Conversation in the Burse House…

Mom: What is THIS? (points to sign on bedroom door)

Katie: We have passworded (her word) our bedroom, Mom!

….said with eyes above glasses…looking at the way my mother looks at me when she is telling me something i should do, or should have done, or shouldn’t have done at all.

Mom: New rule: until you know how to spell the word “please” and the word “password” maybe we can live without the “keep out” signs….

Katie: Mikayla translated in her sign.

Mom: Fabulous.

Katie: Did you check the mailbox? You have a Passport.

Mom: I do? Wait, the one outside?

….put boots on, go outside, open mail box, return to house….with Passport…

Katie: See.

….as if i should have known. she smiles proudly.

Mom: I’m frustrated.

….hand Katie Passport.

Katie: Let me take that for you.

Mom: I don’t know the password.

Katie: Cupcake. Duh….

the house as been invaded. by the flu. i frequently brag about never getting any ailment other than pregnancy (or the occasional annoying cold), but this time, i was not overlooked. we all went down like dominoes, leaving the abode only to get the basic items for the house or to restock cough drops and Motrin. Christmas, although still a treasure, was spent with Kleenex, steam showers, and scary temp spikes.

tears and sleepless nights, trips to the doctors office, followed up with threats that as soon as i have an ounce of energy, i am going to Lysol and bleach every inch of our house.

i have not touched my computer…barely picked up my phone, and this is the first picture i have taken in 10 days because i felt like my camera was a boulder too big to attempt lifting. work has waited and piled up, and honestly, i just need to let that happen right now while i get my family back on the road to health and sleep and happiness. i am hoping to return to full speed by the end of the week.

i am delieriously excited about the dawn of the new year…excited about the growth of my family (we add baby number 4 in the spring), my business, new projects, and new goals. the new website launches JANUARY 21 (Eeek!), and with it a few special deals for new customers and even better savings for returning customers.

i wish you all love, happiness, success, and enduring joy in the new year, and always. amanda.

this is how my week has gone…low grade fevers, lots of crying, NOT lots of sleeping, trips to doctors

(one included his shots…more fun),

no answers….

finally late last night, the culprit showed itself. a tooth. a sneaky tooth budding through.

all that, for ONE tooth.

3 teeth down, 17 more to go.

my life has gone exactly as she said it would…..so far.

“Oh my….you will live the longest of lives,” she said as she looked deeply, past my skin almost, into my palm.

job requirement for a palm reader i guess.

i laughed and felt silly because it was a silly day kind of day. my best friend Amy and I had escaped small town monotony after earlier than early field hockey practice, called into work, and then we traveled all the way down to Old Orchard beach in her mom’s gray station wagon…a car that took us on all kinds of misadventures. i think there were boys there but i hardly remember them because they didn’t matter. i was in between loving and hating boys after a bad breakup the spring before.

i still love/hate boys. i have a husband, but i also have daughters. if you have daughters….you get it.

“I see two marriages. One short. One long,” she paused. “This guy ain’t it for either of ‘em,” she said as she nodded her frizzy, curled head towards that guy i can barely remember, but i think he was tall…because the guy that had broken my heart was really short and i was boycotting (pun intended) short boys and boys that broke my heart and boys. the bells on her neck jingled in agreement.

Amy and i snorted a half laugh.

“You will have 4 healthy children, but you give your heart away too much,” she looks again towards the boy who must have been tall. “Not to him though….you won’t give it to him”.

awkward….

“And you will be very healthy and sometimes sad because of your heart….but happy a lot too….” her voice trails off in my memory, and if anything else was said, i am sure the tall boy had nothing to do with it.

a few days ago, i was curled up next to Will, laying him down for his nap, and i remembered all that.

and i had just had to write it down.

before i forgot it again.

“i sometimes wake in the early morning & listen to the soft breathing of my child & i think to myself, this is one thing i will never regret & i carry that quiet with me all day long.”

brian.andreas