Monthly Archives: February 2012

And the USPS wonders why

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They wonder why no one is mailing things anymore.

I was recently in Texas visiting my friend, Denise. As she did the time before, she handed me a card she had sent me that had been returned to her.

Denise is the new mom of twins and she had addressed the first card to Bartlesville, TX. Bartlesville is in Oklahoma, though, so it made sense why it was returned to her.

This card, however, was addressed correctly.

I looked at it and looked at it and couldn’t figure it out. I guessed I was missing something and stuck it in my purse to look at later.

When I arrived back in Little Rock, I went to our mail box and found this:

Clearly marked DO NOT BEND, this envelope was pretty mooshed and I struggled to get it out of the box. It’s a good thing that the newborn photos I ordered were on a  disc and weren’t damaged by the carelessness with which the envelope was jammed in my box.

I looked at the envelope from Denise again after a good nights sleep but couldn’t find any reason at all why it should be returned.

I went down to the post office to see if they could tell me why my mail was returned to Denise marked VACANT when we have been living here for over a month and have been receiving our mail. Well, except for the certified piece of mail I had to track down at the post office last week that we never received a notice for.

She had no answers and asked if she could keep the envelope to show the carrier. I told her that was fine. She taped it to a piece of paper with all of the info on it and I left.

Yesterday, I opened my mailbox and found this:

With no explanation. LOL! I guess I should be happy that they were able to finally deliver it correctly.

If the USPS wanted to just step back and take a small, little look at their situation, it wouldn’t be hard at all for them to figure out why people aren’t mailing things anymore.

Giving of

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Today is the first day of Lent. The 40 day period that the Christian Church devotes to fasting, abstinence, and penitence.

I grew up in the Episcopal church and, as a kid, we always had to give up sweets for Lent. The only time we got to eat sweets during the entire 40 days was on my mom’s birthday when we got to have a piece of birthday cake.

I adore sweet things and this wasn’t a favorite time for me.

When I was seven, a girl in my Sunday school class got to give up wearing slips for Lent. Hmmm…slips….chocolate cake. Unfair!

I’d have given up wearing slips in an instant.

Back in the 1990’s we attended church in Dowagiac, MI. Father Robert gave his Lenten sermon and it wasn’t about giving up anything. Instead, it was about giving of.  The giving of yourself.

He suggested that instead of giving up something we find some area in the community where we could give of ourselves. Our time, our talents. An “almsgiving” as it were, that would make so much more of a difference than the giving up of chocolate cake.

I LOVED this idea. And it made so much more sense to me than to give up wearing my slip. 🙂

I do believe that whether you give up or give of, Lent should be a time of introspection. If you give something up, that’s great. But I wanted to share the idea of giving of, just in case you thought it was as great an idea as I did.

A sad tale of large feet

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hee hee

But really, I do have a sad tale to tell.

My new little glambaby, Aniston, is the tiniest human being I have ever held. She weighed in yesterday at 5 lbs and 12 oz. Almost back up to her birth weight. She is long and skinny and TINY.

But people comment, when they see her photos, that she has big hands and big feet. And she does. And they look like Geoff’s.

Can you see how her little toe curls under? When I arrived on Sunday, the first thing Geoff said was, “Look at her feet. Her little toes curl under like mine.” And so they do. Nikki’s sister thought there was something wrong with her toes and it was the first time they noticed this.

It’s been kind of hard for Nikki to find something for Aniston to wear since she’s so long but so skinny. The premie clothes are too short but the newborn clothes are too big. Except for the footies.

And they are just too small.

Her socks have been too small since the day she was born and first wore them.

Of all the traits she could have taken from the Rottmayer side, I wouldn’t have chosen the feet. Geoff wears a 15, Brandon wears a 14, David a 12 (which is probably more normal than the rest of us) and I wear a 10 square.

Yes, my feet are square. LOL! They have always been wide and I remember when my mom bought me my first pair of wide shoes when I was six. They were navy blue and ugly and I could wiggle my toes for the first time! 🙂  Wide shoes have improved vastly in the last five years or so but it’s still a struggle to find just what I want.

Yes, we want her to have her own Rottmop. The four of us have more hair than 10 normal people and, while Brandon and I have coarser thick hair, Geoff and David have the most gorgeous wavy thick hair. Any girl would be blessed to have hair like that.

And we would love her to have Geoff’s long eyelashes and pretty teeth.

But feet?

Hopefully, she’ll grow into a more normal sized foot as she gets older and take after Nikki.

Because I just don’t think I could keep from crying if history repeats itself when she’s in eighth grade.

When Geoff was in eighth grade, his class had an end of the year skating party. Sadly, Geoff wasn’t able to skate because the skating rink didn’t have size 14 skates. He said he played video games all day and had fun but it just broke my heart that he couldn’t skate with the rest of his class.

I’m sure that Geoff wasn’t scarred by the skating experience but it’s something that stays with me for some reason.

And that is my sad, sad tale of large feet.

Bathroom communique’ – Part II

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If you’ve known me for any length of time, you know how much I love to laugh and to make other people laugh. I always view myself as the entertainment.

As The Rock says, “Know your role”. 🙂

So I particularly enjoyed the Bathroom Communique‘ David and I had going last week.

I didn’t think there would be time for him to answer before I left for Oklahoma but I was wrong.

I found this:

To which I replied:

And left for Oklahoma.

I got back to Little Rock, Tuesday evening. And, as of yesterday, my reply still hung on the towel rack. I was going to get rid of it but, after spending my whole life at the DMV yesterday, I was barely in the bathroom at the house.

This morning, when I went into the bathroom I saw this:

Bahahahahaha! OMG I am laughing SO hard. I don’t even have a come back for this one. But I’m heading to Oklahoma again in a little bit so I’ll have a few days to come up with one. 🙂

A new kind of love

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We’ve been waiting for so long and after a very long day of labor, our first grandchild, Aniston Lee, was born at 8:59 p.m on Monday night.  She weighed in at 5 lbs and 15 oz and measured 20 inches long.

She is long and skinny like her daddy was when he was born.

The first photo I saw was so completely precious to me and I couldn’t quit looking at it.

And there I was: falling in love with a photo of my child falling in love with his child.

Amazing. I really have no words.

People have told me that being a grandparent is one of the most awesome things you get a chance to do. And I have so looked forward to this part of my life. But I never, ever knew about the incredible range of emotions you feel when you’re on the brink of becoming Glammie and then when you finally hold that sweet baby in your arms for the first time.

It’s nothing short of incredible.

Watching Nikki with her is awesome. It’s like she was born to be Aniston’s mommy. I knew she’d be a good mom and I wasn’t wrong.

Geoff is just so tender with her. Delighted is the only word I can use to describe the look on his face at times.

It turns my heart inside out to watch him be her daddy.

I love this new kind of love we are all experiencing. Even if I did cry for another four hours on the drive back to Little Rock. 🙂

Cry me a river

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Oh. My. What is wrong with me?

I wasn’t a big Whitney Houston fan. And yet I cry for her loss.

I wasn’t a Michael Jackson fan, either, really. But I cried when he passed, too.

I think it’s because they are our age. And those two were so incredibly talented.

I cried all the way home from Arkansas yesterday.

Why?

Because I just know that my mom and dad would love the heck out of knowing Geoff’s little daughter, Aniston.

I think about Nikki suffering to give birth. And I cry.

I think about Geoff feeling bad because Nikki is in pain. And I cry.

I miss Leo. And I cry.

<sigh>

I’ll be okay. I learned to wear waterproof mascara from Miss America.

And today? If my eyes are green? It’s because Mom and Dad are there for Aniston’s birth like they were there for Brandon and Vanessa’s wedding.

Bathroom communique’

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Yesterday, I nearly fell in the toilet when I tried to use the bathroom. This hasn’t really been an issue for many years but has been since we moved into this apartment.

So I left this note for David.

I just found this return note:

To which I have replied:

I’m headed to Oklahoma today before he’ll get a chance to see this one. I’ll be interested to see the reply. 😉

Getting ready to run

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When I was down in Texas last week, my best friend’s husband said, “Let’s run a marathon”. Without hesitation, I replied, “okay”.

I haven’t run with any regularity since the late 1980’s when we lived in Chicago. I was a member of the Chicago Area Runners and I ran all the time. I loved it, especially the 10K distance.

I’ve never run a marathon (my longest was a half-marathon) but it’s on my bucket list.

I ordered the book that Jason is using called 4 Months to a 4 Hour Marathon and it was waiting for me when I got back to Arkansas.

I remembered when I had been running before, I used Jeff Galloway’s program and I ordered his book, too.

I am way too heavy to run a marathon any time soon. The Little Rock Marathon runs right past our house here and it’s the first weekend in March so that’s the target. For next year.

This morning, I joined the Little Rock Roadrunners Club. They have a meeting right around the corner next week which I plan to attend.

One more important thing I need is a great pair of shoes. A pair of shoes for an old, fat woman. LOL! Once I get my club membership packet (which includes a discount card) I’ll be going to a local running store and having them fit me with shoes.

Just like when I wanted to do kettlebell swings and got professional training, I’m smart enough to know that shoes make ALL the difference in the world.

I’ll never be fast but, with a great pair of shoes, I can run forever.

So, getting ready to run. I’m excited. It’s quite the challenge.

And now that I’ve put it out there for everyone to see, I have to do it. 😉

If the crown fits

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Back when Nikki was first pregnant and deciding how to decorate the baby’s nursery, we sat for a very long time in a pricey baby boutique looking at fabric.

As we sat there, I looked around and saw a cute wall hanging that said, “If the crown fits”. It was in the wrong colors to hang in Aniston’s room and was probably terribly expensive but I thought, “I can make one of those myself!”

I created the artwork.

Then I looked for a place to put it on canvas so it would look like it had been painted. I found canvasdiscount.com. The prices were super reasonable and I hoped that the finished product would look great. It did!

I was a little freaked out when it came unassembled from the frame which I also had to put together. But I freaked myself out over nothing. I waited for David to come home and put the frame together and watched him. I’ve since ordered another canvas and I did the frame myself. It wasn’t that hard!

I then used a staple gun to staple the canvas to the frame.

I ordered a 1.5″ frame so I could put ribbon around the edges.

Then I wandered around Hobby Lobby to see what I could use to hang the picture. It is 19″ x 19″. I found a drapery tie that measured 22″ and it was perfect!

Over the course of time, Nikki threw in some more colors other than the leopard, brown and cream so in my wandering, I noticed some tie backs that matched the trim for the bedding and I got that, too, to tie it all together.

And here is the finished product on Aniston’s wall.

I was so happy with the way it turned out and the best part is that Nikki loves it!

It looks great and it was only a fraction of the cost of the one in the baby boutique. I love that I could make this for Aniston. 🙂