The Pumper's Wife

Why is it everything at night is more horrible, scary, and awful? For instance, when my boys were little and would wake in the night with a fever, I was ten times more afraid of their condition than if the same temperature happened at say 10 am.  A fever at 2 am obviously meant meningitis, whereas a similar fever at 10 am meant a cranky baby until the Motrin could kick in. Even now, when I have a sleepless night, my mind doesn’t wonder towards pleasantries….no, no…not at all!  My mind takes a trip straight past Logic Lane and beelines for Crazy Town.  Case in point: Just two nights ago, I was awake and couldn’t get back to sleep.  After tossing and turning, I finally just sat in bed and let my thoughts wonder.  Every worry and complaint I could think of came to mind.  I started with complaining… Gosh I hate my job now!!  I’m alone all day, sitting at a computer, talking to people on the phone who just call to complain!!  I would k...

Did anyone else think you’d be 64 before your body started aching all over?  I sure did.  I never paired my 30s with pain.  I came across this little meme today and though I laughed, I also sighed… I don’t know about you, but this is what I feel like most days.  And as of today, I’m far from sixty four. Relating to this though, kind of irritated me.  I don’t want to be the frumpy, tired, grumpy adult that gets all negative about life whenever anyone asks, "How are you?".  I like to think of myself as the “glass is half full” kind of girl, but lately I feel like my glass is half empty… and has a crack in it. Lately, I find myself thinking back on my own childhood and early adult life and remember how easy it all seemed.  As a kid, my parents did all the worrying…all I had to do was wake up every day and breathe.   As a young adult, I didn’t have much, but I also didn’t worry much either.  (I mean, I could grocery shop usi...

You know it’s post season, right? For those of us crazed baseball fans things are starting to get interesting especially if your team made the cut. Our family has watched its far share of playoffs, but this year has me in a quandary.  I am telling you, a lot more is going on than just the playing of baseball games.  As many people know, baseball players and fans have ridiculous superstitions, beliefs, and customs.  For instance, players won’t launder their socks because they think it could possibly stop a winning streak or they won’t shave because ever since they missed a day their team started winning.  Whatever the beliefs you may have heard of (or possibly believe in yourself) this year a couple of the postseason teams have some intriguing ideas and stories to consider.  First up, the Kansas City Royals.  As you may know, the Kubiks are big Kansas City Royals fans.  Both my boys have the “Hos” haircut (after the 1 st baseman Eric Hosmer), ...

The hubs and I recently took part of a trade show sponsored by an organization called WasteCaps Nebraska.  Their goal is to encourage recycling and any other measure that might aid in helping our environment.  Though many think pumping septic tanks is quite dirty, we are actually recycling wastewater.  After we haul the septic contents away, it is then treated and released back into a river –by this time it is safe and good for the environment.   Really when you think about it, septic systems were among the first recycling systems ever invented – our first attempt at reusing water.  While at the show, we enjoyed hearing the keynote speaker, Mitch Hedlund, who is the founder of Recycle Across America.  She presented recycling in a way I had never considered before and stressed the importance of standardizing our recycling methods.  Let me explain.  If you consider the different places we put items to be recycled, what do they look like?...

No doubt reading this title brings back memories of Marty McFly and Doc Brown (or Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd depending how you remember the characters).  It has been a favorite movie for some time for my kiddos.  I think I could quote it word for word if that gives you any idea how much we’ve watched it.  In fact, for many years, my oldest asked that his school picture be sent to Michael J. Fox, he was so smitten with his character.  (We now possess an autographed picture of the actor which he keeps proudly displayed in his room).  Our dog is officially named Marty McFly Kubik.  (Yes, we need help).  There are some other BTTF bits of craziness we have in our family, but as you can infer with the few examples stated above, we no doubt qualify as “fans” of the films.  That being said, those movies have truly become a part of our pop-culture-history.  There were lots of ideas presented in the sequel of what our possible t...

I have seen several memes lately about “adult-ing.”  Many of them are quite funny. Check out the few I have listed here. Pretty good huh? I have come to think that most things I find funny are because many of them are terrifyingly close to the truth.  How many days have you had similar thoughts just like those above?  Maybe your brain didn’t process them exactly the way they are printed, but you’ve had these thoughts, right?  Go ahead, admit it.  It’s okay. Teaching 8 th graders for a little over 10 years, I particularly LOVE the teenager one.  But, as I read and closely relate to these memes, I am reminded of my own children who periodically talk about how they don’t want to “third grade” or “fifth grade” anymore because school is too hard or there aren’t enough recesses.  To me, their complaints seem unreal.  I will kill to be a third or fifth grader!!  I would love for my hardest decision of the day to be whethe...

Ever have those moments when you’re feeling on top of the world?  You know, like you just lost 15 pounds but everyone is complementing you like you’ve lost 50?  Or, your kid goes out of his way to give you a kiss before running into the school and you think “Wow, I have the best kid ever!  I’m the luckiest mom alive!”  Or, your refund check from the government comes back and it’s like $2000 more than you thought it would be? Are you feeling me people?  Do you KNOW what I’m talking about? But then, reality strikes. Because despite those 15 pounds lost, you catch a reflection in the window as your shopping and notice you’ve been sporting a pair of underwear that has static cling-ed itself to your backside.  So, all those people who NOTICED your weight loss more than likely NOTICED your unfashionable accessory.  Or, that precious child that kissed you in front of all of his friends before school, punches a kid at recess and you get to have that ...