On The Road

My daughter and I are leaving tonight to drive to Missouri for my son's graduation from Military Police school. Should be an intersting trip. One of the difficulties faced by a divorced person is dealing with her children. Even if the children are grown when their parents divorce, there are still issues to deal with. Children are basically selfish individuals (regardless of age) and are concerned about how everything is going to effect them. They have in their little heads an ideal outline for their lives. Usually that ideal outline includes Mom and Dad staying right where Dick and Jane left them when they moved out. But who said we get to follow the ideal outline for our life?
We've come a long way in the past year. We've gone through all the emotions of grieving something we all lost - disbelief, hurt, fear, anger - and now we are finally at the acceptance. This is the new normal and this is the way it's going to be from now on and we aren't all going to die from it! One mistake we did make in the aftermath of the divorce is not going through these emotions together. We all went our separate ways and dealt with it the best we could on our own. I'm hoping that during the seemingly endless hours of driving and plenty of alone time that my children and I can finally talk about all of the things we've gone through this past year and lay our old lives to rest once and for all so we can move on with our new lives.
Remember us as we travel the next couple of days and if nothing else, you know I'll come back with at least one story to tell!

Great Outdoors Initiative

Please go over to my other blog, Crazy Old Lady With a Shotgun and read my post there about the so-called Great Outdoors Initiative. Thanks!

P.S. For those of you who are not computer knowledgeable (I won't call any names!) go to http://crazyoldladywithashotgun.blogspot.com. You should be able to just click on the link.

P.P.S. I apologize for the language if it offends anyone.

Back in the Saddle Again

Yes, faithful followers of my blog (all 4 of you) I am back. While there haven't been any momentous occasions for me to blog about, I do feel the need to update you. As for the kitchen remodel, it is still not 100% complete but my kitchen is completely functional! I still have some painting and touch-ups to get done but for the most part it is like I wanted it - complete with a new air conditioner. I know - I put it off as long as I possibly could but by the end of July I was dying. So I broke down and bought one. Of course the first one I bought was the wrong size so I had to take it back to get the right size. I am absolutely no good at eyeballing something and being able to tell you what size it is. (Sometimes that's a good thing) So, after getting the right one and having a nervous breakdown while it was being installed, I now have a cool house. At least until the first power bill comes. Then I'll probably turn it off again and never use it! Of course, every day I drive up the road to my house expecting to find the smoking ruins of it because the air conditioner shorted out and caught it on fire. I know, sometimes I'm overwhelmed by own optimism. But so far so good.

My son is graduating from his advanced training in MP school with the Army. He told me last night he is up for honor graduate and I am so excited for him. Even if he doesn't get it, to graduate at the top of your class is still an honor. Believe me, he didn't inherit that from either of his parents. I'll be glad to get him back home so I can undo all the Army has taught him and turn him back into Mama's baby. Just kidding - but I do look forward to spoiling him some.

I know my last post was at the end of May, which as you all know, is my birth month. I believe I posted about turning 47. I think I look fairly decent for a 47 year old grandmother and have been pretty happy with my appearance so far. But the other day I had some issues. I got up as I normally do each morning and got dressed for work. Now, when I get dressed, I usually just look down to make sure that a. my clothes match, b. that they are not wrinkled and c. that my underwear is actually under my clothes. Important things to check at this stage of life. When I got to work and went to the bathroom I noticed in the mirror that something looked wrong in the chest area. The girls looked crooked! I checked it out and figured that my top had shrunk and the pattern on it was now crooked, making the girls look crooked. So I tugged and pulled and tucked until the pattern was straight but they were still crooked. This annoyed me all day and I even asked one of the guys if they looked crooked to him. (This is a humbling experience, trust me!) He thought they looked normal but I knew something was wrong. It looked like my chest had a stroke and one side was drooping drastically as a result. By the time I got home I was just thankful to be there and didn't give the girls another thought until I started to get dressed this morning. First, I looked in the mirror, full frontal without anything on. (If you are reading this and know me, try not to get a mental image - it will haunt you the rest of the day.) True, one looked a little different than the other but not too very much. So then I started to put on my bra and that's when I noticed it. One strap was at the normal position and the other strap was let completely out! Why didn't it occur to me to check this yesterday? I could have avoided all that psychotic behavior, wouldn't have had to ask one of the men I work for (yes, for!) to check out my boobs, and could have walked around without my arms folded in front of me. I think the saddest part of the whole day was that my boss thought I looked like I always do! I can't even begin to process that at this point.