Time Flying By

Where has the month gone by? I am still looking for March and now it is the end of the month of May. When I was growing up I remember hearing my mother and her friends/family always saying the older they got the faster time went by. I would think it is the same 24 hours how can it possibly be faster? But now that I am more mature (notice I never said older?) I understand what they meant.

With having to take a couple of months off with my surgery my brain was busy and wanted to get moving to do something but then my body would betray me and say get to bed I need a nap. I mean... seriously... how many naps does one woman need in a day. I have things to do, people to see, and places to go to.

So I am back at work now 2 weeks and trying to play catch up. I have found out I could actually delegate. I wasn't very good at it but at least I tried my hardest. I actually had no problems delegating tasks I had problems letting people doing it at their speed which was not necessarily at mine.

We have a huge genealogical seminar every October and we have been already planning it. I hate leaving things till last minute but I never knew there was so much to do with it. Trying to get 30-40 presenters organized and motivated enough to get their infos in on deadlines was enough to get your hair being pulled out. I literally have to-do lists everywhere. I finally had to go get a huge white board for my office and drew out a grid map with all the hours and classes/instructors on it as my hard copy had so many arrows and notes I was having a hard time figuring out who was who. Now at least I can erase and add new info as needed. Much much better.

My highlight of the whole thing was I able to get someone from Legacy head office to come out and teach a class on Legacy which is a PHENOMENAL software program for family history. I got started using it about a year ago and absolutely love it. Mind you I like anything that is colorful and user friendly. So having them agree to send someone out was a huge BONUS.

So I have been working on that. Then I have been hustling my butt getting our big family trip to Hawaii planned out. Man who would have thought there would be so many little things to plan and take care of. Or how difficult it would be taking 23 people away for a week. I am a pleaser, to me everybody has to be happy and I am stressing myself out trying to make it perfect so that everyone remembers this trip and that I meet everyone's wish list.

Add to that I got my mom a "live" picture frame that I am working on. If you have never seen one it is an electronic picture frame where you download pictures onto a USB stick and then put the stick in the frame. It then takes all the pictures and puts them in a slide show. TRES COOL!! I saw it for the first time at my youngest brother's home earlier this year when I was there and I thought what a great idea for a present for my mom! So I have been taking ALL our pictures of children and grandchildren and putting them in some sort of order of the grandchildren with their parents in order so there is some semblance of unity. Keith asked why I just didn't copy all my picture folders over to the stick instead of them having to be in order. I guess I must have given him the one raised eye brow look cause he said never mind I forgot who I was talking to for a minute . lol

So there it is.. what I have been up to this last little while and why I haven't been on here much. Oh by the way I came across a couple of my high school yearbooks and have posted my picture. This is from 70-71 which would have made me 14 years old. I am in the bottom left hand corner. My maiden name is Cloutier in case you can't recognize me hehehe. Have a great rest of your day!

God's Natural Pharmacy

Huh... who would have thought???

Nana's Responsibilities

This has been a busy busy week for me as a Mum and Nana. Most of it has been spent working on my plan to get our whole family to Hawaii in February. This year made 30 years that our families blended together and I had wanted to do something spectacular to thank Keith and our children for being the best all these years. Because we had a huge anniversary almost 2 years ago I knew that financially I wouldn't have been able to do it for this year but the following year was going to be just fine. Keith and I aren't the credit cards kind of people where we put huge purchases on our credit cards and then pay for it for the next 5 years so it has meant scraping and saving every penny.

So plans have been made and trying to get things finalized this week. I should have had most of this done but these last couple of months have been slightly insane to say the least so have followed behind in my to do time line. Needless to say trying to find accommodations for 23 people have been hmm let's say mind challenging. It took me till Friday to find out that it apparently is a huge national surfing competiion at that same time frame in Oahu which means every surfer, board and clothing manufacturers, sponsors etc will be there making every thing scarce. I manage to find 3 different places that would be suitable. 2 of them are sperate villas but side by side and another one is one huge house. But we are about 45-60 minutes away from downtown Honolulu which will be ok I think.

I sent emails out to all the kids asking them to choose as we will go by majority rules of which one the most like. One answer came back that they wanted the one on the beach lo.. ok they are all on the beach!! I am so looking forward to it.

The other thing I got to do this week was taken one of our grandsons on a Cub Scout day hike. It was a Mother and Son hike but as our daughter is basically on "house arrest" for the remainder of her pregnancy apparently it states in the Nana rule book that Nanas have to take grandchildren in places of Moms :) Which was ok by me cause I had a really great time. We got to spend the afternoon together talking about school, his friends, Cubs, life at home with 4 sisters, the new baby coming along.. it was a wonderful bonding moment. I have included a couple of pictures. We went to a place called Deas Island that I had never been there before.. Very very nice place!

So all in all it was a pretty cool Nana week this week! And this week promises to be even better with sunshine!!! Let's hope the weather man is a little bit more accurate this week!

What mud pies?

hard to believe these are the same 2 little girls who earlier this evening found ONE mud puddle in the back yard and showed up in my dining room (that has beige carpet) completely covered in black from head to toe asking for a cloth to wipe their hands!! EEEEKKK... in the tub clothes and all... guess they had a long day... after 1 am and I finally just cleaned up after Papa and their playing house!

Welcome Back to Me

Man this has been a long time coming! For someone that never stops talking it feels like forever since I logged in to here. It has been a rough last couple of months. Not one that I would care to repeat. But I have learned a few things along the day.

1. That no matter how old I get my mother will still tell me to go have a nap right after lunch and send me to bed at 9PM

2. I really CAN delegate

3. My faith in God was stronger then I thought.

4. I can still laugh

5. Being flat chested isn't as bad as I thought

6. People's faces turn red when they get caught staring at my flat chest when they think I am not looking

7. My children are the very BEST in the world

8. Prayer is the best medicine you can find

9. I never knew how much I was loved by so many people

10. Keith really does love me unconditionally


I still get tired.. my brain is still in hyper mode most days but my body is a traitor and makes me go have a nap instead. I saw my surgeon a couple of weeks ago and she said I was about at where someone would be at 6 month postop and I was at one month at that time. My physio therapist is also quite surprised at my range of motion and how much I can do. She did caution me to slow down on the amount of times I did my exercises and the amount of repetitions I did as I would end up making things worse.

But this week will be my first official week back at work and I am so happy!! I have been doing work at home and on the computer but not the same thing as actually being at work. I did my staff training last week and that went well although I sat through most of it.

We went to a dance at the church Friday night. It was a country theme which I love, but it ended up being square dancing. Which normally would not be a problem and I would be right in there like a dirty shirt but not now. There was no way I was going to be raising my arms and looping them over anyone's heads or doing any twisting of arms behind my back etc. So that made me sad. I ended up getting Keith to take me home after an hour and a half or so.

Right now though I have been working on plans for our Hawaii trip next February. I am so excited about it!! Being able to take all our children and grandchildren there has been our dream for last couple of years and now it is coming up fast! Normally I would be doing all the planning and booking online but because of the cancer, the surgery and the seemingly non stop appointments downtown for surgeons etc, I have gotten quite behind. I had a timeline that I had made up last summer of when everything had to be booked by etc and I got behind. Now I am thinking I might end up trying to see if anyone knows of a really good travel agent and have them do all the foot work.

I did manage with the help of Lareta, to finish the spare bedroom just a couple of days before I went into the hospital. What a transformation! I do not know what I would do without her help! She has such an eye for color combinations and for finding the right thing at such dirt cheap prices. Except for the bed and dresser which I already had, the rest of the bedding, accessories, night stand etc probably cost me less then 50 dollars! We have had 4 different sets of overnight guests and everyone loves the room :)

I also got a new living room area carpet that I just love!! As well I found some candle holders at Salvation Army for 2.99 for the three of them.. There are gorgeous and look so nice on my fireplace mantle. I am loving my home these days!

Well that is it for now. I am planning on a homemade seafood chowder for dinner and I am off to the kitchen. Keith was diagnosed with high blood sugar, high blood pressure and VERY high cholesterol about 10 days ago so it has been a learning curve for me to make sure all his meals are low sugar and fat. Not the easiest thing to do especially with him grumbling of where his potatoes are and why everything is so different. But he lost 6 pounds in his first week. We got some new weight scales last week that not only measures your weight it measures your water levels, your bone mass and your body fat! I love them!! Keith... not so much lol