Today is my birthday.  On this day in 1976 I made my entrance into the world.  Yep… that would make me 30.  Somehow I thought this day would be rougher than it really is.  I am working on moving into the next decade of my life.  In fact, I am embracing it.  I am looking forward to my thirties.

So I bet you are dying to know how Elle plans to spend her thirtieth birthday.  If not, I am going to tell you anyway.

It is currently 10 am and I have yet to shower.  I took today off of work.  I have been working full time the past two weeks since the lady I job share with is in Colorado taking care of her father. (Thinking of you Jan!)  So yet another Jan (Janet in this case) is filling in for me. 

My fantastic husband made me a delicious breakfast.  In the supermarket the other day he asked if I wanted Grands Cinnamon rolls for my breakfast on my birthday.  I thought I would like Blini instead.  This is Saturday morning treat that I make.  D hasn’t ever made them and anything considered a pancake is a bit of a challenge for him.  He looked at me and said, "but I don’t know how to make those."  I said I would be happy to do it.  But to my surprise he was making breakfast when I got up.  So blini and bacon for breakfast. 

I then sat down to do some serious blog reading.  I have been neglectful of my reading since working full time.  I feel guilty if I sit there and read blogs if there are people around.  Of course as soon as everyone leaves I check in a little.  So my goal was to read all the blogs on my blogroll and comment on as many as possible.  I believe I have accomplished that goal.  Sorry Margaret, yours wasn’t working this morning for some reason.

Oh!  D also gave me my birthday gift.  I got a Donna Karan gift box.  I have been out of perfume for eons and miss it terribly.  I am allergic to most perfumes (shocking!) and Cashmere Mist is one of the only ones that doesn’t make me sneeze.  Trust me I have smelled nearly every perfume out there.  So now I will smell pretty again.  

I plan on doing some final weed pulling in my garden this morning.  We are having a party on Saturday and the thought of my yard looking like crap with people coming over frightens me.  So one last section to go!

D also told me yesterday that he has my afternoon planned.  He is coming home at lunch and we will probably go grab something quick to eat.  A turkey sandwich (for me) at Arbys sounds good.  Give me a break!  I like them.  They make a mean turkey and swiss.  I am a sucker for a turkey sandwich.

Then we are leaving Tacoma around 2:45 to go to Olympia where my MIL is taking me over to Kelly’s to get a manicure and pedicure!  Woo hoo!  Then D and I get to spend the rest of the afternoon together.  (if time)  I would love to run to downtown Oly and go to the jewelry store to get my rings cleaned.  They are just about nasty.

Then we will do chat (for the adoption agency) at 6:00.  Then off to Indian Summer Country Club for dinner.  They have the best ravioli!  Love it!  Oh and the Vodka Collins are to die for.  Not to mention the Creme brule that I can’t eat, but will anyway.

Saturday we are having a party for my birthday.  D let me order a fancy cake from a real bakery.  I am so excited.  They are one of those swanky bakeries that makes the designer wedding cakes.  And of course being the princess that I am I conned them into letting me have rolled fondant icing.  (just because I think it is pretty)  Had to pay through the nose for it, but I don’t care.  The menu for the evening will be all cajun!  We had originally thought of having the party at From the Bayou, a local restaurant.  But we thought it would be more fun, and cheaper to do it at our own house.  Thus the copious yard work.  So the meal is Cajun rubbed brisket on the grill, Chicken and andouille jambalaya and a cajun salad.  The plan is to roll the beer fridge onto the back patio, but I am thinking just clearing a path might be the better bet.  

I really am excited about all of this.  Thank you all for your love and friendships.  Thanks to all who have sent the e-cards and email wishes.   I treasure every one of them.  Now I am going to leave you with an excerpt from a book that a friend sent me as a birthday greeting:

Birthdays

From Here and Now - Living in the Spirit, by Henri J. M. Nouwen

Birthdays need to be celebrated.  I think it is more important to celebrate a birthday than a successful exam, a promotion, or a victory.  Because to celebrate a birthday means to say to someone:  “Thank you for being you.”  Celebrating a birthday is exalting life and being glad for it.  On a birthday we do not say:  “Thanks for what you did, or said, or accomplished.”  No, we say:  “Thank you for being born and being among us.”

On birthdays we celebrate the present.  We do not complain about what happened or speculate about what will happen, but we lift someone up and let everyone say:  “We love you.”

I know a friend, who, on his birthday, is picked up by his friends, carried to the bathroom, and thrown clothes and all into a tub full of water.  Everyone eagerly awaits his birthday, even he himself.  I have no idea where this tradition came from, but to be lifted up and “re-baptized” seems like a very good way to have your life celebrated.  We are made aware that although we have to keep our feet on the ground, we are created to reach to the heavens, and that, although we easily get dirty, we can always be washed clean again and our life given a new start.

Celebrating a birthday reminds us of the goodness of life, and in this spirit we really need to celebrate people’s birthdays every day, by showing gratitude, kindness, forgiveness, gentleness, and affection.  These are ways of saying:  “It’s good that you are alive; it’s good that you are walking with me on this earth.  Let’s be glad and rejoice.  This is the day that God has made for us to be and to be together.”

I would like to apologize to you all if you happen to get weird comments from me on your blogs.  You see… paperwork as suck all the brain capacity from me.  I am resorting to a turrets like state.  Wild twitches, off the cuff foul language.  I really think I am getting dumber by the minute.

But I do have a plan.  A good friend told me that I really need to stop reading message boards.  Of course my mom has been telling me to get away from the computer for months.  So am going to take that little bit of advice.  I am going to once again check out of some of the message boards and engage in a few of my favorite pastimes.  And since drinking alone is frowned upon in most social circles and most of you live too far away from me I will have to resort to quilting and gardening.  My plants are all secretly cheering outside.

So you will continue to get an occasional comment from me. It may be a little funky, but remember I am doing this for your safety not mine.  You have been warned. 

Don’t worry… those of you with designs in the cue… I will get to them.  You want them to look good don’t you?  Well I need a little dendrite fluffing to make that happen.  In the mean time go check out Susie and Sandy’s blogs.  Please forgive me for Sandy’s.  I am still working on it.  I am going to take a hiatus on the new people for a little bit.  I need to do some catching up.  I’ll let you know when I am back in business.

Mandy over at Building a Family tagged me.  I figured I would do this meme since I haven’t done one for a while.  Besides, I thought this would be fun.  Here goes.

Five Things:

In My Car -

1. a crushed box of Kleenex that is oddly scented like my Mother’s house.

2. AA batteries in the cup holder, you never know when you might have a AA battery emergency

3. a myriad of cds in my trunk.  I still haven’t found a good deal on an adapter for my iPod.

4. Gorilla grips.  These are the best little invention evah!!  They are L shaped plastic things that velcro to the carpeted mat in my trunk.  Keeps stuff from rolling around.

5. a swiffer duster.  I have an unusually large dash and dusting it can be difficult.  I carry a swiffer to keep the dust down so it lessens the allergy attacks.

My car just isn’t that fun

In my purse-

1. a photo album of Pickle photos.  What a good mommy I am

2. various and assorted bottles of stuff.  I have hairspray, nose spray, eyedrops, and a magic pill bottle.  I am like a walking pharmacy.

3. 4 tubes of lipstick that I never wear

4. receipts.  Lots and lots of receipts.  I don’t have a folding bill section in my wallet so all receipts just get shoved into my purse.  It just creates more stuff for Jimmy Hoffa to hide under.  He lives in my purse you know.

5. My cell phone.  complete with a little pink Korean butterfly cell phone charm.  It is soooo cute!

In my closet -

1. nearly 20 pairs of shoes.  I don’t like to wear shoes, but I love to buy them

2. my crying hockey skates.  they are sad because they haven’t been used in months.  They are secretly saying, "lady, please let me out of here, It’s hot and we like ice."

3. My sweatshirt collection.  I love sweatshirts.  I wear them nearly everyday.  I couldn’t get by without them.  

4. a collection of the cutest little handmade handbags you have ever seen.  I have handbags that are in the shape of a tube, one that looks like a chinese take out containter, little canvas bags and all kinds of others.  I love handbags.  

5. a blue formal dress that makes me look as big as a house.  D took me to see Riverdace at the Queen Elizabeth theater in Vancouver BC one year and I thought it would be fun to dress up.  So I bought this dress and it is not very flattering on me.

In my fridge -

1. cheese curds that expired weeks ago.  I bought them from the grocery here in Tacoma instead of the cheese maker in Seattle.  They weren’t quite the same so I never ate them.

2. 3 jars of Pickles.  I swear it isn’t to remind me of my son!

3. flax seed oil.  I went on a health kick with rice krispy treats once and tried to make healthy ones.  Don’t ever do this.

4. an over abundance of eggs.  I think I have 22 eggs in my fridge.  I bought 18 to color at Easter, but never got around to it.  Then D’s parents brought us eggs before they left for Kanasas.   I really don’t eat that many eggs.

5. more eggs.  jello eggs this time.  D loves those and his parents brought us a bunch, again before going to Kansas.  We are the closest kids to them so when they travel we get the fridge clean out.

In my yard -

1. a toilet.  D replaced the toilet in the extra bathroom and never got around to disposing of the old one.  So it sits in the side yard

2. a greenhouse effect with landscape fabric.  I put down the fabric to kill the weeds in my rose garden, but never could afford the bark to put over it.  So now the fabric is acting like a little greenhouse and the weeds are monsters now!!

3. weeds weeds and more weeds.  I think they are plotting against me.

4. a gorgeous frank lloyd wright garden sprite replica.  She stands about 4′ tall, but is hidden by my Japanese Spirea bushes.  D bought her for me for my birthday a few years ago.

5. a west nile breeding ground.  I have a cool pot in the backyard full of rocks and water with a pump.  The bad news is the pump went bad so now the water is stagnant.  I think I am breeding the west nile virus in my back yard.

I am not thinking I am going to tag anyone on this one.  Most of you are so dang busy I think you would come and egg my house if I did. 

I am glad to see so many people have watched and enjoyed my movie!!  I had fun making it.  I did want to go on record with a few things about it.  Yes, I did take all those photos.  I do understand it is odd for someone to take so many photos of toilets and toilet related things, but it was funny.  I only wish I had captured a few photo of some of the other toilets.  I missed my opportunity at the orphanage.  There was no seat on that one, but I did manage to snag some souvenir toilet paper on that one.  I also was pulling out my camera to snap a photo of the squatty potty at the palace in Korea when a lady walked into the washroom.  I didn’t want the Koreans to think less of me for photographing their toilets.

The dinner at the beginning (The hotel Parus) was chicken with pineapple and those are fried bananas on the plate.  That meal was to die for!  

The ettiquette bell is just that.  They are in the washrooms in Korea.  You push the button and it make whoooshing sounds so people don’t hear your potty sounds.  I never actually pushed the button, but Kathou did.  She thought the sound from the button was more embarassing than the actualy potty sounds.

I never did use the auto toilet.  I did carry around a 100 won coin just in case though.  I really wanted to use it, but never had the opportunity.

The Magic Clean 2000 was the toilet in our hotel room.  It had a built in bidet, backside cleaner, dryer (for your bum) and a heated seat.  Fancy!

I have to include that the Coke, Coke, Coke, Coke, Sprite or Coke is a D-ism.  And yes he did take that one photo. 

And yes, that is my hand holding the Starbucks cup and I was the one taking the photo.  Aren’t you just so jealous at my skills!  I know you are.

Next time I will make sure to get a shot of the toilet at the domestic terminal in Khabarovsk.  I hear it is… well interesting. 

I tell you I thrive on stress.  It seems like I am the laziest person in the world if I don’t have a million things to do.  I get up the energy to do stuff I normally wouldn’t do when under the gun.  Take for instance today… I mowed my grass.  This is a D job.  I do the garden and he does the grass.  But I thought I would do it since it is supposed to rain tomorrow.  Well when I finished the grass I opened up the gigantic side gate and thought about mowing down the jungle of weeds that is my side yard.  It’s like the junk drawer everyone has.  The place where I hide all of my junk.  There is even a toilet sitting in the side yard.

I took one look at that mess and realized, I just don’t have time for this kind of work.  It would have required moving molding that was thrown there after the great office re-do, and relocating other various bits of crap I have been collecting.  Not to mention I would run the risk of hitting a giant rock with D’s fancy new mower.  I decided that the day before I leave for Russia is not the best time to be taking on such a monumental project.  I actually had a breif moment of sanity there people.  Of course as I was closing the gate I smashed my finger in the lock.  Ouch!

Now I am just moving the stress to paranoia.  I am worried that I will forget something very important or something will go terribly wrong.  Like me getting the flu because my girlfriend Danielle came down with it last night and I work with her!!  Ahhh!  God help me if I get the throw-ups while in Russia.  That would just suck.

So wish me luck. 

This isn’t so much a freak out as far as the song goes.  This is a freak out as far as packing goes.  I have 2 more full days to complete my packing.  This does not include all the other stuff I have to do.  The other stuff would include refilling prescriptions, buying cat food and litter, cleaning my house, laundry, and a whole list of other stuff. 

I will say that I have been working on some of it.  I am slowly doing laundry, the donations are organized and ready to be thrown into the suitcase, the miscellaneous stuff is put together.  It is coming along, but I get distracted so easily.

Our visas did come today and for that I am very happy!!  I was held captive in my house until the FedEx guy showed up.  I didn’t have to sign for the package, but would you want your passports and very expensive Visas left sitting on your front step?  Oh no!!

Slowly but surely this will all come together.  Ready or not D is throwing me on that plane come Thursday night. 

Today is my first "day off" in a very long time. The past few months I have been consumed with Godspell costumes, adoption paperwork, church work that I have fallen behind on and other various projects that I have created for myself. I can say that today I have none of those to do. My only need to do task for the day is to make our house look somewhat presentable. Considering it hasn’t really been cleaned since St. Patrick’s Day this may be a bigger task than I imagine.

I think I might even attempt do break in my new Laundry Mate 5000.

I have a whole day to sit around, play with my little craft projects, work on some blog/website designs and eat bon bons (oh that’s right I don’t snack.) I am sure I won’t be lacking for anything to keep me occupied.

I can’t tell you how great a feeling this actually is.

I really am a mess. I am trying too hard just to get on with my life. I am starting to worry about that. Everyone was surprised when I went back to work at the church so soon. We shut A’s bedroom door last Monday and D’s mom packed up all of his things the next day.

I am just so afraid that I am trying to play the strong roll. I get asked how I am doing and I tell people I am doing okay. I don’t say great, but I do manage an okay. In reality I am a basket case. What the hell am I supposed to do? I can’t just sit around feeling sorry for myself can I? I feel like I owe it to myself and my family to be the strong one.

I do happen to have my good moments, but more often than not I am pushing feelings down inside. I am about to lose it at any moment. I was so tired on Tuesday that I almost started crying in the middle of hand bell practice. I had to finish the last of the props for the kid’s Godspell production, I worked the afternoon at the church, had a 3 hour long Godspell dress rehearsal that I had to write a video production shot list for then bell choir. In the end I just couldn’t take it anymore.

Moreover, I had to tell my dad tonight that his grandson wasn’t coming home. He got angry. He tried to tell me the Russians are just telling me a story. He doesn’t want me to continue. He thinks I should just try for a domestic adoption. It made me so angry. I got frustrated with him and explained why this is our best chance at having a child right now. It took a while, but I hope he came around. He doesn’t understand the concept of an open adoption. I had to equate it to me. I said, "how would you like it if my birth mom wanted to be involved in my life?" He wasn’t too keen on that idea. He is just so stubborn sometimes. Gee, I wonder where I get it from.

Needless to say I truly am a mess. I will continue to tell you that I am fine, but in reality we all know different.

I am like a good girlfriend of mine. When I have something really bad happen the place that I am in holds a bad connotation. Monday night we were in my office when Olga delivered the bad news. This is not a good thing. You know how much time I spend in my office? This is where I work, so quite a bit.

Tuesday morning I told D about my bad karma theory and asked if I could go buy a new desk to give the room a bit of a change. Well the project turned into a bit more than a new desk. D’s parents took us up to our local IKEA store. I found the desk I wanted, but of course it was larger than my old desk thus eliminating the space for my small bookshelf and printer table. I need somewhere to put my hoards of plant books so I bought wall cabinets to put the books in too. At the beginning of the store they had a display room that was painted the most beautiful color of aqua. It was paired with a clay brown and I fell in love. So after the IKEA adventure we made our way to the local Mega Home Improvement Store for some paint. I decided to just go with the aqua. (Thank you Ikea for now listing the paint colors: Benjamin Moore Passion Blue)

Wednesday afternoon I spent the day painting my office. I actually finished it in one day. Thursday we put together the new desk. Which of course was not without incident.* Then of course D says this room would look really good with some new stained molding to match the desk.

Friday we hung the wall cabinets and Saturday we made a trip to the other Mega Home Improvement Store for new Hemlock molding. Of course the molding had to be stained. Also not without incident.**

So here I am sitting in my pretty new office. Almost totally finished. I have some more artwork to purchase (of course the old artwork just didn’t work) and some touchup painting to do. So say it with me… "Bus driver… move that bus!!!"

Before

After

——————————
Oops, I forgot to add my footnotes.

*When we brought the large corner section of the desk into the house I peeked inside the box. It was the wrong color and the wrong shape!! It of course would not fit into either car so I called my friend Kathou who graciously drove up from Olympia to help me exchange the desk top. (Olympia=30 minutes from Tacoma, Tacoma=30 minutes from IKEA) Kathou you are the best!!

**While applying the wood conditioner to the molding I decided not to do it the Swedish way. You know, walk back and forth to the can. So I set the can on one of the pieces of molding as it sat on one of the saw horses. As I was applying the wood conditioner to the opposite end of the piece of molding the can was sitting on I picked up and turned the wood. Thus upending the brand new can of wood conditioner spilling its entire contents onto the patio. Smooooth.

How is Elle?

Oddly enough I am ok. I have my moments, but otherwise I am doing remarkably well. D and I took Tuesday off and his parents came to spend the day with us. I worked on a project all day Wednesday and yesterday I did go back to work.

Today is St. Patrick’s Day so of course that means the annual dinner. I make a great St. Pat’s day spread every year. That will take up the good part of the day.

I am trying to keep myself busy, but am allowing time for the occasional breakdown. I cannot believe the amount of support we have gotten this past week. We have had many comments on the Adoption-Adventure blog. I have had countless emails, e-cards and general good wishes from people. I have had phone calls from family and friends and even a bouquet of tulips from one of the pastors at our church. That of course made me cry when I got to work yesterday. I suppose it was a good thing no one was around.

I have lots of theories, reasoning and just plain epiphanys about this whole situation. Too many to go into, but just know that I really am doing well.

I’ll get back to regular old Elle soon. Posting about the useless crap in my life like the fact that my hair hates me and that Lutherans are a breed of their own. I just ask that at this time you please pray for the 3 other families that lost their children this week. I am not going through this alone.

I have this strange love affair with mops. I really like to have a clean floor in my house. Now this isn’t to say that I clean the floor constantly. On the contrary rather. I just happen to really like it when it is clean.

I cannot tell you how many mops I have bought in the time we have been married. I have tried the sponge mop, the cotton rag mop. I have used swiffer wet and I even own a Hoover Floor Mate. I like the Hoover a lot! But my favorite mop to date is the Libman Wonder Mop. It has a great pull down ring out feature. It doesn’t get the floor too wet and it cleans like a dream. It has been a very long time since I have broken out the Libman. I typically use the Hoover or the Swiffer. They are quicker and easier. The whole mop and bucket thing just is a pain in the butt.

We happen to have white kitchen floors. This is not by my choice. We inherited them with the house. My dad’s first comment about our house, "ohh, you aren’t going to like those floors." Yeah Dad, you were right.

Yesterday our Social worker was coming for the update on our homestudy. So I thought I would get handy and actually mop the floors. By the way the best cleaning agent to be used with said Libman is Murphy’s Oil Soap. This stuff is the best for everything. Anyway… I busted out the trusty Libman and mopped my little heart out. This took all of 2 seconds since our kitchen is so dang small.

Well… I found the flaw with my beloved mop. The mop has the ability to get under certain items in our kitchen, like the refrigerator and the butcher block. These are not places that my broom can reach. So what does the mop do? It flicks out dust bunnies the size of small rodents and copious amounts of my hair. I sound like a slob now don’t I? I am not really, I just don’t clean out under my fridge. This is the problem when you own 2 cats and your hair is falling out from stress.

My 2 second mop job turned into picking up bits of wet dirty cat fur then mopping again. But you should see my floors. They are sparkly clean!!

I found this on another blog and thought it to be rather funny.

D took me to the NW Flower and Garden Show today. I haven’t been to the show in a few years now. I don’t like large crowds and this event is the epitome of large crowds. We paid $19 per person to get into this place. $38 for 2 hours of entertainment. That is how long it took us to get through this thing. You would think that with me being the plant person that I am it would be an all day event. Not exactly.

Imagine thousands of people crammed together who instantly have become "plant experts." Every Dick and Jane in the place was the fore most authority on everything botanical. Combine that with the scent of 2 million hyacinths. That is the flower and garden show. Not to mention the morons who buy bundles of willow twigs, plant stakes, long handled pruners, and tomato cages and DON’T check them! Every time you turn around you run the risk of losing an eye.

The best part about the show was the entertainment value. My 2 favorite comments were the following:

Clueless lady #1

Looking at an all pink display garden decorated with a "path" of little pink balls that look distinctly like gumballs, Clueless lady #1 says to clueless friend, "Oh look, tomatoes."

Uhh, lady those are pink! and they are gumballs!!! Can’t you smell them. Also note the lack of stems and for God’s sake they are PINK!!!

Clueless man #1

Peering into another display garden Clueless man #1 states, "That’s a pretty willow."

Sir, I hate to inform you that that plant is a Coral Bark Maple.

I am very aware that not everyone has had the luxury of spending years of their life living nothing but plants day in and day out. And I am very aware that I am not the world’s expert on plants, gardening or landscaping. But some of these people are very very funny. There were some students their studying the display gardens and "judging" them. Husbands and wives looking for ideas for their own gardens at home. Ordinarily normal people who have now become plant experts.

The best part about the show was getting to spend the day with D. He had to listen to me blabber on about all kinds of crap he doesn’t really care about. He followed me as I wandered around in circles around the orchid booths trying to decide on if I could kill it or not. I really wanted a new orchid, but I just can’t grow them when they are in moss. I have 6 already, 3 that are blooming and really no space.

It was a good day all in all. Humorous and fun.

You ever have those days where you hit every green light in town and get rock star parking at the mall. Well for me the past few days have been like that. The sun came out and life perked up.

Thursday I was pleasantly surprised by my girlfriend Ingelaurie who brought me a coffee. She is the best! When I arrived home from the church Thursday night I had a package waiting for me on my front doorstep. It was a beautiful wall hanging quilt from Margaret. Thanks M, I love it.

D got paid more than we expected so he actually gave me the OK (and a budget) to go buy some plants. Friday’s weather was beautiful so I decided to try to find a way to maximize the given budget. Yes, I entered the plant department at my local mega home improvement store. Being the good plant lady I am, I just couldn’t bring myself to actually purchase plants there. So I drove across town to one of my favorite independent nurseries. To my great delight I actually found the plant I was looking for. A dwarf burning bush! It looks like a bunch of twigs right now, but just wait until fall. I also picked up a few heaths and 2 rhubarb roots. I haven’t ever grown rhubarb, but I really like rhubarb pie. 2 roots will feed our entire neighborhood!

My day in the yard included removing more than my fair share of Bee Balm. This plant is part of the mint family. If you know anything about plants it will give you an indication of the aggressiveness of this little monster. I left one clump because it really is pretty. The rhubarb took its place. I planted my new little babies, mowed the back yard and pulled a few weeds.

My car is now a happy car and evidently it really is gray. I just thought it was the dirt. Of course it is supposed to sprinkle today. Figures.

D also let me purchase some bark for my rose garden. We have had landscape fabric down, but no bark for months. Our last wind storm whipped it up and piled it on top of some of my rose bushes.

So despite the crappy few weeks I have had, this week I feel like things are starting to feel a little better.

Thanks to Jen for the advice on the hair stuff. I ordered it from Amazon. Can’t wait to try it. Because you are all so captivated by my hair I’ll let you all know how it works.

So after careful review yesterday was yet again another wasted day. What exactly did Elle accomplish?

1. Showered, and applied make-up
2. Cleaned up the breakfast dishes
3. Grocery shopped (I even went 3 different places to get everything)
4. I did actually cook dinner. (it wasn’t done until about 8:15, but I cooked!)
5. I worked on the quilt I started for myself.
6. Watched Mission Impossible while working on the quilt
7. came up with a new fundraiser idea that I pitched to D.
8. Carried on an Instant Messenger conversation about said fundraiser.
9. Found a new fundraiser in the mean time, an proceeded to carry on another conversation with D.
10. Eventually folded the sheets that were on the sofa. Of course that was at D’s prompting when he brought them into the bedroom and threw them on the bed. Come on people, they are queen sized sheets and I am little. I needed his help anyway.

And the number of times Elle checked her email yesterday: about 15. of course many of those were simply because I was carrying on a conversation with a girlfriend and happened to be sitting in front of the computer.

Well today is my church 1/2 day so it has to be productive. Of course I work from 12-4:30 then have a meeting at 6, another at 7 and then choir at 8. So I won’t be home until around 9:30 or so.

On a side note I did buy myself some flowers yesterday. Pink Tulips and white Alstromeria. Put it in a white vase… very pretty and chic. I also treated myself to a Coke. I lifted it from the youth fridge at the church, but gosh darn it I was certain the awaited email wouldn’t come yesterday and I needed a treat.

It is very sad when you measure rain in # of days and sunshine in # of hours. We ended up having something like 27-30 straight days of rain. We were watching the news last night and the weather guy said that we had 30 straight hours of sun (or clear sky) How sad is that?

Yesterday was the nicest day we had in a long time. I mean beautiful! I opened the sunroof on my car (all the way), wore my sandals (albeit with socks) and thought damn this is nice. Of course yesterday was my afternoon at the church. So I spent the beautiful day indoors.

The weatherman also predicted it was going to rain today (my day off), but it wouldn’t start until the afternoon. So I do my usual routine of email, blogs, shower, etc. and I have the intent of going outside to take care of a few weeds in my garden. I go out side, grab my tools and start hacking the heads off of ugly weeds. And what happens? No more than 2 minutes into my fun it starts raining. Ok, I am from the Northwest, I can handle a little sprinkle. I keep working. It starts to rain harder. It now becomes decision time. Do I throw on all the rain gear and keep working or do I pack it in and go in my warm house?

Well, I am sitting at the computer so you can guess what I did. All I want to do is pull some weeds so I don’t look like the neighborhood embarrassment. Well, if you saw my yard you wouldn’t call it that, but most of my neighbors know I am a horticulturalist. How bad is it for a plant person to have a crappy garden? I mean come on, I have a reputation to uphold here. I can’t let the little old ladies that walk by and say things like, "oh look at that garden, she isn’t going to have anything in that flower bed come winter. She planted all deciduous plants." HA ladies you are WRONG!!! There is something in that bed!! WEEDS!! I win I win. Ok, bad example.

So here I sit. And by my calculation it is 11:16 am and that is definitely not afternoon. Walter the Weather guy - you were WRONG!

During road trips D and I (ok mostly me) like to talk about dreams for our life. It actually is my way of getting D to talk about his feelings, but that is a different story.

So on this trip to Canada I started asking, "if you could do anything in the world what would it be?" D wants to be a professional golfer. Of course he thought this was totally unrealistic, but I thought otherwise. Ok, maybe playing on the PGA tour was a little unrealistic, but being a golf pro is not. You have to go to school for it. Of course the school is in Florida and we live in Washington, but hey it isn’t unrealistic.

What do I want to do? Oh the possibilities. What don’t I want to do is more like it. I told D that there is so much out there I want to do, but I am running out of lifetime. How can that be at my age? That just goes to show you how long my list actually is.

The big thing I want to do is own my own store. I have lots of ideas of what type of store I would like to have. We had talked about a Play it Again Sports. I thought about starting a landscape design studio that would be an intern program for new designers. But the thing I think would be the most fun is starting my own boutique style floral shop. Not one of these floral shops where they sell all that gifty crap or tons of shit people really don’t need, but one of those sleek, refined shops. You know, the type of place that the average joe is intimidated to go into. I want it to be like that, only the average joe would be welcome in my shop.

I know, this sounds nuts. I always come up with these ideas that just sit there in my mind or I try them and fail miserably. I have a feeling that this is a flavor of the month type of idea. I do this all the time. The good news is, so far I have not purchased a book on the subject. In fact I do not own a single floral design book. but the catch is that I actually started looking up schools that teach floral design. There are 2 in my area. One is at the local technical college, the other is actually a floral design institute in Seattle.

I cannot believe I would even consider going back to school, let alone for something that I already know how to do. Of course I have never worked as a floral designer or in a flower shop for that matter. I just know that I love flowers, I like the creative aspect of it and it would give me the chance to own my own store front.

Someone please stop me. Can someone please show me where the brain "off" switch is?

I did it! I finally did it! I am so proud of myself (ok tooting my own horn a little too much here). I actually filled out the online prescription form and had my Pfizer gold refilled. Of course I waited until D was home to drive me down to the pharmacy to pick it up, but that is a different story. So tomorrow there will be no sneezing fits. I must say though that the allergy attacks are quite the ab workout.

Considering the fact that the furthest I went today was the front stoop I got surprisingly little accomplished. It was one of those scattered days I have. See, I may have 3 paying jobs, but I only work outside of the home a day and a half a week. The 2 in home jobs are my own businesses and if I don’t feel like working I don’t. Today I didn’t feel like working. So I started the day with reading my favorite blogs, followed by sweeping the floors (sooo needed to be done), then I sat down at the sewing machine to work on a project. Then the thread broke so I went to do some ironing, then the iron kinda burned the ironing board pad. Then I went back to the sewing machine, then to the dishes… can you see a pattern here? I think the pharmacist should slip me some Ritalin instead of Zyrtec.

So D and I are going on a romantic one night get away this weekend. I am sooo excited. We haven’t been away for a very long time. The last hotel stay we had was on a rock hard bed in Vancouver, WA. But that was to help D’s sister move, and wasn’t really romantic. This time we are going to Vancouver, BC. One of my favorite places in the world. Staying at the Hyatt and having dinner at the noodle house. Of course I will just have to stare longingly at the doors of GM Place since we can’t afford hockey tickets. I do plan on spending every last cent I have on a new Team Canada Olympic sweatshirt though.

I have this wonderful Roots sweatshirt from the last Olympics. But frankly it has been deemed unfit for "out of the house wear." So I have to buy a new one. The bad part is HBC is doing the Team Canada stuff. But a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do.

I really am way too excited about this night away. I know I don’t have any kids to get away from, but I do have cats. And a night in a bed with just the 2 of us is just heaven!

I saw the most amazing thing this morning!!! There was this bright ball of light in the sky. It kinda made me feel warm and I had to squint when looking at it. What is better is that the sky wasn’t this dark gray color. It actually was blue. I had heard stories of a world where there is this magical orb in the sky that people call the s-u-n and the sky was blue. It made the plants grow and you even had to put on these reflective eye shields. I thought it was just one of those urban legends until I saw it in person. I was even lucky enough to capture a picture of it.It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Sadly I don’t think it is going to last long. The weathermen, while also mystified at this sighting, are predicting the return of the wetness.

The good news is that this miraculous moment afforded us the opportunity to climb up on the roof to slap a thick coat of roofing sealant around the chimney. We think the culprit is mainly the stupidity of the previous homeowner. The flashing around our chimney was improperly installed and some of the sealant was gaping. Also a big piece of flashing, where the water is coming in, was bent down exposing a large crevice. The funny part of the whole thing is that we were lucky to find some sealant that works when it is wet, but the directions clearly state make sure the area is clear of any dirt or debris. We tried to scrape away the copious amounts of Doug-Fir needles, but the sealant just wouldn’t stick. (of course this resulted in a rooftop argument) My suggestion was to take the garden hose and hose out the junk. Of course adding additional water to an already leaking roof wasn’t D’s idea of smart. However, I won. We used the hose to wash away the debris, layed down a thick bead of sealant and now only time will tell. The next step will be to replace the waterlogged drywall in our living room. Good thing I know how to do that!

On a another note… Go check out Margaret’s blog. I had fun with this one, but who am I kidding, I have fun with them all. Those of you who use Internet Explorer (IE) as your web browser have no issues viewing it. Those of us using Mozilla have some issues. I am not sure what the deal is, but it won’t view right in Moz. I will have to do some exploring.

And on a totally unrelated topic, I need the help of my bloggy friends. I need a new ringtone for my cell phone. Currently my phone plays the "A team" theme song. Come on… you know the show, Mr. T, Murdock and the gang. This is not to say that I am a big Mr. T fan, but I think the them song is a riot. However, I am getting tired of the A. So here is your chance, let me know what you think my cell phone ring tone should be. The possibilities are endless.*

*ok, not really endless, I am secretly searching for the Hey song, but I can’t seem to find it. I just need some good suggestions to an alternative.

Like I have posted before I am not much of a Meme person, but I thought this one was rather cute. And in my attempt to be a more prolific blogger I thought I would tell you a little more about me. Besides… I got tagged by Lauri and lets face it, she sent me a really nice E-card that made me smile.

What were you doing 10 years ago?

I was in college trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Do I change majors, where do I find work… I was also planning our wedding. WAAAAAY too young to be doing that!

What were you doing 1 year ago?

Frantically cleaning my house getting ready for our dreaded homestudy. Damn our house looked good. I shoulda taken pictures.

Five Snacks I enjoy
1. Lucky Charms
2. Goldfish crackers
3. Cookie dough (not the ice cream, just cookie dough)
4. grapes
5. ranch dressing. I know this is really a condiment, but let’s face it, anything you put ranch dressing on is just really a medium to get the dressing into your face.

Five songs to which I know all the lyrics

1. Obla-di-obla-da - The Beatles (damn Michael Jackson for owning the rights to all Beatles songs preventing us from downloading them from iTunes!)
2. Ironic - Alanis Morissette (ok, most Alanis songs)
3. The Eleventh Hour - Jars of Clay
4. Dodo - Dave Matthews Band
5. Down to the River to Pray - Alison Krauss

Five things I would do if I were a Millionaire

1. Move out of the US and pay to fly my parents back and forth
2. Start my charitable foundation
3. Save a whole ton
4. Contribute to charities Im passionate about (I took that one from Lauri, but it applies to me too)
5. fix my fricken roof. Ok, let’s be realistic here, if I were a millionaire I would just buy a whole new house

Five bad habits
1. I refuse to purchase anything in which the can, box, or container is dented, scratched, or maimed in any way
2. My shoes have a bad habit of not finding their way back into the closet, least of all the shoe racks. I totally blame the shoes.
3. I anally organize my closet
4. I am stubborn
5. I am a perfectionist

I blame all of these things on my mom. Well, except the shoe thing, that really is the shoe’s fault. (mom you know I love you right?)

Five Things I like doing
1. gardening
2. playing hockey
3. reading
4. cooking
5. spending a lazy afternoon with D trying to find the best discount stores

Five things I would never wear ( buy or get again)

1. shoulder pads. I don’t need them
2. hammer pants (my name is Elle, I once wore hammer pants)
3. leg warmers
4. hair scrunchies
5. baggy sweaters

Hey! I am a child of the 80’s what can I say.

Five Favorite toys

1. the church’s laptop
2. kick ass medium format camera D bought for my birthday that I don’t use nearly enough
3. Photoshop
4. Baby S’s Fridge Phonics, I do it just to irritate D
5. my one and only Xbox Game, Oddworld, Munch’s Oddessey

Im supposed to tag five people- but everyone I would have tagged is tagged already, so just go to their blogs and leave a comment. It makes them feel good!

Margaret- Peanut pants
Rhonda - Still waiting