Friday the 13th

"So how did Friday the 13th become such an unlucky day?
Dossey, also a folklore historian and author of Holiday Folklore, Phobias and Fun, said fear of Friday the 13th is rooted in ancient, separate bad-luck associations with the number 13 and the day Friday. The two unlucky entities ultimately combined to make one super unlucky day.
Dossey traces the fear of 13 to a Norse myth about 12 gods having a dinner party at Valhalla, their heaven. In walked the uninvited 13th guest, the mischievous Loki. Once there, Loki arranged for Hoder, the blind god of darkness, to shoot Balder the Beautiful, the god of joy and gladness, with a mistletoe-tipped arrow.
"Balder died and the whole Earth got dark. The whole Earth mourned. It was a bad, unlucky day," said Dossey. From that moment on, the number 13 has been considered ominous and forboding."

This Friday some people will be so paralyzed with fear they simply won't get out of bed. Others will steadfastly refuse to fly on an airplane, buy a house, or act on a hot stock tip. It's Friday the 13th, and they're freaked out.
"It's been estimated that [U.S] $800 or $900 million is lost in business on this day because people will not fly or do business they would normally do," said Donald Dossey, founder of the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina. " Nat. Geographic

So, do you believe in bad luck? I really do not. I think bad things happen, but lots of good things happen. I think today is gonna be an amazingly great day, Friday the 13th or not!

Life

I am still on Sean's computer so I do not have access to my pictures. I thought I would give you a sample of the pictures on his computer that I do have access to. I am sorry, but for the life of me I just can't figure out how to blog about farrier tools, airplanes, or crests.

It is just not in me. So, I will tell you what is happening with me.

Something has taken over and I have no way to explain it. I have never been so excited about life as long as I can remember. Even with this time change I wake up before my alarm, too excited about the day to stay in bed. Those of you that know me well, know I LOVE to sleep in, so you realize the great extent of my excitement. It is like I can not wait for the day to actually arrive so I can get moving. And I do mean get moving.

I was a swimmer all of my childhood and teen years. To be honest, I was pretty damn good at it, too. I held the regional backstroke record at my school from 1986 until I don't know when. When we moved to Montana in 1998 my name was still up there on the board. I am assuming at this point someone has finally broken it. My point is this, I have not really exercised much since that time. Then when I was sick - if I even exercised for 10 minutes I would detox and feel horrible for 2 days. Well, I started walking in september. Not much, I would do 10 - 15 minutes on the treadmill about 3 days a week. Well, a couple of weeks ago I decided to get serious about this. I started taking Slimplicity and walking 4 - 5 days a week. The longest I have walked so far has been 27 minutes. My cravings for sweets has decreased dramatically with the slimplicity. I am addicted to the scales, and then if I am not losing the amount of weight I should, then I get frustrated, so I am not going to weigh until March 24th, that will be a month from when I started. I can tell I am losing inches though from my clothes.

Another thing is my anxiety. I have mentioned it on here before, but I did not leave my house without my mom or my husband for about 4 years. I started driving with my kids about 8 or 9 months ago, and that was really freeing, but I have yet to venture out on my own. I feel safe with Reagan, cuz I know if I needed her to, she could drive. See, the anxiety comes from years of getting sick and when I would have my allergic reactions I could not remember how to get home, or anywhere else - so I quit driving. So, over the past month I have been taking short treks out on my own. Yesterday I did actually drive to town, with Sean in his truck several miles behind me. I drove all of my errands in town alone. I did flip out one time when I called his cell phone and he did not answer. Then I spent the next 30 minutes mentally bashing myself for being an idiot. I did a lot of negative self talk about how a grown woman should not be scared to be in town alone, etc... which was unproductive. Finally I realized that the point is that I am doing it, I am trying. I want to live life to the fullest and am going to continue to grow as much as I can.

So, you see I am going through a lot of personal growth and it is scary and exciting at the same time. I am LOVING life right now!

I is for Iguana

We used to have one of these living in our house. I can not even tell you

how relieved I am that I am able to say USED to. She was an escape artist,

so I would spend days not sure when I would stumble across this.

EEEEWWWWWW

Lizzie's Interview

This is a note going around Facebook. Since I constantly talk about Lizzie on this blog - why break the theme now? Seriously, this interview cracked me up - it just shows me how kids of her age think everything that happens is about them. If I am happy, it is because of her, if I am sad it is because of her. SO much responsibility!!! I will be glad when the black and white thinking starts getting into some gray reasoning. I think it is interesting that when she is gone she just thinks I sit around and wait for her to come home! Also that my favorite thing is to cuddle with her in bed and watch movies - I love to do that, but I wouldn't list it as my favorite thing in the whole world to do! Anyway - enjoy!





Ask your child questions and write done their answers exactly.

Interview with Lizzie, 6 yr, almost 7

1. What is something mom always says to you?
I love you

2. What makes mom happy?
If I love her

3. What makes mom sad?
If I do something bad

4. How does your mom do that makes you laugh?
tickle

5. What did your mom like to do when she was a child?
I don't know

6. How old is your mom?
40

7. How tall is your mom?
how tall are you?

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Cuddle in bed and watch tv

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
wait for me to come back

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
being the nicest mom for a world record

11. What is your mom really good at?
making pizza

12. What is your mom not very good at?
iron plastic bead animals

13. What does your mom do for her job?
Reliv

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
pizza

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
being the greatest mommie in the whole entire world

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Jerry from Tom and Jerry

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Read, cook, go places

18. How are you and your mom the same?
our chins

19. How are you and your mom different?
our faces except the chin

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
because she says it all the time and I love it

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
when he comes home from work she starts hugging him

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
movies

Help

OK - when I wrote my last post it looked normal, but published weird by the picture. What do I need to do different?

also, how do you put a link without the actual link showing: you know like have one word people click on that takes them to the actual link?

I am blog illiterate - but would love to learn these things!

Strange Thursday

It was a strange Thursday. First of all, my computer croaked...like it is DEAD - I will have to take it in and see what can be salvaged. I think I got a virus, cuz it just started acting crazy and as I was trying to fix it and back up, etc...the screen went black and says some file is missing. I can't get it to do ANYthing!

Yesterday morning there was a gas explosion here in our town. Sean went, of course, cuz he is a fireman and that is what they do. They could not cap the gas off, and there was still fire burning when he finally left last night about 8pm. He is working a 48 hr shift now, so he is already back out there. Most of this city block is destroyed, but glass and roofing material was blown in a 4 blk radius around this. Sean said there is a 10ft deep crater in the back of this building. Quite a big deal for our little town. Of course they flew the Governor and Lt. Governor, etc... in as soon as they all heard about it. I felt so much better that we had spent a lot of money to bring in the politicians to sit around and do nothing. Money well spent, I say!

Lizzie had a bad day. Sean was at a meeting that morning and so he was only a few blocks away and called about 8:20 to tell me he was heading over. It is like I always feel like he is safe, but in the back of my mind I wonder what is really going on. I finally turned the local radio station on about 10:30 and they made the announcement that they could not find a valve to turn off the gas. Lizzie was in here and went into a panic. Needless to say, the radio remained off for the remainder of the day. She is much like her big sister, she avoids her feelings and does a very good job of shelving them. So, through out the day she was a little clingy and whiny, but did not want to talk about anything. When we got home from Jake's piano lesson, we turned the TV on and it was on the news, there was Sean for about 2 seconds - Lizzie exclaimed, "It's daddy! See, he is alright!" Which showed me that she was worrying more than I had thought. When Sean walked through the door about 9pm last night we were all very happy to see him. We were getting ready for bed and Lizzie said, "Can we get in your bed and all snuggle? Dad can be the patty, and mom and I will be the bun - we will be a happy family sandwich!" All was good in her world once again.

H is for the Houston Zoo!!!

We love the Houston Zoo. We go every time we are in Houston, which is usually in July or August and beastly hot and humid! February at the Zoo was WONDERFUL!

Here is Jake being the compliant brother that he is, all 6 ft of him crammed into this little cave!

This is a crawl through tunnel at the piranha exhibit! SCARY!! Lizzie didn't make it much further than this into that tube!

This is my favorite picture. She could not believe the size of that Python!

Here is Lizzie the little Groundhog! She did NOT see her shadow!!