It's the 9's

I'm possibly thinking years that end in 9 are not good for me. My parents separated and later divorced in 1980 - I know not a "9" year, however I know there were problems long before that and I can remember even as a young child around five years old asking if my parents would ever divorce. While the bulk of the nastiness was hidden from me the tension was still there. 1989 - well honestly I can't come up with any earth shattering things bad. I didn't get a spot on the homecoming court, I didn't make the cheer leading squad. All things heart breaking at the time but in the big scheme of things not a big deal. 1999 - This qualified as bad year, as 1998 closed we were in the middle of buying our first house, a real "fixer-upper" if there ever was one. One of the reasons we bought this particular house is that my mother was a real go getter and convinced us she would come on the weekends, a couple of hour drive, often and help us with paint projects and the like. Sounds like a good start to the new year right? New house, with potential and help from mom. Well didn't work out so wonderfully. Just as we were in the middle of stripping UGLY wallpaper from the first room my mother had an aneurysm rupture in her brain and spent Presidents day thru Memorial Day in the hospital. After that she needed re-hab and could not live alone so she lived with us while attending rehab for a few months. It was a long six months juggling house rehab, work, mother in and out of ICU, recovering from brain injury two hours away and being an only child. Through God's grace she recovered, however she has never gotten her gusto back and the personality change has been difficult for everyone to adjust to in the last decade. Needless to say she never painted the first wall in the house that she talked us into buying. 2009 - well you've been here reading the ins and outs. Loss of a job, move from a loved house and town to a non lovable house and town. I can only hope things change in 2010.

Christmas went well this year. My mother and Father-in-law came for the holiday. It was interesting functioning in such a small house with two extra adults. Not to mention my father-in-law is the most talkative person who has ever lived! Four days of his voice was about my limit, particularly in this small house where there is no where to get away from it short of going somewhere. The kids were excited with their gifts. Where we were determined to make a smaller Christmas this year the rest of the family made up for it and went on a spending spree so I don't think the kids ever noticed that the gift load from everyone else was bigger than that given by their parents. So far the kids report their favorite gifts are an electrical circuit board thing given buy their aunt, and a small stuffed Elmo that thankfully does nothing. Sonny Boy did score a DS and I like it as much as him, particularly one game that is puzzles that I purchased and did not realize it was well above a 6 year old's capabilities.

The big family gift though will come the end of January as we are meeting Hubby's family at the Wisconsin Dells for a couple of days of waterpark fun. Igor has been excited about it though he has no clue why other than he'll get to go swimming. He asks every other day or so where his swim trunks are as I guess he's concerned I'll forget to pack them. ( as crazy as I am lately that might be legitimate) Sonny Boy is counting down the days and is dismayed that mom and dad have ruled he would wear a life jacket most of the time in the park and that he is 1/2 an inch too short for the big rides, though I have a feeling they'll let him go lacking that little bit. Who knows, he might make the 1/2 inch anyway, all of his pants are now getting too short suddenly.

The weekend at the Dells coincides with talkative father-in-law's birthday so I'm planning a creation of a cake. I hope I can pull it off, we'll see as I've never attempted such an elaborate cake before. Today I made some sugar decorations for it. Just a word of warning molten sugar is VERY hot. I'm thinking I would like to learn to do all the fancy cakes. Not just the decorated variety you find at the local Wal-Mart but the really elaborate ones like on ACE OF CAKES or those shows where they compete to design and make a huge fancy cake or sugar sculpture in a 10 hour time span.

Well anyway I'm rambling and saying much of nothing. Here's hoping '10 is better than '09 and Happy New Year to you!