19? 19?

My son Eric (pictured here at Country Thunder with Kelly Pickler..of dubious American Idol fame) turned 19 this past week. NINEFREAKENTEEN! That makes me...well let's see, I had him when I was three...so...OKAY...I was 24 when I had him! See why I have to use the Olay Definity products???? I can still remember with clarity my entire pregnancy with him. I remember being ridiculously large. My labor was impossibly long and then after two and a HALF (the last thirty minutes were the worst) hours of pushing....it was deemed that his great big head was hopelessly stuck. Enter anesthesia team with a great big hammer to knock me out. I awoke and a nine pound, 11 ounce, cone-headed TODDLER was placed in my arms. He immediately frowned at me with his very pronounced eyebrows. Sort of like "YOU'RE the MAMA???"

He's a wonderful young man now. I don't always agree with him (that's because he's ninefreakenteen), but he's gentle and compassionate, driven and hard working. My favorite story is one from when he was still in senior high Sunday school. The class had taken a trip to the Indiana Dunes and all the kids were climbing the dunes but one. One of the girls, a disabled girl who had very few friends, was watching from the bottom while the other kids played and climbed on the sand. Eric went down, lifted her up and carried her to the top of the dunes so that she could be at the top with the rest. Something that has always spoken to me about his character.

I look at Eric now and I see a man. Not a boy that I can tell what to do or even direct through life. But a man that I can offer consultation to, but have to know that he will in the end make his own choices. But knowing his character...I'm so okay with that.

Heaven

This is Luke. He died this morning from

complications of brain cancer. He was four. There is no way to understand, there are no words that can explain, how something like this can happen to an active, healthy, vibrant, child. The world is full of mean, angry, hopeless people...who continue to live mean, angry, hopeless lives. But this child...this happy, beautiful, loved boy is gone from this Earth.

While his time here was short, it taught much to all of us about what it means to be a parent, a child, a friend, a stranger, a caregiver, a doctor, a nurse. The beauty of his mother's love, the strength of his father's courage, hope of his older brother, the compassion of his grandparents and family, all make one take a step back to realize that life is not about money, things, or status. Life is about...living and loving those people who live with and around you and appreciating each and every God given moment. Because those moments can all too soon be taken away.

With love...for Luke.

I never talk about sports...BUT...

The Bears beat the Packers which just is proof that there is some misalignment of the planets. I fully expect to see a devil in ice skates sometime soon. This travesty has happened not ONCE, but TWICE this year. I have to put this on my list of questions to ask God when I get up there...or the Devil when I get down there...which is more likely and I think he'll have a better answer. This horrific win means that I will be mocked by the Chicago fans and Favre haters that I have the unfortunate circumstance to LIVE with and around. I think Frosty, who is a devoted Packer fan, sums up how we feel about the Bears winning.

Someone took a marketing class

Holiday party coming up. Last year, I was WOEFULLY under dressed. Not that it's a black tie affair or anything, but it's definitely not a "oh I'll just wear my work Dockers and one of my less faded shirts that I've worn a kazillion times". So, I had a 40 percent off coupon for Coldwater Creek. I had been oogling the catalogs that they send me every other day for a few weeks and I had found THE PERFECT DRESS. Of course the coupon expires on the 23rd and I decided that I'd better go look for dresses on the 22nd, so I had to go a real live store to see if I could try on said "PERFECT DRESS". Seemed to make more sense than to order it and find that when I got it, it either didn't fit or made me look like I was wrapped a combination of drapery and doilies. It always looks so GOOD in the catalog.

So, went to the store and of course the store doesn't carry the same thing that the catalog does. What the hell is that?? Anyway, I did about 400 laps around the store before I finally settled on something else. But I could only pick out the skirt. I had no idea what to put with it. In a short time I had no less than FOUR store employees trying to help me put something together. I was walking around with one of them who asked "what size are you sweetie?" . I looked hopelessly at my chest and said "Large?" She shook her head. I said "You think bigger??". She said "No, honey, SMALLER." and handed me a medium. I instantly liked this woman.

I tried on each combination of blouses and skirts and was scrutinized by the sales women. "mmmmm...too casual with that skirt", "Oh HONEY, wrong color", "Maybe you should take off the Christmas socks...". I had half the store in the fitting room and came out in the very first combination I'd tried on...they all went "OH YES! That's the one!". My new best friend (Miss 'You're a MEDIUM") said to me. "Oh sweetie that shows off your figure so nice!" All the other sales women nodded wisely and put in their two cents about how it laid nice here or the skirt hung nice there. Then my new forever best friend said to me "You have a figure like...OH WHAT is her NAME???....Catherine Zeta Jones!". I stared at her with pure love in my heart.

FIRST let's clarify that I do NOT have a Catherine Zeta Jones figure. I have closer to a Trisha Yearwood figure...with bigger boobs...and I'm shorter...okay, I look nothing like her...but the point is THIS....I am NOWHERE close to CZJ! But I bought every single thing I had on when that woman said that to me and I would have bought anything else she would have suggested, including green and purple sequined farmer overalls and hot pink go-go boots.

I wonder if Catherine has hot pink go-go boots.....I'll bet my new best friend could sell her some...and probably a matching purse. But she's MY new best forever friend! Get your own friend CATHERINE!!

Dryer lint with legs

Hey. I'm back. I hear at least one person missed me. Heheh. So LOTS has happened since I last was hanging around in the blogosphere (did I spell that right? Can you spell that wrong?). Anyway, I should just have TONS of fodder for blogging, but I seem to have a small case of topic constipation...for which prunes are not the remedy. I thought I'd start with the latest dumb mistake we've made. We got another dog.

OKAY...before you start with the "why did you need ANOTHER dog" and "Did you even THINK about this?" stuff, let me tell you that this dog is freaking cute. I mean, it's fall down on the floor cute. Alright, maybe not that cute, but at least it makes you a little dizzy when you look at it. See picture. Are you dizzy? Put your face really close to the screen...maybe that just makes your eyes hurt. ANYWAY...we had been just looking puppies at local puppy places. Just LOOKING. Oh, RIGHT, like you can just LOOK at puppies. So then we started looking in the local paper and lo and behold...in our very own town...a litter of pomeranians. AWWWWW.

So my husband called. Yes...they still had some. Now we are the same people who can put off paying the cable bill because we think we don't have the money, but we can come up with puppy cash in the blink of an eye. So. We talked about it...for all of 3 minutes. And he called the woman back and went over and put a deposit on one of the little darlings.

A couple of nights later, we picked her up. I almost passed out from the cuteness...overwhelming cuteness. She should have some sort of biohazard sticker on her because she's so frickin cute. (See picture...oh..yeah...you already did). So she was home all of 7 minutes and she found a bracelet that we had deemed permanently lost, a potato chip covered with lint from under the sofa and a piece to my camera that I didn't even know I'd lost. She was timid and cute and cuddly. FAST FORWARD TO NOW.

We've had her for a week now. She has been named "Frosty" but we mostly call her "YOU BAD PUPPY!!". She can drag a shoe three times her size for MILES and then proceed to destroy it before you even know it's missing. She has this high pitched...it's not really a bark...it's more of a SHRIEK. I'm not kidding...I've been cleaning up broken glass because things are shattering.

She just went by my chair as I type this dragging Mermaid Dora by her hair. Which I sort of enjoyed...but the four year old didn't think it was as funny as I did. She is now thundering around the house in some sort wild Dora-dragging induced euphoria (the puppy not the child).

But really...she's very cute...even when she is standing in the older Pomeranian's water dish and digging with her front paws and water is going all over my kitchen floor...she really is CUTE. I SWEAR. Especially cute when she goes storming through the Christmas village under the tree and I yell "POMZILLA!!". REALLY cute when she's gnawing the head off of a Happy Meal toy (I hate those things). PAINFULLY cute when she got a tooth caught in my 15 year old son's hand the other night and pulled the six foot tall boy OFF OF THE COUCH while he screamed like a girl.

Why did we do this again? I'm still working on an answer for you. Check back....I have to go now, she's chewing on the computer's electrical co