Memories -

One of my favorite "mom memories" - I opened the back door and saw Matthew, about age 10, completely covered in mud, standing next to a friend about his age. I laughed and told him to make sure he hosed off before he came into the house. As I turned away, Matthew's friend said "Dude, your mom is COOL!"

Hey, at least once in my motherhood, I was cool!

While I was in AZ, I marveled at some of my sister's artwork. Silently, I thought to myself "What thing of value or beauty have I contributed to the world?" Almost instantly, the answer came - "You have raised four wonderful young men"

I was looking at a gallery of 20+ cat shaming photos and suddenly a picture of the lovely Scarlett Johanson popped up. I said "that isn't a cat!" - Joshua glanced over and said "Oh, no, THAT is a fox!"

So, some thoughts have been buzzing around in my head as I returned to the home nest that has hubby and three boys living in it, and I find myself more tired at the end of the day than I was staying in AZ with my sister. I realized that, as a mom, I am constantly monitoring the mood and disposition of every family member I am around and running mental algorithms to measure happiness levels due to tone and facial expressions, and then altering my communication after using predictive programming to try to increase happiness levels and get desired responses. Additional routines I run prioritize the immediate importance of my subjects - Keith gets special priority when he gets home from work, for example. Further, I seem to absorb my results, feeling bad if I do not have everyone content enough. Something I need to get used to and factor into my equations is that not all happiness is under my control and I need to keep things that I perceive as less than idea from getting me down.
This has been a little exhausting, and I am sure that it will become a subconscious subroutine in my day soon, but I found my realization of it to be interesting-

From MY childhood - I loved today--getting to see a few of my favorite people (Becky Shumway Hansen, Rachel Singleton) at my favorite place this morning, then for lunch I bumped into Jenna Farnes at ,my favorite Mexican Food Restaurant as I had scheduled a luncheon date with a friend from my way-way past. "Leslie" was three years old when we met, I was about ten years older than she. Her dad picked me up in a cool old van, invited me to sit in the back with one of the cutest 3 year olds I'd ever met, and the adorable little thing just watched me with an apprehensive eye. At the time I thought that she was going to be a "tough nut to crack" but before long she opened up and we became very good friends. From then on babysitting for the Stanton's became my favorite gig. I lost touch with her for many years until I found her on Facebook a few years ago. She lives back east but posted that she'd be back in AZ for a limited time. We arranged a meet up and that was today. I can't say that we picked up where we left off, but something amazing happened and I felt like I found another best friend (I have LOTS of best friends). Thank you Leslie , I call that kind of visit therapy. Safe travels back to your sweet family tomorrow and thank you for making time for me. You are amazing! Like Leslie proclaimed when we were being walked to our table at Gecko Grill, viva la Facebook! -jer  Jeriann Keeling

DH decided to install the wonder toilet today - without knowing where the water turnoff is for the house. Gallons jetting out hitting him in the face, he couldn't see to put on the next part. Nothing like a flood to float away the post holiday doldrums!

Just finished hiding the presents - hubby says I have Christmas confused with Easter! We put clues on each present to lead the kids to the next one - stretches out our Christmas fun and the kids like the search almost more than opening them! Merry Christmas everyone!

Good news! Joshua found a program he really likes to get certifications in IT! He starts classes on Dec 21- woot, woot! He is doing My Computer Career - we went and toured and were very impressed. As far as certifications - there are a lot of letters involved! I know some are Microsoft, Cisco, and something else, along with training in setting up and solving problems with tablet usages in offices, and security and encryption training. It is an 8 month program, and they usually get you placed into a job when you get your 2nd cert (about 2 months in), and you move along from job to job as you get certified in different areas, so you are building your skills and resume and making money too.

Dec 2012 Ok- gotta do one gripe, then I promise to be positive today. 

It is complete STUPID that my body needs to sleep so long to awake feeling OK and then I only get a few minutes to take a shower before the pain in my back sends me down again. I can get to the car to sit and to somewhere to sit, but if I have to stand for even a few minutes, I end up going back to bed with a heavy duty pain pill to knock me out. I was researching kitchens for wheelchairs last night- since I have been unable to stand even to cook noodles for weeks. I am thankful for a sweet patient hubby that helps and is so understanding, but I am kind of freaking out about trying to get a job and having this going on again.
End gripe.

Sammi-cat has the spirit of Christmas! Got up in the wee hours to check on some lights the boys left on, and there was a little dead mouse carefully laid by the Christmas tree-I could see where she tried to polish it - it had all been licked very well

The delightful fate of my Modern Abstract Algebra book- I am finally smiling! - photo of a bonfire in AZ

Matthew and Leah are now 100% completely and absolutely finished with getting married! Welcome to the crazy Watkins family Leah - too late to change your mind now! And I now have a girl to hang out with - finally!