There are so many people in my life. All with their own individual personalities. All with their own varied quirks. I was sitting here trying to come up with something to write about that is happening in my life that someone might want to read about. I kept thinking about what has been going on in my life since I last blogged, what happened just today, what is coming up in the next few days ahead.

What should I be blogging about.

I seemed to find a common thread in all my mental wanderings. It seems to wrap itself around the people in my life and how I interact with each of them or even choose not to interact with them at all that moment/day/etc.

Pretty much every single moment of my life I am interacting with another human. Even now, although I am alone, everyone else in my home is asleep, I am interacting with you. I don't even know who you are or when I will be interacting with you, but here we are, interacting.

I find this somewhat interesting. Of course I do know my few regular readers, and approximately when they read, but I still don't know for sure, and (hopefully?) there may be a reader or two I have never met and may never meet.

Damn, I don't know where I am going with this. Let's jump back a bit.

I think I was just thinking about all the people I spend time with on a regular basis. With all my interacting you think I would have something to blog about. I have been happy, angry, indifferent, frustrated, etc at least once in the past 24 hrs, I should be able to just pick one particular feeling and run with it.

I don't seem to be able to tonite. I am just going to briefly touch on some recent and upcoming moments and you tell me what you want to hear more about. Just remember, be careful what you wish for.

The Tale of the Christmas party I missed.

The most frustrating part of my job.

Dean's new job started 2 days ago.

Kaitlins paper route trials and tribulations.

Christmas planning and shopping.

Money I don't have but seem to be spending.

Christmas projects and lack of action.

Why don't I blog everyday? Wait... refer to todays post.

I just wish I could play Mahjonng all day.

I hate insurance.

I know nothing about politics.

No photos on my weblog yet.

Plywood flooring

Survivor?

My upcoming visit to the city.

Thats enough for now.

Or is it?

Blah

I'm at home with a sick kid missing my Christmas party in the city.

Blah.

I am not.

I should be doing dishes.
I should be doing laundry.
I should be typing the minutes to the PAC meeting last month.
I should be sewing the tree skirt.
I should be painting.
I should be making lists.
I should be organizing Kaitlin's move to her new bedroom.
I should be dusting the computer.
I should be at the office catching up on time I owe.
I should be trying to decide what I am going to wear the Christmas party Friday nite.
I should be calling Brian to help me fix the spybot problem I have on my computer.
I should be, I should be, I should be....

I am not.
I am going to play mahjongg for an hour or so and then load the dishwasher, put in a load of laundry and watch TV until I fall asleep, maybe.

Fabric, fabric everywhere.

Friday nite I stayed up to midnight and finished Theya's dress. It turned out so cool and I enjoyed making it so much, I can't wait to do the next one for Maggie. Theya's is patchwork to match the patchwork blanket I made for her and Maggies will be fleece to match the fleece blanket I made for her. They even come with the little pantaloon things to cover the diaper. They were so easy to make too. Once in grade seven my mom helped me pick out a pattern for a pair of baby doll pj's that I got to make all by myself, with her guidance. I have been sewing "things" ever since, but this little dress is the first time since then that I have purchased a pattern and used it to sew something. I LOVE IT!

I inherited my mom's old sewing machines when she finally had enough of arguing with it and bought herself a new one. It mostly worked when it felt like it. I used it for simple things like mending and hemming pants for the kids and winged a couple of halloween costumes for them over the years out of my head. I always just imagined what I wanted to end result to be and then imagined how I was going to get these piles of fabric to turn into the end result. It was alot of learning on the fly and compromising the fabric, the machine and my ideas, but the end result always somehow worked out to be more or less what it was supposed to be.

2 years ago I purchased a brand new machine. It has served me well for all the hemming and repairing and I even made 8 stockings for Christmas that year. I can't believe I waited so long to purchase a pattern. I want to go and buy many, many more. I am going to sew a skirt for Kaitlin next. She wants a patchwork one like Theya's dress.

On another note. I made cookies today. I haven't made cookies for almost a year. Kaitlin has become the cookie maker of the house. It was fun, and yummy! A good warm up for the Christmas baking projects I have planned.

Funny list

I am starting to get excited about Christmas. It is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the shopping for other people. I love the family get togethers which always bring all the great food that I also love. I love the get togethers with friends. I love the creative projects I take on. I even love the panic to finish the projects on time. I love the planning and organizing. I love the decorating. I love it all.

I have many projects planned. One is a little crafty thing for my friends and coworkers. I try to do something small and individualized for all the people outside of my family that are important in my life. Just something little to let them know I value them.

Another one that I am completing this evening (I hope) is the second part of Theya's welcome to the world gift. Then I have to finish the one for Maggie. Then I can start the Christmas projects. I am hoping to make one for my niece Claire and maybe even one for our family gift exchange. I also have to finish the tree skirt I started this time last year.

In two weeks I will be spending the weekend in the city, hopefully to complete my Christmas shopping. I have arranged to meet my girlfriend for a day of catching up while shopping and then we will end it with a good meal and relaxed conversation. We did this last year and it was fantastic. A day with good easy company and we even seem to share good easy taste. Then an evening visiting with family in the city and another day of shopping to finish up what I missed and a relaxed happy drive home.

But first, I must get organized. This weekend is all about organizing myself. I want to get my baking list done so I can then get my baking shopping list done. I need to make a list of who I need to purchase/create gifts for so I can make the list of what I want to purchase/create for each. This of course leads to the list of what I need to purchase and the supplies I need purchase for the creations. Then I schedule this all into my various evenings and weekends which of course are listed.

As you can see, I need a list of all the lists I need. The first thing I need to do is purchase a list book or note pad. Should I put my list on my list?

The word "list" is starting to look funny.

Pink ceramic

Life was good.

Had a fantastic weekend with the family and then back to life and reality yesterday. It was payday. I call payday, reality day. This is because the rest of the time I can pretend and plan and dream and then BAM! Reality day. All the pretending and planning and dreaming comes crashing down. Not enough money for the pretending of the past two weeks. Not enough money for the planning of the last two weeks. Not enough money for the dreaming of the past two weeks. You see where I am going here.

Do I stop planning and dreaming, no way. I would be an empty shell if I stopped. Pretending though... that I could most likely do without, hard as it would be. But I like me better when I am pretending. I don't like the reality of bugeting. It is so damn constrictive and I just don't do constrictive.

Ask my husband. Just try to restrict me to something, anything. I will show you! If I want to. If I just don't care about it, then go blow yourself. For example: D says "You can't possibly get all those dishes into the dishwasher". I WOULD SHOW HIM JUST HOW MANY DISHES I COULD GET INTO THE DISHWASHER and they would all come out clean, clean, clean!!!

But, D says "You can't possibly do all those dishes by hand in less than 30 minutes" and I shrug and walk away, he can do them however he wants to and take all the time he wants, whatever, I really don't give a damn.

D has learned this simple personality "quirk" of mine. He knows better than to tell me I can't do something and if it something I don't care to do, no amount of "I dare you"'s will matter.

Once a male coworker tried to tell me that women can't pee standing up. They can so! I offered to prove it to him, but he wouldn't let me. He backed down. Damn smart of him too. Women can so pee standing up, we just prefer to sit. It is simpler and much less messy but if we wanted to, we could and would stand to do our business and at an urinal too if we so desired.
I am sure with a little practice we would have it down to a shake at the end without any of those nasty drip marks men seem inept at avoiding and we could even spell our names in the snow.

As I am writing this I am envisioning a female style urinal. Pink ceramic, long and narrow not high and rounded. So you could walk up to and stand slightly over it.

Why not?

No hububaloo here.

Life really is good.

I think I may have to change the name of my blog to "Life is good".

I am seriously wondering if it gets any better than it has been this weekend. My family is all together, we are truly enjoying each others company, we are eating fantastic food (which is always a given at a family get together), and I am as relaxed as I have ever been in 20+ years if not longer.

Today I got up, made a bacon and egg breakfast for everyone to wake to the smell of. Had a relaxing breakfast and coffee with the family. Started laundry, did a few fun family chores (yes, some can be fun) and went up/down town for a massage. I have never had a massage as great as this one. Mind you it is only the third one I have ever had. It was fantastic. She hit all the spots I was hoping for ( I have learned, finally, that it helps when you tell them what you would like).

Instead of regaling you with pages of my past health history/problems, I will sum it up to: I carry a lot of tension and stress in my neck and shoulders. So much so that a few months ago I went to see a specialist because I was having a lot of light headedness and ringing in my ears. He diagnosed it as tension and so much tightness in my neck and shoulders that it was cutting off the circulation to my head. This was what was causing the dizziness and ringing in my ears. Scary shit.

I started seeing a homeopathic chiropractor who has done wonders for me. Since the beginning of August I have been working with him and my quality of life has been getting steadily better. I have decided it is now time to start working with a massage therapist to take it one step higher/further/better/whatever word you prefer.

She was awesome. So good I gave her 30% tip and booked another appt.

I then came straight home and had a bite to eat, drank about 24 ounces of water and had a nap. I went for a walk and then did some preview Christmas shopping with Craig for two hours. Came home, bbq'd steaks that have been marinating for about 32 hours and roasted baby red potatoes mixed with veggies and fried some mushrooms on the side. We topped it off with 2 bottles of red wine and a family movie.

I really don't know if it is the massage, my family, or the red wine, or the combination of all three or if there is even something more to it I am missing, but I cannot imagine my life getting any better than it is this evening.

It feels like it is Christmas without all the hassle and hububaloo.

My home is complete once again

My kids are home, my kids are home, my kids are home.

In case you didn't hear me, my kids are home!!!

Craig and Stephanie came home for the weekend today. It was so nice to watch them walk in the door. The dogs were so excited. You couldn't wipe the smile off of Kaitlins face either, but she didn't try to jump on them or lick their faces.

Yesterday evening I called them to see when they would be arriving. After I hung up, I hollared, yes, hollared, its what we do, up to D that "Craig & Stephanie would be home somewhere between 6 and 7 pm tommorow night". Tassie who was curled up beside me, looked up at me expectantly. I told her that Stephanie and Craig are coming home. She wagged her tail. I asked her "Wheeeeerrrrrrre'ssss Stephaaaaaaanieeeeeeee?" like I used to many, many years ago to make her run around the house to find her.

She jumped off the couch and ran upstairs and looked for her, then she started sniffing around the front door and hung out there for a few minutes.

It was so cute, I called Stephanie back to tell her what she just did. As I was telling Stephanie, Tassie came back and jumped up into my lap and was trying to get my attention, so I put the phone to Tassie's ear and let Steph talk to her. She was so confused, I felt bad. Tassie is one smart dog, she knows when something is up and she never quite settled back down again. Now she has.

I never wanted to be one of those mom's whose whole lives were wrapped up in their childrens. I have my own idenity without them. I am comfortable in my home with them in their home 300 kms away. BUT, I am still so happy to have them here with me. Damn I miss them.

Life is good.

Rumors

Today I arrived at work, started my day as usual & at approximately 9:20 am we lost our phones and computers mid call, mid work. NO phones, NO internet out of the office although we did have about 7 clients manage to get a call through to our office. I don't know how and neither did they. The basic rumor as I have heard it is that someone somewhere cut one of Telus' fibre optic lines. I have not been able to confirm it on any newscast anywhere and I have watched at least 4 different ones now hoping for clarification on what happened. Even now that the phone and internet lines are up, even Telus themselves aren't reporting in on their own newspage.

Other rumors I have heard:

1) All of Alberta & BC are out
2) Only Cold Lake is out
3) Cold Lake and part of Bonnyville are out
4) From Cold Lake to Lloydminster is out
5) Its a virus in the Telus system
6) Terrorists
7) The west coast finally fell into the ocean (this one I tried to start, as my coworkers know I always use to explain any unexplained occurance).

I dislike when people run around saying things they heard like they are true.

Whenever someone says something of the sort to me, I always ask where did they hear it from? And when I repeat something I am not sure of as the source is unconfirmed, I try to always include that what I heard was a rumor and I don't know how true it is. If I do have a confirmed source I will include that in my statement. I used to find rumors kind of amusing, knowing that 99% of it is just that a rumor, but now they annoy me.

A lot of things that used to amuse me now annoy me. Like the Simpsons, King of the Hill & laundry. And things that used to annoy me, I now find amusing, like the wind, rain & bees.

Funny how maturity changes you, if that is what is changing me....

I am boring?

I had a great weekend.

The "aunties" went to meet Theya on Saturday. My god she is beautiful. She is so little. I know everyone thinks that about all new borns, but she really is. She smiled at me. She was smiling for just about everyone. We did a little crash Christmas shopping while we were there. I introduced Tami to Michaels. I could tell she enjoyed it as much as I did. I get more christamas craft ideas from there than from the craft shows that are everywhere this time of year. I think I may try my hand at glass etching.

On Sunday I had a great day at home, slept in until the phone rang, had a lazy coffee with D, did laundry, D cleaned up the house, I cleaned up the yard, got all the halloween put away and then uptown for a while, looked at cars for D, got groceries and came home a made a nice supper and shared a bottle of red wine with D. All with a bit of a lazy, no rush, no pressure feeling. It was good.

I am boring.

Now what?

I have been having a hard time with what I want to write here every day. More than not, I can't think of anything other than what sounds in my brain like blabber, so I just don't post. I want to post everyday, but not stuff that someone will start and then not even finish reading because it's not interesting. I have piles of books in my house like that. I automatically want to write about my day, what happened, how I felt, but its the same thing every day. I am thinking I am going to have to start some new activities just so I can write about them.

Let's see, what did I do lately that I don't do everyday?

I had a mini-manicure and hand massage today. The mini manicure was just a filing and buffing of my nails and oiling of my cuticles. I enjoyed it as it was free. It was not worth whatever people pay for it. The hand massage though, that was nice. She massaged almost up to my elbow and spent about 4 minutes on each hand. She used a nice grapefruit lotion that I really liked. It wasn't greasy and smelled fantastic.

Its really hard to relax your hands while someone you have known for 10 minutes rubs and manipulates them. We had a nice conversation, two sided, where we each got to know the other a little, the conversation was almost as enjoyable as the massage. As a result I booked a one hour full body massage with hot stones for 10 days from now. That is not free, but I am expecting to enjoy it even more.

I hate one sided conversations more than I hate talking about myself. I don't enjoy the topic of me, but more than that, I hate it when people hog the discussion to be about them, their life, what they are doing, etc...

Kinda like my blog, where I get to talk about myself and no one can interrupt me. How ironic.

Ouch

Went to the dentist AGAIN this morning. I had a crown put in about 2 years ago. It was my first crown and I thought it went well. It never really felt right and everytime I was at the dentist for myself or the kids I had it adjusted a little. By adjusted, they either drilled/sanded down a spot to make the "bite" a better fit. Well, I finally got it to where I could chew on that side, about 18 mths after and they decided it wasn't on properly and it should be redone, for free of course. It wasn't gonna cost me anything and I did have problems flossing around that tooth, so sure.

Well here I am today in pain again. Its not the kind of pain that makes you cry, but if I have to take 3 advil every 4 hours, it hurts. I should point out that I have over the years taken a lot of advil and 3 is my standard dose. I am assuming my body has been desensitized to it. Kinda like me and coffee. The first cup doesn't do much, its the second cup that puts life into my brain. Three and I consider myself turned on and warmed up. For extra zing, four will do it.

Back to the teeth. This crown, even with the hurt, definitely feels better already. I can bite and even tried some soft chewing and it was perfectly fine. Wow, maybe it won't take 18 mths to use and I can start on my next crown. Yes, dammit, I still require 2 more.

I have had so much freezing in my mouth in my lifetime, I really do have a metal mouth, that it's old news to me and doesn't even freak me out like it did when I was 15 yrs old. Although, I do have to point out, dental work has come a long way in the past 10 years.

Back to coffee now. I love it. There is no pleasure like a good cup of coffee to me. I could give up chocolate without much of a second thought, I could give up chips although that would be somewhat of a struggle at certain times of the month, but coffee... that would most likely kill me.
I did manage to drink no more than 3 to 4 cups total of decaf during a 2 week stretch (talk about a withdrawal headache, up to 4 advil and then to codeine so I could sleep) not too long ago, and I have been mostly successful at keeping myself to 2 cups a day in the month or so since, but I could NEVER, EVER give it up completely. TIM HORTONS, now there is a real cup of coffee.

Speaking of things I love, I am going to vist Theya on Saturday! And Chair and J too I suppose. I am so excited to meet her. Yes, Blaine we will be there! Kaitlin, Kelly and I for sure, but maybe many more. I want to smell her and cuddle her and feel her and hold her and make her smile and put her in my coat and bring her home.

UMMMmmmm......