Day 566

We gave our daughter our old car when we bought the new one a few months back. We knew then that it wouldn't be long before the car hit 100,000 miles. Not that 100,000 is bad, but it was what kind of service came with that 100,000 miles that hit her pocketbook hard.

She has a boyfriend who is a car guy so he makes sure she takes care of her vehicle properly. They took it in for a tune up, which turned into a replacement of a timing belt, which turned into replacing other belts, which turned into flushing coolants, which turned into replacing filters, which turned into two days of service, which turned into a huge bill.

$1,525. Poor kiddo.

Thank goodness the holiday season is coming soon and she can get lots of hours to help replenish her savings account.

She'll probably have to work as hard as these two spiders hanging out at our house.

Day 565

I sure like it when I find a picture first thing in the morning. Even better, I didn't have to even get dressed or step outside to get this view out my dining room window.

What appears to be the sun touching the ground is actually the sun's reflection in the Snake River. The actual sun is higher up in the tree.

Day 564

The year and a half before I started this blog I had gone through a lot. Back injury, three surgeries, lots of physical therapy, and excessive amounts of pain medication. Since then I've gotten myself off the pain medication but replaced it with multiple rheumatoid arthritis medicines. Then I went through taking myself off all those medications, too. Except now something needs to change.

I don't know if it's stress or not taking care of myself properly or what, but the pain, stiffness, and fatigue have returned full force. I've been fighting it for a while now and it has been getting the best of me. So Friday night I did it.

I took a pain pill. Took another one last night, too. But the relief I was hoping for did not arrive.

Although the pill did have me behaving like our cat in a sleeping-in-the-daytime kind of way.

Day 563

First it was that I was taking too many food pictures. Then it was because I was writing too much about Christmas stockings and taking too many pictures of fabric.

So for you my daughter, I have three new pictures. No stockings, fabric, or food. Any complaints about a spider hard at work, a Black-Eyed Susan up close, or the clouds in front of the sun?

Day 562

Every time I go to one of the meetings put on by Idaho's State Dept of Education I always walk away thinking about how I'm not living up to my full potential. I see all these folks around me - some I've know for years - who have gone on to get advanced degrees. Master's degrees, doctorate degrees. Folks who have moved on to higher up jobs in other school districts (or even at the state level).

But not me. I started a master's in Curriculum and Instruction and didn't finish it. Same for Technology Integration - halfway finished and stopped. I was going to get a master's in Administration so I could be an elementary school principal but pulled out the week before classes started.

My inability to live up to my potential bugged me all the way home from today's meeting. But then I got home and saw the pictures on my living room wall. Each and every picture I took myself with my family beside me (except that scary suspension bridge from this summer - that was a solo adventure).

Memories over potential, I say!

Mt. Rushmore...Statue of Liberty...The White House...Glacier Bay NP, Alaska...Moraine Lake, Alberta, Canada...the middle of the Yukon Suspension Bridge...Mexican Hat, Utah...inside Chateau Lake Louise, Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada.

Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park, Big Island of Hawaii...Niagara Falls, New York at night...Fireworks at Disney World, Orlando, Florida...Volcano eruption at Mirage Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada.