Holiday "Rules" for Husbands

After stifling several screams last week, I came up with the following rules for husbands during the Holidays.  This may not apply to any husband other than mine....and actually, it may apply to some wives depending on how your family rolls.

Rule #1 - If your wife is cleaning and cooking and going to the grocery store and running around like a chicken with her head cut off....go away.  Go to the office, go to the shop, go hunting, go to the grocery store for her...it really doesn't matter.  Just get out of the way!!  Oh, and if you do go hunting, do NOT, for the love of everything holy, actually bring back anything until after the holiday is over.  Your wife will not appreciate having to cook Thanksgiving dinner AND dress out a deer.

Rule #2 - If your wife has made several lists...grocery lists, lists of things to do, lists of what she's cooking, etc.  Don't sit there and point out everything she may have forgotten.  Either add it to the list or go get it for her.

Rule #3 - The night before Thanksgiving, eat a sandwich, or go get a pizza, or something.  Anything but ask "What's for dinner?"

Rule #4 - If your wife is in the process of cleaning out the refrigerator....wait a few minutes to make a sandwich.  You're not starving.  It can wait 10 minutes.  Same goes for getting yourself something to drink.  Unless you just came in from a week in the desert, you're probably not going to die if you don't get something to drink before she's finished.

Rule #5 - Much like rule number 3 - the night of Thanksgiving, after your bride has been cooking for two days and after eating a huge dinner....do not then, that evening ask "What's for supper?"  The answer is either a) leftovers or b)@#$#@&^ or if your lucky c) she rolls her eyes and ignores you for the rest of the night.

Actually, they all could boil down to one basic rule...unless you want to do it all yourself, help a girl out!!!  Especially when the majority of the people coming are your family.  If it's hers, then still see all these rules, but she has less to complain about.

Anybody else have any good rules for the holidays?  I'm sure I missed a lot.

The Most Organized Thanksgiving Ever...

Secondary title - When did I become my grandmothers???

I can't say that I've always been the most organized person when it comes to the holidays.  Anything worth doing is worth doing at the last minute is generally my motto.  And this is probably really only my 3rd or 4th holiday with all the family coming to my house for dinner.  So I feel like I'm way ahead of the learning curve.

Before Thanksgiving, I had to make sure the following things were accomplished:

1) Decide what the heck we're going to eat.
2) Let everyone know what we're going to eat and what all the girls need to bring.
3) Clean out my dining room which is currently the granddaughters' play room so we can put an actual table in it.
4) Do the shopping for the food that I'm cooking.
5) Clean house.
6) Cook.

On that list, I have managed to...

Are you ready for it???

Wait for it...

Do all but #'s 5 and 6.

And actually I'm ahead of the game on #5 because I did quite a bit of cleaning this week-end, but I still have to live in my house between now and Thursday so I'm sure I'll have a couple of things to do on Wednesday.  And I do have to go to the store either tonight or tomorrow and get a couple of things that I forgot.  But no trying to push a cart around on Wednesday night after frantically cleaning all day and hoping beyond hope that there is still one ham that will feed 8 adults and 4 children while trying to figure out if I want to bake all my desserts or just buy them frozen and hope they thaw out in time for us to be able to eat them with forks and not chainsaws after dinner.

So instead of looking at my day off on Wednesday with little panic attacks wondering what in the heck I was doing agreeing to have Thanksgiving at my house this year.  I'm actually pretty chilled out.

This can mean only one thing.  Some crazy flu, virus, cold, something is going to hit and I'll be trying to cook with 102 degree fever.

Wish me luck!!

I'm so excited!!!

And it's really weird.  Not a lot of people will understand this.

I'm so excited because...my knee hurts.

Seriously.

I'm a watcher.  I'm not a participator.  I watch people play sports.  I watch people run.  I watch people do things. 

I am now a doer.

I have jogged enough now to hurt my knee.  This is so cool.

Ouch.

A whole lot of nothing

Which is exactly what's been going through my mind lately.  A whole lot of nothing.  Not a lot to build a blog post around I know but that's where I'm at. 

My focus has been in about a million different places lately.

My grandson finished his first soccer season.  We made two games.  But he's going to be playing basketball this winter and soccer again in the spring.  So there's more opportunities to go watch.  And spend more time with him and his sister.  Since they live an hour and a half away and their lives are super busy, we don't get to see them a lot.

My middle granddaughter is now 4.  It goes by too fast.  It seems like just yesterday I was talking to her minutes after birth telling her how much I already love her.

I have two nieces or nephews coming in the Spring.  I'm leaning toward niece on both of them.  I have mad baby predicting skills.  I have been right about every niece and nephew that I knew about ahead of time.  (There were a couple of instances of "we're having a girl/boy in a couple of months").  And I was right about all 4 grandkids.  Even when everybody just knew the middle granddaughter was a boy, I was like, "Whatever, I'm buying pink."  But I could be wrong.  I recently tested this on my daughter-in-laws cousin to see if the baby had to technically be "mine", but I called boy and boy it is.  I think it may be God's way of letting me have some fun since I don't get to have kids of my own.... So, P and L, I hope you didn't throw all of Miss A's stuff away.  I think you can re-use it...

If I'm going to run the week-end of my 40th birthday, I need to exercise more than twice a week. 

I hate migraines.

Work right now is scary....and our governor is an idiot.

Is fire season going to be as bad as they say, because the last time it was bad, it was pretty scary watching the hills around my house burn. 

My roots have grown out quite a bit and I saw my hair in the sun for the first time in awhile without it being pulled up and holy mackerel my hair has gotten gray.  I need a date with Miss Clairol ASAP.

The Oklahoma State Cowboys are number 1 in the Big 12 South and how flippin' cool is that???

And oh, crap, there's only two NASCAR races left this season.  :(

So that's it.  The contents of my brain lately. 

Good luck with trying to figure it out.  If you have any clues about where it's going to go next feel free to let me know....

I need your help...

All both of you...

I've been thinking about this whole running thing and I've gotten started and seem to be doing okay.  If you can call walking for 20 minutes and running for 75 seconds okay.  But compared to last week when I could only run for 70 seconds...it's progress. 

But something is bothering me.  And I need your help. 

What should my t-shirt say.  I've been thinking about the idea I posted last week and I'm just not feeling it.  I'll be 40.  I've survived three open heart surgeries.  And I'm running for the first time in my life that wasn't because of grade school little olympics or some evil teacher who made us run because we didn't get our homework done on time. 

So everyone let me know what you think and I'll pick the one I like best and make it into a shirt for the run.  Who knows?  Maybe I'll even get some made for my family and put Team Jennifer on it or something. 

Running

This is not a weight loss/exercise blog.  Not knocking weight loss/exercise blogs.  They have their purpose and I'm all for them. But the name Fruit Basket Turnover means I don't want to be pigeonholed into "weight loss" blog, "health" blog, "crazy Grandma" blog or whatever.

However.... I'm thinking about starting a running program.  I've been hearing a lot about Couch to 5K which is the whole start out a couch potato and in 8 weeks (or however long it takes you) compete in a 5K.

I...am...not...a...runner.  To quote the Genie in Aladdin "It's not a pretty picture.  I don't like doing it!!"  When everyone else is learning to run as a child, I was having to sit still and try not to pass out.  Running isn't a natural thing for me.  Now, I would run if like my house was on fire or I had a niece/nephew/grandchild running into the street.  But for exercise?  Not happening.  I'll walk, thanks.

But I'm approaching my 40th birthday and I've been doing a lot of "why not?" kind of thinking.  Why am I not trying to run?  Seriously?  Because I can't?  Why not?  "Never having really tried" does not equal "can't".  I'm lazy?  Well, yeah.  That's why the scale is creeping up higher and higher.

What will happen if I try it?  I may find out I like running!!  (Okay...I didn't buy that either.)  I may find out that once I get the mechanics figured out and work my way into it, it's not so bad.  I may find out I have more power than I ever gave myself credit for.  I mean, if other TOF patients can become Olympic snowboarders and triathlon participants, why can't I do a 5K????

So I'm going for it.  I'll see if there are any 5K's around my birthday in April and if so and if I'm ready I'm making a t-shirt that says "I'm 40 and a heart survivor...Bring It!!"  (And any available parents, kids, grandkids, brothers, sisters-in-law,  nieces, nephews, friends...and yes dear, husbands...had better be there to cheer me on!!!)

Gratitude

One of the principles of recovery in 12 step programs is gratitude.  Primarily that gratitude isn't a feeling...it's an action.  At least, that's what has been true for me.  And we're coming up to November which is always considered "Gratitude Month" because of "Thanksgiving" and that's when you should be grateful.  Which has always ticked me off.  "Gratitude Month" should be turned into "Gratitude Friday at 4:30 am because I woke up from a dream and realized that I'm nice and cozy in my bed instead of out on the streets."  or "Gratitude Wednesday at noon because the husband grilled cheeseburgers for lunch."  or "Gratitude Saturday morning because even though I have a migraine...I still have medicine and it will go away." My focus should always be on gratitude and my question should always be...how can I pay it back?

Today was a great example.  I'm grateful for the freedoms afforded me by our military.  Our men and women who give up homes, families, friends and comfort to go to the most horrible places on earth and fight for our freedom.  Because of my medical history it was never possible for me to become one of those people.  The most I have had to sacrifice was quite a few sleepless nights when my baby brother was in the Army and serving in Kosovo.  I haven't had to watch a child or spouse or parent go.  But I can express my gratitude.  I have the freedom to whine, complain and gripe about my country...and I have the freedom to say that in spite of our flaws, in spite of what we do to each other, in spite of the economy, we are the best country in the world.  Now how do I pay it back?  I voted.  I took 15 minutes out of my day and I let my voice be heard.  Will it matter?  I don't know.  But I did it.  I encourage everyone who reads my blog (all both of you) to take the time out of your lives to go vote and let your voice be heard.

Another thing that has struck me this week is that I'm so very grateful for my job.  I don't always love it.  It's not always easy.  But I have one.  And for the most part it rocks.  This week I've gotten a couple of opportunities to be of service outside of the 40 hour work week.  It's Spirit Week...where the three classes of students compete against each other in different things.  I got to be a judge this year.  It's an honor to be asked.  All I am is a little ol' school secretary.  But I got the opportunity to interact with the kids and I had a blast.  Now...no, I did not love the pumpkin and coconut milkshake (seriously?  yuck) and I sure didn't love sticking my hand in a pile of stink bait to get the dead fish with the key tied to it.  But for the most part it was a great night and I can't wait to do it again.

And finally, there's my family.  I'm grateful for every single one of them.  My life is richer for having all of them.  The parents, the grandparents, the brothers, the kids, the grandkids, the aunts and uncles, the cousins, the steps, the in-laws and the out-laws.  I don't do nearly enough to show my gratitude for them.  I still spend way too much time worrying about who is doing what for me instead of what I can do for them.  But I'm trying...

And I would have none of it without my Higher Power - God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  Thank you.