I know, some of you live in cold winter climates like Montana and Colorado.
But I live in Salem Oregon.
It snowed today. In Salem. In November.
What the hell happened to global warming???
(next morning edit: I’ll be damned if it’s not snowing again!)
It’s funny how small children will reference new words or phrases into ideas that they are familiar with. The grandmonster ran around all day yesterday saying: “Happy! Thanks for giving!”
Kind of like when his mother was around the same age, I was driving and was cut off in traffic, a very young #5 called the driver of the other car: “a dumb bench”, it makes me wonder where she would have gotten such an idea…
Generationally, it seems things are changing for the better 
So my e-mail server is temporarily defunct… for a week or so, maybe more. So, if you’ve e-mailed me in the last week, I didn’t get it. If you’re in my address book (which is everyone), I don’t have you…
My temporary, maybe permenant e-mail is in my sidebar in “Contact me”
Ben, e-mail me and let me know you’re still alive…
It’s a grand day for home baked biscuits and juicy stuffing…
Sometimes it is easy to forget, in all of the preparations to take a moment from the madness and remember to simply
*Be Thanks*.
I have everything to be thankful for… from humble beginnings, I feel that I have so much more than I deserve, and while I am thankful for that, it is the simple things that I am the most thankful for. I am thankful for the aroma of fresh coffee in the morning, for the smell of first rain, for my sight, for the music in grandmonsters laughter. I am thankful to have healthy children. I am thankful for a sweet kiss for no reason at all. I am thankful for blissful quiet and that I am able to hear sound. I am thankful to be of relatively sound mind. I am thankful for the smell of a wood stove and for how amazing new socks feel.
I am thankful for every day that I continue on my journey.
The rest of it… it’s just stuff. Real life is all about the little things…
Have a great and thankful day!
So I haven’t gotten any e-mail since the 15th. I’ve tried everything I know (which isn’t much) so I broke down and wrote tech support today… Of course I probably won’t get their e-mail reply. Soooooo if you have tried to e-mail me, I’m SOL until further notice 
What a great trip!
I had some apprehensions about traveling with husb. I’d really gotten to the point where I didn’t due to some, um, behaviors. Not that the behavior was bad, just the absolute dependence on it. It’s been a weird couple of years, we really needed some time to re-focus. Some time that wasn’t mired in the day to day. This trip was it.
We arrived on Oahu where #3 met us at the dock and expidited our boarding proceedure. Our cabin was wonderful. It had a balcony and was decorated with a “happy anniversary” banner, balloons and lei’s shaped into hearts on the pillows. A bottle of wine and chocolate dipped strawberrys awaited in our cabin. After getting settled, we still had time to walk around the harbor.
Sailing around the islands is a bit differnet than other cruises we’d been on. Mostly, we would sail at night and spend the day in port, free to wander off of the ship. Our first port was Hilo, on the Big Island. We’d lived near Hilo, and it was a little like going home. In a matter of hours we had already picked up the lingo again, I knew we were “back” the first time husb called a tourist driver a “lolo”. The highlights of Hilo were going to the lava flows that wiped out a portion of the Island and most of the black sand beach. We also went into a lava tube… much like a very deep cave.
The next port was Maui. We rented a jeep for a day as we spent the night in port. First we went to Kihei the next day Lahaina.
Next we went back to the Big Island, for Kona. We started the day with a horse back ride followed by wandering the streets and beach of Kona.
Husb and I both “forgot” how to ride a horse and ended up with some impressive :neither region: bruises.
Next stop is Kauai, another over night port. The highlight was going mud bugging with #3
We left the island of Kauai via the NaPali coast.
We toured the ships bridge, which was impressive!
The cruise ended back on Oahu. We stayed an extra night in Waikiki before flying home.
Lastly… the cruise offered some amazing food, excellent service and great shows (got to meet Bud Andersun after a show). There are more (larger) pictures in my flickr too!
We are leaving for home in the morning, I’ll write more when I get back…
Feel free to check out my flickr photos (sidebar), if you want to see all of the Hawaii pics, click on “more photos” and you’ll find my Hawaii photo album!
See you Sunday or Monday, I’m looking forward to catching up on YOUR week when I get back 
In the:
I’m leaving on this:
To sail on this:
To get here:
To do this:
~
I’ll check in while I’m away… probably
But I did get the IRS thing taken care of today (for an additional small fee). But hey, it’s done and that will be a huge load off of my brain while we are gone.
I need to be a government, or perhaps a regulating body of some sort when I grow up!
~
Speaking of Government and all, I found this on MSN yesterday:
Dead Woman Wins County Commissioner Race.
PIERRE, S.D. – A woman who died two months ago won a county commissioner’s race in Jerauld County on Tuesday.
Democrat Marie Steichen, of Woonsocket, got 100 votes, defeating incumbent Republican Merlin Feistner, of Woonsocket, who had 64 votes.
Jerauld County Auditor Cindy Peterson said she believes the county board will have to meet to appoint a replacement for Steichen. Peterson said she’ll check with the state’s attorney to be sure that’s the process.
Peterson said voters knew Steichen had died.
“They just had a chance to make a change, and we respect their opinion.”
I got my Underarm waxing today… it wasn’t bad at all. My underarms feel like a baby’s! It was way better than this!
#2 and I were both voted onto the CAN-DO board
Gettng loose ends tied up before we go
We owed taxes this year. They were our personal taxes, but I only have checks for business, so I sent them a cashiers check… yeah, I got notice today that they have added on an extra $200.00+ in penelties because (even though it’s been cashed), they didn’t post it to our account. WTF! I paid it, they posted it wrong and I get to pay a fine?? They are actually demanding that we pay the principal amount again as well, because it was never posted to our account, they are taking the stance that I didn’t pay it (despite having proof of payment, labeling it w/ssn and that it was cashed by the IRS)
*waves at my Canadian friends*
That’s it
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