Ouch

Ouch! I haven't been here in a long time. Consistency is my downfall. I keep thinking I'll conquer it, but it keeps creeping back, or soaring back as the case may be.

A few exciting things have happened in the interval. I am now a Stella and Dot Stylist, which is going to be a lot of fun. I love baubles and bangles and, hopefully, this will help me get out and socialize more. I tend to be a homebody and time just passes by and I don't realize I haven't been out in ages. I also am an independent consultant for a great "smelly-good" company called Perfectly Posh and am trying to get that up and going as well. Regardless of what happens, I should look good and smell marvelous.

My son is coming home for a visit before he heads to Korea for a year. So much better than the last time he headed off for a while (Afghanistan), but still, a year is a long time. I'll miss him. We're actually straightening the house up a bit for his visit - though, I don't know why. He did grow up here. Straightening in this house is quite a challenge. We have more books than there are blades of grass in our yard, I think that's really not an understatement. Every time I go to put something away or find a space for something, the intended space is full of books. Some are homeschool books which we probably could get rid of but so many of them hold wonderful memories and there are the future grandchildren, right?

Anyway, sorry I've been inconsistent. I'm moving forward with a plan to be more diligent in getting it all done, if the books don't side-track me.

Nina

Ch...ch..changes

I am about to jump off a very high cliff into uncharted waters for the first time in my life. I'm thinking 53 years is probably long enough to play it safe. It's the risk-takers who go places after all. Some of this new venture has been thrust upon me due to issues of health, but some of it is a desire to not miss chasing the dreams that I haven't caught yet. There are several out there and they're clamoring for my attention pretty loudly. So, Friday will be my last day of work in a conventional job. It's a little scary, actually very scary, especially considering the fact that there are health-related issues and I very likely will no longer have health insurance. I've been a type 1 diabetic for 42 years. I've never been without health insurance. Not really sure how that is going to work, but, for now, it's what I have to do. I've developed a few complications from the overly sweet blood coursing through my veins for all these years, mainly a neuropathic foot, which means when I face north my toes on my left foot face slightly west. It sounds like such a small problem but medical authorities are telling me it is a big deal and I need to stay off of it for a long time.

My plan is to work on getting my body ready to last another half century. That will take some time. I want to start putting some of these characters running around in my head on paper. I'm going to de-stress, and cook all kinds of things, from the comfort of a chair, of course, and I'll play on Twitter, because I really like it, and it makes me feel like less of a recluse. I would like to take some classes online. I'm going to snog the dogs and listen to my daughter talk about her new writing projects, and school, and guys, and all that fun stuff Moms get to do.

So, the adventure begins. There may be some tossing on stormy seas for some of the way but the horizon is out there and I know the colors will be gorgeous.

Nina

Raising Dollars

I found a reputable, supposedly, Work-from-Home site and I checked it out. There were numerous suggestions for taking surveys and getting paid, and trying offers for pay. I looked into a couple of them and spent most of my day off yesterday filling out forms and opting to try things for free or a tiny amount of money. After the entire day, I think I made eight dollars. It seems there is no easy way to make money. Unfortunately, in the economy of today, there is no harder way either. I continue to look for jobs and I don't intend to give up until I find something that pays better than my current job, which pays barely more than my survey-taking fiasco yesterday. I think part of the secret to success is to just keep moving forward even when things seem pretty hopeless. It takes more persistence than talent, right. That's my theory and for now I'm sticking with it.

And, Homeschooling is Finished

I'm sitting in our room at the Gaylord Palms Resort where our daughter will graduate tomorrow morning. People often ask me why we homeschooled our children and I have a couple of pretty legitimate-sounding reasons I tell them, but the reality is I am selfish. I really like my kids, I love them, but I like them, too. I enjoy being with them. They are witty, articulate, and fun to be around. I got to explore the world with people who saw everything with fresh eyes and new enthusiasm. I got excited about Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages, Shakespeare, poetry and creative writing. Some things were more work than pleasure, we did study Math, but mostly we had a wonderful time together. Now we have finished, 18 years after our son started Kindergarden, and while there is some sadness in the ending, mostly there is joy. Our children have become adults who are pursuing their dreams and are still lovely to be around.

A Passport to Bad Hair

So, we went to the post office Wednesday to apply for passports for our trip to England this summer - assuming I amass the fortune required for three airplane tickets to London. This past March, my daughter and I bought tickets to see Much Ado About Nothing in the "glittering west end" of London in July. I'm not sure what overcame me. Well, I know the thought of seeing David Tennant in a play by Shakespeare overcame me, but I'm still puzzled by the fact that I have hope that I can do this. I think, all things considered, I will need half my yearly income to manage the trip and I still think I will have this in the next two months. I await the miracle. Anyway, we had our pictures taken by the post-mistress after we completed our applications. When it was my turn, she asked me if she could do something with my hair. My hair is not really an entity you can do something with but I said sure. She came over and pushed it around and had me lean over and shake it out and then she fluffed it up a bit and took the picture. She gave me a copy and, while you can't see the part in my hair, it is still completely flat on top. I do admire her willingness to go above and beyond in an effort to make me more presentable to customs. When Rex posed for his picture, her response to him was, "Really?" Sarah looks pretty good in her picture. Rex and I look like we probably should never go out in daylight. Hopefully, we won't be turned away at the gate.

A Bite of Love

Zooey

We gained a new member of the family in March. Her name is Zooey and she is  half Boston Terrier and half Lhasa Apso. She is very feisty and her favorite way of playing is to grab hold of something with her tiny sharp teeth and chomp. Noses are a favorite. She also loves to grab a mouthful of my daughter's waist-length hair and try to run off with it. My daughter and I adore her. My son fell in love with her when he was home in March before his deployment, too. The only member of the household who claims to dislike her is my husband and he is, of course, the person she likes to sleep next to. Every night I find her pressed up against his back or sometimes his neck and both of them are snoring happily away. 

Our older dog, Nixie, was very unhappy when Zooey initially moved in. She would sit on the chair with her head down, vulture style, like Snoopy in the Peanuts comics and stare at us with utter devastation. After about a week, she started to warm up to her and, now, they run around the house with reckless abandon, Nixie barking enthusiastically and Zooey yipping away in her shrill puppy voice.  It drives my husband crazy and can be a bit annoying when you are trying to watch a movie. It's joyful though and that's always a good thing to have around. 

A new beginning

It's 12:09 a.m. on Sunday, May 21 and I am starting my first blog post. I'm not entirely sure what I'll talk about. I enjoy movies so maybe some reviews, I love books, maybe more reviews, I like to cook, recipes are a possibility, I'm an Anglophile so England definitely on the agenda, I'm selling Avon and Azuli Skye so definitely will be talking beauty and jewelry on occasion, and I have a slight celebrity crush on David Tennant so he'll probably pop up now and then, too. I've never been good at keeping a diary,  but I hope I can be consistent with this. That is the plan. I hope you'll join me.