Wray said to me the other day, “So, wiferston, you think you could go an entire month without eating in a restaurant?”. Instantly I thought, “No, dummy. Why would I even want to?” I know we spend WAY too much money eating out every month, but I also feel like there are a few good reasons for this.
Living with mom and dad is stressful. They’re great, and we’ve had it as easy as anybody could. But there’s something depressing about constantly cooking in your mother’s kitchen. After awhile you start to feel like you’re not a real wife and mother, like you’re still a kid in your parents house. Which, technically you are, but who wants to be reminded of this? Wray’s schedule is crazy, and we don’t get to spend that much time together. And when we can be together, it’s not like I want to be cooking. So we go out a lot. In the restaurant, it’s easy to forget all that other stuff. While we’re there were just as normal as any other family. I know that all of this is fairly irrational and we, of course are a regular family, we’re just real-estate challenged. We like to go out though, and that’s why I think we do it so often.
I was cool with this facet of our lives. Then I saw our family pictures. I’d straightened my hair for the pictures, and I was wearing a blue top and jeans. The photographer is WONDERFUL, but she likes to take pictures of moms holding their kids hands and walking away. So there are these pictures, basically of my butt. And with my long hair hiding my neck, I look like a big blue Grimace. You remember Grimace, the huge fat triangular purple guy that is a McDonald’s Character. If you’re reading this, I’m sure we’re friends. At least polite acquaintainces. So I know that you are thinking, kindly, she’s crazy. I promise, now that I’ve mentioned the Grimace thing, that if you saw the pictures you’d have a hard time keeping a straight face. Your mouth might say, “No, you look fine.” But your face is going to say “OMG, she totally looks like a blue Grimace.”
THEREFORE, We are going to try it. 30 restaurant-free days. That doesn’t mean health food necessarily. But I think that if we’re cooking at home we can do at least a little better. Of course there will be a few times where social obligations will require us to GO to a restaurant, especially with the holidays coming up. But we will not eat there. We’ll see if we can develop better habits. They say it takes 21 days to develop or break a habit. We’re building in the extra 9 days just in case. Wray and I are stubborn. We’ll see how this goes….I’m off to cook.
Gavin’s started that thing that kids do about monsters. At night he insists that there are monsters in his room. Obviously, I know that there are not really any mosters in his room. So I’m torn between my logical side telling me to tell Gavin to suck it up and deal, and my mommy side which says that I should indulge him and hug him and mommy him. I am inclined to say, “There’s no monsters, go to bed”. But then I feel mean. It’s a conundrum. I have compromised and left him in his room with the door cracked.
I am watching Daddy read “Good Night, Gorilla” to Gavin right now. It is one of our favorites. Gavin is really turning into a reader. Obviously he can’t actually read yet, but he loves to point out letters in books, and he is exhibiting a lot of the characteristics of early literacy (dorky teacher words). I am very proud of him. He is so very smart. He will find two books and point out things in them that are similar (like monkey characters). It is so interesting to see how his mind works.
I think Wray is finally getting it right in Spanish. He got a 94 on the paper he wrote all by himself last week. He will probably graduate. YAY! We are definitely counting down the days until Thanksgiving break.
Hope all is well with all of you.
WORST DAY EVER
November 10, 2009
So I had fender-bender today. It was stupid. I rear-ended someone. What’s frustrating is that I still can’t figure out how it happened. There were no brake lights. I they went, I went, I hit them. Just some stupid miscalculation on my part. Or she took her foot off the gas. I couldn’t really tell. The poor woman didn’t speak English, and I was too frazzled to communicate that I spoke Spanish before she ascertained that her car was undamaged. She said “All OK” and got back in her car. I couldn’t think of a reason to stop her, since I was the rear-ender not the rear-endee. And since her Tahoe was unscathed, and my poor little Hyundai Accent looked only slightly better than you might imagine an Accent would look after a battle with a Tahoe. The hood is probably going to have to be replaced, along with the grill and the bumper. And as my dad has said, yes, it’s just a thing. It’s just that a good chunk of my paycheck still goes to the finance company to pay for said thing. I don’t care about the car, but I HATE the hassle. Mostly, though, I hate that I was so stupid.
Then I got to school and my computer wouldn’t work. Couldn’t take attendance. Couldn’t grade papers. It wasn’t exactly a disaster, but I just didn’t need it post wreck. I decided then and there that I was ready for Tuesday already.
My grandma is in the hospital again in Colorado. We think she is starting to suffer dementia. I hope she comes back from this. Sometimes her medications get mixed up, but this time it seems to be pretty persistent. She’s convinced that my whole family is in Colorado, and we just won’t come see her. She is accusing my mom of keeping Gavin and Caleb and Alex from visiting her, and apparently being pretty nasty about it. It’s a tough situation for my mom. Normally I get on the phone and set my grandma straight, but that’s when she’s present and accounted for mentally speaking for. She’s being so mean now that my mom actually has refused to let me talk to her. So in a weird and completely unamusing way, grandma’s delusions have become a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s just a sad situation, and I feel bad for mom.
Gavin was in the car for my fender-bender. He’s fine. We were going less than 5 miles per hour. He didn’t even realize why I was getting out of the car. He was wonderful today after school. I discovered that he’s learned to count to 10 in Spanish. I suppose next I’ll teach him in German. He knows almost all of his letters and loves to tell me that “if you turn a W upside down it makes an M.” He threw a few fits tonight, and informed me “I”m the boss”. He was quickly corrected on our chain-of-command. He also practiced throwing a spiral to Papa. I’ve got an aspiring quarterback on my hands. Hands down the greatest kid ever. Sorry to the rest of you, you’ll have to fight it out for second place.
My parents were super supportive today, even though I hit another car with Gavin in the car with me. They reminded me that everyone has an accident every once and awhile. Wray was wonderful. He sent me text messages to check how I was doing. When I called him after school, he said, “Go home and relax now, wiferston.” He loves me. I love him. Aside from a crumpled hood on “azulito” (little blue), life is good.
In the words of the illustrious Mrs. Rhett Butler, “Tomorrow is another day”. So bring it on Tuesday. 9 more days until Thanksgiving Break!
