Doodledash

It has actually been a hard year. A year ago I was clueless as to what was going to happen. Clueless can be nice at times. Enough negative. Focus on the positive. I have lost 25 pounds. I am proud of that. I need to focus on the weight loss more seriously. Since the holidays I have been distracted. I have reached a plateau and need to shake it up somehow. I went to Joann Fabric today and bought some yarn and knitting needles. I am going to give it another go at knitting. I have been reading a series of murder mysteries that are centered around a yarn shop. Hero has learned to knit and is progressing. It has inspired me. I am going to make a dishcloth. I have started doing things that I like to do. I am trying to make time for me. Allow myself some fun. It is hard but I am slowly progressing. I have read several books which makes me very happy. I am trying to stop playing so many games on Facebook. I waste a lot of time doing it and I have to clamp down on it. I am really ...

Today it was announced that Walgreens bought Snyders and Dane will no longer have a job. We had some warning about it so it wasn't a shock as it was for so many others. It doesn't make it any easier though. Once it was real, it was hard to not have that fear want to knock me down. I would appreciate prayers for all of us and especially for Dane. This is the only job he has had and he has been a loyal employee for 30+ years. It is exhilarating, exciting and scary for him and me. I have my job and will be able to still have insurance for our family. It is just hard when change is forced on you. I needed a shakeup and so did Dane. Now we have an opportunity for a new adventure. Onward ho!

I needed a change. So I now have a sleek cleaned up simplified version of my blog. I love the fish. I saw that under gadgets and couldn't resist. You can feed them if you run your mouse over them! Yesterday my family went out to one of my favorite restaurants, Maggiano's, to celebrate my birthday. We had a very fun time but Mackenzie felt it necessary to blow out the candle when I was examining it because she thought I would play with it. I do admit that I enjoy playing with candles and fire holds a certain fascination for me. She really did not need to do that though. But c'est la vie. It has been extremely cold in the frozen north for the past few days. I went to work this morning and it was -15 degrees. Good way to slap you awake when that cold hits your face. It was a long day but went well. I was very glad to get home. I warmed the car up for 10 minutes before I left this morning and was warm on the way to work. I left work and finally started to warm up with heat ...

and I finally have acknowledged the fact that though I want to do a Christmas letter in thought. In reality, I don't want to do it. I thought I did but every time I sit down to do it, I clearly don't want to do it. So I am not going to do it. Enough said. We celebrated Christmas with my mother in law on Sunday and she gave me an absolutely fabulous gift, a box of 40 individual flavors of jelly belly. I love it because I can eat a few and have the pleasure of the taste. Nummy. My favorite flavor is juicy pear which I had two of and a yellow one and to my horror a licorice one. I had to spit the whole thing out. Ruined my taste buds for a long time. I hate licorice. We are supposed to get a lot of snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas. I hope we don't have to postpone our celebration. That would be a first and a big disappointment to my family. I finally tasted a cappuchino right now jelly belly that is. I don't drink coffee and tasted it out of curiosity. Not my favo...

hindsight ( ) n. Perception of the significance and nature of events after they have occurred.  I still have not written my Christmas letter because I needed to review and decide what to write. I just finished reading my blog entries for this year. I figured that I would have written about the highlights and wanted to make sure that I didn't miss anything. I titled this hindsight because it has quickly become apparent to me what the significant events of the year have pushed me to do. My friend Jone's death was the key event of the year. I promised myself that I would make some changes and no longer put off important things anymore. I can see the effect that decision has had on my life.  I joined Weight Watchers which changed me in ways I never imagined.  I have lost 22 pounds so far, I have learned to change the way I think about  myself. I like who I am. I am proud of myself for changing.  I have learned that I can make mistakes and not be a failu...

for the first time in my life I am going to write a Christmas letter. I read an article on how not to write a Christmas letter and loved it. It inspired me to do one because her suggestions were right up my alley. I read one of the most boring ones ever this year and I decided that mine will never stoop to that level of snooziness. I kept thinking of the monotone that Ben Stein uses in Ferris Bueller's Day Off...Bueller, Bueller...no way does this chickadee do that to anyone. Well off to the composition and may it come off well. Later gator.

The weather outside is quiet at the moment. It is cold and crispy out though. It snowed and it is now a winter wonderland outside my door. Tomorrow morning I will have to face it for the first time in two days. I have been home with Amy for past two days since she didn't feel well. Good time to be missing school at least with snow and cold and wind. I have had ginormous struggles the past few days. I want to just crawl into a hole and hibernate for the winter. I am facing things a step at a time but it is taking everything I got plus more to deal with it. I am not even sure what it entails but I will discover it. I have been definitely avoiding thinking about by having a song/songs play continuously in my brain so I can't think about it. It doesn't work. When the song stops, the thoughts keep right on going. I know it is vague but right now I am vague. I intend to do some serious thinking when I finish this. So off to bed and may you have a good day tomorrow.

I had really good intentions to write every day but did not accomplish it. I will do better in December. Thanksgiving was a nice time. I had a turkey issue that made me tense. I have never a turkey that was not finished cooking early. I put in the meat thermometer after 4 hours and it said it was done. I took out the bird, took it out of the bag, placed it on the platter and Dane started carving. He kept saying how hard it was to carve and I looked at it. The meat was not done and everything else is. He finished carving and I nuked the white meat, put the dark meat in foil and stuck it in the oven. It was good and worked out well. I bought a digital meat thermometer to use from now on. Not gonna do that one again. Raw turkey is so unappealing! My mother-in-law(who was fairly well behaved), my parents, my brothers Bill and Greg, and Amy were here for the day. It was pleasant and I really appreciated my mom and everyone's help with the meal. After the meal was done and clean up w...

this has been a really shitty day. arguments and tense. stress. yuck. all of us have been wound up and walking on eggshells. i warned amy this morning that i was walking on eggshells with myself and to beware. there was just a lot of things that came up and bit all in the ass. it was not fun. nothing productive about any of it. kate and mackenzie came over for dinner and that was nice. it was the highlight of the day. i love crockpots. thank goodness it is time for bed and time for putting the past behind me. good night and good riddance to sunday.

I have 45 minutes of me time right now until I have to leave for work.  For the moment I have chosen to use some of them for writing this. I had a disturbing revelation this morning that will be my topic of pondering for quite a while. I realized that all my life I have tried to be a lot of different people. I have tried to be my mom, my dad, my aunts, an uncle or two,  my husband, my neighbors, my friends, my respected people, my aquaintances, my coworkers, my kids, and others. It was a matter of I thought I would be better if I acted like (insert name here) .   Now there was one very important name missing in the list. It was mine. I was trying to be everyone else but Debbie.  So now all these thoughts are flooding through my head...I don't have to be a (insert word here) . I don't have to be a math whiz like ( insert name here) , I don't have to be like (insert name here) , etc. It is very scary, very liberating, very exciting, very life changing.  ...

Verdana--Why can't blogger update their fonts? I am very tired of the sorry selection that is here. Be more considerate of your patrons. I am going to be changing fonts while writing this. Bitching done. Trebuchet--Amy is home today sick for day #4. I was home Monday and now Thursday. It concerns me because of work. Nothing I can really do about it though. It is out of my hands. She has had a cold. She should be going to school tomorrow just in time to get everything she needs to be busy this weekend and play catch up. She has missed so much school already and gets stressed when she gets back and has to make up everything. It is a vicious circle. Times--I am feeding her lunch right now, a tasty totinos cheese pizza. Crunchy and nummy. She had a distress call cuz a big booger fell out of her nose and she didn't know where it landed. I did a rescue mission and brushed it off her shoulder. Imagine not being able to pick your nose. No more deep digging to get that annoying boog...

ya know those days when everything is making ya nuts and you are tense and stressed and react to everything? well that is my day. i am snapping and crying and nervous and not a fun person to be around. i looked up f*** you on google cuz that was how i was feeling. i got a rude reminder of why that is not a nice thing to say and just how vile it is. i was ashamed of myself and asked the lord for forgiveness. anyway i have to go the knee doctor tomorrow and i am really nervous. background....my dad had bilateral knee replacement surgery seven weeks ago and i have had a first hand up close and personal why i do not want to do that in addition to all the other reasons. anyway my knees are hurting. they are tight. my left calf hurts on the side and i don't know if it is knee, ligament, tendon or what but it makes sleep very unpleasant. anyway my brain is going a hundred miles an hour and my emotions are on red alert and i am having a hard time relaxing. i feel like tears will be c...

I just had a revelation. It is OK to be proud of myself. I have been in a major funk for the past week. Last week I reached a 15 pound weight loss. I was so excited about it. I then found myself in a terrible depression. I did not understand it at all and have been struggling with anger. My legs and my knees have hurt. My tail bone has hurt. My shoulder has hurt. I have been one big ache. We had a long week of rain and gray skies which was a major factor in my aches and mood.  I had so much anger and I couldn't get to the source of it. I finally felt I needed to make a list of everything I was angry about and it turned out to be ten pages long. That was really depressing especially since most of the things I listed were small things. I did notice a pattern that I have to address but I have to just learn to cope with this stuff. I don't have to be mad at myself because I didn't dust. It is stupid.  I have been eating and sabotaging myself. I was full and just wanted t...

It is time for me to get off the bench. I have spent most of my life on it. I have been called off it at times to play and participate in the game but most of the time has been spent on the sidelines. I have been content to sit and watch. Be it right or wrong that was where I chose to be. Choices are something I have been learning a lot about in the past several weeks. Joining Weight Watchers made me face my eating choices immediately and it was a shock because I saw how many wrong food choices I made. I had to adjust to that and then acknowledge the deeper reasons as to WHY I made these choices. What needs were my food and my eating choices telling me? What was I substituting food for and why? Why did I eat? It has been a very revealing time for me. Things that had been hidden and buried were suddenly exposed and opened up for examination. There have been a lot of tears shed that have helped clean out those old festering wounds. I have learned it is okay to face the problems and...

Right now everything is major and I know when I have some distance, it will be in better perspective but for now it sucks.  I am making progress with changes in my life which is awesome. I am being more diligent and doing things in a more timely manner. I am trying not to be mad at myself and to forgive myself. That is all good stuff. Other stuff though is making me very gggrrrrr. Amy came home and had to vent about school. I am glad she did so we could get some things resolved. I had to make a phone call and talk to her case manager about the fact that she did not have a para who was scheduled to be with her for her afternoon classes. The teacher who was supposed to be in charge of it forgot. It made me very angry and Amy was mad. It was uncalled for and it will not happen again.  There has been some definite communication issues in this family. Too many assumptions and too much defensive reactions. Too much walking on eggshells. Too much tension and stress. It is oo...

I have always liked the color yellow. My bedroom was a pale yellow growing up. My kitchen is a sunny happy yellow. I can't wear yellow it makes me look jaundiced. I do love the color though. In the English language, yellow is associated with jaundice and being cowardly. It is the second color in a stop light indicating caution. A coward is called a yellow belly. It is associated with aging with both people and paper. I feel yellow.Yellow in the way of being cowardly and cautious and old. I don't have the sunny happy yellow in me lately. I realized that I have been very impatient, snapping and reacting to everything. I do it without realized it. I even stopped talking for a while because I was walking on eggshells around myself. I didn't want to open my mouth and say something wrong. I have been really defensive and frustrated. Unlike this lovely flower picured above I feel all moldy and dark inside. It is quite unpleasant. Yesterday, I had a chat with ...

The past few weeks have been an enormous challenge for me. Stress has been a constant companion trying to catch me unaware and either kick me or bite me in the butt when I am not paying attention. Nasty stuff. There has been so much stuff happening that it has all piled up and it collapsed on me the other night.  I need to do a rundown of it to clear my mind... School started which is always a major hurdle. New paras, new teachers, new classes, the uncertainty is hard for Amy. Breaking in a group of people is hard because of her special needs. Thankfully one of her PCA's from the summer, Kris is working with her in school and she knows what to do. That was a blessing. Katie lost her job and is looking for a new one. She also moved in the midst of that. Money is a huge stresser for us all and it is hard not to get worried. Being a parent and watching your kids go through the hard times is just as hard as when I had to go through them for myself. I so want to spare her but that i...

Work has left my brain fried lately and I have had no desire to write. The thought will flit through my head and exit quickly. I have spent a lot of time on Facebook lately http://www.facebook.com/doodledash playing Farmville. It is fun but it causes me to waste a lot of time. I put myself on a self imposed fast of my computer for a day. I read something in a book that had a comment how technology is the new god. It hit home with me and I decided to pull back. I have pulled back a lot in the past few weeks with some stuff so I could get a fresh perspective on myself. I came to some hard but important truths that have made me do some restructuring. I have been diligently doing tasks for specified time periods-short ones. I find I have gotten a lot accomplished and it adds to my feelings of satisfaction. I am learning that I can get things done and it helps me build on improving things. Weight Watchers At Work was recently implemented at my job and I have joined the group. Yesterday wa...

I just watched or should I say fast forwarded through a movie called Smother. Diane Keaton, Liv Tyler, Ken Howard, Dax Shepard were the stars. I did not enjoy it at all. I hoped it would get better but it didn't. I do not recommend it. Point of this all is the plot sounded interesting, I like the stars, and I gave it a shot. It cost me a dollar. Thank goodness for Redbox. Smother is what I have been doing to myself for a very long time. I have done my best to be a people pleaser. I want to please and not upset. I therefore have been stifled by my own actions. I then get angry and resentful because I am not happy. I have learned to not communicate. I have smothered my emotions, my thoughts until I do not know what I genuinely think or feel about something. This fact causes no end of aggravation and argument because I cannot give a quick honest opinion and so I end up saying what I think wants to be heard and I get more frustrated and angry. I know that was a terrible run on sentence...

Another picture from Milwaukee trip. This is what we call an Uncle Bob shot. My brother Bob will pick up a camera and take a picture of himself. Many an unsuspecting person will get their pictures developed and find a grinning picture of Bob. It has happened to me over the years so any time we take a picture of ourselves it is an Uncle Bob shot. I was trying various ones to see how it would turn out through the dangling vines. This was the best one. My brother Bob is the strong silent one in my family. He keeps things to himself but he is always there for you and a wonderful loving man. I love him very much. When Sarah was in the hospital, I liked to sit with her at night when it was quiet. I sat in a rocking chair next to her bed. One night I was sitting there rocking and I looked up. There was Bob leaning over Sarah and gently stroking her hair with tears running down his face. He never said a word but I will never forget the love that I saw on his face that night. That was the ult...