I have been saving up

There has been a few things waiting in my head to blog about and for some reason I have to do it chronologically. Anyways, the same day of the last blog I went to see "27 dresses" for a friend's birthday. She always asks me to go out for her girls night out and something always comes up. This year I was finally able to go and highly recommend the movie if you are in the mood for a chick flick. I really loved it and could relate to the character since I was that kind of girl myself back in the day. I won't say to much so I don't give away the plot. I enjoyed myself and stayed out until 12:30 at night which is a huge departure for me but a well needed break.

The only thing was it was right after bowling and I rushed to get there afterwards. Then I walked up and everybody looked so fabulous and I was wearing slacks and a sweater because it was comfy for bowling. Then I realized I kinda smelled sweaty from bowling and probably smelled of cigarette smoke too ( bowling alley people). So I did feel slightly uncomfortable since everyone was dressed "fabulous" and I was not. Oh, well I am just glad I made a friend happy and who cares what anyone else thought.

The Twilight zone

Every week when we go to bowling I feel that we have entered the Twilight zone walking into the bowling alley. Since we bowl with another couple we go to their town to bowl. Now this isn't like driving in LA where you leave one town and another begins and you never know when that has happened. This is driving down the road to the end of your town and driving 15 miles two lanes with dairies on either side "ahh,the smell of money"! Anyways, the town we bowl in is considerably smaller than the one we live in and so you have small town people with small town minds. Immediately they know you are not from their town and automatically they think somehow that makes them better than you. It is the wierdest thing for two city slickers to deal with since we come from the urban jungle where you just don't make eye contact and all is well. Also, this bowling alley has a very distinct 70's feel to it even though the machines have been updated. It smells of smoke and liquered ( I think I made that word up) up people and some unidentifiable odor. We always try to be nice to the other team and cheer them on and encourage them. They try to psyche us out, be rude and at time very crude, we bowled against the crudest man two weeks ago come to find out....he's a teacher in town.....scary! Anyways, this last week we bowled a team of couple's we bowled a few weeks ago. The ladies were nice to us and in the same boat of just starting out as bowler's.....well this week the one was absolutely ugly toward me. She was rude about sharing seating with our kids, she actually came up behind me on the other lane and got up and bowled while I was getting ready to bowl. She had the mouth turned up,eyes rolling look most of the night. Why? who knows...she feels self important somehow or she felt the need to take her inadequacies out on me. I don't want to judge her because I don't want to judge her. Why do people feel the need to make people feel badly to make themselves feel better? I guess if we had less of that we would have world peace.

I was taught to never judge a book by it's cover, that money or achievements don't make you a better person. I don't care where you live or who you know, I care about who you are on the inside. How do you treat others? What do you do to make the world a better place? If we pay forward ugliness then we are going to get that in return. So I am going to quit while I am ahead now. I hope she learns to be a better person in her life and finds personal happiness...I am going to kill her with kindness and hope she pays it forward.

Heather

My friend Heather called the other day after I emailed her some possibly exciting news. We might get to see each other once again in April after a 13 yr. gap. She was one of my best friend's in high school and we spent most of our time together for a period of 6 yrs. She used to always tell me " You are my sister from another mother" all the time and at the time it meant alot but not as much as it does today. We talk on the phone every few months and it is truly amazing how our lives have run a similar path. We have kids about the same age, married about the same time, moved far away from home, We both love God, homeschool and stay at home. Whenever we talk it is scary because she will always say things to me about what she is learning about life that is dead on with what I am going through. She also tells me a lot about myself and her take on what made me the way I am today. It is so wierd how well we know each other even after all these years and not spending a lot of time together. Since I have broken relationships with my own two sister's I rely on my friend's to fill that role and she really is my sister after all these years.

It's how you live

I have been needing to sit down and update everyone on life in the T house lately. So here is all the happenings around these parts. We have been so busy the past couple of weeks since New Year's with many different things going on at once. Marty got promoted to Sergeant the second week of this month. We are very excited at this opportunity and so far he seems to like this position. So that meant running around to get new uniforms and stripes added to the old uniform's which is always a chore and they can never get them done fast enough. Then two days later we got the call from Stanford that our issue with the insurance was cleared up and all systems are go to meet with the surgeon. The way she explained it was right now they are proceeding for kidney only until he meets with the surgeon. The surgeon will decide if he is a good candidate for pancreas transplant or not. This kind of upset us, just because it seems like a step back but we want to do this right and it is out of our control. There has been one more phone call from them since and it did clear up some of our confusion about this visit with the surgeon. The way the lady was talking it seemed like maybe things would go quickly once it is decided and that maybe a year is a high estimate and it actually goes quicker. We are hoping and praying this is the case, I am very worried that he will have to go on dialysis soon. He seems to be having a harder time these days with some things that we are both concerned about. I am leaning on God during this time because only he is in control and it is all out of our control. That is really hard to come to terms with on Marty's part. He has been very cranky lately and does not like to talk about this at all or very little and heaven forbid someone mention it to him. I understand that he is a private person but I need to talk this out and vent or else it won't be good. I try to talk about it as much as I can on here and leave the rest unsaid until he is out of earshot or at work.

One that note, we are just trying to savor all the good days in life. I think the stress has been affecting the kids and has a lot to do with Elizabeth's sleeping problem. She is doing better this week and I am so thankful for that because it was really scary at times to see her wigging out. Conner is doing well with everything and he is such a go with the flow kinda guy anyways. He keeps us laughing and that is so important. They returned to bowling and he got a whole new team which has been hard for him. Speaking of bowling, I won two more awards recently bringing my total up to three awards...shocking at best. I am really thrilled to be doing so well and like my new hobby. The weather has been very cold and yesterday in the grocery store I froze my butt off in the frozen foods aisle. The bonus side of that is we have been able to see the mountains almost everyday and last night you could see them shining in the light of the full moon.

This song has been ministering to my heart and really speaks about my look on life right now:

It's is going to be our year

I can just feel it and want to say gooooooo big green

Mouse tails

I will pick up where I left off.....


The next night we came home from bowling to find the big guy in a trap under the stove. We took him outside and sent him away, far away. I did a bunch of reading about field mice and how to properly protect your home against them permanently. So I wen out yesterday and bought steel wool because apparently mice don't like steel wool and won't chew through it. So I stuffed that in edges of the house that looked suspicious and behind the stove where they were coming from. We have not seen a mouse since Friday night and not heard one either. So I am thinking we have this situation under control and it was a couple of isolated incidents. We figured out they must be coming from our neighbor's house and they crawled up the gas pipe into the top part of the stove. So we are in works to get a new stove that does not have a open hole for them to get through but they can fit through spaces smaller than a quarter.


Good news, Elizabeth has slept two nights with out problem and we worked on getting her room organized yesterday. She really likes to play with bags, boxes and purses. She must always have five or six stuffed animals with her at all times and likes to leave groupings of toys all over the place. She doesn't like to clean up and we have been battling over that lately, so I decided to help her. We cleaned out all of the papers and crippity crap yesterday to move around her room and see if that will help her. She was happy because we were able to make a reading lounge for her in one corner of her room. We have decided to get rid of the school desks because the kids never sit in them anyway. They both use our old couches and lap desks to do their work and I am going to buy a table and chairs to fit up there.

"Um, yeah that's a problem"

Mouse saga day 3

Last night we decided to put one trap in the closet and one behind the microwave again. As much as I love animals I refuse to have mice living in my home. It is one thing if you buy them from the pet store and invite them in but another when they decide to come live in your house. I know that some mice carry disease and that is the last thing I need right now near my food and family. I have seen one and didn't scream or yell but I did move out of it's general vicinity.So we are proceeding with trapping them to get them out of our house because they are unwanted in my kitchen.

Elizabeth is still having a hard time sleeping and I don't know if this is part of it. I did a thorough bedtime routine with her and tried to keep it low key before bed. I am going to tell her Di's advice tonight and continue trying this routine out for a couple weeks. She did end up in with me last night after about a hr. and finally went to sleep around 11pm. I talked with Stacy and she suggested that maybe Elizabeth is just a night owl and that I could let her live on her body's natural schedule. Since we homeschool this is a option but will require some changes.

At the time that was going on I thought I heard a mouse but wasn't sure and didn't get up to look. This morning when Marty came home there were two more mice in the traps. They were the same size and in the same place behind the microwave just like before. This leads me to believe them are some how getting in through the stove and we are going to look into that. As i was talking with Stacy one popped up through the opening between the burner and the stove lid so I am thinking of going out and buying covers for the burners. Maybe this way I can keep them out and discourage them from coming in without having to trap them. This way everyone is happy and they won't find a way into my house!

There's a mouse in my house

Oh, how I wish that was a play on words but sadly it is the truth. I was cleaning the counter two days ago and toward the back near a plant I cleaned up what looked like dirt. I moved over to the other side of the counter and there was more behind the microwave near the wall and far away from a plant. Upon a closer looked I realized that it was mouse droppings and that I must have a mouse in the house. YUCK! Gross! awful...I feel so invaded by the little rodents, so I called my friend who gets mice frequently( to her defense their beautiful home backs up to a field) she told me to get a trap and use a M&M as bait. So we went to Wally world and I bought glue traps thinking they would be so much easier than tradtional traps. The first night went by and we checked the traps the next morning to find nothing.


Last night, Elizabeth was having a rough time sleeping for the 3-4 night this week ( I am sympathizing with my friend's who have babies) she has had night terrors since infancy and I think they are making a comeback. She has been waking up trying to count at night and she can't get past two. This upsets her and then she starts shaking and crying and it scares the daylights out of me. I talked with my mom this morning and she thinks this was the cause of nose bleeds for me when I was younger. She said I had really bad night terrors and they think my chronic nose bleeds were caused by my blood pressure raising during the terrors. Anyways, on my way upstairs I saw a mouse in the closet we call the black hole and freaked out closing it as I ran by. I finally got Elizabeth settled down and she explained her problem to me and we dozed back off to deep sleep and then it happened. I started hearing a squeaking noise and knew we had caught a mouse in one of the traps, the poor mouse cried until Marty came home this morning. He pulled the microwave back and sure enough *two tiny field mice were stuck to the trap. I all of the sudden felt like a inhumane *sshat and it was terrible to see those little guys stuck in the glue trying to get out. Awful, so very awful because I don't want to see them in my house but I think it was worse seeing them suffer. I don't want them to come back but I thought this would somehow be better than the old fashion traps and easier than the little box traps. So now I am running back to the store to buy a nicer trap to catch the big guy I saw in the closet because neither of those were the one I saw. We live close to a farm and waterway so it is normal to see this happen but I have never had a mouse in my house and I don't intend for this trend to continue........To be continued............

Consider yourself warned

This is the impossible quiz, it is addicting and it is really stupid. I am not even that far and the only reason I got so far is because I keep losing lives to figure out some of the answers. I really have a long update blog to write about life in the T house but instead I do this

The Impossible Quiz

Calling all Jane Austen fans

PBS will be airing the complete Jane Austen collection for the first time in history starting January 13,2008. You can go check it out atPBS.org

My new favorite song

I love this song because I think it fits my life right now and me as a a person. I am such a nostalgic person with a photographic memory. My kids are growing fast and I see it more and more each day.

It's election time

I borrowed this quiz from Andrea and Di. I think it accurately reflects who I am as a voter and person these days...very middle of the road on some issues. Raised in a VERY democrat/liberal family ( cried when Clinton was elected because I was so happy, not allowed to like Regan as a president) very opposite of Alex P.Keaton. I married a republican/conservative green party member and now do have some different views of things. I am watching debates and reading as much as I can to see where I stand and encourage you to do the same.

69% John Edwards
67% Barack Obama
64% John McCain
64% Hillary Clinton
63% Bill Richardson
60% Mike Huckabee
58% Chris Dodd
58% Joe Biden
56% Mitt Romney
56% Tom Tancredo
53% Mike Gravel
53% Fred Thompson
48% Rudy Giuliani
47% Dennis Kucinich
41% Ron Paul

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Everything is coming up roses

Something new, never before spoken about on this blog is my fond, deep, passionate love for the Rose parade. My parent's started me watching the parade young and it is my New year's day tradition. I don't eat black peas or follow any superstitions but I must rise and watch the very first telecast of the Rose's parade and then watch two re-brodcasts before I can begin my year. I have never been to see the parade in person but will someday, once my parent's drove me to see the floats up close after the parade and I have never forgotten that. I even called my parent's and both of them were watching the parade today and they like to talk it out with me. Marty doesn't like the parade and humor's me to watch highlights but it really isn't his thing.

 Conner watched the whole parade and Elizabeth humored me by watching part of it( What little girl doesn't dream of being Rose Queen? or at least princess?)

The worst year was 06'( you knew I was going to say that) because New Year's was on a Sunday and they don't hold the parade on Sunday's. So I had to be miserable( which we all know I already was and this just made things worse) and wait for two whole days. This year I found a HD broadcast on HGTV and set my dvr to record two other broadcasts and off we went to view probably the best Rose Parade in history.

 First of all they had the most pyrotechnics I have ever seen and more street performers with the floats. Then the Honda float which is always good just about blew anything, ever made out of the water it opened up and transformed into a space craft that blew flames. Then a float that I see every year that never means anything to me set my day with the focus of the new yearDonate Life. This float made me cry a first in my Rose parade history and really made me think of all that is to come. It depicted pictures of donor's on hot air balloons, rose on the floats held the names of people waiting for transplant, people sitting on the float were transplant recipients and the walkers were family member's of the deceased.

 I just bawled and I told the kids that those people gave their life for someone to live and that someday somebody would give life to their dad. Isn't it funny how sometimes God uses the strangest things to grab our attention? I thought about our donor today and their family. Where are they? Who are they? Did they have a good day today? I am praying for that person and their family everyday but today it really has been the focus of the day.