Friday, November 20, 2009

bits and pieces

i am off today. my (fantastic) boss knew that i was just about to break into pieces and highly suggested all week that i take some time off for me. when i finally dug out from beneath a mountain of work, i could see that, yes, i could use a day off and i didn't have any meetings on friday, so here i am.

i feel a tiny bit guilty...ok, a big bit guilty... because my family is all at the hospital with my dad. he's recovering from a new cancer treatment. there's really not a whole lot i can do for them other than pray. an extra body gets in the way when you're in a semi-private room. but the good news is his doctor thinks this treatment is just the thing to kick-start the killing of more of the cancer in his liver.

jon is in atlanta with sweet sleep. i have been alone all day, and here's what i've done: enrolled in my benefits at work. took max on a long walk. drove to starbucks and was A.PALLED to find out that a triple-grande now costs $5.41. i will NOT be going back there for a while. came home and read martha stewart on my front porch in a rocking chair, drinking my million-dollar-java. and then. i tackled the "spare room."

when jon and i bought this house, we had very specific purposes for every room except one. the "nursery." we are pretty sure we want babies, but really haven't felt God specifically show us that that's the road he wants us walking. so, until he does, we have a spare room that houses the lives that jon and i led before we were married.

there are boxes and boxes of CDs, books, journals, sheet music, pictures. there are paintings and framed art that we've never hung. there are two bases to our washer and dryer. there are 43 pairs of old flip-flops. we've attempted to clean it out before, but basically, we just rearranged the crap. pardon the harsh language, but if you know me at all, i don't dig clutter. at all. this was that one room that we lock when company comes over.

most of you know that after college, i moved to new jersey to nanny for a fantastic family with three older kids. the boxes upstairs hold many of the memories i have of those beautiful kiddos. man, do i miss them. there are approximately 72 journals from that time that mostly have the first three pages filled out...the subject matter is generally (1) i'm homesick (2) i wish jon would hurry up and ask me to marry him and (3) lists. but mostly...it's the second. :)

there was also a bulletin board. the bulletin board hung in my nanny-room in new jersey right beside my bed. it's the kind with the criss-cross ribbon that you tuck things in. here is what i found tucked in:
let me break this down for you:
* 2 tickets from shrek 2
(the movie jon and i took my nanny-kids to immediately following his marriage proposal...the proposal that i didn't answer until after that movie...and dinner...and a train ride into the city. poor guy.).

* 1 ticket stub from a john mayer / counting crows concert in jersey
(if memory serves, this was the only concert i ever attended by myself. and it was awesome).

* 1 ticket stub from matchbox 20 in little rock.
(i flew all the way to little rock to see rob thomas with my friend hannah and her then boyfriend, clint. i bought a one-shouldered top and pink MAC eyeshadow so i could have "come hither eyes" and hannah says she did sit-ups for a week).

* 1 ticket stub from matchbox 20 in jersey.
(notice it was less than a month after the little rock show. i was surely a freak. a freak that had cash to burn).

* 1 disney world and 1 universal ticket
(jon and i visited orlando on july 4th weekend after he proposed to celebrate our engagement...despite the wonderful places we've gone together, this might have been my favorite vacation).

i love walking down memory lane. thanks for indulging me.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

so many things.

i am officially done with the 4th qtr rally. some companies do quarterly meetings. mine does "rallies." at my job, well..they're my job. yesterday, we did ours. and it was pretty good. i will try to post pictures tomorrow. but it's the reason why i've been unable to blog for a bit.

things are good at the merryman household. jon is the happiest i've seen him with his job in a year or so. he's got some good new challenges and he (as always) will be amazing at it.

dennis won second place at an art competition. good news: he won second place. bad news: because i've been working so much lately, i saw his entry this morning...and i thought about using a post-it-note to write, "great job!" this is not OK. and i was sure to talk about his good job tonight at dinner.

on that note..we decided to use a dinner a'fare this month for our dinners. and it has changed. my. life. we've used them before, but i think they've upped their game. every meal is yummy. and we saved on our budget. it is such a weird thing for 3 adults to eat. if you make a full recipe there are leftovers...but if you half a meal for 6, one of you (namely the teenager) feels hungry afterwards. so tough are my life-choices.

got word from my momma today that my dad goes in for an alternate treatment next week. after his second round of chemo, his tumor has (slightly) grown. his chemo embolation is next thursday. i totally guessed at what that means...funny thing is, my mom believed me. have you ever wished that everyone believed you like your mom believes you? that was a side-note. please pray that the treatment shrinks his tumor unbelievably. that's what i'm praying.

tonight, i'm just thankful to be watching the cma's and glee and then the crazy triple CSI series alternately. how great is it to have a family?

Monday, November 2, 2009

it starts.

jessica and i used to have a nintendo 64 that we LOVED. no really - spent hours playing it. one of our favorite games was the lion king. and at the beginning of it, simba's dad would say "it starts." anyway. random fact.

this morning, dennis drove to school all by himself. i was a nervous wreck. i woke up at the crack of dawn and made a sausage lentil soup to go in the crock pot because i knew i wouldn't be able to sleep.

dennis came downstairs and i gave him the "your cellphone must be off when you drive" speech. the rule is that he has to call us before he leaves, turn it off, drive to the destination, turn it on and call us.

well, he just called. i am worry-free until 3 p.m. when he calls to let us know he's on his way home.

i am not ready for this.