Tuesday, October 30, 2012

A Sound in the Night

Grey and Neve have their own little beds in our room.

We started this when they were babies and we know it's time to move them to the guest room and we will.  Eventually.

On Friday nights after Popop helps Grey and Neve brush their teeth we watch a movie.  

 This week I called down and said hey, do you want to watch Megamind?  Grey said no, I don't like Megamind.  Neve said Yes!! I love Megamind! I want to watch Megamind! I miss Megamind!  Let's watch it right now!!!  So, we watched Megamind.

Grey had had a sinus infection all week and still had a cough.  After the movie we got him comfortable, then we all went to sleep.  We woke up a couple of times when he was coughing, but he settled down quickly.

Then, about 3:45am we heard this weird sound.  A kind of quiff quiff sound.  Like someone couldn't breathe.  Like GREY couldn't breathe.  We broth jumped up and frantically turned on our lights, convinced that Grey was desperately trying to breathe, trying to remember how to do a tracheotomy with an ink pen....

And Grey was sleeping peacefully.

And Paulie the cat was hacking up a hairball.

Paulie was quickly thrown out of our room, Larry and I managed to restart our hearts, and we slept peacefully the rest of the night.

Whew....

We HATE it when they are sick!!!

Paulie feels that he is the real victim in all this....



Friday, October 19, 2012

It's the Little Things


So, what do you think??


The Major

The Captain



HMMMM...Maybe it's the tie.....

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Ruminations on a Slowly Filling Toilet Tank

Larry and I have been spoiled.  And we will be the first to admit it.

From 1983 through 2003, except for a 6 month lease in Oklahoma and a 3 month lease in Louisiana, we lived exclusively in military quarters.

And we loved it.

We loved the security of living on post.

We loved the convenience of living on post.

We loved not paying utility bills while living on post.

But, mostly,

We loved the housing engineers.

What?  You threw a spoon in the sink from across the room and it bounced up and hit the window - shattering it in the process?  And it is in the winter?  

The housing engineers came right on over.

Oh -  your pipes burst in the ceiling of your front hall two days before you are giving the Welcome Coffee for the new Battalion Commander's wife?

When the housing engineers left the fresh paint gleamed as your guests arrived.

And the sewer backed up on the day that you were having company over and were planning on serving the handmade tortellini you slaved over and made without a pasta roller?

After the housing engineers left, everything was sweet smelling and dinner was amazing!

About the only time the housing engineers WERE NOT helpful was the day at FT Polk, LA that the black widow spider who lived near my front door light decided to have babies.  As I watched all those spiders stream down my outside wall, I was screaming on the phone for them to DO SOMETHING!!!  Thank goodness my neighbor was home for lunch, heard me screaming and ran over with a can of superduper spider killer spray.

So what does this have to do with the toilet tank oh so slowly filling at 1:30 am?

The thing that has always petrified me about home ownership is what to do when something breaks down.

I am not talking about the 'fridge or the stove or the dishwasher.  We've already replaced them.  And the hot water heater - I can deal with that.

But plumbing.  That costs LOTS.

And our house is eleven years old.  Things are starting to wear out.

So tonight, when I woke up from a restless dream and went in to use the bathroom, flushed, remembered (guiltily) that I had forgotten to brush my teeth, brushed them, took my hair out of braids,(having a hot flash at bedtime sucks) put some stuff on my hair guaranteed to make it absolutely beautiful and gorgeous by morning, and finally got back to bed, I realized - the toilet is still running!  I stayed still for a couple of minutes hoping that it would quit or that Larry would get up to take care of it.  When neither happened, I got back up, took the lid off the tank, wondered how the hell can they get away with calling it a ballcock, and tried to figure out why it wasn't filling.  After staring at it blankly for several seconds, I pushed the flapper thingy down and voila!  The tank filled!!!

Then I realized that I had to go to the bathroom again.

And sadly realized that we can never call the housing engineers again.

Good-bye, Fair Knights - we loved you so....


Sunday, October 14, 2012

Putting Away the Linens

I am upstairs, hunkered down in front of the new dresser that we bought at the "as-is" section at IKEA separating my linens.  It is a huge dresser and I just realized that it is not big enough.  I am still sore and my hands evidently have tendinitis from my lovely iron tablecloths and use as much spray starch as you can marathon before the wedding, so I am getting a little frustrated.

Why do I have all this stuff?

It was fairly well contained until a couple of months ago when we moved a china closet downstairs.  Then we gave a friend a buffet and two recliners that were also up in the "guestroom".
The china closet held most of the tablecloths, a bunch of the napkins and all of the lace thing-ys.
The buffet held a bunch more tablecloths and some runners and some doilies. 
And the recliners held a bunch of extra blankets.

So everything ended up on the single bed and in a bunch of tubs.  We also deposited a lot of stuff that we didn't have room for downstairs.

THEN, I went upstairs the day before Audrey left for Leia's wedding and tore things up looking for runners and doilies and interesting lacy things.  (I'd known that I needed these things for a couple of months - procrastination is a sin that I am working on, thank you very much!)  Audrey quickly washed them and ironed them and took them to PA.

AND THEN a couple of weeks later, Mary and I took our lives in our own hands and went looking for more doilies and runners and interesting lacy things.  And tablecloths for the wedding and tablecloths for the rehearsal dinner.

We escaped with our lives, but we left even more devastation behind us.

So now I am trying to tame the mess and get everything back to order and I am for the first time seriously doubting my abilities.

I doesn't help that it hurts every time I bend over or pick anything up.

So back to the question - Why do I have all this stuff??

I bought them because I love vintage textiles, and back before our lives were so busy and chaotic, I enjoyed tending to them and looking at the colors and admiring the techniques used in making and decorating them.  And they are so soft.  And I can just imagine people using them way back when.  And because i went a little batty a couple of years ago on EBAY and bought a few (?) box lots to get a couple of particular pieces and now i am kind of overloaded.

I guess what I need to remember while I am sorting thru all the baskets and tubs and piles is that these pieces of fluff and fabric make my home a little prettier.

And make dinner a little nicer.

And make bridal showers a little more elegant.

And make rehearsal dinners a little friendlier.

And made Leia's wedding reception a little sweeter.

And helped to make Mary and Lance's wedding a little more beautiful.


Leia's tables before they put on the tablecloths




Mary's tables just before we finished decorating them

And if you all ever need to borrow any linens to make your life somehow better, please don't hesitate to call.  I'll probably GIVE them to you!!

I'll close with something that my friend Sues' daughter-in-law Mandy said as we were spreading out my tablecloths for Chris and Stephanies' rehearsal dinner.

(As close as my menopause addled brain can remember it, that is.)

Mandy said - "These are so beautiful!!  I always thought that if you had nice linens, it was a sign that you were grown-up."

Hmmn...I guess I am!!

(I sure hope that I remembered to send her some linens!)

Ok, enough procastinating.  I am going to find a pain pill and FINISH that room.

If i don't make it, at least it will be a soft landing!!

Friday, October 12, 2012

The Hardest Thing for a Dad to Do

While we were watching Shayne marrying Jessica, I was preparing to dab my eyes with my hankie.  Suddenly said hankie was yanked out of my hands and used by Larry to wipe HIS eyes.

I knew we were going to have problems.

While we were watching joshua marry Colletta, Larry stood up with Josh and the groomsmen and blamed the blazing sun for his watery eyes.

I knew we were really going to have problems.

So when we got all ready for Mary's wedding, I wasn't surprised when Larry was worried about making it down the aisle.

Afterwards, I was pulled aside by not less than 3 guys who said "What was Larry so mad about as he was going down the aisle?  He was just scrowling!"

That isn't a scrowl, ladies and gentlemen.


Oh no. 

He wasn't scrowling.

Larry was trying not to weep outloud.

I KNEW we were going to have problems.



I am SO glad that I wasn't the one handing our baby girl over.


I think that when it comes to Audrey's wedding, we may have to rent her some stand-in parents.

Because Larry and I will be the ones in the corner, weeping.

Yep.

I knew we were going to have problems.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Mary's Wedding - Dancing


Mary and Lance had a great DJ at their wedding.  His name is Ryan and he's a good friend of Lance's.

Mary asked us what songs we wanted and added ones that she and Lance loved.

I really enjoyed (as did the crowd) "Take on Me" By Ah-ha.

Shayne, Josh, Audrey Katie Dobbins and Jake Feldmann 
Larry, Audrey and Cindy 

A particularly rousing part of the song

Joshua looking very dapper!!

And "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" by WHAM.

Scotty, Shayne and Josh rocking out to WHAM

Neve getting some wardrobe assistance from Rachel

And a request by Grey and Neve - "You Should Be Dancing" by the BeeGees


Neve was quite the dancer.

Rachel, Neve, Shayne and Stephanie Feldmann
 Neve enjoyed dancing with her cousin Rachel and "Medium" Shayne Feldmann.  It was such a blast to be on the dance floor with my friend Sue and Spence and our adult kids and their children!!!  OK, Sue and Spence and my brother Bo and his wife Sarah were only on the dance floor during the 'who was married the longest?'  dance.


Sorry about the dark shots!  New camera!

Upside down Grey

Grey decided to sit out the dance and have his picture taken upside down.


My personal favorite song was "Time After Time" by Rod Stewart.  

Ryan, as a matter of fact, played it twice.  

And as a matter of fact, Larry and I danced to it twice!

The words are so romantic.  So sweet.

 As a matter of fact, I am going to share a few of them with you...

Time after time
I tell myself that I'm
So lucky to be loving you.
Lucky to be
the one you run to see 
in the evening
when the day is thru.
I only know what I know
the passing years will show
you've kept my love so young
so new
And time after time
You'll hear me say that I'm
So lucky to be loving you.

Here is the link to the song....


You should click on the link and watch the video now.  Right now!  Really, you should!  I would hang around and make sure that everyone plays this, but I need to close and find the remote and change the channel.  So I am leaving this up to you.

Come on, listen to it already!!

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Mary's Wedding - One of the Sweetest Things

Who would've thought??

Yep, one of the sweetest things about Mary and Lance's wedding was duct tape.  

White duct tape to be exact.

Lance's dad, Larry H., decided that since it was a wedding, we needed white duct tape.

This is from a very practical father of a son.

Awwww....


Larry, Brenda, Bonita and Lance Hartbarger
More stories of sweetness to follow!!!

Friday, October 5, 2012

Conversations with the Grandkids

Neve was the backseat observer of life today.

On her grandma JuJu's birthday:

Neve: Today is my grandma JuJu's birthday!
Me: Oh my goodness!
Neve: No, MY grandma!

On Fine Art:

Me: (to Larry) So it wasn't a Mucha, it was a Klimt.  I took a shot.
Neve: Oh Mimi...it wasn't a Mucha at all!!!


Water Serpents

On the annoying buzz that the tie-down straps made on top of the car today:

Neve: What is that noise??
Me:  Sounds like bees, huh?
Neve: They must be some BIG bees!!

On singing the Johnson song:

Me: Neve, lets sing the Johnson's baby song!
Neve:  Oh Mimi, that song is boring.
Me: (to Larry) What?  She's bored already??

On the absence (death) of Chessie:

Neve:  There's Scottie.  Where's the black one?
Me: Um, Honey, she went home.
Neve: Well, let's go get her!!

On semi-nudity:

Neve:  I need my jammies! I spilt lemonade on my skirt!
Me: I'll get them in a minute, just take of your skirt and run around in your undies!
Neve: PopPop!  help me take off my shirt so that I can run around in my undies!

Thursday, October 4, 2012

The Wedding. The Clean-up at Home

Let me just state right now for the record - after washing too many tubs of dirty dishes, silver and HUGE bags of dirty linens, Audrey and I will probably never eat romaine lettuce again. 

And let me also state for the record - somehow it turned out to be just Audrey and I doing the dishes...(Larry helped with the first batch of silver.)

UGH.

We packed all the dirty silver in several ziplock bags, we sandwiched the semi-scraped plates between Styrofoam plates and packed them willy-nilly in plastic tubs and bagged all the dirty linens in heavy plastic bags for the trip home.

So far, only ONE broken plate!!  And that was just before the wedding when a vase fell on a salad plate.  AMAZING!!  Of course, until they are all put away neatly downstairs, the clock is still ticking.  Right now, my kitchen and dining room tables are stacked high with gleaming clean plates, and shiny clean silver.  And I have hampers of freshly bleached NOT IRONED linens.

Nice.

I am still processing all the memories of Mary's wonderful wedding.

The day was just gorgeous.

Mary was incredibly beautiful.  So was Audrey.  And Neve.  And all the bridesmaids.

Larry was, well, Larry was sooooo handsome.  But then, I am SUCH a sucker for a man in uniform....

So now it is back to scrubbing and soaking and bleaching.

And a little reflecting...

We were really sad that when we picked up our basset and kitten babies from the vet it was very clear that sweet little Chessie was going to die.  Before they brought the kittens out they said that they were doing fine - playing with each other and eating well.  As Chessie could barely hold her head up I had to wonder which kittens they were talking about.




So yesterday Larry and I took the day off and had lunch out and went shopping at FT Belvoir and then went to Carrabbas to celebrate the 33rd anniversary of our first date.

And today I am in a more cheerful mood and able to realize that I did all I could for Chessie - but she was just too sick.

And that some people just can't be pleased.

So I am going to do what my friend Sue said: 

"Kim just take a minute and look around at the fairyland that you have created."

And THAT is what I am going to remember.  

I'll be writing more about the absolutely breath-taking wonderful wedding that we all worked so hard on.  And thanking the many people that spent so much time and effort helping us make this dream come true.

And that Teddy won and the Nats are in the post season!!!

But now, I am going to hold my breath and finish the silver and wash the last of the romaine down the sink!!!


It is true.  Neve IS a whirling dervish.  And doesn't Grey look dapper??



Larry and Mary going down the aisle.  Larry trying not to cry out loud.