Since it’s Saturday, and John is working, Erin has been catching up on blogs she hasn’t read for a while. Sometimes life seems frustrating, or boring, or completely confusing. Reading blogs makes us realize this is not unusual. We tend to imagine other people have more fun, have more adventures, or have a less difficult time. Completely untrue. Here’s what Erin discovered this morning:
Someone is having a rough start to 2008 because of family problems.
A mom cannot take a shower in peace without constantly tossing toys at her baby to momentarily subdue his screaming while she scrubs.
One blogger’s grandmother died this week.
Someone has spent several years doing distasteful work and just now found a job he actually enjoys.
Someone has nothing more interesting than haircuts to write about.
Some people watch a lot of television and are peeved by the writer’s strike.
So what about us? John is working seven days a week right now, as is usual for this time of year.
John reminded Erin that getting a job seems to be a matter of who you know and timing. It sure seems that has been the case for Erin throughout her entire life. Until now. It seems the time should have already come. Or one of the people Erin knows should have been able to give her more than “we don’t have any spots available right now…why don’t you talk to (fill in the blank),” and “fill in the blank” tells her the same thing. And on it goes.
Our nephew is no longer in danger of hydrocephalus, and the hemorrhages in his brain have cleared…a definite answer to prayer. He’s still having some trouble eating on his own, but he must be happy about something because he smiles all the time.
We are grateful for each other and for family and friends who love us even though their own lives are not necessarily easy or adventuresome either.
And now Erin is off to do more exciting life activities like vacuum, trim dead canna lilies in the backyard, and clean out a closet. John will continue sitting in front of a computer and stacks of reports for the rest of the day.
Today, we appreciate that we are not alone in the frustrations, confusions, and everyday-ness of life.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Six Flags "Holiday in the Park"
John's cousin, Katharine, is a maniac on the teacups ride! Out of the many rides we all experienced at Six Flags on Thursday, nothing made us more queasy than the teacups with Katharine. This video is proof of the craziness.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Merry Christmas!
Yesterday Erin's sister, brother-in-law and nephew received the best Christmas present they could ask for: our nephew was taken off of oxygen and is now breathing all by himself! We continue to fervently pray that he will have no other breathing issues. He also was taken off one of his medications that was helping him "remember" to keep breathing, so we think he's now down to only two medications/vitamins that Erin's sister has to give him everyday. Merry Christmas!
These posts don't seem so "adventurous" now that we're not living in a foreign country, but our lives feel full nonetheless. With moving, remodeling the house, Erin's nightmarish job experience, and the premature birth of our nephew the year has been stressful. We guess it's adventurous in it's own unpredictable way.
In other news, it has been close to 80 degrees here in Dallas. Erin thinks it is absolutely ridiculous for it to be this warm less than a week before Christmas. John absolutely loves the warm temperatures and claims it feels like his favorite season outside: spring. Yes, therein lies the problem. It is not spring. It is the time of year for nativities, Christmas trees, caroling, hot chocolate.....and cold weather! Erin is hoping for a cold snap for Christmas. If not, she'll have to make do looking at pictures of Christmases gone by when there was snow and the thermometer dipped down to freezing. (That would really just be the last two years when we lived in Europe.)
The mysterious part of all this is that both of us grew up in the southern United States. Why does John love mild temperatures while Erin continues to believe winter should come with cold, crisp air and snow? She clings to this idea of fall and winter as if she grew up in a place where there were four distinct seasons. Can't anyone agree with her that cold weather lends to more coziness? Fires in the fireplace, hot drinks, fluffy blankets, snuggling with your loved one? In this household she is alone in her sentiments.
Bring on the shorts, T-shirts, barbecues, iced tea and lemonade; it's Christmas in Dallas.
These posts don't seem so "adventurous" now that we're not living in a foreign country, but our lives feel full nonetheless. With moving, remodeling the house, Erin's nightmarish job experience, and the premature birth of our nephew the year has been stressful. We guess it's adventurous in it's own unpredictable way.
In other news, it has been close to 80 degrees here in Dallas. Erin thinks it is absolutely ridiculous for it to be this warm less than a week before Christmas. John absolutely loves the warm temperatures and claims it feels like his favorite season outside: spring. Yes, therein lies the problem. It is not spring. It is the time of year for nativities, Christmas trees, caroling, hot chocolate.....and cold weather! Erin is hoping for a cold snap for Christmas. If not, she'll have to make do looking at pictures of Christmases gone by when there was snow and the thermometer dipped down to freezing. (That would really just be the last two years when we lived in Europe.)
The mysterious part of all this is that both of us grew up in the southern United States. Why does John love mild temperatures while Erin continues to believe winter should come with cold, crisp air and snow? She clings to this idea of fall and winter as if she grew up in a place where there were four distinct seasons. Can't anyone agree with her that cold weather lends to more coziness? Fires in the fireplace, hot drinks, fluffy blankets, snuggling with your loved one? In this household she is alone in her sentiments.
Bring on the shorts, T-shirts, barbecues, iced tea and lemonade; it's Christmas in Dallas.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Vacuuming
We have only one room in our home with carpet now. Erin spent a week painting that room a gold color before we get new carpet at the end of this week. And before painting, we had a couple guys come over to retexture the entire room and patch cracks and holes in the walls. After all this, you can imagine that the current carpet is not all that clean. For those of you who know Erin, we thought we'd share this small breakthrough.
After all the retexturing and painting had been finished, John put the current carpet that we had pulled away from the walls back down in its original position. Erin, of course, thought of vacuuming the carpet last week as she was cleaning the house. Could she really live with dirty, disgusting carpet for a whole week before the new carpet came in? Most of you who know her already know the answer: absolutely not. In a surprising turn of events, Erin decided it was a waste of time to vacuum the carpet that would be gone in a week. So she didn't. Maybe all the unexpected circumstances and stress of this year are forging changes in Erin's anxious, compulsive personality. Maybe.
After all the retexturing and painting had been finished, John put the current carpet that we had pulled away from the walls back down in its original position. Erin, of course, thought of vacuuming the carpet last week as she was cleaning the house. Could she really live with dirty, disgusting carpet for a whole week before the new carpet came in? Most of you who know her already know the answer: absolutely not. In a surprising turn of events, Erin decided it was a waste of time to vacuum the carpet that would be gone in a week. So she didn't. Maybe all the unexpected circumstances and stress of this year are forging changes in Erin's anxious, compulsive personality. Maybe.
What?!? No Christmas?!?
We have fooled the entire neighborhood...and probably you too if you receive a Christmas card from us (assuming the cards do eventually get sent!). The outside of our house is festively decorated for Christmas. We have lights on the roof, the bushes, and the front porch, which we put up on a rather cool day a week or so ago right before the temperatures rose into the 80s making it feel more like April than December. Hopefully with the outside lights glowing no one will ever notice we have no Christmas tree in the window. In fact, if you were to walk into our home there would not be a single trace of Christmas anywhere. Well, except for the piles of Christmas cards waiting to be addressed and stamped.
The reason for no Christmas this year is quite simple: our house is a mess what with all the remodeling. Strangely, the season seems to be lasting longer this year. That's mostly because Thanksgiving was about a week early, but we like to think we are also having more space to enjoy things like other people's Christmas parties, Christmas music, and just sitting and drinking hot cocoa. Besides the lack of decorating, we are also foregoing the endless Christmas shopping because so many of our gifts this year will be unusual (experiences rather than actual presents). Since we have family in town we're not even traveling for the holiday. When people say things like, "I haven't even gotten our Christmas cards bought yet" or "I still have so much shopping to do," Erin tends to respond with "Oh, you still have plenty of time! It's only December 10th!" OK. Now that she thinks about it, that's only 15 days until Christmas. Ignorance is bliss. And we can afford to be ignorant of the passage of time this season since we have no pressing holiday items on our to-do list.
When it first looked as if Christmas wouldn't really happen in our home, Erin was pretty stressed and disappointed. Now that the idea has taken hold, she is a little relieved. This year has been stressful enough. We can easily go to the homes of relatives or friends to experience the Christmas environment. It is a pleasant change to be able to celebrate the meaning of this holiday (Jesus' birth) in quieter more subtle ways. We tend to like simplicity, so perhaps this year's experience will lead to more toned-down celebrating in future years.
So, enjoy your Christmas cards when they get there, and feel free to drive by the house to take in the light display, just don't expect a winter wonderland if you intend to visit the inside of our home.
The reason for no Christmas this year is quite simple: our house is a mess what with all the remodeling. Strangely, the season seems to be lasting longer this year. That's mostly because Thanksgiving was about a week early, but we like to think we are also having more space to enjoy things like other people's Christmas parties, Christmas music, and just sitting and drinking hot cocoa. Besides the lack of decorating, we are also foregoing the endless Christmas shopping because so many of our gifts this year will be unusual (experiences rather than actual presents). Since we have family in town we're not even traveling for the holiday. When people say things like, "I haven't even gotten our Christmas cards bought yet" or "I still have so much shopping to do," Erin tends to respond with "Oh, you still have plenty of time! It's only December 10th!" OK. Now that she thinks about it, that's only 15 days until Christmas. Ignorance is bliss. And we can afford to be ignorant of the passage of time this season since we have no pressing holiday items on our to-do list.
When it first looked as if Christmas wouldn't really happen in our home, Erin was pretty stressed and disappointed. Now that the idea has taken hold, she is a little relieved. This year has been stressful enough. We can easily go to the homes of relatives or friends to experience the Christmas environment. It is a pleasant change to be able to celebrate the meaning of this holiday (Jesus' birth) in quieter more subtle ways. We tend to like simplicity, so perhaps this year's experience will lead to more toned-down celebrating in future years.
So, enjoy your Christmas cards when they get there, and feel free to drive by the house to take in the light display, just don't expect a winter wonderland if you intend to visit the inside of our home.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
A Year Ago Today
One year ago on this date the title of our blog entry was "Water is Free Again" since John was back in the US for business enjoying free water in restaurants. Erin was still in Amsterdam in our apartment on that day.
Now that we are back in a house, much time is spent fixing things and remodeling. This week we've discovered that, while water in restaurants may be free in this country, carpet is anything but. We just want one little living room worth of carpet. And since it's the only room in the house with carpet now, we'd like for it to be fairly decent carpet. Who knew it would be so expensive? Now, we are used to getting many things for free, but we knew free carpet would not be acceptable and had planned to pay the price this time. We don't want carpet that freshens the air and shields itself from even the toughest stains while cleaning itself and the rest of the house, backed by a 290 year warranty. We just want carpet that feels soft when you walk on it. At a decent price. So far, the search continues.
If we had concrete floors (which we do not owing to the fact that our house is too old to have a slab foundation), this whole thing would be easily settled by just doing something fancy to the concrete that's already there (that's the "in" thing to do, right?) and putting down a nice rug. Surely painting or staining concrete can't cost as much as carpet, can it?
For now, we will live with freshly painted gold walls and the old green carpet. Hmmm. Now that we think of it, these colors in our living room can kind of be a salute to our alma mater. Sic 'em bears!
Seriously, let us know if you happen to be getting rid of your carpet that's still in good shape and not green.
Now that we are back in a house, much time is spent fixing things and remodeling. This week we've discovered that, while water in restaurants may be free in this country, carpet is anything but. We just want one little living room worth of carpet. And since it's the only room in the house with carpet now, we'd like for it to be fairly decent carpet. Who knew it would be so expensive? Now, we are used to getting many things for free, but we knew free carpet would not be acceptable and had planned to pay the price this time. We don't want carpet that freshens the air and shields itself from even the toughest stains while cleaning itself and the rest of the house, backed by a 290 year warranty. We just want carpet that feels soft when you walk on it. At a decent price. So far, the search continues.
If we had concrete floors (which we do not owing to the fact that our house is too old to have a slab foundation), this whole thing would be easily settled by just doing something fancy to the concrete that's already there (that's the "in" thing to do, right?) and putting down a nice rug. Surely painting or staining concrete can't cost as much as carpet, can it?
For now, we will live with freshly painted gold walls and the old green carpet. Hmmm. Now that we think of it, these colors in our living room can kind of be a salute to our alma mater. Sic 'em bears!
Seriously, let us know if you happen to be getting rid of your carpet that's still in good shape and not green.
Lead
We have seen or read the news a few times this week, and in case you have been living in a cave, here's a summary of what must be the most important news item every single day: there are lots of children's toys that contain lead, and that's bad. Pretty much every toy containing any paint is on the banned list, we think. It's a miracle we all turned out OK considering there was probably lead in almost every single toy we owned in the '70s and '80s.
All this talk of lead paint inspired Erin to actually find and use the face mask we have in the garage while sanding the door frames and floorboards in our living room. Granted, this is the final room in the house to be painted and she has thus far sanded paint off of door frames and floorboards in the remainder of the house while simply trying not to breath too much. Our house was built in 1960, so it's possible there could be at least one layer of lead paint on the wood. With all the bad news about lead paint, Erin started wondering what might happen to her if she did ingest lead paint dust from, say, sanding five rooms in our house. Cancer? Brain damage? Hallucinations? John helpfully pointed out last night that we did indeed actually sign a waiver when we bought this house stating that we are aware that our house contains lead paint and will not sue the old lady who used to live here should anyone die from lead paint poisoning.
As it turns out, lead generally affects children, causing such things as ADD and learning disabilities, so we're in the clear. And now that we've sanded away and repainted all the other lead paint in the house, you can feel safe to bring your children here as well.
All this worry and time spent researching lead paint could have been avoided if we just didn't watch the news. Lessons learned: ignorance is bliss, and just buy your kids video games for Christmas...it's better for them.
All this talk of lead paint inspired Erin to actually find and use the face mask we have in the garage while sanding the door frames and floorboards in our living room. Granted, this is the final room in the house to be painted and she has thus far sanded paint off of door frames and floorboards in the remainder of the house while simply trying not to breath too much. Our house was built in 1960, so it's possible there could be at least one layer of lead paint on the wood. With all the bad news about lead paint, Erin started wondering what might happen to her if she did ingest lead paint dust from, say, sanding five rooms in our house. Cancer? Brain damage? Hallucinations? John helpfully pointed out last night that we did indeed actually sign a waiver when we bought this house stating that we are aware that our house contains lead paint and will not sue the old lady who used to live here should anyone die from lead paint poisoning.
As it turns out, lead generally affects children, causing such things as ADD and learning disabilities, so we're in the clear. And now that we've sanded away and repainted all the other lead paint in the house, you can feel safe to bring your children here as well.
All this worry and time spent researching lead paint could have been avoided if we just didn't watch the news. Lessons learned: ignorance is bliss, and just buy your kids video games for Christmas...it's better for them.
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