m is for magic July 1, 2009

They promise you it’s where the magic lives.  And on our brief trip to WDW, we found our own little magical reprieve from the day to day routine.

We rented a room at the Caribbean Beach Resort using the Florida resident discount; it was so affordable.  We stopped at Whole Foods on the way in, a brand new store.  We stocked up on semi-healthy treats and drinks and then headed off.  Nancy received her birthday button at check-in and we were off to check out our digs.  It was a nice day so we took our pool noodles and headed to the big pool at the resort.  It was a pirate themed spectacle with slides and sprays and filled with families having fun.  We enjoyed that for quite a while.  Then we decided to head over to the faux beach near our room.  As luck would have it, there were three empty hammocks calling out names.  The sun, the breeze and the sway of the hammock soon lulled us into our afternoon nap.  It was hot though, and we all woke up ready for another dip, this time in the smaller pool closest to our room.  

It’s hard to keep track of time on an afternoon like this one, and since we had dinner reservations it was slightly important.  At one point, Nancy called out to any one who was listening, “Does anyone know what time it is?”  Only one guy was nice enough to even try and he guessed a time that we knew had passed about 40 minutes prior.  Everyone else ignored or laughed, to which I said, “Does anybody really care?”  Cue Chicago horn section…

We got cleaned up and headed out, using an impressive three forms of Disney transportation.  We took the bus to the Hollywood Studios, then the boat to the boardwalk, and after dinner bussed it to the Magic Kingdom where we boarded the Monorail to the Polynesian Resort where we enjoyed the magical fireworks from the beach.  It was a great night.  

After the fireworks, we were ready to get back to our room and sleep.  We, along with thousands of our closest friends, boarded the bus back to our resort.  Crowded to standing room only, we endured the constant company of a steel drum soundtrack of pop tunes.  That is until it broke us, and all three of us girls began singing along right there on the bus:  ”The tide is high, but I’m holding on.  I want to be your number one.”  All were amused, but none more than the three of us, punchy at this point from too much sun and magic.

The next day brought another float in the pool followed up with some shopping at another magical place, IKEA!  A girls trip that turned out to be practically perfect in every way!

d is for day at the beach June 27, 2009

I am having a great time here in Orlando.  I went out for breakfast with Nancy and new friend Ruth.  Afterwards we did our browsing at Staples where they did have some fantastic new items including individual Bic markers, we came home.  While Tom mowed, we got everything ready to go to the beach. Nancy packed us each a Birthday Berry Blast which consisted of a plastic container of mixed berries.  We also packed water and Nancy’s two can’s of Arnold Palmers which she got for her birthday.  We drove over to Cocoa.  It was raining when we got there, so we went to the Old Cocoa area of town where we browsed little shops.  The most interesting was a record store where they had some gems, include a Toto album and three of Dan Fogelburgs finest, all for a dollar each!  By then the weather had cleared so we headed down to the beach.   We got set up with chairs, enjoyed our berries, read magazines and walked on the beach a little.  After a couple of hours, we packed up and drove up and down the coast looking for a spot for an early dinner.  We went to the Coconuts on Beach.  It was a pleasant enough beach bar and the food was decent.

On the way home, there were tons of cars and people with cameras parked along the causeway.  We stopped and asked and people said there was a launch imminent.  We stopped to watch and found out it was a Delta rocket launching from Canaveral.  We stood and watched for a while.  Nancy saw a group of porpoises.  But when one of the spectators announced a push back of the launch by 20 minutes, we got back on the road.  We did see the rocket take off 20 minutes later on the road back to Orlando.  It was pretty cool.

Tonight we are staying in, getting showers and watching TV and eating more cupcakes.  We’ll go to early church tomorrow and then come home and eat breakfast. Then the girls will head off for a Disney adventure.  We are stopping at the brand new fancy Whole Foods store along the way.  We’ll probably stop and get some noodles for floating around in the 6 pools at our resort hotel!  Nancy got us a great deal, being a FL resident and all.  Should be lots of good, clean fun!

B is for back in action. June 27, 2009

Kate is back in travel mode, so I am back with the stories.  This night finds me blogging live from Orlando where I paid a super sneaky surprise visit to my BFF for her birthday.  We are having all kinds of fun.

After spending the morning teaching bible memory at VBS, we are recovering.  I went with Miss Nancy and together with our  8th grade assistant, Brooke, we led 5 sessions of bible verse memory games.  It was quite a morning.  Went by quickly then we went to lunch with Kristin  at Panera.  Now, everyone is home and we are regrouping and making plans for the rest of our days.  Ideas such as cheap beach hotels, cheap Disney hotel, Ikea, Whole Foods, etc. have been tossed around.  It’s great being here.  Dave and I had such a nice visit on the way back from the airport.  He leaves tomorrow for Kentucky, so tonight we are having a cookout at home with some salmon on the grill.  We are also getting cupcakes from a little shop up at Waterford.  We had some samples last night from there.  it’s called “Sweet” and I had the dulce de leche variety and it was fantastic.  Really the best cupcake I have ever had.  I’m not sure what else will be happening.  We are having breakfast with Nancy’s friend Ruth tomorrow.  Again, all I can say is that it’s really great to be here.  It feels like I’ve stopped thinking  and am in a delightful vacation mode.  Except for missing J., all is delightful.

h is for houseguest May 4, 2009

We had a great weekend with our new friend, Wael.  He is a Saudi student, here on a scholarship at the English institute at the University.  We agreed to host him for a weekend stay after being contacted by one of his teachers who is a friend from church.  The request came to us while we were in Germany being impressed by the generosity and kindness of Chris’ host families.  How could we say no?

We’re glad we said yes!  Wael is a math genius, set to go to MIT in the fall.  He enjoys street car racing and does amazing card tricks.  Yes, he said he can do the card counting thing that the students in the movie “21″ can do.  

For activities, we gave him a tour of the farm, at lunch at a small town cafe, drove through the former air force base, attended a Kentucky Derby Party and a Jazz Fest.  Thomas and he played cards and attended church together. It was great to have him here.

Two things I really appreciated that he shared.  The first was personal.  When asked what activities we should provided for another student visiting us here in the summer, he replied, “If she has a time like this then I think she will be very happy.”  The second was national.  He said, “If my friends from my country could actually visit the United States, they would think it was the best country of all.”

c is for cat May 1, 2009

Thomas has been the Cat in the Hat basically since Christmas.  I think yesterday marked the last appearance of his tall, lanky self in that red and white striped hat.

t

He did an outstanding job with the role, but I was perhaps most proud when I watched him in the hallways outside the auditorium.  Time after time, he crouched low to chat with a preschooler who was amazed to be meeting the REAL Cat in the Hat.  He was so sweet and possessed patience and charm beyond his years.  Now he is back to focusing on what really matters at this time of year:  Which roller coasters to ride at 6 Flags on the class trip and who is going with whom to the 8th grade dance.

I’m going to miss middle school.

o is for old May 1, 2009

When you get older, things hurt.  Yesterday, I spent pretty much the whole day on my feet, from 6 AM to 8 PM or so.  When I got home, everything hurt.  When I woke up too early this morning, everything still hurt.  You hear a lot of old people sit around talking about stuff that hurts.  I am now very impressed with any old person that does not do this.  I am not even 50 years old yet, and all I want to do today is to explain to anyone who will listen how much pain I am in.  I even have old sounding things that hurt like bunions.  

I was on my feet all day for good reasons.  I had lots of work to do, including a great meeting with the leadership team for my church’s weekend of service coming up this fall.  We are closing down church for a whole weekend and going out into the community to serve.  The team is great and we talked through the prelim plans yesterday.  I guess I was seated while we did that.

Prior to that, I spent the morning moving furniture with some fellow staff.  We had to clear our conference room for the afternoon’s activities – a big photo shoot.  All afternoon and into the evening we had lots of community members file through and be photographed by two wonderful professionals who volunteered their time.  All of our subjects were photographed in our promotional t-shirts bearing the live united message.  Kids, seniors, men, women, groups, singles, famous, infamous – they all waited patiently in our crowded waiting area for their turn to be shot.  While it was stressful keeping everybody moving and everybody happy, the results are fantastic and will be invaluable to the creation of our marketing materials in the year ahead.

I got up and went to exercise this morning.  I haven’t been going for a while and I think maybe that is why after a hard day’s work, everything hurts.  After all, it certainly can’t be because I am old!

a is for absent May 1, 2009

I have been away, not from life or home, but just from writing.  Good writers write everyday, so, um, where does that leave me?

p is for photos April 3, 2009

It rained all day yesterday and wouldn’t you know it, it was the day my big fat package of vacation photos arrived from Snapfish.  They sat in the mailbox all day and all night because I didn’t feel like going out in the rain and wind to fetch them.  John brought them in this morning, however, and it seems that no harm was done.  Can’t say as much for the Macy’s flyer and a magazine, but the snapshots faired well.

I really like photos, the kind you can hold and shuffle through and share with people not leaning over a computer.  I like putting them up on my photo rail in my hall way.  I like sending copies to people in the mail.  As I sorted through the big stack I ordered, I relived the trip a little bit and here’s what I noticed this time:

- the happiness of a reunion with Chris is reflected in Thomas’ eye.  Pure joy.

- there is genuine warmth and affection in the faces of the host families with home we spent time around the table.

- my daughter is beautiful.

- the grandeur of the dom in Cologne cannot be captured in a photograph.

- I only have ONE photograph of our family of five.

This last one really frosts me.  Here we are half way around the world together only briefly and for the last time until who knows when and I only manage to snag one family shot.  It’s not even very good because I did it on the self timer and a couple of heads are chopped off.  Next time I will be more bold to ask the strangers around me to take some photos of our family.  That is if I can learn that phrase in the language required.

I may not have the photos, but I have the clear memories.  I will never forget the effort Kate went to get there:  planes, buses, trains all just to spend 48 hours with us.  I will never forget the delicious German food and drink and lively conversation we shared around the table at Frug Brauhaus in Cologne.  I will never forget hearing each of my three children converse with their hosts in German.  Amazing.  And I will treasure these moments until God grants us the opportunity to do it again.  But next time I’ll be sure to get some photos.

r is for re-entry April 1, 2009

Getting back into the swing of things is going slowly.  I’m still falling asleep about 8:30 PM and waking about 4:30 AM.  It could be worse.  I’m getting a lot done before I go to work but  yesterday, in my first day back at the office, I noticed I was really dragging by mid-afternoon.

We seem to make things like re-entry more urgent for ourselves than we really need to.  I was glad to hear my daughter had scheduled a late start to her first day back and I also took a day to adjust.  But even so, my email was filled with hundreds of messages.   Each of them seemed to possess a sense of urgency – from the spam that leaked through the filter promising me a fortune to the request for participants in an upcoming volunteer fair.  What, really, is urgent?

Urgent is the appreciation of those who helped make our trip possible.  Urgent is catching up with the friends and family I missed while gone.  Urgent is the missing of those we left behind.  Urgent is not task but person.  I am going to put my focus there today.

I have a full day at the office, but will squeeze in lunch with good girlfriends.  I will be ready to sleep by 8:30 PM, but will welcome our small group from church for reunion and study.  I will look my kid in the eye and listen when I ask him about musical practice.  

This morning before work I wrote, dusted, ate, drank coffee, checked email, checked facebook, straightened, prepped, fixed.  Now on to the urgent.

w is for west wing March 9, 2009

I am going on a trip in a few days so I am downloading lots of episodes of West Wing to watch on my way.  I don’t know what it is about that show that makes me feel so good.  It can distract me from the fact that I am on a treadmill running painfully to nowhere.  It can distract me from the fact that I am sitting in an airport for hours waiting for a connection that may or may not happen.  And most importantly, it can distract me from the fact that the airplane I am on is 30,000 feet above an ocean and I am powerless to keep it there.

I each of the characters, flaws and all.  I love the snappy dialog which is so great you don’t really even need to see the picture.  This is handy on the treadmill when I refuse to wear my glasses and can’t really make out the tiny screen on my iPod.  I love the behind the scenes look at the White House, helping me understand that Rahm Emmanuel is Leo McGarry and somehow that makes everything clearer.  

I was not a West Wing watcher the first time around.  I am a Johnny-come-lately who discovered it on Bravo channel reruns one summer.  The cool thing about that was that it was on daily and so I could speed through years of story lines, especially when they did a marathon.  For now, I am thoroughly satisfied to take it one episode at a time, free from commercial interruption.  I will watch each crisis diverted with confidence in Jed Bartlett and his team of goofy, well-meaning idealists.   

Sometimes fantasy exceeds reality.