I don't know. I blinked!

Gert,
Time sure does fly. And you know what? You don't have to be having fun either. Sometimes I feel like my life before children( and husband ) was a past life. I get little snippets of it when I'm watching television or driving. To me it seems surreal that there was ever another Hildi. That girl was carefree and easy to please! Of course she was also irresponsible and selfish, but ah, the good old days! I guess I'm still rather easy to please. Give me a day where there's no major melt-down and ten minutes to myself, and I'm doing pretty good!
I can't imagine having to let go of one of my babies! Talk about depressed! I truly think it's harder for stay-at-home moms to say goodbye when their children move out. It's not that we love our children more. It's because they are actually our lives. I wake up in the morning to get one off to school and the rest of my day is spent doing things with the little one. When the eldest comes home to us, we have dinner and spend our evening together until bedtime. That's pretty much my world. Throw in cheer leading, play dates, and movies. Yep, my kids are my life. So what happens to us when their gone? Where do we focus our love and attention? I know some would say that is the time for our marital relationship to be our focus. Please! Our husbands would suffocate if we transferred all that affection to them. Besides, do we really know them or like them at that point?
I think you should look for something to fulfill you. Maybe a hobby, or a new career option. I know you've got some really great stories that you've written. Heck, start reading tarot cards! The important thing is to do it now before Jethro leaves. I don't want you to suffer any of the empty-nest syndrome stuff! I will call you names, if you start hording nick-knacks or getting an exorbitant amount of cats!


Cat Lady signing out, Hildi!

Where did the time go?

Today is Lulu's 18th bday. And she is at her new home. I may cry. It's sooo weird her growing up and all. I mean really. When did that happen? So she was home all last week packing up her room and stuff. It was great having her home. I mostly had her to myself. She did spend some time out with friends and making the rounds. But mostly it was just with me. Then Dexter drove down for the weekend and you would have thought they'd been apart for a year instead of 5 measly days. She saw the car pull up and went flying out the door into his arms. (Yes, I did throw up in my mouth a little). He stayed for the wedding Saturday night and left on Sunday since he had class Monday morning. She had a hematology appointment yesterday morning so she stayed here, then Jethro and I drove her to Ankeny. It's a four hour drive, not too bad. The town they live in is nice. Reminiscent of any suburb of a big city. Their apartment building is new, and really close to the college. It looked secure. And their apartment is nice (aside from the fact that it's on the third floor and there are no elevators!!!). It's not huge but they don't really need that much space. I met the one roommate, Lance, he's super nice and funny. (Totally warned me at dinner that the bite Jethro was about to give me, Jethro had already licked. Jerk! Jethro, not Lance) I didn't meet the other roommate, but got to meet his gf. Dexter and Lulu have the master bedroom, with a walk in closet and private bath. I'm pretty sure it's way nicer then me & Larry's first place. (As evidenced by the lack of red & black shag carpet). They took us out to dinner and then we headed back.

While we were in the car, Jethro regaled me with his hilarious views on everything.

His view on working with his father:

It would be great if he'd actually give instruction before he told you to do something. He sends me to do something and after I start says "that's not how you do that." or "dude, you're totally fucking that up" then tells me how to do it.

His view on me:

It's like when I'm cooking something and I ask you how you know when it's done and you say "um, I don't know. I just do". Well when I think it's done I'll bring it in to you since you obviously have the "holy shit it's done"-o-meter up your ass. Or when I ask you how much spice to put in something and you say "until it looks right". Well I don't know if you know this...but spices are minuscule. They disappear into whatever you're cooking. It looks the f*ing same!!!

Gotta love that kid.

Growing pains & teenage commentary,
♥Gert

I'll keep my ghosts!

Snakes do not bother me. Of course I've never been faced with one in any part of my house before. Your aversion to snakes is rather like my hatred of spiders. They tend to pop up when you least expect them and scare the dickens out of you. Or should I say me? I was cleaning yesterday and had bent down to pick up Prudence's purse from the kitchen floor,(Why would it be anywhere else?)when the big-baddy reached for me! I made that choked cry you make when the scream gets stuck in your throat. To give myself credit though, at least I didn't hyperventilate this time. Did you know that Windex is useful in the destruction of spiders? It is. You need only to use four to five squirts. They seem to know about my overwhelming dislike for them. Truly they never go after anyone else in my family.
Seeing as how I don't have a historical house, I doubt Jason and Grant would come visit. Maybe I could do some research on this area and find out if anything drastic happened here. I would assume though, that it would be common knowledge in these parts. After all, the town I live in is very small. It's not significantly old either. The town was founded around 1814. Okay, so that's pretty old! I shall see what I can find out.
I've always had the feeling it's family members. They joined us after Patience was born and have come and gone since then. Although they haven't gone anywhere for a while. As long as they remain well-behaved and don't ask for too much, my house is there house. It must be very frustrating to be without a place to go.


Haunted and happy, Hildi

Unwanted visitors...

Yes, I am aware of your "upstairs people"! Having stayed at your house and experienced their noises for myself, I'm a total believer. And they do indeed listen. That's the funny part. I remember one night I was sleeping in Patience's room alone when I was awakened by the sound of people moving around on the other side of the closet wall. Of course...it's an outside wall so obviously there's no one on the other side. Being quite cranky when I get woke up in the middle of the night I testily said "Would you stop that racket?! Honestly, I'm trying to sleep!" and much to my surprise and pleasure, the noises stopped. Maybe you should call in Jason & Grant.

I had an unwanted visitor yesterday:



I went down to the basement to get something from the deep freeze. I noted that the boy's room was a disaster (how unusual) and peeked into my laundry room. This guy was on the floor in there. Now, as you know, even though I've lived in the country for the past 8 years and have learned to tolerate snakes...they still frighten me and I darn sure do not want them in my house. So I screamed. At the top of my lungs. And Lulu came running down the stairs. She then proceeded to laugh at me. No, she's not only not afraid of snakes, she kinda likes them. So I went to the basement door and she proceeded to pick this guy up. At her holler, I threw open the basement door and hid my eyes. She took him out to the grass. Whew. Safe.

I'd rather have ghosts.
♥Gert

Just call me HB!

As you know, it takes me some time to reacquaint myself with all of my duties upon returning from an absence. Definition of some time is, about a week. Add a few days for prolonged absences. Here we are almost two weeks since returning from Myrtle Beach and I am finally back to HB. Large and in charge! By the way, I have decided to return to the(any) beach.
I know as my sister I have mentioned to you the people who reside upstairs in my home. Everyone who has visited for a night or more has heard them. They walk around and make odd noises. They peek over the landing at the top of the stairs at whomever might be down in the living room. Once, maybe three times, they have also hidden things from me. Of course they usually give the items back. Usually. My husband has recently admitted to catching them peeking from the landing. He only admitted this when we had our experience on Thursday morning. I asked Prudence where her glasses where, and she said they were upstairs on her nightstand. Her father went up to retrieve them, but came back empty handed. A lecture ensued about responsibility. She adamantly insisted the glasses were on the nightstand, so Jerome again checked upstairs. He even went so far as to get on the floor and look around it. He quite specifically put his hand on the nightstand for support getting up. He then returned downstairs glasses-less, and resumed the lecture. After a few tears shed by our daughter and her unwavering surety that they were where she said, he returned upstairs( third time ) to check her bed. Prudence and I were packing her bag for school when he came down and handed her her glasses. As we kissed and hugged her good-bye he was very quiet and not forthcoming about the location of the glasses.
Once we returned inside he turned to me and very seriously told me they had been on the nightstand. Of course I didn't find this difficult to believe. He proceeded to explain how thoroughly he had looked for them. Jerome was in a state of disbelief and shock I have rarely seen him in. He just kept saying that they hadn't been there the two times he had gone up to look. Then on the third as he was heading for her bed he glanced down and there they were, folded and sitting precisely where he had put his hand for support. At this point he noticed the fact that I was still not surprised. When he asked me why, I told him that it seemed obvious who was to blame and in fact I raised my voice and said it wasn't a very nice thing for them to do to a little girl. Jerome then admitted to thinking it was our upstairs residents also. He told me about his experiences with the peeking and was finally calming down. I let him know that they usually behave very well. Especially after a scolding for too much noise. Since he could tell I was still a little miffed about them getting Prudence in trouble he also shared his idea of what he thought happened. Jerome thinks the glasses were probably in another location entirely. Our friends must have heard the lecture occurring below and decided to put the glasses on the nightstand to be found. While I can't be sure this is what truly happened, I thought it best to offer a thank you to them if that was the case. Always a good idea to remain on friendly terms with people you can't see.
It feels very nice to have my husband in-the-loop, so to speak, with our friends.

Cold spots and orbs, Hildi.

Follow me...

We have a new follower! Well maybe not "new", honestly I don't know when she started following us but I just noticed today. I looove being followed. Seriously, I bounced up and down in my chair a little and clapped my hands. "We have a new follower" I said. And Lulu replied "you're adorable". It occurs to me that this may be a condescending thing for an almost 18 year old to say to her mother, but I'm too happy to care. And oddly enough, I think she means it. She really seems quite taken with my eccentricities. She says they make me "me". Whatever, we have a new follower. That makes me feel validated. *extremely silly grin*

So Hildi, um. wtf? Where are you? Because you seem to be slightly AWOL from your blogging duties. I know how addicting facebook is...but um blogging is real. Duh. And I know you're still alive because we were totally texting during Ghost Hunters last night. (Jason & Grant= my total almost celebrity crushes). I hope that since your satellite was on the fritz you got to catch the episode online! I hope you checked out Destination Truth as well like I told you too. Because even Larry will watch it with me and as a bonus, that Josh guy who hosts it is hott. =]

Well, that's it for today kiddies...I'm off to make dinner. You know, before Jethro starves to death. How much can a 16 year old possibly eat anyway? He's like a bottomless pit...and yet never gains a pound. Oh how I envy.

Chicken Parmesan & garlic bread,
♥Gert

I'm so over it...

Twitter that is. The experiment is pretty much ended. Really, I just don't see the attraction. I mean it's kind of neat to see what famous people are doing but not that much. Maybe if I'd had friends who "tweeted" it would have been different. Maybe not. But whichever, I'm done. Going to delete the Twitter account and get rid of one more of my computer "time-suckers".



Which brings me to my absolute addiction to Facebook. I know, right? How old am I anyway? And yet I log on everyday (usually 2-3 times per day) to see what my friends have to say, take a silly quiz (or 2, or 5), check out peoples uploaded pics and play yo-ville. Oh my. Can we say addicted? Truly. I admit it. Sadly, there is always something else I should be doing. Cleaning, cooking, laundry, reading, writing...the list goes on. So I'm really going to try to limit this to once a day. The first step to overcoming is admitting you have a problem, right? Hahaha.



As an update...the family vacay went very well! I think a good time was had by all. There were ups and downs but I think the ups far surpassed the downs. And it was the ocean!!! How can you not have a good time at the ocean? We are thinking of heading west next year. But that seems a very long way off!



Right now I'm trying to finish up stuff for birthdays. Lulu turns 18 next week. Irwin turns 19 the week after. Larry has a birthday in October, as does Bubba, and Oscar. Then I would like very much to focus on Christmas. I can't even believe it's so close again! And this year I would like to be done with the presents early! So I want to get a head start.



already with the sugarplums in my head,

(wait...what is a sugarplum anyway?)

♥Gert