Until We Meet Again

You come into my life as the leaves begin to fall in October.

We spend the holidays together. You greet me each morning yellow as the summer sun amidst the dark dreary Seattle days.

The creamy sensation as you touch my lips overwhelms my senses. I awaken with your spice.

And as the New Year rounds the corner, we settle into January knowing that our time together is short lived. I question the day that I must ask you to leave. It's not fair, but it has to be done. And sometimes it is not my choice, but rather left to others affecting our relationship.

Know that I love you; everything about you. Don't be sad.

I go through a range of emotions as I know you are soon departing. I get angry and what you've done to my body; but I am a willing participant. It's a vicious cycle we go through. The push and pull of oneness.

I put up walls to defend myself and show my strength. I won't let you see how lonely I'll be without you. Part of me wants a gentle goodbye, you waving and not losing eye contact with me until the distance is long between us. But I know what's best for me.





Don't let the door hit you EGGNOG!
See ya next year.

Fuzzy

The mangy cat sauntered up the driveway on Wednesday evening as I pulled in after work. He looked back at me over his shoulder, paused and then kept walking.

It's the van cat. The one that James saw in the good old black van. Surprised that James hadn't scared the cat away, the scruffy thing has slept in the van for a few weeks now.

I feel bad for it and throw some dog food out on the driveway for it to find.

James comes home and I tell him that I think I'll be buying some cat food for the van cat.

"Probably a good idea."

Thus the Granthams may very well have an outdoor cat.

I put food and water in the van last night. The seat is COVERED in mangy cat hair. I'm surprised James hasn't closed up all the entry ways into the beast; there are probably too many to deal with.

I check on the cat this morning before work. He is resting on the seat, the food bowl knocked over and the water dish still intact. I sneak up on it and open the van door. He looks at me and slinks off the seat and exits from the engine compartment.

The food is eaten.

Reyde and I give him more sustenance tonight. He's drank plenty of water.

I suggest VAN CAT as the name of our new pet.
Or Vanny.

"No Mom, FUZZY."

Welcome Fuzzy the Van Cat to our world. Enjoy your new digs.

Unmerciful Master

We had a guy in for an interview last month.

One of the team members asked him the question, "How would your employees describe your leadership style?"

"Unmerciful Master."

Things that make you go hmmm.

Sounds like a GREAT band name.

1 800 Pet Meds

A little bit like the post from last year, "425 2 Ply Sheets."

We had a prescription filled for Nitro at 1 800 Pet Meds. I delayed getting the refill as I figured I would have the hassle of getting the prescription filled, needing to have Nitro visit the vet, etc.

I brought the bottle in my lunch bag to remind me to call the vet. Looking at the bottle I see in the lower right hand corner that I have one refill remaining.

Woo hoo, no $300 vet appointment. We are good to go.

Looking all over the label I try to locate the phone number to call and place my order. I must have searched a good minute, constantly turning and turning the bottle.

This is ridiculous. Why wouldn't they have the number on the top like human prescriptions? Getting ready to go online and search for the number, I realize how silly this is.

Duh, 1 800 Pet Meds. The pretty large RED logo in the upper left hand corner. I personally think they ought to write the number in the small font too. You know, for those folks....

In Honor of Art Linkletter

A couple weeks ago James didn't get a real good night's rest. A neighbor of ours has a truck and trailer that gets parked on the side of the road from time to time. James always hears it pull up, gets out of bed, zips the blinds up (nothing slow, get those blinds up NOW,) opens the window and listens. 2am.

Yes, it's the truck and trailer. But he doesn't go back to sleep. Poor guy.

In the morning the conversation goes a bit like this:
"James, when I drove by the trailer it looked like the guy parked it pretty far onto the side of the road."

"Yeah, it's leaning pretty good into the ditch."

In the afternoon, Reyde and I are driving home. As I round the curve I see the truck and trailer on the side of the road. This is odd, it is usually gone by the time I get home. The guy is rocking the truck back and forth. Seems he got it stuck. But as I drive closer, I realize that "that guy," is my husband with our truck and race car trailer.

I roll down my window and casually say, "I'll park my car and come push."

"What good will that do?" Comment and tone said it all.

Instantly I judge the situation. We just talked about that other guy almost getting stuck. It rained and the ground is soft. I look over at our neighbors long gravel driveway next to the other neighbors long asphalt driveway. Why didn't James just park there? Well that must be a girl way of thinking.

Reyde and I get in the house, I change my shoes and walk over to "help."

James is driving the excavator along the side of the road. Chains up the front end of the truck and tells me to ease out of the ditch steering to the right.

Mind you, this is the first time I've driven the dually truck and let out the clutch. And what do you mean steer to the right? How far?

"Okay, I'll do it. "

"#$^!&@ I hope this doesn't roll over."

"James, if it does it does. No one is hurt and it can be fixed. That's what you would tell me."

I get in and move the seat so I can press the clutch down. Leaning to the right pretty far, I decide that a seat belt might be a good thing. Don't want to roll it over and find myself in the passenger seat.

Clutch release and steering to the right and we are out of the ditch. Thank God.

Now what does this all have to do with my title, "In Honor of Art Linkletter?"

Saturday morning Reyde and I head out to the race track. As we drive by the drainage ditch and see the freshly graded dirt, Reyde asks:

"Mom why did Dad go rock crawling in the creek?" I laughed out loud.

"Oh, he didn't mean to."

A simplified explanation...

Of my new favorite subject.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwNRd1jrE0k

A shout out to my sister's co-worker for sharing this with Amy.

New Year, New Words

Had dinner with my in laws last night. A few of their neighbors were in as well. Certainly a different mix of people for James and I to interact with.

After dinner, we retired to the living room to visit. A variety of subjects came up. I don't know how we got to "plate tectonics," but a neighbor went on about this subject for a very long time. It's science and I started to glaze over. Absolutely no interest. And he continued on. Finally, a break in the conversation and I said, "you know my interest in science ended back in elementary school wth the litmus paper turning blue and red."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics

On Dasher, On Prancer, On Donner, On Nitro?

Don't compare your inside with someone else's outside

Saw this quote in a book today. Love it. Must remind myself of it every day.

Umbrellas and turtlenecks

UMBRELLAS
I am 40 and 11/12ths. Why is it that I begin using an umbrella now? It is beyond me why I am concerned about being wet now. I've lived here all my life. I'm using a $1 dollar umbrella from China. It's as random as my train of thought here.

TURTLENECKS
I want my neck to be warm. It's cold outside, and I sit in the convergence zone at AMMEX. Right smack in the middle of the two zones of heat. Lots of cool area buzzing about and a little like playing, "HOT/COLD". As I walk to the conference room, I hear in my mind, "you're getting warmer, warmer, warmer, HOT." Same deal walking to the ladies room.

So I head to the mall tonight to get a sweater that I saw on a gal at lunch. No such luck. Plenty of sweaters with V necks, scoop necks, exposed necks. Okay, no need to show my cleavage in November, December, January. I think I'll pull out my $2 scarf that I picked up in 06 at the Great Wall.

Nothing fashionable about my umbrella and scarf. Functional? Check. Affordable? Check.

You never cease to amaze me kid

Reyde's artistic talent continues to flourish. He joined Art Club at school; we are thankful that a local artist is donating her time to teach children the basics of art. Theory, types of brush strokes, shading of color, styles of art. What a blessing.

Last night, Reyde drew these pictures at Miss Vicky's. I asked him if he'd learned this at Art Club. Nope. Did you see it in a book at school? Nope.

"Mom, it was in my mind."



Hmm. Art has never been in my mind like this.

So I thank God for giving Reyde the gift of art. He'll be the last kid on the block to have his own computer, probably won't touch email and instant messaging like his Dad, but he'll have nurtured his creative talent.

Baby Got Back

Out at Grandma Betty's this past weekend. She shared some of her baby photos.

Baby Betty Got Back.

I'll have to scan James and my photos in the same pose.

Family. It's the greatest.

Breaking Up!

I hate the way you make me feel.

I am a strong woman and can live without you.

The awful feeling I get in my stomach after I've been with you is too much to bear.

I'm sorry, I know you've been a part of my life for a very long time, but it's time to say goodbye. We'll probably have those awful, "I can't live without you, let's try it one more time" dates.

But I will grow stronger. It is for the best.




Bye bye beef. I can't do it anymore. Chicken, it's what's for dinner.

Kellie Daisy

Pretty name. One that I will use.

My night didn't quite go as planned. James and Reyde were to be out of the house, running an errand. As I left the office tonight, Natalia asked me what I was doing tonight.

"I don't know where to start! I've got three hours to myself and so many things to do," I replied as I headed out the door.

1 task completed that was not on the list and my phone rings.

"Where you at? Are you close to home?"

"Yes, just coming through Des Moines, why what's up?"

"Reyde doesn't want to go tonight."

Sigh. "Okay, I'll be there in 2 minutes."

I selfishly set Reyde up with the small DVD player in his room and told him that I want to watch my TV and get on the treadmill. He is cool with that, bless his little soul, and I continue watching the movie, August Rush.

Good story, a bit predictable, love the actress who played Felicity, and the love interest is cute with a fab accent. The gist of the story being two adults who have unrealized dreams. Music. (Okay, there is more but I am not spoiling it for you.)

Love it when a book, show, movie, song, makes me cry. Not loving it so much as I am walking on the treadmill, at an incline, huffing and puffing, crying and wiping away the tears at the same time.

There is a quote out there, let me see if I can find it...nope, can't find it. But it is something along the lines of all of us have stories inside of us. It is the precious few that put pen to paper and share them with others. Don't take yours with you.

I am a bit sqeamish about writing that sentence. Fear that I can die tomorrow and not accomplish my creative goal.

Watching the movie, I am inspired to create. I've got the book name, the first sentence, the story, and now possibly my pen name. So where is the segue to the post title?

I can't recall how old I was, I'm sure Amy remembers. Standing in the section of vendors underneath the stadium stands at the Evergreen State Fair, I ask Mom if I can get a silver identity bracelet, and she says sure. The vendor takes the bracelet and asks me what name I want engraved. Standing and thinking, Amy asked me if I was gonna give the gal my name. I replied, "well I don't know what name I want on it." My thinking was to have it be a pretend name so I could pretend I was someone else, not Wendy.

Yes, you guessed it, Kellie got engraved that afternoon, and my sister rolled her eyes. (Mind you not for the first time and certainly not the last.)

And I just like Daisy. Good pen name. Maybe I'll add a surname. Maybe I won't.

If only...

Okay so I see this video link on a gal's facebook page that I went to school with. See? See I tell you. This is the exact reason why I suffered my John Hughes moments thinking I am not normal. That I should have friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

I love this video.

You know you're tired when....

Your thought process goes something like this!

As I unwrap a new roll of toilet paper last night, I notice under the Kirkland brand logo,

"425 2-PLY SHEETS."

Wow, that's kinda cool. Costco puts their phone number on the wrapper for any consumer issues. Nationwide, they use the "425" area code. Cool, that the brand touts the local area code. Wonder if they have had so many issues that they need to put a phone number on the wrapper.

Duh.

Under the wrapper, please find 425 pieces of 2 ply toilet paper sheets.

While I know some great thinking CAN occur on the toilet, this is not one of the better epiphanies...flush.

Alone

Scary word for most.

I have a friend struggling with an ugly divorce situation. She's a great blogger, sharing all the venom in her veins for us to bear with her. I do know it is helping her as I've seen her heal over the months.

She posted a blog entry on being alone and how she struggles with being alone.

I too struggled. Thought that I should have a group of friends like the ones in John Hughes movies. Many a year I'd say to James that our New Years Resolution was to "get friends."

But I came to a fine realization in 2006. Amidst a crappy moment in our marriage, we sought counseling. The counselor suggested we do a quick test about personalities and traits.

Low and behold, I tested out as an introvert. What a relief to find that my inner struggle to create "normalcy" in my life was over.

I judged myself for years, since junior high and highschool, for the lack of a circle of friends.

Now I know. All those years of yearning for a big group of people to be with, have dinner with, have parties with, go camping with, yatta yatta yatta is over.

While I thought I wanted friends, I really didn't. Game over. Calming effect really. Quite freeing.

So here's a shout out to my friend. Embrace your inner introvert. She's quite nice.

Thankful

It's a crazy world. This economy, crappy human behavior, people without, people with too much, trying to keep up with the Joneses, trying to do more and more every day.

I think I heard Tom Petty singing "Life is a Highway,"you know, that "Cars Movie" theme song.

....life is a highway and I wanna ride it all night long... Oh, it's a Rascal Flatts song. At any rate, I am ready to take the next exit and stop at the diner for pie and ice cream.

It's June 30th and I keep thinking to myself, I can't wait for summer. Summer doesn't usually start til mid July in Seattle. But we've had a great June and I have to remind myself to be in the present and remember that tomorrow is not summer, it is today.

I am thankful for all that God has provided. I go to sleep each night saying "Thank you God. For today and all that you provided. And for taking care of my son and my husband. For my health and shelter. Please continue being with me."

Noteworthy Blogs

I worked with Sara for a couple years. Great person. Her blog is so funny, poignant, and just so Sara. I highly recommend you mark it as a favorite:

http://www.jimsaramiller.blogspot.com/

Another blog I follow just so happens to be a Wendy. Unknown to me, her blog came up as a top blog for blogger.com. This gal has it going on! Mark it too:

http://wendysees.blogspot.com/

The Hunter

Seems Turbo wasn't the only hunter in the family.

James and I were standing at the garage doors tonight and Nitro walks down the driveway. She's gingerly stepping and I asked James if she is hurt.

Nope, she just walks that way down the hill....over to the tongue of the boat trailer. Sneaking up on the tongue of the boat trailer. And casually lifts her front left paw.

"James, she's on point."

"Yeah, been doing it all day. I think there is a bird nesting in the trailer tongue."

Atta girl. Bring momma home some din din.