“Leave Room for Jesus!”
That’s my favorite saying when I see underage boys and girls hugging or kissing, or if I’m chaperoning a dance. Man… I just realized, I’ve chaperoned a dance. I say it cause it’s funny. Not even remotely do I believe that boys and girls should actually be leaving room for Jesus… or do I? Well to start off, if I did believe that, it definitely wouldn’t be in the physical sense of two young budding lovers, hugging up on each other–although the older I get, the more unnecessary I think the act of youth intimacy is. But what about leaving room for Jesus in your mind, your heart, or your soul? Should there be room for Jesus there? Should I introduce my son to the idea of religion? Controversy! Well let me give you my background story. I’ve mentioned before that I frequented the south to visit my dad’s side of the family. Well in the south you go to church at least 4 times a week… maybe even 2 to 3 of those times actually being on Sunday. Yes… the stereotypes are true and that’s why people joke about it. There’s the obvious Sunday mass… but sometimes you go to the 5 p.m. mass, after you’ve already attended the 7 or 8 a.m. service. Bible study on Sunday mornings. Choir practice on Thursdays. You have to go for adult choir practice too because your aunt or parent is in the choir… or maybe your cousin plays piano and organ… (and make sure Continue Reading →
Posted in Fear, Getting Ready, Those Odd moments...with 7 comments.
I Can’t Trust My Friends
I don’t trust my friends And in fairness, they shouldn’t trust me either. Now, before I start pissing people off, I actually trust my friends with my life… and because I trust them with my life, it’s with them that I’ve experienced some really wild stories that only we would understand, and that’s where this all turns sour. My friends know absolutely everything that I’ve done, things that I want nobody in the world to know. There are way too many stories that make sense to us, and are hilarious… TO US… that other people just don’t find funny. Hell… While thinking about the things we’ve done, I’m like “what the fuck were we thinking?” Mostly… “what the fuck was I thinking…” and I’m sure my friends can attest to that. So, why is it that I make this statement of not being able to trust my friends? Well let me put it this way… My friends are awesome. We are pretty much family. We fight, we laugh, we camp, we care… we’re family. This last weekend they decided to all get together and throw me a baby shower the man’s way. BBQ, beer, and poker with money–not diapers. But what’s special about this is that we don’t all get together like this often anymore, because we all have our own lives now. Most are parents, some of multiple kids, some of us are still students, some are full-time dads, and everyone has full-time responsibilities whether it makes them money Continue Reading →
Posted in Did He Really Just Say That?, Those Odd moments...with no comments yet.
What I Learned at Lamaze Class Today
So I’ve been pretty on the ball as the responsible daddy as far as making sure I’m reading all the books, blogs, journals, magazine articles, and whatever else I come across in order to better prepare myself, and better prepare my wife and this household for the baby’s arrival. I’ve been pretty much on the wife about scheduling classes for us to attend to and making sure we take photos and other pre-baby necessities and things parents in the movies and tv do. The reason I’m asking her to search all this stuff out to do instead of just pulling the trigger myself is cause I don’t want to pick something she’s not comfortable with. Knowing my luck I’d pick a breastfeeding class offered on Groupon or Living Social given by a hairy Dungeons and Dragons Warlord given in a Taco Bell bathroom. Then I’d say something like “Babe… it must be legit, or else it wouldn’t be available on Groupon… we paid for it let’s just ride it out.” So the first class we ever took was in fact a breastfeeding class. Now, I understand that the father of 1958 wouldn’t have attended these classes with their wives, but I feel like I need to know just as much as she does, and I want to be there for the support. We walked into this house converted into a school for milking, and were naturally the first ones there. Enya –Sail Away starts playing ever so softly in the Continue Reading →
Posted in Getting Ready, Those Odd moments...with 4 comments.
Child Care-less
Dear America, Why do you hate parents? Respectfully, Robert So I’ve mentioned before that I travel for work. I get to see all the glorious places that most will only see in post cards, and I get to eat all the glorious food that you only see on Food Network. I get to experience traditions and customs that you only see on the travel channel, but there is one thing I will never get to experience… Other countries’ benefits. That’s right Americans, we may be home of the free and proud and stuff, but we are definitely paying a price for that. And please don’t get me wrong… I didn’t serve 10 years in the Marine Corps so I could bash on the good ol’ U S of A in a blog post. This is specifically about child care. Once I found out about my wife being pregnant, I immediately started asking all the relevant questions… specifically those that pertain to work… 1) How does the insurance cover this birth? 2) If my wife has her own insurance, whose gets used for the hospital care? 3) Which insurance would the baby fall under? 4) Will I need paperwork from the job site in order to start the process? but most importantly, 5) How does the paternity leave work? (that link goes to a more credible source aka Huffington Post, if you don’t want to take my word for it) So here’s a real quick breakdown. What you need to understand Continue Reading →
Posted in Did He Really Just Say That?, Dissapointment, Fear, Getting Ready, Parenthood, Those Odd moments...with 32 comments.
Wait, You’ll See.
“Wait till you have a kid…” I swear to Buddha let me hear you say that one more mother effing time… I GET IT. THINGS ARE GOING TO CHANGE!!!! I. GET. IT. One of the most annoying things so far during the time of expecting a baby, is the plethora of people who feel the need to remind me that “things are going to change in the most astronomically insane way possible… That not only are they going to change… I can’t explain it so just WAIT till when you have a child.” Wait till you have to wake up every hour on the hour. Wait till you are a zombie at work. Wait till you can’t go to the movies ever again for the rest of your life. Wait till you don’t have “good clothes” anymore. WAIT TILL YOU HAVE A KID… Just Wait. Well I have one for you… YOU wait. Wait, so you can laugh at me for not knowing what to do at all times because it’s my first kid. (I get it. This will happen.) Wait till I’m struggling to open the door with the baby in one hand and the dogs, food, groceries in the other, while my sig other stands there not opening the door cause she’s thinking about her own issues at the moment… (That’s going to happen too) Wait till I come to work exhausted, because the baby couldn’t and wouldn’t got to sleep cause he’s sick or colicky… (I get Continue Reading →
Posted in Did He Really Just Say That?, Getting Ready, Those Odd moments...with 14 comments.
