Seattle Summer

Lillie loved the flowers.
Lillie took this very cool shot of the EMP and Space Needle.

This week I had a visit from my niece and got to play tourist. I'm embarrassed to say I hadn't been to Pike Place all summer. We had so much fun. We did a lot of walking and rode the monorail to the Seattle Center.

The weather was perfect, the market was crowded, flowers were beautiful. We had a fun time.

Friday night we went to dinner at Mama Stortinis at Kent Station. Lillie flew home to California Saturday morning.

Hair Update

What a boring title for this post! However, I need to mark that it's been 8 weeks since my hair was last colored. I also went and got a much shorter cut. I'm happy with the cut, it's fun having it short and it cleaned the ends up quite a bit.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Father's Birthday. He was born 96 years ago today.

Here is a post I wrote two years ago: Remembering Dad

This is a picture of my 73 year old Father walking me down the aisle in 1988.

Delete

There is a lot of freedom when you hit the delete button. It is like setting something free, letting go. Today I deleted an email from April 2008. It was from a very close, dear friend of mine, who in a time of crisis felt alone, bitter and angry toward some of those people close to her.

It was the type of email one would write when you are so angry at a situation that you want to punch the wall. So instead you sit down and you write. Years ago, it would have been a hand written letter and once written, you would feel better and you would tear up that letter or burn that letter and move on.

Well that didn't happen, instead the email was sent. It was read out loud to my husband and summarized to a few other family members. Tears were shed for many months after. It was a breakup. A friendship breakup after 30 years. And it involved more than just two people, it involved families.

I have kept the email in my saved folder (why do we do that? I don't know) and during the first year I occasionally reread it to remind me why my friend no longer wanted to speak to me. Eventually I was able to laugh and joke about it. But was that just my defense mechanism, a way to avoid the pain? The hurt of the breakup remained.

People come in and out of our lives, they leave an imprint on our souls. And when they are gone that imprint remains, as does all the many memories, so much time shared together. The delete button doesn't remove any of that and I wouldn't want it to.

Our individual actions impact the lives of those around us in so many different ways and most of the time we have no idea how big that impact can be. Our daily decisions have the ability to alter our future.

Yes, I do believe life would be sweet if we could control how other people act, think and react. But it shouldn't really be a shock to discover that we don't have that kind of control. And really I don't think that's what we want.

So 2 years and 4 months later, I am hitting the delete button. I am turning the page. Will these tears I have now as I type this post be the last tears I shed over this situation? No, I'm sure they won't be.

But for now I will relish in the simple act of hitting the delete button.

Happy 30th on the 30th Natalie!

Journal entry August 30, 1980 (with updated commentary - yes it took me one month to write in my journal):

"Natalie was born Wednesday morning, July 30, 1980 at 3:26 a.m. 7 lbs. 5 ozs. 21 inches long. On Monday the 28th I had a doctor's appt. in the afternoon. I went & he checked me - I was dilated to 3. He said that the baby was coming real soon, and he wanted to check me at 6:00 that evening. I went back to work (I was working at Castleton's in the ZCMI center) & everyone was real excited. We went at 6:00 and nothing had changed. Monday night nothing happened. Tuesday I didn't go to work, I did laundry & some other errands (laundry was an errand because I had to go to the laundromat). That night it rained a little. Sam & I walked to 7-11 and then we walked around the block (our next door neighbor suggested we walk to move things along). We came home & I was getting ready to go to bed and my water broke (luckily I was in the bathroom at the time). We called Dr. Rasmussen and we were at the hospital (LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City) before midnight. They checked me in at the hospital & hooked me up in a labor room. Sam was with me through it all. I was in labor for about 3 hours. It was a really neat experience to see the baby born. Quite a miracle! The hospital was really nice. I could have the baby with me anytime. I came home on Friday morning."

And that day my life was changed forever.

Happy 30th Birthday Natalie!
Love you lots, Mom

Forever Young
May the good Lord be with you
Down every road that you roam
And may sunshine and happiness
Surround you when you're far from home
And may you grow to be proud, dignified and true
And do unto others as you'd have done to you
Be courageous and be brave
And in my heart you'll always stay
Forever young, forever young
Forever young, forever young
May good fortune be with you
May your guiding light be strong
Build a stairway to Heaven
With a prince or a vagabond
And may you never love in vain
And in my heart you will remain
Forever young, forever young
Forever young, forever young
Forever young, forever young, yeah
And when you finally fly away
I'll be hoping that I served you well
For all the wisdom of a lifetime
No one can ever tell
But whatever road you choose
I'm right behind you, win or lose
Forever young, forever young
Forever young, forever young
Forever young, forever young
For, forever young, forever young

© WB MUSIC CORP.; SPECIAL RIDER MUSIC; ROD STEWART

Happy 30th Birthday to My Daughter Natalie

Life is Good!

Hair Update

It's now been just over 6 weeks and this is where I'm at with my hair.

Does She or Doesn't She?

Well she doesn't anymore. After more than a year of pondering to continue coloring my hair (every 4 weeks) or to go au naturel, I am going natural.

I found this amazing website and I love looking at the photos of the women as they grow out their hair and the bad part eventually gets cut off/grown out and replaced by whatever their natural color may be.

It's almost like waiting for Christmas morning to find out just how gray, white or silver my hair might be. I'm guessing at my current length (which will likely get shorter) it will probably take me about 8 months to grow out the color.

I'm 5 weeks into the transition and am sporting an awesome skunk stripe and I'm thinking in the near future hat's will become my new best friend.

In the meantime I apologize for staring but I'm now obsessed with seeing how many women have let their hair go natural. It's kind of like when you are pregnant, you just keep seeing pregnant women everywhere you go.

And to my sisters - keep on rocking your gray/white/salt'n pepper hair!

Saturday Satisfaction

I'm reporting back to let you know my Saturday has been going really good.

Here's my list I put together on Friday night. It's not in any particular order (except for the first item)

• Sleep in - spent one week on vacation waking up at 9 a.m. then back to getting up at 5:45 a.m., on Saturday I'll find a compromise. - woke at 8:00 a.m.
• Deep clean the bathroom - need I repeat that I've been gone the last two weekends? - it's sparkly and smells good
• Vacuum - ditto the above
• Sew - working on a lap quilt, table runner and some other items, plus a backlog of quilt tops that need finished, not to mention just yesterday I ordered some Christmas fabric. - still have the rest of the weekend
• Saturday market - this one is dependant on somewhat decent weather, looking to see what local produce is out there. - so much fun, glad to see so many people there. Saw a black poodle in a dress and a 12 year old boy playing his clarinet with a basket for money! And the funniest thing happened. I was sitting on a bench munching on peas. Wally was waiting for the bathroom. On the side of the building was two garden hoses. Well Wally perfectly stepped on one of them that was laying on the handle and a big shot of water sprayed straight up in the air, we think it missed the guy sitting on the other bench.

My 5.00 flowers

• Maybe Carpinito Brothers, depends on what I find at Saturday market. - Washington berries from Carpinitos!

• Petco for a new dog bed. Did you know they make orthopedic beds for older dogs? - 10.00 less at Wal-mart and she approves.

This is Missy, she is 11 years old.

• Walk James Hill, it's been a very long time. - the hill is still there and if you don't do it very often the uphill climb totally kills your calves, 45 min round trip.
• Buy a few See's Chocolates and savor them (have a gift card from Mother's Day that isn't used up yet). - yuummm! (still have 2.00 left on my gift card)

Saturday Intentions on a Friday Night

Friday night means two things at my house, 1) husband will be watching Friday Night Smackdown and 2) I'll be on the computer.
I was out of town the last two Saturdays so I have quite a few things I'm hoping to accomplish tomorrow.

Here's my list in no particular order (except for the first item)

• Sleep in - spent one week on vacation waking up at 9 a.m. then back to getting up at 5:45 a.m., on Saturday I'll find a compromise.
• Deep clean the bathroom - need I repeat that I've been gone the last two weekends?
• Vacuum - ditto the above.
• Sew - working on a lap quilt, table runner and some other items, plus a backlog of quilt tops that need finished, not to mention just yesterday I ordered some Christmas fabric.
• Saturday market - this one is dependant on somewhat decent weather, looking to see what local produce is out there.
• Maybe Carpinito Brothers, depends on what I find at Saturday market.
• Petco for a new dog bed. Did you know they make orthopedic beds for older dogs?
• Walk James Hill, it's been a very long time.
• Buy a few See's Chocolates and savor them (have a gift card from Mother's Day that isn't used up yet).

Missing from the list is laundry and grocery shopping. Both were just done on Tuesday. Not much laundry so no big deal and groceries can wait until Monday.

Monday - ahhh, a holiday. That means anything I don't get done on Saturday I still have Monday. Did I mention I'm in the top 10 of the master list of procrastinators? There's something that I do well.

Here's a beautiful photo for your enjoyment of my favorite vacation spot. Henry's Lake in Island Park, Idaho.

My Stalker

I just want to say that sometimes this little guy is just too close for comfort. Yes, I am guilty of feeding him seeds and peanuts, perhaps it's love.

He actually hears me unlocking the front door and runs to the step. I have to open the door a tiny bit to peek out and make sure I can step outside without any critters getting inside.

But it makes the day interesting.