Congrats to my Mom!

Today marks my mom's retirement from 25 years of working at the State of Washington's Department of Natural Resources. Go Mom! I'm so proud of you and wish I could be there to help you party this weekend. I remember her first getting this job after being a teacher for years. It was an adjustment for all of us, her to working full time, us having to go to day care and sitters before and after school. We grew used to it, though. We bugged her incessantly at her office. Calling for one thing or another. But a bonus was going down to her office sometimes on the city bus...it was right across the street from Dairy Queen! That was a treat. One of my funnest memories of my mom at work was when I was 16. She had given me a hand-written gift certificate entitling me to go down to the local Animal Shelter and adopt a kitten. She couldn't take me, so my "Big Sister" did and I adopted Ashley (and so began my habit of naming my cats after "Gone With The Wind" characters. But that's another blog entry). I was so excited, I had to show my mom. So I got Kristen to take me to my mom's office, where I promptly removed him from his carrier and put him on her desk. I'm not sure she was so amused....but she put up with it.



So now I don't have to wait til her lunch hour to bug her during the week. I'll be sure not to call at 7am (4pm Germany time!) hoping to catch her before she leaves for work. I'm sure she'll keep busy turning out project after project from her sewing room. She burn up the skies flying back and forth to Spokane and Grand Forks, ND and maybe Germany to visit the grandbabies.

Mom, congratulations and I love you.

Now would someone PLEASE convince her to come to Germany for a month. :)

WITF...Day 2

Yep, I'm too lazy to type out the whole title.

Today is going to be short and sweet. I loved the fact that today was sunny and 61 degrees. M, Baby A and I went to get my "M" from the bus stop...with no coats, mittens, scarves, etc. If there are 2 things in this world that can calm a cranky Baby A...it's a warm bath (he's such a water baby. He's the next Michael Phelps) or a nice long walk in his stroller outside in the fresh air. So today, I am thankful for a short (but sweet) semi-Indian Summer in the middle of November. But the rain, it is coming. After all, this is autumn in Deutschland.

Til next time~~~~~

What I'm Thankful For...Day 1

So I am an avid Facebook addict. One could suggest I need therapy for it. My dear mother suggested earlier this year that I give up FB for Lent. OMG! I. Would. Die. It's actually a rather interesting experiment, one that intrigues me a little bit. But I know I would be destined to fail the minute a FB email alert popped up in my inbox. The same goes for me trying to give up coffee. I caved after Day 1. I'm so weak....I wish I could get away with giving up something like, say, doing the dishes. Now that would be a great 6 weeks.

But this post isn't about FB exactly. A few weeks ago people started putting things they were thankful for as their status updates. This is supposed to be a daily thing. I didn't jump on the bandwagon, I generally don't participate in most of the little FB games. But today I figured since it's only 1 week til Turkey Day, I would give it a shot. The problem is, I'm rather long-winded (who me?!?)...so I'd wind up having a huge paragraph in place of the sentence or two that normally makes up a Status report. You know, those reports we all know and love. "Laura F-B is having a wonderful, sun-shiny happy day!" "Laura F-B is so tired she can barely see the keyboard and needs an IV of some kind of highly caffeinated beverage STAT." "Laura F-B is heading up to the bathroom...." Ok, so I've NEVER gone that far. But I know people that have...ewww gross. So to my blog it goes. Kind of goes hand-in-hand with the fact that I've dismally neglected said blog for most of 2009. Thinking maybe this will kick-start it a bit.

So today, to tie in the FB thing a bit...I'm thankful for my wonderful family of FB friends. This includes family, friends from looooooong ago in Tumwater-land, college and military bases of past and present. I'm relatively picky about who I accept or ask to be a friend. I'm not a "friend collector" by any means. I would prefer that we have (or have had at some point) some kind of face to face relationship in the past or present. This being said, this social networking thing is fun for a person in my predicament...moving every 4 years presents a whole list of challenges, including saying goodbye to wonderful groups of friends and having to start over thousands of miles away. Which I hate, bye the way. I suck at saying goodbye, it's not something that I can get used to. But I manage. I'm thankful that I can put up a vent or a gripe and get a few heart-felt "it's going to be ok's." Sometimes, you just need that little pick-me-up to get through a stressful day. I'm thankful that when I'm having a great day and want to shout it from the rooftops, that I can share it. Or if I want to just stay silent (which is hard for me), I can. I really try hard not to be one of those that posts 457 status updates a day. But some days I get kind of carried away. Shocker, huh.

So that's my post for today. Later in the week, they will get sappier, I promise. One I'm already composing in my head and I will admit I have brought myself to a few tears. But today I thought I'd keep it light-hearted. Now, I will also admit I'm off to watch the finale of "America's Next Top Model" with Meghan, who really really really really really loves that show and has been lobbying out loud all.darn.week her pick to win. I think she might turn out to be more of a reality TV junkie that I was. She wants to be on "American Idol" and if it would be in any way possible, would already have her application for "The Amazing Race" half filled out with Tyler, her choice of partner. Lord help them. LOL!