A Gentle Warning!

Those of you who.......

have daughters & you are tired of........

all the pink princessy stuff. Be thankful!!

Otherwise your Memory Tree of the Future could look like this!

No Comprende'

Our area had crazy strong winds whipping through here the other night & still a bit this morning.

Want to know how crazy the wind was?

There was a basket ball hoop & it's backboard in the middle of the street &

it is still there (now moved to the gutter) after two whole days of wondering where in the world

it came from.

No one has claimed it!

Some tiles are missing off our roof.

Some random trees are down,

and this.......

Our huge back fence is laying almost on it's side.

I am dreading the difficult conversation this will require.

Our new neighbors just moved in & were very sweet when I welcomed them,

but they don't speak any english, just Spanish.

Gonna be interesting!

Change Is In the Air

What a wonderful & fun Thanksgiving we enjoyed yesterday & today! Who knew that adding one new person to the mix brings a whole new perspective & new jokes & stories!

Writer Son's sweet & adorable girlfriend joined us this year! Because I have made it abundantly clear that I hate to cook, we normally eat with our large group of friends on holidays, but because she traveled from out of state to be with my smitten son, I chose to use this as my chance to change our tradition & get back into the kitchen.

Plus, I do love to use my favorite dishes! It was really fun to share my kitchen with another woman. I had asked her to chose some favorite recipes to contribute & I bought the ingredients she sent ahead. We laughed & worked & discussed our families.

I'll say something right here that once again makes me thankful my family & "real life" friends don't read this blog: If He doesn't marry this cutie-pie my heart is going to be broken! I don't think Hubs or I could take it at all!

It is an interesting & exciting season we are entering. One son is in love & the other is moving out in 2 weeks. I think I'm going to like it!

Baby Boy is Moving Out.....

Bittersweet would be the overriding emotion that kept me up most of last night. There were some tears muffled into my pillow. Rocker Son told us he & two of his friends had found a cheap house in town that they would be moving into during the second week of December.

He is 23. I was happily married in my 23rd year. So it's not like he is too young. He is ready & even though he has a very low paying job, this will be the motivation he needs to look for something better. It's really all good.

So why does my heart hurt a bit? I love the idea of being alone with Hubs & turning Rocker Sons disgusting bathroom inside out to reclaim it! I like the thought of turning on the stereo without it blasting my eardrums. His bedroom will no longer be the hidden secret room of shame I could never let a guest look into.

But......

I don't know. It's the end

of something important. The end of an era isn't it? How often will we see him? He already appears to barely tolerate us sometimes. I am going to miss those puppy dog eyes. Even though they usually look slightly guilty. Rocker Son is our youngest of two sons & he has chosen a lifestyle completely opposite ours in so many ways. My love is unconditional & he knows it & clearly appreciates it. He says so often.

He is funny & the most loyal person I have ever met. He is also a completely self taught musician who has been the lead singer (screamer) & guitar player in a popular local band for 5 years. My Rocker Son is gentle even though he appears kinda scary on the outside. I am waiting for the day his outside appearance catches up with his insides. Not that I dislike how he looks, it's more the tough guy image that just is not real. (I know, typical mom talk huh?)

Three more weeks to live with my son. What more do I say to him? What more does he need from me before he leaves the nest? I'm thinking of writing him a letter, I do better that way. Save us both some embarrassment maybe.

But I will still get in as many hugs as I can, embarrassing or not! That is a mom's privilege.

Shop No More!

My group of gift ideas for you today are certain to please the most discriminating of relatives you need to shop for this year. The lovely young lady with rollerblades is demonstrating the new way to skate around town. Who wants to actually move

their legs

back & forth to get somewhere when you can just hold onto this motorized wheel? And I'm sure turning corners will be very interesting!
This ice cream hat is what every kid has always wanted right? Now you can finally tell your kids to stop begging for a mint chip hat! (If this young man is actually waiting for it to melt...well that just makes me sad.)

Um, speaking of sad young boys............I really have nothing more to say.

Goofy Gift Ideas....

I'm really not sure where to

begin! I keep coming across some horrible & silly

gift ideas for this Christmas. The boy with the bread? Do you know a guy that age who would be smiling if he opened up such a huge package & found..........BREAD?! I think he may be ready to use that rolling pin!

Next we have the unique & creative furniture designed to look like computer keys. I am already

disturbed that my dreams are full of Blogger & Facebook images, must my household seats be all about computers too?

And last (for today!) but not least, this one will amaze you & possibly scare you a little bit. This is being modeled for you here. It is a bra that is designed to become a gas-mask in case of terrorist threat. Seriously! You can save yourself & someone with you (lucky someone!).

Now you can thank me for making your shopping list a lot shorter. Watch for more in the next few weeks!

Sunday Stealing......

Part One - Describe:

Your hair? Short, thin & brown. Sounds lovely doesn't it?

Your mother? Has same rotten hair. Thanks Mom!

Your father? Is a quiet man who loves numbers. I hate numbers.

Your favorite food? Chocolate & cheese. Haven't tried them together though.

Your dream last night? It's gone the instant I open my eyes, darn it!

Your favorite drink? Coffee, hot, black & strong. Coca-cola too, but not hot.

Your dream/goal? Would truly love to have my words in magazines.

The room are you in? My living room, comfy, cozy on a Sunday night.

Your hobby? Writing, blogging, reading & riding hubby's motorcycle with him.

Your fear? My sons making stupid choices.

Your TV? We have one & it is used every night pretty much, by Hubs & son.

Your Pets? One cat who has lasted way longer than expected due to nothing on our part.

Friends? A wonderful group of over achievers who spur me on to greater things all the time!

Your life? Fun, surprising & never boring!

Your mood? Expectant.

If you're missing someone? Lately I am missing my 23 yr old son being 2 years old.

Your best friend? A crazy red-head who lives like I Love Lucy!

Part Two - The Where's?

Where do you want to be in 6 years? Still teaching 20-somethings but with more help.

Where were you last night? Home getting house ready for holiday coming up.

Where did you grow up? Petaluma, CA, USA

One place that I go to over and over? My office! I love it & all the people who wander in & out.

Your favorite place to eat out? Creekside bar & Grill.

Wish list items? hmmm...iphone would be fun. Dorms for our school, my own bathtub would be lovely!

Last time you laughed? Today at lunch with my best friends.

Last time you cried? This morning.

Part Three - The What's?

Something that you aren't? Young, skinny, mean.

Last thing you did? Made some decaf & checked out my blog friends.

What are you wearing? Jeans, t-shirt & sox.

Something you're not wearing? Shoes, hat, coat, spurs.

Your favorite store? Khol's

Will Cook For Good Cause

You may recall the last time I proudly posted this photo of my guys. It was last Easter and I was extremely pleased with myself for actually cooking a holiday meal for my small family.

In recent years we have joined friends for the yearly special meals that are required of Christmas, Easter & Thanksgiving. With our extended family out of state & my strong dislike for kitchen duty, it just made sense.

But last Easter for some reason I had the grace to give it a try & happily it was a success. At least, I have not been told otherwise so I am going with that assumption! And now, with Thanksgiving fast approaching I am going for it once again, this time with some wonderful incentive!

Writer Son, the smiling one on the left, has a serious girlfriend & she is coming from out of state to join us!! I am so excited to have another woman in the house with me! I mean truly excited, to the point of telling myself to calm down. I don't want to scare her off. So I guess I won't mention that I am already wondering if I am at last going to be a grandma before I'm 80!

Today while Hubs was out for a motorcycle ride I added another leaf to the dining room table,(!!!!!!) and figured out what table cloths to use. I am like that cute commercial where the young wife is practicing her holiday meal before the family arrives. Not so young anymore....but still giddy and feeling like I am playing house.

I still dread the actual cooking part, but hopefully having Writer Son's adorable girlfriend with me will add enough spark to make it fun. I'll let you know how it turns out. Smoke detectors may need to be disconnected - Note to self.

My Life in Six Words - Today

I am hungry, but hate cooking!

Six Word Saturday

Blog-Land Made Me Heartsick

A trip though random blog-land was disturbing to me yesterday. Blogger has "improved" the device at the top of our blog pages that allows us to see what the "Next Blog" is. In the past it could take you to a blog about earth worms all written in Greek. You never knew where you would end up. So they made it more precise & fixed it so that it will always go to blogs that are similar to yours. Same language & subject matter.

Actually I liked the crazy randomness of it, except for the creepy sexy ones that had to be super-quickly clicked away! But yesterday's experiment with the upgrade hurt my heart & I am not sure that I can explain it, but I will try.

I am supposing that it is due to my mentions of God & prayer once in a while; I was sent to all "Christian" blogs. I saw about 4 that were wall to wall scripture & preaching. There were 2 that were so hateful regarding abortion & Obama that I had to double check that they called themselves christian. Others were so drippy-sweet that my teeth hurt more than when I eat candy-corn! A few worked really hard at turning every little action & thought into a Bible lesson.

My main thought was....no wonder people are not interested. My heart hurts that followers of Jesus are seen as hateful & narrow-minded, but I can see it for myself in the blogs that I have been lumped together with. I love scripture, I hate abortion (but not the people who have them or the Docs that do them.), and yes, God is evident all around us. But He is also funny & creative & surprising.

Would one of those super sweet blogs ever say they had a super crappy day? Probably not, because it would appear they had lost their salvation to admit such a thing. We (Christians) are real people who poop, get angry, say the wrong thing & lose our tempers. God is OK with all of that. He made us & knows all the garbage in us & still He loves us.

I believe that most Christians take themselves too seriously. More seriously than God does. We tend to make things harder than they are. Studying every little word of a passage to the point of ridiculousness. ( is that a word?) He may be shaking His head saying, "It only means what I said & nothing more. Give it a rest already!" :)

I love God with all my heart & I'm not ashamed to say it. And please don't take offense, but sometimes I AM ashamed to say I am a Christian. It reminds me of that great line in "Princess Bride"........"I don't think that word means what you think it means."

It's a Must Have item!

Things get a little goofy in commercial-land at this time of year. We all cracked up & blogged about those crazy Snuggly-blankets that have been advertised all year, but have you seen this?

Yes, it is exactly what you have been looking & hoping for isn't it? We can at last relax because now our hands can wear underpants!

What's next, hand thongs?

"Fearless" A Book Review

Buy		Read

I actually read this new book by Max Lucado some time ago & then did not get around to pulling this together until now. For some reason the book did not rock me as I had expected it would. I love this author because his writing is very conversational & full of stories to illustrate his message. But this book on being fearless did not show me anything really new. That may be because fighting fear is an old & ongoing battle for me. I have conquered so much over the years that the book may be old ground for me, but surely not for many others.

This paragraph sums up the main message of the book....

"As awe of Jesus expands, fears of life diminish. A big God translates into big courage. A small view of God generates no courage. A limp. puny, fireless Jesus has no power over cancer cells, corruption, identity theft, stock-market crashes, or global calamity. A packageable , portable Jesus might fit well in a purse or on a shelf, but He does nothing for your fears. "

We all know people who seem to focus on the many bad & horrible things that COULD happen. The nightly news is a major culprit to fear, that's how they get you to stay tuned beyond the commercial. This book addresses that & could be very helpful & freeing for fear motivated people.

Ready, Set, Write!

I just spent about 4 hours writing! No, not little comments on FaceBook & Blogger, but real writing! Several posts ago I talked about an article idea I had regarding a family custom from my childhood. Since then it has been put off again & again or I've allowed myself to get too distracted with all of you lovely folk to begin actually putting my memories into words on this here laptop.

The fun part is that due to re-connecting on FaceBook with the cousins involved in the family memory, I have a new angle for the story, and every story needs a good angle. No, I did not say angel, though that would be lovely!

I do not know if this will get anywhere, and the "anywhere" I want is into a print magazine like my new favorite magazine "More". They have a great website that is interactive & they invite readers to send in stories. It may be possible that this is used to weed out the stories they like for their print magazine.

I love the writing process....once I sit myself down & get into it. I lose all track of time & space. What word is best? How can I make that sentence more smooth or funny? What picture does this paragraph paint?

I am now 54 years old. Many people would be thinking of winding down their careers or adventures at this place in the life time-line. But I still have at least 20 more years most likely right? A lot can & does happen in 20 years. I no longer have diapers, school principals or kids doctor appointments to keep. My house pretty much stays the way I leave it each day. (Pretty much! Still have a 23 year old here.)

I am a working woman but my time is mine to divide up as I desire for the most part. Going after this dream of being a writer is scary & daunting. But I believe that I have been talking & writing about it long enough, it's time to do it! Oy, I am scaring myself even as I type these words!! Hitting the publish button feels like signing a contract right now.....shall I hit it?

Keeping My Hands Open

Falling in love with twenty-somethings can be brutal! Exhausting is another word for it, along with wonderful & exhilarating! Hubs & I teach a handful of them each year in our ministry school here in California & we love it with all that is in us. We give ourselves to them 4 days a week officially & of course more than that in our hearts & minds. (And on our cell phones & email!)

They come to us from all different states & countries, from all different backgrounds & family situations. I have become mom/sister/friend/counselor depending on the void in them that needs to be filled. Always pointing them to God as the only true dependable one who will never let them down.

The tricky part for me is the letting-them-go part. After their one year or two years with us they head back home or off to other parts of the world to be what they have learned they were designed to be. I get used to saying good-bye & resolve to adapt to not seeing them every day. Then they suddenly appear again! Walking into school at 8 am as a surprise or I see them worshiping on a Sunday morning in our home church where they are surrounded by huggers waiting in line to greet them, bouncing up & down, screaming as only 20 year old girls can!

Just this week I am saying goodbye to A____ who had recently moved back to our town after graduating last year & being gone for several months. Now she is off to flight school in her home town, which is not here! This morning at church I was happy to see two other former students visiting from out of town & they whispered that they are seriously considering moving back here in a few months!!

My poor heart is getting dizzy from all this coming & going! We have graduated 145 students over the years & I am somewhat in contact with all of them, some more than others. But all are in our hearts & thoughts. Hubs & I will dream about one or another & wonder what is going on with them. Good old FaceBook & Myspace are great for keeping in contact easily.

Falling in love with twenty-somethings is full of laughter, tears, more laughter, lots of long hugs, new language, creativity, challenge to old thinking, refusal to settle & of course more laughter. It requires huge flexibility...not something I am known for! I love my life. I adore these energetic, adventurous people. I will continue to let myself fall in love with them because it is totally WORTH IT!

Colorful Me!

I was so happy yesterday when it began to rain lightly, thinking it may rain all weekend. Most would not desire rain over a weekend but I loved the idea of being stuck in the house with nothing to do but......

play with my laptop of course!
But the rain was only for Friday. Today, Saturday is a gorgeous sunny & crisp day. So I cleaned & did laundry like most Saturdays (exciting huh?). Why my mind says that I need a rainy day to not feel guilty about playing with my computer? Don't know. It's not as if cleaning & laundry cannot be done on a rainy day too! Silly woman. For some reason it felt like a rainy day gave permission to sit around more. Really makes no sense I know.

But, as you can see I also found time to mightily overcome my fun-guilt & had some creative release playing with the iphoto portion of my Mac. Actually the 2nd pic has nothing to do with Mac, it is a website called "FaceinHole.com" & it is a riot to explore & experiment. (If you can get past all the nearly nude photo options! ha!)

.....And yay me! I recently went from 36 Followers to 40 just out of the blue, after months staying at 36!! Crazy but I like it! Welcome to this still unidentified themed blog, hope you enjoy & return & leave comments!

Motorcycle Mama Again

No, I do not ever ride alone! I like to ride on Hubs bike cuddled up close.

But he wanted some pics of me on the bike. Or else he wanted pics of the new bike

& USED me as an excuse!

I am loving our second bike a lot! It is bigger than the Honda Shadow.

It's a Yamaha Roadstar & the second seat is way more comfy.

(Did I already talk about this?) Got a vague feeling I have.

Anyway, it will make longer rides much more do-able.

We have learned that we really need to get off & stretch or get a meal

every hour though. Otherwise being in the same position causes leg cramps & an overall

painful muscle situation.

Recently we rode an hour to a small town

& stopped for breakfast in a little diner!

It was perfect!

Dear Walking Butterfly Blog,

I really need to apologize to you. I created you with love & care. Numerous hours were spent typing, dragging & talking to myself. I sat with my laptop, smiling one minute & grumbling the next! You have been my pride & joy. My secret indulgence that very few (extremely few!) knew about.

Please believe that I still adore you! I do! I still smile when I see you & I continue

to think of things to post on you as I go to sleep at night. WELL ACTUALLY....that last statement is not completely true & this is where I need to tell you the truth even though it is a difficult thing to say to you.

I have been seeing someone else.

It's not you....it's me. I just needed something more, I'm so sorry. Here she is.....

Actually she is going to help me spend more time with you! But recently she has been consuming me. Miss MacBook is pretty high maintenance, at least until I get to know her better. To be truthful, she has kept me up very late at night & yes, I confess that I have even dreamed about her! I know....that must hurt, I'm so

sorry!

But can't we live together happily? Can't I love you both? I do think we can live peacefully together. So I am apologizing for ignoring you lately. I have noticed sadly that my neglect of you has also dismally affected my comment numbers. That must be kind of embarrassing for you in front of the other, more popular blogs. Again, please forgive me & I will try to correct that in any way I can, ok?

Are we good now? Are we friends again? I hope so, because you are my link to the world wide web of interesting & funny people. Let's get out there now & you & I & Miss MacBook will send a flurry of words & pictures all over the place & see what comes back, ok? Do I need to get you some flowers or chocolates?

In MY Dreams.....

Recanting

These are pics of the neighbor's house I was complaining about in my last post. I do dislike the plastic stuff but it actually looked pretty cool after dark. They had a smoke machine & scary music & attracted a ton of people.

So I recant my Halloween Grinch episode.....but I still don't like seeing the stuff all flattened every morning in yards.

And this pic is an example of why I'm not crazy about answering the door on that particular night! Tricker-treaters of the large variety !

Of course this strange looking one is Rocker Son who was NOT tricker-treating but he was headed out to a big bash in the country as a Village People person.

Do I ask for details of the all night party? You bet I do not! Today he is sleeping the sleep of the serious party-ers & I am making as much noise as possible around the house! Ha!

Such a compassionate mama!