Mom and Dad's garden

Hanging around with Mr. Mark and Monkey


My favorite statue from Mom and Dad's garden

Dive Bomber Monkeys

Mark and a friend

What every blog needs, me in bug eyed glasses : )

Dad has this great post about his garden. We went over to see it in person the other day. Did I take pictures of the beautiful flowers? The giant century plant? The gardeners of this wonderful garden?

No, I got pics of Beloved with the monkeys that are in a small part of the garden. But it makes him laugh which in turn makes me laugh and Mom and Dad rejoice in how happy we are. So not a bad choice of pics after all.

Good day and ee-ee-oo-oo (which may be monkeyish for good day : )

A Hunting we will go

Today B and I went into the bank to apply for a mortage.

Yep, we are going house hunting. Our lease is up in June. Every job opening right now and his job and my job currently are both here. My family is here. Our friends (well a bunch of them : ) are here.

It is an exciting time in our lives. And a bewildering and well, a scary one too. I like the idea of somewhere that is just ours. Well, ours and the cats : P

I'll keep you up to date with the search and feel free to send me tips...

Good night and bring on the boxes.

Refreshing and Renewing (hopefully)

Hello all. I have been a bad blogger recently.

I have been cheating. I've got it bad. I now do a lot of stuff on facebook.

Sigh... can you forgive me?

I am right now in P's spare room. Yep, I made it down to O for the second time in like four months. I am at the FLA conference (better known as the Florida Library Association for you non-librarians out there). It was the first day of the conference and I have really enjoyed myself. Both in conference and out. I got the chance to do breakout sessions about Twitter, Second Life and Teen spaces. I also got to hang out with a favorite couple, P and C : )

Thus far this is my second ever conference and apparently I try to go to the ones in which I can get some family time in too. The last one was in San Jose CA and I got to hang out with Uncle R and Aunt D : )

The conference is a really good tool for refocusing (the one re word I forgot to add to my title). I need to break away from my mundy library life and see what I am doing for the bigger ideals that I have about my library in Evieland. You know.... the place where there are no words like, well, NO : D

I really loved my drive up here too. I took the backways as I so love to do. It did add like 30 minutes to my drive but I knew that driving the regular way I would miss things. Like a bear warning sign for the next 3 miles or the huge grey elephant with a counter for eating at or the Church of the Holy Comforter (which made me laugh for like 10 minutes as I picture the Sacred Duvet and still has me giggling)

Good day and drive well. I'll be back in town on Friday night.

Meow Plague

We are still a bit under the weather kittywise. I had to take Henri to the vet this morning. It is like having kids. If one of them gets it, you can be sure the others will too.

I was so frustrated last night I told B I wanted to get rid of all of them. It was my anger and fear talking though. There was kitty barf everywhere...

I am struggling with my job too. I love that they think I am capable enough to handle being a branch manager. But I am so much happier being a simple children's librarian. I am not sure what to do.

It has just been stress upon stress. B and I are looking at taking up dancing again. We haven't for the last couple of months. We both need a stress outlet. He is so wonderfully supportive.

I love him.

Good night and stop, breathe and reboot (what I tell the customers when their computer freezes)

Prayer for a Kitty

: ) Somehow both Dad and I are talking about prayer today.

I had to just drop off one of my kitties with the emergency vet tonight. She was getting sick and began to drool. I have never seen a cat drool before. They have given her anti vomiting medicine and a pain killer along with fluids. I am not sure what is wrong with her but am hoping it is just something she ate that upset her stomach. I am taking her to my regular vet tomorrow to get some tests run.

B and I had just been talking about her last night too. It is Hazel. She is named after my great aunt and a character in one of my favorite books Watership Down. Aunt Hazel was a really wonderful person who loved cats. She couldn't have any where she lived so she had a collection of porcelin ones. I remember giving her a mug that had a cat as a handle with its head sitting on the rim peeking over it to look at the fish painted in the bottom.

I had intended to save Hazel for when I have a girl child but I got the cat first. I made B promise not to tell our kids about the cat being named it first. I have been trying to come up with another name for the cat just in case.

I am a kitty mom though. I found myself yelling at other drivers to move faster so I could get her to the emergency vet. Dear God, please watch over her tonight and keep her safe. Please heal whatever is wrong with her and bring her safe home tomorrow.

Good night and Amen.

Back for now..

The pool is fixed. We are back open for business.

But now they are thinking of making me a floating library. It would mean I would be working at the branch a couple days a week and at another library a couple of days a week.

I like and don't like the idea. I love the idea of having a couple of days off from running the branch though. I feel like that I will be playing catchup with branch duties for the times that I am gone though.

In other news, I am feeling better. My voice is mostly back. Though right now I am channeling Barry White...My darling, I can't get enough of your love, baby... My voice is very low right now but at least it is back. I was missing it over the weekend.

Poor B... he was really good about taking care of me. He got my grocery list of OJ, drinks and lots of soup. The streaming Netflix came in handy too. I am watching the Six Wives of Henry the Eighth again : )

I am never quite sure which one I feel sorriest for.

Good day and I remain your faithful servant.

Just in time for the summer...the Library Pool

Yes, that's it. Darn the computers! My library is getting a pool.

Well, not intentionally that is. We had a pipe burst under the slab near the copier and computers. They are talking about repiping the library. So they closed us down for the week.

Thus I will be working at another library for a couple of days. The plus side to this caper is no being in charge. I am a lowly peon once again. And loving it.

Good night and joyfully I go to work once again. At least for two days : P

I love...

In no particular order and for no particular reason

I love....

the smell of my dad's pipe tobacco
the feel of B's hand on my waist
curling up with a good book
the way my family laughs together
the quiet before the storm at work
my kitties
other people's kitties
a windy day
the feel of the ocean and sand as I stand still and let the waves crash around me
the second before I open a present
really talking to someone
words like dusk and gregarious

I could go on for days.

Good night and I love you.

The Struggle

Last week. Last week was... Last week was bad.

Now let me preface this by saying I love being a children's librarian. I think it is the best job in the whole wide world for me.

But I haven't been able to do my job for the last month. Whenever I do something I really want to do a good job. Not because of the job but because of myself. I like being good at things.

If you give me one job and let me excel, I will do my very best. But give me two (one which had someone else doing it also full time) and you will get a half effort. I try to do both. But I don't have two hundred percent to just hand away all the time.

We had the police called three times to the library this week. The first time was the worse. We had a gang of teens outside with a baseball bat. It was scary. Then we had a young adult come by the library. He comes in all the time to use the Sorenson because he is deaf. Apparently there was something happening at his house because the police came by again to handcuff him and take him away. Lastly, the gang of teens came back. But got away before the police came. We found out before they came that they might have been involved in a knife fight at another library.

Can librarians get hazard pay?

And all this pulls away from the job I love. The job I can not do properly because of the other.

It is cause for some major praying/wondering/thinking.

Good day and this week will be better I hope.

The Next Time my credit card people call...

A weird title for a joyful posting. But I never claimed to be unquirky.

I often ponder and pray and sing in my car. I like to think of it as my cathedral of one. I was thinking of blessings tonight. Bing Crosby suggest you should count your blessing instead of sheep. Now me, I like to be awake while blessing counting. I have a lot of people tell me to have a blessed day. I am quirky and I believe a bit naive. I see the world as good and I like to thank God often for all my blessings. And that got me thinking about all the blessings I take for granted.

Like being able to read. I don't even really think about it much. There are letters and numbers in front of my face all the time. But I know what they mean. And I am assuming you do too. But there is a lady who comes in twice a week to see a reading tutor at my branch. Just by listening to them as they sit quietly talking and reading aloud in the time that they have been coming to the library, the one learning has grown by leaps and bounds. She really seems to enjoy it now.

And health. We have someone who comes in regularly whose husband has cancer. Liver cancer, I think. It has been a hard battle for her and him. She is one I pray for a lot in my car. I tell her that every now and then if she asks me to pray for him. She feels like all the prayers is why he has been able to hold on for so long. I am blessed to be healthy and he is blessed to have so many praying for him.

That is just a few of my infinite blessing. They are riches beyond measure. Yes, Capital One probably won't take them in lieu of payment but I don't think I would even consider offering them up. They are priceless.

On a side note, someone told me today that I was an answer to a prayer. She was trying to find a seminary to attend but doesn't use the computer so well. I was able to find her one that she felt right for her along with phone number, address and directions on how to get to it. Little did I know that I would be a blessing for someone else : )

Good night and god bless : P

A weekend by the Numbers

124/78 last BP measurement

6:55 pm the time we got in from our drive. Just a short drive into the sunshine...

3:30ish the time we left for our short drive.

4 cats that rule the roost and for whom we brought another put together tower yesterday.

0 cats who are currently on the tower I put together

almost 30 days of having our tree up. I think we were going to take it down this weekend but in the midst of our quiet weekend, it just never got done. The family (cats and us) really like having it up.

5 times I have bemoaned the idea of being the PIC from my branch from now on. I love being a children's person. I stand being in charge and am very good at it but it takes some much away from being just children's which is my love.

2 credit reports for me and B. I try to remember to check them annually.

16.15 how much we spent at Angel's Diner in Palatka, FL It is reported to be the oldest diner in Florida. The food was quite good and the staff very friendly. We will definitely try them again some time : )

2 movies we saw this weekend. They were both about vampires. Twilight: New Moon and Daybreakers were both very good in their own way. I think that Daybreakers has the better visual effects with some slow motion work and interesting camera work.

Good day and tomorrow is another day.

Patti and Clint's Wedding In Reverse

Is for what is you hearing?

For a well read, well written person, I sometimes suck at communication. I know what I am trying to say but saying it sometimes comes out all wrong. I think that this is why I like email, facebook and such. When I write it down, I have a delete key. When I say it, no such luck...

I struggle with what I think a person is going to say in response to what I say. I am so sure that I am going to hear a negative that I won't say something at all. I won't say I really want to do something or I think this way or that. I am 100% certain that the replier will tell what a totally stupid thing to say or want to do. Or I feel like an oyster. Closed up tighter than tight and you are supposed to realize that something is wrong and pry it out of me.

Sometimes it sounds so clear to me but not to the person I am talking to. I struggle with that at work every now and then. I assume I know what I am saying so everyone else must to.

That is what is so lovely about life though. I may struggle but there is always tomorrow. I know it sounds very Gone with the Wind but it makes it no less true. Tomorrow is a day of endless possibilities.

(And chicken and dumplings dinner with J, J and T : P ) I know that each day is a day for the better. I am very much a follower of This is the day that the Lord has made...we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Good day and better tomorrow.

Devotional Repost

I wrote this last year. I was really happy with how it turned out. Thus I thought I might repost it. It was supposed to be a family devotional last year...

So here's what I had. I was going to have each person read a part. And then put the paper flipped over in the middle of the table. On the back, it would read Ch, ri, s, t, is, h, e, r, e

Mary: I was there, thoughtful and faithful. I went through things none had ever been through then or since. But I believed.

Joseph: I was there, supporting my wife. I believed her and God. We traveled far to come to the land of my birth. I would be there for his birth but his death would give all new life.

Shepherd: I was there, in awe and joyous. Everything that the angel told us came true. How could we stop from praising God for all the wondrous things we saw? And still see to this day.

Angel: I was there, praising and a messenger. Spreading the good news that this day would be born a savior. Even into this mortal flesh with all its pain and sorrow, how could one not but sing to his glory?

Star: I was there, shining a way to the Lord. Much like his Word still shines a way to him too.

Wise Men: I seek what all men seek. Salvation. Love. For all my gifts, his was greater still.

Ass: I was there. What was my burden of his mother to the burden for which he would carry even unto his death?

Innkeeper: I was there. How hectic a time was that? People stuck in every which how and place, only to find more on my doorstep looking for room. Imagine your house full to the gills. A man has to turn someone away. Yet how many more turn from him now?

Christ: I am here.

Christmas. Christ mass.

All those there for this one defining event. All those there to play a part. All crowded and around this singular person. Christ. Everything revolves around him. As it should now.

Then as now, there are so many things pulling away from Christ. Mothers, husbands, things to be gotten and given, messages to receive and get, seekers, burdens and hectic times.

But in the end, all that falls away and he is left. He is the pure grain when all the chaff is worn away. The Messiah. The Savior. That which all men seek and all may find. Amen.

Then as now, good night and find him...

Happy to be Born: P

A gift from Mom who remembers my love for Winnie the Pooh
An Autumn Windchime for my balcony

Lunch and talking with Dad : D

A scarecrow couple and their candle houses (okay so maybe it is their phobia house seeing as it contains fire : P )

My Jar of Moonlight from Beloved

All in all, it was a lovely day to be born. I got birthday wishes on my facebook page, lunch out with Dad where I got to share my cool news about B and I working on getting pregnant : D Not there yet but it is exciting to know we are trying. I got sung to by T and J and Beloved took me out to Orsay where we had the best meal ever. The cats even snagged his credit card and got me Hello Kitty gifts galore.

Lovely, lovely.

Good day and Happy Birthday (yesterday) to me !

The Day After

It is the day after the party. Things are quiet compared to yesterday. There were so many people here. Crowds everywhere. Old staff, current staff, old customers, adminstration, Friends of the Library people, kids, the daughter of the person who headed the community campaign to build this library. I mean crowds. We had a good time listening to stories, making Mr. Potato Heads and enjoying the branch. Everyone put a lot of hard work into the day and it was great.

But my, were we wiped by the end of the day. There was one very sad part to the day. My boss found out her last day which will be in mid January. They are moving her to another branch. I don't think that they will be replacing her. I am guessing I will be acting boss until ? Staffing here is like the tide. They flow in and they flow right back out again.

Does that make me the rock that it all flows around?

Good day and yay and bummer.

A new tradition

I come from a family with an abundance of Christmas traditions. He comes from one with none. So we added another to our family traditions. We made homemade gingerbread cookies. They were yummy, it was mess and it was a lot of fun to do with B. I made the pirate one : P He wanted cat cookie cutters but I have yet to find any. LOL You would think this might be the activity in which there is lights on the tree and some carols playing in the background. But not us... there were lights on the tree but it was a horror movie playing in the background.

That just us. Traditional with a quirk.

Good night and Chestnuts roasting on an open fire while manical chainsaw yielding person runs around : )

50 years

I am not 50. Thus far I have only made it to 33 and 4 days. In 18 more days, it will be 34 years on the earth. But my branch is turning 50 this year a couple of days before me.

We decided to throw a 1950s party. We are all dressing up in 1950s style clothes, playing with hula hoops, Frisbees, Barbie and Mr. Potato Head (with real potatos) and having staff who have worked here in the last 50 years come out to speak. We will be listening to Elvis and trying out our own American Bandstand style dancing.

Speaking of staff, we have a photo taken just the day before the opening here. It can be found at
http://jpl.coj.net/dlc/florida/photo/L18-001.html

We also decided to have a little trivia with the 1950s slang such as cat, bread, threads and tight.. better known as a cool person, money, clothes and best friends : )

Good day and you are just so keen : P

Wish List

Eve's Wish List

Big Skillet
Oven Thermometer/Kitchen Thermometer
Dance by Mucha (Poster)
Hello Kitty Luggage Tags
Shower Radio
1000+ piece puzzles
Money to Charity
Marble Rolling Pin
18 inch silver or white gold necklace
Now that's What I call Music 32
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
An original artwork (one that you paint, draw,etc)
A surprise visit
A letter telling me why I am loved or a special memory of me
A picture of you
A jar of moonlight (whatever that means to you)
A coupon for dinner at your house for a later date
Homemade cookies (chocolate chips are my favorite but whatever is good )
Fables #7 and 9
Y: The Last Man #3-10
Silicon Cooking sheets

I was going to send this out to my family but couldn't get it attached. Whomever gets me as their person this year should probably check with B.

It is a family tradition to write this after dinner on Thanksgiving. B. and I rebelled with ham though : ) This is a lot shorter than I normally do and it was super hard this year. We already have so much. I am thankful for that and for my family. They are just so cool and unbelievable kind and caring. I feel like they are not just family. They are my friends too.

I am thankful for B too. I am so incredibly lucky to have him in my life. I love him beyond words. He is my best friend and my love. How cool is that : )

Good night and thank you!

Things I learn at work

They are very big on training at my job. But sometimes the things I learn don't exactly fall under training per se. I learn about how some have come long distances and sacrificed much to come to this country. One of my coworkers is from Kenya. Her parents moved her and her siblings here to give them more opportunity. They gave up a lot to be here. I really like hearing her talk. To me, her accent sounds so cool. She is willing to talk about everything under the sun.

Another one of my coworkers has three kids. They are all around my age. She goes through trials, joys and the in-between with them. But through it all she wants the best for them. It is a good lesson to show someone who has not had the courage to have kids yet. With her, everyone who comes through the doors is a possible family member or friend. She fusses at and for them.

I am in awe of my library kids sometimes. They are so curious and so want to help. They are so smart too. They crowd around my station sometimes. Just wanting someone to listen. It is interesting to see the world like they see it.

I had the chance to talk to my coworker about being a parent, buying a house and Christmas. She told me about how her father would write handwritten notes to her and her siblings as from Santa and he would put Santa bootprints around the fireplace. She is somewhat in the same boat as me. Both newlyweds, both renting, both no kids. It is good to talk to someone so alike me and so different. She has been saving up for a house and the where to go from here. She is really helpful and a good example in customer service.

Good day and hi, ho, hi, ho, it's off to work I go.