Denae kATZOFF tagged me on her blog, so I thought I'd post my replies on my blog and Alicia and my mom each posted their replies on their blogs. Anyone who wants to do this is tagged! :) Charlotte
what is your occupation? retired from being an administrative assistant
*what are you listening to right now? goose is honking , but mostly silence, it is the middle of the night
what is the last thing you ate? ummm, hehehe chocolate chips
*do you wish on stars? DEFINITELY
*if you were a crayon what color would you be? a purple/blue hybrid
*how is the weather right now? cold
*last person you talked to on the phone? voting pollster
*do you like the person who tagged you? absolutely*
how old are you right now? 54 and some days
*your favorite drink? A & W Rootbeer
*favorite sport to watch? college football
*have you ever dyed your hair? Who's asking and WHY? Did somebody say something? It was Brian, wasn't it?
*your favorite job? crafter
*any pets? Scruffy (cat), Mya (dog), Heathcliff (loud screechy goose)
*favorite month? august
*favorite food? probably chocolate
*what was the last movie you watched? Elizabeth, the Golden Age
*favorite day of the year? Dec. 21
*what do you do to vent anger? cry or listen to loud music
*fall or spring? i like them both the same, actually
*hugs or kisses? kisses, I think
*cherry or blueberry? cherry
*living arrangements? living with my husband, and daughter and her husband
*when was the last time you cried? today - at the end of Fiddler on the Roof
*what is on the floor in your closet? WOW - it is a big closet. Boxes of supplies, like garbage sacks and rubber gloves and such, shoes, luggage, water storage, carpet cleaner, other stuff I can't remember
*who is the friend that you have known the longest? My husband, Brian or my sisters
*what did you do last night? started my first altered book and watched movie
*what inspires you? music, sunshine, scenery, old books, old architecture and art, quilts
*what are you afraid of? the unknown and nightmares
*how many cars have you had? 24 at least-1956 Dodge or Plymoth, 1955 chevy, 1960 chevy, 1967 toyota corolla, chevy camaro, F150 ( probably 7 or 8), wood-panel station wagon, tauras, GMC pickups (3), F250, escort (4), durango,
*how many keys are on your key ring? 5
*how many years at your current job? 8 years, 7 and 1/2 months
*favorite day of the week? wednesday
*where have you lived? Lakeview Oregon, Medford Or, Sidney Montana, Billings Montana, Pendleton oregon, Pleasant Grove utah, SLC Utah, Denver colorado, Joseph OR, Homer AK, Tok AK,
*first cd you ever bought? 1st "album" was 1964 - the Beach Boys to get the song Help me Rhonda
*favorite vacation? Oregon Coast
*favorite tv shows? Medium, Gilmore Girls, Top Chef, Project Runway, Desparate Housewives, and Real Housewives of Orange County (I admit it, trashy as it is, I like them), Grey's Anatomy
*5 things on my to do list today: order some groceries, put money in bank to cover mortgage, take a shower, finish reading my martha stewart magazine (I'm trying to reduce the amount of reading I have laying around), write to my sister
*Snacks I enjoy: A lot of people don't know this about me, but I will snack on just about anything
*What I would do if I were suddenly a billionaire: after paying off all my debts and all my family's debts, I would buy a very remote property and build a giant artist colony for my family to all come and live together
*3 of my bad habits: laziness, staying up too late and sleeping in late, and not eating right
*5 jobs I have had: baby sitter, secretary, insurance examiner, census taker, garden designer
*5 things people don't know about me: I wanted to go to fashion school, I try to always be honest, I always thought that people should only live until the age of 55 ( until about 5 years ago, when I decided that I should live until I am 203), I dropped out of high school for a year and then went back to graduate and go on to a year of college
TAG !!! IF YOU HAVEN'T BEEN TAGGED YET, You are it !!!
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Mya, the service dog
Our dog, Mya, is so smart and loves to help out, so we decided to try to teach her to be a bigger help around the house... Sandra and Susan will remember I have wanted to train a service dog ever since they were here and we saw a TV show about them.
So I want to train Mya to carry the laundry downstairs and to get her mouth stronger, we have been having her carry an empty ice cream bucket. She is getting really good at learning it is work, not a game. Usually, she just carries mail or dirty socks, but yesterday, we had her carry some stuff up stairs that we needed up there and she just put her head up and walked around like she was carrying the crown jewels of Europe.
But coming back down the stairs, she grasped the bucket by the edge instead of the handle and then she tried to trot down the stairs.... I think she only landed on like 3 of the stairs... Apparently, you can't see if you have an ice cream bucket attached to your face. So now we know, she has to carry it by the handle. She wasn't hurt, but it was scary to watch.
We'll try to get some pictures of it one day soon. I really need to learn how to post pictures (well, I've learned to post pictures, but I haven't learned how to get them off the camera into the computer, yet).
Charlotte
So I want to train Mya to carry the laundry downstairs and to get her mouth stronger, we have been having her carry an empty ice cream bucket. She is getting really good at learning it is work, not a game. Usually, she just carries mail or dirty socks, but yesterday, we had her carry some stuff up stairs that we needed up there and she just put her head up and walked around like she was carrying the crown jewels of Europe.
But coming back down the stairs, she grasped the bucket by the edge instead of the handle and then she tried to trot down the stairs.... I think she only landed on like 3 of the stairs... Apparently, you can't see if you have an ice cream bucket attached to your face. So now we know, she has to carry it by the handle. She wasn't hurt, but it was scary to watch.
We'll try to get some pictures of it one day soon. I really need to learn how to post pictures (well, I've learned to post pictures, but I haven't learned how to get them off the camera into the computer, yet).
Charlotte
Sunday, February 24, 2008
A chicken in every pot
We got these chickens at a warehouse store in town owned by our friends... they come frozen in a block for restaurant use and they are already seasoned and ready to cook. We had a bit of a time getting them separated and wrapped, but now we have like 20 whole chickens in our freezers. They are the chickens that all the grocery store delis broil up and sell for $7.00 a piece.
so the last couple Sundays, I have taken one out frozen and put it into a pot to cook all morning. they are so handy and taste so good. Last week we made chicken and dumplings and then Chicken dumpling soup ( the left-over dumplings stay in the water and we add veggies and noodles and flavors and it makes a good soup - the dumplings thicken the soup and flavor it.) Today we are going to have chicken and dumplings and tomorrow, chicken pot pie. We make a really excellent chicken pot pie - Thank you Pier, for the recipe, all those years ago.
Anyway, the lengthy posts I have been posting on our blog and other people's blogs seem to be the result of this new medicine I am taking. I woke up one day last week and was ready to write my great American Novel... but I always think faster than I can write, so I usually only write a page or two and then get distracted. So this medicine is to be titrated up - which means that gradually I take more and more and then we lessen other drugs (in this case, the one that calms me down). So by this week, I was up til 4 or 5 every morning and then getting up at 9 or 10 AM, ready to rock and roll.
Finally Friday afternoon, I went in to lay down and all of a sudden I pushed my emergency button and Alicia came running in and I said, do you think we could fix the broken couch and put the TV where the stove used to be and my chair where your couch is now and cut the broken half off of Dad's couch with a cutting torch? She just looked at me and then went to tell the Life-Line people that she was with me and I was okay.
By the time she came back in, I was so tired and wanted to just lay there and die and then while she was standing there I said, "HEY, I had Dad buy some frozen strawberries, do you want to learn how to make strawberry smoothies, or should we make some strawberry jam today..... no, never mind, I'm too tired.....WHEW, I know I'm acting funny, but I can't stop ! ! !"
she excused herself from the room and went and called my case manager at the mental health center and it just happened that Dr. Burgess' office is next door to Margarets, and they both had a few minutes to spare, so he called Alicia right back and told her how to fix me. What I was doing was called rapid cycling and it happens to some one like me when we take upper drugs and don't get enough sleep. So he stopped the new drug for that day and had me take some of the calming drug and everything calmed right down.
the reason I am telling you all this, is because of our lesson in Family Home Evening this week, which was to listen to Pres. Eyring's talk on Remembering to keep track of the Hand of the Lord in our lives.
It takes at least six weeks to get in to see Dr. Burgess. He is NEVER available for phone call help because he has SOOOOOOOO many patients. He is leaving on a month long vacation next week, so if this had happened next week, he wouldn't have been there. Most of Margaret's job is out in the field, so we never catch her in the office. The chance that she would be in her office in the middle of an afternoon and Dr. Burgess not having a patient at that time and Also, the chance that Alicia would actually call someone for help ----- it is all a miracle. A genuine, old fashioned, New Testament, Hand of God, Miracle. So that was the Hand of God in our life for this week. No denying it. What a blessing to have the Holy Ghost tell Alicia exactly what to do and when to do it and the help was right there.
Also, both of them talked to Alicia a little bit and gave her kudos for calling them and also gave her support to get thru the situation. We are so blessed to have these wonderful people in our lives for help and support. And I'm so blessed to have Alicia here to take care of me.
Happy Sabbath, Charlotte
so the last couple Sundays, I have taken one out frozen and put it into a pot to cook all morning. they are so handy and taste so good. Last week we made chicken and dumplings and then Chicken dumpling soup ( the left-over dumplings stay in the water and we add veggies and noodles and flavors and it makes a good soup - the dumplings thicken the soup and flavor it.) Today we are going to have chicken and dumplings and tomorrow, chicken pot pie. We make a really excellent chicken pot pie - Thank you Pier, for the recipe, all those years ago.
Anyway, the lengthy posts I have been posting on our blog and other people's blogs seem to be the result of this new medicine I am taking. I woke up one day last week and was ready to write my great American Novel... but I always think faster than I can write, so I usually only write a page or two and then get distracted. So this medicine is to be titrated up - which means that gradually I take more and more and then we lessen other drugs (in this case, the one that calms me down). So by this week, I was up til 4 or 5 every morning and then getting up at 9 or 10 AM, ready to rock and roll.
Finally Friday afternoon, I went in to lay down and all of a sudden I pushed my emergency button and Alicia came running in and I said, do you think we could fix the broken couch and put the TV where the stove used to be and my chair where your couch is now and cut the broken half off of Dad's couch with a cutting torch? She just looked at me and then went to tell the Life-Line people that she was with me and I was okay.
By the time she came back in, I was so tired and wanted to just lay there and die and then while she was standing there I said, "HEY, I had Dad buy some frozen strawberries, do you want to learn how to make strawberry smoothies, or should we make some strawberry jam today..... no, never mind, I'm too tired.....WHEW, I know I'm acting funny, but I can't stop ! ! !"
she excused herself from the room and went and called my case manager at the mental health center and it just happened that Dr. Burgess' office is next door to Margarets, and they both had a few minutes to spare, so he called Alicia right back and told her how to fix me. What I was doing was called rapid cycling and it happens to some one like me when we take upper drugs and don't get enough sleep. So he stopped the new drug for that day and had me take some of the calming drug and everything calmed right down.
the reason I am telling you all this, is because of our lesson in Family Home Evening this week, which was to listen to Pres. Eyring's talk on Remembering to keep track of the Hand of the Lord in our lives.
It takes at least six weeks to get in to see Dr. Burgess. He is NEVER available for phone call help because he has SOOOOOOOO many patients. He is leaving on a month long vacation next week, so if this had happened next week, he wouldn't have been there. Most of Margaret's job is out in the field, so we never catch her in the office. The chance that she would be in her office in the middle of an afternoon and Dr. Burgess not having a patient at that time and Also, the chance that Alicia would actually call someone for help ----- it is all a miracle. A genuine, old fashioned, New Testament, Hand of God, Miracle. So that was the Hand of God in our life for this week. No denying it. What a blessing to have the Holy Ghost tell Alicia exactly what to do and when to do it and the help was right there.
Also, both of them talked to Alicia a little bit and gave her kudos for calling them and also gave her support to get thru the situation. We are so blessed to have these wonderful people in our lives for help and support. And I'm so blessed to have Alicia here to take care of me.
Happy Sabbath, Charlotte
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
At least the flu is good for one thing
So, Joanna, forgive me - I don't have 2 sick babies to take care of while I had the flu and Brian was pretty much well while I was sick.... I am always buying classic books when I find them cheap at Barnes & Nobles when we make our big trips to Anchorage. For some reason when I am standing there surrounded by wonderful books for $6.95 each, I suddenly develop a burning desire to read the great classics of the literary world, to recreate the great gardens of the world in your own yard, yoga-tai chi-aran knitting-all about the world of leprechauns or all about the world of fairies {very similar worlds I found}, how to draw or to learn to cook _________ ( insert : pastry, greek, 783 italian dinners with only 3 ingredients, ancient Chinese {which actually started with a live chicken and 3 chapters of what you could do with all the parts that came off the live chicken - way too graphic for me to actually try}, french, every day breads for all occasions, etc., etc., )
Then I get them home from the big city and think , "WHAT was I thinking?? Reading makes my head hurt." and then they get put on my shelf to look pretty with all the other books I bought the last 12 times I went to the city.
So, to make a short story way too long, at church, people are always quoting C.S.Lewis. For some reason, I have always thought that C. S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll are the same person and so I thought that the guy who wrote Alice in Wonderland was the famous religious author. and then last year, we watched a Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and we really liked it and i thought, well maybe there is more to this alice in Wonderland guy after all (I had tried to read alice when I was a child and as most do, found it to be terrifying, so had no desire to go there again). I had heard that they were making another one of the Narnia books into a movie and since we liked the first one, I was interested in learning about the second one.
Now those of you you are fans of the Narnia chronicles from your childhood will think it weird that I have never read them at all, but I just was never exposed to them. Anyway, last fall, Barnes & nobles had the complete Narnia chronicles on sale in one volume for $9.95 and I figured, HEY, a classic like that is a bargain at twice the price, so I brought it home.
The first thing I realized when I looked at it was that C.S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll are not the same person, so that made me feel better, but still, it is a really big, heavy book and holding big heavy books hurts my upper torso and lots of times, reading makes my head hurt. so it sat by my chair gathering dust until last week when I had the flu.
and I'm thinking, HEY, my head hurts anyway, and is going to hurt anyway, I might as well do some reading. So I picked up the Narnia book and didn't put it down again, basically, until I was done. I did go to sleep at night, which I usually dont do when I am into a really good book, but since I did actually have the flu, I did have to rest. Plus I found myself wanting to think about each book and the symbolisms in it, so I read it more slowly that I usually do.
So the point of my post is: if you haven't read the Narnia chronicles from start to finish, I heartily recommend them. They probably would have been too intense for me as a child - I could never stand when animals got hurt or died and so I probably would have been a mess if I had read them at that time. But I'm older now and I didn't cry once. I was very proud of myself. Please read them if you get a chance. Love, the newly literate -- Charlotte
Then I get them home from the big city and think , "WHAT was I thinking?? Reading makes my head hurt." and then they get put on my shelf to look pretty with all the other books I bought the last 12 times I went to the city.
So, to make a short story way too long, at church, people are always quoting C.S.Lewis. For some reason, I have always thought that C. S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll are the same person and so I thought that the guy who wrote Alice in Wonderland was the famous religious author. and then last year, we watched a Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and we really liked it and i thought, well maybe there is more to this alice in Wonderland guy after all (I had tried to read alice when I was a child and as most do, found it to be terrifying, so had no desire to go there again). I had heard that they were making another one of the Narnia books into a movie and since we liked the first one, I was interested in learning about the second one.
Now those of you you are fans of the Narnia chronicles from your childhood will think it weird that I have never read them at all, but I just was never exposed to them. Anyway, last fall, Barnes & nobles had the complete Narnia chronicles on sale in one volume for $9.95 and I figured, HEY, a classic like that is a bargain at twice the price, so I brought it home.
The first thing I realized when I looked at it was that C.S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll are not the same person, so that made me feel better, but still, it is a really big, heavy book and holding big heavy books hurts my upper torso and lots of times, reading makes my head hurt. so it sat by my chair gathering dust until last week when I had the flu.
and I'm thinking, HEY, my head hurts anyway, and is going to hurt anyway, I might as well do some reading. So I picked up the Narnia book and didn't put it down again, basically, until I was done. I did go to sleep at night, which I usually dont do when I am into a really good book, but since I did actually have the flu, I did have to rest. Plus I found myself wanting to think about each book and the symbolisms in it, so I read it more slowly that I usually do.
So the point of my post is: if you haven't read the Narnia chronicles from start to finish, I heartily recommend them. They probably would have been too intense for me as a child - I could never stand when animals got hurt or died and so I probably would have been a mess if I had read them at that time. But I'm older now and I didn't cry once. I was very proud of myself. Please read them if you get a chance. Love, the newly literate -- Charlotte
Saturday, February 16, 2008
blizzard video
Turn up your sound and listen to the wind howl - and think - this is on the protected side of the house. BRRRRR !!!!!
fun this week
These are still pictures of the blizzard - then we realized we could take a video so you could actually see the wind and listen to it.
I went up to the scrap room by myself one evening and made a bunch of cards - I send homemade cards to my visiting teaching ladies every month and they are adding more people for me to write to - so I thought I better prepare more cards. I am really bad at matching colors, so usually I completely rely on Alicia to mix and match for me. I did these by myself so I'm very proud of how they turned out. Brian gave me a gift certificate for the scrapbook store for Christmas and I used it to buy some of these papers and flowers and unlike what I usually do, I went right home and used them.
Love you all, Char
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