Saturday

Hurray for Saturdays.  :)  I babysat for my daughter last night while they went to the movies so I ended up getting home around 1 a.m.  I probably got to bed around 2, so I slept in until 10.  It has been forever since I felt I could sleep in.  My husband had left to run some errands, so the house was quiet.  I got up and made myself some breakfast and drank a leisurely cup of coffee.  Then I loaded up the dishwasher and mopped the kitchen floor.  With two dogs and seriously rainy and windy weather, the kitchen floor gets dirty fast.  About that time my husband got home and I was off to get a shower and get dressed. 

The little guy is having a birthday next month, and his mother has decided on a cowboy theme.  She wanted some pennants like these for his birthday, but we just can't justify $50-some dollars for a couple strings of these, so I went on a quest this week to find bandana fabric.  I know I've seen some around in the past, but no one had any in stock in town or on-line unless I wanted to bid on ebay.  I ended up buying real bandanas at JoAnn's this afternoon to make them out of.  I need one more red one as they only had two, but at least I can get started on them now.

I found this hobby horse tutorial and figured out the local quilt store has the socks, so I might make one of these for the little guy.  Whenever he visits he rides my broom around the house, so I think he'd like a play horse.  His "Yee-Haw!" is particularly good.  :)

The beautiful sweater I knit for the little guy shrunk the first time it was washed, even though it was supposed to be a washable wool.  It is still useable, but not as nice looking.  So, I am working on a replacement.  This time though the yarn is just plain brown.  I didn't have much choice in the color selection as my local yarn store apparently doesn't carry more than a couple skeins of yarn in any particular color and I needed six. 

After buying the bandanas, I visited our local Macy's and the Clinque counter.  I have a terrible time with makeup as my body chemistry tends to react and make the end result much "pinker" than I would like.  I've been using Mary Kay for a while, but it seems our salespeople seem to quit all the time and I'm tired of being bounced from person to person.  So I've decided to go back to buying it from a store and Clinique has a line of makeup designed to work on women with a "pink" problem.  :)  The girl at the counter spent quite a lot of time getting my makeup just right and I came home with some new things to try. 

I dropped in to do some things at work and then came home to run laundry in the new washer.  My husband and I baked a pizza from the freezer and settled down to watch some TV.  A nice relaxing evening together.  Now I'm off to bed to read a while.  Happy Saturday.

~Jane

A Quote from a Facebook Friend for Today

"I praise You, Lord, that you are my superhero!  It’s such a relief to know that I don’t have to fix everything.  My job is to stay the course with You and trust that You will see me through."

Amen!


~Jane

Television Land

I am the biggest fan of Netflix Streaming and On Demand.  Last fall I discovered Downton Abbey on Netflix and watched all of Season One.  Imagine my excitement to discover Season Two playing after Christmas.  I missed the first few, which I caught up on my computer, and then watched the next four on TV on Sunday evenings.  I just loved them.

Other TV shows I enjoy are Bones, which doesn't appear to have any new ones out right now; The Biggest Loser; The Voice; Castle; and a few others.  The thing is, I am rarely at home to watch them during session, and often babysitting during the interim.  So my favorite thing is On Demand.  I love being able to watch a show anytime during the day or night. 

~Jane

Feeling Stressed

I'm not quite sure what's going on with me.  I've been very stressed out lately, I can tell by my gaggy cough.  I had a headache the past couple of days and I've just been so very tired.  This weekend my husband and I went to a birthday party for my son-in-law.  Now, to be honest, I thought my brother knew my daughter and her husband had moved.  After all, he's been complaining about the stuff of my son-in-laws that showed up in the back yard of my mom's house and I told him they had to move out unexpectedly and hadn't had time to get rid of some of the bigger items.  So I assumed he had figured out the moving part.  Maybe showing up at the wrong house ticked him off.  I don't know.  All I know is he showed up and suddenly blew up when my other brother made a comment to him.  He ranted and raved and caused quite a stir and said some things he probably is regretting now.  I figured out that evening after I got home that the anniversary of my mother's death was the next day and he is obviously still having issues about it.  He was her black sheep and caused her lots of problems.  I think he carries quite a bit of guilt about it.  But I still didn't deserve the comments he threw at me.  His anger has stayed with me all week and upset me. 

Work has been busy.  My job is crazy busy for 60 or 105 days, depending on the year, and then usually settles down to much less busy the rest of the time.  This week was a very busy week and I had to compile a bunch of reports late last night into a document to send to the printer so we'd have copies for a press release today.  I had such a headache I was afraid I'd make a mistake, so it was stressful.  Every thing went okay in the end but I haven't been sleeping well.

My son-in-law is laid off and trying to get a business started.  He is trying to do everything the right way, but I worry about them so much.  I just hope it works out for them.  My daughter is pregnant and they have the little guy.  I just want the best for them.

I had to convert my mother's checking account to an estate account in December.  My main reason for delaying is that there is a loan payment that automatically comes out every month and I didn't want to screw that up.  Sure enough, there has been a problem every month since we converted.  That has taken time on the phone each month to straighten out and has been rather stressful also.  Hopefully this month's payment will pull correctly.

I pray a lot.  I have a very strong faith in God.  But I am guilty of neglecting Him so.  I have been trying to be better about reading my Bible.  I am convinced that, as much as the Lord loves us, He also allows things in our lives to get our attention back to Him.  I've been having a lot of trouble lately just giving it all over to Him.

This is just a rambling post, kind of teary.  I'm grateful for my family and I don't know what I'd do without my husband, my daughter, and my little guy.  I'm headed off to bed as I think I am just so sleep-deprived it isn't helping anything.  Hopefully things will look better tomorrow. 

~Jane

Computer Game Fast

I've decided that I've been spending too much time on computer games.  I've decided to go on a computer game fast for the rest of the month.  These are not a real stand-alone games, they're Facebook games and require a lot of checking in to play.  Most of them require you to get objects from your friends on Facebook.  Consequently, I find myself playing late at night, early morning, on my lunchbreak, when I get home from work, because you can only ask for gadgets every so often and you need lots of gadgets.  I love them, but surely there are better things to be spending my time on?  Anyways, it was difficult tonight to not click on one.  I'll see how long I can last.  You have to admit, it's a dumb thing to be addicted to.  :)

~Jane

My Kindle

My husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas and, at first, I really couldn't think of anything I really wanted or needed.  Then Amazon announced they were making it possible to check out books for the Kindle through your local library.  This was exactly what I had been waiting for.  We went ahead and ordered one and I was going to leave it in its package and not look at it.  I knew I would be tempted to use it if the package was opened.  However, my husband decided he wanted to see it, and we opened the package and I started reading a little about it.  I realized you had to activate it by wi-fi and, since we don't have wi-fi at home, I told him I was taking it with me to the local Starbucks to activate it as I wouldn't be able to over Christmas and what fun would it be not to play with it on Christmas?  Then I found all the dozens of books available either through the library or through Amazon for FREE!  I started getting free books from Amazon, but then I had to take it to work with me (we have public wi-fi there) to download the books so I could read them over Christmas. Of course, then I had to try it out and started taking it to work to read.  I didn't want my husband to know I was already playing with it.  People at work discovered I had one and would come check it out.  I think I sold two more Kindles and a Nook before Christmas.  Finally my husband retrieved it so it could be wrapped (I guess he had figured out what I was doing all along).  I've read about 10 books on it since I got it.  I absolutely love it.  I wasn't sure whether I would like it or not, since I am such a book person.  But I love the fact you can adjust the size of the print, the Kindle itself is so lightweight, it's easy to read in bed, and there is always another book waiting.  It holds your place, so every time you turn it on it's exactly where you left off.  It's small enough to throw in your purse, even with it's little leather cover.  It's easy to take to work or an appointment.  I have just the basic model with screensaver and ads.  The ads only appear when it's off, so they don't disrupt your reading.  I don't miss having the touch screen at all.  There are lots and lots of free books available for it.  I probably have downloaded 100 already.  Try it, you'll like it!

~Jane

Is There Anything Sweeter Than a Grandchild?

My daughter and her family had to move rather unexpectedly.  Since her husband is laid off right now, and they didn't want to have to move into just whatever they could find and be stuck with a lease, they are renting a house from my sister-in-law for six months.  They've been doing a lot of packing and moving of things.  I thought my little guy might be upset at all the commotion, but he seems to be taking it in stride.  He loves his new room, which is  much bigger than his last bedroom and is able to have some of his toys in it.  While his mother was unpacking boxes the other night, I sat there with the diagram and put all the track back onto his train table.  He got it for Christmas and just loves it, but it is rather a pain to set up. 

His new phrase is "What doing, Grandma?"  Since I called from work tonight right before I left for home, I told him I was going home to Bapa, which is what he calls his grandpa.  To which he responded, "See me!"  I explained I couldn't come see him tonight but gave him kisses and hugs over the phone to which he responded back with kissing the phone.  Oh, how I love that little guy!  His abilities and speech change almost weekly.  He is growing up so fast. It is amazing how much you forget about the toddler stage.  It has been so much fun going through it again with him.  And I just can't wait until the new little one gets here in June.

~Jane