January 11. 2011

Dear Children,

We are traveling back from Albany tonight. We have two birthdays to celebrate this weekend in our family: Gregory turns four and Alina thirteen! Since we will be in Utah for the next week, we drove down to take Alina to dinner and have her open her birthday gift. I was wishing I could have her up here for her birthday so we could practice with one of her gifts, a decorating set. She is a good little baker and enjoys making cupcakes so she will have fun with this. She is having some friends spend the night on Friday and then on her birthday, she has a church basketball game. Her ward has a women’s basketball team, most of them Beehives. She said it is so much fun since most of the girls have never played basketball before. We haven’t heard any plans about Gregory’s birthday but did you see the picture of Bryson’s new hair cut? No curls; he looks like a little man!

It is always a delight to be with Alina. We went to Red Robin and she ordered a burger that she could hardly get her mouth around. She is taking half of it to school tomorrow for lunch. That is, if they have school . . . the BIG storm is supposed to come!!!

Big storm! We rushed back for an appointment I had with the florist to finalize pricing so I knew how much was left to create 18 low cost centerpieces (not using a florist for that many flowers!) and learned it was cancelled due to freezing rain. The florist lives minutes from my home. I was not happy. In fact I started to feel like I was going to lose it like George Banks in Father of the Bride. I had already cried much of the way down to Albany out of sheer frustration. Today, few people were coming through with the simplest tasks I have asked of them. No one seems to be on a deadline except me and everyone seems to think I should help them remember their assignments even when I have asked for so little help.

My George Banks moment came when I ran into Albertsons since the roads were NOT the treacherous obstacles that caused everyone to hole up. I just needed some frozen shrimp that was on sale this week and we are leaving town early Thursday morning; my tomorrow being packed with preparations to leave with additional deadlines due to being away for a week. I originally had only planned to be gone a few days. When I ran to the frozen section and found only one bag of shrimp for the BUY ONE GET ONE special I thought I would start crying right then and there. Luckily, I found some more in another freezer or I think I would have let out a blood cuddling scream; the one I have suppressed all day long.

The shrimp represents my frustrations over this silly diet (oh excuse me, lifestyle change) that I have been on since the week before Thanksgiving. I am getting sick of it! OK, so I wasn’t going to tell anyone because I am embarrassed that I am out of control enough to have succumbed to the desperation of one of those crazy diets that you pay a terrible price to eat unreal prepackaged, forever preserved, dehydrated, powdered substances in the form of chalky shakes, freeze dried soups and “delicious” bars of soy (Hey, maybe that is what is tipping me over with all those female hormones in the soy but, maybe that is an old wives tale. HA!). Today all I can say is yuck. Well, maybe it is not actually forever preserved food as I have tried some of a friend’s old food to try and save a buck or two since Dad hasn’t worked since Thanksgiving. It was hard for me to get used to the taste of eating preserved food and then I introduced myself to the added pleasantry of eating old preserved food. Maybe that is why I am “slightly” cranky right now. Anyway, to look on the bright side of things, I am losing a lot of weight. I wonder how much my mind weighs since I am certainly losing that!

Well, there you have it: My update for the week so I may leave for Utah with a clean slate on the family newsletter home front.

I forgot to mention that Morty was in Phoenix for the championship football game. He called to have me record KOIN TV since he is on it. How does he get on TV so often; hey, he should be home selling them!!!! I did see him on TV talking to me on his cell phone at that very moment. But when I get time, I need to rewind it to some point to see his more than one minute of fame, live from the Dick game. Too bad they had to lose such a disappointing loss.

I love you. Promise, next newsletter will be more upbeat! No pictures this time since we left our camera in Albany at the Red Robin. I hope someone is honest there and put it aside. Too bad as there were some cute ones of Alina! I am putting my body to rest for a better tomorrow. In the middle of it all is a funeral in Hillsboro for Lori Kygier’s husband. He was in his 30’s; diagnosed with brain cancer this year. Love, Mom