Missing Mike

Yesterday was Mother's Day and we enjoyed the company of my in-laws for several hours after church. Since it was so beautiful, we decided to cook out. It has been a long time since we've done this.....maybe since before my BIL passed away last year. I'm not really sure why we stopped. Personally, things are not as much fun without him. He was always the life of the party. He had such a great attitude and was such a likeable man. Anyway, while we were eating yesterday, we all talked a lot about him. We were sitting out on the deck....the deck that he built for us almost two summers ago.....the deck he never got to enjoy much....and his last building project before he died. In a way, it made me sad to be out there enjoying ourselves without him. It seems that every time we go out there for any length of time, our conversation always ends up being about him. The last year of his life, he was here so much helping us with so many household projects. It's nice to be able to look around and remember that "hey, Mike helped us do that."

Yesterday was hard for me though. We used to all get together for Mother's Day and cook out and I really missed him not being here. I started thinking about all of the things I missed about him......they are too many to number but here are a few things I loved most about him:

• He was the easiest person in the world to get along with. He loved people.
• He would volunteer to do anything...no matter how dirty the job, you could always count on him.
• He was very funny. He was so much fun.
• He loved classic rock and we used to spend Friday nights at our house playing board games and listening to WQUT.
• He loved his kids....to a fault sometimes. He hardly ever told them no and was always, always with them.
• He was an excellent carpenter. He worked with his hands and was very good at it.
• He didn't have an enemy. Seriously, we've tried to sit down and think of one person he didn't like or vice versa and have never been able to come up with one.
• He loved the Lord.
• He loved children. He worked with many different local groups to help troubled teens. He was always great with our girls and they adored him.

There are so many other great things about him and if I tried to name them all, I would be sitting here the rest of my life. Oh, I have to add that he was THE BIGGEST UT fan ever! I am fully convinced of that! He was a very strong man and we miss him very much.

As I was looking through old photos this week, I found one that I fell in love with. Mike loved all things Harley Davidson. It was his dream to own one. About a year before he died, he bought one. He loved it and was so proud of it. Shortly after getting it, he went on dialysis and became very weak. He still rode the bike but it was hard for him to hold it up. Then he had his kidney/pancreas transplant and died five weeks later. We are so thankful for his life and for the time we had with him. He was only 47 when he passed away and I'm happy that for 11 of those years, I was able to call him my brother-in-law. In many ways, I was closer to him than I am to my own brother. I miss him. I can't wait to see him again one day.

Note to Self

So, things have been going well for me the past few months. I've been busy, but things have been good. So good in fact, that I've managed to gain back ten pounds of the weight I had lost. Did you hear me? TEN pounds! When I think of how hard I worked to get that off of me and how easy it was to put back on, it makes me ill. Now it's time to start all over. Every time I think of starting over, I immediately think I'll take the easy way out and buy some diet pills and I'm good to go. That thought lasts all of about five minutes before I realize that it's not that easy. It was a lot of work to drop the twenty total pounds I dropped. It took several months and lots of hard work. Grrrrrr......

I find myself two days away from summer intersession at school. I've chose to pack four classes into the summer (and my advisor is horrified by my decision to do so) and they are all fast track classes except one. That one is my most important class (Anatomy & Physiology I) and it's an online class. The other three classes will zip by. I'll start with Psych on Wednesday and that class runs every day for three weeks and then it's over. I hope I've not duped myself into thinking it'll be too easy. I think it'll be easy enough but I realize that three weeks is FAST and there'll be a lot of reading and memorizing. I think I'm up for it. Once this class is over, my online Anatomy class begins, along with my Prob&Stats class. The math class is a five week class and it's over. The Anatomy will be ongoing from June 3 to August 12. Anyway, when math class ends, my computer class begins. It's also a five week class and I think it'll be fairly easy. I mean, I spend my life on a computer so if I can't do well with it, then I have real issues. All of this is just to say that I'll be really busy.

Add to this, the fact that we homeschool year round. The girls will be working through the summer while I am in class. When I get home, we'll work on the studies that require my help. If that isn't enough, pile on this whole ten extra pounds thing. How does one diet when on a fast paced time scale? Thank goodness WW recipes are fairly simple to prepare! And since Logan (at least right now) wants to go to culinary school when she graduates, she will be getting most of the supper duties. It's a new season in our lives.....one that I pray I can handle.

So, this portion of the post is mainly for msyelf.....

Goals 4 Summer: Do not neglect family, do well in all four classes (strive to make A's), see to it that supper is always on the table by 7:30, eat healthy (even in the midst of stress), work hard with the girls and their summer studies, and remember that you can't do it all (know when to say no!). After all, look how long it took Solomon to build the Temple!

Books and Calculators and Finals, Oh My!

It's finals week and my final is first thing tomorrow morning. I've studied until my brain can't take in any more information. So in preparation for tomorrow, I'm going to........

 

I hope I have time for much more blogging in the very near future. I miss you guys!

Get A Life....Seriously!

Seriously, what is the deal with truckers? Don't get me wrong....I know some of them are nice normal people. But what's with the male truckers who feel the need to express themselves to other women drivers?

I'm sure as a child, you remember being in the car with your parents on your way to some sweet vacation spot (for me it was usually always Myrtle Beach). You're driving along and you come upon an 18-wheeler. So, you do what any normal American child has been taught to do. You start making a pumping action with your arm so that the trucker will blow his horn. Just go ahead and admit it....we've all done it. We can wallow in our humiliation together.

This past week, my mom was visiting from West Virginia. We headed into town to do some shopping. As we were driving, I heard mom start giggling. I asked her what was up and she told me to look out her window. I glanced out to see this 18-wheeler driving beside us. The driver of the truck had held up a cardboard sign to his window and was smiling real big at my mom. His handwritten sign said "Hi Pritty." Ok, first of all, that's so lame. The man had a pre-written cardboard sign in his truck, which means that he does this often! That's just wrong people! If that's not enough, the ding dong misspelled pretty! BAH! My mom was totally embarrassed and we couldn't stop laughing!

Here's my advice to all these hard working truckers......#1 stop being so lame. It's not very attractive. # 2, and most importantly, learn to spell! As my good friend Jenny would say, sheeshamoley! Pretty really isn't a hard word to spell and if you're going to use it, you really should know how to spell it!

That's my two cents for the day........

X-14

The good people over at Mom Central were kind enough to include me in the testing of another product recently. I received a bottle of X-14 Mold & Mildew Stain Remover and quickly got to work. Now, I love to clean my bathrooms. Nothing thrills me more than to walk into the bathroom and see everything all shiny and clean. Having said that, I do not like to deal with mildew and it plagues my shower curtain all the time.

This week, I happened to have overnight company coming. When they called to say they were coming early, I panicked since I didn't have time to wash the shower curtain. I grabbed the X-14 and gave it a quick squirt. When I came back a few minutes later, the work was all done. The mildew stains were gone and everything smelled fresh and clean. Problem solved just in time! There was no scrubbing involved. You just squirt and go! It worked wonderfully for me and this is a product I will use in the future.

If you have problems with mold and mildew, give X-14 a try. I think you will be just as satisfied as I was!

Christos Anesti!!!

To all of my Orthodox brothers and sisters around the world, Happy Pascha! Christos Anesti!

Love Me Some Ice Cream

I love me some ice cream. I love it for dessert. I love it for a snack. I love it for breakfast. I love it before bed. I never turn it down! With so many companies making it and so many varieties, I never get bored where flavors are concerned.

When the good people over at Mom Central asked if I'd like to sample some new flavors, I jumped on the chance. They were kind enough to send me some samples of the new Haagen-Dazs five. It is made with only five ingredients and has less fat than other types of ice cream (ah, let's face it....all ice cream is fattening and that's why we love it!). When the UPS guy knocked on my door to deliver the samples, I almost trampled him! Nothing comes between mamma and her ice cream!

I received samples of the ginger, mint, brown sugar, and passion fruit. I gathered the family around as I opened each container. Of course, I got the first taste and then I passed each container on to the family. Passion fruit is quickly becoming my favorite! It is very rich and creamy. I think the only thing more exciting than finishing this batch is going out and getting more! As a matter of fact, I think I'll go out and get the new chocolate flavor this weekend. If you haven't tried the new Five, I urge you to do so. It's worth every last spoonful :-)

Ten On Tuesday: 10 Signs You're Getting Older

I could probably list a bunch but I'll stick with ten :-)

1. I get excited about reading the news online every morning.
2. By the end of the day, my knees are killing me from going up and down the stairs all day....and there are only about ten stairs.
3. I actually like to scrub the bathroom.
4. Cleaning out the refrigerator is my idea of a party!
5. I have no idea what a Pokemon is :-)
6. Gaining weight is EASY to do! When I was young, I could eat all day and not gain an ounce.
7. My idea of "going out" is a sit down meal and a trip to Walmart on Friday night.
8. I get heartburn. I swore that it didn't exist as a teenager because I never experienced it!
9. My kids have no idea what I'm talking about when I mention the Roger Rabbit or the Electric Slide.
10. The word stress has a permanent place in my life :-)

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