McGrath Moments

Today I am taking Braeden to the pediatrician's office for his 5 year well visit. I can't believe we are going to complete health forms/assessments for him to enroll in Kindergarten this fall. Where does the time go? I remember when Braeden was born and Ed and I weren't sure that we wanted our children going to the Bonner Springs schools. I told Ed, Braeden is just a baby and we have 5 years to decide to move. At the time 5 years seemed so far off. It has gone by in the blink of an eye and here we are, preparing for Kindergarten. Delaware Ridge and the Bonner Springs schools are still planning on a full-day Kindergarten. I called them in a panic last week when I heard Piper was going to half-day Kindergarten due to State budget cuts (which is a whole different blog).

Tots and Tales provides a private Kindergarten class. While having both kids still at one place would be nice and I have been told the Kindergarten class is excellent, I want Braeden to start Kindergarten with the children he will continue to be in class with the following years. At Delaware Ridge the children keep the same teacher for 2 years. Braeden has actually been moved to the Kindergarten class at Tots and Tales and we are really proud of him. He is learning so much and seems to be ready for Kindergarten. Tots and Tales has been great for him!

This week was Spring Break at Tots and Tales. Each day the kids participated in a different activity or dressed in a special way. Monday was Hat Day in Brenna's class and Braeden's class went bowling and had Crazy Sock Day. Brenna's cute matching hat/vest outfit was courtesy of Ava Ingram. Thanks so much!!

Wednesday was St. Patrick's Day and I decided to surprise the kids with Green mac n' cheese. To say the least, they were freaked out. "Mama, WHAT IS THAT?" Brenna decided it wasn't too bad and she ate it up. Braeden, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with it.

...and of course, we had to have GREEN BEANS too!

Thursday we all gathered to watch the KU game. We are already training Lindsey's baby on which is the only team to cheer for!

Saturday, we decided that the toy room needed to be picked up. Right now we use our fourth bedroom as the toy room and it is way too easy to shut the door and forget about what it looks like. Therefore, it can become a HUGE mess. When we told Braeden that he needed to start putting his toys away, he asked how much we were going to pay him. We told him that we would not be paying him anything, but that he just needed to do it. After thinking about it for a few minutes, we decided that if he wanted to make keeping the toy room clean his ongoing chore, then we could pay him $5 a week. He looked at us like we were crazy and said we needed to pay him $20 a week! Excuse me? After we explained to him that would NOT be happening, he decided $5 was not worth it. I hope he understand that he will now be doing it for FREE, just because we said so and as parents, we can do that!!

Wow! KU lost tonight. I am still numb. Each year we invest so much time into watching games and into being such huge fans and with one game, it is ALL OVER! Such a disappointment!

With that, I guess I will have more time to catch up on our blog. Ed and I went to Puerto Rico last week. We had a fun time enjoying each other's company and enjoyed a little time away from the daily routine. I'm sure everyone read my whiny blogs about the trip, but overall we had a great time.

This was our hotel.

This was the view from our hotel room.

A rainy day, but still trying to enjoy the beach.

We were actually able to sit in First Class on the flight home. We were so excited!

I know this is a silly picture, but the meal in First Class absolutely beats the bag of peanuts you get in Coach. We even got FREE BOOZE! See my glass of wine! I had THREE!!

Puerto Rico was a beautiful place to visit and I am so glad we had the chance to go. It really makes us look forward to the nice weather that we will soon experience...I hope!!

I have come to accept my role in Ed's work life. He goes out of town and I take care of the kids. He takes clients out to dinner, goes to business seminars/meeting, goes to conventions and I go along as "his wife" to look good, be charming, and paint a smile on my face. Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed a lot of fun trips with Ed's work, but I know my role.

I have asked Ed before if he is ever embarrassed by the fact that I am a Dental Hygienist. He said he absolutely was not and asked me why I would even say that. It was because I always get the same reaction, especially from engineers. It is the "Oh...that's nice, she must be kinda stupid" look. Well, I got it last night and I about lost it.

This female engineer asked me what I did and I told her I was a Dental Hygienist and she replied with, "Oh...that's fun." FUN? What in the world is fun about it? I clean infected, bleeding, odor-filled gums with week-old food lodged in-between teeth. Except, she didn't really mean "fun". With the drawn-out way she said it and the stupid little grin on her face, I know what she meant was "what a stupid little bimbo." After she replied that way to me, Ed just looked at me because he knew how I felt. I am not a violent person, but I wanted to slap that stupid grin off of her face.

Am I to assume that she is a dorky nerd because she is a female engineer. She clearly thinks she is better and smarter than other people and I cannot stand that attitude. I told Ed for the remainder of the evening, I was just going to say that I stay home and take care of the kids. It would just be an easier response and one that is acceptable. But, then I decided that I couldn't do that. I am who I am. I do what I do. I know that I am a smart person and that my career deserves respect.

Getting accepted into hygiene school is very competitive and my job completely exhausts me mentally and physically everyday. I deal with lots of attitude from the public. I make sure that people's mouths stay as healthy as possible because it is connected to the rest of their body. The links between periodontal disease and cardiovascular disease, diabetes, preterm birth, and lots more cannot be ignored. There has to be a reason that the average full-time dental hygienist in the Kansas City area gets paid an average of $75,000/year. It's not because we are stupid or a bimbo who sleeps with the Dentist, as most often seen in movies. We deserve respect and from now on I will let anyone know that who says differently. Except, of course, Ed's clients because they are always right, no matter what. Don't you love it?

Here I am, sitting in San Juan, Puerto Rico in my hotel room updating my blog. Clearly I am not laying on the beach as I had planned. IT IS RAINING!! What is going on? March is one of the least rainiest months here and I don't get the opportunity to relax on the beach by myself everyday. Again I ask, WHAT IS GOING ON? I know I sound like a complaining brat, but I have been looking forward to laying in the sun and aging myself with the UVA and UVB rays for months now (just kidding about the last part!). Now my entertainment is the Internet and ESPN and the Jayhawks don't even play until 1:30 here. If there is any crack in the clouds at all and I see one sliver of blue sky...I am going to be the first one on the beach. Life is so unfair and I am going to be having myself a pity party here in my room. I know how pathetic I sound and I don't care. Woe is me!!

Yesterday I was able to enjoy a morning at the spa with my friend, Tiffany. For my birthday, Ed gave me a gift certificate for a full body massage (an hour) and a 30 minute facial. He actually gave me two gift certificates so I could take a friend. It was a lot of fun and really should have been a very relaxing time. The massage and facial felt great, but I found it very interesting that I could never relax my mind. It was going a hundred miles a minute on what I had to do when I got home and if the kids had homework to complete by Monday and all of the packing I have to do for next week (we are going on vacation). I kept trying to clear my mind, but it just wouldn't work. I will need to figure out some mind relaxation techniques for my next spa adventure. There must be a way to escape being a mother and wife for just a few hours!! :)

We also went to the Auto Show Saturday at Bartle Hall. Braeden LOVES the Transformers movie and Chevrolet had their new cars there that are transformers in the movie. You would have thought Braeden had seen a movie star the by way he reacted! We passed Bumblebee (the yellow transformer/camaro) as we were driving to park and Braeden immediately rolled down his window and started screaming, "BUMBLEBEE, BUMBLEBEE!!" I guess to him these cars are movie stars! We were able to take his picture with some of the cars/transformers inside too. Lots of fun!!