Sunday, January 30, 2011

Romance is in the air....

My girls...
The engaged one is well... engaged! ;) and the wedding planning has begun full force. She is embarking upon a new chapter in her life - an exciting time- stressful yes, but joyous as well. She and her fiance are excited to see each other and try to spend as much time together as they can.

Cheergirlie called me today from JMU- it seems this weekend she met someone... The boy young man is a friend of a friend and the attraction was instantaneous. The young man does not go to JMU but lives about an hour away- and she met him Fri. saw him Sat. night and he asked if he could come back Wed. night to take her out to dinner. He also wants to come back next weekend to see her as well. She is flattered and excited to say the least.

I love romance... I read romance books... I love romantic movies...

Hubby and I have romantic moments... from time to time... but after 26 years you tend to take each other for granted- it's inevitable. The fact that we don't get to see each other every day makes us excited to see each other- but that isn't the same thing as romance.

We both still do the "little things" to make each other happy, but again- it's not the same.

I miss romance- the giddy feeling of anticipation you get in the pit of your stomach. The "looks" you give each other, the flirting...(well we still do that with each other)

The most romantic time I can remember recently was when we took our last vacation together to Jamaica a little over a year ago. Granted our current situation is not conducive for romance. But I think we need a weekend away- just us.

So am I the only old married lady who feels this way?

What do you do to foster romance? Any ideas? :)

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Snow day!

                 Our mailbox
                                             Our house                
                                 Believe it or not there is a pool under all of that snow


                                            Snow pups...   Let us in mom! 

We got over a foot and a half..... on the bright side- no school....  :)

Friday, January 14, 2011

A cabin, fireflies, and why I will never get mom of the year ;)

I was trying to think of something to post about but let's face it my life is kind of boring right now so I decided to post about something that happened a LONG time ago.

Hubby's family has a cabin in the mountains about 15 miles west of Gettysburg. His grandparents built it back in the 1930-40's. It's a real log cabin and has been handed down and now we pay for have it. When we were first married we had very little money. Then the kids came along and we had even less money - so if we wanted to take a vacation we had no limited options so we would go to the cabin on vacation. [Let me state here that my idea of a vacation is parking myself on a beach, then going back to an air conditioned hotel with both a maid & room service]

Anyway, our girls were about 2 and 5 years old at the time and I think I was pregnant with QB1. It was summertime and the girls had decided they wanted to catch fireflies in a glass jar. The idea being that if they got enough fireflies they could use them as a night light. The way the cabin is set up is that there is a screened in porch on the back of the cabin where we spend a lot of time. So one evening it was beginning to get dark and the girls begged to let them catch fireflies. Cheergirlie being only two needed to practice because she had a tendency to "catch" them too hard aka squish them. The engaged one decided to "teach her the right way"- yes she was bossy back then too ;)

So hubby and I are sitting there watching them catch fireflies and I suddenly had an idea. The girls LOVED playing monster with their dad- so I told him why don't you go out the front door and go up into the woods and come out like a monster????

So my poor little innocent daughters are out beside the cabin and from the back porch I start directing them. 

"You need to get closer to the woods girls- that's where the best fireflies are". 

So they moved closer. Ever trusting...

"No a little farther up the little hill"

Now at this point it is almost dark....then all of a sudden hubby comes crashing out of the woods growling and making monster type noises.

Both girls screamed, and jumped up in the air and in doing so then ran into each other (hard) knocking each other onto their butts... then they got up and raced onto the back porch screaming the whole time and then crying.

And what might you ask was I doing as this all occurred? 

I was laughing my ass off- honestly I wish I had had a video camera because if we had sent it into Funniest home videos we would have won hands down! I was laughing so hard I was crying and I almost peed my pants.

The girls eventually calmed down and of course poor daddy ... felt bad because he REALLY frightened them!

Me? I was still laughing & to this day when we reminisce... It still makes me laugh remembering...

Yeah, I definitely had mom of the year wrapped up for that little episode!

What can I say- it's what I do *shrug*  ;)


Wednesday, January 12, 2011

snow day

Today we had a snow day- we ended up getting about 6" of snow- it was light snow easy to shovel.
Surprisingly enough I got very little done today- a day in which I did whatever I felt like- it was nice!
Went and had "the engaged one" put some highlights in my hair. Then later baked banana bread muffins for hubby QB1 & Ty and then hubby came home for a bit and made him dinner.
Was able to catch up on some of the blogs I follow- so all in all- a great relaxing day!

Tomorrow is back to school and then a three day weekend! Yay!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

50 things you might not know about me

  1. I am a natural redhead
  2. I have three children, but have been pregnant 5x-b/c I miscarried twice
  3. I love strawberries
  4. I am deathly afraid of snakes *shudder*
  5. I had my first kiss when I was in 7th grade
  6. My best girlfriend is Tobie, she was my college room mate
  7. My favorite color is blue
  8. I love the beach/ocean
  9. I like to cook
  10. I love fresh summer tomatoes
  11. I once jumped off a cliff into a sink hole in Cancun
  12. I am 5'6
  13. I have trouble staying asleep at night and usually only get 4-5 good solid hours of sleep
  14. My favorite soda is  coke zero
  15. I was a cheerleader in college
  16. I once chased a purse snatcher who stole my purse when I was 4 mos. pregnant(I didn't catch him)
  17. My favorite liquor is vodka
  18. I actually have a really nice singing voice
  19. I am very generous
  20. I can touch my tongue to my nose
  21. I often "talk" for our dogs and the kids will argue with them (the dogs)
  22. I have a knack for computers and have taught myself a lot
  23. I suck at sewing
  24. I am a really fast reader because I read so much & I have read the Twilight series three times
  25. I cry at Hallmark commercials
  26. I. LOVE. ITALIAN. FOOD.
  27. My first dogs name was Herbie
  28. I like wine
  29. I snore
  30. My favorite cereal is corn pops
  31. If i had it to do over I would have chosen a different major in college
  32. I can be a bitch
  33. I am good at bartering
  34. My favorite season is summer- since I am off from work- But I also really like the fall when it is cold enough to wear a scarf and sweater
  35. I love to swim
  36. I love (most) animals, the exceptions are reptiles and insects
  37. I love movies- some favs include "While You Were Sleeping", The"Twilight" movies, "Day After Tomorrow"
  38. I have had artificial nails for about 16 years
  39. I once won a mini grant @ my first teaching job which included an Apple computer and $1500 of software- I then never got to use it b/c #1 child was born and I became a stay @ home mom
  40. I drive a silver Jeep Grand Cherokee 
  41. I have only ever had one speeding ticket (over 20 years ago)
  42. Ironically I tend to be a lead foot when driving
  43. I have to wear sunglasses outside when it is sunny because one of my pupils stays dilated due to a condition called Addy's pupil
  44. I lost the hearing in my right ear five years ago & also have tinnitus in that ear (which is really annoying)
  45. My favorite flavor of ice cream is anything chocolate
  46. I have a warped sense of humor
  47. I had major surgery on my back when I was 40
  48. I can remember life without cell phone, the internet, & microwaves
  49. I am good at Wheel of Fortune
  50. I am a good mom

Saturday, January 1, 2011

another year

I am not going to do a recap of my year or make any New Years resolutions because quite honestly I rarely follow through on them.

What I am going to comment on how I feel, right now- this minute. I am going to just type whatever pops into my head...

As I sit here still in my jammies with a now cold cup of coffee, the tv on in the background and my dog Cali loudly chewing on a bone I feel relatively happy. OK, happy is not really accurate- content?... no...hmmm OK... yes, I feel OK- not happy but not sad either.  No one in my family is ill (thank God) no life threatening illness, no major crisis going on (that i know of) so I guess for now life is alright. God that sounds pathetic- life is OK?

We had a nice Christmas, hubby surprised me with diamond studs, (very nice!) and my oldest got engaged. We have begun looking for a venue for her May 2012 wedding and I have shed a few tears in private at the realization that I will only have her with me another year and a half. :(   The dynamics of our family is subtlety changing, we are going to have a son in law... that is a weird concept, but like many other things I will get used to it.

Paul, my trainer has gently gotten on my case and told me I need to get serious in my quest to lose weight and get in shape... and he's right *sigh* and is using the wedding to blackmail me into getting into shape...so I will have to suck it up and get back into it. ugh.

My younger daughter "cheergirlie" will go back to JMU a week from Sunday (not looking forward to that) and my hubby and son will head back to the apartment tomorrow and our house will become QUIET again. I can remember when my kids were very young wishing for alone time, and now that I have it, it's not all it's cracked up to be.

I don't think I've ever really commented or explained why our lives are like this. Two years ago we decided to pull our son from our local high school to put him in a catholic high school. Long story short, the school principal filed a complaint and  he lost eligibility to play football for his sophomore year. So he & hubby moved into an apartment out of state about an hour from home. They live there full time and I see them on the weekends- either I go there or they come home. The first year was VERY difficult for me. In a 2 week period hubby and QB1 moved out and cheergirlie left for her freshman year of college. The engaged one and I were left @ home and we work opposite hours. I went from a bustling house of five to being virtually alone. It has been hard. Very hard. But amazingly enough you get used to it.

I miss my husband. I miss all the little things he does (good & irritating).
I miss my baby boy. I hate that I feel like I am missing his high school years.
I hate that I don't know his friends the way I knew the girls friends.
I hate that I don't have a gang of teen-aged boys hanging out at my house.
A lot of hate in those last few lines...

It's emotionally draining, and it's lonely.

One thing this experience has taught me is patience. I find I pray more and I don't let the "small stuff" get to me as much as I used to. I pray for the strength to accept whatever God has planned.
My hope for 2011 is to just get through it-