Tuesday, August 17, 2010

A First

Have any of you ever seen one of those medical mystery shows where they tell you about some crazy medical condition and then you (as the viewer) are supposed to try and guess what the medical condition is? Well I've got a mystery of sorts (not medical, though) that I'd love for you to figure out. Here it is:

Almost all of my shirts (like all four of them) have the same little cluster of rips right in the same place--a couple inches below my belly button. Any ideas about how in the heck this could keep happening to all of my shirts?

I'll just tell you because I don't want to ask the question and then likely have no one answer me. The fact is, when I stand at the kitchen sink--which I do for like five hours of every day--it just happens that the counter hits me at exactly the height of my pants' button. So the friction caused by my shirt constantly getting rubbed in between and metal button and a stone counter results in holes in the same place on every shirt. Isn't that horrible? It's horrible, alright.
Anyway, so partly because of that and partly because I hate to have stuff that stains splatter on my four shirts when I am cooking, I really like to wear aprons. I have several of them and I wear them often. And I've found that once I have one on, I usually wear it for the rest of the day. I love being in an apron for some reason. It makes me feel domestic and I feel like it's flattering, and I just feel protected or something. One of the aprons I often wear is a red one with the name Jurgen embroidered on it. Who's Jurgen? I don't know. This particular apron is one of those reject items that was sent from Pottery Barn to DownEast Home because it had a flaw or had the wrong name embroidered onto it. Anyway....

And guess what? Something really remarkable has happened in my home--and more specifically, in my shower. My shampoo and conditioner will be running out at almost the exact same time. Have you ever had that happen? I haven't either! What an amazing first....

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

I guess it's been a while

Yikes. I'm not sure I've ever gone this long without writing before. And now I feel journal guilt. I hate rewinding.

We went to Vegas and Utah for a few weeks. It was a great trip, as always. The kids had a ball with their cousins and in the water, and I LOVED (and always do love) getting to spend time with my sisters and brothers and sisters and brothers in law. My favorite times with either family are when everyone is together, sitting around talking or playing games or whatever.

There was one night at my parents' house when a bunch of us sat around for a while playing Balderdash and laughing and telling stories, and I was so happy to be a part of it. I think it was the next night when a few of us were still up-- trying (unsuccessfully) to get another fun night going, when Laura slid the following note across the table to Audrey.

So funny. I still laugh when I think of it. (I kept the note and now use it as my bookmark. I'm currently reading The Book Thief. Any of you read it?)

Anyway, during the trip, I even got to meet relatives that I'd never gotten to meet before--Brian's grandma Gigi and uncle Chuck, and nine new cousins on my mom's side. My aunt Becky adopted nine Haitian boys several years ago, and I finally got to meet them.

One of the highlights of my trip was getting to spend the last four days at Sarah's house. It was the perfect end to my trip because no matter how wonderful a vacation is, after about 2 1/2 weeks, it becomes hard to be away from home. The day before going to Sarah's house, I had gotten to that point. I called Brian sobbing. What was so wrong? Oh, who knows? I was just at that point; you know what I mean? But anyway, being at Sarah's house couldn't have been more relaxing. The kids played and Sarah and I just enjoyed one another's company. One of the days we were there, we were able to go to my cousin Ben's wedding reception. It think it was the most unique reception I have ever attended. It was up in a canyon and they had a tin foil dinner buffet. My other two cousins were dressed as hobos and just hung around the fire all night, tending the dinners. Pretty fun.
Anyway... upon arriving, Sarah and I realized that we hadn't put together anything in the form of a gift (we had been running errands and taking the kids places all day). No matter, though. I just scavenged around my endlessly messy van and found a homemade but blank-inside-thank-you card that Camp had made in church on a previous Sunday, wrote a quick note inside and stuffed it with the few dollars we had on hand between the two of us. Bet none of you got a child's thank-you note for your reception. We were so proud of our cleverness. We sat there in the van laughing at our gift and the note inside for at least five minutes. Like Brian always says--no one really cares about the card, anyway. It's all about what's inside that matters. Brian and I are always calculating how much more money a couple could collect if people just forewent the lame little lovebird cards in lieu of a simple envelope from the junk drawer, and just gave the couple the 3 bucks they would have spent on the pointless card. But anyway....

Now I'm back to real life, and to be honest, real life isn't super wonderful right now. But don't you worry. The silver lining to this little rain cloud is that our circumstances have allowed me to come up with the idea for this year's Christmas letter. What more could a girl ask for?
P.S. Oh, and guess what?! While Laura and her husband John were in Vegas, John tried out for the Blue Man Group and made it!! He starts training at the Blue Man headquarters in New York in September and then after two months he'll be assigned a location. See Laura's blog for all the details.