Birthdays

The weather has been so weird the last couple of days. I wasn't surprised to hear we had tornadoes last night.
To read more about the tornadoes, click here:
To read more about tornadoes in general, click here:
It matches my emotional state. The project at work is stressing me out because the topic is too broad and there's so much information in my head, my deadline is too short and my hopes are too high for what I'd like to accomplish. We'll just have to see what gets done but if I don't relax I'm going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I reconnected with old friends this week and was reminded again that friendship is one of the finest things in life. To fall back into someone's life when you've been out of touch and have that instant bond is a truly wonderful thing. There have been so many great people who have had tremendous impacts on my life. It's sort of like the lily that bloomed in my yard this week. In the middle of the clump of lilies that bloomed months ago, one solitary stem with four or five blossoms just sprang up. Unexpected splendor.
Today we'll celebrate my granddaughter's birthday. The year flew by.

We had a birthday party for Steve's mother here a couple of weeks ago and it's funny how you notice details in pictures that you don't notice when you're in the middle of things. We took some lovely pictures on the sofa but the sheers behind it were totally messed up so the pictures look ridiculous! Here are two pictures not taken on the couch and one from a bath for Katelyn a couple of days earlier.

Pondering

Today was a frustrating day. My children are my greatest joy but they also can be my biggest frustration.
Today I feel old. I went through 40 years of newspaper clippings and it's interesting to me how some issues never change. Why does it seem like the more things change, the more some things stay the same.
I feel sorry for Joe Lieberman tonight. Why must we be so partisan that when a man breaks ranks for a cause he truly believes in he and his constituents get punished? I'm really tired of this strong two party system of government.
The weather was bizarre last night. A 25-degree change in temperature? Totally weird. And how funny is it that they're having blizzards in the north and there's a hurricane in the Caribbean.
I'm working in the corner office this week and I looked out the window today and noticed one bright red hibiscus bloom standing out against the gloom of the backside of the bush. Gorgeous.

I voted!

So Steve and I performed our little ritual. Driving to the polls together to vote after making our cheat sheets. Someone's cell phone went off while we were waiting for our ballots and three women working at the polls suddenly started shrieking: "Turn off your cell phones." I jumped about a foot but hadn't even NOTICED the cell phone ringing. Sheesh!!!
I really, really wish I could go to the polls and have a hard time choosing between two great candidates. Why does that almost NEVER happen? It seems a shame that we can't muster more good candidates for public office.
I'm delighted that the campaign season is over. I've been ready for it for weeks now. I'm tired of the debate, tired of the negative campaigning and tired of being stressed out over the lack of professional ethics of so many journalists. It gets very discouraging.

We're still cleaning this morning from the family party on Sunday. We keep finding paper cups all over the house. But we had a great time and Steve's mom really enjoyed it. We have four babies under 12 months and we all had great fun playing with the babies.