Monday, July 30, 2007

I Finished The Book!

I finally got my hands on Deathly Hallows and just finished it. Way to go JK! I found it fast paced, fun, emotionally heart wrenching and warming and so totally well written. It couldn't have been a better ending for the Harry Potter series. Many of my theories didn't pan out of course, but a few of my ideas as to what would finally happen did. I had always thought that Neville, Luna, and the whole DA would be a part of the final battle and they were. I also always thought that RAB was Sirius Black's brother. I can't say enough how great I think book seven is. It is more than worth a second, third, fourth read. Book Seven made me laugh and made me cry -- what more can you say!!

I am finally getting my house in order. It has taken a while and I am not quite done yet - with the HP movie and book seven coming out and all -- there are priorities you know. But, I should have my scrapbook room ready by this weekend. I am so ready! I have really been enjoying my peace and quiet and really cherish it. I did have my little Livvie girl this weekend and we went to the Seafair Torchlight Parade in downtown Seattle and we had a great time. We had ice cream, kettle corn, cotton candy, soda etc.(at least Livvie did) . . . by the time we got home we were exhausted and went right to bed and went right to sleep . . . good times!

The Blue Angels Air Show is this Sunday and we are making plans to have a picnic at a nearby park so we can see the air show without having to actually be in the midst of all those people - I don't do well in big crowds. The park we usually go to gets really good flybys as the Blue Angels set up their runs for their maneuvers. I will be taking Livvie with me to this also.

I haven't been in a place to be able to take Vivian yet. I have had so much to do and Vivian has so much energy and I do not!! As soon as I have finished my scrapping room and get the floors all done then I will be able to devote all my time to her when she comes over. I am going to start out slow with her and only keep her for a couple of hours at a time and see how that goes -- if I can handle it I will go for longer times but I have a condition called fibromyalgia snydrome and I just don't have much energy to run after a little one -- especially a goer like my little Vivian, who is 10 months old now. Olivea is easy for me to have over because she really takes care of herself and one day as Vivian gets a little older it will be easier for me to have her over too! I do miss my girls . . .

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

THEY MOVED!!!

It is so liberating I can't begin to tell you. The peace the quiet! I am in heaven or will be shortly when I finally get my scrapbook room together. I am so happy -- I will be even more happy when I finally get everything in order the way I want it to be. My other daughter, Erica, who is still living with me is so quiet I hardly know she is there -- actually she hardly ever is. We are going to get along just fine the two of us on our own. The move went off without a hitch, by the time I got home on Friday they were pretty much moved out - their room was empty. Erin came over on Sunday and cleaned the room and took all the garbage out and vaccumed the carpet.

Erin had an odd situation happen to her on moving day and it gave me such a laugh. She was loading the dishwasher and running it to get all her dishes clean before she put them away. Well, evidently she had left the room for something and when she came back there were suds pouring out of the bottom of dishwasher door, panicing she turned off the dishwasher and cleaned it out then called me saying how upset she was that she was going to have to call maintanence already because her dishwasher was broken. I asked her if anyone had been left alone in the apartment (their moving buddies) and could one of them have poured some dish soap in the dishwasher when they weren't looking. I asked her if she had noticed anything odd in the dishwasher before she ran it and she said that she saw some blue liquid but thought it was some spilled jet dry. I told her she better ask her honey to check to see if one of the guys pranked them. They had! I knew it. Her honey and his friends have this thing going on that when ever someone gets left alone at one of their homes they always seem to mess with things -- like loosen the tiolet seats, take all the switch plate covers off, hide the remotes to the electronics,etc. etc., and her honey was the best at the prank stuff and he was warned that once he got his own place he was due!!! To me that is not funny (well, sort of--but not on a constant basis like these guys do), boy, she is going to have to watch them all like a hawk when ever they come over - and for heavens sake, don't leave them there and go to a store or anything - you'll never find anything again. All I can say is that I am enjoying my space and peace!

I SAW THE NEW HP MOVIE . . . it is fantastic. I really, really liked it. I can hardly wait for the last book to come out on Saturday -- it will be so awesome.




Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Monday, July 9, 2007

Astonishing Discovery

This last Sunday, July 8, 2007, I went over to spend some time with my Mom going through old pictures and identifying people in some old family photos. As I mentioned earlier I am gathering information for my personal memory book and wanted to start going through the old family photos to choose those I will want to use.

Mom and I made a lot of head way on our project and in the process I gleaned a great story about a house fire my mother was in when she was a little girl when we discovered an old photo depicting the aftermath of the fire. I made sure that I got as many of the details of this horrible event that she could remember and learned in the process that it had been an arson fire and that several houses close to them had also been set on fire. It was a miracle that anyone in the house had survived and with exception of one of my uncles most were unhurt. My Uncle Bud was injured when the staircase fell with him on it - he was severely burned on the back and had also injured his back in the fall. I had known about the fire as my Mom and Great Grandfather had mentioned it before but I didn't know that it was an arson fire -- the things you learn when you sit down and listen and write!

While going through the photos that I was taking over to Mom's with me I discovered my hospital birth certificate. What a treasure to find! I also came across a couple of post cards that my Dad had sent my Mom when she had returned to the lower 48 that depicted (I was born in Ketchikan, Alaska) the small coastal town and waterfront as it was the year I was born. What a blessed woman I am -- not only do I have pictures of the town I was born in but I have my Dads loving words to my mother about me to boot! It's going to be a great book.

Great finds and great stories -- what a wonderful day spent with Mom!

Monday, July 2, 2007

Moving Day is Coming!

I am so excited, the kids got the okay on their apartment today and will be moving the weekend of July 14th. It is a bittersweet move. I am a firm believer that adult children with their own families should not live with their parents. I don't mind giving a hand when one is needed but when it is time to go it is time to go! I will miss them but I will get over it especially when I will now have a room to dedicate to my scrapbooking and computer. I love them dearly and they can come and visit me anytime, but, they will now have a home to be in of their own. I am so happy. My stress level declined about 90% today!

This last weekend I went down memory lane with my aunt. I am starting to do the research and gathering of materials for my personal memories book. As a young girl I grew up in Buckley, WA, a little town in the foothils of the Cascades. We first lived out of town on a small farming plot with a small farm house, barn and chicken coop then moved into town to a small quaint little house. My aunt and I took camera's in hand this last weekend and went to Buckley to photograph the old houses that I lived in for my memory book. Well, they say you can never go back -- you can, just don't expect things to be at all the same! The old high school was still there but the elementary school had been torn down and a new modern building was in it's place. The farm house was there but had been built onto so dramaticly that it didn't really look the same at all. The house in town was still there and did look pretty much as it had back in the day so I did get pictures of it and the high school. I also got pictures of the police station and a restaurant that were still there from my childhood. We also made a stop at the library and found some books on the history of the town and the fire department. The book on the fire department was a treasure of pictures and information on some long time friends of the family and I was so lucky to find it. All in all it was a great trip because I got to spend time with my aunt but it was bittersweet as respect to our memories of the old homestead. We consoled ourselves by going scrapbook stuff shopping, we felt much better when we left Ben Franklins and Wal-Mart, packages in hand!

Love, Jimie