Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Book - Shadow of the Wind

With more time on my hands lately, I have been reading more. The latest book that I finished is called Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafon. The novel is about a young boy who discovers a book by an unknown author, falls in love with it and tries to find out WHO the author is and why all of his other works have been intentionally destroyed. Along with his answers, he unravels an old love story and tragedy.

The read was exhilarating, the author's words were poignant, powerful. This book was given to me by a friend last Christmas and I am ashamed that it took me almost a year to indulge in it. It is a marvelous read.



2011 - The Bad and the Ugly

2011 has been a really bleak year for me. I don't usually like to come on here and flaunt the negatives in my life, but I feel so completely unstable right now that I might as well.

Our troubles started at the end of May...two weeks into my daughter's summer vacation. She fell off of her bike into an embankment of rocks resulting in a broken arm that not only needed a cast, but surgery that included pins in her elbows. The hour and a half that her father and I waited for her to get out of surgery was tense, but despite a summer spent on the couch, everything turned out okay.

Here is Jadyn in the emergency room right after it happened:



Here is Jadyn with her cast:



Here is one of the pins that Jadyn had lodged in her arms for four weeks:



The next ugly event that happened in my life...well, I don't want to talk about it still. But it's a big one and it makes me very, very sad...and recovery from it will take years and maybe therapy.

Finally, this past weekend, I got rear ended on the highway and my car, that was 7 months away from being paid off, was badly injured. I think that dealing with the insurance company of the person that hit me has been the most stressful situation of my entire life. I don't know why they think it is okay for a person--who is not at fault in the matter--to go days (I'm on day 5 now) without transportation. I have a 15 mile drive to and from work daily. I have errands to run, shopping to do, a kid to cart around. I am going to have to take on a brand new car payment eventually--and we can't even get the ball rolling until the responsible party admits fault. They will not answer their telephone calls and they will not call in and file a claim. The police report won't be ready for 30 days, according to the trooper who is to file it. I am beyond stressed out, I cry all the time, it is all so overwhelming and I feel so...alone.

To top it off, my body shop says they think it will be totaled; HOWEVER, they cannot even look at the car until the insurance company contacts them...and the insurance company will not contact them until they have "proof" that their client was at fault.

My Car:





So...maybe...now that I've gotten that all out there...I will feel better about it. Writing it out doesn't seem as bad as it does in my head...nobody died and everything will be fixed in due time (just like Jade's arm)...but why can't I keep from crying every second of the day?

Monday, November 28, 2011

Turkey Day 2011

This is how I started Thanksgiving 2011:



2011 Turkey Trot 5K


My time: 28:19

I felt really good about stuffing my face after slaughtering my previous 5K record!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

So Much Change...

Wow would you look at that. It's been one year, one month and two days since my last post...I'm actually surprised I remember the password to this whole blogger.com thing!

So much has changed since October 2010. Some good, some bad...all different.

On the plus side? I've lost quite a bit of weight--which was a constant struggle that I wrote about often...and I run all the freaking time now.

...and i'm old now...

My favorite part of having kept a blog oh-so-long ago? It's when I make new friends...and they discover it (some having known about it for awhile, but waiting for the perfect time to pounce with the information)...and make comments to me about it. That's awesome. So, thank you for that and you know who you are.

So...Happy Thanksgiving 2011...Merry Christmas and have a Brilliant New Year!



LOVE,