Name Her!

9 more days…

Sugar

Zoey

Scout

Reina

Zorrita

Kiki

Kimi

Chica

Dulce

Poppie

.

.

.

1 Gallon of Milk

That is all I need to buy each week.

I’ve figured it out.  It’s a symbol of all that’s making me sad.

In our heyday, we would buy 4 gallons of milk each week.  Two gallons of whole milk for the toddler and two gallons of lowfat milk for the rest.  I don’t remember when we went down to two gallons, all lowfat, but I seem to remember being pretty excited to regain that refrigerator real estate.

For years we’ve been at two gallons of milk each week.  Even when Justin left for school, we still needed two gallons.  They might last us a little longer, but I still pretty much picked up two gallons every time I went to the store and it worked out about right.

After Tyler left I continued to buy two gallons of milk.  Soon, there were four gallons sitting in our outside refrigerator in addition to the one currently being used.  They just kept stacking up and I forgot to notice.

Then that refrigerator died (in the hot days of September)and suddenly I noticed.  Yuck.

Now I buy one gallon.  I dread the day that a carton will do the trick.

I spent the first 25 years of my life dreaming of being a wife and a mother.  I’ve spent the next 25 years living the dream.  The transition from the first to the second is so exciting and welcome.  I’m on the verge of the next transition, and I realize that I’ve been living my dream but now it’s almost over.  I need a new dream. 

Maybe once I get there I’ll think, “Eh, why did I make all that fuss?  It’s green and lovely over here too.”

But right now, it’s looking pretty brown and desolate as I walk closer to the ledge begin to mourn the family we were. (this is the whining I warned you about a couple of posts ago)

And all I have is one darn gallon of milk in the fridge.

It’s His Birthday, Let Him Eat Cake!

1996 - 3

2001 - 8

2006 – 13

2007 – 14

2008 –15

2009 –16

2010 - 17

We skyped (LOVE LOVE LOVE Skype) last night as he opened his presents (it was his birthday already in New York) and we hung out for an hour until it became officially his birthday in Utah.  The middle of the night seems to be primetime for college freshmen, but we could barely keep our eyes open and there wasn’t a fancy mirror ball that dropped 20 stories or anything.

Undying gratitude to our friends the Spikers for supplying his cake this year.  His UT grandparents are also filling the gap.  A little piece of my heart has just broken off not being there.  We love this boy!

Oh, and, Tyler got this cryptic message from his roomie:

Explained here:

Yes, I’m sorry.  Like a car accident, you won’t be able to look away.  You’ll be singing/quoting it all day.

Fact Checking

Last night--

Mom: I thought your blog was funny.  But I never had 7 OR 9 dogs.

Me:  Really?  Didn’t you have 7 puppies?

Mom:  Oh,well.  Puppies.  There were 7 of those…plus two adults.  Ok, 9.  But they were puppies.  Not that tall.

Fact 1:  They are still pretty tall.  Here is a picture (thank you www.ibizan.freeservers.com) of Ibizan hounds, which is what my mom has.  These look to be rather youngish, maybe a little bigger than those 7 puppies were at the time of Jeff’s introduction.

Fact 2:  Have you been around puppies?  Especially big puppies?  One puppy seems to take up as much space as 3-4 adult dogs since they are in perpetual motion (until they crash from sheer exhaustion).  So, I don’t think the fact that most of them were puppies helps her case.

Fact 3: While you may say, “puppies are short term, they eventually leave to their forever homes”… you don’t know my mom.  Always one or more were keepers.  And, all of her puppies came with a lifetime guarantee.  So, more than a few bounced back over the years.

Fact 4:  Shake all mental images of outdoor living.  Huntington hounds have full use of the household.

Fact 5:  One particular occasion will go down in the hallowed halls of Huntington history (how about that alliteration??)  We were settling down to watch something on tv and the dogs were restlessly circling the area.  My mom chastised my dad,

“George, get off the couch!  The dogs have nowhere to sit!”

To her everlasting chagrin, she realized not only did she say that out loud, but she said it in front of her son-in-law.

Did I mention he has a good memory?

I rest my case.

P.S.  These little idiosyncrasies are demonstrative of an underlying generosity of spirit and only add to our love and enjoyment of all that is Nancy!

Tyler Has Been Replaced

Tyler’s departure to college left the house entirely too quiet.  Not that Tyler ever made much noise, but since January he’s been getting home at noon.  After graduation, he was gone on excursions a little more often, but Bryce was home too.

Since August, there’ve been a lot of long days of

quiet.

So, I initially tried to replace

THIS

With THIS

But my mom came up with a

BETTER idea…

While I was growing up there were two kids and two dogs in our house.  After my little younger brother left for school, my mom filled her empty nest with seven dogs.  Seven?  Were there only seven?  Maybe there were nine?  Anyway, seven to nine TALL dogs.  This is about the time my husband (then not my husband) met my family.

My parents are back down to two dogs.

My husband has a good memory.

I had to pinky swear that two is my limit (since we already have one).

I knew I had him when he started thinking of names for MY  our puppy.

She’s not Tyler, but she’ll be a good distraction for sure.

Already she’s distracted me from whining this week (more on that later…) and I won’t even get her until November!

Thanks mom and dad for my early birthday present!