KGBKK, Gottman is actually a name a T recommended for us - and his book is very good, have you read it? You're in the area, and so I do hope that one day you'll get to do a seminar with your W (although I don't think Gottman is much of a childhood delver).
Betsey and Stubborn... welp, what the deer didn't get, the weeds did!
We arrived in VT to a carpet of green weeds where our garden once sat. Three entire days of weeding still didn't get them all, and as we started to weed the green beans, peas, and soybeans, we saw that Swiss Family Deerson (no relation to SM) had passed through, munching the delicate beans down to mere nubbins. Through no fault of their own, however, they completely missed the cucumber and zucchini plants (too covered by weeds, I presume), and we were able to harvest four perfect, delicious zucchinis and some absolutely beautiful baby lettuces. The cucumbers are just starting to form, and we had lots of tiny green tomatoes on our 70 (seventy) (SEV-en-ty) tomato plants. S. happily built a little deer-proof fence, to which I added a SpongeBob Squarepants scarecrow (don't ask). We planted more beans and peas and cleared out most of the weeds. Never again will we wait 4 weeks before we go back!
We had a VERY successful weekend. Saturday we had a lot of fun in the garden, and we collapsed into bed early and conked out, after S. ran a bubble bath for me (one of my Top 10 Prince Charming Things to Do, and he didn't even know it!) and lots of sweet affection. Sunday we went at the weeds again, and hit a few bumps when we tried to talk about more serious topics (I know!!), but I decided if our pattern was to change, I had to be the one to change it, and I just said to him, "I'd like to change our pattern of communication - I'd like us to be able to talk to each other as friends, giving each other the benefit of the doubt we'd give any other human being, and not assume the worst intentions all the time," after which we talked about a system of talking to each other, followed it beautifully with a topic, and ended up with two successful topics broached, discussed, and taken care of. [brush brush brush] Pshew!
Tomorrow afternoon, T again. Last week's felt like it would never come - this week's feels like we just had T.
I'm too tired to update any more than this - will do it when it's time to start my new thread. [yawn] Got to rest my aching hamstrings...
