Morning Ritual

I had to be in training on Monday and Tuesday and they made us do an exercise about rituals. They told us to write, in detail, about our morning ritual. At the point that I wrote this I was bored out of my mind and had to amuse myself somehow so I kind of turned sarcastic. Shocking I know...

Meredith's Morning Ritual

6:00 am- Phone alarm wakes me up and I immediately turn it off. I allow myself about 10 seconds to stare at the ceiling and thing, "ugh, why me"? Then I get up.

6:01 am- Walk into the bathroom. Stare at my hair and think- good enough. (I shower at night). Or if my hair has turned into a rat's nest I might break out the curling iron to fix my natural curls.

6:03 am- Put on my makeup- and by makeup I mean blush and mascara. I also put on deodorant and perfume.

As you can see Leia is kinda a freak about food

6:10 am- Take puppies downstairs. Put on their collars and leashes- which they don't wear inside because I hate the jiggling noise of their name tags. Take puppies outside to pee. Bring dogs inside and make them sit and wait for their breakfast- they are trained not to eat until we tell them to.

6:20 am- Put lunch- leftovers- in lunch box along with frozen thingy. Put Brita water in my camelbac water bottle.

Leia has the "special" bowl- food is her weakness

6:25 am- Prepare dog food- 2 cups of Purina One chicken and rice for each dog. Put water on their food to make it yummy.

6:30 am- Allow the dogs to eat. Prepare cereal for breakfast, usually little kid stuff like Lucky Charms, while tripping over my dogs eating from their bowls. I really need to buy them a non-slip mat.

6:35 am- Walk, with my cereal, upstairs. Eat breakfast while perusing the Internet- emails, my favorite blogs, facebook, etc- in the extra bedroom.

6:50 am- Make sure the dogs go back in the bedroom. Brush my teeth and put on my shoes. Kiss my husband goodbye- because he is still asleep! Grr! Take cereal bowl to kitchen and put in dishwasher.

7:00 am- Get everything together and leave.

7:40 am- Arrive at work and think- when will I stop feeling the need to arrive everywhere freakishly early??

Am I 25??

No, I think I may be an old lady hidden in a young body. Stranger still, is the fact that I have been an old lady since I was even younger than I am now. I go to bed early, I enjoy being suzy homemaker, I grew up watching old movies, and I relish in crafts.

My grandmother taught me to cross stitch years ago. I learned to crotchet and knit in college. I will almost always do a craft at work just so I can join in with the kids. Coloring? Huge stress relief when they have been off the wall! I am fidgety and I care for crafts because they gives my hands something to do.

Cross stitching was my first love though. I have been doing it since elementary school. Freshman year of college I did my biggest project to date. It took me about a year to finish- mostly because I didn't have lots of time to work on it. My mom even got it professionally framed for me.

Of course if you look very close they messed it up...

You have to make "lines" called back stitching to make definition- for example all of the bird house roofs. Well when they framed it, as you can see, they loosened all the lines somehow and now my birdhouses look crazy. Now I have figured out not to make those lines so long but do little bitty stitches instead- I guess sometimes you learn through mistakes.

When husband and I first visited New Hampshire- where he is from- I made him this project because it reminded me of the beautiful fall scenery. Although it also could easily be mistaken for our gorgeous North Carolina mountains.

And when I get really bored I do little projects like this one:

The thing with cross stitch is that I always buy nice neat little packages. In the kits you already have your needle, thread, fabric, instructions-everything you need! There is not a lot of room for creativity.

So I have now taught myself a new old lady craft. Embroidery. I am very excited about this craft for several reasons. It allows you to have almost limitless creativity. You can make your own patterns, choose your own colors, even choose what types of stitches to use. Plus embroidery has that fun, kitchy, vintage feel to it unlike cross stitch which usually feels, well, "country chic" on a good day.

I love vintage stuff and how it looks eclectic and unique all the time. So this week I started my first project. I also proceeded to go insane because I adored it so much. I have already bought myself a new sewing box, thread, material, and patterns to make more projects but here is my first attempt!

You know you like my sewing box!

He is ready for his close up

You know this owl is awesome. Just admit it. I know it isn't perfect- considering it was my first attempt- but I think I did fairly well! You can use colored thread but I like the simplicity of "blackwork" as they call it. I now have a whole plan of creating about five different sized blackwork projects, frame them in their wooden hoops, and then hang them in the downstairs bathroom. I will spare you individual pictures but I know I will update when I have them hanging in the bathroom.

You and I

Yesterday was a not so great day at work. One of my kids punched my favorite teacher and another kid tried to pop the back of my bra. My patience ran out and I lost my therapeutic self. It was also my first day back this week because I was in training on Monday and Tuesday. Today I am hoping to start my day off right. I am going to reread a poem they gave us in training. I hope today it will help me remember to be there for the kids- no matter what.

YOU AND I

By: Elaine Popovich

I am a resident. You reside.

I am admitted. You move on.

I have behavior problems. You are rude.

I am non-compliant. You don’t like being told what to do.

When I ask you out to dinner, it is an outing. When you ask someone, it is a date.

I don’t know how many people have read the progress notes people have written about me. I don’t even know what’s in there. You didn’t speak to you best friend for a month after she read your diary.

I made mistakes during my check-writing program. Someday I might get a bank account. You forgot to record some withdrawals from your account. The bank called to remind you.

I wanted to talk with a nice looking person behind us at the grocery store. I was told that it is inappropriate to talk to strangers. You met your spouse in the produce department. He couldn’t find the bean sprouts.

I celebrated my birthday yesterday with five other resident and two staff members. I hope my family sends a card. Your family threw you a surprise party.

My case manager sends a report every month to my guardian. It says everything I did wrong and some things I did right. You are still mad at your sister for calling your mom after you got a speeding ticket.

I am on a special diet because I am five pounds over my ideal weight. Your doctor gave up telling you.

I am learning leisure skills. Your shirt says you are a couch potato.

After I do my budget program tonight I might get to go to McDonalds if I have enough money. You were glad the new French restaurant took your charge card.

My case manager, psychologist, physical therapist, nutritionist, and house staff set goals for me for next year. You haven’t decided what you want out of life.  

Someday, I will be discharged…maybe. You will move onward and upward.

Secret Obsession

On Sunday I was sitting in my living room watching my husband play with some of his best friends.

But I was getting bored considering I can't play an instrument (much to my Minister of Music dad's dismay) and since my TV is right behind the red chair- I couldn't watch TV either. I get figitity when I have nothing to do so I figured blogging is the next best thing.

On Saturday we went to see Harry Potter. It was a bittersweet experience because I love this series but this movie meant the end. First off my husband annoyed the ticket lady until she gave me special Harry Potter 3D glasses:

Harry Potter- or - John Lennon??

Apparently they gave these out on opening night and only had a few left. Sometimes it is good for your husband to be loud and silly! The movie was amazing. When I first started seeing the movies I made the mistake of re-reading the books the day before I saw the movie. I quickly realized that is a bad idea because you watch the movie annoyed the whole time because they have to leave so much out.

Well I have not read this last book- The Deathly Hollow- since it came out. Plus I went a little crazy and read it in a day so I doubt my brain even retains the book. I love her books. My copies are all over the place- some are in Texas and some are here. I really would like to get a new set of books

 all wrapped up and pretty like this. I have read and re-read most of the Harry Potter collection. When they first came out I made fun of people for reading these books. I thought it was childish- even though I was only like 12 when they started coming out.

Then I was bored (this is a theme) at my grandparent's house and I started reading my cousin's copy of the first book. Since then I have been a fan. Many of the books I read in a day because I literally could not put them down. The story just sucks you in and you are hooked till the end.

Now every member of my family has read the whole series. One of us would buy the book and then my parents, or my brother would fight over who got to read it next. This is actually the first Harry Potter movie that I have not seen with my mom.

My brother tried to convince my dad to see the movie when they were in Atlanta. My dad promptly reported that my mom told him she would "take off his head" if he saw it without her. So I guess we are all Harry Potter freaks. (Don't worry about my brother though he came along with us to see the movie.)

I would like to report that this whole new trend of Twilight does NOT compare. I actually tried to give it a chance and the books are just not as good. I never could get into it- it was so mushy and lovey dovey. Not my cup of tea.

I would say I am off to start reading the series again- but I don't have the first book to start!

My Bad...

My brother went to Atlanta this weekend to see my dad and have some fun. I was in charge of taking care of my brother's dog on Friday night and Saturday morning. He has an Akita named Miya who is about 4 years old. She is not a very needy dog so she is quite easy to take care of.

Well, remember when I was talking about making my yummy pie? I had just finished making my Oreo crust at around 3:00 when my brother called me to say he was leaving Atlanta. It was at that moment that I realized I had completely forgotten to take care of his dog in oh- about 17 hours. I am a horrible puppy aunt.

Luckily my brother only lives like five miles away from me. I went flying over to his house and, remarkably, she had not even had an accident! I then proceeded to apologize profusely to her- yes I realize she is a dog- and I believe she forgave me. That or she really didn't care because she could finally pee.

I blame the heat for making my memory melt out of my ears.

Blog Changes

I have not been happy with the layout or the title of my blog for quite awhile. Originally I thought I would write more about the social work side of my life. Honestly, I try not to do that to often because I really have to think about how to word things to protect confidentiality.

So this afternoon I spent a while- OK maybe three hours- finding templates and jazzing up the look of the blog. Then my husband commented that he doesn't like the name of my blog. I have to agree.

He came up with a new name- Sweet Raisins. I am going to have to explain this one. Last year my husband and I went on a road trip with a bunch of friends. I got the nickname sour grapes- not exactly the best nickname but I get it. I am a sarcastic person and I tend to tell it like it is. Anyway the boys named me sour grapes because of this tendency to not always be- what's the word- nice?

Usually it comes off as a joke- which I think this blog shows. My husband said call the blog sweet raisins or- the opposite of sour grapes because usually my silly stories and rants end up being funny even though, really, they are a form of complaining.

I thought it was a clever turn of words- so I figured a change would be fun. Of course, now my website URL is messed up and I have no idea how to fix that! Any clever computer people out there that know how to fix this??

*Update- nevermind! Google is the answer to all my questions. Really, what did we do before google search??

Weekend

My weekends are usually busy. I feel like I have to save up all my errands until the weekend and then I have a laundry list of to-dos. I like to finish my list by Saturday because the only day my husband and I have off together is Sunday.

Yesterday I cleaned the house, did laundry, went grocery shopping, put together an end table, and bought a lamp for the extra bedroom. I also put together spaghetti sauce for dinner. It is approximately a hundred million degrees outside (OK really it is a 107 with the heat index). I feel like my skin is melting when I go outside. No bueno.

All day long my Kitchen Aid mixer sang to me: "Food, glorious food! Hot sausage and mustard! While we're in the mood- cold jelly and custard!" I hope other people loved Oliver as much as I do or I may have just sounded crazy. But I digress...

Anyway I wanted to make a yummy treat, but considering I was sweating in my kitchen with ONLY my crock pot on I figured turning on the oven might kill me. As usual, I consulted my favorite blogger- the Pioneer Woman and I found my answer. Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie. Oh yea you heard me. Delicious and- more importantly- served cold.

Plus I only had to turn on the oven for about ten minutes to cook the crust! It came out very very yummy also. I highly recommend you go to her blog to find the recipe- I figure I shouldn't steal it to post!