Coming home from breakfast with my men and finding a package on the doorstep is the best thing. It is even more of a good thing when the package contains some super gifties like Basin bathbombs, mickey socks, strawberry and cream lotion and gel, and the best socks ever.
Awesome Floral Origami papers...
An Adorable card...
A canvas notebook, LOVE this one. I see a mini album...
Mini notecards, love the girls...
This held the cherry on top!! A set of prints about the Wizard of Oz! So awesome, I love the darkness of such a "bright" story. Love these and now need to frame them and find the perfect place in the house.
THANK YOU JEN!!!
We had major rains today here in SA, which included some amazingly scary flash floods. I ended up cancelling my class immediately following lunch due to the the flooding and was so glad that I did because all the roads except one getting to Alex's daycamp were closed due to flooding. The one road left open was a river of water, which the city was getting ready to close.
The creek behind our house is within two feet of cresting and spilling into our yard. Considering this creek bed is usually at least 20 feet deep and yesterday it was empty says how much water we are dealing with.
We are going to have 7 more days of this weather, I have no idea what it is going to look like out there on Monday. I did cancel my class for tomorrow because Alex's camp cancelled and the client was flooding when I left there today.
So Bugman and I are going to batten down the hatches and watch the weather channel like junkies, until we pick up Casey from the airport. Wishes us no flooding!!
Yup, I am not ashamed to say it, I have to wax my lip. I totally blame my Mom and her genes. Hi Mom! Today I was able to squeeze an appointment in between Alex's camp pickup and his swim lessons, and I got both my eyebrows and lip done. On the way to the day spa, Alex just had to clarify that I was buying a Spa, "as in, like a Jaaaa Cooooo Zeeeee?".
Me: Nope buddy I am ripping all the hair off my lip and any stray hairs on my brow.
Alex: Doesn't that hurt?
Me: Yup, but I will happily endure 5 minutes of wax pain to have a hair free lip for girls night out on Saturday.
Alex: Soooooo girls aren't supposed to have hair on their lip?
Me: Not really, it isn't that attractive.
Alex: * in a small to self whisper* I had no idea...
Obviously I really needed to wax the walrus.
Yesterday's mail day was a great one because I had more fun mail then bills. Between the five cards, two magizines, and a coupon booklet my bills didn't seem so bad. All this snail mail love and it isn't even a birthday or holiday, Hooray!
Yesterday's hours away from home were long and drawn out, 12 hours start to finish. Between morning camp drop off, teaching a class, rushing to pick up from camp, dinner with my mom, and swim lessons I had just enough time to work up a head ache and get really tired. But did that stop me from watching the new Big Love, nope. So his mornings wake up walking call came really early. But I did it, and am now staying as far away from my bed as possible to avoid falling asleep. Tonight is an early turn in, it has to be. Because I feel a cold coming on, oh no and I am having a girls night out Saturday. Blah.
Betty with her table top dancing, due to her excessive need to be in the house with me at all times.
To think I thought it was all going "to the dogs" on Friday morning. Apparently the trick is to get up at o'dark thirty.
Saturday crafty To-Do was to reupholster my vanity stool. It came with a very plain Jane cream material that didn't really scream Nicole. When there are lines of fabric out there like Amy Butler's, then there is no reason to not steal some "Charm" from my mom's stash, bust out the scissors, screwdriver, and staple gun. Fifteen minutes and some crafting later, I have checked off a fun To-Do!
Before she was store bought and okay...
But now she is Charming and lovely and oh so me...
Everyday this week I have been up at 4am, all so I can go walking with a friend. Those first 15 minutes after tearing myself from bed are so brutal. My eyes are swollen and thick, my thoughts are scattered and half formed, and the pillows look so perfectly shaped for my head. But walking has been great. I was so sore the first two days, slightly sore the next two, this morning though I was energized before we started and not even a lick sore. Once home I super cleaned my kitchen, did two loads of laundry, gathered and took out the trash, cleaned up the hard floors downstairs, pulled some weeds, played with the puppies, and have drafted a mega to-do list. I can totally see the merit of waking up so early each day, so much more can get done without a kiddo underfoot. There is also so much quiet. No TV or sounds, no cars, no one around except us two, the sky is still dark with the sunrise about an hour away, and we have had some of the best conversations. It is amazing what you will talk about while walking fast in the dark giggling like schoolgirls.
This post is all about focusing my foodie hippie thoughts, practices, and interests. ** My SIL called me a Hippie a couple months ago, and it made me gasp with horror and a bit of delight** I have been reading a yummy book called Animal Vegetable Miracle, and each chapter brings me some small bit of disgust at the food industry in America. As well as a bit of jealousy at this families decision to move to a farm and live off their land and the products that their neighbors and community can provide for them. Awesome!
As I read about the small but amazing types of heirloom vegetables there are in the states, but only hanging around due to small food movements like Slow Food International, I glanced at the mom sitting in front of me. We were both waiting for our sons to finish up swim lessons and where I had a bottle of water and an apple to munch on, she pulled out an LA weight loss chocolate power bar and a bottle of their Urban Grape Energy drink. Uuummmm, if you want to lose weight dontcha think you should maybe eat healthier instead of eating dependant?
Anyways... so I come to a part of the book where it is discussing the super seeds that corn and soybean producers are engineering today, seeds that are specifically designed to withstand mega dousing of RoundUp (yeah that weed killer), and what you do you know, the manufacture of these seeds, that 70% of bulk energy crop growers buy from, are the same manufacturers of a chemical that the farmers can buy to spray on their supposed seeds to KEEP them from being RoundUp Immune. So, they get you with the super seeds and the chemicals to kill the weeds that love the same soil that the super seeds do AND they also get the growers with the chemical that turns on the super immunity gene in the plant. And this made me snort and try to explain my scoff to the man four seats over with a small series of gestures at my book.
The book is eye opening and thought provoking, and so damn frustrating. Seriously, what the hell are we all eating?? I suffered a small bout of guilt and self angst when she talked about those lovely green watermelons that I have been eyeballing lately. You know those watermelons that really only grow in the states at the end of summer because they are the fruit part of the plant and those only produce in a small time frame naturally *ie July August*. Those watermelons that had to be grown in some location closer to the equator and had to be shipped into Texas thousands of miles and where probably picked under ripe to extend their ship time. And I was actually delighted to see them, these watermelons that are posers and lack any true resemblance to that lovely sweet drippy cool you off on a hot end of summer day taste.
Damn, where are all the local growers and farmers markets, where the hell is real food? I am seriously rethinking the idea of a garden in our yard. I want to actually know where my food comes from for once. And what has been on it. And who picked it. And which dog of ours tried to steal it from the vine.
I stood in front of my fridge and pantry tonight and wanted to snort again, because damn, our food stocks look just like everyone else's and that chapped my ass. I need to do more then just making bread at home, and cooking meals from whole foods, I need to know where that food comes from. Time to step a couple more feet down the hippie path. Where are my Birkenstocks and my hemp DMB bag??
I took a week off from blogging because I needed time to regroup and get my focus back. I didn't really trust myself with words this past week, because I knew that I was on the verge of saying things that can not be taken back. So I focused on pictures. Pictures from right around me. And with this simple focus I have taken some of the best pictures, pictures that speak so many emotions to me, brought me back my focus, pictures that made me smile in the middle of so much sadness and anger. So I focused my sights on Alex, Casey, the dogs, the yard, the house, new routines. I started scrapping again, shifting paper around for the first time in two months. I started a new process, have been working on a friendship that is right here next to me, and I found lots of happiness. I came to some realizations, and I accepted them. I have realized that here is truly home, I don't miss California at all. I shifted my focus to my home town, my home relationships, to the events/people/places/things right here in front of me. Change is good no matter how painful the beginning is.
Casey and I started dating the Fall of 1993, the following summer he introduced me to me Dave Matthews Band and the music and lyrics of that band quickly seeped into every part of my life, my dreams, my future.
Tonight, my husband asked me if I was okay, and when I answered honestly with a shake of my head, he asked me to join him downstairs to sit with him for a while. So I curled up in my corner of the couch and watched a bit of the movie on TV and really just sat there being sad. Sad because of the things that changed and I wasn't even aware of it. Sad because I wasn't trusted and I was avoided. Sad because I thought I knew a relationship so well, and now there is a huge hole in it that I didn't even know was there. After that small bit of time I came up stairs still feeling that tight achiness under my ribs, still feeling isolated and lonely.
And then I saw the lyrics and the note that has been in front of me for 12 years. You see 12 years ago Casey printed out the lyrics to I'll Back You Up and wrote me a note.
Remember 2 things:
1. We'll always be with each other
2. We'll always grow together.
And for 12 years I have posted that note in a sleeve on my bulletin board at eye level. Reading that love note made me realize that my greatest friendship is downstairs snuggled on the couch. My greatest friendship is my marriage. And with that friendship I am not alone. And if I am isolated it is because I make myself that way.
Even though I am greatly sad about something I discovered tonight, I am going to go sit with my husband and Remember those two things he told me so many years ago. I am so thankful that when I told him earlier that I was really sad about something, he understood, he soothed me with the words I needed to hear, and he let me wander aimlessly and he wrote that love note to me so many years ago.
And for my friend, know that I am only ever happy for you, always.
Budget, just the word makes me cringe. But it also gives me a slight thrill, that small ribbon of delight at order and purpose. But when I have to make the budget I tend to bury my head. Casey has been asking for a budget, well forever, and I have been pretty much avoiding it, well forever. Until... tonight I put my mad Excel skills to use, revamped a preexisting budget that I downloaded from Microsoft, and I was able to put a BIG check mark on my To-Do list... HOORAY! FINALLY I can say that I use the skills I teach to people everyday.
We got news on Tuesday that Casey's Uncle George died, he had had a heart attack days earlier and multiple complications arose. I know I called Grandma Phyllis every day waiting to get news on George. We waited worried, I wished over and over again that we could be there to give hugs, help where ever, to hold hands.
George was a vivid man, he was quiet in a strong powerful way. He lived life with purpose, with drive. He made an impression. He left behind Loretta, his amazing wife, three kids, and five grandchildren.
One of my favorite memories of him is simply of his face as he watched Alex, his cousin Brennen and his other cousin Emily kick a ball around his back yard. He grinned with delight at this new generation of family playing in the grass. His face was relaxed, quiet, and happy. His eye sparkled, they always seemed to sparkle.
We will miss him so dearly, so deeply, and we wish we could be there on Tuesday at Forest Lawn to stand with family as he is laid to rest.
In the time left between now and sleep i want to accomplish this...
Clean all hard floors in the house with mega big bottle of pine sol lemon
Organize linen closet and up the blanket storage chest I bought months ago.
Organize yarn stash and works in progress.
Super vacuum bedroom
Organize desk and bulletin board.
Snuggle with Alex to Coldplay.
Ready Steady Go
Last night at 12:08am I helped my neighbor deliver her 6 lbs 9oz baby boy. She was amazing, he is amazing, and it was amazingly quick for a first time mom, under 5 hours. I am so tired, but up and on my way to teach.
Happy Birthday Baby JP.
Freckles and Lashes.
Old Soul Eyes.
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