Family

The Half Years

When Declan turned two, we held our breath. Everyone knows about the famous Terrible Two's right? But they didn't come. Until two and a half. Then three came and righted the ship again. Until three and a half. Which, upon further investigation, is a well-kept…

Rejection Through The Ages

Rejection always has been a hot button issue for me. It wounds more than anything could, twisting my heart like a dishrag and dripping all the dirty sudsy water right into my stomach, giving me a very queasy feeling. Oddly enough, I actually think rejection…

Stranger Danger

I always get annoyed as people flip out when as child goes missing somewhere. Don't get me wrong, I feel terrible; it's a horrible thing and the world is certainly not a safe place. But it's also a relatively rare thing. The chances of a…

Digging Up Memories

There is a famous story in my family. It goes something like this: My Oma, who was known her firm hand as much as her hearty laugh, decided that my Aunt Heidi would play the accordion. It didn't matter that Heidi wanted to play the…

I thought I left this crap back in high school.

Yesterday morning, Declan skipped over to me chipper as you please and said, "Mama! I learned a new song at afterschool care yesterday!" I was thrilled! New songs = good! "Let's hear it!," I exclaimed!That's alright! That's OK! You're gonna pump our gas someday!I kept…

Tante Trina

The calls from Germany just keep coming. Today, we got the news that my great-great-aunt Tante Trina passed away. When I say great-great-aunt, she was the youngest sister in the line of 10 children where my great-grandmother was the oldest - making Trina and my…

Kindergarten is the New 6th Grade

One of Declan's homework assignments last night was to draw an outline of himself and then correctly draw where his internal organs were. I swear to God, the only one we told him to do were his intestines. We figured they needed to "represent" given…