A Future Road Trip


This time I'm heading straight east. And I'm going with my daughter. To make a vehicle switch. With her soon-to-be ex-husband.

Yep, it's the first of my kids to go through a divorce. And she was the last one married. Oh well, he was a "back east"er. We're all "west coast"ers and there really is a difference. If he had wanted to become a "west coast"er it may have worked, but ultimately that was what split them up - geography.


He left to move back to Cincinnati in September with plans for Rach to meet him in the spring. He felt an overwhelming draw to go back because his grandmother who raised him was ill and he felt the obligation to be there for her. Once back there and settled back in his old world I guess he realized she Rach wouldn't fit in. Maybe he realized that she wouldn't be happy away from her whole family. Whatever it was, he told her not to plan to go out there.


But everything is amicable. The biggest problem is that he took her car and left his here. She has a nice, comfy Tahoe and he has a Jeep. Thus the swap.


So this spring she'll rent a small trailer and put things in it that she doesn't want to keep, to give them to Tony. We'll hook it to his Jeep and head off for a halfway point. We get all the fun part, the mountains. But we're gonna make it a little mini vacation - ROAD TRIP!!


I'm sure she'll have some emotional moments, I'll try to distract her. She's actually been doing pretty good. She's looking at the positive. He's letting her keep all the household goods (but she's taking him the things that he especially liked, hence the trailer) which were all purchased in the last couple of years. Most of them are things she picked out. She has a nice car. She has a decent income. She has a large close-knit family who are there for each other.

Of course, there are things that she doesn't have, she'll have lonely times. But that's what family is for. She won't be living far away and weekends are usually spent together. Kevin is moving closer by as well.


I hope this is also the last of my kids to divorce. Only time will tell.


Life with Money Again


Money! Bah! But life requires it.

Most readers of this blog well know that I was in line to collect a small inheritance from my late uncle's estate that I spent nearly all of November working on - unnecessarily, in some ways, as it turns out. Well, we each got our share of the estate in the form of a check the first week of January. Thank goodness, because...

Just as my checking account was down to about $400 and virtually nothing left in my savings account I noticed that the funds on my account online showed only $80. I contacted the bank and found out that a Sears.com debit for $321.12 was coming through the pipes - an unauthorized debit. I contacted Sears.com and got nothing but automated information that even when I did what they required I got no calls back. So I was forced to contact the bank and report it. That meant they had to cancel my debit card. At least they didn't have to close my account completely. But my debit card then was no good. Locally I could still write checks but I could do almost nothing online, include pay bills, since they all use my debit card. It would be a week or more before I got my new card.

So I got the check and the bank put a hold on the funds for a week. Then I had no debit card for a week. Late last week everything was finally freed up. Yahoo! There are so many things I want to get done and, as usual, they all take money.

First I wanted to get Uncle Eugene's van detailed inside, then it'll look like new, less the cracked rear panel that the new owner will have to deal with. I can get that on the market now, I think I'll see about contacting a few shuttle places to see if any of them need a new fleet vehicle.

Next on my list was my mom's "Sweet 16" ring that she gave me a couple years ago. It has a catch on a corner that needs to be repaired and the shank needs to be replaced, it's worn thin and I also want it to fit a different finger so it needs to be resized.

And, for now, last but by no means least - I got permanent eyeliner! It really is a crazy thing women do but I love it! It's tattooed on. I got both upper and lower done and let me tell you, when the topical anesthetic started to wear off it HURT!! I was clenching my jaw and fists and holding my breath. Couldn't squint my eyes though. I just kept telling myself that it would be over, it was only a minute or two, it wouldn't hurt forever - whew! I could breathe again! No one will ever ask me again if I'm sick when the only thing different is that I have no makeup on. She really did a fantastic job. She started by dying my lashes since I can't wear mascara for a week (the dye lasts a month). Next she applied the anesthetic, then she plucked my neglected eyebrows. Then she got to work. The whole process took nearly 2 hours. I'm puffy and the lines are dark right now, they'll lighten up by about 30% in a couple weeks. I got a dark brown. So now I'm made up even when I'm not - cool.

Money - can't live with it, can't live without... OK, I guess I can live with it.


A Day with Joe


Time for a new blog. How about an afternoon with a 3 year old? Surely there's something to blog about!

Rachyl typically babysits both of Kevin's boys on Saturdays but this weekend she decided she wanted to go visit a friend overnight (she lives about 3 hours north of here). So she asked Denny and Heather to watch Shayne since he and Hunter play well together. And I'm usually always available to watch Joe. He's potty trained and a pretty good kid...... But he is 3.


Rick and I hadn't figured out what we wanted to do and once we threw Joe into the picture we had to consider that aspect of our outing. So we decided to hit the big Downtown Seattle Goodwill store and then who knows from there.


We had a great time in Goodwill. Joe sat nicely in the cart and we hit the toys first. We picked one toy for each grandson and Joe got to hang on to all of them. Then I was free to continue with my shopping, Joe was occupied. It's nice to see how much Joe has grown attached to Rick. He was continually looking for him, calling for him and spotting him.


Next Rick decided to treat us to a Seattle landmark which, even having been here for over 20 years I hadn't personally visited as yet. We feasted on some good ole simple Dick's burgers on Capitol Hill. It was a beautiful, although cold, sunny day and there was plenty of activity in that colorful area of town.

From there he treated us to another area landmark which I hadn't seen in all these years of being a Seattleite. This is where the 3 year old got busy. We went to Archie McPhee's. It's one of those stores full of gags, party items and all sorts of weirdness. Joe just went crazy, running from this place to that, calling "Rick! Rick!" or "Gramma! Gramma!", wanting to be picked up and allowed to see just about everything in both buildings! Thankfully, since Rick has been there numerous times he voluntarily kept up with Joe and allowed me to peruse in peace. Thanks "Grampa Rick!"

Finally we tried to go to a park and let Joe do some playing on swings and slides. Unfortunately though, Rick picked an extremely popular park, Greenlake, in Seattle, and we couldn't find a parking place. On the other hand, it was probably a good thing because the playground was fairly overparked as well.


All in all a nice day playing grandparents to a very typically energetic 3 year old.


Romantic Rollercoaster


OK, now that I took care of the more mundane blogging that I needed to do, here's what's been going on of a little heavier nature ("really heavy, man").

Rick and I just went through a very slippery portion of our relationship. But it looks like it we managed to stop our downward fall and started climbing back up.

December 30 we were having a nice time together when things started getting weird and feelings started getting hurt. You all know how those things can quickly snowball. We parted for the evening and the next day while Rick was at work we texted back and forth a few times and decided to break up. We decided we wanted it to be amicable because we're so crazy about each other and don't want to be mad at each other.

Boy - was that a huge mistake! The next day we were both zombies. Rick stayed upstairs in his room all day and I sat in the corner of Denny's couch watching the DIY Network marathons all day with Rach. But since Denny and Rach both had to work the next day I went home about 9. Not long after I got home I found that Rick was online and started chatting with him.

We chatted for over an hour about what happened, how we felt, what went wrong and changes that maybe we could try to make things work. It's odd but it seems like online chatting is our best means of communication. I can only imagine what things will be like if we ever do end up living under the same roof and see an argument beginning - we'll have to each go to our own separate places and start a chat! I think it works because body language, facial expressions and voice inflections aren't there to get misunderstood. We can stay on an even keel. We can CAPITALIZE, bold or italicize the words we want to stand out.

So for now we're back together and enjoying ourselves again. We're gonna focus on things that we could see getting in the way of melding our households and things we both see in our personalities that should be corrected.

Maybe we're just acting more adult - how boring!

Wild Winter Weather

I just took a look back at my last blog. Where does the time go? "Beauty in the snow" - hah!

We had a solid 2 weeks of snow, ice, freezing temps, and frozen roads.
During that 2 weeks I got a job doing a memorial DVD for a couple who live in New York. I commented to them "this must be nothing to you, huh?" referring to the 8 inches of snow everywhere. New York gets much more snow than that. But to my surprise their answer was - "actually, not. In New York they take care of the roads." Whew - that means we're not just a bunch of sissies after all! The roads really were as bad as they seemed!

As I said we had about 8 inches of snow at that time. But that was an accumulation of a few snowfalls along with some thawing and refreezing in between. So that 8 inches was thick packed snow / ice. Being driven on without having any plowing going on (only some main roads were plowed) that thick stuff got washboardy and potholey, just like a dirt road that goes unmaintained. It was AWFUL!!


But - that was then. It did finally warm up around xmas and melted away. Then a couple mornings ago I woke up and sensed white through my bedroom curtains but didn't think anything of it - we had just had two solid weeks of the white stuff laying around, it had become normal. When I got to the kitchen and looked out I was reminded that the snow had actually gone away - it had been green again, the white had been gone! Wait! What?! It snowed again!?!?


Apparently it just dumped a quick inch in the wee early morning hours - surprise!


November it poured and flooded. December it snowed and was frozen for 2 weeks. I can't wait to see what January brings!

About Me

My photo
After 2 unsuccessful marriages I spent 12 years as a divorcee, only to fall prey to another man's wiles. We had a fun 5 years together and then he decided he wanted more freedom so once again I'm single.

So I'm freshly divorced at 57 and have 5 great kids and now 7 grandkids. My kids are still a major part of my life but I'm busy helping my aging parents on Kauai.

I've lived in California, Hawaii and Oklahoma before finally settling here in Washington. I love Washington and come back to visit family, friends and take care of my garden often but will be temporarily a resident of Kauai.

I've moved 30 times in my life (no, my parents weren't in the service, at least not since I was about 2) and finally planted roots when I got my little house that I've owned since '91.

My family are Jehovah's Witnesses, I've been one since '72.