58 years

Last night I had the pleasure of celebrating my Inlaws 58 years of marriage.  58 years!  In true Melang style, five people turned into ten, luckily we have the planners in our family so there was water, wine, cheese, fruit and crackers.  Thinking about them and knowing them for the over 25 years I've been married, I've noticed a few things:

Marriage is a give and take, just like raising a family.  You pick your battles, and your spouse realizes that when you do pick a battle it usually is something pretty important to you, so they take a second look at it.  And you do the same with the things that are important to them.

A long and happy marriage is a long chain of memories.  It was fun listening to the different memories, watching how they would look at each other for some of them, the important ones.  I was glad I had the pleasure of being there for some of them and see my own marriage as that - a long chain of memories that bind us together.

Marriage is a surrender of self to the both of you.  The longer you stay married the more you become one, that the joining ceremony is only that just a ceremony.  It takes a life time to learn how to live together, and heck, maybe we never fully learn it.

Marriage requires laughter, because like life once you lighten up and learn how to laugh things just get so much easier.  Like the battles, the laughter, sometimes at ones self teaches you that many things pass, the laughter and the memories are what we remember the most.

There is no regret in marriage, because everything that's happened along the lifetime happens for a reason.  A regret you may have is a memory built in someone else's life.

Marriage requires saying you are sorry, and meaning it.  It also requires forgiving, and letting it go.  Easy words to write but some of the hardest things to do.

I am lucky that not only do I get to celebrate 58 years with two very special people, but I feel part of a family that is built upon.  My better half and I have been practicing these traits the better part of 25 years and like his parents hopefully we've got many, many more.

That's One Way To Dry Off

How does some warm concrete feel after a dip in the pool?

Pretty good.

Wish these old bones could do that too.

Maybe a little WD-40 for them?

So sad

Why do you look so sad
Is it because you made me mad?
Waiting until it is time for bed,
Rolling in some poop instead.
What do you expect?
A sweet "atta girl" or some respect?
Why are you so surprised,
You 3 years should make you wise.
But like my children you are a lucky one.
I'll forgive you this little fun.

Please oh, please

Please oh, please let me get to them

There are not that far away.

Why do they not fly

Why do they stay?

Don't they see me, the ferocious dog

Hunter of the bird?

Don't they shake on their perches,

Why are they so absurd.

I'll sit here and bide my time,

relaxing as they play,

Knowing the minute that door opens,

Oh happy DAY!

They are MINE to stay!

If a Moose Came to Visit

Funny, we saw a Moose today on the ride up the mountain.

If a moose came to visit, 

Would anyone believe me?

Would they think I just made it up?

Of that he was actually out there to ski?

If a moose came to visit, 

I'd let him in through the door

I'd let him in my room,

Especially if he didn't snore.

Did you know he likes bagels, 

Especially when soft and warm,

He'll even add a little red pepper jelly,

Because he thinks that's the norm.

The problem is how he'll fit in my home,

His antlers are too tall,

He'll take out the furniture, be careful,

the lamps, the shades, he'd take it all.

How could I feed this animal, this burley beast,

Should I feel him my lunch from school,

Perhaps a Lean Cuisine, 

Naw, he wouldn't think it was cool.

If a Moose came to visit, it'd be so fun.

we'd eat fun stuff, he go on the run.

But i'd have to let him go, to let him free.

Because a Moose in my home is not the best place to be.

Neffland

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month?  So every day you'll get my sick, twister, mind in rhyming style.  Aren't you excited?

If I could travel out of my mind,
I'd go to a place where snow I could find
I'd jump over a mogul in the air,
Skittle down a run without a care.
And at the very bottom is what I hope.
Exists a terrain park, not a slope
there is such a place if you can plan.
A funny little place called Neff land.
Full of snow, tricks, boxes and rails,
Watching each kid as they sail.
Me?  I watch and swish down the side,
Knowing that it's only my kids that will ride.
As I exit I wonder, was that really a place?
Or something simply in my grey space?

Weary....

What a great day on the mountain.

This is our morning run - ahead is an historic abandoned silver mine.

With the lift next to us that takes us to the summit.

Snow was great, lots of fresh trax for the morning.

It was hard work, but so much fun

Finally on the long runs back to the middle of town and our condo.

So excited we get to do it again.

Evil little things

I've stepped on them.
Washed and dried them
Found them in places you'll never imagine.
But both boys still build with them,
So I can't let go of them just yet.

The box

A poem I composed this morning when I saw this box created by my son:

One day, cleaning out my soul.

Nestled under my ego,

I found a pretty little box.

I held it in my hands

Wondering

What in here?

I don't remember this?

Where did it come from?

I opened it slowly, listening to the creak,

Surprised.

What beautiful treasures,

Pieces of my life.

Things that I couldn't let go of,

Memories now crystal clear.

I realized that these were pieces

I couldn't let go

So I tuck them away

In this box, protected.

Until I was ready.

Putting the box under my arm,

I left the cleaning 

For another day.

Ready to explore and share

My treasures.

The things you do for friends.....

I'm lucky that my friend does my hair,

Because I wouldn't sit still this long for anyone else.

Let's have some fun and make it straight.

Here's the dorkerama view 

And the finished result.

She's lucky I love her

Because that is the only time my hair is ever done and straight.

You probably can't see that it's straight, but it really is.

Funny, the kids didn't notice the difference.

Nailed It

Why doesn't anything go the way you picture it in your mind?  I had the great idea of having a few kids over for a Valentine's Day Cookie decorating party.  OK, so maybe I did see the idea on Pinterest, but I made it my own and I think we nailed it!

The boys came in the house and immediately broke one of my kitchen chairs wrestling.  I made the heart shaped cookies while they beat eat other up. 

Pinterest Pin

NAILED IT!

Then came the part where I hand make the different flavored icing, and they sit quietly and decorate the cookies.  The boys ran off with cookies UNDECORATED to go throw spring onions at each other, the girls sat and waited. 

Pinterest Picture

Oh man, did we NAIL IT!

I planned 2 hours of fun cookie decorating according to the Pinterest pin, the kids were done in 10 minutes then proceeded to wreck the house and they worked through their sugar high.

My son even bypassed the cookies and squirted the icing directly in his mouth.

But I wanted something healthy for the kids so I tried the Pin - Cheesy Cauliflower Bread.

Here's the pin.

And I SO NAILED IT!

Honestly, the kids liked and ate the breadsticks because I left out the part about there being cauliflower in them.

Now onto my next St. Patricks Day party.  Oh we are so going to NAIL IT!

At least there's beer involved at each of the parties, makes them much easier!

Can't get sick of it

Another snow picture.

Are you sick of it yet?

Because I'm not at all.

I can spend every day on the snow.

Is it because it is fun to ski?

Or the hanging with our friends on the slops?

Or the apres ski?

I won't tell you which one I like more,

Because most already know.

I'm just going to enjoy.

A Southern Staple, something for the taste buds and not the thighs.

I didn't like Pimento Cheese before because every time I ordered it,

It simply looked like orange baby food.

Then I had REAL pimento cheese.

Made with perfect by a dear friend.

And I slathered it on celery sticks,

Went all out and put it on Ritz crackers.

Even made a grilled pimento cheese sandwich.

I may be from the North, but I can't pass on all this goodness.

Especially when I get out and run my six miles to counter act the calories!

Squirrel Cage!

We're traveling to Maryland for a ski vacation to Wisp Four Season Resort.

Here's the view from the top of my favorite run of the day - Squirrel Cage.

The steep part of is caused a few sphincter dilations but it was fast and fun.

I spent the rest of the day laughing at another skier.

He came out at the top of Main Street, wrecked at the top of the hill.

Picked his hat up and put it in his mouth then turned,

and did what we call the Bullet

Straight down the hill, no turns, no stopping.

Even when he hit the bottom, skidded past the lift, under the netting

and into the street - stopping a car.

Amazing, the guy crawled back up to the lift,

Got on and went to do it AGAIN.

We never saw him the rest of that day - hope he's OK.

Snow Day

A snowy day in Winston Salem, North Carolina.

Supermarkets were mobbed, bread disappearing, fights over milk.

While I snuck away with a bottle of wine and some toilet paper.

Here we freak out at the possibility of the threat of maybe some snow.

People fighting to get home AHEAD of the storm.

Children turning pajamas inside out hoping for this beautiful

SNOW DAY!

How do they spend their time?

Arguing with each other

Wrestling

Until someone finally gets hurt, and it's usually by me.

All the sweet little girls sit and watch princess movies with hot cocoa and popcorn.

I'm down to picking up dog poop, then screaming like a witch

because I've heard STOP for 1 millionth time.

And now you know why I was fighting the crowd at the supermarket for that bottle of wine.

Le Tour de Laundry

I don't know what I hate more - washing clothes, folding clothes, or putting clothes away.

So my laundry does the Tour de Laundry in different stages around the house.

The First stage - it sits in the washer over night - and doesn't smell like feet.

The Second stage - it moves to the dryer then sits over night or for a few days - my trick, run the dryer with a wet washcloth and the wrinkles are gone.

Stage Three -  folded sitting in the laundry basket, usually in the kitchen for everyone to trip over.

The mountain stage -  pulling the basket upstairs then sitting on the landing.

Stage Five - the guest bedroom, sorted according to person.

Then it stays there until it is dirty again, or like this morning...

My husband comes walking through the house in a towel.....

I yell, "Toga!  Toga!"

He asks,"What stage are we on?  I'm out of underwear."

Do you have the same fun with your laundry?  How long do your stages last?

PS.  for those looking close and asking - yes, it is a Christmas tree in the guest room.  Yes it is January, but we're talking about the stages of laundry, not the stages of Christmas decorations.