I’m late posting photos, but as the saying goes, better late than never.

I had just gotten home after taking our houseguest Valerie to the airport (she went home to Illinois for the holidays) when I saw Jerry’s car in the driveway. I was so excited to see him home for lunch! I was sure he had come home to see me so I rushed in the front door to say “hi sweetie”. When he walked out of his study and I saw the look on his face I knew there was a different reason for him being home in the middle of the day. You know the rest of the story, another job lay off with the holidays right around the corner. This short story line leads up the photo of me with a very special person in my arms, baby Jack L. Hord. Carol’s daughter Teresa, husband Jeremy, and daugher Emily welcomed Jack into the world a few days after Thanksgiving this year. Jerry had gone back to work after telling me about the job lay off news, and I was on the phone with my girlfriend Pauline boo-hooing about it. I was in no mood to break away from my conversation with Pauline, despite Carol’s persistance. She called my cell several times, then the home phone. I finally gave in and took her call. She didn’t tell me that Teresa and Jack were with her, she didn’t know about Jerry’s recent job status. She just knew how much I loved her girls and T’s kids. I hung up with Pauline and waited for Carol to come over like she said she was going to do. When I answered the door I was so tickled. I also knew that I needed a baby’s love at that very moment to lift my heart. Thank you baby Jack, Teresa and Carol.

We started our festivities by having good friends Terry and Karen over to enjoy the Christmas vibe. Karen brought over hot chocolate and we enjoyed that while we opened our gifts.
It was Jerry’s year for all things Coke related. Maybe next year we’ll put up a small tree in his study to show off his Coke ornaments.It was the year of the fairy for me. I was blessed to receive Tink in many different forms this year and loved it. This was a Mary Cicely Barker calendar, another favorite artist of mine who illustrates exquisite fairies.

Terry’s gifts came in the form of Disney. Not too big of a surprise because that’s his mantra, his main thing, what makes his heart go thumpedy-thump. Karen and I went to an estate sale this last year that had a awesome amount of Disney items for sale. We found out as we were purchasing our items that the estate sale was due to a foreclosure which made it very sad. But in the end Terry got this shirt and a cool Disney blanket, so I was thankful for those gifts.

Next on our holiday festivities was spending Christmas eve with good friends the Bennets. Jill made everyone a wonderful mexican feast with delicious margarita’s, and Matt joined us for dinner that evening which was nice. In a festive mood Jill placed celebratory New Years eve crackers on each table setting which was a lot of fun.
Inside each cracker were crowns, a joke, and a prize. Each end of the cracker was tied up with twisty gold ball ties. Those ended up being the most entertaining, something akin to the box, not the contents. Patrick made “knuckle-cracking-beaters” out of his. Steve proudly shows off the paper crown. It seems to fit him just right, don’t you think? Jill bravely shows there is more than just 1 thing you can do with the New Years cracker ties thank you, while Matt tries not to notice that mom did not have her focus set right!

We had a nice treat this year with having both boys home for Christmas. Jason and his good friend Christina, better known as Chuck, made the long trek down from Arcata, Ca in his dependable blue Honda. Since it is about a 14 hour drive one way, they decided to stop over in San Fransico on their way down. It had been almost 2 years since we’d seen Jason last, so we were all very excited. Christmas morning was nice. We slept in a bit, and Matt drove down from Newport Beach to open gifts with us. Matt appreciated his gifts as did Jason, of course, yet the best part for Jerry and I was the fact that we had both the boys home for the holidays at the same time.
As part of our family tradition, we traveled down to San Diego for Christmas day dinner at Patty’s cousin’s house. Greg and Doreen make the best prime rib known to mankind and are the most gracious of hosts. Getting to see Greg’s parents, and Patty’s closest aunt Lou and uncle Jim who live a stone’s throw away, is another part of the wonderful tradition, as is seeing a whole host of other family members. It is time spent with great food and spirits, lots of wonderful stories around a long table, and best of all simply the best family a girl could ever wish for.

As the first day ends I feel speechless. And extremely tired. My heart is full of empathy for my husband. And of admiration. I know somehow we will be ok. We always are. Words of comfort are all I can seem to focus on now.

Another days work at my girlfriend Jill’s school, with the help of good friends Terry and Karen, and much was accomplished. Blue felt bulletin boards with colorful borders, more moving of furniture, cleaning out bookshelves, portable storage cabinets and filling black plastic bags full of trash made us feel as if we’d accomplished a lot. Terry and Karen made the work seem like fun at times, laughing at our mistakes, and discussing the right way to accomplish certain tasks!

After about 3 1/2 hours, Terry and Karen took off and Jill and I finished up the lose ends. Because Jill’s portable is clear in the back end of the school, we found another new teacher there to unlock the gate so Jill could drive her car back to fill it with the boxes of donated books we had accumulated. There was more activity at the school this time as opposed to last, a repair company was there to fix the AC unit and the night custodian was waxing floors for the day custodian who was on vacation.

To get a vehicle around to the back by the portables you need a key to unlock the main gate, something we didn’t have, and why we got the teacher to help us. Since there were a lot of people at school we didn’t give much thought to having the car inside the school grounds. We figured the custodian would be there until closing, about 4pm, so we would have plenty of time to move the car before he left. Wrong. Jill and I left about 20 minutes after Terry and Karen took off, still well before the 4 o’clock hour, so we were really surprised to see the gate locked and the parking lot almost empty when we drove around to the front of the school to go home. After the initial shock set in, Jill and I set out to find someone who might be able to help us in getting the gate locked. I remember seeing the AC repairman towards the back of the school just before we left so I walked around the building hoping to find them. When I came back towards the front I saw Jill had got ahold of him and we got the district phone number. Much to our relief there was still personnel at work and they said they’d send someone out as soon as possible, though it might be a while. So Jill and I parked our hot sweaty and tired bodies in the shade and waited. About 15-20 minutes later someone arrived and let us out. Jill talked to him for a few minutes before we drove of. He told her it was a good thing she called when we did because in another few minutes there wouldn’t have been anyone at the office to take our call!

I sat it down
I picked it up
I turned around
With no such luck

The mess was deep
The piles had grown
In my once
adorable room

And so I started
all over and then
I got right into it
like way back when

I turned that music
up really loud
so Lenny Kravitz
could sing real proud

The sweat did role
the words were sweet
before you knew it
the room was neat.

So now I say
hey come for a visit
the room is neat
even if for a minute

You’re probably asking yourself “What the heck is that?” Maybe a few of you would actually guess correctly. If you’ve ever been in a Physical Therapist’s or Chiropracter’s office you’d probably be the one who recognized it for what it is: a traction belt. During one of my visit’s to my GREAT Physical Therapist/Chiropractor/Fibromyalgia Specialist’s office I mentioned I was sewing for extra income. My remark was in response to him asking what was new in my life. So I proceeded to tell him I’d been sewing and mending all kinds of things for friends, and that I’d even been able to give our kids and my mom a few extra dollars during the holidays because of it. That’s when he brought over one of the belts for his big traction table, which he mentioned needed the velcro replaced as it was wearing out. I took my time examing each piece as I lay comfortably on the physical therapy bed complete with hot packs, and muscle stimulator like electrodes attached to me all to help my aggravated Fibromyalgia pressure points. The belts looked like they were put together fairly simply, although it did look like it would be considerable work to take them apart, and then put them back together so the end result would be presentable. They also looked like the material used in them was pretty high quality and locating the wide black velcro might prove to be a problem. After much thought I decided to tell him I would look into getting the velcro and get back to him. Later on a stop on the way home proved I could get my hands on the velcro and so I ordered it.

At my next therapy appointment the Doctor and I agreed that I would take the belts home at a convenient time and work at my own pace replacing the velcro. As it turned out I’ve been given a 4 day period where I will have them to repair and so far so good. As you can see in the above photo it proved to be quite time consuming carefully taking them apart without doing any damage. There is a thin foam padding inside that had to be carefully kept intact while taking the seams apart. The material used is quite strong and it looks like once completed they should hold up for a good while longer. Of course time will tell, but I am feeling hopeful, and a little pleased with myself that I accomplished this task. Thanks Dr. Mel!