I Laugh to Keep Me From Crying, TToT week 35

Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on. 

~Bob Newhart

I could not be more thankful for laughter.  Thursday was a wallop of a day.  If I couldn't have laughed at the absurdity of it all, I never would have been able to deal with each turn of events.  (Read yesterday's post if you want to see what happened.)  This week's list will be all about the other things which gave me a chuckle or a giggle or a full-on guffaw this week.

As I was leaving for my night of volleyball in my church league, Buttercup looked at me and asked, "You're wearing your pajamas to volleyball?"  My reply:  "Dear girl, when at home they are called pajamas.  When I go to volleyball, they are called sweats."  I was touched to know she was watching out for me, though, even if it was only because she didn't want me embarrassing her.

Grace's video.  I want to be this clever, but I will settle for simply knowing how to make a video.

This conversation in the van with Cuckoo.  I had to laugh to prevent myself from crying.  And vomiting.

Cuckoo:  I can only eat one thing in the van.  Guess what it is.

Me:  (seeing that lately, his fingers are always in his mouth)  Your fingers.

C:  No!

Me:  (knowing we eat several snacks in the car after afternoon school pickup each week) Crackers.

C:  No!

Me:  I have no more guesses.  What one thing can you eat in the van?

C:  Boogers.

I've been making myself laugh this week on my Facebook page.  Doesn't even bother me that only a few people see my hilarity.  It makes me laugh.  For example, I posted this...

If you can't seem to locate a library book, all you have to do is go to the library and pay $25 for the book. Within 3 days someone will yell, "Hey, I found the library book!" Voila!

after I paid for the second book which had been missing for over a month.  Giant found one under his bed, and Turken found one on a shelf in the big boys' book closet soon after I plunked down the cash.

I am not a fan of Valentine's Day, especially for little kids, but I'm not going to forbid my kids from participating in the kindergarten Valentine's Day party.  However, instead of paying for cheap, boxed, stupid cards, I helped Turken make these "valentines" to pass out at school:

  
It's a sucker.  With a pretend mustache on the sucker stick.  Always a hit with the kindergarten set.

The boys were poo-pooing the men's figure skating I wanted to watch.  There was some basketball game on another channel, but I refused to let them turn it on.  It's the Olympics for Pete's sake!  Phoenix chose to voice his displeasure by annoying the tar out of me.  Lucky for him, I found his commentary to be funny.

"Why isn't he tackling anybody?"

"Which team is he on?"

"Why is he doing doughnuts on the ice?"

"Hey!  He touched the ground!  Is that legal?  Or...OR it just shows he's in control.  Yes.  He must be in control.  Control is important."

"Is this the long program or the short program?... Nevermind.  It doesn't matter.  They all seem long."

"Oh!  He's in bonus time!  Is this like Monster Trucks??  Is he going to try to crash?  Maybe lose a skate?  Run into something?"

"Everyone cheers whenever they spin.  I'd just spin the whole time."

"Except their faces are always red when they stop spinning.  That can't be good."

Cuckoo insisted on shoveling the moment the snow started falling at 11:00 on Friday.

That snow he is trying to shovel is actually ice left over from our snow storm last week.  He never moved a single scoopful.  

This is that same walkway and porch at 1:00:

We ended up with more than 5 inches.  He didn't shovel a single flake.

The endless snow and cold are taking its toll on us all.  Each of us has his own ways of coping, be it hibernating in a bedroom, actually wearing more appropriate clothing, or finding ways to play in it.  Cuckoo's coping mechanism is my favorite.  When the really big flakes started falling on Friday, he went for denial.  Every time Turken or I mentioned the snow, Cuckoo yelled, "It's not snow!  It's toilet paper!"

I was telling the kids about the church parking lot behind our house when I was a kid.  Every time it snowed (which was often.  I lived in the snow belt of northern Ohio.), the parking lot would get plowed, leaving gigantic mountain ranges of snow.  We played on those snow mountains for hours, sliding, digging forts, playing tag, and any other game our minds could conjure up.  On a whim, I told them I'd find a church parking lot with mountains of snow for them to play on.  COW, Buttercup, and Star shot down the idea, thinking I'd lost my mind.

The other kids trusted me.

To give you perspective, the person running is Phoenix.  He's 6'1" tall.  

On a related note...in the history of snowball fights, how many have ended without the sobbing of a child who was accidentally hit in the face?  I'm thinking zero.

OK, your  turn.  Tell me what you are thankful for this week.  What made you laugh?

Have a lovely day!

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Turns Out, an Overflowing Septic Tank Wasn't My Worst Problem of the Day, 7QT

Poo got real at the coop today.

I have been writing this post all day.  Something ridiculous would happen, I'd try to sit down to start the post, but before I could get 5 sentences written, something else would happen.  I'll break it down for you in the quick takes.

************** 1 **********

Monday afternoon I noticed a bare spot in the back yard.  When one's entire world is covered in almost a foot of snow, one notices a bare spot in the backyard.  Upon further inspection, I realized it was our septic tank.  A septic tank which was part of the system we completely overhauled 4 1/2 years ago. The overflowing "liquid" had melted all the snow.

I called a septic company to discuss the situation.  They didn't have a hose long enough to reach to the tank, so were going to have to wait until the snow melted and dried out before they could come. Since it did seem to be clear liquid and wasn't coming back into the house, we chose not to track down an expensive emergency company with enough hose.  (And crossed out fingers that Mother Nature was listening and would end this miserable winter.)

************** 2 ************

Thursday morning, like every morning, I did some laundry.  When I went to the basement to put the clothes in the dryer, I discovered the floor covered in water and the utility sink which the washer dumps into full of cloudy water.  Panic set in.

************** 3 **************

With a touch of hysteria, I explained to our septic guy that we were now in emergency mode.  The tank was backing up into our house, and it needed emptied pronto.  I was given the name of another company who might have a hose long enough to reach the back yard.  Fortunately, they did, and they could make it to our house by noon.  I put the boys and me on lock-down.  No one was to pee, wash clothes, wash dishes, wash hands, or scrub any floors until the tank was emptied.  (Truth be told, I wasn't really too upset about any of that except the peeing and hand washing.  As soon as I was told, albeit by myself, that I couldn't go to the bathroom, my body filled my bladder to the breaking point.)

*********** 4 ***********

The septic guy got here, set up, and lifted the tank's lid.  It was filled to the brim with what looked to be clean water.  I was horrified.  He was perplexed.  Apparently, all that water isn't normal in a working tank.  At one point he reached into the tank, twisted something, and pulled out a long, nasty, red...thing, and said, "You have a filter in here!"   Funny, I didn't know septic tanks had filters.  Apparently, it was something they started putting in somewhat recently.  Like 4 and a half years ago, when we got our new system.  You'd think the guy would have told us that back when the tank was installed.

Septic guy:  That filter needs cleaned once a year.  All that gunk clogging the filter is your problem.  The water can't get to the fingers, so fills up the tank.  You're lucky your lid is above ground and it could just go out into the yard instead of into your house.  Just a run under your garden hose will do the trick.

Me: "Don't know if you noticed, but we're in the middle of a Polar Vortex.  The outside spigots were emptied and turned off long ago."  (See!  We aren't completely incompetent when it comes to home maintenance!)

Septic guy:

Me:  I'll take care of it.

Yes, I took care of the nastiness by first scraping off as much as I could with a stick and snow.  I then had to bring the thing into the house (Never been more thankful for that mud room utility sink!) and hold back the vomit (Oh, the smell!) while cleaning it out.  A gallon of bleach took care of the smell and the germs.

********************** 5 **************

The tank was emptied without further incident.  1400 gallons of...gross...was now in the truck.  He loaded up the hose, I paid him, and we made our goodbyes.

A few minutes later, I glanced outside to see that the truck was still there, just moved a bit.  I went out to investigate and found that he was stuck.  In my driveway.  Blocking my van, which I had previously moved out of the way, so he could get around the circle drive.

The day is over.  It's dark outside.  I can't take a photo of the actual drive and draw in the vehicles.  I'll try to add it in the morning.

 We decided I would move my van the other way, going up the incline and get around his truck.  He would then pull into the area I was currently in to get back on gravel.

We found the one flaw in the plan when my van got stuck, too.

While he himmed and hawed and didn't do much of anything, I worked my tail off finding a way to get my van out of that mess.  

In short, I spent 45 minutes shoveling gravel from one area of the drive, transferring it to another part, and making a new track for my van to use.  After every few feet I'd drive, I'd get stuck again and have to shovel the same gravel into another spot.  But, I did get myself out of there while the septic guy watched.

After calling school to let them know I'd be late, thanks to the septic tank truck stuck in my driveway, I went back to shoveling gravel to get his 10 ton truck moving.

Finally, finally, after over an hour, we got his truck out of my driveway.

********** 6 *********

I then went around the house, running water all over the place.  I started the dishwasher.  I peed.  I washed my hands.  I went to do more laundry.

When I got downstairs, I was happy to see the floor no longer had water and the sink had drained completely.

But something wasn't quite right.

There, in the drain hole, was a sock.

Seems one of the kids had at one point dropped a sock in the sink, and when the washing machine drained, the sock got jammed in the drain hole.

The freakin' septic had never backed up after all!!!  I didn't have to find an emergency septic service!!!  I didn't have to hold my pee for 7 hours!!!  I didn't have to clean a poop-covered filter inside my house!!!  I didn't have to practically kill myself digging a 12-passenger van and a 10 ton septic truck out of my driveway!!!  All I had to do was pull a sock out of the drain!!!!!

Have I mentioned home ownership bites?

**************** 7 ************

Since we're on the topic of poo and I have one extra take left, I shall add this.

Lately, Cuckoo has been enlightening us with the multitude of ways to use the word "poopyhead".  Here I thought the only way to use it was as a retort when a brother did something you didn't like, as in, "You're a poopyhead!"  I was wrong.  "That's a poopyheaded hat!" and "Poopyhead on your poopyhead" are also acceptable ways of using the word.

Let me rephrase..."All I had to poopydo was pull a poopyheaded sock out of the poopyheaded drain!"

Head on over to Jen's to find lots of quick takes that have nothing to do with poo.

Have a lovely day!

Home, Sweet, Broken-Down Home

Home ownership can be a big pain in the neck.

Home ownership with a gaggle of children makes me want to live in a shack with nothing of value.

Or at least make them live in a shack in the backyard, so I can live in a house that has a couch with intact springs.

Alas, the "shack" is full of chickens, so in the house the children must stay.  Add their destructive selves to the normal home repairs all home owners have to deal with, and you will find a house with a need-to-do list the length of a football field.

Would you like some examples?

That was a rhetorical question.  All photos were taken this morning.  I would not suggest starting your day by taking inventory of all the broken things in your home.  It is a tad depressing.

1.  This queen-sized bedroom set was purchased when we first married.  It is broken, not because of the wild, nighttime escapades of COW and me, but because of our children who like to come into our bed on weekend mornings and "sleep" with us.  When they were little, it was more of a "climb all over Mommy and Daddy, making sure to step on their heads, pull their hair, and thrust a knee into their guts while getting comfortable and in a spot far away from the touch of any sibling" than it was a "sleep".  So far, no one's head has been punctured by the nails jutting out.  I guess crossing your fingers actually works.

2.  The boys were playing basketball in the house.

3.  A child in time-out decided he didn't like the wallpaper.

4.  All three of the light bulbs in the porch light are out, and we are unable to replace them until the Polar Vortex goes back to the tundra from which it came.  Changing the bulbs means COW has to climb a 30-ft. ladder, which is a tad too dangerous to do in the ice and wind and cold.  With the lack of light, I have become quite adept at pretending I'm blind as I navigate the pitch-black upstairs and attend to children who lost their blankies in their sleep.  Or had a nightmare about a snake in his bed.  Or needs zipped back into his suitcase.

See that door up there?  The light normally shines through there to illuminate the landings outside the kids' doors.

5.  Apparently, the best way to dry one's hands after washing is to grab onto the towel and swing from the towel bar.

6.   The boys found the confiscated basketball and played basketball in the house.

7.   A child walking up the stairs saw a teeny, tiny bit of wallpaper had begun to peel off and thought he should remove it.

8.  The sensors on the back of the van don't work in the middle of a monsoon-like storm, so the driver of the van, returning from the store with a trunk-load of groceries, didn't know she was too close to the porch steps until she heard and felt the crunch.

9.  Seems children can't hear or remember their mother's plea to, "GET OFF THE RAILING!!!!".

10.  When the boys couldn't find the confiscated basketball, they chose to play soccer in the house instead.

This partial tour of our should-be shack is brought to you by Stasha's Monday Listicles, where the topic for today is "10 Things in Your House Which Need to Be Fixed".  I'm the one who suggested it in a moment of weakness as I sat and looked at our unfinished game room and the living room's missing fireplace under the mantel.

What sorts of things are on your "Fix Someday" list?  Please tell me you have a "Fix Someday" list of things to do, and some of those things have been on the list for over a year or two.  Lie if you must.

Have a lovely day!

We Avoided Puke but Not Body-Snatching, TToT Week 34

“Gratitude goes beyond the 'mine' and 'thine' and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.”

– Henri J.M. Nouwen

It hasn't been a normal week here at the coop.  Our house became a revolving door for a 24-hour illness.  Each day, one kid went down as one was getting up.  No vomiting, thank heavens, but fevers and headaches and sore throats took their toll.  I am the only one who hasn't gotten it.

To add to the oddness, the van has been having trouble starting in these cold temps.  The battery was corroding and dying and suffering greatly.  I have become quite adept at hunting down a borrowed working vehicle and hooking jumper cables to it.

Unfortunately, the snow and cold we are dealing with has become our normal.

Hershey would really like spring to get here, too.

Onward...

1.  Honest people working in retail are still out there to be found.  I went to Auto Zone to get a new battery for the van, since they will install it after I purchase it.  The man came out to look at the dead battery and told me he didn't want to do it.  The battery and bolts were starting to corrode, and if they broke he wouldn't be able to fix it.  He suggested I go to the dealer or an actual mechanic to buy the battery and have it installed.  (Don't tell me it is company policy to only do easy, uncomplicated battery changes.  I'd rather be naive.)

2.  Our local Ford dealership has the ability to get me in quickly.  I called them Friday morning, asking for the very first available time, and he said, "Come in right now."  An hour after I called, the van was fixed and I was on my way to pick Turken up from kindergarten.

3.  For the first time in the 11 years I've been associated with our preschool, we are having a snow make-up day.   The mother of one of the preschoolers told her daughter about the make-up day.  After pondering it for a minute, the preschooler replied, "Well, I guess I'll wear blue eye shadow, since that's kinda like snow, and I'll wear red lipstick, because that's the color of cardinals..."

(Did you catch why that is so adorably hysterical?  A make-up day.  She's planning the make-up she's going to wear.)

4.  Wednesday was yet another day off of school thanks to the 7 or so inches of snow which fell overnight.  For this one, I was grateful.  It was Phoenix's day to be sick, and missing a day of high school is a Bad Idea.  The day off gave everyone a chance to sleep and relax and get all the germiness banished.  Plus, since I didn't have to do all the picking up and dropping off, I could stay home and wash the sheets of all the sick people in a single day.

5.  We can pay our heating bill and still have enough money for food.

6.  A lovely, helpful neighbor plowed our driveway for us on Thursday.  He couldn't get around the circle, since my van was there, but by plowing the long, straight portion of the drive, he saved COW and me lots and lots of work with the snow blower.

7.  I could go on and on about how wonderful my husband is, but I don't want to brag.  I'll just leave it at "COW is awesome."

8.  Two nights in a row we had an animal get into the chicken coop.  The only way we can figure it got in was by climbing a tree leaning on the back of the coop (You can see the tree in a couple of the redneck fence post pictures.), climbing over the roof, and prying the window out of the frame.

The first night we found the window lying on the ground on the outside of the coop.  One chicken was half-eaten inside the coop.

The second night, the same window was cracked in half, with the top portion on the ground outside the coop.  One chicken was missing, and one chicken was freezing, covered in ice, shivering in an old dog house just outside the coop.

COW and Phoenix put chicken wire up over the windows, and we haven't lost any more chickens since.  The chicken which spent the night in the snow is back to her old self.

The plywood was put up where the broken window (made of plexiglass) used to be.

9.  Our tradition with the kids is to have a feast of party food while watching the Super Bowl.  When COW takes charge of the food, he heads to the store's freezer section and buys every box of crap he can find that the kids might like.  He also buys odd non-foods just for fun.  (I don't think Lizzi will ever be the same after seeing the photos of the spray cheese last year.)  I try to get less horrible choices in where I can.

This year, I took the reigns.  I let them have some frozen pizza, but it was the not-so-bad kind.  I let them have frozen pretzels.  The rest was their junk, but with some health to go with it.

They had chicken nuggets, but they were the homemade, baked kind.  The strawberries were covered in chocolate.  The apples came with caramel dip.  The chips and queso was made with our homemade salsa.  The bags of chips were "natural" cheese puffs and veggie straws.  They all love banana bread and deviled eggs.  And because of all of these compromises, everyone was happy, and NOBODY PUKED!

10.  THE OLYMPICS HAVE BEGUN!!!!  I love, love, love watching the Olympics.  I love the stories behind the athletes.  I get teary every time they play our national anthem.  I'm in awe of the feats these athletes attempt.  (Honestly, those snowboarders are crazy!)  It's fun to be united as a country to root our athletes on.

How about those opening ceremonies???  FANTASTIC!!!  They were shooting for the biggest and best, and they delivered.  I loved the whole show.

Okie doke, it's your turn.  What gifts have you been given this week?

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If I Ever Get My Bandaged Hands on Clem and Tina...

I simply wanted to have some clementines with our dinner.

Illness has been flying around our house, and I wanted to infuse everyone with a bit of extra Vitamin C.

As I used my left thumbnail ('cause I'm a lefty) to puncture the rind of the first clementine, I noticed the rind was quite thick just before a bit of pain shot through my thumb. By the time I finished peeling that one, itty bitty clementine, my thumb was in some serious pain.

Not to be deterred from our clementine side dish, I stubbornly switched hands to peel the second clementine.

As I awkwardly ('cause I'm a lefty) used my right thumbnail to puncture the rind of the clementine, I noticed this rind was thick, too, just before a bit of pain shot through my right thumb. By the time I finished peeling that one, itty bitty clementine, my right thumb was in some serious pain.

Having no more thumbs with which to work, I told COW he needed to peel the rest of the clementines for dinner while I danced around the kitchen whining, "This really, really hurts!!"  He took one look at me, rolled his eyes, and grabbed a knife.

As the seconds ticked by, my thumbs hurt more and more.  Upon further inspection, we concluded that I had sliced the skin underneath BOTH thumbnails on clementine rinds. When a wound gets acid in it, the wound burns. By "burns", I mean it makes a woman who has given birth to six kids (three of them without the help of even a Tylenol) mutter obscenities and cry like a baby. Clementine rinds must have acid in them.

The pain finally diminished sometime after dinner.

In the less than 24 hours since the slicing occurred, I've realized just how often I use my thumbs.  Each time I do, pain shoots through the underside of my nail.  It's getting hard to function properly.

1.  Cutting a piece of fruit doesn't look to pose a threat until I have to peel off that UPC sticker.

2.  Getting cold medicine out of those vacuum-sealed, tiny, super-sticky individual compartments is difficult when my thumbs are healthy.  It's near impossible with sliced thumbs.

3. I would prefer to make a salami and cheese sandwich without the salami and the cheese.  Separating the slices from the stack causes me to flinch.

4.  We have 17 dozen eggs in the fridge.  It makes me cringe to even think about cracking any more of them open.

5.  Pinching a splinter to pull it out of a child's hand isn't any fun.

6.  Wiping a kitchen counter down is no problem, until I come across some syrup or some other food cemented to the surface.  Unfortunately, nothing works as well as a fingernail to get that crud off.

7.  Wiping a little boy's nose with a Kleenex poses no risk, yet having to pick off that pesky dried-on booger can only be done well with the thumbnail.

8.  Being a snow day, I was glad to be in my button-free pajamas all day.  Too bad Cuckoo needed help buttoning his favorite pajama shirt.

9.  I haven't sent any texts today, as it gets tiresome to say, "ouch.  ouch.  ouch." every time I press a letter.

10.  Washing a little person's hair isn't nearly as fun as it could be.

Until these thumbs heal, I'm sure I'll be whining and finding new and awful ways my for my thumbs to be tortured.  I'll be sure to add them.  Lucky you.  :)

Now, remember those razor-sharp clementines which cut my thumbs?  As we ate dinner, each time a child put a slice of clementine in his mouth, his lips would pucker, his eyes would water, and he'd wail, "WOW!  These are sweet!"

"Honey, you want them to be sweet.  Do you mean sour?"

He'd reply, "Yes!  They're sour!" then refuse to eat another bite.

This morning I had a look at the 5 pound box of clementines I had purchased the other day.

They aren't clementines at all, but sour, sharp-edged impostors!!

Not cool Clem and Tina.  Not cool.

We Get Around and Talk A Lot, TToT Week 33

In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.

- Brother David Steindl-Rast 

As I type this, I am balancing the keyboard on my knee while holding Cuckoo.  The poor kid has a fever, a runny nose/bit of a cough, and his eyes are all sick looking.  Probably because he is exhausted from being awake many times between 2 and 5:30am last night.

I was supposed to go to my doctor appointment and go watch the 8th grade vs. teacher volleyball game today.  Instead, I've cuddled with my boy and watched PBS all day.  Buttercup was fine with me missing the game, and I can reschedule the appointment.  My boy wants me to hold him, I'm going to hold him.  These days of holding him are numbered, so I'm not going to waste them.  Except there's only so much PBS I can watch.  Balancing the keyboard isn't so hard.

On to the thankfuls...

1.  Little kids trying out new words and/or getting confused between them always makes me smile.  Cuckoo and Turken had me smile a bunch this week.  For example:
   
I washed Turken's sheets but didn't get them back on the bed before leaving to take someone to practice.  Instead of putting sheets on the bed, COW just grabbed a sleeping bag for him to sleep in.  In the middle of the night, Turken was standing on the landing calling for me.  When I got to him, he cried, "I fell out of my suitcase.  Can you zip me back in my suitcase?

I walked into the boys' bedroom to find Cuckoo wiping some chapstick all over his mouth.  When he was finished, he looked at me and, referring to his dry, cracked lips said, "I have chap on my lips".

While driving to pick Turken up from kindergarten, I heard Cuckoo cough.  He then started crying and, referring to the phlegm he coughed up said, "I have choke on my chin".

2.  A neighbor takes Phoenix to high school for us, since he has a daughter going there anyway.  It makes my life so, so much easier.  Last weekend, his daughter got her driver's license, so she will be driving herself to school from now on.  Unfortunately, thanks to Indiana's graduated license laws, she won't be able to have a non-family member in the car with her for 6 months.  My neighbor is still driving Phoenix to school.  He said he drives that way anyway to go to work, so it's no big deal.  Oh contrair monfrair.  It is a very big deal.

3.  Our mall has an indoor play place.  We visited.  Energy was burned.

4.  Cuckoo is the king of out-of-the-blue deep conversations that make me think and laugh at the same time.  Example (edited so you wouldn't be completely bored.  The chat went on a tad close to forever.)

C:  If everyone in the world died, would God be all alone?
Me:  No, we would be in heaven with Him and all the other people who have died.
C:  I would live with Him?
Me:  Yes.
C:  I don't want to live with him.
Me:  Of course you don't...right now.  You will once you get there.
C:  I never want to live with him.
Me:  Why?  Do you want to keep living with me?
C:  No.  I want to live by myself.  When can I live by myself?

5.  Our school hasn't been called off as often as most.  Since there is no bus service to Catholic schools in Indy, thus no kids waiting out in the dangerously cold weather, we don't have to cancel.  Sure, most people like a snow day, but I'd rather go to school on these days and be out on the nice, warm days in May.

6.  The Boy Scouts in our area are active, and we get to do lots of fun, odd things at a discount.  Last Saturday, the whole family went to the Monster Truck Jam.  Basically, it's a night of watching gigantic trucks smash things and drivers try to flip the trucks over.  There is nothing more redneck than a Monster Truck Jam.

A Monster Truck Jam is REALLY loud, thus the ear protection.  Cuckoo insisted on wearing his monster truck tank top over his long sleeve shirt so people could see it.

Goobers.

7.  For the past two Christmases, COW's brother and sister-in-law have given us gift certificates to a fancy auditorium.  We were finally able to use them last night and saw Kenny Rogers in concert.  Quit laughing.  It was one of the best concerts I've ever attended.  COW and I realized something, too.  Kenny and Pat Benatar, while well into retirement age, are still fantastic performers.  Journey and (another band I cannot for the life of me remember that COW went to last year) were still trying to jump around and act like they did 3 decades ago.  Those concerts were awful.  So, people, embrace the age you are and be fabulous, because trying to be the person you were 20 or 30 years ago just makes you look ridiculous.

8.  I am thrilled to live near a capital city.  There are so many things to do.  I'm going to have to bet COW and I are the only two people in the world who, in a span of 2 months, have gone to a Pink concert, a monster truck rally, and a Kenny Rogers concert.

9.  We've had a couple of signs that spring will get here someday.  When I went out to feed and water the chickens this morning, the water wasn't a frozen block of ice.  That's the first time it has happened in weeks and weeks.  And then, even better, I have been seeing robins.  All over the place.  For those of you not living in the great frigid north, robins are always the first birds to make their way back (that I know of), signalling spring on the not-infinity-distant horizon.

10.  Picmonkey.  With their free service I can take 2 minutes to make a new image to post on Facebook on Sunday.

Do you know what Sunday is?

Just in case the robins are lying, we can't leave Groundhogs Day up to chance.

Your turn!  What has made you smile this week?

Have a lovely day!

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A Fly on our (Chicken Coop) Wall, Considerings, Finding Ninee, Getting Literal, I Want Backsies, Mother of Imperfection, Rewritten, Thankful Me, The Meaning of Me, The Wakefield Doctrine

An InLinkz Link-up

Eddie Bauer Puffy Coat. A Love Story

We didn't meet in the usual way.  A wise matchmaker first brought us together back in the winter of 1996.  It was November.  My 25th birthday, to be exact.  A large box was put in front of me by my dear, sweet, gift-giving-challenged husband.  I opened it to find a bulky, black, plain, boring, Eddie Bauer Puffy Coat.  It was not love at first sight.  I looked to COW with questioning eyes, and, sensing my confusion over this expensive, ugly gift (He was in law school, making no money, while I was teaching in a Catholic school making $18,000/year.), he said, "It will keep you warm when you have recess duty."  That, of course, melted my heart, so I agreed to give the coat a try.

The first day I wore it to school, I was not excited.  Besides the fact I was being overwhelmed by puffiness, there was a chance that the fashion choice would dim the coolness factor I currently held in the eyes of the middle school students I taught.

Recess came, and I was to be outside with the kids.  I donned my new Eddie Bauer Puffy Coat and headed out.

Sweet Mary, the coat may have been ugly and gigantic, but that husband of mine sure knows how to pick out a functional coat!  I was warm.  For the first time since winter rolled into South/Central Indiana, I was not shivering to death.  Not only did the coat keep my body warm, it melted the iciness I felt for Eddie Bauer Puffy Coat.  I fell in love.

For two years, Eddie Bauer Puffy Coat kept me toasty warm out on that playground.  It has fuzzy pockets to keep my hands warm.  It has a zipper and snaps to provide a double barrier against wind.  It's long enough to cover my rear and the tops of my legs.  It has huge outer pockets to hold everything I could possibly need while working outside.  I didn't even care what the middle school kids thought about it.

Then, in May of 1998, COW graduated and Phoenix was very close to being born.  I left teaching, and we moved to a house near Indianapolis.

With no daily recess duty, and an attached garage on our house, I no longer needed Eddie Bauer Puffy Coat on a regular basis.  I went back to wearing a more attractive but less functional coat, and Eddie Bauer Puffy Coat hung on a hanger.  The only time it came out of storage was on days the kids wanted to play in the snow.  Eddie Bauer Puffy Coat kept me warm for those hours, but was promptly returned to the closet.

Our relationship took a turn when we moved to the farm.  Once again, I was having to work out in the cold days of winter.  Each day, Eddie Bauer Puffy Coat waited for me to retrieve him out of the closet.  I picture it waiting like a faithful dog, excited to go out, but patiently waiting for it's owner.

Through all of the runs to the chicken coop, the shoveling of the walkway and driveway, and the disposing of dead animals, Eddie Bauer Puffy Coat has kept me from freezing to death.

In the new mudroom, it now hangs on a hook of distinction.  The closest hook to the door.  The coat first grabbed when I need to brave the wind and ice and snow.  It has aged well, looking exactly like it did all those years ago.  It's a little less puffy, a bit more manageable, but still ugly and wonderfully functional.

Three nights ago, I wore Eddie Bauer Puffy Coat to take Buttercup to soccer.  My plan was to stay in the car and wait through her 1 hour, 45 minute practice.  The indoor facility isn't known for being very warm, and I don't get along with most of the parents from her team, so going in held no appeal for me.  Wearing Eddie Bauer Puffy Coat meant I could turn the car off for longer periods of time, thus not wasting a ton of gas.

As we were trying to outrun the wind chill, speeding down the walkway to the car, my foot hit the on patch of ice on the path.   I went down, hard, landing on my back and right elbow.

Buttercup got a bit scared and ran into the house, screaming for her dad to come quickly.  I simply stayed on the ground taking inventory of my bones and muscles.  By the time COW came running out in his slippers and sweats, I was already getting up.  I was fine.  Not one thing was broken or even hurt all that much.

I owe it all to Eddie Bauer Puffy Coat.  All that gorgeous puffiness broke my fall and saved me from yet another trip to OrthoIndy.  After 17 years, it's still proving its usefulness.

I love you, Eddie Bauer Puffy Coat.

And I love you, COW, for knowing I would.

Before you in the Peanut Gallery get on my case, I tried to get a photo of myself IN the coat, but Turken was having trouble getting one that wasn't completely blurry, and my arms aren't long enough to do a full-body selfie. 

Do you have an article of clothing you love?  That you've had for years and years?

Have a lovely day!