Eleven Eleven

Every year on this date, I pause to especially thank the Good Lord for the freedoms I enjoy in this world, for I am rarely unconscious of how blessed I am.

And for the past 13 years, I have also thanked him for the happy, healthy, darling girl he sent me, who turned me into a mother. A post can't possibly capture all that I feel about her, but a small peek at her life through pictures follows.


One day old with daddy


Five days old with mommy


Six month old blue-eyed ball of joy


Four year old sunshiney girl on the tire swing


The Lollipop Kids


Snow Princess


Hiking in Stowe, Vermont


Early years montage


Rockin the guitars


First day of 5th grade


Black and White Bunch


First day of 6th grade


Are they Cousins or Quadruplets?


First day of 7th grade


Our little family summer 2009

Grateful for...Bunch Edition:
1) Every day for the privledge to be your momma.
2) For how you fill our lives with joy & help us become better people.
3) The great example you are to all around you.
4) Your laudable ethics and high moral standards.

Happy 13th Birthday Doll! I Love You and you'll always be my best girl!!!

Me & Ree

And Missy and The MIL, too!

Tonight I had the privledge of an In Real Life meeting with one of my favorite bloggers...you may know her as The Pioneer Woman, but her name is Ree and she's in Salt Lake City on a book tour.

I've been reading her blog for years. I wish I could remember how I found it, but it was long before she was a household name.

So I planned to buy and have her sign a copy of her new cookbook tonight, but as it turns out, they're completely sold out. The publisher ran out! And while I adore The King's English bookshop, when I heard that she was scheduled to come there for her signing, I knew it was going to be a mob scene.

It was. People lined up at 3pm for the 7pm signing. They handed out "signing tickets" for people, and when they ran out of those, they said anyone else who wanted to stand in line could do so.

People stood. For six hours. I didn't get a signing number, but I got my pashmina's out of my car, and a bag full of M&Ms to share with the people in the line, and found some cold women to share my shawls with, and we chatted while we whiled away the hours together. This was pretty fun, because the kind of people who read Ree's blog are the kind of people you just like from the get-go. We talked and made friends, asked who'd come the farthest (Wyoming, Idaho, Arizona and Nevada...driving. Two women flew in from San Francisco! I drove 10 minutes.) We bonded.

Every 20 minutes or so it would seem to move just an inch or so...but at one point, Ree's Mother In Law (MIL) came out, and she's such a doll that you almost didn't want the line to move. Visiting with MIL was just delightful, and she was as gracious as anyone I've ever met about posing for photos, and answering questions.

Below are some photos. Oh, and Fox News interviewed me, but they told me that they might not run the story because something about a baseball game somewhere might preclude it. Baseball Schmaceball! Don't these people have ANY priorities?! I mean, come on. But if they do put it on the website, I will link to it!


Here she is! I was literally her last visit of the night, and she was one tired cookie. She wouldn't sign my arm though...and I didn't nab one of her cookbooks before they ALL SOLD OUT. Everywhere. Egads! She said she'd mail me one though, so I will be patient.


I love this photo of her! Nice Shirt girlie!


This is Missy, Ree's sister-in-law. She's got a knack for remembering voices. It's really freaky. And she's super sweet and pretty and nice and I like her loads. Too bad she lives a gazillion worlds away or I think we'd be bffs. Wait! most of my besties live a gazillion miles away!

This is Missy and THE CAMERA. Yes, THE camera that Ree uses to take all those delicious, luscious and beautiful photos. Of dogs, and bovines, and chaps and dust and horses and sunrises and food and kids and cowboys. I think it has it's own star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.


This is The Woman. The Woman who is inadvertantly responsible for all of us enjoying The Pioneer Woman. Without her, Ree would be living in a city, drinking Starbucks and wearing black heels while eating sushi. Thank you MIL! We adore you. And your son's chaps.

Ree, you're more delightful in real life than you are on your blog...something I didn't even imagine could be possible. And sharing Missy and MIL with us...well, that was just pure icing. Thanks for bringing them along! ♥

Grateful for:
1) Technology that brings people together
2) Good people everywhere
3) The mild weather tonight...cause there were hundreds of us outside for hours!

I ♥ NY...Joni Edition

Many months ago, one of my besties, Joni, said she and a friend were planning a girls get-away to NYC, and would I like to come?

I didn't have any concept of what life in October would hold back then, so I couldn't really commit. Obviously, get-aways with besties are high on my Love To Do list, but there's that niggling matter called I'm A MoM that I have to balance.

But finally Doc's schedule for this month was figured out, and happily, it turned out that I would be able to get away.

I flew to NYC and arrived at the swanky diggs Joni had booked for us at the Waldorf=Astoria. Ohh Laa Laa! Actually, as impressive and historic as this hotel is, we were slightly underwhelmed by our experience with it (although I should note that there is actually an exclusive, elusive, secret hotel-within-the-hotel located on the upper floors which is purported to be quite the luxury experience). There are a lot of other, smaller, less-known hotels that offer nicer rooms, better service, comparable prices, and less-crowded conditions for anyone interested in staying in the city.

That night, Joni, her friend Amy, and I split from the other ladies and had a diner dinner (meh), and enjoyed a gorgeous evening walk to Serendipity III, which I'd never heard of but which I fell in love with. (Joni, Amy & Blue waiting for our delishUSness to arrive)

(another note: me not hearing of something has NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING to do with said thing's standing, reputation, popularity, or public image. I'd never heard of the Waldorf=Astoria either, before my uncle told me about it.)

What's not to love about a place that creates magical desserts?
(Joni after we'd made a dent in our desserts. OhSoDelish!)

Walking back to the W=A, we passed the Kimberly Hotel. The doormen were so charming, offering to take a photo of us in their "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" style car out front.

After a few minutes of their friendly banter, we ended up taking a tour of the place, and were VERY impressed with it. During said tour, aforementioned doormen put together thoughtful gift bags for us, which they handed us as we departed. Talk about class act! The W.=A. could take a page from the Kimberly's book.

Day2 of Joni-Time was chock full of shopping. Here is where things got interesting. Now I'd heard about the knock-off brand name purse industry before. And I'd seen the vendors on the sidewalks hawking their wares. I'd erroneously assumed that this is what people were talking about. But I was wrong.

So we five women took a cab to Canal Street in China town.

I'm guessing we had tourists with money written all over us, because it didn't take long for us to be approached by a "scout" whose job seemed to be to find tourists like us who are looking for the goods. Through a series of gestures and halted English, information was conveyed that some among us were looking for purses.

A few minutes later we were in a small shop that had tee shirts, purfume and other miscellaneous items lining a wall. It was a small shop, and I was standing near the doorway sniffing Magnetism purfume because I've always been drawn to it (seems whenever I bother to ask someone what they're wearing, it's always Magnetism. Clearly it works.) while the other four ladies were a few feet back in the shop. After a moment, I look up and they aren't there.

It's a small rectangle of a store, no doors, no aisles. They hadn't passed me and left. "Where are my friends?" I asked the guy showing me purfume.

"What friends?" he says back.

"The ladies I came in here with."

"You no come in with anyone." he tells me.

"No seriously, where are my friends?"

Another worker joins in with the guy "they left."

"How did they get past me without me seeing them (remember, I'm standing by the exit)

They teased me for a few moments like this, till one of them finally says "You want to go with your friends?"

"Yes, I do", I tell him.

"Okay, come here."

He leads me over to a little spot near some sweatshirts, tells me to be quiet and wait. I'm standing there feeling like an idiot, while the workers, with their cell phones and secrets do their thing, and suddenly the wall opens up to reveal an unfinished, dank wooden stairway leading down into darkness.

"GO!" the shop employee urges me

"In there?!" I replied, thinking I must be crazy if I'm considering it.

"QUICK, hurry! GO" they urged me.

So casting reason aside, I stepped down into the darkness, and the door shut behind me.

It turned out it wasn't pitch black. Once the door shut, I could see a faint light coming from around the bend. I got to the bottom of the stairs and moved my way towards the light....which turned out to be The Purse & Bag Room.

A finished, well-lit, very stocked room full of purses and bags from all different companies. Coach, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Channel, etc. I don't know if they were fakes or stolen...but the secrecy surrounding this room was complete.Happily, my friends were all there, as well as several other customers and a savvy Asian woman doing the deals.

We stayed for a while, while everyone shopped and bartered for better prices. Then when we were done, we had to wait till they cleared us for departure. I'm sure it was the tower at La Guardia who gave the go-ahead. This was the first of three such secret shops we visited that day. We attempted to return to shop number two after one in the group decided that she did want a bag she hadn't purchased while we were there, but when we got back to that part of town our unofficial guide informed us that it was "closed". Suddenly. Apparently raids are common.

I don't the difference between the vendors out in the open on the street and these secret, basement dungeons, and what all the hush hush low-down is about, but it was certainly not what I expected for our morning of shopping.

Joni and I split up from the other ladies and she treated me to an sumptuous dinner at Tavern on the Green that night, which is a historic, beautiful restaurant in Central Park filled with Tiffany lamps and elegance.


Our last day together was more shopping till you're dropping, because let me tell you, these women are doing their mightiest to pull our economy out of a recession. You can send your thanks to me and I will forward them to the appropriate parties.

And then, before you can say "New York Minute", the sad moment arrived when Joni and I had to say goodbye, and she spent her last night there visiting her cousins. I'm not too overwhelmed with grief because next week is her birthday and I'm going to fly her gift out to her to ensure it gets there in one piece...so after that I'll be sad about our good-bye.

The rest of my time away was filled with more wonderful experiences, but this post is longer than the checkin line at the Waldorf already...so tune in next time for news about the rest of my trip.

Grateful for:
1) New experiences
2) Cherished friendships
3) That we got out of Chinatown alive ;-)
♥

Flying Solo

So as it turns out, according to my health care plan there is a limit to how many visits I can have with my therapist in a year. And apparently I've already hit it, and the insurance company isn't going to pay for any more this year. They sent me a form telling me the last few charges are all my responsibility. Yay!

So I will be paying him for those in full, and taking a 10 week hiatus from the soft tissues and our weekly visits until the new year, at which point I will pace myself so as to avoid a gap on the tail end of 2010. (Of course this is all assuming we are living here all of 2010.) Frank is one of the primary reasons I would like to stay put. Actually.

It might be good, this break. I'll get to work on things by myself, and see how well I pilot my life as a Captainless First Officer, so to speak. Besides, there's always a bestie to talk to if I'm in a hole. Not quite the same, but twill do in a pinch. And if I find myself really going to pieces, he'll still be there for me. And worth every penny.

Grateful for
1) Healthcare Benefits.
2) Almost a year of progress.
3) The book I'm working with. It'll keep me busy and oriented.

Trying to catch up

I am frightfully (heh. Halloween) behind on a load of posts. Seriously dating back to at least August.

For example: I never managed to write about the trip I took Gator on to California to see John Williams conduct his annual “Night at the Movies” concert at the Hollywood bowl. Gator is crazy for John Williams…it's the only music he really likes. So it was a chance for Gator to see him live, you know, cause John is getting along in life and I felt like we should carpe diem and all that.

It was a fantastic show, and next time we'll know to bring a light-up light saber because the moment the Star Wars theme started, the entire audience pulled them out and "conducted" along with JW. It was so awesome. And actually the show choked me up. So many memories tied to his music. What a master. Gator loved this trip.

Blog friend Debbie and I had corresponded online for better part of a year at least, but we finally had our first in-real-life meet up, and she is as delightful in person as she is on her blog. We met during the trip to CA for the John Williams concert, and enjoyed sunshine, sand, sounds, smells and sweet conversations while Gator played in the ocean. She brought me a beautiful book (“Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh) tied up in a fabulous ribbon with a heart-rock and some blue sea glass which she collects on her many walks. It was a lovely visit.

In August, I flew to Syracuse, NY where blog-reader-stalker friend Keri and I met for the first time. Keri has the distinct honor of being the one who sought ME out…and can I just tell you what a massive deposit that was in my self-esteem account?! She contacted me and we began corresponding back and forth, till I ended up visiting her where she spends summers with her inlaws on an island in the middle of the St. Lawrence river which is the boarder between the USA and Canada. It was such a wondrous time for me. I loved meeting Keri and her darling children, and we became fast friends within about 20 seconds I think. Among other things, she introduced me to river baths (what it sounds like), and got me up on water skis for the first time in a couple decades (which my muscles paid for for days) It was a spectacular visit, restorative in many ways. Fast forward to this past week when I was able to visit her again in Connecticut for a couple days. I feel Seriously, So Blessed!

Also last week I met up with the amazing Lorrie at her home in Mid-town Manhattan. Her adorable children delighted me, and then we all went over to her studio and painted pottery. Her devoted spouse, who definitely earned his title (SexyHusbandOfMine, or “SHOM”) showed up too. It was so great to finally meet her IRL after reading her blog for the past year+. Meeting Debbie, Keri and Lorrie in person has been one of the highlights of the past 3 months.

The reason I was in NYC in the first place is because my bestie Joni planned a girls-weekend get-away with some friends and invited me along. Joni is responsible for much of my mental well-being this past year, so please send her thanks if that matters to you. She likes FastBreak candy bars and Starbucks. Joni watered and dined me all over the city for three glorious days, and truly, if she hadn’t planned the trip, I wouldn’t have gone out at all. I’ll have to do a separate post about that trip, because it’s full of adventure and intrigue, and I saw a lot more people than I have mentioned here.

School started back in August and Bunch & Gator attend two different schools now, which is a first. It’s tricky to keep up with their different schedules, but I’m starting to get the swing of it. Bunch is loving junior high , and Gator seems to be writing an updated iteration of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. We’re working on it.

And finally, Doc is racking up interview invitations for Transitional Year and Residency programs. He’s got them strewn from coast to coast in the next three months. When I told him he didn't need to interview at SO many places ("we're not going to end up matching at your last choice" I said), he said "you never know..." To which Bunchkin replied "I guess there is such thing as being too modest".

It’s going to be a spendy few months, because despite the fact that he has flight benefits on my airline, the fact is you just don’t fly standby to job interviews. So we’ll be buying up seats, hotels, and car rentals all over the country. Good times. (I’m hoping I can get away and join him at some of his interviews…of course it’s okay if I fly standby!)

Alrighty then. I’ve been working on this post for 3 days and it’s kind of lame, but I’m posting it now and moving on because the day is beconing and there is work to do.

Grateful for:
1) Debbie. You will likely read this; you are insight in my life.
2) Joni. You may never read this, but you are light in my life.
3) Lorrie. You might read this; you are kindness in my life.
3) Keri. You will probably read this, and you are joy in my life.
4) Insight, Light, Kindness and Joy.

One Year

A year ago today things turned upside down in my world. One moment I was humming along kind of obliviously naïve, and then literally in a single moment, I had the air sucked out of me and felt like I was suffocating.

It was the start of the hardest year of my life. A year of evolution, a year of movement within me, and a year of hard, hard work…which continues even now as I uncork the pain bottled inside me for so long and struggle to find my footing in this world.

There have been days when I felt like I was being water boarded. There have been lots of tearful days, and a few astonishing hours of raw fury and rage seeping up from the deep. But there have also been days when I literally drop to my knees in awe and humility at the love and kindness shown by people around me. Days when the world is so bright and beautiful I can scarcely contain my joy. Days when beautiful music reaches into my soul and wraps my heart in feelings inexpressible. I am so grateful for those moments.

Any of you who have read my blog for longer than a few months know that I’ve struggled with depression, among other things. This isn’t new, but dealing with it head-on is. I’d forever adopted the “I’ll handle this on my own” approach all my life, but I’ve learned that there is no shame in accepting help when you’re struggling.

And help has come in surprising forms…not the least of which was cherished new friendships borne from blogging. I’ve also treasured re-connecting with people from the past and gaining a closeness that wasn’t ever there before. Help has come from learning to be honest with myself about things, healing wounds in my soul, and re-training my thoughts. It’s been a year of wonders. I’m still learning, and I’m sure I’ll still have a lot of hard days. But praise be, I’m making it. (With a little bit of help from my friends.)

♥felt thanks for all the cheers from my fan section. ♥

Grateful for:
1) Sunlight after storms
2) Serendipity
3) Renewal

Photo credit: taken by yours truly from my back porch of rainbow over my mountain

A Poem

Gator came home from school with a new homework packet for the coming week (even though there is only one day of school between now and the day it's due because of school vacation. Which I have issues with because it's vacation! In 4th Grade! But I'll spare you my strong stance on the matter.)

Anyway, one of the assignments is that he must write a poem; a line poem to be exact, which is when you take a concept or idea, and write short lines that don't necessarily rhyme about it.

Since I'm going to make my kid do it, I thought I'd put myself through the exercise, you know, out of solidarity. Here goes my attempt:

Fall
Crisp air
Wisps of chimney smoke
Crunching leaves
blazing colors swirling in the wind
Cozy sweaters
Homemade soup
Yellow, brown, orange, red
Cinnamon and nutmeg
Caramel apples
Baking bread
Wrapping up in the Snuggy
Reading a good book.
♥


I guess there are some things I like about fall. (Even if it did snow on the last day of September.)

Grateful For
1) nutritious, hearty foods
2) walks
3) having my kids and Doc with me all weekend long.

And suddenly summer is gone

"
I went for a "last gasp" hike in the canyon by my house yesterday. The colors were brilliant and breathtaking. It was blue skies and 85 degrees....I knew I had to carpe diem.

Last night I was awakened a few times by loud booming thunder. Today the clouds are threatening to encase my head they're so low, and there was snow covering the mountains I hiked in yesterday.

I had to remind myself that it is actually sunny just a few thousand feet up, no matter how dark and stormy it was during my stint driving carpool this morning. And now, it's actually snowing at my house!

These are the times when I just want to make soup and cozy in. Fall is my favorite season to see and taste, but summer is my favorite season to live in. I miss you already summer!.

Time to make my new blog banner. Tomorrow is somehow going to be OCTOBER already.

Yards and Neighbors

A few months ago I was helping a friend get ready for a big party at her house and she asked me if I’d go with her to a local nursery to buy some things.

So off we went. Upon arrival she proceeded to pile up one of those big pallet-style carts with all manner of decorative flowers, plants and herbs, adding anything that struck her fancy seemingly without thought.

She didn’t spend hours obsessing over which plants were cheapest, and comparing every aspect of every item under consideration to every aspect of every other item in the store, to ensure she wouldn’t regret her purchase and/or get less perceived value for her buck.

Then she dropped a few bennies on her selections and we loaded up her car, drove back to her house and started decorating her already very attractive yard with the new additions. It was so simple and beautiful.

This was an informative experience, wholly unlike every other trip to a store in my life. Because I have NEVER walked into a store and just purchased what I liked or wanted without thinking about it cost. I have never decided on an item (except in the dollar store) without looking for a price tag and doing a mental evaluation. I do this with food, with clothes, with home-supplies, with repairs. With everything.

It’s actually kind of exhausting.

Even in thrift stores, I check to see if the price of the item matches some arbitrary “value meter” that runs nonstop in my brain. This trait of mine has probably saved us thousands of dollars over the years, but it has hidden costs.

As I was working in my yard yesterday morning, I was thinking about how much I’d love for our yard to be a place that I could spend time and enjoy. That it would be a place of beauty and stocked with and pleasant things to eat, see, and smell. I’d also love to have some kind of moving water out there, to listen to because I totally LOVE that.

Unfortunately there are a few things that are standing between me and a peaceful yard being a reality. First is money (isn’t it always?!) We need a new fence which is a big expense. Beyond that, landscaping plants and supplies cost a lot. But, even if we had a new fence and beautiful landscaping, there is the Issue of Terry to deal with.

Terry is our next door neighbor. When we first moved in, he was cordial and reasonably pleasant. We had a few conversations. Never to the “Heidi-Ho Neighbor” point, but it was fine. Sometimes I’d mow his lawn when I finished with ours. I once raked up all his fall leaves. I took a plate of cookies over for the holidays, and left him other neighbor gifts. (he doesn’t answer his door. I should learn from him).

But for some reason that I can’t identify, he stopped being Mr. Reasonably Pleasant neighbor, and has turned into Mr. You Don’t Want To Spend Any Time Within Earshot Of My Property neighbor. Because he yells CONSTANTLY.

Not just yelling, but vulgar, profane, nasty, insulting, lewd things. His outbursts are more reliable than a Timex watch. And they’re nasty enough to embarrass hardened criminals. If he’s home, he’s yelling. He’s yelling as his car door opens, he yells when people are around, and when people aren’t around. He’s out of control, and I feel limited to staying inside my house much of the time because of him.

One of the reasons I liked this house in the first place was because of it’s yard. The previous owners had obviously taken time to keep it up. I know they employed a lawn service to care for the grass. It looked fabulous. But over the past three years it has fallen into disgrace by comparison, because of my neglect and lack of funds. And a part of my neglect has to do with Terry, and my desire to avoid him no matter what. It’s just become awkward to cross paths.

I know he’s mentally ill. Doc wonders about Tourette Syndrome, even though it’s not a really good fit. I mean, the stereotype of yelling profanities is about the only piece that does. I’m pretty sure he’s drunk a lot of the time, gauging from the sheer number of cases of beer in his garbage can every week. And I know that he’s not actually talking to me. But I honestly feel so affronted by the stuff I hear coming out of his mouth that I almost feel violated. I haven’t gotten to the point where I wish the man would be visited by the Grim Reaper, but I wouldn’t be complaining if he retained the services of the Grim Realtor tomorrow. Or today.

I try to keep my perspective about things by imagining that he has some horrible disease, and that he feels really terrible about how vulgar he is, and that he stopped being neighborly with us because he’s so embarrassed about it, and that he’s suffering even worse than me emotionally, and is depressed and hates his life. Thinking about him like that helps me feel compassion, because I can’t honestly imagine he’s a happy man.

I don’t know how I started out writing about shopping and ended up lambasting my neighbor. I’m scatterbrained these days, so lets all deal with it.

Grateful for:

1) Comparatively better mental health than many people.
2) Step 2 of the Medical Boards Exam is over!!!!
3) The hope that someday I will be able to justify buying lots of plants.

The Best

This Sunday I will be officially released as the cub scout den mother. For this I am very grateful.

Typically Mormons don't talk about this kind of thing till after the release has happened, but I'm making an exception here on my blog because it's a CUB SCOUT job...and in my life I've never really made peace with the relationship of the BSA and my church. But that's another topic for another day.

For over 2 years I have been meeting every Tuesday with the boys, and dragging myself along while trying to conceal the fact that I'm just not into it. It hasn't mattered that scouting is Gator's only extra-curricular activity, and he likes it, and that it's a good program for boys and that there is all kinds of evidence that boys who receive Eagle Scout awards do better in life, and the boys seem to enjoy being there etc etc etc.

None of that has mattered. Most of the time, the fact that I've been a den mom has just been a millstone around my neck. A millstone that is shrouded in guilt. Mommy guilt of the worst order. Even talking to my darling FIL who loves scouting and has been active and involved in it for decades didn't help. With his encouragement I tried to rally, tried to change my attitude about my role. It helped me feel better about scouting in general, but worsened my guilt about my involvement in it.

The other den mom will be moving soon, so it's a good time to change it up. But this morning while we were waiting for his bus he brought up talking to the driver about letting the other boys in the den get off the bus at our house on Tuesdays, so I ended up having to tell Gator that starting next week I won't be his den leader anymore. He looked very stricken and then he burst into tears.

"Honey, you'll have a new leader, someone whose even better at it than I am", I tried to reassure him.

"But you're the best" he told me, clinging to me.

This was NOT how I wanted to send him off to school.

While his sentiments yanked on my mommy heart and made me love that kid even more, Gator doesn't have any basis for comparison. He can think I'm "the best" because he's never had a scout leader who really got into it and went above and beyond. The boys have skated through Bear and Wolf, and they're doing okay, but not one of them is really into scouting yet. I don't think any of them would work on things without it being spoon-fed to them. So I'm hoping the new leader will help them transition to that kind of relationship to it. I know it wasn't going to happen with me in there. It may not with the new leader either, but they're getting old enough that it's time for that to start occurring. And I am committed to being a more supportive mom-of-a-scout than I was as Den-Mother-Of-A-Scout. I'll even sew on patches and work on his book with him.

Still, it's kind of bittersweet to be released from the job without ever having managed to get a handle on it. To go out "on the bottom" so to speak. But I don't think I'd have ever gotten on top of it with everything I have going on inside my head/heart right now. It just weighed me down because I wasn't doing more.

Speaking of. Not only haven't I been doing more with scouting, I also haven't been reading, or writing, or creating, or seeming to accomplish much of anything lately. Hence the no blog post in a week.

But this morning I got up and started working in the yard. It's a nice day, and my toxic, profaning, vulgar, exhibitionist, evil neighbor wasn't up and at his usual nonstop screaming, yelling and shrieking to himself yet, which is a huge deterrent to me enjoying my yard. So I cut back the shrubs for winter, trimmed bushes, and pulled some weeds and made a start on getting it spruced up a bit. It felt good to get something accomplished right off the bat, and it's the 2nd day this week that I didn't wake up feeling like I needed to sleep another 100 hours. Carpe diem.

Grateful for:
1) feeling rested enough
2) brown rice with homemade hawaiian sauce and veggies.
3) today Doc is taking Step Two of the Medical Board Exams...and he will be a new man with that weight off of his shoulders.