Mark the Builder #2

My oldest son Mark continues to amaze me with all the talents he has. He has built a room onto the kitchen which is now the dining room. He put up the outside walls and then the insulation and today he put up the wall board. I am proud of him and his talents. Sometimes he is jealous of his brother Devon but he too has talents and is successful in his own right. He has talents that Devon doesn't have and vice versa. So today I celebrate the talents of my oldest son Mark Toney.

What is success???

Mark came to me last night and asked me if he and Devon were very different, that his son Darren who came to Seattle to help me move, said that they were totally different, "opposites". He seemed disturbed by this and asked me what that might mean. I told him they were both good people, both successful people. Being successful cannot always be measured by money. Both men have a good family, a home, both are happy. But they have different life styles: Mark works with his hands, he builds things, works on his cars, has a house, likes Nascar and football. Devon works from an office, hires people to fix his home and the things in it, also to fix his cars. He has a condo and drives a Mercedes instead of the truck Mark drives. Devon also likes football. Both are good people, love their families, love their mother. Both men are successful. Both are happy most of the time. Isn't that how success is really measured?

First real SNOW

Yesterday was our first snow that stayed. So I got a call from Mark and Sally who were out and about last night and Sally's car battery was dead. So I went to the rescue and when I got there I had to snap Mark in the snow. Today the snow was still there but the sun was out as usual. I just can't get over having sunshine ever day here. So different from Seattle. It is a whole lot colder too but it is okay with the sunshine.

A Bad Hair day?

This morning I lightened my hair with Born Blonde. I knew it was strictly going to lighten my hair and not tone it but I was rather surprised to rinse it off and dry it and find bright brass yellow blonde hair!! I had a haircut appointment I rushed off to, after putting a hat over my yella hair. I took this toner with me that I had intended to use but didn't know it would be such an immediate need. The hair stylist was great and put a toner on my hair and then I could go out in public without a hat. She cut it and I felt brand new. By the way, it is way cheaper here in the midwest to get hair services than in the Seattle area.

A new low for gas prices!

I cannot even remember when the last time was gas was this low. Here it is, $1.41 in Kansas City area. We are also expecting snow here, tomorrow morning. In the Seattle area we never get much snow. It has already snowed here but it sounds like tomorrow will be a bit more than we have seen so far. I miss my trees and mountains and lakes while I am here in KC but I will say it is sunny here almost every day. I do like that. So I guess this was basically about weather.

Just Dreaming

Getting into the romance thing since reading about Annie's dreams, LOL. So I am tuning in not only to Twilight videos but the classic romance scenes: Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, Titanic, etc. Ah yes, we can dream, can't we?

Just Wondering....

I asked the doctor I saw today why it is that they can replace hearts and lungs but can't figure out arthritis which mostly everyone will eventually get. He did not have much of an answer except to say that the infusions such as Remicade and Enbrel and Humira help. I say they don't help that much, and for the $6,000 it costs to get Remicade for instance, it should help more. Just wondering.

Gas Dropping to $1.48

Gas is down to $1.48 (didn't get a pic of it today so have the $1.63 here), dropped 15 cents in a week. Amazing, huh? I was trying to remember when the last time I saw that price was. Three summers ago when I was here it was about $2.56 and I took a shot of that then. So it has been a while. At least 3 years.

Mark the Builder

My son Mark finished the room which is now the dining room. It was a covered deck before. He built a new deck and enclosed the other room and has the light fan up and the insulation installed. He is going to put up the wall board next week. Now I can't imagine how we ever ate in the kitchen, now that we have the big table with benches in the new dining room with room to spare.

Tree up

Mark and Sally put their Christmas tree up. Then Katie decorated it. It is very sparkly and pretty. I took Katie to see Twilight Friday and today we went to see Australia. She read the first book in the Twilight series and finished it Thursday night so we went to the movie. Her friend borrowed the book Saturday night and is almost through it. So we await the second book from Amazon so Katie can read it. It is fun to be able to share books and movies with my granddaughter. It costs only $4 to see a movie here if you go before 6pm.

Obsession past on

Okay, so today I went to Walmart to buy Twilight for my granddaughter Katie who says she wants to read the book before she goes to the movie. No Twilight, all sold out. They had a couple of the following books, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, but no Twilight. But the third book, Eclipse was cheap so I bought it and will give it to Katie (age 15) for Christmas. I went to Borders to get Twilight and gave it to her, saying "Happy Thanksgiving." She was quietly delighted. She seems to be a very reasonable young girl. I gave it to her saying, "I just want you to know that 99.9% of boys are not like Edward. In fact 99% of boys and men are not like Edward. And if you throw in the vampire part then that makes it 100%." I just want her to know it is a very idealistic though passionate love story. No teenage boy and few men could live up to this guy. He is gorgeous, tender, considerate, caring, and is totally and unconditionaly in love with Bella. Oh, did I add passionate in there? Not to mention strong, fast and immortal. For anyone who likes a good love story get in on this one!

Twilight - Guilty Pleasures

So I feel like a thirteen year old girl. My guilty pleasure: I must have been the oldest person at the Twilight movie today. And I have been obsessing over it all night, going to websites with clips and the songs from the soundtrack which is a topseller on Amazon. The songs are quite good and one is written by the male lead in the movie, Robert Pattinson who is also a musician. He wrote and sang the song "Never Think." He is also British which surprised me because his American accent is perfect. (Like Hugh Lauries' in House). I read all four books and wish I had not sold them all on Amazon now. I would love to read them again. The movie leaves out some things in the book like movies always do. But this reminds me of Harry Potter a bit, not in the content at all but because I had read those books too and knew what would happen and then had to wait for the movies to come out. I do say, for anyone who is a Twilight series fan that the cast was in my opnion cast very well. The part of Edward and Bella were very well cast. The author Stephanie Meyer does draw them quite distinctly in her books so it was important to cast them well. The story is about a very passionate love that seems doomed from the start. There are many obstacles but their love never wavers. Yes, it is about a human girl and a Vampire boy, both 17 years old. So you can see the built in obstacles right off. The movie was low budget and the special effects were too but they did well with what they had. I can't wait for the next one, for all three of the next ones. Robert Pattinson (who plays Edward) was on Ellen today and the guy seems totally unaware of how big he is or how big he will be. I think he will have a long movie career. If he wants it. If he doesn't go off the rails like so many young stars do.

Why O Why

I did not mean for this blog to get all political but I would be going against my grain if I didn't jump in with some of my views on these matters. I currently live in Kansas, a “red” state. Most of the people who live here and in other central “red” states are “working class” people. Many work with their hands, they live an average American life, they are not wealthy. The Republicans have been for the last 60 yrs or more, the party of the wealthy, the party of business. They are for making the rich richer (note: the tax cuts for the very wealthiest among us by our current president). The Democrats have been for the working people, the underdog, for taking care of the weak, and are advocates of the middle class. So..... why do people vote against their best interests? Whatupwith that??

High Maintenance

I have an 11 year old miniature poodle, color white, named Nicole. I call her Nikki. If any of you know about poodles you will understand how their hair grows constantly and does not fall out, does not shed. This is why it is being recommeded to the Obamas as a non-allergenic dog. This is true and is why I got her originally eleven years ago. I have asthma and hayfever so I needed a hypoallergenic dog. Just like Malia Obama does. Nikki is sweet (my son Devon would disagree, since she is very territorial and has been known to snip if she feels threatened), soft, cuddly and VERY high maintenance. I just finished grooming her. Two hours! A good $50 saved but now my back hurts so much I am sidelined for the rest of the day. I had to sit down during the cut sometimes because of my back. It is a problem and has been for some time, getting worse as time goes along and I get older and older. Arthritis is not fun. I never thought I would be set back from doing the things I wanted because of disabling pain. Anyway, My little doggie looks much better. Not like a pro would make her look but much better. You see if you don't cut their hair it keeps on growing and since it doesn't shed it matts together and then you have a real mess. So now all I have to do is brush her every other day or so. Did I say she was high maintenance?

"Grandma"

I have to say it feels really weird to be called "grandma" by an 18 year old boy. It is expected from a little kid like Joseph age 10 or Lucy age 22 months. But to have a young man who is 6' 3" tall say "hi Grandma!" as part of my every day experience is a constant reminder of how old I am getting. His name is Darren and he for the first time away from his home near Kansas City, Kansas to Seattle, Washington to help me drive almost 2000 miles to Kansas. He not only had never flown before but had never been out of Kansas (and Missouri which is a few miles away-Kansas City spans two states, Kansas and Missouri). He also had never seen a mountain before or trees like we have them in the northwest. He helped me move my stuff out of my apartment in Issaquah to a storage unit. He was there with me in the Seattle area about 11 days. Then we packed my car so full that the seat could not be pushed back so he could drive even if he could. Turns out he also did not know how to drive a manual transmission. So I drove the entire way myself with a 15 pound miniature poodle on my lap (she was very happy to be with her "mom" all that time). It was quite an experience. I had never been to South Dakota or Iowa. However I have deduced that I was not missing anything (sorry, South Dakotans and Iowans). After we left the Mt Rushmore area of S. Dakota it was pretty bleak. The photo is of my Grandson Darren and I at Mt Rushmore. We drove about a half hour out of our way to see this US landmark that I was pretty sure I would never get an opportunity to see again. I am ashamed to say I had to ask Darren who all the presidents were up there. He knew! Do you?

I have to do this drive again in March or so to get back home for the new baby due in late April. But I am hoping maybe my son Mark whose home I am staying in now will drive my car back with his son Darren and I will fly back. I can do without more of South Dakota which seemed to be neverending. Anyway, I can hope.

Secretary of State? Oh yeah!

On a political note I heard that Hillary Clinton is being considered for Secretary of State in the new administration. Being a total Hillary fan I hope she accepts. I think she is brilliant and tough and it would be the perfect job for her. It will be interesting to see the other appointments Obama makes in the next weeks. I think he will mostly announce them altogether when he has it all figured out and everyone in their proper slots.
Our current president seems to have tuned out. It is scary. I hope someone up there is minding the store. Anything can happen at any time as we have learned the hard way.

Missing Lu and Joe

My daughter-in-law Annie has been sending me videos of Lucy with her horsey and playing with her doll house people. Makes me miss her all the more but I so love to receive them. We both have webcams but so far we have not connected on them. My grandson Joe who is 10 says he has a loose tooth and needs me to pull it. He said that because I pulled his very first lose tooth by the doorknob method. We have shared a lot of firsts, including teaching him to swim at my pool when he was 5 and seeing the ocean for the first time with me when we went to Disney World and then to Daytona Beach (where the ocean was). I also went to Mexico with him, his first trip to Mexico, see photo above, from Playa del Carmen, Mexico, 2005. I know he is growing too and it is so good to hear he is doing so well in 4th grade. He is lucky to have such a great "momikins" to help him with his school work.

Obama

Our new President elect Barack Obama brings hope to us all. I wonder if he feels the pressure of 130 million people (I think that is the population of the US?). I can't wait until January 20, 2009. I just learned that my niece Julie will be there with her husband who is a lawyer in DC who is helping with the transition team, mostly with picking the attorney general. I will put her pic here as soon as I get it. It is the closest I will get to the festivities.

A New Day

I am Ucy's Maga. To explain, Lucy is my 22 month old granddaughter and she could not say "grandma" so she said "Maga" instead. When she talks about herself she says "Ucy" did this or that. So I am Ucy's Maga.
I am actually Joseph's grandma too. He is ten so he can say "grandma." I live about 2000 miles away from them since October 1st so I miss them very much. I have never been way for them for more than a few days so I really feel it now. I know that Lucy is at the age where she is changing daily, with new words and new additions to her personality. I especially miss her little hands going up to go around my neck when I pick her up. I miss holding her warm little body and singing to her to quiet her cries. So that explains the name of my blog. I promise I will have more interesting things to say.
I am very excited about our new President elect Barack Obama. We so need someone to save our country. I know we are all expecting a lot from this man who is after all only a man. But he seems very bright and organized and surrounds himself with bright people. Unlike the present president who surrounds himself with his friends and puts people in positions they are unqualified for. But that started with himself, not being qualified to be president to begin with. I didn't vote for him so I can criticize. I did vote for Obama and I helped my 18 year old grandson to register when we were in Seattle so he went to vote to. The next day he said he felt good voting for the first time and was glad that the person he voted for won. Me too.
I don't know who I will share this blog with yet so for now I am just writing for me I guess. I feel freer to say what I want for now.