Take Me Away!

Tomorrow night I will be sitting around a campfire on the beach! Late last night I took a call from a friend who wanted me to join her and my other two best friends in someone's beat up trailer on a beach about an hour from us for three days!!

I am so excited to get away and have some fun with my girly-friends!! I am packing some bananas, chocolate chips, mini marshmallows which we will grill over the fire in foil and then open up for some yumminess!! Everyone else loves to cook and will bring tons of food and this will be sole contribution. They will be so surprised and will love it!!

These women are my closest friends, we have laughed till we snorted (well one is a snorter!) and did that other thing that women beyond fifty do when they laughed too hard. There have also been a lot of tears flow in our times together. We've held one another through both garbage and good news.  Add more than a few bottles of wine to those occasions and that may explain the loads of laughter at stuff that was probably not really very funny. (That is an exaggeration, sort of.) Heehee!

So my little bag is packed and off we will go on a Sunday morning no less! Scandalous! Don't be picturing a glorious sunshiny expanse of sugary sand though. Northern Cali beaches, at least ours, are foggy, rocky and gravely sand with lots of dunes and cliffs to climb up and down. No swimming at our beaches unless you have a wetsuit. We will be walking, hiking, sitting and yakking. That is the agenda and it sounds totally perfect.

But it will be a blast! Hubs hates camping. I grew up loving it and have missed the aroma of a campfire in my sweatshirt.

Cannot wait!

Good-Bye 2010

It is time to pack away the last of year 2010.

Tucking Rosemary Clooney (White Christmas movie) safely 

away into the Christmas chest,

along side the family ornaments.

One Christmas card is staying on the mantel however.

 It makes me smile every time I walk by it!

Speaking of my son and daughter-in-love....

oh you weren't speaking of them?

Well, they are my main attraction right now as they

travel ever closer to California.

They were at the Grand Canyon yesterday......

Writer Son's caption under this photo of his new bride:

"The Grand Canyon just got 10 times more beautiful!"

 I know! Sweetness to usher us into a brand new year!

Two-thousand-ten was not a great year for me personally.

Seeing my two sons in good relationships 

are the bright spots in an otherwise tough last 8 months.

And that is worth a lot isn't it?

I look at my men

and I smile 

with thankfulness.

Now as I enter two-thousand-eleven

it is time for me to look ahead

and

remind myself of what is behind me.

No, not the year that is behind me....

but the WINGS that are behind me.

Walking Butterfly is about using those big gorgeous wings

to fly

rather than dragging them

like a walking butterfly.

It is time to fly.

I am sick of

CAUTION.

Ready, set, go........

The Ceremony of 10-10-10 !

My son became a husband on the easy to remember date of ten-ten-ten! This last Sunday night. We flew to Texas from California to witness this amazing and perfect event. I went back to work on Tuesday after arriving home late Monday night and it was a huge mistake! So today, Wednesday, I stayed home and gathered my thoughts, let my emotions flow and rested my tired body. I accomplished all of this while doing laundry and cleaning the entire house! yep, I am something aren't I?

I am rested enough to show you some of the candid pics that were taken. We are anxiously awaiting the professional pics which will be glorious because the forest setting was a "cannot ruin this" background!

We have pics of the day before as we helped pull the scene together but for today I will show you the candids that were caught of the wedding day itself............

Sassy Bride (My pet name for her for now.) wrote lots of short, sweet notes to Ga-ga Groom all day as they waited their turn to emerge for the ceremony!

Ga-ga Groom's first Sassy Bride sighting as she appeared on the forest path leading to him!

Sassy Bride & her adoring Texas Daddy!

Her perfect wedding shoes!

Sassy Bride's vows were 2 typewritten pages long!! His were not!

The Groomsmen. Rocker Son obviously uncomfortable in real clothes for a change!

Sassy Bride's adorable Sis singing.

The gorgeous bridesmaids. All chose their own chocolate brown dresses and looked wonderful!

The parents were invited to come up & pray a blessing over the couple! Felt very honored to do this!
Totally love the in-laws btw!

Writer Son embraced by Bride's daddy!

The Parentals on the front row.

A blurry but sweet moment of giggles!

Told you she was SASSY! My favorite photo so far! Love her!!

You may kiss your bride!



"What you grinnin' about boy?" Ha!

Follow Friday!

http://nevergrowingold.blogspot.com/search/label/Follow%20Friday

Girl's Getaway!

I am home again after a wonderful three-day girl's getaway with a few of my close buddies. We stayed in a huge lake house and had a blast together!

Did I mention the Suit of Armor guy in my post from the lake? This huge guy was just outside my bedroom door and even when I knew he was there, he scared me again and again! Especially after dark! You just don't expect an armored knight to be guarding/stalking your bedroom door!

We also loved the water bikes. They took us all around the lake to peak into other people's lake houses and see if we had the best one or not. I think we pretty much outclassed them all! If you consider sitting around in the dark telling our most embarrassing stories ever as classy. And the way sound carries over water, we probably should have been embarrassed even more! "Hi neighbors!"

See those margaritas? They were my first. No, it was not peer pressure. I requested them when we were menu planning back at home. I have always heard women gush over them but was not brave enough to order one in a restaurant because didn't know what to ask for. So I figured this would be the perfect environment to see what all the fuss was about. Very very yummy!! Loved it!

I am back to work after being off and jobless all June, July and half of August. It is good news that the new school has re-hired us........and I don't want to be ungrateful............but, sure was nice to concentrate on writing and to sleep in as long as I wanted. I will find a balance in this new position because the time off has shown me that freelance writing is something I enjoy and want to pursue. So there was a blessing in the awful situation after-all. (For those of you who know the story.)

I'll tell you more about my new job in a future post.

Thanks for listening....um....reading, I mean.

Country Boy in the City......

Hubs and I spent a night in San Francisco this last week with some good friends. We live close enough to make it a day trip but staying over added some fun to our outing! Hubs had a little trouble with the pillows but otherwise he did fine.

We had the amazing and magical opportunity to go to the De Young Museum to see the new "Birth of Impressionism" Exhibit! In June our students gifted us with some tickets to the art showing and it was breathtaking!

We had to keep telling ourselves that we were in the same room with the ORIGINALS .....Whistler's Mother, Renior, Monet, Degas, and others!

Rather than fight city traffic and CRAZY parking fees we caught a ferry in Vallejo and enjoyed an hour ride over to Fisherman's Wharf.

I always forget what a beautiful city SF really is. so much to see. For a small town girl it can be pretty overwhelming, but when you are with friends it becomes another fun adventure!

Hubs is considering this for his next job if the school thing doesn't work out! You never know what you will see around each corner.

This cool little Bistro cafe was right across from our room. In fact this pic was taken on our balcony! We had breakfast and lunch here, very cozy and beautiful.

Fishermen's Wharf is a crazy, busy, noisy and wonderfully colorful place to just stand still and take in all the life around you.

This painting by Renoir called, "The Swing" brought tears to my eyes. I did not expect that reaction at all! But I have loved this and seen it in books and on TV for so long, with no expectation that I might actually see it in person. it was so lovely and sweet.

My favorite Degas paintings are the dancers. He did them in several different ways. I love paintings that hint at a story. I also learned that nearly all of the great "Masters" were not accepted or applauded at all in their lifetimes! The great artists were always pushing the accepted norms and getting all creative! (Lesson there?You bet!)

The surprise about Whistler's Mother was the size of it. I had assumed it was normal portrait size but it is wall size. About 8 feet by 8 feet, amazing and her face is really quite serene and lovely. In September there will be a showing of Van Gogh and we will try to gather some friends and do this again!

Think It's Humid in U.S.?

I have had the shocking privilege to go to the Fiji Islands four times! I had never considered myself a huge world traveler at all. There were enough things to be afraid of here in the United States, why would I take a crazy risk like that? But, given the opportunity to accompany our college age students as part of a team of leaders, I did it. We were going to the distant islands of Fiji to pray for people and bring them what we could. Did I mention that my ten day trip was completely paid? Very big incentive to grab what I thought would be a 'once in a lifetime' chance.

The first photo is our group hiking (I'm in green skirt) to a primitive and isolated Fiji village that did not see a lot of white people. That would explain why we are wearing long skirts and even our arms are covered. The church on the big island that invited us over was very old school and did not want our girls in jeans or pants. The best part..... the boys had to wear zulus, which are basically a skirt! Our guys looked funny in them, but the Fijian men looked downright fierce in a zulu! (sulu/zulu? can't recall.)

On the Leadership Team were people who were strong in certain areas. One was a great musical worshiper, another was gifted at healing and another friend had no qualms about praying with the demon possessed. I wondered why I was there and decided it was to be a "mom" and an encourager for the students that I knew so well.

Well, the very first night the Director of our team asked me, ME, to speak to the students before we headed out to our assignments! What? You guys have the stuff, why are you asking me to share? I will not forget what he said,

"They are all really scared and jumpy in this unknown place. You have conquered fear in so many ways, I am sure you can help them overcome the fear they are facing tonight."

So, the third photo is me in front of our group. The reason I am looking down is that I was reading to them straight out of my journal. The pages I had written while on the 15 hour flight on my way onto this brand new scary place. I was able to lift their spirits by showing them how I dealt with the same feelings. There was laughter, tears and a whole crowd of happy excited people by the time I was done!!

And in case you ever thought that exotic traveling was glamorous in any way, take a look at the close up someone took of me! Ugh! The intense heat and humidity was actually one of the toughest things I fought while there. No make-up could survive, no hairspray could stand up to the wet air. Walking out of our rooms was exactly like walking into a gym shower area. The Fijians carry white dishtowels strapped into their waste bands to constantly wipe their faces. (Not really very white after a bit!)

I joked with the leaders later that we all have our specialties; healing, prayer, worship, deliverance....and mine? Fear. Nice!