Daniel and I spend a lot of our time together doing family things that include the kids, which we thoroughly enjoy, but this past weekend we found ourselves in a very rare situation …… a weekend with no kids.  Honeymoon Weekend, as my neighbor calls it.

We don't get a chance very often for it to just be the two of us.  Evan entered the world only 16 months after we got married, so we didn't have too much time just being the two of us early on in our marriage.

I often wonder what it will be like when the kids are grown and we are empty-nesters ….. not that I am rushing the kids out the door, they can stay for as long as they want and we are enjoying every minute with them, but sometimes I wonder.

Well, after our Honeymoon Weekend, I am happy to report that Daniel and I still have plenty to talk about that does not involve the kids and we do have a lot of common things that we enjoy doing and Yes, we can spend an entire weekend together and totally enjoy each other's company.

It was so relaxing to have absolutely no plans and to just make it all up as we went.  We did dinner and a movie, spent an afternoon walking around the McKinney Trade Days, checked out a new pizza café, took the dog for a few walks around the neighborhood and spent way too many hours in our pajamas watching movies and eating ice cream out of the carton (shhhh, don't tell my kids that we took ice cream upstairs, they think it's a real treat that I even allow popcorn upstairs on special movie nights).

We also learned of some friends getting a divorce which led to many deep conversations about protecting our marriage (more on that topic coming to a blog soon)

Obviously we don't have anything to worry about and I know we'll have plenty of things to do and talk about even without the kids.  Although I must say the kids do add lots of adventure and entertainment to our life.

It was an absolute gorgeous day out today and the kids had both just spent the last week studying hard and taking a TAKS test so we decided that today we would take what we call a ‘Mental Health Day’, a day where, for absolutely no reason at all, I let the kids stay home from school.  We claim ‘Mental Health Day’ about twice a school year, and I’m sure it’s caused a few jaws to drop and some to question my parenting skills.
 
I remember a time when I was in high school and my week was going kinda rough (though, now looking back I don’t think it was as rough as I thought it was, but at that time it was stressing me out).  My mom knew that I was going through a tough week and she let me skip school one day and we just ‘hung out’.  I thought she was the coolest mom in the world (I still do).  I don't remember every mundane day at school, but I do remember that day.
 
When my kids started getting a little older I decided that as long as they were keeping good grades that they deserved an occasional ‘Mental Health Day’.  They both know that school and a good education are very important.  I talk to them all the time about how the work they put in now will determine whether they will end up with a career in flipping burgers or whether they will become the Fashion Designer and Architect that they dream of being.  They both have been keeping really good grades and Evan has been involved in UIL competitions since 3rd grade, competing in subjects like Math, Maps, and Listening Skill plus he’s added a few more competitions for this coming UIL meet.  He’s never received anything less than 1st place in every Math competition and never less than 3rd place in any other UIL subject competition he’s competed in.  Lynsy doesn’t care to compete but she keeps her grades up and is involved in school in other ways and is the biggest helper to all her teachers.  But I also want my children to experience life and to be well-rounded.  I know a few adults who are so educated in one particular field of study but yet they’ve spent so much time ‘away from life’ to study that field that they can’t carry on a decent conversation about anything else, they never seem at ease in social situations, basically they just don’t have very good ‘social’ or ‘life’ skills.
 
School time has been extended more and more each year just so the kids have more time to practice for the almighty TAKS test. Then we hear about days where the kids come home and say  'We watched <insert stupid movie here> instead of doing work today.  In fact, it was just last week, where Evan (in 7th grade) came home and told me that in one of his classes they watched Dragon Tales (show for kids under age 6) and listened to a Johnny Horton cd, then in the same day in another class they spent their time trying to find out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.  I told him that it was too bad it wasn’t ‘Take your cousin to school day’ because his almost 4 year old cousin, Paige, would have totally fit right into middle school that day. 
 
When kids graduate, will they look back and say, "I wish I would have had perfect attendance"? Or will they wish they had skipped school more and experienced something out of the routine more often.  What if your kid skips school to do something more interesting, something where they could actually learn a lesson, or experience something fun and memorable. 
 
So, today Lynsy took a little road trip out of town with her horse for his leg x-ray appointment then she spent the rest of the day riding him.  Me and Evan ‘chilled’ at home, played a few games, went on a bike ride and took the dog to her ‘puppy spa day’ appointment. 

Kids need some down time to take a break from school and their routine every now and then. Every week it's the same old thing and it's nice to mix it up a bit. They say variety is the spice of life. If that's true then missing school for a day is like a cinnamon stick in your cup of tea.

I was with some friends the other day and one particular lady in the group was just going on something terrible about her husband and how the marriage had gone from fun to pure mundane and how she didn't feel connected to her husband anymore (way to go lady, complaining about your husband is one sure fire way to help you feel connected to your husband and positive about your relationship).   
Of course, her venting her frustrations about her husband just led others to join in and they started chirping about their marriages and what their husbands did and didn't do that caused them frustration.  I sat there quietly which led to the ringleader's frustration who then made a sarcastic comment about my quietness. 

There were two reasons for my quietness: 

1. I don't really have any gripes about my marriage or husband.  Fourteen years into the marriage and it's more fun now than ever, nothing feels mundane between us and I honestly can't remember the last time we had an argument.  That doesn't mean that I don't get frustrated with Daniel at times and wonder why God thought it was necessary to put a man and woman together when we can be completely so different.  Let's face it, men are going to be men and they aren't always going to see things our way, but I know there are a number of times when I frustrate Daniel and he can't understand why I don't see things his way, so we call ourselves even and move on.  All the little frustrations are easy to overlook when I am spoiled by flowers all the time for no reason, and my favorite, little notes found here and there that are so sweet they bring tears to my eyes (and this is coming from someone who NEVER cries).  Not to mention that one night last week at 11pm I was having a hair crises and I told Daniel that I needed another box of color, he didn't complain once and changed out of his pj's and went out for a box of hair color.  He is a great example to me of unconditional love and putting the other person first.

2.  A statement I heard from a dear sweet elderly neighbor.  We were in the same situation where a woman was talking badly about her husband and my elderly neighbor, who always has the perfect thing to say for every situation, confronted this young woman and told her in such a dear voice 'Sweetie, only a stupid bird shits in her own nest'.   The young woman stopped in her tracks and said no more about her husband.  It took me a few minutes to fully understand her statement but it was a profound realization  
  Only a stupid bird shits in her own nest 

This is your nest that you built and you would be stupid to do something that would be of detriment to your nest.  If you feel something is not right with your nest, your only choice is to see what you can do to fix the nest.  It's amazing what happens when you take the initiative to make changes yourself and not wait for the nest to somehow miraculously fix itself.   I'm not saying that you can't talk to anyone about a problem you may have in your marriage.  We all have rough patches and need someone to talk to but this bad habit of just casual conversations about how husband didn't make any initiative toward doing anything for Valentine's or how husband doesn't spend much time with you, I don't think that running around complaining about your spouse is setting any kind of positive tone for your relationship.  Did you ever think that maybe instead of focusing on what the other is not doing right, maybe try focusing on what you can do right for the relationship.   Unfortunately, millions of marriages are in trouble today because of an inability of the sexes to get along. Perhaps the fundamental problem is one of selfishness. We're so intent on satisfying our own desires that we fail to recognize the longings of our partners. The institution of marriage works best when we think less about ourselves and more about the ones we love.

This past Friday night we decided that the four of us would go out for dinner and family time.  While we were in 'the big city' we stopped at 7-11 to fill up the truck and while there Daniel asked if we needed anything else for the weekend before heading back to the 'country'.  We decided that all we needed was some milk and we would not have to go back to the city the rest of the weekend.   So after filling up the truck Daniel ran into the 7-11 (the truck was parked at front and me and the kids could see inside real well) and got in line with his milk.  I guess the cashier was a little slow or else it was a busy night and before long a line started forming at the checkout.  All four people in line behind Daniel had a case of either Coors light or Bud light and then out walked Daniel with 2 jugs of milk.  It was pretty cute to see him coming out with the 'stash for the weekend'.  He carried them both with one hand, I guess maybe in an attempt to look macho.  He said he'll have to get a few more tattoos to 'roughen' up his image.

I’ve put off painting Lynsy’s room because she wanted the walls pink and I didn’t but I finally gave in and said okay. I went to Lowe’s and picked out the prettiest candy-cotton pink color they had. I told the associate at the store that I wanted the paint mixed in a satin finish and showed him the exact paint type. I paid for the paint and when I got out to the car I noticed that paint was mixed in a flat base instead of the satin base that I asked for.I took the cans back to customer service and explained the problem. It was even noted on the lid that the paint should have had a satin finish. The lady at customer service called the paint dept. and told the paint guy that she was sending me back to have my paint mixed again since he mixed it in the wrong finish. I went back and picked up the new cans of paint and took them to the customer service desk where I had left the ‘wrong’ cans of paint.

Of course it would be my luck that the customer service employee was on her first day of the job. She had to call someone else over to show her how to do this exchange. To make matters more confusing, the guy from the paint department decided to come over and give his expert advice on how to do the exchange. I was told that they were just going to do an exchange so I thought that is how the transaction would be handled. They scanned all the cans and handed me a receipt and I took the new paint and walked right past the checkout lanes and to my car.

Once I got home I looked at the receipt and was really confused! My original cans of paint were $11 a can for a total of $22 plus tax. I guess the ‘group’ handling the exchange at the customer service desk didn’t look well at my original receipt as they had instead of doing an exchange transaction they had refunded my $22 a can for a total refund of $44. I was refunded $44, and I walked out with 2 cans of paint at no charge. What a crazy deal! It was as if they were paying me to paint my daughter’s room. I still can’t figure out how they came up to that conclusion. I guess you’ll be seeing me on America’s Most Wanted soon as the “Pink Paint Bandit.”

Evan had to choose a different elective for each 6 week period at school and one of his choices was Career Investigation. From the sound of the class the students would be researching different career paths that they may be interested in pursuing in the future. The class did start out as expected. The first week the students were able to look through different magazines that depicted a large variety of careers. Then the class spiraled into Hobby Lobby clerk investigation.After that first week they spent an entire day listening to an audio tape on being a craft coordinator. At first though there are several things wrong with this approach. First of all, kids are not going to want to just sit there and listen to an audio tape unless it’s the latest top 40 songs. This lesson didn’t even have a slide show to go with it. Even when I was a kid our audio tapes had a little slide show that went along with the audio. Secondly, craft manager? Is that actually a job? It sounds as if you would be walking around Hobby Lobby making recommendations to customers. “Yes the 3 cord basket weave is better than the 2 cord weave.” Seriously! These are mostly 6th grade boys listening to this lesson. I doubt even the girls were that interested.

As the 6 weeks progressed, the class spiraled down to being a ‘Hobby Lobby’ class. The students did some sewing, more craft practicing, and eventually did get into a couple of career type situations such as adding up the prices of items ordered on a menu. Even that is slightly unrealistic, since waiters don’t have to add up items themselves. It’s all done electronically now. If you ask Evan what he learned during that period he’ll just say “I don’t know.” It was really a sad waste of time. Is it honestly that hard to think of careers that kids will actually be interested in doing? There you go Amercia ….. now you know how all your hard earned school tax dollars are being put to work. I’m afraid for the future of America!

We are all so used to our modern conveniences. Television, wireless phones, and Internet are just part of our daily life. So much so that we don’t even think about them until they are gone. Recently I had a day were I was thrown back into the 19th century. It really wasn’t that bad since we still had electricity and running water, but all means of communicating with the outside word were taken away.

To start things off our cable tv and Internet access come from the same company. The package is better than getting things individually. Since the Internet connection was so reliable, Daniel decided that we should have our phone service through the Internet as well.

This morning I woke up and the phone wasn’t working. I went upstairs and tried to send Daniel an email only to realize that the Internet connection was down as well. Since nothing seemed to be working, I decided to just watch some morning television. Guess what? All the channels on the tv were fuzzy.

I finally got up with Daniel (thankfully I still had a wireless phone) and he found out from calling the cable company, that someone had dug through the cable line when they were working nearby and they wouldn’t have the service up for a while.

When Daniel got home we decided to go to Home Depot and get some paint since there wasn’t much else to do. As soon as we walked into the store, they lost all power. Their lights and computers were all down. The power did finally come back on after a few minutes and we waited for them to get everything going again. It was raining so hard outside that we decided to browse the store in low-light mode while we waited.

We finally got home with the paint and started painting. Later we decided to order some pizza, since we were still in the middle of painting I didn’t feel like stopping to make dinner. The phone was still down so we used my cell. The only pizza place around that delivers said that they had lost power and couldn’t make pizza at the time. Just perfect! We ended up making some spaghetti. Later Daniel found some rabbit ears for the television, and we could actually pick up one channel. Of course there was nothing good to watch on.

I know you’re thinking that it wasn’t as bad a living like the Amish, but to me it felt like it. I can’t imagine how they live from day to day without all the stuff that we have. I guess you get used to it, but I really don’t feel like trying it out anymore.