Chad called last night

it's been a while since i asked you guys to pray for him, anyone who is so inclined... ~ please ~ don't forget him.

he had emailed me a couple pics, looks like he's lost about 20 pounds or so. sounds stressed - of course.

i just couldn't 'shut it down' tonight. so i finally just got up, took a lorazapam for anxiety, ate some cheese and an apple, and here i am unloading on you guys again

Corrine maybe? i see you liked my last joke i laughed so hard at that one! so glad you did too!

I have to shove on soon..

There may be spooks out at night

(Not you, Miss Belle)

hey..I got asparagus! Thing is, I have a three foot stalk, a foot long, and a bunch of smaller ones..

If I keep cutting it back..will they ever get uniform?

Or do you just pinch 'em each day till you have a bunch?

This is my old 'got Lyme' planting them patch..
about three years old with no attention till recently.

I'm still loking for the Camel pee or some such thing that LabRat sent me for..

Mo

they will grow taller but not fatter. the skinny ones are just immature. fine to eat, they will be fatter next year like a lot of us

honestly it is the first one that has not surprised each of us and nearly everyone who knows us (true) took us a while to get our **** together, now it feels like we are newlyweds.

i thank God every day for him, and also for each of us being stubborn enough to hang on! when he pulls in the drive i look out with a song in my heart 'dh is home' even we get mad at each other. this entire year was that way... i am looking forward to the rest of my life

well good night, 'see' you tomorrow!

Loribelle

This has been a tough year for you guys with Chad away in an unsafe enviornment, the stress and all, so it's wonderful that dh is your 'rock!'

i knew i 'was in trouble' here almost as soon as our tires hit the lane, returning from the honeymoon (yup, really, it was awful) right away the difference between 'girlfriend' and 'wife' became painfully clear. no way had i 'signed up' for that. it wasn't the picture that he had in mind either...

we built our house. i mean actually BUILT it... together. i was bucking shingles, running wires, hanging drywall and insulating, ETC right beside dh (who incidentally looks SO FINE!! in just cut-offs and a tool belt -sigh- )

we came home from the honeymoon to a hole in the ground (for the basement). we built - after work - while living in an old trailer next to my new mother-in-law. suppose we invited a little stress there? HO-HO-HO BOY! hahaha!

it got so bad that we were even fighting over which side of the wall stud - 1 1/2" difference - the electrical outlet should go... (it's half behind the stove and unusable just like i told him it would be btw
)

oh man, those were bad times. it is truly amazing that we got past it all, we had built so many resentments along with the new house. horrible 'foundation' for a new marriage.

we had a LOT to forgive and LET GO of. there are still - THINGS! - we just deal with them a WHOLE lot differently and 'overlook' a LOT. and trust each other's 'motives' (benefit of doubt - letting go of 'control'). we just re-thought what really matters. i guess we "changed the lenses in our glasses".

we still have disagreements, sometimes fights, we sometimes take turns reminding each other what an A$$ we can be but we have also learned the power of the words "THANK YOU" and "I'M SORRY".

one thing that can be real tough on a marriage especially where there is chronic illness or pain - it can manifest itself in LOTS of different angry and resentful (esp passive-aggressive) ways... sometimes the 'well' spouse, whether actual care-taker or not, contracts that common but insidious disease called "LACKANOOKIE". can't let THAT happen!

dh and i owe the last year to God, and to Dr Phill

Here we are today,same house,kids,animals,another renovation upstairs and we are still hanging in there.

Oh boy,if our walls could talk!!We have the original heart pine floors,my favorites!I finished them myself with an old timemy recipe,turpentine,boiled linseed oil,and varnish.They are now just as beautiful,plus they have an aged look only gotten from claws,paws and roller skates!HA!

Wish I had the energy and get up and go to do another renovation,fun,fun,we found some interesting things behind the walls and under the house.Old money,exercise pins,a gold brooch,old bottles.

dh is a REAL perfectionist (an imperfection in itself btw!). used to make me crazy!! now, after the 'lense change' i can see how COOL it is to be married to a perfectionist!

it is so easy to TORTURE them

Bigmamma maybe? Weeza, you asleep?

He's so obsessively meticulous, spends half the labor time in measuring and remeasuring "everything." Very technically oriented. geeez

I love hearing your adventures in marraige, it's quite the trip isn't it? Plenty of wrecks along the way.........yet, one things for sure for me too, God is the glue that keeps us as a couple. As a child of divorce, both parents having been married 3 times ea. You just know the alternative sucks, especially for your children.
With of course the exception of pysical or mental abuses when divorce may be the only safe option.

Your recollections are so fun ladies, great topic anytime. THANKS.

What hat is the DH donning today..
Prince or Poopy-Head?

.. HeheHe.. they say variety is the spice of life ..you sound like you have a healthy brew going.

That outlet story is hysterical..there is is peeking at you from behind the stove

hey, but you guys shouldn't knock perfectionism when it comes to house stuff (aside from the outlet debacle)

It could be worse, at least in that area.. if you had someone working on the house that was, shall we say..an
imperfectionist..

Mo

...poopy-head think he forgot that "i'm sorry" thing we all need to use now and then... he needs to use it.

i was out all day yesterday, mowed, mulched the flower beds, cleaned the hottub, hosed off the deck, etc. just kind of 'fartin around'.

i "forgot" how that works, the energy spurt, then overdoing and then paying. and about the sun sensitivity thing... probably more like denial or "if i ignore it it isn't really there"...

man, i was up most of the night, asthma acting up, heart was jumping like a jumping bean, got a fresh batch of lupus profundus lumps today.

i had to call the parks dude and bail out of some of the volunteering for the park's flower bed maintainance. i did commit to one of the smaller ones. won't be a huge deal, just use low maintainance plants and lots of good mulch. bummer tho.