Sonic!

One thing we learned to love during our year in Arkansas was Sonic Drive-In. The food is fine fast food, but Burger and I formed a serious relationship with the drinks at Sonic. And the ice. Sonic has these little tiny ice cubes that are PERFECT for crunching. (Burger says they're more like tiny cylinders than cubes, and she's right.) Yesterday, Bend's first Sonic opened, and of course we had to head up there to get our fix. I had my much-missed diet cherry limeade, Burger had a vanilla root beer, and Zippy got a cherry slush (while the slushies don't use the ice cylinders, they rock too. Burger loves the Blue Coconut one). Mr. LT had a boring ol' diet coke, but even that comes with good ice. YAY for Sonic! I'm so easily excited.

How I Met My Husband

Jumping on the bandwagon, following Jen and Shannon's leads...

1. Where/how did you meet?

I'd gone to Hawaii to visit a friend living there who was moving back home. She'd known Mr. LT for a while when she'd lived in Honolulu (she'd subsequently moved to Maui). The day I flew into Hawaii, Mr. LT happened to call her, because the Coast Guard boat he was stationed on was doing exercises off the coast of Maui, he had the night off, and he thought she might want to come hang out with him and his friends in Lahaina. She told him I was coming to town, and that we'd see them at Moose McGuillicuddy's later that night. So I met him the first night I was in Hawaii.

2. How long have you known each other?

Fifteen years, 7 months, 16 days.

3. How long after you met did you start dating?

Pretty much immediately.

4. How long did you date before you were engaged?

3 months. Kind of. By this time, we'd already started making wedding plans for a January, 1993 wedding, but the rest of the world thought we were crazy, and we had decided to postpone the January wedding and wait a while. But then, well, honestly, I got knocked up with Burger, and we hated being apart, and it just seemed right to get married after all. So we'll say three months.

5. How long was your engagement?

6 weeks.

6. How long have you been married?

15 years, 2 months, and something like 24 days.

7. What is your anniversary?

November 21, 1992

8. How many people came to your wedding reception?

About 40.

9. What kind of cake did you serve?

White cake with cream cheese and raspberry filling.

10. Where was your wedding?

We were married in the house where I grew up.

11. What did you serve for the meal?

We had all sorts of finger foods - a cocktail reception. I just remember fabulous beef tenderlion slices and stuffed endives. The rest is a blur, although I know my mom and I spent a considerable amount of time and energy figuring out what we wanted the caterer to do.

12. How many people were in your bridal party?

None, formally. My friends Bernadette, Lisa, and Erin were there and I felt like they were my bridal party.

13. Are you still friends with them all?

Bernadette and Lisa are still amazingly precious to me. Erin I talk to once or twice a year, but we're not close. I do thank her for introducing me to Mr. LT (she was the friend in Hawaii).

14. Did your spouse cry during the ceremony?

Mr. LT does not cry. There might have been a small tear at the corner of his eye, but I am sure he would say there'd been something caught in his eye.

15. Most special moment of your wedding day?

Just walking to where Mr. LT was standing waiting for me. My mom walked me down the "aisle", and I just remember it all feeling magical.

16. Any funny moments?

um.... I forgot about shoes and Berna and I lied to a guy in a shoe store (I think this was actually the day before the wedding, but it's fuzzy) and told him that my dog ate my shoes (which was actually entirely possible, because my dog at the time, as wonderful as she was, ate way too much of my stuff) and he took pity on me and had a pair dyed super quickly. Also, when Berna and I went to get my wedding cake, they'd put these crazy column pedestals between the levels when I'd specifically wanted the tiers resting on one another. They'd also "touched up" the ivory basket weave frosting with white frosting for some unknown reason. I freaked out and made them fix it. I guess those aren't really funny, but that's all I've got.

17. Any big disasters?

Big? No. We were supposed to use my parents' wedding rings for our rings, but one of the rings couldn't be found, so Mr. LT ended up spending our wedding day (or was it the day before? Sigh) searching for rings. Good thing we had an evening ceremony.

18. Where did you go on your honeymoon?

We drove from coast to coast - I'm from the east coast, we moved to the west coast (Alameda, California). We never had a "real" honeymoon.

19. How long were you gone?

Once we left, we stayed gone.

20. If you were to do your wedding over, what would you change?

The saddest thing about my wedding day is that Mr. LT didn't have anyone there for him - his parents and friends couldn't make it east. If I could do it again, I'd have found a way to get them there for the wedding. We did have a second reception at his parents' house in California once we made it west, but it would have been better had he had someone at the actual wedding itself.

21. What side of the bed do you sleep on?

The right side. But we do switch off every couple years.

22. What size is your bed?

King size. We're both big spread-out sleepers and would kill one another in anything smaller.

23. Greatest strength as a couple?

We are in this together, and forever. We both want to be here.

24. Greatest challenge as a couple?

Jen says that she and Mr. liw(asai) are the most stubborn people, but we might have them beat. We're both stubborn, pig-headed, and quick to anger. Sigh.

25. Who literally pays the bills?

I do.

26. What is your song?

"Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton

27. What did you dance your first dance to?

"Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton

28. Describe your wedding dress.

Ivory. Long sleeves. Cocktail length.

29. What kind of flowers did you have at your wedding?

I have no idea. I know there were roses. I forgot about flowers (hey, I had six weeks to plan this thing. I know I forgot stuff.), so my mom ended up going out on our wedding day to Behnke's Nursery and getting a couple lovely arrangements and a gorgeous bouquet. I love Behnke's and wish they were nation-wide.

30. Are your wedding bands engraved?

No.

Thanksgiving

This was our first Thanksgiving ever without extended family around. It was weird that we didn't have anyone else's time table to adjust to - we just did what we wanted when we wanted. We missed all of the family, but had a nice day nonetheless.

I spent the day cooking - prep work on the turkey at 8, had it in the oven by 9. Zippy spent her day watching and helping me cook - she loves to be in the kitchen, and had a lot of fun helping me measure, pour, and stir the various side dishes we made. She's a whiz kid in the kitchen, and it amazes me how much she really does help.

We made our traditional side dishes -- hominy casserole, dressing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and sweet potatoes. I'd made a chocolate pecan pie the night before, and should have made the pumpkin pie at the same time, but didn't, and then the oven was full and busy all day yesterday, and at the wrong temperature for baking a pie... The crust was ready, but by the time I could have put it together, Zippy had eaten a fair amount of the crust I'd pre-baked. So no pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving this year - I'll make one soon, though.

After dinner, Burger kindly kept Zippy at home and Mr. LT and I went to a friend's house to mingle for a few hours.

All in all, we had quite a satisfactory Thanksgiving, and were most thankful for getting to spend the day together. I hope all of you also had a wonderful holiday.

Happy 15th

Mr. LT and I have been married for 15 years today. There's so much I could say, but really, I just smile thinking about these past 15 years, and really don't feel the need to elaborate. Thanks for growing up with me, honey; I'm looking forward to continuing the journey and growing old with you.

Infinity squared. Always.

Now comes the packing

The sale of our house here in SoCal has closed, been recorded, and is done. We're now living in someone else's house until we can move our things. The moving truck will be here on Friday, and we'll spend our weekend stuffing it full of our memories (and some other, more practical things). We've been about 60% packed since mid-August (constantly heard around here, "that's in a box") but there's still a lot of work to be done. We should be extremely proficient at packing by now (we're pretty darn good), seeing as how we've spent the past few years moving from state to state. I'm hoping that we'll be able to get everything in the truck this weekend and can get on the road on Monday morning.

If we can be out of here Monday morning, we'll be in Bend late Monday - it's only a 13 hour drive, but we'll have the four of us and four dogs (two puppies - we're bringing an additional puppy as a gift to our realtor in Oregon, as she's amazing) which means that we'll have to stop on a regular basis to let the dogs out of the car. Not to mention Zippy.

Burger alternates between being excited about moving and complaining that we're ruining her life. I think both of her reactions are reasonable points of view for a 14 year old. I hope the kids at her new school will be welcoming, because it's so hard to come in to a new school part way through the year. 14 sucks as an age, and I feel for her.

We're moving

Quick update: We sold our house, to close late next month (August). We had our offer on a new house accepted. We'll close on that a few days after the other. We're moving. OMG. Again.

Suckage. Mine, that is.

Last night, after dropping Burger off at gymnastics practice, Zippy and I made a grocery store run because we had ZERO food in the house. Condiments galore, but nothing to actually eat (well, you could fill up on olives, but oddly, the rest of the family won't. I would if it meant I could avoid shopping for another day). No meat. No veggies (I lie. There were jalepeno, habenero, and solano peppers. Hubby makes salsa, and it rocks, but salsa, alas, is also not something the family is willing to eat for dinner. They're so selfish.)

The hardest part of grocery shopping with the Zipster is getting her into the little seat in the shopping cart. She does not like it, and wants to be sure that I understand this. Her preferred method of letting me know this is to make her body go limp like a dead fish, which makes her extremely hard to pick up, much less contort her body into the little seat. This wasn't a problem for her until recently, and I'm peeved that I have to deal with it.

The problem is that Grandma is nice. Grandma rocks. Grandma could walk on water. Really. Because Grandma lets Zippy push the cart. Grandma does not make Zip suffer the indignity of riding in the cart like a baby. Oh no, Grandma is great. Mommy sucks.

The good news is that I'm still bigger than Zip, and that she actually listened when I told her that Grandmas and Mommies have different rules. We'll see how long that lasts.

No more shopping with Grandma. At least not until the next time the Zipster is driving me up a wall. ;)

School is out

Burger is THRILLED that the school year is over. She's been having the busy social life that any 14 year old would envy - going to the beach, to friends' houses, having sleepovers... We should all have such activities on our plates!

Zippy, on the other hand, is BUMMED that school is over - while she didn't go to a regular school, she did have speech therapy three times a week (for an hour and forty-five minutes a shot) during the school year, and she LURVED it with all of her little heart. She misses Miss JoAnn (who she called "Miss Jo-Man" oh-so-endearingly), Mr. Brian (Miss Jo-Man's assistant) and all of the other kids in her class. She asks DAILY if today is the day she goes back to school. She's just so sad.

To brighten Zippy's days, we've been trying to go on excursions and do more with her - more trips to the park and the beach, more bike rides, more more more. And it's so much fun.

The Zipster's speech, btw, is coming along nicely. She keeps us in stitches, and has a wicked sense of humor. Her biggest fault is that she repeats whatever it is she wants until it's done - she doesn't wait well. Yesterday, I was trying to fix something, all the while with her in the background repeating "I NEED JELLY BEANS, MOM" in her loud little voice. It's hard to whine about this habit of hers, though, as a year ago we were thrilled when she occasionally strung three words together.

I love my little Zippy (and my big Burger too).

Home for the Week

This week I'm working from home, and it's a nice change. I really love the company I'm working with right now, I just wish they weren't clear on the other side of the country. Burger, Zippy, and hubby seem happy to have me at home, and it's so good to just get to be here.
My parents are in town this week, and they don't know that I'll be here, so it should be a fun surprise for them to get to see me unexpectedly - my mother's birthday is this week, and I really wanted to be here to see her, and I'm so pleased I was able to make it work.

Being Away

For the second week in a row, I am away from my family and in New York City. I love New York, I really do. But more than I love NYC, I love my family. The phone is not enough for me. And I have two more weeks of travel coming - the entire month of June. I have a pretty sweet deal by many standards - I fly east on the red-eye Sunday nights, and home Fridays on the 6:45 am flight, which gets me home by 10 am. But three days at home isn't enough. Zippy's been sick this week, and that makes things even harder. I feel badly that I'm not there for her, for Burger, for hubby. I feel badly because I'm alone in a small hotel room and have no desire to do anything but go home. I also got sick, and the only thing worse than being away is being sick and being away. So there's my pity party. Poor me. I see you making tiny violins with your fingers, and I don't much appreciate it.