From the left corner of my brain

A few months ago I was wandering through random blogs and came across a Peeved and Pleased list. I can’t remember the name of the blog, so please know that I am not creative enough to come up with this idea on my own.

 Recently Pleased by:

This nifty little product:

Windex with lime. I have been pleasantly surprised to find it cleans just about anything.  Ironically, the only thing it is not so great on -windows.

My Christmas present:

This clever little game has managed to keep my attention daily for a week straight. A miracle by no stretch of  the definition.  Most video games do not hold my interest for more than an hour or two – a day at most.  We will see if I manage to stay interested once vacation is over and my day is filled with the usual routine. 

Recently Peeved by:

Our laminate floors.

They need sweeping twice a day. That’s nothing new -I knew they would show every ounce of dirt when we installed them. However, they are on the peeved list for this reason: every streak from the swifter, footprint and shoe print shows up. So even when I clean, the floors only say clean as long as no one walks on them. grrrrrr

2007 Rundown shows on TV

I get it:  Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie and Lindsey Lohan managed to make idiots of themselves every single month this year. But Seriously? Did nothing more significant happen in the world other than the fact that Britney Spears forgot the existence of underwear?

So there you have it.

2007 had lots of ups and downs. So here is the run down for the year:

 Jan

-Made 5 New Year’s resolutions. I made progress on each of them throughout the year (first time ever I might add), although not in ways I expected for any of them.

Feb 

- it was a quiet month

Mar

 -I quit my job to start contract work so I could start working towards my state license.

Apr

-Realized contract work means more work for less pay.

May 

-We saved enough cash to purchase a new air conditioner unit for the house without going into debt. Instillation day was glorious.

Jun

-Jeremy and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary.

-My dear friend had her very cute baby. I love that kid.

-We joined a new church and have never been so happy to get up early on Sunday mornings.

Jul

-Started a new job at the same company where I did contract work. This was a salary position, meaning I would get a consistent paycheck. We celebrated. 

-The final Harry Potter book was released. It was long awaited and entirely fulfilling.

Aug

-Jeremy’s birthday   His cake said: Happy Birthday to me

- Jeremy’s aunt had a very successful surgery to remove her cancer. It was a good day.

Sep

-Started this blog. It has been fun so far. The biggest hit: blogs about prayer and marriage. I find this hilarious because I wrote those blogs to straighten out my own thoughts. I’m fairly certain I believe everything I wrote, I’m just not entirely sure. 

Oct 

 -A quiet month. Life plodded along.

Nov

-Thanksgiving with the in-laws

-Also noteworthy, I lost 6 pounds the week of Thanksgiving. I know, I am awesome.

Dec 

- Went to Florida for work (a-uh-mazingly fun)

-My Birthday (a national holiday, in case you did not know)

-Christmas with the in-laws.

-volunteered at the convention centered turned shelter for those affected by the ice storm. It was an experience I will never forget.

- I had the last three weeks of the month off on vacation. We did not go anywhere, but it was nice to have the time at home.

All in all, not a bad year.  I think I learned more about Jeremy this year than in the 7 years I’ve known him combined. I’ve grown closer to my family. We paid off credit cards.  I’ve grown a lot as a person. I’m old now (26. It feels old).  Deaths of family members in 2006 brought stress into this year as family members tried to figure out how to go about life without special people present.  Not a bad year, but certainly one of the more difficult years.

Goals for next year? yes. The same as this year, just an extension of progress already made. I will be blogging about some of them in the future.  I’m ready for a better year, so bring on 2008 please.

I’m sick. again.

I think have the weakest immune system on the planet. I’m considering taking up residency in a bubble. And purchasing stock in this:

Over the weekend, I went downtown to our convention center. It has been turned into a shelter for the families who lost power due to the ice storm. Considering there were 1.5 million people without power in the metro, it proved to be a valuable service to many people.

 I have to say, it was overwhelming. One very large room with rows of cots piled high with blankets and pillows, with plastic bags full of clothes stuffed underneath. Some of the cots were pushed together in groups – family stations. The room was divided into three – single men to the left, families in the middle, and single women to the right.  I spoke with the shelter director and told hm who I was and that I was there to provide counseling to shelter residents. He jokingly ( I think) replied, ‘Thank God”. I asked him where to go, we directed me to just jump in. I started walking around asking if people were staying warm, to which most replied they were still cold. So I sat on the concrete floor while my butt froze through my jeans as I talked with families about they struggles they had that lead them to the shelter. Some talked about their experience in the shelter, others talked about anything other than their current situation. One lady gave me very graphic details about her many health issues. Usually I would re-tell her stories and find the humorous side, but even thinking about it makes me queasy as I am typing, so let’s move on.

 All in all, people were pretty calm and pulled together. Almost everyone realized that although they currently were living a scene that looked like it came from the headlines of the Katrina coverage, most would still have a home to go back to in a week or so when power was restored.

 Towards the end of my shift, I sat down next to an 82 year woman. Her husband of 50 years was sleeping, but she took advantage of the time and told me her fascinating life story. I asked her what was the secret to 50 years of marriage, and she replied, “Oh, I guess learning how to put up with the other person.” I sat there thinking that the answer would be more insightful or significant, but I guess not.  She was married three times, the first time at age 16 after running away from home. ” You know how us old people were a little fast back in the day” she stated.  Hence her first marriage.  Nothing in her story strayed too far from the norm, nothing too adventures or shocking.  I cant really identify why she had such an impact on me, but I hope but I never forget her or the experience of sitting there and listening to her story.

Well, I think my adventures in the ice storm are over. I was in and out of the house about a dozen times yesterday – taking pictures, moving fallen branches, and checking around after power surges and transformer explosions. I managed to foster a fever from going in and out of the house all day.  The pictures are minimal today, sorry. If the picture can not be taken from my front door, it’s not going to happen.

On the plus side, work is closed again today. Woo Hoo!

Some pics from yesterday:

On the ice:

The tree branches were so heavy they touched the street and finally broke off

Icicles last night:

Today the temperature is above freezing and it is raining. Everything is starting to melt:

I think the rest of the day will be spent watching two star Christmas movies and drinking hot chocolate

It was a long night- we could hear transformers surging and exploding until 2am. Jeremy kept having to jump up and look outside the window to make sure everything was okay.  A house about a 1/2 block away had a transformer fall in the back yard and catch on fire.  Things finally calmed down and we got a good night’s sleep.

I woke up this morning and saw on the TV that my office had closed for the day. Woot woot!

The view from the front door this morning:

This was our tree a few weeks ago after we got it trimmed for winter:

Notice how the branch is high over the street? Well, today it is a little weighed down:

Our poor tree – it’s strugglin’.

Remember the ice covered grass blades from last night?

today:

As I am typing this, there are tree branches falling and the power is flickering. More later

I’ve always found amusement when watching the weather on TV. The weather men here tend to be a little dramatic. Understandable, considering we get all kinds of weather, but the smallest drop of snow causes a 24 hour coverage with a nifty little names like ‘Winter Blast 2007′.  It is not uncommon for the reporters to be out and around, only to report there is nothing new and the roads are fine.

So when the weather man started freaking out early last week about ‘the ice storm of the century’ for the weekend, I rolled my eyes and changed the channel. We did make sure we had de-icier and sidewalk salt, but I really didn’t think the ice would be that bad. I figured they were calling wolf.

I was wrong. oops.

5pm:

11pm:

5pm:

11pm:

Winter has arrived. It has been raining all day and freezing once it hits the ground. So far, we have a 1/4 of an inch of ice. Tomorrow’s forecast – more freezing rain. Tuesday’s forecast – more freezing rain.

Some grass blades in our front yard: 

Icicles from our roof: 

Our road is one sheet of ice – you can see the air pockets under the ice:

A twig from the yard:

Other people may complain – i love it.  Bring on winter please. I am planning on curling up with a cup of hot coco for the majority of tomorrow. yea!

I’m back and Florida was great!! I left my camera at home, but another lady I was traveling with had a much better camera and she was willing to share her pics and videos. So, once I get those, I will be sure to post them.

 It was a great conference. I had the time of my life. The seminars were incredible, the free resources fantastic, the food amazing and the hotel was relaxing. The hotel was a Polynesian theme  – it was easy to feel like you were in Bali.  We went to an excellent dinner with the Bounce learning network at the Palms Restaurant at the Hard Rock Hotel (very fun) and also managed to go to a luau dinner ( also very fun). 

Let’s see…what else? The seminars were great – I’m feeling all charged up and ready to go. I got into the Dunstan Baby Language session and was very happy I did. It’s an interesting program. And it was nice to hear an Australian accent again.  I think I am going to start a new parents parenting group at work and use this information as well as few other nifty tidbits I picked up.

The pictures tell the story better than I do, so I will wait until I get those.