No Me Voy, I'm Not Going

So after weeks of confusion and deep thinking (yes, I think deeply on occasion!) I have decided to turn down the offer to move back to Honduras.

Um, what?  You don't know what I'm talking about?  I can't believe that, because I tell you nosey Nancys everything!  You people need to learn to mind your own bidness.

But since you brought it up, I guess I'll tell you a little bit more about it.  A little over a month ago the president of the board here in the US that oversees the organization I worked for in Honduras had been trying to get in touch with me.  For those that don't know, I lived in Honduras for 2 1/2 years, working for a medical mission.  I will be perfectly honest and admit that I blew her off for a couple of weeks.  I figured she was calling me about fundraising, or something similar, and I just don't have time for anything new to be added to my plate. 

When I finally called her back, we got caught up for a few minutes and then out of the blue she sucker punched me..."The reason I'm calling is we wanted to know if you would be interested in moving back to Honduras and working for us again."

Say what??

To say I was shocked would be understating it a bit.  A lot of bits.  Of all the reasons I thought she was calling, asking me to move back to Honduras had never occurred to me.  You see, although I keep in touch with a few people in Honduras, I haven't talked to any of the people in charge for several years at least.

I was so honored that they thought of me when running through names of someone to fill the needed role at the clinic.  I was also shocked to note that while I was surprised by the request, and even though I had not really thought of ever moving back there, my heart instantly leaped up and high-fived me with a 'yes, let's do it!'

Fortunately I had the presence of mind to tell her it was not a decision I could make right away, that I would need to think about it and pray about it and think about it some more.  She, of course, understood.  And so, that has been a great weight on my mind the last several weeks.

I'll spare you all my deliberations, but in the end I decided that while part of me would love to move back, because I was so happy there and felt completely fulfilled, now is not the time.  I'm not ruling it out for the future, and she was kind enough to extend an open offer to me anytime I wanted to move back, but at this point in my life, I don't think it would be a good fit.

Besides some big ticket issues like my finances not being as carefree as when I went last time and still hoping to get married, a big concern for me was my pets.  When I lived there before, I brought my previous dog with me, but farmed out my two cats, who never lived with me again.  I'm not willing to give up my cats this time (or ever again), so can you see me moving down there not only with Kodi, but with, ahem, three cats, too? 

So that's that.  Time will only tell if I made the right choice or not, but at this moment I feel at peace about it.  In a way, it's a shame, because it would have made for some awesome blog posts!  It looks like for now at least you'll have to settle for the same ol' crap I always throw at you :)

Beautiful, no?  Maybe someday :)

The Fruit of My Doodling Labor From My Boring Work Meeting

 

I finally got my front flower bed finished!   I spent the entire weekend digging up grass and replanting my hostas yet again, and then rearranging them.   I even made a little raised area!  I can’t show you pictures, yet, since I didn’t plant the flowers because, big shocker, the temp went down to freezing last night here in Michigan.  But just trust me, I am a Master Gardener now.  Or something like that.  I also went to…

 

 

 

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Hi. My name is Andrew. I am taking over this blog! I’m like Anonymous, only I’m Andrew.

You need to know the truth about this blogger. Kianwi portrays herself to be all sweet and nature loving, an adorer of animals, BUT I AM HERE TO TELL YOU DIFFERENTLY! I am going to tell you the tale of the Great Worm Massacre of 2013.
 

It was a beautiful spring day, and the sun was shining.
 

 

 

 

But that day turned evil quickly. 
 

 

Those are clouds, by the way.  This artist sucks!

 

I was sitting beside my true love, listening to her delicate snores while she slept, dreaming about all the worm holes we would dig together.
 

 

 

When suddenly, out of nowhere, came the Shovel of Satan! I tried to wake my love, I tried to stop the shovel, but there wasn’t time.
 

 

 

 

And my true love was split in two, as was my heart.

 

 

 

After I had wept, I pulled myself together to go tell the others what happened.  Much to my horror, I came upon the most tragic scene I had ever witnessed in my life.
 

 

 

 

Almost everyone was dead.  
 

 

 

Oh, yes. Kianwi shall pay.

 

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Alrighty, then. This is Kianwi. Wow. That was weird. Although I do feel bad about all the worms I killed, but I couldn’t help it! I tried to dig carefully, but it was like they were committing suicide on my shovel. I know the survivors are mad, but really, what are they gonna do? Ha ha, they’re just little, helpless, cutsie wootsie worms. I’m not a bit worried.

 

 

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And that is what happens when I'm bored in a meeting.  I doodle.  And now you all have to deal with the consequences.  So sorry.

 

It's Supposed to be Fun!

 

I went to my cousin's four year old son's soccer (football :) game the other night.  Have you ever been to one?  Not just a soccer game, but a four year old soccer game?  It's about the cutest thing you'll ever see.  I'm not entirely sure what is involved in the coaching process, but these kids have no clue what they're supposed to do, aside from chasing the ball.

If they had been keeping score, little Luke's team would have been destroyed.  The other team kept making goal after goal, and I'm pretty sure someone from Luke's team made a goal in their own net, too.  It probably had something to do with the fact that the other team had a goalie and Luke's team didn't.  Not entirely sure why, but I'm guessing the goalie was running around the field with the rest of the pack.  Can't blame him...that's way more fun than standing in one spot the whole time while people kick balls at you!

The funniest thing to me is that they not only fight for the ball from the other team, but they fight for it from their own team.  They seem to understand that the ball needs to go in the net, but the whole teamwork concept is a little lost on them.  You just see this little mini swarm of kids running in a clump, kicking at the ball, and not getting far with it.

You also occasionally see someone just doing their own dang thing.

So like I said, completely adorable.

You know what wasn't adorable?  The two dads that were standing on the sidelines, shouting at their kids to GET THE BALL!  PAY ATTENTION!  RUN, DAVID, RUN!

Really?  It completely baffled me.  Not one single kid was trying to win the game, or even really understood how to win the game.  They were just having fun, chasing the ball, looking cute as heck and learning some early soccer skills that they'll need when they are a little older. 

Why were these dads taking it so seriously?  Do they have such a deeply instilled sense of competition that they have to shout and scream at four year olds?   I admit, and you all know, that I'm not into sports, but you don't see me shouting and screaming at little girls playing with dolls to GET HER DRESSED!  BRUSH HER HAIR! COME ON, MAKE HER PRETTY!

I understand that sports are competitive, but there ought to be room for just being a four year old, having fun and learning the game.  Fortunately most of the people at the game got that, and simply cheered and had fun along with the kids.

I gave those dads the stink eye, but shockingly they weren't afraid of me one bit. I'm just hoping their wives were pissed and made their lives a bit miserable when they got home so that they will be a little better behaved than four year olds next time.  Either that or we'll just have to give them time outs until they can act like big boys. 

Gardening Hardening

The A to Z is over, and I'm still really behind on blog reading.  And the reason is just the darnedest thing.  I've been doing yard work.

That probably sounds completely reasonable, considering it's spring time in Michigan.  But it's not.  It's not reasonable one single bit.  Because I HATE gardening.  But for some reason this year, I am all about the yard work.  Well, by this year, I mean this past week. 

I was confused at first as to what was going on, but I've figured it out.  Gardening, I've decided, is one of the four horsemen of old age.  I'm getting old, and suddenly my new passion is yard work.  One whole week's worth of passion.

I know that was terribly rude to all of you people that like gardening, and I'm really not saying that everyone that likes to garden is old.  Probably everyone's four horsemen of old age are different. 

My first horseman was listening to talk radio, I'm pretty sure.  So the gardening thing is only my second horseman of old age.  At least I hope so.  It is possible there was another one I forgot about...in my old age.

So I've been gardening my little heart out.  My yard is nowhere near done, though, because it has been badly neglected the last few years.  Last year I was still young and hated gardening, so it got mowed, and that was about it.  Looked like crap.  This year apparently I love gardening, so I bet it's gonna look amazing!

So far, I've dug up grass to make the flower beds bigger.  Do you even know how hard it is to dig up grass?  Without killing worms?  Darn hard.  I also dug up all of my hostas, chopped those suckers in half and replanted them, spacing them out better and putting the surplus in my back yard. 

Ready and waiting for their new flower neighbors...
they are so excited to meet them!

I also went to the store and got pretty flowers to plant.  I would have bought all gerbera daisies, because they're my favorite, but they are too expensive for my skinny wallet, so impatiens found their way into my cart for some cheap filler.

Here are the hosta's neighbors, waiting to move in.
Aren't they beautious?

I've only worked on the front yard so far, and the back yard is ten times worse, so I have lots to do still.  But don't worry, I'll find time to read blogs...because let's be honest, there's no way I'm going to keep up this gardening momentum, horseman of old age or not.

You may be wondering what Kodi was doing while I was doing the yard work.  He was supervising.

Uh, lady? I think that hosta should be half an inch to the right...

Did You Guess How Old I Was?

It's Kodi, again.  And I'm ridiculous.  My mom thought it would be hilarious if she dressed me up like some 70's disco guy cause of her 'nostalgia' theme.

It's not hilarious.  It's humiliating.  Stop smiling.

Anyway, my mom is back to normal...well, if you consider someone who dresses their unwilling dog up in costumes normal.  She made me wear this a few years ago for Halloween, and I thought I had buried it in a great spot.  Apparently not great enough, cause she found it. 

But let's just try to forget about this unfortunate incident and move on...she's ready to do your winner's post.  So here she is...

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I'm back, migraine-less.  Thanks for your kind comments.  It ended up being a nauseating doozy, but I'm one of the lucky people who's migraines only last one day...so all is well now :)

Okay, everyone, it's time to fully end this A to Z Challenge!   It's time to announce my age (yikes!) and tell you who won the contest.

First, thanks to all of you who guessed that I was way younger than I really am.  Now, it could mean that I'm very immature and childish, but I choose to believe it means I'm youthful and cute.

To those of you who guessed I was older than I am?  Screw you!  Ha ha, just kidding!  I found that equally fun, because it made me feel so young, thinking, 'nope, not there, yet!' 

So, well done everybody for stroking my ego, whether it deserved the strokes or not :)

Okay, enough delaying the inevitable...I was born in

1970

Therefore, I am 42 years old (birthday isn't until August).  Still not loving it, but not so miserable after the month of fondly looking back at my childhood.  I highly recommend it to everyone!

I know it was really hard to pinpoint the exact year.  Congrats to those of you who did! You all got ten entries in the drawing:

Janie Junebug

Daniel Nest

Christian

TaMara

Marianne

Tara Tyler

Some of you guessed either 1969 or 1971.  I decided to give you all an extra entry in the drawing for being so close. 

So here's what the spreadsheet looked like:

I also added anyone who made a guess in the comments of the blog, rather than using the form.

And now, it's time for the drawing!  I got my trusty assistant to man the computer:

Don't feel sorry for him.  He was so excited to do this. 
Seriously, he begged.

And we used an online number randomizer at www.randomizer.org.  I had a total of 92 entries, with all the extra entries people earned, so I had it choose a number between 1 and 92. 

And number 40 was:

Congrats Christian!  Email me at kianwir@gmail.com to let me know where you would like me to mail your super incredibly exciting prizes. 

Thanks again everyone for reading and participating.  It would not have been any fun if no one had commented or guessed.  In fact, that would have been downright depressing.  So thanks for not giving me more material to talk to my counselor about.  She's sick of my crap as it is :)

Until next week! 

A Short Post From The Dog

 

This is Kodi.  My mom asked me to do a quick post to let you know that she's flaking out on you for posting the results to her dumb contest.

Okay, sheesh, she says I have to say it right.  She said she is very, very sorry, but it is Wednesday night when she was going to do the drawing and write her post for Thursday morning, but she has a 'migraine' and won't be able to do it tonight.  She is sorry for the 'inconvenience' and will have the results post ready for Friday morning instead.

I'm not sure what a migraine is, but I suspect that it's some sort of excuse not to take me for a walk.  Not THAT is an inconvenience.

Oh, she says if you haven't had a chance to guess, yet, or want to guess again, you now have until Thursday night at 8pm.  But she's too lazy to post the contest link again, so you can go to the tab at the top, or one of the A to Z posts to find it.

I guess we'll both be seeing you Friday morning.  She has plans for me to help a little with the drawing. 

Great.

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We like it when mom has migraines...it means we all go to bed early!

Z is for Zenith!

I am participating in the A to Z challenge, and my theme is "Nostalgia." There's a contest, too! Check the end of the post for details.

We've done it!  We've reached the end of the A to Z Challenge!  The Zenith!  Okay, I know I'm overplaying that word, but my other option was 'Ze End' so let's just stick with Zenith, huh?  But at any rate, the challenge is over.  Congrats to everyone who participated, whether only for a few posts, or every day of April.  And thanks so much to those of you who weren't participating, but got dragged along with us.  That must have been a bit like your mom bringing you to see your brother's never ending wrestling match...you were glad to see it for a little bit, and give your support, but geez, how long do we have to stay and watch this crap?!  Okay, I might have been reliving more childhood memories there, but truly I thank those of you who kept reading and commenting, even though you had nothing to do with this malarkey.

We interrupt this finale post with a brief message from our sponsor:

I've had some of you say you wish you knew how to make the paper thingy for the Fortune Teller game in my XOXO post the other day.  Well, no need to wish...you, too, can make a paper thingy! 

You start with a square piece of paper, so if you don't have one, make it square.  I fold it in half and cut off the extra bit.

Next, take two of the corners and bring them in to meet, like you were making the point of a paper airplane.

Now do this with the other two corners so you have a square again.

Flip the whole thing over and repeat the same thing on the other side.

Now flip it back over and fold in half, with the square flaps on the outside.

Slide your fingers under the flaps, and bring them to a point.  There, you've made the paper thingy! 

Now, back to our scheduled programming...

The Guess What Year Kianwi Was Born Contest!!

I had a blast with this.  I never imagined when I came up with the idea how much fun, and even meaningful it would be for me.  The interesting thing is, once you start remembering things, the more memories that come flooding through. 

And, geez, the contest!  I cracked up when someone would guess something that was way off.  And I would groan anytime someone would guess within a year or so!  So close!! 

There are a few that did guess the correct year this time, I am happy to say.  Yay for these folks, because they all get ten entries into the drawing:

Janie Junebug from Women We Shall Overcome
Daniel Nest from Nest Expressed
Christian from Point Counter-Point Point Point

No worries, if you aren't on that list, you can guess again!  There are a good number of you that are sooo close!  You have until Wednesday night at 8pm, est.  That's when I'll do the drawing.  For those of you who have seen my drawings in the past, Kodi won't be doing this one, since there are more entries than before and that's a little too much pressure on his furry head.  I'm going to do it the 'old fashioned' way of an online random number generator.  But don't worry, I have a small plan to get Kodi into the act :)

Want to see what the lucky winner will get?  Nothing grand, but hopefully fun:

A Pile of Nostalgia...
Robot Shrinky Dinks, a movie trio with The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles
and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, a Slinky, Silly Putty and a Miss Piggy Pez dispenser!
Whether you have kids or not, whoever wins this is going to get to play :) 
I hope everyone likes to play!
 

Okay, get busy guessing!   Go to my Guess What Year Kianwi Was Born tab (you can click the link), and fill out the form there to enter the drawing.  As a reminder, if you guess correctly, you get ten entries into the drawing.  If you guess incorrectly (even if you guess more than once) you get one entry into the drawing.  Deadline is Wednesday, 8pm, est.  I'll be back on Thursday to give the results!

Y is for Yearbook

I am participating in the A to Z challenge, and my theme is "Nostalgia." There's a contest, too! Check the end of the post for details.

What better way to stroll down memory lane than to look at our yearbooks, right?  It's so fun to see what we looked like, remember old classmates and see the messages that people wrote.  They are also a great way to see how dated we looked! 

Since we are almost to the end, I thought a picture show might be helpful for those of you that still don't know my age.  I included more than just class pictures, because I didn't really have a lot of those.  Most of these pictures are from before I was in my teens, because I can't find pictures from my teenage years.  The two at the end of the post were out of my actual yearbook, so they aren't the clearest, but it's something.   I'm not too sad, though, that I can't show you pics from my teens, because I know there was an incredibly awkward phase in there somewhere, and we are all better off not reliving that :)

So, off we go down my memory lane...

One year old.  No clue what that cake is in the giant bowl. 
With my mother, God only knows!

 

 

 

Two years.  Come on, how stinkin' cute was I?
And there's the famous wood paneling :)

 

 

Still two, someone else's birthday.  But look at my mom!  She was stylin :)
Oh, and see the fork and spoon on the wall?  My dad told us that he stole those from a giant. 
And of course we believed him.

 

 

 

I think four?  And proof that I was indeed Raggedy Ann
for those that read my doll post.  :)

 

 

 

Five years.  Mischievous look and vintage chair and paneling.

 

 

 

Six years old in my favorite sailor outfit.  I have no idea why.

 

Seven years.  That outfit looks pretty 'normal',
but what you can't see is that I had matching pants. 
Matched to that flower, that is, in patchwork plaid.  Yep.

Eight year old brownie.  I was so proud. 
Not proud of that wallpaper on the cupboards, though!

And now we skip all the way ahead to my senior year of high school...

I'm in there.  Third row, second from left. 
I have NO idea what was going on with my hair that day. 
I'm glad the humiliation is minimized because it's so hard to see. 
And yes, this picture is proof that I was a goody goody nerd :)

Senior picture.  That's quite the 'do', huh?
I remember working so hard to get that height
and I cursed the wind when I had to walk to school! 

There you go, now you know more about me than ever.  Tune in tomorrow for the last day of the A to Z!  You can still guess my year of birth, or guess again...you have until Wednesday at 8pm est.

 

 

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I've turned this A to Z challenge into a game and giveaway! Based on the nostalgia posts from my childhood, you get to guess what year I was born. Everyone that guesses gets an entry into the drawing, but if you guess correctly, you get ten entries! The prize will be a grab bag of nostalgic (but new) fun goodies.

Ready to guess? When you are sure you know what year I was born, go to my Guess What Year Kianwi Was Born tab (you can click the link), and fill out the form there to enter the drawing. The deadline is Wednesday, May 1st at 8pm EST. You can guess more than once, but you only get one entry if all your guesses are wrong, and ten entries if you have a correct guess.



X is for XOXO

I am participating in the A to Z challenge, and my theme is "Nostalgia." There's a contest, too! Check the end of the post for details.

While the boys in grade school were busy wrestling and telling fart jokes, we girls were busy predicting our love lives.  XOXO was serious business!  We had two methods we used, one was the game MASH. and the other was a folded paper game we called Fortune Teller. 

Want to see?  Allow me to present to you a dramatic reenactment...

MASH

In MASH, you started with the basic premise that you were guessing what kind of home you would live in when you were a 'grown up.'  That's what MASH stands for...Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House.  Then you added some other things like who you would marry, how many kids you would have, what kind of car you would drive, what your profession would be and where you would take your honeymoon.

So here's my go at it.  I had to sit and wrack my brain for a while to remember what kind of things I might have written when I was little.

Here are my picks laid out in columns:

The rule was, you couldn't just have all good stuff.  I really wanted to marry one of my childhood crushes, Jeff or Mike, but definitely did NOT want to marry Jimmy or Ray.  Sorry Jimmy and Ray.

 

 

The next step was to close your eyes and start making a spiral until your friend told you to stop.  Then you counted how many time you went around and that was your number for the game.  I got a 5.

 

Starting at the first word, Mansion, you counted down and over into the next column, until you reached 5.  When you got there, you had to cross out that word.

 



Aw, there's go Jeff.  Drat.



 



You then started at the next item under the one you crossed off and counted down and over to five again, continuing on until you were left with one item in each column.  And those were the predictions!  So apparently, when I am grown up (who knows when that will be!) I am going to live in a House and I'll be married to Mike (yay, he was one of the good ones!)  I will have two kids and drive a Jeep.  I will be a Baker and my honeymoon will be in Hawaii.  Not bad.  Not bad at all.  Suppose I could get that honeymoon right now?  I could use a trip to Hawaii.

Where is that Mike fella now, I wonder?   And when this will happen?
I guess we could ask the fortune teller...
 

Fortune Teller

This game was a bit like the Magic 8 Ball.  We used it mostly to predict things having to do with love, but it worked for lots of topics. 

First you had to make the little foldy thing.  Surprisingly, I remembered how to make it in one try.  Well, not surprisingly...I was a bit obsessed with this game when I was a kid.

Once you had your foldy thing, you had to prepare it.  Some people would write numbers on the outer corners.  We used colors.

Once you were ready, you asked the Fortune Teller a question.  Then you picked a color, and your friend holding the fortune teller opened and closed the 'mouth' in different directions, spelling out the color.  Like this:

P

U

When the word was spelled out, the question asker picked one of the numbers in the open mouth.  That flap was lifted to see what the answer was. 

Let's see...

Will I marry one of my childhood crushes?

What?  But the MASH game said I would!

 

 

 

Hmm.  Will I marry anyone at all?

 

Well thank goodness for that, I guess.

Will I meet a great man on an online dating site, perhaps?

That's what I figured.

Should I just give up on men and snuggle my dog & watch Game of Thrones instead?

There you have it folks!

Oh, even better!  I'll snuggle with my dog AND my cat!
 

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I've turned this A to Z challenge into a game and giveaway! Based on the nostalgia posts from my childhood, you get to guess what year I was born. Everyone that guesses gets an entry into the drawing, but if you guess correctly, you get ten entries! The prize will be a grab bag of nostalgic (but new) fun goodies.

Ready to guess? When you are sure you know what year I was born, go to my Guess What Year Kianwi Was Born tab (you can click the link), and fill out the form there to enter the drawing. The deadline is Wednesday, May 1st at 8pm EST. You can guess more than once, but you only get one entry if all your guesses are wrong, and ten entries if you have a correct guess.