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.

I don't care what the calendar says, it's now officially winter in my book

Tanya, I'm glad I'm not the only one that gets a little depressed by the American Dream song.  I don't feel old, but society keeps telling me its happening.  Stupid society.

There have been a lot of young people deaths recently that keep reminding me that a persons time can come at any time.  I saw in the obituaries about a month ago that a 22 year old young man died.  I didn't know him, but recognized the name.  His parents were in the same Lamaze class as us when Angel #1 was in the works and this kid was only about 2 weeks younger than my little boy.  I don't know the circumstances, but it was just an unfriendly reminder that we're not guaranteed to live longer than our children.  That reminder reared its ugly head again yesterday when I learned of a fatal car accident that happened less than 2 miles from our house.  Two young guys, 21 & 23 were killed, one of whom I believed graduated with Angel #2.  Angel #4 was at an overnight school event with one of the boys brothers and the poor kid came home from a fun event only to find out that his big brother was dead.  A 43 year old member of our local school board also died last week.  So many young people dying when they should have had a long life ahead of them yet.  Time and chance happens to us all.

Angel #4 had her first driving in snow experience last night.  She went to a school dance and said she did a bit of skidding on the drive home. I hate snow and get so nervous both when I'm driving in it and when I know one of my kids is out driving in it.  Since it wasn't a lot of snow and chances are it'll melt soon, they only plowed the main roads and left all the back roads alone.  Here's hoping for some sun to melt that stuff away, though from what I can see, we're not supposed to have a day above freezing until Saturday, so it may be awhile.

WE is all settled in at his new base in Missouri.  He said its in the middle of nowhere and he's not liking the cold spending the last few months in beautiful San Diego weather.  It's a mixed base of both Marines and Army and he said the Army guys were told to stay away from the Marines because they're crazy.  Army is also considered lower than the Marines, so he said he's experienced soldiers older than him running ahead to open doors for him.  Needless to say, he's enjoying the experience.  He's also seeing firsthand that there is a definite difference between Army and Marines.  The base where he's at also is where the army holds boot camp and he said they share a chow hall with those guys.  He's shocked to see the recruits in boot camp talking, laughing and on their cell phones during their meals "just like they're regular people, mom!"  When he was in basic, not only did they have their phones taken away the minute they arrived at camp, they also had about 5 minutes to eat and not only did they not have time to socialize, they wouldn't dare as that would be a sure disciplinary action.  WE tells the story where he got caught smuggling ice cream in his cup of milk and when asked why he did it, he responded "because this recruit likes ice cream, sir!".  He then spent the whole meal time having to tell his drill instructor all the other things besides ice cream that he like, he said the list was getting pretty ridiculous by the time the guy finally let him go and he got about 30 seconds to wolf down as much food as he could.  So yeah, chatting with someone on a cell phone wasn't really an option.  I guess that's why they're called the few and the proud, there just aren't that many people nuts enough to join up.

Getting old sucks enough without having to drag Jack & Diane into it

I've noticed something about popular music that kind of says something about today's generation and  I got it full force on my way home from work today.  Angel #4 is jealous of people my age for getting to be teenagers in the 80's.  Though I didn't realize it at the time, looking back now, the 80's were a great time to be a teen.  We had John Hughes, Ronald Reagan, Eddie Murphy (R-rated, not todays PG version), tight-rolled jeans and some really incredible hair.  The mid-80's were pretty much the peak of the glam age - I had hot-pink mascara for pete's sake!  Like #4 says, the 80's were cool, nobody says they wish they were a teenager in the 90's.  Our music was pretty awesome too.  For the most part it was pretty optimistic and, I'll admit, rather self-centered, but that's what the 80's were all about.

Fast-forward to today.  We've got All About That Bass and Secrets (I don't care if the world knows what my secrets are) which is all about, this is who I am, like it or lump it, suckers.  Sorry, that stuff just didn't fly when I was in high school.  You did NOT go to school in your pajamas, you DID comb your hair daily (and applied about 2 lbs of Aquanet) and no matter what Madonna wore onstage, people did NOT see your bra straps out in public.  #4 looks back in envy of the days when people made an effort before going out in public.  I'm not saying everyone should plaster on the make-up and spend an hour on their hair every day, but fresh clothes and a shower certainly shouldn't be out of line.  But then when I think about the other song I heard on the radio today and I understand their look of defeat.  Yes, it was the dreaded American Dream.  The song that states that it's "not the same summer song that you used to know, Jack left Diane 30 years ago."  Jack and Diane are MY people and they need to keep them out of their depressing little ditties.  J & D were all about making plans for the future, doing something with themselves, having dreams; to drag them into a song whining about whatever happened to the American Dream is just depressing us all.  No wonder teenagers can't seem to find the energy to get out of their pajamas in the morning if all they think they have to look forward to is just surviving life.  Okay, bitter middle-aged rant over.  Now I've got to go get my broom and tell those rotten kids to get off of my lawn.

On a totally unrelated note.  We've really got to get the curtains up in the living room.  With the big patio door in the middle of the wall and all the people out there shining deer down our road, I feel like I"m in a big fish bowl, or that alien zoo episode of the Twilight Zone.

Another parental last....YAY!

Angel #4, my baby, turned 16 on Monday.  Today, after 2 1/2 hours in the DMV, she received her driver's license.  That's it for me.  No more teaching kids how to drive.  No more temporary license restrictions.  No more having to go everywhere with my kid so they can get more driving practice.  Done.  Over.  She did really well on the behind the wheel test as well, only losing one point out of a possible max of 25, and she feels he just docked her the point so she wouldn't get a perfect score, because when she told the girl in line next to her why she got a point off, that girl said she never even looked in her mirrors while #4 was told she was supposed to check surrounding traffic  in her mirrors every 6-8 seconds.  Sounds a little nit-picky to me, but who cares?  She got her license!!  She's already made plans for the weekend.  I may never see my car again, but at least I don't have to haul her to the mall anymore.

In other wonderful news, the carpet was laid in our living room and new family room yesterday.  The guy finished around 5pm and as soon as #4, WE's girlfriend & I got home from belly dancing class, we moved the furniture back in the rooms and it looks great and feels so roomy after being crammed in the dining room for the last 3 months.

Yesterday was the last belly dance class.  I'd like to say we all improved drastically over the course of 6 weeks....but I can't, because we all still looked as uncoordinated the 6th week as we did the 1st, though Angel #4 caught on pretty well and could do the moves much better than the rest of us.  Next adventure?  Yoga

it's been a month already?

Okay, this is what's happened since I last wrote:

Life is fine
Went to San Diego for a weekend to watch WE graduate Basic Training
WE is now a Marine
The new Marine is currently home on leave and getting bored and ready to go back to work
The living room still isn't done being remodeled

I guess that's it.  Look at all the time I could save by only doing monthly recaps rather than writing something every week.

Oh, we did do something fun in San Diego.  WE's girlfriend and I flew out and met hubs, his dad & Angel #1 for the basic training graduation.  WE hasn't seen any of us since he left back in July.  I told his girlfriend that he was going to hug her first and she seemed to think that because I was his mother, I'd get the first hug.  So I devised a plan.  When the guys were dismissed and allowed to come over to their families finally, all of us stood in a long line and nobody could move, so WE had to make the decision who was going to get first hugs. (yeah, I'm kind of mean that way)  He took one look at us and knew what we were doing and said: are you really going to do this to me??  I was right, the girlfriend got the first hug, which is fine, I'm sure she missed him more than I did.

back in the swing of things...sort of

Things are sort of back to normal now with school going on.  One of my coworkers husbands is fighting cancer and she has to take every Thursday & Friday off to bring him to doctor appointments, so we've had to bring in substitutes for her, then this week, another ones mother died, so we've had to fill in for her as well. It makes things a little chaotic since I have to adjust my work hours to do the stuff they'd normally be doing but that makes it so I don't get much of my work done, and I haven't been able to catch up on that stuff since school started.  When I walked in that first day, there were huge piles of papers & files on my desk I needed to deal with, I still haven't gotten to the bottom of those piles, or my emails either, for that matter.  Oh well, I'll catch up eventually, at least I know I'm needed.

Last night was our first belly dancing class.  Over Labor Day weekend, I went to a local art festival with a couple friends.  One of the demonstrations was for a belly dancing school.  The three of us stood there for a little bit watching the dancers, then someone (I KNOW it wasn't me) said that we should give it a try.  We discussed it for a bit, then one of the dancers came running over to hand us a brochure saying that it looked like we really wanted to learn to belly dance.  So, with that little nudge, we signed ourselves up and were committed.  I talked Angel #4 into joining us while WE's girlfriend got talked into it by her mother.  A few more friends also got talked into it and by next week, there should be 7 of us in our belly dancing posse.  Though I did make the observation that it looks more like we're doing the hokey-pokey than belly dancing, but I'm hoping we all get a bit better as time goes on.

final bash of summer

Angel #4 is having the final summer bash before the dreaded school starts.  There are about 8 teens in my yard having a fire and for some reason, they also have badminton rackets, hula hoops and a frisbee.  I don't know and am not going to ask.  She pulled a real coup by getting the cute new boy in school over here, so that'll give her a few extra points.  The fact that he's a junior and drives just has added cachet.  All the girls are spending the night here, which means that somewhere, 4 girls are going to have to find a place to sleep.  They usually all just crash in the living room, but since that is still under repair, I'm not exactly what they're going to do.  Oh well, not my problem.  That's one of the nice things about your kids getting older, you don't have to be all responsible for feeding and taking care of their friends when they come over.  I just go to bed and the next day find out they were making waffles at 3am.  Whatever.

Friday night was the first home football game of the season.  And what a game it was!  Probably the most stressful game I've ever been to.  Our team was one touchdown behind during most of the 2nd half, only to make a touchdown in the last 45 seconds of the game.  The crowd went wild.  But we weren't done yet.  The opposing team then managed to get a touch down with only 16 seconds left on the clock.  Talk about a bunch of dejected Panther's fans.  But our dejection turned out to be premature.  With 4.3 seconds left on the clock,  there was one last chance to make a touchdown, and wouldn't you know it - they did.  A 1 handed catch with 0 seconds left on the clock.  The bleachers were shaking and I still had a sore throat an hour afterwards from all the cheering I did.  It was a good night.

Angel #1 found a place to live in Miami and will be moving in on Tuesday.  I'm sure that's a big load off his mind...as well as his friend Jesse's mom's mind.  That admirable woman has hosted 3 Marines in her house for the last 2 weeks while the boys were trying to find a place to live.  She deserves a medal.