Sigh.
My poor pristine little Volkswagen beetle just got bonked AGAIN. A guy with no insurance and no driver's license (his wallet had just been stolen, imagine!) backed into me in a parking lot. Fortunately, it's not bad. I can just imagine the look on the body shop guy's face when we bring it in AGAIN.
I ran into an old colleague from work at the grocery store and we spent about 45 minutes catching up. Her three older kids have all graduated from college--impressive!--and her youngest is at UVA. In the meantime, I am trying not to worry too much about mine, who are very close in age to hers. I love them so much, and I am so glad I have them, but I have learned that you never let go one hundred percent. Are they happy? Are they going to church? Do they have enough money?
Life certainly does not seem to get easier. The only answer is faith and prayer.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Newsflash: It's Winter
Let's all sit down, take a deep breath, and get a grip.
It's February: we have had the winter solstice, and it's more than a month to the vernal equinox. That makes us officially in the winter season, when the temperature dips and the precipitation can freeze, creating what we all know as SNOW.
So why is everyone running around like chickens with their heads cut off, squealing about the snow?
Yes, I know that we have gotten the heaviest snowfall Washington DC has ever known. So what? We have hurricanes in the fall--that's a lot of rain. Notice the vegetation around here? Takes a lot of moisture to grow all that stuff. It's humid here--there's a lot of precipitation! And the winter temperatures make it into snow! And yes, sometimes there's more precipitation than others! So we get MORE SNOW.
Every network had people out in the snowfall yesterday--and reported on it all day long. Enough, already!
Miraculously, or maybe not, nobody has been killed! I have yet to hear of anyone's roof collapsing (private home, that is. Some commercial buildings have lost roofs).
So can we please just quit complaining and deal?
It's February: we have had the winter solstice, and it's more than a month to the vernal equinox. That makes us officially in the winter season, when the temperature dips and the precipitation can freeze, creating what we all know as SNOW.
So why is everyone running around like chickens with their heads cut off, squealing about the snow?
Yes, I know that we have gotten the heaviest snowfall Washington DC has ever known. So what? We have hurricanes in the fall--that's a lot of rain. Notice the vegetation around here? Takes a lot of moisture to grow all that stuff. It's humid here--there's a lot of precipitation! And the winter temperatures make it into snow! And yes, sometimes there's more precipitation than others! So we get MORE SNOW.
Every network had people out in the snowfall yesterday--and reported on it all day long. Enough, already!
Miraculously, or maybe not, nobody has been killed! I have yet to hear of anyone's roof collapsing (private home, that is. Some commercial buildings have lost roofs).
So can we please just quit complaining and deal?
Sunday, February 7, 2010
The Only Way Out is Through
Sometimes, you just have to slog through things before they get better. I have done this, and it has!
We got a new TV. It is fantastic. It's an HD widescreen, and the picture is unbelievable.
I got my article done on time, and the editor loved it.
Our car was fixed, and the color matches perfectly.
The flooring project is going well-except that we have some wood rotting in the floor of the dining room, and will have to replace the french doors there as well. But I love my new floor!
My daughter seems to have had a wake-up call since she did so poorly in school last semester. Let's hope she does better this one.
I had my mammogram and appointment with the surgeon. I am fine. Hurray!
It is true that time heals many wounds, and solves many problems.
We got a new TV. It is fantastic. It's an HD widescreen, and the picture is unbelievable.
I got my article done on time, and the editor loved it.
Our car was fixed, and the color matches perfectly.
The flooring project is going well-except that we have some wood rotting in the floor of the dining room, and will have to replace the french doors there as well. But I love my new floor!
My daughter seems to have had a wake-up call since she did so poorly in school last semester. Let's hope she does better this one.
I had my mammogram and appointment with the surgeon. I am fine. Hurray!
It is true that time heals many wounds, and solves many problems.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Sometimes, Even a Well-Lived Life Sucks
My head is about to explode.
I have been inundated with an avalanche of niggling little problems so far this year that have added up to a lot of stress. I don't deal well with stress anyway; I get headaches and neck aches and want to cry all the time. So it goes.
We started a project back in September--hardwood flooring in our living room, hallway, office and dining room. We ordered the wood and were told that it would not get in until December. Surprise! It arrived in October. We planned on starting the project by ripping out the old flooring in the living room at the end of the month. That plan went awry when I had to go to Utah for a couple of weeks because my mom was dying. When I returned, we opened boxes--and guess what, the trims didn't match the flooring. Back we went to the store. We ordered new trims. They didn't match either. Then the salesman told us we could have the trims custom-matched! Why didn't he tell us that in the first place?
Those finally came in around the 4th of January. We ripped out the living room floor and began. Funny, though: the boards in the boxes of flooring were only about 1-3 feet long, with the majority about 2 feet. What's the deal? I asked at the store. The salesman looked it up, and oh, this is the norm for this flooring. I had originally been told that it was as long as 6 feet. So we are negotiating what to do with the store. Grr!
My house is a chaotic mess due to having ripped out the living-room floor. This makes me feel antsy.
Last week, my bedroom TV died. It started smelling as though it was burning up. I unplugged it, and, indeed, my husband pronounced the end of its life and threw it in the garbage. We've had it since my mother-in-law sold her house in 1989; it was made in 1982. I felt like we should have a funeral for it! I miss it. I want a new one.
I have an article due at the end of the month. I have not been having much success getting interviews with the people I need to talk to. Aaaargh!
One of my co-workers lost her job for not making sales goals--a wonderful woman with whom I have worked for nine years. She did nothing wrong! Things are totally stressful at work. I have had my schedule changed and I am working a lot more, just when I need some time off. Who's next?
My back has been hurting since early November.
I am worried about my kids. And I am going to have to pay the full out-of-state tuition for my daughter, who did not do well last semester and will not get her loan this one. She is trying to establish residency and this is not going well.
Someone hit our fairly new car in the church parking lot on Sunday. It's not badly damaged, but this will probably mean that the fender and bumper will not perfectly match the rest of the car. I hate that.
I had an upsetting phone call with my dad on Sunday night. Though it was not my fault and I did nothing wrong, I feel my dad is mad at me. I am still coming to grips with my mother's death.
I need to make doctors' appointments for a mammogram, my sinuses, a physical, and with my surgeon for a follow-up. I also need to find a new opthalmologist and see the dentist.
We got a new computer and being relatively tech-illiterate, I am having a hard time transitioning between the old one and the new one. (Yes, this stresses me out!)
Yesterday I took a cashmere sweater from the dry-cleaning wrapping and put it on, to discover a hole in the left arm.
But, as a wise friend says, nobody's sick or in jail. Guess I should be grateful, huh?
Gosh, this year has got to get better, right? Calgon, take me away!
I have been inundated with an avalanche of niggling little problems so far this year that have added up to a lot of stress. I don't deal well with stress anyway; I get headaches and neck aches and want to cry all the time. So it goes.
We started a project back in September--hardwood flooring in our living room, hallway, office and dining room. We ordered the wood and were told that it would not get in until December. Surprise! It arrived in October. We planned on starting the project by ripping out the old flooring in the living room at the end of the month. That plan went awry when I had to go to Utah for a couple of weeks because my mom was dying. When I returned, we opened boxes--and guess what, the trims didn't match the flooring. Back we went to the store. We ordered new trims. They didn't match either. Then the salesman told us we could have the trims custom-matched! Why didn't he tell us that in the first place?
Those finally came in around the 4th of January. We ripped out the living room floor and began. Funny, though: the boards in the boxes of flooring were only about 1-3 feet long, with the majority about 2 feet. What's the deal? I asked at the store. The salesman looked it up, and oh, this is the norm for this flooring. I had originally been told that it was as long as 6 feet. So we are negotiating what to do with the store. Grr!
My house is a chaotic mess due to having ripped out the living-room floor. This makes me feel antsy.
Last week, my bedroom TV died. It started smelling as though it was burning up. I unplugged it, and, indeed, my husband pronounced the end of its life and threw it in the garbage. We've had it since my mother-in-law sold her house in 1989; it was made in 1982. I felt like we should have a funeral for it! I miss it. I want a new one.
I have an article due at the end of the month. I have not been having much success getting interviews with the people I need to talk to. Aaaargh!
One of my co-workers lost her job for not making sales goals--a wonderful woman with whom I have worked for nine years. She did nothing wrong! Things are totally stressful at work. I have had my schedule changed and I am working a lot more, just when I need some time off. Who's next?
My back has been hurting since early November.
I am worried about my kids. And I am going to have to pay the full out-of-state tuition for my daughter, who did not do well last semester and will not get her loan this one. She is trying to establish residency and this is not going well.
Someone hit our fairly new car in the church parking lot on Sunday. It's not badly damaged, but this will probably mean that the fender and bumper will not perfectly match the rest of the car. I hate that.
I had an upsetting phone call with my dad on Sunday night. Though it was not my fault and I did nothing wrong, I feel my dad is mad at me. I am still coming to grips with my mother's death.
I need to make doctors' appointments for a mammogram, my sinuses, a physical, and with my surgeon for a follow-up. I also need to find a new opthalmologist and see the dentist.
We got a new computer and being relatively tech-illiterate, I am having a hard time transitioning between the old one and the new one. (Yes, this stresses me out!)
Yesterday I took a cashmere sweater from the dry-cleaning wrapping and put it on, to discover a hole in the left arm.
But, as a wise friend says, nobody's sick or in jail. Guess I should be grateful, huh?
Gosh, this year has got to get better, right? Calgon, take me away!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Let it Snow!
(Imagine the Peanuts "Snowfall" piano piece tinkling in the background as you read this blog. Sorry I'm too tech-ignorant to put it on here.)
Wow, as I write this, it is snowing like mad outside. Generally, we don't get a lot of snow here in the DC area, but I've got more than a foot on my deck table, and it's still coming down hard. The newscasters are calling this one of the three biggest snowfalls in the history of DC!
Tha last one was a week of storms early in January, 1996. The kids and my husband were off school and work for over a week. Yep, they shut down the government when there's more than a half-inch of the white stuff.
It gets much icier here than in Utah, and because of the humidity, it feels much colder too. I simply will not ski here in the mid-Atlantic because it is so uncomfortable. I vastly prefer the ideal conditions of Alta and Solitude!
The downside is that we had to postpone the arrival of our youngest daughter. We did not want her to be stranded in a strange place, alone, as she was last year. So she comes in on Monday morning.
Maybe we can make a snowman! I am not, however, looking forward to shoveling the driveway.
Take that, Global Warming enthusiasts!
Wow, as I write this, it is snowing like mad outside. Generally, we don't get a lot of snow here in the DC area, but I've got more than a foot on my deck table, and it's still coming down hard. The newscasters are calling this one of the three biggest snowfalls in the history of DC!
Tha last one was a week of storms early in January, 1996. The kids and my husband were off school and work for over a week. Yep, they shut down the government when there's more than a half-inch of the white stuff.
It gets much icier here than in Utah, and because of the humidity, it feels much colder too. I simply will not ski here in the mid-Atlantic because it is so uncomfortable. I vastly prefer the ideal conditions of Alta and Solitude!
The downside is that we had to postpone the arrival of our youngest daughter. We did not want her to be stranded in a strange place, alone, as she was last year. So she comes in on Monday morning.
Maybe we can make a snowman! I am not, however, looking forward to shoveling the driveway.
Take that, Global Warming enthusiasts!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
The Christmas Run-Up
I love Christmas. I really do. I try to plan ahead so things are not too stressful (this is not especially effective), and I enjoy looking for presents all year 'round. All my kids (three I birthed and two I got as in-laws) will be home, and I want to make it fun and joyous and cozy for them.
I am working my way through several recipes (some multiple times!) and sharing with my co-workers and my dad, and nibbling a few myself. Well, more than a few, but I'm trying to be more mindful of my eating. We have a Continental breakfast on Christmas; I make pizzelles and my mother's cinnamon twists.
We sleep in now that our children are adults--which is just fine by me. When I was a kid I got up at the crack of dawn and sneaked downstairs for a look at the haul. Then I got my sister and we looked together, then tried to go back to bed until a more civilized hour, but we couldn't sleep. Eventually my parents got up and my dad filmed us "waking up" and "discovering" our gifts under the tree. He always panned around the room to get the whole display.
The run-up to Christmas is more fun than the actual day for me. I don't particularly care about getting any gifts myself (which frustrates my husband, who loves having lots of presents under the tree). I like to prepare the meals and the pies and the cookies and candies, and watch Christmas movies. And every other year or so, we have a huge party, the highlight of which is a White Elephant gift exchange. I had planned to have one this year, but my mother's passing has taken a bit of the stuffing out of me, and I got very far behind because I was away for three weeks. And my kids lament that they cannot be here for the party--they loved it when we had them when they were young. Next year, I hope!
I am grateful for my Savior and the miracle that was His birth. I am so glad that our Heavenly Father provided for a way we can repent of our sins, and the example of His Son, who came into this world in the humblest of circumstances. When I compare the ease and comfort and conveniences of my life compared to his, I feel very blessed. I am grateful that I could live in this day and age, despite the wars and problems. I try to let the peace begin with me, and as I get older and learn more, I am becoming more successful.
Merry Christmas, every one!
I am working my way through several recipes (some multiple times!) and sharing with my co-workers and my dad, and nibbling a few myself. Well, more than a few, but I'm trying to be more mindful of my eating. We have a Continental breakfast on Christmas; I make pizzelles and my mother's cinnamon twists.
We sleep in now that our children are adults--which is just fine by me. When I was a kid I got up at the crack of dawn and sneaked downstairs for a look at the haul. Then I got my sister and we looked together, then tried to go back to bed until a more civilized hour, but we couldn't sleep. Eventually my parents got up and my dad filmed us "waking up" and "discovering" our gifts under the tree. He always panned around the room to get the whole display.
The run-up to Christmas is more fun than the actual day for me. I don't particularly care about getting any gifts myself (which frustrates my husband, who loves having lots of presents under the tree). I like to prepare the meals and the pies and the cookies and candies, and watch Christmas movies. And every other year or so, we have a huge party, the highlight of which is a White Elephant gift exchange. I had planned to have one this year, but my mother's passing has taken a bit of the stuffing out of me, and I got very far behind because I was away for three weeks. And my kids lament that they cannot be here for the party--they loved it when we had them when they were young. Next year, I hope!
I am grateful for my Savior and the miracle that was His birth. I am so glad that our Heavenly Father provided for a way we can repent of our sins, and the example of His Son, who came into this world in the humblest of circumstances. When I compare the ease and comfort and conveniences of my life compared to his, I feel very blessed. I am grateful that I could live in this day and age, despite the wars and problems. I try to let the peace begin with me, and as I get older and learn more, I am becoming more successful.
Merry Christmas, every one!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
A Well-Lived Life Ends
Goodbye, Mom.
I have been in Utah for two weeks because my mother was dying, and she passed away one week after I got here, on November 6, 2009 at the age of 84 years and 8 months.
My mother was both brilliant and naive, loving and domineering, enthusiastic about her own interests, pessimistic and negative about those of which she didn't approve or share. Often, she didn't approve of me. I learned to deal with it, though often her anger and disapproval hurt or enraged me. But, as my husband observed once, people are a mixed bag. Mom certainly was.
At the end of the day, though, I always knew my mother loved me. She had serious anxiety issues and never really learned to adequately control her emotions. However, the strength she taught me gave me the ability to stand up to her disapproval and do what I knew to be right.
Each day since her death has been a little easier. Having watched her decline for nearly 3 years made it easier to say the long goodbye. I am glad she is in a better place, no longer prisoner in that pain-riddled, deteriorating body.
I have been in Utah for two weeks because my mother was dying, and she passed away one week after I got here, on November 6, 2009 at the age of 84 years and 8 months.
My mother was both brilliant and naive, loving and domineering, enthusiastic about her own interests, pessimistic and negative about those of which she didn't approve or share. Often, she didn't approve of me. I learned to deal with it, though often her anger and disapproval hurt or enraged me. But, as my husband observed once, people are a mixed bag. Mom certainly was.
At the end of the day, though, I always knew my mother loved me. She had serious anxiety issues and never really learned to adequately control her emotions. However, the strength she taught me gave me the ability to stand up to her disapproval and do what I knew to be right.
Each day since her death has been a little easier. Having watched her decline for nearly 3 years made it easier to say the long goodbye. I am glad she is in a better place, no longer prisoner in that pain-riddled, deteriorating body.
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