Perfectly Imperfect...And That's Okay

Well...we did it.  We successfully hosted our first Thanksgiving dinner albeit Sunday instead of the actual day.  You never realize how much work goes into hosting a holiday dinner until you actually do it.

First Time Roasted Turkey

I had it all planned out.  Dry brine the turkey the night before, pull it out of the fridge for an hour to get to room temperature, preheat the oven, tent the bird with foil, baste it every-so-often and we'll be good to go.  The perfect plan to simplify the day.

Turkey Dry Brine

Turkey Prep with Thyme

As dinner time approached, I was feeling great.  Everything was timed perfectly.  The last of our guests arrived and were hanging out and it was time to take the turkey out of the oven, let it rest, carve it, and serve it.  It looked pretty good...

You know where this is going by now, right?  I checked the temperature and it was under by 15 degrees.  Back into the oven.  About an hour later, we were ready to go.  The big fear of an overdone, dry turkey was thwarted.  Our first attempt was a success.

First Time Roasted Turkey

I'm thankful we hosted our first After Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving.  It was an awesome reminder that sometimes even the perfect plan requires a little effort to modify and adjust.  I'm sure as we begin this parenting journey we're going to have many perfect plans go perfectly imperfect and we'll have to chill and make some adjustments.

A Day of Thanks Almost 290 Years in the Making

My fun fact for the day is that my family has been celebrating Thanksgiving together for the last 31 years.  Thirty-one years!  It's pretty amazing to reflect on that.  Im sure each of us has a special Thanksgiving memory that stands out.  What is fascinating is that tonight will add to my list of memories and moments that give me reason for thanks.

I'm incredibly thankful for having the chance to spend today with my side of the family...especially considering that Annie is 35 weeks pregnant. We were nervous about the drive (1:45) but felt confident after the excursion we took last Saturday.

Our oldest niece began our dinner by reading us a Thanksgiving story.  It was a lot for a 7-year-old to read and she handled it with such grace.  As wonderful as that was, my highlight came towards the end of the night.  Annie and I looked at the family tree to scope out names. I was looking to see if the name we've chosen appears.  I don't think it does but I'll look more closely tomorrow.

We sat down and then my Grandma asked if we saw her name.  I could tell that she wanted to take a closer look but she was too bashful to ask.  I offered to look at it with her and she got up to peek at it.

The nostalgic look on her face as her mind traveled back in time is one I hope I'll never forget. I reminded her of the last time I had looked at this with her, 6th or 7th grade, for a school project, and how in awe I am that The records go back to 1727. Seriously, it's so crazy that this was completed in the 1950's...WAY before ancestry.com.  To think that when our little girl turns 10, it will
mark the 300th anniversary of our family being in this country. Just unreal...I'm so thankful for my family's  efforts to record our lineage and that our baby will have all of this family history to explore one day.

Pillow Talk and an Easter Disaster

This was one of those nights that I'll look back on and treasure.

After a day of in-service and then hanging Christmas lights for a colleague, who is battling Leukemia, and his family, I returned home to Annie.

When I walked in, Annie was taking a bath and her preggo belly looked like an island oasis protruding from the center of the tub. She was excited to show me that she could get our little one to move around and kick if she lightly splashed water over her bump. Sure enough, our little girl showed off her future soccer/placekicker skills almost immediately.

After the bath, we laid down at opposite ends of the couch and debated at what point we would consider supplementing our infant's diet with formula. We both pushed each other to see alternative perspectives even though we agreed on our plan to avoid it unless it's absolutely necessary.  The depth of the conversation was just what I needed to feel restored after the day.

You may be asking, "Is this guy serious? This is what he'll look back on and treasure?"

While I'd like to hope that this will be the reason I remember tonight, the other part of the conversation made us laugh those deep, uncontrollable laughs.  

When Annie was a little girl, she woke up one Easter morning and found poop all over her house. She became concerned and thought that this was the Easter Bunny's version of Santa leaving coal in your stocking for being bad.  Little did she know, her dog feasted on the Easter candy and left a Hansel and Gretel-like trail of turds behind him.

I genuinely appreciate the nights like this that we share together and am grateful that we will have the opportunity to build our own memories with our little girl. For now, this one is of the two of us, our debates, our laughter, and being reminded how fortunate I am to share this parenting journey with this amazing woman.

One Great Way To Spend The Day

This Saturday morning started out like many other weekend mornings.  But this one felt different...there was an excitement to it.  

Before you get too excited...we aren't welcoming our daughter just yet.

Before my feet hit the floor, I checked the results of the Extraordinary Give; a Lancaster County, PA event that brings the entire community together for one full day to raise funds for non-profit organizations within the county.  It is a remarkable event.  This year broke records once again by having over $7 million raised for over 400 local organizations.

ExtraGive.org

This event always makes me feel recharged and helps me refocus on all of the good things that are possible in this world. 

The day continued, Annie woke up and we tried to figure out the plan for the day.  We decided to go to my school's field hockey game - the head coach is one of our friends and I teach many of the girls, so it seemed like a really cool thing to do on this 70 degree, November day.  I don't understand all of the rules to the game, but I do know that the other team's coach was ejected, our coach's dad should write a book called, One Liners From the Stands, and our team won 6-2 to win the state championship and cap off an undefeated season - Truly AMAZING.

Our final stop of the day was to meet one of Annie's friends who offered to take some maternity photos for us.  She is one of those people who is genuinely caring and sincerely kind; we're blessed to have her in our lives.  We met at Long's Park in Lancaster and raced to beat an incoming storm.  

Maternity Photo Poses

Sheena & Annie

The maple leaves made for an incredible backdrop and we can't wait to see how the photos turn out.

Maple Leaves

The excitement that this morning promised certainly lived up to its billing.  We had an amazing day living in the moment while watching our friends succeed at doing the things they love.

Some Assembly Required

I can remember the moment it happened...

It was one of my niece's birthdays and I was going to help my brother put together the rainbow princess castle, complete with fairy dust unicorn clouds...How hard could it be?

This piece goes here, this one connects there.  You get the idea.  Then I had the last part in my hands, ready to finish building the castle in all my uncle glory.  The inspired optimism of an onward watching birthday girl, waiting, oh-so-impatiently, for the toy that will define her childhood's benchmark of pure happiness.

Wait for it....wait for it...!@#$...%^&* (all in my head of course) followed by the sound of uncontrollable sobbing...sobbing unlike anything I had ever heard before.  It was the perfect blend of the Michael Jordan meme mixed with Nancy Kerrigan's, WHYYYYs.  It was the sound of my niece giving up hope that anything in this world would ever bring her joy.  And it was all because

I DIDN'T READ THE DIRECTIONS.  

If you recall, this past weekend we had our baby shower.  That freak out has subsided and now I get to figure out how to put some of the gifts together...the gifts with the dreaded phrase, "Some assembly required."

Who knew that my niece's devastation would turn out to be an amazing life lesson.

When Things Come Full Circle

There was a moment this morning where the stars seemed to align and I was able to consciously stop and take in my surroundings and just marvel in how amazing people can be.

Some back story...

Tomorrow, the business department is hosting a Financial Reality Fair - an event that allows local credit union representatives to engage our students in an interactive budgeting simulation.  The type of thing that solves the crisis of this meme.

I needed to prepare the final touches on the event planning and then a student walked into the classroom with a giant box.

Said Giant Box

I'm not an overly emotional guy, but this got me.  The box was a baby gift from a colleague, Kasey Lee, who for the record makes unbelievable cupcakes, cakes, etc.  (Seriously...Moonlight Baking Company made this cake for Annie's birthday).  The handwriting, however, is the creation of one of my students from entrepreneurship last year, Ellen.  She developed a business in the class and she used this as an opportunity to showcase her creations.

A really cool experience, and I'm so grateful that these two incredible individuals created a moment that forced me to stop and appreciate how amazing people can be.

The Baby Shower

At first all I could think was, "I should've gone to Google."

My experiences at baby showers are very limited.  Two of my friends from high school each hosted one of these events during the past year and I was pretty pumped to have some drinks and catch up with them while their wives did their thing with family and friends.  They made it look so easy.

Fast forward to yesterday.  My laissez-faire approach seemed to work beautifully well.  And then the guests started to arrive.  

All of a sudden, the questions of etiquette raced in my brain and I wasn't sure what to do.  Do I sit in the room as activities were going on?  Do I need to be there while gifts are being opened?  Who is recording the info. for the thank you cards?  Does anyone need another drink?  Did the decorative baby banner fall AGAIN???

Deep down, I knew I wanted to eliminate as many potential stressors for Annie so she could enjoy this day.  I felt incredibly unprepared and in this Eagle Scout brain of mine, that seemed like uncharted territory.  If these last 33 weeks have taught me anything, its probably a good idea for me to begin accepting the fact that I feel unprepared.  

In spite of this feeling, days like today let me know that Annie and I have so many people who support us, love us, and can't wait to meet our little girl.  And Google can't comprehend how much that means to me.

All In

In a moment of inspiration, I thought of this project: a journey to record the thoughts, fears, and experiences that come from many moments of the terror and excitement that result from knowing that I'll soon become a father.

The truth is, I sincerely tried to avoid this moment in life for over a decade. Then, like many of the storybook, life altering moments, I met a girl. In a corny but sincere admission, this girl wasn't like any of the other that I had met. She chased me. Yeah, you heard that right. A young, and clearly confused 22 year old, senior in college, sought out the 27 year old business teacher.  That's when it all changed. We met for sushi and I knew, genuinely in the depths of my soul knew, that I wanted to be with her.

Fast forward a few years, we dated, we fell hard, got married, and here we are, she's 32 weeks pregnant.

These weeks seem to fly by. Then again, I'm not the one getting ready to birth a child. Don't get me wrong, there have been some challenges: hives, heartburn, a drill bit through a thumb, poison ivy/sumac, but overall, it's hard to believe that we're this close to meeting our little girl.

It's one of the coolest and most exciting feelings in the world perfectly blended with equal parts of anxiety and fright.

We have 8 weeks to go...to prepare for the lifetime commitment that is being a parent. As naive as I know this statement is, it's the only way I know how to say, "I'm all in!"