Monday Memories

One day, when I was little, my dad surprised my mom with a new car. It was an Oldsmobile station wagon and it was long and yellow and wood paneled and my mom would call her Old Bessie when she drove it. This was the car of my youth and the car in which I learned to drive. We had that car forever. It was also the car that would take us on trips across the country. The back seat would lay down and my parents had a thick foam pad that fit perfectly in the space. We would cover it with blankets which turned the back of the car into the most comfortable little bed and this is where my brother and I would travel. No seat belts and no car seats. Just freedom. It was great when we were little, but it got a little cramped as we got taller. We didn't have portable electronics back then or TVs or anything fancy like that. Instead, we took a lot of naps and we entertained ourselves with coloring books and Mad Libs and those pictures that had magnetic shavings in them and you would drag the shavings around onto the face to give the face a beard and hair and whatnot.  I am sure it had a name, but I have no idea what it was. You know, good old imaginative stuff like that. I am also sure that we whined a lot and drove my parents crazy. But aside from all of that, the one thing that I really remember about those summer trips in the station wagon is that we would inevitably leave our crayons in the side cubby holes in the hot sun where they would melt into colorful puddles of wax. Always. Without fail. Then we would have to try and clean the wax out when the trip was over, cursing ourselves the whole time for ever putting the crayons in the cubby in the first place. Ahhh, the memories. Those were the days alright. However, I will take electronics for my kids' entertainment on trips any day.

Since winter has finally hit

Today is frigid and cloudy and snowy and that got me thinking about Christmas and the fact that the weather then was the opposite of what it is now.  So with that, here are a few snapshots of our Christmas.  It was a quiet Christmas and it was also the first time that my parents have been to our house for Christmas breakfast and for the opening of the presents.

Inquiry

Do you ever find yourself driving around with your mind just wandering when all of the sudden it just hits you how incredibly blessed you are and although you don't have everything in the world that you want, you have everything that you need and the next thing you know you are totally emotional and trying not to cry your eyes out in the car as the people stopped next to you are staring in your general direction?  No?  Just me huh?  Good to know.

Monday Memories

I have been kicking this idea around for a while now and since I haven't felt much like blogging lately, I thought that I would implement the idea as a way to perhaps motivate myself a little bit.  I wanted to start doing a Monday Memories post because I have realized that my memories are dimming as I am getting older and I want to get a few of them down in writing before they are gone forever.  There will be no rhyme or reason to my memories, just whatever pops into my head.

Today It is cold and cloudy and I am thinking about my house.  I have just spent a week cleaning out my somewhat smelly basement (although it is probably only smelly to me) and getting rid of bags and bags of clothes and junk as I strive to do my part to get my house into a sellable condition.  Winter always brings back memories of this house.  Sadly they are not good ones, but luckily those bad feelings have dimmed a bit with time.  This is why I so dislike my house in the winter:

The year is 2002.  It is summer, I am deathly sick and pregnant with my sweet Woo, and Doug decides that it is time for us to buy a house.  That is fine, but I make it clear that there is no way that I am going to drive around and look at houses because I really just want to curl into a ball and die because I am so sick.  So, Doug finds this house, although I really don't care because I am sick, but I show up to sign the papers.  Next thing I know it is November, the morning sickness has subsided a little bit, but now I am having other problems with my pregnancy.  Anyway, the day to move comes, Sparky is totally sick, I am still not completely packed because Sparky has been sick for about a week, and since it is the day of the OSU vs Michigan game we are basically stuck moving ourselves because no one is available to help us move due to the game and we are in no position to pay a mover.  Admittedly this move date was poorly planned on our part, but sometimes there is nothing you can do about that.  Regardless, the move is a total nightmare.  I am not able to do a whole lot because now I am on partial bed rest, Sparky is still sick, Doug is working tons of hours at work while also traveling, my house is covered in boxes and it has a funky smell to it due to all of the animals that previously lived in the house.  It is a dark time for me that seems to last forever and many tears are shed.  Thankfully Spring eventually comes and my outlook on life improves. 

Now, here we are 9 years later and I can honestly say that I don't hate my house anymore (although I desperately want to move out of it).  But I must admit that although not nearly as strong as they once were, every winter as the days are long and dark and cold, those memories and feelings from that first winter creep up and take hold of me for a little bit.  Perhaps that is when my issues with winter began.  Who knows?  That is therapy for another day.

Next Monday:  Something much more uplifting.

A Flashback

Last night, after dinner, Doug was still at work and I wasn't feeling good so I decided to lie down on the couch while the kids cleaned up the kitchen.  Having older kids is awesome!  They do all sorts of things that I don't want to do, like clean the kitchen after dinner, and I get to be a good mom for teaching them these important life skills.  As I was lying there on the couch, flipping through the channels on the television and listening to the chaos that ensued in the kitchen, I was whisked back to my own youth and became lost in the memories of all of the times my brother and I were stuck cleaning the kitchen after dinner.  I remember how my brother would always disappear right after dinner, saying that he had to go to the bathroom.  I used to get so mad that he would just take off and leave me with all of the mess to clean up by myself, only to conveniently show up when most of the work was done.  Fortunately it didn't take me too long to learn to just wait for him to come back to the kitchen so that we could clean together, his face sagging with that look of disappointment that I didn't do the work while he was gone.  Lucky for my miss Woo, Sparky has not learned that trick yet, but what he has learned is how to throw spaghetti noodles all over the kitchen, and at his siblings, trying to see where he can get them to stick.  Listening to this mischief is what sent me into my reverie.  My brother and I were always throwing noodles around the kitchen.  On the walls, on the ceiling, on each other, wherever we could get them to stick.  Sometimes this was done while the noodles were cooking, because you know a noodle is done if it sticks to the wall.  Sometimes this was done after dinner, just because they were sticky.  Either way, it was just us goofing off and prolonging the inevitable cleaning of the kitchen, just like my kids were doing last night.  Usually that sort of chaos drives me crazy, especially when I have a headache and I'm not feeling good, but last night I didn't care.  I just sat back and enjoyed the chaos and hoped that my kids would remember these times together fondly, just like I did.

One more shared wish

I would like to run a 5K.  I have done several of these torturous races in the past (running = torture), but I have never actually run the entire distance.  I usually end up walking a good portion of the race.  I think it would be nice to actually run the entire distance.  I would say that my wish is to run a 1K race, but for some reason I haven't been able to find one of those.  Yes, I am a wimp.

Wish List - it's the new resolution

It turns out that my husband curls up and dies a little inside at the thought of setting goals or making resolutions, even if it is with me, his adorable wife.  So, I have decided to go ahead and fly solo on this one.  I have also decided to call it my "Wish List" instead of my resolutions or goals.  Here's a few:

1. Wake up at 6:00 on school days.  Not 6:30.  Not 6:20.  Not 6:05 and then telling myself that I am just going to rest for a few minutes only to find that suddenly it is 6:30 and time to start waking up the kids.  Just think of all that I could do with that 30 minutes of free time in the morning.

2.  Exercise 5 days a week.  I was really, really good about this until summer hit and since then I have been in a state of exercise rebellion.  However, I think my rebellion has come to an end and it is time to start this work-out thing back up again.

3.  Clean-up and organize the basement.  It's not a pretty sight.  I don't let anyone down there.

4.  Get my house ready to sell.  Because certainly this is the year, right?  Right?  Plus, if I already have my house ready, then it will be so much easier when the moment finally does come.  Also, wouldn't it be nice to actually enjoy the finished product for awhile before just handing it over to someone else?

5.  Sell my house.  Sounds good to me.  No idea where we will go or what we will do or how it will even happen, but a girl has to have dreams.  And in my dreams it is warm and the sun is usually shining.

That's all I am sharing for now.  I have more, but they are of a more personal nature and not something I am willing to throw out there to the world.  But I will say that I am excited for this coming year.  I think it is going to be great!