2010 Book Review #12 "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet"

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
4 out of 5

First of all my life has been super busy, and hectic so it took much longer for me to read it than it really should have!
I loved this book.


I loved all the relationships.

The love relationships

The loyal Relationships

The family relationships

The protection relationships

The bully relationships

The love of a mother relationship

The acceptance relationships

and yes even the nonacceptance relationship.

This book takes place in Seattle starting right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The main character, Henry is Chinese and his relationship with everyone around him, especially a Japanese girl, Keiko.
The book is written in a way that you're reading about the events in 1986 and 1942.

News Blotter

W found this little gem in our paper last week ....

CORRECTION
An offense report in the Aug 13 edition of the *****(paper) did not contain complete information. Gloria * ******* of ******* reported that she was a victim of assault and 10 Bingo Cards were damaged at ******Eagle Drive between 6:20 and 9pm, June 28. We regret the error.


OK how many red flags are there in this CORRECTION??
**is the correction to include the "10 Bingo cards"? surely they wouldn't have forgotten to put in the assault charges!
**How long did this assault take? sounds like 2 hours and 40 minutes, could Gloria not get away in that time?
**Who asked for this correction? I'm thinking Gloria!

Sunday

Today G and I spent the afternoon with hubby!

For those of you who don't know, hubby had surgery #1 June 9. This surgery came with great hopes but untimely failed. Surgery #2 was August 10 and seems to be a success thus far.

In order for surgery #2 to be a success Hubby had to be in a speciality hospital for 4 to 6 weeks. So that's where he's been for the last 2 1/2 weeks. Today was day 17 (but who's counting? Me, that's who) in the Speciality Hospital. We could be at the half way point if things continue to move along smoothly.

Hubby's surgery involved 64 staples and about 25 stitches! Impressive, huh? They started taking out the staples last week, by taking every other staple out! I thought that was interesting, maybe you don't!?

Usually Sunday is W's day to visit but since he was out of town, G and I went this afternoon. We stayed about 3 1/2 hours, we chatted, I helped hubby do somethings, and sometimes we just sat there doing our own thing, but we were together and it felt good.

Hubby's there in his home away from home and we're here ... waiting and counting the days!

Saturday's Revelation

I've spend today cleaning the

basement and doing laundry.

All I can say is .....

I've raised PIGS,

& in one case an impatient Pig!

It's all clean now and the Pigs

are forbidden to go near it!

W Bonding

This afternoon I sat at the computer as W sat in the recliner. We're side by side, me facing the wall (and my computer) and W facing out into the room with his laptop.


Let me just fill you in on what we discussed/saw/discovered/investigated.


Kobie Byrant is 6'6"
Lil Wayne is 5'6"
Shaq is over 7'
Little Jimmy Dickens is 4'11"

We looked up pictures of the above people. Some of them were standing next to each other.

W ~ discovered that if you start to put "How tall is Lil' .." into Google you'll be prompted to see "How tall is Lil' boots" HUH?

W ~ "WHO is Little Jimmy Dickens?" and "why does he wear clothes that look like that?" "OH, he's a Grand ol' Opry guy."


W ~ "did you know that Dad can't stand Steve Carrel? He says his voice is like finger nails on a chalk board."
Me ~ "Well, you know your daddy isn't a big laughter and not even a giggler. Who would he like?"
W~ "OH, wait he told me......"
Me ~ "Milton Berle?"
W~ "Who's Milton Berle?"
Me ~ "Exactly"
W ~ "no , he said he liked Richard Pryor."

When I was telling about Hubby getting his blood drawn by the Scottish nurse yesterday and the "Bite yer face off" comment.....
W~ "did you tell about the time that Jared, Alex and I spoke all day at the pool with accents?"
Me ~ "No, what kind of accents?"
W ~ "Jared Australian, Alex Irish and I had a Chinese accent."
Me ~ "did you blow your whistles with an accent?" ( I thought lifeguards don't really talk that much, they blow their whistles all day)
W~ busting out with laughter, "NO"

W checked my blog....
W ~ "mom, you're not a very consistent blogger." "OH, did I tell you I have a new doodle?"
Tune in for that next Tuesday.

W~ "last week on my way to my first aid class I was sitting at a light in front of campus, and I wondered what would happen if a pedestrian stumble and fell, would the cars be able to stop. When I noticed a pedestrian stumble, recover and kept on walking, but he turned towards me and his face was covered with blood. I tried to turn around but when I finally could, the man was gone."
Me ~ "do you think that was a sign?"
W~ "I don't know, but I did turn around and try to find him. He'd just disappeared"

Then I went off to pick up G and W went off to run.

Life on Thursday

On the run again!

I got the chance to stay home this morning and work on my 'action' pile. I send in some bills to the insurance company, paid some bills and post them in the computer.

I ran to see hubby. We've been taking his laptop up to him (every couple of days), he works on it, then since he doesn't have wifi, I run to get it then run back home, (did I mention that this is a 45 minutes one way trip?) send out his emails and do the rest of work from here.

When I got to hubby's room, they were drawing blood. Goodness, that man can't handle that! His nurse doing the work, was from Scotland, and she had to distract him with stories from Scotland. At one point hubby was sweating (yea, he is at at that point) and she starts to tell him about a hilltop in Scotland where the "wind will bite your face off" (in her strongest Scottish accent). I had to keep from giggling at that statement! I didn't think Hubby would like my giggle!

Then home to get his work done.

Then off to pick up G at school. G's school (the whole district) has now discontinued busing within 2.5 miles from the school. This has caused a great deal of discussion among the in town parents. It saved the school district $400,000 (the same as 9 teacher's job). I always thought it was ridiculous that there was a bus taking kids home that actually lived right across the street from the school! I actually think it's a great thing, the city spent all summer making new sidewalks around the school, we now see families walking and riding bikes to school. We could become a healthier community! An interesting thing came home yesterday in G's backpack... it was a reminder that parents spend time teaching their children their address and directions on how to get home. Evidently, some parents sent their children to school, without preparing them on how to walk home! Geez, some people!

I had arranged for us to pick up a friend on our way home from school. I didn't tell G, I just told him that I needed eggs from Mason, "eggs and something else". I got the eggs from Mason and when G was telling Mason good by while Mason was getting in the van. It was a fun moment to watch G.

Then off to the annual "Back to Cub Scouting Ice cream Social". They played fun games, and had ice cream, what more could you ask for?

Wordless Wednesday

It's just one of these kind of days

around here today!

News Blotter

There seemed to be a jewel in this past weekend's paper!



"On the Beat"


The following incident was taken from a collection of *** county's Sheriff's office incident reports.


"Two ***county Sheriff's office deputies were dispatched to a residence south east of ****(town) at 2:16 am Aug 13 in response to a report of a subject refusing to leave the home.


Upon arrival, the deputies spoke with the reporting party; who was identified as the subject's girlfriend. She said her boyfriend was drunk and would not leave the area, according to the Sheriff's office report.


After determining that the man lives in the home the deputies informed the woman that they could not ask her boyfriend to leave unless he had hit or threatened her. They suggested she go to bed and leave him alone.


The deputies then left and found the subject passed out in a lawn chair from consuming too many alcoholic beverages. There was an empty 30 pack of beer in the grass behind him, and he was snoring upon their arrival, according to the report."

Sunday Thoughts

Today was my turn to speak in church.
For those of you that might not attend services in the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, we have no paid ministry, so that means that we take turns 'preaching', only we don't call it preaching, it just giving a talk!

I was given a topic "Being my Brother's keeper" and I decided to speak about giving service to those around us.

I based my talk from this TALK.

The gems that I found while doing research for this talk were

**Being accountable daily to this question "What did I do for someone today?"
**What are the non essential things that clutter your days and steal your time?
**What are the habits you may have developed that do not serve a useful purpose?

I think these questions can really make a positive impact on our lives!

**I also have to share with you the work of the Lord in my talk. I had my talk put together but it just wasn't quite long enough (it was 10 minutes and not the 13 to 15 that I'd be assigned). I struggled all Saturday morning with trying to add to this talk. I finally just settled on some things and left it alone. I wasn't really happy with that portion but just continued to pray about it. I finally realized that I was speaking with a return missionary and I should just give my talk, without the recently added parts and let the young missionary have more time to talk. I knew instantly that that was what the Lord needed me to do!**

Life on Thursday

No, wait this isn't Thursday, is it?
Yes, I know it's Thursday now, but with school starting yesterday, a Wednesday this just hasn't seemed like Thursday today.



Today was day #2 of school, G rode the bus this morning. He rode his bike to the end of the drive in the fog. I couldn't see him once he was there and could barely see the bus when it came. This has been the first year I've not drive up the drive to wait for the bus. G is wanting some independence and this morning he got a dose of it in the fog!



I then went to work out with Michelle at the Y. She had a speed staking mat.

(thank you Google images)
this was fun but scary just the same. It's just like ice and who wants to exercise on ice?!

This was W's first day of classes. He wasn't nearly as excited as G was yesterday! But I did get more information out of him at the end of the day! None of his teacher's had doughnuts for him.

Next I took the next step in Substitute teaching this year ... turning in my certificate!
I love to teach, but it's always internal struggle to turn in. I'm I ready? What if they call me tomorrow? Would I teach Kindergarten tomorrow? Will I go to the High school? Just a bunch of mental junk going on as I walk out of the administration office!?

Then I spent the afternoon with Hubby. Nothing new there. OH, maybe there is something ~ whenever Hubby has pain in his lower body he gets a phantom pain of sorts. He's had them for years, and it's a good way to measure what's going on below his waist. Well, with his surgery his phantom pain was out of control, he happened to mention this to one of his doctors. This doctor had a pill that would eliminate that phantom pain. It's been a miracle drug! That's pretty exciting in our world. Now Hubby will need to decide if he'll continue on this medicine all the time (thus losing his way to measure what's going on below the waist) or just whenever he needs it.

Then home to fix lasagna dinner for the boys!

I'm exhausted, this getting up at 6:15am to meet the bus is ridiculous! I'll take G to school in the morning thus getting another hour of sleep!

comment from the first day of class

"Mrs P..... is the best teacher I've ever had!"

***she brought in doughnuts this morning!

I don't know if she's the best teacher ever

but she certainly knows how to get G's vote!

Welcome to 5th Grade

Sneak Peek last night

The student teacher on the left

and his teacher on the right

Ready to get on the bus this morning!

Last Great day of Summer

Today the weather was beautiful.

It was 87 degrees,

low humidity,

light breeze,

bright and sunny,

so we went to the pool for the last time.

W was life guarding

G took his friend Wyatt.

They ordered pizzas under their alias names,

they thought that was hilarious when the wrong names were called out!

They had a great time!

I have to hold on to this day's memory all winter long!

Movie Night in the afternoon

Today, G and I took a Redbox movie,

"Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief"

to watch with Hubby.

Life on Thursday (Friday edition)

I got to the hospital around 10ish. Sat around with hubby all day, the staff seemed more with it today, either that or I've lowered my standards. Hubby has gotten addicted to "Las Vegas" (the TV show), it's shown 2 (back to back) episodes on TNT this summer. So he was finally able to be drugged enough but not too drugged to find it again. He was so thrilled that it was the very first show!but then disappointed to find the 2nd one wasn't on due to Golf!?!

I was so excited that I found more free apps for my phone (Macala and Fast Lane).

They made arrangement to transfer Hubby yesterday at 5pm. I left him thinking that was all going to work smoothly.

It was HOT yesterday! 101 at 5pm! and super humid!

I had to leave to attended a Community Center Meeting on what and how to draw people to the Community Center to watch movies. It was a good meeting, met new people and there was some good ideas (I don't think I had any but I supported the others!)

Then rush home to get ready for the next church meeting. Something happened to my printer in one of rain storms, it just died. I have to email anything I want to print off to hubby's computer and print it from there. Sounds simple until you're in a hurry!

I finally get home, I'm exhausted. I lay down for a while to just lay there! It was quiet, it was cool, it was comfy, it was cup filling!

Hubby calls at 8:30 and he's just arrived (the ride from one place to the other was 10 minutes). So much for transferring him at 5:30!? His special bed had yet to arrive, but did arrive before we hung up.

Time to do it all over again! but that's Life on Friday!

Waiting room Observations

* Some people come alone (me and I prefer it that way) and some people have entire families. They make it a social event.

* People will change their seats to watch "Price is Right" even will bunch up next to strangers, stating as they sit down "This is my show, I never miss it"

*People who choose to wear earphones cannot hear when they call their name and should bring someone with them to listen for their name.

*no one will sit in the seats under the TVs and if they do they'll move.

*you can hear every one's conversation when they're on the cell phone. I don't think people realize this.

*Some people never take off their sunglasses, I wondered if that man ever realized that he had them on.??

*Some people bring a grocery cart size basket full of snacks

*Some people unbag gifts for the surgery patient, show the gather family, discuss them and then re bag them.

*Waiting rooms need more magazines. I did my part, I put a bunch of our old magazines there and left them.

Hospital in Review

OK, Hubby's surgery was at a different hospital than we usually go to. Yes, we've visited enough hospitals that I have an option and preference!

I don't like the hospital that Hubby had his surgery. We've only been there a couple of times before and yesterday just confirmed my feelings.

** I don't like the surgery waiting room ~ nothing to do, too many people coming and going, way too crowded. If I were a nervous surgery waiter (which I'm not) this room's commotion would have driven me crazy. There was/is nothing calming about this room.

**I don't like the cafeteria ~ it's a plain and simple cafeteria. It's small (I saw the capacity sign 200, well that 200 must have been how many could be squeezed into the space not how many comfortably), cold, someplace you'd want to eat as little as possible and move out as quick as you could! Other than a very small salad bar, there wasn't anything healthy to pick from. As I looked around I wondered why the gov't and medical field wonder why everyone is so FAT!

** The nursing staff seem to clueless. OK, I"m usually the defender of unknowing, but seriously I couldn't continue to defend this bunch! Example #1 ~ Hubby had those leg things on to keep blood clots from forming but when he got to his room they weren't connect to a machine. I pointed that out (after several hours), they finally got the machine. While hooking it up, they just found the closest electrical outlet. The closest outlet was at the foot of the bed across the walkway. When the nurse plugged it in she actually said, "this could be dangerous, I hope no one trips on this" and then left the room! I let it go since I knew hubby wasn't going to be tripping over it! Example #2 ... oh, there are plenty. It will just be better when he's out of there!

OH I should say something nice .... they have nice landscaping!

2010 Book Review #11 "Dream when you're Feeling Blue"

#11 "Dream When You're Feeling Blue" by Elizabeth Berg
2 out of 5 stars

I felt like this book never really took off. I had to make myself sit down to read it, thinking that this time there will be something that draws me in....nope, nothing ever did.

I suppose it's a snapshot of the times, Chicago during WWII, and about Kitty's (the teller of the story) slow evolution, but there isn't a hook that kept me in wanting to learn more.

AND let's not even get me talking about the ending, it was just loose, odd and confusing. It was if the author got bored too and skip us forward to current time.

IF you have NOTHING else to read.... read this but if you have another option, go with that!

the Ticking of a time bomb???

I think I can hear the ticking of my overwhelmed time bomb.....tick tick tick.....

Several months ago I was sitting in a place where I felt I could volunteer for a couple more positions. One with the local PTO as their Room Parent Coordinator and another to sit on a City board (sounds important huh? not really) to pick out family movies to be shown at the local community center.

Both of these seemed an easy fit for my already volunteering things, 2 church positions, working out, TAXIing for G's activities, the soup label and the Terracycle coordinator for G's school and of course substitute teaching whenever I'm needed. This isn't even counting the regular mom responsibilities that go unspoken!

WELL, one of my positions at church changed into a bit (translation ALOT) more responsibility, while keeping all the others plus adding the 2 others. I was just sitting here filling in my August Calendar (which now looks like a filled month) AND with Hubby in his current position, I think I can hear the faint ticking of my "I'm overwhelmed" time bomb! I wonder just how many ticks I have until the explosion occurs??!?

Life on Thursday

You know it's been a hot week, when I'm excited that it will only be 88 degrees today. The humidity was low and there was a breeze. FABULOUS summer day, if I must say so my self!

Today G marked his school supplies with this name, sharpened his pencils, wore his new school shorts, and tenna shoes! He spend the morning calling all of his friends to see what teacher they got. He was making so many phone calls that I finally had to tell him to get off the phone. Then he just sat playing with the phone (remember this detail, it'll come up later again)

I got to spend the afternoon with Mandy, Hairdresser Divine!

We colored and clipped for great results!

Have a mentioned in the last 4 weeks how much I love Mandy?

When I got home I was greeted by G in the drive way, I was all excited because I thought he was there to help me carry in groceries.....UNTIL he starts,

"Mom, don't say anything until I finish with what I have to say, cuz it's not has bad as it sounds."

Those are not my favorite words when used all together!

He continued ...

"I called the Sheriff ..... but it was by accident.... I was just playing with the phone and the Sheriff's office answered"

"Then they called back and then they came out"

"I've already talked to dad about and it's ok now!"

I've not uttered a word in all this, he felt the need to spill it all before I could walk inside

"But when you see 'City of *****' on the phone, DON'T CALL THAT, it's the Sheriff's office!"

I suppose that's just what I needed to happen so he'd stop playing with the phone.

UPDATED: seems W was still home for this and has filled in 'the rest' of the story! Evidently when the Sheriff's office called back G went crazy, running all over the house yelling that the Sheriff was on his way out! Hubby asked W to go outside and meet the Sheriff (ok, he was already working on the lawn mower). W just had to confirm that it was a misdial. I asked what G was doing at this point, W said, "he was peeking out the window".

Tonight right before bed G said, "whew, my I'm glad I'm not sitting in jail tonight" Even though I told him that a 10 year old couldn't go to jail for mis dailing the Sheriff, he still believes he narrowly escaped incarnation.

Wordless Wednesday

This is post number

Sunday Thoughts

Today I was blessed with the opportunity to create and teach a lesson to the woman of our congregation. I'd stressed over it, prayed over it and labored over it. In the end I was blessed to have a inspired lesson.

The lesson I was prompted to teach was on our
Trials and how we can grow through them.

There was so points that have given me comfort ....

"When suffering we may in fact be nearer to God than we've ever been in our entire lives"
"When we weep, He and His angels weep with us"
"Never underestimate the purpose of the trial"
"He may not always remove the trial but may strengthen us enough to get us through."

We need to change our way of thinking from "Why me?" to "What am I to learn?", "What can I do?" and "What am I to change".