Mommy-ness

I saw a video online a few weeks ago that made me lose 4 hours of sleep the night I saw it. That's a pretty impressive feat considering I'm tired preggo woman. But let me first make a confession. Bear with me because it'll all tie in in a second.

I'm obsessed with the USWNT (U.S. Women's National Soccer Team). I've been a fan since I was 14. My yahoo e-mail address is named after the former captain of the USWNT who was a mom, and, at least to my understanding, stopped playing so she could focus on raising her children more.

I look forward to the Olympics and the FIFA Women's World Cup to see all these amazing women play their hearts out. My current fav is forward Abby Wambach--one of the best players in the world. Imagine seeing that running full speed at you. All 5'10 of her:




You get the picture though. I love the game and the team!

So anyway, back to the reason why I lost so much sleep! The video I watched was an interview with U.S. Women's National Soccer Team players Kate Markgraf and Christe Rampone, who both had children while they were on the USWNT, and both came back to play.

Here they are -- Kate and Christine in a post-Olympics shot with their kids:


Here's the sound byte that caused my insomnia:

"I think when you still love to do what you want to do, you don't want to let kids get in the way of that or stop you, because you know you'll always look back with regret."
-Kate Markgraf, U.S. Women's National Soccer Team


Basically the message of the video was "don't let children stop you from your career or your "life." [click here to see the video. At 1:19 is where the discussion begins]

So What?
So, what is it about that quote that made me lose sleep?

First off, that quote by Kate is not anything that she and Christine can, as the only moms on the team, uniquely say. All of the other players on the team (married or not) who don't have kids can say the exact same thing: "I'm not letting kids stop me from my career as a soccer player." Every woman on the USWNT could honestly say that.

So what do I think might be a sound-byte more fitting of their unique position as moms? How about Kate's statement reversed? "Don't let your dreams/career/life stop you from having kids." Now that is a position that can be theirs alone to offer. And it's a much better one! How many women today can really claim that having and raising kids was their #1 priority and that's what they devoted their time to? What an honor to be able to say that.

Can't Blame Them
I honestly can't blame any woman for taking the view that kids should come only when you're done doing what you want to do. I was totally on the same page not too long ago. It sounds appealing. Anyone who knew me growing up, or heck, even when I was grown up, knew that I did NOT like kids. I tried to avoid babysitting at all costs. When I was engaged to Nathan I apparently told him that I thought kids were, "puking balls of flesh." He loves telling people that. :) (Now I think that pregnant women fit that description better...)

But, one of the reasons I wanted to start a family was because this world needs good, stalwart, "warriors" to fight off all the immorality and sneaky-but-believable false ideas out there, and help others see them too. Our happiness and our society's stability depends on it.

I used my artistic abilities to show what I want mine and Nathan's little "child-warriors" to be like:

How do you get kids who can discern between the good and the bad? I think parents have more to do with it than we think! I knew that by having Nathan as a dad, my kids would be in good hands. And even though I didn't really like the idea of being a mom, I knew I'd have a good man beside me. At this point, my feelings went something like this:

wife = fun!; mom = slave + ick.

(On a random side note, if I were to solve for "mom" in that last equation, I think it'd be mom - slave - ick = nothing. Hmmm....what does it mean????!)

Well, along came Avery, and that's when it all changed. I still love being a wife, but being a Momma has made being a wife even more enriching than I ever thought possible. So now, it's:

wife = gnarly; mom = super duper cool.

And what could be better than that?

Don't tell Avery that we're raising her to be a "warrior" though because that might give her nightmares. Maybe you can tell her when she's older, like maybe 6.

I am now stepping off my soapbox.

Gypsy Horses!

I read my last post. Wow. Boring. So, I'm writing a new one so you don't have to go read the previous post. Unless you really, really, really want to. But if you do, you'll probably end up thinking that I'm a boring person.

Well, I guess that video of Avery wasn't boring.

So this is a real post that explains what I do now with my days, sick and in bed.

1. Blogs. I check my blog list every twenty minutes to see if any of my friends have posted a new blog post. Ya'll don't post nearly enough. I enjoy at least four posts per week, people! Jeesh.

2. FB stalking. I stalk people I don't really even care that much about on Facebook through status updates, notes, posts, pictures. It usually starts out with a benign thought like, "Hmmm...I haven't seen this person in a decade. I wonder what they're doing..." Then I waste unprecedented amounts of time finding out. If there's not enough info on their profile page to tell where they are and what they're doing with their life now, I read past comments on their wall and check out their pics to help me piece together whatever info I can.

3. KSL. I check KSL.com's "Free" section in the classifieds every hour.

4. ESPN.com. I check out ESPN's site to see who won NFL and MLB games. Why? I don't know. I don't really care that much. For some reason, I all of the sudden have a substantial amount of pride for my Minnesota teams.

5. Email. I check ALL my email accounts at least ten times per day. I've never gotten so excited over a massive group chain email before. And what's worse, I actually read it. (Luckily I haven't gotten to the point where I actually pass it on...yet) :/

6. Food. I eat a lot. Today I've eaten raisin bran, a bagel, an orange, prunes, pineapple, pizza, OJ, milk, ice water (it HAS to be ice water, otherwise it makes me want to throw up), a Cafe Rio burrito, cheerios, a yogurt, vanilla wafers, lemon drops, and ginger snaps. And, I can't eat the same thing twice...so I spend 90% of my day thinking about what I could possibly eat next (the other 10% is spent Facebook- and blog- stalking people).

7. Pointless news articles. I read lots of useless news articles. This usually leads me to some long internet search strand where I go from site to site trying to find out more of that certain topic I read about. This normally isn't a bad thing, but considering how much time I spend doing it, it is for me. For example, I read a news article about gypsies this morning. Then I had to look up pictures of gypsies on Google Images because I wanted to see what real gypsies look like nowadays. This is what I found:


And this one, too. What is this? A gypsy horse??


And of course:


Hmmm...I don't think I learned anything about gypsies today.

Anyway, that's how I spend my days. I'm sure there's more to add to this list, but it weirds me out just reading it. I'm now one of those strange adults who spends most of their day on the internet doing nothing.

So, I've decided I'm going to stop being addicted. I don't know if I can just only get on once a day, but I'll be on less. This is a nice way of letting lots of random people know so I have some sort of accountability.

What will I do instead? I'm going to read more books (I've only read two since I've been sick). I'm going to study for my social work clinical licensure exam that all my classmates from grad school have already taken and passed.

Oh, and I designed my friend's business card who is starting a floral design business in Logan. She picked the image, and I used my very limited knowledge of Adobe Illustrator to put the card together. I had fun doing that. Here's how it turned out:


Anyway, I'm going to do productive things now. Maybe I'll even write a report on gypsies.

Knights of Mayhem

This actually happened at the end of the school year last year, and I never posted it. This traveling troupe called "Knights of Mayhem" came to the school Nathan teaches at and did some really cool stuff. What is "cool stuff" you ask? Well, jousting, sword fighting, and all that other medieval jazz you see in movies!


The lead guy won the world championships in lancing and was a former Navy SEAL. He's the real deal. I think he said his horse's name was "Buddy the Weiser." See why?


I came with Avery to see some of the action. I love when Nathan has cool assemblies at his school! It's so fun!


The Weather was cold and rainy. Most of the poor kids didn't bring any coats to school because it had been warm earlier in the morning. Avery didn't seem to mind the rain; it was the cheering she didn't really like.

Avery Doesn't Want to be a Princess


























Jousting


This lady had a great view of the action!


FREEDOM!!!















The Assembly Inside

Sword Fighting


Heavy Lance


Holly the Guinea Pig


A Very Heavy Lance



















PSST! Kids! Look interested!