My Husband "Subvet" says that when our first son "Sonshine" was born the sun rose on our world, when our second son "Gator" was born the sun laughed and when our daughter "Sugars" was born all the flowers bloomed. That says it all.

"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...
It's about learning how to dance in the rain."
Anonymous

Your mind is the garden, your
thoughts are the seeds, the harvest can either be flowers or weeds. — William
Wordsworth

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Christmas Movie Marathon....

Icemageddon hit north Texas last weekend, We were stuck indoors for a total of  FOUR days.

Once our power returned (after 12 hours) we decided it was time to start watching our favorite Christmas movies!

As a result, during the last 10 days we have watched the following movies.

Santa Buddies
Curious George, A Very Monkey Christmas
Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
The Muppet Christmas Carol
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Frosty the Snowman
Frosty Returns
Santa Claus is Comin' to Town!
The Little Drummer Boy
Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol
Cricket on the Hearth
Veggie Tales Christmas Sing-Along Songs!
Veggie Tales It's a Meaningful Life
Veggie Tales The Little Drummer Boy
Veggie Tales Saint Nicholas
Veggie Tales The Toy that Saved Christmas
Veggie Tales The Star of Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas
It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown
A Christmas Carol with George C Scott
Beauty and the Beast The Enchanted Christmas
Thomas and Friends Merry Winter Wish
The Magic Schoolbus Holiday Special
Disney's A Very Merry Christmas Sing a Long Songs
A Christmas Story
The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot about Christmas
A Christmas Carol with Alastair Sim
Bah Hamduck! A Looney Toones Christmas
The Polar Express
Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas
I want a dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown
The Berenstain Bears' Christmas Tree
A Very Merry Pooh Year
Winnie-the-Pooh Seasons of Giving


How many of these have you seen this year?
Seen any not on this list?

This was a lot of fun.  We'll keep watching them for the rest of the year, adding to this list as we find more on either Youtube or Netflix  :-)

Monday, December 16, 2013

My girl Mak


We got a new dog during my blog silence.  She's most likely a Black Mouth Cur named Mikayla or as we call her "Mak"
 
 
See her head on MY knee?  While she's an excellent family dog and plays with/loves us all, she is most attached to me.

 
A friend of mine rescued her out of a shelter where she was LITERALLY just a couple hours away from being euthanized.  My friend fostered her for 4 months and then when we started looking for a dog in September we adopted our Big Mak.  (at 77lbs of SOLID muscle that BIG is no joke!)
 
So I left the house at 6:30am and returned at 6pm today after my first day of orientation at work.  When I got home my dog positively ATTACKED me!  I mean it was a Big Mak Attack!!  Hubby said, "well, it's the longest you've been away from her since we got her"  WOW!  I hadn't thought about that! 

 
Hubby was home all day without a car, so she wasn't alone....but still....I guess my sweet girl missed me a bit.

 
Yeah, I missed her too, especially our Walkies, I won't get to walk her again till I get off this 8-5 orientation schedule.  It always amazes me how quickly and easily these 4 legged friends attach themselves to our hearts. 
 
 

Unplanned Unpaid Vacay

So, after almost 3 years of working more than 64 hours a week, 6-7 nights a week, from home I decided to find another job.  I loved answering the after hours calls for Pediatric offices from Arizona to Maine, however, my contract seemed to be in danger of being canceled by my boss about every 3 months or so and that many hours just flat gets old even when you enjoy what you do. 

So I found another job, going back to the hospital, back to adults.  Doing inpatient Med/Surg Rehab. (helping folks get moving again after knee and hip replacements mostly).  It's not my favorite type of work, but it's 36 hours a week with a $20,000/year raise! 

The saddest thing is that when I gave my boss of 3 years the standard 2 weeks notice she fired me!  Took all 13 shifts I had left away.  She even stated "increased absences lately" as her reason for firing me....since I worked 6 or 7 nights a week for over 2 1/2 years and in that ENTIRE time called in less than TEN SHIFTS TOTAL, this is ridiculous.

So I suddenly found myself with an Unplanned Unpaid 2 week Vacation!!

I decided to actually take it as a vacation and focus on spending time with my family before the stress of the new job set in.  I have kept track of the fun stuff I'm doing throughout the vacation so that at the end I don't feel like I wasn't PRODUCTIVE.......sometimes God gives us these moments to remember that being PRODUCTIVE doesn't necessarily mean we have "something to show" for how we spent our time.  

So, here you go!   How I spent my Unplanned Unpaid Vacation, I'll let you readers decide whether or not it was PRODUCTIVE.

Day 1 I taught the family to play Slap Jack. It was a real HIT!

Day 2 my now 10 yr old and I started reading A Christmas Carol together. Best part was when he asked if he could do different voices for the different speakers

Day 3 kids and I put up all indoor decorations but the tree

Day 4 drove to Dallas to get all the HR stuff done for my job.
 
Day 5 EXERCISE!!  Walked 3 miles with our dog Makky, danced, lifted weights! It's been too long.

Day 6 Icepocalypse! 12 hours without power! Taught the kids to play Go Fish! Started our family Christmas puzzle, we worked on it till doing a puzzle by flashlight got too hard!

Day 7 taught kids to play Sorry! Gave the dog a bath....she's a dog of a different color now! Assembled and decorated the Christmas tree. Began the Christmas movie marathon!!!!!! (see the Movie Marathon post for the list of what we saw)

Day 8 Sunday and we're still iced in. Church was closed today and school is closed again tomorrow.  We spent the day snuggled in watching movies and playing Sorry!  So much fun! I was able to take the doggie for one of her walks today.  First time in 4 days! Felt great to stretch my legs, could have done without being pulled by my 77lb dog over the ice though.....wheeeeeeeeee. 

Day 9 STILL iced in!  praying for school to start back tomorrow!  Still watching movies and all the games they've learned this week are being played.  Also, having the kids draw and make picture ornaments for our tree and decorations for the house. I now have a Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come ornament and a Scrooge and Marley's Ghost ornament! 

Day 10  Started addressing Christmas cards...this is REALLY early for me!  Played more go fish and Sorry! with the kids, and rode the DART train for the first time!  It's kinda cool.  This will be my primary transportation to and from work since it saves the worst part to drive, the last 15 miles (in Dallas) off my trip.  I found out that my CPR isn't the right one for the hospital, so I will have to retake a CPR class before the 16th!  yikes.

Day 11 The kids and I finished stuffing, addressing and mailed A Hundred and One Christmas cards.  seriously!  We counted them twice! They had a lot of fun getting the labels and stamps on them...hope no one minds the placement!  Ha ha.

Day 12 Today I tried to figure out what I wanted for Christmas.  Not an easy thing for me to do, but hubby asked for suggestions so I came up with a few.  We also managed to squeeze a couple games of go fish in after homework and before bedtime! 

Day 13 Friday!  It's be a great and productive day.  Hard to believe this vacation is drawing to a close.  I was able to get my CPR redone in record time! I was also able to go to Dallas and turn everything in as well as get a Christmas present off in the mail.  Now time to relax with the kids in front of yet MORE Christmas movies!! 

Day 14 I cut 8 inches off my hair today!  wow!!  It's still down below my shoulders, it'd started almost waist length.  I also made it to Saturday night Mass for the first time in forever!  I can't wait to start my new work schedule and am able to rejoin this choir on a regular basis!

Day 15 Decorated OUTSIDE!!  yippee!  ALL decorating is done!  shew.  Is it any wonder I wait AWHILE before I take all this stuff down?  I mean really, if we just left the lights up yearround there'd be a lot less to do every December......or maybe I'm just a Redneck....

Day 16 Today I staredt hospital orientation and am going to be working daily 8-5 for a couple weeks. 

So what do you consider being PRODUCTIVE?

I have to say that I'm very glad I started keeping this record of my vacation activities.  I found that if I waited a day or two to log them in I had a hard time remembering what I'd done.  Now it's all a blur of activity.  But I feel like I enjoyed this vacation MORE than the planned one I had in October, probably because it came without warning and therefore I didn't have time to over plan my time.  This was a great break spent with the family.  Hmmmm, makes me wonder about God's plan, not only for this unscheduled break from work, but also for His return "like a thief in the night".  

Lesson?  Sometimes the best things in our lives are surprises and times left unplanned!

(although it would have been nice if it had been paid.....)
:-)
Have a great day folks.  I'll be around when I get some time off from work.....

Saturday, December 7, 2013

December 7th.

If you happen to meet a WWII vet this week, thank him or her. I too will be going out of my way to say thank you.


TAKE TIME TO REMEMBER.

"The attack at Pearl Harbor sank four U.S. Navy battleships and damaged four more. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, and one minelayer, destroyed 188 aircraft, and caused personnel losses of 2,402 killed and 1,282 wounded."
Wikipedia



The wrecked destroyers USS Downes (DD-375) and USS Cassin (DD-372) in Drydock One at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, soon after the end of the Japanese air attack. Cassin has capsized against Downes.
USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) is astern, occupying the rest of the drydock. The torpedo-damaged cruiser USS Helena (CL-50) is in the right distance, beyond the crane. Visible in the center distance is the capsized USS Oklahoma (BB-37), with USS Maryland (BB-46) alongside. Smoke is from the sunken and burning USS Arizona (BB-39), out of view behind Pennsylvania. USS California (BB-44) is partially visible at the extreme left.
This image has been attributed to Navy Photographer's Mate Harold Fawcett.





Destroyer USS Shaw exploding after her forward magazine was detonated














USS California sinking













USS West Virginia took two aerial bombs (one dud) and seven torpedo hits; of the seven at least five were from aircraft and one from a midget submarine










As I am writing this it is the Saturday before Labor Day. September first. We are trying to spread the word to get everyone to fly their American Flag on September eleventh in memory of the tragedy that took place 9/11/01.

However, you won't be seeing this post until December. December seventh to be exact.

Because 9/11/01 reminds me of 12/7/41.

The day that the American Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was bombed by the Japanese.

My Grandaddy fought in WWII, he lost his only brother in that war then was sent home as the last surviving male member of the family. He flew cargo planes for the US Army Air Corp....perhaps my love of flying and desire to be a (fighter) pilot is genetic.

I remember the sadness and frustration he expressed when we kids couldn't tell him what day Pearl Harbor had been bombed, or the names of the ships lost, or even how many ships, or what impact it had on WWII (The BIG 'un). I remember him saying that the world stopped that day...and when it started moving it was never the same again. I remember wondering what on earth he meant by that. I remember his anger when he went to the VA, that is Veteran's Affairs, hospital for a doctor's visit and found out that his assigned doctor was "a damn Jap!!" This wasn't a man given to fits of anger, but boy he got hot telling me about THAT! I remember wondering what the big deal was.

Then came 9/11/01 and I understood.

I understood the sadness and frustration when the people around me forgot to take note of that day. I remember how the world stopped, how my husband kept saying over and over that nothing will ever be the same again and I understood exactly what he meant. I understood the anger at any member of a specific group of people who were responsible for so much unprovoked bloodshed. I understood exactly what the big deal was.

In light of this understanding, I will never again forget 12/7/41. What it cost our countrymen and how it changed the world.

Do you have an American Flag?

Do you fly it at half-mast on Pearl Harbor Day?

YOU SHOULD!









The USS Arizona. ".... and as you can see from the picture, she still mourns her dead...." Cookie

For more information about the effects of the attack on Pearl Harbor.






After posting what you see above I got curious.

I started reading everything I could find on the attack at Pearl Harbor. That's when I went back and added all the pics. I read and read and cried and cried that night. Well into morning. I don't know (or care) if you believe such things, but I felt like this room was full of soldiers urging me to learn...then to teach. So that they should not be forgotten as another generation comes of age.

Here's what I learned.

1) The United States of America is the BEST damn country in the world.
2) You may knock us down, but you'd better watch out when we get back up.
3) We ALWAYS get back up.


We had 12 ships "sunk or beached" and 9 "damaged" in that attack.
Not to menton all the planes and buildings.

Now, to this city girl, "sunk" means dead. Sitting on the bottom rusting. But "All U.S. Ships except Arizona, Utah, and Oklahoma were salvaged and later saw action."
Most of those ships were saved and sent back to war within the year. And the cleanup was dirty, oily work.

Follow the links folks, look at the pictures. This is an AMAZING story that you won't soon forget! And remember that no matter how bleak the scenery looks, there's always a way to rebuild, and strike back.