Monday, December 17, 2012

WTF? A December Update

You Guys.

The world is insane right now.  I cannot even believe all of the crazy awful things that have happened in the past week or so that are the topics of every media outlet everywhere.  All of it makes me so sad.  And also really emphasizes the needs we have as a country- the need for better access to mental health care is the one thing that I keep thinking should be our first priority.  My heart aches for all of the families who have lost a love one or who have in any way been affected by the tragedies that have occurred.

To switch to a few more trivial things, I have an 11 day break from work coming up and it cannot come fast enough.  I LOVE my job, but things have been moving at the speed of light for the past 2 months and I am in desperate need of some R & R.  It'll be nice because Mr. has the next 2.5 weeks off of school for Winter Break!  Oh, the things we could do!  I need to start my list so we don't forget anything.

Other than needing a work break, things have been going pretty well.  Mr. and I are slowly working on interior house projects including, but not limited to replacing the toilet pumps (as we have a couple that just randomly run because the seals don't seal properly), adding curtain rods and curtains to the sliding glass door in the kitchen, taking old broken desk and home items to the dump, taking old clothing and housewares to Goodwill,  picking out paint for the upstairs portion of the house, getting rid of the clutter in our garage, bringing the rest of the items from our storage garage to our actual house (so we don't have to pay for storage any longer) and figuring out how to make the attic a better space for storing seasonal items.

I cannot believe next week is Christmas. It has come SO FAST this year.  We've gotten most of our holiday shopping done, just a few folks left but Mr is on the hunt today to get them wrapped up.  And hopefully I'll find the time to post fun pictures before the new year.

Hope all is well and that everyone is safe!

Monday, November 26, 2012

The Funniest Thanksgiving Yet

Oh. Man.  Thanksgiving.

This is the first year that Mr. and I have been married for the holidays, which doesn't change much for us but really just means that our respective families will now see each other more often during this time of year than they did before.  It also means that as they get more comfortable around each other the filters start to fail- you know, that thing your brain does to keep you from saying stupid crap when you are around new people that you want to impress and then when you get comfortable it stops working.  Hilarity ensues.

This year Mr.'s family hosted Thanksgiving dinner (or I should really call it Thanksgiving lunch because we ate at 1pm) at their home and they did most of the heavy cooking.  The rest of us brought rolls, side dishes, etc which I loved because I didn't have to spend hours cooking.  I was so excited to dig into my favorite foods and relax with my now large family.

The food was amazing (as always) and I did a pretty good job and keeping my portions under control so I could taste everything without being overly stuffed- something I'm very proud of, thankyouverymuch.  It's taken me almost 30 years to figure out how to not be in pain from gorging myself on Thanksgiving, what can I say?  Anyhow, so our fabulous meal was under way and small conversations around the table being had and somehow we ended up being regaled by tales from Nana (Nana is Mr.'s paternal grandmother).

Here's the thing, I have NO IDEA how this conversation started, probably because I was having my own conversations at the other end of the table, but all of a sudden Nana bursts out saying, "I do coke anywhere!  Sometimes you just need a little pick me up. When I'm tired or had a hard day I do some coke and have some candy."

SILENCE from the rest of the table.  Meanwhile I'm busting up.

Of course, Mr. and I know that Nana is referring to Coca-Cola, which is her beverage of choice and which she once told me while offering me an ice cold can, "I do almost all of my Coke in the car!".  Sometimes one's choice of verb is very important, especially when certain nouns are used.  Because it would be absurd to say, "I always have a Coke when I'm in the car," or "I will have a Coke anytime!".

She then proceeds to say, "Should I tell them what we're going to do?  Ok!  We're going to get some medical marijuana!  I was talking to my hairdresser whose boyfriend is going to start a dispensary- but right now I guess he is just a dealer since it used to not be legal- but we were talking about how it might be good for [my husband] (sic).  And did you know that now it comes in little balls, not in dime bags?  And you have to use a pipe or a bong... we used to just get it in little cigarettes- not that I did it but once or twice. And when you put it in the pipe you have to light it EACH TIME (as she mimes how to correctly light a pipe and take a hit, and then hold it in)!"

My end of the table erupted in hysterical laughter and chatter while I'm pretty sure Mr.'s mother had a complete meltdown in her own head.  The rest of the afternoon was spent telling thinly veiled pot and coke jokes (because we are SO GROWN UP!) and snacking on left overs.

I seriously wish all holidays were like this because I was sore from laughing so hard by the end of it all.   But really I am very thankful for my family (now much extended) and for Mr. who makes my life infinitely better every single day.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!


Thursday, November 15, 2012

When You Grow Up

When you grow up, sometimes you realize you have really crappy friends and probably should make some new ones.  For serious.

This has been a pretty abrupt realization and it makes me a little frustrated but also sort of relieves me of  exhausting myself trying to make relationships work that aren't really worth my time.  At the start of it all I had to eliminate some "friends" that I realized weren't being very good friends to me and were just using our relationship to their benefit without actually being interested in the relationship itself.  That was a sad moment, and after I was over the hurt of it I began paying closer attention to the other relationships in my life.  You see, I think I got caught up (as I should have) in having the best relationship I've had in my life with Mr and sort of assumed that my friendships would elevate the way the rest of my life has, but that has not been the case.

I found when examining those relationships that I was starting to question that I was letting myself be fooled- by the people themselves or by my own optimistic outlook on those people and the friendship I've given them.  I'm far from perfect, but I would count myself a good and faithful friend.  Apparently some people will take that for granted, and thusly I need to rid myself of that.  It is quite a shame because some of them happen to be married to/in a relationship with awesome people that I'd prefer to stay close with so some are going to have to remain in a precarious balance until something happens one way or the other.  However the others I've decided are out- for my own good.  What use is it trying to be a good friend to someone who doesn't want your friendship or doesn't care enough to reciprocate.

On the opposite side of the coin I've reflected on the relationships that mean the most to me.  I am blessed to know some truly amazing people and have some unexpected friendships that mean more to me than I originally thought they would (if that makes any sense at all).  So all hope is not lost.  Sometimes you must turn the corner and loose sight of the old, but what lies ahead is so much more promising.

When you grow up these things are a lot less traumatizing.


Tuesday, November 13, 2012

What Happens in Vegas...


Definitely does not stay in Vegas.

(Also, hey everyone! )

So there was this thing last week where I was responsible for a big meeting for work in Las Vegas which I was confident I could totally handle, and did handle, and most everything went smoothly until everyone started getting sick.  It started at the beginning of the week when a couple people had some congestion and slightly sore throats. I thought, "no big deal, just get some throat lozenges and DayQuil and we will be fine." But by the end of the week I had lost 4 people to some weird cold who had to go home early and then on the way home when the folks who didn't catch the death cold caught THE STOMACH FLU.  Don't worry, I won't be super graphic here.

I happened to be one of the unlucky stomach-flu catchers.  It was rough.  Mostly I'm just glad that the majority of people made it from Las Vegas back to Portland and were safely home before feeling the symptoms (including myself).

Here's how it went down.  Friday came and most of us had morning activity planned before we left Vegas.  I had a massage which was much needed and then ran some errands before I headed to the airport.  I was feeling pretty tired and out of it, but that didn't phase me since I'd worked some long hours the previous couple days.  A lot of us from the meeting were on the same flight home to Portland so I met up with most of them before we boarded the plane.  I sat, read my eBook, and we landed.  I still felt a little tired and started feeling a bit head achy, but chalked it up to having not eaten enough or had enough water during the day.  I made my way to baggage claim and stood with coworkers who informed me that one of our other coworkers thought he had food poisoning because he started to get very ill on the plane.  We speculated what we thought he could've eaten (midnight burger run in Vegas, we assumed) and didn't think more of it.

I headed home ready to hang out with the Mr. and our puppies.  I was so glad to be home!  I neglected most of my unpacking, ate a quick dinner and hung out on the couch for most of the night.  I went to bed still feeling head achy but figured I just needed some rest.  I slept pretty soundly for most of the night and then around 6 am or so I woke up with a POUNDING headache, far worse than any I've had in quite some time.  I sipped some water and made myself go back to sleep.  Mr. got up to make breakfast around 7:30am and asked if I wanted anything.  I rolled over and the mere mention of food made me feel sick... and then I realized that I just felt sick in general.  Quietly I let him know I was staying in bed and not to make me breakfast and then I drifted back to sleep.  About an hour later I woke up and knew I needed to make a run for it to make it to the bathroom.  My stomach wasn't terribly achy, but my body made it pretty clear that there was an urgency to empty my bowels which it did for pretty much the rest of the morning.

I wore a pretty good track in the floor between my bed and the bathroom that morning and would fall right back asleep after each bout.  As the day SLOWLY progressed I felt worse and worse.  I ached all over and my headache was blindingly agonizing but I was afraid to take anything for fear that I would just throw it up. I sipped water and slept uncomfortably from about 10am to 4 or 5pm.  I finally did get out of bed as Mr was heading out to a BBQ (don't feel bad, he totally had my blessing to get out of that sick house!) and made my way to the couch downstairs where I could more easily watch movies and TV on Demand.

You know I'm sick when a food commercial is on and I immediately have to change the channel because even the sight of food made me feel awful.  Around 6:30pm I decided that I was tired of being sick and smelly so I took a hot shower and put clean sweats on before climbing right back into my spot on the couch.  The shower helped a little with my achy body, but I still felt like hell.  Poor Mr came home and had stopped and bought himself a "proper" dinner at Carl's Jr, the scent of which sent me running upstairs to escape.  I went to bed debating on whether or not to go to urgent care because my head hurt that bad, but then I didn't want to get into a car where it would be bumpy and noisy so I opted to just stay in bed.

I woke up feeling 10 times better on Sunday, but still a little weak and dehydrated so I took it pretty easy.  Upon arriving to work on Monday I found that the majority of my coworkers had caught the same awful bug that I had, but many of them weren't sitting on the toilet like me and had an even worse set of problems.  I felt pretty lucky to get by with what I suffered.

So this is a week where we all try to catch up and also try to take it easy because man, that bug will take it out of you.  On the bright side, it was my jump start detox before the holidays so I'm trying to only introduce healthier foods and liquids back into my daily routine.



Thursday, October 25, 2012

I Am the Mean Old Lady Neighbor

Let me explain, and to do so I have to start at the beginning which was a few months ago.

Ok, so Mr. and I bought a house last winter in a cute little neighborhood that we loved at a great price (bottom of the market, baby!).  We moved in, sort of met one set of neighbors but not many since they all seem to keep to themselves mostly.  We've tried introducing ourselves while we are out and about in the neighborhood but not many people seem to care so we just carry on.

Mostly things were going well until this summer when I would come home from work and find things on our front porch had been moved around and messed with.  At first I chalked it up to Mr. moving things around, but when I asked him he had no idea what I was talking about.  A few times a week when I would come home our potted plants would be moved or my watering can would be full of rocks and the little red berries that grow on our front bushes... or the little bench by our front door would be askew.  It was all very frustrating to me because the last thing I want to do when I have to water my plants was to try to pick out the rocks and berries from the watering can (not a fun task because the spout is thin and they get stuck so I have to pick them out one by one of the tiny hole at the top of the watering can where you put the water in) or clean up my porch so I don't trip when I walk up my front steps!  We've tried a couple of times to talk to the neighbors, but the opportunities don't come up often because they pretty much avoid us (we have our theories as to why this is, but that is a separate post!).  Also, we aren't sure which of the children are actually playing on our property because 4 of the houses close to us have small children that stay home during the days so we can't pinpoint who to talk to unless we see who is there.

As the summer progressed I noticed toys and small items being left in our driveway and in our front yard but figured kids must be dropping them as they run down the street.  Then one day in early autumn I came home from work to find that all of the mothers on the block had let their kids leave toys in and around my drive way.  I stopped as I got closer to my house so they could move them and they all looked at me like I was inconveniencing them!  WTF?!  They slowly moved the toys but left a few in my front yard.  I kindly moved them from my yard to the neighbors yard and went in the house to get my mail key and feed the dogs. I came back out and they had MOVED THE TOYS BACK INTO MY YARD AND DRIVEWAY.  So I did the only thing I could think of doing and walked up to the group of mom's and said, "Hey!  Could I ask that you all not let your kids leave toys in my driveway..." but then stopped talking because 1 of the mom's flat out turned away from me and ignored me and the other pretended she didn't speak English (which I know she does because I've heard her speak fluent English many times before).  I was so stunned I didn't know how to continue so I said a quick thanks and walked to check my mail.

The toys were absent for a few days after that, but then it started happening again.  The women would all be outside and toys would be scattered across my driveway, yard and front porch.  They would more quickly react when I came home, but it still bothered me that they were letting their children play in my yard, in my driveway and on my front porch- especially since Mr. and I don't have children that play with their children, we've never had any of them over to our home and most of our neighbors aren't very friendly.  Then the other night Mr and I were home and I had to run a quick errand while Mr .tried to sleep off his cold.  I ran to the store and was gone maybe 20 minutes.  When I came back and turned down our street I saw two of our neighbors with their combined 3 children letting their kids race their tricycles down MY DRIVEWAY.  I was SHOCKED!  I waited for them to move, gave our neighbor a nasty look and stormed into the house.  Mr. was already awake from his nap because the children playing in our driveway had aroused the suspicion of our dogs who then started barking.  He was about to go out and talk to them when I pulled up.  I told Mr. that I was so furious there was no way I could calmly discuss this with our neighbors at that moment because IT'S OUR DRIVEWAY, GET THE HELL OFF OF IT!  That is where I park because it is my property, not a playground for your children! I needed to cool off first before telling them how I feel and asking them to kindly refrain from being on our property.  By the time I cooled down it was after dinner and all of the lights in their house were off so I felt like it wasn't a good time to disturb them, but we HAVE to talk about it sometime!

I haven't actually seen any of my neighbors in a few days since this happened (because of the rain and wind, I suppose) so I haven't gotten to talk to any of them, but what do you guys think about this whole thing?  I don't even come close to understanding this.  I feel like this is a boundary that shouldn't be crossed!  Am I wrong here?  Here's the thing- there are 4 parks close to our house where they can easily take their children, or even to the end of our cul-de-sac where there is green space!  I'm talking so close you could walk less than 2 blocks in each direction and get to a family friendly park with plenty of space for kids to play and ride bikes. I also feel like this is a violation of my privacy.  I have not given anyone permission to be on my property (driveway, porch or front yard) so they shouldn't assume I am ok with them being there, especially when I am not home and they have not asked permission.  The last thing I want to have happen is one of those kids trips on our steps and bashes their face in on the concrete OR eat some of the berries off of our bushes and be poisoned!

So I came up with a temporary solution to hopefully deter children and people from coming up to our front porch and driveway.  Last night I installed a motion detector with alarm so that it faces our front streps and front door at around 3 feet above the ground so it should catch children's movements as well as possible adults.  It should trigger a 120 db alarm when motion is sensed so if someone were to come up to our front porch or upper driveway.  Hopefully this loud unexpected noise will be enough to keep the kids away and hopefully Mr. and I will have a chance to speak with our neighbors about this.  I am a little bit thrilled about this, which makes me feel like a mean old lady, but we already sort of knew I was one (Mr. will confirm this).

Eventually I want to get a camera mounted there so we can see who is doing this, but we definitely don't want to do that unless we have to (like if it continues after we speak to the parents).  Wish us luck!

What are your thoughts?
We bought 2 different motion detectors to try out.



Welcome to the Ford Family Blog!

Yay!  New blog underway!  Hopefully you found us via the link I left behind on my old blog.  In light of getting married, Mr. F and I decided it would nice to have a family blog where we can keep everyone up to date on what is happening and post pictures.  Let me warn you now that I will continue my occasional rants on this blog as well since it will be the singular outlet for my blogging (let's face it, I cannot keep up with having to post on multiple blogs so I'll leave my old one up for a while and then I will take it down).  The opinions expressed in my post are not necessarily the opinions of Mr. Ford (except for they kind of are because we are married and them's the rules now, haha!!!)

So welcome everyone.  Hopefully we will have some wedding pictures back soon to post!

Happy Fall!