Heather's Diary Entries

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10/10/06 - A quick update (finally!)

October 10, 2006

Wow, has it really been TWO MONTHS since I've posted?????

This will be a rambling entry with no headings or structure at all, since I'm crunched on time! My apologies if it reads like the rantings of a person with ADD!!

I know this is pretty much the default these days but I am not exaggerating when I say that things are INSANELY chaotic and busy for us this fall!

Steve and I are both traveling - it started in mid-September and won't end until December. One of us is gone almost every single week (sometimes at the same time), so you can imagine the upheaval that's caused in our house!

On top of that, we have 2 milestone birthdays this fall - my Mom's 50th on October 23rd and my brother-in-law's 30th birthday on November 4th. Steve and I are both hard at work on projects for the birthdays too, but I'll have to tell you about those after November 4th so I don't spoil the surprise! And for the final icing on the cake, the woman who is the room leader in the 3 year old room at church will be gone for the next 3 weeks, so I'm on point to lead the classes until November 1st.

Aidan is handling the unpredictability rather well, considering he is a boy who loves his routine! One week Daddy's home, the next he's gone, the next Mommy's gone...........every week brings a new adventure!

With everything that's going on, though, we are making some time for some fun fall activities!! Steve and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary this past weekend by going to a haunted hayride on a farm in Centerville, OH. It was awesome! Definitely not for little kids, though..........when masked men jumped onto the wagon with chainsaws, I was very glad that Aidan was spending the night with my parents. He would've freaked!

It was nice to get out and spend some husband-and-wife time together. I'm still so grateful to be married to somebody who lives a lot of the same things I do. Who else would agree to celebrating an anniversary by going on a haunted hayride on a cold October night? Who else completely understands my joy at sipping hot cider under the harvest moon??

Aidan is doing well - constantly singing little songs about pumpkins or Halloween or the alphabet. He is still just crazy about Thomas! Diesel is his favorite engine........it's way cute. I think for Christmas this year, Santa may be bringing lots of Thomas stuff! I think Steve might like the Thomas stuff more than Aidan (ha!).

Aidan is getting very clear on what he wants/doesn't like/etc. and isn't shy about telling you. He is constantly prompting us on what he'd like us to ask him - for example, this morning he got on the scale because he wanted to see what he weighs (36 pounds!) and when I told him the number, he ran out into the living room and said, "How much I weigh, Daddy?" and then Steve dutifully asked, "How much do you weigh Aidan?" That cracks me up.

Speaking of weight, I am FINALLY getting the baby weight off! Pretty sad when my "baby" will be 3 in December!! A few weeks back I finally hit the 25 pound mark at Weight Watchers. I still have another 25-30 pounds to lose before I'll be at my pre-pregnancy weight. It is coming off SO SLOW this time, though - mainly because finding the time to exercise is really hard for me (especially right now). I was doing pretty well at walking during my lunch hour at a minimum, but right now I am literally not finding even a half hour when I can walk. The big bummer about it is that this is my prime walking time - the leaves are starting to turn and walking in the woods is as much a spiritual experience as it is exercise! So I'm working on that..........I keep telling myself that losing it slow is better than not losing it at all.........or GAINING, which I can do very easily!

I'll hop on the soap box now very quickly and then I'll call it an entry!

Yesterday morning I heard something on the radio that I thought I'd share. It was Monday morning and I was on the highway coming to work, just like every other Monday. They were playing some clips on the radio from an interview Dr. Laura did with Larry King over the weekend. What she said completely bummed me out.

According to the good doctor, a woman's place is in the home. I've heard this very outdated viewpoint many times before and so that's not what bothered me. What bothered me what that she took it to an even greater extreme by declaring that you are not a parent if you're a working mom. "How can you be called a PARENT if you aren't PARENTING, Larry?" she asked. Larry King asked her about single mothers - how are they supposed to be with their kids constantly and provide for them? Her answer to that is that single mothers should move back in with their parents so that they can stay home. He also asked her about women who have to work. In her usual enlightened way, she said, "That is what I call a tragedy. And it is an all-too-common tragedy".

So I'm sitting on the highway with tears in my eyes, choking back the lump in my throat as I listen to this hag dumping guilt and shame on me for making my way to work so that I can provide for my family. I'm a tragedy! Not a parent! And then it occurred to me - this woman is trying to sell a new book, full of extremist views. Maybe she's trying to be controversial - to get any publicity she can to sell this turd of a book she's promoting. Bottom line - why am I letting this extremist idiot make me feel bad because my life was not so perfect that I could stay home and raise my child??

I would love to be home with Aidan, at least on a part-time basis, but I think it is a better example to him if I'm out working to provide for him rather than living in my parents' basement and sponging off of them. I'm just an average worker bee, struggling to pay the mortgage and keep food on the table for my family. I'm not leaving him every day because I don't want to be with him.

Dr. Laura had all sorts of retarted wisdom to dole out in that interview - extremist views on divorce, on how women should never turn away their husbands no matter how tired they are, etc. Just really ignorant. It occurred to me that she obviously has no frame of reference to make such statements. If she had ever gone through a divorce, she wouldn't be so quick to stereotype every divorcee. If she had to work a day job when she had kids, then she would have the wisdom to understand the hard decisions that working moms have to make every day. It just kind of shocked me that a woman of her age had such strong opinions on things she's never experienced. I'm only in my 30s and if I've learned nothing else at all in this life, it's not to judge another person if you haven't walked the same path they have. Maybe I should write a book and mail it to her.

So in short - Dr. Laura SUCKS! I wouldn't use her book to line my cat's litter box!

And on that note, I'll wish you all a great fall!!!

Heather & Aidan

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Heather's Diary Entries

10/10/06 - A quick update (finally!)

October 10, 2006

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