Guten morgen! (Uh, that's German for good morning )

I'm glad to see all my Friends here posting and in good humor! What a pleasant way to start my day, which already has my stomach in knots and the coffee making me a teensy bit nauseated. I guess I could pour it down the drain, but that nectar is necessary to get me through the day!

A message to Pen, Pam and Mer--no more hiatuses from controversial posts, okay? I enjoy having you guys back because it's not been much fun posting without you. Pam, you're right--we CAN look back to our early posting days and log the progress. I have you guys to thank for many breakthroughs and understanding.

I had also decided I had enough of putting myself out here. But, after our erstwhile Triple J convinced me it was good for me, I reconsidered. So here I am.

I'm still a little reluctant to put my stuff out here after we begin the D process... but I'll figure that out as I go along. I don't expect it to be easy or without tons of sadness. I figure the best place to deal with those feelings is in C... which is something that bears consideration.

Pen, if you DO decide to go on hiatus, please shoot me off an e-mail (do you have my yahoo account?) and we'll keep in touch offline. I want to say that I admire your courage in coming to this BB to learn and understand. It would have been really easy for you to misrepresent yourself, and I appreciate honesty. I have no problems with anyone posting on my thread, as long as they respect me and others.

I've found that the best and most intense teachers are the ones who FORCE us to think outside our box. Instead of fighting it, I am working on embracing that sooner rather than later. It's much more helpful.

Linda, see Nemo and you will get the classification of sharks and fishies... no name calling whatsoever. We're just different species, that's all.

And I'm really proud to say that I have been fish sober for 15 months. Go me!

Glad to see that all our minnows are doing well. Hey, we must be doing SOMETHING right? From the wee ones to the teenagers, they seem to be helping us stay grounded on what is truly important in life.

I got home last night and found Mr. Wonderful sitting at my computer with a glass of wine, fretting about printing out a document that was not working. He's a UNIX guy and not very Windows literate. D10 came to his rescue and we both had to laugh. I had plopped my butt on the recliner next to the computer as he worked and we ended up having a good chat.

D10 was bubbly and happy and was the perfect buffer to our stress. She entertained us with a story about a class effort in creative writing. Man, we were laughing really hard. She's really challenged in 5th grade and her teacher allows NO excuses. I hear reports on her very direct approach with the kids who don't turn homework in time. Well, you'd have to know D10 to understand that she'd rather be tied to a rack and tortured than have her teacher's disapproval. She's kept all her ducks in a line and is even more anal retentive about her organization skills. Her bedroom went from messy to something I am proud of (uh, I'm a neat freak and definitely anal retentive).

D7, is the total opposite. She believes in messes, and the more, the better. Last night (while we were ready for bed and watching Cinderella on VHS), I was on the phone with a friend when she collected her ever loving snow boots and stomped around the place. She found the box of bandaids and proceeded to open every single one of them and leave the strips everywhere (I still can't find the actual bandaids --did she eat them?). The cat was wearing Mardi Gras beads and was coated with saliva. My life is definitely interesting.

On a good note, I decided to wear my black Ralph Lauren dress today--it's hot enough to wear (which I must say, our Denver weather has not been typical this summer) and it's pretty awesome. I walked downstairs wearing this lovely creation and found Mr. Wonderful sitting at the computer once again (doing more golf stuff).

He turned around and I saw him do a double take. I ended up walking into the kitchen to finish putting my stuff together and pour a mug of coffee to go and went back out to answer his questions... he stopped in mid-sentence and said with a look of shock, "Woman, you are a stick! How much weight have you really lost? Cuz you look really good..."

I smiled and said, "Almost 45. And I'm happy to report that I weigh today the same as I did the day we got married."

He sat there with a smirk on his face and said, "Really? Well, you sure looked pretty good then... I remember."

So it's nice that he can say this stuff to me again. And I like hearing nice things. But I might just save this thought for Mr. E., who isn't shy about saying them either. He's a pretty complimentary guy! (Note to me: maybe I'll wear this dress when we go to the theatre next weekend? See if I get a similar reaction?) And I think he's pretty special too, so the feeling is mutual.

I'll be back later after I return from D7's doctor appointment. I've got way too much to do here and I need to get busy.

Betsey

"There are only 2 ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

Albert Einstein