One year later.

It’s amazing that a year has passed.

Last year, on this Friday before Labor Day Weekend, this baby boy was a twinkle in my eye.

Last year it was just after Hurricane Irene swept through our area.  We were preparing to head up to the Catskills, our little car loaded with supplies and donations for our neighbors.  We had no idea how bad it would be and if the National Guard would even let us in to drop off what we had gathered.

I rushed home from work early.  We wanted to head out early enough that we could travel down the valley in daylight.  We knew parts of the road were barely passable and we didn’t want to navigate the landslides and washouts in the dark.

Mac and I had been trying for a baby for few months.  I knew that it was still pretty early to test for that month, but I would be away at the cabin and unable to test all weekend.  The suspense would be unbearable, so I decided to just chance it and take a pregnancy test before we left.

Mac was downstairs loading the car.  Mabel was running around like a mad woman.  I took the test and waited.

My eyes started tearing up the moment I saw that second purple line appear, faintly, on the test.

I called downstairs for Mac.  He suspected something was up from the tone of my voice.

I had grabbed a T-shirt, this one, and held it up for him saying, “I think we might need this.”

However, in my emotional haste, it was inside out and backwards.  Mac figured it out regardless.

I was crying, he was happy, Mabel was clueless.

We decided we wouldn’t tell anyone just yet.  We’d give it a few days before we shared the good news.  For the next little while it would be our happy secret.

Looking back, it was good timing.  It was hard for me to see my Catskills so devastated by Irene.  Having that joyful secret helped me remember that life goes on, things change, it will get better, we’ll keep going.

It did, they did, it certainly did, and we did.

This weekend we’re headed up again to the Catskills.  The recovery has been amazing, and there is still a ways to go.

Looking at my valley, and my son, one year later, it’s amazing.

 

Wordless Wednesday: Naughty science double entendre

Compliments of IFLS.

Show {Off} Your Shot for Shot@Life!

This week’s Show {Off} Your Shot actually raises money for the UN campaign Shot@Life that promotes vaccinations- a topic near and dear to me (see here).

What a difference 56 years makes!

Political Loudmouth shared a link to The American Presidency Project the other day- specifically a link to the Republican Party’s platform in 1956.

It is striking how different the Republican Party is today.  Today it is a party of ‘small government’ at the expense of citizens’ health, financial well being, and education.  It is a party that values ‘national security’ over personal liberties.  It is a party that supports the Second Amendment at the expense of public safety.  This is not the Republican Party of 1956.

Here are some excerpts from the Republican Party’s Declaration of Faith from August 1956 that struck me.

On its Centennial, the Republican Party again calls to the minds of all Americans the great truth first spoken by Abraham Lincoln: “The legitimate object of Government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves in their separate and individual capacities. But in all that people can individually do as well for themselves, Government ought not to interfere.”

…

While jealously guarding the free institutions and preserving the principles upon which our Republic was founded and has flourished, the purpose of the Republican Party is to establish and maintain a peaceful world and build at home a dynamic prosperity in which every citizen fairly shares.

…

We shall continue our insistence on honesty as an indispensable requirement of public service. We shall continue to root out corruption whenever and wherever it appears.

…

We are proud of and shall continue our far-reaching and sound advances in matters of basic human needs—expansion of social security—broadened coverage in unemployment insurance —improved housing—and better health protection for all our people. We are determined that our government remain warmly responsive to the urgent social and economic problems of our people.

…

We pledge to continue our efforts, blocked by the Democratic leadership of the 84th Congress, for a financially sound, more nearly self-sustaining postal service—with the users of the mails paying a greater share of the costs instead of the taxpayers bearing the burden of huge postal deficits.

We pledge to continue and to complete this vitally needed program of modernization of buildings, equipment, methods and service, so that the American people will receive the kind of mail delivery they deserve—the speediest and best that American ingenuity, technology and modern business management can provide.

…

We recommend to Congress the submission of a constitutional amendment providing equal rights for men and women.

–emphasis mine, Source

Wordless Wednesday: I <3 Science

Source

My front porch

My front porch is nothing special.  Not particularly beautiful.  Not architecturally remarkable.

Nothing makes it special except for the memories it holds.

Our little family shortly after we moved in, March 2011.

 

Mabel just before she turned 2, on a particularly warm December day.

 

A good spot to stop and smell the flowers.

So, as you can see, the porch isn’t anything special, but it’s ours!

This post was inspired by Kelly’s Korner Show Us Your Life Series.

Back to the bench

So, I’m back to work.  It’s kind of surreal.

This morning, I went to jot down a note to myself and this is what I saw:

 

The last time I’d used the pad, it was to record the times of the contractions I was feeling.  Now, it’s 3 months later and I’m back at my desk.

I really can’t complain.  I enjoyed my maternity leave immensely.  My recovery was quick, I was able to do the traveling and vacationing I was hoping to do.  Unlike when I went back to work after Mabel was born, I didn’t have to go through leaving Nemo in the arms of a stranger for 10 hours a day.  He and Mabel are home with Mac having fun, walking the dog, going to the library, being together, sending me pictures of what I’m missing.

Wish I was with them.

 

Wordless Wednesday: Maternity Leave

A timely infographic.  After 12 short weeks thanks to FMLA, I am now back at work.  We can do better.

Source.

 

Read about it here.

Wordless Wednesday: Everyone is a genius

I  love this quote.  It is so very true.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/scienceisawesome