One Foot on a Banana Peel

I’m up in the middle of the night because I have a toothache that won’t let me sleep (it also caused me to leave the theater before seeing all of Ben Stiller’s new movie Night at the Museum).  After 5 ibuprofen tablets, 2 Excedrine, and copious amounts of Orajel, it’s down to a dull, but constant throb.

Since I’m up I thought I’d check in and tell you all about the wonderful Christmas we had.  Tim got a very generous bonus this year so we were able to give the kids most of what they’d asked for, purchase much appreciated gifts for family, spoil each other and still have enough left to pay plenty of bills.  It was a load off both of our minds and really took the stress out of the holidays for us.  The kids loved their gifts…especially Meg, who got tons of John Deere stuff and all of her gifts were even wrapped in John Deere paper.  We all got movies, CD’s and books.  Everyone but me got clothes, which was unusual but I’m fine with it.  Tim got tools, which is what he always asks for, and gift cards for Lowes.  I got a stereo, a digital camera (that I don’t know how to work yet), a huge George Forman grill and a gift certificate to have an auto-starter installed in my car.  Woot!  No more freezing my butt off at 5:30 in the morning.

We’ve had great times visiting with family and just being home together (Tim came home early on Friday and has been home since, but has to go back to work tomorrow).  The only damper came this morning when my 81 year old aunt called me (she couldn’t get the numbers for my mom to come out right) in a panic because she was having her second severe nosebleed in as many days and this time it wouldn’t stop.  I called my mom and she took my aunt to the emergency room.  She takes blood thinners but they say the levels of those are okay.  All they did was pack her nose.  It has to stay packed for two days and she’s to take antibiotics to ward off a sinus infection.  No real answers.  Kinda scary stuff.

Anyway, all that is what I thought I’d be tell you about in my post-Christmas post….until a little conversation I had with Matt a little while ago.  As I was moaning around in a near-fetal position from my toothache, he chose to confess something.

HE WENT AND GOT HIMSELF ENGAGED FOR CHRISTMAS!

Talk about bombshells.  This family is having a blooming epidemic of really young people getting engaged.  Matt is the third to make the announcement in the last week. 

So, how do I feel about it?  The answer is complicated.  I’d love to tell him he’s rushing things, but I know that would backfire.  He’d just throw it in my face that I was 19 and Tim 23 when we got engaged and I just turned 20 before we got married.  I have reservations, too, because we really don’t know Ashley.  Tim has seen her a few more times than I have, but she is very shy and hard to get to know.  She’s never said much of anything around us.  I guess the official stance is to support the engagement and hope to heaven that they are smart enough to hold off on marriage until they finish school and get their futures on track.