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Feb. 3rd, 2008 @ 10:29 pm parents stuff
Current Location: home
Current Music: Greys Anatomy soundtracks
My parent's stuff arrives tomorrow morning-- if the pass really opens tonight. :) The driver told me that if he has to put on chains, he is not moving that load over the pass, but that it is supposed to clear after midnight. I'm glad he feels that way-- my piano is in that truck! Although it will be living at my parent's house, at least I'll be able to play it a couple times each month this way. As it took 12 hours to load the house in NY with most of stuff in the garage, it's going to be a VERY long day for them tomorrow. They (with Holly's help on weekends) have been painting the main rooms over the past 10 days. Still, a lot of the boxes are simply going into Holly's bedroom, as she won't need the space until summer. The kids and I slept in the house on Friday. W was so excited that he wouldn't fall asleep until close to 11.

In other news, since my parent's stuff is out of our movie/video game area, J has gotten the Xbox Rock Band out to play. He got me to do vocals for about 2 hours last night and 2 hours tonight. The mix of songs is tough- as new as "Maps" and older than "Should I Stay or Should I Go". J's coworkers play this, and other Xbox things, so he is feeling a need to "keep up". I've found that sitting properly for 2 hours of singing is good for working on my posture. :)
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Jan. 25th, 2008 @ 09:17 pm research
Current Location: home
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Shawn Colvin- Steady On
Tags:
Jeremy suggested that I write a blog that compares products that can be purchased from Amazon. The deal, if you don't know, is that Amazon will pay a commission to it's Associate Members that refer people thru their blog/website. I've been doing some reading of blogs and doing some research on getting paid for writing. The idea is interesting and appealing.

anyway, I have some links to follow for some parenting and scrapbooking blogs. I will be following their networks and see what I find. Jeremy can point me to some interesting tech/geek sites (which he already has). I'm interested in looking at some other types of blogs for content, writing style, and graphic design. If any of you have a favorite (non-livejournal) blog that you read regularly, could you pass the link on to me?? Thanks!!!
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Jan. 23rd, 2008 @ 08:41 pm getting back to "normal"
Current Location: home
Current Music: Roxette
My parents and sister got the keys to their new house yesterday. I drove the kids down to run around the house while I unloaded the back of my minivan. They still have stuff here and in two storage units that will get to the house this weekend. The bulk of the Oswego stuff will get there in early February. Holly will be done with school in June and will be stationed at Ft Lewis for the next 2 years.

I'm getting my house back in order and trying to finish some things I was supposed to do for Christmas-- like sending out Christmas cards. Yeah, they'll be Valentine's cards. Oh well.
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Sep. 8th, 2007 @ 09:28 pm so many people...
Current Location: home
Current Mood: lonely
Current Music: Grey's Anatomy soundtrack
I haven't had time to even read LJ in months. It doesn't mean that I don't think of my friends that are here, I just don't have anything left at the end of the day...

I took on the Presidency role in my moms club, then we split from the international organization and reformed as an independent non-profit. Lots of work for my Board. It's safe to say that this is the closest I will get to the political arena. :) Our first official meeting is on Tuesday. From there, things will be much less hectic.

J has been working long-ass hours all summer. It sucks that he does such a good job that when he is promoted, the replacement cannot hope to perform at the level J did. It means that J has to keep picking up the pieces of those that don't listen to his advice. That is the long and the short of it.

Will is old enough to pester his sister. Kira needed to lose the afternoon nap before starting school, so we added her crankiness to the mix in August. She started all day kindergarten this week (can you believe it?) and did great! As a family, we've been watching a lot of anime this summer (Magic Knight: Rayearth, Evangelion, Angelic Layer). The first friend that Kira made is Asian. She came home on Thursday saying that she called her friend "Miss ...." in the same way the girls in MK: R refer to each other. Sort of cool!

In mid August, I had my appendix out. I was thinking a lot of Bryan. :) Mine was only starting to get inflamed though. Thankfully the surgery was the night of Holly's last final for the semester and she drove up to help with the kids.

Anyway, I'm finally writing because I am tired. Tired of not having any time for myself and for building friendships. My friends in the moms club are just casual friends-- we aren't fully open with each other and we are all lacking time and energy to focus on building friendships. J thought that things would get better with Kira in school, and it might. After all, I'm still recovering from surgery and this was a stressful first week. There will be time for rebuilding old friendships and building new ones soon. I'm hoping that sometime in the next few months, I'll really find more time for me, more time for my husband, and more time for those friends that are out there.
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Jun. 7th, 2007 @ 07:35 am bragging rights
We paid the price for the seats, I'll brag about it now...

The Police concert last night ROCKED!! We were in the 3rd row, on the left side of the stage. (The sad part being that Sting blocked most of my view of Stewart.) We stood and danced thru the entire show. I'm so glad I've been doing "Dance Dance Revolution" in the evenings as a warm up. :) The show was so worth the effort of farming off my kids for the night.

If you have tickets to a later show--lucky you! I would see this again in a heart beat!
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Dec. 13th, 2006 @ 07:01 pm science fiction fans
Current Mood: contemplative
I've been reading the S.M. Stirling series that begins with "Dies the Fire". It is set mostly in the Corvalis, OR area and what happens when something stops all motors/engines worldwide at the same momment. (Interesting catastrophe story without disease or war killing large numbers to start...) One of the groups of survivors is centered around a coven lead by a musician. I wasn't reading the lyrics of her songs in the first book. Interesting bits, for sure, but not really part of the story... When I started reading book 2, I read the Thank you in the front and realized that the lyrics were all from Heather Alexander's music!! Now I'm reading the lyrics and can actually hear Heather performing. What fun!

Great books, by the way! They've given me some food for thought.
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Dec. 13th, 2006 @ 06:50 pm busy check in
Thinking of my friends this Holiday season as I burn the candle at both ends.... Trying to figure out how to clone myself...

Feel good moment... MOMS Club "adopted" two families in need for Christmas. One family of 5 has taken in 2 nephews and they are all living in an apartment. The oldest boy has an interest in the Discovery Channel, spy gear, and such. I couldn't resist that! My sister and I went in together to get him a forensic lab kit from the Discovery Channel store. I wish I could see his surprise Christmas morning!

If I cannot get online before the Holidays... my thoughts are with you and yours thru the season.
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Oct. 13th, 2006 @ 03:21 pm busy bees
Current Mood: busy
Yes, I've been too busy to read LJ. Last Saturday was the MOMS Club garage sale (our annual fundraiser). Because I am on the Board, I had to do more than my share of the work. We raised $1300, but decided that we would recommend against NOT doing the sale in the future. Bottom line, it involved too much work on too few shoulders.

On the home front. We got birds (finches) for the kids when we got back from Portland. Putting the birds in the best spot for them showed us that it might be time to buy the new living room furniture that we have needed. (We've been putting off the purchase for over a year.) Having to go to IKEA repeatedly with Holly got us to finally buy new storage pieces for our multimedia. (Something we have been putting off for over a year.) With all that, I was "weeding" our possessions for the above mentioned garage sale. I feel like I have totally redone my house in the past month.

When we moved my desk around, J switched out my computer with his old one. Of course, this one has the Beta versions of the 2 upcoming M releases. So, not only do I have to move my stuff back to the computer, but I have to learn how to use the new tools.

My Mom called one day when I was very stressed out. She said, "Need an extra hour in your day?" I said, "No, I need an extra day in my day". Yup, that's how I feel. :) ok, off to tackle the day...
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Sep. 12th, 2006 @ 05:15 pm home again
Current Location: home
Current Mood: content
Current Music: wind and birds
The kids and I have been home since Friday evening, but we are far from "recovered".

To recap- We took the red-eye to Nashville the last Tuesday of August. They slept a whole 4 hours that night. We did a bunch of errands and such in TN over the next few days and suffered the smog and allergens in the air. On Friday, Sept 1st, we started driving out of Ft. Campbell, KY toward Portland, OR. The driving itself went smoothly. We drove 500 miles each of the first 4 days and 360 miles on the final day. The kids did great in the truck and actually liked all the riding. However, they never got used to having activities come to them, and didn't nap a whole lot. It meant that they would be wound up AND tired by the end of the day.

Stressful part of the trip-- on Saturday the 2nd, my parents made it home from TN and got the phone message from Holly's apartment complex wanting to know if she still was interested in the apartment. WTF??? It seems that the person she was dealing with was fired and failed to tell management that Holly was renting the 3 bedroom townhouse. With the long weekend and the planned arrival of her moving van at the end of the week, she was forced to take a 2 bedroom apartment instead of the 2 + den. The place is nice and roomy, but isn't as roomy as the townhouse would have been with the visitors she will be having. Oh, well.

Other joys of the trip-- driving toward Twin Falls, ID, we were forced to turn around on the interstate to avoid driving thru a wild fire. How exciting! The detour took us behind the burn, so we actually saw flames. The bad part of this was all the smoke in the air thru the rest of ID from multiple fires. It didn't help our lungs, already bothered from the allergens in TN-MO. Good things-- First, we swam at 2 hotels after swimming 2 times in TN. W (2) was pushing us away from him in the pool as he was able to keep himself upright in the water and kick himself around with his flotation swim suit. K is much more confident with her water wings. Hopefully over the winter we will get them both swimming unassisted. Second, K read her first word, unpromted! She was wearing a shirt that had "LOVE" in sequens on it one day. The next, we stopped at a Love's station and she read the sign. She has since added a few more words. We're on our way!!!

We didn't have time to do anything in Portland, besides unpack boxes and buy a few supplies. We'll figure out a visit schedule once my sister gets her class schedule figured out.
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Aug. 11th, 2006 @ 09:38 pm it's mid August?
Current Mood: contemplative
Wow how time flies...

Nothing huge to report on... Will and I are both fighting allergies to something in the air. RX allergy drugs don't mix well with the pain meds from my surgery last month. So, I'm waiting until I've been drug free for a few days (to get it out of my system) before taking any more of the good allergy stuff. *sniff*

J and I have been watching episodes of AFI's 100 years, 100 movies. Each episode deals with 10 movies of a theme (like War and Peace). I'm finding a lot of great movies that I have missed and need to see and a few great movies that are just to darn depressing to watch.

My high school friend R and his wife moved to Portland, OR this week. Yeah! I plan to be driving into that town with my sister on 9/7. There is just the little trick of flying out to her current home before then. Hopefully things at the airport are a bit calmer by then.
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Aug. 3rd, 2006 @ 10:35 pm delayed 3 of 3
Current Mood: content
This is the post that has taken the most thought.... should I post anything at all? If I do post, what should I say??

Lifestyle stuff to follow... for those not inclined to read...


Yes, J and I ventured back into the alternative world for the first time since having kids. Knowing that we don't have the time or energy for developing long-term, committed realationships; we changed our focus a bit. We joined some sites on line that offer other "dating" options and such. (Man, oh, man is there a lot of variety out there!)

We spent some time over the past few months with a really great couple-- adult, financially secure, intelligent, attractive, funny... I love being able to openly talk about anything under the sun for hours on end. I like other things too, but that is besides the point...

Anyway, the experience has come to a close due to some issues in "clicking" (rather- their lack of interest in dealing with issues). **Note for the poly crowd--- isn't it annoying to click with someone only to discover their partner really isn't interested in connecting with others?

I'm focusing on all the good stuff that came from the friendship and going forward. Additional babysitters in the near future will help us get out a bit more as well. Yahoo!!!

Hopefully I didn't freak out any of the non-poly-minded crowd....
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Jul. 30th, 2006 @ 01:10 pm 2 of 3
Two ways to tell your child is related to you...

After 2 days exposure to a computer, your 2 year old can correctly use a mouse, and 2 days later correctly navigate the menu. His Daddy taught himself to read by 4, so we are expecting that at the latest.

Second- Will said, "No go to bed. Want coffee." Am I raising a Starbucks addict or what? Yes, both kids like black coffee. Even I don't like it that way. Weird.

In other kid news, TMI for those not into kids...

Kira has resisted losing the night diaper, even though wearing it causes a rash. I finally showed her a photo of her spot-covered butt. The next day she said that if she wore a diaper, she would pee in it. If she wore panties, she would not. A week later, we are still successfully dry. How about that?

Did I tell you that I love my kids?? Well, I do.
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Jul. 30th, 2006 @ 01:07 pm 3 short and sweet
First of 3---

When planning on having out-patient surgery, ASK more questions about recovery time, not just about pain.

After 10 days, pain is about a 1 or 2, but my body is still pretty messed up. Suffice it to say, every way that a body can demonstrate stress has been demonstrated. I'm ready to be DONE with this. Soon, soon.
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Jul. 7th, 2006 @ 08:31 am changes coming
It's official-- my sister will be moving into her townhouse apartment in Beaverton, OR around September 7th. The kids and I are flying to TN to drive out with her. Before you say, "Is she crazy?"... We got plane tickets for $100 each (YES!) and she gets hotel and food paid for ($100/day) during the drive. So, I get to see more of the country, spend time with my sister, and end up in one of my favorite cities (Portland) for a couple days before heading home. Her classes start 9/26 and she is looking at evening classes T-Th. It will mean some long weekends together (with some babysitting for us!) that will be a lot of fun with all the stuff we want to do. With the apartment she got, it's possible to fly into Portland and take the light rail directly to her apartment complex. I think that is pretty sweet!
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Jun. 25th, 2006 @ 08:00 am brief update for June
Current Mood: contemplative
Well, the kids and I survived our trip back east for 2006. The kids did ok flying, though I wish Will had slept more than 2 hours total for the 12 hours in the air. Yeah for me. The weather was 15 degrees colder and warmer than forcasted when I packed. That helped make things a little interesting, but not too bad.

I saw my friends Dan and Kim just days after he accepted a new job in CT. We're all planning on going to our class reunion in 2008, so that will probably be the next time I see them. My kids did great playing with their son, who is between them in age. It was a good visit.

My sister gave us a ride from O to E for our stay at "Cousin Camp". The ride was a trial for our cross-country drive in September. My Dad rigged an activity table for the back, between the car seats for the kids. It has a toung that attaches to the front seat where the DVD player is velcroed in place. We now know what I need to do to make the drive a bit more pleasant for everyone. I have already mapped out a route with lots of interesting stops along the way. It should be fun, really.

The kids had a great time with their cousins, aunts, uncle, and grandparents at "camp". I was amazed by them on our last day, when we went to see Great-Grandma at the nursing home. GG has alzheimers and doesn't talk or really see much any more. Kira made some profound statements for a 4 year old. Aunt K put Will on GG's lap. He showed no hesitation with her, even though he hasn't seen such an old or sickly person before. He chatted to her, stroked her face, and stroked her hair, with such a loving light in his eyes. It was amazing.

Now we're back and I'm just trying to get caught up before that trip in September. As I'm still behind from last year's trip, we'll see how I do. :)
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May. 31st, 2006 @ 09:51 pm thoughts on money
Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: rain drops
I personally have a weird relationship with money. I really hate that I need it for things like food, shelter, etc., but that is really besides the point.

I have seen Fate laughing at me many times over the years. In 1995, we were in a really tight spot. Then, a truck in our apartment complex rolled into my truck, causing about $300 in damage. No one was around. I didn't have a need to fix the truck, but that $300 made a big difference in our checkbook.

Things were going pretty well for us after buying the house. Then, we start having kids. Of course, a tech-geek husband and a scrapbooking wife have a need for better photo equipment to record the precious moments. This leads to J getting interested in geneology to learn about family ties and such. This leads to collecting all the very old family photos. That ties into the photo editing. All the photo equipment and geneology stuff costs money, of course. It pays for itself when it helps J get a position on a new team at MS. Weird how that works...

Present day, I'm still struggling with CC debt. I hate it, but it is a necessity for the time being. It will be gone as I work at it, and definitely after the kids are in school and I can work. For now, there are more important things, like airplane tickets to take the kids to see Grandparents and Great Grandparents. Anyway, it is ironic that I am working diligently to not use my cc. Fate laughs at me multiple times...

... Part of my disaster preparedness is to make sure our dr/dentist visits are up to date. The exams are mostly free with our insurance, but I discover that I have an astigmatism that would be helped with glasses. $$
... My sister gets to go to Portland State in the fall (free babysitting and such...) but she will be driving cross-country by herself in September. The kids and I are available, we could drive with her. Cost to fly to Nashville to pick her up... $$$
... I notice that the tire on my van looks funny. Oh, it's just the cable coming thru, no problem. $$ for new tires
... Finally, I notice that my vaccume isn't working. I call a repair shop to get an estimate on the replacement part. Too bad the part isn't the problem. Cost of possible repair is more than a new machine. Guess what, new vaccume. $

Of course, this is all happening when MS announces a change in benefit awards that should bring nice things for us. At least I know where we should be getting the money from to pay all those bills. As I said, Fate is laughing at me.

I'm going to bed now. :)
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May. 31st, 2006 @ 01:02 pm Update on me
Whine/vent alert...

I am exhausted, running on empty, wiped out... choose your favorite phrase.

I am running on many weeks of 4-6 hours of sleep each night. It is difficult to function when your brain is so tired. I have to focus on one thing/task at a time and if anything/anyone interupts me, I may not remember what I was trying to do. It is frustrating.

No, I cannot change anything. The kids wake about 5:30/6:00. W is fighting the afternoon nap, so I don't get much done when he used to sleep. They go to bed about 8:00 and I have the rest of the evening to start/finish chores, rest, talk with J, shower, etc. I get in bed after 11, often after 12 or 1 in the past 2 weeks. There is no help for it.

I would nap now, but W is awake. I have laundry to do. I have MOMS Club stuff to do. I have yard work to do. I have errands to run. And I'm falling asleep sitting here. yeah.

Heading east with the kids next week. I'll have help there, but I'll be worried about W running off and falling in the pool or pond (depending on where we are). I MUST get some sleep.
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May. 12th, 2006 @ 03:00 pm free fun on Fridays
Current Mood: happy
Thru my MOMS Club, we went for a tour of the Elegant Gourmet Factory this morning. The factory is in Woodinville. We got to see the entire process for making candy canes. It was VERY COOL! At the end of the process, we got a sample of the candy cane that was still warm, but hardened within seconds of me getting it. Today's flavor was Lemondade. Kira didn't like the taste. The website is www.elegantgourmet.com
Reservations are required so they know how many to plan for.

Cool fact: their cookie oven bakes 4000 cookies every 25 minutes.
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May. 6th, 2006 @ 08:15 am stinging nettle or poison oak
I was pulling weeds out of the back corner of my yard on Wednesday. This included holding the branches of the small cedar tree out of the way to pull the weeds up from under it. Somewhere in the process, I came in contact with something that didn't agree with me. I now have 2 blisters on the inside of my elbow that look like my reaction to poison oak. However, I don't have poison oak in my yard. There IS stinging nettle in that corner though.

Do any of you have any experience with both types of blisters??? Information I read on the web said that the stinging nettle could cause blisters.

Timing is ironic, because it was the first week of May (1993) that I got my first really bad case of poison oak rash. oh, yeah.
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May. 5th, 2006 @ 01:39 pm growing rocks
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/05/mountsthelens.ap/index.html

This link came from the Oregon Outdoors community-- but I'm surprised that one of my friends didn't post it earlier.
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