my grandmother's birthday

December 9th, my grandmother's birthday.
last year i was so proud of myself for getting her gift (a book on sebastopol's history), wrapping it, and getting it in the mail early.
it may seem strange that i mailed it, being that i live so close by.
you see, my grandmother was known for her mail,
mostly cards and thank you notes; always timely, always personal.
of course i got a thank you card back from her (almost instantaneously),
and how happy i was to see the book proudly displayed on her coffee table the next time i visited her.
on her coffee table it would stay, until the day she passed in october.
now it lives on my coffee table.
i'm missing her today.




Also born on December 9th:
1970 David Kersh (country artist)
1969 Jakob Dylan (singer, songwriter, musician)
1957 Donny Osmond (singer, TV Host)
1953 John Malkovich (actor, producer, director)
1942 Dick Butkus (football coach, player)
1941 Beau Bridges (director, actor)
1930 Buck Henry (actor, writer, director)
1929 John Cassavetes (actor)
1928 Dick Van Patten (actor)
1925 Dina Merrill (actress)
1922 Redd Foxx (comedian)
1916 Kirk Douglas (actor)
1911 Lee J Cobb (actor)
1909 Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (actor)
1906 Freddy Martin (musician, bandleader)
1902 Margaret Hamilton (actress)
1899 Jean de Brunhoff (illustrator)
1898 Emmett Kelly (clown)
1896 Clarence Birdseye (inventor, food processor)
1608 John Milton (poet)

in a mall

i am in a mall, not because i am shopping (normal reason), but because i am working.
how did this come about, what with my lofty real estate licence and all?

well...as anyone that is "smarter than a fifth grader" knows; the real estate/mortgage business is not the place to be right now if your life requires any semblance of stability, and it turns out that mine does.

as a paycheck became more and more of a distant memory, i threw my self, or my daughter anyway, on the mercy of my mom and mother-in-law.
lucky for me, they were all to happy to pitch in and take care of the little muffin.

i spent a couple of weeks applying and interviewing, and this was the job that made the most sense.
i am the guest services supervisor for the mall at northgate.
translation: i, along with five other ladies, provide concierge service to mall goers from a kiosk between stores.

as it turns out i am working for a really good company that manages shopping centers across the united states.

they are talking about implementing uniforms, now i know that this may sound horrible, but in my busy life i welcome the spare time this would afford me.
can you imagine?
no need to change my clothes several times each morning just to put on the first outfit,
no need to iron, as the company covers dry cleaning,
no need for me to get a pair of new brown loafers (as everything does not go with the two pairs of acceptable shoes i own, they are both black)
and at last, no need to rehang all of the outfits that did not make the cut during my morning fashion show
BRING IT ON!!!!

whats in a name

i am the first on to tell you how much i love my name, but despite my elementary school secretary telling (evey single day), that the name "abbie st marie" should be up in lights, because it just sounds like a movie star; i did not enjoy this name as a child. i knew no other abbie's growing up. and unlike my sister amy, i was never able to find my name on a pencil, or one of those cute little plastic licence plates, and on the rare occation i did...it was never spelled like my name. so....in the sixth grade i decided that i was going to change my name to tracy, i informed my friends , family and teachers, i wrote on all of my binders and even went so far as to write it at the top of my school papers (mrs hill was kind enough to allow it, but never called me that no matter how many times i reminded her), needless to say it never stuck!
i was eighteen years old when i understood the significance of being my grandmother's namesake, that was when she gave me my beloved "ABBIE" box. my grandmother must have know that she would someday pass it on to me, as it was passed to her; the funny thing is, until she gave it to me, i had never seen it! maybe she knew that i would beg for it and that was why she decided to make it a surprise.
the box is made of a dark wood and you can tell it it really old by the way it is crafted, it has a skeleton key lock, that no longer catches and a thick lid that houses a "secret" flap down compartment (which has always thrilled me!) inside of the compartment is the real treasure, my name has been passed down for many generations and my grandmother documented it for me with notes and pictures dating back to the eighteen hundreds. the box also has my name inlaid on the top of it's lid.
THAT ws my moment, the defining moment it my life that made me feel special, my very own place in the world, my grandmothers namesake.
like my grandmother, i am no stranger to hard times and heartache, i have a love for travel, seafood, sweets and am strong willed and stubborn. i have a quick wit about me, like to make my opinions known and can bit quite sassy when a moment strikes me.
sadly, the grandmother for whom i was named, passed on friday, october the fifth at one thirty in the afternoon, and it seemed fitting that i was there with her.
i am so sad, but again like her, i promise to carry her name with grace, dignity and strength.

love you grandma,
abbie

five BIG months

little miss rory charlotte five months old, so i decided an update was in order
it is quite possible that she is the most jolly baby i have ever known, how did i get so lucky?
she rolls to her side and back, but not yet all the way over
she chatters away when the mood strikes her
still loves her swing..( thanks kim & tony), but who can blame her? it swngs from side to side like a hammock
she loves to chew on stuffed animals and is starting to really like toys, but nothing beats a good foot chewing!
and let me just say how i love the giggles i get when i nibble on a chunky thigh! oh joy!!!
latest word sound, neh, neh, neh

in hopes that i still have a few readers....here is a quick update.

we got the car back and after it was cleaned and fumigated, it was overall, in pretty good shape. but i have to admit, after all my car had been through, i was not as welcoming as i should have been, maybe even a bit cold. poor greta..i have named her "greta carbo" in effort to bond.
but just in case i had started to feel better about the whole thing, my favorite meth-head criminals were hard at work; making counterfeit checks and overdrawing my account as well as charging my banana republic credit card to its limit (the one card i forgot about)
can you imagine how crazy i am driving my poor husband? example; "honey did you lock the house before we left?", "yes", "are you sure?", "yes, i double checked it", "can we just quickly go back and check again?", "bit i'm sure", "its less than three blocks...go back"
the good news is that i have started to take a daily dose of omega-3 to counter the anxiety....i think its actually helping!

accoutability

the main reason i started this blog was to create some accountability in my quest of gettting healthy and fit.
i have been excercising at least three times a week, obseving the food cutoff time in the evening, drinking my water, cut alcolhol out almost entirely, and strange thing has happened....not only do i feel healthier, but i feel my body changing. the changes are slight, maybe not yet noticable to others. in addition to the slight changes i got on the scale this morning and i was five pounds lighter. okay, i know scales arent supposed to talk but mine does! lately it has sceamed and yelled that it was going to break if i didnt lighten up, but not today! no sir-ee bob, today we shook hands and made friends :)
i am on my way.....and it really feels good!

the rest of the story

my last post was a bit of a cliffhanger, so here's how the story ends...

johnny and i spent the rest of the day talking to the CHP, borrowing a car from my parents, and shopping for a new car seat for rory. we ended up getting a bigger car seat as we would needing one in a few months anyway, so in addition to all of the stress of the day, i had to take a moment to be sad that the thieves of my car were making my baby grow up just a bit faster. that bothered me, but she does not care a bit.
soon enough i had to shift gears, it was a sunday night, and kyle was to start high school the next morning; problem being that he could not go to sleep because he was having a full blown panic attack..sure that the people that took the jeep would be back for a third time. i was able to talk him down from his ledge, now if i can just come down from mine.
tuesday morning was very hectic. i am not yet used to the traffic so i got kyle to the bus stop late..too late. i called johnny to tell him that i was going to have to take kyle into the city when he informed me that the police had called to say they had found my jeep and were waiting for me to claim it in belvedere, school would have to wait.
we followed the directions to the street in belvedere where me jeep was...WOW! for those of you that have never been there, it is an area where the starting price for a home is about 5 million, and now i know why. it was as if i was transported to europe, the views are breathtaking!
oh, back to my drama. so when i got there the officer asked me to look in the car to identify my property...a mountain bike, ipods, cds wallets, buckets of credit cards, duffel's of clothes, every type of cord for any kind of device you can imagine, meth pipes, and a smell that would rival any crack house. not my stuff officer, not mine at all!
the police asked if they could take my jeep to process it thoroughly. of course i said yes. by the way, kyle really enjoyed this real life csi scenario and actually pointed out some very useful things to the officer, i am sure he was very excited to tell the school secretary all of the details when he finally got there, an hour late.
so the jeep is at the dealership being re-keyed, detailed and deodorized,now if i can just deal with my new and acute case of paranoia and ocd!