Family

Brilliant is what the Exersaucer is.  This is the first toy that we have found that the Squeaker will stay occupied in for more than 5 minutes.  It’s awesome.  This is a conversation that Kraft and O just had while she was playing in it:

O: [chewing on a toy fish attached to the Exersaucer]
K: Honey, it’s not Friday.  You don’t have to eat fish today.

I love my family.

PS.  For those wondering, this is not a pic of O.  Just some stock photo.

I think most people would characterize me as a modest person but motherhood changes all sorts of things.  No, that doesn’t mean I walk around in a micro-mini and a bra but my modesty, as far as breastfeeding goes, went out the window in NYC.  Like I mentioned in a previous post, you just have to nurse wherever you are because you can’t go to your car or anything like that.  It was actually really liberating finally becoming comfortable with breastfeeding in public.  I was always just so nervous that someone was going to think I was being indecent.  Thankfully, S was really supportive and made me feel like it was not a big deal to feed the Squeaker wherever we were no matter how cramped the space was.

So I discreetly threw a blanket over my shoulder and fed O in the following places:

Grey Dog’s Coffee – I enjoyed a delicious apple cider here.  There was a couple here that was super PDAing it but they kept admiring O.  I wonder if she was pregnant.

Suzu Sushi – We walked in and were the only customers in the restaurant for a good 40 minutes.  It was kinda funny, the whole place was empty but they sat us right up against the window.
 
The Met – Right by the Medieval Art section.  It was kinda beautiful to feed O surrounded by paintings of Mary and Jesus.  The American Wing with the Tiffany’s stained glass window was really amazing.

St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Church – We ducked into this church when it was snowing like crazy and there was lots of slush everywhere because the plows hadn’t come through yet.  What a refuge we found.  And it worked out perfectly because we arrived 30mins before daily Mass so we sat and prayed (O ate) and then we stayed for Mass.  When we left the sidewalks were a lot better.  Store owners had shoveled the areas in front of their stores so it was much more navigable.
 
Otto Pizzeria – Talk about cramped.  I couldn’t feed O at the table because the tables around us were so close together that I would have had one elbow in the table on either side of us.  I had to feed her in the bathroom.  This is actually the first place O ever sat in a highchair.  What a rock star.

Rockefeller Center – After eating at Otto’s, we went and bought some cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery.  We took the cupcakes to the bottom floor of Rockefeller Center and ate them as we watched people ice skating.  Yum.

Who cares, you may ask.  Me.  Just wanting to remember how my modesty was changed for the better on this trip. 

When I taught last year there was one student who I will forever remember because of a statement he made.  I believe he said it during a discussion about the election between McCain and Obama.  He stood up and proclaimed the following to the class (dead serious):

“Fox News is a beacon of light.”

It took a lot not to die laughing in front of the class.  I think of this all the time.

In NYC when the Squeaker and I were on our own wandering around Union Square in the rain by ourselves, I remembered this quote.  Squeaksy had been asleep for a while and I knew she was going to wake up soon and be starving.  In Austin I’m always able to go out to the car if she needs to be fed and we’re out of the house but here, what was I going to do?  No car.  Not anywhere near home.  Ok, I saw a Starbucks.  I guess I’ll go in there, order a chai tea and park myself in a corner with a blanket and feed her.  Awkward but whatever.  Then as I am walking toward Starbucks, I see it.  My beacon of light.  Babies ‘R Us.  Hallelujah.  They have what’s called “A Mothers Room” that has changing tables, comfy couches to use while nursing, and very serene hues of blue and green on the wall.  I’ve never been more relieved.

Babies ‘R Us – huge national chain but whatever, they know their **it.

Today was Kraft’s last day of work at the UCC.  Kraft has spent just about every day inside those UCC doors since August 2002.  Holy cow.  That is just about 8 years.  On that fateful day that Kraft went to Mass at the UCC as a lowly little freshman he came out of Mass and Hung Doan saw him and said, “Hey you, you look like a guy.  Come join Lambdas.”  And from that moment on, Kraft was hooked.  (Thank God he looks like a guy.)  The UCC has really helped Kraft grow from a cocky know-it-all freshman to a more humble know-it-all husband and father.  What really amazes me is that the UCC encompasses Kraft’s entire adult life.  He was 17 when he walked in and is 25 walking out.  He has worked full-time at the UCC for 5 years.  5 years.  Ca-razy.  I have not held a job for more than a year so 5 blows my mind.

While Kraft has grown and learned a lot from the UCC and the people he has met there, Kraft has poured his heart and soul into the place.  He has really helped shape the place and has been instrumental for most great things the place has done for the last 8 years.  Before Kraft started working full-time, he was being paid for 11 hours part-time but was actually working  probably 50 hour weeks.  Probably to the detriment of his academic career, Kraft always worked way more hours for the UCC than he would like to fess up to.

Kraft has been vital to the Lambdas throughout the years.  Officially he has been the Lambda chaplain and president separate years.  But he has helped them through small and very, very large problems.  He planned the 15th year anniversary celebration.  His door has always been open to the many members that needed to talk out issues with him.  While the guys don’t always make the best of decisions, Kraft has always been there to firmly but pastorally lead them back to a path of being good and upstanding Catholic men.

Kraft put together and executed the first Phonathon that will happen for the 4th year this year and is the biggest fundraiser that the UCC does.

He has helped plan and MCed countless liturgies, Masses, Triduums, etc.  He has helped cultivate the relationship between the UCC and the bishop.

Kraft has helped put out lots of fires (figurative) from money issues to building issues to differences of personalities on staff to student problems.  With so many students coming through the UCC doors along with your usual group of homeless folks that wander off the drag and parents and resident community members, there was always someone that Kraft needed to help or unruffle feathers.

If you could only see the difference between the computer system/server/technology pre-Kraft and post-Kraft, you would be amazed.  If Kraft did nothing other than the tech stuff for the UCC, it alone would be worthy of praise.  I can’t really say what all he has done, mostly because it is more technical than I understand but he has revamped the staff’s email and calendar, built the computer lab from scratch, designed and implemented the facilities calendar and room reservation system, and then it gets into stuff I can’t explain.

Kraft has improved Student Leadership and has re-started the Knights council that has been dormant for many years.

All of this doesn’t mention the countless hours he has spent planning, emailing, counseling, mentoring, chatting, building community, etc, etc.  This is just the stuff I can think of right now and am sure that I am leaving out a lot.  While Kraft has learned a lot from the UCC, Kraft has been invaluable to the UCC.  I know he has made such a huge impact on the community and on many students’ lives.  All his work has not been in vain.

We will always be thankful for the UCC.  If it weren’t for the UCC, we
would never have met.  Kraft’s best friends are from the UCC.

Thank God for the UCC and the opportunities it has given Kraft.  Thank God for leading Kraft to the UCC and making him such a dedicated
servant.

Today is the end of an era.  The Kraft era.    So, thank you UCC.  You have been good to us and will always have a place in our hearts.

Sometimes I’m really dumb and complain about things mostly because I forget that I need to keep things in perspective.  These are just a couple of the things that have struck me recently that I need to keep in perspective…

I am thankful for Olivia having poop blow outs all the time and farting in public loudly enough to make people shift awkwardly around me because they think it was me.  Some babies have a lot of serious digestive problems.

I am thankful that Olivia wakes up every couple hours at night.  I was getting my hair cut last weekend and another lady was telling her hair stylist about someone she knew that had their baby’s funeral that morning because the baby went to sleep and didn’t wake up.  SIDS.

I am thankful that my husband has been getting home at 9pm or 10pm most nights after working a full day and having to go train for his new job.  Some of my closest friends had to grow up with their fathers always traveling for work and only getting to see them every other weekend.  Not to mention all the military families that don’t see fathers (or mothers) for months or years at a time.

I am thankful that sometimes I get a little bored and lonely at home.  A lot of mothers are not able to stay home with their children because they need to work to make end’s meet for the family.

I am thankful.

Today was the Austin Half and Full Marathon.  Hung and Kraft ran the half marathon today.  Hung had been training and did a great job, especially since this was his first official running competition.  My husband, on the other hand, decided to not train for this.  At all.  In fact, the last time he ran was over Thanksgiving weekend and it was a 15 minute jog from his haircut to the Farmer’s Market.  Now, I will readily admit that Kraft has much more endurance than I do.  I think we can attribute his endurance to his steadfast stubbornness. 

We ran the marathon in 2008.  I don’t talk about it much because we really sucked at it and it was probably one of the dumbest things we’ve done.  But we did finish it at the amazingly slow time of 6hrs 15mins.  Anywho, we ran so much for that I figured that even though neither of us have seriously run in a couple years we could still make a decent showing if we were to run seriously again.  Wow, was I wrong, at least about me.  On Saturday Hung and Kraft took Olivia to the race expo to pick up their packets and I went  for a run around Town Lake.  I thought that running a marathon means you’re a runner for the rest of your life.  Nope.  I couldn’t run more than 30 seconds at a time.  I wuffled (walked/shuffled) 1 and 1/2 laps around the S 1st – Pfluger bridge loop.  Man, I suck at running all over again.  I was pretty depressed by this and now extremely worried about Kraft who would have to run 13 of those laps today.  If I couldn’t even muster up the ability to run half a mile, how the heck was he going to do 13.1?  Well, he did and in pretty good time.  He finished the half marathon in less that 2hrs 50mins.  Well, color me impressed.  And the finisher shirts were awesome. 

Race Name: LOVE AUSTIN.
Training shirts: GONNA RUN AUSTIN.
Race shirts: RUN AUSTIN.
Finisher shirts: RAN AUSTIN.

Very witty.  Congrats to all the runners today.