Good Times 2008

I was going to end this post with this photo, but here it is, first.

In November, I almost didn't have these two loved ones in my life. But by the Grace of God, they are still on this earth. 

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This post is a backward overview of my year. As in every year, and every day, I do not know what my story will be in advance. If I would have known this past year's script, I would most likely have given it back to it's Author. Perhaps I would want to give it back every year if I had a choice. But I believe that I am the creation, and that my story is being created, along with those whose paths I cross on this journey. My Creator is merciful, yet does not allow me to live and learn in this life without suffering.

Yet, here I am, accounting only some of the moments of joy I experienced over the year.

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The above photo of Bella and babe was snapped at a location where I had always wanted to travel-Ft. Rock, Oregon. Otherwise known as the middle of nowhere. Just a couple weeks previously, our Cascade Lakes Relay team ran near this location, however, this was in the dark, so I couldn't see the beauty this place had to offer. 

Here are some of my favorite photos from the year (Bella took some, I took some, and so did the T-man):

Evander's "friend" birthday party, rock climbing at a local school gym.

New for me this year, is the whole facebook phenomenon. A friend introduced me to fb in September, and am admittedly hooked, for better or worse. I can quit at any time. At any rate, these photos are from Em's and my wonderful November trip to Seattle.

My staged facebook photo at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass concert.

 My husband is a great get along guy. 

Dan and Patty's wedding was the highlight of September.

One of my favorite photos-ever. Camping in August with great friends.

This guy lights my fire.

A fantastic day at Mt. Hope's welcoming home.

An average Oregon summer's activity.

Some of my favorite kids in my backyard for my birthday celebration.

Family Soccer Organization at it's best.

The brunch after the Eugene Half Marathon 2008.

Oh yeah, we went to Disney World with some close family friends.

This is the day we enjoyed a great fondue spread, as well as having learned about 

baby Owen being on the way.

Kes cutting up with Bud at Emma's b-day celebration. Their visit include a hike up Spencer's Butte, just Bud and me while the rest of Eugene slept.

Taken at Emma's thirteenth birthday party. Just a few of the wonderful ladies who are part of the village that is helping me raise my girl.

A surprise from Indiana.

February's surprising joy in Indiana.

Looking Forward

I had looked forward to blogging about recent events it my life, when all of my events and seemingly important "stuff" in life has come to a screeching halt.

My last post(written a while ago, but posted today) said if  you wanted to know what I was doing, to check out my friend, Bella Art Girl's blog . 

When one experiences life in community,  we embrace great joys, and endure great sorrows. 

I am trying not to be in a fog right now, but that is how my body responds to such a blow. One of the closest friends is in such pain. It's difficult to write much more. I want to write much more. 

Please pray for my dear friend. She will need so much encouragement.

I will write a post if I can. I don't want the reality of the situation to be such, but I will only need to endure a minuscule fraction of what my friend is facing.

While I was in the emergency room with her I thought of one of the passages in the Bible where some friends of a crippled man tore open a roof and lowered him into a building where Jesus was teaching, so Christ could heal their friend. 

That's what I would like to do.

The Found Notebook

I did find the notebook I was looking for...It seems as though I've looked for many things this past month. Getting back to work as a homeschooling Mom has proven more difficult than I had thought. We are now on our tenth week of Classical Conversations, and I'm still trying to fit in all the work that is assigned. The curriculum of CC is good, great, wonderful work to do, but life in general in very demanding of my time(and the time vortex of facebook). 

If you use facebook, I may be caught up with you, but unless you can follow the "thread" of my conversations, you'd probably say, "Huh?" in regards to the happening of my family's lives, as I have difficulty following myself as well. 

In an effort to catch you up (you-one of those people who keep looking at my pages with great disappointment)with myself, I will reveal(that word makes it sound like something exciting or "juicy" will be "revealed," but not so much) what it "was" I wrote in that notebook. I do have editorial license over the content, it that, I can change what I had previously written, and add to it as well.

Here goes:

"Saturday (Oct.11) our visit to P-land was probably my quickest visit yet, as I am still recovering from my surgery. My intent to "take it easy" in recovery, seems to be going just fine. Paul drove up and back for me, and I must say I appreciated being the passenger. That's a rarity for me.

Van and I did EEL work for Classical Conversations most of the way up. I teach best when I'm strapped in, as the seat belt was suffice.

The shower for Morgan was absolutely lovely. Elsa prepared a tasty spread for the guests. Scrumptous food,  and beautiful flowers were plentiful. Lindsay did confess to creating some of the georgous flower arrangements.

The guest included many of the ladies from my family, along with some of Lindsay's long time guests. 

Morgan received adorable baby clothes and some entertaining toys for baby Owen. I'm fairly sure that Carlos will enjoy them also.

Although most of the ladies of our family attended the shower, I didn't have much time in the way of catch-up conversations. It seemed much like what speed dating would be like-but you're not trying to date your relative.

We did have some time with a smaller group: Matt, Elsa, Morgan, and Lindsay, post shower. Aslan the Nelson's ginormous puppy came out to play. Matt has met his match. Aslan is on of the biggest "puppies" I'd ever seen. 

While Emma and I were enjoying the shower, Van and Paul took a trip to see the house that Matt and Elsa were in the process of buying."

So, that's what I was able to write during Van's grammar class three weeks ago! 

Morgan hasn't had her baby yet, as he's due next week.

Matt and Elsa did get the house in Lake Oswego.

Now if you want any other details of this past month, check out my friend, Bellaartgirl's blog, we'll you'll find me and the kids.

Just A Day at the Beach

I haven't given much of a run-down of our vacation at Orcas Island, but that will come...

This weekend, we hosted my brother, Bob, and his wife Jan for a visit. It started out as an ordinary visit. They came in on Friday evening, we had a meal together at my home, and did some catch-up chatting on our lives and such. We took a walk down the road to pick blackberries, and  had the opportunity to have our neighbor friends meet our guests. 

Saturday morning, we drove across town to Cornucopia for breakfast. We really enjoy their breakfasts, and claim this place to be one of our favorite breakfast spots in town. 

After a leisurely breakfast, we made our way to Florence for the day. The temperature in Eugene was to soar, so we headed for the cool weather. In Florence, the temperatures were in the 60's with some wind, so we didn't plan on swimming at Cleowax. Instead, we first walked around old town. We headed to a coffee shop, where Bob treated us to a coffee. We also had a "celebrity sighting," and I snapped a quick photo of one of the "stars" in our life.  After our foray in town, we then decided on heading to the South Jetty. We were dawdling as we arrived at the jetty.  It was quite windy, and we were getting set for a little walk to the beach, putting on jackets and such.  As we readied ourselves, Van had his scooter out, thinking maybe he could scooter in the gravel, when a small blue car came sliding in on the gravel near him, then peeling out as they left. I was a taken back a bit as I saw this as a stupid teenager being an unsafe driver, disregarding others, and endangering our son.

As we were looking in the direction that the car went, we noticed some smoke billowing from the dunes about a quarter mile away. There were a few of us that made the observation, stating the obvious, "That looks like a fire." It seemed so out of place, with black smoke billowing, and then we began seeing the giant flames.

After the incident with the gravel, and as we were watching the fire, another young man drove up, stating that those teenagers we had just seen, had sent a firework out of their car, having started the fire.  

I called 911 on my phone. The line was busy. When I was able to connect, the dispatcher asked if it was about the fire, and then hung up, after I said, "Yes," but before I said, "but..."  as I was also giving her information about the possible suspects. 

In the meantime, no fire fighters had arrive, and we as a group made a decision to drive out, rather than stay. I'm not convinced that was the wisest choice, but when we decided to go, we made it in the nick of time. The flames became bigger, and moved faster, and Paul made the "Better Go Now" move with the car, as we yelled for him to drive faster.  When we passed the fire which was to the right of us, we felt the heat of the fire through the car. Scary to say the least(In the picture you can see the fire had jumped the road).

With the adrenaline going, and me taking some Mama time to calm the children, we decided to go to the other side of the jetty to watch the fire. We all seemed a bit PTSD from the fire, but really were on to the next event. Uncle Bob set the swinging example, but didn't get a photo of him. It helped release some of the stress of our previous activity.

 

Again, hard to top that off, but we did end up at Mo's to eat chowder.
 

The temperature didn't climb as quickly as it did when we drove by the fire, but driving back into Eugene the thermometer rose at least 30 degrees. We were glad to be welcomed to an air-conditioned home. 

So, what do you do with visiting guests after you drive through a fire? 

Well, I served them a tasty, yet uneventful dinner. But the best part of the dinner was Aunt Jan's pie. My camera couldn't do the pie justice, hence no picture. That pie was yummy, yummy. We used the blackberries that we had picked on Friday. "We" as in I observed Jan as she made the pie. In my mind I helped her.

Sunday, we had our regular breakfast for guest fare-including bacon, and my "homemade" twisted pastries. Jan and I enjoyed our breakfast to the "pitter patter" of the rain on the patio. OK, it was loud pouring down rain that interrupted the quiet of our conversation. 

After breakfast, Bob, Jan, Evander and myself headed for Alton Baker for a tour of the park, and a chance for Evander to really ride his scooter. 

Now I wonder how I'm going to top the next guests' visit?

Wacky Weekend

Friday-Nancy and GMa volunteering at swim meet.

Free drinks at the new Dutch Bros. near our house for Paul and Nancy.

Kids with GMa for dinner and sleepover/pillow fight.

Saturday-Pick-up kids from GMa.

Make breakfast/bacon.

Van to karate.

Jungle removal.Tree house finishing?

Paul volunteering at swim meet. 

Nancy running away from bear. 

Nancy, Bunko at Grandma Judie's with Patty's peeps.

Sunday-Church-watching kids, eating watermelon.

Afternoon naps, talk of cleaning, finishing tree house? 

Volunteering as recycle lady and sir at swim meet.

Prince Pucklers as a reward for saving the Earth. 

Kids sleeping in tree house for the first time!

Did I miss anything?

Backin' the Bus Up

I just sped read through some of my favorite blogs...

Whoa, I've missed a ton of stuff in other people's lives. This blogging thing is so interesting, and I realize that I have made at least one new "real" friend, and "lurk" on other people's blog. I might even think they are my friends...Weird huh? Yet, not totally unlike me.

So, Emma did make it back from California. She had a long review of her trip on her blog, and if you ever want permission to view her blog, let me know, and I will ask her, as she has a very blocked blog. 

While she was gone, I did just fine, mostly because I left the day she was coming back so I wasn't at home to miss her. I also came to the realization that I ask her to do many tasks around the house, and that we need to be more specific about what the kids' contribution to family are, by way of chores. We jokingly call her "Cinderemma" but need to make sure that this is purely in jest. 

She is slowly, I mean slowly, being allowed more and more independence and it is so fun (only a little anxious on my part) to let her out into the world. Granted, she is thirteen, and has had three years of karate. Grandma Rita suggested that, I  start having her wear a whistle. Emma doesn't know this yet. 

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I still have more to say about my Klamath Falls trip. I uploaded the video from our "Momumentary" to the computer, so look for snippits coming soon. With some cleaver editing, it should make a good short film.  

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Although it is not entirely unlike me, today, I had difficulty focusing on the task at hand, as I have so many tasks to hand. I'm trying not to stress, well not until this evening and came to the conclusion that I'd better start cleaning for a shower that is happening on Wednesday.

 Evander started Cub Scout day camp this week. He is there most of the day, so Emma and I had some time to ourselves, but we couldn't quite figure out what to do, or where to go. We thought it would be good to bike to a new pastry shop at Crescent Village, but Emma's bike needed some repair, so we decided to take matters into our own hands and help speed the process of bike repair by taking parts to the bike shop.

In the end, my helping didn't go so well, but I'm hoping my husband will forgive me...

Blog Pleased

An entire day has passed since baby girl left on the bus. She is gone, but not forgotten. 

I still have "blog please" notes scattered around the house. She began a campaign to have her own blog some time ago. The other day, I suggested that she write a sticky note so I would remember to talk with the Papa about letting her have her own blog and e-mail. She posted about a hundred around the house. She even had some on the toilet seat, "Blog" on the top of the lid, and "Please" on the bottom part. This seemed to be more persuasive that just sitting and asking, "Please? Please? Please?(ad infinium)."  She even wrote a letter to us as an assignment in her writing class, arguing the finer points of having a blog, and e-mail.

Her persuasive campaign was effective. I don't understand the technical part of all of it, but Symantec has a "beta" family program they're working on. It has something to do with parental control with blogs and email, so Emma and Paul are users for this new program. One of the features is has is to alert us when she invites a new person on her email list, or invites someone to view her blog. 

We're still working on the details of the context of the posts, what she can and can't put on the page, but her blog is up and running.

 I keep wondering if she's taking notes while on her trip, or if she has a new idea for a post.

I would like to say that I am spontaneous about what I post on, but sometimes I might have "staged" photos knowing that the photo may, or may not make the blog. So, I  have several photos, with a story waiting to happen. I'm also beginning to realize that I do have a camera on my phone, so when I feel absolutely compelled to snap a photo, I can. 

Except...I have to figure out how to get in on my computer, to get it to my blog. 

Baby Girl on Bus

Well, here is a photo that captures how excited Emma is to finally get away from her parents. 

I didn't Photoshop her face. The sun was shining onto the bus, and on her face, so it looks like I pasted the obligatory smile. 

She is off with her swim team to a land far, far away from Mom, Dad, and little brother. Oddly enough she wasn't interested in us chaperoning this event. Although, back in the day, I was one of the fun adults on the bus, now I'm just Emma's mom, who can be slightly embarrassing at times. 

She'll be gone until Monday night, but I won't see her until Wednesday, as I'll be in Klamath Falls for a Classical Conversations seminar. 

She went away to overnight camp (which is down the road) last year, but we haven't had this long a stint away from each other since. She'll be just fine. I was a little teary as she was loading onto the bus, as I thought of her being, "Travelin' Em." 

After the bus left, and as we were headed home, one of those sentimental "Cinderella" country music songs was playing on the radio, and again I was teary.

Showers of Love

On Friday evening, our extended family threw a baby shower for a couple of my nieces, Tyrie and Jenny.  My mother will now have somewhere in the area of twenty-five grandchildren and great grandchildren combined!

My mom was so helpful in getting everything ready for the shower, she's no spring chicken, yet she can do circles around me(maybe because I go the opposite direction). Mom has a community room at her apartments, which was a great setting for the shower. 

I must say I love how my family is able to rally around when a new baby comes into the world. Our family is a tad mafia like in saying that we're "cousins" when we are more "relations," but I know I love these cousins. 

I also must note that my dear sister and sweet sister-in-laws have done such a good job in the past with hosting and putting on showers for the family. I haven't gotten to do as much as I live over 120 miles away. They've done a great job of sharing their homes, and preparing for such parties for many years. Lastly, I think I spent about ten minutes cleaning up, as Jan, my sister -in-law,and my sister Chris did the majority of the clean-up. I said Chris was my cleaning fairy at my birthday party last year, and so she was again at this shower...sometimes, it's good being the youngest sister. 

Also, some may know that I often call myself, "Crazy Aunt Nan." This label I gave myself, but others may just have thought it- keeping the quiet part to themselves. The first time I remember being an aunt was when we lived in Portland on 83rd street. I remember my mom talking on the phone, and me overhearing the news that Jenny was born. I promptly ran outside the house and announced in a very loud shout out, "I'm an aunt! I'm an aunt!" 

Jenny was a constant playmate and friend until I went away to college. Tyrie didn't come along until I had moved away for college. She has grown to be a wonderful young women, and I do have a hard time not having been in the same town while she was growing up.  

Tyrie had her baby on Saturday, Lukas James, 7lbs. 11oz. Brother Izaac I'm sure will come to adore this little guy. 

Jenny wasn't inspired enough on Friday to go into labor the next day, but is scheduled to be induced next Tuesday. 

Jenny, due Tuesday, Morgan due in early November, and Ty the day before baby Lukas was born!

Catch up

Last Tuesday, the kids participated in their school's "Open House". Evander displayed "The Great Wall of China" that he built with his buddy Caleb. Emma and Evander shared some writing projects from their writing class, Emma a video story, and Evander a "Fractured Fairy Tale" featuring "The Gingerbread Man." 

Evander read his book in front of the crowd of parents and adoring grandparents. Auntie, Uncle Tucker, Lily, Wilder and Grandma Judie were part of the crowd. He eagerly read his book, without the prodding of the teacher, or myself.

I don't even remember Wednesday. In fact, I barely remember Wednesdays at all. I had forgotten at least half of all of Evander's chess classes. I must have some sort of Wednesday amnesia. I can get the kids to karate, then I think I have nothing going on the rest of the day.  Perhaps it's not a good idea for me to sign up for Wednesday classes.

Thursday, was the last of the kids outside classes. Emma excelled in her Spanish class. She's looking forward to next years class, but isn't so excited that I scheduled her Tuesdays this Summer for a conversational class-at our home. I, on the other hand am so excited to share our home in this way. 

Friday, we had glorious weather for an end of the year picnic at Shotgun Creek. The kids were able to play with their buddies, and I was able to chit-chat with my fellow educators. 

I didn't want to leave the party, but this was the beginning of a busy weekend, as we were off to be prepared for a Cub Scout Campout Saturday and Sunday. We also were on our way to the graduation party for one of the old youth group kids.

Saturday, "Little boys, little boys every where I go I see little boys (sung to the tune of "Little Girls" from the Annie soundtrack). I had a good time, but really my heart was elsewhere. Our dear neighbor girl, and also and old youth group kid, had a graduation party while I was at the campout. I had committed to go to the campout before I knew it was her party. I've been told it was a fabulous party, and my sweet Emma gave her a gift of a slideshow/movie with pictures and interviews of people who love her from her community. I have yet to write something more personal for these young people who graduated this year, as they will always have a very special place in my heart, as I loved them, and loved "The Thing." 

Sunday, I helped close out camp and headed home to get ready for another graduation party, and  for the 70th wedding anniversary of our church's patriarchal family..

At the anniversary party, I was all teary when Jack had family come forward to stand with Dale and Linore to show the legacy of the Crabtree's love. There were what seemed like endless amounts of Crabtrees. What an inspiration.

Monday, Emma's best buddies from when she was three began their stay at our home. They all seem mesmerized by our computer, as I see that it's a lovely day outside. The girls woke up early to go with me to take my Emma for her seventh grade test. She claims the test was easy, as well as a waste of time.

Although I had literally quadruple booked myself during the day, we had a great visit with Auntie Rachael and her three cherubs. These kids are really sweet, smart and cute, cute cute.

Tuesday, that was yesterday. I don't remember that. Oh yeah. We went to the U of O's Museum of Art, the Jordan Snitchzer Museum of Art. It was closed. We did, however, have a nice treat at the Marche with our grown up neighbor girls. 

The girls spent their evening with their old library friends. Their mom invited the girls over to enjoy pizza and dessert. The kids seemed to get reacquainted, as they ended the evening singing around the campfire. 

Wednesday, I taxied Evander to the first day his third grade test. I sat in the car, talked to Jodi, did some detailing of the car, and went through my  e-mail in-box. I've been moving since then, getting ready for a double baby shower up in Portland. 

Now the girls are preening themselves for a sleepover at the neighbor girls. Evander will be joining us at a rally at the 4-J school district office, as 4-J has plans to discontiue additional students to be allowed from the district to take classes at HomeSource. Let's see what happens...

Missing Dad

A year ago today, my dad died. I never have thought about writing that sentence. You see, my dad had me convinced he was old from the get go, and I thought he would die any time. I had forty years of thinking he would die any time. Well, he almost made it to eighty-five, and I had just turned forty. 

I miss giving my dad black jelly beans for holidays. I miss his puns. I miss our theological conversations. I miss how he came to love his children, and his grandchildren. He was a man that started out in this world with little love, and went out with more love than I'm sure he even imagined. 

Kickin' In Forty

Saturday night, our family went out to dinner at Cafe Lucky Noodle. As we began our dinner, I surveyed my family about what they thought were the highlights of my 4oth year. 

I would describe the highlights of the year with a letter already written-our last year's Christmas letter, but part of the letter is missing, as it was never sent. Whatever it was I did before April of last year is gone forever. I guess if I thought really hard, I could come up with it...but here is the text that was saved, seeming to start from the Half Marathon 2007...

my iPod, and Elsa. Elsa did cross the line first, thus beating me (I let her win).

Paul and I celebrated our 40th birthday, together in May. It was a harried day, with so much excitement in seeing friends, and gratitude for years and years of encouragement. My sister, Chris, was my heroine, jumping in and helping with getting the food ready. She and my brother-in-law were also there for emotional support as my father was in the hospital and the rest of the family at his bedside.

I spent the day of my birthday with some of my dear girlfriends. My friend Erin had an itinerary of fun planned throughout the day. The highlight of the day was when my friends met each other for the first time, and then it seemed like they were long lost friends by the end of the night.

My father died two days after my fortieth birthday. Our family spread his ashes at an old fishing hole where the Calawash and Clackamas rivers run together. There, my sister-in-law Lindsay has planted a tree in memory of Bob Davidson, so if you get a chance to water the tree...

We began our Summer with close friends vacationing in Port Townsend, WA at Fort Warden State Park. These dear friends were great listeners in helping me process my grief. Not many people would be interested in spending their vacation time doing such, but these folks are exceptional saints.

Summer seemed somewhat long, as grief can stretch out the days. But I found an outlet for the grief in training for and running the Hood to Coast relay. Whoa! I ran the studder producing, imfamous first leg, running downhill from Timberline Lodge to Government Camp.

We finished our Summer and began our Fall with three trips to southern California. Paul's work led him to California, spending most of October moving Symantec's QA lab into the Culver City site. We visited with Haley Hoffmeister and her sweet boys, who live in Fullerton. We were at Universal Studios three days, Legoland two days and Knott's Berry Farm one day. We did take some short visits to the beach, as Paul stayed in an apartment close to Venice Beach. This gave the kids and I an opportunity to rollerblade at the beach, picnic and watch the surfers. One of our trips to SoCal was with a friend and her boys. The photo with the boys in on Mailbu beach, about a week before the California fires. The rollerblading photo was taken at the peak of the San Diego fires, so you might notice the haze.

Other highlights of the year include: our trip to Sunriver; the last family picnic at Roslyn Lake; Cape Lookout;  Jim Brown's raging 40th birthday party; and Bud and Kes' visit (Hey, Bud, did you ever hear of the world's greatest joke book?).

December is almost over. It's been a year to remember that's for sure. I am grateful, and yet not as humble as I should be. I have a loving husband of eighteen years, beautiful children, a caring family, and constant friends. I go into this next year remembering the quote a friend gave me, "O God of second chances and new beginnings, here I am again."

Whew!

Over a week has passed since I last recounted our family happenings. So, I'll summarize the events of these past few days or so...
For Evander, I'd say his highlights were: visiting with Grandma Lois, watching,  Prince Caspian, going to a friends birthday party, and playing Wii with cousin Sam.
I'd guess Emma's were having accomplishments in both Spanish and swimming. Also, watching Prince Caspian inspired her to read the Prince Caspian book.
 Princess Paul celebrated his fortysomething birthday out of town. I missed celebrating with him, but heard that he had balloons and a cake at least.
Me, well not much this week. Just kidding.
My mom came to visit and to help me put in my garden. She is a hard worker, and wore me out! We we're able to integrate fun and food into our time together. Grandma Judie joined us at the Dairy Queen, Thursday night. The two grandmas chatted and enjoyed their Blizzards.

Saturday, Patty celebrated her thirtysomething birthday. She came to our house for a visit with Grandma Lois, whom she hadn't seen for a long time. I must say, I have the greatest sister-in-laws. Patty is Patty for sure, with her quick wit and beautiful smile, and she's remained my friend all these year, dispite my anticts.  

Here's a shout out to Grandma Judie, my favorite mother-in-law!  Her birthday on Monday completes the trifecta of family birthdays all in one week. 

Monday, we were able to enjoy an evening performance of ballet. Three little girls from church, including our Lily danced so beautifully for a doting crowd.

Mother's Day

Thanks to BellaArtGirl for the photos, and Mother's Day love! The paper vase was from Lily-Boo.

The "Good Mother" hand prints were from the T girls.

I woke up earlier than my family on Mother's Day, so I went upstairs and compiled a CD entitled, "Mother's Day Love". Apparently, I had too many songs for one disk. But here is the play list:(This is to come, as my tech guy is in class)
The older I get, the more songs I like. Some of these songs are for fun, and some remind me of family times. I realize that many of the songs that I like are "inspirational" in genre. Yep. I guess I figure that this world/life can be difficult much of the time and I'll take help any way I can get it, and often look forward to Life beyond this world, even on Mother's Day.
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After the CD making, I was told to go back to bed, where I received cinnamon rolls and orange juice. Mr. P made me coffee, (Just like George does for Laura) and I read some of the March issue of Sunset magazine.  That was nice. Sweet Emma presented me with new PJ's that she bought with her own money! I had discussed this particular set of PJ's with her on one of our trips to Target, so she knew of my interest in said item.

 I also called my mom, but didn't talk too long, as she comes on Thursday to fill a supervisory position to help me put in my garden. For her Mother's Day, she went to breakfast with my brother, Doug and sister-in-law, Lindsay. Bud and Kes were kind enough to make dinner for her and my sister Chris. 

After coffee and conversation, we were then off to church, as we were in charge of the kids in Van's age group. We read and discussed Proverbs 31, you know, the good part about a strong woman and other great attributes of a God reveren' woman. The kids weren't as into it as I was, but it was an attempt to send some love home for the mamas.

I'll skip the part about no one showing up for hike I had planned...

We spent the afternoon watching, "Becoming Jane". I'd love to say it was a great film, but unfortunately, I fell asleep. It's a mother's prerogative to do as she pleases on Mother's Day.

Grandma Judie, Patty, Dan and Sam joined us for dinner. My family prepared the meal-Honeybaked ham, Caesar salad, and one of the foods in my top ten faves-mashed potatoes. It was delightful to share the evening with two of my favorite moms...Although the highlight of the night was when my nephew Sam gave me an unprompted puppy dog hug, while greeting me with, "Happy Mother's Day."

Movement

Heidi and I ran the Butte to Butte today. We were the only ones doing so. Oh, that's right, it's not until July 4th! Well, we ran it because I suggested starting to practice for the downhill portion of the run. I must say when we arrived at the start of the course,  I had my own bit of fun knowing she did not know the route.  The beginning of the race appears to be a little stretch of road, then a little bump of a hill. In actuality, it keeps going up and up until there's such a steep part that one can walk more easily than run. Then it's down and down the hill. Mind you, it's not very steep, but I have to "pace" myself because I am someone who gets side aches on the downhill easily (Oh, I would love to practice my new technique of running like the roadrunner-quick turnovers barely touching the ground-it's fast. But my side aches remind me to be conservative). So I survived the hill, and now I want to know how fast(or should I say how much more than slower) I can go down the hill without keeling over. 

That was this morning, well, early morning. This Saturday, was the last day of Spring soccer for the Family Soccer Organization. Our friends came up with the idea of playing as "families" rather than individual family members playing on various teams, needing to practice more than once a week, all throughout the city. It's simple. A parent from each family plays soccer with the kids. Instead of just sitting on the sideline chatting, we join in. Now, sometimes I mix chatting and playing, but today I mostly played, and what fun!

{I'd love to show some photos from today's soccer game, but when I went to take some video of the event, I realized that I broke the video camera's battery at Disney World. It was a tight fit for the video cam and the digital cam to fit in our camera case, but if I took the battery off the video cam, it fit quite nicely. Well, we had pulled it out once to film, and when I was manipulating everything to fit, it kinda sorta fell on the ground. It was dinged, and looked OK, but it didn't work. I'd forgotten my faux pas, and only brought the video to soccer today}. 

So I just have to randomly describe what happens on the field...

The play looks a lot like swarm ball, especially if the adults get in the thick of the kids to try and get the ball away from them. It's not quite fair, but it is fun to get into the swarm, let them kick it back and forth between you and the kid, and then see who gets the ball. Mind you, 99% of the time, somehow the kid gets the ball. It wouldn't seem fair that the 40 year old always took the ball away from the little kids.

Then there's the comments from the kids, "Oh, you kicked that funny." 

 I said to one of the girls, "Hey, you're guarding me?" She replied, "Yes, I am" with a "Bring it On" attitude as she darted back and forth before our throw-in.

Tegan, as kids coach running down the sidelines, "That's it, that's it, that's it."

Then there were the random plays of the adults trying not to squish the kids. That's interesting trying not to run over a child, especially when you start running from behind them, and they come to a sudden, unpredictable stop. I had some near misses during the season, as one of the boys liked to slide tackle. Today, I tried to actually kick the ball with some umph, for the goal, but kicked it straight on into one of the smaller, say five year old's, chest. He didn't cry though.

Neither did I.

What's also fun is watching the adults try and hold back when they have a clear shot of goal. We have a three touch rule, as the adults team has to kick it three times to each other before they can shoot the goal, and they have to start the count over if a kid kicks the ball. Well, it takes some effort for the adults to do so, as the kid's team had twelve today, and we had about six. 

With this being our third year(?) at this, I encourage all families to forgo paying all those sports fees, and give their own FSO a go.

Waiting

≈ This week I spent sleeping. I suppose I needed it for my recovery after the half marathon. My running partner has been awake. She's ready to take on another challenge, while I try and nap...
I am waiting for the beginning of the big garden clean-up tomorrow. Today, I was in the house, as I haven't really tackled chore duties since the "Mountain of Laundry," so one can imagine the time it's taken just to clean the first layer. The first layer is good enough, so I'm hoping the gorgeous weather will hold out for a couple more days in order for me to get started on the garden. Tomorrow, we have the end of FSO (have I written about FSO?), onto the garden store for the kids to help pick-out my Mother's Day plants, then hopefully, I'll have time to plant them.
While I was waiting for my garden to be planted, I thought I'd show some pictures of what was happening in my yard, that perhaps, I was taking for granted.

Love Is What Matters

Today, I am lying in the hammock and reflecting on the past two days...

Emma and I just spent some time reading outside in gorgeous weather. This school year, she and I have been reading, "Anne Frank The Diary of a Young Girl". There is so, so much life in this book. I am moved by this life. The "realness" of her writing puts me, as the reader, right next to her in the annex.

I wish I could say I have put all my thoughts together after reading this book, but there is so much that comes to mind when reading an entry to her diary, so I will only share some of my scattered thoughts. Like today, one of the passages we read reflected a day, weather wise, that was probably similar to this day, however Anne didn't have the frivolity of such leisure time. She was not free.

Also, reading this book, I am presented with the dichotomy of  Anne's angst/imprisonment, and the freedom that we experience as modern Americans.
One of the more remarkable things about Anne was at her age, she is more educated than I will ever be.
There is so much richness to this story she tells, yet she did not live to tell her story. Her story is a short story, on which I have spent some time cogitating and having an ongoing "discussion" with God.
...................................

Yesterday, after the half marathon, my husband graciously made the "Breakfast of Champions" with the help of my sister-in-law Patty, and my mother-in-law Judie.

Fellow half-marathoners Heidi and Maricel joined me and our respective fan clubs for breakfast.

 I'm hoping the pictures of folks spread throughout the house will tell the story, but what they won't say is that this race is a reminder of my pre-forty experience of self evaluation and self reflection that lead me to the conclusion that my life is to be about gratitude, foremost, to God and to all the magnificent gifts He gives me each and every day.

At one moment as I sat amongst my friends chatting about this and that, I had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for these friends being the love and support that is here for me, big race or not. My eyes got a bit teary, and I noticed the song that was playing the the background. It was a Carrie Underwood song (Yes, sounds so "pop" of me) entitled, "So Small". The lyrics of the chorus are so true,

"Sometimes that mountain you've been climbing
Is just a grain of sand
What you've been out there searchin for forever
Is in your hands
Oh, When you figure out love is all that matters after all
It sure makes everything else
Oh it sure makes everything else
Seem so small"