A week in pictures

Day 2---during the rain...images from the backyard

A week in pictures

Day 1---Flowers growing in the front yard.

IKEA

100th Post

I know that I promised pictures from our quick trip to IKEA in Pittsburgh and I will post them but first I wanted to let you all know that this is my 100th post. 100 posts can you believe it? I know that it is mostly my ramblings but I am looking at this as a way to keep a track of the goings on in this life that I am leading. I have already had to refer back to my archives for dates of certain things and for that I am grateful to have started this thing. I started this mostly to keep our (Amelia's and Dawn's) families updated on our goings on but what I've gotten back from it has been so much more than I could have asked for. When you can't talk to someone about something, not because you don't want to, but because you don't have the words, it's really nice to be able to come on here and just vent...basically to the world. I've gotten so much feedback and made so many friends that I am grateful...to you, to me (for allowing you to take a peek), and to the blogging community. I've received tons of tips, feedback, encouragement and friendship. Thank you, I am in awe of what this community of folks is doing for one another.

BUSY WEEKEND

Whew am I pooped. We went to and from IKEA yesterday in Pittsburgh and got some things that we have been needing since we moved in. Today we got up early, Amelia dealt with the yard while I dealt with the inside stuff. I completed steps 1-3 for the new handle on our screen door and hung new roman shades while Amelia completed steps 4 and 5 (which were completely lost on me) and worked her booty off filling up six bags of lawn waste, all in all an eventful weekend! I will post some fun pics. of from our trip tonight or tomorrow. Right now I am off to do some editing! Happy Sunday evening!

Namaste

We are relaxed...we just had our first yoga session and it was great. Time to shut off the computer, turn off the phone and TV and relax. Good Night!

Chiquita Banana

I am so disgusted with this whole Chiquita Banana thing...read about it here...BANANAS

Scrabble Meme---T

Suse over at PeaSoup has assigned me the letter T in the Scrabble meme...so here goes...things I like that start with T:

1. Twister
2. Tattoos
3. Tabby Cats
4. Trampolines
5. Trundle beds
6. Turtle doves
7. Twilight
8. Trucks (riding in the back at least)
9. Troubadours
10. Tart-n-Tinys
11. Teddy grahams (cinnamon ones on vanilla or chocolate ice cream)
12. Twizzlers
13. Taboo (the game)
14. Tea (Sleepytime and Honey Lemon)
15. Taco Bell
16. Thanksgiving (and that goes without saying...)
17. Turkey
18. Taffy
19. Tag Sales
20. Tang (only the powder licked off a spoon, not the drink)
21. Tamales
22. Tangerines
23. Taoism
24. Target (don't we all)
25. Tree Houses (if I could live in one I would)
26. Telescopes
27. Typewriters
28. Tea kettles
29. Tea cups
30. TV
31. Tennessee (I was going to go to UT when I graduated High School and just couldn't come up with the money)
32. Terriers (silky)
33. Theatre
34. Tulips
35. Thumper
36. Toast (white with butter only)
37. Tongue twisters
38. Topiary gardens
39. Trees
40. Traveling
41. Topography (I wanted to be a mapmaker when I was a kid)
42. Tortillas
43. Tee pees (built one once with a bunch of girls and it was amazing)
44. Totem poles (goes back to my obsessions with groups of people huh?)
and this one for Amelia
45. Tintinnabulation

Clarification

Duke is not our dog, he belongs to Amelia's parents and sister....

he was just hanging out with us today ;)

Duke McDuff

This is the newest addition to the Woodward family...adopted just today :)

Cracked Vertebrae

I was talking to a friend at work today about this so I thought maybe you guys would find it interesting...and I don't know how many of you already know this story and how many of you don't so...here it is...

When I was in 5th grade (so, so, so long ago) It would have been around '85. We were living with my Mammie (grandma to y'all Yankees ;) in Charleston, West Virginia. She lived on this gigantic mountain right below Yeager Airport....the one major airport in Charleston. Named after Chuck Yeager you know who broke the sound barrier...I had a huge crush on the kid Chris Yeager in my class who was his grandson...but I digress.

So since she lived below the airport there were a few runoffs; of water, oil, grease who knows what...from the airport that came down the mountain near her house. They were pretty awesome. We loved to play around and on them when we got the chance which wasn't very often because my Mammie would say "Dawn Marie dontchu go gallivantin' 'round this mountain ya' hear!" Only when she was away did I usually go gallivantin' 'round.

We (this girl Danielle and I) were playing on the mountain around the runoff, when I sat down to retie my shoe my foot slipped on some moss and I fell 95 feet down the jagged rocks (I have a picture if you want to see it) on my belly. I fell until a boulder stopped my fall by me slamming into it back first (hence the title of this post) I was unconscious for awhile but awake when the ambulance came. They tied ropes to the trees to support the back brace as they took me off the mountain (they were convinced that I was paralyzed) I was aware enough to be mad that they weren't using the siren ;)

I had a broken right leg, 3 broken ribs, 6 cracked vertebrae but that was it. Even though I slid 95 feet on my stomach there wasn't one scratch on my body, just broken bones. Crazy huh. I only have one picture of myself in the back brace that I had to wear for over a year and that one picture is enough. I look miserable. I was in the hospital for about 8 months, while there the nurses and I became great friends, they would get me Popsicles anytime I wanted. I would ask for pickles and they'd moan and groan and tell me they had to go to the basement for those but they would still get them for me. I don't remember being in pain at all (except for physical therapy.) It was crazy, I have been thinking about this lately because of some stuff going on in my head right now, at that time I was told that I had a guardian angel, one neighbor (Danielle's mom who was the only one who saw the whole thing) said she saw a male figure with his arms beneath my body the whole time that I fell. I've always believed this but I'm not certain why. I am not religious. I always say I am agnostic not atheist because I am afraid not to be. I like the idea of gods, not of a god. It doesn't seem fair or possible that there is only one being out there who holds all of our fates in his/her hands...I just don't know what to believe.

What I am hoping is that if I do have that guardian angel that he is looking out for me right now and that his boss has some sort of plan for me, because this cannot be it, this cannot be all that there is.

a would be NUN

Sometimes I get on these kicks where I am completely and utterly interested in certain groups of people, in college it was the Amish, before that it was Native Americans, after that it was the Eskimo...and since I can remember my long lasting infatuation has been with clergy, particularly NUNS... I have no idea why but I am crazy for nuns. I've always been so sad that I'd have to convert to be a nun (I'm fairly certain you must be Catholic and alas I am a non practicing Southern Baptist)...there are so many other reasons that I could never be a nun, but one of the reasons is that you must be completely debt free in order to enter the convent, it is a requirement of Canon Law and me I'm the farthest thing from debt free....so I cannot be Sister Dawn but I came across a blog (via the Columbus Dispatch) that I believe is totally legit...this woman needs to pay off her student loans, only about a grand left, in order to get into the convent. She is even willing to provide letters from the vocation directors and spiritual leaders of the Salesian Sisters, she can also provide the cell number for the director of the nunnery (is that a word?) If you can I think you should check out her story and her blog and if you can maybe donate to her cause. Here's the link...

http://intothedeep.wordpress.com/

BLESS YOU ;)

Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch, Sweet Cheeks

Today I had a conversation with our jerk attorney in Georgia. He was such an asshole...all of the above is what he called me in such a sweet southern drawl (sweeter than sweet tea) that I wanted to throw up after I punched him in the face. Normally those pet names are cute but when they are being said to you so sarcastically and artificially they make you feel like an idiot and a child they are the farthest thing from cute.

I am so pissed off right now! Oh and on top of him talking down to me like I was his fucking golden Labrador retriever taking a wee little piss on his new cream colored carpet he had the balls to hang up on me....nice huh?