Paradise

Well, Hawaii is all I thought it would be and more! Even though we've really only been here one full day. But let me tell you, it was a great day!

Basically all we've done so far is orient ourselves to the 63-acre resort we're staying on, eat some breakfast overlooking the ocean in Kailua-Kona, pick up some snorkel gear for John, visit the farmer's market for apple-bananas and mangoes, attempt snorkling in the lagoon at our resort (victory!), and take a dip in the adult pool.

Oh, and the sunset last night was excellent! Tonight we'll get an even better view of it from the restaurant we plan to eat at.

Now it's off for our snorkling boat tour. We're going to what our guidebook describes as the best place ot snorkle in the state - Captain Cook's monument. Better go get ready to leave.

I hope all the swimming and snorkling will made up for the diet of nachos, burgers, bacon, cheese, and avocado I've been consuming since we left for this vacation!

Aloha!

Perspective

I decided what to plant in the garden for the fall. I'm pretty sure that had the temperatures remained in the 100s (upper 30s C) this week, there would be no fall garden. However, morning temps in the 70s are too good to pass up. Yesterday I planted broccoli and butternut squash seeds...even though Texas A&M says it's too late to plant them now. We'll see what happens.

Now I have to con my neighbor into watering them while we're in.....HAWAII!!! Woo-hoo!!! Can't wait!!! I've never been, we're going on airline miles and hotel points, and we're visiting the Big Island and Maui!

This long vacation comes at the culmination of three really hard years. Come to think of it, almost ever since we moved back to the US life has been trying. We are so looking forward to being away, someplace beautiful, not worried about work, infertility, miscarriage, surgeries, hospitals, or triple-digit heat.

But I know what really needs to happen is connection with my husband and a breakthrough with God. Because after the vacation's over, we come back to real life. And work, infertility, miscarriage, surgeries and hospitals will again be part of our lives. (Hopefully NOT the triple-digit heat.) I need some new energy and some peace, joy, and a better perspective to deal with all of that. Only my God can do it.

Some things in the news recently have made me feel a little better about my position in life right now. Can you believe there's a traffic jam in China that is lasting over a month?!? CRAZY!!!

And I am also thankful I am not trapped in a mine...maybe until Christmas.

Perspective. Sometimes I need a little. It doesn't take away the pain of losing a child or the stress I feel in my own situations, but it does make me grateful for what I do have.

I will attempt to offer updates of Hawaii, but I will not promise anything yet. I'm not sure how our schedule and internet availability will pan out.

Aloha!

When 90 Degrees is a Cold Front

After weeks of triple-digit temperatures, the weather has decided to produce some lows in the 70s and highs only in the 90s! This has not been seen since May...OK, maybe mid-June.

Unfortunately it is still quite humid. I worked in the garden (finally ridding myself of the gigantic okra plants and struggling peppers) between 7 and 9 this morning, hoping it would be cooler. I still ended up dripping with sweat, but thankful that my garden is ready for fall planting.

By the way, while digging down, down, down to get the silly okra plant roots out, I was reminded of when my sister and I would start digging holes in our backyard as little kids thinking we could dig all the way to China. I'm pretty sure the holes never hot deeper than 6 inches. I'm also fairly certain my dad did not condone our excavations in the backyard. Maybe that's why we only ever got to about 6 inches deep. Well, this morning by the time I got the okra roots unearthed in the garden, I felt like I should be seeing China at any moment.

I still haven't really researched what I can plant this late in the game for a fall harvest...or even decided if I really want to plant or let the garden rest...but at least I'm done with the okra!

I also need to show the world the beautiful breakfast John made for himself while I was working last Saturday. I feel it's appropriate to share since he went to the trouble of taking a picture and all.



Those eggs would have had no vegetables in them at all before we got married. Heck. I have a hard time believing there would have even been a homemade breakfast nine years ago had he been forced to fend for himself. I'm proud that my husband can cook such a pretty meal. If something happens to me, he should be able to survive. I think.

That's morbid. Let's not think about that.

My cute, sweet nephew had a good first day of preschool. As far as we can tell. The communication between teacher and parent in public preschool is lacking, but D was happy when the teacher's aide brought him to the car after school.

He was also very thirsty. I certainly hope my sister writes a note to the teacher making sure she knows D won't really drink much out of an open cup and that's why she send a sippy cup with him to school. The child has to drink some water in the three hours he's at school! (My sister says that, as a mom of a preemie, she knows she will probably be more out-spoken about her child's well-being than most parents, and if the teachers want to complain about her in the teacher's lounge, they can go ahead.)

My sister dutifully followed the rules (although apparently every other parent did not) about just pulling up and letting an assistant get D out of the car and take him in the school rather than parking and taking him into his classroom herself. Of course, D didn't know the assistant and cried when she took him away. I believe my sister cried after that, too...just a little. I think I would have cried as well had I known this was happening. I would not have cried just a little.

There were no notes in the "communication folder" that D carts back and forth to school each day, so my sister could only find out from my nephew that he "petted Rory," the teacher's dog who comes to school every day. D loves dogs, so this must have been a highlight of the day. He even told me he "petted Rory" when I talked to him on the phone that evening. Man, do I miss that kid!

And finally, do you know that stores do not carry No-Ad sunscreen anymore? Even though consumer reports ranks it as one of the best? And it's cheap? You have to buy it online now. And pay shipping.

I think those are the highlights from the past couple days.

Oh, and John has other skills besides cooking a pretty breakfast. He was featured in the Baylor Business Accounting and Business Law annual report magazine thing. You can read the article - it's on page 5 of the PDF file.

OK. Now that's all the news. Hope you're having a great week so far! Enjoy the cold front of 90-degree temperatures! It's practically fall-like, people!

Talk to Me

Note: Several of you (which actually amounts to more than half of you) who read this blog have let me know that posting comments has been problematic. Although I will still review all comments before they are posted, you can now leave comments without having any sort of specific online account (Google, Wordpress, Blogger, etc.).

Let the posting begin!

Moque Choux, Single Subject Notebooks, Etc.

Well, I know what I can grow in my garden next year - no matter how hot and humid it gets.


Okra.

I have so much okra. And okra really only stays good for about three days in the refrigerator. Thankfully my neighbor harvested and ate okra for one week while we were in Colorado, so there's about a pound of okra I didn't have to figure out what to do with!

I've added it to jambalaya, made some maque choux, fried it, and put a bunch of it up in the freezer. But I am getting a little tired of the okra, so I think before our next trip I might just go pull it all up.

I have two hesitations about doing this. First, I kind of hate to pull out plants that are still pretty healthy and producing so much! Second, the stems on these plants have gotten as large as a small tree, so I'm pretty sure "pulling them up" will have to be more like chopping them down with an axe. That will require me to be outside for more than a few minutes which might then require the use of an oxygen tank because all the excessive heat, humidity and ozone is wreaking havoc with my breathing the last few days.

And now you're getting tired of me talking about all the okra!

My poor bell peppers grow...but only to a small size. This one has been this same size for several weeks now:


I think even daily watering is not enough to keep the plants from getting baked in all this heat.

Have I ever said how much I love basil?



I made BLTs the other night with homegrown tomatoes my sister gave us last weekend (Thank you, B!!!), pepper bacon, basil leaves, baby spinach leaves, and basil mayonnaise. Mmmmm!

Basil is handy for adding to spaghetti sauce, making pesto, putting on pizza, sandwiched between mozzarella and tomatoes in a toasty, chopped up on salad, or processed into salad dressing. And it's a pretty plant!

On another note, this is tax-free weekend around these parts. We took a quick trip to the store this morning to purchase school supplies to donate to the school that one campus of our church is meeting in. Single subject notebooks for 15 cents!!! We got 75 of them for just over $10! What a deal!

Speaking of school. My sweet nephew is starting pre-school next week. Five mornings a week. I don't know how my sister is handling it because I am nervous and scared for him, and a little in awe that he is growing up so fast and already going to school!

Although, we also talk often about the fact that seeing him grow and change is a huge praise when so many doctors warned us when he was a baby that he might not make it...or he might not be able to go to school...or he might not be able to walk, or talk, or eat by himself. D is a miracle. A miracle who is walking, talking, eating, learning, and making his personality known!

So, to take my mind off how alarmingly fast time is flying and how much I miss my nephew, I guess I'll go do something with the okra sitting in my fridge and work up the nerve to chop down the gigantic plants thriving inexplicably in the garden.

Colorado Trip: The End

OK. The Colorado trip report has drug on long enough. I promise I will finish out the week in review with this post!

Day 4 in Estes Park was another resting (aka no hiking day) for us. Although, I'm not sure getting up at 4:30 in the morning to drive to Sprague Lake and witness the alpen glow can actually be considered "resting". John and I did this same thing on a previous trip, but this time there were some clouds and fog on the mountains, which, in my completely unprofessional opinion, may have negatively affected the alpen glow somewhat.

It was still beautiful...and cold.

Here we are waiting for it.


And here's the peak moment.


Then I went back to the cabin and took a nap while John called in to a meeting at work (yuck) and the other carload of early risers stopped for doughnuts.

As best I can recall, the rest of the day consisted of coffee from Kind Coffee in Estes Park, cinnamon rolls in Glen Haven, looking and shopping at Leah's (also in Glen Haven), visiting the farmer's market back in Estes Park, reading on the cabin porch, and perusing downtown Estes Park stores.

John, on the other hand, departed shortly after we got back from the farmer's market to take another off-roading trip with one member of our party who missed it the first time around. There is plenty of video footage (of poor quality because I think the only camera available is our digital point and shoot), and we are promised that one day there will be an epic video detailing the whole crazy adventure.

On Friday we took a final hike in the national park to the top of Deer Mountain. We saw many flowers and gorgeous mountain views, but no deer.


We must have been walking around the YMCA of the Rockies grounds in the afternoon, and I believe we also made a run to McDonald's for some Dr. Peppers, but I vividly remember returning to the cabin late in the afternoon with John's mom and sister. We came back to discover approximately 10 family members and friends out on the porch talking and playing...while John's dad (the only actual occupant of the cabin home at the time) was inside on his laptop seemingly oblivious to the party taking place on the porch.

Some of the people left, others came back, a couple moved in for the night, John's sister made a fantastic dinner, and we spent the rest of the evening playing with two of the younger members of our large party and packing up our belongings.

Perhaps the funniest moment of the night was witnessing the scene of complete and utter chaos as John's dad sits on a chair in the living room on his laptop, John's sister sits on the sofa in the living room trying to do some schoolwork, I sit next to her doing nothing in particular, two young family friends, J and K, play boisterously on the floor with John's aunt (who is also their aunt), John runs around trying to pack things up, an iPod is blasting either opera music or Sandy Patty from a bedroom in the back of the cabin, and John's mom sits in a chair near the door to the hallway talking on the phone that is tied to the wall by a cord.
Imagine if you will, little J somehow starts bleeding from his knee (I believe it was probably a scab casualty), I tell John to go find a band-aid, I run for some Kleenex, John's aunt ushers J into the bathroom while trying not to get blood everywhere, and everyone is in general chaos all around John's mom who continues having a normal conversation on the phone while John's dad continues working on his laptop.

Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty hilarious.

Somehow we managed to all get packed up, load the cars, sleep a little, and head out by 5 or 5:30 the next morning for the looooooong drive back home.

I believe the only items left behind were a bag of dirty clothes (less laundry to do when you get home) and a wallet (which only enjoyed the cool Colorado weather for another day before being over-nighted back to the triple-digit temperatures we are enjoying in North Texas).

It has now taken me so long to recap our Colorado trip that we are already counting down the days until our next vacation. And it's a big one: Hawaii!!! We've never been and are desperately excited to get away, just the two of us, and leave behind all this heat and the stress and disappointment of everyday, regular life. Bring on the unreality, the snorkeling, and the laying on the beach!

Colorado Trip: Part 3

If you'll recall, I left you (looooong ago) wondering if we gathered everybody up and made it to Sprague Lake in time for a picnic before dark on our second day in Estes Park.


Turns out, most everybody made it for dinner at the last minute, and we even got to the lake, cooked, and ate before dark.

Except for the s'mores. Which we toasted over a propane-powered grill on coat hangers by the light of flashlights. It was quite satisfying. And quite remarkable that with only 15 minutes to gather supplies we managed to remember to load up supplies for s'mores! (And by "we" I mean John's mom because John, his sister, and I had to run to the corner grocery store in those 15 minutes to buy more ground beef and hamburger buns.)

By the way, we also had plenty-o-food with lots to spare!

The whole ordeal event was sealed as the perfect idea when we arrived at the lake and saw a beautiful rainbow in the sky.

(Sorry I do not have a picture of the rainbow. We were a little busy carting the grill and picnic supplies to the lake in order to start cooking ASAP while there was still light.)

But, more importantly, we DO have a picture of this:


This photo was captured by John's cousin because our little pocket-sized camera does not quite have the capability of capturing good photos at dusk.

Or maybe I do not have the capability of taking good pictures in low light. Whatever.

I could hardly believe my eyes when we first caught a glimpse of the lake. I thought what I was seeing standing in the water was a horse. But no. It had antlers...like a moose. I have never seen a moose on the Estes Park side of the national park. We've seen them way up high on the other side of the great divide, but never down at Sprague Lake!

I have to say, watching the moose was a highlight of the evening. Or maybe the rainbow. Or the fellowship. Or the gorgeous weather. OK. The entire evening was a blast.

The next day John, his parents, and I drove up Fall River Road to the Alpine Visitor Center. Again, the four-wheel-drive came in handy driving up this one-way dirt road in Rocky Mountain National Park with great views. We got back down to Estes Park (no thanks to the extensive construction happening on Trail Ridge Road - the route back down to town) just in time to join more family and those who couldn't make the previous night's picnic for lunch at The Baldpate Inn. We had a large party, but if you ever eat there with less than 12 people, try and get a table on the enclosed porch to enjoy awesome views of the mountains along with your soup, salad, bread, and chocolate pie.

And you must try the chocolate pie..and the cornbread if they have it.

That evening we spent time with family and friends playing Bananagrams (I won! Once.), Hand-and-Foot, and putting together a puzzle of Frosty the Snowman (still not sure why we were putting together Frosty in July...but it was fun).

Unfortunately at this point in the week we were over the halfway mark of the vacation, and everything is a downhill slide toward having to go home. It's a little sad, but we still had some great times ahead of us the next two days...which I will write about later. Right now my tummy is telling me we should be eating dinner soon.

Pause

Tonight I got off work early and was driving home during sunset. The sky was BEAUTIFUL!

I wish I had had a camera with me (besides my cell phone). I took one picture with the cell phone at a red light, but alas, I cannot ever get the stinkin' pictures off my cell phone. I have an old-school phone that is part of a family plan with my in-laws for which we are supposed to be paying them $10 a month or something. We are cheapskates. And come to think of it we probably owe my in-laws about $500 by now for our phone use over the last several years.

Seriously, I cannot fathom paying $80 or $100 a month for one cell phone. $1200 in a year! Or maybe people pay even more than that!

Yep. We're cheapskates.

Or maybe we just spend our money on other things we deem more important.

Anyway, the sunset was putting on a show all over the whole sky tonight. The sun itself was a blaring red orb low to the horizon painting the big, fluffy cumulus clouds across the sky pink and orange and making the sky glow a pale, but brilliantly clear, blue. The fluffy clouds right around the sun were dark, but outlined in fiery light.

I desperately wanted to pull over on the overpass section of the highway to stare and take pictures. (Until I remembered I only had the silly cell phone camera with me. Oh, and probably more importantly, I figured pulling over on the overpass would be a near death sentence. And all the traffic noise would be deafening. That and the stench of diesel would slightly ruin the show in the sky.)

By the time I got home the sun had set and everything was more of a muted pink and gray.

But I sure enjoyed the ride home. After a very busy day if was relieving to see some beauty.

It's all a wonderful reminder that there are many layers of life going on at the same time. I can spend a lot of time focusing on the painful, disappointing parts. Or the mundane, boring parts. But there are also beautiful, peaceful, joyful layers that I might tend to ignore amidst the chaos and busyness and hurt. God knows we need that calm and beauty or we'd go crazy. I'm still learning how to harness that peace and beauty, to focus on it a little more while trudging through the pain and disappointment.

And I have the wonderful hope that one day, when this world is through, all the layers of life will be shows in the sky for those who know and trust the Creator of all that beauty!

I saw Heaven and earth new-created...I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God. He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone." The Enthroned continued, "Look! I'm making everything new."
~Revelation 21:1-5

Colorado: the second part

Now that it is 110 degrees outside...wait, I exaggerate...106 degrees outside, I am wishing with my whole heart to be in Colorado again.

I'm not sure it's even safe to breathe outside in this heat and humidity.

So, I will just safely sit inside my house and reminisce on days of cooler climates and much more beautiful views as I continue our Colorado trip report.

Our first full day in Estes Park we saw a doe and two fawns right next to the cabin - our first up close animal experience of the trip. We then drove into the National Park and did one of our favorite hikes. I am pretty sure this makes the third time to do this particular hike: Nymph, Dream, and Emerald Lakes. I remember the first time John took me to Estes Park. This is what Dream Lake looked like on that occasion:


Let's all sit and think what it would feel like to be in some snow right now. It's hard to even imagine.

I digress.

This time of year things are thawed out:


I think it's only about a 4-mile hike with only a 600-foot elevation gain, so a good hike to start with.

That evening I witnessed some Sky Mall paraphernalia in action. Do you ever see things in that catalogue and think who in the world ever purchases any of these things? Well, The YMCA of the Rockies does, that's who.


Yep. We watched "Night at the Museum" on an inflatable movie screen direct from Sky Mall. (It did get darker, but I had to take the picture while we still had light.) We made it through the entire movie, but let me just remind anyone who might be attending this activity at the Y later in the summer: it gets cold in the mountains at night. Good thing we brought a couple blankets!

Our second day was chock full of activity. We drove over to Indian Peaks National Forest to hike to Mitchell and Blue Lakes. It's a good 6-mile hike, and it was my favorite hike of the week (OK, I admit, we only did three hikes in the week, but I was not in the mood for a boot camp vacation this year). Blue Lake is pictured at the top of the blog now. Absolutely beautiful. Here's another photo of it.


Now, I love hiking. I love the journey, the view from the top of the mountain, and getting to see alpine lakes and waterfalls and streams and flowers. I do not enjoy driving great distances every day during a vacation to get to the trailheads. That may be why, more than any other reason, I would elect not to go on a hike every single day when we're in Estes Park...or visiting other parks or forests in the country. It took about an hour to drive to the trailhead for Mitchell and Blue Lakes.

In the end, it was well worth it. Just not every day.

I might have also burned out a little on the car rides because straight after getting back from this hike, John decided to take me and a few other family and friends off-roading. It was fun, it was scary, it was bumpy. We drove down a 10-mile off-road trail and it took an hour to do that. My back was not the same the next day.

That makes me feel old, but I'm just telling the truth.

Thus the hesitation to get back in that truck day after day for long rides.

If that was not enough for one day, we all (I think mostly John and his dad) decided about 20 minutes after we got back to the YMCA that we should invite everyone (that is, everyone we knew staying at the YMCA that week - us, John's parents, John's sister, John's aunt and cousin, and two other families who are not exactly related but are at many of the same family functions as we are) to come have a picnic at Sprague Lake.

And we needed to get everything together and leave in about 15 minutes in order to get there and start cooking and eat before it got dark.

Was it possible? Could so many people be contacted, and food be gathered up, and the drive to the lake be made in time to picnic before sundown?

I'm starting to get worn out just thinking about it all, so we'll have to continue this saga tomorrow. Until then, stick your head in the freezer, or eat a lot of popsicles, or lay in an ice bath, but for heaven's sake do not go outside! (Unless you're in the mountains where it's not 106 degrees.)