Reason for Remembering Why I Blog:

So we are officially moved in. After the mad rush to begin the move, welcoming my brother and his family for Thanksgiving, and then getting back to finishing the move/clear out of the other house, my life is settling back to its normal craziness.

Which is why I have been unable to write.

When I volunteered to be president of a spouse group, I knew it would be challenging. Even though it is only the spouses within my husband's building, the numbers of problems/issue still add up to a point where I wonder just how the hell these people made it to adulthood.

So I am dealing with:

• an advisor that thinks I am her personal secretary
• an active duty member who treats his volunteers (my spouses) like a thorn in his side
• a person in charge of a base-wide support group who doesn't have the first clue as to how many families are within my care (it is around 100)
• a bunch of talk about how great the spouse group is, yet the things I need, like an up to date roster, are taking for-ev-er to compile from the squadron secretaries
• an active duty Christmas party committee that thinks we are a booster club instead of a support group for families and spouses

So, before I change into my "mommy" hat and head over to the school to assist Captain Destructo's class in owl pellet dissection (I am VERY excited about that...too cool!), I had to remember why I began donning my "blog" hat...to vent, get things/problems out of my head, share ideas, get advice, and jot down my blessing or frustrations for the week. While today's list does not even begin to compile all my frustrations, but a mere fragment of my issues at the moment, sometimes it is good to get it out from rattling around my brain and bugging me every minute of the day so I can get on with my life and focus.

On the bright side, the four of us are going to see "A Christmas Story" tonight as a play. Can't wait!

YOU USED...ALL THE TAPE...ON PURPOSE!!!!

Reason for Thanks:

Things I am thankful for:

• this move finally getting underway
• Studly's squadron voting on what they want to do today for team building and decided it will be to help us move and take down our fence
• two high school friends calling me up out of the blue and even though it was a challenge and bad timing, meeting up with them for dinner last night
• Studly being able to meet us for that dinner also, even though he needed to do about a million other things for work
• our boys and her girls getting along like peas and carrots during last night's impromptu dinner
• my brother is emotionally healthy from last week's robbing
• my mother is done with her term paper
• Captain Destructo finding the tick on his body before it got all swollen with his blood
• my dogs not escaping even though Studly left the gate open this morning
• the problems I have, because they aren't really problems, only speed bumps that slow me down
• Chaos Boy getting glasses--looks purty handsome in them, too
• friends who offer endless support and even bring us frozen meals to help us through the past two weeks of empty refrigeratordom in anticipation of moving
• the boys teachers who have been very understanding this month with all the confusion in our house

But mostly for:

• my BFF's grandfather dying just as he wanted: at home, surrounded by his family, and on Veteran's Day--a fitting end to a man who served in the Air Force for 30 years and then led Eagle Scouts for many years after that
• the way I felt the NEED to go visit him and my BFF a month ago instead of waiting for Christmas--so happy I listened to that inner voice telling me to go
• a mutual childhood friend that flew a red eye to be with my BFF Monday at the memorial service to represent all her friends
• the road I have been blessed to travel--even with feeling like a passenger instead of the driver most days!

Have a great weekend everyone! I will be busy!

Reason for Grunt Work:

So we are finally moving. We have over a week, so we are pacing ourselves.

Studly and the boys have been using the dolly and moving furniture. Not fun, but you notice furniture. It's the big manly stuff that manly men move.

I spent all day yesterday moving the little stuff. Closets and cabinets and the little flotsam that you don't notice everyday, but the crap you do notice if you go to look for it.

Grunt work.

Last night when my manly men can back from moving all the manly men stuff, I asked Studly if he noticed I hung the curtain, secured the bookcases to the walls, brought the pillows, cushions, laundry items, lamps, rugs, china, board games, books, towels, cookbooks, food, candles, jars and unpacked the boxes he had left the night before.

He honestly answered no.

Which in my head, plays like a movie:

Studly walks into the house, looks around at how NEAT AND ORDERLY everything looks, because everything is in place, and wonders, "Just what the hell did she do today? Looks like she did nothing...so why is she tired?"

Wisely, he did not state that out loud. But I knew he was thinking it. Oh, yes. I knew.

I hate grunt work. Today is another day of grunt work. I am rewarding myself with a trip to Costco this afternoon to stock our house with food.

How much you wanna bet he notices that????

Reason for When to Say When:

There are many many many reasons why I don't drink hard liquor socially. Please don't confuse my confessions with bragging; these tales are told with my tail between my legs and a shout out to God for the safety of those who crossed my drunk ass path and my own continuing existence.


Back in undergrad, I began a love affair with bourbon. Maker's Mark specifically. Once you begin to request a certain liquor in your drinks, it is definitely a love affair. If I simply said, "Bourbon and Coke," we may still only be acquaintances. But no, I was a Maker's Mark gal. I lived in an extremely small college town and was extremely lucky that me and Maker's Mark escaped any scandal. It did facilitate some fun, but nothing to be too ashamed about.


Until grad school. In grad school, I was thrown into a very lonely situation. Mix in high stress and it turned ugly. One of my students didn't believe I liked bourbon, so he challenged me to do a shot. Or four. One night I drove through an open bay in a fire station. Another morning I woke up, and realizing I had no memory of the night before, ran out to my car praying beyond all hope that nobody or nothing was attached to my front grill. That morning changed everything for me. I realized I could not be trusted with drinking hard liquor and switched to beer only in social situations and never, ever, drove again if I had more than one drink. I was not going to chance hurting someone.


On my honeymoon, for some reason I thought my tolerance would improve with my love for Studly and proceeded to match him gin and tonic for gin and tonic. The man had to beat my sloppy ass off with a stick that night, and needless to say, I had the hangover of all hangovers the next day as our taxi driver zoomed along the twisty turny roads of Jamaica at about 90mph. Ouch.


So me and liquor were no longer in love, but fierce enemies in social situations. At home, I could have one or two and not want more. But mix in a beach party with my beloved or if drinking in a bar, and I didn't know when to say when. And that only happens with hard liquor.


That said....last night I walked in the door and made myself and rum and coke. I was celebrating. Celebrating the fact my bag was lighter than when I left two hours earlier. My bag was lighter due to the fact someone else was now in possession of the secretary binder for our pastoral council. And someone else was secretary because I put my foot down and said no, I could not continue for another year...I give enough to our church with my teaching first communion class every week...so no, I think someone else can be elected this year. And so it came to be.


Yay me! And my one rum and coke was mighty delicious sitting in the safety of my house, in my jammies, and watching Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. I am so happy my time as secretary is over. I am even happier I stood my ground and didn't cave.

And also happy that little by little, I am finding my strength of knowing when to say when in every aspect of my life.

RTSF: Erie Canal

I like how my boys sing modern songs. And sometimes, not so modern songs. And sometimes the song is "Erie Canal" because it was stuck in my mind, they listened, and continued the cycle of singing about endless work.

It's a beautiful thing.

I learned "Erie Canal" back when I was in elementary school and I am proud to pass along the song I tend to sing whenever doing something tedious, like ironing, mincing garlic, or shopping for shoes.

Erie Canal

by Thomas S. Allen

I've got a mule, and her name is Sal,
Fif-teen miles on the Er-ie canal,
She's a good ol' worker and a good ol' pal,
Fifteen miles on the Er-ie can-al,
We've hauled some barges in our day,
Filled with lum-ber coal and hay,
And ev'ry inch of the way we know
From Al-ba-ny to Buff-a-lo OH

Chorus

Low bridge ev'-ry bod-y down,
Low bridge for we're com-in to a town,
And you al-ways know your neighbor,
You'll always know your pal,
If you've ev-er navigated on the Er-ie can-al

Chorus

We'd better look round for a job old gal,
Fif-teen miles - on the Er-ie can-al,
You bet your life I wouldn't part with Sal,
Fif-teen miles on the Er-ie can-al,
Giddap 'there gal we've passed that lock,
We'll make Rome fore six o'clock,
So, it's one more trip and then we'll go,
Right back home to Buff-a-lo OH

Chorus

Oh, where would I be if I lost my pal?
Fif-teen miles on the Er-ie can-al.
Oh, I'd like to see a mule as good as Sal,
Fif-teen miles on the Er-ie can-al,
A friend of mine once got her sore,
Now he's got a busted jaw,
'Cause she let fly with her iron toe,
And kicked him in to Buff-a-lo OH

Chorus

Don't have to call when I want my Sal,
Fif-teen miles on the Er-ie can-al,
She trots from her stall like a good old gal,
Fif-teen miles on the Er-ie can-al,
I eat my meals with Sal each day,
I eat beef and she eats hay,
And she ain't so slow if you want to know,
She put the "Buff" in Buff-a-lo OH