Romantic Results

Well, my "what do you find romantic" poll results are in and I could not help but analyze a bit. This is what I was always paid to do in my previous jobs. Collect facts and figures, chart and analyze them for some arbitrary deadline so the powers that be could do nothing with the findings unless the results were particulary unfavorable and my group was that month's scapegoat. I figure this is good practice for when I return to the workforce.

The majority of the poll participants are cheap like me find the simple things romantic.
A leisurely stroll - holding hands - 15 out of 21

A lot of participants must either have small children or annoying teenagers.
Any uninterrupted time together - 10 out of 21

A large majority of participants are obviously North American revolving life around food.
Candlelight dinner – 12 out of 21

At least two participants were male. Or females currently trying to conceive.
Anything leading to s-- - 2 out of 21

Aunt Vicki must have participated in the poll
Jewelry – 1 out of 21

There is a One Green Party candidate trying to skew results.
None of these – 1 out of 21


By the way, in my career, I worded things a little differently.
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Memory Lane 1

Just a cute picture today of my now 4 year old Grant. Grant was not quite two in this picture. I was changing his diaper when the phone rang. Here is what he did during my 5 minute phone conversation:

That is Eucerin Lotion. Lotion the consistency of Crisco. Great for very dry or near eczema skin, BAD for carpet. By the way, ammonia and water 50%-50%. However the carpet has NEVER been quite the same.

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3's a Crowd

On Thursday mornings, I keep my 3-year-old nephew, Brody. I love being able to see and spend time with Brody. Brody enjoys coming and playing with his cousins close to his age. My boys anxiously await Brody on Thursday mornings. It is a fun situation for all of us. However, something happens to my boys upon Brody’s arrival…

They morph into the most annoying beings on the planet.

Suddenly, there is a constant competition for either my or Brody’s attention, it appears. They seem to test who can be the loudest, who can have the most needs, who whines the most, who hits the hardest, who succeeds in destroying the most household goods, who spills or throws the most food and drink, who can be the cruelest, and who uses the words “butt,” “poop,” “fart” & “pee” the most before I say something. It is not Brody who does this. It is only my boys. That is why I have surmised it must be some sort of a masculine ritual establishing a rank and hierarchy amongst themselves with a foreigner. From what I can tell, it must work in the male species because they giggle, encourage each other, antagonize each other and seem to respect each other in the end for their efforts. For me, as the female, it just makes my ears hurt, my senses numb, my tolerance level depleted, and my compassion nonexistent.

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Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow

First, please note the new prayer requests at the side. Brian has tests next week and I thought this was a good way of letting you know what our needs are on a daily basis.


We got our first measurable snowfall of the season Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. It was about an inch or so. Barely enough to measure. Grant came out of his room, looked out the front window, gasped and ran into our room saying, "Daddy, you GOT TO wake up and see what happened last night." He went running around trying to wake up the house. We were already awake. He was like at kid at Christmas. He went downstairs, looked under the Christmas tree, and sadly walked away saying, "We didn't get any presents this year." Turns out he thought it WAS Christmas. I said, "Grant, just because it snows doesn't mean it's Christmas." He said, "Yes, it does." That's right. I keep forgetting that I am stupid. Silly me.

After I convinced them to wait until after breakfast, I dressed them to play in the snow. I was all dressed to work out, thought better of it remembering this is WHY I stay home and went out with the boys this morning to enjoy the beauty and their reaction to it.

I was reminded of why I LOVE snow:

And why I HATE Snow:

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Ready! O.K.!

Check out Brian's cousin, Anne Fennell, as Cheerleader of the week on SI.COM. If I was smarter about stuff, I would try to paste in a picture of her here, but I'm not. Plus, I don't want to get into trouble with any copyright issues. There is a whole slide show of Anne doing stunts, etc. Go ANNE!


Although, Anne, I have some trash-talk for ya.

Can you beat this???

Angie (me) as a high school freshman cheerleader. Don't you LOVE THE HAIR!

TAKE THAT!

AND THIS!

Me again this past Thanksgiving (2007) about 20 years later. Yup, still got it!

Alright, Anne, you win. You look GREAT!

(Explanation: The kids love to play dress up at Memaw's house and we came across my old cheerleading outfit. I believe it is the same one as the photo above 20 years prior. Logan's alligator costume is in the way, but I am about 4 or 5 inches off the ground still, and YES it hurt!)



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No Prince Charming

I am finding as I blog more regularly about this and that, there is a lot of power in having these keys at my fingertips and a few people who seem to have a remote interest in what I am writing or at least some sick curiosity. I see how easily it can hurt or cause an undue reaction such as this one:

Brian has been back to work full time for a while now. He has responsibility for a job that a recent retiree vacated, so he does not necessarily read my blog every day. I ask him if he reads it every day that I post, mostly so he knows there is something to read if he wishes. He didn't read it most of last week. Then, on Thursday, he said to me:

Brian: "What's this 'I'm not romantic?'"

Me: "What are you talking about?"

Brian: "Your blog said I'm not romantic."

Me: "Oh, you read my blog?"

Brian: "Yeah, What do you mean 'I'm not romantic?'"

Me: "You're not."

Brian: "I'm romantic. I rub your feet."

Me: "That's part of my compensation for caring for your children and part of your duties as husband."

Brian: "The thing is, you don't want that romantic stuff anyway,"

Me: "I don't?"

Brian: "No. When I try to do that stuff, you tell me that's not what you want."

Me: "Well, then you are doing it wrong. What girl doesn't want to be a princess here and there?"

This conversation made me think about two things. First of all, you can easily be misunderstood; therefore, hurting someone's feelings/pride/dignity with a blog if you are not careful. So, to Brian, "I am sorry if I offended you, but get used to it. I am a blogger now and you and the kids are my primary topics. Just kidding. I will try to get your permission if I am going to write something that I think maybe puts you in a negative spin. This particular blog I did not think was negative. "

Secondly, what is romance? This is so different for everyone. I knew what Brian meant as soon as he said that I tell him it is not what I want. He is referring to expensive gifts. He is right. I don't want that. To Brian, buying me jewelry and flowers is incredibly romantic. To me, it is a use of our money on something very impractical and expensive, and I would rather do something else with the funds. To me, our last Saturday of being shut-in with the kids and a cozy fire and no distractions was romantic. To him, it was a fun alternative to a day of plans gone awry, but not romantic. So, we talked about our definitions of romance.

Here are some things we find romantic.

Angie:

quiet time together

sitting on the same sofa (instead of Brian in his la-z-boy)

holding hands

dinner for two (if HE gets the babysitter and reservations)

a card or note placed where I will find it unexpectedly

gentle rubbing/back-scratching that doesn't HAVE to end in s__.

a note in my anniversary/birthday/valentines card instead of a quick 'Love, Brian"

inexpensive flowers without a vase (I have too many vases that never get used)

filling up my car

vacations/time away

hearing why he loves me

a bottle of wine next to a fire

chocolates

compliments

seeing him dressed up sharply

sitting together watching the kids play

bluesy/jazzy/big -band-type music

Here is what I surmised that Brian finds romantic:

Brian:

hugging/rubbing/massaging/touching

time with me without kids

anything that leads to s__

buying me gifts

So you see, I have a much different view of romance than Brian. I think time can be incredibly romantic even if kids are around. To Brian, this is competition for my attention. He didn't say that exactly. I am opining here. I think that lots of men think that romance can only be obtained if children are not around. They rarely get their wives' undivided attention because it is so focused on the immediate and plentiful needs of the children. Regardless, it is difficult for someone to be romantic towards you if you never tell them your preferences.

I was wondering what you find romantic. Take the poll if you have a second or two.

By the way PARIS! VERY ROMANTIC for both Brian and Angie!

Montmarte, an artist village in Paris

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Foiled Plans

Our Saturday plans this weekend were not meant to be. First, my sister and her family were going to visit so we could go to a basketball game. When we realized all the tickets that remained were overpriced nose-bleed seats, they decided not to visit due to Matt’s job news this week (please see A Theory In Relativity). So, we made plans with an old high school friend of Brian’s we have not seen in 4 years. They were to hang out for the day so we could meet their toddler daughter and simply re-connect. Gavin also had a basketball game he was particularly excited about.

Then it came. The ICE. At first, we did not know how bad it would get since the weather was SUPPOSED to warm up throughout the day. Brian got a haircut around 9:00 a.m. When he left, there was no precipitation. By the time he arrived at the salon 15 minutes later, there was enough ice to cause him to slip in the parking lot. By the time he got home, the ice was making walking and driving treacherous. We spoke with our friends and begrudgingly decided this was NOT the best day for a visit. Gavin’s basketball game was also cancelled.

So, what do we do now with two boys who were looking forward to a day of planned activity? Here’s what we did:

First, Brian wrestled (fought, as Grant calls it) with the boys for a while. This is relatively new for Brian since he hasn’t felt up to the task and is at a disadvantage due to his right side deficits. He won anyway. However, once the boys realized there were potentially hazardous-death-trap and pneumonia-inducing conditions in the backyard and on the front driveway, what else could they do but play in them? So, we bundled them up while the sleet and freezing rain pelted them for well over an hour. We checked every once in a while to make sure they were still alive and ensured all their fingers were pink and flesh colored instead of black and rotting from frost-bite.





After they came in soaked to their underwear with snot-ridden noses, we all had hot chocolate with LOADS of marshmallows, followed by a game of “keep the ball off the floor” in the family room. I would call it catch, but if it landed on the couch and didn’t hit the floor, we still counted it. The boys accompanied Brian during his workout and did some treadmill laps. The treadmill time ended when Gavin inadvertently wedged a toy basketball between the frame and belt of the treadmill. That would be why it is normally off-limits.

They played darts while I did Sudoku and laundry.

We had a family dinner during which I actually persuaded Gavin to eat a bite of corn and potatoes and several bites of tenderloin, if you can believe it. At the end of dinner, I didn’t feel like I desperately needed to get away from all things less than 4 feet tall. I actually felt relaxed and I still LIKED my children.

We finished the day with popcorn, jammies and Home Alone 2, Lost in New York. The boys had never seen a Home Alone movie, so they were absolutely rolling-on-the-couch, side-splitting, belly-roar laughing at the scenes when the bandits are slap-stick mangled, injured and caught in all the traps. I don’t know about you, but to me, there is NO BETTER SOUND than genuine childhood laughter.

Foiled plans can sometimes lead to the most blessed, family-fun-filled, relaxing, intimate days you can remember in months. I love when God does that. I am pretty sure He loves doing it, too.
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Technical Difficulties

You know how many people say if they had a fire in their house, they would make sure everyone was accounted for and the only thing they would try to save was their photos? Well, in this day and age, how do you do that when your photos are saved in electronic format? Yesterday, I spent the better part of my computer time (which is too much time) trying to analyze and possibly fix (ha ha ha ha ha ha) my computer. Our back up hard drive is unresponsive. This is really bad news for Brian as it has his ENTIRE MUSIC SELECTION (about 100 gig). It is really bad news for me as it contains every photo we have taken since March of 2007 - Disney, summer trips, graduations, Europe. You name it. If it happened since March of 2007, it is on that back up hard drive. No, there is not a single photo developed since I am not organized enough with my photos to have them in albums yet. That is a project constantly in works. And no, they are not backed up anyplace else since THIS IS OUR BACKUP.


We are going to have to take the hard drive to the computer doctor and pray that he can at least salvage the data on the drive. This is really bad for us. I guess this is my kick to start developing my pictures and get them in albums.


And of course, it couldn't happen at a worse time. I mean, this is the time that I would be perusing through our photos to find the perfect Christmas card photo (or one where both kids are actually looking forward. Who cares if they are smiling or have dried food on their face?) This is the time that my sister asks for photos for the family calendar. I was getting ready to load 2-1/2 years worth of family videos onto the hard drive (our mini DV camcorder crapped out last month and I am borrowing my cousin's to download the video. This is the 2nd camcorder we had crap out and NO, we obviously didn't have all the tapes backed up to DVD. We just bought one that saves to a SD card to avoid having hard media all the time.). So, when it rains it pours.


I am distraught. Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I was freaking out at the hard drive situation (which, by the way, is slowing down the performance of the overall computer). I was also thinking that on the weekends, I would only post photos or something small, if at all. We travel or have guests on the weekends here and there, so I would be unreliable. I know that many people don't get on the computer much over the weekend anyway. So, I was getting ready to search for good photos to post - HA! They apparently will have to be prior to March 2007 if I am going to post them.


Also, what do you think of my new layout? Brian and Grant's favorite color is green. Gavin is pretty undecided on a favorite color, but usually wants to be the green Power Ranger, so I thought green appropriate since this site is kind of dedicated to them. Fill out the poll on the right if you wish to let me know if you like it.


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