Rocktober Music Fest - 2019 - and other October Oddities - Moving

You may (or may not) have noticed I skipped a couple of days in the Rocktober Music Fest.  I was helping my mom move from her apartment to a new home with my younger sister.  It was kind of an emotional experience because mom has lived in this apartment for 37 years, longer than she lived in any of her other homes.  Longer than she and my dad lived the house in which I grew up.  Her apartment was five minutes from us.  She is going to be an hour and a half away now.  I know I won't see her as often as I am used to.  She won't be spending Thanksgiving and Christmas with us every year. 

I know that it is time for her to be with someone on a more full time basis as she has had some medical issues in the last couple of years that make living on her own not a great idea.  I am grateful that my sister has room for her in her new house.  I should be relieved because now the emergency room visits, trips to the library and grocery shopping will be someone else's responsibility.   

Locking the door of #8 one last time.

Putting on a smile

Still, I am thankful for the last few months since mom has needed me to take her places and do things for her.  It made me happy to think that I could try to repay her in some small way for all of the things she did for me and my family.  She watched all three of our children when they were babies and took them to school when they got older.  She lent us her car or, more specifically she drove me to work every day, when we were a one car family.  She let us come and swim in the pool at the apartment complex during the summer and even let us use her shower when our bathroom was being remodeled.

If it is hard for me, imagine what it must be like for her!  She is having to get used to not driving herself wherever she wants to go, living in a new city, living with someone again, and having to get used to a dog!  My sister and her husband are strict vegans as well so mom is going to need to learn a new way of eating.  I'm sure there will be more activity for her though as my sister has her kids living close by so there are grandchildren and great grandchildren for my mom to enjoy.  At 96 though, and as someone who is very set in her ways and used to her independence, it will definitely be a new journey.  

Which leads me to the #RMF.  I've chosen Journey for today.  We have seen them multiple times although, sadly, not with Steve Perry.  I was wishing that when they performed in San Francisco they could have persuaded Steve to come and sing a song with them but it was not to be.  This is from 2016. 

Neal Schon does one of the best versions of the Star Spangled Banner I've ever heard.

Neal Schon

Arnel Pineda

Ross Valory

Jonathan Cain

Steve Smith

   
And the song is Don't Stop Believing.  

Because I have to believe that mom (and I) will be okay.

A November to Remember

November 23 - Cherished Memory #17

Okay, okay, I'm behind, I'm away from home so I don't have access to all the pictures I want to use and I SERIOUSLY messed up because I should have posted about our youngest daughter's birth on the 20th, which was her birthday, her real birthday, her 20th birthday, but I just wasn't prepared!

Actually, this is exactly what her birth was like.  I just wasn't prepared!  From the moment we found out I was pregnant with her, she has been one special individual.  You see, I was 42 years old and we already had a boy and a girl and were not really planning on another child at that point (although my ideal family is four children, two girls and two boys so that each child knows what it is like to have a brother and a sister - but I digress).  

At any rate, I absolutely loved being pregnant and this time, since we already had a girl and a boy, we wanted to know what the sex was going to be so that we could plan better.  I had to have special tests because I was an "older" pregnant woman and once I had the ultrasound and amniocentesis to make sure everything was going to be okay and we knew it was going to be another girl, we relaxed.  

Well, sort of.  Since we were expanding the family, the house we were renting was only a 2 bedroom one so when I was 8 months pregnant, we packed up and moved.  Also, it was discovered on one of my exams that I had gestational diabetes again (I had had it with our son, too).  At least we already had the name picked out, Rachel Lauren.  

She was to be born in late November and I was holding my breath, hoping that she would wait until the new maternity ward was finished in our local hospital.  I was still working at the doctor's office where I was an office manager and I was also president of the PTA at school and we were due to have our meeting for the month when, at 5 PM on November 19, my water broke, at least a week earlier than scheduled!  

That was a new experience for me since the other two kids had been late and my water had never broken spontaneously with either of them.  Fortunately, I was right across the street from the hospital so I called the vice president of the PTA and told her that she would have to run the meeting, called my mom to ask her to take care of the older kids and drove myself across the street to the hospital!  I called my husband and told him what was going on.  He was working the swing shift so he wasn't due home until 11 PM and I told him that I didn't think anything was going to happen for a while so he didn't have to rush home, but he came anyway because the people at work told him he should be with me.  

And so the waiting game began.  Just because the water broke, didn't mean that the baby was in any hurry to come out.  The doctor came in and checked on our progress and said that if nothing happened by 6 AM the next morning, they would induce labor.  My husband was pacing the floor and driving me crazy so I told him to go home and I'd call him if anything happened.  

Sure enough, nothing happened and at 6 AM they came in to give me the pitocin again.  This time it worked much faster than the last times and I called my husband and told him that if he wanted to see this baby being born he better hurry!  At about 6:45 he came in the room.  He said he could hear me screaming down the hall (another natural childbirth - no meds for me!) and about 7:14, Rachel was born.

What a cutie she was with lots of black hair!  Maybe that's why I had had heartburn during pregnancy.  Unfortunately, she was born too early to be in the new maternity ward and they were in the process of packing up the maternity ward at the old hospital.  There were labels on drawers and things were in a bit of disarray.  It didn't matter.  She was perfect and such a wonderful addition to our family!

It is hard to believe that this girl is now 20 years old!  She has turned out to be such a terrific young lady and definitely continues to have a mind of her own!  We are truly blessed!  I am sorry I didn't make this post on her birthday for her, but she has to know she is definitely one of my most cherished memories!

Jumpin' July

July 13 -- Movin' and Groovin'

So, anybody who's been following my posts (I hope lots of people), or knows me personally knows that I love to scrapbook and make mini-albums and cards and other fun stuff with papers.

My pride and joy is this WorkBox from The Original ScrapBox company.

I have one of the original versions and I absolutely love it.  My husband and I put it together a few years ago and it is such a pleasure to use it.  It is filled with tons of stuff and makes crafting so much easier to have everything in one place.  

However, I also have a paper addiction.  I have to have a separate bookcase for papers (this is not even all of the paper I have):

So my scrap room looked like this:

From the doorway

Left wall

 Messy because I was right in the middle of a project and I knew things were going to be changing so I wanted to capture the "before."  Above on the left is from the doorway.  The one next to it is the left wall as you look in the door.  Below is the right wall as you look in the door.

Right wall

I have a lot of stuff!  Most of it I know where to find and I do use a lot when I make my albums.  I have an Etsy shop so I am hoping to be able to make some extra money using it all. 

Our daughter just moved out completely to her own place closer to where she is going to school and has told us that she would prefer to live there full time rather than come home.  We support her decision and are very proud of her for making the transition to being on her own.  (A little sad of course because she was our baby).  

At any rate, we decided to offer a room to a friend of ours and I thought that since there was going to be some major moving going on, I'd move my craft room into the other room and let our friend have the front bedroom.  

Therefore, over the last few days, I moved (with a lot of help from our son and some help from hubby, who just had surgery so he can't do much) ALLLL my stuff.   

Looking in the door

Right wall looking in from the door

Left side

As you can see, just about all I did was move it!  There is very little order other than the big pieces of furniture are where they are supposed to be but all the little odds and ends are in a big pile in the middle of the floor.  I am taking the opportunity to go through some things and organize them better and perhaps purge some things I don't think I'll use.  

I still have some shelving to put up and rearranging to do but just from looking at these pictures I know I am going to like this room better.  It has much better lighting, maybe because the walls are white as opposed to the orangey color in the other room.  Maybe because the window isn't blocked as much.  

Also, I am sharing the room with my husband and son as they have a pretty massive baseball card collection which takes up the entire closet and some built in drawers.  

I've got my work cut out for me and I better get it done pretty quickly because I have a craft show in a month.  I need to make some more things to sell (or at least get the things I have already made out of this pile!)  Wish me luck.  I'll post the after pictures when it's all done.  What do you think so far?