WEIGHING MY WHINES

What has happened since my last post, you ask? Hhmmm, let's see. Oh, I know...the freight company destroyed our booth upon return from Quilt Market. Here's the booth at Market:
Did I tell you that Tim (MacGyver), my husband/engineer, devised this booth to fold up into itself? Pretty ingenious, right? Think about furniture that comes to you either blanket wrapped or in a cardboard box. Now here's the booth I received back.

While these were taken with a cell phone, and I'm only showing a few shots, I imagine you get the picture. Holes were poked throughout. So now the burden is on us to try to get compensation.

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Let's see, what else? My business credit card has been compromised. Someone went on a shopping spree soon after Quilt Market. Then we had the water department come out to fix an underground leak in our yard. They came to the door a few minutes later and proudly announced they'd fixed the problem. At 6:oo pm I went to make dinner. No water, not even a drop. Turns out they never turned my water back on. My mother-in-law's Altzheimer is getting worse. She sometimes calls 6 times a day to tell me the exact same thing. She's afraid and lonely and we're 5 hours away.

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Truth is, these are really nothing more than inconveniences. I get frustrated, but am quickly reminded of how blessed I really am. It truly changes my perspective when I choose to turn my attention to what a wonderful opportunity I had to be at Quilt Market.. and I was only without water for a couple hours, etc, etc. My friend Don's inoperable Stage 4 brain tumor; now that's an inconvenience. Don't get me wrong...I love to gripe with the best of them. And if I'm truthful, I most likely won't change. But what I'm trying to do, at least, is put it on an imaginary scale, and these whines all added up to about an ounce. Sigh.

I know you were wondering what Tim and I were on Halloween, so here's the big reveal:

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Tim as a Canadian, and I as someone who works out. Amazing, huh?

I know, I know. We have pulled off some amazing costumes in the past though. It was so much more fun when we could royally embarrass our kids, but that doesn't have the same effect now that they aren't teenagers.

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Oh my gosh, once Tim dressed as the Godfather. Not THE Godfather, but one of Peter Sellers disguises from a Pink Panther movie. Do you remember how he stuffed his cheeks with cotton so he could look like Marlon Brando then choked on a drink? Then got in an elevator with these tough guys and passed gas? So I found a double breasted black pinstriped suit, black shirt, white tie and Fedora hat...I mean the works. But before we got to the huge Halloween gathering at our church (yeah we weren't bible characters) we stopped at the mall to find a whoppie cushion. We had the kids with us. I was also dressed in an elaborate costume...oh I wish I could find pictures. But the kids wanted absolutely nothing to do with us and walked way behind. Of course, being good parents we made sure to turn around and yell to them, by name, to hurry it up.

I frankly have no trouble embarrassing my kids, sometimes unknowingly. Here's another opportunity for me to pull out that imaginary scale I was talking about. I am reminded of all the times they threw themselves down kicking and screaming in the grocery store. Or the time Jennifer ran giggling, pushing the shopping cart with Jonathan in the seat, barrelling into the end cap of cereal. Oh, and how about them hiding inside the clothes rounders to scare unsuspecting shoppers. I'm the mom who left the cart in the isle and promptly escorted them home. So my thinking is ~Hey, I'm still in make up mode, don't you agree?

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Now as we grow older we will undoubtedly truly embarrass them. To that I apologize now:

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Sorry. I swear, I won't do it again.