Miss + Mister = Mr. & Mrs.

Happy 2nd Anniversary, Mr. H. I love you.

sign of spring #5 or, this is dedicated to a niece I love

Graduations. Alright...this is the last "sign of spring" for spring--er, summer--2010. I promise. It's already June 4, but I can't go through the rest of the year without posting about this great event in a special someone's life.One of my nieces graduated from high school! Congratulations, Sweet Pea. I'm extremely proud of you and the Godly, creative, vivacious, friendly, caring, funny and tenacious woman you are and continue to become.

Wow. My niece...a woman. You are so grown up, I think I am going to cry!!!

I wanted to write a poem here for you because you like literature and because this post commemorates a special occasion. Poetry is useful for commemorations. I looked through my books of poetry and chose to quote Rudyard Kipling's poem, "If". (I hope this poem doesn't seem pessimistic to you, as Kipling is sometimes.) This poem reminds me of your bright, positive attitude to life and your desire to keep on keepin' on.

If

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good; nor talk too wise;

.

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master;

If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

.

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

.

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run--

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

-- Rudyard Kipling

sign of spring #2

CutieDog's tuxedo coat.This guy sheds more than any other dog I've ever had in my life. So much loose fur that I could spin it into yarn and knit myself a BorDal Sweater if I ever had the desire to smell like a wet dog. BorDal Sweater, you ask? CutieDog is part Border Collie, part Dalmatian, and knitting patterns usually have a name. He shakes so much loose fur around the house that our vacuum cleaner is fast becoming a prominent feature of our home's interior design.

p.s.--Happy Anniversary to my parents!

purple inside and out or, sign of spring #1

When there is a grape hyacinth bouquet inside our house, that is the signal that My Darling Husband is about to give our lawn it's first mowing of the year. Since I can't have these lovely purple heads just mowed down, I decorate the table with them when he says "it's time to start mowing". There were already some grape hyacinths planted in My Darling Husband's yard when I married him, then I planted more last year. I can see it now: a grape hyacinth and daffodil meadow in our front yard. Grape hyacinths are popular in this neck of the woods. There are many yards in our town where you can see these growing naturalized. Cheri has a lovely landscape photo of grape hyacinths on her blog A Joyful Handmaiden.

fly our flag for Patriot Day

In honor of those innocent lives lost to Muslim terrorists on 11 September 2001.

swimmin' with the frogs

This was my dream pool (no idea where the photo's from; have had it saved on my computer for a few years, along with other home idea pictures): flowers right up to the water's edge...chairs close by to sink into after a morning swim...clear, blue water.... When I started landscaping plans for our house last year, I envisioned swimming with the scents of roses and lavender wafting by. My Darling Husband had other thoughts--keep the plants as far away from the pool as possible. His reasoning for that makes logical sense, so I've compromised on the landscaping scheme.

Well, at least our chairs are close to the water's edge, and the water becoming clear and blue is not a dream, but reality. It's becoming reality. Cleaning out a (our) pool is arduous labor, especially when that pool is inhabited by the green reptilian set and is as gooey as the bottom of a muddy Midwestern lake. I'd almost rather pay a certain pool company the $1,800 they would charge to clean it. If we had the green monetary set, that is.

Instead we have started the cleaning process ourselves. I must commend My Darling Husband for donning some old clothes and venturing into the murky waters to scoop the goo. I was the one staying (mostly) dry by carting the goo in the wheelbarrow to the compost bin. Little black tadpoles and polliwogs in dark brown leafy goo, and marina stench x 100 = gag me with a spoon...and a fork and knife!

That was yesterday. A big, strong male friend with a stronger countenance than me has offered to help My Darling Husband turn our pond back into the pool it was meant to be. Whew, thank goodness for friends! He can have all the swim time he wants when the pool is ready for occupation by humans.

the difference between a man and a woman

re: Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. My Darling Husband and I both are in need of new eye spectacles, says the optometrist.

We don't just get our eyes examined and choose our new eyeglass frames simultaneously on one appointment. Well, I don't. My Darling Husband does. He came out of the examining rooms and went straight for the frame boutique. A mere 15 minutes and 8 frames later, he is the proud owner of new eyeglasses.

Me on the other hand? Eye examination...check. Into the frame boutique, spend an hour, select 5 frames to borrow (an advantage of our small-town optometrist). Go home, have My Darling Husband take snapshots of me in various frames, email snaps to family and friends for their wisdom, mull over their replies and the frames for a week. Repeat process twice.

One month later I am still wearing my current prescription. My Darling Husband just doesn't understand...choose one already! But I can't just choose the 8th frame I pick up. This is a very important decision that affects every day of my life with those glasses. I want an exact copy of my current glasses. They're like a pair of well-fitting jeans--just have to stick with what fits and looks good.

So I'm off to a different frame boutique at a different optometrist's office tomorrow. Maybe the 20th pair will be the charm.

Calgon, take me away!

That's what I might be saying soon.

My sub-heading for this blog is "Take the girl out of the big city--can't take the big city out of the girl". I lived in The Big City for many years until last September, when I married a man whose only drawback (how I saw it back then) was that he lives in The Small Town. I thought, "Aaahhh! No popping into the local yarn shops or Hobby Lobby to check out the clearance crafts or the mall on any ol' day. Too much quiet. And less visiting with my family. What'll I do?????"

What I've done is what everybody should do when they move to a new place, whether it's a sprawling metropolis or a self-contained little town. I have become involved. There's new friends added to the old friends, church and church functions, work, knitting group at the local library each week, and various local small-town events. I've learned to live with fewer shops and that's been good because I am actually finishing projects instead of just salivating over yarn and pretty home goods at the shops. I can visit the shops when we travel. And...My Darling Husband has become my family.

Last week My Darling Husband came home from his work with the news that he's been laid off.

Whuh?!

Mental thud.

Where did that come from?

I practically just moved here!

...and I like it here now!!!

I've pleasantly discovered that you can take the big city out of this gal. We might have to move because My Darling Husband's line of work is specialized and there's only the one company around here that could hire him. There's no market here for him to start a company doing his line of work. If we do move to a large city, I'll miss the quiet, the three-car traffic jams, the general politeness, the easily formed friendships, the quick drive to the countryside. I'll need lots of bubble baths. At least for a time.

The blog sub-heading has got to be revised.