Little, Tiny Marker

I see the last day of the first month of 2010 and I haven't got a post. Let this one be a little placeholder of the month we had. It was snowy, cold and good. We are all well, praise God, and moving along fine.

Nineteen Years; One Regret [UPDATED with Photos]

It's a gorgeous autumn day in the south just like it was nineteen years ago today when I married my Officer and Gentleman in a military wedding at the Main Post Chapel at Fort Benning, Georgia. Ten fellow officers served as the Gentlemen of the Saber Arch. Our friend, George, then a first lieutenant and now a retiree, officially welcomed me to the Infantry as he ceremoniously swatted my bottom with his saber. The tradition is to say, "Welcome to the Army, Mrs. X." At that time, I outranked him and told him that I was already welcomed into the Army as my leave and earnings statements regularly proved. I also cautioned him that as a recent graduate of the U.S. Army Airborne School, I was also welcomed there as my Basic Parachutist's Badge proved. I warned him that, mess dress uniform or no, I would have no hesitation dropping him for push-ups if he violated my bridezilla edict.

He surprised me by saying, "Welcome to the Infantry, Mrs. Adams." There's a picture somewhere in the album of me laughing in surprise

and Dave smiling at me with a knowing look.

Duplicate that picture innumerable times over nineteen years. I'm often surprised and he's often smiling at my ability to be surprised.

I wouldn't change anything, really, about our married life together. There have been many challenges, some of which have been documented on this little blog, and many others that pre-dated blogging. And there are some which remain known unto us alone. Every marriage is a mystery, known only to its members.

I believe the one regret I have is in my faults--what I've done and what I've failed to do--in being more holy, more loving, and more loveable to the best man I've ever known. The only man who ever walked the earth who surpasses my man would be good St. Joseph. I have the extreme privilege of being married to a fun, funny, content & holy man who is a wonderful provider, father, beloved and friend. I was so happy on our wedding day that no tears fell from my eyes; I took it as a pre-figurement of Paradise. And every day since, I've had the privilege of living out what happily-ever-after means.

UPDATE: I dug and found the photos. My brother, a groomsman, took them back when he was a photojournalist and before he began his wedding photography work. All of them are copyright Paul F. Gero, all rights reserved.

Thanks go to Dave for scanning them. Natch.

"We are officially out of computers."

Thus spaketh my beloved husband this morning. Zeke's playing a game downstairs, Mary Jo is on the laptop computer in Zeke's room, Annie is on the laptop computer at the kitchen table, I'm on my laptop while watching my talking heads shows. Dave seeks solace in his iPhone. Thank goodness his office cast off a couple laptops our way when they switched to Apple.

Funny Sonny

Zeke: Mama, why did the chewing gum cross the road?

Me: Hmmm. I don't know. To get to the other side?

Zeke: No! Because it was stuck to a chicken!

[Whereupon he falls into a laughing puddle on the rug.]

Happy 5th Birthday, Annie & Mary Jo!

Yesterday, we celebrated a little milestone as the girls turned 5.

Here's Joey, awaiting her guests' arrival.

ADDED: Dave tells me that Zeke snapped this picture. Perhaps he's got the Uncle Paul gene?

And this is Annie with her new stuffed elephant "Gipper," a present from Uncle Chris and Grandpa. By the way, Uncle Chris is batting a thousand when it comes to gift selection.



Mary Jo looked at the two cakes and asked if Annie was having a birthday, too. After I quit laughing, I explained that, yes, Sissy is having a birthday, too.

Silly Stuff I Always Say to the Kids

"Take your shirt off, Michael Chertoff."

"Take your shorts off, Norman Schwarzkopf."

Too Big?

Dave bought a new TV today. It's ridiculously big. We get a few channels in High Definition. Oh. My. Goodness. Watching men's gymnastics on this thing is mesmerizing.

Dave called me from the store debating whether to get it or the one 5 inches smaller [diagonally]. That extra 5 inches yields an additional 25% of screen. We're both glad he went big and brought it home.

Too big? Never!

Overcoming Blechhhh

I haven't posted in a little while for no real reason except that I really didn't have much to report and I liked the graphic of the flag waving atop my blog. I almost posted something on Friday about birds. Zeke had a small injury on his middle finger and he kept trying to show me his band-aid. I had to carefully explain that his gesture was impolite. The kids know the 'we-don't-say-shut-up-in-this-family' rule [we say 'be quiet' or 'hush up'] and I made an analogy to that. We sat at the table and I went to a good first place: wikipedia, where we learned that the gesture originated in ancient Rome and the middle finger is called the digitus impudicus. The article referred to a Warner Brothers' cartoon, so we hopped onto YouTube and checked out "A Tale of Two Kitties," which is the first ever appearance of Tweetie Bird and it had two cats in the likeness of Abbott and Costello. It was made in 1942 and is chock-full of World War II references. Well, see for yourself. The 'bird' reference is at the 2:05 mark.



I got engrossed in a couple comment threads elsewhere and I realized I probably needed to go on a blog diet. When one has a challenge with overeating, there's no long-term abstinence solution; one must learn moderation. I think my blogging [or more especially, my commenting elsewhere] needed a little moderation or else I'd be overtaken with apathy or antipathy.

Dave and I had a date night on Saturday and the kids did well with a new sitter. Dave's taken to being Catholic like a duck to water. He's already a Third Degree Knight of Columbus and was just selected to serve as a member of the Parish Pastoral Council. He's been so supportive of me and all my churchy things for so many years that I am just trying to reciprocate in any way he wishes. I marvel often at the work of the Holy Spirit in my man's life. He really is a great and good man and he's destined for sainthood.

Which brings me to today and the ongoing case of the blechhs. I made a decision today to get up and walk while Dave was doing his workout at the YMCA. The whole day started earlier and went much better. We even accomplished a couple math lessons and had a really good day. There's an adage 'action cures fear' but it also helps in cases of blechhh.

And the Hits Just Keep Coming

Dave and I breathed a sigh of relief when the vomit wave didn't hit the other two kids on Wednesday. On Thursday, it hit Joey and she's past the wave and onto a BRAT diet, and Zeke's still 'in the throes' of it. It's a good rainy day to hunker down, do nothing but try to be well. It looks to be just a 24-hour stomach bug [Zeke hates that term! he thinks he has an insect in his stomach making him puke].

Sorry about all the vomit-blogging. It's all I know lately.

ADDED: Dave told me that during one of the mid-night 'events' Zeke cried out, "Daddy, I hate it when it roasts my nose!"

Polled!

I received a political polling phone call yesterday afternoon and I played along with the interview. I've lived in North Carolina for 18 years and this is the very first presidential primary that has mattered in my time here. I still have a few days to change my party affiliation to "Unaffiliated" so I can choose which party's ballot to select come May. [Read: OPERATION CHAOS].

They asked me the typical demographic questions and to the race one I answered "Unknown" and added "when you guys stop asking that question, it'll stop mattering." Now I know I sound as white as Lily Mayonnaise-McWonderbread, so she might've figured it out and just put down her supposition. But wouldn't it be neat if we taught all our family and friends to eschew answering that question? What would the pollsters do? They'd have to find another way to stuff us into their pigeon holes.

Relieved

It was a sick day for me because Annie, who slept through the night, urped once more this morning. But she was quiet most of the day and I took the opportunity [Mom and a Nanny in the house] to finish the taxes. They are done, filed and I AM EXCITED. Best yet, Annie is on the mend and has kept it all down since this morning.

Mirthful Things

~I had Zeke read a Christmas card today. It mentioned the gifts of the wise men, which he rendered gold, frankincense and mirth.

~I have noticed that no matter how I move the computers around, my cleaning lady just will not touch them. She seemingly refuses to work her magic on them. I guess she just doesn't do Windows.

~Today at work, I printed out a document. On the cover sheet, it had 'date: 3/3/2008, time: 3:33:33 PM.' [I see the number eight is just a 3 looking in the mirror. ] I thought that was a shout out from the Big Guy to me. He catches my attention in the merest ways.

~This weekend, after years of yard blah-ness, a garden was planted in our yard. It is beautiful and extremely low maintenance. The fellow we hired to do the green thumb thing took a lot of pride in his work, evidenced by the dozen or so pals of his who came to see the work. Dave and I are nearly finished with our improvements on the cozy house. Is it time to move now? I told Dave that it's the most beautiful bouquet he's ever bought me.

Six Word Memoirs

It's a meme running through blogworld: write your memoir in six words or less.

Over at Annie's, I left this punny one: Adams' Eve. Ably raised redheaded Cains.

But I have since come up with another: Daily living out 'Happily Ever After.'

And, now that I think of it, our family motto also has six words: We love and forgive each other.

It's almost a shame I don't have a shield to emblazen a family crest. I'm glad, however, that there's not a slab o' granite upon which to engrave it yet. Yet.

Possible Indication that Your Child Has Watched Too Much Bugs Bunny Lately

Morning prayer sounded like this:

...Holy Mary, mudder of Gawd, pray for us sinnahs....

What They Speak at Warner Brother's

This is what I overheard from the next room while all three kids were watching Bugs Bunny:

Yosemite Sam: Gesundheit! Rabbit.
Annie: Ga-zooond-hite!
Zeke: Annie, ya know "gesundheit" is "God bless you" in Cartoon.

Me: [Laughing outrageously] Honey, that's German.

Sith Right Down

Zeke's been enjoying a computer game, based on the Star Wars trilogies, animated with LEGO characters, all named and based on Lucas' movie characters. [He has not yet seen any of the movies.] He tells me all the skills the characters have and what their powers are. He makes light saber noises while wielding long objects. He is enraptured by it. Today, the conversation went like this:

Zeke: Mama, Darth Maul's light saber has a red light.
Me: Oh? Does the red color mean anything?
Zeke: It means he's evil.
Me: He's evil? Or is he just misunderstood?
Zeke: No, Mama. He's evil.

Personally, I'm glad his little 5 year old world is so clearly delineated.

Snow Duty

I took the easy way out yesterday and enjoyed a snow day. Dave and his partner decided not to open their office and that was what put me over the top in my decision to stay home. I wore my cozy flannels all day, baked muffins for breakfast, and dug into a big project in the basement that kept me up late.

Earlier this year, Dave and I concocted our annual "punch list" of major things we want to accomplish this year. One of the projects assigned to me was to clean out the filing cabinets. I come by this honest, being the anal retentive lawyer who is the daughter of a Depression Era packrat, but the sheer volume of paperwork that I have saved had gotten out of control. I weeded out old power and water bills, cable bills and credit card bills [back 20 years to my single days], old insurance policies, detritus from work and pay stubs from jobs that we held years ago.

I found some treasures, too, and they are now locateable in their proper spot. The essence of peace-with-clutter is that there is a place for everything and everything is in its place. Once those file drawers were closed, nothing appeared different. I now have a huge moving box full of documents to be shredded which should keep me busy 'til Easter. The weather gurus are calling for more snow tonight and so I might be able to continue making progress in the bowels of the cozy house.

Bad Weather Warning

Climate trends in recent years have given my region pretty mild winters. Many forecasters are expecting snow, sleet and freezing rain tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, they're forecasting temperatures in the mid-40s. So even though this weather pattern might be bad, it's gonna' be brief.

This afternoon on the way to work, I noticed that the highways were salted. On the way home, I heard that school is cancelled for a mountain county. I would wager that stores are running low on bread and milk. I first moved to the South 20 years ago and I prided myself on being able to drive in the snow. I think I'm pretty rusty in that department for lack of practice, but I can still marvel and mock those who freak out over a few flakes.

UPDATE: It's 37 degrees, nothing has happened, and the local schools are already cancelled for tomorrow. I had to shovel 6 or more inches and then hover near the radio [tuned to WBEV] to see whether we'd even be delayed.

UPDATE, 6 A.M. Thursday: We awake to fluffy snow on the ground and school closings.

TV and Jammies

Ah! Something to watch tonight! I'm flipping from American Idol to FoxNews [Michigan primary results] to MSNBC where I'm watching three tired democrats debate. Hillary does well in this format because it's low-key and she doesn't get screechy. I can't agree with any of their big government intervention into the minutiae of my life, but I do like the format.

[Audio input: Annie on the intercom singing Ma Ma Ma, Ma Ma Ma to the tune of "Jingle Bells." I should probably put together an MP3 of these kids while they're little and their voices are sweet. ]

Crap! The man has wrenched the remote from my hands. We're onto the Discovery channel showing how bowling balls are made.

Evening in America.

Neat and Square

Busy cleaning day 'round here. The cleaning lady worked her weekly magic, I did three loads of laundry [last load is drying right now], and a mobile car detailer came and a couple hours later left me with a new van all over, inside and out. Dave and I are anticipating new windows sometime in the next several days and he prepped one window by removing the air conditioner and giving back my view over the kitchen sink. Last detail to clean? Three little ones who might be wearing Frosties in their hair.

Later tonight, our friends are coming over for cards as the kids go to bed. We are so square.