Fairy Godmothers

My Aunt Deedle. She's been a light in my life, a safe place to call home. She and my uncle nurtured my curiosity, work ethic, and generally gave me a chance to love and to learn how to be loved. They were proud of me. They questioned my choices respectfully and taught me that adversity is not a handicap, nor is a "handicap" an adversity. My uncle passed away seven years ago and my aunt moved to Galveston, TX and opened a bed and breakfast. A pink one.

The hurricane damaged her home this fall, but not as much as some of her neighbors and friends' homes. Still, she needed a break and took a "hurrication" to visit Iowa for Thanksgiving. She doesn't come up here often because our estrangement from her sister makes visiting a delicate balance and a force of drama. But this year there was the hurricane and new babies and our upcoming move and she decided to come anyway.

I am so glad she did. :) Lil'Bug and Blueberry took right to her. She spent all day with us on Tuesday and we showed her the town our style. Science Center, art class, and lots and lots of good, fresh Iowa food. At one point she burst out over dinner and asked my uncle if he would believe this, Mama Podkayne can cook!? Yes, I suppose that is something of a miracle. Considering I actually have kitchen fires, 2nd degree burns, and food poisoning requiring hospitalization under my belt.......Still, her exclamation brought me to tears.

Anyway, we delighted in her company. Looking at the above photo, I actually see a family resemblance I had not previously! Neat.

MamaP should blog more often.

But since she's not, I will! : )

Two things irritate me lately.

1. People overblowing the financial 'crisis'. If you are using words like 'Armageddon' or 'doom' or 'catastrophic' I'll put you in this category. Stop it. You are scaring people.

2. People who aren't feeling the impact of the current financial problems pretending like there are none. Stop it. People are scared. Get some compassion or karma may serve you up a plate of empathy.

If these seem to be in conflict to you, you probably fall into one of the category's above.

Simply put - there are a lot of people losing jobs, and prices are going up, and that's rough. Several of my friends had to find new jobs, and half the building I work at got laid off - I'm only 30 and this is the first time I went through something like that. Not good.

On the other hand, my worst case scenario typically involves meteors, so I get suspicious when people use extremely emotional words to describe something as variable as the economy. Things will get better eventually.

In the meantime, remember to help out your friends and neighbors where you can. It's important.

. . .

And now, back to your regularly scheduled blogging.

Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree

Christmas Tree. I love having a Christmas tree, I love decorating it, I love my daughter's reaction to it all lit up, I love the warm glow.......

The downside to moving the week before Christmas and having a house on the market it the lack of practicality of said tree. All my ornaments are in storage. I sold our fake trees and all the lights last summer since we are going to have a real tree from now on (and LED lights for safety). The upside is that I'll be able to get the LED lights on clearance after the holidays. Yay.

Still, I am a bit sad. It took me seven years to get this place put together enough to safely have a tree with lights up (because of construction chaos it just wasn't going to happen....) and now I must wait one more year......

I must be practical. So tomorrow I am dressing up the girls to see Santa at the mall and posing them in front of the retail display trees. Yes, I am cheating. ;) Pretty picture backgrounds, no work for me (other than fighting mall traffic). Wish me luck and smiles!

Still a Mystery

Hobbit does not have Lepto/Lepro or whatever the thing is. What he does have is highly diluted yet highly acidic urine with a bit of crystallization. Maybe this is just a urinary/bladder/kidney infection that is a result or just part of what he's been dealing with or the medication. He's held his weight at 63, so that's good, and he's eating though he's still picky.

So then, apparently "enthusiastic" means flighty and "shoppers" means they can't really wait 3 hours (even though I'm supposed to have 24) but unable to actually say t hat at the time so they just disappear? Seriously. I bent time for these people, they should at the very least take 5 minutes to walk through. We had other things planned that we set aside for this. Grrrrrr.

On top of all else, Dearest has been either at band practice or working late so we've only really seen him sleeping since Wednesday! He's at work all day today too and then game night tonight with the guys. I would have thrown a pissy fit about him going to game night tonight after being gone all week, but then I remembered something. When we move to the farm, no more game night and no more band practice. These are things he is giving up for the move and for us. So I am reminded that we are all making sacrifices for this big change and it is weeks from happening.