Friends

Prior to moving to the city in which we now reside, Rich and I moved three times in two years. During the last two moves, I was pregnant. Really pregnant. The kind of pregnant where people not jokingly say, "Don't have that baby while you're moving that box." So, not only was moving less than fun, we never had time to establish many long friendships and community ties.

Alright, it's me writing this blog. I made friends when we lived in these places, I won't lie. But it's different here.

Now, my family has a support system of friends. People that cheer when our kids are doing well and cry with us when my grandma died. We have a church full of people with generous hearts and amazing personalities. We have family that is close enough and willing enough to make trek back and forth so we can celebrate holidays and milestones together.

Friends. People to invite over to a Super Bowl Party....who are genuinely concerned about the state of our marriage post-game. Crazy and wonderful people who take all four our children as one big group so Rich and I can have conversations that do not start with "It's your turn to deal with ____" or give us relief from dividing up the map of our town and having a contest to see who can take the kids to the most places the fastest on a Monday night.

These friends also entrust their children to us for the day or the night or to ring in 2011. It's wonderful to watch all these kids grow and hear them laugh (plot) at our house. There are times I am curious whose plan for utter and total world domination is going to succeed. I haven't the heart to them I have been hatching my own plan for years....

There are also friends that I maintain contact with through email and facebook that are no less dear to my heart. We celebrate and commiserate via electronic communication; one of the more useful ways I have utilized advances in technology.

I wake up so grateful for the blessings that these friendships have brought into the lives of our family. On the best of days, raising four kids to be amazing people is a daunting task; it is a wonderful feeling to know Rich and I have so many family and friends to help and encourage us on this wild journey called parenthood.

For Love of the Game

When Rich and I were first married, we went spent our first Easter together in Pittsburgh with his family. Me, never having been to Pittsburgh, was eager to see the sights. Rich, having grown up in the Pittsburgh area, was eager to show them to me. Alice, Rich's sister, was eager to stay home with a then six-month old Jonathon and spoil him rotten while we went sight seeing.

So, Rich and I set out to explore Steel City. I have to say Pittsburgh is an amazing city, like all big, older cities are wont to be. One of Rich's most favorite things to show me during our tour was Three Rivers Stadium. Every time we drove past ANYTHING he would reference in relation to Three Rivers Stadium.

"Look there's the old Clark Building....it's xxxx miles from Three Rivers Stadium." "Oh, that's the Carnegie Building...It's xxxx distance from Three Rivers Stadium" "Oh! Wow! (still driving the car, bending over me to look) Look out your window....We're driving right past Three Rivers Stadium!!!"

You get the idea. I was amused....and I totally got it....being from the fine football tradition of the Green Bay Packers myself...it was a classic case of a person taking pride in their team and their city.

So...between seeing the sights and yep, Three.Rivers.Stadium, Rich thought it would be super cool to ride the Duquesne Incline up to Mount Washington. He told me I would be able to see to fountain where the confluence of the actual three rivers meet...."You know the fountain that Al Micheals always shows on Monday Night Football." (Rich really said that.....I swear to Gawd.)

Rich was right: I loved the incline. We arrived at the top of Mount Washington and the view of the city is stunning. People watching was also fun: There were couples up there with arms around each other. There were generations of families talking to each other. There were older couples holding hands. And.....

There was my husband, looking over his city, proud and excited, beckoning me over:

"Amie, Amie, you have to see this!!"

Me (thinking he found the fountain) (excited): "What?!?"

Rich (eyes glittering, joyous, Christmas morning excited): "You can see inside of Three Rivers Stadium from here! That.is.so.COOL!!

Me (jaw open): burst of laughter....

Rich: "I wonder if they are open for tours!"

Me: "I have no idea. We can check. (still laughing)"

Sadly, Three Rivers was not open for tours at the time of our visit. Even sadder, they tore that stadium down before Rich could take his tour. Happily, I did find the fountain where the three rivers meet. Heinz Field and PNC Park now host the Steelers and the Pirates, I want to write "respectively," but it's difficult to write "respect" and the Pirates in the same sentence.

Although, I have been to PNC park and it is a beautiful stadium.

Rich and Jonathon have been to Heinz Field and their biggest complaint was the Steelers took a beating from the Colts. However, not much had changed in ten years, and Jon was still spoiled rotten at Aunt Alice's house.

How I Ended Up with Custom Curtains

If you are among the brave souls that have more than one child, like me one day you may attempt to to spend “quality time” with your child. Let’s define “quality time” as one- on- one time spent in quiet conversation or active play, where the parent is not coming down on the child like the wrath of God for, say, the child artistically expressing themselves all over freshly painted walls with permanent marker.

So, in the interest of quality time, I invited Noah to run a few errands. However, we don’t call it quality time in our house, and it’s rarely, if ever, planned. Me: “Noah, wanna run errands with me?” Noah: “Yeah, great, let’s go.” Now, contrary to what I told the other children, I didn’t invite Noah on this trip because I love him the best, I invited him because I needed to check in with him about some things that were going on with him at school and desired to do so without the unfiltered and unasked for opinions of his other siblings.

At this point in the story, it is extremely important to note that Brandon was NOT happy at being excluded from “Noah and Mom quality time.”

Rich and I were about to find out exactly how displeased I had made Brandon.

Noah and I arrived home, and Rich and I jumped on the hamster wheel of bedtime routines. Just as I was about to release my final and favorite sigh of the night, “the-I-can-finally-put-on-my-pajamas-and-relax” sigh, I heard Rich’s curious and none-too-pleased voice ask, “What happened to the curtains?”

Now, my inner mom knew exactly what happened to curtains.

Brandon.

Brandon and his “It’s not fair I was left behind!” wrath happened to the curtains.

I didn’t even have to look to know in a fit of rage and jealousy, that child did something that was going to make me none-too-pleased just like Rich. I sighed. My inner mom sighed. Actually, I think she screamed, “It’s not fair!” and threw a temper-tantrum, but we walked downstairs anyway. I rubbed my hands over my face. I looked at Rich. I rubbed my hands over my face again. I shook my head.

Rich (holding part of cut curtains in his hand): “What happened here?”

Me: (resigned) “Brandon.”

Rich: (incredulous, but not surprised at the answer) “Why would he do something like this?

Me: (matter -of –fact voice): “Because I took Noah to the bank and not him.”

Rich: “What should we do?” Note: When your spouse asks you “What should we do?” It means he doesn’t have plan so you have 30 seconds to come up with something good.

Me (determined): “Get them out of bed. NOW”

Rich (rouses the troops): “Out of bed, NOW!! Your mother wants you in the entryway!! Note: Why isn’t it “WE want you in the entry way?”

Kids (confused, irritated, slightly afraid): “What’s going on? Whatever it is, I
didn’t do it…" and other assorted and appropriate kid phrases when you know your mother is mad, you know you might being going to down for a crime, but you aren’t sure which one you are busted for…

Me (pointing to the curtains): “Who cut the curtains?”

Kids: “NOT ME!!” (frantically looking around at each other to see who is going to crack so this conversation isn’t going to be prolonged, wishing I had discovered this when they were in school or Siberia)

Me (deep, calm breath so I don’t put them all eBay, non-yelling voice): “Okay. I totally get it. No one did it.” Pause. “Well, maybe Milo did it. He has been working hard on using on his mastery of scissors. Hmmm....”

Kids: Trading Suspicious Looks…Still no one confesses

Me (Waiting…No one cracks…. Calm voice):”Here is the deal. Everyone is grounded from all electronics until I find out who cut my curtains. No TV. No DS. No Wii. Nothing. Don’t look at them, Don’t breathe on them, and Don’t dream about them. Grounded. Done.”

Kids: Total silence. Followed by: “ALL OF US!?!” and “That’s no fair!”

Me: “Get back to bed. Good night.”

At that point, three disgruntled kids stomped off to bed. One child, looking miserable sat on my stairs.

Brandon (whispering): “Mom.”

Me: “Brandon, get to bed.”

Brandon (more urgently): “Mooommm….I have to tell you something….I cut the curtains.” (miserable, hang dog look)

Me (feigning surprise): “Oh you did!” “Go wait for Dad and I in our room. I need to go tuck your brothers and sister in.”

At this point, I reassured Jon and Lauren we had caught the culprit. Noah was beyond consoling because all he heard was “grounded forever from electronics.” Rich and I dealt with our interior decorator, thinking our night was finally coming to end, but as we were preparing to send Brandon off to slumber land so he could dream about new ways to test our parenting skills, there was a knock on the bedroom door.

A persistent knock.

Rich answered the door to find a very determined Noah on the other side: “Mom, Dad,”

he said, holding both up hands in front of him, as if in surrender,

“I just want you to know….

I was nowhere near a pair of scissors tonight.”

Rich and I looked at each other. Rich thanked Noah. Noah looked relieved to have that off his chest. I was stifling laughter and exasperation. Rich shook his head back and forth.

Noah noticed Brandon in our room and quickly comprehended the guilty party had been brought to justice. Finally, we were able to send the two of them off to their beds and everyone was able to stay put for the rest of the night.

I would love to say that Rich and I went downstairs and watched TV, because we weren’t grounded, but shaking down a curtain culprit the first week of school is exhausting.

Soooo…

We tucked ourselves into bed and stayed put the rest of night!