Where There's a Will, There's a Way

T and I are about to celebrate 20 years of happy marriage together.  It's a good thing I didn't kill him after he didn't come back for 5 and a half hours on his bike the other day, or we wouldn't have made it to this milestone.  That, and I would have probably had to clean up a big mess.  I hate messes.

We had talked about the possibility of going on a cruise somewhere.  When you consider some of the deals out there a cruise seems pretty cost friendly.  However I do get carsick and I'd hate to spend our trip puking off the side of the ship.  Doesn't sound that sexy to me, and again -messy.  When the news hit of the recent cruise ship sinking, that settled it for us.  We wouldn't be doing a cruise.

Then there was the tiny issue of what to do with our kids while we were away.  Just a small hurdle really.  Our first thought was to call in T's parents.  But they are awaiting a mission call for our church right now and their availability was uncertain.  My parents are too old and tired.  I tried a sister, but no luck there either.  Her work schedule wouldn't allow it.  It was looking as if our 20 yr celebration may look like any other Friday night date.  Dinner and a movie.

Then I was hit with another idea of who to ask.  My niece!  She's perfect.  She's finished with school, between jobs, and home from and LDS mission.  She has a degree in elementary ed even!  You know, just in case my elementary school kid needs some help while she is here.  SO I asked and she agreed and she's coming here for ten days in April. Yeah!  And she knows how to use a GPS.  It's all you really need to know when watching my kids.  Because driving them around is all I do practically.

Now we needed to decided where to go.  T and I looked at several options and here is what we came up with. . .  Behold the Omni Resort in Bedford Springs, PA.  Rated as a top 10 resort spa by Travel and Leisure magazine.  Hot spring mineral water pools, messages, facials, outdoor fire pits with s'more kits, and deluxe cupcakes delivered to your room with cold milk!  I couldn't resist.

Then we plan on touring a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright homes.

Kentucky Knob House

Falling Water House

Next we head to Pittsburgh.  There's a bike tour that we plan on taking where I hope they rent a bicycle built for two since it's 22 miles.  You bike one way, turn in your bike and canoe back to your starting point.  I'm hoping for some great views and ice cream stops along the way!  What better way to say I love you and thanks for hanging in there with me for 20 years than a double bike, a canoe and ice cream stops?  And since I've recently lost 15 lbs I think I deserve a treat don't you?

We also plan to see the Andy Warhol museum.  His work fascinates me.  

And because T loves me he will pretend to enjoy the art museum I'm sure.  Much like he has compromised and put me first for our entire 20 years of married life together.  One of our mottos is "I'm first after you."

So it just goes to show that you should never give up on your dreams of spending your anniversary away from your kids doing stuff you enjoy together.  I'm sure we won't regret it.

Biking to Work? Or Giving Your Wife a HEART-T-TAK?

Sometimes something happens that is kinda bad and the only silver lining is the fact that it would make a great blog post!  This is one of those times.

My facebook status on Monday afternoon read as follows. . .

"I was searching for a recent photo to give the police officer when my 'missing spouse' walked in with some splainin' to do"

The day started in a pretty normal way with me sleeping and him getting up to exercise. . .  What?  I'm doing my cage fitness class on Tuesdays at 1:30 unless there is an orthodontist appointment or a sore back or something. And unless it's too cold I go walking with my walking buddies every weekday while our teens are in early morning seminary.  But today was president's day, a day off, and we were going to spend some quality time with our kids.  I'm not gonna lie, there was talk of bowling.

A couple of the boys were invited on a ski trip.  So T took them to a friend's home for a 6:00am departure and then he returned. As he dressed the dark he mentioned to me something about a ride.  I peeked at him and noticed the bike apparel heard the words "ride my bike" and I rolled over and went back to sleep.

When T goes biking I have no idea where he goes.  This is probably something we need to remedy.  I know my thoughtful brother always leaves a detailed note to his wife about his running route for the morning.  Not a bad idea.  Sometimes there is a group of men that my husband is a part of that goes for long Saturday morning rides together.  He had been seen chatting it up with a few of them the night before so I thought there was a possible ride going on that he forgot to mention to me.  Those rides are significantly longer, and I probably would have protested since it was a day off with family and that time is really precious.  Part of me started to get a bit irked that he might have purposely not told me about a group ride to avoid being told no.  That's really not like him though.

As time went by and he kept not showing himself I felt my irritability start to rise.  My cheerful mood in the early morning slipped away and I found myself bugged that there was no one around to help with cleaning up after breakfast.  Half my crew was on the slopes or on a bike.  Where was my ski trip or my solo bike ride?  I haven't even had time to blog lately.  Where's mine?  Wah wah wah!  T had just been in Texas with a neurology buddy for 6 days the week before, missing Valentines Day and Big Girl's birthday.  How could he do this now knowing how much stress I'd been under with teenagers while he was away?  I turned to my source of comfort.  The pen.  I wrote out my frustrations to him in a not so mature note and placed it on his pillow.  Then I went to cut Big Boy's hair.  I tried not to cut angry.

Big Boy asked me what was wrong.  How could he tell?  I mentioned to him that I was beginning to worry about how long his Dad had been gone.  As I spoke to my son I started adding up the hours in my head.  It had been about 4 hours.  That is a long ride for sure.  A long selfish ride I thought.  Was he thinking I'd go bowling with him after this?  He had another thing coming.  I finished the haircut and decided to start making a few calls.  Maybe one of the other biker-wives had more information than I did.

It took a few calls but finally I got through to someone.  It was one of his biker friends actually.  Not biking but answering his phone, and probably rinsing the dishes while he was at it.  He told me there was no group ride that day.  He also mentioned that my husband had said to him that he would be biking in to work the next day (today) to get a few miles in.  So that would account for the extra time this had been taking.  Why did I miss that part?  "Well I'm glad he told someone that" was my sarcastic response. When I'm upset you really don't want to mess with me.  I'm sad to admit it, but it's true.  So I'd just call him at work and we'd settle this thing right?  Not right.

I called his cell and got no answer.  His iphone reception is bad thanks to A T & T.  But he always gets his texts.  I tried to text with no success and then my mind started imagining the worst.  What if he never got to work?  Now it had been 5 hours.  Did he wear his ID wrist band?  What was he wearing?  What route did he take?  What would I do if he was hurt/dead?  I'd kill him if he were still alive.  I called the police about 30 minutes later.  They were sending over an officer to take the report.  I looked at the note I had written earlier and thought how stupid I was to be so upset with him when he was probably hurt or worse.  I moved the note off his pillow and turned it over.  I went downstairs to look for a recent photo of him for the police officer.  I found a family photo we'd had last October.  What a happy looking family.  Too bad he had to take up biking.

Look at what I just found on his laptop.  

The next time this happens I know just where to look for an ID shot

The next thing I knew he was coming through the front door dripping big drops of biker-sweat in the entry way.  I'm afraid I was pretty upset with him.  He was confused as heck.  He said he told me he'd be going into work on his bike.  The reason he couldn't answer his calls or texts was because he was riding home at the time.  I really should have thought that one through.  I guess I was just too panicked by that time.  I wasn't thinking logically.  I heard my son mention to us through the door in a meek voice "It was just a misunderstanding"  One I hope I never have to go through again.  I'm getting a white board like my sister for people to write on to tell me where they are and when they'll be back.  And the next time something like this happens I'm going to try and take a chill pill.  They should really market those for people like me.

'Bout Time

He'll either blow out his candles... or commit a heinous crime

Surprise!!!

Bout time I wrote another update.  We had Big Boy's surprise party on Friday and it was a hit.  Our house was pretty crowded with people and we had too much cake.  I was disappointed to find out that one of the girls I had invited just couldn't contain herself and went up to him the day before the party and spilled the beans.  It wasn't accidental either.  She said something to him like "you know what's going on tonight don't you?"  This poor dear is kinda needy and really likes my son.  I think she craves attention something awful.  She's the same girl who tried planting a kiss on his lips in the middle of the gym at a youth activity last week. He turned and took it on the cheek. We're a bit concerned about her.  I can't decide if I should call her out on the surprise ruining or not.  I think she's just a bit mixed up but perhaps she should know that her actions have consequences.  I won't be inviting her to my next surprise party that's for sure.  And my boys have been warned against her swift lips.

In other news Middle Boy is driving me crazy.  I am sure it's a result of all the attention his older brother is getting these days but sheesh!  I can't seem to stop him from irritating everyone.  He needs to get back into a sport that he likes because he has just way too much dead time on his hands.

Big Boy transformed an old remote control car into a car of Altoids.  They are his favorite candy.... so.... why not make them into a car.  It took a whole lot of hot glue but it was worth it.

Big Girl is gearing up for her birthday tomorrow.  She's already put in an order for waffles in bed.  I'll be glad when this week is over.  I may take a week long nap.

Little Girl stubbed her toe tonight and needed a half hour snuggle afterwards.  I guess everyone is a bit frazzled.  No wonder I have been too busy to blog.  I'm ready for a vacation.  "A vacation from my PROBLEMS!"  I love that movie (What About Bob).

Little Boy is cute as ever.  He hates his kitchen job though and I gotta say- it shows.  He is supposed to wipe down the table and put away the food after people finish eating.  You'd think I was asking the impossible.

Recently I went though a bunch of old videos from my early days a mother.  If I could tell that person something right now it would be that I needed to chill.  I saw several things that I wish I could change.  Why is it that we don't have the knowledge we need in this life until we go through stuff.  It's the only way we learn I guess.  I just wish I could put my 43 yr old brain into my 27 yr old head sometimes.  Perhaps as I read over my blog posts in the future I'll think that 43 yr old Kelly didn't have a clue.  No way out of this life but through I guess.  So I'll just keep doing the day to day stuff and hope I learn what I was meant to learn.