Funky Kim

Florida Musings

I'm here in the greater Tampa area, visiting my friend Colleen.  She and her husband, Jim, are both graduating tomorrow from Saint Leo University.  That, my friends, is a big fat hairy deal!

Today was spent having our nails done, eating a yummy lunch, and some major shopping.  Now everyone has errands to accomplish for the ceremony and the party tomorrow.  I have finished my jobs (I ironed the gowns and put felt thingies on the chair legs in the dining room).  So I thought I'd post here.

I cannot access a couple of my message boards.  This is an aggravation as the other message boards, located at the same place, are accessible to me.  I like keeping up with my online friends when I can.  Oh well.  I'll be home Sunday evening and am off Monday, so I'll catch up then.

I went to a Bare Escentuals store.  My first!  What fun!  They have an eye shadow called Puzzle that's a fund raiser for autism awareness.  I bought one even though it is very light and I might not wear it much.  I love supporting causes that are near and dear to my heart.  I also got a mauve lip kit .  I loved going to an actual store and seeing all the different colors.  My spa at home sells this makeup, but doesn't have as large of an assortment.

Jim's back from his errand.  He and a friend went to pick up the keg.  I'm off to supervise the tapping of the keg and approve the beer.  I have a hard life down here, but I try to make the best of things!

Full (sad) circle

I helped plan Katie's wedding 4 years ago. Did a lot of the work involved in making it happen. Hoped for the best and wished them well. And today, in a weird circle of life moment, I will preside at the divorce of Katie and Josh.

The court system here in Utah has divorce paperwork available online. If you use this paperwork, you just pay an additional $25 when you file them. This works kind of like Turbo Tax. You answer questions and based on those answers there are more questions to answer. And eventually you reach the end of the questions and hit print and out prints a bunch of paperwork, written in the appropriate legalese. They you take all these papers to a notary and sign them in front of the notary and haul them to court. 90 days later, you're divorced.

They have haggled over a bunch of stuff. And Katie's gone through reams of paper printing out the different agreements. And they both have finally come to an agreement on all the little things that are involved when you divorce and have a child.

And it so happens that I am a notary in the great state of Utah. And Katie asked the court clerk if I could be their notary. And it was determined that there really wasn't a conflict of interest for me, so it would be OK for me to be the notary on these divorce papers.

Josh will bring Vincent home about 6 this evening. And he'll actually come in my house this time and we'll sit around and notarize the paperwork about 8 times. I wonder if I could talk Dwaine into pictures?

Life changing!

My new bras have changed my life!  Rocked my world!  Really!

I went to Macy's yesterday for a professional bra fitting.  And I bought four new bras as a result.  And sitting here this morning I was realizing that my bra really feels good!  The girls aren't any more perky today than they were yesterday, but they are ever so much happier.

Is this TMI?  Too bad.  I'm happy.

Retail Therapy

Have you tried to get a mortgage loan lately?  The new rules are incredible and the forms change on a daily basis.  We're refinancing our home to take advantage of the seriously low interest rates out there right now.  We've been in this process for a little over two months now.  TWO MONTHS.  We finally got the call that we had a closing appointment yesterday.  So we got off work early, went to the title company, and our loan documents weren't there.  Not only weren't they there, they weren't scheduled to be printed yet at the loan place.

Frustration.

So I decided I needed some retail therapy.  And that means something much different to me than to most people.  I hit the local Savers, which is a thrift store that benefits Big Brothers/Big Sisters.  I adore thrift store shopping.  I spent a total of $4.64.  I found a couple books that I hadn't read.  And I found Vincent a puzzle made up of a bunch of different shapes!  He's very interested in shapes at the moment.  And, thanks to his grandpa and uncles, I'm having a heck of a time getting him to say hexagon instead of sexagon.  *sigh*  The puzzle will introduce a trapezoid to him.  Bonus!

I just got off the phone with the title company.  They should have our loan documents today.  And they need to be signed today.  But no one has time to do them with us today.  So we're meeting there tomorrow morning and just dating the darn things today.  And we will get a phone call if the documents fail to show. 

Larger family?

Mary Alice was sort of wishing she had a larger family.  Not that the family she has isn't perfect.  Just in a different world, she would have wanted more children.

I feel the same way.  Especially since I married Dwaine.  Back in the day, when I was married to that first husband of mine, one child was not enough and two children were definitely too many.  And when I was a single parent for those 11 years, the two girls I had were more than enough children for me and I was grateful that I had both of them and that I didn't have any more.

But now...I get a longing for another one.  One that I could raise in a two parent household.  I'd like to experience that.  With Vincent living with us, I get large tastes of what that could be like.  But it isn't the same.  Because he's not our child.  He's our grandchild.  When I'm doing things with him, sometimes I wonder if I would be doing the same things, only differently, with him if he was my child.  Of course, then my brain explodes.

And there is absolutely no chance that a baby will accidentally happen to me.  I'm spayed and Dwaine's neutered.  And Dwaine's adamant that we're much too old to do something silly, like adopt a child.  So I'll always just get to wonder what it would be like.  And I'll spoil my grandchildren like crazy! 

Birthdays!

Tonight is the family birthday party.  My dad, my eldest step-son and Vincent will all celebrate tonight.  Vincent isn't aware that it's HIS turn finally!  And his actual birthday isn't until April 12th, so he will get to celebrate a lot more before he's done turning three.

Currently there's an old fashioned fudge cake in the oven.  It's one of my MIL's recipes.  I never met her, but have heard her cooking, sewing, crocheting, etc skills raved about since I married Dwaine.  Someone in Dwaine's family even called her Saint Joyce when talking with me.  Appears she did everything perfectly.  Of course, that happens when you're very loved and you die young and unexpectedly.  Anyway, after Dwaine's sister died, I inherited a big drawer of recipes from his mom and his grandmothers.  And I'm very clear that I'll make the attempt, but I'm certain that they will never taste "right" to Dwaine.  And he gets that part.  So he doesn't hold me up to anyone's cooking/baking standards but my own.

The cake will get a peanut butter frosting that his mom invented.  And after googling several peanut butter frosting recipes, I can see that it is an invention.  I hope it turns out OK.  And I can't wait to try a fudge cake with peanut butter frosting!

The other cake I'm making is my dad's favorite.  Oatmeal cake made just the way his mom used to.  (Do you see a theme here???)  Major plus about my dad's family favorite recipes is that I learned how to make them from my grandma.  So I can duplicate them precisely and they taste right and everything.  I'm jonesing for some of the frosting for this cake.  Coconut walnut yumminess!  I can't wait to lick the bowl!

Monday and it's looking a lot like Christmas

It's been snowing all day long.  It snowed all night last night, so we woke up needing to clear the cars and stomp our feet.  But it's a spring snow, so it doesn't stick to the roads, as they're still warm from day before yesterday when we broke the all time record high temperature.  Love spring!

Shopped and bought a wedding dress for Kristi today.  It could have been a much harder ordeal than it was, but I'm glad its over and done with.  Now Sarah's gone off the deep end, wanting zoot suits instead of regular tuxedos.  And those zoot suits are at least twice the cost!  Of course, I've told them what I will spend and I will stop spending once we reach that amount.  I'm just afraid we'll reach that amount long before the ceremony.

Vincent has been a trooper today.  He went wedding dress shopping for about 3 hours.  Then he went to IFA to shop for gardening stuff.  Of course, IFA also has baby ducklings and chicks and bunny rabbits to look at and hold, so it wasn't that much of a hardship there.  Then we went to Sam's Club and walked the whole place and bought more than we had planned.  We finally finished our Monday shopping/errand day at the grocery store.  We will eat for many meals now.  Life is good.

I had a day

Yesterday was a no good, very bad, glad it's over day at work.  And when I got home and discovered that Vincent and Katie were out running errands, I rejoiced!  I could have a bubble bath without a young child jumping in.

So I started the water.  And added the bubble bath.  And the bathroom started filling with the wonderful aroma of honey.  As I began removing my clothes, anticipating the warm, relaxing water, I hear a crying boy and realize that not only has Vincent returned home, he's not a happy boy.

Turns out Vincent didn't want his nap today.  So when he was riding around in the car with his mom during the late afternoon, he fell asleep.  And only managed to sleep for about 45 minutes.  And that just isn't enough.  But it's more than enough sleep that late in the day as the people who love and care for him would like to go to bed before sunup the next day. 

Therefore, I did the only thing I could think of that would wake him up completely and make him happy.  I told him he could take a bubble bath with grandma.  As he climbed in the tub, still crying, I could feel him relax as the warm water started working its magic.  And before too long, he was playing with his funnel and eating bubbles.  And when he stood up to pee a rainbow in the tub, grandma decided that her soak was done and left him to play all to himself.

After the bath was done, he ate just a little bit of dinner.  We watched the Utah Jazz play while Vincent drove his trucks around, terrozing the cats.  When the game was over I decided I'd take Vincent to bed with me and he could snuggle while I read a magazine.  He decided he needed his blanket with him.  The blanket that is becoming Vincent's blankie is one that my grandma quilted for Dwaine and me when we got married.  It's a queen size quilt.  And Vincent hauls it around the house  with him.  Funny boy!

After he got settled under his blanket, he had to leave again to get a book so he could read to himself.  He likes identifying the shapes and the colors of the pictures and his latest trick is picking out the different letters he knows.  I think he's pretty darn smart for not being 3 years old yet!

So my heart  was bursting at the cuteness of him laying in bed beside me, both of us reading.   It just doesn't get any better than that and I hope he and his mom live with us for a while longer.

Sunday Musings

Vincent and I are up and fed.  Not dressed. Getting out of pajamas and into clothes is optional on most Sundays around here.  And we haven't found a reason to ditch the jammies yet.

The brides are at church this morning.  Going to meet with the pastor and, hopefully, remember to reserve the church.  I skipped going with them as they didn't decide that they were actually going today until it was much too late for me to get my household dressed and out the door.  Kristi worked until 3 in the morning, so the decision to go to church was all hers.

I saw the most amazing ballet yesterday.  Madame Butterfly was performed by Ballet West and I have no words to describe how wonderful it was.  I knew the story line and how sad the story was, but at the end I was sobbing!  I still have shivers up and down my spine just remembering the performance.  Next month I'll see Treasures of the Ballets Russes.  I have no idea what to expect, so I can't wait to see!

Dwaine and I have a four day weekend this weekend.  Our normal day off fell on the President's Day holiday, so we needed to take another day as our holiday.  Last week was much too busy at work to take a day off, so this coming Tuesday it is!  As an added bonus, the children's museum is having a special day on Tuesday, so I'll haul Vincent out there and watch him have a blast.  Have I mentioned how much fun being a grandma is? 

The Beginning

Kristi and Sarah were a bit overwhelmed at all the details a wedding has that need to be planned.  I printed off a couple of wedding checklists that I found online thanks to Google.  Didn't want to miss anything!  There was a lot of stuff that we just aren't going to do.  RSVPs aren't necessary as we're not serving dinner.  Stuff like that.

The date is almost firm.  The location is firm.  We just need to meet with the pastor Sunday to firm up the date with the church.  And reserve the place.  Then the date will be firm.

Colors are chosen.  Flowers were discussed.  Research is needed on rose colors.  Tuxedos need to be found, fitted for and rented.  Food is pretty set.  I'm making the wedding cake.

The biggest thing that was accomplished was the wording of the wedding invitation.  I'm putting it here to both share it and have it in a place I can find it when we need it!

Together with their families
Kristi
&
Sarah
invite you to share in the joyous beginning
of their new life together
as they pledge vows of love and faith
in a ceremony of commitment

Saturday, September 12, 2009
at three in the afternoon

Holladay United Church of Christ

reception to follow