Happy Anniversary!

Today is our anniversary. 16 years married, 18 together. Kurt and I met at a bar called the "Electric Banana". He was a drummer in a band and my friend Mick hounded me to come out to see them. Begrudgingly I went and when I walked in I am telling you my eyes went right to Kurt. I thought, in my low self-esteem way, he probably won't be interested. We were introduced and and hung out the rest of the night. Our first date was to see The Beatles "Yellow Submarine" where they play movies outside. Afterwards we talked for hours.

About a week or 2 after we met Kurt was coming over to my apartment. As I was waiting I fell asleep on the couch.

The phone rang:

Woman  "Do you know someone named Kurt"

Me   "Yes"

Woman "He's just been hit by a truck up the street" 

WHAT!

I ran up the street wondering if I was dreaming until I saw ambulance lights flashing.

There was Kurt in a fog, sitting at the bus stop with people around him. He had gotten off the bus and crossed in front of it and got hit by a pick-up truck.

We went to the hospital in an ambulance where he found out he had a broken leg and some nice abrasions and a good size bump on his head.

We hadn't known each other very long but from that moment on we were together.

Kurt is funny, sensitive (I think 9 sisters helped with that), an incredible artist, funny, a great dad, funny and so much more.

After 4 moves, 2 kids, deaths of parent, no money and many, many other fabulous and not so fabulous events I can't imagine going through my life with anyone else.

I joke with him that he can't even think of leaving me until our kids are out of the house.

Well I'm not going anywhere either.

I love you honey

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!

The last day

I thought

"Wouldn't it be nice to do something special for the last day

before the kids went back to school".

Well, I just did not have it in me. I'm feeling a bit blue about the whole thing. 

Thankfully they did not need me for entertainment

They did fine on their own. Lots of giggles and a bit of fighting too.

Well maybe more fighting and less giggling, but they had fun.

The F-bomb

This is a sculpture Kurt did for an art exhibit.

The theme was art made from bowling pins.

We are in the woods the other day. The kids are riding their bikes, Kurt and I are walking. We like this trail because there are a lot of dogs and a dog water area and my kids REALLY want a dog. There were people walking in front of us with a dog on a leash then another guy comes toward them. His dog is not leashed. Well, this guys dog attacks the other dog.  The woman whose dog was being attacked started to scream. When I say scream I mean obscenities were flying. Obviously I can understand why she was upset but for what seemed like an eternity all I heard was:

"Why isn't your fucking dog not on a fucking leash! What the fuck! Get your fucking dog fucking out of here!!!!"

I thing fuck was used about 30 times along with blood curdling screams.

The guy got his dog off the other dog and no one was injured.

My kids were about 10 feet in front of this and we were about 10 feet behind.

My son being the master of the obvious says

"Dad, did you here that?"

At least this made the woman laugh and calm down a bit.

I am not against swearing. God knows I do it myself. Growing up my dad could string a line of obscenities that could make your hair curl. I had no control over that and I am starting to realize how little control I have over my own kids hearing these words.

I have neighbors who fight so loud we hear

"I take care of the fucking kid, the fucking house, the fucking dog, fuck you!"

I catch myself running around shutting windows.

I have a neighbor across the street who has gotten drunk at the bar up the street  and walks by my house screaming  obscenities

My son was down the playground the other day with a friend and when he came home I asked who was down there he said:

"Just some teenagers."

I asked them what were they doing he tells me:

"Hanging around swearing"

When my daughter asked why they were doing that he tells her thats what teenagers do.

I notice around here that IS what teenagers do and alot of other people.

Like I said I am not perfect either. When my son was about five we went to visit my mother-in-law. She is a good catholic who has raised TWELVE children. Really TWELVE. My son was upstairs and clear as a bell he yells 

JESUS CHRIST!

The whole house stopped. He never said that before and he has never said it again.

I wonder when the F-Bomb is going to drop

When are we leaving

The Master Gardening group I am involved in had a picnic on Sunday at a wonderful farm within the city. I thought this would be a great thing for the kid's to see. This was the first one I ever went to because I am a new member. Little did I know I would be the only one there who brought their whole family. Most people came alone and just a few brought their husbands.

Aaron only went because I told him there would be food. He started moaning immediately that he was STAAAARVING and could not wait or he would DIIIIE. We did eat soon and the food was great, for an adult. This was a gardening group. There was lots of great salads and veggie lasagna, things made with grains. Pretty much nothing my kids would eat.

Kurt told Aaron as he was complaining that "It is a big world of food out there"

Aaron's reply "I know, and I am exploring the meats"

So dinner for them was cheese & crackers and enough chocolate and cookies to frazzle a very large adult.

There was heirloom tomato tasting. Again, nice for me, boring for them.

There were chickens to feed which was fun. One breed they had did not have feathers on it's neck. It looked like a chicken head on top of a penis and 2 balls then a chickens body. Frightening.

I think it made the whole picnic worthwhile.

Dance Your Art Out!

Ella went to a dance camp at the Carnegie Museum last week. Lots of fun. The program was called "Dance Your Art Out". They made costumes and learned a dance. At the end of the week there was a dance recital in the Carnegie Music Hall Foyer. It was too cute to see these girls do their dance moves in costumes with masks falling off and pieces getting tangled. Of course Aaron was bored out of his mind. He told me he would only like to see Ella dance if she was on "So You Think You Can Dance". He said he would be older by then and he could watch the "Hot Girls". He does not like girls now but he knows he will later on.  That kid cracks me up.

What Birthday?

Today was my birthday. It started out very nice. Ella is the card queen. She doesn't just make cards, she draws, cuts things out, puts them in envelopes then wraps them in gift wrap with a big bow. If it wasn't for her I would not have known it was my birthday. My husband on the other hand sucks at birthdays. Don't get me wrong he is so good in many, many ways but he missed the gene on how to celebrate holidays. All I ask for on my birthday is cards from my kids and a burnt almond torte from Prantls Bakery. I have had birthdays when I had to buy my own cake because he was working to late or the time my birthday was on a Monday and he didn't realize bakeries were closed on Mondays even though I worked at a bakery and we were NEVER opened on Mondays. Driving back from Buffalo there was even the conversation about how it is Mommy's birthday on Tuesday and I even uttered the words "All I want is cards and a cake".  Yesterday there was no card from my son and NO CAKE! Why, do you ask? Kurt got me a bottle of wine I liked and forgot the cake. HOW DO YOU FORGET CAKE! Every year I make everybody a home made cake and every year I say this behavior will not bother me but I have pretty much had it. My close friends are aware of this and are having a little get together next week for me where I know there will be a Burnt Almond Torte. So for those of you who have had crappy birthdays like me, please stop by.

A 'relaxing' weekend away

This is not how I wanted our weekend away to start. We were half way to Buffalo then out of the blue our car started to act weird. This is the reliable car. This is why we take it on long trips. So after waiting an hour we had an enjoyable tow truck ride with a guy who was working as much as he could so he could be off the weekend to see the Slipknot and Disturbed  concert. We made it to a Ford dealer in Conneaut where we sat for about 4 hours.

All I can say is thank God for television. At first we had to watch Judge shows until all the other customers left and we got control of the remote. Then my kids watched a marathon of Jimmy Neutron. During this time our car was apparently fixed until we drove it and found out it was not. When it was being fixed for the second time we went to a tiny greasy spoon with about 5 tables. The woman next to us was talking non stop about Jesus and revelations and signs coming true. When her grandkids were doing pretend karate she told them to stop because "That's Eastern religion and we don't practice that". I thought at this point my head may explode. Finally we found out our car could NOT be fixed until Monday. We rented a car and got to Buffalo at 9:00 P.M. We left at 11:30 A.M. Needless to say we were tired and cranky and when I say we it was mostly me. It is amazing though how the kid's handled it. They really thought of it as an adventure. They thought the tow truck was cool, TV and air-conditioning, dinner out and a Jeep for our rental which is way cooler than a Ford Contour.

On Saturday We went to the Eden Corn festival. This is a whole long weekend all about corn. There is a corn eating contests and a big parade. There are also all those crazy rides that are brought in by truck and games with scary carnies. The scariest was the guy at the bottom of the fun house slide who was directing kid's which way to go. He never really spoke he just looked at the kid's with a murderous stare then pointed to the direction they should go. If they did not pay attention to his point he would say "Hey" then point harder. I have never come across a meaner or scarier looking man. These kind of carnivals always sound fun until you get there. I saw T-shirts like 'Proud to be a Biker Bitch' and lighters shaped like Penises which had Ella asking me "what's that mommy". We spent way to much money in way to short of  time.

Sunday we saw Kurt's family and finally felt like we relaxed. It has been a stressful month. It was nice to be around family. I just wanted to run away and stay up there. We stopped at Lake Erie on the way home. This makes any trip worth while. The kids actually play together looking for shells and rocks. Kurt and I just take in that great sound of the water and the wind. It almost made me forget my car was spending the weekend away. If we ever have anything resembling extra money I will buy a tiny little cottage near the lake.