Hello 2016

We ushered in 2016 at home, a quiet evening just the three of us.  Spaghetti was supper with garlic cheese bread and fruit.

Earlier in the day we took down the downstairs tree.  I organized some of the ornaments into a different storage container…and parted with a few.  One was broken, a few others just needed to go into the garage sale box.  Why is it when you de decorate the tree there is always one ornament left behind that you don’t discover until everything is carted upstairs?

No this wasn’t the one left behind.  This one has it’s own box and was carefully packed away.  It was a gift from Jen to her Dad.

I have made no resolutions.  Only intentions.

I intend to add photos and obituaries to as many of our relatives as possible at Find A Grave.  I decided this was really important when I found two of my Uncles in the wrong cemetery.  Their graves have been transferred to me on Find A Grave. 

I intend to add at least five recipes a week to an app on my new I Pad that my other baby brother gave me just before Christmas.  I haven’t figured it all out yet…it is a learning process.

I intend to organize the photos on my computer and actually print some photos of the grands.
I intend to work on the old diaries from Far Guy’s Grandparents.  Last winter I left off in October of 1921.

I don’t intend to take up jogging, golfing, scuba diving, mud wrestling or sky diving.
I would like to find time to paint and draw, and lay around in a hammock in the summer breeze.

The road home last Monday just before sunset.

Thanks for reading!  Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Time to turn over the calendar.  Begin again..make new “to do” lists..some of which are repeats from last year.   Clean out the cupboards and drawers..organize..those things end up on my list every year. BORING. I had a “to do” list and I was working on it before I was interrupted by Christmas. 

I did not make any resolutions this year.

BUT If I were to make some these would be real high on my list:

I should be more patient and kind to stupid irritating people.

I should answer the phone cheerfully as if I really give a crap about the person on the other end of the line. ( My other baby brother says I should practice this one everyday.  Sometimes he even calls twice in a row just to check and see how damn cheerful I sound.)

I should be more willing to drop all of my projects and tend to all so called emergencies that wouldn’t be emergencies if some people had their poop in a pile.

I should be calm and understanding when Far Guy forgets his pills all day long and is in terrible pain…ding..ding..ding..if he feels rotten it might be he FORGOT his pills..not one dose..but several.

I should be tolerant of all kinds of different behaviors..like when the checkout lady at the grocery store stops to blow her nose really loudly and her tiny little Kleenex can’t catch it all so she wipes her hands on her pants..I shouldn’t cringe ..next time before choosing a checkout line I am going to observe the checkout gals..if they look like they are getting a cold..I am not going in their line.  If someone notices me observing from afar..I will just say “I am looking for the least germy one.”

I should not think badly of people because they bathe in perfume or aftershave instead of water.  They have obviously lost their sense of smell, or destroyed it with their spritzes and splashes of toilet water..or perfume de skunk.

I should be cheerful and understanding especially when I  have declared a time out on the couch for a whole hour and I am interrupted half a dozen times during that hour. After all talking with me might just be the highlight of a miserable day.

Yesiree..that would be a partial list if I were a resolution making kind of gal.

Happy New Year! :)

Antique Greeting Postcard

2009 In Review

This is a big day..it is one of those "Blue Moons" ..that's what it is called when we have two full moons in the same month. The next time it happens will be December 31, 2028 and I will either be deader than a door nail or 87 that year. There will be a minor lunar eclipse in Europe..lucky ducks. I hope to bust out the tripod and get some full moon shots..hope it isn't below zero..or overcast this evening.

Last year I wrote about intentions instead of resolutions.. Quote " How about some one word intentions ..Like mine! Laugh, Smile, Hug, and Dance. Easy to remember, easy to do, I can have that accomplished a few seconds after midnight, and be free the rest of the year. Easy..peasy!"--Far Side December 30, 2008.

This year I will add a word to my intentions..exercise.  This one may just require a bit of a commitment beyond the few minutes after midnight.  I am bound and determined to have firm fat,
Lets do a check up: 2008 in plain type    2009 In BOLD

The children are all employed, and reasonably healthy. Trica our oldest daughter still struggles with Pancreatitis. Ditto..Trica is still struggling..she might just be a tad more cranky too. She has pancretitis from a Gall Bladder surgery years ago.

We still struggle with Doctors and Far Guys Trigeminal Neuralgia. We are comfortable with Dr. P. he seems adequate. There are no miracle cures..Trigeminal Neuralgia is a rare disorder that you must just learn to live with...easy for me to say..Far Guy is the one with continual pain.

No new Grand-babies..No divorces..a few deaths (two cousins and a very dear friend) This year five friends died.. Rhonda, Jim, Sam, Charles and Pat. Two family members, my Uncle Delbert, and my cousins fiancee.

Paige stole her sisters new kitty for a photo.

No new pets, and no pet deaths. In 2009 Madison got a new kitten that she named Ziggy. Trica found a new home for her Pomeranian Daphne or "Daffy". Daffy now gets to be the Queen of her castle and no longer has to tremble in fear and hide under the couch to escape her terrorist companion Dakota who had a stroke a number of years ago and has an ongoing thyroid problem and is just not right in the head. I miss Daffy..she loved me. When they all lived with us..she was my constant companion.

Daffy

Biggest Adjustment..Far Guy's Trigeminal Neuralgia and how it affects our day to day life. Ditto..we must always be flexible.... it just may not be a good day, or a good week.

Biggest Change..Closing the Greenhouse business, a very wise decision. I miss it, but I am getting over it. Well I am way over this one..this years biggest changes..lifestyle..healthier eating..more exercise.

Biggest Frustration.. Doctors that don't know their butt from a hole in the ground, and the phone ringing. Ditto.. and gaining weight because I quit a nasty habit..that I enjoyed..but now my metabolism is all out of whack.  For now and since July I have been an ex-smoker.  It ain't easy..it has been one of the hardest things I have ever done in my entire life.  I have however curbed the desire to lick every ash tray I see..and those smokers outside freezing their skinny butts off..I envy them..perhaps I will get over that with time..old habits die hard..I began to smoke as a teenager..that was well over forty years ago.  My daughter said "Mom we would rather have you alive and healthy looking and a little fat, than dead and skinny."  

Happiest Moment..a very nostalgic Ferris Wheel Ride last August with Far Guy. Playing a little "kissy face" stopped at the top! I had to think on this for quite some time.. I had many happiest moments this year and if I had to pin it down to just one moment it would be watching Chance and Far Guy on the lake shore of Lake Superior..watching Chance run between us.

Happy New Year Everyone! :)