Before we get into that I need to let you know that we are alive and kicking. We had a week with all the grand kids here and a week of recovery after they all went home. Jeanne and frank are here from NY for a month at their condo in Hobe Sound so I have not had much time or energy to blog. I'll try to do better and get some notes and pictures to you from our time with the grand kids.
BUT . . . today we hooked up with J &F and went to see a movie. LONE SURVIVOR is not a movie for the faint of heart. It was excellent and it was disturbing. I could have cried for the rest of the day as I left the theater. I have a new found respect for any person chooses to join our armed forces and fight for what ever our country deems important. Whether I agree or disagree with our politics we ARE at war and these young people who give up their lives are the bravest of the brave.
The movie is a true story, which makes it even more disturbing. Why do these guys choose to do this? You watch this movie, shaking your head, telling yourself they are CRAZY with a capital "C" and yet a part of you is so envious of them and wish you had the guts and stamina to do what they can do.
Being of the "Vietnam war" generation I never understood why a person would volunteer to fight. I always felt I would send my sons to Canada if there were a draft. After watching this movie I would be proud to have a child serve as these young men did. I can't help but think of all Americans serving our country in all those foreign countries and how little we think of them on a daily basis. I feel guilty for living such a perfect life with such little thought given to all those who are keeping my life so pleasant.
I'm saying a bunch of extra prayers tonight for all our military personnel.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Monday, January 13, 2014
I GUARANTEE YOU . . .
A watched pot never boils. That is one of the basic guarantees in life. But I can promise you even more. If you take that same stupid pot, fill it with water and put it on the burner the phone will ring, the door bell will buzz or you will have to pee and when you come back that damn pot will not only have boiled but totally evaporated every last drop of water and welded itself to the burner on your stove.
Call it MURPHY'S LAW, Karma or just plain dumb stupid bad luck but it IS going to happen.
The same holds true for the gas tank in the car. The day that you decide you will wait and get gas tomorrow, even though the needle is on slurp, THAT is the night you get the frantic phone call that requires you to race out to the car and drive 40 miles to pick up your kid, friend, husband who is stranded on the side of the highway locked out of their car in the pouring rain.
Doctors also have a knack for guaranteeing you have a hassle trying to get an appointment. You call their office and get the answering machine that doesn't give you a clue as to whether the doctor is in China or in one of the exam rooms. You leave a message and wait. . . 2 hours later you call back and leave a second message and wait. Three hours after that you decide you will walk out to the mail box and check to see if the mail has arrived only to hear your phone ringing. Naturally the phone is on the kitchen counter and you are at the furthest point away from that phone yet still able to hear it. You race back inside only to hear the "BEEP" that signals someone hanging up. So you immediately call the doctors office only to get that same freaking recording. By the end of the day you have a bladder infection and impacted bowels from not going to the bathroom all day for fear of the phone ringing while you are doing your business. (Thank heaven for mobile phones except that when I take them into the potty with me they usually fall into the tub or go skittering across the floor as I attempt to reach them while on the throne.)
Then there is that trip to the mail box that we took while waiting for the doctor's call. The mail ALWAYS comes at 4:00 PM except the day that you HAVE to get that bill/letter/form into the mail TODAY! You remember the piece of mail at 3:00 and race around to get it ready to go. Out to the mail box you rush just in time to see the mail man driving off into the proverbial sunset after having delivered the mail early that day.
It's like washing the car or cleaning the pool only to have a wild wind and rain storm blow through and dump all sorts of debris on the car and in the pool. Forget about cleaning the inside of the car, that will be the day husband decides to go pick up 12 bags of potting soil and mulch of which at least 3 of the bags have holes in them.
Load up the dish washer and turn it on . . . walk into the den only to find 2 dirty dishes and 5 glasses and cups that H has been hoarding. And that old cereal has been caked on that bowl for a week.
Do your big grocery shopping and I guarantee your fridge will stop working. Buy that turkey for a special dinner for the family and out of town guest and the oven will go haywire.
At the end of the day you just wonder how you could possibly have had so many things go wrong. But at least the day is over, you settle into that nice hot soothing bath and I GUARANTEE that doctor WILL finally call you back!
Call it MURPHY'S LAW, Karma or just plain dumb stupid bad luck but it IS going to happen.
The same holds true for the gas tank in the car. The day that you decide you will wait and get gas tomorrow, even though the needle is on slurp, THAT is the night you get the frantic phone call that requires you to race out to the car and drive 40 miles to pick up your kid, friend, husband who is stranded on the side of the highway locked out of their car in the pouring rain.
Doctors also have a knack for guaranteeing you have a hassle trying to get an appointment. You call their office and get the answering machine that doesn't give you a clue as to whether the doctor is in China or in one of the exam rooms. You leave a message and wait. . . 2 hours later you call back and leave a second message and wait. Three hours after that you decide you will walk out to the mail box and check to see if the mail has arrived only to hear your phone ringing. Naturally the phone is on the kitchen counter and you are at the furthest point away from that phone yet still able to hear it. You race back inside only to hear the "BEEP" that signals someone hanging up. So you immediately call the doctors office only to get that same freaking recording. By the end of the day you have a bladder infection and impacted bowels from not going to the bathroom all day for fear of the phone ringing while you are doing your business. (Thank heaven for mobile phones except that when I take them into the potty with me they usually fall into the tub or go skittering across the floor as I attempt to reach them while on the throne.)
Then there is that trip to the mail box that we took while waiting for the doctor's call. The mail ALWAYS comes at 4:00 PM except the day that you HAVE to get that bill/letter/form into the mail TODAY! You remember the piece of mail at 3:00 and race around to get it ready to go. Out to the mail box you rush just in time to see the mail man driving off into the proverbial sunset after having delivered the mail early that day.
It's like washing the car or cleaning the pool only to have a wild wind and rain storm blow through and dump all sorts of debris on the car and in the pool. Forget about cleaning the inside of the car, that will be the day husband decides to go pick up 12 bags of potting soil and mulch of which at least 3 of the bags have holes in them.
Load up the dish washer and turn it on . . . walk into the den only to find 2 dirty dishes and 5 glasses and cups that H has been hoarding. And that old cereal has been caked on that bowl for a week.
Do your big grocery shopping and I guarantee your fridge will stop working. Buy that turkey for a special dinner for the family and out of town guest and the oven will go haywire.
At the end of the day you just wonder how you could possibly have had so many things go wrong. But at least the day is over, you settle into that nice hot soothing bath and I GUARANTEE that doctor WILL finally call you back!
Friday, January 3, 2014
PLAY TIME
Never mind art therapy, music therapy, water therapy etc . . . All it takes to make me happy is 24 hours with one of the grand kids and I am good for a week or two. The happiness I get from playing with a child surpasses years of counseling and therapy of any kind. Just give me some play dough and I am good for hours of endless fun.
I talked Smith's parents into letting us bring Smith home with us yesterday for an overnight. It is the end of the 2 week Christmas vacation, Kristen had to go back to work on Thursday but also had a doctor appointment for her 24 week ultra sound of the twins. She invited Ger and I to come down to meet the babies. She didn't have to ask me twice ! Ger really wasn't excited because he always feels awkward and out of place but I talked him into coming any way. WOW ! What an experience that was. We met Kent and Smith at their house and they drove us to the doctor's office down town Ft. Lauderdale where we met Kristen. We had to wait a while but Smith was awesome waiting. When we finally got to see little Ms. Lawlor and little Mr. Lawlor it was incredible! They didn't do ultra sounds when I was pregnant so this was a first. We could actually see every part of them. Their little faces are formed and one was even sucking it's thumb!
From there Kent, grandpa, Smith and I went out to lunch and then we scooped up Smith and headed home. Yesterday was hot enough that Smith and I went swimming after a visit to the wild life refuge where we got to pet a snake AND a skunk. When it got too dark and cool to swim we went into the lanai and played play dough for 2 hours. Then it was dinner, bath and bed. We both slept GREAT !
This morning Smith slept till after 7 and was in a great mood. During the night the temperature outside had dropped into the low 60's so it was too cold play out on the lanai. (My deepest sympathy to the rest of the entire country that is buried under several feet of snow. BWHAAAAAAA! ) Smith and I played more play dough in the kitchen and then got into major construction. What do you do when it's too cold to swim or play outside and have a garage FULL of packing boxes of all sizes leftover from Christmas ???
YOU BUILD A ROCKET SHIP ! As you can see Smith is already in the command module ready for blast off. WE had such a good time building and "decorating" the rocket that before we knew it it was time for the little man to have lunch, take a nap and head home.
Grand pa says I have as much fun as the kids. I think I have MORE fun !! I bet I sleep good again tonight!
From there Kent, grandpa, Smith and I went out to lunch and then we scooped up Smith and headed home. Yesterday was hot enough that Smith and I went swimming after a visit to the wild life refuge where we got to pet a snake AND a skunk. When it got too dark and cool to swim we went into the lanai and played play dough for 2 hours. Then it was dinner, bath and bed. We both slept GREAT !
This morning Smith slept till after 7 and was in a great mood. During the night the temperature outside had dropped into the low 60's so it was too cold play out on the lanai. (My deepest sympathy to the rest of the entire country that is buried under several feet of snow. BWHAAAAAAA! ) Smith and I played more play dough in the kitchen and then got into major construction. What do you do when it's too cold to swim or play outside and have a garage FULL of packing boxes of all sizes leftover from Christmas ???
Grand pa says I have as much fun as the kids. I think I have MORE fun !! I bet I sleep good again tonight!
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
GOD'S WHINE CELLAR
Did you know God has a whine cellar?
I was talking with BFF Sharon yesterday and we were laughing our heads off at how pitiful we both are. Pitiful in the sense that we just get ourselves into such a state of stress and upset over things we can do nothing about. Namely . . . HUSBANDS. You see, I'm not alone when it comes to stressing about H. All my friends who are married have the same feelings and upsets. It's just the natural order of things. Men are from Mars, the Moon, Mercury, and especially URANUS! They are put on this Earth just to make women crazy. Which is only fitting since God made woman to drive men crazy. But for some reason men don't whine. I think the closest they come to complaining about us is to have a beer or 40 with their buddies and bemoan the fact that "The little woman" is driving them nuts. And it stops there.
Not so much with the ladies. We can take some small infraction and build it into WW III. All it may take is a look, a tone of voice or some general stupidity that just comes with being a man and we are off and running.
Sharon and I usually do not confront our husbands about what ever is driving us nuts. Instead we go to THE BIG GUY and proceed to whine. "OH GOD !" , "GOOD GOD", "GOD HELP ME!" and so on. God gets the brunt of Husbands failure to fit into the mold of "The Perfect Man." (If there really is such a thing.) Talking to H is just too difficult and unfulfilling that we don't even try any more. We would rather go straight to THE LORD and tell him all our sad stories about about "put upon" we long suffering wives are.
Well into our pity party phone call Sharon and I decided that poor God must have a WHINE CELLAR where all these calls from wives must be directed. After all, there is war, famine, genocide, children dying and people suffering all over the world. And here we show up with our pitiful complaints about these men we live with. If there is a God switch board those calls from wives must get directed right to the whine cellar where some poor long suffering soul is stashed to live out his days. A call comes in and this poor soul takes the call and has to listen over and over to some woman complaining about her husband.
So beware Husbands, if you fail to shape up it just might be you who gets the next shift in the whine cellar when you die.
I was talking with BFF Sharon yesterday and we were laughing our heads off at how pitiful we both are. Pitiful in the sense that we just get ourselves into such a state of stress and upset over things we can do nothing about. Namely . . . HUSBANDS. You see, I'm not alone when it comes to stressing about H. All my friends who are married have the same feelings and upsets. It's just the natural order of things. Men are from Mars, the Moon, Mercury, and especially URANUS! They are put on this Earth just to make women crazy. Which is only fitting since God made woman to drive men crazy. But for some reason men don't whine. I think the closest they come to complaining about us is to have a beer or 40 with their buddies and bemoan the fact that "The little woman" is driving them nuts. And it stops there.
Not so much with the ladies. We can take some small infraction and build it into WW III. All it may take is a look, a tone of voice or some general stupidity that just comes with being a man and we are off and running.
Sharon and I usually do not confront our husbands about what ever is driving us nuts. Instead we go to THE BIG GUY and proceed to whine. "OH GOD !" , "GOOD GOD", "GOD HELP ME!" and so on. God gets the brunt of Husbands failure to fit into the mold of "The Perfect Man." (If there really is such a thing.) Talking to H is just too difficult and unfulfilling that we don't even try any more. We would rather go straight to THE LORD and tell him all our sad stories about about "put upon" we long suffering wives are.
Well into our pity party phone call Sharon and I decided that poor God must have a WHINE CELLAR where all these calls from wives must be directed. After all, there is war, famine, genocide, children dying and people suffering all over the world. And here we show up with our pitiful complaints about these men we live with. If there is a God switch board those calls from wives must get directed right to the whine cellar where some poor long suffering soul is stashed to live out his days. A call comes in and this poor soul takes the call and has to listen over and over to some woman complaining about her husband.
So beware Husbands, if you fail to shape up it just might be you who gets the next shift in the whine cellar when you die.
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