Memorial Day 2012

'A pie for Mike's parents this morning.  I talked with my parents last night and know they are visiting cemeteries today, as they faithfully do this weekend every year, to plant flowers around loved ones' graves. That my own dad was welcomed home from the service in 1969 with a family party and a cake in his honor and not with a graveside American flag and red, white, and blue Petunias is something I am more grateful for the older I get. And that Memorial Day seems to have become appreciated more for stores' sales and a three-day weekend than for the sacrifices of those in our military is something that disturbs me more each year. Thank you to those who have served and who are serving now, and a thank you to their families, as well.

Chalkboard Green

I had been trying to think of a way to cover some of the glossy brown faux-wood cabinets in our kitchen ever since we first looked at this apartment last summer, and finally, a couple weeks ago, it occurred to me to cover them, as much as budget would allow, with adhesive sheets of green chalkboard. The chalkboard sheets arrived in the mail yesterday, and within ten minutes this afternoon, I had transformed our cupboards from something I didn't like to something Mike and I are both getting a kick out of, and now the cabinet-fronts pick up the rest of the green in our tiny kitchen too. It only took nine months to think of this. :) 

♥

35th Birthday Rainbow Cake

After returning from my parents' yesterday afternoon--where we did not take family photos at midnight, thank you :)--I raced around creating my birthday cake for me and Mike. I'd wanted to make a rainbow cake for awhile, and yesterday was the day: Six layers of white-cake-turned-colorful with homemade pink buttercream frosting in between and on top. I used the "Congratulations, it's a girl" button my parents had been given by the hospital the day I was born and also my long-saved "Valerie" heart magnet from my aunt Laurie, both wrapped in plastic wrap, as cake toppers along with rainbow sprinkles and 35-plus-1-to-grow-on candles. Baking the six layers in yesterday's heat and humidity wasn't the most fun I'd ever had, especially after waking up at 5 a.m. and being on a bus all morning, but it was worth it. I wanted my 35th birthday cake to reflect what I want to put into and get out of this next year of my life: Boldness, creativity, joy, and love. 

Methinks you have to know how long you'll live before you can state when you've reached the halfway point, but I think that by most definitions, I'm now considered middle-aged. I love it. May this next year be filled with love and learning and laughter and light. And may I never stop looking for rainbows. 

Birthday Reenactments

I'm soon traveling home to Mom and Dad's for an early birthday visit. Last year at this time. . .

MAY 2011 AT MY PARENTS' HOUSE, GOING ON MIDNIGHT:

MOM: (knocking on my bedroom door) Vally? You still awake?

VAL: Yeah. Come on in.

MOM: (looking sheepish) I just realized--We forgot to take pictures during your party tonight! Do you mind if we take some now?

VAL: Now? What--?! Mom, I'm in my pajamas! I already packed everything for the trip back tomorrow!

MOM: (looking sad) I know, but I really wanted pictures. Couldn't we just set it all up again real fast and I could take just a couple?

VAL: Are you serious?! What, do I have to get dressed again too? Are we going to re-wrap all the presents?!

MOM: (smiling) I can just set it up pretty. It'll only take a minute and then you can get back to bed.

VAL: (laughing and getting out of bed) You are crazy. Oh my goodness. (walking out into living room where my dad's still watching TV) Dad! Do you hear this? Did you hear what she wants me to do? Mom just got me out of bed so we can set up my birthday party again because she forgot to take pictures! She's crazy. (to Mom, who's already busy unpacking my bags and setting up the gift table) You're crazy! This is really nuts, Mom, even for you!

DAD: (not looking up from his baseball game) That sounds about right. Oh, now that I'm retired, you should see some of the oddball things she comes up with. . . . "Build this, Geno! Make me one of theeeeeeese. . . .Climb up on the roooooof, Geno. . . ."

MOM: (mumbling to herself as she bustles around the dining room table) I think if I just put a few napkins over the side of the cake, it won't look like we ate any of it.

DAD: (groans in the living room)

VAL: W-o-w. (resigning herself to the madness) Let me at least tie my hair up. . . .

May Flowers

A local church's garden is full of rain-soaked Iris flowers this morning. 'Love, love, love. ♥

Mike and the Potter's Cat

There is a pottery studio in our neighborhood with a beautiful resident cat. Mike often peeks through the studio's front door on his way to work to catch a glimpse of the cat, and the cat seems to love the extra attention. It rolls around on its back on the paper-covered studio tables to look at Mike upside-down and prances over to the door to sniff his hand through the mail slot. Mike's always at work while the studio's open, so he hasn't gotten to meet the cat's owners, but this past Christmas, he talked about buying his tortoiseshell friend a present and just slipping it through the door. And one morning as he packed his bag for work, I caught a glimpse of gifts and a note to the shop's owner in his backpack:

I have wanted to take a class at this studio since I first saw it, so one of these days, Mike is sure to get the chance to do more than pet his pretty walk-to-work friend through the mail slot. And if there weren't a landlord-enforced one-pet-maximum policy at our apartment, he would be sure to beg me to bring home not just a finished pottery piece but also his "other" cat. ♥ 

Walk in the Sun

One of my favorite things about my walk home from work is the morning sunlight. I look up after turning a certain corner and am momentarily blinded and more-than-momentarily dazzled.

Stuffed with His Easter Duck :)

♥

Anniversary Love from Aunt Laurie

Mike and I stopped at my parents' house on Sunday the 15th for what we thought was going to be a simple one-year wedding anniversary dinner with my family, but my mom and my visiting-for-the-weekend aunt Laurie had been working like elves since Friday evening transforming my parents' kitchen and dining room into a Daffodil-Filled Pink Party Central in our honor. :) While I wait to collect everyone's photos from the day, I can show you two of the gifts Aunt Laurie made for us, a beautifully matted and framed photo of me from my wedding day and a scrapbook marking our first married year.

Aunt Laurie said this was her favorite of all our wedding photos, and she trimmed it in a pretty spring green that matched my wedding outfit. :) Since my bridal bouquet was mostly yellow Daffodils, she pressed some silk ones under the glass too. What a treasure she and her gift are. 

And tucked into a gift basket Sunday was a 40-page scrapbook she had made filled with images depicting our wedding, our life together, and our pink first anniversary party. There is even a page in it with a magazine clipping of a black and white cat who looks like Stuffed. :) She and I and my mom have been creating these little books for each other for years, but this one is one of my all-time favorite gifts, period. She outdid herself.

The pages above are my two favorites. She even created those paper doll-type cut-outs to look like my wedding dress and jacket and Mike's tie. :) And my Daffodil bouquet! Love, love, love.  She managed to find pictures of not only my bouquet's Daffodils but also its Cattails and Pussy Willows. "My" Daffodils are on almost every page. :)

For traditional first anniversary gifts of paper, her book and matted photo take the prize. They are just the dearest, as is she. ♥

Thursday

Two doctor appointments and many still-to-be-totaled-prescriptions-and-over-the-counter-medicines-and-boxes-of-Kleenex-and-related-groceries-later, the flu rages on, and with it since last night: Pink Eye! It has been a week for the record books here, and while I would love to be the type of pure sweet soul who never utters a complaint during pain or illness, I am clearly not yet that person. It seems like every waking thought I have had since last Saturday has been one of how utterly miserable I feel and how afraid I have been that I will lose my job due to having to call off sick again. I had a good and messy crying jag when Mike got home from work last night, all stuffed-up sobbing with my mouth wide open and (pink!) eyes glued shut, tears trickling into my plugged-up ears. In case you think I exaggerate, while at this afternoon's medical appointment, the doctor briskly entered the exam room only to lose her smile and greet me instead with a startled "Girl, you are a MESS!" No, I really couldn't possibly be any more attractive this week, Ladies. Don't even try to compete. :)

Never having had Pink Eye before, I read some about it last night to prepare for today's appointment and learned that to diagnose it, doctors sometimes numb the eye before swabbing it. My friend Marylou gave me a quick pep talk on Messenger/chat today before I headed over for my now-dreaded eyeball injection or eyelid-scraping or whatever else, so I was most pleasantly surprised to be asked by the nurse merely to read lines off a standard vision chart and then told to sit back down and wait for the doctor. I think I actually said a quick "Thank You" to God as the nurse closed the door behind her, but then the joke was on me when she stepped right back in with the giant black toolbox pictured above and said, "This is for the doctor. And she'll be right with you." I probably had the "Ohh nooo!" Mr. Bill expression at that moment--hammers?! pliers? drills? DRILLS?!--but YES! Thank! You! God! I never found out what was in The Scary Box.

A prescription for my eyes, a variety of things for my throat until the lab results are back and I find out what's wrong with it--Strep has been ruled out, but Heartburn aside, I've never known such pain as whatever's been happening with my throat since last Saturday, like swallowing a broken glass-filled scouring pad over and over day and night for six days now--and I am not allowed to work tonight, so a little more rest and time to heal. Thank you for all the good wishes on my last post. I have been online at all hours this week with tea and popsicles when unable to sleep, and all the comments and emails have cheered me.  ♥  Also on the bright side, I have a new empathy for anyone with chronic pain issues. And a renewed gratitude for a husband who called me "so cute" even after my crying jag last night. And so much else to be thankful for and hopeful about, as always. This February has been a bit much, though, and now, with another swallow of the scouring pad as my eyes cloud over again, I sign off and look forward to March.