http://about.me/Kris4Avs

Goodbye, Aunt Louie...

I wasn’t expecting to hear that you’d gone.  I guess I just thought, you’d always be there.  It’s been so long since I’d seen you.  I always enjoyed when you visited.  You never changed.  In all my years, every time I saw you, you sounded, looked and acted the same.  Always very soft spoken, always cheerful and happy, always looking to have fun, always calm and rational, and always the same hair-do.  : )  You were a woman of many talents.  Very tough woman. Raised a family, worked a full time job and could tear a carburetor apart and put it back together with your eyes closed. My daughter was fascinated by the stories she heard of Aunt Louie and wanted so much to meet you.  She met you when she was an infant, but she doesn’t remember you at all.  And that breaks my heart.  She should have known you.  She would have loved you.  Everybody did.  My grandfather always spoke fondly of his sister Lois, better known as “Louie”.  You always seemed to enjoy the time with your family.  And you kept Mom entertained with your weekly telephone calls chalk full of gossip and funny stories.  Whatever will Mom do now?  What will any of us do without our Aunt Louie?  Keep you in our memories and hearts, there you will be alive forever, beaming that Louie smile.  Now you can be with your parents, your brothers and sister that you missed so much.  It’s time for us to let you go.  You’ve earned your journey to Heaven.  Thank you for being who you were.  You will be greatly missed, crying as I write this.  I can see you now, sitting with them, all of them, catching up, just as it should be.  Goodbye Aunt Louie.  You will not be forgotten.  Goodbye, Aunt Louie. Goodbye. XOXO

Lord Stanley

Being the hockey fan that I am, let me just CONGRATULATE the BOSTON BRUINS for winning the coveted LORD STANLEY'S CUP.  What a great series of hockey.  Some hard hittin' goin' on all around.  Boston had me worried there for a while, but they came back with a vengeance and truly earned the prize.  And I was also glad to see goaltender Tim Thomas get that game 7 shutout.  Especially against Vancouver  and IN THEIR BARN!! Nice!
We also got to see what great folks live up North o' the border too.  Booing and carrying on.  A litte disrespectful, dontcha think??  And how's about them post-game riots in the streets?  Saw on the wire that it took cops 4 hours to disperse the rowdy crowd and 9 police officers were injured.  Guess it sucks to be a Canucks fan today.  Glad I'm not one. : P
Again, a big CONGRATS to the Boston Bruins, the newest Stanley Cup Champions. 
Too bad you couldn't get it done for Bourque.  But that's okay, we took care of that for ya.  <wink, wink>
Seriously, enjoy gentlemen.  You earned it.

The List...

 I was in denial.  I thought I could be Wonder Woman.  I thought I had it handled.  Um, no. For years, I drove myself crazy trying to remember all my “chores” in addition to my full time and very demanding job.  Drop off the insurance payment, water the plants, go to the bank, etc.  Geez, anywhere from 5 to 205 things to do in a single day and I thought, ha ha, I could keep it all straight in me nugget-because I’m a Mom and that’s what we do.  Well, I found myself always forgetting to do certain things and then getting all pissed cuz I forgot. What can I do?  Let’s see…I tried leaving myself little sticky notes….those fall off of things.  I tried asking other househould residents for help…LOL…almost always something else to do, somewhere else to go, yada, yada, yada.  <Sigh>  And then, it was the  weirdest thing, one day I was watching a video about these two folks and their son who live in what they call a shotgun shack.  320 sqaure feet.  It had vaulted ceilings, a loft bedroom for the boy, kitchen area, appliances, ”living room” and ”master bedroom”.   Everything you would need to have a comfortable existence.   Simple stuff.  Going back to basics was my initial thought, and I was impressed.  So, this got me thinking about my crazy life and all that needs to be done and how I could help myself with the “basic” mind set.  Hmmm, what’s more basic that having yourself a “To Do” list?  Hmmm.  I’ll try it, what the heck?  I’ve got nothing to lose except what little still exists of my sanity.  So, I tried it.  I started me a list.  Grabbed a little tablet and wrote down the day of the week, the calendar date and started to list what I had to do that day. As things came to me, I’d jot down everything I thought of the minute I thought of it.  And to not overwhelm myself, if I had too much on one day, I’d start another day’s list with whatever was “left over”. Let me just say…..OMG.  Why the hell didn’t I do this sooner??  I was AMAZED at how much less stress I was experiencing simply by keeping a daily to do list.  Being able to see at a glance what I had to do and then being able to mark it off as it was accomplished made it so much easier to deal with it.  It just seemed to flow better. And, the best part, I’M NOT FORGETTING ANYTHING!  I’m not having to pinch in on my family’s time and bug them cuz I’m getting everything done.  It’s actually a great feeling. I’m in my second week of keeping my list and it’s going really well.  Wow.  What a concept.  I feel like a bit of a dumb-ass for not doing it sooner.  I know lots of peeps that do it….golly, now I know why.  It’s one of the simplest and most helpful things to do.  And in today’s crazy, always changing and jamming world, the less you stress, the better you and your family will be.  When Mama happy, EVERYBODY HAPPY.  I’m starting to feel more and more every day like the Wonder Woman I need to be.  Keeping a “To Do” list…basic, simple and it works.  Common sense.  Whoda thunk?