2011 Week 6

Mr. Kenny awarded Taylor her 'black belt recommended' belt.
Looks pretty snazzy!

Mr. Jobe gets Taylor started on those new board breaks...
Success!

BIG EYES! O-O

PINK HAIR!

Taylor enjoyed a week of warm weather, even though there was
much school work to make up.

We spent much of this week in make up mode. Taylor recovered from strep throat just in time to acquire a mystery gut bug that made 2 a.m. Wednesday morning a thing to remember. This mystery gut bug she got from ? caused a mass evacuation of her GI tract from both ends. She has probably never experienced a longer hour in her life. Well, maybe that 80 minutes of pushing to deliver her into this world would top the list, but just barely! And then, as kids are wont to do, she slept like a log from 3 a.m. until 8 a.m. and was back to her energetic self. How this is possible a mere 5 hours after turning your insides out, I have no idea. She proceeded to start eating all manner of things at breakfast time and didn't stop for the next 6 hours. Blueberries, cereal with milk, a banana, toast, saltine crackers, a bowl of chicken noodle soup, pretzels, two huge glasses of juice, leftover chicken and rice...

Well, you get the idea. Despite my best efforts, she pretty much blew the BRAT diet right out of the water. :) And all was well.

Kristin

2011 Week 5

THIS...

PLUS this...

EQUALS this...

PLUS this. :(

Taylor came down with the dreaded strep throat again this week. A throat swab (gag!) at the doctor's office gave us the unwanted diagnosis and sent us to the local pharmacy for some watermelon flavored antibiotic syrup. GAG! Taylor has 10 days of gagging to get through in order to rid herself of the throat plague. No fun, but we are still quite grateful for antibiotics.

John will have the first stage done next week. Getting those posts
placed in the jaw bone requires cutting, hammering and bone grafting. ICK.

John's oral surgery is coming up in two weeks' time. Anxiety all around! We have managed to figure out the funding for this much needed procedure, and best of all, it doesn't require living in a van down by the river! :) After 16 months with the right side of his mouth pretty much useless, John will be one step closer to having permanent molars again. He even jokes around about the implants lasting longer than his own teeth. I certainly hope they do. No one should have to go through this process more than once.

Some days you're the skunk, some days you're the dog.

And me? I have been working on myself. I have the tendency to panic, overwhelmed with the amount of work to be done. Just like the dog, I want to tackle the whole bowl at once. Wisely, I have deferred that impulse, thinking one bit at a time is all I'll be able to manage. I hope to be patient enough to live one day at a time, letting yesterday go as I'm able and leaving tomorrow until it arrives.

Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you, but not in the one ahead.

Kristin

2011 Week 4

Taylor tested for the next level of achievement in Tae Kwon Do--BLACK BELT recommended!

Taylor is back in the Tae Kwon Do thing like crazy. She took most of December off, thinking that after 2.5 years straight, some time off was not only desired, but needed. One month later, she's accepted her black belt recommended and will test for her 1st degree black belt in April. When I asked her what she thought of her accomplishment, she asked me, "Is it possible to be this excited and scared out of my mind all at the same time?!?!??". She's a little nervous about testing for black belt, because the board breaks are real wood and the self defense moves are pretty tricky. I'm so proud of her. It's hard to be scared and do it anyway--one of life's biggest lessons.

"Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage and confidence in the doing."

The Grey Ghost rolled over 100K this week!

Another milestone occurred this week--my old jalopy rolled over 100K on the odometer. I bought this car the same year I married John. 12+ years ago. When I bought it, I never thought I'd still be zipping around in it over a decade later. Funny thing though. As much as I dream of the day when I will (finally!) get a new car, I already know I'll cry to see this one go. So many awesome things have happened in my life since the day I bought it. It's the car that we brought Taylor home from the hospital in, made road trips to Grandma Lou's in, went to our first anniversary dinner date in, took Boo and Sally for tons of drives in. The list goes on and on. Lots of life and love has happened with the ol' Grey Ghost. When the day comes to put her out to pasture, it'll be bittersweet for sure.

Maximus and his father. One of my favorite NILMDTS photos.
Picture courtesy of Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, used with permission C2011

The past two weeks have been difficult ones at work. Two families have experienced the death of their baby. Two families going home with empty arms, someone missing. It never gets any easier, this kind of loss. We have, however, come around to a much better way of handling such loss. Rather than saying such cold, bleak words as, "It wasn't meant to be. You'll have another", grieving the loss is now acceptable, encouraged, sought. Parents are given the chance to hold, love and cherish their precious child. Show their devotion and dedication. Say to their child, "we love you and will never forget you. You have blessed us with your life." So powerful.

e.e. cummings wrote a poem containing his vision and hope of what a heaven might look like. The description included this line: "a heaven of blackred roses, something stunning, defying words". I would like to think that such a beauty exists, somewhere.

Kristin

2011 Week 3

This week held some surprises from Mother Nature. Our cottonwood trees in the back yard supply the framework that supports a large squirrel nest. One of the new babies from earlier this spring stopped by the back patio area to check things out.


Taylor was one of the top 5 spelling students in this year's 4th grade Linton class. She was offered the opportunity to participate in the school spelling bee and decided to brave the stomach butterflies and give it a shot. She lasted through round three, then got stumped by the word 'solemn'. She was a very good sport about it all. I was proud of her for taking the challenge and having a good attitude about how everything turned out.


John took this picture of a female Hairy Woodpecker. She was in the yard checking out tree trunks for a possible home. She's quite the beauty! I just hope her searching limits itself to the trees...

Did I forget to mention the huge snowfall that happened this past week? I don't know the exact amount that fell, but it was beautiful. Almost no wind, large fluffy flakes and warm enough temperatures to go outside and enjoy it all. I'm not sure if Sally or Taylor gets more ecstatic at the sight of falling snow, but they both absolutely love to play in it. The picture above reveals Sally at her snowed up best--a common sight at our back patio door.

That it will never come again Is what makes life so sweet.
Emily Dickinson

2011 Week 2

This week contained several chances (and reminders) to enjoy the process, not just the results.

First chance? Taylor's Girl Scout Cookie Exchange. Her troop holds a cookie exchange the week they kick off cookie sales for the year. In the past I have grumbled about it, procrastinated about it, then begrudgingly made cookies for it at the very last minute. Sounds like LOADS of fun, doesn't it? This year I decided to try something new, using ready-to-bake cookie buttons, some frosting and some colored sugar. The results were a hit with Taylor and I actually enjoyed making them!

Rudolph Sandwich Cookies

Next chance? Resuming running. After several interruptions in December, I'm back on track with my training to get ready for a 10K and possibly a half marathon road race this year. Becoming a runner is all about process. It certainly doesn't happen overnight, nor does it happen in a quick and effortless fashion. In fact, it will probably take me the better part of this year to get to the point where I'm ready to run those races. And that's if everything goes right! But I want to try. I want to see how I handle the progress, improvements, setbacks, possible injuries, changes in the plan. I want to see how it feels to say to myself, "It's okay to do something for you". Then do it. :)

Asics Nimbus 12--my running BFF's. :)

At the end of the week, I also had the chance to spend the day with Taylor and enjoy the process of being a mother. We started our Saturday by bringing Taylor to the hairdresser so she could go through a 'process' of her own. Here's the result:

Hot pink!

We spent the rest of our day going out for lunch, visiting the cupcakery (where she got an extra $5 punch on her punch card for having fabulous hair!), shopping, going to the library, going to the movie store, playing a video game together and wrestling with the dog. Not once did I worry about what I got done for the day. I just spent the day, moment by moment, with one of the best people in my world. And enjoyed the process.

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.

--John F. Kennedy

2011 Week 1

1. Change yourself.
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

2. You are in control.
“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”

3. Forgive and let it go.
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

4. Without action you aren’t going anywhere.
“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”

5. Take care of this moment.
“I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.”

6. Everyone is human.
“I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.”
“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”

7. Persist.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

8. See the good in people and help them.
“I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.”
“Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.”
“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”

9. Be congruent, be authentic, be your true self.
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.”

10. Continue to grow and evolve.
”Constant development is the law of life. A man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.”

As a wise man once said...

Here I am 2011. Let's get busy.

The Cookie Pile

Every year that Taylor is in Girl Scouts, we take a picture of the cookie pile. Here is this year's Mountain O' Goodness! Soon we will be scrambling to bag and tag all of the cookie orders. Our goal is to be able to see the front room sofa again in one week's time. Wish us luck. :)

Kristin