Milestones

1. Vivian finally went to kindergarten. At first glance, it's seen as a relief. Upon further inspection, I have discovered that my life is a little bit boring without that kid around. The fun part has been figuring out who I am without a kid stuck to my side. And by fun, I mean not fun. 
2. Patricia got her learner's permit, and I got more gray hairs. Seriously. I'm not even joking. This is not an exaggeration. I have more gray hairs. Everywhere. Even in places that I never thought would get gray hairs. Yeah. THERE. Although, I am pretty sure those ones have nothing to do with my 16 year old daughter. 
3. Trystan is taller than me. He weighs more than me too. And he has a manly voice. Where did my sweet little boy go?
4. Mimi's isn't much of a milestone, rather a brag. That girl is the most empathetic person I know. She is the kid who plays with the unpopular kids who have no one to play with at recess. She is the one who takes time to help the kid who can't read well to find a book in the school library that he is interested in. I see this every time I go to her school. Her teachers tell me whenever they get a chance. Most importantly, Mimi lets me know. At least once a week. Hey- It's a good thing to know what you're good at. 
5. Mel retired after 20 years in the Army. And now for the brag: In November, he had a retirement ceremony where I got to hear about all of the amazing things he has done over the past six years in his job. That was cool. I learned some things I didn't know before. What the best part for me was standing in the receiving line  and getting to talk to all of the people who he had touched, both professionally and personally. I have always known how great he is. To learn that I'm not the only person to feel that way about him was priceless. I'm looking forward to the next chapter in our lives. 
6. Isn't it ironic that I saved myself for last? I got my first REAL brazilian wax. Remember this? Or part deux? Or part the third? It took just over two years for me to muster the courage to get it professionally done. It took 45 minutes. It hurt. My pussy was out of commission for two days. I'm going back on Wednesday for maintenance. (god help me)

Did you have any milestones in your life? If so, I hope it wasn't as painful as mine. 

Happy Father's day

I don't have one of my own. That's ok. Don't be sad for me. 

What I do have is a great husband who is an even greater dad. 

I'm glad that my kids have something I never had.

I love him.

What I found on my bathroom mirror this morning

He's so romantic.

September 8, 1995

Mel and I got married. No, it wasn't a romantic wedding. I wouldn't even call it a wedding. We had a small ceremony at the courthouse in Savannah, GA. I was huge with child. My fingers were so big, Mel couldn't fit the ring on my finger. My mother came along, and got hit on by some old guy with gold teeth.



So, it's been 13 years and one week. I am not going to scan pictures of us when we were young and newlywed. You don't need to see those pictures. Just be secure in the knowledge that we look tons better now. I'll make a list of 13 things you might not have known about us.

1. We met when we were in the Army. I lived next door to him in the barracks. So did his two previous girlfriends. Seriously.


2. We love to go out to dinner. Nice, fancy dinners. We like to go to restaurants that have a dress code. We love good food.


3. We also like to try out 'hole in the wall' places. So far, we've been lucky. For our anniversary, we went to the 'Blue Moon Cafe' in Baltimore. They serve breakfast and brunch. It's on Aliceanna St. in Fell's Point. VERY hole in the wall. (Guy Fieri from Food Network visited there on his show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives)VERY delicious food. The place usually has a two hour wait. Luckily for us, we didn't have to wait at all. We just walked in and sat down. I can't wait to go back.


4. Mel and I enjoy shopping. Really. We can go shopping for hours. It doesn't matter what it is. He loves clothes shopping. He'll even try on what I pick out for him to try on. I love it!


5. We used to take dance lessons. We really enjoyed it. Until we decided that we couldn't afford it anymore. Bummer.


6. We both love to play video games but never seem to have the time to do it anymore. I am better than him at most games.


7. Mel is a handy guy. He isn't afraid to take apart most things. If it's fixable, he usually fixes it too. I really appreciate that about him.


8. I love to cook and he loves to sample my cooking. He always eats whatever it is that I cook. Even if it's bad. Even if I don't eat it. He'll eat it. But it's usually not bad.


9. We like to do outdoorsy things like bike riding, hiking, and camping.


10. We take advantage of every opportunity to hang out alone together. Without kids.


11. We are the only members of our families that belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.


12. Mel just recently taught me how to play the card game rummy. I totally smear him everytime we play.


13. We like to travel. Alone. Without kids. We fantasize about what that will be like when we have the means and the opportunity to do that.

The rare occasion we had to travel alone. Hawaii baby!!

Dancin' Dancin' Dancin'

On Saturday, Patricia babysat while Mel took me dancing. Well, kinda. We had our first dancing lesson. We have committed to six weeks of lessons. I am SO excited. We learned the foxtrot on Saturday.

I think we fell in love with the music. Now we have these fantasies of being out in our newly landscaped backyard on a hot summer night, drinking icy cold lemonade, listening to Sinatra on an old record player and dancing all night. Woooo Hooo! I seriously am going to the thrift store tomorrow to buy a record player and some records.

We would like to extend an invitation to any of you who might be interested in joining us for moonlight dancing in our backyard this summer. More details to come...

should i be worried?

I just finished reading the book The Pilot's Wife, by Anita Shreve. It's about a woman whose husband is a pilot and dies suddenly in a plane crash. In the weeks following his death, she finds out that he had another life (in another country).

I also just watched the movie Catch and Release, with Jennifer Garner. In this movie, a woman's husband dies and she finds out that he had a totally separate life from what she thought they had.

This morning I brought up this point to Mel. I told him that if he has another life, more kids, another wife-whatever that he should just let me know now. I want to be able to deal with it now while he's alive. (Translation: I want to be able to kill him before he's dead.) I did point out to him that this is at least the 5th time in the past 8 months he's flying to Arizona. Maybe his other family is in Arizona. OR maybe he just has lots of work to do in Arizona and I just read too many books and watch too many movies and have too much idle time to think about dumb things.

Naturally, he looked at me like I was crazy. This happens often at my house.