BOOSTER'S BLATHERINGS

Yes, we're in the path of the storm, and we're due to get a whoopin'.  Eight inches to a foot of snow with high winds.  Gonna have near-blizzard-like conditions.

Once, just this once, I'm glad we don't live out in the country.  The roads get absolutely horrible even in a moderate snow.

Heard from my Aunt Catbird in Pittsburgh.  She got 17 inches from the last storm and lost power from Friday night until about 2:30 on Sunday afternoon.  I'm glad she is safe and sound.  No word from my cousin, Heath, in Fredericksburg.  I'm sure he's fine but still digging out.

We have everything except Jonathan's medication, which Ed will pick up in a few minutes.  

This storm is fixin' to be as bad as the New Year's Storm of 2000, when I went out against police orders to let my friends' dogs out so they could pee.   I'm please to report I have no plans to do any driving during this particular storm.  I plan to watch from inside only.

If it does come in time to cancel school tomorrow, which it's forecasted to do, it'll give me time tomorrow to get a few things done, including cleaning off my desk and putting up some crocheting projects.  Baxter, being the striped terror that he is, has gotten into my yarn and pulled some skeins around the house.  I managed to get those cleaned up, but the place I stored them is a mess.

That's all for today.  Friends in the path of this storm, be careful and stay safe!  

Guess I've been rather scarce lately.  Sorry.  

Everyone here is doing just fine.  Dave and I have been sharing a cold.  His was mostly nasal, mine has been affecting my ears and the glands in my neck.  Just when I thought it was going to simmer down, it's shifted from my right ear to my left.  Well, that should mean the end is in sight, right?

February is going to be a very busy month.  We have a lot of things going on at the school, and a few things already planned here at home.  Not all will be work, though.  Scruffy and Sassy are set to put in an appearance at the school's open house for the Science Fair.  That's always a load of fun.  And it looks like some of the other troupe members will be able to join us, which will make it even better.

We're still trying to help Eddie get his act together.  He has not adjusted well to high school at all.  We're perplexed as to how to help him cope better.  Guess we keep on trying the same old tricks and hope that some day very soon it will "click" with him.

Still have not found my engagement ring.  It seems very unlikely that we'll find it now.  Well, at least I enjoyed nearly 20 years with it.  Ed and I have talked about finding a replacement.  Thanks to Mish, who suggested looking at Overstock.com, we might be able to swing it.  It depends on a few factors.  I'm excited about the prospect, but I'd still rather have the original because Ed picked it out for me and bought it as a surprise.

Well, time to prepare for tomorrow.  I'm so glad it's Friday.  It's been a hectic week, and I'm ready for a break.

Good night.

Today marked a weird sort of anniversary for me.  It's been 24 years since the big 1986 Northeast Ohio Earthquake.  It was centered in Geauga County, which was only 15-20 minutes south of where I was.

Those of us who lived in the area at the time will never forget it because NE Ohio is just not an earthquake-prone region.  They get tremors every now and then, just as we do here, but nothing of that magnitude.  It registered a 5.5 (or was it 5.9?) on the Richter Scale.  I can't remember for sure.  Sticks in my mind it was close to a Mag 6.

I can still remember what happened as if it were yesterday.  When I recall the event, my heart still pounds and I get the shivers.  In my mind, I still see my friend, Becky Shaffer, shifting side to side, and she wasn't moving voluntarily.  I still see the huge windows of the church (I went to a Christian school) bowing in and out, oh-so-close to shattering right over our heads.  Never have I moved so fast in my life for any reason.  It took me less than two seconds to reach the sturdy bathroom. Since we never had to think about earthquakes before, we didn't know we should've run outside.  We took to the tiny bathroom as we would for a tornado.  

That was the year our school got it's brand-new gymnasium, and the earthquake put large cracks in it.  Those in the modular classrooms had lost all their stuff on the floor, and the ceiling tiles shifted out of place.  The windows rattled and shook until my classmates thought they would surely break.  I'm surprised they didn't.  

Going back in time and recalling being in the moment is a bit spooky.  All the emotions, the awe of what took place, and the reactions of everyone are still very fresh.  

I hope I never endure that again.  My friend, Richard, kind of joked about that when I mentioned it in my FB, and I said, "Really, here in Michigan we stand more chance of being leveled by a tornado than an earthquake."  Well, that's half true.  If the New Madrid fault in Missouri finally ruptures, we will definitely be impacted by that because of the way the fault lines lie.  God forbid it should ever happen in this lifetime.

Of course, after our local tragedy, we endured the Challenger mishap.  It seemed like our world was crashing down around our ears that year.  It was certainly memorable.  I graduated high school, lived through an earthquake, saw one of our worst space tragedies happen, went to Europe for two weeks, and then went to college.  Whew.  Oh!  And I forgot....I received (and turned down) my first marriage proposal that year.

Ed and I were born during a tumultuous year.  Guess we needed to keep up the pace by having a tumultuous year for our coming of age.

Well, it makes for good storytelling, anyhow. 

Good generic title, huh?

Woke up this morning with what I suspected was the start of a bladder infection.  The discomfort was rather intense for a while, but it's eased up this afternoon. If it is infection, I hope it hasn't moved up to my kidneys.  Gonna be guarding my health carefully for the next couple of days by downing lots of cranberry juice and water.

The kids have the day off tomorrow for Records Day.  Along with teachers, parapros have to go in, too.  Some were wishing for the day off, and I admit the extra day of rest would be nice, but I'm looking forward to going to work.   Having a quiet day in the classroom with S helps both of us plan and prepare so our days go more smoothly, and we can be more help to the kids.   This past week had some challenges, but that's where tomorrow will help us.  This is a great opportunity to get ready for the next half of the year.  I feel very fortunate to work with S because she includes me in the plans and values my opinion.  In turn, I work my hardest to help her accomplish everything she wants to get done.  I feel we make a really good team.

Tomorrow evening, I'm going with David to the school board meeting.  He and a few friends are going to petition the school board to allow weekly student- prayer meetings after school.  A friend of ours, a fellow Christian and former employee of the school, will be supervising the meetings each week.  She will be at the meeting as well.  A couple of my own friends have asked why we have to petition the school board, when other schools allow them.  I don't have a pat answer, but my guess is because we're a charter school.  We are a public school, but we are our own district.  We aren't connected with the local intermediate school district but supervised by a major university.  Because of that, I think permission has to be granted.  It's not too likely the kids will be turned down, but we want to play by the book so there's no issue.

Temperatures reached a very balmy 48 degrees today with rain and wind.  The bitter cold and snow is supposed to return this week.   It's all a part of Michigan winter, but it's very hard to take when you've longed for the warmer weather and got a small taste of it!  Spring just can't get here quickly enough to suit me.  Speaking of Spring, after the Super Bowl passes, I'll have no sports to watch until Spring because I hate pro basketball.  I'm already chomping at the bit for baseball season to start!!  Yeah, I know.  I'm a nut.  But I hate cold weather so much.  Every year about this time, Spring Fever hits me and escalates until the real deal comes around.  Guess this year should be no different.

Well, off to take a much-needed shower and crochet awhile.  I'm working on another bag, this time trying to perfect the pattern because a friend wants me to write it down.  (yipes!)  I never write down my own work; I just do it.  This ought to be a challenge!

See you later.

This was one of those days where it seemed like everything I did was wrong or not good enough.

I put my foot in my mouth at least twice.

Children were argumentative and cranky.

My kids are the same and not getting along.

I hate these kinds of days.  Where are all the people who are in a good mood?  I haven't found too many.

Calgon....you know what to do.

God is so merciful!

Went to the dentist today for a painful tooth.  I feared the worst...a crown, a root canal, or (gasp!) an extraction...because the pain has been severe.

The dentist found a large cavity next to the filling in that tooth, caused by my inability to get needed dental work done.  It's caught up to me at last. Couldn't wait any longer.

Fortunately, the dentist had time right then and there to take care of it.  No second trips, no complications.  All done.

I'm so relieved!!

If only visits to the dentist could be that simple.

I didn't think I would finish the bag over the extended weekend, but it is all done!

Because of my camera and the poor lighting in here, the colors aren't true.  The bag is a very dark green, with a turquoise, lime green, and white flower.  The color is better in the second picture where I show the lining.  I was so excited to find that fabric.  It matches the flower colors perfectly!

So without further ado....

I have the bag done, and it turned out to be a ruck sack rather than a book bag.  I was so intent on getting it done, I made one large handle instead of two smaller handles, so it looks more like a purse.  (shrug)  It's the first one I've ever made, and despite my mistake with the handle, it looks good.  I know I can reproduce it to make another.

I still have crochet the flowers to put on it, so it's not completely finished.  I'll work on that tonight while I watch my Britcoms.

So here it is in it's semi-finished state: (please forgive the blurry picture)

Well, it's exciting to me!

I've been looking around for a smaller bag, more of a....hmmm...how do I describe it?  Not a beach bag, not a purse, not a backpack.  It's like a book bag of old, just big enough to handle several books.  Do you know what I mean?  For some reason my "describer" is broken today.  O_o

I can't seem to find what I want.  I saw some bags at Wal-Mart that were the right size, but they had Michael Jackson stuff plastered all over them, and he's just not my thing.

So I am going to crochet my own bag.  I feel pretty confident I can do it.  In fact, I may have a pattern that I can improvise on.  Then I hope to decorate it with some hand-crocheted flowers.  Some of you will remember when I got a motif book and attempted a few flower patterns from it. I posted pictures at the time.  I want to decorate my new bag with a few of those flower motifs.

For those who've joined my FL since then, here are a couple of examples:

                                                


I don't know if I will use these particular flowers.  I'm still thinking about how I want it to look.  Right now, I need to sit down and get the main portion of the bag done.  The next trick will be finding my extra skeins of yarn because they aren't all stored in the same place, due to lack of storage.  I'm thinking I want dark blue for the body of the bag, and then I'll add colorful flowers.  We'll see.

Off I go.  Hope you're having a good week!

I can't think of one.  This will probably be a mish-mash of different things.

After Dave trudging around for a couple of days complaining of his ankle, I took a better look.  He has the symptoms of plantar's fasciitis in his foot.  I had that last year, and it really is painful.  I wrote a note to Dave's coach, asking him to bench Dave for tonight's game.  This will be Dave's first and only season with basketball.  He, his father, and I have come to realize it's basketball is not for him.  However, he did commit to the season with the team so he has to see it through to the end.  He's felt discouraged at times, but overall he's kept a really good attitude about it.  I'm proud of him for going after it and giving it a try.  He will learn from that.

I am having more troubles with a sore tooth, so I asked Ed to call the dentist to see what arrangements could be made since we have no insurance. The local Presbyterian church runs a clinic and will give me a voucher which the dentist will accept as my payment and the church will pay the rest.  I dislike that very much, but I simply must go because I think the tooth is abscessed.  The government is failing to bring back jobs so my husband and I can have dental insurance, but yet they won't cover us when we must see the dentist.  I feel like they're telling us to "bend over and take it."  Well, I have plenty to say to them and none of it is ladylike.

Ed is in the kitchen making tuna casserole, my very favorite meal!  And I am starved!  It's gonna be very difficult to keep to my new regimen! Mmmm.  Tuna casserole!  (drool) 

Other than those couple of things, not much else comes to mind.  Gave Jonathan a hair cut, well, more like a trim, because it was tickling his ears.  Eddie built himself a fine snow fort out front, and I jogged off to Wal-Mart for my girlie jams and jellies.  

Think I'll crochet until supper is ready.  Hope you're having a good week!

I've really had it with this thing.  It's giving me fits.

When I came home, it would not stop rebooting.  Ed said it'd been doing it a lot during the day.  After shutting it off and letting it sit for about 40 minutes, it finally rebooted and started Windows.

Initially, I thought it was either the borrowed power supply going bad, or the mother board is dying a slow, painful death.  However, when I checked my e-mails, I got a forward from myself that said "TACOS BUENOS."  Not possible.  I haven't seen a forward like that, and I rarely pass any forwards on.  In fact, I don't usually read the ones I get from other people, including my mom and father-in-law.

So, if you receive any forwards from me, DO NOT open them.  Discard it immediately. 

Now I have the unpleasant job of trying to find this thing and eliminate it.  Norton didn't catch it, so that's not a good sign.  I hope we're not in for a heckuva fight.

Not for groceries or supplies.  Books and CDs!  The best kind of shopping to do!

My in-laws gifted me with a Barnes & Noble gift card for Christmas, so Ed and I left the boys with them today while we went up to Battle Creek to do some looking around.

I decided on a book of Emily Dickinson poetry, since I had nothing by her yet.  That left me with money left over, so I browsed through the music department and found a discount rack for $8.   I was able to get two CDs; one is of relaxing violin music, the other is Ella Fitzgerald's love songs.  Can't wait to break into them!

That's it for today.  Unless I lose steam before dinner time, I plan to make stuffed green peppers and rice.  Then to delve into my book!

Hope you're having a good weekend.  :o)

Sorry I haven't been posting much.  Guess I'm in a bit of a dry spell.

Everyone is doing fine.  Ed had a busy day, popping popcorn for our school, running the sound board at church for a funeral, and making sure the quiz benches he made for the church's quiz team are working properly.  The boys are upstairs cleaning their room (well, attempting to do so), then they will help remove Christmas decorations.

I'm on Day 9 of my new eating habits.  I refuse to say "diet."  Diets come and go.  This is a lifestyle change.  That's helped my mom stick to it, and I'm hoping it'll do the same for me.  After discussing Weight Watchers points with my mom, I discovered I have a total of 67...32 for the little test they give you, plus 35 for just starting.  I find it hard to believe I'll need 67 points, but that may change once I get the book and see how many points each food is.  I'd been playing things very conservatively up until last night when I indulged in three pieces of Pizza Hut stuffed-crust pizza for supper.  That's probably 67 points right there!  (rolls eyes)  Otherwise, I've been very careful about what I eat.  

The best part is, I'm not having the severe hunger between meals.  Having a modest snack and plenty of protein in my meals is helping a lot.  I would still love to have just one carb-overload meal just for old times' sake, but it's not worth it.  I like how much better I feel since my sugar is not rising and falling so sharply.

Other than those couple of things, life in Boosterland is pretty routine.   The boys will be going to their grandparents' house for a visit tomorrow, so Ed and I will have a day to ourselves.  We'll probably go to Battle Creek to rummage around.  I have a Barnes & Noble gift card that's burning a hole in my pocket, so I'll get to do some book shopping.  YAY! 

I've been reading your journals as much as possible.  Haven't had much to say, but I am still keeping up with you all.

See ya.

My friend, Connie, introduced me to Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine, and I just had to have a subscription!  Got my first issue a day or two ago, and I love it.  This month is their "light" issue, full of recipes for lighter eating.

Tonight I decided to try a recipe that stood out at me, Pasta with Roasted Vegetables and Arugula.  I don't like arugula because it's too spicy, so I substituted fresh baby spinach leaves.  I also substituted whole-wheat penne pasta for the regular rigatoni.  Mmmm.  I think I like the whole-wheat pasta better. It has a nuttier flavor.  And the whole dish was a cinch to make.

Best of all, the magazine has caught Ed's attention.  I hope he will join me in trying some of these new dishes.  He might even try some of the pasta I made tonight, even though it has roasted tomatoes in it.  That's a good sign...although he was talking about making a turkey-sausage sandwich with regular sausage.  Heh.  What am I going to do with him??  ;o)

I'm going to grab some yogurt and granola before bed.  Oh!  I need to write down stuff in my diary, too!

'Nite.

I spent some time talking with my mom over the holidays about her success with Weight Watchers.  

She has lost 75 pounds all on her own. No fads, no expensive diet food, no personal trainers, no surgeries.   She does go to WW support groups, but she's taken the weight off with just their point system and her own determination to permanently change her eating habits.  She has only 25 lbs to go.  Imagine her delight when she discovered the plus-size clothes were too big!  She shops in the "skinny" section of the department store now, a first since she was quite young.

I have been desiring to drop more weight.  Draining the ovarian cyst did a lot to help my clothes fit better, but I have a long, long way to go before I'm as slim as I'd like to be.  It would be ridiculous to ask for a size 4 'cause I have borne three children, after all!  But I would like to get down to a respectable size, like a 10 or 12.  Even a size 14 would be OK with me.  Where I'm at now is totally unacceptable.

We saw WW's advert to join online for free until March but of course, you have to sign on for a three-month program after that.  I can't do it, so I'm going to attempt to watch my portions and the content of what I eat on my own.

I struggled tonight because we baked a Stouffer's lasagna, which happens to be one of my favorites.  How I wanted to chow down!  I did have an extra half-slice, but then filled up on salad with lite dressing and a yogurt with granola for dessert.  I'm still hungry but not unbearably so.  

My biggest problem is getting very hungry between meals.  If I go through the morning or afternoon with no snack, I overeat at meals. I really need to have a snack; however, I need to keep better things to snack on.  Luckily, Ed tends to buy chips and stuff that don't interest me, but that leaves me without something healthy as an alternative.  He helped me out tonight by buying some 100-cal cheese cracker packs, cheese sticks, yogurt, and organic granola.  Boy, granola can be just as fattening as anything else!  It's yummy, but look out!  Fortunately, I only plan to use it in my yogurt, so I'm not getting as many calories all in one shot.

I'm praying this determination sticks.  I have tried this before and failed; this time I want to make it work!  I need to make it work.  My weight right now is very unhealthy.  My goal is to reach my desired weight/size before I hit 48.  That gives me plenty of time to take it slowly and steadily.  We'll see how it works out!

So far, I've done better the past two days.  Here's praying the determination holds out.

Each of my guys got a Nerf gun for Christmas.  Jonathan got a Maverick Rev-6, which is like a revolver.  Dave got a Revcon CS-6, which is like a rifle, and Eddie got a rapid-fire 425 blaster, which is kind of like a machine-gun.  Each got plenty of extra darts to go with their guns.

They're having a super time learning how their guns work.  I have to admit, it looks like a ball.

I'm thinking *I* need to get a Nerf gun...a tripod machine gun!  

Oh, what fun we're going to have over the summer when we can get outside! :o)

Home safely!

We ran into lake-fed snow squalls from my parents' house until Elyria, but after that the drive was a piece of cake.

Thanks for all the prayers and good wishes!

:o)

We're packing up the van right now to head on out. 

Please pray for safety for us and for a smooth trip! 

Thanks so much!

Michigan here we come!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR,
Live Journal!

We welcomed the New Year in by gathering around as a family and watching the ball drop at Times Square.  This is the first time in well over ten years that I've gotten to ring in the New Year with my parents.  It was also Jonathan's first time getting to watch the ball drop.  I held him in my arms as the New Year began and as he watched the ball in total fascination.  Heheh.  It was cute.  He said, "Mom, that was waaay cool!"

Afterward the menfolk went to bed as Mom and I wrapped up a Scrabble game.  In the past couple of years, we haven't celebrated New Years.  It felt good to do something fun this time.

Tomorrow we head for home.  Please, if you would, send up prayers for our safety and for a smooth journey.  This area is supposed to get some snow, so I'm hoping we can leave before the roads get too slushy.

My love to you all.  Praying for a much better year for us all.  God is Faithful!  God is Good!