Life and blessings

It seems in life no matter what I do there is always someone who takes things the wrong way. No matter who I have spoken to, everyone has the same problem. Why do people get upset and not talk to the person they are upset with? How can someone fix a wrong or explain their thoughts if no one lets them know there is something wrong.
I shall go on living the best life I can and know that I deal with others the way I want to be dealt with. Like it or not. That is how I am.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. A good model to live by
I try to be willing to say anything to someones face that I say to another about them to others. But sometimes that is not the best thing to do.

I have a wonderful, thoughtful, considerate husband who I am blessed to have in my life.
I am lucky to have my Mom still, she is an inspiration for me to be like when I am 88!
My sisters are my best friends and will always be. They can make me mad, but we get over it and always have each others back.
My brother blessed this family with 6 children who keep me on my toes. As adults they have each grown into individuals who I love and am proud of each of them in their own way.
My other niece and nephew hold a special place in my heart as well, each of them I have been blessed to live near in their youth.
I am blessed with many friends, and count many of them as family.

Perhaps this is a lesson to make me appreciate all that I do have and know I am indeed blessed.

Count your blessings, name them one by one. You'll be amazed at the glory in your life.

Gardening, Kitten help!

HUM! How can I spend so much time in the yard and get so little done. Oh, yes. Spend too much time sitting and recovering from work I am doing. But it is good to be outside and I have a woodpecker that I love to find in the tree or on the telephone pole, silly wood pecker. I did not think telephone poles ever rotted, but he is trying very diligently to get into the top 12 inches of the one in my front yard.

Tim went to Costco today as we ready for the family of 6. Thank heaven I have an idea of what they eat. This is going to be fun, I just hope I can keep them entertained for 10 days.


The shutter people are scheduled to come for the guest room and Tim's office.


Tim has 2 tentative interviews next week! Wahoooo. I say practice practice practice till you find the perfect job for you! Interviewing is hard, and then you have to wait more.



I think my kitten is in heat again. I am just glad that means she is NOT PG! She goes on Monday for the fixin.


She has been helping me tonight on the computer. She at least will lay down for Oprah!

Mostly she sits right in front of the screen and tries to watch the mouse go. I try to make her think it's gone around the back, that only lasts as long as it takes her to walk back there and see it is not there, but I can get a lot done in that brief interlude.

I've put her outside the office.....she is making me nutso!

I think she misses Sylvester....for more than one reason. I just miss his personality!

Let me come up for air!

Here it is almost the middle of March.....mid march. Isn't that a literary thing?

But I digress. I have been swamped. Work, two kittens, work, a husband about to get his bachelors degree, work, rain, and life have kept me quite busy. Playing too much Spider solitaire and Free cell on the computer. I keep trying to swear off those two time grabbers. Perhaps today will be the day for me to do that until I get my office organized and my to do list shorter.

All is well here.

I'll find the camera today and do some back posting! My favorite way to sneak life in my little blog. I actually had a request from Mindy to post! So someone reads this little blog o mine. I'll finish that scarf and send it to whoever commented first......and maybe make another for the #2 person!

I am having another pajama Saturday.....in my cute little polka dot nightgown Mom gave me for Christmas. I was in much need of some weekend stay in the house and putter clothes!

I have Pandora on the computer, my two new favorite "stations": Joni Mitchell and James Taylor seem to make the kind of mix to cover all my favorite artists and a few new ones to keep me in the modern loop of music. Wonderful invention whoever thought that one up!

Tim has gone to Rehoboth for the day or a quick turn around. He needs a few things at the beach and to clear his head for his final push to finals. He finishes on March 18! Wahoo!

My kittens are napping, they have been in the Indy 500 mode most of the morning. They are very fun and Sylvester is a love. Smokey is coming around, I think she will always be a bit aloof.....but she is pretty and will come to me if I hold still!

Not to be cliche: Life is good!

Droid am I!

An early birthday present. That is what I am thinking of it as! Tim has fit the 2 of us with brand new phones! wahoooo!

A phone with all 27 buttons for letters and others for all sorts of symbols! Now I can text with the rest of the world and not loath texting! Not fast, but I can do it! Seems that is the only way to "talk" to some. Cest la vie. Still love a good letter, e-mail or phone call. But a text will do in loo of nothing at all!

Love it, have my Joni Mitchell playing in my ear already on my Pandora. Now I am cool like everyone else. I just have to get the book out to learn all there is to do!

Happy Fall! Happy cool nights and sunny days! Happy Life. It is good.

One year of blogging, and one long year of loss

What a year. I started with thoughts about loosing my beloved friend, mentor and plastic surgeon; Thomas Sanzaro suddenly. It was exactly one year ago today. I have honestly missed him daily since I heard the awful news from Ashley in Rehoboth Beach. Good news for him, he has had a wonderful addition to his family, a new granddaughter Carolina Chase Butler on 9-9-10. Hard to believe, but she actually looks like her beloved Grandpa. I am thrilled for the whole family.


This year has been a year of changes for me too, in a much better way than above. Tim quit his IT job at Sibley and become a full time student for the first time in his whole life. It is much harder than he thought, but he is now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for his Bachelor's degree in IT and a minor in computer securities! Waaaahoooo! He has 9 of his 15 classes done and is already registered for 4 more this fall. Then two in the winter and he can start looking hard to find the perfect match for employment and qualifications. We have had an interesting year of major changes in life style, spending habits and no dining out. We are doing quite well, better than we both had hoped. Amazing what you can do when you make a budget and stick to it, even when it is easier not to! We both are working hard in our own ways, and are working toward one goal together. What doesn't kill us will make us stronger!


I have posted 95 blogs. I think I am getting better every time. Some are short, some are long. Some I expect responses from and get none, some I only have my faithful commenter Bethany, and occasionally I get 3 or 4 comments! I'll have to join a blog community like Bethany did and diverse my readers! And my reading. I'm looking for good gardening, cooking, organizing one. Any suggestions will be welcome!


And on a much happier note today Mom and I picked up the lamp base. Major changes to it, the addition of 3 bulb holders, a top to accommodate the shade, six pounds of lead in the bottom to keep it from toppling over from the weight of the shade and viola, we have a renovated lamp base. They cleaned her up and she is shiny new. And looks spectacular if I do say so myself. Here are a few photos, we still need to darken the silver solder, and we will soon. (or maybe after Mom gets back from Portland/Chelan)






Pretty impressive! And we are not done, we also want to find the perfect cobalt beads for the pulls. But that will come in time.

Time is flying

Hard to believe it's been since July 16 that I posted. Life is busy. Tim is in school and taking 3 math classes and a Humanaties class. I am the number one tutor for the math classes and editor for all the papers. Three are at Strayer and one is on line. This keeps him quite busy. He is also in charge of the houses, groceries and errands. He is doing quite well and just through midterms and I think has 4 A's again. YEA!
Last Friday the 30th we had a lovely visit with Mary McInerney and the Keanes. They are on the east coast for their annual Keane week at the Jersey shore. Mary and Kevin's children are all doing well. Colette will be a Sophmore at Fordham in NYC, Brendan is a senior at his catholic school and playing basketball. He is 6'10", I missed seeing him as he took a red eye east after his baskedball games. Will is taller than Colette now and will be in 9th grade. And Jack has wonderful curls back in his blonde locks and will be in 7th grade. Will and Jack are doing their usual summer meals while out of school. I so enjoy visitng with all of them, and do wish they lived closer.
I am working myself silly. I'd say I average about 50-60 hours a week and am taking call on the weekends to help make ends meet. I am off this week and totally enjoying a week of nothing. Pat was down in the beginning of the week while Tim was in MD in school, they switched places and now I get to enjoy the end of the week with Tim. I brought a few projects to work on, none of which are getting done. I am reading the Shack, an interesting take on The trinity. We'll see how it ends.
Kate is at the lake for 3 weeks, so no news of Sibley this week from her. I am sure she is in total bliss.
Holly is busy with Will and teaching him songs. His little 2 year old voice is so sweet on the phone.
Mom is lonely and bored at home with Kate and I gone this week. BUT she will be going to see the west coast family in Portland and Washington state soon. Kate is joining her on that trip. I'll stay here and hold the fort down.
I cannot belive how hot it has been here. The beginning of the week we had the windows open and today there is a red hot heat advisory!
My sunflowers are doing well here. The fountain attracts hundreds of birds as water is at a premium with no rain and intense heat.
Life is good. We are doing well.

So I better post

Having just cruised all my blogs I usually read and seeing no new posts I was disappointed. So, thought I, I better update mine as it is almost a week since I myself have posted.

So my week in a not too exciting nutshell:

Monday: 24 hours of call, 16 hours of work, tired Heidi
Tuesday: 24 hours of call, only 12 hours of work, Heidi getting numb! Tim had class and had dinner on the stove for me when I came home, he is the best.
Wednesday: 8 hours of work, Home and to bed by 7pm! Tim in class till 9:30 pm.
Thursday: 8 hours of work, managed to have the energy to stop by Mom's on the way home.

Learned that I have a quick tongue and need to not be so honest all the time. Hold my thoughts and be careful about what I say. I had always thought honesty was the best answer, sometimes being quiet is the best and then that can bite you in the buns too. Sometimes I am dammed if I do, and dammed if I don't. Life is complicated. I really do the best I can and never mean to hurt anyone.

At Mom's did the final inspection on the glass of the lamp and we are ready to "spot solder" the glass to we can really solder and start the final steps! The spot soldering keeps the pieces from shifting and falling off while the lamp is tilted to be flat. We are so close to ready. Tim needs to drill a hole in the dome so we can mount it on the nifty Tim lamp leveler that he built for us to use when we solder. The lamp needs to be level so the solder won't run....you'll see in photos, once it gets to that point. Had a lovely dinner with Mom and scooted home to bed. Tim went down to the beach after school tonight as he wants to do a spring cleaning in the Dove Knoll house. I love a man that loves to clean! He is the best. He is busy with school too.
Friday: worked 7 hours, zipped home to finish some wash, and rode to Rehoboth Beach with Kate for the weekend. This is car week in Ocean City (oh joy), and Karen, Garry, Drew and assorted crew are in OC. Kate came to attend the birthday dinner on Saturday night. She stayed in Rehoboth in the calm of Dove Knoll.
Saturday: Tim made us a wonderful breakfast. Kate and I did some major damage shopping, she shopped, I looked. Had a nice day. Kate went to Embers in OC, I took a nap!
Sunday: Quiche for breakfast by Tim today! More shopping in Lowes, they have the best garden center in Lewes. Kate left early to be home in time for the season Closure of Lost. Tim and I puttered, I planted a new catmint (very pretty perennial with purple flowers and smells like mint, but does not take over), some morning glories and sunflowers seeds under the new trellis. We left for home by 3pm so I could watch my 60 minutes and see Lost too.
And that brings me around to today, Monday. A crazy day at work, we all arrived to 10 add ons, soon to be 12. Wonderful staff, we all got most of them done by 3pm.

Once again home to dinner by Tim. Yummo, sausage and sour kraut!

Hope everyone else has had a productive week. Know you are loved. I sure do.

Life, Blogging and comments

So, I have become one of those people who do not blog, but read others blogs and get sad when there is not a new blog daily from everyone. So, I better get my act together and blog more often. Here is the latest in my life.

Life is fine here in Silver Spring. No prying little fingers in the kitchen to distract me from my blog! Last night I made a batch of chicken soup for my husband who has a cold. He says it is healing him.

Tonight is the retirement party for my Dr. Gray. I've worked with him for 20 years, and will miss him tons. I am jealous for him and his retirement. Only 20 more years for me! Oh joy! I am truly blessed to have been able to work with such a man of great stature.

My "lights only" tree is still up, with one ornament only-all 4 of us have a little bird ornament this year. Actually pretty funny about the 4 of us. Between us we have all options covered. Mom: tree, ornaments, no lights, Holly lights, ornaments, no tree, Me: tree, lights (one ornament after Christmas!) and the best one this year, Kate: Tree, ornaments and lights! Silly I know, but fun!

We have not seen temps above 32 in 3 weeks. It is wicked cold here, and with the wind, the wind chill gets us to single digits. Tonight we are expecting more snow 1-3 inches. Oh joy. I am on call this weekend and really do not want to deal with snow on call.

Tim is in class again. Only 14 more classes for him to get he BS in IT. Five more and he will have an AA. Yea!

Mom and I will be back in class on Tuesday for our stained glass lamp shade....watch out Tiffany lamps!

Not much else.