I saw this comic the other day and thought “oh my gosh, it was written about me and Crick”!!!  The only changes that would be needed in the above scenario would be to, substitute our home for the office location, and put Crick in the place of  Cathy’s character and me in the place of her warm-natured co-worker.  For no matter the season…..the indoor temperature in our home was always, always, always a topic for “discussion”, and necessitated a continual resetting of the thermostat when one or the other of us was not looking!!  Early in our relationship, I would marvel at Crick’s seeming lack of awareness of the cold as he would pick me up for a date in the middle of winter without wearing any type of coat.  When I would be walking next to him with my teeth chattering, my body shivering and my shoulders hunched up as the cold wind whipped around us, he would advise me, in his always over the top optimistic way, to simply take a big, deep breath, relax my entire body and quit fighting against the elements.  I confess that my stubbornness prevented me from ever admitting to him that, for a few brief minutes, his method actually did help a little, but the very next blast of cold air would cause the tension in my body to rebuild and I would start the chattering and shivering all over.  During the first few years of our marriage, he would come into the bedroom and open up every window to let in the “fresh” air that was supposed to provide a great night’s sleep and be “oh so good for me” which, of course, would set off another “Main Street Incident” discussion!  Soooooo, how did we come to the situation where I could not tolerate warmth and he could no longer tolerate the cold??

I am thinking that motherhood had something to do with my transition from being a “cold-natured” individual to a “warm-natured” one………I believe it all began perhaps, when my blood would start to do a slow boil when I would come down to breakfast at 6:30 in the morning with my four wonderful :) little children who would then proceed to argue over what color of Tupperware bowl they were going to eat their cereal from, who was looking at whom, who was crunching in whose ear, who was sitting in which chair, why so and so was given the last of the Fruit Loops, etc., etc., etc.  And, then that “boiling blood” would spill over (why is “boiling” so much a part of my conversations???) as their Dad would make a momentary appearance and utter that well-known sentence that has haunted me for over thirty years about how I should “just be glad that I was able to get out of bed and put two feet on the floor”.   But of course, I am only being my usual facetious (I tried four different spellings, before I got that word right!) self, as I realize the real reason for the temperature switch was that once the physiology of my own body began to change, Crick simply willed his metabolism to slow down, just so that he could continue to do battle with me!!  LOL  Fortunately, for some strange, inexplicable reason,  while we always seemed to be at odds with each other over the most insignificant of life’s issues, we somehow managed to remain rock solid on the most important ones :).

And speaking of Tupperware…………………………….as I was looking on the internet (note to nieces and nephews…. a.k.a. “google”!) to find a picture of the now infamous bowls which created such early morning battles in the Schultheis household, I came across this link:  http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20033611-1039.  It is an old 60 Minutes clip from the 70’s detailing the new direct marketing phenomenon that was introduced by Tupperware.  I think you will discover it to be quite a “blast from the past”.  While I never became a “Tupperware hostess”, I confess to attending my share of “parties”, but I don’t ever remember being required to participate in the goofy games that preceded the sales pitch.  I can still remember my Mom, a “stay at home Mother” at one time attempting to sell Fuller Brush supplies from home and later on trying her hand at selling Sarah Coventry Jewelry ………..because being a Mother to eleven children wasn’t enough :)!………….(or maybe, because it was enough!…..LOL).  And soooooo, Jennifer, Stephanie and Christopher…………….you come by your entrepreneurial  spirit quite honestly, from not only the Schultheis side of the family, but also from your Grandmother’s side (the Heubel’s).  Megan and I, on the other hand, are Clark clones, ……………………….that is, we stick to our comfort zone even when that comfort zone might be screaming at us to “get the heck out of Dodge”………and that is because the two of us have a need to know why, where and what “Dodge” is and we don’t want to risk seeing what is around the other corner unless we are convinced that the grass really is greener!!   Oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh nnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooo, I feel a political comment welling up inside of me at the mere thought of the word “entrepreneur”.   I can hear Crick yelling in my ear, “Stifle Mare, Stifle, Stifle!!  “Try not to think of the President’s recent comment about “If you’ve got a business, you, you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen.”  “You will cause everyone’s eyes to roll, so just put that “p” thought right out of your mind.”

Thank you to Crick for saying what was on the tip of my tongue……………….I can now just blame him for echoing my thoughts.   Oh dear, now the word “blame” is conjuring up more political commentary.  How does that happen so easily?  Time to switch over to less controversial topics, such as…………………..family LOL!!!

It seems as though we are all maintaining a high alert status since the last storm passed through here and turned the lights out on many of us for several days.  Just last week, the local news was indicating that another similar storm was headed our way with strong winds which could potentially create another mass power outage.  Can you say “PANIC”???  Facebook friends were posting all sorts of worried comments and pretty soon I could see the sky darkening and the trees begin to sway back and forth when all of a sudden the phone rings………………………it is Stephanie’s number and so I “cautiously” pick up my phone.  Tommy’s four-year old voice is on the other end, he begins by saying, “Nana???”……………..I feel myself take a deep breath and immediately my “glass half-empty” thought is, “Oh no, their power is out!!” (note from previous blog………..during the last storm Tommy and family were my house guests for five days!! LOL).  And so, I begin by asking Tommy if their electricity is out and he reassures me that they still have their power (whew!), he just wants me to know that he has a lantern ready and in case I lose power, he will bring it right over.  Gotta love that little guy!  He must have been pretty disappointed that the one time he was prepared, the big storm never materialized.  (Thank goodness).   I have promised the grandchildren that I would take them in smaller groups  to do something fun and then have them spend the night.  So far, with the power outage, vacation and their summer activities, I have only managed to have Luke and Sam (see picture :) ), the others are patiently awaiting their turn, but with  summer quickly coming to a close, we will have to choose sometime sooner rather than later.  The two boys and I picked one of the rare cool evenings several weeks ago to go to Magic Mountain so they could play miniature golf, ride the bumper boats and try out the indoor climbing play area.   Sydney, Tommy, Sophia and Natalie are next in line, but this weekend Natalie is busy with an Irish dance competition at the annual Dublin Irish Festival.  I may have to remind Sydney, however, that she is on temporary probation (LOL) for another one of her “innocent” comments which she made to me a few days ago.  We were discussing who was going to bring something I needed down from an upstairs bedroom and I explained that since my legs were older than hers, she should be the one to go and get it.  Of course, the subject came up as to how old my legs were, and I, wanting to impress upon her how much younger she was than I, and thus quite capable of climbing the stairs, factually replied that my legs were 63 years old.  Without blinking an eye, she says to me, “So………………………………you are going to die!”  What????!!!!!  How on earth do I ever maintain my self-confidence when I have my very own grandchildren critiquing the choice of colors I wear, the length of my hair, the reason for applying my make-up (reference previous blogs), and now for the fact that I apparently have one foot in the grave!!  LOL

Actually, Sydney may not be so off the mark, as my mind, at least, does seem to be aging…………I have been making a habit out of showing up for my 1/2 day/week job on days that we are not working.  You may wonder, how that could possibly happen.  Well, this summer our schedule at my Tuesday afternoon office has been operating on a more flexible schedule, and so after I returned from vacation, I arrived at the office on a Tuesday and the gals at the front desk looked up as I entered the door and asked, with what I sensed was a twinge of pity,  what was I doing there.   I said, “Well, it is Tuesday, isn’t it?”  And, shaking their heads, they explained to me what I should have already known had I kept a calendar handy, that the doctors were not seeing patients that day, and so I should go home and return the next Tuesday.  This week, thinking that I had my collective self all back together, I again ventured to my Tuesday job, pulled into the parking lot and not seeing anyone’s cars, thought to myself, “Oh no, is this the 5th Tuesday of the month?”.  And, of course, it was……………………………………………the doctors never see patients at this office on the 5th Tuesday of any month!!!  As I sat there, I did think to myself that at least I didn’t go into the office, and therefore, no one would know that I had made the same mistake twice in one month.  I was just getting ready to pull the car out of the parking lot, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw Terri, the scheduling coordinator, walking over to my car, once again shaking her head and grinning from ear to ear.  Terri said her lips are sealed, but it looks like I have blown my own cover!  All I can say is that both of the days that I was there on the wrong day…………..family, are you listening??…………………..I was right on time!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL  Is tomorrow Friday?  I think I am working tomorrow at my other 1/2 day/every other week job…………………………………I think!! :)

TNT

TGW

P.S.  As I always like to share some inspiration that has helped me on my life journey, I turned the page on my daily devotional and found this for August 3rd…………..I think many of my family will be reminding me to refer back to this page often :)…………

Watch your words diligently.  Words have such great power to bless or to wound.  When you speak carelessly or negatively, you damage others as well as yourself.  This ability to verbalize is an awesome privilege, granted only to those I created in My image.  You need help in wielding this mighty power responsibly.  Though the world applauds quick-witted retorts, My instructions about communication are quite different:  Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.  Ask My spirit to help you whenever you speak.  Simply apply this discipline to communicating with the people around you.  If they are silent, pray before speaking to them.  If they are talking, pray before responding.  Just a split second prayer will put you in touch with My Presence.  In this way, your speaking comes under the control of My spirit.                             Jesus Calling

Know this my dear brothers:  everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of a man does not accomplish the righteousness of God.                                 James 1:19

P.P.S. Gulp!!!!  To anyone I may have offended in this blog…………..mea culpa!!

P.P.P.S  I will try harder to be good! :)