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.

Inquiring minds want to know

Thought I'd update you on a few things since I know you've been wondering what happened since I last posted about these topics. Because I know you have nothing better to do than wonder what is going on in my life. Well...

First, Tessa survived the solo on Saturday at Spring Sing. She did very well and is glad it's over. She had an entourage of 9 family members and friends and the grans came bearing a dozen red roses, so she was happy. We finished the night at Hideaway in Stillwater where, OMG, they were having a bad service night. Asking us to repeat our drink order 5 times to 3 different people(not kidding), bringing out a mini instead of a medium pizza, and completely forgetting one whole pizza didn't make for the best impression for those who had never been there. Usually they're way more on the ball than that. Thankfully we got out of there without any member of our party going ballistic. We were having a good time being together and the food was sort of incidental.

Hmmm, how's the world's fastest kitchen remodel going, you ask?

Next question.

OK, so it's possibly the world's slowest kitchen remodel. What can I say. Half the kitchen - the part with the appliances, is pretty much done. The other half, where the kitchen table sits, is now under major construction. Old houses are always full of surprises. This weekend we peeled back a layer of really ugly paneling to find...another layer of really ugly paneling...and under that...siding. Yep. One wall of our kitchen was at some point the outside wall of the house. Yay! At some point I thought about just painting the siding and calling it unique, but then we decided it would be weird unique, not cool unique. So here comes the sheetrock. We hope to be done by 2011.

How is the battle of the bulge going? Wow, you people ask tough questions. It's going. That's about all I'm going to say on that subject. Let's just say I haven't given up, a few battles have been won, but the war is going to be protracted and full of casualties. Baked goods beware. You are on the terrorist list and will find yourself living out your days at Gitmo.

I just thought of something. Gitmo would be a really good name for a convenience store. You know, like Shop 'n Go or Quicktrip. Their jingle could go "When times are tuff, go where you can git mo' stuff." I know. I'm a marketing genious.

Mark just got back from the grocery store, so I'm going to go unload the food and stop wasting your time.

I'm off today, working tomorrow, in case you're keeping track of me

I told you earlier in the week I'd show you my purchase from "The Rink" antique shop we visited on Valentine's Day. So here it is. Taadaah!

Yeah, I can tell you're about as impressed as Mark was. He calls them my play dishes. But the color aqua is all the rage in decorating right now, plus I have this weird appreciation of vintage melmac dishware. So I got all 16 pieces for $10. I have NO idea what I'll do with them, but I've enjoyed taking them out and petting them occasionally. They're so soft and smooth.

When my twin sister and I were in 7th grade we had this hippie teacher for one of the very rare occasions when we had a class together. His classes were sometimes a free-for-all. I remember once he did this exercise where we put our heads down on our desks and he played soft music and led us through an imaginary walk down a country road. Along the way we found something half buried in the dirt of the road. It was a cup. I can't remember now if he told us it was a cup or if he told us to imagine something found in the road. But afterwards, when we were allowed to pick our heads up, we discussed what we had "seen". He was fascinated by the fact that Shari, my twin, had pulled a dainty china cup out of the dirt, and I had pulled a melmac cup out of the imaginary dirt on the imaginary road. Shari and I then proceeded to have a short argument about how stupid it was to find a china/melmac cup in the road, depending on our perspective. It was the first time I realized she was the Mary and I was the Martha. Check out Luke 10:38-42 in scripture if that doesn't resonate.

So anyway, that's my melmac story and I'm sticking to it.

Want some links for the weekend? Does anyone ever follow these? 'Cause I wouldn't share if I didn't think they were interesting. But my interesting may not be your interesting.

If you're a fan of Jorge Garcia (Hurley) on Lost, you might enjoy his blog. No big behind-the-scenes secrets or anything. It's just an average guy's blog, who happens to be part of a mega television show.


I'm not sure if anyone still reads Time Magazine unless they're sitting in a doctor's office, but here's a link to their idea of the top 25 blogs. It wouldn't be a top whatever blog list this year without that pioneer woman from somewhere in rural Oklahoma in the scrum.

If you have an iphone, don't be like me and wait a year to download some apps. I finally got with it and downloaded a bunch the other day and I can't believe I waited this long. One I Luuhuuv is "Lose It". It's by far the easiest way I've ever found to keep track of what you eat. And I've tried many ways. I also downloaded one called "WhiteNoise" that's supposed to provide ambient sounds from the environment that help you relax or sleep. Except I can't hear the gosh darn thing. Last night I was trying it out when we went to bed, and Mark's all "turn it down!" and I'm all "it's not on yet". Couldn't hear a thing. Maybe my hearing loss is worse than I thought. I was pretty bummed falling asleep thinking about just exactly what else I can't hear.

Have a great weekend. I'm going to go finish some more projects!

No one said life was fair; aka daily whine

What does my body require in order to lose an ounce? Moderate exercise and a healthy diet? That's what the experts say, but no one told my own self. It has a plan of its own. One day of eating cookies, gain 3 pounds. (I didn't actually eat 13 cookies on Sunday. Maybe 6. And they were little). Two days of moderate exercise and healthy eating? Gain 1 pound. I guess the good news is that I gained at a slower rate. If that can be considered good news. I don't believe the so called experts when they say the pounds will magically fall off if you make small changes. I have to switch to carrot sticks and celery and water only if I want to start seeing the pounds come off.

Small changes my a...pple loving self.