Back up Baby

So since I've been warned by several emails and more importantly the county's IT department has been scrambling all day. I decided to take the "threat" of the April Fools Worm Virus fairly serious. So tonight after running kids around and grocery shopping, I'm taking the opportunity to update my Windows patches, my security and even did a full archive. The kids' computer is finished - probably since it doesn't have nearly as much "stuff" on it as my computer does. I'm in the process of backing up all the files, but don't think I'm going to get it done in the next 15 minutes before "the witching hour".

Trivia Question: Where, how and why did the phrase "the witching hour" get started?

Well, I'm beat. Time to turn off the computers and go to bed.

Knot for Beginners

This is my practice piece for my knitting class. I've been super busy this week and haven't had much time to devote to it. But on the bright side.... I didn't forget how to do it two days later and was even able to figure out how to fix a couple "issues" as they arose. It is very far from perfect and definitely qualifies as hand made complete with a cute little peek-a-boo hole where I dropped a stitch and picked it up agan on the next row. I am happy that for the most part I have a fairly tight even tension. Hurray.... Now I can't wait to learn how to pearl and cast off on my next class this week. (Just in time for baseball and soccer practices.)

Extreme Sheepherding

My brother sent this link to me and I thought it was really cool.
Now you know what those poor lonely sheepherders are really doing with all those sheep.

If my link doesn't work...
http://www.buzzfeed.com/lindseyweber/light-up-sheep-art-ru/

Curses! Foiled Again

I must admit that I am the reason for Gonzaga not advancing past the Sweet 16. (I actually watched about half the game which I'm sure was their downfall.) Sorry guys. Next time I'll root vicariously.

Stayation

For my family - this post is similar to the family website post, but does have a few different twists.

The new terminology for staying home and not going somewhere when you would normally go on vacation is "Stayation". (No joke it was on the news last night.) So that's what we're doing this Spring Break. The weather is too yucky to go anywhere really fun (supposed to be cold and rainy most of the week) and the job certainity is too tenuous to outlay much dinero to do anything else. (The kids will get to go down for a couple days to visit Aon in PDX.) The weather report says Wednesday would be a good day to work in the garden so I think that's when they will go down. (heee heee - they don't know about the putting in the garden and helping with yard work part. ... yet.) They will be old pro's because it looks like Monday will be a good day to get the outside stuff done around here. (the grass is getting super tall, the weeds are stating to sprout in the garden, and the goat barn needs to be mucked - just to name a few tasks.)

It won't be all work and no fun...Aon has some entertainment planned for them (OMSI, dog park and/or the zoo). I also have some fun scheduled for them. For example: M has developed an interest over the last couple years in some forms of Japanese Anime' - Her favorite movie is Howl's Moving Castle. (She has been drawing a lot more so I've encouraged it.) Well, the library is having an anime' festival one day this week, so I'm trying to arrange it so that she can go. Also, each kid wants a friend to come over during Spring Break. so I they'll get to do that too. But we're not really going to do much other "fun" stuff - except maybe have some family movie nights or I may rent a play station or wii game for a couple days.

Mainly, my goal is to whip this place into shape before they close the dump to the public (part of the county's cost saving plan). I'm also cutting costs so I'm getting rid of my storage unit which houses Christmas stuff and other miscellaneous stuff that we rarely use...which means we need to clean out the red barn. We've kept it pretty clean and organized so it should only take an hour unless I get crazy and really organize stuff.

Good , Bad and Ugly

I had a great weekend, but not so great Monday. (I know....Are there really such things?)
I'll have to post more later because I'm exhausted. All the activities and stress is catching up with me. So I'm going to bed very shortly.

The good:
This weekend I was able to get a lot done around my house and made a dump and Goodwill run. Did a bunch of kid stuff, but also was able to go Edgefield in Portland and meet up with a couple of my girlfriends from High School. (One is my godmother's niece and the other was my best friend for years.) Unfortunately, I have been REALLY bad about keeping in touch with people and the relationship had withered. We hooked up on Facebook and decided to get together. It was really great to see them. (more to come)

Sunday we had our Twilight party. It was really fun. The kids dressed up (I was Renee ~ Bella's mom who would be leaving soon to head down to spring training in Florida so I could be supportive of my new husband's career.) and we had crazy catagories for prizes. One was the Best Goat Herder - because the crazy critters got out at least 6 times during the movie, so the dozen kids would stop the movie and chase them back. It was funny but kind of distracting.

The Bad:
I was notified today that all non union positions will be taking a 5% pay reduction as of May 1st. There is a big meeting with the County Commissioners tomorrow night with all employees. I'm going to go even though it means I'll miss C's play at his Scout meeting and might miss part of M's concert. I just have to get more info from the source. It's driving me crazy not knowing.


The Ugly:
I had my first knitting class tonight. It was fine. The teacher was a little distracted, but has been teaching enough that if you can have her show you individually it was easy to pick up. (I think all those attempts of trying created some muscle memory, because it flowed for me. Glad I had teacher within reach though, because there were several times where I did stuff that was my "undoing" during previous attempts.) I can tell that I will like knitting. It's very soothing. I can definitely get lost in the rhythm. But wow is my "practice" piece ugly. The teacher has already been scratching her head at my "challenges". Honestly I don't know how it happens but weird stuff seems to happen to me.

Well, I'm off to bed.

Go Zags!!!

Gonzaga's basketball team is in the big dance again. They play today in Portland. So keep your fingers and toes crossed.

Another Day - Another Dollar

The budget crisis at work is really bad. (as it is everywhere) The judges and other elected officials involved in the justice system have been meeting nearly every day for the last several weeks and recently the meetings are twice a day to come up with a plan to deal with the budget crisis. The county department heads and elected officials submitted to the Commissioners (BOCC) on Tuesday where they thought they could make more cuts. (They were mandated to make an additional 10% cut to this year's budget to cover the $4million shortfall - which on top of the 10% cut they made in December (39 layoffs and a lot of services pared back) which in addition to the 5-10%reduced budget that was submitted in September.) It is scary times my friends. Scary times!! I can't even begin to tell you all that I hear, but most is very very bad and still confidential! But what is public knowledge is that the unemployment rate for February in Cowlitz County was up another percent to 14.4% nearly double what it was last February.

There are so many rumors running rampant that I won't even begin to describe them. Most I ignore. Some I listen to and a few hold a lot of weight and I take to heart. Consistently, the number that keeps surfacing over the last month or so is that 80 county employees will lose their jobs this Spring. I think we will also be asked to take a day without pay at least every pay period. (The issue will be whether the many different unions decide to go for the greater good and help save their co-workers jobs or if they get greedy as individuals and won't agree to the furloughs.) The last thing this county needs is another 80 houses going into foreclosure and not receiving any property taxes for it. I hope they go for the greater good.

The strategy I employ to deal with all this stress and uncertainity is to keep my head down, help out where ever I can ,and realize that all of this is out of my control. There is NOTHING I can do about it! (either I will have a job at the end of the month, or I won't) So I have been doing what I can to control the things I can. (Let's see this week, the carpets were shampooed, the floors scrubbed, massive amounts of laundry done, closets are getting cleaned out....) If this continues for much longer, I figure I'll have the cleanest house in Cowlitz County.

New Challenges

I just realized tonight I'm going to have to change my profile because I start my first knitting class tomorrow night. I'm really exicted about it and can't wait. (That's one of the real down sides of living 750 miles from my mom. She is an awesome knitter and a fabulous knitting instructor.) I've tried a couple times to learn knitting over the course of my life time. And even once from my mom before she formally starting holding classes, but it's difficult to learn long distance. It's hard to follow directions for picking up a stitch that you realized you lost 16 rows ago and you have 3 extra stitches on your needles
Now that knitting is so popular, there are quite a few classes available locally. Hurray!! (finally!) I started soccer and baseball practices this week, so I know that I will have quite a few evenings each week where I can sit quietly in my car or in the bleachers while happily knitting and purling to my little heart's delight. (Just so you're not surprised...everyone is getting mis-shapened non-fancy edged dish rags for Christmas. Oh and some peppermint bath salts, plum jam & apple sause with maybe a bottle of huckleberry syrup on the side.) Then again dish rags are easier and cheaper to mail... so maybe I'll just stick with them. (depends on how many I can crank out in a year.)

Queen of the World

I must say I am very jealous of Queenie and her life of luxury. She is such a hedonist!!! Her expression just cracks me up. Mainly Queenie Quotes come to mind. like..."Is is Spring yet?"
or "I'm all nice and toasty warm. I think I'll just catch a cat nap." or "Trooper, go chase your own self!"

What do you think she's saying here?

Father Daughter Ball

This year for the annual Father Daughter Ball was the last weekend in February. We decided to keep it "local" because we knew that it would be a real hardship for any of the families to come over from the Intermountain area. The girls selected their escorts with care and were really excited when they were able to come over for the weekend. B picked her godmother /aunt's boyfriend, Kevin and M chose a really good family friend Lee (aka Elkman). A friend who works at a florist showed the girls how to make their own corsages and boutinieres. They ate dinner at a local restuarant (Judy's) which is famous for it's pasta dishes and desserts. They had a lot of fun dancing, talking and generally having a good time.

The chicken dance champs who were "robbed" at the crowning ceremony ham it for the camera.

B pinning her flowers on Kevin. (only a little blood - good thing he wore layers.)

Lee and M pose for the camera





M looking very pretty and very grown up.

B looking gorgeous and very stylish.

Lee, M, B and Kevin say "cheese" one more time for the paparazzi before the big dance.

Good times were had by all. Thanks guys!

We really appreciate it!!! You can't know how much it means to the girls (and to me).

Cathi Ryan Condert

One of the judges had a couple extra tickets to a concert so C and I went to see Cathie Ryan on Saturday night. She is a fabulous Celtic singer. It was really cool. She had a great voice and beautiful songs, but she was also very caring and fun. Her band was just a "kick in the pants". They made so many funny spontaneous jokes that kept running through out the night (the cow died) that you could tell they liked each other and had fun being around each other. (They were also so nice. We met them after the concert and they signed autographs and chatted with us.) The rest of the guys in her group were awesome. Patsy O'Brien is one of Ireland's most respected guitar accompanists and has a great voice - He sang one solo and it was amazing! I've never hear Irish soul and it was COOL!!!! C also really liked him. (I'm going to order his cd as well.) The fiddle player (Matt Mancuso) was the star fiddle player in the Lord of the Dance production. He was phenominal and very funny. Speaking of funny - They drummer was the craziest guy. I just loved him!!! Brian Melick played (bongos and this giant gourd). I can't believe the wide variety of sounds he could produce on those three instruments. He had the most expressionable face and was just having a great time. All in all. I highly recommend you go see Cathi Ryan in concert. It was truly inspirational and so very lovely.

C now wants to learn a couple Irish ditties (especially the naughty one she sang). This concert has inspired me to go Ireland. It's one of the places I've always wanted to go. (Probably growing up a proud Irish McDevitt has always put this as one of the top places I've always wanted to go. . . Mayan ruins and snorkeling in the Carribean were also up there.) I know the economy is really bad and going to get a lot worse. One of the ideas that has been swirling around in my head for the last couple months is trying to piggy back a trip to Ireland with our Spain trip. (There are several families who want to go to World Youth Day in Spain which is 2 years from this July.) We are meeting to get our fundraising in order and start figuring out our plans. (As an economy move, I have already asked my friend Su, if we could stay with her relatives (brother & his family) while were attending this week long pilgrimage and she thought they would be very open to that. I hope so.) So in my ideal world, I would book a flight to London spend a couple days there, then go to Ireland for a week before spending a week in Spain hanging with the Pope and his crew. But we'll see what reality brings, but it's good to hope.

Facebook

I finally got a Facebook account. So if you'd like to be my friend, email me at acoffeegoddess@gmail.com or search for me on FB. I am such a newbie and am just figuring it out!! But I'm so excited to hook up with some of my old friends. (In fact, one of my best friends from high school and I made plans to get together when she's in Portland in a couple weeks.)

I do have a request though for my friends and family. I need a good picture of myself. The problem with being the one with the camera, you're never in any pictures or they were taken by a kid. So if you have something, send it to me or post it on the family website. Thanks!

Moral Delimma

For his birthday, my son got to "redo" his room which hadn't been updated since he was 3. The jungle theme was getting a little old and we were both ready for a change.

So what's my moral delimma you might ask? Well, it's simple and yet so complicated.

We have a fairly old fashioned priest. I guess one of the old pre-Vatican II conventions was to have 'annual house blessings' in January. (Holy Family Sunday was designated "the" Sunday to do that.) This entails, blessed chalk being given to the parishioners and man of the house would write on the outside of their house above the front door the "Roman code" with the current new year. This is supposed to bless your house and keep it for another year....yada yada yada - You get the picture.

(Don't strike me down Lord for being somewhat irreverent and not going into the detail required to do this wonderfully holy pronouncement of our faith justice. But I had never heard of this until this priest revived this tradition, so I'm not as hip on the verbiage and full meaning of all the symbolism behind it.)
After some wild arm gesticulations in the sign of the cross and couple quick Hail Mary's, I'm back.

Anywhooo.....

So a couple years ago, they ran out of white chalk and so the priest blessed a bunch of colored chalk. When it came time to pick up our family's piece of chalk, C, the little "man of my house" decided that red chalk would be really cool. (I thought that would be ok since we have a red brick front.) Well, before I could even get my coat off after we got home, C had run into his room and in about 8 or 9 different places had wrote "BLESS" all over his walls with this holy chalk. (He was so excited about the whole concept and being entrusted with "the holy chalk", that he forgot that the priest said it was supposed to go outside and above the front door.)

So I've been in a moral quandry ever since.... How do you remove it without going to hell?

And so for the last 2 years "BLESS" has covered every wall in his room in several obvious locations, while I struggled with the holy ramifications. (By now the red has seeped into the wall paint and I have to deal with it because I need to prepare the walls to paint.) I finally figured out what to do. - Yes I had an epiphany of sorts! It was so simple and yet has elegant grace that matches the symbolism needed for this quandry.

You ask....How do you remove holy writing from your son's walls? With Holy Water of Course!!

Yes! I did. I got some holy water from church and used it to wash C's walls where the red blesses were written. It looks great and is still holier than thou's room.

Finally!!!! 10 years old!!

C is finally in the double digits club!! He is so very excited!! He has been eagerly anticipating this day for nearly a year. (I remember back in September he told someone that he was "nearly 10".) Now if his mom will let him, he can play the 10 and up video games. Here's some pictures from his friend party and family party.

C's family cake that B baked and decorated for him.

C has a bunch of his buddies come over to the house for a movie night sleep over. Yep, they stayed up until the wee hours of the night playing video games and watching action movies. (I love the fact that this modern kids really loved the old 1980's movie Short Circuit. THey also watched the cartoon Star Wars movie Clone Wars, Iron Man and Speed Racer.) Each kid had their own bucket of "movie popcorn" movie candy, and pop. One friend said that I was the coolest Mom ever when he found out that they were going to watch more than one movie and could stay up really late and watch as many as they wanted. (At 2:30 am I made the last stragglers who were playing a pokemon card game go to sleep.)

The boys playing a pokemon battle game on the Wii.


C hamming it up as we sing Happy Birthday to him.

Yes, there is a big slice out of C's Birthday cake. I ran out of time, so I let him buy a cake. It was pretty cool. I took the cake out of the box and had it on the kitchen table. I then I needed to get the cool new candles I bought so I left the kitchen for a few minutes. In that brief 2 minutes, our dog, Queenie, who has not done this before, jumped up on the table and took a small bite out of the side of the cake. Well there's not much I could do with a house full of kids and I've already made the announcement that 10 minutes before do the cake. So I cut generously around the bite, put the candles on and made the best of it.

(I kinda laughed because something like this happened to my sisters' cake for my birthday this summer. She left it on a chair on the deck and Cricket thought it was very tasty.)

This is such classic 10 year old boy humor that I had to get a picture. Chris thought it was hilarious and there were several other cards and bags in the same vein of humor.

All in all it was a very fun birthday. C and his friends had a great time.

Thank God That's Over!!

I can't tell you how happy I am that February is finished!! March has GOT to be better!!! (Hope springs eternal I know.)

Long long story short, February was brutal. No other way around it. What it lacked in length, it made up in ugliness. We were continually sick. M even ended up with double pneumonia and then gave her crud to me - I missed two and a half days of work because how sick I was.

It was also a very very busy month. C had wrestling, jump rope for heart, and lots of scout and friend activities, plus his birthday and remodeling his room. B had her concert and hunter's safety, the father / daughter ball, jumprope for heart and a couple other friend activities. M also had hunter safety and the father / daughter ball, practicing for her band concerts, helping keep score at the high school girls and boys basketball games, chess club and seemed to spend the night at a girlfriends house nearly every weekend.

Like I said it was crazy. I'm going to highlight a few of the acitivites in the next couple blogs because I've been so sick / tired / busy that I never found the time or energy to post anything meaningful last month. It's my goal to get back in the habit now that it is March and I'm feeling a little lionish.