It's Monday night. Of course today it was gorgeous outside. Saturday was very hot. Sunday was rainy. Now that I had to go to work, it's sunny, not humid, around 80 degrees. Perhaps it was meant to be rainy on Sunday so that fathers would be forced into very close contact with their children. At least when I got home I got to take a walk with my wife and kids around the neighborhood loop. It always amazes people in the neighborhood to see us walking with all these small children: Claire on her two wheeler, Abigail on her tricycle, the boys in a double stroller, Michelle hardly looking like she was ever pregnant. You want to bottle moments like these up.
On the way home Michelle asked me to stop by the grocery store to pick up a few staples. It took a while because the grocery store "12 items or less" aisle is usually quite long right after work. I was behind a woman who was about 25-30 years old and was with her mom. The range of feelings I had varied in the 15 minutes or so while we waited. When she got up to the front, at first I was a bit upset because she had about 30 items, but I didn't let it show because it really didn't matter to me. I'd waited this long. What's another few minutes?
Then upon further observation I noticed that it was all baby stuff. Formula, juices, diapers. Awww! She must have a baby back home. Then I further noticed that there was nothing for herself, just stuff for the baby. Then I saw her pull out a form from the state of NH and endorse it. I realized that she was picking up the necessities on one of the state child welfare programs akin to WIC (Women, Infants, and Children). At first I felt a bit sad, for she must not be having an easy time making ends meet. Then I felt a joy and admiration. In this day it would have been so easy for her to choose an abortion, but she chose to have this baby even if she didn't have all the financial means. On my drive home I said a small prayer of thanks to God for the gift of this unseen child's life, wherever he or she is. I thanked God for the gift of our own children and the means necessary to raise them: our health, our intact marriage, our house, my employment. I only hope we can fulfill His expectations of us.
Work is going reasonably well. In my position we have these things called 'MBO's, Management By Objectives. At the beginning of the fiscal quarter you look into a crystal ball (figuratively speaking) with your boss and together make some objectives of what you'd like to accomplish in the quarter. It's not like the dollar quotas a sales person has. It's specific tasks. I've been so busy 'fighting forest fires' (as it's often referred to) that there hasn't been a lot of time for the strategic MBO tasks that were planned early in the quarter. In the end this means that if sufficient consideration isn't given to what I did in the forest fire fighting assignments, my bonus for the second quarter may be significantly lower. It's not the end of the world. I consider the bonus checks as just that: a bonus. If you get one, great! However I try not to plan too much around them. I used the bonus I got a few weeks ago from the first quarter's work to pay for Claire's Infant Jesus tuition for next year. Claire will start first grade in late August. I can't remember if it's the 27th or 29th... I stopped by the school today after lunch to drop off her medical records.
Yesterday I got a call from my Grandpa Bilik. Here I was planning on calling him to wish him a happy Father's Day and he called me. He told me that he had some time at my father's house to see the pictures of the kids on Dad's computer. I was glad he finally got the opportunity after not being able to "see" them while he was sun-bird'ing down in Florida for the winter. Just when I was beginning to wonder about his actions lately, he does something like this.
In closing I wanted to mention that Alyssa, Tom, and the kids arrived safely back in River Grove on Saturday evening. They had a smooth drive from here (Nashua) to Chicago. They spent Friday night in Cleveland, Ohio. This was good for little William who loves the intro song to the Drew Carey show. Even though he's only a year and a half old, he likes to shout "Cleveland Rocks!" and "Ohio!" just like they do in the intro song. Small kids are so funny that way. You've got to love them because of the silly little things that make them happy.