Monday, November 26, 2012

San Antonio

Riverwalk - The street and all car traffic are a level above

Riverwalk - We took a ride on one of these boats

World's Fair Park and Tower

Hemisfair Park (World's Fair)


Wendy & Cathy about to go eat steak at Salt Grass on the Riverwalk

This horse is wearing a hat - (Howl at the Moon is on the corner to the left)

Good Morning San Antonio!  Without mountains the sunrise is HUGE!

The Alamo

Plaque outside the Alamo


Me at the Alamo
The grounds of the Alamo

Cool tree on the grounds of the Alamo

The Alamo

Outside of the Alamo

A very cool hotel across the street from the Alamo

Cathy and Sally on the boat ride
Outdoor stage along the Riverwalk - seats are on the other side of the river
Outdoor stage along the Riverwalk

Waterfall along the Riverwalk (& me)

Cathedral of San Fernando - There was live entertainment outside  - music, fire twirling


Monday, November 19, 2012

1 Friend + 2 Parents + 2 Brothers + 1 Baby = 1 Very Happy Wendy

Don, Grandma, Baby Evy, Rik & Wendy
Earlier this month I was able to spend one great day in Phoenix with my family.  Cathy and I stopped for the day on our way to a work conference in San Antonio, TX.  Brad had the fabulous idea to fly in Rik and Don for the day to surprise Mom.  Her reaction at the door was awesome!  She couldn't have been more excited if it were Ed McMahon with one of those giant checks for a million bucks!  She was surprised, and happy!  My 2 brothers and I hadn't been together since Don and Donna's wedding, 5 years ago.  That is just too long.  I love my brothers!
Rik, Wendy & Don
I LOVE MY BROTHERS!

Rik and I finally got to meet our newest niece, Evy.  She is such a sweetheart!  I am so glad Don was able to bring her along.
Baby Evy & Auntie Wendy
(check out Evy's shirt)

It was a great day spent mostly just hanging out and talking.  We ate - bacon, cinnamon rolls, salad, fabulous Mexican food, and CANDY!  If you ever go to Phoenix, you really should pay a visit to the candy story.  They have just about every kind of candy you can remember from your childhood, and new stuff you never imagined (giant gummy rats anyone??).
Cathy, Mom and Wendy  - just arrived at the Phoenix airport



Baby Evy, Grandma, Don and Wendy


Wendy, Rik, Baby Evy & Don

Don, Wendy & Rik






Cathy with Baby Evy
Mom and Wendy - about to depart

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Smoothie Recipe to Remember

I made a really tasty smoothie for my breakfast this morning.  I should have taken a picture, but it was so good it was gone in a flash.  It was really yummy and I don't want to forget how I made it.  Definitely making this again.

      Banana (1)
      Vanilla Extract (the real stuff, just a splash)
      Coconut Milk (probably about a cup)
      EmergenC Raspberry Flavor Vitamin powder fizzy drink mix packet (the cold fighting stuff)
      Frozen Berry blend - Raspberries, Blueberries, and Blackberries (about 2 cups)

I have started blending all the non-frozen stuff together first.  After it is well blended, and the banana is totally liquified, then I add the frozen fruit.  I think it makes for a smoother consistency.


I Want a Waffle!

You know you've lived in Hawaii a while when you keep watching TV when the Tsunami warning siren starts to blow. It does make a difference that our house is out of the tsunami evacuation zone.  It's not like I was ignoring a real danger. As long as everyone is home, we are in good shape. 

The sirens started around 8pm last night and the first wave was due to hit around 10:30pm.  Since we live out of the evacuation zone we opened our home to friends that were facing evacuation.  We had some friendly visitors for a little while, just until the first wave hit and it was clear there was no danger.  I did change the sheets on the extra beds pretty quick!  Making a bunk bed is not easy, or fun, or maybe I am just out of practice. It did trigger memories of previous tsunami warnings.

The most recent one was March 2011.  We were at a church dinner at the time the sirens went off.  Our church building  is much lower than our home, so we just headed home.  The waves were small, and no damage was done to the island.  Thankfully, that is how they have all gone - warning, small waves, life goes on as usual. 

The time before that was moving day for us - February 2010.  That was an adventure .....  Our old house was in the evacuation zone, so that just confirmed our decision to move was a good one.  The notice to evacuate came before the crack of dawn, so we got an early start to our move, but had no help for many hours as most of our friends and neighbors were evacuating.  When they closed the road, the four of us ended up at Koa Pancake House enjoying a leisurely breakfast.  I love their strawberry, whipped cream waffles.  Last night as the sirens blew, and the memories came to the surface of my brain, I wanted waffles, and my family all around me.  Even though that was a stressful day, moving is always stressful, it was a good memory.  Waffles and my family - what could be any better than that?  Oh ya, bacon .... I always get a side order of bacon with my waffles.  Bacon makes everything better :).

In the time of a potential disaster I would prefer to have my family at my side, so I can see for myself they are safe and sound.  I am intellectually glad that last night the kids were on the mainland, far from any potentially giant waves, but I'd still feel better if I could reach out and touch them.  In the next few months Ryker and Taylor are headed to China for a year, and Quincie will be sent to a yet unknown location for her mission of 18 months.  It looks like the days of having my chicks safely under my wing during emergencies are long gone. 


All day Thursday I kept thinking that the date was significant for some reason. I must have checked my calendar 10 times.  It felt like I was forgetting something.   I ran through my list of family birth dates to see if I was forgetting someone - no, not a birthday.  Then this morning I was looking for something in the big plastic organizer of important family documents (always good to have handy in case of an emergency evacuation) and found my certificate of baptism.  Ah Ha!  So that's why 10/25 felt important to me!  I was baptized on October 25, 1984.  Yep, 1984. I was 16 at the time.   I am old.  What a day that was!  The course of my life was drastically changed for the better because of that event.  I am so thankful for the friends I had then that were brave enough to share the Gospel with me. Especially Sonja, who was a convert herself, and spent hours and hours trying to answer all my questions.  I remember the missionaries that taught me the lessons, Elder Rolfe and Elder Allred.  I am grateful for their sacrifice and dedication to bring the Gospel to me, and many others.  The youth leaders in the ward were awesome too.  They all made me feel like I had found a home, the place where I belonged.  My life has been wonderful!  I am eternally grateful.

Thankfully the tsunami waves were small, no damage done, and the warning has been lifted.  I've checked in with my kids, and they are safe.  All is well, except that I still want a waffle, and of course some bacon :).  




Saturday, September 29, 2012

Later

I've got something to say, something to share,
but life is too busy now, and I've no time to spare.

I'll write it out tomorrow, or maybe next week,
I've got somewhere to be, and and I'm sure this will keep.

Let me do just one more thing before I rush out the door,
I've been working all day, it's night now, but still there is more.

Someday I'll write down these thoughts, the stories in my head,
they linger in the chaos, persistent,  I think they must be said.





Thursday, September 6, 2012

Mystery Solved

I have these neighbors, you know, the ones that sing the bad karaoke at bizarre hours, have crazy parties on week day evenings that last until late, and take up every possible parking space on our parking restrictive cul de sac.  They also play basketball, sometimes drunken basketball, at bizarre hours. How do I know it's drunken?  Well, you tell me what you think.  Would 15+ adults, (middle aged adults, not young adults, no 20 somethings here, these people are well past 30, and most are probably 40+,)  play a game of H-O-R-S-E with lots of cheering and shouting at 2am on a Thursday night if they were sober?   I wouldn't notice, or care about  these activities, except their driveway is about 15 feet from my back door, and bedroom windows.  Can you say loud?  How about obnoxious?  Irritating?

Recently I noticed several of the potted plants outside my rear windows were knocked over, broken, and otherwise dinked with during the night.  At first I suspected a cat, or maybe an adventurous mongoose.  Nope, it's not the limited "wild" animals of Ewa Beach messing with my attempts to grow my own food.  It's my NEIGHBORS and their FREAKIN' BASKETBALL!!!!  Not only do I have to listen to the bounce, bounce, bounce, T W AAAAA N G at all hours of the day and night, but now they are killing my plants?  When they miss their shot, the ball heads straight for the back of my house, where my lovely plants are.  In the last 2 weeks they knocked over my largest and loveliest tomato plant several times, knocking off the first green tomato, smashed some seedling pepper plants, uprooted my fledgling tomatillos, and broke off half of my largest bell pepper plant.  The lavender has also taken a direct hit and is alive, but no longer quite so lovely.

So, when I find their balls in my yard, I'm gonna let my dogs play with them.  They are not going back through the bushes to be hurled at my defenseless garden again. 

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

44 on the 4th

That's a LOT of 4's!  It's been a good day, lots of fun, good food, well wishes, and some cool presents.  I even got to have bacon twice today.  That makes it a stellar day for sure!  Bacon does have magic powers ...

Along with all the good birthday jazz from my awesome family and friends have come some deep thoughts.  Things I have been thinking about for several days.  To everything there is a season, turn, turn, turn .... right? 

So, I'm probably not going to be a neuroscientist, or a doctor, or an astronaut (gave that one up a long time ago), or a gymnast, or a great dancer, or a host of many other such things.  I"m  not going to have any more babies (I suppose you never know, but really, I think that ship has sailed).  Grandparenthood is pretty much staring me in the face, coming right on down that track.  That 's not bad, not bad at all, just well, new.  It's an adjustment.  For somethings, the time has come and gone.  I'm not totally comfortable with that, but I don't suppose that makes any difference in the matter, it's here, like it or not.

What I am not fine with is settling for mediocrity.  I want to accomplish great things in my life.  I want to make a difference.  I want to DO something.  I want to achieve something big, finish something difficult, take something to a level of excellence, really reach the top.  I don't want to be a CEO, I don't need to run the world, but I DO need to step out of the middle of the road and get to something great.  I feel dissatisfied, like I have wasted a lot of time just getting by, and not really doing much with what God has given me.  I work hard, always have, but looking back it all seems sort of aimless, a lot of wandering from thing to thing.  I am fairly competent at a lot of things.  I'd really like to be the best at something, something that matters.  That sounds like I'm looking for recognition from the world.  Maybe I am a little bit, but not really, not at the core.  The praise of others is not the driving force.  It's the voice inside my head, the one that says, "You are more than all this.  You are destined for greatness, why do you sit and wallow in your mediocrity?  Why are you content with good enough?  Get up, try harder, you can do better. "  It's that voice that won't shut up.  It's that voice that wakes me up at night with thoughts of, "Go back to school, you need to finish it." 

I don't want to spend any more of my life just getting by, doing just enough, feeling like middle of the road is all I can do.  It's not true.  I know it's not.  I've always felt like there was more out there, that I had some spark of greatness, something that I was meant to do, that only I can do, that I MUST do.  There are choices I can no longer make, the time has passed.  There are options no longer open.  But this does not mean that I am stuck, or that there aren't many, many, many choices left to make, chances left to take, dreams to dream, and goals to achieve. 

I guess I'm just feeling a little disappointed in myself right now.  I know who I am, and what I am capable of, and I have not been living up to that level.  I got tired, and I let things slide.  I kind of gave up on somethings, and settled in.  I let the hard knocks of life knock me out a bit.  Shrink the pond, rather than be a bigger fish.  Run in the middle of the herd instead of blaze the trail.  Float along instead of row and steer the boat. 

I see it, and I feel it, but doing it, well, that's a whole other ball of wax..... I still feel so tired.  So tired from all the work, all the effort to just keep it all going.  The never ending struggle to make ends meet, do what has to be done, by the skin of my teeth, just in the nick of time. winging it, flying along by the seat of my pants..  At some point I just want to do things right, all of them, once and for all.  Do it, for real. 


Friday, August 31, 2012

Thoughts from 3am

Last night, or more correctly really early this morning, I woke up with the answer to a question I have been pondering running through my mind.  I woke up enough to type it into the notes of my phone, and then promptly fell back asleep. 

I sort of thought it was all a dream until I was at the bank this afternoon and while scrolling through my notes for an account number ( I know - I shouldn't keep bank account numbers in my phone like that, but honestly, where do you keep them? ) So, anyway, I click open my notes and there it is -  It's so interesting, the title of the note is "Fixing My Gaze"  I don't remember when I started that note, or what I was thinking when I titled that blank page, but there it was, open, titled, and waiting for these words.

A blessing is not a reward you earn, or a goal you achieve.

A blessing is a gift from God.  All that is required is for you to receive.