Gen with a G and Me

Hey all! I just wrote a guest post for my friend Gen's blog.

I've made previous appearances on Gen's site. (Click here to read our riveting conversation about typecasting and vagina totes.) But this is the first time I've actually written a post. Check it out! And while you're there, take a few minutes to read through her archive. I think you'll like what you see. The writing is funny and honest...and she posts way more often than me. :)

 

Me and Gen, doing our best to minimize our double chins for the photo. 

Success rate?

Gen: 8.5 

Me: 1.2

One Muthah of a Mother's Day

I had the best Mother's Day ever.

The day began (after 11am! My husband ROCKS!) with Ann Sather cinnamon rolls, beautiful flowers, and two very eager girls that had been waiting hours for me to awake. I think I'd be more of a morning person if I were greeted every day with hugs and kisses and rousing choruses of "Happy Mother's Day!" and "Happy Valentine's Day!" (Sophie was a little confused) and "We love you SO MUCH!" ("It's light outside, get up!" or "Where's my breakfast?" or "I peed thru my pajamas again!" just doesn't have quite the same effect.)

The bouquet is surrounded by a flower each girl made for me out of wire and construction paper. Sophie keeps sniffing them and saying, "They smell just like purple, Mommy!" 

I received beautiful, personal, intimate, loving, tears-inducing cards from all three members of my family. They each picked out their own from the store. Sophie's card had kittens on it, of course. As soon as I read it, she took it back and declared that it was hers. (Gotta love a three-year-old's version of gift-giving.) Chris's card was the perfect mix of sappy and sweet and loving and amazing, of course. (Chris is the most astounding card-selector in the universe. He should hire himself out to all the clueless husbands out there that truly believe giving their wife a card with some barely-clad model on the front and the touching sentiment "Let's get it on!" inside is the perfect romantic gesture.) And Emma told me she picked her card - which extolled my virtues as a "sweet, kind, loving, patient, thoughtful, understanding, fun, smart, caring, nice" mom - because it "had the truth" on it. (I plan to keep this card and wave it in her face the next time she's screaming about how stupid I am during a time out. We moms need whatever weapons we can get our hands on, I say.)

Emma actually gave me several cards. She spent hours decorating her store-bought card with lots of lovely colors and designs. She even signed it, "I love you Mommy! With all my heart," which just about did me in. She also drew a picture of me with a dialogue bubble coming out of my mouth that said, "I love my dauter!" But I think my favorite gift from her was the letter that she wrote for me at school. The teacher instructed them to write whatever they wanted. Reading the letter, I thought to myself for about the zillionth time - how in the world did we make such fabulous kids? 

For those that can't read her writing, it says: 
"Dear Mom, This is going to be the best Mother's Day ever for you. You are the greatest mom anybody ever had. You are being nice by helping me control my anger. I am going to give you the best picture you have ever seen and look. Love, Emma"

I don't know what I did to deserve such an overabundance of love in my life, but I am so incredibly grateful for it. I can't help thinking what a different world we would live in if every person could experience such love, even if only for one day. 

Happy Mother's Day to every fabulous mother I know - and boy, do I know a lot! Bless your families, and bless YOU...you wonderful women!

Jokes, Jokes, Jokes

In the short video below, Sophie and Em each take a stab at making us laugh.

A little background:
You may recall from a recent post that Sophie's joke-telling skills need some honing. So my Dad taught her the classic knock knock joke about the banana and the orange. She loves it, but as you can see, she sometimes has a bit of trouble remembering the order.

A few hours before this video was taken, a discussion about marriage proposals ended with Chris and I sharing the story of our somewhat long and winding way to the alter. I believe that's where Emma's joke comes from. (They say the truth hurts, but sometimes the truth is just straight-up funny.)