December 21, 2004

Ick. I spent $8 and got some fake Crest strips. These are called "Pharm" and were at the Grocery Outlet.  I've been wanting some Crest strips, but I can't justify laying down 30 bones for them.  These taste nasty and are all waxy and weird on my teeth for 30 minutes a day.  This is only Day #2, so there is no way of knowing if it's doing anything.  I have nightmares of getting Ross Gellar glow in the dark teeth.

Solstice was truly wonderful.  I took the little boys out Friday night to buy for each other and Delena.  That was a lot of fun.  Saturday, late morning, I headed out on my own to finalize and found a lot of really good deals.  On instinct, I went to the far end of Placerville and found Grocery Outlet, a dollar store and a gently used baby supply store.  I was able to get an exersaucer for Aidan for $20 and a lot of fun things for my kids and the grandkids from the dollar store.  They actually had Mighty Beans for a dollar a package!!  Found a few things at the Grocery Outlet (plus some cheap cereal), then went on to K-Mart and Wal-mart to finish up.  K-mart was having an (up to) 50% off sale and I got some good things there.  Wal-mart as well.  Finally, it was all done, as done as it was going to get anyway.  I headed back up the hill, maybe an hour or so later than I expected. 

Minutes after I got home, the coven arrived and helped put groceries away (yayyyy!).  We had a really nice night.  At Winter Solstice/Yule, we "light the spark" of light that brings the return of the Sun to the sky (days get longer after Winter Solstice, so the Sun is "returning").  We use that spark to spark our on creative visualization.  How do we see ourselves in the harvest of next year?  Where do we want to be in our lives and what do we want to have accomplished?  Normally, we have a deep meditation to bring all that to the forefront.  This time, we planned to do just that, but then, we got completely inspired and decided to do something altogether different.  We each took 6 slips of paper and wrote different subject headings on them.  They were things like "sexuality," "peace," "joy," "prosperity," "good health," "material abundance" and such.  There were 32 slips, five of us doing six slips each, which left two blanks that we kicked into the cauldron.  What we then had to do was mix up all of the slips and draw out four each.  That way, Goddess decided from those subjects what we needed to work on manifesting in our lives over the next several months.  It turned out to be very moving, very interesting and very enlightening.  Since we didn't know what the others had written and since we all folded the slips the same way, there was no way of knowing what we would draw out.  (I secretly thought it would be kind of funny if someone wrote, "herpes," "felony charges," or something like that.  Not really, but kinda).  I drew out "Physical Beauty," "Joy," "Physical Health" and "Abundant Friendship."  Eric drew out "Abundant Health," "Stability," "Peace In the Environment" and "Lust."  So whatever we decide to manifest has to fall in those categories.  Definitely a theme!  This will be the first year we haven't worked on financial prosperity, so I think we are being told rather clearly to give it a rest already!  Last year, we both worked on financial stability and never imagined that buying a house would be part of that.  Now, everyone in the group is to journal on their thoughts about their categories, how they plan to work on their goals and what their feelings were about the ritual.  Should be an interesting year!

I wrapped like mad until around 1am, then got some power sleep until the kids got up a little before seven.  In a hail of paper and ribbon, it was over in just a few minutes.  They were all quite happy and I ended up spending about 1/3 of what I normally spend.  They played almost nonstop until last night (Monday night) and today are bored (of course).  :)  Only a little over a week and a half until they are in school and I am on my own.

Weird thing.  When we were unwrapping presents, there wasn't one for Eric from his father, although there were gifts from them for the rest of us, but not for him.  Later, it came up in conversation on the phone with his father and it turns out, his dad DID send him a present.  A very nice one, in fact.  We have no clue what happened to it. Eric is sure that when he was taking presents out of the box his father sent, that there was one in there for him.  Logically, there's almost nothing that could have happened to it.  There aren't a lot of places in house where it could have gone.  It couldn't have gotten thrown away.  The kids did not mess with the gifts in the two days they were there before we opened them.  It's just... odd.  I am taking down the tree today, so maybe something will turn up then.  Eric's dad is going to look around there in case it somehow got left out.  Poor Eric.  That was one of three gifts he got this year and one of them he had to share with me (a cool scented oil burner).  We all hope it turns up soon.

By all accounts, the refi is still being worked on by all brokers concerned.  We hope to have an answer soon.  I've pretty much become immune to worrying about how it will happen and I'm just believing that it will happen. 

Speaking of the house, you would not EVEN believe what a disaster my house was yesterday!  I spent most of the day working on it and today, I'm finishing up and doing a ton of laundry.  A nap also sounds like a worthy investment of time, as well as a hot bath. I am completely out of bubble bath, which is a real drag.  If Eric gets home early as he is threatening to do (but wait! he's off Friday!), I can go to town and get some.  Wal-mart has a brand I use that is something like $2 for 100 gallons.  Works just fine for me! 

Oh, found this online:

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

Just to show how people change, when I was in therapy back in what?  About 1990-91, I guess, my counselor gave me this test and I registered an ENFP.  That means in just over 10 years, I have gone from Extroverted to Introverted and from Perceiving to Judging. 

For the first time in years, I actually got my holiday cooking done before the holiday.  Usually, I end up cooking the week after.  Albertsons was having a wicked sale and I got a big ham quite cheap and turkeys, 2 for 1.  Chicken breasts were on sale for just over a dollar a pound and good ground beef was $1.99 a pound, so the larders are full. 

Goals for the coming month:  Get the house refinances completed and to our advantage.  Get Delena Season 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD.  Get the house and laundry able to be easily controlled on a daily basis (much easier since I will be the only one here for the majority of the day - I just like bringing that up whenever possible).  Get the novel started on its rewrite.  Get the photo albums finally done.  Lose at least 5 more pounds.

Goals for today:  Laundry, house cleaning, nap.

:)

Thanks to everyone who knows who they are and what they did.

Much love,
Katrina

PS:  I FORGOT THE CUTE SMALL TOWN STORY!!  Cheryl, this is for you:

Yesterday, I got a note in my mailbox that I had to go to the post office because I has mail that required a signature.  I can only go to the post office on Saturday mornings because Eric has the car for work earlier than the post office opens and beyond the time when the post office closes.  I phoned up Steve, the post master, and asked him who the letter was from (thinking a law suit or something).  I recognized the name (no law suit) and told him I wouldn't be able to come in until Saturday.  Here is the conversation that only could happen in a tiny town:

Me:  As usual, I won't be able to come by before Saturday.

Steve:  Would you like me to drop it off on my way home today?

Me:  Is it out of the way for you?

Steve:  It's kind of sort of on my way home anyway.

Me:  That would be lovely, Steve, and I will make it worth your time.

Steve:  My favorite way?

Me:  You bet.

Steve:  I'll be right over.

The interesting thing about the conversation is that neither one of us once thought of it as sexual innuendo.  It never crossed my mind (and I have a gutter mind) and I know Steve is not the kind of person who would think that way without dying 1000 deaths.  So I packed up a collection of the Christmas candy I'd made and had it waiting for him. 

:)