It is now official. The commencement of the annual “hanging of the new calendar” is done! Down came 2009 with Max Lucado and up went 2010 with Georgia O’Keefe. I am not a technology convert, rather I love looking at the beautiful images and the possibilities of an entire month at a time on paper. I flipped through the months of the previous year to annotate birthdays and anniversaries onto the smooth, clean pages of the new calendar. I smile as I read over my chicken scratch about dinner parties, football games and LAST DAY OF SCHOOL written in red ink, all caps of course. It is hard to believe that a year has passed so fast, and here is January waiting at my door.
*disclosure: this is not me (but it could be...in a year...maybe)
So after two weeks of culinary debauchery, my jeans squealing in protest as I struggle to zip them up, I joined a gym. I know, me and twelve hundred other lard asses rushing to reclaim some body parts that won’t jiggle (and the ankles apparently don’t count) by the end of January. I also thought it would be a great idea to get the boys out of the house before they kill each other and drive me crazy, so off we went. I am under no false pretense that I am in good shape or any shape for that matter. To quote a friend, “round is a shape”. Yes Bob, round is a shape and I…am…round. *sigh*
The boys and I had dinner with my former in-laws Christmas eve night. They are always so thoughtful to invite me and I also get to see my former brother in laws and catch up on their lives. Being in their early twenties, it is always an interesting conversation. Greg is in the army and will be deployed to Afghanistan soon to continue to work on helicopters in foreign lands. It is hard to believe he is the face of who is fighting on our behalf all around the world. I still see a shadow of the baby I used to hold and it makes me sad that he will be so far away soon. I can only imagine how his mother feels.
The days were rushing, October, November, December is here!
Time for finals and parties and be of good cheer.
We packed up the Honda with suitcases, presents and boys
And headed down 95, I am sure you heard the noise.
Slower than molasses, the course through Georgia we took
Past cotton fields and giant flags and Zaxbys, oh look!
Until finally we proclaimed as the hotel came into sight,
Thank God we are done with driving for the night!
To the Y the next morning, for basketball with tots,
Continue reading about Twas the weekend before Christmas (with apologies to Clement Moore)
After our early Christmas festivities, we settled into a food coma and were strewn around comfy chairs and couches for a while watching The Santa Clause. My sister in law was pulling out every trick in the book to try and calm her boys down enough to go to sleep, to no avail. She even dragged out two sleeping bags and pillows, but only ended up falling asleep herself. Her two little ones continued their party long after she crashed. My boys were barely conscious and I gazed over at the clock expecting the time to read around midnight. It was only 7:30. I lumbered up off of the couch, collecting bags of presents and my two boys, kissed my family goodnight and headed off to the hotel.
Continue reading about Home again, home again (the final chapter)
After getting a good night’s sleep in the hotel after a hellacious drive from Atlanta, I dragged the boys out of bed and headed over to the local YMCA at 9 am to watch my 5 year old nephew’s basketball game. He did a great job of putting his arms up and posting to the right position on the court, facing the wrong way and wiggling his fingers hello towards us. It was the funniest thing to watch these little people stand absolutely still with the arms in the air, and the one kid who actually had the ball, dribble a couple of times, then walk the ball to the basket to take a 50/50 shot at actually making a basket versus hitting one of their teammates in the head.
It’s that time of year again for family road trips and holiday cheer! I packed my car up Thursday night and shot out of school Friday at 2pm, determined to beat the Atlanta traffic…in the pouring rain…on the day school got out before Christmas. I admonished my boys with the old mommy mantra about five times-Go to the bathroom! I don’t care if you don’t have to, try!! This was met with great eye rolling and sighing, but I was on a mission to get out of town, full bladders be damned! They must of seen the crazy in my eyes, because they both went. A friend grabbed me on my way out to tell me of a jack knifed tractor trailer at 285-400 and lane closings on 400 due to flooding. Sigh. Plan B was to head up to I 675 and cut over to 75 to avoid the city altogether. This entailed me pulling directions out of my ass from memory, which usually doesn’t bode well for us. After two “detours”, (in which the boys didn’t say a word, remember “crazy eyes”?) we were out of the ATL in a little over 2 hours. UGH!
I work in an elementary school, so I know what to expect. Lots of little people, germs galore and I buy my Purell by the gallon not the bottle. My first year in the schools I was sick so often, my doctor thought I had mono but I was pretty sure I had contracted Ebola. I don’t remember much of that year with the exception of the Holiday Secret Santa. I drew the name of our school’s choral director and cheerfully presented him with a bottle of mid-price chardonnay festooned with a bow. He stiffened and held it like it was a live rattlesnake, giving me a withering stare that made me think maybe he was more of a Merlot person. This was not the case. A kind co-worker gently informed me he was a Baptist deacon. A strict, Southern Baptist deacon who didn’t drink. A strict, Southern Baptist deacon that not only did not drink, but considered alcohol the “Devil’s saliva”. THAT would explain the stink eye.
I mean no disrespect when I say this. Rather, I mean it from the bottom of my heart. My friend Val has become thoroughly immersed in dog rescue through her group, Angels Among Us.** I decided to gather up my human boys and head out to one of the adoption gatherings this past weekend to bring a few blankets for the doggies and help out however we could. I made a serious speech to the boys with my best “I mean it” face that we were only going to HELP and there would be absolutely NO doggies coming home with us, so don’t even go there. I stared at them for an extra few seconds so they knew I really meant it and off we went on a very cold and misty day to the Forum in Peachtree Corners.
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