Here’s my niece. She’s a “Snow Fairy”. She was going to be a regular fairy but we got a cold spell and her regular fairy costume wasn’t going to cut the 15 degree weather…so my sister-in-law adapted it and she became a “Snow Fairy”. I think she’s cute.

Here’s my nephew in his “Willy” costume. He absolutely LOVES the movie Free Willy so he got to be Willy tonight. He loved making Willy swim and if you ask him he’ll even tell you “Willy’s and Orca”. Cool Auntie moment — Rider won Best Overall Boy Costume in the costume contest at the party we went to at church. No, I’m not proud or anything. LOL

At Rider’s school the classes make their own costumes. Here’s his. They were penguins…his teacher was the mama penguin. I have to say, I think their class had the cutest costumes in the whole school. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of the back….he even had a little tail…it was ADORABLE.

So, since I’m not with Ally I got to spend the day with Rider. I went to his school party then he, my sister, and I went up to visit my dad in the hospital. I got to his room and got dad sitting up and gave him some candy to give Rider when he got there to “Trick-or-Treat”. Dad was so excited. Rider showed up as a Penguin and left as Willy. Then we went to the church party. A very fun evening.

AND, the biggest news of the day. Dad is getting transferred from the hospital to the rehabilitation center TOMORROW!!! They don’t know how long he’ll be there the doctor said to expect several weeks but he didn’t think it would be months. He’s getting better slowly but surely. Now he just needs to regain his strength.

(P.S. — sorry about the bad photo quality…I didn’t bring my camera when I came here so all I have is my camera phone…the pictures aren’t bad but, well, it’s a camera phone. LOL)

Till later…

Continue reading...

My nephew (and his mom — my sister) have lived with my parents since he was born (actually since before he was born to be technical). Needless to say my dad and nephew are VERY close. This is the first time my dad’s been in the hospital since Rider was born and both are having a hard time being away from each other. So, Rider gets to go up to the hospital every day to visit “Grandpa at the doctor’s”. The first part of the week was hard because Rider gets pretty bored (and, I think it’s a little scary seeing Grandpa with all the tubes coming out of him and all the beeping machines) so he’d visit for a while then go for a walk.

Well, yesterday my sister got the idea to bring his portable DVD player up to the hospital so he and Grandpa could watch a movie together. We did the same thing today. My dad wasn’t feeling too hot today but he was still happy to have his Rider there. Dad slept most of the time but he still knew Rider was there so that’s really all that matters. Rider got to stay for two movies (Lilo & Stitch & Cinderella) today so it was a really nice visit.

Continue reading...

So, I’ve decided to stay here in California for a while longer. My dad will be in the hospital a minimum of four more days. From there he will be moved to a rehabilitation center for at least two weeks. This will be a really difficult time for both my parents so my mom asked me to stay. This evening I spoke with my brother who left to go home this evening and he cemented my decision to stay. His exact words were “you don’t need to go through what I went through when I said goodbye today”. I can work from here so that’s what I’m going to do. I just can’t imagine being 1000 miles away from here right now.

So, from the girl who can’t seem to leave California…

Till later…

Continue reading...

So, Sunday I was all packed, spending some time with my sister-in-law’s parents before heading to the airport when my dad called and said he needed us at home. We got home and he was SICK. We knew he was sick but being the stubborn man he is he refused to go to the doctor. Well, we made that decision for him and called 911. He’s been in the hospital ever since. Sunday and Monday were S-C-A-R-Y! I’ve honestly never been so worried/scared in all the hospital stays we’ve been through with him. Made me feel a little justified in my feelings when I found out he was one of the top 15 sickest patients in the hospital (and it’s a pretty big hospital).

But, yesterday he looked really good. Not so good today but still not scary bad. It’s been reassuring to hear the doctors say they feel he’ll recover. Today there was even talk of him going home (not when he’d go home but that he actually WILL go home). They physical therapist came in and is even confident he’ll walk.

Now I have mixed up feelings. Do I leave on Monday or do I stay? It doesn’t look overly promising that he’ll be out of the hospital by Monday but he’s not in danger any longer. I’ve just never been so far away when he’s been this sick. But, I also need to get back to MY life, my work, my home, my friends, my committments. So, just praying that I make the best decision for me and for my family when I made the decision Monday as to whether or not I get on that plane.

Till later…

Continue reading...

I flew down last Friday to spend a week in California for work. The weekend was nice but I should have done more work stuff instead of visiting friends that I haven’t seen in six months. I fully anticipated spending a few hours actually working at my client’s here but ended up working A LOT. Not that I’m complaining…I like working with them and he paid me to come here. I just had planned to get other things done also and didn’t so I’m frazzled because I’m behind on other work stuff and I hate getting behind on stuff.

So, in case you didn’t hear the latest house news…I found one that I liked and placed an offer. They countered with sometime RIDICULOUS so I stepped away. Then, before I left to come here I took my brother and sister-in-law to look at another one I liked. They liked it too (actually said they liked it better then the first one). So, I planned on making an offer today (Friday) because the timing would be perfect to start finance paperwork when I got back. Well, they got another offer on Monday, so that one’s out.

Today I got a call from my realtor that another house that I looked at and sort of liked had the offer they accepted have some problems. This is all so confusing to me. I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do any more and I’m frustrated. (OK, there’s other stuff frustrating me besides the house stuff but the house stuff is just where I’m getting confused.) Do I go with a two bedroom because it’s all I really need or do I stick with a three bedroom because I might need it in the future. Do I go with an older home that has “character” but will probably need work done to it or do I keep looking for something newer? Sometimes I think it’s all kind of hopeless, then I try to remind myself that it’ll work out and I’ll love where I end up.

What I do know is that I’m ready to go home. I’m super stressed out right now. I want my computer back. I want my bed. I want my neighborhood. I want my (lack of) traffic. I want my car. I want things calmer and some of this craziness that I just can’t go into because then you’ll be bored silly and I just don’t need to stir up all the frustration/anger/confusion/hurt/scaryness of this week again. It’s been fun, but it’s been a week from HELL at the same time.

Till later…

Continue reading...

So, as I was packing up to leave the coffee place I got a call from my SIL that the internet was back up. Whew. That was a relief.

Saturday my brother, SIL, niece and I went to look at the house I kind of liked when I went with my realtor. They were having an open house and had dropped the price. So, we looked. The house has not been taken completely off my list of possibilities but it’s moved down quite a bit. So, it’s back to the beginning. We’ll go look again this week, hopefully this week will provide more promising houses.

It’s frustrating. I’m not the most patient person but I still planned on the house hunt taking about a month to six weeks. But, here I am already impatient as all get out. It’s only the start of week two. But, I keep reminding myself I’m right on schedule.

So, now for my WOW. A while ago I registered to take the test to become a Certified Virtual Assistant. The testing process was more difficult than I had anticipated but I got through it. Saturday night I got the e-mai that I PASSED! I’m so excited! This is one thing I wanted to do to make me stand out to potential new clients. It’s awesome to have tried and succeeded in this. So, WOOHOO for me!

Till later…

Continue reading...