look what I just found in my inbox

This is my sister Lara and her husband Matthew and their dog Enzo. She said she sent this to me because she thought it would make me laugh.

a lot to write about, but for now I will share some pictures

I sat down to catch up on my e-mail and to write a post and after only sending one message and clearing out my inbox my brain just isn't up to the task.

Here we are on Christmas morning, which turned out to be a quiet and relaxing day to ourselves. Mr. C had the brilliant idea to open all of our presents on Christmas Eve while Mothership and Pops were over. As a result we were able to just chill and hang out with Gracie and the cats all day.

Oh, and the aquarium water has finally reached a safe nitrite level. We have 10 surviving fishees and they look like they are doing great to me.

More later.

A big, beautiful baby boy!

I'm a little late in reading the news, but am over-the-moon to find out that Beruriah and Josh over at Further Records are now holding Samuel in their arms. Congratulations!

the countdown starts

I picked up my last month of prescriptions at the pharmacy yesterday. While missing the little pill the other day made for a "sadly unfunctional" day, I believe that was largely due to the fact that I was caught off-guard and wasn't prepared for the physical reactions. Over the past few months I have developed practices that I know abate my anxiety and will be invaluable in the future. Most significantly is my daily meditation practice--this is so powerful. Right now there aren't really any situations or circumstances that are cause for stress or anxiety (imagine that!). But the absence of legitimate or "big" causes for stress or anxiety didn't necessarily preclude my experiencing anxiety in the past.

And then there is the other prescription...

I am uncomfortable about writing about it. I realize it is magical thinking that is causing this discomfort. Eleanor Roosevelt once said that you should do one thing each day that scares you, so I can just do this. (All the while I do realize that it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out, but that really isn't the point.)

We are ready to start trying. We have been ready for a few months now, but have had to wait for insurance to kick-in since the move. I don't plan to have a daily record of our path, regardless of how long or how short it might be, so that is all I will say about it for now.

And since I am sharing good news, here is some more: we are shopping for a house! We were pre-approved for a home loan this week and are happily looking around for the one that is right for us. Yay!

Gracie is doing very well. We will attend obedience classes soon, although we have already started our own training. She will sit, shake, and go down to the floor on command (but not when she is excited or distracted). And she is getting better at walking next to us rather than pulling us along. She loves all other animals, including the cats. The cats, however, don't really love her. Jackson growls at her whenever she comes near him. Gracie chases Cleo around, with her tail wagging like crazy because she just wants to play. Since Cleo is so fat we just let it happen, figuring the exercise will do her some good.

The fishees aren't doing so well. We had a tropical tank set up a few years ago and didn't lose any fish, so I thought I knew what I was doing. Apparently that was beginner's luck, though. This time Mr. C didn't hold back and bought a whole mess of fish and now they are dropping like flies. Or, more accurately, they are dropping like fish who are being poisoned by nitrite. Now I know. It's too bad so many beautiful little fishees had to die in order for me to become so knowledgeable about healthy bacteria and all that.

My days are so full. Lately I've become a night owl, though. What a luxury it is to be able to go to sleep without setting the alarm clock. The resident that was here moved to one of the other homes that has a 24 hour awake staff. Since then it has been one project after another for me and I am loving it. I also spend a lot of time with our residents--going on outings with them, helping out on "spa day," sharing meals, and just visiting with them. Tomorrow we are going to the mall so they can shop for Christmas presents.

November...?

Yesterday I forgot to take my little green pill. I take the lowest dose, but it still has made today difficult.

Our Gracie

look what found us at the B.est W.estern two weekends ago!

We drove to a city that is about an hour west of here to visit some friends from Seattle who were over staying with family. As we went out to the parking lot Saturday evening for a night-on-the-town (which turned out to be a booth near the door at a pretty seedy bar with karaoke that all four of us thought we'd vacate after a drink, but by then had won us over) this joyful doggy came bounding towards us. She licked all of us and scampered around, looking as adorable as can be. Our friend H begged us to take this sweet puppy home. Mr. C said that if she was still there in the morning that we would take her. Morning came late for us but when we walked into the parking lot again, sure enough she was bounding towards us with her tail wagging like crazy. I looked at her and looked at Mr. C and he just walked toward the car. He said that if she climbed in when he opened the door that we would take her home.

A trip to the vet came shortly after and now she is almost 100% recovered from her surgery (once we were home we discovered that she was in heat). She is very healthy (ribs are still showing, but we are feeding her well) and sooooo happy.

so much to say, but I won't even try to say it all

I realize that it has been over a month since I've posted. And even then my posting was few and far between. I know that the most boring blogging is about why one hasn't been blogging. Really the reasons for that (both practically and emotionally) are, I think, quite evident (or they will become evident as I resume writing) so it is pointless to labor over them.

So I won't try to write a "catch-up" post where I fill in all of the gaps.

It did occur to me a few days ago that I was, in part, holding back on blogging because I wasn't sure what ground was OK to cover. This prompted a conversation with Mr. C, who is far more concerned with privacy than I am, and now I feel comfortable writing about all of the changes that our lives have gone through/are going through.

It is very late. I should be stealing whatever sleep I can get, considering that over the last three days my sleep has been disrupted almost every hour on the hour. But I think I have a bit of the old insomnia tonight. Fortunately when the morning comes I have the ability to catch up on lost sleep. The reason for this is that Mr. C and I (and a staff of amazing care-givers who come in during the days) are caring for a beautiful woman who needs lots of assistance. The family business that we have joined consists of several a.dult f.amily h.omes. We are in the process of opening a new one. The business is very well established and my MIL has an amazing staff at the other homes, several of whom have been working for us here. Mr. C and I felt that it was important for us to have an understanding of what every level of this work entails, so we are getting all of the care-giving certifications and are living on-site through the licensing process. During this time we have the one resident here. She has been with us for three weeks now and we have grown so attached to her.

Our family has expanded since we have been here!
Oops, I just realized that I am logged on to Mr. C's settings, so I need to log off and continue this post later because I want to post a picture of our sweet puppy dog, Gracie.