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I've been wondering lately about the ways that people can enter your life, what they do when they are knocking around in there, and how they leave it.

There are probably people out there you've had a lifelong experience with who is pretty much forgettable.  Maybe they are boring, maybe they bug you.  Maybe they're an employee at your parent's business, or maybe they are a faraway relative who sends you a card once a year.  I doubt you'd ever tell them that they are disposable, but once they are out of your life you don't even notice.

Then there are the people who, in the grand scheme of things, are just a blip on the radar of your life, but completely unforgettable.  Before I even hit kindergarten I was taking dance lessons, and I remember one assistant teacher, who was there maybe three times.  Her name was Miss Pepper and she had gorgeous, long, long hair down to her bum.  Because of this mane she was our "dragon" and we followed behind her in our Dragon Dance.  Thirty years later, I still can't believe I remember what she looks like.

I remember a little boy who used to take the Valentines I sent him and cram them under his pillow so he could sleep with them every night.  He's much older now, probably dating, getting zits, driving a car.  Does he remember me?

I remember a woman who came into the store I was managing, and giving her a hug as she cried over the news that her daughter was just diagnosed with epilepsy.  Does she remember how I held her up?  Probably not, she barely seemed to know I was even there at the time.  Would Stewart Copeland remember me as a crazed flag waver if I introduced myself to him as one?  Even though we made eye contact and pointed at each other, hundreds of concerts, too many redheads, and so many flashes of green... I doubt it.  Yet here I am, remembering all of this right now.

What about the folks that helped me down out of my seat when I flipped out with vertigo at the Elton John/Billy Joel concert?  I suppose they don't know I remember them and yet I'm still thankful for what they did. 

So many ways that we can affect people, so many small ways, and we don't even know it.   It's almost frightening to think that we might have to be on our best behaviour all the time, just in case.  I guess it's our own memories, though, that we really should be worrying about, and not trying to guess when we'll be in someone else's.

Disclaimer:  This is kind of a "downer" post, but it does help to vent sometimes.  If you're not up to something "negative" right now, you might want to just skip this post.

My Dr just called me with the results of some blood work done yesterday.

This is what she told me ( & how I understood it):
My Hematocrit is elevated & my Platelets are really high, which would be an indication of acute anemia or the body trying to fight off some kind of infection.  And also that I'm very Iron deficient.  BUT I don't have a cold or flu, or bruising or any open wounds or anything. And she asked if I'm having any unusual bleeding and/or clotting problems.  (No). So she's concerned & wants me to come back in so they can run the tests again.  This doesn't sound too good this close to my scheduled knee-replacement surgery (July 14th).  :-/

Now I know a couple of you are in lab-related fields. right?  Maybe Lauri(e)?  Crunkypants? ;-) I can't remember.  But if any of you know more about what this means, please chime in, 'k?  Thanks.

I'll be up in Seattle on Thursday the 3rd for a consult with a pain clinic (Dr's orders :-/ ) So I'll have to swing by my primary doctor's medical clinic before or after the pain clinic appt and give them some more blood to test.

What a FUN way to spend my birthday, huh?  When I emailed Josh to let him know I'd be up there, & if he'd like to "do" lunch, I got this:  I think I've made it pretty clear that I'm not available in the middle of the work day.  To which I replied:  Silly me!  How could I possibly think you might make  a 30 minute exception for your Mother's birthday AND the day before a holiday weekend!  You never eat lunch I guess?  And you're telling  ME to eat?   Isn't that kind of the pot calling the kettle.....?  Wheee!! Completely alone for my bday. (Except for the furry babies of course).  Sucky birthday to me!  :-(    I don't know why I even bother to hope that anything could change with Josh.

Thanks for letting me vent, friends.

I’m thankful that …

Monday is payday.

Stephan slept well last night in spite of his new sleeping arrangements. He rolled out of bed a few times but went back to sleep. This morning, since he can’t turn on his light anymore, he even slept a bit later than usual.

I had a good workout with a friend yesterday and I’m not super sore today either.

I had a nice morning hanging out with a new friend and her 7-week-old girl. Stephan is very interested in babies. He wanted to play with her carseat and be near her and was really excited when we pulled out the swing for her. He’s such a sweetie.

We are loaning our baby swing to some friends. I would love to have it out of our living room and they need one so I figure why not? When they are done with it we’ll try and figure out where to store it then.

Tomorrow is family haircut day! I so need to get my bangs fixed and we are all getting a bit shaggy J

We might be able to get Stephan’s two year pics taken tomorrow. Our friend is going to be taking pics of his kids too and if we are able to fit it in we’ll go over and add our kid to the mix as well.

The extreme inequality caused by years of neocons explained in this thoughtful Nation issue.  See also http://extremeinequality.org/?page_id=8

I’m thankful that …

I have a truly, amazingly wonderful little boy. He's so sweet and makes everyone smile. Today he repeated my "thank you very much" to the waitress at lunch. He's growing and changing so much right before our eyes. Sure there are moments we get on each other's nerves but he is a really good kid.

I got to help a friend this week. Even though I didn’t feel much like it with the sickies I went to help a friend set up her room for VBS next week. She brought me a Starbucks and I had fun helping her get started. Stephan was able to go hang with a little friend and had a blast so it all worked out famously!

Last night’s dinner at Panda Express was full of super fresh food. I had to wait while most of it was cooking but the trade off was a very tasty meal.

Even though I ordered the wrong thing at lunch today it all worked out. What I ordered was not tasty and not what I expected, but our waitress made it right. I had to wait a little for my food but it wasn’t a huge deal … and then she gave us 50% off my entrée since it took so long. Unnecessary but very gracious for her to do that when it was my mistake in the first place.

I’ve got a new pair of jammies. I hate not having variety and am glad to have another cute pair to throw into the mix.

Stephan’s cold seems to be clearing up. His nose is finally not running like a sieve and his cough is gone. Hopefully by the weekend my itchy, scratchy, stuffy nose will be gone too.

We have new songs for Stephan to listen to. I was so done listening to the same 10 songs over and over and now we have several more thanks to purchasing a couple and ripping a few more at Nana’s house. Stephan sure does love those Veggie’s.

...will be performing at the O2 arena. The tickets are £65, so I turn on my stereo and make a mental note of the fact that we'll be putting away the money,that'll be half of a European trip or some toward a beach holiday (though I have the strong feeling we're more likely to get a bitching holiday, the way this weather and our finances are going)

And today is another day in which I am so, so glad I was invited to blog in Vox: The Simple-Abundance thing again....

So today I'm Grateful for:

• the fact that I have sorted out the advertising invasion in my computer, after 3 weeks of incessant search, adventurous learning and lack of sleep....
• Notherngeek and R.G.Ryan, as without them I wouldn't have been able to sort it.
• my friend Nikki
• being able to buy an external hard drive (500G!!!), even though it means I ll spend another 3 sleepless weeks trying to figure out if the files are there or not...
• My child, YouTube and Scrapblog.Oh, and Vox, of course.

So, here is Stevie. The video is in the last page, it will start playing when you get there (i think, and assuming you wanna watch this!). I couldn't figure out how to make it play all the time without stopping the pages rolling, so,here it is something I made for Sarita, I will also print and give it to her after the school play (in which she will be performing in a couple of weeks...)

by the way,is like 7am in the morning here in London.....

(and can someone please explain me the absurdity of grateful, beautiful, and all fully words in the English language spelling with one l, when the meaning is that something is FULL of...whatever?.......)

 

We made it safely to Santa Fe. The drive may have been much longer than anticipated but we’re here and having fun.

The hotel has free wi-fi … and I have a laptop. Fabulous combo! Nice to be able to keep up with everyone and not have 5 pages of posts to read from my neighbors when I return.

Fabulous breakfast buffet that comes with our hotel room. There’s omelets made to order, sausage, bacon, French toast, bagels and lox, cereals, fresh fruit, yogurt, fresh squeezed OJ and I’m sure I’m forgetting something else. We also have the option of choosing something from the menu which I might try tomorrow or Sunday. Andy was thankful too when he went to his conference and most of what was part of his conference breakfast was gone.

Fun treats for friends. We found a little store here that sells mixes and got a super hot salsa mix for my friend and another salsa mix and some cornbread for my FIL whose birthday is today and of course Father’s Day is right around the corner. Stephan won over the owner of the shop and got two suckers out of the deal since I went there and then went back with Andy to get stuff. I'm hoping that somewhere we can find an inexpensive set of margarita glasses for our souvenir.

Fabulous food. We had tasty appetizers last night along with some margaritas and then went for some salads and a wonderful wood-fired pizza. And of course our tasty breakfast! For lunch today we went to a little Mexican café and I enjoyed some divine tostadas. I’m eagerly anticipating dinner tonight! 

That I'll finally get to go to the Georgia O'Keefe museum! I think her flower paintings are beautiful and have always wanted to go to her museum someday ... that someday is finally here! Friday nights from 5-8 it's free. So we are going to walk over in a few minutes and I'm super excited about that! 

Our hotel is right in the middle of everything. So convinient to walk everywhere and get to explore on foot ... and get in some exercise without the gym.

Stephan is sleeping some. His hotel crib is a little scary and it seemed to take forever for him to fall asleep last night. Thankfully he took a decent nap for us. He’s not eating very well but I think that’s due to his cold and he’ll eat his weight in hot dogs and mac’n’cheese when we return home.

Exploring a new city with my hubby.  We enjoy doing this and while it’s not as easy with a toddler, we still have lots of fun!

Although perhaps politically incorrect, I love scouts!!!  Read this and see why

I'm SO thankful that school's out. Well, I'm mostly done anyway. I've just got a couple hours tomorrow at my new school for next year and then SUMMER! I'll be coming in to participate in a PBS brainstorming type thing next week but that's it, and I might get paid extra for that too.

I'm thankful that we've started working on a budget. I know, lame. We've never really had a budget. Probably why our finances tend to be a mess. Well, that and student loans. I'm just glad that now we'll be on the same page and know better where all our money goes (student loans, credit debt, food and gas in case you were wondering).

I'm thankful that I'll be using less gas over the summer. Will be nice to not have to fill my tank on a weekly basis. Hopefully it will help with the previously mentioned budget :)

I'm thankful I get to go to dinner with a friend tonight. Her son is sick but so far we are still on. I'm looking forward to catching up and having some fun (and a couple free margaritas) sans the kidlets!

I'm thankful my hubby finally feels good about his choice in raise at his job. This decision came with considerable drama and I'm glad he's made a decision and feels good about it.

I'm thankful we've finally made the decision to "break up" with our small group. It's been a long time coming but we are finally both on the same page about it and everything is pointing to the interesting and awkward "break up" on Monday.

I'm thankful our refund for the wireless keyboard/mouse posted so I can go get a sleeve for my laptop. Hopefully I can find some time to run over and pick it up, maybe before dinner. Will be nice to have a little added protection for the computer I still can't believe is mine. Oh, I'm also thankful that I might be able to get Office for FREE! Apparently I can get a copy from work so if that really does come through and the code works then I'll have Office, the super duper fancy version, for nada. And I should be able to get it just after my trial runs out.

I'm thankful I got a nice free BBQ lunch today at work, great way to end the year.

The day must've started like every other day. Just an ordinary day in
the life of a large, noisy family in Nashville, Tennesee. But this
would be a day that would end in a way that no one would ever dream,
even in their worst nightmares.

On Wednesday, May 21, little Maria Chapman was accidentally critically
injured in the driveway of the family's home in Nashville. Little
Maria, daughter of multi-Grammy & Dove award winner & acclaimed
Christian music artist Stephen Curtis Chapman, was flown immediately
by LifeFlight to the nearest hospital. But she went home into the
loving arms of her heavenly Father before the flight reached its
destination. Little Maria was just 5 years old.

I heard this tragic news this morning as I was getting ready for my
day. And, as any parent would be, I was overcome with compassion &
grief for her family & all who knew and loved her.

You can read the story here on the artist's official web site.
www.stevencurtischapman.com/

Of course I do not know the Champman family. But I've admired & been
blessed by his music ministry for more than two decades. I AM part
of his extended Christian family, however. Won't you please take a
moment, right there where you are, & remember this family in prayer,
good vibes / energy, or whatever works for you? They are going to
need strength like they probably never have before to get through this
terrible, terrible tragedy. Their precious little girl has gone to be
an angel. They'll never again hear her laugh or sing, see her smile,
or listen to her prayers. But she will live on forever in their minds
& hearts.

I pray that God will comfort them in the coming days, weeks, months, &
years. And that they will be surrounded by His angels as they begin
the difficult journey of healing. I can't begin to understand how &
why these things happen. My heart just breaks for the Chapman's! I
can only cling onto my faith that God will eternally uphold & care for
them, their precious girl, and all of His children.

May she rest in peace.