Eight Years Later.....

Well, here we are, eight years after our 'big day'.... Today was our Anniversary!
The first picture is of the card that Bella made for us this year (with the help of her grandparents). I was really impressed with how well she wrote her letters. Not too shabby for three years old, eh??
Then we have a few pictures of the four of us opening our presents.
Richie and I took a few pictures of ourselves the ol' hold-the-camera-back -with-one-arm-and-grin way. Then Bella took a few of us as well. So, we have a couple of just the two of us. Ta Da! We're just SO talented.

There is a funny (to me anyhow) picture of Richie with his 'gold' coins that were attached to his present (yeah, chocolate). He loves gold coins. Seriously,..... he needs like a big pot of gold at the end of a rainbow somewhere to stand guard over dressed in a green suit and litle hat. "don't touch me gooold!!!!!"

Out of everything she got, I think Mia liked her ball the best. She tossed aside the fancy light up bear (over a period of time it lights up in a whole rainbow of colors....personally, I think it is awe-SOME) several times because it was blocking her ball. She carried that little thing all around the house--- rolling it, throwing it, and chasing it -all afternoon. Oh yeah, and her shiny bead necklaces....She keeps swiping Bella's so I finally got her a set to call her own. She has at least one strand on in almost every picture. Girl's gotta have bling!

Bella posed in her butterfly outfit (wings with little bells on the end that make tinkly noises and an antennae headband). She jumped around, flapping her arms (and wings, of course). The cat was chasing around the bells. Totally cute.

Then later, the girls and I drove Keith and Lisa to the airport. Richie went to the meeting to do his Bible reading, and then he hit the road to Boston where he's got some training to do for the next couple of days. A whirlwind day! Whew!

Friday

Well it's Friday....

...and since there was a 'holiday' yesterday, today is grocery shopping day around here. The girls both have colds (miraculously, I haven't caught it yet) and I'm debating whether or not to just wait till Richie gets home to do the shopping. The problem with that scenario is that then I have to FLY from store to store as they close trying to get it all done.

Now, if I were a normal person, I would just go to one or two stores and be done with it. But, seeing as it's me, and I have to get THE best price on everything, I have to go to SIX different stores. Of course, this is my idea of fun so I can't really complain. It's just a matter of timing. And oh but I am so tempted to go out into the big bad world of retail and check out all those amazing sales that are today only. But seriously, I am way too tired to add more stores to the list just for a good deal on a fleece sweatshirt (old navy has 'em for 10 bucks today! Drool).

Since I have nothing better to write about today, I will list the regular stops on my weekly shopping expedition......(yes, this is mind numbing, isn't it??)

1. First Caswell's......otherwise known as the 'dented can store'. All kinds of super duper buys on canned goods, pet items, etc. Never know what they will have from week to week but it will always be a steal!
2. Then off to Big Lots.....snack foods, laundry detergent, office supply stuff...
3. Somewhere in between these stops, a trip over to Starbucks is required to refuel...
4. Then of course, sometimes (like today) we need to dash over to the dollar store. Gotta get me some cheap lint rollers for all the cat hair.....argghh...
5. Let's see.....then we hit Shaw's (for all you west coasters, I believe it is called Albertson's there)
6. Then of course there is Walmart......the meca of all marts.....ours is a super-duper-giant-has-its-own-gravitational-pull-center Walmart. So I buy all non-fresh groceries and drug store items there....whatever I didn't already get at the other places. Since the frozen food items come from there as well, that's generally the last stop of the night. Since it's open either till midnight or 24 hours (depending on the remodeling schedule), that place can suck you into itself for hours of leisurelly wandering....
7. Oh yeah, and today I gotta hit Petsmart (or petco or pet staples....can't remember it's name) to find a bigger cat hair brush. Ours are too small....they only kinda get to the surface hair and we need a much deeper/larger/human-head-sized brush for our giant felines.... think more small cheetah size than normal housecat

Now, depending on this or that, sometimes we can slip into other stores along the way (Joann's, Craft Mania, TJMaxx, Kohl's, etc). But usually not. For me, these are the forbidden stores that just tempt you to come in and spend all your grocery money on things you didn't know you 'needed' until you are there. LOL

(Hmmm.....Except....I DO kinda need a new pair of footless tights.....addicted to those things since you can wear big ol' socks with your dress up boots and not worry about crunching up your toes trying to put the socks OVER your normal tights or nylons....how did I ever live before footless tights???)

Ah well.....we'll see how the cookie crumbles. I am still in my bathrobe and glasses drinking my coffee. I just finished getting caught up on my email and it's just about naptime for one of the rugrats so things to do dontcha know....

Till next time.....

-Sondi

Lucky Cinderella, i so envy her....

So..... I am tired.

Not really anything new.
And, at least today, I am tired after actually DOING something.

The weekend was one of those go, go, go ones where you don't get a single break and you meet all your obligations but you are so tired that you don't really get to ENJOY them much.

After picking up the cats on Saturday, Lisa and I watched "John Tucker Must Die". If you love teeny-bopper flicks about teenagers played by twenty-somethings and you don't mind a corny, totally guessable storyline, then this movie is for you. I loved it. LOL

Then, after the movie, Keith took Lisa home and Richie and Mia and I got into the car for the hour drive south to see his parents.

Then began the cat talks.

Richie was not convinced we should get them and when he got home from work on Saturday, there they were. "Boy, the mice sure got big all of a sudden", he says as he walks thru the front door and one of the giant cats runs by. I was just relieved at the time that he was being so good natured about it. But then, as we are driving he says basically, "why, why, why, why????".

So then we talked and FINALLY we came upon why he didn't want the cats. It wasn't the cost, the smell, the 'responsibility', or anything else. He was concerned that they were going to be Clutter.

Now, if you have ever seen the homes of certain members of my family and people I grew up with, you would understand his clutter concern. I have a really bad habit of starting projects and leaving them half finished for later. I love to read and have books and magazines that "I plan to get to", stacked up all over the house. Sooo....as a compromise, I promised to cut down on the clutter. I know that I have been needing to be more routine in my habits. I feel like I never get anything done. I make a lot of plans but they never seem to pan out. So we talked about all the forms of clutter around the house. The dining room, the living room, the kitchen, the office....etc. etc. etc.

So I now have a list of things that I have promised to de-clutter. And, for the sake of posterity (and in case the list I made and stuck to the fridge falls off and disappears), I will put my list here.......

1. Maintain empty surfaces in the kitchen. (we do not have counters so this is no small feat)

2. Keep the sink empty enough that the water pitcher can be refilled at any given moment.

3. Keep the Dining Table empty and cleared off of any craft items at all times (except when guests come over to use it with me)

4. Toys picked up from the living room just before Richie gets home so that they don't have a chance to accumulate and he gets to at least see it clean once in a while...(more a matter of timing than anything else)

5. No food on the floor or anything else that can stick to the bottom of your socks (I know this one sounds obvious....unless you live with small children and then you KNOW how just about impossible this one is)

6. Carpets vacuumed more often so that there is no cat hair on them (they've been here 3 1/2 days and there are already some hairballs that need to be vacuumed up....ugh)

7. No more stacks of magazines or books in the livingroom or diningroom

8. No laundry stacked anywhere but the Giant Purple Chair in the livingroom

9. Not more than one laundry basket waiting to be folded left out at any given time.

10. Maintain empty ottoman so that feet can be put on it without disturbing something already there

It seems like there are some more items on the list downstairs on the fridge but I can't think of them at the moment....I think that is because the other items on the list are projects that need doing to accomplish the items above....like for instance, cleaning off my craft table in the playroom so that IT can be used instead of the diningroom table. Stuff like that...

oh yeah....also need to empty out the guestroom, otherwise known as "the nappy room", "the storage room", and "ugh, I can't look at it because there is too much stuff crammed in there and I'm scared something is going to crawl, jump, or ooze out and on to me"-room.

So...like....there is my day....Finished with the kitchen, started some laundry. Gotta bring all the rest downstairs and sort it. Then wash it. Then fold it. Then quickly put it away so that no one sees it in the living room.

Please....

....shoot me now.

Picture pages....get your picture pages....

Here are some pictures from the party last night (see the below post for more on that): Muriel Burton & Shirley McLain, Bella posing in front of the flamingos, Susan & Debbie Kline, Jerod and my uncle Floyd. The second set of pictures are of the new furry members of our family.... I think Scarlett (she's in all the pictures except for the upper right one) is feeling more at home. She adores being brushed and will follow you around and snuggle in the hopes of more brushing. Rhett came out of hiding this morning and, in the upper right picture, is chowing down on his breakfast. He is slowly but surely adjusting to his new home. He's still kinda shy and spends most of his days in hiding.
The other four pictures are Bella and Mia this morning. (Yeah, Bella was so tired last night that she slept in her party duds.) Mia, as always, loves having her picture taken and grins like mad. She is STILL calling me Da-da which makes me nuts. Actually, all humans are da-da....her mum, dad, sister, and any stranger whose attention she is trying to get. The funny thing is, she points, yells "da-da!", and then proceeds to ramble on in some un-known language to whomever she is talking to/at. She is going to be a talker, just like her big sister I'm thinking, because she's a little motor mouth already....jabbering on and on in her little high pitched baby voice. *smirk*

Happy Anniversary !!!

Last night we celebrated Betsy & Steve Jackson's 35th Anniversary (it's actually today...but it was a surprise party) in North Yarmouth. There was food, music, dancing and all around general merriment.

The first set of pictures at the top are Betsy, Kimmy & her mom, the cake, and Betsy & Steve during their special romantic anniversary dance.
The second set of pictures are Bella and Mia dancing, Michelle & Keith Jordan, Keith & Lisa Friedrich, and more of Steven & Betsy dancing.

The third set of photos are Jerod & Betsy during their mom & son dance, Shirley McLain & Nancy Maines, a bunch of people doing the electric slide (how could you possibly have a party without it???), and Elice & Bella playing on the dance floor (they were generally just blurs speeding by all night).

The fourth set of photos is of Mia, Bella & Mia dancing, Bella CHASING Mia (while she toddles away giggling like crazy), and Bella in the groove dancing away.

Here kitty, kitty

Here are pictures of Rhett & Scarlett. This is my third attempt to upload these and write comments and so now I'm reallllly not wanting to type a whole lot.

Rhett is the gray and white cat on the upper left. They are both large cats and appear to be Maine Coon mixes so they are also realllly fuzzy and cuddly looking.

Scarlet is the younger of the two (she's 3, he's 4) and is peppy like a kitten. Rhett is more laid back. They've botth had their front paws declawed (so inhumane). They seemed to get along great with the girls, even when poked, prodded, and yanked on.

We (lisa and I) are going to pick them up this morning and I'm sooooo excited!!!!

I'm including a link that talks about Maine coon cat breeds, so just click on where it says "here kitty, kitty" and it will take you there. Really interesting stuff!

Ta-Da! & WHOAaaaa

Here is some choppy video i shot today with my tiny digital camera...

More fun in the sunshine....

Here are a few more shots from this afternoon. Bella wanted to get up on the tractor and pose with her sister. Who am I to say no???? In one you can see Mia with her arms up in the air: "TA-DAAA!!!"

I accidentally got myself in one of them while trying to take a picture of Mia on my hip. So here I am in my glasses and Guster T-shirt.....such a hipster. LOL Yeah, I crack myself up.... 

Warm day in November!

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather! I opened the door this afternoon to go get the mail from the mailbox and a gust of WARM air whooshed in! I couldn't believe it! So we all got our shoes on and I grabbed my camera and outside we went! Warm sun! I'd almost forgotton what it felt like already! 

Thursday's Musings...

Let's see..... haven't really updated this too much in a while....

THE GIRLS

Mia has 12 teeth now....whenever I tell her, "NO NO NO!", she puts her index finger up in the air and says, "bad bad" (sounds more like 'ba' ba', but you get the picture). It's such a crackup. She almost never reacts emotionally to getting in trouble though. She just kind of asks, "bad bad?" and then goes on with whatever she is doing.....sometimes EXACTLY what i just reprimanded her for.

For instance, she has been escaping from the living room lately and either goes exploring in the pantry or the diningroom. She likes to walk around and around the big oak table. Yesterday, while making her rounds, she realized that the giant bag/purse she was pulling around was hitting the wine cart and making the glasses clink. So then she starts hitting the wine glasses on purpose. I tell her no no. She does it again. No no. Does it more. NO NO NO NO!!! She looks at me, says bad bad, pauses and then goes back to hitting the glasses. ( and did I mention I was giving her hand a little smack too? ARRGHHHHH) She is a very determined young lady.

With Bella, she would start crying and need reassurance. Mia just acts like its all no biggee and would we please get out of her way. LOL

Mia stumbled yesterday and landed on her face, splitting her lip. Poor thing. She already has a mashed up chin where she fell when Richie was watching her. You'd think she was participating in boxing matches.

We sat Bella down this week and explained that she is big enough now that she doesn't need 'treats' when she uses the bathroom. She'll now only gets treats for cleaning and doing stuff around the house. At this rate, she may never ever get a treat again--- EVER.

I bought Mia's anniversary present last night. Suddenly I can't WAIT for our anniversary to come so I can give it to her!!!! It is this squishy plush bear that lights up in a rainbow of changing colors when you squish it's paw. No music. No fanfare....just a mesmerizing light show. I bought Richie's gifts too but I won't write about it just in case pigs start flying and he actually READS my blog. (You never know, the weather around here is really bizzare lately.) Richie and I agreed that HE would be responsible for Bella's gift this year. That way, it will be extra special because it is "from daddy". It's stressful to give him that responsibility because I know he doesn't know what Bella likes as much as I do. On the other hand, I was stressing because there is a LOT of stuff I know she would like, and I just couldn't decide! So you know, stressed if you do and stressed if you don't.

HEALTH

I've been doing more research on Graves disease, hypothyroidism, hypoparathyroidism, adrenal failure and the supplement DHEA. Interesting stuff. I really need to request more tests from my doc. Of course, that would require me calling, making an appoinment, and getting my butt down there (with the girls in tow) for a sit down with the doc. What a hassle.

MUSIC

Lately I've been listening to pretty mainstream stuff. Keane, Roguewave, and the newest cd from Bowling For Soup (i got an edited version from walmart...YAY!). As per normal, I play cds over and over and over until I just can't stand them anymore. Then I put them somewhere that I won't remember later and can never find them again. I JUST re-found my Keane cd and can't believe I ever took it out of rotation. LOVE THEM! Roguewave I've been stuck on ever since the Guster concert over the summer. And the Bowling for Soup I haven't listened to all the way through yet but how could you NOT groove on the song, "Highschool Never Ends". I laughed my way through about half the cd last night on the drive home from errands....especially the song, "I'm gay", which has nothing to do with sexuality. They are such a kick in the pants!!!

ART

I'm sooo relieved that I finished my calendar pages! It wasn't a particularly stressful assignment (which i assigned myself, by signing up for it....d'oh!) but lately, ANYTHING with a deadline has me sooo stressed out. I've started stressing out over art deadlines almost as much as a get-my-talk-written-by deadline. That sort of sucks the fun out of it. Not cool. But, they are done and sitting in the mailbox, to be sent to the gal in Alaska who will be compiling them. I've seen most of the art for each month and this is going to be SUCH a cool calendar. ArtPlay, eat your heart out!!!

I still haven't finished my altered book (which doesn't need to be mailed out until January). I'm still liking my theme. I added some tea-stain varnish to the cover and I'm not sure I like how orange it came out. Generally, I think of tea as more pinkish brown than ORANGE. ick. I'm hoping that adding more gold accents will play down the orange. I haven't completed the cover since I still need to make some decisions on how I'm going to put the title on. I may use printed words and put them in metal frames.....or maybe rub-on letters....or maybe stamps. I also got some cool metal accents for the corners of the covers and some handles. The handles might be too bulky. Like I said, I haven't decided yet. I also still need to design a signature page, write in some directions and attach them discreetly somewhere and do at least a two page spread inside.

I also need to start 'consuming' a bunch of my goodwill books. They are stacks of older books that I bought so that I could cut pictures out of them. I start forgetting what is in them and then, stupidly, buy more because I have forgotton what I already have. Dumb, dumb, dumb. AND they are taking up valuable space, man! Like I don't have enough books for READING lying around just waiting for bookcase space! Eh ghads!

RANDOM

I had some recurring dreams last night....kinda stressfull....my dad would lecture me and make threats and when i would challenge him on what he was threatenng (stuff like turning me into the cops and weird stuff like that), he would pull out a gun and yell at me. This theme repeated itself several times. Then while fuming over being yelled at and threatened, I was shopping at this boutique mall and nothing fit me. And someone was sort of after me and I was ducking in and out of stalls and closets. I went into this really cool stall and the closets had mirrored floors so you could see more than one side of everything in the closet. I was thinking HOW COOL IS THIS!

Then somehow as the dream continuted to recycle itself, I'd say something out of frustration to my mom or dad, dad would threaten me, I would challenge him on the stupidity of his threats and then he would pull out the gun again. It was a really weird cycle. Oh yeah, and in between shopping, I was contacting the police and reporting fires breaking out every few buildings on the street I was on. The problem was, I couldn't figure out the name of the street and I didn't know which town I was in cause I had gotten lost somewhere along the way, but I was trying to be helpful and give them the numbers of the buildings on fire as I drove past them. WEIRD WEIRD WEIRD.

And Yeah, I have issues.

Well, just about finished with my coffee and I have about a jillion (okay, a hundred) emails to get caught up on.

Later!

What I have to show for it.....

Well, I've been working on this for a few days now and today I glued everything down and put on the finishing touches. This is the other calendar page that I was responsible for creating for my yahoo group project. Technically, it's the THIRD page I created but the second one came out so dark and horrible that I set it aside to try and rescue some other time. I find that I like the end result quite a bit more when I stick with a happier, brighter color palette. I am EXTREMELY pleased with the way this one came out. It makes me smile when I look at it. *BIG GRIN*
You may notice that the girl's face on the left is Cuppy....er...Mia. The middle one is Bella and, if you know my family particularly well, the third girl (on the right) is my mom as a little girl. I included lots of happy, fat little birds which are some of my favorite things right now. I included five on my mom's lap to represent HER five little birds. And the quote is one that I am particularly enamored with at the moment.
Well, that is what I've been up to lately....

Richie, on the other hand has been doing more SERIOUS, grown up stuff. He has been working on blowing in insulation into the walls. He took the day off of work on Monday and drilled holes in the walls, up near the ceiling. He plans to put crown molding over them. Then on Tuesday, his dad drove up and helped him blow the insulation in. It was an exhausting process but at least the second floor is a little more warm now. Yay!

Oh yeah....I'm a DANCIN' FOO !!!!

Go to this link....wait a minute for it to load (okay MAYYYBE two) and look at me. I'm a SUPE'STAAAAA !!!!


http://www.dancesisterdance.com/myvid/index.php?v=3f7a57c162eb6


And here is a video of Bella and Me being dancin' fools! It is Truly AWESOME!

http://www.dancesisterdance.com/myvid/index.php?v=b8166e9b630cb

Say HI GIRLS!

I took these pictures just a few minutes ago, chasing Mia around the Kitchen....and then Bella actually WANTED me to take her picture, which, if you knew her at all, IS SO RARE! So of course, I totally complied. LOL


I'm going to try to link up to some video I took with my still camera that I uploaded to youtube.com. If it works, then you can see Mia walking around the house a bit!

Say WHAT???

For anyone who isn't aware, I've had hypothyroidism for years and years. It requires I take thyroid hormone replacement drugs everyday. Translation: my thyroid doesn't work and make the thyroid hormones so I have to take man made thryoid so I don't lapse into a coma and die. Nice, right?

Anyhow.....The nurse calls to tell me the results of my latest blood tests and says that I have Graves disease. When I looked up the symptoms and explaination of this disease, I am mystified because it is the exact OPPOSITE of what I have always (and continue to) experienced!

Hmm....so i called the doctor's office back and talked to the nurse and was all, "uh...dude. I've had hyPOthyroidism for years so what is with the graves disease diagnosis...it's the opposite".
And they replied that they thought that too but that the doctor said that graves can lead to hypothyroidism and I was all, "huh?".

The nurse told me that she can't really explain it and told me that I need to make an appointment so that the doctor can sit down and explain it to me. And then they said i can either come in this afternoon or call and make an appointment in two weeks. Well.....this is the only day i can do the grocery shopping so i guess i'll have to call back in two weeks.

This is soooo frustrating!!
What is going on?

Oh....and I also decided to do some research on liver and kidneys. With my low immune function, I also notice that I have a difficult time processing out toxins. Like the syrup in soda, or if I drink alcohol, or if I take over the counter pain medications like aspirin and acetamenaphin (sp?). Anyhoooo.......

So I researching that at the moment....what I've found so far seems to indicate that perhaps my Epstein-Barr virus (hangs out dormant in your body till you get run down and then POW! knocks you on your butt again. It's a cousin to Mononucleosis.) is also causing my liver not to function. Yay. Anyhow....I really need to get in the shower to get my day started. Lots to do and no time to do it but I am really intrigued now ....

Argghhh.......

Here are two links that I've found so far...the second is the most informative regarding epstein-barr:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/p72084237100g16v/

Mononucleosis and Epstein-Barr Virus Infection
http://www.springerlink.com/content/p72084237100g16v/

Jump, Jump, Jump!

Here's a collage I created yesterday. One of the yahoo groups I belong to decided to create their own calendar since the collage calendar, ArtPlay is no longer being printed. I am SO bummed about that because it was a great source of inspiration for me. So anyway, the task was to create a collage measuring 7 1/2 inches by 11 to be copied and included in a 12 page calendar.
It was going to have a different look entirely but it just sort of evolved into this. I really like the colors and I'm fairly happy with the compostition. But I think the main subject is maybe a bit smaller than I would have liked.
A few days ago, I started ripping pages out of a really old novel and finding words on each page to make up either a sentence or to tell a brief 'story'. Sort of a jumping off point for a collage. After finding the words and circling them, I painted the rest of the page so only the key words would stand out. Then I found an interesting piece of paper to back it. But it wasn't 'interesting' enough to I dabbed bits of ink in different patterns all over it and stamped some "happy face" images onto it as well.
I found a picture in an old schoolbook that I really liked and was hoping to use on something and cut it out. I started fiddling with different layouts. I decided the image of the girls jumping needed more color so I colored the background a soft blue with some pastel pencils and blended it. After deciding on a composition that I was more or less happy with, I started gluing/sticking things down. At the last minute, I decided to include the red lace heart because it just needed some more brightness. And then I started smearing bright yellow paint in strategic places. I was really trying for happy colors and I think this collage includes all my favorite happy colors. (Eventually, this is basically the color scheme I want to decorate my kitchen with. ) 

Social Intelligence

My friend Ellen sent me this excerpt.....and it really struck a chord with me. When mindblind people are in the intimate circles of our lives, we are shortchanged in the most painful way.

------
By Daniel Goldman -
From the Book- Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships
"Mindsight amounts to peering into the minds of another person to sense their feelings and deduce their thoughts. If we lack this simple sense, we are at a loss in loving, caring, cooperating, and awkward in even the least taxing social encounter. Without mindsight, we would relate to other people as though they were objects. We would be 'mindblind'."