Recognize the Deserving

Today, like any normal Saturday, I was cleaning the dishes and had one of those random thoughts I just couldn't shake; I love my hubby.  I think that's rather obvious, or I wouldn't have married him, but let me explain a little of this random thought.

This morning Hubby vacuumed the living room, took the dirty laundry downstairs, cleaned some of the dishes in the sink, and filled the dishwasher - without being asked.  Of course, I had to go back and rearrange the dishes so they fit better, but he did a wonderful job.  He always does. 

Lately, I've been a bit under the weather and my hubby (who can't boil water) has managed to cook me an excellent dinner, brought me medicine, and basically catered to my every whim.  Today, while I was finishing up the dishes he didn't get to, I realized how much I really appreciate his generosity and willingness to make me happy.  Not every guy is like him.

Hold on, my dog needs something and I must cater to her every whim.  Ok not to worry, hubby came down and took care of her when he heard me get up.  Isn't he great?

I think it's important to recognize people when they do good things.  So here's to my hubby who is: a great guy, always trying to make people happy, and always doing the right thing.

Secrets Secrets Are No Fun?

Remember that song from The Little Rascals "We've Got a Dollar"?


Instead of we've got a dollar; I've got a secret hey hey, hey hey, which started me thinking about secrets.  To put it mildly, don't they suck?

Secrets are truly a double edged sword.  You feel an immense release of pressure when you finally tell the secret, but then guilty for telling.  Unfair!  I know, I know...life isn't always fair.  Then, why do people tell secrets?  Because we are inately selfish creatures.  Duh! We want to feel the release of pressure.  So we tell our secrets, and our secrets are retold (by other pressure releasing selfish creatures), and so on and so forth...

Before you know it, your secret is no longer a secret!  Can you believe it?  Your precious (my precious) secret that you wanted to keep is no longer only yours.  Outrageous!

What should you do with your secrets?  Keep them!  Find a safe place out of reach of inately selfish creatures where you can store your precious secrets. 

Where does that leave me and my secret?  Safe...in a book ;-)

You know your dining set is old when...

Oh the thrills of buying something new for your house!  It's like a double edged sword.  You're excited, because you've wanted to buy it for so long.  Yet you're sad, because you spend a lot of money on something and you're not sure it will live up to your expectations.

Ever since Hubby and I moved into our house, we knew we'd need a new dining room set.  We put it off and put it off, because we had better things to spend money on.  Well, the other day we were entertaining people and Hubby fell through his chair.  Yup, through the chair!  His face was precious.  It's the same face someone makes when they're leaning back in a chair and they pushed it just a little too far...bam!  Down they go.  It's one of the best shocked expressions someone has.  They know they won't get hurt, so it's a perfect combination of thrilling with a touch of scariness.

After Hubby fell through the chair, we deemed it unsafe for usage (for obvious reasons), and began the search for the new  set.  We had many conversations about what type of set we would get.  Afterall, you keep a dining room set for many years, and they're usually fairly expensive (I guess we won't be getting that new LED tv anytime soon).  We talked about wooden tables, metal tables, and combination wood/metal tables.

Now, I've told you before that we have 2 dogs.  Did I mention one of them eats wood?  Yes, he's very annoying special.  He ate part of our old set, our cabinets, and several other wooden things around the house.  Luckily, we have metal living room tables, with tiled tops.  Otherwise, I'm sure he would have eaten those to!

Taking the dog's eating habits into consideration (afterall we won't get rid of our dog), we decided on a metal table.  We exhaustingly happily searched through countless adds looking for metal table sets.  There's very few companies that build and sell these.  Apparently they aren't very popular for people who don't have wood eating dogs.

Finally, we found one we (oh yes it really is we) like at Ashley Furniture.  It has a black frame with tile layed under the glass top.  How perfect?!?  It even matches with our living room furniture, which is important, because the living room and kitchen are open to each other.

Now, can you believe that Ashley Furniture just happened to have a 50% off sale?  Really, how lucky can we get here?  So, we went in and purchased our set with 0 hesitation.  They told us 2 - 4 weeks until it would be ready to pick-up.  Annoyed at the prospect of waiting (don't we live in a NOW society?), but understanding that we wouldn't get it any faster; we twiddled our thumbs for 2 weeks.  Thankfully, they called just before the 2 week mark and told us it was in.  Thank you heaven!

This weekend we picked up our long awaited and highly anticipated dining room set.  The fun begins.  We are cheap conscientious with money, so we decided to not pay for them to deliver and set it up.  How hard can it really be to put together a table and chairs?  In a thruth - it wasn't hard.  It just took forever!  It took us 5 hours to put together 4 chairs and 1 table.  Ouch.  That hurt our confidence just a little.

You might be asking yourself, "Who buys just 4 chairs?"  You've got me.  I don't know.  Not us.  We bought 6.  So why pretell, did we only build 4?  Because 2 were missing hardware.  Seriously?  Out of 6 chairs - 2 were missing hardware?  I could go on and on about manufacturing processes that can be put in place to prevent something like this.  But I'm honestly glad 2 were missing hardware.  Why?  Because I don't think we could have put together 2 more chairs yesterday.  I think we would have had to admit defeat to our new dining room set.  It would have beaten us.  This way, we can say we beat it.  We put together everything we could and we beat it.  Yay to us!

We are extremely happy we purchased the new set, despite the manufacturing error.  It's important to look on the bright side of things.  The missing hardware allowed us to take time away from building more chairs so we wouldn't kill ourselves trying.  Plus, we picked all the pieces that weren't "perfect" and threw them in the reject chair box.  Ashley will be switching those chairs for new ones.

As for our old set?  Goodwill didn't want it - too many dog chew marks ;-)  That's ok.  We put it on the curb and it was gone in 2 hours.  Good bye old set, hello new set!  Hello new year.

To Love and Lose

ABC family.  What a great name for a television channel.  The name just invokes feelings of trust and warmth.  Feelings that are lies!  Don't get me wrong; I love ABC family, but I have a huge beef with them.  I find a great tv series on their channel; one with great characters and plot lines, and I get hooked.  Then, they cancel my tv series!  What the fudge??

First, I found Wildfire.  It was a show about a female convict who 'clicked' with a racing horse and they became great friends.  Convict woman and horses, what more could I ask for?  My hubby even got hooked.  Although I think he had a secret crush on the convict.  She was hot if I do say so myself.  Then after 3 measly short seasons, they cancelled our wonderful horse drama.  *tear*

While morning the lose of Wildfire, I found a new show...Kyle XY.  Kyle XY was a teenager who was created in a lab and was smarter than the rest of humanity.  The hubby didn't get hooked on this one - no hot women on this show.  So, I religiously watched Kyle XY (by myself) for a few short seasons and wham!  They kill it.  Now I'm really upset.

ABC family has hurt me twice and yet I still get hooked on their dramas!  Why do I torture myself?  Now I'm hooked on The Secret Life of the American Teenager (Hubby is hooked on this show) and Make it or Break it (I watch by myself for now but Hubby has shown some interest).  I'm hoping both of these shows go longer than 3 seasons.  If they don't, I might just swear off ABC family.  I can't take much more heartache.  I'm dying here!  Woe is me...

The Football Faux Pas

Football Sunday.  In the midwest (and I'm sure elsewhere), it's a big deal.  There's football parties, socials, and any other name you use to describe a get together where people drink and eat profusely.  I try to avoid this ritual at all costs.

One of the reasons football Sunday bothers me is because apparently you have to cheer for your home team and boo all others.  That doesn't sound like fun to me...I like to root for the underdog, but I'm an equal opportunity rooter.  If our team does something good - I'll cheer for them.  If the other team makes an amazing play - I'll cheer for them.  I like to show appreciation to each team when they play well...and boo them equally when they don't play to their potential.

At first, I thought I was the only person who does this.  Afterall, doesn't everyone like to think they're unique?  But recently I spent a football Sunday with my brother.  Why hadn't I thought this might be a genetic/family trait thing?  Because that was too obvious.

On this particularly cold midwestern day a lot of people are wearing blue and orange to support their home team.  We are playing the rival green and gold team.  Ok, if you haven't guessed the Green Bay Packers verses the Chicago Bears, then you're special.  And if you don't know these two teams have a lot of bad blood, then you must live under a rock.

Either way, there's a large group of us all watching the hyped-up football game.  Around halftime, I noticed my brother and I were both booing and rooting at the same times.  I guess I was slow on the uptake.  I only noticed when other people started getting upset.  You see, they had clearly identified with the home team and my brother and I started rooting and booing for both.

Wow, what a football faux pas!  We should have been ashamed and embarrassed.  But being who we are, we laughed and started to root and boo louder.  Real mature, right?  Oh well, I guess it goes to show that everyone is slightly different and family may share their own rituals that no one else understands or is happy about.

Who won this game?  Does it really matter?  Well, in case you do care...it was the Packers.  Go Packers! LOL.  You do realize if the Bears had won I would be saying go Bears, right?

The Internet Lied to Me!!

My hubby has decided he's going to buy a new car.  He has a 2006 Toyota Rav4, but wants a new GMC Terrain.  He's still researching this decision, so it could be another 2 years before he actually buys one.  He likes to really think about large purchases - it's one of the reasons I love him.  No need to rush into buying something he'll be paying off for the next 5 - 6 years.

Like almost all research done these days, he starts online to see which dealers had Terrains in stock.  He was really excited to found a dealership within 30 minutes of our house.  I guess these vehicles are hard to find, because everyone wants them.  I really don't understand why cars get so popular that they sell out??  Don't people know what that does to the supply/demand economic issue?  Sorry, back on subject.

Anyhow...he emailed the dealership about his interest in the vehicle, and a nice woman (Jane) replied telling him about some of the vehicles they had in stock.  So, we drove to the dealership to checkout this 'hot' vehicle. 

Like all people who don't want to be bothered by annoying salespeople, we cruise the lot unsuccessfully.  I tell hubby, "Maybe they have them stored in back, because they're apparently a hot vehicle."  Hubby doesn't think that's likely, but he appreciates my sanguinness.  We go inside and meet Bob the salesman.  Bob tells us they have no Terrains, but they've had people coming in from all over looking for them.  He thinks it's rather odd that so many people keep coming in asking for them.  I laugh.

I decide to take pity on Bob.  "Bob, I would venture to guess you have people coming in, because your website says you have 7 in stock."  Bob - looking shocked - asks which website.  Really Bob, you have more than one website?  Ok, I'll play nice...I tell him the dealership website.  Bob thinks I'm wrong.  He checks online.  Seriously, when am I wrong?  Not today.

Bob turns his monitor (I love swivel LCD monitors - they're so convenient), and shows us what I already said.  There are about 7 Terrains listed in stock on their website.  Oh my gosh!  Bob is in shock!  How'd those get there??  LOL.  Bob appologizes for the internet mistake.

My hubby is more upset than me about the whole situation, so he makes Bob's day even better by telling him that he also received an email from Jane about the Terrains the dealership had in stock.  Apparently Jane did the same research as my hubby did online to find the Terrains.  Bob (looking more sorry and slightly paler by the minute) appologizes further and tells us that Jane is part of their e-team and doesn't get out on the lot much.  Like that wasn't already obvious?  Maybe the e-team should be disbanded and everyone should have crossfunctional duties?

We end the encounter with Bob taking down our names and saying he'll personally give us a call when the next Terrain comes in stock.  I'm glad he'll give us a call, because I wouldn't trust Jane or the website.  He's also going to check into the inventory issue online.

We walk out of the dealership and the first thing my hubby says, "The internet lied to me! I can't believe the internet lied!"  We both had a great laugh.  Oh yes, the internet never lies...Abe Vigoda is dead (google it)!  We had a great laugh about the whole thing and made slightly mean comments about Bob and Jane.

Living in the Moment

Ah yes, another new year.  As with each passing year, I get a bit nostalgic.  I look back at where I've been (not too many places) and what I've done (surprisingly a lot considering the previous side note).  I think of how each year I think I am older and more mature, and yet each year I think I'm as mature as I'm going to get.  I guess some things don't change.

I've already told you that I like movies.  I find teen romance movies quiet enduring.  The promise of love and everything it holds and how nothing beats living in the moment, which is true.  Nothing does beat living in the moment.  As we get older, we lose this.  We have too many responsibilities and we lose that hope.  Living in the moment (LITM) is the best part of being young.  Yes, the consequences exist, but they don't matter as much as what I currently feel.

LITM is what older people often discourage.  Jumping off cliffs (New Moon reference) to hear a loved one's voice, drinking poison (Romeo and Juliet) because your loved one is dead, or being with someone even when you can't save them (A Walk to Remember) - these are all things that come from LITM.  These are all things done out of love.

So what does all this mean??

It means that I hope you LITM.  Life is a series of moments strung together by opportunities.  Treat each opportunity like it is something to be treasured, because you never know when you'll have another. 

LITM is freedom.