Exhausted but triumphant

I am exhausted. I did the majority of the cooking, i.e. work, for today and we were up until 3:30 a.m. wrapping and cleaning. So yeah, I am exhausted. But the kids had a great day. I think all of them got what they wanted. I know my oldest DD did. It was a pleasant day with snow falling outside (though not much stuck). The downside was my mom came down with whatever has gone through my family and DH is still sick so I ended up doing most of the cooking and cleaning up. Due to the weather, my parents and friends headed out earlier than planned so some of our Christmas traditions fell by the wayside like playing card games and just hanging out after dinner.

Now it is on to the next thing and we put Christmas to rest for another year. It was a fun day filled with family, friends, gifts and traditions. That is what it is all about.

Saying goodbye

We have a lost a member of my extended family. Exactly one week ago, while my girls and I were having fun at a 4-H event, a member of my family lost her husband. Members of my family lost their father. Members of my family lost their grandfather. The community of Salem also lost a great man. He was an educator. He was a man who believed every child could make something of themselves. He was a man who was known to pay graduation fees for seniors who couldn't afford too. He was a man who loved to go to his beach house and watch the ocean rise and fall. He was a man of strong faith. This man was a teacher, a vice-principal and a principal. He helped start a new high school and acted as their principal for the first few years of its existence. He was also a man who believed in fighting what some call the impossible fight against the ravages of methamphetamine. He worked with state legislators to create the Methamphetamine Strike Force. He was a man who came out of retirement to act as an interim principal at not one but two different schools. Finally 15 years after his first retirement he tried it again. This time it mostly stuck. He was a man who believed in the betterment of humanity. He sat on the board of the United Way of the Mid-Willamette Valley. A man who a man who loved to cook and was known to cook authentic Italian for 8 for fundraisers. He was a man with a strong sense of right and wrong. Anything that might harm a child was definitely WRONG. He was a man that based his work decisions on what was best for the children under his supervision. He was a family man. He was a son, a brother, a husband, a father and a grandfather. He parented with strength and compassion. He raised two wonderful children who are now great parents themselves. He was someone his grandchildren looked up to and respected. He was a man who will be sorely missed by many, many people.

While he was a relative by marriage only and a "shirt sleeve" relative at that, I really respected this man. He had several token sayings. A couple of his favorites were "Pressure makes Diamonds" and "Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way". This man, the husband of my mother's cousin, was a man that the world is poorer for losing. He was relatively young at only 68 and there was so much more he might have done. I learned more from talking to him a few minutes at a time over the years about parenting, kids and life, than I have from spending hours and hours with many others. I wish I had gotten to benefit more from his knowledge as my children would be the better for it.

Guido Caldarazzo, you were one of a kind and you will be sorely missed.

Christmas Spirit

There is absolutely no Christmas spirit in my house. No one cares whether or not there is any Christmas anything in, on or around the house. They don't care if there is a tree or stockings or anything. Well, except for me. I care. I am sitting here crying because it takes me having a complete freak out/breakdown for ANYONE in this house to do anything. I have cleaned the entire area where the Christmas tree is supposed to go because my stupid husband just kept saying "where are we going to put it" when I asked when we were going to go get a tree. We get a real tree every year and it has to be over 7 feet tall to fill the space it goes in so it is not like I can go get it by myself. Besides picking a tree is supposed to be a family event. We are supposed to have fun picking it out and decorating it together. Christmas is supposed to be a family event. But there is no one in this family that wants to help or do anything. Stupid husband has to take the camper off the truck to be able to haul said tree. But he won't because he doesn't want to have to drive my van 150 feet so he can turn the truck around. WTH????? There is NO other day before the Sunday immediately before Christmas to get a tree because there are things going on both weekend days next weekend and on Saturday the 22nd as well. So basically that means that we will have the tree for exactly 2 days before Christmas!!! What is the point of killing a tree to have it for 3 days? We are leaving, supposedly, the day after Christmas to go to San Francisco to watch the Oregon State Beavers play in their bowl game. That is if stupid husband ever gets all the "details" worked out and actually purchases tickets before they are all gone. If I had my way, we would get the tree and put it up the weekend immediately following Thanksgiving. Now we are going to have the stupid thing for exactly 3 days???? What is the point? It is not as any of them have any Christmas spirit anyway. I guess I will just wrap their presents and throw them on the floor. That is all they care about anyway. The presents!!! At this point, I don't even see a reason to finish shopping.

Christmas spirit???? Bah humbug!

Oh you have got to be kidding

I post daily on a diet/weight watchers related website (DWLZ) and read a post today about Jennifer Love Hewitt being fat. She is a size 2 for crying out loud! Someone posted a link to an article written about JLH firing back at the paparazzi for printing some unflattering pictures of her while she was on vacation with her new fiance. This article was listed as news by a prominent magazine. NEWS?!!? Really, you have got to be kidding me! Considering that 90% of the women in this country would give their eye teeth to have her body how is an unflattering picture in a rag mag news?

I appreciate JLH publicly commenting on this and fighting for healthy body types everywhere. Truly it is refreshing to hear a celebrity embracing their body rather than trying to starve themselves to the obligatory size 0.

I am never going to be a size 2 so this may sound like a whole lot of sour grapes but truly when is this kind of stuff going to get the outcry that it needs. An actress has to defend her size 2 body, news at 5 really sickens me. There are real problems in this world, focus on them and leave this beautiful, successful woman alone.

I am off to work off a calorie or two cleaning this pigsty. Will that be next thing to make the news, some actress who dares to clean up after herself or cook for herself or raise her own children?

Wild weather!

What crazy weather we are having lately. In the last week we have had freezing weather, threats of snow that did not materialize, massive amounts of rain and wind. Since December 1 we have had nearly 4 inches of rain. The coast saw hurricane force winds. The highest gust recorded was in Bay City at 129mph.

Then to make things even more interesting the rivers flooded all around us and my neighborhood was an island for a few hours this evening. Roads to the north, south and west were all closed. The river runs right next to DD's school and was running through the parking lot for a while tonight. School is closed tomorrow. Goody two extra helpers for the day. Bet they will beg to go back to school Wednesday.