Wisdom...

~With time, women, especially mothers gain weight because we accumulate so much information & wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. So we aren't heavy, we're enormously cultured, educated, wise and happy. Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I'll think, Good grief, look how smart I am!~

Thanks Lindsay...love it!

The turtle walk...

My sister- in -law recently completed walking in a half marathon! At least she claimed she walked, but I did see pictures of her running across the finish line. Running...at the end!...at the end of 13 miles!!! I don't know if she was so excited to be done (or maybe she spied a big can of pepsi.)..but somehow... it all seems to be bordering on insanity to me...

It seems she is not the only person I know who has recently become possessed with the personal torture fever! A couple of our friends recently competed in a full marathon...Ok really??? 26 miles??? I mean WHY???? I cannot possibly imagine what kind of a prize, could possess a person to go "Hey, what ya doing on the 10th...3 months from now??" "Nothing??, Hey great, wanna go for a run with me?? How about 26 miles??" "Oh, and did I mention, that we really need to run about that far...EVERY DAY...between now and then just to get ready for it????"
Then today I hear another friend, casual as you please say..." Gosh, I really want to run a marathon!"...What the heck???

I keep wondering if the world has gone crazy and I am the only one to notice it! I mean I am all for a little exercise...there is nothing wrong with some weight lifting every day.. I try to get in my 8 glasses of water every day...they weigh quite a bit if you think about it...and if you switch drinking arms every other time, you are toning your guns quite nicely thank you very much! Just think if you add in a few snacks during the day...and load up on the heavy ones, you could get in quite a workout! Not one to worry about only one part of my figure I have also noticed that if you do your leg lifts in the bubble bath, you can get the nicley toned legs you always wanted and keep your bubbles fresh and long lasting. Of course you don't want to be to strenuous here, since it is a bubble bath, and turning it into a jacuzzi bath could lead to water overflow!

The nice part of my brain is proud of my sister in law and my friends...although they may be ambitious over achievers with a death wish, or hoping for early asthma, or maybe a chance to do some breathing treatments...who am I to rain on their parade! If they want to run distances that most normal people would drive... I am not the one to say no...

As for me?? I am happy with the turtle walk...I am sure I will have plenty of company along the way and time to stop and smell the chocolate...(well eat it is more like it, but hey! there should be benefits to moving slowly!!) and we all know that the turtle will eventually get where he is going...

Curve balls....

Who can really hit a curve ball? Of course great hitters come to mind, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Mark McGuire...but really...who among us can hit a curve?....Most of us think we can handle straight up the middle, hanging just over the plate..."as long as I can see it coming..." We love to use phrases like that to talk about all the things we choose to do, and all the things we don't choose but that come to us anyway. Most of us prefer our troubles to come in manageable quantities and in convenient time frames...however, there is always the curve. Little things, big things, you can always count on a curve when you step up to the plate...

I went to a farewell open house tonight for a good friend who is moving. There were so many people there all of whom somehow fit into the "friend" category. People who are so different from each other, and yet who all share common threads that bind us together. Change is amongst us. In listening to many of those who gathered express love and appreciation for the one who is moving...it touched my heart just how lucky we are. No matter what form our curve balls come in... no matter who, where, or what we are our friends are there to cheer us on. They love us despite our imperfections, they see the good in us when others don't, they make us smile through our tears.

My friend isn't moving because she wanted a new house, she is moving as a product of a bad economy. She is going in a new direction...because a curve ball is taking away her home. While my mind is sympathizing with her for her loss, my heart is overflowing for her because of her blessings. She is truly among friends. She has been given the opportunity to see her impact on so many people and the chance to feel the love of all those she has touched. Amazing how we have been given, exactly what we need to step up to the plate and hit away...Curve balls....sometimes can be our greatest blessing...

When I get where I'm going...

Love this song... www.playlist.com/searchbeta/tracks#brad paisley when I get where I'm going/all/1 Love the lyrics..each one means different things to me at different times...Played this song as they wheeled my dad out of his funeral...you would think it would evoke sad memories, but really it doesn't. I have loved it since the first time I heard it and I love it again each time I hear it. It seems to epitomize to me what we are doing here, and where we are going after we leave here...

My mom brought down some rolls of super 8 movie film that she has kept all these years (courtesy of my grandpa's movie camera) and we had them transferred onto dvd. We picked them up this week and were able to watch them the other night! Oh the memories...so many fun times. It was amazing to watch them. My sisters and I were pretty young in the films and it was so fun to see my younger parents, grandparents, and other family members. Camping in Yellowstone Park, riding in the parades, and horseshows, branding at the ranch, visiting relatives, and Christmas at home... We always did everything with family...always! It was so great to take a little trip back in time for a minute and go back there with family. It was so fun to see my sweet grandparents come back to life for a minute on the screen of the tv. It was great to see my aunts and uncles and even a short glimpse of my great grandpa...I didn't know he was on there, but there he was just like he looks in my memory...I can never remember a time, that we were doing something that my parents and grandparents weren't there, every step of the way...we have been so blessed by the love of a good family...

Brad Paisley says...
"yeah when I get where I'm going,
there'll be only happy tears...
I'm gonna walk with my grandaddy,
and he'll match me step for step,
and I'll tell him how I missed him,
every minute since he left.
Then I'll hug his neck.

The first time I heard this song, I had memories of my parents and grandparents roll through my mind, like someone turned on the movie camera...My whole life has been wrapped with family...where I come from and where I am going...has been defined by these good people. I love my life...I love the crazy, busy, days that we are in...I love the chaos of 4 boys and all life's adventures...but when I get where I'm going...I will definitely hug their necks!

Treats...

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater....
What the Heck Happened to Easter??
All my chocolate..
All my eggs...
Have been gone,
For many days...
No more carmel, no more peeps...
I'm so sad, I think I'll weep...
Dry my tears...wipe my eyes...
I think I'll now go make some pies...

Perspective...

Had the chance yesterday to talk to an old friend of mine. I am saying old, because in my book, that means treasured, valued, and wonderful. Anyone who wants to be friends with me for longer than a day or two, deserves some kind of a medal in my book, let alone one who has persevered for almost 20 years. Turns out her mom had just passed away. Cancer no less...I got the news, placed the call, and started to leave a message when she picked up. Spent the next long while, grieving together, talking together, crying together and laughing together mostly through our tears. Such is the blessing of old friends. As I talked with her, I knew what she was going through. Not just the loss of a parent, but life with cancer. Her story could have been my story. I had just lived through what she has been living through. I could hear myself saying words and phrases that let her know, I had seen and been where she was. I had walked the same road.

Perspective.

A couple of days ago, I spent some time talking with my niece. We were discussing her grandma, my mother-in-law. My "mom" is remarkable. She has been on dialysis for too many years longer than she should be,she is eighty, she is getting frail. Most of us feel she is and has been living on borrowed time for a very long time now. She recently took a fall, her second in a few months. While asking my niece (who lives near her) how she was doing, we had a discussion about grandma's borrowed time. Things like, why was she still here, what she had lived with, and through and done. What she has accomplished in her life, what she has left to accomplish...all those normal topics you go through when watching your loved one move to the time when you know their time here is short. My niece offered her opinions of what grandma is going through and I offered mine. Different opinions by what we see and in what our relationships to grandma are. When I went to say goodbye to my niece she said..."thanks for the different perspective".

Perspective.

Webster defines perspective as the ability to: look through, see clearly. Another definitions states that pespective is: the state of one's ideas, the facts known to one. Most people would define perspective as a combination of these two definitions. Sometimes in life I think we are lucky enough to look back at our experiences and realize we have learned something. Sometimes I think we look back and keep looking back trying to answer and define WHY did we go through with this or that. Most of the time, I think we combine these two strategies and make peace within ourselves about the road just traveled and move on to the next step, the next road.

When my dad passed away, I experienced so many things. I could look back and see so much learning from that experience. I could list so many blessings that have come to us from that time. Pespective. The funny thing is though, even knowing and seeing what I have learned I still am asking WHY? The rational part of my brain can answer that question. My heart cannot. Perspective. I can grieve with a friend, and understand the myriad of emotion she is experiencing. I can talk with a niece and provide insight from a different road than hers. I can face each day with all of life's ups and downs, drawing on what I have learned from earlier travels, sometimes nervous, sometimes not, but always willing to go forward.

Perspective.

I am coming to appreciate this as one of life's great blessing...

Personality test...

Have you ever thought about the many seemingly small things we do, that define the type of people that we are?? Of course I was in my favorite shopping place yesterday. (Even on a Saturday...soooo dumb I know, but I bravely persevered.) I love this place! You can get so many good deals there, you can get things I have never seen someplace else there, you get free food that is usually really good (sometimes it is yuck and I am grateful, I wasn't seduced by the pretty picture on the box) and it is a really good people watching place!! I love to watch people...they are always so entertaining, in all their infinite varieties. As usual, we were strolling around, eating, and doing a minimal amount of shopping, I of course doing my normal amount of people watching which includes what goes in their cart. I get a kick out of matching cart contents to people...(weird I know but try it sometime...) Have you ever noticed people and their toilet paper?? I am of the philosphy that you can never have too much toilet paper. I usually always have about a 6 month supply on hand, lots of times even more...I mean this is something I don't want to have to find a home remedy for...Yesterday for some reason people were on a bathroom buying spree...It seemed like every other cart had white clouds in it. Or not! There were some shoppers who had the good sense to buy the best kind, others who bought the scratchy kind, with the icky green wrapper, some who bought the kind that will save the earth, (who really worries about this, at a time like that??)

I started noticing a trend in the placement in their cart too...Mr, I am in a hurry get out of my way, gotta get home and take care of business, (probably ran out and had to hurry over and get some...before...well you know...) had his ginormus pack in the basket of his cart!! Yep sooooo tall, he couldn't see over it. Trying to steer his cart, on a saturday no less, amongst thousands of sample hungry shoppers, by peeking around the edge of the cloud cover! To make it worse...the rest of his cart was empty! Who does that??? There are some who plop theirs right in the center of their cart and then try to fit everything else in around it, meanwhile hollering at their kids to get out of the way and hang on because their heaped up cart could topple onto them at any moment. There are the no nonsense shoppers who have theirs nestled appropriately on the bottom of their cart (where we ALL know it should go) with their basic cleaning supplies neatly arranged by room in the top, and NEVER buy anything frivolous or fun (samples???Eeek!free food in a PUBLIC place??) Then there are the embarrassed kind...neatly hiding it, or so they think, down on the bottom, gamely covering it up with laundry soap, and dryer sheets...as if you can hide 36 rolls of white....
I just had a chuckle or two or three as we made our way through the store and out to the car. Another day in paradise is what I was thinking. One more outing to reaffirm how fun it is to watch people. Yes it did cross my mind that there are those who would not agree with my personality assessments...however I felt pretty smart. Can't you just see a bestseller..."Easy Personality Match...Finding the Real You amongst the Clouds" As we were pulling away, I noticed Mrs. budget shopper and proud of it load her icky green wrapper kind in the cart and thought I had to at least give her kudos for buying more than enough for one or two days, like some of the crazy grocery store shoppers do...I mean really if you only buy 4 rolls, is it a gift for someone?? Do you ration it out?? Use it every other day?? Have only one person in your house who never goes?? I mean I don't get it!

However, I had much to do and couldn't let this occupy my whole day. Seriously with one birthday in the house and Easter Bunny shopping to finish, I had to move on. Busy day ahead...Finished my errands, visited a friend, did a good deed and finally my last stop before home, ran to the giant superstore which is my least favorite place (what a way to end my Saturday...and yes certifiably nuts for going there any day, let alone on Saturday before Easter...(screaming kids, crazy shoppers who buy pre-made icky Easter baskets, and blue vested workers were everywhere...even the cart storage cavern had no carts!) However a birthday gift resided there which I needed...I quickly grabbed my stuff, noticed a shopper or ten, ran across a lady I used to know, but didn't take time to yell across 3 aisles..."hey do you remember me".. and headed for checkout with my carefully counted "less than 20 items". (okay my carmel eggs put me two over the top, but really who counts anyway??) As I was standing in line, mentally categorizing all the multiple personalities around me, who do think pulled up in line right next to me??? Mrs. I have so many pressing needs, I will brave the crazed, shopper filled, so many people we were over the fire code limit, superstore. What was in her cart??? Nothing!! At first I wanted to tell her she didn't have to stand in line to exit the store, but then I noticed it...One little 4 pack of pure white toilet paper. Yep...another day in paradise...

Just thoughts...

I love the blogging world. I love the feeling of being connected and somehow in touch, by the pictures and thoughts that we all post on these pages. I am amazed at the talents which so many people display on the pages of a blog. I am continually surprised at the revelations and insight a blog provides about those whom are writing it. Blogs come in many shapes, sizes, and forms...I never seem to tire of reading blogs, I always feel enriched from the experience...and YES I am a blog stalker....I am one of those who will check my blog friends and then read through the blogs on your list...I don't do it to be nosy really, I do it more because I love the fresh perspective it provides to me. I love it for the exposure to so much out there that I don't know about...I am a very literal person and I am quite content doing things all the same way...all the time...It is good to have change and to be open to ideas that force us to evaluate where we are and where we are going...
For quite some time now, I have struggled posting on my family blog. I often have thoughts or reactions to life's daily windows, but somehow posting my personal thoughts always seems to me to be a little inappropriate for my family blog. Why this is...I don't know...I think mainly part of my brain wants to keep my little family connected to our friends and family out there...but I don't want to monopolize our "family" with just my own thoughts...hence the start of something new...I have quite a few closet personalities that seem to come out from time to time. Even when I think I know where I am going, I frequently end up somewhere else and usually that is okay with me. I don't know what I want to be when I grow up! I love so many things, I don't want to have to pick just one. In a nutshell, I have started this blog just to post my random thoughts come what may...I invite you to join the journey...