Spin Cycle: 2008 at the Middle Aged House

Dear Loved (and Liked) Ones,

This year at the Middle Aged household has been full of events. Yes sir, just one event happening after the other. All damn year long. Let's look at a few, shall we?

January: Two events marked this month for Middle Aged Woman. The first is her ill-advised foray onto the writing curriculum committee at school. Nothing says joy quite like spending full days at meetings wherein very little is accomplished beyond agreeing that we aren't sure what we are doing! The second event was Middle Aged Woman's acquisition of a bite guard from her friend the dentist, thus enabling her to sleep without actually cracking open her jaw due to The Clench. You teachers know what The Clench is: when one bites back so many words during the day that one's jaw actually locks in place. Best side-effect of the bite guard? Now I snore.

February: This grayest of Winter months was marked by Middle Aged Woman's and Husband's trip to Georgia in search of warm weather for a week without the children. Little else needs to be said, except that the Georgia residents thought the 55 degree weather was frigid, and we were strolling around in shirtsleeves.

March: This month is remembered as the beginning of construction at the Middle Aged house. Unfortunately, it is NOT known as the end of construction at Same.

April: Made seventeen visits to the new health club this month. Yay me! Construction ended. Yay us!

May: Had a party to show off all the new construction. More guests than we have had in the last five years combined! What was I thinking? Fun was had. Fifteen visits to the health club were made. Go, me!

June: Words cannot begin to describe the joy with which a teacher greets this month. Six visits to the health club before wrenching back on leg press machine. Grr. School is out. Yay! (Cue Jaws music...) Begin blogging on June 26th. Life will not be the same. Ever.

July: Travel, travel, travel! Sponging off many persons with beautiful vacation homes. Visit east side of Northern Michigan, then move on to Northwest side, too! Blog, blog, and blog some more. Comments from real people only serve to deepen the addiction level. No further mention of health club. Shut up.

August: Middle Aged Woman pushes deeper into middle age. I like to think of August as my Birthday Month. Many special things have happened in August, Nixon resigned. Elvis died. It's a big month! Unfortunately for me, as a teacher, the second half of August feels like Sunday night. Vacation is ending. Back to the grind. I'm sure all those people who DON'T get ten consecutive weeks of vacation are feeling very sorry for me, right?

September: Oh crap. Back to school. How am I going to blog now? September sucked this year. I was desperately hoping for a huge bag of cash to land in my lap so I didn't have to go back to school. No such luck. Six years is a little early for burnout, it just took me awhile to get back into the swing of things this year. Whine, whine, whine. Maybe I should make that the new title of my blog?

October: The children get older. Otherwise known as the cast change here at Unmitigated. Also, our lives were pretty much taken over by the election. Mine was, anyway. And thank goodness, because I am hard pressed to remember even one interesting event from the month of October, and it was quite recent! Readers, this does not bode well for November!

November: Really, is anyone still reading all the way to the bottom of this newsletter? I know when I receive these things I do a pretty loose skim job, unless I see the word 'death' or 'layoff' or 'lottery winnings.' The pictures and cards get posted here:

and Husband likes to save the cards year-to-year, but mostly I prefer those cards with a cute picture of the kids and a simple, "Merry Christmas from our family to yours."

I'll be looking for this letter to be displayed when I stop by. Just so you know.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

Comments

[TennLady]

I'm first!

My construction job was bigger than yours!!!

[Mama Dawg]

Back at ya!

[Jess]

Merry Christmas!!

What part of Georgia were you in?

And 55 is frigid. You people are freaks of nature. It is 40 degrees out right now and I thought I was going to freeze to death when I stepped out my door. It's the humidity!

[Sprite's Keeper]

Wonderful News! All twelve months! And extra credit for the snark! An A! And a link!

[Michele]

Very good year all around. The health club thing...you were only toying with the idea, right?

[phhhst]

I've been waiting for that same bag o' cash. Plenty of rainbows here too, but so far, I keep having to get up and go to work.

[Captain Dumbass]

Since I'm on 52 weeks of holiday I won't begrudge you your ten.

[goodfather]

Oooo, I need to add remodeling to my newsletter, heh. It was a big year for our house, too.

Great spin!

[Middle Aged Woman]

TennLady - I'm 11 years younger than you!

MamaDawg - waiting for your spin!

Jess - Big Brother lives in Greenboro, about 90 minutes southeast of Atlanta, not far from Augusta.

Sprite's Keeper - snarky and proud.

Michele - I like the way you think.

Pshaw - nothing like a Waikiki rainbow...

Cap'n. How very kind of you, sir.

goodfather - and a bad year for the chaeckbook, I'll wager.

[apathy lounge]

Merry Christmas to you, too! A newsletter is a great idea for a post.

[The Floydster]

"The Clench". I about choked as I started laughing over that - oh, how well I know "The Clench". Its a good thing that our thoughts aren't displayed in a bubble over our heads; that would put the little kiddies in therapy years later for sure!

[Rachel]

Hmm...I'm stealing this.

[Debbie]

How did you manage to start and end construction in under a year? I'm impressed!

Oh, and I skimmed until I say "Lottery" ... then decided that anyone with the word lottery in their holiday newsletter deserved to have the entire thing read. ;-)

[Middle Aged Woman]

Not so hard. We were knocking out walls instead of adding them. Much easier.