Peep Day and Other Misc Mudgie Moments...

So much has happened in the last couple of weeks.  It's time to do a Mudgie Merger Update...  

• The RING!  As many of you saw on Facebook,  Bill finally found his mothers ring and it's officially on my hand.  He has his moms original wedding band too.  I suggested that we design a ring for him and use that gold so we'll both be wearing his moms rings.  We've already got a basic idea of what we want it to look like... we'll keep you updated...  In the mean time a close friend of the family who I've finally found again (thank you Facebook) saw that post and has offered her original wedding band... which was made with MY parents original bands and her dads band...  I'm soo excited about wearing that ring as my band as I absolutely adore the people who have worn the gold before me...  I've told Bill I still want an eternity band... so if all goes as planned today... I'll have a small eternity band, the gold band from my family and friend, and Bills moms ring on my finger... How loved am I going to feel every time I look at my hand?  #sniff

• The move...  As everyone knows Bill we be splitting his time between Atlanta (Ragle Castle) and Richmond (Camp Crowell) until either he can find work down in Atlanta or my daughter graduates and we can find a happy medium place for us to live.  We aren't the first couple to have a two city relationship...  just grateful it's not bi-coastal.  I'm doing my best to make Atlanta feel like home to him when he's there.  Since he brought down his moms sideboard I put the chest of drawers that formerly acted like a sideboard into our bedroom so he'd have his own chest...  He keeps marveling that he has drawers to put his drawers into... I'm still marveling that I was able to empty a drawer in the bathroom sink for him.  lol

•   Easter...  Bill was indoctrinated into my family's annual Easter traditions.  It was relatively painless as it involved wine, sitting having a smoke with my dad, hiding baskets and lots of good food.  My family has officially boycotted my annual "Easter Bunny Hop" dance.  Sigh... they just don't understand...  One blessing my kids should be counting... their inherited height from their dad... with Bill hiding baskets in a riggeresque sort of manner this will be very useful to them in the upcoming years I think... :) 

• What to do with Peeps?  We've had an interesting week involving Peep destruction... My son put two in the microwave to see what would happen... Bill broiled peeps for us and that was heavenly...  Then Bill and I made Peep vodka... which he has distilled and says looked too much like pee so apparently he's put in a drop or two of food color and made it look like sweet tea instead lol... Either way I'm looking forward to getting home and trying this in hot chocolate...  hmm... what else?  Oh yeah... torches and peeps... He enthralled my kids by torching peeps and putting the torched carcasses between chocolate graham crackers... I made him hide the torch after because I think my kids enjoyed that activity wayyyy too much.  He has ensured me that not only is it hidden but it's broken down and hidden in two places.  Thank you baby.

• Wedding Activities...  We hit up an estate sale last week that supplied a large portion of our wedding needs... We found chargers (large plates), wide mouth ball jars (yes that's what you're drinking out of), two drink decanters, a candy jar (candy station for favors)... and more... we've been buying things as we find them so we aren't spending a huge chunk at one time as we get closer... It's fun looking and piecing together what should be a fun down home shabby chic country backyard wedding... especially since he nixed the etiquette book... because who needs etiquette with bourbon and bbq right?   

•  Down Time...  While it seems like we are constantly going non stop between work, kids, dogs, organizing our lives... and trying to get my thesis done... we DO give ourselves breaks here and there... a moment of quiet...  Spring is here and outside is starting to bloom and warm up to a temperature that you just can't resist sitting in for a moment... What to do?  Fire up the barbeque... pour a bourbon coke and a bourbon diet (two peas in a pod)... sit down and... take pictures of each other and post them on facebook.... I do declare we are middle aged geeks.  lol

•  Honey dos...  Near completion are the coffee bar... as you can see the mirror and lighting is installed in it... we are picking up the glass shelves when I return and this beauty will be ready to stock completely... His and hers French presses... Champagne Glasses... Rum Chata, Bourbon Cream, and a few other liquors...  Also nearly complete is our medieval chandelier... he cleaned it up and hung it but is telling me he thinks it needs to be lowered a few more inches... Gotta stare at it when I get home and decide if I agree.  Love that he loves working on these projects... Love that we're a team...

Let me close today's rambling blog with a note I found as I was heading off to work last week... I carried it in my pocket for the trip... This peep torching, basket rigging, jack of all trades grumpy Mudgie has the biggest heart on the planet... and I consider myself very lucky indeed... 

Suck Hobby and Other Off the Topic Stuff...

Today's blog begins with musings from last night, then reflects on the past week and ends with this evening and going forward with my life....

My girls and I spent the night with a woman I have identified with since the moment I could remember music...  I've always said I was a California 70's country girl channeling my inner Stevie Nicks...  As I watched Fleetwood Mac perform last night I thought about how each of their songs had a place in my growth as an adult.

Dreams...  A song I've loved since I first heard it.  It became my go to song in the late 80's whenever I was in a bar attempting to sing karaoke... I'm not a fabulous singer by any means but I can do a smoky Stevie....

Song Bird... I dedicated this song to an old boyfriend that died in a crash in 1989.  That and Sitting on the Dock of the Bay always remind me of him.  Song Bird was more for the name because he was a Snow Bird.  I adored him but we weren't together long enough for the sentiments of this beautiful song to ring true for me for him... 

Landslide...  The older I get the more this song just grows in my heart.... The landslides we must go through to change and mature and hope in the end the trash in your life is swept away as we brush off the dirt and stand strong again... "But times make you bolder, children grow older, I'm getting older too...  I take my love and I take it down..."  Yeah boo nourish the flowers on your hill or a landslide will bring you down....  (not directed at you Bill.. just society in general)

Second Hand News...  The trash that we hope gets recycled into anothers life and out of ours forever...  This is dedicated to all of our ex's... :)
 
As I listened to my life in music... I reflected about the changes I'd gone through in my life in the past 30 years and in the past year.  Memories flooded me.  I smiled... I sniffled... I remembered my karaoke days at Pierce Street Annex, the bar I worked at in my early 20's...  I remembered listening to Rumours over and over and over again... That album was one that soothed my soul...  lyrics like "wont you let me lay you in the tall grass and let me do my stuff..." to "Don't say that you love me, just say that you want me..." to "it's only me who wants to wrap around your dreams and have you any dreams you want to sell..." to "and the song bird's keep singing like they know the score and I love you I love you I love you like never before...."  they make me grin and cry and think about life....

Historical tidbit... at the concert Stevie mentioned that Lindsay had gone to Menlo/Atherton High School- this is south of where I grew up.  I told Alex that this meant that Lindsay grew up in a monied household.  I spoke to my step father later in the evening and told him this and he gave me a little bit of history (he's a San Francisco Bay Area/California historian)...  Lindsay's brother Greg was an Olympic swimmer... Lindsay swam as well as Greg did.  Lindsay's swim coach in college told him to "give up this music business you'll never amount to anything in it..."  To this day the swim coach still bemoans his now historical error....  bwahahaha...  as I watched Lindsay perform last night I knew I was watching a Rock and Roll ICON.  The man is an amazing guitarist and singer.

Anyway, so Stevie's talking about the San Francisco music scene and I see it in my head.  I grew up there.  Worked around the scene.  While my high school years were in the 80's...  my era is the 70's...  The long flowing hair with daisy chains...  Amazing ice cream in the Haight (Ashbury)....  She's talking about the bands she opened for... the same bands I snuck out to see without my parents knowing... Grateful Dead... Jefferson Airplane... and how this was THE music scene to be in at the time...  Nothing made me more aware of how true that statement was when our concert promoter, Bill Graham, died in a helicopter crash and all these bands came out to the Polo field in Golden Gate Park for a day of free music to honor his life.   The icons I watched while sitting on a blanket drinking beer that day blew me away... (http://www.concertvault.com/playlists/bill-graham-memorial-laughter-love-and-music/playlist-280720.html)

By now all you Mudgie-ites are wondering what my concert experience has anything to do with "Becoming Crowell" other than the fact that he's worked in the industry for the past 30 years... here's where it pulls in... Stevie mentioned her moment of psychic awareness when she went to the Velvet Underground, a store where all the stars were buying these amazing outfits... She had pooled up her money to get one and made the trek to the store.... she stood there transfixed knowing she couldn't afford anything in the store but also knowing that all these talented women had stood in the same place she was standing... and that she and Fleetwood Mac WOULD rise to be their equals... She left knowing she was doing what she was meant to do...  She finished the story with her mom always saying "do what you love for the rest of your life otherwise you're going to be doing what you hate for a longggggg time"...  She implored us all, no matter what age, to find our dreams and follow them.

I'm in.  I'm listening to this all and I'm thinking about how happy Bill was fixing the coffee bar and deconstructing the the Victorian Ladies Rocker... and I'm like YES!  We have to reach for our business.  We are both having fun reconnecting with a hobby/business we did separately years ago.  It's time to get our business name licensed, get the tax id number and resellers certificate and maybe even go in whole hog and get a website domain started.  I've spent the evening looking all this information up - it's changed since I did it years ago.  My brain is melting so I'm letting it go tonight, but when he's back in town we're doing it.  Another... COMMITMENT to our future happiness and success.  It's a no brainer really.  We'll get out what we put into it... and it's something we truly BOTH love doing.

I also need to figure out how to get paid for writing the way I love to write.  That's always been out there in the back of my head as something that I'd love to do... when I am done with the wedding, my Masters and rushing rapidly towards my 50th next year, I'd love to have a plan in place for that too...

My mom asked me the other day if the kids like Bill.  I said I thought they did.  They all get along well together.  At times joking together and at other times comfortable in quiet companionship.  Moments like the one I posted on Facebook the other day make me know that things are going to be ok...  For those that missed the post... Bill had told me a joke... I told it CJ "You're momma's so stupid she got fired from a blow job." CJ looks at me and says "Blow jobs don't make sense." Bill says "Um yes they do son..." and CJ says... "It's suck not blow and really it's not a job for anyone therefore it should be a 'suck hobby'..." Have I mentioned how much I love my son and someone needs to pick Bill off the floor for me...  he's dying of laughter in the corner...

It's easy this life that we're building together.  I have to stop at moments and take a deep breath.  I'm doing something I never thought I'd do again... putting him on my cell phone plan.... was a contractual COMMITMENT... breathe breathe... talking about moving the majority of his stuff here is a huge commitment for both of us... breathe breathe... but I'm content when he's here... well maybe in the wee hours of the morning when he skips from Mudgie talk radio to Mudgie jujitsu I'm not so content... those moments I wake up with a corner... a mere sliver of a piece of a blanket touching my arm and the entire sheet shoved into my face...  I may need a stun gun as a wedding present folks...

All kidding aside...  to wrap this up and bring it full circle to the beginning of the blog...  Yes... Fleetwood Mac has had music to cover each moment in my life...  today there's not much truer than this...

"Sweet wonderful you,
You make me happy with the things you do,
Oh, can it be so,
This feeling follows me wherever I go.
I never did believe in miracles,
But I've a feeling it's time to try.
I never did believe in the ways of magic,
But I'm beginning to wonder why.
Don't, don't break the spell,
It would be different and you know it will,
You, you make loving fun,
And I don't have to tell you you're the only one.
You make loving fun.
You make loving fun."   You Make Loving Fun, Fleetwood Mac

 #myblessings

The Grand Planned Speech and the Worst Kept Secret Ever

This thing called living... I've been doing it just fine these past 8.5 years on my own... raising my kids and a plethora of fur babies.  I've frequently thought that the longer I was single the chances of anyone ever talking me out of that status was going to get slimmer.  I've learned to do things on my own such as caulking walls, using the he-man fire unit aka a grill for cooking... etc...  I've been content to have my peace and quiet when the kids were at their fathers... and now I find that I'm not so good at being alone.  The quiet that echos in my house when Bill leaves booms loudly in my head and my heart aches.  In the span of half a year he's become one of my best friends.  Someone I trust to do the things he says he's going to do... and do things I don't expect him to do without asking.  He has walked into my life, analyzed what I needed and provided the loving comfort I didn't know I was missing...

The last week has, once again, been amazing.  We've worked in the garden together... he's continued to work on our coffee bar...  we've gone to estate sales and laughed with my bestie Cherie...  We've made amazing dinners and breakfasts and just enjoyed each others company every waking minute... and of course there was plenty of... bacon.

The Lil Red Dress Party for the American Heart Association was the first time Bill and I have really gone "out" with my friends.  Our typical night here is friends coming over, eating drinks and having dinner... to get dressed up and be part of this event with him was alot of fun... and alot of kisses and lecherous leers between the two of us. 

We left the party a little bit after midnight and I guess I was just a wee bit tipsy...  I'd burned my finger on a candle (don't ask-also part of the wee bit tipsy.. it was a good idea at the time...) and Bill went to get me ice for the burn.  Instead of just shoving my finger into the ice bucket, apparently I kept throwing ice at him and then promising to stop...  Mental note... if I'm hiccuping, doing silly shizzle like that or any other signs of intoxication... I'm not going to stop... well he probably could have risked an ice cube up close and kissed me... I would have forgotten the cube and the burn quickly.... Instead he thought the bathtub would be a good place to sleep and took all the covers with him... He came back minutes later to me passed out... with finger in bucket... BURP!  He tucks me in and goes to sleep too... and wakes up in the wee hours to go to work.... and left me this sweet note...  Guess ice cubes don't scare him really... ;)

I spent Valentines day at estate sales with my bestie while poor Bill worked with future pole dancers.  I grabbed him at Marta and brought him to a restaurant at 3 where they had a drink and loaded french fries waiting for him.  I know what my man needs.  :)  We laughed as we looked through facebook... it was the day that everyone that knew about the worst kept secret had been waiting for... and they were stalking every post trying to read into whether or not he'd gone through with his plans... My dad and step mother were the worst of all.  :)  Everyone knew he had a speech planned and a ring in hand and were waiting to hear what happened...

He grilled me a fabulous steak even though it was windy and freezing outside.  The wind kept blowing out the gas grill and I got to listen to full blown Mudgie screaming at the wind... Gotta know I love him madly when I hear the insanity outside and I'm guffawing inside.  He really is going to scare little kids when he's 92 and holding a cane lol...  We had a beautiful candlelight dinner in the formal dining room... and went to chill out between dinner and desert on the couch.  The exhaustion he's feeling from the last 48 hours is all over his face... He tells me "do not let me fall asleep" as he sits next to me on the couch... and 10 minutes later he's attempting to lay down and put his head on my lap.  I stroked his head and said "Baby you realize this means you are going to sleep... Lets go to bed"... and he clambered upstairs with the last ounce of energy he had...  He got into bed and I snuggled up next to him ready to pass out...   He says "I need to know... are you really IN THIS?"

Me:  "Yes.  Duh."

Him:  "Will you marry me?"

Me:  "Yes"

ring goes on finger...  (this is a loaner until he finds his mothers... but I'll cherish it and the person who loaned it always)

Him:  "Now can you put that out on Facebook so everyone can calm down." and he thinks he's going to sleep.

I change our status and the world goes crazy... and Bill wakes up as he grins at each and every one of the sweet messages... and even the one that I received via text that wasn't so sweet "fuck" and I walk downstairs to grab us champagne and the Mocha Mousse I made... a mini celebration is in order...

We sleep in the next day... and as I drive him to work I think about the "Grand Planned Speech" and start to guffaw... I ask him "Honey was that THE speech you had worked out in your head..."  and he joins in on my giggling.... "No darling that was me, with nothing left in me... thinking you knew everything I needed to say... it'd all been said before... and I just wanted to get it done while I was awake and it was still Valentines Day..."

He's right... it's all been said by both of us over the past six months.... and doing it low key like that in our house... snuggled up in our bed... really fits us more than a flash mob of friends dancing to Taylor Swift...

Now it's time to plan the wedding... and move his ass down here... and get comfortably ensconced in our "norm"...  Here's my glimpse into our future... Driving him to gigs as he sleeps in the car... The man can't stay awake for longer than 10 minutes in a moving vehicle... which I find terribly funny... because he beats me by only seconds... I suck as a passenger in a car... I'm out in no time flat... I think we had family that was separated at birth generations ago... because Bill and I obviously have the same genetic makeup lol...

Either way... I've got mad Mudgie love and life is great when he's here... I'm moping around a bit this afternoon... I've told the kids officially and CJ is suggesting Bill comes to the marriage with a dowry of Legos...  Katie will be happy with chocolate and bacon... the cats will be happy with the "cat whisperer"... the dogs will be happy with his company... and I'll be happy with the man who completes my home...

April 2016 here we come.

Revel in THAT (yes I said that Bill)

We are reveling in life in general but the actual reference will go left unexplained and bring a smile to my Mudgie's face...

Now is time to bring you our favorite Mudgie Talk Radio moment from the past week...

Our host:  "Ok two people isn't going to be enough.  We're going to need four people and it's going to go to dinnertime probably."

Me:  "Oh thank goodness we'll have time for desert."

Our host: "OK, you go there and there and there... Let's take the ropes and tie it all up."

Me:  "I'm in, you keep talking about ropes but you haven't tied anything up in my presence"....

Our host rolls over and grumbles as he goes back to a peaceful sleep...  Me thinks it was probably a safer thing for him to do...

As previously stated on Facebook... Bill has been a whirling dervish of "honey do" completion.  In two days he helped me pack away my Christmas trees... which led to reorganizing the garage... which led to my garage being swept and two bins of garbage being taken out.  He then installed pull racks in my kitchen island for the pots and pans... In between doing these things, he worked on our prohibition coffee bar, walked the dogs, washed dishes and insured the world was safe by handing me coffee every morning.

The kids love him.  The animals follow him everywhere.  My household is almost a well oiled and drama free environment of love and laughter when he's here.  He fits in well...  My son asked if he lives here now and wasn't being sarcastic or disapproving when he asked... In fact, my son was quite impressed with the kitchen island.  Do you know how hard it is to impress a teenager?  Bill is making points with everyone...

Instead of letting him work around the house for the last few hours he was in Atlanta yesterday I took him down to Cherie's house to see the latest batch of kittens...  (No the picture to the right isn't sideways... the kitty was)...  anyway... anyone that knows him knows that a pile of baby furry beasties is equivalent to Mudgie heaven.  Who can resist three week old kittens?... and who can call Bill a curmudgeon when they watch him snuggle up with these wee beasties... he melts and gets all gooey.  It's a beautiful thing to witness. 

Cherie told him that he's welcome to play with her pussy anytime he wants... to which I responded "Only if I get to watch"...  he went running out of her house with a repressed grin and a shake of his head... Cherie and I are a bit incorrigible together... and he's not quite sure how to handle it... not that he minds trying....

So it's back to work for both of us now.  I've had an amazing vacation month.  My heart hurts with his absence already but as we keep telling each other... even if he was living here the nature of our jobs means we'll be gone a few days a week anyway.... got to find our groove...  but soon he needs to start checking items off on his action list to make going "home" mean coming home to me.

Yes, I think of you all the time my love... which is why I bought the mug for the coffee bar.... right era and very appropriate for us.

Santa Mudgie

Santa Mudgie, slip a chocolate under the tree, for me
I've been an awful good girl
Santa Mudgie, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa Mudgie, a RumChata laced mocha too, just a few
I'll wait up for you dear
Santa Mudgie, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Think of all the fun we've missed
Think of all the times that we haven't kissed
Next year we could be oh so good
If you'd check off my Christmas list
Boo doo bee doo

Santa Mudgie, I wanna washed pot and really that's
Not a lot
I've been an angel all year
Santa Mudgie, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa Mudgie, there's one thing I really do need, with speed
My house lit up with lights
Santa Mudgie, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa Mudgie, fill my doggies with treats and meats
Thanks for letting me lay
Santa Mudgie, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Come and trim my Christmas tree
With some decorations bought from Shelbi please
I really do believe in you
Let's see if you believe in me
Boo doo bee doo

Santa Mudgie, forgot to mention one little thing, a ring
I don't mean on a phone
Santa Mudgie, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Hurry down the chimney tonight
Hurry down the chimney tonight
xoxo


What do I love about becoming Crowell?  The teamwork....  I'm love cooking with the man... everything gets done together.  I have missed REALLY cooking... my kids are beginning to appreciate what real food tastes like but they aren't quite there yet and it's so nice to cook for someone who moans in appreciation... wait... maybe he's moaning because he can't move after eating it all... he's complaining that he is going to look like Santa Mudgie next year.  Work is a good thing to him now... because he loses what I put on him every time he's here.

I love that he wants to get up and make me coffee every morning (he says he's saving the world one cup of coffee at a time... #truth)... and how in doing that he buys me 30 luxurious minutes extra daily of laying in bed and waking up slowly while the kids start to get ready for school.

I love that the kids enjoy playing games with him.  We're having epic Cards Against Humanity wars... all of us laughing hysterically throughout the evening.

I love that my animals are all following him around the house.  Any fur baby parent knows this is the sign of your animals approval... and that your animals need to approve any household additions.

We've been busy since we both got home this week... We're halfway through our week together and we've gone to the Hobbit, to the Melting Pot, and to my dads for brunch.   Today we are going to start working on the prohibition bar I bought that we're putting in our room to make into the epic Crowell coffee bar...  and since it's 'little Christmas' aka the 12th day, it's time to start taking down the Christmas decorations...

It's been an amazing Christmas season.  I couldn't have asked for more.  Between the blessings of London with my children and the blessings of Mudgie love, I am beyond grateful for how my life is as 2015 commences.

What I love most about becoming Crowell?  Is that 70 of our friends have liked the following picture.  I love that all of you have accepted us and support us as we slowly begin to blend our lives together... 

Santa Mudgie and his misses thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Happy 2015.

On the First Day of Christmas My Mudgie Gave to Me....

It's been an amazing week...  Both Bill and I are happier than we've been in a long time...  Our lives are blending together well.  For a long time I've been afraid to have someone in my house.  Yet he keeps showing me in actions (without complaint or even requests) what a true team does.  I just keep grinning my ass off and my heart swells with love.

I've got to make this blog short... as I wanted to get it in before I start my crazy eight days... 

Our week in a nut shell... We had a lazy day with a few errands... A crazy day that ended with a dinner party with my besties that y'all are still talking about...  

We ate lots of great food over the week... sharing the cooking and not so much the cleaning (he says his hands are the cleanest they have been in 10 years lol)... did I mention I love this man? 

Christmas eve was spent baking and watching White Christmas... he suffered through my favorite movie while nibbling on the cookies of his youth....   

Cookies... The holidays are about traditions... memories of Christmas past and making traditions of our own... as I "Become Crowell", Bill and I will come up with our traditions but I wanted to do something to honor his past... which is why I asked for his favorite childhood cookie recipe.  He grinned away as I made, rolled, baked and glazed his cookies... and I felt the love of my grandfather, who's flannel shirt I was wearing... and my other grandfather, whose pin roller I was using to roll the cookies with... It felt right to be blending our history all together at that one moment... 

Christmas day was filled with love and laughter...from the first sip of Mudgie made coffee brought to me in bed... to us opening our gifts... to playing Cards Against Humanity with my kids (apparently I have a sick mind... I kept winning)... to dinner with my parents... to coming home and cleaning and packing for the week... 

It's hard to get up and get ready to go... knowing I have got to send him home, nay Richmond, once again...  It' helps to know that I'll see him tomorrow night in Richmond... and when I come home from England, he'll be here waiting for me in Atlanta... I couldn't be any happier with that thought...

Of all the presents we opened... the best present of them all was one that couldn't be opened... just savored...  the time spent together...  It's a Mudgieful life and that's a very good thing...

Happy New Years Y'all!  Peace out...

Late Night Mudgie Talk Radio

Some people love listening to music at night.... some fall asleep listening to CNN or Jimmy Kimmel.... My favorite late night talk show is "Mudgie Talk".  I had the true pleasure of listening to my favorite radio station four nights this week.  Night one's topic was regarding staffing in bowling alleys.  Night two the location was unclear but Mudgie "FUCKING knew how to do things!!!"  I rolled over, kissed his cheek and said "I know honey of course you do"... and then he calmly explained in detail exactly how to do it.  Night three was multiple topics that I don't remember but he was very animated each time he started one...  whatever they were he was frustrated... so I turned, kissed him and told him I love him.  He'd stop mid sentence, say "I love you too" and immediately fall back to sleep.  The next morning he woke up wondering why I had woken him twice to tell him I love him and then he realized what I had done and grinned.  He knows even in his sleep I have a calming effect on him.  The last night his topic was dirty wet hands and no paper towels or napkins... I rolled over, kissed him and said "Use the cloth ones baby..."  he said "ok" and went back to sleep.... The next day I told him he was obviously more distressed than he let on the day before when I ran out of all the paper products... Told him I have at least 50 damask napkins in my sideboard.  I used to collect them.... We are good.  :)

These moments make me grin... it's like a window into his dreams and I wake up just enough to remember he's beside me which warms my soul.  I desperately try to remember exactly what he talks about when I wake up... I repeat key words to self so I will remember.  I don't always.... and I have joked with him that I am going to start keeping a Mudgie Talk journal next to the bed to write down his musings...  One of the nights during his talk show I woke up dying of heat- he's closely snuggled up spooning me and on my other side there was a wall of kitteh's from my chest to my knees.  I was stuck under blankets that couldn't be moved without waking up something or someone I love.  As I painstakenly moved inch by inch up out of the sheets to get cold air on my skin I thought life could be a whole lot worse than being surrounded by a love furnace.  :)

When Bill is in Atlanta I get a glimpse of how my life can be.  The coffee brought to me every morning while I sleep...  the help around the house... I've been a single mom for 7 years... and help is a radical concept...  hell lets look at the 11 years I was married... I never found that the dishes were miraculously cleaned overnight...  I'd go away for four days leaving a clean stocked kitchen and I'd come back to an empty kitchen with overflowing sink.  I remember telling my ex there was no magic faerie that moved the dishes to the dish washer and he was just as capable as me to do it.  Novel concept?  Not.  Yet I've never had this assistance.  All week I came downstairs in the morning to coffee being ready, the dogs let out and the dishes cleaned.... these simple gestures are the key to my heart.

He's loving cooking for me and the kids... I've taken to calling him my personal chef.  He's Mudgie in his glory making fabulous dinners that EVERYONE, even my picky child, is eating.  Here's another new concept to me... being told to sit and handed a drink while someone else cooks for me.  Can I help?  Nope.  We have fun cooking along each other too though... one night he made enchiladas while I made fresh guacamole.... another morning we made bacon and french toast...  later falling asleep on the couch cuddled together... How gloriously normal is that?

Also "normal" is the making rounds with friends... Cherie was "home" Tuesday night, Thursday we all had brunch at Angelia and MJ's... and Thursday night Kirsten and Mark came over with her kids for dinner.  Couples things with friends that are my life's blood.  It's meant alot to me to watch my friends get to know Bill and adore him too.  Even my son is warming up to him... plopping down on the sofa next to him for a while...  The dogs are putty in his hands...  This sweet goofy lovable gentle giant is making a mark on my home and finding his place in it with very little problems...

Speaking of making a mark on my home... literally... he rigged my house Griswold style with Christmas lights... He spent two days climbing up and down and chasing lights that weren't working... reanalyzing exactly how they should hang.  He was a man on a mission...  and finished after I left for work Friday.

He's got a project lined up for when he returns in a week.  He's going to tidy up the cool prohibition era bar I nabbed off of Angelia.  She sent me a picture a couple of weeks ago to show me this cool piece she'd grabbed for her booth and I said "MINE!" without any more info...  I LOVE unique pieces.  I was planning on using it to jump start the remodel of my 'playroom' but Bill and I have been talking about the piece and we think we are going to make it our coffee bar in our bedroom.   He's going to fix the couple of spots that are missing on the veneer... work on the lighting... and help me order the perfect mirror to go in back on the top.  I'll post pictures after he's done with that "honey do"...

Thursday he looked at me and said "Your work is never done is it?"  Any single parent knows this to be a true statement.  Any time out we take for ourselves we pay for it later... the house doesn't stop getting dirtier.. the laundry stock piles...  the sink fills with dishes...  it can be overwhelming at times and is one of the reasons I love my job... I get paid to have downtime... time that I can sit and not feel guilty for laying in bed longer than normal.  The only time I truly have nothing to do.  So it's just hard to put into words how very grateful I am to have someone that comes in and is instantly part of a 'team' that gets it's work and happily takes some of that work off of my hands.   Every bit of help is appreciated tenfold.  That's part of a great relationship isn't it?  I appreciate him so I do loving things for him... which he soaks up and makes him want to do more loving things for me.  It's a cycle of love that builds each other up instead of tearing each other down... Novel concept?  Not.

"Nobody Does it Better" - Carly Simon

Nobody does it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest
Nobody does it half as good as you
Baby, you're the best

I wasn't looking but somehow you found me
It tried to hide from your love light
But like Heaven above me
The spy who loved me
Is keeping all my secrets safe tonight

And nobody does it better
Though sometimes I wish someone could
Nobody does it quite the way you do
Why'd you have to be so good?

The way that you hold me
Whenever you hold me
There's some kind of magic inside you
That keeps me from running
But just keep it coming
How'd you learn to do the things you do?

And nobody does it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest
Nobody does it half as good as you
Baby, baby, darlin', you're the best

Baby, you're the best
Darlin', you're the best