Lessons Learned from the Daytime Emmy Awards

It amazes me how, when I least expect to be reminded, God shows me how blessed I am. 

This morning, I was watching the Daytime Emmy Awards because, as I admitted in my last post, I am a Y&R junkie.  I was eager to see if my favorite daytime show would win.  While I sat on the floor, indulging in this guilty pleasure, I hadn't noticed that my children had snuck up on the couch behind me and were watching as well.  Thankfully, this was the award show, and not the show itself, or they might possibly be scarred for life.  No, instead of seeing something that was well beyond their years of comprehension, God turned what might have been a misstep on my part into a teaching moment for myself and my children.

In the middle of the show, the daytime stars took a moment to showcase some of their charity work at a children's hospital.  The glimpse into the lives of these sick children and their families was so unexpected that it brought me to sobbing tears.  My boys were shocked at the sight of these kids with their hollow faces, bald heads, and weak bodies.  I just sat there on the floor of our beautiful home and thanked God for what I take for granted everyday.  My children are healthy.  Thank you God!  The scariest things I've had to deal with, when it comes to my children, are severe eczema and food allergies.  What these parents must deal with everyday is beyond my ability to fathom.

As you can imagine, my boys were wondering what was wrong with these children.  So I told them.  I told them everything.  And I reminded them how blessed we are to be so healthy. 

A few minutes later, there was a lady on the show doing sign language.  My boys wanted to know what she was doing.  I explained that she couldn't hear, which made her unable to learn how to speak like we do.  So she has to talk with her hands.  I was surprised as I realized that this topic had never come up before.  My children had no idea that some people cannot hear and speak as we do.  Wow.

Thankfully, and unexpectedly, we were able to turn a few minutes of TV time into lessons that will last a lifetime.  We are so blessed.  Thank you God!

Who would have thought we could learn so much from watching the Daytime Emmy Awards Show...

If I Lived in Genoa City...

My most guiltiest pleasure is my daily viewing of The Young and the Restless, also know to the daytime drama's most avid fans as Y&R.  I usually avoid telling anyone that I "waste" an hour of each day losing myself in the non-reality of this soap opera.  I fully expect the jaw-dropping, wide-eyed expression, followed by, "How can you watch that garbage?"  My only response is, "I don't know, but I LOVE it!"  I love the fact that none of what I am watching is at all close to the reality of my life.  Therefore, it serves as an escape from those mundane activities that are required daily of a wife and mother - the laundry, the dishes, the sweeping, the mopping, the scrubbing, the ironing (wait, I refuse to iron...  scratch ironing), the cleaning, the cleaning, the cleaning, etc., etc., etc.

Still, if you're not a soap opera junkie, like me, I don't expect you to understand.  There is only one person in the whole world who I know without a doubt will understand, and that is because this show gets to her in just the same way it gets to me.  So to my bestest friend in the whole-wide world, Wendy ~ I dedicate this blog to you!  :)

If I Lived in Genoa City....

1. I would always be beautiful.  Every hair would be exactly in place.  My makeup would be perfectly applied.  And I would have the most awesome wardrobe EVER.
2. I would never wear jeans, because I would have the most awesome wardrobe EVER.
3. I would never cook or clean, or even go to the bathroom for that matter.  I have servants who can do those things for me.
4. I would marry my soulmate, then cheat on him with his brother or his best friend, or possibly even his father (because he doesn't look old enough to be his father).
5. I would wind-up divorced, yet still be filthy rich, so no great loss.
6. I would marry my soulmate's arch-enemy, even though I am still so madly in love with my soulmate.
7. I would be involved in some sort of disaster (a car accident, a fire, a building falling on top of me), and my soulmate would realize how much he loves me, even though I cheated on him, and he would rescue me.
8. I would leave my soulmate's arch-enemy, and remarry my soulmate.
9. We would have beautiful children together, whom we never have to do anything for because we have servants and nannies who raise them for us.
10. We would send our beautiful children off to boarding school at the young age of two, and they would return one year later at the young age of eighteen.  My how time flies in Genoa City!
11. Someone I know would end up in a coma...  for three months... and just when we think they won't make it, and we've given up all hope... they'll wake up. 
12. My soulmate would be murdered right before my very eyes.  And I'll cry and sob and scream, but still look beautiful.
13. I would learn that my father was not really my father.  My mother actually had an affair with his brother, and he's my real father.  WHAT?!  How could my mother cheat on my father with his brother?!  Oh wait, I did the same thing.  Oops.  My bad.
14. I would learn that my soulmate is not really dead after all.  He was just pretending to be dead because he was trying to protect me.
15. I would be angry at my soulmate and cry and sob and scream, but still look beautiful.  Then I would forgive my soulmate and be so happy that he is alive.
16. I would figure out that my soulmate is not my soulmate, but he's my soulmate's evil twin brother whom I never knew about. 
17. I would find out I have cancer, and it's so agressive that I probably won't live, but I WOULD live because I'm so young and too beautiful to die.
18. I would become an alcoholic and be a lousy drunk, and my soulmate, or his twin brother (because they are both so madly in love with me) would swoop in and take me to an awesome rehab center, where I would be totally rehabilitated.
19. I would never age.  How nice.
20. I would never die.  You might think I was dead.  They would have my funeral and everything, but I'm not really dead.  I've been living in a small-recluse town, where no one knows who I really am.  But don't worry, I'll always come back to life in Genoa City!!!!!

My Dad's Shorts

Yesterday, I was rummaging through my dresser drawers, searching for something comfortable to put on.  The boys and I were going to hang around the house for a couple of hours, and I just wanted to be attired in something that I didn't have to suck my gut in to wear.  I came across an old pair of navy blue shorts, and I smiled - JACKPOT!  These are the most comfortable pair of shorts I own, and they are not really my shorts at all...

When I was pregnant with my first child, I was so close to the finish line, that my husband feared leaving me home alone.  So each of those last 14 days of my pregnancy, my mom would come pick me up and bring me back to her house.  One of those days, I was miserable in the clothes I had on.  I was hot and felt restricted.  Truthfully I was about to pop (literally), and simply needed bigger clothes.  But being in the homestretch, it did not make sense to buy more maternity clothes.  So my mom gave me a pair of my dad's shorts to wear.  They are 100% navy blue cotton, and on that day, they were heaven.  Not only was I able to breathe (and waddle), but I also found comfort in the fact that, as I was about to embark on the biggest adventure of my life, I was wrapped up in something that belonged to my daddy.

You see, I've always been a "Daddy's Girl".  For as long as I can remember, I've idolized my father - hurling him up on this tall pedastal, thinking there was no greater daddy in whole-wide world.  When I married my husband at the young age of 20 years old, it was a quite a shock to both my father and I that there was a new man who I loved more than any other.  I didn't expect the change it brought to our relationship, and it has taken the better part of my 13.5 years of marriage to cope with the difference. 

When I need guidance, I look to my husband.  When I need encouragement, I look to my husband.  When I need affirmation, I look to my husband.  When I need a hug, I look to my husband.  [Although I will argue that my dad gives the BEST HUGS in the entire world.  I mean seriously, he wraps his arms around me, and I can literally feel his love for me.]

I love my husband, but I miss my daddy. 

I guess that's why, when I unpack the summer clothes, I smile everytime I pull those shorts out of the box.  That's right, I never gave them back.  Sorry Daddy!  I'm keeping your shorts!  :)

Dear Job, Why Do I Hate You? Let Me Count the Reasons...

Dear Job,

As I sit at my computer struggling to focus on the Marketing and Advocacy training manual  I am supposed to be writing, all I can think is how much I hate you.  I am truly sorry to say this, but I am an honest person, and I feel it is only right that you know how I feel about you.  I hate you.  I loathe you.  I can't stand the thought of you.  On Wednesdays, my "work" day, I have all I can do to crawl out of bed because I know I will spend the next eight hours forcing myself to look at you and think about you all the livelong day!  I hate you.  I hate you!  I HATE YOU!

Why do I hate you?  Let me count the reasons...

1. Because I am a stay-at-home mom, which means my days should be spent caring for my children and cleaning my house and preparing meals for my husband - you know, not WORKING!
2. Because I am a homeschooling mom, which means I already have a full-time job!
3. Because when I am working, I have to pay for my children to stay at someone else's house, which kind of defeats the purpose of being a stay-at-home mom.
4. Because what do I really care about marketing and advocacy?
5. Because I would so much rather be scrapbooking.
6. Because, if I am paying for kids to stay at someone else's house, I would much rather be enjoying this time taking a nice warm bath, followed by an hour long nap.  And then go shopping with my best friend.  :)
7. Because no amount of money in the world is worth the amount of stress you cause me.
8. Because I do.  And I'm the mom, so no more talking!

I know it wasn't always like this.  I used to enjoy spending time with you.  You were an escape from those overwhelmingly stressful toddler years.  But now, they're school-aged.  I'm homeschooling them.  And I cherish my time with them. 

I'm sorry to be so cruel.  But I've tried everything else I know to make you understand.  I've distanced myself by cutting you down to one day a week.  I've stopped thinking about you on the days we're not together.  You're just not going away, like I would like for you to.  So here's the bitter truth...

You've really become more of an intrusion than anything else.  I don't need you anymore.  So...
I quit.  I'm done.  We're no longer friends.  Now go away.

Regrettably yours,
Marci