The trip to Oklahoma was a nice break from the motel. Wes and Wally had a good time being able to run around, go fishing and not having to be couped up in one room or on the endless sight seeing trips. I enjoyed it myself in that I did not have to come up with things to do every day and had a break from not being responsible for everyone else's happiness. It is anyone's guess if or when Dennis was ever happy.
The rather awful part of returning to the motel after the trip to Oklahoma was the feeling that we were "home"! That was a pretty sad thought but we had been living there for six weeks and by the looks of the house it would be at least another four weeks before we could move in. School was to start a few days after Labor Day and hopefully we could be living in the house by then.
There is some truth in the old saying "misery loves company" as it was nice to have Cindy, Jerry and their son, Bryce, join us as extended stay guests at the motel. Ford had transferred Jerry into the home office and they had decided to build a home in the same subdivision as ours. We had first met them in Dallas and they spent a day with us when we rented the beach house in New Jersey so we were not great friends but at least Cindy and I had each other to talk to and the boys had Bryce to hang out with.
Picking out all the options for the house was not as much fun as it sounded like. This was the third house we had built and the other two things like the flooring, lighting, landscaping etc. were included in the price on the contract you signed. Of course you could pay a little extra and upgrade somethings but in Michigan all of that could be added to the contract or you could pay for them yourself. Dennis had decided to pay for the options out of our pocket and keep the balance of the mortgage from not getting any larger. Perhaps if he had ever shopped for the things he would have done this a little differently.
The lights needed to be first and there were two stores that Mr. Rossi recommended. I by passed the first one with the valet parking and the free wine while you shopped and went to the one that had be in business for fifty-seven years with no frills. If the economy depended on me to go shopping it would be out of luck. I only go shopping when I desperately need something and then I have to think about what I am going to buy for a few days. Getting things for the house did not leave me time to think so much as it an was an impulse buy - for better or for worse. As they loaded all the boxes in the car I knew Dennis would not be happy with the bill which he wasn't.
Lucky for me Cindy volunteered to entertain the boys on my second day out shopping. Paint was easy since Dennis informed me we would probably only live in the house for about two years and then get transferred so I just had them paint in some off-white color. I could always redo it later. Flooring was pretty eas, tile in the bathrooms, entry, kitchen and breakfast area, wood parquet for the library, and
nondescript beige carpet in the rest of the house except the family room. The family room was my big mistake. Wool Berber carpet was suddenly very popular. I had redone a house in Kansas City that had thirty year old wool carpet and upon cleaning it looked brand new. So in my infinite wisdom I picked a wool Berber for the most used room in the house. Somehow in all the hullaboo about how wonderful the carpet was they forgot to mention that because the Berber was a looped carpet, not a straight cut carpet, it pills much like a wool sweater. I cursed that carpet every time I had to crawl around the floor getting rid of the little balls of wool. Dennis cursed me, Michigan, the builder and anyone else he could think about when I presented that bill to him.
Ever since we had moved into the motel and would drive over to see the construction of the house we would pass the Bonadventure Skating Rink. If you missed some of my blogs from several years ago I told how much I loved to roller skate. Lessons when I was twelve, two roller skating shows the next two years and skating every Sunday afternoon at the Stardust Skating Rink in Muskogee. It was my most favorite place in the world and I would rather skate (or Dance) than do anything else. When I married Dennis we went skating one night at an outdoor rink in Fort Worth and after I skated circles around him, did a few turns and could skate backwards he said never to ask him to go skating again (he could hardly stand up on skates). So I only got to go if the boys had a skating party to attend or when Wes's Mother's Day Out place went on Friday afternoons.
You can't imagine how hard it was to drive by the rink but one morning we noticed a lot of cars at the rink and I decided to go in and take a look. Wow! It looked a lot different then Stardust. It was fairly new, a beautiful wood floor and huge. One whole wall was glass with chaser lights behind it and there was a huge video screen that would play music videos. Do I need to say it was love at first sight? That morning when we stopped in was an adults only session that they had from 10:00 to 12:00 each Tuesday and Thursday mornings. The schedule was amazing in that Wednesday night was family night, Thursday was adults only, Friday and Saturday night was everyone and there were Saturday and Sunday afternoon skate times.
Wes and Wally had both been skating since they turned four years old. I taught them early as they were my excuse to go. As a rule I never skate on rented skates but mine were somewhere packed in a box in storage at the moving company. Bonadventure was so tempting that I broke my rule and one Wednesday night I took the boys skating, even invited Dennis to go along. He declined and off we went. Everyone at the rink was very friendly, even the young man who owned the rink. I have to say I thought I had died and gone to heaven. There was something about rolling around to the music of Prince, Wham, Cindy Lauper, Huey Lewis and others that you forgot everything in the world. Sort of like great therapy along with exercise as there was never anything else that could make me forget every care in the world than a few circles around a skating rink.
That first night of going back to skating had not only the boys but me hooked. It is interesting how one night can be so life changing as that one night was. Life was about to get very interesting.
Note: This blog/story is number 200 that I haven written since I took the suggestion of a dear friend who suggested I write a travel blog about a trip I went on. After the trip I decided it was rather fun and looked for else to write about. Did a few on renovating two buildings and for lack of anything else to write about I settled on the story about me. Life has it's ups and downs, good and bad but that is what makes it fascinating and fun. I am thankful for all my readers and appreciate your comments. Hopefully you learn something about your own life and that we all make mistakes and have winning moments.
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