Late Again

I'm starting to feel like the guy who has his Christmas lights still up in May. You get to be so late, you figure, well hell, may as well leave 'em up. My 10 Things Tuesday is late, but I'll post it now instead of waiting til next week and you'll just forgive me. M'kay?

1. I'm often too quick to judge a book by it's cover.

2. I gave up ice cream for Lent.

3. My wish list for Christmas includes this. A girl can dream, right??

4. Haven't balanced my checkbook in months.

5. I have to be covered by a sheet or blanket to sleep. As long as you are covered up, the monsters can't get you.

6. I still have a folder of poems I wrote in Junior High and High School.

7. One summer during my early teens I read every single book in the "teen" section of our library.

8. I have no desire for another child. Booger completes me.

9. Booger was just invited to be a flower girl for a wedding in September in Vancouver. I'm so excited and also looking forward to the motivation to get myself back on the treadmill!

10. Operation Smaller Waistline started up again last night. 5 days per week is my goal. Even if it's just for 15-30 minutes at first. I am tired of being tired and know some exercise will help boost me up.

My name should have been Grace, for sure.

My childhood was peppered with various trips to the ER. I have a knack of hurting myself doing things that should be safe and walking away from things that should cause tremendous injury. Major car accident - thanks, I'm fine. Sitting in a chair watching some guys play basketball - broken thumb. (I'm not kidding).

Anyway, this weekend we ventured out to the local sledding hill and once again I proved why my mom really should have named me Grace. For the record, I'm not a fan of winter outdoor activities. I'm outside too much for work, freezing my ass off, that come the weekend, I'm looking for warmth. Booger was so excited, however, that I decided to go watch and snap some pictures. Right. I got sucked into sledding and had a terrific time, in spite of not even wanting to!

I only managed to get to bottom of the hill right side up one or two times out of maybe eleventy bazillion. One time, Booger and I went down together and about halfway down starting flipping ass over teakettle. We both got up laughing and hugging and ridiculously unharmed. I have not had that much fun is so long and it was glorious to laugh and point and laugh some more, all while snot is running out your nose and making snot bubbles when you breathe. (What, too much information, sorry!). Anyway, let's get to the graceful part, shall we? I was standing, yes, standing at the top of the hill. Just standing. Had my left foot firmly planted in the snow, my right foot resting on one of the metal saucer sleds to keep it from sliding away. I must have shifted my weight to the right foot and wham! The next thing I do, the sled shot out sideways and I fell on my ass. In front of everyone. I wanted to cry, to shrink into the snow and never speak of it again. But, whatchagonnado? I laughed, so everyone else laughed and it was all good. I have three gorgeous bruises to show for it and my left leg hurts like a bitch. Nice.

Just call me Grace.

Maybe I should call it Ten Things after Tuesday

I'm late. Again.

Here's this week's installment of 10 things. I'm too lazy to look for duplicates, so sorry if there are any. I should really start tagging these things.

1. I finished our taxes last night!

2. I need a haircut.

3. I would love to also get some new exciting highlights or something, but I hate the maintenance of it.

4. I wish I had more patience.

5. I'm a good friend and value my true friendships more than those people realize.

6. My new DVR rocks my world. ROCKS MY WORLD, I tell you.

7. Sure do wish I was more organized.

8. It snowed like crazy here and I can't wait to take Booger outside to play!

9. My Granny was such a cool lady, I miss her everyday and wish I took the time to ask her more questions about her childhood and kept a journal or something.

10. Not a day goes by when I don't learn something from Booger.

Mom

My relationship with my mom has always been good. As the only child, I was granted tremendous responsibility as a young child. With that responsibility came handsome reward. I was a latch-key kid. We lived in a rural town that was safer than anything. By the time I was in 4th grade, my parents left for work before I got up and didn't arrive home til well after I arrived home. I was responsible enough to get up, make my lunch, get dressed, etc. and go outside to catch the bus. When I arrived home, I would have a snack, watch some TV, do homework and whatever project the day called for (vacuuming, dusting, laundry, etc.). This was all perfectly normal for me. I thrived in that environment and recall very little drama in the household when I was a kid. Because I was responsible and a general good kid (!!!), I pretty much got anything I asked for. The good news is I didn't really ask for much. My mom and I were very close and I don't ever remember being overly embarrassed by her. All kids are at one point or another embarrassed by their parents. It happens.

Anyway, as I grew up, went to college, dropped out of college and made a series of let's call "less than smart" decisions, my mom never faltered. She was there, backed off when I needed her to, picked up the pieces of my shattered heart, pride, whatever when I needed her to. Many times without a word, no lecture, nothing. She knew that often times I would punish myself so badly in my head that there was no need to say anything more.

For the last year or so, she's been struggling with several issues and I ignored them. I got defensive when she'd say things. Things that were not entirely meant that way. Some were, and normally we could have discussed them like we always have. But because she's unhappy at her job and then my dad and she both have been hospitalized, along with a string of "less than smart" financial decisions on her part - well, communication hasn't really been our strength. We've bickered more these past months more than I ever remember.

I'm getting to the point, soon, I promise.

Recently, I'm trying to be better at remembering this: We all have our crosses to bear. We always (or, more accurately, I always) assume ours is the heaviest, most burdensome. But you know what? No. Mine is heavy in my own way, yes. But so is yours. And so is my Mom's.

Tomorrow is her birthday. Yesterday we spent the day shopping, having lunch and watching a movie. What a perfect day we had and what a perfect movie for us to see. Because I Said So is the perfect mother/daughter movie. We laughed, oh we laughed. And somehow we said everything we needed to say without saying anything at all.

Icicles

I'm afraid of icicles. Terrified is more appropriate. I can't really tell you why, other than they could fall at any moment, pierce my skull and kill me instantly. Oh, yeah, that's why. I don't remember if that was in a movie or if that happened to someone when I was a kid, but whatever, it doesn't matter. I HATE icicles. I knock them off of anything and struggle with not walking to my neighbors to knock theirs off. Of course, the actual act of knocking them off is full of drama, because HELLO, while knocking them off, I could actually be releasing them to fall, pierce my skull and kill me instantly. So typically, I hold the broomstick by the very end, turn my head away, hide it under my other arm, squeeze my eyes shut, say a little prayer ("Please Lord do not let the newspaper article read "Woman killed by thing she feared the most." Amen.") and start swinging the broomstick all willy nilly hoping to knock down the horrible icicles. Man, have you ever known anyone who needs anti-anxiety meds more than I do? Sheesh.

Ten Things Tuesday - late edition

My apologies for the late publish....have been out for a few days for all things work related.

1. I always wanted to be artsy....I'm crafty, sure, but not artsy.

2. I am terrified of icicles.

3. When I used to sleepover at my Granny's as a kid, I'd eat pork n' beans right out of the can.

4. I remember the home phone numbers of my childhood friends.

5. I don't balance my checkbook nearly enough.

6. I would love to take Booger to Disney World.

7. My dad taught me to drive using a stick shift.

8. I've only bought one new car in my life, a 1996 Honda Civic and wish I would never have sold it.

9. Being a wife and a mother are the 2 things I am most proud of.

10. I'd rather wash the dishes than dry and put away.

Caffeine price hike

It's cold, folks. Officially. As Chili would say, stupid cold. Single digits today, wind chill factor about 20 below. I went to the grocery store today only because we ran out of milk. It was probably a good thing to get the car started and run it for a bit, too.

Many of you know, I am VERY brand loyal to certain things. I don't always care about things like socks or ponytail holders or furniture. But I do care about other things. Diet Coke being the one I most am known for. My Diet Coke addiction is well known. Rarely am I without one. I admit to drinking far too much of it, but whatever - it's a thing. My excuse is always this: I could be addicted to far worse things. Anyway, I'm telling you all of that to give you an idea of how difficult a decision I had to make at the grocery store today. I bought Diet Pepsi. I know. But MAN. Diet coke was $4.19/12 pack and $8.19/case. Talk about seventeen kinds of ridiculous. Diet Pepsi was on sale for less than half of that. What was I supposed to do? That Diet Coke price is damn near vending machine prices. I'm not sure if there has been a large increase in price of production or what....I mean really. How much can it cost to produce soda? Water, some bubbles, caramel color, caffeine and bam....soda. And all I really need is the caffeine anyway.

We're watching the super bowl....hard to feel bad for the people who spent thousands of dollars to sit in the rain :-) The commercials sure are good, though!