Thursday Thirteen wk7

8:57 PM Edit This

Thirteen Things I'm Planting in the Garden


  1. Carrots
  2. Peas
  3. Corn
  4. Lima Beans
  5. Pumkins
  6. Squash
  7. Spinach
  8. Cucumbers
  9. Gherkins
  10. Peppers
  11. Tomatoes
  12. Beets
  13. Zucchini



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!



Is this strange or what?

11:57 PM Edit This 0 Comments »
So today I saw this couple at the County Garage Sale. Once a long time ago, I don't remember when , I did a yahoo search for Sedro Woolley and found a public photo album they had posted. Now a photo album on Flickr a celebrity does not make but I felt weird that I knew something about them and they didn't know me. Then I got to thinking, I put myself out there heart and soul for all the world to see and I don't even know if anyone but my husband reads my blog. I know I read several and never leave comments.

Anyway my point is, when I showed the pictures to Doug, long ago (some were very interested) I said to him I bet if we ever met them we could really be friends. Well, I met them and Doug spoke to them and I didn't say a thing. I didn't want to come off as creepy. I guess being silent may be creepy and he was only talking to Doug but I could have been brave and invited her to a LLL meeting.

Ok, get this. I check my sources all the time, I hate to misinform so I searched Flickr for Sedro Woolley and again I found there or now I see "his" page. How weird is this. We both live int he same town, already knew that one but we live 70 miles away from Seattle. All last week I drove Doug to work in Seattle and randomly picked what we would do for the day once I was there. On Tuesday I took the boys to Seattle Center to see the Pacific Science Center and walk around Seattle Center. I pull up his Flickr page and he has photo's labeled taken on April 2nd (Tuesday) of the Seattle Center and Science Center. Now how small is this world really? That's almost creepy don't you think?

Anyhow we were at the garage sale at the fairgrounds and I saw this instrument a Melodica. Sunny Jim of Captain Bogg and Salty plays one in a couple of songs and I thought it looked like a cool instrument to play with. It was the first of 5-6 buildings of the sale and we only had $40 with us, the price on it was $35. The booth was too small to take the stroller into and so not remembering what the thing is called I gave Doug rough directions to it. Previously mentioned persons picked it up, according to Doug "Because I didn't tell him what it was" but the man set it back down and Doug went over to look at it and left it there. I was really bummed and told him so. I looked back and the man was back at the booth looking at it again. I was sure we had lost it. Doug said he didn't want to spend all the money on the first thing we saw. I said if you come across a piece of gold you don't leave it behind because you might find something better later down the road. He agreed with my logic and went back to see if the man had bought it or not. He left it behind. We bought it and the man only charged us $30 and we didn't even try to haggle.

Thank you brettbigb and Darcy Rae. If it's meant to be perhaps we will meet again one day.

Speaking of meant to be, it was a strange day indeed. We didn't even know there was a garage sale today. This morning we got up and got dressed up in our best suits to attend the funeral of Richard "Dick" Sjogren. The kids were asleep when we loaded them into the car, jammies and all and when we arrived, late to boot we had to dress them. It was really probably better that we were so late since Robin was in no mood to be quiet and serious.

I have to say Grandpa Dick was a great man, very welcoming and you never met a friendlier soul. His wife Laura might be the exception, they were both always so kind to us and our kids. Dick was exactly the kind of Grandpa I always imagined my Grandpa could have been when I was a kid had I seen him. He knew what was up with the neighbors and how all the grandkids were doing. He could tell you what the weather was going to be like and his smile when he saw babies always made you smile. We never turned down an invite to go to Grandma and Grandpa Sjogren's house with David and Lara.

After the funeral before the reception if that's what you call it, we went to the co-op to grab some food. It went very smoothly and usually something happens: Robin runs away in the store, they are out of what we have come to buy, Robin won't eat and wants to smell candles and ring the chimes instead...you get it I'm sure, well everything went fine. It was nice.

We left to find the fire hall that the reception was to be held at and got lost. When we did find it the boys had a while to run/crawl around and blow of some steam. When we were about ready to leave Lara mentioned going to the garage sale that we didn't even know was going on. We had some time to waste before the family swim so figured why not.

After a quick stop to the feed store for oats and cash back we went to the sale and paid our $4 for entry. I hate having to pay to buy things. I know they charge for those booths, it seems like extortion that I should pay to go in as a customer too. It's only $4 and I let it go.

When we got there well you read the fourth paragraph. (Are you still with me?) The next thing we saw that we wanted to buy was a grain mill but they wanted $27 for it, and it was worth it but we only had $10 left. We browsed some more and I spent that remaining $10 on a beautiful enameled cast iron pot shaped like a garlic bulb.



We met a man who's wife can find our property lines at a reasonable price. We have needed that for 5 yrs now. He said she could do it for a fraction of what a surveyor will charge, like in the hundreds rather than thousands. She had a booth inside so we went to seek her out.While looking for her I bought a corn bread pan that fits in the toaster oven with $2.50 I had in my wallet for the bus. Next I saw a red poncho I really wanted for $20 so that would have to wait until we got cash from the grocery store. We decided to leave for the store and get cash, run back and make our planned purchases.

The store would only let us get $40 and we needed $55 so Doug had to run in for a second $20, leaving $5 to spare. We headed back and on the way in we saw a building we had not seen before so went into check it out. There was a booth in the back that we have bought from in the past, We couldn't spend too much money, we only had $5 over what we needed for the purchases to be made. I bought a tea pot for $0.50. We ran on to buy the grain mill and poncho.

When I got to the booth with the grain mill, they had already sold it. They said they thought we didn't want it and would have held it, I thought we told them we would come back for it. It's ok, we'll buy another. I was bummed but that was the bulk of our cash, next on to the ponch.

The poncho guy in a fair sale regular and was gone. He closed up early just like Doug said he would. There were three other poncho sellers, but they didn't have the exact one I wanted but I found a good one, lighter weight than the one I already own and that was the important part. Instead of $20 she wanted $30, I offered $25 but she couldn't go lower than $28. I only had $27 available. She said ok and off we went to go back and see that building we had missed and to purchase another cast iron biscuit pan, hearts that will also fit in the toaster oven, for $2 now that the grain mill wasn't there and could spare the money.

We bought the biscuit pan and tried to see the second half of the building, but there was a man closing the door, they were done for the day. When going back down the ramp it lead through the booth where the tea pot and biscuit pan had been sold, there was a cast iron kettle sitting there. It's where the the biscuit pan was found, inside. I had not really seen the kettle before. The price on it was $49. It was an honest price of a kettle of it's size and I would have paid that much for it too. I pulled out all the cash I had left, $33. I thought for just a minute, what's the worst that could happen if I asked to buy it for all I had and they said no? I guess then it wasn't meant to be, just like the grain mill. I asked the woman if she would accept $33, it was all I had. She thought a long, long time. Her partner asked her well who is going to offer you more? She hemmed and hawed over it and asked me what I was going to do with it. That question confused me, it's a pot what else do you do with it but cook? I told her cook stews, brown meat cook just about everything in it. It didn't occur to me she was probably worried that I would sell it or let it collect dust as a decoration. She was thinking hard about it and I told her please, I will cherish it for ever and I will pass it down to my children someday. She said ok. That's what got her. She had lost her son and to know that I would pass it on is what she needed. She told me that she had bought it second hand when she was about my age. We hugged and I was so delighted, I think this pot deserves it's own blog. I'm at least going to take pictures for a year of it's uses because I think it will be fun to keep a chronicle on it.

If the day had not unfolded exactly as it did I would not have found this amazing kettle. It's my most prized kitchen tool. It has a lid that locks in place by the handle which it could hang from. The handle on the lid is cast with the lid, all one piece. It's a true piece of craftsmanship. It's old and sturdy. It is beautiful.

New Schedule

10:21 PM Edit This 0 Comments »
Doug started his new job on Tuesday and it has made for hectic times. I drove him on for the first three days so he could get his bus/train pass and schedual figured out. This meant that we all needed to be up at 4am. This is now our life. Suddenly we are forced into being morning people. It's only 10:30 now but it feels like 3am. 4 in the morning was a time to go to sleep, not to wake up.

There was a time in my life that I had to be to work at 5am to prep and open Arby's but I usually slept during the afternoon, work late evening and stayed up all night. I only slept about 3 hrs a day since part of the time I actually had two jobs - three jobs, I closed at Ivars and worked graveyard at Jack in the box. I dropped Ivars after a while, not really enough hours after the store manager changed. Eventually I quit Jank in the box because hated my boss's arrogance and the way they tried to suck you in to commit to a life long career at jack in the box. When I finally left Arby's after working there 2 yrs and reaching managment level I had to no show. I tried to quit several times before but always got sucked back in. I felt like I couldn't let them down and owed them something, I don't know why, it's not like they paid me anything really. I remember getting so excited about getting a raise and thanking my boss who said "don't thank me, it's the law that increased your wage, it's the minimum and all." I was desperate at the time.

I really wanted to go to school and learn something but in order to get financial aid of any sort you need to apply for federal aid. If you are under 23 and have no dependents and are not married your parents need fill out the financial aid form to make sure they don't make too much for your to qualify for any grants there might be for you. My mom refused to fill out my financial aid forms. She wouldn't even send a note saying she refused. I had no choice, I got married.

Our friend had been in a serious relationship with a girl who upon turning 21 decided she needed to sow her oats and left him. Doug said he didn't want to marry me until 1.) he finished school (I was paying our way, he only had one part time job) and 2.) I turned 21 so he could see for himself that I wasn't going to go crazy and leave him. Somewhere in there between house cleaning and delivering pizzas I landed a job at the health department in medical records.

I was making pretty good money and after a few months quit delivering pizzas, actually the same night I bought the neon, I pulled in to Domino's and said, sorry guys, I bought a brand new car so I'm going to have to quit, but I would like to order the special ;)

In April life threw us a curve ball. I was on the way home from work when I was rear ended hard. I sustained a whiplash injury and had to take time off work. I had been a temporary employee and was near three weeks off of gaining union rights. Of course this was seen as a perfect opportunity to get me out and another temp in so they wouldn't have to pay benefits.

We were planning our wedding for August, Doug didn't graduate until June and I was injured and without a job. To top it off, the pain kept getting worse not better. After a couple months I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. I was devastated. There is no cure and very few treatments. I told Doug he didn't have to marry me and I could understand if he wanted to wait and see what happened with me first, after all he had not yet made the commitment for better or worse.

I had a really hard time but fought through Fibro and all. I enrolled in college the spring after we were married and took classes for the next year and a half. Something happened last quarter as they always seem to do and my professor who had exempted me from a math class, didn't turn in my paper work for the exemption or the intership I had performed and he quit teaching at the school and moved on. I was technically screwed out of my degree without two more quarters of classes and $2000 more dollars that we just didn't have.

Well, I found a job as a designer anyway, twice even and I was pretty good at it. I don't like the stress though. It's never the customers that cause the stress, it's the art directors. The customers are always amazed with what you can come up with but art directors have an exact vision of what they expect from you but can't or won't twll you what that is. Now I can read minds but only of animals, not humans so I pretty much sucked at that part. I'm a perfectionist too almost to the point of obsession and it really irks me when someone tells me to move something over half a point. Do you even realize how small half a point is? The laser printer has that much variance between sheets of paper, it just goes to show it was always a control issue.

My Fibromyalgia, or at least the drugs the doctors were prescribing me were interfering with my job too much and so I was put on permanent leave but since there isn't a blood test for Fibromyalgia it wasn't paid leave in defiantly. I basically spent two years in bed I hurt so bad. Three years of time I barely remember because of the meds they had me on. We did camp a bit and I taught my dog to pull me up so I had a little help and was not alone.

We realized that I always had more energy and felt so much better when we were camping. Sometimes my ears even stopped ringing (caused dizziness and I had to walk with a cane) I felt so alive when we were camping. We decided to move out of the city to a place were it would be like camping everyday. Here we are, we have a house in the woods. I quit all meds shortly after moving here, we couldn't afford the $400 a month for meds (that was just in deductibles) once my disability payments stopped.

We lived so far from any fast food I had to learn to cook, really cook. I found out I have food sensitivities that trigger the Fibro symptoms and if I eat them I get sick and am down fast. I take food sensitivities very seriously now. For 8 years I lived in unbearable pain and could not function, now my pain is bearable most days and I wouldn't trade my freedom to move, the aches and pains, headaches or IBS for a piece of cake or pizza, it's just not worth it. Some people have said to me that I need to live a little and lighten up, I say living is exactly what I'm doing now. Previously I was only existing and barely at that. The cookies and burgers just weren't worth it.

And back to the original subject, lack of sleep. It's making me worse again. I'm in a great deal of pain but over the 8 yrs since my diagnosis I have learned to compartmentalize pain and so I push on. Swimming is really helping. I'm so glad we joined the gym. Just half an hour in the water provides so much relief, I wish I could make it every day. I need to work harder to feed myself too, I feed the kids and by the time they are taken care of I don't have time to feed myself before they are bored and needing me for the next adventure. If I don't eat I have less energy and without still needing to push on it's like grinding break pads, they still work but not a quick as you feel comfortable and you should fear them failing at anytime.

We will get it figured out, we always do and life should get easier as we get used to the new schedule.

Thursday Thirteen wk6

11:36 PM Edit This 0 Comments »

Thirteen Things I like to see in Seattle


  1. Seattle Science Center - I'm a card carrying member.
  2. Uwajimaya - I have not been in years but it's on my list. I need to go and get some sweet rice flour.
  3. Goodwill Outlet - where else can't you buy all things used by the pound?
  4. Mee Sum Pastry - Hum Bow at it's best!
  5. Woodland Park Zoo - also a member, the zoo is best on a rainy day.
  6. Seattle Aquarium - I had not been in the aquarium in over 5 years and it has changed a lot for the better. I will join there soon too.
  7. Seattle Library - more books that anyone needs
  8. UW bookstore - more stuff to see than just books. It's the best place for art and office supplies and trinkets.
  9. University Ave "The Ave" - There is a great mexican restaurant where Taco Bell used to be, a birkenstock store, twice sold tales, people watching, etc.
  10. The Seattle Art Museum - especially on Free first Thursday
  11. Pike Place Market - who doesn't love pike place?
  12. The Burke Museum - It's a gate way to "The Ave"
  13. MOHAI - The Museum of History and Industry, the final resting place of poor stuffed Coco the Gorilla. I also like to see the Rainier Runners, they always make me laugh.



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!