Sunday, December 28, 2008

Thinking about 2008 and 2009

Another year is coming to a close and it's about this time every year that has me wondering what the new year will bring. And as I get older, each year progresses faster than the year before (something my dad told me would happen back when I was in Jr. High).

This past year has been an interesting one. It started off well and then life threw a bomb at me that I wasn't expecting, and it's taken the rest of the year to recover from that. LIfe happens when you're making plans or think that you have things all figured out. So for this year, and the years after that, I have no intention of making resolutions that will frustrate me if I don't keep them in the time span of a year. I'll make goals and give my self a bit more time to accomplish them. I won't say what those goals are because I've discovered that if you tell people what you're trying to accomplish (such as losing weight), then they constantly ask you about it ("How's that diet coming?") or try to "help" you ("Is that slice of bread on your diet?"). So, I guess, as I reach each of my goals, I'll write about them then.

2008 started off alright, and then at the very end of January we lost my Granddad Lloyd. He was one half of my favorite set of grandparents. He'd had dementia for quite awhile and finally had to move to a facility. I did visit him two weeks before he passed and he knew who I was (he didn't know my name but he knew that I was his granddaughter) . So February started with a funeral for us. My granddad was flight instructor in the Air Force during WW2 (he didn't want to crawl on the ground like the Army so he joined the AF and graduated at the top of his class). He was a dairy farmer and was very successful at it (Last month I met a guy who grew up drinking milk from Lloyd's Dairy). He liked to build things (bunkbed for my dolls, a playhouse for my sister, rigging a swing off of the back patio with some rope and a flat piece of wood). Granddad Lloyd loved my grandma very much (he once told me that he would look my grandma and just think about how lucky he was that she chose him), and he loved his family, and we all miss him very much.

On a lighter note, we also saw Bill Cosby perform a show at the Hult Center. He was really entertaining and definitely worth the money we spent on the tickets.

In the Spring, my "baby" turned 10 and we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary by going to see the new Indiana Jones movie. Such a disappointment (the movie, not the anniversary).

In the summer, my grandma turned 90, my nephew turned 1, my daughter turned 12 and my dad turned 66. That's about the extent of our excitement. Oh, yeah, Kevin went to a concert up in Portland as well. So he had a little more excitement. We had many hot days, and always thankful for our air conditioner! It would have been really nice if we could have traveled somewhere, however the price of gas was a bit much for us.

My sister-in-law, Lorrie, came to visit in the Fall to spend time with my mother-in-law who has Alzheimer's. Just before Thanksgiving, my MIL moved to a care facility for Alzheimer's patients. It's quite an adjustment for everyone, but mostly on her.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I turned 40. During the two weeks before my birthday, I really wasn't happy about the new number, but now I'm ok, and life is moving along. My husband tried to have a surprise birthday party for me, however I found out about it one week before it was scheduled. Then it was postponed due to snow that was supposed to come on that day (and didn't until the next day), and then it was cancelled due to weather again. He felt rather bad that the birthday party didn't happen, and I appreciate him for trying. I suggested that he wait until my 50th.

Christmas has come and gone, and now I'm feeling a great need to put the decorations away and clean and organize around the house.

If we do anything for the new year, I really hope that we're able to travel somewhere. We've talked about possibly going to Crater Lake. That would be fun. I haven't been there since Heather was 10 months old. She has no memory of the trip and Kylin hasn't even been there. There has also been talk about going to see some waterfalls as well. Both destinations would give me a chance to practice taking some awesome pictures with my camera!

So hopefully, in the new year, I'll have some interesting things to blog about as I try to meet some goals, major and minor.

Lp

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Day 3 of Snow

We're sort of in a lull between snowfall sessions. It's still very cold outside. More snow is supposed to arrive in a couple of hours with freezing rain this afternoon and then more snow this evening. The weather guy also commented that we could have a white Christmas after all. I just hope that the roads are safe to drive on by then.

Another concern that we have about this weather is that one of our cats never came in last night. Kevin went out to look for him and he never turned up. So hopefully little Emmett found a warm place to spend the night. He loves the outdoors but he usually comes in at night. Hopefully he'll turn up today.

Since we knew this freezing rain was coming, Kevin braved the roads and made a store run for things to get us by in case we were housebound for more than a couple of days.

Even though other kids are having no school or delayed school, my kids are still having school today. One of the perks of homeschooling. Unless they're sick, they shouldn't have a problem getting to school (the kitchen table or tv trays in the living room).

On another note, I cut and paste my blog on 3 other sites. Someone had commented about yesterday's blog and had asked me if as I had gotten older, did I wish that I had had more children, as that's how she was feeling at having just turned 39 and had two older kids. Since she posted anonymously and I couldn't find her blog page to answer her, I'll answer in this general blog here, and hope that she sees it. So, yes, I do wish that I had more children. I'm very thankful for the two that I have, but one of those dreams that had died for me was to have a larger family. I was an only child for most of my childhood (my sister came along when I was nearly 15, quite a large age difference there) and I didn't care for not having siblings. After my second child, we had two more opportunities to have another child (but they didn't make it) and we even tried to adopt and that didn't happen either. So, yes, I do wish that I had had more children.

So, there's the latest................. so far. The snow saga continues.
Lp

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The 40's have begun!

Well, this is my first post as a 40 year old, and I don't feel any different! For the past two days that I've been 40, I've been ok with the new number. When September first arrived, I knew that this day was coming, but it didn't bother me that much. I was busy enjoying Fall, teaching my kids, running my errands etc. Then about two weeks ago, it hit me that I was almost to the middle of my life (I plan to live to be 100 ) and I wasn't at the place in my life where I had hoped to be at this age. When I turned 30, I was just fine with it because I was where I had hoped to be at that age. However the past 10 years brought with it unexpected things that weren't pleasant at all, and pretty much changed the course of how life went and the dreams that I had had, slowly died, and at times I have felt like I was dying inside as well. If I didn't have Christ in my life to depend on, I don't know what kind of choices I could have made. God hasn't "rescued" me from the hard times and the difficult issues, but He's certainly helped me through them and is still helping me. (ok, this is probably the end of the not-so-perky-depressing part of this post).

So 40 was coming whether I liked it or not. My sister-in-law and another friend have told me that the 40's are much better than the 30's. I hope so, or it'll be a dull ride. I've also heard that the 40's go by fast. They did for my dad, but I think that had a lot to do with the fact that he was busy raising my sister and watching her get older and not necessarily realizing that he was also getting older. I really hope that the 40's don't fly by so fast that I reach 50 and wonder "where did that time go?"

So, anyway, my birthday started kind of early. We were supposed to have some snow, and I woke up early (on my own, because I just don't have the ability anymore to sleep in), peeked out of the window into the semi-dark early morning and I could tell that the back yard was still green and not white. My husband sleepily asked if I saw any snow and was disappointed when I said "no". He was able to sleep in a bit longer, I couldn't. I did finally doze off after Kevin left to make breakfast for me (as the routine goes, Kevin cooks and serves breakfast in bed on my birthday and Mother's day). I didn't doze for long because I could hear the kids talking to Kevin as he was cooking. While I waited, my dad called and I visited with him. I think that he's had a harder time with me being 40 than I was. He just can't believe that he has a kid who's 40. He still feels like he's the one who should be 40 still. Our chat ended just before breakfast arrived. Breakfast consisted of biscuits & gravy, vegetarian sausage, fried eggs and O'Bryan potatoes (I love potatoes for breakfast!) and a vanilla latte, and several presents. My husband gave me a card that reads "More and More over the years, you and I see things the same way. We hold them up close and squint".

The snow that was forecasted for my birthday, didn't come. It was pretty cold, and I stayed home because I didn't want to go somewhere and then have it snow while I was out and then have to drive home in it (for anyone who might be reading this, we only get snow about once per year and it never lasts long so we're not well practiced in the art of driving in the snow and we all tend to stay home and close schools). I just kind of relaxed a bit during the day, sitting on the couch watching "Gilmore Girls". While I was watching that, Kevin made a birthday cake (from "scratches" he said as he scratched the box of cake mix--funny guy!) So I had a very good birthday and 40 doesn't look so dreadful after all.

The snow finally came yesterday. I realized just how ill prepared we were for it. Last year for Christmas, we bought the kids snow gloves (after so many years of knitted gloves, we thought that they might like being in the snow longer if their hands weren't cold and wet) and we kept them in the kids dressers. So yesterday, the snow is here, and the gloves aren't in the drawers and we can only find one. So, the kids went out in knitted gloves and they were cold and wet, and the snow wasn't rolling right for a snowman (according to my daughter) and they were back in the house within 15 minutes. My son decided that he will stay in the house for the duration of the snow. So, I'm on the alert and looking out for the missing gloves (and other gear) so snow will hopefully be more enjoyable to them.

While the kids were outside, I came out with my camera and took pictures of the white neighborhood. The kids noticed that a hummingbird was at the feeder and were calling for me to take a picture. I've only seen a hummingbird at the house 3 times in the 11 years we've lived here and this one hung around to have his picture taken which was cool. I was able to take about 5 pictures of him while he was in our maple tree. I hope that the little guy stayed in the tree because there were 5 cats roaming around on the ground below who would have loved to have him for a snack!

So today is day two of the snow. Yesterday, the roads were more icy and the bus that Kevin was riding to work bumped into the curb a few times. After work, Kevin had to wait in the freezing cold nearly an hour for his bus to arrive to take him home. He was pretty cold when he finally arrived home. This morning, it was 11 degrees outside. Kevin told me later that the roads were better and he made it to work on time.

So, that's the latest update here.

Lp