Met my old lover in the grocery store
The snow was falling christmas eve
I stole behind her in the frozen foods
And I touched her on the sleeve

She didnt recognize the face at first
But then her eyes flew open wide
She went to hug me and she spilled her purse
And we laughed until we cried.

We took her groceries to the checkout stand
The food was totalled up and bagged
We stood there lost in our embarrassment
As the conversation dragged.

We went to have ourselves a drink or two
But couldnt find an open bar
We bought a six-pack at the liquor store
And we drank it in her car.

We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to now
And tried to reach beyond the emptiness
But neither one knew how.

She said shed married her an architect
Who kept her warm and safe and dry
She would have liked to say she loved the man
But she didnt like to lie.

I said the years had been a friend to her
And that her eyes were still as blue
But in those eyes I wasnt sure if I saw
Doubt or gratitude.

She said she saw me in the record stores
And that I must be doing well
I said the audience was heavenly
But the traveling was hell.

We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to now
And tried to reach beyond the emptiness
But neither one knew how.

We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to time
Reliving in our eloquence
Another auld lang syne…

The beer was empty and our tongues were tired
And running out of things to say
She gave a kiss to me as I got out
And I watched her drive away.

 

Just for a moment I was back at school
And felt that old familiar pain
And as I turned to make my way back home

The snow turned into rain — Dan Fogelberg

This is one of my favorite Christmas time songs. No one ever seems to understand why. For some reason this year, this song hits home much more than usual. I guess I am just hitting an age where you start thinking of past friendships that no longer exist, and wishing to reconnect with old friends. I am sure that some of this comes from being on Facebook recently, and actually getting back in contact with people that I haven’t seen in over 15 years.

This song makes me think of of how great things used to be before I had the responsibilities of work and kids and family. Like staying up all night with the girls watching horror movies, hanging out on the weekends wondering what to do next, lying about your age to see rated R movies, and having some of the best ice cream. It seems as you get older these things lose something. Staying up all night watching movies and talking is harder to do, Disney replaces most other movies, and ice cream just isn’t as good as it once was.

Up until a few days ago, I was really looking forward to Christmas. Now, I am just trying to maintain. Hopefully, by tomorrow morning I will be back into the holiday spirit. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

First of all, why do men have to be so stubborn and pigheaded? Geoff is sick, I think it is pneumonia. His symptoms are almost exactly like what I had. He is miserable, but will he go to the doctor? or let anyone help him? NO!

The guys at work heard me on the phone with him today, and they all agreed that this was usualy behavior. Why? If you are sick and miserable why not do what you can to fix it? I just don’t get it.

We went to our Sunday School Christmas party tonight and had a wonderful time. We ended up bringing home the best present from the Dirty Santa game.

The last week has been awful. We decided to go to B’ham to visit the in-laws last Monday. All was good until Tuesday night, and Graeme was up all night and started running a fever. By Wednesday morning his temp was up to 102 and he was having trouble breathing and the breathing treatments weren’t working. We called the doctors and they said to take him to the ER.  We loaded up and took him to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham. They did chest x-rays and said he had pneumonia which was aggrevating his asthma, so they admitted him. We were in the hospital until Friday afternoon, which by that time I was sick and didn’t feel like making the drive home. We ended up staying until Sunday afternoon.

We arrived home at 5:30. Walked in the house, started down the hallway, and heard water running. This is when we noticed that there was water seeping up through the cracks in the wood flooring. Our ac unit had backed up and flooded, soaking the hallway, the living room, and parts of Aegwyn’s bedroom.

I have spent all of the time since then on the phone with contractors and the insurance company making arrangement to get it fixed.

I just packed up the kids and Geoff and sent them back to B’ham so they wouldn’t be here when the clean-up crew sprayed the mold stuff and ripped up the flooring. This week is going to be awful.

I think that I am going to do some restructuring of this site, and actually try to offer more than just my random thoughts throughout the week.

I am going to try to start categorizing my posts first.

I also think I will share my parenting wisdom, and follies with you. Afterall, I have 5 kids I should have learned a little bit by now.

I try to stay away from politics, so unless it has something to do directly with me, you won’t hear about it here.

I am going to go back today and categorize all of posts up to this point, and hopefully from here on out I will remember to stick stuff in the right places.

I think I am going to try and have a garage sale. Since I am out of work right now I actually might have time to go through all of our stuff and clean out. I am afraid though that the majority of our stuff is going to be clothes. Granted the clothes are really nice and hardly worn, but still clothes. I may take some of my stuff to the consignment store, it might do better that way.

I also have a chair in my living room that my mother gave to Geoff a few christmas’ ago when his recliner broke. My living room is not tiny but it is cramped and getting rid of that chair would make a huge difference in there.

I have a bunch of text books that I am not sure if I shouldn’t just throw them away. And some of the boys old stuff. And maybe some kitchen stuff I don’t use any more. And if I could get Geoff to clean out his stuff we have a ton of computer cables and miscellaneous parts, and old video game systems and games.

The more I think about it the more I see I have a lot of junk, and some serious cleaning out is in order. The next problem is that with a yard sale comes my mother-in-law trying “to help”. I appreciate her help most of the time, but I will save that for a different rant.

Thanks Joe, I have never done one of these before so please excuse the pathetic attempt I am about to make.

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you (done above).

2. Post the rules on your blog (this is what you are now reading).

3. Write 6 random things about yourself (see below).

4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them (This is only a game)

5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog

6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up

1. I don’t like animals. Don’t get me wrong other peoples animals can be cute, but they smell and they leave a mess and since I have 5 kids to clean up after and take care of… I don’t like animals. (except for fish)

2. I was told when I was 15 that I would never be able to have children (boy were they wrong).

3. I have never been anywhere. I have lived my entire life in the southeastern US, and only traveled briefly to my brothers in Wyoming a couple of times. I want to travel more.

4. The one household chore I despise is putting away clothes.  I have no problems washing them, I just hate folding, hanging and putting away.

5. I am terrified of thunderstorms. I think it is a subconsious thing because my dad held me at the back door of my grandmothers house when I was 2 to watch a tornado go by.

6. I had a security blanket until I was out of highschool. I used to fold it up and put inside my pillowcase when I went to spend the night with friends. The blanket is still in the closet at my mothers house.

Ok, I don’t really have six people I know to tag so some of you may not know me but please play along anyway.

Sarah because you are funny and I always love reading what you have to say.

Drew because you are my son, and you have to do this.

Geoff because I know you hate these things and I love to pick on my hubby.

Bryan just because.
Sorry, I don’t really know of anyone else. If I think of someone I will add them later.

I had to go get some bloodwork done this morning, and I couldn’t eat before going. As soon as I finished I darted over to the Starbucks around the corner to grab a Venti caramel latte with extra caramel and whipped cream (first part of the yummy goodness), and since I was starving I decided to get a muffin. They didn’t have any decent looking muffins left so I opted for the blueberry coffee cake. OMG!!!!! I was in heaven with the first bite. The blueberries were plump and juicy, and it had a crumb topping, and the cake part of it was sweet and moist. I seriously wish I had known how good it was going to be because I would have gotten more. I wish there was a Starbucks closer to my house or atleast one that I could stop at on my way to work.

My doctor’s appointment yesterday went very well. I was a tadbit surprised when he informed me that he felt like I was no longer a level 4 bipolar, I had moved up to level 2. In case you aren’t familiar with bipolar disorder there are 5 levels, level 5 being the mildest and level 1 includes halucinating. He says he feels like I am level 2 because of the frequency of my mood swings and the variations in manic and depressive states. So I am back on meds now, and they are seriously kicking my butt today. I am so tired and groggy that I had a hard time keeping my eyes open this morning driving in to work.

I can’t wait for tomorrow. My mom has agreed to babysit overnight so that Geoff and I can have a night out. I am so excited, this is the first time in 19 months that we will have been away from the kids. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my kids and enjoy spending as much time with all of them as possible, but I need a break.

My mom is coming over around lunch time so that we can get an early start. We have reserved a nice hotel room here in town that we will be checking in to as soon as we leave the kids with Grandma. The hotel has a nice pool, so we are going to spend the afternoon swimming and relaxing by the pool. Then we are off to Bridgestreet for a nice dinner, a walk, maybe stop into the lounge at the hotel to listen to some music, and then off to bed where I hope to get a full night of uninterupted sleep. Geoff doesn’t seem to think that I will be able to sleep since we will be away from home, and without the kids, and since I am used to getting up during the night anyway. I think he is wrong. I need to sleep, and after an afternoon of swimming I should be sufficiently exhausted. And who knows we may even go swimming again after dinner if it’s not too late and I am not too tired.

It is going to be so nice to have this time to spend alone with my husband. Doing grown-up stuff. Not having to be home at a certain time to put kids in bed or to relieve the babysitter. I won’t have to be up at the crack of dawn with a crying baby. We will be able to have a meal without a child complaining. I can’t wait.