Colors

Alice and I stopped at Panda Express for lunch today while we ran errands...and I wound up with this fortune in my cookie. I found it inspiring enough that I spent the rest of the day playing around with ceramic tiles and scraps of stained glass, starting a new mosaic piece. Art therapy.

Down time

The best part of a Friday night is thinking about the possibility this weekend that I might carve out some time to find my own stream.

Sweet sounds

The best way to round out the day was attending Alice's first orchestra since September when she began learning the cello. I was impressed at these beginners. They seemed passionate about the instruments and the music. Glad Alice decided to join orchestra...she will reap the benefits from being a part of such a group for the rest of her life.

TAL

I am thankful today that I was able to put in some ear buds and listen to an episode of This American Life on my rush hour commute home tonight. What a difference it makes driving for 90 minutes after a full day !

Nomads life

Tonight we watched a beautiful documentary on indieflix called Nomadslife.  Four adventure-seeking folks travel from Amsterdam to Mongolia to spend time with and learn from some nomadic tribes in very remote areas. What amazing people they met, with such beautiful spirits. A nice way to end a Tuesday.

Record beat

For complex reasons, Basil  is learning how to be an indoor cat during the Winter months ...but he would prefer to be outside. His record number of days without catching us off-guard and bolting out the door was 21, but today he hit 25 and still going strong.  He's not a fan of litter boxes (seriously who can blame him) but I think it's getting easier.  I love having him around so much...he is one of my favorite cats certainly.

By candlelight

Tonight we had a first...as we were sitting around the table after dinner we suddenly lost power. We were caught off guard because we were far from having any kind of windstorm, snow or ice today.  It was stranger still since we had never even once lost power here since moving to the home 15 years ago. We were told that we shared electrical source with the hospital nearby so chance of power loss was very slim.

We lit lots of candles and hung out in the living room playing charades and the power came back on with an hour and a half.  What a fun unexpected turn to our evening!

Tiny needles

If I could afford to have accupuncture treatment once a week I would jump at the chance.  It is glorious. Dr. Wang practices Chinese Medicine including accupuncture and I have gone to him for about 5 years.  Whether he is relieving the arthritis in my knee or, like today, treating what feels like a pinched nerve in my neck/shoulder the guy is super gentle, friendly and smart.  The massaging of pressure points, the cupping, and of course the accupuncture are all treatments I have had...and they work!

Here is Dr. Wang and his business partner, Dr. Fan.  Lovely people, fantastic doctors.

Friday night ?

It seems like many moons ago when Friday nights meant staying up late with friends, going out to coffee shops or bars/clubs to celebrate the end of the week. At this point, Friday nights mean staying in with the kids, watching tv, and surfing the web. I go to bed around 9:30p and do my best to block all thoughts of work from my mind so the stress will subside for awhile.

Coffee!

I heard the best news today ! One of my co-workers has ordered a Kuereg coffee maker and is bringing it into the office for us to use.  This is great because I currently brew coffee in the morning just to bring to work in a travel mug.  But now I can drink a mug of fresh hot coffee anytime I want when I'm working. No more travel mugs.  I can drink from my favorite ceramic cup.

Man, life is GOOD !

Boss

Tomorrow marks another chapter in my career...it is the day that I become someone's boss.  I am so pleased to have offered the position of Payroll Assistant to a gentleman we interviewed last week.  He joins us tomorrow and the payroll team of one becomes a team of two. I am excited about the opportunity to have a staff member reporting to me and to learn the ropes of managing people.  It will be a challenge, but I am up for it...and with Michael as my role model how can I go wrong?

Sunshine

Shortly after our adoption of Alice, I picked up this hanging tile and put it on the wall in our kitchen. You know how home decor becomes invisible to those who live around it day in and day out?  That is the case for me for much of the items around our home...except this tile. I love it...it is exactly how I feel.

Pain in the neck!

I managed to acquire a stiff, achy pinched nerve type of neck pain 3 days ago, probably from sleeping on a bad pillow.  Stress aggravated it, and today I was beside myself with headaches and serious grouchiness. I then starts reading about acu pressure that can relieve neck pain.  It is done by applying pressure to the space on the back of the hand between the pointer knuckle and the middle knuckle. While pressing roll you neck around to stretch the muscles and try to regain mobility by turning the neck from side to side.  I tried this technique and I have to say that my neck could finally move around with very little pain!

I didn't have to resort to BenGay...thank goodness.

Memories

Looking through some old photos I found this one.  It was taken in July of 2008, when Dominik had just turned 2 yo and Alice was 4 yo.

This photo brings back so many memories of this time in our family's life.  We spent most of our free time at parks, playgrounds, beaches, when we weren't playing games in the front yard.  We had our hands full, and were winging the parenting thing.  We still are. I remember the time with fondness and I love being remembered of it.

 

Mess

The best part of the day was spreading out glass tiles and practicing mosaic with Alice.  We made quite a mess, but it was a lovely, colorful one!

Friday

The only thing better than Friday is the Friday before a 3-day weekend. Hooray!

Mega proud parent day

Lots of nice things happened today, but I am mostly thankful for two in particular.

It started with leaving work early to attend the MLK Jr day assembly at Grant. Dominik performed in many parts of the show...singing, narrating. He was great and Brent and I were so proud.

Then after school we all went to see the Reflections Art program pieces. Some of them would be advancing to WA State contest. Alice's photo of Mount Si had advanced from Grant to Tacoma City Council, and had received an homorable mention here.  What an honor! 

Such great kids in a great school!

Art is such an integral part of the education at Grant.

Pink

I love winter sunsets when I'm driving home.

Reflection

Work responsibilities for over 3 months  have felt like mountains sitting on my shoulders. Existing in survival mode for that long is not the most comfortable way to work and it's not good for anyone. Too many responsibilities and not enough hours in the day.  With some staffing shifts in the near future, however, it is possible that I might be getting a glimpse of light at the end of a very long tunnel.  I don't want to get my hopes up, though one has to believe that relief is on its way.

The Beav

This show is now on Netflix and we started from the episode 1.

I had forgotten how funny Leave it to Beaver was...especially the early ones.

The best part is Alice & Dominik love the  show as much as I do.

Lightening speed

It is Sunday night and the weekend went by so fast I feel a little dizzy! Hard to believe we will be back at it again in less than 8 hours.  Luckily we have a three day weekend coming up to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King. I think we will take the kids to a special celebration event downtown at the Convention Center that day.  But first...to get through this week.  Maybe the weekdays will fly by in lightening speed as well.  One can only hope!

Pho

Sometimes the perfect thing for your body and soul is a nice hot bowl of pho.

Today was one of those days.

Mosaic II

For the holidays, our work team enjoyed some time inside a mosaic studio and learned a thing or two about how to design and create a tile image. The studio then grouted and finished the mosaics for us.  We now have our finished pieces and I am thrilled with how mine turned out.  I had so much fun making this one...shortly after, I enrolled in a class on making mosaics at the community college here in town.  The class starts in late February...will be fun to try my hand at this artistic medium and feel a sense of creativity again!

Old Lady

Now that I am close to being 50, i imagine myself more easily
 turning into an old lady some day.
 I look forward to it.

Healthy eating

I enjoy learning ways to prepare healthy food that is simple and delicious. My guide is website Skinnytaste.com where I can find recipes and how-tos for anything I want to make.  I love it...and have learned a lot from this site!

Evening entertainment

Nothing makes me happier than when the TV gets turned off, the art set comes out and the creativity begins.

Monday, Monday

It was tough getting up and going this morning as we were all headed back to our usual schedule of work and school after a long Winter break.

Dominik was in good spirits though, and was looking forward to the day.  The new hat helped.

It's good to be me

The highlight today can be explained in two words: homemade muffins

Alice is getting really good at this baking stuff!

Friends

Brent and I rarely make time to catch up with friends.  With work, kids, and the day to day challenges of keeping sane, that kind of thing takes back burner.

Tonight we had a chance to hang with some old friends we hadn't seen in awhile and it was fun chit chatting and laughing with folks who know us so well.

Vacation

Since tomorrow is Saturday and I go back to work on Monday, this is technically my last day of vacation.  I had been working so many hours and was living in high stress work mode for months that I got physically sick, then have been home on vacation since Christmas.  It was clear I needed to slow down, relax and find myself again. This last week and a half was perfect for this. I gained perspective on my current work situation, I spent tons of time with my kids and husband, I had a chance to be creative and I learned a lot about myself. I am ready to go back to work now and move forward productively and hopefully with less stress.

Life is good.

Beach

It was New Year's Day and we had been doing a lot of lounging around the house this week so we were looking for an adventure. We climbed in the truck and headed North to Dash Point State Park. This is one of our favorite beaches to explore and today was no exception. Even though the tide was high we walked the beach all bundled up and had fun. It was the first time I had ever seen a layer of frost on the sand! Alice got to practice using her new camera and the fresh air felt so good.