Spit Bubbles

Illinois Here I Come

Tomorrow morning I fly to Chicago with my brother Pat. Then we catch a bus that will take us to Rockford where Uncle Wayne will pick us up. We'll spend the weekend and come home. Really looking forward to seeing my aunt and uncle and my cousins. I'll be back on Sunday.

Catch Up

Dalt and Wyatt

Zach, number 10, at his game.

This was a great picture until I did the red eye thing and got the blue across Shaquira's face.

Getting ready for cake for Aunt Cris.

So last weekend was very busy. We rushed over to Zach's basketball game and caught the tail end of it. While I was trying to take pictures Wyatt said to take his. So I did, and it was one of the few that turned out that day. Wyatt is my neighbor Dalt's grandson and that is Dalt in the picture with him. Zach's team won the game. One kid did a spectacular throw right at the buzzer from half court and it went in. Amazing.

After the game Mom and I headed over to Beth's house for cake and ice cream. Aunt Cris had her birthday last week and this was her party. We had a nice time and heard some stories we hadn't heard before. That is always special because someday there will be no one left to share those stories.

Then Mom and I went shopping and out for dinner at Thai Lotus. It is a Thai place up on McGillvary and 162nd AV in Vancouver. Mom had lemongrass chicken and I had vegetarian yakisoba. Our meals were really good. Everything smelled amazing there even if it was spicy. I went back again on Monday and had pad thai and it was special.

Shabbat

My friend Nathan had invited me to Shabbat last fall. But then he felt like he needed to use all his spare time studying so he didn't fail that quarter. Nathan is a nursing student. So we rescheduled for last night.
Shabbat at Nathan and Staceys' house consists of lighting a couple of candles and singing a song/saying a prayer. Nathan explained it as Christians saying grace. I guess the difference is Shabbat is done on Friday night. I likened it to taking a moment in our busy busy lives to pray/reflect/just stop and breathe.
Nathan cooked spaghetti. The sauce was homemade. There was a fruit bowl and garlic bread. Very nice supper. Then the kids told us stories/dreams before they moved to the living room to watch a movie. Us grown-ups chatted and the time flew by.

Sports Medicine

Ali at work told me I really needed to follow through with sports medicine. Just in case there was a small tear in my knee. Small is better and easier to fix than big. So the sports medicine office called Friday morning when I was home. They got me in two hours later. Dr. Muhammed was great. I really liked him. He tried to torture my knee and only his thumb on one of my tendons hurt. He wiggled and ground both knees in every direction a knee goes. Said I have very stable knees and my pain/stiffness is tendinitis. At first he was going to prescribe, but then thought better of it. Said doctors always want to do things and change things, but since my regiment was working we would just stick with that. It is just going to take time to heal. Great news for me. I was so relieved.

Amanda

So at work we have this cart that we make deliveries in. It is yellow and runs on a battery. Driving it is similar to driving a riding lawn mower, except it makes no sound. And that is very odd. Anyway Amanda comes in to work one day and says she so embarrassed herself. She saw our cart driving down one of the sidewalks and so she decided to startle Ricky. Ricky mostly drives our cart. So she hops out in front of it doing the boo thing and it is not our cart or Ricky. It was some other person. Amanda said she felt so silly.
After we got done being amused by this I pointed out to her that the brakes on our cart are really bad and she is lucky because Ricky probably would have run over her before he got the cart to stop. She said she hadn't even thought of that... I said yeah it is a mom thing.

Audrie is Growing

This is my most recent picture of Audrie. We took it yesterday. She is getting to be so alert. She talks to you and is quite the chatterbox. Takes after Nana that way.

Another Weekend

Elizabeth and Adrianna joined the household again for the weekend. Always love having the girls around, but it was a bit of a challenge this weekend. I re-injured my knee badly last week. Enough that I went to the dr. I was told to keep the leg up, take ibuprofen, ice, and wait for sports medicine to call me. On Monday. So I did spend a good amount of time off of the leg. But two year olds do not understand about grown-up boo boos and are pretty impatient. She was very good at carrying my coffee though. Hmmm I wonder if that is because she wanted to drink some of it. Anyway the grandchildren and I both survived the weekend. And by Sunday I could hobble around without the walker. Each day getting better. Sports medicine did finally call yesterday, but didn't answer their phone when I returned the call. Guess I will try again today, although I am getting better all by myself.

Movies

So I was watching "Duma" and the mother character came on. I was like wow I just saw that actress somewhere. So I looked it up and she had just played the mother on "Charlie Bartlett" that we watched recently. I find that happens a lot. I pick up a movie or two and I will have a lot of the same actors in them. And I'm not trying to do that...it just happens. Very weird.

New Year

The girls spent the night last night. Myk and Cassie were babysitting. Elizabeth and I let them do their job this time rather than do it for them. Adrianna did not want to go to sleep. It was almost midnight when she fell asleep. And then she was up with me at about 7:30 this morning. Bet she took a good nap this afternoon.
So time to look back and look ahead. I was commenting to a friend about Dave finishing up treatment. She said oh that changes everything and you have to change how you think. I totally agreed. It is one of the things I find difficult. Sometimes I find myself reacting in the old way (because we've done it that way for 25 years) before I have time to process that the words or tone may not mean what they used to mean. It is a new learning curve.
Audrie joined us this year and that has been a blessing. She is still just perfect even if she does have a temper.
Tanya is in the middle of buying a house. It may close in two weeks. She is pretty excited. So I again broached getting her GED and maybe it is time to look at classes since she won't just pass the test. Just trying to nudge her into more growth. I'm not sure what she thinks of my nudges but she hasn't told me to mind my own business. :P
Doug became single, but is in a new relationship now. We miss Heather, but it is the way of life. People come and go. His new gal sounds pretty cool. Guess we'll see where it ends up.
Myk has spent most of the year coasting. I keep waiting for him to find his motivation. Thought maybe Audrie would do that. Guess it is going to take Mom being more of a hard nose at saying no to money and things. It is one of my downfalls because sometimes it is just easier to give in.
Mom's dementia has progressed. Not enough yet to need a new place to live. I'm still not sure when that time is, but I'm sure we will know.
And so on to the new year. Keep all the good things from last year. Elizabeth's Thursdays and we may get back to riding Too Much Power on Mondays this spring. Love on Audrie every chance I get. Love on Adrianna who likes it more and more all the time. Get tougher with Myk and keep my money in my pocket. Try new reactions for Dave and if that won't come maybe it is time to look at al-anon. Listen to Mom and spend more time with her. Go to Illinois.
They aren't resolutions. Just life. Happy New Year.