Thanksgiving weekend

I had a great Thanksgiving weekend.  Before Philip  left town, he brought up all my Christmas stuff so I could decorate.  It is a little early for me but why not??  I realized this year that my tree is hard to decorate and frankly, no one enjoys helping me.  In fact, I don't enjoy it either.  So I paced myself and took my time.  I did the fluffing and then rested.  Then the garland and rested.  Then the red balls and then rested (you get the gist).  Needless to say,  it took me all weekend but I just finished.  It isn't perfect and it isn't as meticulous as I used to do it but it is pretty and the things I enjoy are on it.  I did notice it is crooked.  I'll have Philip straighten it when he gets home.  I suppose that is the downside of a Mom that can't reach the top and can't get on a step.

I also spent the weekend knitting my gifts and watching holiday movies and other various shows on TV.  Today I watched a few hours of "EATS: The history of food".  I learned about sustainable fishing, grains, meat, processed food, fast food, etc and how Christopher Columbus was instrumental in helping us expand our food production (sugar and corn).  I also learned about GMOs and how we are poisoning our bodies with convenience foods.  Did you know we have over fished cod until it is an extinct species?   Fish and chips, as we know it, could honestly disappear in our lifetime! It also showed how we, as consumers, are manipulated by supply and demand.  Very interesting.  I also watched enough corny Hallmark and Lifetime holiday movies to ho-ho-ho me into December.  They are always corny but it is sort of fun.

I have been enjoying my favorite part of Thanksgiving - Turkey sandwiches.  I think I will be eating my last one for dinner tonight.  I have visions of making potato pancakes out of my left over mashed potatoes (too bad I'm not a big fan of shepherds pie) but that hasn't happened yet.  I also toasted off my small bottle of egg nog.  Nothing tastes like the holidays like egg nog! 

I can't wait for Philip to get  home from his adventures in Colorado.  I want to shake him into the holiday spirit.  I know I feel it from the top of my head to the tip of my toes.

I hope everyone had a fun weekend brimming with whatever makes them happy and fills your soul.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I wanted to take a  moment to thank each and every one of you for your love and support.  I also want to wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving.  It is always a day to celebrate with our friends and family.  I hold each one of you close in my heart.  Thanks for sharing my journey.  I have so much to be thankful for.

Love you.

Philip's Photo Shoot

As promised, here are some of the shots from Philip's photo shoot.  To say I am impressed is an understatement.  I am thrilled.  The photographer gave me several different color tones of the shots but this I just downloaded the standard ones at this point.  Such a handsome man!

 

At the last minute, he asked if I would stand by Philip
 for a shot.  The wind was blowing and I was unprepared.

 I love all these photos.  Philip is so handsome!  And I love the architecture in the photos.

Helping Kids with Cancer

One of my favorite local charities is "Helping Kids with Cancer".  It is a local group of volunteers that help kids with cancer and their families at Primary Children's Hospital.  They offer "admission" kits for families that kids get admitted to the hospital with little notice.  It can catch the family quite off guard.  The kid has a pad of paper and a pen along with a blanket and maybe a snack or two.  Another thing they do is at the holidays.  They do a stocking drive.  And they help with funeral costs.

I love the stocking drive.  They ask the community to put together stockings for the kids that are taken to Primary Children's hospital and given to the kids that find themselves at the hospital during the holiday.  One of the things I love about it is it is direct.  I make a stocking, they deliver it to the kids and that is it.  There is no cut by administration.  They don't allow "the public" to deliver stockings which is fine by me.  I know I would be a crying baby.  I actually get pretty sentimental just making a stocking.  I usually target a "teen boy" because I imagine most create stockings for smaller children and girls always seem easier then boys.  But this year, I found myself out shopping and ran into costume hats and capes.  Suddenly I knew my theme.  It is all about make believe.   It was just that thought and away I went.   I have hats, capes, chest shields, foam sword, board books, glow in the dark stars, pirate eye patch, card games, and other fun play things.  The good news, this is all from the dollar spot at Target.  The hats made the package larger then a stocking so I found a sack at Michaels.  I plan to deliver my sack later today.

It fills my heart to help others with cancer.  I can't imagine having a child in the hospital dealing with cancer.  Knowing I can do something so simple yet it has such a big impact is wonderful.  I'm so glad I found this charity.

Funny Philip

One of the tasks on my list for the past weekend was to take the coats out of the coat closet that we no longer wear nor fit.  Much to my surprise, Philip was willing to jump in there and sort his coats out first.  I didn't want to lose momentum so I joined him.  We kept tossing them out and laughing at how old the coats are.  I still had the coat I bought we I first went to Boston.....17 years ago.  And the various sizes of jackets over the years.  Philip had a sweatshirt from middle school.  And one I took at his first day of school at public school....in elementary school!  We had a huge pile on the nearest chair.

Philip was amazed at the pile and decided to try some on.  He would put them on and marvel at how small they are.  He would stick out his arms with the sleeve suddenly being 3/4 length sleeves.  Then he would wrap that tiny jacket around his grown man body and laugh how it wouldn't go around.   After he went through all his jackets, he started modeling mine. 

Keep in mind, 17 years ago, shoulder pads in dress coats were still popular so he put on my navy pea coat I bought for my first Boston trip 17 years ago.  Much to his surprise, it fit.  He started thinking he might want it.  I was fine with that but the shoulder pads were.....well....huge and high.  So he dumped it off and tried on my black trench coat I got a few years ago.  He couldn't believe we had such a gem in our closet and declared that simply needed hung back up as it was too precious to get rid of.  We explored what sort of Halloween costumes he could make out of that trench.  I love when I get to see that side of Philip that reminds me of when he was younger and we were so close.

We plan to donate the coats to the local family homeless shelter.

Airplane observation

When I was flying home from my visit with Nola, I was on a new plane.  I was on the same type of new plane going out to her house.  I had reserved seat 15C for the ride home.  But I noticed there was no window on that row.  No window...ACK! Although I don't sit in the window, I like to be able to look out a window.  It helps me with some of my motion sickness and I like to see were we are.  I always sit in the aisle seat because I like the freedom to get up whenever I want.  I also like to be able to stick my shoulder in the aisle.

The flight was completely full.  In fact, it was overbooked so there were zero options for a new seat....until about 30 minutes before my flight left and suddenly a bulk head seat opened up in the window seat.  I thought for a moment and figured I could do it.  So I did.  So when I boarded, I squished over to the window seat and settled in.  First thing I noticed is the shoulder room is less because of the pitch of the plane.  And because we were in the bulk head seats, we had little TV screens that came out from the armrest.  As I settled in, the guy for the middle seat plunked down and the aisle guy sat. 

As usual, about the time the plane is buckled up and ready to take off, I get the feeling I have to pee.  As always, I told myself that was just anxiety and I would have to wait because I literally had to wait.  But this is a 4.5 hour flight.  I tend to drift off to sleep while we take off.  Something about the bump of the plane and the sound of the engines is like a sleeping aid to me.  When I woke up, the two guys pinning me against the wall of the plane had their TV screens set up and watching movies.  It wasn't long until the drink carts and food for purchase came.  So we all had our trays out too.  So I concentrated on watching a movie on my personal screen "Captain Philips".  After the movie, I really had to pee.  But another round of drinks came.  I  got a Sprite.  It was then that I realized I should not be drinking anything because it was making it very difficult to sit there....but I didn't want to be that girl that make everyone stop their movie, hold their drinks, and balance their other materials so I could go to the bathroom.  There was 2 hours left in the flight.  I was cussing my decision to sit in the window seat.  I started another movie although I could barely tell you what it was because my mind was elsewhere.  (Visions of peeing in my Sprite cup, etc)

All of a sudden, the middle seat guy put his screen away and started making the "move".  It took me about 3.5 seconds to follow suit.  As he launched to the back of the plane to the bathrooms, I practically vaulted to the front bathroom.  All I could think is "Thank God".  I beat him back to my seat.  When he got back, he asked if I wanted out.  I told him I already went and how thankful I was that he got up because I wasn't sure I could make it the entire flight.  He said he was trying to wait too but just couldn't.  Frankly, I was relieved it was a guy in the middle that made the move instead of the old lady in the window with the overactive bladder.

I think this experience will change my behavior when I am sitting in the aisle seat.  I am always happy to let someone up but I wait for them to let me know they need out.  Going forward, I might just offer somewhere around the middle of the flight so they aren't worried about bothering me.  I doubt anyone can go a 4 hour flight without a restroom break.

I can say I loved being in the window because I got to see that gorgeous sunset.  I also enjoyed looking down at all the city lights under us and trying to envision were we were.  Colorado Springs was particularly pretty.

Going to Carolina

So as I mentioned, I had made plans to go see Nola and we were going to head to the beach for a scrapbook retreat.  That is exactly what we did.  This is the 3rd year I've gone out for this particular retreat.  It is at Carolina Beach in North Carolina.  It is held at the Courtyard Marriott which is right on the beach.  It doesn't take much convincing to get me to go.

This year, I flew out Thursday morning.  Nola was at the airport to pick me up which is always very sweet.  We went back to her house to go through my package of scrapbook stuff I had sent out before and to get ready to go.  This year, I shipped a box of my supplies out ahead of time so I had already picked out papers and had a plan (I always carry the actual photos with me though just in case).  We picked up chatting right where we left off.  We also worked on getting Nola's stuff together.  Nola has a scrapbook room that would thrill even the most prepared scrapbooker.  She has every tool  you could hope to use.  She is kind enough to stockpile enough that when I come out, I don't need to bring tools with me which makes it much easier.  We worked pretty hard to be organized and methotical about what we packed to take to the beach.  We were pretty happy with ourselves about that because it makes it easier to transport and easier to handle.

Gregg had unfortunately hurt his back the night before I got there so he was pretty low key.  It was great to see him.  Because Gregg was laid up, Nola took  me out to dinner at a fun pub place.  It was game night so it was crowded but we got a great place in the bar area and had the best burger!  And you  know I know my burgers. They had delicious French fries too.

Friday morning, we (I mean Nola) packed up the car and we headed out for the 2.5 hour drive to the beach.  Funny thing about the freeways in North Carolina.  The streets are lined with tall trees.  So it is just miles and miles of fall leaves. You can't see much off the side of the road.  We made a pit stop at a funny  little rest area in the meridian of the freeway.  It is actually nicer then most rest stops I've ever been too.  And we got down to Wilmington in time for a late lunch.  We drove through the historical part of Wilmington.  We also drove past the Corning plant where Jennie did her internship while in college.  We used Yelp to find a place for lunch.  We ended up on the Riverfront at this quirky seafood place, Dock Street Oyster Bar.  It was 1/2 block from the river. 

We walked in and were almost bowled over by the yummy smells.  It was for sure seafood but then lots of garlic too.  It was toasty warm inside.  Although I don't like seafood, I love fresh shrimp and I always look forward to having fresh and local sources shrimp when I visit.  Nola also talked me into trying a crab dip (which was delicious if I say so myself).

My shrimp steamer plate.  Oh Yummy!

 While we were there, there was even a horse drawn carriage that came by.  I know I say this every time I go to North Carolina but I think I should be living there.  I simply love it.

The Riverfront pier with the bridge in the background.

The carriage that went by while we enjoyed lunch.

A cool building I would love to own and run a fun restaurant out of.

After lunch, we made our way the additional 30 minutes to Carolina Beach.  It was a cold and overcast weekend weather wise but I say a cold day at the beach beats any day away from the beach.  I actually didn't make it out to the sand this year.  The hotel had torn out the boardwalk and I wasn't really feeling up to the effort to get out there.  But Nola did and brought me back a bag of sand which is perfect.

Looking down the beach from the hotel balcony

Looking up the beach from our balcony.

There were 58 scrapbooking ladies at the retreat.  It is always amazing to see what everyone had and brought with them.  Nola  and I kept it simple which was perfect.  Friday night, we worked on making cards we planned to do together.  We also made some charity pages for a project the organizer was working on.  Saturday, we both dove into our scrapbooking projects.  Nola worked on her "Book of Me" and I was focused on scrapbooking our events from earlier this year.  This year, I took all paper and no kits so it takes me longer to put together pages.  I used to do a page in less than 30 minutes but this time, each page was taking about an hour or so.  But they came out nice and one lady even said they were "fancy" which I took as a huge compliment.  I've never been accused of having fancy pages before.  When it was all said and done, I made about 10 cards and 10 scrapbook pages.  I was able to finish our cruise photos we took in April and finish Moab.  I did a few other photo pages too but I consider it all a success.

Saturday night, we treated ourselves to dinner out.  We went back to the Surf House which was another Yelp recommendation we found last year.  I ordered exactly the same thing as I did last year and it certainly didn't disappoint.  Now I could eat Shrimp and Grits every day if it was like this!!

Shrimp and Grits with a Bourbon cream sauce.
Yes that is chunks of sweet potatoes!  Oh My God!!!  So good.

Me and Nola at Surf House

Sunday afternoon came all too quick.  We (I mean Nola again) packed up the car and took me to the Wilmington airport.  I flew out from there because it is closer and quicker for me. Nola sadly had to make the 2 hour drive home alone.   The good news is by the time I landed in Atlanta, she was already home.

I really enjoy scrapbooking with Nola and I love sharing this time together.  I really got spoiled with Nola time in November.  It reminded me of when we were younger and she lived in Utah.  We would get together and craft together.  It was exactly like that.  Maybe I appreciate it more now then I did years ago because we don't get to do it often.

My flight home was uneventful for the most part.  I got home about 8:00 MT.  Here is a photo I took of the sunset I saw as I was in the air.  It was spectacular.

 I had a great time.  Until next time....

Surprise...Surprise...Surprise...visit

Nola had been waiting for a sign it was time to change her job and it finally hit a few weeks ago.  That is her story to tell but I share that much because it created a window of time that she wasn't working and was missing home.  So I strongly encouraged her to come spend some time in Salt Lake.  It was a last minute decision.  A flight was booked on Monday and on Saturday, she was here....and I was so excited!

We both wanted to spend the time doing something fun and relax.  Nola had Christmas decorations on her mind.  So we shared ideas and I did a little pre-visit shopping and we got to work.  Mom came into town for the weekend as well and joined in the fun.  We took Nola out to eat.  We did a little shopping.  And we set up craft corner on my dining room table.

We started at Tai Pan.  I've told Nola lots about it and she wanted to see.  They were in high Christmas mode and it was fun and exciting.  It was almost overwhelming to see everything and try to wade through it all.  But we had a good time and all walked out happy with our finds.


Nola in the tree section.

Mom and I trying to take it all in.

Inspiration for Nola.

 For crafts, I had visited the Dollar store and Michaels.  Nola wanted to learn to use Polymer clay so we dove into gingerbread boys.  Honestly, I think they are darling and it was fun to see how we each ended up making them different.

In process.

Mine finished

Then we ripped apart a text book Nola brought and made wreaths and trees and paper mache stars.  It was actually really fun.  For the wreath and tree, we cut leaf shapes and glued them on.  For the stars, we ripped the pages into smaller pieces and used Modge Podge to glue them to a cardboard shape.  After they were dry, we painted the high lines with gold paint.  Nola put Glimmer Mist and Ink on hers.

And finally, we decorated some pinecones with flowers and ribbons.

We were very pleased with our projects and felt the majority of our efforts worked out well.  There were wire stars that needed some more work and we tried to make ribbon candy out of the Polymer and it was.....ugly.  But otherwise....success.

Baby.  Our crafting cat supervisor.

On Sunday, we wanted to go out to breakfast.  None of us were sleeping well so we decided to go up the canyon to Ruth's Diner.  They are always very crowded but had seating on the patio.  So we sat outside by the heater.  We were fearful it was going to be too cold but with jackets and some cocoa, it was perfect.  It really was beautiful...and delicious.

Ruth's is known for their mile high homemade biscuits

 

Later in the week, Nola and I went to Market Street Grill.  Nola said the Clam Chowder is the best she's ever had.  And I am always open for fresh shrimp!  It did not disappoint and it was yet another beautiful day.


Because I have a camera phone and I can.... 
(Notice how we match.  That was not planned.)

Market Street at the mouth of the canyon.

I am always sad when it is time for Nola to head home.  But this time was extra special because I had already made plans to go visit her in North Carolina.  She headed home Wednesday morning.  I flew out for more fun and frolic on Thursday morning.  I will write more about that in another posting.

Loved having Nola here.  I hope she comes more often.

Senior Photos

I missed the boat.  All summer long, I was curious what was going on with Senior photos.  I knew they needed photos early for the year book but I didn't know the plan and neither did Philip's social media friends.  So we showed up to registration and took photos there.  Did I tell this story?  Because it is ridiculous.  They line up the seniors and for the men, they had a tuxedo shirt dickie and a tuxedo jacket.  Of course it was about 100 degrees so Philip was in shorts.  He lined up for the "dickie photo".  You have to pick your "shot" and order photos before you can see them.  So when Philip proudly brought home his photo package I purchased, it was almost hilarious.  Yes he is a handsome devil and yes he had some great photos.  But one of the photo "shots" I picked was a longer pose.  So here it comes.....a photo of the shirt dickie and jacket...and shorts with a plaid shirt hanging out the bottom.  Pretty funny.  Seriously!

Anyway, I had visions of getting some "real" senior photos of Philip.  So I asked around and found a guy that specializes in "natural" photo shoots.  Yes he does studio shoots but his favorite is doing location shoots.  This was perfect for me because I had my heart set on an urban setting. So we picked a date and headed downtown to Exchange Place.  We pass this place all the time but I saw it in a whole new light.  He had Philip running all over in front of different buildings and stairwells and in front of graffiti, and in window ledges.  I sat and froze my ass off waiting patiently. 

I'm still anxiously waiting for the photos.  In fact, I called today.  He said they were looking fantastic and he was still working on editing them so we don't have them yet but I should have them soon.  The cool thing about this photographer is you own the images. So we can print to our hearts content anywhere we want.

Here are a few photos I took through the process.

Look at this cool architecture!  This is the Boston Building.

My freezing feet...on the street.

Part of Philip's shoot.  How artistic!

I will post some from the photographer when I get them.  I can't wait.  It is like waiting for Christmas!!

Catching up.

I know...I know.  I am just a big bundle of excuses.  I've been absent from the blog.  But that doesn't mean I've been laying around doing nothing.  I've actually been very busy. And it doesn't mean I haven't been stockpiling ideas for blogs I just have to post.  So hang on...I'm going to dump it all out over the next few days.  Hang tight.  Is going to get busy around here!!

Photo hell

Today almost everyone carries a camera in their pocket.  It's on their phone!  Who would have thought 20 years ago, we would carry a tiny computer in our pants pocket?  Any photos can instantly be shared in social media for everyone to see.  Technology is fantastic.  But this weekend, I was slapped in the face with the downside of that convenience.  Let me tell you more.

This weekend, I had two occurrences when my loved ones took photos of me that were less than flattering.  Not just less then flattering but completely degrading in my opinion.  Posting photos of me with a body shape like a Hershey kiss.  But it is better than that, I am either eating or talking or concentrating so I have a grumpy cat look on my face or I have "resting bitch face" (RBF).  Before I realized it, some photos were posted to Facebook and I was tagged before I even had a chance to roll out of bed.   This means 138 people of various degrees of my world and acquaintance and all their friends and friends of friends see that I don't always eat with my mouth closed, I pull faces when I craft, and I clearly just don't smile enough.  This doesn't account for the volume of body mass from my lower lip to my big toe....all displayed in a very unflattering and unattractive way.  I could not move fast enough to "untag" myself and delete the images from my timeline.  I am horrified that people actually saw them.  I was not the only one that was captured for all time and eternity in a less than flattering pose or facial expression.

So my public announcement here is just my opinion but I think we all have to be kind and gentle to our loved ones.  If you take a photo, it only takes a second to allow someone some notice so they can look up and smile and present their very best self possible.  For me, I don't post photos of anyone if they could be perceived as less than flattering.  You will never see a photo of someone sitting with their feet up taken from a lower position at foot level from me.  No one wants to see a close up of the crotch of someone's jeans as the primary focus.  No matter how beautiful you are, that is just simply not a good photo composition.  I also rarely tag people on social media without their permission first.

Here is my motto about this.....just because you can take a photo, doesn't mean you should.  And if you do, please be thoughtful about how that represents that person.  Put yourself in their place and think how you would feel if that was your mug in the photo.  If you have a terrible photo of someone, crop it.  Shape it.  Or delete it.  You don't have to share every photo you take especially if it wasn't a good one.

I'm not mad that my loved ones took these terrible photos, I just wish they wouldn't have been shared in such a public way when it is an incredibly poor representation of me.  I know I am over weight.  I know I have faces I pull.  But please don't share them with the people I went to High School with that I no longer have a relationship with beyond Facebook "likes".

Later today, I will be making an appointment to get my mouth wired shut and gastric bypass surgery performed.   I will also be having liposuction and a facelift.  I am kidding but boy my self esteem took a huge hit this past weekend.

Venting

I need to vent just a moment.  Please allow me this digression.  Three weeks ago, I contacted my insurance company to request  they consider covering my consultation with John Hopkins.  I believe I spoke to him on a Tuesday or Wednesday.  He assured me they would review it that week and I would have an answer the following Tuesday.  Sounds dandy.

I called the end of that following week.  Left a message.  Called the next week.  Left a message.  Called again  yesterday.  Left a message.  This morning, I get a call (got my voicemail) that he needed to talk to me urgently.  I called back 4 times today and left messages to call me back.  He finally called 40 minutes ago.

Much to my dismay, he couldn't type fast enough when I originally called to get my notes straight.  So he sat on it....3 weeks.  Nothing.  Today I had the fabulous opportunity to go over my entire medical history again.  Plus they can't find the letter from my Neurologist and he said usually they need a request from my current physician.  I tell him he has it.  He said that he doesn't have it.  So I scanned my copy and emailed it to him.  I tried really hard to be nice but I couldn't help but tell him how frustrated I was that nothing has happened in 3 weeks.  NOTHING.  All he could say was sorry.

At this point, he wouldn't make any commitments on when it would get in front of the review board.  No commitment about how long it would take to review.   He said he would call me when he gets it submitted.

We all get busy at work.  We all have had a situation where something gets delayed and we need to make an apology.  It happens.   I understand.  I really do.  But I am very frustrated.  This is really a test of my anger management skills.  Deep breath in......blow it out slowly......

The good news is I have my appointment and I am going no matter what.  I do have two tests this week in preparation.  I have an MRI on Thursday morning and a Pulmonary test on Friday.  No picnics but hopefully both will be smooth.

Okay...vent over....as long as I keep breathing deeply.  Thanks for indulging me.