More Oct. Birthdays

Happy Birthday to my mom and niece today! My mom is turning 60 and just got back from a trip to Hawaii with her best friend from school days. They both turned 60 this year and decided to treat themselves to a vacation to catch up on life. Thank you for all of the birthday wishes, much appreciated. I have still not received any of my birthday gifts yet. Hubby says I will really like my package coming via UPS. I asked him if it will show up in a plain brown package. He asked if I was talking about the box or the delivery man. Ummmm.....the box. My mom said her gift to me was sent off days ago. My sister said she is still working on making my gift. So I shall have a belated birthday celebration. The kids were sweet though. Once they realized it was my birthday(I had to tell them) Jesse made me a card with purple butterflies on it. Very sweet. Bobby was being extra nice and even sang an impromptu "Happy Birthday" to me on his way to bed. Hubby felt bad(somewhat) because I didn't really get to do anything special but I don't mind. We had a nice dinner at home, played a board game with the kids, and then relaxed the rest of the evening. Not too shabby. And I bought two things for myself on my shopping trip. A pair of winter boots with fuzzy insides...and the new book from Oprah's book club....A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. It is a true life story about the author's struggle with addiction and recovery. After a frank discussion with hubby the other night, this may be a struggle to read this book. He has been talking about how tempting it is for him to drown out the noises in his head with alcohol. He only occasionally drinks anything and it is usually just 1-2 beers or just one drink with hard liquor (scotch in some soda). This worries me though that it is tempting to him. I do not want to have to go down that road and if he did choose to go there, would I be able to handle it? I know I would not tolerate it. As hard as it is for him to deal with "the noise" in his head, I will not tolerate having a partner who chooses to drown out feelings and emotions with alcohol. Having said that, anti-depressants have the same effect. So if a drug is prescribed by a doctor does that make it o.k.? I don't know the answer to that one yet. Maybe never will. Is is better for someone who is depressed and anxiety ridden to work through their feelings and really "feel" things or should they just take the meds and try to hush or at least quiet them a bit. I think if you are mildly depressed, maybe working through it without meds might be an option, but the clinically depressed cannot even think logically to work through any problems, feelings, or issues that are causing the depression. As my hubby says, they are not happy pills, they are simply to help him try to reach that unattainable goal of feeling everyone else's "normal".

Thank you to everyone with suggestions for our puppy's name. I liked them all, but we had 4 people that needed to agree on it. I do like names that are different, not the ordinary. But Skippy it is. It seems to fit him though so that is good.