Ethan’s Journey

 How is it the last day of March already? Today my schedule was insane. I finally just shut my computer and walked away. Boundaries.I may have had a whiteclaw or two as well. Avery had a friend over and they made dinner for us all. My little cook. We had cabbage wrapped chicken mixed with carrots, onions, hoisin sauce and a few other ingredients. Yum. She also mad scalloped potatoes. I am hoping to go through some of my dresser drawers tomorrow and weed through the crap! We will see. Avery is trying to organize a blanket drive for a local shelter with her Eco club at school. I will want to week through our available blankets too. Towels will be good to round up as well. I do have errands to run in the morning. I am hoping to rest well so I can tackle my day.

 I had to set some boundaries today with work. I have had trouble doing this in the past, but it came easily today. I have been practicing doing this when needed to preserve my bandwidth. I am not required to set myself on fire to keep others warm. I won’t do it. Boundary setting felt good.  Avery got the pants for Senior Ball outfit. Her whole ensemble tops last year which I didn’t think was possible. I can’t wait to see her pull it all together in May. Tonight I cracked myself up hard. I was laughing and crying at the same time. I am good at cracking myself up…usually I am the only one laughing though. I can’t share what it was out of embarrassment for my lack of awareness.  Paul was not proud for me to be his wife in that moment. The tone of disgust in his voice as he half ridiculed me and half shamed me was spilling out of each and every pore he has. Avery shrieked “MOM!”. My reenactment of my statement (with somewhat of an interpretive dance) didn’t win my family over either. As t

 Today was productive. I met a friend for dinner and we chatted for hours. We had margaritas. I ordered a flight of margaritas and was a little bit disappointed in their quality. Ho hum. My friend’s company counter balanced that.  While at dinner, I went to use the bathroom. I don’t have a great track record with public restrooms. I don’t know why they are called “restrooms” as I don’t want to rest in there. I want to get in and get out as soon as possible. I walked in and there were two stalls. The first stall was a handicapped stall with a big sign on it that said “out of order!” With an exclamation point to emphasize how “out of order” it was. Oh my god! What happened in there to emphasize how much it is NOT working? I likely don’t want to know. Ew! Toilet number two was all plugged up with urine soaked toilet paper. I called my friend into the bathroom stating I “needed help” in the bathroom. I am sure that was weird for her. I panicked and asked her for help.  She understood my pr

Another tragic school shooting. I hate that! Innocent lives lost. I can’t imagine what the parents are going through. Tragedy strikes so soon after our own community has had attacks against it. I went to a school board meeting tonight. I am not really the parent that attends those. Avery got there before me as I was having dinner with a friend. The topic of discussion was the book “This Book is Gay”.  There have been a few boisterous community members pushing this book to get banned from the High School Library. The interesting part of this drama is that some of the parents involved in the negative feelings surrounding this book don’t have any of their own children that attend the school district. It’s a free country and everyone has opinions. I am amazed at the amount of extra time these people have. There were a few points during last night’s meeting when the board members had to take a break because the crowd was getting rowdy. Not all the  adults were exactly leading by example. On

Poor Paul. He came home a little late today. I made a wonderful dinner of buttery curry chicken, fresh brussel sprouts with a vinaigrette glaze and twice baked potatoes. I had a little bit of extra time today. I was able to go through the drawers and cabinet in our down stairs bathroom and organize it in a functional way. His dinner was a bit cold because he was late, but he doesn’t care much. I was miffed because I was on hold and fighting with Expedia. I booked a flight, cancelled it and fought to get it reimbursed. No bueno! I had to be issued “credits” with rules that state use it or lose it. I tried to book a flight today and couldn’t redeem the “credits”.  I had to do either an online chat or call. My introverted self chose the online chat so I wouldn’t have to talk to a stranger. Nope…that didn’t work.  I felt like I was on hold with a government agency. This terrible music was playing as I was holding. Paul walked in the room and made a comment about the hideous music. I told h

 Today was very productive. I got caught up with things around the house, made Stromboli for dinner and was able to do a little work On my computer. I am thankful I can work on my schedule with my terms. It frees up part of my day tomorrow and I have plans for it. It is spring cleaning. I am going to try and weed out some things. We have too much crap around the house. I have been very surprised and a bit shocked that Ethan has joined us several times in the living room after dinners over the past week or so. He doesn’t interact to much with us, but that’s ok. The fact we are seeing his face in the living room is a win/win for us. Off to bed. I am quite tired.

Avery and I spent some time with my mom today. She taught Avery how to make Reuben pizza. It was delicious.We also spent the day hanging out and relaxing. It was fun. We watched a variety of tv shows. I had to step out for a massage at one point.  My massage went well. It was a bit painful but that is because my muscles are so tense. I took a muscle relaxer afterward and some Tylenol and that helped keep things even for me. Paul and I spent the evening home and had some friends over. It was fun sitting around chatting. The dogs were being goofy. Phineas has stopped with the diarrhea but is still whining. This is his normal, post anesthesia protocol. However, anesthesia isn’t supposed to be in your system this long so he might be milking it a little. At 13 1/2 years old, I will accept it. He has been a good dog to our family and has kept us all safe. He has kept us safe on the boat that we anchored, that he has perceived on multiple occasions that we were drifting off to sure death…..he