Friday Fragments - Happy New Edition

Before I go racing into 2010, I thought I would take this opportunity to look back at 2009 and look forward to what I expect 2010 to bring. I have permission to be random, you see, because Mrs. 4444 tells me I can be. Every Friday, she hosts a plethora of randomness and encourages the rest of us to join in. Some may think she is being a bad influence but I say that she is the exalted ruler of de-clutter. Jump on over and see what everyone else has cleared out of their minds.

2009 has had its challenges work wise. Money is tight at work and the boss is not dealing with it very well. Our wonderful laid back boss is now a flame-breathing bear. Here's hoping that things settle down in 2010.

2009 has had some surprises for me. Last year at this time, I not only didn't know about on-line blogs but I would never ever in a million years have imagined that I would be writing one. Thank you all for accepting me, for commenting on my posts and for allowing me into your worlds. You inspire me and entertain me. In 2010, I will a) reach 100 posts and b) meet Hallie in person. Who knows - maybe even meet other bloggers in person too.

2009 also saw me - yes, the out-of-shape, middle-aged, clumsy ME! - start karate. The idea of ME! taking karate would have caused me to roll on the floor and laugh. My husband guilted me into taking a 6 week self defense seminar (under MUCH protest, I will admit) and I ended up loving it. Yes, loving it. Who knew karate could be so much fun and that I would love comparing bruises?

2009 saw me sitting back and enjoying the growth in my son. He finished his freshman year in high school, continued to excel academically, got his first (and second!) jobs and took driver's ed. I admire the young man that he is maturing into. 2010 will see him complete his eagle badge in Boy Scouts, get his license, and travel overseas without me. This is going to be another fun year to watch!

2009 saw me reconnecting with many old friends and making new friends because of social networks like facebook and various blogs. I anticipate that the same will continue in 2010. With some of my friends, I wonder how I survived being out of touch for so many years. I am happy that I got to see some of them in person in 2009 and I look forward to additional "reunions" in 2010.

My son had a few friends over for his annual New Year's Eve sleepover so I have taken advantage of the time to review some of my old posts. It has been an interesting experience. Some of the posts remind me of forgotten goals or ideas (diet and making jewelry), some make me cringe (sorry for whining) and some make me smile.

My son has been hosting a New Year's Eve sleepover since he was in first grade. That year, we had about 8 boys and it was the first time that many of them had ever spent the night at a friend's house. In addition, it was the first time that most of them had stayed up until midnight! My job that year was to keep them fed and entertained. It was fun but exhausting. This quickly became a much requested event! Fast forward until middle school. We were up to 12-15 boys (I stopped counting for my sanity!) and my job was to keep them fed (which took an amazing amount of food) and somewhat quiet. They yelled, they ran and they stayed up all night. That meant, of course, that I also stayed up most of the night. They also created a massive mess so I spent most of my time cleaning up after them. This year, my son only invited a few friends and my job was to provide food and stay out of the way. They were quiet, well-behaved and my only complaint was that they left a light on when they went to bed. No more all-nighters. No more yelling. No more trashed house. Life is good.

The only family member not excited about the sleepover was the dog. She likes the boys and they are all very good to her. However, she is definitely a creature of habit. She was not impressed that I stayed up past her bedtime. Our fierce doberman/dalmatian is afraid of the dark so she doesn't like to go upstairs by herself. She showed her displeasure by going to the foot of the stairs and barking to let me know what she wanted. Alas, I made her sleep on the couch until after midnight. She was very relieved when I (finally) said "Bed, Katy". As usual, she beat me upstairs and had her place claimed on the bed before I reached the top of the stairs.

I posted "May 2010 be happy for you" on a high school student's facebook wall. Her response was "Why May?". Yup, she was seriously thinking that I was telling her that May of 2010 was going to be a good month. Sigh. I had to explain that I meant "may" as in "I hope that" and not "May" as in the month. I guess she doesn't know any Irish blessings!

Here is hoping that 2010 is everything that you want - and more! Here's to randomness.

Happy New Year!

Thankful Thursday

What better day to have a Thankful Thursday posting than on Christmas Eve? Thankful Thursday is a time when I take a step back from the hustle and bustle of my life and spend time looking at all that is good in my life. Today, my thankful list includes in no particular order:

1) I am thankful that I haven't had to run around these past few days doing last minute errands.

2) I am thankful for the adults who have provided support and guidance to my son this year. These include, but are not limited to, the adults who spent time with him at the scout holiday party last night reviewing his Eagle Project booklet. It is ready to be mailed to get the district committee's approval!

3) I am thankful that my husband and I still have jobs.

4) I am thankful for karate which has taught me many lessons about myself this year.

5) I am thankful for my friends - new and old - who are always there for me.

6) I am thankful for the new people I have "met" thru the bloggie world.
Thank you for sharing your stories. You make me laugh, you make me think and you
often inspire me.

7) I am thankful that the people around me are mostly very healthy.

8) I am thankful that I live in a great town, a great state and a great country. I
feel safe, I (mostly) enjoy the weather and I appreciate the many freedoms.

9) Most of all, I am thankful for my husband, son and extended family for always loving me.

Merry Christmas to all of you that celebrate.


Here's to thankfulness.

Twofer Tuesday

What is Twofer Tuesday you ask? It is a quick post where I share two things that I am thinking about.

My mom passed away 5 days after my 22 birthday. Since I face my 50th birthday in the new year, it was many many years ago. I still miss her. I don't know if it is because of the holidays or because I am getting closer and closer to the age she was when she passed away (56) but she has been on my mind a great deal lately. I mourn not only what her loss meant to me and the rest of our family but I also think about how hard it must have been for her to leave us all. I think about dying when my son is 22 and barely out of college. It would simply break my heart. I so look forward to seeing what type of man he is going to grow into and what type of father he is going to be. My mother only got to see one grandchild. She never met my amazing niece who is a generous and kind teacher like her mother and has an amazing amount of musical talent. She never got to meet the two 15 year-olds (my other niece and my son) who are both scary smart and could easily change the world. They are also both loyal and loving kids. So this holiday season make sure that you hold your family and loved ones close and appreciate the time that you have together.

Where the heck does the time go? I mentioned a few days ago that I wrap presents every year for a friend. He and my husband used to work together. He was married and was the type of husband who would stick his wife's present in a paper bag and call it good. If he put a bow on the present, she considered it fancy! I took pity on him (really on her) and offered my services as his present wrapper. We were trying to figure out this evening how long this has been going on and realized that it is close to 15 years. My baby is now 15, his two elementary school kids are in college (and close to finishing) and the wife is now an ex-wife. I guess he got custody of us in the divorce. We had the same food tonight that we had at the first wrapping party. Pizza and beer. Some things never change. As always, it was a fun evening.

Here's to quickies.

Takin' a breather

It is Sunday night and my men at at the movies, the dog is sleeping on my bed (under the covers no less) and the cat is sleeping on a chair. I am takin' a breather from the Christmas crazies and just reflecting for a few moments before I get back to work on my "to do" list.

We spent yesterday celebrating Christmas with my side of the family. My niece traveled down from "the county" and picked up her mother in "mill town" before heading south while my husband, son and I headed north to Mid-Coast Maine to gather at my brother's house. My other brother doesn't join in as he basically cut ties with the family years ago. We have a relaxing pot luck lunch before exchanging presents. It is truly "the way Christmas should be" to me. No stress. The focus isn't on the presents and how much money we spent but on the thoughts behind the presents. It was very obvious that everyone thought about what someone would want or need. My 15 year old niece picked out a wall placque for me that is the absolute perfect colors for my newly redone bathroom. My brother-in-law invested a lot of time and effort in making us all personalized hiking sticks. It was really a great day and a wonderful start to the rest of the Christmas week activities.

Monday night, we have tentative plans for friends to come over for a wrapping party. Just about every year for the last 15 or so, I have wrapped Christmas gifts for a man that used to work with my husband. At first, it was just what he gave his then wife but, since the divorce, it was been most everything. As his daughter messaged me lately, he is a whiz in assembing a computer but the paper, scissors and tape defeat him. The past few years, his girl friend comes too and after we eat, we gather around the kitchen table and she wraps her presents and I wrap Dave's. I look forward to this every year. The scheduling has been difficult this year and I hope it works out.

On Tuesday, my office is starting our annual two-day eatathon. As requested, I am bringing in what I call "Melinda's Meatballs". A former co-worker used to bring them in and someone asked it I could this year. So easy and yummy. I quickly said yes! Tuesday evening will be karate as usual. Somehow, I think it will be a great stress reliever!

On Wednesday, we are hosting my son's boy scout troop for the annual Christmas party. They are going to do a night hike and then come back to our house for Hot Chocolate and goodies. My 25 cup coffee maker will be perfect for making the mass quanities of hot chocolate that I will need.

On Thursday, we will join my in-laws for a pizza supper and also go to a movie. My son has the day off and I get out at noon.

We all have the week off between New Years and Christmas - first time ever. My son is having a friend visit from Connecticut for a few days and we are hoping to repaint the upstairs bathroom. Yee gads. I still haven't picked out the paint color!

I hope the up-coming week is fun, relaxing and blessed for you and yours. Don't forget to take some time for yourself.

Merry Christmas!

More Monday Morning Musings

What a wonderful super-sized weekend. My family arrived on Thursday (albeit earlier than expected - thank goodness I called to get an update!) and we had a wonderful visit. The food all came out good (orange juice and orange flavored craisins are a nice addition to stuffing, by the way) and the company was outstanding.

We started a new family tradition this year. We headed out at 11:30 pm and went to a local mall for Black Friday shopping. The weather was great, the bargains were plentiful and the costumed singers were melodious. I saw tons of people I knew and, while I didn't buy a ton of gifts, I did accomplish a little Christmas shopping. Some of the other shoppers were dressed up. Knowing my sister, I wouldn't be surprised if she shows up next year with something for us all to wear.

My favorite thing about our Thanksgiving is the opportunity to spend time with family as we live quite a distance apart. We usually spend some time playing games. This year, we had a rousing game of Bananagrams. It is a fun and easy-to-play game that is extremely portable. This evening, my son invited his father and me to play a game after dinner. How cool is that?

I got lots of ideas for gifts and have been on several shopping trips since they left Saturday morning. I have gone from 30% of my shopping done to about 75% done! Yeah! I cleaned up the guest room this morning and set up my "wrapping station" and wrapped several presents. I have a lot of things going on the next several weeks so it is a big sense of accomplishment to get things underway.

My son and husband are both 2nd degree black belts in karate. My son is unable to advance for several years because of his age. It has been hard to keep him interested because he isn't learning anything new and the dojo (karate school) is quite small and he keeps working with the same students. Basically, he is bored. In addition, this year he has had a great deal of homework and it has been difficult for him to make it to class 2 nights a week. However, his father and I hate to see him quit. This afternoon, we had a family discussion and came up with a solution. They are going to take private lessons and attend classes for black belt students once a month. It should be enough to keep him involved and keep his skills at a high level but not so much that he dreads going to class. I have my fingers crossed, anyway.

My niece received a Kindle for her birthday. When we were talking about them this weekend, she mentioned that Kindle gives you free access to the Internet. I realized that I could access Wikipedia but I didn't realize that I could access facebook,etc. I don't have Internet on my cell phone because I really don't need it and I am too cheap to pay for it but free Internet is right up my alley. Jen said that she found a recipe online that she wanted to try but she forgot it at home when she went shopping. She did have her Kindle with her and was able to look it up and get the ingredient list. I downloaded (and read) the latest Friday Night Knitting Club book by Kate Jacobs and the newest Alex Cross book by James Patterson. I also downloaded 5or more free books. Gotta love the free aspects of the Kindle. If you are looking for a gift to purchase for that hard to buy for person, I highly recommend the Kindle.

That's it for today, Folks. I hope everyone has a great Monday and a great week.

Here's to musings.

Monday Morning Musings

About this time last year, my husband went on a "green" kick. He replaced all of our light bulbs with more energy efficient ones and we did what ever we could think of to get our electricity bill down. We started at $140. a month and our new family activity consisted of gathering together and opening the CMP. After the first month, we had dropped to $98. (insert happy dance here). This inspires us to new actions. We started drying our clothes on a drying rack and only using the dryer to "fluff" them. We also put power strips onto our televisions. The next month, our bill was in the $70. range. (insert high fives). If you drove by our house at night, you might have wondered if we were on vacation or perhaps had moved. On most evenings, nary a light could be seen peaking out of our windows. No, not us! We were energy efficient. If we weren't in a room. we didn't need a light. I got very proficient at walking around in the dark. A few bruised skins but no broken bones in the process. Fast forward a year and we are a little less vigilant about things. We have been known to have a light or two on in the evenings and the drying racks have been folded up and put away. Our electricity bill last month was $63. That is right, it is still low. The only thing that we figure is that the more efficient light bulbs and the power strips on the TVs(DVRs,cable boxes)made the difference. I might just be able to convince my husband to let me turn the Christmas tree lights on more than just on Christmas Day this year.

I have a relatively unusual name and that is probably why I am fascinated by names. I often see an unusual name and I would love to get the story behind it. You know, what were they thinking when they named their kids Sandy, Rocky and Clay? That would be OK except the last name is Beach. You got it. Sandy Beach, etc. A few years ago, I did player registrations for Little League in our small town. There was a boy registered named Blue. Doesn't that make you wonder? Are his siblings Red and Yellow? Apparently, there was a family years ago in the next town over that named their first two kids He and She. True story. The younger sister's name was Yriah. My office pondered that one day until we realized that it was hairy backwards. Can't you just see it? "This baby has a lot of hair! What are we going to name her?" "Gee, Harry won't work. Aha. Lets spell hairy backwards!"

I am really struggling with ideas for Christmas this year. Everything I have come up with for my son has been shot down - first by his father and then by him, I don't want to just buy something to have something, anything under the tree but if this keeps up, it is going to be the quickest Christmas present unwrapping ever. The good news is that I have managed to get the photo taken and the Christmas Card ordered. Yeah for that. Here is what my handsome son looks like.



I hope everyone has a great Monday!

Here's to things that make me go hmmmmm.

Happy Birthday, America!

Since a restaurant in our neighborhood shoots off a very loud cannon every hour on the hour on the 4th of July, the hubby, son and I decided to take a road trip today. Where better to go to on July 4th then a town named Liberty? How appropriate! I happened to grow up in Liberty, Maine and have been hankering for a visit back for quite some time. Unfortunately, both of my parents are deceased and I no longer have a reason to return so it has been several years since I have been to my hometown. My Dad always called it "sweet land of Liberty" and it truly was a great small town to grow up in. It was the type of community where you knew that if you did something wrong, a neighbor would give you heck for it and your parents would hear about it before you got home. It was also the type of town where people helped each other regardless of age, etc. It was just what you did.

It was an interesting and somewhat sad trip for me. The village where I grew up had a relatively small number of homes but there was a lot of pride of ownership. The people of Liberty didn't have a lot of money but most of the houses were well-maintained and neat. I didn't find that today. Only one of the houses on the "main drag" was as I remembered it. That house is still owned by the same man who owned it when I was growing up. The rest of the houses were mostly run down, needed repairs and some had debris and junk in the yard. We actually owned two houses next door to each other when I was growing up. We owned one house that we outgrew and "traded" with the next door neighbors as their house was too large for two people. It was an interesting move, I tell you. Both of those houses were fairly run down. I know my parents would be heartbroken. I am not so naive that I expected the properties to look like they did when I lived there. It was just sad to see much of the town in a state of decline and disrepair.

There were some positive signs, however. The elementary school that I went to has been updated and athletic fields have been added and the only church in town looked to be in even better shape then when I lived there. We also drove by a Chicken BBQ lunch that was being sponsored by the fire department and it was packed. We thought about stopping in but having our dog and a vegetarian son with us nixed that idea. Also, Liberty now has its own library. When I was growing up, we had a bookmobile come to our small town three or four times a year. That was it. I would have been in heaven with an actual library!

There was one house that looked newly painted that is right next to the church. It is painted pink panther pink and has an attached red barn. It was colorful to say the least.

All in all, I am very glad that I went home again. It was fun to show my son where his old mom had grown up.

We did manage some fun as part of our day. For us, no car ride "up Maine" is complete without a stop at the world famous L.L. Bean. It is always a great place to look around and today I managed to find a pair of dress shorts and a new backpack purse and both were on sale. The
purse was about 70% off the original price! How sweet is that? In addition, we took the long way home and traveled down Route 1 along the Maine coast. We got caught in not one, but two, severe thunderstorms but enjoyed the coastal scenery. In a "it's a small world moment", I did drive by the home where Mary Ellen grew up. We didn't meet until college and were thrilled to discover that we grew up about 45 minutes from each other.

I hope everyone in blogdom had a happy and safe 4th of July.

Here's to going home.

Here's to the Dads!

Any man (almost) can be a father but it takes a special man to be a Dad. To me, a father is the biological donor who basically washes their hands of the child once they are born. They can be there physically but not there emotionally. I am so very fortunate that I am surrounded by many Dads!

Here's to my Dad - even though he is no longer with us, he was a great hands on father before that was the norm. From teaching me to walk (without my mother's knowledge) to taking me out to the deep deep water when I was a toddler to giving me "grown up coffee" when I was still in single digits, he may not have always followed Mom's rules but he was always a big presence in my life. He was also an incredible grandfather to my sister's kids. How I wish he had lived to see my son and my brother's daughter. Since my son's name was based on his name, I just know he would have been proud as punch with my son.

Here's to my Father-in-Law - I didn't know my husband when he was growing up but I do appreciate what a great grandfather you are to my son. Hardly a sporting event or concert goes by that you are not in attendance regardless of the temperature or the distance away.

Here's to my Brother - who would have known that a little blonde daughter would have you wrapped around her little finger? Jocelyn is turning into an amazing, accomplished young lady and I know a lot of the credit goes to you.

Last in the list, but first in my heart, here's to my hubby, the father of our son - what a fun almost 15 years it has been! I know you weren't sure what kind of father you would be but time has shown that you are one amazing Dad. You are always there to support him in whatever he wants to do. There is no one else I would rather share this journey with and no one else I would rather spend the "hundreds of games and practices, hours in parking lots waiting or hours just being a family" with. Evan is lucky to have you for a Dad and I thank my lucky stars daily.


Happy Father's Day to all the Dads.

Here's to all the Dads in the world!