My Christmas Tree

Today I put up my Christmas tree — outside, on my patio. With Nels and his love of chewing electrical chords, plus the temptation of climbing, I decided this was a better home for it. I put it outside the French doors on the patio. The lights are on a timer — coming on a dusk and staying on for four hours. It's a solution that works for me. I also put my wreath on my door. Also, this year, most of my Christmas decorations — at least any of the ones with electrical chords — will be in my cottage. It's hard to believe Christmas is a month from today!

Gratitude

Thanksgiving Day = gratitude. Yes, it's a day set aside for families and friends to be together and to recall our blessings. Here are some of my blessings:

• First and foremost to me is my family. I have been blessed with 3 wonderful children who are now married and raising kids of their own, which gives me the blessing of 6 beautiful grand chilren, and #7 on the way!


• I have an amazing extended family — scattered from Minnesota to New Jersey, to Illinois and Indiana, and to Arizona and Colorado.


• I have friends — an abundance of friends — and they, too, mean so much to me.


• I live in a good home, in a nice neighborhood; have a good car; and a good job (and a loving cat).


• I attend and am a member of an inspirational church with a pastor who after 35 years in our pulpit, is retiring at the end of this year (I am going to miss him and his wife so much!).


• While I've had some health issues this year, I am still alive and kicking (just not high), and am on the mend.


• I have new eye balls (sort of), and don't have to wear glasses!


• I live in a free country and have the privilege of voting and expressing my opinions.

God continues to watch over me and my family, and for that, I am extremely grateful. Even though saying good-bye to my Aunt Liz this year has been very difficult, He gives me comfort, knowing I will see her again someday.

Happy Thanksgiving! May God bless you.

Online again!

I'm back online again, thanks to the purchase of a new computer. I checked to see if my old one could be fixed, and learned it would cost more money than the purchase of a new one.

I bought another Dell laptop which has a bit more ram than my previous one. The price for it had come down — $150 less. I guess that is usually true with electronics. I paid an additional $60 for everything on my previous hard drive to be downloaded to the new computer, but as far as I can tell, that didn't happen. For instance, all of my photo folders show "empty." I will have to call them to check on it, but as of now, I have no voice.

My head cold moved into laryngitis on Friday, plus it has given me a lot of coughing. The cough is productive, but not fun. Except for picking up the new computer yesterday, I have stayed home in the "resting" mode. I had to miss Sarah and Peder's birthday supper yesterday, and today I am missing church and another birthday get-together of choir friends. I have a dental appointment at 8 am tomorrow, but may need to somehow cancel it.

Did you know we got 4 to 5 inches of snow yesterday? Now the fun begins. There were over 400 fender-benders in the twin cities yesterday. THANKFULLY, it is supposed to warm up next week. They are predicting temperatures in the 40s and 50s starting tomorrow!

Fried!

Last night was not one of my better nights. I came home from work tired, hungry, and feeling a little overwhelmed at all I had to accomplish yet. I changed clothes and started the laundry, fed Nels, after petting him a bit, and started my simple dinner: tomato soup, toast and orange juice. My head was feeling thick and cloudy (this stupid cold!), and all I wanted to do was sit in front of the TV, watch the news, and fill my tummy.

Per usual, I carefully carried my tray to the cottage. I put the tray on the floor and closed my screen door behind me. Picking up my glass of orange juice, I reached over my lap top which was sitting on my ottoman, to put the glass on the coaster (the lap top lid was closed), when it slipped out of my hand and spilled on the lap top. Juice was rolling off of it onto the carpet. I quickly got a bath towel and proceeded to wipe it off. I then moved it to the floor and continued the cleaning up process.

After eating my dinner and cleaning up the kitchen, I sat in the cottage and turned on my computer. Everything worked fine for about an hour, and then the screen went wacky - black streaks darted here and there, and then I saw smoke coming from the right hand hinge. I quickly pulled the power cord out and that was it! It stunk, and died.

My time with Marshall and family

. . . getting face painted (he chose a spider web),

playing bean bags,

getting ready to blow out his "3" candle,

keeping Marshall entertained until our food order came,

letting my eyes feast on the abundant, gorgeous, fall foliage in Seattle,

admiring my grandson's sweet smile,

and enjoying our lunch together. It was all so much fun!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Marshall!

Today I get to be part of the celebration of Marshall's 3rd birthday - a first for me. He's still asleep, but I want to do all I can to make this a fun day for him.

I flew out here to Seattle on Thursday, and since arriving here, Marshall and I have had fun playing together, looking at pictures — he loves looking at photos of his cousins on the computer, on their mommy or daddy's blogs or on their facebook albums. He enjoyed seeing Josiah, Annika, Will, Aurelia and Felix in their Halloween costumes! We've gone shopping once — last night, to let him choose his birthday and Christmas gifts — and that was really fun. He was so easy to please.

I am seeing how he interacts with his mommy and daddy, and even the neighbor kids, whom Chad babysat last night — two year old twins! Brian, the Golden Retriever, tolerates Marshall, but Heidi says Brian is jealous of him.

Heidi and Chad have a big party planned for later today. I'm sure looking forward to it!

Happy Birthday, Marshall!

Veterans Day

11-11-11. What a date! Interestingly, I found this when I looked at Wikipedia for the history of Veterans Day: Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.

This year I am saluting my son, Hans, who was recently promoted to Commander. He is currently the Executive Officer on one of the Navy's guided missile cruisers, and I am extremely proud of him. Recently he and Rachel attend the 236th Navy Ball. These photos are from that event.

There are others in my family who have served or are now serving in the military, and I am very proud of them as well. Happy Veterans Day!

Perk on my flight today

I took an early flight to Seattle today. To my delight, this flight was not crowded. I sat in my window seat and noticed the option of watching a movie on the screen in the back of the seat ahead of me. Scanning through the movies, I chose The Help. I had seen this a couple of months ago in the theater and at the conclusion of it, I said to my friend, "We have just seen this year's best movie!"

Well, after the usual announcements were made, I read the directions and proceeded to purchase the movie. It started, but I couldn't get any sound. I tapped and tapped on the control, but no sound would come. When I could get the attention of a flight attendant, she tried too, without success. We tried a second headset - still, no sound. Then we discovered the sound worked in the next seat over, so she told me if I would like to move there and purchase the movie again, she would get me some kind of a refund. I decided to do it.

When the flight was nearly over, she returned to my row and paused my movie. She said she couldn't give me my money back ($6), but I could get a voucher to be used on food or frequent flyer miles. I chose the miles. She gave me 2,500 miles! That was some refund!

Impatience

I sprained my right ankle badly on October 8, a month ago today. I thought it would be healed or nearly healed by now, but not so. This past Sunday I decided I would try to go to church sporting my new, black leather walking shoes I bought for the cruise. I was careful to walk slowly, used the elevator, and even sat during the pastor's morning prayer. Apparently I over-did it, and I sure payed for it. When I got home, my ankle was very swollen and painful. This was a hard lesson for me - I need to continue wearing this air cast and stay off my foot as much as possible. Can you tell I'm growing impatient? I want to know: how do the professional athletes do it? How do they injure themselves and then play hard the very next week? Maybe I need to hire a trainer!