Tagged: karinbean

13
Jul
2013

FOURTEEN

It’s hard to remember the details this far forward, but I remember how I cried when the ultrasound technician confirmed that our second child was a girl. I was so glad that I wouldn’t have to consider being pregnant again, since we’d have one of each which is what we both wanted. Of course, then Karin arrived and was the biggest tomboy ever born, so all I could think was “be careful what you wish for”, haha! Neither of my kids wanted to actually leave the womb, and despite being three days early, a welcome change from her big brother...

13
Jun
2013

ANOTHER (SCHOOL) YEAR GONE

I can’t even look at my children sometimes without boggling. They’re both taller than I am and it’s happened so fast. Martin will be 16 in December. I just asked him how old he was and when he gave me a very sarcastic, “I’m FIFTEEN”, I said, “That can’t be right.” Time flies, yes, it does. They both had their last day of school yesterday and when I said I was probably going to go to Martin’s if they were at the same time, Karin got all upset and said no one loved her. So I was relieved to find...

02
Jun
2013

SITTING, SPECULATING, SINGING, SHOPPING, STYLING, SPROUTING

There’s a dove perched on the ridge of the neighbor’s garage. He looks cold. It’s windy and grey, a high white cloud cover, and the air coming in through the window I opened earlier is chilly. Yesterday was humid, so despite the bleakness, the temperature drop is actually a welcome one for me. Not that I want to wish away summer, but if I could have my sunshine and cool breezes year-round I’d be a happy camper. It’s a quiet, uneventful weekend. Karin was sick last week again so she’s not playing in the soccer matches going on. Martin is...

13
Apr
2013

THE URGE TO PURGE

The dining room table is covered in Lego again, but I swear this is the last time. My mom sent 5 pieces home with Karin from Dallas and now they’ve been added to the kits that were missing them and labels are ready to be printed. Now we just need to decide what we actually want to do with it all: sell it? or stick it up in the attic for posterity? There is also a stack of old comic books on the table that Anders needs to go through; Karin and I did a number on her room today...

09
Jan
2013

STATE OF MIND

We got talking at dinner time about the fact that our kids don’t know a lot of American history. Yesterday I was doing a quick anacrostic that I had printed out before we flew home to do on the plane and then forgot about, and it was titled “Are you smarter than a grade schooler?” Martin was sitting with me while I was flying through the answers, and then complained that all the questions were too “American”. In other words, you had to have been educated in the States to know most of them. So, tonight, back on the subject,...

17
Dec
2012

IT’S BEGINNING

Our washing machine is trying to escape. Every time it hits the spin cycle, it vibrates so ferociously that it moves forward at least a foot. “Back!” I say, when I come in to check how far it’s gotten, “Back, I say!” and I manhandle it back into its space under the counter. Then it hits the next spin cycle and lurches forward again. We can hear it all through the house. I’m on load 3 of packing preparation. Packing hasn’t actually commenced, though suitcases have been brought down by (protesting) children from the attic. I refuse to go up...

15
Nov
2012

DARK DAYS

I’m feeling the lack of light these days; after nearly 16 years here perhaps I shouldn’t rule out the very real possibility of seasonal affective disorder, though I still manage to peel myself out of bed each morning when the alarm rings. Even with the clock bumped back an hour recently, the constant cloud cover means that it’s dark in the morning when I rise and dark already in the early evening when I leave the office. I’m not depressed, just a bit down. Today when I drove home from work, after picking up Martin at school, we took the...

15
Oct
2012

MOSTLY KARIN

I was maybe a little too hasty in my despairing busy-angst last week, because I just sat up and looked around me and realized I have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BOOKED any evening this week and I don’t even have to drive Karin to or from any practices! (More on that in a minute) How did THAT happen? It’s like a shining oasis of empty calendar in the middle of a giant sea of crazy. The reason why Karin isn’t going to practice this week is because she fell and hurt herself in gym class on Friday and we ended up in...

01
Apr
2012

UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT

Muahahahahaha! No more boring existential wah-wah poor-me mutterings from my mom. In with the new, out with the old! Consider this your wake-up call for AWESOME BLOGGING AT ITS BEST and bow before the beauty of Karinek!

26
Feb
2012

THE BOOK OF MARTIN & KARIN

One of the perfect present projects that I did for this past Christmas involved going through hundreds of digital photos on the many, many DVDs we have. I was collecting the best photos of Martin and Karin through the years to produce a photo book that would be printed and bound for the 2 grandmothers. The problem was that my kids are so darn cute it was nearly impossible to edit down the giant folder full of photos I ended up with. And that wasn’t even counting baby photos, which I didn’t include at all. The photos ranged from about...

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