The Potter

The wheel spins around and the lump of wet clay is wobbly and off center. The potter presses on it - hard - really hard - and forces the clay to become centered so the wobble goes away and it is smooth and still. The clay is satiny in her hands. If she closes her eyes she can feel it spinning, and when it is ready there is no unevenness. It is full of possibilities but totally yielded to the hands that are shaping it. Now it is ready to open to what the potter envisions. It may become purely decorative, or functional, or both, but with its own character and personality. There are areas that will be taken away to define the form, and the clay will discover its shape in the potter's hands. Later the potter will add color and put it through the fire, and the combination of the potter's intent and the intense heat will refine it and make it beautiful.

I discovered pottery several years ago when Computer Guy first went off to college, and The VP (younger son) would be following him in another year. I had been a stay-at-home mom and had been mostly out of the work force for a lot of years. It was time to prepare for a job that would help pay college bills - so I went back to college too! I always meant to get that accounting degree and the time was at hand. Those of you who have been to college know that they want you to have a "rounded" education, so even when you are an accounting major you have to take an art class! I'd heard about the "art appreciation" classes with their slide shows and reports on artists and decided that hand building pottery with clay sounded a lot more interesting!

Boy! Did I get hooked!! I discovered right off though, that hand-building took a lot of time and I was a bit bored with the tedium of it, but I was facinated watching the "wheel-throwing" folks work!! I watched and learned and sort of taught myself to throw during open lab times. I continued with my accounting requirements and graduated "cum laude" (there is something to be said for being in college on purpose!!) then got a good job using my new skills. And continuing the pottery classes became a part of my recreation!!

That was 16 years ago! I took 3 semesters off somewhere around the 5 year mark, then got started again in night classes at a Jr College near where I work. I go 1 or 2 nights a week and I don't think I will ever get tired of the feel of the clay in my hands!

I learned something else in working with the clay that I didn't expect! There is a song that has these lines: "You are the potter, I am the clay, Mold me and make me after Your will, . . while I am waiting yielded and still." Right now the rest escapes me, but those words have become mine! In the past I had no clue what I was really asking God to do to me! Getting a lump of clay from bumpy and unformed to yielded and still takes a great deal of pressure and pushing and molding!! This is not half-hearted prodding or casual suggestions!! By singing that song (with my usual gusto) I was actually giving God whole-hearted permission to really "work me over" according to His will, to make me functional for Him!! That realization has been eye-opening and growth-producing!! When I work that clay to make it usable for my purpose, I am brought face to face with how my Lord is working on me to make me usable for His!!

My "2 Things"

Sounded like fun - so here goes!

2 things you compliment your husand on while in his presence

1. His terrific voice
2. His blue eyes

2 compliments you make about your husband to your friends

1. He's a very caring and loving man
2. He's extremely loyal

2 traits you married him for
1. He was cute
2. He had a great voice

2 days you cherished being together the most with your husband
1. The day we said good-bye to our home of 30 years
2. The day we had our first son (I need 3 here) & the day we had our 2nd son!

2 material things you would give your husband if you just inherited a fortune
1. His dream car
2. A Baltic Sea Cruise

2 things you would miss the most if he left for two weeks
1. His hugs
2. Eating dinner with him

2 thoughts that crossed your mind when you first met/saw your husband
1. He's really cute
2. How can I get him my phone number without embarassing myself?

2 favorite dates
1. Christmas Eve a few months after we met
2. Our 37th anniversary weekend last summer at a wonderful beach resort & spa!

2 funny odd things you love about your husband
1. His fingers get very twitchy when I have the clicker - he can hardly stand it!
2. He says he can't go to sleep before 11pm, but he falls asleep in his chair several times in the evening if he is watching tv!

2 places you have lived with your husband
1. LA County, California
2. Orange County, California

2 favorite vacations
1. England
2. Mississippi River Boat cruise

The Foo-Foo Machine

My new sewing machine (Janome 6600) should be coming via UPS today - I am SO excited to get it!! I bought it at the quilt show and they were supposed to send it off last Monday! Not that I will completely abandon my trusty 1977 Kenmore, but the new one has a bunch of those really cool stitches that you can put on things you make for your granddaughter! (Until she is about, what - 5 - and has decided she does not like foo-foo?) I still have a few years to get in all the foo-foo her momma can handle!! HA!!

* * * *

Wahoo! It's here, and appears to be undamaged by shipping! The box is incredibly dirty, however, on every side! How does UPS get stuff sooo dirty!! Oh well - the box goes in the recycle bin anyway! Tonight the instruction book - tomorrow we sew!!

My Life Rating!

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	8.7
Mind:	8.1
Body:	7.7
Spirit:	9.6
Friends/Family:	6.9
Love:	9.1
Finance:	8.2
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Hey! - I rate my friends/family at least a 9!! Try it and see what you come up with!!

The House Hunt

I'm so excited - we have reservations to fly to our Northern Retirement Destination State (NRDS) next week to begin the search for a home! The plan is to buy a house there, live here in So Cal for another 2.5 years, then move to the home in the NRDS! We have been in contact with a realtor up there (we actually met him a year ago when we were thinking about buying property and building a house), and we will be spending some quality time with him!

I have given Super Realtor (SR) my wish-list, the list of deal makers and breakers and have searched the MLS lists to be able to send him things I am interested in - at least from the picture and the limited description. In my organized mind he will have a schedule of places to go, and the tax info as well as the association fee info for us on every house. I promise I won't be bitchy if he is totally disorganized!! HA!!

It is interesting how much and how little is in the description of homes for sale. For instance:

"This darling home has many upgrades, It is not your typical home. It has been professionally decorated. It has ceramic tile in kitchen & dining area, mandoor from garage to backyard, kitchen nook and many more. Beautifully painted colors, A truly comfortable home to be enjoyed."

Ok now, what is "not you typical home"? Is this a good or bad thing? From the 3 pictures they give you it is evident they have painted in colors that go with their furniture - - However - - they would not go with my furniture, so what use is their "professional decorating" to me? There is one picture inside of the house (the living room), one of the backyard and one of the front of the house. The sidebar tells me it is a 3 bedroom, but are any on the main floor or all upstairs? Is the master bedroom big enough to hold my bed, is there a separate shower and tub - or all in one? Does it have a separate living room or a den or a great room? What is a "mandoor"? Is the stove gas or electric - is there a pantry? And "many more" - - what? Who writes these descriptions anyway?? This is supposed to prompt me to run right out and look at it? Clicking on the "map this property" link only brought me to the generic town center - not the street address! So other than "south" I have no idea what part of town it is in!

Ok - enough griping! It's just that I am looking for homes 1000 miles away from where I live and I have so many more questions that they just don't address! If I ever do this again I will write my own description so the prospective buyer will have a better picture of what my house has to offer! And no pictures of dead grass in the back yard!!

I hadn't heard much from SR recently, except for a link he sent me for a house that was too old, on too much property and too expensive. I emailed him yesterday to make sure we were on the "same page" as far as what we wanted to look at and to make sure he did have time for us next week. We are hoping for at least 3, maybe more, concentrated days of looking at homes - and if he really didn't have the time in his schedule I wanted to give him an "out" if he wanted it. I realize we are sort of pushed for time since we will only be in town a week and would love to make an offer before we leave! Morning Glory has a realtor she worked with recently and we could contact him if necessary. Since I already had a connection with SR I did want to give him first shot, but I did want to make sure he really had time for us! His return email took about 5 minutes!! We are to be at his office at 9 the first morning and he said he has a bunch for us to look at!! Not only the ones I sent him but more beyond those! Wahoo!!

This whole thing is so exciting!! We are pretty sure that God is good with our plan so far since our home here sold so quickly (1 week, full price!) and we are not running up against any closed doors - so we are really trusting that He has the right home in NRDS is just waiting for us to claim it!

I AM too!

I'm at work a little early this morning - and my phone is ringing because we have offices in the east and they have already been at work 2 hours! I'm not answering it yet - I'm blogging first!! I enjoyed Morning Glory's "meme" (? don't really know what that is, but that's what she called it!), so I decided to do it too!

I AM

I am a 30-yr old in a late 50's body!

I want to have the time to do the things I really enjoy and see all the places I want to see. I want to have a mind that is interested in everything!

I wish I hadn't let myself get as heavy as I did - I've slimmed down a lot, but I spent too many years apologizing to myself for the difference between the way I looked and the way I envisioned myself.

I hate it when friends are self-depreciating - Our talents and abilities are all so unique - God didn't create us better or worse - just different!

I miss my Grandpop - he died shortly after I was married. He was a wonderful storyteller and led such an interesting life - I would have loved for my boys to have known him.

I hear the office awakening around me as folks arrive for their work day - (I'd like to be hearing birds flirting in the spring garden I will have someday!)

I wonder if my husband and I will grow old together and be able to do the things we dream about

I regret saying things that have been hurtful to friends - I can apologize, but I can't make the words disappear
I am not as artistic as I would love to be - I have a bookkeeper's brain by nature and an art side that would love to be more developed

I dance every chance I get - and would love to take classes to learn to do it better

I sing first soprano, although I have sung tenor and alto when that was what was needed. I am loving the freedom of the melody in a song and the soaring high notes!

I cry a lot more often than I used to! Lots of things bring it on - a song, a friend's pain or joy, a hug from my granddaughters, the realization that Christ died for ME, having one daughter in law who openly loves me and another who openly hates me, having a Christian husband who loves me a lot!

I am not always as right as I would like to think I am!

I make with my hands a lot of things: pottery on a wheel, quilts, good food, clothing to wear, spreadsheets on a computer

I write a little in my blog - and I'm pretty decent on a email, but I put letters off til forever!

I confuse my husband by changing topics when a new thought comes cruising through my brain - and he's still on the last one

I need a lot of things to keep my mind and my hands active - sitting and watching tv for hours just doesn't cut it! I think I probably have a little ADD!!

I should probably get to work - it is after 8!! Alternately - I should like to garden once I retire and have the time to do it!

I start quilts and quite often don't get them finished!! (That should probably be under the "I should"! - I'll have time one of these days!!) For now - the only craft I have allowed myself in my 2.5 yr apartment stint is my sewing maching and unfinished quilts - there is hope!!

I finish my dessert, whether I got full on dinner or not!

I tag - I'm not really sure what tagging is about!! I'm just sort of out here! HA!!

AQS Quilt Show

I just returned from a grand trip to Paducah, Kentucky for the annual American Quilter's Society Quilt Show! I flew into Nashville, TN with Chris and Ron, the friends we are staying with during our homeless period, we picked up a car and headed for western Kentucky!! We stayed with Judy and Rich and Sue, (whose husband stayed home like mine did) on a docked houseboat in the Kentucky Marina on the Ohio River about 20 miles south of Paducah. The plan was for the guys to fish and play golf and the girls to go to the quilt show. I love it when a plan comes together!!

The guys did exactly as they intended and fished and played golf for 3 days while we saw all the "show" quilts and shopped in every vendor's booth we could find!! We had dinner with the guys every night and enjoyed our evenings in the houseboat with "show and tell" (so all could see what we bought!) and playing cards and laughing till we hurt!

The whole town opens to this huge quilt show every year and every place that is large enough for a few vendors to set up shop is filled with wonderful sample quilts, fabric in every color you can imagine, and more quilting and sewing gadgets than you could ever use! It was wonderful!! Even the regular shops in the old downtown area all decorate their windows and compete for the best "quilting window"!! The convention center is huge with several large halls, the mall was filled with vendors, the civic center got into the act and the old empty buildings downtown had lots of colorful new life for a little while! One of the Delta Queen river boats was even docked right next to the convention center for 3 days while her passengers were at the show! The town estimates that 30,000 folks pass through during the 4 day show and leave about $12 million behind!

We all did our best for the local economy too and I came home with quilt kits, fat quarters, neat gadgets and with a special ok from my guy - a new Janome sewing machine!! I told him after our first granddaughter was born that if we ever were lucky enough to have a 2nd granddaughter that I would need a new sewing machine that had all those wonderful stitches! I have a 30-yr old Kenmore that still sews like a champ, but I will now be able to add all sorts of pretty decorative stitches and it even has 2 sizes of letters with 4 styles of fonts each!! I am sooo jazzed!! I can hardly wait for the UPS man to deliver it!!

We Did It!

Well, we are out of the house; 30 years, 4 days and a "wake-up"!! My brother-in-law showed up with a 27 ft truck at 7 in the morning on Saturday. Three more guys came to help and they loaded up the truck 2 times and took the contents to storage. My girlfriend came over and we loaded our "next 3 weeks" clothes and toiletries into her car and my van and she took off.

I had to wait for the realtor to come by for the keys, so since I had a little pot of inside house paint handy, I checked all the corners for scrapes and touched them up. He didn't come when he said he would so I sat on the front steps and waited for him. He was very surprised when he got there to see that we were all done!

We did the whole thing - from first box in the truck to tossing the paint pot in the trash - in 3.5 hours!! My husband said it took a "shoe-horn" to get everything in those storage units - but they did it!! After everyone was done and took off, we went inside to say a last good-by to the house and not only thank God for it, but ask Him to bless the new family who would be moving in shortly.

We prayed for the right house all those years ago and God, from His abundance, supplied it. We dedicated it to Him then and confirmed that commitment many times over the years. We raised our children there and opened it to friends and family countless times. It was a friendly house that could take all the noise, confusion and fun we could come up with. We had bible studies, birthday parties, big gatherings and small, and wonderful holiday BBQs! We played games, worked puzzles and welcomed everyone. And when we said good by we thanked God for the memories and committed to Him that the next home He supplies us with will be His too! We both had a good cry, and typing this now, brings the tears close again! Not in sadness really - we feel good about going - but it is the "end of an era", and that certainly promotes nostalga!!

We'll move it all into the apartment in about 3 weeks, then see what God has in store for us there!! In the meantime, we are staying with good friends who offered to share their home with us - so being "homeless" is not a painful experience at all!! HA!!

Memories

Today is my last day in the house I have lived in for 30 years and 4 days and Morning Glory's postings about her childhood got me remembering some things I hadn't thought about in a long time! I'll probably think of a hundred more after this is finished!! But here are some from the last 30 years and some from before that too!

Skating around Balboa Island with my brother when we went to visit Grammie and Grandpop. Always a special treat - their house was the one my dad grew up in and was the 6th house built on the island. Of course when we were there the island was already built up and was a "beach destination"! Sometimes during the summer we would stay in the tiny apartment over the garage for a week. We were a block from the beach and we could walk into "town" for a frozen banana.

Listening to Grandpop as he would tell us stories. He was the kind of story-teller you could listen to for hours! And he was careful not to let the truth interfere with a good tale!! He had been a camerman for an old movie studio - Vidagraph, I think in Hollywood - and then moved to Balboa Island, bought a tug boat and owned Smith Boat Works where the fun-zone is now on Balboa Pennsula. He rode the ferry home to the island every night. In later years he worked as a marine biologist for Cal-Tech. Facinating man - I still miss him and he's been gone 41 years!

Riding my horse "Chief" in the hills behind my house for hours at a time. Now those hills are completely blanketed with high-end houses.

Getting thrown by Chief when a rabbit spooked him. I was riding bareback and slid right off into a cactus bush and had a large pad stick impale the top of my leg. Chief came right back and was quite contrite. We were close to our property - so I sent him home (and he actually went!!) and since it was a Saturday and my dad was working in the yard he saw Chief come back without me. He hopped on Chief's back and that wonderful horse brought him right to me! That was the only time Chief let my dad ride him without trying to brush him off under a tree! My mom worked a long time getting all the cactus spines out of my leg!!

Learning to shoot a pistol on our property - I used that knowledge to shoot a rattlesnake with my dad's pistol once when mom and I were home and he and my brother were gone.

Going deep sea fishing with my grandad 3 times and getting so seasick I thought I was dying all 3 times! We tried all the remedies and nothing worked. As long as we were moving I was fine, but when we stopped to fish - I caught some big fish every time, then succumed to the movement of the boat!! Grandad was a writer for American Fisherman and Field and Stream and did a series of articles on "Taking His Granddaughter Fishing"!!

Riding down our hill on a "Flexible Flyer" (anyone remember those?) and skidding off when it turned and I didn't!

Riding down another hill on the go-cart my brother and I built, before the steering blocks were in and dragging my elbow down the pavement when it turned and I didn't!! Ouch!! (These were learning experiences - although that go-cart was a lot of fun once the steering blocks were added!!)

Building our own house when I was in the 5th and 6th grade. My dad was a contractor and we built it on weekends with the help of one of his guys - Francisco Cortez. He taught us how to say, "Please, one cup of coffee with sugar" in spanish!! He came every Saturday for over a year and would not let Daddy pay him. I framed and drywalled my own bedroom in that house!!

Building tree houses in the avacado grove that surrounded the house we built. It was surrounded by windbreaks consisting of double rows of ecalyptus trees. The spacing was just right for building. My friend Kathy and I would build the treehouse then use them as a place to hide from younger siblings and read our books.

Building a pool in the backyard of our current house when my sons were 12 & 10 - they thought they had died and gone to heaven! They swam year-round for several years, till their brains finally understood mom tell them that swimming in 50-degree water was just nuts!

Memorial Day, Labor Day and 4th of July picnics in our back yard around that pool for the last 19 years. Sometimes we would have as many as 60 folks show up with their steaks and something to share! It's been a lot smaller group the last few years since the boys have grown up and their friends don't show up like they used to. We will miss those times! We won't have a pool when we get to our retirement home - but we may have the BBQs!!

Well! That was a lot - once I got started I could go on and on!! But enough for this time! - besides lunch is now over and my desk is filled with work that must be done! Morning Glory is right - blogging is fun!!

One Hundred Boxes

Yup - that is what is sitting in the pile in the empty space between the dining area and the living area - where the 2 gold wing back chairs used to sit. I say "used to", because a week ago a gal here at work bought them from me! As the moving day looms closer that pile gets larger! The last time I moved was 30 years ago today!! So - you're saying - 100 boxes - that's not bad for a 30-year accumulation!! I will have to confess that that pile does not include the 180 boxes that are already in storage for the long term. I know, I know - that is waaay too much stuff!! I'll probably have a wonderful garage sale in my new town in about 3 years!!

On Saturday morning some friends (my pastor and his wife) came to load up a U-Haul truck with the stuff we donated/sold to them for their daughter. She is graduating from seminary in May and will be taking a job as a youth pastor about an hour away. The church is giving her the old parsonage to live in. It is adjacent to the church property, and has 5 bedrooms!! As a student, all she has is her bed, a broken-down couch and a garage sale dinette table!! So she now will have a lot more stuff to make her new place feel like home. It it neat that she will be able to use it, and great that her dad hauled it off!!

Anyway, back to the boxes - I sort of hit a wall last night. We had been in San Diego to spend Easter with our son, his wife and her family and our most adorable 1-yr old granddaughter all day. (W0nderful!!) After the 2-hour drive home, I decided to work on packing more boxes. I wrapped up the last of the dishes and pots and pans, then went to look at the rest of the house. You know that stuff that won't fit in a regular box and you want it but can't figure out how to pack it? Usually it is the stuff that you throw in the back of the van and drive it all over to the new house, and carry it in yourself! Well - we are going to be "homeless" for about 3 weeks until our apartment is ready for us to move in, so everything is going in a storage unit - so I can't just load it in the van!! I just stood there and looked at it. I was just at a loss - I just couldn't face the stuff in that room! I made a couple stabs at it - at least I put a box together - but that is as far as I got!! I just went in and crawled into bed and watched a show on HGTV where someone else was moving!!

I will attack it with renewed vigor tomorrow night (I have a ceramic's class tonight - I'll write about that some other time!). My goal is to have the stack of boxes complete and our "next-3-weeks" clothes all packed and ready to go as of this Thursday. We'll see - I will still have Friday night as a fall-back if it isn't accomplished on my schedule! It will be interesting to see if I have designated too much stuff as "apartment necessities". We already have the other storage almost totally full of stuff we won't see til we retire and move!! This is the next step of a grand adventure - but I AM SO TIRED OF PACKING!!! Oops, sorry - didn't mean to yell!! But I will be so glad when this week is over!!

Incredible Shrinking Woman

I'm losing weight - Wahoo! I started a few months ago when it was either buy size 14 pants with stretch or get serious about what I keep saying I'm doing!! I was also partially motivated by "C" who had gastric bypass surgery and was shrinking before our very eyes! There was always some (perverted, I think!) comfort in knowing I was "thinner" than several of my friends and although size 14 at 5'4" is a long way from thin, I could convince myself that I wasn't that bad, because they were heaver! Don't get me wrong - I really was, and still am, so happy for "C", that she had the surgery and is doing so well, but watching her eat her mini meals and drop sizes almost weekly started to mess with my comfort zone! Someone told her they "hated" her for losing weight so easily! That was just sick! Gastric bypass, although extremely effective for a lot of folks, is really drastic! And she had carried that extra 150 lbs around for a lot of years!! I'm really proud of her - not jealous!! Anyway - It got me motivated!

A friend spent the night with us and said she was on Medifast and it was really working for her. I checked it out on line the next day, and it sounded like it would certainly fit my life-style. The plan consists of 5 packets a day; shakes, bars, chili, soup, oatmeal, or hot drinks, and 1 "lean and green" meal a day. I'm basically lazy when it comes to breakfast and packing something for lunch at work, so this sounded perfect! I ordered it and got started. Well, I lost 25 pounds really quickly!! I like the plan, it's easy and tasty. This last 10 has been a lot slower, but I do admit to cheating a bit - particularly on weekends! I do intend to stay with it for a while - losing some has motivated me to lose more!

I signed up with a trainer at my gym for another 6-month stint - I feel such accomplishment when I can do all the reps he gives me and live through it!! HA!! His assignment is to work me hard enough to see a difference - he is definitely giving it his best shot!!

Buying a size 10 was great fun, and a size 8 was even better! As an added plus, my blood pressure is perfect, my cholestrol has dropped under 180, and my energy level has increased a bunch!! - and 0h yeah - I just bought a size 6!

House for Sale

We have sold our house - We listed it on Saturday at a price higher than any in our neighborhood had listed for, thinking it would give us negotiation space. We had an offer the next Saturday morning - before the open house - full price, the only contingency being a 40-day escrow!! I am astounded!! Not that the house isn't worth it on today's market - it's 4 bedroom, 2000 sq feet - on a nice cul-de-sac with a pool - but this house has increased - are you ready for this(?) -1566% since we bought it 30 years ago!!!

We moved in on April 17th, 1976 - Easter weekend - and we are moving out April 22, 2006 - 30 years and 1 week later. I have been packing boxes for about 10 months - just a few every week or two, but really hit it hard after the holidays. I am embarassed to say I have over 175 boxes in storage! These boxes contain all kinds of valuable stuff that I have decided I can live without for another 2.5 years!! That is the magic time til my husband hits 62 and will retire. At that point we will pack our bags and head to a very pretty northern state, near some very dear friends, where we will enjoy the next chapter!! All that is left in my house right now is the stuff I have determined to be vital in those 2.5 years!! I may be having a really grand garage sale in 2.6 years!! HA!!

The plan in motion is to sell now while the Southern California property market is still hot, and buy in that very pretty northern state before their housing market gets any hotter!! We will then try to rent it out or visit it quarterly or something like that til we actually move in.

We found out yesterday that we got a 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment in the complex we wanted to be in. It looks really nice, is gated, not very many kids, and we have a pretty good size unit at a good price with a private garage!! I wrote the check last night - and sitting in the manager's office it struck me that we are really doing this!! We have about 3 weeks or so till we move out, and we will probably have to put all of the apartment stuff into storage for 2 - 3 weeks while we either motel it or farm ourselves out to the friends who have willingly offered to put us in their guest rooms for the "homeless" nights. This will be a little tricky - but we will live through it!!

We said from the beginning that if this move was in God's plan for us, that He would bring it all together. My husband was blown away when the house sold so quickly - he was prepared for a long wait to see if we really were working within God's plan! Between the sale of the house and the apartment opening within 3 weeks of finding where we wanted to be - we are real sure that for now we are right where He wants us!! What lies ahead will be exciting to find out!!