My Kids are Going to be So Spoiled with All These Grandparents Around

A long while back, I caused a bit of a family brouhaha and I wasn't feeling very happy when I wrote this post. What happened was this:

Last May, when my in-laws came from England to visit us, we were walking by a darling red stucco house down the street that was for sale. We had known the previous occupants, and feeling curious, we climbed the fence into the backyard and looked through the back windows. Maybe we would have felt more guilty about it if we didn't happen to know all the neighbors.

As we stood in the backyard, taking in the glorious view, my mother-in-law (MIL) sighed in delight and said, "I just feel like this is where we are supposed to live."  After that, we went around and looked at some other houses for sale, but none of them had the same effect as the first one. My FIL teased my MIL a bit about the whole thing during the rest of their stay with us, but she kept referring to that red house as her house.

When they left us, they went to stay with one of Husband's brothers in another part of the country (the brother who met his future wife at our wedding reception). While there, both MIL and FIL had a very strong feeling they needed to go ahead and buy the red stucco house. Long story short: they did.

My mistake was in one day posting a status update to Facebook about them moving in down the street. I wasn't thinking, and I normally think before hitting the "enter" button and putting something out there into the open. Well, since the British rellies hadn't been told yet, phone lines began to burn up in England and then in trans-Atlantic calls of shock and horror to my in-laws. With so many more children and grandchildren living in England and Wales than the States (including the only daughter of those seven children), how could they possibly think about moving here permanently?!? 

I got a brusque phone call from my FIL requesting that I delete the Facebook update immediately. While the cat was out of the bag with the rest of the kids, he was worried that word would get around to MIL's and FIL's workplaces, triggering firings. Since both of them only had months left before they could begin drawing their pensions, it would have created a financially devastating tragedy.

I felt absolutely horrible. Really, I had one of the worst days of my life that day. I don't find it at all amusing to be on the business end of family anger, even if I knew it would eventually fade and go away. Fortunately, Husband wasn't angry with me and kept telling me it would pass with no permanent harm done.

Now, a year later, MIL and FIL are finally making the big move.They fly in next Tuesday. I've been officially forgiven as the bearer of bad news, though the kids and grandkids in England and Wales are very sad about losing two people who have given them so much support and love. They understand that Husband and I were not involved in a conspiracy to get MIL and FIL to move here. And the silver lining is that they'll have a place to stay when they visit the States. With three big bedrooms and a huge family room, MIL and FIL are ready for guests.

Now the interesting part begins. Stay tuned.

I Better Get This Offshore Drilling Injury Taken Care Of

A few weeks ago, I was writing about offshore oil drilling and injury. I googled the topic and visited a lawyer's website that specializes in offshore injury cases in order to get some information, as I like to be at least somewhat accurate in what I write. Since then, that particular law office has been trying to get my attention. The ad pops up everywhere I go, sometimes twice on a page. Have you been injured offshore? it desperately asks, worried I might be missing my opportunity to get justice. Call us!

Just so you know, the Law Offices of Arnold & Itkin LLP are ready to help you. They have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars. And now that you know that, whatever you do, do NOT look them up because if you use the same browser I do, they'll be trying to get your attention, too.

I've Just Written for 6 Hours, so This is What You Get

It's getting warm, but I haven't yet succumbed to turning on the air conditioner. That may not last much longer.

Little Gary passed his kindergarten assessment with flying colors. For a kid I thought would drop out of preschool within the first week, he's come a long way. And while I was thinking I'd hold him back a year because he'll barely be 5 when school starts in the fall, I'm now satisfied he'll do just fine.

We cleaned out the garage and put a bunch of stuff we don't want on the curb for trash pickup. Already the pile has diminished as people come along and ask to take things. Hey, be my guest. 

Marmite the dog is finally to a place where he doesn't tear off down the road the moment he gets a chance. I guess he's decided to stay, which is a good thing because we are all thoroughly in love with him now.

So, have you bought the books yet?

But When Kimbra's New Album is Released, I'm Making Some Purchases

I burned a mixed CD a while ago. It's called Totally Cool Music, which, I agree, is a pretty lame title, but it works for my purposes.

Here's what's on it:

This Moment   ~French Horn Rebellion
Ordinary World  ~Duran Duran
Wheels  ~Jamie Cullum
Fallin' For You  ~Colbie Caillat
You and Me are Gone  ~Jamie Cullum
Crush  ~Dave Matthews Band
Sideways  ~Citizen Cope
Nobody  ~Eliza Doolittle (a few of my girls would keep this one on a constant loop if it wouldn't drive me crazy)
All About Your Heart  ~Mindy Gledhill
White Flag  ~Dido
Black Velvet  ~Alanah Myles
AB_Machines  ~French Horn Rebellion (the kids like this one)
No One is to Blame  ~Howard Jones
No Air  ~Jordin Sparks
Get Your Way  ~Jamie Cullum
Losing Sleep (Still, My Heart)  ~Vangelis

So...have you bought the books yet?

It's Not "The Secret"

I've been reading about quantum physics and subatomic particles. For the last few weeks, I've been having a hard time getting anything else done because my mind has been so happily distracted. So even if I'm churning out my daily quota of paid writing (with Husband's help, now that Little Gary has graduated from preschool and has only his mommy for entertainment, and that situation is hardly conducive to the quiet, reflective thinking I require to write anything coherent), I've frequently found myself staring off into space, daydreaming about The Zero Point Field.

It's good to lead off with the fact that you're reading about quantum physics, or even mention subatomic particles in casual conversation. In general, it sounds impressive, which fools your friends into thinking you're really smart even while you're laughing at yourself for your utter nerdiness. The other day, however, I got a little overexcited and actually did bring up the concepts of nonlocality and coherence in casual conversation in an attempt to illustrate a point. My problem is that I am excited to share these things not because I can look intelligent but because the implications of those concepts are so profound and I want everyone to be as thrilled about it as I am. My other problem is that I am not familiar enough yet with the information to be able to clearly describe what it is I want to say.

So here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to go back and start sorting out my thoughts so I can share them here in little increments. Meanwhile, you'll go and find and read these two books: The Field and The Intention Experiment, both by Lynne McTaggart. I promise they're great reads, and maybe you'll start feeling the urge to talk about the fact that we create our reality every second of the day and how we're all connected to each other and to the cosmos through the Zero Point Field.

C'mon. It'll be fun!