A time we got along really well*

{Mark's 63rd birthday would have been this coming Wednesday, so this is maybe fitting}

The very last weekend that Mark and I had together was a good one.  I remember big chunks of it, and  I fill in with what I know we probably did.  We visited a brewery and Italian restaurant in Llano, as well as a winery, then a tasting room, in Mason. At Highlands, I would have fixed us a simple dinner to enjoy by the firepit.  I do remember staying up much later than Mark did.

He was so tired, recovering from a heart attack, but we didn't know this.

our hill, at sundown

On Sunday, Mark would have slept in until about 9 a.m. while I had gotten up earlier - usually around 7 a.m.  I made a pot of coffee, then sat on one of the patio chairs to keep and eye out for passing wildlife - geese overhead, deer walking through, and the sounds of the cows mooing on the ranch next door.  He would have said "oh, you're just going to let me sleep the morning away?" as he always did.  I would have gotten him a cup of coffee and started making breakfast. 

I spy a cow

 Until afternoon we worked on various projects, just putseying around. Mark installed some nice stereo speakers on the outside of the Winnebago, then sat in his chair in the sun, listening to music on them.  Come up here, I said to him, motioning to the front of the barn.  I knew he hadn't been feeling well and I just wanted him to relax in the shade.  I opened his favorite wine (Lime in the Coconut!) and we sat in chairs facing each other, listening to music and chatting about anything and everything. {I so wish I could remember exactly what we talked about - we were sitting there for a couple of hours}  It was so amiable - like two old friends and each others' favorite companion.  In the late afternoon we took a nap, then woke around 6 p.m, loaded up the RV, and headed home.  I remember thinking that afternoon that we were really connecting, and I swore to myself that the NEXT weekend, we were just going to relax.  No projects, no travel, just time in our chairs in the sun on our hill, soaking up the last bit of summer.   

And then the unthinkable happened.

I miss talking with him, most of all. The mundane and the extraordinary.  All of it - 

catching up on our day or week, swapping stories about our jobs and people we knew, discussing the kids, making plans for Highlands and the future....  And I'm thankful that as that week wore on, with all of its frustrations and stress, we'd had Sunday together, enjoying each others' company.

*I am following a series of prompts for a few posts

A memory that makes me laugh*

 Full disclosure: this is one of those frankly mean yet actually harmless sibling stories that I have laughed about throughout the years, almost to the point of not being able to re-tell it.  In fact, I just snort-laughed, reliving it in my mind!  It will never not make me laugh.

I'm sure my sister did not find it amusing in the least.

I can hear my mother now calling me a "bad ole girl"

Years ago, when we lived in Galveston, we were in a house that had a couple of rooms which shared a closet that connected them. (mostly the cat's favorite place to go and pee on shoes)  So you could sneak from one room to the next, deviling each other, as my mother would say.  On one such occasion, I hid in my 15 year old sister's side of the closet, having sneaked in via my mother's room.  My unsuspecting 12 year old brother was in the living room that was just adjacent, watching TV.  I'm sure my mother was at work with the three of us home unattended.  This house had a tiny bathroom for the four of us to share and it was located on the other side of the house from the bedrooms - in fact just outside of the kitchen, which was a dumb place to put a bathroom.  It was so small that after a bath or shower we would wrap ourselves in a towel to return to our room to get dressed.  

This is a crucial detail in my story.

So there I was, lying in wait for her, in the dark closet of her room, with the door barely open a crack.

{This is hard to type as I have to pause and laugh every so often...hold please}

As she entered the room, clutching the towel wrapped around her, another towel wrapped turban style on her head, carrying a cup of coffee, I let out this insanely terrible schlurping noise like some kind of animal, scaring the absolute shit out of her.  It was the first time in my life I had ever made that sound - I don't even know where it came from.  She threw the full cup of coffee into the air where it rained down on her newly clean self, dropped her towels, and ran screaming into the living room in her birthday suit with wild wet hair in her face where my brother sat gaping at her, wide-eyed.

I literally fell out of the closet laughing so hard I could not breathe and couldn't speak for some time.

In no way did I feel remorse or regret for doing this to her, and probably did not even help her recover her dignity or clean up the spilled coffee.  And I'm sure she was merely trying to get ready for an after school job.

This possibly explains why my sister does not think I am funny.

In fact, she has spent the rest of her life making sure I understand the phrase "paybacks are hell".

Ha ha.

*I am following a series of prompts for a few posts

Happy things for January

Its time for the monthly focus on my blessings, not my troubles.  I find that flexing that gratitude muscle is as important as physical exercise.  Does that mean I am better at it?  Maybe not yet - I have a ways to go.  But practice makes perfect, right? Here are current things to be happy about:

Less beer, but not no beer

*The year ended on a calm and quiet note and my family had a good Christmas.  I stayed well within my budget and plans and I think that set a positive example for my adult kids.  As one of them stated, (Christmas) "doesn't have to be exactly the same every year", which tells me that they understand the need for holidays to evolve for us as a family.  Another lightbulb moment for me!

*The tile job is finished as far as I'm concerned. I have plans in place and lists made and I am moving forward with the things I want to do for my house and that doesn't involve dealing with that tile guy ever again.  A lesson or two was learned.

*Grayson is no longer commuting to San Marcos in the Baja, and for now he is done with school.

*I survived my two week bout with RSV and am feeling better overall.  I have started back on my walking.  Health-wise, I am doing my best at making healthy choices, which also includes far less drinking.

*I have already started on the yearly purging and cleaning and organizing of the spaces in my home  and I have a plan for moving forward with projects and that gives me such a feeling of accomplishment and control!  I'm going to enlist the boys' help more often as well.

That's not a bad list of happy things for January!