Author: Chris Souther

Chris joined the Air Force out of high school. After four years of supporting communications for the Department of Defense, the White House, and stations around the world, he left the military and moved to Atlanta. For the next six years, Chris continued working in the telecom field, eventually traveling around the country teaching companies like MCI, Nortel Networks, and Cabletron, how to do what he did.

When the dot.com crash happened, upon recommendation from his wife, Chris re-enrolled in school and earned his B.S. in Communications (PR & Marketing).

Since then, he was worked in network security, healthcare, banking and finance (and FinTech), general high tech (AI/ML, Cloud, IoT), and most recently, application development fields. Now, with more than 15 years of both Marketing and Communications under his belt, he helps organizations grow their business through the proper application of marketing, communications, and content.

And he blogs on the side. It keeps him sane.

Dad Blogs Family

How did I get so jaded?

Lying in bed a couple of mornings ago–briefly–with a cup of hot life in my hand, a commercial for “Valentine’s Day” came on the TV.

Me: “Man…Valentines is this weekend?”

CareerMom: “Ungh.”

She might have said, “Aaaagh” though. I’m not sure. It’s hard to decipher anything she says right now before she gets food in her; because, until she can talk without the threat of projectile vomiting, whatever she says is likely to come out sounding like the quick expanse of air that results from being hit in the stomach.

When did Valentines become a chore? This week MLI has to bring a “Crazy Sock” filled with candy for a friend in his class. MLE has to do Valentines for all the other 2-year olds in his class. I mean come on! Valentines for two-year-olds? Can we just call it what it really is please–a diversion to keep the screaming kiddies happy for an hour!

And forget trying to do anything romantic with CareerMom right now. The only way that’s going to happen is if the following set of coincidences occur (in this order):

We can get the kids fed and in bed before 8 p.m.
We find a safe alternative to speed that we can give CareerMom to keep her awake
Her “all day sickness” subsides at night rather than gets worse like it usually does
I can get myself excited over flannel PJs (that was soooo mean!)

In truth, we’ve not had good Valentines experiences. In the 9 years we’ve been married, two of our Valentines’ have ended in either one, or both of us, at the emergency room; once with our Weimaraner. Long story. Also, since we were also watching “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” when one event occurred, that movie is forever banished from our home (it would have been anyway since it’s just dreadful on its own merits).

Anyway, we have told each other that there will be no gifts this Valentines, and though I’ve never tested it, I’m pretty confident that she actually means it, rather than just saying it while fully expecting me to ignore her request and going out and getting her something shiny and new.

Somewhere, someone is out there saying, “You should put forth more of an effort. You and your wife need time alone together.”

Yep, I agree. Now, if you’ll just move some of my family (who have no other grandchildren) into my local area so they can watch the kids, OR find a teenage babysitter who is both A) responsible and B) not popular with her friends so that she’s home at night, then maybe we can do it.

P.S. There will be cards…and some sort of “special dinner.” I’m not yet sure whether I want to wait and eat AFTER the kids are in bed, or just go through with it while they are awake. I mean, either way, there will be no post-delicious-dinner lovin’, so it’s not as if the kids are going to kill the mood or anything.

What about you? Is Valentines celebrated in your house?

del.icio.us Tags: valentines,useless holiday?,pregnancy and romance,don’t mix

Tags Atlanta, Dad Blog, marriage and romance, overrated, planning romantic night, romance with kids, Roswell, Valentines, valentines nightmares, valentines with wife

Dad Blogs Family Life in these United States Marriage

Too busy to care?

Can you feel it? And didn’t it happen right around the turn of the year?

Aren’t we all just a LOT busier? My Lord, even with the “The Pregnancy,” I hardly have time to cook a meal, much less ponder meaningful and reader-worthy posts.

My only consolation here is that everyone else seems to be suffering from the same malaise and so I don’t feel so bad about not commenting as much as I used to. I applaud those of you who are sticking with it however. You complete me!

HA!

In all seriousness though, part of this post is that old exercise in college, “Just start writing something…anything…” but so far it’s not working. Oh, I could go on and on gabbing about nothing in particular, but is that really a good use of your time? Don’t you have like, laundry to do or something? Chickens to feed maybe?

Oh, so CareerMom had week 13’s “High Risk” pregnancy work up and all initial signs point to thumbs up. So that’s good. I have one of the ultrasound pics pinned to my cube wall. I’m not sure why. Is it to remind myself why I work? Is it to hopefully help get me all excited through the overflowing bubbliness that is sure to ensue when some of the ladies around the office stop by to “oooh” and “aaah” over it.

Who am I kidding, nobody drops by my cubicle.

Also, no signs of either a female, or male sexual organ, so we’re going to have to endure a few more, “Oh, maybe this time you’ll have a little girl” comments like I got from my cousin on Sunday. I might have been a tad rude in my response that simply said (and remember, this is a person I speak to like twice a year), “After two miscarriages, we’ll just be happy with a healthy baby.”

So sue me…I was grumpy.

Let’s see, oh yeah. The airline tickets are really cheap up to “Trisha Truly’s” neck of the woods (she’s my Bio-Mom), so I might fly up to see her in March. But that’s only if I can convince her that this rock-hard, manly body of mine CAN NOT and WILL NOT subsist on Metafast and clover that she picked from her own field.

Well here’s to hoping that whatever is keeping you busy, at least feels good!

del.icio.us Tags: the blahs,new year,not blogging much,mental meandering

Tags Atlanta, blogging blahs, busy, High Risk pregnancy, new year craziness, Roswell, writer's block

Dad Blogs Family Fatherhood Life in these United States Marriage

P is for Pregnancy!

It is neither my intention, or desire, to turn this blog into a 9-month “and today in our pregnancy we did so and so” novella; but, it IS inevitable that when you’re living and breathing it on a daily basis, that things occur to you that you just have to share with the wider world. So today I thought I’d be very topical and bring you the word “PREGNANCY” in all its glory:

P – is for Privacy. Privacy is something I’m about to lose when the new baby comes. See, our guest room, when not acting as a “Guest” room, acts as my own personal man-sanctuary. Here, safely ensconced behind two locked doors, I can do my bid-ness in peace…and pull a Costanza with a library book.

R – is for Recreation. I’m going to have to find a new form of recreation as the boys get older. Currently, my only form of non-gym related recreation is golf. Golf, even at a cheap place around here, costs you $50 by the time you’re done. Multiply that times three (four if the next baby is a boy) and that’s just untenable. Hiking is sounding like a good (read: cheap) alternative.

E – is for Energy. I think it’s very unfair for mother nature to so completely sap a woman’s energy for months prior to having a kid, only to suddenly give it all back to her in the form of “nesting” just before it’s born. I mean, it’s setting a completely unreal precedent! As if, once the baby’s here, you’ll be able to live on estrogen and adrenaline well enough to keep from falling over at every opportunity. Much more believable, would be to keep the mother (and father) awake for the last two months of the pregnancy, and to make them both allergic to showers, fine dining and television.

G – is for Gee. As CareerMom turned to me the other evening, after letting out a heartburn induced burp, “FOR REAL, no more. FOR REAL!” I turned to her and said, “Gee, I’m pretty sure I was pretty F’ing serious last time I said ‘No More’ too!”

N – is for Never. As in “never friggin’ again”

A – is for Answers. Maybe by the time the third one asks me why God made his or her best friend’s skin brown, I’ll have an answer that sounds both intelligent and believable at the same time.

N – is for Nosey. Kids are the nosiest people. Daddy, what do you have in your mouth? Daddy, what are you doing? Daddy, what are you and mommy talking about? Daddy, why are you hiding from me?”

C – Is for consistency. Which is the complete opposite of what you get when you’re pregnant. Last night it was in the low forties outside. We had the heater on and CareerMom had me turn the fan on in our bedroom because of her constantly changing body temp and hot flashes. Are you hungry? Are you nauseaus? Are you tired? Are you coming onto me? Are you crying? It never stops!

Y – is for Youth. Because even in this crazy, crazy world of babies, and not enough time or money, when you’re out at a restaurant, like last night, and your littlest one stands up in a chair with a mouth full of brown, wet OREO that looks like a snuff of Skoal in his lip, and he yells out at the top of his lungs “BYE BYE” while waving to the crowd…you have to just smile. I just hope I remember the good stuff and forget the frustrations.

del.icio.us Tags: pregnancy,p stands for,crazy kids,hot flashes,what to expect when you’re expecting