Reasons why I love my man

• He is devilishly handsome with his goatee.
• Bald never looked so good!
• He is always willing to do the dirty work: get the drink of water or let the dogs out in the middle of the night when I pretend to be asleep, take the boy to the dentist and to school when he has an "off" day, clean the kitchen, shovel the walks (not only for our house, but also any person he may have ever made contact with).
• He will always pinch-hit whenever he is needed.
• He hates to kill spiders and catch bats, but he'll do it anyway.
• He has a very dry sense of humor, but when he says something funny, he can't help but laugh at himself.
• He changed my blue pads while I was laboring with our children.
• He is a trauma-burn nurse.
• He is an amazing dad.
• He loves watching Bree play soccer....I mean he gets really excited and comes home telling me play by play what happened.
• He can communicate with Ben when no one else can.
• He fixes Blair's hair in the morning when I am not home.
• He always "forgets" to make a green vegetable when he prepares dinner.
• He will purposely NOT watch his favorite TV shows when I am at work, just so he can watch them with me.
• He is an avid reader, and he is completely aware of current events.....not just the celebrity news, I mean real issues.
• He makes me vote in every two-bit election in our city.
• He never spoke down to my father.
• He seems to have not noticed that I have put on 20lbs in the last three years.
• He puts up with my mother.

What a freakin' saint!

My favorite songs (before I forget them)

Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here
The Cure: Pictures of You
My Chemical Romance: Welcome to the Black Parade
Neil Diamond: (there are so many, but if I had to choose) Sweet Caroline
DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince: Summertime
BareNaked Ladies: If I Had a Million Dollars
Mary J. Blige: Sweet Thing, Be Without You
Michael Jackson: {Everything} Remember the Time, Thriller, The Way You Make Me Feel
Paul Simon: Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes
Black Crowes: Hard to Handle
Jane's Addiction: Been Caught Stealing
Aerosmith & Run D.M.C.: Walk this Way
Clint Black & Lisa Black: When I Said I Do
Bonnie Raitt: Something to Talk About

Please play these at my funeral.

Lost and Found

Our Boston Terrier Terror, Marabelle had a grand adventure a few weeks ago that I must write about before I forget. John's youngest sister Julie was getting married on October 10th. My family was all dressed up and ready to go, but my mom had stopped in to take some family photos. She suggested we take some outdoors, and as soon as I opened the front door, Marabelle shot out of it like a bat out of hell! I had to leave for the wedding because Bree was playing her violin in the ceremony, so I left John home searching the neighborhood for that darn dog. Of course she had her rabies tag and her license, but the tag with her name and phone number had broken off her collar.

I finally called him about 30 minutes later and told him to call off the search for the time being so he didn't miss his sister's wedding. He arrived (reluctantly) about 2 minutes before the service. Between the wedding and the reception we both drove around scanning the neighborhood (and beyond) for that little stinker. John kept at it and arrived at the reception well after the food was served. Then he found several excuses to run home for this or that so he could search for his beloved dog (the same dog he bitched about for hours the day prior).  He discovered that the bar at the reception was serving Oberon, so he began to drown his sorrows in his beer, only every-so-often looking up, raising his plastic cup and saying, "To Marabelle".  He started planning his Memorium tattoo of the beast.

The next morning he was up at 6am walking around looking again. When I got up, I put Marabelle's photo as my profile pic on facebook. My newly married sister-in-law did the same with the status, "Help us find this dog!". One of her facebook friends immediately responded that someone had posted a pic of her the day prior with the caption, "Found dog". We were ecstatic! John went and picked her up (2 blocks away), and the nice couple that found her said she had a great night. They fed her hot dogs and took her to a bonfire! They were impressed with how well she is crate-trained as they kept her in their cat's crate overnight! That girl is ALWAYS keeping us on our toes! We wouldn't trade her for the world! (We might prefer to have her break a leg or two, though!)

Halloween

Last night at our dinner table, the subject of Halloween came up.  Ben is thrilled to be a scary thing this year; his costume is the Grim Reaper, and he has been haunting the household ever since he got it.  Blair is, of course, going to be a beauty pageant queen with a sash and everything.  She has let it be known that she must have a really big crown, because she is going as the beauty queen that wins.   Bree wondered out loud what she should dress as this year which sparked a conversation with John about how old is too old to trick or treat. (My philosophy is that if you dress up, you can get candy.)  So then John, reminiscing about his childhood, says, "One year my brother, Jason, decided he was not going to go trick-or-treating.  Man, he regretted that the next day!"  Bree asks, "Really?  How old was he?"  Without missing a beat, Ben pipes in, "Thirty-two."
Ah, they crack me up!

The Rat Race

I haven't been on here in forever! Where does time go?



Recently, I have been complaining about the "rat race". Waking up, rushing kids off to school, heading into work, coming home, kids to violin/soccer/sporting events, spend 7 minutes eating the dinner that took at least 30 minutes to prepare, pack lunches, brush teeth, clothes for tomorrow, fall asleep putting kids to bed. What is the meaning of all of this? When you really take a moment to look at the life that is zooming by, it gets a little depressing. Especially when I get into my cynical, glass is half-empty mode. The other day I was bitching about it to my sister who reminded me that she had just written a blog about the very same subject . She has been reading a book about the psychology of optimism or happiness or some psychobabble to that effect, anyhow she has been writing in a gratitude journal at night to help maintain perspective as her life is whooshing by.

So, here goes.....this is what makes it all worth it (in no particular order):

• A warm bed full of kids and sock monkeys.
• Thursday nights: "Family night, Arkles' style" Watching Survivor and eating cheese popcorn.
• Staying up late with my man to catch any episodes of CSI that we've missed.
• Knowing that whatever I ask of my husband, he will at least make an attempt to make it happen.
• Hearing Blair say, "I can sleep in my own bed, I just want to sleep with you because I love you so much."
• Catching Bree practicing her violin and enjoying it.
• Knowing that when I wake up in the dreaded mid-day Monday fog after working nights all weekend, my husband will have cleaned my kitchen, prepared my coffee, made dinner, and packed the kids' lunches for the next day.
• Friday lunch dates with my husband and my niece, Emerson.
• When my miserly son (aka Scrooge) fishes a quarter out of his pocket (of his VERY OWN MONEY) to buy his little sister a gumball without being prompted.
• Watching my oldest girl throw elbows on the soccer field.
• Seeing my boy while I am working at his school and he non-chalantly passes and waves like it's no big deal that he sees me there.
• Watching my niece, Mia, walk itty-bitty Blair into school each morning.
• When Bree calls Ben up to her room to watch "Unwrapped" because she's still scared of sleeping alone.
• When my rotten dogs look up from their pedestals (on our "new" overstuffed chairs) as I enter the living room, and I can't help but think they are cute.
• Late night, uninterrupted phone calls with my sisters.
• Knowing that whatever inanimate object I run into with my car (i.e. big boulder, pillar of parking structure, dead belly-up deer, small boulder) my husband will just roll his eyes and mutter under his breath, but never really get mad.

Okay, so I guess rats don't really have it this good!

Holiday fun

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Sleep is underrated

The most coveted space in my house would most positively be my pillow-top king size bed. People have been known to drive for hours just to come sleep in it. Considering that John and I are both night-shift workers, it is very important to have optimal sleeping arrangements.....because no matter how tired you may be, it is very difficult to sleep during the day. Take today, for instance. I worked a 12 hour night last night, and I drove home literally with one eye open. I was exhausted when I climbed into my cool, empty bed in my dark, cave-like room at 8:01 am. Then, like a patient coming out of a coma, my eyes pop open. I look at the clock....it's 8:32am. The onslaught of questions begin swimming in my head. "AM or PM? Am I supposed to be asleep right now? Where am I? Are my children safe? Do I even have children?" Then the fog clears like an amnesiac getting her memory back. I realize that I have only been asleep for 31 minutes. And worse, I only have 3 hours left to sleep before I have to wake up and be somewhere. This part sucks because now I must struggle to clear the thoughts so that my mind will allow me to rest again. And my body is so freaking tired!
Because John and I work nights, and because I am a sucker, my kids have pretty much always slept with me. The two nights a week that John and I actually sleep in the same space, we usually move them into their own rooms, but the three nights that I am the only parent home, I say, "Bring 'em on!" It is and always has been so much easier to accomplish the bedtime routine when they all are in one place! Unless a person has routinely slept with their children, they will not understand this concept. People at work criticize me, and I totally get that. I would criticize me if it wasn't so much easier. I am not a crunchy granola family bed type of person. I'm just lazy, that's all. Plus, they are so very sweet when they are sound asleep and they are innocent once again. My husband does not always agree with me, but often times, when we are in bed, I wake up to find him sharing my youngest child's coveted sock monkey with her, and I know that there is no place either of us would rather be than surrounded by those little nerds.

I often wonder if I will ever wake up feeling well-rested. That seems as foreign a concept as waking up in utopia. I think because I miss 2 nights of legitimate sleep every week, and the other 5 nights I am fighting off little elbows and knees, I may never find that feeling. This must be why God invented naps......and coffee.