Ex-man continues to fret over his code name, fearing it suggests he is in some way my X.. you know.. as in x husband. I am here to assure everyone this is not the case. True I do have an X husband… but it’s not Ex-man. I suppose if I were to ever refer to my X-husband I would call him something like Lt. X since he was a Lt. on a sheriff’s department before he retired.
Meanwhile, the lengthy and world shattering revelations found in the key to my playlist need to be put on hold until I have given my readers a program by which they can tell who is who on this blog.
I shall now Ex-plain my Ex-cellent reasoning behind the Ex-emplary name I chose for Ex-man….Aren’t you Ex-cited?
Ex-man. who is my husband, is the Executive Director of one of the Rocky Mountain region’s MPOs.. An MPO is “a Municipal Planning Organization which, more closely defined “is a federally-designated association of local governments whose organization is responsible for the prioritization of federal transportation investments in their region”. (That’s a definition in Ex-man’s own words. Obviously.. his vocabulary beats mine, hands down)
I used to refer to him as the big E.D. but somehow that always made me think of that talking horse.. you know.. Mr. Ed. (Don’t tell me if you’re too young to know who that is!!!!.. Just trust me.. there was once a television program about a talking horse. Life was so much more simple back then) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLR4iZJLgc4
Of course, the horse-y name just wasn’t working,… yet…. I still wanted to incorporate his ‘prestigious’ title into his nickname on the blog. Rummaging through the grey cells of factoids stored regarding my significant other, I came upon his fascination with super heroes. A lesser known marvel character whose traits seem to fit my guy is, believe it or not, Xman, the test tube son of Cyclops and Jean Grey. I’m not deeply knowledgeable about such characters. Elena (whom I shall Ex-plain later) is the one who pointed out some qualities she felt Ex-man and Xman had in common. I figured that would flatter my husband and thus, he is referred to on these pages as “Exman”. ..( who is, of course my super hero regardless)
Now that I’ve mentioned Elena, let me go ahead and give you the four-one-one on her: Elena is my youngest daughter. She and her husband, Riotimus, chose their own names long ago. Riotimus is on his way to becoming a renown Ancient History professor who, among other things, is an expert on King Arthur. Riotimus actually was a king and mighty warrior who has been identified as a candidate for the historical King Arthur. Elena, on the other hand, is the name of a leading female character in a series of short stories Riotimus has written, some of which have won impressive awards.
We recently learned that Riotimus and Elena have cooked up Grandchild #13 for us! Life is good! They also have two sons, neither of which have been given code names for this blog. I tend to want to refer to the 4 year old as “toad hopper”, but have decided his parents might want to select something on their own. His 2 year old brother I’d call Snuggle Puppy.. but again I defer to his parents.
While we are at this end of the “posterity” line I will let you know that Little Brother is our youngest son. He is anything but little… 6 ft 1” .. if you don’t count his hair. He got his name from the signature he uses when he leaves comments on his sisters’ blogs.
Frankly I’m surprised he didn’t leave comments on this blog using the code name, “ Your favorite”! Having been teased by his three elder siblings about being spoiled most of his life, he finally decided he’d thrive on the implication. He unashamedly tells anyone who will listen that he is his mother’s favorite. We love and spoil him enough to let him live with his merry delusion. Truth be told, we would like to think all four of our children live with that delusion.. but I suspect it is more fun to tease LB than entertain such thoughts.
LB is married to the gal his grandfather told him not to “let getaway” in high school. We’re all happy he listened to his Grandad! I’m going to let her pick her code name as well! She certainly deserves to have that priviledge.. she’s about to present us with Grandson # 9 and Grandchild #12!
Heading up the line the other way we get to Occasional Genius. That would be our oldest daughter… which is not to imply she is old! In fact, OG will never age.. she has too much to do to bother with that. If you haven’t checked out her blog you need to take time to make the visit. It will become obvious right away why she’s called OG. I’m trying to remember a time in her life she wasn’t cooking something up in the way of amazing , if not totally surprising! http://occasionalgenius.com/
Our family loves her games…enough to travel to another State when invited to play. Rumor has it she’s working on a new one.. with an Egyptian theme.. or maybe it will be a deserted island theme.. I can’t wait!
OG is married to I.T. Guy. They met in college. He was dating one of her roomies. I’m not sure who worked their creativity on whom but we’re glad they ended up together. They have a family of four: Code Red:… ‘26’… K-girl and Caboose. You’ll notice thus far I have refrained from doing the typical grandmother thing…to ‘brag’ about the grandkids” .. Readers will not forever be spared my doting comments.. but for the sake of length on this posting I shall curb my naturally tendencies! .. and will give fair warning when I’m about to elaborate on the topic.
And now we come to Hootis. Eldest child… brilliant computer wiz, father of five. Hootis was given his nickname long ago by my brother.. the original toad hopper in my family. Aa soon as I remember what my little brother’s nickname was between the two of those guys I will be using it to refer to him.. Every blog needs stories about little brothers. ( I suppose that was an open invitation for Hootis, OG and Elena to submit theirs about Little Brother.. .. this could get interesting.)
Anyway Hootis took some time finding himself a spouse. Ah. …another family member without a code name at this writing. Back in his single days OG and I would tell him to stop looking for a sweet young thing and find a sensible woman with kids… our only grandchild at the time was Code Red. OG figured he needed cousins. And I was enjoying “grandmotherhood” so much, more sounded good to me. Enter our lovely Daughter in law #1 with three of the most precious, adorable, little boys. Now that they are ages 16, 15 and 12, I doubt they would like to be referred to as adorable and precious. Handsome.. indeed they are.. We feel as if they’ve always been ours.. Perhaps they will soon submit nicknames for the blog If not.. they are fair game!
Hootis and his gorgeous wife have added to the mix one of the rare granddaughters in the family – who is now about to turn 10 .. and who is also the image of her mom. Bringing up the rear is their own little caboose, a grandson that reminds me of the Gerald Mc Boing Boing cartoon character.. Smart as a whip and short on vocabulary - - - he certainly can communicate with his antics and facial expressions.. too cute!!!
Yep .. we’ve got the best grandkids anywhere. I can say that! This is MY blog!
So who have I written about that I’ve not explained? I figure eventually Little Brother’s mom-in-law will post and give herself a nickname.. She tells me she’s read this a time or two… We had another fun time together this week-end putting the finishing touches on the 12th grandchild’s scrapbook.. That’s the family tree page in the photo. I think one of our biggest adventures this time was taking Ella for a walk with Ex-man… What an adventure!.. That dog does NOT get the idea of ‘heel’ ..But it was fun watching LB’s mom-in-law (who is maybe all of 5ft 2” if that), take a turn with the leash and give the command.. I wish I’d had the camera then.. That would surely have found it’s way to the blog!
Another photo op missed was the fat lip LB’s mom-and-law got from a box of toothpaste samples falling on her face. Do we know how to have fun at this house or what? In parting this morning she assured me she would still come visit again in spite of it all… and I take it from her last words that if I could just find the right man in the area.. we’d see her a lot more often… You better believe I’m on the look out!
Oh yes.. today’s other photo is of.. you guessed it.. my hero! I captured this ‘rare’ photo of Ex-man just before he transformed into his super hero uniform. Superman has his phone both.. Ex-man has his recliner!
