The Brink of 2010

Happy Holidays. Season's Greetings, Happy Kwanza, Merry Christmas, Happy 6th Day of Christmas, Happy New Year, etc. etc.

I love the holidays for a few good reasons but mainly because I always have a week off between Christmas and New Years. It's usually not enough time.

I have to admit that I have not much missed blogging due to Facebook and how easy it is to post little daily updates and read what is going on in everyone else's lives but it doesn't help with my goals which I have strayed far to far from this past year. 2009 was a fantastic year and I'm going to recap it here but there's always room for improvement.

2009 highlights include Chelsea getting her driver's license in March. Getting engaged on the evening of the spring equinox, March 20th in New Braunfels, TX at the St. Frances by the Lake scenic overlook to Chris MacGregor who I've loved for a few years now. New nephew, baby Jackson born on May 2nd. Carmen & Kevin came back from France and spent a few months in the early summer in Houston - lots of great hanging out time. Chris's 20th High School Reunion. Getting married on Galveston beach barefoot in the sand at sunset among all of our friends and family we love on September 26th. Installing and opening a brand new 18 hole disc golf course less than 6 miles from home at Taylor Lake Village. Also, at Christmas time with Chelsea's laptop we are now entirely a Mac household - no PCs left! Woot!

2009 lowlights include very little progress towards goal of selling Chris's house in Seabrook, Kevin and Sophia splitting up, I didn't write a book this year or lose any weight at all, and Chris's company becoming insolvent forcing him to have to look for work at the beginning of the new year. Also my dad spent most of the year in the hospital due to a botched knee surgery but he's out now and starting to walk again.

All in all we're doing great and things are moving along for the MacGregor's. I've had a name change and Chelsea will be a MacGregor (officially) in the next couple of months. She's already starting to use the name though.

In 2010 my new goals for the year include selling Chris's house finally - it's only been on our agenda for three years now; writing more even if it is on this blog; reading more books besides the audio ones I listen to in the car to and from work; working on art and buying a house including moving etc.

Also, Very Important! This year Chelsea will graduate from High School and we'll have to have a huge celebration sometime in early summer! Then she will likely be off to college. She's applying to Sam Houston, University of Houston, & University of Texas. However, as she has not yet made up her mind, she may attend community college for a while to get her basics out cheaply.

So that's it for an end of year blog post. We'll be bringing in the new year with Matt & Julie in the usual way.

With very much love ~ M
Below is our family portrait for 2009 ~

half a year later

Tonight Chris shared with me Google Dashboard which told me I hadn't posted to my blog since May 19th. For shame.

During that time I've gotten married.
http://www.chrismacg.com/wedding/Our_Wedding_Site/The_Wedding/The_Wedding.html

It was lovely. There are more pictures but I haven't even gone through them all.

Plus, we installed a new disc golf course at Taylor Lake Village and the inaugural tournament is tomorrow morning. I'll post pix of it for that too.

I have to say that I totally blame Facebook for my lack of posting in the last several months. I've gotten into Facebook and it is so much easier to post little updates like on Twitter than to write a whole paragraph here regarding what is going on.

I'm going to try to change that though. I need more thoughtful posts and less facebooking.

Oh and it's NaNoWriMo again. My book idea this year is to take the good elements from past book ideas and create a NEW book - a good one. But, so far, I haven't had adequate time to work on my book because of all the disc golf stuff going on to ready for the tournament tomorrow. Once that's over, I anticipate having more time to write.

Love to all ~ M

Of Late...

Many things are happening. So much and so fast that, too often, I forget to blog about it. Here are some pictures though and those are meant to each be worth a thousand words.

Kevin & Sophia started playing disc golf with us and they are fiends for the game! Since their first time out they've already played about 4 games just this month.









The day after they started playing they got Brian and Sheryl out to the Seabrook course for a short 9 holes. That was a lot of fun also.









On one of our recent games Sophia found an expensive type of parrot that was sick and no one wanted to help her to bring the bird home with her to rehabilitate it. The same day was also saw a dead seagull and it's probably never a good idea to pick up dead, sick, or dying birds anyway. However for a short while Sophia was carrying the bird through the course in a Bud Lite 4-pack container hence he got the name Bud or Bud light.




Chris and I had our engagement photos taken by Carmen. It is so wonderful to have Carmen and Kevin back in Houston, TX. Getting to hang out with both of them again after them being in the Northeast for so long and then France, has been amazing. Here's Chris and Kevin jamming out on some instruments neither of them usually plays.







We have posted several of the engagement photos Carmen took on Facebook and on our wedding web site but we haven't publicly shown anyone the one picture we've chosen as the official engagement photo yet. Chelsea took this shot of Carmen taking pictures of us.


That's about it for now.
LOVE

10 Days into May

Life feels a bit like someone pushed the fast forward button. I feel exhausted but happy about all the stuff going on. I'm just going to give a sampling of activities of late.

We picked a beach house for our wedding.

Here is a link to the site and lots a cute pictures of the place. Chris and I drove out to Galveston to make sure the houses were in the same condition as the pictures indicated because of the hurricane. This one isn't even one of the ones we traveled to Galveston for but it was next to one we went to see and looked great.

Today Chris's dad posted to Facebook that it was only 4.5 months til the wedding. Wow. That seems so soon. During that time we also have to move. Crazy.

We also finished our wedding website - link posted to Facebook for friends only. If you follow my blog, you should friend me on Facebook.

Lisa had a girls night and boiled probably 10 lbs of crawfish! It was so delish! We also had watermelon mojitos and smoked from a hookah. Nora was the one who brought the hookah and some type of grape flavored hookah tobacco. It was a strange thing to do because I have smoked cigarettes in my youth but it was nothing like that at all. And the smoke came out grape flavored. We had a ball the whole evening.

My birthday was amazing! Chris replaced my car's windshield for me for my birthday - just what I wanted! I love driving with an unobstructed view now. Unfortunately, the day before it was to be replaced I hit Chris's windshield to kill a mosquito and it must have hit right near an existing rock chip but his windshield now has a crack in it so my view as a passenger with Chris is cracked.

Chelsea got me a lovely lavender scented bubble-bath and some coconut scented shea butter body lotion. I love it. The kids both got me a new pink nano iPod that I STILL haven't loaded with music and books. I keep meaning to but things get in the way. I received a new cuisinart food processor from Peter and Frances, along with a gift check for a spa treatment of my choice which is also partially from Chris' granny! Penny sent me a Tastebook - which is a personalized cook book with several recipes in it. I love it! In fact, everything I got was absolutely amazing. I still have not sent out thank you notes.

The day after my birthday Noelle had baby Jackson.

What a sweet perfect little baby.



Yesterday we went to the Art Car Parade which has become as wonderful a tradition as the Thanksgiving Day Parade. And we don't have to get up as early.

This is the annual Mother's Day event for Chris' mom, Frances. We get lots of cheeses and drinks and head to Allen Parkway. This year Chris and I had made about 5 gallons of sangria for the weekend. Some was for Matt & Julie's party Friday night, we took some to the Art Car Parade and we have a lot left over. We're thinking of freezing it until the Frio River Trip with Kevin and Sophia in July.

A See-Saw of Little Ups & Downs

Really great things have been going on and some really rotten drama at the same time that adds a bit of a sourness to it all.

Friday night was awesome because at work I got free tickets to the Astros game and we all went. There was a huge thunderstorm during and after which flooded a lot of Houston. Chris got us home safely though but my stomach was in knots the whole time and hasn't settled into place yet.

Chris had a birthday which we happily celebrated with his family and then our annual trip. Between Chris's birthday and mine there are 17 days that we get to be the same age. That time is drawing to a close this coming week. Chelsea, Colin, and I got him a 16GB purple iPod nano that he has been eying, a beard trimmer, and a pair of Oakley sunglasses. He also got several things from his family at a combined birthday dinner for him and Peter. Chris and his dad both have birthdays in April; Peter on the 9th and Chris on the 12th. We ate at Star Pizza which was delicious as per usual. Peter got Chris an absolutely fabulous telescope for his birthday! It is wonderful. On a clear night you can easily see the rings of Saturn and two of it's moons. This thing is powerful! I love it.

We took the telescope with us to the group's annual trip. For several years now we have been taking a trip in April to the beach but, thanks to Ike, there are no more rentals on Bolivar so we headed to the river instead. The place we stayed was so perfect and beautiful and idyllic and wonderful that we all said we wouldn't mind getting the exact same house every year.

You can kind of see the house from the back in this photo of Matt, Lisa, and Chris K. It's directly above them on that rocky cliff overhang. Look at the flat roof with windows along the whole wall. That was the back living room. We were right on the edge of the Blanco River.


Then in the next shot this is the view of the Blanco River running by below from the patio area outside of the house we rented.


A section of the riverbed was higher than the rest right here so we could easily cross without getting wet much above mid-calf and only in some places. Below is a shot of the river from directly on the river. Chris took this one with his camera on the tripod which was situated on the bare rock sticking up out of the river. This is apparently called a "rocky bare."











Here's another picture showing the depth of the drop off after the high "rocky bare" ended.


This is Matt, Julie, Caleb, Chris K., Lisa, & Brandi having a swim on Saturday evening.



The lighting was perfect for this shot. I know the water looks green but it's really just a reflection from the trees overhanging on either side. The water was the clearest I've ever been in. FREEZING but clear.







When Chris and I were standing in the water we were surrounded by little fish and we could see straight down to our feet and all the little fish too. It was amazing and refreshing. Chris K. apparently jumped in the river at midnight the first night of the trip but that night Chris and I were so exhausted that we were crashed out by 11:30 and missed it.

Here is a picture of me chilling by the river's edge. We got all these great pictures because Chris and I had already been swimming once that day and didn't want to go again so we played veggie / fruit baseball while they swam.

This is my favorite picture of Caleb from the whole weekend. He had such a great time at the river.




Ah, this was the life! What a weekend it was.


And then for the down side - Chelsea is not doing well in school at all and is in serious danger of failing the 11th grade. It makes me angry and sad and worried and frustrated all at the same time. Chelsea assures me that this progress report doesn't reflect some missing assignements that she has just turned in but I'm nervous. She is on restriction and that always sucks for me too.

My mother still can't wrap her head around the fact that I'm no longer Catholic like she wants me to be and continues to try pulling her tired old guilt routines - this time about my wedding. She told me that she wouldn't be recognizing my marriage because it wouldn't really be one since only a Catholic wedding would lead me to Jesus or some such rubbish.

I think Jesus would be really happy to know that, of all the people wandering the earth, Chris and I both happened to be in the same city at one time, happened to be interested in writing a novel, met, happily found a mutual compatibility, fell in love, and built a relationship and a family out of our little lives. I don't think that has anything to do with who officiates our vow ceremony.

And it IS "OUR" wedding - mine and Chris's. Not my mother's. She had one and planned it the way she wanted. There is no reason why I would plan my own wedding to be something that goes against every fiber of my being and have it religious in any way. I want it to be fun and beautiful.

Anyway, as a result of the fact that I'm not having a Catholic wedding, my mother said that she would not be recognizing my marriage and that she could not celebrate something that isn't even there. (Yes, these are direct quotes and not hyperbole.) So I told my mom that I would not be inviting her to my wedding. There is no reason I could come up with why I would invite someone to my wedding so they could condescend to me about their religious opinions to me during the ceremony and then join in the Celebration of our Marriage for the reception when she would not be "recognizing our marriage."

Then my mom wrote me a lengthy e-mail about her religious views and how I was pretty much damned to hell if I didn't have a catholic wedding and that she couldn't "just be happy for me" because it went against everything she believes in. But that she really wanted to come to the reception for our wedding so she could be with me on that day; but not the ceremony, just the reception.

So I responded to her in no uncertain terms that for the last time, I'm not Catholic, I don't believe in the catholic religion and that I would never have a catholic ceremony for a wedding and if she didn't like it then why did she have a problem with me not inviting her. It would be ridiculous of me to open myself to that type of judgmental manipulation.

Well then my dad writes to me to tell me how I'm so harsh to my mother, that my remarks are vile and I have crossed the line, I should be ashamed, and that he is not coming to my wedding either.

So now neither of my parents will be in attendance at my wedding. And you know what - that might just help it to really be the happiest day of my life. You never know how mysterious God's ways really are.

Wedding Plans & Karaoke

Chris and I both have new projects, which is kind of fun.

I'm planning a wedding. I've honestly never planned or even helped someone else plan a wedding in my life. I sort of had a brainstorming session with my, now, sister in law, Sheryl when she was going to marry Brian but I didn't like have to find a venue to accommodate a large number of guests for a ceremony that merges my family with Chris's family as well as a big party complete with food, music, cake, nor have I planned so far in advance what I might wear to such an occasion. At first I felt really overwhelmed with all the decisions that I needed to make. However, I've had a couple of weeks now to adjust and get a few things decided at least.

Our plans are slightly flexible but we definitely want to get married on the beach - barefoot in the sand at sunset. I also want a very "green" wedding. I have this book called The Green Bride Guide by Kate L. Harrison which is really truly helpful. We are not only trying to conserve in our budget but we are making earth-friendly responsible decisions about what resources we use.

We've set the date - September 26th, 2009. Now we just need to find a place along the beach that will accommodate a party of about 60 guests, mostly family members, two of whom cannot climb stairs or walk even short distances, and a reception location for a party. That is seeming to be the difficult part.
We're working on a website.
We've designed our "save the date" cards.
Penny has generously offered to do our mailings and invitations. Thank you, Penny!
Rob will officiate. Thank you, Rob!
I already know what I want to wear.
We've got our wedding party picked out - Chelsea for Maid of Honor & Colin for Best Man.
Carmen & Kevin will perform a guided meditation. Thank you, Carmen & Kevin!
We've decided on a menu.
Chris is building a playlist on his big iPod rather than having a DJ or a band. Chris is awesome.

So, Chris's project is building the greatest, most diverse, most eclectic library of karaoke songs in the world and making it available to his friends and family by bringing a CD of personally picked songs for his Karaoke Jam Birthday Party this weekend. I'm poking fun but this has been an interesting and fun project that he's got going on.

Not only have I recently read the words to scores of songs I never knew the words to but we get to sort of practice and pick the best songs for Saturday. A few weeks ago Chris found this venue called Third Coast Comedy that has a family karaoke night once a month. The four of us went and had an absolute blast. So we're going back for Chris's birthday. We're planning to go as rockers from the '70's / '80's or whatever. I have no idea what I'm going to wear or how I'm going to do my hair.

This past Saturday was our engagement party and it was a lot of good fun. Chris's parents gave us a lovely set of summer glasses with a tray for carrying them outdoors. They are all fun colors - bright blue and lime green and orange. My parents couldn't make it because my dad's isn't doing very well lately. But several of our friends and siblings made it and it turned into a karaoke jam well into the night with the little karaoke machine and all these new songs Chris has now.

I'll get an up to the minute count on songs. One sec...
As of this moment Chris has over 2,000 karaoke songs - it wasn't an exact count after all - but a good rough estimation. He bought a huge package of CDs but he's also scouring the net for others.

Anyway, so yeah, he's obsessed at this point. I still haven't thought about what I might sing on Saturday. I'm more concerned with catching it all on video. Last time we went, Colin stole the show with his dance moves. And I learned that Chelsea can sing just about anything. She's great at karaoke! I told Rhonda that Chris would have just about any song she would want and she named two Melissa Ethridge songs that he did not have.

He's been going through this whole library of songs playing each song so the lyrics are scrolling across his screen and he sings each one for anywhere from a few lines or just the refrain to the whole song. It has been the best fun watching Chris running through these songs.

Then I guess we have a "together" project of cleaning out the empty house so we can get it on the market as soon as possible. We got approved for a home loan and want to move forward but need more of a down payment. We have access to about half of what we truly need. But selling Chris's house would be the best solution to everything. The thing is that we have a couple of things pressuring us - our lease expires at the end of next month and we found two houses that are on the market right now that are gorgeous and perfect for us. I want to grab the one before someone else takes it. The other one is the back up house which is actually on the same street so the location is still incredible, and it actually has a nicer yard (front & back) and a bigger kitchen. But the upstairs lay out won't suit our needs well. So we are buying a house and getting married all in the same year. We need money! Thus our project is fund raising. We're planning a garage sale. We've got several items for e-bay. We are unloading everything of value that we can. We are also interested in any fund raising ideas you might have. Thank you!

much LOVE

Say it with iPods

Chris and I got engaged over the family vacation from which we just returned! We are both so happy! And now the most FAQs are

1. When's the wedding? to which I have to say, we don't know but are considering either June or September, 2009. It will be a small "GREEN" beach wedding and that's about all we've decided so far.

And

2. How did he do it? Well, we were on the first night of our little river trip to New Braunfels with the family and after settling the kids in for the night, Chris asked me if I wanted to go for a drive. He said he had been looking at the map of the area and there was meant to be some nice scenic overlooks around. We had, earlier, been at the Canyon Lake Dam and watched the sun set over the hills so I was prepped for more gorgeous scenery in the winding river roads of New Braunfels. We kept hitting dead ends and closed roads at first so I was beginning to like the idea of finding a bar and going out for a pitcher of beer but Chris was determined so I just enjoyed the drive and the company. We found a little hill with a great view of the stars and got out to have a look. Chris and I are notorious star gazers anyways so this was simply amazing.

Then Chris told me that he had a present for me and to close my eyes and hold out my hands. I did and he gave me one of the brand new iPod shuffles that's tiny with a little clip on. He had the clip of the iPod engraved with the words "Then it's Love, Yes it's Love" - lyrics from an Echo & the Bunnymen song. I was very happy with the iPod and opend it up all unsuspecting and put in the head phones. The first song playing was that Echo song - What if We Are.

The new iPod shuffle talks to you. You press a button and it tells you the name of the song. So he told me to press the button to find out the name of the song. I did and the little digital voice came back with "Melissa, I love you. Will you marry me?" So I looked at Chris like, Wait, What was that??? and he pulled out the ring and repeated the words from the iPod. I said Yes! It was so romantic and wonderful and perfect.

Not only did I get a gorgeous engagement ring, a wonderful fiance, and a nice star-gazing evening, but I also got one of the new iPod shuffles! Really, though, I couldn't be any happier.

Chelsea is a Licensed Driver

My daughter got her driver's license on Thursday. Chris has been teaching her to drive for the mental health of all involved. I'm a very nervous passenger and have an unnatural fear of falling off the road into the ditch or over a cliff edge. I have no idea why but I recognize that it is my problem and not necessarily that there is anything wrong with the driving. So when I've taught Chelsea to drive in the past, I have really freaked out and it has, on occasion, ended with both of us in tears, me scared to death and Chelsea wounded as if she couldn't do it. This is all my own fault.

So Chris took over teaching the rules of the road to Chelsea and she took her driver's test on Thursday during spring break. I must say that she is an excellent driver. Way to Go Chels!

House Hunting

Chris and I looked at a house today that I loved immediately. In terms of changes that would be necessary to the house there are only two minor things we could note - a carpet change in one upstairs room and a new fence all the way around. Otherwise, the house was absolutely perfect! It has loads of space! Three bedrooms with extra space between the kids' rooms for a game room, an upstairs office area for the computers and an extra room downstairs for a den/library which we've wanted to have for a while. There are lots of great windows and great landscaping and a nice, not-too-big back yard but with just enough space and a magnolia tree. It has a sunken tub and shower in the master bath and an ironing space in the walk in closet. The kitchen isn't the biggest attraction but it's still nice with enough counter space. The pantry is a little small but it will be fine. It's on a corner lot on a small cul-de-sac with a park on the street and walking distance to a Randall's and little strip center of shops.

We feel like we should look at at least one other house so we don't just buy the first house we see but this one really would be perfect. There is another house on the same street also for sale so we're going to look at that one as well. The location is perfect for us. It's zone to different schools though. Chelsea will have to choose what school she wants to go to - Lake where she is now and I'll sign and out-of-zone form and she'll just drive there or Brook where she was a Freshman and which we'll once again be zone to. Chris and I will be marginally closer to Houston and our jobs. We pass this neighborhood on the way there now.

I'm very excited about the move now. Before it seemed like it would be this daunting task of trying to find a suitable house that meets all of our combined needs but this one nailed it on the first try. I'm amazed.

LOVE

Lessons Learned from Making a Ding Dong Cake

1. If you go to bed while the almond bark is drying on the cake you could wake up to find the top half hardened into place slightly askew of where you left it and trails of marshmallow ooze dripping down the sides of the bottom half. This doesn't create a complete ding dong look exactly.

2. You can't push candles through a hardened shell of almond bark without first cutting tiny X's with a knife into the top shell of the cake.

3. You need a sharp knife to cut the cake into wedges. But it will fall apart anyway - there's a hard chocolate outer shell and a creamy marshmallow center.

4. This cake tasted just exactly like a ding dong if even more delicious. It was the sweetest most chocolatey most marshmallowy goodness ever. It was, in fact, unfinishable.

5. There is a reason ding dongs come in small packages and this rule of life should be followed. Only one of Colin's guests, out of all of us eating cake, was able to finish his whole piece. The rest of us were incapacitated.

Nerf wars are currently in progress. I've deemed my area a no-fire zone.
We're having fun!
LOVE

The Great Ding Dong

I'm currently making Colin a birthday cake. He likes ding dongs and wanted a cake that was like a giant ding dong. So here's the idea. I have made two round cake halves of a Pilsbury devil's food chocolate cake. Then I melted a package of chocolate flavored almond bark. I've iced the bottom of the cake which is currently setting. Once it's dry I will flip it onto the cake plate and cut out a section of the middle. I will fill the middle with marshmallow creme - the kind of marshmallow creme from a jar that you never really knew what to do with before. Well, I think its for making ding dong filling because I've never really used a jar of marshmallow filling before. Anyway, after filling that hole I will cut out a section of the other half and heap the marshmallow up a little to fit into the hole in the top half. Then I'll pour the almond bark all over the top and sides. It should be set and solid by morning. We will be totally ready for this party by tomorrow! I'm very excited!

My nephews are coming to the sleep-over party which should be fun. I like the idea of Michael and Justin getting to know Colin better. They need to hang out more. They will essentially be like cousins sort of. Anyway, Chris is picking them up first thing tomorrow after he gets off work which he's leaving early. Then, with the boys, Chris is going to pick up Colin from school so they can be home by 3:30ish to wait for the other guests. I'm leaving work a little early tomorrow - like 4:30 so I should be home in time to join the fun.

We're ordering pizzas for dinner and having ding dong cake and ice cream. The boys will all have a nerf gun war using the nerf gun arsenal that Colin has collected. In the morning, I'll make pancakes for breakfast which is Colin's favorite breakfast. Colin's friends from school and after-care program will leave around 10 - 11 and then we'll take Colin and my nephews out to Jack Brooks Park for disc golf. I think they'll love it!

I formed a team at work to raise scholarships for kids going to UH's Bauer College of Business. It sort of fell together so if you have any fund raising ideas or items to donate for sale on our online auction - please share. We haven't come up with a team name yet. Maybe we'll auction off the naming rights to our team. That should be fun. So anyway, we'll be raising money for scholarships for the next couple of months - till the end of May. Anything helps!

I gotta go check on my ding dong cake. I'll take pictures.

Time Gets Away from Me

Eight days into February before a post. Argh! I'm not meeting my goals at all.
I've added Carmen's new French Blog to my roll and removed Chris since he hasn't posted in more than 6 months. Check out what is happening with Carmen here.

Below are some shots from Christmas that I finally got from Chris; some shots of Carmen, Kevin, and Carmen's Aunt Linda who we partied with at Christmas time; and some random shots from disc golf games we have recently played. Oh and perhaps a shot of Chris with his new Prius.

Chris told me a week or so ago as we drove along in his new car that the Prius truly suits him and he feels very at home as a Prius owner. He went on to explain how it fits in with his Go Green mentality and plan as well as his high-tech geek personality and the secret compartment loving stasher he fancies himself. It's also quite nice in terms of a family car and he feels better about being able to drive all of us around in his own car as it has a lot of space. The Prius really is a nice car. I have to agree.

Colin LOVES him some Granddad! I think that Granddad is definitely Colin's hero. AND he always gets just what Colin wants for Christmas every year. So here he is getting thanked in Colin's favorite way - the big squeezy hug.









Carmen and Kevin. Ah! La amour.

This was the night they stayed with us in Clear Lake.
















Here's an action shot of Chris chunking his frisbee at Jack Brooks Park on hole 11.











Here's Chris in action again on Hole 12 at Spring Valley Disc Golf course.















Here's a pic of me and Honey girl at hole 13 at Jack Brooks Park. What a gorgeous day in January in the great state of Texas.















Here's Chris with the new Prius out at Jack Brooks Park in January right after he bought it. It was actually here that the car got it's first ding. A white car apparently opened the door into the Prius. Chris wasn't too worried about it.















Chris bought me a new disc golf bag at the pro shop on the Spring Valley course. It's exactly like his new bag only pink! And I love it!!! My favorite part about it is that it holds my drink (up to a liter size bottle of water or gatoraid so that I don't have to hold it separately. I can also carry a lot more discs but the first day I had it, I did not see this as all that advantageous. The ability to carry a host of discs begets actually doing so and my bag was considerably heavier as I went from 4 discs to 9.
















Today, Chris and I walked the new course at Jack Brooks Park. It's still a little under construction but is being built to be a world class course with a lot of challenge. This year the World's Biggest Disc Golf weekend is happening in Houston, Woot! but like ON my birthday weekend - so not so woot maybe. Shouldn't it all be about me?

Anyway, while walking the new course today Chris and I carried 2 frisbees each - a new Oddessy mid-range and the wheel for both of us. The course was treacherous and we decided we need new shoes to do those hills. But here's the fun part - Chris found this block of wood that had been marked on three sides by some disc golf buddies but the 4th side of this block said this. We loved it and left it near the hole where we found it.














So that's it for an update.
I found a good price on a new wind shield that I'm going to have installed soon. I did my taxes and I'm getting a nice refund which will go entirely towards my debt. I'm still trying to reduce debt. Chris and I are going to be house hunting and spending the next few months cleaning out Chris's old house and putting it on the market. There's lots of busy-ness all around us.

much LOVE

My Family Frustrates Me

This sort of falls under not having anything nice to say and so I should say nothing at all. But at the same time I'm not going to sit idly by with my feelings bottled up festering. And what better place than the internet for a rant.

My mom suffers from obsessive hoarding disease. Her house is overrun with boxes. There are whole rooms that are unavailable to her and the rest of the inhabitants of the house - my dad and two brothers - because they simply became too full of stuff and eventually blocked off. Except for the main bathroom which just simply became too broken to utilize so it was closed with an Out of Order sign for the last several years. There is a path from the front door to the living room, some space in the living room for a few people, some space in the breakfast room for one person - my dad, generally; some space in the kitchen and my mom's bedroom and one working bathroom. No front two rooms, no dining room, and no clear hallways. It looks bad and its embarrassing. I remember the first time Chris saw my parents house - I was mortified that he had to go in there. Colin has still never been over there and I don't want him to go.

Well my dad had knee replacement surgery a couple of months ago and from that developed a staph infection which hospitalized him for several days until they released him to go home. But home was no place for him. He has not been able to take a shower in a month - he just gets sponge baths. He can't move from room to room easily with his walker because the path between the boxes densely stacked 6 - 7 feet high on all sides is not wide enough for his walker and he had to scoot sideways with a walker to move around in his own house.

This enrages me. I am so angry about it that I could just spit.

Several of my siblings and I decided to take matters into our own hands and coerce my mother into moving her boxes to a storage unit just temporarily until my dad can walk around again and then she can have her stuff back. This ensued fights. It was ugly. My mom screamed at me that I was making her out to be a monster. Which maybe, on some level, I was. Reason didn't seem to work so perhaps I slipped into blame. She agreed to "condense" some of the boxes so that there were fewer of them which turned into 4 solid days of one sibling or another going to my parents' house going through boxes.

She has a problem and no one will stop her. She can't part with anything. In cleaning up my mother's house, I found a pile of broken things covered in dust including 3 broken vcr's that would cost more to repair than they were worth. And she insisted that she wanted all of those things. The next day when she went to church my dad told us to get rid of that pile - into the trash it went. I'm sure she hasn't missed her broken things. She had 2 TRUCK LOADS of boxes of video tapes that had been pulled out from under STACKS of other boxes and out from under the dining room table just to make room for some of the boxes of "inventory" that she allowed me to take to Chris's house for storage insisting the whole time that she needed those movies. Who even has a VCR anymore? And how would she know what movies she has when they've been under all the other stuff for years now? These are just the little things. The things that are mentionable on the web. I'm frustrated beyond my wits.

Unfortunately, the only actual removed items from my mom's house to this day are the video tapes at Chris's and a truck bed full of the trash that she decided she could part with. Some trash she insisted on keeping. One pile of boxes is actually empty boxes that she 'might need' but won't move, even for the health of her husband. Does this make her a monster? I don't know. Define: monster.

None of this inventory / condensing / not agreeing with the plan was part of the plan. The plan was to clear out the boxes once and for all now that there's something that should have been more important than the boxes. It was supposed to be the perfect plan - mom would finally "have" to give up all her crap-filled boxes because times have changed, they are aging, my dad is in very poor health and what a great reason to change old bad hoarding habits! It didn't work.

What was supposed to be a moving truck hauling away all the stuff to a storage unit for my DAD, turned into something totally about my mother instead and an unorganized organization of the stuff. Problem is that there's no place to put anything in order to organize it. Literally - there is no room. There have been so many fights over these THINGS that everyone in the family has now pretty much given up. Its no longer about my dad at all and he doesn't seem to care much when my mom is in the room.

There's also been fights about a storage unit. Some of the siblings don't want to pitch in because it wasn't their idea to put the stuff in storage and my mom is against it anyway. Some of the siblings want to only pay for a 7th of the storage unit because they feel everyone should pitch in. Some say it should only be for a set amount of time during which mom needs to liquidate her inventory and give up this "business." I say mom needs to pay a 7th also since it's her stuff and her business should be making enough in sales to spend a 7th of the cost of storage. Except that she has so much stuff, so many boxes, so much 'inventory' that only the largest 20' x 24' storage unit will hold it all by our estimations and she insists on having a climate controlled unit on the ground floor so that she can go in to get items if she sells them, she wants isles and shelves so she knows where everything is, and she wants it in her name.

Anyway, its tearing us all apart as a family trying to help my dad. I wrote an e-mail to my family expressing my opinions about the matter which was followed up by an even uglier e-mail from my sister-in-law to my whole family. She said to everyone that she agreed with everything I said but went on from there to express feelings that were much stronger and full of anger and hate. So now we have both been ostracized from the family.

I hope all of this can get resolved somehow but I don't have any ideas for now. As it stands, I don't have to do anything anymore. Which is fine with me. NONE of this was originally my idea in the first place. I was approached by Brian & Sheryl and Kevin and Sophia about this. They wanted to invite my parents over to Kevin and Sophia's and have the whole house moved out while they were away so that they could come home to a clear space. I was against that plan and for including my mom in the solution but there's just too much stuff to deal with any of it in a logical way.

May I never be so attached to any THING that is causes a wedge between me and my immediate family members. That's all I hope for personally.

New Year's Resolutions

I've been thinking a lot about goals for the new year and resolutions. It's still early in the year so I'll post some of my ideas here. First of all I have to admit that I only have about a 20% success rate on keeping new years resolutions so I prefer to refer to things I want to be successful with as 'goals.'

I'm a great goal setter! I really do set reasonable, measurable goals for myself that can be broken down into smaller steps that can track my progress towards my goal. I'm also working on some goals for the year. However, this year I'm actually going to make some resolutions. These are things that just don't have steps that can be taken to reach the goal.

First of all, I resolve to stop plucking out my gray hairs. This used to be a great denial method when I was younger and I would [gasp] find the random gray hair. Pluck! and gone. But now? Now I fear I may suffer from thinning hair if I keep this up. I will just have to learn to live with and love my gray hairs just as must as my brown ones or deal with them in another way. Dyes perhaps. Or highlights. Or maybe a super short hair cut? But I can't keep pulling them out so I've got to stop.

Second of all, I resolve to stop cursing like a sailor. I have a problem and I want to make an attempt at sounding more lady like. I used to use foul language just when expressing my most passionate opinions especially involving anger, but I've gotten so bad that I curse even when I'm excited and happy now. ~ sigh~ so I've got to watch my mouth. This includes speaking negatively aloud. I'm going to really try to make an effort to follow the wisdom "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." Except to my sister to whom I shall not give up bitching rights - I mean, the right to gripe.

I also have goals coming about how many books I want to read this year and how much debt I want to pay off and how much I plan to reduce my carbon footprint and what acts of charity and service I will perform this year and how much writing and editing I will do, money I will save, sights I will see, pounds I will lose, classes I will take, lanugages I will learn, etc. But that's a lot more work and I honestly can't be bothered with it today. I haven't decided which thing to take on this year and there is progress to be made on all fronts.

Oh and have I mentioned yet how thrilled I am about Obama's Inauguration? Oh my god, I cried. I think I was the most emotional person standing in the lobby of our building where there is a big screen that played the whole thing. I'm so proud. I thought his speech was amazing. I'm moved to be a better citizen for Obama. What an amazing leader. He is just what we need. I couldn't be more pleased.

LOVE

Not a Post

This is a test to create a post from my iGoogle homepage. If it works I will be most pleased and have to report the wonder of it to Google - because I love Google and routinely tell them how I feel via the Google Survey at the bottom of the iGoogle homepage.

The Beginning of 2009

We started the new year with a bang. There were fireworks and roman candles, turkey burgers, and tons of alcohol, old friends, a tattoo, a breeze of change in my mom's house, and generally too much good food and not enough sleep.

The New Year's Eve Party was at Matt & Julie's place, being outside of the city limits and allowing fireworks to be popped. It was PJNYE - Pajama Party madness! Everyone's PJs were so cute. I was in red snowflake pants and a red top. Chelsea and Colin both wore their new plush robes to the party instead of coats. We made turkey burgers for everyone and everyone else made hor d'oeuvres.

New Year's Day we went to breakfast at IHOP which is a bit of a tradition. Then Chelsea and I drove around for about an hour looking for an open nail shop before giving up on beginning 2009 with perfect, smooth feet. We went to see the Yes Man with Jim Carey and I have to say I was cracking up laughing the whole way through. Some of the funny was Colin laughing. He gets so tickled and I know just how he feels.

After the movie, Chris dropped Chelsea and I off at Bombshell Tattoo on Westheimer for Chelsea's new tattoo. A picture says a thousand words so click here to view. I think Chelsea feels different now. I know I do. After the inking we all went for dinner at Mo Mong! YUMMY!

On the 2nd Carmen & Kevin were back in town from Christmas in Mexico with her parents. This was also the day that my siblings chose to help clean my mom's house out. My mom has obsessive hoarding issues and is currently living in a place that's too packed with stuff to allow my dad full access to the house with his walker. So we're getting her a storage unit for anything that is a product from her inventory and all the old video tapes she agreed could go to Chris's house. In the morning we went through boxes at moms and in the evening we met Carmen, Kevin and some of Carmen's family at Taco Milagro in Houston to catch a salsa band of which Kevin knew some members.

That night Carmen & Kevin spent the night at our place and gave us their whole liquor cabinet full of bottles of alcohol. They had packaged it all up and hauled it in boxes from Rhode Island. We have more types of alcohol than we know what to do with. We have tequila with real worms and tequila without, vodkas, liqueurs, and some absenth. We also were luck enough to get a whole bottle of organic toasted sesame seed oil. I have no idea how that happened to be with the liquor but I'm pleased and feel like making chinese food or something. To say the least, we are very greatful Carmen and Kevin! We appreciate all the drinks and will enjoy every one. Here's to you my friend!

Work began on Monday and it was a bit of a rough start getting back into the swing of things. Carmen and Kevin left for Paris, France today at 2:00 PM and won't return for 4.5 months.

So far the new year has been good to me. That's it for now.
Much LOVE