Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Finally, the end of October 2012!

October has always been one of my favorite months of the year.  The colors are beautiful, Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up so excitement is building, and I get to re-decorate!

But this October has been devastating.  Literally on the 1st day of October, my wonderful mother-in-law, Maisie, passed away.  Mike and I were in the car, in Mississippi, making a mad dash to Atlanta to see her before she died when we got the word that we were too late.  I was driving as Mike tried to come to grips with the idea of a world without his mother.

Maisie was not just a wife and mother, she was a real force!  She opened all the doors for me to see the world!  When I told her (early in our marriage) that I had always wanted to see England and Scotland she got up, grabbed her keys, took us right to the post office to get our passports.  Then she went online and booked our flights!  It was an amazing trip and my relationship with my mother-in-law was cemented into friendship and we were friends until she died.  I was lucky enough to be able to tell her, during a visit in May, how much she meant to me and how grateful I was that she showed me the world.

There is another reason I am grateful to Mike's family.  It is their tradition to take care of parents and grandparents in their own homes.  Mike lived with his grandmother to take care of her when he was in his 20's and now our nephew, Andrew, has moved in with Mike's father to take care of him.  So when I told  Mike we needed to pack up, sell our house, add a room to my mother's house, and move in with her so that we could take care of her...he never batted an eye. It's not every man that would volunteer to do that!  My mom has battled cancer twice in the years that we have been living together and Mike has been a nurse, cook, maid, and my rock. 

So thank you Maisie, for being such a great mother, grandmother and friend.  You raised three remarkable human beings...what an incredible legacy!!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Read and follow ALL package directions!!

I have a friend who used to get a bit "backed up" when she went on vacations.  So, she asked her doctor if there was something "gentle" she could take that would help with her situation.  He gave her a box of Chinese tea that tasted like cinnamon.  He also told her, "Drink only half a cup!  It takes a little while to work so do NOT drink any more than half a cup of this tea!"

So we all went on vacation to a friends cabin in southern Colorado and she brewed up a half cup of the tea.  And she waited, and waited...nothing.  So she brewed up a whole cup of the tea and drank it.  Then we all decided to make the two hour drive to Taos.  Along the drive I could tell she was in some distress.  As soon as we got to Taos, she demanded we stop at the WalMart right on the edge of town.  She was walking funny but she made it into the store and about halfway to the bathroom in the back of the store before the tea REALLY kicked in! 

After that it was just a nightmare...she had to buy new jeans to wear out of the store!  When she got back to the car everyone was wondering what on earth had kept her so long and why was she wearing new clothes?  She was very quiet for the rest of the day...

So that is why you REALLY have to follow all label directions!!  I had to burn those jeans, I can never go back into that WalMart in Taos and my family will never let me forget it.  My mother still laughs until she crys when she talks about it!  Mike knows better than to ever bring it up but he has a pretty funny name for the tea!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Yes, we are married!

There are so many new people in the Basin now, we forget not everyone knows our story.  I have heard "You guys are married???" quite a bit lately.  So I have decided to clear that up.  Yes, Mike and I have been married for 22 years.  We have had two children together literally "on the air" in both cases.  And no, it is not always a picnic working with your spouse.

Mike and I started as radio partners 24 years ago, so we have always worked together.  That helps...some.  Morning radio is a lifestyle.  We get up at 4:15 every morning.  No matter how long you do this job, you never "get used" to 4:15 in the morning!  By 5pm, we are exhausted but with kids there is no going to bed early!  And now that our kids are grown, we feel cheated if we go to bed before 10.  What this adds up to is that by Friday, we are so sleep deprived I have quite literally stood at the check out at HEB trying to remember how to write a check!

So, what happens when we wake up in a bad mood?  Because I assure you it happens!  Fortunately, it rarely happens that we are both in a bad mood at the same time so we can usually work through it.  And doing the show in the morning is almost always so much fun a bad mood doesn't last long.  Do we fight?  Oh yes!  Do we embarass our children.  Absolutely.  We had to really pull back on talking too much about them when Rachel was 12 and Mike talked about going bra shopping with her.  OMG did I hear about THAT from her!  And rightfully so.  But we also brag about them all the time as well. And they always inspire us.

On the personal side of marriage with "Oh he must just keep you in stitches" Mike Lawrence...no, life is not always hilarious with him.  But he is the most thoughtful, selfless, ethical and generous person I have ever known.  A father who is not afraid to BE a father and a husband who never forgets the little things like fixing my coffee just the way I like it and making me breakfast every Saturday and Sunday morning.  We have a deep, abiding trust in each other that we have developed over years of being so public with our lives.  We hope our listeners have that same trust in us.  We value that above all things when we do our show for you.  Even if we are too sleep-deprived to remember your names.