The Perfect Gift

Finding a great Christmas present for Ray wasn't easy.  I had to resort to slipping in a few items that could technically be construed as gifts that I might use more than he would.  But I knew he would really enjoy them too.  What middle-aged man wouldn't want a blow dryer with ionic heat that makes your hair shinny, smooth and less frizzy?  And he will really be much happier now that all of his remote control devices are neatly organized in a big, beautiful, mahogany box with various sized compartments conveniently located beside the bed.  But I wanted to get him something really special for Christmas.  One he would treasure forever.  Less than a week before the big day, I found the perfect gift!  I knew that he really hated my 'Gone With The Wind' poster hanging above our bed.  I was going to suprise him with a framed picture of a skier, but then I found something even better.  One night, about a year ago, while Ray and I were enjoying a little too much wine, we were playfully arguing over which one of us loved the other one more.  He never ceases to amaze me with his colorful imagination and prolific flow of words.  He's going to kill me when he finds out that I wrote this, but he won the argument by saying that he loved me "more than all the penguins you can see with a pair of binoculars from really far away ... and that's a LOT!"  We laughed at our silliness, but he has repeated that phrase to me many times since that night.  When I found a huge picture of 19 penguins, playfully taking turns jumping into Arctic water off of an iceberg, I knew I found the perfect gift.  Those penguins are now hanging above our bed and they can remind Ray of how much he loves me each and every time he enters the room!  I only wish you could have seen the look of utter joy and delight on Ray's face when he opened that gift on Christmas morning!  I think that was utter joy on his face...  

Hmmm.... Now that I've read the comments below maybe Ray DID think it was a plasma TV!  That would account for that look of utter joy when he opened it...

The Looking Glass

A few weeks before Christmas I told anybody who would listen to me that what I wanted most of all was a mirror.  A stand-up, 9 inch, electric illuminating, distortion free mirror, with a magnification of eight and a handy travel case, to be specific.  I told them all where to buy it and what isle it was on.  A few days before Christmas I began to worry that I wouldn't get one so I went out and bought it myself.  I told Ray that it would be to me from him.  Of course he had already purchased one for me, just like my son, each one of my two daughters, my best friend, and my mother.  I guess I should have trusted them, but I've been disappointed in the past, and I really, really wanted that mirror.  I thought that it would be a lot easier to pluck my eyebrows if I had a mirror with an 8X magnification.  And a light.  Even though it seemed that I didn't have to pluck them as much in the past few years as I did when I was younger.  As I looked into that distortion free mirror yesterday, I realized that I was wrong.  My eyebrow hairs hadn't stopped growing.  They hadn't even slowed down.  I just couldn't SEE them anymore!  Why had no one told me?  Thank God Ray can't see any better than me!  I knew I was beginning to get wrinkles, creases and maybe a little less... facially firm.  After gazing into my virtual reality looking glass practically all afternoon I now realize the full extent of the damage.  I am being... ravaged!  I have wrinkles in places that I have never even seen before!  Facial firmness?  Apparently I've been on simmer for so long that I am now melting.  I have tiny spider veins.  Everywhere!  I think my gums may be receding!  Don't tell me I see a few ... OH NO!  Mustache hairs!  Damn those hormone replacement pills!  Maybe I shouldn't have jumped right in with an 8X.  I should have asked for a 5X first, and slowly eased my way into shock and terror.  Can I ever go back now to my semi-blindness?  Can I ever see myself through rose colored glasses?  Will my mirror ever again tell me that yes, I am the fairest maid of all?  I... somehow doubt it.

My Front Porch

It's Official!  I have a front porch!  And I must say that it's the most beautiful porch I have ever seen anywhere!  Even my mailman thinks so.  He told me so when he stopped by on his route today.  It took my son two and a half weeks to build it, but it was worth all the aggravation we went through and every penny we spent.  Transforming this house into a home has been quite an adventure for me.  It's been very expensive, time consuming, frustrating and even painful at times.  But it has also been very exciting, satisfying, educational and down right fun and enjoyable, too.  It was a great opportunity to explore my artistic side, test my limits and impress my family and friends.  I amazed myself too, which was even bigger challenge.  But more than that, much more, was the fact that I got to work with my son the entire time.  It gave me the opportunity to really get to know him and to actually see for myself what kind of man my little boy grew up to be.  A wonderful man.  Honest, hard working, loving, smart, responsible and independent.  A fine craftsman.  Everything I had ever hoped that he would be.  I couldn't be any prouder of him.  I hope that he also got a better understanding of what kind of woman his mother really is, too.  I'm going to miss him now that he won't be here everyday, but I'll be enjoying his work  for as long as we live in this house.  There isn't one room that my son hasn't remodeled in some way.  I look forward to working with him again, and I hope we can start renovating again in the spring or early summer.

In the meantime, Ray and I will get the chance to really start living our lives together.  We have a lot of memories to make and I'm eager to get started.  I know it won't be easy. It never is and I wouldn't want it to be.  Like this house, great things take time and hard work.  Only then can you really enjoy them.  But we'll be together, Ray and I.  Through thick and thin... for better or worse.  Do I hear bells or is that just the sound of the new year coming in?  Don't touch that dial!  Happy New Year everyone!  

No peeking!

It's 7pm on Monday night.  The porch... my porch... the most magnificent porch ever created... is done!  We worked so hard today, but we still have to power wash everything.  I am covered with brown paint cause I painted the cement walls below the siding while Joe framed the lattice under the porch.  Then we had to drag about 50 plastic trash bags to the curb as tomorrow is trash day.  They were filled with all of the left over pieces of wood and building debris.  No one bag could weigh over 50 pounds so we couldn't put much in them.  Since I have to work midnight shift at the hospital tonight, I have to take a quick nap before I go in.  I'll take pictures tomorrow.  Without spoiling anything... let me just say that this porch was worth every minute we spent trying to get the permit, every hour Joe took to build it, and every penny it cost us!  Of all the exciting and happy days that I will ever have in my entire life, this will definitely be one I'll remember.

The suspense is killing me!

Let's see... where was I?  I think it was the night before Christmas...  The new front porch wasn't ready by Christmas Day, in fact the steps weren't even finished.  But... everything will be done by Monday night.  Joe is going to install the lattice under the porch, paint the lower part of the cement wall below the siding, and power wash the porch, the stone walls and the driveway.  We will have to stop renovating for a few months and start paying off some of the loans.  In the meantime I've been learning a lot about leaking basements. We've had two estimates from water proofing companies so far.  At this point, I am only sure of one thing.  I never, ever want to have another basement.  For the rest of my life.  Even after that.  I'm am now going to be cremated.  I had agonized over that decision for many years but Ray helped me make up my mind in just one week.  Thanks, honey!

Christmas was wonderful.  Even though we didn't have a tree. Or Christmas lights.  Or stockings hanging by the chimney with care.  Oh... but we will next year!!  I went to a few really great After-Christmas Sales on Friday.  50-70% off all Christmas decorations.  Ray didn't like the ones that I had.  So I bought us dozens of new ones!  I didn't really save us a lot of money.  I was just able to buy a lot more stuff!  I can hardly wait until next Christmas!  I'm hoping that everything will be finished by then.  We want to add on a new dining room and completely redo the kitchen.  Ray wants to tear out the fireplace and put in a new one.  I want to have the hard wood floors re-sanded and polished.  Joe wants to put on 3 more decks.  Not porches... decks.  And we'd like to paint the driveway and get new carpeting.  I might even try to make my childhood dream of digging a tunnel to China come true.  Only kidding about the tunnel.  My only dilemma now is:  Should I keep up my Journal after we finish the porch next week or stop writing until we start renovating again?  I did want to keep my subject pure and focused...  Even though I have never been pure and focused about anything before...  Hmmm.

I know who's getting coal...

Sometimes we just have to wait for things.  I never did like hearing that.  From my parents or anyone else.  I've had lots of practice waiting for things over the years but it never gets any easier.  My son Joe went to a friend's Christmas Party on Sunday night and had a bit too much to drink, leaving him with a memorable hangover.  So even though Monday was a beautiful, warm and sunny day he was too sick to come over and work on the porch.  It was supposed to be finished today.  I was going to rush home from work to sit on my new front porch, take some pics of it and then run into the house to post them here in my Journal, to share them with anyone who was interested in looking at them.  The porch will never be finished by Christmas Eve now.  Even if Joe works on the porch all day tomorrow, he still has to go back to Home Depot to buy the lattice for under the deck.  He hasn't even cut the frames for the steps yet.  I'm sure he isn't planning on working at all on Wednesday or Thursday, so I guess the most I can hope for is Friday.  I know he's young and he deserves to have all the fun he can have.  He works hard and he's a good kid.  A man really.  And he has to do all the hard parts.  Work out in the cold.  He has no one to help him most of the time and he never complains.  His carpentry skills are awesome.  But damn it!  I wanted this porch so much!  I know I'm still going to get it but I wanted it for Christmas!  Couldn't he just get drunk on New Year's Eve after the porch was finished?  Maybe there's a lesson here for me to learn.  I'm sure Christmas is really about giving to others... not about wanting things for yourself.  It's about seeing the beauty in spiritual things not just material ones.  It's about giving and sharing and realizing what's really important in life.

THERE!  I LEARNED IT!  NOW FINISH THAT PORCH!  AND I HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!  HO-HO-HO!

It's beginning to look a lot like... a porch!

It took 3 whole days for the stone cutters to finish the steps and make a landing below the front porch.  It's incredible to watch them work.  I have never seen anyone take so much time or pay so much attention to detail.  If they were building a staircase to heaven where the angels themselves would climb, they couldn't put anymore craftsmanship into it than they have for mine.  I am glad that these steps are so special because they will bring my most precious possessions to me many times.  My children, our families, and our friends.

Joe had an awful time spacing out the porch railing slats.  He too is a perfectionist, and each section had to be re-calculated as the measurements were slightly different.  He'll finish building the steps down from the deck tomorrow.  They will rest on the stone landing that the landscaper designed.  Joe is also going to install vinyl lattice under the porch to hide the dirt from the hill below.  We'll put down plastic and stones to keep weed growth to a minimum (which we should have done before we built the porch) but I still want it to be hidden from view.  The landscaper put in 4 electric lights beside the stone steps and many smaller lights that shine upwards to accent the tress and shrubs.  They are all on a timer and will automatically turn themselves on and off at dusk and dawn.  Joe is going to put deck lighting on all the porch posts, but we probably won't do that until the spring.  Everything looks so beautiful already, I can hardly wait until tomorrow!  I'm so excited I may even have trouble sleeping tonight!  I should be able to put up the pictures of my finished porch by Christmas Eve!  This is the best present I could ever, ever get!

As hard as it was to tear myself away the past few days, I managed to get out there and do some Christmas shopping.  As a matter of fact, I only have a few small items to get later this afternoon.  Now all I have to do is get them wrapped...