March Madness

I am not talking about basketball here....

Have you missed me?  I missed you!  Things have been a bit dead here on the blog for the last two weeks, sorry.  It is not that I haven't had some great thoughts running through my head, it is just that I haven't written about them or when I tried to they seem to have escaped my steel trap mind.  Where was all this activity back in icky, dreary, boring, long January when I would have happily entertained guests, traveled to interesting places (Ok, I did travel to two great places in January), played golf 3 days a week and had to carve out time to do mundane things like laundry?  It is feast or famine and right now it is a feast!

One thing that was suggested in my writing class was to find a great book of quotations to use in our writing.  I admit, quotes are a good tool to spark the brain, give you direction or support a point.  It is also nice to have someone else say what you want to say... and say it better.  I call it cheating!  Pardon me if I cheat a little.

 "I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine." by Caskie Stinnett. 

What would life be like if I woke up every day looking at this?  Wow!  Would it become routine?  This is only one of the panoramas I was blessed to see over the last week, far from my daily routine view of flat land covered by cement and retail spaces!  I found myself saying over and over, "I could really get used to living out here in sunny, dry, beautiful California!".  Do they know how lucky they are?  Maybe, maybe not.  They are all too busy driving their convertibles, letting their hair blow in the breeze and then sitting outside eating lunch with a glass of wine. I could get used to that too!

Speaking of wine...we tasted a lot of it on our visit to Sonoma.  Just so you know, it is possible to have too much of a good thing but that did not stop us!   I dare say we sent home enough wine to keep us pickled for a few months.  I look forward to reliving our Sonoma wine tour at home when the goods arrive.

On our first morning, we left early...at least for me and headed to an off the beaten path winery.  We drove up, up, up on Barf-a-lot Road, climbing back and forth through the mountains to a very beautiful winery.  I was just a little green and dizzy by the time we arrived. 

My view looked a lot like this....

instead of this....

The winery was well worth the long and winding road and we found some beautiful flowers at the top too!

After we tasted all the wine in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys we went down to San Diego so TJ could network with a few thousand other people who work in the oil and refining business.  I went along... because I could!  The last time this conference was in San Diego I was a little less than 100% so I was really looking forward to experiencing San Diego with both arms and both legs in working order. The first thing I did was go for a run along the water... because I could!  San Diego is another one of those places that is just too beautiful for it's own good.  It's just not fair! 

One highlight of the time in San Diego was a tour of Balboa Park with a professional photographer.  He gave us a lot of history of the park and a few photography tips along the way.  I showed up like a dork with my pocket size digital camera, that I personally think takes some pretty good pictures sometimes.  Almost all the other women on the tour showed up with bazookas.  They had some serious ammunition to take their pictures with, I was using a cap gun compared to some of them.  So for your viewing pleasure....here are some nice pictures of Balboa Park through the eye of my cap gun.

gnarly

yes, the entire car is covered with beads!

The cap gun did a good job!
I really enjoyed San Diego...until the second to last night...well it was more like 4 a.m. when the food poisoning hit me!  I was down for the count, every part of my body ached for about 8 hours.  It was very bad timing too because I did not want to miss my lunch date with George W. Bush.  You remember him, the former President of the United States of America!  I drug my tired, aching  body out of bed, showered, dressed and hobbled to the luncheon.  I prayed that everything that was left inside my body would just stay there for at least the next two hours.  It did and the speech was very good, he even pronounced all the words correctly.  I am glad I made it.  Now I can check that off my bucket list....be in the same room as a former President of the United States.

This post has gone on too long and there is still so much to say.  Looks like spring break will take up more than one blog post again this year!  Adios gang until next week!

The Names Have Been Changed To Protect The Innocent*

*of whom there were none.....

At the beginning of our trip one of the guys asked the group if we had ever heard the song "Red Solo Cup".  That question lead to what would be the unlikely and hilarious theme song of our ski trip.  Our husbands serenaded us with "the song" from the  middle of a ski run while we were above them on a chairlift.  We had our shuttle driver get an entire bus load of people sing  "the song" to TJ when he climbed into the bus alone.  This actually made him a bit famous and he was given a shout out in the hot tub...."I know him, he's Solo cup guy!"  Hehehe...if "the song" was sung once, it was sung 50 times during our trip, go figure! We are all responsible adults (really!) and there we were singing that stupid song, over and over, it must have been the altitude!  It ran through my head at bedtime, on the ski slopes and I still find myself singing it occasionally and if you listen to it you will be singing it all day too!  If I ever hear "the song" on the radio I will get a little smile on my face and remember all the fun we had at Steamboat!  It was that kind of trip. 

The Red Solo Cups!

The only un-fun part of the trip was when they closed one side of the mountain due to high winds and everyone had to ride one lift to get to another less windy area.  No tempers were lost in this mass evacuation.

Last run of the trip, nothing broken except my heart because this means winter is officially over, at least for me.

It snowed the day we left...perfect timing!

Spring can arrive now, I've had my snow fix for the year...I guess. 

What Day Is It??

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you keep having to figure out what day it is?  If we are in church... it must be Sunday.  But wait...it's Saturday, I'm so confused.  If we are outside all day exercising and doing chores then have dinner with friends it must be Saturday!  Oops, that was Sunday.  I think this is where it all began this week and the reason I still keep having to remind myself of the day.  Add a holiday on Monday and Ash Wednesday to the week and every day either seemed like Sunday or Monday.  Can Friday just get here already?

Some weeks go by on a regular schedule and we are very aware of the day of the week.  Sunday, go to church.  Monday, teach class.  Tuesday, golf.  Wednesday, teach class.  Thursday, yoga.  Friday, whoo hoo!  Saturday, chores and fun.  Many of us have a predictable pattern on most weeks.  Some weeks are chaos and there is no pattern.  I like those weeks.  Some days are anticipated; the day you leave on a trip, a special lunch with a friend, book club (well at least for me!), an important meeting.  We find ourselves counting down the days until that occasion and as a result we know exactly the day of the week. 

Is it this day yet?

I thought this week would be one of those weeks because we are leaving on our ski trip on Friday.  BUT...except for today (Ash Wednesday) I have had my days all confused and keep having to count backwards and forwards to figure out the day of the week.  Am I losing it?  Don't answer that!  It's like when you wake up somewhere and have to lie there for a minute to figure out where you are....what?  that never happens to you!!! Come on!   Anyway, I don't know if this week has flown by or crept by because I've had a couple of Sundays, a couple of Tuesdays, a Wednesday and it's still not Friday.  I do hope I remember to get to the airport tomorrow for my flight.  After all of this anticipation, it would be a tradegy to miss that ski trip....which starts on FRIDAY.  That is tomorrow, right?  Once we get there, who cares what day it is!

Stuck in a "Moment"

Have you ever caught yourself in a "moment" and thought... "This is something very special, I will remember this forever!"?  It is like you are looking down and seeing something extraordinary.  I am not talking about just good times but times when there is a force bigger than the sum of it's parts.  It is almost a spiritual experience.  I know...this sounds a little wacko and normally I'm not a wacko (hush!) but stick with me here and I'll try to ramble my way to a point.

This past weekend we were in Baton Rouge for the Baptism of our newest family member.  As expected, there were aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents in town for this event.  Any time we all get together can be considered a special experience.  We laugh, we eat, we drink, we reminisce, we cry (usually through laughter) and we always have a great time.  This weekend was no different. 

Happy Baptism! 

gratuitous blue sky and spring flower picture....because it was a beautiful weekend!

Every once in a while though, there are extraordinary moments.  We end up somewhere we never expected and we are taken over by the minutia.  Not everyone in that moment will realize just how special it is, we all have our own perspective and my "moment" is not necessarily your "moment".  It all happened when we were in the kitchen. We were talking and people were coming in and out and the conversation was jumping from one topic to another.  There was plenty of laughter and we were all talking at once....because that's what happens when we are all together, who has time to listen when we all have so much to say!?  Then one person told a story and there was a hush in the room.  It was poignant and we were all brought to tears at the love in the story.  A room full of rowdy people was hushed and awed.  It takes a lot to hush this crowd!  I can only assume that is when the Holy Spirit entered the room and we were all filled. 

These moments don't just happen.  It is not that there aren't lots of special events or family get-togethers but "that feeling" only happens every once in a while.  Not sure what makes a "moment" but I know you have all felt it at one time or another.  Sometimes we are too busy or caught up in our own heads to pay attention enough to realize just how special some times are.  We need to stop, soak it all in and look at our lives from above and then maybe we will realize we are truly blessed to be who we are and where we are, right in that "moment". 

Enough preaching.... now for a few more pictures from the weekend.  Baton Rouge was in full Mardi Gras mode.  We ate crawfish and boudin balls and king cake!  We went to a Mardi Gras parade too.  It was a beautiful sunny day but a bit chilly and very windy.  Everyone still managed to catch their share of beads and we all enjoyed the sunshine.

"Throw us something mister!"

They had to wear all those beads so they did not blow away in the wind!

Hope everyone enjoys the last few days before Lent begins.  Happy Pancake Day to all of my Canadian friends, wipe that syrup off your chin!  Happy Mardi Gras!  I am considering a few Lenten options for the blog so we shall see what happens. 
Forty days of ????  Suggestions?

Got Goals?

I am living with a couple of physical fitness nuts.  My husband and my second daughter are training for a 180 mile bike ride for charity in April.  That makes them do crazy things like spin class at 6 a.m..  They are totally focused on when the next ride will be and how far it will be and how many miles they can log in a week.  They have a goal they are determined to reach.

We have Marathon Girl living with us for a few months while she does an internship in Houston and she is training for the Boston Marathon.  Needless to say, training for a marathon is intense.  I would not know because running 3 miles would be a marathon for me and it is merely a warm up for Marathon Girl.  Her goal is to train without getting injured in the process and run in Boston!

I am surrounded by people training for something.  I am starting to feel like I should set a goal and start training!  OK, maybe I'll start training to break 100 on the golf course.  A goal that has eluded me thus far and on many occasions seems totally out of reach... until I have a good round and I feel like it is just around the corner.  Lately, the corner has been all the way down the block though.  Maybe I can train for our upcoming ski trip.  Oops....too late, it's only two weeks away.  Better do more wall squats to strengthen my quads and maybe ride the bike a little, I hear it helps on the slopes.  Something about that whole balance thing along with working the quads.

Obviously, I am not as goal oriented as my husband, my daughter or Marathon Girl. Goals are good, they give you direction.  Guess I should set a few and get a little direction in my life.  I did recently take a step to get closer to one of my goals.  It is less of a  physical fitness goal and more a mental fitness goal.  I have wanted to take a writing course for a while, to learn some tricks of the trade and see where I lie on the Richter scale of writing.  Many of the courses offered are just not what I am looking for.  It is not my goal to publish the next great novel, I just want to improve my writing skills.  I don't need a grammar lesson, some might disagree, but that is not what I'm looking for either.  I found a course that comes close to what I am looking for, it isn't perfect, but at least I am going to jump in and get my feet...or in this case, hands, wet.  The course begins at the end of February and to say I am already a bit intimidated would be an understatement!  Someone else is going to read what I write and "grade" it for the first time in over 30 years, yikes!  Writing for a semi-anonymous cyberspace public is one thing but writing and being judged by a professional and compared to other students is another thing.  Will I be able to think of original material?  Will my ideas seem elementary?  Will I be able to stay awake for the entire class?  ( It is from 1-3 in the afternoon, I remember sleeping through every university course I had at that time of day!  The post lunch nap always won!)  You can all look forward to riveting posts during the month of March as I improve my writing skills.  Then again, I may not even have time to post anything on this here blog because I will be busy doing homework!



P.S.  If you want to help my husband and/or my daughter reach their financial goals for their MS150 bike ride click here
https://secure3.convio.net/nmss/site/Donation2?idb=626110313&df_id=36770&36770.donation=form1&FR_ID=17896&PROXY_ID=8939766&PROXY_TYPE=20   Husband

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR?px=6409494&fr_id=17896&pg=personal   Daughter

Redeeming January

I found winter!  It lives in Madison, Wisconsin.  I visited it last weekend.  All is right with the world!

I also found my awesome grandsons!

You have no idea how nice it was to visit an area that experiences "real" winter!  I am so glad that I decided to take matters into my own hands a few weeks ago and made reservations to get out of the temperate south, at least for a few days!  Grandsons can be a real lure too, especially when they are young and cute and changing every day.  The thought of missing out on some of those wonderful moments is enough to attract even the coldest of hearts much less my warm heart.  I could not get enough....of the grandsons or the cold weather! 

This is Daniel playing with his train set

January may be redeemed after all.  I will not fret about the seasonably warm temperatures predicted for tomorrow or the humidity because I can still feel the dampness in my snow boots from the weekend.  Some people talk about the sand in their suitcases after a winter trip, I talk about the wet snow boots!  Yes, I'm a little strange...from what I hear.  I got to do some of my favorite things, like...

shovel a little snow!!!

play in the snow with my daughter and the boys!

or go sledding!  So much fun!!


 

So I got to experience some winter and play with Daniel and Christopher.  I even go to go to a hot yoga-ahhh class.  All in all I would say it was ALMOST enough to redeem January. 
I will just try to forget that it is February 1st and the thermometer says 80 degrees, maybe I should go outside and do some yoga!

How Do I Not Love January, Let Me Count The Ways!

Last weekend it hit me....since we moved back to Texas I really don't like January very much! Count yourselves lucky that I have waited until almost the end of the month to start my ranting, you have been spared for over 3 weeks!

 January is a month most people think of as a "winter" month (unless you live south of the equator).  It is usually dark and cold.   It is a month I used to hibernate and do things like read War and Peace or some other equally long tome because I had time to sit by the roaring fireplace and read.  I like reading next to a fire.  I also like being able to put on a coat and go outside into the cold fresh air and take a nice walk or ski or shovel ( yes, I like shoveling).  I may be a bit on the crazy side but I really like winter, most of the time.

Well, it was 80 degrees here on Friday and 79 on Sunday.  It is not winter in Texas!  There was also about 90% humidity, enough to cause lots of frizzy hair, fog and wet sidewalks but not enough to actually rain...lovely.   Yeah, just think of how sticky that feels!  Days like that make me just want to scream, especially when they come in January.  Another side of the winter weather coin are nights like last night followed by days like today.  The winds were so strong that the power went out, at 2 a.m., several times and stayed off for over an hour while we lay awake listening to wind howl and our neighbor's alarm systems that were set off by the power outages.  Today the torrential rain hit.  That is what happens when cold northern air hits the hot humid Gulf air.   One would assume that the cold front would eventually win and we would be gifted with "winter like" weather....not so much!  Unless you call 65 degrees "winter".   Give me 3 feet of snow and sub freezing temperatures please, after all it is January! 

BRRR! 

Another reason to not love January... it's a pretty boring month if you ask me.  Christmas is over, the decorations are all put away and the visitors have gone home.  There is a certain let down after the holidays.  When I worked for Weight Watchers, January was our month, everyone and their overweight brother wanted to join and lose weight in January.  It was a very busy month!  Now it is just long and there are no holidays, unless you count New Year's Day which is over before we even realize it is January.  Combine dark, dreary, warm and humid with boring and you get my new least favorite month of the year.  I know...I have a bad attitude about this and it is very early to be calling the game... but really?   The Super Bowl is not even in January this year! 

A couple of weeks ago I decided to take matters into my own hands.  I booked a flight to Madison, Wisconsin.  I leave tomorrow in search of winter and grandsons.  If the winter won't come to me, I will just have to go to winter! I am also guaranteed that it will not be boring!   I hope I get snowed in for a couple extra days and then January will be over.

Hello winter, I'm coming!