What Happened?

I have to say that this year has me completely discombobulated! From the weather to politics, everything seems twisted and upside down.

In the summer we actually had summer, but in the autumn we had winter and now here in early February it's spring.

We are in a new church after more than 20 years in the last one and are still feeling our way around the new one.

I'm 50, married 25 years...how did that happen?

I'm finally using the crock pot I bought 8 years ago, whyyyy?

This year I finally got tired of "Gilligan's Island" reruns.

I suddenly hate to cook.

Inexplicably I love foods that I used to hate and loathe life long favorites.

I've succumbed to social networking in spite of my hermit like nature.

There is a lot going on in my head, but I never seem to be able to call on it at the appropriate moment anymore.

I love to shop, but feel I have too much already.

I love to give, but nobody wants to exchange Christmas gifts any longer.

I hate to shop!

My friends "kids" are driving, getting married and having babies not my friends themselves!

For the first time ever, I found myself not wanting to put up a Christmas tree, and hoping it was a one time thing.

The stack of wood for the fireplace has hardly been touched so far this winter, which is no problem really as I live with my own personal summer most of the time.

After years of wanting antlers, I find myself overflowing in them the last few months....but that's OK, I still like them, just wondering why so many all of a sudden?

I now live in a nation who's government thinks that everyone needs a baby sitter instead of the other way around.

I hate politicking yet find myself pulled into it out of desperation.

I have to think about how to write a check as we now use plastic or electronics almost exclusively.

Time fly's when you want it to stop and stops when you do.

Sigh!

I find myself looking back 30 years and wondering what I'd think then if I could see me now?Would I be surprised that I actually have a dog and no acne, that Kent would have less hair and me more weight? Would I even understand the technology I'm using to write this (my laptop) watch TV and DVDs, navigate my iPhone, and read from my e-reader? Would I marvel at what the future me knows or ponder what I don't.

Would I be confused at my sense of discombobulation now? Or would I understand that there is just a lot more to understand?!

Gonna wash that cheer right outta my hair!

I don't know if anyone actually reads this blog even though it's posted on my Face Book page, but it's a good writing exercise none the less.

Summer has flown by, and Fall just hasn't seemed right this year...guess I was too busy enjoying all the sun shine and wasn't ready for a change.

Overnight rain and wind came which blew all the leaves down then compacted them into a mouldy, mushroomy, mossy, grass killing carpet. No wonderful walks through crackling, knee deep, yellow, gold, red and orange leaves. No dancing in leafy whirlwinds. No drives through painted landscapes. Just sogginess, fog, slugs and pureed leaves on the wheel wells of my car.

Today in the second week of November we are dealing with snow of all things! Not the exciting pretty kind you can play in, but the 'just enough to make things miserable' kind, crusty, frozen to the roads, heavy and wet. Yesterday was beautiful, but could we please get 2 or 3 consecutive day's just like it? I fear that I'll be raking that matted carpet of leaves come Christmas!

Christmas! Last year I was bursting with Yuletide eagerness and cheer, this year...not so much...yet. I think it all came early or something, I was ready for it in October, but that has fizzled since...I'm hoping the Christmas cheer returns before the Holiday does!

I sit here scratching my head, I, who lives for Autumn and Christmas, who loves storms with wind, rain and snow, am longing for summer and sunshine already.

I've tried to force myself back into the comfy, winter mood I cherish every Fall with fires in the fireplace, hot chocolate with a bit of Rumplemintz and 'The Holiday' DVD, all to no avail. Maybe a holiday boutique will do the trick...

I'll let you know!

Don't get me wrong!!!

A high school teacher once pronounced that "Kelly is the kind of girl that will never get an ulcer". I wondered about that statement at the time...was he insulting me by suggesting that I was an air-head or was he being ironic. Years and a modicum of wisdom suggest to me that it was the first one...and he obviously didn't know the first thing about me.

There is a line in an old movie called "The Boyfriend School" where Shelly Longs character states that she is "just naturally tightly wound" and that pretty much describes me! Unlike her, though, I think I keep it hidden for the most part...most of the time, hence the teachers errant evaluation.

When we go on vacation to the beach, I rarely sleep, at night, by the pool, on the plane, I actually have to be back home for a week before I get any rest. When I go to bed I think for an hour and when I finally get to sleep, I dream and usually remember most of them.

Even when Kent and I are alone at the cabin, where there is nothing but sun and lazy day's, I can't relax because I can "feel" Kent wanting me to pull him skiing or wanting to golf which are both stressful things for me when I just want to try and relax. You're probably thinking, just humor him, do the stressful thing and then relax which would be great advice if he didn't want to do those things everyday, all day, and me "feeling it".

The best vacation I ever had was when I decided to let Kent go to the cabin without me. I spent two day's cleaning and made a big tuna casserole, (Kent hates tuna) enough to last me nearly the entire two weeks worth of dinners. Then I RELAXED! I went to a couple of Shakespeare in the park performances, saw the matinee of 'Lord Of The Rings' SEVEN times, had lunch with friends, went shopping and RELAXED!!! I still had some of my old stressed out habits like getting fully showered, dressed, and makeup straight out of bed, no robe for me...what if somebody came to the door like Publishers Clearing House?! But for the most part I did relax, even skipping church in case someone said something hurtful to ruin my new found state of bliss.

When you are tightly wound, finding compartments is essential. Deadline over in compartment number 4, drama from friends or family number 6 please, diet off-line goes in compartment 3, procrastination guilt over in 10. This enables one to dial up compartments as required instead of a stinky, unhealthy, dumpster dive, free for all of stress.

If I don't respond intelligently to a comment or question, it doesn't mean I don't get it. What it most likely means is that the subject upsets me or, I don't agree and don't want to debate it or, you're wrong and I don't want to embarrass you or, I get the insult and don't want to start a fight about it 'cause that only makes it worse or, I'm playing dumb to get out of an undesirable response, etc, etc, etc!!!

While the teacher was correct in that I've never had an ulcer, I contribute that to the fact that every 'body' handles stress in different ways. People can get TMJ, rashes, migraines, heartburn, back spasms, intestinal maladies, etc. all from stress.

I admit that I have my "air-headed" moments, but I tend to be proud of them for the most part, because they refuse to see insult and malign. They almost always see the good no matter how unintended and have wisdom beyond consciousness.

nee-dle, v, to desire urgently.

Well....the birthday trip has transpired and it was officially a disaster!

Jeff Foxworthy in an unorthodox redneck dictionary had a word that kind of sums up my vacation! Nee-dle, v, to desire urgently. "After I finish this I'm gonna needle little vacation".

An hour and a half into our trip to Yellowstone/Grand Teton we detoured into downtown Ellensburg for a bite to eat. Halfway through an intersection moving at 25mph on a green light we collided with a young man (driving his mom's car) when he turned left in front of us.

With only enough time for me to yell "watch out" and for Kent to swerve left slightly we crashed on my side of the car.

I immediately knew that it hurt, but figured it was just seat belt bruising. I was flummoxed as to why my leg hurt until I notice the caved in dash. Still I was walking and talking, only a bit shook up. Most importantly everyone else was perfectly fine.

After getting a ride to the tow yard with our mangled car I requested the tow driver give me a ride to the ER to make sure I was really OK. X-rays showed no problems which was a load off my mind so we decided to proceed on our trip.

After Kent got the only cab in town to drive him the 40 mile haul to Yakima for a rental car (there were none in Ellensburg) he transferred all the contents of our car to the rental, picked me up at the hospital and got my prescription. At 6pm we finally got some lunch, then proceeded on our trip.

We had planned on taking a few day's to get to Grand Teton's where our first reservations were, so I figured that the bruises would be tolerable by then and I could proceed with that part of the vacation as planned. I was looking forward to getting away from the crowds and doing some day hikes, fly fishing in the Firehole river, horse back riding and biking. I really didn't think I would even need the multiple heavy duty pain pills. By that evening though, I was beginning to realize how deep the bruises were.

If you've ever had a bruised or cracked rib you know how painful it is, so imagine bruising the place where all those ribs connect. My sternum was deeply bruised making breathing, talking, moving, even trying to open my bottle of pain pills an agony. My leg was so swollen I had trouble bending it, but it was mostly numb, so not much pain.

For the first week of the trip I sat in the car while Kent took short hikes and took pictures for me to see. I enjoyed most of the parks from the car window. It wasn't until the last few day's that I could walk a few hundred yards or so at a time and getting in and out of bed was a task of a few seconds instead of a few minutes.

To compound my discomfort our reservations were botched at Old Faithful Inn and a nasty excuse for a person lied to and humiliated us to the best of his ability...on my birthday! If you thought for even a second you were in favor of government health care, might I suggest staying in government housing such as a national park lodge. There is no incentive to be anything but passable...if that. No accountability, no empathy or concern, overpriced, bare bones accommodations, no recourse to making amends.

In the places we stayed outside the park, even modest motels, they went out of their way to make sure we had a good experience and sought our return business and/or word of mouth referral, all of which were totally lacking in government management.

We did the entire vacation ( if not exactly how we had planned it) and finally made it home after a 2 hour detour to exchange our rental car for a different one because of some stupid insurance company rule.

I'm still covered in bruises and have to be especially careful of sneezing. My leg is still numb and swollen and I vacillate between thinking "stupid kid" and "we all make mistakes".

All in all Yellowstone is still as "alive" as ever and the Grand Teton's are "ever present" and beautiful. The crowds were not too bad, but international tourists tended to be a pain with no respect for the parks nor fellow park goers.

If you don't mind shorter day's I recommend going in the Fall, having reservations for dinner anywhere in the parks (lots of seniors and asian tours that prebook everything and have you waiting until after 9pm for a table) and staying outside the park!!!

I needle little vacation now!

July

I luuuuv July! Not just the 4th but the entire month, the weather, Kent's birthday, my birthday, vacationing at the cabin, watermelon, cherries, red gingham, fireworks, festivals, hiking, BBQing.....in fact I'm more thankful for Christ's birth in July than I have "time" to be at Christmas.

So let the celebrating begin! A half century birthday and a quarter century anniversary are fast approaching and those are just too momentous to be confined to a couple of day's so I intend to milk them for all their worth, all summer long!

Last year I threw a big party for Kent which he loved, but I'm not much for being the center of attention, so I opted for some local sight seeing instead....just the two of us...Yellowstone/Grand Tetons, here we come! Watch out fish, I intend to catch a couple of you...sorry horses, my diet hasn't got me as trimmed down as I'd hoped to be by this time.

In the mean time, we've been treated to a birthday dinner with our good friends Rose and Dale Patterson at a favorite noshery, Serafina's, where I also received a beautiful golden bracelet from them.

This coming week my BFF Linda and I are celebrating our 'day apart' b-day's by going to see Show Boat at the local theater with shopping, food and presents preceding the show.

Kent and I have already exchanged combined b-day/anniversary gifts so we can each enjoy them all summer, mine involves karats and sparkle and his involves grass and gas!

Long sunny day's, starry nights, music in the parks, farmers markets, garage sales, golf, and enjoying Leelu's enjoyment of Crescent Lake make for fantabulous times and I'm so thankful God has given me Kent to enjoy them all with.

Thanks to Jesus I can enjoy my summers in Freedom and Peace with Hope in my heart, His Love on my head and the knowledge that it's all a vague shadow of the Eternal Celebration that awaits the Faithful at His party!

I'm still here!

I feel as if my eyeballs are square these day's and my poor blog spot is suffering. I've been spending too much time setting up a facebook page and even a twitter too!

I have several drafts started that will eventually be added here, but these posts take a lot more thought and writing skill than the off hand comments on facebook and twitter.

I promise I haven't abandoned this more creative outlet and hope to have something less boring to post soon.

In the mean time we can be friends if you'd like to set up a face book page too. Just go to http://www.facebook.com/ ...if I can do it, so can you!

Twitter is even easier http://www.twitter.com/ to sign up or you can find me at http://twitter.com/BOBBLEDOG

The Easy Bake Oven!

Back in the 60's we didn't have the massive selection of toy's that are available today, but we had the best none the less, even by today's standards, and they have proven themselves by withstanding the test of time.
Creepy Crawlers, pour the goo into the bug shaped molds and stick in the maker-baker then out comes a rubbery colorful bug. You can still buy one today but not the edible goo that pretty much tasted like slightly sweet rubber.
Silly putty, still morph's any comic hysterically.
Old Maid will never get old.
Operation, poor guy will never get off that gurney.
Spirograph, Etch-a-Sketch, Hot Wheels, Barbie, and my personal favorite...the Easy Bake Oven!
My Aunt Lori and I used to spend hours in the attic creating concoctions of candy calamity that only a child would find appetizing. I was flummoxed as to why no one wanted to sample our Sugar Babies-Bazooka Bubble Gum pizza!
It seemed like a miracle that with the heat of a light bulb I could bake cakes, cookies and pies. Time seemed suspended as I gazed through the tiny little window and watched as my culinary masterpieces began to rise or melt.
I guess I must have grown up and moved on to other, more mature persuits, but now as a fully grown adult ...I wish I still had my Easy Bake Oven, because I think it would still amaze me!