Wake Up!

I am not really a morning person.   Lately though, my life is forcing me into morning personhood.  I survived raising four children which required a lot of early mornings, I really hoped when they were grown and gone I would finally be able to sleep in!  No such luck.  Just to clarify, early in my book is any time before 7 a.m., ridiculously early is any time before 6 a.m. and insanely early is before 5 a.m..  No sane person should wake up before 5 in my book.

Just last weekend I was up at 5 and on the road at 5:20, insanity! 

5:45 a.m. My husband and daughter before their 100 mile ride on the first day of the MS150.
See?  They look tired and cold...not to mention the 100 miles into the wind they will be riding!

 Over the Easter holidays I was up early (see definition above) every day.  Our  grandsons do not sleep in and when they wake up they have a lot of energy and they are not quiet, plus they are pretty cute in the morning.  There was no sleeping in.  I've driven to the airport for 6 a.m. flights several times lately, insanity!  I have another flight in a few weeks that leaves at 5:30 a.m.....who makes these reservations???  A morning person, aka my husband.  I am beginning to think it is a conspiracy, all the morning people in my life are getting together and scheduling things that require me to be conscious and participate much earlier than I want. 

I have even voluntarily gotten involved in activities that require me to be up and out early at least four days a week.  It is like having a job... or kids...neither of which I have, what gives?   I must confess that as I have gotten older I can't really sleep in like I used to.  Gone are the luxurious days when I could sleep until 10....  luxurious for me these days is sleeping until 7:30!  So sad, what has it all come to?  Have I become a morning person?  Never!  I may get up and I may even be able to drive but don't expect me to talk until at least after my second cup of tea, I can only do so  much.


Updates.....
If you read this post then you may be wondering if all that training paid off.

 I am happy to report that Marathon Girl did indeed finish the Boston Marathon in under 4 hours in the unseasonable heat.  I think all the training here in the tropical rain forest paid off for her and the heat did not bother her as much as it did those wimps who get to run in cool dry climates.

My husband and my daughter rode the MS 150 this past weekend and managed to ride the first day of 100 miles into a 15-20 mile headwind.  TJ said it was the hardest ride he has ever done...and this is his 6th time to do this ride and my daughter's first time.  She successfully crossed the finish line in Austin and and now has a well deserved sense of accomplishment.  I just got to wake up insanely early and drive the drop off and pick up car. 

The wind they rode into....for 100 miles!

She looks pretty good after waking up insanely early and riding 100 miles!



 As far as my goals....I did take the writing class, I don't think I learned as much as I would have liked.  I might have done better if I had just used that time and money and taken golf lessons because I still have not broken 100.  I will just keep chasing that elusive score and keep you posted.







Who Says We Are Competitive?

A few Sundays ago I had  an eye opening experience.  I had a little foreshadowing the Sunday before but then my suspicions were confirmed.  If TJ and I want to stay married, we can't golf together in couples tournaments!  We have no problem playing golf together any other day, we don't snap at each other, have unrealistic expectations or share scornful glares when we play....until our first couples tournament.  Maybe it was just me!  I am sure TJ will read this and say, "What is she talking about?  It wasn't like that!"  "Oh, yes it was...at least for the first nine holes.  How could you miss all my scornful glares?"

After missing about 50 putts, each of us wanted to quit and just get on with the eating and drinking part of the tournament.  Why is it that when one member of the team is doing poorly the other one does worse instead of better?  My theory is that we are just too competitive and when we are competing as a team our collective brain can't take the pressure.  We knew we would never be near the top but we had such high expectations and were disappointed with every missed putt, duffed sand shot or errant drive.  The pace of play did not help our mood.  We are used to playing quickly.  Couples tournaments move at a snail's pace.  As if playing poorly was not bad enough, we got to play poorly for an extra hour! 

Maybe there is a learning curve to these tournaments.  There must be something we still haven't learned.  Finally, on the last nine holes, we settled down and started being nicer to each other and did a little better.  Hmmmm. We need to sign a pre-golf contract before our next round. 

Rules to be included are:

-We won't take this thing too seriously!
-TJ will not hover over Lisa while she is putting and tell her which way the ball is going to break or that it is uphill or downhill or sideways, she can miss the putt without his help.
- Lisa will drive the golf cart wherever TJ telepathically tells her....or maybe we will just have separate carts!
-TJ will use his new clubs and driver and knock the heck out of the ball
-Lisa will pretend to listen to TJ's advice and then proceed to do what usually works for her (just like in real life....)
-We will both start drinking on the second hole!
-We will check our competitive natures at the door....and just have fun!

"And Then I Did Limbo"

Hang on folks, no telling where this might end up!
There is so much here in my head and so little time to get it all into this blog.
Easter was fantastic!  We had all four kids here, our son-in-law and daughter-in-law, the grandsons, Marathon Girl and assorted friends.  The long Lent was truly over and there was good reason to celebrate! 

The whole family! 

I did not write a Lenten post this year, I figured I had been there and done that.  The thought did cross my mind a few times though.  Especially on those nights when I was regretting giving up drinking for Lent and just wanted to rant!    TJ joined me in my sobriety... we were very quiet and boring for about 6 weeks but felt much better in the mornings.  The hardest times were when we were finally blessed with springlike weather and we sat on the back patio in the evening sipping our water or ginger ale.  We really missed that nice glass of wine.  Yes, giving up drinking was a real sacrifice and boy am I glad Lent is over! We did save a lot of money!  Going out to dinner is so much cheaper when you don't drink! 

Our weekend was full of talking, cooking, eating, drinking, running around(after the kids) and general joy and happiness.  Daniel and Christopher are at a really cute age, the one where they are busy, curious, enthusiastic and are able to speak and tell you what they are thinking.  They are also boys....which means they do a lot of active playing with great enthusiasm!  One afternoon as we all sat on the patio, Daniel disappeared around the side of the house.  When he reappeared he was very wet.  He breathlessly exclaimed, " I got all wet with the hose....and then I did Limbo!"  Yeah, I do that all the time too! The hose provided hours of entertainment for the boys.

Daniel's favorite part of the zoo....the water fan and the misters!  He loves the water!  Forget lions and tigers and bears.

On Good Friday I went to the 3 p.m. service.  I left the entire group behind at the house thinking I would be home to make dinner at a reasonable hour.  Two and a half hours later I was walking to my car in the parking lot dreaming of the food that I would soon eat and satisfy my growling stomach when I could not find my car.  I walked to the end of the row...no car.  "Hmmm, maybe I am just delirious from lack of food and two and a half hours of church."  I walked back up the row...no car.  I had a little conversation in my head with God, "Really?  I spent two and a half hours in church and come out to find my car was stolen?  Not fair!"  I reached for my cell phone and noticed several calls and messages.  My car had just been car napped by my family.  The message said to start walking and call them to come pick me up.  I love my family...glad I did not wear heels!  That was the moment I declared Lent to be officially over and had a glass of wine when I got home!

All the kids at the zoo!

One of the best parts about being a grandparent.  The post zoo nap on Gigi's shoulder!

We had a family field trip on Monday.  We went to Brenham, Texas.  It is where they make Blue Bell Ice Cream, the best ice cream in the country!  According to their commercials.  We also went in search of fields of bluebonnets to pose the kids in and take their picture.  We had a nice tour of the creamery and it ended with free ice cream!  A big hit with kids of all ages.  On the way to the creamery Christopher and Rachel had an amusing conversation.

R- "Christopher, we are going to go see them make ice cream.  Do you know what ice cream is made from?"
C- " Water?"
R- "  No it's made from milk.  Do you know where milk comes from?"
C-  "The refrigerator!"
R- "No, it comes from cows."
C- "Animals don't make milk!"
R-  " Yes, it comes from cows."
C- "It comes from the refrigerator and it goes on Cheerios."    Take that, Mom!
The world according to a two year old!  I almost ran off the road laughing...clever kid.

We did manage to find the elusive bluebonnet field, it was right next to a football stadium and rec center in the middle of town, guess beggars can't be choosers.  Cute picture though!

Bluebonnet boys!

All that ice cream can make a boy tired!  I am a sucker for a sleeping kid, they are just so cute and so still.

Kind of loses some of it's allure when you see the surroundings.

The kids are all back to their real lives and TJ and I are back to our quiet days and wine filled nights.  Until we all meet again in Nova Scotia this summer!  Marathon Girl is heading to Boston this weekend to run the Boston Marathon on Monday...shout out to Marathon Girl!  I will run 2.6 miles that day in solidarity. 
God is good indeed.  Happy Easter!

P.S.   I managed to work my way all the way from the Limbo to God.....that my friends is a long road!

My New Boyfriend

My writing class is keeping me from writing!   Every week I sit down to write here and find myself  distracted by the writing I am supposed to be doing for my class.  As a result, neither the blog or my classwork is getting done.  However, my golf game is improving.  When in doubt I just go play golf!  That is pretty much how the last few weeks have gone.

The class is not exactly what I had hoped it would be, but damn if I'm going to just give up.  It is a memoir writing class and I thought it would be a good starting place for my writing and give me some good tools.  The class is definitely challenging my brain and forcing me to examine my life.  This is not always easy.  "Write about your greatest fear" is one assignment this week.  Does my irrational fear of breaking down in a car on a road trip count?  What about my most recent fear of writing extremely boring and trite essays compared to my fellow students?  At least I won't be guilty of writing a ten page essay about civil rights in the '70's, an apartment in Paris and food in Ireland and then volunteer to read it out loud, in a monotone voice, causing the teacher and the rest of the class to fall asleep.  The teacher did stop him at one point....at about page 5, and said that in an effort to save time maybe we should "move along" which lead to one of the most uncomfortable stand offs I've witnessed in a long time.  He said, "No, I haven't gotten to the part about the verdict yet."  We were very close to our own civil rights event at that point so the teacher just let him read the entire paper....yawn.  I paid money for this??!!

Don't get me wrong, there are some excellent writers in the class who have had very interesting lives and really should write their memoirs.  I am humbled every Monday.  I leave class and think I need to do a lot more living before I have anything memoir worthy to write.  I sit next to an 87 year old man.  He is/was a doctor.  He wrote one paper about how when he was in his 40's he was electrocuted and his 15 year old son "breathed" him back to life!  There were some hilarious parts in his story too, especially the part about being driven to the hospital in a Hearse because the small town did not have an ambulance.  When they got to the hospital and he was taken out of the Hearse everyone who knew him at the hospital thought he was dead.  He said that near death experience changed his life.   He is my new boyfriend, he is so charming!  I may have to fight off the 75 year old lady who sits on his other side, I think she has her eyes on him too.  Note to self... if I am ever old and single, I will sign up for a memoir writing class, it's where all the cute, interesting, old men hang out.

So I will force myself to sit down and write this weekend.  I will try to single out my happiest moment and my greatest fear and come up with some profound verbiage to delight and entertain.  It's gonna be a long weekend.

The Art of Being

We all know people who are great hosts and hostesses.  These people can throw a great party or just have you over for dinner and make you feel like they are genuinely happy to be with you.  There is an art to being a great host, some people have it and some don't.  Hosting is not just about serving the right food or decorating or the right wine....although the right wine can never be underestimated!  There are just people who make you feel welcome and at ease.  They are happy to see you and they listen when others talk without looking around for the next conversation, try to be the center of attention themselves or constantly check their cell phones. They are genuinely interested and present in the moment.  They are good at just being with people.


I think it is an art to be with another person and make them feel welcome, important and at ease without fussing too much... because that just makes some people uncomfortable (or is it just me?).  I always think of the bible story about Mary and Martha.  It is usually in the rotation at church during the summer when we are in Nova Scotia.  Coincidentally, it is when we often entertain and are entertained.  I am always torn between being Martha and cooking, serving and cleaning or Mary and just being with the guests.  Jesus did say, " Mary has chosen the better part."!  Maybe a caterer would facilitate my being Mary!  I know so many people who are wonderful at being Mary. I try to take queues from them, sometimes it works and sometimes I know I fall short and pay too much attention to the details.  Is it so hard to just sit with another person and have a meaningful conversation without being distracted? 



 

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.