Burping, Farting and Falling Down

My life is remarkably ordinary.

I pack lunches and help with homework.

I cook, I clean, and I do (a ton of) laundry.

I wipe spilled juice, runny noses, and asses alike, and find a strange and simple joy in this normal suburban life.

I’m ordinary.

I laugh.

I cry.

I celebrate the days when I think I’ve got this mothering thing down. On the days when I’m feeling defeated by my obvious parental short-comings, I just hope that I’m not causing permanent damage and I toss a few bucks in the kid’s “future therapy” jars.

Through it all, the laughter and the tears, I’ve found you…

I share snapshots of my life, and try to bring laughter into yours.

You’ll probably never read anything here that will win any major awards.

You’ll likely not be moved to tears by the power of my words.

But I do hope that you’ll read something that might make you smile or bring you a little joy.

That’s my gift to you. (I wish I could give you all wine or chocolate, but right now, it’s all I got)

And your gift to me, aside from just being here, is that you remind me to laugh.  You remind me to smile.  You remind me to appreciate the moment for what it is, just a moment.  And even if that moment feels stressful, or embarrassing, or frustrating, there’s usually room for some humor too.

So in the midst of living these ordinary moments, and sharing them with you here, I had a few moments that were a bit more than ordinary…at least for me.

In fact, for a moment, life felt a little surreal.

Like being picked up at my house and driven to the NBC Studios in New York City…

Like sitting in a green room waiting for my segment to be filmed for the Dr.Oz Show…

Hoping, praying, and trying to convince myself I could make it through a few minutes on national tv without burping, farting or falling down.

Hoping, praying, and also trying to convince myself that this was a show about “Over-Sharing” (and that it’s actually a good thing) like they had told me, and that I wasn’t going to walk out to a surprise Facebook Intervention…

Because who would have thought that doing stuff like this….

Would lead to things like this:

You can view the video from the segment here on the Dr. Oz website.

In a nutshell, it was a crazy-fun experience that I know I’ll never forget! I was so excited to meet Dr. Oz, who is from Wilmington, Delaware also, and he is just as nice in person as he seems to be on TV.  Plus, anyone who encourages me to keep wearing the hot pink unitard and leopard leotard is a friend for life in my book!

I did marvel afterwards at what a difference three hours can make in my life….when I got home to a sink full of dishes, kids getting ready for bed running around half dressed, and right back to the wiping of various things/parts, it seemed hard to believe I was in front of a studio audience talking about my (over) sharing just a few hours earlier.

I don’t know about anyone else, but my kids were pretty impressed to see me on TV.  Jake, who is five, was excited after he made sure I wasn’t sick….why else would I be going to see someone named Dr. Oz after all?  And Joey, who is seven, woke me up at 1am the night after it aired to ask, “Since you were on TV does this mean we’re getting a Butler?”

Uh, no, kid.

So thanks for allowing me to share, and apparently, over-share with you.  Now that I know it’s actually good for me, so says a real doctor, I’ll be even more inclined to let it all hang out….figuratively speaking of course.