Graceful

For your reading entertainment today, I thought I would share with you some of my clumsy moments from the last week.  It seems that I have a clumsy moment here and there but because it happens so often I usually just tell Chris about it when I get home, have a good laugh and move on.  It seems that this past week I have had more moments than usual so I thought I would share.

1.       I bent my fingernail backwards on my right ring finger, not once, but twice in the past week.  Not sure how I pulled that off, but It bent down past my nail bed so I now have a couple of small black and blue marks underneath my fingernail that I will have to look at until it grows out.  If you have never done this before, it is quite painful when it happens.  I cut my fingernail really short so that it doesn’t happen again.

2.       I jammed my right hand into a chair at our dining room table on Monday night.  I had let Gypsy outside to go to the bathroom at the end of the night and turned around to go pick something up in the kitchen and ran my hand into the chair.  I jammed my fingers.  Not cool.  How could I forget that the table was there?!?!?!  It hasn’t moved.  It wasn’t like it jumped out at me.  I am just that oblivious I guess.

3.       I got to work this morning and realized there was a big stain on the front of my shirt.  I just washed this shirt on Sunday and hadn’t eaten anything between putting it on and coming into work.  How did it get there?  It must have been from when I wore it the last time and it didn’t come out in the wash.  Why didn’t I look in a mirror close enough to not notice it before I left the house?  I will be hiding out at my desk the rest of the day so people don’t see it.  Shout is a great friend of mine when it comes to laundry.  It will be waiting for me when I get home to work its magic.

I attribute a lot of my clumsiness to lack of focus on my surroundings.  When I set my mind to doing something I sometimes forget about everything else around me because I am concentrating on the task at hand.  Case in point, the jamming of my hand into the dining room table.  I let the dog outside and remembered that I needed to grab a glass from the kitchen to bring upstairs and as I was focusing on heading to the cabinet, I forgot the table was right there in my walking path…there is never a dull moment with me.

Hopefully this week I will be a little less accident prone.  It’s a miracle (knock on wood) that I have not broken a bone or something up to this point.  I hope I didn’t just jinx myself…

Is it May outside?

One of my New Year goals is to walk Gypsy whenever it is nice outside.  We have been blessed with exceptional weather here in January and so far she has loved it.  We went out three days in a row last week and again last night for a mile walk around the neighborhood.

Also, because it is January, there are no bugs outside at the moment so we have been leaving the back door open for her when we are home so she can come and go outside as she pleases.  Needless to say, we have been wiping a lot of dead grass off her lately as she loves to roll around in it when she is out there.

I hope this continues through the rest of the winter so that we can get outside as much as we have been.  It’s not only good for her, but it’s good for us too and is forcing us to exercise which we all know I love to hate. J

Pat K.

Hello All,

This weekend was a whirlwind.  Chris’ grandma passed away on Thursday night after a battle with Alzheimer’s and pneumonia.  I personally have not known her without the Alzheimer’s but really enjoyed listening to the stories about her before she got sick and knew she was very special to Chris.  His mom told me that “Nan would do anything for Chris” and I can easily see that.

She came down with pneumonia a couple of weeks ago and survived eight days without food or water.  She had a living will that dictated what efforts could be made so in the long run we just had to let time take its course and are grateful she is now at peace and in heaven spending Christmas with Pa.

It was really sad to see everyone mourning her loss but it was also good to see everyone in the family together.  I really enjoy Chris’ mom’s family and had a great time catching up with all of them this past weekend minus the circumstances.  I got to meet the rest of Chris’ cousins and an aunt that I had not met in person.  Everyone in the family has been very welcoming to me and has made me feel a part of the family since day one.  Hopefully next time we all get together it is for a happy occasion.

We received prayer cards at the visitation this weekend that I wanted to share because I thought they were really nice:

The Memorare

Remember O most gracious

Virgin Mary that never was

It known that anyone who

Fled to thy protection,

Implored thy help, or

Sought thy intercession

Was left unaided.

Inspired with this

Confidence, I fly unto

Thee, O Virgin of

Virgins, my Mother.

To thee I come; before

Thee I stand, sinful

And Sorrowful.  O Mother

Of the Word Incarnate,

Despise not my petitions;

But in thy mercy hear and

Answer Me. Amen

In Memory of Pat K.

March 16, 1930 – December 15, 2011

Thankful November Wrap-up

I haven’t had a chance to catch up with my blog since I got back from our Thanksgiving trip so being it is now the last day of November, I thought it would be a good day to wrap up my Thankful November posts.

Today I am thankful for a number of things, but first I want to talk about how thankful I am for family.  Chris and I traveled up to SD with my Dad and Stepmom last week to go visit my brother’s for Thanksgiving.  Although the 9 hour drive in the car each way was brutal from a comfort standpoint, it gave us a chance to catch up with my dad and stepmom.  Even though we are in the same greater metropolitan area, we still live an hour away from each other so it was nice to be able to catch up. 

I am also thankful that we got to see my brothers, sister-in-laws, and niece/nephew for Thanksgiving.  That was the first time all three of us and our spouses were able to be together in the same location.  Paula (and somewhat Tom) put a LOT of work into making Thanksgiving lunch and they were wonderful hosts.  Thank you for having everyone at your house for the weekend.  I think we all needed it.

I also had the opportunity to Skype with my mom on Thanksgiving Day.  It was sad to not have her there with us for the weekend, but it was good to see her face and catch up.

I am thankful for our friend Daren for watching Gypsy while we were gone.  She hates going to the kennel so it was really nice of him to watch her while we were away so that she could be comfortable in his house instead of being anxious at the kennel.

I am thankful for my friend Vicki and want to wish her a Happy Birthday tomorrow.  Although we live states away from each other and don’t get to chat as much as I would like because life gets in the way, I always know she is there if I need her.  I am grateful for her friendship.  It’s her husband’s birthday tomorrow as well.  They were born exactly a year apart.  I always thought that was kind of cool that they shared the same birthday.

I am thankful that Chris and I both have jobs that we like and that we have been fortunate to have stable income these last couple of years while the economy has been struggling.  We both have some great coworkers that makes our jobs that much more enjoyable.  We also were able to find a renter for my condo up north this year which has helped as well.

All in all, 2011 has been a really great year.  The best yet in my opinion.  I have had a lot of major life changes this past year and they have all helped me grow as a person and made my life better.  I hope the rest of the week goes well for everyone.  I know I still owe pictures of the painting of our bedroom but I still haven’t gotten around to taking a picture of the finished product.  I haven’t forgotten and will get to it eventually…

Bessie

Let the holiday family gatherings begin!

I hope everyone had a good weekend.  We had a wonderful weekend here full of friends and family.  We also started the holiday season early.

Chris and I went to the Melting Pot on Friday night for dinner.  Two hours and four courses of food later, they pretty much had to roll us out of there.  The dinner process at the Melting Pot is really an experience and it usually lasts about 3 hours.  They were not as busy as usual which cut out about an hour of time.  Personally, I would rather they have mad it last longer so that I had more time to let the food settle but we had a great time as always.  It made me very thankful for a nice date night out with my husband.  I love sharing those moments with him.

On Saturday we did the 1 hr drive over to my dad’s to celebrate Thanksgiving with my stepmom’s family.  We had a great time and were thankful to be included in the day.  I hadn’t saw my stepmom’s parents since our wedding so it was good to see them as well as the rest of the family.

Saturday evening and Sunday for football we were able to get together with some friends to hang out.  I have really fit in well with Chris’ friends here which has made my move so much easier.  I can hardly believe I have almost been here two years already.  Time flies when you are having fun!  I miss my MN and ND friends ever day but am glad that I made the move further south.  The weather this time of year makes it worth the move as well.  No snow here yet!

I am anxiously awaiting to get through these next two days so that we can head up to my brother’s for Thanksgiving.  This will be the first time all 6 of us (siblings and spouses) will have gotten together at the same time.  It should be a great time.  I will be packing Loaded Questions with so that we can get in a round or two of board game fun!

Bessie

Friday MishMash

So I haven’t kept up very well this week on the blog front.  My apologies.

Today I am thankful for my friends Mary and Kevin.  They were some of my first friends in MN and I am glad we have been able to stay in touch.  They both just accepted positions with a company in Columbus, OH and will be moving in a few weeks.  I wish them all the best in their move.

I also want to wish my dear friend Barb a happy early birthday.  I hope she celebrates the weekend and that she has a wonderful year to come.

Finally, today I am thankful for an “all-clear” on my foot injury.  I can finally go back to wearing something other than tennis shoes all the time for the first time in 4 months.  Don’t get me wrong, the tennis shoes are comfortable; they are just hard to coordinate with when I need to dress up once in a while.  Hopefully my crappy high arches hold up better now so that I don’t have to eventually have surgery.  I successfully avoided it these last few months and hope that continues.

It has been a quiet week in our house.  Nothing major going on.  We spent the evening watching football and the TV show Whitney.  I LOVE this show!  I find myself laughing out loud every time I watch it.  If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, I highly recommend it.  It was a good break from the very slow moving football game last night, but once again Tebow proved everyone wrong in the last 5 minutes of the game to score a touchdown to win the game.  All of his four starting wins this season have been very ugly, but who said it had to be a pretty win right?  I think it great that he continues to prove his critics wrong.  At least they are winning games unlike my Colts.  I gave up on this season a while ago and am hoping for a full Peyton recovery and a good first round draft pick.  It's called “Suck for Luck” for a reason!

We are both very ready for a vacation next week.  Hope you all enjoy the weekend!

Bessie

Weekend Roundup

So after a three day weekend I have a lot of catching up to do for my Thankful November.  This will be things I was thankful for from the weekend as well as today.

I want to wish a happy Veteran’s Day to all of our retired and current military members, especially to those that are my family and friends.  For the first time in a while, I can’t think of anyone that is stationed overseas at the present moment.  My generation has done a lot of tours overseas with the two wars we were fighting and for that I am grateful.  It is because of you all that I enjoy the freedom that I do each and every day.  Thank you for risking your lives for the betterment of the rest of us.

I am also thankful for technology.  The other night, we took Gypsy for a walk around the block and noticed a very bright star just off to the right of the moon.  It hadn’t moved while we were out so we knew it wasn’t a plane or satellite so when we got home, Chris went inside and grabbed his phone so that we could pull up the star app.  He held the phone up to the sky and it identified the “star” as Jupiter.  Pretty fun that at the touch of a button we are able to learn something new.

I am thankful for my awesome dog Gypsy.  Not sure what has gotten into her lately but she has been very loving these last few days.  She would always jump into my lap, sit there for a minute and jump back down to go lay down on the floor.  Not lately…lately she has been jumping up into the chair with me and lying down for at least 30 minutes.  She has even let me hug and squeeze her without getting all jumpy.  I’m not sure what did it, but I’ll keep it!  I love my puppy dog!

I am thankful for Sunday afternoon football with my husband.  It has turned into tradition that Sunday afternoon we go out and watch the first round of games with friends, and then we come home to watch the second round of afternoon games before we go to church.  It makes for a fun and relaxing Sunday afternoon.  During the second game  I usually catch up on laundry, cook, bake, nap, etc so we aren’t lazy all afternoon (unless it’s for a nap) but it makes for a fun day.

I am thankful that my coworkers like the help support my cake decorating habit by serving as guinnea pigs for my projects so that I can continue to bake and not get fat from eating it all myself.  I brought in a strawberry and blueberry “checker board” cake with cream cheese frosting and am going home with an empty container and lots of compliments. 

I think that is all for today.  I am looking forward to cuddling with my dog this evening!

Bessie