A Series of Unfortunate Events Part 1

   I woke up early one morning (because the bathroom beckons me) and after I was back in bed, I was unable to go back to sleep.  I had a thought come in to my head, "Why don't you check your balance on your credit card?" My phone was on my nightstand, and I picked it up with that thought in mind.  A couple of months ago we decided to pay all our monthly bills plus charge the gas for our cars on our credit card and earn cash back, such as it is.  We then pay it off by the 28th, the prescribed day of the month before it begins to accrue interest for the credit union.  So far, so good. Until today.  I sat up with alarm--$1652.00 to Zleep Inn somewhere in Europe? I began to nudge Wally, still soundly sleeping beside me (I know, kind of  mean) and asked him if he knew anything about this. No of course not.  What was I talking about?  As the daylight began to fill our room, I kept checking the clock to see if our credit union was open.  I drove over and found out that yes, we had been a victim of credit card scam.  Everything was quickly remedied with the exception that we no longer had a working card until our new one came in the mail.  The woman who helped me said we could withdraw cash or try to write checks and see if they worked if we needed money. That day we discovered it's not convenient to buy gas with cash but it's doable.
     That evening, there was an incredible summer storm that drove us into the house from the deck,and we watched with awe the rain coming down in unprecedented walls of water, creating an inch deep lake on our covered deck.  One clap of thunder coincided with a flash of lighting and we all jumped nervously but our anxiety turned into laughter as we saw how affected we all were. I hoped for our garden plants to survive the heavy and sudden rain continuing longer that we anticipated.
     A couple of days later, crawling back in the bed again, this time late at night, Wally commented he thought he could smell something kind of funky in our house, and I ought to check my sewing room (down in the basement) the next morning and see if I could detect a problem.  This I did, and yes, there was a problem.  Water had also made a lake of our driveway during that incredible storm, and some of it breached the window well leading down to my sewing room.  Half of the carpet and pad were wet, and other various and assorted areas and items had been absorbing and mutating the water into strange biological concoctions for three days since the rain. I felt a bit overwhelmed, to say the least, and Wally and I began moving things out of the room, unscrewing and unbolting all the modular shelving that held fabric and such. We sorted dry vs. wet and made piles and filled garbage bags with things needing washing and things ruined and now destined for the landfill.  We jammed up the workroom and storage room with the disassembled shelving in order to clear off the carpet for water extraction.  I called my carpet guy and he came later that afternoon and because there was cement floor beneath the carpet and pad, it did not need lifting, only the (stinky) water needed to be removed. Yay! Also, he had no problem taking my check, although I explained it may not clear. Nice guy.  Three days later when it was dry he came back and collected his fans and cleaned all the carpets, which was somewhat a bad decision on my part as we had company coming for the weekend to celebrate June birthdays. Ah well. 
    Meanwhile, we were waiting for Jonah.  Sarah and Jessie were expecting a baby and we thought he would come early, maybe a week.  Turns out he was 2 weeks late, coming in just under the wire for his mother's eligibility to have him at the birthing center, which she had prepped and planned for the whole pregnancy.  Otherwise she would have gone to the hospital, so good job, baby. During that last week Wally and I had our 40th wedding anniversary and had a trip planned that we eventually postponed.  The little girls came and spent a few days with us during the week as Sarah was fighting for her sanity, a process only known by women who have carried a baby post-term, It was fun for us to have the girls anyway, except for one morning...
    I woke up to the sound of a little person whispering "Grandma, I'm ready for something to eat."  It was not an unreasonable request, or even unexpected.  I took a moment to get dressed and comb my hair, etc. when I noticed an overwhelming desire to scratch the dickens out of my legs.  I couldn't do it enough, and after a few minutes, I realized there was a problem.  I looked down and thought I had 85 mosquito bites over my upper legs, and they were welting up like crazy.  I then noticed my backside was itching, too, and I wondered what was happening to me.  Hives. I have never had hives before until that moment and it was wild.  I spent the next few days warding off new itching spells and welts on different areas of my body, or else sleeping though a drug induced coma from taking Benadryl.  Wally took care of the kids most of the time, and I just passed through the hours by timing when I could take my next fix. I discovered a blend of essential oils that reduced and cooled the itching, allowing me to have other thoughts in my head besides my incredible itching experience. (2 drops Myrrh, 2 drops Lavender, 4 drops carrier oil.) 

A Memory of Grandma C, part one

One time when I was little I was with Mom at Grandma C's house, and she allowed me to help with the dishes. She always had beautiful china, etc. that she used every day. On my way across the room to replace the dish on the shelf---crash! It slipped out of my fingers and broke. I was sick inside and paralyzed with fear. My mom immediately started to apologize for my error, and Grandma said, "Oh Anne, it's just a dish!" She very sweetly helped me clean it up and thanked me for helping with the dishes. I hope I never forget the way I was treated--I think it's a great thing to "pay it forward," don't you? My motto: Just remember it all eventually ends up in the land fill anyway. (the stuff). The way we treat people and the way we are treated is what stays.

Back Over Here

Okay after a long long hiatus and blogging with a different server, I have returned to Blogspot. It's free and I can't seem to manage all my different websites, etc. so I am simplifying my life.  More later.

I am not sure what to do.

Well, I have a new blogsite, but the key to register is so hard that some of my readers can't seem to get in. One broke through, however, and then i (administrator) didn't okay it for a few days. i didn't really get how to do it, but i figured it out through blundering and trying this and that. I guess I can't get used to the idea that to be a web administrator, one must learn how to do things, one doesn't automatically know how. So, while I am on the learning curve (or more like that new snowboarding ramp in NYC) I will post both places and those of you who are interested in reading my blog, will you keep trying to sign in? If there is anyone left out there, that is still interested.
What I really wanted to post is this:
I am getting ready to take a trip and I have a challenge with that, because when I go, I leave Laura behind, which means work out the details for her life while I am gone. It has been a rather smooth process! I am thankful for a network of loving, caring, willing, people who are here for me and Wally so we can leave to go out of town for a vacation. I am grateful for Wally's wisdom and foresight of planning ahead for our financial welfare and security that creates a place of safety and bounty for us both. I am grateful for good friends that don't give up on us and find options for us to make a great plan workable.

Just Moved

Well, I have a new blog site--it's one that you get to register so I know who's reading my info. Here's the link: http://www.beth.breinholts.com Sometimes it scares me off when I have to register for something, but it's really nice and friendly. Just sign in and do your password, and the first time you do, it will shoot off an email to me, and I will say, "Sure, you can read it," unless I don't know you are. Then you get an invitation and you are in! See you soon.

It's all about ready

Okay, we are working on this huge music/dance/bells pageant for Christmas, and last night all the pieces were put together for the first time. Wow!! the energy was sky high. Our guest stars were there, and all the bell ringers and the dancers and orchestra and it was very gratifying to hear the music all put together. Our director makes killer arrangements of stuff, I don't know how he does it. I have such a small part in the whole thing, but it's incredible how it comes together. One thing that I do to contribute (besides sing) is appreciate, admire and enjoy the event. Wally is driving the stars back and forth from the hotel/venue/airport and where ever they need to be. I understand that the people who agree to do the show with us, do it with very little compensation. It's mostly a gift on their part, and what a gift it is.
I feel sad for my sister Joy. She broke her leg last week in Idaho, and Saturday she had surgery. Brenda brought her home from the hospital yesterday, and hopefully she will make it through the next few weeks without incident. She and Jim were planning a trip to Florida to see Nate for Christmas and now that's been canceled.
Speaking of trips, Wally and i are going to NYC again next week for a few days. I have never seen the place all decorated up for Christmas, and it will be fun. The reason we are going is for family, of course. Wally hasn't seen Piper for a long time and will he ever be surprised!
I have been out of commission with my computer for a while because of a nasty little surprise via facebook. All is back in order now, but I am so wary about any emails that come my way, even from people I know--that's how my awful little spybot "virus" was delivered. Anyway, my answer was to leave facebook. I found out that you never really leave it, you can't get your info off of it, you just disable your account. Nice. I went in and changed stuff first. It kind of creeps me that they have my info, ready to roll if I say so, or if someone chooses to hack. I will miss visiting with some of my friends that way, also my cute and adorable neices and nephews. Okay, i know they are grown up but they are still what i said--cute and adorable.
That brings me to my next subject. I am preparing to make this a private blog. Anyone who likes to check on it occasionally, let me know, and i will invite you to read it. As of January 2009, I will close it to the public. Call me paranoid, call me overcautious, call me whatever you want, it's probably true.

New Addiction

Okay, i just have to blog about this--Sushi. Last time I was in NYC, my kids ordered in sushi, and I thought, okay, I will try it, it's food, right? It was so good! Not to be confused with sushimi, which has raw fish. Anyway, there were several different kinds, and I just went down on it. We had avocado rolls, sweet potato rolls, cucumber rolls, etc. I was kind of worried about the taste of seaweed, but as I discovered, seaweed in sushi has no taste. One type we got was spinach sushi, and it was our least favorite--too "chewy", kind of what I thought the seaweed would taste like. Anyway, I am hooked. I came back home thinking about when i would have some next, and wondering where I would even find some. I was talking to my hairdresser and she told me this great place to get it, so i went there and she was right. it was good, but it was kind of expensive and it was downtown, which wasn't that practical for me. Anyway, i was at the grocery store a few days later and what do you know? They just added sushi to their deli! So i have been hogging it down, almost everytime I go there I pick up a little tray of it, 12 piece spicy Califormia rolls. I still don't like wasabi on it, but the piece that sits next to the wasabi on the tray tastes a little extra spicy and it's good. So let's hear it for Sushi! Especially the day before Thanksgiving, Ha ha.