Knowledge Capturing of Today's "Mi-social" accomplishments (It's the Narration part of OUR Work - just being here :)

We found these when reading our email today ... they are from the blog of  Harold Jarche.  He wrote a really good article with a slide show called, "Traditional Training Structures are Changing," and "Whats working and what's not in online training."  This has a lot of validity to us, because we are still considering ourselves in training to be knowledge leaders.  Maybe when we come back we can process blogs too, right?  That be like earning our keep!  Social Networking is where it is though at!!!

Friday, October 19, 2012 @ 1:26 PM

Good morning … Can’t believe it’s almost 1:30 PM … we’ve done so close to absolutely NOT MUCh.  I might have expected this in that we didn’t crawl out of bed until 9 AM.  What a SLUGBunny!

For the most part, we haven’t done any Domestic Goddess work, but we’ve spent a lot of time on the computer and pretty much just calming ourselves down from all of yesterday’s work putting together our life and holiday season.  It is SOOO exciting knowing that we will meet with people this year.  So much going on …

I think one of the most exciting things is that Maury committed to a date – two dates (or at least NIKKI committed – Hehehe).  Maury was a bit fuzzy where Nikki was sharp.  They and the Grandchildren will be coming over Saturday, November 24^th, and Saturday December 22^nd.  It is hard to be even more excited than that, but there is some more!  The next thing I wanted to say though is that we talked to Thom last night while parked waiting for Dr. Marvin’s appointment.  This then is the sad part.

I’m not sure if Thom and Duyen are going to make it as a couple.  There have been some pretty major battles and I think Thom wants to call it quits.  I don’t want to say anything else, except that we are deeply sorry for both of them because we love and respect Duyen.  In the end though, it’s between the couple not the Mother or MIL.  The other part of that news is that Thom didn’t think he was coming home for the holidays.  That was disappointing too.  Our concern of course, will be for Thom and that he finds some joy in this holiday season.

While it closed some doors, it opened other doors.  I will ask Laura when we see her and Austin on the 28^th if she would like to come for the holiday events on the above two days that we are inviting Maury and his family, plus Joe and Cari.  I would very much like for Austin to meet the cousins.  I’m still worried about the space because it would be twelve people in the apartment which would cover all the chairs, BUT we’re thinking we have a few folding chairs in the front hall closet that can be brought out.  We also might think of bringing the high chair out for Isa or one of the girls which would free up more adult space.  I’ll really have to be patient though, because I’m not sure if Austin is ready for that kind of crowd.  We SURE would like him to be here though with his Mom.  And, there is a LOT of people who would like to know them!

That would be the two family celebrations with our family.  CS my sister has indicated that she’ll have too much problems at that point because of medical problems.  She’s having tests done now in West Bend and will be living there sometime in December and it looks like her MIL’s place in Rochester, MN will be sold – if that’s the way it is to work out between CS, Mark and his sister.  CS tests seem to indicate that she’s going to need a couple of neck, upper back and lower back fuses.  I’m not sure how that is all going to work into their schedules with holidays and packing/unpacking.  We also don’t know where Nathan will be during all that because at this point he still lives in CS house and he and his girlfriend are now looking for something different, though might end up doubling with his parents until that comes about.  We’ll have to see … Might mean a trip or two up to Westbend for me to help CS, but I’m thinking that it might be too overwhelming for me because things up there seem so up in the air at this time.  Somehow we should be able to share some holiday, but our thinking is that she’s not going to be able to come here due to her back and us having just a couple couches AND stairs.

ON THE OTHER HAND … There’s a really good part.  We got into a very assertive mood after talking about all this kind of stuff with Dr. Marvin, and on the way home, we called Jean (and Janet) and was pretty insisted that they come down sometime between now and the end of the year to do an overnight retreat at Club Ann.  AND, they said they will try to make those arrangements on one of the Sunday/Mondays coming up in December.  OMG … I was just so excited.  It can’t be anything other than just great fun and frivolity! 

The poorer news is that we talked to Linda and she won’t be able to do Club Ann yet.  That all is more complicated.

We talked to Rich about all these things last night and the part of his friends coming too.  They would be scheduled over on Sunday, November 18^th.  That leaves most likely his mother for Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.  Christmas morning is just Rich and us though it be fun to drop in on Maury and Nikki too!  We didn’t ask about that nor do we want to overload them on a VERY much inner family day, but it’s always exciting to be around kids - Maybe for brunch before going to Rich’s Mom.  We’ll have to check with Maury to see what he feels about that.  I think his girls are supposed to get there that morning, but we don’t want to invade that space either because the activity is hard enough with all the emotions of a Christmas morning.  I’m guessing though that the girls would get there about 9 am IF there mother were on time, which we here isn’t often the case.

Along with Rich’s Mom might come some of his relatives like his brother, nieces and grandnephew, plus there is also the chance that Jon might be there, Rich’s son.  I’m pretty sure that nothing will happen between me and Rich’s other son, though Rich will most likely make time to go over there too.  He has a brand new Grandson now to spoil.  The other thing left up in the air is that Rich thinks that Jillian and Chris and Natty won’t be coming up during the holidays.  I was really concerned about that, but Rich said that Jillian and her Mom aren’t getting along again.  I wish there were enough money to rent a hotel for them in Chicago at least some of their holiday time so we could still see them.  Jillian has others she’d also visit up here, but it might not be worth her trouble.  We would love to share either of the holidays with them, and my boys have no problems if they were to be included in anything here.  Just have to fit in a few more chairs.

I’m still not sure how to get Rich out of the kitchen.  He’s actually another station in as far as anyone could pool in the dining/kitchen area and talk while he’s cooking, but usually he’s concentrating pretty hard.  I know Rich would try to have things fixed before that, but it’s going to a very busy time with all the visiting.  I’m thinking that the kids will be able to sit at the kitchen table, and the adults will have to hold plates on laps.  Rich might be up to his ears in turkey this year!  I think with all that, especially the conversations AND the help of a football game or two on TV OR Christmas specials it will be a lot of fun and merriment.  I’m looking forward to this season like I never have before.  We should probably call in the next day or two my mother as well to assure that she’s got plans that are going to help her with the  season.  I could actually see her get on a plane, but it would mean someone driving a couple of hours to get her to the airport and she would have to do three flights of stairs here – and more if we were to go out, and from what I see … she has good enough trouble trying to do one flight of stairs to their basement.  She’s always been particular too about people not traveling to see her in the winter, because of the bad roads in Northern MN, but that’s not quite fair either.

I would have thought SOMEtime this last year we would have made it to my mother’s or sister’s places in MN, but it didn’t look like the cards had fallen in place.  Rich had lost a couple of positions at work and started his own business, but everything has been time and money inhibitive.   Guess there is not too much more to be said about that.  I don’t think I could have driven the twelve or more hours ourselves – maybe with a break to stop at my sisters, but now she’s going back to WI … that won’t work either.  Something or another will shake loose sooner or later.

Maybe we just need to apply more pressure … Hehehe – Jean caught the part where we repeated that she was talking to ASSERTIVE Ann!

The other big news with all that had been started last night was that we talked to Nikki and she was going to talk to Maury, but we told her that we’d like to work it out so we saw each of her girls and Austin one-at-a –time once a month.  She thought it was a good idea, and that it had come at a good time for the girls and family.  We’ll ask the same of Laura after meeting her and Austin.  I wanted to underline, I wouldn’t take them far, and for Laura, she could come too as long as she felt that was important, but basically the time is to get to know all the Grandchildren better without a competitive audience.  I’m soooo looking forward.  That will be the highlight to my mother’s conversation is to let her know how we’ll spend her birthday gift this year.  That should start in January.

We did talk to both Dr. Marvin and Rich last night thoroughly about the plans.  Neither of them could come up with any complaints.  Rich was very generous of saying that what we did with my mother’s Christmas gift would be up to me and that he thought it was a good expenditure.  We still have to come up and save money toward the time after her Christmas check wore off, but just one thing at a time.  We’re figuring the cost is going to be between $100-125 a month so we could conceivably run out of that fund in four months’ time.  I don’t want to take the girls to McDonald’s, but maybe Maury can help us find some coupons that would work on a regular basis that were close to his place or Villa Park.  He will understand.  In the meantime … Rich said that I could have a couple hundred a month, but $80 goes toward Dr. Marvin’s appointment so this would take the rest which wouldn’t be a problem, except that sometimes I need money for birthdays, books or quilting. 

I don’t know it will work out.  Linda made a suggestion that yesterday left me with my mouth hanging open.  She said that she might donate the quilting of the Marine quilt as her donation to a worthy cause for the year.  She said that she’d tried donating directly toward the valor quilts, but they had inserted too many rules.  I can’t say how grateful I would be.  It would mean that the $50 that was sent by two of Julies friends could go toward the purchase of a quilt back.  If we got it really in gear, we might be able to buy that then at Quiltfabric.com our local store.  Hey they got a new bigger store and it’s a little more convenient!  Just the perfect thing … I would like to go there soon!  It is now at the intersection of Ogden and 83^rd.  YAYY!  That’s about the corner where we turn to go north and see Joe and Cari!

Hmm, we just talked to Thom.  He’s still having problems.   Hate to say this because I’m not sure it would help, but I would sure love it if he could come home after he leaves the service in March.  He’s still looking at going back to Japan next October, but maybe he could stay too.

Ok, we’ve been lost for quite some time … we were reading information on the Chicago FBI agency.  It is now 5 pm, so we ate dinner which was a sausage and we checked email, FB and Twitter.  Yup we’re still registered as being alive J

Guess you know where we were going with that idea.  We sent the FBI link to Thom.  Sure would be nice if he were home…

Now it is already 5:15 PM.  We’ve just be meandering through our day and a little bit with trying to keep warm.  I hadn’t realized how cold my fingers had gotten, but we pulled a blanket over ourselves.  We’re thinking that we should probably take a break and go look at the sewing in the backroom.  That would space out our day a little more evenly.  No housework was done in the making of this blog entry L  Sometimes it happens like that.  Rich had said when he called during the day he wouldn’t be home until closer to 12-1 AM.  He has to go A FAR WAY with the guys to do the game.  I hope it isn’t raining up there for them like it had down here.  I did see that he grabbed his long johns so that was the good news.  This morning I hadn’t woken up in time to see him, so we’re feeling a little lonely.  Tomorrow he has a officials’ meeting at 8 AM and then he’s got two football games on Sunday, though I think they are closer.  LONG weekend.

We did get a chance to talk to Linda today – she’s been out with Tpony and going with him to a coin show tomorrow.  It’s going to leave for a quiet day here because we’ve adjusted to all the visiting lately.  I really need some quiet time too, but we do worry some when our plans just meander … It’s like whatever comes up we pay attention, but over the course of the day nothing really gets done.  It is about dinner time.  Even though we ate … maybe it would be a good time to watch a little Anderson Cooper, hmm?

As to Dr. Marvin … pretty much what happened there was going over the friendships we had in high school again, and then talking about the “Good Ann” things we got done yesterday.  I always like listening to Dr. Marvin.  I think most parts do, but yesterday we were giving him some problem about believing that we were very smart.  So then we had to talk about that.  I can do it intellectually, but not really believe in it and we worry over the damage done to our life because of being so dissociative and how that continues on.  It is very wearing like having a cellophane ceiling.  I don’t mean to feel sorry for myself because there is so many things to appreciate.  Just think at the moment we’re feeling down.  Rich like Dr. Marvin yesterday had good things to say about all that had been thought through, but then after a while it was just nice to lay back and give the man a massage until we fell safely and soundly to sleep J

Maybe we should have taken our afternoon medicine.  Why don’t we do that on the way to the sewing room, hmm?

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