Sugar Rush

This morning, my children woke up from a sugar coma and went to school.  Halloween is over and the holiday season officially kicks into full gear.

This is a pumpkin that Rachel carved last week in anticipation of next year's mission trip to Africa.  Actually, she said that our youth pastor Chris carved most of it, but she got to take it home.  Pretty cool, huh?

Last night we went over to our friend's, the Grams, for a little trick-or-treating.  Sam and Harrison went door-to-door.  Rachel dressed up but decided she would just stroll through the neighborhood with mom and dad, commenting on all the cute little kids and their costumes and trying to keep up with two boys jacked up on sugar.

Harrison was a little bit scary, Rachel was a little bit country and Sam went retro with the classic ghost sheet costume, inspired by a viewing of It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.  Rachel asked him what he would do if somebody gave him a rock.  I think he was hoping they would!

It was a beautiful night and the air was crisp.  We hit the mother lode of neighborhoods, with lots of young families, super cute little kids and houses handing out handfuls of candy.   It didn't take long for the boys to fill up their pillowcases until they were almost too heavy to carry.

When we got home, Yoda greeted us on our doorstep.  We discovered something this year.  My son-in-law-to-be, let's just call him Daniel, has a secret hidden talent.  He is an amazing pumpkin carver.  This is his creation.

 
This pumpkin amazing is not, hmm?  Yeesssssss.

Ashley and Daniel spent the evening at home, watching The Village and handing out candy to the handful of trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood.  Ashley recently went on the wagon.  Or off the wagon, the candy wagon, that is.  She's had a problem for years.  Ashley is a candy addict.  This is hard for a mother to admit about her child, but it's true.   She decided (probably due to an impending wedding) that she would cut out sugar completely!  Yikes!

She has had migraines and serious withdrawal from her sugar habit, but she is sticking to her guns and is starting to feel much better for it.

Well, we arrived home last night and dumped this on the kitchen table.

Let me warn you now.  This next picture is not pretty.  If you've never seen an addict in the throes of withdrawal, avert your eyes.  If there are children in the room, they should leave now.

Okay, I've warned you.

It was sad.  She has a crazed look in her eyes.  Sam was in bed, so he had no idea what was happening to his dear sister (or his beloved candy).  Somebody help this woman!

Well, we pulled Ashley away before any real damage was done, and did the drug sweep through the candy.  Daniel pulled out two suspicious looking candy bars that he figured he should keep himself and examine thoroughly.  I know he's just looking out for the kids.  What a nice guy!

Ashley decided that next to eating candy, she loved to sort candy.  YES!  You read that right.  Every year, she would sort and re-sort her candy endlessly, organizing it into categories and colors.  Must be a girl thing, because my sister and I did the same thing when we were kids.  I think Daniel was a bit baffled by the sorting thing, but it made Ashley feel better and prevented her from diving in and eating the candy, so he humored her and helped with the sorting.

There's Ashley, still sugar free, and organized.  Now, that's love!

Mom's Brag Book

My daughter Ashley is getting married next June (have I mentioned that before?)  She and Daniel recently had engagement photos taken by Daniel's best man, Andrew Guerra.  

This is the post where I unashamedly and without reserve, show off pictures of my beautiful daughter and her handsome fiancee.  This, after all, is the reason we have blogs and go through all the fuss and bother of getting on the internet in the first place.  

I think Andrew did an amazing job.  All of the pictures were beautiful and I had a hard time choosing - but these are a few of my favorites.  Enjoy!

If music be the food of love, play on.

William Shakespeare

It is difficult to know at what moment love begins; 

it is less difficult to know it has begun.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

For, you see, each day I love you more,

Today more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.

Rosemonde Gerard

Love is a great beautifier.
Louisa May Alcott

Brief is life but love is long.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Life is a flower of which love is the honey.
Victor Hugo

 

Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens,

       your faithfulness to the skies.

Psalm 36:5 (NIV)

Autumn Reverie

Oh, Fall!  I miss you.

I know, it actually is fall here in Orange County.  The weather is even trying to cooperate, with cooler, overcast days and some rainfall thrown in for good measure, but it's just a fake California version of what fall should really be.  It's missing all the bells and whistles - that certain 'something'.  I must admit, even though I love living in southern California, every year, right around this time, I get nostalgic and think back on those beautiful fall days we enjoyed when we lived in Canada.

I guess it's a bit harder this year because Steve got a chance to go back and visit and he was bragging on the phone about how beautiful it is - how perfect the weather is, how spectacular the leaves are, how crisp the air is - yaddah, yaddah, yaddah!  Sure Steve, rub it in.

That, and the fact that he's spending time with my his family, who I am dying to see.  I promise you, I'm happy for him, really....no, really!

Anyway, back to fall.  I think, next to summer it's my favorite season.  It may even be tied for first place.  If we could just have fall, then summer, then fall, then summer, that would be perfect!

Winter - forget it!  You can have the snow, the cold, the slush, the gray.  I've lived most of my life without white Christmases and I don't dream about them.  I know, there are some hardy souls who genuinely love winter, but most of you who live in colder climes will agree, after one snowfall (two at most), that white stuff loses its charm.

Spring - we get flowers year-round - lots of flowers.  They are beautiful and I love them, but I think you have to survive the muck and slush of winter to really appreciate spring.

Summer - we invented that in California.  I love it and we get plenty of it.

Fall - sigh!  This is what I think back on when I start reminiscing.

This is my firstborn with her dog Fred.  She is now an adult woman, engaged to be married, but when she was a little girl, we lived in Canada.  Back then we only had one child - she was it.

We lived in the city but Steve's parents had a beautiful home on a large piece of property out in the country (that first picture is the lane leading up to their house).  We loved going out there on weekends, especially in the fall.  I would cut big branches of fall leaves and bring them back to the city to decorate our downtown apartment.

First, there are the autumn smells - the acrid smokey scent of fires burning in fireplaces, the musky earthy smell as the leaves pile up on the ground, not to mention the cinnamon aroma of apple pie baking in the oven.  There's that feeling in the air, that snap of cold that makes you pull your jacket closer and reach into the back of your closet for your favorite pair of boots.

Then, there are the sounds - the satisfying crunch of leaves under your feet as you stroll through the fallen leaves,  the swish of the rake as you gather them into a pile, and the squeal of laughter as the kids leap into the mounded piles of leaves.

But, most of all, it is the sights - the glorious sight of those leaves on the trees- crimson, orange, scarlet and yellow - a truly magnificent display.  It is awe-inspiring and breath-taking and I miss it!

Our ladies group is doing a wonderful study on the names of God called "Knowing God By Name" by Mary A. Kassian.  This past week, one of the names of God that we discussed was Yahweh Borey - Lord Creator.  We talked about the fact that God created this incredible world for his pleasure and for ours.  So often we take for granted the beauty and the majesty of the world around us.  It's just there, the sky, the trees, the ocean, the mountains.

We were challenged to really take time to pause and look around, to develop that sense of awe and wonder.  That a God so powerful would take the time to create so much beauty for us to enjoy, is an incredible thought.  That is how much he loves us.  I don't know about you, but I am determined to appreciate his gifts more, and if you are blessed with those spectacular fall leaves, send pictures!

"I don't think the way you think.
   The way you work isn't the way I work.
         God's Decree.
For as the sky soars high above earth,
   so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
   and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies
   and don't go back until they've watered the earth,
Doing their work of making things grow and blossom,
   producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry,
So will the words that come out of my mouth
   not come back empty-handed.
They'll do the work I sent them to do,
   they'll complete the assignment I gave them.
So you'll go out in joy,
   you'll be led into a whole and complete life.
The mountains and hills will lead the parade,
   bursting with song.
All the trees of the forest will join the procession,
   exuberant with applause.
No more thistles, but giant sequoias,
   no more thornbushes, but stately pines—
Monuments to me, to God,
   living and lasting evidence of God." 
 ^{Isaiah 55:8-11 (MSG)}

An Apple A Day

I just had apple pie for breakfast.  (No, Daniel, I didn't eat yours.)  This is the way I look at it.  My nephew Zachary used to call the crust the "bread of the pie," so it's kind of like toast, right?  and there are apples inside.  You know what they say.  "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."  I just did myself a favor by eating that pie for breakfast!

We went apple picking on Sunday afternoon.  After church on Sunday morning a gang of us hopped in our cars and headed up to Oak Glen, nestled in the beautiful San Bernardino Mountains.  It is the height of apple season, so now is the perfect time.  If you live in southern California it's just over an hour from Orange County and 90 minutes from LA.

After a delicious lunch of ribs and pulled pork sandwiches at The Rib Cage, we got down to business.  This is what we came for - pie!  There are dozens of places to buy fresh-baked pies in Oak Glen but our friends, Mark and Patty, who were our tour guides for the day, swear by the pie at Law's. 

They have a cinnamon sauce to pour over their pies.  We have to agree, their pies are amazing.  We bought a pie, some cinnamon sauce and some ice cream and devoured a pie right then and there.  If you take a trip to Oak Glen be warned, the service at Law's is sloooow, but if you are not in a hurry, the pies are worth the wait.  If you are in a hurry, what are you doing strolling around Oak Glen?

After devouring our pie we knew that wasn't enough, so we had to buy a pie to take home.  Well, maybe we should buy two...

 or three...  Dang!  That pie was good.

After consuming mass quantities of food, we figured it was time to do some walking, so we headed down the road to Los Rios Rancho for apple picking.

First, we braved the corn maze and took a few wrong turns along the way, but eventually made it through to the other side. 

A word to the wise, remember kids,  no matter where you are, always watch out for strangers.

Some are stranger than others.

Finally, it was time to pick apples.  After all the preamble, apple picking was a bit anti-climactic.  The varieties that were available last weekend were a bit picked over and the ones that were loaded on the trees were not yet available to be picked, but we managed to fill a bag and get a photo-op, or two.

"Mom, are we posing for this lame picture for your blog?" 

Why would they say that?

Even though the u-pick apples were picked over, there was a great variety of delicious apples available at the stand.  We loaded up the car with our favorites and a few caramel apples for the kids.  I love Pippen, nice and tart, and discovered that Braeburns are just the right amount of sweet, plus they are crisp and juicy.  Sam and Rachel were greatly amused when they discovered that there is a real variety of apple called a Macintosh, and that it's not just a computer. (The only computer worth owning, their father says.)

If you are able, I would advise you to go to Oak Glen during the week when the crowds are lighter.  If you are interested in more than eating and buying apples, like we were, there are many other great things to see and do in Oak Glen.  The Old Schoolhouse is a fun place to visit and Riley's Farm has family activities year round.

Don't forget your apple a day - crispy juicy apples, or apple pie, apple crisp, caramel apples...

 

Rise and Shine

Do you remember the little ditty, "It's nice to get up in the morning!  But it's nicer to stay in bed"?

I wholeheartedly agree...with the second part.

I am not a morning person.  Any family member or former roommate or friend who has ever had the pleasure of being around me in the morning will attest to this fact.

I've come a long way in this department.  When I was a teenager and a young adult I was downright mean in the morning, like a rabid dog.  You didn't want to get too close or I was liable to bite off your hand.  I have learned to cope since having children and I can fake it (sort of) most mornings and occasionally paste a smile on my face.  I have to.  I'm the mom.

Part of my maternal duties involves morning.  The advent of cel phones has made the wake-up routine more annoying than ever.  Everyone in the house has set alarms on their phones to go off at varying times, sometimes two or three times.  Cel phones, by their very nature, are not attached to anything, and get left in various rooms, pockets and purses throughout the house.

I am the only member of my family that does not sleep like I'm in a coma.  So, I hear every alarm that is set, from the first through the last and have to go on a scavenger hunt through the house to track them down.  Then I have to awaken the sleeping soul for whom it was intended.

Mornings suck.  It's scriptural.

"If a man loudly blesses his neighbor early in the morning,
       it will be taken as a curse."
Proverbs 27:14

I'm not an afternoon person.

Is is just me that feels that slump every afternoon?  I'm working away and I can hear it from the other end of the house.  It's my bed calling, beckoning me to come, lie down and take a wee nap.

Every day it's the same thing.  I have to resist and continue to plod through because most days this slump hits just as I'm expecting the kids to come barreling through the door.  I try not to caffeine my way through the afternoon because, at my age, it affects my ability to sleep at night.  Oh, the dilemma!

Good moms have organized afternoons.  Snacks, homework, what to make for dinner (arrrgh, I hate that one!), homework, housework.  Some days it's all I can do to put one foot in front of the other and make grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner.  I feel like I'm shortchanging my family but I can't find any more to give.  Besides, they like cheese.

Afternoons are hard.

I'm not a night person.

I used to be.  I used to love nighttime.  That was when I really started to get going.  Something happened over the past few years.  I got older and nighttime got earlier, or later.  Anyway, it's just not the fun it used to be.  My energy level has disappeared and the sofa looks more and more enticing.

My oldest heads out for the evening at 9 or 10 and I'm not jealous, I'm just thinking, isn't it bedtime?  After my youngest two kids are tucked in for the night I think about settling in to watch a movie or catch up on some work on the computer but all I can really do is drag my butt to bed.  Everything else, even reading a book, seems like too much work.

So, mornings are out, afternoons are shot and nights are kaput.  That leaves me with approximately two really solid hours of time in my day when I am at maximum productivity level.  It appears as though I've shot most of that writing this post today. 

It's definitely time to take a nap.

It's Too Darn Hot!

Summer came late to Orange County.  Yesterday's temperature peaked at 111 degrees.  My brother posted this lovely picture from the back patio at his house in Fountain Valley, where the cool ocean breezes blow.

Granted, this was taken in direct sun, but you get the point.  I don't care what they say about dry heat or humid heat.  111 degrees is stupid hot!  It's hellfire and brimstone hot. 

The day started out fine.  The A/C was pumping and I was cool as a cucumber at home.  Then it came time to pick up the kids from school.  I opened the front door and it was like opening the door to a blast furnace.  Making two trips back and forth from school in a car with the A/C on the fritz was when things started to roll downhill.  I came back in the house and collapsed on the sofa with a glass of ice tea, desperately trying to cool down.

I always try to make the best of every situation, so I thought it would be fun to conduct a little experiment.  I've always heard the phrase "hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk," and figured this would be the perfect day to see if it could be done.

I wasn't kidding when I said it was hot.  The poor little egg was sweating before we even started. 

We decided to try our experiment on two surfaces, the lighter colored sidewalk and the darker blacktop of the road.   In case you're wondering at this point, yes, my kids do think I'm nuts and I have absolutely no idea what my neighbors think when they see me cracking eggs out on the street.




Well, my kids might think I have a few screws loose but they still joined in on the fun. 

We cracked our two eggs and there was no immediate sizzle, so we set our timers for half an hour and went inside to escape the scorching sun.


By this time, I think the heat was starting to get to me, and I started hatching a plan for another experiment. 




Half an hour later and our sidewalk egg looked the same as it did when we first cracked it.  Our road egg was beginning to look a bit more promising however, so we left it out there to simmer for a bit longer and went back inside.

After about an hour and a half, the yolk of the egg was cooked.  This picture may not show it, but it is firm.  The white of the egg didn't change color much but that egg was definitely cooked.

While all this egg cooking was going on I started wondering about crayons, so we set up a little experiment in the backyard to see which color of crayon would melt the fastest.

Now, yesterday, as I was doing this, it all seemed perfectly normal to me.  Today, as I sit at my computer and write it all down and look at the pictures I realize how strange the whole thing really is.  Sometimes something sounds so good in my head but then when I say it out loud or tell somebody else...

Anyway, this is what I really and truly did yesterday.  I'm blaming the heat, because things didn't get any better.  After an hour of cooking in the sun our little black crayon was starting to look like a little black puddle.  The red crayon and orange crayons were beginning to sweat and the white crayon was as cool as a cucumber. 

This is when the A/C quit.

The rest of the evening is a blur.  We sat in the house for a while praying it would come back on.

Because of the high energy use all over southern California, there were rolling blackouts.  When the temperature inside our house hit 90 degrees we abandoned ship and headed for cooler pastures (our local Mimi's restaurant,) where we tried to cool off with gallons of ice water.  But even in the restaurant the air conditioner was having a hard time keeping up with the heat.  Our poor waiter was looking very wilted and when we were done we headed back home praying that the air was back on.

By this time however, the heat had done it's damage.  My fun little experiments with eggs and crayons were nothing compared to what the heat had done to my family. 

The rest of the night literally melted down.  Homework and life just became more than anyone in our household could manage.  I wanted to curl up under a fan and sleep for a year.  But that wasn't possible.  The heat had short-circuited our brains and our emotions and we all wound up in a blubbering overheated mess. 

Last night we turned that A/C up high.  There was an Arctic breeze blowing through the house and it felt good.  We woke up with our parkas on and I'm praying that this hot spell is over and that sanity returns to our home. 

(I wonder if you could make s'mores by melting marshmallows in the sun?)

Up!

Last Friday Steve and I got a birds-eye view of Orange County. 

We rode the giant balloon at the Orange County Great Park.  Those of you who live in Orange County will remember the heated debate that went on for years following the closure of the Marine Corps Air Station in El Toro.  Plans to develop this site into an airport were thwarted and this area encompassing over 200 acres is being developed as a multi-use park. 

On Friday, the Media Alliance of Orange County hosted an event at the park to promote awareness of this site.  The Media Alliance is an organization that was formed to promote media business in Orange County.

At this time, a small portion of the park has been developed, with plans to expand the park more each year.  While the park is under expansion, the undeveloped areas are available to use as sites for filming, photography or hosting special events.  Thanks, Brian for the great tour of the park and the amazing spaces surrounding it!

There are several runways that are still operational.  They are used on an ongoing basis for car testing and to film car commercials.  They have also been transformed into multi-lane highways for filming movie scenes.  There are abandoned airplane hangars and other outbuildings throughout the grounds that have been used in movies such as The Transformers and Eagle Eye and in the television series 24.

For large corporate events, there is a large venue that was developed for the Cirque du Soleil Kazoo show.  For smaller events, the Hangar 244 is a great option.  If you are interested in filming or hosting an event at the Great Park, visit eltorofield.com.

For families, the Great Park has plenty to offer.  I don't know about you, but I am always looking for something that is cheap or free to do with the family.  Balloon rides are free, as are all of the events listed below.  Parking is $10 per car. 

Look at the variety of events they are offering in October alone!

-Saturday, October 9 @ 7:00 - Load up the car and bring the whole family for a movie on the lawn, The Karate Kid.  Bring your lawn chairs and some blankets and settle in to watch this fun family movie on the big screen. (free parking for this event)

-Saturday, October 23 there will be a Great Park Pumpkin Harvest and Food Drive with plenty of activities for the whole family, including a pumpkin patch (every child takes home a free pumpkin!), arts activities, carnival games, a hay maze, horse drawn wagons and more.

 - Saturdays at 10:00 through November 6, The Orange County Great Park is presenting a series of gardening education workshops in sustainable home gardening led by the University of California Master Gardeners. (free parking for these events)

I have provided just a snapshot of what the the Orange County Great Park has to offer. 

It's definitely one of Orange County's best-kept secrets.  Check it out!

Alpha Dog

Spoiler Alert!  If you are an animal lover, you may not want to read on.

I'm over my pets.  I am done.  I have never been what you would call an animal lover, more like an animal 'liker'.  Now, I am at a point where I can barely tolerate the beasts.  I know, for some of you who adore all living creatures and bring home every stray, this is hard to read.  There are others of you, however, that are wondering why I ever allowed four-legged creatures into my house in the first place.

The cat came first.  Skipper arrived as a kitten - so cute and black and cuddly.  She grew up.

Now she is confined to my bedroom when she is in the house, well, our room, since I do have a roommate of 29 years.  Why our room, you ask?  I'll get to that later, since it relates to the dog.

Back to the cat.  She curls up in the middle of my our bed and every time I walk in the room talks to me, (yes, that's right, talks) begging for attention, wanting to be scratched, petted or cuddled.  I'm not a petting, cuddling kind of person.  She is getting on my nerves.  To make matters worse, my husband has become a cat person.  Really.

 I came down the hallway the other night and heard him whispering to someone in our bedroom.  "Does that feel good?"  I stopped dead in my tracks.  Who on earth was in there with him?  I turned the corner and there she was, the little tramp, purring so loudly the neighbors could hear, while he scratched her behind the ears.  He never scratches me behind the ears.

He was always so proud of the fact that he was a "dog guy", but now I fear that he will become that crazy cat man you always see on the 6:00 news, with twenty cats and a city ordinance against him.  It's a slippery slope.

Skipper's not satisfied staying in at night either.  She settles in for a while and then, when she's sure that I'm fast asleep, she sits right on top of me meowing until I let her out.  She doesn't bother with her best friend Steve.  He sleeps like a log and only wakes up if the house is on fire.  If I leave her out, she sits right outside our door begging to come in.  She is one fickle cat.

Now, let's deal with the dog.  Even worse than the cat, she is my nemesis.  We got her from a local animal shelter and I felt like we were really doing a good thing, rescuing her.  What was I thinking?  Dogs come with dog hair.  Who knew.

Dog hair ends up everywhere, even places the dog doesn't go.  It is the bane of my existence.  Far worse than dog hair, however, is dog poop and dog pee.  That is the delicate Christian blog way of wording it.  I have other words for it that I won't share with you today but if you happen to be at my house when Casey "has an accident", you may hear those words.  They are angry words that I use when I have had enough of cleaning up after this mangy mutt.

Now, I told you that the cat curls up on my bed, well, the dog sits right in my spot on the sofa.  She sits there and looks up at my as if to say, "What are you gonna do about it?" 

I look right back at her with my best alpha dog face and, needless to say, she moves, leaving her little doggie hairs behind.  We have dog hair removers placed strategically throughout the house.

There's the dog hair, the dog poop, the dog attempts at domination, the dog odor, and of course the constant, relentless, unending chasing of the cat by the dog.  This is why the cat resides in my bedroom.  The dog will not leave her alone.  She lives and breathes to chase that cat.

All of these things are reasons enough to be done with the dog, but the final straw came last week.  I was in the backyard, picking up little doggie treasures from the lawn.  I could see something buried in the dirt.  It was black and I peered closer.  I finally pulled at it and could not believe my eyes.  That crazy dog had buried my bra!  This is the honest to goodness truth.  I decided then and there that my little beagle is a pervert and a thief.  She has to go.

I have calmed down since then and reminded myself that when we brought these little creatures home, we committed to them for life.  My daughters leave hair all over the bathroom floor and I haven't gotten rid of them (yet).  The men in the house are always stealing the remote and I haven't told them to hit the road.  We put up with each other, in spite of the things that drive us crazy.

They're just lucky that they have me.  I'm the only sane one in the house.

Bonjour!

Today I am dreaming of all things French, as my sweet daughter just arrived back home from a business trip to Paris.   Rough business, huh?  Ashley works for Made Goods, a company that manufactures and sells the most gorgeous mirrors and chandeliers to boutiques and designers.  Part of her job is traveling to home shows and her latest trip was to Paris for the annual Maison & Object Trade Show filled with beautiful treasures from around the world.  I tried to get them to take me along as a mirror putter-upper, but these mirrors are way too heavy for me.  Maybe next year I can go along with my Windex bottle and some paper towels!

(I have to make an apology here, I have no idea how to place the sweet little accents over my e's, as is proper in many French words.  I tried to figure it out and could not, so apologies to the French and those of you who speak French for the absence of proper accents on words.  It was really bugging me, but I'm over it now.)

While most of her time there was spent working, Ashley did have time to see some of the sights and apparently she ate very well while she was there.  One of the highlights of her trip was a visit to the world famous La Duree tea salon.

This is a sampling of the pastry counter inside. It almost makes me weep.

This Parisian tea room was founded in 1862 and it was here that the decadent double-decker macaroon was invented.  I have never been to France, but if, rather when I go, this will be what I spend my money on.  I will arrive back at home weighing twenty pounds more than when I left.  Just thinking about croissants and pastries and every other delicious French delicacy is adding pounds as I'm sitting here typing.

Well, Ashley knows her mama well, and she did not leave La Duree empty-handed.

How cute is she, looking so French with her little green bag?

That little bag contained some treasures.  All I can say is - oo la la!

For starters, there were macaroons for her sister, which Rachel was sweet enough to share.  As Rachel described the rose macaroon, "It tastes just like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when they said it was like eating a real flower!" A-maz-ing!  I would show you a picture but we gobbled them up before I could grab my camera.

Now, I know you will be jealous when I describe what Ashley brought back for me.  Because you probably just ate a piece of cold pizza, or a peanut butter sandwich or a cup of yogurt, but sometimes, when you get something real good, you've just got to brag.  I am sorry if I cause you to sin, but here is a sneak peek.  This is just the packaging.

I know, the boxes themselves look good enough to eat!

Before I get to my Laduree goodies, Ashley also visited Fauchon, and bought me a jar of melt-in-your-mouth lavender honey that was delicious on my toast this morning.  Yum!

Now, in the pretty blue box was a jar of Caramel au beurre sale, caramel butter sauce. It is so rich and delicious that I haven't decided what other ingredients are worthy of its presence, so I just keep sticking my finger in the jar and licking it off (don't tell my kids!)

The jar inside the purple box is the piece de resistance.  I was born for these kinds of delicacies.  I should live like this every day.  I could get used to this!

This was not Ashley's first choice.  She had picked up something else, but the all-knowing French saleslady shook her head and said,  "Non!"  She picked up this treat and told Ashley this was the one she must buy.  Like the obedient American she is, Ashley bought it.  That lady knew what she was talking about.

It is called Delice au The Marie-Antoinette.  This incredible delicacy is a spread for toast or bread and is hard to describe, except to say, it tastes just like you would expect Marie-Antoinette to taste - rich, delicious, sweet, citrusy, but a bit tart and exotic.  I have never tasted anything quite like this before. 

It's good to be queen!

Laughter. Prayer. Coffee. Grace.

Steve and I just celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary.  Well, celebrated is a misnomer.  We wished each other a "happy anniversary", split a burger with the kids and talked about celebrating when he gets back from his trip to Dallas, but you get the point.  We have been married for 29 years so just getting here is quite a feat.

In honor of this momentous event, I thought I would write a post about what it takes to make a marriage work.  I figure that after all this time I qualify as a marriage expert.  In fact, after I write this post I'm going to write a book.  I can see it now.  My book will get published.  Gayle will read it and pass it along to Oprah.  She will have me on her show (I better get cracking.  This is her last season!)  I will become world famous and travel internationally sharing my hard-earned wisdom with the masses.

But, alas, Steve will become bitterly jealous of my new-found fame and my children will resent my constant absences.  My life will become a hollow shell and the paparazzi will hound me as I look to reinvent myself and fill the emptiness inside with a constant stream of plastic surgeries until even my children no longer recognize me.

Wow...that was scary!  I think I'll just stick to writing my blog for the sake of my family and my sanity.  I clearly can't handle fame.

If you were to pick two people who would be "Most Likely To Succeed" in the marriage department twenty-nine years ago, you would not have picked Steve and I.  To say we were headstrong, selfish, self-absorbed, immature and unprepared would be an understatement.  Steve's sister, Nadine, once commented on how much we fought when we were first married.  Everything, from the toothpaste to the finances was fodder for an all out war.

I was 19 and he was 22.  We were in love.  We were at war.

So, why are we still together, all these years later, in love without the war?

I have spent some time thinking about it and these are my essentials, the things our marriage can't survive without.

LAUGHTER.  I love to laugh.  Not just a light little chuckle, but a deep, snorting makes-my-belly-hurt, brings-tears-to-my-eyes, I-think-I'm-gonna-pee-my-pants kind of laugh.  Steve has told me that there's nothing he likes better than my smile.  There have been many years when the smiles and the laughter have been scarce but it is essential.  I'm sure you've heard it before but it is true - laughter has some serious health benefits.

It's good for our kids to see us laughing together and enjoying each other's company.  We need to be careful, however that the laughter doesn't become teasing at someone else's expense.  I have a hard time with this one.  Sometimes mama "likes to be's bad."

PRAYER.  This is the cornerstone of our marriage, our family and our life.  When there are no answers.  When words fail.  When the pain is too deep.  Pray.

I have prayed as though my life depends upon it because I know it does.  There have also been times when I could not utter a prayer and the words wouldn't come.  That was when I counted on others to pray for me.  We are not alone in the body of Christ, so when you feel you can't pray, call someone who can (you can always call me!)

"The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing."
1 Cor. 12:25:26

COFFEE.  You knew it would be in here, didn't you?  When our oldest daughter Ashley was a little girl, she was asked what her parents fought about the most (now, that's a loaded question!)  Her answer?  Coffee!  For years, Steve would make the coffee so strong only the Turkish would care to drink it - no offense to the Turkish, but I'm not too fond of the way they make their coffee!  I begged him to pleeeeeez consider the fact that there was more than one coffee-drinker in the house and could he please compromise and make the coffee a wee bit easier to digest.

Well, either I've gotten used to stronger coffee or he's making it weaker now, but we seem to have come to a very nice agreement in the coffee-making department because we haven't had that argument for quite a few years.

What is really essential to me about coffee is how it represents slowing down and spending time together.  If we don't make the time for each other we can drift apart and before you know it we are like strangers living under the same roof.  It's hard.  Our lives are busy and it takes a concerted effort to set aside that time to be alone, but it is important.  I realized just recently that I make more effort to spend time with friends than I do to spend time with Steve.  That needs to change.

GRACE.  Where would I be without grace?  God's overwhelming, unending daily grace in my life is a miracle to me.  I have been raised on the words "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me," but I am only now really beginning to understand the full impact of those words.

More and more I realize that, as God's grace has been extended to me, I must freely extend his grace to others.  Sometimes it's easier to extend that grace beyond the four walls of my home but those nearest and dearest to me are the ones that I can daily shower with the grace of God's love.  This is the most precious gift I can give to my husband and the most precious one that he extends to me.

So, those are my four essentials - they are healthy for strengthening any relationship - laughter, prayer, coffee and grace with an extra measure of grace.

Oh yeah, there is one more thing - therapy - lots and lots of therapy.  If you need it, go for it!  We've all got issues!

I'm Back!

Hello friends!  Did you miss me as much as I missed you?

I can't believe I went this long without posting, but I was out of town (Santa, please bring me a laptop!) and dealing with other pressing issues so I hope you have forgiven my absence.  I missed sitting down every day and sharing heart and especially the feedback from my dear readers but was thrilled when I opened my inbox to discover that you have been reading and leaving me little notes and comments even while I've been gone.  I love hearing from you.

My sister and I went on a road trip.  Our decision spur of the moment and we left our children with our very capable husbands.  We hit the highway last Wednesday and headed due north to visit the town of our misspent youth.  We could hardly remember the last time we went as far as the grocery store alone together, so this trip was definitely way overdue.  We debated a real early morning start for about a minute an a half, until we concluded we are not early morning start kind of people, so at 6:30 we stumbled away with our thermos of coffee and Kathy's homemade banana chip muffins.

Freedom!

This is Kathy saying, "Really, you're taking a picture of me in the car now?  This isn't going in your blog is it?"   And I'm saying to her.  "No.  I'll take a better picture of you later."  But I never did, because I was too relaxed and not blogging and having a good time, so I didn't take lots of pictures.  Here is my sister.  She looks cute all the time anyway.

This is the beginning of our trip, driving through LA, where we expected to hit tons of commuter traffic because we were too lazy to leave earlier, but God smiled down upon us (or everyone else decided to stay home that day) and we sailed through The City of Angels and over the Grapevine, where we stopped at Starbucks (the first of many on this trip), before we headed up the Central Valley.

It was a balmy 102 degrees that first day and hovered around that mark for the next couple of days.  There's nothing like September in California!

Our family moved to the Golden State when I was 14,  Kathy was 12 and our brother Karl was 16.  Our dad was pastoring a church in Modesto, right in the heart of the Central Valley.  It has been over 25 years since we lived in the Central Valley but it still holds a special place in my heart.  The people who live there, live off the land - ranchers, farmers and cattlemen.   They are straightforward people.  If they like you, you're family.  If they don't like you, God help you.

As you come over the Grapevine, the whole Central Valley spreads out before you, stretching in the distance as far as the eye can see.  I love the beauty of the California landscape as rolling hills give way to the flat valley covered with endless varieties of vineyards, rows of corn, tall stalks of artichokes, fields of strawberries and garlic, orchards of apricots, almonds and pistachios and pastures of grazing cattle.  These people make food for the world to eat.

As we drove through the valley, we were scanning through the radio stations and at one time we found no less than eight Christian radio stations in one location.  They don't call this the Bible belt for nothin'!

We finally arrived in Modesto and checked into our hotel room, where they gave us our warm chocolate chip cookies to welcome us.  We put our feet up on the beds and now I'm going to tell on my sister.  I saw it with my own two eyes.  She ate that chocolate chip cookie.  She got chocolate on her fingers and she wiped those dirty fingers on those clean, white sheets.  Next time you are in a hotel room, think about that.  My usually fastidious sister, who would have a fit if her own children did such a thing, was too lazy to get up and go to the sink to wash her hands, so she just dragged her greasy chocolatey fingers right across those crisp sheets and thought, "I'll just sleep on the other side of the bed and let somebody else clean up my mess!"

Our trip to Modesto wasn't all fun and games.  Our parents were already there, working hard cleaning out the contents of a house and we had arrived to give them a hand.  Let me tell you, our parents are in their seventies and they work harder and have more energy than most people half their age.  I don't know how they do it.  Their daughters have a hard time keeping up with them.  Between the working, we enjoyed eating out and reminiscing, thinking back on earlier years and some of the great friends we made way back when.

We were able to connect with a few old friends, some that we hadn't seen since we were in our late teens.  I don't think any of us have aged a bit (that's my story and I'm sticking with it!).  We had a great time catching up, chatting about our families, our kids and life in general.  Where have the years gone?  Here we are with Stephanie and Lance Lemings and Cyndi Sordo McDaniel after a delicious Mexican meal.

The highlight of this trip was reconnecting with my sister.  We have not spent a concentrated amount of time together like this since...I don't remember when we last spent time together like this.  When we were kids, I tormented her (yes - I have apologized - repeatedly!).  When we were teenagers, we hung out together occasionally, but I was seventeen when I left home to go to college and nineteen (gulp!) when I left home for good and got married.  Family, children, husbands, households and life, have kept us pretty busy and when we have been together there has usually been someone else along for the ride.

This time it was just the two of us, alone in the car, driving through the beautiful California landscape with all the time in the world to talk, to laugh and to just be together.  We watched a lame movie in the hotel room, ate beef at Harris Ranch,

stopped to pick "fresh from the farm" produce on the way home and had a real "Jesus Take the Wheel" moment that kept us laughing for a good 45 minutes - actually, we're still laughing about it.

I knew this before but I discovered it all over again.  There is nothing like a sister - someone who has known you forever - who knows the good, the bad and the ugly and loves you in spite of, or because of it.  Someone who you can call in the middle of the day or the middle of the night, who will recognize your voice even when you are a sobbing, blubbering mess.  Someone who thinks of the same stupid 70's songs at the same time you do.  Someone who your kids can go to when they don't want to talk to mom.

I have been blessed with an incredible sister and even thought I missed writing my little posts, I wouldn't trade my time away for anything!  I did learn one more important lesson.  Kathy is really bossy and thinks she knows everything, but I can love her enough to nod and agree.

I must be the best sister ever!