Book Signing at Sea Tac Airport Borders Has Changed

The Borders folks had to reschedule my book signing...so now, I will be there on February 18th at 9am. It should be a great morning since it is the beginning of the Presidents' Day weekend and some mid-winter breaks. If you are there please stop by and say "hi" to me.

Life is interesting isn't it? I am feeling a little down because my neighbor who lost his job several years ago and could not find a new one just lost his house. Yep, he is in the process of moving out and it just seems sad because he has been here longer than we have and the hood won't be the same without him. Dave is a wonderful man who has always been the friendliest neighbor we've had. I just pray that he will land on his feet and find that maybe it was a blessing after all. But, it does remind me of all of my friends who are out of work. Me included at the moment but I am fortunate that Steve's work is stable.

All news reports indicate that the economy is getting stronger but I wish it would hurry up. It is very scary right now for so many.

Then, there is the weird weather all over the world. Our friends in Brisbane were evacuated a few days ago and from the looks of this morning's newspaper photograph showing Brisbane under water it is a good thing they left. The weather in Brazil is flooding our NE is under yet another blizzard and my daughter just texted me that the road that she needs to travel to get to the other side of her island is under mud and closed until they get it cleaned up. We here in the Puget Sound region just had our third snowfall in as many months. We rarely get snow at all so this is weird and the rain has been so hard for the past several days that our basement is leaking again. It flooded last month!

Getting ready for a grief workshop at the beginning of February. That always makes me count my blessings in preparation for helping parents whose losses are raw. Good thing I am married to a clinician. That's all for now.

A reminder of how time flies....

Talk about a blast from the past! I received an interesting email from a young man who played soccer with Cory when they were young boys. In fact, Damien's dad was the coach during several seasons of play. And, Jim, the dad, was one of Cory's pallbearers. sigh. This young man is now the principal of a local high school. I cannot believe he is a grown up but to think that he is running a high school blew my mind. Life goes by way too fast. So, no real details but Damien indicated that he had a dream about Cory and coming over to visit at our old house in Lakeridge. So, when he awoke he had Cory on his mind but could not remember his last name. He also felt the compulsion to contact me. What a treat to hear from this young man and to know that he had not forgotten my son. It also appears that perhaps Cory felt a reason to connect with him. I am hoping to figure that part out. When I do I will post it here.

Apparently he is married with two small children. And his younger sister who played soccer with Brie is married with a toddler too. I am feeling old...it is also bittersweet to think that Cory should be here having babies too. Fate can be cruel. But, I am grateful for the time I was given. Cory was and continues to be a blessing to me.

Hau 'oli Makahiki Hou! (Happy New Year!)

Well, the thread that was holding Malia here snapped and she is now staying with her maternal grandmother. Ten years of her living with us off and on was enough...we really did start to realize that we were protecting her too much and that now at 19 she needs to be responsible for her own destiny.

Keili came home but was delayed several days because of the Apple I-Phone alarm glitch that caused her to miss the scheduled flight. Then, she couldn't get another one for three days. Apparently the non-reoccurring alarm system failed for January 1 & 2. They should have known though because it didn't work when Daylight Savings happened. This was not something that Keili was aware of since Hawaii doesn't do Daylight Savings. Bummer! Well, she is home now even though for a short stay. We love having her here. She really energizes the house.

I am doing a book signing at the SeaTac International Airport on January 28th at 9am. I am thrilled and so grateful to my friend Erik Korhel for hooking me up. What a fun place to do a signing!

The last day and a half I have been un-decorating. We left them up so Kei could have decorations when she got here. Now it looks so bare! Glad to be sorting and packing them up though.

The New Year has given me the incentive to reflect on my many blessings. So many of my friends have been struggling with unemployment, rough relationships, deaths, and just plain stressfilled lives...I feel very fortunate to have the wonderful husband, daughters, friends, family members and doggies that I do. Thanks everyone for being so wonderful. And to my friends who are struggling - I love you and I am praying for you that your life will improve significantly this new year.

Made it through Christmas of 2010 Whew!

So, it has been a month since my last post. This blogging thing takes up more time than I had thought ahead of time. Christmas was great except that neither of my daughters was home for it. This is the first Christmas without them since they were born. Very weird!
My grandson was here so that was something! What a great young man he is becoming. Still so sensitive and sweet. His hair is wild and bushy but so him. I guess his dad didn't much care for it but hey, it's hair for goodness' sake! So, I have been receiving lots of hugs from him and trying to store some up for when he heads back to Maui next weekend. Christmas is always a time of reflection for me. Growing up without much in the way of happy holiday memories always makes me appreciate what I have now. We have a new daughter named Miranda who is just a delight. Malia is hanging on by a thread but it is really time for her to get on with her life and it is now starting to feel like we are enabling her to skate. Time for reality to strike I am afraid. We spent an evening with all of my brothers, most of their offspring, my sister Penny and her family and my sister Rita and her husband. That was a kick. Fifty people crammed into my house with good food, good drink and lots of chatter. Christmas Eve we spent with my sister Rita and her family including her 98 year-old mom Sparky. Sparky had just been given a port a cath the day before as her marrow has now shut down and is no longer manufacturing blood cells. But, by golly, Sparky is hanging in there. She is amazing! We call her Sparky because she was struck by lightning twice (one week a part) when we were about eight. She has the goodness and sweetness of a small child. Christmas morning we had some friends over for brunch...Doreen is from my years at KOMO...Lola is my friend whom I met through the Emerald City Jewels a now defunct women's group...she and I bonded during the time I helped her pack up our friend Phyllis Mayo's condo after her death a year ago. Then, my little friend Henry who died a month ago left behind a grieving mama, Lihua. I was so glad that she agreed to join us. It was nice to have them all here. Food again was fabulous! Then, we had dinner with Steve's parents and they invited a lovely German couple Michael and Carolina Berger whom we have shared holiday meals with in the past. It was a great time and we appreciate our many blessings. I hope you created great memories with your loved ones as well.

Giving Thanks!

It is the night before Thanksgiving and I have been thinking about my many blessings... sending e-cards to friends and family members. And anxiously awaiting my grandson's trip to the NW in a few weeks. I really miss the guy. Any minute now he is going to be too cool or too big or too old to want to spend anytime with his puna. That will make me very sad. That brings me to wondering how my in-laws must feel about my daughter Keili turning 22 next week! I think more scary for all of us is the fact that she will graduating from college in May. Wow! then it will really be time for us to let go. The girl is always five steps ahead in planning. I know that she will go far and I mean that both figuratively and literally. She will either end up in Australia - again! or it could be some exotic locale like France, Italy or Spain but rest assured it will be far from home. She claims that she will never live where it is cold again so who knows what the future will bring for her? The universe brought Brie to Maui and look what happened there! Well, my life is in a holding pattern right now but Steve and I plan to be near Brie and Keawe hopefully sooner rather than later but with this economy it really depends on when we can get our house and property sold. Need a buyer who is a builder and wants these two parcels with fabulous views of the city, the sound, the Cascades from Baker to Rainier. If you know of anyone, send em my way!

Let's live with love and gratitude! I am grateful for my loving husband... My beautiful daughters...my wonderful handsome grandson... Steve's parents who are awesome btw...so are his relatives and I am also grateful for my brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews...god children...great friends and the loving memories of my son, parents, grandpa, Annie, Alycia, Phyllis, and so many more. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. God bless!

(I am up to 14,000 hits on my web site--woohoo!)

My thoughts on Social Media--my website has 13,275 posts!

Well, that little deal with my photo being put up on MSN.com a few weeks ago really was a godsend because since then I have had over three thousand more hits on my website. Pretty cooh, eh? I did a booksigning for OVER THE RAINBOW BRIDGE at the Bellevue Athletic Club on Saturday. It was a Holiday Bazaar...I was with my friend Linnea Sallberg who was educating people about XOCAI Healthy Chocolate and I ran into several former colleagues from KOMO-TV. That was fun! James Owen and Lynn Espinoza both looked great. My friend Linda Morris was there too. They commented about seeing me on MSN.com too! Social media is quite amazing isn't it? I need to figure that out mo bettah. Speaking of social media, this morning I was trying to add a few people from my email list to my Facebook and all of a sudden it said that I had sent out 877 invitations!!! So to all of my friends...I apologize for bombarding you...and I do realize that many of you are already hooked up with me on FB. Sorry for being such a dimwit with Facebook!

Life is Fleeting and Sharing Grief Helps

I went to Spokane recently to help with a weekend grief retreat for parents like me. It was comprised of people whose children died from cancer after suffering through chemotherapy, radiation, surgeries, etc. I call it the Crappy Club. We all felt like crap. It is amazing how much it helps to sit around with people who understand all too well how it feels when the bottom of your world drops out and you free fall into a hellish pit of pain that lasts far longer than you ever imagined possible. We shared a lot of laughter too so I don't want you think it was all horrible. I met some fantastic new people and got reacquainted with several from a previous retreat too. As the facilitator it is my job to keep things moving and give people a jumpstart on looking within and learning how to cope with their sadness. The activities are varied as different mediums touch people in a variety of ways. Most of the participants are shocked by what gets to his or her core and brings the tears. It is always fascinating to be with a group of strong capable survivors such as the parents who attended. Of course, I felt honored that they trusted me with their memories and stories. I am always blown away at the workshops. I am always awed by the amount of growth made in such a short amount of time. I see and feel the incredible heartfelt love and support the participants have for each other--- it's inspiring... I also love to hear about the children. Sometimes it is hard to listen to someone whose pain is so raw and so familiar to my own but I also know how much sharing will benefit them in the long run. So, if you are in the throes of grief---don't try to work through it alone. Know that going for help with your grief doesn't make you weak, mentally ill or damaged...it just means you are taking care of yourself after going through a terrible loss.