A non-relaxing Sunday morning

Dragon Mood? -- TIRED and I'm not kidding

HELP!! S and I have been taken hostage by a four year-old and a two year-old and we CAN'T GET UP!

I'm joking AND exaggerating! But only a little. We rendezvoused with Matt and Sarah in the Lake Lansing Meijers parking lot last night, got the 'goods' (Madison and Conner) and S took them into the store to pick out a toy. Forty-five loo-o-oong minutes later, they emerged. Sheesh, I should have known better than to agree to that quick little trip.

At home, S got into the jacuzzi tub with them and things were going well until Conner decided he was scared of the water, or the jets, or the bubbles. We're not sure which. As a two year-old boy, with a very talkative big sister, all he has to do is grunt and shake his head "NO" and point with his finger ... and the kid communicates well and gets pretty much all his needs met. It's an amazing dynamic to observe in action and it certainly takes me back to when Josh was two and Caroline was four. Same sibling behavior, transcendent of time and environment.

Conner feel asleep between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. Madison was up until midnight, thanks to billowing mounds of bubbles, imagined fog and storms for the flotilla of toy boats and exhilarating archaeological digs down in the bubbles IN the tub. She and Grandma really gave their imaginations a workout!

We two grandmas, Grandma and GrandMary, hit the hay immediately. And one minute later, it was light, I heard Madison's voice and the next thing I knew, two little people were padding into our room, wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to GREET the morning! Aye-yi-yiee!!

S and I did our rational and logical best to persuade Madison and Conner that it was WAY TOO early and that we were still tired and climb in bed with us and let's ALL go back to sleep. We never even got close to launching that idea. The phrase, I believe, is a complete fizzle. Nope, they were up, and ready to PLAY! It was all of 7:30 a.m.

We played the piano, we ate bananas, we colored pictures, we got all the pull toys down off the shelf, we made a homemade diaper bag for Madison's new baby doll, we read books. You name it, we did it. Grandma made peanut butter and spun honey raisin toast for us all and made a new song, "Sticky Fingers" to accompany our breakfast. And boy, did the song ever fit the situation!

It's now 1:20 p.m., Conner's sleeping, Grandma and Madison are outside, and Mommy and Daddy have finally shown up. I'm exhausted! Time for a nap!

Recapturing a lazy Saturday morning

Dragon Mood? -- enjoying a lazy Saturday morning

Do you know it's been ages, ages, I tell you since I had a lazy Saturday morning to post here? I think back on all the times I wrote in this blog 'back in the day' when days felt longer, the sun traveled a more relaxed circle in the sky and time had no end in sight.

Nowadays, things feel accelerated. Everything is speeding by, at such a pace, it takes deliberate intention and effort to sit down, breathe and relax. And maybe write a bit here or there in this blog.

S and I celebrated our 24th anniversary this past Tuesday, October 26, 2010. Twenty-four years! I can hardly imagine it. Our relationship began innocently enough, coworkers at a work conference held in Hilton Head, South Carolina. We were both married, husbands and children at home, awaiting our return. One night, that last night in Hilton Head, turned my world upside down, S's too. And it was all so very innocent. All we did was share a bed and feel feelings. Amazing thing.

We celebrated our anniversary by going to hear Bob Dylan and his band perform at the MSU Auditorium in East Lansing. I had bought the tickets as a surprise for S. She and I rendezvoused in Wixom, in the Meijers' parking lot around 5:30, drove to Dusty's in Okemos for a quick, light meal and then off to hear Ol' Growly himself. It was a rockin' concert, loud and fun to move to the beat of the music. I felt good about buying the tickets, taking the initiative on celebrating our anniversary, and S thanked me numerous times for doing this for us. Maybe it was the strange windy weather, but something felt different in the air; youth and energy and maybe even a little bit of hopefulness. All this from an old poet minstrel, from another age, another century even.

Josh and Leah continue to be in my thoughts. I listen to music driving to work and I can get tears in my eyes thinking about them, their undiluted joy and happiness at being together, and all that life has waiting for them.

Caroline and Ron experienced the death of a friend this past week, a good friend and motorcycle brother. He died in a motorcycle accident. I haven't had the opportunity nor the heart to ask about the details, but J.D.'s death fuels one of my worst fears, that Ron and Caroline would be hurt or die in an accident like that. I feel so irrational about this, my fears so irrational (what are feelings but irrational?), that I have to keep a really tight leash on myself so that I don't say or do something inappropriate. Like call them up and scream in to the phone, "I TOLD YOU SO! I DON'T WANT YOU TO DIE BEFORE ME!" (sigh) Like I said, inappropriate.

Work is getting better. Slowly, baby step by baby step, things are getting better. I have a disappointing morning or an unproductive day, but I also have good days where things are cookin', things are humming along and I think, wow, I'm really busy and this feels good.

I had my first candidate start a short-term assignment this past Monday and two more candidates will begin working next week. Yay! Yay for me!

(sigh) It's past noon. Morning is over, time for 'lazy' has passed. Things to do, places to go, people to meet!

Sweet remembrances

Dragon Mood? -- smiling inside and out

Good golly, Miss Molly, do you know I've been writing in this blog for well over SIX years? Is that a thud I heard, you falling from your chair? Yeah, me too!

I hardly ever look back. Except, uh, for now. I looked back here, a posting from this blog, from October 2004. And here's some truth that bears repeating:

My kids are the apples of my eye, the cream in my coffee, the joy in my heart ...

Lina is my older child, with her warm dragon-y outlook on life and people. She loves her dog, good food, "value" wine and that sushi-delivering motorcyle guy [now her husband]. The cup is almost always way more than half-full for her and Lina always looks for the good in people. I love the way she writes, her embracing of wildness and piratical "wenchiness," and most especially, I appreciate her good "eye."

Josh is my younger child, a curious combination of compassion and wicked smartness. His smartness is magnified by incredible tenacity and persistence. He'll bulldoggedly rip your illogical arguments to shreds as well as sit tenderly by, handing you tissues as you cry. He loves the company of women, especially strong women and he isn't afraid to tell Lina and me how much he loves us. He also has a passion for music, which at times, pours out of his being like a localized Niagara Falls. I love watching him at those moments.

Trees, martinis and Sally

Dragon Mood? -- waking up, catching up

Thursday morning, just past six a.m., I'm sitting here with my steaming cup of hot coffee, waking up, enjoying these few, quiet minutes to myself.

This past weekend, Sally was 'down state', visiting us, hanging out with S on another solo week of vacation ('sigh' -- one of the few negatives of my new job -- no time for vacation). S was busy working with Mike, the Tree Guy, selecting and placing half a forest of trees in our backyard. But mostly, S was working her tail off, cutting down many, many small, under-canopy deciduous trees (mostly chokecherry), bucking or sawing them into pieces, stacking them and chipping up the rest of the small limbs and foliage. Loads of work!

Sally seemed pretty content to hang out at the house. She and S met with Mark on Thursday evening for dinner, Matt and Sarah and kids on Friday evening (along with Tim and Nicki too). Saturday afternoon, we all stopped our respective activities and watched the Spartans give the Wisconsin Badgers a well-deserved spanking, beating them 34-24. Oh yeah! Next week, it's Michigan and I hope the Spartans are on the delivery end and not the receiving end of a spanking.

Saturday evening, we had a warm, tasty meal of pot roast, potatoes, carrots, onions and baby bella mushrooms. Mmm-mm good! Then we had a rare dessert, a pineapple-orange flavored cake that Sally had brought with her. It was moist and delicious with some (more) hot coffee.

After cleaning up the kitchen, we began playing three-handed euchre. If memory serves me right, I won the first game handily. The cards were definitely coming my way. To celebrate my victory, I announced I felt like having a dirty martini. I asked Sally if she would like a Bloody Mary and she said no, she'd enjoy a martini too. So I got to practice my newbie martini-making skills not once, but three times that evening. Sally tipped me off to use cracked ice rather than cubes for a better chilled martini. Wow, what a difference! And, I can see why Josh and Leah are so discerning about the olives they use in their martinis. Olives can make or break a decent tasting martini. Ours were not the freshest, but they did the job. Next time, I'll make sure to have fresh and probably better quality olives on hand.

And from my martini-making, I learned that Sally used to be a bartender at the Metro Bowl in Lansing, way back, 'in the day'. She had applied for a bookkeeping job there and ended up a bartender instead.

Obviously, the more liquor we drank, the more we talked and shared. And you understand, it's not like Sally and I haven't hung out before or that we haven't done our fair share of drinking together. But somehow, this evening was different. There was more the quality of two women letting down their hair, sharing life experiences. S was more bystander than participant. This is her mom, of course, and she chose to listen more than talk. The stories just got better and better.