time is flying by

so we waited, and waited. you start to think she's not coming. did she get on the plane? did her bags get on the plane? perhaps she was confused and went the wrong way and ended up on a plane to khazakstan instead?

and then there she was...

and it looks like i've dived on her and am strangling her i think. but it felt so good to get that hug after all this time.

now the first week is almost over and it's been hectic. of course i'm at work and so is her dad and the rest of the family too. we are trying to fit in snatches of conversations here and there in between her seeing her many friends and our being on the go. it's a challenge. i know when she goes back i'm going to think of everything that i wanted to talk about.

Leaving (coming home) on a jet-plane

tonight we are going to the airport to pick up jenn, our youngest.

she has been living in england for the last nine months. i haven't seen her since i went to england in july and i stayed for three weeks, but the rest of the family haven't seen her at all.

i hope that her flights go okay.

she should have taken the first one by now.

there are three flights altogether but between two of them she has to change terminals and pick up her luggage and has only about one hour to do it, if the planes are on time.

so it's a bit nervewracking. let's hope it all goes smoothly.

i look at this photo of her and i can't believe how beautiful she is.

she was beautiful before she left but i think she has grown in many ways.

it will be interesting to see how she has changed.

it will be nice to take our relationship to a new level.

we have emailed daily, chatted on the phone regularly and the family have kept up with her news on facebook but most of the time it felt like we had only little soundbites of her life so i will probably give her the third degree when i see her in person.

it'll be hard to hold back but i'll try.

don't want to sicken her straight off.

i know she has lots of people to see, especially all of her friends who she is mad about, her brothers and her sisters in law, and she is dying to see her nephews and niece.

she has missed them all so much.

she's only home for two weeks.

i don't know what it will be like to say goodbye when she goes back.

up to now it's felt like she was on an adventure and i was part of it but i can see she is making a life for herself 'over the pond' and that's a whole new concept.

but we'll see what happens..............

Blog, blogger, blogging.

i'm experimenting.
this is my new template for the time being.
do you think it's sexy?

not sure whether i need to change the colour of the font, and/or make it bigger...?

i've been reading other people's blogs (hence the urge to change my template) and some of them are amazing.
some of them are warm and funny, some are heartrending.
there are those who have gone through sadness and loss but still find the time to blog.
maybe they blog as therapy, and, unknowingly, they inspire others.

the great thing about blogs is being able to have a glimpse into other people's lives, lives that you would otherwise never have known about.*
it makes the world feel a lot smaller and you get to see life in different countries.
i find it fascinating.
and some of the funniest, or saddest, or most inspirational things i have read have been on other people's blogs.

one of the nice ones is 'dave's window' the link appears on the right, under places i like to visit and one of the saddest but most lovely and inspirational is:

http://leslieandaaron.blogspot.com/

i hope you might get as much out of reading them as i do.

*p.s. i cannot make my mind up, should that sentence read..

"lives that you would otherwise never have known about."

or

"lives that you would otherwise have never known about."

or

are they both wrong?

or even,

both right?

maybe somebody out there is one of those grammar freaks who can put me right,

or wrong as the case may be.

clippy mat was awol

it's been a while.

i realize to be a 'blogger' means you have to blog a minimum of at least a few times a week.

i meant to do that but have kept putting it off for some reason.

however, many people (well, one) have noticed my absence and suggested that i get back to business.

not sure what's been keeping me so busy really.

i'm off work for a week because it's march break so i should have lots of spare time but it's already slipping away so quickly and the week is half done.

the other night i had to go to the store and decided to pay a visit to the "evil empire".

(someone else on another blog gave the big american conglomerate that name. or at least that's where i read it, so i can't say that i made it up but i do admit to pinching it.)

anyway, i've been looking for a particular item for a few weeks now, to no avail, so i thought i'd give the E.E. a shot which caused me to feel guilty because i have managed nicely to avoid the place for quite a while.

i tried to get in and out quickly so i could pretend i was never there (!), but halfway round the store i overheard a 'conversation' from one aisle over.

as so often happens there a mother was berating her child for not sitting in the cart or something equally heinous.

'SIT!' she snarled very loudly.

'no' the child whined in response.

'do you want to take a nap?' she threatened in a menacing voice.

'NO!' the child fearfully replied.

i looked at my watch. it was 6.45!

P.M.!

a nap? at 6.45 p.m.? what time is bedtime for goodness sake?

and if a nap is such a feared punishment what can bedtime be?

sheer torture by the sounds of it.

another thing. the other day i was driving one of my grandchildren home from daycare.

we stopped at the mall to have a walkabout and something to eat. (there's nothing finer than a child who eats a grilled cheese sandwich like it's manna from heaven and nods his head and says 'good' when you ask if he likes it.)

anyhoo, we left the mall and as i approached my vehicle, which is a big truck with four doors, i could see that there's a little white car parked very close to me and its wing mirror is sitting right underneath my wing mirror.

which means i cannot open my driver's side door.

i'm holding my grandson, he's 28lbs, it's freezing cold, it's getting dark and it's starting to snow.

we go around to the other side of the truck and i open the front and back doors and struggle to get him in his car seat which is on the opposite side of the vehicle, behind the driver's seat.

i climb in and i cannot describe the degree of difficulty involved in this.

hold a 28 pound child and try to climb up into a truck without benefit of running boards for leverage.

the normal procedure would be for me to open both doors and put him in his seat in the back while i stand outside. very easy.

i have to strap him in and because i'm in beside him and there's no room to move and he's struggling and getting fed up it's an exercise in patience and fortitude; his and mine.

i climb down. unable to turn around i have to back out slowly and do a dismount landing on two feet,(please god no-one was watching) then i have to climb back up to get into the passenger side first in order to climb over into the driver's seat.

there's a centre console with gear stick to maneuver over and the whole thing required so much dexterity on my part, of which, for the record, i possess none, that i think it should become an event at the next olympics.

i finally get into the driver's seat where i sit heaving and gasping while trying to unfurl my limbs and catch my breath.

i look down with sheer hatred and venom at the little white car parked beneath me.

i picture the owner of the little white car walking around the mall blissfully unaware of the carnage she has caused.

i've already decided she is a little old lady.

she's the one that walks up and down the aisles of the grocery store leaving her cart in the middle for you to sidestep.

the one that walks very slowly, moving from side to side as you try to overtake her, first on the left, and then on the right.

okay, i know, it's me in a few more years.

allow me time to adjust!

The Devil Made Me Do It!

My name is Clippy Mat, and I'm a teleholic.

Is there a 12 step program?

Giving up telly means i am spending much more time on the computer.

giving up smoking over 10 years ago meant i just ate more to fill the void.

giving up sucking my thumb (okay i WAS 12!!)

was replaced with smoking. (which did much more for my street cred)

see where i'm going here?

i'm an addict.

i don't actually give things up. i just replace them.

it's not how it's supposed to be.

monday night at 10 i HAD to watch damages. a new series with glenn close playing an uber-bitch lawyer. a part she was made for.

ooh she made my flesh tingle she was so nasty.

(and speaking of nasty, ted danson was doing the nasty. in a car, with a prostitute and they were doing drugs.)

tch tch

what would woody say?

i didn't watch any other tv that night but i knew that it was coming on and it was like an itch that needed scratching.

it was worth it.

last night i was here on the computer and american idol was on.

i tried to ignore it but m.o.h. was watching it.

i happened to take off my headset and lo and behold, simon was being rude to someone.

so i turned around and peeked.

an hour later it was all over and there was i, lying on the couch, dishevelled and spent and not liking myself.

went to bed and flipped on at 10 because i knew extras was on.

just going to have a little look that's all.

laughed out loud several times and fell in love with ricky gervais for the hundredth time.

a funny man is a sexy man, non?

i've been thinking...
what if i just give up 'bad television'?

that's stuff which is truly mindless (no, no, no, not american idol and the donald!!) shows, (and i use the term 'shows' loosely), which only require me to loll in front of the box with a glazed expression on my face, mouth slightly ajar, and the inability to press the 'off' button on the remote. like 'america's next supermodel' or 'big brother' or whatever.

i don't watch those anyway.

i'm much better than that.

i need help.

and the oscar goes to........

I confess.

i watched the Oscars on tv last night. four hours of it. that was my punishment. it was awful! boring! i kept on watching thinking something was going to happen. it never did. it just went on, and on, and i wanted to go to sleep. but i had to know who was going to get the upcoming oscar for best costumes in an animated musical foreign language documentary with sound effects didn't i?

i'm glad that the couple from 'once' got an oscar for their music from their movie. that was nice.

otherwise... serves me right i suppose.

now i will have to climb back on the wagon after backsliding. (I also watched american idol this week). and er, oh yeah, celebrity apprentice.

but that's it. i'm done now. back to the books. no more tv. promise.

i will put down the remote and back away from the television. ;-)

D.I.Y. and Y I Detest it.

when we bought this house almost 3 years ago, we (and when i say "we" i mean m.o.h.) had just finished all of the renovations on our former home. we (i.e. he) weren't looking for a challenge as such but we were very naive. we looked around here at the 80's decor and said to ourselves; "oh yes, main floor-new doors, trim, window frames, pull up the carpets, refinish the hardwood underneath, paint and decorate. downstairs redo the family room, update the bathroom and make that other room into a hang out room for our youngest........... shouldn't take long, or much money..."

fast forward to today.
the money that we set aside for the projects was used up within the first few months.the things that we/he did re-do 3 years ago are ready to be re-done. we already need a new coat of paint upstairs.

downstairs is a nightmare.
m.o.h. works hard. he drives miles every day to get to work and he works 3 different shifts. but when he's not at work, he's hard at work here. yesterday he spent hours laying a laminate floor in the basement family room. and it's only 1/2 done. it should have been done much quicker but the floor underneath isn't straight/flat to start with i guess and the planks are not 'clicking' together the way they should.

it's past the point of no return he says and he will just soldier on with it. i, on the other hand, would have ripped it up and snapped one over my knee out of frustration before chucking it all back in the truck and taking it back to the store.
but it is my fault really, because he wanted carpet and i said, 'no, laminate will be much easier to look after'......

talk about blood sweat and tears. it's just one thing after another.
when this house is finally done..... when? i should say, 'if'', then it will be nice that we can start to have a life again.
there's only the upstairs bathroom to do, the downstairs laundry room and that 'hang out room' left to finish.

we should have run a mile when we looked at this place.