Tuesday, December 9, 2008

What I like about you!


Emily Poulter

Well, I could be quite honest here since Emily (to my knowledge) doesn't read my blog. So here I go.

Emily is besides my Mom, probably my top choice for "Mom of the year". She is pretty much always on top of things and never seems to get overwhelmed or lose control. If I hadn't grown up with her -I'd think she was superhuman.

For the record, she's always been pretty much steady and amazingly strong. She is by far THE toughest person I've ever met. Emily? Yeah, that's right. You probably wouldn't automatically assume that, but get her to tell you her birthing story with Claire. It will go something like this:

"Well, I went into labor one day, went to the hospital that evening, but they said the contractions weren't close enough together so they told me to come back later. So we went home and came back the next day and had a baby. " -then she would smile and start talking about something else.

But.

Here is what really happened.

41 excrucating hours of labor with NO DRUGS and NO SLEEP. -did you catch the almost two complete days with no sleep part?

Ok. Are you convinced? I can go on, but I'll stop here for the sake of keeping this post short enough to read in one sitting.

Emily is someone I'll call when the boys are cranky and I'm cranky and no one is getting anything done. After I whine for 3 or 4 minutes. I will stop and ask her what she has going on. She will say that she's just had exercise time with the girls, and that they are coloring a picture now, later she will teach Ava her alphabet -in Spanish and Claire will work on writing in cursive. She will have the floor picked up and have a wonderful healthy supper on the table for Tommy when he gets home.

Good grief. Sometimes I think I would feel better about myself if I had a less "superhero type" big sis. But here are some of the things I like about Emily.

She laughs when I try to make a joke -funny or not.

She can always come up with a good meal when I call her asking "What should I make for supper"

Emily is the calm in the midst of my stormy up and down crazy life.

She calls me when she is frustrated (twice) and makes me feel like I have something to offer her.

She is always coming up with creative things for her children to do, and I steal her ideas.

She knows her neighbors and often organizes events to be around them.

She teaches Sunday School.

She has worked herself ragged trying to figure out Ava's food alergys and is now an expert on the subject. -which makes my life easier cause Jack is alergic to the milk protein. (without Emily we wouldn't know that Jack can still eat cheddar cheese)

She always opens her home to me and my two sleep psycho boys.

No amount of chaos can cause Emily to yell at anyone.

She respects her husband.

I feel like I'm listing off Proverbs 31.

But you get the idea. I guess you could say she's one of my heros. I didn't intend for this to get so long, but I guess there's just a lot to say about this stay-at-home mom.

Ty's crying again so I got to go.

6 comments:

beccaellis said...

Today I returned a call from Emily and we talked for a few minutes before she said that she had to go.

She and Claire had a date to make sugar cookies in the kitchen.

And we ain't talking slice 'n bake people.

Anonymous said...

Becca!
You are too kind...no really. Thank you so much for the kind words, you really made my day!

By the way, sugar cookies are just as much of a pain to make as I remember from past experience. I will not be making them again soon. BTW- the only way to make them is individually. Get a little ball of dough, mush if flat on parchment paper, cut out the cookie, peel the extra dough off (while the cutter is still in the dough). Then, you don't have to move the cookie and it keeps its shape. Repeat in the next spot that you want a cookie... Much less frustrating! (crazy I know!)

Mandy said...

All that stuff is so incredibly frustratingly amazingly true - it kind of makes you sick and then makes you want to be a better person. :-) I think the best part is that she's so not-judgmental of the rest of us who haven't got it together. I sure love you two girls - wish we were closer.

Anonymous said...

Yay Emily!! She is superhuman isn't she? But then again, so are you. :)

Anonymous said...

I just want to verify that everything Becca wrote about Emily is true, having spent many a weekend recently at the Poulter household. (Just so this isn't weird....Emily and Rebecca's sister, Caroline, is my girlfriend, and she comes and stays with Emily, which is why I spend some time at her house.)

I'm amazed at Emily as well, except when I am doing something constructive with Tommy or the girls, which is most of the time. That is the one thing I would add, when at Emily's house she has no trouble including you in all the work. (Not that she couldn't do it all by herself, as Becca aptly established.) But the amazing thing is that I always notice this AFTER I have finished working, not before. Being the first child, she has this awesome skill of delegating chores with niceness that would scare you if it were not so nice. You feel like you are an integral part of a team (for you sports people) striving towards a common goal. She makes me willing and glad, even eager, to put my best effort to the most menial of tasks, honestly, and I was never one to embrace chores. Every day is fun and productive at the Poulter's. I keep meaning to try to catch how she does it.... But it's hard to between mowing the yard, creating a queso dip to eat with organic tortilla chips, and coloring a princess page.

beccaellis said...

Well said Lawson. That is a difference between She and I. When I tell ask someone to do something, it usually comes off as more of a command from a General and when Emily does, well... we don't even know how she does it, but somehow you end up being involved in some form of productivity and you can't remember the last 5 minutes of your life....