Time wreaks havoc

I saw an old acquaintance today, and whoa! time had altered this person quite a bit. Why is is that we can see so clearly how others have changed with time, but still feel so untouched ourselves. That is until early in the morning, probably Sunday morning, when you slept in a little too long, and you see your face clearly in bright morning light without the benefit of make up. Whoa!
I don't really feel untouched. I mean my skin has creases and wrinkles, but it sure is nice to see someone that has aged worse that ourselves. Right? Up high! Don't leave me hanging now!

I remember my mom saying that I should know that a little girl lived deep within her. That time had taken some egdes off, but that deep inside she was just the same. Dreams, wishes and all.
I'm keeping that in mind as my children grow. They are still my little kids, and nothing but the packaging has changed.

Have a nice Sunday.

Kids move out = Kitchen closed!

I set myself a goal to blog often, and hope to at least put up a post every day. However, why would anyone want to hear about some of the monotony of my life. Yesterday for instance; I worked all day, went grocery shopping with the intention of getting food for the whole week, but instead ended up only buying dinner, milk and cereal. Hardly enough to last us a week is it?

Who hates the grocery store? I do! I do!
All that food just grosses me out, and makes me lose my appetite. That coupled with the pressure of having to come up with meals for en entire week, just sends me over the edge. Single people, or those with no kids, probably do not get what I am talking about. But you moms do, huh? It just sucks. Once in a while I try to be one of those supermoms with a list, coupons and new fun recipes, but after about 12 minutes in the store I am so over it. You can't please everyone all the time, and with teens you can only please one person about dinner once in a blue moon.

My husband, bless his little heart, talks of what it will be like after the kids leave home. He envisions us in the kitchen whipping up new and exciting meals together. Trying gourmet things that the kids would have just turned up their nose at. Soft music playing, me and him together flirting and sneaking a kiss while we stir, chop and sample our new creations. I have dreams of what the kitchen will be like too; clean, bare and with my dinner cereal bowl in the sink.

Isn't that the one good thing about the kids leaving the nest? Less chores overall. Less cooking, less meal complaints, less laundry, less shoes by the door to stumble over, less gym bags and backpacks, less phones ringing....................?

Less hugs, less late night talks, less laughter, less everything............

Saturday night to myself.

Really something to look forward to; 7-8 hours of silence, and time to just be. But after a few hours of this, all I can say is: Dear GOD - when are they coming home?

Zefron hair was a failure.

My son is getting a haircut today, after a long haircut sabbatical on his part, and a failed attempt to get "zefron hair." I am so excited. Unreasonably so.

When he was born, almost 15 years ago (wow), he, as far I can remember, had two eyes, and both sides of his face. About a year ago, his left eye disappeared along with that whole quarter of his face. About the same time he developed what can only be described as a permanent chink in his neck, as his head is always leaning to the left now. What is most annoying about the neck issue is that his head twitches to the left about every 30 seconds.

So imagine my excitement about the possibility of seeing the entirety of his face again. And the end of leaning head, and missing face.

I explained to him what to say to the the hairdresser,"make sure she does not go too short on top, and make sure she cuts you some texture in the top to help you spike it a little." His response was that he did not know what to say to her; how about what I just said? Instead I just took a breath, realized that as usual speaking to him in the morning makes me as irritable as he already is. No good will come of that. So I decided that since his sister was taking him, it would be her problem, and since all teen girls love power I would have her tell the hairdresser what to do. He will certainly be told a few things as well. (Teen girls are scary bossy!)She'll take charge the way only a four year older sister can.
So Good luck to her. If he hates it, I will not hear about it until later on. While he is potentially grumping up a storm about how he looks like shit, and about how he wishes he did not get it cut, and etc, etc, I will be far far away.
Doing what you ask? I will be in heaven, with a goddess rubbing away all the stress knots from my neck, shoulders and back. There are so many things I will miss about not being a part of every moment of their lives, but there are a few moments I can do without. This haircut being one of them.

Made me smile:

Not everybody is going to like you in life,

and that's okay. You know why? Because you don't like everybody either.
Hopefully as my kids go about their own lives they remember that. I hope they know that you can't be friends with everybody, and that sometimes you have got to take a stand.
Recently I had to deal with a group of people that choose to be underhanded, bigoted, hateful and spiteful. I spoke up against their actions, and made it clear that I will not be a part of such actions, nor will I condone it. My daughter was with me, backing me all the way. She knows that sometimes doing the right thing can cause a lot of upheaval, but she was willing to lose a lot, to stand up for our friends. I am so proud of her. We WILL not align ourselves with people who wish to spread false rumors that could bankrupt an innocent person, we WILL not stand with those that discriminate against others based on sexual preferences, or with those that use their faith as a sword to badger others.

I'm sending a pretty coolheaded, strong person out into this world. She will do great. Seeing her convictions and her strength over these last few months have shown me that she will kick ass wherever she goes.
So I feel better, right now, about her going forth, but I still don't want her too.

Is that progress?

I make complete strangers cry!

As the name of this post implies; I am very very bad.

After telling my bestie the story of how I made a woman, whom I had just met for the very first time, burst into tears and run from the room, my besties reaction was that it happened because that woman did not know not to ask me any emotionally sensitive questions.

Here is what happened: I was having my teeth cleaned, and the dental hygienist and I were chatting about having kids. We talked about what it was like to have kids home from college, and she stated that it was nice when they went back to school. (BTW - I kinda hope I'll feel that way when the time comes, even though it sounds horrible to say that. What - now I'm all touchy feely?) It was a nice chat, but all of a sudden she just starts whining in a slow, nasal, baby voice which was not her natural voice from a minute earlier.
She has younger kids too, and she gets lonely because she only works part time, and the kids are at school, and they don't like the bus, and her daughter sucks in sports, and the husband (#2) works all the time, and his job is stressful so he is always cranky and tired and irritable, and she has to travel all over the state for sports, and her youngest can't get ready for school by herself, and her husband just gets mad when she tries to tell him how she feels, and he should talk to her and want to be with her.... Why doesn't he? she asks. Why can't he be happy to see her? Why when she is alone all the time, with only the kids, can't he understand that she needs adult interaction with him? Why does he not find her attractive anymore? Why? Why? Why?

This all comes at me in one long monologue, while she is cleaning my teeth. She asks 7-10 rhetorical (now that I'm thinking about it) questions in the same vane before finally removing all implements from my mouth, and for some reason looks at me expectantly.

This is where I should have said; "MEN! They Suck!" But I did not say that. Instead I said;

"Well, you do come across as a bit whiny!"

Yeah, that's right, I said it.

She sucked in her breath, her face turned bright red, and she ran away.

And I had done it again.

So this makes me think that I should somehow walk around wearing some kind of a warning.Maybe something like this written on my shirt?

WARNING!

I answer questions without any thought!

People have been known to burst into tears!

Proceed with conversation, and

ask questions of my opinion,

at your own peril!

You've been warned!

I could wear a shirt with that on it, and when the situation calls for it I could just open up my coat and warn innocents of my mouth!

PS. I stand by what I said. She was a whiny, annoying woman who would make any man work late and act irritable. If she had better Besties they would have told her so a long time ago.

So THERE!

That dinner looks gross!

You know what? Maybe not cooking for these picky kids anymore will be very nice, maybe it will in fact be heaven. I made a new dinner today, it is in the oven right now, and both kids have already declared that they "don't like it."
Dreaming of days when I will cook dinner, once in a while, and no one will bitch and complain.

More later..................