Category: Living the Life

That's What Friends Are For

Published by dee on March 31, 2009

Last night I had the pleasure of hanging out with two dear friends, one of which I’ve been friends with for about 18 years now. She has known me and my family for more than half of my life. It’s a little crazy to think about in those terms. We’ve been through so much together – from the angsty teenage years, through college, and now this new grown-up world that we seem to be a part of.

She was in town last night after attending a family funeral so we met up for drinks before she had to head back home today. As always, it was amazing how fast the time flew by. I had only planned on staying for an hour or two and then getting myself home and to bed. I looked at the clock on my phone a little after 10:00 and the next thing I knew it was last call and after midnight.

Through the course of our conversation last night, we rehashed lots of old memories. As I said, we’ve been through a lot together – including times when we barely spoke. At one point she brought up something that I can now barely remember. It was during the time that I was going through a separation and divorce from my ex and was having a lot of emotional issues. What I didn’t remember was that she was there. That really bothers me.

I didn’t remember that she was there. I didn’t remember her being there to help me load up my things and move out of my apartment. I remember it was snowing that day. I remember my Mom and Dad being there. I remember cleaning the carpet. That’s it. That’s all I can remember of a day that was pretty monumental in my life.

When I really strain I have a very faint memory of her being there to help but if she hadn’t told me I wouldn’t have remembered at all. I blocked a lot of things out back then. I blocked out emotions to the point where I just didn’t feel anything at all. It took me a long time before I allowed myself to feel again. I guess I just didn’t realize how much of the other memories I was blocking out as well.

It is kind of a scary thing, knowing that your mind can work that way. I mean people forget things all the time, but this was more like a mental block because when I really focused and tried to remember it was there. I just needed a little help to find it.

What really has my mind spinning today though is that she was there. She has always been there for me. Through all of the bad and all of the good she has always been there. She stood by me even when I wasn’t there for her because I was too busy dealing with my own crazy life. And even though I have always known this it really struck me last night for some reason.

She is the best friend a person could ask for and it has taken me 18 years to truly recognize that.

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Because I Don't Have Enough to Do

Published by dee on March 5, 2009

I’m sure it won’t be a big surprise to anyone who knows me, but I have a new blog (Hey, I saw those eyes rolling!). Yes, I know I can barely keep up with the ones I already have. It is a new blog, but really it is just an extension of this one. You see, I’m being a follower and starting up a review blog just like 97% of all the other bloggers out there.

I gave this a lot of thought and have actually had it in the back of my mind for a really long time. Recently I’ve had several opportunities to review and/or give away products that I’ve had to turn down because I didn’t have a place I felt comfortable posting it. I really didn’t want it to be a part of my main blog because I’m not really sure how long I’ll keep up with it plus there are some restrictions with the BlogHer ads that I have here.

The solution to that was to set up an entirely separate page to post reviews and giveaways. I hope to do reviews of things I’ve purchased myself and if I’m lucky I’ll get a few things to review for free. I also hope to be able to give away some fun stuff to my readers.

So, please go check out my first post and if you feel so inclined, enter the contest to win a Wonder Wash and Mini Spin Dryer. Don’t forget to subscribe by RSS or E-mail while you’re there so you don’t miss out on any future contests!

And now, since you’ve read all the way to then end (or at least skimmed this far) you get rewarded with cute kid pictures!

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Remembering

Published by dee on February 27, 2009

Today is the three year anniversary of the day my brother-in-law took his own life. It isn’t a happy anniversary by any means, but I doubt the day will ever go by again without it crossing my mind. I still can’t imagine the pain that my husband and his family feel when they think of it. It is hard enough for me and I only knew him for a few years.

A couple months ago Hubby had a wreck in his work truck. It was a rainy day and the temperature was dropping. Apparently he hit some ice, skidded around a bit and ended up trying to take the bark off a tree in a field. He was very lucky that day and wasn’t hurt other than a bit of soreness. His truck wasn’t so lucky and was totaled.

Later that night, we were talking about the wreck over dinner. Neither one of us came right out and said it, but basically we were talking about how grateful we were that he made it home that night and that nothing worse had happened. Since Zach was sitting at the table with us, we were very careful not do say anything about the fact that he could have very well died in that wreck or been hurt very badly had he gone off the road just a few feet further down.

As we got up from the table and started cleaning up, Zach started singing. That’s not an uncommon thing in our house, but it was what he was singing that was remarkable. It took me a second before I realized what was coming out of his mouth. He was singing, “Uncle Josh, Uncle Josh, Uncle Josh…” to the tune of Jingle Bells.

Zach was 8 months old when Josh died. While we do talk about him from time to time and look at pictures, Zach doesn’t have any memories of Josh being alive. That’s what made his song so strange. He has never mentioned his name on his own and always thinks that pictures of Josh are Daddy until we correct him.

It may just be a really odd coincidence, but in my heart I have to believe that Josh was looking out for his brother that day. Every time I think of it I get chills and then I say a prayer of thanks that Hubby was protected and is still here with us. Whether it was Josh or some higher power, Hubby was very lucky.

Wherever Josh is, I just hope he knows that we miss him, love him, and will always remember him.

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Because It's All About You

Published by dee on February 23, 2009

I’ve been doing some thinking lately about my blogs. What I’m thinking is that I have WAY too many. There’s this one, which is the most personal and therefore, probably my favorite of all of them. There’s the family blog that I keep to update family members that live far away and don’t read this one (pretty much duplicate content minus the personal stuff). Then there’s my craft blog where I drone on and on about my knitting, other crafts, and crafters or tutorials I discover online. And of course I have my recipe blog to post yummy recipes on (when I remember to do it). Then there’s another one that is sort of in development that may or may not ever get off the ground. Oh, and one other that would be a bit of an extension of the personal blog as well if I ever get it started up.

That’s kind of A LOT. Well, at least it is when you find yourself having little to no time to keep up with them all.

It’s a bit of an addiction, this starting new blogs thing. I have my reasons for keeping them all separate, mostly because I don’t want to bore people with content they don’t want to read. Plus I want to keep my pages all pretty and the designs relevant to the content they contain and I can’t do that very easily if I mash it all up into one blog.

That said, I’m thinking of combining some things and I’m curious what people reading the blog would like to see here. The recipe blog will always be separate, but I’m considering pulling the craft posts back into my personal blog. The main reason for this is that my posts are so few and far between on both blogs these days that they are looking a little deserted. By putting them together, it will increase my posting frequency here and I won’t feel the need to link to myself so much.

So, what do you want to see? Do craft posts bore you to tears? Do you like seeing my latest projects? Do you just come here to see cute pictures of my kids? Do you think my blog just sucks because my brain is fried and I never write anything worthwhile any more? Seriously, I want to know. Should I mix it up or just leave things the way they are?

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Won't You Be My Valentine?

Published by dee on February 13, 2009

hearts As of last night we entered into a new realm in this parenting gig. The one in which my children want to exchange Valentine’s. We have done Valentine’s in previous years, but this was the first time that Zach actually wanted to do Valentine’s. It is the first year that it has meant anything to him.

I’ll have you know that I was prepared. There was a left over box of Disney character Valentine’s from last year that we forgot to use sitting in the file cabinet. I even went all out and bought a box of heart-shaped gummy fruit snacks for him to pass out to his friends. I thought for sure that was enough. I mean really, what do you expect from a 3-year-old? I thought we were doing good.

Then I picked the kids up from day care yesterday. Zach ran to the door to show me the Valentine he had received from one of the other kids (he handed them out early since he doesn’t attend on Fridays). Then he showed me Evie’s. This kid had handed out hand made Cars Valentine’s. Each card had a perfectly crafted Cars character on it with amazing details cut and pasted. I’m sure his crafty mom had a part in this but suddenly our store bought flimsy little cards seemed incredibly inferior.

I’m not the only one that noticed the inferiority of our cards. When I pulled them out to help Zach sign his name to the cards, he wasn’t happy. “But I want to make the cards, Mama!” Normally I’m all for getting crafty, but the 30 minutes I had set aside to prepare Valentine’s cards did not allow for making cards. I finally convinced him to settle for what we had but he was still a bit disappointed. I did at least get out some ribbon, hole punched the card and bag of fruit snacks, and tied them together with a ribbon. He found that to be acceptable and at the end was still excited to hand his cards out.

Whew!

Next year I think we need to start a bit earlier.

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Down In A Hole

Published by dee on February 12, 2009

I’m finally starting to emerge from the hole I’ve been in the last couple of weeks and apparently I missed half of February already. Funny how that can happen. It started with my kids getting sick. Then just when I thought they were well, they got sick again, and again. I spent the majority of two weeks at home taking care of sick kids. I think I worked a total of two full days over the course of two weeks. Everyone is finally well, or at least on the way there (with the help of antibiotics) now but I’m still desperately scrambling to catch up. My house is a disaster, I’m way behind at work, and my mind is pretty much just a scattered mess.

The highlight of it all was that we had such beautiful weather last weekend. My in-laws were in town for a visit so we took the kids to the park to have a picnic lunch and enjoy the sunshine for a bit. They definitely needed it after being cooped up in the house for nearly two weeks. Zach enjoyed playing with some other kids he met at the park while Evie got a chance to swing and have a little snuggle time with Papa.

On Tuesday I celebrated my 31st birthday. I spent most of the day rather bummed out because birthdays just aren’t that exciting for me anymore. I’m already a hundred times more excited for Evie’s birthday next month than I was for my own. My mom did surprise me by sending me flowers which cheered me up a bit. She also got me a light stand to add to my photography equipment. And, since I’ve recently become a bit yarn-obsessed again, I bought myself some yarn and new knitting needles (it was really my gift from Hubby and the kids, but he had no idea what to get so I got to shop for it). Then I came home and made myself a new hat (which I haven’t taken pictures of yet).

I think that pretty much sums up the last few weeks. I don’t know whether it is just the time of year or if the two weeks of sick kids and subsequent catching up has just taken its toll on me, but I’ve been feeling very uninspired, especially when it comes to writing. I’ve been spending a lot of time knitting and crocheting and haven’t been online as much as usual. I’m ready for Spring to get here as it always seems to give me a boost, both mentally and physically. In the meantime, I guess I’ll just have to keep chuggin’ along.

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