This child of mine

 

has turned a corner in her life. She is just a couple months shy of being 19, working, going to college...and has become smitten with a dude. And apparently he is pretty smitten with her. I'll call this dude Nick (because that's his name). Nick has known my daughter for quite some time but couldn't convince her to go out with him until last year. It's pretty much been non-stop since then.

 

On New Year's Day while I was working, Nick approached my husband and asked if he could have a chat. The house was full of people so my husband jokingly said, "What? Do you want to marry my daughter or something?" The reply? "Well, since you brought it up." Troy looked around, looked at Nick and told him they would talk later.

He promptly took two pain pills and went to lay down.

He left that poor kid in limbo ALL. DAY. at the house. I'm sure it was agonizing but Troy was of the opinion that it is a right of passage for a guy when asking the dad permission to take his little girl away. He had to do it with MY dad so I guess he figured this was his moment for paybacks.

He called me when I was on my way home and told me to call when I was in front of the house. I asked why but he wouldn't tell me. This is NEVER a good thing in the history of things at the Pryor house. So of course I immediately threw up. Okay, I didn't really throw up. But I wanted to. It's the same thing. As I approach the house I can see my oldest son piling in a car with 4 other people. I see another car I'm not familiar with which means my other son is there. And my daughter's car is there. I call. Troy comes out and hops in the car. I look at him, waiting. Anticipating what is to come. I wanted to throw up in his lap. "What happened?" is my natural question when he says nothing for approximately 2 seconds. I think I waited long enough. Don't judge me. He looks at me all unconcerned about the state of my stomach and announces we are just going to dinner.

After we have ordered our food, Troy takes a deep breath and says, "Well, I guess Nick and Lindsay want to get married." It's funny how the unknown wanted to make me hurl but actually knowing rendered me speechless. This is a pretty difficult thing to do. Troy explained how the day had unfolded and that Nick was wanting to talk to him. I looked at him, confused. "You mean you still haven't had this talk?" He had not. That poor kid was still at our house waiting for the conversation. Nice. So I asked the next logical question. "Well, what are you going to tell him?"

"I'm going to tell him NO."

I laughed. It was my other natural response. So we had a long talk over dinner about how they could pretty much do whatever they wanted since they were both over 18 but wasn't it nice that he was doing the old-fashioned thing and asking permission.

We finally got home. The conversation took place. My husband lived.

There's no date. No solid plans....other than the fact they are looking 4 years out. Lindsay wants to finish school first. They are talking. Being responsible. Thoughtful.

I would love to lecture them both about how young they are, that life is full of challenges and that they need to prepare emotionally and financially for what they are about to embark on. But who am I to say a word? She's the same age I was when Troy proposed to me....but I didn't have a 4 year plan.

Mine was 6 months.

*sigh*

 

My Wizard of Oz saga

will be continued shortly...but I have to tell you that I was sad I hadn't waited a few months before I started the story because I got this cute guy for Christmas:

 

In case you don't recognize him that's Professor Marvel. Since he makes his appearance in the beginning of the story it's really too late to include him. But I had to share.

I know. Riveting.

41 reasons I haven't updated my blog

I figured since it has been 41 long days since I last updated, and the fact we are in a completely new year, I would give you 41 reasons for being such a slacker. I know you've all been sitting on the edge of your seats for an update anyway, right? Right?

1. I'm a slacker
2. I was working
3. Christmas shopping took too long
4. Christmas baking was intense
5. I had to wrap gifts
6. Then I was opening gifts
7. I went shoe shopping
8. My diet made me cranky and nobody wants a cranky blogger
9. It was raining so I went outside to sing
10. Blogger's block
11. Writer's block. This is completely different than blogger's block. I'm just not sure how. But it is.
12. I was watching the Wizard of Oz
13. I got a new coloring book for Christmas and it NEEDED to be used. Yes, I said a coloring book. Yes, I'm 45. Dude...it's a Wizard of Oz coloring book that's 3 ft. x 2 ft. It took me a looooong time to color in it.
14. I was celebrating New Years. In bed. Trying to sleep because I had to work at 5:30 the next morning. But how can you really get mad at people partying in the new year?
15. I was making tutus for two very special little girls
16. Some of my time was spent sleeping. Probably not enough.
17. I was napping. This is not the same as sleeping. I'm not sure how. But it is.
18. I was trying to sleep. This is not the same as actual sleeping or actual napping. I actually KNOW how this is different. It even has a different name....insomnia. It about killed me during the two weeks before Christmas.
19. I bought an ice scraper. AN ICE SCRAPER. I live in California, people. This one event alone probably set me back 7 days as the shock and horror of having to scrape my windshields before I went to work (or as I was leaving work after night shift) gave me hives.
20. I was using my ice scraper.
21. I had hives.
22. I packed up all the Christmas decorations.
23. I packed up all the Christmas decorations. No, I am not cheating by listing this item twice. I did it twice. Once for my mom and once at my own house. So there.
24. My message boards were looking for me. Okay, not really. But I didn't want to neglect my message boards.
25. I was scrapbooking. Yes, I actually did a wee-bit of scrapbooking.
26. In an effort to combat this gradual weight gain between the Mr. and I, I spent 2 hours meal planning.
27. I spent 2 hours shopping for all those planned meals.
28. Another 10 hours of cooking each meal.
29. Another 10 minutes of eating each meal. I'm trying to lose weight. The portions are a little small.
30. I was flossing my teeth. What? I just told you I had been eating.
31. I applied for a new job.
32. I threw up after I hit the "apply now" button.
33. I was brushing my teeth. What? I just told you....never mind.
34. I learned how to play the piano. Okay, this is just a lie. But I've always WANTED to play the piano. That counts.
35. Approximately 5 minutes of my life was spent watching a birthday video that my brother made me. I will never get that 5 minutes back.
36. My dogs needed to go for a walk. I have 4 of them.
37. My dogs needed to go for a walk.
38. My dogs needed to go for a walk.
39. My dogs needed to go for a walk. What? I HAVE 4 OF THEM!
40. We were buying new furniture.
41. I really just wasn't doing anything all that interesting.

Wow. I really have a lot of reasons I haven't been here. Okay, I have excuses. One of my goals this year is to be a better blogger. 2010 was filled with some....ummmmm...."challenges" and sometimes blogging just fell to the bottom of the priorities. But strangely enough blogging/writing is calming and therapeutic for me so I need to get here more often. Besides....nobody likes a stale bog.

Wait. Did I just compare blogging and writing as practically the same thing? Craaaap.

    42.  I was thinking about blogging.

I promise not to be gone so long.

As you can imagine

This has made it to the tippy-top of my Wish List. I've already started making a list for supplies.

MUST.HAVE.THIS.

Someone REALLY should have asked a woman....

My work location has recently changed. We upgraded to a huge, fancy new compound. Yes, compound. I chose that word on purpose. I mean, they don't make us drink Kool Aid or anything but it is heavily gated/guarded/watched 24/7/365.

One of the great things about our new digs is the fancy new control room where I work. It's very shiny and new and clean and wonderful. There are lots of buttons to push and graphic displays to ogle over and big screens to view the 27 different windows of data we have to look at.

But there are some weird things about it. Design flaws if you will.

Like the recent episode that took place when a light bulb needed to be changed.



Seriously, people. No INDOOR light bulb should EVER require a hydraulic hoist in order to be changed. If they would have just asked a woman for an opinion on the size/scale/design of this room she would have immediately asked the question, "It's nice and all, but who is going to change those light bulbs?"



We don't even do light bulbs that require a chair so I'm pretty sure this little detail would NOT have gone unnoticed during the design phase.

FAIL.