Warp Speed

Tick, tick, tick...life is moving too fast for me to blog.

Pat just bought me a new laptop, due to arrive in 3-5 days. A purchase we've contemplated for at least 6 months.

Today, Pat also purchased a For Sale sign for our front yard. Its not actually in our front yard yet, but it will get there. Our neighbor, who is strongly opposed to us moving, buried his sister this morning. We figured we'd not add insult to injury, at least not while he and his brothers are still getting drunk on the back porch. It has only taken us well over a year to purchase this sign, so if it gets in the yard within the next 6 months, it will still be progress. We have developed a strong kinship with this little house, and, even just a few days ago, we were still seriously contemplating how we could expand it enough in order to make it last a few more years. But when Pat said "Yeah, the contractor said he could get two 7' x 15' bedrooms in the attic (yes SEVEN' x 15')" I realized that we had probably exceeded all this little bungalow had to offer our growing family. Not to mention the fact that the next evening, when out trying to teach our daughter how to ride a bike, the other neighbor's chihuahua did not stop barking, not even once. Where will we move next? Not even a clue other than we're not moving away. Well, not unless YOU happen to have an extra 3 bedrooms and a kick-ass beer and cheese fridge.

And, I have job. A full time, real pay-check, our kids go to a babysitter, J-O-B! A decision that I've been contemplating, well, since when I quit my last real job I suppose. Of course, for now, its only a 9 week job, teaching first grade at the elementary that our street dead ends into while another teacher is out on maternity leave. (Its a crying shame that its totally inappropriate to blog about your first graders, because my eclectic bunch are totally bloggable.) Three weeks in, already a week off for spring vacation, I can definitively say that working, particularly teaching, suits me. This is not a surprise to me. Also not a surprise to me, I really miss my kids when I'm not with them. Oh the dilemma of every mother I suppose.

Last week, I filled my brother's trunk full of no longer needed baby gear. No more swing, bathtub, bouncy, or Bumbo. Tonight I washed and folded all of my maternity clothes, to pass on to a friend just growing out of her regular jeans. Conrad is practically a man on the move these days, and, more notably, a man who finally likes some sleep. Occasionally the question of "A third?" passes our lips (more often his than mine), but its not likely. Even our own mothers, who love our babies more than they could have possibly loved us, insist that we not push our luck with a 3rd. (What? You don't like an extra week in the hospital with each grandchild? But the nurses, they're so nice!)

It seems like everything happens at once, yet, because we rarely move quick on any decision, it all seems like the inevitable because we've talked about it for so long.

This summer, I'll turn 30. When I was 20, I talked about this elusive idea of marriage, kids, a house, and a career. Nearly ten years later I'm shocked to be able to check each one of those off the list, a couple of them two times over. The next 10 years have big shoes to fill.