A Weekend Recap From The Porch

The weekends go by fast, don't they? We like to say every day is the weekend in retirement, but lately not so much. Hubs and I declared Saturday a no-hurry have fun day and although I had to remind him of the no-hurry bit a couple of times, he eventually relaxed and we had a really nice day. A day date if you will. 

Remember when I was counting those here? I'm still counting, just not posting all of them on the blog. 

Backing up to Friday...

Hubs of course had a dozen projects going so he spent most of the day power washing the dock and bridge. We've hired the staining out this year because that is a back breaking job and some years we pay to have it done. They're supposed to be coming on Monday so he wanted it squeaky clean first. 

Power washing the dock is also back breaking so he earned the rest. 

I took care of some paperwork and cleaned bathrooms, then went to play Mah Jong. Not back breaking, but it can sometimes strain the brain. 

Daughter1's hubs was attending an out of town medical thing last week so she and the kids came over Friday evening for a slumber party. The puppy too, because where they go the puppy goes. He desperately wants to play with the Little Brown Dog, but the LBD is not having any part of it. He lets him know too, but they'll get used to each other. 

The weather was absolutely gorgeous all weekend long, so we sat outside and played and talked, and hubs grilled burgers for dinner. Little Miss went to bed on the early side and the rest of us snuggled on the couch and watched Hook. Nana might have missed the entire middle of the film due to an unplanned nap, but I'd seen it before so no biggie. That's life in the third act. You fall asleep before the six year olds. 

Actually that has always been me, never a night owl. Does staying awake past 8:30 qualify one as a night owl? 

After some early Saturday morning fishing for the Mancub and Pawpaw, the party goers had breakfast then went on their way. Hubs and I jumped in the car for a drive one state over. We had a lunch destination in mind, then planned to piddle around in some of the shops nearby. 

At our wine dinner this month one of the couples we sat with told us they'd been to a great BBQ place in the little town of Dillard Georgia. I live in the Palmetto State, but the GA border is right down the road. 

We don't often go out for BBQ because hubs makes a mean pulled pork here at home, but the pitmaster at the Blue Hound in Dillard won Season 6 (July 2025) of the Bobby Flay BBQ Brawl and we thought we should taste it for ourselves. 

The drive over was just under an hour, and it's my favorite kind of BBQ place. A small building that sits on the literal side of the road beside a gas station, smoke billowing out of the smokehouse, and already a long line at 11:15 AM. 

I got the brisket sandwich with a brocoli salad instead of chips and hubs had the brisket plate with collards and slaw. He meant to order banana pudding, but forgot. We did get two jars of their rubs to try at home. 

We sat at a picnic table outside and enjoyed every bite. Afterwards we browsed a couple of shops just a few hundred yards away, then headed towards Clayton, which is a cute little mountain town we love. 

We passed this shop on the way to the restaurant and the name forced us to make a stop there on the way out-

They actually had some nice pieces of furniture and then the usual assortment of 'stuff', but we just looked before heading on to Clayton. Which was hopping on a sunny Saturday! Once we got parked we walked to a little shop called White Birch Provisions for a coffee. I think I might like to stay in the White Birch Inn sometime as it looks cute. We browsed the shops on the main drag, but didn't buy anything.  

On the way out of Clayton we popped in to the local distillery there so hubs could get a bottle of their bourbon. I hadn't been in the place in a couple of years and they've expanded quite a bit which was nice to see.

We made the hour-ish drive home and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening on the lower level porch. I had a small nap (my sleep tank has been fumes the past month) and we listened to music, read, and chatted. Neither of us were very hungry so hubs ate the leftover burger and sides from Friday's dinner and I had a fried egg sandwich.  Sometimes that is exactly what I'm craving. 

Sunday morning kitchen sink view. 

We went to church, then made an exceedingly and unnecessarily long stop at Tractor Supply for a piece of rope for the outdoor shower mirror (the one we had finally broke) and then had lunch on the porch. After lunch hubs trimmed tree branches or some such nonsense and guess where I was? 

If you said the porch you wouldn't be wrong. It's great to be back in almost summer mode. 

Linking today with Holly and Sarah for their regular Monday morning weekend recap party. 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 439

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here tomorrow to link your answers with the rest of the world wide webbers. See you there! 

1. Is Halloween a big deal in your neighborhood? Was it something you celebrated as a child? With your own children? Do you like candy corn? 

2. Are you a scaredy cat? About what? 

3. Last time you were somewhere that should have been busy but felt like a 'ghost town'? 

4. Do you like chili and if so how do you like it? Beans or no beans? Meat or no meat? Beef or chicken? Spice or no spice? Favorite toppings? 

5. Would you describe yourself as a night owl? What time of night qualifies? What are you doing while everyone else is asleep? Do you then 'sleep in'? Define 'sleeping in'. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Capture

Still at that 31 Day Writing Challenge....

Today's prompt-capture

I went ahead and skipped yesterday's prompt because the word was 'brief'. Y'all I wouldn't even know where to begin-ha! Today's one word prompt is capture and since I've been meaning to come back here and 'capture' my thirties in a blog post this works.

Back when I hosted the weekly Wednesday Hodgepodge I asked people to describe their 20's in one sentence, and then later to do the same for their 30's. Since one sentence is never enough for me I wrote a whole post about my 20's (here). I wanted to do the same for my 30's and today is going to be that day.

So, it's been a while. What do I remember about my thirties? How does that decade look from a vantage point some twenty years down the road?

I turned thirty just a few days after giving birth to my second daughter. If you'd asked me then I'd have said I felt every bit my age and then some. Baby girl was an absolute beauty and she loved her mama so much she did not ever ever ever want me too far from reach. She sleeps like it's her job now, but those early months were sort of a par-tay whoop whoop all night long.

And I was tired for the first half of my thirties.

You know there's a very short window in motherhood where you actually get to sleep the way you want to sleep and not the way your children dictate you sleep. That window opens up about the time your children are between the ages of 5 and 15. For the rest of your parental life sleep will be interrupted either by babies needing to be fed, changed and soothed, toddlers needing water or the potty or to climb in bed with mom for no reason at all, or by teenagers who drive cars and college students living just out of reach. Then all of a sudden they're all grown up and sure you could sleep if only your own body would let you.

Actually I think I might make this two posts because life is chock-a-block full of experiences, feelings, and lessons learned in your thirties. We'll do the first five years today, and somehow I'll make the second five fit tomorrow's prompt. Or Monday's prompt. Or sometime.

When my thirties began we were living in a tiny little town in the far northern tip of NJ. Hubs had a brutal commute to work and on top of that was traveling a ridiculous amount of the time so sometimes it felt like I was living there and he was living at the office or Newark Airport. Almost weekly a car service would show up at our door at 3 am so he could make a 6 am flight or some such nonsense and hey, no wonder we were tired.

We were involved in a church in a nearby town and it was here I attended my first Women's Bible Study group. The women in that group were a Godsend to me in those early exhausting days of parenting. My faith grew here by leaps and bounds, and the love and support I felt from these women helped me navigate one of the hardest seasons of my life, the loss of my dad.

I don't think we have any idea how the loss of a parent will shape and change us in the years to come, but it does. My dad enjoyed his grandchildren so much and all these years later I still feel sad that he didn't get to watch them grow up or know them as the enchanting young adults they are today. He left a legacy of faith and courage though and these are gifts you treasure with an ever deepening sense of gratitude as the years roll by.

Daughter1 turned three years old and after a scary episode of mono ended she was finally able to start preschool. Every Tuesday and Thursday we moms would linger in the hallway as we dropped our littles off for class. Then we'd all kind of shuffle off alone to our own homes and repeat the ritual at pickup. I became friendly with one of the moms because our daughters had latched on to one another from the word GO, and she and I decided together we'd organize an informal coffee morning.

So we invited all the moms to come to my house the next week for coffee and cake while our preschoolers were in school. Most of us had a toddler or a babe in arms too, so everyone came and brought their babies and it was the beginning of a wonderful weekly play group/mom support system that carried on through Daughter 1's kindergarten year which is when we moved.

We moved in my thirties. Nobody's surprised are they? More about that in the second half of the decade writeup, because today I'm remembering what it felt like to be 32.

To have babies who fit in the crook of my arm and who snuggled up close on the couch.

There was that time a bear got in the garage, the wonky steel swingset perched somewhat precariously on the side of our back hill, the maple tree that turned the prettiest shade of red I've ever seen.

There were birthday parties on the brick patio, bicycles with training wheels, and home made ice cream.

Fourteen country miles to the nearest McDonalds, three trips to the ER for stitches (hello Daughter2!), weekend walks through apple orchards, the A.T. trail, Central Park and Waywayanda.

A pacifier smile, the silky edge of a well loved blankie, the color pink.

Blonde curls and books and freshly bathed girls.

A full day. A full life. A full heart.

Rainy Days and Mondays

Good Monday morning. I haven't checked in here on a Monday in a while because life and all, but today I've got time and words so here we go.

The home build is making me a little bit crazy. I alternate between sleeping fitfully and wanting to sleep all the time. Someone wake me up when it's closer to completion please. An inspection has to happen before we proceed with insulation and dry wall so here we sit. Hopefully those things will occur in a timely manner, which I think in builder's terms means more than a day but less than a month. Something like that.

A friend from NJ who worked with hubs in his previous job was in town on Saturday, so we trekked out to the lot to show her 'the house'. Still feels more like a frame than a house, although I know all kinds of things have gone on behind the scenes. Important things like wiring and plumbing and heating and cooling, but not pretty things like cabinets and granite and hard wood floors.

Another couple who live on the lake, but who also worked with hubs in NJ jetted over to our dock so they could say hi to our mutual friend too.

When I say jetted I mean they literally jetted over. And even though the weather forecast said no rain, it rained. Hubs had taken the jet ski friends up to the 'house' for a tour, and I was sitting on the dock with our friend P when the rains came a-pouring. As the rain became heavier it occurred to me that sitting under a metal roof perched atop the water is not where you want to be in an electrical storm, but thankfully this turned out to be just a really hard fast rainstorm.

I have to say it was actually quite beautiful. I took a little video which you may or may not see here because I don't have very good luck attaching video to my blog. Or maybe it's skill I'm lacking? Anyway, you may or may not see rain, but either way know it was pretty.

I can't wait to live here.

Not right here because this is a restaurant, but on the lake here. In our house. With walls and all the pretty parts in place.

Saturday night Daughter2 and her boyfriend met us for dinner at a restaurant downtown. Aren't they the cutest?

Hubs and I spent the rest of the weekend discussing why things aren't moving faster and when they might move faster, and what can we do to make them move faster and then I napped. Because in the words of Mason Cooley...'When you can't figure out what to do, take a nap.' 

Write that down and put it in your when-I-build-a-house file. You're welcome.

ABC. Easy as 1.2.3.

Hi Hodgepodgers! And A-Z'ers! And random people reading here! If you're visiting from the A-Z challenge today you'll find my post for letter A in #8. I host a weekly meme on Wednesdays, and try to keep it going during the A-Z. 

Everyone is welcome to join the fun here on Wednesdays, but I will ask you not link to the Hodgepodge unless you've answered the questions. Thanks for that! 

Now on with the show-

1. In honor of the date...when were you last sent on a 'fool's errand'?

It might have been just before Christmas when I bought the wrong colored outdoor lights and the wrong colored candles for my Advent wreath, all on the same trip. I hate when I do things like that. 

More recently, I sent hubs on a 'fool's errand' just yesterday. I gave him the empty print cartridge boxes to replace, and he did. Except our printer has two different black cartridges and I gave him the wrong box for black ink, so he's headed back to the store today to get the right one. He's a good egg. 

2. Peter Rabbit, Bugs Bunny, The Energizer Bunny, The Easter Bunny, Rabbit (Pooh's friend), White Rabbit (of Wonderland fame), or the Trix Rabbit...which of these 'famous' rabbits can you best relate to right now?

Peter Rabbit is described as mischievous and disobedient so much as I love him, I'm not him. Rabbit is described as liking to be in charge and a little bossy...hmmm...that could be me, although not so much this week. And I'm definitely not feeling energetic or silly just now, so let's go with The Easter Bunny. I did manage to fill baskets for my chicks and even got them shipped in a timely fashion.

3. When did you last find yourself scrambling to get something done? Explain.

Probably finishing up the tax organizer on the very last day of February. I have a system for completing these things, which goes against the general rules you'll find in every 'how not to procrastinate' book. I answer all the easy questions first. Then I go back later and fill in the questions that I have paperwork for, but that don't require a lot of data uploading. 

On the very last day, the day it is actually due, I scramble to fill in the hard stuff. And by hard stuff I mean the investment categories because those sections use terms like non-qualifieds, ISO's and other ridiculous words that make my brain hurt. I always get it done though, and isn't that what really matters?

4. Last time you were up at the literal crack of dawn? Why? Last time you stayed up all night? Why?

I'm up most days at the literal crack of dawn because that's how my internal clock ticks. I enjoy early mornings, seeing the sunrise over the mountain, and most especially the quiet and that first cup of coffee. I've never been a person who functions well late at night, not even back when I was a college student. I don't think I ever stayed up all night studying. 

The last time I was up all night was April 29, 2011 aka Will and Kate's wedding. Yes the royal Wills and Kate. I got up in the middle of the night to watch coverage from the very beginning, and then we had company come for the weekend, so essentially I stayed up a whole 24 hours. 

5. Crack a book, crack a bottle, crack a joke, crack an egg...which one have you done most recently?

Probably a book. I crack one of those open pretty much every day. 

6. What's your favorite part of a typical weekend? Tell us why that's so.

Friday afternoon. Okay, I know that might not technically be the weekend, but I love the sense of anticipation that settles in around here on a Friday afternoon. It's a solid chunk of time where I don't feel like I need to be ticking something off my to-do list, and we normally have a relaxed casual dinner out that evening, which I look forward to.  

7. What's something I'd find on a bookshelf in your home? Other than a book I mean!

Framed photos. I realized just how many we have when we put our house on the market. Realtors recommend you remove some of the personal from your home so potential buyers can picture themselves in the space, and not be distracted by your adorable children. 

They don't say that exactly, but that's what they mean. 

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Today begins the April A-Z blog challenge, details of which you'll find by clicking the button on my sidebar. Most days I'll write a separate post to cover the letter of the day, but on Wednesdays I will likely incorporate the day's letter into my random space as part of the Hodgepodge. 

Here we go-

A is for All About My Theme

Well, not all about my theme, because telling you everything on Day 1 would defeat the purpose of the challenge. Also, unlike years past I haven't thought this one all the way through. It's going to be a bit of blogging by the seat of my pants, which I like to think I'm something of an expert at so not gonna worry. 

Except I kind of am, because lately I feel so out of synch with my blog, and more importantly with my writing voice. We all have one and normally mine runs nearly unceasing like a loop through my head. These days there's so much else clamboring for brain space that I'm going to have to work to become reaquainted with the writer in me. 

Raise your hand if you've hit mid-life and are surprised to find your brain is too full instead of nearly empty? 

'They' say when you hit a writing roadblock you should just write what you know. True confession here, the list of what I know is actually not that long-ha! And I've covered much of that short list in previous A-Z challenge years, namely travel, parenting, marriage, so what's left? 

What's left is probably the elephant in the room and my theme for this year's challenge. In the past three months I've seen my first born marry and move to the other side of the country, my husband has retired from the company he worked for some 30 years, we've put our house on the market, and are relocating somewhere sometime. 

Change. 

We all deal with it, embrace it, or avoid it at various points in our lives, so it feels relevant. Plus it's broad, which leaves room for me to talk about pretty much anything under the sun, but also share some of what I've learned, and continue to learn as life swirls and shifts and goes left when I thought we were going right. 

Stay tuned. 



I couldn't resist. 
And y'all know there was some truth in the lyrics of this earworm. 
You're welcome. 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 215

I considered declaring today Spring Break in the Hodgepodge, but since it snowed here this morning I felt it best we carry on. I'll probably take a week off from the HP sometime in April, because I know that whole A-Z thing will begin to wear me out.

Blogging's fun, isn't it?

Let's get started....here are the questions, you provide the answers, then hop back here Wednesday and we'll compare, in a good way of course.

1. In honor of the date...when were you last sent on a 'fool's errand'?

2. Peter Rabbit, Bugs Bunny, The Energizer Bunny, The Easter Bunny, Rabbit (Pooh's friend), White Rabbit (of Wonderland fame), or the Trix Rabbit...which of these 'famous' rabbits can you best relate to right now?

3. When did you last find yourself scrambling to get something done? Explain.

4. Last time you were up at the literal crack of dawn? Why? Last time you stayed up all night? Why?

5. Crack a book, crack a bottle, crack a joke, crack an egg...which have you done most recently?

6. What's your favorite part of a typical weekend? Tell us why that's so.

7. What's something I'd find on a bookshelf in your home? Other than a book I mean!

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 163

Guess what's in our forecast today? Ka-razy!  Here are the questions for our Hodgepodge...answer on your own blog, then slide back over here tomorrow to link answers with all your friends and neighbors.  The more the merrier, so come join the party!

1. What's the biggest change since your childhood in the way people think or act?

2. The Olympic Biathlon involves cross country skiing broken up with either two or four rounds of target shooting. Which part of that would stress you out more? Or would you love them both equally?

3. February is National Canned Food Month...what is your most often purchased canned food item?  What was in the last can you opened?

4. What river (anywhere in the world) would you most like to cruise?

5. It's the middle of the night and you can't sleep...what do you do? Count sheep? Toss and turn? Watch television? Or do you get up and do something productive?

6. How important is keeping your cool?

7. I've got white stuff on the brain so why not run with it? White lie, wave the white flag, white knuckle it, white wash a situation, or white as a sheet...which phrase could most recently apply to your own life in some way?

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Rest

I'm trying something new today, and linking up with Five Minute Friday.  I need to stretch my writing muscle and making lists is just not cutting it.  Here's how it works...she gives you a prompt and you write for five minutes flat-no editing, no over-thinking, no back-tracking.

I am a big over-thinking back tracker but am gonna give it a try anyway.

Today's prompt-REST

Go-

How ironic to be writing about rest at 1:40 am.  When I should be resting.  New mothers have something in common with menopausal women in that sleep becomes something of an obsession.

At 1:40 am my body says sleep, but my mind says now is a good time to run through a mental checklist of every little thing in the universe pinging around my brain and lying heavy on my heart.

Some are big things, but most are insignificant in the grand scheme of life...still my house has been neglected all week, and even that small thing looms large in the dark of night.

"Come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened and  I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

Come to me.

Jesus doesn't say lie there fretting, making plans, figuring it all out by my lonesome in the wee hours of the morning... and then rest.

He says, "Come to me."

So I do.  I hand over my list.

With each tick of the imaginary pen darkness fades. Anxiety falls away leaving peace in its wake, and my fitful sleep is finally blessed rest.

Have a Holly Jolly Hodgepodge

Welcome to the Wednesday Hodgepodge!  If you're like me you have a lot of to-dos in your to-day, so I'm going to jump right in with my answers. A quick reminder that I'm hosting The Twelve Days of Christmas Kindness on my blog this month and it's not to late to join. You'll find details by clicking  the link (What are the Twelve Days of Christmas Kindness) on my sidebar,  just above the super cute button my Daughter1 designed. If you're participating feel free to grab the button for your blog too.

Okay...back to the Hodgepodge~

1.  Share your traditions surrounding the Christmas stocking.

The stocking is one of my favorite things about our Christmas traditions. My mother enjoyed going a little bit overboard in filling them and a typical stocking in our house always had a pile of small wrapped gifts beside it too.  Stockings are opened before breakfast, but not before everyone is in their assigned seat. Yes, we have assigned seats for the unwrapping. Doesn't everybody?   

I don't think we actually hung our stockings on the fireplace when I was growing up, but we did hold them there for a photo op. Then we put them in our assigned seats so as not to confuse Santa. Our stockings always contained a new toothbrush and usually a calendar and a package of pretty note cards so we could write our Christmas thank-yous.  Then a few other fun bits and pieces and always, always a tangerine or clementine in the toe.  

I've carried on the same traditions with my own girls and if you asked they'd probably say they love the stockings best too. We do hang our stockings because we have cute brass hangers that sit on the mantle, but when Santa fills them he moves them to their assigned seats.  Santa likes order.  

2.  How many hours of sleep do you average at night?  Is it enough?

Consecutive?  Hard to say.  I get about 7 hours of sleep a night, but in recent years those hours might be interrupted so it doesn't feel like a true 7.  I'm a champion at sleeping on the couch before I actually go to bed. Does that count?  

3. If you had to give up one thing for the remainder of this year, what would it be?

I should probably say sugar, but this is rhetorical, right?  

4. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Wills and Kate as I like to call them) have announced they're expecting a baby.  Do you follow news of the Royals?

I do follow news of the Royals.  I think Kate is adorable and I wish them well.  I don't envy her with so many eyes watching, and am thankful 'journalists' were not describing my cycle, my morning sickness, my weight, or my ability to parent on the evening news.

5. For me the sound of childhood is______________________.

The first thing that popped into my head was a sprinkler.  There is something about the sound of a sprinkler running that whisks me back to the carefree days of summer as a child.  It is always summer in childhood memory.  

6. Fruit cake-yay or boo?  What's your favorite dessert made with fruit?

I never cared for fruitcake when I was growing up, but if you live in England long enough you kind of acquire a taste for it.  Fruit cake is popular on the other side of the pond.  My favorite dessert made with fruit is strawberry short cake.  

7. What is one thing you want to accomplish before 2012 comes to an end?

This has been a hard year.  Really hard.  Between now and the end of December I want to rest in the reason for the season.  

That will be enough.  

8. Insert your own random thought here.

On a lighter note...have you seen this?  I think it's hilarious, but perhaps that's because I relate to the technologically challenged.  It's less than a minute long, and it's in German with subtitles, but you don't need words to understand the plot...gurananteed to make you smile. 

Ho-Ho-Ho-dgepodge Questions Vol 104

Tuesday's here again. The weeks are funny like that. I know some of you are thinking you're too busy for fun and games in December, but I disagree. I think everyone needs a break from their wrapping and their buying and their baking and their fretting this time of year. Grab a cuppa or some eggnog and enjoy this week's questions.  Don't be so quick to get back to your to-dos that you forget to add your link here tomorrow!

One more thing... if you're interested in participating in The Twelve Days of Christmas Kindness happening here this month you'll find details in this post. Be sure to grab the super cute button from my sidebar Daughter1 made just for us. She's nice like that.

Okay-here ya go...

1.  Share your traditions surrounding the Christmas stocking.

2.  How many hours of sleep do you average at night?  Is it enough?

3.  If you had to give up one thing for the remainder of this year what would it be?

4.  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (or Wills and Kate as I like to call them) have announced they're expecting a baby. Do you follow news of the Royals?

5.  For me,  the sound of childhood is__________________.

6.  Fruit cake-yay or boo? What's your favorite dessert made with fruit?

7. What is one thing you want to accomplish before 2012 comes to an end?

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Sometimes The Couch Calls Your Name

We had a quiet weekend.

No place we had to be.

No planes to catch, no bags to pack, no conference calls at 9 PM on a Sunday night.

Nothing. Nil. Nada.

Let's just stop and appreciate that fact for a minute because it's a rare and beautiful thing around here in the year 2012.

Friday morning I had my third camera lesson. The instructor always gives me an assignment for the week and last time I'd written that down in general terms but then I couldn't figure out how to make the camera repeat what I'd done in my lesson.

As my favorite bear would say- 'Oh bother'.

Good thing I'm not being graded.

In my head I'm being graded which is a little bit depressing but I keep plugging away.

I simmered a big pot of vegetable beef soup most of the day Friday so I wouldn't have to cook on Saturday. Or Friday night. You know my rule book says we eat out on Friday nights. Hubs wholeheartedly supports this notion so we went for Thai food which is pretty much my favorite thing.

Saturday morning we lounged. Is there anything better than coffee sipped at your leisure as bacon sizzles and an unmarked day stretches out in front of you? We've learned to savor that sort of morning.

Hubs got a new phone last week and needed a case for it so we made plans to see a movie and then do a little shopping later in the day. It had to be later in the day because we somehow got sucked into watching The Godfather saga, all four of which were running back to back this weekend. We briefly considered chucking our plan to leave the house but we know us a little too well, and while we like a little bit of lounging we don't like a full day of feeling lazy. We hit record and saved Parts 3 and 4 to the DVR.

The movie theatre was a zoo on Saturday afternoon because The Lorax had just opened and everyone and their offspring must have been there to see it. I could go into a small rant here about the inefficiency of the concession stand employees and how it took every ounce of self restraint I had not to leap over the counter and help them but I'll refrain.

We saw Act of Valor. It was so good and stirred up all kinds of emotion in me. Bravery and courage and sacrifice make my eyes water and my heart well up. Go see it.

After the movie ended we walked around the mall. Hubs was spending too much time looking at I don't know what in the AT T store which is how I ended up with a brand new pair of sunglasses. The sunglasses shop was just opposite the phone store and by the time he finally got there I'd tried on no less than 647 pair. I kinda had to buy, right?

We headed for home, back to our comfy clothes and couch and a bowl of vegetable soup, aka comfort food. We watched some more of The Godfather but since we were both nodding off during part 3 we decided to give up and go to bed.

At 8:50 pm.

Not 9 o'clock.

8:50.

On a Saturday night.

Did I mention we've been going 100 miles an hour here since the first of the year and we needed to hit the brakes? Well that's exactly what we did this weekend. It was riveting stuff to read I know but it can't be all foreign cities and across the sea travel tales around here all the time now, can it? A lot of that will be happening later this spring though, and I feel like I need to rest up. Hubs keeps reminding me I'm going to need to put on my big girl britches for our Asian adventure. Hmmm...it seems he's traveled with me before.

I realize I haven't mentioned Sunday but this post is already long and a little bit dull so I'm going to save that for a blurb of its own. Happy Monday!

A hard night's night

Remember when you had an infant and she would wake up every hour upon the hour screaming at the top of her lungs and you would bolt upright in your bed and fly to her crib and throw fifteen pacifiers in her direction until you could get your bearings and figure out if she needed food, a diaper change, or maybe she just couldn't go one more minute without a glimpse of your face? And then in the morning your husband would say, 'Oh was she up during the night?' Well that's how I am with the dog.

I don't know what was going on here last night. I was sleeping (see paragraph above) but apparently the dog had some issues. And these issues involved drinking gallons of water all night long followed by thousands of trips outside all night long. And after maybe the third trip out I sorta opened one eye and noticed because husband was not happy. At all. Did I mention husband has been in Japan and it took approximately 743 hours to get home and he is feeling a little something known as the jet lag?

After one of the later episodes, which occurred sometime after he tried confining her to the crate in the basement (think coyotes howling) but before he left her in the garage and said it would be best if I kept her away from him today, I realized something was going on. What can I say? I'm a deep sleeper. Our house is alarmed and every time you open a door to the outside a voice tells you the door is open. And evidently the door was 'talking' up a storm last night. I was blissfully unaware. So annoying to the one who is aware.

My pup is usually a champion sleeper so I have no idea why she was having such a hard time. She will be 8 years old in a couple of months which is supposedly 56 in people years. Hmmm...do dogs suffer from interrupted sleep the way women do when they hit mid life?

I don't know about that but I do know this

...she and the husband are best buds and I'm pretty certain they will be again.

He just needs to sleep on it.

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod...aka a post about sleep

I'm trying to write more in this new year but I'm realizing some days I don't have a lot to say. It doesn't stop me from saying stuff but when I stop and think about what I'm writing sometimes even I roll my eyes.

We had a pretty low key weekend. The highlight for me was flipping our mattress around so that I am now sleeping on the correct side of the bed. We bought a new mattress for our bedroom when we moved into this house. And we got one of those mattresses where you lay down in the showroom and tell the salesman about all your aches and pains and they adjust accordingly. And your side of the mattress may be different than your husbands side of the mattress because apparently I have neck, shoulder, low back pain and he's got nothin'. Incidentally I got a new pillow too and voila, neck pain is gone. Don't you like that I can work a French word into a post about nothing?

Anyway, because we got this special mattress we each have a designated side to sleep on and as it happens when they delivered the mattress I had them set it up so that after 25 years of marriage I'm now sleeping on the 'wrong' side of the bed. And I didn't even notice. My husband commented on it the very first night. We got in bed and he said, 'Why am I on this side?' Hmmm. We have a set side? Yes, yes we do as it turns out and after 8 houses and 25 years of marriage I should know this. And it also turns out that my husband cannot sleep on the 'wrong' side of the bed. And it has taken me six months of having his knees in my back and clinging to the edge of the mattress to realize that he is never going to be able to sleep on the wrong side of the bed and consequently I will not be able to sleep. So on Saturday we flipped the mattress and all is right with the world once more.

So this weekend we slept. We saw a movie. We took down the outdoor lights since the bushes are no longer drowning in snow. And you know I don't mean 'we', I mean hubs took down the lights because that's his department. We made a big pot of white chili. We napped on the couch. And we watched a lot of football and tried to decide which team we actually support because we feel a certain amount of loyalty to a number of teams. This is part of the baggage that comes with a lot of moves...no clear cut 'home team'. On the bright side though, having a lot of 'home teams' means there's bound to be someone we like in the Superbowl. Which we can watch live as opposed to how we saw it in England which was- we didn't. It started around midnight so yeah...never saw it. Plus football is not something the Brits get excited about. Unless of course we're talking about 'football' and then they get crazy excited. And when I say they get excited about 'football' I'm actually saying they get excited about soccer. Oh and don't ever call it that should it come up in conversation with an Englishman.

And while the weekend may sound a little bit low key aka boring it was not. We've had so much going on for the past week/month/year that this was actually nice. In the words of that ancient Greek
bloggerpoet Homer, 'There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep.'

Just make sure you're on the right side of the bed.