Bi And Large

My parents closed on their new condo down the street from us last week, and we have started to go over and drop off some of their stuff. They have started buying bedding and dishes and so on and having it all shipped to our place, so I needed a place to put it!

We were over there tonight and I took a quick video with Pete's cell phone so I could send it to them and show them around. They were having trouble remembering the exact color of the walls, the fixtures, etc. So if you'd like to see it, and a bit of our "downtown" mainstreet, here is the link:

http://s743.photobucket.com/albums/xx74/MNcondo/?action=v...

One caveat: I think with the cell phone, I was holding the mic pointed towards my mouth and a little too close. So I'm doing an awesome Darth Vader impression throughout. Honestly, I don't sound so breathe-y normally!

Oh my, has it been a month! I hate when I get into these moods of not being up to writing. Sorry to have gone so quiet.

Things are going along swimmingly through summer here. It's cool and dry for summer, but we'll take it.

I had a birthday, and I am old. Sam's anniversary happened a few days ago, and I am sad. Summer isn't the same any more. But hey NOTHING is the same any more.

Work continues to be a high point. I really enjoy it and each day gets better and better somehow. I am coming up on a year of working there already, believe it or not. It's been a good thing for me.

My parents closed on their condo down the street, so officially they are my neighbors! I never thought that would be a good thing, but maybe because it is only part time I am happy about it. We're having a blast decorating from top to bottom and buying all the furniture and everything. Mom has been moved into a waking cast (!!!) and is off her daily antibiotics so things are way, way better for her. They have plans to be out here in mid-August for mom's birthday and Amy's birthday, September for Labor day, and October for Halloween. Addicts!

The girls are good, although I think they are looking forward to school starting again. Amy's losing more teeth. I don't know if I mentioned that we had to switch nannies early in the year. The one aptly described by Greg as a tool was, in fact, a total tool. Terrible with the kids, really terrible. And our standards are pretty low. We were all completely miserable. So a cuple of weeks into it we were going to fire her when she emails me over a weekend and just says she's not coming back on Monday because taking care of kids is hard. No notice or anything. Luckily, we found a replacement over that weekend, and she is FANTASTIC. She's going to college in the fall so it's just a summer thing but really she is amazing. We all love her. So that's better. Swim lessons were great. The girls learned how to back float, dive underwater to retrieve rings, and Amy could do freestyle strokes the short length of the pool in laps. Now they have started karate lessons. It was just a whim thing - a new school was opening up across the road, we went to their open house as we passed by one day, the girls won a free month of lessons. Turns out they have a truly gifted kid's instructor and the girls LOVE karate. They have their white belt ceremony the first week of August and have already won badges (which reminds me, I have to sew those onto their uniforms / gi's.) Pete even signed up for some lessons once a week to give him an outlet, which I think is ideal. So karate for everyone!

What else... we have pet rats, did I tell you that? We went through like 3 parakeets in 2 weeks or something, and decided maybe they are just too fragile for our house. So we bought a pair of doe rats and their cage off of Craigslist and they are awesome. They are sturdy enough that the kids can really cuddle with them, smart enough to interact and do tricks, easy to care for, and furry soft and cuddly. So we are now limiting our pet threshold where we are now. Dog, cat, rats, and a couple fish. Period. That should be enough for any household!

Anyway that catches you up on our summer. My mood needs to shift, I need to be more communicatve than I have been recently....

I was just reading this excellent article in Newsweek about Jenny Sanford's brilliant public response to her husband, SC governor Mark Sanford's, bumbling and idiotic behavior re: his Argentine mistress. She has been put in a terrible situation, she has 4 children to protect, and she has been betrayed and publicly humiliated by her husband, the very person who promised to support and protect her. Still she comes out of it with her head held high, neither sounding vindictive nor like a doormat. She's just brilliant. I hope her sons turn out just like her.

Anyway I was thinking, we've had a hell of a lot with the public infidelity lately. There's Jon of 'Jon and Kate Plus 8' and his 20-something rendezvous at the bar. There's Elizabeth Edwards on Oprah talking about her new book, Resilience, that mainly deals with the fallout from her husband's very bad behavior with a video producer. (Seriously?) Hillary Clinton making her own career and life a rousing success after, well, Bill. There's Silda Spitzer, Eliot Spitzer's wife, who was not only betrayed and harmed by her husband but then trashed by the media for not divorcing him immediately, even though she had young children. And Suzanne Craig, Larry Craig's wife, standing by him through all the many, many men coming forward to admit they had done the nasty with him.

What's with all the cheating going on lately? I mean, I know, it always goes on, no surprise there. But doesn't it seem like a big rash of it lately? Especially the public ones? There's a lot of wives being dragged through this publically through no fault of their own and a lot of husbands who should know better - if not for their marriages at least for their careers - than to be running around with hookers and mistresses and having sex with strangers or at gay men's clubs or airport bathrooms. Where's the self control? Do these men just not have any character?

I realize that not everyone agrees with my definition, but I was raised to view marriage as a covenant, as in the religious context. You make a promise, and you keep it, come hell or high water. Your promise has nothing to do with the other person and how they act, your promise has nothing to do with whether or not you feel like it, you just DO IT. Because you said you would. And you are a decent person who respects your family, and has the strength of character to do so, and to model honorable behavior for your children. I am shocked that so few people out there seem to be into self respect.

ANYWAY as I am thinking through the reactions of the various wives in the public eye, and whose I am impressed by, and whose I am pained by. I am wondering - what would YOU do, how would YOU react, if your spouse broke your marriage covenant? There are a lot of readers to this blog, a last count about 100 pages loaded a day from all over the world, so I am hoping to get a decent variety of responses. If you found out your spouse had given themselves to someone else (or, God forbid, if you have already lived this nightmare; I am so sorry) please let me know how you would choose to react. Would you stay? Go? Take the high road or the low road? What would you say? Leave me a comment and let me know!