Lady Jan gives Thanks!

I got to get my house clean, and I might not have time to post anymore until after the holiday, so I'm gonna post this now.

I'm giving thanks for my many blessings:

My family, my daughter, and my husband.

My Parents.

My siblings, and how grateful I am that they both my sister Deanna and my brother John have both survived their leukemia.

My house.

My bran new appliances.

My car that still runs.

My husband's job that keeps the roof over our heads, and the electricity paid, the food on the table, and all the bills paid. And the money he made at his job bought the almost 18 pound turkey, that I'm gonna cook this Thursday.

Thank you God, amen!

Lady Jan went to see the latest Harry Potter Movie!

My family and I went to see the latest Harry Potter Movie 'the Goblet of Fire'.

This one is darker than all the others, and has more suspence, and more dare I say action?

My 14 year old daughter reaction to the movie. . . .Awesome!

But I would suggest finding a baby sitter for the little ones, and hede well the PG 13 rating, as it is rated that way for a reason. The move is very intense, way too intense for the small ones.

There was a child of around five (more or less) who not only couldn't follow the action, but loudly kept asking what, why, and how-come through the entire move which was anoying enough as it was. Then came the intense scene with a really realistic CGI dragon, and he started to freak-out, screaming and crying. I'm sorry to say this but. . .that really put my teeth on edge. I don't know how his mother calmed him down, but I think she took him outside.

I rather not say anymore because I do not wish to spoil the plot, but I would like to give a warning to the parents reading this--someone dies in this film and it r-e-a-l-l-y sad. I cried. If you don't think your kids can handle that. . . please don't take them.

Other than that--go! It's a blast!

And it's very awesome too!

Lady Jan's daughter has changed professions

My daughter has changed professions. She hasn't even graduated from the eighth grade yet, but she has changed her mind and changed professions.

It's that eternal question that adults are always asking children "What are you going to be when you grow up?" My daughter had wanted to be a veterinarian, but that was before she found out you have to operate on animals, and sew them up afterwards.

Oops! I guess I never explained about the surgery, and the stitching-up, and the shots etc. But then again we are always watching those animal show, and animal rescue. So I thought she already knew.

She had a dream that click all the information in place for her!

Her dream was about a cat that needed her help!:
"Dr. Sarah," they tell her, "your this cats only hope! You must stitch up this cats butt, or it will die! Only you can do this Dr. Sarah! Will you help this poor unfortunate cat?"
"Huh? I don't think so!" Sarah answers.
"But Dr. Sarah if you don't stitch up this cats butt it will die!"
"That's okay! It can just die! I'm outa here--bye!" And so exits the former Dr. Sarah-to-be.

Oh well, there is always another profession!

Now she want to own a restaurant and call it "the Cats Meow!"

Yes, sigh, cats again.

Lady Jan Has Nightmares

I have been having the absolutely the worst nightmares, that I think I have ever had!

I think they have something to do with the stanky bugs and the mice, that we have been having a problem with in the house. The nightmares got worse just before Halloween which is creepy enough, and then the bugs and the mice seemed to thin out, and the nightmares sorta went away.

One nightmare seemed so real--it was of my husband dying. And what was worse was that I kept waking up, and then would go to sleep just to dream the dream again!

My dream went like this:
My husband works as a maintaince mechanic, and during this past crush season he was the night foreman. While he was at work he picked up a thick electrical cable called a coaxial cable, he made a noise like "Err. . .Err. . .Waa", then his head tilted back and to the side and he fell. I woke up sweaty and sick. Thinking 'Oh, God' he got electrocuted! After a trip to the bathroom I tried to go back to sleep, and then dreamed it again! Then again, and again! Then I dreamed of his co-workers dropping everything and running to him (I know most of them and it wasn't hard to see them clearly). It was so awful, that I didn't get a lot of sleep that night. I told my husband about the dream, I also told him sometimes my dreams come true, so you just be extra careful about the electrical cables at work!

He's okay, the crush season ended and he's fine, but I'm a wreck!

Then I had a dream about my sister and her live-in-boyfriend, (or life partner?):
They went over a cliff at the coast near where they live, and died. I had to go to there and pick-up my nephew, and tell the hospital people what I wanted done with the bodies. But this dream didn't have the same urgency as the first dream, and my sister wouldn't want to be where I was going to sent them, which was right here in Madera. And my nephew is a grown man now, and wouldn't need to be picked-up. Also my sister's boyfriend has family, and they would have claimed his body before I even got there, because they live so much closer to them than I do.

With so many inconsistencies it wasn't one of my 'true dreams', and I knew that right away.

But never-the-less it shook me up a great deal.

I had other nightmare, but I only remember bits and pieces of them.

The latest creepy thing was late one night, a few nights ago I heard something behind my book case. When I checked with a flash light I didn't see anything but I did notice some dirt, where there shouldn't be dirt! Oh, God! I thought, they chewed through the wall! Rats or mice--just what I need! My husband and I are gonna have move the books then the book case, and check behind it.

I just hope this latest thing doesn't trigger anymore nightmares!

At least my husband is done with the crush season and is home at night now, so now once again I have someone to sleep next to--that'll help.

Lady Jan went to the Kearney Park Renaissance Fair today

We Had a pretty good time this year at the Kearney Ren-fair. The fair runs the second weekend every November, this year it's the 12th & 13th.
We were able to take one of my daughter's friends with us, and she had never been before. And it's always fun showning someone a ren-fair for the first time!

We saw what I want to call the bird rescuers, with hawks and owls. And we meet a barbarian, and her pet. Notice the leash? She actually offered to let me hold the leash, and I thought then what? So I'm really suppose to give him back? Are you kidding? I don't know if I could give back--a man trained to the leash! But I don't think my husband would let me keep him anyway. Aw, too bad he was kinda cute.
I'm the one in the green snood and chamise, and my hudband David is in the middle, and our daughter Sarah is on the left. My husband is squinting because he took off his glasses for the photo then couldn't see.


We saw knights and just missed the joust, darn the luck! But we did get to see the jugglers, sorry no photos we were eating our lunch right then.


My husband David likes to collect sword at almost every fair we go to, but hadn't gotten a proper belt for his sword. But today he was able to get himself a sword belt, and the man who sold it to him fitted the belt to his scabbard. He's so happy now!

Lady Jan says "Darn that Schoolhouse Rock!"

Darn School House Rock!

My daughter has to memorize the preamble of the United States Consitution, as an eighth grade preliminary thing for graduation from the eighth grade.

The Schoolhouse Rock that ran in the 1973 through 1984, had one cartoon segment that had a song of the preamble in it. That Preamble song helped my sister Deanna breeze right through the reciting of the Preamble back in 1975. It hadn’t been on the TV as yet when I had to do it, so I had to memorized it the ‘old school’ way by route(I passed).

And now it has been released in VHS and CD as Schoolhouse Rock American Rock, so I smugly bought it for my daughter thinking that what a good mom am I.
http://www.school-house-rock.com/Prea.html

Guess what? There is a whole missing line in it!

The Preamble goes like this: http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.preamble.html

We the people of the United States of America in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United states of America.

The highlighted words are the word missing from the song, on School House Rock. The missing words caused my daughter to get an “F” on reciting the preamble.

So I ran off the preamble off the internet, and the song off the School House Rock web sight, and found that my daughter was right about the missing words.

So we--my husband and I worked with my daughter, so she could try it again at school the next day.

The next day my daughter actually sang the Preamble song to the teacher the next day! She said the missing words from the song in a sotto voice as she sang. Her teacher even bounced along with the beat as my daughter sang her song, and then told her that she had a nice singing voice.

Then he gave her an “A”!

Yay!

Lady Jan--My Daughter the winner!

My Daughter wins at the GEO-Bee

photo by Janice

My daughter Sarah wins third place at the GEO-Bee!

We are so proud of her!

Out of 64 children my daughter made it to the top six, then to third place.

She was the only girl to make it that far, the rest were boys. So she was the smartest girl there!

Lady Jan asks is it okay to lust after ones own appliances?

Two weeks ago we found water on the floor and found out it was the hot water heater, it was rusted through! So we ran down to Home Depot with the help of my brother-in-law Danny, and bought a new one.

Then two days ago my clothes washer took a turn for the worst! My husband said it took a dump!

I looked through the sales papers yesterday, and there is a brand new appliance store which is having a grand opening today. We were going to go to the usual places; Sears, Home Depot, etc. But we went to this new store yesterday, and guess what? They were open! And not only open but willing to give us the sales price that we would have gotten today. I think that was mostly because I ask him what kind of a deal could he(the owner) give us on a washer dryer set. My dryer had died several years ago and I had been limping around using a small apartment sized one my mom lent me. So it was past time for it to be replaced too.

We had to call three of my husband's brothers before we found one that would help us get them home. My husband didn't want to use the stores guy, well. . . Because he was the one who took his high school sweet heart away from him, and then married her.

While we were waiting for my brother-in-law John to show up with the truck, I started looking at the stoves, just to kill time you understand? My old one is second hand almond (they call it bisque now) but still in real good condition. But it wouldn't match the new appliances because they are white, as well as my old refegerator. I found a REAL nice solid top stove with a real good price "still no sales tax", the sales lady informed me. And because this is a store that sell scratch and dent, everything is half off. I was chewing my lip thinking should we? I already got the washer dryer that I had been lusting after for some time,(they're like the Whirlpool version of the Neptune) and I thought that might be pushing our credit a bit.

Then my husband comes over and looks at it and says "you want it Hun? I'll get it for you--if you want it!" Then I go "'um....." Then he says "yeah, you want it." Then I say "well. . .Yeah, but." "Okay," he says, "I'll get it for you." My husband is really sweet, but he kinda 'over spends' if you know what I mean.

So then we had three to take home, and it was a good thing that my brother-in-law finally showed up when he did, or we'd have a new refrigerator too!

It seemed to take all day before my husband got the new appliances in, and hooked-up. Then we just stood back and looked at them. I've never had new appliances before.

Do you think it's okay to lust after ones own appliances?

One hundred things about me!

I got some encouragement from Tina, who did one hundred things on her blog called 'the other Tina.' I thought my one hundred things might be boring, but Tina said do it anyway. So here goes!

One hundred things about me!

1. I was born in May of 1961 in the old Dear Born hospital. Which, I think now is a parking lot.
2. I was born raised and still live in the same small town of Madera California, and I have never (sans camping and vacation trips) lived anywhere else.
3. I have one brother and one sister, so. . .one each!
4. My dad was married before, and I have a brother who is thirteen years older, and my sister is a year and a half younger then me.
5. I'm the middle child to my dad, and the oldest to my mom.
6. I usually tell people who get confused about this; that my brother's parents are divorced, mine and my sister's did not!
7. My dad had a lot of hobbies, but he loved fishing the best.
8. I use to stand up next to my dad at the kitchen sink, when I was just three years old, and watch him gut and clean the fish he caught. So stuff like that doesn't gross me out.
9. My dad taught me how to fish, and one time I actually caught a fish with two mouths. My dad talked me into releasing it back into the water.
10. We use to go camping a lot, but I had to go to summer school. And that interfered with all my dad's camping and fishing plains.
11. Starting in the third grade I was then diagnosed with a learning difficulty, I'm technally educationally hadicapped.
12. I had some awful teachers that didn't help my learning problem.
13. My third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers who were about to retire, and just didn't care.
14. One actually put a dunce cap on my head, because I didn't know the answer to a problem, and encouraged the class to make fun of me.
15. My mom still remembers one of my teacher's saying "I hate the kids and the kids hate me!"
16. Still another teacher lined our desks up to the grade we were getting, and proudly proclaimed who her favoites were--the 'A' students! No surprise there!
17. I was blessed with a wonderful sixth grade teacher Mrs. Bozio! Who was a great help to me, as she actually made learning fun!
18. Mrs. Bozio was young energetic and had a lot of wonderful ideas to help us to get excited about learning! 'I' would shrink in my seat when the teacher asked a question, would in mrs. Bozio's class jump up and say "I know it! I know the answer!" Just goes to show how much good a good teacher can do!
19. Also when I was in the sixth grade the science teacher adminatered an IQ test. And he would have everyone come up one at a time so he could whisper our IQ results to us. When it was my turn, the students were so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. Then he whispered 85, and the room went wild with laughter! Then the teacher said, "I'm sorry." I guess he was sorry for making me a laughing stock.
20. For the rest of the year I heard "see that tree or rock Janice? it's smarter than you are." Or "if your IQ was two points lower you'd be a rock or a tree."
21. That was so mumiliating, but it gets worse.
22. I was the target for every bully in the school, and it was a Mexican school. And I was just one of a hand full of white kids there.
23. I was called 'cry baby Janice', because they would torture me until I cried. I've been made fun of, beat with sticks, and stones.
24. When I went to bible class the Sunday school teacher would talked about people being stoned in the bible, and I would sit there and think I know what that feels like.
25. I asked a girl why she was hitting me, and she said"because your prejudice." Then I said, "I am? But who is hitting who?" Then she laughed wildly like I had just said the funniest thing in the world.
26. My dad had arthritis so bad, that he retired when I was almost twelve.
27. I also lost my dad's oldest brother, my uncle Basil from lung cancer and he didn't smoke.
28. I saw the Grim reaper in my bedroom after my uncle died. He doesn't carry a sickle.
29. I went to Thomas Jefferson for junior high, which is a school I refer to as 'feely meally high,' because us girls got felt up just trying to get to class.
30. I was almost raped because two boys wouldn't leave me alone, and I was too embarrassed to say anything.
31. Then a teacher Ms. Williams who caught on to what almost happened said, "you have to tell someone when you are being bother like this. This should not be allowed. This your body, and you have a right to say who can touch you and who can't! It's up to you to tell someone--a teacher, parent, or another adult somebody to make it stop! So these young men will know, that they can't do this to you."
32. I took it to heart, and never let anyone come near me, or try anything like that ever again.
33. Years later one of my daughter friends asked me a question. She said her mom wouldn't answer it because she said she was too young.
34. The question was "why do boys want to touch us girls on our butts or breasts?" I said something about hormonal boys, and the movies and music videos giving mixed messages on women and sex. And how that makes boys think we females aren't really human, but objects to be treated any way they please.
35. Then I asked "who's has been bothering you?" She hemmed and hawed, but it turned out it was an over sexed 16 year old male cousin. He was trying to touch her, and showing his penis to her and asking her to touch it. So I gave her 'the Ms. William's speech'. And then told her in no uncertain terms, "Tell your Mother! This can't go on, and he might rape you! Promise me you'll tell your mom!" She did and it was taken care of.
36. At Junior high the stress got to my sister and myself. My sister got an ulcer, and I got boils it took six months of penicillin to cure me.
37. I fell in love with books when I was thirteen. They don't judge you, and they are always there when you need them, and they take you away to another world.
38. Yeah, fantasy stories! That's my fave.
39. I took my first art class at Thomas Jefferson, and won a trophy when I graduated from the eighth grade for art.
40. That led me to take more in high school, and I excelled at it, and did well enough to win a plaque at the Chowchilla fair for best mod art at the fair.
41. I have the ability to learn almost anything you can do with your hands, just by watching someone once.
42. I wanted to take a photography class in high school, but my dad yelled at me when I said I might like to take pictures for a living. He said you can't make any money taking pictures, than you can doing your art work! That should be a hobby only! So I didn't take the class.
43. Learning something intellectual takes more time, as I learned slow.
44. My dad didn't want to pay for me to go to college because he said ALL I would take would be art classes. Then he sent my sister to Lubbock Christen Collage. My sister always got good grades, and she got a grant for collage. But she got kicked out before she finished her first year, something about being in the boys dorm after hours. Well, after all it was a Christen Collage.
45. I got married in December 21, 1979 six month after graduating from high school. My husband and I have been married almost 26 years.
46. When I was 20 I went to Fresno city college part time, and majored in art.
47. My Dad got colon cancer, and I quit college to be near him.
48. I felt my dad die. A piece of my heart painlessly pulled loose, and went with him to heaven. I can actually feel the hole in my heart where that piece pulled out, and it aches when I miss him.
49. After my dad's death I saw my small family fall apart. My brother got heavily addicted to drugs and broke-up with his long time girlfriend, that we all thought he'd marry. Then my sister married someone she later told me she didn't love. My mom crumbled in on herself, and I was concerned that she might follow my dad. But I didn't fall apart, but I was depressed and missing my dad, as I was the closest to him.
50. I was concerned for everyone, and I needed to be strong, for mom and for myself too.
51. It's a sad thing, but I learned not to lean emotionally on anyone. Not even my husband, he's sweet and needy but not strong.
52. I worked at the Madera Tribune as a human inserting machine. My job was to place the adds(inserts) inside the newspaper, as fast as I could.
53. I've taught craft class for the parks and recreational department of Madera, for three years.
54. My grandmother died, I mourned more for her, than I did for my dad.
55. My husband and I owned a used appliance business. There I learned people are stupid selfish and mean, at least to women in a store like that. I was talked to like I was a dog, but they would talk real nice to my husband. There I learned to be strong and stand up to people.
56. My sister came home again, and I watch her son at our store. That was until she went back to Michigan, and married her boyfriend that she had an hard off again on again relationship with. Naturally it didn't last.
57. We closed our store in 1990 because we weren't making any money at it.
58. Nine months later I found I was pregnate with our daughter.
59. That same year I also found out that my brother had leukemia.
60. Near the end of my pregnacy my brother asked if I would be a bone marrow donor for him if I was a match. I told him I'd be glad to do it. He would have to wait until my baby was born though.
61. My brothers doctor wouldn't even check to see if I or my sister were a match, because we were only half siblings.
62. The doctor broke my water and sent me to the hospital. After a nightmare-ish thirty-six hour labor, and much pushing on my part my cervix swelled shut! I had to have a c-section, and my beautiful brown eyed baby girl was born. I was thirty years old.
63. A month after my daughter was born, my brother got his donor(a stranger), and his bone marrow. Fourteen years later he is still okay.
64. I've had so-called friends bother me about having more children. I don't want to okay! I really don't want a repeat performance of last time. That was awful!
65. The nice thing about being forty-four is no one bothers me anymore, about having more children.
66. I developed problems with my back. From carrying my baby in my womb, then carrying her in my arms.
67. My sister divorced her second husband, and I started watching my nephew again.
68. My husband bought a computer, and I've learned about the wonderful world of computers and what I could do with them. Wow!
69. I started doing a wood craft business out of my home. I got real good with the scroll saw, and painting and lettering. I used the computer to help with my lettering, and making up orders and all kinds of stuff.
70. After three years with the last store that sold my work, they decided to close up shop. And we crafters had a going out of buiness sale, and I made 480 dollars on that last day. That was the most money I had ever made with any of my art or crafts.
71. My sister moved to Fresno, and I was no longer watching my nephew.
72. My sister remarried, and my sisters and her third husband came for dinner. I heard them talking as they left my house, "she's nice." he said, "yeah," said my sister "but she got a bad temper."
73. It seems like I do and do for people, and all that's remebered is my temper.
74. I started having problems with my hands, and I was dianoised with tendonitis. Which means my tendons are inflamed. And I stopped doing my wood crafts.
75. I tried to go to school to learn to work in an office, but my hands hurt.
76. Then my daughter started having problems in school, and was going to be held back. This was all decided by a teacher who only had my daughter for one semester. I quit school and was going to work hard to keep that from happening! She was held back anyway!
77. 1999, I decided to try my hand at writing.
78. A friend helped me by giving me a word processor, as our old computer had crashed by then.
79. I bought books on writing, and I read and read and read!
80. I started writing short stories and articles, and sending them in.
81. My husband bought us a new computer for my writing.
82. Then I took an correspondence class on writing, and later an on-line class too, and I did pretty good.
83. To date: I still haven't sold any of my stoies as yet.
84. The worse part on writing is that I had to learn the grammar, that I should have learned in school and didn't.
85. My spelling and grammar is much better after the past six years, but it'll never be perfect.
86. My sister got leukemia, that hit me real hard--I felt sick I thought I might threw-up.
87. I volunteered my bone marrow right away.
88. They took my blood at our Madera community hospital and sent it to the hospital that was treating my sister, and I wasn't a match! They used her own (adult)stem-cells(a new technology then) and now two years later she is still with us.
89. Summer of '04, I got an e-mail address for the first time! It helped me keep in touch with my sister who lives 150 miles from me.
90. I learned to use the search engines to surf the web for information.
91. When I was trying to find Mervyn's web sight to register for the thousand dollars prize, I stumbled on to Gwen's blog. She was irreverent and funny, and half Mexican like my daughter.
92. I kept reading.
93. Then one day I couldn't post a message because I wasn't a registered user. Gwen was having posting that were really ugly(trolls), so she changed who could post on her blog.
94. I couldn't post unless I signed up for a blog of my own. So I did!
95. I've had my blog, this one your reading for a year now.
96. Later I got two more; one is for my research on my family tree, and another is for my cartoons that I like to draw when my hands permit.
97. I've just learned to copy and paste using my mouse, I use it for forming links in my blog.
98. I also learned to set up links in a side bar on my blog.
99. I took a tickle IQ test, and according to it I have an IQ of 126!
100. I don't know how accurate it is, but it sure made my day!

Well that's done! Please post, and let me know what you think.