I love long weekends

Long weekends with friends and family are even better. We had lots of fun.

We survived Thanksgiving - again. Peter has developed this odd inclination to risk our lives on holidays. Last Thanksgiving he got us lost in Minto Brown after dark. At Christmas he got us stuck in the snow up in the woods for several hours. (All wheel drive doesn't help when the snow high-centers the car and the tires don't touch pavement.)

This Thanksgiving it was my turn to risk our lives. I cooked a turkey that I found at the very bottom of our large chest freezer. I know it was purchased after July, 2004 - because we moved the freezer empty. But other than that I have no idea when it entered our deep freeze. I cooked it anyway.. and risked us all getting food poisoning. We didn't! whew.

The weekend didn't pass without injury though. I did something quite foolish - which I won't go into detail over (mostly because I'm embarrassed by it) - and nearly broke two of my fingers. I whacked 'em good. They are now black and blue, swollen and quite stiff. THIS is what happens when I break the rules. Rules exist for a reason and I challenged a rule. I've learned my lesson. When a sign says "No" or "Don't" or "Caution" I shall pay attention.

In the summer of 2007 Peter and Kyle went on some errand. On their return, they came in the door with arms full of grapes and an incredibly mischievous grins on their faces. With a twinkle in his eye Peter announced.. "We got grapes. I'm going to make wine!" Those grapes and a whole bunch more made a fine batch of "Peter's Perfect Pinot." Last night we had some dear friends over for wine tasting. We had 7 slightly different variations of the same batch. 225 bottles of the 2007 vintage (2008 & 2009 are still processing). #7 is my favorite. #5 was Cheryl's fave. Len said he liked them all. We never got around to opening bottles 1 & 2. It was just too much wine!

The weekend has been fun. I wish it didn't have to end. sigh...

The Telephone Game

Remember that game from your childhood?

It all started out so simply. My plan: Phone my mom to tell her I was on my way to take her to a doctor appointment.

Ring ring. ring ring (times a gazillion.. it takes her forever to answer the phone!)

Her: Hello. Hang on.

(shuffle shuffle, rustle, wheeze, pant, shuffle. I hummed the theme from Jeopardy at least twice while waiting)

Her (finally): okay.

Me: Hello

Her: What?

Me: Hello There!

Her: You're going to the fair?

Me: No. I wanted to say Hi.

Her: You're crying??

Me: No. I just wanted to.. sigh.. How are you today?

Her: Who is this?

Me: It's Sharon. Your daughter.

Her: Who?

Me: SHARON.

Her: oh. what do you want?

Me: I was calling to say I was coming over.

Her: Come on over then. click.


She called me tonight after dinner to tell me how lovely and surprising the evening was and how gracious everyone was. It was a lovely party and she was sorry I missed it.

I love my mother. She is one of things I am thankful for.

I hope one and all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you can all find something, anything, even weird things, to be thankful for.

Thank you. Thank you very much!

My mom called me at work today. She was upset.
She could not continue to live where she was. She wanted me to find her a small house where she could live out her days. SOMETHING had to be done.

I assured her I would be there shortly and would take care of everything.

I arrived just before dinner. I sat with her during dinner to see if I saw the situation she was having so much trouble with. I didn't. But during dinner a table mate shared the story of her surprise 90th birthday party. Shortly after than my mother said, "Isn't this a suprise!"
The other diner said, "Why yes, it was wonderful."

A few minutes later Mom said, "I'm so surprised by all this."

The other diner said, "It was very lovely."
(obviously two different conversations going..)

When Mom was done eating I asked her if she was ready to go back to her room. She couldn't understand why we would leave before all the other people.

After much persuasion she finally got up out of her chair to leave the dining room. As we were leaving she turned to the room, and in a very loud and clear voice she said,

"Thank you everyone for coming. Thank you. It was lovely."

One lady on the other side of the room replied, "You're welcome!"

I almost laughed myself silly.

(and by then she had completely forgotten about her earlier issues.)

Inger, The Traveling Goat

At work today something didn't go entirely my way (what a surprise!!) - I was locked out of the very program I was supposed to be managing. I sent an email to Darryl and Lori asking them if this was their way of sugggesting I find new employment... The following electronic conversation ensued.

Darryl: It’s about time you retire and focus on goats, donchya think?
Me: yes.. it is. I think I shall name my first one Inger.
Lori: can I borrow Inger to come and mow my lawn?
Me: I’ve been reading.. Goats are browsers not grazers. Sorry. And… Inger will be living near the Canadian border… want to haul her that far?
Darryl: Is she a pigmy…can we fit her in the trunk?
Lori: We can write a book called ”Inger, the Traveling Goat” and write all about her experiences traveling from the Canadian border to Salem. Then, a movie can be made and then we can all retire!
Darryl: Kind of like the traveling guitar. We can send her on to someone else when we’re done with her. There could be a blog – in SharePoint, of course – where everyone who gets her can write about her experiences while “browsing” their lawn. She’d become the most famous goat in the world…even more famous than Dolly the Sheep.

The people I work with are so weird!

Big Day for BOTH my kids!

I've got News..

Tonight was yet another tedious, boring after school affair where I get to sit on hard benches listening to teachers and coaches spout how wonderful ALL the kids are.. yet turn around and give awards to just one or two students. These events always make me cranky. I think it brings back bad memories of my own shortcoming at school. I would join an activity, try my absolute hardest and then get blamed for the team loosing.. oh wait.. That's MY baggage! This is about Jill!

She got an award in Marching Band. Finally! Someone with my genes running in them won something! She won "Director's Choice" which means that of all the kids SHE was the one that impressed him the most with her good attitude and improvement. That's my girl!

and still MORE news..

Kyle got his bandages and stitches out today. The doctor removed the packing in his nose and guess what happened?? My son passed out! He went white, his eyes kinda rolled back in his head, he muttered a "I feel woozy" and ... BANG he was gone. I remained completely calm.. NOT. The doctor remained calm, Kyle's dad remained calm (yes he actually has one) so I felt it was totally in my rights to panic a bit.

He doesn't look too bad! He still has a lot of swelling. If you look at him in profile his nose is about an inch shorter than it used to be. He has to go back in late December after the swelling completely goes to figure out what to do next.

I can run.. but I can't hide

I'm home. It's quiet at the moment. My kids did an excellent job of watching out after each other. They can be pretty good kids when they are forced to be!

Last night my mom phoned. It seems a bunch of kids set up a jewelry store in her room. They were making such a racket she couldn't sleep and she wanted her privacy and would I PLEASE come home and kick them out. I assured her they were imaginary. Then I called her caregivers and asked them to go check on her... which they did. And we decided she would eventually go to sleep despite the "ruckus" in her room plus she promised the staff would check on her several times throughout the night.

I called mom this morning, she was surprised to hear it was morning.. "They" told her it was but she didn't believe them. She was also still concerned about the kids that had been in her room. She was worried someone went through her purse and stole her hearing aids.. she couldn't find them anywhere.

I called Jill and explained the plight. (Sometimes I have a very weird sense of humor..) I asked Jill if she would please go over to her g'mas and *pretend* to purchase jewelry from these imaginary people in order to satisfy Mom's imagination. My request was met with dead silence and then Jill said.. "I'm not going to do that. That would be stupid!!"

I giggled heartily at that because, of course I was teasing. I did ask Jill to help her find her hearing aids (located on the floor behind her bed..)

And all is well. My break was wonderful and I am now renewed to face whatever next week holds...

A Day in the life of a future Goat herder

I left! I abandoned my family and headed north. I left Kyle and Mary to watch Jill and Sparky. I left Jill to ensure that Kyle and Mary obey the house rules. I left Jill and Mary to take care of Kyle. I left all three of them to tend to my mom. And I ran as fast as I could north to Peter. Guilt lives in every pore of my being - but I think I can tolerate it.

Today I slept in late and leisurely drank my coffee. Peter went to the office. I read a bit of the book that he bought me, showered, went to town and did a bit of shopping, met Peter, came back to the house, drank mimosa’s and took a nap.

I like it! This seems like a perfect way to spend the rest of my days.

Of course.. Then the obligatory autumn leaf raking began. It started out such a nice day too. There was ice in the pond and yesterday’s hail still on the ground and we’re out there raking leaves for … like… 12 hours! I might’ve gotten frost bitten! I almost have blisters! My lips are chapped even!

If it weren’t for the fact that Peter is cooking dinner while I sit here doing nothing I might get cranky. But I wouldn’t dare or I might end up with the cooking chore. Yikes!

Now I need to read more of my book. So far I’ve learned that you don’t call goats Nannies or Billies in polite company. I’ve learned that goats must be milked every 12 hours - whether you want to or not. I’ve learned that Goats are browsers not grazers. I’ve learned that goats are related to deer, not cats or dogs (honestly.. It said that in the book!) And I’ve learned that goats are not pets and should not be treated as such. I can’t wait to see what else I will learn!

My son get's to pick his nose!

He get's to pick out a new one anyway.

I'm going to crawl into bed and stay there. I will pull the covers up. WAY up over my head. I will stay there for the next 570 days. Please take turns poking cheetos and glasses of wine under the blankets for me to find.

I used to work with a guy who had this black cloud hanging over him. If something was going to happen.. it was going to happen to HIM. I would tsk tsk his direction and wonder what fate and kharma had against him. It's horrible to think it's my turn.

Late Tuesday morning my son called me from Redding, California. In a muffled, slurred voice he said to me.. "uh.. Mom. I've been in an accident."

I, of course, pretended not to understand him. (It was my brief moment of denial..). But it was useless and the truth prevailed. Kyle said his car was a bit bashed up - but drivable, his nose was broken and he had split his lip. It didn't sound so bad. He was 6 hours away, his girlfriend, Mary, was already there as he had called HER hours earlier. I decided not to go. Then I decided to go. Then I decided not to go. Then I decided to go. Then I decided not to go. Ultimately I grabbed Jill and off we went.

On the way there Mary called and said he was going into surgery that would take about and hour and a half. Surgery?? I was quite puzzled as it hadn't sound so bad as to require surgery. Apparently Kyle wasn't really paying attention to reality when he called me (the pain meds were talking I'm sure). His nose wasn't just broken.. it was well.. mostly gone. The outside was there - but whatever is inside a nose was gone. His lip was split - but it was split from lip up into his sinus cavity. He had a big steering wheel shaped dent on his forehead. It took hundreds of little tiny stitches to put things mostly back together. The surgeons reported that they had a very hard time telling what went where. The boy is messed up and his face is swollen almost unrecognizable. His truck is totaled. Want to see a picture? I have one I'm saving to torture him with when he recovers and even THINKS about driving dangerously. My beautiful son isn't so beautiful at the moment. However - he was glad to see his mommy despite his tough guy attitude and I got to bring him home last night. He is my baby after all.

We have an appointment next week at OHSU to see how he's healing and to get hooked up with a plastic surgeon to finish rebuilding his nose.

On a funny note - We also had to buy him some clothes because the paramedics had cut his off of him. Jill said to me..."it seems the only time Kyle get's new clothes is when his old ones get cut off!" It's true. The last time was early last year when he was on his bike and got hit by a car. They cut off his clothes then too!

Down to business

My mother has been in her own apartment for nearly a month. Wow. 4 weeks. It's been a bit of a rough transition with still more work to go. However things are looking up and starting to get "normal" - as soon as we figure out what that is.

Jill and I have been having fun rearranging, redecorating, purging and more. Shower doors have come down, vertical blinds have come down, rooms have been switched, furniture moved, dishes and pots and pans reorganized. We can't find a thing in our kitchen anymore.. but that's not hugely different than it was. Except now when we DO find it, it's where we wanted it. We'll get used to it soon I'm sure. We've put up curtains and are planning new paint colors.

When it comes to decorating we are keeping in mind the goal of selling this house in the summer of 2011. Everything we do first get's the "what will this do for re-sale" process applied to it.

Another thing that we've discovered is that the house is staying cleaner. My mother was not a messy woman in any way - however there is almost never a dish in the sink or a mess on the counter now. I can't figure THAT out at all.

This is all such an adventure and I mean that in the most positive way. It's so exciting (when it's not exhausting) and it's looking so . . . good. :)

Secret cat language!

Totally by accident we discovered that whistling is the secret cat language for.. "Attack the dog!"

Repeated experiments proved this to be true. Poooooooor Sparky!

580 days.. or so

I worked a full day today.. 10 hours. I believe today was the first day in about 2 months that I've managed to work a full day. I'm tired! This work business is not all it's cracked up to be!

I brought Mom home (to her apartment) from the hospital on Friday afternoon. Friday night she called me and said she felt SO much better and thought she might like it there. How exciting is that?

The weekend was pretty good and today Mom reported she went for a couple of walks, went down to the common area and sat by the fire and got in a bit of a "set-to" with one of the ladies at her dining table. At first I thought the squabbling at her table was a bad thing but it seems to give her something to talk about and get involved in. I moved her to another table but she has moved herself back. I think she thrives on the dischord.. wait.. of COURSE she does.. had I completely forgotten how I was raised??

Anyway.. things are looking up. I'm ready to go visit some goats.