June 27, 2013

  • If she were still around….

    Aunt Frances would be 97 today…while her constant chatter used to irritate me, I would really love to hear her talking, laughing and Aunt Frances-isms again!  This should be a reminder that any day could be the last for your important people but life happens and we get busy…I guess we have no choice but to call up our memories when we need to.

    I hate to call them the Xanga girls because we have become so much more to each other…but we are meeting the Xanga girls and husbands in Chicago for the weekend.  I’m very excited…IKEA is in the plan for Friday afternoon…I’m an IKEA virgin…I’m preparing to fall in love!

    We close on the house in Missouri tomorrow – we are signing papers this afternoon…found out this week that a woman who grew up in his neighborhood also lives in Pleasant Hill…small world.  We are and have been friends with her sisters for several years, but I had never met her…by the way, he is pretty sure that he broke this Marianna’s arm when they were children.  I hope she has forgiven and forgotten :)

    I think that is it for today.  Mentally gearing up for 4th of July activities.  We both have to work on the 4th but hope to at least work in the Yankee Doodle Pops at the Capitol in Des Moines on the 3rd.

    Until next time….

June 26, 2013

  • congratulations everyone

    The government no longer cares who we love and sleep with.  What a great pre-celebration for Independence Day!

    Aaron Hernandez is an idiot…what a waste of talent.  I feel nothing but contempt for him!

June 25, 2013

  • Pleasant Hill – Full Circle

     
    Jen from the bank just called to tell me we will be signing papers on Thursday with closing on Friday then we will own a house in Pleasant Hill, Missouri.  Ironically, I grew up just across the cornfield from Pleasant Hill, Iowa and lived in Pleasant Hill, Iowa for about 3 years prior to marrying him.  I’m so looking forward to returning to Pleasant Hill as my return address.  I’ve never felt permanence in where I have lived.  I’m not going to say I haven’t been content in most places but I’ve never felt like…ok…this is it…this is where I”m planted and this is where I”m going to bloom.  I’ve always known that I didn’t want to always live where I live now.  The history is irrelevant  for this post but suffice it to say that in the past, I’ve been just happy to go with the flow; but recently, have been restless and have been experiencing a lot of discontent — probably because both girls have moved away from Newton.  I used to run, run, run volunteering for this and that but as the community has changed, so have I and I just have no desire to continue giving myself here.  The promise of a new place and new community has given me a lot of hope.  Moving closer to my only grandson was the catalyst I needed to make the move to get the hell outta dodge.

    …and speaking of Des Moines…squirrel

    Knowing I’m moving away from the proximity of my birth city, I’ve been a lot more aware of Des Moines.  It’s kind of a new look at a fresh,  vibrant city.  I would have probably been reasonably content to move back to the Des Moines area – actually while I was contemplating this, I realized what I really enjoyed was the fresh new downtown area with the living in the city, walking to and fro, being able to attend concerts along the Des Moines river…but if I were to stay in Des Moines, I know that I would probably live in the burbs and only occasionally visit the city which I can do now probably just as much as I would now that Katy makes her home in the downtown area.  The other moment I had thinking about leaving Des Moines was coming off of 235 onto I80 west, coming around the curve just before E 14th St took my breath away the other day.  The tree line…the city rising up, the beautiful capitol to the east…I had not noticed this momentary view at 65 miles per hour before.

    That’s it ….. until next time

June 19, 2013

  • Iowa City, Iowa

    City passes sweeping anti-surveillance law | Local News – KCCI Home

    With the exception of the governor and a few of the religious zealots in government, Iowa is truly a great place to live..okay…minus the humidity in the summer and the  minus degrees in the winter.  Oh…and the gravel roads.

    Iowa won my heart by being  one of the first progressive states to support love over sex.  Now Iowa City government has come out against big brother cameras and actually put their vote where their mouth is..  I’m impressed…I would just hope that the rest of the state would follow their lead.  I’m not holding my breath…but it happened in Iowa City so it is possible!!!!

    Until next time….

June 18, 2013

  • Bloggin Stuff

    When Katy was young, we learned that there was a new way of teaching kids to write…as in writing their thoughts not their penmanship.  I digress…Its good that qualification for a diploma wasn’t based on penmanship..because I don’t think either one would have made it out if someone was telling them how they had to write. They got that from their mother!  Anyway.

    With the parents scowling, the teacher explained that the kids are taught to just get their thoughts on paper; kids don’t worry about spelling, punctuation or sentence structure…they just learn to write what they are thinking.  *well, that’s not going to work, they said.

    It’s the way I write now.  He still can’t write a letter or story as well as he could because he can’t break away from the roadblocks that just let him write what needs to be written.  I will say that my spelling bee spelling has hit the bricks, I have trouble with commas and semi-colons now but I’m not sure if that has to do with writing from the heart or just being old.

    My blogging is very important to me.  I enjoy hearing that other people have liked or chuckled at what I’ve written…but the reason I blog is for me.  It is very cathartic to get things written out in black and white or black and whatever the blog site background color might be.  These words are for me.  In the same vein…I love to read other blogs..I’ve met some really good friends just reading the written word.  Some of these friends have become real live flesh and blood friends.  We really have no secrets…we’ve met and gotten to know each other thru words from the heart….it’s deep for me.

    Which brings me to my latest irritation.  My beloved Xanga is shutting down or charging a fee…whichever way someone thinks they can make it work.  I’ve chosen to look elsewhere for my sharing thoughts.  I’ve been to Word Press and Blogger…a few of the friends mentioned in the paragraph above have landed for awhile at LiveJournal…While these sights are probably right for some bloggers…I feel that it is hard to be part of a community and hard to find other blogs to read..kind of like living in a house with no windows.  I also duplicate my blog over on Open Diary.  I really, really like Open Diary…maybe more than Xanga. ….. now I’ve found medium.com.  When it is out of beta, it may be a nice blogging home?  My thoughts for today.

    Until next time……

June 17, 2013

  • Synchronized Flashing

    I was rather mesmerized this morning by the synchronized flashing of the charging wireless headset and the basement door alarm I had just silenced.  So mesmerized that it held my attention for at least a minute.  All the while I was willing it to just slightly unsync.  Quite different from my mental disfiguration while sitting at a stop light listening to my turn signal ding while watching just ahead of me the car’s rear turn signal flash…mentally willing it to get in sync with my ding ding ding!  For me, it is like the proverbial blowing in the ear to scramble the brain.  Whatever I was thinking about before I had to stop the car is gone…Ready for a new thought process when my foot hits the gas.

    Prior to the flashing lights, I was thinking about peace of mind and clear thoughts.  Last night, Kate and Adam took us…well took Him out for Father’s Day and I was invited to go along…at any rate, after dinner we went downtown and stood on the pedestrian bridge to watch the Des Moines river flow beneath us.  It was quite peaceful…why can’t I seem to just be there and live in the moment – put everything else out of my mind and just be.  This is my goal.  I don’t think I’m going to be able to just will myself to do it…I think it is going to take some kind of mind training…I hate to say this too loud for fear the family will find me a nice quiet place to live!

    Until next time…

June 16, 2013

  • My dad taught me

    Work ethic.  You go to work everyday – whether you want to or not – you get things done that need to be done before you take a nap.

    Always carry scissors grasped in your hand by the point.

    You never, ever make fun of someone because of a deformity or because of their looks – if it is something they cannot fix, you don’t  say anything about it.

    You can do it, it just takes practice.

    If you are in a car accident and you are not injured, don ‘t “carry-on”, because there might be someone else who is really injured and they don’t get the care.

    Enjoy a hobby.

    Dance to your own music.

June 15, 2013

  • After we left Kansas City yesterday, the kids took Jaxon for a family picture and his 1 month pictures….I totally laughed out loud when they sent me this one.  The apple doesn’t fall from the tree!  Anyone who knows Justin will understand.

    Very sad news followed shortly after that Jaxon’s great grand dad on the Callaghan side passed Sunday afternoon.

    I have been suffering from a lot of angst about my hair.  It’s not like this is one of the important things in life…I usually only think about it when I look in the mirror and wonder aloud…who? what the? oh my!  I sent this picture to Mandy – my “beauty operator” at the “hair parlor” to see if we might be able to add some depth to my personality my coloring the bottom layer of my hair.  I KNOW I KNOW..this is why I quit coloring and went gray/white…but I kind of like this look and quite frankly, I like this cut….and if I could lose the 2nd chin and have these voluptuous lips, I would be very happy…

    Do you think it is possible that I’m a different person blogging just because I’m on LiveJournal and not on xanga?

    Until next time….

       
    Jun. 4th, 2013

        10:45 AM

    I really did not think buying our future house and making the decision to retire would have any impact on my life. Oh the retirement thing..yes..I guess I knew I would be doing the countdown of lasts…my last memorial day, my last 4th of July, the last month I will only have 1 weekend off…but I didn’t think I would give much thought to the rest of it…after all, I have a year left (had).

    I’m different. I’m distracted. My priorities have changed. I HAVE NOT PLANTED FLOWERS YET!

    Before we moved to this house, I pretty much had perennial flower beds and perhaps spent $25 on some annuals to spice up the color. In the 3 years we have lived here, I’ve been slowly working to get the beds self sustaining but have some pots and one little triangular space along the driveway that I was going to put stone around and get a bed started. Oh..I think about it..but it is not important to me. When I back out of the driveway, I remember that I should do it and I want to do it right then…but it just takes too much energy to plan it and do it. I haven’t really had much time off when it hasn’t been raining…so that may be the primary reason I haven’t added color to my life? Don’t know.

    I have to go back to work tomorrow…blech. This is not the last time I will have that thought.

    Until next time….

       

  • I’ve been in a funk, so to speak.  I couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong with me…but, as I suspected, there was a multitude of things going on in my life.  He asked me the other day if I could be having depression issues..I told him I wasn’t feeling depressed although I was most content in bed with my IPAD and was the most content at home…this did not feel like the clinical depression I’ve fought for 12 years…Last night I decided to go ahead and take the full dose of medication previously prescribed for me.  I had tapered it down with the blessing of the doctor although she had kept my pharmacy prescription the same…I think it did the trick and was the last shoe for me to drop in order to feel good again.  I made some other changes too…I spent a good 2 hours last night mindlessly playing computer games and listening to some old music I had downloaded.  If you are reading this and have known me forever, I’m speaking of Maranatha and David Reynolds.  It is very healing and soothing for me.  the other big change I made was ending a friendship.

    I’ve been feeling very taken advantage by this friendship and had tapered off on my communication.  This woman and I did not seek each other out for friendship it just happened as a mutual friend thing.  Our mutual friend passed which brought us closer together…Lots of water under the dam…I found myself reacting to her the way I reacted to my mother…talk talk talk she always had an opinion about the way I treated him, the way I dressed, the way I should be doing things…she brought out at one of my daughter’s bridal showers in front of the entire room that I didn’t really like that daughter when she was younger…WHAT?  are YOU KIDDING ME…WHO DOES THIS.  I never did not like my daughter…she and I just danced around each other when she was a teenager.  Anyway…I realized this relationship was causing me a lot more anxiety than I needed.  The kicker was I had been hearing things she had been saying about me…unflattering things..these things were being said to someone very close to me..it was starting to feel ugly and I was feeling hateful…In the past, I would have continued to suck it up so as not to cause waves or hurt someone else’s feelings…that was in the past.  I feel cleansed..for taking care of myself and removing myself from the discomfort.

    Onward and Upward!

  • The dye packs used by banks to protect money in case of robbery has nothing on his breakfast cereal loaded with fiber bombs.  I’ve been taking my cereal box to work with me..just seems easier than pouring it into a container then hauling the container home to wash it.  Yesterday, I left my cereal box sitting on my desk at work.  Upon arriving home, I realized it was there because I wanted a half of a bowl of cereal as my afternoon snack…so…investigating in the cupboard, I found “his” cereal.  I normally respect his stash and he respects my stash…but it looked sooo good.  I had half a bowl…it satisfied..I was happy.  Until the fiber bombs started blowing about 3 hours later…I doubted he would put two and two together until he opened the box this morning – and then only if he had it sitting a particular way or place in the cupboard where he might notice something amiss…and if he noticed the fiber explosions…he didn’t say anything…probably thought I swallowed to much air while bitching.

    It’s Friday for most people…it’s a little gloomy here a few spits of rain…but what else is new

    until next time….