Yikes!

It has been almost 6 months since I posted last! I like to read back on what I posted, so you would think I would have incentive to post.
What a whirlwind it has been! I'm not going to be able to remember all that has happened so I'll do a little photo story of a few highlights.

A beautiful (albeit cold) DC wedding in December! My first "maid-of-honor" duties and I could not have been more honored. My friend and I were the long time single friends, college drinking buddies, and working girls. We have seen many changes in life and I was bursting with happiness for her.

Now, they're expecting their first child in October!



My favorite little friends had a play date!

Follow the leader...

Shopping together.....

Snack time!

I SEWED!

Rice Heat Therapy Bag for Mama
(Tutorial from Sew Mama Sew Blog)

I spent some time up North in VT in WINTER! (So much winter that I got to spend an extra day due to unsafe driving!)

Vermont critters are friends! ;)

After the Polar Plunge in Lake Champlain!

Snowshoeing with a beagle!

I rocked....

We Wiied! :)

It snowed....

and snowed.....

but it was beautiful

so we walked despite wind that took your breath away!

Then we crafted.....hat in progress by JS.



I visited my favorite place.....

where Miss Kitty and Papa relaxed by the fire....

This has turned out to be really long and I didn't even get to small children making me a birthday cake!
Oh...and a whole post for my AMAZING medical mission trip to the Dominican Republic (which just happened a few weeks ago and I'm still sorting pictures). Truly an eye-opening, life changing experience.

This weekend is all about me. I have been working SUPER hard (65-80 hours a week) for the past few weeks and it's taking it's toll. That's why I am looking forward to my 10th college reunion this weekend. I can't wait to hit VT where my FL friend and my VT friend await along with wine and babies and the sweetest husbands ever. On to NY, where more friends, babies, wine, and memories await. Back to my carefree youth for just a few days....and you know I have a rockin' new dress to wow them all at dinner! :)

I've missed this. Maybe now that I've broken the ice, I can get back into it!

**Edited to add: I forgot the whole reason I wanted to blog tonight. My brother announced this evening that he and his gf are moving to FL. My brother is my savior, the one I call when I just need to vent, who always says "Do you need me to come there now?" when something happens with my mom. He is about an hour from me now and that's just far enough.
FL is way too far. It will be temporary and he is doing it to support an educational move for his gf, but I can't help but be a little bit selfish and sad tonight.

1-2-3

Today....was my birthday. It's an easy to remember day - 1-2-3 and all. I took the day off from work today to give myself some "ME" time. I realized today that I am not very good at scheduling that. My days are full of work, my nights are full of - meetings, volunteer work, sign language class and sewing class. Oh, right sign and sewing should be for me, and I do enjoy them sometimes, but it's all becoming too much. I am NEVER home and I don't have much time for spontaneous fun. Monday night - sewing (if I can leave the office), Tuesday night - volunteer at the Hospice Children's Bereavement group, Wednesday night - office meetings, Thursday night - sign class. Often that means that Friday becomes Late Night at the Office and that is NOT fun.

So, anyway - complaining finished. I need to sort out what I can weed out or place a hold on (in my head I am signing all of the things that I know how to sign - hooray! ;)), but I'm not coming up with much - except going home from work earlier.

Anyway, I wanted to sew today and it didn't quite happen. I had to take my mom to the doctor (which I knew but it's always a slower process than I realize) and then she needed to do another errand. I found myself getting frustrated and feeling selfish and I didn't like it. After all, if it's my birthday, it's a special day for my mom too right? Her first child was born today. Resolve to be more patient. With age comes perspective?

We had a work dinner tonight and thankfully I work with great people who made sure I felt special on my day.

That is sinful egg nog creme brulee. I just love the chocolate writing - so cute!
Taken with my camera phone so not great quality.... oh well. :)

I am thankful for my life, my friends and my family. I don't feel much older, but I hope that this year brings new perspectives, excitement and a renewed sense of peace with myself! :) (Oh and maybe a bit more blogging? Seriously, I'm so inconsistent!)
Happy Birthday to me (although it might be past midnight already.....)

Review

I thought perhaps I should look back at what I said I "would" do last year and just review how I did. I'm not going to berate myself for the things I didn't do, but I would like to remind myself of the progress I DID make. :)

This year:

I will continue to work on my finances so that I feel good about the way I am handling them. Check (sort of - I have worked on them).

I will save my money, research, and purchase a bike. Nope - I didn't get to this one, although I have the money for it.

I will learn more knitting techniques and make something for myself. I did learn a few more techniques, but then I lost my knitting mojo and haven't knit since February or March.

I will travel far and wide - including WI, MN, NC, NY, and VA in the first 2 months - hopefully AU and IRE will make it on the "far" part of the list. I travelled to all the states, but neither of the countries. I'm hoping for a trip to help people in the Dominican Republic this year....more on that later....

I will continue to bake, but work to improve my cooking skills. I wish I had cooked more.

I will do some form of exercise 5 times a week. I wish I had done this too.

I will be thankful to have my siblings all in the same country. I was and I am. My sister has returned and it makes so happy to be able to call her whenever I want!

B and I in Ithaca during a snowstorm!

I will appreciate my parents for what they are and be thankful to have them both living. I learned this lesson in a bigger way than I thought.

I will spoil the babies in my life with love and attention and perhaps a few little hand knit items. :) The babies were spoiled and it wasn't even a little bit difficult! ;)

I will spend time making sure my godson "P" knows how special he is to be the one who made me an "Auntie" and how much his mother (my best friend) means to me. When they visited in July, I spent almost every spare minute with them and I am so glad I did. He is becoming such a little boy!

I will make time for the important things in life - friends and family. I made time to take care of Mom, but was still to be at and in a few weddings and showers. These are the times memories are made of!

I will learn to sew - FINALLY - so I can stop being jealous of all the beautiful things on other people's blogs. I DID THIS! 100% I did it! I can't stop being proud of this. It's one of those things I've always wanted to do, but just never did. It's worth a post.....but I can sew now and have made several things in the past couple of months!

Three baby balls with bells in them -
a gift for my little friend whose favorite word is "ball"

I will do what I need to to keep my License in Social Work current, so that I can go back when I'm ready. I have to renew my LCSW in October, so I need to make sure I have all my CEUs by then.

I will make time for myself and my life. I have tried to do this by doing things I enjoy at night. I could do better, but I'm happy with the progress I've made.

I will make an attempt to be more organized. I made the attempt and it's a work in progress (esp now that I have fabric too)!

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with my accomplishments. I should make a list for this year. Not tonight though. I stayed home this morning with a pounding headache - my body telling me I need MORE sleep. If only I didn't want to sew in every free minute!

Oy vey.

Mom & I at a wedding almost exactly 1 month after her accident.
She was still in a wheelchair, but determined to be at this wedding!

Good grief, it's 2008 already? I feel a little bit like I have been asleep for the past 4 months. Mom is improving - thank you for the sweet thoughts! I have to admit that her accident put a severe kink in my life. I didn't do anything without thinking about whether someone could help her, stay with her, etc. Honestly, I thought about resenting it and then realized - I should be grateful! My mother, who took care of me in every sense of the word, who was unselfish and hard-working, and who bore the brunt of any adolescent angst I may or may not have displayed - needed me. How many people get the opportunity to care for their parent in such a way and have them recover afterward? So I feel as though I gave my mother these last 4 months. They were not wasted after all. They were spent giving my mother everything I had. My gift to her.

Happy New Year to all of you! I'm not going to do my New Year's post right this minute, but I promise to be back to blogging (heard that before? ;)) for now. After all, I have all kinds of crafting to show off. I'm learning how to sew and quilt and received this and this for Christmas!

In a moment.....

Where I have been? When I logged in and saw July 30th, I wondered could I have been away so long? Maybe you wondered too. I have been a lazy blogger before, but I swear that was not it!
I don't know where to start.

I have been losing sleep and doing lots of laundry.

I have spent more than 5 nights trying to sleep in a hospital.

I have been dressing, feeding, and caring for someone who could not do for themselves.

I have been cleaning house and preparing a new bedroom.


No, I am not having a baby. :)

On the morning of August 15, my mother fell down the stairs while she was on her way out to mow the lawn. She is a nurse and knew what had happened, but had no way to get to a phone. After a couple of hours on the landing of the stair, she used a cane to get to down to the bottom of the stairs, but was in too much pain to do any more. She lay on her face in the foyer for the next 12 hours until I found her at 9:15pm. 12 hours. It had been 24 hours since she had had anything to eat or drink on Thursday night. She had tried to yell for the mailman and paper girl, but to no avail.

She weakly said "Be careful" as I opened the door. I was shocked to see her on the floor, but in my mind it seemed that she must have JUST fallen. She told me had a broken hip and that I needed to call 911 because she couldn't move.

Life has been infinitely changed since then.

It is not a life threatening condition (for a 61 year old woman anyway - it can be life threatening for older people) and she has survived far worse, but it has been a challenge.

So that's where I've been for the past month or so. I've been lurking on other blogs when I catch a free moment, but not commenting because - well I just haven't had time.

She spent 5 days in the hospital and had a partial hip replacement. She spent almost 3 weeks in a rehabilitation facility. My neighbor asked "How's mom?" and I responded "Doing ok, she's in rehab." My neighbor laughed and commented "Your mom and Britney!" :) The most amusing part is that my mom does not drink at all.

Mom has been home for almost 2 weeks. On our first day home she had chest pain and I called 911 again. We were whisked back to the hospital and kep overnight, but sent home with a clear heart. Perhaps it was a muscle from using the walker and using her arms so much.

It has been a big adjustment. She is gaining independence each day, but is limited because she has to use the walker. She will not be cleared to drive for awhile as she broke her right hip. She can't bend, so everything has to be at waist level. Her bedroom, etc had to be moved to the first floor. There are a lot of assistive devices that she has been learning to use to dress herself, etc (try putting on socks when you can't bend at the waist or lift your foot). She's considering whether she should get a device that you can push if something happens. It seems that she is too young, but really - it can happen to anyone.

That's my month or so in a nutshell. I would like to be better about blogging, if only to remember all this in the future. ;)

Bliss

I just spent the weekend engrossed in conversation, wine and love. My friend is getting married. She may have thought, at times, that this moment would never come. The despair over getting older, relationships that ended, and the lack of quality options was frustrating and overwhelming at times. Lord knows, I understood. Then, she met him. Her knight in shining armor, her ONE, her perfect, understanding gentleman with a good heart and a tender sweet love for my friend. I knew it would happen. There were times over the years that she wanted to change who she was and I encouraged to hold onto herself. Someone out there would love the person she was. I was right. He clearly does. All those quirks she wanted to stifle are accepted and embraced by him.

And so, in 5 short months they will be married - in what will be the shortest engagement of any of my friends. It has been a whirwind since they got engaged, but she has it all together. Her planning skills are incredible and I can only view with awe all that she has already done. I zipped down to DC this weekend to spend time dress shopping, wine drinking, favor prepping, and just talking. I realized how I miss my friend. Life has been busy for both of us in the past year and we have not seen each other as much as we would like. She has been happily engrossed in her relationship, so our phone conversations have been shorter and less frequent. This is not to say we lost touch - we still chat and make phone dates so we can have more than 10 minutes to catch up! It's just that we are in a different phase in life right now.

My friend and I reconnected this weekend. I saw her new place (ironically soon to be rented as they combine households after the wedding), ooohed and ahhed over her wedding gown, chatted, laughed, gave opinions on options, and tried on dress after dress. There was margarita drinking and laughing with several college friends, and much baby love of a darling girl belonging to another DC friend. I awoke this morning with something as close to hangover as I have had in a long time. A bit shaky and a note to self that going beyond the 2 bottles of wine was probably not a good decision on our parts. We are not as young as we used to be and our livers not as capable of bouncing back.

After pedicures yesterday afternoon, we bought goat cheese and french bread and wine and had ourselves a fantastic French lunch! ;) Last night we called another dear college friend who was far away. We put the speaker phone on, she had a glass of wine at her house and we commenced the talking, laughing and comfortable feelings that come from time spent with good friends.

Unfortunately, I did not take as many pictures as usual. Too much fun I suppose.

Nothing compares to good friends. Something we should never take for granted.

Sweet, Sweet Summer

I wish computers had scentavision in them. I love strawberry picking. There is nothing like walking into a strawberry patch on a warm summer day. The smell is heavenly. You crouch down and spy a bright red spot among the green leaves. Your hand touches that strawberry warm and ripe from the sun. Undoubtedly one of my favorite summer activities. (I picked 16 1/2 lbs yesterday!)

Some of my strawberries had an accident and got a little bruised!

But some were JUST perfect....

Making jam is another favorite. It's one of those things my mom did every summer and I finally let her teach me. It took several summers before I felt comfortable enough to do it without her standing 10 feet away for questions or help when things starting boiling and jars needed to be filled! It's so sweet and delicious when you have a little leftover in the pan and you can have WARM on toast.

Mixing the jam. You can only use a wooden spoon.

The jars sit on the window sill and get tipped over every 10 minutes until the tops "POP."

Ready to be labeled!

Now I have lots of thank you gifts, Christmas gifts, and "just because" gifts on hand. They just need labels and they'll last until next strawberry season.