Thursday, November 29, 2012

Good Bye Gall Bladder...

Who knew this pesky little organ would give me trouble?  I sure as hell did not.

It feels kinda weird that at the end of the day today, an organ of my body will be gone.  And still, my body will work.  Neat and weird and cool and strange and scary.

Surgery is at 3:00 p.m. EST and I hope to be home tomorrow on the road to recovery.

I think the hardest part (other than the pain) of this experience has been being away from home and family.  I cannot wait until I am at home again...I feel like the holiday season has been put on PAUSE.  I want to get a chance to Un-Pause it and to enjoy!

Good bye, Gall Bladder...sorry you couldn't stick around anymore, but you just became a pain!


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Saturday, November 24, 2012

Remember that Thanksgiving where you had Gallstones and later on had to have Gallbladder surgery?

Someday, I will be able to say that.

Right now, home with Vicodin and anti-nausea medicine waiting to talk to a surgeon next week (hopefully Monday) for surgery. Yay!

 This couldn't come at a worse time (of course, when would be a good time, eh?)

 So, the long weekend I was looking forward to--not so much.



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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

PAIL Monthly Theme Post - Geeky Traditions

INTRO:  They are certainly different for everyone. Some people’s traditions are rooted in family – some in their culture – some in their religion…and most people seem to use a combination of any/all of those factors when creating their own traditions for their families. -- PAIL 

I think when we start having families (in whatever sense of the word you want to put it) on our own away from our parents, we start out trying to emulate the traditions we grew up with.  As time goes on, circumstances change and individual differences emerge to become new traditions within your family.

While I could talk about the various holiday traditions we observe (yeah, I have stories of reading about Hanukkah to our pet chinchilla when we did not have children; about trying to do an Easter egg hunt with an obviously bemused Jewish husband--or how now we observe with both a Christmas tree and Santa Claus and with a Menorah and latkes), I wanted to talk about the traditions that are make our family unique--traditions that were not handed down from our families, but we have created (often by happenstance).

We are definitely a nerdy family.  We love science fiction and role playing and debating about whether Star Trek is better than Star Wars and how Futurama is one of the best shows out there--and Babylon 5 was AWESOME....you get the idea.

We start the year off right on New Year's Eve--my husband hosts a Call of Cthulu role playing game.

Every February, I look forward to two things.  Planning my son's birthday party--and going to Total Con.  We have been doing this tradition since Michael was about 3 years old. It is our pilgrimage to all things geeky--there are games to play, people who are like us, and always vendors selling geeky stuff.  And even some years--prizes to be won.  We go every year and it is such a nice break in the long winter.

Other geeky traditions we love doing include going to the local Renaissance Faire in the fall and going to various comic book conventions during the year.  A lot of these traditions are things that we look forward to throughout the year, they become our milestones/markers for the year.

Some things are recent traditions--like how each Mother or Father's day the celebrant goes with Michael (and I assume eventually Willow) to play laser tag.  Not only is it a bit different, but it is a great way to spend time with our teenager one on one!

A lot of our traditions are based on trail and error.  I believe that the best thing to do for your children (and yourself) is to try new experiences and see new things.  You never know when you might find something that will become a tradition for years to come!


P.S.  HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

(our tradition, made after we moved 800 miles away from family--Breakfast Pies--are in the oven!)

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Sunday, November 18, 2012

Thoughtful Movie

Michael did his first paid babysitting job today so that Chewy and I could go see the Spielberg Lincoln movie. (He did a good job--although when we got home Willow was at the kitchen table and he was playing a computer game--as she often says "AH-hem!")

I grew up reading and re-reading Carl Sandburg's Lincoln biographies. I devoured anything Lincoln when I was a kid. My parents even took me to this museum a few times during summer vacations (a highlight for me was the collection of political cartoons).

I read almost anything I see new about Abraham Lincoln, about the assassination, etc.  A highlight of visiting Washington D.C. for me was going on a 90 minute walking tour of Lincoln's Washington with a Lincoln historian (Michael in a stroller sleeping his way through it all).    I have read A Team of Rivals twice (and after seeing this movie--probably will read it again).

So, I was thrilled to get to go see this movie. Although I found a few things heavy handed (the opening and closing scenes were too sappy even for me), and I am just not becoming a fan of Sally Field from the recent performances I have seen...the rest of the movie was excellent!

I loved the fact that he kept the scope of this movie to a small portion of time--and to the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment.  This was one of the best movies I have seen that showed the inner working of politics.  And Lincoln was such a politician.  I loved the wrangling and various strategies.

I also felt that the movie did what only the best of movies do--transport me, make me feel a part of that time and place.  The costuming, the hair...I felt like I had been transported in time and was meeting Lincoln himself.

Daniel Day Lewis--who's he?  I saw Lincoln up there.  And that was just awesome.

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Friday, November 16, 2012

Random Fact Friday


This is why I love the school years at Willow's age.  I get inundated with TONS of projects and drawings and colorings and rainbows and butterflys and paper projects galore (poor trees!). 

While I don't save all of them--I am grateful to be able to put many of them up around my house.

I especially love that she came home last night with this little decoration for Thanksgiving.




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Sunday, November 11, 2012

Finally Trying Some Digital Scrapbooking...Or What I did this weekend...

Thing is, I have tried a few times to do digital scrapbooking.  Sometimes the various programs have crashed on me, sometimes the templates were just not flexible enough for me.  And I still like the feel of physically cropping and creating layouts.  But.  Most of my photos now are digital already.  So, it seems like something that is inevitable.  This weekend I had a little bit of time (and money to be frivolous with), so I did some layouts.  Here are two examples (left page and then right page--I could have put them side by side, but then they would be smaller on screen..):




And as above shows--THIS is what Michael did this weekend! He has now tested into purple/red belt!  (Oh and I bought him a new uniform--that one was too small!)


Oh, and this is what she was doing this weekend...







 






Wednesday, November 07, 2012

New Camera - Life in Snapshots

Playing with my new camera...nothing important happening...just, you know, life...


First shot from my new camera (Happy Almost Birthday to me)

Willow insisted that I take a picture of the puppies...made sure to get her in the picture too... 


Reluctant model.  Very much his attitude most days now.  Very teenager-y. 

Hey, the flash works!  Kif with his eyes closed.

Laying around..they both do this a lot.  A Lot.

Yeah, mom, we get it, you have a new camera!!



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Saturday, November 03, 2012

Random Fact Friday (on Saturday)

Okay, now that I said I would participate, trying to come up with a Random Fact...um, you know this is actually kinda hard...

Random Fact:

I am researching about Savings Bonds!

(There.  How's that for Random?!)





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Much Needed Self Care...

For my Birthday this year, I got a weekend away from everyone at a nice hotel with a spa.  This was the weekend.  And much needed it was! Af...