I think I found my calling...

Now if there was just money in it. As a person who is a wee bit hyper it's sometimes hard to find something to keep me interested. Well... back in December Miss Rhory and baby RJ moved in and I've discovered that a baby is a hell of a lot more work than a puppy. You can't put a baby in a kennel and leave for the day.

Little RJ is a bundle of joy, I get to play with him every morning before I leave for work and he's full of laughter and smiles when I come home from work. We are now working on our letters and numbers in sign language. I'm also working on the basic signs, eat, bottle, potty etc.

Because RJ fights sleep more than I do we work very well together. Neither one of us can sit still so we dance, play airplane and run around the house. We chase the puppies and sing songs. I can stand and rock him until he falls asleep in my arms. It allows me to keep moving and the movement puts him to sleep, it's a win win situation. This also allows Rhory to have some freedom.

There is nothing like the giggles and squeals of a little baby, he makes me laugh every day! I cannot believe how much I am enjoying having a baby around the house. Even Jake and Lash have come to accept RJ. I don't know how long they will be staying but I'm going to spend as much time as I can with this little guy. What a precious gift I have been given.

I wonder if there's any money in rocking babies???

Womens 5 and Under

I spent the weekend in Grand Rapids Minnesota curling in the Women's 5 and Under bonspiel. We headed up Friday afternoon, checked into the Timberlake Lodge, grabbed a bite to eat then went to the club for our 7 pm draw. After registering for the event we found out that because there were only 5 teams playing that the bonspiel would be a scored event. Meaning that instead of deciding the winners by games won, each game will be scored and the team with the highest score would win. It seemed kinda odd to me but with 5 teams I guess it was the easiest way.

Although my team did not win many games we threw good rocks which for me is the most important. We lost our Friday game and had a bye right away Saturday morning! YAY we don't have to get up early. Our first game on Saturday was at 11:30 giving us time to try our hand at doubles curling. Lisa and I played against Michelle and Mary. After two ends Mary wanted to quit and Lisa was cold so Michelle and I practiced until about 11:15 then prepared for our game.

We lost our 11:30 game, we played a good game but just couldn't get the win. Because of the scoring it was almost more important to win each end than to get a lot of points. Michelle was not happy with her game and asked me to skip the rest of the weekend. Lunch was next on the agenda, soup and sandwiches.

Our next game was against the other St. Paul team; Amy, Loafy, Mary Jane and Amanda! WooHoo we finally won a game and were able to get a bunch of points on the board. Our last game was at a little after 6, we again threw good rocks but were not able to win. This game also allowed us to get some points on the board.

It was after 8 pm by the time we were done curling; talk about being tired! Whew! Everyone sat down for dinner and awards. The Anderson team was once again the winners of the 1st event! YAY for St. Paul bringing home the trophy again. Some how my team was able to pull off a 3rd event win. I'm not sure which one of us was more surprised.

I had a really fun weekend and I'm looking forward to heading back to Grand Rapids in March for the Women's Gopher State 'spiel. The Itasca Curling club was fantastic! They had the cleanest ice I've ever curled on.

This was my last year for the 5 and Under so I guess I'm no longer a "novice" player. My next goal is to find a team to grow with and become more competitive. I can't believe I just said that, I'm not competitive by nature but I really want to play in more events and do some traveling.

Lifes Lessons According to Me

With the New Year comes a little melancholy, I think about the past year and even years before that and I muddle over what I've accomplished and what I failed to do. What I plan to do in the upcoming year, so on and so forth. Along with the New Year I also celebrate my birthday right away in January which also gets me to thinking about the past and the lessons I've learned.

Today I decided it's time I started to share some of the lessons I've learned in my vast 47 years of existence. They will not be in any particular order I'll share them as they enter my head.

Today's lesson is on friends. For me my friends are the backbone of my life, they are my rocks, my mentors, they are here when I need them and they are here when I'm an ass. I believe in order to have friends you need to be a friend. This leads me to my lesson, when I meet new people I take a look at their friends. Do they have friends? What type of people are they? Who do they surround themselves with? Are they really friends or just acquaintances, work people, sports people etc.

So if someone enters my world and they don't have any friends I'm a little wary. It doesn't stop me from getting to know the person but if after several months they have not talked about or introduced me to any of his/her friends I start to wonder.

What I've learned over the years is the people I've met that don't have any friends, don't last long in my life. Now of course if I meet someone who has just arrived to the city/state whatever it stands to reason that he/she may not know many people. However, one would think that they have friends "back home." And after about a year they should have made some friends.

I'm not saying I judge people by their friends, it's more that it's their capacity to be a friend. It tells me a lot about a person if they cannot be a friend, generally they are not the kind of person I want in my life.

Lets see how can I simplify this: in order to have friends to need to be a friend, if you don't have any friends then you are lacking something in your character that I need in order for you to be a part of my life.

Lesson # 1 "Be very careful of people who don't have any friends."

Last Day of the Year

hmmm, need to decide on a New Years Resolution...
I was pretty good at keeping my resolution this year, I did not talk or text on my cell phone while driving. I failed on the post on my blog every day resolution but that's why I amended the resolution.

I adopted a crazy ass Puggle this summer, we're still in the learning stage. He turned two in November, I'm his third owner and he has some "issues." He's coming along and I will take full responsibility for any failure on his part. He is a super smart dog and I believe if I spent more time with him he would really come around. That will be one of my goals for the New Year, get Jake to come when I call his name...every time; not just when I have a carrot.

I was finally able to get my memorial garden planted and expand my vegetable garden. Nearly finished painting my house. I only have one triangle left on the house and the big garage out back to paint. I can't paint the garage until I replace a couple boards so it's going to wait until Spring.

gotta run, more later...

Fireball!

Curled in the Fireball 500 this weekend. Had a really fun time. Our first game was Friday night at 8 PM; we lost but it was a fun game and I was happy with my rocks. Stayed out a wee bit too late Friday but our Saturday game was not until 11 AM so it wasn't too bad.

Saturdays game was great our entire team threw good rocks and we were victorious! Winning Saturday meant that we did not play again until Sunday morning at 9 AM. The team we played against on Saturday was a lot of fun and we had a lot of laughs both on and off the ice.

Went on the Fireball 500 pubcrawl Saturday night but wimped out before the last bar. I seriously needed some food and sleep. I was home by about 12:30 and in bed by 1 AM. Lash had me up at 5:30 with his whining. The dogs are used to getting up at 4:15 so he was ready for breakfast. After letting the dogs out and feeding them I was wide awake.

Got to the club about 8:30 this morning and grabbed some breakfast and coffee. I have to say I was a bit disappointed that we lost this morning. I usually don't get disappointed but I really wanted to win. Most of the time I'm pretty neutral about my curling but we were having such a good game that I was really bummed when we lost. Had we won this morning we would have competed in the second event! It all came down to the 8th end, last rocks. Unfortunately we did not get the point needed to win :(

Playing with Eric, Julie and Kristin was a lot of fun. Eric and Julie are both very laid back and complementary, which is a change from my league teams. They tried talking me into skipping this morning, but I was just not "feeling" it and I'm glad Julie agreed to skip. The team we played against have been curling their entire lives and I would have been totally out of my league.

All in all it was another great time at the curling club! I'm already looking for my next bonspiel. I think the Women's Cold Cash is next on the agenda. I'm not sure who I'll be playing with, I've talked with several people but haven't confirmed anything yet.

Now it's time to relax and get ready for my week...