Evolution

Taking a page from Sugar's, Jules' and Danna's blogs....

20 Years Ago (1985)
I'm playing and partying my way through college. Is it any wonder why it's taken me six years to get a degree (as a full-time student no less!) ?! This is my Making Stupid, Stupid Choices Phase. Fortunately, it is short-lived.

15 Years Ago (1990)
I married Dear Hubby just after the start of the new year, after dating for three years. It's probably no coincidence that Stupid, Stupid phase pretty much ended when I met him. Not sure I can say it was *because* I met him, but still it was time to grow up - even if just a little. We move to the Washington, DC area about a year later.

10 Years Ago (1995)
Still in the DC area, can't imagine ever leaving. We bought our first home a couple of years prior. Son One arrives. I'm spending my six-week maternity leave searching for a new job. No way I'm staying with a company that laid off my mother (who also lived with us at the time) on the very day I went into labor. Sheesh!

5 Years Ago (2000)
Dear Hubby, Son One (now 5), Son Two (now 3) and I moved back to Louisiana a year ago. We're renting a little townhouse type apartment not far from where I grew up. Hoping to buy a house across The Lake. We say that here as if there's only one lake in the state. Dear Hubby's mother is diagnosed with a brain tumor. She has surgery and radiation treatments. She still manages to keep her sense of humor. (She dies a year later.) Dear Hubby starts a job that seems promising after taking a year off to be Mr. Mom, while I worked various secretarial jobs. It's not that he doesn't want to work, but his 7 years as a police officer in Va. apparently isn't considered an asset. Law enforcement doesn't get the same level of respect here that it did in the areas surrounding D.C. Son One has a seizure at school.

1 Year Ago (2004)
Dear Hubby has triple bypass surgery, after two previous attempts at using stents to keep his arteries clear. His first stent was put in a year and a half ago on the same day that his sister suffers a massive heart attack after one of her four stents clogs up. Of course, her situation is more dire, so the rest of the family is holding vigil at her bedside while I sit in the cardiac waiting room (different hospital) with Son One (8 at the time), Son Two (6 at the time) and Son Three (six months old at the time). Sister-in-law died about a month later, just shy of her 41st birthday. Dear Hubby had three more stents put in on the one-year anniversary of his first procedure, but six months later, he was being filleted like a catfish. This time, though, I had plenty of company as the family comes to hold vigil at Dear Hubby's hospital. It's almost too much, though. The surgery took several hours longer than planned. After 5 or 6 hours, I finally persuade the rest of the family to go home and have dinner (it's around 6 pm at this point). They go, and take Sons One through Three with them. Just one sis-in-law, who's a nurse, and I are left. Finally we get the word that all is well.

We've been in our house for a few years now - we really like the area where we're living. Son One's seizures are under control and he is eventually taken off his anti-seizure medication, but is taking medication for ADHD. I've been a stay-home mom since Son Three was born in '02.

A Month Ago
Home Sweet Home! After a two week evacuation, we return to our home which weathered Hurricane Katrina with minimal damage.

Yesterday
The older boys are back in school. Son Two hasbaseball practice in the evening, but Dear Hubby arrives home early enough to take him. I don't mind going to the park but the coach keeps them at practice for two hours, which is hard at that time of the day. Everyone (incl. me and Sons One and Three) starts getting a little hungry and cranky, not to mention eaten by mosquitos. Besides, my mother the mall rat, sent me two boxes full of clothes that she picked up at various sales over the past couple of months so I'm having a one-woman fashion show at home. My strut-and-pose music? The theme to "Tom & Jerry" (yes, the cat and mouse) accented by Zack's machine-gun cackle. Life is good.