Count Your Blessings

Do you want to feel really grateful for the life you lead - problems and all? Go volunteer at a Soup Kitchen! So many of the philanthropic efforts that my family does are far removed from the people who are actually affected. We sort cans out behind the Food Bank, or we write a check or buy a raffle ticket. Also, our lives are so homogenized. We are generally around people who have similar social and economic situations as we do.

This is especially true where we live in Texas. We are part of a large subdivision that my husband likes to call "the bubble". It is a great place to raise kids because it is very safe and close-knit.... but it is a little bit like "Leave it to Beaver"-Land. Not alot of diversity.

So anywhooo.... on Good Friday the kids had the day off of school and for the second time this school year, we took the Girl Scouts to prepare and serve the food at the Soup Kitchen at the Austin Baptist Chapel. They ladled food into containers, set up and later washed the serving trays, took tickets, etc.

I sat at the door with my new friend Juan Jose (pictured). We made sure that when people came in they only got one ticket - lots of people try for two. We also helped the handicapped get their trays, greeted guests and said good-bye as they left.

Juan had a message as they left. The message on this day was "Those who lead a right life will have a bright future". One guy was pretty witty when he said, "Well, I guess I don't need my shades then."

Both times we have helped out we have seen the usual druggies and homeless people... but there are also clean-cut people who come in with their hard-hats or their employment badges on. They are hard working and take pride in their appearance, but just can't make a decent living. There have also been a few children - that is really heartbreaking. One little boy and his mother came in at the end of the time frame and most of the food had run out. On his tray was apple juice, a frzen (plain) yogurt cup and soup. He and his mom looked physically put together, but emotionally exhausted.

They ate in silence, heads down. I tell you, my heart breaks every time I think of it.

There was also a 10 month old baby named Omara. What a cutie!!!! I got to hold him while his Grandma (she looked about 30) ate her lunch.

It is sad to my soul to be there. But it gives me some consolation to know that I helped out in some little way, even if all it was was looking someone in the eye, shaking their hand and smiling.

It may be the only meal they get all day. It also may be the only smile they get all day.

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My Pal Juan Jose. He and I were dining room greeters----->

I Need a Vacation after my Vacation!

We just returned a few days ago from our cruise in the Caribbean. We went on the Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas and it was a very cool ship. There was an ice skating rink with an amazing ice show, good food, a fun Promenade gathering area/internal street thing, a casino, bingo, pool fun, etc. Our family loves to cruise and about every other year our parents join us. This year Bo's parents flew down from the Seattle area and my parents came from Oregon. It is great to be able to drive 3 hours and leave right from Texas (saves money on airfare too!)

A few days before the cruise my husband's recurring eye problem cropped up. Last summer he had a sliver in his eye and it has never permanently healed. Well, this time was the worst ever. He was in a horrendous amount of pain and could not see or stand any light. Not only did he have the problem with the wound on the surface of his eye, but he also had a major viral infection that caused pressure behind the eye and threatened his long and short term vision. Needless to say, it was very difficult and very scary.

We went to see a specialist on Friday and she put him on all kinds of meds and drops and she also did a procedure whereby they "debrade" the surface of the eye (yeah - OUCH). Then she put a contact bandaid on it.

All of this basically meant that there was no way Bo would be able to get on a cruise ship on Sunday morning. Our parents, me, the kids, Bo.... we were all very worried and also very sad that the vacation would have to be cancelled (and of course we had no vacation insurance). It's alot of money (although I do think cruising is great bang for the buck) and there were so many of us (9 total).

We went back to the doctor on Saturday (she came into the office on her own time). She said the contact had to stay on until Monday but that Bo could fly out after that assuming it continued to heal and he was careful. So we made the decision to go on the trip and have Bo fly to Cozumel (our first port) on Tuesday.

It was hard to leave on Sunday with Bo in bed and all of us loading up for a Caribbean vacation... it felt wrong and yet what to do? We had Tuesday to look forward to.

On Monday Bo got clearance to go and then we heard from our ship Captain that the itinerary was being changed and we would be going another day at sea, then to Honduras and then back to Cozumel. So Bo wasn't going to be able to meet us on Tuesday. Everyone was sad - it was heartbreaking. I cried and my Mom came to my stateroom and gave me a big hug. It doesn't matter that I am 40 years old, that hug still felt good. Bo's parents and my parents were also very sad. There was a shadow all that day.

Then on Wednesday Bo decided to fly to Cozumel and on Thursday morning he finally hooked up with the ship! It was so great to have him back with us and everyone was thrilled that he was doing well and that everything worked out.

So, Bo's vacation was very short, but very sweet. At the time it felt like the end of the world... but it all worked out. Following are some pictures from our trip.


The Kids at one of the formal nights



Roatan, Honduras was beautiful!


Marie conquers the rock wall. I did, too. They don't call me SpiderMOM at Girl Scout camp for nothing!


Marshall digs a hole to China


Anne with her new pals from the teen club onboard


Please note that we do not know the guy in the wet suit, shown below. My daughter took this picture of a stranger. I am providing the picture purely as a benefit to you, my faithful blog readers..... a little eye candy for free:)

Dresses for Ethiopia

Hi there - it's the negligent blogger here. My 15 year old was telling me that I hadn't blogged for awhile and I said "Well, I've been really busy!". She then told me that my sister was blogging up a storm and she has more than twice as many kids as I do and is obviously SUPER busy..... so I guess I have no (valid) excuse.

I thought I would show you the dresses that I sewed for my little sister Nicole. She is in the process of adopting a baby girl from Ethiopia and set a goal to take 100 hand-made dresses to the orphanage. People told Nicole that perhaps she should set a more reasonable goal or make an easier dress. But my sister is determined! She set her mind to reach her goal and now she is nearly there. You can always get an adoption or dress update on her blog The Coy Pond (linked at the beginning of my blog)

I made these 10 dresses and mailed them to Nicole as a surprise - she was thrilled!

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!!

Wow, what a weekend! Friday was Marshall's birthday party and it was very special because he was born on 2/29/2000 - Leap Day. So this is only the second time that he has had an actual "day". We had a very special family dinner on Thursday night - steak with lots of sauces (A-1, Heinz 57, etc.), and mashed potatoes and gravy - his favorite meal. Then we did our tradition of going around the table and everyone saying what they like/appreciate about Marshall. Everyone was very sweet and Marshall glowed at the compliments. Then we opened the family presents and cards from afar.

The next day we had a classroom celebration and then that afternoon seven little boys decended on the house and we headed to a Lazer Tag arena. It is a 10,000 square foot, multi-level facility. We all played, including Bo and I It was a workout! Three 20-minute sessions - so much fun!!

The next morning the girls and I and some other girls in their troop went down into Austin for this Health Spa event for girl scouts. They made homemade beauty treatments, vegan food (yucky), did Yoga, took a nature walk and make sachet bath salts. It was fun and interesting and Anne said afterward, "that was really granola - even for me!". It was very granola, which is actually refreshing in Texas! I felt like I was back in Oregon.... I should have dug out my Birckenstocks:)

Marshall had soccer and soccer pictures and then it was time for the Mike and Yvonne's baby shower, which Bo and I hosted with another couple, Rick and Kellie. Luckily Kellie offered to have the shower at her newly renovated/remodeled house. It was a wonderful event! A couples shower with dinner and drinks for 35 people, very classy. I made blue martinis (Babytinis 'cause their having a boy) and we served a lasagna dinner. Because Mike and Yvonne are 40+, we had to razz them a little bit about the later in life pregnancy (which they have wanted for a long time)...... in one of the pictures above, Yvonne models the stroller that we gave her. It has a joke senior citizens walker attached to the back. They recieved many wonderful gifts and good wishes and we all promised to come out of the retirement home to see their child's high school graduation:)

Now I am busy getting ready. Ready for company and ready for vaction. I am super excited - my Mom and Dad are coming to visit tommorrow! It doesn't matter how old I get, I still always look forward to spending time with my parents. I truly am so lucky to be their kid and enjoy hanging out with them. The in-laws are coming a few days later and then we are heading on a Spring Break cruise all together - I can't wait!

Update on the Lifestyle Coach

It is late and I am tired. I decided to rearrange my bedroom, and that led to a trip for a new bed-in-a-bag (well, not actually a bed, but rather bedding) that needed to be ironed. Then I decided to dump out all the clothes in the drawers, yada yada yada. So I may be up really late. But am I working on that? Oh no! Instead I decided to come take a quick peek at my email and now here I am posting on my blog!

I just wanted to give a quick update on how it is going with my Lifestyle Coach, Fran. It seems that everyone is asking me what she does, how it is going, etc. Nothing like a little public pressure when you are trying to lose weight!

I am happy to report that it is going very well. Like most people, when I am good and fed up with something, and I set my mind to change it, it really does happen. My Coach Fran is great. She told me yesterday that she has a Masters Degree in Psychology, so maybe she can be a one stop therapy shop next time I crack up (kidding!) Anyhow, it all basically comes down to eating fewer calories and getting more exercise. There really is no magic to it. It is pure science really. You need to deficit 3,500 calories in order to lose one pound of fat. I have apparently deficited over 35,000 calories in the last month, I am proud to report. So I have lost 10 pounds! I can feel the difference in my clothes, but I still have a ways to go.

Fran is teaching me all about how to count calories (without needing a book), what my calorie intake should be to maintain certain weights, how much credit to give myself for exercise, and how to keep from feeling hungry. Suprisingly she is not the rah rah cheerleader coach type person that you would expect from a "coach". She is full of information and I always have a full hour of questions and learning from her each week. I like having someone to be accountable to each week. Someone who answers all my calorie and nutrition questions via email.

So thanks for asking.... it is going well. I am not too hungry and I feel great about my progress so far.

College is like childbirth - painful!

Sorry I haven't blogged for awhile.... I have been a scrapbooking fool! I moved my scrapbooking table out of the computer room and into the family room where the tv is. Then, since my husband is out of town, I scrapped most nights until pretty late. I'm pretty happy with all the progress I made. I finished scrapping the Christmas Holiday and the building of the cabin book. It was so fun scrapping all those picture - the cabin is such a blessing and a dream come true for us. When I put it in the book I relive the great feelings of creating the cabin and then sharing it with the people we love. I put a few pictures in up above. The first picture is the cabin from the top of the driveway. Alot of snow, huh? The second picture is my kids and their cousins taking a dorito break up sledding. The third picture is my son Marshall and three of his boy cousins building a snow fight fort behind the cabin so they could attack the girls. The cute little guy on the far right is my newest nephew Vu who was recently adopted from Vietnam - what a blessing he is to our whole family. They all are.

I also did an album covering my many 40th birthday party celebrations and trips last year. Then I caught up on the family album and Anne's album. Now I am going to put all that stuff away (except for when I meet with my scrapping group every Tuesday) and focus on a few other things.

First, I am going to make a few dresses to help out my baby sister with her quest to sew 100 dresses for the Ethiopian orphanage. Then I am going to get my house looking decent because my parents and in-laws are coming in 2 weeks. Then I am going to shop and pack for our Spring Break cruise. In between all that I am going to try and get ahead in my Texas Politics class.

I signed up for this on-line community college class thinking it would be super easy. Let me just say that college is like childbirth..... you really do forget just how painful it can be! It is time consuming and not as easy as I thought it would be. When I told one of my housewife friends that I was going back to college she said "you realize your going to have to, like, STUDY and stuff don't you? Why do that?" I guess I knew I would have to STUDY and stuff - I just didn't realize how much more difficult that was when you are raising kids and running a household. Last time I went to school my meals were cooked for me in the sorority. My only responsibility in the world was school. Boy howdy, it sure gives me alot of respect for people that get their degree later in life!!

The other thing about school is just how expensive it is. The class at the community college was a few hundred. The real shocker, though, was the book. It is a 1/2 paperback book and it was $95.00. That is crazy!

Gotta run.....

The Power of Selective Vision

A funny thing happens when your children get close to the age of 16. All of a sudden they start noticing cars. Anne has started to point out cars that she does not like and cars that she does like, colors she likes, colors she does not like, etc.

I have never been a big car person. I mean, if I ever was in any position of needing to identify what kind of vehicle someone was driving, it would be scary. I might possibly be able to tell you what color it was and whether is was a pick-up, SUV, mini van or sedan. Beyond that, I highly doubt if I could even begin to guess at the make or model. Just not my cup of tea, really.

Lately, though, that has changed. There is one car that I have FALLEN IN LOVE WITH. I drove up next to this beautiful, shimmering Lexus SUV in a beautiful pearly cream color and WOW - cupid's arrow struck me right in the heart. What a babe. Not the guy in it (at least I think it was a guy). The car!

After that babe sighting, this funny thing happened and all of a sudden I was seeing Lexus' EVERYWHERE. Lately it feels like 50% of the cars on the road are Lexus SUV's. Amazing, because I don't recall ever noticing a Lexus car before a few days ago. Not a one. Now they are everywhere! Maybe there was a half-off sale somewhere - ya think?

Anyhow, the point of this story is that once I put my focus on something, it seems to increase 10 fold. I won't be getting a Lexus SUV anytime soon (but I did go buy a lottery ticket today, just in case). However, it occurred to me that I might put this superpower to work. I decided to put my super selective vision skills to work today.

I decided to focus on how many people smile at me in a single day. I mean really smile - even with their eyes. It was amazing! When I decided to look out into the world and search for something, it increased 10-fold again! Pretty much everyone I encountered gave a warm smile and most even said "have a good day!" It made for a very happy day:)

Give it a try, it is amazing! Just be careful to focus on something you want to see alot of. When I noticed one pile of dog poop in the front yard, I started seeing THEM everywhere. I know there weren't that many yesterday - my superpowers have morphed to EVIL!

Happy Valentines Day - have fun with your SUPERPOWER abilities!