::Slice of Life::

Pulled over

Last night was the first time, in over 15+ years, that I have been pulled over without doing anything wrong.  Driving down K street at 1:30am, I look in my rear view mirror to see the blue & red flashing lights.  It is kind of cool to see those and know that I hadn't done anything wrong.   He come up to the car and says "We pulled you over because your missing your front plate".  I'm like What?!?  "I had no idea I was missing my front plate".  And hand him my license.  He looks at it and then has me do some test where he makes me look back and forth without moving your head while he shines that super bright flashlight in my eyes.  Of course I pass because I had been telling the truth when I said I hadn't had anything to drink for hours.  He hands back my license and says "drive safe".  I almost did a happy dance.  I found it a pretty funny ending to a good night. 

You will be taught to fly

When you come to the edge of all the light that you have and you must take a step into the darkness of the unknown, trust that one of two things will happen..either there will be something solid for you to stand on or you will be taught how to fly

Move along nothing to see here

Haven't had time to post all day and won't have any time tonight so I'm just posting an "I can't post" post so I don't miss today.  =) 

Come and gone

Last night when I picked Frankie up she had a slight cough and said she didn't feel good.  When we got home she felt a little hot.   I took her temperature and she was at 100.4 (Underarm which is lower than under the tongue).  A half hour later she was at 101.1.  She said felt really cold and her cough got worse.  I fed her chicken soup and apple juice and bundled her up on the couch.  After I tucked her in bed at 7:30 and left her to read (they get a 1/2 hour to read before lights out) when I came back 2 minutes later she was already fast asleep.  

She told me that she didn't want to miss school the next day because she didn't want to lose perfect attendance.   I was seriously doubting her being able to go with how she seemed to be getting worse.  I thought she'd have a full blown cold or flu by morning.  But she woke up good as could be.  No fever, no cough.  She want to school,then to Kari's and now back home and had not problems.  Not sure what was up with her but I'm glad it didn't last (or spread to anyone else).  Maybe the 12 hour flu.  =)

back down

I'm back down to my pre-cruise weight plus 1/2 lb more.  

I'm looking into a Yoga class near work.  They give a trial of 10 days of $10 and you can go as much as you want during the 10 days.  I'm gonna try that and see.  It could be very cool.   I could go at lunch or right after work and another gal at work goes so I can go with her for at least the first few times until I get used to it.  =)

Authenticity Badge

This book I'm ready is one of those books I know will change my life.   Authenticity is one of the key lessons from the book.  Here is the Authenticity Badge from Brene Brown.    I just love it.  Especially the last paragraph.  I should put this up and read it every day.

  

 

Stew and crusty bread

I made my first stew of the season yesterday.  Some friends and I had dinner last night.  It had been at least a month since Jeannette, Kim, Wei and I had gotten together for dinner and I was really missing the comfortability of hanging out with them – it’s almost like therapy for me. 

Wei’s house is the most central so I invited myself over for dinner along with Kim and Jeannette.  She was of course cool with that but wasn’t up to cooking so I volunteered.  What can you do when you need to bring dinner somewhere directly after work and won’t really have time to cook when you get there?  You make something in a crockpot. 

So I made stew in a crockpot and took it into work and let it cook sitting on my desk all day.  It was funny when people would walk by and try to guess what the smell was in the area.  A number of people thought it smelled like McDonald French fries.  I also made my No Knead Bread so I had a bowl of that rising on my desk all day too which contributed to the smell. 

Both the stew and the bread were great and I think I am still full from eating so much.  I love stew in the fall.  Such good comfort food especially with crusty bread and a glass of red wine. 

Happy Birthday Tim

More Black Hair

Washed Elisa's hair 3 more times this morning and still the water and suds were greyish.  I even started to think maybe it was the shampoo that was making the greyish suds but when I washed my hair, the suds were pure white.  I am amazed at how much this stuff hangs on.  Her hair does look normal color now though so that's good. 

Here she is with her black hair (taken by Kari's on her cell phone).

 

Black Hair

For Elisa's Goth costume we used black hairspray to color her hair black.  It made her look a lot older. Since they were wearing their costumes to church this morning I tied it up over night and she kept it black today too.  Tonight she really wanted me to let her leave it in and wear it to school tomorrow.  I vetoed that and before bed tonight I took Elisa into the shower to wash it out.  She almost got her wish though.   We washed it 4 times and when I rinsed out the conditioner the water still looked greyish.  I let it go and we will wash it again in the morning a couple more times.  That is some strong hairspray.

Halloween

The girls went trick -or-treating for a record 2- 1/2 hours last night.  We went over to another neighborhood where one of Elisa's best friends, Sarah, lives and walked around with them.  I could hardly believe how many people were in their neighborhood.  2 housed right near them go all out for Halloween and people come from all around to trick-or-treat there because of it.  The kids had a blast.

We weren't sure what we were going to do until that afternoon.  Frankie wanted to walk around with her friend Dominique who lives really close by and Elisa wanted to go to Sarah's.  Luckily Dominque's mom was fine with us taking her and didn't want to go so we could all go to Sarah's neighborhood.  

 

Elisa was Gothica (fancy name for Goth Girl) and Frankie was a Genie.  Elisa's friend Sarah was a bus driver and Emma was a zombie soccer player.  Frankie's friend Dominque was a princess.

Happy Halloween

Good things today:

• When I got on the scale today I'm down 2 of the 4 lbs I gained on the cruise.  Even with not exercising because of my back and not watching what I ate (at all).  I guess it was all water weight.  =)
• Back is totally good again today.  No pain!! Which is a very good thing. 
• When I picked up the girls they had a good time.  Elisa always cry's when you leave and last night was no different.  So when I got there and she did the "Oh no mom's here - we don't want to leave" I knew it was all good. 
• Frankie's team kicked butt again today. 3-1.  Frankie played goalie in the first quarter and did great.  I could hardly wait for the  quarter to be over because I was dreading if they made a goal on her she would be so horribly disappointed - but no goal - Yeah!  The most awesome thing was that Frankie had a part in one of the goals.  She kicked it to Tatom who kicked it in.  She could have kicked it in but was blocked so she passed and they made the goal.  Total team work.  She was very proud of herself.

Bad Thing:

• Came home from the soccer game and discovered that a bunch of our pumpkins were stolen.  =(

I have been very blog motivated lately so I'm gonna make a goal to post every day in November.   And then maybe do a picture a day in December.  I haven't had any urge to take pictures lately and maybe that will get me liking it again.  =)

Who am I

Wonderful quote from Marianne Williamson that really inspires me:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?  Actually, who are you NOT to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.  There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel unsure around you.  We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.  It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.  As we let our own Light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. 

Flat on my back

That's how I spent most of my day today. 

My back started to hurt yesterday and got a lot worse last night.  I went in the hot tub and took some pain meds at bedtime but it didn't help.  When I woke up I couldn't stand up straight because it hurt so much.  I took the girls to school and went to a chiropractor.  He checked me out and told me what was wrong with me (which of course I can't remember now).  He iced my back for a few minute (which hurt more than my back at that moment) to get the swelling down enough to do an adjustment.  I went home and spent the day laying down and icing my back and will go see him again tomorrow.   It feels better tonight than last night and hopefully better tomorrow morning than this morning.   The most frustrating part was getting a day at home and having a huge pile of laundry to do and not being able to do it. 

I had to cancel my plans for tomorrow night.  We were going to a Halloween woman's ballroom dance in Oakland but with my back hurting I'm not up to the car ride much less the dancing.  They will tell me all about it later.

I will still go out though.  This is the first year, in I can't remember how long, that I want to go and do something (with adults) for Halloween and I'm not letting my back stop me.  And the kids already have a sleepover arranged and everything. 

We can't

I'm reading a book called "I thought it was just me (but it isn't)".   It has a podcast that goes with it and in the podcast yesterday it had the following statement.

• We can't give our children what we don't have
• We can't practice compassion with our children if we can't practice self -compassion
• We can't love our children more than we love ourselves

It basically means that what you hold back from yourself you hold back from your children.  If you don't love yourself, respect yourself, practice self-compassion you can't do it for your children either. 

I had never heard it quite that way before.  It is to motivate us to practice loving kindness with ourselves and know we are worthy of love and acceptance and belonging.