Tied Up in Knots

I can hear in the other room the clock chiming 3 am and, yes, I am wide awake.  Riley has been up with a stomach ache tonight and so I have been up with him trying to make him feel better.  Around 1:30 am or so I woke Kari up for more ideas.  None of mine seemed to be helping much.  Finally I gave him a nice warm bath and that made him feel better. He is now sleeping (I can hear his heavy breathing) but I can't.  Oh well.  It is a terrible thing when one of the boys aren't feeling well... I would rather be feeling sick than them, if you know what I mean. 

It has come to my attention that scarf tying is an art form.  If you are aware of this already just know that I am slow in the area of fashion. In the PNW (Pacific Northwest) in the winter months everyone pulls out their scarves to wear.  I usually don't wear one but when it gets down to the 30 degrees, I am wearing one with the rest of them, plus other layers of clothing.  Yesterday I learned a new knot and it caused me to go online to see if YouTube had lessons on this... and it did.  Check out 25 different ways to wear a scarf HERE!  I can't wait to try many of them.  The one I just learned was the Twist and Pull... anyway, I think that is what it is called.  It is one of the 25.  One of the young ladies at work showed me how to do it and I wore it again today with another scarf.  I felt special with a trendy way of tying my scarf.  So if you like to wear scarfs while it is cold... have fun with scarfs!  This is one of very few fashion tips I will ever give.

Wish me luck on getting through tomorrow with hardly any sleep.  At least it isn't a busy time of the quarter.  Registration for Spring quarter is a week away. 

My Mom's 80th Birthday

Tuesday just flew by and so I am now catching up by writing my post today.  My mom had her 80^th birthday yesterday and so I spent some of my evening talking to her on the phone.  My mom and I have not been very close through the years so when there is an event like a milestone birthday it is difficult for me to determine just what I am to do to honor her.  Despite the history we have which could fill a novel I did want to honor the woman that gave me birth.  Just to give you an idea of what I mean by not close; she would say things like I am my father’s daughter (meaning that I took more after him and not her).  That was OK with me because truthfully I loved my dad.  He was the greatest.  It may have been more of a truth than a put down than I realized when I was younger.  To defend her too, she was the one that comforted me the day I said "goodbye" to my dad for the last time.  He told me he was proud of me and he loved me... I turned and walked out of the room, out of the house and mom drove me away.  As we went down the 405 she gave me wise advice about life and how to deal with losing someone you love.

I talked to my two brothers about what they were going to do for mom for her birthday.  I am the oldest and they usually haven’t been asked by me questions like this one.  I was the one who would give them suggestions or ideas.  Jon decided that he would call her (after all he hadn’t spoken to her for years) and I told him that would be a nice gift.  David (my younger brother) seemed to be focused on what my mom and step dad hadn’t done for him… so he wasn’t any help in making a decision as to what to do.  I decided to send her a card with two gift cards (because I couldn’t decide)… one to Nordstrom’s where she likes to buy there her nighties etc.  The other one was for The Cheese Factory because I can remember going there with them at Fashion Island (a shopping mall in Orange County).  I thought she could buy a piece of cheese cake for a piece of birthday cake or she could buy something else but it was special enough.  You know what I mean?

So after getting the card in the mail with the gift cards in it and calling her on the phone and spending some time talking to her, I felt that she was happy.   She talked a lot about how she had got a call from my brother Jon and got his phone number.  She talked about how turning 80 isn’t easy… that 80 itself isn’t easy.  Jon and I talk a lot about getting older so I hope she didn’t scare him.  What I tell him is for another post.

Anyway, that was the first birthday of the week.  Brady’s is coming this Friday so I will be sure to be posting about that birthday too. 

Valentines Day Surprise!

Yesterday, Saturday, it was a warmer and sunny day.  So I decided to go out to the shed and find the Valentines Day decorations.  I have to remove the lawn mower and move out some boxes.  I had to open boxes to check to see what was on the inside.  I was organized with these things but since the divorce... when I lost my brains... I am now finding out that I just put things into plastic boxes without labeling what was in them.

Finally I opened one of the unmarked boxes, reorganized the shed when putting things back, and since I had the chance... I got out my pressure nozzle and hit some of the moss and knocked it off the patio blocks etc.  I got off a lot but still have a ways to go.  We have lots of moss in the PNW.  I also filled a trash can with old leaves that had blown there during some storms.  Again, I got a lot but have a ways to go still.  But it is better than it was.

When I got the box inside and opened it I found my decorations for Valentines Day, all my Valentine cards that I saved from Dave (I saved all of them... from our dating years and our marriage), and at the bottom of the box I found some of my old things.  I found two tea pots.  I found an old tin that I had stored some silver spoons decorated with grapevines (a favorite decoration of mine) and travel spoons from my past.  What was the best thing to find was my grandmother's glass swan that sat on her coffee table forever!  It means a lot to me because it is a memory.  I had thought that I had lost it... Dave would find things of mine and take them to the Goodwill when we were married, or I thought I left it behind.  I was so pleased to see that I had it still and it wasn't broken from all the moving I have done in the past couple of years.  What a nice Valentines Day surprise!

Wanting to See the Light

Sorry for not posting on Tuesday... I was feeling yucky.  Some bug was cycling around the family... First to Kari, then Brady, and then me.  Riley was fortunate and escaped it.  I would say that I had it the least of everyone who had it but I didn't go to work that day.  So much stuff has been going around there, they didn't want me there sharing the germ.

Wednesday and today I was able to go to work but I must say I am feeling still rather tired.  I hope this passes soon... especially for the weekend (ha ha).  Can you believe this is the last weekend of January?  I am so glad that we will soon be in February.  This isn't my favorite time of the year with the frost... sometimes snow and ice.  The mornings are still dark... but I am seeing light in the sky when I leave work when I wasn't a month ago.

Soon we will be having light when we wake up... and life seems so much better and so less darker.  It is hard to imagine that in the summer the light is out until almost 10 pm and the light is there at 5 am.  Of course, the opposite is true in the winter. 

Along with February comes primroses.  They are the first flower of sorts that I can decorate the planters and flower beds.  Also pansies are hardy and are available too.  March begins to bring some flowering plants and bushes such as our state flower the Rhodies.  Then in April the apple and cherry trees begin to bloom... and that is gorgeous!  I will talk a lot about it when it begins to happen.

Until Sunday! 

Friday nights we go to New Heart Ministries which is a recovery group at my old church, Riverview Community Church.  We changed churches at the end of December to a church in Covington called Real Life Church.  Although we are attending a different church on Sundays we are still in New Heart and the boys are still in Royal Rangers at RCC.

At New Heart we share dinner.  We prepare a meal for about 20 people to share.  This week Kari and I were responsible for the meatballs and gravy for our meal.  It was one of the easiest things to do.  All we did was buy a big bag of meatballs at Costco and about 6 cans of beef gravy.  We put it in the slow cooker on low all day and then transferred it to an aluminum pan.  I was afraid that they would be cold by the time we got to church but they were fine after covering them and keeping towels around the pan.

Saturday we got the boys haircut, the car washed (which needed it badly), and did a little shopping.  We then decided to go home for the rest of the day.

Today was church, some grocery shopping, a stop at Costco, and the evening meetings at Riverview Community Church.  The weather has been in the low 30s still and it is hard to get out and work in the yard or washing the car.  I tried for a little while on Saturday but within 15 minutes I was freezing.  I went back inside to warm up with some tea.

Tonight, Riley and I are staying up later since we can because it isn't a "school night".  While I am typing this, he is playing his 3DS and watching the Disney channel... he is in heaven.  We hope to go to Sumner tomorrow to their favorite bookstore.  We turn in books and they pick them out.  I will fill you in more later.

Thankful for MLK

One thing I love about Thursdays, especially Thursday nights, is that tomorrow is Friday.  Friday is the beginning of the weekend and this weekend we have three days.  So tomorrow is a really great day!  We are thankful for MLK... Did you know I live in King County and it is named after Martin Luther King?

Right now I don't have much planned for the weekend.  The only thing on my list is getting the boys a haircut and working in the yard if it warms up.

This week has had plenty of frost.  It has been about 27 degrees at night and by the time I get to work it is 35 degrees but the frost has been in the shaded areas all day. What isn't around right now are clouds (which act like a blanket and keep us warmer) and rain.  Yep, no rain has been falling in Seattle since the 11th.  For us, that is a while.

Kari has gone back to classes for the Winter quarter.  She is taking Math and Drawing.  Tonight she has Math and she is getting a test back tonight from last Tuesday.  Drawing is going well and she has been working at it.  Tonight I came home to the picture above.  The assignment was to take a black and white picture from a magazine and fold it in half... then draw the other half.  The photo above was her first picture.  Not bad for someone who has never done any drawing before, huh?

A concern around here is the flu.  It seems to have become worse fast.  Two of coworkers have been out all week.  They both came in today for about half the day and then left early.  Last week it was another coworker... so that is three women out of 9.  So that's one third of us.  Sue and I work directly with students and they have been coming into see us while sick with the flu.  One guy actually sneezed out right without trying to cover his face at Sue the other day.  Sue didn't have the flu shot... while I did.  I got out spray and anti bacteria things to combat the infected air and germs.  We also have masks to give out to sickies.  Sue won't give them out, but I will.  If they come in sick, they get a mask!

Well, I will be back Sunday... Have a good weekend!

Space Heater vs Space Cadet

I am not really impressed yet with 2013.  It is going to have to step it up for me to be impressed.  So far there has been a lot of cold and frost.  At work we are all “hugging” our heaters.  And that brings up another problem…

I am fearful of not turning off the heater at work when I leave to go home.  I know that is a good fear but it has become unreasonable.  What I mean is that I have turned it off… left… got to my car… and then returned to check it again.  Isn’t that a bit OCD?  How many times in the past month have I done this?  At least 10 times.  Each time I had already turned it off too.  So I started saying out loud “I have turned off the heater.”  But, if I get distracted and don’t say it out loud, back I come (even from home) to check it out.  The last time I came back to check if my heater was off, someone else’s was on.  That is right… I began to check other heaters.  I know this isn’t mentally healthy so I have told my coworkers my concerns.  Now I have Sue look with me before leaving.  Having her involvement has put my fears to rest.

I guess my biggest concern with the heater was imagining that the building was going to burn down and we wouldn’t have jobs.  Yes, a good concern… turned bad.  It is possible to make something intended for good, bad.

I will leave you now with my heater issues.  As far as my other immediate goals I mentioned… I am doing well with money, and spiritually.  I am trying to take care during the cold and flu season by getting plenty of sleep etc. (with ill students and staff around).  Plus, we went looking the other night for a sofa just to get an idea of what is out there.  We also have a handle on Brady’s birthday party scheduled for the 2^nd of February (his 8^th birthday is actually February 1). 

Happy January 2013

Hi Everyone!  I know I have been gone for a little while.  December is crazy with activity due to Christmas with shopping etc.  Every time we do it and return to normal, I wonder how we did it again.

With January coming, I get the need to pack up all the Christmas decorations and to clean.  I begin to think like everyone else about the New Year and what changes would be good as goals.  I think about it hard because if they are too unreasonable then one finds themselves abandoning the changes in the first two weeks of January.

I actually come up with areas of life such as... Home and Family, Work/ Learning, Spiritual, Recreation/ Relationships, Finances, and Personal Goals.  Each area I review and decide how I am doing and what I would like to work on the first 3 months of the year.  If I do too much all at once, something will slide and I will fall short.  After all, I have the whole year to do these things.  Let's say I want to save money and stick to a budget... I decide where I could be in 3 months and what I must do to get there.  I noticed that my check is being reduced a bit because of the Social Security tax... they were taking out less the last two years to help us spend more for the economy's sake but now the tax is being put back into place.  My checks are going to be about 40 - 50 dollars less each month.  How do I change my spending?

Spiritually - we just changed churches.  We must get "plugged into" this new church which will take about 6 months or so.  What can I do to get plugged in?  I am looking at the various ministries and options to get involved.  Plus, I make sure I am at church every week.

Home wise - I want to change the living room furniture.  We have been using old furniture my friend gave me to start off with.  The cat seems to like to claw the furniture too so we have put off getting new things.  Do I buy something new and spray the cat with water?  Or do I get something nice off of Craig's List?  Or should I put this off until Spring when I have more money saved?  I know one of my other goals is to have more people over which is under the Recreation and Relationship goals.  We would like to have nicer furniture when we have people come.  So there is always a balance.

I think I have been doing OK in the budget department so far.  Watching what I eat and taking my meds.  Plus, working also on the Spiritual side of things.  That is the 3 goals that has bubbled up to the surface to begin with.  I belief that resolutions aren't just for New Years Eve... it is for the whole year.  I believe that a lot of what I write in the blog this year is about accomplishing these goals.

One thing is for sure.  I am so ready to move even more forward from the pain I have gone through from the divorce.  I want to be done with it!  I want to look at 2013 as something new and fresh with new beginnings more than I have ever before in my life.  So let's go... Happy 2013!