Update 7/23/11

I know I haven't been posting. I am a very bad blogger.
So, some things that have been happening:
I am still delivering the morning paper, I currently deliver 3 out of 4 of the papers that are delivered in my area. The 4th paper is now available, if I want to deliver it as well. It would add 189 papers to my 130-150 papers, 92 of the new papers would be to addresses I don't already deliver to. I am still going back and forth on this.
I am currently on Plurk and Ravelry as Jarista.
I reached out to an old friend after finding her own blog, but I have yet to hear anything back from her.
In May we went down to Idaho Falls, ID and visited with my family. The main reason we went was to see my older sister 'MM' graduate from ISU with a Doctor or Pharmacy degree, which was super exciting. I got to visit with far flung family members, my older brother 'MH' and his wife and 5 kids came down from Douglas, WY, my sister MM came up from Reno, my younger brother 'DJ' came from Georgia. DJ is stationed with the Air Force in Georgia with his wife, who also came. DJ just got back from being deployed to Afghanistan so it was REALLY good to see him and to meet his wife. My mom and her husband TC were there, as were my dad and his wife KH. We last saw family last June when hubby, the new puppy(oops, guess I haven't mentioned her yet), and I went to McCall, ID for the 'C' family reunion. Mom begged me to come down since it wasn't that far away, (the trip down took twice as long because of construction, but oh well) and because TC's family drives her crazy after a few days of close proximity.
We recently switched internet providers, Clear Wire was super slow, and glitchy. We've signed up with Time Warner Cable, while the sign up process was a bit horrific, now that it's installed (finally) we are able to actually watch Netflix Instant Watch! We hadn't been watching Netfix online because out internet was so slow. One afternoon I was downloading something and it was crawling along at 5 kbs/s. Bleck!
I have signed up for Audible, and even though it costs a whole lot, I've been enjoying listening to audiobooks on my paper route. I am currently listening to Voyager by Diana Gabaldon, next up is Oath of Fealty by Elizabeth Moon.
Earlier this year I participated in the garage sale at the Beasley Collisium, while I didn't make very much money (I had way to much furniture I think) I did SPEND money. I bought two smaller flat screen monitors/TVs. Which was fortuitous later as our main living room TV bit the dust. The remote sensor had died some time ago, and things that were supposed to be white were looking a little pink. In an attempt to fix the color by playing with the menu buttons at the bottom of the TV, hubby managed to get the TV off the 00 channel needed to watch things from the VHS/DVD player. Turns out the only way to get to the 00 channel is by the remote, which doesn't work. Also the only way to adjust the setting was from the remote. We decided to go TV shopping. It was a holiday weekend, everything TV shop wise was closed. We ended up at Walmart. We have a massive entertainment center which was bought to house the decent sized TV hubbys' parents bought. The EC is full of 'stuff', along with devices. There is a dual cassette player, a record player, a receiver, 2 VHS tape holders. YOu get the idea. So we're at Walmart, we measured the space we had for a TV before we left, and all TV's are now the wide screen things. Using our measurements, the only ones that would fit are the 28" or below sized ones. I didn't want one so small, hubby's having sticker shock and fighting with me in his own special PA way, so I was thinking we could get a new EC as well, that way we could get a bigger TV. He thinks we can't fit 1/10th of the stuff currently on our current EC into a new one. More fighting, we end up leaving with nothing. Once we get back home I end up setting up one of the small Monitor/TVs I got at the garage sale, and that is what we have been using ever since. I also managed to clean my desk and get the other (not as high quality) monitor installed as my computer monitor.
While in Idaho Falls my dad talked us into getting some baby chicks. If you don't know we previously got some chickens from my dad before he moved to Maui. The local CalRanch store had baby chicks for sale for a good price. They were 2 weeks old, so the mortality rate was cut way down. We brought home 5 baby chicks in a tote with food and water. We also took our dog down to Idaho Falls so she could meet the family, she was fascinated with the chicks, and would sniff them whenever we let her. 4 of the baby chicks have survived, and are currently in a giant metal feeding tub on the back porch. I also ordered some baby chicks online, the minimum I could order, without massively expensive shipping charges, was 15. So I ordered 15, they arrived this morning and are so cute and fluffy! 16 arrived, but I'm not going to dispute it. This way, we can eventually replace the current chickens we have with some newer, tamer chickens. Since I grew up on a farm and am not squeamish about it, the older chickens will get butchered and put in the freezer.
Now, about he puppy. Hubby wanted a dog, he wanted a dog like our friend JC's dog Shadow. So, since Shadow wasn't fixed JC bred her 1/2 Black Lab 1/2 Blue Heeler, to a co-workers pure bred Black Lab. A few months later Shadow gave birth to 9 puppies!


Hubby wanted a girl puppy, and there was only 1 girl puppy in the litter. 8 weeks later, after much visiting and holding, and holding a sleeping puppy on us, we brought home Sassy. In a litter of 9 she was the only girl, and she was 'in charge' and would beat up on her brothers. JC kept 1 of the boys, named him Blaze, and still has Shadow. We love having a dog, she is sweet, funny, hyper, goofy, and currently sleeping under my computer chair. She's 14 months, but as a friend says Black Labs are puppies until they are 3 years old. Sassy and the cat, Moonstone, play and fight and tolerate each other. It's hard to feel bad for the cat after seeing the cat go up to the dog, who is minding her own business chewing on a raw hide, bat the dog without claws and run off. When the dog ignores her, the cat looks all disappointed and comes back, extends claws and takes another swipe to get the dogs attention and to get her to chase her and play.


We also had a human new arrival, but since this is getting rather tl:dr I'll save that for another day.
Best wishes!

I am a bad bad blogger, but here is a update

Sorry to have been so, non-communicative, things have been rather busy.
The Highlights:
-I am up at 2:30 int he morning because I deliver the morning paper.
-I get home at about 7 am, where I usually join hubby in the bed.
-He gets up to go to work at 1 pm, leaves by 2 pm, I usually get up with him.
-I spend the next few hours doing various things.
-I am usually back in bed by 8 pm
-and the whole thing starts again.
Add-ons to this lately have been:
-We have mostly moved into the house.
-We still have a trailer full of stuff, and our living room is full of the furniture that should go in the bedrooms
-We have been waiting to get the sewer line replaced before replacing the carpets in the two bedrooms and the basement apartment.
-Our new housemate has arrived and is living in the basement, and going to the U of I.
-I started playing around on Plurk.com. I am Jarista for anyone interested.
-Our brand new bed has arrived, and that is glorious. I have never had a brand new bed.
-I am painting when I feel up to it.
-I have been fighting a cold/sickness, oh and I don't get days off from delivering the paper.
-I finally finished the add-ons for the Delaura afghan. Now, to wash it, photo it, and give it back to her.
-Sewer line may not have to be replaced, the city wants to use us as sort of guinea pigs to see if a new system will work. they basically put a lining in the pipe, inflate it, and pump epoxy around the lining, which makes a brand new pipe. They are coming on Tuesday to video the line.
-Carpet estimate ppl are coming on Monday to take a look at where we want carpet, and to give us an estimate on installing carpet.
-I have lost quite a bit of weight from what I was at this time last year, which is awesome. I think the paper route really helped with that.
-Our lovely used Jeep we got last year may be having some issues, we are planning on trading it in on a truck of some sort, and buying the Jeep from the estate.
-I am loving listening to podcasts, audio books, and podiobooks on my paper route.
-Hubbys 'partner in crime' at work has had to 'cross train' at work, so she has been working Day-shift for the last two weeks. So he has been really bored at work. We went and kidnapped her from work on Thursday, and took her out for some really good Chinese.

It is now 10:15 am, I am going to head to bed.
Have a wonderful day Everyone!

Explanation of Hardest of Days

Ok, I think I am finally ready to post again. It has been so long I'll have to remember how!

Just after my husbands birthday my Mother In Law passed away. She was 56. Her one love, her husband had passed away about 6 years before this. She had never really gotten over losing him, and to cope she was drinking more and more, and eating less and less.
For years and years when Brad (her husband and my father-in-law) was alive they would stop drinking for a month, as an exercise to prove they were not alcoholics. We suppose she had decided to do this on her own, and didn't tell anyone what she planned.
My husband and I, and his sister, her husband, and young son all live in the same town with her, my sister-in-law lived about 3 blocks away, and still the first we heard of this was that she had called the police because she was certain she heard someone in the house, locked herself in the bathroom and called the police. The police broke down the back door, and found no one. She was hallucinating. Debie (my sister-in-law) came over to be with her. We got a call at 11pm on Sunday night, but we weren't home because we are night owls and my husband works swing shift 2:30-11:00 pm. When we got home at around 4 am we got a message from Jasson(Debie's husband, my brother-in-law) that we needed to call them, no matter what time it was when we got home. We called, he filled us in. Could we come over to the house and be with mom on Monday because Debie had to be to work by 8 am. Yes of course we could. We got what little sleep we could and came over. Debie had called in sick to work, and we were trying to decide what to do. What scared ME was Debie said mom had had what she termed seizures in the middle of the night, muscles knotted up and severe shaking. She was going through alcohol withdrawals. Which can be deadly, especially without medical help.
We couldn't convince Debie to bundle her up and take her to a hospital. She kept saying she was sleeping now, sleep is good for her right? Especially since she hadn't slept much during the night. But.
There is always a but isn't there.
When she woke up, she became stubborn and refused to go to the hospital. Refused help, out stubborned both of her stubborn children and me, the scared spouse.
I grew up LDS, I had NEVER dealt with alcohol withdrawals, or DT's as they can be called.
I wanted to just wrap her in a blanket and drag her to an ER. But she woke up before we could come to a consensus, and she out stubborned us all.
She said she needed some more sleep, we let her sleep some more, checking on her every 15 minutes or so. Debie went to check on her and screamed for my husband, he sprinted for the room, leaping the coffee table. I stayed in the living room, he yelled for her a couple of times, shaking her, then yelled for me to call 911 NOW!! I did so, she wasn't breathing. He was doing CPR. The fire dept. and the ambulance came and worked on her for some time while we stood in the living room, trying to stay out of the way. Trying to believe it would be ok. That they would get her back. They took her to the hospital. The one that made a medical mistake and killed Brad. It was so hard to sit in that waiting room. I just sat in a chair and held the arms of it and tried to control my shaking. I called my mom in Idaho Falls and asked her to pray for Linda, telling her some of what was going on.
She never came back. They called us into a room. Debie immediately says 'I don't like this room.' I didn't either, it was the "I'm sorry we did all we could, but she is gone." room.
We picked up her watch and ring from the police department last week.
We lost her on Monday, Debie's birthday came on Tuesday.
She and I were just starting to become friends. I miss her. I am sure her two kids miss her ever so much more than I do, but I miss her still.
We are in the process of moving into the house she owned, which we now own.
I am typing this from what used to be her living room and is now mine.
We are working on the house, I have painted the living room. I have plans to paint the main bedroom before we move our bed into it.
We are sorting through my husbands parents lifetimes worth of things.
The hardest of days is not over, I am not sure it ever will be.

The hardest of days

Things I've learned since Monday morning:

Grief and grieving are exhausting.

Stubbornness is not always a good trait.

Laughing at a two year olds antics is still possible.

Grief hurts, physically and mentally.

How you deal with your grief can lead to some horrific consequences.

Finding out who needs to be called is very difficult.

Eating and drinking are important during the first few days.

It's good to have family around.

I've had a very bad two days.

Perfect Post Award

I am having trouble coming up with how to start this post.
It has been quite some time since I did one of these, but I am nominating a post for a Perfect Post Award.
This post by Thumper sums up perfectly my view on the argument about gay marriage.
Growing up my aunt lived with a roommate. It was many years later that my mom explained that her roommate was actually her lover and partner. I love my aunt and was not all that surprised by the news. Not long after that my best friend came out to me. Since then I have been rather aware of the horrible treatment homosexuals receive on a regular basis.
The Perfect Post Award is run by these two lovely ladies; Lindsay www.suburbanturmoil.blogspot.com and Kimberly / MommaK www.petroville.com.
If you want to check out other Perfect Post Awards, go check out Momma K at www.petroville.com

Answers and other news.

I've been a bad blogger, and I freely admit it.
I just don't think people are interested in my ramblings.
However I have had two questions, and I think I'll answer those.

rennratt said...

Has work been going well for your husband? Are things looking up now that spring may finally be there?

Spring was here for quite some time, now that we are finally headed for summer temps, things seem to be going a bit better. DH still hates work, and his coworkers are driving him quite crazy with how um, well dumb they can be.

AND

Maria said...

So, how did the friend thing work out?

So far she has been good, I joined in on a yard sale with her and a couple of other ladies at her house. We haven't been mistreated, but I am still not completely at ease with her. They invited us to play Mario Cart on their Wii this weekend but we ended up playing DnD* 4th edition with some coworkers of DH.
The DnD was pretty fun, basically we created characters and checked out how the new combat system was going to work.


Other news, we went and looked at a $84,900, 4 bdrm, 2 bath, unfinished basement house in Colfax, WA. It was pretty nice, but it has a few problems, like very little yard, a porch that is coming off the building and taking part of the roof with it, rotting stairs, a boarded up asbestos furnace, plastic taped down over a dirt floor, and a set of removed steps next to the rotting steps that would have to be replaced. So far we haven't made an offer at all.
We have also been looking at used cars. Think we finally found a car that we can live with. Only problem is that we would have to put a longer seatbelt in for me, because I couldn't get the passenger seat belt latched. The dealer said there wasn't anything they could do about it. He said he checked into it twice, yeah right, DH Looked online and found something within a couple of minutes. Despite the dealer being weird we will probably get the car.
I have been enjoying Woolgathers, they are great ladies and one guy.
I have been helping my friend J.D. get his apartment cleaned out. He is finally moving after being in a one room apartment for the last like 6 years. I helped him on Friday, and I'm helping on Monday too. This is about the third time I have helped him clean his apartment in order to move to a new one. This time his mom is actually paying me for my time, she says so she feels like she is doing something to help him move.
I finished my socks!!! Pictures soon.
I started a pair for my mom, and another pair for me.
We had quite a bit of snow on June 10th. About 3" Most was melted by the time we got home from Spokane, WA. We went to help our friend Scott with his 2 sons while his wife became a citizen. It was pretty cool to watch.
If I think of something else to update I'll try and remember to post it.


*DnD = Dungeons and Dragons for those who don't recognize the abbreviation.

Update

Well at least the snow is gone, mostly. There is still some in the hollows of the hills, areas that don't get much of the available sunlight.
Spring has been acting more like a cranky toddler than a lion this year. Snow, then sun, then hail, then rain, and back to any of the previous. All within minutes.
Sorry I haven't had much to say recently, so here for your enjoyment is a update from me.

I started selling my plasma again. I had stopped over the winter because it was just to difficult to get in and still have an acceptable heart rate. Though I must say my heart rate has really been behaving the last few weeks.
We were looking at a house in Colfax. WA. But it went really quick. Probably because of the $39,900 price tag. Which is really, really low by most any body's measurement. Friends called us on Sunday to tell us about it. We checked the web site on Monday, it said Pending later in the day on Monday, and was off the site by late Monday night/ early Tuesday morning.
I found a new group of crafters, they are called The Woolgather's. They meet on Thursday nights (for now), and they invite anybody who does crafty stuff to come join them. Knit, crochet, spin, weave, or whatever. They are very nice. I am still going to Monday night Purple Paisley Quilters (PPQ), but I didn't go this Monday because I wasn't feeling well, and I had a Birthday party to go to. Which you would think that would be mutually exclusive, but I managed. I don't think I had an actual illness, just an upset stomach.
I have been back in contact with a woman who has previously made me feel like dirt, but I am being wary this time, and if she starts coping attitude with me or my husband we will remove ourselves from spending time with them, and they can just deal with it. This is pretty much a last chance offer to be friends. They blow it this time and I'm going to block their numbers, and cease ALL contact. So far they have been behaving. It was her husbands birthday party that I went to.
We recently purchased a laptop. DHL has tried to deliver it twice, but we can't hear people knocking when we are asleep in the bedroom. So we are sleeping on the futon tonight, so we will wake up when they knock on the door, at about 9 am . Fun part is it wasn't supposed to be done being built until the 25th, with an arrival date of Apr. 30th. Yet it tried to arrive on the 21st, isn't that cool?
We also went to Costco and did a MAJOR shopping trip. As in $500 major shopping trip. Holy wow! Both the laptop and the Costco trip came from our tax return money.
The snow in the yard may be gone, but the yard itself is major swampland. We probably won't have to water it until June.
We haven't had any yellowjackets show up in the bedroom/house recently, which has been really nice. Watch now that I have said that, one will show up tomorrow morning. Though I did have one inside the door hinge area when I opened up the drivers door of the truck. I am guessing it was a queen looking for a sheltered warm spot to start a new nest since it was very swollen looking. Unlike the ones we had been getting inside the house, which are skinny and lethargic. She was pretty lethargic also, and I was able to sweep her off with a napkin and onto the ground below the door.
I am really bad about doing things when scheduled to, but I will try and have something to say in a few days.

Playing Catch-up Friday Fill-Ins #66, 67 & 68

Friday Fill-In #65
1. Some relationships are meant to last forever.
2. Yanni is the last concert I saw; it was wonderful, uplifting, and a great time.
3. Spring should be less like a cranky toddler throwing a tantrum.
4. Oh no! I forgot oh so many things!
5. I've recently started making crocheted carnations, they are beautiful.
6. Kittens never fails to make me smile.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to getting some laundry done , tomorrow my plans include used car shopping and Sunday, I want to sing in the choir again! (Unfortunately these will be the same since I have very little memory of the last weekends.)


Friday Fill-In #66
1. Tonight I saw dead bugs when I changed the bulb in a lamp.
2. Being hyper makes me wanna dance!
3. Splitting a few appetizers between friends is very fun.
4. Janice W. is someone I'd like to get to know better.
5. The smell of manure (for fertilizer) reminds me so much of springtime!
6. Love from my husband and that made it all better.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to getting some laundry done, tomorrow my plans include used car shopping and Sunday, I want to sing in the choir again!


Friday Fill-In #67
1. I love springtime in someplace other than here!
2. Cereals are foods I love to eat for breakfast.
3. It seems I'm always searching for energy.
4. Falling asleep next to the one you love is a great way to end the day.
5. I think I need to get to work on my sisters bday present!
6. Not my cooking is what I've been craving lately.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to getting some laundry done, tomorrow my plans include used car shopping and Sunday, I want to sing in the choir again!


Sorry for missing the last few weeks. I am just now getting caught up.

Friday Fill-in #64

1. Spring is so exciting! And different every day (and every five minutes).
2. Strawberry fields sound yummy.
3. The above sounds like it would taste delicious!
4. Why does reading in the bathtub make me feel so good?!
5. The Grand Canyon is something I've always wanted to see.
6. It's sad when there are lots of things that are sad, but it is spring so I shall not focus on the sad.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Women's Non-Spirituality Group, snacks and chatting, drinks, tomorrow my plans include blackjacking the seems in the roof and Sunday, I want to sleep in!

Wanna Play?

Friday Fill-Ins #62

1. Ahhhh, it's so nice to relax together on the weekend.
2. One of my favorite things on my desk or bureau is my candle warmer.
3. Japanese Cherry Blossoms are very pretty.
4. The Futon and the bathtub are my favorite place to sit and read.
5. _____ and _____ is delicious!
6. I love to watch _____ in movies.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching TV with my sweety, tomorrow my plans include hanging out with some friends and Sunday, I want to(am going to) SING IN THE CHOIR!

UPDATE: I hadn't realized I missed number 5 and 6 until Janet commented.
So:
5. Cream cheese and Marshmallow Creme Puff is delicious! (Mixed together they are a great fruit dip.)
6. I love to watch Haley Joel Osment in movies. I loved him in Secondhand Lions.