Fun at the Lake

Sorry, no photos...forgot to bring my card reader and camera with me at all times; a problem if you come across unexpected Internet connections!

This week has been wonderful. I am going to say it again: I am RELAXING. So now I know I know how to! Mornings of leisurely coffee drinking, evenings of catching up with friends and family and spotting shooting stars.

Oh, and I got up on water skis! It has been several years and at least two children since I have done that. Of course Carolyn managed to ski on one ski and go in and out of the wake like she was playing a simple game of hopscotch.

An update on bringing Tino, the dog on vacation. We won't do it again, and I don't think my mother will even suggest it. He is old. We think fifteen. (He came home from the SPCA in 1995 and the vet thinks he was two). His hind legs are really stiff and giving him fits. He sits down with a thud and has real trouble standing up and stairs are a huge problem. They are simply non-negotiable. So imagine getting out of the lake. It isn't pretty. He gets in fine, but then has a hard time making it out. We thought we were going to need to rig a hoist with a towel. But he does take it all in but I do think it will be his last trip here. Even getting in and out of the car at rest stops was hard.

We do also have Matt and Carolyn's dog, Finn, a pup, with us and he comes on the boat with his life vest on, aptly named the "Fido Float". Fun!

My friend Katy had to leave today, which was sad, as we have the kind of friendship where we just pick right up wherever we last left off, whether days, months or years. Those are special friends. We never ran out of things to talk about and decided we could probably be very compatible travelling together. Tomorrow Howie's sister leaves, and Saturday home for the rest of us. But it has been a wonderful week.

Even the girls have been getting along. Imagine that! Peace.

Happy Travels...

Just a quick update...and yes, this is even worse than Dunkin' Donuts...I just did lots of grocery shopping at WalMart, which is about 24 miles away from the lake house. No, there isn't anything closer except an albeit well-0stocked but extremely overpriced convenience store connected to a gas station about six miles from the house, so we save that for dire emergencies.

I did decide just for the heck of it to pull into the Bedford County Visitors Bureau parking lot to see if by chance they had wireless, and OBVIOUSLY they do! Yipee. Of course that means that this was somewhat pre-meditated blogging, as I brought the computer along.

The ride was long, and Tianna and her friend Blair decided to make the most of it by sleeping, a good idea, as the car was overfull. In addition to the two of them, we had Nicole and a friend, Howie driving, me scrunched in front and my mother sharing the back row with the older girls. Oh, we did bring the dog and our two unconfined cats as well. We had to take roll call every time we made a pit stop.

Howie's older sister and her two grandchildren (fine for her, but shocking for me when I realized that made me a great aunt), a funny, wonderful friend from college and her eleven year old daughter and Matt and Carolyn are also either already here or on the way.

We are eating, talking, laughing, reading, visiting and relaxing (Yes, I DO know how to do that). We went to the Cliffs yesterday, aptly named where there are low, medium and high levels to jump or flip from. Nicole is annoyed because she believed Tianna's friend when she said she would pay her ten bucks to go off the high ledge,and I am waiting for Matt to cause me maternal heart failure when he does an inverted flip of some kind...

It is a blessing and joy to spend time hanging out with friends and family. And my mother is SO pleased the dog came along.

Peace!

Best Laid Plans Run Amuck...

Well, here I am sitting at Dunkin' Donuts again. Our Internet connection at home must have been struck by lightening, but there was no time to deal with it before leaving on the next road trip. My best laid plans were to figure out how the write ahead function worked, so I could write a week worth of posts and have blogger automatically post them for me. Under the best of circumstances this would have challenged my techno abilities to the max, but given the lack of Internet at home it totally put me over the top.

We are leaving for the lake in VA today, where we do not have Internet. I am hoping that I can show up with my computer at a local business and hook in at least a couple of times during the week, as there are several things on my mind...

In the meantime, we made it home from Florida uneventfully and jumped right back into home life without skipping a beat. It looked like hurricane Dolly had made landfall in the middle of my family room, but what the heck, we're leaving again, so I don't have to look at it! But it was a bit of a problem only having one day to pull things together.

Some of the highlights of my day were:

• Spending a little bit of time with Matt and his girlfriend Carolyn. Included are a decent and crazed photo. They have their dog Finn with them, which added more chaos to a household that in Howie's opinion already has too many animals.
• See the photo of the back of my car? Well, all those bags contain clothes that I will somehow squeeze into the two apiece free luggage allowance I can take to Honduras with me (leaving on August 7th, no doubt another Category 5 storm will land in my family room sometime between now and then...). A very generous gift was made from an area thrift store to take clothes down for the children of Honduras, for which I am very grateful. Faith without works is dead, so I try to find ways to keep it alive and well, especially for those who need it most.
• My mother, bless her, took Nicole and her friend to a local swimming pool and sat with them all day and still doesn't like getting ice cream for hot kids. I remember too vividly when I was growing up and used to swim at a small lake that when the Good Humor truck would jingle in to the parking lot I would beg to get an ice cream bar and inevitably the answer was no. Well, the answer was no to ice cream at the concession stand yesterday too, until Nicole called me on the cell phone I gave my mom to carry and I promised to pay her back (OK, now you know where my penny pinching tendencies come from...)
• Had a conversation with a Little League mom about how a Danville LL team FINALLY beat a Pottsville team. More on that later, because apparently the coaches couldn't stop talking about the team that lost to Pottsville several years ago that I also remember pretty vividly as Matt played on that team.
• Am still in negotiation with my mother over whether or not our fifteen year old dog will come to the lake with us. She keeps threatening to stay home if we don't bring Tino, even though we have an overfull car. My mom, us, the girls and a friend for each girl. In addition to the seven of us, Matt and Carolyn are coming (with their dog), Howie's sister and two of her grandchildren, and a friend from college and her daughter.

So we're off for a week and then I have three days till I leave for Roatan to write!

Oh, and other good news: I have another book proposal in circulation that is being seriously considered by two publishers. Oh my!

So check back, I intend to find a connection somehow, somewhere...

Tandem Tattoos (and other ramblings...)

Actually, the post title should have been "trio tattoos" because I got one too, but my photographic assistants missed the photo opp...oh well!

And I am going to let you in on something...it's not really a secret, because I have mentioned it a fair amount, but I would really like to get a real tattoo. I would get the Jesus fish, somewhere relatively inconspicuous, like on my derriere somewhere between below where it would be obscured by the bottom of a bathing suit and where there would be ample fat pad padding so it wouldn't hurt so much. But there are two, or maybe three problems with this...

1. I don't really want my girls to emulate my example. Who knows, they could choose a spider walking up the left arm (as did Nicole in this photo).

2. My husband is a dermatologist and takes these things off and frowns every time I mention it.

3. I am chicken.

So for the time being we will stick with tattoos of the temporary variety. Much easier, and less expensive to remove (no, your health insurance will NOT cover this...)

We did make it to the water park yesterday, FINALLY, and Tianna decided she didn't want to go in. Oh well. Nicole and I swam and slid. Then we did the tattoo thing, went on to mini golf and ended the evening with a few games at the arcade that resulted in more small junk. No, treasures, trinkets...the kind that are ordered from Oriental Trader for every carnival and arcade known to human kind.

I thought maybe I would do some laundry (we are out of clean dry socks, which could be a problem for our final day at the parks....wet stinky feet would be yucky and uncomfortable, and blisters would also stink, and since I am hoping to stay for several hours flip flops wouldn't be in our best interest, my feet got sore after wearing them for ten minutes) but the change machine was broken. Sounds like another Wal Mart run to me...which I did do this morning. I also picked up a couple of extra rain ponchos (at 87 cents apiece, rather than the $4 at the park...) and decided when the heavens part this afternoon, I will surprise another family with a gift of ponchos when they most need it and least expect it.

Tianna has decided she doesn't like going on trips and didn't fail to communicate that when things weren't going her way (like when I said "no" to popsicles for $2.50 apiece after mini golf). It made me think about the financial fine line of going on vacation. Yes, vacations are money pits. But there are ways to be good stewards, which I am all for. But admittedly sometimes I cross that line and become a bit of a (I hate this word) cheapskate. So today, as we embark on our last day at the park, I am going to try to walk that fine line between reasonable and unreasonable. It is 9:05 and my goal was to be at the park when it opened at nine, so I am hoping this translates as reasonable and the extra little bit of sleep pays off.

I'll let you know if I succeed or not!

Florida Trip Update

Greetings from Florida. I think it was sunny Florida this morning, but am not sure as we slept in till after ten. I suppose we needed the sleep, but when we finally mobilized to go to the pool, oh, excuse me, water park, the heavens parted and a monsoon swept in. So much for fabulous water slides, we still haven't seen them...

After sleeping in, I went to make myself coffee, but the coffee maker in our room didn't have a lid, so there was no coffee to be had till the pot got replaced. So Nicole and I mozied down to the "mall" where I bought a cup of coffee and we rented a game for the in room play station systems. Tianna said she didn't care which game Nicole picked, but you could have guessed that it wouldn't necessarily work out that way. And it didn't.

Then Tianna wouldn't budge because her legs still hurt from yesterday, some kind of rash. Does anyone know a good dermatologist, preferably one specializing in pediatrics? Ha! (For those of you reading who don't know this, my husband is a pediatric dermatologist). So next on the agenda, after much arguing, and much repeating on my part of "you choose, you decide" (the words that will be repeated by me over and over again) Nicole and I went to WalMart while Tianna stayed back and moped.

$108 later we left WalMart with hydro cortisone cream and something else called Sarna (soothing cream recommended by my favorite dermatologist) several snacks, a few souvenirs at a fraction of the park price and some red wine for me to sip later. Here is the highlight of my day: Would you believe they asked me for my ID? I told the checkout lady it must be FL policy, but policy or not, it was the bright spot of my day.

Once we got back to the room we ate lunch, soothed sore skin with Sarna, changed into bathing suits, answered two phone calls and just as we were heading to the pool, the heavens parted.

We still hope to get to the pool, oh, excuse me, water park. So now we went and rented another PS II game and they don't want to play that together now because they don't want to be on the same team, prompting more "you decides" from me. Oy Vay.

3:55. It stopped raining, we're going to try this again...

Magic Kingdom Musings

Does even just looking at these pictures bring the "can't get it out of my head" tune of "It's A Small World" back? Anyone who has ever been to the Magic Kingdom, I would venture to say, has been on this ride; no visit is complete without it, and it is one of the constants over time of a visit to Disney.

Other musings from our day at the Magic Kingdom:

• You could never tell by the number of people that economic hard times have hit our country. There were lines everywhere; rides, restaurants and gift shops. Plastic was cha-chinging everywhere.
• Space Mountain looks the same as it did when I first visited when I was fourteen.
• We remembered to write down where we parked the car.
• I was reminded that my girls do NOT like roller coasters and I do.
• I get heartburn thinking about paying park prices for food. The left over pizza from Domino's last night tasted just fine.
• I really ought to have my head examined for visiting Orlando in July...
• I have never seen so many little princesses in my life, thanks to a new bibbity bobbity boo boutique where your little or not so little girl can get decked out from hair (tiara and all) to toe, (glass slippered and all) for a price...
• I still have a soft spot in my heart for Eeyore and love the pinkness of the Cheshire Cat.
• Tianna and Nicole held up in the sweltering heat very well, and it was actually Tianna that out whined Nicole.

Tomorrow we are going to swim and slide in slime at the Nick Hotel.

Cheers!

Roller Skating and Patience

Yesterday I took Nicole roller skating. Now this should be a fun and relatively simple undertaking, but of course, it didn't turn out that way. It took an hour, yes, you read that correctly, to successfully get a pair of roller skates on.

First, a preference was cited for roller blades. Yes, I am now absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt convinced that Nicole needs her own pair of roller blades. That means I might only need to suffer through one more lengthy episode of finding skates that feel comfortable.

The roller blades in her size were adjustable from size 1 to 3, and I think we had them adjusted to every mm in between. Then the tongue in, tongue out, flap in, flap out, too tight, too loose and every combination in between. Finally a determination was made that they didn't feel good and we needed to go to the old fashioned kind. Of course we tried three sizes before finding a pair of those that fit too.

Then we needed to lace them. Too loose, too tight. Not loose enough. Not tight enough. One hour before she got out skating. I am not kidding.

And somehow I stayed sane and patient through it all, and I'm not kidding about that, either. I don't even think I let out a single exasperated sigh, although I probably came close. So it either means that I am developing more patience (thought it would never, ever happen) or I truly am becoming less multi task oriented, which would become a good thing. Why? So that when I am with others they feel my interest and presence, so that I am not as scattered, and that I am not living life as a whirling dervish. I am trying to slow down, take each moment and add lots more white space and margins to my life, and value relationships over all else.

So today I flew down to Florida with the girls for three days of what I hope will be fun. We will have two days at the Nick Hotel, and two days at Disney, and all as a result of supporting the Big Brothers Big Sisters Auction. Win Win all around. Fundraising for them, an unbelievable deal for us. My only comment about flying is that TSA must be getting lax because 3-1-1 must have gone out the window as we got through with several tubes of 4 oz. sunscreen. Yes, I knew it was over sized, but risked it anyway, and they created a security breach by letting us through.

Post Softball Summer

Well, softball is over. Our girls got wallopped 21-2 on Friday evening, but played some respectable softball to meet the South Columbia team in the District 13 Final on Friday night. There was no question who was the finer greased softball machine, but it was great to see the girls be able to make it to the championship game. The opposing team is coached by Gary Grozier, who is a guidance counselor at Danville HS. Personally, I love the guy; I think he is a saint. He was Matt's guidance counselor through his stormy HS years and never gave up advocating for him and believing in him. He is just an incredibly positive guy who always sees the cup half full. I have a lot of respect for the guy, and even more after seeing what a job he has done coaching his girls.

But now that softball is over, there are a few things this means:

• My ice cream eating days at Hunter's are over, since I could only rationalize doing so as post game celebration or sorrow.
• Tianna no longer is banned from swimming on game days, since there are no more game days.
• We can go on vacation as a family.
• My dinner menu will consist of more than chicken fingers, soda and french fries, not to mention candy.
• My hearing may return to normal since there won't be any more softball cheer screaming.
• I can put away my baseball/softball earrings till next spring.
• I won't put quite as many miles on my car...BUT

• I will miss the joy and pleasure of hanging out with the team and team parents who are proud of their girls for playing hard and being part of a team experience.

Good Luck, South Columbia, you are a great team, and I hope you win states!

My Friend, the Phone...

Admittedly I must not remember being 11 going on 17, but it must have been sometime around then that I became somewhat connected to the phone. Here is Tianna, connected to two phones. Inevitably half the calls are for her, and I have to admit that I end up feeling like a social secretary. Now she is even asking me to ask who is calling when I holler, "Tianna, phone!"One of her friends is in Egypt for the summer and even calls from there to stay in touch.
She is still begging me for a cell phone, but I refuse to cave, at least for the foreseeable future. I spent some time this evening in the opponent's camp (Danville vs. Milton, 9/10's softball game, too much of a nail biter, but ultimately Danville prevailed after two, or was it three lightening delays?) and sat with friends from church. I asked if their daughter had a cell phone, and unfortunately the answer was yes...I have a feeling I am fighting an uphill battle. I was, however, encouraged to prevail.
On another note, I did my favorite kind of shopping today, at a thrift store, where I did purchase several brand of choice shirts for Tianna at a fraction of the cost. Aeropostle, AE, and Abercrombrie were all acquired for what I consider a reasonable cost, no more than $4 each. Now that's my kind of shopping! Not to mention the purchase was made at a great discount center (NOT thrift store, they are pretty adamant about the distinction...) Hand Up Foundation in Milton in the Ben Franklin Plaza (www.handupfoundation.org) where they support lots of great programs in the Milton area. It is also a great resource as a recycling center, everything from paper to washing machines, so be sure to check it out.
Got to rest up for more softball tomorrow. Since it is too late for Tianna to be on the phone, she is on the computer instead...Peace.

Softball WIns and Ice Cream

I'm not sure who likes ice cream more, the moms or the kids! I have to admit, I have a terrible weakness for ice cream, especially if chocolate and/or coffee flavors are involved. My friend and faithful reader Maria headed up the celebration by treating everyone, me included, to ice cream after our (wining ) game. Here, I can be seen stuffing my face with chocolate moose tracks (by the way, my C key is back working...) capped off with cappuccino crunch. Yummy. I think Maria had some kind of almond concoction.

Anyway, I have an ice cream digression. Years ago we lived in Vermont not far from a Ben and Jerry's factory store. Now that was dangerous! A pint could be had for 98 cents because there was just a little too much air whipped in. My favorite was a fudge brownie sundae with white Russian ice cream. Unfortunately they don't make that flavor anymore. And have I mentioned that I have a problem with a half cup as a serving size? I always thought the pint container was one serving. Too bad we didn't have money to buy Ben and Jerry's stock when it first went public and we lived there...Of course that didn't impress our twenty something sons (Matt in particular) who can't believe that we lived so close to Stowe and weren't on the mountain all the time, and that the band Phish made their debut right around the year of his birth in Burlington coffee shops. I patiently explained that during those years his dad was in medical school and we were living on less than a shoestring (seems to me there was a problem with the price of oil then, too, which prompted us to keep our thermostat set at 60 degrees) and besides, I was either pregnant or nursing a baby much of that time, and a prego swooshing down the slopes wasn't an option.

Back to softball.

I was having some more deja vu tonight. Most of it involves Nicole, but tonight it was softball.

Years ago we played at the same field with Matt. Tonight we played the same team the girls had played last week and lost to, Berwick. It was quite a game...

The winning pitcher, Blair, (her mom Joyce was pictured with Tianna a couple of days ago) is pictured above with Tianna.

But back to the deja vu thing...I used to get really worked up watching these games as if they were more than games. Sure it is great to win, but it doesn't always work out that way. I remember one game Matt played in his Senior Year in HS. It was the semi final game of the PIAA Championships. They were ahead, and they ended up losing. Parents were bawling left,right and center. So was I, but I was crying for a different reason. I was crying because he had had the chance to play and I had been granted the opportunity to watch. You see, he hadn't been home the beginning of his senior year; he was at therapeutic wilderness aftercare program. Marijuana had seduced him and he had been away, and even though his team mates he had won a state championship with as a nine year old were going to play ball together their senior year, I didn't think I was ever going to get to see him play ball again. And when I did, it didn't matter if they won or lost.

But I have to admit, I did want these girls to win. So it is great to see another Pride child wear an all star jersey.

I think Berwick really expected to win. But our girls had confidence from their win on Wednesday...and they played with their heads up. I have to say, I was disappointed in a couple of the tactics employed by the Berwick coaches. Come on, these people are adults and supposed to be leaders and role models. It seems to me that they modeled intimidation and confidence shaking. First there was a discussion about the fact that the pitcher had to have both feet on the rubber (no, that is ASA, not Little League, but there was enough uncertainty about it that it was a bit rattling to our pitcher). Then, when our starting pitcher was trying to overcome that, and threw a string of walks, the third base coach clearly and loudly announced the count to the batter. "That was eight...that was nine..." Come on. It got a couple of our parents wanting to count back at him when she threw strikes, but I gently pointed out that was stooping to their level. Apparently after their victory the other night, they also smeared some of our car windows that had been decorated with our girl's names. Is this eye for eye behavior? I like the grace version better...

So after two innings we were down 4-3. Got through the next two innings leaving them with the bases loaded and no further scoring, and then in the fifth our girls exploded and scored seven runs. Berwick simply fell apart. Thank God we didn't have a third base coach issuing running commentary...and the most beautiful thing I heard was the coach reminding the girls to be humble in victory. Don't take it for granted...they played a good game...but it could have gone the other way.

The girls will play again Friday against a powerhouse team. They are definitely the underdogs, but they have a healthy determination...and desire to go eat more ice cream!

And Maria, thanks again for the ice cream; it was delicious!

Chocolate Cake

OK, so there were several other things on my mind today, but once again, I can't get my card reader to cooperate, so you are stuck with Chocolate Cake for the time being, and wouldn't you know that the C key on my computer is challenged, and all of a sudden I am realizing how many times C comes up...
So why am I having so many techno woes? Well, first of all, I am a techno peasant, so just thinking about techie things makes me practically break out in hives. I have no idea why the photo thing isn't working, but the C story is a little different. We have several pets, too many if you ask my husband. The two most recent additions are brother and sister kittens who are now big enough to hop up to the kitchen island where my lap top is perched. Well, the black one walked right on to the keys as I was typing and dfoiawf;/.jnjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj appeared, so I picked her up to plunk her back down on the floor where she belonged, only her one claw was stuck under the tab to the C key and it came off. I still haven't super glued it back on. (We are all out of super glue because I get horrible cracks, deep ones, on my feet, and according to my dermatologist husband super glue works on sealing 'em up like a charm....and it's true!)
So anyway, the cat pulled of the C key and there you have it.
There were several other ramblings of note, but they will have to wait till I can attach the apropos photo.
So in the meantime, you get chocolate cake.
You will probably not be surprised to learn that this cake was my husband's and I wasted no time in dissecting it. He didn't really want it, after all, he is a serious athlete in training (I think I have given up on the fall triathlon) and since chocolate is not a major food group to him,I figured it was up for grabs. But, as you may be able to tell, I really prefer the frosting (no c in frosting, as opposed to icing). He thought it looked like one of the cats had gotten to it (no doubt the same one that pranced across my computer) but I assured him, it was only me.
What can I say? I like the icing and why bother adding the pesky cake calories...
Off to softball! Peace.

So, here I sit at Dunkin Donuts at 10:55 pm Monday to stay connected. It was bad enough I couldn't blog yesterday, as we were travelling home (an unusually uneventful day of air travel, thankfully...) and couldn't blog when I got home because our Internet wasn't working. And obviously still isn't working, or I wouldn't be sitting here at DD this late at night. What is working in my favor is I am still on Mountain Time...I guess I must be hooked on this blogging business.

So first, before I even label the photos, let me apologize to my dear friend Maria, one of my faithful readers. It was actually Maria who had the conversation with Erin, not Gwen, so Gwen, get reading, and Maria, I am sorry :)

The first two photos are from Saturday in Utah. The first shows real spring water. I decided that I was not to be outdone in the hiking department by my triathletic crazy husband, who hiked to the summit of the mountain at snowbird and took the tram down (I admit, a bit backwards) but since he did it, I decided I was going to do do it too. So off I went on my hike UP. I only had my one bottle of water and it was pretty warm and did I mention UP? over 3,000 vertical feet to just over 11,000. Did I mention altitude woozies? Well, I had them. And I got thirsty about half way up too, and had had my one bottle of water. So what was I supposed to do? Well, I knew better, but I filled the bottle with "fresh" spring water from the runoff of melting snow. If I don't get sick in the next couple of days, I made it through...I will say, it was COLD!

Then, there was plenty of snow still on the face of the mountain. So much so that some really crazy people lift up and then hike to the patches and are still skiing and riding. If Matt were there, he would be one of them. So that is my foot in the snow. I just couldn't resist!

In the meantime, Tianna missed our trip and all the opportunities it would have provided for her to fight with her sister so she could stay home and play softball. They lost their first game, but won tonight! I even pulled out ball (ten years ago they were baseball mitts, now they have morphed to softball mits) earrings for good luck. And tonight it worked they won twenty something to single digits, and the photo is Tianna with her friend Blair's mom after the game.

So what did I do today?

Before the game I cleaned one of the bathrooms in desperate need of cleaning. There were even several splatters of nail polish, pink and shimmery lavender on the tile. Then Tianna went through her clothes informing me that she needed to wear her things at least five times each. The next sentence was a request to go school shopping to Hollister and AE since she is getting older now. I guess Old Navy is chopped liver. Well, I said you will need to wear things a whole lot more than five times, honey if you expect me to shop at Hollister or AE. Doctor's salary or not (Don't get me started on that topic, anyway) I prefer to shop at the Salvation Army, where in fact, I can find lots of H and AE. So I got two whole rooms cleaned! Woo hoo! You absolutely SHOULD NOT see the rest of the house. Maybe by September...

OK, it is way late, even for Mountain time!

Hiking Alternatives and a Question

I am really disappointed that for some reason my card reader isn't working...I just love adding photos. I wanted to post our fun "alternative to hiking" photos: Kathy on a bucking bronco ride,and Nicole on the zip line and bungy jump. She much prefers both to hiking...

On a totally unrelated note, I have been following (another) tell it like it is Christian Author, Matthew Paul Turner's blog and he has added video clips to his blog. Not just photos, but video clips. And it is amazing, because he and his wife are eagerly anticipating the birth of their son Elias, and Jessica is in labor and he is posting video updates (informational in nature only). Of course, for those of you who know I have taught childbirth classes for over twenty years, for me this is doubly sweet. A new mode of communication I may need to check out instead of just photos, and the wonderful experience of labor and birth. You can visit them at: http://www.matthewpaulturner.com/ and check on the blog link.


Anyway, here is a question for you guys who pop in to visit and read: I was talking to my friend Mary this afternoon, who every once in a while says she needs a "Kathy Fix", meaning it is time to catch up by phone so we can whine together, and carry on about the various antics in our lives. She can always count on me to circumspectly tell it like it is. Well, since phone conversations aren't always possible or practical, (like right now, for example, I can't find my cell phone...I know I took it out of the little pouch I had it in yesterday, thought I threw it on the bed, but have rustled through the several matching and color coordinating covers on the King bed...LOVE the king bed! and haven't found it and don't have another one with which to call myself...anyway, the battery is probably dead...) I asked her if she had stopped by to visit my blog yet, where she could always get caught up. She said, "no" and I said, "well, it is kind of just like talking to me" and she was wondering if that was such a good thing...(uh oh, do I talk like Jesse Jackson off the mic?)
So here is my question: Is it like talking to me, is it too honest, or is it a pretty good reflection of the blog title...after all the blog is called Truth and Transparency (and if you are reading this, Gwen, it cracks me up that you know more about how our vacation is going than Erin does). Gwen is a friend, reader, and fellow softball mom, and Erin is our older son's girlfriend who is taking care of Tianna, our older daughter while we are hiking and finding other various non-hiking alternatives to keep Nicole happy.
You see, Gwen said something or asked Erin something about the trip that she didn't know the answer to, and Gwen said something to the effect of, "Don't you read Kathy's blog?" to which she said no, so Gwen filled her in on how much Nicole detested hiking. Apparently it didn't go without saying that I am pretty honest. Mary was concerned, I think, that I might at times get too honest, a kind of TMI stream of consciousness that, well, could come back to bite me. But then we agreed that if we always viewed ourselves as "talking on the mic" (after all, Jesus is the ultimate mic, no? He knows our heart, after all...) then honesty is OK.
So I am curious about what you think.
I tried to post this last night, but my computer got whacko on me, and wouldn't let me, so I am going to see if the card reader works, so if there are photos, I momentarily conquered technology, which isn't something that happens often. Rats, still can't get the photos to work...promise to work on that! The one of me on the bull ride is pretty funny.

Peace!

Notes and Thoughts from the Road

Bryce Canyon. It is take your breath away beautiful...to me a reminder of God's masterpiece of creation.

But of course, to see it requires some type of motion or ambulation, and I have already mentioned that "hike" is banned from Nicole's vocabulary. I must admit, this would have been an ambitious hike (although Howie did it) that would have resulted in much unhappiness for anyone within our earshot.

So the win-win solution du jour was for me and Nicole to see the canyon by horseback. This also was not for the faint of heart, or for those who become nauseous at heights. Let's just say the horses and mules seem to like to walk right at the edge. Talk about trust...we were lead by a very mature and skilled guide and none of the riders bailed, something he says happens every day.

I did call Matt at the end of the day to say I was still experiencing deja vu about our previous trip to the Grand Canyon. He chuckled and said to tell Nicole to get out of the car (she didn't want to get out at the end of the day pull offs at scenic vistas...) she would care. Her prompt response was that she did NOT care. Oy vay. But Matt and I had a wonderful conversation.

God's Majesty was evident all around.

Other random thoughts/reads/experiences that have made up the past 24 hours or so are:

• We stopped to eat very late at the end of our day at Bryce Canyon and I was having a hard time deciding what to eat. You see, this is complicated for me, because I am trying to stay away from carbs and fried food, because my waist is disappearing (so much so I responded to an infomercial the other day, but I won't go there now...). It was also late and I didn't want a huge meal, and this was a steak and ribs kind of place. I was both too young and too old to order off the kid's menu (also available to Senior Citizens, does that mean that Howie could have ordered, because AARP sent him a card for his most recent birthday?)I asked Howie if we could share a meal, but he didn't want to, telling me to order what I wanted and that sparked an entire conversation about how I seemed to take great pleasure eating off of his plate, and didn't seem to care how he felt about that, whereas if I was hungry the world had to stop. Ouch. That sounded very selfish to me, and I realized it was time to get the plank out of my eye in regards to that issue. We didn't share a meal, I ate too much and as he pointed out, some of the desire to share a meal with him was also somewhat motivated by my desire to not buy two entrees. The truth hurts.


• I just read that Jesse Jackson made a comment about Barack Obama that he thought was off the mic,that he needed to apologize for, and my response to this was that it was another sad day for Faith or Religion or Christianity, my point being that he (none of us, but how about a Reverend, who will be regarded by many as a voice of the church) when just because he thought the mic was off it was "acceptable" to make an off color remark. If we are representatives of Jesus, which is what we ought to be, if we claim Jesus, faith, religion, or an affiliation with the church, then our words ought to be pure and we should be speaking as if we are mic'd up all the time. I hope this doesn't sound judgemental,it is meant to be more observational in nature.

• The phone rang very early this am, and it was my dad calling from the East Coast forgetting that there was a two hour time difference, and when I mentioned it to Howie that he knew we were in Utah, (because he mentioned it in his message) but didn't consider the time, Howie once again came down on me for having that darn plank in my eye, noting that it was an easy enough mistake to make and wasn't I being a bit harsh. Ouch again.

That's what is on my mind.

Hiking in Southern Utah

Don't let the happy face fool you, hiking is not a favorite activity of nine year old girls, or
at least not my nine year old daughter. Or my nine year old son fifteen years ago for that matter. An uncanny sense of deja vu was setting in with full force.
The above photo was on day one of our Southern Utah adventure. Nicole was able to be coaxed out of the car for a couple of photo opps, but otherwise preferred to sit in the car and play her DS. Go figure. It was kind of chilly (43 degrees at the summit, where there was still snow...) so at least that was a reasonable excuse to stay in the car.
She was hoping the same would hold true for day two (yesterday) when we went to Zion. No way. We did end up hiking (a word she would be happy to omit from her vocabulary) about five plus miles and saw incredible vistas, apparently lost on her.
Oh, but back to the deja vu. When Matt, (her red-headed brother of whom she truly is a clone) was about the same age we went to the Grand Canyon with a friend, and he was impossible. Whining, moaning, almost over the edge the entire time, the beauty also lost on him at the time. The ironic thing is that he now loves the wilderness, hiking, rafting, snowboarding and the beauty of nature.
But Nicole really was a trooper, hanging in there and not complaining to the extent anticipated.
No such luck this morning. The muttering about, "we're not hiking" started first thing, even before "good morning".
I do take solace in the fact that as parents we are not alone in this experience of unhappy campers who don't like to hike. Yesterday at Zion, the scenario played out over and over again with kids of all ages from tiny tots to teens. Sad faces, (parents and children) bedraggled bodies, and dragging feet, some kids being carried, many others wishing they were being carried and others lagging ten paces behind with incredibly sour pusses.
So today we are off to Bryce Canyon, where I have a feeling I am going to experience more deja vu. But at least now Matt and I can laugh together about it. Unfortunately it will still be several years before Nicole and I will reach that point.

Being Jesus to our Friends

I have continued to think about my recent visit with two elementary school friends. While I took the time to rant and rave about the unfriendly skies, I realized that I hadn't reflected on the heart of my visit, the time I spent with my friends.
Chara, my friend who is fighting breast cancer is seated next to me in the front with the lilac hat. Hallie who joined us for Friday is standing behind us. We have known each other since first grade.
I am so thankful that I went to spend Chara's birthday with her. It was a beautiful day of simply being with her. We hugged, laughed, shared, and just were. It was a delightful day of friendship where we were simply focused on being with each other. No computers, no cell phones, no interruptions.
I know many of my friends remarked how kind it was of me to go "all the way to California" to spend a couple of days with my friend. But it was her birthday, we have known each other for eons, and she is heroically fighting an illness (metastatic breast cancer) head on with no complaining. I felt as if I was the one who had been blessed beyond measure.
It wasn't immediately apparent to me that her vision was significantly impaired, although I did know that a recent surgery had left her blind in her left eye. But she "knows" her way around her home, (which is actually her parents home and her little corner of the world is the living room couch) so one forgets how poor her vision is.
We embraced when I arrived and held each other in an embrace that communicated care, concern and years of friendship. She started to cry, but I knew if I started, neither one of us would stop...so I said, "We'll have NONE of that!" and we moved on. She served me coffee, made me breakfast, was the consummate hostess exhibiting a tremendous degree of hospitality. She also wanted to take me to a couple of her favorite haunts, and I met an incredible woman, Antoinette who has an angel gift shop, and then a quick stop at Barnes and Nobles for a gift for a friend. But it took it out of her. And it wasn't until we were walking in downtown Oceanside that it became apparent how impaired her vision is. So she took my arm and I guided her up and down curbs.
"You know, Kathy" Chara remarked, "I was downtown not too long ago with another friend who was helping me negotiate the sidewalks when a woman commented very loudly, 'I just hate to see it when two women hang all over each other like that' but I corrected her." It struck me how quickly we all judge without understanding the big picture. It is difficult enough to traverse an illness, which she is doing with such grace, let alone be the brunt of judgemental comments.
When I returned home (remember, bad air travel, not till 6 am Sunday) I did go to church where I was reminded of the importance of living a life that represents Christ and the truth that I had an opportunity to be Jesus to her. But more to the point was that she was Jesus to me. Her strength and kindness were a reflection of Jesus' love for me.

Happy Fourth

Happy Fourth of July! Wherever you are or whatever you are doing today enjoy!
We are embarking on a family trip to Utah, minus Tianna, who has elected to stay home to play on the Softball All Star Team. Yes, the Birth Certificate debacle was resolved. I spent countless hours of time gathering certificates, copies of school and hospital records, and several letters, all of which needed to be notarized, in addition to a certificate declaring promotion from one level to another of Sunday School. All of these documents trumped the Birth Certificate and Passport. Go figure. At any rate, I called the Eastern Regional Little League office in Bristol, CT just to make sure I had what I needed (because the District Administrator wasn't sure what qualified in certain categories...) and then after all of that got an email saying all the "in lieu of"documentation (all those things I ran my booty off to get) weren't necessary in our case after all.
So, in looking at the bright side, my daughter knows beyond shadow of a doubt that I would do anything to make this possible for her. Never mind that I didn't pack till eleven pm yesterday...
So we are off to Utah. I am hoping the skies are friendlier to fly than they were last week, and looking forward to some time with Howie and Nicole.

Blessings.

If You Thought Your Day Was Bad...

Just when you thought you were having a bad day...remember it could always be worse. While I have been incredulously lamenting the unbelievable requirements of what one has to do to establish birth date in absence of what is considered an appropriate government issued birth certificate I had a conversation that reminded me that it can truly always be worse. (OK, that really was a totally run on sentence, and yes, I still call myself a writer!)

Anyway, as I was talking to a friend about another several-steps-required-involving-DMV he agreed when I said, "No matter how bad it gets, it can always be worse" and he said, "Yes, you should see what just happened outside my window, there is a fender bender involving three cars, there is a police car and wherever they were rushing to get, well, now it isn't going to happen anytime soon." I suspect all three of them who bing bang boomed into one another were all on their cell phones.

So immediately I asked Tom if he could take a photo and email it to me, showing how it could be worse.

Hey, notice the Precious Moments in the foreground? How ironic!

So while I am still trying to gather documentation in lieu of a birth certificate, heart aching over my adult son, recovering from lack of sleep due to United Airlines fleet of planes that all seemed to need mechanical servicing the day I was travelling, and friends and family having numerous needs that only I seem to be able to meet, I was reminded to see the positive in the situation, understanding it could always be worse.