Spring has Sprung

Yesterday we had a magnificent day here, 74 and beautiful sunshine. I was caught up with work until about 2 but got home in time to take Duffy and Smokey outside to enjoy it which they did.

I am upgrading my computer connection. I don't know if anyone else has upgraded to FIOS.
They ran the lines a few weeks ago. The internet connection is supposed to be faster than cable. The best part is that I can get unlimited long distance AND computer connection (including a wireless router free) for under $70. I now use a wired router which means we are confined to the upstairs only. If I opt for a business laptop up the road I will really enjoy being able to use it downstairs or on the patio. I realize that if I went with all cable the phone would be less but our neighbors have done that and when they lose the cable they have no phone service. That can be a real problem and I don't want it.

Am working hard on a business deal. There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes when people buy a home. Mortgage approval, negotiation of the contract, inspections etc. Right now I have written a contract but it has not been presented yet, waiting for one of the parties to be present. I am remaining calm.......so far. One of my coworkers recently remarked how odd it is when you see that two people who are married for years are on totally different pages about what they want. Normally the wife is going on emotion "I LOVE this" while the husband is the voice of practicality. It's a real study in people. I enjoy working with people and I find there is always something I learn from each person that I deal with. Keeps it fresh.

Time to go shower and get to a training session this morning. My office is wonderful, we have weekly training and so much more. It's a great support system.

Pass the chicken soup!

I woke up yesterday with a sore throat. This is one of those colds that starts out like a sore throat and then escalates. I did a few things I had to today then came home and have nursed my throat with tea and it now wants chicken soup. My throat does not give a damn that today is a lenten Friday. I say if you're sick then you have a dispensation. I deem it so and I will be having my chicken soup. I will do a good deed. That good deed will be to control my temper which right now could be set off.

I have to wonder about a lot of things these days. Do people NOT have any loyalty anymore?
When you spend days working with someone, filling your tank with gas, putting miles on your car do they not feel loyalty? Do they feel it's okay to meet another agent and tell them that no they are not working with anyone and then allow that person to pressure them into doing something that even they don't feel is right? I don't get it. I have bought three houses. Each time I had ONE person who was taking me around. That person handled any inquiries I had. ALL three times I purchased the second house I looked at. Damn, I never knew just how easy I was!
I thanked the person for their time spent and I truly appreciated it. I find that either I was very strange or the world has changed. Now people do not seem to feel loyal in such circumstances.
I have decided that I deserve to be treated better than that.

I'm cranky and I think I need a nap and some more hot beverages......and maybe some chocolate. Yea that's the ticket.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I was supposed to take a client out today. I really like this couple and am excited to be helping them find a home. She agreed that the roads were dangerous early in the a.m. when we had planned to go and we have pushed it off until next Saturday.

I did my usual meal and although it was delicious it was a lot of work. I just love having the leftovers and if we go out we don't get them. To be honest, I feel that my corned beef and cabbage (with my secret ingredient: Guinness) is better than any I have had anywhere.
The soda bread was scrumptious and I wish my internet friends could pop in for some and a nice cup of tea. I am trying to watch my carbs. My bloodwork is indicating my sugar is too high and my doctor thinks I may be predisposed to diabetes which is in my family. I hate needles and would not want to have to deal with more medicine. I am hoping I can control my eating better and avoid dealing with it in the future.

Today, as on every day where we are focused on the Irish, I miss my grandfather. He was an important person in my life. My Dad was in the Navy and my mother was not one to travel.
Much of that time I lived with my grandparents in their tiny house. I still have my grandmother at 94 but I lost him about twenty years ago. I still miss him. When I was only about ten he had a very bad heart attack. We rushed to the hospital to be with him and he kept telling me not to worry. He was in his fifties and shortly after that he had to retire. Over the next few years he had a series of strokes. I always rushed to be at his side and it was always he who comforted me. When I had cancer and had to have radiation treatments he came to New Jersey and took me for one. He was an emotional person and it really got to him. He nearly fainted. He was always there for his grandchildren. After his last stroke, he was a shadow of the person he had been. It was so hard to watch. One of the last days I spent with him we were in the kitchen eating breakfast. He kept looking at me and I asked him if he was okay. He nodded but didn't really seem too alert that morning. I got up and went to sit on the sofa and he suddenly stood up on his own, got his walker and followed me. He came right over to me and began to cry and said "I love you honey." I couldn't believe it. I jumped up and hugged him and told him I loved him more.
A minute later he slipped back into the shadows. It was a magical moment and I will never forget it. Within a few months he was gone. I was blessed to have had him, my Irish grandfather.

Is the glass half empty or half full

The case for half empty

I am so tired and not sleeping properly. From time to time this plagues me and when I do sleep I am having vivid nightmares about ghosts which don't really frighten me normally. These dreams are quite interesting once my heart stops pounding.

Our magnificent weather of several days has changed. We experienced rain last night, sleet and hail this morning and are now receiving several inches of snow. The roads are a sheet of ice. I went out for a prescription and slid all over the road before turning back. I will suffice with the lower dosages until road conditions improve.

My visit to my cardiologist was the same old/same old. I keep hoping one day he will have some really good news for me like I can go off of some of the costly prescriptions.

My grandmother told me again today that my siblings do not want to hear from me because all I do is complain. (How dare I complain about something as insignificant as heart surgery!) The hardest part of hearing that is that I only talk to them once or twice a year. By the way, siblings all deny saying this but Grandma tells me next time I should tell them they are lying, a word she rarely uses.

The case for half full

I have a wonderful friend, lover and companion in Rob....when all else walk away he will still be there doing whatever I need

This morning when I couldn't stop the skidding and thought I might actually end up dead

or seriously injured I quickly thought that if I remained calm (and didn't jerk the wheel) that I would be okay and I was.......

I also felt that a quickly mumbled prayer was answered so I guess God isn't sick of hearing me

I have wonderful caring neighbors

I have loved and been loved

I am still alive and ticking (literally)

I have courage to try to make things better

I know that tomorrow will be another chance to try again

I am struggling to focus on the good, the positive.

Sunshine, Blue Skies and a Lazy Afternoon

Today the weather was simply gorgeous. The sunshine with a high in the 70s. They had predicted rain last night but so happy they were wrong. I stood outside chatting with a neighbor for over an hour and just soaked up the sun.

I did two evening shifts in two consecutive days. That's what I get for being nice and trading places with coworkers. My hubby has worked overtime every night and doesn't get home until 7:30. He is hungry, thirsty and wanting human companionship. When I evenings I don't get home until 9 or later. He's on his own. When I get home I am hungry but don't want to eat that late at night. Of course I rush through the door and want to see what's going on with Idol. Then I have to rewind the tape to see the part I missed before I can make my informed choice. It seems to be that LaKisha aka Kiki is my frontrunner. I'm telling you the FIRST time I saw and heard her I thought of Gladys Knight. When she did Midnight Train to Georgia I was loving it.
I think she has what it takes. Melinda has a solid voice too but to be honest, sometimes I wonder about her. I love Motown. When someone like Blake does what he did, it's just mindblogging to someone like me. It's like Sponge Bob trying to sing Beatles music. Don't go there. Just don't.

Well, I am thinking I might get a tiny nap in before the furboys go on their food demand for the evening meal. I have to be rested up for tonight's TV viewing. I hope Diana does at least one of her classics.

Back to Work...........

Today is beautiful and Springlike. I seized the opportunity to walk door to door and distribute items I had purchased with my name and business phone numbers on them. Remember when you receive those items they are not cheap. Do not throw them out. Put them to good use! I tied them neatly in bags and left those for those who were not home when I arrived. It might go up as high as 60 degrees today! The sun is so bright I had to wear shades!

I am feeling better today. This weekend I was on a new medicine and it kicked my asthma into high gear. I was wheezing so badly last night that I could hardly breathe. Of course, I am also thinking that Spring allergies may be at least partly to blame. I never did get my rosebush planted. Rob didn't sleep at all Saturday night and then yesterday we both catnapped all day.
Or we tried to. Our phone which rarely rings, was ringing off the hook each time we fell asleep. Our neighbor who comes no more than four times a year, came over and woke us up twice. Murphy's Law I guess. Just in time for St. Paddy's Day too. I have my Saturday dinner purchased and ready to cook. I always make it fresh, including the Irish Soda Bread. Honestly, mine is better than any other I have ever tasted. I got the recipe from Irish America Magazine.
They got it from Ireland. I have a great wreath on my front door, complete with tiny green bowlers and some green wee beer mugs. We have Irish stuff around all year long. Still, I keep a few things that I only bring out once a year. Have you seen the advertisement for Guinness where the three guys get up and it's just like Christmas but all gifts are wrapped in green and are Guinness? It's so funny. In a perfect world maybe.

Well I have to be in to work at 6 tonight until 9. I have already run a few errands and am ready for a rest! Of course I just know that if I actually nod off the phone will ring immediately! If I believed in curses, I would swear someone put one on this house that no human is to actually get restful sleep. If anyone knows a remedy for the antisleep curse, please let me know.

Other Pics I had wanted to post

The picture on the top is Rob's sister hugging her daughter when she was about 5 yrs old.

It wasn't the best picture ever taken of her but I like it very much.

This picture on the bottom was Rob holding our niece, then 3 and his sister Jennifer about half an hour before our wedding. Surprise! They were in the bar and Rob was having a Guinness. Jen later snuck in the bride room and snapped some shots of me with my friends.

Jennifer learned yesterday that the tumor in her head is cancer. We had hoped that the second doctor was right but sadly, the other two doctors were right. Her new surgery is scheduled for April 3rd. Please keep her in your prayers. We are hoping that she will be recovered enough for her daughter's first communion on May 5th. We have promised her we will arrive on Friday the 4th and do the food for the next day. I hope to get pictures that day and I hope that we can all celebrate and enjoy the day.

Blogger Issues Resolved?

Top O the morning!

I am hoping that I finally have fixed my computer issue with blogger. It seems I needed to download SP2, my computer which is three or four years old only had 1, not 2. Before I could do this download yesterday I found that my computer had not alerted me to 67 updates. It needed to do all of them before I could download SP2. It took about five hours in total, even though I have DSL and not dial up to get all of this done but this morning after clearning the cache as a safeguard, I once again have my tool bar across the top, allowing for text colors and photos. Hopefully this is now resolved because every now and then I just want to post a pic.

I have given myself a weekend off work unintentiaonally. Long story which I won't explain. Ironically Rob has worked overtime the past three nights and is working again today. I was hoping to sleep in but scratching paws on my bedroom door thought otherwise. Perhaps a nap later as I never feel truly rested.

Yesterday my anniversary gift arrived and I am so excited. Mind you, my anniversary was August 31 but they only ship these twice a year. It's a Princess Diana of Wales rose bush. It even came with a garden stake identifying it. I am trying to figure out the perfect place in my yard for it. Someplace sunny but not too dry or damp. When I told my grandmother she was so excited I wish I had ordered one for her. I probably could but hers wouldn't be shipped until the Fall and she will be 95 in July. Not sure she could plant it with the digging required. I wish I could make a plan for my yard and do flower gardens. I simply love flowers, the beauty of them. It's odd that as I have gotten older my likes have changed. I have become so fond of sunflowers and roses which I didn't care for when I was younger. I have found a variety of sunflower which is much shorter with many smaller heads which I grow now. I save the seeds and use them for the birds. I feed birds all year long in the back bordering the woods. It's so relaxing to watch them. I especially enjoy watching the red headed woodpeckers. We have a cat but he's an indoor cat so he watcheds through the glass patio door for hours. When he was younger his teeth would chatter with excitement but now he's five and seems calmer.

My project today is to clean off my computer desk and tidy up my files. I have so much paper. Even though I have most things in my day planner and computer, I like a back up. I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend filled with memorable moments.

URGENT!!!!!!

You know when we were in Vegas with our friends Debbie and Don for their wedding, we were driving along in a minivan taxi when the song "URGENT" by Foreigner came on. Immediately Debbie and I began to dance in our seats. It was great and her son actually snapped a pic. Since then this song has been running through my mind over and over. I got the McHubby to get it from Itunes then convert it to an MP3 for my computer and even burn it to a CD. I guess that might be overkill for some but I have decided that this must be my theme song and karma reunited me with it. Funny thing is, later Debbie's new husband told her that when he saw us doing that so early in the morning he began to question her sanity. Oh he has so much to learn about us. I love music and it's key in my life.

For some reason, since we switched to the new Blog I am having problems. I cannot post pics on my computer and I lose my entries when I click publish, except for the titles. When I open my entry form there is no bar across the top with the text, picture options at all. Odd. I opened it on Rob's computer and it's all there so it must be some glitch on my computer. Guess I will delete all cookies and see if that helps.

Today is a mental health day. I needed one desperately. I had a friend from the office I used to work in. He was going through a divorce and really troubled. I hated to leave that office, knowing I was one of the few people really concerned about him. I tried to stay in touch but for at least a month he was nowhere to be found. I finally heard from him today. He had a bad month or so but things are going much better for him. He is even back at home where I think he will only get better. This made my day. I truly care about the people I consider to be my friends. Speaking of friends, kudos to Jennifer for giving me the St. Paddy's Day bear and the flaoting shamrocks. She is my blogging mentor. She does a great commentary on American Idol if you haven't checked it out, make your way over there. Link to the right......................hurry up, it's urgent!!!

Going with the flow..........

We made it back safely from our trip to Rhode Island. It was a long ride up with hitting traffic. We arrived Friday evening and took our little group of ladies out to dinner. If you have not had fish and chips at Celo's in Rhode Island and you love fish, put it on your to do list. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. We got home and everyone was tired and we called it an early night. Saturday we woke up and Jen seemed to have some blurry vision. I wasn't too concerned knowing she is on a lot of meds. We stayed with her while my mother-in-law got her hair and nails done. When she returned home we zipped over to the other sister's house to see her new condo and her two boys (coughdevilscough). We arrived like Santa and Mrs. Claus with many games and crafts for the kids. Adam got a bear that had four sports outfits. We had to dress and redress him every five minutes. His younger brother than discovered that the outfits would also fit his bear so we had two guys to accomodate. Jeanine bought lunch and we stopped to eat. We then received a phone call letting us know that they (McMom and Jen) were on their way to an ER in Boston to have the blurry vision checked out. Jen's daughter wanted to be with us and was waiting at a cousin's house. We zipped over there and picked her up and took her to get lunch. When we arrived home we watched two CDS I had never seen before. One was The Secret Garden and the other The Corpse Bride. My sister-in-law had always talked about loving the story The Secret Garden and we enjoyed it. We made dinner and they didn't make it home from the hospital until 8 p.m. We did enjoy the special time with our niece and promised her we would be there when she makes her first communion on May 5th. There will be a party so we will have to don our chef's aprons and prepare.

The good news is that Jen looks wonderful for someone who has been through what she has. The bad news is that the tumor is pushing on her optical nerve causing problems. Surgery was set for April 3rd but not sure they can wait that long. Three doctors do not agree as to what the prognosis is. One feels it is the same cancer that was in her neck, agressive stuff. The second feels there is hope it is not malignant. The third (a brain surgeon) believes it is malignant but is not the highly agressive cancer they found in her neck. We are all hoping that the second doctor is correct. Having said that there are many serious issues at hand and we are constantly chatting with them, trying to offer support and helpful information. Of utmost concern is Jen's eight year old daughter.

We are not sleeping too well. We are tired all the time. Admidst all this I am trying hard to get business going for myself. It involves a constant outpouring of money at this point. Thing is, it will come back to me eventually. I have never been one to have a lot of patience but I am having to learn to be patient right now as most things for me are a waiting game. I am trying to take time daily to do something that will brighten things for the family up there. Jen loves frogs and my neighbor found one that is like a koosh ball. We got that in the mail to her. I also mailed her an angel that said "My sister's laughter brightens the gloomiest of days."When Jen last saw a doctor, one who was less than warm he gave her a long list of bad news. When he was done he asked her if she had any questions. She looked at him seriously and asked "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck............" he didn't even smile, just walked away. We all laughed when she told us that saying he clearly doesn't understand the type of people that this family are. Irish people are used to dealing with tragedy in this way. You do what you can for the moment, you shrug off the worry and you go on your way. Not such a bad way to be. We got to dispense our gifts and our hugs this past weekend and it was grand. I forgot my card for the camera and batteries but next trip I will make sure I have them so I can post pics.

Stop the Noise in my Head

I am struggling with a host of feelings, not of which are good.
Firstly, my sister-in-law got a positive report at the doctor. This comes on the heels of a very negative report. Now I don't know what to think and it angers me that they give any reports without having and weighing all information first. I want to feel relieved but I'm afraid to, at least just yet.

I am finding the pitfalls of my newfound profession. I just don't have the energy to go into it all but it frustrates me to no end that people don't know what they want. You work hard to help them and then they change their mind and have someone else do what they have now decided they want. So, now I will be smarter and the next people will have to commit to me, IN WRITING before I spend my time with them. My time is my opportunity to make money. I deserve loyalty as do they.

I need to be in more than one place this weekend. I cannot clone myself and I will be hurting someone no matter where I am at.

I want to curl up into a ball (just like a cat) and hibernate for at least a week. I didn't sleep last night. The reason is that my neighbor left her cell phone here and didn't know it. She kept calling the cell phone number to find it in her house but it rang in MY house. It woke me up late and it woke me up early. My stomach was in a knot because the ring was identical to mine and I kept assuming my phone was malfunctioning when it showed that no one had called. In desperation I called the last number that had called me and woke up a potential client. NOT good. This morning I came across the cell phone and realized what had happened. I think this neighbor owes me, what do you think? I am tired and damn cranky and we won't even begin to discuss how much I miss getting a paycheck.

Mr. Sandman please visit me...........soon and for a long visit.