the time a boyfriend helped me move

Shortly after Bill and I met, I decided to move and because Bill was smitten with me (naturally), he offered up his services to help me move.

Now. I had never had a boyfriend to help me move before, so this was exciting. Up until this point, it had always been my dad, my brother and my brother's friends helping me move. They were already on the hook to help me move again this time, so having a boyfriend help was an added bonus.

There are several things to note about this particular move (and you may surmise what you will about how they may or may not have affected the outcome of this moving experience).

1. The weather report was calling for a huge ice storm that week.
2. Bill offered to let me use his dad's truck so I didn't have to rent a U-Haul (score for being thrifty!)
3. Because I had a boyfriend to help, I was under pressure to be on my best behavior.
4. My brother was involved.

Moving was scheduled for Saturday. I had taken Friday off work so I could finish packing and organizing - I was really overwhelmed with this move for some reason and at one point, my mom had called and asked if she and my dad needed to drive up from Charlotte to pack everything up because she was "sick of hearing me cry all the time about moving." Apparently, I had given off the impression that I would pack a box, then sit and cry (ok, so that may have been what actually happened in the weeks leading up to this move). So as you can imagine, I needed that day off work to finish what I had started. Well. That day, it snowed and iced. All.Damn.Day.

I woke up Saturday morning to an ice-capade. What a nightmare. I immediately called my mom (hello! mom in another city to the rescue!)  in hysterics that I was never going to get moved. She alerted my dad that I was already freaking out, and he in turn called my brother and told him to stop by Lowe's to get ice melt on his way to my house. The tree house I was living in had like 15 stairs, so with ice melt on them, there should be no issue getting me moved. If only we had known the ice melted stairs would be the least of our problems on this day. At this point, Lee was doing as he was told and brought some ice melt for my stairs. The friends start showing up, and the boys got to work. By this time, the ice had started melting so everything was wet. Soaking, sopping wet, including the back of Bill's dad's truck. Obviously I hadn't thought about a tarp or anything, and didn't want to ruin any of my blankets, so if anything got wet in the truck, well, that was just what was going to have to happen. (Until my mattress got muddy. Then I realized the err of my ways).

I think the pressure of having a boyfriend helping me move (i mean hello, a boyfriend helping you move is serious! It's like putting a ring on it!) was just too much for both my brother and me to handle. I had to play it cool so Bill would think that if I was this easy going and laid back about moving, then I must be that way about everything else in life and he should definitely lock it down quickly. And Lee had to play it cool because if he went crazy, Bill would judge me for having a crazy brother and would never see me again. And Lee had already been told by my mom not to screw this up for me. Haha.

So anyway, after the second trip in the truck, and a tree house still full of furniture to be moved, my brother decided to ask the most obvious question that I am sure he and all of his friends were wondering: "Meredith, why didn't you rent a UHaul? This is so stupid. It's going to take us 15 trips to get everything moved if we are only using this truck. I am renting you a UHaul." Except I didn't want a UHaul to be rented. I wanted to use Bill's dad's truck. Duh.

Lee had made up his mind my moving process was not going well, or quickly - and it wasn't -  and he was going to take charge. But I didn't want Lee to take charge! I needed to be in charge so Bill would see how great I was at being in charge and coordinating and organizing! So I did what anyone (ok maybe just any Robertson) would do. I flipped my %$#@. I screamed, I cried, and of course I called my mom.

And then I went and locked myself in my car. Nobody could be mean to my feelings if I was locked away in a car. According to Bill, I sat there heaving and crying and he didn't know what in the world was going on. So he went inside. Where he and all the boys stayed,  eating the pizza I had been SO KIND to arrange to be delivered as a thank you for helping me move. My brother apparently stood in the doorway talking crap about me and laughing about what a hysterical woman I was. Bill decided he needed to do something. So he brought me two pieces of pizza. I'm sure he thought I would at least say thank you, come get in the car and talk to me. But instead I rolled the window down - mind you tears are still streaming down my face - just enough for him to slide the pizza in and then I rolled it back up and off he went, back to the treehouse full of boys.

He says the sight he saw when he looked back at me is a sight he won't soon forget: me crying hysterically with a phone in one hand talking to my mom and a piece of pizza in the other.

I honestly don't know what is so memorable about that sight. Hasn't everyone freaked out and eaten pizza at the same time while their brother stood inside talking crap about his sister to her new boyfriend who had offered to help her move?

words of wisdom from my boss.

this week, I was asked if I had a tweeter.

"Yes, I have a tweeter. I only use it to complain to companys. and to cyber bully the teen moms." i told them.

"meredith, i think you should have disclosed your reality tv obsession on your resume." said my boss.

and then, somehow, someone brought up the fact that I was a synchronized swimmer in college.

that fact, by the way, is disclosed on my resume.

#hatersgonnahate

gluten free, grain free, grass fed

many of you know about my beautiful little barbara. and many of you know that like any good mother, i will skip buying things for myself in order for my sweet child to have only the best. for example, bill and i may have to eat hot dogs in order for barbara to eat grade 5 dog food (and let's be honest, she'll probably eat some hot dogs too), but she will eat only high grade food. i think it's safe to say that someone in our house will always be eating well, but it may or may not always be bill and me.

The other day, in addition to buying Barbara a giant pink NC State collar (you know, because she too agreed to be a State fan upon marriage), Bill picked up a sample of this food called "Taste of the Wild." It just so happens to be the Wild Boar formula and actually has roasted wild boar in it. Which is perfect since Barbara makes piglet noises when she eats every night. Roasted pig for our favorite little piglet!

Barbara went NUTS over this food. And it was dry food, mixed with her normal, also high grade, wingaling wet food (yes, this child literally gets chicken wings for supper). So Bill, being the doting father he is, called the pet store to see if it came in a wet food formula. Oh yes, they said. And then they went on to tell him that dogs who lick their paws or have tear stains may have gluten or grain allergies. Funny. Barbara does both. Here I was thinking her tear stains were from her crying because she missed us so much, but it turns out she cries because she has an allergy!

So you can imagine what happened next. If you imagined BIll and me spending hours online pricing out the Wild Board Stew at various pet food sites, then purchasing exactly a whole case of it to be delivered within 2 days, then your imagination is spot on!

And if you imagined me feeling bad for making fun of all those fad people who claim to have a gluten allergy, and simply must eat dried out gluten free waffles, well you are wrong. I'm still not sold that everyone in this world has a gluten, grain, potato allergy, but isn't it funny how we react when we find out our children may be suffering? There was absolutely no question in mine or Bill's minds that Barbara simply must need to go gluten free so her tears will stop staining her beautiful face and her paws will stop being so tasty to her.

next up: a pair of vegan toms to go with her gluten free, grain free, tear unstained face.

snowmageddon 2014

if you know me, you know that i have quit skiing. After having one too many panics attack, the last of which was at the top of the big hill in the middle of Squaw Valley two years ago, I threw in the towel, sold my skis on craigslist and i haven't looked back. in general, i just don't love snow anymore. it causes too much heartburn and headache. it makes the entire world just shut down. and i do NOT have time for that.

so you can imagine my chagrin when Big Weather announced on the radio AGAIN that we were expecting snow. I just had too much going on last week to deal with more snow. Barbara isn't exactly impressed with snow, we had errands to run, I needed to grocery shop for the beach trip, I needed to wash clothes, I needed to be able to freakin' leave the house (notice work is not included in these items. I did not NEED to work although I did have to at some point in there). Plus, let's be honest. When are the weather men ever really right on par with their weather guesses anymore? So you can imagine the state of panic I was in when the sky opened up last Wednesday and dumped snow all over the Triangle.

At 1p I got a text from Bill that he was leaving work and was on his way to get me. The snow was starting to fall and he wanted to get out of Durham and back to Raleigh before the roads got bad. Except apparently everyone in Durham and RTP had the exact same thought at the exact same time. At 115, Bill picked me up. At approximately 120, I began to cry. The roads were already parking lots, people were abandoning their cars and walking, tires were spinning, everyone was in a state of duress. I just knew we weren't ever going to see our home again. We were going to be stranded and die. And Barbara was going to die because no one would be able to go check on her.

Somewhere along the way, Bill informed me that I was not very good in a crisis and he didn't know if he would put me on his lifeboat. I managed to stop planning our funerals long enough to ask "you wouldn't save my life?" To which he responded: "well, I would. but i would knock you out cold first."

22 miles later and four hours later, we did finally make it home. and in case you were wondering, i still hate snow.

Married Valentine's Day - Part 1

We had some bad weather last week, so our plans to go see Les Miserables (first date throw back!) got rescheduled. Luckily, Bill was still able to pick up the flowers he had ordered for me. One thing about Bill - he's really thoughtful. So he had ordered Valentine's flowers from our wedding florist Gregg that matched our wedding flowers.  The flowers are beautiful and our house smells like a floral shop now! We were even able to carry them to the beach with us so we could enjoy them all weekend. Three cheers for a man who knows his wife loves flowers, she loves fancy flowers and the less store bought they can be, the better!

monday's musings

whew. it's been busy the past few months. actually, since we got married it feels like it's been one thing after another. i think it's safe to say we've had our fair share of newlywed fun. and we've had our fair share of newlywed challenges.

In the past four months, we've both: had car issues, health concerns, and started new jobs. We've moved. We've thought about - and talked about - finding a new church. We've even picked a few to try for when we're in town. We've combined incomes, spending styles and decorating skills. We've had to learn how to better and more effectively communicate. We've had to adjust some of our plans for the future. And we've realized that what is important to us - him and me - has to be protected and fought for, sometimes it feels like daily. We have to protect our marriage. We have to fight for our marriage. And we have to consciously decide to put the other first.

Bruce, our wedding minister told us that marriage will make you realize just how selfish you are. And boy oh boy. He wasn't kidding. I used to think I wasn't all that selfish and I used to think I would make the perfect wife. Hello, I love to cook and clean! And I will happily do so if he wants to bring home the bacon!! But I was wrong. So so so wrong (not about the cooking and cleaning. It is in fact true about me that I love each of those things). Over the past 4 months, I have learned just how selfish I can be and how much happier I am when I am making decisions to put his needs before mine. I have also learned how much better we do as a unit - as a team - when we are prayerful in our thoughts and intentional in our decisions. It's so much fun - such a blessing - to have a teammate, to be his helper, to learn how to love him well and to learn to do life together.

But it is work. Hard work. And while I always knew marriage would be hard, I never thought it would be so hard so fast. I always knew being married would change things but I don't think I realized just how much things would change. Marrying Bill has been the absolute best decision I've ever made. But learning to be less selfish, to put my husband's needs and wants before mine, and to allow him to fully see my brokenness, my insecurities and how wicked my soul can be sometimes has been hard. Even though I know he loves the depths of me and the ridiculousness that can be me, it's been hard to give someone everything and just believe that he won't run away.  It's definitely been a tug of war with faith.

In a sense, it's overwhelming that this man chose me and wants to be with me through thick and thin. For better for worse. For richer or for poorer. in sickness and in health. and at the same time, I think it is just that - those very things - that make marriage so profound and so worth it. and i wouldn't trade any of the past four months for anything.

you told me you killed the cook. so i facebooked your dad.

the other day, i was gchatting with my friend Brooke and she asked me how i avoided showing Bill my crazy early on. Avoided? I pondered this word for a moment because I am fairly certain Bill saw my crazy almost immediately into our courtship. No, I'm not talking about the time he helped me move and I sat in the car, crying hysterically on the phone to my mom about what a jerk my brother was being while eating pizza and my brother stood in the tree house laughing at me and calling me crazy and Bill just stood there trying to figure out how he had ended up in this place. no, I'm talking about the time Bill told me he was going to kill the cook at work, and then I ended up looking like a crazy b.

one day - 2 weeks into our relationship to be exact - bill's wallet got stolen at work. he txted me about it when he noticed it was gone, and then txted me an update around 11a that he had found his wallet, the cook had stolen it, and he was going to kill the cook. I didn't think much of it because it was early on in the day and surely he wasn't really going to kill the cook! except the day came and went and i didn't hear anything else from him. Not wanting to freak out, or over react, I sent him a few "are you ok?" txts and tried not to worry. My friend Karoline was coming over for dinner that night so I decided I had plenty to focus on. Except then dinner came and went (we had early dinner so she could go see her now husband) and I didn't hear from Bill. So, I txted my friend Allison and asked her for her thoughts. I told her he had threatened to kill the cook and how I just knew since I hadn't heard from him that he was in jail because he had, in fact, killed the cook and was sitting in jail, charged with murder.

"Have you driven up to Chick Fil A to see if his car is there?" she asked.
"no. Because what if there is crime scene tape every where and then I get questioned by police."
"Do you know where he lives? You could drive by his house and see if his car is there." she suggested.
"I don't know where he lives. He always comes to my house."
"Do you know his parents? You could check in with one of them to see if they have heard from him."
"I don't know his parents...(keep in mind it's only been 3 weeks) but I found his dad on facebook and was thinking about messaging him. Think I should do that?"

Absolutely she replied. Find out if he's heard from him. (I love it when my friends think like me)

So I did. It went something like this:

Hi Mr. Monday! We haven't met, but I have been dating Bill for a few weeks and today he had an incident at work where the cook stole his wallet. He txted me that he was going to kill the cook but that was around 11 this morning, and I Haven't heard anything else from him. If you hear from him, could you let him know I'm getting worried? Thanks, and I look forward to meeting you soon!

And of course, AS SOON as I sent that facebook message, I got an explanatory call from Bill that he had gotten off work and fallen asleep. "So you didn't kill the cook?" I asked. "What? No way I didn't kill the cook. Are you serious?" he replied.

OF COURSE IM SERIOUS! YOU TXTED ME SEVEN HOURS AGO THAT YOU WERE GONNA KILL THE COOK AND THEN YOU WENT MIA AND NOW I'VE SENT YOUR DAD A FACEBOOK MESSAGE THAT YOU KILLED THE COOK AND NOW I LOOK CRAZY!

As soon as Bill stopped laughing long enough, he clarified that he had heard me correctly and that I had actually sent his dad a facebook message. Luckily his dad is like my mom in that his passwords for social media are all the same. So he was able to quickly hack into his dad's facebook account and delete the message, thereby allowing me to avoid looking like a total crazy b.

except unbeknownst to us, his dad has some weird back up thing going on with his computer. So about a month later (thankfully I had met the man by this point), his dad responded with "just got this. don't know how i missed it. i trust you found Bill and everything is going well. See you soon."

m-o-r-t-i-f-y-i-n-g.

and then i had to explain to Bill exactly how my brain worked that it made complete logical sense to me because he had said he was going to kill the cook that he must have actually killed the cook and was sitting in jail being charged with murder and that his dad would have to find out from me this horrible news.