Monday Mumblings

So - Kendra stayed home today and she is definitely feeling better. Off to school she'll go tomorrow. As I needed to get some ironing done - I hate ironing - we searched the DVD collection for a movie to get me through the pain.


Turns out, she had not seen Holiday Inn. Now we watch White Christmas every year but I forget I have the other and thought she would enjoy the dresses, singing and dancing. We put in the DVD, it starts playing and she asks "Will it ever be in color?" Um. No. Guess not.


Checked the copyright date and the narrative at bottom of DVD cover and guess what? The film was nominated for 3 Academy Awards in 1942, winning the Award for best song "White Christmas." Irving Berlin wrote the song for this movie with Bing Crosby (& Fred Astaire) and then reprised it in the movie by the title "White Christmas." Oh, who knew.


I still enjoy the movie and thus, at 69 years of age, it seems to have some staying power. Perhaps that's a bit pompous - my sister and I may be the only ones in the world who still watch that movie. Kendra would like to see the pretty, sparkly dresses in color.


I also have the 1st "Technicolor" film from 1953, How to Marry a Millionaire, but I think we'll go next to My Fair Lady. Camelot has to wait a little for maturity. Love a good Musical. The girls also like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I'm glad they enjoy these and I'm not alone!


Yesterday afternoon saw us watching "The Sound of Music." How can we turn the channel away from that? I was actually writing yesterday's post during the movie and at one point Bart suggested to the girls that it was good I was distracted or I'd be singing along and including choreography. Hah! Showed him and did it while I wrote - pausing for the occasional choreographed move. I can also recite bits along with the characters.


I can do that with Star Wars (the 1st or 4th "original") too but....We're not going there. Embarrassed myself enough in front of my husband rattling off the cast quirks of Star Trek - Original Version - while watching the recently released Star Trek movie. He didn't even know all the character's names!!! Again. Shouldn't go there.


Speaking of ironing, which I hate, Bart & I recognize both the blessing and curse that is coming our way. You see, at the beginning of April, he will essentially move back to the US. Taking with him a good portion of his work wardrobe. I imagine I will bring him some more on our house-hunting trip. You see where this is going don't you?


He was already grinning as I was putting away the ironing board a couple weeks ago and said that I had a confession to make: " I will miss you soooo much honey when you're gone but I won't have to iron your shirts anymore!!!!!!!!!!" I do have a few things I do have to iron but they tend to not 'pile up' like his work wardrobe does. But I will miss him very much.


What else has been going on? Ah, I had the appointment with the property management co. and relocation people and everything went really well. Turns out, and this is NOT the normal situation, the landlord will release us from the Lease as of our notice date of July 1. This means we are not obligated for the July - September period as stated under "Swiss Rental Rules." The reason is two-fold in that 1) I am willing to help show the property and therefore the Management Company saves a lot of time and 2) they are changing the terms of the Lease agreement - you are normally required to find a replacement for your Lease under the original conditions. What a blessing! We are very pleased as it just alleviates some stress.

Stress, which seems to be aggravating my 'silent reflux' condition. I'm sure singing for 2 - 3 hours yesterday has nothing to do with it (singing can aggravate it due to the contraction of the abdominal muscles). Bluck! Although we had a terrific service! I've been treated for this before and it comes and goes but has been irritating me more lately. So I'm going to be a good girl and take my med 1st thing each morning (with a full glass of water and must wait 20-30 min. before eating/drinking again).

But - I have to do some other things too. Item one is not eating/drinking much 2-3 hours before lying down. So my nap after lunch, after singing so much, yesterday was a no-no. As are after dinner snacks. Which I would rather eat than dinner - preferably cheesey ones. I've also got the no-smoking and keeping excess weight off down pat. No problem. The problem is with item Two - the type of things I consume.

On the list of foods that aggravate this condition are: Caffeine - especially coffee and chocolate, Alcohol- I'm good with this but Wine? :( , tomato based sauces, garlic, onions, CHEESE! and saturated fats - butter, cream , the list goes on and on. Hello! looks like the Bread & Water diet I was on when nursing Kendra. What's a girl to do, let alone eat? Sigh...... I need to figure out which are worse than others (I know butter is one). But CHEESE?

Maybe that pot of Fondue during Ski Break didn't help either. Tomorrow I will post Ski Break and not torture you with anymore mumblings.

Married a Wonderful Man!

16 years ago today. He still makes me laugh. I still think he's cute. We have a lot of fun. We trust each other. Love him more today than I did 16 years ago. Amazing isn't it - how that works?

I thank God for him every day.

And ever so often, you run across something that brings back memories of the beginning. Such is the case this week. I found a box up against one of our walls "underground" which has a little mildew damage. One of the few boxes that is rarely touched and happens to have an assortment of memorabilia in it. Boo!

So I'm going through this box to toss out stuff I don't need to haul, for yet one more time, to the next place of residence. Stuff that should have been sorted years ago. The stuff you put in an envelope and say "I'll do that later when I have some free time." Free time comes when you realize that you have to clean up mildew spots and throw things away because "free time is too late." Fortunately, there hasn't been much I need to throw away. The biggest item is my volume of "Classic American Short Stories in Literature." Which I obviously read all the time. I think I'll survive for a while - until Rachel has to buy it in University (I'm assuming the American Short Story is still studied in University English classes)!

The box has letters from family and friends, various programs from weddings and a couple funereals, 1st Birthday announcements, class photos from my elementary years and things like this:

Yes, we had an itinerary for our wedding. Because we were a wedding party that was heavily made up of CPA's. Not just the 2 getting hitched.

When I look at that itinerary I think "what a geek!" I'm the one that set it up although I'm sure my sweet, on-time and loves "everything in order" husband-to-be had some input. I didn't throw it away.

When I look at that itinerary, I also see a picture: of a soon-to-be bride and her father in the driveway. It was a touching moment and I still love the memory of the look on my dad's face. He was shaking his head back and forth and grinning - amused and perplexed.

Because his 28 year old daughter was throwing a crying fit as we were trying to get in the car because we were *GASP* running about 13 1/2 minutes late to the church. According to the itinerary, we were arriving 2 hours before the ceremony to dress and take pictures - big deal. Stupid itinerary.

I think that's the only time I've ever cried about being late for something. I'm usually pretty relaxed about being late. Personal flaw I'm sure and a definite Social flaw here in Switzerland (I've gotten much better).

Guess what else I found? Our 1st Anniversary cards. They match. Pretty funny, huh? It wasn't the first time this happened!

When we first started dating, it was sometime late Fall and so we celebrated our first Christmas together with R & F (yes, CPA's and in our wedding - who in fact, caught our bouquet & garter and were married 3 months after us). I opened the card he gave me and looked at it confused. I looked at the envelope and it said "Susan" so I said "open your card, Bart." It was the same. We both stared and cracked up. Same thing happened that 1st Anniversary - bought the same card, different stores. Meant to be.

Hope you've enjoyed my little trip down memory lane. I hope mildewed boxes don't prompt your own trips.

I have to admit I saw that look on my dad's face one more time: He's in the living room with me, Rachel is about 6 days old and I burst into tears and said something to the effect that "she's already changed so much and someday she's going to be grown up and gone." He chuckled and said I had a few years to wait. :)