those families that have babies who catch colds, viruses and get sick so early in life. What a stressful and exhausting journey back to health.
Episode Four: Michiganders in Minnesota
Collin's first birthday was actually on the 21st of May, but since the holiday was approaching quickly and our family had a long way to travel, we moved his birthday party to the 29th, to have it while everyone was here to visit. So, across the miles came Nana and Papa Wackerle, Auntie Andrea and Uncle Nathan, Nathan's girlfriend Faya, her daughter Jayla and from Milwaukee, Grandpa and Grandma Hollman. We were so blessed to have family and friends in town and we enjoyed the wonderful weekend together- a birthday party, a trip to the zoo and lots of time with family he rarely gets to see. Collin loved having everyone here, was spoiled by being held and played with 24/7. Collin didn't seem to get the whole "blow the candle out" thing, and really wasn't into the cake so much, but really enjoyed all of his new toys.
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