Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Did you know...

Morgan was born on Penguin awareness Day, which is also National Buttercrunch day? And Sabrina's birthday is also Candlemas (Christian celebration day of blessing candles for use in churches) as well as National Gum drop day and singles awareness day.
Davinie was born on National pistachio day, also tell a fairy tale day and carnival day. I wish she had been born a bit earlier--February 20 is Hoodie Hoo day.
March 4 is Holy Experiment day (a day to pray and see if it works), as well as Hug a GI day and Jobie's birthday.
Payton's birth coincides with National Doctor's day, I am in control day (hee hee, for a preemie), and Take a walk in the park day
Mom was born on Pigs in a Blanket day, which falls during National Karaoke week.
Papa was born on Bird day/National Candied Orange peel day/Renewal Day, and Sabrina's anniversary, in addition to being Cinco de Mayo, is also international tuba day and national hoagie day, as well as Oyster day.
I was married on Flag day (well, I already KNEW that...no cool ones for me), and Ethan was born on World Sauntering Day, which may help us understand his walk....

Davinie and Steve chose National Beheading Day for their anniversary...not sure if that is telling us something........and my birthday is National Boss's day, as well as Sweetest Day (some years), and Dictionary Day.

Just so you know......

And today??? Today is Toasted Marshmallow Day.

If I knew Steve's exact birthday, I would include him, and I think Matt's is the 21st of October, but I am not sure.....if it IS, he was born on count your buttons day, and Babbling day, which may also help to explain some things.....
Today I experienced the worst fear I have ever ever had. Like actual terror. Not just that little rush of adrenaline, or a fleeting moment, but actual terrifying fear that was almost paralyzing. Really. I cannot stress how really truly scary this was. Not fear of a concept, like terrorism, or fear that you or a loved on has cancer or some thing like that. Fear of something that is actual and real and totally scary.

This morning, I saw a monster. I went out to the garage to start the car to drive to work (That was my first problem. I really should not have driven to work. I should have taken the bus. I have been driving this week, because Ethan works until 1130pm, and needs to drive the car home at night since the buses don't run, but there is no parking when he comes in at 11am, so I drive it in at 6am, and he drives it home....but today, he is taking a taxi home, since I need the car to go to the live fantasy football draft this evening, so really, I had no business being in that garage.

Anyway. I went to the garage. I started the car, I walked back to the garage door, flipped the switch to unlock it, then saw some movement nearby. I jumped back, I whimpered, I did a terrified dance, I even yelled a bit. I have really never experienced such a fright. How on earth can someone get into the garage?? We have wonderful locks everywhere, my husband is a LOCKSMITH, his locks should be able to keep everyone and everything out of the privacy of our home. I guess good locks are not always enough. There, only three feet away from me, was an intruder. What do you do when you are in this situation?? What can you do?? You never know until you are in the situation.

For me, after the terrifying reality set on me, I backed up, and grabbed the best weapon I could see nearby.

A can of Raid.

It was not a very good weapon, since it was almost empty, and barely sprayed, but I sprayed it like pepper spray.

It didn't work very well. The massive, grapefruit-sized spider started moving CLOSER to me in it's panic about the Raid. This thing was huge. I have never in my life seen such an enormous spider. I cannot stress enough how massively huge this thing was. I have seen wolf spiders at Papas house, and they are scary with big hairy bodies and thick stubby legs. This was no wolf spider. This sucker was enormous. Huge scary body, and long, thick legs. Not a daddy-long legs. Tarantula sized, but without the muscular tarantula legs. They were thick, but not all hairly like those. Really big. REALLY.

The spider moved closer, and I whimpered and jumped back and freaked out. Then it moved back, over around the other side of the car. I was seriously considering going back inside and calling a taxi to get me to work, since it was too late to take a bus at this point. Somehow, I was able to get the door opened, and jumped into the car and backed it out onto the driveway. I could see the spider silhouetted in my headlights. A piece of me had been hoping I would run it over, although I was worried it would not die, and would somehow crawl up into the car and GET me. I didn't get it, though. In an act of sheer bravery, I grabbed the raid and sprayed the monster a bit more, then freaked out, dropped the can and slammed the door down and drove to work.

I may never go in the garage again. That monster could EAT my cats. Both of them. It was so seriously terrifying, I cannot even explain it.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

So....the good news for today is that I found someone who is coming over to my house this afternoon to remove my entire chain link fence. The fencing, the poles, the concrete chunks holding it down....the whole thing. For free. I put a listing on craigslist.com and got dozens of responses. This guy was first, so he 'wins' it. We are going to replace the fence with a vinyl one (or wood...depends on if vinyl can be made to go down a hill. If not, we will do wood), and we are putting in a hot tub set into the deck (Ethan went out and looked at a used one today--sounds really nice, and he has a friend he works with who is an electrician that checked it out with him and is willing to install it--he does this on the side as a business), and we are tearing out the front lawn to make a patio with some steps for plants. The back area I think will be torn out and be all teeny wood chips with some plants and flowers of my choosing. I am going to do the patio in front myself. There are instructions in my do-it-yourself book from Home Depot, and I think I can handle it. I just need a wheelbarrow and something to tear the yard up with. A shovel, and maybe the CLAW to rip things up a bit.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Ethan and I have talked about so many things. We will be the most planned out parents in the history of the world. We have seriously talked at length about how to deal with our kids and issues of diversity, potty training, discipline, if they don't like sports, if they are gay, if they have Downs Syndrome, even if we end up with a kid with primodial dwarfism. Seriously. We know what we will do if they are short, or if they are conjoined, if they start smoking, talk back, or just love us completely. We talk about all this stuff. That having been said, we aren't having these kids any time soon. We talked and thought for years about getting married, then had a 20 month engagement. We are thinkers, careful planners. (Although we did decide and then purchase our house in a matter of 4 days, signed paperwork to purchase it within an hour of first setting eyes on it, but that is just a HOUSE!)

I just really miss Ethan. He is working 11am to 11pm for a while now (since last Thursday), so I don't see him. When I wake up, I kiss him goodbye, and when he comes home, I am fast asleep (he may or may not kiss me goodnight--I am a pretty deep sleeper). I make him chicken and potatoes or rice and leave it in the oven to stay warm, and leave him notes to tell him where to find the food, and any other little bits I need to tell him. We usually talk via phone once a day or so while we are at work, and sometimes we run into each other there, but usually we are too busy actually *working* to try to see each other. It kinda sucks. The money is good, but mainly the experience is the part that is important. Ethan may someday work this job that he is doing now (makes more money, has a very wide range of knowledge involved, you need to be knowledgeable in locksmithing, as an electrician, machinist, plumber, and general handyman), anyway, it is a good thing. Ethan wants to do it, so I support him. But I miss him. There are only so many evenings you can spend at home alone before you begin to miss your spouse. I have scrapbooked myself into a creative corner (well, my computer overheated and the dvd player is not working, so I can't watch a movie whilst I scrapbook, and that means I am just sitting in a 4x5 room scrapping. Sadly enough, I need more stimulous than that), so I am done with that for a minute, and the computer is crappy and barely works, and I don't want to watch TV (although I am....), and the book I am reading right now is interesting, but not just *drawing* so that I MUST read it right now(The Odyssey). So.

On the good side, I am now the daughter of the 2006 USDBF national champion, which is nice (although she is not answering her phone, and I KNOW she is home, since I got an email from orbitz.com telling me her flight times {I bought the plane ticket on my credit card so I could get the air miles, and she paid me back, but since I bought it, I get all the reminders for the trip}). I am sure I will speak with her soon.......

Mom, I am so proud of you. One of my coworkers is a breast cancer survivor, and she recently did a triathalon up here that was breast cancer related, and was so excited and showing me pictures of her racing and talking about how she just can't wait to do it again (she is in her 40's, a great woman, especially now that she is no longer one of the assistant nurse managers on the ortho units, she works for the limited stay unit that I cover and is much less stressed out now), anyway, she was showing me these pictures and I got to talking about how MY mom was a world class paddler and was talking about doing a triathlon, so we were brainstorming how to do the biking bit (we think you could do a tandem bike with mom in back and the sighted person on front, but not peddling. Not quite fair, lots of extra weight to peddle, but it would keep you from being in the *special* category of finishers), anyway I told her that you won the championship and she was really excited for you and quite impressed.

I don't know. I am lonely and bored and sick of being home alone. The cats are only so much company. And it is too hard to be around the Boo kitty right now. His last vet appointment(s) cost us $350 to find out that he is relatively healthy, but very underweight. We bought a new cat food that is made with oatmeal and cranberries and duck and stuff like that, and it is supposed to be very digestable and hopefully would make him stop puking up all his food, so he could get back to a normal weight. But he won't eat it. I mixed it with the old dry food (as instructed), but he just picks out the old ones and leaves the new stuff. I bought some wet food from the same company, and they both sorta eat that one, but never finish it all the way. I broke down and bought some of the old wet food, and Boo scarfs that down. He eats, but seems to get tired and takes breaks, whereas Shadow just eats and eats and stops when he is done eating. Poor Boo is just too frantic. I worry about him. He is so skinny right now. He isn't puking, I haven't found any puke since we switched food (that was his problem before), but I am not entirely sure that he is actually eating. I can feel his vertebrae very clearly. His teeny hips, his ribs. He is skinny in the back like a greyhound, where you see them from the side and their belly comes up to meet their legs. Just so skinny. I know he is okay, since he still has lots of energy and runs around and plays with Shadow and is his regular self, but he is just so skinny, it scares me to pet him. I feel bad for him. Whatever happened to him as a kitten, it will never leave him. He will always be the Boo kitty, always so scared. At the vets, he had lost 3 pounds in 18 months, form 11.5 to 8.5 pounds. They took blood, which looked okay, except for his kidney functions were a bit off. They we brought him back to get some urine, which showed that his kidneys ARE functioning, but he was a bit dehydrated. Which all comes because our stupid cats will only drink water from the bowl in the downstairs bathroom. We keep a full dish upstairs by their food, but they won't touch it. The bottom one will get bone dry, and they will just go without rather than touching the upstairs bowl. Stupid cats. So, now we are paranoid and always right on top of the bowl downstairs being full. We love our Boo kitty, and just want to make him happy.

Anyway. This is the ranting you get today. Trying to keep the blog up, you know......

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Is this Raegan or what!?!?! Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Book Reviews

At the last regular-season Storm game, my section won classic books in a giveaway contest. I ended up with Brom Stoker's Dracula, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, and Homer's The Odyssey.

So.

The Jungle
An excellent book about the bleak life in the early 1900's of a Lithuanian immigrant and his family and the Chicago stockyards. Seriously--it was almost enough to make me stop eating meat. I am quite sure that some forms of this yuckiness with meat still goes on, and that is AWFUL!! Also, the story is just heartwrenching and sad and horrible. Up until the end, where the author goes on a 30 page rant about how wonderful socialism is, and completely leaves the story and his main character behind. Don't quite get that, but the rest of the book was a good read.

Dracula.
Started it. Stopped it. Will have to come back. It is written as a series of letters and journal entries, and is not so much an easy read.

The Odyssey
Hard at first to read, but I have figured out a cadence for this epic poem, and am doing well now. I am only about 1/5 of the way through, but thoroughly enjoying it.

And other books. I recently (re)read some books by Tamora Pierce called the Protector of the Small quartet. Excellent books for little girls to read, or maybe little teenagers, as it does get a bit into talking about romance and such. Wonderful, strong heroine who shows little girls that they can do anything they put their minds to--even become a knight! She has other books set in the same world (sorta medieval fictional world), and they are great, too.
The Alanna quartet is also great--it involves a girl who pretends to be a boy so that she can train as a page, become a squire and eventually be a lady knight. Great stories about girl power!

Also, the Bartimeous Trilogy is awesome. I just re-read the last book and it is so nice. I love these books because many pages have postscripts on them, which tell you the sarcastic thoughts of one of the characters. I have never seen that before, and they totally crack me up.

Oh, the Phillip Pullman His Dark Materials Trilogy--The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and....can't remember the last name....but they are good. Lots of political and religious undertones, and interesting look at the society of today as shown in some past time in this book. Very interesting, a nice look at corruption of varius institutions.

What else.......I read everything, so I am sure there is more....mostly fantasy football magazines lately....

Wednesday, August 16, 2006


The 17 countries I would most like to visit

Just for sitemeter.....bootylicious, toe fetish, Cheetoh

There are too many damn scrapbookers in this state.





The registration for the CKC convention started today, at 1pm. I logged in at 5:45pm, and all the good classes were already sold out. Mind you, this is for a convention in NOVEMBER. That is 10 weeks away. And the good stuff was sold out in 4 1/2 hours! Here is what I managed to book.......a couple of decent ones, and at least I will learn something in each of them, and as an added bonus...I get free admission to the sale booths too....
830 am--Kick it up a notch with cardstock
950 am--My daughters hand
1230 pm--Road Trip
150-350pm--Disney Board Book
430pm--Treasured Secrets Composition Book

I am less than thrilled with several of these, but it still should be a lot of fun. A whole day of scrapping fun!!!

Monday, August 14, 2006


Countries I have visited

States I have visited

Saturday, August 12, 2006

For those who are interested....

There is a CKC Scrapbook convention in Bellevue on November 2-4 (Saturday is the 4th). I am going. I am going to lots of classes and buying lots of stuff. Registration starts August 16, and I plan to register as soon as I can. If any of you are interested in coming, you are more than welcome to stay at my house. No idea how the kid thing would work out, and Ethan is NOT interested in babysitting........but if you can make it work, you should come! (NOTE: This is intended for Sabrina and Davinie. Any other scrapping lurkers who may be reading this are NOT invited to my house. Sorry for any confusion.....)

The website for the convention is http://www.ckscrapbookevents.com/wa2006/
Lots of cool classes. I am going alone if no one comes, but it would be fun with you guys, too!

Friday, August 11, 2006

Good things about having short (er) hair

1. The curl is back. Let me repeat---the curl is back. I need only apply the proper cremes and curl crap I usually apply, and I have a riot of curls ( I LOVE a riot of curls!!)
2. EVERYONE is asking me if I got my hair permed. Apparently the curl I thought I had really sucked. The curl is now back, back to where it used to be (back in high school)
3. The color looks nice, especially with the curls (did I mention the curls??)
4. I still need only spend 3 minutes on my hair in the mornings. A MUST for me!!!
5. I wear my hair down. Every day. I have yet to put it up (well, except late in the evenints, etc when I am home and going to be sleeping and don't want it down...and when it was straight the other day, I used a teeny clip to hold the front left portion up, which looked rather nice). I don't have to wait until I happen upon a good hair day to leave my hair down. Even the preemptive hair ties I bring with me for once the hair looks crappy have yet to be used. I still bring them with me, just in case......
6. I now use less shampoo and conditioner. I think. I find myself still squirting a handful into my hand in the shower, so I am probably using too much, but eventually I will get used to it and use less.
7. The curls are so soft and curly!! Have I mentioned that the curls are back???

Saturday, August 05, 2006


The front of my new hair.....I cut over 8 inches off and donated it to Gildas club of seattle (cancer charity). SO MUCH SHORTER!!!! I tried cropping and rotating these pictures, but computer is crap so they suck again.....I am sure I will do a better job next time, but here you are..........I am getting it colored next week (just a partial foil with a reddish hint, like I did before)

The back....it used to be down past the wrinkles on my shirt.....

Friday, August 04, 2006

GUESS WHAT!?!?!?!?

Alyca has a new job, Alyca has a new job, Alyca has a new job, Alyca has a new job..........


My interview was yesterday for the UDF position. I was working (and orienting), but someone came in early to cover for me while I interviewed. A bit stressful, but not once I actually started. There was a panel of 6 people, and they all asked me questions from a list. I rocked it. I got everyone laughing several times, people were smiling, it felt really comfortable. I had good answers to all the questions (well, one was a bit iffy....but still fine. They asked me what two things I was most proud of in my current job....I told them that being on the organizing 5S team a couple years ago was, which is not so much, now I think about it....It just popped into my head because it reminds them that I do extra things that are not specifically in the RN role, because they interest me and need to be done {self motivated}. The other thing I said was that I presented at the Ortho core a couple times...this IS a big thing of pride for me. It was SO hard for me to do, and really stressed me out every time, but so GOOD for me, in my shyness to do. Also, it showed them that I do more things outside my regular role, and I am once again motivated)
Anyway....that was the only answer I would change. I left there knowing I would have a job today, and low and behold, I do. I will be working on 6east and the limited stay unit. I would much prefer working on 5 east with trauma patients, but I am still interested in the 6 east job, so it is okay. I told this to Jack, and he says there may be some possibility of rotating later on. I am okay, though. I will be working with Lindsay on 6, and I will be working only Monday through Friday, either 7-3:30 or 6-2:30, I forgot to ask.....No more weekends!! Not sure how the holidays will work out, vacations, etc, but so excited to have this job!

My back has been a source of worry to me. Nurses all end up with bad backs. Mine will last a bit longer now. That and the state of my nails...I have a horrible bad habit since I was a little kid of biting my cuticles. I have tried multiple, multiple times to stop. I couldn't do it the 4 years or so when I had braces on, but once they were off....I was back. My fingers are often sore from the cuticle tears, and this is so not good for being a source of potential entry for germs and diseases at work. I was always pretty good with gloves, but still worried a bit....still gotta figure out STOPPING, but less of a danger now.

AND...I get around $4 an hour more, and will be classified as a RN3 instead of RN2. A tiny bit on the management track, not really, but a tiny bit, if I so choose to go that way I am not setting myself back. I would have to go back to school if I seriously wanted to get into deep management, but I am not entirely sure that is for me. Doesn't matter. For now, I have a new job to learn. My last day on the floor will be Sunday. I am working 8 hours, and it is Seafair Sunday. I think I am orienting that day. Jack assures me that my orientee/new grad nurse will be taken care of and assigned another primary preceptor to work with, so she will be fine. I will be allowed to work on the floor if I so choose (overtime), so this is not the end of it for me. I do enjoy working with patients, and I want to continue that a bit so I don't lose my clinical skills.

Go Alyca, go!!

Tuesday, August 01, 2006


A couple pictures from the wedding...........

Waiting for the bride...

Here comes te bride!!

Cecilia didn't like her fancy sandals.....only tennis shoes for her!

Happy bride!

About to start crying.....but Cecilia saves the day by deciding she doesn't want to walk anymore....so cute!

Finally....a smile from the groom!!

Cecelia was done walking...

A few final steps to meet her groom

The happy couple

Cynthia and Alexsandra

Mama and Kael

Happy Merritts!

Tiny Kael with his mommy

The little Mr Merritt and his mama

The littlest Fiero

Payton and her Mama

The Fieros

Papa, Cynthia and little Kael David Merritt

The newleyweds with baby Kael

With the youngest grandchild


My favorite one...

Flowergirl basket

Careful with that, Cynthia!!

Eating cake

Papa feeding Morgan some 'party cake'....(she thought it was her birthday...)

Open wide!

Morgan feeding Cecilia some cake

Miss Morgan Paige was so tired! She was very sleepy, but quite the trooper and stayed awake and happy until she got in the carseat and crashed.

She looks like such a big girl here!!

Tired little girl

So sleepy

The blushing bride-to-be

The nervous groom before the ceremony

Three of the elder Cooper kids

Raegan Skye

The Fiero fam

Tropical cake

Pretty cake closeup