Twas a very merry christmas

We had a lot of fun last night with that certain MR SomeOne playing Mr Claus. He was delighted that Braden was not afraid of him too much, and in fact, sat on his lap for EVERYBODY'S family picture!! Usually we cannot get Braden to sit still for a picture, but last night he sat on Santa's lap a long while.
We missed our Idaho kids being there; the only good thought was that Santa's lap and knees didn't get broken from real big kids sitting on him!! hahaha. The younger generation is certainly growing up fast.
Other than that, WE MISS YOU!!
Tim took the time to use the web cam around his house today to show us and Steve's family around the Idaho house, and to show us the snow outside still lingering on the ground. Thanks, Tim, that was a special treat. Tracy got to give TnT some dog training advice as well, since TnT have a new Corgi puppy to train as a service dog for Will.
After we opened gifts here today, we went to The Jarvi house again and had coffee and doughnuts yum yum. Then we came home and had the Pope Ave Kellys join us for our taco fest. and Kim added her enchiladas this year; delicious as usual.
Kim and Jordan are off to MAUI tomorrow with Jordan's gramma Carole; the rest of us are jealous, but hope they have a wonderful time! Aloha!

Merry Christmas!

Thanks to family and friends who sent Christmas Cards our way; we love getting them and love the pictures of kids who growing up so fast. Forgive me for not getting cards out this year except per email. The old arms and hands just fail me sometimes for letter writing, but keyboarding is a bit easier when I can get to it.
Sunday evening we went with The Jarvi and Kim and Jordan to see a cul-de-sac neighborhood of extremely well decorated and lit up houses in Valencia. It was a lighted wonderland. Lights were strung across streets, and yards were decorated to the hilt with Christmas themes. Mostly Santa themes but there was a manger or 2 as well. Several of the apparent home owners were in their driveways with firepits blazing, and even offered hot chocolate or candy canes to spectators. It was lovely! However, it was so darn COLD!! Our car temp read 44 degrees outside. Can you imagine SoCal beach bums in 44 degree weather?? Well, we whine! And complain that "IT'S TOO COLD". I thought I was going to freeze my begonias off! But we all did well in spite of ourselves and enjoyed the gawking at lights.
Christmas Eve we will be at the Jarvi house with Santa, and Christmas Day we will be home for our annual taco fest with the people from Pope Ave and whomever else shows up. Things get fractured when you have to share your kids and their families with their in laws, or when your kids move on to better pastures as in Idaho. But the blessings continue and we rejoice and are thankful for good extended families, and pray everyone has many blessings and good health in 2008.

time flys (or is it flies?)

pics are of Jordan and Braden and little Hudson, taken last week.
Time passes too quickly! Over a month has passed along to the great bin of history, and I wonder what the heck I have been doing because it seems there is nothing to blog about. But I know I been busy! Busy with every day living. Mike fixes me a great breakfast on my work days so I can get to work fortified with protein to carry me through the day. He does the laundry, cleans the kitchen, takes care of the yard, and takes care of grandkids when needed. And then he prints jobs on the press in the garage whenever he can fit them into his busy schedule. Me, I just go to work when scheduled then crochet when home. What a blessed life! And I am thankful for every day of this routine! No current crises to deal with.
We got an artificial Christmas tree in the after-Christmas sales last year. So Mike put it up for the first time last week. It is real nice, and won't dry out to become a tinderbox, so we can leave it up til the cows come home or the creek rises. Nice!
Next week at work we are having a call center mini-health fair with agent appreciation day. that means free lunch... of subway sandwiches... no more grease laden pizzas for us now... our boss is on a health kick. darn it. I am expected to take blood pressures of those who want theirs checked. I hope I don't blurt out with dumb ass things like "holy smokes, why hasn't your fat head blowed off yet, yer pressure is so high!!" I will try to act professional, but that is so difficult!
I have to BORROW a sphygmomanometer if you can believe that. I haven't owned one since I did hospice nursing a hundred years ago.
Wishing all my readers (both of you!) a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy2008.

Oh 2 B a kid again!

My 3 CALIF grandkids dressed up for Halloween; 2 probably against their will (cause they're babies), and the older one having a lot of fun with her friends. I had to work Halloween day; I dressed up as an old crippled lady with 6 grandkids...

it was my usual clothes. haha. Didn't win any costume prize for that tho.
My ID grankids had some cute costumes too; we love it when their mom sends pictures and posts them for us to see. I'd post them here too but can't figure out yet how to do that.

Had a lot of fun at work this past week. I was out for 6 months after hip surgery; the supervisor who was supposed to do my work was overloaded and stopped doing my paperwork in mid-August. Usually summer time enrollment in Kaiser slows way down, but this summer we have a campaign going to attract new members, and it is working! 700 - 900 new members per month, and usually 300 - 400 new members per month is usual for summer months. I review all the new member intake forms and keep stats on how many special needs populations we get enrolled: diabetic, HTN, pregnant, smokers, possible need for mammogram etc. So... I will have a lot of work to catch up on but that is ok. I will plod thru it.
Can't say it was easy getting back to work, but it is a blessing... got a raise Oct 1st, have a desk job, get my "union" breaks... can't complain! Just need my back to start feeling better and not protest sitting all day and driving for an hour each work day.
As of today I am now married to a 64 year old. How did that skinny tall sailor get to be a senior citizen so quickly?? Happened in the blink of an eye, I tell ya. The blink of an eye!! So how fast is YOUR life going by?

RTW

TWO special people to remember today: Kris my couch baby is 35 and Autumn Rose my granddaughter is 10. Happy Birthday, Ladies! They both have special plans for their birthday nights, and I hope they have lots of fun. We get to sit for #1 Jarvi son while Kris goes to dinner.

I drove to Kaiser Hospital today to get my RTW (Return To Work) paper from the hip surgeon. The skies are so smoky/foggy and yucky-brown in the Valley. Not much better here in Simi, but at least we don't have ashes dropping all over everything, and we have been spared fires for now in our community. Thank God for that blessing. After all the fires we've been through here, I am thankful at this time we have little cleanup, and everything is intact.
Monday I will return to work; almost 6 months off to recuperate. I am doing so much better than 2 months ago as far as residual hip pains and back pain goes. I needed the extra time to let the symptoms lessen. It will still be a challenge to go to work and complete the day, but I am up for it and ready to go. If I had to do the surgery again, I would do it because the right leg was so bad off and I had so much pain every day. It's nice to get relief! I have lost 8 lbs and hope to never find it again. I will try to continue to lose at a slow pace, changing eating habits of long standing, and hopefully get down to a more sensible level of weight for these old bones to bear.
The old movie "Cat Ballou" with Lee Marvin and Jane Fonda has a scene in it of Lee Marvin as an old alcoholic gunslinger who gets himself ready for a gunfight one hungover day. He takes a long time to get dressed, piece of clothing by piece of clothing, and finally he get his ass out the door, ready, and willing to go to into battle. I'll think of that scene as I dress for work: over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder; long sleeveless T shirt; back brace over T-shirt, a blouse over all that; compression socks, short leg brace in left orthopedic shoe; make sure right shoe matches left shoe; loose pantalones that don't cut off venous circulation. Oh my!
:))
It's a workout just to get ready; who needs an exercise plan? THAT'S my workout.
I look forward to it; and I will like getting the paycheck again. I know "they" will throw me a welcome back party: it will be 6 months of backed-up new-member paperwork "thrown" at me to sort through and log. But I can do it! I am UNION tough now! I know when to demand my breaks!

Kiss the joys

A line from a poem by William Blake:
"He who binds himself to a joy,
does the winged life destroy;
but he who kisses the joy as it flies,
lives in eternity's sunrise."

This quote is in a daily devotional I read today. The writer who referred to it was blinded as a child but due to advance surgery regained some sight only to mostly lose it again in later years.


He wrote: "I have had to learn not to bind myself the joy of sight but to kiss this winged blessing as it flies through my life. At time, the urge to grab and hold onto it is overwhelming, but in my heart of hearts, I realize one has to develop a certain attachment to joys of all kinds in order to escape the insidious poisons of bitterness and despair."

Tis the same principle that should be applied to our abilities (physical and mental) as they wax and wane or be wiped out suddenly in some accident or illness. And the people and things that come and go from our lives also seemed just loaned to us for a season.
If it is all God's, then I can accept more readily and let go more easily. Everything in it's own season.

(NOT having a bad day, just reflective as visions of destruction hog the news.)

Great Giver of all gifts, thank You for the blessings of this life. Help me to hold loosely, very lightly the gifts that You bestow. Help me to hold fast to You.

It's Hell Season

As much as I like living where we do, I dread fire season. Every October the Santa Ana winds blow hard, and if we haven't had rain, we get fires. SoCal is in the season of some of the worst fires ever. We have been spared for now in our community; we do not have fires burning around the rim of Simi, but we have the smokey air that makes the sun go red and almost obliterates it. We do not have a lot of ash falling here like we get some years, but we have the smokey smell. When the wind blows so hard we need to keep our windows and doors closed up tight. Before we got A/C those times would be uncomfortable. But as long as we have electricity, we are fine. Yesterday we lost electricity for awhile. I was caught (for the 3rd time in a year) in my electric reclining easy chair, reclined back, comfortable and cozy. Then I had to climb out to try to get to the ringing phone before the caller hung up because the cordless at my side would not work of course. I missed the caller but did get out of the chair ok.
We are heartsick watching the news of all the homes burned to the ground in CA in the last 3 days. Please pray for the safety of the firefighters, especially Marshall and John of our family. Thank God for the firefighters.
For now, we thank God for our safety and pray the fires stay away from our community this year.