Karen Chatters » happiness

Later

Karen — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:00:43 +0000

Courtney and I are headed out tonight on our little jaunt north, to one of my favorite places on the planet. The temps look like they’ll be in the 70’s during the day and in the 50’s at night. FIFTIES!!!! I am beyond overjoyed. I’ve packed a sweatshirt and jeans and clothes one wears when it’s FIFTY-FIVE degrees out. I doubt I’ll need them but the fact that I even have them is so exciting to me. It would be so awesome not to sweat from every pore in my being…. Oh, and of course I’m excited to see my family. That’s always a bonus.

I’m putting the house stuff behind me and leaving Paul in charge of our future. I’m sure he’ll do awesome with his honey-do list (I know he’s reading this thinking, “when am I going to see this list??”) which is 10 pages, single spaced, typed, 8 font…

In the meantime, enjoy your weekend. A friend took this about a month ago, I love it. It’s so trashy. Courtney looked at it and went, “BELLY!!!” Hehe.

Here little fishy

Karen — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:00:22 +0000

On Friday, Paul took the day off and we went to the aquarium. I was excited to take Courtney and to see her reactions to everything. I don’t think it was the best day for us to go. She and I were both feeling crappy and I was already so stressed about the house stuff. Paul said that her reactions to things were better in February when they went without me, go figure. But it was still a good time. Although, she was just as interested in all the little kids in the aquarium as she was in the fish, maybe more so. At least we were inside, in the air conditioning…

Courtney’s going to think I missed her entire life, there isn’t a picture of me anywhere.

Who said nothing good comes from the Interwebs

Karen — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:00:27 +0000

Unless you’ve been in Antarctica for the past year and have limited access to the Interwebs and you’re a blogger, than you know this weekend is BlogHer. It’s a big ol’ blogging conference that’s being held in NYC this year. I had wanted to go but with being 7 months pregnant and two upcoming vacations, oh, and no money, I didn’t know how I was going to swing it so I didn’t really look too seriously into it. But now it’s here and everyones tweeting about it and blogging about it and unless I want to give up the Internet and my phone for the weekend, it’s hard to avoid. I’m bummed I’m not there but two interesting things have happened before the conference has even started.

First for the light and fluffy…

I spend FAR too much time on Twitter but I have found some really cool links there and gotten some good advice and tips from people I’ve never met, or have met once or twice. I’ve even made some online friends through twitter and have seen some sad things and some amazing things. Shawn from Backpacking Dad (I think it was Shawn, I’m not 100% sure so if I’m wrong, I apologize to the genius behind this) started the hashtag #HomeHer10. Sure it’s not NYC but it’s been highly entertaining and I’ve found myself at home, laughing over silliness. It’s nice to spend some time with myself (huh?), laughing with other people about being at home. I mean, how do jokes about peeing alone and laundry remain so funny? I guess because if they aren’t funny, you might cry. I guess I feel a little less lonely, maybe a little less left out and this week, I need it.

Now for the really amazing thing…

Catherine Conners of Her Bad Mother has been on a crusade for her nephew Tanner who has Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy and won’t be with us much longer. You can read about his journey there, it’s heart breaking that any child, and any family, should have to go through something like this. Catherine started Tutus For Tanner, people running 5k’s (in tutu’s, duh) all over to raise awareness for DMD and helping Tanner fulfill his biggest wish, to die at home. How’s that for a wish? This morning at BlogHer, there will be a 5k in which who-knows how many men and women will be running in tutus to raise awareness and hopefully a little money. Tanner will be there to see it happen.

Now, here are the really AMAZING things that can happen with the power of social media. First, Tanner, his mom, and Aunt flew from Canada to NY on Wednesday on Air Canada. Tanner spends his waking hours in a $15,000 wheelchair, custom made for his body. Air Canada broke the chair. BROKE IT. At first they were saying it would be fixed by MONDAY, as in 5 days later. Tanner isn’t mobile without his chair. That’s unacceptable. Through the power of Twitter and then the media, Air Canada was held responsible, their nose held to the fire, and did the right thing. Quickly. And, they’re going to pay to send Tanner and his cousins to Disney World, another one of the items on his life list. And it all happened a hell of a lot faster than would have happened if social media weren’t involved.

The other AMAZING thing… Scott Stratten of Un-Marketing.com held a tweet-a-thon this week for Tanner to raise money so he could live out that final wish. In less than 30 hours, he raised over $25,000 for Tanner’s family so they can equip their home to accommodate Tanner and hire a home nurse for what’s to come. That’s the power of social media. How would you do that otherwise without some celebrity name behind you?

People think that Facebook and Twitter and some of those other “silly” sites are time wasters or they just don’t get it. People don’t understand how you can form a “family” or friendships with people you’ve never met, but you can. You can relate, get help, give hope and make a HUGE difference in the life of someone that you’re probably never ever going to meet. So yeah, maybe I spend too much time on Twitter, but in the end, it’s all for the better.

Twenty on twenty

Karen — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:00:40 +0000

Yesterday, Courtney hit the 20 month mark. Not a huge milestone but a milestone none the less. And I have to say, she gets more and more fun with each passing day.

I won’t lie, she has her moments of terror and misery (for me) but for the most part, she’s really pretty funny. I’m not really sure how the discipline thing works when you look at your kid, who’s done something bad, and laugh because she’s so freaking funny. The kid is going to get away with murder at this point.

Courtney is still all about the naked thing. And taking showers, which she’s never done before so I’m not sure that it’s as great as she thinks it is. But daddy takes showers in the morning so they must be awesome. I don’t think showers are great, she gets that from her dad. But she walks around the house screaming about the shower.

This child is all girl. She walks around with her dolls, talking to her babies, and dressing them in her clothes. She lays them on the floor, lays her bathing suits all over them and feeds them from the bottle. She had a tea party last week, gave her dolls crackers and cookies and set them all up at her little Ikea table. Me? I was all about the trucks, sports and hanging out with the boys. There were no dolls in my life. Courtney has more dolls at 20 months than I ever had in my life. She even stole a doll from her cousin a couple of weeks ago. This could become problematic. At some point, she’s going to be all dresses and bows in her hair and shoes. All girl.

But really, Courtney makes me laugh. She has these facial expressions that make me laugh out loud, literally. She runs around the house, with her arms bent at her side, clomp clomp clomping. She pops around the corner of the counter, drops her jaw until you laugh and she runs away. She stands at the kitchen window, screaming SHARK over the shark thermometer in the pool. And forget if you ever see a truck on the highway. TRUUUUUCK!!!! She seems to think that the bookmark or the refrigerator magnet or the block are all telephones and says “hello” into them all. And the dogs are her favorites – ‘do-og? Roof roof’. And everyone under 23 is a baby. She loves her some babies.

One of our most exciting moments of late happened on the eve of 20 months, Courtney peed in the potty! All on her own. No prodding on our part, she just went and sat herself down and peed. I almost cried with excitement.

Twenty months is so fabulous. It’s such a fun age, full of discovery and excitement and big hugs and loud screaches and big, sloppy wet kisses. Courtney is this little person, discovering who she is, and bringing me along for the journey.

Happy Anniversary!

Karen — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:15:27 +0000

Happy Anniversary, my love. Thank you for the most wonderful 3 years.