Friday Photos

Is it the last gasp of summer? Amazingly, I still have flowers blooming. Okay - the mums are expected, but I really didn't think the others would still be going. So, here they are doing their best to still bring us color and life. And then there's my boys.

Friday Photos

Happiness is...

....a clean house. If only I had one! Neither A nor I got the neat gene. We're not pigs by any means, but just not neat freaks. The house usually ends up just a bit messier than I would like it to be if someone showed up unexpectedly on our doorstep. Part of the problem is just having too much stuff and too small a house. We'll just have to buy a bigger house!

It started out as a good day anyway

My 30th high school reunion was this weekend. It was fun. I saw people I hadn't seen in 10 or more years. I had fun chatting with people, catching up. Some of the stuff I was afraid of - the kids question - didn't really happen. In fact, I found out there were more of my classmates than I expected that had no children. It was fun. And I think that, relatively speaking, I've aged well. I was tired after and the next morning we had to drive 2 hours to the in-laws for a visit. It was good to see them, but it was such a long day. We had the discussion about the holidays. My MIL wants to do Thanksgiving, which is fine by me. I said I would do Christmas, which pleased the BIL & SIL who go to SIL's family in NJ for Christmas Eve - makes it convenient for them to do both families over the holiday as we are on the way home. So, that's cool. Except MIL still wants to do a 2nd Christmas. I don't get it. I could maybe (though not likely) understand it if she wanted a 2nd Christmas with only her family - seeing as how we expect some of my family to be at our house Christmas Day - but no, that's not it, as she wants to invite my family for her 2nd Christmas celebration. I don't want to do two. Why isn't having all the family at our house good enough? Is it not enough of a family celebration? I just don't get it. Do we not do a nice job? I don't get it. The good thing is that A is with me and does not want to do a 2nd Christmas. But it may be a bit unpleasant for us all to say no to a 2nd celebration.
So, then today started out well. Was in fact going very well. I had to go into work this morning and do some stuff which went well and fast. We went out for lunch, bought a new rug for our living room - such a deal we got! All was good. Then I call my mother. Long story short, when I say we are going to do Christmas she immediately says - no breath wasted, no pause, no nothing "Laurie doesn't want to do that." Well. Okay. Laurie is the sister I had the fight with after last Christmas and she left the dog poop at the back door. She's unemployed and living with my mother. So, I'm not sure how much of this is her feeling awkward being unemployed and not wanting to see lots of people or her still being mad that I called her out on the dog poop. But, now my mother says "and I'm caught in the middle" I feel like saying - "no, you're not, in fact it sounds like you already made a choice." But, I was the good daughter. I told her that Laurie is welcome in our house. Her dog is welcome in our house, but Laurie has to be there to mind the dog. I feel so hurt that the first words out of my mother's mouth when I said I wanted to host Christmas were "Laurie doesn't want to do that." Not thank you, not that would be lovely honey. "Laurie doesn't want to do that." Fine. This may be the last time I offer. Next year, if A is not working Christmas, I will seriously think about going away somewhere for Christmas.

Friday Photos

I've been slacking a little on the photos lately - took some shots, just didn't post them. But I'm back! So we have some flowers, a butterfly - and of course, the Boom Doggie. A note on the big yellow ones - those are dinner plate dahlias. In our growing zone, you are supposed to pull dahlias for the winter. I don't. The first winter they were in was mild, so not surprising they survived. Last winter was horrible and this spring the area was all dug up for the fence and I kind of thought the dahlias were goners. Nope, they were just a little late. And seriously, in October, still blooming!

Getting Older and Ironic

So, yeah, I'm getting older. Physically anyway. Mentally, I still feel like I'm in my 20s. Sometimes I wonder if my "mental age" is impacted by the fact that I never made the transition to being a parent. Had I done so, would I feel older? I certainly don't think I feel the way that, in my head, my mother did at my age. It's kind of hard to be mentally young when my body is aging. You know - the knees aren't what they used to be. They don't hurt - they just look lumpier and saggier. I have grey hair on my head and elsewhere. I have wrinkles. And jowls sort of. I've actually done the thing looking in the mirror where I pull my face back to see how I would look if I got a lift! It would be good. My eyes were never very good, so them going worse doesn't really bother me. Heck, I've got some rather cute cheaters for reading that I got at Christmas Tree Shop! Losing weight is harder and that pisses me off. Then there's the whole hormone thing. As you age, your hormones mess around with you. I'm not in menopause yet. Don't know what I'm really in, but my hormones are a little whacked. Is that a result of the fertility drugs? Maybe. Whatever. The cure for my current condition? The pill. Not just any pill. THE pill. Yup, me, the infertile one - on the pill. Ironic, eh?