Author: Doris

Happy 4th birthday Edda!

Last year at the Rett Syndrome Strollathon’s silent auction, my mother-in-law won a birthday party performance of Miss Belle, a local children’s singer songwriter. Since Edda’s birthday was spring break last week, I arranged for Miss Belle to come to Edda’s school today to perform.

I was a little nervous because I had never met Miss Belle before or seen her act before, but she was a smash hit, perfect for a bunch of special needs kids.

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Here they sing Happy Birthday to Edda…

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Vincent, who has been bugging me all year to spend time at Edda’s school, played hooky this morning and also had fun seeing Miss Belle.

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Looking for a match.

So our wonderful nanny is leaving us. During spring break, while we were away, she took her nursing exam and passed and already has hospitals clamoring for her talents. We are very excited for her, but we are sad to see her go as she helped us through the some critical work transitions which were nerve-wracking for us.

Now that we have settled down a bit and our jobs are more steady and flexible in a predicable manner, we thought that we might match with an au pair. I spoke with the placement manager from the au pair agency we are working with and I gave her this blog address to give to folks who might be willing to live with us and look after Vince and Edda, so if you are here reading for the first time and are considering being our au pair, well, welcome to Just Regular Folks!

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Traveling light.

Jeremy travels heavy and I travel light. Years ago, when we first met and I was living in San Jose and he was living in Pasadena, we used to take the 1 hour Southwest flight to see each other for the weekend. He would actually pack a suitcase. I would pack an extra pair of underwear.

This has continued on throughout our marriage, I have been accused to swiping sweatshirts, PJs and shampoo when I have run out of the things I have packed. Since the children, Jeremy has taken over the family packing and carefully considers the required items for each trip.

Because the spring break trip required me to travel alone with the kids and Jeremy had flown first – I was in charge of the packing and thus I did the exact opposite of what I normally do and I packed all the clothing I could find. Jeremy just about had a cow when he saw the 2 monstrous packs that I had stuffed full.

On another note, my parents, with the best of intentions and trying to help me with luggage and the kids and wanting to delay saying goodbye, made it almost all the way through to the X-ray machines going through two or three ID/security checkpoints.

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Photos are forthcoming.

Due to some technical difficulties, my photos are taking their sweet time getting loaded. I took over 600 photos – Jeremy is patiently moving some old stuff to make room for the new stuff. And things are slow uploading to flickr, so maybe tomorrow will be the vacation recap.

Vacations spent in a house in the country with extended family can be stressful, even when everyone is being nice to each other.

Today, it was nice to be back at work.