The Pocono Mountains...with the best family in the world!!

I had the best vacation of my life last week! We hiked, canoed, had a “Ladies Only” target shooting competition (my dad brought a .22 pump rifle & prizes), shopped, sang, played games, watched a family pictures slideshow & a great movie (Captain Corelli's Mandolin), got to see everybody at our old church, went to (my first-ever) karaoke...and ATE. And then ATE some more. (Followed by a dessert. Or two.)


Yeah, we definitely overdid it on the eating, but it was so tempting to be in Pennsylvania with all the foods from our teen years that we can't get in Texas (cheesesteaks, TastyKakes, apple cider & cider doughnuts, Gibble's chips, etc.). We went to the Shillington restaurant where I waitressed as a teenager (Paolo’s on Lancaster Avenue), plus we each took a night cooking dinner in the condo. (One COLD night, Russ made a roaring fire in the fireplace, whittled some long sticks, and we had S’mores.) We had wonderful family time every single evening!

(Do NOT let the paragraph above lead you to believe that we are Yankees; I was born in Texas to two native Texans. Just had to clear that up…)

Oh, and one night Dad treated everybody to a tasty dinner at Ye Olde Saylorsburg Inne (sic) in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania which you can see at
http://www.saylorsburg.org/photo.php?photo=036 . Their specialties are the homemade applesauce and “creamed cabbage” (think cole slaw!), but the eggplant parmigiana was yummy, too.

So many fun memories…we got to see Wesley and meet his girlfriend, Joelle. We went to a Cabela’s (my first time ever) and LOVED it. There aren’t words to describe “GARY-oke Karaoke.” Amanda Faye and I went to an Aquacize class. Once, Karen & I were seated in a tiny back room at Joe’s Hoagies in Wayne, Pa. (only three tables), and she gasped when she looked up and noticed that they had seated me *directly under* an ACU baseball cap. There were only about thirty caps in the room, and we thought it was so funny that A&M, UT, and my alma mater were all represented! When we were in line to pay, the owner told us that Tony Campolo himself had given him that hat!!

Karen and I also visited our old college campus (now a run-down School of Islamic Studies with “No Trespassing” signs everywhere…yikes), got lost in South Philly (and lived to tell about it), and tied for points in the shooting contest. (SHE WON, though, because she had TWO bullseyes, and I only had one. Annie Oakley, that girl!) Next to all the fun family time, though, the highlight of our trip was our canoeing expedition on the Delaware River. I wish you could have seen it…Karen & I were not so much Pocahontas & Minnehaha as Lucy & Ethel. My favorite part of the video taken from the river bank is when my 10 year-old niece, filming and narrating at river’s edge, announces to no one in particular, “They’re never gonna’ make it.”

BTW, Mom looked great and didn’t have to use oxygen once the whole week…quite a change from this summer when she had one concentrator for the house, portable oxygen tanks to carry over her shoulder, and a third machine for the airplane & car. Mom’s Virginia doctor is gradually reducing her steroids, protecting her with a flu and pneumonia shot as soon as she gets home, and keeping a close eye on her...especially as cold and flu season comes again. Another case of bilateral pneumonia could really set her back. (If you are the praying kind, please say a prayer of protection and health for my mom!)

I don’t have enough words to describe the magic of the week. Thank you to Kirsten for covering for me all week, my wonderful faculty who took up a collection which helped me buy Karen’s plane ticket, and to Mr. Beazley (and his calves) for the rental car. We had a Ford SUV instead of matching mopeds! :-)

Thank you, also, to Karen for being the ultimate traveling companion, and to my parents for the Poconos timeshare condo they have reserved the 41^st week of the year…ever since 1978.

God has blessed me so richly. I am absolutely beaming!!!!

Siberian Standoff!

Here's what I posted on the Sugar Busters diet support board today where we're supposed to post our daily exercise:

Subject line: 3 miles with 2 dogs...and an attack by 1 Siberian Husky!

Post: It was awful. After his initial pounce on my larger Lab, Misha, I looked up and there was no one...NO ONE...on the track. This dog didn't belong to anyone in sight, and we were on our own at the back of the park to fight off this Hound of Hell!!!

My first thought? "Oh, crap. This is gonna be a bloodbath."

He backed off a little after I yelled at him, but then it attacked two more times. I scooped up the puppy after the first onslaught, even though she cowed into a submissive posture the first time he pounced on us (from BEHIND! never saw him coming!!) but he still terrorized her...not quite *biting,* but snarling and gnashing his teeth and generally freaking her out, and her little heart was pounding...nearly as hard as mine!

Meanwhile, Misha was not taking this attack on her "little sister" lying down. She was snarling and snapping and giving as good as she got, trying to get the Bad Dog to back away from us. She was so noble and brave, and...I apologize to that crazy lady on the board who hates it when I talk about my dogs...BUT I WAS SO PROUD!!!!

Eventually, the owner pulled up in a white pickup. The Husky wouldn't come when he called (or do ANYTHING he said), so Mr. Military Man in his "Hooah!" shirt had to get out of his truck and PULL his dog off of us by the collar.

Here's something weird...as he walked away from us with his menacing Devil Dog in his arms, I think the guy turned around and said, "Thank you." (My MP3 player was too loud to hear what he said...plus, factor in my ragged breathing and heart thudding...and it was impossible to hear Hooah Harry.)

Maybe he was as freaked out as I was and had a case of random word diarrhea...knowing he ought to say *something* to the pale trembling lady, but unable to come up with the words "Sorry about that!"

To celebrate living through The Siberian Skirmish with just scratches & scrapes & muddy pants & a thorough saliva-soaking, we went down the playground slide 5 times!!

When I got home and told hubby the story, he asked if I got the guy's license plate so I could report the guy. I admitted that I was too busy praying prayers of thanks to make note of the license plate or truck model.

Whee!! Another exciting weekend.

Off to church to offer another prayer or two of gratitude,
your pal in Texas

SPINACH KILLS!

Did you hear a collective cheer go up across America this week as children celebrated in the streets?

I feel so bad for the lady who died, btw. I eat salads and work out to improve my health and nurture the body God gave me, and it just seems a cruel irony that she was killed by her salad. That is just so wrong...

Speaking of SO WRONG...Mike and I just watched the worst movie we've ever rented, the original 1973 Wicker Man. (I thought I read somewhere that it was a "horror classic" with a "cult following," but after actually watching this cinematic travesty, we think maybe I misread the article...perhaps they said this "horror" of a movie was about "a crazed nobleman with a cult following.")

Gratuitous nudity, ridiculous music, the weirdest parade/strangest dance sequence ever...how has this movie never fallen into the hands of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 folks? They could have had a field day with this!

Even funnier was that *right before* the movie, Mike said he didn't want to watch anything I picked because I always select the worst movies...which made the whole thing more painfully hysterical. At one point, Mike was doing some kind of crazy Riverdance-style hand motions as the soundtrack singer warbled some lyrics about "barley rigs" taken from the poetry of Robert Burns.

You've been warned. Lay off the spinach...and the 1973 Wicker Man.

2 Random Thoughts

As anyone who has ever stood next to me in church can attest, I'm not *strong* in the vocal department. It's much more "making a joyful noise"* rather than singing...but the Wednesday night kindergarteners seem to love singing so much that, for the last three years, I've just closed my eyes and launched into chorus, willy-nilly.

Whether I hit the note or not, these kids DO NOT CARE. All they care about is that I get all the hand motions right...Zacchaeus climbing the sycamore tree, marching in the infantry, riding in the cavalry, flying o'er the enemy, the foolish man's house going splat, tickling them during "Fruits of the Spirit," and a jillion other facial/hand/body coordinations.

So, anyway, our class got a new teacher last week ("Mr. Jeff"), and when he led singing, he chose "Blue Skies and Rainbows." As usual, I just squeezed my eyes shut and threw myself into it whole-heartedly. Imagine my surprise when Mr. Jeff threw down some serious vocals--soaring FALSETTO HARMONY!

Random thought #1: "Wow. We're like a very pale Peaches 'n Herb!"

Yesterday, on my way out of Albertson's, the boy carrying my grocery bags was a former student who reminded me that he'd been at Madison FOUR years instead of three because he'd flunked 8th grade, but that he was doing better now. We visited about his geometry class and life at The Big High School, he put my four grocery bags in the back of the Tribute, and we wished each other a good day. I jumped in the front seat and realized something ridiculous.

Random thought #2: "I just lifted weights for an hour and a half in a Power Pump class at Gold's Gym...and then made some poor teenager tote my groceries to the car."

Hope you have a great week, filled with happiness and songs and random thoughts that make you smile!

*Psalms 95:1 "O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!"

Luau pictures!

What a Saturday! Cleaned house, watered the lawn from 5:30 to 9:00 a.m. (moved the sprinkler every 20-30 minutes), TWO classes at the gym, got gas, washed my car in the front yard, helped Kirsten's MIL move out of her retirement center, and then went to the Hope Church of Christ luau swim party.

Patsy gave everybody Hawaiian nametags and raffle tickets when we came in; last Saturday, I won a door prize as "Kisty," and this week, I won one as "Kiliki"!

Slept like a baby last night, needless to say...and even "slept in" until 5:00 a.m. this morning. (Well...kinda...May Bee started whining at 4:15, but I wasn't budging. Although I didn't go back to sleep, I was able to snuggle under the covers and listen to the BBC until five.)

The church techies were out of town for a wedding so I played Digital Photographer last night. Here's my favorite shot:

I love the look on her face, the missing tooth, and the drip *just about* to fall from her chin. This girl redefines "adorable."

He scares me. I'm not feeding him anything.

(You'd probably draw back a bloody stump at the end of your arm, if you tried.)

This picture reminds me of the comedian who joked about rich, attractive skiers who look down their noses at the novices on the Bunny Slope, sniffing, "We are good-looking Nordic people...and you are not." You can't hate 'em, though, because these people are actually friendly and nice. Don't hate them because they're beautiful!


Check out the pure bliss on this young man's face as his dad played Pied Piper of the Pool! (At one point, Coach had seven kids on this raft as he pulled them tirelessly around the shallow end. "Dad of the Year," if you ask me...especially since I've seen him read to his kids on the floor of my library...)

I couldn't stop snapping pictures of this little girl. Not only is she named BETHANY, but she's started walking since I've been attending Hope. She is growing up at the speed of light--and was *fearless* in the pool last night. She went under tons of times, and it didn't seem to bother her. In fact, her parents had to watch her because she would just walk off the edge of the concrete into the water! I think her dad is a Navy chaplain...which might explain her love of the water!


Yeah! No girlie men here. Houston would have been the best-lookin' hunk in this picture if he weren't busy being a Buckaroo in another county an hour away!

The Snack Shack crew serving Hawaiian meatballs and egg rolls. Yum. (Aren't they the cutest couple? I want them to have tons of kids...and then I want to be their librarian.)

Well, the best picture of the night can't be found here, IMHO, because no one snapped a picture of me going down the slide OR off the diving board. I was certainly the OLDEST person to do either...and the ONLY librarian. :-)

Some of these photos will play tonight at church, if I get there early enough to insert a few into the PowerPoint that plays before worship...the one that reminds people to turn off their cell phones, the restaurant where everybody will meet before Wed. night Bible study, upcoming activities, etc.

Oh, and btw...we found a way to end the grinding Abilene drought...if Kristy Coker waters her lawn, washes her car in the yard, leaves her windows down while she helps someone move across town, AND if the church schedules a pool party, it will POUR rain from the sky for hours and hours.

In fact, it's still raining!! Every time I take the dogs out to their Special Corner, I have to wipe their paws with the Pocohontas beach towel on the way back inside...

Woof.

Okay...FINALLY...some more pics from Doggie Splash Day!

Giving May Bee a cuddle:

Giving Misha a boost:

Whoa! Double-teamed!

Ol' Squinty shoulda' worn sunglasses.

Misha won a cool door prize!

Misha's winning ticket now lives proudly on our fridge!
(Misha and "Kisty"...a winning combination.) :-)

Doggie Splash Day is the second-best day of the year!

Here's how to have the best-behaved, SLEEPIEST dogs on the block in the afternoon:



Take them to Doggie Splash Day at the pool in the morning! The best $4 Mike and I ever spent. :-)



Misha won a fantastic door prize--a wicker pet bed (see above--May Bee is sleeping in it right now!) filled with goodies like toilet-seat latches so your pooch can't drink from The Pot (our potty lids stay down so we'll have to give those to some other family), Beneful food, Kong toys, biscuits, chew toys, etc.!

It was the last door prize of the day, and it's a beaut! (Like our Misha...)

And then it was off to Shotwell Stadium for Houston's scrimmage against Cisco. It was ROASTINGLY hot (98 degrees) so I left early after filming Houston a little and doing some perfunctory Aunt Duty; Hannah and Molly came back to my house for pizza. Kevin & Karen got to go out to eat by themselves which made a nice (rare) treat, and Molly and I had some fun with the dogs.

It's all on videotape. If I ever learn to burn DVDs, you may get a copy. :-)

May Bee goes to the hospital.

Well, poor May Bee had her operation...she's been fixed. (Or as Karen put it, "May Bee just became May Bee Not.") The morning of her Big Day, she wasn't supposed to have any food or water. Well, I couldn't feed & water Misha without giving anything to the puppy so we all just skipped breakfast. (They were just going *Krazy with a K* wondering why that mean lady wouldn't go in the pantry and get them some kibble RIGHT NOW, dadgummit!) They kept running to the pantry door, running back to me, bumping into my legs in a meaningful way, licking my hands pleadingly...and just plain driving ME crazy. Playing ball and tug-of-war in the backyard only worked for a little while, so to take their minds off their cruelly imposed diet, we did what these dogs like best--ROAD TRIP!
That afternoon, when Mike brought May Bee home, she was exhausted and sore and a different dog altogether. We kept the dogs separated and gave the little one lots of TLC. She curled up in her kennel, when she wasn't in one of our laps for a cuddle.A half-hearted sniff of her toy:
The good news is that she's all better. We took her to the vet this week to get her stitches out, and the vet warned us that now we need to be vigilant not to let her get overweight. He joked that he's made her more "fuel efficient." (So *that's* why women complain about gaining weight after hysterectomies! It's not a BAD thing; we're just more economical, and our food goes a little further than it used to.) :-)

My Kitchen: The Final Frontier

You know how you stumble into the kitchen in the mornings, bleary-eyed and sleepy and desperately needing that first cup of coffee? Well, here’s what greeted me from the coffee cabinet this morning:

If you can't tell what it is from the picture, it is a coffee mug of Data, the android from Star Trek...certainly NOT something one wants to see staring out from a shelf at the crack of dawn...and certainly NOT before one has completely joined the Land of the Awake. As I reached in for the La Vida Dulce coffee from Central Market, my half-opened peepers saw A FACE staring back at me!

I nearly “pulled a May Bee” on the kitchen floor (our puppy May Bee is a bit of a slow learner on the housetraining front), and I certainly didn’t need any caffeine after that early-morning jolt of pure adrenaline!!

What is the *most* creepy thing about the new coffee mug Russell hid before leaving for N.C.? Is it the startling hairline? The alarmingly-pasty pale skin? The pinpoint black-dot eyes? All I know is that together, they are TERRIFYING at dawn.

(Famous last words: “Hey, y'all! This Data mug is just *screaming* to be hidden in Margaret’s china cabinet!”)

P.S. Did I mention that my family plays a fun game where we leave tacky knick-knacks hidden in each others' homes? It started when Mom & I found hilarious custom-photo mugs at a Goodwill store in Chatham, Virginia. One was of a hairy-chested and bespectacled man (black horn rims, of course!) in a sea of bubbles in a heart-shaped tub (which found a new home in my sister's glass china cabinet) and another was of a shirtless man sitting on his dilapidated front porch near a rugrat in a sagging diaper (soon hidden among Margaret's tasteful and attractive coffee mugs). Someone had actually taken these photos to a kiosk in the mall and had these atrocious snapshots turned into coffee cups! Mom and I could not stop giggling as we hid these cast-off beauties in the homes of their new owners; one was discovered right away, the other went unnoticed for months.

Over the years, the game has included bumper stickers ("FREE TIBET!"), macrame owls, feathered "dream catchers," naughty ashtrays, frightening figurines, tacky neckties, and other unusual thrift store gems. (My family is so much fun. I feel bad for people splashing around in crabby or boring gene pools...) :-)

Family reunion--day three!

Someone asked me today if I'm having fun at the family reunion. (I'm on vacation with the people I love the most...what could be better?!?)

After church, we went to a yummy Mexican restaurant in McKinney. The salsa verde and fajitas were amazing. (We still had Amy Grace with us, but Aunt Sue & Uncle James had to take Stephen to the airport so they left after breakfast.)

After lunch, we went to Aunt Delilah's house. We got to see Deanna (and her cute dog, Magic), the older generation took us on a hilarious trip down Memory Lane, and Delilah gave us directions to the Walnut Grove cemetery in Rhea Mills. We went out there tonight and put flowers on Nanny & Bobo's graves when it was nice and cool. It was so peaceful out there, and the sun decided to put on a spectacular sunset show for us.

It was a wonderful day...

Family reunion--day two!

We're in McKinney! Here we are at the prettiest Whataburger in Texas (designed by the owner's wife). Russell is in his Happy Zone!

And here are Grace Greek's descendants at the McKinney Community Center. Mom is in her Happy Zone!


And here all "the cousins"...the children of John, James, and Linda Greek, and the grandchildren of Carl Eric Greek and Grace (Kirkland) Greek.


Happiness all around!!!!

Family reunion!

We're in Dallas! Last night we ate at Uncle Julio's and swam at the hotel (every man in the Addison Motel 6 seemed to drift into the pool area to nurse a beer and leer at Bethany and Falisha...CREEPY!), and today we picked up Mom and Russell at the airport.

Tonight we had a wonderful meal at Genghis Grill, and now Russell, Falisha, and Bethany have taken off in the red Camaro while the old folks are back at the hotel posting photos on their blogs. :-)

Angels & demons

Nothing to say really. Just uploading some pictures from the digital camera.

Some are of angels...like these kids from Bible class.

And some are of devils. (Well, devil dogs, anyway...)

I've met my match…and it's not pretty.

I'm a "Phoebe-runner." Ask anyone who has ever gone to Redbud Park with me. (Did you ever see that episode of Friends where Rachel is embarrassed to jog in the park with Phoebe because she runs with the complete and utter abandon of a five year-old?) Well, instead of being a blur of knees and blonde hair and elbows when I jog (like Phoebe), I'm a comical mix of size-10 feet and cellulite and sweat!

Most of the time at the park, I walk, but there are a few certain stretches I call "the traditions," and I *must* run them. No matter how hot, no matter how sweaty, no matter if I have a side stitch or a rock in my shoe...they MUST be run. And not with sweet, graceful Chariots of Fire strides, either, but with my "I-had-asthma-as-a-child-and-really-never-learned-to-jog-so-this-full-blown-maniacal-form-of-self-propulsion-will-have-to-do" style. (Misha never seems to mind that her mistress looks like an idiot, so it's always been okay.)

Today, however, I met my style match! We've seen him running in the park before, but always when we were in the car, sitting on the prairie dog fence, or on a different path. Today, we got the full visual effect coming at us--right toward us, directly on our path--not once, but TWICE. (Misha and I did three miles this morning, which is twice around the outer track.)

He's young and handsome, kind of short, with a very well-defined body (he "jogs" sans shirt). The reason I say "jogs" in quotation marks is because they haven't invented a word to describe his modus operandi. (His locomotion operandus? Whatever.)

How to describe it? Hmm. It's like he's leaping over twenty-inch hurdles that are invisible to everyone else in the park. Each leg comes up, and then rotates out to clear the unseen barrier (like a pitcher's arm, nearly at a 90-degree angle from his hips), the sneaker slapping down with the furious intensity needed to spring back up to repeat the procedure again. And again and again…with each leg, with every step!

These are not graceful, Bolshoi-ballet style leaps, I might add. There simply are not words for the leg-rotating, foot-pounding, and arm-churning hops he does with each and every footfall of his morning exercise. It is exhausting just to watch him come at you.

And I love it. Here's hoping he's there again next week…

Death writes a book. (And it's beautiful.)

I put off reading The Book Thief for ages because I don't like to read books set during a war...which is strange because my favorite book, The Power of One, is set in South Africa during WWII. Roald Dahl's Going Solo about his reluctant draft & RAF service to the Crown is another favorite (Dahl's accompanying photos add so much to the text, but it would also be cool to hear respected actor Derek Jacobi do the audio version!), and I was deeply touched by the YA novel Kipling's Choice, set during WWI.

For the most part, however, war is just too painful and horrible a human chapter to enjoy reading about in bed at the end of the day, not to mention that shocking images keep me up at night...so clearly, violent books are not my cup of tea. (Bethany thinks I'm weird because I can't even watch crime shows like Law & Order!)

Markus Zusak's The Book Thief is different, though. Narrated by Death himself, it's simultaneously ugly and beautiful and haunting and touching and, best of all...hopeful. I didn't weep until page 537. (This book made Charlie Gibson cry. And the author's father cried, too--which made him swear at his 30 year-old son.)

If you're even *slightly* interested in the book Kirkus Reviews calls "beautiful and important" and USA Today praises as "poised to become a classic," then I'm BEGGING you to watch this:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=1737821

or hear this:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5318749

or visit this:
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/markuszusak/

In a recent interview, the author (whose wife just delivered their first child, a baby girl named Nikita, on June 23rd!) was asked what he wanted to say about the book:

"I can really only say this: No matter what anyone says--whether they love the book or hate it--I know it's the best I could do. I don't know if I'll ever be able to write a better book than that. It's everything I've got, that book. All my other books are like a small piece of me, but this book is every piece."

Off to take Misha for a walk in the park,
me