Food Shelf

I helped out at the emergency food shelf tonight with my parents. For some reason I never felt like going other times they asked me, but I decided to help out tonight. They had just gotten tons of food in from some food drives that local synagogues did, and it needed sorting and rearranging. I helped stock foods in the store area where families come to pick out food. I had participated in or planned a lot of food drives in high school (that were usually competitions and our class always won!) but I had never seen where it all goes afterward. It was interesting learning about how the food shelf operates. They have a staff of social workers who asses each family's need for food and they can also help them deal with other issues going on in their lives. They have a full time staff and volunteers that donate their time.

Seeing all the food that goes in and out of there really reminds you that there are a lot of families out there that can't afford to put food on the table. I feel very lucky to have never experienced that. It felt good to help out and I will definitely do it again. I will also try to donate items more often. Some much needed items at the food shelf that I was at tonight were:

• personal care items
• cereal
• granola bars
• canned fruit
• snacks for kids
• coffee/tea
• juice
• jelly/jams in different flavors
• diapers

Some places also accept clothing donations and other items like shoes, baby items, etc. Here is a website for locating food shelves and services in MN: http://www.hungersolutions.org/find Donate your time, donate some food, and help out some people who are in a tough place in life!

Mosaic Class

This weekend my friend Hannah and I took a class on how to make mosaics. I was inspired by a piece that I saw in the Fine Arts Building at the State Fair and went home and looked up to see if there were any classes in Minneapolis for learning the techniques. We signed up for a class taught by a local artist who is very talented and really nice and fun too. Her name is Sharra Frank, here is her website. I recommend her for classes, but she only does them once in a while. She also does commissioned pieces and public art. In our class it was just 5 of us ladies and we learned all about the tools, materials, and techniques for mosaic art. The first day of the class we worked on cutting glass and tile and gluing our materials to either a mirror frame or window. I chose to do the mirror so I was gluing my pieces to wood. Hannah did the window so she was gluing right onto the glass. Here is mine at the end of the first day:

Today at the second part of the class we learned how to mix and add grout to the cracks to fill in the spaces. I'm really glad I took this class because I wouldn't have wanted to mess with that stuff figuring it out on my own and Sharra gave a lot of good tips on how to make the process cleaner and easier. Here is me with my baggie of grout!

I wasn't a big fan of the messy part even with gloves on. I don't like touching gooey things and my glass pieces were sharp so I was afraid I was going to cut my fingers. If you know me, I don't do well with blood on my hands for obvious reasons. So after you get all the grout in you have to clean off the glass and tiles and then polish them to make them shine. Here are our finished products:

I am pretty happy with the way mine turned out. I think it looks a little childish because of the colors I chose and because I didn't know what to do with the sun since I couldn't quite cut the pieces the way I wanted to. I will learn how to do that better in time. I am excited to do more and experiment on my own. I always have the impulse to buy or grab old windows and things when I find them, and a light bulb went off in my head and I realized I could do mosaics on them and turn them into art! I have a large mirror that I found in the trash and I plan on using that after I get a little more practice on smaller projects. After class I went to Michaels and wandered around and found some beads and things to use. Next weekend I will take a trip to the mosaic store in St. Paul (Mosaic On a Stick, I love the name!) and get some tools and other materials. This is going to be a fun new thing to do and a way to use my creativity and it will keep me busy!

I also went for a long walk today. It was a perfect fall day in MN, 65 and sunny with the leaves starting to change colors. I found some new trails and wandered, not knowing really where I was going (which is what I love to do). Walking in the woods by myself and not really knowing or caring where I am going is me in my happy place. Unfortunately, I didn't wear the best shoes so I got a blister. I also almost stepped on a little bitty snake while slowing down to assess said blister. I think I walked at least 4 miles. So today I had art, nature, exercise, and I got an email from my husband. Today was a good day.

Worries

This week has been much quieter at work, mostly because everyone else has been in a million meetings (including one lasting 6 hours). It feels good to be back at work and feeling productive and useful. However, this week I've been feeling kind of down and really tired. I get 8 hours of sleep, but getting out of bed in the morning is hard. I'm NOT a morning person, and always have a hard time waking up, but some days it's like my brain is completely separate from my body and has no control over it. I can tell myself with every push of the snooze button that I need to get out of bed, but my body won't move. Eventually I get up, but still feel like I could have slept for several more hours. I probably just need more exercise. I have been eating a little better lately at least.

Another thing that has been bothering me this week is that there was a shooting at Fort Bliss on Monday at a convenience store that so many people go to on a daily basis. A man just walked in with a gun and shot two innocent cashiers. They did nothing wrong, they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm so glad that none of my friends were there, and that my husband and I weren't there. It could have been anyone. And bad things can happen anywhere, even on an Army post (ie Ft. Hood last year). I am a worrier and my heart gets really heavy with things that worry or upset me. I sobbed earlier this year when I watched the first news coverage of the earthquake in Haiti. I really feel for other peoples' pain and loss, even in fictional stories or shows. Empathy can sure be a blessing and a curse. So this week I've been missing my husband and have been worrying more just because things can happen unexpectedly, especially in a war zone. I'm trying to be strong and trust that God will keep him safe and bring him home to me. It's hard to totally surrender sometimes, especially when it's something that you care about so much and want so badly.

I got connected with some other army wives on http://armyspouselife.com/ which is like a facebook site for military significant others. I am looking forward to getting to know them better and being able to talk to people who have been or are going through the same thing I am now. I only know one of the wives in my husband's unit since he got switched to it right before they deployed because they needed extra people. Plus, I'm not living there so I can't attend FRG meetings to get to know anyone.

I did talk to my husband this morning online. I still wish I we could use Skype so I could see his face, but we have to make do with what we have. He finally got my letters and the postcards from California. He loved Esther's that said, "Dear Will, I bet you are in the army" haha. He said it was really good to read my letters. I've been trying not to email too much because he has limited access and time on computers, but I can write all kinds of things in letters that I wouldn't otherwise have time to tell him and then he can read them when he has time. He says it's been pretty intense because they have been working his platoon so hard. I hope they are able to get some rest so that they can do their jobs safely. He may be unable to communicate with me for another couple weeks coming up, not looking forward to that. Please keep us in your prayers!

Book Blog: Still Alice - Lisa Genova

This was a well written and heart wrenching story of a Harvard psychology professor who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. I have not had any experience with this disease and was not even aware of the fact that that it can affect younger people and that it can be highly genetic. Although this is a fictional story, it is written by a woman who has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience so I feel like I learned a lot and that it was pretty true to real life. I'd be curious to hear from someone who has been close to the experience, but it seemed like this could have been a true story.

At first, Alice would forget little things here and there, but it was the day she got lost blocks from her house that she knew something was wrong. Sometimes we all feel like we are losing our minds, but I can't imagine how scary it would be to really start losing your memories and rational thought patterns. To forget where you are and who you are, and to have your family members talking about you like you're not even in the room because they know you can't keep up with their conversation. Early onset Alzheimer's tends to progress much faster than it does in elderly people, so Alice's life took a very sharp turn away from everything she had worked her whole life for. She has to deal with the shame of not being able to perform in her highly intellectual profession, the anger and frustration that her family has to endure, and the fearful realization that her life would not turn out the way she had hoped. Keep a Kleenex box around toward the end, you will need it.

Book Blog: Atonement - Ian McEwan

So, I'm trying to remember why I wanted to read this book. I remember not liking the movie, and maybe I wanted to read it to see if the book was better? It wasn't bad, but it was really hard for me to get through. I actually gave up reading it when I only had about 100 pages left, but then read another book and came back to it because I didn't want to feel like a quitter. The last 100 pages were much better than the previous 100, so I felt ok about finishing it. I just felt like it had way too much drawn out "fluff" that didn't really feel necessary. Those were the boring parts. The longest parts should not be the boring parts in my opinion. The story is not all that bad though, and maybe I should watch the movie again sometime because it would not have all the long boring parts that were hard to read. Trying to appreciate the movie by reading the book may just have made me appreciate the movie for what it was. Next time I don't particularly like a movie, remind me not to read the book.

6 weeks down...too many to go

Well, it's been 6 weeks now. This is the normal amount of time that passes between my (now) husband and I seeing each other. Not thinking about the fact that we should be living together now, these 6 weeks have actually gone faster than others have. Being busy definitely helps. I haven't been hearing from him a whole lot, but about twice a week which is enough to keep me from going insane. The worst part is when he shows up in my dreams. I'm so happy to see him and then I wake up and realize it wasn't real. Or like last night in my dream he rescued me from someone trying to hurt me and I was so happy he was there for me, but then I knew that he was on leave and couldn't stay so as he kissed me sweetly on my cheek I started crying and then woke up crying. I don't typically remember my dreams that often, but these last weeks I have been having crazy weird dreams almost every night. Thankfully I have not been having bad dreams about the war or anything happening to him (knock on wood).

I got to chat with him on facebook this morning and it's always good to talk to him, but also hard to hear that he is exhausted working 20 hour days, not eating well, not sleeping enough, and generally frustrated. I was glad to find out though that he has internet access at the new place he is at, but who knows if he will actually stay there. For now though when he has time he will be able to email me and hopefully that will make him feel a little better to be able to vent or talk to me. I feel better just knowing where he is and what he has been doing. I have learned to not have any kind of expectations as far as communication goes. Once you get over expecting an email or phone call everyday it does get easier. I can say though that listening to sappy country love songs right now is not helping.

This has been a good weekend so far. I hung out with one brother Friday night. We tried out a new pizza restaurant, watched a movie and drank some wine, and sat in the hot tub for a while. Yesterday my other brother and I drove down to the town where both sets of our grandparents live. It was our parents' anniversary (they were down there already) and they had met there as highschoolers, fell in love and got married a few years later before moving to the cities. It was also King Turkey Day, which is a celebration for the city being one of the largest turkey producing areas in the world. It rivals Cuero, TX for the "title" and they have a turkey race down mainstreet every year with a MN and a TX bird competing. There are all kinds of festivities on this day, including the 2 hour parade that we watched in the cold and sprinkles yesterday. It was a fun time, and I got to see a bunch of my cousins including the two new babies born in August. We decided that we should make Turkey Day our new family gathering instead of holidays when it's harder to travel and get everyone together.

Today I was going to go to tai chi because I missed my Tuesday class last week, but I was so tired this morning so I decided to sleep in instead. I did some cleaning, some putting away, and now some blogging. Dinner with friends later :)

San Francisco Part II

Ahh...there it is. The photo that would not upload previously. Did I mention that I love this bridge? Yes, yes I did. I hope to go back to San Francisco someday and maybe bike across it and explore more of the city. I really liked what I saw of it. I also really enjoyed Pleasanton. It kind of just feels normal now for me to pick my life up and live somewhere else for days or weeks at a time so I felt totally normal being there, driving someone else's car on streets I don't know, and taking care of a 7 year old. I had fun exploring the area and playing "mom" for a couple days making lunches and driving her to and from school. The whole CA doesn't bus children to school thing just baffles me. Sure, it's expensive, but every single family driving a car into a tiny school parking lot every morning? Chaos. And school starts after 8 which is when most people would already be at work. And they have a late start day once a week. It just seems very challenging for families to work it all out. I'm thankful that I grew up in MN with a wonderful school system, that my best friend now teaches in!

I was traveling most of the day, got home to the rainy thunderstorming Twin Cities and went to the grocery store at 10:30pm because I have no food to take to work. I think I went to bed before 10 for the past 3 or 4 nights, so you'd think I'd be more tired again tonight but as soon as I get home I feel like I have a million things to do. However, it's 2 hours later here and I have to get up for work in the morning so I better get myself to bed.