Monthly Archives: April 2014

1. Hope that I haven’t thrown you for a loop without knowing how many things to expect on Friday but I have minutes to type as my parents are mere miles away but arriving a few hours before I expected them.  Not that it’s a bad thing at all except for the fact I was counting on using every available minute today to get the house squared away because even though I’ve known for months they were arriving today, I waited until the last possible second to clean.

Last minute.

Motivating Sus since 1969.

2.  It’s not often that I find myself wandering down the alley behind a grocery store with a wet behind having narrowly escaped being on the 5:00 news but it happened.  I went to see my usual guy at the nail salon and just after we’d gotten past the part where I have to grip the handles of the chair to keep still while they use the ridiculously ticklish scrubby brush, the mood TOOK A TURN.  This guy walked into the salon and my tech suddenly stopped what he was doing and his face turned angry red and he started shaking his head and saying, “Why is he here?”  Being the nosy person that I am, I might have said something along the lines of, “Do you know him?” and then he said, “He killed my friend and he’s already out of jail.”

So, not being quite sure what Emily Post would advise in that situation, I said, “I’m very sorry” and that was all he needed to tell me about how he was going to call his family to come down and do bodily harm to this person and that’s when I might have dialed 9 -1- and had my finger hovering to push the other 1.  It was the Crips and the Bloods, right there in my nondescript strip mall pedicure place.  I was envisioning FILM AT 11  and trying to figure out how I was politely going to GET THE HECK OUT OF DODGE and meanwhile he’s trading insults that most kids would get soap in their mouths for and he’s not paying attention to what he’s doing and he ended up aiming the water hose just a little too high and soaking the seat and my shorts in the process.

Now, normally this would not have bothered me too terribly much except for the fact that I’d walked to the nail salon and was now facing the prospect of walking back home in front of many, many shoppers with a wet behind and that was a little mortifying.  Even more mortifying was that my guy ended up getting so worked up that he walked off in the middle of my pedicure and left the store.  I’d never been abandoned mid-treatment before and wasn’t quite sure how to factor that into my tip but I wasn’t complaining because at this point I was happy that if a rumble was going down, I had at least a few minutes to get the heck out of Dodge before he came back.

So I skedaddled.

And walked home in the alleyway behind the shopping center with a wet butt so no one would see me, shaking my head at the weirdness that happens when you least expect it and wondering if this means I have to find a new nail place or if I should go back for more blog material.

3.  Travis competed in Special Olympics this week and won two third place ribbons and one first place ribbon.  The look on his face as he got off the bus was just priceless.

He wanted to wear his ribbons to physical therapy to show Miss Jen and then was insistent we hang them up on the bulletin board above his head.  They are precious to him and we are so grateful for the volunteers who staff the event so he can participate.  I’m also grateful to the many friends who celebrated with us when I posted this picture on my Facebook wall.  There are some hard days when you feel you’re walking a lonely path, but to have everyone celebrating with us and loving on Travis and cheering him on was a blessing to me.  Thanks, friends.

4.  Mom and Dad are here!!! No time for spellcheck.

Have a nice day.

1.  It is good to ponder the darkness.  There’s a quiet unsettledness that comes with Good Friday.  I was talking to Travis last night about why we call Friday “good”.  He was intent on brushing his teeth so I’m not quite sure how much got through (the boy is very serious about his oral hygiene) but it was good to ponder the beauty that comes from seemingly difficult circumstances.

This Mary Oliver quote is one of my favorites and while I’ve thought about it many times in the context of learning from past hurts and failures, it also points to the gift of Christ’s death as a darkness that became light.

2.  It is good to have Craig home.  He walked in the door at 9:30 this morning, bleary-eyed from an overnight trip home from San Jose.  He’s sleeping for a few hours before going to the office to wrap up some loose ends.  He works hard for our family and we are grateful.

3.  It is good to laugh. The kids have cracked me up this week. Wednesday it was while we were in the car headed to therapy (New wheelchair fitting! Yay! And it fits in the van without having to be disassembled! Even better!). As is my practice, I was listening to XM 7 (old school, baby) and the Bee Gees came on.  I was ready to jam but wasn’t prepared for the sing-along from the back seat.

4.  It is good to have carbs. I’m making PW’s hot cross buns this morning and banking on a hope that Easter bread with the sign of Jesus on it doesn’t count towards calorie limits. Who’s with me?

5.  It is good to have old friends I talked to my old boss yesterday. I should say “former” and not “old” but after twenty years I still like to rattle his chain. Within seconds of picking up the phone, I was twenty-four again and he was probably rolling his eyes on the other end of the line.  The kids were wondering why their mother was cackling and it’s because I was somewhat tickled that I’m now the age he was when he hired me and yet somehow we’re not any older.  That three-minute phone call absolutely made my day.  How I lucked into such a fabulous manager, mentor, and colleague right out of the gate, I will never know.

Old friends are good friends.

Good Friday, indeed.

Have a nice day. 

At least I think it’s Monday.  The days sort of roll together when we’re tracked out which isn’t a complaint at all.  We’ve been resting – sleeping a little more than normal, not sticking to a schedule (lunch at 2:30, anyone?), leaving town at the drop of a hat (hello, impromptu vacation to Williamsburg planned in thirty minutes), and just plain enjoying being together.  I like these teenagers living under my roof, eating my food, and occasionally hugging me.  They’re generally a sweet bunch.

The leaves have finally started popping out on the trees in the back yard and soon the thick green hedge that shields the neighbor’s house will fill in.  I don’t mind the neighbors at all – they’re delightful people – but I love the enclosed feeling when I look out the back bank of windows and see a canopy of green. The sunshine is raising my spirits and giving me energy to create again.  Since the boys are home during the day these three weeks, I’ve been spending  a lot of time in the kitchen. Some of our favorites have been homemade bread, ham and cheese scones,  pizza bread (I’m sensing a carb theme), Salisbury steak, and parchment-baked chicken.

And while I would love to say that I’ve devoured boatloads of all the above, I’ve tried to be judicious because I’ve been on a lettuce and water plan since coming back from Barbados and I didn’t want to say anything about it because it would alert you to the fact that I regained every last bit of the weight that I lost three years ago may have a couple of pounds to lose but there you have it and I’m happy to celebrate this morning that I’ve lost 20 pounds so far and I have a little bit more to go but I feel much better about life even though it means passing up a biscuit here and there.  And while we’re copping to deep, dark secrets, I will also confess that I made a New Year’s resolution this year to NOT eat a single French fry in 2014 and, though it has slayed me, I’ve managed to go four entire months without one.

Let’s all guess where Sus will be at 12:01, January 1, 2015.

The biggest challenge has been not emotionally eating because we’ve had a mess on our hands dealing with high school placement and trying to keep our kids in the same school next year.  It has caused great anxiety, anger, fear, and all those emotions that I’d like to think I don’t have, but there you go and I do.  I *think* as of this morning we have everything worked out.  I’m just waiting on a phone call to confirm the details and then I’ll have to hightail it up to school to get them all registered since we are way past all the deadlines the county imposed for getting it done and I’m such a rule follower that missing those dates, in and of itself, has caused great anxiety but what are you going to do? At least I didn’t eat the pantry dealing with it.

Baby steps.

We still have a week and a half left before the kids go back to school so we are filling the time with checkups, eye exams, and the occasional trip to the movie theater.  We’ve seen Muppets Most Wanted (long but cute), Captain America: Winter Soldier (geek alert – Susie loves any and all superhero movies), and later this week we’re going to see God’s Not Dead which I hear is wonderful.  Lots to do with the people I love and blessed time to do it.

Have a nice day.