Month: June 2017

the story.

Posted on by A Glass of Lemonade

 

So here it is.  The short version of the long story. (ha!)

Keith and I met in high school, way back in 1996. Yep, high school sweethearts (that was the cool thing to do, ya know?).  We have history. A heaping load of history. Some silly, some sweet, some ugly and some sad. I mean, there’s a story there. We all have a story.

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Homecoming, 1996

Ours started out sweet. First date to the arcade with his friends (we were so cool in that back seat). Then, BIG DEAL: Homecoming dance. You all know what I mean; the perfect dress (and mine was perfect), the perfect hair (nailed it), a fly suit (he was handsome), the pictures, the food before, the friends, the laughs….it was all super swell.  I remember the smell of his cologne.  From then on, we were ‘us‘.  We needed no reason to be us, we just were, and we moved forward without caution.

Several dating years sped by as I began college and then he too, soon followed (I’m a year older, he and I don’t talk about it…wink wink). Finally, on June 9, 2001 we were married, and another journey together began. If you are married, and have been for a while, then you know the journey I speak of.

We have built a life in those 16 passing years. Complete with three healthy boys (14, 11, 6) and two healthy dogs (Connelly and Chewy; both boys I might add). We have a small home which is a blessing, as a small home means a small mortgage payment. Shew. We had this 5 year plan, but then the housing market busted and my husband lost his job and all that bummer stuff about being stuck in the small house turned into a big blessing. It’s got something to do with how look at the situation I’m pretty sure (adding a little sugar to this life). Anyways, I digress.

Fast forward.

Today my husband is very sick. He has PPMS (Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis). We didn’t want this life. It’s sad, and hard.  I mean, geeze, who wants hard? I wanted butterflies and rainbows. Ice creams cones and hot chocolate.  I did not want hard…or sad…or frustrating…or….(there are a slew of adjectives  I could put in here, but I’m betting I don’t have to, because you know already).  We have a hard life.  I sometimes refer to it as a “Debbie Downer” life.

Ok, so lets finish this post up real quick.  When I boil it all down to its core, I come up with the same thing. Life is life for everyone.  It doesn’t play favorites. There is someone sitting somewhere upset about something. And maybe it looks small to you or to me, but a struggle is a struggle. I often think of a quote by Regina Brett. She said “If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.”  I feel like that’s a pretty true statement, and I don’t like our problem.  Just saying.

 

“…Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you, wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forgotten Lemons

Posted on by A Glass of Lemonade

Ok, ok, ok. I’ll be honest. Our life isn’t always Lemonade. I wish I could say it were but, sometimes (a lot of times), I find a shriveled up lemon lying in the strangest places. I find them in the corner, under the couch, and even tucked away in the dresser drawer. It’s true. Sometimes life deals me lemons (throws them at me super fast) and instead of adding sugar to them,  I hide them or just plain ignore them hoping they will disappear. The thing is, they NEVER disappear. They just sit there shriveling up and then start to stink until I do something with them. Ugh. BUT IT’S SO MUCH WORK TO MAKE LEMONADE SOMETIMES! Do you feel me, or what?!

Flashback:

There were many beautiful days.  Tons of them. Lemonade was aplenty and it was always super sweet and SUPER EASY to make.  And then…BAM! SMACK! POW! (Well that’s certainly what it felt like at the time), my husband was diagnosed with Multiple sclerosis.  AKA-MS. This was a life changer (literally and figuratively and vice versa). I had been a stay at home mom for 10 years. Raising our three boys, running the household, cooking the meals.  If I close my eyes and sit really still, I can taste the sweetness of those days. Sometimes the memories escape as tears and I have to remind myself that I still have three incredible boys and a loving husband even though so much has changed.  Those days are in my treasure box.

So, there’s a Lemon (or a lemon tree😉). It’s not sweet. It’s sour, and spoiled, and moldy and well, although we’ve tried and tried to make lemonade with that lemon, it seems to be the never ending lemon that we can’t quite figure out how to get rid of.  Yep.  It nags us, and sometimes I find it rolling around under the sofa…and its moldy,  like fuzzy moldy with old hairs and dust bunnies on it. But, it is our lemon and it’s never going away. That was 4 years ago that we got the diagnosis.

I hope you will join us on our journey, as we add sugar to this life, and enjoy a tall sweet glass of lemonade.