Happy Hump Day! We’re supposed to have a whopper of a “Santa Ana Wind Event” Tuesday night and Wednesday. We already have two major fires burning in So Cal (not close to me), and we don’t need anymore breaking out with the predicted wild winds and extremely dry conditions.

I’m also cleaning because we’re having overnight guests for the wedding this weekend, and stuff like that triggers my mostly dormant clean freak But at least I’m spacing it out over several days, and once I do it, it’s off my mind and I won’t worry about it when people are here. What’s hilarious, though, is we’re going to be too busy for anyone to notice, things will be chaotic and messy, and the house will end up a disaster zone. But tell that to my dormant clean freak–that chick is a little crazy, which is why I try to keep her locked in a dark closet and drugged her with wine, LOL.

Now for the other news. You know how many girls dream about their “walk down the aisle” to marry the man they love? My almost daughter-in-law had that dream too.

It did NOT include a broken foot.

Yep, she broke her foot one week before the wedding. She was with her sister and friends on a pre-wedding trip when her heel in the crack of the sidewalk, her foot rolled to the side, and she heard the snap of the bone on the top of her foot. The next day–after she tried to walk it off, LOL, proving that she’s definitely not a wimp–my son took her to Urgent Care and they confirmed the break in her foot. It was just a freak accident that earned her a big boot accessory to her wedding dress, and a different kind of walk (hobble!) down the aisle than she had planned.

And let me just add here, her attitude has been amazing. Of course she’s bummed and had her moments of upset, and her foot is very sore, but she’s dealing with this like a champ! Seriously, she’s able to laugh at the situation, is working on last-minute details and also resting her foot because she’s smart and practical as well as beautiful and talented. I’m proud of both her and Youngest Son, who took care of her as soon as she got home from the trip. Accidents happen, but we don’t let them ruin the important moments in our lives.

Attitude is everything!

Happy Wednesday! And feel free to share any similar stories you might have about freak accidents, or things that happened before big events in your lives.

P.S. I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!

So I got this text from Youngest Friday morning:

Mom, I can’t remember if you said you were bringing cookies when you come over tomorrow….

Ha I know when I’m being played…and I laughed And then…I went to the store to get what I needed, came home made his special (lactose free) cookies, refrigerated the dough for a few hours and then baked them.  Then I spent all day Saturday over Youngest’s house painting two coats on the office walls. It was a lot of work for both of us, but the room came out so pretty! Well, he’d doesn’t use the word pretty, LOL, but he did say the very pale gray is exactly what he wanted. I loved it myself. And my neck and arm tolerated it pretty well, which really pleased me too.

Wizard was amazing and brought us lunch too.

Sunday was a lost day. I was feeling off, and all I really got done was cleaned out my drawers and closets, then stewed over my book but got nothing useful done.  I so don’t want to talk about the book. I won’t get anything more than plotting done this week anyway.

This weekend is going to be very full between rehearsal on Saturday and wedding on Sunday. Plus Oldest, his wife and my grandson are spending Saturday night here, then Middle and his wife Sunday night around all the wedding festivities. With all the chaos, I’ve scheduled Maggie to go to boarding. Shhhh…I haven’t told her yet She’ll have more fun at boarding anyway.

As you all can tell, I am so excited about Youngest’s wedding We all are so happy they’ve finally be able live their happily ever after.

That was my weekend, how was yours?

TGIF! Am I posting on the right day? This week is totally off for me. I’m positive I misplaced a day somewhere, LOL! But assuming it really is Friday, here’s 5 random things about my week:

1. Oh my gosh, Youngest is getting married in just over a week! How did that sneak up on us?
2. Realizing #1 meant I spent yesterday running around getting last-minute stuff I needed. I finally ordered a small purse from Amazon as I couldn’t find one in the right color that I liked anywhere. I think I only have one more thing to pick up.
3. Our new garage doors are great, and we got a price we thought fair. Then our ice maker stopped working…LOL! We got it working again, then realized how old the refrigerator is. Sigh, it’s going on the list of things that eventually will need to be replaced. However, it’s all working now so it can sit on that list for years and wait its turn or risk my wrath. I know that refrigerator is scared and will mind me
4. Back to Youngest Son. He texted me a couple of nights ago and said, “Mom do you want to come over Saturday and help me paint my home office?” I used to be really good at tell my kids no, what happened? Also, I’m really impressed that they are getting so much done in that house, even with the wedding a week away. Time Management and Will Power!
5. Do you all know how much we use the elbow on our dominate arm? I do! All the freaking time. The shot has helped my tendonitis some, and I wear the brace (per the doctor’s insistent orders), but I’m vividly aware of how much I use that elbow these days. It’s amazing how we take what our bodies do daily for granted until something gets old and cranky, LOL! (In case anyone is wondering about my tendonitis and #4, I can paint, especially if I do more trim work than the repetitive rolling of the walls. I may be a little sore, but I don’t mind–it’s better than sitting around and not doing stuff.)

That’s my five, now I’d love to hear five random things about your week! Have a great weekend!

If I didn’t post on Monday, did Mondy still happen? We had our grandson, Turbo, Sunday and Monday, and he sure lives up to his nickname, LOL! It honestly takes two of us, plus Maggie, to watch him. He’s smart, funny, energetic, and overall, really well-behaved for a 19 month old. He likes to repeat words he hears, and I’m happy to report, Wizard and I did not send him home with any inappropriate words added to his vocabulary We really enjoyed him, but we were wiped out when he left, probably because he didn’t sleep well this, and was ready to play at 3:30 a.m. I woke up Wizard for that–after all I didn’t want him to miss out on the joys of babysitting. I’m super nice like that And Wizard was a good sport, he just laughed and said, “You might as well start to the coffee.”

Turbo’s parents had a great time at the concert in Vegas.

It was also Youngest Son’s bachelor weekend in Vegas with both his brothers and a couple of friends. I’m assuming they had fun too, but over the years, I’ve learned not to ask too much because they actually tell me, and then I have Mom Vision, which means I can reenact the scene in my head with a dozen bad outcomes. It doesn’t matter that they are standing there in front of me, clearly fine. Mom Vision, it’s a real thing

This book is getting to me. If I gather all my characters in one place, and blow them all up, is that considered murder? I mean it doesn’t count in fiction right? Even more frustrating is I keep losing time to work. I thought I’d be able to get back to the book yesterday, but Real Life had other ideas. Today will be better!

Heat and fires blew into Southern California. It’s going to be hot all week. But I just have to say this, while I complain about many things in California, our firefighters are amazing. They saved more homes when a huge fire broke out in Los Angeles, just like our homes were saved a little over a year ago. While humans cause a lot of the fires, it’s the heat and Santa Ana winds that make them so dangerous, and extremely hard to fight.

So that was some of my long weekend.  How was yours?

TGIF!! Let’s jump right into sharing five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. We got a bunch of quotes for new garage doors. Once we passed through the stages of shock, anger, bargaining with God to win lotto, and finally acceptance, we made a decision Our new garage doors will be installed on Tuesday. We had two quotes over the phone (worthless for fairly obvious reasons–if you’re too lazy to come out and do a proper quote with pesky measurements and all, we’re too lazy to hire you), and four in-person quotes, and in that process, Wizard and I learned a lot more than we ever planned to know about roll up garage doors. But it did help us make a decision.  I’m not even going to talk about California’s insane laws because I don’t have a seaweed, emotional support latte to help me think. Nor would I drink that if I did have it
2. Still kind of, sort of, writing. Last night I thought I’d ruined the book, today I’m thinking…I need a latte. No wait, I’m thinking the book isn’t bad and I can totally make it work…but I should still get a latte. Maybe I’ll go buy one tomorrow because I’m irritating myself with my sudden latte obsession.
3. I saw my doctor this week, mostly to deal with my right elbow and other assorted stuff. He did another shot in my elbow, plus an x-ray, and I’m waiting to hear on that. I have looked at the x-rays images myself, but then I remembered that I never went to medical school, so…yeah…my diagnosis is worth as much as my non-existent medical degree. It’s probably just chronic tendonitis from an old injury, and also I’m recommending latte physical therapy to heal the stupid elbow. Bending my elbow to drink qualifies as therapy, right? Ha! I live in California, of course, it does!
4. Maggie charmed the man yesterday who came over to finalize the garage door thing. She was all shy, sweet and wiggly, and it works every time. Just like the time she met us and used her adorable charm to secure her forever home and human servants. Yeah, we eventually caught onto her methods, but she has us too well-trained now to do anything but fulfill her every wish.
5. Turbo is coming over Sunday and spending the night again. Maggie is resting up! Wizard and I are making sure to keep those days clear to enjoy The Turbo Toddler. If it goes as well as last time, we’ll be thrilled. And if it doesn’t, we’ll still enjoy having him because that’s what grandparents do. Then we’ll send him home and crash–maybe with a latte. Or wine. Probably wine if we have the energy to lift a wine glass.

That’s my five random things about my week, now I’d love to hear yours. Have a great weekend!

Guys! Hi it’s me Maggie. Did you all know that my mom used to write mystery books?

Well I have a big mystery on my paws right here at my house! You ready? The big outside trash cans where my lizard-friends like to hide vanish! I’m not even joshing, they just disappear like magic or something. I’ll show you.

See that, they’re gone! I’m sitting right where they trash cans should be. This isn’t even the first time. They go missing for like a whole day, and then they reappear.

Isn’t that a great mystery? Wanna help me solve it?

I clearly have a big mouth. Just because I indicated on Friday’s blog that life has slowed the insane pace enough to be more manageable–the new garage door opener stopped working after two months. Wizard knew pretty quick why–they don’t make many openers for the older non-roll up doors, at least not ones we can get shipped to California.

When it comes to regulations, California is on drugs. This probably sounds blasphemous (sorry!), but California looked at God’s 10 Commandments and said, “Amateur. Somebody hold my GCB, non-fat, non-GMO, non-discriminatory, non-peanut-allergy, latte heated by solar energy, served in my environmentally-friendly cup with a fully degradable sippy straw, and watch this.  I will make a thousand commandments of stupidity in a single day. We shall create a no- business-can-survive economy, where the only product easily available is cannabis to ease the stress of life being impossible when you can’t buy and sell anything.

But…umm…perhaps I got off topic?

So we bought the expensive garage door opener that supposedly worked with the old style doors. I knew full well there was only a 50-50 chance of it working, particularly with a two car-garage door that’s been slightly warped by time. But while I mentioned that to Wizard, I could also see he was trying to solve the problem without spend a painful amount of money on new doors (we have a three car garage). Saturday, Wizard hooked it up, pressed the button and OMG, have you ever seen a metal railings push up and twist? I screamed, “Stop!” He did, but it had twisted enough that…well long story short (Ha! Too late for that!), we’re going to get estimates this week for the roll up doors. And just be grateful California allows us to buy roll up doors, instead of hanging a plant-based, gender-neutral tarp rescued from a garbage dump and in need of a forever home over the garage opening.

Oops, is my sarcasm showing?

But the rest of the weekend was good. We went to Special K’s for her birthday. It was a nice evening, and she went to a lot work cooking ribs for her own birthday

Yesterday, I dropped by Youngest Son and Fiance’s house in the afternoon. They’ve painted everything inside of their house except the bedrooms,  and put up pictures. They’ve worked so hard making their house into a home, and I love seeing how happy they are after waiting years to start their life together. Their wedding is just a few weeks away.

So that was the rambling version of my weekend How was your weekend?