Time to count my treasures

That's what I love about my blog... when good stuff happens, I want to blog it, when bad stuff happens I want to blog it. It doesn't seem to matter how I feel, I want to blog it.
Today I got up, it's the first day of Eden's spring break. What a lovely feeling to have my eyes open at 8:30 and turn over and see Nick laying in his bed smiling over at me. It's so funny how everyone pities me because we're in such a small place that Nick shares a bedroom with us when I find it to be the sweetest thing in the world about9 90% of the time. He's a very special little man. Anyway, I came downstairs, started tea and checked my email. There were two relevant emails. One was from our renter time stamped 7:24 and one was from Jody time stamped 7:29. I looked at the titles. The renters said "notice of intent to end lease" Jody's said "Hey". I clicked on Jody's and found the sweetest love note he's sent me in months. It was exactly what I needed. I moved on to the renters email and found myself devoid of emotion or impulse. It was as though God were telling me that I do have what's important in life. I have Jody. He writes me love notes after 8 fantastic years of marriage. We have our great children and no matter how much I stress about that house, it won't change the situation or the fact that I have a simply wonderful life. I went to the brink when Jody got cancer, I know everyone says that it's not a bad kind of cancer and it won't kill him, yadda yadda yadda. The bottom line is, it was not just the run of the mill thyroid cancer, it was all over the place and it took me to the edge. I looked at what a future without him would look like and I realized what a great thing we have going. Forget about the penniless state, the renter status, the medical bills, the house in Kasson that I want to curse but know I shouldn't. Forget about everything except that I have a husband that comes home and wraps his arms around me and loves me wholly. We don't have all of that junk that other people do. I don't know why we're so fortunate or why we'll never break each others hearts but we got that. We got that magical little piece that holds an entire life together. My kids could someday lose a parent, but they'll never lose their family or the security of knowing it's whole. We might not be able to buy a house for years, or a trip to Disney in their whole childhoods but they do have the important pieces that make good people who contribute to society in a postive way.
The day of countless treasures doesn't stop there. When I got downstairs I had also missed a call from Gin. I called her back and my dear sister of thirty years was on cloud nine. Why? Because of something I had shared with her. I shared my Dave Ramsey course with her two years ago as I paid off every last stinking credit card, Gin aborbed it, grabbed it and ran with it. She was calling to announce to me that she and Brad had saved more than enough money for their property taxes for the year and for the first time in years their tax refund was not going to pay off credit cards. It was just their money to spend as they chose. Brad told her he's officially done with credit cards. Wow, what a blessing to me, to know that I shared something with my dearest friend in the world that had improved her life so dramatically. Can any gift be greater than to be free of financial stress?
A few hours later, the doorbell rang. I went down and there was a package from Pottery Barn. Okay, anyone who knows me, knows I did NOT order anything from Pottery Barn. I opened the box, sure it was an accidental delivery. No, there was my name on the packing slip with an adorable little silver tape measure. Printed on it was "measure twice, cut once." I stared in utter confusion, fear struck me that this might be an inside joke from someone that I was supposed to understand. Finally my mind cleared and I realized that this must be the little gift that Knelly wanted to send me the other day just because she thought it was so cute. It was just another piece of the symbolic puzzle in my day.
What more could a girl ask for?
Now I must make my children a lunch and go romp and play with them for the rest of the afternoon.

AZ

More ramblings for myself. Sometimes I write these for entertainment and sometimes I'm just documenting some memories. I figure I'll go back and read this stuff someday and laugh until I cry or just be glad it's there. Actually, I did do that a few months ago. I went back and read some blogs from 07 and laughed until I cried (but Gin thinks I cry too easily when I laugh, so I guess that's not too amazing). Anyway, I'm glad I've got it and wish I tried harder.
A little over a week ago we went on our first family vacation since Nick's birth. I'm not gonna lie. It's been a hard time in our lives for the last couple of years. It was liberating to just kick back and relax for most of the time. Jody's mom and Jerry took us to a great dinner theater on a farm. We ate on tin plates, got rowdy and banged on them with spoons, the kids were enthralled with the singers thinking we were in a movie. The girls got to shoot a colt 45. It had pearl handles and was over a hundred years old. They each got a turn, emptying wax rounds at a target. It was the highlight. They panned for gold, went in a saloon and listened to a singer. Kait told her Grandma that it was so beautiful her eyes got wet. I've jumbled up the sequence but it was a great night. The kids wished they could go every day. Jerry took Jody and Nick to a pre-season baseball game between the Diamondbacks and the Cubs. Nick loved it. Maureen treated all of us girls to Mani/Pedi's which we were thrilled with. We got to catch up with GG. I played a couple of rounds of scrabble with her and we had some good laughs. Maureen and Jerry hosted a big dinner and had all of her family in the area over one night. That was fun too. One night Jody and I got to have a grown up night out too! I put on a hot little number and failed to get any pics of us. ;( It was very romantic. We sat on the same side of a cozy booth in a small upscale restaurant. We were unaware of the expectation to make reservations, but were kindly seated anyway since the place wasn't packed. ;-) The meal was perfect and cost twice as much as any meal we've ever eaten but again, I didn't take pics of the food, though I should have. It was a memorable night. Kait had a lengthy "to do" list for the trip and I think that practically everything was hit. We went swimming, picked lemons at Aunt Margi's, named Kait's doll with Aunt Sharon and went shopping.It was a fun trip and we're thankful for the generosity of Jody's parents or we'd probably still be years away from a family vacation with the whole boo crew.

You have no idea...

Well, I had been getting about a phone call per day from the craziest loon I have ever spoken to and it might be possible to relay those conversations properly if I were a great writer but I'll just try to give you a general idea. It takes some labor to do the "" stuff but in this instance I guess I have no option. First you must imagine a woman speaking in an artifically husky sexy voice with her mouth a little too close to the receiver. Not me, her. Anyway, her name is Heather and her email address indicates that she is a "Private Investigator". I think I've got this set up.
"Hi Heather, my name is Elizabeth, I got your email about your interest in the dining set on craigslist, what can I tell you about it?" (normal human being)
"(Weirdo)Ohhhhhh, Elizabeth, I am so glad you called me back, you see my boyfriend... oh I just hate using the word 'boyfriend' when you're over forty tee hee hee, he is in the process of looking at real estate and we came to be discussing design and I mentioned Mid Century to him and we came across your ad and I just love this table and it perfectly matches my ART and he he he he, well, he wants to buy it for me and I think this might really mean something,you see he's going through a divorce but we don't talk about it, but I think that he wants me to have a really nice dining set to come eat dinner with me. I want children so badly, do you have children?"
"Yes, three"
"Ohhhh, we want seven but we're probably too old but even if we can just have one or two....ha ha ha it would be a dream come true...he's a lawyer."
Ya know what? I thought I could relay all of those phone conversations but I just hit my max. Hopefully you get the idea. This woman talked my freakin ear off non-stop forevaaaaa! Meanwhile, I'm in various locations, my couch, my neighbors house, my daughter's classroom, making crazy faces thinking this is the most colossial waste of time in all of history. After the fifth call, I finally caved. She wanted me to deliver the dining set to her apartment over an hour away, sight unseen and she was promising that HE would pay me $690. No other prospects were looming and the bank account was looking kinda dim with the renters check bouncing and all, so I finally caved. There was also the excting thought of not having daily conversations with Heather. I'm sure you can imagine what her husky romantic diatribe over my affirmative decision sounded like, and how long it took her to profess it to me while diverting into admitting that she has been taking notes when her boyfriend calls her and reading them to me... I guess she somehow wanted me to decipher if these notes meant something... I was speechless, just focusing on the $$$ in my mind. I'm sure they were reflecting in my pupils. I got to the apartment and called her, she said she'd be right down so I waited and waited, and she never came out the door. I went inside the apartment building and found the little machine like they have on Jerry Seinfeld. I punched in the numbers and I really wanted her to answer so I could pretend I was on the show but it just rang and rang. I went back out to the car very puzzled. I called again and her "boyfriend" answered. He mumbled something about how it took Heather awhile but they'd be right down." This was at 3 in the afternoon so I naturally started speculating why he was there at that hour and what they were doing. Finally the door burst open and seductively swaying towards me comes a woman in the tightest black top and pants ever in the history of man with stilletto heels. Her boobs could literally rival Dolly Parton. Her lips could rival Angelina Jolie and her arched eybrows don't immidiately bring anyone to mind. She comes swaying towards me with curling blond hair, terrible makeup of which the bright pink lipstick is on one tooth and who is behind her??? A man at least 15 or 20 years her senior weighing in by his own confession at around 275. She runs her clickety nails over the table and oooohs and aaahhhs over it and he is inscructiable. I start sweating. He hasn't decided??? Finally, she bats her eyes, and he whips out the cash... he flips through his $50 bills and hands me a handfull and I feel happy but that this scene is kinda messed up with me in it. Ya know, I'm in a North Face cycling shirt with baggy stained jeans and furry crocs that are three years old. I don't belong in this movie. I could go on with all of the no so shocking things she said or try to describe her "art" but it's midnight and I've run out of steam. Suffice it to say, that one day this week, I really lived a Hollywood moment and met a true gold digger and a true sugga daddy. I went home with a money song in my heart, wondering how her private investigating business was going...