Of a spiritual nature...

When I started down this blogg-y path, I didn't set very clear parameters about what I would or would not touch on. However my basic guidelines in life are: steer clear of unwanted discussions regarding sex, politics and religion. Many people have strong beliefs and this blogge is not meant to be a platform for my own dearly held beliefs or a launching point for controversy. I say all that as a lead in: I'm about to tip toe down one of those paths. You are welcome to follow...

In 1991, we moved into my Mother-in-law's house. She had remarried and didn't want to sell the house so we rented it. Over the years, we'd spent a lot of time there and of course heard the stories. My MIL was very sure someone lived there with them and often told the story of the matchbook that came up off the buffet and hit my FIL in the back of the head. Since he was kind of a poop, I couldn't blame any spiritual forces for singling him out for a demonstration. Rumor had it the the center of all the energy was in the basement where the kids bedrooms were, but it was a year before I felt anything down there and it was nothing more that the hair on the back of my neck kind of thing. The kids felt nothing.

About that same time, my mom was coming from out of town for a visit and I went to my jewelery box to get the watch she'd given me. Both she and my dad had given me one for Christmas and it was worth your sanity to be wearing the correct one in front of the correct parent. (they were divorced). My mom's watch was gone. I quizzed the kids and the husband and no one knew anything. Searched the house, nothing. I went bare wristed that weekend but it continued to bother me that the watch would come up missing. A few months later, I took my daughter out horseback riding. We stopped for gas and I reached down to pull the gas lever next to the driver's seat. It felt weird. I looked down and there was the watch my mother had given me... wrapped tightly around the gas release lever and clasped. There' s no way I put it there and no way it had been there for months. I could not explain it, and talking about it made me feel woo woo. I'm not woo woo... I'm very practical. I told my husband and then tried to let it go.

A few months later, I spilled taco sauce on my white rayon dress. I hung the dress in the hall closet (the bedroom closet was too small for my clothes) when I got home knowing the dry cleaner would have his hands full. Taco sauce... white dress... yeah, I was bummed. I kept forgetting to take it to the cleaners and a week or so later was in the closet trying to decide what to wear, I pulled the dress out to lay it on the chair so I'd remember to take it in. But oddly enough, the stain.WAS.GONE. I knew better than to ask my husband if he'd taken it in for me because it's not his style and even if he had, he would have left it in the plastic. I told him and he poo-pooed it. I told one of the girls at work and she gave me the psycho woo-woo look. I quit talking about it.

Other things disappeared and reappeared in my life...often my jewelery. Most notably, my opal earrings which I found when we moved out. Those were in the top of the linen closet behind all the sheets. I couldn't even reach up there without a chair.

I do not know what was in the house, but I did feel like a target and because of that, I felt like my credibility was at stake since no one else was affected. My MIL believed me and felt that whoever was there liked me as much as they disliked my FIL. Who knows... but it made for a very interesting few years...

Recovery

Somehow in the midst of sleep deprivation and stress, I've managed to recover my good humor, find a deep well of tolerance for those that are technologically impaired and manufacture enough energy to make dinner (post on the cooking blog), clean the kitchen, wash the dishes AND make cookies! I must have found both a second and third wind somewhere.

I almost always regret 'going off' because not only is it unattractive, it's unproductive. I really prefer to address things with people that can help resolve the issue. Although lately, I've noted I'm getting a lot of "we understand your perspective, but it's not likely to change". *sigh* It basically translates into "yeah it's an issue, but we've decided that we like the issue so we're going to keep doing the same old thing."

So in honor of "fix it yourself or get over it" I bring you the Asthmagirl 12 step program for dealing with stress

1. Acknowledge it
2. Come home and cuddle your puppies
3. Make cookies
4. Play with your camera
5. Blog about it
6. Go to bed early and read a book
7. Exercise a little
8. Throw the sock for Maddie
9. Talk to your kids
10. Play a world domination game on your computer... and metaphorically annihilate your evil doers!
11. Soak in a tub
12. Remember how lucky you are to have friends and family, home and puppies, life and limb. Life is full of challenges and your success is measured by how you respond to it not how you drag others down with you.

While I was dealing with things tonight, Maddie was trying very hard to get me to play. She sits up and "bats" at me. I happened to have the camera on my desk... (the red marks on her neck are from Cassie biting her)

Don't forget to check out the new recipe on the cooking blog! (There's no cheese, Amy!)

Funky Town

My boss had a saying about choosing your attitude. I'm working on mine right now because I don't want to become too pathetic or frustrated! I'm going to let this out though and you may want to stand back!

I've recently gotten dumped on at work, technologically speaking... pretty much everything that could break or go haywire has done so in the last two weeks at work. I'm sick of the server, sick of the accounting software, sick of people breaking stuff, sick of people sending 20 print jobs to the printer and clogging it up so no one else can print, sick of people calling me (without consulting their trouble shooting manual which I wrote for them and it includes pictures on "how to") because they can't get their email and the issue is they turned off the wireless on their dang laptop. Then they want to know if their laptop screen is too dark (wait for it) ... over the phone. Hello... people! Think! Many of you have worked there long enough to have learned better skills. Take some responsiblity for your own computing. I have better things to do than play 'guess how dark your screen is' or 'guess where I sent my print documents this time'... again.

I must be in a funk of sorts as I usually would be reletively unphased by this level of incompetance.

Work! Why am I talking about work. K2 just came in the door from her nursing clinicals and announced that she has strep throat. Thank goodness! With my brilliant immune system, I should have acquired it by this time next week!

Enough icky stuff. Where is my happy place? Must get happy....

For Pam... in honor of your wish to see Alaska... here's one of my shots of Denail (and Mt. Foraker which you don't see that often) from our trip up to Alaska last fall. We went to check out the old homestead. I can't believe how much it's changed in the last 30 years, but the old cabin was still standing...

We drove the Alaska highway many times, most recently when we moved down to the lower 48. At that time it was still gravel in many places and rather hard on the behind. I hear it's much better now!

PS~ We had a wicked storm come through last night with lots of wind. The chihuahuas would not go to sleep it was so loud so they slept downstairs. We were up late and now up early.... I'm sucking down coffee trying to stay awake. Here's wishing calm weather for everyone!

Maddie's first hike

Growing up, we always had dogs although most of the time, they were German Shepherds. But I did get used to running around the outdoors with a dog at my heels.

Thus, not long after we got Maddie, TOG suggested a hike in the Alpine Lakes. I started getting Maddie's stuff ready. Although TOG kept asking "are you sure you want to take her?", I kept imagining how much fun she was going to have with all those outdoor smells. I packed kibble, jerky, honey (for low blood sugar) and a syringe for shooting water in her mouth (maddie won't drink unless she's at home)

We chose Annette Lake because it's a beautiful hike and not too long, less than 8 miles round trip. I figured I'd be carrying Maddie most of the way since she was only about 6 months old. Here we are at the start...

Maddie did well up until we got to the rocky part of the trail. Her tiny paws kept sliding between the rocks and I carried her for a few hundred feet until we got to a better part of the trail.

By the time we got to the lake, Maddie was ready for a meal and a rest, but having a great time!

TOG tried to convince her to come in the lake, but that's a tough one for a dog that won't drink!

We tried to get Maddie to drink on the way back down when we stopped here, but no go. She finally consented to drink out of my hydration pack and we got a lot more water down her than with just a syringe.

Overall, she walked the whole 8 miles except for the slide area. Everytime I picked her up, she wanted back down. When we got back to the truck, she was whipped.

I got her to eat more jerky and then she slept for about 12 hours and woke up fiesty.  That was the beginning of her love of hiking however and she rarely allows any carrying. She can handle most terrain and does well on pretty much any hike under ten miles. I don't think she'll every grow tired of all the cool smells!

   

Got Milk?

TOG will tell you that I am nothing if not a creature of habit. These habits encompass restaurants, groceries, shopping for the puppies, etc and run on the theory that all things are not equal, some are better than others.

Over a year ago, my local All-in-one grocery store/hardware/housewares/electronics closed to be demolished with the promise of a new bigger, faster, prettier store to be built on the same site. Then the next closest grocery store closed and that left the two closest grocery stores as Safeways. Not that there's anything wrong with that... alright there's a lot wrong with that. Being the best game in town, both of them raised their "every day low prices" noticeably. Both stores are not what you'd call the best of areas, *cough*ghetto*cough*. Both stores look like they take their produce on a death march prior to flinging it brutally placing it lovingly in the produce aisle. Neither store believes in opening more than one check stand which makes the waits for checkouts approximately the half life of plutonium. I could have written War and Peace, learned Russian, graduated from NASA space camp plus downloaded the Internet... twice... in the time it takes to get checked out in their express lanes. All the while hoping the guy behind me wasn't going to stick a shive in my ribs and steal the only fresh loaf of bread they had which I'm grasping firmly in my arms.

Thus, I examined my options and determined that I would have to grocery shop on my lunch hour. I work in another county and my employer is mere blocks away from a sister store of the one being demolished and rebuilt. Hallelujah! The one thing I could not figure out was milk. I could squeeze small amounts of chilled items in the micro fridge at work during the summer, but I would have as much luck trying to shove a cow in there as I would a gallon of milk. Right about that time, I received a flier on my door about milk delivery. Ding ding ding!!! I could get milk delivered! I cringed at the price but it truly was an answer to my dilemma.

Within a few days of signing up, the very professional and reasonably prompt J. showed up at my door with this:

Each month he left me a bill that made TOG's eyes roll back in his head and his left arm twitch. We had never separated out any part of our grocery bill before... TOG always felt I just spent way too much. Now apparently I spent way too much AND had a horrendous milk bill on top of it. Despite his pleading, I kept up with the milk delivery. It was selfish... and decadent. I could come home from work and as I sorted through the mail, casually ask "Is the milk here yet?" I toyed with the idea of asking J. about delivering yogurt... and then another bill would come and TOG would have another cow (har!) in the middle of the kitchen. I'd again refuse to cancel.

Last week, the newer/faster/bigger store opened. 14 months after they demolished the old one. They invited me to the grand opening complete with prime rib buffet. They have a 3 piece band playing in the produce section on weekends (and the produce does everything but sing it's so fresh). They gave me the employee discount on my first purchase. They handed out free starbucks last week. I love them and I want to shop there forever.

But I have to break up with J... because that was the deal I made with TOG. When the new store opens, I'll give up my milk delivery. I'll miss you, J. Because of you, I've fantasized about what else I could get delivered and left in a box on my porch. I've made a list (of course I have)...

• soup
• cookies
• shampoo
• dog food
• chew toys
• yogurt
• shoes
• the passport I've been meaning to get
• a new scrubbie for the sink
• more socks
• books
• pee pads
• lots and lots of broccoli

What would you get delivered if you could?

Top Ten

I am becoming quite the list maker! Might as well live up to it this morning as I am having difficulties with the fact that it's Monday morning and I have to go to work!

Top Ten reasons I adore the superbowl!

10. Even though there's a lot of prep work, TOG helps unlike Thanksgiving and Christmas

9. It gets everyone in the same room for a common purpose!

8. The doglets have multiple laps to choose from. (mine was in high demand!)

7. It's a reason to clean the house (guck!) and TOG helped so it wasn't as bad.

6. On the west coast, it's a mid afternoon start time, so I don't have to make dinner on top of making a feast!

5. I actually like and appreciate football!

4. If your team isn't playing, it's easy to just enjoy the game without having a cow about the score!

3. The commercials are as always a hoot! K1 said she'd get up during the game for more food but she didn't want to miss the commercials!

2. I have a ton of left overs and may not have to make dinner tonight! Even better, I sent a bunch of Atomic Pie home with the kids and there's still some left!

1. The food was great! This is one of the occasions where I get worked up about enough food and really good food and tend to over do it. I love feeding folks! The biggest hit- Superbowl Meatballs.

Unfortunately, I was so busy making food that I didn't take any pictures... I may post the recipes on the other blog anyway.

Hope your superbowl was great!

Good Morning!

Today's post brought to you by limp lungs:

Mount St. Helens with an ash cloud (my teeth are still gritty)

The Rogue Sea Captain

And Atomic Pie.

I have to go breathe and cook now. Y'all have a great Superbowl (or other alternative activities that approximates an abundance of yelling, excellent food of epic proportions and family camaraderie without an NFL sanctioned event) and we'll catch your act tomorrow.

Asthmagirl Out!

His and Hers To Do list

Today is still simmering in my brain... It being superbowl weekend, I won't have a lot of free time. There are preperations to make, menu planning with TOG (or a last minute food run to Costco) and house prep. If I had my way however, my list would look like this:

• clean desk in office
• Design and install new banner for blog
• Finish book keeping for 07 and prep for taxes
• clean downstairs
• plan menu for superbowl
• Shop for superbowl menu
• plant bulbs I just bought
• wash dogs
• Make easy dinner Saturday night
• Get up and make breakfast
• Get food going in the crock pots so you don't have to cook later
• Ponder what desserts to make
• Send TOG to the Pub for beverages
• Welcome guests
• Watch three hours of pregame and four hours of football
• Clean Kitchen

Because I have to factor in TOG's preferences, who is a self admitted restless soul, it actually looks like this:

• Wish you had time to clean your desk
• Listen to TOG explain I tunes again- wish you understood it....
• Help TOG put shelves up in his room
• Be talked out of bulb planting
• Be hurried out the door without washing your hair, told to put a hat on...
• Go for a drive up to the mountains to see the snow and terrorize the Chihuahuas
• Come home and wash the dogs
• Try to figure out what's for dinner
• Watch Ninja Warrior and UFC
• Get up and throw the house together Sunday morning
• Rush to Costco with the rest of Puget Sound residents and buy whatever ready-made food they have since there's no time to cook
• Swing by the pub on the way home and get a to go jug of beer
• Watch three hours of pregame and four hours of football
• Clean up kitchen

Not that one is right and one is wrong, just that I enjoy our differences! Either way it's the weekend! What are you doing?

It's the end of the world as we know it!

This morning my husband emailed me to tell me that these were on sale and didn't they look comfortable?

You'll have to excuse the stunned look on my face... I can remember the time that I caught my foot in the door going to work and tore the strap on my favorite pair of heels. I was running late and had to rush to work so I had no choice but to limp to the shoe store across the street and buy shoes on my break. I tried to find a very inexpensive pair. When I came home he zeroed in my feet immediately and in his best Spanish Inquisition voice asked "New Shoes?". I hurried to explain what had happened and how the shoe was flopping around on my foot and how I might have broken my ankle if I hadn't replaced the shoes (now in the garbage at work after a suitably mournful ceremony). He looked at me like I was the most frivolous woman on the planet and then grabbed my hand and pulled me down the driveway to the back yard saying "wait til you see what I bought today!". It happened to be a 3 foot deep above ground pool which it turns out was a great investment because we used it for like 8 years.

But the image of him looking at my $19.95  bargain replacement heels like I'd squandered our nest egg has stayed with me for all these years... in a humorous way! To have him sending me shoe sales via email because he is (gasp) shopping on line... I'm almost (but not quite) speechless!

If you do read this beloved, I mean it in the most harmless way. You're charming and complex and I never know what you will do next. And you look great in shades!

Love, Asthmagirl

Balancing Act

I'm pretty predicatable. I hate feeling crabby like I did after I posted last night. It makes me seek out the happy stuff just to restore some sense of balance. I don't see how people can go through life being perpetually crabby. Sometimes yes, but for me, I need balance so that even when I tip to the dark side, it doesn't take long to recover the happy, smiling Asthmagirl!

With that in mind, I want to thank Pam at MapperSnapper for the award you see on the bottom left side bar.

Although I haven't known Pam that long, I've come to admire both her photography skills and her sense of humor which is laugh-out-loud funny! Pam's joys in life are many and varied, There's always something on her site that's delightful, humorous, fun or insiteful. To me, Pam is one of those people that quietly flows into your life and you can't imagine that you haven't been friends for years and years. To have Pam create an award for her blog buddies is just like her; creative, thoughtful and inspiring! I have to say though, she's done other things that I found just as touching...

Thanks Pam... Sorry that it took me 2 days to figure out how to install the award on my site. Just a word to the masses; always check your code. It's not as perfect as you think it is! I was *this close* to e-mailing Type Pad when I decided to check the code one more time! Very humbling!

Have a great day!

PS ~ Hey LHGTUTLATSFU! Thanks for the message! Hey K1... Hope you are feeling better. You need to be recovered enough for the superbowl!