Oh, so cute!
Monday, October 31, 2005
Strummin my pain with his fingers, singing my life with his words
Monday, October 31, 2005
24-hour fitness musings: I inhaled a cup of pool water this morning. Quite invigorating. I was ruminating about how absolutely cold the water was at the end of my first lap, and I decided to take a breath before I lifted my head out of the water. I coughed and choked until I saw stars. Phew. I think that was enough exercise for the day. Two more regular laps, a kick board lap, and a jog lap, and I was outta there. Sat in the Jacuzzi until some talkative young chap came in, closed down all the air vents, pushed all the foam to the two filters, all the while talking of how if he doesn’t do this, he’ll get pink eye and he’s already had enough illness this season. He goes on to share that since he’s herniated two vertebrae, he treads water in the Jacuzzi, then proceeds to float on his back and do bicycles. As he’s pedaling away, he’s talking about using contact solution in his eyes and athletes foot. I got out of the water, and retired to the sauna. He got out shortly after, walked by, I heard him whoop out loud gleefully when he opened the steam room door. Eventually he ended up in the sauna, and now he talked on again about his herniated discs. He let his paperwork run out and no longer has his medical marijuana card. He smokes too much (cigarettes) and the steam room makes him cough. His Washington Doctors had him all wigged out on Percocet and Vicodin, his ex-girlfriend was stealing them, she was married and when he found out he broke up with her. His OHSU doctor wants him to have a laminectomy, but he’s going to go to school and keep swimming, for another year before he makes that decision. Uggh. Nice kid and all, but I do prefer quiet Monday mornings. – Today is Halloween. So far only Gina has a costume on. No one else, but I’m sure there will be more. – Jan and I are laughing at the pool key debacle from Saturday. Her apartments are numbered so strangely, that I could never find hers. So, no Saturday swim.
Keller cat fact: Chikita is a talker. She just meows, and meows, and meows. Whenever anyone sneezes she meows, “Bless you”. She springs around the house with her tail always straight up in the air. She purrs 90% of her waking existence. She was the runt of her litter, and she is a petite loveable fur ball with more energy than most. She still looks like a kitten. She has a 90-degree kink almost at the tip of her tail that she will only let Frank or I touch. I ‘acquired’ her when I lived in North East Portland and she tried to follow me to the bus stop on the way to work. I put food on a couch on my front porch so she would stop following me, and snuck around the back of the house. When I came home, she was still there. I walked around the neighborhood asking who she belonged to and no one claimed her.
Word(s) of the day: GERMAN SHEPHERD
Lexie log: Saturday we visited Gramma Betty. We brought over the mid-sized pumpkin, hallowed it out and left it with her to decorate. The next day when we went to carve our larger one, Daddy found out it was already mushy. Bummer, but there’s always next year. Lexie got to see Gramma Betty both Saturday and Sunday, and Sunday she got to see aunt Patty, aunt Karen, cousin Jen, and their huge beagle Sammy. – Trick or treating doesn’t look so promising tonight. It’s still up in the air, so is the rain. Depending on how we all feel after Grammy’s visit, we may just call it an evening, go to Cedar Hills Crossing (formerly Beaverton Mall), or if it’s dry enough, at least go to a few houses. We shall see. – The highlight of the weekend was yesterday’s swim lesson. For the first half of it, she was the only kid, so it was basically a private lesson. Halfway through, Kendall showed up. Teacher AJ said that next weeks lesson will end early so he can talk to each of us about the kids’ progress, and what level they should be in next session. She did so well yesterday, it was just awesome! She swam halfway across the pool! Daddy and I gave each other high five, I had butterflies and Daddy had tears of joy in his eyes. She also got a toy off the third and fourth step of the pool, grabbed it completely under water. I’m going to practice all week putting her bangs up, because every time her head came out of the water, her hair was completely covering her goggles. In the lobby after class, we talked with Kendal’s dad for a bit. He started the conversation with Lexie, telling her how great she looked today in swim. He told us he noticed how much she improved from the first class. I selfishly wish that each class could be just Kendal and Lexie. I wonder if Teacher AJ will have her take this class over again, or move her to basic water safety. We’ll see next Sunday. I just can’t get over how amazing it was to see her swimming across the pool. The look on Daddy’s face was priceless. – Last night I watched a little of Garfield with her. When we got home from Swimming and Gramma Betty, Lexie was asleep, so I lay her down on our bed and climbed in next to her. Within minutes, she was up and I was out like a light. I’m a little bummed about it this morning, because I just don’t feel like I spent enough one-on-one time with her this weekend. She tends to want to hold me hostage on the sofa in the evenings and I need to be doing stuff around the house, making my lunch, dinner, dishes. Daddy and I are moving about and she is getting mad at me for not sitting still with her. Then when I do for twenty minutes, she wont’ let me leave. I so much wish I could just spend a whole week home with her. *Big sigh*.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, water, daylight savings, Jan’s Starbucks card gift, niceness, swim lessons, movies, and all the stuff I thought of on the way to work this morning but can’t remember now.
24-hour fitness musings: I inhaled a cup of pool water this morning. Quite invigorating. I was ruminating about how absolutely cold the water was at the end of my first lap, and I decided to take a breath before I lifted my head out of the water. I coughed and choked until I saw stars. Phew. I think that was enough exercise for the day. Two more regular laps, a kick board lap, and a jog lap, and I was outta there. Sat in the Jacuzzi until some talkative young chap came in, closed down all the air vents, pushed all the foam to the two filters, all the while talking of how if he doesn’t do this, he’ll get pink eye and he’s already had enough illness this season. He goes on to share that since he’s herniated two vertebrae, he treads water in the Jacuzzi, then proceeds to float on his back and do bicycles. As he’s pedaling away, he’s talking about using contact solution in his eyes and athletes foot. I got out of the water, and retired to the sauna. He got out shortly after, walked by, I heard him whoop out loud gleefully when he opened the steam room door. Eventually he ended up in the sauna, and now he talked on again about his herniated discs. He let his paperwork run out and no longer has his medical marijuana card. He smokes too much (cigarettes) and the steam room makes him cough. His Washington Doctors had him all wigged out on Percocet and Vicodin, his ex-girlfriend was stealing them, she was married and when he found out he broke up with her. His OHSU doctor wants him to have a laminectomy, but he’s going to go to school and keep swimming, for another year before he makes that decision. Uggh. Nice kid and all, but I do prefer quiet Monday mornings. – Today is Halloween. So far only Gina has a costume on. No one else, but I’m sure there will be more. – Jan and I are laughing at the pool key debacle from Saturday. Her apartments are numbered so strangely, that I could never find hers. So, no Saturday swim.
Keller cat fact: Chikita is a talker. She just meows, and meows, and meows. Whenever anyone sneezes she meows, “Bless you”. She springs around the house with her tail always straight up in the air. She purrs 90% of her waking existence. She was the runt of her litter, and she is a petite loveable fur ball with more energy than most. She still looks like a kitten. She has a 90-degree kink almost at the tip of her tail that she will only let Frank or I touch. I ‘acquired’ her when I lived in North East Portland and she tried to follow me to the bus stop on the way to work. I put food on a couch on my front porch so she would stop following me, and snuck around the back of the house. When I came home, she was still there. I walked around the neighborhood asking who she belonged to and no one claimed her.
Word(s) of the day: GERMAN SHEPHERD
Lexie log: Saturday we visited Gramma Betty. We brought over the mid-sized pumpkin, hallowed it out and left it with her to decorate. The next day when we went to carve our larger one, Daddy found out it was already mushy. Bummer, but there’s always next year. Lexie got to see Gramma Betty both Saturday and Sunday, and Sunday she got to see aunt Patty, aunt Karen, cousin Jen, and their huge beagle Sammy. – Trick or treating doesn’t look so promising tonight. It’s still up in the air, so is the rain. Depending on how we all feel after Grammy’s visit, we may just call it an evening, go to Cedar Hills Crossing (formerly Beaverton Mall), or if it’s dry enough, at least go to a few houses. We shall see. – The highlight of the weekend was yesterday’s swim lesson. For the first half of it, she was the only kid, so it was basically a private lesson. Halfway through, Kendall showed up. Teacher AJ said that next weeks lesson will end early so he can talk to each of us about the kids’ progress, and what level they should be in next session. She did so well yesterday, it was just awesome! She swam halfway across the pool! Daddy and I gave each other high five, I had butterflies and Daddy had tears of joy in his eyes. She also got a toy off the third and fourth step of the pool, grabbed it completely under water. I’m going to practice all week putting her bangs up, because every time her head came out of the water, her hair was completely covering her goggles. In the lobby after class, we talked with Kendal’s dad for a bit. He started the conversation with Lexie, telling her how great she looked today in swim. He told us he noticed how much she improved from the first class. I selfishly wish that each class could be just Kendal and Lexie. I wonder if Teacher AJ will have her take this class over again, or move her to basic water safety. We’ll see next Sunday. I just can’t get over how amazing it was to see her swimming across the pool. The look on Daddy’s face was priceless. – Last night I watched a little of Garfield with her. When we got home from Swimming and Gramma Betty, Lexie was asleep, so I lay her down on our bed and climbed in next to her. Within minutes, she was up and I was out like a light. I’m a little bummed about it this morning, because I just don’t feel like I spent enough one-on-one time with her this weekend. She tends to want to hold me hostage on the sofa in the evenings and I need to be doing stuff around the house, making my lunch, dinner, dishes. Daddy and I are moving about and she is getting mad at me for not sitting still with her. Then when I do for twenty minutes, she wont’ let me leave. I so much wish I could just spend a whole week home with her. *Big sigh*.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, water, daylight savings, Jan’s Starbucks card gift, niceness, swim lessons, movies, and all the stuff I thought of on the way to work this morning but can’t remember now.
Friday, October 28, 2005
And I forget, Just what it takes, And yet I guess it makes me smile, I found it hard, It's hard to find, Oh well, whatever, nevermind
Friday, October 28, 2005
Thank God it is Friday! I have a little B---h, but other than that, today is great. I’m working my butt off trying to make sure our finances are getting in order, trying to re-finance auto loans, auto transferring to savings and NOT pulling it back out every week back to zero, etc. I was feeling a little blue about not having any extra this weekend, because I’m refusing to pull out of savings unless it is an absolute emergency, not just swimming or Chipotle’s. So, I’m on the phone with Frank, all proud of myself for what I’ve got accomplished over break, paying all bills, almost paid off on dental and ER room bill, and I mention that I have six dollars in cash, would like to play golf this weekend, and don’t think we should go to the Saturday Night Splash, and instead of cheering me up, he says, “That’s ok, we don’t have to do anything this weekend. I can just do yard work, we can go to Gramma Betty’s and it’ll be Monday.” I was in tears and hung up on him saying, “Thanks for making me feel better! (click)” Gotta love my excessive emotions. Truthfully, I know that he is just grumpy about it as I am and we tend to have momentary head butts when our emotions sync up. And of course, he called me back in less than an hour (he has my cool off time down pretty good) and apologized for his grumpiness. – Today is Halloween potluck day. Didn’t have to bring lunch and cookies everywhere. I brought in orange sugar cookies, I’m hoping a couple are left at the end of the day so I can take them home to Frank and Lexie and watch Lexie bounce off the walls. – My wrist feels fine. I don’t even have to use the brace today. I’m keeping it by the bed, because it does help me not to wake up with completely numb asleep. – I was just having a conversation with Carrie at work about odd cat habits, and I thought every once in a while I’d blog one.
Keller cat fact: Tiki has his own separate water cup on the counter next to the microwave. It’s a white art deco cup with a flamingo on it and the handle broken off. I think I got it from a shop at Stanford Mall in California in the summer of 1985. I don’t quite remember how the habit started, but that is his watering hole now. We even let it get pretty low sometimes and he has to stick his head halfway in the cup. All our cats get filtered water; Frank gives them a big fresh bowl of fridge-filtered ice water every day.
Word(s) of the day: DOWN is MULTIFARIOUS
The word ‘down’ just has too many darned meanings.
Lexie log: We fell asleep on the couch last night watching Baby Genius Mozart and Friends Sleepytime. I highly recommend these videos. Baby Genius seems to have some great products. I had semi-forgotten about this series and I guess even filed in the back of my brain as being strictly for babies. I’m going to pull them all back out and watch them with her again. I think she’ll like them even more now because she can get some of the numbers and alphabet and colors and shapes and, and …Well you get my meaning. I started to watch it with her earlier, but Daddy and I were going to watch Man on Fire so I got up from the couch. She had a fit. She did not want me to leave. I had the hugest (not a word, right?) Momma guilt trip ever. I felt like a bad Mommy for wanting to watch my movie and like I was ditching her…So instead she took a bath. We use the baby monitor, so I got to watch a little of the movie. Then we fell asleep, watching her movie. I woke up around 2:00am with us both on the couch, her head in my lap, and carried us to bed. – We are hoping to go to Jan’s pool to swimming tomorrow.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, red and yellow foods, Gramma Betty’s borsht, potlucks, swimming, cats, and weekends.
Thank God it is Friday! I have a little B---h, but other than that, today is great. I’m working my butt off trying to make sure our finances are getting in order, trying to re-finance auto loans, auto transferring to savings and NOT pulling it back out every week back to zero, etc. I was feeling a little blue about not having any extra this weekend, because I’m refusing to pull out of savings unless it is an absolute emergency, not just swimming or Chipotle’s. So, I’m on the phone with Frank, all proud of myself for what I’ve got accomplished over break, paying all bills, almost paid off on dental and ER room bill, and I mention that I have six dollars in cash, would like to play golf this weekend, and don’t think we should go to the Saturday Night Splash, and instead of cheering me up, he says, “That’s ok, we don’t have to do anything this weekend. I can just do yard work, we can go to Gramma Betty’s and it’ll be Monday.” I was in tears and hung up on him saying, “Thanks for making me feel better! (click)” Gotta love my excessive emotions. Truthfully, I know that he is just grumpy about it as I am and we tend to have momentary head butts when our emotions sync up. And of course, he called me back in less than an hour (he has my cool off time down pretty good) and apologized for his grumpiness. – Today is Halloween potluck day. Didn’t have to bring lunch and cookies everywhere. I brought in orange sugar cookies, I’m hoping a couple are left at the end of the day so I can take them home to Frank and Lexie and watch Lexie bounce off the walls. – My wrist feels fine. I don’t even have to use the brace today. I’m keeping it by the bed, because it does help me not to wake up with completely numb asleep. – I was just having a conversation with Carrie at work about odd cat habits, and I thought every once in a while I’d blog one.
Keller cat fact: Tiki has his own separate water cup on the counter next to the microwave. It’s a white art deco cup with a flamingo on it and the handle broken off. I think I got it from a shop at Stanford Mall in California in the summer of 1985. I don’t quite remember how the habit started, but that is his watering hole now. We even let it get pretty low sometimes and he has to stick his head halfway in the cup. All our cats get filtered water; Frank gives them a big fresh bowl of fridge-filtered ice water every day.
Word(s) of the day: DOWN is MULTIFARIOUS
The word ‘down’ just has too many darned meanings.
Lexie log: We fell asleep on the couch last night watching Baby Genius Mozart and Friends Sleepytime. I highly recommend these videos. Baby Genius seems to have some great products. I had semi-forgotten about this series and I guess even filed in the back of my brain as being strictly for babies. I’m going to pull them all back out and watch them with her again. I think she’ll like them even more now because she can get some of the numbers and alphabet and colors and shapes and, and …Well you get my meaning. I started to watch it with her earlier, but Daddy and I were going to watch Man on Fire so I got up from the couch. She had a fit. She did not want me to leave. I had the hugest (not a word, right?) Momma guilt trip ever. I felt like a bad Mommy for wanting to watch my movie and like I was ditching her…So instead she took a bath. We use the baby monitor, so I got to watch a little of the movie. Then we fell asleep, watching her movie. I woke up around 2:00am with us both on the couch, her head in my lap, and carried us to bed. – We are hoping to go to Jan’s pool to swimming tomorrow.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, red and yellow foods, Gramma Betty’s borsht, potlucks, swimming, cats, and weekends.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
When a problem comes along, You must whip it, Before the cream sits out too long, You must whip it...
Thursday, October 27, 2005
I saw Dr. Simon on the way out the door yesterday, and she says the nerve conduction study showed that I don’t have carpal tunnel syndrome, that’s cool. My wrist does feel better today, so I’m going brace free. – DUB, that’s what I’m going through right now, perhaps. I am having the same thing I had two weeks ago, and I shouldn’t have it again for another two weeks! Very emotional and frustrating. This has been happening for a year now, but I don’t want to see Doc about it because the only solution I am aware of is BC pills and we all know that a Lexie sibling is the goal. So, Rachel’s attitude disclaimer: “Sorry for any future ill-tempered, cranky, cantankerousness. Please just know that I love everyone and everything, and please don’t let my attitude get in your way.” Just kidding, sort of. – I’m a little nervous for future cat owner and friend Michelle. She is getting a 2 ½ year old adoptee cat to be companion to her dog. That’s what’s been on my mind this morning. She’s on her way now to the dentist and then to pick up her new family member and Tracy and I are consulting regarding the difficulties and hazards of introducing a cat, rather than kitten, into a home with a dog and this will be Michelle’s first cat. Kudos to Michelle for giving a cat a needed home, and prayers to her for taking this on. – As for us, we are keeping our eyes out for affordable eight-week-old German Shepards. That is our latest desire.
Word(s) of the day:
Lexie log: We went on a walk around our block last night. This is a great time of year for walks, she gets to kick up all the fallen leaves. She loved that. Then we found a discarded birds nest and some kids artwork on lined notebook paper that they must have dropped. Something to add to my coffee book, “Lost and Found, a picture book of your misplaced items.” The only downside to the walk was when Lexie tried to climb a retaining wall that she always climbs, and someone down the street whistled and yelled for her to, “Stay out of those rocks!” It spoiled it, just by his mean attitude. I actually mentioned that we were sorry, she just wanted to climb he wall, he said he didn’t want her to get hurt, and I mentioned that he might try a kinder manner when looking out for the welfare of others. Anyway, the walk was still fun. – Lexie has a new fondness for some common routine procedures like brushing her teeth, washing her hands, opening and closing the front door, and getting in and out of her car seat without help. It’s great to watch. When we get home, she opens the front door, holds it open for us, then closes it. If you try to help her she commands, “No, this is my door!” Yesterday afternoon on the way out, she wasn’t paying enough attention to where her fingers were and she got one pinched in the door. It took some skin off, but she was proud to sport her new glow in the dark Sponge Bob band-aid.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, nature, stuffed animals, coffee, water, and life.
I saw Dr. Simon on the way out the door yesterday, and she says the nerve conduction study showed that I don’t have carpal tunnel syndrome, that’s cool. My wrist does feel better today, so I’m going brace free. – DUB, that’s what I’m going through right now, perhaps. I am having the same thing I had two weeks ago, and I shouldn’t have it again for another two weeks! Very emotional and frustrating. This has been happening for a year now, but I don’t want to see Doc about it because the only solution I am aware of is BC pills and we all know that a Lexie sibling is the goal. So, Rachel’s attitude disclaimer: “Sorry for any future ill-tempered, cranky, cantankerousness. Please just know that I love everyone and everything, and please don’t let my attitude get in your way.” Just kidding, sort of. – I’m a little nervous for future cat owner and friend Michelle. She is getting a 2 ½ year old adoptee cat to be companion to her dog. That’s what’s been on my mind this morning. She’s on her way now to the dentist and then to pick up her new family member and Tracy and I are consulting regarding the difficulties and hazards of introducing a cat, rather than kitten, into a home with a dog and this will be Michelle’s first cat. Kudos to Michelle for giving a cat a needed home, and prayers to her for taking this on. – As for us, we are keeping our eyes out for affordable eight-week-old German Shepards. That is our latest desire.
Word(s) of the day:
Lexie log: We went on a walk around our block last night. This is a great time of year for walks, she gets to kick up all the fallen leaves. She loved that. Then we found a discarded birds nest and some kids artwork on lined notebook paper that they must have dropped. Something to add to my coffee book, “Lost and Found, a picture book of your misplaced items.” The only downside to the walk was when Lexie tried to climb a retaining wall that she always climbs, and someone down the street whistled and yelled for her to, “Stay out of those rocks!” It spoiled it, just by his mean attitude. I actually mentioned that we were sorry, she just wanted to climb he wall, he said he didn’t want her to get hurt, and I mentioned that he might try a kinder manner when looking out for the welfare of others. Anyway, the walk was still fun. – Lexie has a new fondness for some common routine procedures like brushing her teeth, washing her hands, opening and closing the front door, and getting in and out of her car seat without help. It’s great to watch. When we get home, she opens the front door, holds it open for us, then closes it. If you try to help her she commands, “No, this is my door!” Yesterday afternoon on the way out, she wasn’t paying enough attention to where her fingers were and she got one pinched in the door. It took some skin off, but she was proud to sport her new glow in the dark Sponge Bob band-aid.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, nature, stuffed animals, coffee, water, and life.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Major domo plasticomo Barbarella, Pro-genetic you Electric Barbarella
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
I wish I had bought stock in Neurometrix a couple years ago. I just had my nerve conduction study done and the technician said it’s gone from eight dollars to 36 a share. So, recap on the nerve conduction study; my blog will be short today as I am in some deal of pain. Had a visit with Dr. Simon yesterday shortly after break, because my right hand, wrist, and shoulder hurt bad enough to keep me from typing. I told Dr. Simon that I may have aggravated something bowling, but based on history with pregnancy wrist pain etc. she had me do nerve conduction studies on both wrists today. Truly electrifying experience, and not very comfortable. NC-stat Biosensors. It shot my 600mg Ibuprophen I took at 8:00am all to heck and I’m back in pain again. I’m in a wrist brace and an elbow brace for what Simon called golfers elbow. She had me do more blood work yesterday before sending me home early, to check for any underlying thyroid or diabetes or whatever issues. It took three phlebotomists to get anything out of me. They love me down there. So, enough typing for today.
Word(s) of the day: BLEAT
Lexie log: She was pretty thrilled to have Mommy come home early yesterday. She was immediately fascinated with the brace and wanted me to take it off so she could wear it. I remembered where the one I wore while I was pregnant with her (over the counter, not nearly so ‘fancy’), and put it on her. It’s like a fingerless glove with a flexible bandage/Velcro brace over the wrist. She just thought it was so neat to be stylin’ with Momma. She also wouldn’t let Daddy make her a sandwich; she wanted Momma to do it. Daddy was offering to make us all sandwiches, but she told him to, “…sit right and wait right there!” as we went into the kitchen. I guess she could tell I came home early and wanted me all to her self. What an honor.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, medical advancement, thorough doctors, happiness, relaxation, friends, getting caught up, and love.
I wish I had bought stock in Neurometrix a couple years ago. I just had my nerve conduction study done and the technician said it’s gone from eight dollars to 36 a share. So, recap on the nerve conduction study; my blog will be short today as I am in some deal of pain. Had a visit with Dr. Simon yesterday shortly after break, because my right hand, wrist, and shoulder hurt bad enough to keep me from typing. I told Dr. Simon that I may have aggravated something bowling, but based on history with pregnancy wrist pain etc. she had me do nerve conduction studies on both wrists today. Truly electrifying experience, and not very comfortable. NC-stat Biosensors. It shot my 600mg Ibuprophen I took at 8:00am all to heck and I’m back in pain again. I’m in a wrist brace and an elbow brace for what Simon called golfers elbow. She had me do more blood work yesterday before sending me home early, to check for any underlying thyroid or diabetes or whatever issues. It took three phlebotomists to get anything out of me. They love me down there. So, enough typing for today.
Word(s) of the day: BLEAT
Lexie log: She was pretty thrilled to have Mommy come home early yesterday. She was immediately fascinated with the brace and wanted me to take it off so she could wear it. I remembered where the one I wore while I was pregnant with her (over the counter, not nearly so ‘fancy’), and put it on her. It’s like a fingerless glove with a flexible bandage/Velcro brace over the wrist. She just thought it was so neat to be stylin’ with Momma. She also wouldn’t let Daddy make her a sandwich; she wanted Momma to do it. Daddy was offering to make us all sandwiches, but she told him to, “…sit right and wait right there!” as we went into the kitchen. I guess she could tell I came home early and wanted me all to her self. What an honor.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, medical advancement, thorough doctors, happiness, relaxation, friends, getting caught up, and love.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Ooo wee ooo, I look just like Buddy Holly, Oh oh, and you're Mary Tyler Moore. I don't care what they say about us anyway. I don't care about that.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
I’ve been working on the railroad, all the livelong day…Progress is slow on the working front. – I do have all my utility bills set up for equal pay now, we have the deal with the debit card where it takes the change from a debit purchase and transfers it to savings and for the first three months they match 100%. We finally have been able to get from one paycheck to the next without emptying out savings, and should be able to start adding to it monthly. That is a relief. We are budgeting and spending so much better and will hopefully be establishing some good credit within a year. Our car payment rate is down to 4.33%, and we can’t find a lender who will go lower than that. The hospital bill from last December will be paid off by the end of November. Two primary goals; first to be less dependent on help for groceries, gas and car payments, and the other goal is to be eligible for a decent mortgage rate within two years. – This day is flying by.
Word(s) of the day: GITCHIE GUMEE, LEPIDOPTERA
Lexie log: Grammy came over and visited yesterday. She brought some pictures of Lexie as an angel and in her princess dress looking in the mirror for Gramma Betty. We all ate a chicken fettuccini with squash dinner, and Lexie had no problem eating right along with us. It seems her taste buds are getting to where she isn’t so picky and will actually eat what we eat rather than starve herself. She has pretty much replaced her fixation with bananas to one with cheese. I’m not sure how I feel about this. We are trying to substitute a banana back in for every other request for cheese. – After dinner, she crawled up on the couch next to Grammy and said, “I love you Grammy”. – It is so strange to sit here and think of how much she’s grown. It really feels like just a short time ago, not three years, that I was standing at this same desk, unable to sit for too long, and keying my payments with her rolling around inside me.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, Mom and Dad, sports cream for my sore bowling arm, colors, water, organized chaos, and life.
I’ve been working on the railroad, all the livelong day…Progress is slow on the working front. – I do have all my utility bills set up for equal pay now, we have the deal with the debit card where it takes the change from a debit purchase and transfers it to savings and for the first three months they match 100%. We finally have been able to get from one paycheck to the next without emptying out savings, and should be able to start adding to it monthly. That is a relief. We are budgeting and spending so much better and will hopefully be establishing some good credit within a year. Our car payment rate is down to 4.33%, and we can’t find a lender who will go lower than that. The hospital bill from last December will be paid off by the end of November. Two primary goals; first to be less dependent on help for groceries, gas and car payments, and the other goal is to be eligible for a decent mortgage rate within two years. – This day is flying by.
Word(s) of the day: GITCHIE GUMEE, LEPIDOPTERA
Lexie log: Grammy came over and visited yesterday. She brought some pictures of Lexie as an angel and in her princess dress looking in the mirror for Gramma Betty. We all ate a chicken fettuccini with squash dinner, and Lexie had no problem eating right along with us. It seems her taste buds are getting to where she isn’t so picky and will actually eat what we eat rather than starve herself. She has pretty much replaced her fixation with bananas to one with cheese. I’m not sure how I feel about this. We are trying to substitute a banana back in for every other request for cheese. – After dinner, she crawled up on the couch next to Grammy and said, “I love you Grammy”. – It is so strange to sit here and think of how much she’s grown. It really feels like just a short time ago, not three years, that I was standing at this same desk, unable to sit for too long, and keying my payments with her rolling around inside me.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, Mom and Dad, sports cream for my sore bowling arm, colors, water, organized chaos, and life.
Monday, October 24, 2005
Daisy, Daisy, Give me your answer do, I'm half crazy all for the love of you...
Monday, October 24, 2005
Interesting start to the day…I stuck in a CD that my friend Michelle gave me last night, and the first thing Mr. Tesh is speaking about is making sure you get adequate sleep each night. This is a big thing for me lately. I am having difficulties with making time to work out/swim each day and still get enough sleep. Going for the balance thing. I may try three days a week and see if that helps. To get up at four AM, and get enough sleep, I need to go to bed at 8:00 PM! That’s four hours after I get home from work! Lexie usually ends up napping a couple times a week during that time. With making dinner, etc. I hardly get to see her let alone Frank. This should be interesting. I wonder, how many people do truly get 7-8 hours of sleep most nights. – Another thing ol’ John Teshy boy had to say was that drinking one or more cups of coffee in the morning helps against depression. So, I go to make my morning cup of coffee, and as I’m pouring the piping hot water over the grounds, the cup slips spilling hot water and fine, fine, coffee grounds all over the spare desk and cubicle wall. This causes a huge anti-depressant effect on Kathie, as she continuously chuckles and brings over a roll of paper towels commences her valiant endeavor to aid in my disaster relief clean up. I blame stiff muscles from biking and bowling for my clumsiness.
Word(s) of the day: KLUTZ
Mini Meltdown Moment: One of the most enjoyable parts of the weekend was bowling, but the only piece that didn’t go so well, for me anyway, was a mini panic attack I had when I attempted to help Lexie bowl her turn. Dana helped her with the first one, and he did fine. I went up there and had a panic attack. I didn’t know how to have her hold the ball, I was nervous about dropping it on her feet, and ended up pretty much dropping the ball. This frustrated her, and the ball stopped. I didn’t know whether I was supposed to walk down the lane and get it, I was nervous about Lexie going after it, and suddenly all I could hear was my heartbeat, and like a small voltage of current was humming through my body. I think I actually left her standing there to get someone to go help her. I get flustered now even thinking of it. The rest of the next few moments were a blur as I was mortified that people were noticing that I was falling apart or having a meltdown, and I remember a couple people, including Frank asking what was wrong. Luckily, it didn’t last too long, and I’m thinking it was probably much longer and far more momentous to myself than anyone else. Needless to say that was the last time I was her bowling coach. Maybe next time.
Lexie log: Another fast paced, fun filled weekend. Saturday we slept in till 10:00am. That was nice. Then we loaded the bikes and the Burley on the car and headed for Marine drive. It was such a gorgeous day, much warmer than we expected. Lexie was a bit ready for a nap by the time we got there, and I am still physically out of shape, so the bike trip only ended up being about five miles round trip. Very easy path, beautiful weather and view. At the turn around point I showed Lexie her first grasshopper, and it was adorable to watch her try to catch/pet it. After the ride we walked down to the water and Lexie played in the sand and threw rocks as we admired the view and boats. Next we went to Gramma Betty’s for about an hour. Lexie laughed as Pete and Yancy chased each other around the living room. She fell asleep in the car shortly before we got home, so we let her sleep in her car seat as we unloaded bikes etc. and got swim suits. At six PM we were in the pool at her Children of the Sea swim school splashing around on Saturday Night Splash. It’s there open swim of sorts. It’s cheaper than any park district that we don’t fall within at only $2.50 a piece for two hours. That’s pretty good. Of course it was free for us that night because we got a coupon when Lexie was enrolled for one free Saturday Night Splash. Overall we had a great time, but we did realize something…Just as the saying goes, “Too many cooks in the kitchen” we had too many parental instructors in the pool. We spent the first half hour clashing over trying to get her to do the things ‘we’ felt she could use some help with in lessons. And, of course, Daddy and Momma have different ‘teaching’ styles. As soon as we realized that this was not effective, and basically frustrating for all of us, we just relaxed and took turns with her, not instructing any more, just letting her have fun in the water. She loved the slide, actually put her whole face in the water a couple times. There was another three year girl there who has been taking lessons for a year and her parents have her enrolled in two classes a week, and she hardly ever took her head out of the water. The dad told us that once Lexie crosses the barrier where she is no longer nervous with her head being under water, that we will see a dramatic difference. The only way I could convince Lexie to get out of the pool was for her customary post lesson cookie from the front desk. – I really do believe we noticed a difference on Sunday at her lesson. I was more relaxed, and she did jump out to teacher AJ without having to hold his hands, something we played at the night before. She has made such a big improvement. I really need to get on the ball and organize and transfer our videos (I guess between 4 – 8 in my spare time LOL), because there were so many things this weekend that would have been great to video. – After swim we raced home to clean up the house as plans had changed and we were thinking we would have our dinner at our place. So, Lexie sat in a diaper in her high chair eating apple sauce cereal as Daddy ran around and vacuumed the whole house and deck and I picked up and Windexed most of the milk and fingerprints and cleaned up a bit. I think Lexie got a kick out of watching us whirlwind around the house. When I did get her down to get her dressed, she was noticeably concerned about where I had decided to put away her toys, and wasn’t pleased that Winnie the Pooh and Piglet were without Tigger (although) she didn’t seem to notice Eyore missing. We got Lexie re-dressed and headed to Sunset Lanes and bowled. Wow that was a blast (minus my initial nervousness). Lexie loved it. As soon as the ball left her hands down the lane, she turned around and yelled, “I did it! I did it!” and came for a round of high-fives. We had to remind her to turn around and check out how many pins her ball would hit. Michelle, Mike Tracy, Frank and I played on one lane, and Sierra, Lucas, Lexie, and Dana played on the next one. Lexie scored 110! Her and Lucas were done after the first game, and the rest of us played a second. Daddy got a 99, and I an 88. I won’t go into details about who ended up playing with bumpers. I can’t get over how cute Lexie’s bowling shoes were. She used a eight pound ball. She loved the whole thing, especially playing with Lucas. After bowling we went to dinner at Nona Emelia’s. Haven’t been there in ages. Lexie sat between Auntie Tracy and Auntie Michelle and ate pizza and drank chocolate milk. She had a wonderful time. In the parking lot afterwards, she was too tired to socialize anymore, so she gave a round of hugs and told me she wanted in the car. She almost forgot Lucas who was behind Mike and Michelle’s truck. I asked her if she was going to give Lucas a hug, and the two of them ran across the parking lot towards each other and embraced like something out of the movies. After a moment, Lucas backs off and says, “Ok, enough”. Lexie climbed into her car seat and read a book as the adult socialized. Shortly before we left, Lucas climbed into our car and grabbed a fake rose that we had laying on the floorboard and gave it to Lexie. Oh, these precious moments carry me through the day. – Saturday night after swimming, Lexie came home and tucked all her favorite toys into her bed and then proceeded to fall asleep on the living room couch. Last night after bowling and a bath, the went into her room and did the tucking in ritual again. When she is done, she tells them goodnight, turns off the light and shuts the door. The next we saw, she was face down falling asleep on the living room floor, so we decided to check on her animals in her bed. No sooner had we walked into the room and turned on the light when she jumped from the floor yelling at us not to disturb her ‘babies’. She had removed each and every animal/doll from the night before and very carefully tucked in only Bluedog. It was so cute, but I didn’t get a picture. She chased us out of the room, turned out the lights, shut the door, and went back into the living room and fell asleep.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, fun weekends with family and friends, bowling with Tracy, Dana, Mike, Michelle, Lucas and Sierra, coffee, precious moments, and hugs.
Interesting start to the day…I stuck in a CD that my friend Michelle gave me last night, and the first thing Mr. Tesh is speaking about is making sure you get adequate sleep each night. This is a big thing for me lately. I am having difficulties with making time to work out/swim each day and still get enough sleep. Going for the balance thing. I may try three days a week and see if that helps. To get up at four AM, and get enough sleep, I need to go to bed at 8:00 PM! That’s four hours after I get home from work! Lexie usually ends up napping a couple times a week during that time. With making dinner, etc. I hardly get to see her let alone Frank. This should be interesting. I wonder, how many people do truly get 7-8 hours of sleep most nights. – Another thing ol’ John Teshy boy had to say was that drinking one or more cups of coffee in the morning helps against depression. So, I go to make my morning cup of coffee, and as I’m pouring the piping hot water over the grounds, the cup slips spilling hot water and fine, fine, coffee grounds all over the spare desk and cubicle wall. This causes a huge anti-depressant effect on Kathie, as she continuously chuckles and brings over a roll of paper towels commences her valiant endeavor to aid in my disaster relief clean up. I blame stiff muscles from biking and bowling for my clumsiness.
Word(s) of the day: KLUTZ
Mini Meltdown Moment: One of the most enjoyable parts of the weekend was bowling, but the only piece that didn’t go so well, for me anyway, was a mini panic attack I had when I attempted to help Lexie bowl her turn. Dana helped her with the first one, and he did fine. I went up there and had a panic attack. I didn’t know how to have her hold the ball, I was nervous about dropping it on her feet, and ended up pretty much dropping the ball. This frustrated her, and the ball stopped. I didn’t know whether I was supposed to walk down the lane and get it, I was nervous about Lexie going after it, and suddenly all I could hear was my heartbeat, and like a small voltage of current was humming through my body. I think I actually left her standing there to get someone to go help her. I get flustered now even thinking of it. The rest of the next few moments were a blur as I was mortified that people were noticing that I was falling apart or having a meltdown, and I remember a couple people, including Frank asking what was wrong. Luckily, it didn’t last too long, and I’m thinking it was probably much longer and far more momentous to myself than anyone else. Needless to say that was the last time I was her bowling coach. Maybe next time.
Lexie log: Another fast paced, fun filled weekend. Saturday we slept in till 10:00am. That was nice. Then we loaded the bikes and the Burley on the car and headed for Marine drive. It was such a gorgeous day, much warmer than we expected. Lexie was a bit ready for a nap by the time we got there, and I am still physically out of shape, so the bike trip only ended up being about five miles round trip. Very easy path, beautiful weather and view. At the turn around point I showed Lexie her first grasshopper, and it was adorable to watch her try to catch/pet it. After the ride we walked down to the water and Lexie played in the sand and threw rocks as we admired the view and boats. Next we went to Gramma Betty’s for about an hour. Lexie laughed as Pete and Yancy chased each other around the living room. She fell asleep in the car shortly before we got home, so we let her sleep in her car seat as we unloaded bikes etc. and got swim suits. At six PM we were in the pool at her Children of the Sea swim school splashing around on Saturday Night Splash. It’s there open swim of sorts. It’s cheaper than any park district that we don’t fall within at only $2.50 a piece for two hours. That’s pretty good. Of course it was free for us that night because we got a coupon when Lexie was enrolled for one free Saturday Night Splash. Overall we had a great time, but we did realize something…Just as the saying goes, “Too many cooks in the kitchen” we had too many parental instructors in the pool. We spent the first half hour clashing over trying to get her to do the things ‘we’ felt she could use some help with in lessons. And, of course, Daddy and Momma have different ‘teaching’ styles. As soon as we realized that this was not effective, and basically frustrating for all of us, we just relaxed and took turns with her, not instructing any more, just letting her have fun in the water. She loved the slide, actually put her whole face in the water a couple times. There was another three year girl there who has been taking lessons for a year and her parents have her enrolled in two classes a week, and she hardly ever took her head out of the water. The dad told us that once Lexie crosses the barrier where she is no longer nervous with her head being under water, that we will see a dramatic difference. The only way I could convince Lexie to get out of the pool was for her customary post lesson cookie from the front desk. – I really do believe we noticed a difference on Sunday at her lesson. I was more relaxed, and she did jump out to teacher AJ without having to hold his hands, something we played at the night before. She has made such a big improvement. I really need to get on the ball and organize and transfer our videos (I guess between 4 – 8 in my spare time LOL), because there were so many things this weekend that would have been great to video. – After swim we raced home to clean up the house as plans had changed and we were thinking we would have our dinner at our place. So, Lexie sat in a diaper in her high chair eating apple sauce cereal as Daddy ran around and vacuumed the whole house and deck and I picked up and Windexed most of the milk and fingerprints and cleaned up a bit. I think Lexie got a kick out of watching us whirlwind around the house. When I did get her down to get her dressed, she was noticeably concerned about where I had decided to put away her toys, and wasn’t pleased that Winnie the Pooh and Piglet were without Tigger (although) she didn’t seem to notice Eyore missing. We got Lexie re-dressed and headed to Sunset Lanes and bowled. Wow that was a blast (minus my initial nervousness). Lexie loved it. As soon as the ball left her hands down the lane, she turned around and yelled, “I did it! I did it!” and came for a round of high-fives. We had to remind her to turn around and check out how many pins her ball would hit. Michelle, Mike Tracy, Frank and I played on one lane, and Sierra, Lucas, Lexie, and Dana played on the next one. Lexie scored 110! Her and Lucas were done after the first game, and the rest of us played a second. Daddy got a 99, and I an 88. I won’t go into details about who ended up playing with bumpers. I can’t get over how cute Lexie’s bowling shoes were. She used a eight pound ball. She loved the whole thing, especially playing with Lucas. After bowling we went to dinner at Nona Emelia’s. Haven’t been there in ages. Lexie sat between Auntie Tracy and Auntie Michelle and ate pizza and drank chocolate milk. She had a wonderful time. In the parking lot afterwards, she was too tired to socialize anymore, so she gave a round of hugs and told me she wanted in the car. She almost forgot Lucas who was behind Mike and Michelle’s truck. I asked her if she was going to give Lucas a hug, and the two of them ran across the parking lot towards each other and embraced like something out of the movies. After a moment, Lucas backs off and says, “Ok, enough”. Lexie climbed into her car seat and read a book as the adult socialized. Shortly before we left, Lucas climbed into our car and grabbed a fake rose that we had laying on the floorboard and gave it to Lexie. Oh, these precious moments carry me through the day. – Saturday night after swimming, Lexie came home and tucked all her favorite toys into her bed and then proceeded to fall asleep on the living room couch. Last night after bowling and a bath, the went into her room and did the tucking in ritual again. When she is done, she tells them goodnight, turns off the light and shuts the door. The next we saw, she was face down falling asleep on the living room floor, so we decided to check on her animals in her bed. No sooner had we walked into the room and turned on the light when she jumped from the floor yelling at us not to disturb her ‘babies’. She had removed each and every animal/doll from the night before and very carefully tucked in only Bluedog. It was so cute, but I didn’t get a picture. She chased us out of the room, turned out the lights, shut the door, and went back into the living room and fell asleep.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, fun weekends with family and friends, bowling with Tracy, Dana, Mike, Michelle, Lucas and Sierra, coffee, precious moments, and hugs.
Lexie puts her animals to bed. She tucked all her favorite animals/dolls into her bed in the evening and turned out the lights. She got terribly upset with Mommy and Daddy when we went in and turned on the lights to check on them. Then, this night she went out and spent the whole night sleeping on our couch.
Friday, October 21, 2005
Jane says, 'Have you seen my wig around? I feel naked without it'
Friday, October 21, 2005
Well, now my Froogle wish list is growing. At the movie premier last night the media guy sitting in front of me had a 60GB black iPod. I had never seen an iPod before. If you could download audible books to it, it would be a dream come true. That thing was cool! Oh-a-my Gosh! I just found out that Audible does support iPod and visa versa. Ok, so well, something to think about…I’m going to look into applying my BonusMail points towards one. I’ve been accruing them for over two years, they ought to be worth something by now, I have close to 6,000 points. – Carrie is going to bring in her old digital alarm clock for me to use until I can get one for myself. Yes…Once again woke up too late to go swimming, in fact late for work. Never heard a ring. – The Legend of Zorro was a great movie. Antonio and Katherine are awesome together. I haven’t been to the movies in a while, since it’s so easy to get them at home. I think the next time we go, we’ll be sure to catch a matinee or go on some time when the theater is half empty. I just don’t like sitting that close to strangers. Major personal bubble-space invasion. The teenybopper next to me grated my nerves a few times. By the end of the movie, she was curled up in the seat knees bent to her chest, feet occasionally resting on my knee. She talked too loud, too much, and asked really dorky questions like, “Are they going to kill her?” When she wasn’t forcing me to pay attention to her instead of the movie, I enjoyed myself. Fun to watch. I loved that it takes place where I was born, San Mateo. It did make it quite a late evening. We didn’t get home until after 10:00pm.
Word(s) of the day: CECROPIA
Lexie log: She had a good time visiting with Gramma Betty last night. She ate a cheese melt and squash and played with toys. Gramma got her to keep a barrette in her hair the whole time. She didn’t even take it out until we were almost home. She said she likes Gramma’s house. Gramma Betty turned on the huge crystal chandelier in the living room and Lexie fell in love with it. – Even though she hadn’t had a nap all day, she stayed awake the whole way home and even stayed up and watched some TV. Daddy had to put her to bed, I crawled into bed before she wore out.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, Starbucks card from Jan, Vanilla nut Kahlua flavored coffee from Carrie, Fridays, weekends, free premier movies, children’s books from Barb, cell phones, Gramma Betty watching Lexie for a couple hours, and happiness.
Well, now my Froogle wish list is growing. At the movie premier last night the media guy sitting in front of me had a 60GB black iPod. I had never seen an iPod before. If you could download audible books to it, it would be a dream come true. That thing was cool! Oh-a-my Gosh! I just found out that Audible does support iPod and visa versa. Ok, so well, something to think about…I’m going to look into applying my BonusMail points towards one. I’ve been accruing them for over two years, they ought to be worth something by now, I have close to 6,000 points. – Carrie is going to bring in her old digital alarm clock for me to use until I can get one for myself. Yes…Once again woke up too late to go swimming, in fact late for work. Never heard a ring. – The Legend of Zorro was a great movie. Antonio and Katherine are awesome together. I haven’t been to the movies in a while, since it’s so easy to get them at home. I think the next time we go, we’ll be sure to catch a matinee or go on some time when the theater is half empty. I just don’t like sitting that close to strangers. Major personal bubble-space invasion. The teenybopper next to me grated my nerves a few times. By the end of the movie, she was curled up in the seat knees bent to her chest, feet occasionally resting on my knee. She talked too loud, too much, and asked really dorky questions like, “Are they going to kill her?” When she wasn’t forcing me to pay attention to her instead of the movie, I enjoyed myself. Fun to watch. I loved that it takes place where I was born, San Mateo. It did make it quite a late evening. We didn’t get home until after 10:00pm.
Word(s) of the day: CECROPIA
Lexie log: She had a good time visiting with Gramma Betty last night. She ate a cheese melt and squash and played with toys. Gramma got her to keep a barrette in her hair the whole time. She didn’t even take it out until we were almost home. She said she likes Gramma’s house. Gramma Betty turned on the huge crystal chandelier in the living room and Lexie fell in love with it. – Even though she hadn’t had a nap all day, she stayed awake the whole way home and even stayed up and watched some TV. Daddy had to put her to bed, I crawled into bed before she wore out.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, Starbucks card from Jan, Vanilla nut Kahlua flavored coffee from Carrie, Fridays, weekends, free premier movies, children’s books from Barb, cell phones, Gramma Betty watching Lexie for a couple hours, and happiness.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
I know a man was outta touch, And he'd hide in a house and he didn't say much. Deedle-ee deet deet deet deet deet deet deet dee doo.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Ok, so the light at 185th and Heritage is still funky. I timed it today, and it stays green exactly five seconds. I just notified the City of Beaverton via their website, which actually has a spot to submit problems with streetlights as well as many other things. Man, the Internet and Web sure are making things easier…for the most part anyway. – Having more issues at work with people not wanting to follow a situation through to completion. After the second one this morning, I actually told Scott how to re-handle the situation so that he didn’t need to involve another auditor. He knows the situation, handle it through, darn it! I do believe that he is made of rubber and nothing will stick. Other than that, my day is going smooth. Working hard on getting caught up now that there seems to be a lull in report writer and IT support. – Looking forward to the movie tonight. – Les, the neighborhood mailman since 1979 will be retiring November 3rd. He left a letter in everyone’s mailbox. He is cool. I hope he enjoys his retirement. His letter mentions that he has worked this route long enough to see children grow up, get married, and have children of their own. I lived in this house from the sixth grade until I moved out at 18. Then in 2002, Mom and Dad moved out to the thicket and Frank and I (a very pregnant I) moved back to this house. So he truly has seen me grow up, get married and have children. His letter specifies that he doesn’t want gifts, he’s fine, he says. He suggests donating to a charity, specifically habitat for humanity, or just filling the gas tank up with gas.
Sad story: There was this lady named Lola, she was a showgirl. She was trying to dance her way to stardom doing the meringue and the cha-cha at the club where her boyfriend Tony tended bar. One night this big-shot guy named Rico comes into the bar and after Lola’s set, he called her over to his table and gets fresh with her. This sets Tony off and they get into a big’ole bar fight, breaking chairs and all. Then, Rico pulls out a gun and shoots Tony dead. Thirty years later, Lola still sits in the same club, now a disco, wearing her old showgirl dress and faded feathers in her hair, drinking her self blind. She lost her youth and she lost her Tony, now she’s lost her mind.
Word(s) of the day: SHMOO
Interesting
Lexie log: Lexie will be spending a couple hours with Gramma Betty and Pete and Yancy tonight since we are going to the movie premier. – She watched most of the movie “Robots” last night, but towards the end, she asked me if we could watch Sponge Bob instead. A real Sponge Bob fanatic. She loves Patrick and Gary the best. – I just got off the phone with Daddy. They got up around 8:00 and she asked for milk. They went into the kitchen, and as Daddy was pouring her some milk she said, “I’m goin’ back to bed” and walked off. Daddy walked back into the bedroom and she was all tucked under the covers on my side of the bed waiting for her milk. When he told me the story I wanted to go home and snuggle. – I’m pretty much letting her pick out her own clothes now. She is doing really well, unless she is cranky. Then, she just says ‘no’ to everything I offer until I have to tell her we’re canceling whatever plans and walk away. Eventually she lets me decide in these situations.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, backbones, skin, Keebler elves, children’s books, Les the mailman, and happy fun.
Ok, so the light at 185th and Heritage is still funky. I timed it today, and it stays green exactly five seconds. I just notified the City of Beaverton via their website, which actually has a spot to submit problems with streetlights as well as many other things. Man, the Internet and Web sure are making things easier…for the most part anyway. – Having more issues at work with people not wanting to follow a situation through to completion. After the second one this morning, I actually told Scott how to re-handle the situation so that he didn’t need to involve another auditor. He knows the situation, handle it through, darn it! I do believe that he is made of rubber and nothing will stick. Other than that, my day is going smooth. Working hard on getting caught up now that there seems to be a lull in report writer and IT support. – Looking forward to the movie tonight. – Les, the neighborhood mailman since 1979 will be retiring November 3rd. He left a letter in everyone’s mailbox. He is cool. I hope he enjoys his retirement. His letter mentions that he has worked this route long enough to see children grow up, get married, and have children of their own. I lived in this house from the sixth grade until I moved out at 18. Then in 2002, Mom and Dad moved out to the thicket and Frank and I (a very pregnant I) moved back to this house. So he truly has seen me grow up, get married and have children. His letter specifies that he doesn’t want gifts, he’s fine, he says. He suggests donating to a charity, specifically habitat for humanity, or just filling the gas tank up with gas.
Sad story: There was this lady named Lola, she was a showgirl. She was trying to dance her way to stardom doing the meringue and the cha-cha at the club where her boyfriend Tony tended bar. One night this big-shot guy named Rico comes into the bar and after Lola’s set, he called her over to his table and gets fresh with her. This sets Tony off and they get into a big’ole bar fight, breaking chairs and all. Then, Rico pulls out a gun and shoots Tony dead. Thirty years later, Lola still sits in the same club, now a disco, wearing her old showgirl dress and faded feathers in her hair, drinking her self blind. She lost her youth and she lost her Tony, now she’s lost her mind.
Word(s) of the day: SHMOO
Interesting
Lexie log: Lexie will be spending a couple hours with Gramma Betty and Pete and Yancy tonight since we are going to the movie premier. – She watched most of the movie “Robots” last night, but towards the end, she asked me if we could watch Sponge Bob instead. A real Sponge Bob fanatic. She loves Patrick and Gary the best. – I just got off the phone with Daddy. They got up around 8:00 and she asked for milk. They went into the kitchen, and as Daddy was pouring her some milk she said, “I’m goin’ back to bed” and walked off. Daddy walked back into the bedroom and she was all tucked under the covers on my side of the bed waiting for her milk. When he told me the story I wanted to go home and snuggle. – I’m pretty much letting her pick out her own clothes now. She is doing really well, unless she is cranky. Then, she just says ‘no’ to everything I offer until I have to tell her we’re canceling whatever plans and walk away. Eventually she lets me decide in these situations.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, backbones, skin, Keebler elves, children’s books, Les the mailman, and happy fun.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
I'm wearin' fur pajamas, I ride a Hot Potato, It's tickling my fancies, Speak up, now I can't hear you, Here on this mountain top
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
For two days now the stoplight at the intersection of 185th and Heritage Pkwy has been acting up. The northbound light stays green for approximately three seconds, only letting one or two cars through, then turns yellow and the left turn light southbound goes to green with no vehicle actually there to turn. Strange. I wonder if I should call the city. But which city, I don’t know. 185th is the border of Hillsboro and Beaverton. Oddly enough, when I went to research this, I don’t live in either city. We live right on the outskirts of both. I guess I never made it to the city… I’m going to wait one more day, and if the light is still doing it tomorrow morning, I’ll call Beaverton. – Sadie the puppy is already taken. No sooner did I get home and try to show Frank her picture, and she was off the list already. I hope she gets an awesome home. In fact, when we looked at the recently adopted page, many of the cats that Michelle and I had both liked were also there, like Saturday. The Humane Society is definitely the way to go when you want an animal. – OK, funny how one single moment can turn a few minutes of a day sour. I’m doing my best not to let Karma run over my amygdala. I made a joke, it came out with a sting of truth and now I feel like playing who can be the biggest kindergartener. At least Carrie is in a better mood than me and ended the battle of my witless ego. – Mailing in the PTCW packet today. – Lana’s plant now has four vines climbing down my cube wall. I’m having a really good time training them to run all around my desk area. Carrie decided to get two of the vines to wrap or twist as they grow. One of them actually grew through one of the eyelets of the woven metal frame on my hanging mirror. – Last fall I entered the annual office baseball World Series pool and one $125 dollars. It’s that time of year again, so the Keller’s have a few squares. – There is some construction going on up the street here and from here the jackhammer they are using sounds like a helicopter (Lexie calls them ‘copters’). It keeps making me think there must be some news crew covering a story or traffic accident. – I get to be a Pacific hurricane in 2008.
Word(s) of the day: BACK OFF, WHIPPERSNAPPER
Lexie log: I’d rather be playing with her today. – She tried on her ‘gown’ from her cousin Marissa last night. It is a gorgeous dress. She would have worn it all night if I had let her. Unfortunately, this is a very formal dress in excellent condition and I didn’t know she would become so attached to it. I’ll try to get her a play dress up gown from the good will or somewhere. This one is baby blue satin, with royal blue flowers where the bodice meets the skirt, and layers of netting trimmed with ribbon over the skirt. Well, I’m not sure if it happened when she was pirouetting around the house, or when we struggled while I wrestled her out of it, or even if it was there to begin with and I didn’t notice it, but somehow there is now a small rip in the top layer of netting. I sure do hope I can find some way to repair it without it looking to funny. – Did I mention that Lexie is determined to be a stunt double in action movies? She just loves to fly from the fireplace hearth to the beanbag. She poises herself on the edge of the hearth (which is about half a foot higher than the living room floor), checks to make sure the beanbag is exactly in the correct position (it slides across the floor from the previous jumps, and she has to reposition it), bends her knees and makes these whirling motions with her arms like she is about to fall from the top of a skyscraper, launches her self into the air spread eagle, and after being airborne long enough for my stomach and heart to do their own acrobatics she comes to a crash landing in the beanbag. And, she is always telling her Daddy that she wants to be a movie star. She is so awesome!
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, not drowning in the shallow end of my attitude, music, headlights, funny last names, funny co-workers, children’s’ vocabulary and word alterations, and WünderBars.
For two days now the stoplight at the intersection of 185th and Heritage Pkwy has been acting up. The northbound light stays green for approximately three seconds, only letting one or two cars through, then turns yellow and the left turn light southbound goes to green with no vehicle actually there to turn. Strange. I wonder if I should call the city. But which city, I don’t know. 185th is the border of Hillsboro and Beaverton. Oddly enough, when I went to research this, I don’t live in either city. We live right on the outskirts of both. I guess I never made it to the city… I’m going to wait one more day, and if the light is still doing it tomorrow morning, I’ll call Beaverton. – Sadie the puppy is already taken. No sooner did I get home and try to show Frank her picture, and she was off the list already. I hope she gets an awesome home. In fact, when we looked at the recently adopted page, many of the cats that Michelle and I had both liked were also there, like Saturday. The Humane Society is definitely the way to go when you want an animal. – OK, funny how one single moment can turn a few minutes of a day sour. I’m doing my best not to let Karma run over my amygdala. I made a joke, it came out with a sting of truth and now I feel like playing who can be the biggest kindergartener. At least Carrie is in a better mood than me and ended the battle of my witless ego. – Mailing in the PTCW packet today. – Lana’s plant now has four vines climbing down my cube wall. I’m having a really good time training them to run all around my desk area. Carrie decided to get two of the vines to wrap or twist as they grow. One of them actually grew through one of the eyelets of the woven metal frame on my hanging mirror. – Last fall I entered the annual office baseball World Series pool and one $125 dollars. It’s that time of year again, so the Keller’s have a few squares. – There is some construction going on up the street here and from here the jackhammer they are using sounds like a helicopter (Lexie calls them ‘copters’). It keeps making me think there must be some news crew covering a story or traffic accident. – I get to be a Pacific hurricane in 2008.
Word(s) of the day: BACK OFF, WHIPPERSNAPPER
Lexie log: I’d rather be playing with her today. – She tried on her ‘gown’ from her cousin Marissa last night. It is a gorgeous dress. She would have worn it all night if I had let her. Unfortunately, this is a very formal dress in excellent condition and I didn’t know she would become so attached to it. I’ll try to get her a play dress up gown from the good will or somewhere. This one is baby blue satin, with royal blue flowers where the bodice meets the skirt, and layers of netting trimmed with ribbon over the skirt. Well, I’m not sure if it happened when she was pirouetting around the house, or when we struggled while I wrestled her out of it, or even if it was there to begin with and I didn’t notice it, but somehow there is now a small rip in the top layer of netting. I sure do hope I can find some way to repair it without it looking to funny. – Did I mention that Lexie is determined to be a stunt double in action movies? She just loves to fly from the fireplace hearth to the beanbag. She poises herself on the edge of the hearth (which is about half a foot higher than the living room floor), checks to make sure the beanbag is exactly in the correct position (it slides across the floor from the previous jumps, and she has to reposition it), bends her knees and makes these whirling motions with her arms like she is about to fall from the top of a skyscraper, launches her self into the air spread eagle, and after being airborne long enough for my stomach and heart to do their own acrobatics she comes to a crash landing in the beanbag. And, she is always telling her Daddy that she wants to be a movie star. She is so awesome!
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, not drowning in the shallow end of my attitude, music, headlights, funny last names, funny co-workers, children’s’ vocabulary and word alterations, and WünderBars.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
She's a maniac, maniac, and it shows...
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Rassa frassits. Busyness business. It is so awesome to have Jan back. She is such a kind soul, and she was missed. – Thursday is the premier of the new Zorro movie at some theatre downtown and my work gave out passes. The movie starts at seven, and we need to drop Lexie off at her Gramma Betty’s and get there early because they don’t guarantee seating. Cool, free movie premier. Last year we went to Daddy Daycare at Lloyd cinemas with the same type deal. – Saturday is our one and only free pass to the family swim from 6:00 – 8:00pm at Lexie’s swim school and we will try that out. – Sunday, after swim lesson, is bowling, still not sure what time though. Really looking forward to that, I haven’t bowled in ages and I never bowled much. In fact the only bowling I remember I wasn’t much older than Lexie. – Tomorrow is the date to mail in the Portland to Coast packet. I have all but one team member confirmed and paid. Marinka will get back to me by lunch, and if she can’t, I guess it will be Karina’s son. – Never had any luck finding a public pool that’s affordable for us to take Lexie twice a week. Our house is in some strange zoning black hole that doesn’t exist in any park district. If we lived in ANY district, we would have dozens of pools in all directions that we could take her too for five bucks. As it is, we have dozens of pools around us that cost as much as going to a movie to swim for an hour or two. Our only hope now is to find someone who live is an apartment with an indoor pool who will let us drop in a couple times a week. – Update on the future dog search: I keep vacillating between dog breeds; sometimes I want a Shepard (German, or Australian), sometimes a Border collie, and sometimes a Pomeranian. I spend a few minutes each week perusing the Oregon Humane Society website looking for puppies. I found Sadie a 3-month-old Border collie today. I sure hope that it’s this easy when we actually have our tax refund available. Even though I’m sure that Lexie will absolutely love to have a dog, this is just as much a dream of mine and my birthday/Christmas present to myself. I have spent a huge amount of time researching breed personalities and what will be the best fit. These three dogs would be great, but we can only get a puppy so that it is raised with Lexie and the cats. My biggest dilemma is how the cats will handle it, mostly Tiki. Well, I had the same thoughts when I was pregnant with Lexie and that worked out just fine.
Word(s) of the day: OREXIS
Lexie log: Daddy took Lexie for a bike ride for about an hour yesterday afternoon and then Grammy came over and played. She has two new sets of plastic animals. She had dogs, cats, jungle, and sea creatures, and yesterday Grammy brought her mice and insects. She is particularly fond of an oddly realistic oversized green fly/cicada thingy. Nice translucent wings, fits well in the palm of your hand, really hope it isn’t life size. Also came with a freaky looking scorpion and some other creepy crawlers. I should borrow them for a day to bring to work. We all wandered around Fred Meyers where Grammy treated us to some grocery shopping (I love you Mom) and Lexie kept picking different balloons to ride around the cart with. She started with a huge clown fish, and then when she was bored with that, she went on to a giant frog with weird eyes. Grammy was already beat from working so much overtime that it was amazing to watch her take a beating from the helium filled creatures as we moved about the store. Finally at the check out counter she traded out for a seasonal, spider balloon that we played with the whole evening. – Lexie was so pooped by the time Grammy left that she fell asleep eating dinner. I put her down in bed and she was up just in time for bedtime…goofy child. When she did wake up she got her second bath of the day, water baby that she is. She has this odd little ritual after a bath, when she is drying off. When I go to dry her hair, she gives me a big hug and dries her face in my hair. I wonder how many times I’ve been a tissue? – I just saw in our email that the next three movies we’re getting in the mail are two discs of season one Sponge Bob episodes and…Whoopee…Robots! -- This weekend we are going to try to carve the pumpkins.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, Grammy, weekends, swimming, holding a sleeping child with that perfect mother-daughter fit, Grammy visits, pickled garlic, water, and mail movies.’s
Rassa frassits. Busyness business. It is so awesome to have Jan back. She is such a kind soul, and she was missed. – Thursday is the premier of the new Zorro movie at some theatre downtown and my work gave out passes. The movie starts at seven, and we need to drop Lexie off at her Gramma Betty’s and get there early because they don’t guarantee seating. Cool, free movie premier. Last year we went to Daddy Daycare at Lloyd cinemas with the same type deal. – Saturday is our one and only free pass to the family swim from 6:00 – 8:00pm at Lexie’s swim school and we will try that out. – Sunday, after swim lesson, is bowling, still not sure what time though. Really looking forward to that, I haven’t bowled in ages and I never bowled much. In fact the only bowling I remember I wasn’t much older than Lexie. – Tomorrow is the date to mail in the Portland to Coast packet. I have all but one team member confirmed and paid. Marinka will get back to me by lunch, and if she can’t, I guess it will be Karina’s son. – Never had any luck finding a public pool that’s affordable for us to take Lexie twice a week. Our house is in some strange zoning black hole that doesn’t exist in any park district. If we lived in ANY district, we would have dozens of pools in all directions that we could take her too for five bucks. As it is, we have dozens of pools around us that cost as much as going to a movie to swim for an hour or two. Our only hope now is to find someone who live is an apartment with an indoor pool who will let us drop in a couple times a week. – Update on the future dog search: I keep vacillating between dog breeds; sometimes I want a Shepard (German, or Australian), sometimes a Border collie, and sometimes a Pomeranian. I spend a few minutes each week perusing the Oregon Humane Society website looking for puppies. I found Sadie a 3-month-old Border collie today. I sure hope that it’s this easy when we actually have our tax refund available. Even though I’m sure that Lexie will absolutely love to have a dog, this is just as much a dream of mine and my birthday/Christmas present to myself. I have spent a huge amount of time researching breed personalities and what will be the best fit. These three dogs would be great, but we can only get a puppy so that it is raised with Lexie and the cats. My biggest dilemma is how the cats will handle it, mostly Tiki. Well, I had the same thoughts when I was pregnant with Lexie and that worked out just fine.
Word(s) of the day: OREXIS
Lexie log: Daddy took Lexie for a bike ride for about an hour yesterday afternoon and then Grammy came over and played. She has two new sets of plastic animals. She had dogs, cats, jungle, and sea creatures, and yesterday Grammy brought her mice and insects. She is particularly fond of an oddly realistic oversized green fly/cicada thingy. Nice translucent wings, fits well in the palm of your hand, really hope it isn’t life size. Also came with a freaky looking scorpion and some other creepy crawlers. I should borrow them for a day to bring to work. We all wandered around Fred Meyers where Grammy treated us to some grocery shopping (I love you Mom) and Lexie kept picking different balloons to ride around the cart with. She started with a huge clown fish, and then when she was bored with that, she went on to a giant frog with weird eyes. Grammy was already beat from working so much overtime that it was amazing to watch her take a beating from the helium filled creatures as we moved about the store. Finally at the check out counter she traded out for a seasonal, spider balloon that we played with the whole evening. – Lexie was so pooped by the time Grammy left that she fell asleep eating dinner. I put her down in bed and she was up just in time for bedtime…goofy child. When she did wake up she got her second bath of the day, water baby that she is. She has this odd little ritual after a bath, when she is drying off. When I go to dry her hair, she gives me a big hug and dries her face in my hair. I wonder how many times I’ve been a tissue? – I just saw in our email that the next three movies we’re getting in the mail are two discs of season one Sponge Bob episodes and…Whoopee…Robots! -- This weekend we are going to try to carve the pumpkins.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, Grammy, weekends, swimming, holding a sleeping child with that perfect mother-daughter fit, Grammy visits, pickled garlic, water, and mail movies.’s
Monday, October 17, 2005
Do you know the way to San Jose? I've been away so long, I may go wrong and loose my way...
Monday, October 17, 2005
Spent the drive in to work this morning planning how we’d spend the $340 million Powerball jackpot. I wonder how many people that drive by that sign do the same thing. Pay off loans for all family members houses, set up investment accounts for; property taxes, Lexie’s education, medical insurance for the three of us and all parents, etc., retain good/reputable accountant, attorney, and investment broker, Christmas shopping, one million each to closest family members and friends, school for Frank for automotive, me for coding/transcription, hire a personal cook, look into real estate for custom home and begin planning, time share in Cancun, go to Disney World, travel, buy toys… Oh, the list went on, all the way from SW 185th Hillsboro to NE 39th exit in Portland. – Had another excellent weekend. Visited Frank’s 92 year old aunt Eva on Saturday. Her son Mike and dog Maxie were there too. That was very pleasant. – Busy day today; Monday reports and Seth out today and tomorrow. I do believe he is in Kentucky, visiting his twin brother and having a job interview. – Need to mail in the entries for PTCW the day after tomorrow. I have all but two entry forms and fees.
Word(s) of the day: BOISTEROUS
Lexie log: Daddy took her for a bike ride last Friday. He called me from work to let me know when they were headed out and then when they came back. Sounds like she enjoyed it immensely. He rode them all over the neighborhood. – Lexie is still just under people’s radar, and Saturday at Great Aunt Eva’s, she got plowed twice by six foot something second cousin Mike while talking in the driveway. She was so tire by the time we got there anyway. She cried both times, but only because she was tired. When we left, she gave Eva and Mike a great big hug and kiss, and Eva went back in the house and brought her out an M&M cookie. She fell asleep halfway through eating it and we left it with Gramma Betty. When Lexie woke up almost an hour later, her first words were, where’s the cookie and where’s Gramma. – Sunday, she was a little tired for swim because she got up a little earlier than usual. She did really well. Out of the four children in her class, it seems that she is the most well behaved and attentive. She still isn’t comfortable with her face in the water, but she is jumping out to teacher AJ better. I really want to find an affordable public pool to go to twice a week. – After swim she fell asleep on the way home. Her and I took a nap for almost two hours and when we got up, we biked to the school at Tobias and we spent an hour playing there. She threw an absolute tantrum when it was time to go home. She bounced around so viciously in the bike trailer that it was almost affecting my being able to steer. And she wasn’t quiet about it either. When we got back to the house, she started walking away as soon as I got her helmet off. She acted like she was going to walk back to the park on her own. I wheeled the bike and trailer to the side of the house and then stood and talked to her as she went away, stopped, came back a little, turned around again. I went to the front door and called into Daddy that we had a runaway wannabe on our hands and he came out and helped we comforted her. She was so adorable. We told her that we would go back to the park sometimes, but that it was dinnertime and she couldn’t sleep at the park. Daddy did his infamous, “Where ya gonna go? Who ya gonna see? What ya gonna do?” and she finally came running up to him with arms open and a big smile. We went in and after dinner she picked VHS tapes to watch. We climbed into bed around 10:00 and giggled ourselves to sleep.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, weekends, swimming, canned foods, utensils, bicycles and trailers, couches, apple sauce cereal, and happiness.
Spent the drive in to work this morning planning how we’d spend the $340 million Powerball jackpot. I wonder how many people that drive by that sign do the same thing. Pay off loans for all family members houses, set up investment accounts for; property taxes, Lexie’s education, medical insurance for the three of us and all parents, etc., retain good/reputable accountant, attorney, and investment broker, Christmas shopping, one million each to closest family members and friends, school for Frank for automotive, me for coding/transcription, hire a personal cook, look into real estate for custom home and begin planning, time share in Cancun, go to Disney World, travel, buy toys… Oh, the list went on, all the way from SW 185th Hillsboro to NE 39th exit in Portland. – Had another excellent weekend. Visited Frank’s 92 year old aunt Eva on Saturday. Her son Mike and dog Maxie were there too. That was very pleasant. – Busy day today; Monday reports and Seth out today and tomorrow. I do believe he is in Kentucky, visiting his twin brother and having a job interview. – Need to mail in the entries for PTCW the day after tomorrow. I have all but two entry forms and fees.
Word(s) of the day: BOISTEROUS
Lexie log: Daddy took her for a bike ride last Friday. He called me from work to let me know when they were headed out and then when they came back. Sounds like she enjoyed it immensely. He rode them all over the neighborhood. – Lexie is still just under people’s radar, and Saturday at Great Aunt Eva’s, she got plowed twice by six foot something second cousin Mike while talking in the driveway. She was so tire by the time we got there anyway. She cried both times, but only because she was tired. When we left, she gave Eva and Mike a great big hug and kiss, and Eva went back in the house and brought her out an M&M cookie. She fell asleep halfway through eating it and we left it with Gramma Betty. When Lexie woke up almost an hour later, her first words were, where’s the cookie and where’s Gramma. – Sunday, she was a little tired for swim because she got up a little earlier than usual. She did really well. Out of the four children in her class, it seems that she is the most well behaved and attentive. She still isn’t comfortable with her face in the water, but she is jumping out to teacher AJ better. I really want to find an affordable public pool to go to twice a week. – After swim she fell asleep on the way home. Her and I took a nap for almost two hours and when we got up, we biked to the school at Tobias and we spent an hour playing there. She threw an absolute tantrum when it was time to go home. She bounced around so viciously in the bike trailer that it was almost affecting my being able to steer. And she wasn’t quiet about it either. When we got back to the house, she started walking away as soon as I got her helmet off. She acted like she was going to walk back to the park on her own. I wheeled the bike and trailer to the side of the house and then stood and talked to her as she went away, stopped, came back a little, turned around again. I went to the front door and called into Daddy that we had a runaway wannabe on our hands and he came out and helped we comforted her. She was so adorable. We told her that we would go back to the park sometimes, but that it was dinnertime and she couldn’t sleep at the park. Daddy did his infamous, “Where ya gonna go? Who ya gonna see? What ya gonna do?” and she finally came running up to him with arms open and a big smile. We went in and after dinner she picked VHS tapes to watch. We climbed into bed around 10:00 and giggled ourselves to sleep.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, weekends, swimming, canned foods, utensils, bicycles and trailers, couches, apple sauce cereal, and happiness.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
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