My competition.

This time of year, I have to share.

Inquiring minds want to know.

My blogger friend Janet has tagged me with an interesting set of questions.

What was I doing ten years ago?
Back in 1998, I was living in Omaha. I was planning the combined birthday party for Davis (3) and Reed (1) and had just found out I was pregnant with Max. (Can you imagine?) Business was beginning to get busier and I was starting to think about growth plans. Okay, that’s funny now that I read it because I was growing too! Andrew was traveling a ton – to SE Calif. working on a geothermal electric plant. My dad was sick (he recovered) so my parents couldn’t visit much that year. Fortunately I had some good friends. It was a lonely year.

5 snacks I enjoy
Mango Sorbet, Pretzels (with dip?), Strawberries, Sun Chips, and CHOCOLATE

Things I would do if I were a billionaire
Pay off all our stuff and put away for the boys college and future. Help family and friends. Start a foundation. Move to the country. And the city. But not over the top. And I’d have really nice shoes. And boots. Lots of boots.

5 jobs I have had
Fast Food Countergirl. Worked in magnet factory. Advertising Agency various jobs up to Partner at Bozell. Bartender. Waitress.

3 bad habits
Worry too much. Drink too much Diet Pepsi. Pick my cuticles.

5 places I have lived
Baltimore MD, Richmond VA, Owings Mills MD, Omaha NE, Columbia MD (I’m seeing a trend. Next stop is out of state again?)

5 people I want to know more about
Dorothy Height (book right here – need to read it!)
Penn Gillette (or is it the other one?)
Laila Ali
Emmylou Harris
Jerry Yang
(not so sure I love this answer, but it’s tough!)

NOW…who to tag??? How about this? If you want to pick this up, consider yourself tagged. Okay?

Have a great weekend and if you celebrate, I hope you have meaningful and nice Seder!

Memoir in six words.

Mom.
Friend.
Wife.
Geek.
Mary Sunshine.

Steakbellie tagged me with this challenge. Harder than it looks!

The rules:

1) Write your own six word memoir
2) Post it on your blog; include a visual illustration if you’d like
3) Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to the original post if possible
4) Tag at least five more blogs with links
5) Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

I’m tagging Kristin, EzerK, CruisinMom, Zandria, DJ Kirby.

We’re expecting!

The new haggadah.

We got a new haggadah for Seder this year. It’s the 30 Minute Seder. It was Andrew’s idea.

So he just asked me if I’d read the it yet. “No,” I said, “I don’t like to read ahead. I don’t want to ruin the ending.”

This is what 3 day of mahj looks like.

Now we’re all back to reality.

Why is this week different from all other weeks?

This is the week before Passover. If you don’t know about Passover, it’s about religious freedom and tells the story of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt. If you don’t know Passover, you don’t know about what matzo can do to you after 8 days. If you don’t know Passover, you don’t know the joy of a meal with four mandated glasses of wine.

The big meal to kick off the 8-day holiday is a Seder. Seder means ‘order.’ No, this does not mean we can order people to do stuff. The meal and readings and ceremonial dipping and tasting and drinking is all in a very specific order.

I love having family together. This year, it’s parts of our family. Not as many as usual. But we’re lucky that some of our friends will be joining us.

In fact, all 23 of them will be here in 140 hours and I haven’t planned the menu yet. I haven’t made the chicken soup (a necessity as far as I’m concerned) and I haven’t even bough the matzo.

More later. I’d better get moving. Time to get those recipes that a friend faxed over (thanks!) and the New York Times Passover cookbook (awesome) and all those clippings from years past.

Come to think of it, in preparation, I might even open a bottle of wine.

How I met your mother.

One of my favorite television shows is How I Met Your Mother. I don’t really know what day it is on. Or what channel or even what time. Andrew makes sure that every new episode ends up on the DVR and it works just fine. Truth is, I don’t know when anything is on for real except Survivor. And that’s just because it’s had that time slot for about a hundred years. But I digress.

I am at the tail end of a lovely weekend in St. Michael’s, Maryland, a beautiful old town on the eastern shore of Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay. I’m here with 3 other women. We’ve had a lot of time to talk. (and play Mahj and eat and…but more about this in another post)

One of the things I learned was how each of these women met their husbands. It was really fun and interesting to hear about this lifechanging event. About something that happened before our current lives. Before our collective 12 kids.

I’m not going to tell their stories. They are their stories. But one was a fun, spirited and extremely persistent attempt to make her dream come true. Another was a series of events that seemed a lot like beshert to me. I loved hearing about it all.

And without a doubt (well, who is ever totally without a doubt, but I really think so) we are 4 happy women. Women that are really content with our choices, our families, our lives.

And though I suppose it should not be all that rare, I think that it might be.

I am sick.

Today’s post is from a guest blogger. Ellen. This is her inaugural post… (Thanks Ellen!)

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Sick. Have you ever really thought about this word? It can have different meanings:

Sick, as in health: I have a fever, I’m sick.
Sick, as in cool and unusual: That skate board move was really sick!
Sick, as in figurative: The economy is sick.
Sick, as in pining: He was sick for the sight of her.
Sick, as in unnatural: He is a sick, twisted, and dark man.
Sick, as in emotion: I am sick of your mood swings!

Well, I AM SICK!!! I am sick of having to stay home and cancel all of my clients because two of my sons are home sick with the flu. I missed 5 days of work. My husband was traveling and couldn’t really help. He would of if he could, therefore he was SICK that I had to go it alone. I am SICK and tired of cleaning up all of the snotty tissues and being a one woman cleaning crew. Following behind them with Lysol and a trash bag. I’m SICK of feeling overwhelmed about the work I’m missing and how will I catch up? On top of that, my kids are SICK of being SICK!! They want to go to school. They are tired of seeing my face and watching the same T.V. shows every day. When will it ever end?

The one thing I am NOT SICK of… being the only thing the boys want around when they are sick. I’ll never grow sick of that.

Overheard on Twitter.

Adpuma wrote: I can handle one kid at a time beautifully. The idea behind having three was to discourage micromanagement. Worked well… Unmanageable.

reposted with permission.