Glimpses 20 October-12 November 2011

Thursday 20 October 2011

The surgery went well yesterday and I was home in my easy chair eating Subway and watching an episode of The Mentalist at 2PM. So far this morning I am feeling well, although I think that a nap or two will be needed. I did sleep my usual 6 hours last night, but have been up since 3:30AM. Pain killers are such a great invention –but  I haven’t needed one yet today – I will hold off until I do. I did clean out my personal email account, did some price comparisons on bulk food, and wrote and posted two blog posts yesterday and felt very accomplished! (ah, the joy of small things!) I got a very positive and touching email from an old friend that has made me cry (in a good way!) three times already. I guess that is a good indication of where my emotions are when I am tired.

Friday 21 October 2011

No pain pills yesterday….Hooray! I actually had a pretty productive day. I worked about 5 hours, did three loads of laundry, emptied, filled and ran the dishwasher, washed up all the big dishes, and made a delicious broccoli cheese vegetable soup. Needless to say – I am feeling fine after the surgery. I had four friends visit, Marge brought me a book to read, The Einstein Syndrome –Bright Children Who Talk Late, and Missy brought me flowers. John and I watched an episode of The Mentalist and I watched the last half of a Murder, She Wrote that I fell asleep during a few days before. Life is good!

Saturday 22 October 2011

Have you ever experienced pulling an all-nighter and being amazed at how well you felt the next day, only to crash  the day after? That is exactly what happened to me. The day after the surgery,  I felt great! Yesterday I had a bit of a crash. I was very tired from about noon on – hardly moved at all. Eliza and Caleb and Kaleb and Dante were here after school for supper and showers and we watched a couple episodes of The Cosby Show, Father Knows Best, and one episode of How It’s Made-this episode showed how jeans were made, very interesting! I guess with the right tools – anything can be easier.

Monday 24 October 2011

I guess my life is pretty boring at times. I notice it mostly when I try to make it sound interesting for this daily email. John and I watched a little Netflix over the weekend. I did some laundry, changed my blog background, attended church and played the organ, scanned some photos, corrected the home study assignments of one of my students, skyped with Sofie and her family, worked through a small pile of paper, and napped a few times. My sister bought me two new turbans and so I have three turbans and several knitted hats- rather a nice collection for that morning when I wake up with no hair. Holly brought us a lasagna that we ate for lunch yesterday – it was so delicious! Thank you Holly.

Tuesday 25 October 2011

Movie Quote of the Week 

Queen Clarisse Renaldi: Goodbye, trolley people!
From Princess Diaries - I love Anne Hathaway in this movie! Maybe (hopefully) the little girl in me has never grown up.

Eliza, Kaleb, and Dante showed up around 9 AM and spent the day. I knew they would be spending the entire day as I was watching them while their mother went to a cake decorating class in the evening. Around noon, I could see that it was going to be a long day – so I had my youngest grandson deliver a note to my husband that said, “Dear Grandpa, would you like to go to the movies with me at 1:05? Love, Gramma”. We escaped and went to see “Real Steel”, which I found to be heartwarming and very entertaining. And it broke up the day for me. I survived it!  Other than going to the movies and washing, drying, and folding two loads of fabric – I worked for WGU and that was my Monday.

 

Wednesday 26 October 2011

Another doctor’s appointment yesterday – this time with good news. The breast cancer has not spread. Hooray! Now waiting to hear about the chemotherapy schedule. Eliza, Kaleb and Dante visited for awhile and she made a delicious breakfast pizza, and I got to help a little with 6^th grade fractions.  We watched a couple of episodes of The Closer, I sorted some photos, and I did dishes and ‘found’ half of my kitchen counter. Maybe I will find the rest today!

Thursday 27 October 2011

Yesterday, besides work,  I tackled another pile of paper and continued washing and drying and folding the fabric. We watched another episode of The Closer and I read another chapter to my husband in The Undaunted. We are 82% of the way through the book. My husband continued with his experiments making a wood gasifier stove. There is no school today and tomorrow because of Parent-Teacher Conferences so I expect I will see the grandkids at some point today. I am going to go to card making this morning. That will be fun!

 

Friday 28 October 2011

I went to my card making class yesterday morning and made three pretty wonderful cards. It was fun! Eliza, Kaleb and Dante were around most of the day and spent the night, so I have seen enough Spectacular Spiderman and The Angry Beavers to last me for a long while.  :) I dug out my cricut last night and cut out some pieces to make a pumpkin card. I hope to take the time to get them together and in the mail today. Eliza and I watched an episode of Murder, She Wrote last night and I read another chapter to my husband in The Undaunted. And…..it snowed yesterday!! But, thankfully it did not accumulate. However, they are making noises about a Northeaster Saturday night into Sunday – we will see how that plays out.

Here are the cards from the last couple of months. The pumpkin card I made on my own.

Saturday 29 October 2011

Eliza and boys spent the day yesterday – that makes for a very busy (noisy) day. I did manage to work almost 8 hours, but it is hard for my brain to function well with noise and confusion about. I remember the day when I could listen to music, watch TV, and study at the same time- those days are long gone! I did finally give up and finished making the cards I cut out the day before and then cut out another batch. I helped to put away groceries and washed up some dishes and fell asleep watching Murder, She Wrote. 

 

Monday 31 October 2011

The weekend was fairly productive, thank goodness. We did get a Nor’easter with 8-10 inches of snow over night Saturday – but no high winds or power outages for our family. Eliza and boys spent the night Saturday night as they have no power or heat in their place, so our house was busy. Church was cancelled on Sunday morning, making Sunday a long day to fill. We watched The Canterville Ghost with Dante. Eliza fed us pancakes for breakfast and spaghetti for lunch. I scanned and labeled many photos, watched a couple of episodes of The Closer with my husband, skyped with Joe and Dvorah, and slept through part of several episodes of Murder. She Wrote.

Tuesday 01 Nov 2011 

Movie Quote of the Week

Faye: You mean actually make a record? A record record record?

From That Thing You Do – Yes, we do say this often in the Governale household.

We still have snow on the ground – I was certain that it would just all melt away. Maybe today. After a week and a half I am teaching my early morning class again. Five o’clock came very early on Monday, it was better today. I found the energy to cook supper last night – roasted potatoes and carrots and BBQ pork. It was delicious. I watched a documentary on armwrestling with my husband last night. Who knew?

 

Wednesday 02 Nov 2011

Tuesday was a sunny day, but we still have snow on the ground! Maybe it is here to stay. I spent some time in the basement yesterday cleaning; it actually was gratifying to look back at the end of the day and see what I had done. I read another chapter in The Undaunted to my husband, got a start on planning a Christmas program for church, did some laundry, and caught up on some emails. Joe and Dvorah are starting a traveling laser tag business. They had their first gig Friday night and posted pictures last night. It certainly looked like everyone was having a great time! Aren't they cute?

Thursday 03 Nov 2011

Yesterday was one of those days when I must have been much more tired than I knew. I settled into my chair around noon for lunch and an episode of Castle with my husband. When it was over, I did not move and napped on and off for a few hours.  I did manage to fix supper and work on scanning and labeling photos for awhile. Oh well, today is another day and another shot at productivity!

Friday 04 Nov 2011

I worked over 8 hours yesterday for WGU. In my world that does not leave much time for anything else. I taught my early morning class, watched an episode of Castle and read scriptures with my husband, sent out an important email, and crashed around 9pm.

Saturday 05 Nov 2011

Friday I had to make an unplanned run to the doctor’s. Everything is OK but that is three hours I will never get back.  Eliza cooked us pepperoni pizza for supper and then left Kaleb here for the night. He worked for me (for pay) and we accomplished quite a bit. We cleaned out and organized the pantry and a bookshelf in the kitchen. I worked until 9PM folding fabric while he watched a Lego DVD. Now it is Saturday morning and I am gone for the morning to a Women’s meeting at church.

Monday 07 Nov 2011

It was a pretty great weekend. I did enjoy the Women’s meeting at church on Saturday morning and I got some cleaning and organizing done. Sofie and her family spent the weekend in Chicago and had a great time. They ate Chicago popcorn (a caramel and cheddar mix) and deep dish Chicago pizza. They walked the streets and went to the top of the Sears Tower. I ordered the prints for my Christmas cards. Each year I take old family photos and make them into Christmas cards to share the wealth of wonderful photos that I have collected. This year my father’s side of the family is getting a wedding photo of his grandparents and my mother’s side of the family is getting a photo of her grandfather’s brother. 

Here are some Chicago pictures!

Tuesday 08 Nov 2011

Movie quote of the week:

Iggy: "...because as we all know, money can't buy knives. This is from the movie Surf Ninjas, an absolute favorite when my kids were a bit younger. It stars Ernie Reyes, Jr. who was the little boy on Sidekicks and his father Ernie Reyes, Sr. We use this quote often when we are together. A funny, entertaining movie with a great rendition of Barbara Ann.

Wednesday 09 Nov 2011

Yesterday I went out to vote. Kaleb and Dante spent the night again last night and we watched a couple of episodes of How It’s Made and one episode of MythBusters. I put a corn chowder in the crock pot in the morning and it was delicious with biscuits for supper. We will be having it again today. I love it when supper is already planned by breakfast. I got a box containing three large bags of cheddar popcorn from Sofie – I love popcorn. A year ago for my birthday Joe and Dvorah gave me seven bags of flavored popcorn – that was a fun gift! The weather has been in the 50’s and sunny since last Saturday – nice.

Thursday 10 Nov 2011

I worked 8 hours yesterday, did a little laundry and dishes, and worked in Photoshop editing  a few photos. My husband worked in the yard in the afternoon and then we watched an episode of Criminal Minds while eating leftover corn chowder. And that was my day!

 

Friday 11 Nov 2011

I finished one of the scrapbook pages that I am giving my mother for Christmas. Last year I started a photo scrapbook and gave it to her for Christmas with copies to my sister and niece. I added two pages for her birthday and will add a few more this Christmas. The page I have finished already is a page of baby faces of my sister and me, our children, and my grandchildren. I love the way it came out. I had a doctor’s appointment in Lewiston and took advantage of that to go to Joann’s Fabric. That is a very dangerous place for me to visit but I came out of it relatively unscathed ($40).  When the cashier asked if there was anything else she could help me with, I just asked her to get me out of there FAST!

Saturday 12 Nov 2011

Veteran’s day was quiet around our house. My resident Vet worked around the house and then did a Bruins game at the radio station last night. We watched the movie Thor – he had been wanting to see it ever since it came out in the theater. I worked for WGU for 7 hours, then designed my photo Christmas card and talked on the phone to Mike and then Sofie. I had a ‘conversation’ with my three year old granddaughter. She was shouting “I love you Gramma!” over and over again and shouting other pieces of information. Every now and then she would hand the phone to her mother and say that I was not there. Come to find out, she was holding the phone in front of her face not near her ear so she couldn’t hear me shouting back.