The family is whole once again

Last year, before our move, our inlaws agreed to watch our dog for us. We knew we'd be living in hotels for at least a month, and dealing with a dog who is not small would be a problem. So they took her for us, and we said our goodbyes, hoping it would just be a few months until we got her back.

Well, that few months has turned into over a year. My husband surprised me this morning by having me come into the backyard.

This was waiting for me:



I wasn't sure how she'd react to me, since it's been so long. She's normally shy around strangers, so when she came to me, she had her head down and her tail between her legs. Once she sniffed my hand though, it was an instant transformation. She got so excited she about tackled me to the ground. It truly made my day. No scratch that, my week or month, at least.

We sure are glad to have her back, and we're pretty sure she feels the same way.

A boring post

Wanted to mention I've revamped the blog a little. More changes might come too, we'll see.

If you hear the song "Flight of the Bumblebee", that would be me. The in-laws are coming to see our new house for the first time, and I am SO beyond not ready. This is made worse by the fact that we don't know exactly when they will be here. The original plan was Monday, but now it might be earlier. I am doing a lot of freaking out.

But, to end on a happy note, check it out! A baby cantaloupe!

Mushroom Swiss Burgers: A Discussion

After the heavy post the other day, thought it was time to bring this blog back to it's normal state of depth and wisdom.

Today, I tried something new. McDonald's has come out with a new line of burgers. I was looking forward to a break from my usual "Quarter pounder with only cheese and ketchup". So I order, and pull in a space to eat. I had ordered mine with no mayo, because I am high maintenance that way.

Opened the burger, noticed the bun looked fancier than normal, which was cool. Then I noticed there were two slices of cheese on it. Another cool. Then I took a bite. You know when you are craving something, but can't have exactly what you want, so you settle for something similar, but the whole time you are eating it you feel unfulfilled and disappointed, because it's just not the same? That was pretty much the experience. Underneath that fancy bun was a layer of mushrooms from a can, heated up till they were nice and dry and rubbery. Then under that was the cheese. Cheese that looked like swiss cheese, but only sort of tasted like it. Then the meat. All I will say is: even if you call it fancy things and dress it up, there really is no disguising McDonald's burger meat.

I spent my meal taking a bite, sighing, and then dreaming of what I should have gotten. A mushroom swiss burger from Hardee's. Typing those words now even makes me hungry. If you don't have a Hardee's nearby, you need to move. Their mushroom swiss burger actually tastes like real food. There is no mayo on that burger, because it doesn't need it. The mushrooms swim in a delightfully salty and juicy sauce. And the burger meat itself actually tastes like real Angus beef as advertised. Unlike that yellow arches place.

I think the only up side of the nasty burger today was that it did fill me up. Sure, I felt bloated and sick for hours afterwards, but it was filling!

This review brought to you by the letter M (for my name, and mushrooms!) and the number 6 (how many hours it took for me to feel normal again after today's "meal").

(The legal mumbo jumbo-I don't get paid by Hardee's or anything like that. This love is real and true.)

One day at a time

Taking the blog down a notch tonight for a more serious post. There has been a major life event going on for the past few months. Really, longer than that, but it all came to a head recently. I didn't blog about it before because it's very personal and does not just involve me. Also, I didn't know how things were going to end, and I didn't want to say anything until I knew.

I'll just come out with it quickly, like ripping off a bandaid. A few months ago, my marriage almost ended. I won't get into the hows and whys. That stuff is not blog-worthy, for obvious reasons.

I talk about the hubby on here a lot, and I always make sure to put him in a positive light, because once something is out there on the internet, it is there forever. I really think before I post things, so there won't be regrets later.

Me and the hubby have done everything "wrong" in our marriage. We eloped after not knowing each other very long, we started having kids almost right away. The odds have been stacked against us from the beginning. We got some encouragement and advice from a few people when we were newlyweds that has stayed with us through the years, however. One was the hubby's grandfather. We were riding with him in the car, just the three of us. He told us that him and Jeremy's grandmother's marriage wasn't supposed to last either. He choked up and didn't say a whole lot more, but he didn't have to. We knew he was rooting for us. A month later we visited my great-grandparents. In their 90's, and married for practically forever. (When they died, they had been married for almost 72 years) My great-grandmother's sage advice was "Just take it one day at a time".

That one phrase has actually gotten our marriage really far. That, and the need to prove people wrong. The ability to say "Yeah, we did everything wrong. So what?"

So I've been taking it one day at a time, especially the past year or so. Some of those one days involved the hubby not living here. At the time, we didn't know for how long. All we knew was that we needed time to step into our separate corners. I was amazed at how much that did. The ability to step outside of things and think "Now what?" It paved the way for a night during that time, when the hubby came over to visit the kids, and we stayed up late talking. Talking like we haven't talked since we were first dating ten years ago. The kind of talking that reminds you "So THIS is why I chose to be with you."

Some more time went on, and the hubby ended up back under the same roof. Things were very shaky for some time. We were taking baby steps and holding things together. Enough that we celebrated our 10 year marriage anniversary in May. Those "One day at a time"s have added up to quite a bit.

I think the hubby can attest that there has been a big difference lately. That difference is that we are both trying again, making a real effort at the relationship. We had both stopped before, and I think it was a huge contributor to the sense of hopelessness about things. The dark tunnel that I didn't think there was going to be a light at the end of.

So we're trying. And even now he's at work and I actually miss him, which as sad as this is, is a feeling I haven't had in quite some time. So I am daring to hope. One day at a time.

The Fruits of Labor

Brought to you by The Little Garden That Could, woohoo!

Wild Kingdom, backyard edition: Episode 2

We have a creek running behind our house. It's not the best creek in the world, but good enough to go down and check out every once in a while. There are some down sides to having the creek there, like an enormous mosquito population. Poor Hannah currently looks like she has a pox of some sort, because the mosquitoes are vicious, even when the kids are swimming.

The other downside is that there are snakes. We hadn't seen any in the almost year we've been here, but the neighbors all have stories. Particularly warning that there are cottonmouths in that creek. So we've been on the lookout, but up till now, haven't seen any. The other night however, we finally saw our first snake here. It was in our backyard, but was tiny. About 6 inches long. We figured it was a baby, but a baby what? A cottonmouth that we should probably kill, or some harmless snake that eats things we want it to?

We captured it in a big plastic tub we had outside, and I came in the house and got on google. The snake deserved a fair trial.

The prisoner as he awaits the verdict:









After much googling, and going back and forth between the yard and the computer to be sure, we had an ID. I found the following picture on a site, that definitely looked remarkably like the one we had:



Was he a baby cottonmouth that we needed to execute to keep from becoming big and someday biting someone in our family? The answer is no.

Introducing the surprisingly small adult brown snake:



He was quickly cleared of all charges and released from jail, although not before pooping all over the hubby's hand in gratitude.

My week, in smilies

Haven't blogged this week so far because the hubby is out of town, and I basically look like this:

There has been a lot of so I've been letting the kids do a lot of

The kids have also been doing a lot of with each other and when I ask them to help me. That makes me when I'd really much rather be
or

I've been doing a lot of to help me keep up with my and
and
while I daydream about the children being

The hubby will be home tomorrow though, and now it is time for me to go