Thursday, January 31, 2008

Why I Journal

    I have read a couple of journals that discuss various reasons for journal writing. 

    One that made sense to me is keeping a record for your family, your know...a record of your life for your kids and grandkids and great grandkids some day. 

One of the journals had a petition a lot of us signed urging AOL to let us have some sort of backup for our journals.Please go to this link. Petition  I signed as did many others.  I got to thinking... I don't write much about that type of thing.   Things about my childhood and my parents childhood.   The type of written history people used to put into diaries and written journal.  I think I would have to go private to write that and actually the thought is attractive.  Not that I had an interesting life, but it would be great if I would write in it and then one day my son and his son and his daughter.

     I would have loved to be able to read a journal written by my grandmother so I could know her better, and my mother for that matter.  How she felt about things and what she did she was proud of or that made her happy.

     I also was thinking, with cleaning out my MIL's, about the death of family albums.  In this new digital age will all the old family albums be a thing of the past?  You will have the family CD, I have a few of those.  Will there pictures hanging on the walls or a moving photo box  powered by a battery or whatever new technology  comes out?  That way the picture could change all the time.  I know they have stuff like that out already.  Does it make it impersonal that way?

    So just rambling here.  Wasting some time, but I am curious.  Anyone writing their journals for any of these reasons?

       My first reason for starting my journal was to keep myself on track with my diet.  Then I decided for me at least, the traditional diet wasn't what I needed.  I instead focused on improving my health.

     Then somewhere along the line I started writing less about my fluctuating weight issues and more just idle chatter, things that come to my mind at various times.  So maybe this will be a way for my family to get to know.  Hey..... my mom was pretty boring! LOL.  Anyway.  Come on, give me your thoughts.



   And can you spell it correctly, LOL.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Awe Heck, just because she is so cute.



     And talented.

Buuuurrrrrrr



       Its below Zero today and I sure could tell when I dragged my sleepy self out from under the covers.  I have been keeping the thermostat at 67 and may have to back down and raise is slightly.  Or get the long johns on. 

       Now if you have never worn long johns you probably won't understand, but I hate dressing in layers.  Maybe because I am overweight or maybe they are uncomfortable even if your thin.  

    I have the thinsolate type long johns,  but still it hampers my movements.  I hate dressing in winter.  Long johns, wool socks, sweaters, wristies, gloves, scarf, wool coat, hat, boots.......  20 pounds heavier when dressed,  I am ready to stomp outdoors in all my glory.

     This is how sexy I looked yesterday by the way for the sexy grey haired man, LOL.  Not a drop of makeup, I rarely wear it, hair flattened to my skull from my hat.  Nose dripping from the cold.   What I love about Rick is he thinks I look cute.  My true sexy gray haired older man.

      We watched King of California last night, funny movie.  Today I have no plans.  Well maybe I will finally do the ebay listing.  I  didn't do it yesterday and today I get a notice that they are lowering their prices.  How wonderful.  For once my procrastination worked out.  I even got some housework done yesterday.  Some.

      Well, I guess I will get busy, stay warm and dry all.

        

P.S.  Thank you Jeanie for the link for the aboves graphics,  I love the site and your photo's were great.  You are a wonderful friend.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Sexy older men

                

    We ended up having to go out today in the weather.  The blizzard left early but the weather was so cold and we saw a dust devil made of blowing snow...so cool.  

    After our running around we stopped for a Porter because it is great on a cold day.   There was a Dane there,  older man, very nice looking....killer accent, very expensive clothes.  I tell you.  As a youngster I could not imagine looking at a man this age and saying hubba hubba...but at my age, Wow.   We had a really nice visit with him, yes hubby too, and talked about Denmark and beers and whatever.  He reminded me of 
Sean Connery.  Seriously.  And I have to giggle thinking about it.  Oh yah, Julie is hot for the grampa.  The accent does it every time.

    Well, time for stew and a good movie.  Bye all.

           

Blizzard Tuesday



           Yesterday the weather was in the 50's.  People were out and enjoying the weather.  Light coats were on, bikes were on the trails, smiles were on most peoples faces.   Woke up this morning and we are having a blizzard.  50 mile winds, snow, cold, cold, cold.  Man what a shock to your system.

          Yes, I know the weatherman said it was coming, but seriously.  They usually say we have a 50 % chance.  What kind of forecast is that!  I could do that.   "It may snow today......then again it might not".  "Why don't we just wait and see".  So you never know and I can always hope it will go next door and miss us. 

    I had to call today and cancel the auctioneer who was coming to look at the house.  Made Rick happy as he is not ready for this next step, but the house is ready, pretty much.  We talked it over also for those who asked and think it would be a mistake for my son to buy the house.  I don't want him doing something emotionally and getting in over his head.  It is a 100 year old house and home repairs can break the bank if they are needed.   Plus I believe we are in a recession and heading for a plain old depression here by next year.  Time to be laying low and saving the money you got.  It was a nice thought, but not a practical one in these times.


        Hubby was up bright and early.  Happy the auctioneer couldn't come today and puttering in the kitchen.  Looks like he has nice warm stew bubbling away in the crock pot.   Love a man who thinks about supper at 6 in the morning.

       I am caught unprepared for this storm.  No books to read.  I could do laundry and housework.  Yikes, did I say that?

      Instead I think I will do the ebay auction I didn't get to yesterday.  Sip on some more ginger tea,  take my vitamins,  Yes lots of C, thanks everyone.  And hope the storm ends quickly.


                         

More Bad Poetry



I ate a chocolate I know not why
It planted its bad self, on my thigh.

And heavens forbid it try to escape
I ate another to give it a mate.

When my husband glanced at me I said What!
Don't you think these look wonderful right next to my Butt?

Now on the exercise machine I am working it off
Not for long some of you scoff

because most of you know me and I've been known to cheat
for me to keep weight off is quite the feat

But all I can say, loud and clear
I don't do it often because of that darn full length mirror.
_____________________________________________

:Another Bad Poem by Julie when she couldn't sleep

Monday, January 28, 2008

6 months.

 

           Some of you who have been following my journal know about Zoey's cancer.  It has been 6 months since her surgery.  She has 3 new lumps but they all feel like the cysts.  She gained back all the weight she lost, but some more for good measures and seems like her old self, only slower.  We are so grateful to still have her fuzzy self with us.

      Her old eyes are getting bluer from cataracts and she turned 9 this month.   Just a good old dog.  I hadn't talked about her lately because maybe I was thinking I would remind the Gods that she was sick or something. knock on wood.  Anyway, shes alittle beat up looking these day but still one heck of a pretty cancer survivor.


                   

Good Morning

         

     I woke up this morning to the rare but blessing feeling of good health.  Well...isn't that just wonderful!  And to think I almost broke down and spent my hard earned money on a doctor, LOL.   Either time, vitamins or the ginger kicked in and I am finally feeling like a human being again.  Now, hope it lasts.

 

      I was so productive yesterday.  Maybe I just worked the illness out of my body!  Anyway I got the last 2 closets finished at my MIL's.  Now all we have to do is have the auction and sell the house.  Of course I still have to get rid of the clothes, but I found a ton of real old hats from the 20's - 40's in a closet so I really do need to call that last woman first.  Finally I see a light at the end of the tunnel.  

     I was at the dining room table going through the last of the letters and things and my BIL say's, "I hope your not throwing away our family history there".  "Yup", I happily said.  "I figured if it was still there after this long you weren't interested in it", and went back to tossing right and left. 

    He always says that but never gets up from the couch or stops going to the bar to look though it himself.  His loss.  Then he said he thought we should get a storage shed so we could look through it at our leisure instead of hurriedly tossing everything.  What!  Go for it Bro but I am not paying a dime for it.  Something is definitely wrong with that  man's head.   He has a storage unit in the town he comes from that he hasn't visited in a year and my MIL had to pay for for 5 years. Why would we want another one here.  The man is missing some brain cells.

   Anyway  I digress.   Today now we are calling the auctioneer, seeing the lawyer, I have to list some items in the shop and then I want to stay up late and get a ebay sell going.  Last on my list butsomething that is sorely needed I have simply got to get to some housework done.

     

   So another day, another day.  Have a great Monday all.


                    

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Sunday and all is well, well not quite.

 

      Good morning everyone.   Well, I am better but still sick.  Now I think I have a cold on top of what I had.  I can function though and even went out yesterday to play with my camera.  Check out my tree.



     We had a heat wave with temps up in the 40's.  Everyone was out enjoying the reprieve from the below zero weather of earlier.   Then we went out to eat and Rick bought me my perfect rose.  Blue to chase the blues away.



    I have been reading up on how to fix this cold.  I am getting desperate to feel normal and healthy again.  We bought some multi vitamins and I got some fresh ginger root.   I ground it up and then made a tea out of a tablespoon of it.  It is suppose to knock a cold out fast.  I will try anything and it wasn't too bad with some honey in it.  I have also decided to see my doctor.  I figured it out and I have been ill most of a month and a week with one thing or another.  Constant to it all is this total body fatigue and all over body aches.   I am probably just run down, but I had better make sure that is all it is.

    I am down a total of 5 pounds now.  Still plugging away.  I know I would be doing better if I went to the gym but with being sick just haven't got it in me right now.  Soon I hope.

    Today we are going to my MIL's.  I am going to start packing up the clothes.  Man she had alot of clothes. I could fill 4 fridge boxes I bet.  Then tomorrow I am calling auctioneers.   We are almost ready for the next step.  Yah.

    Well, check out my photo album for yesterdays shots.  A few turned out pretty good, pat pat.  Take care all.


Friday, January 25, 2008

giggles

   We ran across these at my MIL's.  So funny.  And yes, Rick did get his cement truck.  He had just turned 6 in the first letter and 7 in the last.  It gave him quite the laugh to see these.








The betrayer

                   

       My body that is. 

    Tuesday we went out to eat for my son's birthday.  I felt well.  After we ate they dropped me off at work.  It went downhill from there.  I started getting sick and thought the food had triggered my irritable bowel, no problem, I alway have my immodium with me.  Except it didn't work!  It got worse and worse.  Slowly but steadily I felt worse and worse.  Next thing I know I am in the restroom losing my supper....repeatedly.  Every muscle hurt and I started to chill.  NOOOOOOOOOOO.    I CAN NOT BE SICK AGAIN.  I just could not believe it.  I was just sick 2 weeks ago.  Now I am seriously putting my job at risk.  I kept trying to hang in there until finally around 4 am I realized I had been out of the restroom only 10 minutes out the hour.  Each step was difficult.  My head was ripping in pain.  I was too sick to go on and a hazard to my patients.  My son brought me home and I lost the rest of the day.  I don't remember much about it at all except sleeping, going to the restroom, sleeping, sleeping, sleeping.

   Finally today I am feeling better.  Low grade temp and slight aches and pains, but much better then I was.   Why am I getting sick so often?  I think I let myself get wore way down while my MIL was ill and am not getting my immune system built up fast enough.  Whatever it is it needs to stop before I lose my job.  I never believed in working sick as I take care of patients and feel they don't need my illness on top of what they have but I normally don't get sick that often so it worked out fine.  Lately its every couple of weeks.  If there is a virus going around, I get it.  So depressing.



     Yesterday in between sleeping I decided to list the postcards after all.   They are part of the estate and since I have them in a journal I can keep them in a way.  Well they are selling like hot cakes.  Yippy.  I thought they might.

     I have figured out a method to visit the journals and post.  I usually have to hit the refresh button 3 times to get a entry to load, but they are loading 95 % of the time.  I am not sure if all my comments are getting posted as sometimes it just knocks me back to the last entry.  Weird.  Kind of a challenge, but it is getting slightly better.

    If I am feeling better tomorrow I am breaking down and going to my MIL's to work on bringing her clothes to charity.  Rick has been sick also, he has what I had 2 weeks ago, so not much has been done.  When we went over there Tuesday BIL was at the bar and the teapot was still on the burner.  Oh well, if Rick chooses not to deal with so be it.  Hope he doesn't burn the house down.


Tuesday, January 22, 2008

AOL misery



           I am still having so much trouble with AOL.   To visit everyone's journals I have to hit refresh about 5 times and then it still doesn't always come up.  Leaving a comment is not always possible.  Sometimes it jumps to a different entry!  Weird and totally frustrating.  I sure hope it is fixed soon if it is not just my computer.

         Today is my youngest son's birthday.   How in the world did he get so old when I stayed so young and vibrant?   How can he be 31?  That would make me either the worlds youngest mother or alot older then I like to think about.  Anyway..... I am happy he came into our lives. 

       His entry into the world was full of drama as the cord was around his neck, he was posterior,  not breathing and a pretty but frightening blue.   While one team whisked him away, another team did their best to stop my bleeding which I guess was concerning them,  but all I could think about was my baby that hadn't cried and no one would tell me a thing no matter how many times I pleaded for information. 

    Finally in recovery I went in search of my son and found in in the ICU nursery, pinker and breathing.  I remember standing at the window listening to them page me overhead to please return to the recovery room,  LOL.  Rick said it was the last time he was leaving for coffee if I was going to cause all that trouble.  They had finally told me he was OK, but I had to see for myself.

     Could that really have been 31 years ago.   This same child has been giving me scares and worries since his birth.   He has been in the hospital for pneumonia, Reyes syndrome, kidney failure, tonsils, and the last time a bicycle wreak.  Keeps me on my toes.  He is very healthy these days though and still rides his bicycle a easy 40 to 60 miles.  He is definitely a keeper. 

     Right now he is living with us.   He gave me the money to finish my house and while I pay him back he gets free rent instead of interest on the loan.  Now though he is looking for a new house.  Maybe his gramma's as he has a new lady friend and feels cramped here.  I don't blame him.  I do appreciate his support and he has been my joy.

     Back to work tonight.  The weekend continued to be busy and with the terrible weather is was real fun......not.  2 more days.  Before work I have to get a box for some items I sold.   My valentines sale is a success.   I haven't been to my MIL's to do a thing since last week.  I don't plan on going back unless I have proof the sons have been working there in my absence.  I can be stubborn also.  Who.....ME!  giggle.

    Even if I can't leave a comment I have been visiting everyones journals.  Hopefully this mess will clear up soon.  Any suggestion?  Who can  I email?

 

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Exhausted



     Work was incredibly busy last night.   The call lights went off all night, we were having a blue light special on low blood pressures and slow heart rates and the confused patients decided to throw into the mix with their own special blend of fun.   My feet are killing me and I am more then ready for bed.  One more night to go.  If it is like it was tonight I might keel over.

    The weather remains in the - degrees and the weatherman, not our friend this week, is calling for snow.  I even am making Zoey wear her sweater.   She loves the snow and can tolerate some chill but this is too cold even for her.  I feel so sorry for the pets who have to stay outside in a kennel all the time.  Why do people even have dogs if they leave them out there day after day.  In weather like this it is just cruel.  Sigh.

     Great news when I got home.  I sold 4 teapots in my shop.  Sales have been slow so that was great.  I am having a Valentine's day sale which helped.

    Well, bedtime.   Night all.  Or good morning in most cases.

    Oh is anyone else having trouble getting their entries in?  I am having a terrible time.   My entried either don't load or I have to push refresh a dozen times.  Is it my computer or AOL?

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Its cold in Iowa

             

     Got off work this morning to -9 degrees outside.  That is after it had warmed up some.  Not fit for man or beast out there.   This will continue all week along with some snow.  Might as well work.  Can't do anything else, right.  Take care and stay warm all.

       

Friday, January 18, 2008

New Journal, Old Postcards

   I thought it would be neat to keep these old postcards somewhere where I could share them.  If your interested check it out   I haven't got them all dated or put in yet.

          Postcards from The Past.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Back to work

   
              And I am actually looking forward to it.  It seems like forever since I worked since I was ill last week.  I sure hope I stay healthy for a few months.  I have been drinking a ton of Oolong tea, suppose to be good for you.  Well it tastes good anyway.

            The weather here is brutal.  8 degrees and falling and suppose to be like this for the next couple of weeks.  My heating bills will go through the roof.   I usually wear long underwear and layers of clothes and keep the heat down to 65.  I have lap blankets all over and we just bundle up.

          I spend the last 2 days working at least 10 to 16 hours a day taking photos of my MIL's things we are selling and then editing the pictures, cropping etc.... Listing them in the shop and researching them, writing descriptions and on and on.  It is so time consuming.  My shoulders and back aches from being huddled over this darn keyboard.  Today, I am taking the day off since I work tonight.   Bubble bath here I come.

         Anything I can't sell in the next few months I will drag back to my MIL's and have it sold at auction.  Eventually we will get this done.  Rick has strict instructions to work at her house everyday I am sleeping.  We are almost done getting all the paperwork shredded and personal items thrown out. 

      Word of warning.  We ran across things I am sure neither of my in-laws would have wanted us to see.  Personal to them ya know.  If you have things buried deep in your closet you don't want anyone to see I suggest disposing of them now.  I know I have.

    Well a hot soak is calling my name.   Take care all.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Time capsule

   Going through my MIL's house is like going through a time capsule.   The deeper we get into the closets the older the items become.  Its like going back in time.  Check out his 78 albums.





     Upstairs on her stereo we listened to the 78's while we cleaned.  Big bands. Tommy Dorsey,  Nat King Cole, Perry Como.  Frank Sinatra.  How fun.   The postcards got older in the boxes also.  From the 80's down to the teens and from English to Danish.  

    Old Danish letters that mention Hitler and
Mussolini.    Letters from San Fransisco right after the big earth quake.   I sure wish I could read them.  The writing got fancier.  Even the men wrote lovely.   Then on to the cival war and letters from relatives along with civil war bullets.  The old photo's.  What a treasure.   There is something to be said about keeping everything.  Now what do we keep?

     I am keeping the really old letters.  I am looking for someone who can read Danish to read them to us.   I am going to end up with a large tub of things to keep no matter what I do but some of these things we just can't part with.   Many of it I am selling.  I was up until 2:30 last night looking for silver patterns.   Til my eyes crossed.  My goodness there must be a million.  My MIL had a nice Silverplate set that she keep the pattern number to.  She also had several single silver and silver plated items that needed to be cleaned, polished, ID'ed, photograph and eventually listed.

     Oh the wonderful cards from the early 1930's on down.  So fancy.  Great old postcards.  School work of my MIL's from 1930's.  When they learned to write well and you kept up, they didn't worry about leaving you behind, your parents made sure you kept up by God, LOL.

    This has been interesting to say the least.  I am just totally exhausted when I leave but it has been fun.

     My talk with my BIL that I thought was so fruitful was just a waste of hot air to a drunk.   Not one thing was done except the house is getting dirtier and dirtier.  I know that from my job.  You can't talk to someone when they are drunk, you can reason with, and you certainly can't rely on them.  I am such a sucker some days. 

     Well, I have a few hundred things to list and id.  Anyone looking for just about anything?  Drop me a line.  Its probably there somewhere, LOL.

    Look at this beautiful server.  I wish I could keep it all.

      

       And this cool old jewelry







        Just wait until I get to the postcards and greeting cards.
 
        Well, writing in here isn't getting my job done.  Have you all checked out the community Photo challenge yet?   I was honored to have come in 2nd place tying with Nancy,  Donna and Betty came out first place.  So get ready all.  Another is coming.  Divided into professional and amateur categories

  

Saturday, January 12, 2008

The march of time

   As I entered my 50's a sense of running out time became stronger then ever.   My family has a short life span.  Most don't make it out of their 50's.  So why do I procrastinate?

   Lazy days alway make me stop and think about if I wasted it or enjoyed it.  Did I live this day to its fullest like maybe tomorrow wouldn't come?  Probably not.  Definitely not today.

   Don't get me wrong.  I love a good lazy day.  I deserve a good wasted day.  But they even should be planned.  A really good wasted lazy day?    Sitting on the bank of my favorite fishing hole.  Warm sun on my skin.   My bobber floating gently in the middle of the lake.  Or,  a long bike ride.  Our lunch in the saddle bags.  My muscles sore and sweat running down my back.  A swig of cold water when we reach the half way point.  Flushing out a deer or pheasant from the fields as we pass by.

        Hiking in the park with my camera around my neck.   Looking for the perfect shot.  Taking 400 shots and keeping 4.  Zoey happy to be in the woods, me happy to not be working.

      Days like those it doesn't bother me to procrastinate.   House dusty?  Laundry piled up?  Yard need work?  So what.  My family doesn't live long.  I have to enjoy each and every day.  It might be my last.

     Excuses!  Yes.  Beliefs?  YES.  The one thing about house work.  It waits for you.  It invites friends over to wait for you.  Dust bunnies multiply,  food molds into unrecognizable blobs of green.

     Today however was not a good wasted day.  I hate that.  I don't mind wasting a day.  But a wasted day without fun or something to remember it by is just a wasted day.  You know what I mean. 

     Will these type of feeling intensify daily as I get older.  I stand at the door and say do something!  Time is flying by.  And I am not doing anything.  I am missing a sunrise or a sunset somewhere.  A playground where children are laughing.  A park where a man throws a stick for his dog.  Stuck in this house this long winter day.  Tick Tick Tick.  Anyone else out there feel this?  This need to feel your life with meaningful enjoyful moments?

Communication











         We spent yesterday working at the house and I finally talked to BIL about what I expected him to be doing.  He was packing up items that would be in the auction or not doing anything at all.   I have to admit my resentment and just plain not caring for the man has made this worse then it needed to be.  He in turn had no idea what we wanted him to.  Nothing, something?  Anything?  I felt like every suggestion he was giving I was vetoing it.  Being a real B---h.  Not on purpose, but he was focusing on things that were not the priority.

    Yesterday we sat and I explained why the house needed to gone though like we were.  It wasn't just me making this up, there is aweb site that explains reallywell how to break it down to get ready for the sale.

   First of all you get rid of all letters, bills, etc that might have personal information.   Information you wouldn't want complete strangers going though.  That is foremost the first thing you should do.  Get all documents and important deeds, etc organized into one place and put aside for safekeeping.   Next go through all the drawers and throw away all the things that people stick in junk drawers for use sometime in the future and promptly forget about.  Throw throw throw.

     Both the sons are hopeless pack rats themselves so this is hard on them so I have been doing most of that.  Both are good at taking bubble gum wrappers and duck tape along that little bit of wire and rebuilding a carburetor well enough to get you home in an emergency.   They see every little piece of scrape as maybe being useful some day.  You know what?  Maybe it would be but for every 2000 things you save for the possibility that one of the items might find a use some day, it isn't worth it.


    Then you go through the thousand of pictures and divide them into family groups to be given back to that family to deal with.   We were talking yesterday that this generation here may be the last to have photo albums.  Old family pictures in books.   It will be on discs or stored on line.  Easily able to be deleted with the push of a button.  A families history wiped out just like that, as if they never existed.  It was a sad thought.

       When all that is done you go room through room and see what it is that you may want, or a relative may want and put them aside.  Its called the 80 20 rule.  80% you know no one wants and there is that 20% you don't know if you want to keep or maybe a relative.   Put that 20% aside and deal with the 80%.  When you get to that point then you can do your auction. 

     So I gave my BIL a list of things that needed to be done.  2 more closets of letters, bills, receipts etc need to be looked through and shredded.   Don't pack anything away we are selling in the auction as the auctioneer will need to see them and photograph them.  Don't give away too many things to friends or friends of friends trying to look like a nice guy because at an auction everything will sell.  Even if you only get a dollar its still a dollar and for my BIL that is of vital importance.

    He thanked me.  I should have told him sooner why we were doing it this way.  Now it makes sense to him and he can also help.  I let my anger at him stand in my way, my bad.  In exchange he let slip he is going back to his home state when this is over.  Can we say happy here.

    So yesterday was a good day.  I put my B---h in a box with the 20% to be looked at later and got some things done.  Today we go again.  I am in the mood to make a dent.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Slow road to recovery

               

       Slowly I have been feeling better.  Well enough to work on my shop and do some packing.  I sold my MIL's Skookum dolls for just under $600.  Sold one of the medals my FIL had and some handkerchiefs.  I also wrote to a couple of museum's about the picture and never heard back from them.  Fine.  I will have it framed and hung.

    I am just floating in tea and honey.   It is the only drink that worked for me for the last 3 days.  Finally late last night my temp broke for the last time and I am feeling better.

    Sitting around listening to the radio.  Listening to the tears heard around the world.  My take on it?  I watched the video of Ms. Hillary crying and listened to the radio.  Well from now on instead of crocodile tears to me they will always be Hillary tears.  My granddaughter is much better at it and could give her some lessons.  But it seemed to have worked for her.   Might have to try it sometime.  Anyway I am tired of the campaign.   So today I have music on and even thinking of cleaning my dusty neglected house.

     How when the roads are covered in snow, and it is snowing, does my house get dusty?  We didn't get the snow they predicted but it was enough for the person stuck in my ditch to have problems.  One year we had 4 cars and a dump truck in the ditch.  Then the really big tow truck they sent for the dump truck got stuck.  Oh the cheap entertainment of that fiasco.   Just rolled up the blinds on the picture window and sat down for a front row seat.

     Nothing has been done at my MIL's.  I suppose tomorrow I will go back.   The sons are afraid to throw anything out in case it is the wrong thing.  Throw out the old makeup I tell them, throw out the old letters, cards, dust rags, MOM and Mylanta bottles.  The industrial size bottle of fibercon.  The 400 magazines.  The saved scraps of old gift wrap and flat bows.  The 400 address labels sent from charities hoping to talk you out of a buck or 2.  If I can figure it out, and I never claimed to be the brightest bulb in the box, they can also.  And always but always keep in the back of your mind that we can't, simply can't keep it all.

     Maybe I should send them away for a few months.  Gather some friends and go to work.  Clean the place out.  I told my husband if he has lived without this childhood memento these many, many, years he can live without it forever.

     We moved a lot when I was growing up.  My mother was poor and we were always going to places we could afford better then the place we were in.  Things got left behind and thrown.  Given away and forgotten.  I don't have many things from my childhood.  Actually I have none.  I have my grandmothers ring, my mom's wallet and stories.  Some pictures.  Period.  But I think they always knew they had the things, without the problem of storing them.  So I have to break through that or else some day my sons will be doing what we are doing.  The pictures will even mean less to them then they do to us.

      I don't mean the family pictures of parents and grandparents and great-grandparents.  I mean the woman I went to school with new grandchild or dog.  Cousin Sally's sons graduation picture of a nice kid I never met.  Those type of photo's.  Jim's new car, Billy from next doors birthday party pictures.  Isn't that cute.  These must go.  They mean nothing other then Oh Look at this, who is this?  Do you know what I mean.  Does this make sense to anyone but me.  This type of stuff it driving me nuts.

    So anyway.  This is where my head is today.  You can tell I am feeling better.  My brain is racing.   So I will put some of this energy into cleaning my house.  Take care all.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Hanging in there

          

          The body is an amazing machine.  When your too stupid to slow down and rest when needed it slams into you like a mac truck and screeches you to a stop.  At least it does me.  If I ignore the warning signs and keep doing more then I can possible get done I can assure a good illness.  One that puts me flat on my back and makes me sleep for 24 hours straight.  Like now.  At my age I should know better.  Stop pretending to be super woman idiot.

         So I have a good case of the  flu I think.  My lungs hurt and body screams sleep sleep.  Still have my appetite though, god forbid I lose that for a few days.  I can see my arm reaching up from my open grave.....excuse me, could I have a snack for the trip to tide me over?

        I am thinking this flu is why my lungs and back hurt so bad.  So tea and honey by the gallons, yummy.  I am shutting off the little nagging voice reminding me of all things I have to do and instead am nagging Rick about all the nagging little things he has to do.  Working out great, LOL.

      Last night we rented a movie and watched it.  Crazy Love.  Its a documentary.   So very strange and another look at weird human nature. 
          
        I am hoping to feel better by 7 so I can work but am not really holding out any real hope for it.   So another lazy day.

        My son is thinking of buying his Gramma's house.    That would be so wonderful.  He is going to check in and see what the payments would be.  Keep your fingers crossed.  Let him be the one to evict the BIL.

    Well, bedtime again.  I have about 3 quilts on my bed and am still cold.