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May 25, 2006

interview this.

By 2something today I will have had 4 interviews in 3 days. I am so exhausted from smiling, wearing pantyhose and not cussing. My head asplodes.

If I get a job from these interviews, that's swell. If not? I'll just keep playing with Tessie all day. I do love the options.

Posted by krystal at 10:28 AM | Comments (6)

May 24, 2006

Throw up a prayer

...or some good vibes or rub some crystals for Manda's little baby, Aleah. She's just so tiny and she's going through some rough times.

Send some to Manda and Jason and Ada too while you're at it.

Please.

xoxo

Posted by krystal at 8:33 AM

May 22, 2006

waiting for my baby to wake up so we can go to wal*mart

Saturday was the birthday party for Tree's little boy, Jason. He turned 2. It was such a great day. Tree had everything looking great, her mama had her man slave cooking, and we got to see lots of familiar faces. I loved being back in the back yard. It's been way too long. Jason handled everything like a champ and it looks like he raked in mad loot. He didn't care much about the toys, he was thrilled with the bubble machines though.

Sunday we proved (well, Dan did) that it's possible for a human to stay in bed all day. I was busy doing "stuff" but I came back to check in on him every so often. Tessie did too. In the afternoon we went to another party. This one was for my cousin Joanna who just graduated from GMU. They're cousins we've recently become reconnected with after many years. You know how families and friends drift in and out of touch? We're back in. I'm not fond of drift so I'm going to do my best to keep us all in touch. I don't like when people go away. (ain't that right Trish? STAY PUT!)

Last night the kidlets came home from their dad's house. They were plenty thrilled to be back. I think things are sucking pretty good over at dear old dad's house, mostly because of his wife. I lectured James this week about how her treatment of them is starting to have an impact on their desire to visit him. He must have said something to her about it because the kids said she was even worse this weekend. I may have to break crappy on her very soon. I'll be more than happy to just keep the kids here all the time. Grrrr.

I am sosososo tickled that this coming weekend we're going to the river for the first time this year. I miss that place. We're going down Saturday and then coming back Monday so the kiddies can get some time in at the swimming pool. I'll have 2 kids on the swim team this year and one doing life guarding. The summer is going to rock.

Posted by krystal at 10:45 AM | Comments (1)

May 19, 2006

First haircuts are painful

Tessie found out the hard way just how painful it is when you chop your tresses.

Posted by krystal at 7:45 AM | Comments (2)

May 18, 2006

what do you want to be when you grow up?

At the end of April I quit my job. I gave notice and all of that, but the commute was just so long that I wasn't coping well. It's been a roller coaster year with the arrival of Tess, several house guests and the doubling of my commute...it finally took its toll and something had to go. Byebye Verio.

I've never been jobless. Not since I was 12. I wish I was a go-with-the-flow kind of girl who could just enjoy the freedom and use the time wisely to find herself. That's not me. I have spent a lot of time over the past few weeks enjoying the hell out of being a full time mom, but at night, when I am sleeping, I'm agonizing about how we'll pay the rent and make ends meet. I remind myself all day long that things always work out, but sometimes at night my brain just won't stop and listen to reason. I am now in the position of deciding what I'd like to do for a career when in reality, all I want to do is raise my kids and cook dinner. I have considered many career paths and I've applied for pretty much any job out there. I even have an interview lined up next week. (thanks Jessica).

Tuesday night Kendall, Tess and I went to the mother/daughter banquet at church. The speaker was talking about self-fulfillment and all of that jazz. She had us write down what we loved to do as young girls, what we wanted to be when we grew up and what we would do if we knew without a doubt that we'd succeed. Those are tough questions. They're questions that are hard enough without trying to separate the "what I want to be" with "how I want to earn a living" and then "what kind of person do I want to be". It's enough to make your head spin.

Add to this whole big equation the fact that it was Mothers Day this past weekend. We didn't really do a whole lot. Church, leftover fondue for lunch and then a day of hanging out in pjs watching tv and scrapbooking. I've always loathed this holiday in the past. In my first marriage, mothers day was no more special than Tuesday. This year, however, I feel as though I was given a gift. I got to be around Manda while she was on bedrest. She might look back on this as the hardest time of her life, but I must thank her for reminding me just how sweet and precious a gift it is to be allowed to have children. She had her tiny little babies after such a struggle to keep them in and safe until they were strong enough to make it. I know that she'd have given anything to assure their well being. It's always a sacrifice to be a parent, but it's so worth it. You spend all of your time worrying about the adult they'll become and the lessons they have to learn, but really...the fact that they're alive is such a bonus. I think back on the years I spent with a frown on my face on Mothers Day because I wasn't honored in some glorious fashion, when in reality, I should have been celebrating my children. I should thank them each day for being in my life and letting me have the gift of motherhood.

Jake snuck to CVS last week. He's not allowed to do that. I only found out because Sunday morning he came bursting into my room at 7am with a bowl of cereal, a banana and a card he'd bought all on his own during his stealthy trip to the drug store. I couldn't be more proud, and even though the card said "happy birthday" with "birthday" scratched out and "mothers day" written in (because the card was just perfect for me other than that!!) it was one of the most special things he's ever done.

So while I have an interview next week and I'm always going to be a worrier and a bit uptight and I have no clue how I'll earn money. I know what I want to be. I want to be Dan's wife. Jake's mom. Trevor's mom. Kendall's mom. Tessie's mom. Diane and Bodie's daughter. I'd also like to be a cowgirl.

Posted by krystal at 9:02 PM | Comments (2)

May 12, 2006

Petals

Congrats to Manda and Jason on the birth of their little girls. They came out early and right on time. I can't wait to see 'em in person. Manda, you're in for the ride of your life. Happy Mother's Day!

***

Dan (and the kids) sent me a dozen roses and 2 balloons for mothers day. They're gorgeous. It's so cool to get stuff on mom's day now.

***

One of the things that I love the most about my hubby is that he makes me laugh all the time. I don't think he tries to make me laugh but the things he does just crack me up. For example, last week, he maximized his time taking a dump by also taking along his razor and his gameboy ds. He came out clean shaven, happy and 10 lbs lighter. I do love him so! *swoon*

***

Week 2 of unemployment hasn't sucked. I'm still in the honeymoon phase where I wake up with purpose and ambition. I applied for several jobs and studied some real estate stuff and only spent one day in my pj's. I fear that by the time I get back to work, Tessie won't be allowed at any daycare. She's getting a LITTLE BIT spoiled.

***

Jake's almost done with his life guarding classes. I'm surprised at how well he's been behaving lately. I know it's too soon to count chickens but it feels like the hard-line approach with him has paid off some and maybe one day we'll share mutual respect. I can dream...it's my blog.

Posted by krystal at 5:12 PM

May 3, 2006

Love thy neighbor

Weezer is in an uproar. She's the old lady who lives next door. Apparently my children threw a frisbee and it landed in her yard. Twice. Dan and I were out taking a walk with the girls last night when all hell broke loose. It would seem that my years of telling people off have rubbed off on Trev and he decided to take a verbal wack at weezer. I am so proud.

Today promises to bring more excitement. In the mean time, I think I need to buy more fireworks and some plastic ornamental yard stuff. It's a shame that she's spending her golden years filled with such hate, but if that's how she wants to go, we're willing to do our share to help.

Posted by krystal at 6:47 AM | Comments (1)

May 1, 2006

My inner archivist

I think I've mentioned before that I blog in my head all day. Most of the time (especially lately) none of that actually makes it here. I just think things, realize they'd be funny to write about, then forget them or tell so many people that it'd be a rerun by the time the few people who come here actually saw it. Lately I've had just so much going on and so many changes that I either can't find time to write or don't feel at liberty to write about the things in my head. I don't like to censor myself (obviously) but I feel that consideration for the folks in my life is sometimes warranted. Sometimes.

Yesterday we had a scrapbooking party here at the house. I have always thought it looked like a really cool hobby and recently had an opportunity to NEED to know how to do something nice. So we had friends and boxed wine and got our pictures out to make the beginning of our albums. I'm so excited to do more. It's like when we made our pysanky eggs and I just wanted to spend the next week doing nothing but painting eggs. I want to glue stuff now!!

I always say to people that I'm not a packrat. Dan saves everything he can possibly hide from me and I try to be understanding about his need to hold on to THINGS that mean so much to him. My show-to-people face is that of someone who could possibly walk away from my house without a single item, just my loved ones. I always felt like stuff is just that...stuff. I now realize that this is a lie. It's not even a good lie. Things and events and memories are very important to me. They remind me of friendship and love and of course of humor. All of these reminders might just be "things" but they're the things that matter to me. If there was a way to get into a wayback machine on the innernet, we'd find that I've been writing down my thoughts and documenting my life in writing for the past 10 years. (That's mostly gone now, thanks to my OTHER need to hide myself from people once I've thrown it out there...whatever)

So as I was feeding Tess this morning in the kitchen I caught a glimpse of a sticker on my fridge that said "hi, my name is AARON BURR". I chuckled out loud because I remembered the pub crawl. We decided AFTER we'd already written our names on our tags that we should use fake names. I ended up being Krystal Meth. Dan was Don Knotts, Becky was Becky Sue and Terri was Kerri. Aaron was shot in a duel. Our names sucked, but not nearly as bad as the rednecks on our bus.
I realized this morning that my fridge is a scrapbook (scrapfridge?). Plastered to it are pictures of Adrianne and her hubby, taken every year since they got together and now ones with Paige in them too. There are cards and post cards from Tree. One stating that men are grapes and one of some natives smoking together...Shared joy is double joy.
We have Spotswood Sparklers from when Kendall did great in school and Trev's award from camp last year saying he's a trooper. There's a magnet from Stacy and a drawing that Alexis made for Kendall that says "You're my best friend!". There's a post card from Peggy with women breast feeding on it. There's a card that Steph sent saying that no matter how mean I am, it's ok to blame PMS and there are several cards from Adrianne just reminding me that she's my friend and she thinks about me. I can't put into words how helpful those cards have been over the years. We have pictures of Jake in camp, ones of me 30 lbs heavier, Tessie's sonogram, Dan wearing a baseball cap looking very fetching, Trevor's history test with a 95 A on it, ticket stubs from movies, plays, flights and concerts that we've seen. Magnets from Australia and weird animal magnets that came with Dan when he moved in. We also have a Ruby Tuesday menu and several coupons which have most likely expired but were important enough to be there so I wouldn't forget them.

Little by little we've documented the important people and events in our lives by sticking them to the fridge. I might throw out the moldy leftovers inside, but the outside is aged to perfection.

Posted by krystal at 11:03 AM | Comments (5)