Fat Cheeks: The Prequel

For Jana. 

Forgot I Did This Post Last Week

I was looking through some photos from last winter. From 360 days ago, to be exact. Just shy of a whole year.

January 4, 2009 looks eerily the same as today*.

Pretty. But has anything changed?

I hope so.

I hope I'm a little smarter about some stuff.

I hope I'm a little wiser.

I hope I know how to love a little better, am a little more forgiving and a lot less judgmental.

I know I weigh 27 pounds less. Okay, 19. I put 8 back on since last June.

Backslider.

But the Oreos are all gone as is Ceri's fudge that Grandma sent. We all know the only way to dispose of that stuff is to eat it and I was dutiful. And now I'm a little less tempted.

BRING IT ON, 2010!

*Post actually written December 31, 2009.

Little Rascals

These guys recently got a new home. 

A celebration ensued.

The two events were unrelated.

But...

May all your holiday celebrations be as joyful.

Christmas Plagiarism With(out) Permission and With(out) Remorse

"I'm lying here* on the couch listening to the dryer and the dishwasher. Those are good sounds." This will happen on Saturday.  Though I AM lying on the couch as you read this.

"I've shopped 'til I have no more legs."  Internet.  Raw fingertips.  My legs are fine.  "I've wrapped the presents."  Check.  "I've trimmed the tree." Soon, my friend.  Soon.  It's standing in the living room with the ladder at its side.  Baby steps.  "I've hung the stockings." That would be Saturday.  "I've washed the sheets and made up the beds."  Okay, I washed the sheets.  Geez.

"I'm pretty sure the dishes will waltz out of the dishwasher (white dishes can't dance) into the cupboards and the clothes will fold themselves and march up the stairs to the closet soon."  There's just the small matter of the load that's been in the washer for a week.  Rewash (again) with Tide and vinegar to remove the mildewy smell?  I'll get back to you on that. 

"And then the bathrooms will clean themselves and the dusting will somehow get done."  If I don't wear my glasses, my house doesn't have dust.  "For now I don't really care."  "No truer words from tongue or pen..."

"BECAUSE IN LESS THAN TWO," FIVE "DAYS MY KIDS START COMING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!"

"Australia " Italy "was fun and it was exciting to be there" [with my best guy], "but nothing beats" THIS, "this feeling" [is oh, so hard to beat!]

"Eight" Four "will have to be enough this year because Loren is on his mission. He'll call and talk to all of us on the Big Day. Besides, he doesn't have a spouse yet so even if he was only away at college, he might not even be invited because the name of the game this year is couples.  "Abby and Jeff, Max and Perry are in Pennsylvania.  :(

"Greg and Shawn
Tanner and Autumn
Jamie and Kevin
Duncan and Liz"

Fred and Nicea
Annie
Amanda

"Games, movies, presents, decorations, 2.99ers" (maybe In 'n Out?), "caramel popcorn" (possibly), "buttermilk pancakes" (or a reasonable facsimile), "caroling" (uh... us?  Not so much), "some spiritual stuff...and the list goes on."

"Nope, it DOES NOT get better than this. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope."

*a link to the person I plagiarized

Thanks be

for the three women I raised

for these 3 of the 4 women who raised me

for the guy who cooks my turkey and makes good gravy.

      Happy Thanksgiving!

Serendipity

I feel like I have a new friend since lunch on Saturday. 

Maybe even another sister, if I have anything to do with it. 

(One can never have too many sisters.) 

Or friends. 

I think that's proverbial.

Maybe even scriptural.

Spiritual, for sure.

SO.

We met a year and a half ago in a store I'd never been to,

in a city I don't drive to all that often,

on a day when I hadn't planned to go there.  And I certainly didn't have the time.

At first I mistook her for an employee when I walked in, the cheery smile she gave me and all.

      (Good customer service is expected from employees.)

But I already knew what I needed in the store so I returned the greeting and went about my business.  Two or three more times in the minutes that followed I all but bumped into her looking through the same suits and skirts from opposite sides of the same rack.  Or maybe it was pants.  Or sweaters. 

Anyway, two or three more times I noticed her and she smiled. 

This was a classy lady.  She looked confident.  Put together.  Happy, I thought.  The mental note I made each time I saw her said there was something about her that I liked.  But the thoughts didn't linger because how often do you run into a perfect stranger and begin constructing a relationship with them?  Never.   That's how often.

Unless your life is a movie.
 

  In fact, I didn't even think about it.  I just kept shopping.

At the checkout counter the real employees hit me up to open a new credit card.

 I didn't really want one, and mostly didn't want to take the time, but said yes anyway.  I also had an exchange to make.  Which took a long time.

The customers in line at the register next to me came and went.

I chatted with the girl at the cash wrap while I waited for the paperwork to clear.  She knew some people I knew.  We had worked in the same place awhile back...yadda, yadda, yadda. 

Finally, she handed me the charge slip for my signature.  I signed it then picked up my bags and turned toward the door, toward the last register actually, which stood between me and the exit.  In my peripheral vision, I absently noticed that a tall guy was paying for his stuff there and the cashier was handing him his receipt.  Then, just as I looked up, the tall guy turned and I saw who it was. 

"Tom!" 

My surprise at seeing him came through in my voice.  The tall guy at Register 3 was my widower brother-in-law with whom I'd pretty much lost contact in the past many months! 

"What are YOU doing here?" was what he asked me, and I responded in words to the effect that I was the one who should be asking that question since HE was the one

who lived three states away.

His reason for being there was a lot more exciting than mine, I discovered, when he introduced me to the woman he was going to marry that very afternoon.  THE very lady, the one I had mistaken for a store employee when I first walked in! 

What?  Are?  The?  Odds?

Since that time, I've thought about her and Tom a lot, knowing that they live really close now, and wondering how to go about building a relationship with the two of them without inserting myself into theirs uninvited.  I've gleaned bits and snatches of information from my nieces and nephews (my sister's very children!) while trying not to be intrusive or meddlesome or appearing to have an agenda.  (But--I admit it--I have read her blog.  So go ahead, call me a lurker.  Sticks and stones...)

But, to me, blog reading's just not enough.  Families need to be together, and I consider someone married to my BIL to be part of my family.

So that's why I was thrilled when, Saturday, all the stars in the universe finally lined up and she and I got to meet each other for lunch.  It was a good day. 

No, it was a really good day.

And I hope it's the start of a long and happy extended family friendship involving nieces, nephews, grandkids, children, husbands, aunts, uncles, and brothers-in-law.

Did I mention cousins?

Forgive me if I'm feeling a little giddy at the prospects. 

Boo!

The one on the right was on the left

And the one in the middle was on the right

And the one on the left was in the middle

And the guy in the rear*

Was Annie. 

But this post is about the one on the right who is, more accurately, just a little left of center.  It's about her because today's her birthday.  Abby Jane "Boo" Gedicks McIntier.  It might interest you to note that the nickname Boo didn't come from Halloween.  On the contrary, my dear reader(s?), Boo actually derives from Boo Boo Bear, good buddy of Yogi Bear.  The one in the middle, who is really on the left, called her Boo Boo bear when she was a toddler wearing her fuzzy pajama sleeper because she looked like a cuddly little bear padding around the house.

Speaking of bears, the one in the middle, who is actually on the left, grew his beard on the Appalachian Trail, which is home to many bears.  But not to the bear on the right, who is more accurately just a tad left of center. 

The one on the left, who is not part of this story, has never been on the Appalachian Trail.  The one in the rear has. 

Happy birthday, to you Boo Boo Bear.  And many, many more.

Love,

Mom

*Johnny Cash