thank you...

...for filling up the car with gas so I wouldn't have to worry about it while taking Gray to camp this week

...for the surprise bag of spice drops you brought home for me the other day

...for telling me you love me, every single day

...for saying, "Thanks for another delicious meal"

...for getting the coffee ready every night so I just have to flip the switch in the morning

...for enjoying Project Runway as much as I do

...for our Sunday morning trips to the farmer's market

...for being a complete and total dork, and loving me for being one as well

...for always being the snow cone maker

...for saying, "The bathroom looks great" when I clean it each week

...for taking the boys off on a hike the other day, as I always get more accomplished without the constant, "Mom, can you..."

...for most stress-relieving hugs on the planet

...for owning more books than I do (thus I don't have to feel guilty)

...for asking how my friends are doing, and really caring about the answers

...for making the bed a couple times this week

...for putting up with my goofy decorating ideas

...for always turning off the jazz when I get in the car with you

...for making me laugh so hard I sometimes nearly pee my pants (if I actually did pee my pants, I might not be thanking you though)

...for offering to clean the kitchen floor before the "door guy" comes

...for loving me just the way I am

That's just 20 of the things I have to thank you for this week. Multiply that times 52 weeks a year. Then multiply that times 20 years of marriage. That's a lot to be thankful for.

And I hope on those days when I forget to say "thank you" that you know I mean it anyway. That I'm thankful for every minute I spend with you. That I *know* how incredibly blessed I am to be spending my life with you. And that I hope this 20 years of marriage is just the beginning.

Happy Anniversary, Rich. I love you.

Oh, and that complete and total dork one...thanks again. That one means a lot. :D

good stuff returns

*Just 17 days and approximately 6 hours until I see one of the best friends I've ever had!!! :D

*Cleaning out my closet and finding a pair of shorts I forgot I had...and finding that they still fit.

*Finishing up another room (well, except for a couple of crafty-type projects that will take a while) in my big summer decluttering/supercleaning/reorganizing extravaganza.

*Having fun with the boys at the library. (Even though the book I wanted was apparently checked out since I checked the library website two days ago.)

*Being sucked into a book (in this case, Unwind).

*Knowing that when Rich gets home from work today, we've got a three day weekend together (even if we are going to spend the bulk of it working around the house).

*Our garden seems to be thriving and soon we'll be eating loads of tomatoes and cucumbers along with our green peppers and jalapenos and kohlrabi.

*Finding a particular little craft book that I thought I'd lost forever (this cleaning thing has its rewards).

I would so love to hear your good stuff!!! Care to share?

a happy start to the weekend

Why am I in such a good mood today?!! Not that I'm complaining, I swear. But I a bit baffled. The boys, but especially Gray, had a rough night last night--which left me only getting a bit more than 3 hours sleep. And most of it was on the living room floor. And there is the fact that I'm really worried about a couple of friends. And then there is the fact that I've got one more hell week of school.

But this last one is probably actually a good bit of the reason for my good mood. Knowing there's just ONE MORE WEEK OF SCHOOL!!!! Yes, I've got so much to do that it makes me ill to think about...but it's JUST ONE MORE WEEK!!!! Not only will Annie and I finish up (except for writing her final quarterly report), but Friday is the boys' last day of school, too! Yes, they can drive me crazy sometimes, but oh how I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having them around for the summer!!!! :D JUST ONE MORE WEEK!!!!

I'm also happy because Rich is so in love with his Father's Day present. We got him an iPhone yesterday. Really stupid thing to do, because we really don't need that monthly charge...but for now I'm just focusing on how very happy it's made him. :D

And Gray...he's having a great weekend. Last evening, he and Rich went to the Jazz Fest, just the two of them. He had a wonderful time! Including eating himself silly--lemonade, a veggie burger, ice cream, and on the way home, they stopped and had a frozen coffee and a donut! And he got a phone call yesterday from his best friend who invited him to go camping. They'll be picking him up in an hour or so and be back sometime tomorrow. It's just so darn nice to see this kiddo having such a special time! :D

And this picture...well, it just makes me smile.

self-medication

Not feeling so hot this morning. Nothing major, honest. Just a bit under the weather. I figure a "happy list" might be just be in order.

*The Flyers are playing for the Stanley Cup!!! Un-freakin-believable!!! They only even made the playoffs by the skin of their teeth during the last game of the season...and now they've made it all the way to Stanley Cup finals!!!

*We're set to have another gorgeous day.

*I'm reading Enchanted Night. And I am positively enchanted.

*I've started exercising. Nothing fancy. Just 30 minutes on the Gazelle each morning before everyone gets up. But the really cool thing is that it's become something I look forward to! I pop in a Criminal Minds DVD, and sometimes I find it hard to make myself stop when that half hour is up.

*This is finals week for Rich. He gives a test this morning. And he has a meeting this afternoon. But in between he's coming home and taking Annie and I to lunch!

*And speaking of finals, Annie had her Arabic final last night. She thinks she did well. (And truthfully, with the grades she's gotten so far in the class, she'd really have had to bombed the final to get anything but an "A" for her final grade.)

*I got two more books in the mail (ordered used). From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. POINT FOR ANA. The Waiting Place by Sean Kelley McKeever. Want to read them both. Right. This. Minute.

*On Sunday, Annie, Rich, and I got Annie's garden cleared of weeds and added heaps of lovely compost to it. So yes, now it looks like a box of fresh, pretty dirt. But we hope to get plants in it sometime this week. Annie's decided on mostly strawberries, a few cherry tomato plants, and an eggplant. We've decided where we want to put our new family garden, and can hopefully get started on it next weekend. (And thank you again, Chris! I haven't been this excited about gardening in a long time.)

bits to smile over this weekend...

*Annie attended the Rochester Teen Book Festival on Saturday. Eight hours of books and authors and friends and fun left her with a smile plastered on her face! It was positively delightful to listen to her chatter away about it all when she got home. She's been a bit down lately, and it was just such a wonderful thing to see her so excited about something, so chatty and bubbly.

*Gray has a new money-making scheme. He has created a chart to tally every time Rich swears. He's decided that at the end of each week, Rich has to pay him a dime for every cuss word he uttered that week. I said to him, "But Gray, Daddy will end up broke." And he replied with this smug grin, "Yep, I'll never have to work a day in my life."

*I got to hear Chris's voice on the phone! I admit it--I am totally phone phobic, but talking to Chris was a pure delight! He swears to me that I wasn't a bumbling, babbling idiot (but I suspect he's just being kind :P).

*I finished Tender Morsels. Oh my. Seriously, this is just a book that will always reside in my heart. I'm still sort of at a loss as to how to even talk about it...it's beautiful, it's honest, it's heart-pulverizing, it's healing. It's perfection.

*We got the test results from Annie's end of year testing (a homeschooling requirement in NY). I've no idea why I worry about it. I never did before she skipped a grade. And obviously if she wasn't ready for work at a level above where her chronological age would place her in a public school, we never would have skipped her to start with, so why do I worry that she won't test well at that level?!! Add to that the fact, the test results don't really mean squat...unless she scores under the 33rd percentile, and then our homeschooling program would be placed on probation. I guess because I am simply accomplished in the art of needless worry. Anyway, the results arrived...and she had a composite score in the 99th percentile. So, big smiles that another year's testing is over. And the results being well more than we need to continue homeschooling. Now if the school year would just end...

*I had the weirdest dream. Now I assure you that at the time it jarred me into awakedness, I was not finding it at all smile-worthy, but now I can't help but laugh when I think about it. In this dream I'd gone to the library and told them that I wanted to volunteer there. They told me I needed to do two things: get CPR training and let them whack off the fingers of my right hand at the first knuckles. I agreed, and they had me put my hand up on the circulation counter and took a big old cleaver...and whack! This is when I woke up. Guess they wanted to make sure their volunteers were serious, huh? :P

today I smile because...

*It is the birthday of one of the sweetest, most wonderful friends I've ever had. #luvchris

*I have several crafty-type projects going that I'm excited about.

*I finally finished making this damn geometry test last night.

*While my aching back tries to remind me of my age, in so many ways, I feel younger than I have in a long time.

*I am reading so many wonderful books right now.

*Rich never leaves for work without hugging me and kissing me and telling me he loves me. 

*The munchkins woke up happy, and the morning routine went uncharacteristically smoothly.

*Only 96 days! 

*Max started his soccer season last night (his first time playing on a team), and while he was nervous at first because he didn't know any of the kids on his team, he ended up really enjoying himself.

*I am listening to Annie hum away to herself as she sits taking that damn geometry test.

*It's nearly 9:30, I haven't made the bed...and yet the sky hasn't fallen. :P

not the post i'd originally started

I admit it...I'm as depressed lately as I've been in a very long time. The post I started was a list of things I do when I'm sad. And as I sat typing my list, out came "make lists of things that make me smile." And while there's nothing wrong with the list I started with, that entry gave me the incentive to go in this direction instead. Maybe tomorrow I'll confess to the ways I wallow in sadness. :/

But today, here is a list of things that made me smile recently:

*giggling with Annie (She doesn't giggle as much as she used to, so it's even more of a treat when she does.)

*having wonderful friends to whom I can vent

*Seth Aaron won Project Runway (I can't believe the person we *really* wanted to win actually won! That never happens! Goes to show that nice guys can finish first. :D)

*the Mary Oliver poem Ana shared this morning (I just love it when things fill me with such joy that tears find their way to my cheeks.)

*this silly Axis of Awesome video (What can I say, I just can't help it...I smile every single time I watch it.)

*this cake (It may well be the cutest, happiest cake I've ever seen! Wonder if they really ate it...)

things that make me smile as I look out the front window this afternoon

*all the sweet little grape hyacinths in the front yard, and the way they keep spreading each spring

*the way the squirrels seem to nibble so frantically

*an old couple walking down the road hand in hand

*noticing that we still have the green lightbulb in the lamp post from Christmas

*cottonball clouds in that happy blue sky