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. 

-----------------------------------------------------------

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.

-----------------------------------------------------------

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.

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?

Dog Days of Summer

This little puppy of mine was so proud of his Army make-up he put on all by himself at Cub Scout camp that we decided to take a picture outside, in no better location that our dog kennel. You may ask, "Why do you have a dog kennel when you do not have a dog?" 

First, it was in our yard when we bought our house. I can vaguely reccolect a dog we had for a year or so, but PTSD, (Post Traumatic Stress induced by Dog Syndrome) keeps my memory a little fuzzy. Mostly, it's used as a trellis, or kid jail. 

Kids love to corral each other and call the kennel a jail. I've tried to whole "Please don't use that as a jail.  Just can't you all just get along?" approach. Nope. It's a jail. Sometimes it's a home, or a kitchen, maybe even a zoo, but mostly, it ends up being a jail.

Speaking of dogs...

My good friend EK obliged to go running with me in the blazing, stinking hot, hot, overcast heat this afternoon. This is all in preparation for the Cascade Lakes Relay that she and I are participating in. OK, we're crazy enough to try to run something like- two hundred miles through Central Oregon. That's with a team of six men and six women, and I may be the oldest woman. They don't call me Crazy Aunt Nan for nothin'.

So, as we started our run today,  I was about three steps into the run when I noticed it was hot. The temperature registered on the car's thermometer as 98, in the sun.  I then recalled that I drank about half of a sixteen ounce mocha, and about a cup of milk for the whole day, and it was about 3:30P. I must have been a titch dehydrated. But before we could drag our hot little selves for a short run, a dog bounded in front of us...

OK, I'm falling asleep, so if you read this blog before I get to finish posting, you will be kept in suspense...

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.

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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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."

A Good Day

How does one describe a good day? What are the criteria for a good day? I can't say I have that "feeling" often, but today was a good day. 

I woke up earlier than usual, thinking I had to get Evander up to make sure his Tuberculosis report was ready for his science class. Of course, I did delegate that chore to Paul, as I decided to shower before making  a public appearance. 

This morning, I stayed in Evander's NASA science class and listened the the children's good, yet disgusting reports on diseases. It truly was "refreshing" to see the product of their labors. 

I also met with my writers class teacher in my office/Dodge Grand Caravan. I apologized for not having any tea, although, a half eaten Cliff Bar was in the seat I offered her. She didn't eat it.

The conversation was refreshing, in that, this woman is interested in the dialogue about expressing oneself through writing- expressing one's faith, person, worldview, etc. This whole process of writing and sending the writing out into the blogosphere is very, well, new to me. It seems I haven't put much of an effort into expressing myself with writing since my olden days of "quiet times". Now, this writing seems new, maybe some sort of new beginning, perhaps a new "role" in my life. 

Our conversation did come to an end, mostly because I had to get in the pizza line for lunch. Why would one stand in line for pizza?  It being Tuesday, our "business" keeps us from thinking far enough ahead to make a lunch. Emma does a much better job at packing a lunch than I, and I usually have one foot out the door when I remember to remind her to pack it. Well, the school orders the pizza from a local Figaro's, and unfortunately, only a limited amount of pizza is ordered. Hence, I have to make sure we get our pizza by securing my place in line well before the children rush out their classes. 

 Back to the fact that I was taking a meeting in the van while the pizza was delivered... Well, I not being too dissimilar to Pavlov's dog, knew that pizza would be in the building and abruptly ended our meeting.  What happens is that the aroma of that Figaro's pizza saturates the building. It then becomes a dire need to buy that pizza.

One mom said she would buy that pizza in lieu of manicures- just so she wouldn't have think about packing a lunch. 

 My friend later asked how the pizza was, I guess I wasn't as subtle as I thought.

What was good about the pizza? It was cold when I ate it. I hardly remember eating the pizza, because while I was standing in line I was handed an envelope. It was the envelope for which Evander had run out to the mailbox these past few day to retrieve(It was sent to the school, as they did not have our address). We took the envelope directly to Evander's writing teacher's room so she could watch him open it and see what was inside. It took him forever to cut the envelope open. The drama was so intense that the anticipation of knowing what was inside increased with every tiny cut of those tiny children's scissors.  

Inside the letter stated that he had won honorable mention in a local children's poetry contest! Apparently, over three hundred kids had entered the contest and his being honorable mention is, well, honorable. Evander's smile and his announcing  he'd won the contest was way better than hot pizza. I, as the proud Mama, wore that plastered on smile of pride...

Tuesday's schedule has us racing from one event to the other, however, the day kept getting better. I had the opportunity of meeting with a friend over coffee to discuss a parenting issue. My friend and I hadn't had a sit down conversation for quite a while. The time is always well spent being with her, as she is a woman who exudes the wisdom of one who pursues God. The grace, kindness and humor she shares gives me encouragement in my fumbling as a parent.

Is this an end to the never ending Tuesday? No, the day just kept getting better... I'll skip to the end where the Cub Scout meeting went well, as we ceremoniously celebrated the boy's accomplishments in their progress in ranks. The other leader did such a good job preparing for the meeting that the kids truly had good time, and my not being prepared was easily overlooked.

OK, that's the short version of my good day, a thank you Jesus kind of day.