I'm getting the 2nd bedroom ready for the bedroom furniture. Currently I use my computer in this room and it has my sewing supplies in it, but we will be moving the computer to the family room by Saturday and using this room as a bedroom. I guess I should call it the 3rd bedroom, but it's the 2nd bedroom upstairs. Our 3rd bedroom is downstairs where my DD sleeps. She is happy that we bought a house with a downstairs bedroom. She has more privacy that way. She also has her very own bathroom, and the family room is right outside her bedroom. She could sneak out at night if she was ever that kind of kid, because there is a sliding glass door in the family room. The family room is also connected to the garage, but I doubt if she could sneak out that way since the garage door is right below our bedroom. Anyway, she is a good kid, and I trust her.

I need the extra bedroom to sleep in sometimes, as it gets noisy in our bedroom with my husband's snoring most nights. I sleep better when I sleep alone. I know a lot of couples who have separate bedrooms for the same reason. I love him, but the noise can be a bit too loud at times. I know I snore too, but that is because I carry around too much extra weight, which is the result of not being able to sleep. I am looking forward to snoozing blissfully soon.

If you're reading this, have a great weekend!

We went to church on Sunday, and after Sacrament my DH told me a friend's husband has terminal cancer. We knew he had cancer, but held out the hope that he would recover with chemo. I sat there and cried while people walked past me on their way to Sunday school classes.

I feel for this family. My daughter likes to hang out with their daughter, who is a year older than my DD. They have so much in common because they both love video games and gameboy. It is a sad time for this family. I think the friend and her DH are only in their early 40's. They have a 17 year old daughter and a 12 year old son. My friend just got a job a few months ago working as a substitute Head Start teacher's aid. Her DH was a social worker in New York. Unfortunately, he has been sick a long time and lost a lot of weight. I don't think he was diagnosed correctly at first, thus, the cancer spread throughout his body.

At the baptism of his wife and 2 children, he sang "How Great Thou Art". I posted about this previously, I think. I will never forget the sound that resonated through that small room as he sang in his beautiful bass voice. I closed my eyes and could feel the deep vibrations. He has such a talent. He wants to be baptized into our church, also, but he is so very frail. He managed to sing at Christmas time - "O, Holy Night", but he was very, very weak. He still managed to belt out the song, starting weak, but ending strong. He had to have help while walking.

My DH told me that my friend's DH will be put into a nursing facility. I will continue to pray for him. I so hate cancer, and I hope someday we find a cure for it in all of it's horrible forms.

As for me, I am up with indigestion. That will teach me to eat chocolate and peanut butter late at night. I had a nice dinner - pork loin, red skinned potatoes, and green beans, and I definitely have my appetite back. I need to get the exercise equipment set up in the family room, so I am working on getting it cleared of other things. We thought we would have a bigger house, but wound up buying one that is smaller than the one we were going to build, so storage is still challenging. A friend of ours is giving us an exercise bike, so I need to get that set up to burn up some calories. I am so happy to be feeling better than I was last month, and I think more exercise will make me feel even better, and help with some of my health issues.

If you are reading this, what do you do for exercise? DD found out she has gained 20 pounds over the past year, so she is ready to start her exercise program.

I got the flu a few weeks ago, one week after receiving a flu shot in the doctor's office. A friend says I didn't get it from the shot, but I'm not so sure. I don't usually get the flu. I will hesitate to get a shot next year, but then maybe I should to avoid the pandemic they are predicting. Thanks to Oprah, that's been something to think about. I guess it is better to be informed, but it sounds like even wealthy Oprah won't be able to get flu vaccine if there is a pandemic. The doctor's on her show said there will be a pandemic, it's just a matter of time.

DD needs to go to the doctor, today if possible, and DH stayed home from work to fix my van. I guess I will just have to play things by ear. I was hoping to go to a spanish restaurant that has tapas (appetizers). I bought a $10 certificate for $3 at restaurant.com.

Unhappy Bride

I remember the first time I saw my parent's wedding pictures. I can't remember how old I was, maybe 7? I do recall feeling let down that my mother looked so unhappy in the pictures. Well, that, and she wasn't wearing a traditional white wedding dress. She was dressed in a blue dress with layers of ruffles on the skirt. Dad was smiling, and the wedding was just one of those little country style weddings that they could afford at the time. They were married July 10, 1948 when they were both just 20 years old, and my mother was most likely a virgin.

Six out of eight of Dad's sisters had shot gun weddings - married just months before giving birth to their first children. When my mother gave birth to my older brother after 8 months and 8 days of marriage, everyone counted on their fingers, but my mother insisted Larry was a premie. I don't doubt that he was a little early, and I don't think my parents fooled around before they got married. If they did, hey, it really won't matter much to me. Sex was one of the only things they enjoyed about each other.

I remember asking my mother why she looked so unhappy, but I don't think I got a definitive answer. After I recently thought about this, I realized that she doesn't take a good picture. I don't think she really knows how to pose well, and she's not too camera friendly. She has also been know to tear up pictures that she thinks look bad of her, which is almost all of them.

I did come across a picture that she happened to like recently, and it's not one that I like - it's really rather creepy, as a matter of fact. She is wearing a stupid black wig that is not sitting on her head right and too much makeup.

I think one of the main things is that she is not happy most of the time, so how can she take a good picture?

Well, I had the flu after taking a flu shot at the doctor's office. Next year, there is no way I am taking a flu shot. I just don't want to get that sick again. I'll take my chances on getting the flu, which almost never happens to me. That is, unless there is a new threat with something like the bird flu.

Happy New Year!

I think 2005 was a decent year for me. We have reached some of our goals, which mostly involve updating this house. We've made quite a few new purchases this year, and I hope we can continue to fix things up as we go along. We have a beautiful new dining room set. It's oak with yellow accents, a nice china cabinet that's 5 feet wide with glass shelves, mirror back, and a drawer for silverware. I am finally using the set of silverplate my MIL gave me when we first got married, and I'll be inheriting the sterling silver she now has in her apartment in Utah. It's really nice to have the silverplate. Some of it was not used so much, like the soup spoons and the ice tea spoons. DH likes ice tea spoons for milkshakes. We also bought a new washer and dryer, and spent a lot of money fixing up the old 1995 Plymouth Voyager, hoping to keep it for a few more years. We had to spend a lot of money on the A/C. We bought some cabinets for the family room and a counter top for below the cabinets because that is where my computer and DD's computer will be after it's installed. DH is working on it as I am typing this, so hopefully, next week all will be done.

The one thing lacking this year was a nice family trip. We bought the Aliner camper in 2004, but still have not used it. The registration held us up a bit because DH had to 1. install the trailer hitch to our minivan, 2. install the brake light kit and 3. Have the trailer inspected. There was always a holdup with each of these steps, but we finally have a trailer we can pull behind our 95 Voyager. We plan on a trip in March, because all 3 of our birthdays are then.

DD is looking forward to her 16th birthday and I promised she could have a sleepover party. I'm thinking she could even have a regular birthday party with some boys invited, then after that party is over, the boys can go home and the girls commence with the slumber party. She has a good set up downstairs, with her bedroom being downstairs, her very own bathroom and the family room. We have to clear some things out of the family room, but I pretty much know where I am going to store the boxes once they are sorted out.

Tonight we are having a friend over for dinner because she has family out of town, she had to work, and she had no where to go on New Year's Eve. We are having steamed shrimp, corn on the cob, salad, and DH wants to buy some cream of crab from a restaurant, but I think I will look for a recipe to make at home. Shrimp and corn are easy to make, so it shouldn't be too much trouble to make the crab soup.

We found the cream of crab at this new branch of a restaurant in the Fredericktowne Mall. It's called Jug Bridge West, and we had the soup, plus the Maryland Crab soup, some crab cakes, french fries, and some cole slaw. It was all pretty good. The crab cakes were decent for $5.95 - that included the fries and slaw. It did have some filler, but it was pretty tasty.

I was trying to think of three bad things that happened this year, and three good things, but I decided the exercise was not very productive. I think sometimes I can more easily recount the bad things, and I really don't want to be so morose about life. I have a nice life, really, if not a more traditional boring one (to some people.) Lately I have been watching "Sex in the City" in syndication and I am more clothes conscious than ever. I have a lot of nice skirt patterns, cut one out of a beautiful brown velour material given to me by my MIL, and haven't started the sewing yet. I have plans for a green cordoroy blouse to go with it, and I've just been on the lookout for newer clothes in general. I will be glad when I can get something else done besides the usual holiday decorations, parties, and cooking.

I bought a new brown velour jogging suit from Boscov's, but I am taking it back Monday. For one thing, I have to hem the pants a lot, and even though it was a good buy at $16 for a $66 designer jogging outfit, I could have saved at least 20 percent more if I'd had a store coupon. Well, back it goes, and maybe I'll consider buying the black version because it has the rhinestone zipper front and pockets, and I love the bling. I also found a cut green faux suede jacket with sweater sleeves at Good Will of all places. It was only $5, and it looks nice on me. I wouldn't normally buy anything from there, but we were dropping off a donation, and we went shopping in the Bargain part of the store. They had some nice things, including 6 books I wanted, one for DH, a set of 8 cobalt blue drinking glasses, a shirt from LLBean for DH, a glass that matches my set of Corelle dishes (Chutney), and a Taebo video. We spent $24, and I think we got quite a bargain. I plan on shopping there again by myself, because DH hates to wait for me to shop.

I also found a pair of bronze colored pumps for church or otherwise dressy wear that I really like. I have a new shoe rack in my bedroom, so I have room for more shoes now.

Well, hi to everyone at SBOT and Happy New Year!!!! *smooches*

Happy Sunday!

Well, it's the weekend again. I would be feeling fine if it weren't for the stupid cold I've picked up somewhere along the line. I am coughing a lot and it's uncomfortable. Other than that, I am in great spirits.

It's time for us to buy a new dryer, so I'll be researching them online. We bought a new washer in the spring. It's a Fisher Paykel, which is a great line of appliances. The only thing that can break on this machine is an easy $50 fix it yourself job, which sold my DH on buying it. It cost us over $600, though. We will most likely buy the matching dryer, which I think costs over $300, but I will check on other machines, as I don't think the two have to match. We will take them with us when we sell the house, in about 10 or so years, when we retire.

I had fun on Friday, even though I could have stayed home just as easily, but it was a chance for my DD to enjoy spending time with her friends. We went to the Frederick County Fair with our new friends. DH's new friend is Shoshona, and my new friend is Shosho's mother, Chainah. Then there was Josiah, who wishes we had a son for him to hang with. We had fun, but got a sunburn on our faces. I met a few church members at the fair, and the kids enjoyed the rides. The food and drinks were outlandishly high priced, but we did find a Minimart trailer that sold cold cans of soda and bottled water for $1. That sure made things easier, because I did not want to pay $2 for a small drink.

I suggested we stop at Sam's Club for lunch, because they sell hot dogs with sodas for $1.50. DD wanted an icee with a hot pretzel, and I ordered a polish hot dog with soda. After paying for it, the girl told me the icee machine was not working. I wanted my money back and to pay for a soda, instead, but that seemed like too much trouble for her, so I asked for a float. I didn't really want one, but I thought, oh, the heck with it. Chainah didn't eat, because she said she had to be careful. She told me she got sick from something in Burger King's bread. I don't know what could be different from McD's because that is where they wanted to go originally. I hate McD's. I go to Wendy's, Taco Bell or Burger King. Shosho and Josiah had hot dogs and sodas. The three kids occupied the time over at the computer section, playing games, while we shopped in the Sam's Club. Josiah is jonesing for a laptop computer. I asked Chainah to adopt me and buy me one. We don't ever spend that kind of money on our kid at Christmas and DH has already told me that Christmas is cancelled this year. I am looking for a part time job, but since I'm sick, I'll have to delay for about a week or so until I stop this hacking cough.

I received my paycheck from the city of Frederick for the Election Judge job - $145. That should help a little, but we weren't expecting to be buying a new dryer so soon. It will be nice to have one that doesn't wrinkle my clothing, though.

Well, it's been 10 days since I've written, but I've had some posts in mind. One of them is about a situation that I am now able to laugh at, because people can be so bizarre sometimes.

Backstory: I am in charge of a calendar at church that has members signing up to feed the missionaries. The families invite them over to share a meal with them. We are just trying to help them save a little time and money, and have some home cooked meals while they are so far away from home. They are young men between the ages of 19 and 21, mostly.

Anyway, in August, I was looking at my calendar in our church's library, when a member named Susan came up to me, and asked which Sunday in September she had signed up to have the missionaries over for dinner. She freaked out when she saw that her name was written on the last Sunday in August. She insisted that someone else had signed her name, and hysterically gave me a host of reasons why she would not have chosen that particular day. I very calmly took out a bottle of white out and covered over her name on that calendar block. She had written it herself, though, and I dismissed it easily because she just started taking a new medication for depression. I knew that she could have been confused because of the meds, and I wasn't about to argue with someone who could even imagine that someone else signed her name (complete match with her handwriting). There were several people in the library who saw this.

Fast forward to this past week. I sent out an email to everyone in our Ward who I had an email address for, telling them about some of the dates that were still available for September. This past week was kind of busy because we had our Stake Conference, which meant there was no opportunity to pass around the missionary meal calendar.

I got online early Monday morning and found this email, from one of the people who had witnessed the scene from the library.

Dear Sylvia,

I noticed that someone signed us up to feed the Elders on September 21. After checking with my family I found that none of us had done it, and we will not be able to have them that evening. I will sign up again in the near future. We look forward to having these special young men in our home.

Thanks,

Jeanne Cross

Now, mind you, the sign up is in the same exact handwriting this woman always uses. Either she is crazy or she's a liar.

Also, she emailed me, instead of calling me, which is the important point here to consider. I did not have time to check my email all weekend, and this puts me in the position of having to find someone else to feed the missionaries. That someone will be me, but since my husband is not going to be home for dinner, I have to drop dinner off for them.

Oh, well! People are weird.

I had fun working at the Primary Election, and the Cheif Judge wants us all to work together again on November 1st for the General Election. My friend Paul did well at the polls, having the most votes of any of the Republican Alderman.