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‎”You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.”

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

This is the entry on Facebook for Pema Chodron today. She is a Buddhist teacher and quite frankly, just makes a lot of sense. There has been a crapload of weather lately, people. Welp, the sun came out today (proverbially–it has been 100 and sunny all day in NC lately).

I am no longer employed by A—-Regional Medical Center (don’t want to be found by searches). Originally my last day was going to be Sept 24, but my (now former) manager and I decided that it would be best if it was today, Sept 2. We discussed it originally yesterday and I was unsure. Paul and I talked about it and he boiled it down: When else would I be able to get paid to take a month off. Man, he cuts to the chase, eh? I feel good about my decision and you can imagine how exciting it was to come home and take a nap with the dogs!

So I left at noon, took myself to lunch at Moe’s Southwestern Grill and then bought a pair of black boots I was looking at in Kohl’s.

October 4th I start as the Team Leader for Wellness Coaching with Active Health Management. Bottom line: 1/2 the number of employees, 1 dept instead of 6, 10% more money. Paul didn’t even have to summarize that one. I am really excited about the vision the VP has and the contract that I will be working on is a HUGE opportunity. I am not sure it is public knowledge so I will keep you posted on that one.

SO! I am on sabbatical for a month. So far my list has workout, nap and scrapbook every day. Besides that, what do YOU think I should do?

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A day at the lake

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Back in July, Paul’s aunt and uncle–Dub and Betsey–invited us to their house on Lake Norman. As is the case when you include Paul in fun outdoor activities, it rained. Now I know we were already wet since we were in the water, but you can only ignore intense lightening so long before it really becomes bad parenting. So we piled into Dub and Betsey’s basement rec room and let the wild rumpus begin!

OK, with this last picture…let the record reflect that I was indeed the best “French horn” player there that day. I know it was my mad oboe skills that put me on top.

You can see that we really owe Dub and Betsey a bigger than ever thank you for dealing with our chaos. They really are wonderful hosts and we look forward to our day at the lake every summer!

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Sanders Family Loose on the Town

Monday, August 16th, 2010

Oh yes, it is back to school time and we were caught shopping.

No caption: a picture is truly worth a thousand words.

Seriously, we just needed to get Tyler some shoes for his triathlon last week b/c his shoes were at his mom’s house and they were in the mountains. The kid goes through a pair every 8-10 weeks anyway so we decided to make it his back to school shoes. So then of course Anna needed shoes too. I am still working out the kinks to 1) shopping, 2) shopping with others, and 3) shopping with others who are not in my section. The above pic is the picture I came back to after I looked in the women’s shoe dept.

Obviously every shopping trip needs a break for snacks. Tyler was clearly gearing up for YEARS worth of shopping:

Tyler ends his vegan phase.

Anna has been very good lately about trying new foods. She picked out the horned melon at the grocery store one night, and we had it for dessert. It pretty much tastes like nothing jelly. Here is some proof:

After she and Tyler decided they didn't really want to eat it, they mixed the horned fruit w juice from some oranges we had and made "slop."

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Bluesy has a screw loose

Saturday, August 14th, 2010

Now, I love a nap as much as the next cat, but I at least pick a comfy spot. Not so much w Bluesy. My mom brought us this cactus from FL b/c it would be “pet proof.”

Pet Proof does not = Bluesy proof.

I feel like a prickly pear!

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Yes, our marriage can survive home improvements

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

Paul’s patience was tested through several trips to home improvement stores and even more instances of changing my mind. Let’s just say I HATED our old light fixtures. I don’t want to overstate it, but seriously–they were hideous. [no offense to anyone who might have them, they just didn't go w our stuff or the brushed nickel color I painted all our doorknobs this winter]. Here is the final result:

Overhead light before picture

Yay for matching brushed nickel!

Then our TV died. I felt so bad for Paul. He was “working from home” during the Tour de France one day. He settled onto the couch with his dogs and his laptop, turned on what should have been the pre-race show and saw NOTHING. He could hear Phil Liggett, but the screen was black. For some reason my $200 Kmart TV that still has a VCR player built in was not good enough (even the kids agreed w Paul). So my techno-geek went into uber-research mode–not during work hours, Wes, I am sure. We went to retrieve the winning TV the following Monday. [note--we did plug in the crappy TV for awhile b/c it is $35/day to stream the Tour on your computer. RIP OFF!]
Trouble was, the winning TV was clearly a winner—it was back-ordered since March or something crazy. So we got the runner up. Which didn’t fit into the space that we have and when we solved that (sort of), the central channel (some silly speaker thing in the surround sound magic) didn’t fit. It was 4 nights worth of MADNESS. Here is one of the classic moments:

Note the Runner Up lurking behind Paul giggling and mocking.

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I might need to move out of the state

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

You will have to pry the machine gun from my cold dead hand.

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Animal House

Saturday, July 24th, 2010

Turns out Barton IS a hunter, even if he did not go outside for the first 7 years of his life. He brought a MOUSE into the house a couple weekends ago. Paul hid behind the recliner and Jake while I took care of slap shooting it out of the house where Barton handled his biz-nass.

I know it is blurry, but a great action shot.

Mission Accomplished. I will save you the rest of the story.

We also took Jake, Maggie and Katie swimming. They are so cute in the car. Jake sat in the seat like a person. Then to stick his nose out the window seems to be the be the best thing that ever happened to him. We should really all take a lesson from dogs. Fresh air = paradise.

Chillin like a villain

WHOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Barton also knew that Jake wasn’t feeling well so he let Jake cuddle with him on the bed. Paul took this pic one morning when I was already at work. So cute.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

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PPPthththththhhhhhhh, cont’d

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Even my reading is unfocused lately. I think I have 4 books going at once and I am not really that into any of them. Which makes me want to pick up a variety of magazines that I got w frequent flyer miles that Delta decide they did not want me to have past the next 30 days. I am a literary schizophrenic. Literally. Let’s see what we have here….

Leading from the Front by Courtney Lynch and someone else I cannot remember

2 chick former marines talk about leadership issues that are specific to women. I think I am looking for a magic bullet answer to all interpersonal skills. The health care environment is very stressful with all of the upcoming changes to Medicare. Lots of tension. Still looking for the magic.

What are you doing with the rest of your life? (I forget the author)

Pretty self explanatory. If you feel  like you are going uphill all the time, something must not be right. Right?

Superfreakonomics

Have you read Freakonomics? If not, you need to. They talk about things like why sumo wrestlers are crooked,why is chemo so widely used when it so rarely works, forceps hoarding, and assassinating mosquitoes. What could go wrong?

How much you can you stand? Martha Beck

Great book that has like 7 things you need to do to bring joy into your life. You must master each step before moving on. Problem is that I cannot master Step 1. No, not admitting you are powerless over joy. Step 1 is, “Do nothing for 15 minutes each day.” Seriously. I cannot do it for more than 2 days in a row. I have been trying for about 3 months. I wonder if she has a remedial book. Maybe something about bringing adequate feelings into your life. That feels much easier than shooting straight for joy.

I also have 3 parenting books that are more like reference books that I dip into here and there:

  • Positive Discipline
  • 4 Love Languages of Children
  • Balance is a Crock, Sleep is for the Weak

Magazines

  • Entertainment Weekly
  • Time
  • Endurance Magazine
  • Money
  • Real Simple
  • Lucky
  • Oprah
  • Bicycling
  • Inc.
  • Men’s Fitness
  • Fast Company
  • Family Circle

What are you reading these days?

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PTTHHhhhthhththththth (sound of making rasberries)

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Elli asked me today what was up w the blog so I am sure the rest of you are waiting on the edge of your seats too.

Welp, not much. But lots of stuff that make it chaotic, herding cats is what I told Elli.

I sissied out of the Blue Ridge Parkway ride so we don’t really have a vacation planned for this year. We penciled in a few backpacking trips, both with and without the kids. Then Jake got sick, or at least we realized he was sick. Jake has lymphoma. He has responded well to the prednisone (no chemo). Paul is supposed to check back in w the vet on Monday to maybe cut back on the dosage. The lumps in his neck (I assume enlarged lymph nodes) reduced in size, but now they are growing again in size. We are doing everything we can to give him quality of life for as long as we can so he has been sleeping in our bed.  A 90 pound dog takes up a lot more space than a 9 pound cat. Whoa. Between Jake and Paul, the temperature goes up about 100 degrees. He also gets soft food (can’t really eat much hard food) and we did take him swimming recently. Here is a pic:

There is more pathetic and apathetic stuff to write about but I am SO crabby I need to go to bed now.

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Falls and Close Calls

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

Well, our past several rides haven’t gone as planned. On Saturday we went riding with our friend Tamara, planning on doing about 65 miles. At around mile 35 we had a dog run out making Tamara and Susan run into each other which made Tamara crash. She scraped her shoulder and elbow and bruised her thigh, but luckily didn’t do any damage to her bike (I know that sounds backwards but bikes are EXPENSIVE to fix). Of course after the dog made her fall he just hung out with us, I guess we are boring when we aren’t moving. After the adrenaline wears off from a crash it usually doesn’t feel all that good to ride so we took the shortest way back home after that which put us at 53 miles total. We ended up making the right decision because she was pretty sore by the time we got done.

On Sunday Susan and I went to Hanging Rock for a ride. About 3/4 of the way up Sauratown Mountain Susan had a asthma attack. Usually when this happens she takes a shot from her inhaler and is fine, but this time she still didn’t feel good after she took it. After she got her breath back we turned around and rode back to Hanging Rock. Knowing how stubborn she is I was expecting a fight when I told her she had to wait at the bottom of the mountain while I went and got the car, but she must have been feeling pretty bad because she just said OK.

Yesterday was my turn for the bad luck. I went out for a short ride after work, and in full lean through a sharp turn I had my front tire blow. I’m still not sure how I was able to keep myself from falling, but somehow I did so I consider myself the lucky one in the group. Since I was only about a mile from home and I was going put a new tire on anyway I decided to walk the rest of the way instead of changing my tube and wasting a CO2 cartridge.

So that is three rides in a row cut short by bad luck. I can’t wait to see if the luck continues for our next ride!

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