Switch? Stay. Switch?

First, thought I'd share some Christmas freebies: http://www.nbcdfw.com/blogs/pennypinching/Christmas-Freebies-70149332.html

David and I are sitting here browsing the Verizon site for phones. We've been with T-Mobile since it was VoiceStream, but the coverage is still really on the spotty side. So on December 1st (or thereabouts), when our contract is up with TM, we plan to switch. However, better coverage on Verizon comes at a price. The plan we need is about $40 more per month than on T-Mobile. But TM's phone selection is sad, and the one I want is $150 cheaper on Verizon. Better coverage, better phones. More money. *sigh* Decisions, decisions.

Froggy, Froggy on the wall...

Just a quick post, mostly to share a cool photo I took today. We had lunch at Rosa's Café, a very colorfully decorated Mexican restaurant, while we were out running errands. In the middle of one wall, there were four brightly painted frogs, each probably about 3-feet wide? They're very cool and I love them. Anyway, this is a shot of two of them.

Weehuudalee hoober noobit

My hands are blue. I forgot to put gloves on when I was rinsing the dye out of the second backdrop. The first one turned out a bee-yoo-tiful brown. The second is very blue. Much brighter than I thought it would be. I'll assess it after it dries, but I may have to bleach it a bit.

This morning I grabbed my friend Stephanie and her 21-month-old daughter and we drove to Frisco to IKEA, where I bought the fabric to dye. Stopped at Cowboy Studio Lighting on our way (in Dallas). After school, Sunshine and I headed to Walmart and Hobby Lobby to get the RIT, and got back to Bookman's school just in time to retrieve him before heading home.

I would describe how utterly exhausted I am, but being that David just dragged in from work minutes ago (nearly 11pm) all muddy and sore, I'll keep my measly tiredness to myself.

I will, however, tell you that it was determined this morning that 'Weehuudalee hoober noobit' is much more fun to say than 'Weehuudalee hoo ha.' (In case you ever wondered.)

Oh Canada

We're working on a Canada project. She had to choose and research a country that interested her. I suggested Germany, or Italy, or Great Britain. Nope. Canada, eh. Had to look up the word 'patriated', since I'd never heard it before (Canada's constitution was patriated from the United Kingdom in 1982 *nodding sagely*).

Received those settlement documents today (woohoo!). Only had to check the mailbox six times. Celebrated by going out to Peter Piper Pizza for the PTA fundraiser night. The kids spent 40 tokens, cashed in tickets and chose prizes with no input from me--I sat and chatted with other PTA moms. :)

8:41 and David just got home. Going to visit with him....

Mr. Postman, bring to me...

I'm expecting some documents via mail from the insurance company, so I've been sitting here listening for the mailman while reading through some Veteran's Day articles and working on various Photoshop projects. Went out to check the mailbox twice in the last two hours. Was headed out a third time, but eventually made the connection in my brain between 'Veterans Day' to 'no mail service'. *rolling my eyes at myself* Dangit! I want the mail!

One of the photoshop projects I've been working on is beefing up the portfolio on my website. So I'm sifting through all kinds of old photos (the kind printed from 'film'--remember that? Yeah... *sigh* mem-ries), looking for anything that might be considered 'good.' Found these two and scanned them, then muted the colors a bit (that's the photoshop part). Taken the same day at a park in Altus. Such cuties!

Ooh look, a penny!

--Thirty minutes on the elliptical machine, 10 minutes on the nautilus machines, and 30 minutes on the recumbent bike. Worked out with Mom tonight and I'm beat.

--I was invited to visit a photography studio in Euless next week to kibitz with the owner and shoot some portraits of a willing victim. Just need to find said willing victim.

--Am doing some preliminary logo work for a newly-established non-profit organization dedicated to kids with congenital heart defects, like my Sunshine. Check out the website here: http://www.blessherheart.org. Very sad story under 'Our Story.'

--Spent a good amount of time on hold with JPS today, but have the info I need to hopefully negotiate my bill down a few thousand dollars. Will fax that off tomorrow.

--Got absolutely no laundry done today. (I know you were wondering...)

Almost behind me

Three milestones today:
1) I sent off the signature page for my part of the accident settlement.
2) The lawsuit was filed for David's part of the settlement.
3) I have a brand new shiny Tax ID number for my brand new shiny photography business.

So we spent some money to retain the lawyer, but will hopefully have a check in our hands by the end of the week. It's not nearly as much as I'd hoped I could get. Not nearly enough to cover the stuff I still go through on a daily basis as a direct result of this whole thing. But enough to just let it go. Put it behind me, pay the medical bills, and move on.

I suspect the accident that happened 17 years ago today may have a lot to do with why the accident that happened two years ago Wednesday affected me the way it has. The brain works in weird weird ways.

Designer Shirts :)

Every year, the PTA purchases class shirts for the 6th graders--not sure why exactly, it's just a tradition that's been upheld since before I got there. We discovered last year that it's a lot cheaper to design and have them printed ourselves than to use a company that specifically caters to school shirts--they cost the PTA less than half as much, actually. Since I'm able, I offered to submit a design again for this year's shirts. This is what I've been working on:


Photoshop is my program of choice, but I did this entirely in Illustrator, using another design as inspiration. This may be the most complex thing I've ever done from scratch in Illustrator. It's a little messy as far as construction, but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, and I REALLY hope the other Board members love it. I'd love to see this on a t-shirt and say, "Hey, I did that!"

Settlement

We talked with the lawyer yesterday, and he kind of creeped me out a little. He seemed to dismiss David entirely, and really just rubbed us the wrong way. However, it's amazing how a phone call from an attorney's office will light a fire under a claims rep's booty. I talked to the rep at Farmers five or six times yesterday afternoon, negotiating a settlement amount that I could live with. It's not nearly what I asked for, but putting it behind me is much more valuable at this point. Hopefully we'll be able to get the release language worked out so I can sign and fax the forms on Monday.

David is deciding. Yesterday he was pretty intent on pursuing a lawsuit. Today he's considering settling. We need the money, but if he settles, he won't get even half of what he thinks is fair. So we'll see.

Anxiety

I'm going with David to the appointment with the lawyer today, so this morning I'm gathering up files, printing off copies of the accident report and burning photos to disc. Feeling lightheaded and nauseated already, so this is probably going to be a long day.

I really like to pretend nothing ever happened. It's much easier to remember only when I can't squash it down, like when I'm the last person in line at a stoplight, or worse, the last person in line in stopped traffic. And just go ahead and hand me the kleenex and look up the number for my 'counselor' if I'm the last person in line in stopped traffic on a bridge... It's been almost two years, and it still very much affects my life. Dammit.

Funky

Feeling kinda funky, not sick really. Just... Funky.

Tomorrow David meets with a lawyer about a possible lawsuit related to the 2007 accident. It would need to be filed before Wednesday if it can even happen. I'm thinking I need to attend this meeting, too, but David was kinda non-committal.

Not sure what's going on with the other guy's insurance. We were supposed to have another offer early last week, and have received no word. They're probably dragging their feet, hoping we won't file a lawsuit and they can offer whatever they want.

Update forthcoming...

I'm not a guy, either.

I think the check-out girls at Kroger this evening thought I was a guy. And possibly a cute guy? If so, should I be flattered? First, I'm pretty sure my $50 worth of groceries didn't need two extra girls to bag them. Second, as I was unloading my cart, they were talking rather loudly in odd, breathy voices between giggles about how very long ago they'd been seventeen (two years for one, three years for the other two). Third.... well, there is no third thing. It was just very odd.

Okay, I was wearing a Cowboy's ball cap over my bad-hair-day short hair, jeans, sneakers, and a hooded sweatshirt jacket. And no makeup. My decidedly diminutive bosom doesn't help, either. But I was wearing one-inch hoop earrings! Do guys wear earrings that big?

I just know they were screeching to each other as soon as I was out of earshot: "OMG! OMG! I totally thought that lady was a guy, didn't you?"

I'm pretty sure I couldn't care less...

I do not have a luggage fixation! I don't think. Do I?

Bookman isn't feeling well this evening, but I suspect it has more to do with the amount of homework he's put off until the last minute than with an actual bug. Gave him some echinacea and some tylenol for his sore throat, and told him to either go to bed (as in turn out the light and sleep) or get back to work. He's back to work.

In other news, apparently someone in Phoenix with a name remarkably similar to mine has a luggage fixation. Here's the story on CNN. I stumbled across the story on a Phoenix news website earlier today while looking at my site stats, which showed that several people arrived at my website by plugging her name into google and yahoo. While I'm glad to have the traffic at my site, I do hope her name doesn't tarnish mine.

And in a bit of totally unrelated news: I need to lay off the aspartame in diet sodas. It's been linked to memory loss, and I kind of scared myself today with a memory-lapse incident. I'll spare you the details, but I seriously thought I might be losing it. I'll blame the aspartame for now, and hope the short-term memory improves!

Autobiographer's Block

I spent much of the day today trying to come up with a short biography for my photography blog. One would think writing about the one person I know best would be relatively easy. But how do you simmer down all the pertinent information about yourself into four or five sentences? I ended up not posting one, but what was I gonna say? "I'm a geek and proud of it, grew up all over the world. I love nearly every sort of artistic pursuit and am even good at a few: photography, graphic design, painting, papercraft. I'm not good at interpretive dance."

Actually, that's not half bad.

NaBloPoMo and tall tales

November is National Blog Posting Month, and I'm going to take a stab at the goal of posting at least once a day for 30 days--on TWO different blogs. Check out the November 1st postings on Shutter Muse for my other NaBloPoMo project :)

My mother asked me today, "What did you do to your neck?" I'd kind of forgotten about it, because I um... sort of... um... injured... my neck at the base of my throat on Friday morning. David says it looks like I clotheslined myself, which is a much better explanation that what actually happened. Can't you see it? Maybe I was chasing after ChiChi to save her from the jaws of a rabid dog that had somehow gotten into our yard, and perhaps was so focused on her that I didn't see the clothesline, but didn't let it stop me. It could be that I hit the clothesline so hard and kept running that it snapped off, leaving a bright red welt on my neck.

What. It could totally have happened like that.

Or maybe--MAYBE I was in line at the convenience store when I saw the guy ahead of me pull out a gun! So perhaps I tackled him, making him hit his head on the counter and knocking him out, but the gun discharged and the bullet grazed my neck!

Maybe that one's a little far fetched, but still completely feasible! Right?

Right?

Okay, okay... *sigh* The truth is... I um... I.... I burned my neck baking muffins. Okay? Geez!

I was in a hurry. David was ready to walk out the door, and I was trying to get the muffins out of the oven and flipped onto a plate so he could scoop some up with a paper towel and take them with for breakfast. But my hands were in the wrong position for flipping. So I tried to reposition my hands without losing my grip on the potholders. Which I accomplished successfully. I did NOT lose my grip on the potholders.

I did, however, lose my grip on the pan, and it slid into my neck.

There, are you happy now? Surely I'm not the only person who has ever burned her neck whilst baking muffins.

;)

Happy Last Day of October!

That's the only significance of today, right?

Last night was the yearly Family Fun Night (aka 'Carnival') at Sunshine's school. This is our last year there, so I purposefully didn't take as active a role as I normally would... or that was the plan, anyway. I'd only signed up to do some decorations and to work in the silent auction for an hour.

BUT... then the silent auction coordinator got swine flu. No, I did not volunteer to take it over (aren't you proud of me?). But on Thursday morning when the power went out, I went in to the school a day earlier than planned to get some decorations made and see how else I could help.

Yeeeah. That whole 'no real active role' notion? Overcome by marker fumes, apparently, as I wrote out 60+ bid forms and estimated the value of the donated auction items. Yesterday I did manage to get some decorations made and hung up before diving back into auction stuff. I was at the school from 8:30 am to after 10:00 pm, except for two fairly brief stops at home to potty the dogs.

Needless to say, I was utterly exhausted by the time I got home last night. Stiff and sore from being on my feet for sixteen straight hours, brain-dead, but still very caffeinated. Got into my jammies and drooled on my keyboard while I surfed facebook like a zombie. Couldn't even think about sleep until after midnight.

Was still very tired and creaky at seven this morning, so stayed in my pajamas nearly all day. Does it say anything to how exhausted I was, that around 2:00 pm I noticed for the first time that I'd put my pajama bottoms on backwards last night, and it took another hour or so to work up the energy to do anything about it?

Bookman also wore himself out by spending quite a bit of time inside the dragon mascot outfit. He did a great job, letting kids hug him, giving high-fives, posing for pictures. Inside a mascot outfit, he's free to use those *ahem* amazing dance moves...

On a related note (if I may bore you with just a smidge more auction chatter), I donated a portrait session, 11x14 print, and be-yooo-tiful 11x14 frame to the silent auction. I put a minimum bid of $30 on it because that's how much the whole gift cost me in actual dollars (I got the frame for half price), and if it were to 'sell' for less than that, I'd just as well give the money directly to the PTA. At the right is a picture of my item alongside other auction items.

Get this: TOTAL STRANGERS bid on it. People I do not know! How cool is that? It ended up selling for only $20 less than the total estimated value, which for a PTA silent auction is really good! Most things go for about half their estimated value, so I'm kinda grinning about that. The person who eventually won it is a fellow PTA Board member, which is cool. I'm already familiar with her kiddos, so photographing them will be relatively easy.

Off to watch Year One with the family!

Pazow!

So in addition to getting my new website up and running, I've been working on another project--a collaboration on the illustration of a childrens' book about battling cancer. My friend Guerin did the character sketches, and I'm helping take those sketches from paper to PAZOW! My first transformation was a Chemo Dragon, representative of chemotherapy drugs. The first pic below is Guerin's drawing as he sent it to me (he sent it bigger, of course):



Now here's a small version of my interpretation:
Pretty cool, huh? The book hasn't been submitted to any publisher yet, and won't be until we get most/all the illustrations done, so it'll be a while before you can look for it in your local book store, but it's kinda fun. It's coloring book to the nth power. :)

New website live!

I've been volunteering/donating my portraiture skills to friends, family, and PTA for the past few years. Finally enough people asked, "Why aren't you making money for this?", that I decided maybe I should give it a try.

For about three years, my web site at staceylking.com has been more of a portfolio of an assortment of skills, among them book covers, graphic design, web design, photography, and flash animation. It had no real purpose, except to show my students when I was teaching a class on web design, or photography, or graphics, or flash. It now has a purpose.

For the past three or four days, I've been brushing up on my Flash skills (it's been a long time since I taught it), and cranking out a new and improved website, this one a home for my portrait photography. Rather than an entire site in a single flash animation, I split it up into separate pages, so the browser buttons work, and individual pages can be bookmarked. And I'm very pleased with the result! Still working on getting pictures into the gallery.

Woop!

Please visit the site and test out the gallery, and send me a note from the contact form, help me find any kinks in the plumbing sooner rather than later.

Woop! Woop!

She's a King-Fisher!

[British accent] Beautiful plumage, eh!?

*ahem*

Friday evening was the much-anticipated wedding of David's sister, Michelle King, to her long-time beau, Cory Fisher. After a few 'What to do with Lucy' glitches on Friday morning, we managed to get on the road to Tulsa by noon-ish. We checked into the hotel by 5:00, relaxed a bit, found the rest of the family down the hall, then got dressed and headed to the chapel.

Now, before we left home, David asked if I had the video camera. I said yes, it's in my camera bag, and of course I take my camera bag pretty much everywhere we go. Didn't give it another thought.

Until we were all standing in the the small vestibule of the chapel minutes before the wedding was to start, and Rosaleen, running through a verbal checklist, ended by pointing to the bag over my shoulder and saying, "And you've got the video camera."

I blinked at her for a moment, processing several things at once: 1) She said 'the' video camera, not 'a' video camera, 2) 'the' video camera is expected to film the ceremony, please, 3) David has never operated the video camera, 4) that means I'll be filming the ceremony, 5) OHMYGOSH I never checked the camera to see if the battery was charged!!!, and 6) it's been more than a month since I last touched it so chances are slim that it will have enough charge to film an entire ceremony.

After a few moments of mental stammering, I blazed into action, finding a corner by a power outlet, tearing into my camera bag, discovering that the camera battery in fact had ZERO juice (!!) and quickly plugging it in to charge for the few scant moments left before the bridal party started lining up.

All worked out in the end. There was a power outlet at the side of the altar area, so I was able to film the entire ceremony. The angles are a little odd sometimes, and the camera spazzes a few times while I plug and unplug it, and without a tripod the entire thing is a bit shaky, but it's a decent record of the event. While they finished taking pictures, I was also able to find an outlet in the reception hall, so I got lots of video of the reception, too.

I was actually relieved to have something meaningful to contribute. I'd been feeling bad that we couldn't get there early to help with flowers or food, as the rest of the family had done. I do wish I'd been prepared to film it (known to charge the battery and bring a tripod), but as crazy as the preparation stuff was, with family coming into town from North Carolina and Great Britain, I can see how it fell through the communication gaps. Besides, family and friends know well that I always bring the cameras. I may leave the rescue asthma meds in the car or at the hotel, but I will definitely have the cameras.

The professional photographer didn't stay for the reception, so between videotaping and dancing and dancing and more dancing, I managed to get some good still photos, too.

To the right is a particularly sweet photo of David and his sister. And yes, that's my goober Sunshine, too. More reception pics if you're interested.

The dancing machine gene must be genetic (but if so, where did we get it, Erin?). As soon as MJ's 'Smooth Criminal' started, the reception video starts bouncing around because I just could not keep my booty from groovin'. The rest of my family soon congregated on the dance floor and proceded to boogie. (By the way, call it heresy, but the Alien Ant Farm version of that song is WAY better than the original.) We tore up the floor, and at the very end of the night, we were the last ones still dancing, along with David's big sis Maggie.

All in all, it was a beautiful wedding!

Lock down!

It's book fair time, and this year I'm the chairperson again. I love this job. All the cases were delivered today, and we managed to get it mostly set up. Also got a long list of other things accomplished (mostly decorations). But today had a little bonus excitement. :)

Sunshine's school used to sit in the middle of nowhere, nothing but fields surrounding it. Now, however, the area has been built up, and it sits near the intersection of two major roads, and within spitting distance of several pharmacies, grocery stores, gas stations, and.... banks. Today's excitement was thanks to a bank robbery across the street, after which the gunman made a break on foot toward the elementary school. So we were under complete lock-down for a good portion of the day while helicopters searched from the air. ALL doors locked, blinds drawn, lights out, kids silent and away from windows. There were five of us PTA volunteers in the work room, huddling in the dark behind the counter, calling people 'on the outside' to try to get more information.

It's kind of weird to be in a situation like that with other people--it's an opportunity to see how differently people handle the stress of potentially dangerous situations. I totally kept my cool. I was more worried about the Scholastic delivery guy being hijacked while attempting to deliver my book fair (which would have completely screwed up the book fair schedule! *wink*). I also worried just a smidge about Sunshine, and whether or not she was freaking out, but figured she was worrying more about me than about her (which turned out to be the case).

Anyway. The moral of today's story is that small towns are not exempt from big city crime, particularly in more desperate times. Thank goodness the lock-down was the extent of the excitement.

**Edited 9/17 to add photo.

Monday night madness and more

Last night I taught an Introduction to Computer Graphics class. The last time I taught the class it was a four-hour Saturday morning class with no text. Now they've expanded the class to three weeknights, and the text they gave me to use is a 15-year-old TEXTBOOK for a semester-long college course. Now you probably know that 15 years in computer age is longer than the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods combined. And even if the material were current, there's no way we could cover anywhere close to the contents of the text in three nights. So I was scrambling. We were supposed to go until 10:00 pm, but made it to about 8:35 and decided to call it a night.

On the way home, I decided to swing by Fry's electronics to purchase a DVD burner to replace the DVD-ROM which had quit months and months ago. I got there with a few minutes to spare before they closed. Got home a smidge before 10:00.

And... since it was fresh on my brain, I decided to just go ahead and install the dang thing then, rather than waiting until morning. Instead of unhooking everything and bringing my computer tower into the light where I could see it, I crawled under my desk with a screwdriver. Of course just plugging the DVD drive in caused errors in the boot registry, so I spent another 90 minutes troubleshooting. Stuck my finger in the CPU cooling fan (that's when I decided I should find the camp light), bled on my good jeans ('cause I didn't change out of my teaching clothes first), and now have two gashes in my fingertip (which is hindering my typing a bit).

But I got it working (!), and was able to also get Vista repaired using the installation DVD (Vista crashed months ago, too), so I now have access to my Adobe CS3 design suite again! Wooo! I tried to do something creative with it last night, but alas, all my good thinking was used up. By that time it was nearing 2:30 am, so it's also quite possible that I was just dang tired.

This morning I had a date with Sunshine to take her to Justice (I hate that store) to spend some gift cards she'd acquired over the last year or so. I took my DSi and did sudoku puzzles while she shopped and tried on clothes.

Tonight's class was the third night of a four-night Photoshop class. I do try so very hard to be patient, but I confess I get frustrated sometimes. Photoshop is a robust, advanced program. If you have little experience using computers in general (and are unable to find and open a file, for instance) you should probably consider taking a class in computer basics before trying to tackle advanced software. And the people who use computers and can keep up get frustrated and bored while I spend more than half the class time repeatedly bringing the turtles up to speed. There are 16 people in this class--the largest I've ever had for Photoshop. It's tough with that many turtles and snails in one class. But I love the program, and hopefully my enthusiasm masks my impatience.

Trampolines and day-glo fiberglass

It's because of Facebook. It's so much easier to type in a one- or two-sentence status update than to come here and actually compose lots of sentences and put them together for a blog entry. That's why this blog (and my other blogs) are so pitifully out of date. *nodding*

When we first moved into this house, we inherited a big trampoline from my then brother-in-law (okay, we actually purchased it from his brother, but only for some ridiculously crazy price like $35 or somesuch). Before we even put it together, we went out and purchased an enclosure for it, so no one could accidentally bounce off of it and break something. Yet somehow my Sunshine has now sustained two broken bones on it.

On April 15th, she was jumping on the trampoline with a friend who lives nearby, and I guess they had asked David to sit on the trampoline so they could 'bounce' him, wherein the bouncee sits in the middle and the bouncer(s) jump around him/her to see how high off the mat they can make the seated person fly. Apparently Sunshine accidently jumped on David, rather than the mat, and rolled her ankle. Sunshine and Friend both said they heard a pop, so I took her for x-rays the next day. Her doctor thought it looked like a sprain, but said someone else would look at the films just to make sure. So we hooked her up with lots of ace-wrap and some crutches, and she went back to school.

On Monday afternoon, the doctor's nurse called to tell me that the radiologist looked at the films and saw nothing to worry about. But the ankle was still swelling (even worse than it had initially) and it was still very sore. On Tuesday afternoon, the nurse called again to to say that an orthopedist had taken another look at the films and thought she might have a non-displaced fracture. She said she'd make an appointment with pediatric orthopedics at Cooks and call me back with details.

So yesterday morning was our orthopedics appointment. He confirmed that her tibia is fractured just below the growth plate, which is sort of unusual. Growth-plate fractures heal pretty quickly because that's the part of the bone that is already generating more bone (for growing!). This one is going to take about six weeks to heal, and she has to be in a real non-removable cast for at least four of the six. He'll reassess on May 22 and see if she can wear a 'boot' for the remainder.

A very small fracture right above her ankle. And she needs a toe-to-knee cast. Needless to say she is not happy about it at all. Preteen drama queen that she sometimes is, yesterday was the worst day of her life, and she's sure she didn't do anything to deserve this fate. She got so stressed out that she got a mini-migraine and stayed home from school all day.

Please pray for a return of a bright positive attitude!

(Yes, it's a very nice bright shade of orange. Color not accurately reproduced here--on my monitor anyway.)

The good news is that she can walk on it. They gave her a little black shoe to put over the cast. And even though she loathes the cast, she's finding it a lot easier to get around. She also gets out of PE for the rest of the year (which is good), but will be a spectator at Field Day (which is bad).

She's especially worried that this will make us miss Baby Beaver. So Erin, can you send me BB's email address so we can request that she hold off until after May 22nd?
;-)

Erin, this is for you: My baby book

My dear neurotic pregnant sister has this notion that second and subsequent babies never get the attention that the first child got. So it is my understanding that she has decided NOT to do baby books or scrapbooks even for the first child, because she might not be able to do the same thing for a second baby, if a second child is indeed in God's plan. When she was here for Christmas, she mentioned my baby book, and how it was so much more detailed than hers. I laughed, but could not remember where I'd put my baby book to show her. Well, today I found it. Took a photo of every page spread so she could see. Here's the cover and the first few page spreads:


So far, so good. All this stuff was probably filled out when the book was purchased, at the shower, and in the hospital. It looks like there was once a copy of my birth certificate there, but it is now gone.
Okay, here the info starts to peter out. The cause is not that another baby was born, but that keeping up with a baby book, no matter how many other kids you have, becomes less of a priority, and THAT'S OKAY.
There's only one date recorded for my first. Mom went in after the fact and put in approximate ages. Aack! My first word isn't recorded!!!
Must have had a good long nap when I was 4 months old when my baby book was out...
Hmmm....
Okay, this is kind of interesting. My first birthday is recorded in one ink. The REST are recorded in another ink. Mom recorded 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th birthdays AFTER my 6th birthday, which, incidentally, was after Erin (baby #3) was born. She probably pulled out Julie's and my baby books when she was working on Erin's. (And in fact, most of my 'Firsts' recorded up there are in the same ink, so mom filled in a LOT of my baby book after Erin was born.)
Hmmm.....
Ehhhh.....
Yeeeaaah.
That's all. It's not complete by any means, but I am so glad to have it.
Erin, how does this compare to your baby book?

Love the Book Fair and classic Van Halen

No, those two things aren't necessarily related (though a classic rock-themed book fair would be, ah, TOTALLY righteous). I spent the day at the school, volunteering in the book fair for student previews. I'm exhausted, sitting here zoning, playing Van Halen's '1984' album on Rhapsody.

I love the book fair. My only real memory of book fair as a kid was the night when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade in Alaska, it was some sort of family night and the book fair was going on, and Julie (who was probably four at the time) pulled the fire alarm at the school. We left quickly (as I remember it, anyway) without spending any money at the book fair. Now I'm lucky if I get out of there with less than $100 worth of books.

Two years ago I was the book fair chairperson, and I had such a good time planning and decorating for the fair. For the Medieval theme, we made castle and dragon decorations to go around the school. For the rainforest theme, we transformed the library into a wild jungle with a CD playing jungle sounds in the background. Next year, when I hand over my President stuff, I get to do book fair again. This year someone else is running it, and I'm just helping out because I don't think there's very much that could keep me away from a book fair. It's magnetic.

Sunshine sat down beside me, telling me about her day, and mentioned that one of her friends was named after a Van Halen song. So of course I had to open Rhapsody and find the song. And then I had to go ahead and listen to more songs...

Right now we're headed out to Peter Piper Pizza for a school fundraiser night. I'm going to be so beat by the time we get home. Will have no choice but to vegetate in front of Earl.

By the way, lost five and a half pounds this week. :-)

Trim time

That's it. No more procrastinating. Today I am reforming my eating and exercise habits. I could use the excuse that I've gained sympathy weight, being that my sister is pregnant, but she lives three states away, so that one doesn't really fly. The truth is that I've been unbelievably lazy in my exercise and downright stupid with my eating. I've gained about 15 pounds over the winter, and am 20 pounds heavier than I want to be.

About five years ago, I found myself in a similar predicament, so I did a good bit of research, consulted a good friend who is a personal trainer, and put together an daily nutrition/exercise plan that's easy (not TOO much sweat!), just requires some discipline. I stuck with it and lost the weight in about three months. I was five years younger then, but I'm hoping it will work for me again. My goal is to get back down to my ideal weight by July, then just eat sensibly and exercise regularly. So this morning I dug out my aerobic step, my nutrition plan, and my hand weights (poor dusty things!), and got moving.

I'm posting here as a means to keep myself accountable. I won't bore you with the nitty-gritty details, but I will post a progress report once a week.

Here's one of my breakfast recipes (actually pretty good! I toss in about a tablespoon of dried fruit, too)

POWER OATMEAL

1 packet plain instant oatmeal
½ cup skim milk
½ scoop flavored protein powder or protein drink mix
1 packet Splenda

Prepare oatmeal with skim milk. Add protein powder and Splenda. Stir.

Oatmeal with milk: 140 calories, 1.5 g. fat, 24 g. carbs, 8 g. protein
Protein powder: 57 calories, 1 g. fat, 2 g. carbs, 10 g. protein
TOTAL: 197 calories, 2.5 g. fat. 26 g. carbs, 18 g. protein

Wish me luck!

Facebooked

Sunshine is having a friend spend the night tonight, and this afternoon while I was taking them to Hobby Lobby, David was home industriously setting up a Facebook profile. When I got home I was more than a little astonished since I am the computer/Internet geek and I'm supposed to do all that stuff first and advise. I hadn't yet done that, my logic being that I don't need both a MySpace and a Facebook page. Never mind that I've not even looked at my MySpace page in about a year.

So of course I had to create a Facebook profile, too. *rolling my eyes* So far, I do like it a lot more than MySpace...

I love IKEA!

So we got our tax refund, and with it, we're working on bedroom makeovers for the family. It's slower going than we'd hoped, but we're getting there. It's a good bit of work to do three bedrooms at a time. Note to self: Next time, do one room at a time.

David and I needed a new bed, so I shopped around online. I confess that I didn't check out a whole lot of places, because I already knew what I wanted, but I did browse Sam's Club online and the sites of a few local furniture stores, looking for a nice king-size bedframe and high-impact foam mattress (the kind that absorbs motion, so you can jump on one side and the glass of wine on the other doesn't spill). In the low-middle range at Sam's, it was $1300 for frame and mattress, not including a box spring or bed base! Say WHAT?

I didn't panic though. When we were in Orlando this summer, I made a couple of trips to the IKEA there, and saw a bed that I absolutely loved--frame, bedlinens and all. Very simple but colorful, clean lines, wood, and WIDE. I even took a picture of it. Check it out:
So after investigating other options, we headed to IKEA and bought the stuff to recreate that bed. Including sheets, summer comforter, pillows, duvet, foam mattress, adjustable-tension bed base, and frame, it cost less than $750! (!!!!!!) AND, they're running a promotion wherein you receive an IKEA gift card for purchasing Sultan-brand bed stuff (mattress and bed base), so I got $100 off my next purchase (which was a small fold-out couch for Bookman's room).

The bed was a little fiddly to assemble--I'm sure part of the reason IKEA furniture is priced low is because nothing is pre-assembled. The simple bed frame had a remarkably large number of parts, and we opted for European-style bowed wooden slats in place of a box spring, which came in a box as 90 slats (45 for each side) and the rubber and fabric bits to complete the two sides. Took us 2-1/2 hours, but we got it finished last night and slept on the fabulous foam mattress. LOVE IT! It is a little low (the legs of the bed are only about 3" tall, so the top of the mattress is just 15" off the floor), but it's comfy!

Alright, probably ought to get back to work on bedrooms...
Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Friday morning fanfare

For some reason, getting Sunshine out the door this morning was almost as bad as getting her out the door on a Monday morning. Two things were in her favor: 1) it is not my week to drive, so she had about eight extra minutes, and 2) her brother is STILL home sick today (upper respiratory infection), so she didn't have to compete with him for the sink to do her hair or brush her teeth. Yet at the two-minute warning, she was still rushing around in shoeless feet with unbrushed teeth and hair, looking for a different shirt. *sigh*

Her lateness was due in small part to a Lucy escapade this morning. After I went in to wake Sunshine up, Lucy stayed in DD's room, a reasonably normal occurrence. When I went in to check on them a few minutes later, Lucy sat down by the dresser and looked up at me with guilty eyes. I looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary, didn't think much of it, and prodded Sunshine again. Later, I noticed that Lucy had a used kleenex stuck to her butt. On closer inspection, I saw that there was fresh glue holding it there. Puzzled, I made my way back to Sunshine's room, finding the complete cap to an Elmer's glue bottle in the hallway. And there, on the floor by the dresser, was a puddle of white glue squished out in the rough shape of a border collie's rear end. I suspect she sat in it to hide it from me.

I groaned/laughed/cried, then decided to clean up the carpet first and let Lucy outside. She's now back inside, with an assortment of leaves and sticks literally glued to her backside. Suppose I ought to add 'Give Gluebutt a bath' to the list of stuff I need to do today. *another sigh*

Happy Friday!, and I do hope your morning was reasonably glue-free.

Taxes filed? Check!

I am so proud of myself! It's barely February and I have already filed our taxes! Whooo! That's what I did this morning. My last W2 arrived yesterday, and I was reasonably organized this past year, so I already had everything assembled, ready to punch numbers into the handy dandy software (I've got people!).

So now it's 10:30 am, and I have a couple of free hours to... ugh.. do laundry. *sigh* Maybe I'll go volunteer at the school instead...

Thoughts of blistering heat

An ice storm is moving in. I had vainly hoped that schools would be closed today, but even now it's still 32 degrees, so the roads are just wet. A normal day so far, but there's a good chance I'll have to chip ice off of my truck at 2:20 this afternoon when I leave to get Sunshine.

So what am I doing now? Going though summer vacation photos on my hard drive. Remembering how swelteringly hot it was at Palo Duro Canyon. How it was at least 140 degrees on the hike to Ernst Tinaja at Big Bend, as the vulture circled overhead and we had to tell him "We're not dead yet!" How we all just about cooked ourselves on the beach near Tampa. (Do you see a theme here?) To the left is a photo of my little vandals at Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo a few summers ago. They had a great time.

I'm actually putting photos on a flash drive that I want to put into scrapbook pages. Sometime this week, I'll head to Walmart and use their nifty machine to print them. I'm going on a scrapbook retreat this weekend, to a little place in Bowie, Texas, called Hobby House Hill. Cindy, the owner, is a phenomenal cook, so it's worth the money just to go have her cook for us. I'll have roughly 55 hours of scrapbook time, so I need to make sure I take plenty to work on.

Looks like my Internet connection is about to peter out (always happens when it rains...) Hope y'all are staying warm!

I love lazy days...

I slept in sweats last night, wore 'em all day, and am about ready to crawl back into bed, still wearing the sweats. It was chillier today. Only got up to the mid forties--but with a wind advisory, it felt much colder. After 80 degrees yesterday, today seemed like a good day to stay home and out of the wind. David got out to deposit his check, and brought home Rose's authentic Mexican food for lunch (mmmmmm....). The rest of us just lounged around the house.

I chatted online with my baby sister, got some stamping done. Did some crossword puzzles. David watched football. The kids took turns on the other computer playing WoW. They only indulged in a few minor altercations between them, so overall it was a very quiet day.

Oh. Sunshine and I did get one small thing accomplished that needed to be done. We emptied her craft supplies bin onto the middle of my bed, then sorted and organized everything. She has a lot of stuff she didn't remember she had (and quite a few things I'll have to borrow!).

Everybody had a lazy day... except Lucy. She was busy, busy, busy. Today Lucy chewed: 1) the zipper of one of Sunshine's comfy suede boots (it's ruined); 2) the earbuds to Bookman's iPod (destroyed); 3) Sunshine's pants from the dirty laundry (caught those in time); 4) a heavy duty orange extension cord (completely destroyed); 5) a TV remote control (the #4 button is missing), 6) the sleeve of David's jacket (caught that one in time, too). She also discovered the cool pop-up feature of Kleenex. Empty box, lot's of wet kleenex on the floor. *sigh* She's lucky she's cute.

A journalversary!

When I was in high school, I kept a pretty regular diary ("I love [insert name of current boyfriend here] so much, he is just so nice and cute! I am so lucky!" *modern day rolling of eyes*). But somewhere around my Junior year, I fell out of the habit, and never really picked it back up. I've received some cool journal notebooks as gifts over the years, but tucked them into the top drawer of my dresser, saying "Someday I'll use them."

On January 20, 2008, I picked up one of those journals and wrote in it. And I did it again the next day. And again the next, and the next, and the next.

One year ago today, it was just two months after the accident, and I was still pretty traumatized, having physical pain, emotional issues, and nightmares. In those two months, I spent way too much time focusing on the crap that resulted from the accident, particularly as it related to me. My fears, my pain, the disruption of my life. It was doing me absolutely no good whatsoever, but acknowledging that fact made no difference. I had to DO something. In writing that first journal entry, my intent was to write down the things I'm grateful for (to help me focus on the good things in my life), as well as my prayers for others (to help me take my focus off of me). I tossed in a quick summary of the day's events, and thus began my journaling habit.

I've only missed one day that I can remember, and am now half-way through my third notebook. And I still use the same format: Quick summary, stuff I'm thankful for today, and my prayers for the day. Many days the Praises and the Prayers are the same as the day before, but writing them each day helps me remember them each day. Many days I've had to struggle mightily to stay awake to finish the entry, but every day I did it.

And now I'm wondering why it took me 20 years to return to journaling! Even in the past year, it has been helpful not only to my mental health, but also to my memory. When did we go to see the Butterfly Exhibit? Oh, yeah, it was Thursday, March 27th. What day did we find out Erin is pregnant? Yep, here it is. Friday, September 26th.

Which makes me think of all the memories I could have quickly recorded on the day they happened that are now lost or muddled in the haze of time. I have no idea when Sunshine lost her first tooth. I couldn't tell you when Bookman first learned to ride a bike without training wheels. No idea what those kids' names are in the pictures of 3rd birthday parties. *sigh* These are things I wish I'd written down. And if I'd been in the habit of journaling daily... *bigger sigh*

No more memories lost like that. I shall continue to take 20-30 minutes to sit quietly, reflect, and write a daily letter to God.

Deep thoughts on... death ;-)

Joel was buried yesterday. Landra is doing well, considering. Please continue to keep them in your prayers.

However, this has gotten me thinking again about funerary traditions. One of my favorite books of all time is Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. In it, Mary Roach details all sorts of useful things you can do after you die. Obviously there's the whole Gross Anatomy thing, but did you know you could also help improve vehicle safety by becoming a crash test dummy? Or help forensic scientists research how a body decomposes under various conditions? You could help aspiring plastic surgeons perfect the latest techniques in face lifts, or even help grow food for the hungry. It's a really interesting book, and it's frequently very humorous, too.

After my paternal grandfather died, I decided that I don't want to be embalmed, put on display in a ridiculously expensive box, then buried in said ridiculously expensive box. I personally think embalming is silly. The body is going to rot anyway. Why spend thousands of dollars to prolong the process when you're just gonna put 'em in the ground in a day or two? And a casket! Holy moley. Cremation and a simple black canister (or biodegradable box) is the way to be buried if you're gonna go the cemetery route.

After David's dad died, the family did go the cremation and simple black box route. But I started to question the whole cemetery idea. Cemeteries in general are sad places. People visit their deceased loved ones in cemeteries, as though their loved ones are still there. They focus on the 'death' part of their loved ones' lives, rather than the 'life' parts. Sure, from a genealogical standpoint, cemeteries are a treasure trove of information, and I am one of those odd people who likes to visit historical cemeteries and wander among the headstones. But I really don't want to spend more than a few hours in one, ever.

Here's my thing: When I die, I'm outta here. I'll be on the next train to Heaven, sayonara! But I do want what's left of me on earth to be useful! Please, if you love me, donate any usable tissue to someone still living whose life could be saved or improved by it. Whatever's left... can be a crash test dummy, a parachute prototype tester, a decomposition subject, a dissection cadaver, I don't really care. If nothing useful can be done with me (or after I've done something useful), torch me and scatter the charred bits in a flower garden. Buy a brick for a library and put my name on it, then visit the library to remember me. Then... throw a party! Oooh! A luau would be cool, or a fiesta! I love theme parties with lots of bright colors! Play music you can groove to, and give wet raspberries to anyone who wears black or navy.

And if I believe one day a group of med students might be in Gross Anatomy, carefully peeling away layers of fat on my belly, it'll help me stay slender. Because I would just die if my belly looked like an ocean of curdled cheese.

Sad news

I am so very sad to tell you that Joel Peña passed away this morning around 10:15. Please pray for Landra and her family.

Please pray for Joel

I'm gonna post this here, because I know a lot of prayer warriors read this.

My friend Landra Peña is our PTA's historian. I have known her since her youngest son started Kindergarten at Deer Creek, and he's now in 3rd grade. Her husband, Joel Peña, is fighting for his life at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, after a drunk wrong-way driver slammed into his truck head-on at high speed. The accident happened in the wee morning hours of Sunday, December 28th. The drunk driver, 26-year-old Matthew McCoy, died in the accident. Mr. McCoy was driving on a suspended license (for DUI) and had no insurance.

Joel is so badly injured that doctors have kept him unconscious. Numerous broken bones, massive internal injuries, they had to remove his pancreas, and now his other organs are trying to shut down. He is right at this moment undergoing his second surgery of the day. Doctors say things look pretty grim.

But we believe in miracles! Joel is a great dad, has two boys: teenage Cory and 9-year-old Christopher. Landra is a stay-at-home mom heavily involved in PTA.

So I ask that you please pray! Pray for healing for Joel, trusting strength for Landra and for her boys, and peace for the family of Matthew McCoy. Pray for God's guiding wisdom for Joel's doctors, and pray for loving acceptance of God's will if His Plan is not what we pray. God is Great, and can restore Joel to his family.

Thanks everyone! I love you!
Stacey

Happy New Baby!

Happy New Year! It looks like we've got a new baby in the family. She is right now on the floor by my feet playing with an empty 2-liter bottle, banging it around and chewing on the cap, occasionally looking up at me with those big brown eyes... I guess she's forgiven me for taking her to get her vaccinations.

She's perhaps 10 months old, and she already weighs about 35 pounds. She's a bit on the skinny side, and still has feet that are a smidge too big for the rest of her.

Meet Lucy:


A couple of weeks ago, I was at my parents' house taking care of the cockatiels when my dad came in to tell me about a young border collie that had been hanging around. He said someone had painted her green on one side. It was right before Christmas, and I was already over my stress limit, so I held up my hand and said, "That's very sad, Dad, but I don't want to hear it. Lalalalalalalalalala." I know, very hard-hearted of me, but there are dozens of families that actually live in that neighborhood that could easily take her in. We already have an aging Chihuahua.

Well, on New Year's Day, we were putzing around after dinner when someone said that the green border collie was outside. I stayed where I was, ignoring my kids' 'Awwww's and 'She's so sweet's...until my curiosity got the better of me.

The dog did indeed have mint-green latex paint in her fur. We asked around and learned that she'd been hanging around for several weeks, and that the neighbors had been feeding her very occasionally. She's incredibly sweet-tempered, and a beautiful dog, so it was tough to resist the kid's pleading. We brought her back to our house for a trial run, intending to make Found Dog posters if we observed any indication that she'd ever had a home.

After four stressful days, I can say with confidence that she's never had a good home. I don't think she'd ever had a bath (she was that dirty), she'd apparently had a run-in with a skunk long enough ago for the dry scent to wear off (but boy was it apparent when we got her wet!), and she tested positive for the heartworm parasite even though she's not even a year old. And she has an eye infection. Wherever she came from, it was not a loving home.

She's not housebroken yet, either. But she seems to be an intelligent dog, and she very much wants to be a good girl, so I'm sure that won't last long. She has tried to use ChiChi as a chew-toy a few times, which does concern us, but I'm working with both dogs to show the puppy that the little dog is off-limits. If that behavior continues, we may have to find another home for Lucy.

Here's a slightly blurry (nearly-dead camera battery) picture of ChiChi:


Here's a pic of the two of them (again kinda blurry, but note the size difference) playing with Tiki, one of two Pomeranians that lives behind us.


We'll see how she does. She's a much bigger dog than we've had, so that alone is requiring some adjustments (like remembering to put the toilet lids down). Adrienne was perhaps 20 pounds after old age fattened her up. Lucy will probably grow an inch or two and gain another 10-15 pounds in the next year.

I am thankful for the blessing of devoted friends, including the four-legged variety.

And blessings to you! May you live all the days of your life!

Only five more days before the kids go back to school. We've been enjoying a relatively lazy winter break, staying home and trying not to spend money. Yesterday we ventured out to Walmart for groceries and picked up several skeins of yarn because my children are suddenly feeling crafty. (By the way, older child and younger child will henceforth be referred to as Bookman and Sunshine on my blog.)

All winter break I've been working on crochet projects, mostly hats for other people and an afghan. On Monday, Sunshine dug some soft fuzzy yarn out of her craft box and decided she wanted to make a scarf. She doesn't have the patience yet for the fiddliness of crochet, so we dug out the 'Knifty Knitter' set we got many years ago. She chose the smallest loom, and cranked out a scarf in about 24 hours. It will also double as a hand/arm warmer on the playground. Check it out!

Bookman was impressed, so much so that he is now half-way done with a cozy hat for himself. I made a super-cute baby hat, but will be sticking to crochet. For some reason the loom knitting thing killed my hands.

I mentioned the afghan I'm working on... *sigh* I've been working on the same afghan for at least three years. It's for Sunshine, but I guess I've had some sort of mental thing about finishing it--she's known to be tough on blankets sometimes, and I want her to be able to pass this one on to her children. So I guess I was waiting until she was old enough to appreciate the time investment before forging ahead to finish it. I think she's about there now, and I'm more than half-way finished. My goal for January is to get the darn thing done!

I have discovered over the last decade that I do like crocheting for other people, something I undoubtedly absorbed from my Gramma. When I start a project with someone else in mind, loving thoughts and prayers for well-being are embodied in every stitch, so I end up with a finished piece composed of long bits of yarn and lots of love. I'm watching my kids knit, and I'm hoping maybe I can pass that on to them by encouraging them to make a hat for Head Huggers or similar program. That's another goal for the year :-)

Modern medicine

Every year about this time, I say a prayer of thanks for modern medicine. Particularly for Dr. Matthew M. Weinecke, the pediatric cardiologist whose experienced eye recognized that my weeks-old daughter was very very sick, and for Dr. Lawrence Fox and Dr. Jeffrey Heinle, the pediatric surgeons whose skilled hands performed the open-heart surgery on that tiny heart and saved my baby's life. Were it not for modern advances in diagnosing and repairing congenital heart defects, our family would be very different without our Sunshine.

Today I am again thankful for modern medicine. My mother-in-law is in the hospital with an abscess on her jaw that isn't responding to antibiotics. She's in a lot of pain, and apparently has a lot of swelling. She had a CAT scan earlier this morning to hopefully locate the abscess so they can surgically remove or drain it. The doctor likely won't even see the results until later tonight, so for now we're just waiting. The toughest part for us is that she's three and a half hours away in Oklahoma, and it's hard to worry long distance.

So if you read this, please take a moment to give thanks for the blessing of skilled doctors and for the healing power of prayer.

New identity for an odd room

I'm kind of excited. As creative a soul as I am, dabbling in nearly anything crafty, I've never had a dedicated craft space. Lately I've been using the dining room table, among other places, and consequently our family has eaten many dinners sitting together in the living room, or picnicking on the patio or on the trampoline.

Well... about a week ago, I had a flash of inspiration, and devised a scheme to set aside a corner of our front room JUST for all my crafty cra-- er, stuff. Our house is odd. The front door opens into a room that is, I believe, intended to be a formal living room, but it's fairly small. For seven years, it has functioned as an office/computer room and library (with three large bookcases stuffed to the gills). When older child started middle school, I bought a 6' folding table and added 'homework space' to the room's identity. It then transitioned to 'homeschool'. But then he went back to the middle school...

That folding table came in handy for doing craft fairs, and it's been riding around in the back of my SUV for a month. Now I'm done with craft fairs for the season, so... I'm putting it to new use!

Scratch the homework/homeschool identity for the front room. It shall henceforth be known as the COLC (computer/office/library/CRAFT) room! I am, at this very moment, taking a break from getting my craft stuff organized in my new craft corner. The dining table is almost clear and I'm trying to figure out how to best utilize every precious inch.

I can't wait to have it done so I can sit down and make it messy!

Trapezius injury

I had a very sore neck yesterday. It was weird, because I could think of nothing I'd done that might cause it. I hadn't worked out at all (though I really need to), I hadn't slept oddly (no more oddly than usual, anyway), hadn't tweaked it... nothing.

Being the hyper-cautious person that I now am (damn that accident), I researched possible causes before I went to bed last night, and felt a little better knowing it was nothing serious, just... an unexplained sore neck.

Well... in the wee hours of the morning, I suddenly sat up and went, "Aha! I know what it is!" Are you ready for this?

I listened to "Bohemian Rhapsody" THREE times on Tuesday.

Yeah! I know! I totally earned that sore neck!

For those who have no idea why a song would cause residual muscular pain, particularly in the neck region, you need to log off your computer and go watch Wayne's World on DVD RIGHT NOW. It's okay, I'll wait. (Here's a link to just that particular scene on YouTube)

Hmmmhmmmmhmhmhmmmm....

You back? Okay, now I can proceed with the story...

Bohemian Rhapsody came on the radio as I was taking kiddos to school. Fortunately I got stopped at the light in front of the school as the song got to the head-banging part, but I'm imagining what parents around me thought... "Is that our PTA president rockin' out? Oh wait, sshhh...If you listen, you can hear her singing... And her windows aren't even rolled down."

I was still jamming when I got home, so older child (whose school starts later) asked me what I was singing. Of course I had to pull the song up on Rhapsody and let him hear (his toothbrush sings "We Will Rock You" so he already has an appreciation for Queen). And of course I had to sing along and rock out.

Took him to school, then came home to get to work on laundry, and had Rhapsody (the online music service) playing, which now had Bohemian Rhapsody in my playlist. So when it came on yet AGAIN, I had to stop what I was doing and REALLY rock it (Hey, I was home by myself, so there was no one around to go, "Uh... Is mommy having some sort of seizure?").

I know what you're thinking, and yes, it was worth it.

Alzheimer's sucks beans

My Gramma used to be the best Gramma in the world. When I was a kid, I loved going to her house because she had an enclosed front porch full of old toys and old furniture and lots of cousins to play with. There was almost always something yummy on the stove top or in the oven. She's not Italian by birth, but assimilated herself by marriage as quickly as she could. Holidays at her house included tables spilling into the living room to accommodate 30+ loud and laughing relatives. Her meatballs and braciole--oh, makes me want to reminisce with a Sicilian accent. (Inconthievable!!)(Sorry. *ahem*)

Even as recently as three years ago, we baked cookies and pitzels together in my mom's kitchen, talking about genealogy and great-great-great-great aunts and uncles. She was a wonderful great-Gramma to my kids.

Now, that Gramma is gone. No, she's still alive. She's just a mean, angry, resentful person, her former self eaten away by Alzheimer's and dementia. She lives full-time with my mom, about ten miles away. (You can read more about the accident that seemed to speed up her decline in this post.)

Now, she gripes at my kids for silly stuff (she once barked at younger child to 'Quit dancing! Do you behave like that at home?', threw a fit because older child stood at the counter to nibble some cheese and crackers). She makes up hateful things about me and my older child to tell her caregivers, sometimes even when I'm in the same room! She tells my mom's dog to eat my dog. She squints her eyes and covers her ears with her hands whenever there's a noise she doesn't like (like my voice speaking to my mother). She accuses all of us of stealing her stuff when she can't find something. She especially dislikes my son simply because he's a boy.

We see her every weekend, but it's hard sometimes, especially for my kids, because they don't really remember 'Great-Gramma'. I constantly remind them (and myself) that it's not really her--it's the disease, but that doesn't make visiting any more pleasant. How can we enjoy being with an old woman mean enough to make my teenager cry?

Okay, so what spurred such a depressing post? My mom recently started a blog to catalog the daily struggles and triumphs of my grandmother's Alzheimer's (if you know/remember my grandmother, check out The Butterfly Net). Yesterday I made some custom graphics for the blog, and this morning I found a picture of my grandmother to put up. As I was adjusting the brightness and contrast of the photo and reducing the glare on her glasses in Photoshop, I got to thinking about how she used to be. And it made me sad. It's difficult to hang on to the good memories when our more recent experiences are so...daunting.

In all fairness, I must admit that she's been more mellow in recent weeks. On Thanksgiving day, she didn't gripe even once, not even at my son. It was such a departure from her normal self, that we all noticed and marveled. Let's hope she's still mellow tomorrow...

Bailout Soapbox

I just have to roll my eyes and sigh loudly every time I read or hear the word 'bailout'. I am not a financial whiz by any means, so my understanding of what is actually happening is likely very limited, but what I see this week is a bunch of extremely high-paid execs whining to Congress about how they deserve to be rewarded for their stupidity.

Okay, I can kind of see where the bank bailout was reasonable. Banks are, after all, federally insured, so the government has somewhat of a responsibility to assure the solvency of those institutions. I DO believe that the executives who contributed to the failure of said institutions need to be held accountable for their reckless spending and poor leadership--especially those bozos who celebrated their bailout with a $440,000 spa trip.

But a bailout of auto makers? Puh-leeze. GM has been operating at a significant loss for at least five years, Ford for at least three. They have already received the tax breaks associated with that.

Umm... Hello? Taxpayers should bail out these companies why?

I understand that there are tens of thousands of regular people employed by these companies, who will very likely lose their jobs in a time that is already financially challenging. And that is certainly something to take into consideration.

How about this for a solution: Every single person at GM, Ford, and Chrysler who makes more than $100,000 a year should sell off ALL their assets. The houses, the boats, the luxury cars, the timeshares, the hulking flatscreens. They should accept a salary of $60,000 a year, buy one small house (less than 2000 square feet) with no pool, two compact cars with cloth seats and no DVD players or satellite radio, and one 25" low-def television. Keep one iPhone ('cause we all need a little luxury), but nix the $40/month internet service fee for it. The combined difference from all those executives would certainly take a huge bite out of that $34 billion shortfall, and perhaps show those hoo-ha's what it's like to get by on a regular guy's salary.

*deep, cleansing breath* Okay. I feel better. I'm going to go back to ignoring the whole situation.

I am thankful that I drive a Toyota :-), that we don't work for the auto industry, and that people keep flushing stuff labeled 'flushable', thus assuring that plumbers have plenty of work to do.

I hate cold

I hate cold, and by cold, I mean anything below 40 degrees. I did my time as a kid in New York, Alaska, Denver, Ohio, and Germany. Got all that youthful enthusiasm for frozen fingers and snotcicles out of my system. That's why I live in Texas. Texas is nice and warm and dry, and usually not very cold.

It's 32 degrees outside right now! For the record, that is NOT nice and warm.... Okay, by winter-in-Fairbanks standards, it's rather toasty, but for ME, it's dang chilly. It makes me dang thankful that I have a warm (if a bit drafty) house, fuzzy thermal socks, a grungy-but-warm sweater, and a huge cup of hot tea. *sigh*

This month's theme for NaBloPoMo is 'Thanks'. I'm not gonna commit to a post a day, but I'm sure I can find stuff--every now and then--to be thankful for that I can share!

Another thing I'm thankful for today, is that my older child had a good half-day back at public school. I had two and a half kid-free hours. I ran to the bank, spent some needed time doing PTA stuff at the elementary school, and didn't stress about needing to be home to prod older child to do his work. *sigh*

My kids can see.... liver spots?

The kids got new glasses this week. They both went from nondescript wire frames (2 pair for $99) to dark chunky frames with attitude (2 pair for... um... more than $99). The timing on the expense could have been better, I suppose (like after Christmas), but Younger child could barely see out of her old glasses, and the days off from school presented an excellent opportunity to remedy the situation without disrupting a school day.

The difference in their prescriptions was enough for them to be marveling on the way home about all the things they could now see. Normal children might wonder again at the leaves on the trees, or the birds in the distance. Perhaps note the wording on signs at the next intersection... Not my children. Older child exclaimed, amazement in his voice, "I can clearly see the liver spots on that old lady in the car beside us!" Younger child leaned over to see and cooed, "Oooh! Me too!"

Yesterday, we braved Black Friday traffic to take older child back to the eye doctor, so he could get his new contacts, too. We go to the optometrist connected to Walmart, so I was dreading the Parking Lot of Doom, but we were shocked at how relatively empty it was at noon. I've seen that Walmart busier than that on non-holiday Saturdays. Maybe all the shoppers were huddled at the doors at 5 am, shopped, and went home, leaving a wide choice of parking spots for us. We even went IN Walmart after his appointment! We stood in the main aisleway for a few moments, decided we didn't need anything, then turned around and headed back to the truck.

And I almost got away with not spending a penny on Black Friday (contacts paid for earlier in the week), but we were hungry, and someone in the back seat reminded me that we had very little to eat at home (i.e., no Hot Pockets in the freezer), so we plunked down $8 at Taco Bell.

Reviving the comatose

Okay, perhaps 'comatose' is a little strong. But what else would you call it? That state of being in suspension, languishing in perpetual same-ness. No growing, no changing, just... there.

Alas, thus has been the woeful condition of this blog. Begun more than three years ago, played with every now and again over the course of a year, then veritably forgotten for more than two years! It's just sad. Sad, sad, sad. Sure it's there in the dashboard when I log in to blogger, way down at the bottom of the list, but you know when you see the same thing all the time, you quit seeing it? Like the christmas tree in the front room that stays up for eighteen months? It becomes part of the background noise and you don't even see it anymore.

So I'm rescuing this blog from the bottom of the dashboard list.

Actually, my baby sister has inspired me. She's been posting to her blog daily in honor of NaBloPoMo. It's been nice to be able to keep up with her (since she lives several states away). It got me thinking that I need to keep up with my blog. I do have a separate family blog (that is also in desparate need of updating), but I started this one just for me, and I'd like to keep up with it. At least every other day, if not every day.

We'll see :-)