Resurrection

My poor poor little neglected blog!

Instead of saying that I have been too busy to write, I choose to say that I’ve been on blog sabbatical for the past 6 months. Now I’m rested and ready to write. (It’s not completely true, but my life is calming down enough that I can spend some time on personal improvement and enjoyment.) As London Tipton says “yeah me!”

So let’s see what’s been going on in my life while I’ve been on sabbatical:

I’ve been working on a committee exploring the option of a county-wide metropolitan park district. (We met almost weekly for most of that time.) Unfortunately, although it is a good idea, the economy is such that it not the right time. (I think we’re either 3 year too early or too late.) There is still some serious interest to pursuing a North County MPD and so we’ll see where it goes from here.

I have also been part of a citizens group who opposing the Bonneville Power Administration BPA’s proposed new substation and new high voltage power lines. They want to build the 10-15 acre substation right around the corner from my house and the biggest power lines in the industry running from it across Kelso / Lexington down to Vancouver / Portland. So far we’ve been somewhat successful, they are looking to move it to a less populated area. However, I am still very concerned about the exposure to the high EMF levels and the risk of cancer. The citizens group would like to have them bury the lines or shield them better. There is a public meeting in Castle Rock on August 30th.

I am also the co-chair of the Finance Counsel for my parish. Unfortunately, we have not had an active Parish/Pastoral and Finance Counsels for the last 5-6 years. Which means there hasn’t been a working budget in all that time for our parish and our sister parish. It was a very, very difficult process, and after many, many difficult meetings we were able to create a balanced budget. Unfortunately, in order to do that we had to slash staff levels. That was such a horrible experience!! I felt sick for weeks!!! The one silver lining to come from this was that we were able to make sure that our parish was able to at least have our own clerical staff – even if it’s not full time.

In February, I was appointed to the County’s Parks Board for a 6 year term. I’m very excited to be on the committee! It is something I applied for 5 years ago, but they didn’t have any positions open for the North County area where I live. They finally did and now I’m able to participate. (Unfortunately, the park’s board meetings are on the same night as my bunco group. I was pretty bummed to give up bunco. They are a very fun group of women and I really enjoyed it.) I came on at a very fortuitous time. We have been working on our 20 year strategic plan for the county’s parks system. (Not sure we will have a parks system in next year - let alone in 20 years, if we don’t get a dedicated funding stream. Currently, the county is down to only ONE parks ranger to do all the maintenance and upkeep for all the 17 parks properties. They call him the Lone Ranger.) Hopefully, with a comprehensive strategic plan in place, they will be able to apply for grants too keep the department open.

My kids and I are actively fundraising so that we can go on pilgrimage to the 2011 World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain with our church youth group. Due to a number of factors, our group got a late start on fundraising, so I’m not sure we’ll get enough money. We’re sure making a valiant effort!! So far, we’ve sold raffle tickets to a gorgeous quilt, ran a rummage sale and rented the parking lot for KHS graduation, did a plant sale, held car washes and managed a raspberry patch. W.

Bipolar Summer – can’t decide if its going to be hot or cold. The highs are either in upper 60's or in the upper 90's. Don't like the extremes. Just give me 75 degrees. It's perfect.

Well, off to work

Good and Bad News

After all the great news I’ve heard this week, I was disappointed on how the week ended.

The week started out really well. I found out that one of my friends who is in an abusive relationship is out and in a safe location. I have been keeping her whole family in my thoughts and prayers and so it was really nice to hear that everything was lining up for her.

Then I got great news!! After a very long time of looking, applying and lots of rejection, my sister was offered a fabulous job as an account manager at Web MD. This will be a great fit for her. It will give her a lot of opportunities to grow and really shine professionally in a field that has a lot of potential – and not to mention - pay her mortgage and buy me a Christmas present. (Hey, a girl’s gotta have priorities!) Anyway, I am so very happy for Aon. You should have seen the kids and I do the “happy job dance” when they found out about it. We even called her up and sang her a “lovely” job offer commemoration serenade which probably brought tears to her eyes. (What kind of tears – she’s not saying.)

The North County Recreation Assn auction is coming together and some of the issues (like the Castle Rock and Toutle youth football teams playing at 5:30 way over in Wahkiakum County which over 1 hour away and the slow / low donation amounts) are being resolved so that we will be able to have people attend and support the youth sports in our area. Donations have been picking up and the weather is even starting to co-operate with us. I had visions of this outdoor auction / dinner / dance being in the middle of a horrid downpour all day long. (It still might be a little bit nippy and have a couple sprinkles, but nothing like earlier in the week.) So keep your fingers crossed.

Unfortunately, the work week is ending on a down note. Late Friday afternoon, we found out that our Drug Court did not get the big federal grant we applied for in May. If we got the grant, it would have “saved” our program and really helped it grow to help veterans in our area. Now it is slated to close at the end of the month. I feel so badly for my friend, Debbie, who is the coordinator of the program. She has been through so much this past year. If someone would have told me that we would be shutting down one of the original drug court programs in the state (and one of the most successful) when she was hired last summer, I would have laughed in their face. I am so disappointed. So keep your fingers crossed that by some miracle our Drug Court is saved and is allowed to continue helping people get clean / stay sober and quit doing crimes in our community.

5 days til the Auction

North County Rec Auction is Saturday in a new location and the weather is not cooperating. Donations are VERY VERY slowly trickling in and we're hitting the home stretch.. Hopefully, the Toutle football coach capitulates and they move up the game from 5:30 in Wahkiakum (1 hour down the coast) from here to 1pm in Castle Rock or Toutle. If not, it's going to be interesting seeing how many local parents come since those parents make up about 1/2 of the big supporters. Keep your fingers crossed and let me know if you want to buy a ticket to the dinner / auction / dance on October 3rd.

Today started with a 7am parent teacher conference and has been pretty non-stop til now. I've got scouts tomorrow night and I think I'm also supposed to work concessions out at the football stand. Wednesday night is a parks meeting and auction. I haven't even looked at Thursday yet, but I do know that Friday is a big football game (in the RAIN!!! - ugh!!) Saturday is setting up and actually having the auction. C is gone to webelo woods - weekend camping trip so I need to make sure he's ready and packed for a wet time in the woods. Sunday I'm in charge of the children's mass - The kids are doing all the 'jobs' - lectors, ushers, gifts, greeters and choir so I have to be up and at 'em very early.

I'm starting to get stressed. My life is so busy and hectic right now I can't even see straight. (I haven't even figured out anything for my daughter's birthday next week - including her party. sigh guess. I'll keep this short and get something figured out.)

I hate allergies!!!

Ugh!!!
Whatever is in the air right now (probably pine tree pollen and grass) is killing me!!!!
(Stirring up all that dust while cleaning the garage this weekend didn't help either.)

For the want of a nail....

You've heard that old saying... For want of a nail, the shoe was lost...For want of a shoe, the horse was lost. And on it continues until the entire kingdom is lost because of something so small and insignificant as a little horse shoe nail coming loose.

Well, I had a shoe nail incident today. My second oven (absolutely decadent I know, but a huge selling point for me when we bought this house) has been having trouble heating up. (Basically, it won't.) So I called my buddy, Lowell at Lukken Electric (Say that out loud. "Lowell at Luck In Electric" It's very fun to say.) As I was saying, I asked Lowell at Lukken to come out to the house and look at it. By the way, they are fabulous!! I highly recommend Lukken for any appliance repairs or parts you might need. They have been able to fix almost all of my appliances that have had problems and when it's not in my best interest, he'll tell me to "stop repairing it" and that I "should just replace it." I appreciate that kind of customer service and honesty.

So Lowell's crew came out and diagnosed the problem with my little built in oven. Sigh....

For the lack of a clock, the oven was lost.

Yep!!! There is some little interface 'master chip thingy' in the clock (which works very well by the way) that must be functioning properly or the heating element won't turn on. Well, it should be a very simple fix. Just get the new part and slap it in there. Except GE doesn't make my oven any more or those parts. RATS!!!!! Since it's a built in appliance, I'm looking at between $800 - $1,000 to get a new one installed. All I could think is that I will have to go back to being like all other mere mortals and really coordinate my cooking for Thanksgiving dinner. Because although I love my 2nd oven, I can't afford it just right now.

Right before I talked with my friend Lowell at Lukken, I learned from the "Roof Doctor" that to repair the flashing around my chimney so that it won't leak any more will easily be $700 - $1000. (If they don't get in there and find a lot of problems - which could get very spendy very fast!!!) So I'm saving my pennies (what few are left after this very expensive 1st week of school!!!!) so that I can get my roof fixed before the Winter storms hit.

So since I'm in cheap mode right now and would REALLY like two ovens if we have Turkey Day at my house, I talked to Lowell about trying to scavange on the internet and around for another GE oven profile clock. So he gave me a parting "good luck" and promise to keep his eyes open for the part number which is..... WB27K5040. So if you happen to run across one, let me know I would be eternally grateful and you will have a favored seat (and your own basket of Grandma Sutton's rolls) for any and all major holidays!

Lost Weekend with a Twist

I had such high hopes and plans for this weekend. (I was going to cram 5-6 days worth of work into this weekend and I had some fun plans too.) The best laid plans of mice and men are laid to waste.....

Unfortunately, I got sick Friday night and never really left the bed and/or couch all day Saturday. Being so tired from the late night at the emergency room the night before didn't help either. B was also sick Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday - she had a relapse of the crud from earlier in the week. (I'm taking her into the doctor this morning.)

Sunday: I left the house at 8am for church and wasn't home for more than 5-10 minutes at a time until 10:15pm. After church ,we came home and checked on B and changed clothes. M, C and I then met my sister and her friend in Woodland which is about 40 miles south of us. We went to my favorite U-pick berry farm and picked blueberries for an hour and half. (The kids and I got about 15 pounds. - Sure missed B -my berry picking machine) But 15 pounds is still a pretty good haul. (don't think we'll be making any blue berry jelly, since we'll probably eat or freeze all of it for personal conusmpution becasue we LOVE blueberries. In fact I had a bowl late last night when I got home. They were sooo good!!!)

After berry picking, we ran to the store and got a veggie platter and went to a combined parish picnic at Riverside Park. The kids had fun running around playing with some of the other kids. This new priest we have is really interesting. He is very young - less than 30 but he is very traditional in many ways. He wears the old fashioned clergy "costume" for casual - You know the one you see in all the old movies (pre Vatican II uniform) black pants, black cassosk that comes down to his knees and the black rounded hat. It was cool to see him out there playing the water balloon toss in his full regalia. He's kid oriented and is supportive of our idea to attend World Youth Day in Spain in 2011. That is great! So we're going to start working on a planning / fundraising meeting next week. (I really wanted to go to the one in Australia, but my kids were too young.)
After the parish picnic, we went home and checked on B who was still sick. I had M & C stay home and watch her. I had a scout committee meeting. I knew it was going to be big because we were organizing the entire year, coordinating and identifying fundraisers / assigning chairmen and their duties, in addition to the myriad details that come up for start of the year organizing. The meeting started at 5pm. Knowing how our meetings take for ever and seeing the very full agenda, I half-jokingly told M to call at 9pm to spring me. I half hoped we'd be really effiecient and done by 7 or 8pm so I could take C to get some school supplies. But no such luck!! I didn't leave until 10 pm. UGH!!!!! That's a long meeting and several were still going strong when I left.

When I got home, I had the BEST surprise waiting for me. M had spent the time while I was gone to clean my kitchen. It looked SOOOO pretty!!!! It was so nice of her. She even cleaned out a couple of my cupboards and organized the chargers and extra cords. She did a FABULOUS job. What a nice surprise! Now my weekend wasn't completely lost!

Jinxed

My coworker, George, jinxed me! Boy is he going to hear about it when I get to work today!!!

Yes, we were talking about my kids and their seemingly frequent flyer mileage to the Emergency Room and specifically how Megan always seems to get hurt about this time of year. This summer she has been working out with the varsity high school team several days a week doing their conditioning training. We last night during a scrimmage, she collided with another player and fell. She landed funny on her left wrist. (It was at the end of practice, but being the tough dedicated player, she continued playing.) Long story - short.

We eventually went to the Emergency Department to get it checked out. (It didn't feel broken, but we decided to go just in case.) One good thing was that we got to see our old neighbor Carolyn who works in radiology. It was actually a pretty quick trip - less than 3 hours, but it was still 1am before I got home. Well, they don't think its broken, but decided to put a splint on and refer her to the orthoped just to be safe. Well this splint is HONKING HUGE!!!! She's had casts smaller. Bad thing is that soccer tryouts are in 2-3 weeks and if its broken, she's out for the season. oh well....positive thoughts!!! Only a mild sprain.

We'll keep you in the loop.

Ruined by Republicans

I am angry!!!!
As I was writing out my grocery list this morning, I realized that I can't spell with confidence anymore.

I reflected for a moment on my disabilities and devined that it is a product of the education I received in the 1980's when we were lead by Ronnie and George the first.

Thinking more about it - I can definitively point to the exact moment when Republicans ruined my ability to correctly spell vegetable names.

It is so sad!! I grew up in Idaho and now forever guess myself on the CORRECT spelling of potato and tomato. (and don't get me started on plural versions)
Arrgh!!!! (cry of pain and frustration can be heard across the land)
Dan Quayle - You ruined a generation of brillant minds!!!!

Withdrawals

It seems that I am suffering severe computer related withdrawals. It is very hard to carve time in my schedule right now to get on the internet and write. I keep meaning to and remember and such great ideas, while I'm in my car or at work or at a game...but can't do anything about it until I have time at home. (My poor Facebook account is very neglected as well.) Yes, I'm developing quite a serious case of "Internet Guilt." (kind of like a mild case of Catholic guilt, but more high tech.) Big sigh!!!!


I did do a little updating with my site. Pruned some blogs (sorry Bella) that haven't been posting in a while and added a couple of my new and old faves... still can't load one of my all time favorites... O'Malley's on the Web. He's way too "techy" for me and has some funky interface that won't let me link with him. Another sigh.... You just wait O'Malley! I'll get you and your little dog too.... (evil chess cackle wafting in the background)


I promise I'll have to tell you about a few of the Summer Solistice Full Moon craziness that have shown up recently. (There was a guy who was arrested for burglary / stolen car due to his distinctive and excessive colonge and another guy who was driving backwards the wrong way on the interstate for several miles laughing himself silly all the while. - I haven't seen him yet because he refused to get dressed and wouldn't come to court.) These are both stories that need to be highlighted. Oh and the funniest story I've experienced ever in court....it revolves around industrious indignant cops, ribbed condoms, illegal drugs and non industry approved containers. :) Totally cracks me up!!! That one needs it's own entry cuz it's just too darn funny!!!

I've also been getting a lot of funny, crazy phone calls as well this week. This isn't an example of those, but will give you a flavor of the my "normal" phone calls.
I usually answer the main phone line, "Superior Court Administration. This is Alice. How may I help you?"
On Friday, I had three calls right in a row that replied to me "Hi. Is this Nancy speaking?"
"No, this is Alice. May I help you?"
After the 3rd call in less than 4 minutes, my coworker turned to me stared in amazement and shook her head. I laughed. What can you do?



In my future blogs, I also want to make sure I share my experiences at the wonderful parish mission we had this past week. I learned so much about my faith and have been filled with a lot of peace. Thanks to Father Tony Judge and Father John Kuehner and the Redemptionist Order of priests, I was pleasantly surprised attending my first Catholic "holy roller" revival. It was very uplifting and I learned that one of my childhood goals was met.... (Hurray! one more thing to check off my bucket list.)

Well, now that I've left you some teasers and me some inspiration, I think I'll turn in.

Crazy / Computer

My postings are going to be spotty for awhile.

I've been having some computer problems. I've had the guy out once and he NEEDS to come back ASAP. I lost internet for hours again last night. (It's so incredibly frustrating!!!) I am so busy right now, I usually don't get home before 9 or 10pm every night. I keep losing my internet connection so Ican't check my email or post anything. grrrrr!