Diamonds are...not... forever

What a LONG day! I have been up since 3AM. I made a HUGE mistake this morning and took my night meds instead of my morning meds. My night meds include a sleeping pill. By the time I got to work I was ready to go to sleep. I didn't sew for long when my bundle handler said to clock out. She had me clean and cover machines all day to get ready for shutdown. She said her goal was 2 fold...first to keep me awake and second to keep me from sewing over my fingers. Anyway we had our Christmas luncheon and left at about 1PM. Bill picked me up so we could go to the temple, but we had to run a couple of errands first. He dropped me off at JoAnn's fabrics to pick up some lace and while I was having it cut the lady said "It looks like you're missing the diamond from your ring." I looked down and sure enough, where my diamond used to be was a hole. I made a lot of noise and started crying, and kept saying "I've had that diamond for over 33 years. To make a long story short, after I showed Bill my ring and had a good cry he reminded me if he had to choose between the diamond or me, he'd keep me. We went to the temple and I was still feeling pretty sad about things. But then I found, as I concentrated on things of eternity in the temple, that I could find joy in the fact that material things are not the treasure, that the gifts that are forever are our families and the gospel and the plan of salvation and our Savior's gift of the atonement, our Heavenly Father's enduring love and the relationships we form here. I am so grateful for the knowlege of these things, for the "forever things" that are ours to cherish. When we finished at the temple it was dark and we walked the grounds and enjoyed all the lights and Christmas music. Then we rode "The Trax" downtown to the Gateway mall and visited a jewler. We decided to have a new stone set in and the ring repaired. I feel very good about this and decided I could accept this as a new gift, even tho I am sad to have lost such a long time friend. Well we completed our walk in the freezing cold and stopped at the Rumbi Island Grill for a bite to eat. (It is a Hawaian place) By the time we got back to the Trax station and rode the train back to Temple square we were quite cold and still had a two block walk to the truck. I am glad to be home and warm and on my way to bed...What a day!

Strange pheonomenon

Whee! I love it when I get home ahead of the storm! When we left work today the wind was really howling and it blew the vanpool around a little on the way home. By the time we reached Tooele it was raining...that was at 4PM. Within the hour the wind was really whipping around and the rain had almost stopped. Then we started getting incredible thunder and lightning...and SNOW! It has been awesome! It was like a blizzard with thunder and lightning, the snow blowing everywhich way and piling up pretty fast. (The news broadcast said this is actually very rare) Annie couldn't even get out her kitty door, the snow had piled up about half way, blocking it. (OK, a whole 4 inches, since it is at the bottom of our back door, but she still couldn't get out) I went out and shoveled the porch off and swept away the snow over her door. She of course went back to the living room and curled up on my blanket like any sensible cat should. Tomorrow is our Beehive Christmas luncheon and we go home right afterward...then we don't have to go back till January 2, 2008! I love Christmas shutdown! I am hopeful the weather co-operates with my plans to go home after Christmas and see G'ma and G'pa Danes. Bill can't go since he is teaching some stuff for the Holiday Merit Badge Pow Wow, so I'll only be gone a few days. I just don't want to pass up the opportunity to visit. Hope all of you are enjoying a wonderful season...I love your blogs... keep up the good work.

Are you my Mother?

While trying to unwind last night I recieved a phone call. It appears our health insurance decided they could save a lot of money if they hired a nice lady to be everyone's mother. They have all kinds of information because they have, of course, paid all our claims. So they asked me a lot of questions about my diabetes, related health, weight, excersise and diet information. Initially I was trying to be helpful and offered additional information, then she turned into the insurance Mom, and the conversation went something like this:

Ins. Mom : Do you get plenty of excersise?
Karen: No, I sew at a desk all day.

I.M.: Well, let's see, you could park at the far end of the parking lot so you can walk further.
K: No, I ride the vanpool, it drops me off at the door.

I.M.: Are there stairs you can climb?
K: No, it's like a warehouse and I have to sit at my desk and sew.

I.M. : There must be something we can do about your excersise.
K: Do you have to write something in my chart now?

I.M. : Yes, I'm helping you have a plan for wellness.
K: Just write down that I stretch every two hours and I will think about more excersise.

I.M.: OK, I'll write that down. Do You test every day?
K. : No, not right now.

I.M.: What's the problem here? Do you have a glucometer?
K.: Yes, I'just haven't done it for a while.

I.M. : Are you afraid of sticking you finger?
K.: No, I have no problem sticking myself.

I.M.: You don't have time? No that can't be it, it only takes 30 seconds.
K.: I'm just out of the habit.

I.M. : How can we get you back in the habit?
K....(a little frustrated now) If you could see me I am walking to my kitchen, I am getting out my glucometer, I am placing it on the table where I will see it first thing in the morning. It is on a pretty white doily and I will stick my finger in the morning before I go to work and I will record my sugar!

I.M. : (not seeming to notice I am being a little facitious) Great, I'll write that down. Now when were your eyes checked last?
K. : 18 months ago.

I.M.: Did you know that you should get them checked every year? Can you make an appointment right away?
K.: I cannot fit anymore appointments into December, but I will make one for January.

I.M.: Wonderful, when will you make that call?
K. (feeling defiant) In January.

(The phone call continues with more questions about my next follw up for diabetes...at least I had an appointment already and could assure her I would keep it, and questions about my meds,and lab results for cholestrol, kidney and liver etc)

I.M.: I will send you a reminder card of the goals you have set for your health, and will call you in about 6 weeks to see how you are doing.

Let me tell you all now...MY mother would LOVE this lady! I got up this morning and checked my sugar, it was 111. Not as great after the Christmas party we had at work....at 2PM it was 183. (Yes I even took my glucometer to work so I could keep up the good work) All kidding aside, I think I am grateful for the phone call because I really needed to get back on track. Another thing she asked me about was if I had any amputations yet ... not something I want to look forward to, so I guess I better start watching it more seriously. Other than that, we are all well and happy. Wesley moved back into the house last Saturday. We don't see much of him, but we do see his chaos everywhere. We are very happy to have him back especially at this time of year. There is music again, dirty dishes and piles of laundry....

Christmas Traditions Tag

Christmas Traditions I grew up with...

We always had homemade candy. Grandma Danes made the best Divinity, Boston Creams, Toffee, Fudge and Pinoche. She would make it early in the month and freeze it....I always thought frozen candy tasted great:)

Real Christmas tree and the larger lights...colored, not white. Grandpa Danes made sure the tree was up and the lights on, then all the kids woulds hang ornaments on the tree. We always hung tinsel and G'pa was very particular about it going on the tree one strand at a time. It was beautiful and glittery.

At some point during the Christmas season G'ma always read to us "The Gift Of The Magi". It has remained a favorite of mine through the years.

Christmas caroling...all of us kids would go out singing to all our nieghbors. I don't remember G'ma and G'pa going with us much. Sometimes we had extra neighbor kids that went as well.

Drawing names and Christmas shopping for each other. In a large family it was kind of intimidating to buy for everyone.....I don't know that we could have afforded that anyway. But we still enjoyed exchanging gifts.

Christmas Eve, reading the Christmas story from the Bible, sometimes acting it out.

Traditions with our children....

Definitly carried on the christmas treats, but had more cookies than candy. I still do G'ma Danes' Toffee and have tried the Boston Creams a time or two, but I was never much good at the Pinoch and definitly not the divinity. I picked up a No fail Fudge recipe somewhere along the line that I use and have shared.

Aunt Annette sent us a Christmas Advent Story Book one Christmas and our children all loved it! We have read from it every year, sometimes by the light of the tree, sometimes by candle light, but all the stories were loved, and we have added to them till we could read more each night.

Aunt Kathy got us started on Gingerbread houses and we love that tradition also. Isn't sharing fun? We have shared gingerbread houses with so many families!

Caroling on Christmas Eve, this was usually done to manage all the enthusiasm, the kids had SO much energy! Bill would take his guitar and play, as the kids got older we all sang in harmony and had our own little choir.

Opening Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve. Most of these were homemade, but I eventually succumbed to the ease of purchasing next year's PJ's at the post Christmas sales...Yeah sales!

Pictures by the tree before and after opening PJ's

Almond Danish Puff for Christmas breakfast, that later turned into cold cereal or pop tarts but the Amond Danish tradition has once again emerged...Thanks to Calista reviving it when her family lived with us in Kuna.

Yearly ornaments for each of the kids. Sometimes we made them, sometimes they were bought, sometmes they were made by one of my sisters or brothers and given to us for Christmas. Each one a memory we could talk about as we decorated the tree...

Christmas Tradions for the futre??? Who knows, but I will treasure all these traditions and memories:)

Wait! I finally wrote something!!

Wow! I can't believe I am finally doing something about a blog! Some of you have seen my name up on my kids blogs and visited me only to find...NOTHING. Well, that's because Calista helped me set up my blog spot one night after I had taken my night meds (which include something to help me sleep since I am a long time insomniac) A couple of days later when I decided to do something with it, I didn't remember my password or clue or anything. (Can we say Techno-retard?) OK... I am smarter now! I had Calista set up the whole thing and just tell me what the password is. I told my computer to remember it this time, but in case it doesn't, I can call Calista! Pretty cool huh?

On to us...
Bill is happy with his job at the South Depot. He works as an instructor teaching people the safe disposal of chemical warfare. He works 4 days a week and is gone 11 to 12 hours a day. Meanwhile, with an empty nest, I am working full time for the church in the Beehive clothing plant, making garments. I do 3 different operations on the nursing garments. One day I was having a very hard time and started crying at work. My supervisor asked what was wrong and I told her, "I guess I have been working in nursing too long and now I have turned into a big boob". She looked at me like I was crazy. Oh well...such is life. I work 5 days a week from 6:30AM - 3PM. I am very grateful to be on the Vanpool and be able to nap on the way to and from work. I do not like driving in Salt Lake and I am just beginning to discover that the freeways can be beneficial. We have a cat who adopted us before we left Kuna. Her name is Annie and she thinks she is really something. She has forgotten her humble beginnings and chases off every stray cat that chances into our yard.

Bill is the scoutmaster for the 12 and 13 year old boys and I am in cub scouting as the Webelos leader. You might have guessed it would be scouting. We love our ward and love the Tooele area. We just wish we could transplant all our loved ones nearby.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and sound like it too...so I have begun to haul out the Christmas decor and replace some of our regular stuff with angels and nativities. I have been able to get rid of a number of things since we downsized when we moved here, but I still have too much to put out. We will probably wait another week before getting a tree, but I'm feeling pretty festive right now. We are toying with having Christmas here and then going back to Kuna for a visit since we both have time off that week...

Well, I thought I pulled Cajon bean soup out of the freezer to thaw this morning for dinner (an unmarked jar) and was going to make some cornbread to go with it...however I just discovered, now that it is in the crock pot, that it isn't bean soup at all. Just some enchilada sauce. I may try Aunt Annette's new enchilada recipe.

Hope you all have a great day and that I cna think of some worthwhile posts....