Hey, Y'all!

A Brand-New Pet-Peeve

Ok. I don't want to be completely negative here, but I have a new number 1 pet-peeve that I've got to share with y'all. And there's a story behind it.

Today, I went to Hallmark to buy some cards.  June is a big card month for us, what with the parental birthdays and Father's Day and such.  You should know that I LOVE Hallmark.  And I get my love of Hallmark from my mother.  She actually has a PLATINUM Gold Crown Card.  (She's hard-core.)  I was excited about a solo trip to the store today where I could take my time picking out cards and browsing the aisles for gift ideas.  Now, if you don't live in the south, you may not even get a greeting when you enter your Hallmark store.  BUT. Here below the Mason Dixon Line, you get a loud HELLO! and, often, a sales associate follows you around to "help" you shop.  For greeting cards.  For people they don't know.  I don't get it either.

Anyway, I declined the offer for a personal shopper and went to the back of the store to look at birthday cards for my dad.  The woman at the counter started talking to another employee about the fact that her boss hadn't brought their paychecks by yet.  And he said he was going to.  This afternoon, in fact.  (It was about 2:00 when I was in there, so the boss was probably on his way...)  And she needed him to get there because she hadn't even eaten lunch yet because she "didn't have no money."  (-5 for bad grammar)  She told this story to the SAME WOMAN 4 times at the top of her voice, then repeated it to the customer who got in line before me.  THEN she repeated it again to me!  Honey, just ring up my cards, give me my little gold sticker thingies and let me outta here!

So the moral of this story is:  If you work in retail, please do not gripe about your boss at full volume within earshot of your customers and DO NOT gripe about your boss TO your customers.

That is all.

UBP Continues...BOAT PARTY!

Let the party continue!  I thought we'd do something a little different today for two reasons.  First, you all deserve a cool party location.  Second, I want to tell you all about our trip to the Bass Pro Shop this week. (Yes, I am a good wife and actually SUGGESTED we take a day trip to the Bass Pro Shop an hour away.)  Take your seasick meds (that's for me), slather on some sunscreen and climb aboard this little beauty:

 

This picture really doesn't do her justice.  There are speakers.  There are TWO chaise lounges.  There's running water, a shower, a fridge and a cooktop.  She is beautiful.  Anyone wanna guess how much she costs?  Only $52,000.  I should buy two. (HAAAAAAAAAAAA!)

No, that boat's not in my near future.  But I did get to hang out in the captain's chair for a bit.

 

So, the Bass Pro Shop.  Marcus had a gift card he got for Christmas and I figured our spring break week was as good a time as any to make the trek over to look around and see what all the hype was about.  If anticipation counts for anything, this place has got it going on.  You have to wind up this crazy-long trail to get from the highway to the store.  Then, once you reach the parking lot, it's like a theme park. A theme park of outdoor stuff.  Marcus was happy, but I was actually more excited than he was!  Dean was just happy to be out of the car.  As you can see in the picture, the sky was clear and blue and the weather couldn't have been better.  Outside, there were a few boats and some awesome vehicles painted with a camo pattern. (Oh, yes, they were.)  It was like I'd died and gone to redneck heaven. I have not yet decided whether or not that is a good thing.  You walk into the giant wood doors, complete with deer antlers for handles, and are greeted by a sweet old lady.  She went nuts over Dean and told us where to find everything we were looking for.  I couldn't stop giggling.  It was mostly funny that we were actually in this place, but even funnier that I was having such a good time.  We visited the boat showroom first, where I found the lovely lady you see me "driving" in the photos above.  Marcus got all logical on me and gave a 5 minute speech about how our money would be better spent on a pontoon boat.  Uh, dude, we don't have $20,000 to spend on a boat.  And...YOU JUST GOT A BOAT, so you're not getting another one. Especially not for $20,000.  Unless we win the lottery.  Then it's a whole other story.

We wandered around, looked at the t-shirts, showed Dean the big aquarium, which is NOT as impressive as they make it out to be, and got a few things for our boat, like life jackets and bait.

I think my favorite thing we saw in the shop was this:

 

That there is a CAMO CROCKPOT!  You know, so the deer won't see you while you're making your chili?

They also had a wide variety of toy firearms for the little ones:

 

You do understand that this is one of THREE four-sided display cases, right?  Just makin' sure.  There's also a shootin' gallery on the second floor.  And stuffed animals (the kind who have had a visit to the taxidermist) EVERYWHERE.

 

Wow, a wild boar!  I feel just like one of the castaways on LOST!

The shop also has a general store where you can get a sandwich, some ice cream or homemade fudge. I sampled several different flavors of fudge, caramel praline being my favorite.  Overall, it was a really fun time.  I feel like I should add that I am in no way making fun of the shop or anyone who patronizes it.  We were obviously there shopping and we are outdoorsy geeks.  But this place? WAS A RIOT!  Maybe because I'm me and sort of prissy sometimes. But if Marcus wanted to go back, I would probably not argue much.  It would give me another chance to test drive my next car:

 

Moooooooooom, you're embarassing me!  Do they have macaroni and cheese here?

With this ring...ugh

Disclaimer: The pictures in this post are fuzzy. All of them. And they weren't even taken on the same camera or at the same time. This is proof that my photography skills have not improved, even though I have a better camera. Alas.

This is my engagement ring. (The whole wedding set, actually.)

 

 

 

I think I took this right after we got married. Anyway, I love my engagement ring. LOVE it. It's beautiful and Marcus picked it out all on his own and it's perfect. I bent the prongs around the diamond once and the diamond fell out into my laundry basket, but then we got it re-set in a four-prong setting instead of the weaker six-prong setting it originally had. It looks gorgeous sitting atop my wedding band and is super-sparkly.

That was my engagement ring right after we got married.

Here is my engagement ring now.

This actually happened two weeks ago, but until now, I just haven't wanted to talk about it. It makes me want to cry. Here's what happened.

About 4 months into my pregnancy, my finger got too fat to wear my engagement ring, so I put it away and just wore my wedding band. I should point out that my engagement ring is a size 5, my wedding band a 5 1/4. Why I didn't get my engagement ring re-sized to fit on top of my band, I don't know. I'm sure it was partially laziness and partially money, or lack thereof. Anyway, it was never a problem before I got pregnant. SO. Everyone knows I swelled up like a balloon at the end of my pregnancy and my fingers never quite got back to their usual shape and size, what with losing most of my baby weight, then gaining again, then losing again. But I HAVE lost some and my wedding ring has been sliding around a lot. Two weeks ago I noticed that my wedding band had spend most of the day facing backwards. (It has channel-set diamonds and I had been seeing the back of the ring.) I thought to myself "WOW! I must have lost enough weight to get my fingers back to normal! I wonder if my engagement ring will fit?!?!" So upstairs I went. I got my engagement ring out of the jewelry box and slipped it, almost effortlessly, onto my finger. I was so happy to see it there again. I ran downstairs to show Marcus. Then I tried to take it off. You can guess the rest.

Here's the part where we talk about all the different ways people and the internet tell you to get a stuck ring off of your finger:

 

SOAP. Should make it slippery, right? Not enough.

LOTION. Tried three different kinds. None of them worked. The ring would turn around, but wouldn't move up and off.

PREPARATION H. It's an anti-inflammatory, right?

COOKING OIL. See lotion.

BUTTER. See cooking oil.

KY JELLY. See Jen blush that her dad knows what that is.

WINDEX. Apparently it's a miracle worker. Every website I visited (and you'd be amazed at how many there are) said to spray your finger with Windex and the ring would twist off in less than a minute. Of course, I was out of Windex, so I tried the other options first. Eventually, after the other options FAILED, I went to the store for Windex. By this time, I'd been smearing stuff on my finger and pulling at the ring for almost two hours. My finger was turning very red and getting chafed. We gave it the ole college try, but Windex, too, failed me.

SO...off to the jewelry store I went where a nice lady cut my ring off my finger with a tiny saw. And then I cried.

Poor Marcus. I think we've officially reached the "this thing has cost more for repairs than it cost for me to buy it" point. I haven't dared to ask when we can get it fixed.

JUST BE

That is my motto for 2009. Up until this exact moment in my life, I have, in one way or another, been waiting for "the next step." The next step has been something different with each passing year. For a while it was finishing my education. Then getting a job. Then getting the next job. Then getting promoted. Then getting married. Then having kids. Then watching Dean pass each milestone during his first year. Then buying a house. Then finding something to do with myself now that we've moved and are in our house. And it all happened. And I loved every second of it. And now, I want to sit back and enjoy it.

I really should have warned you about the bad grammar this post would contain BEFORE you committed to reading it, huh?

I'm not a maker of resolutions each new year, but I am a goal-setter. (really, the grammar is horrendous, isn't it?) I tend to set very high standards for myself, then decide that anything less is completely unacceptable. Funny how life sometimes throws a giant monkey wrench at you, huh? If 2008 taught me anything, it was that I have to be patient with myself and accept who I am and what my situation is at this very moment. And for the first time in over a year, I can tell you that today I am completely comfortable in my own skin, completely happy with where my life is right now and very, very excited about the coming months. This leads us to a revelation. (no, I'm not pregnant.) The past year has been, shall we say, rough. I know now that I have been dealing with some sort of post-partum depression and I feel like I'm ready to talk about it, like I need to talk about it. I would not open up about this on my blog normally, especially since I have a lot of readers who don't know me personally, but one of the only things that got me through a lot of days these past few months has been reading blogs. It's refreshing and reassuring to see that other people are going through the same struggles and facing the same challenges. Since moving, we have made a few friends, but none that we've really "clicked" with. I think that also has to do with the fact that we are parents now and our priorities are so different. Sure, we can socialize, but at 8:00, we want to be at home to put our kid to bed. But blogs are there 24 hours a day. Not to say they can replace human companionship, but when you're crying at 10am, your husband's at work and your baby's asleep, they sure can be comforting.

My one request is that my very close family members, who may or may not be aware of the things I talk about on here, do not use the comments section of this blog as an avenue for discussion. Call me on the phone or email me if you want to say something or ask me questions. If it's difficult for you to read these things on my blog, tell me and I'll tell you which entries to skip. It's something I need to share. My story may help someone else feel better and get through one tough day the way my "blog friends" helped me through so many last year. Also, telling about this situation makes me feel better. It's an important part of my life, even though it may be perceived as completely negative, but overcoming it has been wonderful.

As I head into new adventures, like a return to teaching, a new position with our state's theatre conference (!) and my second year of motherhood, I want to take my time and enjoy my life. After all, I've worked very hard to get here. My what-if's and when-that-happenses (again with the grammar!) are now my reality. It's time to just be.