Today is the day that we have been waiting for, in just a few hours my sister-in-law will be here. After all the running around, all the errands, all the cleaning, and all the anticipation, I am a little pooped. Nothing a coffee can't help though.
So as soon as I finish here, I am going to run to vacuum the car at the car wash, and get a few flowers to spruce up the place. Then time for the trek to the airport. I love the airport, it is the only place I know where everyone is hurrying to sit down for at least an hour. Plus, if you are delayed, it is like a place without time in someways, because you are forced to sit and, gasp, wait. How great is that? You must stop what you are doing, and if you are actually flying, you are paying for that! :)
The reason that Barbie popped into my head is that my daughters placed their flowers in her room. These are their new special flowers from my cousin's baby shower last Sunday. The arrangement is a bright pink Barbie coloured vase with Barbie colored gerbera daisies. So to follow, here is a great, happy song to help you get your Barbie groove on:
Our house is all abuzz because tomorrow my husband's sister and our kids' dear Tante (Aunt) is flying over the pond to visit us. We have been excited to see her since we left her at the Koeln (Cologne) train station back in December. We knew that we were going to be together again in a few short months. It was a sad goodbye, but not devastating...plus the kids all got marshmallow pigs after we said goodbye which sweetened the blow.
For the past weeks, as part of this happiness project, we have been busy cleaning, pitching items, and donating everything that is salvageable. Today, my mother and I kicked this into a new high when we purged a lot of things from the basement monster. We recycled what we could, we donated what we could, and we threw everything else away. My husband actually asked me where our basement was. I took this as a huge compliment.
I also found out something exciting: My son loves, loves, loves, loves to do the laundry. I think we have found a new way to get our 14+ loads done each week! I keep wondering at which pace our washer will wear out (we air dry a lot of things, so that is not as many loads) since the national average is 6-8 loads per family. So far, knock on wood, our machines are holding up nicely and are spinning as we speak.
Tonight, the entire family rearranged the playroom into the adult oasis pictured above. I hope my sister-in-law appreciates that it was weeks of toy removal and repurposing that allowed for this glorious event to happen. With three kids we had so many toys in that small space that you could not even walk in there. The only surface that was clear for months was the treadmill.
This project prompted me to start the deep clean. It is theraputic and is making life so much easier. The best thing is that my son has been so calm for the past two weeks. He is a joy to be around and is truly shining as the star he is. So break out your dust cloths and trash bags...and get some happiness!
This Elton John song is my all time favorite travel song. Safe travels to all traveling today and tomorrow.
Today Fishy joined the big blue sky of fishes. Fishy died of injuries sustained while in the garbage disposal. I did not tell the children before school because I was afraid to ruin their entire day. Instead, I waited until homework was completed and then told Caroline that her beloved Fishy had gone back home to God.
As you can imagine Caroline is very upset. We had a very solemn and emotional graveside burial and then the children decided to build a Fishetary.
The only bright side of the day today was when I bought this little guy for my hubby. Garden gnomes drive him insane and I think that I am pretty funny.
Here is one of our favorite songs to help improve the mood.
Last night was an emotional night for our kids. Their beloved Fishy accidentally fell into the garbage disposal as my husband was changing its water. He felt bad for the fish's dirty water and wanted the fish to have some nice clean water in which to swim. His first reaction was that the fish had gone for a swim into the sewer system.
For almost a year now, we have been changing the water in the sink on the same side as the garbage disposal. Until last night there was never any inadvertent journeys down the drain. My husband was upset. I think not so much that he had done this, but because Caroline took it so hard. She won him last year at a school sponsored Bingo game. We never even realized that she was so attached to it.
As everyone was panicking, I realized that the Fishy could still be in the garbage disposal since that was the side of the water changing. Some how, I unwrapped myself from a hysterical Caroline and a panicked Gregory and fetched a light to shine down the disposal. There at the bottom was Fishy! I was worried about putting our hands down the thing for fear if it came on, so Benedikt fished Fishy out using two spoons.
To our amazement, Fishy was alive. Breathing. Scales missing, but breathing. In shock on its side, but breathing.
Last night, Caroline wrote this note to Fishy:
It was a sweet sentiment from a sweet girl for her beloved pet fish. This card is a keeper, though for now it is next to Fishy's bowl helping the convalescing fish on its way.
Last night and today's lesson have truly been to savor the moments of childhood innocence and wonder. Believe in miracles. Not count on things being gone if there is even a millimeter's possibility of a positive outcome. And to always change the fish over a sieve!
Here's a little Robbie Williams that fits the theme:
Isn't it amazing what a difference a day can make to an attitude. Today, along with a sunshine day, the dawn brought with it a new attitude for me. Gone were the feelings of a despondent 15 year old, that the night had left me with. Instead, in its place was a feeling of hope and a bit of anxiousness when it was realized that both girls had outgrown their Spring cardigans and we had a baby shower in less than one hour!
Like this blooming flower above, my attitude was blossoming and proved to make way for a rather enjoyable day. Funny how that happens. It is much better to start the day in a positive manner, it just seems to continue the whole day through. We had a fabulous time feting my cousin and her soon to be daughter. Then we enjoyed the movie "Hop" immensely. It is really such a great movie and one I highly recommend!
After the shower and the movie, I was totally energized to tackle the trash on our front lawn. I really don't understand it. What possesses people to throw their trash out of their moving cars? We recovered a whole trash bag of other peoples disgusting trash from the lawn. Thankfully, we all wore gloves. It is a chore I hate to do, but one that we have to do because we end up looking like the slobs! So bye-bye winter's worth of trash. Hello, Spring!
Today was about renewal. And really isn't that what this project is all about? Me thinks this whole project has been one big winner and that it is not really a project that will stop at day 40. So buckle up and enjoy the next seven days because I have a few tricks up the proverbial sleeves.
Here's a great look behind the scenes of the remake of "I Want Candy." Enjoy!
Today I feel like a party pooper. My mouth wrinkles are decidedly down and not even the thought of watching my favorite show tonight is making me feel any better. I want to be alone and I want to be out and about. I want to scream in aggravation, and I want to want to run through fields. Yet, grouchy Greta is all that seems to be around me today. I know what is wrong, but I don't want to admit it outloud.
See it all started about 23ish years ago. I was sick with a fever and I was in a fight with a friend. I was being dumped from the group for not being cool enough and I was spitting mad, and also, did I mention I had a very high fever? I was delirious. I wrote a quite flowery letter comparing said friend and the new friend that I was dumped for to Don Quijote and Sancho Panza. Now it was stupid and ridiculous for me to 1. leave a note for my friend, 2. to compare her and this girl to Don Quijote and Sancho Panza, and 3. sealing doom on my high school years. I didn't want to be Baby in the corner (yes, that was a Dirty Dancing nod), and I knew that I would never be the cool one. I just wanted to exist and get the hell out of high school.
See I was not the type that wanted to be a cheerleader (no offense), or be Ms. Popular, my goal was to simply to survive my adolescent hell and get into university as quickly as I possibly could. However, all of that was derailed in a few moments of febrile idiocy that allowed me to "break" up my friendship of many years with a girl that I had been very close to. It was a hellish time and after a week of blackouts caused by fevers and being really sick, I returned to school forgetting that on the last day in school - and coincidentally, the day the fevers started and the day I wrote the stupid letter - I had written a really terrible letter. However, more than half the class was a mean as fire to me for months after I returned. If it wasn't for the girls on the softball team, I would have left the school. They convinced me that I should stick it out. Funny to think it was all caused by a letter. But one that forever forged a rift between my former good friend and I. And a letter that sealed my fate as having the worst sophomore year in high school history.
Now, why in the world would I be thinking about this now? And why would that one episode be coloring my day today all these years later? Fast forward through the rest of high school. Even though the incident was eventually brushed under the rug, it forever scarred me. I don't think any one involved remembers probably, but the girl I compared to Don Quijote, as leading the girls around and deciding who would do what, was loved by most of the class and she hated me. She tormented me the rest of the second year of secondary schooling and then was just plain snide and rude the rest of our time together. Small girls' schools with 42 classmates leave little room to hide. So, when I think of horrible days in high school her face pops up in my head and still brings a gasp to my throat - I have forgiven, but I am having a hard time with the forgetting piece. It is probably the one silly piece of baggage that I really bring with me from that time. But really, at 15 who doesn't want to just belong? Who wants to be the outcast? Who wants to feel like crap because of a stupid note written in a fit of stupidity? No one, that is who.
Tonight, there is a gathering of all the girls called together by my former tormenter. The invites were sent via Facebook weeks ago and though I received one, via someone else, I decided to politely decline. But now that we are one hour away from the event, I kind of am regretting it and kind of want to go to see everyone, not Ms. 'Tude, but the rest of our class. I just can't get myself to go out that door. So, instead, I am sitting here drinking a rather nice India Pale Ale from the Cisco Brewery in Nantucket and thinking...a terrible thing.
So, even though I am not there, here is my fav tune from that angst ridden times. Simple Minds. Simply divine.
This photo has been used before in this blog, but it was just so fitting for the subject, that I could not resist using it again. So, please forgive me using it twice during this project.
Today was a crazy day that started out with me forgetting my trusty sidekick: my cell phone. A day without this apparatus sent shivers down my spine. A friend laughed at me and told me, "Time to go old school." See, I was trying to ditch a very much needed dance class to go home to get the darn thing. I was rationalizing that my kids could be sick and then I would not know it. Very sound reasoning I thought. Thankfully I listened to Paula and a bit of Zen returned to my life.
Today, was more than retro day, it was a milestone for me! For the first time since 1996 I was phoneless in the US. I have been overseas for extended periods of time since then cell-less, but this was here in the good ole US! The day was rather relaxing despite all of the errands I had to run. I was also watchless - my watch right now is my cell phone. It was cathartic to not be tied to a phone. I was unreachable and for the six hours I was off-line and off-phone it was great! I highly recommend going old school for a day. :)
After all my errands and two school pick ups, my twins had an ice cream party with their Daisy Girl Scout troop with their father. It was Me and My Guy day. My son was devastated that he could not be their guy, so I took him to a local ice cream place called Jay Gee's. I have never been there and was pleasantly surprised to find very fun flavors.
I am not a big ice cream fan, so exotic flavors are what entice me to try the cold stuff. I am a big fan of red bean ice cream, sweet corn ice cream, rock melon ice cream. So today I had to try Guinness! Beer and ice cream. A great concept, but I am still not convinced that it is the best combination. I followed that taste up with something called Easter Basket. Now this was up my alley. Pink ice cream with Cadbury eggs, Peeps (marshmallow bunnies coated in sugar) and miniature marshmallows. I have to say, it brought me to my childhood happy place.
So, my wish for you is to find a crazy ice cream flavor and see if it helps you to get to the happy place. Here is a great song by Rascal Flatts to help!
