happy birthweek

some years ago, my daughter came up with the idea of having a birthweek. i've had one previously, which was probably my 50th. this year i got another one! it was very exciting and was sponsored by my sweet husband.

i received a nutrimill like this one . you can mill your own flour for breads, bakery items, etc. directly from the whole grains. this allows you to keep and use all of the grain, versus the stripped down version that you buy in the store.

so far i made corn bread using popcorn milled to make the cornmeal. it was delicious. i've purchased buckets of different grains to use. the whole grain will last years as compared to the flour that continually loses flavor and nutrients over time.





i also received one of these. . . it's a great little concealed carry piece. since i'm not working, i'll have to make arrangements to head out to the shooting range to get comfortable with it. tuesdays and fridays are ladies days where women receive free lane time and pay only for the targets used. can't beat that with a stick.

i believe it's one of the lightest carry pieces available right now.

thursday night my son/daughter-in-law/grandkids invited us over for ice cream and cake. friday night we had the grandkids for the night. we decided to have a healthier version for celebration of mixed berries, yogurt and granola. friday was my actual birthday.

i received email birthday wishes from my vehicle insurance agent, former co-worker, now friend, and from the uzi forum. HA!

we didn't check the mail until saturday, but there were birthday cards in there from my mother-in-law, and two other friends. thanks ann and caryn for helping to make my birthweek so special.

last night, w took me to a doubletree resort in tucson. they had a restaurant attached that had a small 3 piece band that were doing songs from the 70's and 80's. we knew all the words to all the songs. how sad. ;-) went back to the room and bought the movie "The Kingdom," to watch.

we had another great time.

if you've never had a birthday week, i encourage you to have one, or plan one for someone else. what a blast!! tomorrow i go back to my life as an ordinary person, but a special week sure beats a special day by a measure of 7!

thank you honey!!

heartbreaking

just received news that a friend of mine lost her 24 year old son in a plane accident. he had just received his commercial pilot's license and had just taken off to fly cross-country to rack up some more hours.

i don't know the details, only the results. and the results are heartbreaking. no parent should ever have to bury their child, no matter the age. it happens too often.

please keep brenda in your prayers as she goes through these horrible days and weeks to come. she will be in ours.

sunday

today started off slow. just the way i like it. got to sleep in, then putter around putting things away, tidying up the place a bit. no pressure.

as the morning wore on, we decided to take the AT bikes out for a bit of exercise. we headed south until we hooked up with 96 ranch road. one of our last camping trips was to the same area with christopher in tow. it was already getting chilly at the elevation we where we camped.

this time we would take the road all the way to oracle, az. w had done this ride, probably on my bmw. i, had not. it was really a very pleasant ride. the road narrows just before you reach the first mountain range. sometimes it was so tight i was unsure what would be around the next corner, or the next dip. once we crested the low running range, our backdrop ceased. it was like entering an area that man had temporarily overlooked in his home-building, ground breaking plight. i'm sure it's not long to stay this way, but it was a special treat to experience it's solitude today. the ground leveled off to hard packed dirt and the ride was pretty quick through it. we had a total of about 120 miles in our little loop today. it took us down through oracle and back up route 79. we stopped in coolidge for some delicious stromboli's at one of our favorite pizza places before heading home at sunset.

i've been in this state for 31 years now. it wasn't until i started dirt biking that i've been able to see what this state truly offers. so much of the land is off the highway, side streets and into the countryside. i used to consider a desert as an ugly, desolate, place. now that i've seen what mother nature tries to conceal, it is anything but. there are so few people that live here that truly have any idea about what lies beyond the cities borders.

i'm one of the lucky ones. we're trying to share that beauty with our grandchildren.

and so it goes

farmers called and gave us a low ball offer yesterday. after some lengthy discussions, i told them their offer was unacceptable. she suggested we do our own research, which we did and sent into her. my last statement was "given the amounts on the vehicles presented to you, i would expect a significantly higher offer from farmers."

we shall see.

in the meantime, i traded the behemoth titan for a dodge charger. it's much closer in size to what i have been driving, will hold the carseats for the grandkids and gets better gas mileage.

so there you have it. we're still waiting their second offer, we have up to 30 days on the rental.

we have the kids this afternoon for a time and then again tomorrow night. mommy and daddy are liking this "date night" on friday night thing. we take the kids down to the park, chris has friends in the neighborhood as they all go to the same elementary school. it's good and works well for them. victoria LOVES the park and knows the way on her own. when the kid's equipment comes in to sight, she squeals with delight, then she's off and running, and climbing, and sliding.

still no job. i check dice, monster and careerbuilders each day but the pickins are slim. i guess it's just more wait and see. in the meantime, i've gotten back in to cooking and bread making. my family is loving both as they get good, healthy breads and w is loving the whole healthy cooking thing. i have to do something to earn my keep! ;-)

never ending story

so the adjuster called friday morning and they are going to total the bmw. now we have to wait for the total loss department to make us "an offer" on what their research says is a fair price.

i'm holding my breath for that! not.

so in the meantime, the adjuster called in a rental car for me at enterprise. there is even an enterprise in c.g., so i'm hopeful. when i get down there, i'm told that they have no compact cars left (?!? to replace a full size bmw 7 series!?!) so they will graciously give me another vehicle in it's stead. on the other end of the spectrum, they give me this honkin big 4x4 titan truck. it's worse to maneuver than the van and gets about 21 feet to the gallon.

this whole thing has just been a nightmare. farmers insurance just sucks, at least for the innocent party. i'm sure their insured has already gotten his check and is merrily on his way. next time i hire an attorney right out of the gate. and they wonder why that happens. . .

on the plus side though, the guy was a legal citizen, had insurance and there were no injuries. i hate to think what would happen if that had not been the case. . .

the truck is approved until tuesday. i'm hoping that means we'll get our fair offer by then. i'm looking forward to having this all behind us.

had the kids this weekend. they are always fun! christopher climbed up in my lap on friday night while i was visiting with annette. i asked him if he was tired. "no, just relaxing" next time i looked down, he was fast asleep. not tired indeed. . .

progress

well, the adjuster finally showed. . .no, i still don't know what they are actually going to do, but he's supposed to call tomorrow and let me know "what the numbers say." i guess that means fix or total. in the meantime, i told him i was not climbing over the console to drive it. i've seen w do it a couple of times and it looks quite painful. he said he would make a reservation at enterprise for a rental to use until. . .i'm not quite sure until when.

but it's progress at least.

tonight was date night. we saw "i am legend." i love will smith, his movies are always good. enjoyed it, enjoyed the company.

all in all a decent day.

beyond frustrated!!

on 12/28 w was in an accident with the bmw car. he was very graciously going to pick up our van at the repair shop. he'd taken it in for repairs so that when i went to mexico it would be in tip top shape.

someone turned left in front of him. by the grace of God no one was injured and the car is still technically drivable. the driver's side door won't open, so in order to drive it you have to get in on the passenger side, climb over the console to get in to the bucket seat. uhm, not this chick!!

w has taken it up for an estimate and farmers insurance has agreed to pay for the whole thing. (farmer's was the other guy's insurance company) that's all been settled, but try to get an adjuster to the house is like pulling teeth. and now trying to get a hold of the person that scheduled it is next to impossible.

i've been cooperative to this point. although i was supposed to hear from the adjuster yesterday and didn't, my calls back to the scheduler have fallen on deaf ears. so today i called the claims supervisor. "you are definitely scheduled for this morning" and he gave me the adjuster's phone number. . .the one that was supposed to call me, remember.

so. his voice message said "this is thursday, i am in a meeting until noon. . ." from calm to totally stressed out in 0.2 seconds. i'm fit to be tied. so another call to the supervisor, i leave a message. to his credit, he called back some 20 minutes later. . .he had spoken with some AZ people who guaranteed they would take care of it TODAY. so we'll see.

although i really don't want to do it, i will hire an attorney to deal with them if this isn't all settled today. enough is enough.

sigh. all this stress and i don't even have a job!!!

Feliz Año Nuevo

happy new year and all that.

spent new years in navojoa mexico with our orphans. i was probably in bed before they were. HA!

i had 4 of them in my bed before i had to boot them out of the room for me to go to bed. it's COLD in those rooms and they were loving my flannel sheets. they slipped their legs and feet under the covers and sat like birds on a wire and watched bob esponge on the television.

i sat in the chair and read my books, fed them and made sure all the wrappers and crumbs ended up in the basura (trash). they are very undisciplined that way, but i was going to have to sleep in that bed once they all left. . .

even with diligence, the bed looked like a parade had gone through there once they all tumbled out. well, at least they were warm for a time. . .

i love being with the kids and could do it for longer if i had my best friend with me. . .my wonderful husband. unfortunately, he has a j.o.b. and is the sole support for the household right now. a problem i hope is soon rectified with the new year and new budgets. sigh.

nothing is guaranteed in mexico. nothing. i had to drive some 6 miles in to town to even have a phone conversation with him. the wireless didn't put out a strong enough signal to do any good for my laptop and i couldn't seem to get the right combo of phone card to work with the telephones on campus. so i had to suffice with a 5 minute phone call once a day. that just didn't work.

i'm not sure what the answer is and am open to suggestions, should you have any.

meals. oh goodness. i have never had such horrible food before for that many days on end. how can you make refried beans awful? make them runny, tasteless and serve them at every single, stinking, meal. "si, poco" was the phrase of the day.

well, i had pizza tonight and was in heaven.

took a dirt bike ride today. w made mods to my ttr230 that gave it much more power. that was fun! it is such a light bike, i can pick it up myself. i like that.

tomorrow i'm having a "girls day" with my mom. she's cool and i like spending time with her.