Merry Tossmas!

I love Tossmas! I will be celebrating it from now on. To find out more just follow the link...
http://www.citizenlink.org/Stoplight/A000005834.cfm

Random News

I finally joined the Y. My friend Debra talked me into it. She has been talking up the Y to me for years but I have always resisted because it costs more than other gyms. She finally convinced me it was worth it because of all the free classes they offer. So I joined. Then she and I, along with another friend of ours, started going to the "Core (that's your abs) and More (that's every other muscle group in your body) Class." All I can say about that is "Ooowwww."

Ashly and John are moving to San Francisco. John got a job there. I am both sad to see them go and excited for them. They've been traveling to SF on the weekends looking for an apartment. They have until March to find a place but they're ready to get there now. I am glad it's only a 2.5 hour flight there. I'll visit often.

I'll be in Virginia for two weeks in January. I have my first two intensive classes to complete. That will mean class all day and homework all night for two weeks. Sounds like fun, no? I have two classes after that in the Spring, then one more intensive in May, and then I start my internship. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Doug is now "Airshow Coordinator" for both the AirForce and the Tacoma Events Commission. I will miss him this summer.

My mother, who sits in a chair and watches TV all day, will eat KFC popcorn chicken every single day of the the week if I let her. Sometimes, I do. (j/k) I think the KFC employees think I'm nuts ordering the same thing every time I come there. I haven't told them its not for me, yet. Someday I will.

When I was in the Commissary last week there were two cashiers who could not identify an unshelled pecan. This was incredible to me. I thought everyone in the world knew what a pecan was. This is probably because I grew up on a farm in Alligator Mississippi that was surrounded by pecan orchards. I have been eating them all of my life.

Over the Christmas holidays I have four textbooks to read and two workbooks to complete before I head to class in January.

I should be doing school work right this minute but instead I am wasting time writing this poorly crafted blog.

The Hot Tub

The hot tub is alot of fun, but it is most fun when you stay in it because you want to and not because you locked yourself out of the house after 10:30pm and your husband is still at work and your mother won't wake up to answer the door because she sleeps like a dead person. And even though the hot tub will keep you warm for the next hour and a half while you wait for your husband to come home from work it is not so much fun now because you're starting to shrivel and you start wishing REALLY bad that you had an extra key somewhere outside and you vow that you will NEVER go out to the hot tub at night again without a key.

John, you're fired!

Ok so sometime in late spring, I was taking pictures of the flowers in the backyard (I keep trying to capture what it all looks like but it's impossible to capture the total look...at least for me and my non-existent photography skills)

So while I was capturing photos, I looked up and noticed that you could see John in my bedroom window. I had forgotten I put him there, so it took me by surprise. John was in the window for a purpose...not to just be funny....he was supposed to be doing a job. He failed, however. See, sometime in early spring the birds in my backyard got all Hitchcock on me. For reasons I'm not completely sure of...though I would guess it was reflections from the morning sun...these birds started kamikaze crashing (loudly, mind you) into my bedroom window. Now, that's disturbing, in and of itself, but it's even more disturbing when it happens at 6:00 am. Yes, these were the early birds out catching something more than worms, I would guess. (Or maybe they were the party all night birds still trying to get home from last night's excursion...I don't know). Whatever the case, I was losing sleep that I did not want to lose. I kept hoping maybe they would eventually all break their little necks and be done with it...but it never happened. So I got this brilliant idea. A scarecrow...yes, what we needed was a scarecrow (or a scarerobin in this case). So who is more intimidating than John Wayne? (well quite a few people but John happened to be the most available) He does make a formidable foe, though...don't you think! I did. But the birds....well, they could care less. I think they saw right through him... (literally)...they didn't miss a beat...every morning starting at 6:00 am the crashing continued. We started thinking perhaps that's why the Matthays sold this house. Finally, however, finally....around early summer they gave it a rest and John well he got retired to another room. He does make an occasional appearance, however, in Mom's closet, bed, chair, or shower just to give her a little jump and chuckle (thanks to Doug) but his scarebird days, they are over.

The Streets of San Francisco

Ahhh....the Streets of San Francisco...where were Michael Douglas and Karl Malden when we needed them...that's what I want to know. Yes, two women walking all alone after dark amidst thug and derelict crowded streets (each taking turns pretending to talk on the phone to some important person that would magically rescue them if something were to go wrong) could have used the help of two strapping (or not) police officer/detectives. I personally wanted to walk down the middle of the street rather than through two blocks of drug deals and homeless gatherings on the sidewalk. I thought I would probably have a better chance of surviving being hit by a car but....Margaret opted for the sidewalk...and I followed. We walked fast and furious all the way back to our hotel. This was our walk home from the theater adventure we had. Ahh..the Theaters of San Francisco...what an interesting audience we sat with that night....but then again...what would one expect when one goes to the Empire Plush Room to see a drag queen impersonate Barbara Streisand? Hmmmm.....

So the rest of San Francisco went like this...the Streets (hills) of San Francisco just about did Margaret in (walked through Union Square, China Town, to the Trolley Museum, to Grace Cathedral and back again) ...and an overcrowded bus of San Francisco (there was standing room only and I was standing among tall people who were sucking all the air out of the bus) almost did me in...luckily the bus broke down at that point and most of the too-tall air-hogs got off....After that, I refused to take the bus again.







So we took a taxi (or was that a roller coaster?) to Fisherman's Wharf. Up the hill, really, really fast, Stop! Down the hill,really, really fast, Stop! Up the hill, really, really fast, Stop! Down the hill, Stop! Up the hill....ok so that's the way it was all the way to the Wharf. Fun. When we got to the Wharf we found it to be VERY crowded. Actually, we found most of SF to be crowded. We also found it to be noisy. Wow. Seattle is so quiet in comparison. Not sure if there is a law against honking in Seattle or not but people do not honk in this city. In SF they honk....alot.

So all in all we did most of the touristy things ... went to Sausilito, drove across the Golden Gate bridge, did Ghiradelli Square, ate at an Italian restaurant across from Union Square, and the numerous other things aforementioned. One of the most marvelous things about the entire trip (up the coast and all) was that the weather stayed beautiful the entire time. Even in the Redwood Forests where it was supposed to be rainy and 40 to 60 degrees, it was 74. I was amazed at how beautiful it turned out to be.

Summer...(I think you can call it that)

So summer came and went in a blur this year. What an odd summer (year) this has been. The summer itself was disappointing (the coolest we've had in a while)... and I have craved the sun and heat this year even more than others (perhaps its from getting old). I can say thankfully that there were two beautiful days (upper 80's) that I spent at the Puyallup Fair...(then Margaret went home and took the sun with her!). I am glad we got those two days!

I also had one wonderfully hot day just outside Santa Rosa, CA. We ate lunch (outside mind you) at a beautiful little winery...The Crushed Grape...(I believe that was it). Outside in the shade that day it was 102 degrees. It was the first time (in a long time) that I thought..."It's too hot out here." Of course, I could not possibly say that to Doug and Margaret (I have done nothing but whine about the lack of heat) so I kept saying "Are you sure you're ok out here, honey?" Unbelievably, he kept saying, "Yea, I'm ok". So I had to suck it up and sweat through lunch. Needless to say, I had enough heat for that day.

Aside from those few days of heat, the other great thing about this summer has been discovering the hottub. I don't know what took Doug and I so long to actually get it up and running (we kept saying "Ah, we don't care about hottubs...) but Wow! after we did, we couldn't stay out of it. For me the warm water and the smell of chlorine gave the illusion that I was actually having a summer. I kept having alternating flashbacks of summers spent in the Jacksonville Rec Center pool and of every hotel hottub we've enjoyed over the years.

Now the rains have returned and well....fall is settling in as usual. At least the hottub is covered...I can still go out there and pretend.

When is a blog not a blog? (Hi, Margaret)

Technically, I don’t believe a blog ever ceases to be a blog. However, I do believe a blog may cease to be an active blog which has been the case with this blog for what… the last six months or so? So when does a blog cease to be an active blog…perhaps one reason is when the blogger is busy writing 2 two- to three-thousand word papers a week. This may make the idea of writing anything outside of class…ummm…absolutely unthinkable. Yeah, that could be one reason.

So what has occurred over the last six months besides more school papers than I ever cared to write?

Well, for starters, Sarah went away to school(Western Washington University) in January. This was a huge deal for her. She is a complete homebody, a Momma's girl that I thought would never move out! (Ashly, who is quite the opposite, could not get out fast enough).

WWU is only two and a half hours away so Sarah drove home (yikes!) on the weekends. It was an interesting experience for both of us. I had no idea I would actually miss the child as much as I did. With her being at school and Doug working at night,though, the house got way too quiet for me. Now that Sarah is home for the summer, she has already decided not to go back to Western. (I had a feeling....she likes free meals and room and board too much).

I lost Doug for most of the last six months to his Tacoma Freedom Fair Airshow planning. I already had a loose hold on him where his airplane interests were concerned...(truly, I cannot compete...he would trade me for an airplane, anyday, I'm sure)so when the Tacoma Events Commission asked him to coordinate their air show for the 4th of July...I lost him completely. I think I have some of his attention back, now...a little anyway.

When Sarah got out of school in June, she and I took a road trip. We had been craving the sun and Western Washington weather is so bipolar in the spring that we decided to head over the mountains to Eastern Washington. For those who do not know it...Eastern and Western Washington are like two different worlds. The west side (where we live) has cool, rainy, mild weather and the East side (where I'd rather live) is like a desert. That is ... it is like a desert most of the time....but not this time, nope....this time it was just as cold on the East side as it was on the West. We were disappointed but we decided to have fun anyway.
We stayed one night in Leavenworth...a Bavarian look-alike town with dozens of gift shops and specialty stores. They have plenty of German food, accordian players in the park, and yodeling, too.



Because of the fruit growing climate on the East side, there are dozens of fruit stands on the way to Leavenworth. Smallwoods Harvest is our favorite. It has grown to be much more than a fruit stand, though. It has green houses, a playground, and a petting zoo ( my absolute favorite thing to do!).




After our night in Leavenworth we drove to Spokane. It was a beautifully, warm drive (about three hours or so) until we actually entered Spokane, then it rained the rest of the day. Again, we decided to have fun anyway. We swam in the heated indoor pool. The next day was very cool outside but it was not raining. We spent the whole day at Silverwood Theme Park in Idaho.
We decided to swim at Boulder Beach even though it was in the low 70's. Fortunately, the shivering stops after you've been in the water for a while. The next day the weather was beautiful for the drive home. So on this, my four day vacation in June, the only part of my body that got tan was the lower half of my left arm, my driving arm.

In other news...I am only taking one class each term through the summer. This is freeing me up to enjoy the summer some...to play in my garden and to work in my church's counseling program....and maybe...just maybe to keep this blog from going inactive for so long...