Life Continues and Gets Better (Really, it Does)

Wow, it's been a while. Just looking at the last posting date, you would have thought I'd dropped of the planet, but alas. I'm still here.

Brother-in-Law Blues
So, where to begin...my brother-in-law is living with us (I think I mentioned that before). He's a big lummox of a kid...five feet eleven inches tall and about two hundred ten pounds. He's fifteen and towers over his big brother (but hubby dear can take him down with one swift move). They wrestle constantly and banter back and forth about the craziest stuff. You'd have to wonder if hubby was really twenty years older than his baby brother.

Sometimes, this "play" can cause troubles because baby brother will not take big brother seriously. As such, we've caught him in a troth full of lies. They're small, but lies nonetheless. For example, hubby bought several "power" drinks (you know the kind...full of ginseng and caffeine). Anyway, there were about five or six in our refrigerator. So, hubby goes to grab one a couple of days later and there are only two left. He knows that I'm particular about "power" drinks and the ones he usually buys are so strong that they make me sick. Our kids would have no desire to drink those things. They are happy with their apple juice. Hubby approaches his brother:

"Hey, man. Did you drink those power drinks?"

"Uh, nah."

"So, where did they go?

"I don't know, man. I didn't drink them."

So, what...did they just evaporate from the refrigerator? Or, maybe somebody beamed them up to another planet. Hmm. Isn't it just easier to say, "Yeah, I drank them." Come on, dude. Now you look like an idiot.

Example 2: Hubby and I were messing around on my laptop looking at classifieds. I went up to the location bar to type in a different website and up pops some very questionable links in the memory (f*u*kmebuddy sites, livesex, web cam dreams, etc...). Hubby and I look at each other. I calmly go to the control panel and set up a password for the computer and the screen-saver. Yesterday, before baby brother leaves to spend time at his sister's house, he asks about using the computer to check a MySpace page. Hubby tells him that he's lost the computer privilege, based on the information we found on my laptop:

"You don't know what kind of viruses you're letting in, going to those sites!"

"I only went to a MySpace page."

"So, how did those other sites show up?"

"I don't know, man. I was only on MySpace."

(For the record, MySpace was not a link that showed up in memory within the location bar)

Brother dear was not happy to be scolded about the computer, but he's certainly not going to corrupt himself while he's in my house. His mother would flip if she knew what he was doing. I just got her to like me...I don't need that crap on my conscious. And, I doubt that hubby is really eager for him to come and move in with us next year after this. Can't really trust a liar, can you?

Home Improvements

The grouting is nearly finished (I think I said that the last time), but really, it is. I'll be doing the remainder of it on my own today (around three or four rows of tile). Why? Well, here's the latest; Sunday morning at 7:00am, a friend of hubby's drove from very far away to begin work on our new deck. Yes! Another project begins before the old one ends. (I sometimes feel like our family is staring in an episode of, This Old House). It was amazing what they accomplished! By 5:00pm, most of the framework was done and the flooring wood for half the deck (a fourteen-footer, by the way) was nearly all laid.

Hubby will be working on the remainder for the next few days. Once it's complete, we will stain it together. I can't believe it! I may actually get to enjoy a deck of my very own, before the summer ends. I had no idea they would get so much done...nor did I realize they were working to have it complete before the end of the summer. I just assumed we'd be walking around on a half done deck for several months.

I'm learning how to participate in these activities and am actually beginning to enjoy them. Seeing the fruits of your labor in your home is quite rewarding. I guess it's one thing to hear it, then to actually experience it for yourself? Novel.

Kiddlings

The babe is going strong with gymnastics and seems to enjoy it immensely. If I could only get her to focus and stop playing the class clown, I'd be really happy. She's also enjoying summer camp and last week, journeyed to the great Salt Lake. Her interpretation of the trip:

"Mom, we went to the great Salt Lake today!"

"Really? What did you see?"

"We saw buffalo and a deer...Oh! And we saw a barn owl and it had a heart-shaped face, but it was asleep. It was so cute!"

They also go to various parks around the city, twice per week. On Wednesdays, they go to the movie theater to see a movie (with other camp kids). So far, she's already seen every movie they've gone to, either with her dad or because we've rented it for her. There's something to be said about viewing movies in a theater, though. She loves Wednesdays. Fridays, they play in the water and with our latest temps hitting over 100, it's a good thing they can cool-off this way. She loves Fridays, too.

Married Life

Hubby and I are still going to our counseling sessions. We didn't go last week because of the holiday, but we managed to make it through the week without killing each other. Early Friday morning (around 2:00am) hubby calls to tell me he's had a blow-out with his tire on the interstate. He's managed to pull off and park at a gas station and would I come pick him up. This is where it's good that there's another older person in the house because I would have had to pack up the kids, otherwise. Luckily, I only had to tell brother-dear that I had to pick up his brother and would he please keep an ear out for the kids, just in case.

So, off I went...fifteen miles south of where we live. I blared the music and rolled the windows all the way down because, this girl was tired! I picked him up and we journeyed home, hand-in-hand. It was sweet and pitiful both at the same time. In the morning, Hubby called around to price-out tow trucks. The cheapest one said he'd call his guy and have him call us in an hour. Two hours later, I was trying to get hubby to call someone else. The gas station attendant had given hubby the okay to park his car until noon the next day. It was now 10:30 with no word from the tow guy. So, hubby begrudgingly called another company that was more expensive and worked out the details for the pick-up.

After me pressuring him to do so, he exclaimed that I wasn't really trying to help him. Where the hell did that come from? Anyway, I went outside after that comment to try and collect my thoughts. He soon followed me to say that he was sorry and that he was just stressed out from the events. Turns out, our insurance company would reimburse up to $50 dollars back from what he would spend on the tow. Then, we we got the car towed to Sam's Club, they put on a brand-new tire for free! To add icing to the cake, when hubby called in to cancel his overtime for the evening from work, they just decided to cancel the whole weekend. I had my hubby for three days! Everything happens for a reason.

The weekend was really not that eventful, but wonderful nonetheless. It's the first time in months that we've had so much time together. We ate a lot, drank a lot, and played a lot. Then, the hard work on Sunday but, who cares; it was time together.

More counseling tomorrow. I think we're really both trying hard and that's what's making the difference. If only one of us was trying or neither of us, the marriage would surely be in the toilet by now. We're trying to keep a clear perspective, which is sometimes very difficult but we are working extra hard to have at least an hour together each day. Oh! A pleasant side effect? Even better sex. Didn't really think it could get better. (wink, wink)