Poll found on friends post

I was surprised at my results as percent agreement I don’t agree at all with one of the top 2 (can’t stand him)  and actually am more interested in the next 2 candidates and voted for one of them in the recent Michigan primary.  Sometimes those polls are helpful and sometimes they aren’t.  It is hard to put what you believe into the phrases given for a certain issue.

83% Mike Huckabee
80% John McCain
75% Mitt Romney
70% Fred Thompson
68% Tom Tancredo
59% Ron Paul
49% Rudy Giuliani
42% Bill Richardson
39% John Edwards
37% Hillary Clinton
36% Chris Dodd
34% Barack Obama
28% Mike Gravel
26% Joe Biden
24% Dennis Kucinich

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Crazy life

Do you ever feel like life is just going on and you need to just go with the flow? Well that has been the way things have been recently. Busy but not much interest in being on the computer. For those on the boards I do post on, sorry I haven’t been around much.

Lets see what has been going on recently . . . . . .

• I have been working on knitting a pair of socks since Christmas. I think that is where a lot of my spare time has gone. I am about half-way down the foot of both pairs of socks, getting near the end and about ready to start decreasing for the toes. Maybe I will have them completely knit in a month. I have another 5 days.
• Work. Need I say more. I was getting discouraged about work recently, but now am encouraged again. Though I am ready for a day out of peds entirely. I have worked there for part of the last 3 if not 4 shifts I have worked. I am ready for the action of “up front” were more of the excitement is for an entire shift. I work today and tomorrow so that fix should be covered in those days.
• Spending time with all “my boys.” Russ and I have been working on renewing our relationship which is great, but has caused a refocus of my priorities.
• Cleaning and keeping up my house. I really wanted to get routines going like the FlyLady, but don’t quite have doing routines down, though my house is staying neater since I sorted the toys into 6 bins and have been having the boys help pick up their toys more.  I also have been focusing on the kitchen and living-room, since that is really where we live and getting the laundry put away when I take it out of the dryer.
• My grandma is doing well.  She went home on Friday with a “life alert” pendant.  I have a few phone calls to make to get services set up for her, but I think she is going to do well at home.

Better head to the shower so I can get ready for work . . . .

New Adventures

One of the ladies I met on Ravelry, Trish, recently posted on her blog that she had a sock pattern that she was looking for test knitters.  I jumped at the chance.  I got the pattern by email today and she is sending me yarn to knit the socks with.  I am looking forward to trying a new pattern and another yarn.  She used size 4 needles and is a loose knitter, so I need to figure out what size needles I am going to use.  I have 3s & 5s.  I may get a new needle to knit the socks with so I can try magic loop.

Update on my grandma –  I need to talk to my dad and sister but it looks like we are going to be able to set things up so she will be able to stay living where she is currently and just have people coming into her apartment to help with her needs.  My sister was finishing doing research today so we could get things moving to get her back home.

New Stressors

We got the car taken care of and things are starting to look better finacially, so a new stressor got added to my life.

My grandma feel on Thursday night and broke her wrist in multiple places.  She was living independently in senior housing, but as a family (my dad, his brother, myself, and my grandma’s good friend) do not feel she is safe to live alone anymore, though we have said we will reevaluate after her wrist heals and we will.  She needs supervision with her medications and assistance right now with bathing, cooking, and housework. She is not as strong as she was and has been growing weaker, less stable on her feet.   Right now she is staying with her good friend and I know I was relieved when I heard that she was at her house.

I have the next couple of days off work, so I am going to do my best to find some place new for her to live.  I don’t think a nursing home is the right place for her.  Some sort of assisted living would be much better.  What is very hard is that she has no money, or it might make it easier since she would qualify for more public assistance (though I hate that my grandma has to live off our tax dollars).  We would like to find something by the end of the week if not sooner.

Please pray we make good decisions and find a place that she would be happy in.  My grandma is a very independant woman and hates to admit that she has gotten to the point that she needs help like this.  I don’t really think she is ready to acknowledge that she needs help, but is getting closer to that point.

Has anyone who reads this dealt with this kind of situation and know the phone calls I need to make?  I am going to contact Counsel on Aging and the visiting nurse that has been coming out to see her first thing tomorrow (Monday) to start getting the information I need.

Happy New Year

We did get everything done with returning the rental car, except it took us almost twice as long as it should have to drive down to Lansing to return the rental car.  It was snowing pretty good when we left and it took us almost 2.5 hours to drive down (normally 1.5 hour trip).  The boys both did pretty good.  We split them up when we were in 2 cars, I did have to deal with a screaming boy for part of the trip especially since he didn’t have his brother to entertain him.

As I look back over the last few months I can see how God has been providing for us.  The van is already almost paid off and should be once I get the check for the remainder of the payoff from the insurance company from the credit union that held our loan, thanks to an unexpected gift.  Thank you.

2008 is definately looking up for us.  I am starting to very clearly see some areas of my life that need some work and already have plans to work on them.  So of them I have already started doing.

I do have a list of things I want to work on this year.  I wouldn’t call them “resulutions,” but rather goals.

• Daily or near daily Bible reading and prayer.  I would say I do pray daily, but my Bible study has really been lacking over the last few years and I know that is something that needs to change.  I really stuggle to know what to read and need to have a “plan” to follow.  I am just going to concentrate on reading through the New Testament this year.
• De-clutter my house.  Russ is saying how the clutter is driving him nuts.  We both really need to work on it.  Moving last summer really opened our eyes to how much “stuff” we have and how most of it we don’t even use and haven’t used in years.  I am planning on making good use of the van to haul stuff away from here.  May make my first of many stops for the new year to Goodwill today.  We really need to get the garage cleaned out so that we can park the van in there, especially since my uncle came and picked up the lawnmower so we could get the van in there.
• Get myself in better physical shape.  Enough said.
• Budget and save money.  We wouldn’t have had half the struggles we have had over the last few years if we had been following those steps.  For our  wedding anniversary my mom gave us Your Money Map, by Howard Dayton.  Stop number one — live on a budget and have $1,000 emergency savings.  That is my goal (and I dare say Russ’ as well) and should be possible long before the end of the year.
• Relationship building.  I see some relationships that need a lot of work right now.