Weekly Wrap up 11/20/20 -- Losing a beloved pet

 We lost our 9 year old Bearded Dragon a couple of weeks ago.  It was a complete shock as it was unexpected.  The night before I had taken him out of his enclosure and he seemed just fine!  The next morning when we went to clean his cage and he was gone.  

Sir Isaac love to sit on my lap or arm and watch TV in the evenings

Or sit on the top of the couch and look down on us

I know people think reptiles can not have personalities or even like their owners but I honestly believed he recognized me and enjoyed our cuddle times.

When he was feeling very relaxed he would splay out and close his eyes on my shoulder.  He seemed very content.

Someone in my Beardie group made an image of Sir Isaac crossing over the rainbow bridge.  I loved it so much I made a Christmas ornament out of it and it will hang on our tree this year.  

Sir Isaac will be missed and he was buried in our garden by the side of the house.  The hardest part was calling our oldest child at college to let her know of his passing.  We had originally gotten him for her, but over time I seem to have claimed him and spent the most time with him.  I enjoyed him so much.

It feel so weird to walk past his empty enclosure.  I haven't figured out what we are going to to yet with it.

GOODBYE SIR ISAAC, Hope you are getting lots of yummy horn worms where you are as that was your favorite treat!!

Next week is THANKSGIVING, so I will be taking the week off from blogging and enjoying family time.  My oldest is returning home from college early next week:)

Weekly Wrap UP 11/13/20-- Stay at home vacation

In just two weeks we are heading to pick up Firedrake from college.  We can't wait to see her, she will be home until mid Jan, when she has to return to college.  I really didn't think they would make it the whole semester.  The last couple of weeks at home she will be completing her classes virtually.

My husband had to use up some of his vacation time so took a week off just to relax at home.  Unfortunately for him I had a "honey do" that I gave to him to complete that week.  He was not amused but these are things that have needed to get done for a long while.  

hanging a light in my glass studio

hanging pictures

finish edging the side garden and helping me put down weed carpet

I finished my latest stain glass piece which is for my husband's office.  It is very different more of a glass sculpture than anything.  It took me a while to figure out some of the pieces as I have never built 3D before.

He wanted a road runner and a southwest theme.  I used an old log as the base.  I am pretty happy with how it turned out considering it was my first attempt at 3D design.  

I made UK Christmas cakes., which is a tradition in our house.  I make one for the family and usually give the other two away as gifts.

This has been a hard year, we haven't gone anywhere for a holiday all year and the house is starting to close in on us.  We are all getting tired of the restrictions but we solider on so that we stay safe and also protect others.  Hopefully next year will be better.

Weekly Wrap UP 11/06/20 -- Participating in the Election

I am not one to be really political but the last four years have been interesting and for the first time ever, I decided that I had to get involve and actually do something instead of complain about the events happening in our country!

I didn't say anything on the blog  until the election was over as I didn't want my blog to turn political. This blog is to document what my family does.   However now that the election is over and regardless of whether my candidate won our not, I thought I would talk about what I did to help the candidates that I believed in.

The 3 easiest things I did was to:  1. send money to a campaign.  I know I donated several times to different candidates over the past six months!  2.  Get a yard sign and put it up proudly!  I had 3 yard signs for three different candidates leading up to the elections.  3. VOTE in every election not just the presidential election but in the midterms and even in the local counties ones.  With my daughter away at college we had her register to vote in her college town!  I don't think I voted until my late twenties, something I regret and am making sure my kids do not do!

We decided to do early voting and headed to the government office to vote.  We arrived at 8 am and this was the line to vote. The entrance was the second green triangle.  It took about an hour to vote.  Fun thing they did was anytime a first time voter arrive inside the poll room they rang cow bells and clapped.  Wish my daughter was with us for that, but she will be voting at college.

Successfully voted! We wanted to do it in person to make sure our vote COUNTED!  

Firedrake voted at college!

There are several more things that I did which require more effort on my part -- 

I contacted a local campaign and sign up and learned how to make phone calls for a politician.  I started making phone calls in September and continued until the election.  Every Sunday I sat down and made phone calls and tried to stump for the candidate I believe in!.  It wasn't easy, I am not one to really talk on the phone to strangers, but I did it!  Most of the people didn't answer the phone, a few were pleasant and those who didn't want to talk hung up on me.  It wasn't too bad, but I am not good at talking off the cuff with a stranger about their political views.  I can honestly say no one was verbally rude or mean on the phone in all the weeks I participated.  The worst thing that happened was being hung up on!

In Oct, I signed up for another training class to learn how to send texts for a candidate.  I again volunteered once a week (in addition to phone calling) to text 500 to 1000 people per session.  Again most people didn't respond to the texts but a few did and had questions that I was able to help either answer or lead them to the right person to aid in answering their questions.  What truly surprised me was the vitriol that some people spewed back to me on a text.  I could never imagine writing some of the things that were sent back.    At first I as surprised and then I started to laugh hysterically at the meanness or just inappropriateness of some of the responses.  I actually enjoyed the texting more than the phone calling.  The rudeness of the responses by some didn't bother me at all!  I was a little surprised by my reaction to it honestly!

For both texting and making phone calls I used an app that gave out phone numbers that weren't mine so know one could track me down, which was my husband's only concern.  It wasn't hard and didn't cost a thing!  Since my husband works in the government he was unable to participate in any campaigning so it was all up to me to figure it out.  

I learned a great deal about the political process over the last several months.  While our country remains polarized it is important to get involved and educate people, because they're a lot of uneducated voters out there and it is truly shocking what conspiracy theories people will believe.  

So I did my part, I got involved and I showed my kids that if you want to change the the world you must get involved and put in the work.  Did I make a difference, I hope so, but if not, at least I can say I tried and I got involved and that is what is important!  Will I continue to get involve in future elections, I am not sure, but I think that is a strong possibility as it wasn't as hard as I thought!