National Security

I'm waiting for the SWAT, National Guard and Special Forces to descend on my doorstep.

I just got off the phone with my older sister J. In a spur of just for the heck of itness, I had sent her flowers. And had placed the order with FTD. I had never used them before. So I was surprised to find out that they use FedEx instead of a local florist.

I guess when a surprise box landed on her doorstep, she was a bit suspicious. I had forgot to sign the card as my message took up all the space. I had assumed that the florist would put who it was from on the outside of the envelope. Plus FTD has some privacy policy. They won't tell her who sent it.

So she had T open it outside. It had come from Georgia. Goodness knows nothing good comes from there : P Apparently I didn't know I was a mad bomber. I just thought I was a nice sister.

When she told me, I almost fell on the floor from laughing so hard. I just have this mental picture of them sending Britney out to sniff and investigate and her running away. Or them sending the bomb squad to blow it up and a shower of petals afterwards. Too funny....Evil Eva the Mad Bomber strikes again... insert evil laugh here.

This will cure me of for the heckedness.

Good day and laugh well.

Change for me

Same face, same hair, same me... Beloved is changing though. He is moving his Wednesday game to Monday. This means a night I work is a night he games. Thus Wednesday will be free for other things like dancing. : )Yay: )


I didn't ask him to but he did it for me. I've changed one thing too. When I start to fuss about cleaning or whatever, I stop take a breath and tell him thank you. Or I love you. What I am fussing over is not important. Those words are.

In fact, they are right over my head right now. I have a note posted to my desk. It says Love you! Mark.

Good day and I love you too, honey.

Perspective

I have worked in all sizes of libraries : small, medium and large... and every single one says that they don't have enough room. Granted we do get books in all the time, but books (yes, I said books) go out the door too. Maybe we should all invest in Nooks : ) though I've heard crannies are better : P

The library has been busy lately. Everyone coming back in from their holidays. I've been helping out at another library and doing their storytime. I have missed doing storytimes. For my first one, I wore cat ears. The reason I am doing the storytimes is to train the staff there to do them. They have been told that they must provide storytimes and have not one staff member with a children's background. The closest they have is one who used to do teen work. Sometimes the teens can be a bit like toddlers but not quite. Basically I am slowly having them take over parts of the storytime. I hope it will work.

I myself am doing teen programs at my home branch. Today's program is the Wii. It is just a chance for the kids and myself to socialize and have some fun. I have a unique opportunity to be a positive adult in their daily life.

Good day and have fun!

Begin Again

The year is almost over. I asked Beloved what his favorite thing was about the soon-to-be last year and he said our new house. It is a wonderful place.

We have now hosted Christmas. I wanted it to be relaxed and low key. And it was. I did the devotion (See December 2009 for the written script) and filmed it with my new camcorder. I was nervous and it took like 17 takes but it turned out really well.

We had family in from Maryland as well. I think my favorite part of their visit was them getting to see my library and F's reaction to his gift. He described the USS Enterprise pizza cutter as beyond spiffy. I am glad that they both came down this year and I know that it pleased Dad to no end to have all 6 of his children in the same room.

For the before Christmas and the day after, Beloved and I hid away and did our own thing. Getting together with everyone is wonderful but tiring. I told him that next year, we are going to the Bahamas....

Good day and Happy almost Old Year : )

In the wee small hours of the evening...

when the whole world is still awake. I listened to the Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack the other night and that song is still stuck in my head. We have put up the tree and the musical animals. We have bought presents and looked at possible christmas cards. We have put up the kitty nativity. But other than that, no other Christmas preparations have been made.

We are having Christmas at our house. It will be in the afternoon. Unfortunately I don't believe it will be dark enough to go down the street to the dueling houses. There is a corner at the end of the street where about 75 percent of the houses are done up in all many of Christmas decorations. It is like a visual top that contest.

We are not topping that though. I have some decorations in the window and the wreath on the door. I am not strive to outbrighten my street. I will just stay in my car and watch as others play that game.

Good night and enough that : )

I did not...

I did not go shopping in the wee hours of the morning post Thanksgiving. I believe my sleep is worth more than any sale.

I did not completely stuff myself with turkey. This year, our first year in the new house, it was just the two of us. I got a small turkey breast (which we are still working on : )

I did not see my family. That might seem a bit odd. I did get a voice mail and had talked to my dad earlier in the week.

I did not feed the cats turkey. Well, at least not until Sunday night : P

I did not get cranberry jelly. I got the whole cranberries sauce instead.

I did not eat stuffing. With no turkey to put it in and no Mom's best stuffing to eat, I just made some for Mark. I ate mashed potatoes instead.

Good night and do not....

My short list

Growing up, I was known for my enormous Christmas lists. I considered it a wish list and therefore anything was game. I used to always have Peace on Earth on it too.

Right now my list is about 20 or so items. It is probably the shortest list I have ever written. Don't get me wrong... I still want presents. But I am content right now. I have a job I like. I have a husband who loves me as much as I love him (which happens to be quite a bit). I have friends and family that I love and who still love me and like spending time with me. I have a joy about life that I treasure. I am fairly healthy.

My wish list is now a would be nice list. LOL But I am continuing a tradition of one abstract wish on the list. A couple of years ago, I asked for sunset in a bottle. I got it from my parents. They took a picture (I think it was a sunrise but I'm not quibbling) and put it into a glass bottle with a cork stopper. It is one of the best things on my desk at work. Last year, it was a jar of moonlight. I got that from Mark. He had found a candle in a jar. The candle's name was Moonlight : ) It is in the office at home. Two things I've learned.... ask because you just might get it and intangible doesn't mean impossible.

Good night and make a wish.

Without a List

A package came in for me yesterday. Well, for me, in the sense that I knew what was in it. It was a present for Beloved and my parents.

So I ended up hiding half in my closet and half in the guest room closet. I bought both before I knew what anyone wanted. Though B's is something he has mentioned wanting. It wasn't from his list. Since no lists have been made. We always make our christmas lists after thanksgiving.

I am a list girl. I make lists for shopping, goals, my to dos. I even have an eighth grade one of the man I love/marry lists. That one was a long one. I don't recall what was on that one but I believe cute buns was : ) Though it didn't make the starred list. The starred list was the one we had to create of the things that were important from the first list.

I also had a daily verb adverb list. It was things like love fully or laugh deeply or sing loudly.

Good night and live joyfully.

Bitten by Shrimp

I normally love shrimp. I am not to the level of Bubba, Forrest Gump's friend, but I do like it.

Yesterday it did not love me back. As best I can figure, it was either the shrimp or the ranch dressing. Regardless it was a less than stellar night. I don't think I actually truly got to sleep until about 5 a.m. Too much running to the bathroom. I hated pulling B. away from his Friday night game. I just wanted him to be there with me. There wasn't much he could do. But I wanted him there.

I am feeling better today. Not quite 100 percent. Maybe more like 75ish.

Good night and be well (me too)

Day Off

My new place of work is giving me something I have never had before.... regularly scheduled three day weekends. It is weird. And somewhat wonderful. I am just not sure exactly what to do with it. There are so many possibilities. I mean some of my day is already eaten up by the haftatos. I have to take the car in for an oil change. I have to send a letter. I have to feed the kitties and take my meds. But there is a luxury of time. Or at least it feels that there is. Even my haftatos are based on my free will. I could not take the car in. The kitty feeding is a bit more a willdo though.

I just finished a very excellent zombie book. It included zombie cats so hence why the feeding of kits is a willdo and not a haftato. It actually made me cry. The book not the zombie cats. It was set in the time after. Zombie were now a way of life and survival was possible. Normal had become a different type of normal. Plus how do you not love a book in which the bloggers have become the source of info...particularly as a blogger?

Good day and watch out for zombie cats...

43 days left

I like seeing things that not everyone does. It is like a secret between me and God. I just happened to glance behind me while driving. There are these little bumps in the road. I am sure that there is a proper name for them but it eludes me right now. They are what tell you if you skirt out of your lane. They are also what when my used to be brother in law would call driving by braille.

Did you know that if the sun shines on them just right and you happen to look in your rearview mirror that they look red? A long red dotted line.

I have looked back plenty of times but the sun wasn't shining the right way I guess.

Now it is a secret between you, me and God.

Today's thing was the number 43 on the calendar. There are only 43 days left in the calendar year. Well, granted that does assume that you are reading this today and before today becomes tomorrow for you. This is a day I am happy with. I rode to work with Beloved, have a good lunch, talked to friends, did a teen program, laughed and there is still another 7 hours or so left in it.

Good day and good day : P

By the wayside

I lose track of things. I will have something in my hand or be on my way doing something and poof! I get sidetracked by something else. I will realize later that I had something else I was doing or holding before this new thing or idea.

I realize that there are people, places and things that I never get back to. I remember a peach courderoy sundress that I loved some time ago. I don't think I outgrew it but danged if I can remember where it went to... There are high school friends that I wanted to keep in touch with but this new experiences made me wander off this way for a while. I realized that I had not kept in touch like so many of my yearbooks signatures had asked.

In the library, we get rid of things fairly often. We see that a book hasn't been checked out or the info has changed or the spine is falling apart. The book gets discarded. But this weeding is necessary. Information or the need for information changes. It ebbs and flows. Today's popular book is tomorrow's remember when. I was looking up ideas for teen programs and came across this blog. It asked an interesting question, " In 100 years, will any one remember or read Harry Potter? "

Good night and remember me.

For those who haven't seen it yet

The tales of a snarky sheep as mentioned in the previous post...

Don't worry this is certainly not the last of Miss Ewe's adventures in libraryland. If I can have an evil twin named Evil Eva, I most certainly can have an alter ego in Miss Ewe. I mean how far can I go. I just change a letter and poof it's me.

B and I have also been working on a video storytime including your favorite snarky sheep. In addition to writing, we have been working on waltz. Last night's lesson including timing. Both important in dance and life : P

Plus I am still working on letting him lead. It is hard to let someone else have control of where I can and when I go. Rather reminds me of my relationship with God. And the funny thing is both are for my own good. He can see the dangers coming up behind me and I can't.

Good night and 1,2,3

Kermit, eat your heart out...

Tomorrow we are going to try our hand at filming a puppet play for the library. It is supposed to be a funny promotional tutorial. I wrote the script. It involves a snarky sacrastic sheep named Miss Ewe. LOL She is like an evil Lambchop. I could imagine them battling it out and Miss Ewe wins by cheating. She even has an evil sheep laugh.

Needless to say, B has been quite thrilled and very helpful in collaborating with me in the writing of the puppet plays. It is weird to think of writing with someone else. Somedays I feel like someone should give me a Does not Play well with others t-shirt.

Good night and bah bah ha ha ha! (evil sheep laugh)

Between

Sometimes between is my favorite. The moment between day and night, the moment between closing my eyes and sleep, the moment between kissing and lips apart....

Right now I am between permenantly. I am between packed and unpacked, between one library and another. I am not yet sure how I feel about it all. I am even between in how I feel about it.

We have made the leap, made the move. We now owe a ton more. That's at least up to third born child. First goes to student loans, next to credit cards and now third to mortage. We'd better get started if we hope to pay them off soon or ever.

It is a lovely house. I've got pics somewhere. Should I ever unpack them I could post them here. It is huge. I thought we needed to get rid of more stuff. No, we just needed to live in a bigger place. And we have a whole garage in which to store all the things we might need. Right now it is functioning as a kitty playground and storage facilities. Even my garage is in between.

Good day and go on through.

No more and no less

As of Friday, I will be a two-fer librarian. Half my day will be spent at one branch and half at another. It won't be my current home branch either for each half day.

Major bummer. I've put in so much work at this place. Sigh. Now to put in so much work at another.

But am I? I don't know. It is against my nature to just sit around but it feels like things won't be kept up at the current place. I mean the staff will be lessened by one and only be here half time. There is enough time to maintain status quo but not really.

It is particularly sad since we just celebrated our 50th anniversary and here it is six months later. The library version of assisted living. No programs, no growth... that is my fear.

But it is not without hope. There is such potential here. I just wish and hope that someone grabs onto it and runs with it. Create something new and better.

Sigh. I hope.

Good day and dream big. I think that I am leaving it better than I found it. I suppose that is how I am supposed to leave everything.

Bail anyone?

I went to jail today. I rode in a police car. I had to raise my bail. I broke out.

All in all, a different day for me.

I imagine my friends and family were surprised and my neighbors would claim that I was a quiet person who kept to herself as the news blared about my arrest and subsequent break out.

But no sirens wailed. No cameras were posted outside my house. I even wore my Please No autographs pin to deter the fame mongers.

Guess getting jailed for MDA doesn't get me any street cred.

Dang.

Good night and remember a good friend will pay your bail. A great friend will be sitting next to you and saying how much fun that was..... : P

How much?

Well, it's official. As of Friday, Beloved and I signed a contract on a house. It is a lovely 3 bedroom/ 2 bath house on a very quiet street. How quiet you might ask? Well, B and I drove by on Saturday around 9 pm and it was quiet. But it is a great house as far as we can tell and a really nice yard. Big enough for a play area when the time comes. We'll be close to D and H and other family. Not to mention we have already mapped the times getting to our works. His is 11 minutes and mine is 9 minutes. That is so much better than the 30 it takes now.

We looked at a lot of houses. So very weird ones too. I still think the one with the totally open garage which flowed into the totally open room and then the long front porch was the oddest. But this house really fits both of us.

It is really exciting and just a wee bit nerve wrecking.

Good night and happy finding.

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.