family holiday highlights.....

Sarina treated us to an awesome Hanukkah meal of latkas, falafel, tzaziki & israeli salad. we had mass pita & assorted crackers with a selection of hummus, baba ganaush & taboulleh. I seriously can eat this way every day.... and usually do in the summer. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed learning a bit more about Hanukkah and watching her light the menorah the evening of December 24th......

The next morning Connor and his red & white coller adorned with bells announced Christmas morning.......

Merry Merry times with my kids.......

they say its over....

last night James, Connor, and I went out for some fun in the snow.....

this last one is taken early Monday. Compare it to yesterdays photo for snowfall reference. Note missing clay pots and buried rose & rosemary shrubs.....

I spoke with Mel last night, they are struggling to find chains for the new car and stopped in Redding CA last night. I haven't heard the report yet today.... gosh I hope they can get through but I am a bit concerned about the Portland area icy conditions.

Winter '08 - Take 3

it is again snowing in Kirkland. The news said it was over but it surely does not look like it here. I tried to go to work today, but slipped a few times and saw 3 wrecks. I could see they had a team of snow plows going I405 Northbound but southbound had not been done yet. it is just too slick out there. I love my new tires on the snow and am very happy I spent the extra $ on my recent purchase. But ice is different and this girl has her limits for the approx. $50 missed.

back to much more important things.... will you please look after the neighborhood wildlife during this freeze? When I let Connor out this morning I could see bird tracks all over the patio



The birds were so happy, dancing around our back yard so I put out some fresh food and water in the wheel barrow. I then threw out some apple chips for whatever vermit will find them. I love my birds -

James out front talking with neighbor Janice. He was so nice to unbury my car this morning. I am so glad I took these pictures of him. 20 minutes later there was a big ugly pathway shoveled through the snow to the side walk and mail boxes. Extremely nice of someone to do but still not quite as picturesque as below....

and it snows on....... at this point I really hope it lasts until Christmas and so the girls can see some white snow.

Happy Holidays to everyone..... I am off to start a fire, wrap the last of presents and watch a movie. I will take photos of the tree next....

Snowfall - Take 2

7am and snowing pretty good this morning.... The news shows I405 is a parking lot and parts of 520 are closed.... sorry for picture quality but it was still a little dark


9am front side of home.... no car tracks leaving this parking lot......

3pm feeding the birds and listening to the cars try to drive up 68th as fewer succeed in the ice that covers the eastside...

Ho Ho Holidays......

It isn't that I don't have anything to share right now......

It is more that I don't have the time to put my thoughts to blog.....

I am going to have my family home for the holidays and I am not ready. Not finished shopping & wrapping, and haven't even begun to do cleaning so panic is beginning to brew....


I did laugh the other night at my pharmacy, I mean my bedside table.....God I am getting old!

wowza.....

my last weeks have been filled with blisters and backaches, bandaids and ice packs. Being on a time clock and smiling when you don't want to....... aaahhh retail! Now I remember why I switched and took the office route for my career path. I find the drama that surrounds the department extremely exhausting and so far have avoided it well. I just work harder than most and keep too busy to participate...... I liken this temporary job as a 6 week furniture market (trade show). Same clothes, same exhaustion except I can't sit down on furniture to rest BUT I do get to sleep in my own bed and kiss my dog nightly (a big factor)

anyway I hope to catch up on some house cleaning (prep for Christmas visitors), holiday shopping & wrapping, pay some bills & return some long ago phone calls/emails over the next few days..... and I dream of some good old horizontal time to relieve the back/knees

Final thought/question for today.....
why do they store so many bras so close to the ground?
why do customers have the need to go up to a table just organized neatly & rummage through and mess up the piles I just spent an hour stacking?
why do mothers let their children run through racks and pull clothes off hangers?



ok - just can't end that way. I am grateful for the $200 deposit into my account from Macys Inc. that showed up Friday. I am grateful that I am learning the words to a few more christmas carols this season and that I can still find something to laugh about every day!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Hugs!

Tigger says Happy Holidays! I had such a great time in Oakland (way too short) for Thanksgiving holiday. Lots of updates from the kids down south….

Sarina picked me up Wednesday morning at SFO and I got a chance to really check out the new Toyota Highlander Hybrid they are breaking in (aka battling with the dealer over poor service stage). Sarina also recently got the new title Vice President of Product Development at Bare Escentials. A job that she was doing without a title for some time now (get used to it, that seems to be a trend with growing companies). Anyway, Atta girl, congratulations and enjoy that big office with a window & view of the Oakland Bridge. You deserve it!

I had a really good time meeting Sarina’s mom Helene and stepdad David. As time went on I could see similarities between Helene and myself and it was nice to spend time with her. And David is a riot (actually I think he is Cary’s brother, separated at birth) and can carve a mean turkey. I was very gracious when his Cowboys beat my Seahawks. I have had to be gracious a lot this year though. Here are a few photos from the trip…..

I got a seasonal job at Macy’s Bellevue on Monday and went through orientation yesterday. It was an interested bunch of new employees….. Definitely proving to be an equal opportunity environment. The pick of the litter was an 18ish year old kid that got called out for laughing 3 times (by 2 different mgrs) and disrupting the group. It is amazing to me that this kid comes to a place where people are going to pay him for a service & he can’t even sit through 4 hours training without acting like a kid in the back of history class making fun of the teacher. Like I told Mel, it's not really very hard to be a star new employee when you are compared to this one. Or to the girl that asked a second time about wearing hats to work…… as if they would say yes the second time…. So back to retail…full circle back to my first job at Monkey Wards!

I still don’t have my Christmas tree up yet. My To Do list is growing longer.

Lost son finds way home again……

James came home the other night and since he brought every piece of technology with him, I think he is planning on staying for a while. He has been in Seattle since late July, escaping quickly once the house flooded. He has enjoyed life as a college dude living with a bunch of other college dudes near the UW campus. But winter is here, hours at Home Depot drastically cut, and the emergence of an ever present girlfriend of a roommate brought on the return. I am most sure it will take some getting used too….. the shoes in the entry way and the dirty clothes & dishes left everywhere….Hmmm? What was that thing I was just writing about? That’s right! Grateful list…. Grateful list….


Welcome home son! Connor and I are happy to see you again!

My customary kick off to holiday decorating is as soon as the dishwasher starts humming after our Thanksgiving dinner….. Since I will be in Oakland for Thanksgiving this year, I have decided to get a little head start here and there….





Much much more home décor to come. I have a Ho! Ho! Bug brewing inside but the internet is going in and out this morning causing a frustrating blogging experience....

I am off to get my new tires, alignment & oil change very much needed. Thank you God for providing for my needs today…….

long time no post

I am back from my short break. Mostly I was gone because I had absolutely nothing to say. Growing up I remember hearing Baba & mom say "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." I guess I am keeping true to my teachings because I have kind of been in a funk lately. A little depressed over the incoming job rejections and constant barrage of negative economic news. Packed with the knowledge that "This too shall pass" I am taking a break from a lot of the news programs I usually watch and am focusing on the positive.

To a group of friends and me, November is known as Gratitude month. So I have been writing a list of things to be grateful for and getting together with friends to share our experiences, strength and hope for a better day. Getting together and listening to one another, I am reminded that I can work through any of my issues. It also helps me keep my issues in perspective and be constantly grateful for what I have accomplished thus far in my life.

I was certainly grateful for AAA this week. After finishing a meeting at Costco Wednesday I discovered a very flat tire. All those years paying for AAA I finally got to use it for a rescue tire change. And boy am I grateful to my good friend Todd, a self professed car geek who LOVES to do investagative work. I now know what tires to buy and where the best deal in town is for those tires, alignment & minor mechanical work. It is such a guy thing and this single lady is very grateful to have a guy around to keep me from doing something dumb like pay too much for possibly the wrong product......

I am excited to see another new baby in the family. It must be the year of the girls around here and our little Avery Elizabeth is so darling..... I haven't gotten through to sister Sue yet because I think she has not been home very much (would you be home if you could be next door holding a baby?) oh the memory of baby smells is so strong in me..... puts me in a wonderful state of mind...

I have been busy cleaning up the back garden, winterizing the beds and filling all my compost bins to the brim@! I have also been working on a few Christmas craft projects I will begin sharing soon.... I hope to be back later today with a few layouts I have completed over the past several weeks.... here is one for starters....

See you later today or this weekend.... Have a good day!

WOW

What a great time to live and witness this moment in history. My emotions have really caught me off guard and after last night I need to buy more Kleenex and get some sleep.......

I had the great pleasure to spend the evening watching the results with James & Megan, each voting for the first time. I was really happy to share the night with them and hopefully provided them with some historical perspective. I was born before African Americans even had the right to vote & I am really not that old! I can remember the Civil Rights marches & riots of the 60's. The I have a dream speech & the famous photos from a Hotel balcony are burned forever in my mind. I remember segregation and the fear based ugliness that pervaded our nation at that time.

Yesterday I woke up quite nervous, scared that the polls were wrong, scared that people would not show up to vote, scared of those who perpetuate a fear/hate based mind thought.

Today I am hopeful that our nation will listen to the collective voice that has spoken. We as a nation will no longer let the Good Old Boy network make all the rules. I suspect it will take some time for change to come to certain parts of our country. I suspect that when the next furniture market comes around, the young white kids will still be handing out brochures while young black boys are shining shoes on the street. Change will be slower in some areas but change will come.

Now - if we could only get equal pay for women......

pretend this is friday......

Happy Birthday Sarina!!!!! I know I'm a couple of days late, but I had to wait until I got my mojo back. This mornings walk with Connor and the dry sunny day got me going though.... I love you lots!

sunday part one

I have been working on the house lately leaving little time left over for crafting. Honestly I think I may be in a little creative dry spell. I am sure it won't last long and I am taking this time to learn more about some photoshop features.... just playing around with some grids....




I am heading back out to move more things to the garage..... cleaning out James room since he is here very little anymore (he stays in Seattle with friends). Moving the high school memories to permanant storage in attic; after all he is now a junior at UW.

closing with some photos taken this morning when Connor and I were outside playing.....