High Five

Rudee tagged me for this meme to list five highlights of 2009. At first I thought I may pass on it because, quite frankly, my life is pretty boring. Oh yes, I know I told you all about the hair dyeing disaster, and the shaving of my eyebrows, accidentally, (forgot to read the instructions), but...other than those little incidents my days are packed full of errands and cleaning and boring housework activities. But.. after some thought, I came up with these 5 highlights.

1. Getting to spend lots of quality time with my family. Enjoying our grand daughter every chance we get. Watching her grow from a one year old to a 2 year old was the best experience I have had in a very long time. She makes my heart glow, and brings all of us closer to each other. Also...finding out that we will be grandparents again...and another little girl. Our family is growing!
2. Bob and I getting confirmed and having our children be our sponsors. We converted to Catholicism 23 years ago. With all of the classes, baptising of our children, and getting remarried, ....the sacrament of Confirmation somehow got overlooked. We would occasionally wonder about it but didn't check into it until this year. The church keeps records and our priest looked into it and said that there was no record of it. It was really cool to have our son be my sponsor and our daughter be Bob's.
3. Going on vacation for my birthday. It isn't every year that we get to go...and I really had a great time.
4. Conquering my fear of running a meeting. I really don't like speaking in front of a group of people and never have. I avoid it, dance around it, even get ill if I think I have to talk. I finally did it! I feel pretty good about that.
5. Joining a gym. I haven't done exercise on a regular basis for several years and it just feels good to go and feel my muscle tone getting better.

Now for the passing on phase of this meme. Please just take part in this if you are reading this and feel inspired to do one. Just let me know so I can visit your blog.

Thanks Rudee for tagging me. It is good to reflect back on some positives!!!

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Feeling Good.............

photo borrowed from an education website

I am very excited today! I made the decision, pretty last minute, to fly out to Scottsdale to visit my friend. Sharp contrast to my last post, about saving every dime and cutting back on everything that is not necessary. I know...I know.... My friend was scheduled to come here for a visit and we were supposed to get together Monday for lunch. One of her dogs became ill and she needed to stay home, so we didn't get together. We talked on the phone and decided that life is just too short to always put things like getting together on hold... and all the excuses we come up with...no money, no time, etc. etc. I thought about it and realized she is right. There is never a good time. Sometimes you just have have to take the bull by the horns and go for it. So I am leaving on Friday morning and coming back this time next week.

My friend has been my friend for about 26 years. We met while our four year old girls were involved in YMCA classes. One of the classes the girls were in was called "Creative Movement". They were blessed with a really good teacher named Mary. She had such a fabulous rapport with the children. They did a lot of physical activities designed around "Pretending". They pretended to be a tree and shook the leaves off and fell to the floor to scoop them back up, and then pretended they were munching the leaves like a bug. They were working on their skipping skills, but not in a competitive way. She helped them in a fun adventurous way. Most of the classes were done without the parents there, but every session, the parents watched at least one class. So Eva and I sat out in the lounge area and got to know each other. Our daughters held hands and giggled together and we got together often so that they could play together. Unfortunately they moved to Scottsdale about 3 years after we met. We visited each other fairly often over the years, some years more than others. I hope that when we are together this visit we can do some creative movement of our own. I would love to make some really memorable fun things to do with my friend. Maybe we will climb a mountain...okay...maybe a mound of dirt. Maybe we will make mud pies, and go to a park and swing like we are 4 year olds. Do they still have see-saws? Oh hell...maybe we will just settle for waking up over coffee and remembering the past 60 years.

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Hurry Up Spring....

It is getting close to the time where I need to make up my mind if I want to try and start some flower seeds inside the house to transplant them in April or whenever I feel it is safe. I probably will, I just need to go and search for the little trays. I am sure they are there, at Target or Lowes because right after Christmas, Target has bikinis and swimsuits out. It was 0 degrees here around January 1st, and you walk in the store and see bikinis. I wanted to walk in and see gloves, hats and big coats. The sad thing is that if you are in need of some swimwear, you would have to buy it now because when May rolls around and the pools open up, you will end up getting the leftovers. When our weather is really in full blown comfortable swim season...say...July....that is when you purchase Christmas items and winter boots. Go figure.
I awoke this morning at 4 am and cannot get back to sleep. I have a feeling I will pay for it later. We went to an auction on Friday night for the Sisters of The Most Precious Blood. They are some really sweet sisters. There were about 3 or 4 small quilts and knitted baby items that were on the silent auction that did okay, but the 3 larger quilts that were in the oral auction only went for $150 to $300. What a shame. The material alone costs that. The money is just not there to donate. I think most of us are struggling to just take care of our own needs and bills and the "extra" is just not there. We are still holding on pretty well, because Bob still has his job and we can still pay our bills, but we do need to find ways to cut back, big time. I am confident that we can do it though. We went to the bookstore over the weekend and did not purchase a book and got a small coffee and did not go out to eat. Just changing a few things like that will help....I hope.
Well, it is now 7:10 am, so I may try and lay back down for an hour, because I have so many things I need to get done for the day.

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Dreams

I was able to have a very restful sleep last night that included dreams! I love to dream, but rarely do, or at least I don't remember any when I wake up. When I awoke this morning I had so many creative thoughts to write about or talk to someone about. I felt inspired and full of positive thoughts. They were all racing around in my mind and I wished I could have bottled them up.. so that I could sort them all out later. After being awake now for awhile they are starting to fade and my mind is racing with all the activities I need to do today. Bummer! It was so good while it lasted. If I were a writer I would look forward to these times and just tell everyone...leave me alone for as long as it takes for me to create my story, because Now is the time.

I just have to quickly update my past few days of activities, because this blog has become my diary of sorts. I like to look back here occasionally and say...Oh yes that was what I did that day or week.

I missed 3 days of "work outs" at the gym, but got back at it yesterday. My old injuries have flared up and I need to think about what caused it. I have arthritis in one knee that feels like a sharp bone puncturing me. I had severe tendinitis in my left ankle and foot that I had therapy on a few years ago that helped tremendously. That has flared up a bit. And last but not least, the three toes that I broke 20 years ago, have been hurting. SO I may have to rethink the way I have been doing some of the exercises. I have been going now for 2 months and had not had any problems until now. No weight loss yet either...but I LOVE going. I really enjoy it and look forward to going so much. I would be upset if I couldn't go for some reason.

We had our Auxiliary meeting on Monday and tried to get in gear for our Lenten fish fries. I have a co-President who helped me out the first year as she had done this before about 10 years ago. I was her secretary during her term of President. I used to have a terrible fear of speaking in front of a group, or being in charge of an organization like that. I am very happy to have conquered that fear for the most part. My partner is very assertive and outgoing, and I am well...as she told someone the other day.."diplomatic". Is that good or bad? I guess diplomatic is good. So I will accept her compliment graciously. Ha.

The other thing that I have been doing is working on the quilt, and it is coming along nicely, but will not be completed for some time. I have one row across assembled.

And last but not least...the orchid is still blooming beautifully. I need that to look at each morning for inspiration.

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Remember Whensday

I am not sure how to do

"Remember Whensday"

but I am going to guess that

"When" means a long time ago.

This may be as far back as I can go with any photos that I have. This is my Grandpa, my Mom's Dad, when he was in World War I. I really don't have much of a story to tell with the photo, because I didn't spend all that much time with him. He died when I was 18, and we only visited him maybe once a year if that. He smoked a pipe every time I was around him. He seemed really jolly, and had a humped over back. I would guess it was osteoporosis, but I don't really know for sure. I started doing Genealogy a few winters ago and would love to continue it soon. But for now, I really don't know much more than this. World War I would definitely be the oldest photo I have in my possession.

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