An Altered Perspective

And the results are in

2010-12-01T16:53:00.000-08:00

The results from the surgery showed that I have follicular cancer. These results are just verbal results from the lab to my surgeon. I'm waiting on written results and then waiting on a call from my regular Dr to discuss them with me.

The difference between papillary and follicular as far as I can tell is that papillary and most follicular cancers respond very well to radiated iodine treatment. I don't know what kind of follicular type cancer I have, but if the cancer spreads, papillary spreads to lymph nodes, and follicular goes for lungs and bones.

We're shooting for just the plain jane cancer. I would like to take a pill and call it good thankyouverymuch.

I have been looking for a pretty rendition of Mother Theresa's quote "I know the Lord won't give me more than I can handle, I just wish he didn't trust me so much."

On the shoulder front...I get to start injections of steriods in hopes of healing that up. Can we say 'roid rage mixed up with mood swings and pms? OH BOY!

And she was Swingin'...just a swingin!

2010-11-30T17:10:00.000-08:00

I'm posting an update. It's been just over a week and have fully been hit with the mood swings associated with a total thyroidectomy. I'm really hating these mood swings, like HATING the mood swings. It doesn't help that my monthly nemesis PMS has decided to show up for a visit. Oh yeah. Life is good in my household. LOL

When the Dr. opened me up and got to the tumor he found that it wasn't just the size expected but considerably bigger. He decided then and there to take the whole thyroid.

The pathology is not completely back yet. The Dr visit yesterday was frightening. He said that there were test results that had been sent out for a 2nd opinion. He did not discuss any of the returned results yet.

So, I'm scared. I have a friend who had her thyroid removed the day after mine. Her path results were back on last week Thursday. The Dr. didn't call today. He said he'd call when he got the results.

I go back to PT for the impinged shoulder/torn rotator cuff tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to that so much. I actually enjoy the movement, and the walk there feels good. I am gonna get this all fixed up!

I'm going to go take some meds, and then I'm going to set morning alarms so that I won't miss PT.

Today is the day.

2010-11-18T05:55:00.000-08:00

Goodbye to my thyroid. It was not doing it's job so well , and it's gotta go.

My friend picks me up in a couple hours, and I'll go on to get prepped for the surgery.

I am starving, and I never get hungry in the morning.

I'm looking forward to posting as soon as able that they got all the cancer and that all I need to do is heal up!

I played the Cancer card today.

2010-11-12T19:19:00.000-08:00

Today I played the Cancer card for the first time.

I have an acquaintance that has a lot of issues. She comes to me and I listen, and listen and listen some more.
I had to go pee really bad, and it just popped out of my mouth, instead of standing there, shifting my weight from side to side, and getting antsy, I said, "I am so sorry that you have so much on your plate. I'd love to help you out, but I'm a little overwhelmed with dealing with my own issues. I have cancer." I then looked at her and she kind of swallowed uncomfortably and then I smiled and went in my apartment, and peed.

An update on my dummy stupid shoulder. It's still a dummy stupid shoulder. I'm doing the exercises. It still hurts, but I'm progressing. When I'm strapped down for surgery I hope they don't use the stupid arm to pump the meds in me. I'm gonna be annoyed if it gets even dumber because of the surgery.

Oh. I get a little freaked out now that I know it's less than a week away. EEKS!

Today

2010-11-09T20:38:00.001-08:00

I woke up today, and puttered around, the last time I did laundry I did it at a friends home, and the clothes were slightly damp, so they've been draped all over my apartment. This morning I walked around with a pile of hangers on my arm, and hung up the ones that needed to be hung up and folded the rest.

It seems like it's just like any other day of the week, I feel like I've been off work for FORFREAKINGEVER. My shoulder hurts a little less every day. Taking Naproxen seems to help more than the Vicoden since it's working on the swelling and Vicoden just handles the pain.

I saw the surgeon about the mass. There was a biopsy, and a frozen section, and a call back. It all came back positive. I went in and got all the preadmission testing done. Heard all the stuff about what could change, but really I was ok. If you had looked in the dictionary, you would have seen my picture next to the word stoic.

It's kind of funny. I walk around and feel very much at peace. Then at times it's a "Wow. I have cancer. I have a 3.6cm mass of cancer."

I have also noted that when you say the word cancer lots and lots. It doesn't even make sense as a word anymore. I'm also in awe at how much mucous gets made when crying. Just absolutely in awe.

I want to shake my fist at people who whine because they can't find the granola bars they want in Target, and say "Really? Your world is coming to a stop because you can't find your granola bar? I have cancer!"

I want to cry and tell my sister to stop making this about her, because it's not. It's about me. I don't really care if there's death and sadness around her. I have cancer. She didn't cause it.

I am clinging. CLINGING. to this... it's papillary cancer, the surgeon said he believes it's fully encapsulated. This kind of cancer has a 97% survival rate. He doesn't even think I'm going to need radiation or chemo.

So, if you get cancer. Pick this kind.

I think I'll go cry for a while now.

Oh how easy it is...

2010-11-06T19:12:00.001-07:00

I'm working on recouperating from this stupid shoulder injury.

I've been a good girl, taking my medicine and doing what I'm supposed to do for therapy exercises.

Today, I hoisted a laundry basket. I got scolded. Several times. By people I care about.

I'm sorry!

I'm now taking my clothes out of the laundry baskets a little bit by little bit.

I have to make my bed and shower. I shall sleep a sleep of the drugged.

I do want to say how much it would me me happy if I could sleep on my right side. 500 mg of Vicoden could make that happen, but it wouldn't help with the whole spasm thing.

OH. Walgreens has some sort of deal with buying a King size heating pad and some sort of ibuprophen or acetominophen product getting you some cash back to spend elsewhere... the king size heating pad is the way to go!

Two thumbs up on that one!

Zen and the art of breathing.

2010-11-05T13:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's not exactly Zen, but my therapist ROCKS. (and so do you, PK for suggesting this!)

My first visit with him was because I had been feeling absolutely overwhelmed with life. My Father passed away on Aug 22, and then my Uncle David, and then my Grandmothers sister. I was feeling as if I were the very pawn of grief. Literally I would be watching something that made me laugh and I would feel tears rolling down my face.

He told me that grief lives in one part of your brain, and when you feel overwhelmed with grief a trick that can break that tearful cycle is to imagine that air in being inhaled on one side of your nose, and then to exhale out the other side. Then you inhale again, only inhaling thru the side you just exhaled from. You repeat the cycle until you find yourself calm.

Because I was also not sleeping, he told me to imagine a large blackboard, and write on it the number 100. And then breathe in and exhale. Then to mentally erase the number, inhale, exhale, and write 99 on the board. Repeat that cycle until sleeping.

A week after I started counseling I fell. You can read previous posts about the whole gracefulness of the fall. I have been struggling with the medications that I'm taking in a big way. I think that I am actually depressed. He said to wake up and say to myself, "I am a child of the light, a golden shield surrounds me, only good can come in and only good can come out." When I start to jump on myself for certain flaws that only I see, I stop and say that small prayer. It helps.

Now, for the opportunity to actually either have the meds work, or to have the meds no longer be needed!

Quick Thursday update

2010-11-04T21:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know it's late.

Physical Therapy was not terrible. I'm glad to get that going. The therapist stated that it would take about 6 weeks to get my shoulder back.

Back to valium, only I've got lots of exercises to do now.

I'm in a better place. It's good. The mental therapist gave me a lot of tips on doing things to help me walk through this stage of life.

The emotional wringer

2010-11-03T12:52:00.000-07:00

Today I'm a mess. I took the Valium this morning like I'm supposed to, I woke up in pretty much agony over the stupid stupid shoulder. I took it with food and it didn't seem to make me sleepy.

My issues today are that I cannot stop crying. I think about everything and then I cry. I am an emotional wreck. It's ok, I am holding on. I'm now having a huge aversion to my phone. Everytime it rings there's a person on the other end with a new appointment for me. Is this ever going to end? Am I going to spend the rest of my life doctoring for this?

I don't like this. One. Bit.

Floating

2010-11-02T16:41:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update I cannot stand anymore Valium. It's a cruel sleepy Mistress.

Today I voted. I felt like I'd really accomplished something considering I had to sober up to do it. I was afraid that I'd find a nice comfortable place to lay down on the sidewalk as I walked to my polling place.

Today I took stock of my funds and what needs to get paid. Yup I'm short. Of course being off work means no money coming in. So this means dipping into savings. Yippie, Skippie!

My attitude is improving, and that's a good thing. My life is a blessing, each day as it comes, I can do this!

Thyroid, Schmyroid

2010-11-01T12:27:00.000-07:00

Almost 2 weeks ago I had a full body Catscan. Why would something like that have happened to a mild mannered insurance agent? It's because I'm a klutz, and slipped on wet blacktop in the parking lot at work. When My shoulder started to hurt, and I couldn't use it, I went to the ER at a local hospital. They got me in right away, I didn't even have to sit in the waiting room.

I laid there, throwing up from the pain for about an hour, and then the Dr came in and looked me over and then told me I'd have the pleasure of xrays. Apparently he twitched while putting them in the computer because the only thing that didn't get xrayed was my head. They came in and gave me two vicoden, and I proceeded to throw up from the Vicoden. Then they gave me something for the nausea. After tons of xrays and a Catscan he came back and told me that there were no breaks. BUT (I love the BUT) my thyroid had a calicification on it, and it has dropped beneath my sternum.

Fast Forward to followup visit a week ago. Dr is concerned, contacts endocrinologist, who says to get an ultrasound of it. So since that was a "regular" Dr visit I have to make another app't for the following day where the Dr. also assesses my sore shoulder. My shoulder is in spasm along with my back. More vicoden and this time Flexeril. I float and twitch in pain on and off for the next few days because I can't take it continuously as I have appointments and things that I need to drive for. Since I have a strong reaction to the Vicoden I have to be off it for at least 12 hours before I feel safe driving.

I had the ultrasound on Thursday, blood work two days prior to that ( thanks, I appreciated the pain of the tech digging around for my vein that rolled on her ).

Today, I find out that my thyroid has a 3.5 cm mass on it. They aren't even going to bother with a biopsy. Now the endocrinologist is not going to see me, I get to see a surgeon. Welcome to new meds too. Valium, cholesterol stuff, and blood sugar stuff. No more flexeril 'cuz of the Valium, apparently I can get a refill of Vicoden if I need to!

Meanwhile I'm off work, no paycheck off work. I won't get paid again for 30 days when they pay me for disability, and only a small portion.

My brakes are dying on my pos car. So, those of you who thought that I'd given up blogging, well, I'm baaack. I've gotta have a place to put all this stuff down.

Hi Baby!

2010-01-01T07:06:00.000-08:00

So, things are changing in my life quite slowly, but they are changing. I like it.

Things that are new... Well, in my previous failed attempt to force myself into a daily blogger, you all learned about Denny.

Denny had a colonoscopy a couple days after Thanksgiving, and they found something a little irregular. Since then he's met with the surgeon, and he had surgery to remove it on the 29th.

Thankfully it turned out to be no cancer! This is just wonderful. The sad thing is that he is in a lot of pain from the surgery. He's a few days post surgery and he's only eating ice chips. Ice chips and pain medication make for some amusing results on this end.

I am ABSOLUTELY thrilled that this man is thinking of talking to me as he floats in and out of his drugged up stupor. THRILLED. I truly feel that he loves me, and I am grateful for that.

He has been making me laugh until I cry though.

(FYI, we live 8 hours apart, and this is a bit of an old fashioned long distance romance... yes, I hate it, but I do love this man!)

I didn't hear from him the day of the surgery except to get a text message from him telling me that he was in his room and recovering.

The second day I got a text message and called him and talked with him for a few minutes. He falls asleep when I'm telling him about my fabulous life as an insurance agent. I'm blaming the drugs for this. Usually he finds a way to at least let me know that he's listening.

Yesterday must have been a barn burner for him in the recovery department, because this is how my evening went:

5:00 "Hi Baby!" Conversation follows for a few minutes.

My oldest child calls and I run over to her apartment to deliver my middle childs electronic gaming device. Play box? GameCube? X Cube? What ever... it's green, a halo edition, and he plays games that shoot Nazi Zombies.

Anyway, I get back home after visiting for a while.

6:30 "Hi Baby!" Another conversation ensues where we discuss the above trip to Naomi's place.

6:45 "Hi Baby!" Now I'm getting suspicious... he admits that he doesn't feel completely put together. I tell him to push the magic button and get some sleep.

7:00 "Hi Baby!" I try to find out why he's called, perhaps he's lonely and just wants to hear my squeaky voice. He falls asleep on the phone.

9:00 "Hi Baby!" He had to get up and thought that he'd see how my day went. I tell him schmushy things and tell him that I'm tired and going to go to bed early, and not wait to stay up until the new year.

9:10 "Hi Baby!" my response is hysterical laughter. He falls asleep.

8:00 am today, "Hi Baby!" I tell him how many times he called last night, and that I love hearing from him even though he's kind of goofy. I ask him how his medication is treating him, but he's sleeping again and doesn't respond.

At least on of us rang in the new year in an altered state.

Gratituesday D

2009-08-25T08:06:00.000-07:00

Denny- I'm so grateful for him.

Dogs- Everytime I see a dog, I smile inside. I love dogs!

Decisions- The ability to make decisions and stick by them is a quality that I have developed and am grateful for!

Desk space at work- I like to keep my desk space set up a certain way so that I can work with a clear mind.

Days off- like today I took today and tomorrow off to hang with the kids! I love it!

Gratituesday C

2009-08-18T06:30:00.000-07:00

Cookies! Peanut butter with peanut butter cups in them.
Cups...I happily drink water from my insulated cup all day long.
Cream...it makes me happy in all it's forms, even ...
COOL WHIP... in whipped jell-0 Yum!

Gratituesday B

2009-08-11T05:47:00.000-07:00

I am still at it! Two weeks in a row! Whoo hoo!!

I am grateful for:

Beans- a delicious and nutritious food.
Breathing- something that my asthmatic daughter doesn't take for granted.
Balance- I am working on balance,in my attitudes, finances and outlook.
Breakfast- I really think it's my favorite meal of the day.
Breaks at work- I am grateful to have them, and if I don't take them, I am able to increase my efficiency.
Boston- one of my favorite cities! I am hoping to visit this fall and see some much loved friends.

Things are moving along smoothly here, my exhusband sent me paperwork for me to fill out so that I can get my share of his retirement. I know it irks him to no end, but it will make a huge difference in my life.

Keep me in your prayers, I'm considering some major changes in my life, and am looking for not just a sign from God, but a big rap upside the head to get me to turn and see the path he has laid out for me.

Gratituesday A

2009-08-04T16:09:00.001-07:00

Today I am grateful for:

Aaron- My middle child. I love him. He's 16 and already 6'2" tall.

Apple pie- the only way I can eat apples because they are cooked,I can't eat fresh apples without having a nasty, embarrassing reaction.

Airplanes- it's how I'm able to see my family and friends quickly and easily.

Amish Friendship Bread Starter- Tonight I baked my loaves, and they are yummy! I used the chocolate pudding in the batter for the ones I made tonight. They turned out so good. Definitely I will make them again.

Air Conditioner- I love being able to make my bedroom just a little cooler so that I can sleep easier at night.

Autos- I would say this is a love/hate relationshp. I really like having a job, and since I'm an insurance agent, I depend on people to keep buying them. Please, keep buying them.

And, it's good to be back!

Huh...

2009-04-16T05:47:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't get that last post. I seem to be internet illiterate. I was attempting to post a video from YouTube for Nicole C Mullen singing "My Redeemer Lives". I love that song.

Work... so nuts, so horrible, but I guess that just as kidnapped people eventually begin to like their captors, I am beginning to like my job a little more. We are being forced to change shifts. With a promise that we would have known 'next week Tuesday' what our new shifts would be. Well, 'next week Tuesday' has come and gone. I try to just roll along, but it's getting to be a bit ridiculous. I feel very confident that I am doing my job well, and it is certainly not what I'd call an easy job. I am learning that I can control the dealings with customers, all that is needed is patience.

They (the uppers at work) have been telling us that they want us to be safe. Since the gunman went after the people at the American Civic Association a couple weeks ago, there had been postings on blogs how he should have gone after AIG, and he would have done a service to the country. It really is terrible, and now we sit in our cube lines with the curtains drawn, and feeling like we are in a dark hole. On top of that, they finally scraped the AIG off the door, and hung a fabric banner with our new name over the old AIG lighted sign. It doesn't matter that you can still see the old AIG sign around the fabric banner or anything like that. It's the very definition of the word amateur.

So we are all sending out resumes. More than a dozen are leaving in less than a week, and it just gets more and more weird there.

Well, off to do my hair and put on the old war paint. I need to get going a little earlier, I have to stop at Walgreens and get some Mucinex. I am suffering from allergies, my nose isn't the issue, my chest is full and rattling. I sound like a man. Joy, eh?

2009-04-12T05:56:00.001-07:00

A little Vent

2009-03-16T20:02:00.000-07:00

Today was rather horrible at work. I spent the day fielding calls from justifiably angry customers.

My employer, a notorious insurance super giant that is hated across the world, has decided, in it's infinite wisdom to deny merit based pay raises ( not bonuses ) to it's employees that have shown that they are loyal to the company and work hard to give the customers a good experience. These are the same employees that are fielding calls from angry customers.

Several weeks ago, well before the news broke the story about the bonuses that were going to be paid, we were told that every employee that was scheduled for a bonus * in every department except for personal lines * was still going to get that bonus. Those who worked in personal lines got a hearty thank you and oh... remember those annual reviews that you sweat over so that you can make enough money to comfortably pay your rent? Yeah, you won't be getting those. We have to look good on the books because we want to be able to sell you! How about you get a nice thank you from us, and we'll be sure to continually act like we have no conscience and no understanding how the average american must feel, and make you take those phone calls. Oh, and go get 'em.

Once again my employer has made it so that I have to take angry calls from the average american. I not only have to let them abuse me on the phone, and believe me they do. The only ones that I can hang up on are the ones that use profanity. Otherwise I have to sit there and take it.

I could work doing phone sex and take less abuse for a lot more money.

Wow, another post

2009-03-14T06:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went shopping with Naomi, and had such a fun time. I ended up buying some hot rollers at Wal Mart, and now I feel like I can finally do the fantastic styles that David, my miracle worker, does on me every 6 weeks.

6 weeks?!? Yes, I admit that I get my hair done that frequently. If I don't... well, lets just say, I end up with a Cruella deVille streak of grey down the center of my hair. I keep thinking that I should embrace the grey, my grandmother had beautiful white hair, but I tend to dwell on the word 'grandmother' in that sentence. Nope, not quite ready for that one yet.

I do realize that I could do this myself, but I have become an adult with allergies, and I am allergic to so many hair dyes. Yes, it sucks. Of course, the sheets of dead skin that flake off my scalp after using certain hair dyes suck even more.

Work has been very odd lately. We've been busier than usual, and that's good for the company. Our parent company is spinning us off into a new company that doesn't have their name on it at all. We've already changed our name to a different one that people don't associate with the evil parent company, and now to actually go into a different company entirely... that's pretty good.

Yesterday I went shopping with my oldest child. It was actually quite fun. I was able to pick up the things that I was looking for, except for a knife sharpener.
Then, she took me to Old Navy. I'm not what I consider an Old Navy girl, but they have a ton of cute skirts there! It didn't hurt that I had a 30% off coupon from her. I guess having a Gap Girl for a daughter does have its benefits! The confession that I have right now, is that I'm going to go back. After I left, I kept thinking about a couple of the tops I looked at but didn't try on, and I really think that I'd like to take a second look at them.

Hmmm... what else to update... OH yes, I got a promotion! It should show up in this next paycheck, too. I'm very excited about that one. I have no idea what the difference in the pay is going to be because apparently only one week of the payraise will show, and I will have to figure it out once I take a look at the pay stub. I'm also moving through certifications. I'm working on Underwriting Guidelines now, next will be specialty states and then one more level along with licensing. I am very excited to be progressing, even though the company is a bit shaky, progressing through these levels is going to look a lot better on my resume, but really I cannot see myself as working in the area of the company I'm in now for long... I really want to get into quality or underwriting.

I guess that's it! I'm going to take the Red Rocket to a tire place and see if they can patch the slow leak I've got going on and then go back to Old Navy and see if they have that cute top in my size!

I know... more of the same...

2009-01-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

Life is so good. It really is. I am getting better and better at my job. It's a bit of a volatile job situation, we are up for sale, we did just change names, and we are trying to pare down to a more lean cost efficient company so we look good for sale.

People are basically jumping ship at work and I have my resume out there. I've got my resume out at several companies in Minneapolis. That's a big change for me. I do have licenses to sell insurance in 46 out of 50 states. I just don't truly see myself as an insurance agent for the rest of my life.

I also have several nibbles in the medical research field.

What I really want in life? Unlimited funds to go back to school for as long as I'd like!

In personal areas...I am happy. I like living alone. I like supporting myself. I really really like my boyfriend.

Sunday night I'm going to have dinner with my friend Maureen, and then I'm going to come home and either go to sleep immediately, or try to watch a little bit of 24 ( thank goodness for dvr's!).

That's all I've really got to share. My apartment is fully unpacked, and mostly organized. I still have spaces to put to rights, and I'm also getting ready for taking some time and perhaps painting the house.

Feeling good

2008-11-19T04:48:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling good about my life a lot more lately. I'm on my own, and that is so nice. I'm paying my bills and am starting to see when I'm going to have money left over at the end of payday and that is even more exciting. I am actually feeling empowered and excited about my future.

Yesterday at work I finally saw my goal as something that I can do. I have been creeping my way to 100% in quality. It's not as easy as I initially thought. It seems that I get points taken off for things that are stupid so I need to pay more attention to the basic things and I will be fine.

My love life is good. I like dating someone who is very consistent. I like me and where I am personally. I like the feeling of knowing that I can live without someone, and yet knowing that I really don't want to. I also feel very confident that whomever God has for me in my life, I am going to be very happy with myself first.

Pretty good, eh?

Hi. My name is Pharisee.

2008-11-09T11:50:00.000-08:00

Today, as I was sitting in church and listening to the pastors sermon, I had a thought, "Gosh, I'm so glad that I'm not like those brides that didn't have enough oil for their lamps, and they missed the bridegroom."

Yeah.

Then my add brain went into full gear. I guess I am not like those brides. I'm worse. I am more like a Pharisee. "Oh LORD thank you that I am not like those brides that did not have enough oil." Perhaps I would have better luck tearing my garments and pouring ashes over my head for more drama, Lord knows that those Pharisees didn't thrive on drama at all.

Today God took the time to really love me. He gave me friends that truly lift my spirit, and a church family that truly loves me.

Lord, help me to be like the brides, the ones who were ready with their oil, and help me to remind those who walk this path with me to bring their oil. Lord, help me to share the source of the faith that lights my lamp so that others will find their lamps overflowing with that faith and they will share their faith too.

Whispered words

2008-11-08T17:48:00.000-08:00

This post may be a bit "adult" ( imagine the word "adult" whispered loudly instead of actually being spoken).

When I was in 3rd grade I was at my friend Deena's house. Her father owned a clothing store and they were not just wealthy, but I think that they were one of maybe 4 families in Bismarck that were Jewish. Deena's mom frequently sprinkled yiddish in her daily conversation, and I loved being at their house. They truly loved me and I felt very safe. Anyway, Deena and I were swimming in their pool and were talking in the shallow end, and she leaned close and said,"Katy, there's a hole between our legs and it's called a 'vagina' " She stage whispered the word vagina so I knew it was a forbidden word, I just wasn't sure if it was a word my mother would understand or if it was a word that her mother said.

After telling Denny this story, it's become our habit to just stage whisper ordinary words to each other. Of course, this is something that truly cracks us up and leaves most people in the world a little confused. I think it's the simple little jokes that make a couple feel like they are connected.

So, as I said to Denny earlier. I'm going to change clothes because I need to get ready to go "meet" Naomi. Maybe I'll buy her a "drink" and we can spend some time together "chatting" tonight. Stage whispers. Making the mundane a little more interesting.

A quick update

2008-11-07T20:16:00.000-08:00

God is still good. Every day.

I went to the optometrist today, and the Dr. saw a couple microanyeurisms in my left eye. My vision has truly gone downhill in recent history. The Dr. held up a couple lenses for me to look through and there's going to be a bit more of a prescription, but I'm going to take a look at my blood sugars a little more closely before going in for a refraction. I am praising God for this, it was a real wake up call about my health. I have been working out still, and have secret dreams to have arms like Nicole C. Mullen, yeah, that's not going to happen, but I can dream. Anyway, I've just not paid such close attention to my diet, even though I'm losing weight because of my workouts at the gym.

I am enjoying my single life. Work is work. It has it's good and bad days. I have a few days off for vacation, and am glad to have them. No more being abused by customers for a bit!

Wow.

2008-10-08T16:37:00.000-07:00

I've been silent since I posted last. My life has been insane. Insane, but good.
I will start posting more.

I am still employed by AIG. Yes. That AIG. Please pray for me. In between worrying about my actually having a job, and the stresses of paying rent and buying food, I put up with customers calling me and yelling at me.

This week, take a deep breath of air, and reconsider who you are venting on. Really.
I'm *just* an insurance agent. I can only work within the parameters of my companies guidelines. I cannot make your rate go down. If you carry car insurance, I have one little suggestion for you... 100/300 BI. That's it. Check it out, you get a lot of coverage, and it's often a lot less than state minimums.

The date

2008-04-02T22:04:00.000-07:00

Well, I was so scared, that when we met at B&N, I was feeling a little pukey. Then he kindly bought me hot chocolate which I promptly spilled on the table and on his lap. He managed to stay through the whole date.

On the way out of the store, he asked me if I wanted to go out on Saturday. I said yes. He said he'd wear a raincoat and bring a mop.

I'm going to have a second date!!

At least Governor Spitzer could afford me...

2008-04-02T13:19:00.000-07:00

eHarmony Chronicles

2008-04-01T20:57:00.001-07:00

So, dating via eHarmony has jaded me a little about the prospects out there. I was talking with my very married friend Steve yesterday, describing my whole dating outlook, and he started laughing. I've known Steve for 20 years now, actually 23 years now. Ugh. Steve is one of those guys who doesn't have passion for his wife. She gets it. Steve saves his passion for his friends like me. No, it's not sexual passion, but it is love. Steve is just a human blanket. If you are hurting and call him up, he has this way of completely making you feel like you are totally worthy of breathing in about 5 minutes.

Anyway...I had one date with an eHarmony match a few weeks ago. It was laughable to say the least. He was an old 53, not a young 53, he still lived with mom, and he had not done much traveling at all.

Tomorrow night, it's a date with a local pharmacist at Barnes and Noble. I'm looking forward to this one, he sounds like he's got a good sense of humor, and he also has a little girl. I'm definitely not saying he's the one, I'm also not going to be jumping into anything. I am open minded and that's good.

More on eharmony. I've met a lot of men on eharmony who are most definitely africans trying to scam for money.

For example, you are matched up with someone who immediately confesses that they don't live in the states, they are living, or working in another country. The next step is an email requesting some money... they lost their wallet, they didn't bring enough money on their trip, they need money for their hotel bill. They don't ask for a huge amount of money, about 700 or 500 dollars. So I've sort of got the feeling as soon as I get a match that has bad english syntax, or writes something inappropriate in their questionaires that raises eyebrows.

Speaking of inappropriate confessions in the introductory profiles, what man says that he spends his free time "walking and reading romance novels"?

Yeah, it's not looking so good out there folks. It's ok though, I'll be your honest and fearless leader through the joys of dating. At 40. Oh. Boy.

More to update in the near future

2008-03-23T17:37:00.000-07:00

76 words

Speedtest

But for now... a fun piece of frippery

Unexpected love in numbers.

2008-03-19T09:10:00.000-07:00

10. I have known that my life with Dan has been ending for the last 10 months. It didn't ever really get 'better'. It got worse and worse. Culminating in a comment from him just over a month ago, that my kids could not come to the house we share over the summer.

9. I have seen at least 9 different places to live in the last few months. I found a large, affordable mobile home. Perfect for the kids and me. It's 2 years old, meticulously clean, in a fantastic school district. It doesn't even look like a mobile home.

8. I have been applying to jobs for the last 8 months, NOTHING. Then this week I finally started hearing back on all those resumes and applications. It's looking VERY good here.

7. 7 weeks ago, my Stepmother (who both looks and sounds like Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies) gave me a membership to EHarmony.

6. It took me 6 weeks to make the decision to sign up, not expecting anything, really. Once signing up, it did not look so good out there. Lots of men that I was matched with were very lonely. Ok. Not really lonely more like horny. I had one date. In the middle of the date, he announced that he lived with his mom and he had never had a girlfriend before, and oh, by the way he'd had a heart attack 3 months ago. He was 50. I began to go to EHarmony for the entertainment.

5. 5 days ago I met someone who actually didn't offend me on EHarmony. I was stunned. He was actually friendly, understood my jokes, had a job (!!!!), and was honest about himself. Not once in any communications we've had did he tell me how wonderful he was. Heck, when I still communicate with Dan, all I hear is how great he is and how I've thrown away something good.

4. I told a friend of mine about him (we shall call him Mr. Mysterious Heartbeats for now -- MMH for short), and she laughed at me. She laughed at me because I was being so cautious. She said that I needed to put down my hands, and start paying attention to the gifts that God has been giving me, in His time, in His way. Four amazing things. Gary is going to Iraq in about 4 weeks. In 8 weeks I will have custody of the kids full time ( I'm letting them finish their school year before getting them). I have finally gotten my state residency settled. I have been surrounded by godly women who love me and guide me.

3. I have heard from 3 women whom Dan has had sex with. They all have contacted me. It's freaky, and I don't have any anger for him anymore. I truly am over all of it. It's so strange.

2. I'm ready I have been in counseling, dealing with everything that's been happening. I can truly say that I can be happy in this life with my kids and my God. The two most important loves in my life.

1. MMH understands all of it. HE respects me. We talk for hours, and not once has he tried to steer our conversation into areas of sexual talk. He really cares about me. I'm just walking around stunned. Stunned I tell you. So, it's not a love that makes me want to get married and have babies ( well, maybe it is ) but I've got my head on straight, and I'm just enjoying actually FEELING like a woman who matters to someone beyond her children again.

Pray for me to have wisdom.

Wow... a long break!

2008-02-28T07:39:00.000-08:00

I took a long break from blogdom! I have a couple call backs for jobs, and that's been wonderful. I'm starting to feel like there's hope!

My father is doing better. I'm working on relationships with all my siblings, and that's good.

I'm still pretty much fighting depression now, but once I get a job I'll be on my way to my old self. I hate feeling helpless.

So it's a mediocre check in. But it's going to be good. I'm still waiting on something to happen with Dan. I know that I don't want to live my life with him, but I would like for him to get a clue and learn that he can't treat people the way he treats me. Last night I went to our church dinner, where we have a discussion on a certain topic after the potluck. Anyway, Dan called while we were having our discussion and my phone ringer was off. Immediately afterward I looked down and saw he was calling again. When I answered the phone he said, "Thanks for answering your phone." It was all I could do to not hang up on him. He knew I was in church. Grrr. I'm all angry about it again. I just can't wait to be on my own!!

A Quick Update

2008-02-16T09:08:00.000-08:00

_check__ New Resume.

_check__ Cover Letter.

_check__ Appointment with Pastor.

_check__ Job Interview clothing.

_check__ Feeling GOOD about me.

In my comments for the previous entry, Aimeslee mentioned an intervention. I scoffed initially because I just didn't want to be here for the long run. I changed my mind, for various reasons, but one of them is for his future. I don't want him to think that he is allowed to behave that way. With anyone.

I have a couple resumes in good places. My life is coming together. I am THRILLED.

I WILL find a job. I WILL be able to advance myself. I AM strong and capable, and to channel Jack Handy, "I'm worth it!".

Happy Valentines Day!

2008-02-14T10:31:00.000-08:00

I may not know any of you 'in skin', but I just want you all to know that you are the best support system a woman could ask for. Just knowing that some of you are there to listen to me, has been amazing. I keep plugging along, and keep focusing on the joys of life. Thank you all for being here for me. May you each feel an extra measure of love in your life today directly from my heart to yours.

Thank you!

Now on to the details in my life.

No job. Sigh. I have pulled out the stops, and called all the professionals in my life, and I'm getting a new resume done. I feel like such a failure, but that's life, I'm going to learn and move on. Perhaps I will even get more dough because my resume is put together better.

The man...I don't know what to think. I know that he's not faithful. I know that he is depressed. I also am still feeling like if he can get through the depression the faithful part will come back. I know in my head that I just need to call it good, dust off my hands and step out into the wide world. I deserve fidelity. Truly. I just don't have a job to lean on right now. Soon I will. I KNOW I will.

My faith. Wow...to say that it is growing by leaps and bounds would be an understatement. Each day I encounter a little bit of grace that I hadn't even embraced. I feel sometimes as if I am walking around in a state of continuous revelations.

Me... well, I'm still in the skinny jeans. I'm doing well with the self control and weight loss. I think that part of that good stuff is because I'm not wallowing in depression. I am loving these dogs, and I am having a ton of fun going out for walks with them, and spending time playing chase the stick in the yard. I don't know if I ever mentioned that they are not Labrador Retrievers, but they are Labrador Locators. Fetch is not a word they comprehend, so what happens is that you throw a stick, then you chase down the stick, trying to beat the dog to it, who then snags the stick and just runs like crazy. It's hard to stay fat when chasing dogs.

I have found that I just love this town. I have so many good ideas for my future. Life is good, it's going to be better. I can't wait for the next adventure!

I've been tagged by Toners!

2008-02-06T07:33:00.000-08:00

You must post the rules before you give your answers.
You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name.
Each fact must begin with that letter.
If you don't have a middle name, just use your maiden name.
After you've been tagged, you need to up-date your blog with your middle name and answers.
At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and need to read your blog for details).

My middle name is Louise.

L-Life is something that I embrace.
O- Often I say that my body is "O" shaped.
U- Umbrella's are something that I don't carry. Sometimes that can suck.
I- I am a much better person in my 40's than at any other time in my life.
S- Sometimes I blame myself for things that I have no control over. (It's a flaw. That can suck too)
E- Every day is a good day when it starts. It's what you do with those opportunities that make the difference.

Now, for the tags...

I tag Sarah
Aimeslee
Kim
Monica
Colleen
Dedra

I chose these guys because they have some fun blogs, and for one of them... Dedra's...I am curious as to what her middle name is. I have been in love with her first name since I first saw her pop up on the message board.

Another "cool" thing about my list is that 4 of the names I chose all live south of the Mason-Dixon line ( I think...) and the other two are Canadians!

I will give an update soon on my life. No job yet, but I'm REALLY getting a lot of leads. Something will show up!

-Katy

My heart is so full right now!

2008-02-01T19:05:00.000-08:00

I was feeling really upset about the man, and decided that I was going to just explode.

Then I logged on and read your comments and found my little zen spot. I am better. LOTS better.

So, new things? I went to the Social Security office. I need to get more papers in order for the name change. Then I need to get more papers in order for my passport.

I've decided that I want to take a cruise. I'm going to save every penny I can from my paychecks and I'm going to take a fantastic vacation with my kiddoes. It's going to be a good thing if you ask me.

Today we had an ice storm in the morning that shut down the county. There was a 25 car pile up on I 81. Then at about noon we got rain. On the ice. Then tonight we got snow. Flakes the size of my fist! Weird weather. Tomorrow we're supposed to have warmer weather.

Because of the weather, they closed down the colleges, and Dan didn't go to work. I actually made him a nice warm breakfast. We finished at about 10:40. Then at 2pm he comes downstairs and starts moaning and groaning about how hungry he is, and how he wants to know if I'm going to do anything for lunch. Upstairs I go, I open the fridge, pull out a container of leftovers, dump them in a dish, microwave them, and plop it in front of him.

During all of this, I managed to get dinner in the crock pot. This is just crazy. I need to get a job!!!!! A good job would be lovely!

Life and stuff like it

2008-01-28T17:44:00.000-08:00

I wanted to quick post a little about how my life is going.

As many of you have figured out that I am not in a relationship that I am completely thrilled with. I love Dan an awful lot, and when he is kind and normal, I'm thrilled to be with him. He tends to cycle into these horrible depressions that really shred the heck out my world.

I don't know if I want to be on a swing cycle like that for the rest of my life.

Anyway, I have been fairly certain that Dan is cheating on me. Of course I'm not intimate with him right now, because I just don't want to take any chances on catching something that I may not be able to cure with a simple shot if you know what I mean. I'm also not 100% sure, so I'm leaving myself open to being pleasantly surprised.

Because of that certainty, I am looking hard and serious for a good job. I'm hoping to get a job either with the state, or at Lockheed Martin. Both jobs would pay me well enough that I could easily live on my own and have spending money.

I have some savings, and I have confidence that I will be Just.Fine. I just know that I need to be smart. Not make rash judgements, and do the right thing.

In other news: I have re-established a relationship with 4 out of 5 siblings. It will be a cold, COLD day in hell before I speak with the 5th. We are a truly diverse group of siblings. There is about 18 years between me and my oldest sister, and then a couple years between her and Joe. Then there's the one I don't speak of and then the twins. Then 10 years later, there's me. We range the gamut from the fundamentalist, to the Episcopalian to the Scientologist, to the liberal mainstream to the "ain't going to church". I can truly say, though, that I am learning to just love them all wherever they are in their lives.

Now, for other things...Saturday is our big date at the Opera. We're going to see Carmen. I am going to read the libretto tomorrow.

So, there's the check in. Life is moving along, and I'm not willing to stand still and watch it go by me. It's kind of weird, the more I fiddle with planing where my life is going the more content and happy I get. I would think that it would be the opposite, but it is a lovely feeling.

I have two prayer requests. My dear friend Frances is dealing with the passing of her mother, and I want my phone to ring off the hook with job offers!

Visitors to the house

2008-01-28T07:47:00.000-08:00

This little guy has been coming up to the deck recently. I apologize for the poor picture, it was taken through a very nosed up glass sliding door. Dan and I really enjoy all the wildlife we see in our area. A couple of months ago I took Molly outside in the wee hours of the morning and we saw a large stag standing in the middle of the road a few hundred feet up the hill. It was SO impressive.

Anyway, we have started to put out some bird feed on the railing of the deck, wondering what kinds of birds we'd draw to the house. It has been AMAZING. I can't wait until the ground thaws in the spring so that we can put up some bird feeders. We have had about 15 birds at a time munching on bird seed on the deck. We also noticed that since we've started to put out the seed, that when we go outside, instead of hearing the call of crows, we also hear the sweet chirping of cute little birds. It's a very nice thing!

So, anyway, when we saw this little guy on the deck, the next time we went to WalMart, Dan picked up a bag of "Critter food". We don't mind that squirrels eat the bird food, so we're deliberately feeding the squirrels too.

The organized and Inspired Scrapbooker

2008-01-24T07:16:00.000-08:00

I was visiting Of Cats and Cardstock and had an amazing overwhelming sense of guilt. You've all seen my scrapping space. It's not what I would call beautiful.

The thing is, is that she read the book "The Organized and Inspired Scrapbooker".
It's a book beautiful enough to drool over, isn't it? I HAVE this book. The cover has not even been opened. Why? you ask. It's not been opened because I've been too busy trying to ORGANIZE my room before looking at it.

I'll bet you are glad that you don't live in *my* brain.

I am a math loser

2008-01-23T08:48:00.000-08:00

I have wanted to go back to school for ages. I really knew that I needed to brush up on my math skills. I have always considered myself a victim of new math. I have issues with all parts of math, and don't remember a lick of it from high school. So the other day I was in Staples I saw this software called Math Advantage 2008.

I have only done two lessons of the very basic lesson on the cd. I have learned a lot though.

I love doing factor trees! Why? Because I learned these cool tricks that I had never learned before.

The tricks of divisibility...
If divisible by 2 ,the last digit of the number will end in 0,2,4,6 or 8
If divisible by 3 ,you add the digits together and see if the sum will be divisible by 3.
If divisible by 4, the last two digits need to be divisible by 4.
If divisible by 5 , the last digit needs to end in 0 or 5.
If divisible by 6 , the number needs to be divisible by both 2 and 3.
If divisible by 9, you add the digits together and find out if the sum is divisible by 9.
If divisible by 10, the number needs to end in 0.

Too bad there isn't a trick for 7 or 8 that I've learned but what I know certainly makes for a lot faster problem solving.

So, I'm going to work through this cd, and hopefully I'll be refreshed with my high school level math skills and perhaps get myself ramped up for some college classes! The next thing I'd like to tackle is grammar!

Another cooking post

2008-01-21T05:24:00.000-08:00

So, last night for dinner we had Coq au vin. I used the recipe from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook. It was Good. It was REALLY good. Note to self. When he says "while the chicken is cooking, he means do it now, it won't be good if you wait until just before you want to serve this. So, my only issue with the recipe is my issue with the cook. I waited a bit too long into the cooking process to braise the pearl onions, and that was not a good thing, but I fudged it by making sure the onions cooked through, and then instead of cooking down all the liquid, I poured it out, and then carmelized the onions. It was REALLY good. I would have liked to have eaten this an hour earlier than we actually did, and it was my fault. I count it a learned lesson. Did I mention that I made creme brulee for dessert? Oh yeah. It was good. VERY good.

My goals for today are to scrap! It's bitter cold outside here, so I'm going to fire up a couple space heaters for the basement, and then scrap away. I was going to crop at the local scrap store, because I need to get things together for my class, but since the alternator on the Expedition went belly up I'm without wheels until that gets fixed. That also slows down my job prospecting. Meh.

Anyway, I hope you have a good day, and you stay warm!

One of THOSE days

2008-01-19T20:18:00.000-08:00

It's almost 11:30pm tonight, and I just realized that I have been wearing my sweater backwards.

All day long.

Since 7 am.

Yeah. It was one of THOSE days.

Mr. Romance, and a little life lesson

2008-01-18T07:37:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to post my most recent layout. This is Mike, our 11 year old black lab. He has taken to snuggling close with me when I sit on the sofa, and I just love it. He is very particular and wants my hand on him at all times. Which means that I am becoming adept at typing with my left hand! If I stop petting, scratching, or touching him, he whacks me with his paw.

I have always admired people who scrap with all these fun things to draw the eye through the page, and there are times that I love to do that too, but this layout is one of my favorites, because it really shows off Mike.

I love these dogs so much. They are really amazing bringers of love in this household.

Two peas challenge today: The biggest lesson in life came from my daughter. She is so much like me, she puts things off until they are a crisis. SO I've started to pay attention to her quite closely. I'm really bad about mailing things, and really bad about putting money in the bank.

She has (For two semesters in a row) hosed up her school payments. Yesterday I refused to help her out. My parents bailed me out more than I should openly admit, and I'm not going to do it for her. So we had a conversation that went like this: " I am SO going to be on top of this stuff next semester." I think that she gets it.

So, I'm going to be on top of housework. I put things off until when I walk through a room I get little fuzzy ankles from the dog hair. I avoid vacuuming as much as possible, and it embarrasses me. I love to dust, vacuum, not so much. No more putting things off. I'm gathering things up and mailing off my deposits today. I'm also going to stay on top of the dog hair. I just hate living on the edge of crisis like that.

Oh yeah. I'm paying off ALL my debts by the end of next month. I'm SO stinkin' geeked about this. I'm also going to be able to double my savings within 6 months. Life is moving forward in VERY good ways. I'm feeling quite a bit better about everything. I would really like a job though...

Wednesday checking in

2008-01-16T05:12:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a quick post, just updating everyone on my week.

Sunday was the definition of unpleasant with the man. I decided that I'd had enough. Now I'm marking time until I get in a position where I can take things into my own hands. It will happen. It will happen soon. I am strong and can do this.

Monday I decided to become an "Independent Avon Representative". I like the way that sounds! The opportunity is there, especially for this community. I have a friend in VA who did this, and supports her whole family on her sales, and she isn't a pain in the butt to deal with so I'm really excited about all this!

Tuesday was a good day. Naomi arrived from her trip to the everglades. Tales of alligators brushing against her legs when she was in the Cypress Dome have managed to begin to turn the hair that isn't grey yet, a slightly lighter shade of brown. She absolutely glows from the suntan she got while down there, and also received a whole new appreciation for this world that we're in, so it was a very good thing.

That's it so far! It's Wednesday. Could he be worse? Could he better? Am I past the point of caring? (Prolly). We shall see, but until then, I'm keeping my chin up, my attitude in check, and my eyes on my goals. I'm actually reaching for them, and it feels dang good!

It's crude and ugly, but it's my space

2008-01-11T06:35:00.000-08:00

I've finally started to make space for my scrapping stuff. I'm not totally in love with everything about it, but it works so far. We have an unfinished basement, and that's where I scrap. The floor is cement, and it's COLD. I have one of those oil filled electric heaters that I push under the edge of the table that I sit at and it warms the area I'm in.

I just recently went to Target and purchased 3 sets of the 6 cube wire packages. It's a good idea but they aren't perfect by any means. They often come apart. For my situation that's not a bad idea, but when the basement is finally finished and I get settled into a finished space, I want to find a way to put them together in a little more stable way. I also need to pick up a few more Cropper Hopper 12x12 holders. I have a lot of paper still on the horizontal and they get all dog eared on the horizontal from me.

OH...Target does have a paper cart thing that is made with the wire, and I hated it. It was not easy to use, and the wheels really didn't work well. I'm moving to all vertical paper storage now.

I have been told that zip ties can add more shelves to the cubes, but I think that for what I use them for they are good, and I don't want to put too much weight on these. I keep my cuttlebug, my quick kutz, and my wishblade on the shelves. I also have plastic filing chests that I got from Staples when they put them on sale ( the 6 drawer chests...). I love those things, and I'm looking forward to getting those organized even more.

So, that's my space in all of it's ugly glory! I didn't tell you all about the gigantic 54"television across from the table. We don't have cable in the basement yet, but I can watch chick flicks on the XBox while I play. It's a good place, and it's MINE! YAY!

Tagged by Aimeslee

2008-01-10T20:10:00.000-08:00

1. Name your 2 favorite scrapbooking topics:
a. my kiddoes
b. my dogs

2. What are the 2 best places you've been to?
a. Disney World
b. San Francisco

3. Name 2 things you do every day:
a. Make Coffee
b.Cook a meal

4. Tell us 2 things that pretty much everyone knows about you.
a. I love to cook *nice* meals
b. I want to write a book, but I'm afraid.

5. 2 places you wish to visit:
a. Paris
b. Montreal

6. 2 things you may not know about me are:
a. I once had a pet cow. His name was Caesar, and he was hand raised because his mother rejected him. (I grew up in North Dakota, it's common...not.)
b. I love, love, love cool independent films.

7. 2 nicknames you've had at some time in your life:
a. Kate
b. Kitten

8. Name 2 of your favorite drinks:
a. Vanilla Seltzer
b. Warm tea.

9. What are 2 interesting (in a good or bad way) jobs you have had in your life?
a. Worst job evah... I worked in a donut shop. I had to clean the trays that the donuts sat on after they were cooked. It was a greasy, nasty mess.
b. I worked as a research assistant for a Dr. that was studying Macular Degeneration. I absolutely loved the patients, and am chomping at the bit to get into a new job where I can have patient contact again.

10. What are your top 2 fun things to do after work?
a. Make dinner.
b. Put on my slippers and maybe my jammies and bathrobe. (I'm a real party animal, I tell you!)

11. What are 2 things I would like to learn:
a. Photoshop
b. More and more about The Treaty of Versailles. I'm absolutely amazed at how much I've been learning about how much this truly affected the world that we live in.

12. What are the last 2 songs you downloaded or last 2 CD's you bought?
a. Dylan (Bob Dylan)
b. Shine (Joni Mitchell)

13. Name 2 movies you could watch or you have watched 100 times in your life and still watch again, no problem:
a. Ever After
b.The Princess Bride

14. What 2 songs will you always listen to in their entirety because they truly speak to you?
a. Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell)
b. I can only imagine (Mercy Me)

Now, if you notice that every question has 2 answers, and the last question was added by me, that means that you get to answer these questions and add a question to the pile before sending it on. I am tagging Theresa and Helena ( although I would be surprised if this was up Helena's alley, her blog is much more graphic...and well more interesting than mine, and it's also filled with lots and lots of pictures of cool things and her pretty little girl....) I can hope, right?

Lost Seasons 1-3

2008-01-08T12:26:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have never seen an episode of Lost and are wondering about it. You can go to ABC.com and watch seasons 1-3 in HD. Make sure you have a good video processor on your computer though!

Why I love a bad boy

2008-01-07T18:37:00.000-08:00

I have to admit that I have a love for a bad boy. He smokes, he drinks, he swears like a chef. That's because he's a chef. His No Reservations show on television is the best thing on since the writers strike has basically trashed the television season. I can't watch his show without cringing and sometimes gagging.

That being said, for Christmas I bought us a cookbook. Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook. It's truly a work of art. This isn't a book for those with delicate sensibilities, the author calls it's reader names like "useless screwhead" or "numbnuts". It's quiet obvious that the author is full of poetic sensibilities. This is just the most fun cook book I have ever cooked out of.

Last night I made Veau Viennoise (pg 148-9) from the cookbook. I kept telling myself that it just couldn't be as easy as he says. It was beautifully easy. It was wonderful. The only thing that I left out of the recipe was his garnish of anchovies on top of each cutlet. I'm not a fan of fishy anchovies, so I passed. I also made a beurre blanc for the veau. It was just perfect. We paired it with Green Beans seasoned with toasted, slivered almonds and a little lemon juice. The starch was a simple box of Rice Selects-- the tomato one that's got Paul Prudhomme's photo on the front. (There were two with his picture on the front...this is the one with the mild spices, the other was Louisiana style and hot.)

Dinner was delicious. I love capers, and this recipe calls for capers as a garnish. It was so amazing, and it was so easy. Truly, the hardest part was pounding the veal chop.

Next on the list from the cookbook is Pot-au-feu (pg 204). I will report in on this recipe. I've decided to throw in a recipe now and then too, but I can't believe how easy and amazing his recipes are now that I'm actually working my way through the cookbok and discovering that I don't mind being mocked for using prepared bread crumbs ( we don't buy bread, so making it fresh is kind of out of the picture...) I am really learning from him. Even though he tells us in the introduction that he's NOT going to teach the reader to cook.

So, you can see. Sometimes a bad boy is a good thing to love.

Belief -o-matic

2008-01-02T18:16:00.001-08:00

So, today I was flipping through the net and I came across a Belief O Matic here.

My results were pretty comforting.

Here's how I scored:

1.	Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (100%)
2.	Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (97%)
3.	Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (80%)
4.	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (77%)
5.	Orthodox Quaker (72%)
6.	Bahá'í Faith (70%)
7.	Jehovah's Witness (67%)
8.	Liberal Quakers (62%)
9.	Reform Judaism (60%)
10.	Seventh Day Adventist (58%)
11.	Orthodox Judaism (55%)
12.	Unitarian Universalism (55%)
13.	New Thought (54%)
14.	Eastern Orthodox (53%)
15.	Roman Catholic (53%)
16.	Islam (53%)
17.	Scientology (51%)
18.	Sikhism (47%)
19.	Mahayana Buddhism (46%)
20.	Theravada Buddhism (46%)
21.	Nontheist (42%)
22.	Neo-Pagan (40%)
23.	Taoism (39%)
24.	New Age (38%)
25.	Secular Humanism (37%)
26.	Jainism (31%)
27.	Hinduism (27%)

I was mostly curious how I would fall between Conservative and Liberal Christian faith. I am very happy that I fell into the Liberal side of the list. I know too many people who put the "mental" in fundamental.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T07:05:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to my friends and loved ones, and believe me, if you are reading this you fall into that category. I've met so many fun people through blogging, it's amazing how you truly get to know people through this medium.

My New Years Affirmations:
1. Be healthy. Mentally, physically and spiritually.
2. Be self supporting. Trying to not be a drain on our finances, but contributing to our finances. I can't take not working! I really enjoyed it as I was getting the house together, but now I'm ready to move on and get out a little more. I think that I really miss the patient interaction and the mental stimulation at my job in Boston. I really want to get myself in a less dependant and more independant place.
3. Be honest. I am loving life and am not going to keep my mouth shut anymore when I find injustice in my life and around the world. It's time to be honest with people and let them know that I'm not willing to play games for "the better".
4. Be self liking. I know that when the previous three things fall into place, my own self esteem will go up. I am a fat 40 year old woman, but I really like myself!
5. Be connected. I need to re-connect with my family. They are my only siblings, and I need to let them know that I want to be in their lives.

The last day of 2007

2007-12-31T08:12:00.000-08:00

Thank goodness the man is off to work. I'm feeling very irritated today.

I woke up, took the yellow dog out so she could do her morning business, and walked around, getting some very cool photos of the 6 inches of snow that we got last night.

Anyway, I fired up the snowblower (that right now, I hate using). I used it on roughly 90% of the stuff that needed to be blown, and then Dan comes out and does the last bit. THEN I come inside after shoveling the driveway (because the blower isn't working right...it left a lot of snow behind) to find him sitting at the table, reading the paper and eating breakfast.

Did the dogs get fed?
His coffee cup was sitting in front of the coffee pot...
Was his sandwich made for lunch?

SO...I fill the water dishes, feed the dogs, pour his coffee and make his sandwich while cleaning up from dinner last night because Naomi didn't bother to finish her chore.

As he leaves he says "get a lot done around here today." It was all I could do not to scream at him. I said "I've already done a lot here today." He said, "So that's it for the day?" I just said that wasn't what I'd said. I don't feel like putting up with him right now. What a wonderful man, eh? My neighbors were all asking me where he was...I told them the truth, "In bed!". I am so freaking irritated right now. Grrrrr.

Anyway, today I'm going to "get a lot done" here today. Asshole.

New Page

2007-12-28T14:10:00.000-08:00

I just finished up with a new scrapbook page.

It's my very first digital page!

I like it quite a bit!

A little giggle

2007-12-23T06:46:00.001-08:00

This made me giggle. Thought that I would share it with you all.

Deep Breath of Air

2007-12-21T17:34:00.000-08:00

* The hardwood kitchen floor and the stairs to the upstairs have been mopped with vinegar and water, and then polished to a high shine.

*The laundry is all caught up.

*The toilets are cleaned. (3 of 'em!)

*The bathrooms are cleaned.

*Bedrooms are dusted with mirrors cleaned. (3 out of 4... I refuse to touch Naomi's room.)

*I've wrapped over 100 Christmas Presents

*I Mod Podged the letters that my neighbor wants to put on the walls in her daughters rooms.

*I've also helped her decorate them up with buttons and ribbons.

*I've finished the scrapbook for my friend.

*I finished the planner that I was making for myself too!

*Did I mention all the vacuuming?

Tomorrow morning the kids arrive. I AM THRILLED. I'm REALLY tired tonight, and at 8:30 I'm feeling like I've been running a marathon all day.

I think that I'm going to go to bed in a few minutes.

Oh yeah. Happy Birthday to my sister Lisa and my brother Bill. They both turn the big 5-0 today. I hope that they have a wonderful year. They are both pretty darn cool!

Winter

2007-12-18T04:46:00.001-08:00

Whenever I think about winter, I immediately pull up memories from my childhood. It's funny, because as an adult most of my memories center around the work that winter has. But the wistful memories that come up are the ones where you bundle up and run outside and play in the snow.

I grew up in North Dakota, and I remember my mom coming outside and helping me build a snow horse, and a couple cowboy snowmen. I remember the way the cold would make my cheeks feel tight. I remember wrapping up in a blanket and sitting in front of the cast iron fireplace in the basement getting warm.

I think that the earliest adult memories I have were when I was in college. I worked for a local high school as a debate judge and I would have to drive to their school and then ride the bus with the debaters to whatever school they were going to for the weekend tournaments.

Getting into my car in the morning was always a little tense. I drove a 1973 Toyota Celica. It's nickname was Wheezer, because when I turned it off, the engine would cough and wheeze a little before finally resting. Anyway, Wheezer had a lovely vinyl/leather trimmed seat, and being dressed for work, you'd sit in the car, and your leg muscles would immediately contract from the cold.

I would coax the car to life, and then turn on the blowers and start digging for my scraper. I remember once I couldn't find it, so I used the front of a cassette tape case. Remember, this was in the mid 80's, so I also had the option of using one of my large earrings as a scraper too.

I would scrape like crazy, then get back in, and my muscles would once again contract, jamming my knees up into the steering wheel. I remember rocking my car back and forth to get it out of whatever snowy predicament it was in, and then finally getting on the streets.

In the land before Anti-lock braking systems, this meant that there was an awful lot of brake pumpking. Anyway, the car would usually get warm about 3 blocks off campus, and then by the time I'd get to my destination, it would be hot enough inside to melt steel.

Ahh, the joys of winter!

A few photos of my morning

2007-12-17T07:39:00.001-08:00

I wanted to do a quick little photo blog of about a half hour of my morning today. It really made me laugh to think about how much of my mornings are the exact same from day to day.

So, here you go!

This is Molly. Molly is an 8 year old English Square head Labrador Retriever. She's "curvy", not fat. Molly is my little yellow shadow. EVERYWHERE I go, Molly goes. She gets annoyed if I don't take her in the car with me.

Molly loves to get her photo taken.

This Mike. Mike is in the natural habitat of the wild Labrador. He really loves to sleep on the sofa. He's over there snoring loudly as I type this. Mike is 11, his father was a very busy dog. Mike is also an English Square Head Labrador. Mike is also Molly's uncle.

The requisite photo of the trees from the deck. Only I just stuck the camera out the sliding door and pointed it at the trees and took the photo. I wasn't going out in THAT stuff.

The slider is open here, that's the snow that collected on the deck since Friday, when I shoveled the entire deck off and found a tarp to put over the deck furniture. Next year we are buying fitted covers for those guys.

The snowy neighborhood. The tree in the foreground is one of those lighted 4 foot trees that ACMoore had on sale a few weeks ago for $29.00 for a set of them. Also, note that the snow bank around my neighbors mailbox is threatening to cover the mailbox.

Molly loves snow. She really does. Mike is more of a water dog, but Molly loves herself some snow.

It doesn't look like much when they stay on the sidewalk. It just covers their feet. They don't go winkie on the sidewalk though. What they are doing is looking for an easy way to get to the bathroom...

Ahh yes, we found a way in. Yes, the snow is up to our tummies.

It's fun to make mom nervous. We like to go behind the house when we know she's only got her nightshirt on under her coat.

This is me, at 7:30 in the morning. I haven't even showered.

Mike loves to sniff. So he stuffs his face into the snow so he can smell things. I'm trying to lure him into the house with a dog cookie.

Cookie?

A letter to my oldest child

2007-12-15T19:07:00.000-08:00

To my dear child,

Now that you are a couple months from turning 20, I want you to know that I love you. I think that you still have so much growing up to do though. You need to learn that the amount of freedom you have isn't something that comes without strings. The more freedoms you have, the more responsibilities you have. They are not always equal to each other.

I know that you think that it's ok for you to go traipsing off to the Cayman's because your friend Ashley's parents purchased you a ticket. I know that you think that it is your decision. I just caution you about making these types of decisions. Your goals do not lend themselves well to messing up. You need to pay attention and focus hard.

I'm offended by your attitudes towards me and Dan. We love you, and we ask from you that you participate in the house. While you are living here we expect you to pay attention to your messes and to clean them up. You are old enough to take care of your own messes now. I don't think that leaving a sink full of water behind is is cleaning your bathroom. I don't think that a dirty bathroom floor is having cleaned your bathroom.

I should expect you to do what you say you are going to do around here. In reasonable time. I am not a freak where I expect you to have a pristine room and bathroom, I do expect for you to keep them tidy and to clean your bathroom every week.

I expect you to communicate with me, and in the future, when it comes to picking you up from work, if you don't reach me by 1opm I will not come pick you up. If we expect you home at a certain time, and you do not show up, we will lock the doors, and you better have a good reason why things didn't happen.

I will not be treated the way you treat me any longer. You will behave in a manner that is respectful towards this home and those who live here.

I love you, it's hard to grow up, believe me, I know this, but it's gotta happen. The world does NOT revolve around you and your charm. We see through it.

How to make Spaghetti Sauce

2007-12-14T18:38:00.000-08:00

The usual cast of characters for making a nice, simple sauce for spaghetti:

This is a nice deep pot, it's often referred to as a "Chef's pot", you can use a large stew pot also, but I'm partial to using the handle on the pot. I have cooked my hands on the small handles on stew pots too many times.

Spices: Garlic Powder, and Basil. I know it says Italian Herb Mix on that bottle, but I'm a believer in simplicity, and adding flavor as you cook, so start with a nice simple base and go from there. That being said, if you are going to buy spices, check out Penzeys Spices. FANTASTIC spices. The McCormick Garlic Powder is O.K. We just bought it because we were waiting on getting another large order for Penzeys together.

I don't have a favorite brand for tomatoes here in town. If you can find Pastene Kitchen Ground tomatoes, use those, they seem to have a taste that I like...your mileage may vary. You just need a big can of crushed tomatoes, a medium can of diced tomatoes, and tomato paste.

Whoops, I forgot the star of the show. Garlic. I was lazy today and used a jar. I use a lot. I prefer to mince my garlic myself, but this will do in a pinch.

Pour your OliveOil into your large pan. Don't waste your Extra Virgin Olive Oil on cooking, the heat kind of ruins the extra flavor. Use your Extra Virgin Olive Oil for dressings or for dipping crusty bread in to go along with your meal.

Rougly two Tablespoons of oil will do the job. Make sure your burner is turned up to almost medium heat on your stove.

I use a LOT of garlic. We like garlic here. This is probably 1 1/2 Tablespoons of garlic. Stir it up in the oil, pay attention, you want it to get a little bit of color, but you don't want it to burn. If you burn it, wash out your pot and start over. Burned garlic is NASTY.

See that nice garlic cooking there? Yes, it's a little golden, I took it off the heat so that I could show you that you should put in about 1 1/2 teaspoons of Basil or Italian Seasoning. Rub it between your palms as you add it to your garlic. It helps release the aromatics.

Stir, stir, stir. I let it cook almost a minute after adding in the spices. You are working on getting layers of flavor here.

Now, use a skinny rubber scraper and help that tomato paste into your spices. This needs to cook a little bit, too.

Stir well to combine it with the flavors in your pan. I like to make sure it is stirred all over the bottom of the pan to pick up all the flavors from cooking up those spices.

Yes, add more Garlic. I use about a Tablespoon of Garlic Powder here. The tomato paste has started to change it's form, from a sticky, clumpy substance, and now it's a little softer. It spreads out in the bottom of the pan nicely.

Add your can of ground tomatoes. Stir it up really well. Add your can of diced tomatoes.

Stir them in too. Pay attention to the thickness of your sauce here. If you like it a little runnier, add some water. That can of diced tomatoes is a good measure of water. I like to add water as it cooks now and then. I was going to use this sauce for a lasagne, so I wanted it somewhat thick.

Taste the sauce, if you want, add some more Basil. Rub it between your hands again. If anything it will make you smell like you've been working very, very hard that day. No one needs to know how easy this really is!

Mmmm...it's now just started to boil. Time to turn it down.

Set the temperature just above low. Put a lid on your pot, and stir it every now and then until it's simmered for a while. I like to cook my sauce for a few hours. I let this simmer until after we had dinner, and the popped the mixture into the fridge. The next morning I put together my lasagne and refrigerated it until an hour before I baked it.

Once you do this, you'll never buy a jarred sauce again. It's so easy to make this up and freeze it or save it for all your spaghetti/pizza sauce needs.

A photo update

2007-12-14T06:12:00.001-08:00

The beauty of snow

The front of the house and walkway to the front door.
You can see my footprints in the snow where I ran to take the picture.

This is just after 3 hours of snowfall.

I thought this was pretty.

We still need to bring that furniture into the basement...OR find some covers.

I guess the horse is already out of the barn for this season, but it certainly was pretty yesterday.

SNOW!!!!RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!

2007-12-13T07:56:00.000-08:00

The weather here has been wintry. The weather forecast for today had been "SNOW!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!" I laughed it off. Last night, ONE FLAKE floated down when I was out with Molly at 2:30am because she had a sudden craving to eat yellow snow. (That's another story)

So this morning. NO SNOW. I toss my head in disdain towards the weather forecasters. Dan and Naomi leave and head off to work and school. I go upstairs and get dressed to take the dogs for a walk. The snow starts to come down a little slow. It's just a dusting.

I bring them in, run across the street and clean up the gift Molly left for the neighbors in their pristine, white, snowy front yard, and grab the keys and go down the mountain towards town.

As I drive down the hill I'm really loving Dan's car. He took the Expedition into town, even though I scoffed at his optimism that we were going to have any kind of bad weather. By the time I got to the bottom of the hill the anti-lock brakes kicked in twice. I'm feeling a little nervous, and by now the snow is starting to stick.

I decide against running to the big grocery store and instead run to the high priced, small neighborhood grocery that has a great deli and always has fun things in their pre-made food case. ANYWAY, I go in, get some deli ham, and a frozen french bread pizza ( yes, I like those, but have to eat them only for lunch because they give me bad heart burn). I also grab some sour cream and cream cheese (if it turns into a real storm, we'll need that fat for body warmth, right?).

By the time I checked out at this place (and I was REALLY only in there for 5 minutes, tops). The snow was collecting in the street. My car tracks in their parking lot had disappeared. I headed up the street and made a left to get up the mountain. While taking that left, I SPUN almost a complete circle, and just drove up the hill as if I meant to do it.

Now, I'm getting a little uncomfortable as I climb the mountain, after having wet myself after that exciting bit of creative driving. Then I reach the point of no more forward driving. I'm not so thrilled with this either. I CAN SEE the street that I need to turn on to get into our little housing for goodness sake. So, I call my neighbors, yes the ones that I'm making the scrapbook for as a surprise for Christmas, and now you know why.

They drive down and pick me up, and Jim drives the car home for me, only he drove it back down the mountain, and around the other side, and then down to our housing area. As he made the corner, he saw a car slide into the ditch on the other side.

SO, to make a very long story short...

1. Warm weather before SNOW!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!! Makes for warm ground.

2. Warm ground means snow melts before it collects.

3. Melted snow under collecting snow means ice.

Oh yeah. It's REALLY coming down, too... SNOW!!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!! (or at least make some coffee and snuggle in and watch the View. I can't believe that it's still morning!

On my to-do list today:
Finish scrapbook.
Wash laundry. Especially after my little adventure today.

2007-12-06T19:52:00.000-08:00

So, at the end of the day, I am pleased to look back on my list. I did everything on it except do a load of laundry.
Not too bad.

I also made an excel spreadsheet of all of our spices in our lazy susan. I still have a couple cupboards to look into and log those spices. I think that I threw out about 20 bottles of old spices, or empty bottles of spices from combining partial bottles.

That feels good. I no longer have bottles stacked on bottles in that shelf. I am going to get some of those dot stickers so that I can see what's in the bottles by looking at the top of the container instead of pulling the bottle up and out to see what it is.

I think that we are total foodies. We have 84 bottles of spices in that one cabinet. It's totally off the hook!

And the list...mostly completed!
1. Shower! done
2. Feed dogs. done x2
3. Send in Penzeys order. done
4. Unload dishwasher. done
5. Plan out pages for the album that I'm giving to Lynn for Christmas. done
6. Wake up Naomi and have her do some chores...walk dogs, vacuum tv room and living room/dining room. done, done, done and then Danny and I walked dogs tonight.
7. Laundry. DOES IT EVER END? Gaah. I didn't even look at the laundry.
8.Lunch with Lynn. Done and it was wonderful.
9. Plan dinner tonight. ( I need to check out what I've got in the freezer first. If I can, I'm going to do a crock pot dinner so I can focus on scrapping.) We had pork chops and spanish rice.
10. Take Naomi to work and pick her up. Done.
11. Find ways to tolerate mr.grumpy pants when he gets home...he's fighting depression. done

My list for today

2007-12-06T06:03:00.000-08:00

1. Shower!
2. Feed dogs.
3. Send in Penzeys order.
4. Unload dishwasher.
5. Plan out pages for the album that I'm giving to Lynn for Christmas.
6. Wake up Naomi and have her do some chores...walk dogs, vacuum tv room and living room/dining room.
7. Laundry. DOES IT EVER END?
8.Lunch with Lynn.
9. Plan dinner tonight. ( I need to check out what I've got in the freezer first. If I can, I'm going to do a crock pot dinner so I can focus on scrapping.)
10. Take Naomi to work and pick her up.
11. Find ways to tolerate mr.grumpy pants when he gets home...he's fighting depression.

A Recipe

2007-12-05T07:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday with all the snow, I just wanted something that reminded me of home. When I say "home" I usually mean North Dakota type home.

When it's all snowy and cold and shivery, I just want comfort food. I didn't grow up in an area of the country known for it's gourmet food. Since I've been with Dan, and have taken several series' of classes at Cambridge Culinary Institute, I've really learned how to cook and make food that's "ok" into food that is delicious!.

So here are two recipes. The first is the original. A good ol bland midwestern recipe.

Stew Meat and Rice

Brown the stew meat ( 1lb) in a pan. You can use a little flour on the chunks of meat first.

Salt and pepper the meat, and then stir in a can of Golden Mushroom soup.
Serve hot over white rice.

(Honestly, this is a nice, mild tasting comfort food.)

Now for the sexed up version:

Katy's Savory Stew Meat Comfort Food
Ingredients:

12-14 oz package sliced mushrooms
Stew Meat, sliced up into even sized strips or chunks
1 Can Campbells Golden Mushroom soup
1 shallot or 1 small onion if you don't have a shallot on hand
Vermouth or ANY kind of leftover wine from a previous meal
Montreal Steak Seasoning
Cayenne pepper ( a small, eentsy pinch)
1 quick shake or grating of Nutmeg
Pepper (to taste)
Kosher Salt (to taste)
Butter (1 or 2 Tablespoons...used only to saute' the mushrooms)

1. Saute' mushrooms in a large frying pan. I put a tablespoon of butter into the pan and let it melt while the pan heats up over medium heat. When I hear the sizzle, I put the container of mushrooms into the pan, and give them a quick stir. Then I sprinkle about a teaspoon of salt on them, and give a good grind of nutmeg over the pan. Nutmeg is a good trick to add to vegetables that tend to lose their flavor in a heavy sauce. In this case, the sauce is going to be the soup, but it works well with creamed spinach, too.

2. While the mushrooms start to cook down, I quickly mince the shallot. I said just one, but in my book, there is no such thing as too many shallots in a meal, so go for it. Use your common sense detector. When you finish with the mince (this should take less than a couple minutes), the mushrooms will be ready for a stir. Stir the mushrooms and add the shallots to the mixture. Let this cook for a few minutes until it looks good to you. You'll know when the mushrooms look done, they will have a bit of a liquid around them in the pan, and they will be an even browny looking color. The shallots will be clear by this time, too. If not, don't worry. It's all good.

3. Remove the mushrooms and shallots to a bowl and keep it warm. A small mixing bowl works, since you aren't going to do anything but put a plate on the top to keep it warm while you cook the meat.

4. Toss the meat into the pan. Give it a good stir and start shaking your Montreal Seasoning on top. This seasoning is WONDERFUL on steaks when you grill, so here's a quick tip...if you use a spice blend that you love when you grill, sprinkle that over the meat while it cooks instead of the Montreal Seasoning. I like this blend quite a bit if you haven't tried it yet. I season this as it cooks, remember it's cooking in the butter and juices from the mushrooms and shallots. So sprinkle a half teaspoon of seasoning on it, and let it cook for a while, then sprinkle more. Don't be afraid to taste the food as it cooks. I am one who tastes the juices more than the meats. Dan tastes the meat. It all works out in the end. When the meat is to the point of it being cooked to your liking, carefully put it in the bowl with the mushrooms and shallots. Leave all the drippings in the pan and the little nubbins.

5. Turn the heat up on the pan for just a few seconds, and then pour your alcohol of choice ( red or white wine or vermouth) into the pan ( about 1/4 of a cup) and scrape the pan with your wooden spoon. This is called deglazing the pan, and it makes for an extra layer of flavor and helps to carry the spices in the food through the cream sauce. You can do this with a little water if you avoid alcohol, but it's just not going to make your palate sing, and it's going to take a little longer.

6. Now, you should have poured the wine, done a quick scrape, scrape. This shouldn't take long at all, maybe 30 seconds. Now put the meat, mushrooms and shallots into the pan. Turn the heat down to low. Pull that tab on the can of Golden Mushroom soup. Use your wooden spoon to scrape it out of the can and stir it into your food in the pan. Take out your jar of cayenne or red pepper and give it a little tap over the fry pan. I don't use it for the heat, I use it for the flavor lifting. The vermouth does a good job of lifting the flavor, and for some reason the cayenne really helps. Now heat the mixture, I add about a 1/4 cup of water to the mixture to help it get to a consistency that I think is appealing. (Think thick gravy)

Serve over rice ( any type you like....I LOVE brown rice always... Dan doesn't) or serve over egg noodles or any type of pasta that you love to eat.

This is so easy. Don't let all my words scare you.

This passed the food snob test in our household.

I Am Woman Hear Me Roar!

2007-12-04T09:39:00.000-08:00

As the snow softly falls, settling into a sweet sugary surface, I take a deep breath of air. I'm thankful for the beautiful, and changing scenes that I'm given on a daily basis here.

I truly love this place. More than I ever thought I could. I love the people who are friendly and kind, and the weather which is more than eager to present me with 4 solid, unique seasons.

Today I fired up the snowblower. We had more than a dusting of snow on the driveway, and I had a blast wrestling around Dan's big machine. I felt so freaking CAPABLE! I got the entire driveway cleared off, and then cleared the street down to the drain. I am so thrilled that I kept up my attitude of "getting things done". After I used the big, manly machine, I used the shovel and got what didn't get scooped up by the blower.

Aaaargh! I am woman, hear me ROAR!

Life, or something like it.

2007-12-03T19:37:00.000-08:00

Today was one of those days.

You know, the kind where you get up and start on a project that you have been wanting to do for a while, and you have aspirations to get even more done than what you've got going?

Yeah.

So I wake up, and do a load of laundry, and then start cleaning the kitchen. I had a heck of a messy kitchen. So I clean the stove, and the counters, and unload and then load the dishwasher. I even manage to get the dirty liner from a longaberger into the laundry. I'm productive!

I start the oven on it's cleaning cycle. It's smoky and nasty smelling. I tell Naomi that when she leaves for school, that I need for her to put the dogs in the garage. I had this fear that smoke from the oven would make the dogs sick.

Anyway, I come home to the dogs in the garage like I expected, but also to ALL of our smoke detectors pulled down. I would have liked to have strangled my child. So, I put them all back where they belong. I go off to pick up Naomi for lunch, she left her lab book at home, and needed me to bring it to her, so I offered to give her lunch. We have a very nasty lunch a Quiznos. I take her back to school. I come home and work on my project, and then I have to go get her again. She's sick.

We come home, and she takes a hot tub, I finish the oven project, and clean up from my scrapping mess. I then make dinner, and am sitting here, in a stupor. Very nearly NOTHING is done, except for the oven. I am exhausted though.

Gotta love days like this. I am NOT going to be driving anywhere tomorrow. What she forgets at home, she forgets. I want to pull up the decorations that I want to put on the tree, and then start on another project. I REALLY want to get some other things done around here too.

Wednesday the electrician is supposed to come. I'll believe it when I believe it. They have been doing a good job of not showing lately. I'm sick of dealing with that stuff!

One post a day

2007-11-30T13:22:00.000-08:00

I have no idea why I thought that I could do that. One post a day. I must have been insane, because really, November is a busy month!

But.

I did it. I completed the NaNoBloPo challenge. I can't tell you how long that it's been since I've done something that I couldn't complete in a couple days. It really feels good to have really "done it".

Wowsers!

Maybe now I should try that "eat in front of the mirror while naked" diet!

Thursday check in

2007-11-29T22:46:00.000-08:00

Mike the dog is doing well!

The Vet checked his eye pressure, and it was down to 21, from up in the mid 40's. This is such an answer to prayer. I'm so glad that I kept up with the medicine and the drops. He is going to be ok. And will not lose his eye. At least right now. In the future if the medicine doesn't work, we may need to enunculate the eye, but for now we are all A-OK!

YAY!!!!

What I did today!

2007-11-28T12:09:00.001-08:00

Quiet comfort

2007-11-27T07:59:00.000-08:00

I've been making decisions in my life, and though I'm not ready to announce them, I am feeling a still quiet comfort within.

I'm still looking for a job. I'm not having much success, I went to one interview where they weren't even expecting me. After rounding up someone to finally interview me, the HR person said "we have about 5 people we are considering hiring from within our hospital". All I could think about was that I wanted the last 2 hours of my life back. Binghamton is not a hotbed of medical research, and I would love to get back into a patient contact type position, so I'd have to go into medical reception for that type of thing until I finish my degree.

Anyone have any great ideas for home based businesses? I'm leaning towards a service type of a business, not a home sales thing. I don't have patience for home sales parties, and I refuse to partake in that style of thing.

I am doing well, so far no issues from the ticks. Although now I'm a little psycho every time I feel anything like a little creepy skin, or a bump, or a sore spot. Lets just say a large naked woman in front of a mirror is enough to lose weight. As a matter of fact, from now on when I want to snack outside of mealtime I will get naked and stand in front of a mirror while I eat it. That'll be a diet that works!

Editing the past

2007-11-26T11:12:00.000-08:00

I put things up on my blog that aren't pretty. So far I've decided to NOT edit my words. I need to really own these words. I don't really care how they make me "look" to the world. I'm being honest and true and this blog is what I need to egg me on and move me forward in my life. It's my confessional. I refuse to hide behind a facade, and this is where I can be the ugly me.

I may edit in the future, but for now, this is what it is. It's me, all the pontificating, all the unsteadiness, all the fear and the ugliness, and all the beauty that is beginning to bloom through all the manure.

What makes a friend

2007-11-26T09:07:00.000-08:00

The two peas blogger challenge is to describe what makes the core of friendship for me.

It's funny how difficult it was for me. I think that the initial attraction of friendship is an initial honesty, an outward friendliness, and a bright sense of humor. These are the things that I am drawn towards.

The 'hook' is that there is what I've always felt as a "sponge" of confidence. A friend is someone who you can confide in, and she won't ever utter anything that you've said or hold it against you. For me, because of the ex's career, I had to do a lot of moving around. I have friends who I have left behind that I can call and we pick up life immediately where we were before I left. It's a life long connection and it's something that can't truly be described.

I have a few friends that I would trust with my life. I think that's the key to a true friend. Someone who will keep you in your place, and someone who will put everything aside for you.

I always laugh when I see the quote " A true friend is someone who sees right through you and still enjoys the view."

Exhausted

2007-11-25T21:19:00.000-08:00

I've done NOTHING today. Not exactly nothing, but close enough. I didn't sleep again last night, the man was in a mood, and he didn't sleep. He kept the light on next to his side of the bed until I asked him to turn it off. It was really terrible.

SO...I got up at 6 and then finished a book I'd started eons ago. Then I took a shower and found another tick on me! The first tick we found on Friday, it was just below my collar bone. This morning, I found one on my back in the shower. The one on Friday came off very easily. The one today...we had to do a little minor surgery. I'm a little gunshy about taking another shower.

Tomorrow I need to put the laundry away, go to the post office, and pull out the decorations for Christmas.

The neighbors all were putting out their decorations today, but the man is still in a mood, and I don't really feel like putting any effort into anything today.

I'm really tired of being told that I'm not engaging, not paying attention, not doing whatever. I'm sick of it all. I realize that I'm going to feel better tomorrow, but tonight, I have a date with a tablet of Simply Sleep and a nice glass of water.

Saturday events

2007-11-24T21:08:00.000-08:00

So, today our friends left to head back to Boston. We had SUCH a nice time. No, really, a WONDERFUL time. I miss them already.

I am leaning towards some huge changes in my life. I'm not looking forward to doing them, but I know that in the end I am going to be doing the best thing that I could ever do. It's just so scary to step out into the wide world and depend on myself. I feel like I've always depended on someone. I depended on my parents, and then went to college, still depending on my parents. Then I got married and stayed married for 18 years. Pretty much immediately after the marriage crumbled to bits, I met Dan and I moved in and we have been together for 3, almost 4 years now.

I've discovered things about me that I really like. I've discovered things about my friends that I like even more, and I've discovered things about Dan that I just don't know if I like all that much. I do realize that this is part of the way relationships go, and that commitment and love help both partners move forward. I just don't know if this is something that I want to spend the rest of my life with him dealing with. I am capable, I am strong, and I am going to learn independence either way. I will not remain here and not have an income , I will save my funds for the future, no matter what it holds. I will prepare to be a person of strength. Not a bad thing.

Please, if you are a praying person, please continue to keep me in your prayers. Hopefully things will brighten up here. Otherwise I'll be doing what I need to do, and things will brighten up anyway!

The day after Thanksgiving!

2007-11-23T13:05:00.001-08:00

Quick check in for NaNoBloPo. I'm SO close to at least one post a a day, and don't want to blow my record!

Thanksgiving was GREAT. Our friends are lovely. We are having a great time!

2007-11-22T20:07:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Quick post!

2007-11-21T08:32:00.000-08:00

The eldest child got taken the airport yesterday to go to her fathers house for Thanksgiving. The flight got cancelled. We have company coming this evening. The eldest child's flight leaves this evening.

I've baked roughly 6 dozen sugar cookies this morning, 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies, and I still have more baking to do.

I need to wake up the eldest so I can tackle the next batch of baking. My life is crazy today!

Tradition, TRADITION!

2007-11-20T18:20:00.000-08:00

It's getting to that time of the year where we spend time focusing on the old, and hoping for the new.

The old: I'm putting up our tree the Monday after Thanksgiving. Perhaps even the Sunday following Thanksgiving. We're having guests this year, so I'll put it up after they leave.
More of the old: I made lefse. My mother made lefse. I would make carmel rolls too, but we just don't have room in our refrigerator!

The new: I hope that by the middle of next year, I'm settled and knowing what I want and am where I want to be in my life. I'm going through some issues with my relationship with my SO, and I don't want to jump into something that I regret. I guess that I would say that I'm a little gun shy for the whole commitment thing after my divorce.

Pray for me for those of you who pray! I know that in the end I will do what I need to do, it's just getting the courage to step out in faith towards the goal that I need to move towards.

A list, From Toners

2007-11-20T15:53:00.000-08:00

From Toners:

Who am I? Katy. Child of God, Divorcee', Mom of 3, Doggie mom of 2, girlfriend of Danny.
Who knows me best? God
How old am I? 40
How old do I feel? 40
The most important thing in my life is... my faith. It's my anchor everyday.
I always carry...Claritin!
Something I always do is...spill food on myself every time I work!
I'm at my happiest when... I am scrapping!
On a Monday morning, you'll find me...doing laundry. Cleaning toilets, mopping the floor and walking Mike and Molly.
My favorite mode of transportation is...the Lincoln
My eyes are...grey
My favorite material possession is...my bible, quickly followed by my craft supplies.
To relax, I like to...stamp, scrapbook, read...
The town I live in is...in the STICKS! No, really. It's in the sticks. I really like where I'm at though, it's growing and it's FRIENDLY!
What's my worst habit? picking on my nails.
My guilty pleasure is...Showtime Adult dramas. Dexter, Weeds, The Tudors.
When I look at someone, the first thing I see is...their smile and if it truly goes into their eyes.
I think ....................... is beautiful. love
One thing that I can live without is...chocolate!
One thing people don't know about me is...I am from North Dakota originally.
My life is...blessed.

Oprah

2007-11-20T13:14:00.000-08:00

Please don't think that I'm slamming on people from Macon,GA. But, hello?

I'm watching Oprah's Favorite Things episode. Women were CRYING over getting free cupcakes in the mail. Some women had their hands in the air, praising God for being on her show. WOmen were shrieking in joy for SOAP. Maybe I'm cynical but, hello. It's STUFF.

I watch very little Oprah. Heck, I watch Oprah MAYBE 6 times a year. It really makes me wonder if seeing things like this give away show makes those who have very little income spend more money, because they want the things that Oprah likes. It makes ME want what Oprah likes, and I have the common sense to stop myself from going to her website and ordering one of each item she shows off.

Monday Marvels

2007-11-19T06:23:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to bed, and it was snowing. It was a beautiful snow, and it made me happy to have the fireplace up and running. Such a nice snuggly night.

This morning, I woke up to this amazing beauty:

2007-11-17T19:38:00.000-08:00

You win a scholarship to go back to school for any four-year degree you want. What will you study? What do you want to do in your life right now?

This is an easy 2 peas challenge to answer. Psychobiology. Then I go on and get my MS in Psychology. It's exactly what I want to do in my life.

Yes! I finished the scraplift!

2007-11-17T14:28:00.001-08:00

I'm just going to throw this up for now, and will replace it with an edited photo later. I'm sure you all don't need to see my tablecloth and placemats in the photo!

If you haven't checked out Toni-n-TN's gallery at 2 peas, you REALLY should. It's fantastic!

My Sat-aaah-day plans

2007-11-16T21:14:00.000-08:00

Today I'm going to finish my scraplifting project.

I'm going to finish the menu for when our friends are here, and then we're going to the club for dinner, and then to a play. I'm really looking forward to it!!

I need to sleep first, though. AND I need to get up early so that I can get the scraplift finished. I actually scrapbooked yesterday. Is it yesterday? I mean, I haven't slept yet, even though it's officially Saturday. Oh well. I scrapbooked, and finished a difficult to love layout. It's finished, and that's a good thing!

I got my new glasses, and that's fun, it's really nice to be able to see. My lenses on my old glasses were TRASHED. It was bad. When I put these on, I nearly cried to be able to see so well.

I will harrass the eldest kid to take a couple pictures of me tomorrow. I'll actually put makeup on.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow morning. I just need to sleep. I didn't sleep two nights ago, and that made for a horrid day the following day. MUST sleep now.

Friday fun-ness!

2007-11-16T06:41:00.000-08:00

On the list for the day...
New glasses. I have a pair with one foggy lens and it's driving me bonkers. My eyes have also changed quite a bit, and I just am having issues with this prescription.

I need to dig through my .gsd's and find one that says "alcatraz" for a layout. I know that I have one done by Judy Perry, so it's in there, but UGH, I hate digging through computer files.

I need to get Na from school at 12:50.

AND, I need to finalize my Thanksgiving menu. I can't wait! Some friends from Boston are coming for a few days and they are bringing their white german shepherds with them. It should be a ton of fun . I wish that the lefse griddle that I ordered would show up soon. I would love to make some lefse for the big day.

On two peas the question of the day was about what kind of food you'd bring if you were going to go somewhere. I'd probably bring buffalo chicken dip or an artichoke dip. I loves me some artichokes lately.

Life is changing here day by day. Some things for the better, some for the worse. In the end it just doesn't matter, though, it's all about the attitude you have as you go through life's trials.

Television addictions

2007-11-15T06:36:00.000-08:00

I have a secret addiction to the television show Heroes. I truly loved it last year, but up until a week ago, I just wasn't loving it this year. Perhaps it took too long to get the show interesting this year, but I'm glad that I stuck with it. I think that the only thing that I'm not loving this year is the storyline with the girl who cries mascara. I don't find her character interesting. And the sexiness that is Mohinder Suresh cannot be denied!
I also have other addictions. Dexter, the worlds most moral serial killer. Weeds, about the mother who has a penchant for felony in order to support her family. Big Love, about the Henrickson clan and all of their issues...who cares if he's got three wives. All I can say is that I KNOW that women synch their cycles, and I'd really hate to be in his house for about a week out of every month. Even if one of his wives doesn't have the plumbing. The Tudors, is an excellent showcase for Jonathan Rhys Meyers. It does a pretty good job with the history of King Henry VIII.

It may sound like I spend hours attached to the television, but thanks to the modern marvel of the internet, cable and the dvr, I'm blessed to spend a minimum amount of time in front of my actual television. I really don't, and I can catch up on other shows easily by going to the website for the network and watching their internet broadcast. This way I can catch up with the Housewives, Private Practice, and Greys while I scrapbook!
..
In Scrappy things. I'm going to play with my new paper tagger. I'm really excited to do some fun things with it. I saw a Scrapbook LifeStyle video and now I am absolutely excited about this product. I initially thought that it was the most lame product thought up for scrapbooking, and now I can't wait to play. Click on the tool time video with Johanna Peterson. I promise you will run and not walk to your LSS.

I am going to go play. And catch up on Private Practice. Heh.

2007-11-14T07:57:00.001-08:00

FINALLY! I was able to post these! I have been having "issues" with posting pictures here. May, my fiskateer, sent an email out in early October with the cartoon in it, and it made me just LAUGH. I wanted to share it with you all!

The second picture is one that I took a few weeks ago before the leaves completely fell and we still had these glorious leaves on the trees. I stood in my driveway and took this photo of the fog as it was rolling through the valley below the "mountain" that we live on. It was absolutely beautiful. I just love to see how nature gives us a treat every day here. I took a picture of a tree up the hill that reminds me of a Charlie Brown type tree with how the leaves fell. When I figure out how to download from my cameraphone, I'll gladly share that one too.

Today's Goals

2007-11-13T12:17:00.000-08:00

Today I feel SO good. I still feel a little weak, but I feel GOOD.
Yay!

So far it looks good for the rest of the house not getting it, but who really knows.

Yesterday ,because of the illness, I had to wash the sheets, mattress pad, comforter, duvet, and blanket. I ended up putting a damp blanket on the bed because by bed time I just couldn't wait any longer.

Today, it's a different world! I've taken the dogs for a couple walks, and the electrician is here and has fixed the dining room light, put up the new fixture in the kitchen (the old one was broken...) and has now installed two ceiling fans in bedrooms upstairs. I've vacuumed all over upstairs, and am washing the dog bed that goes in our bedroom. If I get a chance, I'm going to wash the second dog bed too. I've also cleaned the bathroom downstairs, and tomorrow I'll get the bathroom upstairs.

Gosh, it feels so good to feel good!

I have some pictures to post, and not having much luck with the uploading right now, so I'll do some posting of the pictures later.

The "F" word

2007-11-12T14:54:00.001-08:00

I don't approve of the F word in our home.

Especially when it's "Flu".

'nuff said.

bleh

My new baby!

2007-11-11T18:21:00.000-08:00

So, today I finally got rid of the Samsung that no longer stayed open. At least it didn't make that horrible loud cracking sound when it closed. The screen on Dan's phone was crystallized and you couldn't really read anything that was on the screen.

We also put the oldest one on the plan. She to the enV too. I'm still not totally in love with the phone, but I have figured out how to set it so that when people I love, and have photos for, call their picture shows up on the screen!

I think it's a keeper!

Just because

2007-11-10T07:37:00.000-08:00

Glorious Devo Goodness

2 peas challenge

2007-11-09T05:02:00.000-08:00

The challenge at two peas today is "What is in the book you are writing?" I've recently begun to think about that.

I have been writing a book. I've got a bunch of things all put down. I've got a bunch of stuff that needs to be edited and pulled into order. I can't wait, actually. I'm so ready to get this all out of me, and put somewhere that makes it all "real". You see, I'm a surivor of childhood sexual and physical abuse. I'm also a survivor of marital rape. It's taken me a long time to be able to say this, and perhaps it's not the easiest thing you would ever expect to read on a blog, but today, I'm OK. I really am. Tomorrow, I'm not so sure, eh? The best therapy for me, has been to actually write all that stuff down. To put it somewhere out of my body makes it easier to deal with. Maybe someday I will be able to help someone else who's gone through what I did.

If I had to write another book after this one is done, it would be a love story. The story of how I've grown up and learned to love.

2007-11-08T06:37:00.000-08:00

Today's "To Do" list:

Call and get the eldest kid's insurance straightened out.
Make an appointment for her to see the Dr. for her ear ache.
Take her to the Dr.
Take her to her lecture.
Drag her funky butt to Syracuse to get the latch on her computer fixed.
Come home, cook.
Clean.
Sleep.
I would really like to do a crock pot meal tonight. That would leave me with plenty of time to do things that I really want to do. Yeah. Right. I can always fantasize!

Paws on Top!

2007-11-07T18:49:00.001-08:00

I feel like today was one day where I just went go-go-go. Tomorrow is looking the same. Ugh.

Today I woke up, emailed a friend, and then took Mike the dog to the vet. His Glaucoma is not under control right now, so we're going to take a very aggressive method of treating it and hopefully this will start to come down. I feel very bad for him, it's not like he can tell us that he's in pain, so I feel like I really need to advocate for him. I really want to do everything that I can to avoid having to enunculate the eye. Poor guy. One of the things that I did do that I know he likes is I found these cool dog treats where you can put a pill into the center of them, and then you pinch it closed and the dog willingly eats the pill! There's no spitting out of the pill! It's like a miracle. I am glad that he gets something that's tasty,and the pill goes into the dog.

Molly is Molly. How can a yellow lab named Molly not be the most effervescent creature on this planet? She makes me laugh at least once a day. It's pretty nifty. She's allergic to bug bites and whenever she goes outside she sits down in one spot on the lawn, and I recently looked at the spot and saw ants all over it. So we bought some anti-itch spray a couple weeks ago, and it seems to be working well. Again, I hate it when the dogs are hurting or are uncomfortable.

I'll leave you with a little game we like to play.

It's called Paws on Top.

First I put my hand on Molly's paw, then she pulls her paw out from underneath, and puts it on my hand. The game is on. It involves lots of long gazes away from the field of play for stealth paw placing. It always makes me laugh.

So, without further ado. I leave you with a little Paws On Top action.

Tuesday fun

2007-11-06T06:49:00.000-08:00

I've decided to tackle today and plow through my chores. So, why am I watching Heroes? I love me some heroes! But I'm watching Heroes because I'm FAHREEZING. The promised temperature drop hasn't happened yet, but it's supposed to, and then this afternoon we're supposed to get some of that dreaded snow. I'm in a little state of shock, it's not that I didn't know I was moving to a snow area in April, heck, I moved from Boston, so that's not the shock. It's that...well, it's cold, and this summer was gloriously hot. It really was just idyllic. I wish that I could explain to you how marvelous it was. Anyway, I'm taking the time to wrap myself in a blanket and warm up.

I'm working on the deck today. I have taken the tiki torches and tossed them, removed the zip ties from the posts that were holding them up - - I need to find a little more of a classy way of holding up the tiki torches over the winter! I've also pulled in the plant holders and during the day I'm going to take the chairs down into the basement. I have no desire to drag the table around though. I'll leave that to the man.

In other goals I really want to get the trash in the basement into the garage. Trash in basement? I've been going through boxes like crazy. There's a ton of things that I want to just shed myself of from my life with Gary. I'm so glad to be able to do this on my own schedule. I'm ready to do this now.

When I finish with that stuff I'm going to take my scrapbook paper out of the horizontal storage and put it into cropper hopper holders. I really dislike the way my cardstock is being stored, and just need to start tackling that and getting it into a use able setup.

I will post my recipe for cheesy garlic bread later today. It's so yummy.

Cheescake is now full circle

2007-11-05T11:48:00.000-08:00

The cheesecake that I so diligently made on Sunday was taken out of the refrigerator tonight after a meal of lasagne and a salad with a slab of delicious, incredible cheese bread. I will post the recipe tomorrow. It's really THAT good.

Today I didn't get a lot done, I hate it when I feel like I've spent the day washing dishes from one thing to the other. I even lost patience with the dishwasher and pulled out various dishes so that I could just get them put away.

Tomorrow I hope to get lots of stuff done. It's really rewarding to see things get finished, but it's even better to finish things so that I can play without guilt!

NaBloPoMo

2007-11-04T19:10:00.000-08:00

I'm doing National Blog Posting Month. Mostly because I'm waaaay to lame to do NaNoWriMo.

So I'm going to challenge myself to do this everyday. Some days are going to be pretty lame though!

Today was a heck of a day. The oldest kid worked very late, so she stayed at a friends apartment near the club. Today she was very tired, and slept through a chunk of church. It was annoying, but I was honestly glad that she was there. It's nice to have them around, even if they aren't always cheerful.

Then we went off to the store and dropped a huge chunk of change on groceries.

After we finished putting things away I made a pumpkin chocolate chip cheesecake! I used this recipe.
I haven't tried it yet, but I will tomorrow for dinner. I tossed in a few mini morsels ( roughly a cup full) into the batter before pouring it into the pan. I've never made a cheesecake before, but you can be sure that I'm going to do it again. It wasn't super easy, but it wasn't as difficult as other things I've made.

We then made grilled steaks for us, and grilled a couple chicken breasts for the eldest and her buddy. I made a couple quick side dishes... green beans with bacon and garlic, and potato gnocci and an alfredo sauce. It was wonderful. The whole meal was just a pleasure, and I'm looking forward to heating up the steak and gnocci for lunch tomorrow. I've discovered that grilled meats actually heat up quite nicely on the grill. I just set them on a piece of aluminum and then heat it up that way. So if you hear a lot of happy, yummy sounds in this area of the country around noon, it'll be me eating up the leftovers!

Tomorrow night for dinner I'm going to make Lasagne, and we'll follow that up with the pumpkin cheesecake from the cooking part of our show today.

I am feeling REALLY good lately. My workouts are paying off. I feel stronger, and my clothes are getting bigger. It's quite nice!

Don't forget to "Fall Back!"

2007-11-03T19:27:00.000-07:00

Well, today I taught the class at the store. It was not exactly a hard class, it was basically one where you use the scraps that you already have. I tried to teach them to pull out scraps that they liked, blur their eyes to make sure the papers all work together. Then to choose a background piece of cardstock to help all the colors blend.

Pretty simple, but still a lot of work! We used a ton of punches and I taught them all about visual triangles and ways to use simple shapes. It was fun, and one of the class students was very fun, her layouts came together very fast. The other student was a little slower, but had some great ideas for her page.

In the end I think that I learned a ton of things, I need to make sure the class knows that time is a ticking. I think that I'm also going to work on handouts so that they can have something to go home with. Although they each put together two layouts, so that worked out really well!

In other news, during the Round Up, I managed to finish every one of the challenges! I'm liking that too! I like it when I get a ton of things done, and I'm glad to be able to scrap those dreaded graduation pictures that I've been avoiding.

OK. Now, off to bed. I need to remember to "Fall Back" with the clock in the AM. An extra hour of sleep! NIRVANA!

Tomorrow!

2007-11-02T19:25:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I teach my scrapping class at the local store. I really am looking forward to it, and hope that the ladies in the class really enjoy themselves and learn lots.

Not much else to say!

Loving my stuff!

2007-11-01T07:41:00.000-07:00

I just went downstairs to grab a few of my crafting supplies, and I started to laugh at all of the Fiskars tools that I have sitting on my craft table. It makes me laugh when I see how much of their products that I have and use.

My favorite is the old standby paper trimmer. I also have the rotary trimmer with all the cool shape blades, but my favorite, and the one that I reach for time and time again is their simple trimmer. I like that I can see where the blade hits the paper so that I can slice out just what I need for my project.

My second favorite tool is the Titanium Nitride Mighty Snip. I use it to snip one of the spokes on the roll of adhesive as I pop it into my ATG gun. It really has made loading the gun a simple process ( if I could just remember each time which direction the take up reel needs to go! Ugh!).

My third, or perhaps Very first tool would be the 12 x 18 self healing mat. It's always right there, beneath my project, protecting my table top. I don't use it to cut on, I usually throw a glass mat on top of it when I'm using an exacto, but I do use it for gluing and painting and everything else that gets dirty. I've found that it comes as clean as I need it to when I'm finished, and it does a fantastic job protecting my table top.

Batteries are a girls best friend

2007-10-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

Last night the man is here, and we've finished with a very late dinner because we had the neighbor over with her very shrill daughters. Dinner didn't get made until So we settle down to watch tv. We have three...well, make that four remotes. We also have a universal remote somewhere around here.

1. The remote for the tv can also work the cable box, but not the amplifier.
2. The remote for the amplifier only works the amplifier, not the cable box, nor the TV. BUT, the TV doesn't work if the amplifier isn't on, because the way we have the system set up, the TV is a monitor.
3. The remote for the cable box doesn't work because it needs batteries. The cable remote can adjust the sound on the TV/monitor and it changes the channels, of course.

Now, I'm a much more practical person. I don't have the "high functioning brain" that the man has. If something is broke, I take a look at the object and immediately try to fix it. The man will sit there and RANDOMLY poke at the buttons on various remotes. Not paying attention to what buttons he's pushing, but he pushes buttons like crazy and DEPROGRAMS the remotes that ARE working. These are the remotes that we had the technician program when they installed our system. I'm now left with a dead cable remote and 2 other remotes that are out of program. It was all I could not to whack his knuckles with the dead remote when I came back into the room AFTER HAVING TAKEN THE LID OFF THE BATTERY COMPARTMENT and removed the batteries when I see him poking at keys, three remotes in front of him... gaah!

So, I tell him..."There are no batteries in that remote!" pop the batteries back in, and click on the cable box. Then I fiddle with the remote for the TV/monitor and by some stroke of luck that turns on. Then 20 minutes later, I found the magic combination for the amplifier.

Then we watched nonstop CSI. I think that I'm going to go nuts if I see Horatio take those black sunglasses off and spout an aphorism one more time.

So, today is going to be a good day. I remembered to put the leashes on the dogs before taking them out to the yard for their poop session. Therefore preventing me from having to run all over the neighborhood in my jammies. It never fails that they want to run across the street to see Yogi and BooBoo and I'm wearing the man's boots and my nightshirt, hoping to be able to just stand on the front porch so then I look like a crazed woman shouting the names of the dogs as I run through a series of backyards.

I may actually get to do some scrapping. I loves me some scrapping.