Whew!

Aren't you glad that man pregnant with quadruplets is gone? Too, too scary.

Here's a pretty picture to reestablish order in your brain:



ONO and I got married here....not in THIS exact place, but in Santa Fe. We actually got married at Crystal Mesa Farm, just south of Santa Fe proper. The web site doesn't do it justice -- it's a STUNNING place. And we still think it's the most beautiful spot on earth.

Romance is not dead!

I get home from the office around 7:30 and the mini-muffins are in the bath tub throwing water on each other and the floor. ONO is running around trying to "get stuff done." My better self is bested and I grumble slightly that the mini-muffins are still up and harshing our post-bedtime mellow.

I go upstairs and start changing my clothes so I can wash the boys. ONO is following behind saying "Really! It's a good thing that I waited on getting them in the tub." In the middle of disrobing he gets that look, comes over, starts to grope me, and says "Logan had a huge poop just before you got home." I say "You know I love it when you talk dirty like that."

Thank You, Nicolas Cage!

Seven years ago The Family Man became my favorite Christmas movie. I have had a lot of favorite Christmas movies -- White Christmas, A Christmas Carol -- including some that I'm a little ashamed to admit: Home Alone (the first, NOT the sequel) and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation....it's SO stupid and yet I laugh!

At first glance, The Family Man doesn't seem like a Christmas movie in the traditional sense. Aside from the story beginning on Christmas Eve, there's not a whole lot of "festive" going on. But it has many of the plot characteristics of A Christmas Carol. The main character, played by Nicolas Cage, makes a wonderful modern-day Scrooge. He is slightly less Scrooge-y in the financial sense, but every bit as Scrooge-y in the emotional and relationship sense. The story, in a nutshell, is that he finds out what his life would be like if he had put a relationship as a priority instead of his career development. He comes to realize that his life would have been so much better, so much more satisfying if he had.

Ok, so why does this movie beat out the amazingly wonderful George C. Scott Christmas Carol? It was released at a time in my life when I was very unhappy in my relationship. I hadn't been able to quite put a finger on exactly what was bothering me -- there were lots of little things but none of them were really IT. After watching this movie, I knew with certainty that the person I was with was actually quite scrooge-y when it came to the emotional and relationship world (ours, specifically), and that I would not, repeat NOT, have the kind of emotional union, nor the life partnership, not to mention the basic, everyday collaboration, that I longed for and believe I was designed for.

It's amazing to me that a movie could bring such focus and clarity, but it did. Six months later, after clearly communicating my goals and needs for our relationship (something I had previously been unable to do) and getting rebuffed, I was single again. It wasn't long after that that I meant DH, my ONO, and my life has been so much better, so much more satisfying. I don't know about the other guy.

Mood Lighting

When George and I got married in Santa Fe, we saw this really cool lamp in one of the stores on the Plaza. It gave off a soft, golden glow and revolved so that shadows of images were enlarged on the wall. That particular lamp was WAY expensive, as things in Santa Fe are, and not quite right for our personal decorative tastes -- if I remember right, the images were of cowboys and cacti.

Since then (about 5 1/2 years) we've been looking for a lamp for our bedroom that would give a similar feel. We've found various lamps along the way but nothing that really "WOWed" us in a joint way. We try really hard to get stuff that we both really, really like and we keep looking until we find it.

Before Bethany left for the year she gifted us with a special date. We went to Allerton Park during the day to walk around the grounds and try to get a feel for the 5.5 mile trail that I'm planning to run later this month. Then we strolled around downtown Monticello before we had dinner at Montgomery's on the Square. Sadly, most of the stores were closed except for a new toy store and a specialty shop with blown glass items. The doors were open even though the hours indicated the store should be closed. Music and the beautiful items pulled us to the shop windows. We could see a man towards the back of the store blowing glass. Turns out he was the owner/artist of this gallery. He was gracious enough to educate us about glass blowing and to help us put together a lamp for our bedroom.

You can see it's pretty stunning on it's own:

The blue, green, yellow swirls sort of remind me of the Van Gogh Starry Night. Very, very beautiful and unique.

But look what happens when the lamp is turned on.....

This definitely "WOWed" us and as you can see, it has taken a place of honor in what I call the "George and Lisa shrine." It's where we keep everything with special meaning to us: a kaliedescope I bought when we were on our second date, our wedding photo, our traditional Native American wedding pot, a picture of us on our honeymoon, a crystal heart given as an anniversary present, and a picture of us right before we found out we were pregnant with Brennan. Oh! and the big box George bought for me to keep all the cards, notes, letters, etc. that we have given each other. It's practically full.

I could see why some of you might feel nauseated by this post. Well I'm sorry, I'm just not going to apologize! Ain't love grand!

How much do you love me?

I've done a lot of stupid things, but what I did last night earns me the Idiot of the Year award.

There's a gravel road (actually more like a trail) near our house that runs between two corn fields. It's part of one of my favorite running routes and looks like this:


I've been running this about once a week because I love watching how the fields change with each season and I love scaring up flocks of birds, grasshoppers and an occasional bunny as I go by (probably from my loud, heavy breathing). The only problem is that I don't know how far it is. You might think it doesn't matter but most runners are a little nutty and we want to know exactly how far we've gone each time we go out.

Well, I was driving home from seeing clients last night and had the "bright" idea of driving around those barricades and up the gravel road and back so I could find out it's distance. You non-idiots probably see the problem with this idea immediately, but I thought it could work. I've seen other vehicles go around those barricades and drive down the road. OK, they were large-ish work trucks and not a Toyota Corolla. Oh, and also? It was about 8:30 pm -- pretty dark, even with the high beams on.

So I start in, cautiously (I'm not THAT nutty), but pretty soon find myself stuck in a lot of mud. I don't panic yet because I'm a seasoned winter driver and I know that you just have to sort of "rock" the car back and forth, find the tiniest bit of traction and you can get out. I guess that only works with snow. I get out and look for something in the trunk to put under the tires to give it traction. Ah! a towel! That will work! Nope.

I finally realize I'm going to have to call George. Ohhhhhh this wasn't going to be good. You see, the car I was driving was his car (yeah, yeah, yeah, it's "our" car, but it's really his car). And if you know George, you know that he is......how does one say.....fastidious. He's understandably upset, but comes to my rescue and gets the car out of the hole. I didn't realize how bad it was until I went back to the scene of the stupidity:


See that concrete barricade right there? The cute little gray Corolla was about 6 inches from it. George only groused a little bit....I expected a lot more, because what I did (or tried to do) was really, really stupid. Later, when I came home from washing his car and filling it up with gas, I apologized again. He said, "Well, sh#t happens, you weren't thinking, and besides, one of the things that made me fall in love with you is your sense of adventure."

For this, and many, many, many other reasons, George is my ONO (One 'N Only).

How the genders differ

One day George and I were doing our usual things around the house. Stuff like breaking up fights, scrubbing dried pasta sauce off the wall, and fixing the ice dispenser on the fridge (I was doing the scrubbing, he was doing the fixing). To make the situation lighter and more enjoyable, we were also having a good round of banter -- you know, that witty, playful, teasing that you can do with someone you know really well.

Everything was going along nicely, the scrubbing, the fixing, the fighting, and then it happened.....the banter took a slight turn towards the serious. I'm thinking "oh, we're getting to some good stuff." George gives a side nod towards the fridge and says "I'm going back there, where it's less complicated."

Bliss.....Pure Bliss

So yesterday DH calls me at 6:45 am. Yes, I was already up and busy, as anyone with toddlers will know and understand. He says, "I'm about 5 minutes from work, but I really want to come home. Is that ok?"

I didn't have any clients scheduled for that day and had already decided to take Brennan and Logan to the babysitter's house and have a REAL day off. I probably don't have to explain how a day off from work when you have kids really isn't a day off. Sometimes being at work is more relaxing than being at home. Sometimes? Who am I kidding?!?! Most of the time!!

Anyway, I had been really looking forward to this time alone (truly alone) for about a week and had already started to formulate a plan for the precious 6 hours that I would have to myself (run, definitely, run, then read? paint? blog? sew? sleep? clean? wait--how did that get in there?!) Usually it's extremely hard for me to shift gears in mid-expectation, but this was a very special opportunity for us -- to be together in our own house, during the day, without any kids to manage or try to talk over, or rescue from near death. Besides that, I hadn't even made my morning coffee yet so I said "Of COURSE it's OK! I'll see you when you get here."

Since his commute is about an hour one way, DH got home around 7:45. We went through the rest of the morning get-ready-for-the-babysitter routine and took the kids across the street at 8:30. Once we were back in the house, we didn't have any trouble filling the 6 hours, and we didn't even have a plan. Moral of the story: be open and flexible -- the best stuff might just be outside of the box.