Oh, Heck

I can't tell you how sad I am.
Last week a dear dear friend of mine passed on to another life.
He was one minute working and functioning perfectly well and the next minute with the snap of fingers, he was gone.
That is right. I cried. I wept, and there was nothing myself nor anyone can do about it.
I'm talking about The Long Rock's Laptop.
Asus just stopped working.
I was, thanks to my father in law, able to salvage the pictures and things stored in the hard drive, but, dude, everything is gone and I am sad. I loved that laptop. I was offered a new one a few months ago and turned it down!!!
I am inconsolable

I would like to memorialize Asus with the following photo.
Asus was my friend, my family and connected me to the world.

It is Christmas Season, Again!!!

I don't know about my wonderful readers (btw, thanks for reading my posts! I am getting about 200 readers a month now! WOW!!!)
 But, I want to come out and tell you something about myself. 

  I love LOVE the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holiday, but I have noticed, I get really depressed over the Winter Season, and noticably more and more depressed over the Christmas Holiday these last three years. 
I am sure there are a few factors, I miss my kids, my family, I miss the things that I normally do during the holiday season. Being here is hard a bit for me because I am very much a family and friend person. I am not talking about doing anything drastic, I just really get extra emotional, and very homesick. 
I have noticed that I want to hibernate more in the winter too. 

I am coming out and telling people about this because, I notice I have many readers from countries that, in the winter, typically, are very harsh, and the days are shorter in the winter. For example my mother grew up in Alaska where the winter days were only light for about 4 hours. I am guessing some of you have those kinds o f winters. Well, I wanted to write about some of the things I do in the winter to try to life my spirits. I hope it helps all of you..

First of all, I know if my parents read this they would fall over, but, I have a drink now and then. Mind you I dont get drunk. I just enjoy a drink now and then. I cant say this enough. Never drink alone. WHY? Let me tell you. Alcohol is a depressant. So, when you are drinking alone, you have a tenancy to be more depressed and lonely, and this is not a good thing. Also, Don't drink often. My fahter would say: Don't drink at all... But, I am not here to preach. I am here to be reasonable. Many Europeans drink with their meals,and I think many of my readers it would be really hard, so I am saying: Don't drink alone. I don't ever drink alone. 

Second: Take 20 minutes a day for meditation. I can call it prayer, if you want. I find that when I read the scriptures, and pray, I am actually cleaning my spirit, I am trying to connect with God, (whomever you think is the Being that Created us, the Great Spirit, etc) Trust me, this helps a lot. 

Third: Listen to uplifting music. Don't get me wrong. I love ALL kinds of music. I love Rap, I love Hip Hop, I love all kinds. I have found that some of my spiritual moments have been with music. Your soul needs to be filled with positive energy, and music is perfect form of communication with your inner spirit. Uplifiting music will help you, please trust me. Go on YouTube and find "Mormon Tabernacle Choir", "The Vienna Boys Choir", Douglas Spotted Eagle, Enya, Neil Diamond, Mozart, Chopin, etc etc etc... There is a lot of just beautiful music for us to enjoy! 

Fourth: Keep a journal. Write things about how you feel, what you did n the day, what you want to do and how you want to be. Write what you are thankful for everyday. Write about your fears, and joys, and triumphs and what you want to over come in your life. And again::: Write about what you are Thankful for. 

Fifth: Smile. Give a smile to someone, once a day. Find laughter find a way to laugh at your trials. 

Sixth: Do something good for someone at least once a day. This can be anythig: Suprise flowers for your loved one for no reason at all, opening the door for an elderly woman, or helping someone crosee the street. Take the time listening to a friend who has some problems, tell your mom or dad you love them, just something good for someone. You will find that when you do some act of kindness for someone with out wanting anything in return, you are actually filling your heart with kindness that you will never find anywhere else. Doing good to others isn't always for them, it is to make yourself a better person. 

Those are the "Spiritual things"

Now::: Let me tell you about things that also might help. 

I have been reading about this condition that I have, Well, I think I have. It is called S.A.D. Seasonal Affective Disorder. Here is a Link about SAD   Here is another link: Here is another Link about SAD 
And here is the last link about it:  OK So here is the Last Link about SAD 

These all say the same thing: That sunlight helps those with SAD. I have to say, I don't think I noticed it when I lived in Utah, because when I was working, I would go to the Tanning Booth. OK... Judge me, I would go about 30- 45 min a week, about 15 min a week sometime, and I was energized, I was fine. I would go after work and when I felt really down, going would pick me up and make me feel great. I felt like I was just great! Well, I have noticed that since I have been living here in Turkey I have not been going to the Tanning Booths, and it has been effecting me. I know that people say you should not go, but there are some people that need sun lamps. What it doed for me is trick my mind to thinking that I was in the sun. I did not need medication. 
 I posted this last week on Facebook, That I think I have it and I heard that this year, it is being recognized as a real disorder, which I am glad. I think that some people have this disorder. I know I do. MY friends on FaceBook about 8% of them, responded with they had it or were married with a person that has it. Then about 35% of my friends never heard of it and said that they might know someone that might have it. Mind you::: about 85% off all my firneds on Facebook knows eachother, are family or went to the same HighSchool as I , meaning that maybe 80 of my friends of 100 of them, are all friends with eachother. I have some friends that have about 200 of the same friends as I::: All from HighSchool, so they can say, I think I know someone with SAD, they could be talking about the same person that wrote: I have SAD, or My spouse has SAD (I have friends who have married their HS sweetheart, and all are m y friends on FB) This is an idicator to me that that, I, in my humble opinion, about 4-5% of North Americans in the 48 States very well could have SAD and not know it. 
When I lived in Arizona, I might have had it but I never noticed it because I was busy, I had kids ran a day care on my own, and I was in the sun all the time. I would in the winter take my day care kids to the Zoo, the Parks, etc,etc and so I never noticed that I had it. It is really sunny in Arizona and hence nicknamed "The Sunsine State". 

Well, My Dear Readers I am sigining out tonight. I hope that you have a happy winter, and please, stay healthy! 

Hahaha. My Partner In Crime

I've got a friend I've known for 35 years now. We have always gotten into some adventures with Authoritative people.
Example::::
We once were caught in a girls bathroom in Fifth Grade instead of going out to 10 Degree Fahrenheit weather like all the other insane kids, we wanted to stay in the Bathrooms. Well, I had to pee, but as I told her, the cold makes me want to pee more so why bother going outside?


Mr Mitchell, probably the meanest Student Teacher ever, and no one liked him, caught us, grabbed us by the nape of our necks, and had us write " I'll stay outside when I'm told " a thousand times. Well, I told him that that was unreasonable because it will not take us 30 min to write that. So he said , "Fine, write it a hundred in cursive". Well, I'm left handed and so I turned my paper to the side. He kept turning it straight but I can't write with my paper up and down I have to have it on the side. He would not accept me turning my paper. He started yelling at me. I mean face beet red yelling and telling me my handwriting sucked and to learn to write in cursive with my paper straight up and down. I was freezing and we were clattering out teeth. I was nervous so he started saying, "WRITE!! NOW" "OK" I said "NOWWWW" Ok I said he said I SAID Now!!! Ok I said. He said STOP SAYING OKAY. OKAAAAAAY I said. Bashaan started laughing so hard I mean it was so funny he was right in my face screaming at me.
I went home that night and told my parents how bad he was. Well my dad went to the classroom, talked to Mr Karl, and Mr Mitchell was gone in an hour!!! Yay!!!

I've had my toe, with Bashaan, ran over by my dad, about 5-6 times

I was standing outside with Bashaan and my dad came by to give me something and I went to the his drivers side window. He handed it to me and I said thanks. Well, the driveway is on a hill, and when he backed out, it ran over my toes. I screamed. He went forward, then back, while I was screaming he was going forward and back rolling on my toes!!! Hahaha. Bashaan was standing behind me laughing her guts out. Hahaha it was funny for me am hour later.

Today. Bashaan wanted to see her Missionary son, during class time, and decided to go to the MTC in Provo, Utah, just to visit him, take a pic of her missionary son, when she was stopped by Security Guards!!! Haha she thought Security was to keep the Missionaries from leaving?! She couldn't have been more wrong.
Here is her status::: oh side note::: Security pulled a Larry, and accidentally ran over her toes!!!

I've not been on in a while

Dear Readers,
I apologize for lot keeping up on my posts lately.
Let me catch you up!!

I made The Long Rock a Birthday Gift!
I posted in the past that we are fans of a game called "Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim"
I made up a quest/ treasure search in which he had to find his Dragon Eggs. I made the Dragon Eggs from Paper Mâché. I painted them a d put a powdery glitter on them. I had made a Map, and a note at each station, and I made magic potions, a dragon shout wall, I dressed up as a witch, and there were even stars.
He loved it and we captured it on Video.
He took some clips and made a movie out of it and posted it on YouTube. He loved it so much. It was fun!!!
You can watch the video here::http://youtu.be/jjeILAbE8oE

It is actually pretty funny. We put in some of our personal jokes, and used a Skyrim theme so you die hard Skyrim Fans expecting to watch something right out of Skyrim, it is going to disappoint you Just think of two people having fun with our made up Skyrim quest and you'll enjoy it more

I am learning to use my iPhone better. I still don't know all the features. But I love my iPhone. I do hate the iOS 6 map, it knows nothing about Turkey at all. I hope that Google and Apple hugs it out and we go back to Google Maps because I don't know about you guys but, since their little tizzy fits with each other, my google maps on my iPhone even with the app, is just not the same.

The Long Rock and I are coming out to announce we are getting married This Spring. Heck YEAH!!!
We have been having a heck of a time getting married and we realized that we are just going to do it on our own and here because of many reasons. We will have a Meet My Man night which will be held in USA and we will have invited all my friends and family to celebrate my return and our marriage. That will be announced this Spring. Don't worry, I'll give all plenty of time for RSVP.
We are soooooo excited to marry and get on with our lives. We've been happier and happier together and just enjoying life.
The Long Rock is still waiting on news about Passports here.
As you might have known? Did I blog this? The Turkish Government stopped doing business with France and pulled out a lot of their business. One of the Companies in France made Turkish Passports for their Government. Not anymore. So, Turkey went with a company in Singapore that makes Passports with a Chip in it that identifies people. We have been waiting for the announcement that they are ready.
Another thing I should announce:: I don't know if I did.
My daughter Monkey #2 is having a baby in March.
She is SUPER excited and nervous. She is also planning a Wedding.
I'm happy for her but I am not in a Grandma mode. I don't want to be called that. Am I strange? I told her the little Cookie Monster can call me Gi, Gann, Ganny, Memaw. I prefer Memaw
The Long Rick said I'm the prettiest Grandma he's ever laid eyes on. Freaking Sweet huh???
I am excited to meet this little Cookie Monster and can't wait to be the partner in crime, stuff the child full of candy and give her loads of joy and give the child back to My Monkey when the monster gets all cranky haha.
Oh the Halloween Costumes and Pioneer Days Costumes I will be making. I can't wait!!! Oh and little Doll and Girl out fits if it is a girl. Gonna be fun.
Anyway.
I will be on February ish, starting to send my things back to USA so by the time I am done, I have a small suit case to bring back to The States with me. It will be cheaper and easier that way.
Well that is all for now!

Take care
The Deen