The Measurement of Success

With less than 24 hours to go before our first big party in our new house, I walked in the door at 6:30pm Friday night to see that I still had a lot of work to do before a party could be had. A. LOT.

I dug in, and by 1:30am, I was ready for bed. After a shower. The great room (with all the boxes still piled up) was completely unpacked, organized, and decorated. The bedrooms were clean. The basement was clean, and the kitchen was getting there...

I woke up Saturday morning at 7:30 and sprayed some weeds to get my blood pumping. After an awesome bad-for-me breakfast supplied by my sweet husband, we started up again...Made the bed, cleaned up the clothes, scrubbed down the kitchen, vacuumed the basement, sanitized the bathrooms, and swept and Swiffer-wet-jetted the floors.

With one hour till the party, JR was finishing up the shopping and I was jumping into the shower...the first guests arrived promptly at 2:00pm while JR was showering.

People came and went all night - lots of great food, great drinks, great conversation, and many compliments on the house. We feel very lucky to have such great friends and family who could come share the fun of a new house with us.

The success of our housewarming party was measured in the smiles on faces, the hugs and laughter, the conversation always moving, and the completely relaxed feeling I have today as I clean up from all the fun...

For TGJ: I DID do it! Thanks for the motivation, as always!

Woot! When can we have another party???

Deadlines

I work with deadlines every day in my job...in my personal life, I tend to let things slide a bit. My husband knows this, and he sets deadlines for me to get things done. He sets these deadlines by planning things which require a specific action by me - usually to do with cleaning, packing, etc.

We have been in the house since the end of February. I still do not have everything unpacked. Two rooms in the house are still utter disasters with unpacked boxes and clutter...it is driving me nuts.

I thought that a scheduled visit from my brother and niece would get it done. Nope.
Then I was sure that a visit from my sister, brother-in-law, and 2 nieces would motivate me to finish. Negative.
Surely a visit from my PARENTS was just what I needed to get it all done. Not even close.

My husband decided on a date for a housewarming party...he is certain we can get the last two rooms done and do a good cleaning on the rest of the house before then. Uh-huh, sure. I hope so, since the party is THIS Saturday!

Keep in mind, he made the decision about a week and a half ago...right before my parents came to visit. So, last weekend was out for getting all the unpacking done because we had a full weekend of plans with the folks.

Monday night, I had a work dinner. We did some more cleaning last night (and got quite a bit done, really), but it is not finished. I am leaving this afternoon for Milwaukee for a meeting...I will not be home until Friday NIGHT. I have until about 1:00pm on Saturday to get the house ready...get some caffeine ready! I will definitely need it!

Recurring Nightmares

When I was young I had a recurring nightmare...it lasted for many years, and occasionally it will pop up again. It never changes. I can never keep it going, I can never stop it before it ends, and I can never manipulate it in any way.

That is different than some other recurring dreams I have. I have been able to start a dream again the night after the initial sequence so I can see the outcome. I can change somethings in a dream when I have it a second time. I dream in color. I can read in my dreams. I can have different points of view in my dreams. Some people claim those things are not possible. I disagree.

My childhood recurring nightmare goes a little something like this:

My family is going camping. I am very young...only my parents and my middle sister and I are in the dream, so my brother and youngest sister were not yet born. We have the tent set up, a campfire ready to go, and fishing poles set out. My dad has a conversation with the troll who lives in the zip-up window in the tent. Yep. A troll...we live amicably with the troll. My dad reminds him that the rule is, "We do not bother you; you do not bother us." Mom is staying behind to organize things and get the campfire started so that when Dad, Teresa, and I get back from fishing we can cook up the catch.

When the three of us traipse back to the campsite, I notice something weird. Mom is picking up some bread, and she has a blank expression with glassy eyes. I ask, "What's wrong?" "Nothing, Dear. Everything is fine. Just fine," she replies while slowly putting the bread on a paper plate and reaching for the butter knife. I freak out when I realize that is no butter knife. That is the troll from the tent window! He has transformed himself into the butter knife and put Mom in a trance! I scream it at the top of my lungs, "That is not a knife Mommy! That is the troll! Don't touch it!" She replies, "Everything is fine Dear. Nothing to worry about," in a sing-songy manner. She reaches for the knife, and I WAKE UP!

Every time. That is the point at which I am jerked awake. I have tried a hundred times to see the rest of the dream, to change the outcome, to get rid of the troll... he haunts me, and I have no idea where that dream came from.

Omens

Not the evil kind. The kinda funny-when-you-think-about-it omens. I saw one of my least favorites this morning, so I decided to break down some of my list of omens:

1. Seeing a news chopper hovering right over your route to work. It inevitably means that if I left even a minute late I will be late to work. Luckily I left a couple of minutes early today, and I made it into work with a smile on my face.

2. Getting home to a dark house when you know you left a light on. Hopefully it's just a burned out light bulb. Likely the electricity is out. On Sunday, our house was the in the middle of a 7-block radius outage. We went to the movies for an unplanned date night. It was awesome.

3. Noticing that your vehicle is leaning to one side. Maybe you parked on a weird hill. Maybe the tire is low. Maybe it is completely flat. I made it 5 minutes from the office when my truck was at about a 30 degree angle left compared to the car in front of me. I pulled over, didn't panic, called my husband, called the tire store to let them know we'd be coming, then started lifting the truck with the jack so it would be ready for JR. It took several hours (since JR was a good two hours away in rush hour traffic, but he came because he loves me), but we got 4 new tires for the truck and had an impromptu dinner out at a local deli. Good times.

4. Hearing running water in an empty bathroom. Sure, somebody could have accidentally left the sink on. In my case, while someone took a shower upstairs the toilet downstairs was overflowing so much that it was pouring into the floor. Sigh. The plumbing problems we've experienced over the last 3 months have been AWESOME (sarcasm intended). We did finally get it taken care of (tree roots removed!), and we learned that being home owners is fun, exciting, scary, and expensive. We were able to laugh it off together, though.

There are many, many more "omens" like these...what are some of yours?

The Exes

So, I have a few exes...yes, we’ll say “few.” They’ve each meant something different to me, and they are important parts of my PAST. Those relationships helped me become the loving, honest, open, and caring wife I am today. Here’s a recap:

The very first high school boyfriend
The obsessive, abusive high school boyfriend
The wishy-washy college-aged boyfriend
The very first college boyfriend
The passionate love of my 20s
The fiancé

Being in Sync

My husband and I are in sync. We can be thinking the exact thought at the same time. It’s weird sometimes. For example, on our way up to his family reunion on Friday, I was playing iPod DJ (which is a big honor). I picked out a few songs, and he asked, “You know what would be an awesome next song?” I replied, “Well, I have one picked out, but what would you like to hear?” He gave me the song title, and I gasped as I showed him the highlighted song on the screen...the exact song he wanted to hear. WOW.

Now, some of you might just mark this as coincidence. Some might say it was the next logical song choice, so of course you both picked it. Instead, I say it is because we are perfect for each other. He is absolutely my other half. I do not want to think about a life without him. He is my soul mate. He is my best friend. He is the person who knows me like no other can. He is my rock (and my roll, and my punk, pop, country, soul, blues, etc.). We finish each other's sentences. We say exactly the same thing at the same time. We freak each other out when we have the same idea about something. We laugh at each other when it happens.

I know it seems disgusting. I even find it nauseating at times. We are so shmoopy. We cannot help it. I am madly in love with that man!


During our weekend, I ventured off with JR's older sister and a cousin. We had a fabulous time sharing some drinks and participating in karaoke. Well, I sang while they watched and laughed. That was on night two of the trip, and JR's cousin said to me, "You know, I have learned a couple of things this weekend. You like to have a good time, and you absolutely love JR." I just smiled, nodded, and replied, "Yes. Yes I do. With my whole heart." I meant it for both things. I love to have a good time with my whole heart, and I love my husband with my whole heart. They go hand-in-hand...in sync.

A Poem

May
Your

Days
Always
Dawn

Happily
And
Serenely.

Cherish
All
New
Challenges,
Ever
Ready.

-------------------

I wrote that poem on August 26, 2009. The day after I found out my dad had prostate cancer. The first letter of every word, reading down, was my inspiration for the poem.

My dad has always been a very healthy man. He worked a full-time,manual-labor job for 35 years. He worked on his farm and yard in his "spare" time. He drank a lot of water and no booze. He like ice cream and candy and salty foods, and those were his only weaknesses as far as I remember.

He started going to the doctor in his late 40's/early 50's for regular "I'm not getting any younger" visits. He had a physical, and he did learn he needed to cut down on salt...his sugars, however, were fine. Go figure. The man eats ice cream and candy like it's going out of style, and his sugars are normal. I wish I could say that. His blood pressure was a bit out of whack, but he is treating it medication and seems to be controlled. He goes in for his regular visits, and his visit last fall showed something a little not normal.