Celtic Gamer Mom

Packing My Bags...

2010-06-05T05:20:00.000-07:00

I’d been contemplating a change to WordPress for many reasons. Now that summer is here and I have time to blog properly it seemed the right time. So if you followed me over at here, please check out the new Celtic Gamer Mom on WordPress.com.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

"And here...we...go..."

2010-05-31T21:01:00.000-07:00

Every year I look forward to summer because it means the end of another (hopefully successful) school year for my kids and some down time for me. And every year something happens to make my summer nutso. This summer doesn't appear to be any different. I am hoping to slip in some fun getaways or "staycations" throughout the summer. Suggestions would be welcome!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!~N

No More Pencils, No More Books...

2010-05-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

Yes, today is the first day of summer vacation for our high school student. Of course, my internal clock kept bugging me this morning so I couldn't sleep in (Friday is one of my usual days off). So now I am officially the mother of a college sophmore and high school junior. Whew!

Now that school is out that means the FIFA World Cup is just TWO WEEKS AWAY!!! Yep, the world comes to a halt when World Cup starts on June 11. I am so looking forward to that!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black - Tim Wise

2010-04-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

I first saw this posted on a friend's Facebook page. An intriguing reflection and lots of food for thought.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Couch to 5k Update - Week 3

2010-03-31T18:38:00.001-07:00

I was right. Week 2 was the last gimme workout of this C25k program. Remember those classes in school? The gimme ones you were almost guaranteed an ‘A’ if you just showed up, and sometimes even that wasn’t required? Well, now I’m in the major workout program…5 minute warm-up walk, 90 second jog, 90 second walk, 3 minute jog, 3 minute walk, 90 second jog, 90 second walk, 3 minute jog, 3 minute walk, 5 minute cool-down walk. The first 3-minute jog I managed to squeak, which was the first time I have ever ever ever jogged for three minutes. Yes, I was a jock in high school, but I played volleyball and basketball, which was short court warm-ups and sprints, and I ran track, which again was just short distances. I’m a little ashamed to admit that I never even ran the two-lap warm-ups. A measly 800 yards and I couldn’t even do it back then at my peak. That second 3-minute jog, though? It gave me problems and I had to hop off the treadmill for a few seconds…20 or 30…before continuing. Still, not bad for a 44-year old overweight couch potato!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Coffee and Philosophy

2010-03-26T18:30:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, while my daughter and I were going over her calendar I penciled my name in on Friday, just so that she would spend a day with me! We had a terrific morning. After we dropped my son off at school, she and I went to a great new coffee shop, FiddleCakes, where we partook in C&P (coffee and philosophy), although she actually had hot cocoa. We discussed her philosophy paper and brainstormed ideas for the revision, then surfed the web looking at clothes. Then we picked up her brother from school (he had to leave early to go to the soccer tournament in west TN). After getting him snacks and us sushi we dropped him off and headed over to Icon, where we made the appointment to get our mother-daughter tattoos for Mother’s Day. Yes, a tattoo. Last year, when she turned eighteen, Clark and I gave Ray a tattoo for her birthday. She loved it so much she started planning another one and asked me if I’d get a tattoo with her. Not really thinking, I said sure, how about next Mother’s Day? Well, guess what? Mother’s Day is just around the corner and Mom has to honor her promise. This brought up the dilemma of what exactly we should get. Ryann’s signature flower is the sunflower, but I don’t really have a flower. I like daffodils, but don’t want one tattooed on my body, y’know? Ryann is getting her tattoo on her wrist and I’m getting it on my ankle, so we thought a band would be nice. I researched some sayings and poems and found this one: “The bond between a mother and daughter begins and ends in love.” It was perfect, but a little wordy. So now we have decided to go with an ambigram “Mother-Daughter” and a Celtic heart joining them together. Our appointment is in May and the tattoo artist is drawing up the ambigram now. Pictures to follow for sure!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Soccer Madness

2010-03-25T18:34:00.000-07:00

I don’t know why I thought school soccer would be relaxing and less busy. The boy is playing both Varsity and Junior Varsity this year, which means he goes to *every* game, which means mom needs to be at *every* game! This week he had practice on Monday hen games all week long, including a Varsity tournament out of town Friday and Saturday. To his credit, Kyle admitted he doesn’t play much on Varsity so Mom doesn’t have to drive 2-1/2 hours to the tournament…this year. Next year, however, when he will most likely start Varsity I have been informed I must be at every game, even the ones that are far away!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Couch to 5k Update - Week 2

2010-03-22T18:23:00.000-07:00

I hit a tiny stumble with my birthday gift to myself when I started too fast with the Couch-to-5k program. After taking the weekend to heal up from achy joints and shins, I started anew on Monday, March 15, only this time I went to the Y and worked out on the treadmill. OMG, what a difference!! There is something to be said about not pounding asphalt and traversing hills when you’re just starting out. The first week went great and at times I found myself in a great rhythm and not hating the jog at all. I think this is the last easy week, though. Still I keep imaging myself on the 5k course in May, jogging across the finish line. Should be fun!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Mimi (2000-2010)

2010-03-18T18:21:00.000-07:00

Clark woke me up this morning to let me know Mimi had passed away during the night. I wasn’t surprised, but it still hurt so much. She was a great cat, a beautiful and gentle soul, who deserved a much better end than this. I keep hearing her little squeaky meow and catching glimpses of her from the corner of my eye when I’m walking through the house. When I turn into the driveway I look to the front windows and then the den window along the drive, expecting to see "Her Mimi-ness" sitting there, waiting for me to get home. I know she was technically my daughter’s cat, but we had bonded so much this last summer. Whenever I sat down in one of the den’s recliners, Mimi would be right there to sit between my legs. At night or if I lay down for a nap during the day, she would come into our bedroom, hop on the bed, and then walk up my side from my ankles all the way to my shoulders, then she would sniff at my hair, turn around and settle down on my hip, a warm heavy comfortable weight. I miss her so much. I only hope that wherever Mimi is now that there is a sunny window ledge for her and she’s soaking up the rays.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

St. Paddy's Day

2010-03-17T23:15:00.000-07:00

So after such a traumatic day yesterday, I needed some decompression and fun. I also felt like I needed a break from church. Every time I go, I get wrangled into conversations about church business and tonight I just wanted to have fun. Clark and I headed to Dan McGuinness Irish Pub in Cool Springs where we met up with our friend Michael. It was PACKED to the gills with people decked out in green. I was in such a funk today I forgot about wearing green and ended up wearing an olive green zip-up hoodie all day. Anyway we managed to find half of a table. There was a couple on the other end and they were great about letting us sit there. The music was great, my hard cider was tasty and the lamb stew I had was delicious. About half-way through the evening I realized this was the first time I had ever gone out on for St. Patrick’s Day! When the kids were younger, I would put green food coloring in their eggs and milk, but go out to a bar? Nope, never! Damn, I’m an Irish red-head with green eyes and freckles and it took me 40 years to celebrate?

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Déjà vu All Over Again

2010-03-16T09:53:00.001-07:00

Early this morning I was awakened by my husband's voice. He was on the other side of the house, outside, yelling at the top of his lungs. Seconds later I was there with him telling me that our daughter's tortie had been attacked by two dogs and she had run away. He headed out to find the dogs while I got dressed and started searching for the cat. Not in the laundry room. No answer from the crawl space under the house. I finally got a flashlight and started looking under the cars. There was Mimi. I didn't see any blood which was good, but the memories came flooding back from October 2005 when our daughter's other cat, Kage Neko, was mauled by two dogs. That cat was bloody and almost lost his leg. Clark said Mimi had run, which was another good sign. Clark gets back from his walk, unable to locate the perpetrators, and we finally get the poor thing out from under the car. A couple of hours and hundreds of dollars later, we have been to three veterinary clinics. The emergency clinic gave her fluids with pain meds and took x-rays. A couple of broken ribs, but nothing else. Lots of bruising, but no bad punctures (Kage's tail had almost been severed and had a puncture just millimeters from his rectum, which could have been fatal). So we leave Mimi at the animal hospital that cared for our last mauling victim. They are giving her more pain meds, observing her contusions and will be taking another x-ray this afternoon. So now it's just after 9 a.m. and I'm tired, hungry and in need of caffeine. Mimi's girl, our daughter, is at the Phoenix airport, boarding a plane to Nashville. Definitely not how I planned on spending my day off and definitely not news I wanted to give our daughter on her return home. I do hope we get something good to report before she lands.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Happy Birthday to Me!

2010-03-10T17:53:00.000-08:00

This was the present that my kids got me for my birthday...a ceramic mug that looks like a paper cup. Back in January Clark took me see Kris Kristofferson as an early birthday present. So what would I give myself? For the big 4-0 I went back to school and two years later received my college degree. This birthday was the big four-four, a double number year (two of my second favorite numbers adding up to eight, my all-time favorite number). The numbers feel fortunate so I started looking at the years behind me and the year ahead. My first double (11) was not so great. The next double (22) I committed to dumping my dead-end jobs and getting employed with good pay and benefits. The third double (33) was the end of my first marriage, which really was a good thing. So this double (44) I thought would be a good time to get my health in order. I've read several tweets about people doing the couch to 5K program, which gets you in shape enough to finish a 5K in two months. I even found a great podcast which will take me through each workout with music telling me when to walk, when to run, when to cool-down. So, now I have a plan and in May I plan on running a 5K. I have run a 5K before, but never truly "trained" for the event. This time I don't want to straggle across the finish line, I want to sprint!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Confessions of a Jockette...

2010-02-05T08:18:00.000-08:00

So this weekend is the "big" game, at least for millions of Americans. It should be pretty good, although I don't have a stake in either team. Am I the only one missing the hype around the game? Maybe I'm not paying attention. Having been married to a high school football coach and living in a football-crazy community, I use to follow American football much more closely. Now I mainly catch just the local team (TN Titans) and tend to follow fútbol (soccer for you Yanks).While I am really really really looking forward to this summer's World Cup in South Africa, right now I've got my eye on next week's Winter Olympics! It's not just seeing the world's elite competing, but the stories of the participants, the glamour of the opening/closing ceremonies, and just the idea of athlete camaraderie. Wouldn't it be great to solve all the world's conflicts on the game field instead of the battle field?

Y'all have a super great Superbowl weekend! ¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Winter Wonderland

2010-02-02T07:53:00.000-08:00

Nashville got some snow this past weekend and, wonder of wonders, it actually stuck. In 2003, the last time I remember having this much snow, we were living in Hermitage with the driveway from hell (gravel, steep incline, off a busy street). This time it was much easier to get out when needed, but we mainly hunkered in and enjoy the winter wonderland.

The boy child, however, spent the night at a friend's house and played in the snow sans hat and gloves several times before I managed to dress him properly. Needless to say, he caught himself a nasty cold. I'd like to think that the next time we have snow, he'll listen to his mother about covering his extremities, but I doubt it. He is after all a *15-year old* *male* neither condition lending itself to listening to Mom (*grown-up* *female*). After three days out of school, I hope the kids get back to school tomorrow and that all the parents survived this unscheduled break!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Zoe

2010-01-25T13:17:00.000-08:00

Normally I'm not an emotional fan-girl type, but this weekend I got caught up in the blog of one of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman. A furry house guest of his, Zoe, has been ill and had to be put to sleep today. If you're interested, you can read about his and her journey on Neil Gaiman's blog, start with Wednesday's entry. I have no idea why I got so caught up in this or why I can't get that little cat out of my thoughts. Maybe it is because our own animals are getting older and I dread the day I have to tell my 15-year old son that the pup he has loved since the first grade has to go away.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Homecoming

2010-01-24T19:12:00.000-08:00

So last night my "baby" went to the basketball homecoming dance, but it was not for the school he attends (or even his date's high school). Kyle attends a small non-traditional public high school with less than 130 students. They don't have dances or even sports teams, so even though my son doesn't attend this school, he does play soccer on their team. He went with friends from church, one of whom does attend this school , and my son knew more people at the dance than his friend! LOL... My son, the socialite.

This is Kyle and his friend KC

Here is Kyle and his date, Sasha

This is KC with his date, Minka
(yes, Sasha and Minka are sisters....twin sisters)

The kids looked great and had a wonderful time. My high school dances were such nightmares; I hate remembering them. I'm glad both of my kids have had positive experiences with their high school memories. I'm also glad I remembered to take pictures this time!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Keeps Getting Better

2010-01-01T06:17:00.000-08:00

So this new year season has brought about much reminiscing, not to mention debate about when decades begin and end. Although logic dictates that decades run from '01 to '10, human nature is more inclined to go '00 to '09. After all, is 1990 part of the '80's or '90's? Enough on that, I myself was just thinking about how significant the years ending in "9" have been in my life, except for '69 when I was only three years old. So here goes a quick re-cap of my life...

December 1969: I can't remember much except for t.v. shows like Woody Woodpecker and Family Affair. I think we were living in southern California near my grandparents, which was a good thing. Grandpa was my favorite adult and I was his favorite kid.

December 1979: I was 13 years old and in 8th grade attending school on Dugway Proving Grounds. This was my seventh school since the start of 6th grade. I had gone from being on an isolated, insulated, idyllic island in the South Pacific to southern California to mid-western Topeka Kansas, back to So. Calif. and now cold hard Utah winter and conservative LDS mindsets. Looking back, I can see this was the beginning of my lowest years. High school is normally the worse time of your life, but for me high school and its activities were my sanctuary from the personal lows. By my birthday in March my parents will have separated and by fall, I will have been to another school and back to Dugway and my mom forced to go to California without me.

December 1989: Life was better, but still in the tank. I was 23 years old, a college drop-out, in a job I hated, two years into an unhappy marriage and had just suffered a miscarriage. 'Nuff said.

December 1999: I was newly divorced, still a college dropout with an 8-year old and a 5-year old, unemployed having just moved in a strange city in the South (with bi-racial children), far away from family and friends, but I was more optimistic about my future than I had ever been in my entire adult life.

December 2009: I am a college graduate, happily remarried to my love (and best friend), have a couple of really great teenagers, employed part-time (by choice), loving Nashville and the church community we have, and, I must say, in the best place yet so far.

Today I eagerly await what the coming year has to offer as we forge towards the next year ending in a "9". Thank you for swinging by my blog! I wish everyone a healthy, happy 2010!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

A Christmas Story

2009-12-28T05:38:00.000-08:00

So the Winter Solstice, Yule and Christmas blew in and out in a flurry of activities. Hubby's birthday was in there as well. He's a Christmas week baby and has always loathed his birthday. I didn't do as well this year celebrating his birthday as I have in the past. Not only was it Sunday with church obligations, it was the only chance I had to go to a friend's house to tie-dye underwear for the kids' stockings. We did throw together an impromptu surprise birthday party after the middle child's youth group. Then we went to a late showing of Avatar (A-MA-ZING video, predictable plot).

Christmas week was spent cramming my 15-hour work week into three days and finishing up the holiday shopping. The kids seemed happy with their gifts. Our family keeps the gift giving to a pretty low amount compared to most out there. The kids get a big gift, some clothing and a stocking for Christmas morning, plus a gift to open on Christmas Eve. This year's big gift was a bicycle for everyone in the family. The boys took their bikes out immediately while the girl and I went out later. The weather was cloudy, cold and windy so the rides were short. The rest of the day we relaxed before meeting the hubby's mother, brother and nieces at a Japanese restaurant for Christmas dinner. We started doing the Japanese dinner last year and I really enjoy it. The food is delicious and the clean-up is a breeze! ;-)

Saturday Clark took his son back to Atlanta. On the way home, he stopped off to visit with his best friend John and his family. When he got home, we went over to visit a little more with Clark's mom and brother (who was heading back to Florida Sunday morning). My son we put on a plane for California Sunday night. My daughter, now 18, chose not to go this year. So this week will be a little quiet without the boys around. Traditionally this is the time we catch up on some of those pesky household chores. I'm also looking forward to taking my new bicycle out on some of the Nashville greenways this week!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

What a Wonderful World

2009-12-18T22:34:00.000-08:00

On my quest for some holiday cheer, this video made me smile. :-)

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Bah. Humbug.

2009-12-17T16:10:00.001-08:00

Soul Cake

2009-12-16T03:45:00.000-08:00

Though I myself rarely patronize Starbucks (aka St. Arbuck's to some of my Twitter friends), the company does sponsor Morning Joe, which we do watch. Earlier this year there was an ad for a new CD from Sting with a holiday theme called "If on a Winter's Night..." The featured songs intrigued me so I texted Clark, who was on the road, and that night he brought it home. Some of the songs are so-so but a few are great and my absolute favorite song on the CD is entitled "Soul Cake."

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

We Need a Little Christmas

2009-12-15T09:12:00.000-08:00

Ten days until Christmas and I continue on my search for my holiday spirit. Today I will attempt to conjure up some Christmas cheer through food by making peanut butter fudge and Oreo bon bons. Maybe giving away tons of sugary yummy treats will light the fire needed to get this little elf started.

Last night we watched "A Christmas Story," which was the first time any of us had seen this movie touted as the #1 Christmas film. It was a cute movie, but I now understand why everyone I tried to get to watch this who had seen it did not want to re-watch it. I don't know if this will be one I watch every year. We still have "Deck the Halls" to watch, but really nobody liked that the first time around! Netflix is shipping out a couple of films today--"Unaccompanied Minors" and "A Christmas Carol" (the Patrick Stewart version)--and I plan on hitting McKay's Used Books this afternoon for some more movies on our must-see list.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Where Are You Christmas?

2009-12-14T04:51:00.000-08:00

So the Christmas tree is still sitting in the living room with its bright colorful lights and bare limbs. We haven't even covered the ugly bottom up with a tree skirt. The black cat has taken to sleeping under it. *sigh*

When my dad was here this weekend he asked me about the holiday plates. I can't believe it's December 14th and I haven't gotten the snowman plates down yet! Can you say, "Bah hum bug!" We have used holiday plates from Thanksgiving to Spring every year we have been in Nashville! So this week I resolve to:

get the holiday dinnerware out and washed;
get the tree decorated;
finish stocking stuffer shopping; and
pick up the final parts of the big family gift(s).

Meanwhile, in family news, this is finals week. Kyle has his exhibition today and Ryann has four finals she needs to take. I am so happy that both of my kids were able to find non-traditional education systems since neither of them are traditional students.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

2009-12-03T04:26:00.000-08:00

We have boxes and boxes of decorations sitting in the living room, so yes, decorating is on the schedule. Over the years my interest in decorating the house has definitely waned. I am not sure if this is a shift in my attitude towards Christmas or my attitude towards the labor involved in putting up (then taking down) all the decorations.

I do worry sometimes that in a few more years I will completely forgo any type of Christmas decorating and I wonder if my family will even notice. That's not to say I'm a "bah-humbug" about the holidays. I listen to holiday tunes the entire month, watch holiday movies with the family and love to see the holiday lights on all the houses. This weekend we'll get everything put up, and with luck, all the boxes put away so we can enjoy the ambiance for the rest of the month.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

December Arrives

2009-12-02T03:21:00.000-08:00

December announced its arrival yesterday with a cool snap of weather and keeps up today with lots of rain. I love when the air turns cold and we have to bundle up, but always get caught unawares. I try a couple of times through the fall to pull out my big coat and gloves and scarf, then the weather stays warm. About the time I reach the point where I have given up on ever having cold weather and leave my cold-weather gear at home, the weather changes for good. So, welcome, December! I am looking forward to a chilly month!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

National Novel Writing Month Wrap-up

2009-12-01T08:32:00.000-08:00

November went by way too fast. I have to admit I did not reach my 50,000 word goal in the National Novel Writing Month. I was about 7,500 short, but refuse to be too bummed out about it. During November there was lots of church work--in addition to the board work (I'm Board Secretary), I also chaired the search committee for a youth coordinator at church and worked on some social justice programs for the youth. I spent a great holiday weekend in the mountains with family and friends, plus we had a soccer tournament, weekly commutes to daughter's school, and my own job in the mix. Not a bad way to spend thirty days. I think I'll work on this novel for another couple of weeks at a more leisurely pace and then send it out for review. Next year, I will be ready with my own novel, my own plot and, hopefully, more time! ;-)

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Day Five #nanowrimo

2009-11-05T21:27:00.000-08:00

Day Five - 2,039 words for a total of 8,446. Got such a late start today, I actually thought we would not get much done. =) K has been helping with the plot line and giving suggestions, so he is still helping. This may work! LOL

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Day Two = 3305 Words

2009-11-02T21:22:00.000-08:00

It's late, but I got them posted. I think I've lost my collaborator already! LOL

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Day One = 2205 Words

2009-11-02T04:29:00.000-08:00

Not bad for a first day of writing. Now if only K and I can keep up the pace. So far the story hasn't developed. We're doing a couple of background, set the stage chapters right now. Let's hope we can agree on where the story is going when we get to the action! Have a great day and good luck if you're writing for National Novel Writing Month!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

How Many Words A Day??

2009-11-01T10:50:00.000-08:00

So November is National Novel Writing Month and I'm taking a break from editing my own novel so I can participate with my son. The challenge is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. In order to get to our target of 50,000 words, we have to average 1,665 words every single day! Whew! I'm not sure how this is going to turn out, but it's going to be fun working with K on this. We've talked for months about this conspiracy with plumber trucks. This is our chance to put it all down in words. This morning I wrote the first chapter based on stuff we'd discussed yesterday. It was a total of 1,375 words. Now I need to get him to log off of WoW to help me with the beginning of Chapter Two. Of course, in his defense he is two bars away from level 40 and his epic mount. Unfortunately we have soccer practice and OWL this afternoon so time is running out to squeeze out those additional 290 words. Anyone else up for the challenge?

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Back in the Saddle

2009-10-31T07:03:00.000-07:00

So I have neglected my blog during the month of October. I can't believe today is Halloween. Things have been very busy with church life. I am the chair of the search committee looking for a new youth coordinator. Add in soccer, fall break, and regular life, it's been a whirlwind of activity. But I'm ready to climb back into that saddle and get to blogging. I actually forced myself to refrain from posting these last couple of days just to make sure I really wanted to post again. And I do!

So please forgive my absence for the last few weeks and check back soon for an exciting project starting up tomorrow morning...until then have a spooky and safe All Hallow's Eve!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Happy Birthday Mom!

2009-10-30T22:51:00.000-07:00

Today is my mom's birthday. Since she is in Arizona and we all are in Tennessee, we won't be going out to dinner. I use to angst over what to do for Mom since we can't be there in person and do the eating thing together. She does not collect anything and her digs are fairly spartan of knick-knacks. Then one day I decided to send her flowers on her birthday. They are clutter-free (gone in a week or two) and totally frivolous and totally just for her!

Mom lives in a very remote area of the Arizona high desert about an hour from Phoenix. In years past, I would hop online to order from 1800flowers.com and the local florist would deliver (getting lost and having to call, but getting there eventually). This year we had trouble. The kids helped me pick out a very nice arrangement. Do you know how hard it is to get two teenagers of different genders to pick out the same arrangement? If not, you don't have kids! Anyway, we picked out a great Flowers of Europe Fall Flowers arrangement and I ordered. Not. Turns out the economy has businesses dropping like flies in Mom's area and there is no longer a florist who delivers to her community. Drat! Back to the drawing board. This time I try ftd.com. Same situation. The kids agree on an arrangement and we order, but again no florist. Third time's the charm I tell myself. I have always dreaded sending boxed flower arrangements through FedEx or UPS, but it seems this is the only way I'm going to get flowers to my mom for her birthday, so I relent and go back to 1800flowers.com. Once again I present options and to my wonderment the kids both pick the same arrangement. Hallelujah! Flowers ordered; crisis averted.

Mom called when the flowers arrived. They are beautiful and she loves them! Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Rain Rain Go Away...

2009-09-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

Let me begin by stating.... I. Love. Rain. Being a fair-skinned red-head growing up in the South Pacific and the desert of Southeastern California, I have had my fill of sun and sunburns. Bluntly, I would be very happy living in perpetual cloudiness. With a soccer playing son, however, I need the rain to go away. Last September Kyle injured his knee--fractured growth plate--and missed most of the fall season, so we were looking forward to this year. Instead, Middle Tennessee has had rain every day for the past the last fifteen days with more predicted for the weekend. What this means to a soccer family is canceled games, canceled practices, canceled tournaments.... in other words, no soccer! On the plus side, we get to spend more time this weekend at our all-church retreat, so we're going to make the most of a soggy situation. Have a great weekend!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Church is for broken people...

2009-09-24T04:32:00.000-07:00

...is the message on the roadside marquee at one of the several churches I drive by almost daily. I enjoy reading messages from different denominations. Many are inspirational; some are amusing; and then there are the ones like this one that strike a raw nerve. I am not sure exactly what they are meaning by "broken" and it bothers me. The impression I get, and keep getting each time I see this sign, is that of a vengeful dogma preaching the evilness of man. After many many years, my own spiritual path has finally veered from this shadowy path. Believe me I pile enough guilt upon myself that I do not need my religion adding to the mix. For me, religion should concentrate on the beauty of life and joy of miracles all around us. Why do so many religions, especially Christian religions, rely upon fear of retribution instead of embracing love? That old adage of "you catch more flies with honey than vinegar" rings true here. Instead hammering a person with a litany of faults and shortcomings, why not fill them with hope and possibilities? In short, why are there so many "glass half-empty" dogmas out there? Some days it's enough to depress even the most optimistic of the "glass half-full" among us!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

On the Road Again...

2009-09-22T08:56:00.000-07:00

This morning I rediscovered the joy and the beauty of the open road at sunrise. Something about headlamps reflecting white off the lane markers and the emptiness of the roadways makes this nomad heart of mine sing and yearn to keep driving. I am a writer, but poetry is a prose that completely eludes me. It is akin to my high school years on the track team. I could run the 100- and 200-meter dashes and soar in the long jump and triple jump, but the dexterity of the hurdles and nuances of the high jump always remained beyond my grasp. This morning, however, as I drove east on I-40 in the pre-dawn shadows, I felt inspired and almost believed I could construct a poem good enough to honor the magnificence of the sunrise and voice the feelings such a vision evoked within me. Sadly, however, two hours later, under gray fog in the campus parking lot, that magic has faded. Should I have pulled over and scribbled the words filling my heart? Or at least spoken them aloud, given them life instead of allowing them to die undeclared? Maybe. Maybe not. Perhaps instead I should remain alert for other such moments in my days and resolve that, if at that time I am not driving seventy mph down a freeway, I will then endeavor in my attempt to vocalize the splendors.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Sticks and Stones

2009-09-21T04:53:00.000-07:00

This morning I decided to get back into the swing of rising a little early to have a few minutes to myself and spend some quiet time before switching on the the technology. I found a small book I have not read in nine years--Take Time by Eknath Easwaran. Eknath Easwaran was an Indian professor born in 1910. He came of age during India's struggle for independence and, as a college student, met Ghandi, who influenced a number of stories in this first chapter.

While reading I was struck by the language used in this book, which led me to the differences between American English and British English. We American choose words or phrases that (imho) have a slightly negative tint. Take for example the word vacation. American vacation, or "vacate" their lives, while the British take a holiday. Another phrase is "stand in line." Would you prefer to "stand in line" or "join the queue"?

This line of thinking also leads me down the road of derogatory terms, a topic I have discussed with people from church a couple of times and, most recently, with my children. That old saying "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me" is not truthful. Words have the ability to cause harm, invisible and lasting hurt. I have never been physically assaulted, but still carry wounds deep inside from words carelessly thrown out by family or friends. There are words we throw about in everyday conversation that can inadvertently cause harm. Have you ever heard a comment like "That so-and-so gypped me" or "That vendor tried to jew me down"? The words "gypped" and "jew" refer to discriminatory and stereotypes of gypsies and Jewish people. How about "Indian giver"? That one really is an ironic statement since it was not the Native American nations, but the U.S. government, who made a habit out of taking back that which was supposedly "given." Then, of course, is the modern put downs referring negatively to gays and lesbians. Those sentiments make me cringe whenever I hear them (or read them in chat). We may have made many advances in our society, but there is still much work to be done on our attitudes and tongues.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Do Something

2009-09-20T21:48:00.000-07:00

I've been talking with the youth this month about social action programs. Working for social justice is an integral component of our faith, one to which we (the adults) devote many resources. Unfortunately, sometimes our projects leave the youth in the fringes. For example, our congregation joined with 19 other congregations to do a Unity Build with Habitat for Humanity. We raised money last month, over $4,000.00, and a group worked on-site today. When my son heard about this project--one of the organizers talked about it from the pulpit a couple of Sunday mornings back--he turned to me, very excited, and said he would like to participate in this project. I had to inform him that participants had to be over 18. This is not the first time I have had to curb my children's enthusiasm because of age restrictions. Frustrated, I started looking on the web (Google is my best friend) for age appropriate projects. Let's face it teens, and children for that matter, have limited resources. Any money the kids "raise" for a project is most likely coming from their parents' pockets, same with any collection drives--food, clothes, school supplies, etc. I found the most awesome website at dosomething.org. Their five guidelines are:

Believe in teenagers. Teenagers can lead today. We don't require adults.
Trust teenagers. We provide reliable, easy to access information and activation strategies, but teens decide for themselves what to do.
Celebrate teenagers. We think all measurable contributions from teens are valuable.
Respect teenagers. We understand that teenagers have diverse abilities and constraints.
Value teenagers. Our programs and products are free. We're not after teens' money; we want their passion, time and creativity.

Additionally the Do Something motto "Powering Offline Action. Using the power of online to get teens to do good stuff offline" is reflected throughout the entire site. There are many inspirational stories of teens doing, not good, but great stuff in their communities and truly making a difference. I think tonight I saw a spark in our youth and am looking forward to our next conversations to plan some projects. I only hope the adults in our congregation are prepared for the awesomeness that is our youth when they are fired up!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Better Days...

2009-09-16T20:17:00.000-07:00

Some days the bad news of the world gets me down and I wonder about the future of the human race. Then something comes along that restores my faith in mankind. Last night was one of those good times. The youth and parents from church served dinner at Safe Haven Family Shelter, the only homeless shelter in middle Tennessee that lets families stay together. The kids did a great job and were so full of grace. My son told me a couple of years ago after the youth helped with Room in the Inn that working that project made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Well, watching the youth interact with these families at Safe Haven made me all warm and fuzzy inside.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Self Care

2009-09-15T05:06:00.001-07:00

For most of my adult life I have taken care of those around me, sometimes taking on too much and allowing *me* to get lost in the process. When the kids were small, I would make sure they were bathed, dressed in clean clothes and fed breakfast before we left the house, but then I would not have (or take) the time to do the same for myself. I know this drives my hubby crazy and he has been working with me for almost ten years to change this damaging mindset. That is one reason he took the pottery class with me this summer. He knew that given the chance I would avoid going, but with him coming along, I was forced to go. Right now we are talking about me taking a pottery class this fall, and I'm torn...not because I don't like pottery (I love it!)....not because I have other commitments (Monday nights are open and hubby will help with soccer practice)...I have no reason not to take the class, none, but still I hesitate. See, I know me and I know that if my day is crazy busy and I feel overwhelmed, my initial response is to cut out anything that has to do with *me*. For example, today is the first day I have had off for a couple of weeks and have made plans to meet my friend this morning. Unfortunately this afternoon is jammed full with eye doctor appointments for me and the boy child, boy's soccer practice, then making a dish and serving dinner at a local family homeless shelter. Do I look at rescheduling the eye doctor appointment? No! Instead I look at my visit with my friend. We met in Spanish class my first day back at college in August '06. She has since had a baby and is a stay-at-home mom with a toddler and 2nd grader. Since I graduated we try to get together every week for coffee, chat and/or a walk. I have not been able to meet up for almost a month, so there is no way I am canceling. This is progress! A couple of years ago I would have canceled. Before that I would not have even bothered taking an hour out of my schedule for something as selfish as coffee with a friend.

As I mentioned, my hubby is always urging me to do something for myself and it is bad enough that my teenage kids have even noticed. A couple of years ago I went grocery shopping before picking my son up from middle school. He noticed a bottle in the cup holder, a Sobe or Frappacino, I can't even remember what, but he picked it up and looked at me with a big smile, "Mom! You bought yourself something to drink! That's great!" From the mouth of babes.....

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Time Keeps on Slipping....

2009-09-14T04:49:00.000-07:00

The middle of September is upon us. Wow! My brain keeps thinking it is still the first of September, but feel like it's August. We had a busy weekend starting with worship at The Temple on Friday evening to kick-off the Unity Habitat build--20 congregations from various denominations building a house over the next four weeks. Saturday we spent most of the day at the church putting finishing touches on the youth room so it would be ready for class and youth group on Sunday. Sunday was church and recuperating! ;-)

Clark and I did sneak in a little "us" time to go to the TN State Fair. Clark spent most of his time at the leather guild's booth, while I wandered. This is my first visit to the state fair since moving to Nashville. We went to the Wilson County Fair a couple of times with the kids, but they were never interested in the exhibits. I saw the cakes, cookies, sewing, drawings, paintings, photos, legos, and various other creative arts. I also walked through the livestock barns, which brought back a plethora of memories, some good, some not-so-good. In a previous lifetime, the first two weeks of March were dedicated to the California Mid-Winter Fair, one year as an FFA student and fourteen years at the significant other of an FFA advisor. One thing that is the same at every fair...California Mid-Winter, Wilson County, TN State...the food! I had myself a corn dog and Nutty Buddy. Yummers!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Flu Season Already?

2009-09-02T22:22:00.000-07:00

Kyle has been sniffling since the weekend and I've been feeling run down--sore throat and lethargic. He really wanted to skip practice last night, but "Mean Mom" (aka me) made him go. When he got in the truck after practice, though, he looked and sounded horrible. So this morning we decided to let him stay home. Turns out the flu is already spreading in the local schools. I think this year we will all get our flu shots, something I quit doing when I stopped working in an office back in 2000. Hopefully CVS is still carrying the vaccine.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

First Day of College

2009-09-01T21:12:00.000-07:00

I have no idea where the last week has gone! It's been busy busy busy with school and sports and church. I think I've logged 3-4 hours a day in the car. Today I took Ray to her first day of college art class--two hour drive there, two hours on campus, two hour drive home. Turns out she does have to be on campus on Thursday for her lab, so Clark is driving her Thursday. What I don't understand is a two-hour credit class requiring four-hours per week class time. Normally three hours per week equal a 3-hr credit class; and four hours per week equal a 4-hr credit class; and so on. Other than that, she is getting adjusted to her online courses and learning how to navigate those screen. It is interesting how all four professors set their online class up differently, so she is having to learn four different methods. Oh, well! At least she is wasting her three hours per week per class here at home instead spending those twelve hours sitting in a classroom, only to come home and spend another few hours trying to figure out what her professors require! I think we made the right choice going online for academic classes.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Knock Me Down a Peg

2009-08-25T19:56:00.000-07:00

Our Chevy Malibu Maxx had to go into CarMax today for some repairs--the cigarette lighters blew again and the driver's seat won't adjust correctly--and it seems they needed to order the parts. Our extended warranty includes a rental car at no cost to us, so Clark headed over to Enterprise. The guy at the counter took pity on my 6'6" 275lbs. hubby and instead of putting us in a Cobalt upgraded us to the only other available vehicle, a fire-engine red Chevy Silverado. Wow is this thing flashy and conspicuous. I felt like everyone was staring at us as we drove down the road. I know I would have been and my assessment would not have been favorabe. We all need to be pulled off our holier-than-thou soap boxes every now and then!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Monday... ugh!

2009-08-24T21:50:00.000-07:00

Every fall there is one day that is overloaded with too many activities and not enough room to breathe. This year it is Monday. Not only is it the beginning of the week, but it is Kyle's soccer practice day. Why is practice a big deal? When we moved to the Crieve Hall area, Kyle stayed with his old team in Donelson, which is about fifteen minutes away on a good day. With practice beginning at 5:30, right in the middle of rush hour, it takes about 45 minutes to get to practice. Then I am stuck there for two hours while Kyle practices since traffic is such that I don't want to get back out in it. Tonight I read, which was okay. But we don't get home until 8:15-8:30 so it's definitely a long day. The upside? Getting through the rest of the week is a breeze after Monday's marathon!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Doing nothing

2009-08-23T23:41:00.000-07:00

Today was one of those days where I did absolutely nothing of any merit. I made us biscuits for breakfast then played WoW. I skipped church and two meetings there (all optional, nothing to which I had committed to going). Towards mid-afternoon, Clark suggested ordering in something to eat so we had Roma's, enough food that dinner took care of itself. This is not something I do very often. I'm always doing something and feeling guilty if I do nothing. When it's the teenagers, however, telling Mom she needs to just relax, it's time to take their advice. And what did I have to feel guilty about? Nothing! The house had been cleaned the day before. I did not have any required meetings at church and I do have obligations there for the next couple of Sundays, a meeting next week and then teaching the jr/sr high class the following week. Plus we have some soccer weekends coming up. So today was my attempt at self-care. The guilt is just something I have to continue working on.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

AIE Meetup

2009-08-22T23:34:00.000-07:00

For all the MMORPG gamers, WoW peeps and AIE guildies on ER, you can skip down. For everyone else, here are some definitions to help you through this post:

AIE: Alea Iacta Est, "The Die Has Been Cast" guild on ER
Earthen Ring: An RP Server in WoW
MMORPG: Multi-media, online, role-playing game
RP: Role play
WoW: World of Warcraft

So, the family has been playing this online game WoW for almost five years. Clark's coworkers pulled him onto the bandwagon shortly after the game was launched and, as he did with DnD, he corrupted the rest of the family! Being the tech geeks that we are, we started listening to podcasts to help us in the game and stumbled across The Instance podcast, which led us to the Earthen Ring server and AIE, a humongous fun guild. Now is that humongous and fun or humongously fun? Both! The guild is large--over 4000 members, maybe 5000 now, I'm not sure--and there is always lots of conversation in guild chat--aka the green wall, because the default font for guild chat is green--and fun events happen all the time.

Admittedly, Clark and I have not been active lately in either the guild or in WoW. When I was in school and otherwise occupied, Clark kept himself busy in WoW and AIE with NORG--Night Owl Raid Group. When I joined Twitter last year, I chose to follow mainly AIE guildies and have had great Twitter fun with them. So now that we are getting back into the game, it was great to have the opportunity to meet some of the people face-to-face at an AIE guild meetup at the Rainforest Cafe at Opry Mills. I had so much fun, which is saying a lot for this extreme introvert! Ryann went with us and everyone was so welcoming she had a wonderful time as well. Ray's ambition is to go to college for animation and work on video games, so I've been telling her that WoW is definitely something she needs to play and get involved with. Now how many mothers you know tell their teenagers they need to play *MORE* video games? When we got home from the meet-up Ryann logged into WoW, created an Undead Priest for herself and leveled the toon up to level seven in a couple of hours. As for me, my own toon--a Tauren druid--gained another level on my slow crawl to the cap, which is 80...for now. Blizzard announced a new cap of 85 in the upcoming Catyaclysm expansion at this weekend's Blizzcon. Hey, Blizz! Quit it! I'm still trying to get to the original cap level of 60!!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Buona fortuna, Lauren! Abbia il divertimento!

2009-08-21T22:16:00.000-07:00

My hubby's niece Lauren is leaving Monday to do a semester of college in Italy! Tonight we went to Clark's mom's house to have a farewell dinner.... lasagna, salad, garlic bread and gelato with brownies. Yummy! It was lots of fun. I was in charge of finding Italian games/entertainment for the evening. We actually had a bocce set we had never used. Clark, Kyle and Kyle's friend Spencer figured out the rules before we headed to Mommo's house and the four kids played while dinner was finishing up. My kids and Clark's nieces all get along so well and it's great to see them together. During dinner I pestered Lauren with questions about her trip. When I went back to college in '06 I loved the idea of semesters abroad. This is a great opportunity for Lauren and I hope we can offer the same opportunity to our kids to study abroad when they get into college. After dinner I had assembled a quiz I found online called "So You Want to Be Italian?" It was entertaining and informative tidbits of information about Italy. I had been looking for a card game, but the Italian card games required a modified deck and the rules seemed, at first glance, very complicated, so we left it at that. Kyle and Lauren did play a game of Speed while Ryann drew a "chibi" of Meghan, which turned out so amazing Ryann then had to draw one of Lauren. It probably took her thirty minutes to draw both of them. That girl's talent never ceases to amaze me! Of course, while his sister was drawing his cousins, Kyle was glued to his phone. He is my social butterfly and can't ever be off the grid!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Essential Life Lessons

2009-08-20T15:16:00.000-07:00

So this morning I saw that the toilet paper roll was getting a tad low and was pleasantly surprised to note a spare sitting on the back of the toilet. So now I'm wondering did one of the kids actually take the initiative or was it the hubby? My thinking then goes down the mom-road... my kids are teenagers and will be heading out on their own in a couple of years, but are they really ready? Have I taught them the important things... the essential life lessons? Then I started reflecting how the definition of life lessons has changed since I was a teenager. Let's see... I learned how to properly change the toilet paper (0ver is Right, under is Wrong) and how to make a bed (the bright pattern of the top sheet down with hospital corners). I don't think my kids have learned those lessons. Maybe, I hope, times have changed and with them essential life lessons have changed. So while my kids and I have have had many great conversations about things I could never discuss with my parents... drugs, relationships, sex, finances, bullies.... I will just have to hope they can forgive me when their significant other reads them the riot act for putting the toilet paper on the roller wrong or making the bed incorrectly!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

I'm what level....?

2009-08-19T20:57:00.000-07:00

I've not been playing World of Warcraft (WoW) lately and have had the itch to get back into my casual gaming. I thought I would play some over the summer, but I kept finding excuses not to get online. While a part of it is lack of time, a majority was just the frustration of re-learning my spells and how to play the game. I really like my druid, but have forgotten most of the techniques. It's funny I can't remember what to do with my warlock or my druid, but I can always pick a hunter back up with no problem. Maybe that is because hunter was the first class I played.
Anyway, I logged on to WoW tonight, thinking I would do a couple of quests and also to make sure I was still a member of Alea Iacta Est (AIE) before Saturday's meet-up. No troubles there. I am still a member of the guild... and Xabi is level 53. 53? Five-three? I was shocked! My signature line in the forums had Xabi at 43 and I was sure the toon was only 45. I am so embarrassed! How did I gain eight levels without knowing? Much like "how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop", the world may never know!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

One Hour....

2009-08-18T14:27:00.000-07:00

That is how long it took my son to have his cell phone confiscated on his first full day on-site at a school that has the most liberal and forgiving cell phone policy in the school district.

Yesterday, Kyle and the other sophomores spent the day at Lipscomb University, a private, coeducational liberal arts institution associated with the Church of Christ. This was basically an all-day orientation session to introduce the students to the Gateway to Senior Institute program they will be working on this year. In a nutshell, these students spent their freshman year exploring and learning who they are so that this year they can begin to "ramp it up" (Principal Ralph's words) this year as they aim for "College and Beyond" (part of the Big Picture motto).

Last night, the parents were invited to the school for a "mandatory" meeting to introduce us to this year's programming. I say "mandatory" because like other "mandatory" meetings I have attended throughout my children's schooling and through church, only about 33% of the group actually attended. But that is another soap box for another day...

At this meeting we started off with a talk from Principal Ralph before splitting into groups by advisors (aka teachers) and attending four small group presentations. In our very first group meeting, Kyle's advisor Mr. Wayne discussed some of the new policies for the school this year. Most of these policies are a result of people taking advantage of the lax atmosphere around Big Picture last year. One of the biggees, one that Mr. Wayne discussed for several minutes, was the crack down on misuse of the... yep, you guessed it... cell phones. Basically the students need to get their advisors' permission before making phone calls or texting.

The most aggravating part of Kyle's phone being confiscated? Last night he was whining about how boring it was having to sit through all this information a second time because they listened to everything, in much longer in-depth presentations, earlier in the day. As I told him on the way home today, evidently sitting through the presentations twice was not sufficient as he did not assimilate the information.... It is going to be a long year, folks!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Getting back into the Routine

2009-08-17T05:40:00.000-07:00

Today is the first full day of school. I am jumping in feet first, trying to get back into a reasonable routine. It's funny when I look at my life. Conventional wisdom says the beginning of the year is January 1st, but my entire life has centered around the beginning of the school year. That's the true beginning of the year for me.

My first goal of the day was to take the dog for a walk. This is to get me and my metabolism moving and also to give the dog some exercise, which she needs and loves. One of the reasons I hate walking in our neighborhood is that we have so many people who let their dogs roam free. This morning I tried a route I have never tried and was pleasantly surprised. We made the entire walk without running into a stray!

The walk wasn't without its snags, of course. Ryann's black cat, Kage Neko, decided he wanted to go for a walk with us. Ellie Mae and I were almost to the end of the block and ready to cross a busy street when I heard this meow from behind me. Omg, there was the demon cat, meandering right down the middle of the street, tail up straight, pausing to sniff the asphalt. Cars zoom along our street and I had this image of Kage getting hit. I have no desire to go through *THAT* again, so I had to come back to the house and coax Kage inside before the dog and I could enjoy our outing, which we did. I think Ellie Mae is going to sleep very well all day long!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Nashville Rollergirls Roller Derby!

2009-08-15T23:34:00.000-07:00

Tonight we met up with our Dinners For Nine group from church for dinner and then headed out to the Fairgrounds to watch the Nashville Rollergirls Roller Derby between the X-Pistols and Damsels of Distress. Clark had purchesed the tickets ahead of time so we loitered over dinner and didn't get to the Fairgrounds until just before 7pm. The Fairgrounds is a hopping place on a Saturday night! The stock car races were just starting up and a bunch of people in formal dress were heading into one building, probably for a wedding reception. When we got to the Sports Arena for the Roller Derby I was surprised how many people were there. The stands were packed and it took us a while to find a section with enough space for all seven of us. Then I spent the rest of the first period trying to figure out what roller derby is all about. I knew it was strategy and there was scoring, but at first glance it looked like a bunch of tough girls skating around in a circle knocking each other down! By the last jam X-Pistols had come back from behind to take the lead and I knew enough to know the Damsels had pulled out all the stops putting their best (imho) jammer, Rambo Sambo, in with their other jammer, Lady Fury, in as pivot and their best (again imho) blocker, Sexy Slady. As the pack started out and the bumping commenced, Rambo slipped through the pack and sprinted to the lead while X-Pistols' jammer, Slammylou Harris, another great skater, was held back. When Rambo Sambo came around for another sprint through the pack, the crowd went crazy. It was lots of fun and I think roller derby gained a few new fans from our little group. I know Clark and I are going back in October when the X-Pistols face the third Nashville team, Assault Rivals.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

First Day of School

2009-08-14T09:41:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of school for Nashville public schools. I think it is strange to have the first day of school, a half-day to boot, on a Friday. Nashville can't decide when to start school. In our nine years in the school district I think Tuesday is the only day we haven't had a first day. LOL

Kyle attends a great high school called Nashville Big Picture High School, which is in its third year in Nashville. The idea behind Big Picture is "learning through internship," a smaller community and the classwork is project driven instead of traditional classroom settings. At the end of the quarter the students give a presentation that summarized the work they did that term. Kyle did four 30-minute presentations during his freshman year. This year the sophomores have to do 45-minute presentations, plus they have something called a Gateway, where they defend the work they have done in their freshman and sophomore year to justify advancing to upperclassman status. So it will be another interesting year!

Kyle's school moved to a new building this year. They had been in a very old run-down school building last year. It was so bad that the cafeteria kitchen could not be used because things fell from the ceiling into the food. Eeww! The building they moved to was built 5 or 6 years ago and is very nice.

I am very proud of Kyle's progress over the summer. He had several assignments to complete and turn in on the first day, which included reading five books. Before he returned from California, he had completed reading all five books, had his father sign his reading logs, and finished writing the two IBPs (independent book projects, or book reports for us old timers). This week when we returned from Florida, Kyle wrote his three essays and had me proof them so he could turn everything in as soon as he walked into the classroom. Way to go, Kyle!!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Catching up

2009-08-13T05:47:00.000-07:00

Between the kids returning and then going on holiday, I have let my blog go for a couple of days. This doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about the blog, so I've decided to post a day-by-day update from our recent trip to Florida.

Thursday August 6, 2009

The kids are back from their summer with their father. Our first outing on their first day back was to get their phones upgraded. They both picked out a Samsung Impression, which has both a touch screen and a full qwerty screen.

Friday August 7, 2009

The kids and I finally made it down to Florida to my parents’ place on Pine Island, just outside Ft. Myers. Kyle had a doctor’s appointment to check out his knee. Good news—the difference between his legs has evened out to less than one centimeter difference, where it was around 1.8 cm difference at his April appointment. It was around 5:30pm by the time we hit the road. After a late night with only an hour and a half sleep, I was tired so we stopped between Atlanta and Macon, Georgia. After a quick breakfast we hit the road and made it to our destination by dinnertime. I was bummed out that I never found a Dunkin’ Donuts along the I-475 corridor, but eventually we did find one. Then, as we were driving onto the island, my hubby called and said the bank had phoned about a problem with my bank card. Ugh! Turns out my card had been part of a “mass compromise,” which means on a Friday evening on my first day of holiday my bank card is cancelled and I have to find a local branch to pick up a temporary card. Not the best beginning! A swim in the pool under the night sky helped get me back into the vacation mood.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

This morning, after another swim in the pool, the kids and I found a Bank of America to get my temporary card. After an hour there, we headed back towards Pine Island and spent some time wandering around Matlacha. We started off with some very tasty homemade ice cream in an art gallery. Ray and I bought some very pretty shell earrings at one shop. We finished up just after 1:00pm and the day was hitting top heat, so we stopped at Winn-Dixie to buy some groceries and then hung out at the house for the rest of the day. My parents were gone for the weekend, so I barbecued some burgers for dinner. It was nice to just chill out with the tv, laptops, swimming pool and pool table.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

This morning the kids and I headed out early to visit a local Unitarian Universalist church. I managed to sneak in a visit to Dunkin’ Donuts for yummy coffee on the drive there. The sanctuary and campus of the Ft. Myers UU Church are beautiful. The visiting minister gave a wonderful sermon entitled “Three Things.” Kyle wanted to meet her afterwards and it turns out the minister at her home church is the same minister who was at FUUN when we joined, the same minister who performed our wedding. It truly is a small world! After church, we drove up to Pt. Charlotte to visit my cousin Cyndi and her family. We had a great afternoon. Kyle and I had been down for my grandmother’s memorial in the spring, but Ryann had not seen the family in several years. My cousin’s daughter Kama and her girlfriend Alex are attending Savannah College of Art & Design this fall, which is where Ryann plans to transfer to in two years. They should still be there, so have offered to rent Ryann a room when she goes and also for us to stay when we visit. I was exhausted when we got back to the house, but the kids stayed up until my parents got home from their weekend up north with their former neighbors at Redington Shores. Before fading into sleep, I listened to Dad and Kyle goofing off in the pool.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Sunday we had made arrangements with my cousin and her family to meet up early in the morning to drive over to Ft. Myers Beach. We arrived around 10am and found a place near the pier where we could put down blankets in the sun and the shade. Cyndi and I walked down the beach with Ryann and Cyndi’s 8yo daughter trailing behind, picking up shells. The girls found some great shells. We also saw part of a jelly fish, which we kept at a distance, especially when a wave rolled in and moved it. Then Cyndi and I left the young’uns on their own for a little bit while we had a couple of drinks at a nearby bar, sitting under an umbrella on the beach, just talking and watching the people. It was great to catch up with Cyndi and just relax for a while. When we got back to the blanket, we passed out the sandwiches bought earlier at a Publix and ate lunch. Then it was getting so hot we packed up and drove back to Pine Island to chill out in the pool. I made a mistake getting a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream at the beach, which triggered a headache, so I took a short nap. My dad had headed back up to Alabama, where his job is, but my step-mom was there and she fixed us a great dinner of spaghetti with meatballs, salad and garlic bread. Then I showed the movie I made for Ryann’s graduation party, which always makes me sentimental. It was sad to say good-bye to my cousin and her family, but hopefully we’ll be seeing each other again soon with both our kids heading towards Savannah. My plan was to get up early and head back to Tennessee on Tuesday, a day early since the kids wanted to go to the church dinner on Wednesday, so I told the kids to pack up before they went to bed and I headed to sleep early, not looking forward to the long drive in the morning.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

I have got to figure out what is going on with my Blackberry’s alarm. Third day in a row the audible alarm did not go off. The phone will vibrate, but it won’t sound out. Wtf? Oh, well, we got off to a late start, about an hour and a half later than I wanted, but early enough that we arrived home by 7pm Central time. The drive back was very uneventful, which is always a good thing. The traffic in Atlanta cooperated and we only had a couple of slow-downs and only one complete stop, maybe a record. We hit some heavy rain on the last hour of the drive, very similar to the hard rain we hit on the way to Pine Island on Friday afternoon. It was very nice to be home, relax in our den and watch the Design Star DVR, then sleep in my own bed with my hubby! Ellie Mae, my black lab, was very happy and cuddled up against me all evening, not wanting to move when I finally headed to bed. Dorothy had it right… there is no place like home!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Today I just couldn’t get moving. I slept in and then lounged in my pj’s all day, finally hitting the shower around 3pm. Clark had to drive to Crossville, so he left out around 9am. Kyle impressed me by doing his three essays which are due the first day of school. Once I was dressed and presentable, we headed out to Publix, where Ryann applied for a job, then we went to church for dinner. Kyle was happy to be back with his buddies at church, then when we came home one of his classmates came over and they went out into the neighborhood. It really is nice to live in a community that is safe enough for the kids to wander from house to house with their friends. Ryann and I worked for a little bit on a DnD campaign that we had all been discussing on our recent drive. Kyle had this great idea for a pirate campaign which would take the party from level one to epic level 20. We’re hoping to get it completely written out and ready for testing in the next couple of months. Wouldn’t it be great to get this published by Wizards and then made available at GenCon next summer?

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Well, it is time to get back into the routine this morning. Got up and got dressed this morning (still having issues with the Blackberry alarm), and Clark brought Dunkin' Donuts coffee home (bless him!!). It feels good to get back onto Twitter and Facebook, then updating this blog. Tomorrow Kyle starts school, but today he and two friends are sleeping late. I have no idea when they went to bed, but am happy they were quiet last night and didn't wake me up. Of course, I was so fast asleep I didn't wake up when Clark came to bed! Ah, well! It is nice to be back with my family and fairly rested as we dive back into school, soccer and the frenzy of the upcoming fall!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Selachophobia

2009-08-05T05:20:00.000-07:00

Sharks reside at the top of my top three things to fear, mixed right in there with tornadoes and cockroaches. Because I never get into the water past my ankles, I have pretty effectively limited my shark encounters.

Every year Discovery has “Shark Week” and every year I do my best to avoid this channel. This year, however, I find myself morbidly obsessed with Shark Week. Last night I watched a show on tiger sharks. Well, I kept my eyes on my computer while the show played in my peripheral vision. Every once in a while I would mute the announcer and then rewind to watch the segment I just ignored! Isn’t DVR wonderful? I taped some other shark shows, but had to turn off the “Eaten Alive” show. Maybe I’ll be able to watch these shows, maybe not.

Such a fear might seem irrational, but I have a shark history which (in my terrified mind) justifies this phobia. Growing up on a tiny island in the Pacific, I was very aware of sharks lurking under the surface. When my father took me to work on another island when I was about 7 or 8, I went shark fishing and caught three little 3-foot sharks. There was this kitten there that was having fun poking at the dead sharks. I will never forget how the sharks continued to thrash and strike out *after death*. Ugh!

A few years later I was hanging out on a tiny little sand bar near our trailer, exposed only during low tide, when I noticed a tiny shark (maybe 2-ft long?) hanging out in the shallow water. It swam back and forth, following the curve of the beach line. I was terrified (this was shortly after “Jaws” had been released in theaters) and mesmerized. I don’t know how long I stood in the sand watching this creature move back and forth, but it was a long time!

Shortly after that encounter, I was hanging out with my friends at the family beach (Kwaj had a beach for families and one for the bachelors). I don’t remember if it was just a weekend day or a holiday. We left the beach and walked over to the other side of the shoal to watch the teenagers water ski. The float, about 50 yards off the shore, was empty. We were excited. This platform was off limits for us pre-teens, unless you had an older sibling who occasionally allowed you to enter the inner sanctum. It took us all of 30 seconds to dive in and swim over to the platform. We were out there, basking in our bold glory when a teenager on the shore biking by stopped to shout over to us… “Water skiing was shut down today because someone saw a shark”…. To this day, I don’t know if the teen was having some fun with us or if that was the real story. No matter, we all huddled together in the middle of the platform and discussed how to get back to shore. In the end we decided it would be best to take off as a group and swim together. It was the longest, most awkward, most frightening swim of my entire life…and the last time I swam in the ocean.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

They're Coming Home Tomorrow!!

2009-08-04T09:50:00.000-07:00

It's finally time!! My babies return tomorrow night. They've been gone all summer long, having headed to California with their father on May 23rd after Ryann's high school graduation.

This is the first time in the ten years they've been flying without parents that they will be changing flights. It's much different having an 18 year old and a 15 year old flying than it was when they were eight and five. But let me tell you, I still miss them so very much when they are gone. For some reason I thought it would get easier to have them gone, but I actually think it's gotten worse! So if you hear a big whoop around midnight central time tomorrow night, that's me!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Organic Food Scandal

2009-08-03T05:23:00.000-07:00

A study came out last week announcing that organic food has no nutritional or health benefit over ordinary food. This is one of the tricks of our media that just ticks me off! Let's make a controversy over something and blow it out of proportion. I would hope that people smart enough to want healthier food are also smart enough to understand why organic foods are healthier. Shouldn't it be common sense and basic science to understand that growing foods without chemical additives will not change their basic molecular structure and suddenly pack them fuller of nutrients?

Putting chemicals into the soil and onto the plants during the growth cycle will, however, introduce chemicals into the vegetable/fruit and then into the person consuming those products. Having grown up in an agricultural community, studied agricultural business, and worked for both a private farmer and the USDA, I learned what types of chemicals are being put on our food and it's scary. I don't want that stuff in me or especially in my children as their little bodies are growing and developing. Remember DDT and bald eagles in the 70's? That's why I buy farm salmon instead of wild salmon and why I prefer organic foods over "ordinary" food. It's also why I have started buying organic milk. My daughter drinks a gallon a week and I don't want those growth hormones that get injected into cows getting transferred into my child.

Now don't believe I'm a complete health nut cuz I'm not. But I prefer to serve natural food... baked chicken I cook over frozen chicken nuggets warmed up, fresh or frozen veggies over canned veggies, lasagna assembled at home over frozen pre-made lasagna. I may be off target, but I believe pre-made food has too many preservatives and common sense tells me those chemicals cannot be healthy. So, when my kids want something sweet, I give them the stuff with real sugar or corn syrup, no artificial sweetners for my babies. Do we know what those complex chemical do to our kids' developing physiology? Okay, folks, I'll get off the food soap box now...

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

The Kaj

2009-07-31T04:25:00.001-07:00

Kage Neko (Shadow Cat). What can I say about this cat? Lots, but not much of it is very nice! We have that love-hate relationship… I love to hate him and vice-versa but it’s a very loving hate relationship. My nicknames for him include spawn of satan, cartoon face and el gato feo (the ugly cat). Let’s start at the beginning when our daughter conjured this hairball. Conjured? Yes, conjured. Ray had been asking for another cat. Specifically she wanted a long-hair black boy kitty with green or yellow eyes. This year she was in the Coming of Age program at church, which is a year-long program for 7th and 8th graders where they explore their spirituality. As the finale of the program, these middle schoolers gave a testimonial about their beliefs. Ray’s specifically mentioned magic and mysticism. The following day a teeny tiny kitten appeared on our deck, a deck standing six or seven feet high with steps taller than this little kitty. It was a tiny fluffy ball of black fur with white ear hair. Ray spent the entire day on the back porch with him cradled in her lap because I refused to let it in the house. We already had a cat. She was getting ready to leave *the very next day* to spend the summer with her father. Well, Mom is a softie and eventually gave in to the cuteness. That cuteness was just a ploy. I should have known better! I tease Ryann about her conjuring her cat by calling him “cartoon face” because his face doesn’t quite fit.

Kage is a beautiful cat on the outside. He reminds me of those super models or actors who are drop-dead gorgeous, but are not very nice people. I swear he spends the day thinking of ways to annoy me and others around him. For example, we have a bird house in the middle of our back yard and this summer we have a family living there. You can see mama and papa, tiny little birds, flitting in and out all day long. Kage has taken to sleeping in the yard. He has *never* slept in the middle of the grass. Inside the house we can hear one of the parent birds scolding Kage, a constant chee-chee-chee-chee-chee-chee. I believe Kage fully knows the angst he is causing these birds and gets pleasure from their pain. Kage will position himself in a room so as to bother Ellie Mae because he knows Ellie can’t stand him and she can’t do anything about him. His favorite spot in our bedroom is lounging on our tall chest of drawers taking a bath (aka “kitty yoga”). If anything happens to be in his way, he just pushes it off. He will wait until I walk into a room to begin scratching on the couch or rug.

Shortly after we moved to our new home, we almost lost Kage or at least a part of him. This cat has to be one of the luckiest animals I’ve ever met. Ryann was spending the day with her friend and my son had a soccer tournament scheduled for the weekend. Unfortunately his team didn’t make the cut so we just happened to be home when an awful ruckus erupted outside. If you’ve ever heard a cat fight, you know the sound. Only add barking into the mix. Two dogs had attacked Kage, cornered him before he could get up a tree. As we ran outside, the dogs took off and we found Kage lying listless under a tree. Clark wrapped him in a towel and picked him up. We knew he was hurt because this is a cat who hates to be picked up. He simply lay in Clark’s lap as I drove around on an early Saturday evening, trying to find an open vet. We finally found one getting ready to close. I dropped off Clark then the boys and I went to pick up Ryann, who after losing Daisy was extremely upset. The vet stabilized Kage and recommended an overnight facility to monitor the IV and medications with instructions to bring him back in the morning. They did not think the back leg could be saved. Lots of stress and money later Kage went into surgery Monday morning to have his leg removed. The vet, a different one from the weekend on-call vet, left surgery to call Clark. He thought the leg could be saved. Clark told him that we’d love to save the leg, but we really didn’t have any more money to put into the situation. The vet said he’d do what he could at the quoted price and if later the leg needed to come off he wouldn’t charge us. Now this is a vet who cares for the animal more than the bottom line. This was his last week in the office as he was retiring at the end of the week. I am so thankful we had him in the surgery room with Kage. Fast forward to present day. Kage had one more surgery to remove the pins in his leg, but he has all four legs. When he runs that injured leg will splay out in a funky way, but he jumps and runs and gets around like any other demon cat. He is a little more cautious now and you can see his worry whenever he hears a neighbor dog barking. Perfectly understandable.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Pretty Pouty Precious Princess Mimi, Kirigirisu the Kamikaze Kitty

2009-07-30T05:47:00.000-07:00

On a trip to Petsmart after we lost Daisy, Ray found a timid little tortoise shell kitty, which she named Mimi. This new kitten could not be any more different from Daisy. She was a shy little creature who spent most of her time sequestered away in Ryann’s bedroom. It was so bad that one day, before the other cat’s arrival and before we moved, I stood at the bottom of the stairs and could not remember this cat’s name! It was as though Mimi wanted to become invisible and succeeded! Looking back, though, you can see the bond between Ryann and Mimi. Over the years Mimi’s nickname has evolved so that now she is known as Pretty Pouty Precious Princess Mimi, Kirigirisu the Kamikaze Kitty.

How in the world did this meek creature get the nickname “Kirigirisu the Kamikaze Kitty”? In the first couple of months, before she went into seclusion, Mimi would sometimes wander into Clark’s and my bedroom in the early morning hours. She’d jump on the bed and I would wake up to her pouncing on my toes. The way Mimi attacked—all four paws held together and hopping from spot to spot—reminded me of a grasshopper. Ryann had just entered her fascination of all things Japanese so we researched the word “grasshopper” so we called Mimi “Kirigirisu.” Around this same time Mimi performed an act of daredevilry so phenomenal we are still amazed. Clark firmly believes this was Mimi’s one and only act of rash behavior and we just happened to be present when it occurred. We had one of those tall cat condos, looming over my own 5’6”, sitting next to the low-back couch, a 40+year old pullout couch that Clark slept on as a child when he visited his grandparents. One day this tiny timid feline climbed up to the very top of this structure and launched herself down onto the back of the neighboring couch. With her tortie fur and all four paws spread out, she really resembled a flying squirrel and I swear she meowed, “Banzai!” as she fell.

Gone are these carefree reckless days. Now Mimi is a mature regal creature. Over the last few years, since the arrival of our other cat, she has changed very much. On retrospect, I wonder if she was depressed as an only kitty in a two-dog house. Before Kage’s arrival, Mimi was, as I mentioned, a recluse, but she was also extremely fat, so fat you could hear her moving around in Ryann’s room and on those rare occasions she ventured down the stairs. I do not remember exactly when she lost the weight, but today she is a slender shadow of her previous rotund self, with quite the skin flap that wobbles then she trots!

When Kage arrived, Mimi started emerging from Ray’s room more and more often. She even started nosing at the back door if we left it cracked. Over the last year in our previous house, Mimi got braver and braver. She’d sniff the open door for several minutes then put a single paw out for a heartbeat before running away and back upstairs. Eventually she got all the way out the door only to rush back inside. By the time we moved, she was spending several minutes hunched just outside the back door, as long as the door remained open and none of us inside moved.

Once we moved, Mimi started immediately spending more time outside. She was and still is a very timid kitty. Loud noises and sometimes even no noise startle her and she darts into hiding. Thunderstorms scare her and, even though we have a tiny house, she has hidey holes where we can’t find her. One time, shortly after our move, Mimi was outside when a thunderstorm hit and we weren’t home. The following morning we realized we hadn’t seen the Kirigirisu for a long time. Ryann and Clark went outside to call and call for her while I searched the inside. After quite a while they heard a weak little mew and finally located Mimi cowering in the crawl space under the house. She was in the farthest corner and refused to budge. Finally I opened a can of tuna fish and Ryann, who HATES this cramped bug-ridden crawlspace, went in a little ways. It took almost an hour, but Mimi finally was coaxed out. Hooray for tuna!

This summer, with the kids gone, Mimi has been spending more time with me than ever before. I spend time every day in the bedroom writing at my desk (a beautiful built-in made by my wonderful hubby when I went back to school). Within 2-3 minutes of sitting down and turning on the desk lamp, Mimi jumps up and demands a few minutes of petting before she settles down under the lamplight. If I remain in bed too long, she will also jump up and walk across my body with her tiny little painful paws (think about a woman’s stiletto heels!). Then she’ll get right up in my face with her whiskers tickling my nose. It works better than the alarm!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

You're a Good Dog, Lucky Pup!

2009-07-29T05:12:00.000-07:00

When Kyle was six-years old we added Lucky to our family and this dog’s lovable goofy personality reflects a six-year old’s personality. His full AKC name is Lucky Rascal Thunder Goober because Kyle fretted over picking the right name. Lucky, Rascal and Thunder were the three choices. Goober was added after Lucky had demonstrated his gooberiness. He is after all a chocolate-covered nut!

When we arrived to the country house to pick out our newest family member, there were only two pups left. The couple who owned the house also owned the mama dog. She was a big yellow lab, a little older for a first litter. Turns out they had bred her to their son-in-law’s chocolate lab in order to get another yellow lab female. This litter was large… eight puppies… all male… all chocolate. Best laid plans and all!

Kyle picked Lucky because he was the runt. He was 12-weeks old and still had that yummy puppy smell, eyes still blue but getting ready to turn and big tummy. Turns out the big tummy was from worms and he also had tons of fleas. These people had a shed out back where the puppies lived and I don’t believe Lucky had ever been inside until we brought him home. He definitely had never climbed stairs and we lived in a 2-story house at the time. The poor thing could not get his back legs to coordinate with the front legs. We still have a good laugh at that memory!

Lucky also has his own theme song. We sing “Lucky Pup Tennessee” set to the tune of Rocky Top, which is the UT Vols theme song. I worry I may have crossed a line with that song. I’m not a native to TN and these people take their orange seriously in this state.

One of the best things about having a chocolate lab with the personality of a six-year old is that he is always happy. His tail is always wagging unless he is sitting on it or sleeping. To be kind let’s just say he doesn’t have a full bag of kibbles. For years Clark used his Gomer Pyle voice to vocalize Lucky. The running joke is that Lucky has two brain cells; one of those brain cells is powered by his tail and if you stop his tail you cut his intelligence in half!

We kennel our dogs and Lucky loves his kennel. When we moved to our new house we had trouble finding a place to set up the kennels for both dogs, so we made the decision to put away the kennels and just lock the dogs up in the boys' room. Lucky was lost. There were times when he would worm into the closet or under chairs to get that cave feel. So last year, Clark built a platform bed for Kyle's bed and put a kennel sized cave under it. Lucky is happy, except for when Ellie Mae steals the cave. She's such a bully!

Lucky has never met a person he didn’t immediately love. The whole world is his best friend, but his boy is his bestest best friend. With the kids gone in the summertime, Lucky mopes around the house, as though he realizes the passing of time and his boy has been gone a little longer than a couple of hours. Whenever Lucky spies a boy, he perks up and his tail goes crazy, but then droops a little when it’s not *HIS* boy. I know exactly how he feels. We’re both anxiously waiting next Wednesday when the kids return and Lucky is reunited with his boy.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Ode to Daisy

2009-07-28T05:43:00.000-07:00

In continuing this week’s pet theme, I found myself struggling to choose which pet to write about this morning. When I finally picked one, I could not get started because I was thinking about the pet that preceded our two current kittens. That would be Daisy. Although Daisy was only with us about ten months before she was struck by a car on our very busy road, she will forever live in our family’s memory as the best cat ever. Unfortunately, this little Tonkinese was camera shy and I do not have any pictures of her.

When our family moved from California to Florida we left all our pets behind and I promised both kids when we moved into a house we would get Ryann a kitten and Kyle a puppy. We picked Daisy up at the local Petsmart’s cat adoption event. Going in our daughter had said she wanted a tabby or black-and-white, fluffy, big cuddly cat. What she latched on thirty seconds after entering the store was a skinny, Siamese looking half-grown kitten. Within five minutes I realized Ray had made her mind up when she told me the kitten’s name was Daisy. Having two dogs, Max the elderly Springer Spaniel and Lucky the rambunctious chocolate lab puppy, I asked the lady about this cat with dogs. She laughed and said Daisy would have no trouble. Evidently, this lady had adopted Daisy the month before from Petsmart, but the lady’s long-term cat had spent that entire month under her bed, refusing to come out. This lady wanted to have her cat back, so chose to put Daisy up for adoption.

Daisy was a hunter, primal, diligent, and lethal. One morning as the kids and I were getting ready to pull out of the driveway to go to school, we saw Daisy on the prowl. Talk about fascinating! I felt like I was watching one of those Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom segments about lionesses hunting on the African savannah. Needless to say, we were a little tardy that day! In the months following Daisy’s death, we noticed wildlife returning to our big open backyard (about 1/2 acre of unfenced open grass), we realized that during Daisy’s short reign we had no squirrels, rabbits or birds loitering in the area. We also found many of Daisy’s trophies in the corners of our garage…skeletons or desiccated carcasses of all types of critters, mainly mice, moles and bunnies. Daisy was not a large cat, but some of those rabbit remains appeared to be much larger than that little kitty.

Aside from being an amazing hunter, Daisy had a huge personality. She was unlike any cat I have ever known. When we researched her breed, we discovered Tonkinese are called the dogs of the cat world. When someone would come in, Daisy would bound in to greet them. She was very social and enjoyed being part of the collective, the pack, but she wasn’t overly cuddly, except with Ryann. Those two had a bond that was so special. It broke my heart to tell her that her cat had died.

To this day, I still tear up thinking about that awful awful summer. Ryann and her brother had just left a couple of days earlier to spend the summer with their father in California. Clark was on the road with his salesman so I was home alone. I am not normally a hysterical person, but I completely lost my mind when I walked out on the front porch and there saw Daisy’s corpse. Evidently she had been hit on the road and crawled back down to the house. The worst part was contacting my ex to explain Ryann’s cat had been killed and him telling me that he would not break the news to her, that it was my responsibility. Well, there was no way I was telling my ten-year-old daughter about her cat’s demise *over the phone* so the only option was to wait until they returned in ten weeks. For the rest of the summer, whenever I spoke to the kids Ryann would talk about her cat and how much she missed Daisy. When they did return and I broke the news, Ryann was so devastated. Never before and only three times since have I seen my girl break down and sob so hard.

So here’s to Daisy, the best cat ever! If there is a heaven for cats, I’m sure she is keeping it clear of mice, moles, rabbits, squirrels and birds.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Her Smelliness

2009-07-27T05:46:00.001-07:00

Last week had an auto theme, so why not an animal theme for this week? Our family loves our animals and we consider them members of our family. Currently we have two Labrador Retrievers and two cats, and each of them have quite the personality.

Today I’ll talk about my dog, Ellie Mae (aka the Smellie Mae with the stinky feet). She is a black lab that we found in a lab rescue program in Knoxville in April 2001. The kids and I drove over to look at three dogs that day… an older male chocolate lab, a one year old male chocolate lab, and her Smelliness. On the drive over, I already had an idea Ellie Mae would be the ideal candidate. The old dog was too old and already overweight with some health issues. The young dog was just too much puppy, and I was over puppies, having raised our other lab. So, on the two-hour drive I kept thinking, “Please don’t let her respond to ‘Ellie Mae.’ Please don’t let her respond to ‘Ellie Mae.’”Well, she did, but that was really the only negative to this dog. She and our other dog had no problems. She is the alpha, no problem. She was young and energetic, friendly with me and the kids, so we brought her home. She did respond to the name, so although I did not like it we did not try to change her name.

We believe Ellie Mae spent her first year on the streets of Knoxville, which is probably why she hates to go outside when it is raining or snowing, although she LOVES to go swimming. It is also why she is a four-legged garbage disposal, eating anything and everything, and subsequently getting sick.

When we picked her up, the rescue program’s vet had said she was 3 or 4 years old. I believe the vet was mistaken, maybe because she was a street dog and suffered from malnutrition she appeared older than she was. When we first brought Ellie Mae home, her behavior and energy echoed our chocolate lab, who was one at the time.

The first six months we had her she did not utter a single sound—no barks, no whines, no whimpers, nothing. Then after six months she started barking and eight years later she simply won’t shut up! She is especially passionate about the postal truck and diligent about chasing him away every day. She does such a good job that he doesn’t even show up on Sundays! Our front door has three vertical windows, so she will check the outside world several times a day. Sometimes a leaf falls or a squirrel wanders across the yard and she is very good at guarding us from those dangers. Clark refers to Ellie as our 60-pound yappy dog.

Dogs are pack animals and need to know where they are in the pack hierarchy. We say that Clark is top dog and I’m second dog, so Ellie thinks she’s third dog. My son has always taken offense to this, asserting that *HE* is third dog, not Ellie. I tell him he and his sister are just pups, so Ellie thinks she’s their boss.

As I mentioned above, we also have cats. When we got Ellie, we only had the tortie, who was always hiding out in our other house, so we didn’t have many confrontations. Then the black cat arrived in 2004 and he makes his presence known at all times. It is amusing so often I’ll all be sitting in the den, watching TV, a sleeping Ellie Mae nearby. Suddenly a low growl starts emanating from Ellie Mae and I’ll look around. Sure enough, there is a cat in the room. Both of our cats have very loud purrs, so my theory is that Ellie thinks the cats are growling at her. Poor dog. She simply does not understand why the cats (called “KATT”s) are allowed to growl at her, but she gets in trouble for growling at them.

Ellie has an interesting vocabulary. For example there are some four-letter words, bad words that she does not like to hear. Cats as I mentioned are KATTs. We also kennel our dogs when we leave and during the night, which she does not like. So when we say “kennel” her spelling is “KENL.” Vet is “VETT.”

Ellie also has a couple of nicknames like “Her Smelliness” or “Ellie Mae of the Stinky Feet and the Smellie Ears” or simply “Smellie Mae.” Our thought is that her personal odor issues hearken back to her puppyhood being spent on the streets with garbage. The first couple of years she was with us, she would get terrible ear infections, hence the smelly ears, but those seem to have disappeared. She does still have some flactuation issues. We joke when Ellie Mae is very happy she relaxes and farts. So the phrase “Ellie Mae’s really happy” is actually code for “INCOMING!”

When we brought Ellie home, I did not expect her to become my dog. We wanted another dog so Lucky would not be alone, but she is my shadow. Wherever I go in the house, she is usually in the same room. Before we moved and I went back to school, I spent lots of time with Ellie. We did agility together and after the move we would go walking at the nearby Lake Radnor. Almost every time we went to the lake, we would see deer. Ellie Mae seemed to be awed by these creatures, like she could not quite figure out what they were. So, they became the “Big Dogs” and whenever I got ready to go to the lake, I ask her if she wants to go see the “Big Dogs” and she gets very excited.

It’s hard to believe Ellie has been a part of our family for 8 years now. Her black fur is spackled with lots of gray, especially her muzzle, eyes and paws. She has slowed down her fetching a little and some afternoons she doesn’t hear the postal truck. Being a realist, I know Ellie Mae is entering old age, but really hope we have many more years of Ellie Mae sleeping on the couch next to me, twitching as she pursues squirrels in her dreams, and announcing her happiness with stinkiness.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Bye bye, Sunny!

2009-07-26T18:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a vehicle kind of week, so I thought I'd keep the theme going at least one more day!

I have always been a believer in the Internet. After all I met my awesome hubby on AO-hell back in the “You’ve Got Mail” heyday. But right now, my hat’s off to Craigslist. When the job sites were failing me back in December, I found my part-time job on Craigslist. Last month we purchased a lawn mower on Craigslist. This past Friday night we made arrangements to buy a new car on Craigslist and tonight we sold our van on Craigslist… in less than two hours! No kidding! Hubby had the van cleaned up this afternoon and took it to CarMax, just so we could get an idea of what they would offer. Not much as it turns out, so I researched the Kelly Blue Book price. Even marking it with over 200K miles and “fair” condition (the lowest besides poor), KBB said we should ask around $2,500. Now I’ve already mentioned in this blog that I am a cheapie when it comes to cars. The van runs well, but the front windshield needs replacing, the motor for the driver’s side window needs to be replaced and a/c is blowing hot air. The inside is very clean but the exterior has a bunch of dings, one dent and a lovely key scratch down one side. So realistically I personally would not have bought this vehicle for more than $1000 or $1500, so we compromised and listed it at $1250. The rest, as they say, is history. Less than 20 minutes after posting we received two phone calls. The first guy lived over an hour away and started towards Nashville immediately. Less than 20 minutes after his arrival, he and hubby had a deal. So, tomorrow is vehicle day. Hubby will get a check for the truck and finish that in the morning. Then when I get off work in the afternoon we’ll take the van down to its new home. One more time…. Craigslist rocks!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Pick-em-up Truck

2009-07-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

I did have a plan to get Friday's post done last night, but got distracted with car shopping.... Yes, we're in the market for a vehicle. I *HATE* looking for cars. I've found that most private sellers think their vehicle is worth way more than I do. LOL I admit it I'm a cheapie when it comes to houses and cars. So every day I have been looking for something on Craigslist, Cars.com, AutoTrader, any place I could find. And Friday I found it... '95 Ford Ranger XLT. The ad was on Craigslist, posted around 5pm and we went to look at it around 7pm. She had already had several calls and there was a guy already there to look at the truck. It has everything on it that the hubby and I were looking for... manual transmission, working a/c, and cheap ($1800). This also has a couple of bonuses...the extended cab, bedliner, CD player and it's been driven by a girl since '96 (Sorry, guys! Not being sexist here, just realistic!). After driving the truck it was late, so we put a deposit down to hold it. Then hubby took the truck to a mechanic this morning and the truck got a thumbs up. So Monday morning, hubby will complete the transaction and we'll have us a "pick-em-up" truck, as my dad says.

The plan is for me to drive this until April when the boy-child turns 16. Then this will become his vehicle to get him to school, soccer and work (yes, he has a job waiting for him as a ref at the YMCA, just as soon as he turns 16!). When I spoke with K earlier this week I told him I was looking at vehicles, either a Jeep Cherokee Sport or a small truck. He was really hoping for a truck, so I'm sure he'll be happy. The hardest part for me will be keeping it quiet until the kids return in two weeks!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Blackjack

2009-07-23T05:24:00.000-07:00

Have you ever done something that you later regretted? Something big like give your car to your teenage daughter? Your favorite car? Yeah, I did that. When our daughter got her license last fall, we handed her the keys to our 1992 Volkswagen Cabriolet, dubbed “Blackjack” by the family when hubby drove it back from Chicago in 2002.

As the kids are in California with their dad, I’ve been driving this car during the summer so Clark can drive the air conditioned Malibu as opposed to the van with no working a/c. I had forgotten how great this car is to drive.Yes, It's 17 years old….and the a/c no longer works… and the instrument panel doesn’t work if the weather is too warm… and, if the transmission is warmed up, it CLUNKS into reverse… and, as I learned during yesterday’s torrential rain, the roof leaks. Still, I…love…this car! With the top up, the interior is cozy and intimate. With the top down, you’re immersed in the driving experience… sound, feel, smell.

This isn’t the first Cabriolet our family has owned. When the kids and I were in California, their father and I traded in our van for a 1986 VW Cabriolet and cash to buy an old Chevy Suburban. They were named “Putt-Putt” and “Bump-Bump” (hey, my kids were three and six at the time!). “Putt-Putt” was bright red with black leather, over which I put black and white fuzzy cow print seat covers. I loved that vehicle, but when we moved to Florida, we sold it.

Anyway, back to “Blackjack”… When we were looking for a high mpg car for hubby, who was driving to Memphis 1-2 times a week, Knoxville a couple of times a month and other places all over Tennessee, he mentioned the VW Jetta he had in his first marriage. I countered with the Cabriolet and, being the great guy he is, Clark was intrigued by the idea of a convertible. This was back before Craigslist, so I looked on eBay. That didn’t work. The local newspaper’s classifieds went to Cars.com, which was a bust. Remember the good old days when you would go to the auto parts store and pick up an Auto Trader? I did and discovered Auto Trader was online. We found a car advertised by a used car lot in Chicago that had everything we wanted… a/c, manual transmission, glass rear window… and it was a manly black on black color scheme. Clark flew up to Chicago and drove that baby home. The only downside? The car lot obviously didn’t know the difference between an automatic transmission and a manual. Oh, well!

This little car was Clark’s main vehicle for a while, while I drove the *shudder* minivan (another long story, one with which I won’t bore y’all today!). Then after the layoff, I started using this car to drive the boys, our son and his best friend, to school. They loved it! So did I. I can’t emphasize enough how much fun this car is to drive. There is nothing like tooling down the road, crisp fall air rustling through your hair, a canopy of trees full of autumn color overhead!

My daughter has been driving her dad’s van and Toyota Tacoma pickup while in California; yesterday she told me she can’t wait to get home to HER car. Excuse me? I’d been so happy driving “Blackjack” that I almost forgot I’d have to relinquish it when they got back home. Guess I’d better enjoy it over the next two weeks! Giving up my favorite car is a very small price to pay to have my kids back home!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Climbing Back on the Wagon

2009-07-22T05:33:00.000-07:00

The end of July is coming into view. With it comes the return of my kids and the end of summer. While I've done really well on writing my novel and better updating this blog, I must confess I fell off the exercise wagon this summer. This is nothing new for me. It's very frustrating! I have managed to make writing a part of my daily routine. I have cut refined sugar from my daily diet. But exercise remains that one fatal obstacle. I get off to a good start, then it just fades away. I don't think I've ever exercised regularly for more than six weeks in my life. So once again I resolve to climb back up on that wagon with eternal optimism that I will manage to hang on this time!

Last night I researched 5K events for September and found some events I'd like to do. Once I get my son's soccer schedule I will actually register. I also located a program that takes you from walking to running in 8 weeks. Now, I was an athlete all through high school--volleyball, basketball, track & field--but I have never, never, never been a distance runner. Heck, two laps--880 yards--use to wipe me out! The program looks like it might work and, even if I don't actually get to running, it should help keep me focused for eight weeks!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Finished Pottery Pieces

2009-07-21T05:25:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited!! Our first few pottery projects were ready for us last night. They all turned out so well!!

I will confess I was very surprised how beautiful the glaze turned out. These pieces were a puke-pink color after the first firing and the glaze wasn't too much better. I should have taken pictures and will try to remember for next week as the teacher was beginning the first firing last night.

The mug was the project from our very first class. With that piece I used two different glazes which I dipped both coats. With the little blue bowl I dipped the first layer then sponged on the second glaze. The oak leaf bowl's really cool mottling was from individually sponging on three different glazes. I'm looking forward to our next batch of glazing. I have a couple of wavy bowls along with the moon/star votive and snowman (pictures posted in an earlier blog).

Last night I worked on a basketweave bowl. It was very simple to begin...just cut out lots of strips of pottery and drape row of 4-5 strips over a bowl mold. Then came a slightly advanced move...weaving another 4-5 strips through the first set of strips. Everything looked nice and I was feeling good. Then came the difficult part...weaving the sides of the bowl. I was a little brain dead and unlucky. I had a 50-50 chance of doing the weave right or wrong. Guess which 50% I got? Yep! The wrong way! So I had to re-weave my sides, every single weave, all the way around. Ugh! So I get that done and now is the most difficult part...creating a two-coil twist for the top of the bowl. All this is down with the bowl upside down on the mold. Twists and coils are not my forte, lemme tell ya! They take patience with an extra helping of patience. Now I'm patient in many areas of my life, but I've discovered I'm not a patient potter! I did get the coil on after lots of cussing (in my head, not aloud) and left the piece covered in plastic so I could finish it up next week. I started wedging the clay around 6:30 and finished that @#$% coil at 9:00 sharp. I certainly hope this bowl doesn't end up in the Discard Pile, but.... we'll see!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince #6 SPOILERS

2009-07-20T05:38:00.000-07:00

We prepared the entire week for our Saturday date with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Clark's son was with us this week and every night we watched one of the previous films in order. I also pulled the book off the shelf just to reacquaint myself with the story. I'm glad I did. The movies are all very wonderfully produced, but they do have to pick and choose what story lines to include.

[NOTE: DO NOT CONTINUE READING IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE ANY SPOILERS FOR EITHER THE BOOK OR THE MOVIE]

A couple of major differences between the book and the movie include...

1) Bill and Fluer - No mention of their engagement throughout the movie. Makes me wonder how the wedding is going to play into the next movie. Which brings me to my next difference...

2) Tonks and Lupin - In the book, this relationship was kept to a minimum until the end. Tonks was distraught, but Harry never connected her with Lupin. In the movie, Tonks and Lupin spent Christmas with the Weasleys and in leaving their house, Tonks referred to Lupin as "sweetheart". Makes me wonder if the huge wedding is going to be Tonks and Lupin, who actually had a small wedding in the book. There are many issues in book #7 that happen at the wedding that I'm interested in seeing how the movie makers handle them. Also, mentioning Christmas at the Weasleys....

3) Fire at the Burrow - in the movie, the Weasley's house is burned down. Huh? Now the wedding definitely won't be taking place here.

4) Dumbledore visits the Dursleys - I was so looking forward to Dumbledore popping in on the Dursleys, especially them refusing to drink the wine he pours and the glasses subsequently bopping on their head, spilling wine! LOL That would have been funny. Aside from having Dumbledore appear on the train platform in front of a billboard saying "Divine Magic" what was the reason behind having the opening scene in a coffee shop where Harry makes a date with a muggle girl? Hmmmm.... not the best deviation from the book (imho). However....

5) Aragog's death as the 2nd best deviation of the movie from the book. In the book, the building up to Aragog's funeral was a bit overkill and just having Harry show up to Hagrid crying over the spider's body was enough to introduce the situation without having to spend lots of time on the subject. Which leads into the best deviation...

6) Slughorn's fish - The scene where the drunk Slughorn refers to his pet fish just *snap* disappearing from his bowl does a great job of setting up many aspects from the book that may have taken lots more time to develop as the book does. First, it introduces Lily into the conversation so Harry can persuade Slughorn to divulge the memory. Next, it makes reference to the fact that when a person dies, so does their magic. Slughorn's fish had been given to him by Lily and when Voldermort killed her, the enchantment ended. Overall, a much more touching scene in the movie than it had been in the book.

7) Dumbledore's death scene - I was very very very very disappointed that the movie people decided not to have Dumbledore stun Harry. Why? So we could watch Harry stand by and watch Snape kill Dumbledore? At least in the book, Harry was unable to help, not unwilling. In the movie he simply stands by and watches his mentor, his father-figure get blasted? I think not!

Anyway, I'm sure there are other issues I will think about soon, but right now those are the major points for me. I did enjoy the movie, but cannot imagine watching this series without reading the books and feel sorry for those who do. You are missing so much by not reading the books.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Simple Things...?

2009-07-16T04:54:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's the simple things in life that make it good. Right now I am reclining in the love seat next to my hubby, laptop in lap with a mug of Dunkin' Donuts coffee, twittering and watching Morning Joe, after having written 900 words on my novel already... the makings of a great morning!

But even though the things themselves are simple, it took me years to achieve this moment. And it all started with finding the right person with whom to share these things! Let me just state for the record--My hubby is awesome-sauce! Simply put, my good mornings couldn't happen without him.

For starters, Clark brings me a mug of delicious Dunkin' Donuts coffee EVERY morning. And my laptop? Oh, boy! That's a story that I've avoided sharing with people until now. Basically I broke my laptop by... uhm, *cough*pickingitupbythescreen*cough* a few of weeks ago. The computer worked fine, but the display was DOA. Clark and my dad bought this for me in March '08 as an early graduation present and it's a wonderful machine (except for Vista, but that's another issue not related to hubby), so I was devastated when the screen cracked. We looked around for the receipt for the warranty, but couldn't find it. Clark didn't panic (like I did!). Using our daughter's monitor, he set me up in the den with a wireless keyboard and mouse. Then he researched screens online and found the price was not too bad, so he ordered one. Yesterday he installed the screen, so this morning I am once again mobile with my computer. I did not realize how much I used my computer outside the den until I couldn't move it. Now let's see if having my mobility back helps me blog more! ;-)

So, here is to the simple things shared with the right person! ¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Chattanooga Choo-Choo

2009-07-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

Friday I accompanied Clark down to Georgia to pick up his son, who is staying with us for a week. On the way home we stopped in Chattanooga for dinner and to walk around the Chattanooga Choo-Choo. It is one of those situations of history where I know the famous song which makes me aware of the history, where in truth there was the history which inspired the song! According to a plaque, the Chattanooga Choo-Choo travelled from Cincinnati to Chattanooga beginning on March 1880 and was the first public transportation between the North and the South. We arrived too late to go through the museum, but did get to tour the model railroad display. Clark is a big fan of model railroads and I am fascinated by the details in this particular exhibit. One of the trains had more than ninety cars! After spending a good amount of time here, we headed over to a dining car for pizza. Through the windows from our seat, we could look into another dining car, which had linens and flower arrangements, definitely the romantic dining experience. The pizza, although thin crust, was quite tasty. Next we went into the ice cream and candy shop to get Hunter an ice cream cone. I am happy to report that for the first time in my memory I left a sweet shop without getting *any* sweets! While the fudge looked quite tasty as did the ice cream, I’ve been suffering from severe headaches for a while and sugar seems to be a trigger for those headaches. I just didn’t want to end a nice day with a headache. By this time, evening had set in and the temperatures had dropped enough that the walk through the garden area was quite pleasant. They have a nice koi pond with neat fish fountains which squirt water to oxygenate the pond. There were other statues and fountains sprinkled throughout. Before leaving we headed back into the main building to use the restroom facilities before beginning the trip back to Nashville. For those who are not aware, the Chattanooga Choo-Choo is a hotel created in an old railroad depot. Using the restroom reminded me that at one time this was a public facility. I love airports just for the people watching opportunities and here in this old depot, I could imagine the people who congregated on the platform through the years… businessmen in suits, mothers with their gloves and hats herding their flock of chicks, newlyweds heading to the big city for a honeymoon, soldiers being deployed. The history. The memories. How nostalgic it makes me feel! All-in-all the visit was a very nice experience. I think some day Clark and I should go back and stay in one of the railroad car hotel rooms. I definitely would like to go through the museum and learn more of the history.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Giving in to the Darkness

2009-07-09T04:54:00.000-07:00

In May, my poor Pantech had a little accident. When we were getting in the car to leave the TN Ren Festival, I forgot about placing it on the roof of our car. It wasn't until much later, as we were leaving Arrington Vineyards, that I remembered the last place I'd seen my phone. Oops! We remember a thump when we pulled off the dirt road onto the asphalt, so Clark dropped me off at the drive and I walked the edge of the road, using his phone to call mine. Wasn't I lucky that 1) the phone still worked and 2) I had turned the ringer back on! I was also fortunate that the phone was virtually unhurt, except I lost the button panel, which makes navigating a little difficult. AND I was blessed that our contract with AT&T was almost up and on June 18 I was eligible for an upgrade.

Now I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Pantech. It slides up to reveal the number keypad and then slides another way to reveal the qwerty keypad. But I realized I have outgrown my little phone. I need (yes, need!) more from my phone...twitter, facebook, gmail, etc. Being tethered to technology is my new security blanket. So, being the INTP that I am, I started researching phones. A qwerty keyboard was a must, most everything else was optional. Well, qwerty and cost. I refuse to pay $$$ for my cell phone.

When I had narrowed down the field, I asked my twitter buddies for their input. Of course, most want to know why I'm not going for the iPhone. Long story short? Aside from the $$$ for an iPhone, I made myself a deal back when the iPhone was released... when I sell my novel, I can get me an iPhone. So, I may never be eligible! Well, Wemnar highly recommended the Blackberry, which I have been avoiding for years.

After Internet research was exhausted, I went down to the AT&T store and spent some time feeling out the Blackberry Curve, the Samsung Propel and the updated Pantech. I wanted to see the new Motorola Karma, but the sales guy didn't know anything about the new Motorola and hadn't heard about a pending delivery. He even told me he had heard Motorola was getting out of the cell phone business (As the spouse of a Motorola employee, I wasn't too surprised, although I know the Karma was a new release. Why release something if you're not going to support it? But I digress *again*!).

Well, last Thursday evening I bit the bullet and placed an Internet order for a Blackberry Curve 8310 ($20 cheaper ordering it online than purchasing in the store), then waited, not too patiently. The phone arrived Tuesday and a whole new world opened up for me. It's a little overwhelming and I've been feeling extremely inept and inadequate (can you say "Blackberries for Dummies"?). Turns out the data package I had was not compatible for the Blackberry. Yesterday afternoon before church, Clark and I went online and figured things out and I am happy to report the Blackberry is humming along just like it should. My emails are coming in. The Ubertwitter app is twittering. I am still vague on specific details, like how to silence the ringer (I simply turned the phone off during RE class last night).

My biggest concern when trying out the Blackberry Curve in the store was the little trackball thing-a-ma-jig. It felt awkward and uncomfortable under my thumb, but it's not!! I can't believe how easy the trackball is to use and how quickly I adapted to using it!

So, now I must admit I am on my way to becoming a crackberry addict. Yes, I'm going to be one of those people who are glued to their device! I have crossed to the darkside.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Glazing

2009-07-07T05:52:00.000-07:00

So last night in pottery class we glazed the pieces that June had put in the kiln last week. I am always fascinated at how drastically different the pieces look before and after firing. Even when we go to All Fired Up to paint pre-made pieces, you have to use your imagination to picture what your colors and patterns will look like after being fired. Clark had three bowls he had thrown on the wheel and his mug from the first night. My pieces included two thrown bowls, my first night mug and the leaf bowl. We did not paint the glaze on the items, but instead dipped or sponged. I had imagined making my leaf bowl all different colors--reds, oranges, yellows, etc.--but it didn't happen. The technique June showed me, sponging on three different colors, is going to be interesting to see. The mug and bowls also received two different colors. Clark was more adventurous than me with his bowls. He dipped a main color then dipped, sponged or flicked different colors. Next week should be interesting! I will post pictures!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Exploring Westhaven

2009-07-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Since Friday was a holiday for my hubby, we did some of our yard sale running around on Friday instead of Saturday. After our routine stop at Dunkin' Donuts, we headed out to Franklin for a couple of yard sales. Now one of the problems with being early birds is that many of these people putting on the yard sales are NOT early birds! LOL So we find ourselves out at a subdivision at 7:15 a.m. looking for a sale that doesn't start until 8. No problem, we'll just head back towards Nashville and hit that handful.

Well, let me state here that one of the greatest things about my hubby is that he doesn't get upset about wrong turns or detours. We were heading back towards Hillsboro Road when we both commented on a large subdivision. I said it looked like one of those communities where you have your grocery, doctors, restaurants, etc., all within walking distance. Clark hesitated at the turn lane, looked over at me and I said, "Let's turn!"

The Westhav en houses were beautiful! The architecture reminded me of turn of the 20th century, like many of the houses in the Belmont area in Nashville. In a large portion of the division, garages and mailboxes are positioned along alleys running behind the houses. There is a huge fountain, club house, playground and tricked out pool, plus a green way, a couple of squares (like Ryann and I saw in Savannah) and sidewalks! Lots of sidewalks! Sidewalks everywhere!

Now, dear reader, if you are not from the South, you may not understand my fascination with sidewalks. Most neighborhoods in Nashville do not have sidewalks. We saw several people out on leisurely walks, a couple with dogs, many with coffee mugs, and a couple of iPod runners. As with most towns in the U.S., this little mini village has its economic divisions as we discovered driving far into Westhaven. We drove past mini-mansions that were definitely million dollar homes. Very pretty! There was one house with a bird's nest type room up on top. Being up on the hill, the view from the street was nice so I can imagine the view from that room was spectacular!

It makes me very happy that my hubby and I can explore places like Westhaven and talk about what we like about it without either of us truly expecting anything to materialize from those comments. We know we are in Davidson County until our children are grown. We know we want a place in the country. We know this subdivision would not be our ideal location, but we can discuss the advantages and how it appeals to others. Oh, and we spent enough time exploring that we were able to go back and catch the 8am yard sale! ;)

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Independence Day

2009-07-04T19:22:00.000-07:00

While my feelings of patriotism may have changed over the years, on this day, I always feel extremely blessed to have been born a citizen of the United States of America. America the Beautiful is the patriotism of my youth and How Beautiful Our Spacious Skies reflects my current mood.

How Beautiful, Our Spacious Skies

How beautiful, our spacious skies, our amber waves of grain;
our purple mountains as they rise above the fruitful plain.
America! America! God's gracious gifts abound
and more and more we're grateful for life's bounty all around.

Indigenous and immigrant, our daughters and our sons;
O may we never rest content till all are truly one.
America! America! God grant that we may be
a sisterhood and brotherhood from sea to shining sea.

How beautiful, sincere lament, the wisdom born of tears,
the courage called for to repent the bloodshed through the years.
America! America! God grant that we may be
a nation blessed with none oppressed, true land of liberty.

How beautiful, two continents, and islands in the sea
that dream of peace, non-violence, all people living free.
Americas! Americas! God grant that we may be
a hemisphere where people here all live in harmony.

So, Happy Birthday, United States of America! May we continue to work on the arc of justice and may next year see some more changes. ¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Social Media

2009-07-02T05:18:00.000-07:00

So hubby and I facilitated an adult religious education class on social media at church last night. This is a topic we two had discussed for a couple of months, but had no idea how popular it would be with our fellow congregants. I’m still reeling this morning from the response we had and the mix of participants—social media pros, computer novices and quite a few in between.

I think some in attendance may have thought we were going to discuss the mechanics of different social media sites, but that was not our purpose. We covered the history and background of social media. Some of the figures that stood out for me…

In 1965, 35% of adult evening views could name a brand advertised in shows just watched. In 2000, less than 10%.

In 2005, 8% of the adults online had a profile on a social network site. Today, 35% do.

In December 2008, 54.5 million people visited Facebook – a 57% increase from the previous year. 22% of adults online have a profile on Facebook.

In December 2008, 4.5 million people visited Twitter – a 753% increase from the previous year. 70% of twitter users joined in ‘08. 5-10 thousand new accounts are created daily.

On an intellectual level, I realized that marketing has changed over the last couple of decades, but several slides really brought this message home for me.

This graphic echoes the article I read about today’s consumer being “unplugged” or “not paying attention.” Just a few years ago when you went to an airport or doctor’s waiting room, there was a television playing and you were a captive audience. The same holds true with home television viewing. Today everyone has a portable media device—laptop, iPod, Mp3 player, cell phone—which holds our attention. At home we record more and more programs and thus fast forward through the commercials.

This was Clark’s favorite graph—a timeline showing the evolution of the internet. Personally I was surprised that email began in 1971. I do remember hearing that the government created the internet to facilitate communications between universities. The one application missing from this timeline that Clark and I both agree was a major player in early internet, and in our opinions, the first social networking platform is American Online, AOL, or to some ex-customers, AO-Hell. Remember “You’ve got mail!”? While it is not a specific site, AOL was a way for non-technical “ordinary” people to access many people with like interests.

While Clark liked the timeline, this was my favorite graphic. With traditional marketing, whether it is email or television or radio, the consumer is being talked at. With social media marketing, it is a conversation, an interaction from a source with whom the consumer feels he/she has a relationship. As I asked the participants last night, if you see/hear a commercial from a company plugging a product and then receive a favorable review from a friend, which endorsement carries more weight?

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Hobbyholic

2009-06-30T05:04:00.000-07:00

Hobbyholic--a term we coined for my husband, who loves many many many different hobbies... DnD, Warhammer 40K, leather working, blacksmithing, RC cars, RC planes, painting miniatures, the list goes on! Me, on the other hand... I have trouble finding a hobby I have been able to stick with or even start. I have things I am interested in, but have never pursued. So this summer I decided I would try something new. I asked myself, "If money were not a factor, what hobby would you pursue?" Of course, my first two answers--equestrian and piano lessons--were impossible. So, third time's the charm here. If I had the money and the room I would have a kiln. Nashville has community classes year-round and I found a pottery class that actually fit into my church schedule! So Clark and I have been going to pottery class every Monday. It's been lots of fun and lots of work. I am exhausted after every class, but it's a great creative outlet. So far I've made a mug and an oak leaf bowl as well as turned out two bowls on the wheel. This picture is the stars and moon votive holder I made at last night's class. The instructor started firing our older pieces last night and said we'd be glazing next week. I am looking forward to painting the leaf bowl a bunch of autumn colors--rust, gold, yellow, red, orange--but am not sure what colors to use on my other pieces. Decisions, decisions!

So, am I going to stick with pottery? I'm not sure. It's been fun, but not something I can do on my own. I may continue to take summer classes, when the kids are gone, but during the school year I need something more portable and easy to pick up. Hopefully I will be able to find a crochet class and finally pick up my Grandma's hobby, something I've always wanted to do!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

P.S.-The snowman in the picture is something Clark and I goofed around with at last night's class. He worked on finishing up a piece he had started the previous week and was done working about 40 minutes before I was. During his wait, he rolled some scrap clay into a ball. When I saw it I immediately thought "SNOWMAN!!" and, without saying anything, rolled a smaller ball and attached it to the first ball. Clark laughed and immediately began rolling a ball for the bottom of our snowman while I fashioned a top hat. Then, I had to get back to my project, so Clark finished up with eyes and holes in the side for stick arms. When I was done I, of course, had to give our snowman a carrot nose and buttons for the middle section. I had fun fun fun goofing around with Clark and the clay.

Nikki's Excellent Adventure (or Analysis of a Wonderful Weekend)

2009-06-29T06:45:00.000-07:00

I had such a great time this weekend with my hubby. For me, this was a preview of what awaits us when we are empty-nesters in just a few more years.

On Friday, we joined up with church friends at Border Cantina for margaritas and dinner. Due to the extreme heat, we decided to pass on the free tango lessons at Centennial Park and headed home where we spent a little bit of time working on the adult religious education class we're facilitating Wednesday.

Saturday morning began with a trip to Dunkin' Donuts for our daily coffee with double skim milk. Being the weekend, we also had our allotted two donuts which were free due to DD's survey promo. Then we spent the morning perusing local yard sales for books and found some other gems, like a soccer ref shirts and flags for Kyle for ONE DOLLAR! Clark also found a couple of paint ball canisters for two dollars each. Not a bad haul of books, either. At one of the last yard sales, there was a riding lawn mower available for $350, so when we got home, we started talking about what we needed to attack the jungle in the back yard and voila! There was a self-propelled lawn mower with detachable bag freshly listed on Craigslist for $125. Clark called and we headed to Madison to pick up our new mower and drove thru A&W's for lunch. After dropping off the mower, we headed towards the airport where--after getting the car washed--we picked up Clark's mom, took her home and headed back to our own house to pass the hottest part of the day in air conditioned comfort. One more trip out to the Belmont area to get yummy smoothies from Fresh Blends Juice & Smoothie Bar and a meatball sub from Subway. The rest of the evening I read Kathy Reich's Devil Bones and Clark did his leatherworking with smooth jazz on the telly.

Sunday morning started early with a Dunkin' Donuts run before hitting the early service at church followed by the strategic planning team's meeting. Then we dropped off the books (from Saturday's yard sales and our own bookshelves) at McKay's Used Books, had a yummy Mexican lunch, and back to McKays for our $50 in-store credit. We made it home just in time to watch the U.S. Men's Soccer Team play Brazil in the final of the Confederates Cup in South Africa. Great game which just whetted my appetite for next summer's World Cup, also to be held in South Africa. After a Sunday afternoon nap, Clark dropped me off at the Nashville Sounds stadium, so I could grab a window seat in the bar while he picked up his mom. For her birthday, which was April 4, we had offered to take her to dinner and a ballgame at the newly renovated Greer Stadium. I joked with Betty that last night was the first time she and the Sounds were in town at the same time! The Oklahoma City Redhawks soundly defeated the home team, but it was a fun evening and a great way to finish up a wonderful weekend!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Memories

2009-06-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

This has been quite a week for the entertainment community. I’ve heard my friends on Twitter and Facebook say that their childhood had died or that they are feeling old as childhood icons are passing away. I have never been one immersed in pop culture, but I did feel sadness this week and very reminiscent of my own childhood.

Ed McMahon (1923-2009) – My father was a big Johnny Carson fan, always quipping from the show. I think many of the jokes Dad told during my teens year were from Johnny. Watching the clips from the show bring back my own plethora of memory clips.

Farrah Fawcett (1947-2009) – Best known for her single season on Charlie’s Angels, Farrah Fawcett also received praise for her performances off-Broadway and television movies. I will always remember Charlie’s Angels for another reason. Growing up on Kwajalein in the 70’s was very culturally isolating. This was before satellite television, cell phones, etc. Towards the end of our stay on the island, we began to have three hours of television a day, three one-hour shows that are forever imprinted on my memories… Sesame Street, Starsky & Hutch, and Charlie’s Angels.

Michael Jackson (1958-2009) – What a sensation his passing has created in the media! What I remember most about Michael Jackson is my junior year boyfriend Levi who had just transferred to Dugway High School in Utah. It had to be tough for him. Not only was it his senior year but he was a black teenager moving to 1980’s Utah from Miami, FL. But he made a splash as a talented athlete in football, basketball and track. Plus he brought pop culture to our tiny little base. Levi had a walkman, a relatively new fad in 1982, and loved music. We would walk around the base listening to Michael Jackson’s Thriller album and discuss the Jackson family. Good times!

So, Ed, Farrah and Michael, thank you for the memories! Rest in peace. ¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

My second first 5K

2009-06-15T09:52:00.000-07:00

Woot! I did it! I completed Ellie's Run for Africa 5K on Saturday. I call this my second first 5K, because I started training for 5Ks while I was in school. What possessed me to think I could handle college full-time, being a mom/wife/church volunteer *and* get ready for a 1/2 marathon? Well, something had to give and it was my hip-bursitis in fact. I took the hint and slowed down, but not before I completed a 5K at our local zoo. It was fun and everyone in our family participated, so this spring I made a pact with my friend Stacy to do at least three 5Ks over the summer.

I confess this 5K on Saturday nearly did me in, especially during mile 2 when we hit the last big hill. Stacy (a marathoner) was great, staying by me and encouraging me along the route when I know she was dying to speed things up. This was probably her slowest 5K ever! But I am going to boast about a couple of things:

1. We were not the last participants to cross the finish line
2. I managed to squeeze out a slow sprint for the last few yards
3. We finished *before* the kids' race began (an hour after we started)
4. My time was 26 seconds faster than my time in January 2007.

Surprisingly enough, although I was completely wiped out on Saturday, I wasn't too sore on Sunday, which makes me look forward to doing repeating the madness! So now that I am motivated, I started looking at training programs. I found one that will get me from walking to jogging 2 miles in eight weeks, then another program that gets me to jogging the entire 3.1 miles in six weeks. So the goal is to be running a 5K in September!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Two months....?

2009-06-12T06:39:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's been two months since my last post? It's been busy and I've been creating lots of blogs in my head, but never taking the time to publish them. Bad Nikki!

We've had lots of activities in our family. The biggest is that our oldest daughter graduated high school last month. My mother, the kids' father and his fiancee all flew out for the week. I can't believe I am now the mother of a young woman graduated from high school and starting college in the fall!

In other news, I haven't been completely idle. I just finished my 2nd week of working on my novel. I'm very happy with where the story is going and how things are starting to flow. This is a series I've thought about since my now 18yo was a baby and have actually written 3 complete chapters with a fourth stale one. I thought last year after I finished up college I could work on the book over the summer, but after two intense year of intellectual stuff, I needed a break. Now, however, I am excited. I know where the story is going. It's always been a trilogy, but I never liked the sequence or plots of the other books. Last week it all cleared up and I now know my three book plots with plans to write at least one other related book that is completely stand-alone, *NOT* the fourth book to the trilogy!! I hate when writers do that!

Okay, enough for now! I have a date with a two-year old and her mother. We're heading to the Farmer's Market which will be fun. Then Stacy and I have to pick up our packets for Ellie's Run for Africa 5K that we're walking tomorrow. Tonight I have a picnic in the park with free tango lessons to follow. Fun times!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Grandma's Memorial, Sunday 4/19/2009

2009-04-19T22:15:00.000-07:00

The day dawned beautiful, just warm enough with bright blue skies and cotton ball clouds, the type of day Florida commercials feature. Everything was packed in the truck, including the family, and we headed north, with just one trip back for a forgotten bathing suit. It had probably been twenty or more years since I’d visited Coquina Beach, the beach my grandmother named in a contest back in the 50’s. I had forgotten about the tall pine trees shading picnic tables and pavilions, the tall grasses waving between beach and parking lot, and, of course, the shell-ridden coast line. Today the Gulf was cold and the waves strong. The lifeguards whistled harshly at any brave soul entering the water outside the swim area. I remember as a child venturing out with Grandma; the water warm and so crystal clear we could see our feet as far out as we could walk. Kyle and I searched the beach, walking in the shallowest waves, and eventually found a few coquinas. Back at the shelter, Uncle Rick churned out pancakes with Dad’s assistance. The littlest kids gobbled up breakfast like a flock of starving chicks. Sunday was also Roger James’ 12th birthday, so we sang and had cake. Family members wandered in and out, catching up on news, reminiscing, going to the beach, flipping through the scrapbook of Grandma’s pictures, or watching the memorial video Trina and I stayed up way too late putting together—a great memorial for a great lady. I think Grandma would have approved.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Easter or Ostara?

2009-04-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

Easter is one of the high holy holidays for the Christian faith. Even my atheist father asked me last night what our plans were for Easter. As I reflect on this weekend, I realize we as a family have pretty much dropped this holiday from our traditions. Before I had kids, this was the weekend I treated myself to a new outfit and went to church. Yes, I was a Christmas/Easter Christian. Once the kids came along, we had many many years of coloring boiled eggs and visits from the Easter bunny. Instead of me getting a new outfit, I'd get the kids some new clothes. The community Easter Egg hunts were also on the agenda. Then, I don't remember exactly when, we just dropped it all. My Methodist mother-in-law still celebrates this Holy week with all the church services. Though she doesn't say anything, I get the feeling our ambivalence towards Easter causes her some distress. I think I would feel more at ease celebrating Ostara, celebrating the Spring equinox.

Suddenly I have the urge to color some Easter eggs and celebrate Spring with my family, maybe I'll even read the Bible story of Easter week. ¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Feeling Mortal

2009-04-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

Today has been a beautiful spring day--warm, sunny, birds twittering--yet I'm feeling uncharacteristically dark and dreary and very mortal. I'm not sure what exactly has triggered these feelings, probably a combination of things. First, my grandmother's memorial is next weekend and she's been on my mind since she passed away last month. Also, at work, I've been working on an order of service for the memorial service of a congregant who was just a year older than me and a church friend has posted several items on Facebook about her high school friend who passed away. I think also I'm deeply concerned for a friend who just returned to the hospital with complications from her January operation. This is her third trip admittance with infection and complications. I am so very scared for her.

Anyway, this afternoon I spoke with my hubby about my feelings. We then worked on what Dave Ramsey calls our loving file. This is a file that lists our wishes in case one of us is to pass away unexpectedly. Although I still feel dark and dreary, I do feel better knowing I have taken such an arduous task away from my loved ones during their time of grief. And I know my husband has his file so I won't have to worry if I am fulfilling his wishes in case something happens to him. More later....

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Girls' Night Out!

2009-03-27T10:06:00.000-07:00

I type the title and then go completely blank on what else to type. I mean, really, is there anything else that needs to be said? LOL

Tonight is girls' night out with the ladies from our Dinners for Nine group--Beth, Diana, Margy, Rebecca, and me. We're actually doing a night in at Diana's house because she has a broken knee (she lost a confrontation with two dogs at the local bark park). So the plan is fondue and board games. I'm doing the chocolate fondue using my Dad's ultra-secret chocolate fudge recipe. Honestly, this makes the best sauce for ice cream, strawberries, spoons, etc., and it only has 2-1/2 ingredients. I put 1/2 since one ingredient is "as needed to achieve desired consistency." And, no! I'm not gonna tell you what any of the ingredients are. Of course, one is chocolate, silly! It would be rather difficult to create chocolate sauce without chocolate!

My apologies, dear reader, I've been cleaning house and the fumes must have made me a bit ditsy! I have jumped back on the Flywagon this week and am feeling very productive today. More about Flylady and my inner princess next week! Hope everyone has a great weekend! ¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Grandma Hamilton

2009-03-25T09:25:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to my Grandma Hamilton, who passed away last week. The obituary printed in the Bradenton Herald doesn't do her justice, although I never knew her middle name was Mary. I did know her maiden name was Henderson and she and my late grandfather were from Parish, NY. Although, after six decades in Bradenton, one could argue they were actually from Bradenton and raised in Parish.

DISNEY WORLD: This picture was taken on the aerial tram at Disney World in the mid 70's. I think I was about 7 or 8 at the time. I found this picture a couple of months ago with some other old pictures. Two things about this trip. First, I didn't remember Grandma being on that trip to Disney World although I do remember my super cool Uncle Rick being there. Second I think this is the ONLY picture from that visit to Disney World that I didn't have my tongue sticking out! LOL

COQUINAS: I always thought Grandma was so cool because she won a beach naming contest. As a child, I loved going to that beach, Coquina Beach. The coquina clam is a mollusk found on sandy beaches. When the waves roll out, these little buggers are exposed and they burrow back under the surface. I spent hours upon hours squatting at the edge of the surf, digging my hands down in the sand, giggling as the burrowing coquinas tickled my palms. Ah, good times!

CROCHETING: I'm not sure when Grandma stopped crocheting, or if she ever truly quit crocheting. I just remember growing up that she always had a crochet needle going whenever we visited, except when we played Upwords or Boggle. Each time we visited Grandma would attempt to teach me how to crochet, but it never stuck. I still would love to learn how. This picture here is us at the beach (maybe even Coquina Beach) and Grandma once again, very patiently, showing me her work-in-progress. Her crocheted potholders are the only potholders I've used ever. I've bought the cute novelty potholders, but always always go back to Grandma's. Not only are these potholder from my Grandma, but they are just awesome and easy to use!!

BASEBALL: My dad played softball when we lived on Kwaj and I always enjoyed the games, but it was visiting with Grandma that I learned to keep score. I love love loved filling in the strikes and balls, tracing the runner's path around the diamond, sketching where the ball was hit, tracking which fielder caught and threw to whom for the out.

WORD GAMES: Both my dad's parents were avid word game players. I have so many memories of lurking around their kitchenette table while they and Dad played Scrabble or Boggle. Then I was old enough to play! Upwords was the game that survived through the years. and right up to the last games Grandma could still whomp Dad and me at Upwords. And she knew the definition of just about any word you could ever put on the board.

GENEALOGY: Grandma had worked on the family genealogy. Most likely that's what sparked my interest in genealogy, although I haven't done anything with it since my own children came along. My husband also has an interest in his family's genealogy, so some day we really hope to go to England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and wherever else our research takes us.

So, this is just a little bit more about my grandmother. I never lived close enough to have a real close day-to-day relationship with her, but she will always be a part of my memories and my life. ¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Why so serious...?

2009-03-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

So, my stomach has been hurting the last couple of evenings. This is my body's way of notifying me I'm stressed out. When I mentioned this to my family, they appeared surprised and asked, "whatcha stressing about?" Oh, let me see.... my car was picked up because someone (not me) forgot to pay the loan... my grandmother passed away... a dear friend was admitted into the hospital after another round of complications, infections, something from her mastectomy at the end of January... I'm needing to step back into a leadership role on a committee at church from which I've been trying to ease away from for the last nine months. All this on top of general day-to-day things like having two teenagers, the house being a complete mess as we rearrange furniture, my spouse out of town for three days.

I think the stress kicker has been worry about my friend and her situation. She already had to go back to surgery due to complications and had a major infection. She lives alone and is stubbornly refusing any assistance other than cards, phone calls and food. When she went to the ER last Saturday afternoon, the hospital was so full it wasn't until 10PM SUNDAY EVENING that a bed could be found for her. The bright news (from our minister) is that the doctors are certain my friend will recover. There is still concern as there are multiple issues at work, but the situation is not mortal. And for that I am grateful.

This Friday night is a girls' night out with the Dinners For Nine ladies. I am so looking forward to relaxing with the girls. We're actually staying in as one of the ladies has broken her knee (she lost in a confrontation with some dogs at the bark park), so we're descending upon her home to do fondue and chick flicks.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Never Let Your Guard Down...

2009-03-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

I learned this lesson over and over as a kid. Never expect anything thus never be disappointed. Or if you do expect something, expect the absolute worst of any situation and never be blindsided, sucker punched or otherwise devastated. Take for example, the balmy spring day when I was 13. After a tumultuous year and a half, my parents and I were settling into our new 2-bedroom Army duplex. My parents left for a bit, and when they came back my dad wanted to take me for a drive. A drive? First, my dad and I rarely did anything together so this was unusual. I do not know why I so vehemently thought that my parents had finally gotten me the one thing I had wanted my entire life...a horse. There was a stable on the base, about a 1/2 mile drive away. But we didn't head towards the horse barns, instead we turned off base. That's when my dad told me he and mom were getting a divorce. Even today I'm ashamed that the tears I shed weren't so much for the divorce as they were for the disappointment I felt, the pain in my stomach that once again something I wanted so badly had once again been denied. My entire life is dotted with moments like these when I feel so high, so happy, so unconcerned, only to be slammed back down to earth the very next moment, to have my universe rattled by something--a phone call, a news story, an event--that I never even saw coming. That's what's the worse. That this catastrophe wasn't even a blip on my disaster radar. Lemme tell you, my disaster radar is pretty darned good. I am rarely surprised by life's events, which might be why when I do let my guard down and get blindsided, I take it so hard. Do I quit letting my guard down? Do I go through life a die-hard cynic, expecting the worse always and in all ways so I never get hurt? So, even if I could live that way, when do I give up on the people in my life? At what point is the disappointment too much? How far is too far? When will I know that this bottom is THE bottom? My favorite hymn in our hymnal is called "Just as Long as I have Breath" and it is the last verse which tugs at my heart...

Just as long as my heart beats
I must answer yes to love
Disappointment pierced me through
Still I kept on loving you
If they ask what I did best
Tell them I said yes to love.

I want to keep saying yes to love. I don't want to be right. I just want to be loved.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Savannah

2009-03-15T17:42:00.000-07:00

My daughter is graduating high school in just about two months (ack!) and so we took a trip this weekend to check out a school she is interested in... Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD). The school tour is tomorrow. We arrived this morning and went to the UU Church here. It was an interesting experience. Parking is an issue here, so we parked a couple of blocks away from the church. The streets and sidewalks and squares are so pedestrian friendly. We lunched at Firefly Cafe, then drove around the historic district in search of our bed & breakfast. Savannah is a beautiful city! Once we found the place and our room was finally ready, we ascended two flights of stairs toe the Yellow Room and took an afternoon nap (the hotel in Metter we stayed at last night, some of the guests had dogs in their cars and the dogs started barking at 5:30 local time, which is 4:30 Nashville time). After our wonderful snooze (two hours!), we walked down to Broughton St. and dinnered at Fuddruckers. I can not say enough about the walking atmosphere and how pleasant this city is. I'm looking forward to our tour tomorrow. Our family will definitely have to visit here, event if the girl doesn't decide to attend SCAD.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Spring Break!!

2009-03-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

I am sooooooo happy and I'm not the one in school this year! We're off school today, but soccer boy has a match this afternoon. Guess I need to get moving. I will blog more...
I will...
I will...
I will...
I will...
I will....

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

March?

2009-03-02T14:41:00.000-08:00

Where is this year going? Where are my days going? Oh, yeah.... Soccer season has started! LOL

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

He who throws dirt...

2009-02-17T11:33:00.000-08:00

...loses ground.

This is on the roadside sign of one of the churches out on Franklin Pike and I find it very thought provoking. Since moving to Nashville I have discovered having so many churches does add some entertainment value to my commutes. Sometimes I enjoy reading the various roadside signs; other times they make me so mad, especially when we lived in our other house and one of our closest neighbors was a small very conservative predominantly African-American Baptist Church. So many times I find the messages a bit judgmental and grating; other times the word play is amusing and inspiring. I wish I could remember some of the them. I will begin writing them down and sharing cuz I know I'll be getting more. Nashville is, after all, the belt buckle of the bible belt!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Monday....already again?

2009-02-16T11:39:00.000-08:00

Where the heck is this year going? How can it be the middle of February?

Well, Valentine's Day weekend has come and gone in a blur of activities. While we don't go all out for this commercially driven holiday, we (as in the entire family) had a good weekend. I gave my daughter a mega-Hershey bar which she gleefully and quickly devoured. On the other side of the spectrum, my son had been asking for this pull-up bar thing that fits in a doorway and I finally relented, telling him this was his Valentine's gift. He is now happily on his way to "buff arms" thanks to this magical device. LOL

Hubby and I had a date night on both Friday and Saturday nights. Friday was a bit impromptu as both kids ended up being out of the house, so we grabbed dinner at our favorite Greek restaurant and went home to watch Brendan Fraser's Journey to the Center of the Earth. Cute movie, but definitely not one of his best. On Saturday, we headed to a dinner we had purchased at last fall's church auction. It was Mediterranean fare and hosted by two couples from our Dinner for Nines group. This is the first time we've bought a church auction dinner and it was great fun. There were three other couples and one individual at the table with us. I enjoyed the relaxed pace of the courses and the great conversations we had that went all over the spectrum--politics, soccer, church events, current events. I will definitely need to write more about the benefits of socializing in your church community.

Saturday morning hubby and I also had a "date" with a dear friend from church. This friend recently, as in less than two weeks ago, had a mastectomy for breast cancer. I had spoke with her a couple of times on the phone, but it was very nice to go to IHOP and share a meal with her.

Tomorrow should be a good day. I'm meeting my friend Stacy at a coffee shop so we can force each other to write. She writes songs and I am suppose to be writing my novel. When I write on the novel, I get so involved in the setting and the characters that it is rather annoying to have to come back to the present, so I think that I will work on my short stories series based on songs.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Knocked off my tush

2009-02-13T04:53:00.000-08:00

It's been nine days since my last blog. I'm disappointed in myself, but also happy to report I had a reason! Girl child brought home a nasty lil bug and it hit me hard. Yesterday was the first day I hadn't run a temp since last Friday. So, please bear with me. I'll get back into the routine soonly.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

So we got this new mattress...

2009-02-04T07:51:00.001-08:00

...and I had the strangest night's sleep I've had in a LONG time! LOL

First off... the mattress is compliments of hubby's great-aunt who decided she did not like tempurpedic mattress which is about a year old. When she got the tempurpedic last year, she gave us her "old" mattress which was less than 2 years old, maybe even less than a year old, I don't remember. Anyhow, she went back to a traditional mattress and offered us this practically brand-new queen size tempurpedic mattress. Hubby had slept on a tempurpedic when he went to the sleep center for his apnea test and really like it, so we thought, 'why not?'

Well... I decided to turn in early yesterday cuz the kids and I are fighting off a cold bug. Lights off at 8:15-ish and I dropped right off to sleep. A few hours later I hear my son and his friend, who are working on their sermon for this Sunday's youth service, talking with hubby. I look at the clock and it's just 9 o'clock! Whoa! I had been in deep sleep and dreaming in less than an hour?

So, I drift back to sleep and when hubby comes to bed around 11:30, I wake up and am immediately alert, not sleepy at all. Usually he comes to bed and I never notice. The rest of the night I don't toss and turn, but I keep waking up in 45 minute or 1-1/2 hour intervals. I have several wake-up experiences about drowning. Then after hubby leaves at 4am (Yes, world, he goes to bed after 11pm and gets up at 4am!), I have the strangest dream...

I am driving my 17yo daughter (who drives herself in the '92 VW Cabriolet) to school in a Chevy pickup truck (one of those late '70s models with a bench seat, not an extended cab). We are driving in an area that reminds me of Los Angeles in the '70s. We need gas, so I turn into a busy gas station and have to manuever through to get lined up on the correct side. While I'm getting the gas started, girl-child goes inside to buy herself a bottle of water. Suddenly, who appears, but daughter's evil kitty Kage Neko (pictured above after his *SECOND* operation after being mauled by two dogs). We are miles from home in a pickup truck with no extra room. From where did this cat come? When daughter comes out, I have this squirmy cat in my hands and all I say to her is, "How rude! Why didn't you buy me a water?" Then the dream gets weird. I put the cat in the cab and go over to a building sitting next to the gas station lot. For some reason, I am doing church committee work here and talking to some Hispanic women who also run the gas station. When I go back out after 5-10 minutes, the truck is gone. I figure daughter went on to school and I am stranded here for the day, so I go back into the building.

My dream changes as dreams seem to do so seamlessly while sleeping, but make NO sense to the awake me! Now hubby and I are in a community center which reminds me of the downtown YMCA, but all on one level. I don't know why we are there, but a set of double doors open into a big room and we see/hear someone playing the piano, which isn't a piano. Instead of keys, this piano shaped instrument has hinged boxes, which get flipped over and back to create sounds. Hubby and I take a seat on the second row of folding chairs set up. After a few seconds a meeting starts and it is some activist group. All the people are middle Eastern or Hispanic. Hubby and I realize we are in the wrong room. This is not the event we were suppose to be attending, but neither of us wants to leave, so we just listen to the speaker, a young 20-something middle Eastern man. Suddenly a teenager, who looks very similar to the speaker, steps into the room and begins to spout off to the speaker in a very disrespectful manner. Turns out the teen is the speaker's younger brother. As they begin to argue, my alarm went off. I wish I could remember what their difference were, but I can't...Maybe I'll have more dreams tonight.

The jury is still out on the new mattress because I should be tired after waking up all night and having such strange dreams, but I feel rested, so the jury is still out on the new mattress.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Cosmogony

2009-02-03T03:53:00.000-08:00

I have always been interested in philosophy. Maybe it's genetic from my dad, who was always waxing philosophical, or maybe it's just wanting to know more about more. I really enjoyed getting my minor in philosophy at Belmont University, although I think I did get more out of being an adult student than I would have had I chose philosophy the first time around. Anyway, today's word is... cosmogony, which means the study of any theory relating to the creation of the universe, not to be confused with cosmology, which is studying the universe at large and throughout its existence.
The differences in opinions about the creation of the universe and existence is fascinating. My mind cannot accept the Bible's creation story, but I also wonder about the big bang theory because it supports the cause and effect theory, which says every effect has a cause. But.... what about that first cause? If something caused the big bang, then what caused that? Most people can't accept the infinity of the universe, saying that it has to have some beginning. Strangely, I find infinity more comforting than a first cause.
So, here's my crazy theory.... Our human brains, running on such a low percentage of ability, do not (YET) have the capacity to comprehend the complexity of our universe. Basically, humans can operate in 1, 2 and 3 dimensions, and I believe the universe operates on many, many more dimensions. If humans can evolve our brains (before consuming ourselves and our Earth into extinction), then maybe some day many, many generations hence we will begin to understand that complexity.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Almost Heaven--Kwajalein

2009-02-02T03:50:00.000-08:00

This picture brings back one of the best memories of my childhood. We lived on a small island in the South Pacific called Kwajalein. My dad worked for a company which contracted with the US Government to do a bunch of top secret stuff. As a kid I learned not to ask too many questions about what my dad did!

Anyway, this picture was taken on the family beach. I guess when I was young I loved to swim in the ocean. As an adult, though, I can't stand being in natural bodies of water. At this particular junction of my life, however, going to the beach with my family was the best!

My memory is thus.... We would get up early in the morning--my mom, my dad and me---and head down to the beach on our bicycles (no personal vehicles on Kwaj). My dog Friskey would, of course, accompany us. After a dip in the ocean, we'd gather back on the family blanket for a Sarah Lee coffeecake my mom had heated up and brought along. Mom and Dad would drink coffee and I'd have ice cold milk. After waiting the required time before going back into the water, I'd swim some more. Then the Tradewinds would open. The Tradewinds was this little shack on the beach that coooked some of the greasiest hamburgers in the world. I'd take my burger plain and it was the best tasting thing ever! Something about sun, sand and salt mixed in with all that hot juicy grease... Yummmmm!!

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

2009-01-27T17:47:00.000-08:00

All of Nashville is watching the weather, waiting and wondering if we'll get any of the nasty weather passing just north of us. MSNBC reported that Paducah, KY, was telling citizens to stock up on supplies and get off the roads. Personally, I don't care if it snows or not, but if we get a snow day, I WANT SNOW DARNIT!! :p

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N

Procrastination

2009-01-26T19:51:00.000-08:00

So, this new study on procrastination says people are more apt to procrastinate, or even not complete, a task that is abstract. Let's say that's my problem. I can't sit down and write a journal because it's not concrete enough. In the past I've always failed with journals and blogs, so to make a difference, I'll make some concrete guidelines. I want to start off slow, so I vow to blog three times a week (Sunday-Saturday), with a special blog twice a month. One blog will be a short story based on a song or picture. One blog will research the etymology of a word. The last blog will cover a book I am currently reading or just finished reading. The twice monthly blog will be in Spanish about something in Spanish or Latino culture.

¡Hasta pronto, mis amigos!

~N