Say anything twice, just don’t yell…

Thanks for the info about stretching my bum.  I already do that one and also another, both told to me by my doctor a few years ago.  The “other” one is to lie on the floor with your backside scooted as close to the wall as possible with your legs going up the wall.  You will be in an “L” position.  After you are in position, lift your body toward your legs without moving your legs from the wall or scooting you bum away from the wall.  You can use your arms to push you up as it is not the abs you are trying to work.  It was very difficult for me at first but now does provide some relief.  I might not be explaining it correctly but I am sure you will be able to figure it out if you try it.  I have also been told that you can do this in a doorway so that you can work only one side at a time but I do not find it as easy or effective but soemthing that does not work for one person may work for another???  In any case, I sure hope that you have great success with the therapy.

So where is Angi?  The dating must be going so well that she has no time for us anymore…LOL  Angi, we miss you and your charming wit!

This is a picture of the cabin we stayed in.  To the right of the cabin is a huge open field where each morning we saw mule deer, elk, and antelope.  In the evening we saw coyotes, deer, elk etc..  To the left are dense forest trees.

This was one of my favorite pictures.  It is at the Grand Canyon.  I love the way the shadows look aganist the setting sun.

This one looks much better full size but you get the gist.

I included this one just so you wouldn’t think I was sending you pictures of postcards…LOL Doesn’t Bethany look marvelous as a 13 year old?  She celebrated her birthday last Friday. 

Will write more later.  I have a few funnies to share.  Bethany’s dad was here all last week. Penny  sorry to hear about your injury.  I have trouble with my sciatic nerve from my hip down but it is not an old running injury.  I would be interested in the stretching exercises if you fell like sharing.  Hope you enjoyed your day off and you will have to share pictures of them pouring the basement.  Sounds exciting.

Hi All,

I really enjoyed reading and catching up on all that has been going on with all of you.  Penny, I hope the sports doctor can help.  Mutti, the new car looks fun to drive.  I am so disapointed that I forgot to bring my camera cable with me to work today so I can not show you any pictures.   We went to the Grand Canyon twice; once during the day and once right before sunset.  I was able to capture some very, very nice sunset pictures.  Lots of other vacation stuff to share but I have been so busy today that I am not sure if I am coming or going.  Right now I am foucsing just on going, home that is.  I have one last dog training class tonight and I am glad that it is done.  Would like to sign up for more but they are so late in the evening and all the way across town (almost an hour from home!) I still need to unpack and do the laundry that we brought home.  There were so many dogs in the cabin that everything I took has its own fur coat now… lol  Penny, do any of your kids like to read?  We stopped in Barnes & Noble while on vacation to get Bethany a book and I can not put it down, we keep fighting over whose turn it is to read.  It is called InkHeart.  I would say somewhere about 7th-8th grade reading level.  It is part of a triligy but only two books are out so far.  I highly recommend it.  (Angi, Sam may like it also??)  We already have the second book (called InkSpell) and I can not wait to get far enough ahead of Bethany so we don’t have to jockey back and forth.  Silly I know, but hey it is a good book.

I will sign off for now, I can not wait to get home.  Why is it, we always need a vacation from our vacation? 

Hi there ladies…

Nothing new to report.  Ok, well I am sure there are things but I have been to lazy to write.  I will give you guys the “short version” and promise to try to be better after my vacation.  I will be leaving this Sunday (July 1)  and returning next Sunday (July8).  So no posts from me during that time.  I will be camping near the Grand Canyon in an old U.S. Forestry cabin.  We have stayed at the same cabin for the last two years and really enjoy the rustic nature of it.  It has all the accommodations (like electricity, running water, and toilets) but it is in the middle of no where.  I am taking my hammock and several books.  I plan to do nothing but be lazy, hike, eat, play with my puppy, and sleep, sleep, sleep!

Ok, here are the days of my life details:

• Work stinks.  Not really but with the big boss gone everyone is taking advantage and it really makes me upset.  What happened to do a good days work and get a good days pay? Let some of these folks be unemployed for a while and they might begin to appreciate what a great job we have here.
• Bill insisted that I drive him back to Iowa this past weekend.  It never happened because he could not get the company he gets his oxygen from to deliver a tank to Iowa (something about medicare) so he was afraid to go without it.  He has been in a cranky mood since, not to mention the $425 airfare that he is out (cause he always pays for my flight home).  Now he says that he is going to go anyway when I get back from vacation!
• The lady from the car wreck gave me the estimate….$2111.37.  It is a lot but I was expecting much more.  She is being very generous about the time that I have to pay the money to her so I am thankful for that.
• Kyle is still in Florida.  I talk to him each Sunday.  I am so mad at him.  He is acting like he is on vacation.  I guess “out of sight out of mind” for him about the whole wreck.  He is not worried about getting a job or sending money home or anything.  And his dad is not helping either.  He (the dad) keeps coming up with excuses why Kyle needs to wait to get a job (yeah, because Kyle is babysitting their two year old which saves THEM money!) I don’t know what I was thinking when I let him go there.  I really don’t mind that Kyle is helping them with the baby but Kyle needs to be held responsible for his actions.
• My mom is going mad!  Ok, I know that I already knew that she was a little on the crazy side but she is just pushing me over the edge.

Other than all that, nothing is happening here in Sunny Arizona.  I really hope that everyone is well and that you will excuse my absence a bit longer.  I hope to be in better spirits when I return from vacation.  Someone remind me to give you all the “Professor” update later cause it would take too long to do it now and I have a ton of work to get done since I will be out all next week.  Happy 4th of July!

Happy Birthday Mutti!  I am sorry I missed it but it looks like you received some beautiful roses.

Is it Friday yet???  This week has been exhusting.  I am so ready for the weekend. 

Cool pictures Penny.  I hope that you enjoy your time away with the hubby and kids.  My plans for this weekend will be house cleaning and laundry on Friday, Kayaking on Saturday, church on Sunday morning and then taking my grandma to every 99 cent store in town!  So as you can see, nothing but fun, fun! 

Giving yourself another day off will be good for your spirit (and body).  Will you try to eventually increase again to add that day back in to your workout?  I sure could not do what you’re doing so I hope you are very proud of your accomplishments!

Angi….. I am going to talk to the owner of this site and ask her to revoke your reading rights if you don’t toss us a bone every once in a while…..LOL   And just for the translation: Bone = at least a one liner post! LOL

Mutti, how are you feeling.  You are in my prayers.

Have a great weekend everyone….HEAL

Blog ya later

I have no great words of comfort in this time of loss Mutti, except that your pain is also our pain.  We will be here to listen, to share, and to offer a supportive shoulder. 

I have a cat named FatCat and yes, she is fat… that is 15-18 years old (she was a rescued stray so no one is for sure her true age) and will one day need a steady voice to get through her passing.  Death can not erase your memories of Mio, keep them close to your heart.  I went to the rainbow bridge link that you had in your blog and it reminded me of another poem that I had once heard.  I googled the words that I could remember and found it. 

If tears could build a stairway,
And memories were a lane,
I would walk right up to Heaven
To bring you home again.
No farewell’s were spoken,
No time for goodbye,
You were gone before I knew it,
And only God knows why.
My heart still aches in sadness,
And secret tears will flow,
What it meant to lose you,
No one will ever know.

Author Unknown

HEAL

I have almost too much to report today!  Don’t actually know where to start.  I have lost track of the days, but a few nights ago the police show up at my door step at 15 minutes til 11:00 pm.  I was surprised but then quickly became frightened thinking something must have happened to a family member (why else does the police show up so late???).  Turns out that Kyle had left the house without permission to go visit a friend.  Well, in reality it was to visit with a little girl that he is sweet on.  Anyway, he took his motor-bike (baby motorcycle) instead of his bicycle.  He was leaving the girls house and drove the motor-bike off the curb, hitting the front brakes causing him to completely flip the bike over.  He and the motorbike then fell against a parked car (2006 Metallic Blue Mustang).  He was not hurt but his pride was since the girl of course witnessed the fall along with about half the neighborhood and also three construction workers who came over to him to make sure he was ok.  Apparently, he thought that no one noticed the damage to the car, so he left (the scene of the crime) and came home.  Now, I did not get home until several hours after this event so I had no clue what had taken place of course until the police showed up.  Kyle was going to be sited for criminal damage, hit and run, driving without a license, driving an unsafe vehicle (because Kyle kept interrupting the cop telling him that his rear brakes aren’t working and he had to use the front brakes, so really Kyle just handed the police another reason to charge him!).  The owner of the car also was with the police officer and after much debate, agreed to handle the case civilly instead of having to arrest Kyle since he is still a minor.  What that means to me is, since he is still a minor, I am financially responsible for paying for the damage and Kyle does not get arrested or have a record that will follow him into adulthood.  The police officer said “I’m not a body shop guy but I’m betting that it will be somewhere between $3000-$5000 to repair the car.”  I innocently asked just how much damage the car had since Kyle only fell into the car.  The officer said “Two dents and some scraped paint”.  Now I am waiting for the owner to get me an estimate of the damage.  I am sure it is going to get worse before it gets better.  And as if that was not story enough for one day, there’s more.

Kyle decided that I just didn’t understand the word “accident”.  So it was an accident that he sneaked out.  It was an accident that he hit the car.  It was an accident that he did not choose to leave his contact information on the car.  It was an accident that 20 people saw it happen…….you get what I am saying.  SO… he decided that since I was so cruel in making him use the money he had saved for a car (which will not even begin to help pay the damages since he only has a little over a thousand dollars) that he needed to go live with his dad.  So he left yesterday morning to go to Florida.  He totally thinks that he is Scott free, embarking and the dream summer vacation in sunny Florida and does not have to deal with the “accident”.  I should have just let him go to jail, but as a mom, I just could not.  So now I am Kyle-less and up to my eyeballs in HIS debt.  Why oh why, don’t they tell us about this stuff before we have cute little babies????

How was the weekend for everyone else?  (LOL)

…from me.  Three day weekend is calling my name.  I forgot to answer your question about Kyle’s head.  It is a bad scrape.  He hit himself so hard it left a triangle shaped ouch-y for over a week, it is just now looking like a normal forehead again.  We walked around calling him Teal’C for a week.  If you have ever watched Stargate SG-1, Teal’C was one of the alien characters.  I have uploaded a compairson for your enjoyment….LOL

I’m evil I know, but you have to find the humor in the everyday stuff or you’ll go nuts.  Trust me, I know cause I am already there.  LOL

 Steven’s girlfriend issue is familure to me because that is exactly what my oldest daughter did.  She was always finding boyfriends that were much younger than her.  I finally realized that it was because the younger boys we less experienced if you follow me and did not expect much more than first base.  She has always been a little less mature than most her age but she is a good kid (mostly).  She is finally dating someone a year older than her (she is 20 and he is 21) and they are already having the “if we get married….” conversations.  He is a real nice young man with a great head on his shoulders.  That is just what Heather needs to help her along the journey we call real life.

Well, Penny….. I did my part in blogging so you would have something to read Friday afternoon.  I hope you all have a great weekend. I will check in on Monday.

Blog ya later!

I have been on the “down low” about Mr. Professor.  Basicilly, he is someone I work with but is so shy that I think he probably blushes just from seeing his own image in the mirror every morning…LOL  I have a crush on him (can I call it a crush if I’m not 13 anymore??) He is sooo handsome (to me) but several years younger.  In my old position with the college, his office was about twenty feet from mine and I talked to him and saw him everyday, I never really thought much about it.  When I got the new position, my office moved to another building and I don’t get to see him at all.  That’s when I realized that maybe I missed his company a little too much.  He does “stop by” every now and then and email when he has something to tell me about my son. Kyle is in two of his classes so he sometimes keeps me up to date on assignments and things like that since Kyle is an underage student.  In reality, it is going nowhere but daydreaming keeps me out of trouble ;0)

About the pictures, I was afraid to take up too much space.  I use the 7 megapixil setting on my camera so the original pictures are huge.  I will go a little bigger next time.

Angi, oh, Angi…….  Where is Angi?  Do you think that riding the train in everyday is so exhusting that she is too tired to blog when she gets to work?  Or perhaps she is up all night in the chat rooms that she has to sleep at work just to maintain her strength?

Later, Kathy

Hello from sunny Arizona.  This is about the time of year I start to ask myself why do I live here?  Today is supposed to be 106 and that is not even considered hot here!  Dry heat…yeah, yeah, yeah….try sitting in your oven at that temperature and see how dry you stay…LOL 

I have a few more pictures to share.  I forgot to mention that I also hiked around Willow Springs Lake and took some really great pictures.  The first picture is my favorite cause it is of my Rainger.  The one of Kyle and Bethany was taken right after Kyle hit himself in the head with his own walking stick. While I am glad that he did not get seriously hurt, it was quite amusing.

Will blog more later, I have to at least look like I am working today…LOL