29 years ago

I was in the hospital, giving birth to my one and only child. I was certain it was a boy, even had him named "David". So after a day of feeling like I had the flu, and four hours of intense discomfort, finalized in a half hour of agony, when the doctor said "Here she is," I asked her to check. And she said "Check for yourself" and handed me the most beautiful baby girl. David went out the window, hello Laurie.

I was a single parent at a time when it was VERY unusual to be a single parent. I think the ladies in my room at the hospital were completely confused because I had five men come and visit me while I was recuperating--ah the old days, where they let you stay an entire week--and none of them was the father.

I look back now and wonder how I survived it all. The being "odd", the stress of working, finding daycare, finding a place to live--more than once. I can only say that God was watching over me, He sent so much help my way it was amazing. And now I look at this photo above (no, that wasn't me, that was Laurie with her second son), and think, how thankful I am to have had her, to have had these past 29 wonderful years and how thankful I am that I can be there for her.

End of September

A friend of mine sent me a cartoon of the old "Lucy suckers Charlie Brown with the football" cartoon with the caption "Never give up." She wondered if Charlie were a perennial optimist or stupid. My opinion is that Charlie Brown needed to get himself a new friend that's all :) Some friends are toxic and sometimes walking away is the better part of valor. (I never liked Lucy--thought she epitomized the worst in people and why should I want to read about her.) I don't think it's giving up to find someone new to hold the football [laughing].

Weigh-in this morning: 128.2. I'm happy with that although I was not happy with how I ate last week. Far too much junk food. I'm still working on "real" nutrition.

We bank with Washington Mutual so things are a'changin' for us bankwise. People say that this is like the Great Depression but we need to focus on the fact that savings in a bank are protected up to $100,000 per account. Like Suze Orman said on Today this morning--start saving folks!

Busy day for me today--have to put away the stuff we hauled from Las Vegas and put into the casa. I'm going to check some "simplifying clohing" websites for inspiration. I really think I have too many of the wrong kind of clothes--wrong colour, were can I wear this to, kind of clothes. I am going to return the t-shirt and sweater I bought at Coldwater Creek two weeks ago. Haven't worn them yet because I realized I had little to match them to. I want to get very, very streamlined about my clothes. Have just a few clothes but clothes that I feel good in.

My other project for today/this week is to find a way to move my 2000 photos off my laptop and onto CDs so I can still access them but they're not taking up so much space.

Tomorrow I'm going to make an appt to get my hair cut in Santa Fe. The balloon festival starts in Albuquerque this weekend so next Tuesday I will go down and check it out. Dh hates crowds so I will go by myself.

And that's about it from me for now. Yesterday I went for a 45 minute walk around the area. It is so peaceful but also a bit tricky as the country roads are narrow and I have to keep my ears wide open for the sound of cars because there are no sidewalks and only narrow verges. And the roads have sharp bends so that cars can't see what's around the corner. Still, it was gorgeous at 4:30--about 75º with warm sunshine dappling the trees and bushes and only the sounds of horses neighing and dogs barking. Sleepy, sleepy, sleepy little area.

Back from Las Vegas

Just got back from a whirlwind two-day trip to LV to collect our "personal belongings" from the LV house. Yay, it's rented for the next 7 months! With all our furniture in it! So our life has been reduced to one 4x8 storage unit, the bits and bobs we have in our rented casa here in New Mexico. Will we ever see our furniture again, to hold and sleep in? Who knows? What we are hoping is that the tenants will fall so in love with the place that they buy it lock stock and barrel (well, maybe if we could keep the bedroom set).

On the plane to LV I very much enjoyed reading New Mexico magazine and am looking forward to doing a whole lot of things in October. As dh doesn't like crowds, the first event on my list--the balloon festival--will have to be done solo. That's okay, I don't mind.