Gratitude month

On facebook some of my friends have started a "gratitude month" post where each day they post something they are grateful for.
I like the idea so I joined in even though I don't know where it started. (It may be a Mormon thing since everyone I know who is doing it is Mormon?)
It's still a good idea!
I used to keep a gratitude journal many years ago and I have fun looking back at the things I was grateful for. I am grateful for a lot of the same things now.
What are you grateful for?
Here are some of mine:
I'm grateful for warm days even though it is November already.
I'm grateful for my sons who grow more each day and who make me smile each day.
I'm grateful for my mother who always inspires me.
I'm grateful I was able to put up Christmas lights because of the joy they bring to my oldest son.
I'm grateful for friends who provide us with last minute halloween costumes!
I'm grateful for my spouse who sits with me in the emergency room ALL DAY LONG to make sure I get the care I need.
I'm grateful for the balloons which my mom and sister sent in my birthday package. We have played and played and PLAYED with those balloons for three days now. My lips hurt!

What's your number?

Recently the population of the earth exceeded 7 billion.

There is a cool page on BBC that you can link to here to find out some stats on yourself and the country in which you live.

When I was born, I was the:


3,793,054,066th  person alive on Earth and the 77,990,203,579th to ever be born.

Interesting isn't it?
 

You can get more information on the page about the country in which you live. I entered Zimbabwe because although I don't live there now, it is where I am from.
I thought it was interesting that the life expectancy of women in Zimbabwe is 45.5 years. Thankfully I no longer live there, but reside in Canada where my life expectancy is almost double.

Nablopomo

Today is the first day of National Blog Posting Month.

I have lofty goals of participating and posting something every day.

I will start out the month with a photo of my boys from Halloween yesterday. They had a ball. We just went to a few houses out in our neck of the woods and they loved every minute of it. Max wanted to come homke and start eating candy but CJ wanted to keep going. We experienced rain, sleet and snow but still persevered!

Max was bound and determined he was going to be a witch this year - right up until bed time on the 30th. Then he decided he was going to be a pirate. I could NOT come up with anything he wanted to wear but the Fenties bailed us out with costumes for both boys! Pirates are grumpy apparently - hence the grumpy face on Max.

30 days of truth meme - an idea for November

Next month is November and I want to participate in the National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo), but to be honest November is a nightmare. The problems I have include my travel to school in BC (twice) and to Utah for my sisters wedding (once), and the fact I have no Internet at home on the weekends. In case I DO decide that I am going to try it out in addition to my "regular" blogs I think I might try a 30 days of truth meme that I have seen going around. Here are the topics....


Day 01 → Something you hate about yourself.


Day 02 → Something you love about yourself.


Day 03 → Something you have to forgive yourself for.


Day 04 → Something you have to forgive someone for.


Day 05 → Something you hope to do in your life.


Day 06 → Something you hope you never have to do.


Day 07 → Someone who has made your life worth living for.


Day 08 → Someone who made your life hell, or treated you like shit.


Day 09 → Someone you didn’t want to let go, but just drifted.


Day 10 → Someone you need to let go, or wish you didn’t know.


Day 11 → Something people seem to compliment you the most on.


Day 12 → Something you never get compliments on.


Day 13 → A band or artist that has gotten you through some tough ass days. (write a letter.)


Day 14 → A hero that has let you down. (letter)


Day 15 → Something or someone you couldn’t live without, because you’ve tried living without it.


Day 16 → Someone or something you definitely could live without.


Day 17 → A book you’ve read that changed your views on something.


Day 18 → Your views on gay marriage.


Day 19 → What do you think of religion? Or what do you think of politics?


Day 20 → Your views on drugs and alcohol.


Day 21 → (scenario) Your best friend is in a car accident and you two got into a fight an hour before. What do you do?


Day 22 → Something you wish you hadn’t done in your life.


Day 23 → Something you wish you had done in your life.


Day 24 → Make a playlist to someone, and explain why you chose all the songs. (Just post the titles and artists and letter)


Day 25 → The reason you believe you’re still alive today.


Day 26 → Have you ever thought about giving up on life? If so, when and why?


Day 27 → What’s the best thing going for you right now?


Day 28 → What if you were pregnant or got someone pregnant, what would you do?


Day 29 → Something you hope to change about yourself. And why.


Day 30 → A letter to yourself, tell yourself EVERYTHING you love about yourself

I have to be honest and say that although I think there is some value in writing a letter to myself to say everything I love about myself, I will likely NEVER post that online! So although I am all about the honesty thing, I may substitute some of these topics for others... So don't get your hopes up!

still procrastinatng school work

I am still procrastinating doing my thesis - which means I am still going to the library and checking out books. I just started to read "The Time Traveller's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger (how do you get a cool name like THAT?!) and I am LOVING it. I heard some mixed reviews about the movie but I have been "kinda" interested in the book for a while. I was hooked as soon as I opened the front cover and read the poem "Love after Love" by Derek Walcott.

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

sunday stealing

Sunday Stealing: The Over the Top Meme

Part One - Describe:

Your hair? Short

Your mother? Tall. My mom is an amazing woman. She is the hardest worker I have ever known.

Your father? My dad is the strong silent type. He has a wicked sense of humor. He loves technology.

Your favorite food? Mexican.

Your dream last night? I had a totally weird dream last night. I was living at home, my parents owned two properties and were selling one. I was upset they were selling one and they told me if I was so upset I should buy it and move out. I was shocked they would ask me to move out!

Your favorite drink? I love Dr. Pepper, the American kind.

Your dream/goal? My current goal is to make some home improvements and get the boys to sleep the night through.

The room are you in? I'm at home in my living room.

Your hobby? I love reading, but is that a hobby? I love crafting and cross stitch. I am itching to start a new cross stitch but can't decide on what project to work on.

Your fear? Losing someone close to me.

Your TV? We currently have one working television in the house. It is a 13 inch tv/dvd combo and it is on top of the armoire where no-one can reach it.

Your Pets? The pet population in our house has been dramatically reduced in the last month and a half. We now have two cats and one dog.

Friends? I have some!

Your life? It has certainly taken me to places I never thought possible, places I never even knew existed!

Your mood? I'm working on improving my mood. My spouse watched something that said coke has a negative effect on mood so I am trying to reduce my coke intake and fight the headaches I get EVERYtime I try. (I have given up coke more times than I can count and I always end up drinking it again!)

If you're missing someone? I miss my parents.



Part Two - The Where's?



Where do you want to be in 6 years? Wow, In six years I will have two boys in school, so wherever we are it will be close to a great school, and hopefully closer someone in my family.

Where were you last night? At home, watching television and playing on the internet.

Where did you grow up? I grew up in a small town, in another country, close to my aunts and uncles and both sets of grandparents. It was a wonderful childhood.

One place that I go to over and over? The Library.

Your favorite place to eat out? When I was living in Ogden I loved going to the Union Grill or to Burrito Grande. Now that I am in a small town, I don't have a favorite place to eat out.

Wish list items? Because we are currently working on the house I wish I had a bigger budget to afford all the improvements we want to make! A new roof, gutters, a new bathroom, a new kitchen.....

Last time you laughed? I laughed a minute ago at my 16 month old who walks like he is 90.

Last time you cried? Putting Tora to sleep last month.



Part Three - The What's?



Something that you aren't? Ridiculously good looking.... oh wait.......

Last thing you did? Tried for too long to copy and paste this fetching meme.

What are you wearing? My pajamas and a long sleeve t-shirt that is very comfy.

Something you're not wearing? Shoes

Your favorite store? Hm. I don't think I have a favorite store. I like overstock.com and lee valley

word update

The appointment with the hearing specialist is at the end of this week and we are nervous to hear what the prognosis is for our boy. In the meantime he is saying new words almost every day. This week he said ice and rice, yesterday he said bottle, and today he said bubbles while he was in the tub!

Shel and I are going to look and see if there are any opportunities to take sign language classes somewhere. That's one of the drawbacks of living so far away from a major center - we don't have lots of opportunities for things like that. at this point we are willing to travel to learn what we can. He picks it up very quickly, it is harder for us and we are just hunting and pecking for individual signs on the internet as we think we need them. I really think he would be using a lot more signs if we were. The challenge is to get him to use the correct sign all the time because he really modifies them. Shel and I understand what he means, but anyone else using REAL sign language would have no clue!

Unfortunately we cannot find a sign for worchestershire sauce which is a staple in his life. He isn't quite ready for finger spelling!

12 of 12

12 of 12 is courtesy of Chad Darnell. I will put a link up here asap. I need to hurry and post this though, so I will come back with the link..... enjoy!
Here is the link to Chad's site. Check it out! It's worth your time.


I am posting these backwards because I am having issues with my internet connection and I want to get this posted in the next 20 minutes... my apologies.

#1. My baby is up WAYYYY too late but he thinks if he is cute he will get away with something. He is right. He should not be playing with his phone but SLEEPING.


#2. I love, love, love the PVR. It means when I get home late I can still watch my favorite shows and PAUSE the action when something "interesting" is on the screen!

#3. Zuva got a new collar. It is a reflective collar. She apparently has had a long day and is sleeping. Unlike me and the baby.

#4. Nyxie had an extra long day. It looks like Max got into the paint and tried to color her up. He doesn't realize Halloween is over. Poor Kitty needs a bath.

#5. It's 10:30. I am still resenting daylight savings. That means that my body thinks it is 11:30 pm.

#6. This is what is left of my Birthday Balloons. The have held their helium very well.

#7. This is a picture of an actual article from this weeks newspaper in my town(the paper gets published once a week and I just bought this weeks edition today). Front page news. "The plop hits the spot."

#9. This was sometime around 6pm? My desktop. The only thing better than P!nk is .... 4 P!nk's

#10. 9am at work. Not the best picture, I was trying to show that the red light is on. That means there is a message for me (or messages) at work. I hate seeing this little red light primarily because there are a few people who call me REPEATEDLY and so instead of getting one message I get seven from the same person.

#11. Who gets a new finger condom? I DO! I DO! It even has little breathy holes so my finger doesn't sweat while I do paperwork :)

#12. So I got a NEW phone at work. I don't know why I am excited about a new phone - now there are two phones on my desk one right next to the other which I think is very funny. I like new things and it is prettier than my "old" phone. Unfortunately people can still leave multiple messages for me :(

the words we use

I am fascinated by the words we use. I know. I am a bit of a geek. I simply find it interesting that words and their meanings change over time. I also find it interesting how we manipulate the meanings of words.
I have been thinking of this again recently as news reports about the shooting at Fort Hood have been coming out on various websites and news stations. The most recent report that I read, on the BBC, reported from a statement from the FBI that Major Hasan "was not involved in terrorist activities or terrorist planning."
It simply does not make any sense to me how the meaning of the word "terrorism" and "terrorist" have changed so much over the past few years. As far as I am concerned, the acts of Major Hasan were acts of terror. He created terror, a violent act intended to cause fear. Whether it was his intent when he set out to shoot people that he would cause terror or not, (how could it not have been, but I have no way of knowing what he was thinking) his act was an act of terrorism, regardless of whether the FBI believe it to be or not.
This week is remembrance day. A day set aside to reflect on those people who have given their lives for our freedom, both here and abroad. I don't pretend for one minute to have insight into the pain that of those who have lost loved ones or who have suffered themselves as they have been exposed to conflicts while representing their countries and defending freedom.
I am grateful beyond words. My gratitude will not change, no matter what words come to mean in the passage of time. I simply hope that the way we use and change the meaning of our words will not bring more pain to those who live through the terror. I hope their pain is not marginalized by our manipulation of language, and because the "FBI" said so.

meme

This is part 1 of a meme taken from Sunday stealing.....



1. What is the color of your toothbrush? blue and pink actually. I can't remember the last time I had a pink toothbrush before this one. I've had it less than a month.

2. Name one person who made you smile today. The actors on SNL doing a skit.

3. What were you doing at 8 am this morning? In bed asleep

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? Watching a movie (ladyhawke) and playing on facebook.

5. What is your favorite candy bar? I don't have a favorite, what I choose depends on my mood. Probably Cadbury's fruit and nut more than anything else.

6. Have you ever been to a strip club? Only for a job interview

7. What is the last thing you said aloud? Only for a job interview.

8. What is your favorite ice cream? vanilla

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? coke

10. Do you like your wallet? I don't have a wallet really. I like my purse, but it is actually a pencil case, an elephant skin pencil case.

11. What was the last thing you ate? popcorn

12. Have you bought any new clothing items this week? nope

13. The last sporting event you watched? UFC

14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn? regular

15. Who is the last person you sent a text message to? Nikki, and I'm pretty sure she is ignoring me.

16. Ever go camping? yup

17. Do you take vitamins daily? no, but I need to

18. Do you go to church every Sunday? nope, but I did for more than 1/2 my life.

19. Do you have a tan? kinda.

20. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza? yes

21. Do you drink your soda with a straw? no

22. What did your last text message say? something about someone who was somewhere they shouldn't be.

23. What are you doing tomorrow? sleeping in, reading and UNFORTUNATELY for me - going to work



24.Favorite color? green



25. Look to your left, what do you see? the wall

machinery going ALL DAY

I am having a very indulgent day. I slept in, read a book from cover to cover, watched some UFC fights and now I am watching a movie and eating popcorn. I love this kind of a day.
all day long - from the time I woke up until long after dark I have been listening to the machinery of the farmer going over the land all around us. It has made me realize a few things... Number 1. It is very easy to become accustomed to the absolute silence out here, and to appreciate it. The noise of them working has been annoying all day and every time we let Zuva outside she barks like mad which is more annoying. She has a lot to get used to with the changing landscape and being alone.
Number 2. Whomever it is that is working the machinery in the field is a ridiculous worker. I can't imagine that the thing has a very good heater and it has not stopped going ALL day and it is cold out. The machine has literally not been turned off for a lot of hours. They obviously want to turn what was bush into viable farmland as quickly as possible and they are sparing no expense to get it ready as soon as possible and start making money off it.
Number 3. They must have a whack of money - for the time and the equipment that has been coming and going, even if they don't own this machinery they are paying a pretty penny to rent it and get the work done.
Number 4. As annoying as it is to hear them working all day, the sooner they are done the sooner we will not have to listen to it anymore and it will just be the "normal" farmer work being done in the fields.
Number 5. We REALLY need to be ready first thing in the spring to get our windbreak up as soon as possible and put some trees on our property. We will never be able to replace what was there, but we will be able to make a difference --- THAT IS OUR GOAL.

finally friday.....

Doing this nablopomo thing is making me try to get my creative juices flowing again to try and come up with creative things to post about and not just use meme's to fill the days. I do enjoy memes though so I will likely post a few this month. And I won't pretend for a minute that I am having any luck coming up with interesting ideas to write about.

In the meantime, I am glad it is Friday, I am glad I am done with work for the day, and I am looking forward to getting into bed with some books we got from the library last week. I have read four books this week - I feel almost human! (o.k. so they were the twilight series books so not anything deep or time consuming, bit it still felt good to read something from cover to cover!)

Unfortunately I have to be back to work on Sunday so I don't really get a whole weekend off. I am SPENT. There are not enough hours in the day for me to catch up on my sleep.

all messed up

Some things have changed in my schedule at work and for the first time in six years I am not working late nights on Thursdays, but on Wednesdays instead. There are some things I like about, but there is one thing in particular that I HATE about it. I cannot get used to the fact that when I go into work the day AFTER my late night it is NOT Friday. I am so accustomed to coming in to work just one more day after my late night shift and then having my weekend. I have been working this new schedule for almost a month already and it has messed me up completely. All day Thursday I think it is Friday and I am ridiculously sad to get up on Friday morning and realize I have to go into work because it is not the weekend. It also seems to "chop" my week into weird parts.... I don't get as much done in the week before my late shift and my two days afterwards feel like a hazy mess. It's a real mind f&^%.
When I walked out of the building tonight I said to two students "Have a good weekend" to which they responded "Oh - do you get the day off tomorrow?" I could have cried on the spot.
I am not a person who typically has any aversion to change at all, but this change has messed with my whole groove and I am struggling to get back into it.

swine flu

I am working tonight and my spouse just called to let me know she things the swine flu has hit our home.

I should not be surprised, our boys get sick with EVERY bug that passes. Max has had an upset stomach today which is apparently one of the symptoms. He also has a fever and body aches. Shel asked him if there was any part of his body which "DIDN'T" hurt and he said no.

ARG

shake my head

In my profession there are always things cropping up that are unexpected. Some are funny, some are annoying and some are sad. Then there are the ones that just leave me shaking my head because I am simply baffled.

Today for instance, two female students came to the front counter. They are living in an apartment together and one bedroom unit is unoccupied. They were concerned that "someone" today had entered the third bedroom and turned on a light and left it on. We have had maintenance in the unit working on the heating system and thought it was possible (though unlikely?) that maintenance had let themselves into the bedroom. Still, stranger things have happened and so the office administrator went to the apartment to unlock the door and turn off the light. It turns out there was no light on in the bedroom, it was....THE SUN! Yup. The sun was shining through the window and a stream of sunlight was shining under the door and it freaked them out. I suppose it's true, we don't see much of the sun WAYYYY up here in the north. Unfortunately we were unable to turn it off for them. I'll bet that shows up on our exit survey.
"Office administrator unable to turn off the sun when it shone under the door." We have had complaints about the darkness you know.

Then there's the guy who comes in to make a payment plan and so I ask him what funding he is getting and why he needs to be on a payment plan. He asks ME what funding he is getting. That meeting got confusing very quickly. I am starting to wonder if I live in an alternate reality.

Unfortunately for me it was just "one of those days". I had to do a requisition for some new fire panels. So I do the requisition (in triplicate) and print it off without saving it, because why would I save something I just printed off three copies of? Then I open my email and see a quote from another company for a lesser rate than the one I just made out the requisition for. So I tear up ALL THREE COPIES that I just printed off and start to work on the new requisition and THEN realize that the email is about INSTALLATION of the panels, and the original requisition is for the panels themselves. Nice.

I decide I'm not starting on that lengthy project again this afternoon, I will just make a quick call to a vendor about getting some key tags. My call went through to a salesperson at the company and I made my request. I know EXACTLY what it is that I want. I have a catalogue in front of me and all I need to do is ask if the product comes in more than one color. She asks me "Why?" I should have known then that the three minutes I planned to take on this phone call just blew right out of the window. I was on the phone for over 20 minutes. Instead of her helping me, I spent the entire call tried to explain what I was doing to someone who had NO conception of the project and who was becoming more confused by the minute. She had some interesting suggestions for the project though - WHICH MADE ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE WHATSOEVER - and she ended up directing me to the website (which I already had used!)

CAN THIS DAY END? Where is my office administrator when I need the sun turned off?

where the wild things are

I have always loved the book "Where the Wild Things Are". I haven't seen the movie yet but we plan on going and taking our little ones to it - their first movie in a theater. I suppose for them the theater will never play as big as role in their lives as it has in mine, just because we live so far from the theater.

My number one son is named Max. I'm thinking of getting a tattoo of the Max from Wild Things as my representation of my boy. Right now he is still not really interested in sitting in our laps and being read to - which makes sense if he can't hear us right? It bothered me a little that he would never sit in my lap and let me read to him because reading is SO much a part of our lives. Now that he is in the school program and they visit the library he seems a bit more interested in checking out books. I hope this book will be one of his favorites. I can't wait to read it to him.

If you haven't read the book yet - you must. I love it. I hope the movie does it justice (but do they ever?)

November already

Our beloved Tora is resting in peace now. She was a gentle soul and we all miss her desperately. October was a hard month for us all. With putting Tora to sleep and all the medical appointments for Max we were coming and going all month long.

I can't believe the month is already over. Maxie has been in school already for a month. He seems to be settling in - or he is just very excited every day to be picked up! The speech therapist said we should set a goal for him for the year of learning two words. His first word was "onion" which cracks me up. This week when I picked him up the teachers said he said "ball". We are super excited that he has already said two words because in one of his appointments this month the doctor said he was "profoundly" deaf and that the surgery in September for his ears didn't work.

Max has decided that he LOVES pumpkin carving. We carved a few together and he had a complete ball.

The farmer finished cutting down all the trees to the north of us leaving us completely exposed - and feeling it. It looks horrible and we can barely wait until spring to get new trees planted. I am sure it will make a difference, but it will never be the same.

365/8 Alfred

When I was growing up my family moved back and forth from continent to continent.
I was born and raised in Zimbabwe. When I was born the country was "Rhodesia" and in the 1970's there was a civil war, ending in the countries independence and a name change to "Zimbabwe".
My family lived in Zimbabwe through this tumultuous time. My father fought in the civil war, his brother was killed. I have other family members who also lost their lives. Few people who lived there through this time were left unscathed.
In elementary school there was this boy, Alfred, whose family moved to the USA when the civil war broke out and did not return until after independence. Alfred was born in the USA.
Alfred was incredibly mean to me. He would call me "whitey" and say that my family did not belong in Zimbabwe and that we should be killed.
I never understood why the color of my skin should make me "less" African. Although Alfred was the first person in my life who overtly claimed I was not "African", it is a sentiment I have encountered many times in my life.

I am African, not because I was born in Africa, but because a piece of Africa was born in me.

nablopomo: growing

Tonight I am at work and my spouse sent me a text message to let me know our baby has finally popped his first tooth. He is growing so quickly it is exciting (and sad!)
I can't believe how teeny he used to be.

growing ... headache

I currently have a growing headache. I am a little surprised because although I get headaches frequently I usually get them after I haven't slept well or on Fridays when I have been working late Thursday night and back at work early Friday morning. I can almost predict to the minute when I will get a headache on a Friday (right at 2pm).

When we go to the USA, besides eating LOTS of Mexican food we always stop and get Excedrin Migraine. It is one of the only things I can take that gives me any kind of relief from my migraines. Unfortunately today it is not helping.