Being a Child Again

One of the great joys of being a mother is being able to live another childhood along with each one of your children. This past Wednesday I was able to do that with my ten year old daughter. I was one of the chaperones for her 4th Grade Class as they went on a field trip to Monterey and Carmel. The field trip was to go visit three important historical landmarks in California’s history: Monterey Custom House, Colton Hall (in Monterey), and the Carmel Mission. This was a real treat for me, since I didn’t grow up in California. I didn't learn California history when I was in elementary school like my ten year old daughter is currently doing. So what better time to do it than now?

Our first stop of the day was at the Custom House (pictured above), right by the wharf in Monterey. At one time it was Mexico’s primary port of entry on the Alta California coast. This is one of the oldest government buildings in California. In July 1846 Commodore John Drake Sloat raised a flag here, claiming over 600,000 square miles of territory for the United States.

Next stop in Monterey was Colton Hall (pictured above and below). This building was originally built as a school house, but on
September 1, 1849, representatives met here to draft a constitution, in hopes California would be admitted into the United States.

Our last stop was my favorite; we ended our field trip at the Carmel Mission (above). This mission was dedicated in 1797. By 1836, two years after secularization, the destruction of mission life was complete. The church was basically in ruins until 1931 when Harry Downie was put in charge of restoring the mission. From that time until his death in 1980 he dedicated his life to restoring the mission. Here are some of my favorite photographs of the beautiful building and its grounds. Click on any photo to enlarge.

The next three photos are of the living quarters in the mission.

More photos of the grounds. The weather was nice that day--perfect for taking outside photos.

I hope you enjoyed the photos of these historical places. I also hope you, along with me, learned a little bit more about California history. It is fun having a chance to learn, explore,

and to be a child again!

My Mom

A Mother’s Day can’t go by without me missing my mother.

I would like to pay tribute to her today.

I am sad to say, the last five years of my mother’s life were so heartbreaking, they often overshadow memories I have of the wonderful person I knew growing up. Unfortunately when I was only twenty-one years old, my mother had a brain aneurism. She had just turned sixty-five years old. The person I had known as “Mom” disappeared that day and fragments of her, along with her frail body, stayed and fought a five-year-battle of dibilitating health problems.

Ahhh, enough of the sad, and on with the happy.

(Below, left to right: my grandmother, my uncle, my mother, and my grandfather.)

My mother was born in the heart of one of the most sparsely populated regions of the United States, Fredonia, Arizona.
(Below: my uncle, and my mother)

The tiny little town is located in the high desert plateau considered the Northern gateway to the Grand Canyon.
(My mother and her family outside their home in Fredonia, Arizona.)

She had four amazing sisters, and one brilliant brother.
They were all very close. They were taught the value of an education.
(My aunt who was an RN, my uncle who was a psychiatrist, and my mother had a teaching degree.)

My mother was one of the few women of her time to get a college degree. She graduated from Brigham Young University.

After graduating and teaching school for one year
she married my father.
(Below: My mother and father with my oldest brother.)

My parents had five children, of which I was the youngest--
--and an “oops”.

You see, my mother was 45 when she had me, and my father 50.
So, my appearance in their lives came as quite a surprise!
She was a very petite woman, and her motto was, “Diamonds and dynamite come in small packages!” She was a mixture of both :-)
(Below: on the left is my Aunt Ella, on the right is my mother.)

My mother filled her time with hard work, service towards others, and a love of God.

(Photo above and below: My mother with her sister Ella.)

She was employed for twenty-five years as the town's City Recorder. She was very active in the church and served others whenever she was given an opportunity. She loved to laugh, and had a witty sense of humor.

I have never met a person who worked harder or could fit more into a day than she could.
She believed that “Everything worth doing was worth doing well!”

I wish I could have shared more of my life with her.

I miss her terribly.

I celebrate this day in her honor.

Love you Mom!

Now playing on Radio Insane Housewife: You and Me (together we can do anything)

I love music. The list of concerts I have gone to in the past few years reflects my broad spectrum in taste: Hannah Montana, The Jonas Brothers (okay the last two were because of my daughter, but I still really enjoyed the concerts!), Andrea Bocelli, John Schmidt, Bon Jovi, Tina Turner, and Stevie Nicks & Fleetwood Mac.

I feel like music is the soundtrack to my life. The tune playing on the soundtrack (in my head) may change day to day, or even minute by minute, depending on what is happening in my life. The song may be as spiritually uplifting as Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up", or just as fun and sparkly as Owl City's "Fireflies".

For those of you who have been following the rollercoaster of my life lately, you won’t be surprised to hear what is playing on “Radio Insane Housewife” station (aka, my internal music stream.) During the last few days, Dave Matthew’s Band "You and Me" has been playing non-stop. The song really fits how I feel about overcoming the mental hurdles my family and I have been going through lately. I love the lyrics to this song as well as the music--the more you listen to it, the more you addicted you'll become. I am sharing it in hopes it will also inspire you today. Enjoy! Note: A friend of mine said she couldn't see the "You and Me" video below--probably her computer security software is blocking the link. So, if you cannot see the video here in this post, you can see it on YouTube by clicking on the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6t78OW-yhM&feature=related

Lyrics to You And Me:
Wanna pack your bags, something small
Take what you need and we disappear
Without a trace we'll be gone, gone
The moon and the stars can follow the car
and then when we get to the ocean
We gonna take a boat to the end of the world
All the way to the end of the world

Oh, and when the kids are old enough
We're gonna teach them to fly

You and me together, we could do anything, baby
You and me together yes, yes (x2)

You and I, we're not tied to the ground
Not falling but rising like rolling around
Eyes closed above the rooftops
Eyes closed, we're gonna spin through the stars
Our arms wide as the sky
We gonna ride the blue all the way to the end of the world
To the end of the world

Oh, and when the kids are old enough
We're gonna teach them to fly

You and me together, we could do anything, baby
You and me together yes, yes (x2)

We can always look back at what we did
All these memories of you and me baby
But right now it's you and me forever girl
And you know we could do better than anything that we did
You know that you and me, we could do anything

You and me together, we could do anything, baby
You and me together yeah, yeah
Two of us together, we could do anything, baby
You and me together yeah, yeah
Two of us together yeah, yeah
Two of us together, we could do anything, baby

We alone to reach the end of the world

Album: Big Whiskey and The GrooGrux King
Genre: Alternative Rock
Lyrics: Dave Matthews
Released: August, 2009

Now you know what is playing in my head, what's playing on your “Life’s Radio Station”?

Carpe Diem! (Latin for "seize the day")

For those of you out there cyberspace, I am repeating my Monday, April 26th facebook post. I just wanted to let you know about the positive news regarding my husband’s bladder cancer.


Monday, April 26, 2010. My husband received his biopsy results from his doctor today, after having exploratory surgery last Monday. The doctor told him the biopsies were all cancer free. We were thrilled beyond belief at this news, after going through fourteen long weeks of cancer treatments and four different surgeries over the past eight months. What a great blessing this is to our family. He will have to be vigilant in getting screened for cancer every three months, but now we know that his body does respond to treatment and we feel very optimistic about the future. We now feel like we can take our lives off of "hold", and now embrace it with both arms!

Regarding my husband’s work situation: another person in his group at work volunteered for the transfer to Sterling Heights, Michigan. It is a man whose parents and family live back there. So it is a good move for this co-worker and his family. Although taking the transfer to Michigan seemed like the "logical thing for us to do", it never felt right. After prayer and much thought, we felt inspired to stay and fight for the life and friends we have here. Since making the decision, we have felt happy and at peace. Life is good, very good in our home tonight!

We want to extend our sincerest gratitude to all of the wonderful friends and family that have stood by our side and held candles to light our way through the darkness of the past eight months! We could not have made it without your prayers, encouragement, and support. We invite you to do something to celebrate this happy occasion with us--hug a loved one, eat out for dinner, do the "happy dance”, and . . . believe in miracles!

The Road Not Taken

A few months back I was looking for a part time job, to help pay for my husband’s mounting medical bills and to fill my time with something other than “cancer-worry”. A good friend of mine told me about an opening at a medical office where she worked; it was a part time front desk position.

I realized this wasn’t the dream job I had gone to college 5 years for, but I needed a job that would allow me to help with my husband with his medical appointments, be at home when my kids were home from school, and shuttle the kids to their after school activities. My friend thought the office would be flexible enough to allow me to work during my children's school hours. Unfortunately when I went in to interview for the job, I was told they needed someone to work from
1 P.M. to 5 P.M. I was also told by the office manager the last time they advertised this job position they had over 500 applicants. I should feel very lucky, because they were offering me the job on the spot. (The fact that my friend, who worked there, had recommended me carried a lot of clout.)

Nothing like pressure! I was so torn, I knew I needed the job, and it was a good one. But, the hours were all wrong. I needed to be home when my kids were at home. My children needed as much stability as possible while my husband was going through cancer treatments. I didn’t feel good about accepting the job, so reluctantly, I turned it down.

Afterwards, I kept wondering how I could have made this job possibly work, but I soon learned the position had been filled. I couldn't believe I had turned this job down in the current economy.

Life has its curious twists and turns, and in less than a month, a friend of mine asked me if I would like to work for her family business. They needed someone to work part time, from 10 A.M. to
2 P.M. The pay was almost the same as the medical position I had interviewed for. I was thrilled at the opportunity and quickly accepted the job. The hours of work slipped easily into my life. The past month of work has passed by quickly, but being a woman I have wondered if I made the “best decision”, and have pondered what the “road not taken” (or in this situation, the “job not taken”) would have been like. In this case, I found out.

Today I spoke with my friend who works at the medical office. She said yesterday, the lady who was working at the front desk (and that probably would have been ME if I had accepted the job) had taken the office garbage out to the large dumpster behind the office building at 5 P.M. She was attacked by a man wearing a hoodie and a surgical mask, he beat her and repeatedly slammed her face against the sidewalk. She was finally able to turn and scratch her attacker’s eyes and get away.

There had never been anything like this happen in the building complex, this was the first time. It haunted me that the lady who interviewed me had this happen to her. But what bothered me more is knowing that I would have been the one taking out the trash at that time, if I had accepted the job!

Sometimes I'll never know what “the road not taken” is like. Sometimes, in rare occasions like this, I have been given a glimpse. Whew! I’m counting my blessings.

These are a few of my favorite things . . .

When I was a young child one of my favorite movies was the Sound of Music. I loved all of the music, but the chorus from the song, “My Favorite Things” has been playing in my mind lately. If you are not familiar with it--you have been living under a rock-- and here it is:

When the dog bites

When the bee stings

When I'm feeling sad

I simply remember my favorite things

And then I don't feel so bad

Part of my life’s coping strategy is to do things that bring me happiness when I am going through hard times. So, when the opportunity came during Spring Break, our family took off to spend time at a couple of local places that really are among “my favorite things”. We were able to go to The Monterey Bay Aquarium and

Pt. Lobos National Reserve with some good friends of ours. I feel like getting out and around nature really is medicine for my soul. Here are some photos from two of my most favorite places, starting with Monterey Bay Aquarium.

A friend of ours works at the aquarium, so she took us behind the scenes to have a one-on-one visit with the resident albatross—it loved Burke.
The albatross is such a beautiful bird, and really is intelligent, I don't know why they have such a bad rap of the saying, "Like an albatross around your neck", meaning something that is an encumbrance, or a wearisome burden. Our friend has let us visit this bird a few times, and I will never think negative of a albatross again.

We are soooo very blessed to have great friends as next door neighbors. We were happy to have them join us at the aquarium and later on at Pt. Lobos.

The aquarium has a fantastic new flamingo exhibit that opened the end of March.

Just a few of the new flamingos at the exhibit.

They also have a fabulous new salt water aquarium. If you have ever had a salt water aquarium, you will realize how difficult it is to have a tank like this, with so many fish. It was beautiful!

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is also very famous for its jellyfish exhibits. Who knew there were so many different types of jellies?

Check out this exotic looking seahorse--very beautiful!

And some more seahorses. They look like floating lettuce leaves. There are three of them here, can you find them?
After a day at the aquarium, we spent a day at Pt. Lobos State Reserve, just south of Carmel. This is one of my most favorite places on the planet. I would go here every day if I could. The scenery is breathtaking. The weather was so warm that day, the kids played on the beach for hours. Ahhh, as I said earlier, medicine for my soul. I love, love, love this place!

The kids exploring the beach. A Canadian Goose kept landing in a fresh water river nearby, so the kids went to check it out.

View along Pt. Lobos.

I hope you enjoyed the photos of just a few of my favorite things. If you ever want to spend the day with me, now you know where I will take you :-)