Flashback Friday

In honor of Margaret and Tim's day on the slopes, I thought we'd enjoy a little flashback to another family ski trip!

This is my gift to you. Read it and feel better about your parenting. Much better.

Flashback Friday-- TMI

For Flashback Friday, we're digging into the archives for a post about one of my favorite subjects-- The Gyno. Originally posted 10-13-08.

With school in session, I can take care of a lot of things I put off during the summer, things I don't want to have the kids around for. I'm thinking haircuts, doctors' appointments, the dentist. This has not always been the case. If you are an at-home mom with little ones, you have probably taken your kids lots of places you wish you hadn't. Even a trip to the grocery store can be a major pain.

I remember taking both kids to the gyno with me when they were little. This, of course, would not have been my first choice, but circumstances prevented my getting a sitter that day and off we went. Now a pregnancy visit is one thing-- pee in a cup, the weigh-in, a little feeling of the tummy. This was an annual exam.

The waiting room wasn't bad, although I wonder if a few of the pregnant women were self-righteously thinking, "MY kids will never act like that!"
Does this happen to you? When the waiting room time is over, you think you're close to seeing a doctor, but instead you are tucked into a tiny examining room, told to strip, and then you wait for a seemingly interminable length of time. Maybe it just seems long because of the lack of pants.

When you are on your own, you can artfully fold your little pile of clothes on a chair, pull the paper robe around you and read old copies of Good Housekeeping. With an 18 month and a three year old in tow, you are simply on germ and damage patrol.

Keeping order in such a small space was nearly impossible for me. Within seconds, my neat pile of clothes hit the floor and Molly started caressing the Sharps container. When I got her away from that, she tried to lick the stirrups. Ugh. Three year old Jake was easier to restrain. Sure, at one point he opened the door to expose me in my paper-gowned glory to folks in the hallway, but I actually think that helped get the doctor in sooner.

During my exam, Jake asked, "Mommy, why does that man have his hand in your bottom?" Yikes. I quickly thrust an old National Geographic at him. "Here, read about the pretty zebras." My exam was brief, to say the least, and after the doctor's hasty retreat, I retrieved my clothes from the floor and began to dress.

Jake soon had another question, "Mommy, why are these people all bloody?" Yep, zebras may have been on the cover, but the magazine was documenting a massacre, in full color.

For those of you in the throes of toddlerhood and preschool, I wish for you unencumbered visits to the gyno, the dentist, and maybe even to get a pedicure. The day will come when you can do all these things on your own again. I know we aren't to wish away our kids' childhoods, but I think in certain circumstances it's okay.

Flashback Friday-- Feeling Groovy

Flashback Friday. The past few Fridays I’ve been confessing what an easily annoyed jerk I am. This Friday I’m taking a break to remember simpler times, and share a picture that makes me giggle. Check out Flashback Friday posts by other bloggers here.

1n 1992 I was in grad school in North Carolina. I worked at Blockbuster and made $3.10 an hour plus all the movies I could rent— VHS of course. The extra .10 an hour was because I was a college graduate. Tom was an undergrad working in a lab. We were friends for a few months before we started dating, usually just meeting at my apartment for pizza, beer and 90210.

I remember arriving at a Halloween party with some friends and being greeted by 2 guys with ripped jeans wearing carved pumpkins on their heads. Upon seeing one particularly hairy set of legs through the rips, I remember thinking, “Whoa… those are some pretty hairy legs.” Little did I know, those legs would one day be mine. By the time Tom and I threw the groovy 70’s party pictured above, I was not only digging the hairy legs, but was falling hard for the rest of him too.

Back in those days, we did such sweet things for each other. I remember his knocking on my apartment window at 2 in the morning to deliver a surprise of Little Debbie Swiss Cake rolls while I studied. The mix tapes we played on impossibly large boom boxes. The home cooking. Sneaking kisses in the library. I did sweet things for him like picking all the pistachios out of his pudding when he had his wisdom teeth removed, and baking him a heart shaped cake for our 1 year “anniversary of dating.”

When this picture was taken, we had so few responsibilities. Although we had almost no money, we always seemed to have more than enough. We would extend ourselves for each other and keep no tally sheet. While in those days I would eagerly sit in a science lab with him waiting for his test-tubes to do whatever they were supposed to do just so we could be breathing the same air, today he sits on his computer upstairs, and I’m downstairs on mine.

So, as we enter this weekend of kids and sports and fundraisers and work, I’m going to remember that 21 and 22 year old and how much fun they had when this picture was taken. Digging through the Salvation Army bins for polyester pants and the perfect 70’s prom dress. Reserving my first (and only?) keg at the local dive bar. Speculating about whether a guest’s Member’s Only jacket was a costume or an unironic fashion choice. Doing the Hustle and wishing everyone else would leave so we could slow dance alone in all our double-knit glory…

This picture puts a smile on my face and makes me want to forget for a while the mortgage, the 2 adorable kids sleeping upstairs, and the barfing dog and remember what it was like to be young and right in the middle of falling in love.

Kind of makes me want to go grab Tom from upstairs, pop Jurassic Park in the (still working) VCR and open a Corona.