Wishing you...

... peace, love and joy
to you and yours...

Happy Birthday to Me... again....

Wow, 2 posts in three days? Its practically a posting frenzy. For your safety, I would recommend keeping your arms and legs inside the browser window....

And yes, as the title would indicate, today is my birthday. Again. Didn't I just have one of the damn things last year? Today I am 35... for roughly the 7th or 8th time, depending on how you wanna do the math. I really dislike birthdays. I really really dislike birthdays. Or maybe I should clarify that. I don't dislike YOUR birthday. Just mine. If it weren't for the fact that my kids get so excited about cooking me dinner and making me a cake, I'd probably try to bypass the whole thing altogether.

My children are cooking me a super secret birthday dinner. My mom clued me in just so I wouldn't accidentally make other plans. (why she thought I'd be making plans when she knows how I feel about birthdays is beyond me, but I guess its better to be safe than sorry) So anyway, my kids are going over to my parents house after school to work on the birthday extravaganza, and I am supposed to show up at the appointed time and act all sorts of surprised. And truthfully, despite my Bah-Humbuginess, I AM excited because THEY are excited. Things have been stressful for them lately, so they need the distraction.

(GASP! I just remembered another blog topic! Maybe later in the week.)

And speaking of watching too much TV... (weren't we?)... if you haven't seen the new show "Pushing Daisies", you really must. Its like Dr Seuss. For grown ups. On crack.

(I don't mean its for grown ups on crack. I mean its like Dr Seuss on crack.)

Anyway, if you aren't into ridiculously quirky, you might not like it. But I think the writing is brilliant and I laugh hysterically every time I watch it.

So that's all I've got for you today. I hope you all have a really great Tuesday!

Happy Holidays! (picture included!)

Why I have such a love/hate relationship with this whole blogging thing is beyond me. I WANT to write... and write consistently... Yet I have such a hard time sitting down and making myself follow through. And its become sort of a vicious circle, because I've been so sporadic in updating that most of the folks that read me with any regularity have completely given up on checking in (who can blame them), which makes me even less motivated to post anything. Which means even more of you stop checking in. See what I mean?

And I go through mixed feelings of not really having anything to write about, which often changes to having too much to write about and not even knowing how to go about it.

Anyway, for those of you who still stop by now and then to check up on me, I appreciate you more than you know. And this post is to wish you all a very happy holiday season! I hope you are all enjoying the meaning of the season, and not getting too caught up in the rat race. (Its always a battle to find the balance, isn't it?)

Also, since I'm not able to mail you all a Christmas card with our official Christmas picture in it, here it is for your viewing pleasure. I decided to test out the delay timer on my camera, so this is an authentic do-it-yourself picture. After an hour or so, and dozens and dozens of shots, this is what we ended up with. Its extremely amateurish, but we had a ball doing it. We also have a hilarious blooper reel full of shots of us in fits of giggles, of the cat frantically trying to escape the picture (notice she is not in the finished product) and several shots of D2's stomach when the timer malfunctioned.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Random...

.... and ripped off from somewhere else... But it made me laugh and I needed a new post, so there ya go... Hope you get a smile out of it...

HOW TO TICK PEOPLE OFF

1. Leave the copy machine set to reduce 200%, extra dark, 17 inch paper, 99 copies.
2. In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sexual favors."
3. Specify that your drive-through order is "TO-GO."
4. If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.
5. Stomp on little plastic ketchup packets.
6. Insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions "to keep them tuned up."
7. Reply to everything someone says with "that's what you think."
8. Practice making fax and modem noises.
9. Highlight irrelevant information in scientific papers and "cc" them to your boss.
10. Make beeping noises when a large person backs up.
11. Finish all your sentences with the words "in accordance with prophesy."
12. Signal that a conversation is over by clamping your hands over your ears and grimacing.
13. Disassemble your pen and "accidentally" flip the ink cartridge across the room.
14. Holler random numbers while someone is counting.
15. Adjust the tint on your TV so that all the people are green, and insist to others that you "like it that way."
16. Staple pages in the middle of the page.
17. Publicly investigate just how slowly you can make a croaking noise.
18. Honk and wave to strangers.
19. Decline to be seated at a restaurant, and simply eat their complimentary mints at the cash register.
20. TYPE IN UPPERCASE.
21. type only in lowercase.
22. dont use any punctuation either
23. Buy a large quantity of orange traffic cones and reroute whole streets.
24. Repeat the following conversation a dozen times.
    "DO YOU HEAR THAT?"
    "What?"
    "Never mind, it's gone now."
25. As much as possible, skip rather than walk.
26. Try playing the William Tell Overture by tapping on the bottom of your chin. When nearly done, announce "No, wait, I messed it up," and repeat.
27. Ask people what gender they are.
28. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a parakeet.
29. Sit in your front yard pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
30. Sing along at the opera.
31. Go to a poetry recital and ask why each poem doesn't rhyme.
32. Ask your co-workers mysterious questions and then scribble their answers in a notebook. Mutter something about "psychological profiles."

please count your blessings...

... bad things happen to people every single day, and often times we are so busy with our own lives, our own problems, that we scarcely notice...

But then something hits painfully close to home, and we are once again reminded of how fragile life is... how the often chaotic, often mundane, usually crazy, wonderful, beautiful thing that we call our lives can change in an instant... a heartbeat...

Please follow this link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21195025/

One of the passengers on that plane is the daughter of someone I know and care about. This woman has been my co-worker, my boss, and my friend for many years... and now, as night falls, she doesn't know if her daughter is cold... scared... badly hurt... or even something else entirely that her mind is not even letting her consider yet...

The snow is just starting to fall in the Cascades. The people on board that plane, as well as their friends and loved ones, desperately need prayers right now. Please do what you can in that department... and then go hug your family...

Update: As of 10:00pm MDT, the latest news was that the wreckage had been found. No word on survivors yet. I've tried to go to bed at least a dozen times but all I can do is sit here staring at the local news website, hitting the refresh button.....
Update #2: Midnight MDT. The FAA spokesman is using very non-committal and carefully couched words, but it sounds as if there may be no survivors. I can't think about it anymore. I'm going to go to bed, and pray for a miracle that they find the tail of the aircraft with survivors inside. It's beyond heartbreaking...
*Update #3: 12:10am MDT. All 10 on board confirmed dead. Prayers for the families...

I'm up and running...

... ok, not RUNNING, literally.... and I'm not even really UP a lot... so I guess "up and running" was a big fat lie...

But I'm not dead. Nowhere near dead, in fact. So I'm good.

Surgery went well. No complications whatsoever. I struggled with nausea the first couple of days, and more pain than I'd planned on, so I caved in to my mom's demands and stayed at my parents' house the first night. And I'm glad I did.

So after one night in the hospital, and one night at the parents, I finally spent last night in my own bed and it was heaven. I only got up once in the night for pain meds, which was a HUGE improvement over the night before!

Anyway, that's about all I have energy for right now, but I wanted to let you all know how I was doing. Thanks so much to all of you for your encouragement and support!

Talk to you again soon....

getting ready

Its been a crazy Saturday. D2's soccer game was right smack in the middle of the day, so by the time we even got home it was close to 3:00pm. I found myself wondering where the day went!

(and, by the way D2 actually made a goal today and her team won 7-1!)

We ate a late lunch and then headed to the mall. I decided that some new, fancy pajamas to lounge around in would do wonders for my mood and morale once I got home from the hospital. I splurged and bought a night gown, a pair of pajamas, and a robe. All (quite by accident) various shades of pink.

I'm not getting as much done around the house this weekend as I had planned.... but, I'll be honest. Most of the things I had on my lengthy "To Do" list were mainly things to keep me busy, and not necessarily things that HAD to get done.

Good thing. Cuz most of the won't be.

Still not overly nervous about Tuesday. I mean, yes I'm a little apprehensive about it, but not as much as I might expect myself to be, knowing me. It makes me wonder if I've just been through too much for this one to even phase me... or if it will all hit me at the last minute.

Guess we'll find out, won't we?

Hope the weekend is treating you all well!!

Seriously? SERIOUSLY!

Today I went in for my "routine" pre-op testing and doctor visit, to make sure everything was all in order for next week.

Only, if you know about me and my health history, then you know there isn't really anything routine about anything!!

Long story short, my blood pressure was through the roof... off the charts... into "Way Way Scary" territory. And this for someone who has normal-to-low blood pressure.

It was so bad that my doctor took one look at my mom (who thank GOD went with me!) and said, "Take her to the ER right NOW"... which luckily was right next door...

Off we went to the ER... (I'm having not so fond flashbacks of the ER at this point...)... The docs there took my blood pressure, and given their vast medical knowledge said, "Yep, its high!"

They hooked me up to a bunch of junk, gave me drugs, gave me an EKG and took my blood pressure just about every 10 minutes or so.

The did enough blood work to figure out I'm not in renal or liver failure... the EKG came back perfect... so their expert medical opinion was "We don't know".

They are quite confident its temporary and may be due to the fact that I've been really sick the past week. Or it might not! At any rate, they gave me drugs to take until my surgery next week, so luckily that is still going on as planned.

Anyway, after several hours my blood pressure was finally low enough that they felt they could send me home. And now I'm serene and relaxed and stress free and ready for my surgery next week. hahaha

Its almost funny, right?? RIGHT?