Random Muses of Megret

So, I got up this morning and looked over at Ken over breakfast. "Let's put away our Christmas decorations today." I was firm, it was settled. I was actually tired of looking at it, yes...even just four days past Christmas. It is true that it had been up since the day after Thanksgiving, so maybe I'm not that much of a Scrooge. When you are pregnant, chasing a toddler, have the aid of your husband during his week off, AND ready to get the house moving closer to being put on the market, it makes sense. We actually looked at a house yesterday. At first, I was like, "No, way." It does need some updating. But the floorplan is PERFECT, and so is the location (Ken could literally walk to work). We have some decisions to make, and some computations to figure as to how much work we would need to do right now and how much could wait. I would love to find the town's most perfect house, walk right in, have the paint colors exactly to my specifications alrea...

Yes, another blog....for the newest soon-to-be member of our family. A permanent link above is coming soon, but in the meantime.... BabyWilson02

So, last night Ken and I had an unexpected date night. Gardner spent the night with Ken's parents, and so we went out on the town. It's been a little while....mainly since the holiday rush started....that we've taken the time out to do this. I was craving some Chinese cuisine, so we headed to our favorite spot in town, Grand China. This restaurant opened the year we started dating, and in fact, our third date was at this very location. It fits all of the prerequesites for a restaurant and then some: exceptional cleanliness, great wait staff, romantic/calm environment, and of course, very good food. Let me just say that we were transported back almost ten years while sitting there in that booth. The menus were just as they were back then. The decor was untouched. The background piano music was the same CD they've been playing for years. The place just exuded familiarity. I love being able to go to a place that's still the same, amidst all of the changing fac...

Mom and I were just agreeing today how much of a let-down it is when Christmas has come and gone. I think our society is at least partly to blame. If they wouldn't start decking the halls and shelves on Oct. 31st at midnight, we might not become so enamoured with the countdown to Christmas, and we might not mourn so greatly its passing. I sit here on the couch, in my new PJs that my sweet husband gave me, and I'm still enjoying the sweet sounds of carols coming from the stereo speakers. I look over at the tree....it still shines brightly, even though the gifts underneath look impoverished and bare compared to less than 24 hours ago. I can still smell evergreen in the air, as well as chocolate and candles. Christmas is still here. It will be here all week. It will be here all YEAR....for it is the true meaning of this day which is intended to last way beyond the month of December. As I grow older, I am trying not to let it get me down when Christmas comes and goes. There...

So, I'm at my computer for the first time since Thursday. I have been in the bed with a sore throat, stuffy head, and low-grade fever for two days. Right now, I'm now 6 hours past my last dosage of Tylenol and still no fever.....fingers are crossed. Yes, I saw the doctor....I don't take chances when I'm pregnant. He either suspects just a viral thing or sinus infection (or throat infection). To cover all bases, he put me on amoxicillin...those glorious, non-coated horse pills that smell and taste despicable. With that on top of lots of compassion and care from family and friends (thanks, Mom, Ken, Suzanne!), I am feeling as if I'm coming out of the worst of it now. I truly hope so....it's Christmas Eve, for goodness sake, and I have my entire family coming over here tomorrow!! This year, my fears came true....illness hit us again, somehow, someway. This is now the third year in a row that either Ken or I have been sick either right around or ON this speci...

.....well, sort of. I am back. It's just that I'm dealing with the worst of all sore throats today. That's where the "not so much better than ever" part comes in. Thankfully, we had our power restored by Sunday morning. By Monday afternoon, all was normal again in our household....our fridge was totally cleaned and restocked, our clothes unpacked, and all 7 loads of laundry was clean and ready to be put back in its place. It was so nice to be back home. I have never wanted to kiss the floors like I did. Now, it's only three days until Christmas. We are SO excited this year. Probably just cause we have a little one who's old enough to actually enjoy it, even though he can't fully comprehend it quite yet. Life is crazy this week, as Ken prepares for our church's FIVE Christmas Eve services.....but it will all calm down eventually, and we will be able to relax and rejuvinate soon enough. More later.....

So, here it is, day three after the ice storm, and all three of us are still without power at home. We are currently staying with my parents. We went back home today to check on things and get a few items....and I burst into tears when I walked in. I miss home!! I know that my feelings are exaggerated because I'm pregnant and don't feel well (and who wants to be anywhere but home when they don't feel well?)....but....I do miss home. A seven or eight-foot in diameter tree fell one street down, taking out three poles and transformers. That explains why everybody is getting their juice up and going again but us. When we pulled over today to ask a guy standing on the premises, he said they hope to have it restored by tonight or tomorrow. Fingers are crossed....believe me. You really never fully comprehend the security and the comforts of home until you lose them. Humility in its truest form comes to those who are forced out of their homes. This is only a taste of what ...

Well, we had an ice storm last night that left us powerless.....to do anything. I mean, our house is devoid of electric energy. The trees are losing branches all over our historic neighborhood....toppling onto houses, cars, power lines. Amid all of the destruction, there is still great beauty. The branches are coated with a thick layer of crystal whiteness, and it looks like a winter wonderland out there. We spent the morning sleeping in a bit, then heading to a local Southern cookin' stop to have breakfast with friends. I'm currently using the computer at Ken's office, where there's still power....at least for now. I hope this means we'll actually get some real snow this year. Guess I'll have to wait and see.

Stumbled across these while thumbing through web pages this evening.... - Recommended by a dear friend, a great way to buy magazine subscriptions. - Oh my, oh my. Finally a decent collection of 80s television commercials for fun viewing. I had such a blast reminiscing. - I don't know what is so different about these confections to make them this pricey (other than their Parisian label), but somebody please buy some for my stocking this year. :)

This is how it goes. Maybe someone else out there will understand what I am talking about when I describe this thing which irritates me so greatly. I am sitting in a place....a quiet place. It usually occurs in a library....a bookstore....a setting of a small group of close friends in conversation.... I feel it. I hear it. It's a sudden burst of inspiration. It's inspiration to write....to put into written words all that I have pent up inside....memories aching to be relived on paper. It's inspiration to read. To open books I have wanted to open for so long and to find knowledge from their pages. It's inspiration to delve deeper into God's Word. To explore a passage of Scripture so keenly, one which will turn over to a whole new leaf in my mind, a new way to see it for the first time. It's inspiration to write letters to someone with whom I need to communicate. It's inspiration to succomb to the tugging of the musical self still buried within me....to...

As if my week couldn't get any more nostalgic, I unearthed a treasure today that I'd forgotten about. Right now, LPs from the 50s to the 70s are playing through my recently purchased Viewlex Record Player (thanks, aunt Melinda). Not just any LPs....but vintage Christmas LPs. I have been collecting this vinyl genre for four years now, and I am quite satisfied with the selection thus far. You might hear Bing Crosby on the radio (or cable radio), but it's not everyday that you can pipe in Ray Conniff and Dean Martin crooning in glitzy holiday style. I'm loving life right now.....

Ken and I have both been sick this weekend....we stayed inside and even "shipped" Gardner off to stay with grandparents so he wouldn't contract anything. Needless to say, we had a lot of time on our hands. We both chose different rooms; I was more comfortable in the bed, he on the couch...so we could each choose our television entertainment without a squabble. What I really wanted to do was read, but when you have one of those behind-the-eyes headaches, it's just not feasible. Instead, I let the books which I wanted to read just stare at me from the shelves above. I cannot speak for Ken, but I can tell you what I watched on television to pass those lonely hours. I found one reel after another of classic Christmas movies....and I was ecstatic. I watched some really old ones, the classic black and whites....my all-time favorites. I finally got to see "Christmas in Connecticut." And last but not least, I watched "A Christmas Story." This is...

Here is the "photo of the week" brought to you straight from the bathroom counter of the Wilson house at 7am this morning. To copy what Ken asked on his blog today, "Does anyone know what this means?"

My sister and I are eight years apart. After asking God for a baby sister (yes, I was specific) each night at bedtime for over two years, it came true when I was in 2nd grade. We did everything together. Even played together. (I have a suspicion that my playing with Barbies until I was nearly 12 years old had something to do with having a little sister. It extended my childhood just a little bit farther, and for that, I'm grateful.) One year (I believe it was the year Dad was away), we decided to start exchanging ornaments. Mom and Dad had so many beautiful and storytelling ornaments decorating their tree, but it hit me one day that those were THEIR ornaments. What would happen when Emily and I moved out on our own? Even though that's hard to fathom when you're not even a teenager yet, it required some serious consideration. Mom, of course, promised us that she'd give us some of their ornaments that were left over. We didn't blame her, though, when she didn't ...

I guess if I had to admit that I collect something, I would have to say that it's nutcrackers. Of course, I only display them at Christmas, but I can at least enjoy them for two months out of twelve. I can attribute my love of nutcrackers to two things in my past. First, when Dad was in the military and we were stationed at Fort Polk (i.e., "Fort Puke"), Louisiana, we got to be good friends with his commander and his wife and son. They had been in the military long enough to have been fortunate enough to travel overseas, namely Europe, several times. Jane, his wife, became ultra fond of nutcrackers, and it was oh so evident. Instead of a myriad of gifts encircling their Christmas tree were a spattering of nutcrackers. These weren't just department store nutcrackers....these were Steinbach nutcrackers from Germany. All sizes, all heights, all colors, all themes. Gorgeous. One summer we took a family trip with this family. Well if you can call it a trip we took "to...

When I left home, Mom gave me a select number of ornaments off of our family tree to take with me....namely some of the ones I had made. Obviously, she wanted to keep some of them, and rightly so. Yet she willingly gave me a certain one, an odd one among all of the others. This ornament was made from recycled greeting cards. Not just any greeting cards....but greeting cards from the 60, 70s and 80s, SO much fun to look through. Not only that, they were the cards of my 7th grade Social Studies teacher, Mrs. Mayfield. Our middle school was an ancient building downtown. By ancient I mean built in the 20s, with no air conditioning to speak of even in the years I attended, 1990-92. The classrooms had 17-foot ceilings (or so it seemed), and the linoleum was scuffed and dulled. Chipped paint on every wall showed the four or five other colors they had been painted previously. It fit right in, then, that we would use old greeting cards to construct decorations for our trees. They were easy to ...

I was looking at our tree last night.... We don't have one of those trees with a "theme," nor do all of my decorations color-coordinate or have a deep, symbolic meaning. Well, maybe that last part is true. You see, we have a hodge-podge tree. On it are ornaments from 1978 to today. I have ornaments given to me from so many people, and each one speaks a memory back to me when I look at it. It may not be a tree that can be showcased in Southern Living by any means, but it is sentimental, and I love it. It couldn't be more beautiful. I carried out the tradition set forth by my family.... We carefully unpacked all of the ornaments and laid them lightly on the couch, displayed from one end to the other. Then, we carefully chose the order on which to place them on the branches, putting our favorites near the top or center. Certain ones glow when lit, so the placement near the tiny white bulbs is an exact science. I am going to give a snippet of history for a few of ...