Wednesday, December 31, 2014

the end is near

Here it is, the last post of 2014.  It's been another eventful year around here with WE graduating from high school and going into the Marines and Angel #1 leaving the Marines and starting a new chapter in Miami going to college and finally getting himself a girlfriend.  Angel #4 getting her drivers license and her first job and Angel #2 getting not one, but two dogs (more on that later).  Hubs has spent over 110 days out of town on various jobs, getting real success with his public speaking and stand up comedy stuff along with new business opportunities coming his way.  As for me...well, I read a bunch of books and got a sports injury (more on that later, too).

Last night was Angel #1's last night home, he left early this morning.  In a great, unplanned moment of travel karma, Rent-a-Grandma and her daughter flew out of the local airport on Dec 25, actually getting on the exact airplane that hubs and Angel #1 were getting off from on their flight home from Hawaii.  So grandma & her daughter spent the night at our house and we had a great time together and the next morning they drove to the airport and handed off their car keys to hubs who took her car back to our house, so her new car didn't have to spend a week alone in airport parking. This worked out especially great because this morning Angel #1's flight left at 6 am, so he drove himself in grandmas car, locked the keys in and the car was there waiting for grandma when her flight arrived back home a couple hours later.  How's that for perfect?  WE flies out on the 6am flight on Saturday, sadly though, someone here (hubs, not me) has to get out of bed and drive him to the airport.  WE's a little bummed out because his girlfriend left for Paris on the 25th and she'll be returning on Sunday, so he didn't get to spend as much time with her on his leave as he would have liked.  But life works that way sometimes.

Since it was #1's last night home, we decided to do something as a family and bowling became the activity of choice.  #1 does a lot of bowling in Miami and #4 goes bowling with friends occasionally, but the rest of us hadn't been on an alley in years.  We had a family bowling tournament, hubs had an old trophy he bought at a thrift store for some reason and sharpied the words #1 Bowler on the plaque, best bowling score won the trophy.  We decided to bowl 3 games, 1st game was a warm-up the the best score of the last two games won the award.  We're all pretty sucky  bowlers, so hubs score of 115 got the prize.  About the 2nd frame of the third game, I tossed Gene (my bowling ball) down the alley and something went wonky in my hip.  I ended up walking with a limp the rest of the night and finished the game with a whopping score of 66.  I'm calling it my first sports injury.

Now, for Angel #2's dog story.  Back this spring she got a little Pomeranian dog.  It was an old dog, I think maybe 14 or 15 years old.  She knew it was sick and has maybe a year to live which was perfect for her intentions.  She'd been thinking about getting a dog, but didn't know if she wanted to make the commitment to taking care of a dog with her schedule.  Well, she learned that she's more a cat person than a dog one and was biding her time until Lucky the dog met his maker.  But this week someone brought a Chihuahua into the hospital in birthing distress.  They'd bred it with a larger male and the puppies were much too big for her.  They managed to save the mother, though both puppies died and the mother needed to be spayed.  Since her wonderful owners only wanted her for breeding purposes, they were going to have the dog, who isn't much more than a puppy herself, put down.  #2 intervened and claimed responsibility for the dog so they wouldn't have to kill her and now she's got a dog she doesn't know what to do with.  If anyone here in Wisconsin is willing to pay the $125 for it to hitch a ride home with Angel #4 when she goes to visit #2 at the end of January, they can have themselves an adorable little dog who just got a second chance at life.  Let me know if you're interested.

So anyway, that's all the news that's fit to print for the moment.  Everyone have a safe and happy new year and see you in 2015!!

Friday, December 26, 2014

Silent night? Not around here

Both my little boys are home and boy, did the noise level ratchet up!  They started wrestling as soon as #1 walked in the door and, no lie, within a half an hour, WE was literally unconscious on the floor.  Fortunately he revived right away, but was disoriented for about 5 minutes.  Dumb boys.  Angel #4's boyfriend is getting the whole big brother treatment from the boys, poor kid.  I've had kids in and out of the house for the last week.  The other day, I had 2 of my kids, 3 random teenaged girls and the LP gas delivery guy all here at the same time....7:30 in the morning.  Things are a little nuts, but it's a good nuts.  I'm glad my kids are home, though since the other three are here, I'm really missing Angel #2.  Oh well, maybe this summer I'll have all my babies home again.


Tuesday, December 16, 2014

It's quiet here...a might too quiet, I'd say

Hubs is in Hawaii and Angel #4 is either working or running around with friends or her boyfriend.  It was practically a treat to have her home alone with me all day Sunday.  She's off to the basketball game tonight and it's really quiet around here.  Usually I don't mind being alone, but it's been a little lonely around here lately.  I know that's all going to change really soon.  WE comes home on Friday night and will be here until January 3.  Hubs comes home on the 25th and Angel #1 will be with him and will be here until the 31st.  So both my boys are going to be home together.  I'm looking forward to it like I usually do, but I also know that within a day those two and their constant wrestling around and one upmanship is going to drive me completely nuts and I'll be saying "isn't it time for you two to go back where you came from?"  #1 is going to be working in Hawaii with hubs this week and is in the process of flying out there right now.  He had a 3.5 hour layover in Houston, so Angel #2 picked him up and the two of them went to the Waffle House for breakfast.  #2 posted pictures of the two of them on Facebook.  I'm so glad my kids like getting together like that.  It seems like just yesterday they were arguing and locking each other out of the house.

Friday night I was home alone again and I texted my friend Connie with the simple message:  "I've got a jigsaw puzzle and a bottle of Riesling, come on over."  Well, she did and we had a great evening snacking, drinking wine and doing a puzzle together.  The problem is, we both get a little obsessive when we're doing puzzles.  She came over around 7:30.  Around 9:30 #4 came home with some friends and then headed out the door again.  Soon after #4 texted me saying they were on their last game of bowling and she'd be home soon.  I couldn't figure out why she was telling me this until she got home and I realized that it was after midnight and she knew she was going to miss her curfew.  I have no idea how it got to be midnight so quickly.  Then, the next thing I know, Connie's daughter called wondering where the heck she was since it was 2 o'clock in the morning!  I really really don't know where the time went, I suspect we were abducted by aliens.  We only had about one or two glasses of wine each, so it wasn't that.  And we didn't get the stupid puzzle done that night either!  I finally finished it up the next day.


Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Winter is definitely here

Almost a whole month has gone by with nothing written by me.  Slacker

Thanksgiving was nice.  We had a couple from our church over as well as Rent-a-Grandma.  Instead of turkey, we had chicken because there are about 2 dozen of the cluckers in my freezer and I really would like to have my freezer back.  Things went well and everyone left around 4.  We got a call from WE and chatted with him a bit, then shortly after we hung up, we got a call from Rent-a-grandma.  Her trip back home wasn't as uneventful as we would have liked and she ended up in a car accident.  Someone turned in front of her as she was going through an intersection and she kind of t-boned his car.  It was totally the other guys fault, but that didn't stop Grandmas car from getting totaled.  Fortunately, Grandma was okay and she's now in the market for a new car.  The last three times she's gotten a new car, she's told me that it was probably going to be the last car she ever bought and she keeps proving herself wrong.  Here's hoping she'll go through many many more new cars before her time is done.

Angel #4 got her first job last week and yesterday was her first day.  She's going to be a cashier at our local grocery store.  Her first day on the job got a little messed up because of the weather.  The roads were awful and she ended up in the ditch about 2 miles from the house on her way home.  She's okay and the car was okay.  I'm really proud of the way she kept her head during the situation.  She knew that hubs and I weren't home so wouldn't be much help so she called her boyfriend who lives a couple miles away and arranged for him and his dad to come and pull her out before she even called us.  That girl sure can take control of a situation.