1) Tell us about your little family and the overabundance of Y chromosomes at your house.

Shawn and I have been married for 7. 5 years, and have two boys: Jackson is 4.5 and Holden is 2. I’m a very girly-girl, and I come from a family filled to the top with women. My boys are the only boys on my side of the family. When we found out we were having a boy the first time I simply couldn’t wrap my head around what to do with a boy. I knew pink and dolls and dress up, not blue and trucks and trains. But oh man, the minute Jackson was born, I was hooked. We were thrilled when we found out Holden was a boy as well. My hubby is a pretty environmentally friendly kind of guy, so of course he liked the recycled aspect of having another boy as well – clothes, gear, nursery, etc! It worked out perfectly.

I hate to say that our boys are “stereotypical” because I don’t like to place specific gender rolls on them, but they really are both “all boy.” The love trucks and trains and cars and superheroes, and well, you get my point. I can’t walk two feet without stubbing a toe on something with wheels. That’s how it goes around our house, and I love it! Boys love their mamas, and in my case, they are also quite crazy about their Daddy, too. We are very blessed.

2) You have recently taken up photography. Are you self-taught? What are your favorite things to photograph?

I’ve always loved photography. I’m drawn to photography exhibits and books, but never thought of it as something I could do well. About a year ago Shawn bought me a Pentax DSLR camera. I was so overwhelmed by it at first. I wanted to really learn photography, but that camera was intimidating. Over the past year I’ve learned a lot by reading books, checking out photography blogs, and taking a few classes offered by the camera store where he bought my camera. But mostly I’ve just been taking hundreds and hundreds of pictures, learning as I go. I’ve learned a lot, and have a lot more to learn, but it has really become a passion of mine. I have just started my own photography business and am looking forward to seeing where that venture takes me!

My favorite things to photograph? My boys, absolutely. They both have the most amazing eyes, and I love to capture them in their various moods.

3) How did you get into blogging and what keeps you going?

I have always loved writing, and as I mentioned above, photography. I tried my hand at scrapbooking, but it just wasn’t the right fit for me. One day, about 2.5 years ago, while Jackson was napping (and I was barely pregnant with Holden), I logged into blogger, picked a name out of the air, and started writing. I’ve been doing it regularly ever since. It is so cathartic for me to be able to express my feelings as a mother, a wife, a daughter, a friend, a sister, etc. Mostly I blog about my boys and our family, but there is a lot of “me” in my blog, too. It allows me sometimes to write the things I forget to say to people I love and care about. It is very personal.

It has also been a great way for our families near and far to keep up with our family. My parents both read it daily and get their grandboys-fix. I have had a book made of my first year of blogging, and intend to do the following years as well. I hope my boys will be able to look back on their childhood via their mama’s words, and know how very much they were loved. And how much fun we had.

4) What do you love and dislike most about parenthood?

I love being a mom. The best part is the unconditional love that comes from my boys. The drive-by-hugs just bowl me over. And their smiles can fix a million wrongs.

What do I like least about parenting? Brushing their teeth and cutting their fingernails. Oh the battles…

5) Please tell us about “Hope for Kyra” and what people can do to help.

Kyra Dinkins is my 5-year old friend who lives four houses down from our family. She was recently diagnosed with brain cancer. Obviously Kyra’s parents, Eric and Candi, are devastated and frightened, but they are also full of faith that their little girl will make a full recovery. Kyra was also born deaf and has a cochlear implant to help her hear. This brave little girl is no stranger to the word courage.

The minute our little group of neighborhood moms heard the news, we started putting together the Hope for Kyra Benefit and Silent Auction to help Kyra’s parents with their escalating medical bills – some of which insurance is not willing to pay.

The event is open to the public, and we would love to have a huge turn out to make the event a big success for Kyra. There is even a MyGym located just steps away from Jimmy’s Steakhouse, where the event is being held, that is offering a parent’s night out for the kiddos. The parents can attend the event, and their children can have a fun evening as well! The details:

Hope For Kyra Benefit and Silent Auction
Join us for an evening of fine dining and a silent auction.
All proceeds to benefit Kyra’s fight against pediatric brain cancer.
Monday, January 26, 2009 – 6:30 PM
$60 per person – 4 courses
Jimmy’s Steakhouse – 880 Happy Canyon Road, Castle Rock, CO

For tickets: www.HopeForKyra.org

If you can’t attend the event but would like to donate to Kyra’s cause, please visit her website at http://hopeforkyra.org/donate.html.

1) Your life redefines busy! You have three young children, two of whom you adopted while juggling medical school. Are both you and your husband currently students? How do you juggle it all?

My husband and I are both technically medical students, although I am done with medical school with the exception of one last board exam I’ll take in February (Step 2CS, which was implemented to extort another $1K out of us, make sure we speak English well enough to converse with patients, wash our hands after doing a PAP, and can walk and chew gum at the same time). I finished my clinical requirements with the class of 2007, but have deferred beginning residency to stay home with our three little guys. Travis is currently in his third year of medical school, and I am in the application process with plans to start my intern year this June.

As for how we juggle it, well, the answer is with frequent ball drops. Sometimes it’s forgotten bills, sometimes we might not be able to give 100% to our future careers in medicine, sometimes we don’t make enough time for our marriage, sometimes we get homeowner’s fines for leaving old junk in the driveway, and sometimes we’re impatient with our kids. We’re pretty normal like that. There seems to be an ebb and flow to our lives: when it rains, it pours, when it’s chill, it’s awesome.

2) Tell us about your adoption journey and your children. Do you plan to have more?

Our journey to adoption actually started LONG ago. When I was in college, my parents adopted my five youngest siblings from Russia, to make us nine kids altogether. At that point, Travis and I knew adoption was somewhere in our future. After we graduated from college, we spent two months backpacking through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. Along the way, we volunteered in an orphanage in Hoi An, Vietnam, fell in love with the country and people, and decided we would adopt a child from Southeast Asia when the time was right.

We intended to take my parents’ advice, which was to have bio kids first, then adopt. The rationale was that parenting an adopted child presents unique challenges that might be better met after gaining experience parenting “homegrown” kids. Specifically, we felt understanding “normal” attachment and bonding with a bio baby would enable us to recognize and overcome potential barriers with a baby who had spent the first 6ish months of life institutionalized.

After morphing into bunnies and obsessively peeing on sticks *trying* for a few months, we discovered it might be difficult for us to conceive the old fashioned way. We brushed ourselves off and moved on with our plans to start our family. Fertility treatment was not the least bit appealing, and we have never viewed adoption as 2nd best. It just all happened in an unexpected order! And we are now SO very thankful for that.

We were thrilled to find out Vietnam’s adoption program had just re-opened to US citizens, and the timing of everything was perfect. Jackson came home December, 2006. A few months later, we decided to start the process again. We knew we didn’t want him to be an only child; we wanted him to have a sibling who shared his birth country and to whom he would be close in age. About 1 month prior to receiving Shane’s referral, we learned we were pregnant. We were shocked, terrified, and thrilled all at once! We chose to proceed with the adoption in addition to the pregnancy, and are so thankful we did. After receiving Shane’s referral, we decided to travel to Vietnam to wait for the rest of the process to finalize. We spent seven weeks in Vietnam, traveling and visiting with Shane at his orphanage and returned home two months before my due date.

After an epic labor and a complicated C-section, our youngest baby was born. We were ecstatic to find out we had a little girl, Finley Marie.

Our kids are incredible, and despite their closeness in age, each is so different from the others. Jackson is our 2.5-year-old wildman; he’s a bundle of energy, brilliant, adventurous, and outgoing. Shane-bug is our 16-month-old sweetheart; he’s affectionate, gentle, a homebody, a mama’s boy, shy, and very observant. Finley is our 7-month-old pumpkin. She’s tiny but feisty, perpetually happy, adores her big brothers, is a fan of the breastaurant, and is extremely active (and mobile).

As for if we plan on having more kids…Bwahaha! That would require us to be having…ahem, I mean, no. Seriously though, I have made the decision to return to medicine. It has been a really difficult decision, but rumor has it, $400K of medical school debt doesn’t just evaporate. Or so says the collection agency. There are a few windows in medicine during which growing your family is less difficult and mildly acceptable. That window for me is a few years off again, and we really want all our kids close in age because travel and practicing medicine overseas are priorities for us. That becomes difficult when you start over with a young baby in diapers! I would love to be pregnant again, but 1) that’s not something we can plan easily due to fertility, and 2) timing is challenging in a two doc (or worse, a two resident) family. I don’t know, is the no-bs answer.

3) Why did you start blogging?

I started blogging the week before we left to meet Jackson in Vietnam. I intended to use the blog to document our journey and to allow our families to follow along. It has evolved from there and, through the Blogosphere, I’ve found an awesome community of moms- adoptive, biological, and both. I now blog about parenting topics, my career decisions, stay-at-home motherhood, adoption, politics, religion, travel (international and around Colorado), medical topics (circumcision, common adoption-related health issues, etc.), and I do product reviews and giveaways on my site. I even blogged through my epic labor (shockingly, it didn’t seem to distract me from the pain; I’m just that obsessed committed)!

4) You and your husband are high school sweethearts. Is this anything close to the life you had envisioned for yourselves?

I’d have to say “yes.” I always pictured us with a bundle of kids, all close in age, traveling the world, doing volunteer work, and embarking on adventure after adventure. I think that’s what we’re still all about, although we’re in the phase of life during which our careers and young children are slightly limiting with regards to adventure travel. We did travel to Peru for six weeks to work on a birth center project with Jackson, and around Vietnam with Jackson and Shane while I was in my 2-3rd trimester of pregnancy. We are planning another trip to Vietnam (us + our kids) to work on a collaborative public health project in Central Vietnam. The only aspect of our lives I feel has been put on the back-burner temporarily is our love for exercise. We hope to get back into running marathon distances as soon as someone out there takes pity and buys/gives us a triple stroller!

Moms have different paths that lead to motherhood. Tell us about your struggles with infertility.

To this day I cringe when I hear a wide-eyed newlywed say, “We want to have a baby in June, so we are going to get pregnant in September!” I remember when we thought we had that much control. Many people do. Turned out we didn’t.

Ultimately, we had to decide whether we wanted to be pregnant or whether we wanted to be parents.

At what point did you decide to turn to adoption?

What some might see as very unlucky, I saw as incredibly lucky: the signals were very clear for us that having a biological child just wasn’t gonna happen.

After one round of fertility treatments (with devastating results), we had only the emotional and financial reserves to do one. more. thing. So we had to pick the right thing. With the odds we were given, our way was clear: adoption.

I am so glad we didn’t string ourselves along any further.

Tell us about your family.

I met and married Rob, the funniest (think Mike Myers), the most handsome (think Nick Lachey), and the smartest (think Bill Clinton with impulse control) man in the whole world. (Sorry, ladies. Y’all’s husbands — and Mitch McDad — can vie for second place.)

Tessa, 7, is the self-proclaimed Boss of The World. She could have a bright future as a QVC hostess, as she could sell moose jerky to Sarah Palin . Within 38 seconds of meeting Tessa, she’ll have inventoried the entire contents of your purse. Warning: you may not get back your lipstick, keys or cellphone.

Reed, 5, is one of those elusive peaceful warriors. While he turns every imaginable object (chicken nugget, hairbrush, booger) into a sword or gun, he is also quick and generous with hugs and kisses. To gain status with him, you will need to impressively answer the question, “How many weapons do you have?” (It’s not clear if booger-blades count.)

We are blessedly surrounded by grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.

What was your attitude about open adoption before you went through the process?

I had no clue. I thought adoption was this big secretive non-secret that everyone pretended had never happened even though everyone knew about it. But once our agency helped us to understand what it was, what it required of us, and what the benefits could be to our children, we embraced it whole-heartedly.

We are in fully open adoptions with Tessa’s birthparents — Crystal since just before Tessa’s birth, and Joe since a few months ago. We consider them both extended family, and they (with spouses and children) are likely to show up at school events, birthday parties, and the occasional “just because” dinner.

We have an open door adoption with Reed’s birthparents. While they are not present now, we have let them know they are welcome in our lives when the time becomes right for either of them. One of our parenting challenges is to deal with the differing levels of openness our two children have.

A reader commented on your recent post that she was struggling with depression after adoption. Please explain what this is.

You’d think that post-baby depression is all hormones. I found out first hand that it is not.

In the months after experiencing everything I ever wanted in my life, I found it was nothing like I thought. I had the long-awaited family I loved beyond belief, but I was deeply, disturbingly depressed. I then learned about a documented phenomenon called PADS, or Post Adoption Depression Syndrome. I got into therapy, imagined the unimaginable regarding my son, and hung out with my new best medication friend, Lexi Pro, for a year. With this three-pronged treatment, I was able to free myself from the demon.

Make no mistake, PADS is real.

How did you get into blogging and what keeps you going with three blogs?

Two years ago I was reading Waiting for Daisy by Peggy Orenstein. I wanted to know more about the author, so I googled her. Up came an announcement about an online book tour of the Barren Bi+ches Book Brigade. All I needed to join the discussion (with other infertile people like me!) was a book and a blog. So I set up Weebles Wobblog, where I write about parenting, adoptive parenting, mindful living, 1970s trivia, and politics.

I also began to tell our adoption stories by serializing the truly incredible events in Drama 2B Mama. Unlike most blogs, this one has an end. The blog is on hiatus until I tell the story again (although all posts are still up).

Finally, I dish about cool stuff and ways to save money. All Thumbs Reviews is really just an elaborate ruse to get people to send my Canadian partner and me tons of free stuff and loads of money to try it all out. Uh, that, and we really love to write and shop smartly, and write about shopping smartly.

What keeps me going? Writing makes me more mindful. And living mindfully is one of my highest aims.

Photos: Mary Beth Graffs

Is it a little weird that when he scored 100%, I briefly considered the news worthy of our Christmas newsletter?

Our recent visit to The Wildlife Experience’s brand-new exhibit, Animal Grossology, was filled with this kind of icky-good fun.

We wound our way through the displays, games, and interactive learning opportunities eager to learn about tapeworms, lice, hairballs, owl pellets, dung balls, regurgitation, blood suckers, and all the special odors animals produce. The kids had a blast sniffing skunk, peering at mouse remains from an owl’s stomach, and helping a massive plastic cow digest green balls. My husband and I simply followed them in wonder, delighted by their excitement over measuring 60 feet of rope–which happens to be the length a tapeworm can grow inside a human’s intestines.

It’s no secret kids of a certain age find the grosser things of life fascinating. What surprised my husband and I was how much we learned at Animal Grossology. Did you know dung beetles can clear a cow pasture clean in 48 hours? Imagine what they could do with your schnauzer!

The Wildlife Experience is a gorgeous facility devoted to educating people of all ages about the lives and times of animals. The grosser side of animal functions are just as important to learn about as the beautiful, majestic, and inspiring aspects of the animal kingdom. That’s why it was with side-splitting laughter I watched our two youngest sons race to see who could comb the most “lice” out of hot pink wigs. It was really rice, but I thought it was an ingenious way to teach kids while letting them have fun in the process. I vowed to use it as a future party game.

My family highly recommends visiting Animal Grossology at The Wildlife Experience. Our kids will be talking about their experiences for a very long time. The displays are suitable for children of all ages, but it helps to have a good reader in the bunch to explain some of the games and finer points of urine spraying and birthing-by-regurgitation. Even our toddler had a blast, especially on the sea serpent slide and oogling penguin poop through a viewfinder. All the way home, she said, “Penguin. Poop.”

Now, where can I get my hands on some dung beetles?

Animal Grossology at The Wildlife Experience runs from September 27, 2008 to April 26, 2009. Also, make sure to participate in their Trick or Treat Off the Street on October 31 from 1 p.m. – 7 p.m.

We are pleased to offer four tickets to the Animal Grossology exhibit! To enter, simply email us at giveaways@milehighmamas.com with “Gross Out” in the subject line. Contest deadline is October 11, 2008.

I love to be called an amazing mom! Most of the time I don’t feel like it, however I think as a mom we all judge ourselves harshly. I can brag about my children all day, so I appreciate being given the chance.

Kara is my oldest and she will be 17 in less than a month. It still shocks me to say that.
Ashlyn is my second daughter, she is 14 and just started her first year in high school.
Joseph is my one and only son, he is 13. He is the sports freak in the family.
Faith is 7 and spends all of her time being a princess, it’s a hard job!
Jacqueline is 20 months and such a cutie, she has started to copy everything we say.
Suzanne is the baby and is 8 months old, she has now become a rollie-pollie.

I am a scheduling mom. Babies are in bed by 7:30 p.m., pre-teens are in bed by 9 p.m., and high schoolers are in bed by 10 p.m. Without these set things, my sanity would be gone. I do not stop running until 11 at night, however there is a fulfillment in those hours. I feel like I’m doing something wonderful for my family.

2) In a recent debate on Mile High Mamas about stay-at-home vs. working moms, you submitted to everyone: “Be happy where you are at, or your children will feel the hatred you have for it.” Have you always felt this way?

I have not always believed this, however the longer my children are with me, the more I learn from them.

I believe that children can feel everything, even if they can’t verbalize it. If they see us unhappy in our lives, married or single, working outside of the home or working in the home, they will associate our unhappiness with that. We are all products of our environment.

3) What are the greatest challenges of being a single mom?

Time. It does not stop for anyone. No matter how much we cry, it will keep ticking by. So on those days of track meets, teacher conferences, sickness and money issues, it will continue by. Make the best of it, your children will understand and love you for all of your sacrifices.

4) What advice would you have for other single moms?

Talk to them. Be honest about things that are hard to be honest about. They can handle our short comings, prove to them that you are human, and they will talk to you like you are one. Do not be scared of being the bad lady, we can’t always be their friends, but when they see us they must know that we are strong for them.

Stand up for them! In life, in school and call them out when they are being detrimental to themselves. We have to be everything, Mom, Dad, friend, disciplinarian, teacher, large shoulder to cry on, savior and psychologist.

5) Your blog is “Crunchy Green Mom.” Explain why you chose this name.

I have six kids, I have to make sure there is something of this earth left for them. I want to take my grand kids to the mountains, and the museums, I want to go snowboarding with them and show them the grandest of waterfalls. If I don’t show them how to help and be eco-friendly, there might not be things left for future generations. I am a baby carrying, healthy eating, eco-mom. This seemed fitting for my persona.

6) How has blogging helped you in your life?

Meeting other moms, I needed to get away from just having male friends and start meeting women like me. I needed to have a social network that I could count on and appreciate. Blogging kind of fell in my lap, and I believe it was a point in my life when I was supposed to meet other women and appreciate friendships. It has been such a blessing and I love all my new bloggy friends I’ve made!

Thank you so much for this chance to talk with you. I have loved meeting everyone from here and I can’t wait for a long friendship!

Tell us about your “Outdoor Family!”

My “Outdoor Family��? is comprised of my husband Erik (our fifth anniversary was on August 5th) and our daughter Cora (age two). Erik and I were both working for Outward Bound in Canada when we met and we’ve had lots of outdoor adventures since then. Now that we have Cora we try to find outdoor activities that we can all enjoy together. She loves to point out different flora she can identify (juniper, pine, flowers, sage, and cactus), and look at rocks and insects when we’re ‘amping’ (camping).

What is the inspiration behind Outdoor Baby?

The inspiration for Outdoor Baby comes from my own love of the outdoors and from our experiences learning to camp with Cora. We found that even though we both had lots of outdoor experience, we couldn’t find any resources on the web to support us as we learned how to camp as a family, so we learned mostly through trial and error.

I thought that since there wasn’t an information-sharing site for families who love spending time in the outdoors together, that I would create one. I believe that the natural world is a great teacher and can be a bond for families. I also wanted this Web site to inspire families who have never been outdoors to try it out. My vision for the Outdoor Baby is for it to inspire families to venture outdoors with their children whether it be on a venture to the local city park or on a multi-day canoe trip.

Tell us how people can best use your site?

People can best use the site by reading stories, sharing their own stories, and by asking questions.

Do you take contributions?

You have to be a member to post stories, questions and tips. Membership is free and I review content to make sure it is family-friendly. I have a weekly blog and every week I select a tip of the week. Once a month I pick an outdoor baby of the month and a featured business.

What is your favorite place to go in the outdoors with your family?

I don’t know if I have one particular favorite place, but a recent favorite was a campsite in the Sonora desert near Tucson. We slept out in the open under crystalline night skies blanketed in stars. In the mornings we awoke nestled in the otherworldly beauty of a desert landscape populated with majestic Saguaro and Organ cacti. It was unforgettable.

Tell us about your “Twinfinite Chaos” clan.

Well, we’re a family of seven, which is just crazy to me. Even though they’re all mine, I still find it hard to believe there are five kids under this roof! My oldest, Kayley, is 13. We have boy/girl twins, Pablo and Mallory, who will turn 5 next month. We also have fraternal girl twins, Lexi and Nikki, who are 3 1/2. My husband Paul is a civil engineer and I’m a stay-at-home mommy.

How do you best handle all the chaos?

The key to keeping a lid on the chaos, at least in our house, is having a specific routine and schedule in place. We literally have a laminated schedule on the kitchen wall to keep us on track, straight out of Supernanny. When the kids know what’s expected of them and what’s going to occur throughout the day, it just makes life easier. And the best thing that ever happened to us was Three o’Clock Cleanup, which was my husband’s idea. At 3 p.m. every day, we turn off the TV, turn on some music, and clean up the living room and playroom, where we spend most of our time. And when we’re all done, everyone gets a nice, neat little snack at the table.

Still, even with the routines and schedules in place, it’s completely nuts at our house. Every day is like playgroup. The noise is always at a level that scares people who aren’t used to being around children. It’s a lot of fun, and I love the life I live, but I am THRILLED when the kids go to sleep at night and I have an hour or two of quiet time all to myself. My absolute favorite thing to do late at night is to just sit on the couch with my husband and watch Family Guy!

Writing is also an outlet for me. I author several blogs, contribute to a few more, and I’m writing a book about parenting multiple multiples and a child with autism. I also have a great group of girlfriends, most of whom I met through various parenting groups. I have to give a shoutout to my twins club, Darling Doubles – they’re such a great resource for parents of twins.

What actions have you taken since your son’s autism diagnosis?

Our son was diagnosed with autism when he was 2 1/2. We always knew there was something different about him, especially since he’s a twin and we had his sister to compare him to. She was meeting developmental milestones right on schedule, while he was not. I brought it up with our pediatrician, who suggested a “wait and see” approach – after all, some kids are just late talkers.

This is the WORST approach you can take, though, when it comes to autism. There’s a precious window of opportunity between ages 2 and 3 where you can get a child in speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy and it can literally make the difference between them being verbal or not. Once kids pass a certain age, though, it’s very hard for them to develop those neurological pathways. I don’t understand why, in this day and age where every magazine cover and news report is shouting out to us that 1 out of 150 kids has autism, pediatricians aren’t making a bigger deal out of it. Why aren’t they handing out a pamphlet at the 18-month checkup that lets parents know they need to be proactive about this sort of thing?

The checklist for autism in toddlers only has about five questions. I found it on my own online when I had concerns about my son. Why isn’t it being shoved at parents at every opportunity? And why is the information about Early Childhood Intervention so hard to come across? I had to get the phone number from a friend in my twin club who had a child with autism, after I tried to find it on my own and couldn’t get through to anyone. I’ve tried to make it my own little crusade, informing people about autism, the warning signs, and the agencies to get in touch with.

You confess to being a blogaholic. Tell us about your different blogs.

I am a blogaholic! I’ve been writing almost every day since April of 2000. When I started writing, my oldest daughter was five years old, and I mostly wrote about my day-to-day life with her. Since then, I’ve gone through a divorce, remarried, and had two sets of twins. Many of my readers have followed along with me throughout all of that. I can’t imagine stopping now! My main blog is called LaLaGirl – Twinfinite Chaos . I have a subset of LaLaGirl at reviews.lalagirl.org where I do product reviews and contests. I have another blog where I document the home improvement projects my husband and I have done, and it’s at enginerdandwife.com. And I write about autism and stuff related to it at autismisbeautiful.com.

You recently blogged about the fact that you sleepwalk. What is your craziest story?

Oh, jeez. Well, the best story lately is the one I blogged about, where I tackled my husband in the middle of the night while he was trying to go to the bathroom. The story my daughter always loves to tell people, though, is the one that happened after we moved into our house. I had spent an entire Saturday hanging pictures throughout our new home, and while I was asleep that night, I got up and removed every last picture from the walls and stacked them in a nice, neat little pile in the hallway. I was so mad the next day when I had to hang them all back up! My husband says he wants to put a bells on my pajama pants, so he can hear me when I wander!

How does a Cornell University grad end up as a SAHD/WAHD? Do you miss the workforce?
Well I ended up as a SAHD completely by accident. I wish I could say that my wife and I had a master plan for our recent life changes, but it didn’t quite happen like that. I was the last person in the world that I would ever imagine being at home. As a former Army Officer, and operations/financial manager for a Fortune 500 company, I would have been what many considered to be career driven.

That is until I had my “I have had enough!!!” moment a couple of months ago. I got to the point where I really hated the work environment I was in, was tired and grouchy all the time, and absolutely was not enjoying the corporate environment at all with the “Bottom line or else” mentality. I decided I had to make an exit strategy. I really wanted to get back to working for someone/something that would help others, something with a helpful “big picture” kind of company.

Parallel to what I was doing in the Army and “civilian” career, my wife had started a home business which had developed into quite a good second/part time income for us.

So, this was my plan, we had enough $$ for me to quit, and look for a job for a couple of months. I wanted to get into a more service oriented job. Besides, with my wife’s small business, we would be fine for a while. The plan was for me to help her expand her business, and look for a job at the same time. Her business fit in exactly with what I was looking for on a full-time basis. Let me say, this was the plan at least! I can still remember me coming home from the gym the first day after I had left my job saying, “Well, here I am, what do you need me to do here!”

To make a long story short, less than a week and a half after I left my job, my wife got a full-time job offer! And she wasn’t even looking for a job. We decided for her to take the job, and for me to work on expanding her business. Or, should I say, our business now!

So she accepted and we have since decided to give this “life arrangementâ€? a try with her working and me being at home with the kids. So, my role now is to be at home and I essentially took over her home business. She still works on it, but I do most of it now.

I really don’t miss the “workforceâ€? so to speak. It has been a great change of pace for me to be at home. I get my “workâ€? fix working on our business. I have found that is really important to me. My wife and I have really come to appreciate what each other has been doing the last few years. She has realized how hard it is to work outside the home and be a mom and I have realized how hard it is to run things at the house.

Tell us about the Jolly Green Clan.
There are four of us, five if you count our 11 year old Golden Retriever Aspen. My wife and I met at Cornell our senior year and have been married 12 years. We have two beautiful daughters, one is 7 and the other is 4. Our oldest was born in Germany while we were stationed in the Army there. Our youngest was born in Syracuse, New York while we were stationed nearby, for the Army again. I claim Massachusetts as home although I don’t have an accent anymore and my wife is kind of from all over the East Coast and Mid-West. My wife is by far the smarter one.

What has been the most challenging part of being at home? How have SAHMs reacted to you?
I used to love the challenge of facing new obstacles at work. Something fresh and new each day. The girl’s routines are pretty predictable yet very emotional. The drama can get to me some days. I don’t find there is quite enough mental stimulation at home in regards to the girls, but that is why our business has helped me stay sane.

It has been very interesting how SAHMs have reacted to me. At first I felt really out of place and still do to some extent. I would say the SAHMs fell into two categories at first, those that were extremely receptive and wanted to help me any way they could, and those that pretty much ignored me. The second crowd was by far the bigger one. I think they probably felt a little uncomfortable having a Dad around (although I am not the only one in the crowd). At first I felt really out of place and still do to some extent. Most have warmed up to me and will talk and chat and call to see if their kids and mine can play. It is a really interesting dynamic though and I find it fascinating.

Why did you start blogging and why the blog name Jolly Green Dad?
Honestly, I started blogging as a way to try and reach potential customers. I had read a lot about blogging and knew of two in particular who had successful ventures in Internet marketing having started out as bloggers. It sounded really interesting and I figured, why not?

However, after the first blog or two, I realized that it is quite boring to write just about your business and who wants to just read about that? It has really evolved from there and I enjoy the interaction with various other bloggers out there.

Ahh the name Jolly Green Dad. Well, I wanted to come up with a tongue-in-cheek kind of name. Something that people would remember, yet had something to do with what I was doing. It was coming close to Earth Day when I thought of it. After thinking about the business my wife and I were working on, it just kind of came to me. “Jolly” in that I am happy doing what I am doing (no I am not big Santa Claus kind of jolly), “Green” for the kind of business we are in, and “Dad” because I am a work-at-home/stay-at-home Dad now!

What can people do help their families lead healthier lives?
The one piece of advice I would give is to take you and your families health personally and don’t believe everything that you see advertised. Remember that most big companies are there for one thing, and that is for profit first and foremost. Lots of cleaners, foods, and health products make outrageous claims and in fact have been found to have toxins on them and you can be allergic to them. Many of the things that are in our houses emit fumes and chemicals. Think and research about what you buy for your family and make an educated decision based upon that. You need to take responsibility for your family’s health and not rely on others to do so. It’s all about the choices that you make and there are many small ones you can make that can have a big impact on your health. Like getting rid of the toxic cleaners in your home and watching what you eat.

Every month, Mile High Mamas features a different mom on our blogroll (Colorado’s most comprehensive listing of mommy bloggers). Our Mama Blogger of the Month is the lovely Liz from What Happens in Stapleton Stays in Stapleton. Through her fun, informative blog, she has also created an important resource for her community and we encourage other mamas to do the same!

Tell us about your family and how you ended up in Stapleton.

I’m a stay-at-home mom to a 2 year old, Jack, and a black lab, Maggie. (If you have a kid under 5 and either a black lab or a golden retriever, Stapleton is the neighborhood for you). We lived in a loft downtown when my son was born, and after a few months realized loft living and babies weren’t the best match. My husband was ready to move to a big house in the suburbs, but I was resistant. Stapleton seemed like the perfect compromise.

I’m a freelance writer and marketing consultant, so I feel really lucky that I can stay at home with Jack. They say women can have it all. I say, maybe not all at once, but I’m working on a happy balance.

Your blog definitely has a different slant than most mommy blogs. Why the emphasis on Stapleton and not as much about your family?

I try to take my family’s personal journey and make it universal. I think people move to Stapleton to become part of an active community, and yet when people first move here, it can seem inclusive and hard to figure out. I started this blog to let moms know about the good things in the neighborhood, but it wouldn’t be valuable if my readers didn’t know where my
point of view was coming from.

I started What Happens in Stapleton after a year of new-mom craziness. Motherhood really blew me away.­ I had no idea how my life would change. I had post-partum thyroiditis, which put me on a year-long hormonal and emotional roller coaster. Blogging became my own primal scream: “I’m still here!”

What are your top recommendations for programs/places you have discovered?

I just found the most amazing coffee shop: Perk & Play in Stapleton. It’s a coffee shop, and it¹s a kid playroom. It’s like your living room, with comfy chairs and train sets and doll houses. My 2 year old loved it, we were there for two hours.

One of the things I love about Stapleton is that we are outside every single day. We walk to the park, we walk by the creek in the greenspace. We take a toddler music class, which is a bunch of singing and dancing and running wild, and I’ve been able to share the Music Together program with many moms.

What is the Marathon Milers program for children and how are you involved?

It¹s a one-mile fun run/walk for kids kindergarten through 8th grade. It’s on Saturday, May 17, at 10:00 am in City Park. Everyone gets a medal at the finish line ­ handed out by Miss Teen Colorado — and there will be entertainment from The Children’s Museum, and my friend’s son’s rock band, Surround Sound. These are 11 year old kids playing Aerosmith and Jack Johnson. They rock! It’s put on by the Colfax Marathon, and I’m helping promote it. I love to run, and it’s a love I¹d like to share with my son.

In an interview, you described yourself as a motherless mom. How has this impacted you as a mama?

Before my son was born, the most important thing for me to tell people was that my mom had died when I was 14. It was the central story of my life. Big milestones in my life were always sad moments, because other women had their moms to share their wedding, their pregnancy, the birth of their child, and I felt like I was missing something crucial.

Then my son was born, and the need for other moms became acutely painful. I had to admit that this was one thing I just could not do alone, and while I have a wonderful aunt who is like a mom, it forced me to seek out other moms.

Somehow, through this community of moms I’ve found, being a motherless daughter isn’t so important anymore. I hope that it’s made me more aware, every day, of how lucky I am to have this little one in my life, how lucky I am to be a mom.

First things first: why are you Horoscopically Blonde and not just dumb like the rest of us?

I’m the only person I know who parks in front of my house, catches a glimpse of my vehicle from the corner of my eye (probably while I’m looking at something shiny), and then says, “Oh! I wonder who’s here?â€? followed by—and more importantly, “Darn it! They’re blocking my mailbox.â€?

Tell us about the Horoscopically Blonde family. Are there any fake (blondes) in the mix?

The Horoscopically Blonde family consists of four children, an adorable husband, a cat that strategically vomits on my things, and an insane, evil dog that barks at the big, red yoga ball while breaking wind. Only the dog is blonde.

My oldest son is 15. To his credit (or because he’s extremely clever), he claims to like Def Leppard. I just wish he’d wear pants more often. My youngest son is 13. He stands in front of automatic doors and holds out his hands. I ask him what he’s doing, and he tells me he’s “Using the Force.â€? Yeah. Well, if the ‘Force’ was so great, why doesn’t it pick up his socks? My oldest daughter is 11 years old. She has my sense of humor, but thankfully, not my thighs. She can make neat noises with her armpits. My youngest, and most rambunctious daughter, is 7 years old. When she grows up, she has informed me she will be a singer, a writer, an actress, and a doctor. That puts her above most of the young pop stars, who only text one another, sing occasionally, act like idiots, and play doctor.

When did you start blogging and why? Do you have a background in writing?

It’s usually one of those things where people tell you, “You ought to write something,â€? and so you do (if only just to see if those folks meant what they said). Sometimes you fail, and sometimes you’re lucky enough that people are willing to give you some of their time by reading what you have to say. If people like what I have to say, they respond. What I’m providing is just part of the conversation. I feel fairly fortunate. For years, my conversations centered on who the best Ninja Turtle was. Now, I’m talking to other adults who want to share similar experiences.

I’m now writing for ParentsCanada magazine, and am currently working on a book. Aside from Horoscopically Blonde, I also write a blog called The Lighter Side of Low-Carb. It’s where I keep my daily stuff: weight loss since January (I’ve managed a 61 pound loss to date) and recipes, coupled with experience in a family of folks who are gluten intolerant, autistic, teenaged, or simply trying to get by in a world filled with sporks and tasty baked goods. If weight loss could be considered fun, then I’m having loads of it. The readers are hilarious, helpful, and make me smile every day– And they don’t chew with their mouths open in my ear.

You are one funny lady. How has your sense of humor helped you with motherhood?

Thank you for the generous compliment. (Note to self: send this woman a ham).

Around here, it’s hard not to laugh. Even when someone is in trouble, it’s usually something ridiculous. I remember, one time I was downstairs in our house in Portland, OR, when my then –five-year-old came down the stairs, pants soaked to his knees. Just as his mouth was about to open, my eyes were drawn up towards the ceiling. As I squinted, I noticed that all of the light fixtures down the hallway were simultaneously filling with water, and light blue spray began shooting everywhere. Then a large portion of my bedroom ceiling came crashing down five feet from where we were standing.

I looked at my son, as water ran down our faces, leaving blue streaks, which tasted, incidentally, like Tidy Bowl. He squeaked, “I wondered what Legos would do if I flushed them down the toilet.â€?

Taking the steps three at a time, I threw my arms over my face as waves of water rushed in a low wall from the upstairs toilet towards me. I was sure I saw the Scrubbing Bubbles man on an Ark at one point trying to collect up the Lego giraffes.

I’ve learned to deal with the emergencies, and to keep a sense of humor about them—promptly after grounding the five-year old and, banning the toilet as a play space (and changing the flavor of our toilet bowl cleaner).

You mentioned that losing your mom in a tragic car accident when you were 13 was the most defining moment of your life. How?

My mother, my sister and I lived in a small apartment in Sussex, Wisconsin, across the street from an industrial complex and railroad tracks. Most of the time we lived there, we had no furniture (it took the military ages to ship things in those days), so we had lawn chairs and used boxes for tables for a while. I remember that my sister and I had beds, and mom slept on the floor. But she had a sense of humor like you wouldn’t believe, and she never complained. I take that for granted now. Regardless how tough things were, she always kept a stiff upper lip (and not just the kind with facial hair).

I think things were starting to look up, as furniture finally arrived, and we moved towards Christmas in 1983. I had finished a gingerbread house in Home Economics class that I looked very much forward to carrying home that afternoon to present to my mother. Because we were fairly broke, being able to give anything in those days was special. I worked diligently on that house, carefully cutting through difficult dough, and then decorating it carefully to look as though it has been frosted by a Wisconsin snow itself.

I remember that very ordinary morning my school counselor brought me into the office from Mr. Dart’s history class. When they sat me in the conference room, they told me that an hour before, my mother had died in a head-on collision with a semi truck not a mile from where I was sitting. Her car had spun on some black ice on a bridge and she lost control. I remember the local newspaper article—a blanket strewn over her body, still in the warped vehicle—as news reports said she had been Christmas shopping (this wasn’t true, but it was a heartstring puller, to be sure…). I still have the calculator that was scuffed in the wreckage, and use it to this day.

I remember being annoyed at being prodded by the questions of the counselors and having kids look at me and treat me with the extraordinary kindness that is mandated for kids who were either told they were going to succumb to a fatal disease or to those who had lost their parents. I was a celebrity in the school suddenly, and it didn’t feel right to be popular due to something that terrible.

The long and short of it was that no matter how hard life was for my mother she always had a good sense of humor. Even when she pinched me for saying, “fart,â€? or lectured me about calling boys on the phone (even though back then you had to dial, so it was harder work), she instilled in me a work ethic, to keep a positive attitude, do what needed to be done, and to provide for others—even when you’re sleeping on the floor.

On YourHub.com, readers rate your posts and your average blog rating is 4.98 out of 5. What do you want to say to the individual(s) who messed up your perfect score?

If you’re a writer with an audience, and if they disagree with something you’ve said in that particular piece, then it’s generally that kind of a ding. I look at it this way: I have four kids. If I can make it through breakfast without going insane from the smacking sounds of young people who still can’t chew with their lips together, I’m not going to let much else perturb me.

Besides, you can always find out who it was—and, more important—you can bean their lawns.