October 28, 1989

And so it was, that 19 years ago, my sweet hubby and I, in all our 80s finery, were wed.

2008

He got some new glasses; I got rid of my perm.  We had some kids; we've moved around.  He's as adorable as ever.  And we're still together...how he puts up with me I'll never know, but thank God he does.  Here's to 19 + 19 + 19 more years together, Sweetie.  I love you.

"I got gaps; you got gaps; we fill each other's gaps." ~Rocky

 

“A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest piece.” ~Ludwig Erhard

Wednesday night, as I'm diligently tap-tap-tapping away on the keyboard trying to type something up for Jacob for homework, Clyn is in the kitchen which adjoins our computer area and he says to me, "Sweetie", (this is what he always calls me, but I know he's about to ask me for something and I'm really in no mood), "Sweetie, can you make something, some kind of treat, I can take into work to share?"  He did ask nicely.  Apparently, there are other co-workers who bring in home-baked treats from time to time??

I slowly turn my head (though it's hard to keep it from spinning all around like something out of the Exorcist) and shoot him the dagger look.  And I politely say, "Have you lost your MIND??? Do I look like I can be Miss Betty Crocker and whip you something up right quick??"  I did kinda go off on him, but man I was so tired when he asked me that and things have been so crazy lately and it just hit me all kinds of wrong.  Then I asked him, when would he like to have this "treat".  He sheepishly said, "maybe Friday??"  I gave him the "don't-count-on-it-right-eyebrow-raise" look and kept on typing.

Well, about 11:00 last night, I started feeling really bad about it.  It was 11 pm, after everyone's homework had been said and done and Clyn and the kids were in bed and the dog had been out to pee and I was tarrrrred--which is Southern for really, really tired.

Poor Clyn.  He gets so neglected.  Seriously.  I feel bad because when he walks in the door from work, it's probably like coming into some war zone somewhere.  He is exhausted and we're usually in the midst of some homework crisis and I'm cracking that whip on Jacob, "C'mon buddy, let's just get this next one done"...all the while I'm trying to get supper cooked and help Emma too and the dog's barking and the bird's tweeting.  It's crazy.  So he leaves one crazy place and heads right into another crazy place.  It can't be easy.  He probably opens the door and wants to run away--far, far away.

So I got to thinking.  He doesn't ask for much. 

And at 11:00 last night, I whip out my box of Duncan Hines Lemon cake mix and bake him up a delectable Bundt cake (thanks to the doctored up recipe from the side of the box), complete with a glaze of lemony deliciousness.  A treat any man would be proud to serve his co-workers--I think.  That means it was half-past really really late when I dragged my weary butt to bed last night, er, this morning?  So I'm still tarrrrred today.  What else is new?  

But the look on his face this morning when he saw the Beautiful Bundt was so worth it all.  Wish I had a picture.

SCORE!

May I have the envelope please?  And the award goes to...

**FLASHBACK**

Yesterday morning, I've just left the gym.  It's 11:30 am.  I'm about to head to my WW meeting and I'm chatting with my sweet friend Lisa on the cell.  I get a "beep" on my phone.  It's Emma's school. 

So I tell my friend that it's the school calling and she says "oh no!"...because she knows that when it's the school calling, it's usually Jacob's school and there's some sort of "issue"...and I quickly say, "it's Emma's school" and she says "oh!"

I basically hang up on her.  Whoops. Sorry bout that.

I answer.  This very nice gal says to me, "Today was an early release day and I have Emma here in the office waiting to be picked up."  Panicked, I say, "WHAT???  I had NO IDEA!"

Early Release:  A phenomenon I have never experienced anywhere else. Neither in my own school career nor those of my kids.  The district says...let's let the elementary school kids out at 11 am, oh, let's say, twice a month, just "because". 

Whatever happened to just having a regular old teacher workday occasionally??!

I am usually very on top of these things.  I mean, you might not have any underwear because the laundry is backed up, but I'm going to be where I need to be to pick up my kids. 

But apparently not this time.

This one somehow got by me. 

I don't know how, but it did. 

I say to the lady from school, "I'll be there in 10 minutes!"

In my mind I was picturing a very forlorn Emma sitting all alone in a dark office.  A tear falling from her eye.  Everything looking very gray and dingy.  This was my guilty vision.

Very Charles Dickens, no? 

Well, sometimes my imagination does get carried away.

No, she was sitting there, with several kids, whose parents also were apparently oblivious to the early release event, and when I came in the office, she hopped up and gave me a hug.

Fortunately for me I have a very forgiving daughter. 

Do you think the fact that I had a parent-teacher conference scheduled at 2 PM yesterday (duh, before the end of the regular school day) should have been a bit of a red flag??  <insert raised eyebrow here>  Or the fact that Emma and I even TALKED about said conference as we pulled into the school parking lot yesterday morning?  No.  No red flag is enough for me, honey.  It would have to be a giant fire breathing dragon standing in the middle of the road wearing one of those sandwich board advertisement signs saying "It's early release day, you dork" or something really ridiculous like that.

Yeah.  That might work. 

"One advantage of talking to yourself is that you know at least somebody's listening."  ~Franklin P. Jones

So I've been waiting for that feeling of "funny" to roll back around...I just haven't felt too funny lately.  I'm chalking it up to all the 8th grade homework I've been straining my brain with.  That will suck the funny right out of you, let me tell ya!

But today, I have had some of the funny return to me...or maybe it was a moment of "kay-ray-zay".  Perhaps I've finally crossed that looney threshold...I'm not sure.  [For those of you who don't know, "kay-ray-zay" is Jacob-speak for "really really crazy".  Oh, how that boy tickles me!]

Imagine this...after an hour of Zumba (SO FUN!! I love this class!) and a half hour of Bosu (this kicked my butt--but I think I'll go back) at my local YMCA, I went to visit Kohl's (a.k.a. my favorite store).  I always feel really motivated and inspired after a great workout.  I was really only looking for some new underdrawers, but as always, I like to browse around.  You never know what you're going to find on the 80%-off-final-clearance rack!  Suddenly, I saw these pants.  NOT on the 80%-off-final-clearance rack.  Now I looked at those pants, and they were the size that I used to be when I was in prime WW condition...and I'll just be honest, they were a size 10.  How many women do you know will share THAT kind of information??!  Feel privileged, people!  What I'm NOT going to say is my current size <wink>, but anyhoo...

I saw these size ten pants and, I must confess, I spoke TO the pants.  Out.  Loud.  In the Kohl's.  I gently grasped those pants at each hip and said, "I'm coming back to you, size 10s! I'm coming back!!"  They were some really cute brown pants.  Cute clothing will drive you to some strange behavior.

So my life has come to this.  I am relegated to talking to pants now.  So pathetic.  But, man oh man, do I ever want to be back in my size 10s, y'all!  They are just collecting dust in my closet.  SIGH.

I coming back, size 10s!!!  I'm coming back!

I've been a mother for almost 14 years now, but, honestly, when I see 103.6 on a thermometer, I freak out a little.

Sunday afternoon while we were still on our weekend getaway to my mother-in-law's, Jacob started complaining of a headache.  Sunday night, actually Monday morning, around 2 am, he comes in our room and says he can't get back to sleep. 

Well, no wonder, kid, your head is on FIRE!! 

Seriously, I was waiting for him to spontaneously combust at any given moment!

Then the intestinal distress began.

Poor kid.  There wasn't a whole lot of sleeping going on.

So he stayed home from school yesterday. 

He had that weak-eyed look.  That pitiful look that makes you just want to scoop him up and hold him all day like you did when he was 3 (4, 5, 6 and 7) with his dreaded ear infections. 

We kept the fluids going and alternated the Tylenol and the Ibuprofen. And then there was our friend Immodium for the intestinal distress.

Thank goodness for modern over-the-counter medication, I always say.  Even though his temp is back to normal and there doesn't seem to be any intestinal distress this morning, he's getting an extra recuperation day. 

Sometimes you just need an extra day.

And it all makes me think of a song...for your listening enjoyment, here is I've Got the Fever by Billy Scott and the Georgia Prophets, from 1968:

 

 

"I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework."  ~Lily Tomlin as "Edith Ann"

Someone please tell me there is more to life than homework.  OY!  My son spends nearly 8 hours at school and then comes home and works on homework for 2 hours.  There is something seriously wrong with that.  Wait, I feel a song coming on...

...we don't need no education...we don't need no thought control...no dark sarcasm in the classroom...teacher leave those kids alone... 

The government and the public education system has sucked all the fun out of learning and instead, replaced that with No Child Left Behind and meeting standards and needing to meet their quota of kids scoring "proficient" on the most recent round of standardized torture, er, I mean, tests.  All of which leaves no room for fun.  We're too busy making sure those kids can pass those standardized end of year tests, by golly!  No fun for them, no siree.  No inspired learning.  No creativity allowed.  Disclaimer:  I am not bashing teachers...it isn't their fault.  They are doing what they are mandated to do and they have the hardest jobs in the world.  They have been more than wonderful in our educational journey with Jacob. 

Just let me have my rant, okay?

Both my kids hate going to school. 

And frankly, I don't blame them. 

But I would never say that to them.

In other non-ranty type news...Can you say "Road Trip"?!  Jacob and I spent a fun weekend in North Carolina visiting with my family.  Emma had a very-important-could-not-be-missed birthday sleepover to attend and so she and Hubby stayed home and had some father-daughter time...after she got home from her sleepover, that is.  And that allowed Jacob and I to have a nice mother-son road trip.  First road trip for The Edge, I might add. 

He sat in the front passenger seat like the half grown person that he is.  I looked over there at him and realized how much he is growing up.  Here's what he spent most of the trip doing---> 

Yeah.  Gameboy.  He did read some and watched a movie.  But he does enjoy his gameboy.  It was quality time, nonetheless.  We chatted a bit.  Nothing too serious, but it was precious just to be with him.

I also spent time with my younger brother, Scott, and his family (who were down from Delaware) and my older brother John and his family.  If you have been reading a while, you'll recall that Scott and his wife, Lisa, had a baby girl, Olivia, back in May.  She is quite adorable and what a set of lungs that girl has!  Woo!  Such a Cutie!  I spent time with my mom and both my grandmas as well.  We spent Saturday at the park enjoying a music and art shindig, put on by Scott's friends, Mike (musician) and Sarah Blair (artist) who are brother and sister, and both extremely talented young folks. Scott (pictured) is also a musician, the worship pastor at his church, and I don't get to listen to him play very often.  It was a very enjoyable day.  Sunday was spent at church, where my brother John is the pastor.  It was a treat to hear him share and then have lunch at his house with our whole family (minus my dad, unfortunately, who was out of town and Hubby and Emma).  It is a good thing to be within driving distance of my people. 

Yeah, spending time with my people definitely balances out the crazy homework.