Thursday, October 27, 2011

Time Machine Trip 3: Don't Call Me a Housewife!

Today's Time Machine Trip will summarize my first three months as a stay at home mom, leading up to October when we left for LA.  Notice that I didn't refer to myself as a housewife.  Or a homemaker.  Terms I am okay with are stay at home mom, butt wiper, nose blower and fight defuser.

I won't lie.  My first two weeks at home with the boys while Adam traveled were less than awesome.  At the time, I was still working 20 works per week from home for my employer to help them through the transition of me separating from the company.  They are a small company and needed time to find my replacement.  This alone kept me very stressed out.  Add to this the transition that the boys were feeling after leaving the babysitter that they really loved, the fact that Adam was never there and I NEVER got a break and that, probably most importantly, I was L-O-N-E-L-Y.  I had no adults to talk to throughout the week.  I truly appreciate "me time."  I need it.  But I neeeeeeeed people.

Of course, I didn't realize that I was lonely for a few weeks.  I just thought I had been hit over the head hard with the transition.  Once I caught on to what was happening, though, I found people and was right back on track.  Which people?  My amazing friend Crystal (who is also housesitting for us in Ohio) had just moved back from Buenos Aires, Argentina.  She needed somewhere to stay, and I needed a lover.  I'm kidding, of course, but she did stay with me most nights while Adam was out of town during the month of August.  She was a life saver.  I also stalked my neighbors.  The boys and I would take bike rides or walks around the neighborhood and talk to anyone that would say hi.  I'm sure I quickly became the neighborhood nut job.

In September, Jonah went back to school for his final year at Minds in Motion Academy.  We had been looking forward to it all summer.  Having to get up, ready and to school by 9:00 every morning was great.  I saw adults everyday and had a break from being alone with two kids by myself.  I still had Jude but he's so easy, especially without Jonah to fight with.  Jonah is pretty awesome by himself too, but together they are a real handful!

Social things just kept happening.  I got several party planning jobs (I'll blog more about this later).  I met a new friend, the mom of one of Jonah's classmates.  We actually met the previous school year but really hit it off this year.  We would get together to let the kids play while we drank coffee and talked about the bizarre number of things we have in common.  In the month before leaving for LA, we would meet each Friday morning for coffee WITHOUT KIDS (well, she brought her newborn daughter but she didn't throw tantrums or run around the coffee shop so it didn't count).  And she lives right down the street!  And her husband is a big computer geek just like Adam.  Super great!

Once I got over the shock of the transition, learned to stop getting involved in every sibling fight and found my people, I was really enjoying the new SAHM gig.  I stayed super busy with our new landscaping that we planted (I'll share all these pics in a separate entry), staining the deck, fence and swing set, doing various crafty projects and then, towards the end, getting everything situated to leave for LA.  I like things busy so I guess this was just the right pace for me.

Adam and I tried to be realistic about this new life.  We knew it was very likely that he wouldn't like traveling and being away from us.  We knew there was a possibility that I would lose my mind at home with the boys and choose to go back to work.  However, so far so good.  Adam does miss the boys and me but enjoys his work and handles the travel soooo well.  And I don't want to go back to work, although I think I do lose a little of my mind each day:)

Alright, I think we may be done with the Time Machine trips.  I have a few more things from the summer to share but I'll just blog as usual about those.  And I promise they will be shorter blog entries.  Then, I'll catch you up on all of our adventures here in LA.

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