Snow

Snow, snow, snow!

I turn six again every time the first snow falls. Excitement beats at my chest and a giddy little laugh breaks free because the wonder and purity never gets old for me. I watch the beautiful floating ice crystals as they fall and hope, deliciously hope, that they will stick and transform our yard to resemble those winter wonderland postcards.

I watch and watch and watch. I probably wouldn't be like this if our winters were immured in this frozen landscape for month, but we get it only periodically, so it is always fresh and exhilarating.

So we sit with the avid hope that school is cancelled so we can revel in it while it is here. We know that our time with our winter goddess is fleeting. Rustling into our snow gear that has been waiting so very patiently from last year, bundling up tightly against her cool embrace and hustle out to play. Gloriously play. Because that is the beauty of snow, no matter your age.

Disneyland Countdown

It's only 9 more days until we leave for Disneyland and I am surprisingly nervous. I've been to Disneyland twice now, once in 1999 and again in 2006. I had a blast both times, but never felt like I had seen all the park. And with kid(s) both times, it's kind of a swap between experiencing the park and not running them into the ground.

I am hoping this time we can "do" more things. Things that I haven't been able to do before. Such as, visit City Hall, I have never been inside. Eat at a restaurant inside the park, I haven't done that or even ride the Matterhorn. I want to count the number of Mickey heads we can throughout the park. See if we can do a "map" of them while we are there. Also check out the optical illusion when entering the park, it sounds so cool. Plus more things that are special about Disneyland that rushing through just won't accommodate. The kids are older, well some of them, but with 3 1/2 adults (Quinn goes back and forth) that makes it a match up for adults per kid.

Every day with my kids is precious, so much limited time with them, more so with Quinn because she will moving on with her life so soon. I want to bask in it, savour it like delicious chocolate.

We will be staying the Paradise Pier Hotel this time, thanks to Kelly. It is something that I would never do unless I truly had the funds to spend. That has added to my excitement, getting to stay in hotel we really couldn't afford right now, adding all the adventure that comes with Disneyland. Just one more level in our experience.

I've got the passes, hotel vouchers, I've made my lists, planned my attack and now just comes the hard part, getting there.

We will be driving this time. Every other time we have flown, but prices, travel to and from the airport, luggage costs have made it much more expensive and more difficult. So we have rented a 12 passenger van. This will either be a trip from hell down and back or the most memorable time we've had together.

Phone, where the hell is the phone?

The invention of the cordless phone is a beautiful thing, because it allows us the freedom not to be strapped the wall. We can wander in our clearly defined boundary circle of reception around our house doing our chores, going to the bathroom, or just sitting outside that we couldn't do before. Or at least not without 20 feet of cable strewn all over the house, just lying in wait for unsuspecting family members.

But with that freedom comes a exchange of torture. The mad scurrying dance that we make when the phone rings. We hear it, now we have to find it the receiver. Where did we put the phone? Wait, pause, listen, I hear it again, it's over there. Crap, we only have 4 rings the answer it before voicemail (I swear to myself that I will change it to 6), so our scrambling gets more frantic with each ringy-dingy.

Plus, it's guaranteed, not to be in the same location as the last time. Some days, I miss my corded phone.

What have you been doing?

It always cracks me up when someone asks me, "So what have you been doing?", "What's up with you?" or "Anything new in your life?". It stumps me. I do a quick rewind over the last day or more depending on how long it's been since I've seen them and I try to pick out something interesting. Really I do.

But all I can come up with is kids - feeding them, playing with them, yelling at them, driving them, washing their clothes, cleaning up their messes, making their appointments, buying their stuff, organizing their stuff, saving their memories so they can look back on themselves, sifting through their toys, cycling their clothes, and on and on...

I can't imagine that would too interesting to anyone else. I have cute little anecdotes that I could share, if I ever remember them when I want to. Wait, I read this on Facebook...oh, you don't do Facebook. Okay, ummm....TV shows...no you don't watch that.

So, nope, nothing really new. Still same-old-same-old. Do I seem boring? Probably. Is my life boring...hell no.

Footprints on cyberspace

So I just Googled myself and then decided to Bing myself as well. I love that they are now verbs, gives me a little chuckle. :D

This is what I found out that I have left in cyberspace -
* My personal website with Partylite shows up first on Google - Yeah me!
* You can find me in the white pages - if you so desired, like I would be so hard to find..LOL
* I show up in reference in 3 PTA minutes/newsletters
* My picture of one of the tall ships at the Tacoma event in July 2005 published by American City & County
* My connection to my husband in the death of his father.
* My website that I used for Girl Scout cookie sales
* Interestingly enough, a reference I made on Facebook about the police officers that were slain in Tacoma.

All I get in connection to my maiden name is Classmates.com.

It's interesting to see what we leave in our wake in cyberspace, what have you left behind?

My Own Passion

I found my passion about, oh let me see, 10 years ago. It was an innocent introduction, brought to me by a wonderful friend who just wanted to share her experience with me. I was so nervous. There were blades, electricity and textures, oh my! The best part was the touching. Oh, it was mandatory to touch, to stroke, to love how if felt under your fingers.

And all that sweat and effort that you perform makes amazing things for yourself or others to lay under. It's a little bit of heaven surrounded by love. Quilting.

I completed my first quilt under the watchful eye of a very experience and wonderful teacher. I wish I could express to her my unbounded appreciation for bringing this into my life. Keep in mind I already suffered from an obsession with blankets. I have never been able to "have enough" to suit me, collecting them whenever or where ever I could. Quilting was a natural extension to my need to envelope and comfort myself.

I remember the struggle to cut the fabric straight and true, any variance I later learned will mess you up. The excitement of how those pieces came together and how fresh and bright they looked after I ironed them down. The monotony of repeating the same steps so you can put it all together. Then looking at an amazing top, but this was not the end, there was still a ways to go. Batting, backing, quilting. Quilting...I thought I was quilting...two activities meaning separate acts. To this day, it doesn't really make sense to me.

Then about 6 or so years ago, I decided to start taking pictures of the quilts I made...novel idea. I still can't remember how many I have made over the years, most have been given away to friends, family and few to Project Linus. I like having a piece of me out there in the world, my efforts, my sweat, my blood in someone else's life. To me blankets & quilts represent love, protection, warmth and security and those are great attributes to pass onto someone else.


My Quilting Quotes:
*Every stitch is a prayer.
*Once a quilt is given as a gift, a wish is made on the first night it is slept under.
*It's good luck to donate blood to a quilt.
*Always buy more fabric than you THINK you need, because it will be short and you won't be able to find it again.
*You never have enough fabric.
*Always measure twice and then check again, because once it's cut, it's cut.
*Fabric is forgivable, I wish people were like that.
*No matter how much fabric you have, there is ALWAYS more out there that you haven't seen.
*When planning a project, you will always need to go get something more to make it happen.
*Always take a picture of the quilts you've made, you will forget them and how much work they were without that reminder.
*There is always another quilt to be made.
*There is always someone who wants a quilt.
*Those who don't quilt, don't realize the time, money and effort it takes to make one.
*What I have spend on fabric for quilting, I could probably put my kids through college.

Music...Play Some Funky Music, White Boy!

Music people! It's important.

Today I am at the gym being pushed, encouraged and harassed by my trainer, when on comes this sea-floating-I-want-to-spend-my-days-in-paradise crap music over the gym's speakers. Are you kidding me? I am dripping sweat like an faucet after a quick freeze, trying to finish my brutal hour of physical training that I intentionally signed up for. I need a beat, something that makes me want to sink my teeth into a raw, bloody piece of meat. Something that makes me think of hot, sweaty, soul shattering sex. Not this, karma chameleon-careless whispers stuff.

Try some rock...hip hop...even some acid...but not this! PLEASE STOP!

Music speaks to our souls, it moves us to tears, moves our bodies to the beat...I can't work out to this shit! Now I have to tell them...I can't come back if this is what is play...seriously!

Shopping Sales at Costco

I dropped off my good friend, Kelly, at the hospital for a procedure and knowing I had a few hours to kill, what do I do with my time? Go to Costco. Seems innocent enough, but it's the Fife's business Costco who happens to be having a 3-day sale. I must say looking at the brochure flyer, there were some pretty awesome discounts available. So I take a friend and we go.




Kelly wanted a new microwave and it is the least I could do, right? Especially since she is incapacitated and can't make it. Well...as I drive up to the postage size parking lot, an anomaly in Costco's business plan, I realize I may have made a mistake. Turning into the parking lot was a game of vehicle twister and they just spun red-right-hand marker. I could see people's tempers had already evaporated, so I quickly switched to aggression mode. It's a little known button on the steering column that can be engaged in such a situation. It now becomes a game of patience and speed..patience to find a parking spot and swift dexterity to get there first.




With some cunning maneuvers we finally parked and weaved through the parking lot to the front doors. Since I knew that the microwave was going to be a big purchase, I grabbed a cart from the employee shoving them in. Conveniently they were place just inside, so we pulled one off the shelve and started the salmon swim upstream through the masses of eager shoppers.



I don't think I've ever seen as many people shopping at Costco in my life, even on those kiosk-snack Saturdays they use to promote products. Now keep in mind the Costco in Fife is just for business products, which will differ from the "general" version of Costco most of us are used to. They don't have the cute jackets, clothes, jewelry, toys and other fun items we consumers like to get. This is just things that would relate to restaurants, offices and other business owners/people. So I was flabbergasted at the amount of people who turned out for the deals being offered.



I actually saw someone push a cart full of motor oil...about 20 cases and just as many mega-sized packages of toilet paper. Seemed an odd combination, but what the hey, you get what you need.

I stood in line for the next 1/2 hour jockeying back in forth to make room for passerbyers that circled the product around the waiting lines. Sweat is dripping off me because of all the additional bodies that are crammed into the mega-small staging area for check out. While pursuing my fellow insane shoppers, it did cross my mind "What the hell am I doing here!" a few thousand times while I waited. But I was committed and more importantly I was trapped.

I finally reached the god-like conveyor belt where I got to put MY stuff.....(bells and angels are singing). I am deliciously estactic because I am soooo close to leaving. As I gatherer my microwave and hustle out, I realize that I still have to get out of the parking lot. Crap.