Looking Forward.......

Jackson was off doing man-cub activities w/ the Boy Scouts this weekend. I was apparently cramping his style as I sat in the suburban waiting for one of the other leaders to show. He made it a point to come back to the car and say, "um...mom...you don't have to wait, ya know. You can go."
Yeah, yeah...well until you can start to fork over your OWN $$$ for these activities,and remember to use deoderant w/out being told, I'll just sit right here and wait until the guy *I* know gets here, kay? (ahhh...they're great aren't they?) I know he is having a blast and I can hardly wait to pick him up tomorrow after church and drag his sleepy, grumpy, hungry carcass home. :-)

I cleaned.

No, I mean it. I.....Melissa.....actually cleaned the house today. It took me forever to get motivated. I would start and then- oooooo....looooook....prettyyyyyy..........
It was stop and go at first, but then Austin and Savannah left to see Sherlock Holmes, so I put on some music and got down to business. The house looks great. And it feels good. But.....I don't want to do it again right away.

I have an exciting week coming up. (Of course the UPS truck coming up the driveway just about makes me wet my pants, so lets keep some perspective here.) Tuesday is "Hair Day". That one GLORIOUS day each month when I go to the salon and my hair looks great and all is right with the world. (Did I mention that my salon is like, less than a MILE from the JCrew Outlet Center??) And then, on FRIDAY it's GIRLS NIGHT!!! YEsssssssssss!!! 2 times a year this wonderful evening of abandonment arrives, and this Friday is. it!! But more on that later this week. It is too too exciting to be glossed over lightly.

Also, I am busy making plans for Savannah's birthday in a few weeks. Her 16th Birthday! Can you believe it? My one and only daughter is about to turn 16! Hmm... I'm not gonna think about it just yet. We'll pretend she.. is... turning...........9. Yes. 9 is good. I'll think about 16 a little later.

Tomorrow is church and yoga. Both of which I love and need dearly!

Cheers!
Melissa

weird weekend

Some weird stuff happened this weekend. First of all it is still bitter cold. The temp will be 11 tonight. 11!! Heat pumps don't do well with ELEVEN! So I pulled out the kerosene heater that I bought last year and have been running it in the basement. It seems to make enough difference to keep the heat pump from staying on all the time.

Being so cold, there isn't a whole lot to do around here right now. SO against my better judgement, I took the crew to see Avatar. My honest opinion is that people are only telling other people to go and see this movie because they are so embarassed by the abount of hard green that they forked over for the 3-D ticket, that they feel compelled to talk someone else into doing the same.

Of course, I am no great lover of science fiction.

Ask my sister, whose goal in life from the age of...oh....say...6, was to subject me to every manner of science fiction that was to be had on the tube. From He-Man, to The Incredible Hulk, to hours upon hours of Star Trek. And to be truthful that's what watching this movie felt like, to me. Like being a kid and being forced to watch a world of freaks that I could not believe in nor understand. But looking at my previous comments, maybe I'm not the best judge. So if you think you'd dig seeing Sigourney Weaver as some sort of blue, cat-eyed, lizard-monkey, then you're in luck! This is the movie for you, my friends! But just LOOK at that picture! And when it smiles a happy smile??!! Nightmares for a week.

But I'm pretty sure Thom will like it.

In other weirdness....I was at yoga today, and there was this older guy..(how many times does a story start out like this?)...anyway, he was older, but his body was somewhat youthful. It looked odd. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. What was odd...out of place....and then...right in the middle of triangle pose, I realized what it was. Immediately I could hear Race's voice in my head as I had heard it once before exclaim, "That dude has no package". That's right. "No package". Of course I am not the sort to laugh at this sort of thing, normally. Being someone who prides herself on adhering to strict decorum. But it just kept playing in my head over and over, Race in a totally serious tone saying, "That dude has no package". I found it hard to concentrate after that. Mindboggling. It was weird.

It was cold this morning for church, and I have been wearing my Sundance boots TO DEATH, so today I tried something different. I wore my black ankle boots with skinny jeans and then put med. weight, black leg warmers on top. It looked awesome! They actually looked like scrunch boots. So,- weird, but in a good way!

Also this weekend I ate a sardine and liked it.

The lights all went out in the gym downstairs and won't come back on.

And I did hand stands several times each day.

All weird. All this weekend.

Cheers!

Melissa

A girl in Man clothes.......

I am still trying to find my legs, here. Race is gone. It all happened so fast. My mind is still just swimming trying to grasp some sort of normalcy(that's a word, right?), some sense of routine, and perhaps.....just perhaps...a GOAL or two. But right now it's just a bunch of mixed up ideas floating around in my head.
The weather here has not gotten above 29 in days and the nights are in the teens, so that brings it's own challenges and worries when one lives out in the country.
Each morning, I have to bundle up, and head out across the yard, to dump out random, solid blocks of ice from the animals' water containers, and refill them. This is very unenviable work anyway, but it proves to be humiliating when I glimpse myself in the mirror upon returning BACK into the house. I am dressed like a butch lesbian. Baggy Army sweats, rubber knee boots, huge down parka....Oh Make it stop. If I hope to actually succeed in my dream to be able to raise my own food while simutaneously keeping an eye toward the world of fashion...........I'm going to have to do better than this. But it's Coooooold, man. Which begs the question, "Are women of the, ahem, manly-persuasion, warmer than the rest of us?" You gotta admit, it's something to think about.
And of course, I am eyeballing warily all of our major appliances, the car and of course the motherload electrical power, to see which one of them will break down. It's like clockwork: 1. husband leaves...2.One of life's major modern conveniences tries to give up the ghost. (Personally I hope it's the stove or the fridge)
I'll get it all figured out before too long. But for now I'm going to go and lay out some warm, non-lesbian-looking apparel for in the morning.

Cheers!
Melissa

The Warrior Song

2010

It seems that 2009 was the year of the non-blog. Perhaps it was the year of Facebook. SO bear with me as I learn how to write again. My sentences will seem short and choppy and facebook-ish at first, I'm sure. But I'll find my groove. And I'll have lot's to say, of course.

Our family has a lot going on right now, with many different irons in the fire that all need tending. We're good though. And we're thankful. We have a lot to be thankful for. It's just that my head is swimming with responsibilities right now and it is difficult to write anything that even remotely resembles something that another human being would care to read!

But I am determined to get back to my blog! I truly miss it.

So today, we made the traditional southern "good luck" meal to bring in the new year: hoppin john, collard greens and cornbread. IT.WAS.GOOD. I am sure that we will all be rich and healthy in 2010, because of it. I'm sure of it. Don't mess with tradition, man.
We watched Bowl games on TV(till my eyes bled), we played video games, we cooked and we ate. We didn't leave the house even once today, and that was great!

This week coming up is gonna be a tough one. We know what we have to do, though. And we're ready. Bring it 2010.

Cheers!
Melissa