Lately, when I sit down to write a post, I’ve managed to…well…do nothing.  Well, I wouldn’t say nothing…there’s all sorts of stuff to do.  My Pal Bob and I stare at each other waiting for the words to come.  Then we decide that maybe we (OK, maybe just me…Bob likes to just hang out on his fence post) should hop on over to Facebook and see what’s going on there.  (Ooooh my great-niece Madisen is in a contest, please go vote for her…I did! She’s really adorable)

When I’m done catching up with all that earth shattering news, it’s about time to refill my coffee cup.  As I’m waiting for the cup to fill (for some reason my coffee carafe only chooses to dispense my java through a tiny little stream.  I could take the top off, but then I would lose all the heat.  Life can be tough in the world of coffee.)  I notice that a couple leaves on my house plants are dead.  I take care of that then decide to water them.  Of course, if I just water the ones on my kitchen window seal I’ll forget about  all the others, so I’m off on a watering adventure. 

Then the puppy wants out.  I’ve learned that a when  puppy tells you he needs to go outside, he means right that very minute.  If you dare dawdle…well, let’s just say you are going to have a mess to clean up.  Of course, when the puppy needs to come back in he’ll be so adorable that you have no choice but to play with him for a bit. 

I warm my coffee back up and realize it’s back to me and Bob.  Staring at each other.  Each of us daring the other to come up with something absolutely brilliant to blog about.  (Heck, at this point we’d settle for mediocre!) Then I notice the time.  Holy Cow…what am I doing sitting here on the computer?  I’ve got to hit the road if I’m going to get to work on time.

If only I had time to write a post…

The Slice

I found this among my newly downloaded pictures. Aren’t they lovely?  (I’m clueless)

Obviously I haven’t been blogging enough because, while my articles at Life as a Human have been spaced out…they seem to be all I’m posting.  I promise to change that starting tomorrow. 

In the meantime, go read The Empty Room.  It’s about why we don’t have a coffee table! I  really like it and I hope you will too. 

The Slice

Mimi checking herself in at the airport.  (She’s already been gone and come back.  I guess I need to download pictures more often too!)

This morning I woke up to a blindingly bright light shining directly in my eyes.  I stirred just enough to yank the covers over my head in order to block the light and mutter some really unkind words at my husband who was obviously having a great time pointing a search light straight at me.  

An hour or so later (Hey it’s the weekend!) I woke up again to realize that the intense light shining in my eyes was none other than the sun streaming through my window.  I immediately jumped out of bed eager to run outside and enjoy a day of beautiful sunshine.  (Ok…that might not be entirely true.  It might be closer to the truth to say that I squinted my eyes and staggered to the kitchen to start my coffee brewing…but I tend to not let nit-picky little details like that bother me!)

A sunny day may not be a very big deal in certain parts of the world, but here in Seattle…in the middle of February…where we are all resigned to endless weeks of gray skies…it’s a huge deal. We didn’t have any major plans for the day (well, other than collect Mimi from the airport) we just knew that we wanted to be outside playing.  After much consideration, we decided that we would bring our puppy Sam to the park to work on training and  “socializing” him with a few people around to distract him.

It had been quite a while since we went to the park to play.  As we all piled in the van, the girls chattered about which park we would go to.  (For some reason they had decided that the one by our house was “boring”) It was fun listening to them recall some of our favorite parks that we had gone to when they were little.  There was the Train Park, where there was a huge wooden train structure that was perfect for climbing on.  The Goose Park, where we learned that rolling in autumn leaves isn’t such a great idea in a park that geese like to well…poop…in.  Of course we always loved the Chocolate Chip Park.  Bits of recycled tires had been layered under the playground toys and we naturally decided that they were chocolate chips…even though they didn’t taste like chocolate chips. (don’t ask how we know that!) Then there was the very hilly Park-Where-Mimi-Learned-to-Ride-Her-Bike. Any one of these would have been perfect, all we had to do was decide which one. 

If we had thought about it a bit, we would have realized that any easily accessible park would be jam packed with sun seeking people.  We drove by a few different ones looking for one that wasn’t overflowing with people, bikes and dogs.  We had nearly given up hope when KT remembered an out of the way park she had been to and gave her dad directions on how to get there. 

This park was still crowded, but at least we could find a place to park.  We slowly  (everyone wants to pet an adorable puppy) made our way  to an empty patch of grass and let our pups romp around joyfully.  We even got a little bit of training in. 

All in all, we had a glorious day. It was good to have our Mimi back (she’d been in Idaho all week), the sun was shining and we were just happy to all be together. 

A year has gone by since I made my List of 45 Things.  I still need to update it (which I will do in the next few days) but I’m pleased at how many things I got to cross off.  (Yay Me!) The bad part about this, is that I need to make a new list.  A new and improved list of forty SIX things!  This is no easy task.  (Honestly there are some things on last years list that just make me laugh…why on earth would I want to make myself an apron?

If you happen to have some wonderful ideas of things I should do in my 46th year of life…please let me know!

In the meantime…go check out my article about how we came to bring our sweet Sammy home with us.  I don’t know that it’s a tear-jerker for anyone else, but I bawled  as I wrote it.  (A great way to scare your kids!)

Go ahead…you know you want to!  It’s called Puppy Love, and you can find it right HERE

I was all set to write about how easily I can gross out my family by simply leaving the bandage off my wound in order to air it  out.  Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately depending on your mindset) that tale has been pre-empted. I’m excited to have found out that today I’m a featured writer on a brand-spankin’ new website called Life As A Human.  (I’ll tell you all about it later)

Come VISIT ME HERE!   (Feel free leave comments over there!)

For Christmas this year, my youngest daughter Mimi chose to give me the gift of time and of knowledge.  She knew that I needed to take a class of some sort in order to cross it off of my list of 45 Things and decided to do something about that.  (as well as do something she had been wanting to do!)  So Mimi got her dad to signed us up for a cooking class at our local PCC.  (a Seattle area natural foods market)

After waiting for over a month for our class to start, Mimi and I were excited that the night it was being held had finally arrived.  We were all set to learn how to make tantalizing soups using fresh winter produce.  (Shaun and KT were all set to taste test them for us!)

At exactly 6:00 Mimi was impatiently waiting in the car for me (for some reason she seemed to think that the ten minute drive would take us half an hour) when I came rushing down the stone steps that lead to our driveway.  I’m not quite sure what I did, but I suddenly found myself sprawled on the steps howling at the top of my lungs and trying not to use all those words this sailor’s daughter learned at a young age. 

I glanced down at my shin and immediately looked away.  I simply wasn’t prepared to see my leg covered in blood. Lots and lots of blood.  I quickly hobbled back into the house and headed toward the bathroom sink with a horrified Mimi trailing right behind me.  I plopped my leg into the sink with the intention of cleaning the wound, but found that it was all I could do to stand there, hanging onto the door for balance and try not to bawl. 

Thankfully KT, (who was probably alerted to the problem by the sound of my head  pounding on the bathroom wall) arrived and calmly asked what I wanted her to do.  I asked her to bring me some peroxide and a band-aid.  She started to pour the peroxide over the gash before declaring that I needed stitches.  I just glared at her and covered the lower half of my leg with an oversized band-aid.

Mimi gathered up my insurance card and ID then made a few phone calls to contact her father and let PCC know that we would be missing the class while KT bullied me into going to Urgent Care to get my leg looked at.  The next thing I knew the girls, the puppies (I guess they didn’t want to miss out on the fun?) and I were all headed downtown to the nearest Urgent Care.  (I have to admit that it was kind of nice being looked after.  I’m so proud of my girls)

I knew from the nurse’s sharp intake of breath when she peeled the band-aid off that KT had made the right call.  I was going to be getting a few stitches.  I just sat there, still pretending that my leg was fine and wishing that one of us had grabbed my camera. 

Nearly two hours and twenty six stitches later, I left the Urgent Care along with a prescription for Vicodin and orders to get X-rays done in radiology the next day.  Now, my head is woozy from the drugs (so it’s not my fault if none of this makes sense!) and my leg is throbbing.  It’s past time for me to be in bed. 

I wish I had a nice warm bowl of soup though…

I just remembered…the nurse asked me when I had last had a tetnus shot.  I shrugged and started to say that I had no idea when Mimi interrupted  and said that it was two years ago…when I fell off  the roof.  The look of shock on the nurse’s face was priceless.  (OK, I might have a strange sense of humor…)

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Photo of the day compliments of Mimi

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For some reason, it’s been driving me absolutely nuts that we ran out of trash bags.  I never realized that I had a “thing” about having trash bags on hand.  It never even occurred to me that I might have issues with having trash bags.  I’ve just always had a back up of bags and have never run out before. Well…except for this time.

All last week, whenever Shaun or KT would call from the store and ask if I needed anything, I would start to tell them that I needed trash bags, but then stopped myself.  I couldn’t bear the thought of having grocery store bags.  Nope, I needed the huge industrial size box of Costco garbage bags.  (So we wouldn’t fever run out?  Who knows what was going through my fevered mind…other than the fact that I needed trash bags, of course)

So this evening, for my first outing in a week, Mimi and I headed to Costco to get garbage bags and puppy food. My first mistake, other than just going to one of our local grocery stores, was to bring Mimi along with me when I still wasn’t feeling all that well.   She was really great at helping me find things to buy…and I was really bad at saying no.

Somehow (and I’m not really sure how it happened) we ended up with a few additional random necessities such as yogurt, papayas, bread, milk, a new set of glasses (which we needed), a box of fifty hangers, and a set of dishes.

All I can say is, I’m glad we at least remembered the garbage bags.  I’m not sure our bank account could handle another shopping spree…

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The Slice

I’m going to try the 365 Photo thing that was so popular last year.  You know the one where a photo is taken every single day? I’m not going to make any promises and of course it’s going to have to be 365 minus 31…whatever that is.  I’m going to try to post it down here everyday.  (but like I said, no promises!)

Did I mention that I don’t have to be the photographer? Shaun “used up the roll of film” trying to get a decent picture for me.  I think this is my favorite. (Probably because it embarrasses Mimi so much!)

I haven’t really been neglecting my poor ol’ blog.  OK…well…technically maybe I have…but I had a really, really good reason.  (Well, at least I think it’s a good reason!) I’ve been sick.  Not just a little sniffle, but sick enough that I would’ve happily gone out back and dug a hole to crawl into if only I could’ve summoned up enough energy.  (In fact, I tried to get Shaun to dig a hole for me and he just laughed at me). 

It started out with a sore throat (Yes, I’m going to tell you all about my illness…it’s practice for when I get to be a little old lady) and just a general icky feeling.  Before I knew it, I had laryngitis, quickly followed by the flu (Oink!) and finished up with a really nasty sinus infection.  Thanks to Sir Alexander Fleming (who invented penicillin) I’m finally starting to feel much better…and glad Shaun didn’t dig that hole for me.

The worst part about all of this was losing my voice. (Not that I consider the flu to be fun or anything)  It was just a little scratchy last Tuesday morning.  After several hours of reading, singing and just generally chatting with my preschool buddies my throat was hoarse and dry.  By the time I got home, it was completely and totally gone.  I couldn’t even get a squeak out. 

You would think that my adoring family would be considerate and kind, but no…they had a wonderful time making fun of me. (Quite obviously my girls have been heavily influenced by their father).  In all fairness, they did take very good care of me.  They especially liked reminding me to stop trying to talk.  Mostly when they would catch me talking to myself and inanimate objects…which I apparently do quite a bit of. 

“Mom…the wall doesn’t care if you bumped into it…you don’t have to apologize. Stop talking”

“Stop talking Mom…the microwave doesn’t care if you are irritated at it.”

“Bejeweled doesn’t care if that’s not what you meant to do…stop talking and save your voice”

Sigh…I never knew I had so much to say…to so many things that really don’t care..at least as far as my family is concerned.  Fortunately, my voice is starting to come back.  It’s still very raspy and tends to go back into hiding if I use it to much, but I can tell it will be fully restored soon. 

Which is a good thing, as I have a lot of catching up to do…