therapeutic (and a story about weed)

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their wonderful comments on my previous post. Your kind words and honesty have really made my heart happy this week. Katy said "I think you've facilitated something very therapeutic for your readers!" and I agree-- it has felt really good to just unload and be honest and find that most of you can relate to that! So thanks for that.

I sometimes think about the difference in my life now and my life several years ago, before I was married and working full time. I think that one of the [few] things I miss from back then is the honest and open friendships (and abundant hang-out time) I had with my girlfriends and roommates. THAT is therapeutic! In my current life, I really never just hang out with girls. If I do, Matt and/or their husband is usually there too...which means its not really a chick hangout time. :) But what do you do? I work til 5, come home, cook dinner, spend a precious few hours with my husband, and that's it-- that's a day. I live so far away from town that grabbing coffee at night or something isn't really an option (oh yeah, I go to bed at 10pm...cause I'm cool like that)...so I really miss out on the whole hanging-out-with-a-friend thing. And I guess I miss it. So maybe that's why blogging has become so important to me...it's my surrogate girl time.

But anyway, my current week is going much better than my last one. I've actually felt genuinely positive nearly all week long, so that makes everything seem better. I've had some chats with my bosses, so I feel like work is a little better...and I keep re-reading all the sweet comments on my last post, and then I have LOTS of things to feel happy about!!

In other unrelated news, I did some decorating in my laundry room last night. Yes, I really am that cool. We'd bought these photographs and frames a few months ago and then never hung them up. They were intended for either the dining room or the kitchen, but since we could never decide on the perfect spot for them...they just sat on the floor. Anyway, last night I felt determined to actually hang them somewhere and the laundry room is just this depressing void (that you walk through every time you enter the house from the garage) and I thought it could use a little decorating. So there you have it!

If you can't tell, the photographs are all of different fruits. I think they're pretty. :) And please try not to gawk at the embarrassingly large collection of Swiffer products up on the shelf. I have a problem. And/or I shop at Sams.

And now for my story about weed(s). I'll admit, I made it singular in the subject line because I'm a Google Analytics freak and I was dying to see how many people would come to the blog by Googling 'weed.' They are going to be so disappointed!!!

So far the best thing about winter is I DON'T HAVE TO CUT THE GRASS EVERY WEEK!!! Although I love mowing...we have a HUGE yard and it had to be cut almost EVERY week or the weeds start growing like eleven feet tall (barely even an exaggeration). Anyway, I guess since we've had a few freezes, apparently the grass and weeds barely grow. SWEEEEEET. However, I happened to be walking in the backyard the other day when I noticed this BEAST. Before I reveal the beast, let me show you what most of the weeds in the yard look like (I swear this is what 90% of our "grass" is):

Okay. It's ugly, but fairly innocuous, right? Not so much this new guy. Take a look at what decided to spring up about 10 feet off the back porch:

Hmm...that looks different. What's with the whitish things on every green leaf?? Also note that this sucker is HUGE...easily a foot and a half in diameter. Upon closer inspection, you will find that the whitish things on the leaves look a little more like THIS:

In case you still can't tell, they're these HUGE, SPIKY THORN THINGS. I'm sorry I lack a more scientific name for them, but I touched them with my own bare hands to verify their hurtiness, and I can promise you they passed the test. If an unsuspecting person walked barefoot (or barepawed, as the case may be) on this sucker, they could lose a foot!!! I'm serious! This is the scariest thing ever and I'm not sure what to DO about it because it's too pokey to pull up! I guess I could always mow or something. But I'm open to other suggestions. And I do NOT want it to reproduce! Any botanists out there?

So there you have it. I apologize for the let-down to all of you who came here hoping to learn how I found therapeutic weed or something. This is just my regular, somewhat boring life, and these are the things that happen to me...decorating laundry rooms and being astonished at weeds. :) One day when I'm busy chasing my three-or-four kids around the house and never getting a moment's rest, I will look back on this blog and long for those easy, carefree days of decorating and yardwork (or not doing the yardwork, as the case may be). But until then...

...I couldn't think of how to finish that sentence. But I DID think of one more thing! I am making a list of Christmas movies to watch between now and...well, Christmas. Maybe New Years. Any off-the-beaten-path suggestions? Or they can be on-the-path suggestions. I don't have Netflix anymore, so I have to be able to find them at a video store (or somewhere online for FREE, or just on TV) easily. I plan on starting watching them soon, because I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! Okay, peace out.