Katlynn and I making snow angels

Katelynn's Snowman

FW: Gingerbread house!

Simple Home Remedies

1. If you're choking on an ice cube, simply pour a cup of boiling water down your throat. Presto! The blockage will instantly remove itself.

2. Avoid cutting yourself when slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold the vegetables while you chop.

3. Avoid arguments with the females about lifting the toilet seat by using the sink.

4. For high blood pressure sufferers ~ simply cut yourself and bleed for a few minutes, thus reducing the pressure on your veins. Remember to use a timer.

5. A mousetrap placed on top of your alarm clock will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.

6. If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives. Then you'll be afraid to cough.

7. You only need two tools in life - WD-40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and should, use the WD-40. If it shouldn't move and does, use the duct tape.

8. Remember - everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

9. If you can't fix it with a hammer, you've got an electrical problem.

Daily thought: Some people are like slinkies - not really good for anything but they bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.

How Did I Get Here?

Yesterday in the office it was all quiet and then U heard the guy in the office next to me say, “How did I get here?” My reply; “Isn’t that what we are all asking ourselves.”

As small children we see ourselves growing up to be Doctors, Lawyers or Video Game designer all in one day. Then as we grow and experience more of life we start to see ourselves in the Real world and our goals change and become more focused as we set off to college pursuing an education that will ultimately bring us to our career.

Then at some point we sit and wonder, ‘how did I get here’. Circumstance, planning, lack of planning and other outside influences bring us to where we are and it may not have been what we thought it would be 30, 20 or even just 5 years ago.

I grew up in a Detroit suburb where most men I knew, neighbors, uncles, and friends of my parents worked for one of the BIG 3 in the auto industry. When I graduated from college with a Mechanical Engineering degree everyone assumed that I would work for the Big 3. I purposely sought out a career that was as far away as possible from the Auto Industry. It has always been a mis-managed industry and still is today. However, today I work for a company where 98% of customers are Automobile Dealers. Not exactly the Big 3 but as close as you can get. Interesting isn’t it.

At the end my life I don’t want to worry about should have, could have and would have. How did I get here is not the important questions but where am I going.

Can I Have Your Attention Please

One of our cats has developed a new habit. I’m not so sure I like this habit and I’m not even sure where she got it from. If I am sitting on the couch watching TV or working on the laptop she will come up to me wanting my attention. If I don’t acknowledge her then she starts to head butt my arm. It is not just the normal cat thing where they will rub their head against you, but she hauls off and smacks me with the top of her head. This she continues to do until she has my attention. This all started about a week ago. Trust me it is a pretty effective way to get my attention.

It has been a very busy few weeks for me. Family events, moving my mom to a new place, spending time with my friends, working out trying to get back in shape, busy days at work, software upgrades, holidays. All good things, all necessary things, but when is it too much. Have I been so busy that I miss taking the time to talk to the checkout girl in the store? Miss the chance to sit with one of the lonely folks at the nursing home. Miss the chance to take someone out for lunch?

My cat is has just found a subtle way to remind me that we all need attention during the busy, busy time.

Newton's 3rd Law

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

* Smile at a baby and the baby smiles back.
* Tickle a child and hear them giggle.
* Be kind to someone and watch them smile.

Today we live in a society where you can do almost anything you want and never have to think about the effect you will have on someone else. We don’t teach our children about consequences for their actions. We live our secret lives never expecting anyone to find out.

Any yet, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. It will hurt someone else.

Let’s think about what we do and the impact it has on other and have a positive effect.

My New Best Friend

In May I started working out at the YMCA. I went to be with friends, to get this body into better shape and to keep from having a knee replacement. In the last 6 months I have lost at least one size in clothing, went from not able to walk on the treadmill for 3 minutes to easily doing 60 minutes at 10% incline as a warm-up and have met a few new friends along the way. One of those friends is a bag of frozen peas.

To be honest, I have never been easy on my body, always pushing it to do things it was never meant to do. I played sports and what I lacked in natural ability I made up for in determination and persistence. That is in part why today I have one knee that was rebuilt in the mid-70s and the other needs some major work.


Each night I come home from the Y and grab my bag of peas out of the freeze and sit at my computer or in front of the TV with that bag on a sore body part, a knee, a foot, a shoulder. I know that without my buddy the peas I would be unable to continue the workouts so we have this wonderful relationship where we spend just the right about of time together, not too short and definitely not too long (have you ever had frost bite on your shoulder? I have.)

As I think of it that bag of peas is like family. They help you to remember who you are, they ease some of the pain of life, but you sure don’t want to spend too much time with them.

So next time you have an ache get yourself a bag of frozen peas.

If I Never

If I never tried,
………………… I would not fail
………………… I would not over come
……………….. I would not succeed

If I never cared,
………………… I would not feel rejected
………………… I would not feel satisfaction
………………… I would not feel as if I truly lived

If I never loved,
………………… I would not know heart ache
………………… I would not know true happiness
………………… I would not know true love

Leadership is not........

I was thinking about leadership the other night. Getting people to do task, to participate is more than just telling them what to do. In my career I have had the opportunity to have people report to me and have had the opportunity to lead many cross functional teams where I have no real authority over any of them.

People often think that Leadership is about ‘Telling’ someone what to do, but the truth is leadership is about having the ability to get people to ‘want’ to do things. You get them to want to because you have created a case showing them what the benefits or values are in completing the task. You get people to follow your leadership out of respect for you because they trust that you have a great good in mind and aren’t just doing it for self. Or people follow your leadership because they see where what you are doing will improve them or what they want.

I have had Leaders that I willingly followed and I have had Leaders that I had to follow. Given the choice I would choose a leader that I wanted to follow.

A true leader does not need to bark out commands or threaten.

Leadership is not…..


DICTATORSHIP

Shhh, Listen

The tick, tick, tick of clock on the wall, the sound of a train running through the valley and an occasional car diving buy on the rain slicked roads. The house is quiet tonight. I enjoy the quiet.


It is nice to just have quiet.

Veterans Day

Remember those that have served so that we can be free. It might just be one of your co-workers, uncles, brother, or sisters. Everyone of them,living or dead deserve a heart felt thanks today and every day.

Flooded Fields

My normal commute takes me through some very pretty farm country. Now that we are into the fall and it is dark going to and coming home from work I usually don’t pay attention to the scenery but this morning in the dark I caught a faint reflection out of the corner of my eye and when I looked over to the left it appeared as if I was driving along a lake. Over the weekend the river that runs through the valley had risen over its banks leaving the field flooded. As the night sky lightened I could see that most of the area had standing water and the horses that once grazed in that larger pasture were now in a small pen next to the house up on a hill.

Farming along a river has many advantages; the soil is rich, the water is plentiful and the land is flat. However, there is the price you pay for the seasonal flooding. Flooding in this valley is common and that means the residents are more than able and prepared to handle it. It is a price that the owners of this land pay for all the benefits that it offers.

There is always a price to pay; we just need to make sure the benefit out ways the cost.

Factory Reset

Two of our IT staff work out of the same Office I am in. Today one of them got the infamous Blue Screen of Death on his lap top. That was when we started talking about the Special Blue Button on our IBM ThinkPads. Pushing that the blue button walks you through the steps to reformat the hard drive and then reinstall the software that was part of the original factory installation.

What if there was a Blue Button that would allow us to go to a factory reset of our bodies. No more wrinkles, no more scares from the bumps and bruises of life, no more heart ache from being misunderstood and offended. We push the blue button and we are reset to the way we were designed to be.

Just 5 Little Words

“Home is where the heart is”, “Home, Sweet Home” both phrases are common. But what is a home?

Almost 4 years ago I relocated my mom from her home to here. The previous 73yrs Michigan had been the only place she had ever lived. She endured the extreme cold and feet of snow every winter, the high heat and humidity every summer. All that doesn’t change a thing in her heart, it will always be home.

While a residential dwelling is often referred to as a "home," the concept of home is broader than a physical dwelling. Home is often a place of refuge and safety, where worldly cares fade and the things and people that one loves becomes the focus.

Today I was with my mom as we prepare to move her to her 3rd residence in less than 4 years. My mom doesn’t share much of what she if feeling. She tends to just go with the flow, on the outside at least. During that interview she was asked to write any phrase or sentence that came to mind. She wrote 5 little words that had so much power and completely described the impact of what was happening to her.

She has Parkinson’s disease and every day she loses just a little more of that ability to control her body. She keeps being socially engaged in anything she possibly can. To take her outside and allow her to sit in the sun and enjoy the fresh air or to be able to listen to or sing along to music are the things that she enjoys most now.

That phrase, I want to go home.

What do I think?

I am sitting here after 11pm on Election night I was just asked “What do I think?” My response, “What changed, this is still the best country in the world, we still have the ability to elect our leaders, no one man controls this country or makes our laws or policies. So what changed?” Yes we will have a new President.

So what changed, this great country of ours elected its first non-White president. I sit here and remember vividly the 5 days of pure hell that occurred in 1967 approximately 50 miles from my home. I am talking about the Detroit riots. After the 1st day of the riots my dad took my sister and I out and showed us where his gun was, where the ammo was and how to fire the weapon. I was 11 and my sister was 15. We were taught how to defend our home and our younger siblings incase anything happened while my mom and dad were at work. All it took was one call from my uncle who was a Detroit Cop and we were on alert status.

The origins of urban unrest in Detroit were rooted in a multitude of political, economic, and social factors including police abuse, lack of affordable housing, urban renewal projects, economic inequality, black militancy, and rapid demographic change.

Our election results are truly historical. I am proud of how far this country has come in the last 40+ years. What do I think? This man will work within the confines of our Constitution and do what he truly feels is best for this country. I may not agree with the direction but I will continue to pray for wisdom and clarity for our president and all those around him.

Healthy Foods

I was doing a little web reading today during lunch and ran across an interesting article on 7 foods that fight over-40 fat. Since I am over-40 (52 to be exact) and have a desire to burn off some of the EXTRA fat I have been carrying, this article caught my attention.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that 3 of the items on the list are already a normal part of my life. 1) Water instead of Soft drinks. I cut out unnecessary sugar – no soft drinks, pastries, candy – in my mid- 40s and until recently my weight stayed in check. 2) Eat Walnuts. My favorite snack is walnuts; every weekend when my husband goes to the grocery store he buys me a small bag of walnuts. I ask for the small bag because I have trouble not eating the entire bag so a small one is perfect. 3) Hot Sauce. Anyone that knows me knows that when eating out I use jalapenos or Tabasco sauce on just about everything. I love tasty spicy food. It is true, it makes me feel good.

So what is the point of this, it is just one of those days where I needed to look at what I am doing right and decided to share.

The Right Atmosphere

Think about the Lunar Module. These ships were designed to land on the moon and protect the astronauts that were on board of it. When you see one up close one of the first things that jumps out at you is how fragile it really looks. Did you know that the same materials that are used for helium party balloons were a major part of the Lunar Module? Look closely at this picture and you will see that the reflective material is in fact a gold coated Mylar foil that is about 0.0005in think. The Lunar Module was designed for a specific atmosphere; it functioned best in that atmosphere.

We are designed for a specific atmosphere and it is when we can control our atmosphere that we are at our peak performance. We can protect our atmosphere by what we allow to be around us. We need to protect what we see and hear. We need to provide the proper rest and nutrition for our bodies to thrive. We need to provide an atmosphere that is full of life to live a life that is full.

Vacation - Day 7

On our final touring day we decided to take the 14 mile drive south to Mt Vernon, VA. This was the mansion of George Washington. We were able to go through the house and around the grounds. Washington was truly an intelligent man.

After we finished up at Mt Vernon we drove into the city of Alexandria and visited the Carlyle House, a Mansion on the river that was built in 1753 and restored in the 1970’s. After that we walked around town before stopping for a late lunch and a stop at Starbucks before heading back to our motel.

Currently we are packed as much as we can be for an early departure tomorrow. Over all a very good trip, one that we will remember and share with our grand kids some day.

Mt Vernon

Vacation - Day 6

This morning we got up with a plan, a plan to start out at the American History Museum. This Museum is home to the original Star Spangled Banner, the history of West Point and other important items from American History.

We parked the car and walked up to The Mall and across it to find the American History Museum. We ended up off by one street and not very far from the National Archives so we stopped there first. Inside we were able to view the original Bill of Rights, Constitution, Declaration of Independence and other documents from our nation’s history. Trying to preserve these documents meant that the lighting in the building was kept low and flash photography was not allowed so there were no pictures to post.

After a couple of hours there we went to the American History Museum only to find that it was closed until November 21st for renovation.

Since our plan was shot we decided to hop back on the tour bus and just go from there. We ended up getting off in Georgetown for lunch at Johnny Rockets and then hopped off again to visit the Spy Museum.

We probably walked another 4 to 5 miles in total today, and I can finally say I am starting to feel it.

Union Station

Smithsonian Castle

Lunch @ Johnny Rockets

Vacation - Day 5

Yesterday was an easy day; we slept in and took our time having breakfast. Isn’t that the object of a vacation is to rest and take it easy? That is what we did.

On one of our previous days of touring we found a place that had free parking with unlimited time. Most of the free spots in DC are limited to 2 or 3 hours. The only downside is that it was by the Jefferson Memorial and so there was a little bit of a walk to get to The Mall.

We parked and walked up to The Mall where we jumped on to one of the Hop-on/ Hop-off tour busses. This bus went not only around The Mall but also to some of the outlying sites, like Georgetown, Union Station, and Ford Theater.

We hopped off at Ford Theater, the location where President Lincoln was shot. The theater its self was closed for renovations so we went in and saw the house where Lincoln was taken and later died. After that short visit we went to the Hard Rock Café for lunch. Here we had a really nice waitress who even laughed at Kyle’s jokes.

From there we hopped back onto the tour bus and headed out to Washington National Cathedral and Embassy Row. Finally ending up back in front of the Dept of Agriculture where we hopped off and headed back to the car and the end of day 5

White House Front Lawn

Vacation - Day 4

Today we started out early for a not the normal tourist event. We had the privilege of attending a full honors military funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. The ceremony was one of Honor and Respect all the way around. Air Force Lieutenant Coronel Carl Copemen died recently of from a heart attack after living a full life. He fought in WWII, Korea and Viet Nam as well as being one of the original members of the Test Pilot unit with Chuck Yeager. The Ceremony included a process ion through the cemetery by an Air Force Band, Brigade and a Caisson drawn by six white horses. It ended with a grave side service with taps and a 21 gun salute. This man chose to serve and did so with Honor and was remembered today with Honor. May we never forget.

We also visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and it was there that we witness the pride that one old man felt for his country. His finger out stretched as much as the arthritic knuckles would allow as he showed his companions the places and the battles he fought. The memories more vivid then his voice and yet the pride was there for all that he had done. May we never forget.

Our next stop was the Holocaust Museum. I have seen firsthand Auschwitz and Birkenau, but the images and impact of the slaughter of Jews during WWII are real and potent. May we never forget.

From there we rode the elevator to the top of the Washington Monument and looked out all four sides seeing the monuments and memorials that stand in remembrance and respect for the greatest democracy of the world. May we never forget.

Jefferson Memorial

Capital Building

White House from the top of the Washington Monument

Washington Monument

Lunar Module @ Air and Space Museum

Vacation - Day 3

Today was an easier day. We met up with my sister, brother-in-law and his mom for the day. We spent at least 30 minutes looking for a parking spot. That is one thing that is really hard to come by in DC is any place to park. When we did find one, it was right on the corner next to the Capital Building and it did not have a time limit (most spots in DC have a 2 hr limit).

Our 1st start was the Botanic Gardens where we checked out all the plants from around the world. We then spent a little time walking around in front of the Capital Building but we didn’t get there early enough for a tour inside. After that we walked along the mall to the National Museum of Natural History. It was here that we spent the rest of our touring day looking at dinosaur bones, gems and mineral including the Hope and Pearson diamonds, petrified wood and other natural items.

We have an early morning planned and we were all tired from the heat and sun so it will be a quiet night tonight.

Capital Building

Vacation – Day 2

Today was our first full day in DC, actually the DC area since our hotel is in Arlington, Virginia across the street from Ft Myers. At best estimate we walked 10 miles to day. Thanks P Lori and the RC Posse without all those hours at the Y on the treadmill and I wouldn’t have been able to make it.

Sites seen today:
Arlington National Cemetery
Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Arlington House (Home of Robert E Lee before the Civil War)
Iwo Jima Marine Corp Memorial (photo below)
The Washington Monument
The WW II Memorial
Vietnam Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
Korean Memorial
Jefferson Memorial

A pretty full day if I do say so.

Reflection Pool

Iwa Jima Memorial

View of DC

Curve Ahead

A couple of months ago my sister was here visiting from the Midwest. We did various day trips visiting the sites and having fun. On one afternoon as we were on our way home for the night she asked, “Do you have any straight roads?” I thought of that this morning as I was cruising through the back country roads on my way to work. The roads wind around the hills and along the river so there are no straight portions.

Just like in life there really aren’t very many straight portions. We head off on a course but to get to our end goal we have twist and turns, climb and decent, and the ever painful switchbacks where it seems we are just repeating the steps we have taken before. Curves are put in the road to make our travels safer and simpler. It may not seem so at the time, but I know that some of the greatest moments in my travel have come when I round a curve and find the most splendid view imaginable.

It Arrived Today

I now have my new copy of the latest book by Nicholas Sparks: The Lucky One.

Making the Right Choice Isn’t Easy

Today I got a new boss. Some might say I’m just too much to try and handle, and no, my current boss didn’t get demoted, fired or quite. The President and COO chose to take a lesser role in the Company so that he can be a dad to his 14 year old daughter.

After he made the announcement to the rest of the executive team this morning, he sent out a companywide email. Here is an excerpt from that email:

“As many of you know, I’ve been living in California this year while my family has stayed in Washington. The plan was for my family to wrap up our affairs in Washington by the end of this summer and then join me in California. After a considerable amount of soul searching we decided that a move to California is not in the best interest of either my wife or my daughter. This left me with the difficult proposition of continuing to spend most of my time in Costa Mesa and commuting back to Seattle on the weekends. This is no way to live; I can’t be an active part of my daughter’s life separated by 1,000 miles.”

Shortly after that he came into my office and we talked a little about the decision. He said it was very hard for him since it had been his career goal to be President and someday CEO and had agonized over it for weeks. He said that once he made the decision he was at peace and knew it was the right one.

Life is about choices and choices are not always easy. In the long run he will be more fulfilled by keeping his family in the right priority. In the short run it could make life interesting for me as we get used to working more closely together and adapt to our new roles.

Paralyzed by Pressure

I have been so productive today I think I have gotten more done in the last 8.5 hours than I have in the last two weeks. So what changed? I guess it is because of the moves I made yesterday ( Too Much of a Good Thing). This morning after I had cranked through two of my top task I realized I wasn’t working under a ton of pressure. My creative and cognitive juices were flowing and I was clicking on all cylinders.

What changed, I had been paralyzed by the pressure. There was just so much to get done and I had allowed myself to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all and was trying to do it all by myself.

So lesson learned, again: I can’t do it all.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Is there ever too much of a good thing? Yes. I have reached my point of saturation when it comes to my job. I have been working too many hours and not getting enough done. I just came from my boss’s office where I asked him to pick up a couple of my task for me. He had previously told me to let him know when it was too much and I did that.

This was not an easy task for me and I honestly thought I was over trying to do everything, but apparently not. I can remember back in the mid-80s I worked myself to the point of exhaustion where I was unable to work more than a few hours a day for a few weeks until I could recover from ‘burning the candle at both ends”. At that time I was working full time and basically doing full time ministry full time every evening. I had run at that pace for a couple of years and finally my body said enough.

Until I started this job in January I had a personal rule to not work at home at night. If I needed to work extra I would stay at the office late or go into the office on the weekends. This job being something that not only excites me and brings fulfillment has also given me an excuse to break my own rule. I could use the fact that I need to work with our development team in Russia and that happens after 8pm at night usually but that doesn’t explain why I am on the computer working at 6pm and then most nights not shutting it off until 11pm or later. I figure that I have not had a true day off in almost two months. A day where I did not look at email, answer a phone or work on a project.

So now what? All that I can say is that I made the first step this afternoon in correcting the situation by asking for help. I have a deadline that I need to finish up tonight and then it will be time to turn the computer off. Maybe I need to just start leaving the laptop at work, now that is a thought.

Z- Zephyr and Zeppelin

Zephyr – a gentle breeze – How is it that one part of our life is in a total storm and another is as if I am sitting in a sail boat and there is total calm and nothing moving? Form me there is a hurricane blowing in the area of work. The winds, the workload are roaring through and I’m just trying to hold on at this time. I love my job, but there can be too much of a good thing. The problem is that there is so much that needs to be done I just don’t have time to do a good job at any of it and that is making me nuts. And then there is a big part of my life that seems to be in limbo or on hold. I so want to have a gentle breeze blow in so that the sails fill and I start to make progress again.

Zeppelin – Do you remember when The Good Year Blimp was the only one that covered sporting events? Now there are many of them, Snoopy, Good Year, etc. I remember the 1st time I saw in person the Good Year Blimp flying over head. I was in the process of driving from Freeport, IL to Federal, In. I was an a barren road where the nearest town was 60 miles away and I pulled to the side of the road, stood outside the car on a bright May afternoon and just watched for a good 30 minutes as the thing approached and then flew over head. Watching that ‘balloon’ I wondered what it was like to fly one of those. The landings must be interesting.

Made to Feel Like a Queen

I got to spend most of yesterday with my sister and my mom. My sister was out staying with a group of friends on Camano Island. This group flew in from around the country; Michigan, Florida, Arizona, and South Carolina just to spend some time with each other. Because she was in the area she made arrangements to spend a day with us. It would have been more if my work schedule would have allowed it. We picked up mom in the morning and decided to head to Camano and visit a beach and just enjoy the beautiful weather, great scenery and each other’s company because I had commitments that required me to be back in Monroe by because I had commitments that required me to be back in Monroe by 5:30pm.

We got to Stanwood a little before noon so we decided to stop at this little Greek deli that my sister had found for lunch. We ordered Gyros and I asked them to just put it on a plate, not assemble it into a sandwich for my mom making it easier for her to eat. Soon out came our food. Now those who know me will understand how big this was, but our lunch was served on china dinner plate and they brought us real silverware. When was the last time you were served a sandwich and a salad on a real plate and not in some basket lined with wax paper?

My mom’s plate was arranged like it was prepared for a catalog photo. The meat, the lettuce topped with tomatoes, the pita bread cut into perfect rectangles and the sauce drizzled to complete the design. I almost felt a little cheated looking at my perfectly formed gyro compared to her plate. Then came the taste – AMAZING. Everything was fresh and seasoned perfectly, I didn’t even ask for Tabasco sauce.

After we have eaten everything on our plates she came out and asked us if we wanted desert. My sister ordered a piece of cherry/apple pie. So back in she went and soon she arrived back at our table with a huge piece of homemade pie, three forks and an ice cream bar on the side of the plate. I asked about the ice cream bar and she said she just wanted to give my mom a little treat. It was chocolate covered tiramisu ice cream on a stick. My mom’s face lit up like a child on Christmas morning. It was so good to see my mom so happy, that woman made my mom feel like a Queen.

If you are ever near Stanwood or just want really amazing Greek food stop into Suzie’s Place Delicatessen. It is just before you go over the bridge to Camano Island.

Y - Yttrium and Generation Y

Yttrium – What do moon rocks; LCD screens and Cancer Treatment have in common? Yttrium is an element that is found in most rare-earth minerals and Moon rocks. It is used to produce the red in Lasers and LCD screen and isotopes for radiation therapy.



Generation Y – the generation born between1980 and 1990. Here are a few facts about Generation Y according to: Connecting to the Net.Generation: What Higher Education Professionals Need to Know About Today's Students:

• 97% own a computer
• 97% have downloaded music and other media using peer-to-peer file sharing
• 94% own a cell phone
• 76% use instant messaging and social networking sites
• 75% of college students have a Facebook account
• 60% own some type of portable music and/or video device such as an iPod
• 49% regularly download music and other media using peer-to-peer file sharing
• 34% use websites as their primary source of news
• 28% author a blog and 44% read blogs
• 15% of IM users are logged on 24 hours a day/7 days a week
  

Email Overload

I can't respond to any emails today. Something has crashed on my computer and the mouse is missing. . .

X - Xylography and Xylophone

Xylography – The image is carved into the surface of the block of wood, there areas that are not part of the desired image are removed, typically with gouges. The character or image is shown a the surface level and it is cut along the grain of the wood. Once the carving is complete, ink is spread on the block and where ever the block is then placed The Masters Image is left for all to admire.

Xylophone – Wooden bars of various lengths, struck by mallets creating musical tones. Each bar is tuned to a specific pitch allowing the musician to create a melody.

Standing Room Only

Sons, sisters, nieces, interns, friends, it seems like there has been a steady parade of guest at our house these last few months. At times I think we are only visiting. When we bought this large house there was only Kyle and I and the two cats. We knew then that we would be hosting guest. At first I used one of our two extra bedrooms as an office, now I have my office either on the dining room table or at my easy chair that is next to the Bowflex .

Since we have moved in we have had a pretty full house most of the time and this coming weekend could be interesting around here, there is a potential for 7 of us staying here for a few nights. Good thing that we have lots of space, a queen size bed, a set of bunk beds, a double bed, a queen size sofa sleeper and a few other assorted couches that can sleep an adult.

So we will be a little cozy, but you know what, we really wouldn’t have it any other way. If there is one thing that Kyle and I have in common it is we love to make you feel comfortable in our home.

Just One of Those Days

Things are busy, not just busy absolutely nuts. Work, home, you name it, my life is just overloaded right now.

At about 2pm today I walked into my boss’s office to discuss some of what is going on and make sure I hadn’t lost my mind. I sat down in a chair; he walked over to the white board to draw it out so we could both get the information straight. I take off my glasses to give my eyes a change of pace. I look down and this is what I saw:

Yep, one black shoe and one brown shoe, and it’s not like they are even the same shoe. The only thing I can say is at least I have them on the right feet.

Tomorrow is a new day and I know that at least for today I have made a few of my Twitter follower’s laugh which isn’t all that bad.

W - Words and Wife

Words – “Sticks and stones my break my bones but word will never hurt me”, who hasn’t heard that phrase. We use it as a child to try and convince ourselves and others that what is said to and about us doesn’t have an effect. Too bad it just isn’t true. The power of words is amazing. It is the words spoken by a father to his pre-teen daughter, telling her that she is fat and lazy, that hurt her enough that she lashes out at the you neighbor girl telling her she is fat and that she will soon look like her mother that is at least 100lbs overweight. That young neighbor girl then stops eating. At 1st the young girls parents don’t realize it, but they soon find the food that they thought had been eaten partially chewed and hidden in various places in the house, until finally the young girl is so thin that the doctors want to insert a feeding tube to keep her alive. Words, as it says in James there is power in the tongue and it is so hard to tame. My prayer is that my words are uplifting and bring life.

Wife – a helpmate, partner, confidant, lover, homemaker, spouse, and mate, different ways to say the same thing, for every one of these terms there are thousands of definitions of what that means. Every woman is unique and in the uniqueness they bring something different to the marriage relationship. The way I am a wife to my husband may not work for anyone else but me. I don’t remember exactly why or what triggered it, but this last week I have been searching myself to see what I can do to be a better wife to my husband. I love and respect my husband; I do all that I can to be there for him, including working on his truck when his hands don’t fit. I even honestly asked my husband if there was anything he could think of that I could do for him. It is not about something I have to do, it is something I want to do. Wife, it is my goal to be the best wife I can be and the only thing I am sure of is that won’t look like any other wife.

V - Volume and Visitors

Volume – I am back in the office working after a week of working remote, part of it at home and part of it traveling to and from Costa Mesa. These last two days it has been real quiet and I tend to get more done in a quiet environment. The biggest difference is my boss in on vacation this week. You see he has a habit of sitting in his office doing all of his conference calls while on Speakerphone with the door to his office open and the volume turned all the way up. That means that the rest of us not only hear his side of the conversation but the entire conversation. Often I get up and close my office door, but because he has his volume up so loud I can’t get away from it. It reminds me of the people in their cars that feel that everyone sitting in traffic with wants to hear what they are listening to. Sometimes I just want to stand up and yell, “Turn it Down”, but where would that get me? Especially in traffic, I would probably only get either run over or shot.

Visitors – Are family considered guest. I know that when I go back to visit my family in Michigan I usually don’t get to do much of what I really want to do because I run around and see all the family and do all the activities they have planned. They go out of their way to entertain me and make sure I have a good visit. I just did the same thing when my sister and niece were here, making sure they had enough to do. So did I over book them? Did they get to do what they wanted to do?