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ICYMI: Back At It

Happy New Year! I am starting off this year with a recap post of last week… in-case-you-missed-it-small

Back To School: Georgia Peach and the Coach headed back to school! I was happy to finally answer, “Yes!” to GP’s morning question, “Is it a school day?”. She asked us the same question almost daily during her break. She was excited to reunite with her teachers and friends!

We hope her enthusiasm for school and learning continues for years to come. Or at least for the remainder of the school year. 🙂

Back To Work: I started a new position and could not be happier! I am so excited to work with this group and really looking forward to the work I get to do with them. My last position allowed me to work from home, so naturally I had to make some adjustments to working in an office….with other people. Outside of the most obvious adjustment, the dress code, I had a little hiccup with my usual music routine. I enjoy listening to music while I work and I noticed that the majority of my co-workers did too. So when the battery on my iPad Mini needed to be recharged, I decided to listen to music on my phone.

I unplugged my headphones from my iPad and tapped the Pandora music app on my phone.Unfortunately, the app started immediately and this song began to play loudly from my phone! Imagine quietly working at your desk and all of a sudden you hear…”Dirty South! Can y’all really feel me?” from the newbie’s desk! I frantically tried to silence my phone by swiping and fumbling with the screen. I had no idea what lyrics were next! Side note: Plugging my headphones into the phone never crossed my mind!

Luckily, only one person turned around to see what was happening. Everyone else…had on their headphones! Whew.

Back To The Drawing Board: After finding a temporary Nanny for GP for my recent jury duty, we were thrilled when we were able to land her as our full-time Nanny. Two days into my new position, Fit Nanny calls to tell me that she is quitting to take a job at her boyfriend’s company. Honestly, I wasn’t as upset about it as I would have been in the past (I know, who am I?). Maybe it was all the Nanny drama we had been through in the past that has left me numb? I don’t know. But, she explained that she had been a Nanny since moving to the US and wanted to try something new. Without experience, she was having a hard time making the transition. So, while I have no idea how I am going to tell GP she is getting a new Nanny (she LOVES her), I am happy Fit Nanny will be doing something she really wants to do. I know how that feels! 🙂

Back to the Blog: December is a difficult month for me so, I was mostly silent as the end of the year approached. My mom’s birthday, her favorite holiday, the anniversary of her death and funeral all fall in December. This year she would have celebrated her 65th birthday and for whatever reason that fact alone put me in a mini tailspin at the beginning of the month. Which I know is okay. But it was difficult balancing my joy of the season and the pain of not being with my favorite lady. Unfortunately, I know many of you share similar journeys of personal loss and together we take it on, one day at a time. Writing always makes me feel more connected to my mother so, I’m back! I will not only write here but, I will be branching out to other publications this year.

See you in a few days! I have a couple of posts I never published chilling in draft mode, so more is on the way. Thanks for reading!

 

Photo Credit: ImageChef.com

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And The Party Never Stops…

Actual text from Junk Food Nanny…

I hope you guys had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Can you please see if the dates December 19-January 7 work for you for the Christmas Holiday?

What the what?  I’m pretty sure in bizarro world this time period is actually the norm for a holiday vacation. Where I come from?  It’s  job abandonment!  🙂

Luckily, we were able to come to a quick agreement on adjusted dates for their  ‘European Holiday’ to…OHIO.

Seriously?

Nevertheless, we love you Junk Food Nanny.  Happy Holidays!

Photo credit

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I Didn’t Think It Would Be A Problem…

Before we had our Georgia Peach (GP) we decided that we would have someone come to our house to watch her after I went back to work full-time.  We were still new to the area at the time and felt this would be the best option for my new-found obsession aka our baby girl.  Which worked out for both of us…the less I freaked out about childcare the better it would be for The Coach’s sanity. 😉  So, I found a couple of great candidates on sittercity.com. and started interviewing for a full-time Nanny a few weeks before my return to work date.  We settled on our current Nanny and all was well for about two weeks when I (trying to get to know her better) asked if she and her fiance’ planned to have any kids.  Her response, ‘yeah, in March’.  What the what?  Now, don’t get me wrong, I loves the kids, I truly do.  I congratulated her and asked all the questions you ask when you find out someone is preggers.  But in the front, back, and side of my mind all I could think was…Damn, Damn, Damn! (Florida Evans style).

Photo credit-tvparty.com
Photo credit-tvparty.com

So, after months of eating junk food, drinking sodas daily, and a diagnosis of gestational diabetes, our Nanny decides to start her maternity leave a week before our agreed upon ‘end date’.  Are you kidding me?  Now, this is partly my fault, I was thinking our last experience was the norm so I waited two weeks out to start interviewing-a week of interviews, then a week of training with the current Nanny-perfect, right? Not even close-now we have a week to interview, test out a Nanny to see if GP agrees and train. Seriously, I’m an idiot.  Surely, good times are ahead…

First Girl: Brought her Husband to the interview.  I guess if we had posted something on Craigslist, definitely.  But, the funniest thing about this was, her Military Husband was scared of the Coach! She never once interacted with GP. No, thanks.

Second Girl: Very friendly, immediately interacted with GP, asked about our daughter’s schedule, likes/dislikes.  Only concern was she also asked what our 8 month old’s favorite tv show was, say what?  We don’t like GP watching tv, so my concern was TV Nanny would be watching tv all day and so would GP.  On the fence…

Third Girl: Passed the interview with us but, never showed up for the home visit.  Thanks for saving us the trouble.

So after the background check and references were complete we went with TV Nanny for the maternity leave.  After some very specific instructions, things were going fairly smoothly until two weeks before our wedding.  I had a day trip out-of-town to take care of some wedding business and on my way back, I received a call from the Coach.

Me: “Hey, Babe.”

The Coach: “Hey. How are you? Quick question, are we having some work done at the house?”

Me: “Ummm, no.  Why? What’s going on?”

The Coach:  “There is a pickup truck in our driveway with AL plates.”

Me: “WHAT IN THE …. Where are you? TV Nanny’s Boyfriend is from AL.  Do not pass go, go in the house now!!! WAIT, let me call her and see if she says anything.  Hold on don’t leave…”

I call TV Nanny ask her how GP was, where she was, and what she was doing.  She tells me she is fine, she is in her playpen playing with her toys.  I specifically ask her if there is anything else going on, SHE. SAYS. NO.  I call the Coach back.

Me: “Hey. Go into the house.  She didn’t say anything about anyone being there and if there is another person in my house with my baby I’m going to end up in jail.”

The Coach: “I’m going in.”

Me: “Call me back.”

The Coach goes in the house walks directly to GP who was in the playpen playing with her toys and picks her up then turns to TV Nanny.

Pissed Off Daddy: “Who is this? We don’t allow people we haven’t met in our house and around our child.”

Scared TV Nanny: “Umm, its my boyfriend he asked if I wanted some lunch and I didn’t think it would be a problem.”

(Boyfriend jumps up to shake Pissed Off Daddy’s hand-Pissed Off Daddy does not oblige).

Pissed Off Daddy: “Well, it IS a problem and the fact that you don’t think it is, makes it a bigger problem.  This is a conversation we anticipate having with a 16-year-old babysitter not our full-time Nanny.  You can leave now, we will call you over the weekend.”

The Coach calls me back and updates me while I freak out the rest of my trip home.  I follow-up with TV Nanny and tell her we will talk in person on Monday AM.  So, Monday rolls around and at 810a I get a text from TV Nanny…‘I’ve been so worried all weekend and I feel so badly about not asking if my boyfriend could bring me some lunch but, I think it is best if I quit. You can mail my check to this address…’

She was scheduled to come at 830a.  Did this chick just quit via text 20 minutes before she had to work? You can imagine the tailspin this put me in, needless to say we managed to keep things afloat for the next 3 weeks which turned out to be the exact time Junk Food Nanny was returning.

Guess who had a giant Rice Krispie treat, a box of Dunkin Donuts, and a six-pack of sodas waiting upon her return?

Oh, Junk Food Nanny.  We missed you. 🙂