Life...How Hard Can It Be?

Hey- I’m over here!!!!

Erin — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:33:17 +0000

I give up. No more blogging on this blog. I can only keep one blog child alive at a time. sorry. Come on over to How Hard Can It be? at iluverin.blogspot.com to my well-fed blog child.

My Red Shoes- a haiku

Erin — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:54:10 +0000

Bright, shiny red wedge-

You elevate me to heights

Beyond my nature

Look out Europe- Here I come in my hot new red shoes! Blisters? What care I for such tawdry little things when there is such beauty to be had upon my feet? I shall leave Paris a better place than I found it because my shiny red feet walked their streets!

Birthday Haiku

Erin — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:08:29 +0000

Birthday Haiku (written for me by my hubby on my 35th birthday!)

by M. Taylor

Sucked, squeezed, pushed, compressed
bulging, crowning… tugging- PULL….!!!
Woosh! wipe, snip, SMACK! Waaaaaaahhhhh!!!!

(note following haiku: I hope this birthday is better than your first!)

My Blog is Suffering

Erin — Sat, 03 May 2008 17:26:54 +0000

I am struggling with this dang blog! I think it’s good that I only have 1 child. It seems I can only keep one thing alive at a time! My other blog is thriving, and healthy. This blog is sickly and pale, and lean. My other blog has a happy pink background, this one suffers in comparison. My other blog was started a few hours before this one, it’s like the healthy twin. This blog feels depressed, forlorn, and second-rate.

Blog, it’s not really my fault! I have checked in often to see how you are doing, and have often been rejected from being able to feed you or clothe you. You have often caused me much stress and torment because you don’t make it easy for me to change things I don’t like about you. I know you want me to like you for who you are, but I don’t think I can do that anymore!

I am at a loss. Is there blog counseling we can go to, you and I? Are you beyond saving? Is it me? Maybe I’m just too good for you. Who knows?

Mother’s Day Gift Idea

Erin — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:09:10 +0000

Shameless Self Promotion. I know, but I have to have something I am proud of myself for, right? So, if you are looking for something great to give your mom, or mother of your children, go to Saucy Frocks and get them something they’ll love you for! You can read my other blog for a good reason to get her something like this! It makes a very convincing argument!

Biltmore- You’re the one that I want… Oooo- Ooooo- Ooooooo

Erin — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:52:54 +0000

I was able to help my mom and step-dad move into a new home on Saturday. (no, not the one in the picture!) I was so excited, as it is a move I have been waiting for for a few years now. They lived in North Carolina after they married a little over 10 years ago, and it was hard for me to have my mom so far away, but I enjoyed visiting her when I would get the chance. It is soooo beautiful there!!! And, of course, it’s the home of my “magical” place- the Biltmore!!!! I get weepy just thinking about it! I dream about it on a regular basis, actually. I even have viewmaster slides of it which I pull out and look at wistfully from time to time.

The Biltmore was built at the turn of the century by a very wealthy man named George Washington Vanderbilt. He built it for his wife for a wedding present! It was originally intended to be MUCH smaller, but turned into this incredible and breathtaking palace! It’s been featured in Architectural Digest, and many movies have been filmed there as well. (see “Being There”) I want to stay in the Biltmore hotel, breathe in the oppulence of the surroundings! I WOULD stay in the actual house, but that isn’t allowed. (arg!) I think I was actually a guest there in a former life. (Ok, I don’t really believe in that stuff, but maybe I was related to someone who stayed there and it’s been passed down through my blood.) The first time I ever went there, it was like going home! Truly!

There is a fantastic buffet restaurant there called the Deerpark Inn that serves top-of-the-line gourmet dishes in an elegant setting, for under $20 a person! I will miss it!!!! There is a cute little petting farm where the kids can pet the animals. Eason loved it when we went. I told my hubby that he WILL take me there someday- Oh yes, he will!

So, this was pretty much a travel log. I didn’t intend it to be that way, but now that it is, you can have a great idea for a place to visit with romance, and beauty, and luxury- all rolled into one giant sprawling estate!

Oh, Biltmore, I will always cherish our time together. I will miss your smooth dark woods, your vaulted ceilings, your breathtaking views. There will never be another for me.

Oh, and Mom…. I’m really glad you’re in Utah now! Sorry, forgot to mention that!

Perspective

Erin — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:18:55 +0000

It’s hard when you have a perspective that another does not, when you can see the foolish choices they are making in their life on a daily basis, the complete lack of responsibility they exercise in their decisions, and their inability to pull themselves up out of the muck they are swimming in due to their own inaction. It is hard to watch someone doing things that will hurt them, and not be able to do anything about it. When it’s your own child, you can help them to understand what they are doing wrong, you can punish them for doing wrong things so they understand consequences, and when they are young they usually understand and change their behavior. When it is an adult, it is not that simple.

Right now, I have a vantage point of someone in my life who simply cannot see how their little daily decisions or lack of decisions in this case, is causing their life to spiral out of control, driving them deeper and deeper down into despair, financial ruin, and spiritual and ultimately physical death. Their actions are pushing all who love them further and further away. I try to talk to them about how just changing a few things about their daily rituals and choices can drastically alter the course they are headed in, but they refuse to accept the truth of their situation.

I can do nothing but watch and pray, offer support and advice when asked, and hope they will “get it” eventually. I hope it’s before they end up homeless and completely alone.

Haiku for the IRS

Erin — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:56:26 +0000

It’s Cruel Torture…

Numbers racing through my head

It’s April 15th

Things I hate!

Erin — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:13:30 +0000

Today is a good day to post a list of things I hate. Why? Because I am in a bad mood- duh!

Onions

Smell of rotten potatoes

cramps

obligations I can’t get out of

tiny cramped houses with no storage

dirty socks

laundry

people who don’t signal

day-old glazed donuts

long toe nails

doing dishes

greasy hair

slow poke kids

responsibility

over-cooked pasta

dirty floors

washing blinds

selfish people

pap smears

people who read their entire talk in church from the church magazine

being out of chocolate

paying bills

removing dingleberries

bad singing

when fitted sheets come up off the mattress in the night

wearing socks to bed

wearing shoes

cleaning the bathroom

days hotter than 85 degrees

snow in April

gas prices

my faults

other people’s faults

this posting!

A Big Red Flag!

Erin — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 15:39:47 +0000

Our piano desperately needs tuning! We’re talking, I’m a soprano, and the high notes on our piano are almost too low for me! The other day, in frustration, my hubby yanked out the phone book and began angrily looking up piano tuners. My hubby has always hated the phone book… mainly because of the alphabet! He always gets frustrated and throws the book down and says he can’t find something. I ask him if he was looking in the “p’s” for “Piano”….. he just says… “oh”.

So, staring at the list of piano tuners in the book, neither of us knows who to call. We’ve never heard of “Joe” or “Ed” or “Les”. They could be escaped convicts for all I know! I’m the one that has to let them into my home, with me all alone, what could possibly happen, asks hubby? A whole heckuva lot, if you ask me! The one consolation is that most piano tuners, I have found, are old, retired men who are very nice and incredibly well rested.

Merritt chooses to call “Joe”.

*ring* *ring* *ring* *ring* *ring* *ring* *ring*

(a woman- not a native english speaker- answers) “Hullo?”

“Uh, yes, is Joe Brown there?”

“Whaaaaaat?”

(a little louder and more distinct) “Is Joe Brown There???”

“Whaaaaaaaaat????”

” Joe Brown….. the Peeee-aaaaaa-nnnnooooooo Tooooooo-nnneeerrrrrrrrrrr”

“Hold on” stomp stomp stomp stomp stomp stomp……. door squeeking……….. Man hacking in background…..

(a feeble, old, one and a half foot in the grave, old man answers) “h-h-h-h-e-l-l-l-l-o-o–o?”

“Is this Joe Brown?”

“Whaaaaaaaat???”

“Is THIS J-O-E B-R-O-W-NNNN????”

“Whaaaaaaaattttt?????”

Pause for a moment. Think, do I continue with this phone call, knowing this man can not hear? Can you have a piano tuner who is hard of hearing, let alone one day from death??? Once I had a crown put on a tooth, only to find out later that it was made by a blind man. Like that’s a GOOD thing???? It’s given me troubles ever since!

“Are you Joe Brown, the piano tuner???”

“Oh…… I’m reeeee-tiiiiii-eerrrrrrrrdddd”

We were too emotionallly exhausted after that phone call to try any more numbers. Today, however, I was able to get a nice sounding retired man, who seemed to be able to hear just fine, and was pretty able-bodied as he was planning on going golfing later today. I’ll still look him up on “America’s Most Wanted” just to be on the safe side!