26 years-the Spandex anniversary

Yesterday Brian and I celebrated our 26th anniversary! Wild huh?!? Last year was our silver anniversary, 24 more years will be our gold. I googled it, to see what 26 is. Anniversaries from paper, cotton and leather, to Bismuth, china and furniture, but the list goes from yearly to every 5 years once you hit 25. I am left kicking myself that I got no furniture for our 24th anniversary--how did I manage to miss that one. And Bismuth! I own no Bismuth (at least I think I don't, since I don't exactly know what Bismuth is, I can't say for sure). I bought a new swimsuit while we were shopping yesterday, so perhaps 26th is swimwear. Better yet Spandex! 26 is Spandex--genius. After 26 years, it would take a mega amount of spandex to fit me into the itty bitty size 0 I used to be, so there you go, the Spandex anniversary.
We tend to do dinner and a movie to celebrate and this year wasn't much different. We did spend the afternoon together, first a movie then some shopping, then dinner. I didn't want to see a kid's movie for a multitude of reasons, guilt being one. I always feel guilty watching a movie the kids would enjoy without them, a few years ago we saw "Sky High" for our anniversary, and it was odd to be there without kiddies. Another reason is that I really don't like anything animated (including said kiddies on a sugar high). We finally settled on the new X files movie. It was odd but good. Dinner at my favorite Chinese restaurant, Imperial Dragon, yum.
Reflections on the past 26 years:
1. I can't believe we have been married that long, according to my calculations I was only 4 when I got married!
2. Brian looks the same (fantastic), and if possible has the same amount of energy he had 26 years ago...maybe more.
3. Definitely worth any amount of struggle and work we have put into our relationship.
4. I wouldn't change a thing. The road hasn't always been smooth and I'm sure there are bumps to come, but the journey has been a great learning and growing experience. The longer we travel together, the easier it is for me to see the destination.
5. I have a fantastic husband and great children and grandchildren. Life is good.
6. As soon as I find out what Bismuth is, I am getting me some.

Lightening in Felicity

I need to take a moment to eulogize Lightening. I had to take our family dog in and put to sleep (a euphemism we only find appropriate to use on animals) a couple of weeks ago. I had vowed many years ago after I sent Riker off to live on a puppy farm (another euphemism) that I didn't ever need another dog. Joslyn called me not too long after that to ask me if I was interested in taking in a dog. She described lightening, assured me that his worst habit was eating tissues out of the garbage can, and told me he was a very good dog. I decided to surprise the family by giving them a dog for Christmas, that was in 2000.
To Joslyn's credit, Lightening was a very good dog, he never used our house as his own personal toilet, never barked in the house, and was very...very good with children. He never could pass up a tasty morsel from the garbage can though, and I often caught him with his nose deep in the trash. He did have a nasty habit of barking at the fence, but anyone who actually knew lightening, knew he was quite literally all bark and no bite. If a potential burglar tried riding up to our house on a skateboard or bike, he might be in trouble...no not really, because as soon as they entered the gate he would lay on his stomach and wait for a belly scratch.
Lightening couldn't quite live up to his name, if I had named him I would have gone with lump, or wimp, maybe kleenex. He was meek always. He was also a lump, 50 lbs of lap dog. He loved a good spot in the sun.
A couple years ago lightening got a large rubbery feeling tumor on his face. We had that removed and were told it was just a fat tumor. A little after that he got a pretty big tumor on his hip, and from our previous experience I wasn't so worried about it. When we had that tumor removed, it was cancerous. It seemed pretty encapsulated so I again wasn't so worried. Then in the spring of this year, the tumor came back with a vengence. It was HUGE. It grew very fast, so when I took him in to the vet it was already the size of a large orange. The Vet told us it was too big to remove and that we should just take him home and enjoy what time he had left and bring him back when he got sick.
Because I am dead inside, I have used the threat "be good or I'll kill your dog", to keep the family in line for the last few months. I'll have to find something new though. I honestly didn't want to wait for lightening to get seriously ill, what would be the point. I waited until the tumor was about the size of a cantaloupe and decided he had lugged that thing around enough. We had contemplated his death for a long time, so although we missed him, I think everyone was ready for it when I took him in.
LM sent me some scripture and gospel literature texts to let me know where lightening has gone. So now we all know, Lightening and all the other "beasts" get to go live in Felicity. My only worry now is that I might have to spend eternity with ALL the pets I have sent into the afterlife. I'd rather go to hell than spend eternity with Yoda, Sniffles (and all her kittens), I don't even know how many birds (and I don't like birds), 20-30 gerbils, Roxy, and Riker. Lets hope Felicity is like a big heavenly pet store and you can go in and pick the pets you want and leave the rest for a soul more compassionate than me.
So there is Lightening's eulogy, to put it in a nutshell, he was a wonder among dogs, a dog whose good habits outweighed his bad. I do miss him, he was probably the only being in our house who understood my true invertibrate nature. I didn't even have the heart to push him off the bed when I would wake up in the night and find that he had taken my half of the bed for himself. He was spineless like me and we understood each other. Although I couldn't bring myself to enjoy a good trash can snack with him, I know he would have sat and enjoyed a steak dinner with me. If you find me out barking at the fence, It's just cause I miss him, and I would be quicker to do that than have a toilet big gulp.
Enjoy felicity lightening, you deserve it.

whee

Last month went by so fast, I kept wanting to blog but couldn't find the time. Then I had foot surgery or brain surgery...hard to tell. I thought I would blog a bit while I was laid up, but it's a little hard to blog if you forgot all your account settings. LM tried her very hardest to keep my organized when she set this up, she provided me with a small book to keep track of my sign-in information. Because I am hardcore unorganized, I managed to lose the book. I am an identity thief's dream, I know I can't remember stuff, so I always use the same basic login info. I may vary a little, but I can usually figure it out, but not this time. But Whee, I'm back! Google accepts that there are plenty of people like me around and makes it pretty easy to rediscover your identity.
We went on vacation last month and it was tons of fun! All of us went to Bear lake, and although it took a convoy of 4 vehicles to get us all there, it was great. We ate good, and I (thanks to my good friend Ambien) slept well. I think most of my kids still have a vivid memory of our 5 day trip to Yellowstone. I didn't sleep a wink all 4 nights we were there, so on day 5 when we were on our way home, needless to say I was a little scary. I remember Brian telling the kids to be quiet and not talk to me at all, I was pretty beastly. No repeats here though, I slept great.
I think it will be years, or perhaps eternity before I quit teasing Scott about his ability to "tan". Maybe I will about the time I quit teasing him about popping "corn" (I'll save that for another blog). We were all slathering ourselves in sunbloc as Scott and his pasty white skin headed for the beach. I called out that he needed to put sunbloc on, but he just looked back and told me he didn't need it because his skin would tan..heh heh. First time out he fried himself good. Burgundy isn't quite the color he turned, but it's close. He later blistered and peeled, not usually seen in people who tan, but I could be wrong. Because he was sitting in a kayak at the time, his legs had fantastic shades of white meat and dark meat. A cannibal's delight.
What I love about my family is that it doesn't really matter where we go, it only matters that we go together. We can have fun anywhere. Because of gas prices we chose to stay a little closer to home, but it doesn't feel like we settled for anything less than the perfect place. Because Lizzy is an organizing genius I don't think we forgot anything. We had a lovely set up, and probably because she is charming, we didn't have to move our tents off the beach we set them up on.
There is so much more stuff I should write about, but I'll stop for now because I am reasonably sure I can login again and blog another time...and just because I am a slacker, no LM, I didn't write down my new login information...remember, I lost the cute little book to write it in.