12-12-12

December 12, 2012, or 12-12-12, will be the last date of its kind (a day when all three numericals in a date are the same) for the next 88 years. The next time this will happen is on January 1, 2101, or 01-01-01.

The number 12 has great significance in many cultures. In western tradition, it is commonly associated with completeness and seen as a perfect and harmonious unit. As such, it has found its way into religion (e.g. the 12 apostles), mythology (e.g. the 12 gods of Olympus), and everyday life (e.g. 12 hours on a modern clock face) a dozen donuts.

 
The number 12 has interesting mathematical properties as well. There are few small numbers that can be evenly divided by so many subsets.

And if this works for me this blog will be stamped 12-12-12 12:12 p.m.

(I don't plan on being around for 2101 and I'm okay with that.)

December 2012

Oh how I love the lights at Christmas time.There is definitely a lot more work to do in the month of December. The tree is up, the house is decorated and the decoration boxes are even put away in the garage. Now it's on to more shopping, wrapping and shipping. And then the baking and candy making.

December is such a special time of the year. And just last night we got a new addition to our family. This is my great niece baby Elsie. She is named after my mother who was born in 1922. I have now heard of two other little Elsie's recently. It's just so sweet and certainly makes me remember my mother.

Welcome to the world Elsie Norah Madson 12-9-12

Christmas is such an emotional time of the year. It's the memories, the lights, the traditions, the music, the gifts, the loved ones no longer with us, the new ones joining us, it all just comes together this time of year. 

Christmas is like a warm embrace, a friendly reminder at the end of the year. A reminder that lets us know we are thought of and loved and remembered. And that a new start, a fresh year is just around the corner.

IGNITE

I have had this word stuck in my head for a few days. Ignite, ignition.

ignite  (ɪɡˈnaɪt)

—    Vb

1.      to catch fire or set fire to; burn or cause to burn

2.      ( tr ) chem  to heat strongly

3.      ( tr ) to stimulate or provoke: the case has ignited a nationwide debate

[C17: from Latin ignīre  to set alight, from ignis  fire]

It started when I was cleaning off my desk at home. I seem to accumulate books, magazines and pieces of paper. I was thinking of taking a bunch of my diet books and giving them away. I am that person that buys the latest diet book, the newest fad, the one book that will save me from ever buying another diet book again. And how did that work for me you ask? I'm skipping that question.

That got me thinking about all those books I have collected over the years. Here are a few things I have learned:

1. I skim read diet books, I do not ever read the entire book, they make them too big.
2. They say the same thing in different ways, eat less, move more. I know that, I get it that.
3. You buy one book, you've seen them all.
4. It's really easy to read about it, to learn it, but I haven't figured out how to get myself to actually DO IT for more than about 3 days.

And that is when I started thinking of the word ignite. I know what to do, I know exactly how to do it, I just can't seem to ignite. My ignition key is stuck.

What is it that makes a person want something bad enough that they will change their eating habits? And if you are not willing to change your eating habits does that mean, you don't want it bad enough? 

I talk mostly about eating habits because I am a regular exerciser. I love to go to the gym, I wish I had more time to spend at the gym. But I also like sweets and carbs and all that white processed stuff I'm not supposed to eat.

I know that if I could get my ignition working I could retrain myself to eat healthier food. It would make a big difference in my life.

I'm almost there, I'm thinking about it. And I'm stoking the fire and eventually it will IGNITE!
 

O is for Orange and October

I feel the need to apologize up front by saying that my Halloween decorations remind me of my friends. I mean that in a good way, not a scary witchy way. The cute little bear in the witches hat was painted many years ago in a class at Kent Commons. In that same class was a lady named Valerie and we worked in the same office building and showed up in the same painting class. I still can't believe I ever painted like that. But step by step instruction really helped.

 Ah, the Beanie Babies. It was probably back in the 1990's when my coworker Lynda and I did the mad dash on our lunch hour to hit a couple of stores in search of the most recently released Beanie Baby. We were so proud of our finds and rationalized what we were going to do with them. But hey, these are holiday ones, that's good. Now as for the other 287 packed in totes in the garage.....

These cute little wood painted pumpkins were done by my friend Yvonne. They were a Super Saturday craft that I never had time to finish. And the pumpkins were my first cutting project on my little band-saw that my husband set me up with.

Love, love, love this wood birdhouse. We call it a birdhouse because of it's shape. I have a different holiday hanger to put on each month, some months I have a choice. It was a Super Saturday project and took a couple of years to complete all the months. Once again Yvonne coordinated this. See that little orange painted light bulb? I'm not 100% sure, only 92% sure that my friend 

These are all good memories and good associations. Happy October!

Dusting the Dust Ruffle

It's been a very nice October weekend. I've been doing some "spring" cleaning. I'm a procrastinator, what can I say?

Here are some things I learned while cleaning this weekend:

• Dust ruffles collect dust they don't ruffle dust and they must be washed
• Dust ruffles can easily be removed out from under the mattress by one person, but are nearly impossible to put back on with just one person (and balancing a mattress on your head (while wearing a red headscarf) while stretching your arms out underneath it to pull the dust ruffle across, may not be the best idea)
• Learned the meaning of data plan versus Wi-Fi on my cell phone, while streaming part of a conference session live. Thank you AT&T for texting me the count down as to when I would max out 100% of my monthly data plan (took me three messages from them to figure out what it meant and realize my Wi-Fi was turned off and has probably been turned off for days)
• It really is fun to wear random things you find while cleaning, such as, if you find a large red head scarf it should be worn while finishing the dusting
• One can never own too many pairs of shoes
• If I alternate my shoes in the shoe rack one more pair will fit on each shelf
• When you find a book you bought in 1997 titled "The 5 Day Miracle Diet", chances are it did not work then and will not work now (that said, you know I'm going to look at it anyway)
• Reflexology sandals bought years ago at the State Fair are still fun to own, but must be vacuumed to remove the dust from in between the beads
• Rereading a wonderful letter kept for a few years, from a friend thanking me for helping her with something made me feel really happy and I was able to also let the letter go
• Was reminded that unplugging alarm clocks is not a good idea, dust around the cord (my clock is all set and my alarm is set, however my clock now thinks I live in the Eastern time zone and sometime when I least expect it, it will automatically reset the time three hours ahead)
• As you are rearranging your shoes and your husband asks if you need a garbage bag a simple no thank you is the most appropriate response

This is How I Roll

Tomorrow is October 1st. Wow, next thing you know people will start talking about Christmas. The other morning on my way to work I stopped at Walgreen's to stock up on candy for the office. The cashier asked me if I was stocking up for Halloween!

Who buys Halloween candy in September and then puts it away for 5 weeks and still has unopened bags by October 31st? Certainly not me.

I can't tell you how much candy corn I have eaten in the last three weeks. I may be cured of candy corn by now. Except it's really, really good tossed into Chex mix.

The weather is slowly shifting, it's darker way earlier in the evenings, the school buses are out in the mornings as I drive to work. You can just feel the change from summer to fall. It's a beautiful time of year.

I don't want to actually say this out loud, but lately I have kind of missed having rain. It's been a really long time since we've had any real amount of rain. I'm grateful for the beautiful fall days we are having. I know the rain will come soon enough and then I shall miss the sunshine.

I'm working on a notebook to get my life organized. I'm working on it slowly. Right now it's a small spiral notebook which I have started writing in to categorize things I want to work on, new habits I need to acquire. And just all around new attitudes about the things I'm involved in and what I want to be doing. Once I have enough drafted I'll take it to the computer and then the pages will end up in a notebook which I will carry around and plan to review on a regular basis.

The summer just seemed to be a big whirlwind and for awhile I felt out of control of so many things. I need to regroup and this is my way of doing it. There are so many things I want to make the time to do and I know I have to make a conscientious effort to do them.

I need to do more menu planning, time management so I have time to be doing the things I want to do and not just fall asleep in the evenings watching TV.

September is my birthday month and as such I've always considered it my New Year. Change is in the air and I'm going to be a part of it. Basic self improvement, that's the direction I'm headed.

Here's a fall picture from another year. We aren't quite up to this color of leaves just yet.

Just Another Day

Here is a video of Gisele and I hula hooping, at least that is what we tried to pull off.

My Mother

Today is my Mother's birthday. She was born on August 31, 1922. That was 90 years ago. She passed away in 2004. August has been an emotional month. It's also my Father's birthday and their wedding anniversary.

And tomorrow I celebrate my birthday. I've spent a lot of time thinking about my parents lately. Sometimes I think it would be fun to write down all the things I would converse with them if they were still around. Everyday, ordinary things.

Things like, "hey Mom I finally found a chocolate chip cookie recipe that turns out for me, it's so good I made them three times in one week", she would understand that. And "I think you'd really love coconut shrimp", it wasn't around back then. And, "hey look at this beautiful orchid that I got to bloom". She would smile at all those things and say something witty and complementing. That's just how she was.

To add to the emotions of the month I have a close friend who is watching her daughter lose her battle with cancer. A daughter who is close in age to my own daughter. The divine beauty of their mother daughter relationship as they go through this last shared mortal experience has been amazing to me. And I am grateful for the privilege of being a part of it.

How do you say good bye to a parent, and how do you say good bye to your child? How do you look at your grand children and explain to them that their mother isn't going to be there next month when they get home from school.

How do you capture today, these real moments in time? The shared experiences, the joy, the pain. How do you mentally record every single minute, each conversation, every smile? Somehow you just do.

In the 1970s a play was written called My Turn on Earth. I was in college and saw the stage play in Utah. The lyrics were so powerful many of them have stayed with me all these years.

One of the songs is titled Forever. The play and music was written by Lex De Azevedo and Carol Lynn Pearson.

Forever

Some dreams must wait,

Life isn't long enough

Some dreams must wait to come true

Sometimes it seems

Life just begins and then

All of a sudden it's through

There's songs you won't sing

There's stories that you won't ever hear

Pages you'll never turn
Words that you'll never know

Things that you never will learn

Some dreams must wait

Life isn't long enough

Some dreams must wait to come true

It's nice to know there's all eternity

For everything you'd like to do
There aren't any clocks

There aren't any things like calendars

No such thing as too late

Just always and evermore

That's why I think it's so great

That Heavenly Father and Mother

Figured it out so clever

There's never enough time

And that is why I'm

Glad that we go on forever

We go on forever.

I have some other friends that have family members battling cancer at this time. I sit on the sidelines, right now I'm merely an observer and I marvel at how people cope. I watch and I learn from them.

My heart, my love and my prayers goes out to them all. I truly do understand life and death, I don't question why, but I also feel the earthly pain of it.

And tomorrow, well tomorrow is my birthday. It's my day for celebrating my life. I will spend the day at a wedding with my husband and his family. And we shall have joy.

For all things in my life I am truly grateful. My birthday is always like my very own New Year's Day. Happy New Year!

Evening Primrose

These beautiful flowers bloom in the evening.

Video

Remembering Dad

When my Dad was 43 years old I was born. I've always known my Dad with balding gray hair and a mustache. Sometimes he added a beard. He was a loving patient man, inventive, liked jokes, loved to sing in his Barbershop chorus, and took college classes in his 70's.

He grew up in Manti, Utah and worked on a turkey farm. He went to college, served in the military, raised us five kids. He and Mom had 20 great years of retirement living. They spent time in Yuma, St. George, Boise and Island Park and they served two church missions.

I have lots of good childhood memories of doing things with Dad. One of them I was thinking about recently, funny how memories are triggered by smells, sights and sounds. When I was in grade school and Jr. High I used to go to the Boise auction with him.

He would go by himself early on Saturday morning and scope out the auction and estimate what time things he was intererested in might be up for auction. (And I'm also guessing this was his quiet time away from work and us kids.)

Then he would come home and a couple of hours later I would go with him and we would walk the aisles, smell the onions as they cooked hamburgers, and I got to watch the bidding. To this day I still love auctions.

Dad passed away June 7, 1998, just weeks before Father's Day. I miss him and I'm grateful for the memories I have and the special times I shared with him growing up and as an adult.


My wedding to Wally in January 1988, (Dad 73).



Saturday

Rhodys in the backyard. I love this one.

"Saturday is a special day it's the day we get ready for Sunday." And as such I think we should be granted an extra few hours added to the day.

It's 10:30 a.m. so far with we have been to the automotive store, the lumber store, the gas station and McDonalds. Now I'm heading outside to vacuum and clean the inside of my car, then mow the back lawn.

Later I will spend three hours hanging out with the youth at the church for their second to last dance practice before the big day next Saturday.

If I can find the guy on the street corner selling cases of strawberries from California I hope to be making strawberry rhubarb jam this evening.

Laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, well those will happen as time permits.

A shout out to my daughter who is spending her Saturday with her husband's family as they celebrate the life of her husband's grandmother, Tink Hanson.

And also a shout out to my dear friend since 3rd grade Gail, as she hopes to come home from a few days in the hospital after fighting a nasty infection after having surgery on her foot. 

Go out and enjoy the day!

Not Your Regular Hula Hoop

I have become enamored by this video. I work with her mother and she had told me her daughter does this dancing, but I hadn't seen it before. She emailed me this video today and I think it's beautiful.

Friday Night Smackdown

Friday nights at our house consist of Wally watching wrestling and me sitting at the computer. I had intended to write on my blog tonight but got carried off to the world of Facebook and Pinterest. And just now I looked at the clock and it's just about 10 pm. At 10 pm the wrestling is over and I normally clean up the kitchen then go to bed.

But I decided to write a quick blog anyway. Besides tomorrow is Saturday and I can clean the kitchen up in the morning.

I thought of something to add to my life list today. I left the office at lunch time to run an errand in Bellevue. That involves driving across Lake Washington on I-90. I watched people on their bicycles going across the bridge. How fun would that be? I have no idea how many miles it is or even where you start. But that sure would be a fun thing to do.

Also in celebration of the Seattle Center's 50th anniversay, they have put in some new rides and a zip line. Yep a zip line. Something I have yet to do. That is also on my list.

Utah April 2012

It's an annual trip which started for me many years ago when my daughter was in college in Provo. Every April my two sisters from Idaho and I go to Springville, Utah to spend a long weekend with our other sister. We do a lot of spring cleaning, watch a lot of movies, eat really good, stay up way too late, visit with lots of extended family and just have a really good time. Meanwhile the husbands bachelor it, each home alone.

This year the two from Idaho decided it would be quicker and less expensive to drive. I flew in and arrived about 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday. I was picked up at the airport by my son and daughter. Then we went to downtown SLC. We walked around the new City Creek shopping center, had lunch on main street, and visited the brand new Harmon's grocery store.

Then Natalie went back to work and Wayne and I made a trip to Thanksgiving Point to see the tulips. It was a Seattle weather kind of day, overcast and some rain, but that didn't stop us. Every year I've attempted to see the tulips and by golly this year I was going to do it.

We rented a Segway scooter so Wayne had some enjoyment while I wandered the beautiful landscaped gardens and took a gadzillion photos.

Here are a few tulip photos, for more see my Facebook page.

Wednesday we all arrived about the same time to Nancy's house. Sue and Becky got there just shortly before me but still had time to jump in and get a head start cleaning.


Emily made us homemade soup for dinner. I'm sure we watched some movies but I can't remember what movies, what nights. We stayed up till after 1:00 a.m., as we would do for the remainder of our visit.


On Thursday Aunt Margaret and cousin Ruby made the trip up from Manti to visit with us. We had a nice lunch of chicken salad sandwhiches on croissants. It was great to see them.



Standing: Aunt Margaret, Sue. Sitting: Ruby, Becky, Nancy, Emily, Trudy and Wayne.



Margaret and Becky




The hat



Friday afternoon we were visited by cousin Mara who brought her jewelry making supplies. We had a great time making earrings, necklaces and bracelets.

Natalie came down on Saturday to spend the night and to have Emily do her hair. Saturday was spent cleaning the garage, with help from Russell and Wayne. Everyone pitched in. There were truck loads taken to Scott's house, to the dumpster and to Deseret Industries. It was a very warm day and a lot of work.


Happy Birthday to Scott!




They weren't actually watching the movie yet, they were trying to figure out how to get the Spanish subtitles off the TV!



Saturday was also Scott's birthday. We had Lillie and Long join us for dinner and birthday cake. There was more movie watching and more caramel popcorn and a very, very late night.

Here are some pictures taken on Sunday morning. 

 I'll do a separate blog about spending Sunday in Deer Valley and Park City. It was a wonderful trip this year. It's alway so very nice to be able to spend time with my kids and my sisters and nieces, nephews, cousins, aunt. And the weather was beautiful. I really needed the sunshine after all our spring rain in Seattle.

Embroidery Floss Easter Eggs

Here is the site for step by step instructions. 
http://www.crafts-for-all-seasons.com/embroidery-floss-easter-eggs.html
They are a very fun project.
The weather was so nice today after work that I took my basket of eggs out in the backyard for some photography practice.

Here are the results.

Colorful

Love this picture, just lucked out with the timing of the afternoon sun.

Bonus backyard springtime picture.

These were shot with my Nikon D5000 and I'm happy to say I now shoot in manual about 95% of the time. I need to keep practicing. Hoping the rain lets up a little bit more.

Curly Ribbon

Birthday Cupcake Hanger

To make curly ribbon, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Select dowels depending on the size of curl you want. I was using about a 1/4 stick. These are sticks that I got in bags of stuffing years ago and I saved them and use them for all sorts of things. Remember all that 2 for 1.00 ribbon you have collected? Well now is your time to use some of it.

Tape one end of the ribbon to the dowel using a small piece of scotch tape. Then wrap the ribbon around the dowel and secure the other end with a small piece of tape.

Bake in the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes. Keep an eye on the sticks. You may smell the ribbon and tape heating up. I've never had any problems with them in the oven. After about 20 minutes removed from oven and let the sticks cool.

Gently remove the tape, sometimes you may have to cut it off. Unroll the ribbon and there you have curly ribbon. It will stay curly. It can be used for various crafts and is cute added to hair bows.

Down and Dirty - 3 Weeks Later

Welcome to the world little seedlings. 

Slot # 2 is cilantro, # 3 is chives and # 1 and # 3 are tarragon and oregano. (I'll know which is which when they get a little bigger.)

I have had to thin the oregano and tarragon and need to a little bit more. The cilantro is starting to look like cilantro. Time to plant more cilantro I think.

Letters

This was my fun project I started last year. I'm working to acquire the rest of the alphabet. I took the photos, edited them and had them printed up at Costco. I bought the frames at Michael's and assembled them with black paper as backing.

Capturing Thoughts

I wish at this time of night I had the energy and patience to tackle all the projects that drifted through my mind while I was at work during the day. It's never when I have the time to actually be doing something that I think about doing something because I'm usually doing something else. That sentence actually does make sense to me.

When I'm at work during the day there are moments where I run through a mental list of all that I want to accomplish at home in the evenings after dinner.

But here it is Friday night, after 9:00 p.m.; I have the second load of laundry in the wash, the kitchen is cleaned up, and there is a pile of paperwork sitting on the table. The same pile that has been there since Monday when I was looking for that one last piece of paper before doing our taxes.

And my bags I brought home from the Sewing Expo like two weeks ago are still sitting in the spare bedroom, full of fabric, patterns and papers. And the fabric I ordered through the mail is all over the spare bedroom since I took it out of the box when I was on a meeting call when I was working from home.

When does all that stuff get taken care of? I don't really know. But it will, it always does. Just not always when and how I planned it. Right now I just want to put the clothes in the dryer and go read in my bedroom. But I don't have a book started right now. And I don't want to start a book just yet because then I would ignore these things that need to be done. Because when I'm reading that's all I want to do, read.

I'm rambling now, I know that. I wanted to write tonight and I did. I also want to write a poem just for fun but haven't thought of a topic. I think I'll say something about all the rain we've had this month. Lots of it, every day. But with a little bit of sunshine here and there. Just to remind us that there will be sunshine.

I lay in bed

The rain taps gently on the roof

Sometimes it wakes me in the night

In the morning I awake

and it has stopped

The air is fresh

The grass green

The white crocus peeks out of the ground

It’s coming soon

I know it is

Spring

Flowers

Cut grass

And bicycles

Soon

Gym Dandy

This was a good week at the gym. Even though I have a cold I still felt well enough to get up at 5:30 and make it to the gym four days this week. I generally use the treadmill, some days a few weight machines and then today was a treat. I took my bathing suit and spent some time in the sauna, steam room, hot tub and pool. I love water and I love the heat so it was a nice way to start my morning.

I've been going to the gym in the morning now for about 3 years. I'm very accustomed to the morning "gym rats". The same group of us there at the same hour in the mornings. It's comforting. Mornings just work best for me. If I lived alone I would probably go in the evening and take classes, but for now mornings work best. 

Occasionally I'll go over to join a Zumba class on a Saturday. And I really like that.

Three years at the gym you might think would make me skinny, but it doesn't. It makes me fit and healthy (but still a little overweight). But I know I'm much better off getting the exercise than not doing anything. And I actually like exercising, I like going to the gym, I like the weight machines and I love the sauna.

Find a fitness routine that works for you. At home I have a hula hoop and free weights. I have a jump rope but not really any (private) place at home to use it. I just can't see me jump roping out in front of the house.

Whatever you do keep moving, keep limber and stay flexible. Learn to play and learn to relax. 

Sweets Surrendered

Before - my desk drawer

After - sealed (temporarily)

Hi, my name is Trudy and I love sugar (and Easter candy - big time). I've had a few weeks where my healthy eating just went right out the front door. In order to unlock the front door and invite my healthy eating habits to return I have put away my treats for a few days.

You're heard the expression, "she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth"? Well I think my expression is "I was born with a spoonful of sugar in my mouth".

Periodically I will give up candy, cookies, pastries, donuts (oh, now I'm getting hungry so I'll stop the list) for a few days to get my body back into wanting fruits and vegetables. After a few days then I can successfully have one piece of candy instead of 35.

That Milky Way Simply Caramel Bunny is delicious. I ate one a day or two ago. I digress. Anyway, this evening we are having stuffed cabbage rolls with spinach salad.

Tomorrow is day 2, I shall have my husband hide the scissors so the candy bag remains sealed. In reality what will happen is that I will forget all about the candy and 5 weeks from now when I'm looking in the cupboards for something I'll find the bag.