It’s official, ladies and gents, I need your help. I’ve been nominated in the following categories for a blogger’s choice award. It’s my first nomination, and I think it’s a biased one based on the nominator, but I’m greedy and I’ll take what I can get. Please, please, please help me out by spreading the word! Vote for blueshelled.com! You can vote for me once in each category, once you have an account at the blogger’s choice website. I’m not a well known blog, so I need my friends and their friends and their friends. If I win anything, I’ll do something special. (The gauntlet has been thrown. If I win, I’ll lose 50 pounds in the next year and take you guys with me on the progress. I will also do a giveaway for an Amazon gift card. )
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Early in our marriage, things were tough. We don’t talk about that time often because, frankly, I don’t think we realized, then, that we were struggling. We had the optimism of newlyweds and a new infant and we were just doing what we could to make ends meet. We’d moved to Nashville for Leon’s job, in a company that announced they were struggling right after we’d moved. This was only the beginning of companies that relocated workers only to lay them off when they’d uprooted their lives during that time period.
For us, though, it was a time of building our life together. Nashville was such a welcome change from Dallas that there was hope and promise in everything. We had an adorable little house in SouthEast Nashville that we were renting from some amazing folks. It was an older home, about 1,000 feet and was sinking into the earth around it. We couldn’t be happier. Even though we own a much larger home in a much better neighborhood now, it’s still been our favorite home.
When Leon’s position was obliterated from the company, and 125 people lost their jobs, we were at a loss as to what we’d do from there. I was staying at home with A.J. and was struggling with my health. Shortly after giving birth to him, I’d had my gallbladder out and I wasn’t healing well from either. At that point, Leon said he’d do whatever he needed to do to make sure we’d be ok. And he did.
He began working at The Melting Pot (one of my favorite places) shortly thereafter. His experience there was good and the owner treated him kindly and fairly. One of the great perks was getting to eat there for cheap while he worked there. As a struggling couple, getting to dine there for what we’d spend at Chilis was a blessing. I’d bring A.J. in to see Leon in his pumpkin seat and we’d be treated by the staff like royalty. It made not seeing Leon a little bit easier.
He’d work 3-4 nights a week from around 3pm until 1 or 2am. It didn’t leave much time for being together. I’ve always been a night owl, however, and, when he’d get home, we’d try to spend at least an hour together. We’d shut off all the lights in the living room, light one or two Yankee Candles and put Dave Matthews Band in the stereo.
Last night, Leon bought the DVD of Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds at Radio City Music Hall. Listening to it brought back all of the memories of that time. Us, late at night, in our living room, just listening to music and winding down. Circa 2001. That gratitude for time together, time to relax, a sleeping A.J. and the ability to live and thrive despite the world around us.
It is good.
We went back to The Melting Pot for my birthday last year. We’ve lost some weight since then, but I treasure this picture. My how life has changed. And how it stays the same. It is good.
I love them. They entertain me so much. These dogs add to my quality of life. I have no idea why I’m breathing so hard in this video. I wasn’t running. My throat is sore, though. Oh well. It’s still a cute video.
Life is like a game. We all have challenges, thoughts, opinions and beliefs. Often, it feels like something out there, life, karma, catty people, or blue shells (for the Kart lovers), seeks to bring us down. Luckily, we always get up. This is where I wear my heart on my sleeve and my foot in my mouth.
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We are members of one great body. Nature planted in us a mutual love, and fitted us for a social life. We must consider that we were born for the good of the whole.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
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Life is like a game. We all have challenges, thoughts, opinions and beliefs. Often, it feels like something out there, life, karma, catty people, or blue shells (for the Kart lovers), seeks to bring us down. Luckily, we always get up. This is where I wear my heart on my sleeve and my foot in my mouth.
