Seeking Camelot: Hubby & The Kids

Sharing Some Homework...

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:25:16 GMT

Tobi is a ferocious lion,

a gerbil small.

She has a baby's bark,

and a rabbit's run,

and bat ears to fly away.

Her childish antics

are puppy's play.

by AW (my 15-year-old daughter)

Home Alone

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 18:11:05 GMT

Yesterday, I posted the story about our Wed. night dramas, and then realized that there was another blog entry just waiting to be told.

Much to my chagrin.

I've been kind of down about not really having any stories to tell lately...and then, when I do finally post one, it downs on me that there's more there.

See, Wed. night was not the first time that A has been left alone.

*sigh*

Several years ago, on a Sat. afternoon, I was getting ready to make a run to W-Mart. I had just a few things to pick up and didn't particularly want to go.

As I was gathering up my purse and keys, A came running downstairs, "Can I go, Momma? Please?"

"Of course. Get your shoes on."

So the two of us headed to the store. A LOVED to just wander around the toy section. And, for the last few months, I had let her do that by herself while I gathered what I needed. She had just turned 9 I think, and we lived in a relatively small town, so I figured she'd be ok alone in the toy section for maybe 20 mins.

As we walked into the store, A looked at me and said, "Momma, I'm going to the toys."

Distractedly...

DISTRACTEDLY...

I got a cart and mumbled, "Ok," as I headed off to get what I needed.

Later...

about TWO HOURS LATER...

AT HOME...

I realized I hadn't seen A for awhile.

I asked M and N if they knew where she was.

Nope...

Hmmm...

I checked all around the house...

and outside (even walking up and down the alley next to our house where she would routinely walk the dog).

Nothing.

By this point, I'm growing frantic...even though I was trying to stay completely calm. And, by this point, M and N are helping look for her.

As M headed outside to do his own searching, IT HIT ME!

OMG! She's at W-Mart!!!

I ran outside and told M. He headed straight to the car and took off.

Needless to say, it seemed like an eternity before they got home! M stopped and bought her ice cream on the way home and I about smothered her in a huge hug when she walked in the door!

Of course, now that she's older...she constantly brings this up!

In fact, probably the worst and most embarrassing time that she could've shared this story was in Sunday School! Oh my...

Our pastor is the high school Sunday School teacher and he was talking about how precious we are to God and he said (I'm not making this up), "God would never forget about you. Just like your mom would never forget about you and leave you at the store or anywhere else."

A immediately picked up on that and proceeded to share the story with the entire class!

Sheesh.

Pastor approached me after church, touched my arm, and said, "Do we need to do some counseling?" I just kind of looked at him like, "Huh?" And he started laughing and told me that A had shared the W-Mart story.

*sigh*

I'm never going to live this down!

Guinevere

Happy Birthday to M!

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 13:14:21 GMT

Happy Birthday to Hubby!

39 years ago, M came into the world...

and it's never been the same since.

22 years ago, M came into my life...

and 17 years ago, we married...

and my life has never been the same since.

Six years ago, his birthday got overshadowed. The kids and I were the only ones who acknowledged it on his birthday. Everyone was so preoccupied with 9-11 that his special day got overlooked.

So, since then, I've always made a point of recognizing it and making a big deal about it.

Because Wed. is church night and we won't have much time to celebrate, we took him out for dinner at La Mesa. We love La Mesa...but, after last night, I think I realized it's not the best place for us to celebrate someone's birthday. We got there too often and it just doesn't seem very special.

And M would absolutely strangle any of us if we tell them it's his birthday. He absolutely abhors the idea of the employees coming out to sing to him. And it's not just a "I'll be embarrassed" aversion, he thinks it's very rude to the other customers in the restaurant...much on the same level as a screaming baby that the parents think will shut up if they ignore it.

Know what I'm sayin'?

So, we enjoyed dinner, but also teased him some that we were going to tell them...then he would have to wear the big red sombrero while they sang some Mexican birthday song to him.

hehe

It was fun to tease, but I wouldn't really subject him to that. lol

Happy Birthday, M!

Love ya, honey bunches of oats!

Guinevere

First Day of School...For Some

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 02:59:34 GMT

A's first day of school went fabulously! She came home bubbling over with excitement! I'm sooooo glad and sooooo relieved. I was a nervous wreck different times at work today. This is a first.

A has never gone to public school or otherwise her entire life. I started homeschooling her when she was 4. She's a high school sophomore this year. It's quite a change. I hope she adapts quickly and does well.

M and I met with the school director today to go over her application (basically just a formality). He's such a nice guy! He said he noticed that she was pretty quiet. When he saw her in the hall after lunch, he asked how her day was going and he said she just nodded and smiled.

That's my girl. Shy like me.

I told him that will change once she gets used to her new environment. hehe

Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes! They're appreciated! I actually had a very good weekend once I got past the initial shock of turning 40. lol

Now, it's just a number. I'm still not sure why it was bothering me, though. When my boss and I were talking about it this morning, I told her it might be because I was looking at it as being halfway to dead. lol

I need to remember to look at it as a new season in my life. In about 3 years (potentially), M and I will have the house to ourselves. Wow! That's a novel idea! lol We've already talked about what we'll be doing to N's room. lol

Actually, A's room is bigger, so her room will remain a bedroom and N's room will become my crafting room. That way our basement can actually be a family room and office space.

I'm getting ahead of myself a bit, but it IS exciting and I thank all of you who've encouraged me and supported me through this milestone. It seems really silly now, but it's just one of those things. When you're in the thick of it, it's not a laughing matter at all.

That's it for tonight.

Go HCS Eagles!!!

Guinevere

School Surprises

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 02:40:07 GMT

We got a surprise phone call Monday night that still has me completely gobsmacked!!! (Thanks for the vocabulary lesson, Weimie! hehe)

My cell phone rang at 10:15 and I said, "Who's calling me this late?" I didn't recognize the number on the caller id, but decided to go ahead and pick up. It turned out to be a good friend of ours.

She is the Fine Arts instructor at a local private Christian school. Her husband is the Math and Computer Applications instructor and her cousin is the school director.

She told me that she had received instructions at the end of the school year this past spring to select 2 students that she believed would be an asset to the Fine Arts dept. at the school. She said she had spent a lot of time in prayer about it and had come to a decision.

She offered one of the scholarships to our daughter, A!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

N is enrolled in JROTC at one of the local high schools and has no interest in attending this particular school, so that was never even an issue.

She presented the other scholarship to my best friend's daughter. Their family is also very good friends of hers.

We are soooooo thrilled! I wanted to send the kids there last fall, but we just simply could not afford to pay the tuition on two high school kids to attend there. This scholarship covers 90% of the tuition for the year! All we have to come up with is the other 10%, plus registration and book fees.

This is truly a Godsend!

The school offers different kinds of discounts and we're going to meet with the director sometime next week to see what's available for the following two years, but this year is definitely a BLESSING!

We know several of the teachers there personally and it is such a great school! Plus, A already knows several of the kids who are enrolled in high school there. One of her best friends attends there. (Her mom called me tonight to tell me that she saved a locker next to hers for A.)

I'm completely and totally gobsmacked...in a good way!

Guinevere

Baggy Pants + Fireworks = Bad Idea

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 18:08:53 GMT

We spent last night at my parents’ house BBQing and shooting off fireworks. Early evening is the designated “bottle rocket/firecracker” period. I don’t usually enjoy this part of the evening because it’s just loud and noisy. But, for my husband and my son, this is the best. My niece has also developed a taste for danger in the form of firecrackers.

I’m not going to share with you some of the “firecracker techniques” that were discussed and demonstrated last night.

Wow. I’m glad I was in the house! (It's amazing what a sparkler can do!!!)

Anyway, this year all the firecracker-happy people decided that it was a hoot to throw the firecrackers at people. Mind you, they were mainly focusing on getting them to land at the person’s feet, or under their chair, etc. before exploding...not actually trying to get them hit the person and explode at the same time.

I don’t like that.

I complained…

and whined…

but it was all for naught.

More than once a firecracker would explode under my chair while I was distractedly talking to my mom or my sister. I would jump and scream…they would laugh.

Yeah. Nice.

Anyway, this continued to go on and on and on for a good stretch. Then they seemed to tire of it for awhile and focused on lighting bundles of bottle rockets all at once. You know, as a mom, I was being a little overly cautious about all of this, but then how do you enforce the “rules” when the dad is out there being just as obnoxious???

Well, he got his last night.

In a BIG way!

Whenever we go to any family functions like this, he wears his baggiest pair of shorts because “they’re comfortable”. Well, as he was diligently working on unwrapping some bottle rockets, N tossed a firecracker at him and it rolled up right between his feet. When it exploded, he jumped (he hadn’t even been flinching as firecrackers popped at his feet earlier in the night)! And when he turned around, he was holding his hand up as if to protect his “package” and he was laughing, although it was a rather tense laugh.

It appears that when the firecracker exploded, firecracker “shrapnel” shot up the pant leg of his shorts and “surprised” him!

lol

I thought I was going to die laughing! M’s face was red, but he was laughing just as hard as the rest of us. You can only IMAGINE the ribbing he got the rest of the night!!!

Hilarious!

Then, adding to the hilarity, M showed up later in the night with his pant legs taped shut with masking tape!!!

Guinevere

Happy Anniversary!

Fri, 25 May 2007 20:35:45 GMT

First off, we received good news last night. We may be closing on our house sooner than we expected! A loan approval letter was in our mailbox when we got home from work. And it couldn’t have been better timing because today is our anniversary!

Yahoo!

And secondly? It’s been 17 years to this day that we’ve been married!

Gadzooks!

Has it really been that long???

A few things I’ve learned about men since M and I got married…as a general rule, obviously:

1. Men don’t know what a hamper is. (So is that shirt down there to keep the floor warm?)

2. Men don’t know how to rinse out the sink after shaving. (I thought the sink got itself a fur in the middle of the night!)

3. Farting and belching are a man’s favorite passive hobbies…pun intended. (And it seems that the more smell is involved, the more they enjoy doing either.)

4. Men don’t see dirty dishes or food setting out after a meal is over. (No, I wasn’t going to go back for seconds 5 hours later.)

5. Men like fire. (Oh, that’s ok, honey, I like my steak burnt to a crisp on the outside and blood raw in the center.)

6. Men don’t know how to walk softly. (Is that an elephant upstairs, kids, or your dad???)

7. Men don’t have a gut when they walk past a mirror. (Gut? What gut?)

8. Men own the whole bed. (Sorry, but I need more than 12 inches of space on my side.)

9. Men can start a job and leave it unfinished for 7 years. (I don’t know, I kind of like the bare drywall look in the bathroom.)

10. Men can walk through mud, track it through the entire house, then seriously ask, “Hey! Who’s tracking mud everywhere?” (Look at your own feet, Sherlock! There’d be your first clue.)

But, even with all those crazy little quirks and idiosyncrasies, there are a lot of other things I’ve learned about men in the last 17 years:

1. A man will set aside what he’s doing to give you a neck rub if you complain about having a headache.

2. A man will offer to make dinner (usually BBQ) if you’re not feeling well.

3. A man will go to the store to pick up the one thing you forgot when you were just there 5 minutes ago.

4. A man will unexpectedly clean the bathroom when you’re gone for the day.

5. A man will check on you when you’re sick.

6. A man will let you pick out the new colors for the bedroom.

7. A man will get out in the rain and get soaked digging the umbrella out of the trunk just so that you don’t have to get wet getting out of the car.

8. A man will send roses, even when he doesn’t think they’re worth it, just because he thinks you’re worth it.

9. A man will wake up from a dead sleep at 3 am to catch the bat that’s flapping around over your bed. (This really happened.)

10. And most importantly, a man will love you with all his heart, mind, and soul, so take care of all of him!

So, as M and I celebrate our 17^th anniversary tonight, I’m going to be focusing on all of the wonderful things that I’ve learned since we got married! And I’m going to hold onto him for at least another 17…if not more!

Have a great Memorial Day weekend everyone!

Guinevere

Sober Thoughts

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 04:56:13 GMT

TGIF!!!

You have no idea how glad I am that it's FRIDAY!!! This week lasted a month...or at least it felt like it! lol Our office was so slow all week. In fact, today, our phones didn't ring until almost three! Weird.

Anyway, as a note to all those who commented on the Nintendo thing...N doesn't know about his cute little nickname from his great-grandpa. Grandpa passed away when N was around 4 years old. When he moves out on his own, we'll share that little morsel with him...when he can really appreciate the humor! lol (And, yes, Grandpa was a pistol! He also loved to play guitar and write gospel songs! Go figure!)

This week has been really interesting. My mind has been so preoccupied with our whole homeschooling situation...I've not been suffering from anxiety attacks like I would've been several years ago, but I've still been really stressed out.

Homeschooling is one of the issues that M and I talked about last week. I want to continue to homeschool. M wants to continue to homeschool. One of the issues we run into is that I'm becoming more and more burnt out as the school year plays out.

We talked about sending the kids to a Christian school (private) where we know several of the teachers and it's a GREAT school...but we're not made out of $$$. I would LOVE to send them there. That would be the dream solution. (I've even calculated how much I would have to earn at a second job so that we could send them there. Yikes.)

Another option is to check into Creighton Prep...we would get a decent discount there since I work at Creighton University. But, (not to knock Catholics), we're not Catholic and don't ahere to/believe in all of the same doctrine. At Creighton Prep, being a Jesuit school, some of those things play into the education they offer there...so...

Another option is public school. Advantages? Mainly with Nick...he's planning on dual enrolling next year anyway so that he can get in at least 2 years of JROTC...this way, he would already be in the school. Plus, he really likes soccer, which they offer. With Ariana, there are no clear cut advantages like that. Overall, it would just lift part of the burden off of me for the remainder of their high school education...although, a disadvantage is that they'll still need me to help them with schoolwork in the evenings...which is basically what I'm already doing now!

SIGH!

So, I battle with this. It is only for 3 more years (only 2 with Nick). What do I do?

I never imagined that making decisions like this would be so hard! I want to do what's best for the kids...whichever that might be. I don't want to do them a disservice by keeping them home if they would benefit going somewhere else to finish high school...but then I don't want them to end up hating being in a school setting.

A couple of years ago, I gave a dissertation (i.e. lecture) to the kids about their responsibilities where homeschooling was concerned, meaning they had to be responsible for working on their schoolwork while I was at work. The key being that, in the evening, we would go over everything and I would explain the next day's assignments.

During this talk, I told them that if they couldn't do that, we would have to seriously consider sending them to public school. We discussed that as an option. Neither one of them want to go to public school at all. In fact, they're both pretty vocal about how much they like being homeschooled...especially when they're talking to their friends about school.

And, you know what? I think I have answered my own question by posting this. If they want to be homeschooled and we're making the academic progress we've been making over the last 9 1/2 years...then why risk messing that up? I guess I just need to make sure that I have my quiet time with God everyday so that I can continue to have the strength and endurance that it takes to do this day in and day out.

Like I told a friend of mine the other day...at least with this, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Only 3 more years and I'm done.

I'm just soooooooooo tired.

Guinevere

M's Lucky To Be Alive!

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:43:35 GMT

I’ve been intending to write this entry for some time now and I’ve let time get away from me. Earlier in the life of my space, I posted “The Man Who is M aka Mr. G”…an interesting (mostly) list of tidbits about M.

Well, a couple of those items sparked a “Hey, I could blog that!” fire in me. So, today, since I have plenty of time, I decided I would start working on it.

Here are the two items I’m referring to:

1. His dream in high school was to be a Navy fighter pilot.

2. His dream died when he had a truck accident his jr. year of high school. (His pelvis was broken off of his spine on both sides and he’s full of screws.)

It happened on March 15, 1985. M had just passed his driver’s test the week before. Back then, you didn’t get your license immediately. They would give you a pink slip of paper saying that you were licensed to drive, then, about a week later, you would receive your laminated card license in the mail.

M’s dad let him take the truck out driving. I was working at my uncle and aunt’s restaurant (and arcade/teen hangout) that night when M came in bragging about having his dad’s truck. A couple of his buddies left with him to go joy riding.

About an hour later, we saw the ambulance and rescue units flying down main street. One of the guys said, “It’s probably M and D and C.”

He was right.

What happened was this…they took M’s dad’s truck out on one of the back gravel roads and M just opened it up. They were flying! What he didn’t take into account were two things:

Being 16, he had no driving “life experience”.
The road had just been maintained a few days before so there were piles of loose gravel along the shoulders of the road.

As they came up on some railroad tracks, they hit one of the piles of loose gravel and M slammed on the brakes. C was thrown from the passenger side door along with D.

The truck flew end over end twice.

When it landed, it was top down and the cab was completely crushed. M had been thrown partially out of the driver side window and was pinned under the truck from the waist down.

He said that the only thing he remembers from the time they hit the gravel to waking up in the hospital is opening his eyes at one point and seeing a state patrolman standing over him taking notes. The trooper asked him what his name was, but he said he doesn’t remember if he answered him or not.

By the time this happened, most of the kids from town had headed out to the wreck. (I was stuck at work.) They used the jaws of life to lift up the truck and open up the window area so that they could get M out.

He said he woke up at one point in the hospital and he heard the doctor talking to his parents in the hallway. This is what he heard:

“With the internal injuries that he’s sustained, it’s not likely that he’ll make it through the night.”

He said he used every ounce of energy, strength, and will power he could muster to stay awake all night.

(Ironically, his license came in the mail within the first couple of days after the accident.)

I’m not sure what all the injuries were that he suffered, but the most important and scary was that his pelvis had been broken off of his spine on both sides. He was transferred to another hospital for surgery. A specialist happened to be at that particular hospital while doing a presentation on a new procedure for M’s type of injury. It was very lucky that he was there. He was able to perform the surgery that he had been talking about to the doctors there.

M only spent about a month in the hospital (a much shorter stay than anyone had anticipated), but didn’t return to school until another month later. He had been outfitted with an external fixator device. What that means is this: a metal “brace” had been attached to his pelvis with screws and was holding his pelvic bones in place so that they could heal. He got a lot of grief about this piece of “machinery”. The most popular was, “Hey, M, did you notice that you’re carrying around a coat rack?” He just played it up. He would say, “Yeah, I did,” and then drape his jacket over it. lol

Of course, at this point in time, M and I weren’t dating yet. In fact, in a bizarre turn of events, one of the guys, D, who was in the wreck with M was a really good friend of mine whom I had had a crush on since jr. high! One week after the wreck, D asked me out and we went out on our first date. He had stitches across his forehead and the inside of his mouth, but I didn’t care! lol

My sister was actually the one who had a crush on M. She even went to visit him in the hospital. I didn’t go see him in the hospital, but I stopped at his parents’ house after he came home and talked to him for awhile. (His sister and I were friends.) M did manage to make it to his jr. prom that year…he didn’t get to wear a tux, but his black velour sweatsuit looked very handsome. ;o) (He had to wear pants that would stretch over the bottom part of the device.)

As a result of the accident, he can’t stand in one position for very long. His natural “strut” is even more pronounced. He doesn’t have much of a butt. Hmmm…his comeback about the butt thing is that he would rather be able to walk than have a nice tush that sits in a wheelchair. I agree.

He came out of this experience with some really nasty scars too! They’re on both sides of his pelvis, left and right, front and back…where the screws were drilled all the way through. He has fun with them, though. With our more gullible nieces and nephews, he has shown them his scars and said that he got them while fighting ninjas! And they believe him! lol After a few of those stories, he became the “cool uncle”. lol

Before the accident, M's dream was to join the Navy and go into their fighter pilot school. His injuries changed that dream forever. Just goes to show you that the stupid choices you make as a teen can and will impact the rest of your life.

But it boils down to this fact: he’s extremely lucky to be alive!

Guinevere

(*Note: We have pictures of the truck after the wreck. If I can find them, I'll post them.)

Speaking of Hotties...

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 18:48:49 GMT

I know some of you (mostly the guys) are probably getting tired of hearing, "Johnny Depp? He's so hot!" or "The new James Bond? He's so hot!" And, I also know that even my own sweet honey, M, knows that there are celeb males out there that I deem pretty highly on the hotness factor. I could list them, but I won't. ;o)

But, you want to know the honest truth? Well, we women have our own personal set of criteria that men have to meet to send the "He's HOT!" alarms ringing. And, the fact of the matter is, that most of these guys trigger that alarm on the big screen...and maybe, just maybe, that's the only place they do. Frankly, I would hazard a guess that if I met Daniel Craig on the street, he wouldn't elicit the same response as he does on the big screen. And, I hate to admit it, even Johnny Depp probably wouldn't either. <sigh>

But that's the reality of it.

Besides, that's just their outward personnas anyway. I mean, to be judged truly hot, a guy also has to have the personality and character to match, at least in my personal opinion. There are guys that I've dated vs. not dated (pre-marriage) that made me completely re-evaluate what I thought about them initially. There have been a couple that I rated high on the hotness scale on first impression, but they fell really short in the personality or character arena. Mostly because of their ego or because of some weird quirk that made me go, "Ewww." (I won't go into detail here, but I'm really not being shallow when I say that.)

If a guy has a great sense of humor, a sweet smile, and a sincere, but playful, gleam in his eye....then I'm hooked. Outward appearance might catch my attention first, but the "other stuff" is what's going to keep my attention.

M keeps my attention. And I'm done looking.

He has the wildest, quirkiest, most sarcastic, dry sense of humor of anyone I have ever known! He never ceases to amaze me with some of the crazy stuff that he comes up with. He has a very quick, sharp, and clever wit too. He is so quirky sometimes, in fact, that one of our best friends even has one of his clever witticisms set as the ring tone on his phone! (He's a nut too, though, so I really can't say how that should be interpreted...lol) He keeps me in stitches!

Everyone likes M when they first meet him. Immediately after being introduced, they'll be laughing. He's actually very shy, so his compensation for his introvertedness is to make people laugh. And they do.

M looks pretty serious most of the time...he doesn't smile alot...except when he's laughing. He furrows his brows alot...mostly when he's working on something. I told him he needs to quit doing that when he's not intently concentrating on something or he'll develop a permanent frown...like his mom. (Yikes. I'm glad she doesn't read this. lol)

M loves kids...but when they don't know him, they're intimidated by him. Even though he's really shy, he's got a very confident presence...and the whole frown thing can be a little scary to a little kid. lol Once they have his attention, though, they love him too. Most of them just think he's a big goofball. Which he is. :o)

M's eyes have always left me spellbound. (I'm an eye-person.) They are a beautiful silvery blue normally. When he's laughing and joking around, they're mostly blue. When he's intense about something...or angry...they turn to a steely gray. They're not his best feature, though. I think his best feature is actually probably his mouth...or his jawline. He has people (mostly women) tell him all the time that he looks like Michael Bolton. Well, he does and he doesn't. His mouth and his jawline (even the little cleft in the chin) look like Michael Bolton, but that's about where the similarities end. He's also been told he resembles Nick Nolte (a young Nick Nolte...M's dad actually could pass for Nick Nolte's brother...if he was strung out on drugs...it's scary!). His eyes are more like Nick Nolte's.

Since he refuses to let me post a pic, you'll have to take my word for it. lol I'm still working on that one, though. I have an awesome pic of him that perfectly sums up his sense of humor...if he would ever let me post it!

So, in all, M is the hottest guy I know...and he's all mine! :o) Recently, I found out that there are a couple of other women who find him a little bit on the "hot" side. He told me about a couple of teachers in a couple of the different schools he works in that appear to be flirting with him. He asked me what my take on the situation was. Because, he said,

"If they are flirting with me, I'm going to be a little more stand-offish so they don't think I'm flirting back. But if they aren't flirting with me, then I'll just be how I normally am with everyone."

M has the type of personality that, even though he acts the same way with everyone, male and female alike, sometimes it's interpreted, or misinterpreted, as flirting. It's just how he is.

It's fun to tease him, though, that all these women are after him because he's just so hot. That's when he tells me how lucky I am to have such a catch! lol

Yes, I am! :o)

Guinevere

She Shoots...She Scores!

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 01:26:07 GMT

My daughter, A, got me good tonight. We were playing Rummy and I brought up the fact that they only have 3 more weeks of summer vacation left. We start homeschooling on Labor Day. She was all bummed and giving me one of those "Do we have to???" looks.

I said, "I know, I know. I hated having to go back to school in the fall too."

And she says...GET THIS...

"Yeah, but it was easier for you. There wasn't as much history to learn."

OUCH! I'm not that old!

Sheesh!

Guinevere

The Man who is M aka Mr. G.

Sat, 29 Jul 2006 20:05:42 GMT

Last night, we ordered pizza in for A’s birthday dinner. (She’s been bugging us to order pizza for awhile and we just keep putting her off. lol) After we finished pizza, she opened her gifts from us and from M’s parents. (They had given us some cash to pick up a Gamecube game she wanted.) When she saw the stereo, I thought she was going to explode out of her skin!!! She was ecstatic!!! She took it upstairs and said she wanted to set it up herself, but ended up coming down to ask me to help her with the speakers. It works great and looks awesome!

I said I was going to post a “description” of M, following in the impressive style of Bill. Here it is:

M is 6’1” and 220 lbs.
He has dark blond hair and silvery blue eyes. He was a towhead as a kid/teenager and his hair just starting getting dark within the last 4 years or so…it had always been very blond before that.
He’s a hottie…he’s always been a hottie…and always will be a hottie.
He’s had at least a dozen women tell him that he looks like Michael Bolton. I’m not kidding. I think he looks more like Nick Nolte (a YOUNG Nick Nolte), but his mouth is like Michael Bolton’s.
He will never allow me to post a picture of him here.
He’s very opinionated and stubborn. If I want to change his mind, I have to do it very strategically and patiently over a long period of time.
He doesn’t like the idea of blogging at all and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to change his mind about it.
He has a great sense of humor…sometimes it’s twisted and demented, but still great!
He’s a city kid/Navy brat. He was born in Michigan and has lived in the Philippines, San Diego and Phoenix before moving to the Midwest.
He’s very strong.
His dream in high school was to be a Navy fighter pilot.
His dream died when he had a truck accident his jr. year of high school. (His pelvis was broken off of his spine on both sides and he’s full of screws.)
He still wants to earn his private pilot’s license.
Sometimes when he’s talking, his voice starts getting really loud. We’ve progressed to the point that I can quietly say, “loud” and he’ll lower the volume.
His normal walk looks like a strut and some people have thought it meant he’s arrogant…he’s actually very humble.
His heart is to mentor boys…of all ages.
He speaks his mind…everything’s black or white with no gray area. If he disagrees with you, you’ll know it.
He hates cats, loves dogs. (Of course, I always say, “Beware of men who love cats.”)
He’s a Star Wars fan. Very devoted. He owns all of the original movies and the new ones, and he also owns every Star Wars book that’s been written. He knows the SW Universe inside and out.
His favorite climate is a desert climate.
His dream vacation is a trip to Australia.
He’s dying to own another motorcycle. (He had to sell his ’88 Honda Shadow when we bought our house.)
He has a soft heart…esp. concerning anyone who needs protecting: children, elderly, and disabled people.
He quit smoking 10 years ago…and it was a miracle!!!
He’s the best husband and dad ever!

M is awesome. We have our issues and, occasionally, those issues cause problems, but we have a great relationship!

Anyway, that’s M pretty much in a nutshell…at least the basics.

Have a great weekend!

Guinevere

*note*: After finding this pic of Michael Bolton, I was like, "Oh weird. He does kind of look like him!" lol

Perils of Having a Significant Other

Fri, 07 Jul 2006 19:29:05 GMT

I rue the day I ever let M know where my blog is! lol On the way home yesterday, shortly after picking me up, he looks at me and says, “Holy buckets! Why don’t we have Tivo???” lol I wanted to slap him but I didn’t…he was driving in heavy traffic.

He made a few more sarcastic comments and finally left me alone. But not until he emphasized that I erred in my last post. The humanity!

Actually, I didn’t. I pointed out what I wrote and he told me what he thought I meant by it. He pointed out, just for the record, that his fingers were not stuck for a long period of time like what he thought I was insinuating. And, just for the record, they were only stuck for a few minutes. Max.

I told him that I didn’t think I made it sound like they were stuck from the time church started to the time it ended…heck. I’m not so dense that I wouldn’t have thought something was up a lot sooner than right after we were dismissed! lol

But, just for the sake of his reputation, I want to make it crystal clear right here and now, for the record, that his fingers were only stuck in the communion cup holders for a few minutes. <sigh>

I should’ve remind him, though, that there are a lot of other embarrassing things that I could’ve shared, but didn’t. But I think he knows that now.

Right, honey?

Guinevere

Wasn't I Supposed To Be Doing Something...?

Sun, 11 Jun 2006 03:34:59 GMT

Today did not go as I had pictured. I have tons of things I need to get done…and not a single one was finished today. Reason? Well…long story, but I’ll summarize…I know, I know, I tend to ramble, but what’re ya gonna do about it, huh? Anyway…here goes.

M and I commute to work together during the week. Period. Except in the summer. He goes to 4 day weeks, I stay on 5 day weeks, which you can see would be a problem. Well, we figured it out.

On Mondays, we both drive separate cars. When I get off work, I can run errands or do whatever for about 2 hours. Then I go to his place of work…whichever building it happens to be that day. We park the car I drive, then ride home together. The following mornings, we both ride to his work (where we left car #2 the day before) and then split ways. We keep doing this until Thurs…when I drive myself home as soon as I get off work and he drives himself home. Then I’m just on my own on Friday. Make sense? I know it sounds really confusing, but that’s how it’s going to work for us.

Well, this past week was the first week of this “arrangement”. A couple of problems, though. Car #2 needs the rear brakes replaced. M can do this kind of work himself. Problem 2…the brakes should’ve been changed a long time ago…the bolts are all rusted. He’s been spending the last 2 weeks on and off trying to get them ready to be replaced. Today, after working on the last 2 bolts that refuse to budge, he suggests we go to the city where he can get into the machine shop in one of his buildings and use the vice there. Ok. Whatever.

We drive into the city and he works and works and works and works on these stupid bolts…while I stand with my arms crossed trying to stay awake. I would’ve helped, but, honestly, what was I supposed to do? I guess, in hindsight, I should’ve done some cheers….Rah Rah Rah! He’s our man! If he can’t do it, no one can! Or brought a book. Again…whatever.

Anyway, neither one of us had had lunch and it was going on 1:00 by the time we left the building. We ended up stopping at the mall (in the same neighborhood) to see if we could find him a new pair of sneakers…yeah, we stop so we can buy shoes for the man. lol That’s a new one, huh??? We didn’t find anything…wait, I should say he didn’t find anything he liked. I found a really cool pair of Skechers that were hot…but he says, “I don’t like Skeechers.” I said, “Skechers, not Skeechers.” lol

After that, we went for a very late lunch (3:00). We decided to eat at a place that’s been on our list of “restaurants to try” for quite awhile. The disadvantage is that we have to drive all the way through the city to get there. Oh well…it’s called Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse. Yum! I had a half sandwich/cup of soup combination and M had the Chicken Marsala. He was saying, “mmmmm” through the entire meal. We also like Biaggi’s Ristorante and the atmosphere at Johnny’s is very similar.

We pretty much headed home after that….well, I guess we did stop somewhere to pick up a couple of things and then we drove through Dairy Queen for some dessert around 5:00. We got home at a decent time and just vegged.

I hate that I didn’t get anything done today, but M and I had fun just being alone and spending the day together (both kids were gone). We were both in sarcastic, joking moods, so there was a lot of laughing! Oh, the stories I could tell but won’t. lol

Have a great weekend!

Guinevere

Breaking News!

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 18:18:49 GMT

I don’t know if this is either good or bad…it might actually be both. M has been made aware of my blog. EEK! lol I wasn’t really keeping it a secret from him, I just wasn’t quite ready for him to know about it yet…although I was aware that he would have to know about it sooner or later.

What happened was this…

I usually type all of my blog entries at work…either during my lunch break or during dead spots in the day. I keep a document open in Word all the time and then just add to it as I have time. Once it’s finished, I save it…then go back over it later and edit. Sometimes I know I’m not going to be able to finish it and get it posted while I’m at work, so I email it to myself for later access at home.

Well, the entry concerning confusing husbands was one that I emailed to myself. When we got home, M told me that he needed to email something to my parents, but he wanted to go through my account so that they wouldn’t get his email address. (My mom is notorious for forwarding just about everything she gets in her inbox everyday!) He asked me to set up a new message with their address and then he would just type in what he needed later.

Dummy me. I should’ve not worried about it and left the email to myself containing this story in my inbox, but I decided I wanted to put it elsewhere. I didn’t want him to see it, so I put it in the outbox…don’t ask me why because I don’t know why. Then I left for the store.

When I got home, M asks me what the deal is with the story about “confusing my husband”. HUH? WHAT??? He said that once he hit <Send>, he expected his email to go, but it was still showing something sitting in the Outbox. So, he opened it up to see what the deal was and saw that there was an attachment. He opened the attachment.

<sigh>

Even though he found out about the blog, and even though he read the story, I was still upset mainly because he decided it was ok to “investigate” my mail. And I told him that. And asked how he would feel if I did the same to his mail. He didn’t say a whole lot at the time, but he did apologize to me about it over dinner last night.

Anyway, I told him that I would eventually have told him about my blog and given him the address, but I’m just not ready for him to read it yet. And it’s not like I have anything there that he can’t read…I’m just a little self-conscious about the possibility that he’ll think it’s silly. I guess I shouldn’t care if he does or not. I enjoy blogging and I love reading others’ comments about what I’m writing!

I did decide a little bit ago, however, that I’m going to give him the address very soon…on one condition. I think it would be hysterical if he would post a comment for each of my entries. Kind of a “husband’s eye perspective”. So many of my entries focus on funny things that he’s done or have happened to him, or me as a result of him, that I think it would be funny if he would kind of share his perspective on it. I don’t know if I can talk him into it, though. I think he might do it for awhile…but I don’t know about the long haul.

What do you think?

Guinevere

Confusing My Husband as an Art Form

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 17:02:10 GMT

I am slowly working on perfecting the understated art form of confusing my husband. I feel that the best way a wife can truly express herself is by perplexing her husband for amusement. Only then will she have truly defined who she is.

For instance:

Sometimes I like to do things just to make him wonder what’s going on. Like one time, I was in the kitchen fixing dinner and he comes in, heading towards the refrigerator. I do like a startle-jump and then stare at him. He stops, looks at me, and, without breaking eye contact, moves slowly to the refrigerator. He opens the door, gets his soda, then, after briefly looking around, says, “What?” I shift back into normal mode and say, “Oh, nothing,” and go back to fixing dinner. He left the kitchen feeling even more confused than normal. I chuckle.

You realize you have to keep these men on their toes! They need to know that you are completely capable of the unexpected! I have two perfect examples of this. For instance:

1) M and I were standing in the kitchen talking about our day while I was fixing dinner. He was leaning on the sink when I walked up to wash my hands. After I washed and dried them, I got up in his face and said, “Oh, man. You need to pluck some of that nose hair you’ve got!” He laughs and tells me to leave him alone or something along those lines. (We joke like this all the time.) Anyway, I said, “Here, let me get that for you.” I reached up like I was going to pull the nose hair out and he doesn’t do anything to protect himself, because, quite honestly, he doesn’t believe I’ll follow through. Oh, the irony! I did it. Plucked it right out. He jumped and waved his arms around. Once he calmed down, we both got to laughing so hard we were crying. To this day, he won’t let my hands near his nose. Hmmm….

AND

2) A few weeks ago, M and I went to the local discount retailer to pick up some household necessities. Every once in a while, he gets a little mischievous when we’re in public and decides that pinching my rear is humorous when other people are around who a) won’t see him do it and b) will hear me squeal. Of course, this one particular time, he didn’t realize what he was dealing with. Well, normally, I bug him to “quit it right now!” That doesn’t work. This time, however, I decided to turn the tables. When it was apparent that he wasn’t going to listen to me and stop pinching me, I simply reached back and lightly squeezed the package…not enough to hurt, but just enough to say “hello”. Sheer genius! The picture that I saw when I turned around is priceless! I wish I could’ve gotten it on video. His eyes were like saucers, his mouth was in this kind of twisted “Oh!” and his hands were in defense position. He appeared to be frozen that way. I got up nose-to-nose with him, looked him in the eyes, smiled, and said, “Are you going to quit pinching me?” He just smiled and nodded. We left the store…both of us a little wiser.

Chalk me up for one more victory, fellas!

Guinevere