Is It Over Yet?

I've been waiting with baited breath for this month to be over. With all the frantic wedding plans, plus helping my parents find a new house and move into it as well as trying to maintain a job and a relationship with my husband, I've been anticipating the end of this month.

I realize that it is foolish to expect a calendar to change the way things go in the world, but it is symbolic that we are moving into a new month and hopefully, a calmer, quieter time.

Unfortunately, we have to get past daylight savings time "springing forward" this weekend. Arrggghhh!!! I really hate this. In the original creation of this brainstorm, it was explained as a way to give the farmers more daylight. Well, people, I'm here to say that I'm married to a farmer and we now have a wonderful new creation called headlights! No longer are we stranded in the middle of a field trying to get the horse to go home when the sun goes down. I haven't spoken to one farmer who wouldn't like this stupid thing to go away. Some of our lawmakers hemmed and hawed about it for a bit, but didn't get very far. Wouldn't it be nice if some common sense showed itself?

Just rambling here...

Full Moon Insanity

Once again the full moon has struck. Hubby threatens to get out the tinfoil to wrap my head. I recommend he wrap his own.

Almost asleep when the phone rings - bride and groom have finally found their car at the airport and are the way home safe, happy and tired.

Neighbor's dog proceeds to start barking fool head off at the moon, or whatever it can see in the bright moonlight.

Every two hours my puppies decide it must be time to get up because it's so bright in their room - so, bark! bark! bark! - until I go into soothe them. I know, it's "People Training", but they only do this when the moon is so bright, so I don't think it's a permanent condition.

Crashing glass in the kitchen at 4 a.m. means one of the cats has finally tipped a glass of water that was on the ledge (trying to root some new plants for mom and daughter) off onto the countertop, shattering it. No sense messing with it now. Pick up the plants and put them in a plastic cup (why didn't I do THAT earlier?).

Hubby decides he's had all the sleep he's going to get, so he's up for the day.

It is supposed to be an absolutely beautiful, 70-degree day today. Sounds like a good day to take off early and go home to NAP!

Sounds of Silence

Shhhh... listen.... can you hear it? It is QUIET. We are alone! Our eldest son still is living with us, but he's hardly ever home and when he is, he is downstairs and we don't hardly see him. Right now, he's gone. The bride and groom get back tonight (to their own home) and my parents are settled in the next town. All is good.

Exhaustion!

Oh. My. God. I am soooo tired. Went to help my parents settle into new house today. There wasn't much to do as far as moving, since they'd lost everything and had only collected a van full of sacks with some clothing and a few essentials. This morning they had new furniture delivered that we had to arrange, make the bed, etc. Then this afternoon I went shopping with my mom for the rest of the major essentials such as dishes, pans, towels, kitchen utensils, groceries - you get the idea. Back to the new house and unload, unpack, unbox, untape, and wash, dry, put away. I'm so glad they have found a place and are a bit settled now... and thank goodness it wasn't US having to move again!

Blech

Two days of blech - not getting very far from the toilet. Ugh. I hate that. Better today. Just in time to help my parents move into their new house! Yippee!

What Lies Behind Your Eyes

In your eyes, people see life... You see yourself
as just an average person! You enjoy life, love
wildlife, but also enjoy time with those who
know you best. You like to get outdoors and let
your mind wander over all of the mysteries god
gave to you. You don't really have a certain
sanctuary because you're so well-rounded, but
you like having fun and adventures, but can
also be found sitting quietly about, reading a
book. You have a pretty good life ahead of you,
never trade it for anything else :)

What Lies Behind Your Eyes?
brought to you by http://quizilla.com/users/DieColdHearted/quizzes/"

Contact

Groom's mother called me last night. The kids had called and they made it okay. Will call later this week. I'm doing MUCH better. Hubby says he's guessing there were probably some tears on that end of things, too....

Happy Tears

Okay, so I'm lying. They're not happy tears. They're sad tears.

This morning we had a lovely brunch for about 30 people - friends and family - for the happy couple to open presents and all. It went off well. Hubby was teasing me that I was more stressed about this morning than I was about yesterday. My response was, yesterday I had 50 people running around at my beck and call. Today it's just me! Oh, well... it went off fine and the kids got tons of gifts and money. Very nice.

Afterwards, they started packing for the trip to Kansas City. The new son-in-law has been living there for several months and driving up to Iowa on the weekends. Of course, he's now looking forward to not having to do this EVERY weekend! I'm really going to miss having our daughter here, though. She and I are best of friends. They left this evening as they have flight to catch out of K.C. in the morning for Acapulco... I was doing okay until I went downstairs and made a lap through her bathroom and bedroom. It was empty. I mean, every drawer, her closet, everything. Then it hit me. She's really gone.

After I started bawling (I kept it together all weekend) - then my husband started in, too. He was much more restrained than I, but still... We keep telling each other that if we weren't such saps about our kids this wouldn't be so hard. We love them all dearly and want them to be happy - we just want them to be CLOSE. This is the furthest any of them have been. I think it's just worse because this week there will be NO contact whatsoever. No e-mail and maybe only a brief phone call. I'm used to talking to my daughter every day several times. Next week will be easier because we can e-mail and talk at least. Then they'll be coming back in a couple of weeks to get all the wedding presents they had to leave behind to make room for clothing and so forth.

I'll be okay. I really AM happy for them. He is a terrific, sweet guy and she'll have many years of laughter and happiness ahead. I just miss her.

Beautiful

My beautiful younger daughter is now a married woman. The wedding was absolutely beautiful. The reception went off without a hitch. The party was terrific. The people were great. The champagne flowed. The tears were moderate. What a happy day it has been!

Traditions

The traditional "bachelor" and "bachelorette" parties were had this past weekend. Fun had by all...! I laughed at the groom. He and some friends went to a local strip club Friday night. There were eight guys and four of them were "strip club virgins". These guys are so clean-cut they squeek! I asked the groom if the girls were nice or kind of skanky - his reply was, at the beginning they were rather skanky, but improved as the night went on. Let me guess... more alcohol consumption? I also asked him if he saw any evidence of plastic surgery. Lots! - was his reply.

The funny part was on Sunday when we had a lovely "bachelorette" lunch at a local restaurant where we invited the groom and his mother and he had to admit to his mother he'd gone to the strip club. I think he was waaaay more embarrassed than his mother was!

The bride got the typical lacy things as gifts and the lecherous waiter stood behind her in the hallway as she opened things - I swear there was drool dribbling down his chin. Ick. Other than that, it was very fun. Nice group of girls.

Now we are getting into the final countdown. Daughter had last day of work yesterday and is now going into the 'home stretch'. I ran around yesterday paying for tuxes, getting the appropriate black socks for certain male family members, and looking for last minute do-dads. Today the bride and I are going to do some last minute "girly" shopping and she's made appointments for us to have fun massage pedicures tonight. I'm excited... haven't done that for a loooong time.

Will be a busy week.

Time Flies

I can't believe how quickly time is passing until the wedding. So many things to do and so little time. It seems you start planning months in advance and there are still so many "last minute" details. I think we're getting there, but it's been nights of tossing and turning wondering how many things we forgot. I try and keep a calm outward appearance for my daughter's sake, but am in total turmoil inside.

Part of the trouble is the daugher who is getting married is such a fixture in my life. I know people shouldn't have favorites among their children. I love all of my children in their own unique way and think they are beautiful, wonderful creatures. This particular one, however, has always been recognized as my "clone". She and I look very much alike, act alike, like the same things... you get the picture. We do many things together and really enjoy each other's company. It is going to be difficult to see her move to another state... in a week.

She is so special to my heart. She has lived away from us while she went to college - even though it was in the same town, we didn't see much of her. Then a few months ago when we moved into the new house she moved in with us. We became closer than ever. Now we will see her go off to have her own home and family and it's hard. Seems it was such a short time ago that this little red-headed sweetie came into our life. She's spent time being obstinate and opinionated, but that's the way we liked it. She had a brain and used it. She had opinions and weren't afraid to express them - or to clam up and not speak for a week, if that was the point she was making. She has grown into a beautiful young woman with the same brilliant mind and the same quirky sense of humor and yes, sometimes the same obstinance. We love her so.

As a little girl of about 3, if she wasn't having me read her "bookies", she was watching the movie "The Wizard of Oz" over and over again. She loved the movie and sang songs from it all around the house. For her father-daughter dance at the wedding, she's having them play "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". If that doesn't get her father choked up (he doesn't know it's coming) I don't know what will. I'm afraid I'm going to have to pack a box of kleenex, too!

The joy we have in seeing her married is the good feeling we have that she has chosen well in her spouse-to-be. He's the sweetest guy you ever could meet and is very capable of "going with the flow" when it comes to various mood swings and random bursts of energy. He's going to have his hands full, but seems well-equiped for the job. We're very excited about welcoming him into the family.

How the days fly by...

STOLEN!

I'm in shock. My husbands' truck was stolen during the night! First off, to understand we live in a small community and we live in the country about 4 miles outside of town. We live off the road on a long, winding driveway and you can't even see our house from the road! You almost have to know it's there to find it. Then, we don't have any security light to "spotlight" our house, either.

We have always lived in a community where you never had to lock your doors, and it was acceptable to leave your keys in your vehicles because no one would ever think to take it!

My husband has been driving his work truck - a 3/4 ton pickup with a topper that he's got fixed up for a repair vehicle when he's in the field. He had the back end full of tools, a portable welder, an air pressure tank, a fuel tank, parts, etc. Anything and everything you can think of for what you would need for quick repairs when you are farming and you break something or need to fuel up a tractor. He came out to go to work this morning - and it was GONE!

He's upset - not only at the loss, but at the situation. If my parents weren't staying here, and if he hadn't given up his parking spot in the garage to them, his truck never would have been out there to be taken. Also, it's almost time to be getting in the field and the insurance company says we have to wait at least a week to see if it turns up (hubby figures it's all beat to hell now, anyway, if it hasn't all been parted out). The sheriff came out and made a report and they have a suspect. Someone from an neighboring town that just got out of jail, proceeded to steal an SUV in that town, and it was found out of gas a mile from our place. They think the guy may have just been cutting across the fields to get back to town when he spotted our truck and took advantage of the situation - probably not even realizing until the next morning what he had in the back end, as it is an older truck and doesn't look the fanciest from the outside.

What's worse is my mother heard it drive off last night between 12 and 1, but didn't think to tell anyone!

This just makes us so mad. We've not had to deal with this EVER and it's really ticking me off that now I feel so unsecure - we're going to start locking up everything and taking out the keys... another bit of innocence lost.

Day by Day

Mom and Dad did get the house. They've started shopping for things to put into it, and have actually made some purchases. I'm glad they're getting on with things. They are still trying to figure out what they lost for the insurance and that is a huge pain. Since they lost everything, you'd think they could just get the amount of their policy, but noooooo... they have to itemize everything. Think about that. Think about every little thing you have in your house and when you purchased it, what you paid for it, and how much it would cost to replace it. Not to mention the things that can't be replaced like photos and memorabilia. What a huge job it is. Mom had some antiques, too, that can vary in price due to condition and age, and if you don't have the exact item to take to an appraiser, how do you figure out what it was worth? It makes me value my own things much more... and start wondering if I should be writing down lists and lists, too!

The wedding is just over a week away. The bride-t0-be is sick. Hope it goes away by then and doesn't pass on to other family members!

Spring peeked around the corner on Sunday - getting to a high temp of 71!!! It was windy, but a beautiful day. Of course, Monday was a high of 35... it is Iowa, after all.

Everyone please keep your fingers crossed that wedding plans go off without a hitch and sickness is all gone. I've been having weird wedding dreams and it's not even MY wedding! Be soooo glad when this month is over!

Dear Internet Provider

I'm a little late addressing this. Appropriately it should have been posted on Valentine's day, as all expressions of love are. I wanted to thank you for the beauty that is you. After contacting not one or two internet providers and getting blown off, but THREE, you have come to my rescue. To think, you were only a mouse-click away. In two days you came to my house, installed my high-speed internet and left with barely a ripple in the pond that is my life. After months of struggling with dial-up connections (yes, pity me) and poor service, I am finally in the land of the click-click-click express. Lovin' it!

Hurrah!

I'm so tickled... My folks put an offer down on a house yesterday afternoon. Yippee! If accepted, (which I'm sure it will be) they can take possession April 1! It is where they wanted to be, and it's a nice house - if a little pricier than they wanted. Now my mom wants me to start shopping for furnishings. It'll be fun...

Annoyance of the day - why is it when you send out wedding invites and you sent an RSVP card and even STAMP the ENVELOPE people can't manage to return them? Don't they realize you are trying to figure out food and beverage needs as well as seating? I wish some of them would get off their lazy behinds and SEND IT BACK. Grrrr... Just getting a bit stressed here - less than three weeks left.