It’s not like I ever had a chance, but…

Growing up in Puerto Rico, we swooned to the cuteness of the Menudo boys. We would fight over our favorites and would “assign” each other the group members. We made plans to find them, make them fall in love with our wonderfulness, marry them and be the envy of all the girls of the WORLD!

I can tell you that yesterday, a lot of worlds were crushed and a lot of worlds were jubilant. When Ricky Martin announced that he was gay, I am pretty sure that not a lot of people were surprised. Actually, I don’t think anyone really was. We were all in the know without him saying anything. Still, the announcement cemented that knowledge and all the girls’ hearts died a little. I am sure that there are a lot of men out there that gave each other high-fives yesterday: the ones that will say every day to their in-denial-wives/girlfriends “I told you so!” and the ones that have been dreaming all this time about finding him, make him fall in love and marry him and be the envy of all the girls/homosexual men in the WORLD!

Still, at least we can all enjoy the eye candy… Right?

Over the bridge and through the woods...

As my quick post explained yesterday, we are now in full transition mode. We are in the process of relocating and that means that most of the furniture is out of the current home and since I still have some days at work, Mini-me and I are staying at my parents’ home. Here are some things I have learned so far:

1) When you stay at your parents’ house, you are not on the top of the food chain anymore. You are not even close to the top. They go first, then the kids, then you.

2) When at your parents’ house, you seem to lose any ability to raise your children properly, even if you are doing EXACTLY what was done to you. If you correct, you are too harsh. If you don’t, then you get THE LOOK. It takes your children .3 seconds how to play the system. Can you say ice cream for dessert… before dinner?

3) If it takes your children .3 seconds to learn how to play the system, it takes them .1 second to realize that your parents are the boss of you. Take that time and cut it in half if the child is as smart as Mini-me. If your child smiles at the moment of realization, you can now expect a direct correlation to the times that they system will be played against you.

4) When at your parents’ house, you don’t get to watch your favorite shows on TV – you don’t even get to hold the remote.

5) If you decide to do something else other than watch TV with them, you might be the recipient of a guilt trip, including “Puppy dog” eyes…

6) When at your parents’ house, you get to sleep in a tiny guest bedroom. The sewing room/plant/junk room is bigger than yours. You might be lucky if you get some space in the closet, but don’t count on it.

7) You don’t have privacy from your children. EVER. Since they are sharing the tiny guest bedroom with you.

8) You might be told to buy food for you and your children, since you might not like what the eat (even though you and your children eat there all the time). When unpacking the groceries, you might be informed of the menu during your stay (which includes what you will be eating) and none of it includes ANY of the stuff you just bought.

9) They cook for you.

10) Your kids are taken care of like nowhere else in the world.

11) You are greeted in the morning with a smile.

12) You get hugs and kisses at any given time (the kids might get more, but you will land several yourself).

13) You get to see your parents’ pride for you in their eyes when they catch you playing with your children.

14) You feel safe.

15) You feel taken care of.

16) You feel loved in a way that doesn’t happen anywhere else, even in your own home.

transitions

Sitting at my mom's; watching a movie with her (Dot the i), while Mini-me and my dad have already called it a night.

Sunshine was able to clear the entire house of major pieces of furniture, so now Mini-me and I are staying at my mom's for a couple of days (until Thursday) while I finish the last couple of days of work and Mini-me and I move with the rest of the crew.

It's been a couple of stressful days. With the move and all the packing and then having two households it is hard for me to keep the migraine at bay. It is amazing how having two jobs doesn't help to cover two homes. No wonder this is the life of the rich and famous only... and we are neither.

We are now in the desperate time of our lives where we need to sell our house NOW and deal with the issues as we go- choosing who is going to get paid is horrible... once we sell the house we'll be fine... is getting to that point.

At least the family is together...

My Lucille... She is my Preciousssss.....

It’s official. My husband and I are sick, sick people. There is no cure for us. Please tell our children we love them.


We are devastated by the realization that once we move out of our home this weekend, we will have to leave behind one of our most treasured and loved family members: Lucille. Who is Lucille, you ask? Only the most wonderful, beautiful, reliable, dependable…. Stove. Lucille is my Electrolux Dual-Fuel, Double oven, stove. She is more than a stove. She is – well, Lucille. I named her after Lucille Ball, because every day, since she was delivered I walk into our home through the garage, into the kitchen, and I see her there, gleaming and welcoming, and I can’t help but to yell… Lucy, I’m home!

Lucille is everything a cook/baker like Sunshine and I ever wanted. She has two electric ovens and a gas stovetop. You access the controls by touching a screen, and the controls light up and chime “Ding!”. It’s your own Star Trek Enterprise control board. Her oven racks are mounted on ball-bearings, so when you have a heavy turkey or when you are making a flan and you cannot have water fall into the pan, there is no jerkiness pulling the item out.

She dries out herbs. She can even jerk meat (not that we ever did that). She truly is remarkable. Pricey, but remarkable. We saved our pennies for her… and now she must stay behind. She is my Preciousssss……

So you can understand how this has impacted us, here is the actual email conversation that Sunshine and I had today:

S: Want me to bring home egg bread on Friday?
LW: :) yes! Maybe the problem that you have been having is needing to rearrange the recipe to reflect the change in altitude.
S: I made one on Monday that turned out good. It is the absence of Lucile in the mix…. I think I have got a good relationship with the new appliance and am producing better product now…. ;-}
LW: It’s a new thing. Treat her nicely too. No one can replace Lucille.
S: She is a special one.
LW: All we can do is hope that someone will be nice to her also.
S: Okay… I’ll leave my emotions for her there [at home] when we move. Me and the new oven are already friends.
LW: Don’t let her know that. It might be… too.. painful….
S: is a special experience for sure…. Her burners were a thing of beauty too. Those big iron grates…
LW: The “whoosh” when the gas ignited…
S: You just made my hair stand up on end….
LW: I am tearing up…
S: We’ll get through it together.
LW: I don’t know…


Who said we are not a match made in heaven. Anyone who can take time off their day to have THAT conversation with me, is MY kind of man!

Do you have an inanimate item that you love???

He is Human too.

As Easter approaches, I am always in awe of the great sacrifice that was paid for my Salvation. I am not usually one to preach or be too open about her faith (as a matter of fact, I will only talk about the Wonders that God has done in my life when people ask me), but Easter seems to be different.

This time and Christmas time remind me that Jesus was a man. That he had a mother. That she worried about Him the same way I worry about my kids. I wonder what she was thinking when He was going through His tribulations and how many sleepless nights she spent worrying and crying for his safety and sake, even though he was doing everything for ours.

In all His glory, he started small. Gained a space in her heart first, then to gain ours. Here is an image that I treasure. I just wanted to share. I just hope I always have space for Him.

(http://www.jesus-explained.org/jesus.html)

Old Man Winter, you suck.

Spring was here. I swear. I have flowers to prove it. And you had to come and ruin it for me. I knew it would be overcast and that was OK. I knew that it wouldn't be warm and that was OK. Spring came around. The calendar said so. The pagan people in Asheville said so. Easter is next week. Some birds were trying to eat my newly planted garden looking for nest material. You were out. But NOOOOO, you had to come back today. Like that garlic roll that I had at lunch and I can still taste 5 hours later. I can take the cold, the overcast day, but for you to come back and make it SNOW today. And an inch of top of that! That's was just cruel and unfair. To me, it was as if you lifted your cold dress (yea, I called it a dress, not a tunic), turned around and mooned me. Your cold, Old Man Winter. After all those posts where I defended you and snow and how much I love it. I don't care if you dump 30 inches of that crap in December. But today was one inch too many. I don't care that it didn't stick. See if I care next year. I hate you and my tulips hate you. Enough said.

It's here, IT'S HERE!!!!

Yes, I feel it in my bones, and I have proof of it! SPRING IS HERE!

After a horrific day yesterday, I walked up to the front door to find this:

I looked around and noticed that about 50-60 bulbs will flower in front of our home.

Today, it is 65 degrees and the day looks like this:

So I did what every person in the area is doing today and prepared our boxed garden. Some people around here have gardens so big that they use tractors and tillers... and that's their backyard garden! We are selling our home and are moving from the house in 2 weeks, but I can't leave the garden the way it is, so... I did what any normal person would do. I went to the garden center...

Parsley (Got 2 types)

Tomato

Sage

Basil (MY FAVORITE)

Last year we had 5 other tipes of vegetables, but I remained under control this year. I will only be around to take care of the plants over the weekends, so I needed what I call "edible weeds".

Before long, my hands were looking like this:

Love it! There is something about dirt. To me it looks better than my rings (but not by much. Diamonds ARE pretty, after all, and they ARE a refined type of dirt).


So after spending several hours outside (Mini-me was with me for a couple of them- he also LOVES to garden), I dragged my feet inside, just to grab some water and sit back in the sun, just to find this:

THAT did NOT last long.