Life at 40

45 & Pregnant or… Oh.

For the ladies…buckle up, girls, for an inside glimpse of the continuing journey…

45 & Pregnant or… Oh

by Sherri Caldwell – The Rebel Housewife® – All Rights Reserved.
For more information, contact Sherri@RebelHousewife.com

I remember waiting for It to start, in a very Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
kind-of-way, with excitement and growing concern, as all my friends seemed to start before me. I was 13 when It finally happened, and then I wasn’t so excited anymore…what a pain!

Thirty-two years later, after the blessing of three healthy children, I suddenly find myself at the other end of the reproductive life cycle, waiting for a period that doesn’t seem to be coming. I just hope, at forty-five that it’s NOT pregnancy, God forbid; with three teenagers — we’re done! But the other reality, in many ways, is just as disconcerting.

Really? Is that it? Menopause. There, I said it.

WebMD tells us menopause is the stage in a woman’s life when she has not had a menstrual period for one year. That twelve-month transition is called perimenopause, and actually begins much earlier, as the equipment gradually begins to shut down. Perimenopause usually starts in a woman’s 40s, but can begin earlier.

How’s this for clarity:

“The average length of perimenopause is four years, but for some women this stage may last only a few months or continue for 10 years. Perimenopause ends the first year after menopause (when a woman has gone 12 months without having her period).” — WebMD Menopause Health Center

Well, now that I may have had it, that last period leading into menopause, it makes me sad that I didn’t notice. I wasn’t paying attention, and I am suddenly faced with my body shutting itself down and what…getting ready to die?

No, that is more than a little dramatic. Considering the alternative to this situation (pregnancy), there are many positives to menopause. I’m sure…thinking…

Well, for one thing, once the factory shuts down for good, Prince Charming and I can enjoy a spontaneous sex extravaganza (sorry, kids!), without the risk of another baby coming along…that’s sexy, right? (Prince Charming, God love him, assures me it is.)

If you believe those ED commercials, we’ll be sexy, silver-haired seniors, humping it up all over the place — riding motorcycles, sailing exotic locations, taking romantic bubble baths in the middle of the week — oh!

It’s not like I didn’t see it coming. Just as my daughter entered her time, with all the resulting mood swings and drama, I noticed changes, enough to think it was ironic: just as she was going through puberty, I was entering the extreme after-puberty, all perfectly normal:

Hot Flashes = Check
Mood Swings = OMG, Check
Difficulty Sleeping = Hello, my 4AM Facebook crowd!

There’s more, but you get the idea.

Last year, my OB/GYN said it was “much” too early, but look at my hair — I am 100% silver. My chiropractor, who, after 16 years, is a good friend and trusted doctor, gave me some herbal horse pills about the same time, in response to my whining, and I am addicted. ProFema™ made those early uncomfortable symptoms abate somewhat, even making the mood swings more, but not completely, manageable. (No, I am not getting paid for that mention!)

You don’t miss something until you lose it. I don’t miss it, I am just shocked that’s where we are now, trying not to feel old and used up. I am Cougar, hear me roar. Meow.

– – –

Update – pregnancy test. I’ve only had to take a few more in my life than I was prepared for (meaning hoping for positive results). Forty-five years old, with a senior in high school, buying a pregnancy test, as quickly and inconspicuously as possible…peeing on a stick, waiting for lines to appear: two = pregnant, hoping for the single = not pregnant…3 minutes…

Single line, folks. You know what that means — yay?

101 Sexy & Fun Love Notes – FREE eBook (until 2/15/15)!

On the occasion of Valentine’s Day 2015 and the launch of a new ebook series:
The Rebel Housewife: Survival Guides (Surviving Happily Ever After!) with
101 Sexy & Fun Love Notes:
Romantic Tips & Tricks to FIRE UP the Passion & Romance in Your Relationship!

* * * Available FREE on Amazon Kindle, beginning Tue, Feb 10th – Sat, Feb 14th * * *

Well, with all THAT going on, it has given me pause to reflect on love and romance and relationships… and marriage. It seems incredible and weird and unbelievable that I can say: Prince Charming and I have been married for TWENTY-SIX years — wow — and still going strong!

Yes, we started off very, very young: I was just 20 and he was 22. It doesn’t even seem like that could be possible, then or now — we’re still way too young to be married that long, unruly silver hair (mine) and the accumulation of love and good food (about 20lbs for both of us), notwithstanding.

I have been married now for longer than I was not.

In the beginning, I was the Other Girl and he was the Wrong Boy — according to my mother, anyway. I liked the motorcycle and his ‘Bohemian’ lifestyle (living on ramen and mac & cheese on his buddies’ laundry porch — one guy lived on the pool table). We quickly disentangled ourselves from other relationships in the face of destiny and enjoyed our very own Summer of Love after my high school graduation in 1985. I was very young, at 17, and it took me a year or two to settle down and commit to monogamy long-term, with enough first-year-college experience and variety to know he was The One. I never expected it to happen so early, but we both just knew (and we were right!).

We married on August 6, 1988, in a garden courtyard on a threatening-to-be-rainy day at our beloved Manor Farm Inn in Poulsbo, Washington, and the Adventure(s) began…

More than a quarter-century and three nearly-grown children later, it still seems so new, to my constant amazement. We still love each other, more every day, and we still like each other, too. I keep thinking, twenty-five-plus years into this, I should have some wisdom, the benefit of happily-ever-after experience, advice to share; besides, you know, marry young and basically Imprint on each other.

People ask us the secret to a long and happy relationship?

For us, it’s all about new Adventures and the appreciation of Magical Moments; to create a life in which there are many of each. It keeps us together, always wondering (in a good way): What’s next?!

As for advice, back to basics, the foundation:
The Rebel Housewife: Survival Guides (Surviving Happily Ever After!)
101 Sexy & Fun Love Notes:
Romantic Tips & Tricks to FIRE UP the Passion & Romance in Your Relationship.

* * * Available FREE on Amazon Kindle, beginning Tue, Feb 10th – Sat, Feb 14th * * *

“The 101 Love Notes in this ebook are ‘quickie’ ideas — fun, easy, realistic, and, in most cases, FREE!!! — a starting place to spark your sexy, tickle your imagination and creativity, rev up your sense of fun and adventure, and help you develop, with your lover, a lifestyle of romance and passion.”

Whether you’ve been together two years, or twenty, or just starting out, 101 Sexy & Fun Love Notes has something for everyone.

Please take advantage of the Valentine’s Day Launch Promotion and download the ebook FREE on Amazon Kindle, February 10th – 14th. (If you don’t have a Kindle, you can download a FREE Kindle Reader App for your computer, tablet, or smartphone on Amazon — a link to do that is at the top of the 101 Sexy & Fun Love Notes page on Amazon.)

Read, enjoy, have fun — freely share this article, or the Facebook posts and Tweets that will be coming out over the next few days, for Valentine’s Day — and, if you would, please take the time to rate the ebook and write a little review on Amazon.com. That would be AWESOME.

Live, Love, Laugh & LIGHT IT UP — HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!!


For more fun & behind-the-scenes, connect with The Rebel Housewife on Social Media:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheRebelHousewife
Twitter: @rebelupdate

Escape From Suburbia

ESCAPE FROM SUBURBIA
by Sherri Caldwell – The Rebel Housewife®
https://rebelhousewife.com

The suburbs offered one form of happily-ever-after; but, at a certain point, we had to get out.

As far as suburbs go, “Stepford of the South” was very nice: big houses, two-and-even-three-car garages, enormous lawns. It was like having your own private park, front and back. Of course, the front yard was for show, purely ornamental. The back yard was for living.

Not that anyone wanted or needed privacy. Stepford was a community, a haven for People Like Us, with families and neighbors destined to become Friends For Life. It was written into the sales contract, and the neighborhood bylaws.

After all, we paid extra for upscale family storage. The corporate bosses of our hard-working commuter dads paid well to keep the family far enough away, with a large enough mortgage and household expenses, to ensure job dedication and healthy separation.

Every Monday, the husbands went to work. The children went to school. The wives kept house, shopped, socialized and maintained a busy schedule of community and school-related commitments, basically running the world from their designated PTA regiments.

In the afternoon, the children came home, briefly, and were then carpooled to their various activities. Dinner was inevitably a la drive-thru. The husbands came home late and scrounged for leftovers. Exhausted from the daily round, bedtime came early, after homework and school projects. Repeat through Friday.

The weekends were sacrificed to the Gods of Lawn Care– Olympics-worthy competition amongst the men, all weekend, every weekend.

My Prince Charming became a commuting, work-in-the-city, weekend-lawn-warrior stranger. When I realized I was spending far more quality time with my crazy neighbor, a doctor’s wife, than my own husband, the suburban fairytale started to break down.

The big, roomy house with lots of space became too much to maintain, to clean, to keep track of young people and family pets. I realized I hadn’t seen my middle child for five years in this mausoleum.

As for the lawn… You know, the city offers and maintains municipal parks. They are generally bigger and better-equipped. And you don’t have to feed every random child who wanders through.

Friends For Life and People Like Us had been selling points, but who can stand their own company interminably, without any variety? We began to plot our escape. From Soccer Moms and Minivans, to the diversity of the city, where we belonged.

The stranger we called Daddy transformed from an exhausted commuter/weekend warrior to a healthy, happy and involved father who walks to work and is home every night for dinner. All of a sudden, he’s always there, where and when he hadn’t been before. While it takes some getting used to, we got out just in time.

—
Sherri Caldwell, The Rebel Housewife®, is an author, columnist and reviewer at www.RebelHousewife.com. After many years as a PTA Mom in the suburbs, she now lives happily-ever-after with her husband, three teenagers, and Mocha-the-Dog, in a midtown high-rise in Atlanta, Georgia.

Happy Mother’s Day! $25 & Under

Happy Mother’s Day! $25 & Under – Part One

by Sherri Caldwell – The Rebel Housewife®
https://rebelhousewife.com

As a Mom, I could easily rattle off a dozen ways, and more, in which I could be fabulously gifted on Mother’s Day for under $25. (In response to a challenge from NerdWallet — this is probably not what they had in mind, but there you go. I appreciate the great suggestion and motivation to do a Mother’s Day blog post this year!)

Here’s a Quickie: FIVE Best Gifts Under $25 For Mom:


  1. A BOOK (my most-favorite thing!) or gift card to Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. Specific suggestion? Shameless plug: Rebel Housewife Rules: To Heck With Domestic Bliss! or anything by Erma Bombeck — trust me, she’ll love it.

  2. Lunch at my favorite restaurant. You do know Mom’s favorite restaurant, right? (This Mom’s is La Fonda Latina – Atlanta).
  3. Candles/Flowers (preferably plants) – so many choices! Check this out:
    Candles (BBW) — Ooh, how ’bout them candles? (LOVE those flameless ones for outside!)
  4. CHOCOLATE — and not the cheap stuff you can buy in the check-out lane at the grocery store; at least go to the candy aisle and get some decent truffles. Look for Lindt LINDOR Assorted Chocolate Truffles. Yum.
  5. Jewelry — watches, earrings, bracelets/anklets, oh my! — Amazon Jewelry Sale.
    My top picks — and, coincidentally, Happy Mother’s Day to ME:





There you go…easy! Now, if you want to go super-special, under-under $25, check Part Two for some other thoughts and ideas:

Happy Mother’s Day! $25 & Under – Part Two

Mother’s Day: Thru the Years

As a new mother, 18 years ago, for my first and five-or-so subsequent Mother’s Days, I needed nothing more than TIME — for myself. The greatest imaginable gift for those early, blissful, exhausted Mother’s Days would have been a coupon book or certificate of offerings from friends, family, husband, neighbors…anyone…TIME: an offer to change a diaper; baby’s hour out; nap-time for Mommy; Date Night w/Daddy; 15 minutes to go to the bathroom or take a shower; a delivered meal. All free, or nearly so, but of inestimable worth to the new Mommy. (Of course, jewelry is always appropriate, especially birth-stone jewelry or mother’s jewelry — or diamonds, always perfect! Not necessarily under $25, or under-under, but I digress…)

Five years later (noting I had three children, age five & under, at this point), I treasured every toddler and kid-made arts & crafts symbol of love: the macaroni necklaces, handpainted plant pots; “stained glass” paper creations, thumbprint-decorated cardstock photo frames, ceramic handprints in clay. If my kids slapped glue and glitter paint on a stick, I loved it. I can still visualize those precious gifts, wrapped in simple tissue paper, so eagerly given by those little hands, the super-big-hugs. I still have many of those wonderful, priceless gifts.

As the mother of teenagers, 13 years later, there is a cat’s-in-the-cradle aspect to everything, and the ideal gift is TIME — with my kids. Appreciation. “I love you, Mom.” A family dinner at home (without having to cook or clean up after) — “you take it easy today, Mom.” A kid who might pick up their own dirty clothes, turn their own stinky socks rightside out, even run a load of laundry — woo! Another excellent idea for teenagers: help Mom with the TECHNOLOGY! Set up a ringtone for her; show her how to download and listen to music she would actually like, or a cool app; figure out for her why it’s making that noise, or that light keeps flashing, or why it won’t do what I want it to (whatever it is).

As a Mom, I can tell you– Mother’s Day does not need to be expensive or extravagant — truly, it shouldn’t be — to be special. How these 18 years slipped away so quickly, I don’t know. Everyone said they would, and they were right.

So relax.

The happiest Mother’s Days are completely free: “I love you, Mom. Thank you.”
I need to go get a nose-wipie (Kleenex) now…
Happy, Happy Mother’s Day – Make it Special.

45 & Pregnant or… Oh.

For the ladies…buckle up, girls, for an inside glimpse of the continuing journey…

45 & Pregnant or… Oh

by Sherri Caldwell – The Rebel Housewife® – All Rights Reserved.
For more information, contact Sherri@RebelHousewife.com

I remember waiting for It to start, in a very Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
kind-of-way, with excitement and growing concern, as all my friends seemed to start before me. I was 13 when It finally happened, and then I wasn’t so excited anymore…what a pain!

Thirty-two years later, after the blessing of three healthy children, I suddenly find myself at the other end of the reproductive life cycle, waiting for a period that doesn’t seem to be coming. I just hope, at forty-five that it’s NOT pregnancy, God forbid; with three teenagers — we’re done! But the other reality, in many ways, is just as disconcerting.

Really? Is that it? Menopause. There, I said it.

WebMD tells us menopause is the stage in a woman’s life when she has not had a menstrual period for one year. That twelve-month transition is called perimenopause, and actually begins much earlier, as the equipment gradually begins to shut down. Perimenopause usually starts in a woman’s 40s, but can begin earlier.

How’s this for clarity:

“The average length of perimenopause is four years, but for some women this stage may last only a few months or continue for 10 years. Perimenopause ends the first year after menopause (when a woman has gone 12 months without having her period).” — WebMD Menopause Health Center

Well, now that I may have had it, that last period leading into menopause, it makes me sad that I didn’t notice. I wasn’t paying attention, and I am suddenly faced with my body shutting itself down and what…getting ready to die?

No, that is more than a little dramatic. Considering the alternative to this situation (pregnancy), there are many positives to menopause. I’m sure…thinking…

Well, for one thing, once the factory shuts down for good, Prince Charming and I can enjoy a spontaneous sex extravaganza (sorry, kids!), without the risk of another baby coming along…that’s sexy, right? (Prince Charming, God love him, assures me it is.)

If you believe those ED commercials, we’ll be sexy, silver-haired seniors, humping it up all over the place — riding motorcycles, sailing exotic locations, taking romantic bubble baths in the middle of the week — oh!

It’s not like I didn’t see it coming. Just as my daughter entered her time, with all the resulting mood swings and drama, I noticed changes, enough to think it was ironic: just as she was going through puberty, I was entering the extreme after-puberty, all perfectly normal:

Hot Flashes = Check
Mood Swings = OMG, Check
Difficulty Sleeping = Hello, my 4AM Facebook crowd!

There’s more, but you get the idea.

Last year, my OB/GYN said it was “much” too early, but look at my hair — I am 100% silver. My chiropractor, who, after 16 years, is a good friend and trusted doctor, gave me some herbal horse pills about the same time, in response to my whining, and I am addicted. ProFema™ made those early uncomfortable symptoms abate somewhat, even making the mood swings more, but not completely, manageable. (No, I am not getting paid for that mention!)

You don’t miss something until you lose it. I don’t miss it, I am just shocked that’s where we are now, trying not to feel old and used up. I am Cougar, hear me roar. Meow.

– – –

Update – pregnancy test. I’ve only had to take a few more in my life than I was prepared for (meaning hoping for positive results). Forty-five years old, with a senior in high school, buying a pregnancy test, as quickly and inconspicuously as possible…peeing on a stick, waiting for lines to appear: two = pregnant, hoping for the single = not pregnant…3 minutes…

Single line, folks. You know what that means — yay?

Home Again, Home Again — New Year Ahead


Home again, home again…

It is December 27th, and I am trying to come up with something profound and thought-provoking, optimistic and reassuring for the New Year. Only 4 days to go, and 467 words for this year-ending missive.

Another brand-new year, 2012…so many challenges, so many new possibilities: where to start? I almost wish we were moving – I like to move – the chance to re-organize, deep-clean and de-clutter. But we’re not, and that’s okay, too. There are plenty of good things about NOT moving, like loving our location and community, stability, not having to go through all those address changes for utilities, driver’s licenses, schools, checks, address labels, etc. I like where we are, I just wish we could re-organize, deep clean and de-clutter, get rid of the old big-screen TV (who knew it would be so hard to get rid of what was, a decade ago, the latest in modern technology and home entertainment – and now doesn’t work anymore?!) and buy a new couch.

Since we knew we were not moving this year (our lease was up, we extended), and with our oldest kid a senior in high school next year, knowing we will be losing him so soon to college and beyond, we decided to Go BIG this year for Christmas. Instead of presents and all the usual routine, we took the kids on a fabulous Road Trip & Caribbean Cruise Adventure. We were gone nine days (six onboard) and it was amazing. I can’t write about that, yet, though, in case the major women’s magazine to which I pitched the article responds affirmatively (fingers crossed, everybody!). So…

I can’t think of any New Year’s Resolutions, either. Well, other than to land another article in a major magazine, I’d like to get back to that. And to update and revitalize The Rebel Housewife – it’s definitely time, but that is so overwhelming, I don’t even know where to start. With the 10th Anniversary of the Rebel Blog & Rebel Reviews coming up this year, I feel like a dinosaur. Apparently, I need to make the move to WordPress! Update my logo design! Figure out what to do with all those archives! Develop my Facebook presence – make a landing page! Twitter! Google+! LinkedIn!

Arrrggghhhh! I just did figure out how to add pictures to my blog posts – and how to announce the updates on Facebook & Twitter – let’s celebrate!

As I work my way through the post-vacation laundry, trying to get everything put away, I have decided to clean out my closet, which is certainly a resolution-worthy intention. If only it were as easy as cleaning out my email inboxes, which I did earlier today: from hundreds of messages to about a dozen. The To Do List is calling, including two new Rebel Reviews to close out the year. Perhaps I will come up with another couple of New Year’s Resolutions in that mess…or maybe not.

Happy New Year —
Live, Love & Laugh in 2012!

www.facebook.com/TheRebelHousewife

7-Day Menu Planner for DUMMIES – Rebel Review

“New-NEW Culinary Classic…NOT Just For Dummies!”

7-DAY MENU PLANNER FOR DUMMIES
by Susan Nicholson, RD/LD
(Wiley, 2010)

[Paperback, 342 pages, $19.99 U.S. – buy for less on Amazon.com]

Being a woman “of a certain age” and married for 20+ years, I have been cooking for a long time. I admit, I am far from gourmet: I don’t specialty shop; I don’t watch the TV cooking shows or reality shows starring angry chefs and their desperate-to-please minions; glossy gourmet food and recipe magazines make me nervous.

I do have skills. I have one small shelf of cookbooks in my kitchen. I can cover the basics, having more or less successfully fed and nourished a healthy family of five for some time now. Culled from a 25-year-old, well-worn copy of the cooking classic: BETTY CROCKER’S COOKBOOK (1987), family magazines and, in more recent years, recipe searches on AllRecipes.com for the iPhone and iPad, I have compiled my very own cookbook: a mish-mash of photocopies, hand-written classics and typed recipes, all carefully preserved in plastic page protectors and haphazardly “filed” in a white, plastic-coated (easy wipe!), 3-ring binder.

However, having said all of that:

Even with my vast and very practical culinary knowledge and experience, I love, Love, LOVE Susan Nicholson’s 7-DAY MENU PLANNER FOR DUMMIES. An instant new-NEW classic, this book should be a treasured kitchen bible for every man, woman or young adult trying to prepare and serve nutritious, delicious, affordable and do-able meals for a family, couple or even healthy meals for one.

Susan Nicholson is a registered dietitian and creator of the 7-Day Menu Planner newspaper column, featured in major newspapers and in online syndication, too. She is a culinary professional and a talented writer with a lot of experience and a great sense of humor, which makes 7-Day Menu Planner for Dummies more than just another cookbook.

7-Day Menu Planner for Dummies gives you a year’s worth of weekly dinner idea and recipes that “take about 30 minutes to prepare, contain an average of 30 percent calories from fat, and use common ingredients to save time and money.” It is a well-organized and simple roadmap for menu planning, offering great recipes, practical instruction and tips, and a very consistent weekly plan of coordinated dinners: Family Night; Kid’s Night (not just for children!); Express Meal; Budget Night; Heat and Eat; Meatless Night; and Easy Entertaining. I love the fact that the week’s meals are coordinated to use ingredients in common and a central philosophy of reduce, re-use, recycle and re-format throughout the week’s plan. (Trust me, not repetitious, you will not get bored!)

7-Day Menu Planner for Dummies makes planning and preparing meals less of a chore and more fun: simple, easy, quick, healthy and delicious. Whether you are an old pro in the kitchen or a culinary “noob” (as my kids say), make room on your cookbook shelf for a new classic:

7-DAY MENU PLANNER FOR DUMMIES
★★★★★

It’s a FANTASTIC DAY!

IT IS A FANTASTIC DAY!!!
Not, “It’s going to be…”
It IS.

I have a friend. (I know, congratulations, right?! You do, too? Isn’t it great?!) His name is David, the Rev. David, or, as I like to call him, my personal Oracle — Reiki Master, ordained Minister, spiritual teacher and student, former Circus Clown — and then a Real Estate Appraiser (go figure). His boss retired and closed the appraisal office this summer; he was out of a job, but he just picked right up and surged ahead with what he was already doing on the side, as the Rev. David. He has a brand-new website! (I will give you the address later.)

More than anything, David is a really good friend. I love him and I trust him and I respect and admire his peaceful, loving, giving, enthusiastic outlook on life — well, unless you get him started on family or stupid, mean people. Maybe I should say ignorant, instead of stupid, but I digress…and can one digress, when one has not yet identified the essential subject of today’s discourse? I don’t know. I don’t have all the answers, maybe not even any. And wow, isn’t today’s blog post somewhat rambling and existential? I might have completely lost my ability to write and/or communicate at all, over the last couple of months, distracted and fully absorbed by other Life Stuff, as I have been.

But I do want to talk about it being a FANTASTIC DAY!

So my friend has found his life direction, out of the fear and chaos of rather sudden unemployment. And he has a website. And he has taken to writing a blog, which I L-O-V-E. Not only because he called me out and gave me very specific, personal, inspired guidance and reassurance — which I greatly appreciate — (and it wasn’t even the bit about it being a FANTASTIC DAY, that wasn’t directly to me), but because his blog is so very David: enthusiastic, honest, chatty, funnyashell AND inspiring.

On Day 2 of his wonderful blog, Rev. David talks about “It’s a FANTASTIC DAY!” (Actually, the annoying ALL CAPS are mine. He wrote, and I quote: “It’s a fantastic day!”) He suggests saying that every morning, before getting out of bed, which is what he does. I know maybe it’s “hokey” or too new-age/self-help for some, but David is a Reiki Master, forgodssake, and I’m not even quite sure exactly what that is. (I’m learning.) But that’s okay. David is openly gay, and that’s how he came into our lives, as the new boyfriend of another BFF (years ago), which is a long story and I don’t even want to go there, because I have already digressed in so many directions here this morning…but gay, fabulously gay, and committed to our Paul, so that’s okay, too, even though, you know, I’m not gay and I don’t know much about that, either. That’s okay.

We all watch Modern Family on television (Wednesday nights on ABC, 9pm) — and although I personally identify more with Frankie Heck on The Middle, I know David & Paul see us as the crazy married couple with the three kids represented by Claire & Phil Dunphy on Modern Family; just like we watch and see Cam & Mitchell as so David & Paul, in some ways. David is very Cam, right up to the shining, bald pate; Paul is not so much an uptight Mitchell, and he has dark hair, not red. Paul kind of looks and sounds like Tony Stewart, my favorite NASCAR driver — GO #14! But anyway, again I digress…

So, “It’s a FANTASTIC DAY!”

I said it to myself when I woke up Monday morning: “It’s a FANTASTIC DAY!”
And I said it my hubby, “It’s a FANTASTIC DAY!”
And the kids. Even on FaceBook, although my brother-in-law quibbled with me about it, just a little. Maybe I was being betchy about “Super Duper” and Barney and all, but I thought he was making fun of me. (I apologized.)

“It’s a FANTASTIC DAY!” And it was.

Tuesday morning, I forgot to say “It’s a FANTASTIC DAY!” And it wasn’t. At all. It was kind of a nightmare, in a crazy, alternate-universe kind of way that my mother is living in now. I spent four hours at the bank with her, tracking down identity theft and someone hacking into her bank accounts. God forbid, somebody takes all her money and she’d have to come live with us?! (NOT)

So today, when I woke up, I said (and told hubby — and kids, too): “It is a fantastic day!” And, so far, it is.

That David, Rev. David, he is one smart guy.
Check out his NEW website, in progress: www.RevDavidHamilton.com

Perfect Moments

Facebook post – 9/18/2010:
“Grady High School won last night: 61 – 0. Which is kind of hard to even brag about. Perfect football night in our renovated stadium. Ohmygosh, though, the dancers, drill team & flag girls?! Straight out of the movie Baseketball — not our kids’ mothers’ high school marching band!!”

We attended our first high school football game, as high school parents, Friday night. It was a perfect night in our newly-renovated football stadium: temperature just right, slight breeze, clear and beautiful. The stands were filled, but not too full, with adults and kids of all ages.

We found friends in the crowd, and 10yo Boy Phenom was ecstatic to find a group of 5th grade boys that he knew from school last year, to hang out with, visit the concession stand en masse and migrate around the home grandstand, freed for a bit from ever-watchful parents and direct scrutiny. While they roamed, 13yo Drama Queen enjoyed the game and watching the marching bands, Home and Visitor, in the stands and during the half-time show.

For this article, I have to refer to 15yo Puberty Angst Boy in some way more fitting, since our 10th grader, a member of the school’s Army JROTC program, was selected for Color Guard duty, the presentation of the flags at the beginning of the game. We were so proud of him, as the formation of five cadets carried the colors out onto the field in procession. He carried the rifle and marched on the right of the small group, his weapon at proper Shoulder Arms. It is almost more than I can write about to see my son, so tall and handsome, dressed in his full Army JROTC uniform, serving his school, our community, our country. I wouldn’t have thought it was such a big deal, such a proud moment, but it really was. It was a glimpse of the future — however he chooses to fulfill his personal destiny — almost overwhelming.

Of course, then he immediately ditched us for the entire game, hiding up in the grandstand with his friends. We never even saw him after he marched off the field. He barely deigned to answer our text messages when we were leaving — wouldn’t even walk home with us. He is 15, after all.

And, oh, what a half-time show! The girls…wow…glitter, sequins, spandex, body parts and hairography (do you watch GLEE?!) we never even imagined possible or appropriate when I was in the flag corps…yes, 25 years ago, but still!

The game itself was a blow-out: 61 – 0. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the other team, but our high school players were impressive. When their individual pictures flashed up on the new Jumbo-tron, they looked like grown men, and I am pretty sure there were college and professional scouts in the stands. We have a good team like that, which is pretty cool, even if this was our family’s first football game, our second year at the high school. (Last year, they were renovating the stadium and the games were all played at another high school.)

At the end of the 3rd quarter, it was already 61 – 0, and we were tired, sore (concrete benches), and slightly nauseous from over-sized bags of cotton candy on empty stomachs. We walked home, a quarter-mile across Piedmont Park.

13yo Drama Queen carried her umbrella, swinging and tossing it like the baton girls in the marching band.

10yo Boy Phenom…and these kids are the siblings who constantly fight and bicker, torment and annoy each other, brutally exclude and ignore (at best) — these kids hate each other, right?! You know how other parents always say, “Oh, but if anyone ever messed with one, the others would be the first to defend and protect!” No. Not my kids.

But…10yo Boy Phenom picked up a stick and walked all the way home — carrying that stick at Shoulder Arms, military-style — just like his big brother. That is something I want to remember for the rest of my life. Perfect Moments, indeed.

Camp Mommy: 2010

July 2010 – Forgot to mention there is a NEW Rebel Review up:
BOOK GROUP REVIEWS [new feature!]: The Lost City by Henry Shukman

The summer is ambling along at a fairly quick pace, for summer. The kids are all three active and busy in various activities and we are actually going on a REAL vacation this year (as opposed to tent camping in Talladega, Alabama and our other “value-conscious” family vacation misadventures over the past couple summers!): We have rented a condo in Cocoa Beach for the 4th of July holiday – woo hoo!

Now that the kids are older — 15yo Puberty Angst Boy, 13yo Drama Queen and 10yo ADHD Phenom — Camp Mommy is not as active or in demand. That’s a good thing, on the whole, but still…I kind of miss my cute little campers. The 15yo is either sleeping; on the couch watching TV; on the computer playing World of Warcraft (sometimes both at the same time!); off with his friends; or, last week, away at Army Camp at Fort Benning, Georgia, part of his JROTC program in school, which he loves. The 13yo has herself hooked up with a great job this summer, as a Summer Camp Counselor for a day-camp program in Piedmont Park, which is right across the street, so she, too, is fairly independent and over Camp Mommy. Fortunately, I still have the 10yo, my brilliant, quirky, very bright, very ACTIVE boy. He still loves and appreciates his Mom! (The others do, too, I know.)

The Young One and I have been spending most of the summer at the Georgia Tech CRC (Campus Recreation Center) which is, in a word, amazing! We are very fortunate to enjoy membership and use of the facility (hubby is hooked up like that, since his company is affiliated with the Georgia Tech ATDC – Advanced Technology Development Center). The 10yo doesn’t much care for summer camp programs or crowds, sensory overload in general. He *loves* the CRC, especially the indoor recreational pool, with a big ol’ waterslide (!!!) and, perhaps even more, the separate Olympic Competition Pool & Diving Well (built for the 1996 Summer Olympics hosted in Atlanta), where he can dive to his heart’s content from the low & high diving boards. He loves to dive, go figure. He’s also savvy enough to “join” (kind of) the summer camp program for kids at Georgia Tech — timing our visits to the recreational pool during swim time, so he can play in the pool with a huge group of kids — or not, if he’s not feeling it — and he can leave anytime, go over to the diving well and have the place to himself after the campers leave. Genius. So we spend hours at the CRC and it is wonderful. (There are adult-only hot tubs at both pools and comfortable lounge chairs and a sundeck at the recreational pool — excellent for reading!)

It’s a good summer, 2010, after a season or several of change. I guess that’s what Life is all about, after all.