Snapshot: Household

Married life has been a little hectic, to say the least. Adding one 11 year old boy into the mix has definitely changed things a LOT around here - but in a good way. There is always something going on, a ton more mess, a ton more laundry (he changes clothing more often than a 13 year old girl!), and a LOT more noise.

None of those things are bad things, except for the laundry. I'm thankful he at least has clean clothes on though - Rockboy would wear the same thing over and over again until I threatened his life if he didn't hand over some smelly t-shirt for the wash.

Something else has been claiming my attention as well - scrapbooking. I avoided scrapbooking like the plague for years because I knew that it would be like crack for me. I love paper and stickers and all the junk that goes along with it and I knew that collecting all the stuff would be just as obsession-making as the actual activity of scrapbooking.

Alas, Patient Reader, I fell prey right after the wedding when I saw a wedding scrapbook kit at Target and thought, "Oh, that would be nice for the wedding pictures. Everything is included and I won't have to buy anything else."

Famous last words.

I'm still working on the wedding scrapbook, but I've also been doing a few pages from the past year or so. . . Halloween 2008, Father's Day 2009. . . with Skaterboy's 11th birthday in the line-up, as well as a trip to the Farmer's Market this summer.

I have to say that it's been good for me though - I like doing something creative and this forces me to come up with something on my own, rather than just knitting a pattern that someone else designed. (I have NO desire to design knitting. None.)

So, that's life in the Roadie household these days. . . laundry, cooking, a little bit of scrapbooking, a whole LOT of wrestling on TV.

And, it's perfect. It's exactly what I wanted.

You Are Not Forgotten

God Bless America!

A Confession, and the Main Event

Darlings, your Auntie Roadchick has been dreadfully remiss in not updating sooner, but things have been just a wee bit busy in the Roadie household. Since we were last together, Redneck and I have tied the knot. Gotten hitched. It's all official and everything. Awww.

The wedding was very small, up in the mountains around Gatlinburg at the cabin that we rented for the weekend. My parents, my two brothers, one sister-in-law, and one small niece were present. (The other sister-in-law had to stay at home with one small nephew who came down with strep the night before they were to head to the mountains.) Rockboy and his girlfriend were present. Skaterboy was present. My very good friend and her husband were present.

Anyway, it went off without a hitch (mostly) and a Good Time was had by all, except for poor Redneck who was sick as a dog with a summer cold(?) or the swine flu(?) or something. He perked up long enough for the ceremony then collapsed back into bed to nap until it was time to go to dinner in town. He perked up long enough to get through that and then was pretty much finished for the day.

For the wedding, I got Redneck a watch. He gave me the summer cold(?) or the swine flu(?) . . . which I still have and apparently am going to keep until at least our 25th anniversary when he will gift me with anthrax or ptomaine. He, of course, is much better now since he's passed it on to me and since I cannot find anyone to pass it to, I continue to hack and cough and pray for death or codeine cough syrup.

Since the wedding, things have been hectic, hectic, hectic. It was back to school for Skaterboy and that is always traumatic. More for me than for him, but there was a period of adjustment like there always is.

Yesterday afternoon, there was ominous silence from the other end of the house and I went to see what was going on.

Skaterboy, in the wisdom of his eleven years, had decided to customize his $40 Under Armor shirt that he bought with his Christmas money in January. A few snips here and there, so he could look just like his idol, Jeff Hardy (of wrestling fame).



As Skaterboy is a skinny, pre-adolescent eleven year old, he does not come close. His new name:

Jeff Hardly

And so, life in the expanded Roadie household begins.

Rainy Days and Mondays . . .

I freely admit it's my own fault.

I went to the dentist today to get my teeth cleaned and have a check-up. I have more than a little dental phobia so I do not go to the dentist as often as I should. I also cannot afford the outrageous out-of-pocket expenses very often so in between visits, I'm saving up to be able to pay for the next time that I go.

When I was younger, this was not so bad - a filling or two - no big deal. Now that I'm a little older, the price has gone up - shockingly.

When I was little, we lived in a house that had well water which meant there was no flouride in it. I also had a mom that did not believe in flouride toothpaste, apparently believing it to be poisonous or the work of the devil, but anyway, it was not used. Ditto on the vitamins with flouride.

The end result is a lot of dental work. And a lot of cash. How much cash, you ask? I really don't know. Apparently, the total is so enormous that the billing girl needed additional time to figure it out and will email me an estimate. I'm a little afraid to see what it says.

In other news, I've been spending a lot of time working in the garden. I know what you're thinking: what's this? Roadchick gardening? Are they snowmobiling in hell these days?

Yes, it's true. It started out innocently enough with three tomato plants that were given to Redneck. They were planted in the ground. Then it seemed like a good idea to get some squash and zucchini and cucumbers. Those were planted in the ground. Then I needed some flowers for the pots on the deck and for the windowboxes on the shed. . . and then there was a sale at Lowe's over the weekend . . . . and now I have a "gothic" garden on one side of my porch steps, complete with a gargoyle that Redneck brought home on Saturday afternoon.

Is anyone else just exhausted today? I think the dentist's office took it out of me and it didn't help that it was the monthly birthday pizza party at my office, complete with cake. I think I've got a carb overload going on but I could just put my head down and sleep.

Only one more hour and I can go home. Just lately, it's my favorite place to be.

And Then, I Yelled at Those Kids to Get Off My Lawn!

I'm a terrible, sentimental traditionalist. There are certain things that I don't want to change and if it's a memory I hold dear, I really don't want anyone to mess with it.

After a little sentimental Googling this evening, I found out that Santa's Village in East Dundee, Illinois went out of business a few years ago. I remember going there when I was a kid.

It was a Chicagoland area amusement park geared toward younger kids and built in a less-sophisticated time than the time that we live in now, but oddly, as a kid, that was exactly what appealed to me. I was the one that wanted to live in the Dick and Jane readers with a cat named Fluff when everyone else was all Strawberry Shortcake and Barbie's hot pink Corvette.

Santa's Village used to run commercials in the afternoons or on Saturday mornings when kids were home watching cartoons and if I remember correctly, for awhile, they had a jingle that went something like: "Any ride a quarter, six for a dollar!" (Yes, I know - you can't even buy a pack of gum for a dollar, let alone six rides at a theme park - or even a carnival. Now get off my lawn.)

By the time I nagged my mom into taking me, you just paid to get in and then rode all you wanted. We went on a day that wasn't really busy (apparently there were a lot of those, or else it wouldn't have gone out of business) so if we wanted to keep riding what we were on, we'd wave at the teenager running the ride and they'd just let it keep running as long as no one else was in line.

There was a frozen North Pole - coated in ice, even in July. There was a petting zoo too, but the ride that I remember the most was something called the Swiss Toboggan.


(Click HERE to check out other roller coasters of today and yesterday.)

The Swiss Toboggan was really the first "roller coaster" ride that I had ever been on and I imagined that I was quite grown up. The kid from next door and I had a whole elaborate game going on where we were rich and famous and had the park to ourselves, etc. We were always somewhere deep in our imaginations no matter what was going on around us. We always had a little embellishment, a little sparkle to add to the situation.

Do kids still do stuff like that or is it all Nintendo and texting and surfing the 'net?

It made me a little sad to find out that Santa's Village was gone - for childhood passing, I suppose, and the fact that times change whether we want them to or not.

Weddin' Nonsense

So, there's the dress that I'll be wearing whenever it is that Redneck and I finally tie the knot. We don't have a date yet, mainly because it seems that one commitment at a time is enough for the poor darling. He's going to be surprised when I just tell him when it is.



Can I tell you how ridiculously happy this dress makes me? I love the net underskirt part that hangs below the skirt - so Lucy Ricardo! It's just frilly enough without being a giant meringue of a dress.

The jackety thing may stay or it may go, depending on how the dress looks with a sheer pashima wrap that a co-worker has kindly offered to lend me. I'm not much on sleeveless so one or the other is going to be worn.

Since both of us have been married before, neither of us wanted the huge wedding with attendants and all that fuss. We were actually thinking about just going to the mountains by ourselves and getting married there.

Then, I got the phone call. From my mother.
(For those of you who have read Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, the Mother-of-Roadchick closely resembles Vivi except for the drinking and fun.)

Mother: Are you making plans yet?
'chick: For what?
Mother: Um, your WEDDING.
'chick: Oh. No. Not really. All I have to do is show up.
Mother: Hmph.
'chick: What?
Mother: Well, I certainly HOPE that you intend to get married in a church somewhere.
'chick: Well, no, that wasn't really the plan.
Mother: I'm sure that Pastor Smith would be happy to marry you at the church in town.
'chick: Why? I don't attend.
Mother: He would do it for your BROTHER.
'chick: Brother didn't even get married there. He got married in Vegas.
Mother: We are not talking about that.
'chick: Yes we were.
Mother: No, we were not. You need to give some serious thought to this.
'chick: Ok.

I seriously thought about it for two seconds and then dismissed it completely. I got married in a church last time. It wasn't really what I wanted then and it's not what I want now. I don't have a thing in the world against church, but it's not where I want to get married. Vivi hasn't brought it up again, but she will, when I'm least expecting it.

The fun part is going to be when she finds out that I've already got the dress. I wasn't actually looking for a dress but I found it, loved it, and bought it. No other shopping required. Vivi loves shopping. I do not. I knew when I put it on that it was The One. Vivi would've made me leave it there to hit eleventy-seven other stores to try on sixty-seven other dresses that made me miserable only to go back and buy the one that I knew was The One from the start.

Maybe I'll get her to take me shopping for shoes. . .

I Have A Secret

He asked.

I said yes.

'Nuff said.

*g*