Holiday Pictures and such.

Below you'll find lots of photographs from our vacation to the West Coast. Unfortunately it's in reverse order, but hopefully you'll get a feel for what our trip was like.

Once we got to Thetis Island, I pretty well didn't pick up the camera again. I'm really bummed about that because I didn't capture more of our actual stay. It was an amazing time and I've got lots of stories to tell. But these pictures will have to do for now.

I'll share a quickie before I hit the hay. (It's late, we've only been home for a few hours, and I'm quite ready for my own bed.) We've spent many hours in the car over the past two weeks. Often at red lights, Gordon would study the map. When the light turned green, I tried to keep my mouth shut. (Early in our relationship I learned that Gordon can't stand when I tell him to go when the light turns green.) However he is often disengaged at stop lights and I have to bite my tongue. So over the years I've developed a most horrific twitch. When the light turns green and he's reading a map or looking the other direction, I nearly instinctively motion with my hand for him to go. Doing it this way, I feel like I'm being a good wife by keeping my mouth shut.

Today Gordon finally expressed his frustration with my hand-signalling-go-twitch. The light turned green while Gordon was reading a map. I said nothing but my hand motioned the usual.

He looked at me and dryly said, "Would you stop acting like a neurotic imbecile."

sandwiches and gordon

Today we were making sandwiches for lunch. A few were made and cut in two. Gordon took a bite out of two halves. One bite out of half 1, one bite out of half 2. It was a puzzling thing to see him do it, as it was out of character.

I must have been wearing a curious expression, because he shrugged and said, "What? I'm just marking my territory."

Taking the Bull by the Horns

As I've told before, I easily and regularly mix metaphors and cliches. Today I said one and Gordon's come-back really tickled me.

He and I were talking about how he'd reached a solution to a work problem. I responded with, "So you decided to take the ball by the horns?"

He replied, "Actually, I'm pretty committed to keeping my hands off horny balls."

staff appreciation

I've told you before that my part-time employer is less than desirable. There is little appreciation and affirmation to be had there. Last night though, we had a staff appreciation event. For 2 brief hours there were a few items I wanted that would be 70% off.

I told Gordon about the event and he quickly ascertained that I was about to ask for money. He said, "Staff appreciation night. Let me guess, you'll take all the appreciation you can get?"

I thought that was a very funny way of saying, "you want money, don't you?"

Cabbage Problems

Earlier in the week one of our meals had cabbage as the main ingredient. Cabbage produces copious amounts of gas. At one point Gordon said, "I think we'd better turn off all the pilot lights before we blow this place up."

Gordon Quips Again

Yesterday Gordon and I were in the bedroom together. He was distracted on the computer, I stood beside him "instructing" him on something. Getting no response from him, I threatened, "If you don't pay some attention to me, I'm gonna give you the dreaded silent treatment."

He countered, "No, not the silent treatment. I can't bear it when you're quiet."

A Brief Hello

I'm tired. Very tired. My house is falling down around me, or so it seems. I love a tidy house, but confess my house is anything but tidy today. I've tons of laundry, dishes, mopping, etc. However, tomorrow I don't work or have any field trips, so by tomorrow afternoon this house will be in ship-shape. At least that is the goal.

Today I received a phone call requesting my permission for one of my articles to go into an anthology. I got off the phone and went into my messy kitchen and told Gordon about it. He looked around at the disordered kitchen and said, "You'd never know an anthologist lives here."

About those field trips, yesterday was the last one for the school year. I am so glad to be off the hook for a few months. I'm ready for the summer break.

Reese Witherspoon

Today at work I took a call and the lady on the other end of the phone said, "Oh my, you sound just like Reese Witherspoon."

"You know, I look just like her too," I said.

Insignificant Stuff

I apologize dear reader who expects up to the moment updates. I don't know what is wrong with me, but I feel dry and used up. That's sort of a lie. I picked up 2 Francine Rivers books at the library and haven't finished the second one. Oh my goodness she's a good writer. Anyway Mrs Rivers has intentionally pulled me from my blog. She's pulled me from my kitchen too, yikes it's a mess.

Hannah's bratty friend returned and when she saw Hannah's room, she wrinkled her ugly little nose on her ugly little face and said, "Kind of weird. It doesn't match." I saw dots. Green, orange and glow-in-the-dark pink dots. I thought Misty's idea was good, but I heard it after the fact. Misty said I should say, "kiss my polka dot arse" to the little brat with no taste. But I was real mature through the whole thing.

My kids often tell me stories about how messy some of their friends houses are. One particular house, I've been in the foyer of several times, but never been invited in. But the kids carry on dramatically about how awful it is, and if the foyer is any indication of the rest of the house, it is pretty bad. Yesterday Gordon actually was invited into the living room for a cup of coffee. I was interested beyond propriety to know what their house was like on the inside. Gordon never struggles for words, really. But as I quizzed him, he said, it was chaotic. I pressed and he said slowly and pensively, "Take our house, put 4 times as much stuff in it, then spin it on its axis." I got the idea.

Francine Rivers really has me sidetracked from my regular duties. But there is more going on too. I really am stretched right now and have a number of projects on the go. I'm sorry for not updating as frequently as I like. Perhaps soon I'll tell about some of my projects.

Have a good evening and a great Wednesday.

Not much happening

I've had a busy weekend. Hannah and Rachael went to Winter Camp. We had to fight the weather to get there, but we went and returned today safely.

While they were gone, I gave Hannah's room an update. A friend had remarked that Hannah's room was babyish, and that didn't set well with me, so I made it more 9-year-oldish. The whole makeover cost $4. Isn't that amazing? I left the initial yellow paint but with stencils I created, I painted glow-in-the-dark pink, orange, lime green dots in varying sizes. Now one wall is polka dots. It's so cute and Hannah loves it. Now we just need that bratty little friend to come over again. This time she will be green with envy. That project dominated my weekend.

Church was painful this morning. 36 people were there. 18 months ago we had at least 100, and it was vibrant. It's anything but vibrant now. Pastor preached about being in the wilderness and he might as well been speaking straight at me as that was how I felt. Church isn't what it was. I pray this wilderness period doesn't go on a long time. I was encouraged by the sermon, very encouraged.

On the drive today, Gordon got side-tracked in the middle of changing lanes. For some reason he kept driving in the one lane but his turn signal was on. I crankily said, "You need to pee or get off the pot." Just as crankily he retorted, "You need to be kind or shut-up." I laughed.

All Things Work Together

Salty tears,
Bitter remorse.
All things work together.

Deepest valleys,
Darkest nights.
All things work together.

Mournful memories,
Unresolving guilt.
All things work together.

Tangled thoughts,
Disjointed emotions.
All things work together.

For my good,
Yes, my good.
All things work together.

Last night I read this latest poem of mine to Gordon. He let me finish and then said, "One of your lighter little ditties, eh?" He is so funny.