Today is my husband’s birthday. Mr. Quiet. Mr. Reserved. Mr. Tell It Like It Is. If you want the non-sugar coated truth, then ask Adam. If he likes you, you’ll know it. He may not have the most obvious way of showing it, but you’ll know.

Adam and I are the best of friends. We rarely argue. We get each other so much that we just bounce things off each other or just automatically get what the other is thinking. We understand one another completely. With Adam I always know where I stand. I never have to wonder.

Adam is the best father in the world to Ethan. There is no doubt that Ethan is the most important thing in his world, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. He’s also always been there for my kids, and in the right way. He never tried to become instant dad, and that’s how I wanted it.

It’s hard for me to believe that we’ve been together for 12 years and married for 7 this June.

Happy Birthday Asshole! I love you. Always.

I have a 25 year old child!

Today my first born turns 25 years old. TWENTY FIVE YEARS OLD! I don’t even know when that happened. I have a 25 year old child! Is it possible that someone came in my house one day and fast forwarded my life?

I have a 25 year old child!

Stephen was born on April 28, 1983. He hung out inside me for an extra 3 1/2 weeks. I thought I was going to remain pregnant for the rest of my life. I finally got the appointment to be induced on April 27. Checked into the hospital, was pumped with pitocin all day long, and by that night I still had no baby. They stopped the pitocin and put my crying body into a hospital bed and told me to sleep. And the next morning it started all over again. By 4:30 the next day, I had a baby boy. A 10 pound , 7 ounce baby boy with a headful of dark hair and the chubbiest cheeks imaginable. Every time I went to look at him in the nursery there was a crowd around him ooohing and ahhhing over his perfection. Even the nurse fought over who got to take care of him.

I have a 25 year old chld!

Stephen was always ahead of the game. Bigger than everyone else when he was born. Brighter than all the kids in his class. Gifted in so many ways. No matter what he tried out for, he accomplished. No matter what he ran for, he was elected. Even where luck was concerned. If he entered a contest that required your name be drawn, his name was always the one that was called.

I have a 25 year old child!

Like any mother, as Stephen was growing up I always wondered what, who he would grow up to be. He was always an officer in the SCA. Would he be a politician? He loved music and singing. A performer? He was social and loved talking. He was smart and excelled in all subjects. He could be whatever, whoever he wanted. It shouldn’t suprise me that he works as an on-air DJ for a radio station should it?

I have a 25 year old child!

Stephen has developed into a wonderful man. He’s charming. He’s sweet. He’s caring. He’s fun. I couldn’t ask for a better son. Cristin couldn’t ask for a better brother. Ethan couldn’t ask for a better brother. My parents couldn’t ask for a better grandson.

I have a 25 year old child, and I couldn’t be more proud of him.

Over the past 7 days:

I have helped my daughter move into her own one bedroom apartment with no roommates.

I have caught a disgusting cold and feel really crappy.

Adam has broken his hand.  Or at least that’s what we think.  He cracked his knuckle on a finger that he’s broken numerous times before and when he did he heard a crackling sound.  Went to the doctor yesterday and got a soft cast and is waiting a call back to find out if he needs to have it set by the orthopedist.

 I have watched over 4 inches of rain fall.

Stephen has found a new apartment and will be moving into it with his girlfriend this summer.  A one bedroom with an address of Main Street.  How cute is that?

My wildflower seeds that Ethan and I planted two weeks ago have started to sprout.

I found a Chihuahua one night and immediately posted signs around the neighborhood and found his owners the next day. 

Other than those few things life has been pretty uneventful.  Good, but uneventful.

We got Ethan’s spring pictures in today. I actually like them because they don’t look like the typical school picture pose and expression.

I asked him about buttoning the top button, and he said he thought it would look cute and that he did it himself. My mom was so upset because she was in charge of pictures since we were in Vegas. She bought him the shirt and a little t-shirt to go underneath it, and he took it upon himself to button it ALL the way up.

Sometimes I feel like I let the tiniest things bug me.  I guess that’s fair because the really big things usually roll right off. 

Take something as simple as a wreath and turn it into a spring decoration for your door, and my heart rate starts to elevate.  It’s not on my house.  It’s not in my house.  It’s not even near my house so why should it bother me to such an extent?  Is it because it deviates from the trational purpose?  Am I so close minded that I can’t accept such a deviation?  Or is it because most of the wreaths I’ve seen are someone’s homemade craft that just screams tacky? 

Wreaths have one function in this world, and that’s as a Christmas decoration.   You will never see me order a wreath for a funeral.  Hell, I won’t even order the spray, which is actually a wreath of a different shape.  I don’t even like the horse race wreaths.  I don’t like Easter wreaths, fall wreaths, Valentine wreaths, Halloween wreaths or any other holiday specific wreath.

One Christmas a friend of mine announced that she was making all her Christmas presents for friends.  I don’t have a problem with homemade presents, as long as you’re not giving me something that I have to display in my house and as long as it’s not too far removed from my own personal taste.  Soap, candle, a piece of pottery, food.  I’m good with all those, and in fact, prefer such gifts.  But a wreath?  I wouldn’t even know how to say thank you.  But yes, wreaths were the big gift that this friend was “creating.”  And they were going to be spring wreaths! My friend even announced that she knew what everyone’s colors were.   Believe me, I was beyond scared.  I was hoping upon every hope that a spring wreath would not find it’s way under my tree on Christmas morning.  Thankfully, I didn’t rank a wreath that Christmas.  I got the secondary present.  A crocheted doily.  I have never been happier to be a lower tiered friend in my life.

But here it is years later and my neighbor has hung a spring wreath on the exterior of her home.  And it is awful.  It’s brightly colored and country-ish and it bugs me.  And I can’t keep my eyes off of it whenever I walk outside.  I am so afraid that my neighbor will see me eyeballing it one day and think I’ve developed wreath envy.  I can only hope that’s she not so kind that she decides to give it to me one day.

You know damn well this video makes you wish you were there!

This post made me think of this song.  Since we’re spreading the happiness and all.

Can I just say that the highlight of this rainy, rainy, rainy weekend was getting to see Bret Michael’s without his bandana or cowboy hat on?  On the latest Rock of Love 2 episode he let it all out.  Funny, but it didn’t look real to me.

…(but probably don’t):

1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has “evolved,” yet he’s continued to oppose key civil rights laws.
2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain “will make Cheney look like Gandhi.”
3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.
4. McCain opposes a woman’s right to choose. He said, “I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.”
5. The Children’s Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children’s health care bill last year, then defended Bush’s veto of the bill.
6. He’s one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a “second job” and skip their vacations.
7. Many of McCain’s fellow Republican senators say he’s too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: “The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He’s erratic. He’s hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”
8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.
9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his “spiritual guide,” Rod Parsley, believes America’s founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a “false religion.” McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church “the Antichrist” and a “false cult.” —yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.
10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a ZERO.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I think this picture would make him smile.