Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day, so in our household it meant that Jason went fishing and later on we went down to my parent's house for a fish fry. To me Mother and Father's Day are Hallmark holidays and here's why:

I don't think you truely realize how much your own parents ever did for you, until you become a parent yourself. Prior to kids you realize your parents forked over money when you asked (politely), they wondered where you were most nights, every once in a while they expected you to show up at a family gathering here or there, and they were always concerned about your well-being and that's about all you really thought they did. Not until you carry the responsibilities of your own children do your realize that so much more went into being a mother or a father-and you can finally appreciate ALL that your parents have done and continue to do for you. And you learn to appreciate those things on a daily basis, not just one day out of the year.

To me there's really nothing to celebrate, because we "celebrate" almost every day of the year. No gift or monetary value can define Father's Day, just simple acts of kindness, or a thank you where it's warranted are constant reminders of how lucky we are to have children, a father, or grandfather.

The simple things

There's nothing better than engaging in a conversation with a 3 year old, it reminds you how simple and innocent life can really be. I'm fortunate to have these conversations on a daily basis, here are a few:

Mom (while Alex brushes his teeth): one, two, buckle my shoe. . .

Alex: three, four, pick up stix, seven, eight, pick up stix. . . you get the idea

Mom: what's your name?

Alex: Alex Wuest

Mom: what's sissy's name?

Alex: Sissy Wuest

Mom: basically speaking about any healthy food item

Alex: Alex, no no like (fill in the blank w/ your healthy item)

And my personal favorite. . .

Mom (anytime I'm disciplining): Alex, I'm not going to tell you again

Alex (said in a fake/nice/guilty voice): Aw, mommie I loves you (he's got this one down pat)

Spring Madness

Instead of March Madness, the only thing I could think for a title this time around was Spring madness. I haven't posted for a few weeks, and in those few weeks I've managed to:

• -Complete a summer interim course on Windows Servers in 4 days
  -Went "up north" for a weekend
  -Met a fellow friend from my Mommy's board in person
  -Watched Laura cut her 3rd tooth
  -Given Alex numerous timeouts-terrible 3's are hard when they get on a role

Might not seem like a lot, but it's the gist of my life for the last few weeks. Summer is pretty much here, for us it signifies playing outside for as long as we can, watching my niece's and nephew play baseball, swimming, getting up north more, and just enjoying the outdoors in general.

Summertime also means my busiest time at work, right now I'm configuring systems for the upcoming lease, determining needs, meeting technology requests throughout campus, meanwhile figuring out how it will all fit into our "budget". We'll place the equipment orders mid June and then run around w/ chickens with our heads cut off from mid July until classes resume in the Fall. Hopefully things won't be as frantic, as this will be the first lease cycle in the 7 years that I've worked at RC-that we will not be on a tight timeline to return the old systems. Generally we receive new systems, and have a month to refresh, wipe, box and return old systems-this year the lease falls so that we don't have to send the old one's back til December-leaving us some breathing room on the lease end of things, and more time to devote to projects on campus.

I'm only taking one Monday night Economics course this summer, so for the most part-it should be a relaxing summer. My goals for the summer: 1) hopefully Alex will be able to swim by the end of summer, and 2) get Laura's hair in a ponytail-those seem pretty attainable:).