28 years of wedded bliss.

I have not excuse for falling off the bloggy wagon so much here lately except that life has hit me upside the head with a two-by-four, effectively knocking any creative thought right out of the overloaded brain. Survival is the goal for each day. There has been no excessive TV watching, no leisurely thumbing through a decorating magazine, no reading of summer novels. Nope. Because none of those things would work up a sweat, forcing me to change clothes three times per day, or just let the sweat-soaked panties dry on my aching body, leaving me chilled and wishing I'd brought a change of clothes. I can handle a sweaty shirt, but it's the sopping undies that make one miserable in this 105 degree heat. And unlike when I lived in Arizona, the heat here in Oklahoma is definitely not a "dry heat".

In the midst of all this sweatiness (are you still reading, or have you moved on to a less graphic representation of life in Oklahoma in June of 2009) - so, aaaannnyway, in the midst of the sweaty moving of the aforementioned in-laws, of the sweaty house renovation, of the sweaty everything involving moving off of the couch, Mark and I celebrated our 28th anniversary. In style. In Ada.

Don't be so judgy. Ada is a lovely town. I had to work there on Saturday, which was our official anniversary. And since I work for a non-profit and we have pretty much been doing the community serving thing as a family for about twenty of those years, Mark thought nothing of coming along and spending our anniversary serving the good folks of Coalgate, just down the road, forty miles or so, from Ada.

The thing I love about hotels is that you can crank the AC up (down?) to a decadent 52 degrees and lie shivering happily under several layers of blankets without worrying about next month's electric bill. I know. That's not a very tree-hugging thing to say. I should be more concerned about the environment, global warming, blah blah blah. Don't be so judgy. Sheesh. It was 105 degrees outside where I had been working all day in the service of humanity. I can't be responsible for the state of the ozone every waking moment!

We stayed in Ada an extra 24 hours just to bask in the coolness that was the Ada Holiday Inn Express, away from the naggy to-do list that awaited us back home. After 28 years you take your celebrations wherever and whenever you can get them.

I'm back home and ready to tackle the long list of things to do to get this house on the market. Anyone want to buy a much loved and renovated cottage in Bethany? Today you can take it as-is for a steal of a price. I'll leave you the to-do list under the magnet on the fridge.

The view is spectacular up here

My baby brother turns 40 today, which makes him not so much a baby as a middle aged man.

My middle aged bother turns 40 today. Happy Birthday Stephen! (note - I was just proof reading and realized I wrote bother instead of brother. I'm gonna leave it, because really, have you ever had a baby brother?)

I was talking to my brother on the phone the other day, discussing our upcoming family trip to visit him and explore Portland and the Oregon coast. I mentioned the fact that both he and Mark are marching over the hill. Mark turns 50 in June. Mark is waaayyyy older than me!

Stephen aptly pointed out that everyone has it backwards. It's not like everything is easier and on a breezy downhill slope when you get older. I have to agree. Everything gets harder. The knees and back hurt more readily, energy is in shorter supply, even peeing is sometimes optional -or sometimes involuntary.

According to my brilliant brother (and he is brilliant -his IQ is in the stratosphere), we should consider all of life a downhill journey until we get to middle age, at which point it turns uphill. So I guess rather than all those "Over the Hill" party supplies, they should really say "Enjoy the valley. It's all uphill from here!"

So enjoy the climb little brother. Seriously - the best years are ahead of you.

Now we really need to get moving!

Sometimes life just goes along, day after day. You make plans - have a goal. But you wait, and pray, and work toward that goal, pray, then wait some more. Then suddenly, life takes a turn and things break wide open and, just like that, the desired outcome is accomplished. It's a done deal and you're sort of left staggering from the speed of the change.


Remember this post, and this and this, where I shared the desire of the in-laws to move closer to us, and for our desire and plan to share a home in order to not maintain two households or pay exorbitant assisted living apartment prices? But then the housing market went south, the economy tanked and we were left wondering if that plan was meant to be.


It all broke loose over the weekend. The house in Newton sold and the house we've had our eye on for months here in OKC will, God willing, be ours very soon. It's big enough for three generations to co-exist peacefully when the nest is temporarily filled with a returning college student. Plenty of room for the two couples to live harmoniously. The negotiating and contract writing is done and the turn around time is fast. Now we need to put our house on the market.


So this is Cari, doing a happy dance. Well, truthfully, I'm too exhausted from all the work we did on our house over the weekend to prepare it for selling. But this is Cari, doing a happy dance in her head.

Too much information

I gotta tell you, Mother's Day with grown children is a pleasure. They don't have to rely on another adult to help them pick out a gift, they can cook, they get it when their mother plasters her blog with Mother's Day reminders. I pretty much got spoiled yesterday with a home cooked meal I didn't have to make or clean up after and a nice walk in the park. After that we spent a relaxing couple of hours doing cleansing facial masks and manicures and such at Angela's house. And my son-in-law was good enough during that part of the celebration to go to his man den to play video games and take a nap and not wander around pointing out how not beautiful we were with our mud masks. I always said he was a smart young man!

And at the end of the day I got to spend a little time with my own precious mother. I still can't believe I have the good fortune of living in the same town with her, my twin sister, and my married daughter. After living for decades in far flung places, it still seems like a miracle. We used to call one another, jokingly say "want to go get a cup of coffee?", then shed a few tears knowing it wasn't possible across so many miles. Now when someone says "Want to go get a cup of coffee?" we can say, heck yes, and jump in the car and go. Miraculous.

So after all that sweetness and light, you probably don't want to hear about how cranky I am this morning. It's raining AGAIN, I'm HUNGRY because I'm on a strict food plan, and my RLS is driving me crazy. The diet is something I'm not going to talk about until I actually have some positive results to discuss, because really, who wants to hear about yet another failed attempt at losing weight. And the Restless Leg Syndrome everyone thinks means I get a few cramps in my legs, when in reality, it means violent, full leg, creepy crawly cramping that keeps me from resting comfortable in a chair, from falling asleep, and wakes me up long before the sun. And for some reason the medication I take for it has stopped working. And I'm working all day, then teaching a four-hour class at a local university tonight on about five hours of sleep. So right now I"m CRANKY. If you know me in real life, I would suggest just staying the heck away today. Might be in your best interest.

Just when you were lulled into thinking this was a sweet mommy blog, it takes a nose dive into midlife. At least I'm not having hot flashes.

Sink-o de my-oh ship-oh

Yep, the ship is sinking here on the 5th of May - Cinco de Mayo if you didn't get the corny title of this blog post - and I'm gonna need a life boat soon. I feel a little like the townsfolk must have felt when Noah built the ark and the rains came down and the floods came up. I didn't get the memo that there would be non-stop rain for 40 days and 40 nights. My brain is as soggy as my yard.

Speaking of a soggy yard, I think we should buy some goats and rent them out. Companies like Goggle pay for thousands of goats to graze their land in order to control weeds and keep grass short. It's been so long since we were able to mow, I'm thinking a goat is about the only solution.

Wow, so I just had an unpleasant experience. I was looking up things to do on Cinco de Mayo on OPUBCO's Wimgo site. It's supposed to be a centralized place to look for things happening in Oklahoma. I was fascinated by the fact that the popular sushi restaurant in Tulsa, In the Raw, is celebrating this Mexican holiday with "plenty of Mexican food, beer, margaritas and much more". Um, what happened to sushi and sake? Because last time I checked a burrito has little in common with a California roll. Oh, and to add to the odd mix, the Mid-Life Crisis Band is playing. I've heard that's a really good band, but hmm, celebrate Cinco de Mayo in a sushi restaurant listening to a band of middle aged men playing classic rock from the 70's. Apparently all you need to celebrate Cinco de Mayo is a margarita and you're good to go.

Oh, anyway, so I was on Wimgo reading about In The Raw's planned celebration, clicked innocently on the "Go to Website" button to learn more about the festivities, and ended up on a porn site. Eewww!! Pu-leese!!Wimgo people! Get your links right. What happened? Was some bored, underpaid employee surfing skanky internet sites and copied the wrong link? Whatever happened, I hope you fix it soon. Now I'm afraid to click on any link on that site. I've heard OPUBCO (parent company of The Daily Oklahoman newspaper) was having financial trouble, but quality and reliability is still important, right? Yuck. Blech. I'm going to go wash out my eyes with soap.

Happy 5th of May!