The Good Times Jar

WHEW... it's been since SEPTEMBER since I last wrote a journal bit.  I'm still around, still thinking of everyone and occasionally checking to see what's new, but things have been pretty INSANE...
Updates:  The dog business stalled.  I looked and looked and looked for a place but they were either poorly located, not sufficient for what I need, or WAY too expensive.  And so, I set the information aside (though I do add to it from time to time) and I wait..... 
And while I wait, I started a new hobby. Upcycling.  And here's where it gets CRAZY... It started with a friend's rummage sale... she was moving, in a car, to Minnesota.  She had HUGE furniture.  After I stopped over and bought a few things, I told her I'd put it on our local Facebook Rummage Sale pages to get her more customers.   2 days later, she was ready to move, except for 3 BIG pieces of furniture... an entertainment center and a couch that reclined on both side, and a twin bed.   So I bought them from her for $50.   And I had just gone to another rummage sale that morning and bought ANOTHER 2 entertainment centers.   One I dismantled and put in my gym (haven't worked out since race day) until I can work on it, and the other, I sold 2 days after posting it... and then I began going to auctions.   So many auctions, in fact, that the auctioneer keep looking at me whenever he had items no one bid on because he knew I WOULD.   Weird stuff too... like boxes and boxes of small glasses (which I turned into Halloween and Winter Votives for tea candles), and the UGLIEST lamps you'd ever imagine (hey, 2 for $1!).  Ok, the lamps were BAD and there was NO WAY I was gonna plug those babies in to anything electric.   No one bid on them while I just kept staring... floor lamps that stood about 5 feet tall, with 3 spots that looked like they'd hold candle-like  bulbs, and a center one that who knows what it would hold... when I bid on them, everyone turned toward me in shock, lol, and as I carried them out, his hippie guy (tye dye and all) followed me and asked me what I was going to do with them.... my vision?   Halloween candelabra.  Soon as I told him, he said "MAN, I wish I'd thought about that".   So first 50 degree day (not many left now) and I pulled out the black spray paint, flameless candles .... and AWESOME!   And THEN, someone posted the same kind on Facebook where they put a skull instead of a candle in the center and added some beads... COOL!  And so I tried it and wasn't happy (too fancy), so I kept the skull, 3 outer flameless candles, and added SPIDER WEBS.... I'll post a photo, lol...
October 4th.  UGH.  Heard a storm was coming 3 days before it hit and the forecast said a foot.   By the time evening of October 3rd came along, they were saying 3 feet.   Woke up to my tree in front of my house destroyed from the weight of the snow, a foot on the ground already, and power went out at 7 am.... and stayed out for 4 days.  And yep, 3 feet (6 feet higher up)   I didn't mind no power.   Did mind no heat.  But thank God I had WATER!   But dummy me... I only had food I needed an oven for.  My ELECTRIC oven. So I snowshoed to the store (which had power the entire time) and restocked.   First night, the muttleys and I stayed in the camper - had heat in there - and at 2 am, my battery died (I didn't have it charged up) and it set off all the alarms.   I almost didn't get the camper door open and when I did... white-out conditions between the camper and the house and it was only about 10 feet apart.   THOUSANDS of cattle died in that storm.  So my animals and I slept in the house with my thermal sleeping bag... next night, we slept in the basement on a futon next to the hot water heater (only place with heat), 3rd night I just didn't care anymore and went back upstairs to my king bed.... Futons are the WORST.   And then it melted and it took me almost 3 weeks to saw my tree down enough to be safe (it's coming down the rest of the way next summer) 
25 trick-or-treaters came Halloween night.   Not only were they thrilled to have fun at my place (tombstones in the front yard, Frankenstein tied to the remnants of my tree (haunted tree), a glowing ghost, moving monster spider that glowed WITH spider web, my creepy candelabra, and me dressed up as a witch), but the kids even waited on the street until I got home so they could come over and say thank you (I LOVE SMALL TOWNS!)
And so that brings me up to November... Once I got that tree cut, I've done nothing except sort and organize my craft room.   I'm beginning to think it's a hopeless cause.  Because of all the auction stuff, all I've been doing is shifting it from one room to another and back again.   Very frustrating.  And just when I thought I actually have progressed enough to get it finished.... I got a phone call.   My son and daughter-in-law were at the hospital.  She delivered a HEALTHY baby boy at 5:30 on Friday, November 22nd.  The anniversary of the date that my late exhusband was admitted to the hospital for the last time.   My mother-in-law (exhusband's mom) came to be here for the birth, was the first of all of us to see the baby.   It's been wonderful having her here.   I had a great dinner night with her 2 weekends ago, and she's been a huge help for my son and his family....
Today, she announced she's leaving early.   This Sunday. She says it's because she wants to go visit other family members on the way, but my son and I think there's more to it.   She's hit full blown grief, just like I did.  My son said she's been going out for things from the store and not coming back for 3 hours.... she told him it's because she's been sitting in the car in the canyons crying.  Since I know how much pain she's going through, I wish there was something I could do to ease it for her, but I know I can't.   BUT, I can help her discover ways to make it more bearable - the Good Times Jar... or as I'm going to label it, The Special Memories Jar.
You know, when I first saw the idea on Facebook, I thought 2 things.... that I had so much heartache that I wouldn't have any good times to write about, and that as usual I procrastinate and would I even have enough written to fill it enough to read it?   Well, it turns out that I do.  November 5th was my wedding anniversary.   The night before, I had a dream that my exhusband came to me and asked if there was a way he could come back, would I take him back?  And I said not if there's any alcohol involved.  And he looked disappointed and walked away... and I haven't dreamt about him since.   And the GRIEF came flooding in again.... But that morning as I made breakfast, my Good Times Jar was just sitting next to the microwave where I cook my daily egg, and IT'S FULL.  I'm not only going to open it on New Year's, but when my son realized what it is, he said he's going to come over to go through it with me...  Yep, I have had Good Times.... just walks in the woods to start... now sleeping babies, a connection with my mother-in-law I should have had many, many years ago, closeness with my son, and a Thanksgiving with my daughter-in-laws parents where I had a blast... yep, GOOD TIMES....
And so tomorrow, my mother-in-law is getting a Christmas present from me.... her own Good Times Jar.   Because she needs it.
 
LATER!