First, some mood music: When we moved into this house, it was December of 2000 and the boys were eight and five. They were a great age for giving us input on how they wanted their rooms decorated. The younger boy? Well, he wanted his walls white. Weird, I know, but that’s what he got on three of them. The fourth wall had wallpaper on it–pink hearts–that the previous owners said they put up because the wallpaper under THAT just would not come off. So we wallpapered over the pink hearts with a nice vertical stripe pattern of blue, white, and brick red. The older boy more than made up…
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Call Me Selfish, But I’m Keeping Zumba Just For Me.
Believe it or not, I was not active as a younger person. Unlike my sister, who began playing soccer as a child and continued into college as I recall, I never participated in any sports other than the occasional trip to the bowling alley. I was more of the Couch Potato variety. When Jim and I moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin, I was 24 and decided that I should start exercising. I found a little women’s-only gym, got a tour from the owner, and signed up. I remember vividly how I used to be very jealous of the ladies who would get on the stairmaster for a full thirty minutes: whenever…
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And, Just Like That, The Band-Aid Was Off.
When Jim and I were newly married, he was in the Navy, on sea duty. His ship’s battle group was out to sea quite a bit. In fact, in the first four years we were married, he went on three six-month cruises. That’s in addition to one-, two-, or three months out here and there, as well as the cruises that only lasted a week or two. Ahead of his departure, it was awful. The anticipation of being apart was really pure hell. All of the preparations we had to make each time he left and just the emotional roller coaster we went through on a continual basis was awful.…
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If Baby #2 Is a Girl and They Name Her Melisa, I Will REALLY Freak Out.
I actually woke myself up from a dream this morning, laughing. I have been dying to blog about it all day and now that I can actually sit down and do it, I’m thinking that it may not entertain all of you as much as it entertained me, but I’m going to give it a shot. First, the disclaimer: The following scenario is completely a dream. My dream, in fact. There is not an ounce of anything that has really happened–ever–in this story with the exception of my drinking the occasional Diet Rite and Julie/Jules being my sister and frequent concert companion. This account is merely for entertainment purposes. The…