Rest in Peace!

Even when someone says she is "ready to go" and knows that what is on the other side is even better, it doesn't feel any better to let her go.  My cousin Theresa has gone to that better place, and my heart is broken open for her family and all who loved her.  In the midst of remembering Baby Liam this weekend and what a long year it has been without him, I find myself asking "why, why, why?" all over again.

Theresa leaves behind a lot of hearts filled with good memories, but most importantly she leaves her husband of four years and her twins who turn 2 years old next week.  My heart cannot even fathom the depth of their loss.  They will remain in my prayers, and I will recover from the loss in a way they never can.

Dearest Tweety, I miss you!  You possessed a zeal for life like no other - the utter passion with which you scaled mountains, soared through the skies, told stories, and loved, embracing every day with joy.  I cherish the memories we made together, the laughs and the love.  May you sing with the angels and watch over us with that big beautiful smile.  loveyoumeanit...

no news is good news

It's about time I post something.  Anything...

 

The last week and a half has not yielded much news.  Work, work, work.  I worked Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning, then Monday and Tuesday I worked late, too.  In the meantime Thomas has been cooking, stocking the woodpile, folding laundry and all that domestic stuff because I have been too tired and lazy.  Tom did start a new batch of mead - brown sugar and cherry.  Maybe we will be sipping it next Christmas.  I know, none of this is really all that blog-worthy.

 

A couple weekends ago I was ready to post a long rant about poor customer-service in the car selling business, but figured I would spare the world my negative attitude.  I know that not all salespeople are mean jerks who think they can break you and your budget by asking you to wait over and over again when you suggest it is time to go if they won't accept your offer.  Ultimately a better set of tire chains will cost a lot less than a four-wheel drive truck and the time we'd waste getting jerked around.

 

In future news...a seemingly long way off in the future, I am excited for Memorial Day Weekend when we'll get a visit from M.O.M. - Miki Ollie Marty.  We are in the works of planning a family excursion to see Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, Las Cruces, and possible even the catwalks.  These will be new places to see for me and our visitors.  The countdown begins!  Until then I can entertain myself with the newest video of Ollie.  He's a very talkative dinner mate, although I think he might have been having a movement at the table - probably going to grow up tooting at the table like his uncles.

 

Maybe if the snowstorms headed our way add up to anything I will have some pretty pictures to post soon. 

A Bill to Endorse

Tuesday I arrived home willing the snow to fall faster and thicker because I was in no mood to go back to work on Wednesday.  It wasn't that I didn't want to deal with something in particular so much as I just felt exhausted.  I had a full day of church and work on Sunday, and I had stayed late nearly every evening the week before.  Feeling out of sync, I hoped that the inch of snow would at least pile in front of our door and keep me in.  Gratefully, it didn't.

 

As I worked up a batch of chocolate chip cookies after dinner, the phone rang.  The caller id gave me no help to know who it was, so I was quite surprised to hear Tom's friend JW on the line.  I haven't seen him in 18 months, so with a happy surprise, I passed the phone off to Tom.  As I stirred in the chocolate chips, I realized that there was probably only bad news on the end of that line.  JW's dad was diagnosed with ALS a while back, the fast moving kind.  Indeed, Bill went to be with his creator on January 19th.  I never met Bill, though the stories paint a lovely image of a faith-filled man who lived and loved with all his heart, all his soul, and all his mind.  The funeral was Wednesday at 1 pm, so without delay we both spoke to our bosses, who both understood the need for the time off. 

 

Driving to Santa Fe, Thomas filled me in on even more stories and wisdom from Bill.  He leaves behind a wife and four children, the oldest being Tom's friend JW,  They've been friends since middle school, and Rosalie affectionately called Tom a son, too. The church was packed, but we found a seat up near the front.  The service was beautiful and stirring. The reception might not have ended for us, had we not had Granny's birthday party to get to in Miami.  As we entered the church and up to our leaving, Tom pointed out old friends from back in the day.  This is a side I have yet to see of Tom's past, and surrounded by friends, he talked and talked and talked.

 

Though I never met him, I can tell by the legacy he leaves in his family what a familiar man he would have been had we met.  After our wedding in 2010, JW and his wife Stephanie and their three boys stopped by Miami on their way back to Ithaca, New York for work.  I hadn't seen them since, and yet I was clutched tight by JW's family as if they knew me back in middle school, too.  His brother Dave hugged me and said how great it was to meet me and all the good things he had heard about me.  He remembered how much fun his nephews had visiting us 18 months earlier.  His mom held me as tight as a daughter and kissed my cheek and looked into my spirit with such fierce recognition that I knew her amazing capacity to love.  JW's sisters are much younger, but even they seemed to know who I was.  It felt good to belong in a place where I was still very much a stranger. 

 

I wish I had the occasion to meet Bill.   I am grateful Tom carries his spirit with him.

 

"When peace like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul."  from the card we found and also the first verse to one of the songs we sang...

How to Start Your Day

This week, though a "short" week because the office was closed on Monday, feels like it has been dragging on too long.  Though the office was closed, I did work Sunday afternoon and will have a full day this coming Sunday, too.  Maybe this is tipping the scale a little heavier on the "long" side.  Plus, Thomas has not been feeling super, and these last couple of days it's been a mind over matter situation for me.  "I can't get sick; I don't have time to get sick," I keep telling myself.

 

So in addition to gobbling up little tangerines for Vitamin C and trying to get a good night's rest, I have been supplementing my immunity with eye candy.  Sounds weird, I know, but follow this link to see what lifts my spirits.  Better than taking two pills every four hours, this will instantaneously bring a smile to your face.  They say that laughter is the best medicine, so don't hold back! 

 

If at first you didn't succeed, click any part of this sentence four times a day, roughly every four to six hours, to feel great!

FIRE DRILL!!!

Actually, it was more like a smoke alarm!

Tom is not one to make a big fuss about his birthday, and he really prefers that nobody else make a fuss either.  Last year we had cake mid-week at Mom & Pop's to celebrate here, and we drove up to Denver for the weekend and had dinner with his friends up in Conifer.  This year we weren't planning on going anywhere, since we just spent a lot of time in the car driving to and from Portland.

So for his birthday, I tried to make a special meal.  On the eve of his birthday, I whipped up a stuffed lobster tail over pasta dish.  It was super tasty, and maybe even better than the actual birthday meal.  He has talked about on a number occasions a favorite dish that his mom made - ground beef and cabbage.  I tried to be sneaky and get the method of cooking from his mom - not really a recipe: ingredients are browned ground beef and chopped cabbage.  Of course I got caught on the phone with a parishioner for an hour, 30 minutes of which was past the end of my work day - time I really needed to race home and start cooking if I was going to beat him home.  Luckily I had arranged for Pop to stall him and ask him to stop by on his way home.  And he was running late, too. 

Dinner was, needless to say, a surprise to him.  I haven't cooked meat yet for him, and he took it as a sign I might eat it with him, but I opted for a burrito.  I had picked up some rocky road ice cream - his favorite - and stuck a candle in it for dessert.  He opened his gifts from me, and we enjoyed a quiet rest of the evening.

The party really got hopping forty-eight hours later!  We went over to Daniel and Julie's house for dessert and drinks.  It was fun, and we had a lot of fun.  I made a German chocolate cake for Thomas with home-made coconut, pecan frosting.  It was tasty - even I ate some.  I had 35 candles left after the one in the ice cream Wednesday, so in they all went to spell "TOM":

A flaming Tom on his cake:

 His cake put off a lot of light, and before he even had a chance to blow them out, the smoke alarm went off! 

We sat and told stories until late in the night.  It was fun to party on a Friday because most nobody had to get up too early.  And everyone got a party favor after he opened his candy-gram from Portland with more candy than the kids get for Halloween!  We were lucky to sleep in together in the morning and enjoy a lazy day start to a busy and hard-working rest of our weekend!

I LOVE YOU, THOMAS!!

Yeah Hooray!

I am not a New Year's Resolution type.  Yet I find myself secretly proud of myself for accomplishing something I decided I should do in 2012.  Not sure how to classify it, but proud all the same, and I am going to shamelessly pat myself on the back for it because it's really not a big deal to anyone else.

My mom found out the day we arrived in Portland for Christmas vacation that she had breast cancer.  I use past tense, optimistically, because she had a mastectomy on Thursday of last week.  Really - a dramatic two weeks for her.  It shocked me and scared me, but most of all reminded me that I haven't been to a doctor for anything but trauma and drama since 2002-ish.  That's a long time!  I wasn't an athlete and didn't have a commercial driver's license, so I had no need for regular physicals of any kind.  And while I like to think I have had more than enough doctor's appointments, surgeries, and physical therapy to last a lifetime, I know that "wellness visits" can be a positive thing.

Today was my appointment with a nurse practitioner recommended by my sister-in-law.  It was a good appointment, except for forgetting to ask about a tetanus shot (better to get the preventative shot than need an emergency room visit!).  I also have set the balls in motion for some baseline testing, considering the health risks I have inherited from my parents.  It feels good to have been able to do this.  And my NP is really awesome.  (Thanks, Marie, for a good recommendation.)

And now, post my momma's surgery, I am surprised.  Sure I was scared, but I should think my momma would be even more scared.  And though I know I was praying for her among of chorus of other friends and family and family of friends and friends of family....she's touched a lot of lives, her every response has been an attitude of gratitude!  What an example of faith and a thankful heart!

ps - my other resolution-ish thing has been to walk more.  I have already gotten in 3 - 1 hour long walks and a 20 minute one in.  Not bad for the winter!

pps - yeah - the sunsets and full moon have been amazingly beautiful!  And the reflection of the colors in the melting snow was just wild!

Forest & Desert in One!

Holbrook had been our stopover specifically so we could drive through the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Park.  Just south of town you pick up the highway through the park and then catch I-40 at the north end of town.  This was definitely set up to be a drive-through park, and though there are a lot of pre-marked areas to go explore things they want you to see, there is a lot more to the park that is off limits.  Thomas and I felt a little restricted, but not for everyone staring down their nose at you reminding you not to pick up any petrified wood or other articles.  The map even came with a notice to rat out any other tourists who looked suspiciously like stealing our national treasures.  When I picked up a pistachio shell that very obviously didn't belong (it wasn't petrified yet, and I don't think any of the petrified trees were pistachio trees), I was conscious that it looked like I might be convicting a felony instead of picking up someone else's trash.  Enough rant - we made it out with a courteous, "Did you have fun?" from the park ranger in the booth as we exited and didn't have any cavity searches for fossilized bark.  And truthfully, it really was worth seeing.

There was a neat video about the Triassic Park that it used to be and how the petrified wood came to be.  What I wanted to know is if they can count the rings of a petrified tree to figure out how old it was when it fell!  These pictures make it look like you could...

This down tree looked more real than the others.  The blonder color of petrified bark intrigued me.

The north end of the park is painted desert.  We pulled over for a couple more pictures, but what we remarked about the two ends of the park is that any Joe Schmoe could walk right down old Route 66 and not notice either one - the petrified wood or the painted desert.  The colors are stunning, but you can't see what's out there until you're practically right up on the rim.  Wonder how many people passed by without seeing and felt bad when they found out what they missed?!?



A little water was trickling through, but the wideness of the beds made me think that when the rain does come, the flash floods through the desert must be awesome.