Last night, I started playing around with my family tree. As I delved deeper and deeper, I began to see the hugeness of it all. The more generations back I traveled, the more people out there in the wide world had information on my ancestors...their ancestors, too! It's a wonderful, overwhelming, awe-inspiring feeling to know that I'm a part of something so grand in scale. There are hundreds, thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of people out there who share some link with me. None of us are alone! We all are a part of one huge human family. It's truly magnificent!

There are lots of reasons to love July 4th... Celebrating the 'birth' of our country, fireworks, family time, good food, patriotism, my birthday...Oh yeah, did I mention I have the best birthday EVER?! This year, we had many good times at my parents, only missing Char and Aaron :(.

Along with the gorgeous, funny, energetic nephews and all the family time, the most memorable moment of the weekend came on Sunday night. We had been shooting off fireworks, going through the bottle rockets, Roman candles, fountains, sparklers, etc., until we had it narrowed down to the mortars (the big ones that shoot way up and then explode in a huge way). Keep in mind that by 'we', I mean Nathan, Sam, and Caleb. The rest of us were pretty much watching. They were down to just about the last mortar and asked if any of the rest of us wanted to do the honors. Kate decided to give it a go.

By this point, it was quite dark outside, and the fireworks were being lit at least a good 30 feet away from us. We couldn't see the mechanics or specifics of the lighting of the fireworks, just the results. Kate walked over to the fireworks, received a moment's instruction...aka, "Make sure the flat end goes down", and then she was set free to light it on her own. Kate lit the firework, and as she walked away, both Sam and Nathan seemed to notice something odd simultaneously. "Um, Kate, did you put that in a tube???!!!" "No, was I supposed to?!"... I've never seen the group of us dive for cover faster, with the boys leading the way.

After the firework took off in some random, yet to be discovered direction and the heartrates slowed and breathing was restored, the laughing began! Poor Kate didn't know that the firework required being place in a tube that serves as a launcher! I doubt not, nonetheless, that she will be hearing about this for years to come!

Happy Independence Day one and all (even a day late). May you recognize the sacrifices that have been made in others' lives for your freedom and ability to have this great land to live and thrive in!

I'm so excited! I've just booked my next trip out west! Can't wait to go and see the half of my heart that I left behind!

Next up, a trip eastward bound to visit Char and Aaron. TBA

I've held a full time job from the time I was 18 years old. I've missed various days for illness, quite often skating the edge of the 'allowable' days off, but I have NEVER been a 'no show'.... until Monday.
Last Sunday was Fathers' Day, and I went home to celebrate with my family. The weekend was wonderful and I had a great time. Monday, I leisurely made the 3 1/2 hour drive home, stopping partway to spend a few hours visiting with my sister-in-law and nephew. I was in no hurry. After all, I had no plans when I got home, other than tentatively mowing the lawn.

Arriving home, I uploaded my many photos from the weekend to my computer, did a bit of cleaning and fell asleep on the couch in the late afternoon. What I neglected to do was call my family and give them the heads up that I'd made it home safely or turn the ringer on my phone from vibrate to audible.

As great as my weekend was, it apparently had completely worn me out. I woke up from my 'nap' about 10:30 pm. I got up and headed for bed. As settling in, I checked my phone. The call history was jammed! I'd had 4 calls from work, calls from my parents and a call from my brother. I immediately called home to find out what the emergency was. As soon as my Mom heard my voice, she said, "You've been sleeping, haven't you?!". She then told me to call work, that I was expected to be there that night and they were trying to find me.

This confused me. I was sure I wasn't scheduled until Wednesday night. In fact, I'd planned my week around that schedule. I called work and was immediately greeted with a, "Oh thank goodness! We were about to call the cops, we were so worried about you!" Oooops! Apparently I had totally messed up on what my schedule was. As I am ALWAYS early, they had started worrying when I was not only not early, but the 7:00 hour had arrived and I still wasn't there. By 7:05, they were really stressed and started calling. Due to my phone being on vibrate, I, of course, slept through it. As my parents are my emergency contacts, they had contacted them next. Double oooops! I had never reported back to them, remember? This had caused a full fledged panic cascade! Noone knew where I was, why I wasn't answering my phone, or if I was even ok.

After reassuring my coworkers that I was ok, I had just put down the phone when my doorbell started ringing. At this point it was 11:00 at night! I found my sister in law's father standing on my doorstep in the pounding rain. They had been alerted by my family and he had zipped over to my place to check on me. I reassured him all was well and sent him back on his way.

Well, after all this hubbub, I have learned a few new life lessons and had a few reaffirmed/refreshed. First, I will always let my family know I've arrived home safely. I generally do, and I like to hear the same from them, but I let it slip this time. Second, I will always check, recheck, rerecheck, and then check again what my schedule is any time I plan to do something that will put me out of reach of coming in to work quickly, and any other time as well! Finally, I will always remember that people care! No matter how 'alone in the universe' I may feel much of the time, I do have an amazing support system of wonderful people who are ready to rush to my aid should I need it.

Sorry to all the people I stressed out this week and thank you for being there!

I'm a wimp, a coward, a fraidy cat. I'm too afraid to reach out for what I really want in life. Many days I have a hard time dealing with the stress/loneliness/responsibilities of life. Those days, it's all I can do to drag myself out of bed. I tend to hide behind a book or craft project and try to pretend. I pretend the responsibilities/heartaches/stress of life will just go away if I ignore them long enough. I know it isn't true. My house will not clean myself. My dogs get ornery if I don't pay enough attention to them. I have to work [I really love my job, I do].

If I don't get up and moving, my house becomes gross...my dogs go crazy...I don't actually achieve anything. Crawling into my hidey hole will not help me make friends, lose weight, turn my home and yard into what I dream they can be. I will never get my BSN or RNC-NIC if I don't get moving. I won't feel comfortable inviting people over to my messy home. I won't make new friends and will have a hard time keeping those I actually have.

I know all this. And yet, I'm still a wimp.

Some days, my body is my worst enemy. Just as I had it all worked out to hit the gym with some of my coworker friends yesterday, my allergies/sinuses kicked in with a vengeance! I woke up at 2 pm (after working the previous night)  totally unable to bear the light of the screen of my cell phone or even alarm clock, much less sunlight.
The weather has been absolutely gorgeous lately. Spring has arrived...and brought pollen. I LOVE spring. I love the warmth, the green, the flowers, the fresh air, sunshine, you name it. This past week, the weather warmed up so quickly that we went from winter browns to spring's vivid colors in approximately one week's time. Unfortunately, I have allergies. Lots of them. LOTS of them.  I just pray my allergy meds can catch up.

I have a list of things I need to do today. I need to clean, do laundry, shop, pack, cook. Just thinking about it makes me tired. I can't seem to find the energy to accomplish the things I need to do. Maybe I'll go take a nap.

Light bulb!

Oh yeah, I took a sleeping pill last night because I was afraid I wouldn't sleep after having accidentally napped yesterday evening. I need to NOT take those....they don't wear off!!!